A Changing Atmosphere

I'm loving the weather recently! These crisp, sunny days are absolutely awesome. Especially when it seems like only yesterday the humidity and heat were ridiculously unbearable, and the thought of freezing, ice-covered roads in the short days ahead make me cringe. But right now... perfection. It's been a welcome change.

It seems much more has been changing recently. The atmosphere has changed, and I think it's a good thing. Not just at our local church, but all over the world. I'm running into more and more people who are noticing this change. Many of us have observed the Christian-Religion that dominated much of the 1970's, 1980’s, and 1990's as not much more than an argumentative and aggressive political attitude, mainly known for being totally intolerant about homosexuality and abortion. That posture led to a perception of moral and religious superiority for Christians. This attitude bullied through certain initiatives as being the most important things ever, but at the exact same time alienated countless people from genuine relationship with Jesus Christ.

Being associated with those who call themselves 'Christians', but who don't embrace this change, is something many of us can no longer do.

I kinda think that the atmospheric change that has happened around the world concerning these things has actually liberated and empowered us Jesus-followers. It has forced us to re-evaluate how and when we engage culture.

It's like now we are finally getting it.

We’re seeing that the mandate of Jesus is simply to love and accept people one on one, caring for them where they are. Our role is revolutionary, as we carry the light and love of Jesus into our work-places, schools, and even into the streets of our city. We're trying to flip that perception of superiority and hypocrisy by being honest and straightforward about our faults, as well as our sincere hope for transformation in Jesus. And we're doing our best to join our community in much different ways than we’ve done in the past. We’re not interested in fighting anymore, unless it’s in a war against the enemy of God – an enemy that promotes poverty, crime, addiction, and pain.

Rather than seeing ourselves against or above our culture, we are seeing a stronger impact from adopting several important attitudes concerning our culture. Let me explain:

1. An attitude of grace over judgment

I was reading a story of a guy named 'Sonny' in Las Vegas. When he first walked into a church, he had been living on the street as a crack addict for nine months. He was a mess. But the people didn't judge him, they cared for him. Sonny became a Christian, he was baptized, and began a spiritual journey. Eventually people in the church helped him get a job and gave him a car. He went on to grow and mature and even start his own business and get married.

Fast forward four years from the time Sonny walked in off the street. The mayor of Las Vegas tries to pass a law that says you can no longer feed the homeless in any public place in the city. Vegas does not have the social services of many cities already, and it has been voted the meanest city in America to the homeless.

Sonny gets ticked off and decides he cannot sit by and watch this happen. He actually sues the Mayor, contending that the law is unconstitutional. The first hearing finally comes. Picture the courtroom. All the attorneys for the Mayor on one side in their power suits. An average guy standing alone on the other side in his street clothes. The judge looked over the case and looked to the Mayor's attorney's. He said that it was unconstitutional to single out one group of people and discriminate against them in this way and he threw the case out! The reason you can give a homeless guy a sandwich on the streets of Vegas today is because one former homeless guy named Sonny used his influence.

Here's the question: Would that have ever happened if he'd first encountered judgment rather than grace when he walked into a church?

All of it starts with grace, God's grace, which can work in our lives powerfully over time. Are you living in that grace? Am I? Are you and I quick to share it or are we quick to judge? Are we meeting our friends and family with that grace? Are we envisioning them to accomplish their dreams for God through that grace?

2. An attitude of love over inaction

Love is not simply the opposite of hate. Love is the opposite of inaction as well. If we say we love our neighbors, but we don't act with love toward them, we're a joke and only kidding ourselves.

This past weekend I joined hundreds of Jesus-Followers who were acting out the love of Christ in practical ways. Many of them went to a nursing home and worked their rears off. They cleaned windows, they scrubbed and straightened, and they visited and loved on the forgotten. Others went to a neighborhood that had been hit harshly by a recent wind-storm. This group, consisting of young and old, trimmed trees, hauled away debris and downed limbs, and served many as, I believe, Jesus would have. Still others of us went downtown and picked up garbage that had been left over from the Liberty Fall Festival that had been taking place in that area for two days. I was amazed to watch Christians bending over and picking up everything from cigarette butts to half-eaten, soggy hot-dog buns, all for the glory of God in an effort to show His kind of love to our city.

Rather than picket the moral failure of our communities, what would happen if we began to serve the community? Won't our actions of love and mercy make a greater impact than our picket sign? Won't what we do be so much louder than what we say?

3. An attitude of truth over inauthenticity

Jim Gilmore, author of an amazing book entitled Authenticity, said, "Authenticity is a big buzz word in the church, but the Bible does not use the term. It doesn't talk about authenticity as we do today. The Bible talks about truth. Living in the truth and sharing the truth."

That statement will make you think. The Bible absolutely speaks in terms of truths that make unconditional claims on our lives. What I mean is; I should be more concerned about knowing this truth and living in it than I am about simply being authentic.

By living in the truth honestly, the authenticity side of things will take care of itself. I'm learning that people won't really listen to you until they trust you. By the way, trust comes from grace and love. When people trust you, and you tell them the truth, they will trust you even more, even if the truth is hard to swallow.

Truth must be at the center of our lives.

So, the mandate for me as a pastor, actually for any and all Jesus-Followers, is to be real and preach truth.

I pray that by taking an attitude of grace, love, and truth we can continue to see the atmosphere of our culture change in significant ways.

"You Are The 100%"

After our church service today I was handed a letter from a good friend of mine. Bernardo is a postman for the city of Liberty, and I love him very much. It was a letter addressed "TOO GOD" and he had pulled it from a mailbox on his route. Not knowing what to do with the letter, he gave it to me and asked me to do with it whatever I wanted.

