Gods mountain

How quickly we forget our sins of the past.

2008-09-23T10:30:00.002-07:00

Last night's bible study was on David and Abigail, a story they tried to each in Sunday school to five year olds, without much luck. We tried to study it as adult men, and still needed some help. David spends a lot of time running around wiping out giants, various anoying countries, and other small towns that are on the wrong side of his sword; and on the face of it, this seemed like just another case. But in this case David over-reacted, and somebody had to go out and stop him.

Luckily, force has never been one of my strengths. As a 49 pound weakling in school, agressive behavior was not my first strategy. Hiding behind a trash can was. But it doesn't mean it never happened. I just had to think about it some to remember the good old days.

I'm a much larger person now, than in my youth, but I'm still not much into confrontation, at least not in person. Put me behind the wheel of a large beat-up truck, and its a whole nother matter.

Driving in LA is not easy. There are several million people, all trying to get somewhere at the same time, and you're just in the way. On the best of days, the average driver's behavior could be described as 'rude'. On the worst of days, they shoot at each other. One weapon in my arsenal of survival skills was my large, aged, worn down, farm truck which I got from my grandfather for $1,500. Nothing is better at saying, "get out of my way", than a vehicle that obviously has been neglected.

More than once, I've gotten so close to the micro car in front of me that you could barely see them any more. Heck, I hid an entire CRX below the line of my hood once, driving down to San Diego. Only saw him again once I leaned on my horn and he scurried into another lane.

It got so bad, that one time, when I saw another guy pull out around stopped traffic on the freeway into the exit lane, that I drifted back a little, making an opening right in front of me that I figured he'd try and cut back in on. As he got almost up beside me, I gunned the engine and lept forward, closing the gap entirely and leaving him no room to merge back in and no more merge lane to hang out in. I waved merrily as he was forced off the freeway entirely. He was not smiling back.

So, I've had my run-ins with aggression. I just like to think that I'm past that now.

Thankfully, I no longer live in LA. I live in a much smaller town, where I drive about three miles to work, and the only rush hour traffic is on the first friday night when its snowed and all the Phoenix people come up to see the fluffy white stuff. I also try and leave more time in my life to be able to handle the bumps in the road without getting anxious, and I try and not sweat it when I am late.

I don't know how I'd do, back in the thick of it, in a 1977 chevy farm truck again; hopefully I'd be a better witness for Christ than I was back then.

Just not my day.

2006-03-12T03:18:00.000-07:00

10am
Wife calls to check in. Lets me know its snowing a bunch. Suggests I stay out in the bay area longer. "Sorry, its a non-refundable ticket." I'll have to brave the storms whether I want to or not.

1pm
Call the airline just on the hope that they've declared Flagstaff a disaster area. "Oh, you're flight's been cancelled." "So Flagstaff is closed?" "No, actually, the San Jose flight was cancelled. You're rebooked at 6:20pm."

So now I'm supposed to be flying into Flagstaff at 11pm at night in the middle of a blizzard. The roads out of town are even closed. You can drive a car around hardly and they think they're going to get a plane in there?

5:30pm
Still no change in their optimism so I hand over my bright yellow bag of goodies to the luggage machine and wander through security.

9:30pm
The flight wasn't so bad up until the end when we hit the storms around Phoenix. That's right its a monsoon in the middle of the desert. Any guesses what's happening up at 7,000 feet? Snow maybe? Still the computer is showing on time so that's all they're giving me.

9:35pm
The flight's cancelled.

We're directed to go mozy over to the customer support desk and dutifully gather around while they come up with some creative solution at the rate of about two per hour. Being at the end of this long line, I get on my cell phone and call Flight-fund. They ask me what I want to do, and having no great desire to try driving a rental car up the hill without chains, I suggest that I go back where I was before and just pretend this never happens. They let me know that they can't re-arrange my schedule because the computer hasn't released the Flagstaff flight yet, but that I should run over to gate A30 and throw myself upon the agents there.

Being that I am at gate B7, I sort of shlep my way over to A30--which is pretty far out there (maybe half a mile). Sufficiently winded and a little over-heated, I pant in front of the gate counter while listening to the agents wring their hands over not having enough flight attendants to send out the flight on time.

After a bit, I finally get the chance to tell my story, and they graciously offer to re-direct me back to San Jose. After I get the new ticket in-hand, I embarrassingly point out that I also checked a bag on the way out. They give my 1 in 3 odds that someone is paying enough attention to redirect the bag. I don't really care--I just don't want to sleep in the airport for the next two nights.

11:45pm
We arrive safe and sound in San Jose after a rough start climbing back out of the storm. Its always a comforting feeling when right after take-off the engines wind down in speed and the nose pitches down. But some how we manage to stay in the air and make it back where I started several hours ago. Of course my bag didn't make it, so I fill out the appropriate paperwork and leave it at that. After waking my friend Tim up, who drove back down and then took a nap in the parking lot, we head back to his place for the night.

1am
On a lark, I decide to call back and see about getting home eventually. After talking them out of sending my right back to Phoenix to be stuck all day again; I get them to book me for Monday. This takes about fifteen minutes on hold, as apparently the reservation computer still runs on cogs and belts. During that time they come back on the line and let me know that they've graciously decided not to charge me $100 for changing my reservation. Wow. You couldn't get me to Flagstaff tonight, and so you're not going to charge me extra to go another time.

I say nothing, as I'm too tired to respond with any wit or intelligence, and don't want to jinx my good fortune. Maybe I'll just go to bed now.

Just checking in

2006-03-03T22:00:00.000-07:00

Spent all last night sorting out my technology so that I could pull the latest sermons from Northpoint. Just sitting there browsing what was available I got sucked into listenting to two of them right on the spot. They're just that good.

Some serious defficiencies in my life:

become one with my wife (in intention and spirit)
get my finances back under control (as I bounce funds from one place to another in a desperate attempt to cover the balance on the credits cards at the last minute to avoid finance charges)
know more God's will through reading the Bible so that I may do more than blow through life like a leaf on the wind of time.

Yesturday's focus: Proverbs 22. Some highlights: The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender. and Do not be a man who strikes hands in pledge or puts up security for debts; if you lack the means to pay, your very bed will be snatched from under you.

A disapointing report card

2005-09-03T21:00:00.000-07:00

The message tonight was on discipleship which was on target for me, because I've been thinking about that recently.

I had posed the question to myself a couple weeks back, "What does God want me to do?" And the answer I got back was, "be one of his disciples." When I look at what I've done with my life, compared to the twelve, its not very impressive. While there's some leway on how I go about interacting with the world (given my own skills and talents), the end results should be people knowing God's love due to my actions.

So far not much to show for it.

Part of my new focus is outside of my comfort-zone. When looking to help God, I now look beyond my own family, a few close friends, and the contacts I have at Church. My work needs to touch more people, and help knit the community closer together. This is where my metalworking stuff is coming in handy actually, as there are a lot more people around here that like to stick bits of steel together than there are ones that spend all day designing C++ classes (go figure).

A day of rest

2005-08-23T22:00:00.000-07:00

Of all the laws in the Bible, I find it most remarkable that everyone has basically tossed the commandment to honor the sabath.

This has bothered me before, and I've dug around on the internet which basically led me to a few sites that said its ok not to rest anymore cause Jesus worked on the sabath. Well, yes he did, but I think he--more than anyone else--was in tune with the spirit of the law and knew that obeying the spirit was more important than obeying the letter of the law.

