Correction!?

Why is it that we are so quick to see the sin in another and seem to miss it in our selves?  Do no try to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye until you have removed the plank form yours!

We all have to be willing to hear the words that convict us of our sins, and heed the words to correct our lives.

As Christians we are called to be set apart from the world.  We need to be over and above, not better than, but set apart. In and not of.  We need to be ready to admit our sinfulness and move forward in the Glory of God to further his kingdom by bringing to light the wrong and evil that is being done everywhere.  But in order to do this and be become “holier than thou” we need to be ready to hear about our own sinfulness and take the words of correction to heart and allow the love we are spreading to flow over us and correct us.

Necessity of Prayer

Pray is necessary for our lives to be connected with God, however I agree with Charles Spurgeon, that necessity and prayer do not really go together.  If prayer is a necessity for you, maybe some reevaluation needs to happen.

In an excerpt from Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures To My Students he speaks about prayer, and our “absolute necessity for prayer.”  But then he goes on to say that prayer should not be a necessity, but we should savor our life in and time in prayer.  He talks about the “deliciousness of prayer.”  I got excited when I read that.  He goes on to with “the wondrous sweetness and divine felicity which come to the soul that lives in the atmosphere of prayer.”  It’s like imagining your favorite desert and getting it when ever you want it.  Your soul filled with a sweetness that is so permeating your being you just ooze sweetness and joy!

Take prayer as a constant idea that allows your soul and body and mind to constantly be in contact with your creator and see how that sweetness and joy will permeate your life.  Do not think of prayer as necessity, but as an opportunity to stay in touch with an old dear friend, and use prayer to spread joy and mercy to everyone you meet.

Joy

This season is confusing to a lot of people.

Society is pushing us into Christmas.  Many are doing 12 days of Christmas promotions now, and this does not help the confusion.  The 12 days of Christmas actually begin Christmas Day and goes for the 12 days after leading up to Epiphany, the visit of the Magi.  So if it is not Christmas yet then, what is it?

This is the season of Advent, and we await the coming of the Lord Jesus in the manger.  But is Advent a happy joyful season, or is it to be somber like Lent as we await Jesus?  We want to have the happiness society is pushing on us in an early Christmas, but also wait for Jesus to come.  Can we be waiting and still be filled with Joy?

Of course we can.  In the readings for this past Sunday we see Joy all over the place, especially in John’s responce to the people who came to be baptized. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”  Can you feel the joy?

That is not the Joy, the Joy comes later. John tells the people how to live the life that will produce good fruit, and then he says I am not the Messiah, “but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Did you hear that?

John said one is coming who is more powerful, and he will baptize us with fire and the Holy Spirit.  He will show us how to live, and do what John has told us we need to do.  Jesus is the Joy that we get, one who will show us how to live, and give us examples by which to live. He will go before us to prepare our path and walk with us to help us on the journey. That is Joy.

What is it that drives you?

What keeps us going in life?  There are so many things that could drag us down and make us just despise life and run away and hide.

What is it that keeps you going through the stuff of life that we all wish would just go away?

It is interesting to think about this for me especially at this time of year as I listen to Did you know? on the album Do you see what I See by Todd Agnew. Because I wonder what did Jesus know and how did he deal with the junk of life.  Did he know from his birth that he was going to the cross?  Did he know all the things that would happen in the beating, the trial and all the tribulation he was going to face, what kept him going?

Todd’s lyrics opens up the meaning of the birth of Christ for me in a way that pulls Easter and Christmas together.  The lyrics ask Did the cross cast a shadow over your cradle?  Did you shudder each time your hammer hit a nail?  Imagine what Jesus went through as a carpenter if he knew about the cross, and the assurance we can take from this is, that He has promised to be with us always.  To never leave us or forsake us, so even in the darkest moments of our life, we have Jesus to get us through.

Have we forgotten our first love?

