Does my organization…
- have assurance of things it hopes for
- have a conviction for things we cannot actually see
- have a relentless trust in God that goes beyond our projected goals and budget
- trust more in God’s providing than its own talents, gifts, and leadership
- say “God’s grace and gospel are sufficient for me” before saying “insufficient funds”
- trust the Holy Spirit is accomplishing great things with or without us
- take risks that can only be described as faithful
- step out on nothing to land on something
- come to the end of things with an awe that it actually happened the way it did
- give more credit to God than the team

How “faith-based” is your organization?

1 The Lies People Tell Us
The first kind of lies we believe are those that are projected onto us by others; most often by those who are authority figures and those closest to us. There is no defense against these lies when you are younger. Those sorts of lies are the ones which cut right to the heart and become the ‘truths’ we allow to run our lives. If you were told you were bad, you believed you were bad. If you were told you were ugly, you believed you were ugly. If you were told you were dumb, you believed you were dumb. If you were told you were too dramatic, you believed you were too dramatic. Get the point??

The result can be an inability to tell the difference between what you did and WHO YOU ARE!

2. The Lies We Tell Ourselves
The other sort of lies we believe are those we tell ourselves in order to survive. These are crafted by ourselves in circumstances when we were abused or neglected. These are moments when our true needs are not met. We grow less and less vulnerable because of this. We did not want to get hurt any longer; so we became less vulnerable in order to avoid getting hurt. We start to believe things (lies) like, “I don’t need anybody,” “Nobody really cares what I think or feel anyway.”

We begin to believe things like this and grow more and more numb; less and less vulnerable. The problem with this is that refusing to be vulnerable may actually be less painful for the moment BUT it undermines our ability to have good and healthy relationships in the future.

We have to begin the process of disproving the lies (projected and survival) we have come to believe as truth, because those beliefs are tearing us down.

Self-rejection and hatred are far too present in the Christian faith. It was never intended to be this way. We too often take our own self-hatred and project it onto God, and that does not match up. We too often assume that God feels the same way about us that we fee about ourselves. This is impossible, of course, unless we are able to love ourselves with relentlessly tender and accepting love.

We have to destroy the idol of guilt and begin to accept ourselves as we really are. We are all wounded people, and need to learn to accept that. We, instead, either lacerate ourselves with guilt and shame, or we hide our wounds with pretty faces and admirable manufactured presentations of ourselves. We hide behind those masks and never allow ourselves to be known as we are. Sadly, I often hide for so long behind some masks that I believe they are real; I forget my real self.

Guilt remains an idol because my unwillingness to reveal myself as I am, wounds and all, is an unwillingness to accept myself. That unwillingness to accept myself is my unwillingness to accept that God truly is a loving God. I may accept it in my head while there remains a great chasm between my head and my heart.

How willing am I to be wounded; to accept that I am wounded? Without being immobilized by guilt?

How long will I worship the idol of guilt?

These will be things I find to share with you; things before you thank me for showing, I’ll just say, “You’re welcome!”

——-

A friend of mine shared a short film with me entitled O Night Divine! I followed the link and immediately found myself in the world of Eliot Rausch. This director and editor has several stunning projects he has posted for people to enjoy online. I have attached a spotlight shown on Late Night with Carson Daily. Within the spotlight there is reference to one of his short films entitled Last Minutes with Oden. This thing will rip your heart out in a redemptive way.

I could not stop watching Eliot’s films on his website. Take some time to watch as much as you can. My recommendations, in order, are: Last Minutes with Oden, Eds Story, O Night Divine

Eliot Rausch on “Last Call” with Carson Daly from Eliot Rausch + Phos Pictures on Vimeo.

I am at a point right now where I feel like the 12 spies in Numbers chapter 13 and 14. I am looking ahead at possibilities and new places of ministry and living. I am determining what response I will have as I look ahead into those lands of possibility.

Like all of the spies together, I look ahead and I can see the good things. I can see the milk and honey; I can see the fruit in the land of future opportunity. I can see myself in these positions and opportunities with my enlivened passions and gifts. I can see the fruits.

BUT…

Also like the spies, I can see the parts I would not be strong in. I can see the giants and the possible defeat. I can see the areas I would not excel in, and I begin to wonder whether or not I would really be destined for this land of opportunity.

So I arrive at an inner-decision. I am one of the 12 spies at this point, but the question becomes which will I be?

