Sundays this fall

Get your ‘want to’ back. As I read the little Bible book of Philippians I notice two thoughts that make it real: hardship and joy. ‘I have learned to be content,’the Apostle Paul says. I can use a little of that! This is not joy because God has removed difficulty but joy that transforms difficulty into life. Paul should have known what he was getting into. When he first preached Christ at Philippi, Paul was beaten and thrown in jail and ended up singing hymns in an earthquake! Joy was inserted into Philippi’s DNA at her birth!

Now Paul is inspired from a gritty prison cell. He is aware that even believers are finding satisfaction in his difficulty. How bad is that? Someone close to him had been terribly ill and had almost died. People who really cared about others in the church were almost nonexistent! In all of this Paul had discovered a deeper joy. He has found everything he needs in the righteousness of Christ and the glory of God. He admonishes, ‘Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice’! Embrace joy in this fall season of misery, oops, I mean ministry! God wants to transform you from ‘have to’ to ‘want to’ (as my friend Earl says). Join us for a new sermon series beginning September 9^th that I'm calling: 'More Joy; Less Stress.' And don’t miss the blue moon tomorrow night. We won’t see another one until 2015!

6:27am

Have you ever waited for the sun to break into the morning sky? Usually I just take it for granted. When you need the sun, she’s right there somewhere shining.  That’s cool.  God is all around us whether we’re aware of Him or not!  Waiting for the sun to rise is kind of like waiting for toast to pop. J I have a friend who will text me in the morning right at sunrise. “Did you see that?” He’ll text breathlessly. Wow, the wonder of the sunrise!

I am standing on a little hill waiting for the show to begin.  First the darkness turns into a lighter shade of gray and Orion fades. Then pink starts spreading across the distant horizon. Before the sun appears I detect her rays reflecting off the distant clouds, then off clouds closer to me. Minutes pass as the pink deepens and then brightens. Suddenly a tiny speck of sun flares into sight. It amazes me how quickly the sun goes from a tiny spot to a full-fledged orb.  It’s kind of like waiting for the toast to pop - you wait and wait and then all of a sudden with a - 'pop' - she arrives. So the sun arrives with a splash, in all her glory chasing darkness away and spreading her warmth throughout every nook and cranny. She is ‘like a champion rejoicing to run her course’. (Psalm 19:5) What a blessing! ‘For the Lord God is a sun and a shield; The Lord gives grace and glory.’ Psalm 84:11 And to quote Jeremy Camp: ‘I can’t wait until that day where the very one I’ve lived for always will wipe away the sorrow that I’ve faced. To touch the scars that rescued me from a life of shame and misery this is why, this is why I sing.’  Wait expectantly, but in the meantime, don't miss the glory! God cannot be avoided if our eyes are wide open. 

Garage Sale

What do you think when I say ‘Garage Sale’?  For those who love to treasure hunt - I can see your eyes light up!  However, what do you think when I say, ‘Let’s have a garage sale’? For two years, since we moved here, my wife has wanted to have a garage sale. We were recently discussing it, intensely. For me it is just a lot of work with very little to show for it.  Admittedly I am not a garage sale junkie. 'My time is worth more,' I say indignantly.  Yeah, you guessed it, last week we had a garage sale. It took a week of stress and organization and a weekend of purgatory for about 68 dollars and 52 cents! 

Be that as it may, after spreading the signs around the neighborhood and setting up - I am back inside the house when I am surprised by laughter coming from the garage.  It is always good to hear laughter. It lightens up the entire day. But that is not all. There is a steady flow of folks from the neighborhood.  ‘Remember me?’ says John from around the corner.  Another neighbor asked if she could add a few things to enrich our garage sale.  Of course! Soon a couple teenagers are hanging around. A regular community shows up, not to mention that my wife is working side by side with a friend and they were not lacking for conversation! I wonder how you spell the garage sale of life? Is it m-o-r-e m-o-n-e-y?  Is it g-e-t r-i-d o-f o-l-d s-t-u-f-f?  Perhaps life is best spelled c-o-m-m-u-n-i-t-y.

Driven or Overflow

Busy Christians often feel driven to ministry. Right now we have a drive on to get 25 people to come each Sunday simply to serve from 9 'til noon. God gifts us for a reason! It’s how churches thrive. After skipping lunch to share with ‘the woman at the well’ a refreshed Jesus told his surprised disciples ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me & to accomplish His work.’ John 4:34 However, you can’t just add ministry to your busy life and expect great things. Ministry must grow out of freshness.

