God Waits to be Wanted

Yesterday I was sitting with my wife over something at Timmy’s.  After 27 years of marriage I still relish the chance to sit across from her over coffee or a meal and look into her eyes and connect.  It is pretty easy just to have an arrangement called marriage where we each do what we do every day but we don’t actually take the time to really look into each other’s eyes and talk and connect and really see each other.  It is something that we really need to with intent, otherwise there is a drift.  This is true of every relationship that matters.  If there isn’t eye to eye talk then something profound is missing.

But if Sandra and I didn’t really want to connect over a coffee or meal then it wouldn’t happen.  Even after a 27 year marriage and the choice we made to choose each other there has to be a daily choice.

My relationship with Jesus is the same.  If I want to get to know Him I can.  He knows me.  I am his creation and his son.  He knit me together in my mother’s womb.  He has loved me with an everlasting love.  But in the craziness of life I can run like some robot and not stop and say, “Good morning.”  He is there at the same time as my cup of coffee.  But he sits there, patiently waiting for me to acknowledge Him.  He’s a gentleman.  He’s not gonna demand my attention.  He wants me to know His Spirit is with me.

Yesterday Sandra and I could have just looked at our phones, as I see so many couples doing in restaurants and I’m thinking, “Why are you wasting good money on eating out with each other while all you’re doing is looking at your damnable phone.” Please.  Instead of that we all need to grab each other’s eyes and really look into each other’s souls and see how we’re doing and see what our needs and even our wants are.

It is a good idea to get know Jesus personally.  To get up and say, ‘Good morning” and tell Him, “whatever you want me to do today help me do that.”  He’s got plans for us every day.  He’s got people he wants us to love on.  He said, “Call to me and I will answer you and show you amazing things you didn’t even know about.’  I want to know things about life and God that I didn’t know before.  He is waiting there with a treasure trove of love and wisdom that he wants to share with me.

If I want it.   If I want Him. His word is a crazy cool thing.  Looking into His eyes through the Bible can be so rewarding if we really, really read it with intent.

These two verses alone made my day this morning:  “Why should I fear in times of trouble?  My foes surround me but I don’t need to worry about them.  They are trusting in their wealth and power but my trust is in God who saved me.  He bought me back from slavery with His own blood.”

That is chicken dinner for my soul right there.  God was waiting there for me to know that this morning.  He was just waiting to tell me that.

I’m glad He did.

Coming Apart to be Put Back Together

“God allows us to experience the low points of life in order to teach us lessons that we could learn in no other way.”  Clive Staples Lewis said that.  Smart guy.

This last month has seen the gods of this world plummeting from Mount Olympus.  The church wasn’t the only place where abuse was a problem.  That much is clear today.  For decades we have heard of the Hollywood couch.  But this is different.  Even good, wholesome dudes like Matt Lauer, a husband and dad and two decade cornerstone of the Today show has been exposed as being an unfaithful man.  Men who take advantage of their power and money and use it to get what they want from women.  Horrible stuff.  Meryl Streep thanked “God” in an acceptance speech just a couple of years ago.  She clarified that she meant Harvey Weinstein.

My wife commented on the news of Matt Lauer’s firing with the comment, “This isn’t gonna stop.” And she is right.

The deal is this.

Every human institution is falling apart.   It was inevitable.  All the self-worship and fan-worship of the gods of this world is showing itself to be the vain and empty thing it is.  Without Christ and his heart-changing power, the evil of men is going to be constantly exposed.  Men are evil.  This isn’t gonna stop.  All twenty five million a year did for Matt Lauer was give him the delusion that he could get what he wanted and get away with it.  His heart has been exposed through his actions.   A long time ago the Bible said that we will reap what we sow.  If we plant carrots we are gonna get carrots.  That’s the way it works.  And when we sow selfishness we reap self-destruction.  Can you imagine how Matt’s wife and children feel?  It ain’t worth it.  All we do is end up destroying everyone we love with our selfishness.  I know many, many people who have absolutely shredded their lives and those they love by following their heart’s desires.  The problem is the heart is messed up and so is the desire that comes out of it.

Jesus is saving the world.  But in order to do that the pride of men must fall.  It is the wall up that keeps out the joy and love and peace of God.  I’m talking about the kind of life that Jesus said He would bring to those who want it.  A whole, lasting, firm, steady, pure, happy life built on real, solid love that He brings to the hearts of those who want it.  He said he would bring life that is life to the full.  The maximum.

All the castles of men built on the sand of their selfishness, lust and greed are falling down.  Only a life built on the Rock who is Christ will be the solid, long-lasting existence that we all really long for.

Jesus kind of knew what He was talking about.

