Wild Grapes

Isaiah 5:1-7:
Let me sing for my beloved
my love song concerning his vineyard:
My beloved had a vineyard
on a very fertile hill.
He dug it and cleared it of stones,
and planted it with choice vines;
he built a watchtower in the midst of it,
and hewed out a wine vat in it;
and he looked for it to yield grapes,
but it yielded wild grapes.

And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.

What more was there to do for my
vineyard,
that I have not done in it?
When I looked for it to yield grapes,
why did it yield wild grapes?

And now I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard.
I will remove its hedge,
and it shall be devoured;
I will break down its wall,
and it shall be trampled down.
I will make it a waste;
it shall not be pruned or hoed,
and briers and thorns shall grow up;
I will also command the clouds
that they rain no rain upon it.

For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are his pleasant planting;
and he looked for justice,
but behold, bloodshed;
for righteousness,
but behold, an outcry!

There is much talk of fruit in the bible. It makes sense; communities in biblical times were largely agricultural. There is a very easy correlation in planting and harvesting crops to growth and health. The consistent result is always fruit…or the lack thereof. Good fruit = everything is healthy; everything is as it should be. Lack of fruit, or bad fruit = something is wrong; things are not as they should be.

The poetry of this passage in Isaiah is disturbing. God reveals His heart in a way that seems to communicate confusion and frustration over His people’s condition:
What more is there to do with my vineyard that I haven’t already done? I’ve chosen the most fertile soil; I dug it myself, cleared it of stones and planted the best breed of plants. I built a watchtower in the middle of it to watch over and care for it; I’ve built and prepared the vat in anticipation of the great harvest, and only wild grapes. Wild Grapes!! What am I supposed to do with wild grapes??

So, what’s so bad about wild grapes?

I decided to Google the term and came across the Chateau Z vineyard in Lynchburg, Virginia. You can tell from their website that these guys are passionate about wine making and breeds of grapes and cross-breeding grapes. Very interesting stuff. Here is what they had to say about wild grapes:
Here are the wild grapes currently in the collection at Chateau Z. All are very resistant to disease and insects, but they are not wine or table grapes by any stretch of the imagination. These grapes can develop high sugar contents but it is always accompanied by high acid levels, often 5-10 times higher than cultivated grapes. A big goal that has always been in the mind of American breeders is to get the great disease and insect resistance and lose the acid and (often) strange flavors.

I immediately recognized these grapes. My entire childhood my grandmother lived in the same house until she died. Every spring we would wait for the trellis in the backyard where her porch swing hung to blossom in the thickest, green grape vines. We would wait and wait, every now and then plucking a fat, purple grape and popping it into our mouths only to screw up our faces in a sour pucker and quickly spit it back out. This would continue throughout the summer until we realized that they would never become sweet. I realize now that for however good these grapes looked, they were wild grapes; they were worthless. By the end of summer the grapes would produce only high levels of frustration as they were smashed by shoes and bare feet and tracked in through the back door, staining the linoleum. The first time I heard my grandmother swear was when she one day went out in her socks and stepped on one of these herself.

Strong, resilient, resistant to disease and insects…acidic, sour, worthless. Wild grapes.

So what am I to do? I’ll tear down the protective hedge and wall that kept the wild beasts out, they will move in and feast and trample the vines. I’ll command the sun and rain to not bother with shining and watering. I will stop caring for it myself, it will become a barren wasteland overgrown with weeds and thistles; I will move on.

What was the fruit, the good grapes that God was looking for?
I looked for justice, but found only bloodshed.
I looked for righteousness, but heard only an outcry.

Justice and righteousness.

This is a common theme throughout Isaiah, God is looking for justice and righteousness. God is not merely looking for resilience, for longevity, for resistance to evil, God is looking for His people to produce something.

Listen to what He says through Isaiah in chapter 1. After going on for a while about being sick of their religious practices that feign holiness, He says starting in verse 16:

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from
before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless (the orphan),
plead the widow’s cause.

Keeping ourselves pure and undefiled from the world, from evil, is only one part of what God is looking for. When we stop here we become acidic, sour, maybe strong and resilient, but utterly useless. Learning to do good, seeking justice, correcting oppression, bringing justice to orphans and pleading the widow’s cause are all very tangible things that require us to DO something.

So how do we know when we are doing enough?

That’s just it, we cannot do enough! This is where the children of Israel got it so wrong over and over again. Jesus came and taught not a new holiness and righteousness, but brought clarity to the holiness and righteousness that God was truly looking for; holiness and righteousness that grows like ripe, delicious, hearty fruit on a well tended vine. And the root of that vine is Jesus Himself. When we find our base in Him, when we have our beginning and growth and sustenance in Him, then we take on His health and not our own. We begin to bear the kind of fruit that is pleasing to God as the natural product of who we are in Him. He begins to direct our lives and we stop worrying about doing, and what should I be doing, and how much should I be doing; and instead I am open to His leading each and every moment of each and every day. Doing then becomes a part of my life, not because I am seeking action, but instead because I am open to His leading and doing just becomes the natural and regular overflow of who I am. This is where God’s Kingdom comes and His will is done, in us, His chosen Kingdom instruments.

We are His Kingdom agents, cooperating with all that He is looking to accomplish in this world. Not wild and useless grapes, but ripe and delicious cultivated grapes of great value and worth and use.

The interesting thing about this vineyard is that it is the grape who decides; will I be wild, or will I plug into the vine and allow Him to define who I am?

God had(?) a dream

Isaiah 2:2-5:

It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the

LORD

shall be established as the highest of the

mountains,

and shall be lifted up above the hills;

and all the nations shall flow to it,

and many peoples shall come, and

say:

"Come, let us go up to the mountain of

the LORD,

to the house of the God of Jacob,

that he may teach us his ways

and that we may walk in his paths."

For out of Zion shall go the law,

and the word of the LORD from

Jerusalem.

He shall judge between the nations,

and shall decide disputes for many

peoples;

and they shall decide disputes for many

peoples;

and they shall beat their swords into

plowshares,

and their spears into pruning hooks;

nation shall not lift up sword against

nation,

neither shall they learn war anymore.

O house of Jacob,

come, let us walk

in the light of the LORD.

I think many in the church today have convinced themselves that God has given up.