Revelation chapter 2 starts the writings to the 7 churches and it starts with the church in Ephesus.

Oh to be like one in Ephesus. The report sounds so good. “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance.”  We are working for the lord and enduring through what seems to be an endless amount of evil and hate against us, yet we are preserving.

“I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false.”  We know how to make sure people are apostles and that they are actually doing the work of God.  That is good right.  We are working for the lord and weeding out all of those who do not measure up to what the law says.

“I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary.” We have been at it for a while and we are not giving up. We know the importance of this message and need to see it through and we will not allow the evil doers and the hate in the world stop us from bringing the message that you can not do that, you must repent.

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”  Whoa, wait a minute Jesus what do you mean we have abandoned our first love?  We are doing all of these things for you and making sure that people are following the way they should and that we all act the same and do the same things as your disciples.  “Remember from where you have fallen and repent…”

Remember the first time you felt the love of God pour over your being.  It was a feeling of a warm embrace, that I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt I did not deserve.  I was loved by someone who really had no business loving me because of the person I was.  But isn’t that just it.  God knew me, and yet still loved me.  He saw the inner most parts of my being and yet still wanted to be in a relationship with me.

I really think we have all forgotten our first love.  We have lost the connection with God by trying to live the right way, do the right things, be the right kind of people.  We have lost the reckless love of God that accepted us.  We have lost the love of God that moves us to do radical things in his name.

We want to be safe and have God in our box so we can control it, but we have to let God have control. I am reading The Fidelity of Betrayal by Peter Rollins and in the last chapter he talks about how we have to name God in order to understand God, but the whole point of this is we can not understand God, nor are we really ever suppose to. We name things that we posses, and God is not a thing to posses but is someone to be possessed by.  God is not something we name, but is someone who names and claims us.

Return to the reckless love of the one who knows you and yet still loves you enough to name you and claim you as his own.

Is religion a smoke screen…

Did you ever think we could have to much religion?  Usually as “Christians” we are concerned that people have too little religion. That they are not following God and doing what he is leading them to.  However is it possible for us to have too much religion?

Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians: 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.13:3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

We can be noisy gongs or clanging cymbals if we rely on our religion to get us where we need to go.  Religion is not what saves us.  Amos talks about a plumb line that God is setting in place and it is a test of our religiosity…

Just how religious are we?  Are we using our religion to mask us form God and keep us from truly fulfilling his will?  Are we just Pharisees and Sadducee in modern day, thinking we have it all together and not really seeing what we need to because we are to focused on what seems to be important, but in the grand scheme really isn’t…

I choose to follow God and not religion, because in the end, religion will not save me.

Waiting for redemption… Waiting for Christ

Isn’t it interesting that we have jumped from Thanksgiving to Christmas, or should I say the Christmas holiday shopping season.  We go about buying all the stuff on our lists and making sure that we get all the things we need to make everyone happy. We have to bend to the whims of the retailers and spend and spend and not refer to Christmas as Christmas.  We have to say Happy Holidays.  Which may not be bad, because why are people so concerned with keeping Christ in Christmas?  If we want Christ to be in Christmas, I think we should go the step further and ask for Christ Mass to be kept in Christmas.  This is where Christmas came from, the Christ Mass – the worship service to celebrate the birth of Christ.  It is the celebration of worship to welcome our savior.  How many of us that speak about keeping Christ in Christmas will miss church because of family commitments, or work parties or there is just way to much happening for me to go to church then…

Funny how we want Christ as part of the Holiday but wander away when things get tight and time slips away. Redemption comes when we are repentant – as John the Baptist preaches.  We need to start the process by calling out and seeking redemption – or do as repentance means – turn around and embrace the Savior that is there waiting for us.  Christ is the reason for the season and gathering together to celebrate this is what we are called to do as disciples to meet our teacher and learn with all the others…

As my friend Matt said in his blog (http://tinyurl.com/y9okd8h) we have to free ourselves of clutter – like John told those coming to him – if you have 2 coats give one away.  We need to be focused on what is important in this Advent season and Christmas – it is about our being together as disciples celebrating the birth of Jesus – the one who went to the cross to rebuild the bridge to God so we can have a relationship with our creator.  We need to shed our own wants and desires and focus on Christ.

