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I’m finishing up sabbatical, but I’m not refreshed

21 August 2007
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“But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” – St. Paul

God gave me these words about 18 days ago, just as I was beginning my annual “sabbatical” (a 3-week “excused absence” pass from my regular ministry duties that I use for time with God, with family, with ministry mentors, and focused Bible study…it is a beautiful gift from the group of Christians I serve in Amarillo).
 
I was very excited about the discovery of this little sentence embedded in Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church. I called my good buddy and partner-in-crime Doyle Corder and shared it with him, and he was appropriately excited for me (I lose great treasures very quickly if I don’t share them with someone, Doyle often provides this gift of friendship to me).
 
Since getting this verse, I have spent 3 days with Jim Spivey, a ministry mentor of mine (I wrote in my journal that God sent me Jim Spivey to give me the view of someone that is eons ahead of me in living out what I believe). It was 3 days of relationally loving others; depending on, trusting, and expecting God to deliver life-giving revolution to us and to those we came into contact with. For those of you who made the mistake of asking me about how this time was, you know how impossible it would be for me to try to articulate it here.
 
I have also spent 7 days in Colorado with my whole family. 3 of those days was in a mountainside cabin in Estes Park, where I took in the beauty of God’s creation. 1 of those days I got to spend exclusively with my daughter Callie, and 1 with my son Shade (my son Jakin gets his day this Thursday, right before I head back to work, for those of you worried he is getting shortchanged). Bookending this trip were days with Carrie’s parents, who I got to share great times together at church, at meals, on the back porch, and around the kitchen counter (they were some of the people who asked about how my trip to Houston was). 
 
We got home last Saturday, went to church at Southwest (my home congregation, for those of you who don’t know) on Sunday morning for our “5th Grade Blessing” service where the new 6th graders are welcomed ceremonially into the youth group. Additionally, the Kindergarteners (this is new this year) are called up and prayed over as they enter the elementary group (of which my daughter Callie is one).
 
And now, I have entered into 3 days of silence and solitude with God. After being ushered into it richly and spontaneously by one of my Shepherd’s and his cool family, I have spent this morning completely alone, in another beautiful and lonely setting, praying and singing my heart out loud to God as I prepare to sit down with my Harmony of the Gospels to continue meeting with, studying, and knowing Christ.
 
As I must, I started “letting go” of all the demands and baggage that I carried into this place with me, asking God to set them all aside for me. I started laying them down, but two remained and would not die. These two would not let me go.
 
The first is the plight of a very good and dear friend of mine. He has a very compromised life…desiring above all else to live the life of Christ, but falling to the world’s life with regularity. The second is the plight of a very devoted and sincere church member. She is very convinced that her interpretation of the Bible is accurate…desiring above all else to live “Biblically”…but equating the Bible’s external “religious practices” with following Christ. She is feeling strongly enough about this to consider leaving our fellowship of followers, in no small part because of me and the “Christ alone” message I preach.
 
I love these two people very much. I believe that they have been sent to me for my good and God’s glory. I have seen Christ in both of them in unbelievable ways, and they have sharpened me as iron sharpens iron. So you can understand my feeling a sense of urgency about being with these two. But this is the common daily experience of mine. And I have been on both sides of the pendulum of “killing myself to try to meet the needs around me” and “saying no to all needs around me because it is an impossible job”. By God’s grace, and by walking with Him, I feel that I generally, but not perfectly, hit the stride of doing all that I can do, but only what I can do.
 
I hope you might understand when I say that I often feel like Paul when he says, “I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches”. Because of this, I REALLY, REALLY NEED God to take that concern away from me when I want some intimate time with Him. But today, and this is not a common experience for me in times like this, he won’t let these two plights leave me.
 
As I submitted to my concern for these two sincere followers of Christ, the verse came rushing back into my head, explaining how I feel for them: “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.“
 
I see two foes standing against “the simplicity that is in Christ”. Two enemies that would dare contend with Christ’s spirit: the religious spirit and the worldly spirit. And God blessed me with these two friend’s current situations to expose them.
 
They are outright “counterfeit life”. Why would my two friends choose them? And upon deeper reflection, why do I myself choose them? Paul gives me, at least, a general answer: because just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, our minds may be led astray from our sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Led astray to what? One of two things: religion or the world.
 
This is Satan’s genius…really.
 
The religious spirit makes a promise. “Follow me and I will give you confidence in your salvation.” In other words, follow the right religious practices (and you can be sure that they are right if you find them in your Bible) and you will be saved.
 
The worldly spirit makes a promise, too. “Follow me and I will give you fun, excitement, and ease.” In other words, do what your flesh feels like doing and chase after money, and between those two things you will have non-stop recreation and ease of life.
 
