thinking and stuff – Page 6 – A Work in Progress

What’s Goin’ On

I’ve got a question for you. How important is your political ideology to you? Does it define you? Are you a liberal Democrat or Conservative Republican before all else? Or maybe you’re down with Peace and Freedom. Whichever way you lean, how important is it to you?

How important is your country to you?

Are the best interests of its people as a collective whole more important than whether or not your candidate “wins?”

Is flipping the bird to the other guy or guys more important than giving your nation what it needs to heal, even if what it needs is somewhere between what you want and what they want?

What if what your country needs is not partisanship at all?

Here’s another question. Can we, the people, get past our petty and vindictive natures?

I believe we can, though it will require much of us. We will need to compromise some of our highly prized ideology and possibly even sacrifice something in the way of position or advancement for ourselves or our favorite candidate. Though I also acknowledge some things–like the sanctity of human life–are beyond compromise.

What we’re talking about is a revival of this country, and not just of religious values, but also political and socioeconomic. And musical, for that matter. Someone needs to do something about Katy Perry, and nothing like Call Me Maybe should ever happen again. I won’t even mention the evil of smooth jazz.

Seriously, though. The country is no more beyond saving than the people who live in it.

We just have to do the work.

Your Story Matters

Last night at church Zeb talked about sharing your story and faith with people, and how effective it can be. I believe it. Hearing stories from people about what God had done in their lives showed him to me in a way just hearing a lesson never would have.

I think our stories are so effective because they can show people they aren’t alone in their struggles, and that there is hope.

For what it’s worth, here’s something I came up with a while back that gives you an idea about my story.

NewBreak

I’ve been following the growth of my former church in San Diego for several years now via Facebook and the church website. I’m not at all surprised to see them spreading out over the city and impacting it, for Jesus. Just today I saw a post on Facebook that they had an ‘all-church’ baptism for more than 160 people. Pretty amazing stuff.

Without question or compare, CVCF was the most spirit-filled and spirit-led congregation I was a part of in San Diego, and I was part of quite a few. Pastor Mike Quinn is one of the most humble and faithful servants and leaders I’ve ever met, as were all of the staff and elders (one of whom became a good friend, but more on that another time).

I think of one particular time back in 2006. All the new small group leaders were supposed to attend this rally/class at the Tierrasanta campus, and I was leading a group for those people new to the church–CV101, they called it at the time. I remember Pastor Mike and another gentleman (Billy Pirtle, I think it was) washing the feet of all the new and previous leaders. There were a lot of people. I remember I didn’t want him to wash mine because they were giant, hairy, disgusting hobbit feet. I had not come prepared.

Yet wash them he did. I remember him doing it, and praying for me and my small group (who at the time had no members) all the while, so intently he looked about to tear up. I learned plenty about humility in leadership from Pastor Mike.

There are many reasons why CVCF impacted my life so much, but for the purpose of this writing, I will focus on just two. I don’t want to crash the WordPress server.

1. Small Groups. Pastor Mike always used to say he was after each and every one of us to take part in a small group, and after a relatively short while, I decided to take part in one. It was what was then called the “career group,” I think, and was led by Matt and Carrie, before they were the Botkins.

That group made me realized how important that kind of community is to a person’s spiritual growth, and the friendship, discipleship, love and acceptance I found there are a big part of the reason I was able to lead several groups of my own, eventually.

A friend from Atlanta once described the small group dynamic to me like this, and I thought it was a pretty good comparison. Going to a church service is like walking into the foyer of a house. You don’t really do any socializing there. You’d go into the living room, or the kitchen, or somewhere you’d be more comfortable.

Church is like that because in a smaller setting, like a home group or bible study– that’s where the real ministry gets done. That’s where we learn the most about God and ourselves.

I think that’s so true. And the small group ministry at CVCF helped me to find something within myself I never knew was there. God called a leader out of me, and that was the last thing I expected. I still talk semi-regularly with Matt (mostly via social networking, unfortunately), and I will always be grateful for his friendship and leadership as well.

If you’re not part of a small group or bible study at your church, you need to be. I believe it to be a vital part of the process of edification, and a place where true fellowship happens and real accountability can be found.

My wife and I were part of a great group a little while ago that was like that for me–for us. It was led by the (at the time) youth minister at FCC, and it was a really interesting and diverse collection of people, that together made for some great discussions and powerful times of fellowship. I learned a lot from that group, and I hope when my wife and I are able to start up something similar at our home it works out the same for those people from The Rock Church who will attend. I might also add that Zeb, the leader of my former group, has become one of my closest friends (next to my wife, Jen), and has been a tremendous blessing to me.

