Help getting home.

This song has been on my mind and heart today. I can't shake the feeling that someone out there is struggling, searching, feeling lost, but unable to find their way to the calm delight we all long for--and you're ready to embrace a new way.

Jesus said... "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls." Matthew 11.28,29

Listen to this song, a soulful heart cry for new direction and real meaning for life. If it resonates with you and you'd like to know more, contact me at goodneighbaier@yahoo.com.
bN tGit

Wrong War!

Our culture is changing.  Congress is embroiled in a new controversy that threatens to generate yet another government "shut-down."  Many People of faith have dutifully written their Senators and Representative demanding action.  They are good culture-warriors.  I have a problem with this.  The "culture war" is the wrong campaign.  It's a battle for minds.  People of faith are called to battle for hearts.  Little wonder minds have become utterly corrupt.  

In this process, we see how people of faith have been seduced too.  The culture war is self-serving.  It's an attempt to preserve and re-create a world less hostile, less chaotic, less wrong-headed for our benefit.  It's about preserving our values, protecting our children, maintaining equilibrium and economy so we can live out our god-informed vision of what our lives should be like.  This is normal; it's also carnal...it's the way most humans think and act.

That's not the vision people of faith have been called to by God. We have been called to justice, to selfless living, to compassionate action; to loving the unreached citizens of this world like God does.  When people of faith do that, people with no hope notice. They understand that this kind of concern is counter-intuitive.  It's not the way normal people live; they want to know "why?"   

Peter's first letter to the church contains instruction for us...
"...in your hearts revere Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect."   1 Peter 3.15 NIV

We win the world one heart at a time gently, respectfully.  It can't be done with legislation.  We don't win them with constitutional amendments.  The silver bullet isn't packing the courts with the "right kind of thinkers."  It's done by living alongside people who aren't like children of the King, who don't share His values and act in ways that reflect how radically confused people without effective faith are.

When people of faith insert themselves into culture in a transformative way hearts begin to change.  When hearts begin to change, minds begin to change.  When hearts and minds begin to change, culture begins to change.  When people with no hope begin to see faith, hope and love in their neighborhoods, schools, workplaces--they pay attention!  They realize they are thirsty, hungry and without hope. They realize there's more, and they want to know where they can embrace it...one heart at a time.

For too many people of faith, living this way just isn't something we want to do.  We're more comfortable on church properties that create space between the world without effective faith and our world of grace.  We shield our children from the world without effective faith in ways that create fear and contempt in their hearts. We forget what life without grace is like, and we become entrenched in a battle for minds using the least effective means available to us--the wisdom and power of the world system.  

Little wonder we seem befuddled, put-off by what Jesus described as "sheep without a shepherd."  They aren't like us, they don't think or act like us.  They are driven by differnt values, often by different passions.  Yet, they carry the same godly imprint on their souls that people of faith reflect...we are all created in His image.  We are all loved with an unconditional love.  We all have access the same unmerited overflow of His grace.  We are all sinners in need of a Savior.  

These lost sheep, souls, are not the enemy.  They are victims in Satan's attempt to foil the purpose of God in the redemption of all people.  That purpose begins with a battle for hearts...and minds will follow.  We win hearts when in the power of the Spirit we come along side these unlovely people and their messy lives and seek to serve them in compassion, with sacrifice through love.

One heart, one mind... gently, respectfully, powerfully.

bN tGit

So it begins.

Summer "daze" is history now. Footballs fill the air, Baseball stumbles toward the World Series and Fall slips toward winter...and we begin in ernest the process leading to the selection of our 46th President--along with a potential sea change in Congress.

So change is in the air. But is it?

Will this election give birth to real, new leadership or will we simply swap one set of suits for another?  Is there a matrix we might use to evaluate the smooth words and generous promises who seek the anointing of the people?  How do we determine where to invest our vote?  How will we know what the election produces?  Here's my "watch" list...

• New leadership will act reponsibly as stewards of our wealth. No more blown budgets. 

• New leadership will refuse to act in its own self-interest. No more pork. 
• New leadership will build bridges across the asiles of Congress. No more gridlock. 
• New leadership will work on behalf of the people. No more paybacks to unions, lobbies, business or deep pockets at the people's expence. 
• New leadership will set a different tone as it charts our course as a Nation. No more lionizing the "loyal opposition" or winner-takes-all arrogance. 
• New leadership will commit to reform--of both the Senate and the House. No more tolerance for cronyism, nepotism or corruption. 
• New leadership will understand that "less is more." No more unlimited terms of service. 
• New leadership will celebrate our history, diversity, vision and way of life, while at the same time seeking to make us a better, more compassionate and inclusive people. No more excoriating the nation because it seems the "hip" thing to do. 
• New leadership will set a "living example" of good citizenship. No more double standards. 
• New leadership will act in the interests of the nation. No more back room deals where the only winners are the politicians and their handlers. 

Seems polyanna. But we've seen this before. Read about it in "John Adams;"  leaders serving selflessly, fearlessly and without guile. It is this kind of leadership that gave birth to our nation and now must re-emerge to carry us, our childern, through our part the 21st Century with a reclaibrated vision, but a vision that stands stedfastly, still, on the prinicples of freedom, equality and the inalienable rights of its citizens.

