The Safe Place Can Be The Most Dangerous Place

The Safe Place Can Be The Most Dangerous Place

C. S. Lewis once said, “Everyone thinks that forgiveness is a good idea until they have something to forgive”. He was accentuating the fact that we human beings are in love with concepts. We love the idea behind a thing and all its angles. We hold up ideas like a diamond and turn them to admire each facet. We talk about all the things we want to do, but often don’t do them.

The same can apply with our daily lives. We can live our lives in bubble-like safety, void of any risk of doing anything different, all the while talking about how we would love to grow, or improve, or prosper in some way while remaining in a stationary orbit around our predictable lives. Yet the only way to get to fulfill God’s purpose in our lives is by taking the leap from concept to reality.

You only grow by leaps and bounds when you leap and when you bound. You can see everywhere in Scripture God calling His people to stretch beyond themselves. He called Abraham to a land he never heard of nor knew its language. He called Moses to deliver over 2 million people from a despotic oppressor in Egypt. He called Israel to cross over a sea, believe God for food and protection in the wilderness, and conquer a new land.

God stretches us by calling us to take the leap with our visions and dreams. This stretching even delves into the realm of what we own.

“‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the LORD Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it” (Malachi 3:10).

The beauty of taking the leap is that you are never more alive than when your feet have left the ground for a dangerous place.

It is said that a famous missionary was once chased by a lion up a tree. He was horrified, discouraged and beginning to question why he was deep in the African bush. As he was playing the waiting game with the lion, he heard a voice say to him, “You are in the safest place in the world because you are in My will”.  Imagine if this missionary remained home and chosen to play it safe. It would have been the most dangerous place in the world for him, and like David in his comfortable palace, he would have been vulnerable to failure.

The tragedy of not taking the leap is that we become forever shackled to living our lives by sight and not by faith . . . and “without faith it is impossible to please God”.

God is calling us to step out of our morbid sameness and into our destiny. To do so will require a “leap” into the unknown.  I don’t know about you, but I would rather experience that moment of instant terror that comes from leaving the familiar than to endure the safe confines of the predictable.

Do you follow principles or person?

Years ago I had singular pleasure of hosting a radio show I had named "principles to live by".  It was a simple approach. How to live life according to God's Word. Though I still emphatically believe that we must live our lives by scriptural principles there is an often overlooked but vital element needed for scriptural principles to work. That is the person of Jesus.

We can seek to know Jesus through His principles without really knowing Him very much the same way Israel wanted to wanted to know what God required of them at mount Sinai without facing Him.

 When we over look the person behind the principle we tend to seek Jesus by reading theology & studying doctrine. Studying the Bible becomes the main thing. What Jesus said then gets put in a test tube synthesized & pasteurized  into concepts for self help and daily living.  The Christian landscape becomes filled with arguments of who is right &  wrong.  Some have a relationship with the Bible,  but not with Jesus.

The Pharisees had a relationship with the narrative of Abraham but not with God. There is almost an overdose today on Paul's teachings to the point where you wonder where Jesus is.  A friend with a PhD in New Testament theology made this observation in an article he wrote titled "Give Jesus equal space to". He noted that it is dangerous to focus on the "how tos" of Paul's God inspired doctrine without the Christ of the gospels.

Principles aren't wrong as long as they come from knowing the Christ they emanate from.

 Principles are needed as there would be those who would claim they only "follow Jesus" not words on a page. This fatal flaw has lead to self deception and lack of accountability.

When the person of Jesus is the bed rock of our principles it keeps us from becoming "puffed up" and thinking that we are in control. Principles alone can have this adverse effect. We are obsessed with knowing the answer to the questions that plague us. So we go on this quest to create the perfect system that like a net will capture all the answers and systematize them into a system we can contain.

But just when you think you have a principle down God BLOWS YOUR MIND. 

Leonard Sweet in sharing about the need for "Mystery" (not not having to know all the answers) quoted  C.S. Lewis in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.  Of Aslan.   “He'll be coming and going" he had said. "One day you'll see him and another you won't. He doesn't like being tied down--and of course he has other countries to attend to. It's quite all right. He'll often drop in. Only you mustn't press him. He's wild, you know. Not like a tame lion.”

The Healer

Everyone gets wounded. By virtue of the fact that we are human, we all have been in one way or another cut to the bone. You can’t always see these wounds on the outside because we try very hard to hide them. We cover them over with cold duty, professionalism or even behind a plastic smile . . . Yet we hemorrhage from the inside.  

 There are many kinds of wounds. There are Family wounds, Verbal wounds, Rejection wounds, Spiritual wounds . . .Too numerous to count. Each wound mars the image of God in us - distorting the person we are supposed to become.

Wounds can leave us feeling raw on the inside, like a fresh cut that is sensitive to the slightest touch. They can also make it difficult to receive love, or even lead us to wound others. Whatever the consequences, the fallout from being wounded is the opposite of spiritual health and wholeness. When wounded, it becomes easy to react out of our wounded-ness instead of healed scars. We become like a wounded animal who is more dangerous when it’s hurt then when it’s whole. So how do we become whole?

