used with permission by the artist, Erik Caines

Maybe you’re like me and you hear stories all the time.  Maybe you also tell these stories all the time.  And when I tell my own story, I am always the voice of reason.  But this isn’t true at all.  When you listen to people tell stories you usually think of how smart they are and how dumb the rest of the world is.  But is the rest of the world really that dumb?

I love that as we approach Easter and look at the story of the cross, Jesus approached it differently.  He plainly told his disciples that he had to face death.  He begged and pleaded for his father to remove his cup of suffering and yet he faced it anyway.  Although Jesus ultimately conquers death he is never the hero in his own story.  He highlighted his own meek character for the betterment of humanity.  We follow meekness because it is the only thing that is truly genuine.  We live in a culture of forgeries and fakes.   When was the last time someone told you a story in which they were the irrational one, the marginalized one or the meek one?  I think the common knowledge is that those stories are not very good.  Individually, they may not be, but a collection of these stories and a lifestyle of meekness tells a life-altering story.  The kind you want to emulate.

What is with the humanistic need to become the hero in our story?  Why not tell the same story the way it really happened?  What if we told stories in which we highlighted our own meekness?

It is a song that is just as relevant in social movements, business models, churches, families and friends.  It is a verbal recognition of you know to be true deep down inside.  You’re being surrounded by change and if you don’t prepare for it you will drown by the rising waters of change. Dylan wrote, “Come gather round people where ever you roam and admit that the waters around you have grown.”   Sometimes just admitting that things are changing is painful.  We’ve all experienced this in one-way or another.  Life looks different than it did before and every now and then we look out our windows and don’t recognize what we see.

As a new Lead Pastor I’ve never been as sensitive to change as I am now.  I know when I am changing something and I recognize it everywhere.  Some even want me to change things more but change has to be for a purpose and for the sake of health and not simply to change. There are so many little shifts that need to happen that it seems like they all add up to a lot.  I am not changing things to dishonor or disrespect the past. I love the past, I was a major part of the past and some of the irony is that the things I am changing are decisions that I helped make for this church years ago.  I am intentionally changing some things so I can lead the way that God has wired me.  I want to be the most effective pastor that I can be for Neighborhood, so in order to do that I need to create an atmosphere where I can thrive along with my team.  If you moved into my house today, you’d probably bring your own furniture.

The beautiful part of my church is that people get it.  They know and understand this and I haven’t had to say much about it.  All this change has begun to make me question a few things.  First, I’ve noticed that we as a people are more timid of making changes in our families than we are in our work places.  Part of it is that things might be unstable at work so we desire stability at home, but as Dylan says, “your old road is rapidly aging.”  That has never been more true than today, the world moves faster.  New things become old the day you bring them home.  So what if we intentionally made changes in our families that allowed for each member to thrive?

The second thing is that everyone says that want change but very few people actually do it.  We even make big claims like, “that really needs to change!”  But out of fear of rocking the boat, we rarely act on it.  We sacrifice health for comfort.  Stephen Covey asked a question in one of his books that has rocked me so hard that I think about it every day. “Is there one thing that we are not doing, that if we were, would drastically change the outcome of our organization?”  Asking this question about your church, your business and your family is about the scariest and healthiest thing that you can do.

The last of the formal I AM statements that Jesus makes is that He is the true vine.  He talks about his father being the gardener and his disciples being the branches.  It made me think what is a disciple?  In its simplest form a disciple is someone who is connected to the vine, someone who has access to the life of another and follows the teaching of that person.  I love the King James Version of this text.  Jesus says, “abide in me and I will abide in you.” I think I am just a fan of the word “abide.”  How do you abide (remain) in a person when they have been dead for 2000 years?

Maybe this is why we pray in the name of Jesus.  Maybe when we take a Sabbath rest it is simply to bask in the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Maybe abiding means, remaining connected to the vine so we don’t whither and die.  Maybe abiding is taking advantage of and ancient text that still is as relevant today as the day it was written.

There are a ton of books out there on being a better disciple, becoming a disciple, or changing your life in some way.  But it starts with abiding, or remaining in Christ.  It starts with proximity and simple nearness.  It starts with listening to God.  It starts in the simplest way.  The true mark of a disciple is that they are with their teacher.  Another way to use the term abide is to say, “to live on.” So if you abide with Jesus now, how much will he live on in you later?

