Entry #12 - Give, Help, Serve.

I want to give...

All of me. What is the purpose of my body, my hands, my feet, without their outpouring?

One of the ugliest sights is the vision of someone holding onto themselves with fists clutched tight, their skin rippling with the grip, their arms inhibited from catching any falling thing.

Whatever we do to the least of God's children, to the least of our brothers and sisters, to the hardest people to love or the easiest people to love, we do directly to God.

I don't want to live with starving God. I don't want to face the harsh reality that I have ignored His needs, His cries for help.

Granted, my God does not need me; He is not helpless in the slightest. He invites me. He welcomes me into a life of giving, of serving, of employing myself as His instrument. What greater purpose is there?

Once I've got that attitude dwelling within me, I must only ask God to show me how to direct my passion. Every morning, every afternoon... I ask that He shows me a need that I might fill it.

Eternal significance starts with humility here on Earth.

What can we do for each other?

Entry #11 - Walking through meadows and walls

The path Christ calls us to is a varied, winding path. Faithfulness to Him and His truth brings us into all sorts of contradictions--being loved and hated, being envied and pitied, being alone and in profound fellowship, laughing and weeping, meditating and preaching.

The novelty of this exotic metaphorical locale is not enough. It may sound heroic at first hearing. But really it is nothing of our own doing. It is even nothing of any value whatsoever, if not empowered, inspired, and inscribed by a mesmerized and passionate love for God. Without that love, it is also impossible to get through.

Only this love for God, awakened by the Holy Spirit, is powerful enough to take a person through all of these ups and downs--these meadows and walls. And rest assured that both the meadows and the walls will come. Meadows where you are loved and celebrated, and where the companionship you share with other believers is amazing. Walls where you are rejected by people--sometimes even by those claiming Christ, as a result of taking His Word seriously. Walls where you struggle even to know what obedience would look like in this particular situation.

Be prepared to excitedly cherish those meadows and to awkwardly walk into those walls. Do what needs to be done and fix your heart on Him through it all.

Entry #10 - Pray

This is not an entry about prayer. This is a challenge and an appeal for you to pray before you close this window or move on from this blog.

If you would like to see your church more awakened to the reality of Christ, to be more sensitive to sin, to be more awed at God, to be the irresistible force it was meant to be, through the power of God alone (the only real power that can bring this about), please pray.

Pray for your pastor and his family. Pray for the godly to be more influential, and for the influential to be more godly. Pray for your brothers and sisters, and name them as brothers and sisters before God.

Entry #9 - The Family of God/Surprised by Love

In the first post, I talked about how I wanted to encounter God. I spoke about it mainly as an individual--I wanted to experience God in the fullest way possible as me. My list toward the end of the entry included wanting to weep, wanting to fear, and wanting to be comforted. I still want these things. But it was a narrow view of what it would mean to be awakened to the reality of Christ. Narrow can serve a purpose for a little while as we strive for some form of closeness to God, but as God's people we do not call the shots as to deciding who He is--and what the reality is that He calls us to.

This is a confession and a rejoicing. The confession is that my heart was closed. Through several events in only a week, God opened my heart to see that in my surroundings here I was in the midst of a family. I had come with an all business mindset--"give me the facts, the models, the techniques of ministry, so that I can be on my way." And the change came when I realized, not that I was in the midst of a family, but that this family had begun seeing me as one of its own. It felt very human, and I say that in the positive sense of the term, the God's image-bearing relational being sense. I did not come to an intellectual conclusion. Rather I was smited by the kind words of a young girl I hardly know. So I confess my undue cynicism, skepticism, and my closed heart. And I rejoice in God's kindness. And I rejoice in the family of God.

To embrace the "reality of Christ" in the form of the written word, and the spoken word, and yet miss the incarnational reality of Christ as represented in the family of God would be an absurd, pathetic, self-harming and strange form of hypocrisy. Be careful, because it is possible to believe strongly in something and yet miss it when it's right before your face.

I feel like this has gotten ironically wordy.

That's enough for now.

Entry #8 - Why I love the Church

So this is my first blog contribution for this blog. Thanks to Kurt for inviting me to contribute.  I am simply copying a past entry from my personal blog.  I will be contributing new stuff very soon, but just wanted to share this....

