Living The 127 Mystery

Lists 2009

2009-12-25T19:19:00.001-08:00

Last year I started what I think will be a fun, annual post for me to look back on, in a few months and in several years.

Here are my top five lists from this year.

Top Five Movies I Saw:
1. The Blind Side

2. Taken

3. Defiance

4. State of Play

5. Ratatouille (on video with my family… “anyone can cook.”)

Top Five Websites I Visited:
1. Ted.com
2. Ajc.com
3. Pandora.com
4. CBSsportsline.com

5. Tarheelblue.com

Top Five Books I Read:

1. Justification by N.T. Wright

2. Hole in the Gospel by Richard Stearns

3. The Last Week by John Dominic Crossan and Marcus Borg

4. The Future of Management by Gary Hammel

5. Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore

Honorable Mentions:

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

SuperFreakonomics by Levitt and Dubner

How the Mighty Fall by Jim Collins

Top Five Restaurants I Ate At:
1. Sweet Tomatoes
2. Cheesecake Factory
3. Sid's Pizza
4. Subway

5. La Parilla

Top Five Things I'm Really Glad I Spent My Time Doing:

1. Growing my relationship with my wife and children

2. Being with my church family on Sunday mornings.
3. Tutoring kids at Esther Jackson Elementary School
4. Helping fund the digging of freshwater wells in Africa
5. Spending time with friends

Ten Great Memories

1. Baptizing my son at Lake Lanier

2. A week at the beach with my wife in January

3. A summer road trip to Niagara Falls with my son

4. Tucking my daughter in at night and picking her up from school

5. Teaching from the scriptures on Sunday mornings

6. Talking on the phone with my parents

7. March Madness -- The Tarheels win it all!

8. Sunday nights at Taco Mac

9. Late night game nights with friends

10. Early morning coffee with friends

Questions for Christmas

2009-12-04T05:37:00.000-08:00

We ask and answer dozens of questions this time of year. Sometimes we pause, ponder, and even get "stressed-out" over these questions before answering them. Other times we act on them (and therefore answer them) without even giving them much thought at all.

Will I travel to see friends or family this year?
What will be the drama with that relative(s) this year?
How much time will I take off of work?
Would it be wise for me to attend the office party this year?
Should I attend the neighborhood party?
How many outdoor lights and decorations will I put up?
Should I go to a special Christmas concert/play/production this year?
How much should I spend on a tree? Real or artificial? White bulbs or bulbs of all colors?
What food will I eat? Since it's the holidays, I shouldn't worry, though, right?
How much should I spend on presents? Since it's the holidays, I shouldn't worry, though, right?
When should I do my Christmas shopping? Should I do it online or brave the traffic and the crowds?
Who do I need to buy presents for?
What should I get my spouse?
What should I get my parents?
Shouldn't I do something for those less fortunate than I am?
Do I need to do anything "special" this time of year?
Is Jesus even real?
Jesus wasn't born on December 25, anyway, right?
When do I tell my kids the truth about Santa?
Have I been naughty or nice?

And the list could go on and on and on.
We ask and answer dozens of questions this time of year.

But there is one question that I don't think gets asked and seriously, reflectively, prayerfully thought about enough. And that's this:

What are God's plans for this holiday season?

Wouldn't it be great to have God knock on your door tonight, come inside, sit down at your kitchen table and, over a glass of eggnog, let you in on His plans for the next twenty-one days? (Okay, everything but the eggnog sounds great).

I wonder, though, if God's plans for these holidays are the same as yours and mine?
And, short of God actually knocking on my door, how would I discover His plans?

Well, I want to suggest here that discovering the answer to this question is possible. Although I think it will require at least two things.

First, it will require Surrendering. Surrendering is not being passive or lazy or mad about giving in. It's saying "God, I want, I choose to surrender the next twenty-one days to you."

Surrendering means I set aside a time and a quiet place to actually get out my calendar, open it up, and ask God, through the power of His Spirit, to help me plan my time between now and December 25. Surrendering means I find a place (the Celtic Christians call it a "thin place," a place where the wall between God and you is so thin that he can break right through.) to actually get out my credit card statement and my checkbook and ask God to help me plan my spending habits between now and the 25th. Surrendering means I actually ask God to show me what people he would like me to interact with and bless between now and Christmas Day.

And then, discovering God's plans for these holidays requires Responding. It means that I take steps of trust based on promptings/thoughts I receive during those moments of surrender.

Maybe God has plans for you are to do an act of humble service in your home, your neighborhood, your church, your community or your world.
Maybe his plans for you are to take a step of courage.
Maybe his plans for you are to give a sacrificial gift.
Maybe his plans for you are to receive one.
Maybe his plans for you are to stop working so hard and start spending time with your family. Maybe his plans for you are to stop sitting around the house and start working!
Maybe he plans for you to discover again (or for the first time) his amazing love and grace.

I don't know what God's plans are for you this season. But I do believe that God has plans.

And I trust that if you and I surrender and respond to His plans, it will be one amazing Christmas season!

Philippians 3: Watch Out!

2009-11-19T06:58:00.000-08:00

In Philippians 3:2 Paul writes, “Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh.”

“Watch out!” Paul says. “Watch out!”

That two-word phrase is one we still use from time to time in our culture. And each time it’s used in the context of danger. At a baseball game you may hear something like this: “Watch out for baseballs and bats that may fly into the stands.” On vacation in Rome several years ago, a tour guide said, “Watch out for ‘tourist traps’ and ‘pick-pocketers.’” Before letting my children play outside in the front yard I remind them to “watch out (and listen, too!) for cars. No playing or running in the street.” Some parents warn their teenage daughters before going out, “Watch out for guys who are only interested in one thing” (and that thing ain’t information on your personality or your favorite Bible verse).

“Watch out!” Paul says. "There’s great danger associated with 'those evil dogs.'" (On a side note, this text is proof that God prefers cats to canines!)

That leads to three brief questions:

1. Who are “those dogs?”

2. Why are they so dangerous?

3. What’s the alternative to getting caught up with “those evil dogs?”

“Those dogs” is most likely a reference to those (often Jewish Christians) men who came to a newly established Christian church and preached a “gospel” that mixed the idea of faith in Christ for salvation with the notion that all who want to be part of God’s family must accept the burden of “keeping” the Jewish law. Gentile believers, in their view, basically had to become Jews in order to be saved.

Paul has already witnessed the danger and consequences of this (see his letter to the church in Galatia), and so he wants to warn his friends in Philippi. These “dogs” are extremely dangerous, Paul warns, because they distort the gospel that Jesus preached and lead people to trust in their own “good works” instead of in the faithfulness and grace of Jesus Christ for their hope and salvation. And this this wrong-headed invariably leads to a judgmental spirit, self-righteousness, guilt, discord and an unhealthy view of life’s purpose.

So what’s the alternative? The alternative, Paul says, is to focus on Christ and his faithfulness. Paul writes:

“If anyone else thinks he has reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for legalistic righteousness, faultless.

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. (verses 4a-9)”

And the result of orienting our lives around the pursuit of Christ and His faithfulness, Paul says, is the joy of a relationship with Jesus, the hope and purpose that comes with experiencing the power of His resurrection and the fellowship that ensues when we share in his sufferings.

Philippians 3 talks about two very different approaches to a relationship with God. One leads to life, hope and and faith-filled purpose and the other to frustration, finger-pointing and fearfulness.

"Watch out!"

Philippians Two and Huey Lewis (when you think about it, that's a pretty cool name)

2009-11-12T05:41:00.001-08:00

(This November our church is devoting ourselves to the letter Paul wrote to the church in Philippi. And from last Sunday to this, our congregation is studying, meditating on, and asking God to speak to us through chapter two of Paul’s letter.)

As I write this, I’m listening to a song called “Forest for the Trees” by Huey Lewis and the News. It’s from their 1986 album, Fore! (Perhaps you are tempted to stop reading this altogether now, either because of your judgment of my musical tastes or the fact that I’m gaining even a measure of inspiration for this writing from that song. But please read on!)

The song’s message is captured in these words:

“Things are never as bad as they seem.
You just gotta learn to see the forest for the trees”

It’s not their best or most popular song, by a long shot. But, ironically, its central message seems to be very similar to one of Paul’s central messages in his letter to the Philippians. Paul says that no matter our circumstances (no matter what “trees” we face in our lives), we would do well to always remember that we have an infinite God with an undying love for us and an eternal plan for our lives (that’s the forest).

That plan is one that God set in motion at creation and one that He started fighting to redeem the day Adam and Eve took a bite from the apple. That plan involves you and me.

That plan involves Jesus,
“6Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God
something to be grasped, 7but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross!
9Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2).

Two versus later Paul reminds us that that same Jesus will do a work of transformation inside of anyone who will submit his or her heart and mind to Him. It’s a transformation that brings hope amid hopelessness, peace amid problems and an ability to see the forest while standing underneath the trees.

That doesn’t mean we’ll always see life as God sees it. Often we’ll find ourselves discouraged by all the trees. But it does mean that when all we can see are obstacles, there is still reason for hope. We can hope because there is another tree in the forest, an old, rugged tree, where the God of the Forest hung for your sins and mine. We can hope because nothing can separate us from God’s love and God’s grace is still sufficient. We can hope because God is in the transformation business, and he can still make any situation we face work together for the good (Rom. 8:28).

And so that does mean, in a very real way, that “things are never as bad as they seem. You just gotta learn to see the forest for the trees.”

Philippians One

2009-11-05T16:12:00.000-08:00

This November our church is devoting ourselves to the letter Paul wrote to the church in Philippi. He wrote it while sitting in a Roman prison around 60 A.D. It's a small letter, just four chapters in the New Testament. (Paul probably only used a dozen pieces of papyrus when he wrote it). But it's filled with words of wonderful encouragement and hope. And it's a call to a next step of deeper trust, richer hope and purer love.

From last Sunday to this, our congregation is focusing on chapter one of Paul's letter. I've been particularly moved by verses 3-6 over the past couple days.

"3I thank my God every time I remember you. 4In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."

I love the idea that Paul thanks God EVERY TIME he thinks of his friends in Philippi. I wonder if there is anyone in your life that you thank God for that regularly. I wonder who in your life needs to hear your words of thanks on a more consistent basis.

I also love the reasons why Paul gives thanks for his friends in Philippi. First Paul gives thanks for them because they have entered into a "partnership" with him in the work of the gospel. It's a consistent, faithful partnership, too, from the first day he preached it among them, until the present. Oh how our world needs more faithful partnerships that aren't tossed to and fro by every whim and changing circumstance!

Paul's second reason for thankfulness to God is his confidence that God will complete the good work he has begun in the Philippians. That's good news for the Philippians.

And that's good news for us, too! It's good news because God's faithfulness is not just limited to the Philippian church of 60 A.D. Throughout history God has demonstrated his faithfulness to anyone who seeks after him. And thus we can have confidence in God's ability to complete the work he's started in us.

And that's good news. It's good news for our friendships. It's good news for our marriages. It's good news for our parenting. It's good news for our neighborhood, our city and our world. It's good news for our own souls.

It's good news because we can get so bogged down with the demands of everyday life. We can so easily get discouraged by our present circumstances. And so Paul writes words worthy of remembering always: "He who began a good work in you, will be faithful to complete it." God is a keeper of promises, and if we'll let him, He will complete the good work he's begun in us.

FOOTBALL NIGHT IN AMERICA: IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT FOOTBALL!

2009-10-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

Each Sunday night NBC airs a program called “Football Night in America.” It’s the show that precedes NBC’s broadcast of the Sunday night football game.

Every other Sunday night a group of us get together at a nearby Taco Mac to celebrate. We celebrate football. We celebrate burgers and fries and sugar-filled beverages. We celebrate the Chocolate Chimi (Chocolate and caramel wrapped in flour tortillas and fried golden brown; served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup.)

Mostly though, we celebrate friendships. There’s no agenda to "celebrate friendship." It’s just that even though we are football fans, we spend most of the time building each other up. We tell good jokes (and bad ones), we laugh a lot, we listen, and we talk about our families, our jobs, great memories from the past, the hopes for the future. It’s safe to say that we always leave feeling more encouraged than when we came.

I tell you that for two reasons.

First, anyone reading this is welcome to join us! I doubt you’ll be sitting in a rocking chair someday wishing you had gone to bed earlier when you were younger. Rather, I’d say there’s a good chance you’ll be sitting in that rocking chair telling your grandkids about the days when you used to stay up ‘til 11:30pm sharing life with friends over some football game and one darn good Chocolate Chimi.