We don’t. I can’t.

I do decently well at convincing people of this, but I can’t prove it. Over the years so many have claimed to possess the truth and they have done irreparable harm by doing so.  But is truth something that we can possess?  Or is truth someone we can know?

The scientific method proves things in science that are useful, but God refused to be used.  In fact God refuses to be proved.  Why do you think God was so serious about not making images of him or being seen?  Why do you think Jesus came slightly before Polaroid invented the instant camera?  (Yes slightly, our world is 13.7 billion years old)  Faith is such a key component in Christianity precisely because God refuses to be proved. His refusing to be proved shows his deep love and passion for his people, but that is another article entirely!

So Jesus claims to be the way, the truth and the life.  I can’t prove it but I believe it and for me this is truth.  It is truth that is not proved but revealed in the person of Jesus.  We look at statements like, “I am the way” and we might immediately think of the offensiveness of this statement.  Because if Jesus is the way, singular then how can someone who has another set of beliefs be saved?  Isn’t this exclusive?  I think exclusivity would be if there was no way provided, but God in his radical inclusively provided his son as the way.  So maybe instead of being offended we should investigate if this is really the way.

So many things have made us wary of truth claims.  Part of it is the western belief that everything needs empirical and irrefutable evidence.  Part of it is people who claim to have the truth and subsequently become oppressors.  Stalin claimed to have truth; he was going to make a utopia.  Hitler was going to solve the problems of Germany, he was going to make a pure Arian race, he even had a final solution and he even claimed that he had truth on his side.

But what if truth is personal?  What if truth is not objective?  What if all truth is simply contained in a person?  That person was God and earth and he wants to reveal truth to us but it’s not something we can own, it’s just something that we can know.  Maybe this is why God wants his people to tell the truth, because he is the truth and when we tell it we reflect him.

Unfortunately this isn’t a simple subject.  But if Jesus is the truth that contains eternal life, wouldn’t it make sense that he is also the way?

May you walk in the way of Jesus an know his truth and begin to find life that is really life.

**A friend of mine who is a scholar and a missionary has been doing a lot of work on this subject and I am grateful to him for stretching me on all of this.  Much of my thinking on this has come from emails and conversations that my friend, Phil Davis and I have had.

For the past four hundred years the western world has been fixated on proving everything.  We use the scientific method.  In the pursuit of proving everything we have really made some amazing discoveries.  Just the fact that we know that we drink one part hydrogen and two parts oxygen is huge.  In tenth grade science class we separated these elements and to me, that was proof that I was drinking hydrogen and oxygen.  The scientific method has worked so well that we have taken this method public.

I can convince you of a lot and yet I can prove very little.  I can convince you that the sky is blue, because it is, just look up.  That is unless you are sitting on Kaanapali beach in Maui at six pm.    You would be able to make a very convincing argument that the sky is orange.

The scientific method works well for science, and so many things can be tested using this method. The problem is that the scientific method has created a culture that if something cannot be proved, it must not be truth and if it can’t be proved by this method, then it isn’t trustworthy.    But I love my wife and all I can do is convince you of this and the scientific method wont work on this.

So many times in church we just teach that Jesus came to forgive sins, and while that is true, it is really only half of the gospel.  Jesus also came to reverse the curse.  I know it might sound crazy but God’s antidote to death is resurrection.  Paul says it this way in 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.  For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.  What God really wants for us is forgiveness and a new life.

So in John 11 we find this crazy story of Jesus’ friend, Lazarus dying.  When Lazarus died everyone was emotional including Jesus.  To comfort those around Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die.” But then he didn’t just say it; he also showed it by calling Lazarus from the grave.  Yet, he didn’t just show it, he lived it by enduring his own death and raising himself up from the dead.

I think the question to be asking is do we believe it?  Jesus fundamentally said the same thing?  Do we believe that he is the resurrection and the life?  Do we believe that we can have a new life?

Before my parents were even alive there were some well-meaning people who thought that they had a system of governance that would mean equality for all and that would solve a bunch of problems in society.  The outcome of this system was supposed to be an utopia.  This remedy was not just a system but “truth.” Pretty soon, some not so well meaning people got a hold of this truth and after a man names Stalin got a hold of it, we can count the cost at around 30 million lives.

