Political Endorsement

By the time you read this you may have already voted, but at the time of my writing this, election day is not quite here. I do my best to stay away from voicing political opinions. I don't mind giving my opinion on many of the issues, but endorsing candidates is something that I've never done. But the political scene in our day and time has led me to feel a very strong need to endorse someone. The rest of this bulletin article contains some of the promises and part of the platform I hear from this individual.

The Promises:
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."

"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am."

The Platform:
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's."

"It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

"If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth."

"I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep… I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep."

Before we get too worked up about which candidates were elected to office, let's remember that God elected to love us long before we were old enough to vote. Life as I know it is best when we live worthily of that calling.

Lost!

Saturday night I couldn't help but wonder what one of the farmer's who first broke the ground on the South Plains would have thought if someone would have told them that one day people would pay money and then stand in line for thirty minutes for the chance to walk through a corn field. On Saturday night alone hundreds of people showed up at the Corn Maze outside of Lubbock to pay money and navigate their way through a maze cut into a corn field. Why would people pay money to walk through a corn field? Why would anyone knowingly enter a maze? The only reason I can figure out is the allure and excitement of being lost.

Now my personal opinion is that there is no possible way to actually get lost at the corn maze. Everyone who goes through knows that they will not actually be lost in the corn maze. But that knowledge does not prevent the inevitable from happening…practically everyone finds themselves muttering, "we're lost," at some point along the way. They have a map. They have a sheet of clues. There are other travelers on the path. There are workers watching over the maze. But everyone makes a wrong turn and gets lost at some point along the path. At some point everyone will come to a point when they don't know which way to turn.

In the corn maze that's fine – in fact, it is fun. But the sad reality is that many of the people you meet today are lost. They don't know which way to go. They don't know where to turn. And even though they have access to a map, clues, fellow travelers, and even workers along the path, they still find themselves hopelessly lost.

Maybe they are still having too much fun being lost to seriously consider needing to know how to navigate the maze of life successfully. Perhaps they continue to believe they can make it on their own without any help. Or maybe they can't understand how to read the map or have learned to not trust the people who try to point them in the right direction. Whatever the case, we, like all the generations prior to ours, live in a lost world.

I realized one thing while I was walking through the maze – if someone had been yelling at me that I was lost, it would not have helped me. The same is true in life's maze. Here's what will help: Help them understand the map. Walk with them to show them the path. Point them in the right direction and away from danger. Direct their attention to the one who knows the way out of the maze. Above all, patiently love them like Christ loved you. Oh, and don't forget to have fun along the way – a smile never hurts!

Life as I know it is about helping others successfully navigate their way through the maze to find the one who gives life...

Bad Fathering from a Good Source

I'm sure that after I post this I will have visits from child welfare experts. You see, I did a bit of bad fathering Saturday...I got my kids to work. The strange thing is, they enjoyed it. They kept asking if they could go work a little bit more. And the only hint of an argument arose because one was getting to work more than the others were.
By now you are probably thinking that this is just another story and that the "work" really wasn't work. So here's what happened on Saturday. It was a normal Saturday morning. The kids were being lazy watching cartoons or Hannah Montana (not ESPN as I've tried to train them to watch). And for some reason that I honestly cannot remember, I thought about the big pile of rocks behind the house. So I called for a huddle on the back porch. I told the kids that I would pay them a nickel for every bucket of rocks they hauled off. I found four smaller buckets and after each large bucket of rocks they hauled off they placed one rock into their small bucket so that we could have an accounting of the work that they did.
For most of the rest of the morning, they took turns filling a bucket and hauling it off. During that time they laughed and played and worked really hard. I was impressed. In fact, I was so impressed that I wanted to reward them for their behavior and their attitude toward working that day.
That afternoon (before happy hour at Sonic had ended) I asked if they were through working. When they assured me that they were through working for the day, I had them put up the shovels and count their rocks. I paid out the money that they earned. Then I told them how proud I was of the way they had worked and as a result I was going to give them more than they earned. Then I took them to Sonic and bought them their favorite drink.
As we were about to pull out of Sonic I told them the spiritual lesson that I had learned from God during my short time on this earth: when I am joyfully obedient to do the things he has asked me to do, He rewards me with more than I have earned. It is because of the love that God has shown to me that I know how to love my children. So my fathering may be bad, but some of the lessons I've learned come from a really good source.
Life as I know it is best when we cheerfully follow God's commands.

The Silence of Forgiveness

Deserted streets. Closed doors behind which families gather around a simple meal. The smoke from hundreds of cooking fires slowly lifts its hazy grasp. Jerusalem is virtually silent.

