a Christian worldview of eternal life

While there are varying views of heaven and the afterlife among evangelical Christians, most agree on how one gains eternal life.

If you want to read more than my little blurb here, pick up John Eldredge's book, Epic : The Story God Is Telling and the Role That Is Yours to Play.


Disclaimer: This is a rough paraphrase of the story of God's redemption of humanity as recorded in the Bible. It is what it is. The intent of this post is to answer the question of a guy that sounded like he honestly wanted to know. Questions are fine, but if you want a theological debate you probably know where to find them on the Web anyway. With that in mind...

God created Adam and Eve. They lived in a garden called Eden. Life was perfect then. They had total access to God. They walked with talked with God every day. God made things easy to exist. He gave them only one condition to live by. "Don't eat of the tree of good and evil. If you do, you'll die." Adam and Eve gave in to the temptation of human pride and ate the fruit. It immediately caused a separation between them and God. They had to leave the garden of Eden. The result 0f their disobedience was separation from God, pain in birth, hard work, and unpleasant things like thorns and thistles started cropping up...not to mention physical death.

God didn't give up on humanity. He made a covenant (literally "cut a deal") and said that he would never leave or forsake humanity. In fact, he made a way for sin to be forgiven. A sacrificial system was put into place but humanity did a lousy job of following that. He knew the sacrificial system they were using wasn't going to be the solution. The whole time this was going on, God was telling us there was much more to come. Much more of his forgiveness and love that is.

Enter Jesus Christ. He was God in the flesh. 100% God and 100% man. That's a tough one to explain...it just is what it is. He was born of a virgin, impregnated by the Spirit of God. Very mystical, but, why shouldn't it be? This is God stuff we're talking about.

Since Jesus was God in the flesh, he lived a perfect life. No one in history can say that. He showed us what it meant for a human to have a perfect relationship with God in the midst of a world that was infected through and through with sin. Sort of a prequel to a new Eden...a new heaven and new earth. Religious people hated Jesus' guts. They tried to kill him from the get-go. In due time. God had a plan for humanity to be redeemed through Jesus.

The religious freaks had Jesus sentenced to be crucified and he was crucified between two criminals. Then Jesus, doing exactly as the Father asked, took all the sin of humanity on himself. My sin, your sin, everyone's sin was nailed to the cross and forgiven forever.

He was buried. He stayed there for three days. On the third day, he rose from the grave. Can't explain the metaphysics, he just rose from the grave. After he rose from the dead, he spoke to his closest disciples and told them what they need to do...that was to tell everyone possible that their relationship with God could be restored.

When we believe this story, a story only God could pull off, God restores our relationship that was broken in Eden to brand new.

Our reaction to the story can be outlined like this:

- Admit that what we've been trying to obtain peace and forgiveness hasn't worked and that we need God to forgive us of our sin.
- Believe that Jesus died on a cross to forgive us our sin and that he rose from the grave.
- Accept God's free gift of eternal life. God gives you eternal life because you admitted that what you've done hasn't worked and you've been humble enough to admit it.
- Commit to growing your relationship with God.

Another good thing to do is read the book of John in the Bible. It explains things really well. Go to www.biblegateway.com

a Christian worldview of eternal life

While there are varying views of heaven and the afterlife among evangelical Christians, most agree on how one gains eternal life.

If you want to read more than my little blurb here, pick up John Eldredge's book, Epic : The Story God Is Telling and the Role That Is Yours to Play.


Disclaimer: This is a rough paraphrase of the story of God's redemption of humanity as recorded in the Bible. It is what it is. The intent of this post is to answer the question of a guy that sounded like he honestly wanted to know. Questions are fine, but if you want a theological debate you probably know where to find them on the Web anyway. With that in mind...

God created Adam and Eve. They lived in a garden called Eden. Life was perfect then. They had total access to God. They walked with talked with God every day. God made things easy to exist. He gave them only one condition to live by. "Don't eat of the tree of good and evil. If you do, you'll die." Adam and Eve gave in to the temptation of human pride and ate the fruit. It immediately caused a separation between them and God. They had to leave the garden of Eden. The result 0f their disobedience was separation from God, pain in birth, hard work, and unpleasant things like thorns and thistles started cropping up...not to mention physical death.

God didn't give up on humanity. He made a covenant (literally "cut a deal") and said that he would never leave or forsake humanity. In fact, he made a way for sin to be forgiven. A sacrificial system was put into place but humanity did a lousy job of following that. He knew the sacrificial system they were using wasn't going to be the solution. The whole time this was going on, God was telling us there was much more to come. Much more of his forgiveness and love that is.

Enter Jesus Christ. He was God in the flesh. 100% God and 100% man. That's a tough one to explain...it just is what it is. He was born of a virgin, impregnated by the Spirit of God. Very mystical, but, why shouldn't it be? This is God stuff we're talking about.

Since Jesus was God in the flesh, he lived a perfect life. No one in history can say that. He showed us what it meant for a human to have a perfect relationship with God in the midst of a world that was infected through and through with sin. Sort of a prequel to a new Eden...a new heaven and new earth. Religious people hated Jesus' guts. They tried to kill him from the get-go. In due time. God had a plan for humanity to be redeemed through Jesus.

The religious freaks had Jesus sentenced to be crucified and he was crucified between two criminals. Then Jesus, doing exactly as the Father asked, took all the sin of humanity on himself. My sin, your sin, everyone's sin was nailed to the cross and forgiven forever.

He was buried. He stayed there for three days. On the third day, he rose from the grave. Can't explain the metaphysics, he just rose from the grave. After he rose from the dead, he spoke to his closest disciples and told them what they need to do...that was to tell everyone possible that their relationship with God could be restored.

When we believe this story, a story only God could pull off, God restores our relationship that was broken in Eden to brand new.

Our reaction to the story can be outlined like this:

- Admit that what we've been trying to obtain peace and forgiveness hasn't worked and that we need God to forgive us of our sin.
- Believe that Jesus died on a cross to forgive us our sin and that he rose from the grave.
- Accept God's free gift of eternal life. God gives you eternal life because you admitted that what you've done hasn't worked and you've been humble enough to admit it.
- Commit to growing your relationship with God.

Another good thing to do is read the book of John in the Bible. It explains things really well. Go to www.biblegateway.com

Stopping the vicious cycle of religion

We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away (Isaiah 64:6, NLT).

I think Karl Marx may have been right when he said "religion is the opiate of the masses." Now before you choke on your bagel or spit out your latte, let me explain.

Religion is addictive. Religion as an institution that realizes humans need to feel better about what they've done wrong. Protestants pay penance by attending church every Sunday, Sunday night, and Wednesday night. Catholics go to confession. Presbyterians give lots of money. Episcopalians have the best Christmas parties. No matter what their denomination or faith system, they get their conscience fixed one way or another (or not) and continue to be no different than the rest of the culture. It's addictive. Live like you want, then numb your conscience with religious ritual. You feel good about yourself for a couple of days and then you feel the need for a fix. Do some more religion. Feel bad. Come back for more religion.

Most people have at least been exposed to the vicious cycle of religion. They've either experienced it first hand or they've seen how shallow it is from the outside. People move from religion to religion or church to church looking for the spiritual high that will last them all week. That's why Isaiah 64:6 was written then, and that's why it's so applicable now.

The beginning point to stopping the vicious cycle of religion is to start a relationship with Jesus Christ. He alone can fix the core issue: sin. When we trust in Christ alone to solve our problem of repetitive damaging behavior (sin), the need for a spiritual fix goes away. It's almost overstated in some circles, but knowing God is about a relationship and not religion. Jesus Christ makes us brand new...mind, body, and soul. "We are all infected and impure with sin." Jesus cures our infection of sin. Religion simply numbs the pain of sin for a while.