So.  Dismantle the stupid walls of pride and greed and selfishness and power now.  Take it down.  Ed Stetzer this week said, “if the institutions of Hollywood, politics or the church are building walls to protect those who abuse at the expense of those who are being victimized, we need to take those institutions apart...brick by brick.”

The only way to rebuild society the way it should be, the way we all know it should be deep down in our souls, is to take it all down and then rebuild it.

Apparently it is all falling apart on its own anyways.

It starts with humility.  We have to come to God as we are and admit that we haven’t got it all together.  We have to admit we are selfish.  We have to come to the Cross where Jesus died and say, “Forgive me and remake me.”

When Dallas Willard paraphrased John 3:16 he worded it this way:

God’s care for humanity was so great that He sent his unique Son among us.  Every who builds their life on him will no longer have a futile and failing existence but will have the undying life of God himself.

I don’t know about you but I don’t want to lead a futile and failing existence.  I want a strong and happy life that withstands what this world throws at it.

So come unraveled.  Let the walls fall down.  Rebuild on Christ.

You’ll be glad you did.








  

JUSTICE LEAGUE REVIEW

You know what?  I went in with hopes that it would be okay.  You know---just okay.  I left feeling like I had actually watched a superhero movie with some good old fashioned comic book joy.  Looks like it was smart of Zack Snyder to get Joss Whedon's help on Justice League.  Zack is an incredibly talented, artistic director but his work is always brooding and dismal.  So for him to have the partnership of Joss Whedon (Firefly, Buffy, Avengers 1 and 2) seems to have had made the difference.  Rumor has it Joss re-shot 20% of the film after Zack Snyder left because of his daughter's tragic death.  My sympathies for Zack and his wife Deborah Snyder who was also the film's producer.    

Justice League had a few more advantages going in.  One is Wonder Woman.  Her presence alone adds some class.  Her movie was, well, wonder-ful.  The Flash is that character I didn't expect; quirky and a character who added a good does  of humor.  Aquaman is the bad-boy version of Thor in this one and I am sure the women dig him.  Batman is well played by Ben Affleck (another pleasant surprise), Cyborg is a cool guy and the Justice League's brooding Iron Man.  But I will tell you something that is even cooler.

Superman is back.  Big time.

That shouldn't be a spoiler to anyone.  I mean he died and came back in the '90s after saving Earth from Doomsday.  What I mean by Supes being back though, is that the joy of his superhero-ness is back.  He is the boy scout.  He is heroic.  He is just in time.  He smiles.  He laughs.  He isn't the dour-faced, lost, lonely and confused person.  He is Superman.

Another great actor in the movie is Danny Elfman's music.  He was a smart choice for composer.   From the opening scene the DC franchise has new life because of the music. That's because the man knows Superhero music.  His music set the tone.  It was an actual orchestra playing the music.  His music gave the film color.  He used just the right amount of nostalgia with the Batman theme and even those inspiring glimpses of those iconic three notes from John Williams' Superman score. Getting Danny Elfman on the team was indeed a wise move.

The bad guy Steppenwolf?  He was lacking.  He is a flat character who wants to destroy and rule the world.  They should have got a human actor to play him.  The CGI was okay on him and in some places better than others.  Dark?  Yes.  Scary?  No.  Personality? None.  The thing about Luthor and Loki who were played by humans was that they were - uh - human.  Even Ultron, who was a CGI baddie, was human because of Joss Whedon's writing and James Spader's voice.  Humans are better.   Steppenwolf had a cool, menacing voice, but--meh.

There were other cool moments like the cameo of Marc McClure who played Jimmy Olsen in Superman the Movie. 

Stay til after all the credits.

At a reported budget of $300 million and only a opening weekend of $86 million, I hope that we get more of the League.  I want to see more.  But we will see.  I think the reports of the re-shoots and the fact that Man of Steel and Batman V Superman were flat in many ways hurt the League's initial profits.  It was a smart move to release Wonder Woman film earlier this year and that helped them make the $86 Million.

All in all I would say its worth a theater seat.   Nothing like a good old fashioned Superhero film.

'Nuff Said.

Can’t Trust The Bow or the Sword

I am feeling a little overwhelmed today.

Woke up that way.

The Psalms in the Bible take my focus off my problems and my inability to fix things and these ancient prayers put my focus back on God.

He can fix it.

Whatever the challenge is, He is up to it.

I love these words about us and Him from Psalm 44:  “Only by Your power can we push back the darkness; only in Your Name can we trample the forces of evil.  I do not trust in my bow; I do not count on my sword to save me.  You are the One who gives us victory...”

