are you in or are you out?

There’s just something about being in a group or club that cost you something.  When I was in college, I belonged to a fraternity and it felt good to belong to a group that not everyone was a part of.  Anyone that knows anything about fraternities of sororities knows that you have to be sponsored be someone already in the group that vouches for you and they say that you would be an excellent addition to our group.  However, this does not guarantee a spot in the group. First, you must rush, in my case for a week, where your fellow brothers, as they are known, can get you to do pretty much whatever they want.  Then they drill you with questions in an interview and if they like you, you’re in!  You are now part of the brotherhood!  You’re a big dog on campus now.  You’re part of an exclusive group that many want to be a part of and yet only a few ever get to opportunity to join. 

Not much has really changed since my days as a member of the Phi Simga Cia fraternity.  Yes, I am no longer a college student who likes to hang with my brethren, but I am part of another exclusive group, the church.  In many ways, the church feels a lot like my fraternity, for we have the tendency to be exclusive as well. 

Many members of the church world will call themselves the insiders and they want to separate themselves from the outsiders.  We don’t dare say we’re exclusive, but it’s how we act that gives that perception.  We have set in place external practices that separate us from the outsiders – our vocabulary or dress, who we associate with, and so on. 

We have become proud and judgmental toward the outsiders.  We often pride ourselves on how righteous we are, so much so that we can just look at someone and tell right away whether they are an insider or outsider.  However, with Jesus, the leader of the church, this wasn’t the case at all.  His messages and mission was to have everyone be an insider.  Not just to belong to an elite group of people that are super spiritual, but to belong to a group of people that wanted to be transformed into “new creatures”.  Jesus didn’t focus on what someone looked like or how they acted, rather he looked at the persons heart.

I have been a part of some wonderful churches in my life and every one of them has added to my spiritual walk with Christ.  Nevertheless, each one of them, some more than others, had their own bench markers.  Some of them could have had a pastor consumed with pride and was a glutton, but as he was growing or at least maintaining the church, he need not worry about his job.  But if by chance a church member saw him on the golf course smoking a cigar with a friend, you wouldn’t see him next Sunday at church.  Why is that?  Well probably no one would ever say that smoking a cigar on the golf course would be a worse sin than a life consumed with pride or a glutton.  Although for many in the church world smoking has become a bench marker for many.  It is one of the churches ways to tell if you are a wolf or a sheep. 

We all know that smoking is not the unpardonable sin, but it breaks many churchgoers unspoken bench marker.  Something like this could upset a church’s sense of identity.  It doesn’t matter really if you are Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal, or Greek Orthodox I bet you can come up with your own set of bench markers.  This type of spirituality puts most of the focus on your position.  Are you in or are you out? 

However, Jesus is more concerned with people’s hearts.  He wants to know that they moving forward in their spiritual life, do they have the love of God and their fellow man in their life.  That is way many people were shocked in his day when He said that many of the religious leaders were outside of God’s kingdom, because they were more concerned with the bench markers than peoples heart.  John Ortberg in his book, The Life You’ve Always Wanted,” said it well.  He said “The ‘righteous’ were more damaged by their righteousness than the sinners were by their sin.”

all is not as it should be

 I sometimes get the sneaky suspicion that all is not as it should be in my life.  I think a lot of this comes from an unsettling disappointment I have about myself.  Some of this disappointment is neurotic.  Like when I want to impress someone with my intelligence and my words come out all jumbled up or I stutter. 

 

Some of my disappointment is silly.  I would love to always look like I just finished up with a GQ photo shoot, looking very charming and debonair. 

 

Then there’s the deeper disappointment that I have a real tuff time with.  When I look at my two sons as they play outside on their bikes and I think of the kind of father I want to be for them.  I want to make lasting impression on them, so that when they look back on their childhood and they can remember a childhood that came straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting.  I want to make believe with them, making all their dreams come to life.  I want to catch lighting bugs with them in the hot summer nights.  I want to take long bike rides with them. 

 

I look at them through the den window as I am on the computer doing schoolwork as they are riding their bikes  and I’m reminded of how the day really went.  I remember them fighting over who gets to be first on a Wii game and me telling them to be quite so that I can work, to busy to show them how to resolve a conflict. I remembered how stern I got with my youngest son, Nole, when he didn’t do exactly as I told him getting mad and making threats – just because I’m his father and I can.  I remember the fear and hurt I saw in his eyes as lashed out at him.  I remember instead of catching lighting bugs I hurried them inside to take a bath, so that I could have a moment to myself.  I’m so disappointed in myself at times. 

