organic christianity

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. 

a life for sale

A lovelorn man who put his life in Australia up for sale on the Internet was one step closer to starting over Monday as bids for his house, job and lifestyle hit 2.2 million dollars (2.1 million US).

Ian Usher, a 44-year-old from Yorkshire in England, launched the unusual auction after announcing on his blog: "I have had enough of my life! I don't want it any more! You can have it if you like!"

Usher, who has lived in the western city of Perth for the past six years, said he decided to sell after breaking up with his wife because everything in the house was a "reminder of the wonderful past we shared."

The former rug salesman said the auction surpassed his hoped-for price of 500,000 dollars on the first-day of the week-long auction on Sunday.

When Usher went to bed on Sunday night, his life was worth 650,000 dollars, according to bids on the Internet auction site eBay. By early Monday, it was valued at a staggering 2.2 million dollars.

"I turned the computer on (Monday morning) and it was 1.9 million and I burst out laughing," Usher told AFP.

While it was possible that some of the bidders were "idiots trying to make a name for themselves," Usher said he was confident there were genuine offers in the mix.

Even so, Usher said the value of the physical assets for sale -- including his three-bedroom Perth home, 19-year-old Mazda 929 sedan, a 1986 motorbike and a jetski -- was just 450,000 to 500,000 dollars.

Usher has also promised that the winner will be introduced to his friends and lifestyle and will secure his former job as a rug store assistant for two weeks initially. This may be extended depending on the store owners' agreement.

All Usher will retain is his passport, wallet and the clothes on his back if the deal goes ahead.

Bidders may want to buy the life package to resell items separately, profiting from their value as collectible items, he said.

"I had emails from people asking 'Can I buy a pair of socks or something small from your house, I can't afford the whole thing,'" he said.  "Someone could buy the whole house and sell it off."

Usher, who plans to travel, donate to charity and climb the Eiffel Tower in Paris once the sale is finalised, said he won't make any definite plans for his new life until this one is over.

"It still has an air of unreality about it," he said of the auction.

A life for sale

(www.breitbart.com)

fear

When we turn our hearts toward God, all of our fears are consumed by one fear.  We are called to fear only God.  There is an important reason for this.  What we fear is what we're subject to; our fears define our master.  Where there is no fear, there is no control.

When we fear God and God only, we are no longer bound by all of the other fears that would hold us captive.  The fear of death, the fear of failure, the fear of rejection, the fear of insignificance-all of the fears that know us by name and haunt us in the dark of the night become powerless when we know the fear of the Lord.  And  if this is not enough, we discover that perfect love casts out all fear.  Not even God will hold us or control us by fear.  When we fear Him, we in essence begin to live a life where we are fearless. 

The freedom to love and the freedom from fear make us an entirely different species within the whole of humanity.  This may be the most extraordinary mark of the Spirit of God within the heart of humanity: the freedom to live out dreams greater than ourselves.  (Gleanings from The Barbarian Way by Erwin McManus)

Lord may we fear you alone.  And may your church be a place where dreams are nurtured, developed and unleashed.  Help us to manage our freedom correctly rather than to live in fear. 

offensive

A quote from a Pastor that I heard has been on my mind for the last couple days.  He said, "If Jesus were to preach the majority of sermons that pastors in America will preach this Sunday He would have NEVER been crucified."  What this pastor was trying to say was that many communicators of the Bible have watered down the Bible and the message of following Jesus.  They are more concerned with making people feel happy and accepted and keeping their position secure that they will hardly ever preach a convicting message that might make people feel like they have areas of their lives that are lukewarm, need to repent or maybe even leave their Church and go somewhere else that fits their needs and makes them feel "good". 

What some pastors (including myself at times) are really doing is giving in to a fear of man.  We get caught up in focusing on being accepted by our congregation, having good attendance and not offending anyone that we forget that Jesus couldn't have lived a more different lifestyle.  He is the definition of love but that didn't mean that He didn't offend crowds that He spoke to or preach messages that were confusing in order to see who would be led by their heart and not their head.  He was the most anointed minister, an amazing communicator and the son of God and He still would have many people leave when He spoke and only a few would stick around who really got it.  I believe His concern was with quality rather than quantity.  The approval of men paled in comparison to the need He had to please His father. 

