Notes For 2018

Here are my notes on what is going to happen in 2018. Four points. Not comprehensive.

Do you know the story of when Jesus left his family at about age 30? This year might be like that. Do you know about the time when boys become men, when they leave their mom and join the men? This year might be like that.

Do you remember when you left home to go to college? Do you remember when you stopped being single and got married? Do you remember when you became a parent? Do you remember when you were called up to go somewhere, if you have ever served in the military? Do you remember when you were tapped for or fell into a leadership role? Do you remember when you lost your job and had to find another one: things changed but you survived and made it? This year is going to be like that.

Do you remember meeting your spouse? Do you remember your first day on campus? Do you remember the day your marriage ended or someone died? Do you remember the birth of your child? And do you remember the day you met that boy or girl that you adopted? Do you remember when you found out you were pregnant? This year is going to be like that.

This is going to be a liminal year. I mentioned all those life events, to bring to your mind what liminality is like. There is liminality every day and every year: sunrise & sunsets every day and births and deaths every year, seasons changing and new jobs, and all the changes that we face in life.

But there are particular years when liminality is bigger, at large, corporately, society large. And that is what 2018 is going to be. You and I are like swimmers in the ocean. The wave is coming, and we can ride the wave joyfully or have it crash over us.

No matter what, that wave is coming, and we will be disoriented from our bobbing up and down in the swells. You can resist it, jump up like a cork and let it pass you, or ride the wave. I imagine that people will do all three. Three people might be standing before the wave and each one responds differently.

The wave is coming and how to respond to it will be up to each one of us. We aren’t robots. Here comes the move and now we must choose.

Pretty much every revival in the history of the church was embraced by some and rejected by others. God moves and we have to choose. Ironically, members of past revival movements often reject new revival movements, that are both from God, but are different.

When Jesus moved out of, departed, or took leave from his family, his hometown, and the business he headed up; he was not exactly given a nice send off and wished well, especially when they discovered his new endeavor. His change was right and good, but some didn’t get it, and were even opposed to the move. There is a time to shift and change, move from and into, to walk through a door of destiny when you must depart in order to arrive.

2018 will be a year of departures and arrivals. We will move on and take leave. We will say goodbye and say hello. This means big change. We can not stay and be at the new place. We will depart and arrive. The old can not hold the new and must be bid adieu. After the Hebrew year of 5778 began, last fall, some people in our lives announced their departure plans and today they are already living in their new destinations. They are first first-fruits people. I don’t think everyone is going to move, but we are going to make moves, designed by God, in our lives, this year. This is the year to move into your destiny by moving through change, from one place to another place. This year is a year where there is a door that is open to be walked through. We will all move this year, from one place to another place.

2018 will be a year of moving from something and into something: departures and arrivals.

I think that this is a year to move, to depart one thing and go into another thing. We have to depart in order to arrive. We will not get into the new place unless we leave the old place.

It’s time. We are now ready. A window of time is here to walk through a door into something new.

There is a time to stay, but 2018 will be the time to go, to depart. If we stay, if we do not move out, move on, and move to; it will be a missed opportunity. There is favor and permission to move this year.

“Your move.”

It will not happen if you do not act, if you do not make your move. There is a path set before us, that we can only see the entryway to. We have to move into that way, to get into that path, to go down that road; or it won’t happen.

We can not go into the new thing, the new level, or the new and better dimension, unless we also leave the old. To go there, we must depart here. We can not arrive unless we depart.

To stay where you are, but bring in that new thing, is not what God is doing. That would be like staying with your parents, but still getting married: something not recommended (Gen. 2:24, Matt. 19:5, Eph. 5:31 ). And that would also be like how Jesus said new wine will burst the old wineskins (Matt. 9:17, Mk. 2:22, Lk. 5:37-8).

We are going to move from something and into something. We are going to have to depart in order to arrive. God has been preparing us to depart, so that we can arrive, preparing us to move from, so that we can move into.

Did you notice the change in 2017, where you have already begun to reconfigure things? When we walk with God, he changes us, for the better. And changed people live differently.

God has a better life for us, but we have to be changed to enter into it; and that is what has been happening. People who refuse to be transformed, to change, will suffer unhappiness and needless pain. They will miss out. We have to walk in Christ to inherit the promises. It’s not automatic. God is placing a door in front of us, but we have to walk through that door.

2018 is going to be a year of justice for, in, and through governmental leadership. There will be justice where there has been injustice. There have been great injustices at the highest levels of government, particularly but not limited to President Trump and his team, that will be exposed and dealt with for all to see. There will be exoneration for some and consequences for others. President Trump will gain and regain his reputation as a champion of justice. There is a move of God going on, in government; national, state, and local; to expose corruption and injustice. President Trump and his team happen to be the ones in place while God is doing this. He and his team may want things cleared out and cleaned up, but this was God’s idea and God is now answering prayers that have been prayed for decades.

