If it weren’t for walking …

Some days you would rather walk. Today the horse laid down. Tommie and I arrived for a lunch date at the Senior Citizens Center. Her invitation to eat there may have implied her true feelings about my age. We got in the car to head back to the school for FCA and there wasn’t even a “click.” Dead. No go. In my ears were ringing my Chevy freinds - “Found On Road Dead.”

I like my little car. It needs some love but I like it. Three hours later and several side trips, I was on the road again. The culprit - the negative battery connection to the block had worked lose. Thankfully Chuck told me to check that again or I would have installed the shiny new battery I picked up from him.

Lying there on the ground tightening the bolt made me glad for older cars. Were that a new car, I would have called the wrecker and got the check book out.

So, if it weren’t for walking I would as soon not own a car. As it is, I like my little “Pony.”

Sometimes we assume too much …

I received the following in an e-mail this morning. It certainly reflects on how quickly we assume/presume when it comes to others.

Helen, the church gossip and self-appointed arbiter of the church’s morals, kept sticking her nose into other people’s business. Several residents were unappreciative of her activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence. She made a mistake, however, when she accused George, a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his pickup truck parked in front of the town’s only bar one afternoon. She commented to George and others that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing. George, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just walked away. He didn’t explain, defend, or deny, he said nothing. Later that evening, George quietly parked his pickup in front of Helen’s house…and left it there all night.

Living beyond abstractions …

We make following Jesus too private a matter. We do not want anyone “advising” us as we “do what God wants us to do.” So, we fly under the radar only knowing in our own hearts if we are submitting to follow Jesus or not. Real problems occur when we try to communicate to others the value of following Jesus - living our life the way Jesus would live our life were he us. We speak with abstractions that keep following Jesus a matter of what goes on in our heads and has less and less to do with our lives - real living. How often do you understand the abstractions of others? Not too often. But, if we communicate with some visible expression what it means to submit to the way of life Jesus calls us to that would be altogether different.

At this point we must distinguish between moral decisions and spiritual decisions. Some believe if we have made the right moral decision (not smoke, not drink, not curse, etc.) then it gives evidence that we make right spiritual decisions (serving, loving, forgiving, kindness, etc). These two are not the same. So when we describe what it looks like to submit to the way of life King Jesus calls us to it will come in the form of our “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Eph. 5:21)

Our lives really are interconnected then. How we relate to each other goes a much longer way of showing what it means to follow Jesus than any moral decision we could come to. I certainly do not want to downplay Christian morality. However, sometimes we equate good morality with spiritual progress and that is not necessarily the case.

Blessed …

Our Sunday evening sermon was outstanding! Certainly a brash statement from the pastor. I did not preach Sunday night. Those who gathered literally shared the gospel - the victory of God in King Jesus. Story after story carried with it the theme of redemption or the hope of redemption. I was moved to consider how often the gospel might be more clearly communicated were we to take the time to listen to each other’s stories of the grace of God. Too often we forget how shared life is a great forum to declare the victory of God.

Slaves and a King …

From my weekly e-mail …

Wind. Chicago may be the “Windy City”, Oklahoma should be the “Windy State.” My neighbor has a wind generator (read, large propeller spun by the wind to produce electricity). In this wind, it sounds as though a plane is in constant “take off.”

We began a study through the book of Romans on Wednesday evenings. Many times we would like to think it is enough to have the letter. Is there really a need to understand the time in which it was written or is it so timeless interpretations in any century, decade, and year will reflect on the intent of God and the author he inspired? Take for example, Romans 1:1 and Paul’s self-designation as a slave of Christ Jesus. Today we might read, as our modern translations give us, that Paul was a servant. Our culture has some inherent misgivings about the word “slave” and so we use a word that creates the notion of a bit more dignity. We read the transliteration of the Greek word “Christos” to get “Christ” and associate that with Messiah. On the surface we may have sense we have done very little to alter the intent of the verse.

Offering a preemptive strike against the notion that Caesar was “King”, Paul used the word “Christ” to signal that “King Jesus” expresses the “Good News of God.” Rather than elevate himself, he used a description so debasing the contrast between slave and King could not be missed. So, now to hear the “Good News of God”, meant really good news to the slave who longed for God to make all wrongs right and to free by the power of the resurrection. We experience this “Good News” – the declaration that in Jesus, God satisfied his faithfulness and justice in the crucifixion and resurrection. Now our most hated enemy has been relegated to powerless – “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Cor. 15:56-57)

We have the Good News of God to declare to the people of the world in need of more than a home in a place called Heaven. People need to experience the freedom and liberation from the power and penalty of sin so they might live in the Kingdom of God the kind of life Jesus said he came to give – here and now! This Easter may we declare “Victory In Jesus!”