Will I sit and sulk and say, “I don’t know about this; I am not strong in this area or that.” Will I stay back and say, “If I go after this, my weaknesses will get the best of me.”

OR…

Will I be Caleb or Joshua the spy and say, “This land of opportunity is exceedingly good. If God is pleased with me he will lead me along and give to me what I need. Do not be afraid of the giants of your weaknesses because with God, I will swallow them up.”

Will I know, then, the blessing of God onto Caleb?

“But because my servant has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to.”

Will I be confident or cowardly!

—-

* This was written not long before I came to First Covenant

OBESITY:
Only attend church so we can “be fed”. “If I they don’t feed me there, I’m leaving for another church with a better buffet.” Always eat; no exercise. Constantly being fed but doing no work with the spiritual food taken in. Doing nothing outside the walls of the church. These are obese Christians!

ANOREXIC:
do not need or want to be fed. never take the time to be nurtured spiritually. end up losing the strength and spiritual nutrition the spirit needs. ends up weak and despondent. ends up destroying and killing the spirit once it has gone too far. These are anorexic Christians!

OVER-EXERCISED:
looks similar to the anorexic Christian, but a significant difference. often your Church leaders; obsessed with ministry. go hard all the time. never take the time to rest in connection with the heart of God. rarely fed, but going all the time….”but its fine because its ministry, right?” These are overexercised Christians!

BULEMIC:
Often characterized by a binging of spiritual input. ends up expelling everything in an apathetic forgetfulness. goes to the church, gets fed (sometimes a lot), but forgets everything once it hits the door.

HEALTHY:
?

re*store [ri-stawr, -stohr]
verb
1. to bring back, as to use or good condition
2. to give back

—–

This is my word of the year. I want these things in my heart, soul, life, and world. I want this for me. I want it for those close to me, and I want it for strangers.

There is this lady named Sally, and she had some health problems.  She ended up on the operating table and she talked to God.  “Is this it, God?  Am I going to die now?”  God answered, “No Sally, you have 40 more years.”

Well then Sally got through the operation and got better just fine.  Since she had made it through and knew she had 40 years left, she decided to get ‘some work’ done.  She got a tuck here, and a lift there.  She got a boob job and some other surgeries.  As she was leaving one of her appointments, she walked out into the street and got hit by an ambulance and died.

She got to heaven and said, “God!  What happened!  I thought you said I had another 40 years!”

God said, “OH Sally???  I didn’t recognize you.”

Now imagine children were basically robots without a choice.  Suppose you only had to push a child’s nose like a button and it would just operate without any further prompting.  Initially, that may sound great.  That sounds wonderful in fact…until we remember back to the joy and the love we felt when the child CHOSE to obey what we asked of them.  If children were only robots, there would be no sense of love.  There would be no real obedience; there would only be programmed response.

Sure kids make choices that frustrate us as well, but there is great love in their obedience.

God could have created us as programmed robots who just need to have the “ON” button pushed to go on doing what we are supposed to do.  But God created us with a choice and a will, because our choice to obey God is loving.  When we CHOOSE to obey God, I think he feels loved and respected and honored at a much more multiplied level than I do when my child obeys me.

Moses knew very clearly what God had asked him to do, and now the very people he was there to deliver are angry with him for handling it the way he did. He does not give up on the vision or run away from it. He simply comes back to God as if to say, “YOU told me to do this, and now look what is happening!”

He was not giving up, but he was bringing God’s vision and plan back to him and asking for answers.

When you pray for someone, you cannot
focus on yourself

Forgiveness is releasing yourself
of the selfishness of anger

Restoration is happening now
and will be complete on ‘that day’

He could have jumped immediately to this one, but instead he gave them chance after chance to turn and escape. He gave them several opportunities to get out of these plagues.

Yes, God gets angry and does CRAZY things, but his fuse is infinitely longer than mine would ever be if I were him in these situations.

Dont’ look for his love and mercy in his anger;
you’ll find it in his long fuse.

In order for us to really be better and whole (the real meaning of shalom), we have to identify and recognize the lies and false beliefs we have and how they affect us. Once we recognize the false beliefs, we have to replace them with truths. Once we replace the lies with truth we will find that our destructive behaviors, our underreactions and overreactions, will also begin to change. Any situation in which I underreact or overreact to something involved some sort of pain, wound, or lie underneath my surface. I have protected my wounds with lies and false beliefs, and my behaviors have developed as a result.

