All posts in Life

From Recruiting Volunteers to Releasing Trusted Rulers

A thousand time YES to this!  I don’t think I could have said it better myself.

This is what my heart as a pastor beats for.  Pointing people into their destiny to shape and transform the culture that exists beyond the sacred walls of the church.  We do not exist to feed the church building, the programs that fill it, or the budget that pays for it.  We exist to be loved by God and to be unrestricted conduits of that love to a world that is dying to be rescued.

What would church life be like in this world that Alan Scott proposes?  I think it would look and feel a lot more like the book Acts than what we typically experience right now.

sterilized-toilet

DayQuil Sermons

One of my favorite, and most daunting, responsibilities as a pastor is weekly preaching. I take it pretty seriously as a part of my life’s calling. And most of the time it goes really well. It’s one of the few things that I do that I feel like I’m somewhat good at.

But that’s not to say it ALWAYS goes well. Sometimes I have to take DayQuil because a cold has hit me before it’s too late to call in reinforcements. That’s what happened this past week.

When I started the morning on Sunday I had no idea that the day would eventually end with me inspecting the inside of my toilet at home with the kind of scrutiny that only health inspectors and ecoli should endure.

I got out of bed with a dull headache from the cold I had come down with, but was generally feeling better.

Knowing that I would have to be focused for my message in a few hours, I dropped a couple shots of DayQuil. I should have remembered what this unholy elixir does to my tender brain cells, but still I threw caution to the wind and dropped those shots like a Pepto on Bingo night. Had I read the label, I’m now sure it would have read “DayQuil: Meth Formula — for those mornings when that snuffy head, fever, cough, runny nose, achy, sneezy, sinus disease you have can only be dealt with by an over-the-counter methamphetamine”.

I never lost consciousness, but I do vaguely recall the following events in a kind of dreamy, subconsious, chuck-norris-whispering-in-The-Octagon kind of way:

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Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better-looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good-looking there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest.

This quote is from C.S. Lewis in his great book Mere Christianity.  You can read more of this chapter here.

With the Christmas shopping season in full swing now, this is a potent reminder to find our deepest satisfaction in Jesus.  He is both The Great Gift Giver, and The Great Gift.  He is all that we need, all that we could ask for.

Materialism, which is nothing more than competition rooted in Pride, is swarming like a plague in our culture and it is never more ravenous than this time of year.  We are bombarded with attempts to compell us to compare ourselves to our neighbor, our friends, even imaginary strangers.

Bigger, faster, stronger.  Richer.  Smarter.  More fashionable.  In-the-know and in-the-now.

The antidote to this corrosive sickness, I believe, is not more restraint at the cash register.  The answer is to stir up gratitude and joy in The Great Gift, Jesus Himself.  To wonder like children at the miracle of His incarnation: the majesty of His divinity joined with the meekness of humanity.

Jesus, make me wide-eyed and amazed at the wonder of You.  So much so that all the shining and shimmering glitter of this world cannot distract my gaze.

“Please Be My Strength” by Gungor

A great, and encouraging, song from one of my new favorite bands “Gungor”.  You can check them out here.

I keep finding myself carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders, repeating “Work harder, just make it happen” like some kind of mantra of self-motivation and pride.  I appreciate this song not only for its musical qualities, but also for the gentle and sincere reminder that all of us need strength that is beyond what humanity can give.

It’s a fool that rushes in, tilting at windmills, when divine help is available to him.  God help me not to be that fool.

change-ahead

Winds of Change

I have lately been fascinated with the life of Abraham.  This is in some ways a pragmatic fascination because I have been faced with some major decisions in my life.  I have had to make decisions that force me to strike out on my own into foreign territory, leaving the familiar behind.  At the same time, I’ve been pastoring other people through similar adventures in their own lives.

Abraham is a fascinating character.  He is remembered in the New Testament as a bastion of faith.  Certainly this is true of him, but when you study his story you find that there were several moments where he lost faith.  In matter of fact, he completely failed.  Twice he lied about his wife saying that she was his sister.  This lie resulted on one occasion with his wife being brought into the harem of Pharoah.  The same would have happened with Abimelech had God not revealed to him that Sarah was in fact married to Abraham.

Despite the obvious failure of these events, God bailed Abraham out each time.  Not only that, but Abraham walked away blessed.

The reason is simple.  God had made a covenant with Abraham and He meant to keep it.  Even if Abraham made attempts to derail his own destiny, his destiny was in God’s hands.

God not only owns the promise, but He also owns the timing and the manner of its fulfillment.

This is a clear picture of grace.  God has made a covenant with me, and He holds my destiny in His hands.  Despite my impatience, I wouldn’t have it any other way.

The Goodness of Gift-Giving

As disturbed as I am with materialism this season, this article from Jared C. Wilson is a valuable and balanced perspective.  It’s a good reminder to me not to be dogmatic.

Nothing taken for granted; everything received with gratitude; everything passed on with grace. You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink. I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought; and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

I’ve been reading G.K. Chesterton recently, and this quote from him sums up the essence of thankfulness pretty well.  Gratitude is worship, perhaps the highest form of worship we have.  In that way, all of life can become an act of worship and a song of praise to the One who made it all, and gave all for us.