The story, as some see it, goes something like this (in outline form):

I. The beginning.

A. God creates everything.

B. Man rebels against God.

C. Things get worse and worse until God gives up and decides to kill everyone.

II. The second beginning.

A. God starts over with Noah.

B. Things get worse and worse until God gives up and decides to scatter everyone.

III. The third beginning.

A. God starts over with Abraham.

B. God forms a nation to show everyone how they're supposed to live.

C. The nation rebels against God.

i. God gives them another chance.

a. The nation rebels against God.

1. God gives them another chance.

ia. The nation rebels against God.

1a. God gives them another chance.

1ia. (repeat many times over...)

D. Things get worse and worse until God gives up and decides to divorce his people.

IV. The fourth beginning.

A. God starts over with Jesus.

B. Jesus presents the Kingdom of God.

C. People kill Jesus.

D. People rejected Jesus' presentation of the Kingdom of God so God gives up and

decides to withdraw His Kingdom idea until a later time.

V. The fifth beginning.

A. God starts preparing everyone for the end of the world.

B. Things will only get worse and worse because God has once and for all given up and

now we will destroy ourselves to a certain point and then God will finish the job

Himself. There will be fire. There will be flood. There will be disease. There will be

war. And oh yes, there will be blood, rivers of it, an ocean of it, and then it will all be

done.

VI. The sixth beginning.

A. God starts all over again with a comparably few, now perfect souls who couldn't rebel

against Him even if they wanted too, because now, everything is perfect. God is tired

of the mess we have made of things over and over again, and this time, we simply

won't be able to...

But what if God has never given up? What if God's dream of Isaiah 5 is still very much alive in His heart? What if this has been His dream from the beginning and throughout all time? What if God is ever patient in His love and in His plan for us to participate with Him in this dream? What if this is exactly what Jesus was talking about when He taught His disciples (and us) to pray, "Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in the heavens."

What if when we settle for the idea that God has given up and is looking forward to the destruction of all things, we settle for hell on earth?

Paul said in Romans 8:19-24,

"For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved."

So which should our prayer be:

1. "God, please keep me pure and holy from this evil world until the end so I can one day live in Your Kingdom."

or...

2. "Father, Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth just as it is in the heavens; and please start with me. Give me Your strength, wisdom and courage, to follow Your guidance and live with Your overflowing love to be salt and light in this world as an agent of Your great Kingdom, longing to see the whole of Your creative goodness restored to Your beautiful vision."

Can you tell which I am in favor of? Would you pray with me....?

Beyond bleach

For many years I lived under the heavy burden of the reality of my own sin. I wanted to follow God, I wanted to do what is right, I wanted to not give in to sin, I just didn't know how. And so this subtle shift began in my life; I went from focusing on trying to stop sinning to focusing on punishing myself for my sin.

I remember one afternoon in high school when no one else was at home, I went into my bedroom and shut the door, I pulled off my shirt and took my belt and began to whip myself. It was all I had left. The burden was so great.

I knew that God had forgiven me time and again, I knew that he would continue to forgive me, I just had this picture of Him standing above me with His arms folded and shaking His head saying, "Ok, one more time....but you're really testing my patience here little man!"

Isaiah 1:18, "Come now, let us reason together says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool."

What I have come to realize is a new momentum in my life, a moving toward God and not just halting the downhill slide away from Him. I have come to realize that God is primarily concerned with movement. He pleads with Israel and Judah to return to Him, to stop wandering further and further from Him and simply return. In this he does not talk about the covering over of their transgressions, their sins, but instead a complete and total fresh start. "...though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool." This is the transformation of one thing into another; scarlet to white, crimson to wool. This is so beyond bleach.

This song of David in Psalm 103 sealed a new momentum for me, starting in vs. 8:

The Lord is merciful and gracious,
slow to anger and abounding in
steadfast love.
He will not always chide,
nor will He keep his anger forever.
He does not deal with us according to
our sins,
nor repay us according to our
iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the
earth,
so great is His steadfast love toward
those who fear Him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does He remove our
transgressions from us.
As a father shows compassion to his
children,
so the Lord shows compassion to
those who fear Him.
For He knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust.
He remembers that we are dust.
He remembers that we are dust.
He remembers that we are dust.

Bleaching a blood stain out of a pair of jeans is ok, but the jeans will never be the same. A new pair of jeans, well, the blood was just never there...

This is beyond bleach, this is a brand new life from above.

A new momentum

One thing that I have come to understand in the last few years is that while I can take much personal application from the bible, it was not written to me.

I know, brilliant right! I am a master of the blatantly obvious...

I think this is a way a lot of us read the scriptures today though, "What is God trying to say to me here?" While this is an appropriate question, I think it is out of place, our first question should be, what was God saying...period? Who was He saying it to? When did He say it? What was going on when He said it? When we have a reasonable grasp on these questions I believe we then can begin to ask God, now what do you have here for me also? What do you have here for us?

The basic premise of Isaiah is fairly clearly laid out. The nations of Israel and Judah were not following after God. They had become corrupted with the idolatry and self gratification of the nations surrounding them. The children of Israel were to be set apart from the rest of the world, set apart, holy to the one true and living God. They were falling down on their one primary calling. So God was preparing to unleash the surrounding nations to bring judgment on His own children. I know this sounds harsh, but I genuinely believe this action to be inspired by God's immense love for his sons and daughters. They were on a path to self destruction from which they may never return and this was God's way of leading them to refocus on the life that He had given to them, life with Him. It was who they were intended to be.

And so we enter chapter 1.

Vs. 2, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: 'Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me.'"

Isaiah goes on to speak for the Lord His pain at seeing His children living in such spiritual, moral and physical desolation. People spreading evil and corruption instead of goodness and blessing and light as they were intended to.

He goes on to say in vs. 11-15, "What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations-I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood."

Wow...

It strikes me that even though God commanded all of these forms of worship at one time, He is now saying stop; following the rule, the ritual is not good enough. I would rather you not gather in solemn assembly at all in your current condition than try and look as if everything is alright in your religious expression "on the weekend". So what is God's requirement in this?