Take a fresh look at John 6 where Jesus preaches one of the most offensive messages in His preaching career.  He stated to the crowd watching Him that he was the bread of life sent down from Heaven which caused some grumbling because He dared to say that He was the Son of God and salvation for mankind.  But the grumbling and complaining only made Him follow up with telling them that if they "eat His flesh"  they will live forever : )  They began to question Him and the grumbling continued but he went further to say only if you "drink my blood" will you have eternal life.  At this point much of the crowd and many of His disciples turned back and no longer followed Him because this message was gross, cannibalistic, and highly offensive for many reasons.  I believe most pastors today would have freaked out if members and leaders in their church started walking out in the middle of their message and would have asked them to come back next week for part 2 of the sermon where they could explain themselves more clearly so not to lose anyone.  But Jesus just continues on.

Then Jesus, secure in His message and not needing approval from men, asks His twelve disciples if they would want to leave and Simon Peter says the perfect answer, ""Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God."  He led with his heart not fully understanding the message but so in love with Jesus and hungry to follow Him that he wouldn't let his head get in the way.  Jesus narrowed down the crowed to the serious followers.  I heard it said once that Christians would really benefit if we cut our heads off because then we wouldn't get tripped up by our logical brain so much.  I am not saying that we should never preach messages that make us feel good because the gospel is life to us.  I am only trying my best to model my ministry after Jesus, risking like He did, doing the acts like He did and never compromising the message for money, fame, recognition or approval from men.  Neither am I saying that our mind isn't important in following Christ but it sure can get in the way if we let it.    

Jesus, I know you never contradict your word but I ask you to please contradict our understanding of it and impart to us boldness that we could always say what you ask us to say no matter how difficult or costly it might be.   

relentless

This morning I was driving in my car and I was just hit with the revelation of God's love for me.  Lately I have been asking for God to reveal His undying love to me.  A Misty Edwards song was playing in my car as I drove down Hopyard towards Peet's.  By the time I got to Peet's tears were flowing and I felt like the creator of the universe showed up in my car just to say He loves me.  I hope you and I will have many more encounters like this one on a regular daily basis.  Here are the lyrics to the song "You won't Relent", the song I was listening to, off of the Relentless album.  I suggest you pick it up.  And while you're at it pick up Crazy Love by Francis Chan if you really want to spend time meditating on God's love for you.  Francis is a phenomenal Dad to his children and the next generation of pastors, a great speaker and a wonderful pastor.  I have been so blessed by his simple message of God's love and the purity of His affection for Jesus.   

"You Won't Relent" - Misty Edwards
You won't relent until You have it all
My heart is Yours

I'll set You as a seal upon my heart
As a seal upon my arm
For there is love that is as strong as death
Jealousy demanding as the grave
Many waters cannot quench this love

Come be the fire inside of me
Come be the flame upon my heart
come be the fire inside of me
Until You and I are one

the barbarian way

Excerpts from The Barbarian Way:

Somehow Christianity has become a nonmystical religion.  It’s about reasonable faith.  If we believe the right things, then we are orthodox.  Frankly whether we ever actually connect to God or experience His undeniable presence has become incidental, if not irrelevant.  We have become believers rather than experiencers.  To know God in the scriptures always went beyond information to intimacy.  We may find ourselves uncomfortable with this reality, but the faith of the Scriptures is a mystical faith.  It leads us beyond the material world into an invisible reality.  We become connected to the God of eternity.  Who you are at the core is spirit.  God is Spirit.  To walk with God is to journey in the spiritual realm.

…we are called to join the barbarian tribe and to embrace our call as mystical warriors.  Although you can learn important things about God from others, in the end to know the barbarian way you must receive your instructions from God Himself.  If this isn’t enough to drive you crazy, I don’t know what is.  Which I guess leads me to the point: there’s a level of insanity that comes with the barbarian way. 

Thoreau talked about individuals who march to the beat of a different drummer.  Barbarians have never met the drummer.  In the civilized view of discipleship, everything and everyone moves toward the center.  Discipleship is translated into standardizing everyone into the same pattern.  We have equated the promise that we would be conformed into the image of Christ with a belief that all of us will be the same.  Discipleship has become the mechanism for uniformity rather than uniqueness.     

…the point is not that God makes us mentally or emotionally imbalanced, but that He makes us passionately and spiritually unbalanced…His desire is not to conform us, but to transform us.  Not to make us compliant, but to make us creative.  His intent is never to domesticate us, but to liberate us.   

…what should  disciple of Jesus Christ look like who comes after Jesus?  How is it possible that, for many of us, being a good Christian is really nothing more than being a good person?  The entire focus of our faith has been the elimination of sin, which is important but inadequate, rather than the unleashing of a unique, original, extraordinary, wonderfully untamed faith.