Hitler claimed to have truth.  But in order for truth to prevail, he had to exercise his final solution.  We look at these people and say, “but they were evil!”  Sure but now, “truth” is suspect.  I believe that Jesus is who he says he was and that he is the truth and the life.  But that is suspect too, especially when people who work for the guy start having affairs, doing drugs, steeling money and molesting children.

Systematically our society has lost trust in the notion of truth because of the way it has been lived out.

When spiritual leaders fall, there is a black mark that is made in the mind next to the church.  All of the sudden this institution that had the trust of the people, abused it, all of the sudden this institution that proclaimed that they had the truth, didn’t.  All of the sudden there was fallout everywhere because of people who have abused their authority.  These people were bad shepherds.  The scripture handles bad shepherds pretty harshly.  But it also describes a good shepherd, a shepherd that abandons the group that is safe to go looking for the one that is lost, a shepherd that protects his flock, a shepherd that lays his life down for the sheep.

A lot of times when we think of church, we think of the one bad shepherd that screwed up.  (And by the way, there is grace for them too.)  But we don’t tend to think about the one shepherd that is leading this group of imperfect people.  We don’t think of the one whose burden is light and easy to carry, the one who will never leave or forsake us.  Only when we begin to follow the good shepherd will we truly be able to forgive the imperfect shepherd. Only when we forgive the imperfect shepherd will we be able to walk freely.

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light”

It sounds dramatic.

The earth, which was once formless and empty, is now full of light.  Light that guides and provides a path.  God even reminds the Hebrew people that he has placed a light with in them; they are supposed to be the light to the nations.

Now a man born blind is asking Jesus to be healed.  Imagine being blind from birth, seeing nothing but total darkness.  Jesus spit on the ground, made mud and put it on the man’s eyes.  He asked him to go wash in the Pool of Siloam and remarkably, he could see for the very first time.

Now imagine it, all you’ve known is darkness and you open your eyes, pupils dilated from darkness, only to see a flood of light coming into your eyes.  Imagine hearing the words of Jesus, “I am the light of the world.”

Today, just think about how remarkable that would be.

Yesterday when I saw this, for the protection of the child, I called the police.  But inwardly I was grieving for the man, he didn’t look like a guy who had gone off his medication, he looked like a guy who was desperate.  He looked like a man who had been deeply hurt.

Today with the Spanish pastor of our church we walked the community and prayed.  We know a lot of people from the community but there are still many more to get to know.  It struck us how gripped our community is with fear.  Almost every house has multiple large scary dogs.  Each house has a fence around it.  There were many homes with signs that said, “Keep out” or “no parking.”

Today I had the realization that this community (and many like it) for the sake of privacy has lost what it means to be neighborly.  When you walk this community, you don’t get the sense that these people have BBQ’s together or have block parties.  You get the very real sense that people are afraid and have locked themselves in their homes to feel safe.  I began to wonder if any of the neighbors actually know each other or want to, and I began to ask and dream.  What would it look like if people loved their neighbors in this community?  How would the quality of life change?  Would someone reach out to the man having an emotional break down?  Would the neighbors have come together to stop the man?

The saddest part about yesterday was that when I was on the phone with the police, they told me that there were multiple other callers, and there were plenty of people on their front lawns watching.  But this is the precise issue; we’ve become spectators in the full contact world of community.

When Moses was called to free the Israelites from Egypt, he was a bit intimidated at the task and he asked God, “who should I say sent me?”  In other words, “what is your name?” God answered, “I AM WHO I AM,” this can also be translated, “I will be who I will be,” meaning, “my nature will become evident with my actions.”  God led his people out of Israel and they grumbled.  They were upset that back in Egypt they used to enjoy sitting around pots of food eating their fill.  Now they were in the dessert far from home and hungry.  God did something to show his people that he loved them and he cared for them.  They woke up one day and a substance like frost was on the ground.  Moses had them collect it and make a kind of food out of it.  They ended up calling this substance manna, (probably from an Egyptian word meaning food).