"When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags." Outside-in religion gets us nowhere spiritually. Doing the right thing, saying the right thing, being in the right place...all the pious things that we think will bury our real problem of sin, end up being worthless. We leave the religious gathering with an emotional high that fades quickly. Or worse, we leave with no sense of encountering God at all.

So we begin again. But this time we realize that the issue isn't the church or religion, it's our sin. We realize that there is no quick fix for our souls. The cure for our sin sick souls is a relationship with Jesus Christ. We realize it will take consistent work on our part. It will be an everyday, every hour, every moment commitment. And God is there, all the time...waiting to show us His love for us. He accepts us unconditionally and challenges us to change without making us feel like dirt.

We can all stop the cycle of repetitive, damaging behavior in our life. The fix is inside-out, adjusting our character as we grow in a relationship with God.

Have a great day.

Ricky Williams and holiness

If you follow the NFL, you know that Ricky Williams has decided to play football for the Miami Dolphins again. He's turned over a new leaf. He's been given a new beginning by head coach Nick Saban. No more weed for Ricky. He contritely asked forgiveness from his teammates for leaving them in a tough spot last season. He's a changed man. He's gone from the narcissistic, tokin' tailback to the total team player. When I read about and saw footage of Ricky's comeback, I gave him credit for trying to make amends. In his own way, Ricky's been on a quest for holiness.

Now there's a word you don't hear much about lately: holiness. I'm not talking about the Pope here. I'm talking about the lifestyle that Christians are supposed to live. This isn't the prudish, Quakerish, what you do on Sundays kind of thing. It's a state of being.

Holiness is hard work. Being holy is a lot harder than looking holy. Lot's of people can fake it for an hour or two on Sunday morning. That's easy. It's also why a lot of people that claim to be Christians fake it. The whole time, we're breaking God's heart because the sincerity of our faith is a fraud.

But I'm not talking about you or me, right? We know that if you're a genuine follower of Christ then you've been made holy by God's forgiveness (Romans 3:24). You've been given the ability to approach God whenever and wherever (Hebrews 10:18-19). The hard work of holiness starts soon after your reorientation to what is good and right (Hebrews 12:1-12). Your conversion was a point in time (you were reborn; John 3) but the process of becoming like Jesus Christ is a continual process (2 Corinthians 2:15).

So what is holiness anyway? If it's not the pomposity of religion or the arrogance of belonging to a moral country club, what does it look like in the everyday life of a Christian? To begin with it means you're different...on the inside. The reorientation of your soul and spirit from self-centeredness to others-centeredness has taken place. Quite literally, you have been set apart from others. Not for pomposity or arrogance, but for serving. Your relationship with God has been sealed, but the process of changing your behavior has just begun. It's a process that happens from the inside out.

The process is one that takes discipline and hard work. The process is initiated by God and then you and I participate in the process of becoming holy. Here are some principles of the holiness process found in Hebrews chapter 12: We have to consciously get rid of anything that slows the progress of becoming more like Jesus Christ (v.1a). We can't give up on ourselves or God (v.1b). We must keep the example of Jesus in the forefront of our minds (v.2). We have to get used to the fact that holiness is hard work. It will take self-discipline and accepting discipline from God to keep us consistent (v.3-12).

Holiness is hard work, so we have to work hard at it. When we're not consistent, God's grace is there to forgive. When we are consistent God is standing on the sidelines cheering us on. Either way, God is on our side. His love endures forever. Keep working at being holy.

Have a nice day.

Beginning again...from the inside out

Things looked okay on the outside. It was a bit worn, but it looked reasonably intact. As you walked around the church their were signs that upkeep was needed but it didn't look that bad. It seemed that way until a Southern Oklahoma thunderstorm opened all of our eyes to the truth.

I walked into the church on the blustery morning before church and heard water running. I thought it was a toilet that was stuck at first, but the sound was different in a way. Following the noise down the hall to a door that led to a storage room, I opened the door and found a four inch waterfall pouring from the ceiling. The deluge had broken through the roof, broken the ceiling tile and poured onto the floor. I immediately grabbed a barrel that was used to collect food for youth camp and put it under the waterfall. It was clear the makeshift solution wasn't going to handle the deluge long.

Then I heard voices over the sound of the church's new waterfall. Three very faithful men had followed the roar of the water and begin to survey the situation. Lucky for us, the church had let me store some extra tools in this room. Luckier still, one of the tools was an axe. One of the men took the axe and cut a hole in the floor straightaway. He poured the barrel, now 2/3 full of water, into the new hole in the floor. Problem solved. Sort of.

A wise old man in the congregation began looking around. He knew it was a symptom of a much larger problem. He found a problem that included six broken rafters, rotted flooring, an outside wall that was three inches out of plumb, and an auditorium roof that would cave in with the next good snow. His investigation resulted in the gutting the auditorium, tearing out a complete section of the church, replacing the entire roof (rafters and all) of the auditorium, and a complete restoration of the interior of the church.

We had to begin again. The process started with people admitting that things had been done wrong. They had let repairs slip. They had added on without thinking about how it would affect the rest of the structure. They realized the there was a need for a total renovation. The essence of the building had to be left intact, but the structure had to be restored and rebuilt. It was a daunting task. It would happen overnight.

Sort of sounds like our lives doesn't it? We find out that our lives need restructuring and we wonder if it's even possible. The great thing about God is that "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matthew 19:26, NAS). When we learn from our mistakes and restructure our lives, the storms of life don't cause nearly as much damage. When we live our lives based on God's ways it leads to a more consistent spiritual and emotional life. Here's a verse I hope will make it more clear to you:

If you are wise and understand God's ways, live a life of steady goodness so that only good deeds will pour forth (James 3:13, NLT).

Water came pouring into the church on that Spring morning. Mistakes had been made. We ended up spending a lot of time fixing things in our little world instead of letting the love of God pour out to our community.

Live a life of steady goodness by understanding God's ways so you can help others enjoy and understand God's goodness.

Have a great day.

"I'll never do that again..."

I'll never chew tobacco again. As a right of passage to make the varsity high school baseball team, I took a good chew of Red Man. Thank goodness it was at the end of practice on the way home. I turned three shades of green and then got sick. I promised myself I would never do that again. I didn't do it again...until a year later. A good friend of mine said Copenhagen was smooth and he never got sick. He said I should try some. I did it again. I turned four shades of green this time and got more sick than I did the time before. It was awful. I said to myself...you guessed it...I'll never do that again.

I actually never did use smokeless tobacco after the last time it made me sick. It wasn't will power or a brilliant display of holiness on my part. It was a passage of Scripture from the Bible that taught me a powerful truth about learning from my past mistakes.

As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly (Proverbs 26:11, NIV).

Poignant, don't you think? Those words graphically spoke to me how ridiculous it was for me to use smokeless tobacco. Others could handle it. I couldn't. To continue trying it was just being stupid. I kept returning to my vomit, so to speak, and I kept playing the fool. Those words kept me from repeating that past mistake. The principle of Proverbs 26:11 kept me from repeating other mistakes as well.

Why is it so hard for us to learn from our past mistakes? Why don't we learn from them? To keep doing something over and over again that causes us physical or emotional pain is foolish. We keep doing "it" because we don't like to admit we're wrong. We try to rationalize our behavior so we can continue the madness. However, the only way to stop the cycle of damaging behavior (sin) is to put wisdom in our mind and soul. To do that you have to ask God for wisdom (James 1:5) and memorize an appropriate Scripture that will help you refrain from doing "it" again.

My troubles turned out all for the best - they forced me to learn from your textbook (Psalm 119:17, MSG).