Tired, irritable folks do not good ministers make, believe me, I’ve tried! We must serve God from an overflow of inner life not a frantic ‘ought to’ that drives us from morning until night!  As the Apostle Paul wrote - ‘Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit - that’s the kingdom of God.’
Jonathan Edwards described the act of creation as an overflow of God’s goodness. I like that!

Jesus said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” Jn7:38 Let - ‘spring up o well, within my soul’ be our prayer! I can’t sing on paper, but if I could I would - ‘If you can use anything Lord you can use me.’ 

The cult of busyness

When was the last time you heard someone say, ‘I’ve just got too much time on my hands. What will I do with it?’ We glory in our busyness.  ‘I’d love to take that on’, we say, ‘but I’m just too busy’.  No one ever challenges such a declaration.  After all ‘idle hands are the devil’s workshop’!  We are driven to ‘keep busy’, to do at the expense of be.  Is it possible that God is calling us to reorder our priorities? GK Chesterton wrote, “It is the happy man that does the useless things; the sick man is not strong enough to be idle.” He wasn’t promoting laziness. He was promoting enjoying life as opposed to just being busy. A friend said recently, ‘Am I enjoying life too much?’ He must have had a reason for saying that, but as close as I could tell, he wasn’t making merry until the wee hours of the morning. He was just enjoying his life.  The answer is, ‘No, you can’t enjoy life too much.’J If we listen to God he will give us seasons of quietness (Sabbath worship) to refresh us and make us available for his will and work. Even ministry is meant to be refreshing! (John 4:32) I was reminded at a church campout recently how badly we need & how refreshing old fashioned fellowship is; sitting around campfires, cooking and hiking together. I went to the pool and threw kids into the air until I was exhausted and they were delighted. I thought I heard a still small voice whisper in my ear, ‘Slow down and live’. 

8 Kids and 4 Men

Our church was camping.  Several of us men had to dumb down our idea to take a 'real hike'.  We agreed that we wanted to include children. So we reduced the plan to include 8 children ages 4-8. And the kids didn't let us down. They amazed us with their resilience and enthusiasm - even after several hours of mostly uphill climbing on the mountain.  Surrounded by the beauty of nature, one of the men started singing - “My God’s not dead. He’s surely alive. He’s living on the inside, roaring like a lion.” Soon we were all singing with abandon. One young man turned to me, ‘That is my all-time favorite song,’ he said.  (YES!)  Later as we neared the end of our hike one weary little boy asked if I would carry him on my shoulders, which I did.  He immediately asked to be put back down, since he was scared.  Soon he was back on his daddy’s shoulders as he explained to me matter of factly - "My daddy and I are best friends. That is why I'm not afraid to ride on his shoulders." That was a moment for a father to treasure and remember! “It is the happy man that does the useless things; the sick man is not strong enough to be idle.”  GK Chesterton

Horizontal living

Live horizontally not vertically.  Admittedly this comparison is of my own making.  But after years of measuring ministry in dollars, building programs, and this week’s church attendance I think I've earned it! Living vertically means that I try to measure success by how God appears to be blessing my efforts and plans this week. Here’s the rub, God often doesn’t let us see the results of our efforts for good reasons:
(1) Pride lurks in the shadows. CS Lewis wrote that God often keeps the results of our efforts from us because as soon as we’re aware of accomplishing something pride cancels out the value.
(2) God jealously reserves the glory for Himself. After all, He is the One working His good pleasure and I am privileged to participate - not the other way around!
(3) God is often doing something we aren’t anticipating.  (And He usually doesn’t consult me about what He’s up to.)

Perhaps last week’s giving or church attendance is not the sum total of what God is up to in our church!  Transformation often comes at the cost of brokenness and full awareness of my desperate need for God. Joy is maximized when God catches me by surprise with the unexpected.  Vertical ministry looks for results now - like the little boy who digs up the seed he planted yesterday to see how it’s doing! J Patience. God is sovereign. He works in His time not mine.  I plant seeds. God brings them to life - in His timing.  I’m good with that.   