Silence is sometimes peaceful. At other times, though, silence is eerie and heavy. The silence in Jerusalem on the evening of Passover must have been an eerie, heavy silence. During the day Jerusalem bustled with activity. The walls of the city could barely contain all of the pilgrims who had come bringing their sacrifice to the temple. Each sacrifice bleated out its own music during that long and fateful day. Then, as hour after hour slowly crept by, the sounds of the sacrifices diminished. Family after family returned from the temple carrying their Passover meal which had been sacrificed on an altar.

As this scene unfolded in my mind, I couldn't help but think about the silence of forgiveness. I couldn't help but think about what it must have been like to witness the thousands of sacrifices which attested to the sinfulness of so many souls and the extravagant grace of the Almighty God to forgive. And I couldn't help but think about my own sinfulness and how trivially I treat God's grace and forgiveness. There is no bleating of sheep speaking out my sins. There is no long walk up the hill to present my sacrifice before God. Rarely is there any point in my life where I am confronted with the reality of my sins.

But tonight I hear the silence. And the silence is deafening in my ears as I think of the Lamb. The Lamb I think of in this thick silence is not a cute and cuddly pet that must be given at too young an age, but the all-powerful Son of God who willingly walked that road and laid down his life for sinners.

Too often I fail to think about the price for my sins. I ignore the reality of Paul's words that the wages of sin is death. I trivialize sin and think that it is no big deal for God to forgive me yet again. I ignore the fact that the sin in my life actually destroys the life that Christ came to give me. And so tonight I am reminded by the silence of forgiveness.

Life as I know it came at the cost of God's Son.

What Are You Thinking?

"Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things." Philippians 4:8

Let's start a list of true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy things to think about. Just add a comment (if you are on facebook - please click on the link and go to my blog and add a comment there) about something that you are thinking about that fits the Philippians 4:8 criteria.

Your Nose is Like the Tower of Lebanon

Today's reading in The Daily Bible (May 26th for those of you who will want to follow along) is Song of Solomon. If you haven't read Song of Solomon and are unfamiliar with it, its a... ummm... its about... Song of Solomon is a conversation between a lover and a beloved (and some friends who keep chiming in at seemingly inappropriate times). As with much poetry, it is difficult for me to follow exactly what the writer is trying to accomplish in this short book. And the difficulty is compounded by the fact that it is just hard to understand the sultry language that lover and beloved use to woo one another.
The plain cold fact is, if I told my wife, "your nose is like the tower of Lebanon," I would have the honor of sleeping for a couple of days...and when I finally awoke in the hospital room, my vision would be blurry for a few more days. But apparently, for Solomon, the tower of Lebanon is a pretty sexy compliment for a nose back in the day. (Personally, I didn't think there was a really good compliment for a nose - I know its nice to have one, but never found myself really admiring any one's nose.) I also never knew that temples that resemble pomegranates are a turn on. I thought the temple was supposed to be a gentle depression, not a prominent lump on either side of the head. (Turns out Frankenstein's monster is actually devilishly handsome in Solomon's eyes.)
Here's the deal - the language you use isn't really that important when you are conveying your love to someone as long as you communicate. Others may think your words are corny or stupid or funny or outright distasteful, but if your spouse understands you and the love that you are conveying it really doesn't matter what anyone else thinks. The real tragedy is in failing to communicate. To have a lovely bride and not tell her how beautiful she is in your eye is a good way to lose the intimacy of your marriage. To know the words to say to make your handsome husband feel like a king and never speak them is a good way to prevent your marriage from being the powerful union it could be.
If you haven't yet read "The Five Love Languages" by Gary Chapman, read it. Learn how to speak to your husband or wife in a way that will cement your relationship together. Practice writing a note to her about how beautiful she is. Whisper in his ear how handsome he is to you. Read Song of Solomon together and take turns complimenting each other's features. ("Your waist is a mound of wheat" is another of my favorites.)
Life as I know it is best when I practice telling my wife how beautiful she is. I confess that I don't do it enough. How about you? When is the last time you told your husband or wife how beautiful they are?

Celebrating the Not-Lasts

Its the end of the school year and everyone is looking forward to the last day of school. There will be many "lasts" this week. The last Monday of school. The last Tuesday of school...Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. We have already had the last programs. Coupled with the fact that we will be moving in a few weeks, the "lasts" at the end of this school year have seemed to been more poignant than in earlier years. So the actual last day of school will be the last day of this school for our kids...
All of the lasts that have been occurring over the past few weeks have started me thinking about the things before the last. We tend to celebrate the first and the last of everything. The first day of school and the last day of school are days of excitement, but the countless days in between are rarely celebrated. Opening day of baseball season is filled with anticipation and the final game of the world series is remembered, but during the middle of the season the games kind of run together.
If we aren't careful, our life becomes a monotonous drudgery of hanging on until we get to the end of something. Rarely is that type of life fulfilling. The people that inspire you don't meander through days hoping for something else - they take each day and make something good of it. Cal Ripken, Jr. didn't become one of the best known players by taking a day off because he wasn't in the mood to play that day. Brett Favre is respected by his youthful enthusiasm during each game, not just the big ones.
So instead of focusing on the last, focus on the not-lasts. Celebrate each activity, each day and make something of it. And if we do that, then when we have played our last game, we will be proud of our accomplishments.
Life as I know it is lived best when we don't wait until the end to try to live it. Make today count!