Why I Love The Church

    I have noticed that a lot of my blog posts have been kind of negative.  I did not mean for this to happen it just kind of did.  I have been thinking long and hard lately about my view of the Church, and the tone set by my views and the views of others that I talk to and listen to.  It is beginning to occur to me that it has become the cool new trend to point out everything that is wrong with Christ's Church.  I know that this is something that has been going on for awhile, but it seems to become more and more rare that I read or listen to something that is positive about the Church.  I am always hearing how traditional, new age, unrelevant, sneaky, and boring it is.  Sad to say most of those comments come from regular Church attenders.

  I am in no way a head in the clouds type of guy, I know that the Church as a whole has some issues today, but with that being said I have started to stop and hesitate before insulting Christ's Church.  I look at it this way.  The Church is symbolized as Christ's Bride in the Bible.  As a husband, I have to wonder how I would feel if every time my wife was talked about, she was talked about negatively.  It would not take too much of it before I was ready to bust some heads.  Which leads me to wonder, if perhaps some of the negativity that we use so much of to speak about the Church has any correlation to its success?

    The first rule of sales is you have to believe in the product your selling, and I wonder sometimes if we actually believe in the Church?  We preach and teach about its necessity, and the good that it will do for people, but our closed door conversations, hall way monologues, and frequent blog writings seem to suggest that we don't believe in our own product sometimes.

Anyway I say all of that to say this.  I would like to hear your comments about why you love the Church?  I don't want any negative comments, there is plenty of time for that and if you want any examples just read back through a few of my posts. I'll go first.

I love Christ's Church because it is the only place I know that gives everyone regardless of age, race, and history, meaningful and everlasting significance.

What's Yours?

Entry #7 - Jonathan Edwards' 'Resolutions'

If you have not read Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions, I suggest you do so. They were written to himself, a form of self-mentoring to keep himself focused on what he should be focused on, doing what he should be doing, etc. There are 70. I have decided to read through them every Sunday night this year (2 for 2 so far). The following are some that I thought I would share.

7. Resolved, never to do anything that I should be afraid to do if it were the last hour of my life.

11. Resolved, when I think of any theorem in divinity to be solved, immediately to do what I can toward solving it, if circumstances don't hinder.

14. Resolved, never to do anything out of revenge.

22. Resolved, to endeavor to obtain for myself as much happiness in the other world as I possibly can, with all the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea violence, I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in any way that can be thought of.

38. Resolved, never to speak anything that is sportive or a matter of laughter on the Lord's day.

47. Resolved, to endeavor to my utmost to deny whatever is not most agreeable to a temper that is good, and universally sweet and benevolent, quiet, peaceable, contented and easy, compassionate and generous, humble and meek, submissive and obliging, diligent and industrious, charitable and even, patient, moderate, forgiving and sincere; and to do at all times what such a temper would lead me to. Examine strictly every week, whether I have done so.

Love you all. Thanks for reading.

Entry #6 - Cold Hard Cash

Money. For some of us, the word makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. For some of us, the word instantly stresses us out. Some have a lot of it, some have just enough, and some literally have none. Unfortuantely, money is our source of life in this broken and corrupt world. At sixteen, I idealistically imagined a world where we didn't have to rely or function on money. (That was when I was looking for a job so that I could buy a car.)

I run into a lot of people, Christians and non-Christians alike, who also have problems with money - they have problems with giving their money to a church, or some pastor who does "who knows what" with their hard-earned income. This, in the Christian cirlces, is called tithing. I mean, why wouldn't you rather give it to a charity, or donate it to a good cause like finding a cure for AIDS or cancer, or giving it to one of those commercials that sponsor children in Africa. I'm sure my money would be better served elsewhere than to pay my pastor's mortgage. Right??

Hmmmm.

The more I study the Bible on tithing, the more I realize it really has nothing to do with money. Yep. You heard me right. God calls us to tithe - ten percent of our income - to the church, because He wants our hearts. It's a heart issue. It's also out of obedience that we give part of our income back to God. Malachi 3:10 says, "'Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,' says the Lord Almighty, 'and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.'" If there is one thing in my experience that is true of God, it is that He keeps His promise. Time and time again, He proves to me that my source of financial income absolutely does not come from any employer, but Him alone! I have too many examples of that to explain here. The bottom line is this: if we believe God's word and hold it as truth, then obedience is just the next step. And God wants your whole heart. Not the pretty and all put-together part, but the ugly and sinful part too. He wants to make you whole. I dare you to step out in faith and obedience, and watch what God does. See if He will "throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it"!