Moses was later remembering the true meaning of manna. It wasn’t just food but it was a tool to teach God’s people that they do not live on bread alone, but every word that comes from the mouth of God.  So manna was something that was a lot bigger than just food, it actually pointed to God in a powerful way, it fed them.  Moses was a great prophet, he even told his people that God would raise up another prophet and God even said that he will “put his words in his mouth.”  Because of this people were expecting a new Moses, and even a greater Moses.  The Jews were actually looking for this person to come and they expected a lot.  Some Rabbi’s even said that just as Moses rode out of Egypt on a donkey so the Messiah will ride on a donkey into his kingdom. The rabbinical expectation was that the messiah would bring new manna from heaven.

So this takes us to a point when over 5,000 people were following around a man named Jesus who seemed to be some kind of prophet.  All of these people were on the far shore of the Sea of Galilee.  Jesus asked his disciples how they would provide for the people.  The only thing that they could come up with was buying food but this miracle worker had something else in mind.  He would stretch out five loaves of barley and two fish to feed everyone.  I probably eat more than five loaves of bread every time I go to the Olive Garden.  Everyone was provided for and ate their fill.  Then Jesus made this ridiculous statement, “I am the bread of life.” He said that if you go to him then you would never go thirsty or hungry. Later on Jesus says that his “bread” are actually words and his words are, “spirit and life.” Peter remarked that Jesus has the words of eternal life.

In the feeding of these 5,000 souls we see the nature of God as one who speaks over his people and feeds them.  He is the kind of God that provides and gives life, but fullness of that life is contained in the words he speaks.  Jesus is the bread of life, give us today our daily bread.

The half-brother of Jesus, James says that the tongue is like a rudder of a large ship.  What we stay actually steers our life in a certain direction.  Jesus reminded his disciples that they would have to give an account on the Day of Judgment, “for every careless word they have spoken.”  Then he goes on to say, “For by your words you will be acquitted and your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37) I remember studying the book of Matthew with a friend and when we came across that passage we just sat and stared at each other.  We both like to make people laugh and have therefore said many careless words.

I think this is why it is so important that we worship publicly and proclaim what we believe.  It struck me when I was reading the gospels that Jesus would say, “go back and tell people what God did for you.”  They are just words, but they are words that guide and lead others into love.  They are just words that we sing but they remind me of God’s great love for me. Words manifest into emotion and action. This year as I have begun a journey to read through the entire Bible, again, I have noticed how prevalent this theme of words is.  It is amazing to me that God cares deeply about what we say to people and how we say it.  God’s words actually became flesh in the person of Jesus.  If your words became flesh, what would they look like?

Fred Smith once wrote, “I learned to write to burn the fuzz off my thinking.”  As it turns out, when I stopped writing for this period a lot of fuzz built up in my thinking.  It is hard for me to articulate clearly what I am thinking without writing it down first.  So in the coming weeks, days, months you can expect to see some more content gracing this page.

Since the passing of Pastor Gordon our Local Board of Administration at the church has turned into a search committee.  Their function has been to discern God’s will for our church and to interview, check references and most of all pray.  On Monday the 7^th the LBA offered me the position.  I am continually blown away by what God is doing.

On the 20^th of November our church will hold a vote.  If the church confirms the recommendation of the LBA then I have agreed to start full-time on January 1, 2012.  Thank you all for your continued support and prayer during this time.  It has meant a lot to my family and I.

Neighborhood Christian Fellowship is so much more than just me.  Over the years here I have seen people get called to ministry.  I have seen people make first time decisions to submit their lives to Jesus and I have been fortunate enough to marry, baptize and even bury some wonderful friends.  Neighborhood is a place that makes the gospel come alive in the way its members live their lives.  It is a little community that continues to be a beacon of light to a larger world.

I am so excited to begin this journey and I hope you will walk this road with me.  Thank you for your prayers and please, don’t stop.

A few weeks ago I had a major insight into great leadership traits.  We were talking about gentleness in leadership.  At first gentleness sounds a little weak and conjures up images of some dude getting walked all over in the office, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

Gentleness is really about self-control. It is about using the power that you have in a controlled way.   Many leaders could tear someone to shreds with just a few words.  But sometimes restraining your power can have an even greater affect.