In 2018, people who have been looking for the authentic church, built by God in Christ, are going to find it. We are going to be surprised to find other people, who are already there. We are going to be surprised that we don’t have to build the church, but it is already built and being built. We just did not see it or could not find it, but that is going to change in 2018. Pioneers are going to find their homes. Jesus’ church, that he has been building, will become more visible in 2018. The church at large, especially the church that has Jesus as it’s head, will begin to regain it’s lost reputation this year. The church that allows Jesus to be it’s head and builder, will be renovated and restored to it’s original design. It will stand up and stand out as a city on a hill and the light of the world again. A place of peace and rest. A gateway and bridge to God and heaven.

In 2018, Christians will repent. Repentance will come alive in the body of Christ, corporately. Together, as a people and a family, we will repent of our sins and the sins of our fathers and mothers. We will get in touch with our shame, so that we can be healed. Instead of being shameless, we will repent and get in touch with our ugly, frightening shame; and let Jesus heal us and cleanse us. We will get in touch with how out of step we have been with Jesus and with heaven. We will get in touch with how and where the church has just become something in the world, run by worldly values, and not by Christ and by words that come from heaven. The church will get in touch with it’s own captivity, of being Christians in name only. It will be more obvious what ‘churches’ have nothing to do with the living God and His Christ and the Spirit of God, but are counterfeits, from the world and by the world, that is at odds with Christ. False churches that bear the name of Christ or people and tribes who authentically represented and followed Christ in the past, will have the opportunity to repent and change. Just the fact that some parts of the church do not bear a resemblance to Jesus and heaven, but are from the world, that has not been to the cross and bowed to the Lordship of the living Christ, will become more evident or exposed in 2018.

Happy New Year!

January 1, 2018 0

The Lord’s Favorite Place

The Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob.

-Psalm 87:2

The Lord has a favorite place on earth. His favorite place is the place where people come into His presence. That is what the gates of Zion means.

The gates of Zion is God’s Golden Gate Bridge.

Zion is a place, a mountain, that is real and symbolic. Zion is the hill that Jerusalem is built on and Zion is the mountain that the temple is built on. But today it is a place that points to something.

Zion today, is a word that signifies the people of God. The Lord loves the gates of His people. The gates signify the entryway and authority of Christ that believers live in with the Lord.

The gates are the ways and the means. That is to say, the Lord loves the gates of Zion, because the Lord loves people who are living in Christ. God’s plan has always been for people to come and be transformed and then to go out with Him, into the world.

The gates of Zion are the place where people are transformed. People come into Christ, through the gates. Then people go out into the world as God’s missionaries in Christ, through those same gates.

The gates of Zion signify the authority given by Jesus to his church. Jesus said,

“All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
-Matthew 28:18-20

Notice that baptism comes before teaching. The beginning of discipleship is baptism. This is something I learned recently, from a Baptist friend, who is insightful.

The great commision is to go out and make disciples. And the first thing a disciple does is to get baptized.

Jesus method is to go out and find people, make them disciples and baptize them, where they live.

Baptism is part of mission and evangelism. I think that if you study baptism in the NT, you will find that it always happens outside of the more formal meetings. As soon as you become a disciple, you get baptized.

It is natural, powerful and solemn; with prayer, and in the authority of Jesus, which all believers possess.

Jesus simply said, “go out into the world, in my authority. You are all authorized, as missionaries, to make disciples. And first baptise them.” There is no mention from him of getting people into the church (meeting houses) first or through catechism or confirmatory classes before the event of baptism.

The gates of Zion, are the authority to say, “you are in”, to people. And baptising someone, where you find them, says, or is symbolic of, “you’re in”. Every Christian is authorized by Jesus, to go out, into the world, and find people; to make them disciples and immediately baptize them.

That is the great commission. That is the assignment from Jesus to all Christians. This is permission.

The gates of Zion signify coming and going. Coming into Christ and going out with Christ. And we do both, through his authority.

And there is also an enemy of Christ in the world. He also has a kingdom and authority. A battle is going on between God’s and Satan’s kingdoms.

Jesus said,

“I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” -Matthew 16:18b (ESV)

The gates of Zion prevail over the gates of hell. The gates of hell means the comings and goings or the commerce of the forces of darkness. Gates also means power or force, and hell also means hades.

The church has authority over the spiritual forces of darkness in the world today, through Jesus. There is a battle going on and we are on God’s side.

The authority or authorization that Jesus gives his people, is to take territory and capture people out from the hands or clutches of the enemy. As the church Jesus builds expands, it also extends into areas or spheres where the enemy has held influence, and takes that territory or spheres of influence away from the enemy and takes it for the kingdom of God.

The church and the people in the church, believers; are the soldiers of God, in the world, who put their feet on the ground and take the territory that Christ makes a way to be taken. The church was never meant to be just a house of refuge, but the mountain that is Zion, and has authority from Jesus.

