Holiness

It is hard not to think of other people when we use the word holiness, as in, he is, she isn’t, she is, he isn’t. “Oh, I’m not judging” we claim, “the Word is.”  Not so good – maybe. We can say Hitler wasn’t holy and get away with it. Dahmer, Pol Pot, Hussein, well you get the idea. But to let out an off the cuff remark about our neighbor or a church member who is just not up-to-par, that is another matter.

 Double standard? Something that just happens? We know we can get away with it? 

I am reading a book that explores the idea of holiness. Some very early church fathers looked at holiness as not sinning after baptism. That was it. You were done sinning. Okay, raise your hand if you have never sinned after you were baptized. 

I don’t see that hand. 

I would have raised mine, but I was too busy typing. 

I had to read I John again. If you haven’t read it in awhile, do it, especially if you are concerned about holiness. John opens chapter two by stating he writes this so we may not sin. But, if we do sin, there is an Advocate for us – Jesus. We have one who is on our side. We have one who appeases God’s wrath, for us, because of our sins against God.

John walked with the ONE. Saw. Touched. Heard. 

If we know this – what Christ has done, we will keep His commandments. We will desire to do what He has taught us and is teaching us. We will walk as He walked. John writes, “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” 

I feel like a child in my attempts to live a holy life. 

“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” 

Is holiness that simple? Do as Jesus did. Keep His commands. Don’t merely speak of truth, but live it out. Love one another. 

It gets complicated. “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” 

I have found that those who inspire me to live with integrity, keep the faith, love the unloved, ask the deeper questions, return to the Word and pray more, are those that I see as holy.  It resonates in their lives, from their souls. They bear witness to the truth. Their actions more often than not, match their words.

 Aspire to be holy.

 “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

My tongue is connected to holiness as much as my heart is. 

Speak the truth – in love.

 

 

 

Natural Cycle

http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-39973-113-text.html

In my “scratch the surface” research on global warming, this is where I agree with scientists findings. Maybe the frenzy had to happen to help us realize our need to simply take better care of the earth and make Al Gore millions.

http://www.petitionproject.org/gwdatabase/GWPP/Review_Article.html

I’ll keep following this.

I Disagree

Prop 8    

The passionate arguments are steamrolling across blogs, social networks, through churches and in meetings.

 

I will vote YES on 8 for these reasons:

 

1. It’s okay to disagree. Unfortunately disagreement is now synonymous with hate. I disagree that the definition of the word marriage is up for change. A chair is not called the sky. A lion is not called a tree. The definition should stay the same for the word marriage - of leaving mother and father to be united with a member of the opposite sex. Nowhere in scripture is it implied that this union is to be between to individuals of the same sex. People have the God given freedom to have unions of the same sex and there are in place rights for those individuals.

 

2. I don’t know how this will affect churches if the NO votes win. Will churches be sued for not agreeing to marry homosexuals? Will they be in danger of loosing tax exempt status? Will the churches and or pastors be penalized by the state for disagreeing?

3. This should have never been put back on the ballot. The voters already made a decision regarding gay marriage in California, but judges decided to go against the wishes of the voters.

 

That said, I know there are those who vehemently disagree and proclaim a YES vote as another slam, by mostly Christians, against the homosexual community. Unfortunately, this goes back to my first statement, and disagreeing becomes more than disagreeing. It becomes hate. It isn’t. 

 

Yes, Christians fail in loving others everyday. And for many reasons, many in the church have done a bad job at loving homosexuals. And yes, I have a difficult time with Romans 1. It is clear that Paul states homosexuality  is wrong.  It is clear that gossip and envy and strife are wrong. It is clear that standing for truth in God’s word and believing in Jesus is the one and only savior will be grounds for persecution and accusations. 

 

I want to stand for grace, because that is what Jesus stood for.

 

I want to serve, for that’s what Jesus did.

 

I want to take a stand for the truth as Jesus took a stand.

 

And that last verse, John 14:6, is not an easy pill to swallow for those that don’t accept Jesus as THE Savior of the world. It is dogmatic, it is limiting, it is difficult. The only way to God is through Jesus. That is not popular. (It is clear throughout Scripture that universalism is wrong.) We can’t and don’t believe everything. The idea of Jesus alone doesn’t fly. It causes problems. Jesus did say there would be trouble.

 

Many will disagree with me. So be it.

 

I will disagree, yet continue to love and serve and follow Jesus.