Neither promise pans out. I followed the religious patterns perfectly and I still didn’t walk with confidence of my salvation. And my older brothers and sisters who are dying speak of wondering if “they’ve done enough” after decades of accurate religious practices. I have also stepped into the world’s ways, focusing too much on money or “doing it cuz it feels good”, and while it has momentary rewards, without exception the fun, excitement and ease has attached to it troubled consequences that include dissatisfaction, guilt, and pain. Even death.
 
The worldly spirit and the religious spirit have no answers for the problems they cause.
 
Christ does. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpents cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your pure devotion to Christ.
 
Continuing this stream of thought, it occurred to me…people of the world love when a preacher preaches against “those of religion”. Equally so, people of religion love when a preacher preaches against “those of the world”. Why? Because those 2 spirits have contained within them a self-supporting animosity toward each other. Worldly people comfort themselves by seeing the legalism, irrelevance, and futility of Biblical religious practices and saying “at least I’m not like that!” Religious people comfort themselves by seeing the immorality and disregard of “Biblical” religious practices by worldly people and saying “I’m so glad I’m not like that!”
 
Wow. We really think they are on opposite sides, dramatically different from each other. When both of us need saving. Both of us have some truth, but mixed with the “serpents cunning”…our minds led away from the simplicity that is Christ.
 
To add insult to injury, both of them look at Christ and do 2 things (not usually at the same time, but when each suits them): 1) they try to call him THEIR FRIEND, appealing to his name against the other; and 2) calling them THEIR ENEMY, b/c he demands they lay down both religion and the world and follow him alone.
 
Christ comes to both of them, with tears in his eyes, and hope in his voice and says “follow me, and I will give you life to the full.” When the religious man gets sick of pretending like his practices are life to the full, and the worldly man gets sick of pretending like his practices set him free, they will lay them down, along with the serpents craftiness in their minds, and they will come to Christ.
 
Maybe the perfect combination of both of these, Biblically illustrated, is the apostle Matthew (or Levi). Levi was a Jew, no doubt practicing all the Jewish practices because he is one of “God’s people” and must do so for salvation. Levi was also a Tax Collector for the Roman government, no doubt taking such a job because it was lucrative and provided him with a life of ease. Jesus looked at Levi in the eyes and said, “follow me”. But to do so, he would soon learn, he would have to leave both the worldly spirit and the religious one. He would have to depend on Christ alone.
 
I want this for my two friends. And want this for my children. I want this for everyone in the world.
 
Okay…now I can lay all my life aside…and go spend it in the gospels with Jesus.

 
 

What is Happening to Churches of Christ

27 July 2007
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I am a preacher in a Church of Christ.
 
As such, I am a small player in the middle of a very special story. It is a story that began long, long before I arrived on this planet and will continue long after I am gone. While I am not talking about the blockbuster-mega-hit, the “story of God” unfolding, I am talking about a minor scene in that story that is often called the Restoration Movement.
 
After Christ’s death, burial, resurrection and ascension, his followers went about spreading the good news of his life, mission, heart, and work all over the known world, which caused a variety of reactions within societies, nations, religions, and individuals. The greatest reaction was the wholesale belief in this Jesus Christ, and those that did so decided to follow him (that is, his teachings, his heart, his mission). When they did, their lives would obviously change and they would speak of all kinds of internal revolution…peace, passion, joy (even in the midst of suffering), compassion, self-responsibility, freedom, forgiveness (received and given), gratitude, and more. The word that was thrown around to describe it was often the Greek word “Zoë”, that is “life”.
 
These people who followed Christ considered themselves related (“the church” being one of their titles), not by family blood, but by the blood of Jesus Christ that was shed when he was martyred because his steadfast love for people flew in the face of the human governments, religious traditions and lifeless legalisms that were being followed at the time. The love and freedom of Jesus, if followed by humanity, would take the power away from men leading those groups, and they were very used to the perks of power and the emotional securities that came from attaching their eternal salvation to their rule following.
 
Anyway, the cliff notes are: the church repeated history by getting increasingly organized and institutionalized, and then packed with human leaders who (again?!) got used to the perks of power and emotional securities that came from attaching their eternal salvation to this new “Christian” rule following. Ever since, there has been a struggle among Jesus followers to figure out the “true way” of Christ. The universal (catholic means universal) church has always had it’s true-hearted lovers of God and it’s control-freaks with in, with representatives of every degree in between. But “The Great Reformation” is the term used to describe the public and dramatic battles between and among people who were, and I use this term loosely, “in the church”. There was already a philosophical split between the East and West among the ancient Christians (Catholic in the West and Orthodox in the East), but within the Western Catholic church, a more stark and even more violent split occurred between the Catholic church and those protesting the Catholic church (called “protestants”). I will scoot quickly on to this very day by merely saying that the large group of protestors has divided and divided in the (mostly) honest pursuit of Christ’s “true way” and there are now an astronomical number of “Protestant” movements and groups of churches.
 