We must go to the One who made us. God made us and is the only one who can fix us . . . So becoming whole begins with Him.

We must ask the Holy Spirit to change the way we see God. Our wounds become aggravated when our view of God becomes distorted:  “He is angry with me.” . . . “He let this happen.” . . . “He let them die.”.  Our spiritual vision must be corrected to understand Isaiah  53:5 “Through His bruises we get healed”.

Reading the Word and speaking it helps to change your view as it renews your mind. Understanding that “He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3).

Thankfulness is also something that also applies salve to all wounds. It’s impossible to be thankful and at the same time be unforgiving, unloving, or resentful.  The opposite of thankfulness is darkness of the heart. Our thoughts become vain (ungrateful, angry, inaccurate) about God and life in general.

“Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21).

But when we read chapters like Isaiah 53, it helps reset our thinking. This will turn our wounds into scars. I carry the scar of betrayal in my life - something I experienced many years ago, but it’s no longer an open festering wound that is painful to the touch because I am healed from it.   If it were still a wound, I would not be able to help those who suffer rejection.  The wound has healed, and the scar indicates the healing. 

For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
Psalm 109:-22

The Real Source of the Power

Human nature tends to love ascendancy in things. All of our jockeying for position, our love of titles, and our obsession with pomp and circumstance.  These can create the illusion of self-importance. I have even seen ministerial colleagues insist on being addressed by their titles.  This can stem from the false notion that our titles or roles are the source of our power and authority.

But the sobering reality of Colossians 1:16 is like a splash of cold water on the face:

“Thrones, dominions, rulers, or authorities;
all things were created and exist through Him (Jesus)”.

All power and authority ultimately, even it misused, come from God. It is humbling to know that God is the One who sets us up or removes us at His pleasure . . . And that our power doesn’t come from our college degrees or leadership talents, but from Him.John the Baptist had the right idea when he said, “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).  He was speaking of Jesus who alone deserves the place of pre-eminence. John knew that it is God who promotes and honors as He sees fit. 

I have learned to rejoice when my friends get promoted ahead of me in any way.This is not always easy and is no different than any other temptation that must be daily resisted.

There is great freedom that comes with this type of surrender - The surrender of ego.  Ego puts a crushing demand on us to have to portray something we were never meant to be.

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God).
Micah 6:9

What Happens on the Outside Doesn’t Have to Happen on the Inside

What Happens on the Outside Doesn’t Have to Happen on the Inside

 Therefore we do not lose heart, though outwardly we are wasting away,
yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.
2 Corinthians 4:16

It is a natural assumption in life that we become battered on the outside like a ship in a violent storm - this is why Paul uses such dark pictures as “wasting away”. This means to perish or grows old - becomes weak and feeble.

By the natural course of life, the press of trials and tragedies assault our outer shell until it eventually cracks and breaks down. This is the outer man, the house of your soul.

Body and soul
We tend to mistakenly assume that what happens to us on the outside must also happen to us on the inside.

Yet when you look at Paul’s experience, there was always a definite disconnect in that what happened to the body was not what was happening in his soul. Even though Paul knew outwardly he was wasting away, inwardly there was something unconquerable occurring on the inside.

In 1 Corinthians 4:7, Paul was outwardly “troubled on every side,” inwardly “not distressed” - Outwardly “perplexed,” but inwardly “not in despair” - Outwardly “persecuted,” but inwardly “not forsaken” -  Outwardly “cast down,” but inwardly “not destroyed.

The point to be made is this:  What happens on the outside of us does not have to reflect or define what is on the inside. For some, it’s easier to separate body and soul issues that it is for others.

Yet the Bible makes such a division. Even though we are holistic beings, what happens to one part of us does not have to define the rest us. For example, you can get an evil thought, a thought you didn’t manufacture and you wonder, where is this coming from? The short answer is that satan drops thoughts in your mind the way he inserted a seed thought in Eve about what God said. Yet how often does something like this happen to us and we immediately assume this is who I am or this is the condition of my heart.

It’s human nature to ignore what we don’t see (our souls) in favor what we do see (circumstances). We ignore the  “treasure in jars of clay”. Paul spoke of that eternal deposit that will never decay. We forget that the words of John when he said: “His seed abides in us”.

It is in this eternal reality God wants us to live in.

Is your world black and white?

Remember the Wizard of Oz where Dorothy steps out of her black and white world and into this new magical reality – a world in full Technicolor?  It was amazing how stark the contrast between the two worlds were.

techicolor was a big deal from the 20s to the 50s. It was a color motion picture process known for its punchy colors and was widely used in Hollywood it its day.

Could it be that the reason why Technicolor resonated with people so much was because in the back of their minds they know there is something more, something beyond the five senses, something that surpasses scientific evidence?

The world can fade to black and white.