Second, I tell you this because part of living life in the Kingdom of God involves sharing the life you are living with others. And, sure, that means gathering together on Sunday mornings for worship and teaching. Yes that means meeting during the week to study the Bible together. Of course it means praying with a friend over the phone. For sure it means digging wells in Africa together and tutoring at Esther Jackson (the nearby public school members of our church volunteer at). Of course it means bringing a meal to your neighbors when they are celebrating the birth of a child or mourning the death of a loved one. I’m 100% certain it means encouraging the discouraged (1 Thess. 5), sharpening the dull (Prov 27), and loving the unlovely (Luke 6).

But I’m also sure it means just being together, drinking coffee at Starbucks, window shopping at the mall, playing with your kids at a local playground, hiking along a mountain trail or biking along a country road, even at Taco Mac on a Sunday evening Football Night in America.

The Theology of Fun

2009-10-09T20:04:00.000-07:00

This is worth a watch and a discussion about the importance of "fun" and where we ought to find more of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

I've Never Read "Interview With The Vampire"

2009-08-17T17:49:00.000-07:00

I’ve never read Interview with the Vampire or any other of the twenty-eight-plus books written by Anne Rice. (Her books have sold about 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history.) But I was intrigued a few weeks ago when, by chance, I heard about a 2008 non-fiction, autobiographical release entitled, Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession.

Rice grew up in the Catholic church, but spent most of her adult life (thirty-eight years) as an avowed atheist. Her book recounts her story from Catholic-school girl to atheist to Christian again.

I want to quote a few chunks of the chapter where she began moving from atheist to adult Christian, because I find it most fascinating and great food for thought and discussion.

Hope you enjoy…

"My faith in atheism was cracking. I went through the motions of being a conscientious atheist, trying to live without religion, but in my heart of hearts, I was losing faith in the “nothingness….”

I’d ask a few questions here and there, but in general this aspect of things didn’t much matter. There was a storm in my heart and soul that had little to do with other people and their decisions. I held out against God and I held out against the church because I thought I was holding out for bitter truth.

But history was telling me every day there could very well be a God. The story of the survival of the Jews told me that there could very well be a God. Everything I was reading—and I was reading more than ever before—was telling me in a secret and insistent voice: Anne, you know there is a God.

Even my time among the skeptics, present and past, sang to me of God. In California, as I’d listened to the passionate stories of civil rights workers or war protestors, I’d heard the voice of conscience, the commitment to high principles, the deep-rooted need to do “good.” No one I ever met was indifferent to conscience or to acute moral responsibility. I saw no evidence even in the most strident anti-religious talk of people who didn’t believe in something, who didn’t suffer inwardly for those beliefs.

One afternoon I accosted my son, Christopher, on the staircase and demanded, “Do you believe in God?”

Here was a young man not yet twenty, brought up to believe in nothing, and in that time of life when beliefs are most easily dismissed. And Christopher, after a moment’s reflection, responded, “Yes, I believe in God…..”

The creation was talking to me of God. My visceral responses to the purple evening sky, to the canopy of oak branches that sheltered our front steps, to the flowers blooming beyond garden fences—my most cherished memories of the beauty of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, or Rio de Janeiro, or Venice, Italy—all this was speaking to me of God.

The music of a violin sang to me of God. The great painting of Giotto and Rembrandt spoke to me of God. An intense study of the lives of various composers spoke to me of God…..The world around me was filled to the brim with God.

And the person of Jesus Christ—the mystery of Jesus and how He’d started a worldwide religion—this weighed on my “rational” mind. Who was He really? Who had He been? Why was twentieth-century America so obsessed with Him?....What was the driving force here behind the Jesus who wouldn’t go away?"

Jimmy Carter and the Church

2009-07-20T17:06:00.000-07:00

I found the article below extremely interesting. Partly because my M.A. Thesis involved work at The Carter Center and an interview with Jimmy Carter himself . But more so, because it raises all kinds of wonderful questions for thoughtful discussion. Here are a few:

When should someone leave a congregation or denomination they are a part of?
Why should someone leave a congregation or denomination they are a part of?
How should someone leave a congregation or denomination they are a part of?
What does the Bible teach about the role of men, women, and children in the church?
How do you read the Bible in a way that leads to correct and not erroneously-held beliefs on issues?
Throughout history how has the church done at living out it's beliefs?

A few months ago, I read a book by William Webb, Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis. It is a very helpful book about how we can read the Bible and apply it more responsibly.

The article, quoted below, is by Ria Misra, contributor to Inside Politics Daily. (it was posted on 7/20/09 at politicsdaily.com)

After more than 60 years together, Jimmy Carter has announced himself at odds with the Southern Baptist Church -- and he's decided it's time they go their separate ways. Via Feministing, the former president called the decision "unavoidable" after church leaders prohibited women from being ordained and insisted women be "subservient to their husbands." Said Carter in an essay in The Age:

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

And, later:

The truth is that male religious leaders have had -- and still have -- an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world.

After watching everyone from philandering politicians to Iran's president taking a sudden look heavenwards when the roof starts to come down on them, it's refreshing to see Carter calling out the role of religion in the mistreatment of women.

The question for Carter -- and for others who find themselves at odds with leadership -- is, when a group you're deeply involved in starts to move away from your own core beliefs, do you stay and try to change from within or, at some point, do you have to look for the exit? Carter did give the former a shot -- in recent years publicly criticizing and distancing himself from church leadership, while staying involved with his church. Now, he's seeing if absence might do what presence did not.

AND HERE, BELOW, is JIMMY CARTER'S WHOLE ESSAY as it appeared in theage.com.au

by Jimmy Carter

Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.

I HAVE been a practicing Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention's leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be "subservient" to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.

This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries.

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.

The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met.

In some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, punished for permitting the exposure of an arm or ankle, deprived of education, prohibited from driving a car or competing with men for a job. If a woman is raped, she is often most severely punished as the guilty party in the crime.

The same discriminatory thinking lies behind the continuing gender gap in pay and why there are still so few women in office in the West. The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.

It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and outdated attitudes and practices - as we are seeing in Iran where women are at the forefront of the battle for democracy and freedom.

I understand, however, why many political leaders can be reluctant about stepping into this minefield. Religion, and tradition, are powerful and sensitive areas to challenge. But my fellow Elders and I, who come from many faiths and backgrounds, no longer need to worry about winning votes or avoiding controversy - and we are deeply committed to challenging injustice wherever we see it.

The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela, who offer their influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity. We have decided to draw particular attention to the responsibility of religious and traditional leaders in ensuring equality and human rights and have recently published a statement that declares: "The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable."

We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasise the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world's major faiths share.

The carefully selected verses found in the Holy Scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.

I am also familiar with vivid descriptions in the same Scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn't until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted Holy Scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.

The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views.

From the Water, Moses AND Clean Water, Bono

2009-06-04T16:06:00.001-07:00

FROM THE WATER...

At my church, I'm in the last weeks of teaching an almost 10-part series on the life of Moses. It's been a blast to teach and has stirred many questions and discussions outside of Sunday morning. And today I'm more convinced than ever that, outside of Jesus, Moses might be the most influential human to ever live. The basic Judeo-Christian worldview today is still influenced by Moses. The Islamic worldview, too, is shaped by their interpretation of the life of Moses.

Several people have asked me what research/books informed my teaching during this series. So below are a few of the more significant ones...

The Bible (seriously if you want to study Moses, become a master of this text first)
The Gifts of the Jews by Thomas Cahill
Walking the Bible by Bruce Feiler
Moses: A Life by Jonathan Kirsch

CLEAN WATER...

A few years ago, led by U2's lead singer, Bono, the ONE campagin began (ONE.org). ONE is a global advocacy and campaigning organization backed by more than 2 million people from around the world dedicated to fighting extreme poverty and preventable disease, particularly in Africa.

A good friend of mine, Steve, sent me this email today. The email was a forward from David Lane at ONE.org. Since the topic of the email is directly related to my passion (and the passion of many of my friends) to dig wells in Africa (our church has teamed up with our local community to help dig six so far) and the ultimate goal--to be part of bringing clean, safe water to all of Africa--I thought I'd copy/paste part of David Lane's email for you to read....

BEGIN QUOTE
In his Inaugural Address, President Obama said, "let clean waters flow." With those words, he brought recognition to the suffering of 884 million people who do not have access to clean water and 2.5 billion without adequate sanitation.

Senators Durbin and Corker introduced S. 624, The Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009, a bipartisan bill to make clean water a reality. But with only five cosponsors, the bill isn’t getting the attention it needs for a hearing and further action by Senate leaders. It must have at least 20 cosponsors to move forward.

Now is the time to follow through on Obama’s inaugural pledge to poor countries. Ask your senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson, to cosponsor S. 624 now:

http://www.one.org/us/waterfortheworld/o.pl?id=982-3282311-46zd42x&t=2

The petition reads:

Please cosponsor the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009 (S. 624), and help provide 100 million people with first-time, sustainable access to clean water and sanitation by 2015.

Together, unclean water and poor sanitation are a leading cause of child mortality: an estimated 4,100 children die every day from diarrheal diseases spread through poor sanitation and hygiene. That such conditions continue to exist demonstrates a failure on the part of all nations to provide access to the most basic life-sustaining element: clean water.

The Water for the World Act targets underdeveloped countries with focused initiatives to improve access to clean water and sanitation; fosters global cooperation on research and development; provides technical assistance and capacity-building; provides seed money for the deployment of clean water and sanitation technologies; and strengthens the human infrastructure at USAID and the State Department to implement clean water and sanitation programs.

This bill will help establish the capacity and momentum we need to meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) on increasing access to water and sanitation by 2015. If those MDG targets are met, the benefits will include a total annual economic return of $22 billion for Africa in saved time, increased productivity and reduced health costs. And 203,000 fewer children will die in 2015 from lack of access to clean water and sanitation.

Thank you for making a difference,

David Lane, ONE.org
END QUOTE

I'm not familiar with all the nuances and all the pros and cons of this bill, but I love the passion and vision and hope behind it.

Influence

2009-05-05T06:59:00.000-07:00

A recent issue of a popular news magazine highlighted 100 of the world’s most influential people. Each “influential” person was highlighted with a brief essay written about them, written by another individual who has witnessed this person’s influence.

I loved reading the magazine. Cover to cover. And while I did not agree with every person selected, the quality of the writing (the sheer excellence in the handling of the English language) and the emotions and ideals it evoked were inspiring, challenging and beautiful all at once.

Below are excerpts from just six of the one-hundred essays. Each excerpt below was written about a different person.

With one exception, I’ve deleted the names of the people being written about. I’ve done so for two reasons. First, it allows you to put your own name in the blank…."what if these things were being written about me and were true of me?" Second, it eliminates potential bias you might have against the person and their selection in the “Top 100” which could result in an inability to wrestle with the qualities being written about. The point isn’t whether or not you agree with each author’s analysis, but the ideals and qualities it calls out in each of us.

If I ever had to be stuck in a long line. I would like to be stuck there with _______. It wouldn’t matter what we were waiting for or how long it would take to get it. It wouldn’t even matter if it was the kind of line we had to camp out on because it went around the block. It’s nice to stand around with ______. He’s interesting because he’s interested. He asks great questions, and he waits for the answers. He has a sort of wondrous capacity for wonder.

His courage—the courage to go first, to lead, where none have gone before—is unmatched. When he speaks, he gives those who hear him confidence: not in him but in themselves. It was said of Cicero that when people heard him, they turned to on another and said, “Great speech”; but when Demosthenes spoke, people turned to one another and said, “Let’s march.” People are marching with ___________.

She is a fighter for causes that count. Whether people agree with _____________ or not, they learn quickly that it is worth paying attention to what she has to say.

I have never seen such tenacity, such ambition, such fight and such honor go into every shot as when I watch Rafael Nadal.

It has been said that after meeting with the great British Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone, you left feeling he was the smartest person in the world, but after meeting with his rival Benjamin Disraeli, you left thinking you were the smartest person. That latter touch is the essence of _____________.

It’s said the average human has 100,000 heartbeats a day. ________ may not have more of them than the rest of us, but each one is powered by purpose. And every year, somehow she reminds us anew of the song that plays in our best dreams.

Quitting Church

2009-03-02T09:10:00.001-08:00

The topics for our church services this March were created by our congregation. Throughout February we surveyed the congregation and asked them what they wanted us to talk about at our weekend services. They turned in many questions, and our church elders chose five to teach about.