Vs. 16, "Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil,". I think we have really clued into this in our churches today, it's time to stop the backward momentum of sin in our midst. All of my life growing up in the church I have heard about the power of sin to destroy the life of the believer. How their is no room to allow even a little sin to exist because once it takes root it grows and corrupts. I think this is true. The answer presented to me was to simply stop sinning. In fact this was passionately preached, "Wash yourselves! Make yourselves clean! Remove the evil of your deeds! Cease to do evil!" And so I tried, and I tried with all of my heart! I wanted to stop sinning! I tried to stop sinning, I really tried....but I couldn't, and so I decided that I would at least appear to stop sinning. I was surrounded by people who had somehow mastered the art of not sinning (or so I thought), and I was not going to be the only one struggling in the midst of so many who were so holy. It was only later when the divorces and rumors of affairs, and illegitimate children were born, and the drug addictions all started coming out that I began to realize I wasn't the only one trying to 'fake it til I make it'. The other thing I began to realize is the more I was trying to convince others of my own righteousness, the more I had to draw attention away from myself and to other blatant evil doers, homosexuals, baby killers, liberals, and so on.

What I am realizing now is that washing myself, making myself clean, removing evil deeds from my life, ceasing to do evil in and of itself only leads to stagnation. Yes, I may stop, or more likely somewhat slow down the momentum of sin in my life, but now I am going nowhere, now I am doing nothing. I begin to be known for what I am against, not for having a new life from above. It is not what God had in mind for Israel and Judah or for us either. We were never intended to stop living, we were intended to live differently, the way we were created and purposed to live, a life from above. We cannot get stuck on vs. 16, we must keep reading.

Vs. 17...
learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless, (the orphan)
plead the widow's cause.

There must begin a new momentum. When Jesus began His ministry, He began to preach, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Repent, change your way of thinking. Cease pursuing your own way of life and follow me to learn a new way of life, my way of life, a life from above. There must be an end to evil and sin in my life, in our midst, and their must be a new momentum that begins to build in a new direction.

A direction of doing good; not just thinking good, holy, righteous, Godly, thoughts, but actually DOING good in our lives.

A direction of seeking justice. That we not stand idly by permitting injustices around us.

A direction of correcting oppression. That we stand for those who cannot stand for themselves.

A direction of bringing justice to the orphan and pleading the widow's cause. Those who are so often times forgotten because we hate to gaze into the eyes of pain. That we live to create community and family with those who have been violently and suddenly stripped of their own.

When we begin a new momentum, we move further and further from evil, not because we are trying to stop its tide outright, but because our lives are becoming so full of His life that there is simply no more room for evil. Swing your fists at the darkness and you will only bloody your knuckles. Move toward the light, and darkness will retreat with no effort at all.

It's time for a new momentum. A momentum of the demonstrated goodness of the Kingdom of God.

A new look at something old

I have been raised in the church my whole life. I've attended Sunday school and participated in kid's christmas plays, my house was filled with bibles and bible story books, I learned all of the stories and grew up with the idea that God really did love me (I wasn't sure if He actually liked me; I was a pretty major screw up most of the time). I used to sit and read my colorful bible story books for hours and it gave me a real love for the stories of the Old and New Testaments. As I grew older I became more and more interested in the reasons behind my faith and so I began to grow more and more fascinated with the writings of the apostles in the New Testament.

One section of the bible I have stayed away from for the most part though are the writings of the prophets in the Old Testament. It wasn't that I didn't try, I mean after all if you're going to be a good Christian you must read straight through the bible once a year (I never actually made it until well after I was married), I would just get hung up when I got to this section.

In the last couple of years I've been going through a major shift in my thinking. It has opened up my faith and relationship with God in ways I never imagined. God has grown in my thoughts, in my views of Him, in His splendor and majesty, in His goodness...He has grown in me. It has been wonderful, it is beyond words.

I've decided lately to go back and take a second look at the prophets and see if this new way of thinking, this larger, grander, more magnificent view of God might affect my understanding of these books. I've always known that these books too are the word of God, they are powerful and reveal His very heart and mind, I just felt as if something were missing in me to be able to see it. I'm thinking I might be ready now.

So I'm starting in the book of Isaiah. My intention is to journal my journey through this book here. It will be a great discipline for me and will help to organize my thinking. Maybe someone will decide to read along and journey with me...I'd welcome your company and your thoughts. Journey's are always better with company.

I'm in no hurry to get through it, and I'm definitely not intending on writing a new commentary of the book, merely journaling my thoughts as things strike me throughout. So...here goes...

National Youth Worker’s Convention – Part 3

I think I’ve discovered something, I’m not sure that I like conventions.

It’s not that I didn’t love a lot of the speakers, it’s not that I wasn’t encouraged greatly by many of them, it’s not that I didn’t learn a lot, and learn even more questions that will take a good amount of thinking and processing to get through. It’s none of those things; it was the raw exposure of the state of youth ministry in the American church today that was so painful.

I was overwhelmed in the ‘Exhibit Hall’. “Buy this book, and that one, and another. Come to this camp, we have the best activities of anyone around (one camp cost almost $300 per student for a weekend……for a weekend!!). Get an autograph from this artist, musician, speaker, he/she is a spiritual celebrity! Buy this music, sign up for this free drawing, look here… buy this… sign up for that…” At one point in time I looked at my brother-in-law who was there also and said, “I know this is a convention hall and not a temple, but I wonder if Jesus would turn over any of these tables?”

We found one speaker particularly helpful and Jess talked to him about our own youth ministry. He said he was familiar with our area and would love to visit us and be a resource! We later researched his fee for being a ‘resource’ and learned that he charges $3,000 per 2 hour seminar……………………..

I know, these are resources to make our ministries better, to help us connect with students more, to help our students connect with God. It was just hard to see that with all of the money flying around. (And just so you know that my hypocrisy knows no limits, I bought several books myself. You can ask me which ones if you like, maybe I can redeem myself to you…)

Particularly disheartening were all of the conversations of attending youth workers that you would over hear waiting in line for something or passing in a hall. “I want to get home to try this out…. I can’t wait to implement this strategy… I just bought this program for our students to help them witness better…”

The wonderful thing about all of this is God met Jess and I there anyway. Wonderfully so. He ministered to me, He told me He loved me and desired that I pursue Him more than anything else in the world, and He told me in a way that was as clear as I have ever heard Him. It was amazing.

I learned some very helpful things about relating to and helping hurting students, and was reminded in a powerful way that the best way I can help students move towards God is to follow the apostle Paul’s example, “Follow me, as I follow Christ.”

There were a few prophets in the crowd sharing the wisdom of the way of Christ, “Your greatest pursuit should be your own relationship with Christ, and then with your wife and your children. If you fail at those, then there has been no ministry at all, only work.” “The Kingdom of God will grow just fine without you; it is not resting on your shoulders. Pursue God to join His great movement!” “The pursuit of large attendance in your youth ministry is the enemy of deep youth ministry. Jesus often drew a large crowd, which He promptly drove away with a few choice phrases.” “Pursue God-sized dreams. In other words only pursue what God desires, not what you or anyone else think things should look like.”