Human power can’t win the day. We are too limited and weak.  We have good days and bad days but all the good days together aren’t enough to smash evil.  God who fuels the sun without an effort and spun galaxies into motion—HE is enough.

Only by HIS power and only in HIS NAME will we see the change in this world.  HE is the ONE.  I’m just Bob.  He is GOD.

This is why we need to pray.  If prayer is the tendon that flexes the muscle of omnipotence then I choose to appeal to Him in prayer instead of choosing fear.

When I was a kid I was the church janitor.  One day I was vacuuming the pastor’s office.  My dad was the pastor.  I took the end off the vacuum hose, you know to vacuum the base boards, and then I got down to vacuum under my dad’s desk.  There under his desk was a big red sticker with stark white, block letters that said, “God is bigger than any problem I have.”

Good stuff.

Thing is though you could only see that truth when you were on your knees.

So whenever my dad knelt to pray in his office that was when he could see the truth that the God he was praying to was bigger than any problem he faced.

It isn’t by my skill with a man made tool or weapon or degree that the world changes; it is by the power of God stirring human souls to action and change and healing.

You, O Lord are bigger than any problem I have.  So in Your Name I come and ask for Your Power.

Amen.

‘Nuff said.

THOR Ragnarok Review

I really liked Thor and Thor: The Dark World.  Thor Ragnarok was a mixed bag for me.  I thought overall it was a movie with grand imagination, a terrific cast and a solid story.  I went to the movie with a friend and I think my friend nailed it when he said: "It was a little flippant."  

Flippant means: Not showing a serious or respectful attitude.  

Now I am know I'm talking about a Marvel movie.  But one thing that I think that Richard Donner, the director of Superman the Movie taught us, was that a director has to make sure the movie has  verisimilitude which is "the appearance of being real or true".  This is especially true when you are making a movie about an iconic character or a set of characters.  I felt like I was watching a cartoon much of the time.  

There was a lack of weight to the film.  For instance when it came to certain scenes like the sudden dispatching some of Thor's closest Asgardian buddies who we got to know and love in the previous two movies it was like, "Oh well, Hella is powerful and those good guys just couldn't stand up to her."  I think that is flippant.  When a director has inherited a universe like Thor, which was revealed in rich detail in the first and second movie I don't think it is a good idea to just summarily dismiss what has gone before.  So, Jane Foster, a major character in the first two films--Gone!  She dumped Thor.  That's it.  Or he dumped her.  I don't like Thor talking to the camera at the beginning.  And those really awesome Warriors Three? Nothing to see here.     

Production value was amazing, if not a bit cartoonish.  I always love the Hulk.  I love the humor in the film.  There was just a little too much of it.  I think the filmmakers were going for a Guardians of the Galaxy vibe.  They achieved it.  My brother and I absolutely loved Marvel's Contest of Champions when we were kids.  So I loved that.  

The music was very cool.  A great mix of electronic and orchestral.  I like that Thor's theme by Patrick Doyle was respected. 

Overall, I would rather Thor Ragnarok be what it is than Zack Snyder's bleak DC Movies.  Wonder Woman struck the perfect tone and I guess that balanced tone is what is missing in Ragnarok for me.  Maybe a more respectful tone.  Wonder Woman had the right mix of humor and heart mixed with the weight of a world in crisis. 

Having said all of this I must admit something.

My Thor Ragnarok experience may have been tainted by the news I came across right after church yesterday about the horrific shootings in Sutherland Springs, Texas at the First Baptist Church.  My heart was heavy.  I didn't feel very good after that. I wish I had seen Thor Friday or Saturday night instead of Sunday night.   

I usually go to movies to escape.  That news was hard to escape despite the fact that Thor Raganrok provided a lot of light-hearted escapism.

'Nuff said.

Prayer of Thanks for a 70 Year Old Dad

Father God

Thank you for  my Dad.  Thanks for the gift on his 70th birthday of an amazing man who brought me up, by your grace, in the Word of God.  A man who showed me prayer as a life, showed me a love for the lost and demonstrated how to reach out to people and have fun. 

Thank you for showing me Your patience through His patience.  Thank You for showing me Your passion for people's transformed lives through Dad's passion for people. Thank You that Dad is "all in" and that you, Jesus, are His magnificent obsession. 

Thank You that He showed me what it was like to be crazy about one woman and how he was a father to the fatherless around him and cared for the widows of this war weary world.  Thank You for 70 years of football and french fries and movies and for his Emeril inspired cooking and how he showed us what it was like to be a man who helped with cleaning.  Thank You for his generosity.