These principles birthed a Confederation, nurtured a Union and established a Nation...of the people, by the people and for the people.

Measure twice, vote once.

bN tGit

It's a GRACE day.

Several years ago I received a note from a good friend..."my dad's cancer is progressing. His time here is probably down to days..."  When I read those words I was transported back to the last time I was with his dad.  I was saddened by this news, concerned for the grief this final act of life would introduce to my friend and his family...and not.

My friend's father did lose his life; but not once was he in danger of losing his hope: the certain promise that he, as a believer in Jesus Christ, would finally be transported into the presence of His Lord and Savior, there to enjoy life as HE designed it to be.

Life is hard, then we die.   We will all lose our lives, but we need not lose our hope.

Praise God for the hope we have in Christ, and the healing death brings for those who have embraced Christ through effective saving faith.  For these death need not be something to be feared; it is a gracious provision that carries us back into a "face to face" real-time relationship with God. Without death, we become eternal beings, like Lucifer and the legion of angels which were cast out of heaven because of their rebellion...eternally separated from God, without hope of redemption.

Death became the modality that God uses to foil Satan's attempt to co-opt God's crowning creative act, the human race.  So then, death is the definitive "check-mate" and demonstrates God's mastery; always steps ahead of evil and the chaos of sin. Genesis 3 describes the event that initiated the rebellion of Adam and Eve to sin and it's necessary result, death; it's also here that we learn that death is part of God's bigger plan for hope and the redemption of human-kind.

The rest, is history, 1 John 4.9,10...

"God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son 

into the world so that we might have eternal life through him. 

10  This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us 

and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins."

We know that love is a four letter word, spelled H-O-P-E; more importantly, we know that death simply marks the first day of the rest of our lives, 2 Corinthians 4.16-18...

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet 

inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary 

troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 

18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, 

since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

We will rise, thanks be to God.  It's a GRACE day.

bN tGit

Cracked Pots

A year ago, today, Gene Cherrie--Laura's dad, passed into eternity.  I'm reposting this as a "shout-out" to an amazing man.

As we prepared to say our final farewells in a memorial tribute to his life and legacy I ran across a pair of scissors that belonged to Gene.  My first response--I laughed out loud!  Then my heart was warmed as I realized they were metaphor for Gene's life--his legacy.

Gene's scissor project

They are an ordinary three-dollar pair, with customized handle--the one that your middle finger slips into.   It's been very skillfully fashioned from a one-inch piece of ply-wood.  It's clear that Gene had created a jig from the broken handle; carefully cut the wood using the jig, then shaped it with a grinder to fit precisely the targeted finger; sanded to be smooth and pose no splinter threat to the user.

The "stub" of plastic it has been attached to was skillfully reshaped to be the base for the new wood-extension.  The extension has been precisely measured so that the fabrication slips tightly over the stub with one end slightly longer than the other to provide the proper leverage as the scissors are opened and closed (Physics matter).  The extension has been glued to the "stub" and secured with three very intentionally placed wood screws, two on the long end, one on the short to complete the revision. The screw on the short end has been ground down just enough to allow the scissors to close precisely as they did when they were new just coming off the shelf at Staples.

I immediately asked Betsey, Laura's step-mom, if I could have them--she very graciously said "Of course, take them." As I've used these scissors, and yes--reflected on them--over the past several months, I realize they say as much about God, as they do about Gene.

This came clearly into focus for me just this week as I had breakfast with a dear brother-in-Christ and our conversation turned to the impact, the life-long impact, of sin on our lives.  There isn't a re-set button for the bad choices we make.  The grooves sin cuts into our lives are deep and stubborn, they don't simply disappear when we confess our sin and seek God's forgiveness.  The consequences of our willful choices and bad decisions are still part of our daily experience.  If it ended there it would be a difficult load to bear.  But, thanks be to God, it doesn't.

When we come to Christ through effective faith, God takes us as we are, then carefully, lovingly and skillfully refabricates our lives.  The scars are there, still visible--painful--but He restores us.  Like Gene's re-visioned pair of scissors, we become fully-functional again.   He never throws us away; He picks us up, dusts us off and empowers us to carry on.  The scars, the memories, they serve to instruct us each day about His gracious provision, His empowering desire and His loving redemption.

Paul writing to the Church in Corinth (4.1,2.. 7-10) instructs us...

"4 Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up. 2 We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods...7 We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 8 We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. 9 We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but not destroyed. 10 Through suffering, our bodies continue to share in the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be seen in our bodies."

Did you see that? We are cracked pots; pressed not crushed. Perplexed not confused. Pursued not abandoned. Pushed down not destroyed. Suffering, but fully alive in Christ!The scars that remain serve as a map pointing others to Jesus. It is our weakness that serves as such a remarkable witness to the power of God--choosing the weakness of the human condition to transform our spheres of influence one person, one family, one neighborhood, one community, one nation at time. This humble path-to-power is, in fact, the real "road less traveled." 

