Consider a Stick

Consider a stick.  A stick, by itself, is not very useful.  However, a stick on fire (a torch) is something else.  It becomes light when you can't see through the darkness.  It's heat is comfort when you're cold.  It can cook food to nourish you.  It can purify the water you drink.  It can also be used to set other sticks on fire.

I am a stick.  

God's Word is fire.

Unity

Unity, with God or with people, comes through shared struggle. You don't get close to someone by saying "I need to get close to you." It takes action; shared struggle. Hanging out is good, but no amount of hanging out brings the closeness that comes from working together.

When I say struggle, I don't mean that it has to be painful. I think we all know that when we have pain or hurt or difficulty in life it causes us to get closer to God. But, it's not just those negative things that I mean. I'm defining struggle like labor. I think of the people with whom I'm the closest and it's those with whom I've labored/struggled; those I've served alongside in ministry; worship teams, missions teams, leadership teams, sports teams.

1 John 2:6 says, "Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did." Jesus walked with the Father. Jesus labored and struggled for the Kingdom with His friends and disciples.

Dreaming

I just read my last post and it occurred to me that maybe the phrase "American Dream" doesn't mean a hope of great things and a great life that we have, but we'll awaken someday to realize it was indeed just a dream.

On the American Dream

I think that the hardest part about living in the "American Dream" and being a Christian is being willing to give it all up. I think of the apostle Paul and the life he must have lived before he met Christ. It would seem that he was living a sort of American Dream. He must have had wealth to go along with his power and he gave it all up to be a traveling missionary who was routinely beaten and jailed for the way he lived his life.

Now that God has so richly blessed my life, my prayer is that I (and my family) would be willing to give it all up at the drop of a hat to follow Jesus into any circumstance he would lead us.

Get back

I feel like I need to get back to something that's been missing. I'm done with books about God, I just want the Word. And I'm tired of playing quietly on Sunday mornings to three songs that have been precisely prepared, I just want to bang on the drums really loud and worship with my friends to lots of songs that might not go the way we planned with people that might jump up and down, raise their hands in the air, shed some tears, and sing louder than I'm drumming!

"I just can't get past the judgmentalism"

I had a friend email me this:

I've been thinking about starting to go to church again :). And throughout the thought process, I've been thinking a lot about the reasons I stopped. One of the biggest reasons/things that turned me off to it was that I feel like a lot of Christians that I know are very, and openly, judgemental about things people do, even though they may do some things that would not be right in the eyes of God themselves.

And that provoked a though...I was raised to believe that no one has the right to pass judgement except for God. And if God is so quick to forgive those who are truly sorry for their sins, how can people (I guess Christians in this case) be so quick to pass judgement?

Here was my response...for what it's worth.

I think you are right. Many (even most) Christians do tend to see the faults in others instead of graciously finding the good in them. I'm sure I'm guilty of this more often than I'd like to admit. That's a big problem in the American Church. I saw a study that 9 out of 10 young people view Christians as judgmental.

I think it's important to separate out what Chrisitans do and who Christ is. Christianity is a religion full of sinful people in need of God's grace and mercy. Just becuase Chrisitans sin (and are judmental) does not make what they believe wrong. It just means they (we) are in need of forgiveness.

I think that a lot of American Christians base their faith off of what they were taught growing up instead of on their own experience hearing from God through reading His Word and prayer. I'd encourage you, as you think through this for yourself, to take a week or two and thoughtfully read through the book of Matthew. Pay specific attention to what Jesus says and does.

On the other side of the coin, I will say, though, that as much as Jesus talks about not judging others, He does say that we are to hold other Christians accountable for their sake (not for our own). If a "brother" sins against you, the bible says in Matthew 18, that you are to go to him and show him his fault. Also, James 5:20 specifically talks about turning a sinner from the error of his way.

I read in a book about how people view Christians that "If Christians won't point out God's standard; who will?" It may not be popular to talk about God's standards, but if someone doesn't know they're sinning, how are they to ask forgiveness? The key is to "speak the truth in love."