Thank You that You brought him through that heart attack and the subsequent bypass surgery so we could have him here with us for more years.  Thank You that he doesn't mind when I call for advice and that when my youthful arrogance surfaces his patiently waits and says nothing while I sort it out that I am an idiot.  And then that he has always been there to pick me up and tend to my self-inflicted wounds after I ran into the wall of truth.

Thank You for passing on his strengths and weaknesses to me.  That impulsiveness and spontaneous joy and intense emotion that propels us into leaps of faith and overnight trips to Edmonton to watch live football games after purchasing cheap tickets.  Thank You for the same literal Achilles tendon that aches while I play basketball like his does.  Thank You that in that weakness and all of the hundreds of others that You show up in Your strength and prove Yourself faithful and full of grace.

Thank You for showing me what grace and mercy look like.  When I wrecked his car he gave me $100 to go to a Bible Camp.  He didn't punish me when I deserved it because he knew that You didn't punish us when we deserved it but instead Your Son Jesus took the justice for the whole thing on the cross. 

Thank You for a Dad who is full of grace and truth.  A man who isn't afraid to speak the truth in love with boldness and a confidence that is fueled by the scripture rambling through his veins.  Thank You that he, at 70, is gonna use the years that remain on Earth to try and change lives when He could be spending time doing useless stuff.

May I, like Dad, make it to 70 without shipwrecking my marriage and my reputation.  Help me to be as wary of the devil's subtle schemes as Dad is.  Help me to remember to put on my armor every morning through prayer and enter the battle field swinging that Sword of the Spirit and bracing myself behind that Shield of Faith.

LORD and God, I come today with gratitude and love for You, Father God because You have saved me.  Bless Dad with a double portion of Your Spirit this year ahead to be able to lead many to Christ and I pray for that same heart in me.

It's all Because of Jesus,

AMEN

What Jesus Would Say Over Pumpkin Pie

This is the time of year when the temperature drops to below half of what it was in the summer around here, there is a little more need for comforts like hot beverages and sweaters and blankets and good hot meals with comfort food. None are so satisfying as meals like thanksgiving and a piece of your favorite pie and a good cup of coffee with a friend.

In my adult life I have come to believe that every time I participate in something like a great meal with people I love or a good cup of coffee and a piece of pie with someone who loves me back that all of it is there because there is someone else who loves us all and gives us these good things because He is good. Whenever I look at the setting sun or enjoy a walk or a talk I know that He is there too and He is saying "I love you" with that good gift. When you see a shooting star or a rainbow or hear a great piece of music He is there speaking through it and telling you that you were made for more than what's in front of you.

As the temperature in the world drops, and we see from the news that things are getting colder, we need some comfort food today for the soul.

Jesus predicted in Matthew chapter 24 that the love of many would grow cold and men would fall away from what is right. While we Christ followers are not callous to the news we are not surprised because He said that all of the dark headlines around us would happen.

And I was thinking about today and praying about it and I wondered what would Jesus say over pumpkin pie this year. And the Words of Jesus from John 14 popped into my conscious mind and I knew I had my answer. 

"Take Your eyes off the News."

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God and so trust in me. I Am here. I am God revealed in the flesh. I am God in human skin. I have walked where you walk. I have held the hand of the hurting and I have confronted death and walked through it all the way to its defeat. I beat it. I am stronger. For I am Love itself. 

When everything is ready I will appear and you will see me with your own eyes and your faith, though right now it may be small, will be made sight. Your leap of faith into the mysteries of life will end up with you safely landing in my unbreakable hands and unfailing love. Everyone who wants a place in an eternal, never-ending life will find it in me.

And the way to this indestructible life has always been right in front of you.

I AM the WAY when you don't know the way.

I AM the TRUTH you've been looking for. 

I AM THE LIFE.

I Am even the LIFE that will one day permanently defeat death. I AM the LIFE that will put in You the undying life of God and save You from the futile efforts of a failing world. 

I AM THE ROCK that you can build Your life on that will house you safely from the storms and the earthquakes and the ultimate shaking that will happen to this world when the bad is finally beaten out of this planet for good like the dust off an old carpet. When I burn away the impurities from this world in my fire of righteousness when I return you will remain unscathed. 

You've been wondering where God is in the middle of world gone cold and dark. And today I am telling You that I AM here walking with the hurting. I AM shining through the lives of people all around you who run into the path of death and risk their lives to offer hands that heal and I am in the arms of an unconditional hug. 