The Strength of His Hands

Take a moment to look at your hands. No, really - take a moment to look at your hands...this blog will not go anywhere while you are staring at your hands.
Notice the uniqueness of your hand - from the lines that give your hand character to the fingerprints that are like no other fingerprints in the world, from the callouses that show years of work to the soft pliable folds that can gently caress a tear away. Listen as the scars tell the stories of how they came to be. Remember the hands that your hands have touched and held.
Now then, imagine that you were looking at the hand of Jesus instead of your own hand. Carpenter's hands roughened by years of labor, yet softened by an eternity of loving compassion. Teacher's hands that animatedly punctuated the stories he told. Healer's hands nimble and deft at touching in just the right manner to bring comfort and health. The Savior's hands - rough, soft, animated, lively, nimble, deft...and nailed to the cross.
Can you focus in on Jesus' hand nailed to the cross? Can you imagine the pain of that nail protruding from your own hand? Wouldn't that pain drive you to the point that you would do anything to cause it go away? If it were in your power, wouldn't you pull your hand off of that cross, remove the nail, and walk away?
Isn't that the remarkable thing about God's love shown to us in His son, Jesus Christ? For he did have the power to pull his hand away from the cross. He could have pulled the nail out and walked away. He had the strength, he had the ability, he had the power to escape the cross. But he didn't. Instead of using the strength of his hand to pull away, he used the strength of his hand to stay...suspended on a cross, nailed to a tree, dying for you and me.

"Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God." -- Hebrews 12:2

Life as I know it is best when I remember the strength of the Savior's hand and realize that he is capable of holding me safely in his grasp.

Surely He Was the Son of God

Ever been late?
Not the type of late that is the “coming in to class or worship a couple of minutes after it started” type of late. Ever been the type of late that you want to kick yourself for? Like having the realization of the exact words that would have calmed a situation or comforted someone who was hurting – thirty minutes after you said something stupid? Or maybe you were wrapped up in your own little world and didn’t realize that you could have helped someone – until they had turned away and gone down a dangerous path and wouldn’t listen to you anymore?

When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” Matthew 27:54

Of all the people gathered near the cross of Jesus, perhaps the most unlikeliest group we would expect to confess would be the soldiers guarding Jesus. Remember this calloused group of professionals whose job it is to make sure that the condemned die in an efficient, yet brutal manner? They were not looking for anything spectacular. They had no idea who Jesus was. They didn’t know of the rumors or the claims that were being made about Jesus. But the events of the day – the earthquake, the way the rocks split open, the darkness that had enveloped them when the sun should have been shining its brightest – all these things told this brazen group that Jesus was not just a criminal hanging on a cross.
In unison they cry out their cry of worship: “Surely he was the Son of God!”
If only they had realized earlier… perhaps they could have cried out a different song: “Surely he IS the Son of God!”

This morning we gather at this table like we do every week. As a result of its frequency, it can become something that we merely go through with a glazed look and a mind racing toward the afternoon and all the things we have to do today. Before this moment passes us by and we race off to do all the unimportant things we have scheduled for today, stop and take a look around. Listen to the voice of Jesus as he breaks the bread with us. Hear his compassion as he explains the cup of the new covenant.

This morning, let us focus our thoughts and fix our eyes on Jesus. In the few moments that it takes us to eat this bread and drink this cup, let us concentrate our efforts on what this meal means. Let us break the body of Christ and drink the blood of the new covenant with reverent thanksgiving. Let us mourn our sinfulness and stand in awe of God’s grace. Let us confess our specific sins to the Father and feel the warm embrace as he welcomes us to this table and fellowships with us.
We gather around this table to celebrate God’s love shown through Jesus Christ. We gather to remember his death and the life that it brings. We gather to cry out with the soldiers, “Surely he IS the Son of God!”
Don’t let this moment pass without recognizing God’s presence with us.

Change

I'm writing this here to link it to facebook because facebook only allows 420 characters for a status update...and this one will probably be a bit longer.
At the end of June/beginning of July, the information on the side of this blog and the information on the information page on facebook will change. In January I received a call from one of the elders of Garland St. Church of Christ in Plainview, TX. They were looking for a preacher. I quickly told him, "I am not looking for a preaching job." For reasons that I cannot explain, the questions that he asked me and my quick statement that I wasn't looking for a preaching job bothered me. So the next day I wrote a letter to the elders in Plainview saying that I wasn't looking for a preaching job, but if they wanted to look at me they could - because if God was leading us to Plainview, I didn't want to go against what God was leading.
To make a long story shorter, on Monday night of this week the elders called and offered the job and my family has accepted their invitation. We are looking at being in Plainview by July 1st.
So, the things you read in the near future will have to do (I would imagine) with change and moving and saying goodbyes and things like that - if there is time to write. I ask that you keep the church here in Abernathy in your prayers as well as Garland St. and my family.