The Restoration Movement was and is one of those groups. It’s movements champions had little desire to be seen as the movement’s “leaders” really (I’m being gracious here, they were, after all, men). Their truest heart was sincerely that Christ be its leader. It seemed to them that every division of Protestants had their individual statements of belief (or “creeds”), and desiring to unify all believers, they proposed that we use the Bible alone as our “creed”. A beautiful and romantic idea that would hopefully lead to unity, agreement, and the fellowship of all believers.
 
While they (and I can start saying “we” now) never wrote down an individual creed, and we all had deep agreement to use the Bible as our source for discovering God’s truth, we still found ourselves dividing over how to INTERPRET the Bible. Who knew that so many men, all seeing eye to eye on using the Bible, could have so many differing opinions and interpretations based on how they didn’t see eye to eye on how to approach the Bible and plumb it’s riches? This has resulted, tragically, in countless divisions among those of us who are in The Restoration Movement. It’s over-simplifying, but generally speaking, there are three groups (Disciples of Christ, Christian Churches, & Churches of Christ) in the Restoration Movement, at least in America, and…
 
I am preacher in a Church of Christ.
 
I said all of that because I just read the very humble but observant writing of a man named Joe Beam entitled “What is Happening to Churches of Christ.” I found myself so “explained” in his birds-eye-view snapshot that I am compelled to share it with you, my friends, in hopes of 1) being more understood, and 2) helping you explain yourself. Here’s the link, if you are interested:
 
 
And if you are interested in that, you may be interested in posting your answer to this question (that will make sense to you only if you read Joe’s thoughts):
 
What group (zealots, satisfied, searching, cautious, open, exasperated) are you in?
 
One final note: For those of you, my friends, who haven’t the slightest idea about what Joe and I are speaking of, don’t bother learning about our church history…only learn about Christ…his heart, his mission, his priorities, his character…his life. That’s what we are trying to do.

The Same and Different

24 July 2007
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“What do you and I have in common?” – a great question from King David
 
“Rich and poor have this in common: The LORD is the Maker of them all.” – Old Proverb 
“No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.” – St. Paul
 

“When you can find yourself, no matter how difficult or inconvenient or painful the search, in every other human being alive, you will love like Christ.” – Yours truly
 
 
On the surface and superficial level of existence, every single person is brilliantly different. Beautifully different skin tones, facial features, hair colors, ages, postures, and so much more make the company of mankind a constantly moving, creative, and visual work of art. At this level, we are each and every one different.
 
Go a level deeper, and you will find the social and cultural level of existence. There are thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of these, but since they are communal in nature (that is, each one is shared by a group of people), there is a level of “sameness” with in each group, and a level of “difference” between each group. It is fascinating to go across national borders, continental boundaries, or just “across the tracks” to explore and experience the different societal norms and group assumptions. At this level, we are the same as some people, and different from others.
 
Go a level deeper, and there is the personality level of existence. You know those personality surveys? They expose, in a useful (if generic) fashion, the existence of different “personality traits”. While no one knows for sure how many of these there are (it ranges from 4 to 16, generally, on the tests that I am aware of…but even they acknowledge an infinite amount of ‘range possibilities’). However, broadly speaking, you and I could both be explained by our personality makeup (at least a little bit). At this level, we are the same as some people and different from others.
 
All of the levels leading up to this one, more or less, happen TO people (in other words, you don’t choose what race, society, or personality you are born into). But go a level deeper, the preference and behavior level of existence, and you cross a line into the realm of our “ability to choose”. Admittedly, our preferences and behaviors are shaped by the other levels, but we are not stuck with them. Our preferences are ours to alter. Our behaviors are ours to transform. We only need to stop explaining (or excusing) ourselves based on our superficial, societal, and personality differences, and instead start understanding ourselves through the deepest, common level of existence.
 
I think the Bible would call it the heart level. Here, in this the deepest realm of humanity, we are all the same. We have the same needs, desires, wants, longings, and cares…things like freedom, care, acceptance, wholeness, happiness, joy, peace, hope. All of these have “love” as their root, and while they are all fulfilled and manifested in different ways at the superficial level (based in large part to society and personality differences), you will be able to recognize them (or people striving to achieve them) when you view things from the heart.
 
The heart – this is the level that Christ is trying to get to. This is the level at which healing and restoration and reconciliation takes place. This is the home of forgiveness, both the given and accepted kind. It is here, within the human being, that the Kingdom (or ‘rule’) of Heaven is located. This is the level that, when it is touched by Christ, behavior and preferences get transformed into his very own image.
 
And this happens regardless of our personality differences, cultural differences, and superficial differences.
 
When a group of people’s hearts are like Christ’s heart, Christ will express his “heart-level-sameness” in an infinite amount of “surface-level” ways. It is beautiful chemistry! It is like the working of the human body, each part different superficially, but all made up of the same stuff…bone, skin, blood, cartilage…and all connected to the same head (and heart).
 
May our churches become home to ever-widening ranges of superficial, cultural, and personality differences. And may that happen because our churches are of Christ…going for the salvation of every life and heart…the kind that we all commonly need.
 