I thought you might be interested in seeing them all. So here they are in no particular order.

Is Jesus the only way to God?

How important is Jesus to my spiritual journey?

How can I know for sure Jesus was raised from the dead?

How to deal with stress

The Bible. How do I read it and apply it.

Why is church is important?

How can I express how I feel and not be scared to do so.

How can I earn trust in a relationship?

Heaven and Hell

How can I know I’m going to heaven when I die?

Divorce

Money

Your thoughts on the economy

Stress

I’m too busy. How can I slow down without neglecting responsibilities?

More marriage topics please (we had just finished a series on marriage)

How to communicate love to someone who is very different from you

Dealing with life fatigue

How can I serve?

Loneliness

Finding meaningful friendships

Help me find passion for life

Why is the Bible so hard to read?

Out of those topics we created this series:

WHAT ABOUT THAT?: The Weekend Series You Created

March 1 — Spiritual Perspectives on the Economy

March 8 — Heaven and Hell

March 15 — Making 21st-century Sense of the 1st-century Bible

March 22 — Finding Peace and Sanity Amid Life’s Ceaseless Demands

March 29 — How Can I Know Jesus Was Raised From the Dead?

On another note, I just finished reading a very interesting, sobering book titled Quitting Church by Julia Duin, religion Editor at the Washington Times. It’s a very thought-provoking book that I’d love to discuss with anyone who wants to read it and meet me at Starbucks for some coffee. Any takers? Among her findings are that on any given weekend only 18-20% of Americans attend church. And for good reasons.

Lists

2009-01-20T04:37:00.000-08:00

Time Magazine's cover a few weeks ago was all about lists. It was called "The List Issue" and had dozens of "best of 2008" lists including things like "Top Ten TV Series," "Top 10 Crime Stories," "Top 10 Buzzwords," and "Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs."

So I thought I'd make a few 2008 lists of my own.

Top Five Movies I Saw:
1. Gran Torino
2. Charlie Wilson's War
3. Body of Lies
4. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
5. Horton Hears a Who (on a "date" with my five-year old daughter)

Top Five Websites I Visited:
1. Ted.com
2. Thunderstruck.org
3. Pandora.com
4. Tarheelblue.com
5. CNN.com & CBSsportsline.com

Top Five Books I Read:
1. Surprised By Hope by N.T. Wright
2. The Language of God by Francis Collins
3. The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
4. God and Empire: Jesus Against Rome, Then and Now by John Dominic Crossan
5. This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin

Top Five Restaurants I Ate At:
1. Cheesecake Factory
2. La Parilla
3. Ledo's Pizza
4. Sid's Pizza
5. Frontera's

Top Five Things I'm Really Glad I Spent My Time Doing:
1. Growing my relationship with my wife and children
2. Tutoring kids at Esther Jackson Elementary School
3. Helping fund the digging of freshwater wells in Africa
4. Being with my church family on Sunday mornings.
5. Spending time with friends (esp. watching football at Taco Mac and hanging out at Starbucks)

I'd recommend making a few lists of your own. In addition to being fun, it's a good exercise in reflecting on how/where you spent your time/energy in 2008 and where you want to focus your time/energy in 2009.

O Christmas Tree

2008-12-19T10:39:00.000-08:00

Sarah, Ethan, Emma and I drove to Home Depot to buy our Christmas tree a couple weeks ago. The day after Thanksgiving, to be exact. We waited until late afternoon because it had rained all day, and we were hoping it would stop before we went. But when we climbed into the caravan, a lazy drizzle was still falling, and it was cold (in the mid-40s). But it was the day after Thanksgiving. And ever since we’ve been married, we always get our tree on that day.

I didn’t grab a jacket (I was wearing a long sleeved shirt) because Home Depot is only a few minutes from our house, and I figured we’d only be outside for five or ten minutes while we picked the tree. Emma didn’t want to bring a jacket, either, and she was adamant about wearing flip flops. We figured we would let her since it was a minor thing and, after all, good parents “major in the majors” and “minor in the minors.”

When we arrived at Home Depot we walked to the outdoor section where the trees were being sold. Douglas Firs, Balsam Firs, Fraser Firs, Scotch Pines, White Pines, White Spruces, Norway Spruces and Blue Spruces—there are lots of varieties to choose from. We always get Fraser Firs, so that decision was easy. And we figured the selection process would be quick since we were the only customers outside and would have unhindered access to the Fraser Fir section. Easy and Quick. Quick and Easy.

We often vacillate between purchasing the 7-8 feet-tall firs or the 8-9 feet-tall firs. So we checked the prices and decided that the first option was the best for us. And about that time Emma said, “Daddy, I’m cold.”

The problem was there were only five or six Fraser Firs left (a new shipment would be arriving in the next day or two), and they had clearly been picked over by a stream of previous customers earlier in the day. Nevertheless, I stood each one up, shook it out and held it straight as Sarah stood several yards away to see how it looked. Height, girth, even distribution of branches, needle-color and overall shape are all things that must be considered.

The first tree was too short (more like 6’ 11” than 7-8 ft.). The second was too thin. The third had a gaping hole absent of branches about two thirds of the way up. The fourth had a definite yellow tint to the needles. The last one looked like the leaning tower of Pisa even when I held the trunk straight. And I promise I held the trunk as straight as I could. Emma, meanwhile, needed the shared body heat of being held. And I didn’t blame her. Fifteen minutes in the cold drizzle had me wishing I had brought a jacket.

Sarah held Emma most of the time since my shirt was getting soaked from “shaking out” the trees. But I did pick her up when Sarah walked to the entrance to ask a Home Depot employee when the next shipment of trees would be arriving. As we admired the 9-10 ft. firs, we talked about how much we wished we’d brought jackets and about the sticky sap that was all over my hands.

A few minutes later we were back in the caravan, windshield wipers wiping as we headed….to Lowe’s.

Lowe’s is only a couple miles from the Home Depot, and we turned the heat on full-blast as we sang Christmas carols at the top of our lungs with 104.7 The Fish, a local radio station that plays all Christmas music from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Unfortunately it takes a couple miles before the engine heats up enough to allow the car vents to actually blow hot air. So the hot air of our singing voices was about the only thing helping us get warm.

When we pulled into Lowe’s we parked in front of the outdoor Christmas tree section and walked through the cold drizzle towards the 7-8 ft. Fraser Firs. One other couple was already there. They were older than Sarah and I, and apparently wiser. They were both bundled up in warm coats. The woman was wearing ear muffs and the man was wearing warm gloves, no doubt sap-resistant.

Sarah and I looked at each other and our kids who were patiently huddled near us, and I said, “This is Christmas. This is not about stress, but about joy and creating memories with the family.”

“Don’t worry, we won’t forget this,” Sarah said.

A full twenty minutes later, Ethan patiently helping us pick a tree and Emma patiently snuggled in Sarah’s arms, her cold feet tucked under the bottom of Sarah’s shirt, we finally found the perfect tree. It was in the 7-8 ft. section, but measured more like 8’ 11’’. It stood straight. Its needles were green. Its branches were evenly dispersed. And its girth was not too thin and not too wide.

Now all that was left was tying it to the top of the van, driving it home, carrying it into the house, and securing it in one of those Christmas tree stands.

Memories…

I Can Love the Tarheels and Still Like "Coach K"

2008-11-18T10:11:00.000-08:00

I’m a big University of North Carolina Tarheels basketball fan.

I grew up in North Carolina, and I’ve rooted for the ‘Heels since I can remember.
I remember Michael Jordan’s championship-winning baseline jumper in 1982, and I follow who they are recruiting for the 2010-2011 incoming class.
I believe Dean Smith is the greatest college basketball coach of all time, followed, in order, by Roy Williams, John Wooden and Bobby Knight.
I’ve partied on Franklin St. in Chapel Hill after a victory.
I believe that the reason God created the sky blue is because he loves the Tarheels.
I intensely dislike (hate is such a harsh word) our arch-rival, the Duke Blue Devils.

I say all that, because several weeks ago, a friend of mine recommended that I read a book by Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski (Coach K). The book is titled, Leading With the Heart.

Now there was a day that I would have never picked up a book by Coach K, simply because he was affiliated with Duke. But I’ve discovered over the years the dangers of a life-approach that says, “I will only be taught by those whom I like and those whom already share my same basic beliefs.” It’s a narrow-minded approach that leads to intellectual stagnation, limited perspective, untested ideas, and ultimately fear.

So, as I write this, I am in the concluding chapters of Coach K’s book. And it’s good.
It’s filled with lessons, stories and counsel about ways to successfully lead yourself, your family, and any team of people who are part of your sphere of influence.

There are dozens of life tips (or as my high school friend was fond of saying, “pithy maxims”) that are worth thinking about and figuring out how to better implement—lessons on leadership, personal development, people development, administrative techniques, how to handle a crisis and much more. In fact, at the end of this, I’ll list a few of these “pithy maxims.” But there are three things I want to mention in a little more detail here, because I think they are particularly relevant these days.

(the all-caps wording of these three ideas is mine, but the concepts are straight from the book)

IDEA 1: LEARN FROM EVERYONE AND IN EVERY SITUATION.

Coach K says tells a great story about learning from the janitor who cleans out the locker room. He writes: “I’ll ask D.C., the person who cleans our locker room.”

“Are they [the players] sloppier than usual, D.C.?”
“No, Coach, they’re pretty good.”
“Do you think any of the kids are having any personal problems?”
“Not that I can tell.”
“Will you keep an eye on them for me, D.C.?”
“Sure will, Coach.”

Well, there have been times when I’ve been working in the locker room on something and D.C., who’s been cleaning in the background, will pipe up with a comment.
“Hey Coach, I think Nate might have gotten a bad grade on a test. Doesn’t seem to be himself right now..”
“Thanks, D.C. I’ll keep an eye on him in practice tomorrow.”

Coach K goes on to talk about how he listens and learns from everyone. “Good ideas can come from anywhere and everywhere,” he writes.

I love his spirit. Contrast that with this. I know Republicans who “tune out” when Hillary or Bill or Obama speak, and therefore they refuse to learn. I know Democrats who “tune out” when George W. Bush or Rush Limbaugh speak, and therefore they refuse to learn. I know of Christians who have never read a book by an atheist (or even someone outside their own religious denomination) and I know of atheists who refuse to have an open mind towards matters of God. And much of the time it leads to judgmentalism, dislike and fear toward those things and people they aren’t open to listening to or learning from. It builds walls and destroys the possibility of an honest, meaningful relationship or dialogue. Nobody wins.

IDEA 2: I MUST EMBRACE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Coach K writes:

"[While in school at West Point], I was walking across an open area with my roommate. We were in our uniforms and we were required to walk in a straight, erect manner.

"Well, my roommate stepped in a puddle of water and splashed up a little bit of mud on my shoes. We kept on walking and suddenly I heard the worst word in the world that a plebe can hear.

“Halt!” commanded one of two upperclassmen coming toward us….
“These two guys take a look at my roommate and say, “You’re Okay.”
“Then they look at me and see my name tag. “What the **** is your name?,” one of them asked.”
“Krzyzewski, sir.”
“What kind of name is that?”

I didn’t say anything.

“Well, Mr. Alphabet, or whoever the **** you are, your shoes are cruddy. You’re a crudball. How did that happen?”

"Now, in real life, 99 percent of the people would want to explain what happened. “Look, we were walking across the area,” I wanted to say, “and my knucklehead roommate stepped in a puddle and he got the mud on my shoes. It’s not my fault.”

"But at West Point, that story’s not acceptable. So my answer was, “No excuse, sir.”
“That’s right! You have no excuses! You’re a crudball!”

"They told my roommate to get going and for the next few minutes one of these upperclassmen just reamed me out. Then he wrote me up and, of course, I received demerits for having mud on my shoes.

"So when I finally got back to the dorm, I was angry at my roommate…..

"Later I began to look at that entire incident from a different perspective.
When my roommate stepped in that puddle and splashed mud on my shoes, I had a choice to make. They were my shoes and I was responsible for them. I kept walking and took the chance that I wouldn’t be caught. I could have gone back but I didn’t. That was my choice. The truth is that I had no right to be mad at my roommate. I should have been mad at myself. And later, when I understood the reality of the situation, I was angry with myself."

I love that story because when life throws crud on your shoes, or on your face or on your home or family (and it will happen), we can choose how we will respond. Coach K says we can either
look for excuses or “reasons.” We can blame. Or we can look at our own role and “embrace the hell out of personal responsibility.” He’s right.