 
And in the Words of Amena Brown:

HE IS HERE

He is here - He’s right here - In this room, in your heart

He is near - Nearer than breath, heartbeat - Nearer than you are to you

Closer than second chance, or next opportunity - Closer than tonight or yesterday

He is real - More real than touch, see, hear, smell, or taste

More real than reality—he is our reality

More real than joy, pain, sorrow, or the love of being in love

He is present - Like space, wind, time, silence, night

He is waiting - Like creation, like words on the tip of tongue

Like songs that have yet to be sung

He is beauty - In oranges, blues, every hue, every shade - Sunset and sunrise whisper his name

He is holy - Cannot be touched, explained - Like sweet seconds of prayer

like grandmother on knees, wood floor bare

He is old hymns - The extending of limbs stretched across trees

Stripes to heal disease

He is Son - Distinctly three, distinctly one

The only one, the only wise, the only resurrector of lives

He is king - And no earthly throne can house him

No amount of elegant words can espouse him - He is moment and voice, power of choice

In word and deed, in fruit and seed - Nailed hands, nailed feet - Innocent wounds that bleed

He is belief - He is all, he is call and purpose

Everything we can sacrifice—he’s worth it and more, much more

Our good deeds are mere pennies, will never even the score

He is behold and wow - He is who, what, when, why, how

He’s the one who puts on the show - He’s the one that we come to see

He is soul’s cry and sinner’s plea - He is the epitome that no one light a candle to

Or come within a million foot pole of

He is above - He is a father’s love

Maker of ways, of earth and wind, Ancient of Days

Have no fear, have no fear, have no fear

Our God is here

Labor Pains Foretelling the Birth of the New World

I have been there in hospital rooms when people die and I have been there in hospital rooms when people are born.  They enter this world and they leave this world in the same way.

Pain.

As my wife entered labor when it came time for our first daughter to be born I witnessed pain in another human being that I had never seen before.  I saw my wife scream and it was very hard to watch.  Labor pain is brutal.  And at the height of her pain, at its brutal climax, Sandra's screams turned to sighs as she and I wept for joy at the Doctor's announcement that we had a little girl.

One time I was called to the Hospital where I witnessed the death of a Christian woman who loved God and the people around her so well.  As her soul prepared to leave her body and enter the realm of eternity I saw her labored breaths grow less frequent as she struggled to breathe.  And as her granddaughter told her to let go I saw her eyes look past us into eternity and at the height of her struggle, at her pain's summit, she crossed over to the other side and was born anew in God's presence.  Her old, tired body gave up her spirit to the keeping of Jesus.

In both cases immense pain preceded immense relief and joy.

Paul wrote this in Romans 8:  All Creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to this very moment.  And we believers are also in immense pain for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering.

Jesus Himself said that as the end approaches there will be threats of more war and political upheaval and the earth and its weather will scream in pain with earthquakes and famines.  But he said "Don't panic, these things will take place but the end won't follow immediately.  Nation will go to war against nation but all this is only the first of the birth pains with more to come."  He also said that sin would be rampant and false teachers would be popular and the old ways of love for God and people would be unpopular.

As Labor Pains become more intense and closer together the birth of new life is on its way quickly. As we see the political upheaval, super storms and earthquakes all at once I can't help but think this should make us think.  All summer there have been historic, town-evacuating fires in our province. In one week - Harvey. Irma, the biggest storm recorded. Two Hurricanes behind Irma.  A massive Earthquake in Mexico.  South Asia under water in widespread flooding.  Maria devastating Puerto Rico.  A madman driven by demonic rage mowing down people with machine guns in Vegas.  North Korea and the USA still posturing against each other with two men with Jupiter sized egos at the helms.

Kinda makes you go "Hmmm"

One of the names for Jesus in the Bible is the Rock.  He said that whoever builds their life on Him will survive the storm.  If the news isn't making you think then you are like a child who has his eyes tightly shut thinking that no one can see him or an ostrich who has its head in the sand.

This world is aching. It is screaming in pain as its end approaches like the sound of a coming train on the tracks.  The new world is just around the corner.  Whether it is one week, month or year or ten years away we do not know.  All I know is that this pain is a megaphone that Jesus is speaking through, trying to to tell you that He loves you and is here for you to run to.

You can build your life on Him.  He is the rock.  It is the only way to be doomsday ready.   Only your pride and your chosen blind eye can prevent you from this offer of love from the One who endured immense pain and suffering and let the destruction fully hit Him on the Cross so we could be saved. These storms and earthquakes aren't the final ones - yet.  They are the beginning of labor pains.  Jesus took the final destruction on Himself so it wouldn't land on us.    

When David wrote: The Name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous run into it and they are saved.  This is exactly what He meant.

Come to the Rock.  Build your life on Him.

And you will have nothing to be afraid of.

The Four Signs of a Drifting Christian

I was reading Pilgrims Progress this morning and a conversation between Christian and his friend Hopeful centered on watching ourselves so we don't drift away. The old school term was backsliding.  
These are the four signs of a drifting Christian.  Well worth paying attention to.  For all of us.