And so it was good, and God was there, and He did speak. And He said, “Maybe if you slow down a bit, you will be able to hear Me more, and next time we won’t have to meet up at a conference.”

Sounds good.

National Youth Worker's Convention - Part 2

So how do you condense a whole weekend of seminars, classes, conversations, and other experiences into a couple of blogs.... you don't. So instead I'll just ramble for a bit on what I believe God to be impressing upon me, trusting all the while that most likely, no one will read this anyway.

One thing that is for sure, God is much bigger than I ever imagined. Now, this isn't to say that I've been keeping Him in a box, just that my ability to imagine is growing more and more every day. I'm excited about that! He is big, BIG, HUGE!! He is amazing, wonderful, awe-inspiring, awesome, and I have to stop because I'm now starting to feel as if I'm doing Him a great injustice with the littleness of my words. My descriptive imagination still has a way to go after all.

Some words I can use, He is good. He is so good. He is love, not just in a theoretical sense, but in a very real sense.

I know this to be true.

Again, not merely intellectually, but I've experienced His love. This is where I believe that heaven and earth kiss, in the soul. When God breathes life into our spirit and we step out of the graves of self, when our minds begin to understand the realities of who God is and who I am now in Him, then I become not a spiritual creature, but no longer physical either, instead there is a third reality, I step into the eternal.

I have a beginning, but I have no end. I cannot see God with my eyes, but I see the reality of Him everywhere. I am not like Christ today, but I am more like Him in this moment than I was in the last. I am not sinless, but my sin account looks much like a bucket with no bottom. I am not perfect, but I am being perfected. I know in part, but I am fully known. I have to say that again, I am fully known. And desired. And cherished. I am loved.

This is my role as husband and father and friend and youth minister and mentor and worship leader and...and....and....and.....and..... This is my role to fully embrace who I am in Christ. To fully embrace the person that God intends for me to be. To fully embrace the passionate pursuit of knowing Him.

It is only in this that I will be able to personify who He is to the world. It is only in this that I will begin to decrease so that He might increase. It is only in this that I will see a new reality in my life, a reality that Paul spoke of in II Corinthians 5, "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us..."

National Youth Worker's Convention - Part 1

I'm going to try a discipline this weekend, actually writing in my blog! I know, it should seem like a no brainer, but for some reason I just struggle with sitting down to do it. I always love it, feel a bit rejuvenated, fired up even, when I do, so it just needs to be a discipline. Especially this weekend.

Jess and I just arrived late last night at the National Youth Worker's Convention in San Diego. We've been here once before about three or four years ago, and it was wonderful. So much encouragement, so many resources, fellow youth workers bouncing ideas off of each other. It's good to be back.

I'm really looking forward to this year's conference, wondering what God may want to open our eyes to this year. That's not to say that He can't or won't throughout the rest of the year, but I do believe their is something special about taking time away to focus in and listen, and especially during this time of being surrounded with a large community of like minded family. I know it will be good.

So, my discipline will be to take a few breaks and jot down some of those things that I believe God will speak. Feel free to comment on, ask questions about, or even challenge me in anything I might say. I think that's part of the process too.

Alright, here we go!

Reworking it.....

Hey all, I'm changing my blog over to this address after struggling for so long with the crappy service from the last one. For now I've just got my posts transferred over, still working on transferring your comments over. So thanks! Maybe I can get a bit more regular.....not that you need any more of my random thoughts! :)

Searching For Value - 6-12-10

Over the past year or so Donnelly Bible Church has had the privilege of working with the Calvary Christian Center Food Bank in Donnelly. Mostly through the regular efforts of pastor Brian and a few very faithfully committed individuals whom I won’t mention by name because I’m not sure if they would want me to or not, but you know who you are; thank you! Although not all of us have had the opportunity to work in a hands on kind of way at the food bank, most of us have helped with cans of food, bags of rice and beans and so on. The need has been great here in our community, and God has been amazingly good!

About a month and a half ago, due to shortages in the food supply from the Idaho Food Bank in Boise where we get much of our supply at greatly discounted rates, Brian thought he would reach out to the churches in the valley and ask if they would be willing to consider taking us on as a mission of sorts to collect canned goods and such. He contacted six churches and I have to say it was a bit disheartening. Out of the six he received only one response. The response was a list of questions, they are as follows:

How does this effort connect with the Donnelly Bible Church in evangelism and follow up? In other words how are they connecting with these individuals/families on a spiritual basis also? Is it a gospel centered ministry effort?
How often do they need to have this support for these areas of food and other necessities? Weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly?
Is Donnelly Bible Church affiliated with a denomination or any other churches that you know of here or elsewhere?
It was questions 1. and 3. that threw me a bit. Are we doing ourselves and the name of Christ a great disservice when we begin to separate caring for our community and evangelism and connecting with people on a spiritual basis? That we begin to see these as separate practices and not profoundly intertwined, hopelessly entangled even? As to whether or not it is a ‘gospel centered ministry’, I suppose that would be answered by your definition of the gospel. If your gospel is limited to the forgiving of your sins so you don’t have burn in hell, then no, this is not ‘your gospel’ centered. Feeding a family who is hungry doesn’t cause them to fall to their knees and beg forgiveness of God. But if the gospel is defined as the good news of God’s Kingdom being available to everyone, then this is a deeply gospel centered ministry in where we are demonstrating the reality of God’s Kingdom being here and accessible and available to all and this is what it is to be a citizen of this Kingdom. A community of the redeemed caring for one another. Which, by the way, generally has the affect on people of causing them to reconsider their life and see that life in this community, life where trusting Jesus, following Him, learning from Him, is a far better way to live their own life.

As to our affiliation, who we are affiliated with is the body of Christ. We are brothers and sisters in the family of God.

How do these questions strike you?

Here was my response to Brian, I’m curious if anyone is thinking I am making too much….

“Brian,

My first response was that my heart just sank. My second response was if I were not already a Christian, I don’t know that I would want to be. I’m not so sure that Christians really know Jesus. Third it makes me feel as if I need to apologize to our community. The embarrassing kind of apology like when you’re at a nice restaurant and you’re loud and obnoxious uncle decides to join you for dinner and you’re looking over at the other tables who are all looking at you, without really looking, and it’s not your fault that he’s here and annoying and offensive, but because of that family link you feel responsible……that kind of apology.