Our life experiences tend to default into a colorless daily grind void of flavor, rhyme or reason. How can you know your world is fading to black and white? Things sacred become mundane. Things you once respected and held in high esteem are now ordinary. Things that once fueled your passion have faded into a dull, translucent routine.

I think of the sons of Eli in the Old Testament. Although they were priests in the God’s temple, it says the sons of Eli “had no regard for the Lord.” (1 Samuel 2:11–36).

Eli’s sons were not some outsiders who knew nothing of the temple; they were stewards of God’s house and worked there ever day - yet they engaged in temple prostitution. No one was more tuned to eternity than the priest. What could have happened in the hearts of these young priests where their world once filled with color faded into black and white?

Have you noticed that children naturally see their world in full color. It’s easier for kids to believe in God and in miracles than adults. Nothing is impossible or too absurd to a child. They simply believe, not out of naiveté but out of an intuitive sense that there is more to this story. They know that there is more than what our eyes can see. But we grow up, and skepticism begins to tarnish our once rainbow-colored world.

Solomon stirs us out of our bland world with these words:

He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. Ecclesiastes 3:11

And yet our near-sightedness can kill us.  We become entranced in the transient moment, somehow believing that this is all there is. Some even look to heaven as an end of life destination, a place where everything will be better & set right - but not something that calibrates the way they live today.

There is a reason why Jesus told us to “Seek first the kingdom of God”, why Paul charged the Colossians to “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” (Colossians 3:2).

More later.

God askes you to do it again

And He saw two boats drawn up by the lake, but the fishermen had gone down from them and were washing their nets.   When He had stopped speaking, He said to Simon (Peter), Put out into the deep [water], and lower your nets for a haul. And Simon (Peter) answered, Master, we toiled all night [exhaustingly] and caught nothing [in our nets]. But on the ground of Your word, I will lower the nets [again]. And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish; and as their nets were at the point of breaking, They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and take hold with them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw this, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.    Luke 5:2-4-8

This is a new year, and with a new year, must come a new mindset.  Sometimes we become stuck in a problem. We stare at it so long that we can no longer see any solution, so like Peter, we wash our nets again with the demoralizing thought that we tried our best. Inside us however is this unspoken feeling of futility that makes all our repeated efforts nothing more than mechanical responses that don’t anticipate any victory but only another night with “no catch”.

When God asks you to do something again, something you think is redundant because you have tried over and over again, it is because He is going to accomplish it. I challenge you this year to:

Look for the sovereignty of God.
It is important that we look for The Word of the Lord when He speaks into your situation and tells us to “cast out into the deep”. Remember “He upholds all things by the Word of His power”. If God is not behind what we are doing, it doesn’t matter how much effort and planning goes into it the results, even though appearing successful, will be hollow.

Listen for His voice.
When you are washing your nets and hanging it up for the day, open your heart through the redundancy. Peter’s response was the right one, “But on the ground of Your word”. When He heard God’s voice, it was enough to rest his exhausted heart on. What God will often say is to “Do it again”. Do the same thing you have been trying with no avail, except this time you have the Creator of the universe behind you.

Be open to the possibility of having your mind blown.
It had never entered their minds that they would catch so much fish that their nets would break and they would need help from other fishermen. God has given us a great capacity for imagination. Imagination is what fuels personal visions, dreams and solutions. A friend who was president of a large engineering firm said once that he hired engineers not based on the degree or math skills but on their ability to imagine. Twisted imaginations was one of the problems in Genesis when God voiced His concern, that

“Every imagination and intention of all human thinking was only evil continually.”
Genesis 6:5

Because of his imagination, man’s capacity for evil can take on endlessly new creative ways.

But here is the part about having your mind blown:  Just as God gave us this awesome gift of imagination, God is the only one who can surpass what we could have imagined. No matter how powerful our imaginations are, they will never be able to envision what God has prepared for us in heaven.

What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, [all that] God has prepared (made and keeps ready) for those who love Him.  
1 Corinthians 2:9

Sometimes God Brings You By the Scenic Route

Beside being pillars of modern day Christianity, what do Abraham, Joseph, David, and Paul have in common?  They all arrived at their promises by the “scenic route”, or the long way.

According to Wikipedia, a scenic route is “a, tourist road, tourist route, holiday route, theme route, or scenic byway is a specially designated road or waterway that travels through an area of natural or cultural beauty.”

The shortest way is not always a straight line.

As human beings we are linear, we think in straight lines. We assume that the most efficient way from Point A to Point B is directly as “the crow flies”. Yet in God’s dealings, we have discovered otherwise. Abraham waited until he was 80 for God to fulfill the promise of him being father of many nations. Joseph waited 13 years between the pit and the palace. David was around 15 years of age when he was anointed by Samuel to be King, and 37 when he finally became King of Israel. Paul was in prison many years of his ministry waiting for the fulfillment of God’s promises.

This gives new meaning to the words of Jesus, “In patience, possess your souls” (Luke 21:19).