I was thinking back to a time when my Pastor (who passed away in September) asked me to have lunch with him one day.  This was a while ago so the details are a little fuzzy, but essentially I had screwed up.  Instead of letting me knowing it and laying into me he restrained the power he had, guiding me through a series of questions that helped me realize I had screwed up.

I appreciated this for a few reasons.  First, It kept our relationship strong and in tact.  Instead of being disciplined and running away with my tail between my legs, we engaged in a thoughtful dialogue on whatever it was I messed up on.  Second, it gave me a model on how to handle conflict and staff issues.  But the main thing I noticed is that the entire encounter was gentle.  There was a sense that power was controlled for the greater good.

I got to thinking about the encounters that Jesus had with his disciples and even the religious elite of the day.  He modeled gentleness in his humility but also in his encounters with others.  God with flesh on could have quite a bit of power, but even from the moment of temptation in the dessert he withheld his power.  Which brings me to this point; the greatest power you can possess is the ability to not exercise it.  Maybe power is found in restraint and self control rather than blatant exercises of power.

The problem with the leaders in the Arab world is that they have been ruling rather than leading, they have been using their positions to dictate that their will be done.  In governments legitimacy is king. You cannot hold your position for long without the people perceiving you as the actual leader.  Some leaders of nations have taken their positions by force, but their countrymen and women do not perceive them as the actual leader, thus the revolution spawns.  If you have to hold onto your position by force, chances are, you are not the legitimate leader.

This is a huge leadership issue.  Who is legitimate?  Who leads with persuasion rather than position?  This leadership principle transcends time and the leadership of just nations.  The issue of legitimacy is relevant in communities, work places and even homes.  Do you lead out of your title or do you lead out of your ability to inspire and walk with people?  Do people follow you because if they don’t there might be consequences, or do they follow you because of a level of trust that has been built up over time?  You can avoid an “Arab Spring” by leading out of your core values and integrity.

I grieved a little that they did not share in the suffering of the day.  There is something about sharing in suffering that changes your perspective.  There is something that unites, that gives people a view of what’s really important.  Mostly I grieved because I realized that there is an entire generation that will never feel what I felt as I sat paralyzed in horror in front of my TV that day on September 11^th.

I’ve learned that remembering is more than knowing facts.  Remembering involves feeling the pain of those whom we have a common connection with.  I’ve never felt people’s pain more clearly than I did on 9/11.  I’ve never felt more united with my fellow Americans than I did on that day.

The coming generation may never remember watching people in other countries burn American flags in the days following that horrific day.  Although some of the videos that the news was showing were shot months prior to September 11^th, there was still some celebrating.  I remember how sickening that was.  I wasn’t angry but simply disgusted.  It was obvious that the up and coming generation didn’t get this because a few months ago when Osama Bin Laden was killed, we saw people celebrating in the streets.  Although there is a legitimate cause for relief in people’s mind that Bin Laden is no longer with us, it highlighted that we didn’t remember the suffering that plagued that day.  When we celebrated the death of Bin Laden we just created a cycle of vengeance.  To some Islamic extremist 9/11 was a taste of victory, for many who were hurt the death of Bin Laden was the same taste.  If we keep going down this same road, it makes me anxious to ask, what will the extremist celebrate next?  Then, what will we celebrate after that?

I learned that de-escalation of conflict is difficult when you have a people full of pain.  I also learned that genuine love conquers that pain.  I learned that loving my neighbor means protecting them.  I also learned my neighbor serves Allah.  I learned that cycles do exist and we can encourage them or discourage them.  I’ve learned that the world is smaller than I thought.  I learned that my kids who were born 8 and 10 years after 9/11 would somehow need to know the story.  They will somehow need to feel my pain.  They will somehow need to engage the world in a loving way as to not perpetuate the cycle of destruction in a world that is already devoid of love.  The will need to remember the suffering of a people who were gone before they arrived.

Individualism isn’t all evil, it’s good to have an individual personality so one can stand on their own two feet.  It is extreme individualism that is killing our culture and harming public morality.  Extreme individualism is inherently selfish, community is inherently selfless.  Individualism leads to excess while community leads to generosity.

These might sound like bold claims but just think about the very simple task of going to the grocery store versus growing your own food.  At the grocery store you can buy one apple and meet your need, but if you lived in a village that grew their own food and you grew an apple tree, you can meet the need of many people in your community.

