prophets

I’m reading Ezekiel and it’s gotten me thinking: Israel had so many prophets that they ignored… do we have prophets like that today?  Where the consequences of our actions are set right in front of our faces through these individuals, yet when bad things happen, we cry out to God, “Why?!?”  I was just thinking about how eccentric Ezekiel was and how, I’m sure, if you walked by him in the streets of Israel building a mini replica of the city and preaching against it, calling down curses and yelling at the mountains, and other such things the book tells us God specifically told him to do, I’m pretty sure we would think him crazy and ignore some of his words also.  “Oh that’s just Ezekiel, he’s always dreaming up some crazy thing and saying its from God.  Don’t worry about him…”

And I could toss around some of the theological ideas in my head around some of this and some of our typical arguments against it sometimes being the case, but it sometimes makes me wonder if God has sanctioned some prophets like that still today.  Men and women that may be eccentric and a little strange to be in company with, yet that have a message sanctioned by God.  People that even those who call themselves God followers ignore or detest because of their ways.  I dunno, just something I’m thinkin about.

Give us today our…

Daily bread.

You know, this concept has been on my mind often the past few months.  I feel as though I’m beginning to learn more and more about just what this means in my life.  God has provided what I need, when I need it.  Sometimes that’s energy to get through a tough week.  Sometimes that’s being reminded of something that must be done before the appropriate time has passed.

There’s an aspect of this trust which is one of my life/faith experiments at the moment.  You can correct me if my logic or theology is skewed, but I think part of this daily bread idea is us focusing on what is right in front of us; that we focus on what we can do/work towards/affect the outcome of as it comes to us.  Jesus spoke about this in several places from his “do not worry about tomorrow, tomorrow can worry about itself” speech in which he adds, “today has enough trouble of its own” (Mat 6:34) to when he tells his disciples when bad things come, when they are arrested and asked what they have to say for themselves, to not worry about what to say or how to say it because it will be given to them when its needed (mat 10:19) .  I try to do this.  Yes, I have todo lists and post-it notes and automatic reminders, but I try to practice this idea and focus on what I can control in this moment and anything outside of that, don’t sweat it.

We’re told that God has the future covered.  Most of the worrying we do, anyway, often has no bearing in reality and those imagined alternate realities we dream up rarely are ever the actual outcome.  God knew that about us.  We try to control our situation, map out every which way or possibility so that we can be “prepared for anything” (not that it’s not sometimes pertinent to grab an umbrella on your way out the door).  Yet we cross a line when we try to control the things that are not ours to control or, worse yet, we let these possibilities and worries begin to control us.  I think worry and over-analyzing can be an addiction of sorts like any other.  Common preparations and plans can also fall under Paul’s wise words in 1 Corinthians 6:12: “Everything is permissible – but I will not be mastered by anything.”

So, daily bread.  You know, the thought this evening that brought this post to mind in the first place is that there is this wonderful Christian lady at our church that looks out for me and makes sure I have what I need.  I laughed because, even this week when I didn’t speak with her, she made sure to set aside some leftover Panera bagels and cheesy bread for me.  God through this woman quite literally provides me with bread each week.

SO, what baked goods should you be letting God take care of for YOU this week?

Reflections on the prophet Isaiah…

I was talking to a good friend of mine about songwriting today and whenever I start thinking about inspiration and songwriting, I inevitably think back to Isaiah.  Weird huh?  I was just so impacted back in February when I was reading through the book of Isaiah.  He is one that is undisputed as one of the great prophets of the Bible and the thing that struck me was how poetic his writings are.  I just found it so funny that the great prophet, with all his prophesies passed down through the ages,… was a poet.  He was a songwriter.  Like David.  And it just got me thinking about the power of music and words stated in a right way and gave me a huge respect for Isaiah in a whole new light.

See, Isaiah had some brilliant stuff and ways to describe things and if it comes across in our language, I can only imagine how it was in his own language.  I’ll show you what I’m talking about and add my own commentary possibly too:

Isaiah 57 rocks…

“the One… who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy (v15).”  We often think of eternity as an infinite timeline… Isaiah states it here as a dwelling place for God.

“I (God speaking) dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him with a contrite and lowly spirit (15).”  It’s that awesome contrast of Far off and Near.  Big enough to see all eternity, yet personal enough to be in my toughest, most humbling moments.

“”the Lord’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save… but your inequities have made a separation(59).”

“their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make… Justice is turned back… for truth has stumbled in the public squares… Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself prey (talking about how evil the society had become)” (chapter 59)

anyway, thought I’d share.