The question is why does God brings is by the scenic route? The short answer is that there is something that we need between the promise and its fulfillment that can only be found on the scenic route. The scenic route, though beautiful, can be treacherous. Like the stunning desert road Israel traversed on their way to the Promised Land that is both beautiful and fatal, that is exactly where God takes us. 

When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”  So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.  The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle.   Exodus 13: 17-18

If you were to look at a map of Israel’s journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, it would look like a series of sinuous, squiggly lines drawn in free-hand by a child. It is filled with dead-ends and about faces that would hardly meet with Google Map’s approval. Yet it is in the hallway between the promise and fulfillment that something is given to us. 

God knows what is inside you - What you are prepared for or not prepared for - The routes that will overthrow your faith and the routes that strengthen. The wilderness Israel travelled was beautiful and dangerous, but it was also a school that would teach them how to hold to God’s promises - How to follow Him, how to fight, but most of all, how to enjoy the beauty of the journey. 

Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law. Psalm 119:18

Celebration or Cynicism

Have you ever wondered why certain people can celebrate their way through the most difficult circumstances while others passively revolt, with cynical murmurings? One is active, taking initiative against despair, while the other is passive, letting life just roll over them.

Could it be that these polar opposites are two mindsets, two different views people live out of . . . One celebrates while the other murmurs.

Let’s talk about the cynic first:

In philosophy, a cynic is a person who believes that only selfishness motivates human actions. They down play any real good in the world. If good happens, they dismiss it like some UFO sighting.

The cynic growls their way through life, never confronting themselves, and like a dog with an old bone, nurses a secret bitterness.

When I say passive I mean that we allow the circumstances of life dictate our emotional, mental, and spiritual responses to the point that we do anything that makes us feel better. We don’t really face our fears, but numb ourselves with whatever opiate works for us. The dulling medication is often the voice of cynicism.

The cynical mindset bemoans life as something that just tragically happens, seeing itself as the victim, even places the blame on others.

It is a dangerous thing to live in a cynical state of mind because you become the instrument acted upon instead of the one acting. When a person becomes the object, they become the victim, entrenched in self-centered focus that perpetuates a hopeless cycle. They see everything happening to them as a hopeless tragedy that compounds their already impossible life.

But then there is the option of Celebration. Celebration takes life and adapts it, integrates and finds the one jewel within the maelstrom of chaos. Celebration doesn't ignore troubles, but in faith, looks for God's hand in the middle of it.

As Abraham Heschel puts it, celebration is confrontational.  Celebration is an active posture that keeps you from self-pity and dwelling on your feelings. Celebration causes you to face any ordeal in the light instead of hiding in the shadow. Celebration is much harder to achieve than cynicism because it takes courage to see the solemnity of the moment and seize it.

These two mindsets are not just psychological ideas, but spiritual stances that will determine the kind of person we will become.

The prodigal’s older brother was incapable of celebrating his long lost brother’s return because he was cynical. He could not see beyond his own self-centered  feelings that good can emerge from bad situations.

But notice Pau’s stance. In the face horrific circumstances, he was able to say unreservedly, "In all these things we are more than conquerors".

What God births, He sustains

Are you holding on to a dream God never birthed?

Have you ever tried to hold on to something not meant for you the way a child may clutch onto something even though it may be harmful?

We do the same when we hold on to dreams and visions God never gave us.

Abraham once tried to birth his dream ectopically (Out of place) outside of God’s process by producing a child of the promise through a surrogate mother who wasn’t  his wife.

We know that God does give dreams and visions to his children, and they should be contended for.

For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him. Philippians 2:13

 There are however dreams and visions, God never gave us. You might call them “Pumpkin dreams”, notions that came from sources other than God’s process.  

Like children, we are always forced to carry in a detrimental way, whatever we refuse to surrender.

There are many who walk along life’s road bitter, and resigned because their dreams never came to fruition. They stare out life’s preverbal window and wonder “where did I go wrong”.? “What happened to me? “How did I end up here”?

What you birth in your own strength, you must sustain.

Abraham tried to birth his dream outside of God’s process but there were no support systems to facilitate the process. When there are no “organs” to facilitate the life created, we have to make something up. We have to rely on your own resources.

There is a common story that a Korean pastor once visited churches in the United States and after seeing how organized, successful and efficient they were said "It's amazing what you people can do without the Holy Spirit."

This is a question we must ask ourselves. Am I producing something out of sheer talent, or business savvy, and even succeeding at it, but it’s something God never sanctioned? There is prosperity, but no blessing, success, but no Holy Spirit in the enterprise.

 What God births, He sustains.?

If there is one way we know that God is behind something it is that it always possesses a perennial quality that endures through anything. When God births something, it outlives dubious fads, or the latest leadership paradigms. It remains   through social upheavals, lean times and even persecution. It thrives for one reason… God birthed it.

There is no encouragement more profound, no force more sustaining, no thought more resolute, then the certainty that God birthed your dream. You can endure anything, when you are convinced that God is the author and sustainer of the vision.