Here’s another example, and warning, this is going to sound liberal.  Why do you pay taxes?  Probably because you are compelled to by the IRS, but what is the thought behind taxes?  We all contribute to a government that will be for the common good of its citizens. (I know this is idealistic and there is a larger question about whether or not the government is faithfully stewarding the peoples’ resources, but humor me a little, will ya?) So the question I have is would you pay $50 more a year in taxes for our schools to improve?  For many of us that is an easy answer, we would say “absolutely no new taxes.”  I understand this mentality; really I do because I struggle with this.  So now that we have all voted “no” what happens to your local school?  Teachers get pink slipped, class sizes increase, the quality of education begins to diminish, the people with the means pull their kids out and send them to private school, thus reducing school funding.  Then what happens to the culture of the town where this school is going down hill?  Maybe the dropout rate increases, maybe crime and drugs become more prevalent in your community, maybe you start seeing prostitution, maybe the value of your home drops.  There are a lot of maybes in this scenario, but let me ask one more question.  Would you pay $50.00 per year to maintain the value of your home over the long term?

I realize that our government is polarized and seemingly useless right now, but I think our answers to the questions above say something about what we value.  Do we value community or do we value individuality? Do we act in the common good of society, or the common good of the individual.

I am thankful for my conversation with Chad, it went everywhere.  We talked about schools and taxes and even though you might think my senario is far fetched, it is what is playing out in his hometown of Indianapolis.  When we reframe our perspective from, “what is the best for me?” to “what is the best for my community?” then we take a jump from selfish to selfless from an individual perspective to a communal one.

It is interesting to note that Jesus has a solid plan for taking care of the poor.  It is called community.  It is called jubilee.  It is called generosity.  Some people call it love in action or incarnation living.  It is called the church, or the community of redemption…But what happens if that institution too has become individualized?

Lately I have been thinking through the relationship between the church, the people and the government.  Churches have always taken stands in the context of history, and in the context of history the church and state were more closely tied.  However, the secular state is somewhat new.  Over the time of recorded history there has almost always been some sort of religious system attached to the governance of the people.   The laws and ordinances usually reflected the values of the deity of the state. The secular state draws its values from tools such as the constitution or laws.

So in the secular state there is a tension that emerges when people have different value systems.  They want to push their value system on the state. Among the different flavors of Christianity some churches begin to look less like Christ and more like a particular political party.   When one church gains a reputation for looking like a political party, then guess who will never step foot in that church?, Probably members of the opposing party.  I remember in college, Campus Crusade for Christ sponsored a question wall, which each student was allowed to post questions.  One question read, “Does God hate Democrats?”  While entirely untrue, the perception was that the Christian God is a Republican.

Many Christian leaders who engage the political have some amazing beliefs and thoughts, they have great intentions. However great these intentions are, we need to ask the larger question about what are we doing to the community?  Are we ushering in a culture of polarization?  In which way are we introducing political discourse, are our conversations “seasoned with salt” and covered with grace?  Is it a “my way or the highway” conversation? Are we dividing instead of uniting?

Certainly there are issues, which are near to God’s heart.  Certainly we have to protect the poor, the widows and orphans, we need to defend the cause of the fatherless.   We have to be political because after all we are by nature political animals.  But how will we use it?  What will the tone of the discourse be?  Will we be known for our love, or something else entirely?

I wonder if these dads know the anger that their kids have.  I wonder if these dads realize that they are getting their kids off to a tougher start than others.  I wonder if they realize the affect on their child’s sexual identity or I wonder if they realize the lifetime of hurt they have caused.  I really wonder these things because like I said, I work with these kids, not dads who abandon them.

This weekend I found out that some friends were going through an adoption process, it didn’t really click to me until I got home but one of the ways that God is described is as a father to the fatherless. (Psalm 68:5) In the New Testament it says that we are the sons and daughters of God and that we are adopted into his family.

I always thought of the impractical nature of, God as a father to the fatherless,  “You should meet my dad, he’s so metaphysical!”  Children need a hand to hold, they need a face to grab, and they need to see the reality of their father in their lives.