The way for the world to be evangelized is to take the church into the world. And this is part of the destiny, calling and inheritance of the church that Jesus has had in mind.

The Lord has a favorite place on earth. His favorite place is the place where people come into His presence. That is what the gates of Zion means.

The gates of Zion is God’s Golden Gate Bridge.

Zion today, is a word that signifies the people of God. The Lord loves the gates of His people. The gates signify the entryway and authority of Christ that believers live in with the Lord.

March 14, 2017 0

Do Not Forget The Poor

Provide justice for the needy and the fatherless; uphold the rights of the oppressed and the destitute.

-Psalm 82:3

God’s heart is for the poor. Whatever emphasis that we have or our ministries have, we must never forget the poor. Benevolence is something that all believers should have in common.

If you do not care about the poor, you have no connection to God. God’s heart is for the poor. The worst form of injustice is when the weakest people are not helped by those who have the power and resources to help them.

Your calling or your ministry could be any of a thousand things, but do not forget the poor.

You may be in any of the thousands of the different denominations, non-denominations, tribes or movements in Christianity. But remember to not forget the poor. God’s heart is for the poor.

You yourself may have a lot or have a little. You may have many friends or a few. You may be famous or unknown.

Just do not forget the poor.

Defend, vindicate, stand up for, be fair to, do right by and give justice to:

The needy, the poor, the weak ones, the helpless, the lowly and the defenseless ones.
The fatherless and the orphans.
The forgotten, destitute, the afflicted, the wretched and the oppressed people.
The disenfranchised, suffering and powerless children.

God’s heart is for the poor. Our hearts in God’s will be for the poor. This is a marker of the authentic people of God.

____________________________________________________

Notes:

A few New Testament passages and verses on serving the poor:

Luke 10:25-37; Acts 2:44-45; 4:32-37; 10:1-8; Gal. 2:10; 1 Tim 5:3-16; Jas 1:27; 2:15-16

March 2, 2017 0

Auld Lang Syne

Source/Artist unknown

Forget about what’s happened;
don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.

Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.

And you don’t put wine in old, cracked bottles; you get strong, clean bottles for your fresh vintage wine. And no one who has ever tasted fine aged wine prefers unaged wine.

-Isaiah 43:18-19, Matthew 6:34 and Luke 5:38-9 (The Message)

We are three and a half weeks into the new year. The big change happened in November and was made official this past weekend. America said goodbye to one president and said welcome to the new president.

Many more changes are in the air and are coming, as they always are. God is doing something in the earth. Trump’s ascendency, like it or not, is emblematic of what God is doing.

Jesus has been building his church. God is ready to pour out new wine. And new wine always requires new wineskins.

The wineskin is the structure that holds the wine. The new wine is the brand-new thing that God is doing. The old structure will not be able to hold, manage or give leadership to the new thing that God is doing.

After taking in the inauguration weekend, I was musing about that song, “Auld Lang Syne”. President Trump’s swearing in and his address where the final events of this election season. But just as important, were the goodbyes and farewells to president Obama.

There has been grace to end a season and begin a new season. Endings and beginnings are not always this way. For example, the transition from Saul to David was pretty rocky.

I love this quote:

“The hardest changes are from God’s order to God’s new order.”
–Rich Marshall

“Auld Lang Syne”, is a song that is traditionally sang at midnight on new year’s eve, bidding farewell to the old year. It is also sung as a farewell or ending, to other occasions. These words are in Scots, and could be loosely translated into English as, “For (the sake of) old times”.

This brings me to the scripture from Isaiah 43. These verses basically say that if you dwell on the past, you will miss what is presently about to happen.

“Forget about what’s happened;
don’t keep going over old history.
Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand-new.”

Imagine a person who is still talking and thinking about their ex, when they are in a new relationship and you get the picture.

When we have our eyes on what is behind, we do not see what is beside us or ahead of us. We need to learn to live in the present with God, not dwelling on the past, nor fear-filled or worried about the future.

I love how The Passion Translation puts Matthew 6:33-34:

“So above all, constantly chase after the realm of God’s kingdom and the righteousness that proceeds from him. Then all these less important things will be given to you abundantly. Refuse to worry about tomorrow, but deal with each challenge that comes your way, one day at a time. Tomorrow will take care of itself.”

January 24, 2017 0

Preparing For The Rain

You gave abundant showers, O God; you refreshed your weary inheritance.

-Psalm 68:9 (NIV)

The rain is coming. But are we ready for it? What can we do to get ready?

I would describe what we need to do is to have:

Open hearts
Outstretched arms
Eyes that are open
Shoes on our feet
Clean hands

Open Hearts

Be reconciled. Get reconciled with God, with yourself and with others. Do not have anything against anyone.

Forgive everyone, starting with God. Make sure you forgive yourself. Get rid of, cleansed of all bitterness.

This heart work may require set aside portions of time now to become aware of your heart problems and get free, get reconciled and purge yourself of spiritual toxins, waste and obstructions.