Is this right? Is there a level at which humans can make assumptions about humans, speaking with compassion and authority to one another there, because at that level we are all the same?
 

"How" to experience God

19 July 2007
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An “On Becoming Truer” subscriber asks, “I long for an intimate relationship with God. But for over 20 years now, I have struggled with HOW.  Yes, I am saved.  But from that day – no one has ever been able to really explain how to build on it.  What to do after the baptism.  I have asked friends, fellow church-goers, and ministers.  They only say “read the bible” or start in “the gospels, read a little each day” and pray. I can’t tell you how many devotionals and Bible lessons I have had through the years. How many times I’ve “set aside” time to spend in the Bible – only to find myself just sitting there wondering “now what?” I need more explanation.”

 

This is the million dollar question, isn’t it? How? How do I develop true oneness with God? I have probably answered this question for myself and for others a dozen different ways…each one depending on my stage of life, experiences to that point, and understanding of God. I appreciate the question, not so much because I can answer it, but because it allows me to see how my answer has changed. I expect it to change more, but here is my current answer to the question, “How do I experience deeper oneness with God?”
 
The feeling of oneness and closeness with God requires: 
 
Expectation – When you read, live, pray, go to work, interact with family, friends, strangers…I have found that the expectation that God is interacting with me is necessary for the interactions to be seen, felt, heard or noticed in anyway. My experience is that this expectation is something I have had to first believe in, then cultivate into something I am regularly/constantly aware of, then remembering because I am always being opposed in the noticing.
 
Relationships – The most important command, Jesus said, is to love God and love others. How much of your life can be explained or justified by these two priorities? Which part of your life (including religious/spiritual activities like Bible reading, prayer, or service) is not in service to the relational agenda of God? Honestly, I don’t want any activity in any part of my day to not be in subjection to my hearts purpose of loving God or loving others. I think this alignment with the command that Jesus said all the Bible hangs on gives us a lens through which to read the Bible.
 
Transformation – What is the ultimate purpose of God for me personally? Outside of my eternal life with Him after my death, what is the life He wants for me now? It is Christ. He wants to transform me into the image of Jesus Christ. He is after my spirit, my heart, my attitudes, my behaviors, my priorities, and my mission. God is making me more like Christ every day. Tuning in to this sends me to the Bible, to the people in my life, and to the circumstances that come my way looking for Jesus with wide and eager eyes!
 
The ideal of becoming like Christ is the highest one available to human being. It is a constant adventure, and you are always in the middle of the perfect circumstances through which to be shaped, because of how good and focused God is on this end.
 
The intimacy required, with God and your fellow man, will demand all the love available to you supernaturally through God’s Holy Spirit. “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you,” our teacher and rabbi says. Summoning forth the vulnerability before God and before those He sends your way is inner work. Contemplating (as opposed to “studying” or “reading”) the implications of Jesus’ teachings will take you to the thresholds of human possibility, confront your unbelief, and demand faith to go farther.
 
That leads to depth. The great change in my life was the focus on depth, not breadth. I’m not interested in learning more stuff about the Bible as much as I am interesting in understanding and assimilating and becoming the stuff that I have already learned. I’m not as interested in more people being “in my church” as much as I am interested in the people “in my church” taking their next step into Christlikeness. I’m not as interested doing more stuff in my Christian service as I am in doing less stuff more deeply. I believe that the focus on depth can lead to breadth, if God deems it, but that the focus on breadth steals depth.
 
In summary…I don’t know what you call them: ideas, priorities, values, beliefs, attitudes, practices…maybe all of the above. But I do know that these ideas help me to come alive in God…idealistic expectations, intimate relationships, transformational depth.   
 
With all of that, let me end by saying that all of it is grace. If the Lord wills, I will feel His presence. All the spiritual discipline and attitudes in the world, perfectly practiced by the most sincere and devoted soul, without God’s grace, accomplishes nothing productive at all.
 
May God give His grace. 

Lament for Conner…and all of us

18 July 2007
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A while back I wrote about my friend who suddenly lost his middle school son in a car wreck that the whole family was in. Below is a gut wrenching piece from him that reflects the depths of both suffering and faith available to us as men. Don’t read it if you expect fluffy platitudes about life with God.
 

Lament For Connor

 

That ugly scar of fresh turned earth

Holds tight my broken son whose worth

The world will never know. And I

Turn stricken face to steely sky

And ask a question that will start

Fresh groaning from a broken heart .

Where were you, God, on that dark road

When violence took what I adored

And crushed him? Did You see her shock,

Her wailing, kissing bloody locks?

Did You stand by with folded arm

Or with Your finger cause this harm?

What did I do to make you mad?

If this is love I’ve more than had

Enough. How can I speak of You

To foes when this is what you do

To friends? I’m worn out now and just

Begun to walk the path I must.

