Category Archives: Church

Surprised & other musings on a Monday…

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After Church yesterday, I was in the typical rush to prep for the next thing we had to do… 45 minutes of “free time.” Which means running around crazy to make sure life is dialed in for the next round of stuff. And then a smile. KIRSTIN. A dear friend who moved away a couple years back. But now she is HERE. Standing there with her Kirstin Smile. Surprise. Had to come to town for a ‘thing’. Thought she’d swing by to say “hey.” I wept.

We connected with Nick & Kirstin at College Group. Sunday night Study. Eating dinner together. Sitting in our living room with other friends. Reading the Scriptures. Questions. Debates. Ponders. (I declare Ponders is a word.) Prayer. Connecting. Sharing life’s joys. Pains. Challenges. Celebrations. It knit us together in a way that time & life will never separate. And it makes me think.

Last night, we had Study. Dinner. A great group of very diverse people gathered around the counter. Eating. Laughing. Enjoying each other. To the living room, everyone claiming “their” spots. Sharing their highlight of the week, giving us insight into what makes them tick. Reading the Scriptures. Talking about them. Chasing rabbit trails. Praying. Talking about the happenings of the day. I brought up my highlight – seeing Kirstin this afternoon. Daniel asked, “Who’s Kirstin?”

The flood of memories & life experiences shared flooded my brain as I thought how to answer him. And I said, “Kirstin is YOU Daniel, in a different lifetime.” We had a good laugh. And it made me think.

For the majority of the last 25 years, theBean & I have hosted people in our home on Sunday nights. It’s looked different – I’m cracking up thinking about how we used to go to the park next to our house & play BALL, a hybrid between rugby, football, soccer, basketball & handball. And MMA. There were several trips to the ER before that round of Study. I think of Cap’ns coffee stains on my floor. That boy couldn’t control a cup of coffee to save his life. I think of Josh-bum semi-napping on the couch, only to respond in context when asked a question. I remember pulling a newly dating couple aside & asking them to stop groping each other. I think of the Squirrel Gurls – 2 opposites that became like sisters.

I think about the privilege of seeing peoples’ lives developing & growing as they moved through high school/college into the life standing in front of them. In my minds eye, I see lives opening up like flowers as God healed them from life’s hurts, & blossoming into the people God made them to be. Pete & Debi becoming best friends. And then getting married. There are literally hundreds of memories of people flooding my mind. And I’m privileged to have been in this spot.

And many of these people have become ‘chosen family.’ People who have left indelible marks on our lives – & they have moved on, moved away, pursuing their lives, careers, & passions. And these people follow Jesus & inevitably help others learn to do the same through their life examples. And my heart sometimes aches as I miss them & the impact they’ve had on my/our life/lives.

And yet… God is good. He always sends more people. And it seems that the only thing we have in common is Jesus & a desire to pursue Him, His words, & wanting to figure out HOW to apply this to our lives, to bring it from theory to action & practice.

It gives me joy. And I feel rich. Because there is life. Meaning. Worth. In relationship. Community. Fellowship.

I love this.

What’s your story?

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When it comes to sharing with others about the message of the Gospel (Good News,) many of us can feel intimidated & inadequate. It’s almost as though the task of talking to others about Jesus effectively requires something MORE than we are or we have.

More education. More knowledge. More experience. More answers. MORE. I mean, what happens if we start talking to someone & they ask us a question about our faith, the Bible, etc. that we don’t know how to answer? :)

A couple weeks ago, my supervisor reminded me that sharing the Gospel doesn’t require communicating a theological masterpiece, massive amounts of memorized Scripture, or a certified-spiritual-gifts-test-result-qualifying-you-as-an-evangelist.

He simply asked, “What’s your story? What has Christ done in your life? Why did you choose to put your faith & trust in Him? That’s what your friends & family need to hear. Share your STORY.”

Revelation 12:11 tells us that we, believers in Christ, will overcome the devil through the blood of the Lamb (Christ’s sacrifice on the cross which paid the penalty for our sins,) & through the word of our testimony (our story, what Christ has done, is doing in our lives.) We each have a  GREAT story, & the more we rehearse it, remember it, & tell it, we give glory to God, point to Jesus as the Savior, & we share the Good News.