With the new job, the new kid, and summertime projects (when the weather is good); my life had been especially full of too much actiivity. I'd just finish one thing when there were two more things to look at. Moving boxes, digging ditches, nailing floors, carting the kids around, cutting firewood, leveling the driveway--it was too much. And when I got a chance to think (which wasn't very often), I realized that God wasn't getting much time and things were stressed out.

I understand that Jesus healed on the Sabbath, and as he told the rulers, "If something needs doing, then do it." But I began to wonder what the spirit of the commandment was. Maybe it was to set aside time to clear one's head, to step away from the hussle and bussle. To avoid being too busy. And its not just an issue of burn-out. If you're doing what you love, then you can go non-stop for quite a long time (well maybe with a nap or two). I think it comes back to the decision between selfishness and thinking of God. Filling up one's schedule is focusing too much on ourselves and not opening ourselves up to what's going on around us. So I decided to plan a day of rest and see what happened.

Ok, so it wasn't quite that relaxing. Actually it was just a day without projects and without going anywhere. The kids were still running around at a 100 mph and little Oscar still needed toting around in the sling when he wasn't getting fed. But it was a slower paced day then normal, and I felt more relaxed at the end. Even the kids were able to occupy themselves, playing for bits and pieces of the afternoon. Overall I think things went well. We even had a friend stop by unexpected to drop off a water heater.

So maybe there is something to this day of rest thing. Its not easy to do when there are so many things waiting to be done. But like tithing, if you spend your time wisely, then God will give you enough time to get the things done that need to be done. And maybe some of those other things didn't really need doing. Something to think about ... while I take a nap.

Why is religion so complicated

2005-04-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

Justin wonders what the base class of a church is (he's being geeky here), and wondering if its too hard to abstract the common elements. The answer is, it is and it isn't.

While looking at scripture, we find the base class of God's law.

CLASS godslaw {
   ABSTRACT COMMAND honor_god() ;
   ABSTRACT COMMAND honor_each_other() ;
} ;

But that was too abstract for the israelites and for the new testament Christians. So we ended up with specializations:

CLASS tencommandments : PUBLIC godslaw {
   COMMAND no_othergods() ;
   COMMAND no_idols() ;
   COMMAND no_misusing_thelordsname() ;
   COMMAND honor_sabath() ;
   COMMAND honor_fatherandmother() ;
   COMMAND no_murder() ;
   COMMAND no_adultery() ;
   COMMAND no_stealing() ;
   COMMAND no_falsetestimony() ;
   COMMAND no_coveting() ;
} ;

Even that turned out not to be enough for the nation of Israel so there were hundreds of other rules and regulations that got to be a big todo. Living your life right turned out to be a lot of work, and infact, some Jewish people believe that the reason for all those rules, was to make it impossible to be blameless or perfect (there was always something to work on).

It is interesting to read some of the other things that happened back in the early days. God wanted the nation to be self-rules, with priests to help guide each person spirtually. But the people said, nope--not going to happen. They pointed out that they were not with-it enough to pull that off and that they'd better have a king or everything would be lost. So God had to give them a king, which turned out to be a disaster, but they muddled their way through for quite some time.

There seems to be something frightening to most people about taking complete responsibility for one's life. If we could do it, we'd just need those first two laws and that would be enough to guide us. But we can't.

Things had changed somewhat in the time of Jesus. It wasn't necessary anymore to avoid eating animals with split hooves (good thing, cause ham is delicious, we even eat it on Easter). It seems like about half of the ten commandments have been tossed out as well, I certainly don't see very many people honoring the sabath any more, and leaving elderly parents to the whims of social security and medicare is probably not fulfilling the spirit of "honor thy father and mother". Even so, Jesus spent months and years spelling out hundreds of ways we could trip up in our hearts, even if we didn't actually take action.

Matthew 5:21-22: "You're familiar with the command to the ancients, 'Do not murder.' I'm telling you that anyone who is so much as angry with a brother or sister is guilty of murder. Carelessly call a brother 'idiot!' and you just might find yourself hauled into court. Thoughtlessly yell 'stupid!' at a sister and you are on the brink of hellfire. The simple moral fact is that words kill."

So we have two troubling trends spelled out here: one is that we (as flawed human beings) need more than just the abstract laws (which are immutable and unchanging), the second trend is that the specific examples of sub-classed laws have changed over time. Some laws have gone away, and others have popped up to cover new ground.

So if there's at least two examples of conflicting rule-sets that implement the base class god'slaw, what's the chance that we're going to be able to create a common ground between all the modern churches with anything more specific than the abstract base class?

Astonishing God

2005-04-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

While Justin has been listening to Podcasts and getting into the spirit, I was reminded of the Northpoint Sermon Archives gathering dust on my computer. I had used SDB do download a couple of streams and so was ready to go as I sat down to get some work done this evening.

I started with Aug 8, 2004 which is the first of six in a series called IGNiTE which is all about faith. He points to a story of faith in the bible which has always been a guiding story for me. Andy does a great job of making this story bigger than life, because there's lot of odd things about this story. For one, its the only recorded time in the bible that Jesus is astonished. And he's not even astonished by one of his disciples or anyone from the entire nation of Israel. It was a roman centurion that came up and asked for something, and when Jesus offered to go help him, he said:

Matthew 8:8: Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.

That's the kind of faith I aspire to, and sometimes it feels like I even pull it off. I've told stories before about some early leaps of faith, but sometimes I can put a few verses together in an interesting way and experience some real power. Like we know while Jesus was on earth that he basically had command of everything. Whatever he wanted®Zap, and it got done. That's not to say he was always happy with what was going on, but he knew it was all part of a plan and so he went along with it.

So what did he say as he was leaving? "Ok, here's the keys to the car, they're all yours." Basically all the power over the earth that he had, he handed off to us, his followers. That's some serious trust, but he meant it. Its real, and when you turn the key, it starts.

One example of that was during my trip to Promise Keepers last year. We get to this huge auditorium with at least a couple thousand people, and God starts in on me right away, "you need to work on your ministry skills." This is not a surprise to me, I mean, I scored a -15 in ministry on the church gifts evaluation test not that long before that. What I'm really good at is running the lighting board or folding up tables after an event. I'm kind of like the super invisible helper. Its an important job, things don't get done if we're not around; but it doesn't directly get anyone to Christ.

So what's my assignment that night? Well there's going to be an alter call after the last speaker, and they need a couple hundred volunteers to go down and pray with all the men that come forward. God says, "you should do that." Now you might think that I'm quaking in my boots at that point, but I'm not. I mean, I don't want to do it, but if I have to... Besides, if I totally screw up, its going to make God look bad more than me. So I figure, he's motivated to make this work out.

But I realize there's more at stake here than just me going down and leading a prayer for one or two other people. This is an opportunity for a lot of people to get straight with God and to really re-establish the connection in their hearts. While I'm not usually known for my empathy for others, I can sense that this is an important time. So I take it up a notch.

"Jesus, you have power over all the earth, and over all the beings operating here. And you've given that power to us, or more specifically to me. So here I am. I'm calling you on it. Protect this event, shield this event, cast out the forces of evil, of distraction, of avoidance. Let no one here today be connected to anything but your love.