Yet I have nowhere left to turn

For hope or joy. I cannot learn

Another voice than first I knew

And trusted. Were they true,

The promises you made to me?

Can I full trust what I can’t see?

I know that my Redeemer lives.

I know a Sovereign takes and gives.

I am a blind and broken man,

So I will hold on while I can

For now. Is grace enough to keep?

Until we see Your face, I weep.

 

I’m eternally grateful to my friend Tod for sharing his suffering. For those of us who know him, we know him to have a gift of insight and truth. That he continues to apply those gifts regardless of the circumstances of his life doesn’t surprise me at all. He has been chosen from among us to be an exhibit of God’s glory, and I mourn with him that it is in such dramatic fashion. Blessed are the people who have been chosen for lesser shows, and count it only God’s grace if you are one them, created for the lesser trials and displays. Only give yourself over to the pain of others so that you can better know God’s love and consolation through them, and they through you.

 

Jesus said that his yoke is easy and his burden is light, and that it is for those who are weary and heavy laden. How easy it is to believe such a claim when all is light and airy around us, our outward circumstances providing us with ease. But finding his deeper meaning can only come with the shadow’s descent, the dark clouds hovering, the very ground under feet pulled away.

 

Pray for my friend that, he find it. He will.

 

 

Five Things I Dig about Jesus

5 July 2007
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I was invited by a fellow blogger (http://this-walk.blogspot.com) to be the next in a growing group of people being asked to make a list of 5 things they like about Jesus.

An impossible task…only 5 things…but here is my feeble attempt and reducing the irreducible.

That he reveals to me what God is like. I have found within me an unstoppable desire to know what the Cause of all things is like. In my humanity, I am deer-in-the-headlights afraid to know, but also drowning-in-the-ocean in need of knowing. And the second motivation always wins out over the first. I would stop and listen (and have) to anyone who audaciously claimed to know what God is like, helpless to at least consider their claims. But in Jesus, I have found someone who claims not just to know what he is like, but to be what he is like. This is either sheer arrogance or honest truth. For reasons way to many to list here, I have decided on the latter. I have found in Jesus both that I need not be afraid of God, and that fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. And I love that about Jesus. He reveals to me what God is like.

His uncompromising idealism. Ideals are what inspire people. People must react to ideals. There is something inherent about ideals that make people “want to believe” or “need to discredit”. Jesus presents some simple ideals that transcend everything – all ideas, concepts, structures, or systems. Anything purely good about anything I have ever found or seen all stem from Christ’s ideals (even if the thing it’s contained in is anti-Christ). His ideals are different than any I have found, because they can be lived out regardless of the circumstances that human beings find themselves in. His ideals are matters of the heart. Ideals are the stuff of believers, and while they require the oftentimes-hard-to-find “belief” to be lived out, that belief is the sum total of what you need to discover that they are the fabric of abundant life itself. That’s why Jesus said that “the work of God is this: to believe.”  Jesus is the most idealistic thinker and teacher ever known, and additionally, he lives out his ideals perfectly as a human to show that “idealistic” is not the opposite of “realistic”. I love him for that.

His inexhaustible depth. – I can’t seem to stop learning about Christ. I can’t seem to plumb the limits of his teaching, his example, or his person. And it is pure joy because going deeper into Jesus’ life is not simply an academic exercise for me. I get bored quickly when increasing in mere knowledge, but I get life when increasing in knowledge that transforms my character in ways that have real and practical effect in my life and the lives of those around me at a heart level. And learning about the heart, character, priorities, and mission of Christ does just that. “The Kingdom of God is within you,” Jesus says. So the idea of “Kingdom growth” is the idea of me growing inwardly. It’s effect, to be sure, is seen outwardly, but make no mistake…it was inward transformation that brought it about if it was real and permanent. “Abide in me,” Jesus says. This is no static thing. There is no action you can take that would allow you to check this command off the list of things to do in a lifetime, moving on to the next. Abiding in Christ is the last decision you will ever sincerely make, because you will never finish. This is far from discouraging! On the contrary, I am ever-grateful! As I prepared for my first skydive, my instructor explained why he had jumped over 800 times so far in his life by saying, “I skydived, and it was the greatest thing I’d ever done. Let me ask you: If you could do the greatest thing you’ve ever done, AGAIN…would you? And what price would you be willing to pay?” Amen. Meeting and knowing Jesus Christ is the greatest thing I’ve ever done. So I love his inexhaustible depth because I get to do the greatest thing I’ve ever done again and again.