Perfectly Alright

I remember my dad coaching my little league team one year. As I recall, he was at the meeting and the team needed a coach. He didn't know a lot about baseball, but he coached us. I think about that a lot while I crouch down in the back yard "coaching" Lori as she learns how to pitch softball. (Other thoughts that go through my head while crouched down like a catcher: "I don't think my leg has ever hurt quite like that before," "gonna have to invent some sort of catcher's seat that will propel my body upwards so that I can stand," "please let her chunk one over the fence so she will have to go get it and I can stand for a minute," and "OK, how do you stand when both legs are asleep?") I don't know exactly how to coach her, but I still know a little bit more than her and can see what she's doing that is making the ball miss the mark.

We work on things together. I try to tell her what I'm seeing and offer ways for her to correct her motions so that she can throw more consistently. I constantly encourage her to keep trying. I've tried to notice when her arm starts to get tired so that I can tell her that she will have to concentrate and focus more - hoping that she'll realize that athletic pursuits are also mental pursuits. And I encourage her some more to keep trying, to have a little bit of patience with herself, to focus on the only pitch that matters - the next one.

Through all of this, Lori thinks the goal is to be perfect. She often gets frustrated when she sails one over the fence or rolls one toward some point between third base and home plate. And she also thinks that I expect her to be perfect with every pitch...because I keep holding the glove in the same spot asking her to pitch to that exact same spot over and over and over.

And somewhere in all of this, I've learned that I'm not the only one doing the coaching and Lori isn't the only one being coached. In that crouched down position watching pitch after pitch hit or miss the mark, God is coaching me. The lesson that He's slowly been teaching me is that He's not looking for perfection. He's looking for effort and attitude. He wants me to improve, but He knows I'll never be perfect. And still, He holds the glove in the same spot and asks me to hit the target over and over and over...

Life as I know it is sometimes learned when the knees hurt and the legs fall asleep and the heart swells with the joy of watching a child learn. God calls us to be his children. And if there's one thing I've learned from being a father, its that I love my children. And God desperately wants us to realize how much he loves us.

And Mary Stood Nearby

How often are we called to take our minds back to the cross? How often do we try to imagine that scene? How often does it come out looking like a silhouette or like a scene we saw in a movie once?
This morning I want to ask you to take your minds back just a little ways away from the cross. A little to the side of the cross. Imagine the scene as you hear these words from John’s gospel…
“Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother…”

Have you ever seen the cross through her eyes?
Watching your own son die?

Have you ever stood in her place as God offers forgiveness to the world?

We talk freely about God sending his one and only son into the world to save sinners. Somehow we think that God had everything worked out and so it didn’t really hurt him all that much. We figure that God already had the power to destroy death, so what did it really matter that Jesus was going to be dead for a couple of days.
But have you ever seen the sacrifice from Mary’s point of view? She didn’t know he would rise again. She didn’t fully understand the battle that was being fought or the victory that was being won that day. She saw her son – beaten and bloody, hanging, dying, on a cross. Perhaps she remembered the words Simeon had spoken when she and Joseph had taken Jesus to the temple after he was born, “and a sword will pierce your own soul, too.”

This morning as we gather around this table, let us remember the real sacrifice that was made. Let us remember the pain and anguish of this sacrifice. Let us be touched again by the real, raw, emotions present with us at this table. And let us be thankful that the sacrifice was made that can bring us peace.

How to Give - by Luke Gauntt

How do you decide what to put in the collection plate on Sunday? I remember the younger days when I would optimistically pull my wallet out of my back pocket and slowly open it up. More often than not, there was nothing in it. If I did see bills, I always hoped for a couple of ones...and prayed that I didn't have just a five or a ten...cause that causes a dilemma - give it all or keep it all???
With the invention of Dave Ramsey, we are now able to calculate exactly how much we should write a check for each week. But I know that there are still emotional struggles when the collection plate passes by. I know that there are people in pews struggling with how much they should put in...will they be able to pay all of the weeks bills if they put in what they wanted to put in...? So, for all of us who struggle, I offer this solution to how to give that I learned from my son, Luke, this morning.
Before the offering was about to be taken, Angie pulled out her wallet. In the bill section, she had three ones. She quietly pulled them out and gave them to the older three children. But Luke, sitting in her lap, didn't get a dollar to put in the collection plate. So after passing out the bills, Angie opened up the change pocket on her wallet and asked Luke if he wanted to get some money out to go in the collection plate. He quickly stuck one fist in and grabbed as many coins as he could. After retrieving a handful of coins, he stuck his other fist into the coin pocket and again retrieved a handful of coins. Then, he dove back in with his first fist, still filled with coins, and tried to pull out even more coins.
That's how to give.
Life as I know it is lived abundantly when we keep reaching deep down inside so that we can give more and more and more.