That was my request, no, my command. The power was given to me, so I used it. And I thought that was it. At the end of the night, I went down, did my prayer with another guy (and didn't spontaneously explode on the spot), finished up, went home and went to bed.

What I wasn't expecting was the astonishment that the organizers felt from what they saw. The next day Reggie Dabbs got up in the morning and all he could say was, "whoa". They had already done more than a dozen weekends like this in other cities over the summer, but they had never seen a response like they had seen the night before. Over 15% of the men attending had come forward that night, and people were still making decisions the next morning. Nothing they had seen previously had come close to that. They were just astounded.

I was up in the stands that morning thinking cool, that's some power you gave us Jesus.

Raising the bar

2005-02-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

It's pretty easy to become a Christian (sort of), but it turns out its hard to live the life. Some people don't like to pay attention to what God really expects of us, but 1 John raises the bar pretty high. Like these lines:

1 John 2:17 The world and all its desires will pass away. But the man who obeys God and does what He wants done will live forever.
1 John 3:14 We know we have passed from death into life. We know this because we love the Christians. The person who does not love has not passed from death into life.
1 John 3:16-19 We know what love is because Christ gave His life for us. We should give our lives for our brothers. What if a person has enough money to live on and sees his brother in need of food and clothing? If he does not help him, how can the love of God be in him? My children, let us not love with words or in talk only. Let us love by what we do and in truth. This is how we know we are Christians. It will give our heart comfort for sure when we stand before Him.

Sort of raises the bar for me personally. I'd better get to work on stuff He wants done.

Great one-liners

2005-02-24T22:53:00.000-07:00

From IFindKarma:

Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car.

Repeating themes

2005-02-19T22:00:00.000-07:00

The Story of Joesph in the Bible is a classic one. Bad things keep happening to him, but he keeps the faith and saves his family in the end. Northpoint did a three part series on it: The Legend of Joe Jacobson.

Of course I had just watched the story with my kids about a dozen times. Except, as a western. That's right, its the Ballad of Little Joe. The best darn western bible story ever. I especially like the town it's set in: dodge ball city.

Well with all this repetition, maybe I'd better pay close attention to the story.

Taking a leap

2005-02-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

I took my first leap of faith at an early enough age that it did frighten me nearly as much as those around me. It was the last year of HS and I knew where I was going for college though everyone else was not as sure.

My test scores were ok. I scored something like 760 on the math portion of the SAT, though my english scores were much less impressive; but I wasn't worried. So I only applied to tech, no where else.

Now tech is a pretty small school. They don't let in a lot of people like MIT or Stanford. A typical entering class is around 190. Needless to say, my parents felt I needed a backup.

But it turns out I didn't.

God got me in, and just to demonstraight the he had done it, he spelled it out for me. See, the admissions office actually makes up two lists: the ones they want for sure, and the a backup list of alternates to draw on if they get an above average number of rejections (yes some fools choose to somewere else, how crazy is that). But the year I was admitted, somebody pressed the wrong button, and sent acceptance letters to everybody on the backup list right away. Made a bit of a mess too, as our class size was 236.

Andy Stanley hopes everyone has at least one leap of faith in their life. Since I've already had one, perhaps that means I get two. Oh, lucky me.

Authentic Communities

2005-02-03T01:39:00.000-07:00

I've been listening to another sermon series from Northpoint (btw, their archive has moved here). This one is on how the Church should be an irresistible place in the community (kind of like Jesus was), and the third week message is on small groups.

Now we joined a small group a little over a year ago. For a bit it was helpful, but then we sort of dropped into a grove and it got stale. Our group just didn't have a point. There was no mission, that if we didn't meet, wouldn't get done. This problem isn't unique to our group either. Evidently, our church has seen repeated dying out of small groups, and has had to "re-introduce" the concept numerous times. Not very encouraging.

With a new couple joining recently, the timing was perfect to introduce the ideas Andy has for home groups. Small groups aren't bible study, and they aren't were you learn a bunch of stuff. Prayer is important (and he has talked before about things Christians should really be praying for), but the real point of the group is to be open and accountable to each other. These are people we can go to for questions, insight into decisions, help and support.

Andy says:

Our relationship with God is personal, but its not supposed to be private. In fact the bible teaches against it.
As Hebrew 10:23-24 says: Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

Lets see if we can make our home group an irresistible part of the Christian life.

Phenominal Impact

2005-01-26T01:41:00.000-07:00

Andy Stanley is a great speaker and a good leader. His church in Atlanta, Northpoint, has been growing in leaps and bounds.

Thanks to the internet, I can experience the tremendous power of his messages through the online Sermon Archive, and right now I am working my way through his seven part series on creating a church experience that is "Simply Irresistible". So far its all about service, and getting people involved. Some stuff I can act on immediately, and other things I need to talk to others at the church about. But its interesting to contrast the approach at Northpoint with the approach at my own church.

The general population believes that the Church was created so that Christians would have a place to go to hear a sermon about living a life more pleasing to God. The only problem is that this is completely wrong. First of all Jesus never started a Church, he just taught others (the Aposiles) to teach others (the Disciples) to teach the world God's way. The Church got started after he left, and unfortunately, over the years it has turned into something much different that how it started out.

Since Christians don't have a large impact out in their communities, church is the one space where we try to get the unsaved in the community to come to us so we can try and have an impact on them. That's why our church focuses so much energy on its youth and children's ministries: so that people in the community bring their children here to learn about God, and have a break themselves for an hour or so. Our opportunity is to both get through to the kids the basic messages of God, and occasionally, even have some impact on the adults.

In Northpoint's page about its history, Lane Jones explains what drives their church:

Our real mission is to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ. That's not just a slogan on our wall. We have measured our success by that standard from the beginning. If we ever stop hearing stories of life change, I guarantee we will stop what we are doing and regroup, no matter how many people are attending.

Currently, North Point Community Church has over 10,000 adults participating in three morning worship services, of which about 4,000 are members. Sounds a little heavy on the membership side, but pretty good altogether. I wish our Church was reaching the un-churched as well.

A reason for everything

2005-01-11T22:00:00.000-07:00

Over and over I get to hear various stories from my dad about his days in the navy. One frequent story is about how part of the carrier he was on got flooded and they had to take all the motors apart, clean out all the insides, and rewind some of the motors to make them work again.

I had no idea these stories would be useful, until a couple of weeks ago when we got a severe storm. Thanks to the new golf course next door, we ended up with a river running through our yard, part of which decided to vere off and run into the mechanical room under the workshop. When I finally noticed what was happening, everything was already submerged, and I had about 4,000 gallons of water to get rid of.

Of course the rest of the town wasn't much better off. Several parts of town were completely inaccessable due to roadways being replaced by lakes. We passed several cars stuck on the side of the road (where they had attempted to turn around), and country crews were out trying to build-up areas that were washing away due to runnoff. Luckily we were able to get a the rental store for a gasoline powered pump, and get back, so we were ready to go.

After moving the water, I set about taking the pump motor apart, which was an adventure in itself, rinced it off and let it dry overnight, and after reassembly the next day, it started right up.

Through this and other subsequent ordeals, I've learned to rely on others for help, which is not something I usually do. I've also been thinking that if I can get through these trials with a little help, can I then help others with their troubles and show them they are capable of handling life's challenges.