Make a point to memorize Proverbs 26:11 (the dog and vomit passage). It's kind of gross, but I promise you it will make you stop and think next time you want to repeat a past mistake. God wants his best for you. He's given us all the wisdom we need for life in the Bible. Put the Scripture into your heart and soul. The repetitive mistakes of the past will fade away and you'll begin to understand the phrase "His love endures forever."

Have a great day.

football...Falcons...hot...fun

Today was the first day of training camp in for NFL teams. Since I live a mere 15 minutes from the Atlanta Falcons training facility and I'm a huge fan, I decided to endure the mid-90 temp and watch some football.

Big dudes. Except for Warrick Dunn. Michael Jenkins is a stick, but he can sure do the do. Then there's Ed Hartwell, our big free agency pick up. He's a beast. Michael Vick even acknowledged a bunch of kids that were screaming his name at the top of their lungs seeking his recognition. He gave it. Nice.

You can't get as close to the players as you could two years ago. That stinks. However, you didn't get to go to training camp two years ago, just passing camp. It's still a great thing to take in. It's FREE. If you want to park close you pay $5 to some Hall County booster clubs or you can follow me to a little known road across the street from the facility and park for free. It's not like watching them play the Eagles, but hey the price is certainly right.

It was stinkin' hot. I think the rest of practices I catch will be the morning ones, especially after school starts. There won't be as many people attending then.

I sure do miss being a high school football chaplain. Freaking ACLU.

Beginning a new week....again.

Everybody dreads Mondays at one point or another. It's back to the grind. You go from the weekend to being five days from the weekend. The traffic, duties, and people you got away from on the weekend are back. It's inevitable.

Maybe you're feeling like there's no way to get past the stuff of life. Maybe you did something over the weekend you regret. You could be overwhelmed with life and don't know how you're going to get past it. Then again, you might not be pressed all that hard but you still could use some reassurance that God actually does care about you. Below is one of those "Wow" kind of passages from the Bible. Read it and then we'll look at it a bit more.

The unfailing love of the LORD never ends! By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each day (Lamentations 3:23; NLT).

Look at the middle phrase, "By his mercies we have been kept from complete destruction". Encouraging stuff. Are you breathing right now? Good. Thank God for His mercy. Been destroyed recently? Credit God's unfailing love and mercy. Have things been difficult in the past but they're looking up now? God's faithfulness is large...huge.

If you're a follower of Christ and God is your Heavenly Father, then his promise to you is His unfailing love. In the first sentence in the passage above God tells us that his love is unfailing (eternally consistent) and it never ends. The passage also says that his faithfulness is great (literally 'huge'). So God's love is eternally consistent, doesn't stop, and his faithfulness is huge. Even on a Monday. Oh yeah, and every other morning too. God's mercies are there on hump day or your worst day. We all have those days we would like to forget, but few of us rarely face destruction. We can thank God for His mercy on that one.

Your boss may fail you. A co-worker may blame you for their mistake. The car may break down or your A/C may go out at your home. You may even get stuck in the dreaded Interstate parking lot. No matter what, you can count on God to be there faithfully loving you fresh and new every day.

Take some time right now or sometime today and draw close to God. Enjoy his presence and unfailing love.

Have a great day.

So how are things?

So we've been on the devotional journey for a couple of weeks now and it's time for the big question. It's a question that may challenge you or frustrate you. It may also be a question that causes your mind to race with all of the things God has been saying to you recently. It's a question that will help you gauge where you are in your spiritual journey. I've written a lot of words the last couple of weeks, but there's no need for a lot of words from me today. It's time for the question.

Are you ready? Here it is.

How are things between you and God?

Talk to him about it. His love endures forever and His mercies are new every morning.

Enjoy your time with the Heavenly Father.

Have a great day.

Be prepared for a visit from God

It's in our nature to want to encounter God. Mankind attempts to encounter God in many ways. They worship nature, animals, geographic locations, other humans, and some even aliens. They build mosques, temples, altars, sheds, shrines and even pile up rocks in order to connect with God. Some people slide on their hands and knees, others pierce their bodies, still others cut themselves and a few even nail themselves to crosses. All of these methods of attempting to meet with God focus on taking something material and enticing God out into the open or proving that one is worthy to be in His presence.

If you read the Old Testament of the Bible, you'll find something of an obsession with some people in building a temple for the presence of God to reside in. It's actually something God ordained and asked to be done. He even gave specific directions and materials to be used in building the Temple.

I encourage you to take the trouble of reading the specifications for the Temple in 2nd Chronicles. Take the time to read the detail and picture it in your mind. It's really quite fascinating. The defining moment of the completion of the Temple was the Israelites experience of God's presence. It personally struck me how nonchalantly we take an encounter with God and, specifically, how we prepare for an encounter with God.

Christianity often does a lot of things to get ready to meet with God. Some dress up in their Sunday finest. Others make sure they've given plenty of money to the decoration of the sanctuary they attend. The more progressive folk put their emphasis on making sure the latest technology comes off without a hitch. A lot of things are done outwardly to prepare to meet with God, the moment arrives, and more people than we would like to admit walk away from the experience unchanged. Now read Hebrews 9:11-14 below.

When Christ came as high priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (NIV)

It's OK to wear your Sunday best, give money to the church, or have technology in church. But outward preparation is secondary to making sure that our temple, our body and lives (1 Corinthians 3:16), are prepared to meet with God. The book of Hebrews explains the shift of focus from outward preparation for God's presence to the inward preparation for meeting with God. Preparing our hearts and consciences to meet with God should be our primary concern. The Temple of the Old Testament was beautiful, even exquisite. A life that has been cleansed by the confession of sin and prepared by reading the Scripture is just as beautiful to God. In fact, it's essential if we're going to encounter God and be in His presence.

The beauty of moving the Temple from Jerusalem to the center of your soul is that you can access the presence of God anywhere. It is beyond brilliant. No more waiting till that one day a year or one day a week to meet with God. He's given us the ability to be in His presence anywhere at any time. The preparation is simple, direct, and costs nothing...except our willingness to ask forgiveness and clear our conscience.

So what are you waiting for? Don't wait until Sunday to get dressed, get in the car, set up the church, and the band starts playing. Meet with God wherever you are, whenever you can. Just prepare yourself and then thank Him for being so available.

Have a great day.

Content with being discontent

Contentment is a word and concept that is virtually non-existent in our culture. When's the last time that you heard a professional sports figure say, "I'm getting paid what I'm worth. I don't need more money"? Have you heard of any Fortune 100 CEOs turning down their performance bonus because they're content with what they have? What about the regular guy like you and me? We all want more money, a better car, a faster boat, the latest cell phone, the newest power tool, and the list goes on. We really don't know how to be content.

If I listed in this devotion the things that I want to replace the things I already have it might make you nauseous. You and I are a product of the American capitalist and consumer culture. It's difficult for us to be content. I'm personally due to another trip to North Africa. Why? It will knock you down a notch and make you content with what you have for a good long while. Need a toothbrush? Cut a 1/4 inch diameter stick in six inch sections and use it for a toothbrush. Need a snack before bedtime. Roast your own coffee, peanuts, and popcorn and enjoy the good company of other human beings. Need something to wear? Go to the suuq (market) and by clothing that, frankly, looks like everybody else's clothes. Can't find a McDonald's within walking distance? How about going to the local restaurant and getting some meat cooked over hot rocks? It's amazing how good coffee tastes, how well dressed you feel, and satisfied with your meal you are when you only need your basic needs met.

Americans are spoiled. American Christians are spoiled. We go to churches with gorgeous chandeliers and gilded choir lofts. Or we listen to a professional band and watch the speaker on high definition screens that most minor league baseball teams would kill for. We walk away wondering what they'll do to entice us back next week, or we may just leave in awe of the incredible display. We're content with our wealth and our accomplishments. We're content with our spirituality. We do our duty, go to church, and tack on religion like any other hobby in our life. All the while, we may have been busy with a lot of religious activity but there's nothing tangible or intangible to show for it. We're content to be spectators rather than players, content with our spirituality.