Just walk across the room

I have a friend who talks to people at traffic lights. I’m not talking about visiting with someone inside his vehicle. He drives a motorcycle.  He talks to the guy who is waiting for the light to change who is driving the vehicle next to him! I have a brother who makes friends with any stranger who happens to be near him. I want to be more like them.  I think this is the heart of ‘hospitality’ - ‘philozenios’ is the opposite of ‘zenophobia’.  Hebrews 13:2 says, ‘show hospitality to strangers’. Hospitality means that you initiate interaction with someone you don’t know. What if we were just friendlier in the name of Jesus? If the person looks lost - offer to help.  If a person looks down - greet them.  Be more aware. Say, ‘Hi, how are you’ (and mean it!) before plunging into the business at hand. In this ‘God-drenched world’ God is always present and purposeful. 

In his book, ‘Just Walk Across the Room,’ Bill Hybels challenges the reader to just bring the -10 person to a -8, just a little closer to God. I can do that!  Here’s what I’ve discovered: As I initiate interaction with people I don't know, I become more human and engaged in life. (And I hope more engaging!)  All we've got to do is just walk across the room. 

Yeah, like that.

We met at 6am for prayer and that’s exactly what we did. “Let’s pray,” He said.  And we prayed before we even shared prayer requests. Who DOES that?  Our prayers brushed heavenly places. We focused on God, worship, praise and gratitude. It struck me that this hadn’t followed the usual pattern of laying out needs and offering expert opinions and then explaining to God just how He should best go about solving them - then pray that He’ll follow the script. :) Doesn’t  prayer often feels like we are explaining to God how He should be running the world and oh by the way - here’s my list while You’re at at? Shouldn’t it be more like - “You’re God! Wow! Through Christ I get to draw near to the infinitely good and all powerful Creator and Redeemer Who loves me. Wow! God is in the room! This is a holy moment. I need You more than life itself. Let me count the ways that You have deeply satisfied me and have fully engaged our world. Awaken my soul to join You.”  A God-drenched moment in a God-drenched day, in a God-drenched world. 

Celebrating men, Satisfying women.

Heard an interview with Alison Armstrong on the radio. Since my teens I’ve been fascinated by the two genders God has created and how they relate together. Alison has written several books and leads a seminar called; ‘Celebrating men, Satisfying women’ - in which she suggests that men and women are delightfully different and that they can learn to like, even love each other. But it’s a stiff learning curve! J She suggests that women want to please their husbands and men want to care for their wives.  Both set about to do just that. Why do we so often fail and fail miserably?  Here’s the rub.

As the woman sets out to please her husband she discovers that he’s not as pleased as he ‘should’ be.  She gets frustrated and doesn’t try as hard.  The man sets out to care for his wife only to discover that despite his efforts she doesn't feel that cared for. He gets discouraged. Both try less and find less soul satisfying intimacy.  At best things settle into a stagnant status quo. 

Alison suggests, "What if instead of guessing at what pleases your husband or instead of guessing at what your wife needs, you simply ask and then do it?" Men and women don’t think alike. We’re different. (Duh!) As blind romantics we often expect our spouse to meet our need without expressing it. We even blame them if they guess wrong! ‘You should know what would make me happy!’ we think or even say out loud.  

So stop guessing and start communicating. Stop blaming and start investing in understanding.  It was God's idea to invent just two very different genders and then to send us on the adventure of marriage, an adventure of ‘celebrating men and satisfying women’.  This is a God-drenched world!

Sunday in the Park

Sometimes we expect too little from our young people. We think we have to entertain them to make them happy.  We helicopter overhead and anxiously check their pulse every few seconds. We compare churches and programs and wonder if we’re doing enough!  Here’s an idea: Give them a mission for God. They will surprise you and you will find that patience is a virtue! For example look at these two young women that I know.

Young lady #1: After a week as a junior counselor at a camp for foster kids, experienced counselors wonder at the grace and command of a 16 year old. She is a master of loving and being firm with troubled kids. They respond to her with deep affection. It helps that she has two young siblings at home that she often takes responsibility! She looks very tired in church this week, but jubilant!

Young lady #2 is back in 'youth group at the park' after 3 weeks as a summer counselor at a horse camp. She exhibits a fresh command of her relationship with God. She talks of becoming exhausted and needing to learn new ways to rely on God and be refreshed in Him. She talks of encouraging younger girls and teaching them to ride. In fact she can’t stop talking. There was one girl, she says, who asserted ‘I don’t believe in God’ at the beginning of the week. By week’s end she responded to Christ in faith.  As our youth group went to prayer she suggested - ‘Why don’t we do popcorn prayer? That way everyone can participate.’  I thought, ‘What a good idea!’  This young lady was different person. 

Each had left a ‘teen’ and returned a ‘minister’!  How cool is that?

Day 7: Be Bold!