It was this revelation that fueled Paul’s indomitable language

“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Rom 8:37”

Life without God

Life without God

“But what is Hope? Nothing but the paint on the face of Existence; the least touch of truth rubs it off, and then we see what a hollow-cheeked harlot we have got hold of.”
Lord Byron

 I have often wondered how the atheist navigates the pains and losses of life without a spiritual center - without God or substantial hope in something greater than himself. I believe that the only conclusion a person can come to without God is arrived at by Lord Byron:   “The least touch of truth rubs it off”. This must be true of life without God.

The book of Job paints such a picture.

Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass. Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless. What he trusts in is fragile;what he relies on is a spider’s web. He leans on his web, but it gives way; he clings to it, but it does not hold.          Job 8:11-15

Even we who follow Christ can live lives of quiet hopelessness and like Byron, see hope like the mere “paint on existence”, and we can do so without ever saying the words.

I wonder if this disillusionment occurred because of the misguided promises of bliss and prosperity made by the Church the past 50 years. The same rubric that helped usher in post- modernism also left many Christians holding their shattered pumpkin dreams. We were taught.
“Just pray more. Surrender more. Obey more or confess more positive words and you will have it all”. And not much really changed. This created a “knee jerk” reaction against any kind of future promise of joy or hope in this post-modern world.

Larry Crabb, in his book “Inside Out”, talks about “groaning” - the experience Christians often endure when navigating the aches of the soul life deals to them. We have been taught to suppress these dark feelings and gloss them over with stained-glass words. Feeling pain however is where healing begins.

“The experience of groaning however is precisely what modern Christianity so often tries to help us escape”
Larry Crabb

 Whether it’s an atheist preaching hopelessness or a believer’s hopes dashed on the rocks, there is a place for realistic hope.

The ground of hope begins by allowing ourselves to feel the negative emotions (no matter how intense), and in that instant, look to God - understanding that our present reality may not change immediately, but inviting God into the pain is the beginning of real hope.

Some trust in and boast of chariots and some of horses, but we will trust in and boast of the Name of the Lord our God.
Psalm 20: 7 

Living in a state of “nowness”

“We are always getting ready to live but never living.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Olympic gold medal winners were asked in the last games, “What will you do now that you have accomplished your goal?”. I heard two different people (on two separate occasions) say, “I don’t know -  I just want to focus on the moment”.

A wandering mind is an unhappy mind.

I believe that many of us don’t live in our moment. Our body may be here, but our mind is somewhere in the past or future, or another reality. We have become escape artists of the present, avoiding the unpleasant circumstances of the moment. Matthew Killingsworth said,

"Human beings have this unique ability to focus on things that aren't happening right now.   Our present can become devoured by day dreaming and fantasy or other mental time zones”.

A study found that people spend nearly half their time (46.7%) thinking about something other than what they are actually doing. The team concluded that reminiscing, thinking ahead or day dreaming tends to make people more miserable, even when they are thinking about something pleasant.

Happy is the person who embraces their moment.

Paul’s words counter this trend in all of us when he said, “Let each man abide in that calling wherein he was called” (1 Corinthians 7:20).   “Abide”, says Leonard Sweet, is "a state of here-ness"  - I add “now-ness".  Abiding is not just about being in a place, but about embracing your moment, mind, body, and soul. The danger of living in a fantasy is that it takes you away from the “here & now” of your purpose.

We know that we are to embrace “Now” because NOW is when and where God put us.

He didn’t put us 100 years in the past or future, but here and Now.

It says beautifully of David, that “after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep” (Acts 13:36).

The happiest times of our lives are when our entire being, body and soul and spirit are totally immersed in the moment and in the experience.

Whatever presents itself for you to do, do it with [all] your might, because there is no work, planning, knowledge, or skill in the grave where you're going.
Ecclesiastes 9:10

Dismantling is not destruction…..It is progress

This summer I had the singular pleasure of replacing 11 fence posts in my back yard. The process is back breaking as it involves breaking up the dry ground around the old post, digging down 3 feet, lifting out the old concrete laden post, and finally installing a new post. This ordeal happened 11 times giving me some insight about foundational issues in our lives.

Some things that precipitated having to fix all these fence posts (besides neglect) were things like wind storms that would knock down sections of fence revealing tenuous foundations. The inclement weather doesn’t create the problem, it only reveals it.

When you see a good section of your fence lying on its side it instantly reminds you of how important foundation is. Without a good foundation we cannot build straight or “true”. Yet it is in our nature to focus on the tower before we focus on the foundation. We even try to do a “quick short term fix” to address the problem. I remember long ago my first attempt to fix a bad foundation was to simply pour in some concrete without digging up the old broken stone. The results were only temporary as the old post crumpled in the next storm.

I believe the same thing happens when we try to deal with our life’s issues. We focus on behavior (the tower) but neglect the foundation. A. W. Tozer spoke of the human tendency to try to change our ways without the breaking up of the “self life”. The self is the foundation and crux of who we are. It is the part of us that can dig in its heels and say “NO”. The self sufficient part that says “I can do this in my own strength”.