Isaiah 5

This is my own rendition/interpretation of Isaiah 5 that I wrote out awhile back when I was doing a study in it.  It came around the time when I was reminded of how many of these prophets of the past were poets and songwriters.  That their prophecies passed down to us are in such a lyrical form and we often miss much of this when it’s translated into english, but (obviously) a lot of it still has a lot of power.  So here’s some of the woe’s from Isaiah:

Woes to those who join house to home,
field to field til there is no room
and you build up a place to provide you space
and you are made to dwell alone…

But this space won’t heal broken eyes
Your noise won’t drown out the cries
You think you’re living well, but it’s a sham.

Woes to those who rise up and think
they can ignore the world with a stronger drink
and you party into the night with shouting and bar fights
and you are blinded from the greater things

But this stupor won’t heal broken eyes
Your mugs won’t drown out the cries
You think you’re living well, but its a sham.

Woes to those who’s commerce is king
who string up the weak with their cords of deceit.
You convince others that their stuff is not enough
and you demand proof that there is more than this.

But your sales won’t heal broken eyes
Your cell phones won’t drown out the cries
You think you’re living well, but its a sham

Pride before the fall, the saying goes
Haughty eyes take the plunge and honored men brought low.
While drunken hearts choose to please themselves,
the weak and broken, of never spoken, die in earthly hells.

Do as the kids do…

So, Blake and I are preaching this week as we close out our worship series.  We’re doing a tag team message on how we approach God in worship.  So as I was thinking about worship and also thinking more about my last post, it made me realize another way that we ought to be like children in the kingdom of God.  And, obviously, that would be in our worship.

I think of the little girl who, when a worship song plays, is twirling at the front of the room.  She isn’t thinking about anyone or anything beyond expressing herself in the music and to God.  Or I think of the little boy that gets so excited about something that there is nothing else to do but burst into a spirited jig right on the spot.  See, kids haven’t learned the inhibitions that we master as adults.

As we approach worship, there’s something about letting our outward actions express our inward emotions.  It’s not a matter of us not worshipping, necessarily, but I wonder how we might experience God if we got past formalities, past our egos and concerns for those around us (no matter how noble), past our rows and our curbed responses to God’s incredible grace and love.  Rick McKinley in his book Beautiful Mess pointed out that we, beyond all others, have reason to celebrate and express ourselves with ecstatic joy – the fact that we celebrate the God of the universe having mercy on us and desiring to come near to us even after we have gotten ourselves into such messes.

Anyway, some thoughts…

Welcome the Children

So, I’m continuing to read this book called This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley.  Today I read the chapter called, “Welcome the Children.”  This looks at the three occurrences in matthew where Jesus makes a point about the kingdom of God using kids.

And, as often, the contrast Jesus paints is as confusing today as it was for his disciples when he first said it.  Now, we’ve heard the line about becoming like children to get into the kingdom, but I think today we are just so darn good at looking at something, glancing a half-hearted, shallow meaning out of it and then tossing it away as irrelevant because “the answer is so simple.”  I think this arrogance of “already knowing the answer” is often what gets in our way with this very point Jesus is trying to make.

In one instance, the disciples try to hold back a bunch of kids that are running around, being a distraction from the really important stuff because they don’t want to miss anything that may give them the secret to spiritual success.  So they’re yelling at these kids to get away from Jesus because he’s doing important grown up stuff with grown ups.  And Jesus rebukes them and says, “ Let the little children come to me, and don’t hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.”

Now, it’s so interesting because in these moments Jesus says, “what you’re looking for, this big secret truth to spirituality and the kingdom of God that you are trying to glean from lectures, is being played out by these kids; they get it.

So in this, I don’t really have a concise answer to give.  I think there could be some really interesting discussions over this.  I’ve already been wondering with God what this could mean for my life.  So just to tie this blog entry up, I’ll give you just a couple things I’ve thought about:
—->When kids are doing something they love, they are intense.  They put their whole selves into whatever is right in front of them.
—->Most little kids want to believe in God.  They are told about this God that loves them and they accept it and they are happy, hyper little kids in that fact.
—->Most little kids don’t understand the in’s and out’s of the Christian religion.  You ask them about the Trinity, how God inspired the gospel writers, or  why their church is part of the Restoration Movement, and 93% of the time, they’re not going to have the right answer.  BUT Jesus still said they are undoubtedly living in the truth of the kingdom of heaven while we, as Jesus tells his disciples, often miss it.  … There’s something there for us.

Beautiful Mess

I just started reading the book “Beautiful Mess” by Rick McKinley the pastor of Imago Dei Church in Portland. The basic premise of the book is that the Kingdom God has set up here on earth is a beautiful mess.  God has chosen to use us, broken, imperfect people to carry out his will and reflect him in this messy, broken world.  So while we might wish, when God saved us he chose to clean us up and make us totally perfect, but that’s not the way he’s chosen to work.