You may have need of heart warming or palliative care from other people right now. Your heart disease may be killing you or immobilizing you. Find out how to reverse the disease and get well and be well and receive from God.

Some hearts are damaged and not functioning properly. People with these hearts are barely living and walking slow, with chest pain at times. If this is you, seek open heart surgery immediately, from the great physician.

Be honest about your heart. Take time off of work and check yourself in for surgery. Sign all the papers and give Jesus everything and then let him heal your heart.

There may be people you need to talk to or see for reconciliation. You may need to write a letter to them. Your being reconciled to them does not mean that things will suddenly be like they were in the past. Do not insist on that or think you have failed when it does not.

The key is for you to be reconciled to all the people that you have had anything against. Release them from charges you have held against them. Cancel their debt to you.

Now you are free and they are free. If they did want to be close to you again, but they are unsafe for you or are just on a whole different path in life, you can lovingly decline the offer, without there being anything negative about it.

The matter of the heart is to be loving: love God, love yourself and then love others as you love yourself, based on God’s love for you. In that picture, there are many people that we can not be close to, but we can be reconciled to and hold nothing against them.

We can not be close to some people, even many people. But we can be reconciled to them and be willing at any time to be closer to them, if they become safer to be around, based on God’s love in their life.

The rain is going to fall on us, if we avail ourselves to being under it. And the main place that the rain goes into is our hearts. Our hearts are living reservoirs or aquifers for the rainfall.

A person who has a closed heart or a calcified, dry heart; may stand in the rain and even dance in the rain. But they will have little lasting effect from the rain and will not be able to carry the rain to others for any distance.

The main place where the rain has lasting impact and can be held to give to others is in the heart. Our hearts must be ready. Building a man made container to catch, hold and dispense the rain of God sounds like a good idea, but that is not what God wants and is wrong headed.

Get your heart ready. Get your heart right. Get your heart healed.

The rain of God comes upon the whole body of each person. But it only changes lives when it comes upon and into a person’s heart. And it is through our hearts that we live out Christ’s life and share life with others.

Get your hearts ready. Set aside the time now to get your heart right. Stop being distracted and get real about your heart today.

There is a time when it is too late. And you can miss it. An opportunity for you is imminent and you can choose to miss it if you don’t get yourself ready.

Outstretched Arms

Begin today, if you are not already doing so, to be a person who reaches out. Reach out to give and reach out to receive. Be less independent and more communal.

Reverse your style of estrangement and isolation from others. Sharing is a key component to the Christian life. Share your needs and meet the needs of others.

Stop being needless. If you are ‘the minister’ in your family or community, start letting others minister to you. You may be the most gifted one, but realize your need for others, for the life in them, for you to be cared for.

Humble yourself by asking for assistance. Delegate things to others where you have been controlling.

The impact of the coming rain will be spread and multiplied through the web or matrix of our relationships. This is God’s design. Today, we can be prepared for being missionaries by just being connected to those around us, right under our noses.

Stretching out our arms to touch and be touched by others is preparing a network that God can build upon. Many of us are like the little boy, who only had a small lunch in a basket; but he offered it to Jesus. The Lord takes our small things and multiplies them.

It is a grave error to not honor the small things we have and participate in them, offering them to the Lord. The person who does nothing and offers nothing is a person who has a heart problem and can not be used by God, transformed by God and blessed by God.

We must do business in our very small circles, with our very small provisions or influence now and bless people in tiny ways, if that’s all we have got. All you might have is a smile. Then give that smile.

We need to extend out arms now to others, so that they will be extended and in service, as bridges and aqueducts; when the rain of God falls. When the downpour happens, we don’t want to then lower our bridges and open our aqueducts and figure out how they work.

Now is the time to stretch out your arms. Now is the time to reach out to others. Now is the time to become available.

Now is the time to figure out how your open door policy is going to work or function. Now is the time to make a path to your door that people can walk on. Now is the time to venture out of your hiding place.

Eyes That Are Open

After we have got our hearts right and are stretching ourselves to reach out and be available to be touched by others, we need to learn to see. I grew up in a revival church, where we learned to close our eyes when we worshipped, to focus on God, undistracted. I also learned to pray for people, hands on, with my eyes open. I also learned to see with my spirit.

We need to live with God and others, with our eyes open. Jesus is an eyes open person. He saw people.

Jesus heart is always wide open to his Father and his eyes are always open to people. We need to cultivate Jesus style in this. Some of us do not see people.

Some of us are always struggling to see God and miss all the people. Some of us are mostly preoccupied with seeing ourselves and with how others see us. Many of us pass through life with our eyes closed, blocking out the people in the world.

To get ready for the rain, we need to cultivate and learn to live with our eyes open to other people. We need to learn to be seeing God with our hearts and to be seeing people with our eyes. We need to not just look at people, but see them with our hearts.

Meet people’s eyes. Look into the windows to their soul. Learn to do this.

