Life Lessons

Again time has slipped by as I intend to write more than I have recently. I like to attribute this to the fact that my mental fucntions are greatly reduced by the time I am home from work however I am sure some would argue about the existence of my mental functions in the first place.

The last two years have been really tough on our family. I would have to say it has been the roughest period that we have gone through in our 18 years of marriage. It is not our marriage itself, that is stronger than ever but the loss of a ministry position and the cancer fight my mother-in law is battling has put us in a position of complete vulnerability where we have had no choice but to rely on God. I think the most difficult thing for me is the unknowns and lets face it, when you are in a position of only being able to trust God it can be a big unknown. Walking by faith not by sight takes the control out of our hands and places it with the Creator and that is never fun or easy. Between my wife and I we like to know and be in control it feels safe and more secure. Jesus exemplifies this when he appeals to the his father while praying in the garden. He asks that if it be possible that this cup may be removed from him yet he is firm in is trust, yielding to God's will and not his own.

Personally, the hardest part about God's will is when you are not sure what the next step of the journey will be. We have gone through phases where we accepted the idea of moving to take a ministry only to have the door shut. Then coming full circle to not being sure we are supposed to move from Crawfordsville or not. Sometimes trusting in him and seeking only his will is not a matter of a revelation of his will but a series of roadblocks that or merely there to re-direct us on the journey. It is not an easy journey when you are in a two year lesson on learning to trust.

Jesus In The Flesh

We have finished up all the holidays and put the decorations away.  As I have thought back to December and the accounts of the birth of Jesus, one of the things that keeps coming back to my mind is the idea of God in the flesh.  I think a lot of people kind of gloss over the human part of Jesus as if he was some kind of super-human.  He was God and he did have the spirit dwelling in him but he also felt the same human things we feel.  It makes me wonder if he struggled with confidence like I do.  I know he felt hunger the same as I would if I fasted in the wilderness for 40 days.  It just seems as if we glorify the human side of Jesus to be less human... almost more of a superman who can leap buildings with a single bound.  Luke notes after Jesus was tempted Satan left him until an opportune time.  Just like us, Jesus was tempted at other times even though they are not necessarily recorded.   It makes me think that Jesus felt many of the same things that I do.

The Slippery Slope to Liberalism

I have started a new book called Pagan Christianity by Frank Viola and George Barna.  It is a look at many of the traditions that today's church upholds and the history of how they came to be.  Many of them have come from non-christian or non-biblical backgrounds.  Today I remembered a remark that was told to me in a previous ministry when we felt the need to remove the pulpit and move the communion table to alleviate congestion on the stage.  I was told that we were heading down the slippery slope to liberalism by moving these two "religious icons".  The ironic thing is that neither item appears in the New Testament and they were not fixtures in the in the first century church.  Communion tables are derivatives from the alter that was put in place around the fourth century when Christianity became the official religion of Rome.  John Calvin took the alter and made it a communion table in the mid 1500's.  He is also the one that instituted the concept of serving communion to the people as they were seated in the pews.  It strikes me as funny that I would be considered liberal and yet moving the pulpit and communion table really made us a little closer to the first century church.  Wouldn't that make me more conservative?

Looking to Jesus

Perhaps it is due to the "holiday" season or just where my brain matter happens to be focused these last few days but I have decided to take a look at the life of Christ again.  One of the thoughts that has spurred this is the idea of becoming a better Jesus follower and I can't think of a better way to do it than to take a closer look at who Jesus was when he walked this earth in flesh and blood. (I think that was a pretty good run on sentence but it is my blog so I can do that!) :)

From the get go in chapter two there is the image of the "king of the Jews" being called the shepherd of his people.  The imagery depicts the king, the highest and most powerful person in the land in the role of the lowest profession, a shepherd.  As I think about the prophetic verses in Matthew 2 quoted from Micah 5 "for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel."  The implications of this is a kind and gentle person who cares for and looks after those he is entrusted to.  There is a toughness that lies underneath as one who protects his own when danger approaches.

How does this apply to me?  To be kind and gentle to those I come in contact with.  To protect, teach, and at times correct those who are entrusted to me whether my family or those I minister to.  Sometimes this is easy and other times it is much more difficult.   I think this shepherd concept of Jesus is really  summed up in the fruits of the spirit particularly love, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control.   

Lessons Learned

I found this blog post by Chris Bell, pastor at Woolridge Road Church.  I wish that more leaders and pastors would follow this advice.  It would save a lot of time and energy not to mention massive amounts of discouragements.  Here are some lessons Chris has learned as a lead pastor.

