Whatever happened to those old school see-saws? I understand upgrading parks and playground equipment, but we completely did away with most of the really fun stuff. LOL At the same time, I saw a merry-go-round at an old park in Texas and it was frightening...I just kept thinking, please don't throw my kids off or fall off and spin out of control into a fence. hahahahhahahahaha I never had that fear as a kid, I just enjoyed the moment.
Living in the moment is something we do A LOT. As adults we do it in a different way. Instead of being care-free and trusting (like children) we are more careful (not a bad thing). We don't jump off the swings anymore, we dive in the deep end and not in the shallow end....haha BUT in our responses to other people and to their differences to us, sometimes we are off-the-cuff and react hastily. We throw all the careful, intentional action out the window and we just SAY it. Whatever is on our mind.
I imagine that used to do less damage. However, we live in an online, social media society. When we shoot off more than just our closest family sees it. There's really no limit to the impact we can have in just an instant. I can't stand Facebook posts that SHOUT AS LOUD AS THEY CAN, "Hey, I'm a Christian and I live BOLD and BLUNT and I'm not ASHAMED! I think this and I vote this and I know this, get on my page!!" Don't get me wrong, we should be bold, but the boldness that comes from the Lord brings with it peace, and love, and gentleness. Jesus never ran into the face of an unbeliever screaming and condemning and intimidating them. He sat with them, he joined them for dinner....He loved on them.
If our words don't love on the world, why would they ever join Jesus? We are the only Jesus they see and so much of the time we fail miserably at even catching a glimpse of Him.
What if....we allowed ourselves to just enjoy His love? Enjoy the moment. Trust that He will bring breakthrough, that it's not our job. We don't need to hammer people.... We don't need to thrust truth into the face of our community as though we are desperate and it's our last shot. God has this. He knows His timing....we don't. So c'mon Church...chill out. Love people. Build them up. Lead them to their destiny in God the way Jesus led his disciples. That's what the world needs, that's what they're searching for - HIM.
Being a Christian means remaining a mix of child and adult. Never losing that child-like faith in Him, that child-like excitement, that child-like belief that every moment is His. Being an adult really only comes into play when it comes to the numbers of people we reach... we have families, jobs, and roles in the community - We need to use the access being an adult brings us to spread our child-like, enjoying the moment faith with the world.
Let's love, Church. Let's focus on the growth we need, let's remember what He rescued us from...and let's just LOVE the world. God will do the rest. Amen!?
"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance" (1 Corinthians 13:4-7).
Thursday, April 24, 2014
Friday, April 4, 2014
Modern, Post Modern, Post Post Post.....Just Jesus
For some reason the Church is divided on how to be Jesus in a modern age, to a modern people, without forsaking our biblical principles. I think Jesus gave us a simple solution. Like all our "simple" biblical ideas, they are usual deep, in that they require us to dig within ourselves and work on us....that's always the most complicated aspect of our Christian faith - facing ourselves and allowing Him to change us. Notice I said Him change US and not Him change them..... Exactly.
Christ said ABOVE ALL....LOVE. Not love ourselves, not love our traditions, not love our dogma....but LOVE God and LOVE others. 37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments" (Matthew 22). So what does loving God mean? Does it mean be as the Pharisees and Sadducees were? Teaching and taunting and never connecting with the people they said they were there to reach? Does it mean knowing as much information as we can cram into our brains? What does loving God look like? REALLY?
What does loving others look like? Do we love everyone that we point a finger at and condemn? Do we love our kids when we demand they love God but we call them names and rip away their confidence? What does loving someone else REALLY look like? 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged (1 Corinthians 13). It's not rocket science...it's not hard in concept, it's hard in practice. It's hard for every believer. It's a daily choice we make. It's something we must desire more than we desire our own way, more than we desire to be right, more than we desire to "win" a debate.
The reality is the ONLY people Jesus ever showed frustration toward were religious people. He never grew frustrated with the "dirtiest" of people He came across. He wasn't even mad when He told Peter that he would deny is Lord three times before the rooster crowed. Jesus had patience for people. The only thing that made Him furious were people who claimed to have the interest of God as a priority and who truly did not (See: Matthew 23 and John 2 to name a few). Church...we have a call to be like Him and the ONLY things that really matter to Jesus are PEOPLE. At what point do we give up our own agendas, reach across the racial isle, the political isle, the traditional denominational isle, and LOVE like He did. Souls are in the balance.
Let Him be our guide.
16 From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God,is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. (John 1).
Christ said ABOVE ALL....LOVE. Not love ourselves, not love our traditions, not love our dogma....but LOVE God and LOVE others. 37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments" (Matthew 22). So what does loving God mean? Does it mean be as the Pharisees and Sadducees were? Teaching and taunting and never connecting with the people they said they were there to reach? Does it mean knowing as much information as we can cram into our brains? What does loving God look like? REALLY?