That Day

“I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.” (Matthew 26:29)
Toward the close of the Passover meal that was transformed into the meal that we celebrate today, Jesus gave his followers hope for the future as he promised that he would drink the fruit of the vine with them in the Father’s kingdom. We tend to focus on that part of the sentence, reminding one another that Jesus is coming back for us and that we will be with him throughout eternity. It is good to encourage one another in this manner…in fact, Paul tells us to do so in I Thessalonians 4:16-18 as he writes,
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words.
But these words also imply something else, in the meantime Jesus is absent. Jesus said that he would not drink the fruit of the vine again until he drank it in God’s kingdom. In the upper room, those who drank the cup heard that Jesus would not be feasting with them any more for a while. His absence would soon be painfully real to them. They would be facing the world without him from now on. Yes, he had promised the spirit, and the spirit did come, and Jesus is with us in spirit today, but he is not physically present as he once was.
The disciples who ate in that upper room would face the pain of a cruel world. They would be persecuted. They would suffer. And they would ultimately die – most of them as martyrs. The fact that we continue to gather around this table reminds us of the same thing. In this world we will face trouble and persecution, pain and loss…our Savior is presently absent. We cannot escape that fact.
But he will return. And we will go home. And we will feast with him. And we will never again face pain or loss or suffering of any kind.
In the meantime, we gather around this table, remembering the pain that Jesus went through on our behalf so that we could be cleansed of our sins. And we also gather around this table to wait for his return, when all the pain will be washed away with our sins and we will be brought into the glory of the kingdom of God.

God's Plan for Your Life

“I know God has a plan for my life – I just wish I knew what it was.” We are quick to quote Jeremiah 29:11, and even quicker to allow that promise of God to bring us to a state of anxiety because we are afraid that we’ll mess it up somehow. Jeremiah 29:11 says: “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” We read that and immediately envision one single solitary path among the millions of possible paths…and start thinking that if we miss that one single path we will miss out on God’s blessings.
I know. I’ve been there. Worrying and worrying about all the “what if’s” in my life. Using all kinds of bad theology to support my anxiety.
So, let me share a little bad news and then lead you to a new way to look at God’s plan for your life. Here’s the bad news…if we are going to claim Jeremiah 29:11 as a personal promise that God is making to each one of us, then it seems we must also claim Jeremiah 29:10 as a personal promise that God is making to each one of us. Listen to this bit of encouraging news, “This is what the Lord says: ‘When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.’” If we are going to claim the good news that God wants to prosper and not harm us, give us hope and a future, then we must realize that he also keeps his promise to give us over to Babylon for a time so that we can learn to repent of our waywardness. The good news of Jeremiah 29:11 comes after the Israelites have spent 70 years in exile.
On top of this, God is not making this promise to an individual – he is making it to his collective people, the nation that he sent into exile because they had turned their backs on him and worshiped other gods. I will not say that we can’t take this as a promise to each of us – I do believe that this is God’s desire for each one of us. However, it is important to realize that even though he brought his people back out of exile, there were many who still suffered during that time. Not everyone got all of the exciting blessings that we imagine when we read Jeremiah 29:11 for ourselves.
Now, back to where I was heading when I started writing this – God’s plan for our lives. We all tend to get anxious about whether we are living the life we are “supposed” to live – did we make the right career choice, did we marry the right spouse, did we make the right move? May I direct your mind to another scripture as you think about all of these issues?
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make your paths straight.”
These are the words we read in Proverbs 3:5-6. If I read them thinking about which path I should take (out of the millions of available paths), I find not one single path that is pleasing to God, but a lifestyle that is pleasing to God. And when that lifestyle is pleasing to God, then he will take care of making sure the path is straight. It isn’t about choosing the right career, its about working for the Lord in whatever work you find to do. It isn’t about choosing the “right” spouse, but about making the decision to love your spouse in the same way that Christ loves the church. It isn’t about making all the right moves, but about serving God in those moves.
Live as I know it is full when we trust God with all our heart and let him worry about making the paths straight for us.

The New Covenant

(Here is another communion meditation from a few years ago... Hope it helps us to remember the reason we gather together on Sundays...)