I like to take the cue from a blind man who Jesus healed – the religious leaders were hounding him with a barrage of questions about WHO healed him, HOW He had done it, & WHETHER this Jesus was a good guy or not. The man said, “Well, I don’t really know much, except that I was blind, & now I can see.”  (See more on this in John 9.)

Beautiful answer.

Read the ingredients labels & a thought from 1st John

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My daughter, theWeez, likes to eat healthy. Which means she reads the ingredients labels on everything. I mean, EVERYTHING. The other morning, I was making an egg burrito, & she declared, “Those tortillas are gross. Dad, do you know how many ingredients are in them?”

“Um. 3?”

“Nope. Like 20. You really have to be careful what you’re putting in your body.”

“Duly noted.”

Next day, we had the TortillaLand tortillas, which are made with a total of 4 ingredients. Better. And tastier.

Reminds me of John’s great challenge to his readers in 1John 3 & 4. He tells them that  BELIEVING in the Name of Jesus Christ, & loving one another – are indicators that we are abiding (remaining, living in) God & His family. John also puts forward a couple of warnings – 1st: don’t be like Cain, who hated (& eventually murdered) his brother, Abel. 2nd, he challenges them to be very discerning about the spiritual input they accept from others. Specifically, he tells them to TEST every spirit (the motivating force/entity) behind any instruction or prophetic utterance given by a teacher, prophet, &/or spiritual leader.  So, since we can’t “read the ingredients label,” what does that mean, & how do we do that?

John reminds them that not everyone who claims to be speaking for God &/or on Christ’s behalf is actually doing so – & he gives a couple of TESTS for his readers to use in determining the source of the spiritual input:

  1. Does the individual confirm that Jesus Christ came physically in the flesh, as a man? There were many teaching at the time that anything in the material world (including our bodies) was inherently evil; only things of the higher, spirit world were good. So, the conclusion reached was that Jesus Christ only seemed  to have a real body; He was in fact a spirit. John says that the denial of this core truth is a dead giveaway that the spirit motivating the teaching is off.
  2. Does the individual/teaching confess Jesus Christ? This confession centers on embracing Christ fully as God, as revealed in the eyewitness accounts of the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, & John. Anytime Jesus is reimagined, reinvented, &/or redefined by a prophet/teacher/etc. in any manner different than God chose to reveal Him is an indication that the source of the input is the spirit of antichrist. Anytime Christ is diminished or reduced from being FULLY God & FULLY man – from being the sole source of our relationship with God the Father – the spirit of antichrist is exposed.

For us, 2000 years later, these TESTS are a great encouragement – & help remind us to be wary about what we’re ingesting, spiritually, & to regularly, with Holy Spirit insight, discernment, & wisdom, examine the spiritual input we are seeking out/getting from others. If it’s of God, it will stand up to the test.

Crossing over… from death to life.

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Over the last few weeks in our “Letters from John” series, we’ve discovered that John is just a little redundant when it comes to a couple of the things he wants to make sure to communicate to his readers. The most significant, to me, is his repetition of Christ’s commandment: “Love one another.” Here in chapter 3, he gets into some detail about just what “loving one another” looks like, lived out.

In verse 12, he challenges us to not be like Cain, who murdered his brother. Ok, check. That sounds like an easy one, right? Don’t murder. However, I think it goes deeper than that, & touches on the motivation for Cain murdering Abel: jealousy. Genesis 4 tells how Cain was a farmer, while Abel was a shepherd. The time came for a sacrifice offering to be made to the LORD. Cain gave some of the leftovers of his harvest; Abel made a sacrifice of the best lamb in his flock. As a result, God rejected Cain’s offering, but accepted Abel’s. God’s favor made Cain so angry (& jealous) he schemed to get Abel alone in a field, & killed him.

Both Cain & Abel knew what God wanted in a sacrifice – their parents, Adam & Eve had firsthand experience with what God wanted: their very best. Abel chose to approach God & God’s terms, & Cain didn’t. Abel was received – Cain wasn’t. Cain’s jealous response, (birthed out of evil, John tells us) revealed the death & darkness that lived in him, while Abel’s showed the life & light dwelling in him.  Death. & life.

Loving our brothers demonstrates that we’ve crossed over from death to  life… that we’ve allowed God’s love, light, & life to be made manifest in us.

