life

God’s Family Tree

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Every family has at least one person who has a checkered past. Every family has that one person whose name, when brought up in coversation, immediately reduces everyone to whsipers and furtive looks. The one everyone talks about and shakes their head and says things like, “Bless their heart.”

I bet you never thought about the fact that God has a family tree, too. He does. And His family tree has a few names that would cause some people to blush. He has a liar, a cheat, a whore, and a despised foreigner among the list.

The liar is Abraham, who twice lied about Sarah being his sister rather than his wife to save his own skin.

The cheat is Jacob who tricked his brother Esau into selling his birthright for a cup of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup.

The whore is Rahab whose redeeming act was to hide the Israelite spies and cast her lot with God’s people over her own people.

The despised foreigner is Ruth, one of the Moabites that were on Israel’s bad side ever since they didn’t let God’s people pass through their land when Israel was in the wilderness.

All these people had a part in bringing about the arrival of the Messiah. What to the world were a bunch of rejects and outcasts became a part of God’s story.

We too get to be  a part of the story God is telling. We are invited to be His children. We are the living love letters that God writes to the world to show just how strong He is to rescue and save anyone. We are the ones whose transformed lives are the best advertisement for how God’s love conquers all.

Remember that the next time your own story doesn’t seem to be going well. Your story is about more than just you. You get to be a part of something so much bigger and better than you.

And besides, I happen to have read the last page on the story and [SPOILER ALERT] WE WIN!!!

 

Help Wanted

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Help wanted: people to be My Church and My witnesses to the uttermost ends of the earth.

Good looks and popularity are not necessary. People skills are optional. Talent and charisma and charm are also optional.

Looking for authentic, broken people who want Me more than anything and want My kingdom more than any political or personal agenda. Seeking those who hurt with the lost, weep with those who mourn, and reach out to the castaways.

Must be willing to sell everything and give it to the poor. Must be willing to love me so much that your love for father and mother seems like hate in comparison. Must be willing to drink My blood and eat My flesh.

Most of all, seeking those whose heart breaks for what breaks Mine. Looking for those who are surrendered and available for Me to use whenever and however I choose.

Must take up the cross and follow Me.

Must seek to worship Me in spirit and in truth.

Will take anyone who will simply say YES to me and what I did for them on the cross. Will take anyone who puts faith in me as Lord and Savior.

Wanted: people who will be vessels of my extravagant love, to be filled to overflowing so that it spills out onto everyone they meet. Need people who will realize that my love can change and transform anyone and overcome anything.

Wanted: you.

— Jesus

The Help: What’s So Evil About the Status Quo

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I saw the movie The Help today and was reminded about how not so long ago it was socially acceptable to treat certain people differently because of their skin color. I’m sure there were many back then who were opposed to such discrimination, but went along with it any way rather than buck the system.

I was also reminded that saying that all evil needs is for good men (or women) to do nothing. I also was reminded that it really only takes one person to make a difference. Just one.

Sure, times have changed. Yet in some ways, they really haven’t. Maybe it’s not discrimination. Maybe it’s more like sacrificing family for career. Or maybe it’s playing religion instead of really following Jesus. Every generation has a choice, I think, to be a part of the status quo or to speak out.

I think from what I understand of the Bible that God is for those who are outside the status quo. His heart is for the outsider and the outcast. He is for the rejects and the nobodies. He chose the nothings of the world to shame the A-listers of the world.

I love the way Bono of U2 put it. He said, “”God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house. God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives. God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war. God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them”

So the question remains: will you choose to remain silent and stick with the status quo or will you speak up and stand up for the defensless and the hopeless and the outcast?

I can look in my mirror and see one of the guily party looking back. I haven’t spoken up. I have been silent for far too long.

Lord, give us courage to speak for those who have no voice and to defend those who can’t defend themselves. Give us Your heart for the outcast and the broken. Especially me.

 

 

Name

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The sermon today at Fellowship Bible Church made me think of an old Goo Goo Dolls song, Name. Normally, sermons and the Goo Goo Dolls don’t go together, but for me they did.

The verses from Luke 8:40-56 centered around a man named Jairus whose daughter was very sick and a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years. The pastor pointed out that the woman didn’t have a name. She was simply known for her ailment.

She was ceremonially unclean. That meant she could never worship in the temple. That meant anyone she touched would also be unclean. She was alone, unwanted, and untouchable. She was an outcast.

But she was also desparate. She wouldn’t let anything stop her from getting to this Jesus that she had heard could make blind men see and lame men walk and dead men live. Nothing mattered more to her than getting to Jesus. That’s real faith.