The Four Signs of a Drifting Christian

First - They choose to think on everything and anything except God.  There is no more room for Jesus in their thinking.  He is crowded out.

Second - They gradually fall away from spiritual duties like taking time to pray, controlling their lusts, guarding the avenues of their hearts.

Third - They begin to avoid the company of living and vibrant Christians.  They stop coming to church and get togethers for Bible Study and Prayer.

Fourth - To cover it all up they look for "hypocrites" as an excuse to not go to church and they look for the speck of sawdust in their brother's eye while ignoring the 2x4 in their own eye.

Hebrews 2:1 - So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. 

Don't Despise Small Beginnings

"Great Things Take a Long Time to Grow."  I saw that quote and immediately thought of our church and the people in it.  We have so many new and young Christians that are taking their first steps.  It is wonderful to see them grow.  "Rome wasn't built in a day" as they say. Whoever they are.

I am reading the "minor" prophets near the end of the Old Testament and Zechariah chapter four really stuck out at me.

Zechariah and Zerubbabel were just two of the exiles from Babylon who were allowed to go home to Jerusalem and they found their city and the Temple, God's house on Earth, in ruins.

It was a mountain of rubble. 

I think of the pile of rubble from the attacks on the World Trade Center and remember how long it took for the countless workers to clear it.  At one point it was an estimated two years of clean up that they were looking at.  At first it seemed that there would never be recovery from such a disaster.

That is how it looked to Zerubbabel, who was the one who would lay the foundations for the rebuilt temple. You can imagine the daunting task that was before him.

Now it seems that the natural thing to do would get the best workers and come up with the best human plan and buckle down and start the work. 

But God said the only way to turn the mountain of rubble into a temple was not going to get done that way.    

This is what God said: "It is not by force nor by human strength, but by Spirit, says the LORD of Heaven's Armies.  Nothing, not even this mountain of rubble, will stand in Zerubbabel's way, it will become a level plain before him!  And when Zerubbabel sets the final stone of the Temple in place the people will shout: "May God bless it!  May God bless it!"

Through God's Spirit the Temple would be built.  It is not through human spirit and might that the Temple of God can be built but by God's Spirit alone.   

I love how the Amplified Bible puts it:  "What are you, O great mountain of obstacles? Before Zerubbabel who will rebuild the Temple you will become an insignificant plain!" (Exclamation point mine) 

Now when you start rebuilding something for God, that is currently a mountain of rubble, it can get pretty discouraging pretty fast.  

Not only is there a pile of rubble a hundred feet high in front of you but there are also people around us who put up obstacles.  

The naysayers.  The ones who see a situation only with human eyes. 

They walk by sight and not by faith.  

This is the majority of humanity.  They see a situation and say things like, "That's impossible!  Look at all that rubble.  You will never rebuild."  And what they say has a profound effect on our hearts.  We can start to lose the vision that we had to do the hard thing and we are tempted to give in and then give up.  

But as Zerubbabel picked up his plumb line and his tool belt and the doubts came flying at him, his prophet friend Zechariah gave him this word of truth from God:

"Do not despise these small beginnings, for the LORD rejoices to see the work begin, to see the tools in your hand."

In others words, "Yes, you are just starting to rebuild and yes, it is going to take some time but do not despise these small beginnings of this great project--God is thrilled just to see the work begin and to see the tools in your hand!  

As CS Lewis said, "God is pleased even with our stumbles."  

He knows that the task at hand is massive.  He is the God of small beginnings.  Look at Peter.  An uneducated fisherman. Everyone around probably said, "Peter? You chose him to be the leader of the disciples?" God is pleased just to see someone pick up a hammer and begin the work of rebuilding their lives.  

God says "Here's the deal.  You give me your weakness and I will give you my Spirit and with me being your guide, your keeper, your counselor, your instructor, and your strength we will build this Temple to the glory of God."  

As John Piper says, "We get the help and God gets the glory."  

We can't build something spiritual with human might and skill.  It has to be the Spirit of God that does it through us.  As we pick up the tools to start building someone's life that is currently a heap of rubble so they can have a new life with God at the centre, we have to remember this will be done by the Spirit and the grace of God and not on our own.  

When we start a new church or a new ministry out of the rubble of an old one we cry out to God to do the work by His Spirit because He's got this!  I haven't got it.  You don't have what it takes.  

But Jesus does. 

Jesus gave his life to rebuild the Temple of God.  He knew that human lives that were destroyed by sin and were lying there in heaps of rubble would be rebuilt by His sacrifice and then infused by His Spirit and become people who would have the Living God living in them and then they would change the world.  