Jesus was supposed to remind his followers of the exodus. He was supposed to tell the story about how the Jews had been enslaved in Egypt and how God had brought them out of slavery with a mighty hand. He was supposed to talk about the angel killing the firstborn of those not protected by lamb’s blood and about the Israelites leaving Egypt in a hurry and about crossing the sea on dry ground and about manna from heaven.
But he didn’t.
Instead, Jesus took the unleavened bread and defined it as his body. Then he took the cup and instructed all of his disciples to drink from it explaining, “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26)
The disciples were expecting to hear the exodus story from long ago, the story that they knew so well. Instead they heard a new exodus story. The story Jesus tells is not a story about God demonstrating his powerful mighty arm through plagues and death. This exodus story is not about placing the blood of a lamb on the exterior of a house. This story is not about leaving in a hurry and having to eat unleavened bread. It is not a story of crossing the sea on dry ground. The story Jesus has for those who will follow him is not a story about the past – it is the story of a new covenant established with his blood.
The new exodus story is the story of God displaying his power through unending love, unimaginable grace, and unmerited favor to all those who will follow him. It is the story of being immersed in Jesus’ blood so that our entire lives are covered by his blood. The story is about leaving slavery to sin and accepting the life that he offers.
This morning we take part in the new story of the exodus. We pause to remember how God worked to bring us to where we are today. We pause to remember the love of Christ and his sacrifice. We pause to look forward to the day when he returns and we are taken home with him. We pause to be thankful.
This is our story. We were slaves to sin, but God chose to bring us out of sin. He sent his son to rescue us from those sins. He offers us forgiveness through the blood of his son which was shed as he died on a cross. He offers us new life through the same power that raised Jesus from the grave.
Let us remember this story as we eat this meal with thankfulness and as we live our lives in a way that brings glory and honor to him.

Video Game Church, Part 4

This is a long article. You might want to set aside some time to think about it or print it off and read it later. Please don't stop half-way through and not return to it. If it is helpful, feel free to share it with others in your church - either by referring them to this blog or by printing the articles off and handing them out. There is no copyright on any of this - use it as you see fit. And may God bless you as you seek to work in His kingdom today.
Steve