God promised never to put us in any situation we couldn't handle; but he didn't necesarily say we could handle everything by ourselves.

What am I? Noah?

2004-12-07T12:22:00.000-07:00

So last week it was snowing again (its been snowing alot), and I ended up having this conversation.

"Hello Derek", says God.
"Hello?"
"Its going to keep snowing you know."
"Does it have to?"
"Yes. And your neighbors aren't going to be any help this winter like they were in years past. You're on your own this year so you'd better get an AWD vehicle."
"How about a Subaru, they're pretty cheap."
"No, not enough space. You've got another kid on the way you know. Oh, by the way, its a boy."
"Really? Jonmarie thought it was a girl this time."
"Nope, its a boy, I'm sure. So you'd better look for something bigger."
"How about an Audi A4 Avant?"
"No no no. Too much service trouble and there's no dealer in Flagstaff. Look, I'll make it real easy on you. I'm sending a pre-owned 2004 Toyota Highlander up to the local dealer. Its got AWD, a V6 and three rows of seats. And I'll let you talk them down $3,000 off of asking price?"
"You're too good to me God."
"I know."

So now I own one of these things. Just in time too, cause its snowing again.

God Is Talking to You

2004-11-18T02:09:00.000-07:00

Maureen Graves, a member of the Satir Family Therapy Network wrote this letter to her granddaughter, explaining that God is with us and speaking to us all the time.

She wrote a very colorful note (since the reader is eight) which was reproduced in her web version. She points out many things worth remembering, such as:

Sometimes He speaks to you through your mind
God will also talk to you through your body
God will use people and experiences to teach us and help us to grow
God may inspire someone to say or do something that will be just the message or guidance you have been looking for
We each have our own special gift to give, but your unique gift cannot be given by anyone except you

God talks to me, but he usually has to be rather overt about it. Besides breaking my car, God has another way of getting my attention that's hard to ignore: he ring's me up. I'll just be sitting there minding my own business and my right ear will start ringing—a single pitch that builds up for a few seconds and then goes away. I used to try and ignore it, and I don't always get the message, but I've at least learned to stop what I'm doing, look around, and say, "Ok, what!" I don't always figure it out, but I at least try.

God will get through to us eventually when he has something to say. Its up to us how much trouble we'll have to deal with before we listen.

In the firm grip of God's will

2004-11-11T22:49:00.000-07:00

Yesturday Max and I were going to the library. So I asked Max, "Which car do you want to go in?" "The fast car," he said. So we climbed in, and I started it up, and it died on me. I started it up again but it sounded really bad, like one or more cylinders weren't working.

"Hmmm, maybe not." I said

So I told Max to get out while I poped the hood to take a look. I wiggled the injector wires and the spark plug wires. Determined to give it one more try, I climbed back in, and tried to turn it over. Nothing. Now I was getting no cylinders firing.

"Ok, we're taking the van."

So we went to the library in the van, took back our old movies, got some new ones and came home. After sending max in with the bag of loot, I decided to give the car one more try: it started right up.

Now what was that all about? I guess I'll never know.

More Andy Stanley

2004-10-24T00:43:00.000-07:00

I found a quote the summarizes his directions on communicating the vision,

First, state the problem.
Second, present the solution.
Third, give the reason something must be done.
Lastly, give the reason something must be done now.

I also found that Northpoint has a little more than a year of his sermons available in their audio archive. Its pretty awesome, I've already listened to two entries in his series on 'Fool proofing your life'. I just wish I could figure out how to save the streaming MMA to disk—I think they're worth keeping.

I have to say, listing to streaming audio beats being there in some ways. When he mentioned Ephesians 5:15-21 as the focus verse for his series, I was able to look it up (after remembering where Ephesians was), and even check the passage out in a couple different translations. Our pastors always give the congregation a hard time about not bringing our bibles to service, or not looking up passages; but at CCF when they mention a passage ,they either stick the full text right there up on the overhead and read it aloud, or zoom right past onto something else. There's never really any chance to redirect down into one's bible and do some background reading. Since my bible is NIV, which is what the staff use, the words displayed on screen are identical.

Sometimes I kind of wish life had a pause button. Of course if you're going to go that far, might as well add in a rewind and fast forward. Then there'd be some joker skip ahead to see how it ended, like those people that read the last page of the murder mystery first.

All the ingredients for a great vision

2004-10-22T22:54:00.000-07:00

I still remember one time in fifth grade when for some occasion, we all made treats to bring in and eat for a celebration. One of the kids had made sugar cookies, except, as it turns out, he didn't have any sugar. A couple of us tried them, but nobody ate a whole one. Without all its ingredients, it just didn't work.

It turns out that I've been making and following visions without all the right ingredients, and like those cookies, it hasn't been working. At last week's CCFMT (or what I like to call Church for grown ups), we watched a presentation from the Willow Creek 2003 leadership summit by Andy Stanley on Making Vision Stick. Besides celebrating the vision and living it, you have to communicate it in the first place. While I've usually be able to communicate what I wanted to do (the action part of the vision), I've never really covered the driving forces behind the action plan. This is where I've been loosing people.

To me, the reasons behind the plan are usually below the surface of my understanding. I know its important, and if you made me think about it, after getting frustrated a bit, I'd finally be able to articulate some of the reasons. Well, as my experience has show, that's not good enough. Here are the necessary ingredients that Andy outlined:

What is the problem or need
Who has this need
What is the effect we need to achieve
How are we going to do it (The Action plan)
Why does this problem need to be solved
Why are we the right people to do it
Why does it need to be done Now

My homegroup leader was sitting next to me during the presentation, so afterwards I proceeded to put him on the spot. After mumbling about the great commission and connecting people to God in response to these questions, we agreed that our group is lacking an effective vision. I think if we can find and articulate a stronger vision, then we're going to be going somewhere. Otherwise we may continue heading nowhere as we do now.

Being in the way of God's will

2004-10-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

Well its winter time again, which means I have to start working on the wood pile. Since I'm not a lumberjack, we cheat and buy a stack of the good stuff for burning at night, but I still have to cut and split a bunch of pine for the evening time.

Splitting wood is a lot of work, but some pieces are nicer than others. As I was smacking away at some pieces the other day it got me thinking about myself and God. No I'm not a hammer, disrupting God's paradise ... No actually I was thinking about how some pieces of wood react gracefully to being split and then some don't. Some pieces are straight and dry and even already cracking a little on the ends. When you hit them they split apart nicely, sometimes on the first try.

Other pieces, however, hang onto their old ways with all their might. They've twisted up the fiber of their being and are filled with knots. These are the real problem cases. Even the first splitter doesn't always do the job, getting stuck half way, despite repeated blows and effort from each end and even some smacks in the middle. This one was a real bear:

But in the end, the piece is split (at least somewhat). I've never not split a piece of wood. One way or another it was begrudgingly used for the purpose for which I originally intended. We do not give up on wood. Even if it takes every splitter I have, the camp axe, and a pruning saw; the wood eventually makes it into the stove to heat the house.

As I thought about this, I thought about God's plans for me. My purpose. Sometimes I feel like that knotty piece of wood.

The power of the spirit on a really large scale.

