organic christianity

empty vessel

Listen to the words Jesus speaks of His relationship to the Father and see how consistently He uses the words not and nothing of himself. 

"The Son can do nothing by himself" (John 5:19)

"By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgement is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me" (John 5:30)

"I do not accept praise from men" (John 5:41)

"For I have come down from heaven not to do my will" (John 6:38)

"My teaching is not my own" (John 7:16)

"I am not here on my own" (John 7:28)

"I have not come on my own; but he sent me" (John 8:42)

"I am not seeking glory for myself" (John 8:50)

"The words I say to you are not just my own" (John 14:10)

These words of testimony, spoken by the Lord himself, reveal the deepest motivation of His life and work.  They show how the Father was able to work His redemption through the Son.  They show the state of heart that became Him as the Son of the Father.  They teach us the essential nature and life of the redemption that Christ accomplished and now communicates to us.  It is this: He was nothing that God might be all.  He resigned himself to the Father's will and power that He might work through Him.  Of His own power, His own will, His own glory, His whole mission with its works and teaching-of all this, He said, I am nothing.  I have given myself to the Father to work; He is all.  

This life of absolute submission and dependence upon the Father's will, Christ found to be the source of perfect peace and joy.  He lost nothing by giving all to God.  His humility was simply the surrender of himself to God, to allow Him to do in Him what He pleased, regardless of what men might say of Him or do to Him.  This is the true self-denial to which our Savior calls us, the acknowledgement that self has nothing good in it, except as an empty vessel for God to fill. 

mario kart love song

Thanks to my friend Chad who posted this video on Facebook my life has been forever changed.  I would normally just post this on the right side of my blog but this was worthy of a premier spot.  I hope you like it too!

l'chaim

Yesterday I had the privilege of spending time with pastors, prayer leaders and Christian educators in Brentwood.  One of the people there was Rabbi Ira Book of Congregation B'nai Torah in Antioch.  Ira is also the chaplain of Folsom prison, the famous prison where Johnny Cash recorded an album, where he leads services for thousands of inmates weekly.  Besides hearing interesting stories as a chaplain of a prison he shared with us some of his Jewish culture.  He said that the word "life" in Hebrew has two words located in the middle of it.  One is "community" and the other "God."  Life, in the Jewish mindset, is to be lived in community and God must be at the center of everything.  This couldn't be further from the American mentality, which is isolated and materialistic.  What if we as Christians defined life as living in community and putting God at the center of everything?  It is easier to understand the meaning of life when you define it this way.  Christians would define the meaning of life to be to love God and to love one another.  Jews would have an advantage to understanding the biblical definition of a "good life" because of the root meaning of their word for life.  L'Chaim! (to life) 

If you are an aspiring biblical scholar and would like more information on Jewish culture and context of the Bible the Rabbi told me to read the book Jewish Literacy by Joseph Telushkin.

(I couldn't verify Rabbi Book's information on the Hebrew meaning of life, so I trusted that the Rabbi knew what he was talking about.)  

a new year

In the words of Martha Stewart, "I hope you all rang in the New Year with good cheer and lots of festivities.  I wish, of course, everybody a happy and healthy 2009."  I happen to be writing this post while my beautiful wife watches "Martha."  We recently returned from a wonderful trip to San Diego where my cousin was married.  It was quite an adventure traveling with our baby boy.  The benefits are that you get rushed to the start of lines at the airport and no one wants to sit next to you on the airplane.  

Here are a few highlights of the last part of 2008 since I can't hardly remember much past a month ago...

We visited The Rock church in San Diego and was blown away by their vision, growth and history.  In 2009 they are going to be giving the city of San Diego over 700,000 hours of community service.  In just 8 years of existence a small church on a college campus grew to over 10,000 people.  They have always been and will continue to be a church that serves the community and reaches the unchurched.  They are an example of a church that is outward focused.

The Rock Church in Brentwood, which is launching in 96 days, adopted 5 needy families in the area.  Charlotte and I were privileged to purchase gifts, clothes and food for a beautiful family of four.  They recently lost their father and the mother of three children is living off of disability.  The mother said that they wouldn't of had a Christmas unless we as a church adopted them.  It was fun being the church before we even started our public services.  At The Rock Church in Brentwood we hope that these stories are not just around the holidays but are all year round as we serve the Brentwood area and display the gospel with our actions and words.    

In December I visited the Slezinger's and IHOP in Kansas City.  It was refreshing to hang out with my dear friends and hear about their growth and adventures in Missouri.  IHOP is all about prayer.  It was an honor to be a small part of a prayer meeting that has been going on 24/7 for a decade.  This trip encouraged me to not just pray more but to make prayer the center of my life.  The staff at IHOP pray for 6 hours a day and then they work.  I think this is radical and a wonderful reworking of priorities.  Isn't Jesus the one who really builds His church?  So why do we need to be busy doing church business all the time instead of praying?  It was such a culture shock to be around people who really focused everything on Christ, since I usually hear people say that but their life and testimony have no reflection of that.  

In 2009 my son will turn 1, we will be planting a church in Brentwood and if that weren't enough my wife and I will continue to learn how to die to ourselves and conform to the image of Christ.  2008 has been the year of new beginnings for us.  I left the church my grandfather started and I had been attending and serving at for 24 years to venture out into the unknown with a church plant in Brentwood.  It has caused rapid growth in my own life and I realized a lot of things that were important to me really meant nothing.  It is all about Jesus and following Him wherever He says to go.  

I have to thank a few people that really meant a lot to me in 2008.  I list them in no specific order but I felt the need to recognize mentors and friends of mine who really helped and supported me through the most challenging year of my life and are still an important part of my life and development:  my wife, my mom and dad, Rob Lamkin, Mark Slezinger, Ken Malmin, Nick Higgins, Danny Bennett and of course Jesus who has my heart.