So what does a church look like when it is immersed? As strange as it may seem, I have actually seen glimpses of an immersed church. Perhaps we can use a glimpse to help inform our vision of what an immersed church looks like.
The immersed church I am envisioning is a small group on a mission trip to Mexico. The purpose of the trip is to work on building a church building. Each person has dedicated a week of their life to go on this trip. Each person has paid their own way to go on this trip. Each person knows going in that the week will be a physically demanding week – a week that they will use skills that they do not possess on the van ride into Mexico. But each person is willing.
On Monday morning, the job for the week is laid out. By the end of the week, there is a point that this group must reach so that the following week another group can continue building from that point and work on the next phase of the building. The person who has the master plan in mind helps the leaders of the mission team see what all needs to be done during that week. From that point on, everyone has the same objective in mind – to complete the task for that week. But even though the objective is the same, each person begins to take on different jobs and tasks to make sure that the objective is complete.
During the course of the week there will be difficulties that arise – obstacles that must be overcome in order to complete the objective. But in my experience, these difficulties do not destroy the team as long as the entire team is motivated to accomplish the same task. Instead, the team will grow extremely close during that week. The hard work and reliance upon one another draws them closer to each other. They learn to share the work load. They learn that there are moments when they will be strong when others are weak, and they learn to lend a hand. They also learn that there are times when they are weak and have to accept someone else’s hand to help them with their task. Together they will doubt whether they will be able to accomplish all that they are called on to do that week. But together they will work together until that task is accomplished and they are successful.
During that week, they will also share in true worship experiences. They will sing songs together each evening. They will pray together each evening. They will think about scriptures together each evening. And during these times they will draw closer and closer to God as they learn to depend upon Him each day for the strength to do the things they have gone to Mexico to do.
The mission team is an immersed church. They are completely immersed in what they are asked to do for one week. They will work as long and as hard as they need to in order to accomplish that task. Obstacles and difficulties are overcome as they work together to solve problems. And worship becomes a relational experience. This has been my experience when I have been on mission trips.
So if this is a glimpse of an immersed church, how can we make this normative rather than anecdotal? How can we make our own congregations immersed bodies who operate in this manner rather than stagnant organizations that meet once or twice a week? Here are some of my conclusions based on my experiences…
1. Commitment from each member.
To go back to the image of kids playing video games – I’ve noticed that the kids who aren’t actively playing the game aren’t immersed in it like the ones with their hands on the controllers. For a church to completely immersed in the work of being the church, each member must have their hands on the controllers – they must be active and committed to the vision of that congregation.
2. Purpose/Mission.
What is the mission of your congregation? Do you know? Do you have a role that you are seeking to fill in your community? If not, your congregation may be struggling to find an identity. The members of your congregation might seem less committed than you think they should. It is hard to commit to a vague notion. Churches (and probably this would be the task of the leadership of the congregation) must do the hard work of looking in scripture to find what churches are supposed to be. Then they must do the hard work of looking in their community and seeing what the community needs. And then that church must do the hard work of beginning to meet the real needs of the people in that community.
3. Biblical unity.
Here’s the hard reality – God didn’t establish one mold for all Christians to be poured into. He didn’t give you the same talents he gave me. If our job in Mexico was to level a large section of land so that we could pour a four inch concrete floor with columns for the walls, and everyone decided that our job was to tie rebar – we could not accomplish our task for the week. For some reason that makes sense when we talk about building a building, but it seems like a foreign language when we try to apply that to the church. We tend to have in mind that we must all think and act alike. For a church to truly be immersed in the things we need to be immersed in, we must each learn to be the part of the body that God has called us to be. (I Corinthians 12)
4. Face difficulties and obstacles together.
Too often, whether in work settings or churches or homes, difficulties and obstacles become a reason to become angry with someone else rather than an opportunity to work together to become stronger. My focus in this article is the church, so I am mainly thinking about how the church reacts when something happens that some members do not like. It is time that we mature to the point that we can share our concerns with one another without judging. And as we share or learn of concerns, we must discipline ourselves to commit ourselves to working with the rest of the congregation to find a solution. It is only when the entire body works together to overcome an obstacle that the entire body can overcome an obstacle. If we are not all working together some will hurdle the obstacle while others get stuck. When that happens we are no longer a unified body.
5. Learn how to be strong.
Being strong does not mean dominating. It means that a person has the ability to help someone else who is weak at the moment. Being strong is not a permanent condition or a universal condition. I am strong some times while not strong at other times. I am strong in some areas, but not in others. We need to learn to recognize our strengths and use them to benefit others.
6. Learn how to be weak.
Being weak does not mean that we are less than the strong. It merely means that we need some help to face the situations we are in. But being weak is so offensive to us that we would rather suffer for weeks or months or years rather than accept the help that is offered by someone else. We need to learn that its OK to lean on someone else for a time. And during that time we need to learn how to serve someone else – so that when we are strong, we can assist someone who is weak. Some loads are too heavy to lift by ourselves. If we are stubborn and insist on lifting it ourselves, we will only injure ourselves…and then the load will fall on even more people to lift.
7. Sacrifice our own desires in order to meet the objective.
On a mission trip where we work to build a church building, each person has a desire during the day to return to the hotel. Sitting in an air conditioned room or relaxing in a pool is much more desirable than hauling off more debris or hauling a dozen more mixer loads of cement in five gallon buckets. But if the job is to be done – the desires must be sacrificed. We live in a world that says our desires are more important than the objective. It is time to turn that around.
8. Worship in Spirit and Truth.
Worshiping in Spirit and Truth is more than getting the acts right. It is the worship of the heart whose sole desire is to praise God. I have often found that the act of worship is most pleasing when I have immersed myself in the work God has placed before me. Showing up at a building to sing a few songs and endure a message is rarely worship if the way we live our lives the six days prior to that hour reflect very little about the relationship we claim to have with God. Tex Williams once said, “If you want to improve your sex life, you need to improve the other twenty-three and a half hours of the day. If you want to improve your Sunday worship, you need to improve the other six days of worship.”
9. Learn to rely on God for strength to accomplish our tasks.
This is a hard lesson to learn. We often pray for God to work and then expend all of our energy trying to show him how he needs to work. We must practice listening to the Spirit and feeling the urgings of the Spirit as he guides us. We must realize that “success” is up to God, and that it is our job to do the good deeds that he has prepared for us to do (lessons from Nehemiah 2 and Ephesians 2). How much time do churches spend worrying? And how much time do they spend walking in the faith and assurance that God is working?
10.
I really should have a tenth point here so that this could be some sort of top ten list. So feel free to add a point and send it to me. But to have a complete list might give us the sense that we could accomplish all of this if we follow a certain pattern of steps. This is not the case. All of this is said to illustrate the simple point that if we will learn to live like the Bible calls us to live we will be effective and productive in the work God has called us to do.

Life as I know it is a lot like a mission trip. And the trip will only be successful when the whole church realizes that we have a mission to do and each member of that church begins to work toward that goal.

Video Game Church, Part 3

Immersed in the lifestyle of Jesus. Immersed in the practice of the early church. Now for the third immersion – immersed in the Holy Spirit.
What??? A Church of Christ minister speaking of the immersion of the Spirit? How can that be?

Listen to what Jesus says:
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give food gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” – Luke 11:11-13 (NIV)
Has the church failed to ask for that which we need – the Holy Spirit? Have we used our human strength to nullify the working of the Spirit of God in our congregations? Have we used our intelligence so much that we have puffed ourselves up to the point that we do not realize our weakness and how much we need to ask the Holy Spirit to indwell our churches once again?
If so, is it any wonder that people are leaving dissatisfied with the church? For if the church is not empowered by the Holy Spirit, then the church has nothing to offer other than the things the world offers. If Christians are not guided daily by the Holy Spirit and teaching others to live under the guidance of that Spirit, the church is weak and ineffective in producing Christ-like followers who make a difference in the world around them.