All He asks is that we, by His Spirit, follow Him, pick up our tools and work with God to build His temple.  Do not discount a small beginning in your life or the lives of others or in a small church or a new mission that God has begun.  God rejoices just to see the tool in your hand.

Nuff said.  

Our Simple Church Vision

Our Church Vision is simple: Reach And Disciple People.  And as it turned out it shortens to RAD People.  We didn't invent it. I sure didn't coin the phrasing.  One of my best friends did.  He was the lead pastor who hired me nine years ago to plant our community church.  It didn't require a book study or a panel of people who needed to discover what the vision/mission of our church was.  We took it right from the King before He assumed His Throne in Heaven.

Jesus said,  "Go and make disciples of all the nations,  Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.”

In order to start making disciples we have to reach the lost.  We take them from where they are whether it seems to be at negative ten or at zero and we help them to discover Jesus and as they gradually do they are saved and then we help them become like Him by teaching them what He said in the Bible and teaching them to do what He did when He was on earth.

Andy Stanley points out that when Jesus called the disciples none of them really "got it" and were saved.  Sure they got glimpses of who Jesus was but they didn't really get it til after the resurrection. So we go and find people the way Jesus did.  We spend time with them.  We answer their questions. We do life with them until they can go an do the same for others.  When we see people reproducing themselves and reaching and discipling people then we know we are on the right track.

Jesus and Paul really are the best examples of disciplemaking in the Bible because we see them reaching lost people and then bringing those converts up in the faith, living life with them and doing ministry with them until they get it and can do the same for other.  It is life on life.  That means I have to have younger Christians than me with me quite often when I am doing ministry so that they can see me in action and I can watch them as they minister.  It means I have to teach them God's Word and help them learn how to pray,  It means I have to eat with them and play games with them and go to movies with them and sometimes correct them and maybe even argue with them.

I know that this isn't comprehensive but it is simple.  And for me it works.  I have had five disciples enter full time ministry and all I did was life stuff and be their big brother and coach.  And it seems to me that is all my Dad and my mentor Bill Clem did with me.

Nuff Said.

Looking at the Heart and Not Ripped Jeans

This week a church member complained to me about the ripped jeans my youth director was wearing in church. Immediately I bit my tongue so as not to launch verbal missiles at their poorly constructed religious framework whereby they would be crushed under the debris of their own criticism.  I said that we would talk about it over coffee sometime.  Apparently the 21st Century and its styles have somewhat escaped their attention.  Ripped jeans?  Come on! People pay good money for those.

Having had a few days to think about it I thought that this was why I started this church.  Church people who have their minds stuck in 1970's church customs have a hard time at my nine year old church that is the perpetual church plant that still meets in a school and is controlled chaos much of the time (that's the way I like it).  We have a good sized contingent of new Christians and our church is very unreligious.

The problem is that we cannot judge someone by how they dress.  I was told by some Christians to not go see the movie Soul Surfer because there were revealing bathing suits in it.  Duh.  It's a surfing movie.  God looks at someone's heart.  And a youth director who is wearing ripped jeans is a youth director who is doing her job.  I don't care if it fits into the Church Dress Code of yesteryear.  My complaning church goer would not have enjoyed listening to John the Baptist in his camel hair Speedo either.

I also remembered something CS Lewis wrote once:

"A girl in the Pacific islands wearing hardly any clothes and a Victorian lady completely covered in clothes might both be equally 'modest', proper, or decent, according to the standards of their own societies: and both, for all we could tell by their dress, might be equally chaste (or equally unchaste)."

Clothing, or lack of it according to a long time church goer's standards are not necessarily God's standards.  A girl in the pacific sitting in church in the hut with her grass skirt and nothing else on is perfectly decent in the eyes of the Lord who is just glad that she is at church hearing about how much He loves her.  People in the European church were ticked off at Hudson Taylor because he grew out his hair to be able to put it in a braid and dress like the men in China he was trying to reach.

God never looks at the outside first.  He looks at the inside.  He knows when someone is just dressing the way they dress or that they dress that way to establish common ground with teenagers.  (I saw Louis Giglio in skinny jeans once and it didn't bother me although I thought he looked uncomfortable).   If I didn't have a wife that motivated me otherwise I would probably wear the same hoodie, jeans and tee shirt every Sunday.  I hate dressing up.  But I was made to go to Christian school with a uniform when I was a kid and dressing up every day for your high school experience kinda turns you off dressing up.

My point.  Don't be a pharisee.  God looks on the heart not the ripped jeans.  By the way I cancelled the coffee.  Not worth the energy.

'Nuff Said.