2004-09-24T09:00:00.000-07:00

When it comes to experiencing God, there are different paths to different facets, but the power of God is really felt in Corporate worship, and for me the bigger the better. It's very rare that I'm going to sense the overwhelling presence of the Holy Spirit on my own, or in small group, and is never been the case that the presense was so strong that I couldn't sing or talk or hardly think. But that's what I felt tonight at Promise Keepers

Newsboys were awesome, especially as I've heard many of their songs on the The Light. Now I’ve got and a face to go with the music.

Then Erwin McManus came on and talked. I’ve seen him in videos before, and he has a great story to tell, and we all got to hear more of it before. His new message is cultivating three key attributes in Christians: integrity, generosity and wisdom. We’re going to be spending all day tommorrow digging down into this.

Finally, Joe White brought the message that each of us has to be 100% committed to Christ in our heart. We can’t hold on to anything and be what God wants us today. Hundreds if not thousands came down and gave up their hidden sins, committing to be 100% for Christ.

Its been a great experience so far, and I’m hoping for more tommorrow.

Beyond our self interests

2004-09-14T21:00:00.000-07:00

We need to be doing a lot of things in our lives to be meeting the expectations of God and to be growing in maturity.

Fellowship, devotion, prayer and reading the bible are important. But those are inward looking (either self or community). Two others are: helping the poor, and making disciples of all nations. (And yes, these can be supported scripturally.)

When Greg organized the camp trip lots of others talked about helping, but when the dust settled it was just the two of us. Have I brought anyone to Christ? Well I helped with one, but it took 13 years, so if I don't do something to improve my rate, the harvest is going to be meek indeed.

Every week God gives me some small task that needs doing for his kingdom. I do my best to help gladly, but I often check back with the person who was looking for a host family for visiting missionaries for the weekend or some other such thing, and I ask them, "Did anyone else call you?" I know these requests were seen by hundreds, and in some cases more than a thousand people (christians). Most often the answer I get is, "You were the only one that called."

The timelessness of Gods call

2004-09-12T15:33:00.000-07:00

I get stuck sometimes thinking that the Old Testament is less important or less relevant than the New. And I even tune out parts of the New Testament, mostly focusing on what Jesus himself said. But over and over people tie the messages of the new testament back to the old (I've even got some examples in here), and some problems are timeless.

Issah 58 is sort of an incrimination and call to action that could have come right from Jesus:

6-9 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter- when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

It seems easy for us to look at others and ignore them or declare them the enemy, when we are all one family. What I do to another, I do to myself. I cannot criticise the actions of another while ignoring my own selflish ways. If I am to make a difference in the world, I must be doing God's work, not my own.

On a mission from God

2004-08-30T12:12:00.000-07:00

God must like weirdos, because he puts up with my odd personality, and even feeds it from time to time by giving me odd missions. Like gathering up thousands of dollars of welding equipment, and overloading the back of a dodge minivan with the equipment and half a ton of scrap steel in order to take in hundreds of miles out into the middle of nowhere (show low) and let 11 year old kids use it to make weapons of mass destruction.

So, having survived that ordeal, I was kicking back, minding my own business when God dragged me over to the junk mail folder on my yahoo account and said, "That's your next task." I stared at it for a minute, took a break and played This Land from JibJab, and then sat and thought about what was going on.

The email was from True Majority, and the action item was registering to vote. Now I take my civic duty pretty seriously, and am registered to vote, and show up and vote on election day. But not everyone does. God's now given me the mission to make sure that everyone around me is registered to vote, and that as much as possible, everyone does vote. We get the government we deserve, and Jesus was always big on working within the system (instead of overthrowing it). So this November, its my job to make sure my friends, my co-workers, and my church members are all ready.

At first I didn't really think it mattered that much. Arizona is traditionally a very "Red Neck" state. Republican senators, govenors, etc. But depending on who you listen to, Arizona could go either way this November. Bush lead the state by 6 points last time, and its likely to be even closer this time (some polls currently list Bush leading by 2-3 point: a slim margin). So its going to be close, and every vote is going to count.

Its not that people don't want to vote, its just that there are a number of hurdles that stand in their way. One friend registered to vote many years ago, but doesn't know what party she's registered in or what district she has to vote in. Others didn't know were their polling place was anymore. My mission isn't just to make a few phone calls and send out a mass emailo. I've got to put the tools in front of everybody, and remove the barriers. I've got to time the message so that people have time to take action, but that its timely enough that they feel the pressure and don't put it off. If I can, I'll put the web sites, forms, and instructions right in front of them and have them sign up on the spot.

This fall, this election needs to be decided by the people, for the people. I'm on a mission, a mission from God.

[resources]
Arizona Voter Registration Form (PDF).
Online Voter Registration through AZ ADOT.
Election Issue Information
Early ballot request form.

Still stumbling after all this time

2004-08-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

I like to think I'm getting somewhere in my walk with God, but he is always reminding me that being a sinner isn't something to get past, but something that has to be faced every day.

I mean, in the middle of church camp, surrounded by Gods grace, in the middle of his will; he was reminding me that I can sin. And it wasn't any big thing (most of the time it isn't), it was just a stupid dimple on a welding cable. Airgas had loaned me a Stick/TIG welder, and I had set the hot nozzle down where it could touch and melt the cable a little bit. It still worked fine, it just was "blemished".

Now obviously, the right thing to do was to point it out and offer to make up for it when I returned it. But I sure didn't want to. And its not just about the money, a new power cable was only going to be $30-40, but it was about messing something up. I wanted to get away with it and I was afraid of the consequences of getting caught.

I struggled with this while still at camp. I fought my instincts while packing up. I dwelled on it on the trip home. And despite all of that, the issue still wasn't settled the next morning when I took the unit back to Airgas. I even took Max along with me to return it, to be my accountability buddy. And I told those tormenting me, "I'm going to do what's right, and point the dimple out, and take responsibility." Course they didn't let up, even right up to the counter when we opened it up to make sure everything was there. But they didn't win that one. I pointed out the burn. And they didn't charge me anything.

A free $1,400 welding machine, no bottle rental or charge for using 20+ CF of Argon; and I still was tormented over a $30 cable. Ghah.

The three loves

2004-07-30T21:00:00.000-07:00

I've been reading The Unconscious Civilization, a book about the role of the individual, business, and government in our society; thanks to David Pollard's reading list at how to save the world

I'm finding myself agreeing with the book on many levels. One, it explains why I make a horrible employee (I tend to take a selfless interest in the wellbeing of any business that I work for, instead of playing politics). Two, it explains about the various power grabs the church has made over the years and how it has tried to put the people into passive roles. And three, it discusses where the true value in government lies, which is putting boundaries on any entity which would seek to enslave the population (and this is happening all the time). It points out how many of the ideas that are associated with democracy are actually good for corporations and not the people, and really have nothing to do with democracy (like free trade & the money markets).

I found a copy at my local library, but you can also find many great excerpts online. Here is one particular article that covers a lot of ground. You can also read the first six pages and various other excerps at Amazon.

What connected this to my spiritual walk was this piece:

Aelred of Rievaulx was talking about the three loves love of self, of others and of God. These three, 'though obviously different, yet so amazingly dovetail into one another that not only is each found in all of them and all in each, but where you have one there you have all, and should one fail, all fail.""
Note that these three loves have nothing to do with faith, hope and charity, the standard hierarchical qualities of a faithful believer as recognized by the church. Note also that faith and hope were passive qualities. The believer's faith and hope were expressions of what he would receive from divine forces. Charity also was passive for the vast majority who were rarely in a position to do more than receive the moral, ethical and concrete charity of the elites.