In my life I’ve learned that it’s fine, often wise, to evaluate the crud and learn from the crud, but it rarely leads to joy, peace or renewed purpose and confidence without a sense of personal responsibility and a game-plan for future action.

IDEA 3: IF I THINK I’VE WON, BUT THE TEAM LOSES, THEN I’VE REALLY LOST, TOO.

There is a direct connection between personal success and team success, whether that team be my family, my church, my co-workers or my community.

There are two sides to this. The first side is that I am responsible for what I contribute to the team. When I get better, we all get better.

But second, since I am part of something larger than myself, I also have to help the team succeed if I want to win.

Again Coach K tells a great story to get at this:
In our platoon, there were about thirty plebes and we were assigned three to a room. We’d all be outside the barracks dressed in our fatigues when the order would come: “Okay, you’ve got two minutes to get back here in full dress uniform.” Well, there was no way we could get from fatigues to full dress uniforms in two minutes. It was just impossible.

But when the squad leader would yell, “Dismissed!” we’d all run to our rooms and frantically start changing. One guy would be ready first and he’d head out. Then I’d be next and bolt out the door while my other buddy was still changing. We filtered out one by on, we were all late, and we had to get in the late line.

“Why are you late, mister?”
“No excuse, sir.”
“That’s right, there’s no excuse.”
But then we were asked other questions.
“Why aren’t you out here with your roommates? Why aren’t you out here together?”
“No excuse, sir.”
“Listen up, mister, if one of you is late, all of you are late. Do you understand that? It’s not about you getting out here on time, it’s about you and your roommates getting out here on time.”

And then this application from coaching his basketball team:

“I recall when freshmen Johnny Dawkins and Mark Alarie were late for a team bus. We didn’t know where they were, they had not called, and every other member of the team was on time. So we left them behind. Eventually, the two caught up to us and I remember being ready to hammer them. But after hearing that they had overslept, I began to wonder why other members of our team had not checked up on them. So I talked to the entire team about setting up buddy system where everyone looked out for one another. “If one of us is late,” I told them, “all of us are late.”

The only way I can win is if my team wins. I like this idea a lot.

I'll stop here. Being a Tarheels fan, I don’t really want to write or quote “Coach K” more than I have to! But as promised I end with a few other pithy maxims from the author.

• “Everything we do has our own personal signature on it.”
• “Whatever a leader does now sets up what he does later. And there’s always a later.”
• “Believe you CAN win it all, but don’t assume that you WILL win it all.”
• “Luck favors teams who trust one another.”
• “You hear, You forget. You See, You Remember. You Do, You Understand.”
(I want to teach a whole series on this one someday)

Vision Day at My Church

2008-09-23T10:34:00.001-07:00

Last Sunday was “Vision Day” at New Community Church. This simply means that it was the day we reflected on how God has been leading us and how he would like to continue to lead us during the next twelve months and beyond.

Below is a gently modified version of my talk. “Modified” because what you read below isn’t a word-for-word transcript of what I said, but instead large portions of my notes (as such, there will be typos, grammar and punctuation inaccuracies). It also doesn’t include the live interviews I did with Julie Paz from Esther Jackson Elementary School and Ken Dowdy from World Vision.

But I think you’ll get the gist of it…

VISION DAY 2008

If you’ve listened to radio, or watched TV or surfed the web or read a newspaper or magazine this week, I suspect you have heard the name “Barack Obama” or “John McCain” or “Joe Biden” or “Sarah Palin.”

After all, we are in a hotly contested election season.

And so I’d like to start with a question.

Imagine that we elected all the right people to all the right offices—President, Congress, state government, local government, school boards, city councils, etc.

And imagine they instituted all the right policies and legislation—zoning laws, tax structures, immigration policy, health care policy, energy policy, education policy—everything just exactly right. Imagine stocks on Wall Street never had violent fluctuations. And imagine the Georgia DOT only had to fix roads 1 time. And lanes were never shut down on weekends.

Here’s the question: If we got all that right, would that lead to perfection in our society? Would all parents now demonstrate great patience and wisdom toward their children? Would every marriage now be an example of faithfulness and love? Would corporate greed and personal pride be legislated out of existence? Would workplaces become pictures of unity and joy? Would fitness centers and grocery store lines and rush hour on GA 400 now become a place of kindness and generosity? Would human beings at last be able to control their impulses around sexuality and anger and appetite? Would you finally be the man or woman that God created you to be?

Now, to be clear, as we talked during the last two weeks, we should be involved in the political process. And we ought to do it in a way that is respectful and graceful.

But, here’s the point. No human system, no human structure, no human kingdom has the ability to change the human heart—so that pride becomes humility, judgementalism becomes grace, hate turns to love, anger to forgiveness, selfishness turns to selflessness.

No human kingdom has the ability to do that.

We need another kind of administration, one that deals with the transformation of my heart and yours.

Well…

Once there was a carpenter, a young rabbi named Jesus, and He had a single, central message. No one in history to that point had ever had a message like it. And when people heard it they left everything for it…and then they found it—a life filled with love, joy, purpose, passion and an inner peace that would allow them to willingly give up their lives for the sake of it.

It’s summarized in Mark chapter one:

Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” Jesus said, “the Kingdom of God is now available. Repent and believe the good news.” (Mark 1:14-15)

Jesus offers a new administration—not earthly power structures, but the Kingdom of God. Jesus says, now this has become available on earth through me.

And people wanted to know, “what’s the kingdom of God like?”

WHAT IS THIS KINGDOM LIKE? (congregation opens bags with mustard seeds in them.)

People wanted to know. So Jesus talked a lot about it.

“What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it?...It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown in the ground, grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its branches.” (Luke 13:18-19)

A mustard seed. It’s pretty small. But it grows up to maturity and becomes a source of nutrients, life and joy to others.

I did a little research on the mustard plant and discovered that it’s also pervasive…like kudzu….great resilience, great power, great ability to spread and grow and thrive. It was actually known, in the Roman Empire, for its vivid color and strong flavor and was viewed as a sign of power.

It’s small and yet has great effect.

Eugene Peterson wrote, “The metaphors Jesus used for life with God are frequently images of the single, the small and the quiet, which have effects far in excess of their appearance: salt, leaven and seed.” (Contemplative Pastor: p 25)

Jesus said once….The Kingdom of God is within you. We all have this seed…we all have access to power and presence and grace of God….QUESTION IS…..what are you gonna do with it? You have access to life with God….what are you gonna do with it??

Well, Jesus’ disciples had this seed, too. And they said, “We know what we are gonna do with it!”

We’re gonna come together and plant it in the kingdom of God…. ….and so they did….a politically right wing disciple, and a politically left wing disciple, a disciple who wanted to overthrow government structures and a disciple who wanted to rise within it. Richer disciples and some poor ones. A tax collectors, fisherman, and a carpenter.

They all came together, planted their seed in the Kingdom of God…and in the process they experienced a kind of love and belonging and inner joy beyond their wildest imaginations.

Later, Paul, a divorced man with a handicap, said “here’s my seed” and people from Jerusalem to Rome to Corinth and all in between begin to learn about God’s grace.

And throughout history ordinary people have said, “it’s small, but here’s my seed, here’s my seed.”

In this room, if you look around, we have republicans and democrats, those financially well-off and financially in debt, those who love the church and those who aren’t sure, people in great pain and people experiencing great joy.

And 2,000 years ago Jesus took a group like us and galvanized them behind a single vision—to spread the good news that the kingdom of God, that life under the power and presence and love and grace of God is now available to ordinary human beings.

And he says to you and me what he said to those disciples years ago…. “If you give your mustard seed to me, I will grow you and bless you and your life will be an incredible blessing.”

And now I want to talk about the vision I believe God has for our collective seeds. How he is already using them and how he would like to use them in the next 12 months and beyond in our church community.

And there are THREE VERY UNIQUE WAYS God has been moving and wants to continue moving in us in the next season of our lives….

GIVE

God has given us a vision here at New Community—a vision to give of our time and resources to those outside our immediate church community…into our greater Roswell community and world.

And God has uniquely blessed us with the ability and passion to make a significant difference in two spheres that matter deeply to God.

1^st sphere is Esther Jackson…

Almost three years ago, now, I had the privilege of going with to Esther Jackson Elementary as well as three or four other schools in our immediate area to see if and how we might be able to serve them. We went in response to promptings we felt to engage, love and serve our community. And we went with no agendas. No strings-attached. And for whatever reasons, of the several schools we approached, only one, Esther Jackson, responded.

They said, well, we have a gardens/gazebo area that needs weeds pulled, old bushes removed and new mulch laid down. And so we served.

Later that year we volunteered at a school-wide field day. Later we learned that teachers would love a greater sense that the community is loving and supporting them. So we made and delivered teacher packets (food, gum, school supplies, Starbucks gift cards). Later we learned that some families were barely able to put food on their tables, so we gave Kroger gift cards to twenty-five families. Later we learned that kids needed tutoring. So we tutored over thirty kids last year.

These were all needs that came to our attention and that we simply responded to. YOU responded with amazing hearts and generosity. And as you know we never had an agenda to “preach” or talk about Jesus to them. We never had secret hopes that we could get more people in our seats on Sunday morning. We simply wanted to be neighbors that loved and served our community….no strings attached.

And as last year ended it was clear that God had and was using us in unexpected and in significant ways to bless Esther Jackson.

And it's in this context that I want to invite Julie Paz forward. Julie is our primary contact and—from a human standpoint— the primary reason that we are able to bless all the students and teachers there.

Julie—thank you!

Tell us how things are going this year at Esther Jackson? What are your greatest excitements and greatest needs this year? Talk about how our tutoring last year impacted the school? What are your tutoring needs this year?

The second thing God is uniquely doing in and through us under this category of “GIVE” is our TRIVIA FOR WATER. This October we fund our 4^th well!!

And now I’d like to invite Ken Dowdy forward. Ken works with World Vision and is partnering with us for our Trivia for Water event.

Take us from a check we write to the well being dug

Take us from the well being dug to the impact of the well on a village…

As we look into the next year of life and beyond, these two God-visions (Esther Jackson and digging wells in Africa) are central to the day-to-day life of our church.

This doesn’t mean I don’t help you wash your car or load up your Uhaul or serve a neighbor or volunteer with Make-a-Wish or Breast Cancer walks or MS bike rides, or Project Open Hand or Roswell Firehouse or Holcomb woods parkway clean-up.

NO…..God has called some of us to do these things, too.

It means we have a unique calling to Esther Jackson and to digging wells, and together we can make a difference…one mustard seed at a time.

So I’m asking, the elders are asking, I believe God is asking everyone to do something—faithfully and consistently—to bless Esther Jackson and to dig wells.

PRAY

The second piece of vision for the coming 12-months and beyond centers on this word…PRAY.

In the next 12 months and beyond we’re gonna raise the value and vision for prayer.

So we’re gonna ask each of you to make prayer a more significant part of your life.

Cindy Gambon, an amazing member of the elder board, is going to lead us in this….

But our goal isn’t to get good at praying. It isn’t to set new records in amounts of time in prayer. It is to learn to consistently bring the real us before the real God.

So we’re gonna pray the real us…

Jesus, in fact, said, when you pray, don’t pray like hypocrites….pray the real you…

The quickest way to kill a prayer life is to pretend to care about what you don’t really care about.

So we’re gonna pray real. And that means we’re gonna pray everywhere.

Pray doesn’t need to happen only in one specific chair in your house, in front of a window that over-looks a bird feeder….although that might be a good place for daily devotions and reflection.

We’re gonna pray real and pray everywhere—every room of the house, car, work, at play, etc…— and we’re gonna pray with…real us before real God.

And I believe some of us will connect with God in the next 12 months in ways we’ve never connected with him before.

Praying is also going to allow us to connecting with each other.

It’s great that we eat together and we’re gonna keep doing that.

It’s great that we play together and we’re gonna keep doing that….

It’s very good to watch football together…and we’re gonna keep doing that!

But we can go deeper and find deeper and truer and more satisfying and lasting relationships when we begin to pray for each other.

Examples of how praying for another connects us with them….

So I’m asking, the elders are asking, I believe God is asking everyone to do something—faithfully and consistently—to make prayer—connecting with God and each other—a priority during the next 12 months and beyond.

SHARE

Finally…the word…SHARE.