His unabashed, unashamed, courageous offer of intimacy. – Another one of those things I find myself helplessly needing is to “be known”. I enjoy “knowing” (see my first item above), but I am also compelled to be fully known. Now, while I believe God created us this way from the very beginning, putting us in the garden with unhindered intimacy with Himself and with each other, I must admit to a combination of insecurities that drive me. I’m insecure about my motives. I want them to be pure and purified where they are not, but I know I can fool myself, so I want to be fully known so that I have accountability and witnesses, so to speak. I’m also insecure about my methods. I’ve been told that I have some creativity to me, but I don’t want to do something because it’s clever, rather because it’s meaningful and effects things for good. Being fully known by others gives affirmation and input in how I go about making a difference in the world. There are other reasons, I’m sure. But whatever my reasons for wanting intimate community, Jesus Christ delivers it. And he does so in two unbelievable ways: (1) he instructs me in how to make and maintain intimate friendships among my fellow human beings. That being: share everything. Jesus said to his disciples, who started as his students and servants, “I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.”). They are his friends, he says, because he has shared everything he has learned from God. That’s how I make friends, too. But he doesn’t stop with mere instructions on how to have intimacy among men, but (2) also among the Godhead. This is the crown of crowns in my heart! He offers to me the very intimacy that He and God share, and the friendship that my heart longs for, and doesn’t dare believe available or possible. Jesus offers intimacy with God! Jesus prays, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me.“ I am undone! He fully knows me and my ability to manipulate myself into mistakenly thinking that I have some measure of goodness, he knows the double-sided, self-serving nature of my “good ideas” to benefit and love “the world” and he loves me still. No one satisfies my desire for intimacy like Jesus. I can not speak of my undying gratitude and love for Jesus because of this.

He shows me how to live the best possible life available to a human being…and gives it to me freely. What can I say? I wish I could say that my followership of Jesus was strictly motivated by my obligation to pay him back after what he has sacrificed for me. I wish I could say that my followership of Jesus was based on faith alone that I will have Heaven – unstoppable bliss – after this hard life is over. I wish I could say that my followership of Jesus was out of my pure and unselfish desire for those around me to know Jesus, up to and including my enemies. And while I can say that all three of those things are absolute motivations within my heart, there is another reason that I follow Jesus Christ that really feels somewhat selfish and self-serving and pertains to my current life in this present age and has little to do with his unmatchable sacrifice for my sins. And that is this: I can find no better way to live. There is not a life that is more satisfying, joy-full, or peace-producing available to me than the life of becoming more and more like him. There is nothing that feels safer or more dangerous…and I need a full measure of both for abundant life. If I want a life of passion, purpose, love, and abundance…I have no other alternative than the life of the Kingdom. The life of the cross. The life of Christ.

Show much to say, no words to adequately say it. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, God. Thank you.

The Message of Paradox

28 June 2007
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“The Bible’s riches and comforts can not be exhausted from a single viewing platform. A quick trip to the moon would render an understanding of the planet earth that walking upon it’s crust does not offer, as would another trip to the bottom of the ocean. Without this understanding, the Bible is an impossible document to understand, follow, or offer up as useful to anyone in the pursuit of the abundant life. Additionally, the understanding that it has your introduction to Jesus Christ as it’s primary purpose and reason is essential for it to produce any life that is lasting in you at all.” – Yours Truly
 
And it is the paradox I find in Scripture that makes this so unspeakably clear, and sets me so unconditionally free. Paradox, such as:
 
I am obligated to carry your burden (Gal 6:2) and to teach you to take care of your own burdens (Gal 6:5).
I am to not grow weary in doing good (Gal 6:9) and understand that none are good (Rom 3:12).
I am to know that all sin and fall short (Rom 3:23) and that all are to be perfect (Matt 5:48).
I am told that Jesus was without sin (Heb 4:25) and that he learned obedience and was made perfect (Heb 5:8).
I am told that the Law was good for us (Rom 7:12) and that the Law was against us (Col 2:14).
I know that all sin is forgivable (Matt 12:31) and that there is unforgivable sin (Matt 12:31).
I know that all things are attributable to God (1 Tim 6:15) and that not all things are attributable to God (James 1:13).
I know God can do what I want (Mark 14:36) and that it is not about God doing what I want (Mark 14:36).
Lying is absolutely wrong (Col 3:9) and lying can be used in faith (Heb 11:31).
 
All of these statements, a small sampling of paradox in Scripture, are true. They must be seen from different vantage points to be understood. This is hard a hard teaching for the young and for those who grow old finding security only in the black-and-white.
 
But for the mature, it unlocks layer upon layer of truer truth and spiritual guidance in Scripture, and holds the promise for never-ending exploration and discovery right there between the covers of the Good Book.
 
And so goes my relationship with Jesus Christ.
 
 
 

That’s Just the Way I Am

27 June 2007
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“You have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.“ – Paul, to the Colossians
 
“That’s just they way I am.” – Humanity
 
“Followers of Christ are constantly transforming right before your very eyes. That’s just the way we are.” – Yours Truly
 
The most fantastic people I know are the ones who have forsaken all, and continue to forsake all at ever-increasing depths, to become more like Jesus Christ.
 
Regardless of their starting point (family of origin issues, bodily physical conditions, habit inclinations, genetic programmings, tragic events, epic mistakes, race, nationality, sex, religious upbringing), all the most incredible people have decided to be annihilated by the love of God and consider it all loss for the sake of the singular vision of becoming more like Christ in heart.
 