Here's a radical thought...What if you and I were to only to find contentment in being discontented with how well we know God? Not information...relationship. And born out of that discontentment that drives us to know God on a deeper level there is a discontentment with what we have done to serve Him. I'm talking going beyond the necessary things like helping out at church. This is a discontentment born out of knowing God that insists that everything we do or think or feel has to do with God. Every person you meet has to do with God and there's no rest until you've at least introduced them to Him (The Message//remix, pg.1716). The name for this state of being is holy discontent.

Holy discontent is where standard issue Christianity won't do. It's when spending 75 minutes a week at church is just part of a life lived for others. It's when we view every encounter with people as an opportunity for something beyond us. It's investing in other people's lives while others are content to play church. It's making known, in one way or another, "that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures" (1 Corinthains 15:3-4, NIV).

Invite someone to church. Host a movie night. Have a small group in your home. Feed a homeless person. Set a lunch appointment to share the Good News with a co-worker. It's doing things like this you'll find contentment.

But godliness with contentment is great gain (1 Timothy 6:6, NIV).

Have a great day.

Trials and tribulations of the flip flop tribe

I am of the flip flop tribe. I value the air flowing freely over my feet as the flip and flop of my onomatopoeiaic footwear carry me to wherever I am appointed to go.

I do, however, wonder if the girls of Northwestern's championship lacrosse team used proper White House edicate by wearing flip flops when they visited the President. I love my flip flops as much as anyone in my tribe, but there's just something about meeting the President of the United States in flip flops that awkwardly straddles the gap between fashion edge and White House edicate.

I am torn. What would I do? If I were asked to visit the White House and meet the President as part of a delegation of next generation pastors, would I revert to the suit, tie, and dress shoes of another life? Or, would I wear a nice shirt, khakis, and dress flip flops from ALDO? Instead of flip flops I think I might splurge and spring for a nice pair of slip-ons.

Nonetheless, I don't fault the girls for being who they are. Worse fashion and edicate crimes have been committed. The people that are hurt the most are the girls' mothers.

Click here for the AP story on the flip flop flap at the White House.

Super-sizing your spirituality is unhealthy

I watched the movie Super Size Me this week. Twice. I watched it once by myself and another with my family (with a couple of strategically placed fast forwards). After watching it, we all swore that we would cut down on our fast food intake. Well, maybe except for Emily because she loves McDonald's and she's a stick. For most people though, you'll swear off McDonald's too...for a while.

Morgan Spurlock, the director/guinea pig of the movie ate nothing but McDonald's for thirty days. He ate everything on the menu. Over those thirty days he gained 24.5 pounds. His cholesterol doubled. His liver took a beating from all of the sugar in the shakes, ketchup...and believe it or not...salad. He got depressed, fatigued, irritable, and addicted to the food that was literally killing him. We all know that no one in their right mind is going to eat McDonald's everyday. Well, except for Don Gorske who's downed over 19,000 Big Macs in his lifetime. He's an anomaly, in that he eats there constantly and is in good physical condition. I'm thinking there's a spiritual analogy in this story of human overindulgence and addiction....

We all do things that we know aren't good for us. We engage in activities that we know damage our physical well-being. Pick your poison. Many of you that read this know my vice is Little Debbie Devil Squares. It's like crack in a yellow box. I need a fix right now. Must...not....give....in. You have to admit that except for a few of us, we all have a vice or two. What's yours? We also know that taking in certain types of food in excessive amounts isn't good for us. It's the same way with out spiritual lives.

A balanced spiritual diet is essential or you'll end up spiritually bloated and incapacitated. The Bible talks a lot about food. Yes, it talks about famines and gluttony and eating stuff that might offend someone else. There are other ways that the Bible looks at food:

• The river (water) of life. The Spirit of God that should flow from a Christian's life. (John 4:14; 7:37-38) Even though this isn't technically food water is the essential thing we intake to live.
• Spiritual milk. The basic teachings of Christianity. (Hebrews 5:12)
• Solid food. The deeper teachings of Christianity. (Hebrews 5:14)
  

As followers of Christ, we have to be filled with the Spirit (instead of being full of ourselves). As followers of Christ we have to know and practice the basic teachings of Christ. As follwers of Christ we have to know the deeper teachings of Christ for the purpose of stability and mentoring others. When we "super size" one area of our spirituality it's unhealthy. It will result in an inconsistent and bad belief system. It will also result in an inconsistent and bad example of what it means to be a Christian. Supersizing one area of spirituality results in spiritual sickness. Spiritual sickness causes us to have poor attitudes, unhealthy emotions, and engage in damaging behavior. Diagnosis: Sin.

So next time you feel like supersizing your spirituality, just say "No thanks" and eat a balanced diet.

Have a great day.

Politics will get you killed

Everyone deals with politics at one point in their life. I'm not talking blue states or red states or primaries or the electoral college. I'm talking politics at your job, on your kid's sports team, your HOA, or (God forbid) at a local church.

People, by nature, want to push their agenda and get their way. People that aren't inclined to deal with life ethically or for some reason are power hungry tend to use politics to advance their cause. Politics are usually born out of a lack of trust and insecurity. Sometimes it's just pure meanness. No matter what the motivation, principles from the Bible can help you see politics for what they are. Reading the Bible will also confirm that politics have been around for thousands of years. The example I'm going to point you to is from the life of king David, circa 980 BC. Read this passage of Scripture.

Since people that use politics are usually unethical, untrusting, or insecure, each situation has to be dealt with a bit differently. No matter what the motivation is, here are some general principles to look to:

• Expect the unexpected out of people when they feel threatened.

David's honest condolences, sent to Hanun because of his father's death, were completely rejected because Hanun thought David was spying on him.

• People that feel threatened will attempt to humiliate you.

Hanun had David's messenger's humiliated by having their beards shaved and he "cut off their garments in the middle at the buttocks".

• When threatened, people seek to form allegiances and contract with mercenaries.

Hanun figured the humiliation would immediately start a fight so he took a defensive position with his people and others he had contracted with.

• When attacked, stand your ground ethically.

When David saw that Hanun was taking a defensive position (it looked more like an offensive), he followed God's directions to stand his ground.

• Rest assured, that if you do the right thing, your name will be cleared and people will learn not to hang around the troublemaker.

Hanun's armies were defeated and the mercenaries gave up when they saw that David had done the right thing. The mercenaries pleged to never align with Hanun again.

Here's a great passage to bookmark when politics come up:

Don't worry about the wicked. Don't envy those who do wrong. For like grass, they soon fade away. Like springtime flowers, they soon wither. Trust in the LORD and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you your heart's desires. Commit everything you do to the LORD. Trust him, and he will help you. He will make your innocence as clear as the dawn, and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun. Be still in the presence of the LORD, and wait patiently for him to act. Don't worry about evil people who prosper or fret about their wicked schemes. Stop your anger! Turn from your rage! Do not envy others-- it only leads to harm. For the wicked will be destroyed, but those who trust in the LORD will possess the land. (Psalm 37:1-9, NLT)

Don't let politics kill you. Learn and follow God's principles for dealing with people and the fog of complicated situations of life will become clear.

Have a great day.

