Something is Stirring...

Something is stirring

Reading the book of Luke over and over again, preparing to go through it for our Sunday gatherings starting at the end of 2008. I’m reading it out loud as I walk. Stuff jumps out.

Sometimes it makes sense.

Sometimes it doesn’t.

Sometimes Jesus lays back.

Sometimes he picks a fight.

When you read it out loud, you can’t escape or gloss over it just to get through it. You get surprised all the time. It forces you to climb inside the story.

Like Luke 5.15-16 Jesus is gaining popularity - word is out about this amazing prophet talking about a kingdom. Then Jesus does what we don’t expect him to do and Luke points it out vividly for us: “But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer.”

And I’m thinking it may be time to withdraw – for me personally and for our church. Not away in isolation but in greater connection and relationship to God to seek him and to discover more fully his kingdom.

Also reading This Beautiful Mess by McKinley. Confirming some of the thoughts and direction I’ve been pondering.

Stay tuned

America repent? First things first!

See many YouTube videos, MySpace pages, blogs about the evil in our country and how as a country we need to come back to God. We point to the recent court decision in California on homosexual marriage, the numbers of abortions, the porn industry etc....

But it's so easy for the people of God to call out to the nation to repent, to stand up and point fingers of God's judgment agains sin. And of course if we stand out there calling the nation to repent, then we don't need to look in the mirror and hear the call of God on our lives to repent.

And I'm becoming more convinced that before America comes back to God, America's churches need to come back to God. Not on behalf of America and her sin, but to take a good hard look at ourselves and repent over and over again for our complacency, for our addiction, for our immorality, for our divorces, for our greed and materialism.

I wonder if Jesus is calling out to his church like he did in Laodicea. He's standing outside adnd wants to come back in. It's his church and He wants it back. And this is not just about the liberal and dead churches. So many of us evangelicals with all of our programs, and staff and middle class culture and values... So easy as the conservative slice of the Christian pie to point fingers and call all the liberals and legalists to repent. And miss the fact like the Laodicean church, we think we're rich strong well fed when maybe we're miserable poor blind and naked.

He wants us all to turn to him in repentance. It's interesting that Jesus and John's first messages to their generation when they broke on the scene was, "Repent, the kingdom of God is at hand!" Maybe it's time to start again

Salsa Dancing

I’m a recovering Baptist. We didn’t dance at all growing up so my feet and my brain are disconnected. They stopped communicating a long time ago!

I’m a terrible dancer.

No matter. I love my wife Denise and she loves to dance, so last Friday night we signed up for salsa dancing lessons.

It all started well. Simple steps: Quick Quick Slow Pause and do it again. Then we had to turn and move our hands and keep in sync with our dance partner.

Somewhere around the 40 minute mark, I hit overload. I was overwhelmed with everything we had learned and we weren’t even to anything cool yet. “I’m never going to get this.” I just gave up and privately swore I would never do this again.

So I sat out for a bit and somewhere in the flashing lights and salsa music blaring out of a speaker, God revealed something so vividly to me.

For the first time in a long time – maybe ever- I knew exactly what it must feel like to be someone beginning to learn the first steps of following Jesus. Overwhelmed, frustrated, wondering if they will EVER get it, if they’ll ever be good enough. And some just figure that there has to be a better way to spend Sunday mornings.

I vowed to always remember what this feels like. And I wanted to pull a few people aside and apologize for how I and others may have overwhelmed them in the early stages of their spiritual journey with Jesus.

It’s so easy once you know the steps that you assume this should be easy for everyone. But we forget we live in a world full of sinners. And in a weird way, their lives and their heart have stopped communicating a long time ago.

So I get up to try again and I have a whole new respect for the courage so many people show who come to church for the first time or who come back after being gone for a while.

American Idol, NBA playoffs and Self (made) righteousness

Watching American Idol finals...NBA playoffs...all the political primaries... and then this verse Luke 16.15 "What this world honors is detestable in the sight of God." And i was feeling so justified in condemning the values of the world we live in. Felt very good to do that - very satisfied and smug...

Until I read the first part of the verse: "You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts." And then i didn't feel so smug. I felt a healthy sense of shame for my self righteous attitude and for the sin of self-made righteousness that can be so prevalant in my life and in our culture. People doing all kinds of good things to make themselves righteous, especially when compared to others less righteous. I'm tempted to list out people like this, names so many would recognize, except that then I fall right into that self righteous attitude and the action of making myself righteous before God by what I do.

And in the midst of all this, I came across a great song by a guy named Keith Green - a pioneer in Christian music in the 70s and 80s. He used his gifts to speak prophetically to believers in Jesus. The song is Grace By Which I Stand. The song preaches the message that nothing lasts except the grace of God by which we stand in Jesus.