This is a short point, but straight from the Bible…

You read the NT and there no sense that I keep kingdom life—love, joy, peace, purpose—to myself….there is always a sense of invitations, conversations and sharing and joining.

So in the next 12 months and beyond we are gonna commit to increasingly share our lives with others…engaging in conversations and invitations for others to join us on this journey.

This doesn’t only happen, this doesn’t primarily happen, through invitations to a Sunday morning service….this means that when I serve the poor I invite another to join me. When I go camping or hiking, I invite another to join me. When I watch a football game or go to a movie, I invite another to join me.

This means when I read a book that stretches my thinking and grows my faith, I ask another read it and then we get together over coffee or dinner to talk about it together.

This means that instead of making the focus of my conversations all about politics, sports, technology, I begin to share with people the story of my walk with God.

So I’m asking, the elders are asking, I believe God is asking everyone to do something—faithfully and consistently—to extend your life with God to others.

This is the vision we’ve seen God leading us in and the vision he wants to increasingly lead us in during the next 12 months and beyond.

WHO IS RESPONSILBE FOR SEEING TO IT THAT WE MEET OUR OBJECTIVES? GOD

WHAT DO I DO? GIVE WHAT I HAVE….Some time, some money, some priorities…. It may involve rearranging your schedule, rearranging your finances, rearranging your priorities…. We can do that!!

What do I have? My mustard seed

When you give it to God an amazing thing happens.

I GIVE, but I find myself RECEIVING

I PRAY, but I find myself experience less worry and more PEACE.

I SHARE, but discover true JOY.

There is something about a seed. It’s pretty much dead here, isn’t it? But you plant it in the soil of God....and the seed that died comes to life…

One day Jesus came to this earth and was born as a baby…he was a seed from the line of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Mary, his mother. But he was no ordinary seed. He launched this Kingdom of God.

And people joined and for a while there’s excitement and hope for this little community of Jesus followers. But then the seed is crucified. He’s dead. And they all thought that the kingdom was gone.

But they were all wrong. The seed was laid (planted) in a grave and the grave couldn’t keep him down.

And on the third day Jesus was raised again. And it turns out that it was actually your sin and mine, death and pain and despair, that was defeated on the cross, not Jesus.

Jesus is still alive and well. And what He said then He says to you and me now.

“Come to Me. The kingdom of God is now available.”

The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed and the revolution of the mustard seed is still going. It is taking place “live.”

It will take place over conversations at Starbucks, Sweet Tomatoes, Taco Mac and in our homes.
It will take place on mountain tops in British Columbia and around campfires in North Georgia and at beaches in Hilton Head, SC.
The revolution will be in classrooms at Esther Jackson, helping a kid read simple words and multiply 3x3.
The revolution will not be talking about poverty in chairs on Sunday morning. It will be in helping to eradicate pockets of poverty in our world. It will take place around Trivia tables and around newly dug wells in African villages.
The revolution will take place in Kids Community.
The revolution will be downsizing my life so I can bring my finances to bear in the greater causes of life.
The revolution will take place on our knees.

So get ready friends, God is preparing us for something really, really—small. About the size of a mustard seed.

Cause after all the kingdom of God is about small, everyday moments of radical commitment to what God wants to do in and through you and us.

And if you want to be a part of that kind of Kingdom, you can do that today. It’s available to all of us.

So let’s pray now….then we’ll eat….

the mustard seed revolution

During the next twelve months, and beyond, we believe God would love to move through us

in the following three “mustard seed” ways:

GIVE

1. Be a tutor at Esther Jackson Elementary School for the 2008-2009 school year.

2. Pray regularly for Esther Jackson Elementary School.

3. Donate money (beyond my regular giving to the church), when asked, to causes at Esther Jackson.

4. Volunteer for periodic events at Esther Jackson (clean-up days; field days, landscaping projects)

5. Attend our trivia nights for water (October 18, 2008 and January 31, 2009)

6. Donate money (beyond my regular giving to the church) for the digging of wells in Africa.

7. Donate money towards the sending of church leadership on a mission trip to Africa.

8. Alongside others in the church, read a book or attend a conference or concert that will stir my heart and mind toward issues of injustice and poverty in the world.

The revolution: Everyone doing something

____________________________

PRAY

1. Pray regularly and specifically for my church community, my neighborhood and those I work with.

2. Pray regularly with another member of our community (over the phone or in person).

3. Pray for and with my child(ren) on a daily basis.

4. Pray for and with my spouse on a daily basis.

5. Participate in a special weekend of fasting and prayer.

6. Participate in our once-a-month “People at Prayer” from 5-6am on Thursdays.

7. Alongside others in the church, read a book or attend a conference or concert that will engage my heart and life more deeply into a life of prayer.

The revolution: Everyone doing something

____________________________

SHARE

Invite a friend to participate in at least two social gatherings of our church (for example our 4^th of July party; a Braves baseball game; the Super Bowl party, ice cream nights, game nights, our Sweet Tomatoes gatherings).
Invite someone to serve with you as you serve our community and world.
Invite at least one friend to our Easter service, our Christmas service, and our trivia night for water.
Attend one Atlanta area conference/concert/event this year chosen by the church elders.
Share aspects of my spiritual journey at the weekend service.
With a friend, read a book about some aspect of the life the Jesus and talk about it together over coffee.
Join a community group and/or invite someone to join a community group.
Invite a friend to join me in a life-renewing activity like camping or hiking or a mission trip or a weekend of renewal at the beach.

The revolution: Everyone doing something.

Things Worth Staying Up 'til Midnight For

2008-08-12T07:27:00.001-07:00

Last night I stayed up ‘til midnight watching the Olympics from Beijing.

The U.S. men's 4x100m freestyle relay team won gold in what many are calling “the most exciting, most record-breaking, most amazing, thrilling, unbelievable relay anyone could ever imagine.”

And, in my judgment, these words might be understatements.

It happened around 11:45pm, while my wife and children were all asleep. Nevertheless I shouted and pumped my fists when the race was over. I was so excited that it took me another hour before I could get to sleep.

The U.S. men -- Michael Phelps, Garrett Weber-Gale, Cullen Jones and Jason Lezak -- set a world record, finishing in 3:08.24. (France took second, Australia third.) And they came from behind in unbelievable fashion to win by a fingertip.

I love what team captain Jason Lezak, who swam the anchor leg, had to say when it was all over: "People always step up and do things out of the ordinary at the Olympics."

Three things strike me as particularly important lessons from this story.

First, these athletes work incredibly hard preparing for these events. In many cases it’s a lifetime of training for one or two events. They deeply devote themselves to what they are doing. And as a result there are great rewards for them. I can’t help but think of Paul’s words in Colossians. “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.”

Second, they celebrate well. This is huge. So many of us can barely celebrate our own “wins” and “blessings” because we are constantly looking ahead or worrying about what’s to come. Watch the video footage of their celebration, and it might bring tears to your eyes. Such unashamed, unhindered, unencumbered, unselfconscious celebration is rarely seen and intoxicatingly refreshing.

Third, they work hard together. And there is something special about sharing hard work and rewards with others. There is something deeply satisfying about celebrating with a team that has come together to do a great thing. Contrast that with tennis. I love tennis. But when a tennis player wins a match, he or she usually falls to the ground in isolated celebration. Sure others are cheering, but the celebration is uniquely singular. No high fives to a teammate. No hugs from another who “fought the battle” alongside him.

These three things – working with all your might, celebrating well, and doing something great together with others – are three of the most amazing and important disciplines in life. I wonder how you and I would answer these three questions:

What are you working like crazy—heart, soul, mind, strength—for these days?

What are you celebrating deeply and without holding back?

Who are you doing these things with?

If we all had clear, God-led answers to the above questions I believe we would experience increased and amazing amounts of love, joy, peace, purpose and passion in our lives.

Shifting gears now…..one other thought about staying up late to watch the Olympics…

My wife has asked me why I’m coming to bed so late this week. I told her that the Olympics are one of those things worth staying up ‘til midnight or later for. They only happen every four years, and they offer events and stories that I will remember for a lifetime.

It made me think. There are not many things worth staying up ‘til midnight for. (Sleep is usually the wiser and more preferable choice to most midnight activities.) But, from time to time, there are some things worth staying up ‘til midnight for. So I end with a short list.

A good New Year's Eve party

A great sporting event

A meaningful conversation with a friend

Watching the stars around a campfire

Reading a great book

Talking to God

Working at a needed job

Helping a friend pack boxes before a move

A date-night with your spouse

What would you add?

Matilda

2008-07-08T20:20:00.000-07:00

Our neighbors lent us one of their DVD movies a few weeks ago. It’s a children’s movie called “Matilda,” and, although the movie was made twelve years ago, our neighbors assured us that our daughter Emma would love it.

We returned the movie yesterday.

During the few weeks we had it, Emma watched “Matilda” no less than a dozen times. It stars Danny DeVito as “Harry Wormwood” and Mara Wilson as his daughter “Matilda.” Harry and his wife are the worst parents ever. At one point Harry says to Matilda, “I'm smart; you're dumb. I'm big; you're small. I'm right, you're wrong. And there's nothing you can do about it.”

Later, when Matilda is reading a book (something’s she learned to do on her own since her parents refuse to let her attend school), Harry grabs the book from her, rips it up and asks, “What do you want a book for?”

Matilda answers, “To read.”

Harry yells back, “To read? Why would you want to read when you got the television set sitting right in front of you? There's nothing you can get from a book that you can't get from a television faster.”

Needless to say, life for Matilda isn’t very joyful. And it doesn’t get any better, at least at first, when she is finally allowed to attend school under the watch of the worst principal imaginable, Ms. Trunchbull. Ms. Trunchbull’s motto is: “Use the rod, beat the child.”

Harry likes it so much that he tells Ms. Trunchbull that it is a “terrific motto!” And when she inquires about his children, he says, “I got a boy, Mikey, and one mistake, Matilda.”

“They’re all mistakes, children!” Ms. Trunchbull responds. “Filthy, nasty things. Glad I never was one.”

Now, at this point, you are probably wondering why I would let my daughter watch this.

So I’ll tell you.

The reason I let Emma watch the movie, and watched it with her, is because it has two overarching themes that are two of the greatest bits of wisdom and truth in the world.

The first bit of wisdom is this: Reading great books is a wonderful and life-changing activity. Reading can soften your heart and strengthen your mind. It can enlighten you to new possibilities where none existed before and help you understand fundamental truths about life. It can help explain things that seem too complex and demonstrate the beautiful complexity of things that seem too simple. It can introduce you to people and ideas that inspire you to action. It can lift your thoughts to higher places.

Matilda taps into all of this, and it transforms her.

The second bit of wisdom from the movie is this: There is nothing more powerful than love. Matilda’s teacher, Miss Honey, is the first person Matilda has ever met that truly loves her. You can see it in her eyes, hear it in her voice and watch it in her actions.

Miss Honey loves Matilda. In return, Matilda loves Miss Honey. And it transforms them both. Sadness turns into joy. Loneliness is replaced by fellowship. Confusion is traded for clarity. Timidity gives way to boldness. Tears turn to laughter. Despair becomes hope.

All because of love.

“Matilda” reminds me of the great gifts of reading and love. And these are two gifts I want to remind you about today.

What are you reading that is softening your heart and strengthening your mind?

And who are you loving and being loved by in a way that results in a life of fellowship and joy?

One of the great hopes for my church community is that we increasingly become the kind of place that fosters conversations surrounding the reading of great books, books that stir our thinking, melt our hearts, move us to action and draw us closer to the One whose story is told in that greatest of books, the Bible.

And more than that, I hope that our church increasingly becomes the kind of place that is characterized by great love, love for God and love for each other. 1 Corinthians 13 talks about this love. Jesus lived it.

I believe we can too.

Summer Time

2008-06-03T07:21:00.001-07:00

Summer time.

For students or parents of students it’s a big change in responsibilities and time management. For others it means the beginning of less morning traffic, or the scheduling of a vacation or two, or shifting levels of busyness at work. For still others it’s simply a perspective shift, moving to a time of longer days, outdoor BBQs, camping, baseball games, increased relaxation and fun.

But I want you to think for a moment about your life two and a half months from now. Summer will be over, school will be back in session and more normal routines will have returned. Two and a half months from now, you will come out the other side of summer and you will have changed some, potentially a lot. But however you are different or the same, it will be the product of choices you have made.

This could be the summer that your prayer life takes off like never before. Or it could be a summer where your prayer life wanes or dries up altogether.