Quick movie reviews

Batman Begins - 4.75 stars out of 5 stars. It made me feel like a kid again. I'm going to try to watch it on the big screen one more time before it goes to DVD.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - 2.5 stars out of 5 stars even though my wife and daughter thought it was a solid 4 stars. OK, Johnny Depp was entertaining as ever, even though he made Willy Wonka a bit too metro for my tastes. I think they could have shortened the movie by 45 minutes and it would have been fine. Waaaaaaay toooooooo slooooooooooow. Since Tim Burton directed it, it was a bit dark as you might imagine. The cinematography (thanks, Britney) was stunning but it didn't make up for the pace. Plenty of sermon illustration fodder nonetheless.

What does your day look like?

Let's see...I have four, fourteen year old girls asleep in my living room right now...remnants of a birthday party.

• I have to make sure three they get home today. Really my wife Michelle does, but I may have to take one of them home.
• Write a devotion.
• The worship folder for Sunday needs to be finished, printed, and folded.
• I'm having lunch with a couple of guys today. One of them could be a potential part of The Journey as a staff guy down the road.
• Start draft work on the Batman Begins message.
• I need to go see either Batman Begins or Fantastic Four to keep up with the whole movie series thing.
• Mowing the lawn would be a good thing but hey, I can blow that off until tomorrow.
  

Since the devotions this week focus on the purpose of life, I thought it would be a good idea to show you what I'm thinking about my day. I'm sitting here thinking, "How I can live the purpose of life in each of these situations today?" Let's see, that means living redemptively. That means acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God. How about I just go through each of the tasks individually?

Teenage girls in the house. Let them sleep in. If that isn't loving mercy and showing God's grace, I don't know what is. When I was a kid I had to get up and feed the cows and do chores and blah, blah, blah. Oh yea, I can also invite the two girls that are unchurched to come to The Journey.

Write a devotion. Self explanatory. I hope it adds value to your day.

The worship folder for Sunday. I'll have a an admin someday. It's really not that big of a deal. That might fit into the walking humbly category.

Lunch with a couple of guys. Our worship arts guy and someone he knows to be exact. That 'someone' is a young guy that's taken his fair share of lumps in the ministry. The goal is to eat, listen, pray, dream, and help that 'someone' on his journey of ministry. If nothing else we can let him know that there's life beyond the traditional church. This is definitely a loving mercy and walking humbly with God thing.

Start draft work on the Batman Begins message. Another self explanatory task, with a goal of helping people better understand God and his redemptive purpose for our life.

I need to go see either Batman Begins or Fantastic Four to keep up with the whole movie series thing. If you think this is a veiled attempt at an excuse to see a movie, get over it. This is cutting edge ministry, in the trenches, connecting with culture. Really. OK, it's not exactly work in some respects but it is essential that we Christians interpret culture through the filter of God's redemptive work.

Mowing the lawn would be a good thing but hey, I can blow that off until tomorrow. This is a lesson in redemption. I would not have to mow grass and cut weeds if Adam and Eve would have just kept their pride in check. Having a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and the assurance of being a part of a new heaven and new earth (with grass that I'm thinking won't need to be cut) is motivation to mow the lawn by tomorrow afternoon.

More stuff will come up. I'll need to be close enough to God to know how to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God when it does. Think through your day right now. Try running what you have to do today through justice, mercy, and humility filter.

Ask yourself the question, "Will the other human beings I come into contact to day be better off for being around me?"

Have a great day.

What do Enron, Custer, and Brad & Jennifer have in common?

Failure. It's never pretty. Enron, Worldcomm, Arthur Andersen, General Custer, and Brad & Jennifer are all examples of failure to some degree or another. If there's one thing in the world we hate to admit as humans, it's failure. No one likes to admit that the plan they developed and implemented failed.

We tend to blame accounting practices, battle plans, and Angelina Jolie for the failures in life. But what about the greed, pride, and self-centeredness that cause most human problems? Why don't we address those issues and admit a need to change our character? Because it's personal, that's why. Admitting that there are character flaws in our life is something that we all find hard to deal with. It's easier to place blame than take responsibility. The plan most people adopt in life is to mess up over and over and blame it on everything but their unwillingness to change.

The plans we make for life end up being more like a Band-aid when what we really need is a pride-oplasty. We listen to Oprah, Geraldo, Rush, Al, Bill, or Montel and hope for the best. We keep making plans and placing blame and come up empty in more ways than one. If that doesn't work we go to church or read the Bible or pray and ask God to give us some sort of cosmic Mapquest with turn-by-turn instruction. Other people try putting a bunch of world religions together and living by relative truth and developing an incredibly complex spiritual system and hope that works. So how well are our human plans working to solve life's problems? Not too well, obviously.

So what about God's plan? If God has a plan, what is it?

God's plan is simple: He wants to redeem humanity. Wait a minute...What about world peace, famine, child abuse, terrorism, abortion, divorce or my kid that needs to go to Brat Camp? What's God's plan for that? The answer is still the redemption of humanity. Don't blame the Democrats, Republicans, Muslims, your parents, your spouse or your kids. Be a part of God's plan of redemption. Remember, God's plan is pretty simple: Redeem humanity. Our part in that plan is to "...act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God" (Micah 6:8). Here's another way to look at it: "We are God's work of art, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God has already designated to make up our way of life" (Ephesians 2:10, NJB).

God's plan of redeeming humanity started by becoming like us. He chose to do that by having Jesus be born to a woman named Mary, a virgin. Because Jesus was God and man he showed us what it meant to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God...perfectly. Jesus loved the unlovable, cured the incurable, and railed on the religious. He sacrificed his life for humanity and took all of our sin on himself. He forgave our sins when he didn't have to and explained grace by his actions. After he died on the cross for our sins he rose from the dead. When we believe that and place our trust in a relationship with him, he gives us the power to live redemptively too. Jesus said, "As the Father sent me, so am I sending you" (John 20:21, NJB). So God's plan for us, as Christians, is to be a part of his redemptive plan. We're supposed to live redemptively.

Redemptive living makes dealing with other people's failure much easier. Redemptive living will also prevent a lot of failures from happening. Acting justly, loving mercy, and walking with God...He never said it would be easy. He did say that's what Christians were created for.

Have a great day.

the purpose of life happens in community (part 2)

(culture is looking for a place to connect)

Sometimes it's good to be alone. To focus, recharge, rest, and prepare for the next round of relationship encounters. Jesus did it, for sure. But Jesus spent the most of his time with people. Sometimes with a few, the twelve disciples. Other times it was with huge crowds. All of the time he was mixing with the culture and connecting with other people.

The American culture is no longer one of community. We try to say we're a culture of community because we still know it's valuable. So we give churches the name "community" church and there are online "communities". There are gated "communities" and we have "community" centers. How much community really takes place? How much do people genuinely connect and feel wanted and cared for? Are real relationships being engaged or have we started giving places the name "community" in hope that community might really happen?

So what is community anyway? (I'm starting to sound like the old guy on 60 minutes!) The sitcom Cheers was a good example. Mayberry RFD was another good example. A good movie example would be Cheaper by The Dozen. Community is/was when people knew who you were. They accepted you for how God made you, quirky personality and all. They lived life with you. They laughed, cried, mourned, and enjoyed sharing a meal with you. They even told you when you screwed up and let you know about it. Community is a place to know others and be known by others.

From a Christian perspective, an authentic, functioning Christian community has all of the above but it goes a step further and invites people into the community for the sake of friendship, healing, accountability, fun, worship, and learning. You may not have realized it but within that definition of an authentic Christian community the five purposes of the church...evangelism, fellowship, discipleship, ministry, and worship.

We were created for community, for relationships (Read Genesis chps 1-3). God created us so we would have a relationship with him. He gave us other humans to have relationships with. We've been created with an innate desire to have meaningful relationships. So how do we connect in urban/suburban culture, where we can be sitting in traffic, at a sporting event, at school, even at a megachurch and never connect with one single human being? Even though we may have been around thousands of people in one day? An authentic, Christian community.

