A little help from our friends...

King David had awesome friends. Second Samuel chapter 19 gives us all a reminder of friends we should aspire to have:

Joab: the kick you in the pants and tell it like it is friend. King David has just defeated Absalom, his son. It's the ultimate bittersweet moment. He gets the kingdom back and wins a great victory and his son dies. David weeps and mourns for Absalom - as he should. But in doing so David disses all of the men who risked and gave their lives on his behalf. Joab sees this and gives David the whatfor for the sake of those men who are now upset and confused by David's behavior. Do you have a friend who has the guts and perceptivity to kick you in the butt when you've wronged someone?

Mephisbosheth: the "I was so worried about you I didn't shower or shave for weeks" friend. Can you imagine having a friend so in love with you that when he or she knows times are bad for you they literally forget about themselves and focus exclusively on you? 

Barzillai: the selfless friend. Barzillai is 80 years old. He wins the right to accompany David back and live in his court. Being so old he realizes that this blessing will be short lived at best - he can't take full advantage of it. He decides to ask David if his friend Chimham can take his place. WOW! In our individualistic society such acts of self denial and blessing are almost unheard of. This would be like a friend of yours getting tickets to game 7 of the Cup finals and realizing he can only go for two periods and instead of wasting the last period he gives the tickets to you - center ice, 3rd row (so the bench doesn't block your view). 

Now comes the tough question: If I don't have people like this in my life, why not? How do I need to change to acquire such valuable relationships? It probably has something to do with becoming this sort of friend first.

That Mountainous Sermon

Just finished reading Matthew 5. You know the chapter, right? The first part of the sermon on the mount. The part of this chapter that gets me starts at verse 21. You know this is where Jesus takes the law that we (people) were unable to keep and then steps it up another level...or 7 (since that's the number of levels God would most likely step something up...that or 40). 

Jesus says "whoever is angry with his brother is liable to judgement". What? Seriously? At this point people are likely to say "but there's grace....God knows we can't live up to that standard. Whew...thank goodness for grace". 

And then I wonder...is that really how God wants us to think about the words of Jesus? Is grace supposed to be a scapegoat for not really trying very hard? Or was he serious about making our standards so high that we'd seem somewhat off kilter to try and achieve them? I tend to think off kilter is where God wants us to be. At least, off of the kilter this messed up world and society is on. I'm pretty sure this is what Paul meant when he called us to be like the aliens and strangers talked about in Hebrews 11. People who, by faith, did the impossible and brought great glory to God. I think sometimes we look on those people and think "but those are the superheros of the faith...I can't be like them". Again I wonder if that's really how God means for us to read those stories or whether they are there to encourage and inspire us to trust that God can do in us the seemingly impossible to bring glory unto himself. 

God's plan for us is to call us to a radically different, off kilter standard and to glorify himself through aliens. It's true, only by grace may we enter into all he has for us, but let's not make grace a scapegoat for living less radically than God means and diminishing the role we can play in bringing glory to his name by taking the easy way out.  

Does anyone have $61,000?

According to a study in 2006 $61,000 USD is what you need to have in personal assets to be counted in the top 10% of the wealthiest people in the world. I'd guess that most of the people I know qualify (this is the value of all the goods you own, your house, car, savings, RRSP's etc). I think I'm one of the worlds 10% wealthiest individuals. That can make me feel pretty good given what most people consider to be success. Then I read 1 John 3:17

"But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?" - Good question John.

Alan Hirsch says in "The Forgotten Ways" that (paraphrase) the false religion that most needs to be spoken against in the West is that of consumerism.  I agree. Consumerism is killing our churches, families, souls and minds every day. Many people have exchanged God's economy for the world's, myself included. 

It's so difficult to know how to break out of the cycle. I am praying that we all are increasingly made aware of the needs around us and freed from the desire of things so that God might continue to work in us, making us fit for the the calling of his Children and ambassador's to this broken world and consumerist culture. 

These Sandals were made for walkin' (in)

You know the poem "Footprints"? Of course  you do. It's an inspirational image of how God is always with us and how he carries us through some of life's hardest times. I think someone should write a sequel.

I'm reading from 1 John right now and in chapter 2 John says "anyone who says he abides in him ought to walk the same way in which he walked". Can you see the footprints in the sand, stretching out across the beach? This time they're not an image of your life and God's faithfulness - this time they're calling you to a life of witness, self-sacrifice, influence for the sake of the cross, adventure and danger. The path probably looks like to goes right over the edge of a cliff or into the turbulent waters of the ocean in the midst of a storm. Even so the image calls you forward...

I want to live this life. Wherever the footprints of Christ lead me, however the cause me to live, I want to walk in them, mimicking the pattern they've left as closely as possible. Not only that, but I want my life to be spent in encouraging as many people as I can to follow with a similar reckless abandon. Consider this one of many invitations to get on the path and follow the footprints.

Would you Appeal to Caesar? (Acts 26)

I've always been fascinated by this story. So here is Paul, likely able to go free and he instead chooses to appeal to Caesar. He knows God has work for him in Rome. His choice will likely lead to imprisonment and/or death for wasting Caesar's time but he obeys. It's one of the ultimate examples of self sacrifice for the sake of the gospel. It's an example we should all follow. The question to ask ourselves is - would we?