Blessed Advent.

Mushroom eater

I started reading the Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus, and this is a great book.

Erwin talks about how Christianity has become civilized and we are expecting to be kept safe in the arms of our savior, and if we are in the center of the will of God, then we will be safe. Because in the center of the will of God is the safest place to be. Erwin says this is what the civilized Christianity says, but true barbaric Christians know that being in the will of God might lead to death. I mean look at the disciples and John the Baptist and Jesus. Jesus hung on a cross, is that safe? John the Baptist was beheaded! Jesus calls us out of our comfort zones and calls us to go. He does not tell us our lives will be a walk in a rose garden. He needs us to go and fight for the heart of our King!

He is calling us to be innovators, to eat the mushroom. Think about it, who ate fish eggs and made them a delicase? Or how about snails? If not ever tries mushrooms would we have gotten the Portabelo? If we all stay in our nice safe box of Christianity will the world ever hear the truth?

Be a mushroom eater and boldly fight for the heart of our King!

November 2009 Back Page

Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart. I am so pleased that you have continued on in this with us, believing and proclaiming God’s Message, from the day you heard it right up to the present. There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears. (Philippians 1:3-6)I thank God for this congregation. My family have been blessed beyond imagination by being here. I never would have thought that we would be in South Texas, but know that God will provide for us. He has brought us here and it is a wonderful thing for us. We have moved in and are almost settled, 99.96% (don’t hold me to this) of the boxes are un- packed, and we are slowly finding places for all the stuff. We were very impressed by the magnitude of Heritage Day and glad to be a part of that. We are looking forward to getting to know everyone better and having time to visit. We have already made ourselves at home and found a gym for the girls to do gymnastics, and we are slowly finding our way around town. We can always get there, it may not be the quickest way, but we make it.Thank you for all of your prayers during this time of transition, for us as we traveled and for all of your assistance. We are truly grateful and thank God for each and every one of you. I know that God will finish what he has begun, and work through us all in mission and ministry for His Gospel. As long as we focus on building and nurturing relationships for and with Christ, I know he will give us the strength and grace to go on. I know this because it is my favorite verse in the Bible, also found in the book of Philippians 4:11b-13 for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Lean on the one who gives all of us strength and always put your trust in Him and we will do wonderful things together with Him.

Boot Straps…

As I put on my boots this morning I realized something…

If you have never worn cowboy boots it may not be evedent and it took me about 3 weeks to realize that boots are like our relationship to God…

You see I can put on tennis shoes, or dress shoes or any other shoe using only my foot and force pushing on the shoe.  However with my boots I can push all I want, but I have not been able to make my foot go into that boot all the way.  I have to grab hold of those boot straps.  I have to pull that boot on by those straps. I can only get into and wear those boots by grabing hold and pulling them on, I can not do it with my foot alone.

This is significant on many levels. The level that hit me this morning is my putting on the boots is like my reliance on God.  My foot alone can not put the boot on, but with help from my hands, I can get my foot in.  That is the way my life is, if I try to do it all on my own, I will push and push and push and never get any where, but if I ask God to help me, it will be effortless and slide right into place.

The other level of significance is that we are all in this together, as the body of Christ, we need each other.  My foot can not push its way into the boot, unless my hands help pull the boot up.  My hands would not be able to pull the boot up if my arms did not assist, and my arms could not do it, if my brain did not tell it to.  It takes my whole being to do it, just like it takes all of us to do the work of Christ.

So ask God to pull you up by your boot straps, and help your brothers and sisters.  We can’t do it alone, but with Christ I and all of us can do all things!