Walking

I have a dog named Rigley. When I take him for walks he pulls so hard at his leash it's like he's trying to pull a car out of a ditch or win the Iditarod all by himself. It's hardly a case of a man and his dog going for a walk. It's more like the dog trying to drag his master where he wants to go, when a walk around the block alongside his master would be fun and healthy for both of them.

When I say that I'm "walking with God" I think that my relationship with God might be like my dog's relationship with me. God's trying to go for a walk with me and I like to claim that I am walking with him, but in reality I'm tugging as hard as I can in whatever direction I want to go; not walking alongside God in the direction He's going. All God wants is for me to walk with Him through life. Not go wherever I want to go with Him in-tow claiming to be walking with Him.

Eventually Rigley and I make it around the block, but it sure isn't enjoyable. In the end, God is sovereign, and He accomplishes his purpose, but how much better would it be if I walked alongside Him instead of trying to take him where I want to go?

It's so good

I don't really have anything profound to say. I'm just posting to say that I've been reading the Old Testament lately and it's so good. I don't just mean that it's interesting; I mean that it's so good to be reading it. Normally when I try to read through the OT I'll start at the beginning and really enjoy Genesis and Exodus, but I get bogged down in Leviticus (and/or Numbers) and just quit reading. So this time I just skipped over them and started in Deuteronomy. Then I kept going and have since finished Joshua and Judges and it is really good.

It's just really neat learning more about who God is and what He's done. I'm amazed at how often His people turned away from Him...and He kept giving them another chance. I'm amazed at how much war and killing went on. I'm surprised I've never heard anyone talk about the military power-house Israel was under Joshua's leadership, and how many nations and kings they completely eliminated.

Anyway, just some thoughts. But I have to end with one of my favorite lines in the whole bible that gives me chills/goose bumps everytime I think about it:

Joshua 5:13-15 - "Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, "Are you for us or for our enemies?" "Neither," he replied, "but as comander of the army of the LORD i have now come."

If you want to know why I think that's so cool you can read my earlier post from April 11, 2007.

Death

It's an odd sensation when a Christian friend dies...First there's disbelief and shock. Then sadness for the surviving family, but then an odd excitement knowing that she's with Jesus right now...

How big?

I was thinking about the universe and how big it is. I'm told there are over 350,000,000,000 galaxies...if there are that many galaxies I can't imagine how many stars there are or how much space there is between them. So the thought occurs to me that there are only two possibilities when it comes to how big the universe is and both are beyond my comprehension. Either it goes on forever, or it ends somewhere. How can there be no end to something? But if it ends somewhere, what's on the other side of the end of the universe? Something else, I guess. But what would that be, and how far does that go!

My friend the future Catholic Priest

I had lunch today with a buddy that I've had the privilege of knowing and ministering with over the past handful of years. It was a very encouraging conversation. He is a solid, solid Christian brother who, despite leading worship and being heavily involved with us at an Evangelical Free Church, continued to attend a Catholic Mass throughout the time I've known him. He had previously been planning on pursuing a post graduate degree and would have done very well for himself had he done so, but felt an obvious call on his life elsewhere. He knew that God was leading him into ministry. Seminary, more specifically. And Catholic Seminary in particular. I have to admit, my encounters with Catholicism have left me less than impressed and have left a sour taste on my tongue. But I know my friend's heart and we had some great discussion on his calling and what that will look like going forward along with some good discussion that helped me dispel some of the bad perceptions I have of Catholic Theology and the Catholic Church in general. I'm not really sure where I'm going with this, but I guess what I want to say is that I feel very, very good knowing that a man of such solid faith in Christ is going to be moving towards a position of ministry within the Catholic Church and I look forward to seeing how God uses him!

Time

It occurs to me now and then the significance of small incriments of time. In my job (a track and field coach) the smallest increment of time can make the difference between taking a trip to Houston, TX for a week, or spending the week at home in your normal routine. Literally one hundreth of a second (probably less than the length of time it takes to snap your fingers) is what kept my freshman sprinter home from nationals. Had she been that much faster on one given day she would have been in the national meet and had that great experience as a memory. Instead she stayed in Winona and life went on. We agonize over that next hundreth of a second.

