Quick open challenge to boys, guys, and men

manup Every man, single, dating or married is called to be the cover for women around them.  For the fact is that we are called to protect women.  This is not to say that women are weak and all that crap.  Men are still called to be a cover for their sisters in Christ.  We are called to be honorable and protecting of their spirituality, their conditions of heart and emotions.  We are called to stand for them and be there for them as men willing to fight for our sisters' heart, spirit, body and soul.  No woman or girl is just a woman or girl.  Each woman is still a member of the body of Christ, and no matter what relation that woman...any woman has to you; be it your mother, your sister, your girlfriend, your friend, or even the girl whose name you don't even know. No matter what role any woman plays in your life, she is still your responsibility.  This is not a matter of ruling over, but a matter of honor and protecting.  As a man, I am called to cover, protect, and honor the heart of each woman.  To fight for and protect each woman's condition of heart, mind, spirit, and body.  Why do men wait until they're in a relationship to start realizing this stuff?  Why have I sought so hard to be a 'man of God' my entire life and failed to realize I am not just called to respect and honor the girl I was interested in at the time?  No!  If I am a true man of God, I am called to honor, protect and cover EVERY woman.  No woman is just a woman.  Each woman is my responsibility.  I am my sister's keeper!

Evil in the Church

hp photosmart 720 The gospel is lavished and laced with LOVE. If you know the gospel, you know you are loved. If you spread the gospel to others, you spread love. Oh how I long to love. I really wish I loved better...loved more.

It really is hard to love everyone. "Loving your enemy" is and will always be a difficult task, but why are we so quick to run from that challenging call? I am beginning to think it is not that the Church is "no good" at it as much as I would say Christians have been conditioned to not even try. Christians have walked further and further away from the challenge to love OUR dark side of life, and we do it by HIDING. By pretending.

For too long, we have believed and maintained hope by pretending that things are not as bad as they are. We have reduced the church down to a Sunday morning event rather than an EVERYDAY community. We are content to put band-aids on every Sunday, go to 'church', and walk away with gaping wounds nobody is willing to believe actually exist.

Church is no longer an everyday community where we honestly face evil happing in our CHURCH every day; issues like abuse, marital rocks, terminal sickness, cyber-adultery, depression, flat-lining-self-esteem, doubt...sin! We are more and more reluctant to face the issues of everyday, and we leave 'church' to be a Sunday morning EVENT! We have to realize that there IS evil in our church...OUR CHURCH COMMUNITY...everyday community.

If we don't, we will watch the gospel remain a sermon that is a part of the Sunday morning event. There IS hurt, evil, and sin in our church community...in our world. We have to realize that our relationship with Christ is not intended to COVER UP the dark side of life, but rather to illuminate a path THROUGH IT! [Tweet that] We have to realize we are called as the church to be the hands and feet to love and stand before the pain. To take on the dark side of life instead of pretending it is not there. We cannot be afraid of the pain. We cannot hide from the sin, hurt and evil in our church.

We WILL be bloodied by the contact, yes! But we will be the community we are intended to be, the community which goes beyond being pumped with spiritual adrenaline on Sunday morning. Sunday morning is a congregation, but the church is an EVERYDAY COMMUNITY!!

Allow for struggle

Some of the best thoughts come through struggle. God honors our struggle and despises our tepid, lukewarm droning.  We are not preschoolers who walk straight lines attached to a rope.  God honors the honest struggler.  There are too many Christians trying to find life through soothing their soul, but true passion is brought forth in honest struggle.  Our wrestling match with God is pregnant with passion and confidence. Because God will ENFOLD AN HONEST STRUGGLER IN LOVING ARMS.  The good news is that hatred of God and others decreases as Christ takes the heart inch by inch, but it comes only through honest and passionate struggle with God.  We may be a new creation, but we are not a perfect creation.  The war over hatred and sin may be won ultimately, but the battle to replace hatred with love will be over only when we see Jesus in flesh.  We can and will be angry with God, but have to be honest without reserve.  We must understand the Holy Spirit will not allow a bottomless cup of anger to exist, and most often the heart will be engulfed in love when we are honest with God.

When God wrote my aching heart a letter

success You are successful, PC. No matter what anyone else says or expects of you, if you will remain obedient, faithful, and passionate, you are and will be successful.

