Unplugged.

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. 

Many in our Nation perceive 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 Timothy 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; this forms- context is what 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.


Do. Love. Walk.
Liveitwell...M6.8 

bN

Deliver us from Evil.

Father in  heaven...

Politics has become a growth industry in America, this is a problem; too much ambition and too little service.  It didn't start this way.  The noble has become ignoble.

Regardless of party affiliation, the pursuit of power, wealth, celebrity too, has become the focus of many elected to serve "the people" in Washington.  Congress has been sullied by gridlock, the love of money, sexual scandal, graft and abuse of privilege.

I pray You will raise up leaders from every segment of political vision, willing to make tough decisions, without regard for how those decisions poll: that, will be patriotism.

...Deliver us from evil.

Lifeisfast
Liveitwell...M6.8 

bN

Seen NOT heard.

"I can...
Be there for you when it can't get much harder,
Cover your head when life starts to rain,
Hold on tight when you feel like you're falling,
Bread crumb the path when you've lost your way,
Make you laugh when the whole world is crying,
Build you up when you're broken in shame.
But if all that we do is ABSENT of Jesus, then this so called love, is completely in vain."*

Absence makes the heart grow harder.
Sometimes...
God's people should be seen and not heard.

"...do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with God."  Micah 6.8

Followers of Jesus, let's walk the Walk.  



Lifeisfast.
Liveitwell...M6.8 bN


* "This So Called Love" by MercyMe

From Another Perspective

I posted this blog on Tuesday, June 30, 2015.  One year later, on Tuesday June 28, 2016 our beloved grandson Braden, leveled-up into the presence of King Jesus.  The epilogue?  Thanks be to God for our blessed hope: The anchor holds.

"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or imagine, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen."  Ephesians 3.20,21

This is a capstone of worship and benediction to Paul's prayer for the Ephesian Church in his letter to the same. The prayer, and this benediction, are perhaps my favorite text in the Newer Testament.

 The optimist in me always sees the glass half-full. These words "...abundantly, beyond all that we ask or imagine..." always brought great joy to my heart as I contemplated--then experienced--God's blessing on His people, His provision on a "just-in-time" basis--rarely early but never late.  I've come to another perspective over the last few months about this promise in vv.20,21.

Recently I've connected the dots in a different way; "...abundantly, beyond all that we ask or imagine..." can sometimes come to us through the portal of pain, suffering and loss. It isn't that I don't understand that God uses suffering in our lives. It isn't that I've never personally experienced that process. I'm 62 years old--who hasn't suffered in 62 years? God has always been a ROCK and walked though all the squasma with me. I simply have never connected THIS verse to THAT process.

Reflect on this with me for a moment--applying the text, "...abundantly, beyond anything we can ask or imagine," to the crucible called suffering. This promise is a deep well of hope for those between a rock and a hard place. 

God wastes nothing that comes into our lives. I believe that most of what we suffer is simply the result of the ebb and flow of life impacted by a world wrecked by sin. Imagine (though the text says it's beyond our ability to imagine) God meeting us "abundantly, beyond anything we can ask or imagine" in those hardest of hard "life-loss" moments--NOT removing the suffering or restoring the loss, but using it to transform us.

This--the hardest of hard-- is where I've lived since February 19, 2015 when we learned our 13 year-old grandson, Braden, had a very serious cancer. God has met me in this barren place...abundantly, beyond anything we could ask or imagine. 

Braden is not cancer-free, and we have no guarantee, though his prognosis is good. The way to his current status has been difficult, he has suffered and lost too much. Yet, through it all, God has inhabited my fear, my anger and my tears. He has changed me, made me more dependent, forged a more profound faith in me; He has changed Braden. He has changed our family...abundantly, beyond anything we could ask or imagine.

I have witnessed abundance through Braden's parents--their resolve and leadership; through Braden's transformed adolescent attitude; through younger brother Kellen pitching in, doing all he can to bring comfort and ease the load. I have witnessed abundance through answered prayer. I have witnessed abundance through the hundreds of people who are investing there time, energy, love and faith in us--generously, constantly. I have witnessed His abundance in my "dark night of the soul" moments...abundantly, beyond anything we could ask or imagine.