In John, Chapter 8, Jesus is speaking to the Jews, and he tells them they are slaves to sin. But he tells them in vss. 31 and 32 that if they would, “continue in his word…and know the truth, that truth would make them free.” We are slaves to our lies and false beliefs about ourselves. But if we would continue to listen to God’s words and his heart for us, we would be able to see the TRUTH about ourselves, and that TRUTH can set us free.

What I do comes out of who I am. How much do I realize God’s love for me? God loves me and cares about me. He has a plan and purpose for my life; all the other things I use to determine who I am are false. All the other things I have attached “my self” to are “idols”. I have attached my identity, “who I am”, to other things than God and have, in so doing, created idols.

My true identity, who I really am, is God’s beloved. I have to claim my identity solely with that realization. IF I were able to do that perfectly, I would have given God complete control of my life…

…IF…

Upon some reflection, the answer is simple. Anything that is not God! Everything that is not God! The sand is anything, anyone that is not God. This means even good things are sand. That means even good people are sand. If I am not building my life on THE Rock, I am building it on the sand. That means everything other than God will wash away.

Does that mean to stay away from everything and everyone? No! The question is what do you BUILD YOUR LIFE ON? The question is what is your foundation? The practical way of looking at this is: “What or who do I attach myself to?”

To heal, recover, and move forward in my life, I have to replace everything and everyone with GOD as my primary attachment. When I attach myself to anything or anyone other than God, I give them power and control…they control me…I attach…I build a foundation. I…we choose people, places, and things that will not interfere with, but will likely SUPPORT our addictive personalities and behaviors and defense mechanisms.

I have to quit attaching myself to these things and people and re-attach myself to God…to, as Ozzie Chambers would say, “be THRILLED WITH GOD”, to be defined by my relationship with God. Once I do that, I can make sandcastles with all the rest instead of building myself…my foundation with them.

2. Discomfort
No pursuit of a dream has ever come easy. Quit waiting for your dreams to fall in your lap. Your dream will always challenge your comfort.

It is important because it is a bit overzealous to jump to the conclusion that college students are leaving their faith all together when many of them are simply leaving your churches. It is important to reveal their HOPES in the shadow the ASSUMPTIONS we commonly have about them. If we were really concerned with why they were leaving, we would listen to THEM.

4 Hopes Students Have for the Church:

Community and relationships become vital
Relationship, relationship, relationship. This generation is far more focused on getting to know people’s stories before being concerned with converting them. They hope for a church that is driven by being a community and serving its community. This is a church that is outrageously generous and hospitable. This is a church that does not compartmentalize the rest of their lives, but understands church is how we live not part of me I engage on Sundays. 

Unity over separation
This generation vehemently resists the separation mentality, and they will not participate in a Church which maintains that mentality. They resist the separation people ‘different’ from one another. They not only resist, but are simply baffled by the separation of church from church. Believe it or not, they resist separation of old and young.

There is hope in this generation for a church where the younger are engaged by and with the older, but there is a very important realization here that most of your churches are drastically missing. This means much more than just wanting to be discipled by someone older. This means this generation wants to be and needs to be engaged in the direction and vision of the church. This means, practically, your elders should want to hear from them. They should be a part of the church, not simply have Church dictated to them…which comes a large deal out of the next hope…

Lighten up a bit
They hope to see a Church not so worked up over a rigid structure. They hope for Church to provide space for questions and ways to help translate theology into practical and understandable methodology. Listen, this generation IS excited about the gospel and truth, but they want to really think, pray, and study instead of simply being told what gospel and truth is…so yes, this generation DOES have a huge hope for…

Outreach and Evangelism
They are excited about the gospel and seeing the gospel realized in this world. Understand that they look at scripture and they see beyond redemption to restoration. They desire to see restoration of what is broken with each of us and within this world. This generation hopes for a focus not only on “the decision” but also past the decision to follow Jesus. Again, relationships become vital here. They are more concerned with relationships than converts, because as you come to really know someone, they can speek the true restoration of the gospel into people’s true stories and lives.

Overall, it is important to realize that I am not speaking here about ‘the church of tomorrow’. I hate that phrase nearly more than any other. No body has future parts; neither does the body of Christ. This generation realizes this and is tired of being treated like future parts.