On the flip side of that, how many hundreths of a second (let alone minutes or hours) go by without any consiquence? My cursor just blinked 10 or 15 times while I decided what to type next and that didn't change the course of anything in my life other than missing 10 extra seconds of sleep tonight. Those same ten seconds would be the difference between a halfmiler getting a full scholarship to almost any big time school she wanted and getting no money at all...and again, those same ten seconds could be the difference between a disasterous car accident and missing the accident altogether. The ten minutes it's taking me to type this is ten more minutes I could have spent on the phone with my wife tonight...It's amazing how one blink of an eye can change the course of your life while a full minute (or hour) can pass without any consiquence...

Much to say?

I've noticed that when I'm not really living life I don't have much to say here, but when I'm actively pursuing Christ He gives me so much more life to live and to talk about. I'm realizing that I've learned to have a relationship with Him (and just me), but need to learn how to foster a family relationship with me, Ashley, Skyler, and God all together...Married men and fathers, what are some ways you walk with Christ and pursue Him with your family?

Just Wondering...

I was reading 2 Corinthians this morning and wondering what Paul means when he says, "I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven" (v12:2)? This is an issue that is not central to my faith, but I wonder what the third heaven is.

Also, on other occassions Paul talks about boasting as something he will only do regarding Christ. I've never heard a sermon on the reason for his boasting in this passage. He gives his reasoning, and it makes sense to me, but I've never heard anyone speak about this. I'd be interested to hear someone smarter than me speak on this passage (2 Cor 11 and 12).

Just some thoughts...

Obedience and Blessings

So I'm married now, and I have a five year-old step son. Last night we bought him a toy without telling him and since it was late when we got home we decided to give it to him the next morning. I decided to put it in the cupboard next to the cereal. I thought it would be fun for him to see it when he opens the door to have breakfast and he'd be all excited. Instead we woke up to him bringing us breakfast in bed...one waffle each. Very cute. So anyways, we decided we'd tell him to go see if we had any Cheerios left. Now at this point he could have decided to have an attitude and ask why he had to go, or be crabby and just disobey altogether. Had he done that he would have went about his day just fine, never knowing that something special had awaited him had he obeyed. I bet you see where this is going...I think we are all like that. If we choose to obey God he may have a blessing in store for us that we never would have guessed would be the consequence of obedience. If we choose to disobey, however, (best case senario) we'll go on our way, maybe just fine, without ever knowing the blessing we missed out on.

Never guessed what this ad was for..

This is just a great commercial that I had to share...

News Articles from Today - Part 3 of 3

Okay, this last one is a little out there and not so much about the article, but what the article made me think about...Okay, here goes. The Iranian president talked today about the "ending of the American Empire". I've been thinking about about that for a few years now. It occurred to me a few years ago that Rome didn't last forever and that if there's anything that can bring America down it's corruption/politics and economic issues. As far as coruption and politics goes, is it just me or does it seem like the government doesn't really get much done. They all talk a lot, but presidents don't seem to get anything important done in their first term because they are afraid of rocking the boat and not getting elected for a second term. Well, with that logic I think congress is even worse because they never have a "last term". They can just keep on running so they always have to be afraid of making tough decisions that may be the right decision even though people may not like it. It just seems that even when you get a politician on the national stage who defies stereotypes, like Sarah Palin, (ie, young, woman, from Alaska - the furthest place from Washington) that you'd actually start to hear some things that aren't "politics as usual", but guess what, she's just like the rest of the crusty old guys that run this country. Okay that was a lot longer of a political rant than I expected. As far as the economy goes, it sure looks like we're in a tough spot right now. Whether this is statistically acurate or not, we seem to be in the worst housing market, stock market and overall economic state since the Great Depression, and back then we were barely a shadow of the world power we are today. They say that, "If America sneezes the whole world catches a cold." They say that, "The bigger they are the harder they fall." It sure seems like if we're the 800 pound gorilla today, 80 years ago we were just a baby. It seems delusional that one empire could last forever when all the others have fallen...Anyways, that was a lot of fluff with not a lot of content. The point is that the thought that occurred to me 6 or 7 years ago is that I bet America won't exist when I am old in the same form that it exists today. Sorry for the non-sensical meander with no organization...but those are just some thoughts from my observations of the way I see things...Okay, I'm done now. Side note...I just spent the last 45 minutes writing these lame posts instead of opening my bible like I had planned... (If that makes no sense, see my post from a few days ago)