 

And part of our responsibility and calling is to help spread the word that Christians have not yet arrived, but that we press on towards the upward call in Christ Jesus. We all face our sins. We all must stand against hypocrisy, for we all do that which we don’t want to and say that which we do not do. We all must seek forgiveness – everyday. We don’t desire to judge, but believe we must stand up for right and at times, declare the wrong. Not our voice, but what Scripture says. We believe the more we become like Jesus, the more we become who we truly were created to be.

 

If the majority vote yes, I hope Christians can do a better job at finding reconciliation and relationship with those in the homosexual community.

 

If the majority vote no, I hope that Christ will be glorified through graced filled Christians who don’t seek retaliation or retribution.

 

Let’s disagree.

 

Let’s express mercy and grace.

 

That’s the right thing to do.

 

Nobody is Listening

I read this random, author-not-identified quote, and unfortunately identified with it. 

“Nobody is listening. Everybody is just waiting their turn to speak.” Raising my hand (then typing again.)

Guilty.

Too often. 

What if Christians listened intently? Looking to share by listening, instead of speaking – First! Yes, confess the truth, speak the truth, offer words of hope and grace. But, listen first. James did say it boldly, “Be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to get angry.” 

The expression “Do not have an agenda” is crap. We do have an agenda – LOVE GOD. With our whole heart. Love our neighbor as ourselves. Let our agenda become the plan, the strategy, the unwaivering  diligence to walk in HIS mercy and grace and let HIS Spirit change others, as HE works in the mystery of HIS timing and way, often times despite us.

Let our agenda be that of being available, honest, caring, full-of-grace.

Not an agenda of megaphone street corner judgement and condemnation. Not an agenda of “I know what you are going to say and my response is this, and you will be more like me and better for it.”

Are you hearing this?

Will I hear you? Truly? Honestly?

Radical

I am not sure I like that word. I feel like I should be a radical Christian. Not violent certainly, but this idea of wild in my faith – visible as a passionate believer. I am not sure if I am letting myself off the hook if I say “I’m just not like that.”

One of my heroes in the faith, C.S. Lewis, doesn’t come to mind when the phrase radical Christianity is floating around.

Mother Theresa does.

Eugene Peterson does not.

Keith Green does.

Andy Stanley does not.

But they all are/were radically Christian to me. There actions and words echoing truth.

As a follower of Jesus I need to ultimately ask the question was Jesus radical? And if so, I need to be like that. Two things have come to mind as I sort through this and find my place in the Kingdom: What is this love (agape) that Jesus talks about and how has it lost so much of its meaning for us – “I love cheeseburgers,” “Man, I totally loved that movie,” “I love him so much” (after two dates); the other is the cross that Jesus said each of must carry – not HIS, not anyone else’s, our own.

I am going to focus on the sacrificial, selfless, really-don’t-give-a-rip-what-anyone-else-thinks kind of love that flowed through Jesus – that was his essence.

The love that sits with the adulterous woman, in public, to talk, care and share with. I am trying to glimpse the radical. I don’t believe I can convey the radical. But I am called to live the radical in sitting with, caring for, loving the outcast and marginalized. I have a taste of that – I’m not in it everyday – I could be – I could put myself in places to be love to others. I often find other things to do. Horribly UN – radical.

The cross. An instrument of torture. Wooden pieces of death. “Pick up your cross and follow me.” Radically put to death those things that keep you from following ME. I can carry those things that have been put to death because those burdens are light, when given to HIM. RADICAL. Those things that keep me connected to the world, links in the chain, locked on to spiritual terra firma, not allowing me to follow – oh, maybe it gives me some leeway, allows some room to move, but there are only so many steps until I can move no further and I realize I am caught.

Love and the Cross.

The road to radical.

Mike Yaconelli wrote, “spirituality is about trusting God in our unfinishedness.” 

Such a long way to go, and so much trust to discover.

The road is narrow, and radical things don’t need a lot of room. A foot to wash; a pen to write; a word to speak; an ear to listen; a touch to heal; a mind to fight the religious; a small amount of courage to risk; knees to pray on; an even smaller amount of faith to do.

Maybe I do like that word. When I am radical and get down and dirty (you’ve got to get low to lift up someones feet) and I feel honest, holy, like Jesus. No one sees and no one knows. I know it is the right place, the love place, the grace-filled place to be. 

If only I was there more often.