The redeeming, healing, and connecting message of Jesus Christ is designed to bring people together in community. Our purpose as followers of Christ is to share that message and create a community of faith where hurting, disconnected people can be redeemed, healed, and connected...with God and with other people.

So here are two questions to challenge you today: What can I do to connect better with the people of The Journey? Who do I know that needs to be redeemed and healed and connected with God?

People are looking for a place to connect and be part of a community. Let's be there for them.

Have a great day.

stuff I wish I would have thought

Randy Bohlender says some pithy stuff once in a while. I'll quote his latest here but click on the link and visit him anyway.

if you're going to have a God....

I'm developing this train of thought where, if you're you're going to have a God, you really need to have room in your theology for Him to do something difficult to understand. Or maybe you should just get a dog.

True, so true.

the purpose of life happens in community (part 1)

(being alone so you can be with others)

Being by yourself is necessary sometimes. You need to get away from the kids when they're driving you nuts. Some personal time is in order when you're stressed at work. Maybe there's a friend that's getting a little too clingy and you need to slip away for a while. There are even times when you need to be away from your spouse. Personal time allows you to get away, collect your thoughts, and approach things with a clear head. Our culture calls it "me" time.

As a matter of fact, Jesus took "me" time. When Jesus took time for himself he usually prayed. He went off for forty days where he prayed and fasted. When the crowds became a bit too much he went off by himself for a short while and then went right back healing people. Jesus went off by himself to pray when things got stressful. Sometimes he just got a lone and prayed. No stress. He just got alone and prayed.

About now you're saying, "Yea, but that was Jesus. He was God. I just don't think about praying when I'm alone that much." There's a couple of things we have to remember. First, the Bible doesn't say that Jesus prayed everytime he was alone. At least not like we envision: with hands together, kneeling, and a yellowish-white glow around his head. When he was getting away from the crowd in the boat he was probably rowing and saying to himself, "Why can't these people leave me alone?" We discount too much that Jesus was also 100% human. He had the same frustrations we do with people. When he got alone he didn't genuflect and get all religious looking and then pray. He kept rowing and talking to the Heavenly Father. When you get away...in the basement from the kids, in the bathroom from your co-workers, on a hike away from everybody...just get away and tell God how you're feeling. It sure beats talking to yourself.

Second, the only way you and I are going to survive being around other people is to take time to be alone with God. Jesus taught us by how he lived that we can't provide for others emotionally and spiritually if we haven't taken the time to refuel our own lives. Think about it, Jesus was God in the flesh and he had to get away to pray. Why should we think we can keep blowing and going without any rest and time alone with God? We need to get away. When we get away we allow God to strengthen us and get rest. When we get away and talk to God we can clear our thoughts and gain a whole new perspective on things.

Being with people, no matter what their age, is draining. When you feel like you're running on "empty", take some time away. Recharge. Refuel. Talk to God. God's promise is that you'll have more strength and endurance (Isaiah 40:30-31). Why not take him up on it?

Have a great day.

the dog days of Summer...well, sort of

The title of the post isn't a comment on the weather here in Atlanta this July, especially since it's been relatively mild. I'm referring to church attendance in July. It seems like a lot of my colleagues are making it known that their attendance has been way down. We at The Journey Church are no different. Attendance has been way off.

Part of that has been due to the huge transition of losing a couple of staff guys, neither of which was expected. We handled the transitions well. Even if staff transitions are handled well some people are going to leave because...well, just because.

Since I'm not so much in the popular preacher blog loop (not a bad thing at all), I don't talk about it much here. Another reason is that one of my coaches, Nelson Searcy of The Journey Church in New York City (same church name purely by accident), gave me some good advice. You can't live your life by looking at weekly attendance. You have to look at trends because they're important, but allowing your self worth to be tied to weekly attendance is dangerous. No worries, school starts back in less than a month. Vacations and youth camps are over. "Thank God" in the truest sense of the phrase.

In the midst of this Summer's attendance slump there have been some incredible things taking place. Our worship is better than ever. There's an energy that's been missing in worship, at least for me personally, in my entire ministry. There's momentum in the middle of the "summer slump." Yesterday was one of the most poorly attended days of the year but a first time attender started a relationship with God.

Starting a church is difficult task no matter what. Starting a church with no denominational or financial support is even more difficult. But starting a church and seeing eternal things happen in the middle of the dog days of Summer lets you know that bigger things are on the way.

Tired?

One of the reasons that we feel distant from God is that we're just plain tired. Like any other relationship, maintaining a relationship with God takes work. Since God doesn't take up physical space in our lives, he tends to get less of our attention than the other relationships we have. That can be a real problem, because if we're not close to God we don't react emotionally to our human relationships the way we should. If we haven't spiritually recharged by being with God, we have little or no energy left to give to our human relationships.

Instead of talking to God, we literally wear ourselves to a frazzle talking to humans about things they simply don't have the answer to. We start our mornings worn out from no sleep because we've spent the night worrying about whatever. If we're tapping ourselves out by making plans that end up failing anyway it's probably time to make a change.

When we spend time with God and ask him about family issues, problems at work, strained relationships, or even world events that affect us, we get a completely different perspective on things. Think about it...the closer you get to God the more infinite, powerful, incredible and all knowing he becomes to us. When we recognize that God is able to ____________ (fill in the blank with anything here), we walk away from a visit with him full of energy. Why? Because we sense we don't have to worry as much or try so hard to make things turn out like we think they should. When we ask him for wisdom, which he give us generously (James 1:5), we become more productive in life and our emotions are far more healthy.

There's a very well known Bible verse that says, "Be still and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). When we settle down, either physically or mentally, we're simply allowing God a chance to get a word in with us. He wants the best for us. He wants to us have peace and joy when life gets difficult. God assures us that when we wait on him, be still with him, and tap into his power, we'll have all the energy we need. Here's what God says:

But those who wait on the LORD will find new strength. They will fly high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint (Isaiah 40:13, NLT).

Take some time today and be still with God. You'll see renewed strength and you'll sleep better tonight.

Have a great day.

reflections on world events

I've had a super busy day. It centered around a trip to the doctor. Thanks to the fall of man I have a sinus infection and bronchitis. Fun. I've just now really had time to sit down and reflect on yesterday's bombings in London.

I'm a bit of a hawk. I took a fair amount of military science classes in college. I even went to ROTC summer camp...for two days. When I made it to the ENT doctor during in service, he disqualified me and sent me home. For guess what??? Sinus issues. Back to the hawk thing. I also pastored near Ft. Sill in Lawton, OK. It's one of the largest new recruit training posts in the Army. I have lots of friends that serve or have served in some sort of artillery unit. I even got to "pull the tail" on a Paladin howitzer. Gee whiz was that a rush. I also pastored near Dahlgren, VA which is home for a Naval R&D base. With extra special permission (seriously) I got to tour the bowels of the computer system for our SLBMs (Trident). I didn't understand 80% (Probably why they let me in, ya think?) of what I saw but it was phenomenal anyway. I also got to tour the training center for the Aegis destroyer radar system. Talk about Star Wars kind of stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out with our military personnel.

So when a friend told me about the bombings in London yesterday, I got a pit in my stomach. Not a 911 kind of pit, but a pit nonetheless. My cynical mind went through it's normal thought process...protesters, conspiracy theory...back to reality...terrorists. I watched the cable news networks and scoured the Net for whatever was there. It seems the bombs were simple but the organization of the attacks wasn't. Then I got really ticked off. Whoever did it are a bunch of spineless mongrels. Almost simultaneously I began to laugh.