These questions are great…for a corporation engaged in philanthropic ventures. Not for the living blood and flesh of Christ though. How about a simple yes or no? That would have been so much better than questions to determine our worthiness to receive their food. And the other churches who just ignored you…..I am simply speechless… You’re asking for help to feed people who have no food, right here in Idaho, would it have been better if you were to ask to send resources to Haiti or Mexico or even better yet Africa!

It is no wonder that this generation is being lost, the ‘church’ is failing to show them anything of value. This is why so many of our youth today can say, “Yes, I believe in God, I just don’t like to go to church.” Even they recognize that God has left the building. And what is the alternative? It is the spiritualist who tells them to see God in nature, the buddhist who tells them to be at peace with everyone, the mormon who tells them that family is everything and the atheist who tells them that we must care for the sick and hungry. So they settle for a portion of God that is tangible….AND ALL ALONG IT IS US WHO SHOULD BE DEMONSTRATING THE GOD WHO IS!! THE GREAT I AM!!

No wonder He will say to so many, “Depart from Me, I never knew you.”

I am loving more and more what it is that we have been so generously gifted to participate in together here at Donnelly Bible Church. I desperately want our people to not see it as church as usual, because it is not! We are engaged in something magnificent here, something resplendent! (I had to look up that word. :) I hope I used it right!) And it is not of us, I wouldn’t dream to try and grab at this explosion of light, but it is in us and flowing through us and transforming us so that we might be able to handle and do even more. Definitely not church as usual though.”

So…….any takers? Feel free to call me out if you find it necessary. Feel even more free to join in the active community of Kingdom citizens who are demonstrating the good news of the gospel. This truly is the best way to live! This truly is the abundant life!

A Follow Up To 3-14-10 Message - 3-15-10

This is a follow up thought to the message I gave at church this Sunday. If you’d like to hear the full message you can download it at www.donnellybiblechurch.com.

I believe God wants us to pursue Him with wild abandon.

Why does that scare us at times though? “What if I get off on some wild tangent?” “What if I miss God altogether?” “What if I start to pursue something other than God truly thinking I am following God?” What if….what if….what if….what if……

Pursuing the infinite with wild abandon should give us pause, but who is God anyway?

I think sometimes we imagine God as this great cosmic matador, and if I go running for Him with my arms open wide yelling, “Daddy! Daddy!” then suddenly He will whip back His great red curtain with a thunderous “OLÉ!” and we will run by Him wondering where He is…..

But what if God does really love us? What if He even likes us? What if He gets excited about the thought of me letting go of everything and pursuing Him with wild abandon? What if we can trust Him? What if He wants to be found? What if when I give myself to finding Him He would actually place Himself in front of me so that I could find Him? What if….what if…..what if….what if…..

I think God is truly that good. I think He is bigger than I could ever imagine so I shouldn’t fear thinking too big of thoughts of Him. I think the bigger thoughts I have of Him the more I will see Him, the closer I will feel with Him, the more our relationship will grow and the more I will start to resemble Him.

That’s what I think, what do you think?

A Follow Up - 3-28-10

A follow up…..
This Sunday, March 7th, I talked about how we are the body of Christ, the physical representation of God to the world. There were some closing comments that didn’t make it to the cd that I think are helpful, so I would like to share them with you here.

A good friend of mine once told me, “God doesn’t call the equipped, He equips those whom He calls.”

When it comes to this great calling and privilege of being God’s body, the body of Christ, His physical manifestation and representation to the world in which we come into contact with, one thing that God is not concerned with is whether or not I feel worthy of this. This is who God has called us to be, and so, if we choose to participate with Him, He will be the one who transforms us into His accurate representation.

So many times we get hung up with needing to get our own acts together. That kind of thinking is a pursuit of profoundly missing the point. The kind of life that God is calling us to is a journey, a ‘with Him’ kind of existence. My role in participating with Him is just that, participation. Asking me to change into something else is like asking an onion to change into an orange. It’s just not going to happen. But, God can do the impossible for with Him all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). My participation then becomes my act of saying, “God, I’m tired of smelling bad, turn me into something sweet.”

The question isn’t whether or not God is capable of doing this, the question becomes do I really want God to do it? For some, that is a very scary question. Do I really want God to bring whatever is necessary into my life to bring about this change that only He can do? Do I really want God to raise questions in my mind that cause me to question beliefs about Him and myself and my faith that I have held tightly to for much of my life that would bring about this change? Do I really want God to ask of me to let go of some or all of life’s comforts in order to bring about this change? Do I really want to let go of all say in my life to Him in order to bring about this change? Do I really want to say to Him, “Yes, do with me as You will, take me where You want to take me, challenge me how You want to challenge me; my life is Yours, have Your way with me.”?

This is why God will settle for no less than total surrender on our part. Not because He is an ego-maniac and it’s My way or the highway, but because it just really isn’t possible for me to fully cooperate with Him in a transformation process while still holding on to my own way. It’s just not possible.

God will be faithful to make me into the kind of person who can accurately portray His face, His likeness, His character to the world. Do I want Him to?

Tragedy Near And Far - 1-23-10

Tragedy near and far…….
This last weekend was marked by tragedy.

Abroad, the earthquake in Haiti has claimed an estimated 200,000.

Right here, a McCall-Donnelly high school student’s life ended.

There are two things that tend to affect us about tragedy; level of impact such as the large numbers involved in Haiti, and personal connection such as someone dying close to home, where we may have known him or his family, or his friends. This last weekend was tragic on both of those levels.

On Monday night at our high school bible study I asked our students if anything that we have been talking about for the last year and a half has any relation to these tragedies right now? It’s a valid question. If there is any part of my life where God may not apply, where I would need to look outside of Him for a valid solution or answer, than is this worth our time?

I’ve had a couple of encounters this week with some who have had a knowledge of God for at least a very long time, who are good and moral people, who attend church, who are even active in their churches and when tragedy struck immediately began looking elsewhere for an answer for those who were hurting. It was painful actually.

It’s not as if they would say, or even think that God might not have….or be the answer, for some reason they just immediately began looking elsewhere.

This started me thinking quite a bit on a couple of levels, first of all what is my natural and immediate response to these tragedies, and secondly why?