I believe that we keep falling into the same ruts of sin, and failure because the foundation has never been addressed.

In order for me to properly fix each fence post, I had to first dig up the old foundation and remove it. Its messy as sometimes the concrete comes out in pieces. This is very much the way we feel when God is breaking apart our foundation in order to build.

But be encouraged that Dismantling is not destruction, it is progress. Even though what is left is an empty whole through our hearts (just like the post), it is God’s doing in our lives for the purpose of creating something that will last.

Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

Do You See What God is Building?

Do You See What God is Building?

Gordon Johnson relays the story of a man who visited a construction site where stonemasons were working. The man said to one, "What are you doing?" The stonemason said, "You can see, I'm chipping a stone." The man walked over to another mason and said, "What are you doing?" He answered, "I'm building a wall." The man walked over to a third mason and said, "What are you doing?" This mason answered, "I am building a cathedral."   

Are you able to see what God is building from your life? Unfortunately, many of us become drowned in details and strangled by minutia, only seeing what is in front of us.

It is encouraging to me that Hebrews calls Jesus: “the Founder and Perfector of our Faith”, and because of this reality, we are to look to Him (Hebrews 12:2).

In our culture, it so common to have a specific plan for what we want to do, but the Bible focuses more on a person: Jesus.

In hard times, remember that Jesus started you on your journey, and He will help you finish.

One of satan’s strategies is to make you ignorant of God’s overall will for your life so that you will function out of a limited picture. In doing so, you can feel lost and wandering, without hope.

If you work out of such a picture, you will make bad decisions, get involved in the wrong things, and build the wrong kind of life.

God’s strategy is that you know His will. The beauty is that, from where we are seated, we can see little of our lives, but from where Jesus is seated, He can see everything.

Hebrews 11:27 says of Moses that  “he persevered because he saw Him Who is invisible”.

The Word: Sword of the Spirit or Ceremonial Sword?

In ancient culture, there was no weapon that had more significance than the sword. Having a sword meant the difference between life and death, victory and defeat. In ancient times, no one cared about how beautiful a sword was in battle, but how useful it was.

The sword is also a symbol of the Word of God. How much more fatal is it for a believer to be without a revelatory knowledge of the Word of God?  By revelatory knowledge, I do not mean original language studies or an exegesis on particular versus, but a knowledge that comes from knowing the author – God . . . The kind of revelation the writer of Psalm 119 had.

“If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction”.
Psalm 119:92

 Throughout history the uses of the sword have ranged from war to sport, and in today’s civilized world, ceremony. A ceremonial sword was used to denote status and power and designed to be an “impressive sight”. They are made delicately for show, not for battle. They could not be used in actual combat, because they have no cutting edge, and their finish and decoration make them unbalanced for practical use.

I believe that the Bible in our Christian culture has in many cases become ceremonial.

This modern ceremonial sword (Bible) has a hilt adorned with beautiful stones denoting power and status, but possesses neither. It has in many cases become like a ritual blade, dulled with blurred morality, discretionary lordship, and decorated with man-centered theology. You may as well use this beautiful gleaming sword to butter your morning muffin.  The best that a butter knife can do is smooth things over. It has no cutting edge to bear things open.

In essence, the body of revealed truth called the Word of God not only offers rest to God’s people, but also is able to penetrate beneath the ceremony and pomp we bring. This sword of the Word has 2 sharp edges - One that comforts, the other that cuts.  

“When they heard that, they were cut to the heart,”
Acts 5:33

Its piercing quality goes beyond the physical and intellectual, touching the inmost parts of the heart and conscience.    

Too many modern writers have attempted to place the Word in a test tube for study, later to prove their dearest penchants. Many Christians as well have only used it for its comforting edge, not its incisive properties. This has taken the edge off of the Word as we have studded the hilt with our own beautiful stones of meaning.

 But I think of Joseph where “the Word of the Lord tried Joseph”. It seems to me that it is the Word who puts us in a test tube. We are the ones put through the paces. We are the ones who navigate the maze humbled by the disturbing truth that we don’t understand everything, can’t control anything, nor can we attempt to reduce to ceremony that which is living and active.

Joy Is A Mandate

Joy  Ps 100:2 Serve the Lord with gladness.

There is something fundamental about finding your joy in the moment. Joy to us is what gas is to a car. It fuels your spiritual energy and revitalizes your outlook. In short Joy God’s is the bedrock of our strength.

So why does God make Joy not a request but a mandate:?  Because the alternative to joy is despair.

The price for not having joy is greater than the price for joy. 

In this reality Paul would be a castaway if he did not preach the gospel with joy. This is why God doesn’t just idly ask you to have joy. The alternative leads to all other dark emotions and actions. Despair is a doorway that opens to many dark paths.