I thank God every day for that pair of scissors.  They have an honored place in a simple container, with other tools we use on a daily basis, on one of the counters in our kitchen.  Each time my gaze falls on them, I remember Gene--and in that moment, the legacy of his life points me to God's grace, power and love.  He takes the "total-loss" that was our lives and transforms it to treasure..."all I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife, but He made something beautiful out of my life."   

Hallelujah, what a Savior!

bN tGit

THIS, is power.

My choices will shape my character. 

Good character will empower me to be the kind of person God uses to make hard lives easier.  

Making hard lives easier is a legacy that will transform my world, one needy--and often undeserving, person at a time.  

This is the miraculous power of amazing grace.

bN tGit

Deja vu.. All over again.

It's ground-hog day (the Flim) in America.  

More debate over a government shut-down, mud-slinging from both sides of the aisle, candidates sullied by their hubris and worse, a POTUS who thinks he's a visiting Professor who can lecture the world into a better, safer place.

As a Nation we've enjoyed a two-party system that has worked for the American people, bringing the best ideas from BOTH sides of the aisle in a synergy that has eclipsed ideology.  

"Father-in-heaven, deliver that kind of dynamic environment to us again, that we might continue to be a force for peace and that which is good, here and around the world. Heal our division and elevate the aspirations of our leaders to pursue values driven by character, reflective of our diversity, and aimed at the common good. Grant them shrewd judgement to desire and do the right thing. Give us the clarity we need to select leaders worthy of our trust; restore the confidence of this Nation in those selected to govern.  Empower our leaders to work shoulder to shoulder moving us forward for future generations.  Through Christ, let it be."

bN tGit

Power Failure

The Church in America is unplugged, it's powerless.  By power I mean spiritual gravitas which is the result of a clear anointing from God.  Most of the country perceives the confessing church to be the most conservative wing of the Republican Party.  I grew up hearing my mom say, "if the shoe fits wear it!"  Unfortunately, we've been tagged with this perception the old fashioned way, we've earned it.  We've chosen to contend for the soul of America using the political process--a grave error.  The shoe fits. 

"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying its power."  2 Tim 3.1-4 

We routinely come to cultural "waypointes--places on a journey where the traveler can stop and change course."  It's past time for the confessing church to change our trajectory and become THE church. The fact is we've settled for sloppy seconds; too many of us worship in places that are driven by forms rather than power.  We've allowed popular culture to shape our vision of what Christ's church should be, what it should look like; we have embraced the wrong set of outcomes.

Today we measure the quality and effectiveness of our ministries based on the Big 3: People, Buildings, Revenue.  In fact, it's not difficult to erect buildings and fill them with people that generate million-dollar budgets.  False religions, cults and sects do it all around the world.  Jim Jones did in San Francisco and finally in Guyana.  Jimmy Swaggart did it, then did it AGAIN in Louisiana.  

People, buildings and money aren't wrong, they simply aren't the unique signature of Christ's Church.  These, alone, won't produce transformational-redemptive power, nor are they the indicators of the anointing of God.  Powerless religion, form-driven religion has a micro focus: it sees "the church" as the end.  Forms--the way we "do church," the things we do or don't do that identify us as "christians," are paramount.  This is the kind of context Jesus came into in Judea; the context the Religious power brokers endorsed and protected.

Form-driven religion becomes a template that blinds us to the brokenness which surrounds us.  Form-driven religion makes us think in "wrong-headed ways" about what the world deserves v. what God desires--Us v. Them.  Form-driven religion becomes a tyranny which chokes our vibrancy and shrivels our generosity.

Power-driven godliness sees loving, reaching and changing the world as the end.  Power-driven godliness acts without conditions.  Power-driven godliness seeks to make hard lives easier.  Power-driven godliness understands that wealth, leadership, talent and spiritual gifts are resources graciously given by God for His redemptive endeavor.  Power-driven godliness doesn't seek relavance; it is relevant.

Outcomes are critical.  Matthew 9..."35 Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.  36 Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd.  37 Then He said to His disciples, 'the harvest in plentiful, but workers are few.'" 

We've come to a waypointe.

bN tGit

Capre Diem

"How do you know what your life will be like tomorrow? Your life is like the morning fog—it’s here a little while, then it’s gone." James 4.13 NLT

It's Monday.  A new week.  A new day...a gift of time, energy and opportunity.  What will you do with it? 

Will you wish it away; squander the "moments" it will produce, or will you seize it, make it great and do somehting significant; invest it in someone, something, that will outlive you? It's your day, make the most of it.

Today--here, gone.

bN tGit

Will-Power

I am reminded throughout the Scriptures about "the sacrifice of praise." 

When I will myself to offer Him my sacrifice of praise--not allowing environment, personalities, music style or selection to distract me--without exception I experience a "breakthrough" TO worship, where a dynamic exchange takes place--Kingdom authority for authentic Worship. 

I am persuaded this is why we see so much conflict around "worship" in the church today. Failure to worship prevents Believers from experiencing His empowering flow: from the throne of God, to the people of God.  As a consequence we underachieve; we never fully appropriate "His mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." Ephesians 3.20

When I bend my will, God empowers me for victorious living.  Will-Power.  

bN tGit