Jesus can look people in the eyes and ask them, ‘What do you want?’, or, ‘What would you like me to do for you?’, and we can learn to do that too, as we walk with him in the world.

We so often see people as being in our way. We so often see and look to see people who we want to get something from. Instead of this, we need to cultivate Jesus style of seeing people and coming as servants and not to be served.

This is why Jesus said, “Open your eyes and see the harvest around you”. That is what we all need to do right now.

Shoes On Our Feet

Many of us have the wrong shoes on our feet. We each need to have our feet fitted with gospel shoes. Many of us are walking through life in an angry rampage and completely misrepresenting Jesus and the gospel of peace.

Take an inventory of your shoes. Are you wearing the shoes of Jesus or something else you have fashioned? Do your shoes stomp and kick, allure and purr or are they functional for the bringing of good news to people?

Your shoes can be high fashion, open toed or closed, sandals or boots, athletic or dress up. What matters is where are your feet taking you? Your shoes are about where are you prepared to go and what are you prepared for.

One person carries the good news, wearing stilettos; while another person carries the message wearing flip flops. God fits two people differently, but they have in common that they are prepared to share the good news. We all need to take care to be ready to share the gospel every day in many different ways, just as we put shoes on when we leave the door of our homes.

Clean Hands

Many of us need to wash our hands. We have lived lives where we have been doing all sorts of unholy, undignified and unchristian things with our hands. Two big ones are what you type or text and your pointing your finger in judgement at others.

Christians also take part in many sinful activities that are participated in through using their hands. The, ‘Cleanse your hands you sinner’, message of James 4:8, is a message to Christians. It is not meant to condemn, but is a loving admonition to ‘Knock it off’.

Many Christians, from the first century to today, have lived double lives. We have lived as Christians but not as Christians, in the same lives. The word of the Lord to us is, the rebuke of, ‘Stop it!’

We must stop living on two paths and only cultivate the path of Christ in our lives. Churches should stop having recovery groups and become recovery groups.

Many people disqualify themselves from being Jesus’ hand, because of their hands. Some have shame and guilt and see no way out of double lives. But there is grace for escape, deliverance and emancipation.

Many people who name Christ also need deliverance. Nothing to be ashamed of, but something to be glad of that is a blessing. We shouldn’t be embarrassed about deliverance, but humbly receive freedom.

If our hearts get made right, if our hearts become cleansed, we will live a different way, exemplified by what we do with our hands and fingers. Many people do not need deliverance, but need to just begin to learn to walk in Christ, and the naughty stuff, even addictive behaviors will change and just fall off their lives.

Jesus and critters can’t live in the same house. Our job is to open up every room in the houses of our lives to God and welcome him to live there. Even in the basements and the belfry.

January 17, 2017 0

This Is My Country: Is Nationalism OK?

When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance and divided the human race,
He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the people of Israel.

From one man He has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. He did this so they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us.

-Deuteronomy 32:8, Acts 17:26-27

I woke up one morning, this past week, with the song, “This Is My Country”, going through my heart. You might know this song, which speaks of national pride and national unity. We are, in America, “One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all”. These are very powerful words that we say.

I believe that we are entering into a time when these words will be more meaningful and come alive to all of us in America. I, personally, am proud to be an America and I love the United State of America. But I also love God first and His Christ and I also love all the other nations.

But this is my country. If I were a citizen of China or Scotland, I would say the same thing. Nations are a good thing and were invented by God.

And we love our nation and we love the nations. And believers are a nation within the nations. Only God is a citizen of the whole world and the gospel, from God and through God’s people, is transportable to all the nations.

We are not citizens of the world. Some people, through the circumstances of their lives, hold dual citizenship, and perhaps it is possible to hold three or more. Many of us can trace our roots back to a number of countries, where we have our family lines, and that is a part of what makes us who we are.

But from wherever we came, we are now here, and we have a nation we call our country. This is how it is and is part of God’s design, which we see throughout the scriptures. If nations were invented by God, then is nationalism ok?

We have to understand that nationalism is not racism or a hegemony. We can and should be nationalistic without racism or hegemony. Nations should be good neighbors and there is a saying that goes, “fences make for good neighbors”.

We do have allegiance to our nation, but after our allegiance to God. We are one nation, under God; whether we act like it or not. And many of us do put our trust in God, even if we don’t act like it, taking God’s name is vain often.

We are a nation of sinners and saints and saints who sin and sinners who are saints. With all our flaws and outright missing the mark, we are God’s people even when we don’t know God.

God created nations and nations are a good Idea. Nations, plural. When we become believers, our national identity comes under God, just as everything else about us does.

I am a Christian, who is proud to be an American. That is very different than saying and believing that I am a proud American, who is also a Christian. Everything about us, including our ethnicity and our nationalistic identification and our sexuality comes under God and under God’s Christ.