 

I’m also disappointed in myself not just as a father, but also as a husband, son, and friend at times.  I know that my life was created for so much more than just being overwhelmed with work and school.  I have a purpose in life; I have an opportunity to do something great with my life as we all do. 

 

I am disappointed that I don’t love God more and willfully sin so much against him.  I can get insanely jealous if someone I know succeeds more than I.  I am disappointed at how petty and shallow I can be at times.  I can lead people to believe that I have it all together and yet I feel like at times my world is falling apart. 

 

These are just some of my disappointments.  I have darker ones that I am too ashamed to admit, as I’m sure we all do.  So why do so many others and I feel this way?  Some may say it is a lack of self-esteem, this may be true in part – but as I get a little older and hopefully a little wiser, I believe it is a deeper problem.  One that lurks deep within our soul, that we don’t like to admit, which is a failure to be the person God first called me to be.

 

I feel if I had always pursued God as my two boys pursue life, I would not feel such disappointment as I do.  Although as an adult I have forgotten what it was like to dream big dreams as a child.  I have forgotten what it is like to give God my all, as my boys do when they play.  If I were to do that then I would be in a much better place as a father, husband, son, and friend.  I would be more of the man that God first called me to be.  So for all my disappointments I am glad my God is a God of second and third chances, so it is my prayer today that I would seize all the little opportunities He has given me to be the person He intended me to be.

is the church keeping us from fulfilling the great commission

Question, “Is the church keeping us from fulfilling the great commission that’s found in Matthew 28:18-20 18Jesus came to them and said I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth! 19Go to the people of all nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 20and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the world. (CEV) Look at the first few words of verse nineteen carefully, “go to the people…”  Now this does not say wait for the people to come to you, while you sit inside your pretty church – but rather it says to go to them.  Meaning we are to get off the padded chairs/pews that we sit on and go to them. 

I love to read church signs, for the simple fact that they make me laugh most of the time and for no other reason.  I have been a Christian now for twenty seven years and I have never once visited a church because of what a church sign has said, whether it talked about a revival or whatever.  And I bet for the most part not many others have either. 

So what makes us think someone who is not a Christian is going to step inside our church because of a sign or because our church has a pretty curb appeal?  I have been around and part of a church my whole life and walking up inside of a new church I visit for the first time scares me to death.   In addition, let’s be truthful, most of us are pretty bad ambassadors for Christ, once we are inside the confines of the church building.  We fail miserably at really making someone feel welcomed.  We rather see the same person, asking them the same questions that we asked them the last time we saw them in church – instead of talking to someone new.   But you say that’s the reason why we have greeters in the parking lots and at the doors for, to welcome the visitors.  Come on who are we fooling that doesn’t really make someone feel like your church is a church they could feel a part of.  Everyone expects to see a greeter at the door, they say hi and shake your hand, but that doesn’t make you feel like you belong. 

No the great commission states that we go to where the people are at, in your towns and communities.  I know that’s a bit weird for most Christians, to be with or hang with sinners, but think about it we have the Holy Spirit with us to empower us for such a task and yet we still get nervous.  So you know a non-believer has got to be scared to walk up in a church building.  I believe that is why many churches are dieing.  We can’t understand why in the world people are not attracted to our theatrical performances and our grand light show.  Our churches our intimidating to many first time visitors no matter how people friendly we may think our church is. 

That is why we have to go to them.  Missional is a word that has been around for a while and within the past few years has caught favor with many Christ followers.  To be missional means we must see ourselves as a missionary wherever we are currently at.  It doesn’t have to be overseas; you are a missionary right in your hometown.  It is realizing that the lost are not going to come to us, but rather we have to go to the lost. 

Most of the churches that are growing in America today have a missional mindset.  These churches are biblically sound and don’t mind getting out there in the culture.  They are the types of churches that don’t see today’s culture as something to run from, but rather they engage today’s culture – wanting to put Christ in the center of today’s culture as much as possible.  The reason so many churches are falling at this is that they see culture and church on opposite ends of the spectrum that these two worlds are polarizing to each other. That is simply not true.  Take a look all through out the New Testament and where do you find Jesus? Not in the synagogues, but in the towns and villages with the people.  Jesus engaged his culture.  He went to the people.  So the question that has to be asked is are we going to the people or do we expect the people to come to us?   