I know this: God is. God is acting. God is acting for us. God is acting for us abundantly beyond anything we can ask or imagine--in celebration and through suffering.

Loss isn't abandonment. It isn't the death of hope. It's an "intersection" where one can step back and see life not just for what it isn't, but for what it is; it's at that place, in that moment, we see the goodness of God...abundantly, beyond anything we can ask or imagine.

Sometimes, joy comes in the MOURNING.

Lifeisfast

Liveitwell...M6.8 bN

The Great Debate

Politics is part of our DNA. It's why we don't choke up when we hear our cousins from across the pond singing "God Save the Queen."  

That said, let's work to keep the Debate civil and respectful.
Let me be clear here; civil doesn't mean we can't passionately disagree with each other. It doesn't mean we can't say what we think and apply with dazzling skill (or not), the amazing resources at our fingertips to back up our opinions. 

 It's ironic that we have come to believe that it's politically correct to be neutral--or at least give the appearance of neutrality. The term "political" has no application apart from the idea of people engaged in advancing a specific set of ideas to govern the way we do things--in our homes, neighborhoods, workplaces, communities and government!

The freedom to speak is part of the foundation of our nation; our nation, that survives today because citizen-soldiers have taken up arms against those who would seek to subjugate us and our way of life--without regard for wether they agreed with all the politics. We owe those who gave so selflessly a debt of great responsibility with regard to our deportment as a free-people.

That said...let's engage in the debate.

• Let's speak out with boldness. 
• Let's refuse to be thin-skinned.
• Let's choose kindness.
• Let's refuse to brand "not like me" as hate speech.
• Let's make it passionate, but not personal.
• Let's give each other the space to be stubborn and blind. Not everyone is as smart as we are...that's a good thing (wink, wink).
• Let's believe the best about those who think differently.
• Let's ask questions to clarify.
• Let's exercise grace and tolerance for those who seem, from our perspective, so intolerant.
• Let's be willing to grow and change.
• Let's not be ugly.
• Let's remind those who may embrace what we believe, but do so in ugly ways, that "ugliness isn't funny, helpful or appropriate--ever."
• Let's work to control hyperbole...which is rhetorically useful and appropriate but must be done with balance.
• Let's allow for another rhetorically useful tool: sarcasm...but those who use it unwisely do so at their own peril. Less is more.
• Let's be willing to own our errors humbly and with grace.
• Let's be willing to forgive.

Remember, we have a new-direction "fork in the road" every two years. It's the "governor" on the system and virtually assures that the more things change, the more they stay the same; therein lies the genius of the Founders.


Politics, it's part of our DNA. Forget the Queen; God bless America!

Lifeisfast

Liveitwell...M6.8 bN

We WILL rise.

Thinking of that great cloud of witnesses who have finished the race...there soon.

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 (Romans 10.5-13).  For these death is not 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.

Lifeisfast

Liveitwell...M6.8 bN

Breathe it in.

When the road of life is clear and smooth,
too often we miss the beauty within our easy grasp.

We gaze ahead with intensity
through the portal which beckons us,
"...move quickly along the way!
Life waits...just ahead." 

Indeed it is the journey, not the destination
that unravels the mystery: breathe it in, let it out.

Lifeisfast.

Liveitwell...M6.8 bN

Paradise Found.

Laura, my wonderful soul-mate, loves and raises Roses. (One variety is named "the Paradise." Hence "Paradise Found") I marvel at her skill and tender care as she cultivates these beautiful and fragrant flowers. This was written several years ago as a tribute to my amazing wife. She has extended her gardening gift with remarkable results. I'm reposting my tribute poem here--a reminder of what an extraordinary, lovely, gifted, woman she is; thanks Laura for filling our lives with the simplicity of beauty nurtured from the Earth.