It is so heart wrenching to see these kids and their issues when I know what it is like to grow up with both parents who were fully present.  God as father to the fatherless is a nice thought but not too practical, unless you think that you might be the physical extension of God’s hand into a child’s life.  God could be calling you to be the physical reality of a spiritual adoption.   What if God’s solution to abandonment and fatherless kids are adoptions and mentorship’s?  What if you are God’s solution?

Lucy is now six months and a little more difficult to please.  She doesn’t buy into the Dr. Star fanfare.  Lucy sleeps fine for all of her naps, but to go to sleep at nighttime she wants to be held.  She wants to feel the love.  I know it’s okay to lay her down for the night when she stops rubbing my arm and face.  When I hold Lucy before she goes down I get the sense that all she wants in the world is to feel her father or mother. She simply wants to know that she is loved.  Sometimes when she is crying all I have to do is rub her back and she is better.

This all got me to think that there are times in our lives when life is difficult or we feel pain.  During those times we just want to reach out and be comforted.  Just like the women who had been bleeding for twelve years who took a risk and reached for Jesus.  Just like Peter as he began to fall through the water and reached out for Jesus.  We all have that innate grasp that reaches toward the heavens in times of trouble.  But I guess the question is who or what are you reaching out to?  When times get tough, what is your first instinct to reach toward?

When God said, “Behold, I am making all things new,” I think Nancy got that in a deep way. She exemplified this verse by taking the broken and run down and breathing new life into it.  It was more than a job; it was the most natural thing for her to do.  I look back at her life in awe of the way that God wired her.  I wish I could see potential in things the way Nancy could, the way that God does.  Whether she was aware of it or not, the way Nancy looked at an old sofa that deserved to be thrown in the trash is the same way that God looks at us.  I would just throw the sofa away, but Nancy would have re-imagined it and given new life to the once broken sofa.

The way she lived illustrated God’s grace, I’m not kidding I broke her jet ski one time and she and her husband Todd just laughed about it.  I still owe them a throttle. The kid who should have paid for the Jet Ski part, the sofa that should have seen the trash, have an element of new life because of Nancy.

Will you epitomize the gospel with your life?   Will people say, she/he lived and breathed redemption? When all is said and done will others have felt the warmth of God’s grace because of the grace that you have extended to them?

http://nancygauntlettmemorial.wordpress.com/

The town of Laodiciea had a lot of similarities to North Korea.  They were a self-sufficient city.  They were well known for their city being destroyed by a massive earthquake.  The city rebuilt without any government aid.  They bragged about their wealth and they loved the fact that they could take care of themselves.

Most of the churches that are talked about in revelation have the same problem.  They take on the image of their community rather than the image of Christ.  The church in Laodiciea was so self reliant that they stopped needing Jesus.  Jesus famously scolded them because they cut themselves off from Christ the same way they were cut off from their water supply.   Their water supply was six miles away and by the time it was piped in it was it was dirty and lukewarm.  Jesus gave the line “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot, I wish you were either one or the other.”  The geographer Strabo, once rephrased Jesus’ words like this:  “Were you hot for bathing or cool for drinking, you would be useful; but as it is I feel toward you the same way you feel toward your water supply, you make me sick.”

Not only were they so cut off that when it came to the church services Jesus was literally knocking at the door asking to come in.  In a seminary class a professor once asked us to list everything our church did.  Then the professor asked us to suppose that there was irrefutable evidence that showed that Jesus wasn’t real, which programs would survive?  The sad answer was that we could probably still run everything, although we shouldn’t.

So in terms of “what makes a good church?” Laodiciea tells us that a church that is Christ-reliant is a good church.  A church that is not cut off from its source of life is a good church.  The temptation to do it all yourself will often leave you isolated and cut off from your source of life.

Haiti and the first century town of Philadelphia have a lot in common.  Philadelphia was a city that was very seismically active.  The entire town was often fleeing the city and then returning.  The town was characterized by fear.  The town also was a cultural center, setup to export Hellenism to the rest of the world.  The early Christians in Philadelphia were also subject to a fair amount of persecution.  However, in this letter Jesus praises this church more than any other.

This church suffered, it overcame, but mostly, it wasn’t afraid.  Unlike all of the other churches we’ve looked at, this church remained counter cultural and did not take on the fear that the rest of the city had.