Trust this, PC. Trust it and allow your aching heart to be affected by what I am saying to you.

I have given you this word:

SUCCESSFUL

You are my son. I am very pleased with you. You have been obedient and faithful through your ache and dryness. PC, you are successful and I have wired you for this success.

I DEFINE YOUR SUCCESS, PC. No one and nothing else defines your success. If you remain obedient to the things I have wired you for!

I love you, PC. I have never left you. I have never been far off from you. In fact, your aching heart has been so much closer to me than you even realized.

We will be lovers once more. I have your heart. I always have. Even when it aches, it has always been mine. I am proud of you, and you are successful, son.

Machine + For the Broken Ones

I performed a combination of two pieces at The Worship Conference NorCal this past weekend. I was asked for the text of the piece. So if you are interested, here it is. He told me "We're very proud of the ministry we have here." "We have worked very hard to build a well-oiled machine." He went on to describe what I could only assume to be parts of his machine and turned to ask if could see myself as a part of his ministry, and I wish he hadn't asked.

You see, some people build ministry like a well-oiled machine. They put in all their time, money, and people in hopes that the machine will produce the right produce, the right person, the right number beware when your ministry becomes a well-oiled machine for machines have not hearts

And some people build ministry like a well-oiled machine that keeps breaking down. They put in all their time, money, and people and the machine will not produce. Take courage, my friends; it is still a machine and machines have not hearts

Machines have no need for miracles they only ask for miracles and then operate in ways to make miracles unnecessary Machines are built with big budgets and bigger buildings and I wish I could write these words in braille so someone could feel what I'm saying

You don't need God to build a machine

But worship is for the broken ones smart enough to know how foolish they are It is for those who have tried and found life lacking but are not content to confess that 'this' is all there is

If is for those wearied of wondering if our crying hearts might drown us but know that our tears are telescopes to heaven looking through trembling lenses for hope and deeper senses of home

It is for those who don't need church to be a menagerie of saints but an emergency room for sinners it is for those whose shadows are faint from finding too much light

Worship is for those who will step out onto nothing hoping to land on something because accepting that you are accepted is a perception of yourself not everyone can afford it is for the wobbly and weak-kneed who have let loose the luxury of denying a handout of amazing grace

It is for those who chose a path though straight and narrow is still rugged and beaten you are still on the right path

Worship is for phobic confessor who could never match the projections of the pious but know that perfection is a gangly wire no one could ever walk

It is for the child who holds that heaven is full of five year olds sparing themselves the futility of proving themselves to people who will never speak your language of half cartoon, half boo boo, half "Daddy, I love you." Three halves make one more than whole

Do not accept yourself as you should be but as you are because you will never be as you should be Quit rinsing your filthy rags in gas station bathrooms as if hand soap and make believe will make them believe you belong; but you belong. You belong to a kingdom belonging to people not trying to cleaner than they are You belong

Worship is for the sin-soaked and the broken who are loved and outspoken knowing unworthy is not the same as worthless

It is for the paupers who have made peace with their flaws It is for those who have prayed in silence but have never ceased to pray

Worship is for you do not for one second take your gift for granted make sure it is contagious because while it is yours to have it is only valuable in its giving away

be sure your every conversation leaves a sensation of love because this is where the mighty descend and the lowly rise to comprise what we all crave

Worship is standing on the lip of the Grand Canyon with a contagious tour guide tell you to "Look at THIS! Look at THAT! Look at THIS! Look at THAT!" and if the Grand Canyon is only a faint shadow of God's glory you have to wonder, "What must HE be like?"

You are not a worship singer, a backup vocalist, a drummer a guitarist, a basist, or a sound tech You are a worship leader You are a tour guide to God's glory So stand and shout for all who will listen "Look at THIS! Look at THAT! Look at THIS!"

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kEW1WRJTpM&w=560&h=315]

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City of Refuge

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The cities of refuge have to be one of the most intriguing things to me in the Old Testament. God commanded his people as they were establishing themselves in the promised land by tribe to each have a city of refuge outside the parameters of the city. These cities were to be a place for people who had killed another to escape. It was not a place to go be innocent and free of guilt. It was a place of protection. Why protect the murderer? These places were for them to escape those who avenge the victims. It was God's justice. Wait, what?