And once again, I'm brought back to the cross and the amazing truth of God's unfathomable grace. And that I don't have a chance with God except for the grace he extends to me in Jesus. His grace covers everything. His grace saves me from myself - and my self (made) righteousness- unless I hold onto it. Then God's grace is diminished and without any effect in my life.

And that's why Jesus says that what the world values is detestable in the sight of God. Because when i value my self-made righteousness, I disrespect and diminish the grace of God in Jesus. I want to live with Biblical passion and focus in my life: "As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified and the world's interest in me has also died."

NO TV

So what do you do when the satellite goes offline and you don't have TV??!!??

No World Series tonight - No Office, Survivor, Dancing With The Stars (my wife Denise loves the show) - no football at all this week.

Gives you more time to think...

The fires have devastated so many lives and disrupted life as we know it. We were in between the worst of the fires. All we got was a little smoke and some nervous afternoons looking out at the hills wondering if the wind would shift.

How do you pray at a time like this? "What do your pray?" is maybe the bigger question. I prayed for rain - for the wind to stop. I prayed that people would pay attention and not exhibit stupidity and false bravado. and then tonight while i was walking the dogs i silently wondered to God how he might be honored and glorified in the midst of all the chaos and destruction. And I prayed in particular for the people who follow Jesus (Christians) who are and will be involved in helping people. For the firefighters that God would keep them safe, that the ones who have to make difficult decisions about deployment of men and women and equipment. I prayed for the Christian insurance agents, for the Red Cross workers and all the volunteers who are serving. I thought about and prayed for the people in our local, state and federal government who have to make difficult decisions about how and where the limited money will be allocated.

And then i thought of the families who lost homes in these fires. Of course i pray for quick action and for their comfort and safety. But my biggest prayers have been that they would respond in such a God honoring way - that the people of these cities would maybe see a compelling difference in how people who say they follow Jesus (the one who lived and died and rose again, who we say reigns as King and Lord over the universe) actually respond to tragedy and loss like this.

And then i pray that the winds stay down, that the rain will fall and that the rebuilding will begin quickly.

And my satellite TV still isn't on yet. It will probably come on just about the time i've weaned myself off of it - just in time to get addicted again!!

Another One Bites the Dust(?)

Ted Haggard, an important evangelical leader in our country has been accused of drug use and homosexual activity. Click here to read more of the story: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20061103-0639-haggard-sexallegations.html


Perhaps you’re disconnected enough from the Christian religious-political scene that this won’t even mean that much to you. You’re one of the lucky ones.

We don’t know all the details yet. Keep that in mind.

But it probably doesn’t matter, because it seems there’s enough smoke to make most of us think that there’s got to be a fire there somewhere. This isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last. I’m to the point now that I don’t think I could be shocked (surprised, yes but not shocked) by any revelation of any high profile Christian leader who has screwed up in a major way.

It got me to thinking though, that in this case at least, the leaders are taking swift, decisive and measured action to deal with it. It’s exactly how Paul tells Timothy and us to deal with spiritual leaders who sin in 1 Timothy 5.19-20 “Do not listen to complaints against an elder unless there are two or three witnesses to accuse him. Anyone (read elders and spiritual leaders) who sins should be rebuked in front of the whole church so that others will have a proper fear of God”

When it comes to spiritual leaders who screw up, we’re not to sweep it under the rug and keep it quiet. And yet that’s often what happens for all kinds of reasons. The one most often used is “to protect the flock”. We don’t want to hurt people or the church (usually that means we don’t want people who give money to the church to leave). And yet in our efforts to protect the church, we allow spiritual cancer and a virus in that often has devastating consequences for the long term health and future of the church.

I’ve told our leaders at Inland Valley Church that if they ever get involved in high handed sin we will not sweep it under the rug but will make sure everyone in our church knows who was involved and appropriate (not graphic) details will be shared.

What’s amazing is that when you deal with it like this, people often have a greater respect for the leadership. While the church always suffers during these episodes, sin is dealt with and the church can move on.

Ever just felt Blahh?

What does it feel like when you just don't feel anything?
Is there something I'm doing that's wrong?
Is it stress?
Am I over caffienated, under caffienated?
Do I watch too much TV - LOST Survivor, Dancing With the Stars (my wife tries to make me watch it with her)... 24 and American Idol haven't even started yet!!

One of the things I pray for during these kinds of seasons is for clarity and discernment - I ask God to show me if there's something there I should be paying attention to. And then I try to just sit and listen - sometimes I write in my journal to process impressions God may be giving me.

And the journey continues...