John continues in verse 16 – using Jesus’ example of love shown in how He laid down His own life for His followers… & John urges his readers to do the same. Since in Jesus’ case, this meant Christ’s death on the cross, does that mean that we are called to do the same? I say yes. Here’s how it can work on a daily basis.

Laying down our lives for others can be much more than dying in someone’s stead… it can also be love that is shown as we serve others & look to put their needs & interests before our own (ala Christ’s example from Philippians 2:1-10). This demonstrates that we have crossed over from death (the pattern of this world) to life (the pattern modeled by Christ.) Finally, this repeated command to love one another isn’t an abstract one – it is imminently practical, & demands that we look for ways to do what we believe Jesus would be doing if He were walking in our shoes. Because, when you think about it, He is.

What did Jesus come to do?

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John reveals some very important things in his letters to the church about WHY Jesus Christ came to earth. In 1John 3 he tells us:

You know that He (Christ) appeared in order to take away sins, & in Him there is no sin…the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 1John 3:5 & 8b

Think about it: Jesus came to take away sin (& the result of sin, death,) & to destroy the works of the devil. So, what are the works of the devil?

From Genesis 3, we see that the devil works to twist God’s words, lie & deceive humanity, & offer a self-indulgent, ego-centric, & ultimately totally destructive alternative to God’s purposes for humanity. 1Chronicles 21 reveals the devil as a agent whose intent is to stir up human pride in order that we would defy God. Zechariah 3 shows the devil as our accuser, the one who would stand to condemn us. Matthew 4 & Luke 4 show the devil tempting Christ to live & act autonomously, in direct opposition to the humble, submitted reliance upon God the Father. John 8 reveals satan to be a lying murderer, & John 10 condenses the thief’s mission as being dedicated to stealing, killing, & destroying. 1Peter 5 describes the devil as a roaring lion, looking to devour the unwary. Finally, Revelation 12 sums up the work of the devil, labeling him as the deceiver of the whole world.

We often talk about Christ’s work of atonement, how He paid for humanities sins through His death on the cross. And about His victory over death, when He rose from the dead 3 days after His crucifixion. And about the new life & relationship with God that He offers to all who believe in & trust Him. What jumps out to me from 1John 3 is that Christ came to destroy the enemies work. The areas in which the devil has been wreaking havoc, perverting, twisting, lying, & killing.

This gives me great hope & encouragement – to know that the areas where the enemy has been active, our God specifically came to destroy those works, & in doing so, to bring RESTORATION, making things the way He intended them to be.

Grace, peace, & God’s blessings to you today –

Don’t love the world…?

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Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1John 2:15-17

At first glance, John’s instruction that we should NOT love the world might seem strange… especially when he had previously gone to great lengths to remind his readers of the defining characteristic of a Christ-follower: Love for God & love for each other. Digging deeper, however, we see he is challenging us to not align with or entrust ourselves to this world’s system – its values, practices, & ways of living. The prince of this world, the devil, draws humanity towards a life of self-indulgence, a life that runs counter to the life Christ calls us to follow. Think about it: the desires of the flesh tell us we should be able to indulge without restraint in whatever sensual craving that strikes us, without consequence for who it affects. The desires of the eyes lead us to believe we need more – more toys, more stuff, more everything… with greed, discontent, & covetousness as a result. The pride of life rejoices in a life of self-importance, tempting us to revel in our accomplishments, focusing on all we have & have done, causing us to measure ourselves against one another & missing the self-less example Christ set for us when He laid down His life that we would live.

Bottom line, John reminds us that to “walk in light & walk in love,” we have to live according to the values, priorities, & traits of the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of this world. And God says that if we love Him, we’ll His commands.

Grace, peace, & God’s blessings to you today –

Love one another… a new commandment?

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On the night He was betrayed, Jesus sat around the table with 11 of His disciples, the aftermath of the Passover meal in their bellies. And He talked with them – treasured conversations, some of Christ’s last words to them before He was taken & crucified.

Something He said caught their attention: “A new commandment I give to you…” New? That HAD to be significant… & I can imagine each of the disciples sitting up a little bit, leaning in closer to make sure not to miss a word. And Jesus said:

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:34,35 English Standard Version

Love one another… using Christ’s own example as the blueprint on what REAL love looked like. Loving others was so significant that Christ identified it would be LOVE that would identify people as His disciples. Not their words. Or charisma. Or how much they knew. Love. Lived out, in the real world, with real people.