A Fresh View

Thinking about God outside of our time and space. 

I AM.

Today in our Sunday morning service an analogy caught my attention. The analogy was based on sailing. The enemy of the boat is not usually water, but those things that are hard, immovable, stationary. On a moderate sized sailboat, some items are very difficult to see because you are at a low angle against the water. It is difficult to catch obstacles  below the surface from merely standing on the deck.

But go up the mast and there is a new perspective. You have a better vantage point the higher you get.

Our lives have such a shallow depth of view. We see our immediate circumstances. Rarely do we get to “climb the mast” to catch the obstacles before we come upon them, and many times it too late. We have to make a quick turn, or simply find a way to deal with the results of the collision.

But God has the ultimate vantage point. The entire world and all of time is under his view (if you ascribe to OPEN THEISM, then the future is unknown to even God because HE has, in HIS omnipotent power, refused to see it – it is unfolding to HIM. That is an extremely simplistic statement regarding that thought. Click the link for a brief overview – get lots more with a nice Goolge Search.)

We will never have HIS view. But what if the depth of our relationship is described more as the height of our relationship. As we draw closer to HIM, we have a better view of life. As we “climb the mast” we can see potential objects in our way; we can see how they are used for good – for HIS purposes. 

Part of the challenge is to not see “climbing the mast” as simply an intellectual endeavor or a need for an  emotionally charged infusion (a “mast top, crows nest” experience?), but to lower ourselves as servants. 

“For I did not come to be served, but to serve” – Jesus

With a higher view, we better understand the up-side-down kingdom.  As we look ahead in the water, we better understand the poor in spirit will inherit the kingdom of God; that the meek will have a grand inheritance; that hungering and thirsting for righteousness are more satisfying than food and drink.

Jesus’ message is a message for us to look at life differently. Some of you that are first will be last, and others that are last will be first. (Matthew 20:16, Matthew 19:30, Mark 10:31, Luke 13:30) 

Is this the vision we are to have so we do not perish, die, become irrelavant, think like everyone else, remain sick and feeble, ineffective? Yes.

Get on our face to find HIM.

Prostrate, so HIS view resonates.

Go low, to see high above.

Limit our view – prayer,trust, faith, hope – to broaden our view.

Stand high upon HIS word, so we can see the depths of need around us.

A Conversation

I was driving, talking and thinking. I drive okay when I am not doing anything else, but managed to get where I was going while doing the other things.

The subject of homosexuality in the church came up, which has had much discussion, especially in some recent email strings and newsgroups I have been connected with. But out of that came the discussion of transvestites. The discussion was focused on the idea that transvestites are people who are wired differently. The contention was that tranvestites are different than homosexuals in the sense that they are handicapped at birth by being born in the wrong body. The analogy of wires being crossed or the phrase “being wired differently” came  to mind.

My friend recently preached at a church that has two transvestites as a part of its congregation.

We are all born with handicaps. Most Christians would agree with the doctrine of original sin, that we are born with sin, into sin. Romans 5:12-21, I Corinthians 15:22

So a person who is born into sin, just as each of us are, has a handicap, just as we all do. They become aware that they are a male trapped in a female body, or a female, trapped in a male body and must deal with this prison and confusion day in and day out. We live in an age where science and medicine can assist these individuals. 

What is a Christians response to what many consider a medical/psychological handicap?

What is a grace response to individuals who have felt trapped before they could even express what they are feeling, or what they know?

I would love to hear a response.

Again, I would like to approach this as a separate issue than homosexuality.

How does the church minister to these individuals? Should the church help pay for surgery to restore the individual to what they are supposed to be? Is this handicap any different than a physical handicap and a medical procedure to correct the problem that individual was born with?

I am inexperienced with this particular issue, but want to be involved in a deeper discussion about it.

Please chime in.

Deed and Creed

When Deeds Meet Creeds

Okay, so I stole that line from Pastor Andy Stanley www.northpoint.org at the Catalyst Conference. But it is quite pithy and memorable.

Walk the walk and talk the talk – Basically.

But of course, as I have had time to contemplate the statement, it goes deeper than that. It is because of that word, CREED. A CREED

is a fundamental, hardcore, down-n-dirty, deep inside of you, at your heart of hearts belief (and a formerly cool band!) So, for our DEEDS to meet our CREED, we must first have a clue as to what our CREED is and then be committed to it. 