The name of the group that took responsiblity for the killing of innocent people and wounding hundreds of others was...Are you ready?...The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe. I just thought the name was really funny. Maybe it just lost something in the translation from another language or something. I mean, who takes credit for an act of war with a name like The Secret Organization of al-Qaida in Europe. I still say they're spineless mongrels.

May God bless and protect the Brits. May their intelligence network find and serve justice to the perps quickly. God save the Queen. God bless America.

The God of relationships

To know God better you have to know God. I mean like, know him personally. He's a being not just an idea. While there are mystical and incomprehensible things we'll never know about him (because he's God), he can certainly be known. To know God you have to go beyond gathering information about him...reading devotions, books, blogs or whatever and take the risk of saying, "I want to know you and be known by you."

God wanted a relationship so bad he created human beings. At the risk of getting all metaphysical, any kind of being wants relationships. Beings need community. So, God created humanity. Then he saw that it wasn't good for humans to be alone. I mean, walking and talking with God was great for the first human but the human needed a soul mate. Voila. God took care of that and created Eve for Adam. It was good. Very good.

Then it got bad. Humanity got self-centered and the result was being distanced from God. Humanity went on an "It's all about me" binge. The whole time God wanted to restore the relationship. He tried to show them that a relationship required sacrifice. They sort of got it, but few really understood. Humanity preferred to add God into the equation at their convenience instead of making a relationship a priority. Kind of self-centered, huh?

That didn't bother God. His love was so big, his forgiveness was so deep, his desire for a restored relationship with us was so consuming that he decided to become human. God in the flesh. Jesus Christ. From my perspective that was risky on God's part. Actually, it's remarkable. At many levels it's hard to imagine God becoming open and vulnerable to time and space and pain and suffering and rejection. And he, meaning Jesus Christ, went through all of that and still chose to sacrifice his life for you and me so the relationship could be restored. The power of his love chose to sacrifice everything. The power of his love resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead reaches out to us 24/7/365.

As I wrote this I was thinking and praying:

God, how could I not love you? You've been misrepresented, I've been self-centered, and you still chose to be open and vulnerable so I could know you. It's beyond my comprehension. I don't get it all, but thanks for doing it. Thanks for always being there. Thanks for loving me in spite of me. Thanks for helping me see how Jesus made it possible for me to have a relationship with you and to talk to you.

God's waiting to talk to you. It's definitely worth the risk.

Unfreakingbelievable (and a word to people that comment, especially anonymous ones)

OK, so I change the format of my blog (out of sheer laziness) and post my devotions that go along with my current message series and, according to Bravenet.com, I've had 65 first time visitors today? Unfreakingbelievable. I thought the four people that RSS the sight would put me on snooze. What gives? How did this happen? Eleven comments (really 10 cause I screwed up one of my own) on one little entry on the dependablity of the Bible? Unfreakingbelievable. Maybe it's a fluke. Who knows. If not, we need some ground rules here.

A note to people that comment: (other than people I actually know)

The devotions that will be posted over the next few weeks are founded on the historical, orthodox beliefs of the Christian church taken solely from the Bible. If you have questions, I'll answer them as best I can but I won't debate you.

My suggestion is that instead of hiding inside the Internet, go to a church close to you that believes the Bible and start a dialogue with one of their leaders. If they're lame and won't talk to you, go to another one. There's one within driving/subway distance to you surely. If you're unable to get out of your house, we can find someone to come to you. The reason I say all of this is that the Kingdom of God is about relationships. You simply can't form those over the Internet. Constructive dialogue happens when two people are face to face. I encourage anyone that wants to comment to do so, but bear in mind that if you want to enter into dialogue about something, don't try to hide from confronting the issue with a real human. Christianity is made to be discussed in community with real live human beings. The general anonymity of the Internet is simply contradictory to the organism of community. Talk to a human being (in person) that's been transformed by the power of Jesus Christ and you'll find the conversation very engaging.

A word to any future anonymous posters: I'll delete your comment if you post anonymously. In my best Jack Black voice, aka Ned Schneibly: "Posting anonymously is lame." Fortunately, the ones I've challenged have stepped up and given me their name or blogger name. Why so...... ...uncompromising? My job as a spiritual architect is to help people engage God through relationships in community. Anonymity is simply contradictory to the organism of community. I can only care about someone if I know their name.

Tomorrow's devotion: I don't know yet. Something about knowing God better. Based on today's happenings it will probably take a 'relationships and how our culture cultivates isolation instead of community' kind of bent. I'll need to see what the Bible says about it first.

65 new readers today. Hmmm.

God is not boring

There is nothing boring about God. Religion, yes. God, no.

If you want to get closer to God this Summer, one of the best ways is to read the Bible. OK, I already said that yesterday. But reading the Bible is considered boring by most people and I thought it good that I say that reading the Bible is important again. It's important because it will change your life, not because that's what "good" Christians do.

I didn't read the Bible much growing up...even as a pastor's kid. There were two big reasons. First, the Bible I had access to was written in 17th century English. I didn't talk that way. When I read it, I sounded like I had lisp with all of the words that ended in "eth." Second, I heard people talking like that when they prayed and they thought that you had to speak King James English to talk to God. Something wasn't right about that because when I talked to God he heard me just fine. I waited for a better Bible translation. Until a better translation came along I listened to my Dad explain that "And say ye moreover, Behold, thy servant Jacob is behind us. For he said, I will appease him with the present that goeth before me, and afterward I will see his face; peradventure he will accept of me" meant Jacob was going to hang back, send a present ahead, and wait to figure out if the guy he wanted to see would talk to him. All that being said, I didn't study the Bible that much. Now I do.

I study the Bible a lot now, not so much because it's my job but that it's a good book you don't get tired of reading. It's not boring. It's only boring if you read it the wrong way. If you start in Genesis and read it like a regular book, you'll start having problems focusing about Leviticus, which is less that 5% into the book. To really understand how much God loves us and wants a relationship with us you need to read different parts of the Bible simultaneously. Otherwise you get stuck somewhere in the blood and guts of 1st and 2nd Samuel or the "begats" of the Chronicles. The great news is that some genius (I really mean that) figured out that if you read a certain amount of different parts of the Bible everyday, you could read the Bible in a year.

Try using a One Year Bible. Go buy a hard copy or go to www.oneyearbibleonline.com and just click on the current day. You can either read it or listen to it (great for stay at home moms). It will make the Bible much less boring because you get a balanced diet of God's story.

When you read the Bible, you're reading what God thinks about you and the world you live in. You're reading about real life...birth, death, war, love, sex, spirituality, kids, husbands, wives....and the God that cares enough to talk to you about all of it. Read the Bible and I promise you'll be closer to God this Summer than ever before.

Google God...read the Bible

So where do you look for advice about things that are happening in your life. Do you read? Do you Google it? Do you call your spouse?...friend?...co-worker? ... the current prayer hotline on TBN? It's smart to get advice from other people. There's an ancient saying by Solomon that goes like this: "A wise man will hear and increase in learning, and a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel."

History says that Solomon was a smart guy, so it's probably a good idea to take his advice. He says we should seek wise counsel. You can get a good piece of advice from some of the places I mentioned above but you won't always get wise counsel. Ask yourself this question the next time you go to one of your information sources: "Is this place going to give me a quick fix or is it going to give me a principle that will work for the rest of my life?"

There's nothing wrong with Googling for an answer to a problem or asking a friend what you should do in a certain situation. Where most of us go wrong is that we scour our resources looking for an answer and end up exhausted and frustrated. Enter the Bible. We ask our friends to tell us their stories. We read the Web and books to see what people think about any given situation. So why not read the book that God wrote and find out what he thinks about life? Why not read the Bible to begin with, and begin our quest for wisdom and information with a completely reliable information source?