News Articles from Today - 2 of 3

So this next article was on people whose homes are being foreclosed. It was AWESOME! Awesome? You're wondering how home foreclosure is awesome aren't you? Well it was about people that refuse to stop giving their money (tithe) to God; people that will go to financial counselors to seek help in managing their money and cutting expenses so they don't lose their home and after they've cut everything else they can and they are still short they refuse to stop tithing even if it means losing their home!!! THAT is awesome!

One financial counselor said, "After we've gone through their monthly expenses and the only thing left to cut is their tithe, they say 'I guess this home is not for me' and they walk away,"

A couple interesting statistics that the Barna Research Group came out with are that only 5% of Americans tithe and of Christian denominations the highest is Evangelicals at 24%. Interesting, but not entirely encouraging.

There was a lot of other stuff in the article; other examples of people who did similar things to the guy quoted above. And it talks about how people are so committed to not give up on giving back to God, but I just wanted to throw that short bit out there because I knew there was no way I could get lots of people to read that artice, but I could at least get a few people to hear about in on my blog.

The article can be found at: http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-09-23-tithing-housing_N.htm

News Articles From Today - Part 1 (of 3...I think)

I read two incredibly encouraging news articles and one, not so much on USA Today's homepage today. I'll write about the first here and then separate posts for the others. The first was on retirement. It excited me and at the same time reminded me of one of the huge reasons I could no longer work in the retirement planning industry. I'll try not to mess up the details, but the jist of it is that five or six years ago a well-to-do couple (nearing retirement age) who spent money as it came in on nice cars, collectors items, and whatnot, was told by their financial advisor that they had to cut back spending so that they could retire and live the dream and settle into a "leisure life of sunscreen and lounge chairs" on a small Caribean island. They did everything he advised - they stopped spending and three years later sold everything they owned (including the nice cars, all the collectibles and their home) and moved to the Caribean - except for the last part. They decided they did not want to waste their remaining years away soaking up sun on the beach. Instead they would live simple and teach impoverished children. The story goes on to detail some of what they're doing, but the point is that they didn't buy into the crap that the American Dream means work only as long as you have to so that you can relax the rest of your life away on some beach or golf course.

I'm not articulating this very well (no surprise there) so here are the two sides of the coin:

1. It reminded me that I just couldn't, in good conscience, continue to help people stash away as much money as possible so that they could bask in the sunshine of their greed and waste away the last 10, 20 or even 30 or more years of their life doing NOTHING of any value!!! I wish I had the ability to put into words what my brain feels right now, but that short rant will have to do.

2. It is soooo encouraging to see a couple who GETS IT! It may have taken them a while, but before it was too late they realized there's more to life than a 30 year vacation to end your life on.

I guess that wasn't as inteligent and articulate a rant as I intended when I started typing...Oh well, I guess that's why I'm a coach and not a journalist...

The article can be found at: http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/retirement/2008-09-22-dream-retirement-teach-island_N.htm

Sometimes I...

Why is it so easy to put off spending time with God? Why is there always just "one more thing" to accomplish and then I'll spend time with God? Before I know it I just blew the whole day. Then it happens on another day. Then it happens on consecutive days. Then it happens for a week. Then a month. And then before I know it I haven't spent serious time with God in way too long...Then, thankfully, God reminds me that apart from the vine a branch is worthless. Attached to the vine it will bear fruit, be pruned and then become even more fruitfull. Then once I've returned to the vine and begin being nurished back to strength He reminds me of how great it is to be a part of the Body of Christ when a friend calls in need of prayer because she doesn't know how she will make it through the night on her own strength. What a blessing it is to go to the Lord on a friend's behalf. And now I sit; ready to set my laptop down, open my bible and...