The idea of ‘one world’ or ‘no borders’, is distinctly not from God, not from the Bible, and has never been a part of the story of the people of God. Because of the sins of nations and governments, that have caused wars, famine and poverty throughout the earth; humans have come up with the solution that we should all get along without the many tribes and many nations, with their boundaries, borders and distinctives.

Through the entire Bible’s story, when we finally get to the last book, Revelation, we read that there are nations that God has been working in:

And they sang a new song: You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slaughtered, and You redeemed people for God by Your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation.

After this I looked, and there was a vast multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language, which no one could number, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were robed in white with palm branches in their hands.
-Revelation 5:9 and 7:9

Being from and in a nation is a good thing. Loving your nation, your people, and either the people your nation has adopted or the people you have been adopted into, is a good thing. Christians are citizens of the kingdom first and then citizens of earthly nations.

Nationalism is good when it is woven through with kingdom values like love for others. But the nations on this earth are not the kingdom of God, and the church is not the kingdom either. The church comes out of and flows in the kingdom and we all live in nations, whether we serve the kingdom of God or the kingdom of Satan.

God and Satan are both working in the nations, as a battle field, on the earth. Nations are turf, where people live, that God is working to save and Satan is working to corrupt. People who do not believe, who have not repented, or are not ready are apt to have an unclear understanding of nations and might gravitate to the extreme of national pride, exclusive-ism and un-neighborliness that may even include war against others. Or, they might believe in moving toward a world where there are no nations, no boundaries and we are all one.

Both of these extremes are wrong, and the correction is that God redeems nations. The human answer is to either be proud and unloving towards others and live in narcissism, or to become ‘enlightened’ and find a way to get along, through ‘human ingenuity’. Both of these are wrong, because they leave out or set aside the loving God.

Believers are challenged to live in the world, but not of the world: as sojourners, who are on their way to living forever with God. And believers are all about taking as many people with them into God’s family. That mission is what drives the Christian, who lives on earth, in a nation.

What God has ordained or created is something I also like. And one of those things is nations. Nations is plural and God loves the nations, all the nations.

But I live in a nation and I love my nation, that God also loves. God is saving and redeeming people inside of nations including my country.

I can not tell you about other nations or your country, if you are in another nation. But I can tell you the good things about my country. I can sing it’s praises and I imagine you can sing the praises of yours.

One of the great things about my country is that we are of many ethnicities, yet we are one nation. We also hold many different opinions, but we are one nation. Love for America in it’s truest sense is love for all of America and love for who we all are, together, living in this land.

Here is the song:

This is My Country, by Dan Raye and Al Jacobs

This is my country

Land of my birth

This is my country

Grandest on Earth

I pledge thee my allegiance

America the bold

For this is my country

To have and to hold

What difference if I hail from North or South

Or from the East or West?

My heart is filled with love

For all of these.

I only know I swell with pride

And deep within my breast

I thrill to see Old Glory

Paint the breeze.

With hand upon my heart

I’m thankful for my native land

For all I love is here within her gates

My soul is rooted deeply within the soil on which I stand

For these are mine, my own United States.

This is my country

Land of my choice

This is my country

Hear my proud voice.

I pledge thee my allegiance

America the bold

For this is my country

To have and to hold.

November 28, 2016 0

The Church is a Crossover Network

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.

-1 Corinthians 1:10 (NLT)

The Church is a crossover network. Crossing over is the ministry of Jesus. And the whole Church is a network of connections with a common center of gravity and purpose which is Christ and his mission to disciple nations.

The Church is a crossover people. We go to people who are unlike us. And we reconcile people to one another and to God.

The ministry of the Church is the ministry of reconciliation. The Church holds the power, the hope, and the wisdom that all peoples need. The Church travels across boundaries into different cultures, classes, ethnicities, races, and creeds.

The whole Church has many individual tribes who are all one in Christ. We are different tribes, but we are not tribal, because love in Christ is our center of gravity. As every person bleeds red blood, no matter the color of their skin or their culture; we also have many tribes, all in Christ, and recognize each other as brothers and sister, because of Christ within.

We are one, but have many tribes. The Church crosses over into communities and cultures that are not like they are. Crossing over is not to assimilate but to reconcile: first us to them, and then them to us, and them to God, and the only basis for our crossing over is our having been reconciled to God and to one another, in Christ.

We are not humanists, but Christians. We are carriers of hope from God in Christ. We love humanity, but not with human love or out of human solutions.

We love people because God loves people and God is transforming us into being like Jesus, who loves, because he knows the Father loves him and has sent him to show Father’s love.

The Church is a going out and crossing over people. This is who we are and what we do. The essence of the Church is loving reconciliation, so what the Church does, reflecting Jesus, is crossing over.

The Church is also a network. We are connected to one another, in our tribes and tribe to tribe, all connected in Christ. The lack of networks or networking or connection between tribes and individual Christians is a tragedy and a disaster.

The lack of network or the disconnection between tribes and individual Christians or the massive disunity in the Church has greatly weakened the Church for her mission in the world. The most powerful force or army in the world has been greatly dis-empowered by our lack of connection or being networked to one another in unity.