This could be the summer you get into better physical shape—lose weight, gain muscle, strengthen your heart. Or it could be the summer of poor eating and poor exercise choices.

This could be the summer that you reduce your financial stress and debt or it could be the summer of increased financial stress and debt.

This could be the summer that you experience the joy of generous living and unleash your time and money into causes in your community and world that stir your soul. Or this could be the summer that your heart gets colder to the things of God, and you don’t grow in generosity, but instead either flat-line or see yourself intensify the pursuit of other wants and desires.

This could be the summer you read one or two great books that stretch your mind and grow your soul. Or it could be the summer of increased movie and television viewing.

This summer you can invest time in your kids that they will remember and talk for the rest of their life. Or you can watch the days pass by consumed with other tasks.

This summer you can develop deeper friendships and deeper trust.

This summer to can learn more about God and experience more of his grace.

This summer can be the best summer of your life!

But one thing is certain. Two and a half months from now, on the other side of summer, you will have changed some, potentially a lot. But however you are different or the same, it will be the product of choices you have made.

And I think God would say to you and me today: “Seize the Summer!”

In Ephesians 5:15-16, Paul writes: “Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity.”

“Seize the summer!” Paul says.

Now if you want to seize the summer, there is something you’ll want to build that will help you seize what God is calling you to seize.

That thing is an adult’s best friend, a child’s best friend, an athlete’s best friend, an employee’s best friend, a boss’s best friend, a student’s best friend. And it can be your best friend.

It’s momentum.

Momentum is sometimes the only difference between losing and winning.

It’s why in basketball games, when the opposing team scores a lot of unanswered points and starts to develop too much momentum, a good coach will call a time-out. The coach knows that if the other team’s momentum gets too strong, his team is likely to lose the game.

The value of momentum works in the world of dating, too. In dating, the first three dates can give you great momentum. If your first date is bad, you probably won’t have a second. And if your second date is bad, that might be the end, too. Same for the third date. But if your first three dates are great, and your fourth date is bad, you’ve probably got enough momentum to secure a fifth date.

Momentum can help you speak with confidence and take bold risks. It can give you energy to stick to an exercise program or finish reading a book you’ve started. It can help you get a job or get a promotion. It can enable you to more easily keep a promise to your spouse, children or friends.

Momentum can help you do things you never thought you could do on your own.

The life of David (recorded mostly in 1 and 2 Samuel) in the Bible is a great example of how to build momentum and how it can bless your life.

His entire life story is a story that can be viewed through the lens of momentum. But one series of episodes is particularly instructive to me.

One night David is tending sheep and a bear tries to attack and eat his sheep. In fact the bear grabs one and starts to carry it off. But David, despite feeling some degree of obvious fear, chases the bear down, kills it and rescues the sheep “from the bear’s mouth.”

My guess is that that event built some confidence in David, confidence in what God was able to do through him (because in the text David acknowledges that it was God’s power working through him that delivered him from the bear).

Later a lion attacks and tries to eat one of his sheep. This time David “seizes” the lion “by its hair” and kills it, rescuing the sheep. Again David credits God’s power for this rescue. And, no doubt, he’s feeling even more confident about what God can do in and through him.

Fast forward, now, to a story that we probably all know: David vs. Goliath. Goliath, a

Philistine warrior and giant, challenges any Israelite who dares to a one-on-one fight to the death. “Choose a man and have him come down to me,” Goliath yells. “If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.”

But instead of rising to the challenge, “all the Israelites are dismayed and terrified.” That is, all but David. See David has momentum. He knows the power of God and has taken down a few giants (a bear and a lion) in recent days.

So David fights Goliath and defeats him, too.

And now David’s momentum is nearly unstoppable. Later, the text says that whatever King Saul sent David to do, he “did it so successfully that Saul gave him a high rank in the army.”

And it’s not very long after that that David becomes King of Israel.

These events are instructive because they teach us some principles about seizing the summer!

First, David trusted God and relied on His strength. Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, “I pray that you may know how unbelievably great is His power to help those who believe in Him…the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead. (Ephesians 1:19-20)” David knew this power (and we can, too).

Second, David acted. He seized the moment. He didn’t shrink back from what he wanted to accomplish, he took bold steps towards fulfilling what he was called to do.

Often in life, the first step is the hardest. If you’ve ever water skied, you know that it’s harder to get up on the water than it is to steer once you’re up there. Before you get up, the boat drags you along, and you think your arms are going to give out as the water floods against your chest and into your face. For a moment, you may even believe you can’t hold on to the tow rope any longer. But then the force of the water drives your skis up onto the surface, and off you go. At that point, you are able to make a turn with only a subtle shift of weight from one foot to another.

Getting started is often hard, but once you’re moving forward, it’s easier. That’s the way the momentum works. Seize this moment and with every step you take, no matter how small, you will build greater momentum.

That's why it's so important to lose the first pound or exercise that first day. That's why it's so important to make the first deposit into that dormant savings account. That's why it's so important to take the first step towards setting aside time to build into your kids or volunteer in the community.

Third, David, despite some major hiccups along the way, never lost sight of his ultimate goal. He remained intensely focused on his overall goal. David’s words in Psalm 27:4 reflect that goal:

“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek:

that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life,
to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”

If your desire is to do great things with your summer, never overlook the power of momentum. It truly is your best friend. If you develop it, you can do almost anything.

So what area of your life might God be calling you to take action in this summer?

Trust him, take action, keep your eye on your ultimate goal.

Seize the summer!

Mr. Potato Head

2008-05-07T08:56:00.000-07:00

Some time ago I was in a children’s store purchasing a gift when I saw Mr. Potato Head. You know Mr. Potato Head, right? Mr. Potato Head is the children's toy, first sold in the early 1950s, that consists of a plastic model of a potato which can be decorated with attachable plastic parts—a mustache, hat, nose, ears and feet.

The fun thing about Mr. Potato Head is that you can make him into anything you like. You can turn the mustache right-side-up or upside-down. You can turn the nose sideways or attach an ear where the nose should be. You can make him look happy, sad, silly or normal (whatever “normal” is for a potato head). Bottom line: Mr. Potato Head is whoever you want him to be. You create Mr. Potato Head.

Now, I think we do the same thing with Jesus sometimes. We create him to think, look, act and value the things we value most. (J.B. Phillips book, Your God Is Too Small, is a great treatment of this.) For some Jesus is a stern policeman, pointing out when we do wrong. For others he’s an aloof philosopher, offering pithy maxims about the ideal life. For still others he’s the benevolent grandfather, winking at our weaknesses and content to spend time with us whenever we get around to it. To many on the Religious Right, Jesus is a pro-life, anti-gay conservative. To many on the Political Left, Jesus is a human who encourages radical equality and who refuses to make exclusive religious or spiritual claims. The New Age movement makes Jesus an example of finding the “god within.” Animal-rights activists sometimes picture a vegetarian Jesus.

And so Jesus becomes a Mr.-Potato-Head-Jesus, looking, thinking and believing how I want him to look, think and believe. And I discover that, most of the time, I’m quite happy to allow you to continue your view of Jesus from your perspective. After all, my view about him is as valid as your view.

But the problem is that, pretty soon, Jesus is multiple things to multiple people, and there is no truth in it. Jesus becomes a vague conglomeration of whatever ideas of Him suit my situation at the time. And it becomes obvious that I’m not really on a search for the real Jesus at all. Instead I’m attempting to give Jesus a makeover so he looks more like what I want him to look like.

I’ve been thinking about all of this as I have been reading a book by Robert M. Bowman Jr. and J. Ed Komoszewski called: Putting Jesus In His Place: The Case for the Deity of Christ. It’s a book that examines thoroughly what the Bible teaches about Jesus, and it makes a convincing case from the Bible for regarding Jesus, first, as God. He’s lots of other things—the model human, a great teacher, a friend. But first of all, he’s God.

Because Jesus is God, he shares the honors due to God. He’s entitled to our worship, our prayers, our songs, our reverence, our service, our love, and our obedience.

Because Jesus is God, he shares the attributes of God. He’s eternal, uncreated, unchangeable, immutable, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient and incomprehensible.

Because Jesus is God, he shares the names of God. He’s the “name above all names,” he’s Yahweh, he’s Immanuel, he’s the bridegroom, he’s “friend of sinners,” he’s Savior, he’s “I Am,” he’s “Alpha and Omega,” he’s “King of kings and Lord of lords.”

Because Jesus is God, he shares the deeds of God. He created and sustains all things, he rules over the forces of nature, he speaks with divine authority, he shows mercy, he forgives sins, he sends us his Spirit, he has power over death, he’s the source of all blessings, he’s the judge of all people, he’s our greatest friend, and the source of our greatest affection.

Because Jesus is God, he shares the seat of God. He is equal with God, he rules over all things, he will one day return to this earth and make all things new, and his kingdom will endure forever and ever.

And one more thing. This God-Jesus can be known. While there will always remain some mystery (Colossians 1:27) about the wonders of God’s grace, love and power, there need not be fuzziness about his character, his status as God and his desire to know and be known by us. Jesus invites us to talk to him, listen to him, learn from him, interact with him and be transformed by him.

So, if you believe Jesus is God, and not some Mr. Potato Head version, then what do you do with that?

Do you continue to create him in your own image or do you humbly commit to getting to know the real God (a lifetime-journey with surprises and new discoveries along the way)?

Do you listen to his counsel about real-life matters (your money, your job, your relationships, your body) and then weigh it against the counsel of others or do you say, “God, the best that I can, I’m gonna trust and follow you.”

Do you continue to believe what the world says about your beauty and worth or do you listen to God’s assurance that you are of infinite value to Him and that there is nothing you can do that will separate you from his love.

I think it matters whether or not we are willing to accept a Mr. Potato Head God, made in our image, or whether we are willing to pursue a life of getting to know and respond to the real Jesus.

I hope that each of us will humbly pursue life with the real Jesus.

The Media

2008-04-01T07:41:00.001-07:00

We live in a culture driven by media and the images it sends us.

Google, satellite-cable TV, Palm Pilots, Blackberries, Movies, DVDs, High Definition, virtual environments, cell phone screens, video games, magazines, billboards, clothing labels, images of what it means to be sexy, attractive and physically desirable, t-shirts, restaurant signs, tennis shoes, flags, newspapers, spiritual symbols, You Tube, Facebook, My Space, camcorder-captured videos, internet sites, blogs, talk radio-personalities, brochures, junk mail, business logos, sports logos, automobile logos, logos imprinted on soap, cereal, chocolate, even pasta noodles.

We are inundated with media and the images it give us. In the words of author Thomas de Zengotita, we are MEDIATED!

Now I’m not here to tell you that the media is bad. In fact there is much good in the media and in our appropriate use of it.

The point I want to make is this: The media is a force. And it shapes us. And we ought to think about what this means for us.

The media forms the basis of many conversations at work. We talk about American Idol and other reality shows. We laugh as we retell scenes from The Office. We recommend movies and video games. We banter about opening day in baseball or the NCAA basketball tournament. We chat about the latest news out of Hollywood or Washington, D.C.

The media feeds us stuff to be passionate about. Talk radio and internet sites get us fired up about political or social issues, crime rates, long commutes to work, rising gas prices, racism, taxes, and fighting violence and poverty around the world.

The media influences our experiences as children and parents. Whether you are a parent or child, you’ve likely been influenced by Dr. Spock, books about birth order and keeping kids on schedules, Baby Einstein videos, sit-com episodes centered around the delivery room, Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers and Clifford the Big Red Dog.

The media shapes our view of marriage. From the time little kids read fairy tales to those evenings when adults watch movies like “The Wedding Planner” and “Runaway Bride,” from bridal websites to bride magazines, we are saturated with media-driven advice and expectations about marriage.

The media influences our preferences in clothing and the way we spend our money.

The media tells us what things we ought to fear. A few years ago many Americans feared the invasion of killer bees from Mexico. Likewise mosquito bites took on a new meaning with the West Nile virus. The flu season, terrorism, the prevalence of child molesters—all these are things we fear (sometimes wisely) because the media has brought them to our attention.

The media has shaped our understanding and view of history by giving us images and words that define almost any decade. What would the 1980s be like without “big hair” or Bon Jovi or movies like “Secret of My Success” and “Wall Street?” What would the 1960s be without Beatle Mania and Woodstock?

The media has given us a common vocabulary. We may not have a lot in common with someone born in the 1920s or 1930s, but we can connect with them if we talk about Hoovervilles, Flappers, Babe Ruth, Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart, Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Greta Garbo, Duke Ellington or Louis Armstrong.