As worship team leaders, or beyond that, as church leaders, Christian leaders, follower of Jesus leaders (that statement is an entirely different devotional) we have an incredible responsibility to understand our CREED.

The Nicene Creed is something we confess to believe as a part of the church – that big, world-wide group of believers. I confess I don’t read it often enough. But what about our daily CREEDS? (Maybe the Lord’s prayer should say, “And give us our daily CREED”)

What are our daily confessions?

What are our daily exclamations? 

What are our professions of joy and trust, faith and forgiveness? 

Can we say what is stated in the Nicene Creed that which is in the depths of our soul? Does that confession direct our actions, motives, words, responses, activities, etc?

What are the DEEDS of our tongue?

Ahhhhh the tongue. The Jr. high and the Sr. High group discussed James 1:19-27 Go ahead, read it, I dare you. Go ahead, live it, I dare me! Ouch. 

But don’t stop there, read on in James and take the time to take some inventory about CREEDS and DEEDS.

We are reminded it is only by God’s grace can we even come before him (remember when Isaiah the Lord on His throne)

It is good to take inventory (Romans 12:3, Psalm 19:14 ) often as to our DEEDS matching our CREEDS.

May you all be blessed and encouraged and challenged.

We are His own – nothing less.

Have a great day.

 

Experience

We can only experience as much as we have experienced.

Wow.

Yea, trying to figure out what that really means myself. The walk to school to pick up my boys had me thinking about my experiences in faith. Since moving back to California, my faith has been shakin’ up like never before with new friendships, an extremely diverse community, the Catalyst conference, the Emmergent discussion, stepping into a staff position again at a church and life in general.

I have been experiencing a lot lately.

Now, I am thankful for living around the country, meeting many people throughout the midwest, southwest, west and of course, Texas. (No need to go back to Texas besides visiting friends – uuggghhh.)

But my experiences seem lacking in certain contexts. Sometimes that makes me feel guilty or inadequate. I often wish for more experience to meet the need of the moment, that current experience. 

But I have what I have. I am at where I am at.

I believe these thoughts remind me to live life with adventure and put myself in situations to have experiences. Experiences beyond the normal, beyond the things I can handle. Those crazy, faith, step-out-on-a-limb kind of advetures that will prepare me for some conversation or opportunity to minister on down the road.

Maybe what I am talking about is not playing it safe.

Maybe I regret the safe experiences because they aren’t associated with faith living. They don’t contribute to my NOW, when I need experience, wisdom, reaction; when I need to give hope and insight, love and care. 

I know, I know, I can only experience what I experience.

As I look at Christs’ life in Scripture, I get snapshots of adventure, with one that I sometimes pass over because on the surface, and maybe though EXPERIENCE, it doesn’t seem so adventurous.

Prayer.

Jesus went away; was alone; wept; bled; stayed up all night. His experience was trusting in his father in heaven through prayer and this experience was part of who he was, and I believe part of what he wants to reveal to us. Prayer prepared him for any experience.

Prayer was a great adventure.

Prayer was essential.

Prayer takes us beyond our limited experience and taps into the heart of God. Prayer prepares us to experience experiences beyond where we have lived, what we have done, who we are.

Prayer prepares me for new experiences and to go beyond anything I have previously experienced.

That’s the adventure. Crying, shouting, exlaiming, pleading, honoring the living God.

There’s the experience. Listening to the living God.

God, help me to “Prayer without ceasing” that I might experience full life, to be ready for any and all experiences that come my way.

On my knees or face to the ground. Heart humbled and open. Lord, let me pray.

Today

Making the most of each day – finding adventure in each day – living beyond mediocrity and the normal of each day. I am mellow by nature and not zealous with passion.  A quote I look at everyday is, “If you don’t do it intentionally, it will never happen.” I am looking for ways to be motivated. I admit it.

But I recently have taken some intiative in areas that are changing me, because I feel like I am helping to change others, and hopefully, prayerfully, it means I am changing a heart, that can change hearts, and maybe even change the world.

I realize it is never too late.

And I realize in the normal of picking my kids up from school, cleaning my house, preparing a Bible lesson, praying, sitting in a staff meeting, that remarkable, adventerous things can happen. Thank you Lord for Today. From a thankful heart comes eyes for adventure, the new, the hope, the “what might happen next” the, “anything is possible,” the ministry of the tiny – the ministry of the two coins and THAT can change the world.