While I sat letting that sink in to my heart of a father for my daughter, I realized how this applies to other arenas of my life. Particularly, I realized how much it applies to being a follower of Jesus.

After we decided to follow Jesus, many of us quit deciding to follow Jesus.

At the heart of this quote and its challenge is ‘intentionality’. No matter how great my faith seems to be today, I still have to decide to follow Jesus tomorrow. Following Jesus is not a one time decision.

I was catching up on my list of blogs, and my friend, Malisa shared this website and challenge today.

One Word 365

I think it is a great way to look into a new year. It is a great way to make movements toward truly seeing things grow in the right way within and around us.

The one word website describes the challenge this way:

“One word can change everything. Forget New Year’s Resolutions. Scrap the long list of goals that you won’t remember three weeks from now anyway. Choose just one word. One word that sums up who you want to be or how you want to live or what you want to achieve by the end of 2012. One word that you can focus on every day, all year long. It will take hard work, and will require intentionality and commitment. But if you let it, your word will shape you and your year. It will guide your decisions and help you grow.”

My word for this year will be: RESTORATION

What would your word be for this year?

WordPress extended a challenge I accepted at the beginning of the year. A post a day! You could set your own parameters, and chose to take the challenge of a post per work day.
That would calculate to be 260 posts in 2011.

I have posted 267.

Accomplishment!

I hope it has not proven too overkill for you all. I hope that I have provided material you wanted to read and engage with. Never would I hope to run people off because my posts seem too incessant. Please let me know what you thought about the frequency, quality, and favorites of posts I shared this year. This helps me reflect on where I hope to write for the future here at ragamuffinpc.com

4. 3 Reasons Your Pastor’s Sermons Stink

3. Quick letter to my female students

2. Why Ted Williams is Unwelcome

1. 5 Reasons your Introverted Pastor does not hate you

* I guess my readers love them some lists. Noted!

Here are a few random lists of my favorites, my tops, and most enjoyed of 2011. They are all in random order except the first of each; that will be my overall favorite of the year.

Books
- The Pastor by Eugene Peterson
- Next Christians by Gabe Lyons
- All is Grace by Brennan Manning
- Heart of the Story by Randy Frazee
- The Feather Room by Anis Mojgani

Albums
- Ghosts Upon the Earth by Gungor
- Aftermath by Hillsong United
- Odd Soul by Mutemath
- Bon Iver by Bon Iver
- Barton Hollow by Civil Wars
- Simple Math by Manchester Orchestra
- Metal & Wood by Tyrone Wells
- Young Love by Mat Kearney
- Inclusions by Ben Sollee

TV (other than SNL)
- Parenthood
- Up All Night
- Modern Family
- Work of Art: next greatest artist

Poets
- Listener
- Propoganda
- Buddy Wakefield
- The Robin and the Lady Poet

Blogs (I discovered in the last year)
- Life to Her Years
- Barefooton45th
- Malisa Price
- Faith on Campus

God waits for us! It is nice to know and yet, at the same time, unnerving to know that God waits to be gracious to us. We are inclined to wonder, “What is he waiting for?” I mean, come on God; go ahead and be gracious to me.

John Wesley reflected on this “waiting” by saying that God “patiently expects your repentance.” God sits and waits for our repentance. He waits for us to repent, but he waits to be gracious. He is already prepared for his response to our repentance. He waits to be gracious. He already knows he will “rise up to show us compassion and mercy.” God waits!

God patiently waits…for us. he is prepared to be gracious and merciful to us. That is his plan…when we repent. He “will surely be gracious to us AT THE SOUND OF OUR CRY.” The outcome is already determined; grace and mercy. The only thing missing is the action; our repentance.. We are promised that God will hear our repentance and answer us with grace, compassion, and mercy.

God waits!

We have to make account for what we do with Jesus. It does not matter what other people do with Him. It does not matter what other people say of Jesus. What matters with a weight I cannot possibly measure is what do I do with Jesus Christ.

Who do I say Jesus is? Is he Christ, Messiah, Savior, and Lord? Not just the words, but who I, in my heart of hearts, know Jesus to be? 

At the heart of my answer lies salvation and peace, but also conflict and opposition to others. Before you answer that question, it is important to know regardless of your answer you will directly oppose someone. You either oppose people and the norm or you oppose the Son of God.