1. Don’t assume the few numb skulls who are unreasonably giving you grief represent the masses… they don’t!  People who are negative, critical, or attacking always act and talk like they represent the majority… they don’t… or you would be hearing from the majority.  Most of the silent masses gets your vision and are headed that way.  Don’t give unearned weight and credit to the numb skulls!

2. Remember God called YOU - specifically - to where you are for this season.  He didn’t call them to pastor your church.  Make mistakes, own up to them, and move on… and don’t let anyone make you focus all your time, energy, or emotions on their agenda.  Even the worst pastor does more right than wrong - don’t get that turned around!

3. Remember who you work for!!! Who goes into ministry for the pay?  The prestige?  We go into this work because God makes it impossible for us to do anything else.  That means HE is the one whom you have to impress, please, and work for… no one else!

4. DO NOT feel like you have to respond, fix, or reply to every nasty comment, snide remark, or “critique”.  Do you chase down the guy who flips you the bird on the highway and feel compelled to make sure he likes you?  Is ok with you?  NO!!!  So why feel unsettled if some in the church do not like you - often that means that your vision/strategy is clear.  Some folks will not like you - ministry is not for people pleasers!!!

A Matter of the Heart

I have really grown to love the book of Amos.  It is such an obscure little book located in the latter books of the Old Testament.  As I read through chapter 5, in the midst of all the warnings comes a promise.  Simply stated in verse 4, "Now this is what the Lord says to the family of Israel, 'Come back to me and live!' " The following verses command Israel to give up various named idols and return to the Lord who created the stars and draws up the water from the oceans and pours it out as rain.  As I continued on in the chapter we come to verse 21 where the Lord says "I hate all your show and pretense--the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies... away with your hymns of praise! They are only noise to my ears."  

When I read this (and I have many times) I begin to understand that God wants our desires and affections to be about him.  It is no accident that the early part of the chapter is urging Israel away from worshiping idols.  God wants us to want him... the phrase still echoes "Come back to me and live!"  I have wondered many times God has hated our show and pretense in our worship of him.  When our thoughts, desires, focus, or our very hearts are elsewhere in our "solemn assemblies" of Sunday church is he saying this to each one of us?

In my past worship ministry, a comment was made to me by the senior minister about "being in a position to have the best music in town".  It should have greatly concerned me at the time but didn't because it was clearly desirable to my former employer that we could be in that position.  As I think back I wonder if God was dissatisfied because the desire was for more than just him.  Being in his presence and worshiping wasn't enough.  It had to be good, maybe the best, certainly perfect and definitely mistake free when all God is asking for is just us, just me, and just you.  No show or pretense, no arrogance or ego, just me giving my all, heart, soul, mind, and strength in worship of him.  Nothing else.  In Amos 5 the idols of the day are specifically mentioned.  What are our idols that takes away our hearts.  What is it that makes our "worship" merely show and pretense?  It certainly comes down to a matter of the heart when all God wants is for us to turn away from our idols and come back to him.

Seeking The God Moments... Being a True Seeker

In the last few years there have been numerous writings published on the concept of "Seekers".  We have churches that have completely geared themselves towards those who are outside of the traditional walls and ideals of the church.  This week I had read a section from the writings of Brother Lawrence in The Practice of the Presence of God.  Here is a bit of the passage that caught my attention:

"I worshipped Him the oftenest I could, keeping my mind in His holy presence and recalling it as often as I found it wandered from Him. I made this my business not only at the appointed times of prayer but all the time; every hour, every minute, even in the height of my work. I drove from my mind everything that interrupted my thoughts of God."

It hit me this morning that we have our terminology all wrong.  We call those who are outside of Christ "seekers" but we don't refer to those who are solidly in Christ as seekers.  Maybe because as a seasoned believer in Christ we think that we have already "made it" and so we don't seek his presence nearly as often as we should.  

Three hundred years ago Brother Lawrence was an uneducated lay cook in a French Monastery and yet he discovered a way to enjoy a profound if not continuous awareness of God.  He never stopped seeking and his desire was to think about and to be aware of God's presence at all times.

"Can we keep that contact with God all the time?  All the time awake, fall asleep in his arms, and awaken in his presence?  Can we attain that? Can we do his will all the time?  Can I bring the Lord back into my mind-flow every few seconds so that God shall always be in my mind?  I choose to make the rest of my life an experiment in answering that question"  Frank Laubach

In stead of referring to the unchurched as seekers, as a Jesus follower I should endeavor to be called a seeker and pray to have an unquenchable hunger for God's presence.