Many churches see this word missional as offensive, because they have seen what they have done in the past work, but what they fail to realize is what worked ten or twenty years ago will not work for today’s culture.  Many have allowed the traditions of the church to blind them in their thinking that there is only one way to do church and that is the way they are currently doing it.  Why is it that we allow change in just about every area in our life, but the church?  Twenty years ago, hardly anybody had a cell phone, now everyone has got them even grandma’s.  The way we communicate has changed and we adapted.  So why can’t the church adapt the times as well, as long as we don’t change the content of scripture.  Does it really matter how we deliver it? 

As I said early being missional is not new, Jesus was missional.  I think what scares most people is the fact that we have to change the whole way we have been approaching church for most of our lives.  It is getting out of our comfort zones and it’s exploring unknown territory.  Being the creatures of habit that we are we don’t like this.  Being missional makes us rely more on the Holy Spirit and it forces us to form new relationships, something many of us have forgotten how to do. 

Also being missional is a lifestyle change, because you are trying to look at the world through the eyes of Christ.  Missional living is making your life about establishing relationships that are meaningful, always looking for new ways to engage culture so that you might have a opportunity to share Christ with someone.  Living a missional lifestyle is about being part of a community that cares for the needs of others before your own.  This lifestyle is very contrary to the world’s lifestyle; because of this very few will take this style of living.  When you live the missional lifestyle people begin to look at you differently and you realize what it is like to truly be just a strange of this world only passing through for a short time. 

Starting to live like this myself, I see things differently now.  , because I have realized there is much more to life than what just makes me happy.  With each day that passes, I feel like it is lost forever, that I will never get that day back to make a difference in someone else’s life.  Making a difference for Christ!  I feel like God has given me a new zeal for life like my life now has a purpose and that for me is very fulfilling!

Are we spiritually incompetent beings?

Those of us that long for God and take our spiritual life very seriously always experience periods of spiritual darkness and loneliness. Is it just part of the spiritual quest for Christians? 

 

Sometimes we may feel overwhelmed with God’s grace and kindness.  Other times we may feel distant from God.  We know this happens to all Christians from time to time and Saint John calls these times the “dark night of the soul”.  At times our “night” seems darker and deeper than others, why is that?

 

Could the “dark night” just be a reminder that we are spiritually incompetent and in constant need of a Redeemer?  What are our thoughts?

Your Miracle

Today in church the pastor talked about miracles and that often times our miracle is just waiting for us if we just go ahead and receive it.  He used passages found in scripture like Galatians 3:5 Then does He Who supplies you with His marvelous [Holy] Spirit and works powerfully and miraculously among you do so on [the grounds of your doing] what the Law demands, or because of your believing in and adhering to and trusting in and relying on the message that you heard? (Amplified Bible) And James 2:26 Faith without works is dead. (NIV)  I believe in miracles, in fact I went down front so that I could be prayed over for a miracle I want to see happen in my own life. 

But the question I find myself asking quite a bit is why don’t we see more miracles in our lives.  Is it because we don’t truly believe that God can perform miracles, or is it that we don’t ask because we don’t think our request is truly miracle worthy? 

For me, I think we don’t ask sometimes because we may be scared, that God may just give us that miracle.  That sounds strange I know but think about it, if God answered some of the things we would like to see happen in our lives it shock the socks off us.  I also think we sometimes don’t ask for some miracles because of the responsibility that would be required on our part.  Maybe your miracle hasn’t happened yet because you haven’t acted out in faith. 

Faith is a huge part of miracles.  Think about that for a minute, a miracle is performing something that is beyond human capabilities, something out of the ordinary.  That takes a huge amount of faith. 

So maybe the question shouldn’t be why don’t we see more miracles happen today, but how are we when it comes to our faith.  Are we stretching our faith enough to allow God to do something worthy of a miracle or we just playing it safe and only asking for the things we know will happen anyway?

Pouring into my kids

I try to pour into my kids lives every opportunity I get, hoping my words and actions are teaching them to be Godly boys.  Last night I saw that they are actually listening to what I have to say.

 

Last night as I was in pain from what I thought was another kidney stone, I hear Nole say from his bed, “Daddy, what is wrong?”  Knowing what had happened to me the last time I had one he said, “ouch, I hope it doesn’t hurt too bad”.  Then about five minutes latter he calls out to me again saying, “Daddy, I have been praying to God that you would have any more pain”.  From that moment on, I really didn’t worry whether or not I had another kidney stone because I was so proud of my son for taking the initiative to pray for someone else other than himself. 

 

I was bubbling over with joy that my kids are actually getting it! What Alison and I are trying to teach them is not going in one ear and out the other!  It also shows me that they are starting to acknowledge that God is real and that He cares for his children.  “Rock On” Nole with your bad self “Rock On”!