So what does it look like to be immersed in the Holy Spirit? Should we expect the miraculous manifestations that the early church experienced? Would it bother you if I said, “maybe”? I don’t believe that those manifestations are common or necessary to prove that one is immersed in the Holy Spirit, but if God chooses to work in that way, should I stand in opposition to that?
Here is what I have in mind when I speak of Christians and the church being immersed in the Spirit. We must begin to be spiritual humans and not merely humans. We must begin to think about spiritual matters. We must realize what the Bible clearly teaches – that the things of the world don’t matter while the Spiritual matters are of everlasting importance. Being immersed in the Spirit means that we practice keeping in step with the Spirit, as Paul urges the Christians to do in Galatians 5:25. Being immersed in the Spirit means that the church and the members of the church develop the fruits of the Spirit in their lives – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Before you write this off and say that this is just pious talk or unnecessary, let me ask you one more question. How much time do you spend seeking the Holy Spirit? Have you asked God for the Holy Spirit like a child asking your parent for the food you need to survive? Or are you sitting idly by thinking that mere church attendance is a sufficient demonstration of the life of Christ?
Life as I know it is best when we do our best to keep in step with the Spirit. I have not fully realized what this means, but I am growing and maturing – and God is faithful to give us good things when we ask… so I’m learning to ask.

Holy Moments

I've learned that the quietness of Sunday mornings can be special when interrupted by a child. This morning it was my youngest, Luke, who quietly walked into the den. I was sitting in silence thinking about the lessons and sermons of the day and straining to hear God's voice over my own thoughts. Luke snuggled up next to me, never saying a word. As the pre-dawn light faintly illuminated the den, I noticed his fingers beating out their own rhythm - following their own pathway to illustrate whatever was happening in his mind.
We continued sitting there for fifteen or twenty minutes - neither of us saying anything. Him snuggled up to me, me watching his hand and thinking of how small it is compared to mine (how large it is compared to the tiny hand it used to be - how small it is compared to what I anticipate it will be one day). I fought back the stinging in my eyes as I continued to watch the rhythm of his ever-growing hand... And I thought about how God looks at me and longs for me to snuggle up beside him in the quiet still of the early morning.
The silence was eventually broken when Luke got up to go get the Nintendo DS. But he came back and sat right beside me and started to play. And I found myself enjoying just sitting there watching him play his game - even though I cared nothing about the game he was playing. And again, I thought about God looking at me and longing for me to sit beside him as I play my games (which may not interest him in the least).
And without my realizing it - I had heard God's voice.
Life as I know it is best when I snuggle up close to God.

Drink From It, All of You

While Jesus and the disciples were making their way to Jerusalem for the last time, the mother of James and John approached Jesus, bowed down, and asked that her sons might be promoted above everyone else in God’s kingdom and that they might sit on either side of Jesus. After their mother made this request, Jesus addressed the brothers by asking them if they could drink the cup Jesus was going to drink. They readily agreed that they could drink the cup. I believe they argued this way because they thought it would assure them of their place at Jesus’ side. Then Jesus told them that they would drink of his cup, but that he could not guarantee their place at his side in the kingdom – that decision would be up to God alone.
Somehow the ten heard about the favor asked of Jesus by James and John and their mom. Their power play led to division among the twelve. Ten were against two. The NIV uses the word “indignant” to describe the reaction of the ten to the twelve. The desire of James and John to be promoted, to drink the cup of Christ, divided the group.

A few days later the twelve found themselves in a room together with Jesus eating a very important meal. During the meal, Jesus revealed that there was a traitor among them. Judas then left the group at some point to gather the posse that would arrest Jesus. During that same meal, Jesus took a loaf of bread, defined it as his body, and gave it to the disciples to eat.
“Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, ‘Drink from it, all of you.’ ” (Matthew 26:27)
Together they would all drink the cup that night. No one would be excluded. No one would be elevated above the rest. No one more important, no one less. The cup of Christ is an equalizing force. It humbles the exalted and exalts the humble. It unites us all together as one group. Around the table there is no discrimination, for we are all forgiven sinners who have been saved by the power of the blood of Christ.

I invite you to take your mind back to the cross this morning. Remember the sacrifice that was paid. Remember the cup of suffering that Jesus drank on our behalf. Remember the drink he took on our behalf as he tasted the wrath that our sins demanded. As we take part in this feast, let us be thankful that we have the opportunity to drink from the cup of Christ. And in our thanksgiving, let us remember that all who drink from the cup drink from it equally.