As for the fact that she had no name, Scriptures tell us that she did after she met Jesus. We may not know the name she was given at birth, but we know the name Jesus gave her. “Daughter, your faith has made you well.”

Daughter. No longer outcast. No longer unwanted. No longer unclean.

Jesus purposely chose the outcasts and nobodies of the day to be His followers and ambassadors and He still does today. He chooses the ones with the sordid past. He picks the ones with a history. He woos the ones that no one else wants to touch. He chooses you and me.

Not only that, but He gives us a new name. No longer are you Screw-up or Failure or Trash or Hopeless. You are Son. You are Daughter. You are known now for Who you belong to and Who loves you more than anyone else could ever love you.

Maybe the next time you hear that Goo Goo Dolls song, you will hear it differently. The next time you hear the names people call you, you will remember the one and only name that matters. The one God calls you that trumps every other name.

BELOVED.

The Pretender (Not Just a Great Song by Jackson Browne Anymore)

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Ok, I’m going to ask you a question and I want you to be as honest as possible. Here goes. Have you ever felt like you were pulling the wool over everybodys’ eyes, where they thought you had it all together and you really deep down inside felt like you had no control over anything and no clue whatsoever? Raise your hand if you have.

I know it feels dorky to be sitting alone in front of your computer monitor (or laptop) in the dark with your hand raised, but do it anyway. I just did. I felt really good (and a little bit awkward, too).

You are not alone if you feel like you are fooling everyone.

You are not alone if you feel like you’re pretending to be successful when you feel like you’re failing at every possible turn and messing up everything.

You’re not alone if you walk around with a grown-up exterior, but still feel like a scared little 1o-year old, still afraid of the same things and still believing the same lies you believed back then.

You are not alone if you have a fear deep down inside that someone will see though your saintly Christianity and expose all those sordid and angry thoughts you keep hidden inside.

You won’t be alone because I’ve been there, too. That makes two of us. And I would bet money that there’s more (but I’m Baptist, so I don’t believe in betting real money. Betting Monopoly money is OK in my translation of the Bible, though).

God knows. God sees all the fear and the anger. He sees what’s behind the curtain and what’s beneath the mask. He know your mess better than you do. And the real kicker? He loves you more than you could possibly imagine.

I heard someone say that Jesus didn’t come to accuse or condemn you, but to love you and transform you.

That’s good news. That’s worth being real and honest.

Some Things I Love

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1) I love downtown Franklin, especially at night and even better when it’s not so stinkin’ humid that you can hardly breathe. I love the history and the ambiance of the place.

2) I love when Sweet CeCe’s has red velvet as one of their frozen yogurt flavors. I forgive Sweet CeCe’s for all those times when my hopes were dashed and I had to settle for cable car chocolate or cake batter.

3) I love anything and everything put out by Hillsong. I especially love the fact that I got to see Hillsong United in concert and hear all these songs live.

4) I love that my cat likes to hang around with me and occasionally sleep on me. I feel privileged.

5) I love discovering anything new that broadens my horizons, like new music or books or movies or friends or places or foods. Anything that stretches me, ’cause when you get stretched, you never can go back to your original shape.

6) I love long weekends and vacation days and those days when you get to sleep in to some ungodly hour.

7) I love all things U2 and Coldplay.

8) I love the fact that God’s mercies are new every morning and that His love is unfailing and that He won’t stop wooing my heart until the day I die. And beyond that day.

9) I love the fact that just about every day a song I hear or something I read or a conversation I have will give me one more facet of the beauty and faithfulness of my God. I will get one more thing to be thankful for.

10) I especially love the fact that everything I see on the news that makes me sick to my stomach and breaks my heart will one day be put right. There will be no more hurt or injustice or pain or loss ever again. He will wipe away every tear from our eyes and we won’t be able to see for being bedazzled by the joy we find then.

11) I love most of all that my Abba is very fond of me and that He is also very fond of you, too!

Worship

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Tonight at Kairos the subject was worship. I am a fan of worship, but I think I tend to make it too much of an event and not enough of a lifestyle. Worship isn’t just singing or great music. That’s part of it, but there’s so much more to it.

The takeaway from tonight that really blew my mind is  this: everything is worship. Every single thing I do and say is me worshipping, whether that be God or something else. Everything. John Calvin said that the heart is an idol factory, always offering up a god for me to worship other than the one true God.