Fast forward about 60 years, & the now ancient disciple/apostle John wrote to a new generation of disciples, sharing with them what Christ had shared with him so many years ago – in a nutshell, “God is light. God is love. As His disciples, we show we belong to Him by living in light. And living in love.”  John is ‘discipling’ his readers – he is passing on what Christ said & did in his life. Sharing the areas that the Holy Spirit had written on his heart. Speaking plainly about some of the most important things that Christians can BE & DO. Without the LIGHT & LOVE evident in our lives, we’re lost. John wrote:

“My dear friends, I’m not writing anything new here. This is the oldest commandment in the book, and you’ve known it from day one. It’s always been implicit in the Message you’ve heard. On the other hand, perhaps it is new, freshly minted as it is in both Christ and you—the darkness on its way out and the True Light already blazing!Anyone who claims to live in God’s light and hates a brother or sister is still in the dark. It’s the person who loves brother and sister who dwells in God’s light and doesn’t block the light from others. But whoever hates is still in the dark, stumbles around in the dark, doesn’t know which end is up, blinded by the darkness.” 1John 2:7-11, THE MESSAGE

It’s the same for us – we are called to BE disciples & MAKE disciples. We make disciples by example, by living a Christ-following life & by our words/actions, where we intentionally share with others that which Christ has worked in us.

It’s beautiful.

Walking in the light…

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WALKING IN THE LIGHT
As I was preparing for our next series, “Letters From John…” I was struck by the vivid imagery of LIGHT & DARK that John uses when describing our life with God:

  • God is light, pure light; there’s not a trace of darkness in Him. If we claim that we experience a shared life with Him & continue to stumble around in the dark, we’re obviously lying through our teeth—we’re not living what we claim. But if we walk in the light, God Himself being the light, we also experience a shared life with one another, as the sacrificed blood of Jesus, God’s Son, purges all our sin. 1John 1:5-7 THE MESSAGE BIBLE

Think about that for a second: When John says God is light (an Old/First Testament reference to God’s purity, holiness, wisdom, & knowledge,) he’s saying God is our source, & walking in the light means living in & through Him – His purity, holiness, wisdom, & knowledge… Conversely, if we are stumbling through life in the dark, we’re walking without Him, counting on our own resources to navigate through the veritable minefield of life. OUCH! That can hurt.

The thing that jumps out the most to me is that by walking in the light, living in relationship with & dependence upon God, it also binds us together with others who are doing the same thing – people who have experienced the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ.  I’m praying for the Holy Spirit to illuminate any dark patches of our lives… & for the wisdom & perseverance to stay out of the shadows & walk where He’s walking.

Grace, peace, & God’s blessings to you today –

Forgiven…

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Forgiven. Think about it.

If we confess our sins, our God, through His Son Jesus Christ, forgives us, cleanses us, & justifies us (makes it as though we’d never sinned at all). 1John 1:7-10; Romans 5:1

Forgiven. Made right with God. By His grace. Through faith. Not a feeling. A fact.

The problem is, we have an adversary, our enemy the devil. Revelation 12:10 reveals that this enemy stands before God, day & night making accusations against us. What does he accuse us of?

The things we’ve done wrong. Our failures. Short-comings. Inadequacies. Unfaithfulness. Unworthiness. Our sins.

He digs through our past/present & throws things at us in the form of thoughts, flinging them our way like fiery darts. He uses people – all kinds of people – Christian people to taunt, provoke, accuse, defame, & malign.

It is going to happen – so what is our response? What do we do when a very real area of sin is thrown back at us to attempt to remind us of ‘who we really are?”

We remember.

We are forgiven. Not according to our merits. Not because we earned it. Not just until we mess up again.

Forgiven. By grace. Through faith. In Christ Jesus.