We have no problem looking after ourselves, though it is arguable that we are more miserable today than any time before, and I think the answer lies not in further therapy (looking back at the wounds of our childhood), but looking outside of ourselves: to others, and to God. These two commandments were very clear from Jesus:

Matthew 22:36-39 "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

And as I pointed out before, these were actually mentioned back in the old testament in Deuteronomy 6.

I believe Aelred was correct: if you do not balance your love, attention, and focus equally between these three areas: self, community and God; then all shall fail.

[ref]
book reviews by John McCrory, John Mark Ministries, Brock Reviews, customer reviews, and OC Books.
Quotes, excerps, and what looks to be the entire text.
This book won the 1996 Governor General's Literary Award.

Church wisdom

2004-07-29T12:00:00.000-07:00

Many folks want to serve God, but only as advisers
It is easier to preach ten sermons than it is to live one
Quit griping about your church; if it was perfect, you couldn't belong
Some minds are like concrete, thoroughly mixed up and permanently set
Peace starts with a smile
A lot of church members are singing "Standing on the Promises" while they are just sitting on the premises
We were called to be witnesses, not lawyers
There's no real reason to change churches; what difference does it make which one you stay home from?

From: Old Lutheran Humor

Living in the center of Gods will

2004-07-22T15:00:00.000-07:00

Its not always easy living in the center of God's will, but it sure can be interesting.

About two months ago, there was an announcement in the bulletin that they were looking for cousilors to go to AICM camp and spend a week with the kids. For some reason I started thinking to myself that I should go. Two weeks later, Greg was at all the services to meet with anyone who was interested. So I went and talked to him, and gave him my contact information.

Well a few weeks later, I had not heard from him yet, and there weren't any further notices about it. After digging around a bit trying to find Greg's number, I finally got ahold of him and check on what was happening. Well, he had lost my number, and got my email address scrambled (he was typing in "wod" instead of "wool"), so after straightening that out, I had the first details about the camp.

He also asked me if I had any hobbies that I could share with the kids. Hmmm. Well, I like to melt things and blow things up. I could do that with the kids. Greg wasn't too excited to have the kids blowing things up (not even little fire crackers), so we talked about melting things. It started out small: the camp already has a gas welder, so I could do demo's at let each kid try it. But then I got to thinking. Maybe I could borrow some stuff and bring it.

First on my list was MIG welders, because they're small and MIG welding is really easy. I had borrowed one from the school before for a week, so I gave Mr. Hess a call and told him I'd like to borrow some stuff for camp. He asked what I wanted and I said, "oh, just anything in the shop not nailed down." I ended up with three MIG welders because that's what would fit in the back of the car and a bunch of other gear like jackets, helmets, gloves, hand tools, etc.

Now my favorate type of welding is TIG, but the school doesn't have any TIG machines that weigh less than 700 pounds, and I didn't think I could get a sychrowave in the back of the van anyway. The local Airgas had a nice portable demo unit though, so after working up the courage I called up and asked them if I could borrow it. The guy on the phone went and asked the manager after I explained what I was trying to do, but the manager wasn't going to do it. However the guy suggested that I call Miller directly and see if they could do something, and he gave me the direct number for Mick Peterson. I gave Mick a call, and caught him in his car and so he scribbled down some details on a loose piece of paper and I promised to send him more details in an email.

I wasn't sure if he was going to get it as I flubbed the email address a couple times (I thought his name was Nick not Mick), but it must have, because the next morning I got a call from the manager over at Airgas again. He wanted to know what I wanted, and what I was trying to do again. I told him I was looking for a portable stick/TIG machine, promised to give him a credit card to cover it (in case I disappeared), and then he told me to come get it. Of course, with another stick/TIG machine I as going to need some welding rod for it, a torch and extra torch parts, and more helmets & such.

Now for TIG you need gas, and for nice MIG welds CO2 or C25 (CO2 + Argon). I offered to rent the tanks, but they were included in the deal. The only other thing would be some scrap metal for the kids to weld together into something (I have no idea what however).

Total out of pocket so far? $0. Value of the equipment and material I have so far? About $8,000. Hopefully we don't break or loose anything, I'll be able to stay in my budget of nothing. Now I just have to make another list of all the stuff I need to take from my own stash of parts (more hand tools, magnets, grinders, saws, etc.) It sounds like this is going to be an adventure.

[ref]
Information on the camp & indian culture
the kids at camp.

Taking notes, paying attention, taking action

2004-07-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

I was sitting in church this week and the pastor took some time at the beginning to ask each of us to pray for some items. So I pulled out my pen and paper and got ready to write them down. My wife pointed out that the list was already in the bulletin, but I wrote them down myself anyways for a couple of reasons.

When I write something down, I remember it better
I can capture the idea in my own words and not miss anything
I'm more likely to keep a list that I've made than a handout
I have to pay more attention if I'm actively trying to capture what's being said

So I made the list and brought it home, and it ended up on my desk where I've looked at it every day since. I've even prayed about the items on the list. They are:

Pray for growth Summer is typically when people move to Flagstaff, and we get a lot of visitors and new members during this time. I am also praying for more people to join our home group.
Financial Faithfulness The church has taken on a number of commitments that has stretched our resources pretty tight. The congregation has been faithful so far this year, but there's not much room for error, and our church is big enough that we're talking some serious numbers.
New Times They're going to change the times for Saturday services, and that always causes some ripples in operations. Jim asked the congregation, "raise your hand if you like change," and about seven of us raised our hands (yes I'm one of the nuts). The rest have an uncomfortable period of adjustment to go through.
I have to be careful about how I answer these questions though. The last time Jim asked a question like that, it was, "How many people could live on 1/4 of your current salary?" I answered yes, and God decided to test me on it. It hasn't been pleasant. Course now I'll probably get my salary back and he'll move on to testing me on change. May you live in interesting times.
Getting people to go on Saturday Along with the new times, the staff is trying to get more people to come to the Saturday services which have a little less than half of the people that go to each service on Sunday. See the point on change above for the challenge.
Rain Flagstaff needs the water and the forest is currently at very high fire danger. Rains would be good.
How am I to accomplish the extraordinary purpose God has for my life

This last one is actually a multi-parter since most of us in the audience are still trying to figure out our special purpose. (And no, I'm not talking about the one Steve Martin discovers in the Jerk.) Jim is pretty determined that each of us determine what we are supposed to be doing, and get moving on doing it. I don't have a real sense on how others are progressing on this task though. I have a few ideas, but I definitely need to nail more of it down.

All I need

2004-07-11T21:29:00.000-07:00

I was reading the comments on Justin's site where he regularly has a healthy ongoing discussion about various topics, and in one of the discussions someone pointed out:

I already have all I need--I have Jesus.

I think part of living a true christian life is competely internalizing that and believing it. I don't need anything more from God, I already have Jesus. So often I find myself thinking, "I need a new car," or "I need to make more money," or just, "I need a snack." But I don't really need those things. I may want many things in my lifetime, but Jesus is all I need.

Now I may ask for other things, and hopefully, most of what I am asking for is to glorify God. And I'm sure I'll end up with plenty of other stuff in my job to help God reach out and connect with others. But as to my own needs, those are covered.