The media gives us common access to all kinds of information. Television offers twenty-four hour news channels and specialty channels devoted to golf or football or movies or history or the weather. The World Wide Web provides online newspapers, Web MD, Wikipedia, MapQuest, You Tube and chat rooms.

The media also is the source of many social gatherings and parties. We gather around TV sets to watch the Super Bowl, the Academy Awards and season finales. We spend $10 on a Coke and popcorn to hook up at the movie theater. We purchase tickets to attend rock concerts with friends, and we get-together with those same friends at Starbucks to discuss a book we’ve all read.

The media makes us aware of causes at home and around the world that need our attention or charity—fighting in Afghanistan and in homes across America, poverty in Africa and in our inner-cities, child-labor in China and prostitution on our street corners.

The real question isn’t “Is the media a force that shapes us?” The real question is, “Is there anything you do that remains essentially unmediated? Anything you don’t experience through some media-altered perspective?”

And since the answer is “No” ninety-nine percent of the time, we would be wise to ponder how the media shapes us.

I will suggest, now, perhaps the biggest three ways that the media shapes us.

First, the media makes it more difficult to experience solitude. You can’t get away from its influence. In fact companies pay millions of dollars to let you know that they are always there for you. American Express encourages you: “Don’t leave home without it.” Visa spent over twenty years telling us “It’s everywhere you want to be.” Energizer will never leave you stranded ‘cause it “keeps going and going and going.” Verizon wants you to know that the answer to “Can You Hear Me Now?” will always be “yes,” no matter where you go. AT&T will make sure that you’ve got “Your World Delivered” T-Mobile’s Chief marketing officer Mike Butler sees it as his job to always be with you. “Our customers lead busy, overloaded lives,” he says. “It’s our job to do whatever we can to help make it easier for people to stay connected.”

The media is everywhere. And because it is so accessible these days, it takes a serious-minded effort to remove ourselves from it and find a place of true solitude.

Second, the media makes it more difficult to invest in community. A few years ago, Robert Putnam, a professor at Harvard University wrote a book called Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Renewal of American Community. It’s a book about the loss of community. In it, he documents the role of television in the loss of a sense of community and civic engagement in our lives. He writes:

“Dependence on television for entertainment is not merely a significant predictor of the loss of community in somebody’s life. It is the single most consistent predictor I have discovered. On the basis of quite exhaustive research—nothing, not low education, not full-time work, not long commutes, no poverty, not financial distress, nothing is more broadly or more deeply connected with the loss of community and relational disconnection than is dependence on television for entertainment.”

I read not long ago that the average child, by age six, will have invested more hours watching TV than in speaking with his or her father over an entire lifetime. SIX YEARS OLD! If I’m not mindful, by the age of six, my daughter will have heard more words coming from a TV set than from me until the day I die.

And the only thing I would add to this truth about TV robbing us of time with friends and family is that we now must pay attention to video games, I-Pods and the Internet doing the same thing.

Third, the media makes it more difficult to put others first. I read, recently, a fascinating book called Mediated: How the Media Shapes Your World and the Way You Live In It (referenced above). The author explores a now famous question that emerged in November of 1963 and the early part of 1964. The question is: “Where were you when JFK was shot.”

And he spends some time writing about the resulting “Where were you when…” phenomenon.

Ask people where they were when JFK was shot or when the OJ Verdict was read or on the morning of 9/11 and people know. They’ve even crafted a little narrative—starring them self.

But go back to Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941. Ask people where they were and how they felt when they first heard the news from Pearl Harbor. Their answer? They remember the moment and maybe a story or two. But mostly they don’t talk about themselves—where they were, how they heard, what they felt. Mostly they just talk about Pearl Harbor and its consequences for America. After all, that’s what mattered.

But why don’t they tell “where I was when” stories?

Because they weren’t there. That’s why.

“People who just heard about Pearl Harbor on the radio and read about it in the papers didn’t feel inclined to tell those stories because it didn’t feel as if it had happened to them, personally, at all” de Zengotita writes.

And that’s the difference.

JFK’s assassination happened to us. 9/11 happened to us. The OJ verdict happened to us. Princess Di’s death and funeral happened to us. That’s why people in America, by the thousands were mourning and sending flowers and buying that Elton John single “Candle in the Wind.”

De Zongotita concludes, “In some ways, the media has given each of us a God’s eye view of the world. We can see what’s going on everywhere….This is a form of flattery so pervasive, so fundamental, that it has escaped notice, though it ultimately accounts for the much-remarked narcissism of our age. The flattered self is a mediated self.”

Everything the media does is for you—to win your love, approval, and ultimately your dollars. It has turned us into consumers. It has caused us to think of ourselves first and others second.

The media is a force, a force that makes it more difficult to experience solitude, more difficult to invest in community with family and friends, more difficult to put others first.

Now check out Luke 6, in the Bible.

“One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. When morning came, he called his disciples to him and chose twelve of them, whom he also designated apostles….He went down with them and stood on a level place. A large crowd of his disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem, and from the coastal region around Tyre and Sidon, who had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases. (Luke 6: 12-19)”

Henry Nouwen writes about a rhythm to Jesus’ day that’s reflected here. And he points out a pattern. The pattern to Jesus’ rhythm is first solitude, then community, then ministry. Solitude, Community, Ministry. Solitude, Community, Ministry.

In the morning Jesus goes to be alone with God, to be filled up with God’s love and grace. Then he connects with his community. He laughs with them, eats with them, prays with them and mobilizes them. Then together they go out and serve and love others. In solitude Jesus learns to love God. In community he spends time loving those who are part of this circle of friends and family. In ministry he loves and serves and prioritizes those outside his immediate circle of friends.

That’s the rhythm of Jesus’ life.

This rhythm was a pattern for Jesus. You can find this pattern over and over in the Gospels.

So why? Why this rhythm of solitude, then community, then ministry to others.

The answer, I believe, is because this rhythm resulted in a life of love towards God and others.

In Mark 12:29, the Bible records that people come up to Jesus and ask: “What should my life center around? What’s the greatest commandment for life?” Jesus’ answers them “love God and love others.” It was Jesus’ life creed. And so he engaged in solitude, then community, then ministry so that he could live out this central purpose.

Love God. Love Others. That’s our creed too.

So let’s review. The media makes it harder to be in solitude, harder to be in community, and harder to put others first. Jesus prioritized solitude, prioritized community, prioritized others.

See, the biggest danger of the media isn’t the sex, violence or bad language it sometimes offers. The biggest danger of the media is that it has the potential to keep us from those things which result in loving God and others.

The real danger doesn’t lie in what takes place on the TV or computer screen or in that magazine or book. The real danger comes from what doesn’t happen because of media. Unchecked, it will keep me from solitude, keep me from loving those in my community and keep me from loving those outside my community.

That’s why Paul writes,

“Be very careful how you live, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time, for the days are evil.” (Ephesians 5:15-16)

And now I want to get a little personal. ‘Cause there is this thing about Jesus. He’s not really into information for information’s sake. He’s always calling us to decisions…actions…steps of faith.

We often say, “I don’t have time!” “I’d love to take the time for solitude, community and serving others. But I just don’t have the time.”

And the reality is that you never have enough time.

If you said, “I’m going to get everything done that my job demands. I’m going to own our company goals, attend every meeting, network with every co-worker, complete every project, take advantage of every opportunity,” when would you leave the office?

Never. There’s not enough time.

The same is true at home. There’s more to do at home than you’ll ever have time to accomplish. Never once have I gone home and had my kids say to me, “Dad, we’ve really played enough. Why don’t you go upstairs and get some solitude.”

My wife has never said to me, “You’re coming home too early, getting too many things done around the house. Why don’t you just slow down, take some time off, and experience a little solitude?” (And, by the way, I’ve never said that to her.)

There is never enough time. There isn’t enough time to exercise like we’d like, to prepare and eat well-balanced meals, to invest in important days and evenings with your spouse and kids and friends, to work all we’d like to work, read all we’d like to read and sleep all we’d like to sleep.

Therefore we must “be very careful how we live, not as unwise but as wise, redeeming the time.”

In life we have real-time, lunch-time, part-time, full-time, crunch-time, over-time, down-time and free-time.

And the media has something for you to do during each of these times.

But there’s a more important time. One that sports coaches use a lot. It’s the TIME OUT!!

And it’s what we need. The question is, will you, will I, take a time out, find a place of solitude and meet with a God who longs to meet with us.

Loving God, Loving People

2008-03-03T08:22:00.000-08:00

I spoke yesterday at our church about why our church exists.

I started the teaching by showing a series of pictures. The first one was of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Mike Huckabee and John McCain. I, then, asked the question, "What's the most important question voters want to know about these candidates?" The answer: "Where do you want to take us as a country if you are elected President of the United States." In other words, "Who are you and where are you trying to go?"

The second picture was of key members of the Atlanta Braves. I, then, asked the question, "What is the most important thing Braves' fans want to know these days. The answer: "What are you doing to make sure you reach your #1 goal: winning the World Series?" In other words, "We know who you are and where you are trying to go, but how are you going to get there?"

The third picture was of Fidel Castro and Raul Castro. I asked, "What is America's biggest question in the wake of Fidel Castro's resignation and the upcoming leadership of Raul Castro?" The answer: What will Cuba look like in one year? Where does Raul Castro intend take the country?"

The fourth picture was of several company logos, among them Home Depot, Starbucks, Verizon Wireless and Nike. In response I observed that every company, every organization must ask and answer two questions: What are we about? and Where are we going?

I, then, observed that these questions aren't just corporate questions, but personal questions, too. Every person faces these questions of purpose and life-vision. That's why the book, "Purpose-Driven Life" was a phenomenal best-seller a few years ago.

And then I told everyone that because these questions are so fundamental, I wanted to take the rest of the morning to get crystal clear about why our church exists.

I taught from the book of Mark, chapter 12.

Mark 12:29-31 records that one day an expert in the Jewish law (the Torah) came up to Jesus and asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?”

For a Jew this man’s question is the ultimate question about life and purpose. He is asking for the center, the heart and soul of what it means to have a purpose and passion and rule for life.

And not surprisingly Jesus answers the man by reciting the Shema (the Jewish Creed of action and purpose found in Deuteronomy 6:4-9).

“Hear [shema], O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”

So far so good.

But then Jesus adds, “The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

And in doing so he takes the Jewish Creed, the Shema, and turns it into what might be called the Jesus Creed.

Jesus statement of purpose and action is this: Love God and love others.

Now, it took real guts to add to the Shema. The Shema was of utmost sacredness and importance for Jewish spiritual life, and Jesus was, himself, a Jew. So when Jesus amends the Shema, it’s a big deal and worthy of our attention.

Instead of a “Love God” creed, it is a “Love-God-and-Others” creed. (By the way, what Jesus adds is not foreign to Judaism, and he is not criticizing Judaism. But he is emphasizing a new paradigm for life.)

After teaching about this I asked, "So, what is our creed at New Community? Who are we? What’s our statement of purpose and action?"

The Answer? The same as the Jesus Creed.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.” AND “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

New Community Church: Loving God, Loving Others

That’s who we are and where we are going. We want to increasingly be a church that loves God and others as Jesus did.

Then I got specific. First, by exploring the “loving God” part. At New Community we say that loving God means three things: Knowing Him, Experiencing Him and Responding to Him.

KNOWING HIM
We get to know God through listening to biblical teaching (at church on Sunday and through well-chosen books and online sites), through reading the Bible on our own, and by asking questions and exploring answers with friends.

To paraphrase Dan Kimball, we want to change the well-known Chinese quote from “Give a man a fish and you feed him for day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime” to “Give a man or woman a sermon and you feed them for a day, teach a man or woman to study scripture on their own and you feed them for a lifetime.”

EXPERIENCING HIM
Some ways we want to experience God are through music (at church on Sunday and through listening to well-chosen music at home or in our cars), through prayer, food, solitude, nature, laughter, serving others and in community-wide celebrations.

RESPONDING TO HIM
Knowing and experiencing God are meaningless in the pursuit of loving God unless we respond to him. So we want to love God by taking steps of faith and obedience as we are prompted towards action by the Holy Spirit and by the teachings of Jesus.

The Jesus Creed, our creed, is to love God. And that means we are a church that longs to know, experience and respond to God.

But it doesn’t stop there. The second part of our creed is about loving others. Again, let’s get specific. At New Community we say that loving others means two things: loving each other and loving our world.