The whole Church is meant to be in one network, under one head. It can be a patch-work. Instead, we have many tiny and some bigger, individual networks.

This will and has to change. For the net to work, it must be mended and that is already underway.

August 30, 2016 0

Do You Love Me? Feed My Lambs

When they had eaten breakfast, Jesus asked Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love Me more than these?”” Yes, Lord,” he said to Him, “You know that I love You.” “Feed My lambs,” He told him.

-John 21:15

Being a Christian is all about love: being loved and loving others. Being a leader is all about serving others, through love. We have his love and we show his love by serving others in practical ways.

The basic and indispensable qualification for Christian service is love. In this conversation between Jesus and Peter, we learn again, that love is the foundation of the Christian life, of the good news, and of Christian service.

Peter might be identified as a leader or even the leader in the church. We have an obsession with leadership in the church today. But there is no calling to leadership, but only a call to service.

Jesus says to me and to any of us who are his followers, just like he said to Peter, “Do you love me? Then feed my lambs.” Something to always remember is that the people are his. Even our children, our husbands and our wives are his.

“Feed my sheep”, is a word from the top, chief shepherd, to the rest of us who might be in the shepherding role. Feed them (and tend them), and they are his, not yours; so keep that in mind. We have here a description of “the ministry”, because the context of Jesus’ words are Peter’s reinstatement into the ministry.

Peter had already met with Jesus, after the resurrection. Peter had his faith intact. But he might have been still hurting over how he betrayed Jesus and he might have felt like a failure.

Peter may have disqualified himself from being a person who could lead others to Jesus and share the good news and encourage them, because he felt like he totally blew it. But Jesus comes along and has a pow wow with him, and it is in front of the other guys. In Peter’s mixed feelings of despair and awe in the Lord’s presence, Jesus says, “You love me right? (pause) Then feed and take care of the people who believe in me.”

Peter’s response is, “Of course I love you (but)”. I put the ‘but’ in parentheses, because he was maybe thinking a ‘but’. His ‘but’, might have been something like, “I can not believe he asked me that, and I think he is probably not going to want me to serve him or his people in any capacity, after what I did on the night he was arrested.”

Jesus is love. Jesus being with Peter was loving. I bet Peter knew Jesus loved him at that moment.

Jesus did not say, “You know I love you”. Instead, Jesus asks Peter that question, not because he was after information or he doubted Peter’s love. Peter was crazy in love with Jesus.

When someone loves you like crazy and you ask them, “do you love me?”, they might be taken aback, or a little bit offended. That’s when we say, “I can’t believe you are asking me that!” But Jesus can ask anything he wants to and it is always a good and meaningful question.

In other words, Jesus is not insecure and he is not playing a game. There is absolutely no guile in his question. Everyone knows that Peter is a lover of Jesus of Nazareth. There is no doubt.

So, why oh why does Jesus ask this (crazy sounding) question?

Peter might have answered the question more fully with, “yeah, I love you, sure I do (what a weird question!); but I am pretty sure I blew it and you don’t want me to represent you in any way, while I still believe you do love me and I also believe you forgive me, but being the guy people look to for learning about you, I am pretty sure you don’t want me for that.”

To that, Jesus simply says, “Do you love me? Then simply feed my sheep, and care for them”. Yes, the light is green. Jesus says, “Take your love for me, and love my people and look after them”. Behold, Jesus’ description of pastoral ministry!

Here is the message for all of us: Do you love Jesus? Then feed his lambs.

This scene, this story, on the beach, between Jesus and Peter, is a message for all Christians, especially to ministers. Peter was just a man, just like we are just men and women that do Jesus Christ’s ministry on earth, today.

I believe that the ministry is Jesus’ ministry and he calls us all into his ministry. There is no pyramid shaped hierarchy in the church. But there is one at the top, God in three persons, and then the rest of us; all the way from Peter to me.

The (corporate chart in the) kingdom is flat.

Peter here is being called, again, after his mishap, to service. Peter is special in that he was one of the founding Apostles, but he is never called to be a special ruler, like a king. In Peter’s mind, and through his words, Jesus is the only head, chief, senior, or lead shepherd (see 1 Peter 5:1-4).

The rock that Jesus’ church is founded upon, is The Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God. From Christ, we love, and we serve: feeding and caring for his people. That is the ministry.

Whatever your failure, your mishap, or your detour; and even if your wandering feels like you are lost from the ministry, the church, your calling, your destiny, or simply a happy life of service to God: Hear Jesus’ words to you: “Do you love me?”

He simply asks, “Do you love me?”

Some of us might have a hard time even with that question, because we equate love with performance. We are all tied in knots, because we judge our selves, our performance as poor. We say to ourselves, that we really must not love him AS WE SHOULD because of our failures.