Regardless of their gift sets (academic aptitude, physical prowess, contemplative inclinations, social dexterity, athletic competence), all of the most amazing people are glad to leave them undeveloped or obliterated for the greater life of moving ever closer to the patterns of thinking and doing exhibited and embodied by Jesus Christ.
 
Regardless of their personality traits (talkative or quiet, thinking or feeling, confrontive or submissive, ENFP or ISTJ, Beaver or Otter, love-to-read or hate-to-read, risky or cautious, detail-oriented or big-picture,Type A or B, High D, I, S, or C), they are glad to have their peculiarities, uniqueness and distinctiveness obliterated for their desire above all things to lose themselves in the life of Christlikeness.
 
It is a wise man who gives up the things that make him foolish in the eyes of man for the greater qualities of Christ and all the peace and joy found in them.
 
Wiser still is the man who gives up the things that make him look special and set apart from other men, in which he is so helplessly inclined to find both his value and excuses, for the greater and universally accessible image of our Creator.
 
“For Christ-followers, there is no excusing or explaining yourself with the phrase, ‘that’s just the way I am’. There is only one ‘I Am’, and we are to all being restored into Him.” – My version of a Don Stone quote that my friend Debra Schardein thinks she remembers him saying

The Bible

24 June 2007
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“The holy Scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.“ – Paul, to his disciple Timothy

“I adore the fullness of the Scriptures.” – Tertullian

“We must not rest content with having given a superficial reading to a chapter or two, but with the candle of the Spirit we must deliberately seek out the hidden meaning of the word.” – Charles Spurgeon

Long have I romanticized the picture of the old sage pouring over the cracked and ancient pages filled with some words of old. There is something mysterious and attractive about it to me. Something wise. 

Gandalf, in the first of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, upon the discovery that the magic ring of invisibility of his old friend Bilbo was actually the famous, long lost and evil “Ring of Power”, rode urgently off to the the old city of Gondor to a basement in the White Castle filled with volumes and volumes of old leather bound books and stacks of dusty-but-preserved parchments and scrolls. Records of history and stories of old. He went to diligently find out about the past so that he might understand the present, and also the future that was constantly rolling towards him. He needed guidance. He needed more information. He needed context for the story he and the cast of characters around him found themselves in.

Something in me likes this kind of scene best when much is at stake. Not mere academic exercise. Not just the practice of increasing knowledge as if knowledge has value in the mere having of it. I like it best when much is at stake, and the careful and diligent “study of things” is going to help shape things, people, and actions in a story where life and death is at stake.

The Bible is the centerpiece of a library that I have created. I have invested in quite a few old books, parchments, and papyrus that give me the “feel” (superficial as it may be) of that romantic picture as I long for deeper wisdom that can only come from the knowledge and stories and experiences of many men’s lifetimes combined, which can be found abundantly in those men’s books. I dare say the most influential stories and men and experiences, at least for me, are recorded in the Bible…I would not ever be without it for as long as it is in my power to choose.

The Bible is saturated with layers and layers of wisdom and profound, life-giving truth. It claims it to be true itself, which would in and of itself not be proof, by my experience has verified it. One simple verse from the wealth of it’s thousands can contain dozens of different, profound lessons, each hidden one becoming accessible to a man only when he takes a new step of personal growth. With maturation, another layer of ancient truth may come surging forth from the same familiar verse that he has read hundred’s of times. And this experience can happen dozens of times in his lifetime.

The Bible requires reading, of course. But it also requires searching’s. Not mere researching, but searching’s. The sort of searching’s you would expect from a hunter tracking his prey, a mother looking for her lost child, a buyer looking for the best price, a drug addict looking for his next fix, a lawyer looking for precedent, a pilgrim looking for a homeland, a woman looking for a husband, a teenager looking for an adrenaline rush, an activist looking for a worthy cause, the hungry looking for a survival meal, a batter looking for a hit, a failure looking for consolation, a child playing hide-and-seek with his dad at home, and like a soldier looking for his enemy, or for his comrade, or for his backup, or for his weapon, or for a medic after being wounded, or for his chopper-ride out of enemy territory. All of these and more are samplings of the “searching’s” that would reap great and varied rewards out of the Good Book.

There are countless ways to approach and search scripture. And we should dedicate our lives to exhausting them all. The Bible has milk for the maturing and meat for the mature. It’s fullness will never be exhausted by the comprehensive study of all mankind who have and will invest in it. The Bible will repay the searcher. And when a man leaves the simple and rational study of it (appropriate for the beginner) and opens his heart to being guided by the Spirit as he reads, hold on! That man, who knows the Scriptures, and then is instilled with the power of God behind him as he reads will identify truer truths than he has yet been allowed. Did not Jesus distinguish this when he said, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.” The Scriptures are but one glorious thing – knowable to man through study, and the power of God quite another glorious thing – knowable to man only through the Spirit of God. This man will start encountering new treasures and not just old. As Jesus said, “Therefore every teacher of the law who has been instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” The study of the Law as law renders great treasures of old, but when he is then reading it from the perspective of Christ’s Kingdom (let the hearer understand)…he will see dimensions and levels of truth unseeable to him before!