How well I live out my worship doesn’t just affect me. There are many people watching my worship, determining their view of Jesus by what they see of me. I may be the only Jesus some ever see, the only Bible some will ever read. That should give me pause.

God is the only true object worthy of worship. Even if God only saved me and never did one thing more for me, I would still owe Him an eternity’s worth of worship.

Will you make worship an event or a lifestyle? Will you make it a one day, one hour a week thing or a 24/7 everyday kind of thing?

God, make us true worshippers of You who will truly worship you in spirit and in truth by everything we say and everything we do. May our worship be a witness of just how good You are.

Amen.

More Good Music

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Lately, I’ve been listening to the same music. Sometimes you feel like exploring and sometimes you just feel like listening to what you know. That has been me the last week or so.

I’ve really been liking Drew Holcomb and The Neighbors’ newest album, Chasing Someday. I can see that one getting some serious play time in my car. It has a good “road trip at night” vibe to it and really clever lyrics.

I’ve been going back to some old and some not-so-old favorites like Adele and Hillsong Live and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. It just depends on the mood I’m in.

I’d like to know what you’ve been listening to in or out of your car, at work, or wherever you listen to music. Preferrably, the more off -the-top 40 – beaten path, the better. Though I’m not opposed to top 40 if it’s good music that just happens to be currently popular. Not all top 40 is ear candy.

I like to think that variety is truly the spice of life and musical variety goes along way to avoiding narrow-mindedness and expanding your horizons. At least that’s what I’ve found.

I recommend Gillian Welch, Jeff Buckley, The Civil Wars, and Over the Rhine, among others, if you’re interested in expanding your musical horizons. That’s where I’d start.

I really don’t go much for whether music is top 40, country, pop, alternative, or whatever. I just go for music that speaks to me and sometimes speaks for me when I can’t find the right words. That’s the kind of music I like.

PS I like some Christian music, too. Andrew Peterson and Sara Groves are a couple of my favorites.

The Simple Life (and the Simpler Arcade Game)

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When I was in Ohio for my friend’s wedding, we had our wedding rehearsal dinner at Dave & Busters’. An excellent choice, but I digress. The point is that I finally found an arcade game that I’m good at (unless you count skeeball). The game is called Gone Fishing.

The premise is simple. A polar bear stands with a wooden club over a hole in the ice where fish periodically jump out of the water. The point of the game is to whack the fish with the club at just the right angle to send the poor cod flying. The further he goes, the more points you get. Genius.

I can handle that. It’s simple. And I like simple.

I think life should be more that way. We make our lives too complicated and too cluttered. We end up doing a lot of things marginally well instead of a few things exceptionally. We end up feeling like Bilbo Baggins, who described himself as feeling like butter scraped over too much bread, thin and worn out.

Jesus said that the whole law could be summed up in loving God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and loving your neighbor as yourself. Life in a nutshell is loving God and loving others. That’s it.

Sometimes, life gets complicated when we don’t have a purpose. Or when we have several conflicting and confusing goals instead of just one.

Christianity gets overly complicated, too. I really like how Henri Nouwen simplified the faith. When asked to describe the faith in one sentence, he said, “You are the beloved of God.” That’s it. The whole story is about how God became one of us and died in our place because He loved us too much to leave us in the mess we were in.

I tried playing Call of Duty: Black Ops, but ended up being cannon fodder (or in this case, machine gun fodder). I was really bad. I think I’ll stick to much simpler games like Gone Fishing.

I think I am just one more person to find out that the simple life really is the good life. Getting there may be hard, but I think it’s worth it.

 

You are the Beloved (A Henri Nouwen Quote)

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I had to post this because it spoke so powerfully to me just now. Here it is in its entirety from Henri Nouwen.

“Over the years, I have come to realize that the greatest trap in our life is not success, popularity, or power, but self-rejection. Success, popularity, and power can indeed present a great temptation, but their seductive quality often comes from the way they are part of the much larger temptation to self-rejection. When we have come to believe in the voices that call us worthless and unlovable, then success, popularity, and power are easily perceived as attractive solutions. The real trap, however, is self-rejection. As soon as someone accuses me or criticizes me, as soon as I am rejected, left alone, or abandoned, I find myself thinking, “Well, that proves once again that I am a nobody.” … [My dark side says,] I am no good… I deserve to be pushed aside, forgotten, rejected, and abandoned. Self-rejection is the greatest enemy of the spiritual life because it contradicts the sacred voice that calls us the “Beloved.” Being the Beloved constitutes the core truth of our existence.”

Meditate on that for a while and see if that doesn’t change the way you see yourself.