2. Prayer. CVCF was the first church I’d been to where I saw someone literally prostrate themselves in prayer. It kind of perplexed me at first because I hadn’t seen anything like it before. It was intense. I began to see more and more people experiencing God in ways that were foreign to me, and worshipping with true abandon. You can find a little more about my experience in that ministry

It was kind of a trip at first, but not long after I became a member at CVCF, I found out about Healing Prayer, which is truly something extraordinary. I first experienced HP as a prayee, which is the person being prayed for. It was through that experience I learned a great deal about my own woundings, and was able to hear God’s truth about them and myself for the first time.

Not long after that experience, I was actually able to join the ministry as an intercessor. It was through nearly four years of that experience–of praying for others–that I learned what a difference prayer can really make, and the changes it can bring in a life through the Holy Spirit.

I also learned through HP that I seem to have some small gift for speaking to people who are broken in many ways and not breaking them further. I love talking to people, and HP offered me the chance not to just talk to them, but pray for them. Pray with them. Anoint them, and bless them.

Through HP I learned about the truth of spiritual warfare, and what true deliverance looks like. I learned that heroes can also be school teachers, and hospital administrators, and nurses, and stay at home mothers. I learned that God can use anyone at anytime to reach out to people in pain, to broken and brokenhearted people and bring them healing through His truth.

It was through HP I found the courage to face my own darkness and realize through Jesus it had never really been that dark. I learned how to take the battle to the enemy, who is just as real as God.

All of that to say if it were not for CVCF and the people I spent time with while I was there, I would certainly not be here today. It’s an extraordinary, vibrant and spirit-filled church, and if you’re in San Diego and don’t have a church home, I encourage you to check it out (here).

I know they are not called CVCF anymore, but they were the whole time I was there and that’s what they’ll always be to me.

So thanks to Kris for inviting me there.

Thanks to Merrill and Allyn for believing in me, encouraging me, and holding me accountable.

Thanks to Pastor Mike Quinn, for being an amazing shepherd.

Thanks to all the people involved in the HP ministry with me over the years I was there. There are too many to mention, but you all know who you are.

You helped me to find this place in the desert, where I belong. This family I love, and this amazing house of worship where I now serve.

But this had to happen first, and thank God it did.

Unpopular

It’s interesting how scripture can and will lead you on a journey, if you let it. This morning, for example. I sat down at the kitchen table to read, and my bible was still bookmarked in Acts from church this weekend. A reference to Deuteronomy 30:14 caught my eye:

No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

The word is in my heart.

I struggle to find time for it sometimes. There are so many more important things. Things like breakfast, and Facebook, and fooling around on the computer.

The word is in my heart so I may obey it.

This led me to Deuteronomy 30, so I could get the context of verse 14.

15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

I look at verse 17 and 18 and it makes me so aware this is where so many are headed in today’s culture of self-absorption, self-gratification, and moral relativism.

We’ve become “tolerant” of so much as a people–as a country–that things have become permissible and even encouraged that would have landed people in chains not long ago.

It really gives me this sinking feeling when I think about it. Knowing what the world was made to be and could have been and then juxtaposing that with what it’s become is heartbreaking.

So many “religions” are coming to prominence these days that are turning heads and hearts from the only real deliverer.

The names and small g gods don’t really even matter because they are all the same, and lead to the same place.

Which isn’t heaven.

Heaven isn’t simply a state of mind, or a cornfield in Iowa. Nor is Hell.

These places are real, and the truth does not lie in Universalism, or Mormonism, or Hinduism, or any other ism. It’s great to make people feel better about themselves, but they also need to know the truth.

Wide is the path that leads to destruction, and lots of people walk it. More every day.

If you want to know the truth, and you want to avoid the destruction promised in Deuteronomy 30, you need only look to the red letters of John 14:6 (they’re red in my Life Application Study Bible, anyway):

6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

It’s pretty simple, really. It might not be a popular view. It may not be thought of as “tolerant” of other religions. Some people might think it arrogant of Christians to think it, much less say it.

But it’s the truth.

Our job, believers, our only job, is to bring that truth to people and places that don’t know it. To government officials who don’t practice it, but pay lip service to curry favor and win elections, to people that hate us, and hate God.

We aren’t meant for destruction, and we need to put our petty denominational squabbles aside and do the work we were given.

I think of a song by the band Switchfoot;

we were meant to live for so much more, have we lost ourselves?

We need to stop trying to make the popular kids like us, and start telling them the truth.

We need to be unpopular. We need to diminish ourselves, that He may increase. So people that don’t know him will Choose life, and their families will live.

My Miracle

I believe because of my mother.