When I’m assaulted with the condemnations of the accuser, I renew my mind (Romans 12:1,2). To me, this means I revisit & rehearse Scripture  (Psalm 119:9-11). I pray, thanking God for His gift of grace to me & His work of grace in my life (Ephesians 2:4-10). I pray in the Spirit, building myself up in my heart & mind. (Ephesians 3:14-21). I actively submit myself to God, & actively resist the accuser (James 4:7), speaking out loud saying, “I’ve been washed, sanctified (made holy) & justified (made right with God) in & by the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” (1Corinthians 6:11)

Forgiven. Think about it. Thank the Lord for it.

Readin’ books, thinkin’ thoughts, processin’ stuff, & other musin’s…

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Just finished going through Scazzero’s “Emotionally Healthy Spirituality” again. Check it out if you haven’t.

We used it as a reference point in our most recent teaching series, & also hosted a couple of book talks with a few folks who had finished reading through it, individually (if that makes sense.) The first time I went through the book was back in 2006 at the suggestion of my friend & mentor Chuck. I would guess over the years I’ve read the book 10 or more times. And every time through, something else stands out to me. I think the combo of the 8-week teaching series & the book talks were the most significant in seeing the topic in a different light. Here’s a couple of insights gleaned from our talks:

  • Generally speaking, people don’t have a reference point on how to process through strong, negative, &/or inconvenient emotions. We feel out of control, unsure, anxious, & guilty… & as a result, stuff those emotions in a locked,dark room in their souls that they never plan to visit again. Several people found it helpful to go through a process to get a handle on their emotions; this includes taking the time to experience/feel the emotion, to invite God into the process by asking for His take/His input through reflection on what we’re feeling, then to express those emotions in manner than honors God, that doesn’t sabotage/hurt ourselves, or wound/cause injury others.
  • Christians don’t know how to grieve, mourn, or process through life’s losses. Not just the big ones – like death of a loved one, catastrophies, like war & acts of terror, divorce & infidelity, among others,- but also other losses, like the change in a friendship when someone moves away, the disruption of relationship when a person leaves a church, & even things that look/feel like a POSITIVE change, like graduation from school, or an adult child moving out on their own. Instead, quite a few people deal with loss through denial, avoidance, blaming others, minimizing the loss, rationalizing why the loss isn’t so bad, or developing an addiction (to avoid & numb the pain). The most common way of running from loss that came up in our talks was using God to hide from grieving – this could look like quoting Bible verses, “We don’t grieve like those who have no hope…” as though that is supposed to address the hurt & pain we feel. It could be like offering up words we’ve heard before, like, “The Lord moves in mysterious ways,” or “God must have needed another angel in heaven,” or my favorite, which I have heard from more than a handful of people in response to my own grief at my brother’s passing: “God must have known He was going to fall away into sin in the future, so He took him home now.” Not only do those phrases not help, they don’t accurately portray God as He is revealed in Scripture & in Christ’s incarnation: as predictably, consistently good. And ultimately when people said them to me, I wanted to punch them in the neck.
  • Getting our thoughts out on these topics & talking with safe people helps. I was amazed at how significantly people were impacted as they listened to others, heard that their own story/feelings/experience isn’t unique or weird, prayed together, & spoke words of encouragement to each other.

There’s probably more, but those are the biggies that have been bouncing around my head for the last couple weeks.

Jerry Cook has a new book coming out in the next 8-12 weeks. He’s the writer of a couple of my favorites, including, “Love, Acceptance, & Forgiveness,” and also, “The Monday Morning Church.” The next one is called, “So… What’s The Big Deal? Six Events That Changed The World”, & it is written in response to being asked this question: “So… what’s the big deal about the Holy Spirit in the life of a Christian?” I have seen a rough draft of the book & I will tell you this – when it comes out, I’m buying a case of them to give away. Great & practical theology communicated in a manner that a Jr Higher could “get.” Be on the lookout.

Over the last year, I’ve been praying for the kind of clarity where I could say, “I only do what I see my Father in heaven doing.”(John 5:19-21). To me, this means – I’m not just living on purpose, I’m living according to God’s agenda. One thing that I have noticed – a lot of people have an idea of what THEY think I should be doing… & if/when it doesn’t line up with what I think I’m supposed to be doing, it is “relationally uncomfortable.” I’m praying for insights & ways to gracefully communicate with others on this, esp. when I don’t meet their hopes or expectations. A work in process, am I. Thankful that the One who started this process WILL bring it to completion. (Philippians 1:5-6)

So say we all.