One night Jesus’ disciples were on a boat ride and it became stormy so they woke up their Rabbi.  They said, “don’t you care that we are going to die?”  Jesus responded with a question, “why are you afraid, where is your faith?”  I think I would have been with the disciples on this one; at this point they hadn’t experienced the resurrection.  But The point of Jesus saying this is obvious.  God is in control; if you believe that God is who he says he is then there is no reason to fear.

This church took the fear of others and turned it into an opportunity to share about the security of Christ.  This is a church that didn’t make decisions based on fear, they made decisions based on a God who was and is living.

The city of Sardis was built on top of cliffs.  It had only been attacked successfully two times in its lifespan.  A small team free-climbed the cliffs in the middle of the night and opened the gates while the city was sleeping.  An attack on Sardis was rare.  The church in that city was a reflection of the safety that the town enjoyed.  During the time that John wrote Revelation there is no indication that imperial worship was required, neither was there persecution for being a Christian.  The church in Sardis enjoyed an unusual safety within the walls of the Roman Empire.

What Jesus had to say should ring loudly in the ears of the American church. “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.  Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die.” It is great to be a Christian in America.  You can give to your church and get a tax write off at the end of the year.  There is no danger of going to jail because of what you believe.  No one is going to hold a gun to your head and make you choose Jesus or not.  Life is good…we are safe.

But I am reminded of Jeremiah at the temple.  His message was, don’t think you’re safe just because you are at the temple, remember Shiloh?  But wait what happened at Shiloh?   At Shiloh the Philistines took the Ark of the Covenant in a battle.  The thought was, “we will be safe if we just take this into battle.”  They were conquered because safety can sometimes breed apathy.

When I played baseball a lot of times we would lose the game in the ninth inning when we were up by a number of runs.  We would just take the field and we thought that we already won it and taking the field was just a formality, our goal was to maintain our position.  Is that what church has become in America?  Taking the field in the ninth?  Have we become a church primarily concerned with keeping the structure in tact?  As I even write this there is a still small voice asking me when will you be ready to step out of your safe life?  When will you be willing to go to uncharted territory?

So what does a good church look like?  Maybe one who’s goal is not to maintain the structure of, “this is what we’ve always done,” Maybe one who is willing to innovate.  Maybe a good church rejects the safety that surrounds it and goes out on a limb each and every day.  Maybe a good church risks and prays.  A good church is humble, always knowing that God is in control and can remove them at the blink of an eye.

The resurrection is a promise for believers in Jesus but it also sheds light on a particular worldview.  In Thyatira many Greeks believed in what Plato and Aristotle developed as a kind of dualism.  That is body and Spirit are separate and you can do separate things to feed each of the needs.  This worldview leads people down a road of having two different and incompatible lifestyles.  This worldview can be particularly damaging in a church where the promise of Resurrection is all through the scriptures.  An understanding of resurrection communicates that the physical body and spirit as one and not two separate needs to be filled.  While Plato and Aristotle taught that the body was decaying and useless, the resurrection showed the importance of the body.

In the church of Thyatira there was a woman named Jezebel who claimed to be a prophetess and she led many astray.  All indications were that she taught the dualistic worldview of the time.  It seemed like a spiritual love of God and good doctrine and yet a physical and moral rebellion to God.  When you go down the Jezebel road of living you will eventually get to the place where you compartmentalize your faith and live two different life styles.

Thyatira was a town of trade guilds.  This was like the chamber of commerce except with religious rituals tied to them.  In order to do any business in this town you had to be a part of a guild.  The philosophy of a dualistic nature was convenient for these young Christians to latch on to.  If they could just have the attitude of, “what happens in the trade guild stays in the trade guild,” then they could do whatever they wanted. Apparently, Jesus wasn’t cool with this.

It is fascinating to note that this church faced a threat from within their walls and Jesus threatened to come take care of the problem.  So what does a good church look like?  I think its members look the same while conducting business as they do at church.  I think it’s members know that a belief in Jesus means more than  just a mental understanding.  I think a good church is fearless and bold because of their grasp on the resurrection promise.

Major thanks to: Daniels, T. Scott, Seven Deadly Spirits: The Message of Revelations Letters for Today’s Church.

A great read and a great historical and cultural resource