If you're just starting back to church, take this moment to commit to picking up a modern translation like the New Living Translation, New International Version, or the Contemporary English Version and read it. Or go to BibleGateway.com and use its incredible search engine and search dozens of translations. If you've been in church a while but you've replaced looking in the Bible for answers to your life situation with other things, use this moment to recommit to using the Bible as your primary source for answers.

Let the Bible encourage you, strengthen you, make you wiser, and challenge you to change. Make it your starting point for information about life's situations. Things will start to look up very soon.

You've tried asking everyone else what they think. Why not ask God what he thinks?

This devotional series is the result of our God on Film '05 message series. It's primary goal is to connect people with God and/or get them closer than they've been in a while. To see the rationale behind this temporary change in posting style, read the previous post.

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Tuesday, July 5, 2005
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So you've decided to spend more time with God. Some exciting things are going to take place in your life in the next few weeks because of your decision to walk with God more closely. As I look back over my prayer journal over the past couple of months, it's amazing to see how many prayers have been answered by God. Rest assured that God will do the same for you.

God answers prayer based on what's best for us, not what we want the most. When we ask God to reveal himself and his will to us, he promises to listen and take action. The Scripture tells us "This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us" (John 5:14 NIV). Read that again...he hears us if we ask anything according to his will. That means we have to adjust how we talk to God doesn't it? The adjustment is easier for us to make because God promises that our confidence in how to pray increases when we ask his opinion. Since he's God, his opinion is trustworthy. If our confidence goes up, the time we spend with God goes up.

The first thing I talked about in Sunday's message was that we should ask God to reveal himself to us. When we ask God to reveal himself to us, it's like asking the question, "So what do you think God?" The incredible revelation about the whole thing is when we talk to God this way he actually hears us.

Sometime today, ask God what he thinks you should do about the most pressing issue of the day. Then be still and know that he is God...and your not. He'll begin to make you wiser and more patient in dealing with the things that matter to you the most. He'll hear you and reveal himself to you because you matter to Him. He'll do all of that just because you ask the question, "So what do you think God?"

mixing it up...a little change...shifting gears

As a whole, my blog has been a bit random in its content. Sort of, whatever hit me at the moment whether it was a great CD or commenting or even something that ticked me off. That's going to change somewhat for a while (Yuck. Talk about your passive sentences!). As a part of a message series at The Journey Church I've offered to provide daily devotions (5 per week) to those who sign up by email. Since my style of communication is to weave in life stories , I thought I would post them here for eveyone's viewing pleasure...all four of you. In order to massage my ego I must mention that my readership has doubled from two to four in just two weeks. Watch out Terry Storch, here I come...

Change like this is supposed to be the demise of a blog. People read you because there's something they enjoy about what you write about and how you write about it. So I'll look at this as a bit of an experiment. Going from a personal comment on life kind of blog to a devotional kind of blog may knock my readership back to two but, hey, I'm willing to take the risk.

The primary reason to take the different approach for a while is quite simple. I'm lazy. I don't want to write the devotional and blog because, frankly, I don't like writing that much and I'm not as good as Alex McManus anyway. If you don't like the temporary change, go to Alex's blog. His glasses are the same as mine, he's a musician, and he's all about ministry to the next generation. Other than that we're not much alike because he's really smart and I'm just a dumb redneck. Oh yeah, and I've got this prominent Southern accent that he doesn't have. You have to admit that the accent doesn't come across too much in writing, does it?

Back on topic...If you're one of the four diehard readers out there, you just might be able to get something out of the devotions. If not, I completely understand. If it's worth anything, I reserve the right to interject moments of creative overflow or commentary on life as I deem necessary. I know that will help you rest better. We'll see what happens.

In his best Kip voice: Peace out.

You have to admire Tom Cruise's passion

You have to admire Tom Cruise's passion about life and his religion, even if you don't agree with his religion or like the way he verbally threw up on Matt Lauer. I've been a Tom Cruise fan since Top Gun. The Mission Impossible projects were cool and I really enjoyed watching The Last Samurai on vacation this week. All very passionate movies. I wouldn't expect less from Tom Cruise. In his interview with Lauer he was quoted as saying that he's passionate about life. I would agree. He is one passionate dude.

Mr. Cruise is also passionate about the Church of Scientology. In fact, that's why he really blew up at Mr. Lauer. He went ballistic, pun intended, about his religion. I didn't get to see the interview, but when I read about it I thought it a bit unusual coming from a Hollywood type. I mean, after all, Hollywood types are passionate about a lot of things...usually weird things...but not about religion. When I read about how he went off about how the mental sciences were essentially a hoax I was taken back a bit. Don't get me wrong. If there ever was a "suck it up and tough it out" kind of person, it would be me. But, I think that we overdiagnose and overprescribe meds way too much in emotional and behavioral situations that are even slightly out of the norm. However, I don't totally dismiss drugs or therapy. If you're in the ministry (at least in the majority of ministry environments) for very long you get mentally down. More people in the ministry than want to admit it get depressed. It happened to me. While drugs and counseling aren't the only answer to chemical imbalances they sure can help. I digress...

Even though I admire Mr. Cruise's passion, I find his commitment to his religion suspect. I knew enough about Scientology to get me into trouble so I went to a source that I felt was trustworthy...a minister of Scientology that's also a chaplain in the U.S. Navy. I respect the view of a U.S. Navy chaplain primarily because my experience with Navy personnel has been one that exudes precision. Anyway, back to the suspect thing. To become a minister in the Church of Scientology you have to start out "auditing" other people. Specifically auditing is "a unique form of personal counseling intended to help an individual look at his own existence and improve their ability to confront what and where they are. It is a precise, thoroughly codified activity with exact procedures" (emphasis mine). The auditor keeps a close watch on the counselee by using an E-Meter. The E-Meter continuously measures the electrical resistance of the person's body and helps the auditor correctly diagnose the person and make necessary adjustments in the person's treatment. The E-Meter ain't exactly an EKG. Read an interesting article on the E-Meter here.

When an auditor establishes their...umm...integrity, they are given the title of minister and wear clerical clothing and everything. The genesis of my cynicism is that Mr. Cruise sounds a lot like a KJV fundie when he starts bashing the "pseudo sciences" of psychology and psychiatry and comes off as a self-professed expert on behavior modification drugs that are readily available on the street. Here's what I really don't get...Why doesn't Tom Cruise think that "auditing" functions, at least on the base level, just like psychiatry or psychology? The intent of any counseling session is the modification of behavior. There's no difference. Except that in psychiatry they actually use EKGs, MRIs, and CT scans.

Another thing I don't get is that Mr. Cruise is a smart guy, but he seems to overlook the fact that Scientology looks curiously like a mixture of Mormonism, Hinduism, and Universalism with a healthy dose of good old fashioned gnosticism mixed in. Then Mr. Hubbard adds a bit of deism to make it look more legit.

One more thing I don't get is how a religion is given so much credibility when it's based on one person's sole writings and teachings with verbosity being the benchmark of truth. Can we get a second opinion from another auditor or something? I even get a second opinion when I ask if a movie is worth seeing. Maybe the reason I like the Bible so much is that it has at least 31 human authors that claim to be inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. I figure if over 3o people can come up with the same things about God something has to be right about it.

Wow, that felt better than a discharge of harmful energy...I think. I had a bad muscle spasm one time and the doctor hooked me up to a Medco Sonolator and it made my muscle twitch a lot and then I felt better. Was that like a reverse discharge of harmful energy? Did I dabble in Scientology? They didn't talk to me while they were doing it so I don't think I was "audited". I think I'm OK.

Oh well, you still have to admire Tom Cruise's passion. You have to admit he's a good actor. He's creative. He's intelligent. I also think he's misled. Just my opinion, of course. But what do Matt Lauer and I know about anything anyway?