God knows our revenge is always more emblazened and severe. God protects from unequal severity of revenge. The murderer, though in refuge, remains under judgement for his wrong. That is until the acting priest dies. (ps, another interesting reality is that the cities of refuge were always maintained by the priestly tribe. The mission of the cities of refuge should be the mission of pastors, ministers, and followers of Jesus.) Like us, they were under judgement until our High Priest died to free us from under the burden of judgement.

Yesterday, I was contacted by a ministry to my neighborhood (Oak Park/Tahoe Park). The ministry is called, City of Refuge Sacramento. While it is not a hiding place for murders, it is a place to reach into a community to which high crime and poverty is attributed. It is a ministry which attempts to infiltrate in community to make efforts toward this freedom out from under the burden of the judgement.

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/58339643 w=500&h=281]

CIty of Refuge - BT FInal from Better Together on Vimeo.

Prayer is the Relationship

It seems I do everything else more than I pray when I should be praying more than anything else. And being a pastor just means I have gone pro at this misdirection. Many of us are excellent organizers, promoters, strategists, leaders, but we are poor pray-ers. Many of us rely on our gifts and talents instead of God who gave those gifts and talents, and that reliance and power is in prayer. Where there is little prayer there is little power.

Prayer is not an element of our relationship with God. Prayer IS your relationship with God. [Tweet That]

Do I want a powerful new relationship with God? Do I hunger and thirst for deeper spiritual filling and vibrant ministry. I can go nowhere God is not already (Ps. 139:7-12). I cannot escape his presence, but I can entirely miss him.

God, allow my heart to be affected by this word.

Affective Passion

affected The word passion means "to be affected by" [Tweet That] Think of the things you are passionate about.

You are passionate about those things you are most affected by, and that may be just about anything. When I think of the picture of my life and its passions, I want to create a picture of how ridiculous it is to be more passionate about anything other than Jesus Christ and his presence, his love, his grace, and his Spirit.

Does prayer affect me? When I pray, do I come from a place where my heart is affected and affectionate, or are they words without thoughts?

Does my time in God's word affect me? Do I read the things I read wanting to allow myself to actually be affected by what I read, or am I just reading words without thoughts?

Is my life affected by the love of God today? Not effected, but affected. The former I do not control, the latter I do. Do I allow my heart and life to be affected by the gospel? Am I truly passionate about my life with Christ? Does it affect me today? Do I allow his grace to affect my emotion, my choices, and my thirst for MORE?

These are the true questions of passion.

Restoration through wrestling

Jesus tells each of his disciples to forgive his brothers' sins against him and others. He tells them "Things that cause people to sin are bound to happen." After challenging his disciples to forgive and love when they want to accuse and hate, the disciples attempt a subject change from discomfort to comfort. "Increase our faith!" (verse 5) Jesus speaks to them where they went with the subject, but I believe He ties it in with their unwillingness to forgive and love when its hardest. He says, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed..." (verse 6) I believe Jesus was placing the ball back in their court. Jesus does not let them off easy. He challenges them to realize it is not Jesus who needs to give them more faith to love and forgive. They need to understand that it only takes a little to do so much. Even the smallest amount of faith is plenty to forgive if a person is willing and wants to forgive. There are risks of course! We are called to love in a fallen world. We will forgive and love at the risk and inevitability of seeing more pain. But we MUST love and forgive. We must be willing to give at least a little faith. It goes a long way.

Now remember, these thoughts came through a struggle. (Tying it all together) This came after expressed HONEST struggle with God. I believe God honors our struggle and despises our tepid, lukewarm droning. We are not preschoolers who walk straight lines because we are attached to a rope. God honors the honest struggler. There are too many Christians trying to find life through soothing their soul, but I believe true passion is brought forth in honest struggle. I think our wrestling match with God is pregnant with passion and confidence. The good news is hatred of God and others decreases as Christ takes the heart inch by inch, but it comes only through honest and passionate struggle with God. We may be a new creation, but we are not a perfect creation.

The war over hatred and sin may be won ultimately, but the battle to replace hatred with love will be over only when we see Jesus in flesh. We can and will be angry with God, but have to be honest without reserve. We must understand the Holy Spirit will not allow a bottomless cup of anger to exist, and most often the heart will be engulfed in love when we are honest with God.