Well, not just because of her. It isn’t because of something she said, and she never really shared anything with me that I can remember. What I do remember is standing outside her hospital room not long before she died and hearing her pray with an old pastor from the Bahamas, the father of a family friend.

I knew she’d read the bible occasionally prior to that day, but she hadn’t talked about it. At least not to me. What I heard from outside that room was the old man’s voice becoming stronger as he prayed–his accent less pronounced. Then I heard my mom’s faint voice going through a prayer of repentance.

I remember sitting with her a while after that, after they’d induced her final coma. I was alone in the room and I remember holding a newspaper and not being able to read it. I remember looking at her, and she was so skinny. Her cheeks were sunken in and her mouth slightly open, rasping breath in and out. Her eyes were cracked open a little, too, but she wasn’t really there anymore. Morphine is a great and terrible thing.

I remember telling her that my sisters and I loved her, and that it was OK for her to go.

It was a few days after that she actually did. My sister Valorie was with her. I remember the call coming in the small hours of the morning.

I don’t know how deeply Jesus sank into her heart in the time she knew him, but I like to think he spoke to her as the lover from Song of Songs:

“Come now, my love.

My lovely one, come.

For you, the winter has passed,

The snows are over and gone,

The flowers appear in the land,

The season of joyful songs has come.

The cooing of the Turtledove is heard in our land.

Come now, my love.

My lovely one, come.

Let me see your face. And Let me hear your voice, for your voice is sweet and your face is beautiful.

Come now, my love,

My lovely one, come.

Song of Songs 2:10 – 14

I became a believer in Jesus in March of 2000, but I don’t think I really experienced the fullness of the healing he can bring until 2007. I heard author Brennan Manning preach from the above scripture and it resonated in my heart.

I think Jesus calls out to all of us in that voice one day. Henri Nouwen speculates the Abba of Jesus called those words to him while he hung on the cross:

Come now my love, my lovely one come.

So that Brennan Manning conference was in my mind when my pastor gave a sermon not long after. He was relating the story of his mother’s passing, and how he led her to Christ. A radio softly played old music in her hospital room and at the moment of her death, the song “Heaven, I’m in Heaven” came on the radio.

That absolutely wrecked me.

I remember asking a friend from Healing Prayer to pray with me after the service and just coming unglued, totally falling apart in the third row of the sanctuary. I don’t remember what my friend prayed that morning, but I realized that was the first time I’d ever really grieved my mother’s loss.

I remember peace coming over me that morning, and it while the arms around me were my friend Ron’s, they were really the arms of the Christ, and his comfort was whispered into my ear through the earnest intercession of a good friend.

I think that morning prepared my heart for my wife more than anything else. I know I would have been useless to her had it not happened.

I’m feeling that comfort anew this morning. I’m sitting here on the couch holding my sleeping son and typing on my phone with my right thumb. I feel the love of my savior through my little man who loves me so much and sleeps so comfortably on his daddy’s lap.

It wasn’t my mom who led me to Christ–it was many things and many people all working together that did it. Many prayers rose to heaven on my behalf.

It was my mom who eventually led me to healing, whether she meant to or not.

So until God calls to me from Song of Songs, I will serve him to the best of my ability, and I will try and show my kids through my life what he’s done for me.

0727, 2 September 2012

Hypocrisy, the RNC, and the Empty Chair

I think it’s interesting how political satire–political mockery–is taken, depending on the target of the mockery, and the deliverer of the material.

In my opinion, one of the great things about this country is we’re free to question, criticize, and even make a considerable amount of sport of whomever we’d like, especially during election season.

Except we are only allowed by the extremely biased media the freedom to do those things if the object of the satire or mockery goes against the far left status quo.

Nothing quite so worthy of mockery, mean-spirited “satire” or even outright name calling as a conservative, Christian, or Republican.

God help anyone who criticizes or mocks President Obama. Apparently, the only president in history whose policies, ideals, and person are beyond reproach or question.

If one is unfortunate enough to make fun of or disagree with any of this president’s policies, or perhaps point out a bit of tarnish on his halo, they will soon find out just how deep the tolerance of the liberal side of the coin actual runs.

They’ll have their intellect questioned. No one with any kind of intelligence can have conservative values.

They’ll have their patriotism and even their faith questioned. Check that last part. If you believe in anything other than a liberal agenda there goes your intellect again.

So far as satire goes, the most vocal and pointed satirists in the entertainment industry (people like Jon Stewart and Bill Maher, for instance) have remained nearly silent regarding President Obama.