There are consequences to both oppositions. You oppose men and you will face ridicule, persecution, and possibly death. Oppose the Son of God, and you will face death (crazy, we ALL face this one), or the pain of Jesus being ashamed of and separate from you (Mark 8:38).

Suddenly one consequence seems far less horrible than the other.

I began to think about this mustard seed thing. I mean, should I be embarrassed that I cannot move mountains? All I need is a little bit of faith for crying out loud. Can I not even muster enough faith to equal one of the smallest seeds? What is God’s exchange ratio on faith required to size of an actual mustard seed?

I began to realize something though. ALL seeds need to be cared for. All seeds need to be planted and taken care of…maintained…nourished…watered…fed.

I am not sure that faith as small as a mustard seed means just a little faith here and there will give you the ability to just move mountains. That faith, which begins as small as a mustard seed, if fed, nourished, and watered well has the potential to grow into something phenomenal. Perhaps eventually, if taken good care of, that faith can one day move a mountain.

The church I grew up in had an amazing organ player (would that be an “organizer”). His name was John; he was arguably the best organ player in the state of Indiana, if not the world, as far as I knew.

Every once in a while on a Sunday night, there would be no sermon. The worship leader would just stand up behind the pulpit while John was at the helm behind the organ. The congregation would have hymnals in hand and shout out a number. John, in all his splendor, would immediately begin playing the requested hymn. The worship pastor would wave his hands in direction. That would be the service for the evening. We’d sing hymns for the evening in awe of God and John as well.

The last few days I have been stricken by two different hymns I am pretty sure I’d request if I were back at that church with Organ John nights.

I NEED THEE EVERY HOUR

and

I STAND AMAZED IN THE PRESENCE

These two hymns have been ravishing my heart the last few days. I am amazed by the words written by people who have obviously experienced Jesus and gone forward to flesh out that experience on paper. These hymns have resonated within my heart as well. Call the hymns stale if you wish, but in many of them there is eternal refreshing experiences of Abba.

it screams louder than you ignore
stronger than you can avoid
it is your voice
it is our voice

we are all wrapped up in a prison
without a lock and we scream
we moan
and scream again for something
for more
for God

we are all born broken people
with specifically aching hearts
needing God
to come
closer

we need more than myths, fables, and fairy tales
forcing God into a book
we need someone real
we need more than philosophy
some god in outer space means
nothing to us
so we scream come
closer

so welcome
you and your locked up voice
come on in
welcome to the possibility of closeness

we do not pursue a generic god
with a generic faith
we will not be ‘spiritual’ in a generic way
the possibility of closeness is not
‘whatever it means to you, it means to you’

it is going to require a bit of faith and faith
is pretty simple, really
it is nothing you muster up
it is divine illumination
an operation of God
whereby we stand on tipped toes
extending twitching fingers for
something we could never reach and God
makes it apprehendable
he makes it
possible

faith is learning to trust a God giving
promises he intends to keep
promises
to hear your voice
promises
to make possibilities of closeness

so today cannot be filed down
to farm animal figurines atop your fireplace mantle
today is not the hope
of shopping God closer as if
closeness to God tasted
like 34th street miracles and credit card debt

no, today is the celebration of an explosion
so silent it wouldn’t wake a sleeping baby
it is the arresting eruption of the reality
God became flesh
so ssssssstop for a second and soak it in

God came close
as the skin and bone of your own
forearm. God became flesh
so the Light of the World could be seen
as clearly as you see
me

The possibility fo closeness is here
and not one of our words contain his name
the message is too majestic for our methods
so he said, ‘call me Jesus
call me Immanuel, God with us”

the possibility of closeness is nothing more
than seeing Jesus and responding
to what you have seen

God showed up to shepherds
because he goes to those
who have time to listen
the possibility of closeness is only closed off
from those to busy to pay attention

God came close enough
to be broken
to be tired, weary, and fearing failure
to catch a cold and a case of hurt feeling
and your locked up voice
is going to keep him distantly divine

but don’t you listen to that

let God be as human as he was because
if you do not let him in He cannot
get you out

Christianity is not an ethic
it is not a morality or philosophy of life
it is a love affair
the thrill of falling in love and being loved
by Jesus Christ born to bring
us closer to God

So today is for those who need God
to come
closer
because Christmas
is the possibility of closeness

* check back tomorrow for a gift