Waste not

2004-07-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

Wendall Berry, a Catholic priest, farmer and poet once wrote:

We need a economy founded on thrift and care on saving and conserving, not on excess and waste. An economy based on waste is inherently and hopelessly violent and war is its inevitable by-product.

Most people don't see this, but I do. Waste comes from a focus on one's self, and not on the community or greater good. Waste is satisfied with an excuse and doesn't bother going looking for a solution. Waste fulfills the immediate want, not waiting to see what other need could be fulfilled. Prolonged focus on one's self is not healthy, and this competition for resources is one example.

I do my best to battle waste at home and around town, but its an uphill battle. I collect aluminum cans, foil and scrap wherever I can find it. I sort my trash into recycle, paper, and garbage. I reuse anything and save everything (which drives my wife crazy). I load the laserprinter with paper that is already printed on the back, and then after, I save the scratch paper and write notes in the margins. I avoid plastics whenever I can. I use compact fluorescent lights. All our portable devices have rechargable batteries. I work from home (also drives the wife crazy). But still I need to do more.

Basically practically all garbage could be avoided through smarter purchasing of products (avoiding non-recyclable materials), composting, and sorting of trash. I need to put up some solar panels on the garage and start producing some of my own electricity, as well as put some solar hot water panels for hot water and space heating (its July and my basement is still 66F). And I still have a number of giant CRT displays down here which suck up the power when operating.

I'd like to reach the point of self sufficiency, but even more, I'd like to help the entire community be more self sufficient.

Leading by example

2004-06-30T22:21:00.000-07:00

There's a great interview over at Relevant Magazine with Dallas Willard. In the first part he's talking about how we've lost the spirit of discipleship. Near the end they are talking about another interview with Jim Wallis, and they mention in 1 Peter 3:14-16 how he instructs the Christians of that day not to fear being persecuted, and endure it with joy, being ready to give the reason for their hope. Keith Giles comments:

Christians in the early church were living lives counter to the culture of the day. This is why Peter exhorts the Christians of his day to “Be ready to give an answer, a reason for the hope that lies within”, because he was aware that the lives of those believers would prompt such a curiosity.
...
Our lives look just like those around us so there’s never a reason for them to wonder about why we’re different.

Its really not that hard to lead a life different from society. Don't buy a new car every couple years, don't subscribe to the latest fashions and gadgets, don't give in to every spending impulse, don't consume a diet primarily composed of fast food, etc. I'm trying to live simply, and through my joy of a simple life, rouse the curiosity of the world. So far there hasn't been much curiosity, so maybe I need to try harder.

[links]
Part one, two, and three of the interview.

Chasing Villians

2004-06-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

There's a lot of rumbling going on in the Christian community these days about homosexuality. Before that there was abortion, and before that it was pornography.

I think its mostly a smoke screen. We're all sinners--focusing our attention on some small minority is counter productive. Instead of getting all excited about something that affects 4% of the population, how about we focus on something that > 50% of the population has a problem with, like being overweight, or eating healthy. Nah, we'd rather keep eating those quarter pounders with cheese, while shaking a fist at those sexual degenerates. Lets not even talk about the tithing issue. (Yes, I know its God's money, but I'm behind on my jetski payments and the 4x4 is in the shop.)

Seriously, Jesus called us to love one another (and I don't believe there were any exclusions), and judge not lest you be judged, nor condemn others. I am lucky enough to have a few non-believers as friends, and I gladly extend to them my friendship and help. I work to make an impact in their life, a living example of Christ's love. Should I reach the point where they (or any other person) asks me about my beliefs or questions about their lifestyle, then I need to be ready to tell them my testimony, and through prayer (with them) and reading the bible, help them come up with answers to any questions about how God would have them live their life.

Tips on spending less money

2004-06-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

Dealing with money is pretty hard. I've been working on it a long time, and my household is still not in order. (Its easy enough for me not to spend money on myself, its the kids that are a challenge.)

Here's some specific things to do that help with it:

Write everything down. When you keep track of it, you can see where small things are adding up to big amounts, and what categories are maybe out of balance. I made up a worksheet (PDF) for tracking things, based on a workbook from a financial training workshop held at our church. Its for tracking the variable expenses each month, with a place to total for the month (though its handy when you're first starting to do quick subtotals more often).
Plan Ahead. Don't spend money you haven't planned on. Come up with an approximate budget and don't spend anything that isn't accounted for. This isn't to say you can't make purchases spontaneously, just plan on a budget for that too. Like I put $10 in my pocket for the week, and I can spend that on a book, lunch, candy, hardware, whatever. But that's it.
Pray about every purchase. Before you buy something, pray to God about the purchase, and reflect on how you can use that purchase to honor him. After all, its his money--all of it. He just lets you spend most of it, with the hope that you will provide an effective witness to his glory and love on earth. Kind of puts things in perspective.
Wait to buy. When you can, wait before purchasing. Just 24hrs will change my mind a lot of time. Either I'll find something better, or just loose interest all together. (I mean, what am I really going to do with that box of assorted stepper motors on Ebay.)
Have a reserve. You need to be able to survive the unexpected expense. This is the how a lot of my friends get back on credit cards--something comes up, then they can't cover the bill out of pocket, so out comes the credit card, and once its in use, might as well keep it going ...
Be accountable. Spending money properly can be difficult, but we need to realize that we're accountable for our actions. While we'll eventually have to account to God for how we managed our money, having someone here to talk to on a regular basis can be helpful as well. Someone that is going to ask us the hard questions, and get us back on track when we've lost our way. In fact, a good first sign how bad things are would be if you are comfortable sharing your finances with someone else. If not, get to work, then get others involved.

The american life is full of stuff, and the drive to earn more. We are all probably more rich than the Rich Young Man who came to Jesus and asked him what he needed to do to inherit eternal life:

Mark 10:21-30 Jesus looked at him and loved him. "One thing you lack," he said. "Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
At this the man's face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!"
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, "Who then can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God."
Peter said to him, "We have left everything to follow you!"
"I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields--and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.

May God share his Grace with us, and save us, despite our riches.

Searching for understanding

2004-06-08T09:00:00.000-07:00

So I was thinking to myself that if the Holy Spirit is supposed to be so helpful in understanding the truths of the bible, then I must have either unplugged him or something else is wrong. Finally it occurred to me that when God is frustrating me, its usually because I need to learn something.

1 Corinthians 1:19-20 For it is written:
"I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate."
Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

So today as I was reading John 15 I read:

John 15:26-27 When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.

And I wondered to myself, who is the Counselor? Was he talking about Paul? I really had no idea, but instead of remaining confused I did a quick search on the passage and was bombarded by a hundred links which all revealed the Counselor as the Holy Spirit. Ok, that was a little confusing that the Holy Spirit was referred to as a man, but as some of these devotions explain, it was partially intentional. See the Holy Spirit is more than just a spirit, being that it is one with God and part of the trinity.

These days we think of the Holy Spirit as one of a kind, which is kind of good as it is more significant than other spirits. The problem is that we tend to ignore that there are a multitude of other spirits, serving both the light and the dark. Every time I get tempted to speed up to keep someone from changing lanes in front of me or get the urge to run a yellow/orange light; that's a spirit influencing me, just not a good one. We should probably be more aware of all of these influences, but most of all the influence of the Holy Spirit, God's presence in our lives.