This is not because he hasn’t said anything worthy of mockery–“you didn’t build that” comes to mind–but likely because to question the President or liberal policies is to be branded intolerant, to be filled with hate, or even be racist.

Last night’s Republican National Convention comes to mind. Clint Eastwood delivered a “speech” that was really more of a pointed commentary at President Obama and his last 4 years of mediocrity, mostly in the form of a one-sided conversation with the President Himself, “seated” in an empty chair next to the podium.

Eastwood’s speech was supposedly completely ad-libbed, which would explain some of the stiltedness and occasional moments of silence. He did have probably the best “line” of the evening, something to the effect of:

We own this country. The government is in our employ. If the President is not doing his job, we’ve got to let him go.

No hidden meaning there.

So today, I’ve seen a lot of stuff in social media that was outright insulting to both Governor Romney, his wife, and Mr Eastwood, who is now apparently suffering from dementia.

This is the same man whose commercial during the Superbowl was widely viewed as being supportive of the Obama administration, which made him more of a media darling than the goat he is today.

Funny how that works.

Plenty more ugly to come in the days, weeks, and months ahead as we progress toward election day.

I can accept that. It’s just becoming increasingly clear that tolerance has become clearly little more than a buzzword without meaning, and free speech clearly is not that free.

Clearest of all to me lately, is that the liberal left (especially the entertainment “lobby”), as my mom would have said, “Can dish it out, but they can’t take it.”

Perspective

From this point of view, that can looks about a mile high. I’m sure your problem does, too. Maybe it even is.

But look what happens when you step back a little and get a different perspective.

A little bit of distance is sometimes what you need to see things as they actually are. It gives you the ability to see there is an end to whatever giant thing is in your path.

You’ll get through it.

Of Conviction, Inspiration, and Change

There’s this scene in the movie Sling Blade where the camera moves through the day room in a mental hospital, passing by various patients on its way to Karl, played by Billy Bob Thornton, who is quietly sitting in a chair looking out a window.

The audience is offered brief glimpses of many of the patients, and their common features all seem to be lots of slack jaws and staring eyes.

I was thinking about my high school Sunday school class the other day and that image occurred to me.

It has been no walk in the park to try and get those kids interested and participating. I’ve been observing the other teachers and taking lots of notes, and hopefully my next lesson will go a little better.

Certainly, part of the problem must lay with the students having difficulty relating to someone so much older than they are. Also that it’s likely they are not in class by choice, but because their parents make them go.

But I think the problem is larger than that. It’s more than my teaching style and that the students may be tired from a long evening of playing Call of Duty or instant messaging their “bestie” on their smart phones.

I think we’ve raised a generation of kids that has forgotten about the passion of Jesus. By that I do not mean his long walk down the Via Dolorosa, but his zeal for his father, and his Father’s house.

It’s my job to find a way to reawaken that in them. It’s not just about Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world, though he does.

It’s about reminding these kids that Jesus is relevant to them, and is not simply a set of ideals passed down from their parents like a set of holiday china. This is the same Jesus that wept over a city. The same Jesus that calmly made a whip from leather cords and then cleared the temple.

But how do you instill passion and zeal in a generation that seems to care for very little other than what’s before them at that moment?

That’s what I’m trying to figure out. I feel a sense of urgency about it because now is when these kids are going to learn the things that will stay with them. The urgency comes from the knowledge that if things about the world that so desperately need changing are ever going to be changed, it will be these kids that do it.

I think of movements like Jesus Culture, who get so much right. I think it will take some kind of revival to wake this kids up, and that it starts with us. It starts with parents, teachers, and pastors.

We need to find a way to not only make Jesus relevant and real to them, but also to help them realize that while Jesus is the hope of nations, they are, too.

Until (and unless) Jesus returns, they have the unique opportunity to shape their own futures.

How do we do this?

I believe there are several things we need to do.

1. Awaken in them a hunger and a thirst for righteousness. There seems to be an almost choking apathy amongst young people today–the “whatever” generation.

2. Inspire them to act for the kingdom. Retreats and conference highs are great, but we need to be there when they come off it and the real work begins. Inspiration is not a one time thing. We lead from the front and we kick them in the pants when they need it. We need to do this for them:

3. Pray for them. Lift them up. Let them know they can do anything, with effort, with God, and with accountability.

4. Teach them it will not be easy to change the world. It will be tough. Teach them that changing the world starts with their own world. Search their lives and their hearts and identify the areas lacking and bring God to those places. Invite healing.

5. Walk with them. Let them know they aren’t alone and never were. We might be out of touch with their reality in respect to our own, but if we show them consistency and back our pledges to be there for them and pray for them with the actuality of doing those things, then we can change that part, too.

