organic christianity

frontlines

Open war is upon us...whether we would risk it or not.   Inside us is a heart of a warrior and every warrior has a cause to fight for.  A warrior without a cause to fight for will find the wrong thing to fight against. 

While each believer has a different assignment corresponding to his or her unique gifts and talents, these assignments work to accomplish one purpose-the establishment of the Kingdom "on earth as it is in Heaven."  This Kingdom "forcefully advances" (Matthew 11:12)-first to displace the attitudes of the carnal man in our own lives and then to destroy the works of the devil around us.  The violence of this process may seem overwhelming at times, but it is safer to stay in the midst of this conflict than to adopt a defensive, conservative approach to the Christian life.  The safest place for us to be at any point in our lives is passionately pursuing God and the purposes to which He has called us.  Passionate pursuit positions us for advancement.  To live in the defensive posture protecting what we have is quite dangerous.  Just ask the guy who buried his one talent (Matthew 25:18-28). 

Our assignment and destiny is to advance the Kingdom, and comes with an umbrella of grace and favor that works to preserve our lives, no matter what's going on around us.  The moment we take a back seat in our pursuit of the Kingdom is the moment we become exposed to the fiery darts of deception.

..."Don't be afraid of them.  Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes." (Nehemiah 4:13)  It is safer on the frontlines with Jesus than anywhere else.

(These thoughts came from my Junior High small group where we are talking about being "warriors" for God.)

car wash

This last Sunday I went outside to wash my car only to be bombarded by the neighborhood kids.   There are two in particular that always want to see my dog, follow me into my garage when I pull in after work and are always picking leaves off my tree.  They are typical kids.  I usually tell them I am too busy to throw a ball or let them scare my dog half to death but this time I asked them if they would like to wash my car with me.  They enthusiastically replied, "Sure!"  So I handed them each a sponge and we went for it.  They ran around the car with their sponge picking certain spots on the doors and trunk to wash while missing the majority of the dirt on the car.  I followed them around my car and washed the large areas they missed.  Rather then scolding them and telling them to go home because they were only causing me to do more work I actually enjoyed myself.  It was fun to do a project with the neighborhood kids and see them laughing and throwing sponges at each other.  At one point one of the kids squeezed out their dirty sponge on my head.  They probably made the day longer and we didn't have the most efficient car washing day but I saw the heart of God. 

How often do we run around in life trying to do things for God but really just mess it up and not do a great job.  Our best attempts at doing good fall short of accomplishing what God has in mind.  But like a great Father he follows behind us and with a big grin washes the spots we miss.  He is really in it for the relationship anyways.  He finds delight in us enjoying doing things with Him even if we mess it all up which we have a tendency to do.  I hope you are encouraged as I was that God is following behind you with a big grin, getting a kick out of cleaning up your messes.  He values us being a part that He is willing to take more time and not be as effective as He could be without us.  He loves us so much and He wants us to live by faith and risk for Him and trust that he'll clean up any messes we make. 

photo album

Check out "My Baby Boy!" photo album underneath bloggers on the left side of the page.  I hope to keep it up to date with photos of my son Kyan.  He has recently learned to laugh, which my wife makes him do much better than I do.