The hard-to-read-letter, scribbled in yellow crayon, simply said,
"You are the 100%".

I just wrote the following reply and will be dropping it off in this child's mailbox on my way home from church today. Here's what I... I mean, "God"... wrote:

To My precious little one,

I received your note today and it made me so happy! I want you to know that I think you are 100% too!

I think you are 100% perfect.
I think you are 100% special.
I think you are 100% loved.

Thank you for taking the time to write to Me. When you take time to even think about Me, it is like you are telling Me that you love Me. That makes Me smile really big!

I love you too…

and I’m watching You all the time… and thinking about you all the time. There is NOTHING more special to me than you.

Never forget that.

I wish more people thought that I was 100%, but to hear you say it, and to know what you meant when you said it, has made Me very, very proud to be your Father in heaven.

Have a great day today… and every day. Write to Me again anytime you’d like, or just talk to Me, because I AM with you always, and I am constantly listening.

Your Buddy,
God


Matthew 18:1-3

Disastrous Victories & Magnificent Defeats

I don't know about you, but for me, it's been an exceptionally hard week. Beyond the normal 'stuff', (kids that are either sick or getting into trouble and the contstant stress of having to stretch finances, etc...) this week has introduced me to trials I don't run into very often. I'm learning that during times such as these it becomes increasingly important to "press in" to what I know to be Truth. By 'press in', I mean to work extra hard reminding myself mentally, but also to do the things physically that will enable me to focus on what God has done and spoken. One of these things is to get alone and spend some time with the Master and in His Words.

I once read, and find that I still identify with, the following:

"The road I've traveled... is pockmarked by disastrous victories and magnificent defeats, soul-diminishing successes and life-enhancing failures. Seasons of fidelity and betrayal, periods of consolation and desolation, zeal and apathy are not unknown to me.
And there have been times...
when the felt presence of God was more real to me than the chair I was sitting on;
when the Word ricocheted like broken-backed lightning in every corner of my soul;
when a storm of desire carried me to places I had never visited.

And there have been other times...
when I identified with the words of Mae West: "I used to be Snow White - but I drifted";
when the Word was as stale as old ice cream and as bland as tame sausage;
when the fire in my belly flickered and died;
when I mistook dried-up enthusiasm for gray-haired wisdom;
when I dismissed youthful idealism as mere naivete;
when I preferred cheap slivers of glass to the pearl of great price." *

If you relate to ANY of that, as I know today that I do, then may we both be encouraged by God's Words, which say:

"Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name, you are Mine. You are precious in My eyes, because you are honored and I love you... the mountains may depart, the hills be shaken, but My love for you will never leave you and My covenant of peace with You will never be shaken" (Isaiah 43:1,4; 54:10).

My prayer:
"Father, You have said over and over again that You love me... and You've proved it in the most radical of ways. Today I want to stand firm in Your love for me. I ask for the strength to endure the things You've called me to and set in motion in my life. At the same time, I ask for mercy in the areas that my own mess-ups have brought my way. I love You big-time, and want to thank You that "The love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given us" (Romans 5:5). Help me to walk this week out in an authentic love for others that is birthed in the love you've shown me; A walk of true compassion and forgiveness. You said, "Love your enemies and do good... and you will be sons of the Most High for He Himself is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked" (Luke 6:35). I pray this sincerely, Amen."



*Brennan Manning from his book, Abba's Child - NavPress 1994 pp 15

Attention Deficit

Last week, I saw this postcard on 'post-secret' and it really caught my eye. As a matter of fact, I've had it as my desk-top wallpaper since then. I think it's just a great reminder that as 'life' is happening all around us, there are millions of other stories taking place... besides ours.

At Desperation Church we’ve been discussing ‘Spiritual Warfare’ and the battle that we’re all in. However, may we never forget that each and every person we run into, and currently know, is also in a battle.

Some are lonely.

Some are angry.

Some are burned out.

Some are grieving.

Some are sick.

Some are out of work.

Some are wounded.

Some are ashamed.

Some are guilty.

Some are all of these… and more.

All have captured God’s heart... and are in need of HOPE.

I was reminded of this the other day, as I read; “The question at the Last Judgment is not ‘How religious was your talk?’ nor ‘How much time did you spend in prayer?’ nor ‘Was your faith orthodox in every respect?’ but ‘How did you respond to needy brothers and sisters?’ This is the one reliable measure of discipleship.”
[Thomas R. Kelly, A Testament of Devotion (New York: Harper and Row, 1941), page 58]

Several years ago a group of five computer salesmen went from Milwaukee to Chicago for a regional sales convention. All were married and each assured his wife he would return home in ample time for dinner. The sales meeting ran late, and the five scurried out of the building and ran toward the train station. A whistle blew, signaling the imminent departure of the train. As the salesmen raced through the terminal, one of them inadvertently kicked over a slender table on which rested a basket of apples. A ten-year-old boy was selling apples to pay for his books and clothes for school. With a sigh of relief, the five clambered aboard the train, but the last felt a twinge of compassion for the boy whose apple stand had been overturned.

He asked one of the group to call his wife and tell her he would be a couple of hours late. He returned to the terminal and later remarked that he was glad he did. The ten-year-old boy was blind. The salesman saw the apples scattered all over the floor. As he gathered them up, he noticed that several were bruised or split. Reaching into his pocket, he said to the boy, “Here’s twenty dollars for the apples we damaged. I hope we didn’t spoil your day. God bless you.”

As the salesman started to walk away, the blind boy called after him and asked, “Are you Jesus?”

May we respond to others, all others, in love. And may we be JESUS to them, slowing down and truly understanding that they may be blind, or simply fighting a battle that we know not of.