God is unbelievable.

God is simply unbelievable...unless you are experiencing his power first hand. I am. I am overwhelmed by his kindness and provision in my life. More to come.

Grace

In light of the mercy of Christ shouldn't we all be filled with grace? Far too often I find myself ready to lash out at someone because they're "in the wrong" and want to fix them. 

God does the fixing and we are called to do the loving.

That doesn't mean we don't encourage and at times rebuke but it does mean that if I'm doing it to make myself feel better or to vindicate myself then I'm not showing grace. 

I can't judge anyone's motives but my own. I know I fail at this often and I know I want to stop failing at it. True spiritual growth comes when we stop trying to fix each other and we let God do the fixing.

Answered Prayers

God answers prayer. How do I know? Let me tell you a story and then I'll tell you what my prayer was.

This morning I met a friend at a coffee shop in St. Thomas. I arrived a bit early and sat down in close proximity to another man who was intently watching TV. As I pulled out a book he began talking to me. I was happy to talk with him while I waited and we quickly got to the business of what I did for a living. I told him that I worked at a church (I don't always lead with that... it's become a matter of discernment but it felt right today) and I could tell that made him a bit uncomfortable. We continued to talk and then my friend came and so we ended the conversation and I turned my attention to my friend. 

The new conversation quickly got to church stuff and about 5 minutes in I made this comment: "God is in control of everything". My new friend, who I discovered is called George, asked if we really believed that. The following 40 minutes were an intense spiritual conversation with a highly skeptical, been there done that, guy who is a practicing homosexual. He started off highly offensive and then calmed as he began to realize I wasn't going to bash him or call him out but simply wanted to admit some of the faults of those who claim to follow Christ but really don't and find out what he believed about God. All in all, it was a very productive conversation.

Yesterday I asked for prayer 2 separate times that God would give me opportunities to actively engage in evangelism. He answers prayer... now I'm going to pray God would let me cross paths with George again and continue the work we started. Praise God!

Some thoughts on "Missional" church

I'll admit that the whole "missional" church movement holds some appeal for me. Maybe it's just the thought that a whole church could be built on the mission of Jesus and it's central purpose be the mobilize its members to fulfill that mission or perhaps its the newness of it but there is a certain amount of appeal to the whole thing. 

To learn more about the movement I've been reading a book by Alan Hirsch called "The Forgotten Ways". So far I've only read the first 2 chapters (plus foreword and introduction) but I'm picking up on Alan's main assertion that the church needs to get back to a system much more akin to the early church than to the religious system we've come to depend on. In this I am not sure he's entirely wrong but so far I've got at least one problem with us reverting to a "house church" mentality. 

The cultural context of the first century church was vastly different than ours. I think it's wrong to assume that we could simply look at how the early church grew and apply it to the 21st century and see the same results. Alan would point to the church in China as an example of this system working in the modern world. Again, totally different cultural context. I don't know that loosely organized house churches are the best result of a radical rethinking of the church. 

I think that the church in North America does need to begin to think much more like missionaries in a foreign culture than it currently does. If we fail to recognize that this culture is vastly different from the one inside the walls of the church and we don't begin to come to them instead of insisting that they come to us we will fail to be all that we can be by God's power. God's kingdom does need people with the courage to try new things on behalf of the kingdom. There's just something about house church that doesn't jive with me and I can't see jiving with a number of other people in our society - even those who aren't church people.

No matter the cost...

In Acts chapter 21 the apostle Paul is warned by a prophet that he will be bound and imprisoned if he continues on to Jerusalem. Paul's friends try to dissuade him from going but Paul, sure of his call, goes anyhow. And what happens... Paul gets bound and put in prison.

The more I read the bible with my eyes wide open the more I believe there is no such thing as a good theology that promises safety. When God calls us out to follow Him it's far more likely that we'll encounter suffering than safety. The question I'm asking myself these days is why does my life seem so safe if I'm really following God?

Innocent or not?

Sometimes I stumble across a verse in the bible that completely blows me over. Yesterday once such occurrence happened. I've been reading through the book of Acts lately and trying to really pay attention to what is said, believing the things described and said in the book of Acts is a real example of how we as Christians should live in the context of the church and not just some amazing things that happened in the life of the early church. 

So in the context of really paying attention I ran across this verse:

"Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of your blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole council of God." - 20:26,27

And then it hit me - if Paul was innocent of their blood because he had been faithful to preach the gospel, aren't we going to be held accountable for those to whom we did not preach the gospel? 

Maybe it's easy to think that this accountability only applies to preachers or teachers. I mean Paul was quoting Ezekiel who meant the verse to apply to prophets, right? Well yes but I think when we learned that there is now a "priesthood of the saints" that the communication of the gospel became all of our responsibility. It's probably true that not all of us have the same number of people we're responsible to communicate the gospel to but I'm quite sure we all have a responsibility. 

So the question we need to ask is are we innocent of the blood of those we're going to be held accountable for? I'm sure I have more people I need to share the whole gospel with.