Jess and I had one of our students stop by and talk to us about all of this, the first thing I said was I don’t have an acceptable answer as to why God allows tragedies. I said that I can come up with a lot of theories, some of them even pretty good I think, as to why. In fact people have been trying to answer that as long as we have been here (just read Job). I also said that I really don’t know what God’s part in these tragedies is. A lot of people try to figure that out as well (just look at Pat Robertson).

What I do know to be true though is God is good. He is good and therefore all that He does is good. I also know that He is love. He doesn’t merely have great love for us, or even choose to love us, He is love. He is good and He is love. My participation in this then is do I choose to trust Him? Not do I trust that He will do something specific or behave in a certain way, but do I choose to trust Him? Do I choose to trust that He knows what He is doing….whatever that may be? Do I choose to trust that He will respond in whichever way is absolutely best? Do I choose to trust that He desperately loves the ones who are directly involved? Do I choose to trust that He will only do what is good, and right, and loving?

This has become much easier for me in the last several years. The reality I have been confronted with is what is my option? I mean really, do I think I know what’s best? Do I think I can handle a monumental catastrophe? Can I see the other side of tragedy? Do I want people coming to me to explain myself? It makes it much easier to trust Him with all of this when He truly is the best option. And I thank Him regularly that He is the best option. He has no weakness. He has no blind spots. He doesn’t miss the ‘big picture’. He doesn’t overlook the small things. He is infinitely detail oriented. He makes it easy for me to trust Him…..and then leaves the option to me of whether or not I will.

So why do we naturally respond in trusting Him or trusting other than Him? Quite simply it has to do with who I really am. Is my Christianity, my faith, a system of beliefs or is it a way of life?

In the 17 and 1800′s there was a sweeping move in the churches to reclaim the truths of Christianity. There had been much corruption and false teaching for personal gain, and so a series of “Great Awakenings” was born. Revival movements to hold fast to the truths of God’s word. These were profoundly important moments in our church history and they have carried forward to today shaping many of our church bodies and denominations. There are always two sides to a coin though. The other side of these “Great Awakenings” were that churches, and more specifically denominations, began to feel the need to defend and fight for the ‘truth’ even with one another. There were great divisions that were born in this time…that also have carried forward to today. One of the natural consequences of this ‘defending the truth’ movement were generations of ‘believers’ who sought doctrinal purity over practice, in a sense finding more importance in believing the right things than the kind of person they were…or were becoming. Their Christianity, their faith, had become a system of beliefs as opposed to a way of life.

The natural and immediate response that will come from me will come from who I am, from my way of life. Want to know my way of life, what I really believe deep down in my gut…watch how I naturally and immediately respond to life situations. I can profess to believe anything, and I’m only reading the seed packet, want to see what kind of tree I really am, look at the fruit that grows in my life. I can’t come up with that on my own.

This is the gospel that our world needs to see. A gospel that says I don’t just profess to believe these things are true, but they actually change who I am, and it can change you too. A gospel of light and hope. A gospel that says I don’t have to have all of the answers, just the most important one, Him. That I can actually let Him rule and reign in my life, that I don’t have to worry about losing control of everything because I’ve already given Him control. A gospel that says I can trust Him with the worst kinds of tragedies because He is good, because He is love and because He can handle it.

This is the kind of person I want to be, the natural and immediate kind….who lives this great life….not just talks about it.

Why? - 1-12-09

“Why?”
Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything! Guess it’s time again…..

Brian and Jeanine were out of town this Sunday. So DBC let me preach again. It’s fun when I get that opportunity every once in a while. I get a lot of ideas that start rumbling around in my head that sometimes Sunday morning gives an outlet for. I hope that doesn’t sound bad…..

I used to tell my high school and junior high students in California that the best I can do is share with them the journey that I am personally on as I actively engage in discipleship with Jesus. Really I think that this was what Paul was talking about in I Corinthians 11 when he said, “Imitate me as I imitate Christ”. I am personally on a journey of Kingdom discovery here, the best I can do is invite you along with me. And that was what Sunday was about.

I talked about how Brian has raised a provocative question with me, possibly without even knowing it. The question of “why?”. So I raised it to our attendees at our two Sunday morning services. Now if you weren’t there you may….or may not for that matter…want to listen to the whole context of the message before I go any further. (You can do that on our website, www.donnellybiblechurch.com.) The point of raising the question was to engage us in a journey together, a journey that can be confusing and frightening and fraught with hazards of many kinds, and possibly uncomfortable in many ways, but ultimately well worth it! Not just worth it, but exciting, and invigorating if we allow it to be.

In particular the question was “why do we do the things that we do in our gatherings? Specifically our Sunday morning gathering times.”

Now I think this is an extremely worthwhile question, then again, being employed by the church I probably think of our gathering times far more often than a lot of people do. That being said, for something that we as Christians at least profess to have so much value in, I think it’s safe to say that it is a very worthwhile question.

So what was my purpose in raising the “why?” question?

Simply to start dialogue.

Really!!! I love our church family. I really enjoy our gathering times. Are there things that I might change? Sure….but nothing that I feel very strongly about. But I think it’s good to think about these things so that we don’t get stagnant. So we don’t start to collect moss. I think it creates an environment where people become free to dream great dreams, to vision great visions. It’s like a good spring cleaning. You discover some things that you forgot you had, and you realize that you’re holding on to some things that you’ve really been ok living without. You realize that some of your greatest treasures have gathered a little too much dust, and realize that there is now room for new treasures.

But it’s not necessarily to be the way that I spring clean with Jessicah, that if it’s not mine, and it’s old, then we must not need it anymore! This is a journey that must be submitted to our Father by the power of His Holy Spirit and led by the example of Jesus. Ultimately the question that begins to form in our hearts is “Father, what do You have for us?” Now there is freedom! If I can truly come to a place of trusting that all that God wants for us is our best, then I don’t have to worry about tradition, I don’t have to worry about change, I don’t have to worry about what might be old or having to embrace what is new. I just get to look forward to, with great anticipation, our Father leading us into what is best, what is most glorifying to Him. To that which most rapidly expands His Kingdom here on earth. And that is an exciting kind of life!

So hopefully you’ll join me on this journey, a journey of “why?”.

-Casey

Everything Must Change...? - 5-1-09

I was thinking this morning of the Kingdom of the Heavens again. It seems to consume my thoughts these days. I go to bed with thoughts of the Kingdom. I wake up with thoughts of the Kingdom. When I go for a run, thoughts of the Kingdom. Jump in the shower…thoughts of the Kingdom.