Barbara Fredrickson in her paper called "What good are positive emotions" said that  Negative emotions (Like despair) act like a funnel for all other emotions. Have you ever noticed that when you are down, you are closed to any possibilities or vision for your life. Dark emotions narrow down every feeling into one hopeless outcome. When you focus on your negative emotions, creativity, hope, and vision are impossible.

Trying to have joy in this condition (Someone observed) is like attempting to play a beautiful symphony through a tuba. It will produce only one odd sound.

On the other hand Positive emotions (Joy) funnel open broadly all other emotions. When you have joy, you are open to all possibilities, creativity, and dreaming.

In the 80s the was a basketball coach who lost the game. From his “joyless perspective, all looked dark. Outside it was piercingly cold and rainy. The drops pelted him like cold pebbles. He pulled up his hood to brace against the overwhelming gloom. To the Basketball coach who won the game, everything looked bright. The future was wide open. Outside, the rain danced on the shiny pavement almost seeming crisen their great win. Every drop that hit their faces was like a new hope

Same event but two entirely different perspectives. Kind of the way Joshua and Caleb saw taking the land vastly different from the other 10 spies whose view was negative and impossible.

This mandate of joy is not something we simply whip up but a thing that God gives us. “The joy of the Lord is my strength”. Not my joy but His joy. The holy spirit is always trying to produce this in us as it is one of the fruits of the Spirit.

Galatians 5:22  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,”

Reaching “Generation Flux” Part 2

A question that needs answering when it comes to the elusive “Generation Flux” is:

How did we get here?

 A question must be asked in all this. If this new generation is called Generation Flux, than what is the older generation called? Leonard Sweet, in his book Viral, calls them the “Guttenberg Generation” because of Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of the printing press around the year 1440.  Before the printing press, books were hand-written by scribes and very rare in the world, resulting in the slow progress of knowledge. With the printing press also came the multiplication of knowledge throughout the world. With that knowledge came the culture of getting our perspective from “paper” or words on a page. The “Gutenberg Generation” tends to enjoy holding a book in their hands versus reading on a device. They focus on knowledge and ideas while “Gen-Fluxers” on relationships and connection. 

Interestingly, for some Gen-Fluxers, when it comes to spirituality, they gravitate away from the ever-changing evangelical culture that has been marked by heavy emphasis on evangelistic preaching, testimonies, extemporaneous prayer, and strong emotion,  They do this in search of what they perceive as a deeper and richer worship experience. Their image-based customs attract them to the visual representation and the mystery in liturgical worship, the sacraments, the communal element of worship, the focus on Scripture and prayer. These produce beautiful, immutable visuals which appeal to a small segment of this generation.

When things began to change.

When the first personal computer came out in the late 1970’s, the way knowledge was distributed started making a quantum leap from paper to digital. Today, people read books on their tablets and reading devices as well as research information on the Web. Even some of us older ones have adapted using our Apple and Android devices for speaking.

How do we reach Generation Flux?

Although much can be said about reaching them, we can only give some places to start.

Celebrate their passion for finding spirituality through connecting with people. Remember this young generation is addicted to relationships through media and not necessarily attending a local church.

I know this may sound strange to us Guttenhergers, but this is the way the Church in Acts began. After the proclamation of the gospel came establishing the believer through connecting with other believers. This happened when they went “house to house”. Making disciples does not simply classroom instruction, but living out life stories together.

The older generation can also come along-side “Gen-Fluxers” by helping them see the difference between hating nostalgia (the past) and learning from it.  Although the past is not a hitching post, it should be a guide post.  Truth is relevant to every generation regardless of culture, philosophy, or innovation. The Ten Commandments come from our past and regardless of what age we live in, it is still wrong to kill, covet, and worship other gods.

“Gen-Fluxers” can be helped by the preceding generations if we stop trying to correct them before we connect with them. We older Christians love perfectly laid-out scriptural arguments and well-reasoned doctrine, but this young generation is more interested in questions like: Am I loved? Is there hope? Do you really care? These are not just lovely ideas but questions that invite encounter. God is not some abstract idea we put in a test tube, but a living Being who longs to touch humanity. “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

Reaching “Generation Flux” Part 1

 

 Have you ever noticed that every time you use Google or Facebook something has changed? And more than often, irritatingly so because change implies abandoning the way you did it before.

If there is one reason why modern phenomena like Facebook, Google, and Twitter have thrived is because they are committed to constant change. They are always cranking out new ways of doing it. At the helm of these modern movements are young twenty-somethings who have redefined their generation. leaving older generations to scratch their heads in reservation.

Constant Change. They have been called the “Google Generation”, “The Social Networking Generation”, and even “Generation Flux”. They are today’s generation of twenty-somethings who are defined by constant change that is fueled by technological innovation. The “Gen-Flux Generation” (as we will refer to them for this article) are like chameleons, always morphing into new things so that they become like constantly moving targets. Not only are they constantly changing, but they are doing so while they are on the move. While they are walking, watching TV or (we hope not) driving, they fire off emails, thumb out texts, and update their Facebook.