Who could you be declaring the victory of Jesus to? Who would need freedom from a life wrecked by the constant giving into sin? Who needs to know that in Jesus God secures a “New Creation?” There is an old song that begins, “We’ve a story to tell to the nations …” As the people of God, we do not have the option of declaring the glory of God nor do we have the option to be a blessing to the world. We who live in the light of the Covenant of Faith God made with Abraham, we cannot live otherwise lest we fail to show whose we are and worse yet give evidence we are not what we say we are.”

Let’s both live in and declare the “Victory of God” in King Jesus.

Victory today, not just tomorrow …

Jason’s sermon yesterday led me to consider a hymn we sing from time to time, “Victory In Jesus.” We sing lightly on the first two verses but bust it out singing the third. Yet, the hymn holds some important theology for us to consider. If Jesus won for us the victory, what did he win the victory over? We sing about the “mansion He has built for us in glory” as though that is what the victory did for us - solely give us a home in a place called heaven.

Yet, the theology of the Apostle Paul clearly points out that Jesus won the victory over sin and death - see 1 Corinthians 15. We should be banging out the first two verses for they remind us that the victory Christ won for us is not reserved for some future event but for today. The realization of the reality of this victory leads us to consider our need for radical renovation of the heart and an awareness that we go from life to life, not life to death to life. We experience life after life not life after death. What a victory we have in Jesus!

Friends …

Over the past year I have made an e-friend who has become a “phone friend”, who one day I hope to meet. Jim lives in Seattle. He is co-founcer of Off-the-Map. My first encounter with Jim and his website came last May. In a conference call he shared some fascinating insights on evangelism; especially significant coming from Seattle. I have heard another pastor there claim that Seattle to be one of the most “pagan” or “post-Christian” environments. If you get the time to go to his website, take a look at some of the streaming video clips. For example, “An Interview with 3 Lost People.”

An interesting development Jim is finding is more and more, people do not consider themselves “lost.” They even find it offensive to be considered “lost.” The question then becomes how do we share about the Kingdom of God and the victory of Christ? Do we have to find ways to help them “understand their lostness?” Or are there other elements of the Kingdom way of life that would be used by the Spirit of God to bring them to a place of repentance, confession and following Jesus, the Christ?

I suspect Jim has one way to raise curiosity and stir conversation leading to an authentic interest in someone coming to faith. He calls them “Ordinary Attempts.”

My best friend …

Twenty-one years ago this evening, I married my best friend. We sense today what we felt then, blessed God honored our lives with a deep friendship. What we thought was deep then seems only a shallow stream after sharing life for these years. Add to twenty-one the four years we spent “dating” and we have shared 25 years - a quarter of a century!

You never know who your are nor who you will become until living in the “furnace” of relationship. Don Miller in Blue Like Jazz underscores a life drowned in “my own personal” thing. I use “furnace” as a metaphor for a number of reasons. The fire incinerates detrimental relational elements. Fire purifies and hardens quality metals providing strength in the face of stress and strain. Fire provides warmth from the cold. Fire invites.

We look forward to more of life with each other - best friends. In the process we know in the next twenty-one years we do not know what we will be nor become but trust God will always be at work to “sharpen” us as we share life.

I love you Patty - Happy Anniversary!

… putting it together … following Jesus in this world …

We often take passages and lift them from their context. For example, Paul wrote to the Corinthians quoting from the prophets, “Therefore come out from them and be separate.” (2 Cor. 6:17). Paul wrestled with this community of Christ followers with regard to a number of issues. An overarching theme could be described as a plea to live in the liberation and victory of Christ and stop living the life of exile. Christians were not encouraged not to have relationships with those outside the faith. Instead, they were encouraged to order their lives according to the victory found in Christ. So, one who orders life according to the victory of Christ (righteousness) will not live the life of an exile (unrighteousness). For at the same time, Paul had earlier written to the Corinthians that he had become “all things to all people” so that he might “win some.” The description of “becoming” for Paul included entering relationships, exposing his connectedness and exposing the victory of Christ.

Eagerness for Christian utopia, reclusiveness, abandonment from the world often leads us to a spiritual arrogance that keeps those who need to hear and experience the victory of Christ receiving a garbled message. Real living, where the spiritual intersects the physical, exposes the fulfillment of life in Christ. Living only for the spiritual disconnects us from the good creation God gave us to live in. Living only for the physical ends in self-worship.

Christian communities must find ways to expose “real living” in Christ as we relate to a world in search of victory.

. . . won’t see this …

I walked through the building this morning and took a picture of the supply line for our “fire sprinkler” system.

Once the building is up and completed, you won’t see this water source. The ceiling will offer indications we have a “sprinkler” system, but you will not readily see the source.

We ought to give off evidences of our interior connections with Jesus - there should be signs. These exterior indicators will point to our “hidden life in Christ.”

We might not want to lose the further image that we may be opened up to reveal the “living water” of Jesus, the Christ.

Next Page »