Summer.
Deck brittle with age, surrounded by color, a wall.
Satin petals: Red, Pink, Ivory, Maize.
Thorns a reminder: look, don't touch

Water droplets perfectly formed, wait to escape.
Bees busy, a harvest of nectar.
Woman sits, watches, filled with joy at the sight.

She labors with tender care.
Scarred by thorns, undaunted.
She plants, she feeds, she waters.

The full bloom of her effort,
a feast for the eyes
Delicious to smell.

Autumn.
Sun's path plunges
colors blaze then fade.
Not an end; pause, to rest.

Winter.
In time she plans for the deep white sleep of winter.
Well covered. Glory there still, but not.
They wait.

Spring.
She prepares the soil, a feast.
They awake from slumber, race to come out.
Canes the channel of life, carry lovely crowns through voyage to summer.

Summer.
In full bloom they linger.
Paradise found,
Celebrated, loved; a reminder,
In the begining God.

We don't get to be here long.

Live it well...M6.8 bN

Flesh it out.

The so-called "culture war" strides forward--taking America by storm. But nothing has changed. Nothing.

As believers we have been "gifted" to add value to the lives of people. We've been called to love people--the best and the worst--with a love that looks past what they are and sees WHOSE they are.

Whether or not they come to effective faith in Christ is not my responsibility, this is the work of God. He uses me (it's not a head thing, it's a heart thing) when I selflessly serve people in a way that adds value to their lives, I reflect Christ--no, I flesh-out Christ--and they wonder, "Why, what's in this for you?" This testimony is powerful becasue the reality of Christ in me has manifested itself in an "incarnational" way; they have seen Christ through me. That reflected image is intense and compelling. God uses that kind of "vision" to transform hearts, minds and lives.

This needs to inform our outreach effort, the way we see people, the way we see their sin. When our efforts at outreach do not wholistically address the felt-needs of people and work toward their spiritual need, we diminish the Gospel at best, and erect substantial barriers to faith for people without hope.

This is especially relevant given the the world we live in today. God does not need us to defend Godly values. They stand on their own. What He desires from us is to love "the lost sheep, the lost coin" the Way He does. He isn't finished yet, Matthew 25.34-40 makes this point very clear...

"34 Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’"

Believing friends, the Word is still becoming flesh--through us.

Flesh it out.



Life is fast.
Live it well...M6.8 bN

Note to my younger-self.

Today, I write to my younger-self, FOR my grands--Kellen, Gabriella, Grayson and Gwendolyn.

I know you will all make choices about the way you live your lives, how you will invest your energy and what kind of legacy you will eventually leave behind. I'm writing because I love you all and don't want to leave these words unsaid.

It's taken me a few years to figure this much out; were I able to send a note to my younger-self, this is what I'd say... 

Know, Trust and Serve God.
Follow Christ.
Be kind.
Think noble thoughts.
Read and reflect on history.
Be inclusive.
Love people.
Never mistake tolerance for love.
Be generous.
Teach yourself to say "I do not know."
Think God's thoughts after Him.
Be patient.
Stand up to be heard, sit down to be appreciated.
Cultivate quirky, life is more fun in the quirky lane.
Be a leader, willing to follow.
Invest in your family, you don't get do-overs.
Work hard to make other people successful.
Be humble.
Make mistakes. Learn from them, then celebrate them.
Wake up every day with a hunger to grow.
Be accountable.
Trust that loss isn't the end of life.
Believe that death isn't the end of eternity.  It's a portal, not a wall.
Be grateful.
Learn that God meets us in the stillness.
Embrace the things you fear. You may never master them, but then again, you might.

Finally, I pass on to you my life verse, Micah 6.8.  In it God provides us with an amazing guiding principle for your lives:  "With what shall I come to the Lord...He has told you O man what Is good; and what does the Lord require of you?  But to do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God."   

Your choices will shape your character. Good character will empower you to be the kind of people God uses to make hard lives easier.  Making hard ives easier is a legacy that will transform your world, one needy--and often underserving, person at a time.  This is the miraculous power of grace.

I love you all more than life...Pa

Life is fast.

Live it well...M6.8 bN