LOVING EACH OTHER
We love each other by knowing names and stories. We love each other by listening well and valuing each person’s opinions and ideas. We love each other by remembering special occasions and by eating, celebrating and mourning together. We love each other by serving and allowing others to serve, love and know us.

LOVING OUR WORLD
Loving others also includes loving our world. And we are so privileged to able to demonstrate love through serving our neighbors at Esther Jackson Elementary School, The Atlanta Academy and The Roswell Firehouse. We are committed to loving our world through keeping Holcomb Woods Parkway (the road in front of our church) clean and free of trash. And we are blessed to be able to regularly participate in the building of fresh-water wells for our neighbors across the Atlantic Ocean in Africa.

Loving God & Loving Others. That’s Jesus’ Creed, and that’s Our Creed. It’s who we are. It’s what we are striving to do. It’s why New Community exists.

I ended my teaching by reminding us all that God is calling us to new levels of love in His Spirit. God is calling us to a life of full devotion so that people in our church community will love and be loved like never before.

We ended the service by singing together a song that our worship leader, Justy Haga, wrote specifically for our congregation and for this day.

It was an exciting day for us and so good to be reminded of why we are here, who we are, and where we are going.

By the way, I believe the best day to love is today. And I believe the best days of love are in front of us.

(The inspiration for the teaching I gave yesterday at church came from a book I read some time ago by Scot McKnight, called Jesus Creed.)

Doing Justice

2008-02-11T11:25:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, at our church, we explored some of the writings of the Old Testament prophets.

There are seventeen books of the prophets (from Isaiah to Malachi in the Christian Bible), and they fill about a fifth of the Bible’s pages. Yet they tend to go unread.

Philip Yancey writes about this in his book, The Bible Jesus Read. He talks about the day he asked his class of Bible students why these books are rarely read and studied by most people. Their answer: “The prophets are weird and confusing.”

And as we noticed Sunday, one might like to add the word “angry” to that answer.

AMOS 4:1 – “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy….The time will surely come when you will be taken away with hooks, the last of you with fishhooks.”

ISAIAH 1:13 – “Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations— I cannot bear your evil assemblies.”

Habakkuk 2:15-17 –
“Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors till they are drunk, so that he can gaze on their naked bodies. Now it is your turn! Drink and be exposed! The cup from the Lord’s right hand is coming around to you, and disgrace will cover your glory. The violence you have done to Lebanon will overwhelm you!.”

MICAH 3:1-3 –
“Should you not know justice, you who hate good and love evil; who tear the skin from my people and the flesh from their bones; who eat my people's flesh, strip off their skin and break their bones in pieces; who chop them up like meat for the pan, like flesh for the pot?"

Not only do they use angry words, but the prophets do some weird things to make a point.

Hosea marries a prostitute to show people how unfaithful God thinks they are.
Ezekiel eats food cooked over excrement to show people how defiled they are.
Jeremiah digs up a filthy undergarment to show people how bad their behavior is.
Isaiah walked around stripped and barefoot for three years to make a political statement.

The books of the prophets are filled with stuff like this.

And the appropriate question to ask in response is: “Why?”

Why do the prophets seem so angry?

And as we learned Sunday, the reason is this: To the prophets has been given this privilege, this burden of looking at the world and seeing what God sees.

People with plenty looking the other way while poor people suffer.

Business people shading the truth for personal gain.
Suburban, middle class families getting so busy that they don’t have time to serve and love those who are different from them.
People getting careless about remembering those who are hurting, or those with disease, or those without access to clean, safe food, water, shelter and clothing.

The prophets see what God sees. They hear what God hears. They feel what God feels.

And so they long for justice and mercy and peace in the world. And they long for people who can be agents of justice and mercy and peace to take action. And so they call us to action with some pretty attention-grabbing words and deeds.

So how should we respond to the prophets in February of 2008?

First, we do not need to feel unjust guilt or to get paralyzed by the enormous needs in our family, in our neighborhood, in our church, in our city and in our world. Further, we should not believe that God’s love for us hinges on our response to these things. God’s love for us is always unconditional.

The prophet Micah sums up how God would like us to respond in one of the greatest verses of the Old Testament.

Micah 6:6 – “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Every day we have the opportunity to act justly and to stand up for those who are treated unjustly. Every day we have the opportunity to show mercy. Every day we have the opportunity to walk humbly.

We can do these three things.

I've also had the privilege to be part of two ongoing things in my life that reflect my desire to respond to the words of the prophets in a more specific way. The first thing is tutoring six incredible kids each week at a local elementary school. They are a great blessing to me as I help them learn to read and write and add and subtract. The second thing is the Trivia Night for Water charity events that my church regularly hosts. On these nights, people from all walks of life and from all over Atlanta come together to have a ton of fun and in the process raise money to dig a freshwater well in Africa.

In addition I've read two books recently that get me even more excited about living a life of justice, mercy and humility. The first is "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. The second is "The End of Poverty" by Jeffrey Sachs. Two amazing and very challenging books. Read them at your own risk.

Joseph's side of the Story

2007-12-13T08:03:00.000-08:00

Matthew Chapter 1 reads:

“This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother, Mary, was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph her husband was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and they will call him Emmanuel—which means “God with us.” When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife, but he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son. And he gave him the name Jesus.” (Matthew 1: 18-25)

Look again at those underlined words: “righteous man.” In Hebrew, they are the single word “TSADIQ.”

Joseph was a tsadiq. What this means is that Joseph was known for his devotion to the Torah of Jewish scriptures (today the first five books of Christian Old Testament). A tsadiq had the Torah memorized and obeyed whatever it said. So Joseph didn’t eat unclean foods. He didn’t hang out with the wrong kinds of people. He didn’t keep his carpentry shop open on the Sabbath. Nobody invited him to eat ham sandwiches with tax collectors and prostitutes on the seventh-day of the week (or any day of the week, for that matter).

People looked up to Joseph. The status of “tsadiq” was something to be desired because it came with admiration, influence and respect. It’s the same way that, in our culture, a businessman wants to be a CEO, a politician wants to be governor or president, an athlete wants to be an All-Star, a New England Patriot wants to be a Dallas Cowboy (yes I'm a Cowboys fan).

Joseph was a Tsadiq. But he was a Tsadiq with a big problem because he was engaged, his fiancée was pregnant, and he wasn’t the father.

And the Torah has very clear instructions about what to do in that situation.

If a woman pledged to be married were sexually unfaithful (Deuteronomy 22) she was to be stoned.

Mary was to be stoned to death.

And so Joseph’s whole understanding of righteousness, as well as his reputation, was on the line. Everybody assumed they knew what he was going to do.

But Joseph makes a surprising choice. He takes Mary as his wife and Jesus as his son. He chooses radical love over strict obedience to the law.

And in doing so he exchanged his status as “tsadiq” for the responsibility, along with Mary, of teaching his son how to talk, walk, read, fish and all the other things parents teach their children to do and be.

Joseph’s life inspires us to be great lovers of God and of people.

So who are you loving this season?

I hope you are loving God fully, spending time with him and responding appropriately to his promptings.

And I hope you are loving those people in your life who are easier to love—your family and your friends. Love them really well this season.

But I also hope you are loving people who may be harder to love this season.

Jesus said one time that if you just love people who are easy to love it’s no credit to you. Even the mafia, even al Qaeda does that.

I say this because there’s a good chance that over the holidays, you are going to hear about someone in need or be sitting around a table with a person who is “harder to love.” And you can choose to pick up a stone. You can pass judgment if you want to.

Or you can hear God’s invitation to love, and remember the love that came your way when you deserved judgment.

Joseph and his son, Jesus, grew up embracing this radical love, loving people that nobody else would love.

And it's a call for us to do the same.

(Scot McKnight has a book called Jesus Creed that caused me to think about this whole topic.)

Why Follow Jesus?

2007-10-23T09:50:00.001-07:00

What's so compelling about following Jesus?

Mark 1:16-20—As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,’ Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him. When they had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.

Mark 2:14—As he walked along, he saw Levi son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me, “ Jesus told him, and Levi got up and followed him.”

These are almost unbelievable stories. Jesus is walking along, and he comes up to people and invites them to follow him. And these people without hesitation drop everything, get up and follow him.

What would cause fishermen and tax collectors, and other ordinary people like you and me, to follow this man?

I believe there is only one reason that they would do this. And that reason has to do with the person who invited them. There was something about Jesus that was so compelling to them that you ask them to choose between following Jesus and any other life option, and it’s a no-brainer.

Why? Why was this such an easy decision for them?

One important answer—first introduced to me by Dallas Willard—has to do with the fact that Jesus is flat out smart. Correction: He was brilliant.

We’ve probably all played the game of word association before. Someone says a word and the other person responds with the first thing that comes to mind when they hear it. For example if the word is GREEN the response might be GRASS. Or if the word is WET you might respond WILLY. Or if the word is BEAUTIFUL you might say SUNSET or perhaps the name of a man or woman you find attractive.

But what if the word is BRILLIANT. What word comes to your mind?

In almost any setting you would probably hear some familiar names in response to words like ‘”brilliant,” “smart,” and “intelligent.” Einstein, Newton, Edison, Bill Gates, scientists, world leaders and thinkers would stand out. Maybe even the name of a college professor or other teacher.

But one person who almost certainly would not come up in this connection is Jesus.

In our culture Jesus is not associated with intellectual capacity. Few think of him with words such as knowledgeable, well-informed, smart or brilliant.

BUT “SMART” and “BRILLIANT” describe precisely how his earliest followers thought of him.

Dallas Willard writes:

"The first Christians thought he held within himself 'all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Col 2:3). This confidence in his intellectual greatness was the basis of the radicalism of Christ-following in relation to the human order."

Willard reminds us that one time Jesus turned water into wine. Jesus knew how to transform the molecular structure of H2O into fermented grape juice .

Multiple times in healed people of diseases. Jesus knew how to transform the tissues of the human body from sickness to health.

He took five pieces of bread and two little fish and fed thousands of people. He knew how to create matter from energy.

He knew how to suspend gravity, alter weather patterns, and eliminate unfruitful trees without an ax.

Willard adds:

“We need to understand that Jesus is a thinker…Often we see and hear his deeds and words, but we don’t think of him as one who knew how to do what he did or who really had logical insight into the things he said. We don’t automatically think of him as a very competent person. He multiplied the loaves and fishes and walked on water, for example, but, perhaps he didn’t know how to do it, he just used mindless incantations or prayers. OR he taught on how to be a really good person, but he did not have moral insight and understanding. He just mindlessly rattle off words that were piped into him and through him…..and so we distance him from ourselves, perhaps intending to elevate him, and we elevate him right out of our minds.”

Willard concludes that it is not possible to trust Jesus for counsel in our daily life if we do not believe him to be competent. We cant' pray for his power and count on his wisdom for dealing with real-life matters we think might surpass his knowledge or abilities.

But, of course, Jesus does know about all these things. He really knows more about the newest digital camera than Consumer Reports. He really knows more about computers than Bill Gates. He really has more information than Google. He knows more about life on Mars than NASA. He knows more about love and marriage than Dr. Phil.

And he really knows about your life, too.

God is smart about life. He is not just nice, he is brilliant. He is the smartest man who ever lived.

He’s more than that. But he’s not less than that.

And, by the way, Jesus is alive today and doing quite well! And his wisdom and power are available to us all the time—when we wake up, when we eat, on the road, at the office, on the playground, in the classroom. Jesus is with you today and he asks you and me to follow him, to learn from him how to live like him. To experience life the way it was meant to be experienced.

The decision to follow Jesus, then, was not an agonizing decision for His first disciples. It was a no- brainer. Why do they drop everything to follow him? Because they’ve just received the offer of a lifetime.

The choice to follow Jesus and to rely on his wisdom for everyday life is the only sane option. It’s like the merchant who found a pearl of great value and sold everything he had to buy it (Matthew 12:45). It’s like a man who finds a treasure hidden in a field. When he found the treasure, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field (Matthew 13:44). It’s like that great, old TV show. You know, the story of a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer who barely kept his family fed. But then one day he’s shooting at some food, and up from the ground comes bubbling crude.

What does Jed do? He cashes in, loads up the truck and moves to Beverly Hills.

I agree with Dallas Willard, that if we truly consider Jesus the premier thinker of the human race then we also would be wise to honor him as the most knowledgeable person in our field, whatever that may be, and to ask for his wisdom and guidance with everything we have to do.