Praying Psalm 45

I was in awe of the beauty of Psalm 45 as I prayed through it this morning.  I was in awe of its rich language and metaphor that describes Christ Jesus, our God and King and the purpose of His bride, the Church:

Father God,

I pray for humility for our leaders that they would now the knee to Jesus and be saved and lead our country well.  

Beautiful words from Your Spirit stir my heart.  I will recite a lovely poem about the king, for my tongue is like the pen of a skillful poet.  You, Jesus, are the most handsome of all. Gracious words stream from your lips.  God himself has blessed you forever.  

Put on your sword, O mighty warrior! You are so glorious, so majestic!  In your majesty, Lord Jesus, ride out to victory, defending truth, humility, and justice. Ride out in Justice this day, LORD GOD and decimate the foes that enslave our children.  

May the children be freed from the chains of slavery and despair.  May these daughters of my town be freed from the stupid mentality of sinful men.  May they become people of the Word.  May there be joy in their lives and not this restriction on them of sin that holds them back.  They are young and beautiful and could be Esthers and instead they are caught in these plans of the evil one.  So somehow, Jesus, free them.  Help them to see that You love them.  Somehow remind them.  Save the sick and those with cancer. Don't let the evil one distract them from salvation.  I pray that sons and wives and husbands wouldn't distract their family members from Jesus. I pray for a chance for husbands to respond to Your Spirit and May HE, the Counselor Spirit of God, speak through the children and their wives. May there be joy in Christian marriage for them.

LORD GOD ALIMGHTY.  Save the men of my town and let them not be coaxed by any man to neglect their obedience to YOU.  May my people obey.  Whatever happens may moms and dads be baptized so their sons and daughters can see them do this.  

May You bring an army of faithful givers here, Lord.  Those who will gladly and lovingly bring tribute to You as King so we can do great things.  I pray for the right pastor for towns like Chase, Father.  Please bring the right man to that town.  Please give direction to us all.  May YOU be the lead pastor of our church, Jesus.  

Please help us men as we struggle with ego and ambition.  Help us to have YOU as our ambition. Keep your church united. 

I thank YOU for good men and women who are steadfast in following You.  Please make young men to be men of faith. Please help me with my struggle of heart that wrestles with pride.  Let it not be my downfall.  It is Your direction to keep me humble. I will trust You and take the veteran's advice and take it on the chin and let You lead rather than struggle against it.  

Lord Jesus, go forth to perform awe-inspiring deeds!  Your arrows are sharp, piercing your enemies’ hearts.  The nations fall beneath your feet, Jesus.  You are MIGHTY and not to be trifled with. Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.  You rule with a scepter of justice.  You love justice and hate evil. Therefore God, your Father, has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.  

May YOUR GLORY, JESUS, be known throughout the land!  May YOU be SEEN in YOUR PEOPLE. May the truth and justice of the cross be known so people know that YOU have taken their sin and we are welcomed in YOUR THRONE ROOM today.  O King.  O Jesus.  I long to see YOU with my own eyes.  To embrace YOU and thank YOU for all YOU have done.  Be exalted.  Let me be like YOU in how I talk and deliberate this day!  

Myrrh, aloes, and cassia perfume your robes.  In ivory palaces we will play the music of strings and entertain you.  Kings’ daughters are among your noble women.  At your right side stands the queen,

wearing jewelry of finest gold from Ophir! Listen to me, O royal daughters in the church; take to heart what I say. Forget your people and your family far away. For your royal husband, Jesus, delights in your beauty; honor him, for he is your Lord.  May men of godliness be married to YOUR daughters YOU have let me raise.  May I continue to raise them well.  The princess of Tyre will shower you with gifts.  The wealthy will beg your favor for they will discover that they need You just as the poor do. 

Your bride, the church, a princess, looks glorious in her golden gown.  In her beautiful robes, she is led to the king, accompanied by her bridesmaids.  What a joyful and enthusiastic procession as they enter the king’s palace!  What a picture of the church, Lord.  Where her sons will become kings like their father.  You will make them rulers over many lands.  The sons of God will conquer the world with his love and justice and we will not be defeated!  O glorious is the purpose of the church wrought by the hand of the LORD GOD ALMIGHTY!  Praise to GOD, Christ the KING whose church will not stop growing and whose church will defeat evil and bring HOPE TO THE NATIONS!  I will bring honor to your name in every generation, JESUS.  I will not stop.  I will do my part in this little corner of the world!  I will see the nations praise you forever and ever.

AMEN

The Trinity Part 2- The Father You Always Wished For

LoudMouthPastor Podcast # 1

This is My Podcast Featuring What to Go For in 2017, Movie Etiquette and An Interview with Carrie Fisher!