Sobering Quote

Here is a Sobering quote that I ran across the other day.  “Only one thing haunts me more than the sins of my past: What sins am I blind to today?” Philip Yancey A quote like this will make you stop and think for a minute. Any comments on this?

No My Worldview is Right

Have you ever thought to yourself, man if I could only change the way that person views life.  I think that person is so off base in their beliefs. I just wish they could see what I see.  But if you stop and think about it what makes us right – how are we so sure that we are right and someone else is wrong? 

 

James Sire the author of “The universe next door” gives one of the best definitions of what exactly is a worldview. “A worldview is a set of presuppositions, (assumptions which may be true, partially true, or entirely false) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously, consistently or inconsistently) about the basic make-up of the world.” 

 

Until just a few years ago I was under the false pretense that if you did not view life exactly the way I did you were wrong in your thinking.  A lot of this had to do with being immature I know, but I also believe a lot had to do with my lack of understanding of God’s worldview in the Bible.  I, like many people, just took for granted that what people told me was pretty much the truth, especially if it were a pastor.  But what if they made a mistake, what if they were miss guided by someone?

 

Most people’s worldview is not something that they have thought out and wrestled with on their own, rather it is something they have accumulated over the years.  Our view of the world is shaped by our parents, the culture in which we live , our religious traditions or lack of, the type of education we received, the media, and much more.  All these things influence our thinking and how we view the world and our place in it and the sad thing is we don’t even realize that these things influence us.  I heard it stated like this once, “ we learn more than we create; we accept more than we reject.  So concisely we do not formulate our on worldviews, we simply regurgitate what we have already been taught. 

 

This to me is very sad, because if this is true then very few people are able to rise above their cultural prejudices, or the cultural norms of society.  We may like to believe that we are free thinkers independent of the influences around us, but were not. If you think about it, it is quite frightening how many incorrect assumptions we have adopted as our own.  For many they are quite contented not to dig deeper or try to think more independently.  We like to believe that our worldview is correct.  And if we are challenged with another person’s worldview that does not line up with ours we usually get defensive about it.  Instead of taking the time and ask questions and wrestle with their answers we throw condemnation their way. 

 

Just recently though, I started welcoming other peoples worldview not as my own, but to better understand people who hold different views of the world, so that I can engage them in intelligent dialogue.  I also started going to the scriptures to see if what they are telling me lines up with scripture.  As well, I am seeing if what I believe is lining up with the scriptures.  I find myself letting go of those once sacred cows, I once held so tightly to.  I am now asking God to make my worldview more like his, more open and not so closed-minded. 

 

Lord, I pray that my way of viewing the world (in all that entails, my beliefs, my views on other dominations, the way I treat others, and so on) would be more like yours.

“A friend of sinners”

I was reminded the other day that Jesus was accused of being “a friend of sinners”.  That was supposed to be an insult to Christ. But it turns out to be a great source of hope to all of us.  We all know we are full of sin and fall short of God’s glory, but God is gracious.  God in His grace allowed Jesus to hang out with unrespectable people.  So I am just thinking here out loud, if our congregations are full of respectable people – then could it be said that we have not truly grasped the radical grace of God.  Just a thought, any comments.

A need for more wisdom

Following God’s voice sometimes can be a scary thing if you are not sure it is truly God speaking to you! Especially when you think God is telling you to make a life-changing decision.  I often find myself second-guessing whether or not I feel God really talking to me, or just my desire for something to happen.  I try to be sensitive to the nudges of the Holy Spirit, but I’m I sensitive enough?  I hate to be that guy that says I have heard from God, latter realizing that it was just a bad taco from Taco Bell.

I don’t know what it is about me, but I love to play games with God.  Like I will say God if you are really speaking to me, make this happen as a sign that it is really you speaking.  Sometimes He complies and yet I still wonder if it is really God.  There are other times I say to myself if this is really God speaking then this and this have to line up for me so that I know that it is of God.

Why do I second-guess God?  I wish I were more like the men and women of the Bible.  But wait a minute I am like them; all throughout the scripture people are second-guessing God.  People like Moses and the disciples to name a few.  But why, why do we second-guess God?  Is it that we think we know more than He does, that we are better suited to handle our life than He?

No. I second-guess God because I am scared of the unknown.  Scared of what God might do or might not do.  Scared of failure because I did not really hear from God like I thought I did.  So I need wisdom, wisdom to be able to discern when God is really talking to me and not just me wanting something to happen in my life.  So, this week I pray for the wisdom I need to truly hear God’s voice in my life.

I take comfort in James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him”. I say Lord give me wisdom, please give me wisdom, I sure do need it right now!