What does loving others look like? Do we love everyone that we point a finger at and condemn? Do we love our kids when we demand they love God but we call them names and rip away their confidence? What does loving someone else REALLY look like? 4 Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud 5 or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged (1 Corinthians 13). It's not rocket science...it's not hard in concept, it's hard in practice. It's hard for every believer. It's a daily choice we make. It's something we must desire more than we desire our own way, more than we desire to be right, more than we desire to "win" a debate.
The reality is the ONLY people Jesus ever showed frustration toward were religious people. He never grew frustrated with the "dirtiest" of people He came across. He wasn't even mad when He told Peter that he would deny is Lord three times before the rooster crowed. Jesus had patience for people. The only thing that made Him furious were people who claimed to have the interest of God as a priority and who truly did not (See: Matthew 23 and John 2 to name a few). Church...we have a call to be like Him and the ONLY things that really matter to Jesus are PEOPLE. At what point do we give up our own agendas, reach across the racial isle, the political isle, the traditional denominational isle, and LOVE like He did. Souls are in the balance.
Let Him be our guide.
16 From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God,is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us. (John 1).
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
The Common Sense Approach
How easily lost is the Jesus I love so much....lost in hype for or against one belief or another....lost in fear of the unknown or the different.... lost in the minor details... lost. What is it about the human condition that refuses HIM, at His natural, pure self....just Him? Our minds tell us to be careful. Our hearts tell us to hurry. We become torn between that natural seeking, that God-given hole, and our own desire to understand everything before we believe.
As I watch someone near to me searching...I ache for them. I wish I could bring the revelation they need to soak Him in. Not because thinking or researching is bad, it's not, but we can get distracted with the carnal and allow it to dissuade us from the spiritual. "For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” John 4:24. Our minds can be wonderful things, but they can also be the one thing that prevents us from ever experiencing the fullness of God.
The Church as a whole is unhelpful in this regard. We don't agree on anything. We fight about EVERYTHING. We love to point to flaws in leaders as long as they believe differently than us...and if they believe the same we justify their weakness as human nature. It's so frustrating and it becomes clear how someone could feel confused about what is REAL. I wonder what we would look like, city on a hill, if we could silence our own agendas long enough to allow His? It's common sense really. We hinder our own purpose. We are the house that refuses to be built. It's time that we, the Church, focus on what we share versus what we disagree on...the power is not in the doctrine, it's in the name of Jesus. And everyone, no matter their background, needs Him...and MORE of Him. No one has arrived nor are any of us done with our journey. There's more to do, more to learn, more to experience.
I guess this is my cry for unity, my cry for allowing Him to be God and us to be His people...we are tools that work only if in His hands. Let's remove the hype, remove the arguments, and allow Jesus to win some hearts! THAT is greatest gift, the belief we all share, the reason we are here. #forward
1 Peter 3:8
"Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude."
1 Corinthians 1:10
"I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose."
Romans 12:4-5
"Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other."
As I watch someone near to me searching...I ache for them. I wish I could bring the revelation they need to soak Him in. Not because thinking or researching is bad, it's not, but we can get distracted with the carnal and allow it to dissuade us from the spiritual. "For God is Spirit, so those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth” John 4:24. Our minds can be wonderful things, but they can also be the one thing that prevents us from ever experiencing the fullness of God.
The Church as a whole is unhelpful in this regard. We don't agree on anything. We fight about EVERYTHING. We love to point to flaws in leaders as long as they believe differently than us...and if they believe the same we justify their weakness as human nature. It's so frustrating and it becomes clear how someone could feel confused about what is REAL. I wonder what we would look like, city on a hill, if we could silence our own agendas long enough to allow His? It's common sense really. We hinder our own purpose. We are the house that refuses to be built. It's time that we, the Church, focus on what we share versus what we disagree on...the power is not in the doctrine, it's in the name of Jesus. And everyone, no matter their background, needs Him...and MORE of Him. No one has arrived nor are any of us done with our journey. There's more to do, more to learn, more to experience.
I guess this is my cry for unity, my cry for allowing Him to be God and us to be His people...we are tools that work only if in His hands. Let's remove the hype, remove the arguments, and allow Jesus to win some hearts! THAT is greatest gift, the belief we all share, the reason we are here. #forward
1 Peter 3:8
"Finally, all of you should be of one mind. Sympathize with each other. Love each other as brothers and sisters. Be tenderhearted, and keep a humble attitude."
1 Corinthians 1:10
"I appeal to you, dear brothers and sisters, by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, to live in harmony with each other. Let there be no divisions in the church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose."
Romans 12:4-5
"Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other."
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