I like this, these are good thoughts. I think I just might be becoming a bit obsessed…and I’m really okay with that.

Jess and I and my buddy Wade were talking about…you guessed it…the Kingdom last night. How pervasive it is, how demanding it is. How God’s Kingdom, His effective rule is everywhere, in everything; demanding that we surrender all, surrender our own little kingdoms completely to His. There is no partial surrender; there is no negotiating of terms, only an all encompassing letting go.

And this is exciting to me!

I have come to the place in my life of honestly believing that God is so good, He is so powerful, and that He loves me so much that this is truly the best thing for my life; for Him to be in control. My life completely in His oh so capable hands. This is the life of the ages. This is the best possible life…so why settle for anything less?

My thoughts lately have been overwhelmed with the awesome goodness of the Kingdom, of this way of life.

So the naturally related thought process for me becomes, what then does this look like in my life?

This is right about when my head tries to explode.

Talking about total surrender of my kingdom to His great Kingdom is good and right. We have to start somewhere, but sooner or later talk becomes cheap when there is no currency of action. I believe I am at this place. It’s time for everything to change.

But change for the sake of change isn’t the answer either…right?

Last Sunday, Pastor Brian was introducing the book of Ephesians to us. He was talking about the Ephesians cultural context (or in the words of another author, their “framing story”) and how this influenced every area of their life. Morality, faith, political system, worship, business, justice system, private life, and on and on were all influenced and even determined by their cultural context or framing story.

I’m realizing that no society is exempt from this…including ours. And better yet, there are framing stories within framing stories within framing stories. These framing stories then develop into little kingdoms complete with walls and creeds and laws and membership. “Do you belong to this party or that party?” “Do you belong to this country or that country?” “Do you belong to this church or that church?” “Do you belong to this community or that community?”

The walls of these, and many more, kingdoms being built from our framing stories, our culture context.

But no one can escape their framing story! No one can pretend they don’t have one. Our framing stories are so pervasive since the time of infancy that we don’t even recognize them any more. All we see is black and white, right or wrong, this side or that side from the all too often times very limited perspective of our own cultural contexts.

This is what Jesus came to do, to teach us to live in His Fathers framing story. To break down the walls of our little kingdoms and sub-kingdoms, and wholly submit ourselves to His framing story. Completely, desperately dependant on Him to show us how to live and move and breathe in His great Kingdom as His subjects, free to experience the life of the ages, the best kind of life, the life that He, and not me, is fully responsible for and capable of handling.

And so, this is where everything must change. My framing story, our framing stories, must change.

And so, once again, what does this tangibly look like in my life…in our lives?

I feel a bit like a surfer that has been surfing a cultural context wave and I’ve just been pounded and rolled by it and now I’m looking for up, and so I’m watching for bubbles because they will show me the way to swim so that I can catch my breath and then catch the Fathers framing story wave and begin to surf again, but I’m not wanting to wait here underwater for too long because frankly…I LIKE TO BREATHE!

(If you read that all in one breath you can feel a little of what I’m talking about.)

But I’m not wanting to swim just to swim; I want to swim in the right direction. And I’m not wanting to catch the next wave just so I can surf again; I want to catch the best wave. So I don’t want to change just for the sake of change and certainly not haphazardly so, but I can’t escape that everything must change in my framing story, and this will affect how I think, how I act, what I do in our community…ultimately, how I live.

And I’m excited about it!

So what do you think? I would love to start a comment conversation right here about this. Will you join in? I look forward to it!

Regarding Worship -4-23-09

I love music.

I love all kinds of music…mostly. If you scan my iPod you can find most genres represented in differing levels. I have to say that not every kind of music is my favorite, but I do have a hard time nailing down one specific favorite.

I just love…and appreciate…music.

I honestly believe that music is a gift from God. A gift to reach deep into our souls and stir up a part of us that has been long forgotten since the first bite of the fruit in the garden. Music has this supernatural ability to move us beyond words, with an intensity and passion on a soul level that leaves us gasping for more. And oddly enough seems to freeze time around us in a strange kind of mental photograph full of sight and smell and feeling. Have you ever heard a song or piece of music that just took you back to a certain event or time in your life and it was like you were right there in the moment again?

Music is indeed a powerful gift from God…it is no wonder then, that some would fear it. I do believe that there is a spiritual enemy of God, one who is in every sense anti-God. One who has dedicated himself to thwarting God’s great plan for the world and its inhabitants, and the best means that he has of doing this is not by direct competition, but through crafty deception and a shifting of focus from God to ourselves. Music has not escaped this plan. There is much of this God glorifying gift that has been tainted by man’s desire to exalt himself and his own pleasures above God. For one then who is fearful of God’s enemy and his deceptive plans, it would make sense that they would want to distance themselves from anything that might appear to be related. So this beautiful gift of God that stirs us up to passionate communion and worship of Him, to some, begins to stir up fears that if embraced might carry them away into deception. I have to say that I can understand this fear. I don’t share it, but I can understand it. You see, I believe John when he said, “…He who is in you, is greater than he that is in the world.” (I John 4:4) And I believe James when he said, “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights…” If these things are true, than I should feel free to give myself freely to worship in music without fear, embracing constantly the glory of God and He being exalted; not what I might get out of it. But that’s not to say that I don’t get anything from freely worshiping through music. I also believe that whatever God says is good and right, is what is best for me, and is what will bring me the most satisfaction, the most joy, the greatest pleasure and contentment and peace in life. It is the best kind of life to live; it is a life of companionship and intimate relationship with my Father.

The church has a long history of truly great music that has moved people into deeper levels of communion with God. This history has also been mottled with dark times of feuding over what styles of music…if any…should be allowed into the church. As with any good and God honoring practice that has been embraced by the church, there are those times when certain ones would rise up and place their preferences and ideologies on a pedestal of holiness and claim them, in the name of God, as being the only right way.

I thank God that this does not seem to be the case among our family at Donnelly Bible Church.

Fairly recently, within the last year and a half to two years, we started our own “contemporary” service. (I really don’t like that term as it comes with many pre-loaded connotations, but I don’t know of a better or more recognizable term, so it will have to do for now.) This service was started before my family and I came to DBC, but I know that the intention of the service was not to just facilitate a younger and “hipper” crowd coming to church on Sunday mornings, but instead to provide as many opportunities for our church body to freely join in passionate worship as possible. And style of music was just one more opportunity for some to freely do so. And so, this is what we continue to do. It is not the only way to freely worship, it is not the best way to freely worship, it is simply one more way, one more opportunity, and one more component of an entire lifestyle of worship. And that is something that I haven’t even touched on yet! A life dedicated to worshipping creator God in everything we do, not just in our music. (I’ll have to blog on that more later.)