The insight I want to share today is what he said about studying theology.  He said he loves to study theology but he compares it to a scientist studying anatomy.

“It’s like cutting up a corpse to figure out what it means to be human — sure you’d end up with identifiable body parts… but the wonder of pulsing human life would elude you.  Do you think in some piece of brain you’d find clues to friendship and falling in love?”

He follows the analogy up like this: “You can study God expertly in His parts and miss Him entirely in His Being.”

His point is that we must be careful; that in studying God, putting God in our own terms, we can come to a place where we think we know God, and yet have failed to discover him in his essence.

I have been learning more of this point being fresh out of Bible College. So often you see students of the Bible (myself included) go through courses upon courses teaching us the parts of God, the parts of the Church (the Body of Christ), the step by step instructions of our Mission, and yet… many times we miss the simplicity and the beauty of this Loving God.  We learn and know, but fail to experience.

I want to experience God. I want to be diehard for his mission, not because I have learned all the reasons it’s the right mission to be on, but because I am totally sold out to this God I have experienced for myself.  It’s good to know.  It’s great to have knowledge.  But we should not sacrifice the relationship, the experience of God in our lives, for theological saavy.  As I’ve heard it said, “We are saved by grace, not by being the most right.”

Reading today

I don’t have much to add today, but I found this quote worth sharing:

“May You alone enlighten me, You alone speak to me. May all that I know apart from You be nothing more than a chance traveling companion on the journey toward You.” -Karl Rahner

I’d love if this depth of relationship with/reliance on God were always true for me.

Highlights of my week

Here’s some of the things that happened in the last week or so:

• Finished my internship at Suncrest Christian Church
• Ordained into the ministry by that same Church.
• Reading “ragamuffin Gospel” by Brennan Manning along with reading Proverbs.  Great balance, Manning talks about the constant grace that is needed in our lives and Proverbs talks about the practical ways to honor God with our lives and live the best lives we can in this grace we have.

• Saw LOTS of my wonderful friends in St. Louis.  Lots of parties including Gabe Brazle’s 18th complete with Fitz’s rootbeer keg (so great), and the grad parties of Tricia Cantrell and Tyler Stricklan.  I try not to do what people do when they get older and talk about how “I knew you when you were this big” ha, but I’ve known those two for quite some time.

• Having so many friends and family that support me so readily (in general for as long as they have known me and now especially as I am stepping into this new adventure with Lifepointe)
• I had to add to the last the friends that I have picked up along the way.  I find it so funny how God brings people together out of know where and for (seemingly) no reason.  I celebrated that with a couple friends this week.
• 6 hour drive with a 4 year old and a 1.5 year old… let me tell ya…

• beginning the process of packing up my material life for the move.  I’ve found old letters from dear friends, great pictures, my yoyos, my magic tricks, my star wars monopoly, all the essentials, ha ha.

Seriously though, some of the letters I found from friends and family were pretty touching.  A story my friend Collin Loveless wrote me as I was leaving for Johnson about our friendship and the adventures we lived (slightly embellished on), a letter sent with a hacky sack because I had lost mine and my friend said it just wasn’t right for me to leave without one, a letter of encouragement written 5 years ago about how much my friendship meant and how we would keep up through the years (got to see this friend this past week).  These are the things that remind me why I am heading in the direction I am…

They remind me of the lives I have tried to impact and have succeeded.  The times when I may even fall short and yet somehow God revives and renews.  The hope that it really is possible to change lives for the better and that God is the catalyst.  It’s the stuff that gives you goosebumps.

And that is my week…

Ordination

So on Tuesday June 2nd, my friends and collegues at Suncrest Christian Church, along with my parents, little sister, and some dear friends of mine joined me for a pretty meaningful night in my life. We gathered so that I might be ordained by the elders of Suncrest and sent on my way to do what I believe God has called me to do as I join LifePointe and their mission and ministry.

This night models for me exactly what ordination is supposed to be.  There’s definitely the legal side of it (where I can marry people and fall into a certain tax bracket), but the real heart of it is in the relationships.  These are people who have been able to work with me, know me, witness my ministry, and now they see that God is leading me to a particular ministry and put a particular calling on my life and so they choose to acknowledge that and support me wherever God leads.

So on one side, I finished my ministry at Suncrest Christian Church, but on the flip side, they have committed to stay a part of my life and ministry; provide support when I need it, celebrate wins when God does amazing things, and extend accountability and a network of friends whenever the situation calls for it.  I could not think of anything more meaningful they could choose to give me.

Thanks Suncrest and leaders for your incredible support and friendship that I know will endure!