Real love is not tied to success or proved by winning performances. Real love is based on no conditions, but is a choice to love that person. We never define or gauge God’s love for us, based on our victory or defeat, success or failure, and applause or boos from people.

The word is simple. Do you love him? Get past your performance orientation, ambition, competition, need to look good, low self-esteem, and ego-mania.

Get past it, does not mean pretend it is not there, but it means to acknowledge it and let it go. Set it down at the cross, release it and embrace Father in his unconditional love. The only way to live, which is the way of Christ, same for Peter and same for us, is to live loved.

After clearing the way, you can say, “I do”. I do love you. Yes.

He has brought me back to the center. My bad is not the center. Me is not the center.

My “I” is now filled with his light. It is a little light most of the time, but his light is there in me. In that light, I know I love him.

He loves me and I love him. Truth! Now that we have that clear, and we might have to go back and forth a number of times, because of my stuff; I hear him say these simple words: “Feed my lambs and tend my sheep”.

August 23, 2016 0

Ramblin’ Rose

Her: I am a rose of Sharon,
a lily found in one of the valleys.

Him: Like a lily among thorns, that is what she is;
my dear is a captivating beauty among the young women.

Her: My love is like an apple tree in a wooded forest;
        he is a ripe tree among a grove of saplings, those young men.
    I sat beneath his ample shade, filled with such joy.
        I tasted the sweetness of his fruit and longed for more.
    He placed me at his banquet table,
        for everyone to see that his banner over me declares his love.

-Song of Solomon 2:1-4, The Voice translation

Christians are meant to be Ramblin’ Roses. A Ramblin’ Rose is a person who takes life as it comes. They deal with each challenge, traveling through them.

Photo by: Erin Silversmith, CC BY-SA 3.0

A Ramblin’ Rose Christian grows upward or sideways, depending on what structures that her husbandman, Our Father, puts before us. The Ramblin’ Rose Christian is a Wayfarer, like Jesus, on the move.

Christianity is a sending and going lifestyle. The life is lived in the rambling. Jesus is the vine from which the Christian grows, and The Father is the gardener.

We all live a life on The Vine of Christ, as Ramblin’ Roses. We were designed to learn “on the road’, “on the way”. Disciples learn by hearing and doing, not by hearing and thinking.

The Christian life is grown or matured and made beautiful and fruitful by living, in the wild, of life. Christianity grows free-range, organic, and wild. We are in the wild, but under the great care of God.

We need to highly value our lives “out there”, or “in the wild”.

Ramblin’ rose, ramblin’ rose
Why you ramble, no one knows
Wild and wind-blown, that’s how you’ve grown
Who can cling to a ramblin’ rose?

Ramble on, ramble on
When your ramblin’ days are gone
Who will love you with a love true
When your ramblin’ days are gone?

Ramblin’ rose, ramblin’ rose
Why I want you, heaven knows
Though I love you with a love true
Who can cling to a ramblin’ rose?

–“Ramblin’ Rose” (1962) by brothers Noel Sherman and Joe Sherman, popularized by Nat King Cole

January 23, 2016 0

Adventure – My Word for 2016

2016 is a year of adventure.

Adventure is defined as (1):

an exciting or very unusual experience.
participation in exciting undertakings or enterprises.

Photo: Pixabay

The root, etymological, or historical meaning of adventure is, “to take a chance”. Ad means “to” and venture means “risky undertaking”. A venture is a place of fortune and chance.

Adventure means “a thing about to happen, come to, reach, or arrive at”. Adventure can involve risk and danger and be a trial of one’s chances, or be a perilous undertaking. Adventure may also mean a novel or exciting incident, a wonder, a miracle, or accounts of marvelous things (2).

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary:

A mercantile or speculative enterprise of hazard; a venture; a shipment by a merchant on his own account.
A remarkable occurrence; a striking event; a stirring incident; as, the adventures of one’s life.
Risk; danger; peril.
That which happens without design; chance; hazard; hap; hence, chance of danger or loss.
The encountering of risks; hazardous and striking enterprise; a bold undertaking, in which hazards are to be encountered, and the issue is staked upon unforeseen events; a daring feat.
To risk, or hazard; jeopardy; to venture.
To try the chance; to take the risk.
To venture upon; to run the risk of; to dare.

Synonyms for Adventure (3):

enterprise
escapade
venture
risk
chance
undertaking
experience
feat
exploit
happening
occurrence
deed
event
incident
endeavor
fortuity
quest
fortune
happenstance
journey
passage
pilgrimage
attempt
campaign
engagement
excitement
fun
initiative
mission
opportunity
pursuit
tour de force
transaction
trip
accomplishment
achievement
activity
chronicles
crossing
encounter
migration
outing
trip

Antonyms for adventure:

avoidance
inaction
inertia
passiveness
boredom
latency
abstention
certainty

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1.WordReference Random House Learner’s Dictionary of American English © 2016
2..Online Etymology Dictionary
3. Power Thesaurus

January 18, 2016 0