I am not writing this because I think I have all the answers. Certainly the opposite is true. The conviction I’ve been feeling lately is my own, based on my own experiences and my own prayers. It could even be that the huge pile of words I’ve just expelled is solely for my own edification. But on the off chance there’s even 1 other person out there who shares my struggles and convictions, I’m going to put both this and myself out there.

And I’m going to pray.

The Anthem

I was listening to music this morning. This song, actually. The Anthem, by Jake Hamilton:

and a snatch of an Ozzy Osborne song occurred to me. “I don’t want to change the world, I don’t want the world to change me.”

I don’t want to change the world

I wondered why someone wouldn’t change the world, given the opportunity? There are so many terrible things going on in a place that was not designed to be terrible. I could list a million things I would change about the world so it would be more to my liking. Instead, I’ll just mention what I’d change about the world to make it better.

I’d bring God to it, bring Jesus. Like Galadriel told Frodo, “a light when all other lights go out.”

I don’t want the world to change me

That much at least is true. I don’t want the world to change me. Not because I don’t think I need to be changed, but because I want God to do the changing.

So I listened to that song again and I thought that change is possible, but that if it happens it’s up to us. Not a politician, or a president.

The change we can believe in comes from God. It breaks chains, it delivers, and it sets captives free. If you want that kind of change, you’ll have to seek it out, and work for it.

Here’s the lyrics to The Anthem. Maybe it will inspire you, too.

I can hear the footsteps of my King
I can hear his heartbeat beckoning
In my darkness He has set me free
Now I hear the spirit calling me

He’s calling, wake up child, it’s your turn to shine
You were born for such a time as this
He’s calling, wake up child, it’s your turn to shine
You were born for such a time as this
Such a time as this

I can hear a holy rumbling
I’ve begun to preach another king
Loosing chains and breaking down the walls
I want to hear the Father when He calls

He’s calling, wake up child, it’s your turn to shine
You were born for such a time as this
He’s calling, wake up child, it’s your turn to shine
You were born for such a time as this
He’s calling, wake up child, it’s your turn to shine
You were born for such a time as this
Such a time as this

This is the anthem of our generation
Here we are God, shake our nation
All we need is your love
You captivate me

I am royalty, I have destiny
I have been set free, I’m gonna shake history
I’m gonna change the world

Unity in Diversity?

The pictures above are displayed above the proscenium at the San Diego House of Blues, with “Unity in Diversity” written beneath and “All Are One” above.

Certainly, all are not one.

From the little I know about world religions, pretty much all the major ones are symbolically depicted. There’s Catholicism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Brahmanism, Islam, and several other isms I didn’t recognize.

Unity in Diversity. All are one.

I’m not sure what they’re trying to get at with that, but I’m going to go ahead and call BS on the slogans.

Diversity in the symbols depicted, certainly. There’s yin/yang, the star and crescent of Islam, and many other statues and symbols except 1.

I didn’t see a cross.

Considering the rubber stamp political correctness that’s become ubiquitous these days, the lack of representation for Protestant Christianity is perhaps understandable.

Jesus has become persona non grata for much of the world, and representing the instrument of His death and mankind’s hope in a place where secular and sometimes even evil music shakes the roof on an almost daily basis could be seen as ***gasp*** favoring mainstream Christianity.

It was interesting because while diversity and “tolerance” was proclaimed from the proscenium, the message of Christ was fearlessly proclaimed from the stage. First, by opening act Jake Hamilton.

Followed by headliner Jeremy Camp, who turned a very unlikely place and a few hundred strangers into a church service (no video for his set. I was busy worshipping).

It was a great and amazing evening, and the whole point of writing this is simply to say I am continually blown away when I see firsthand how God can use anyone at any time.

During the pre-show Q&A and meet-and-greet, Jeremy Camp was humble, and kind, and very funny. He answered everyone’s questions honestly and straightforwardly, even taking time to lay hands on a young man and pray for healing for him.

The music was great, and the word was proclaimed. During Overcome, Jeremy even had hundreds of strangers link raised hands in praise to the one who’s worthy.

The smartest and best thing Camp said came toward the end of the evening, when he had very little voice left. He looked out over the crowded floor and said “the best thing I can tell you is ‘read your bibles.'”

Simple advice, perhaps. But also the best thing we can do in a world where diversity and “tolerance” are valued far more than the sacrifice of an obscure Nazarene carpenter.

Hear o Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

You can think what you want about diversity, and Christianity, and political correctness, but you will still be just as lost if you fall for that “all is one” nonsense.

All are not one.

You can serve God or not.

If not, you’d best be prepared to face the consequences.

As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.