Non-Nostalgic. “Gen-Fluxers” prefer to adapt to new situations than to perfect the status quo. To them, there is no status quo; there is only a process of change. The new generation of young innovators has been described by technologist Peter Diamandus as in “Permenant Beta” (works in progress). In other words, when it comes to new ideas, instead of remaining on shore, they continually launch out into the unknown.  

Always plugged in. “Gen-Fluxers” get their life perspective from multiple sources of media without even being there. Just when you think they miss a church event they will say, “I caught the pod cast on my phone”.  To “Gen-Fluxers”, the conversation never ends because they are always connected through technology. There are, however, limits to getting all your interactions, and revelations from media. Media can be remixed and manipulated to service unique points of view.  It also goes without saying that media can never compensate for the absence of face-to-face connection. Too much is missed when you are not together within the same time and space.

Uncertainty. Because of this type of culture, “Gen-Fluxers” must endure ambiguity with their lives going in many directions at once. They no longer rely on established business models that promise long careers up corporate ladders. So they become jacks of all trades with many spinning plates in the air. These can include more than one job, carrier, or business venture.

The uncertainty that comes in the wake of all the spinning plates is accompanied by instability, a vague sense of identity, and in many cases moral relativism.  

Next time we will explore how this new culture got here and how to reach them.

The Past: Guide Post or Hitching Post?

 

 L. Thomas Holdcroft said these words to describe the simple idea that all of us can embalm our history to the point where we ignore the present. What came before is important in that those were the moments we were formed, stretched, and received the seminal seeds of future growth. These things our past furnished for us are vital as a guide post, but never a hitching post.

Guide posts were used as signs for road directions. They symbolize the guidelines we all need to map our future.  

On the other hand, a hitching post was a post or rail to which an animal, especially a horse, was hitched. It was used to tie the reins of horses to keep them from straying.

In a grave sense, the truth should be a hitching post. The hitching posts are the eternal non-negotiable truths like the cross, holiness, or repentance. These are things that every generation must embrace regardless of their penchant.

We get into trouble when instead of the truth being our hitching post, we make past methods and traditions our hitching post.

Consider that the way the church did things in the 1950’s can never serve today’s media-driven generation. In the 1950’s, the only option to spread the gospel was to hear a sermon live or by radio. Media, however, is the way today’s young generation assimilates truth. They will get it through a pod cast, or You Tube on their phone. To impose a 1950’s method on them would only hobble them and in the end, drive them away.

Although we need our “horses” reined in, our unscriptural practices, unbalanced theologies, and questionable methods, a horse that lives tied to the rail will eventually die. When we live our lives hitched to the past, we stop growing, and become calcified in what was. This is why God told Moses,

“ The Lord our God said to us in Horeb,
‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain”.
Deuteronomy 1:6

It was time for a change and Israel could not move forward if they remained camped out on the mountain where they encountered God.

And this is our temptation, to set up camp around our experiences, traditions, and revelations,  remaining there until we become gaunt in our spirits. We even defend our camp, judging others who have moved on into their new history. This is how the Pharisees perceived this new revolutionary called Jesus. He was someone who was un-hitching all the horses from the post and setting them free.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore,
and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Galatians 5:1

We were created to be hitched to eternal truths, but never to the past. May God teach us to  the run free like the horse with the past being the guide post and eternal truths, the hitching post.

Forced Perspective - When the enemy tries to force his outlook on you.

 I once watched a documentary on how special effects were generated for a certain movie. In this instance, they made an average-sized person look like a giant compared to other people. It was very convincing in the scene and made the movie more believable.  The way it works is that the person literally stands closer to the camera than everyone else making them look bigger. It forces your eye to think the object is bigger than it really is.

Forced perspective is not a new phenomenon, but is used in quite a few sci-fi movies in the 1950s and is still being used today.

If you want to go further back, think of Israel during the 40 days they were taunted by the behemoth Goliath. Though he was a ten-and-a-half foot giant, his intimidation created a forced perspective among the children of Israel that made him much more threatening than he really was. His regalia included a massive helmet, a spear the size of a poll, and a giant sword as tall as a man.

I believe that satan uses forced perspective when dealing with us. He seeks to inflate and exaggerate the situation leaving us intimidated because we believe the false image we see.

One of the reasons why God never wanted Israel to create false images (whether physical or mental) was that an image can never truly represent the reality. It can be distorted and warped into something that is altogether not God. With God, there is something to be said about believing what you cannot see instead of living by what you do see.

Satan is a master at manipulating the image, exaggerating the figure of life’s Goliaths until, like Israel, we run into our tents at the sight of him.

For our forced perspective to change, our focus must change from Goliath to God.

When you know the unseen God is in charge, you begin seeing the trickery behind the forced perspective, noticing things as they really are . . . And like Dorothy and her cohorts, draw back the curtain, and expose the mean foreboding Wizard of Oz as a harmless old man.

“Jesus said to him,
Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen
 and yet have believed.”
 John 20:29