So no matter our stylistic preference toward music, whether it be more “traditional” or more “contemporary” (again, for lack of better terms in both instances) the thing that we must focus on above all else is, does this glorify and exalt God and lead me into deeper more intimate relationship with Him? Brian and I were talking the other day and he said to me that in every thing we do, whether it be singing, or preaching, or service, or programs, or ministries, the focus should always be this question, are we leading others into a life of discipleship in Jesus Christ? If not, then it’s not deserving of our time. I wholeheartedly agree, and so take that call very seriously. Are we singing modern, catchy, upbeat songs; or tried and true comfortable anthems; or are we glorifying and exalting God putting music to our prayers of how great and awesome He is, and how we want to be conformed into His image and likeness? This is the heart of worship. This is the kind of worshiper I desire to be.

Like I said earlier, I have a hard time picking a favorite genre of music of the many on my iPod, but if you want to know what I listen to more often than not, I would have to say that it is “praise and worship” music (again…for lack of better terms). Music that would so stick in my mind that I would even wake up singing His praises as I step out of bed. Now that is a way to start the morning…that and coffee!

My prayer for you is that you would choose to find yourself “…being filled with the Holy Spirit, addressing each other in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Ephesians 5:18b-20)

I love you all!

I Make My Body My Slave - 1-30-09

“…I beat my body and make it my slave…” I Corinthians 9:27.

I believe the apostle Paul understood the way of Jesus about as well as humanly possible. Here was a man who lived his life committed to all of the wrong things (and passionately so) until the day that he was confronted on the road to the city of Damascus by the living Savior.

“Saul, Saul, (his name before this encounter) why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4)

These are not words that you want to hear coming from Jesus.

Paul had accomplished much up to this point in his life. He had dedicated his life to that which he had thought was right, that which he had been instructed in since childhood. He says of himself in Philippians 3:4-6, “…If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.”

The one thing Paul realized that had been missing from his life was the most important thing; he had somehow missed the person of Jesus Christ. This changed everything. He became a student of the way of the Master. Jesus became so important to him that he goes on to say in Philippians 3:7-11, “But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death…”

This new way of life so consumed Paul that his entire way of living, of being, was redefined by it. No longer would he live and move and act on his own accord, seeking his own agenda, plotting his own course; no, now he was a citizen of the Kingdom of the Heavens, a child of God, a servant of King Jesus. Nothing would interfere with this new mission, this new life, least of all himself.

And so he says, “…I beat my body and make it my slave…”

Was this some kind of sadomasochistic effort to prove his own inadequacies? Or was it completely the opposite; an effort to prove to God his newly formed dedication?

I don’t believe it was either. I honestly believe that Paul could have done no less in light of the ever increasing value of Jesus Christ in his life.

This concept of making my body my slave became very real to me about 4 weeks ago as I determined that it was time to lose some weight. I had been living my life in regards to my eating and exercise habits just as I had since I was eighteen years old. Slavery had crept up on me. When my stomach growled, I fed it. When I was tired, I rested. When I wanted something sweet, I ate it. If I didn’t feel like being active, I watched TV or played a video game. I had become a slave to my body. But this was only one small area. Slavery had actually taken over much of my thinking, my natural responses; it had come to determine my reactions to life’s situations.

So I read this statement by Paul and I thought to myself, what if I was to make my body my slave? What if I was to make my mind my slave? What if I were to make my thoughts and feelings and emotions and reactions and responses and every area of me, my slave? What if no part of me got in the way of total dedication to the way of Jesus? What if He so increased in value in my life that I could do no less? What kind of person would I be then?

What if we all became this kind of person?

I want that. I want to be that kind of person. This is a mission worth living and dieing for.

Join me?

The Way - 1-17-09

The Way…
“…I admit that I worship the God of our fathers as a follower of the Way…” Acts 24:14

I’ve been thinking about my faith a lot lately. I mean really contemplating it. Trying to examine it as an expert jeweler would a fine diamond. Turning it, letting the light reflect off of its many facets, trying not to get stuck for too long on any one particular area. This is somewhat new for me; and, to be honest, at times somewhat uncomfortable.
“The Way.”

Preceding any word, statement, idea, belief and so on with a definite article (the) is a politically dangerous thing these days. By direct implication it precludes all other words, statements, ideas, beliefs and so on, and that is something that many people today are very uncomfortable with.

Jesus was not one of these people.

That Jesus would boldly proclaim, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” (John 14:6) demands of the hearer a response; is He a megalomaniac…or is He indeed the way…and the truth…and the life?

I don’t believe that Jesus had a problem putting all of us in this potentially awkward position. I don’t believe He lay awake at night worrying over the violations to political correctness. I really don’t believe that He ever once regretted making the statement, kicking himself for his “runaway mouth” again.

What I really do believe is…that He actually meant it.

He lived a life exemplifying this belief in every way. In calling others to leave all behind and follow Him, in challenging the religiosity of the day, in willingly going to the cross and then rising again from the dead; He demonstrated His commitment to what He believed.

And so for those who believe that He knew what He was talking about, for those who believe that He is the Christ, the Messiah, the very Son of the living God, He demands that we demonstrate our commitment to what we say we believe and follow Him as “The Way.”

The first century church got this. In fact they began to be known as “Followers of The Way” or “Those of The Way.” They came to be known not for “what they believed to be true”, but instead known for how “what they believed to be true” profoundly changed the way they lived. “The Way” was not a system of belief; “The Way” was a way of life.

I have not been able to think about this without it raising some deep questions within myself. Do I approach The Way as a system of beliefs, doctrine and theology, something to be protected and preserved and fought for, or is it more profoundly a way of living that is shaped and molded by my beliefs, doctrine and theology? To put it more simply, does anyone recognize me as being a follower of The Way?

I think this is the question that we all must ask of ourselves. The answer is one that is not so much vocalized as lived out. As Thomas Carlyle once said, “Conviction is worthless unless it is converted into conduct.” I believe there are many who believe that there is no other way than The Way. May our convictions be converted into conduct as we learn to live, and breathe, and move in His Kingdom as followers of The Way.