Do you think smartest among the Jews of old read the Law of Moses and understood that he was writing about Jesus Christ? I fear not, for even when Jesus showed up right in front of the Jews he had to instruct them,“If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me.”

Sad are the days when people try to read the Bible and only see great stories, guiding principles, convicting rebukes, or paths to salvation (all treasures, make no mistake) and miss the person of Jesus Christ (the Treasure that all treasures endeavor to point us to). Sad indeed are the people who only find salvation for their souls upon their death through Jesus’ blood and miss out on the friendship of Jesus Christ available in this life.

Jesus is a sweet friend. A powerful lord. A compassionate forgiver. An exacting King. An intimidating presence. A disarming servant. A brother-at-arms and mighty in battle. A smiling companion. A sincere guide. A disciplining father. And a right-in-the-nick-of-time savior.

The Bible tells me so.

 

 

 

The Greek word here rendered search signifies a strict, close, diligent, curious search, such as men make when they are seeking gold, or hunters when they are in earnest after game. We must not rest content with having given a superficial reading to a chapter or two, but with the candle of the Spirit we must deliberately seek out the hidden meaning of the word. Holy Scripture requires searching–much of it can only be learned by careful study. There is milk for babes, but also meat for strong men. The rabbis wisely say that a mountain of matter hangs upon every word, yea, upon every title of Scripture. No man who merely skims the book of God can profit thereby; we must dig and mine until we obtain the hid treasure. The door of the word only opens to the key of diligence. The Scriptures claim searching. They are the writings of God, bearing the divine stamp and imprimatur– who shall dare to treat them with levity? He who despises them despises the God who wrote them. God forbid that any of us should leave our Bibles to become swift witnesses against us in the great day of account. The word of God will repay searching. God does not bid us sift a mountain of chaff with here and there a grain of wheat in it, but the Bible is winnowed corn–we have but to open the granary door and find it. Scripture grows upon the student. It is full of surprises. Under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, to the searching eye it glows with splendor of revelation, like a vast temple paved with wrought gold, and roofed with rubies, emeralds, and all manner of gems. No merchandise like the merchandise of Scripture truth. Lastly, the Scriptures reveal Jesus: “They are they which testify of Me.” No more powerful motive can be urged upon Bible readers than this: he who finds Jesus finds life, heaven, all things. Happy he who, searching his Bible, discovers his Savior.

Where are they?

20 June 2007
Comments (2)
“I have found David son of Jesse a man after my own heart; he will do everything I want him to do.“ –  God
 
 
Where are these people?
 
Who has God found among us who is after His own heart?
 
Who can He boast about, someone who will do everything He wants him to do…
    ...regardless of the cost and consequences?
    ...without taking a knee to the obstacles?
    ...resolved, finally and steadfastly?
 
Where are the BELIEVERS?
 
I don’t know who God was talking to when He said these words about David. But I think He was bragging. Oh, sure, I think He was being factual and accurate. I think He was being practical, too…giving power and influence and rule to a man who’s motives and intent line up with His own for His people. But I think he was primarily bragging. You know how God is about His own glory (He is the only being existing that can be self-promoting and it be a gift to everyone). He was showing off His own greatness through the trust, priorities, heart, and love of David as seen through his dog-gone, sold-out, signed-on commitment to followership of this God Yahweh.
 
Can God find David’s heart, one that is like His own heart, in a man today?
 
Please, Lord, grant me the grace that it be me. Grant me the grace that it be my wife. My children. My church family. Please, Lord, forge me and mine into quality that You would be able to point at our hearts and brag to all the authorities and hosts of all of your creation. Bring Your Kingdom in all it’s authority to bear over your church on all the earth, and instill in us the heart of David, Your own heart, a heart that will show off your glory and light throughout the cosmos.
 
It is not that this heart is unavailable to me, or you. It’s that we don’t believe it’s attainable. Well that’s the problem, folks. The only one really. We don’t believe. And that’s the work, too. To believe. That’s it.
 
“The work of God is this: to believe in Jesus.” – Jesus
 
Let’s admit it. Most of us know what we need to do, have the time to do it, understand that the real answer to “how” is “yes”, have the Resources to pull it off, know that more abundant life is the result…yet, we don’t pull the trigger. We don’t count the cost. We don’t keep our eyes open. We don’t accept responsibility. We don’t surrender to God’s power. We just don’t BELIEVE.
 
I love you, Father. Make me like the Son of David. Make me like Christ. I believe…forgive my unbelief.
 
 
 
 

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