"And pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel." Ephesians 6:19

Our church is in the middle of a 16 day prayer challenge to pray and act like a missionary does! In that spirit (or Spirit) I recently walked around my neighborhood. I wanted to share Christ but I didn’t want to force my way in. I'm not a very confrontational guy. I never score very high on those 'Do you have the gift of evangelism tests?' I saw a group gathered around a BBQ in a front yard. I sucked it up and did my best meander up to the group and said, 'hi'.  In my first conversation I was told that the first 4 commandments (We're talking the big 10!) were garbage. The same man asked me, ‘Do you think there is only one you?’  I knew it was a set up but I said, ‘Yes’.  He responded, ‘Then you know nothing about psychology.’  I love intellectual one upmanship! His grown son, the host, was a cheerful agnostic.  I handed him an invitation to church. As I continued my walk through the neighborhood I saw a man on his back deck. I leaned over the fence, ‘Welcome to the neighborhood.’ I called out.  He responded with a cheery conversation that included his Catholicism and my evangelicalism bonding for social conservatism and a discussion about God and church.  20 minutes later I went my way with a cheery wave. Next I saw a family pulling weeds in their new yard. I welcomed them to the neighborhood. I pulled a few weeds. I discovered good Christian brothers of a Southern Baptist persuasion.  As I headed home, I spotted my next new friend, sitting on his deck with his pug next to him.  Pug ran to greet me at the fence. As I got to know pug, John and I discussed the weather, God and his relationship with his 18 year old daughter. A short time later I spotted my near neighbor watering his flowers. We had often talked but never about God. With new found purpose, I stepped up to him and asked - have I ever invited you to church? As we chatted I said - 'I don't believe we've ever discussed God. Tell me what do you think of Him?' He responded that he believed in God and Jesus but organized religion bothered him. Invigorating! I plan to stop by again to finish that conversation sometime soon.  Pray for boldness and initiate a conversation today!   

Top 10 reasons for church campout

It is down to the wire for reserving a campsite or renting an RV site or cabin for our all church camp out August 17-19.  So I thought I'd put together a 'top 10 reasons to join us' list:   

 #10. It is very close.  30-45 minute drive for most.
  #9. It will be a welcome break from the normal 'rat race'.
  #8. Campfire chats under the stars.
  #7. A Swimming pool and playground for children.
  #6. Mountain air, God's great outdoors and (did I mention) stars. 
  #5. Exhilarating family hiking. 
  #4. Bonding and fellowship of a relaxed nature.
  #3. Hearing God away from the tyranny of an electronically driven life.
  #2. Worship on Sunday morning. 
  #1. The campground still exists in all its glory after the Waldo fire!
        
I hope you'll take advantage of this opportunity to get away, connect and worship. If you're not a camper, the camp site is close enough that non campers can come for an evening or an afternoon or for Sunday worship.  Seeing more of God in a God-drenched world! 

One person's faith journey

'How did you come to Christ'? I asked her.  She told me a story of surviving Germany during WWII and emigrating to the U.S. ‘I never would have found Christ in Germany,’ she said, 'but in America I couldn't get away from Christians.' When her husband left her with 3 teenage boys to raise, she turned to a local church.  These folks reached out to her boys and helped her through a very rough time. ‘I still remember the service I was in where I felt God’s presence and knew that it was going to be alright,’ she said. She raised her boys without a father, with the help of her church. ‘They turned out pretty good.’ She said. 

When her now adult son was hit by a car while jogging she moved to Colorado Springs from back east. She slept in hospitals for two years, and again folks from a new church reached out to her. Although her son wrestled with a severe brain injury from the accident, she rejoiced when she saw her son’s arm healed miraculously. She never saw any contradiction in the fact that God didn’t heal his brain injury. Over the years she and her husband (she had remarried) spent all their resources helping him. She prayed for her son and cared for him for years until he passed away.  Her eyes shone with God’s faithfulness as she told me her story.  Some might be driven to skepticism but I saw her faith in her eyes. 

What shaped her faith, wasn't getting the life she wanted from God, but finding Him faithful in the life He'd given her! This tested faith is more precious than gold and will result in praise and glory and honor to Jesus when He comes. (I Peter 1:7) Such a person is on the lookout to 'strengthen the hands that are weak' and make sure 'no bitter root springs up' - two very common poor responses to hardship.  So be encouraged!  The Father is doing a good work in your life. Now reach out to someone today who needs a smiling face, helpful hand or word of encouragement.