The power of prayer and transformation

2004-06-06T21:00:00.000-07:00

Tonight Pastor Jackson and Eve Senyonga came to our church to tell a wondrous story of transformation and revival in Uganda, but it started with a dark time. Uganda in the late 70s and early 80s was a time of lawlessness, persecution, and darkness. It got to the point where death was a daily experience, and there was very little hope in the communities. Christians were persecuted (and died), and Idi Amin sought to establish the Islam as the official national faith. But through desperation, persistence, unity and intentionality; Christians reconnected with God and brought his presence back to Uganda.

He talked about how they put together the elements of prayer without deep theological understanding, just working on examples given in the bible.

For example in Judges 10:6-16 the Israelites did evil and were exiled off to the Philistines and the Ammonites. They prayed to God for deliverance but he had heard that story before and told them to forget it. (he was really pissed off) But they wouldn't give up. They cried,

"We have sinned. Do with us whatever you think best, but please rescue us now."

And finally he listened and rescued them again.

Jackson pulls five key points out of this example, which is used by his church and their prayer warriors:

repentance
intention/specificity
unity
sustained
desperation

We are all sinners, though we like to think of ourselves as more highly evolved. Personally, I like to look back on my life and give myself a pat on the back at how much better I am than I used to be. This gives me an excuse to not look forward to how much further I have to go. Is God really happy with my life? Or has he given up in disgust and left me to try and get by on my own in the world? Hopefully not the later, but probably not the former either. I feel God's presence in my life, but he's probably shaking his head in disbelief as I fall into the same traps over and over again. I have many things to work on in my life still.

One major item is that I keep trying to superimpose my will on God's. His agenda is most likely far different than mine. I have to learn to give over my life and my holdings to him, and let him do what he would with them. I get very afraid when I think about the possibility of giving up my house, or other things I have for God. This is probably why Jesus told the rich young man to sell his possessions and follow him,

Matthew 19:23-26 Then Jesus said to his disciples, " I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Jackson thought our national day of prayer was pretty funny as well. He described it as a hit and run intercession. For one day we get together and smite the devil, then we run away (back to our normal hum drum lives). Gee, one day we ask for help fighting the darkness, and the other 364 days we don't? Sounds pretty ridiculous when you put it like that.

From web searches it seems that Jackson and Eve have been sharing their message around the country for a number of years. From Florida to Seattle they have been telling people about how they participated in God's transformation of their country, and how God is seeking to do the same for all nations. I don't know how his message was received in other communities and how they are doing in this journey, but I haven't heard of any state or city in the United States being transformed like Uganda has. Perhaps that is why he came tonight to Flagstaff. This is a small town, but it is an important part of our state and the region. If God can use people like me and my friends, and our community churches, then perhaps we can call for a transformation of our city. And if we can do it, then maybe others will see our success and make the commitment to change their cities. But first I have to do my part, ask God back into my life, ask for forgiveness of my sins, and commit to following his agenda instead of mine.

Stay tuned in, this is going to get interesting.

[resources]
Christian Life Ministries Jackson's site, though a few years out of date.
A history of revival (Today's christian).
The Senyonga's journey in Kampala (crosswalk.com)
Notes on Prayer, a four week series Jackson taught in Cleveland.
Transformation Prayer talk given by Jackson to central Florida churches.
More extensive notes from Vision Orlando.

Reading the Bible my way

2004-06-04T15:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, I've switched to reading entire books of the new testament in one sitting twice a week. Actually, so far I've just been reading the letters of Paul which are pretty short, so its no big task; but I think its working quite well for me. We'll see what happens when I get to the big one at the end: Revelations

Scratching my head

2004-06-02T15:00:00.000-07:00

Ok, sometimes I'm reading along in the bible and I hit a section that really throws me, like 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, which features such notable lessons as:

Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head--it is just as though her head were shaved. If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off; and if it is a disgrace for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head.
Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? (NIV)
Every man who has something on his head while praying or prophesying disgraces his head ... (NASB)

Now the basic message of this section is showing respect during worship, but getting into hair length seems to be a little strange. Its certainly not something that we spend much time studying when we study the church in Corinth. Even The Message which is a pretty modern translation, struggles through this. After focusing on acting honorable in the first half, it ends with:

Don't you agree there is something naturally powerful in the symbolism--a woman, her beautiful hair reminiscent of angels, praying in adoration; a man, his head bared in reverence, praying in submission? I hope you're not going to be argumentative about this. All God's churches see it this way; I don't want you standing out as an exception.

This is where I get hammered for not studying history: historical context. Still it does seem like we ignore more than a few passages in the New Testament as we seek to put on the full armor of God.

[reference]
biblical interpretation steps

Being concerned for those around the world

2004-06-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

You'd think genocide would be beyond us in these modern times, but instead its actually been more prevelant these last fifty years than it was before. The current problem is in Sudan where the government and militas have been wiping out the ethnic population or destroying the infrastructure for nearly one million people.

While these people are primarily Muslim, they do not deserve this type of destruction and a future of little hope, starvation and lingering death. As a Christian I am commanded to love all people (as Christ did), and to win converts by example and by love, not wipe them off the face of the earth old testament style. One also needs to remember that there are far more muslim than christians in the world, and we ignore these events at our own peril as extremist muslims could easily use this event to fan the flames of hate against us (as if they needed any more ammunition).

I pray that attention continues to be directed on the attacks and plight of these people and that they survive this dangerous time.

[references]
SOS Sudan from the Wall Street Journal
Human Rights Watch Summary

The importance of community

2004-05-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

Our pastor wrapped up a series on the Myths of Christianity this week. Most of the myths were simple ones like the myth of salvation being done once you've accepted Jesus (accepting the Lord should be the beginning of a transformation and path of service), or the myth of there being multiple paths to salvation (ie the earth mother style of each of us having holiness within us). But this last myth hit home: the myth of isolation.

You cannot fulfill the will of God on earth in a vacuum. You've got to connect with other people. What the traditional church is these days is probably a disappointment to God. A place where we show up once a week, take a seat, and listen to a talking head for an hour, then go home. And the bigger the church, the easier it is to disappear and melt in. He also amplified on the commandment to love one another (John 13:34):

1 John 4:20-21: If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
1 John 3:14-15 We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

And this is not just a "in spirit" love either:

1 John 3:16-18 This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him? Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth.
Acts 11:29-30 The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.
2 Thessalonians 1:11With this in mind, we constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling, and that by his power he may fulfill every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith.
Galatians 6:10 Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.

This last verse is kind of interesting, because it calls out a preference for building up the community of Christians, over reaching out to the community of nonbelievers. Its not that we're not supposed to ignore the outside, but that we should make an effort to create a witness in our bond with one another. An outsider that sees a healthy and strong community of people that watch out and care for one another is going to be far more impressed than the stranger that receives a random act of kindness.

This is the style of witness I seek to implement, living a loving and caring life as a member of the christian community, not in isolation.

The fruit of the spirit

2004-05-28T21:00:00.000-07:00

Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

I can usually do good at about half, but my lack of self-control gets in the way and then that leads to failings in patience and sometimes joy and peace. May I tap into the spirit more fully and reap all the fruits, leaving behind my sinful nature.

Promise Keepers

2004-05-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

Promise keepers is coming to AZ in september. I haven't been before, but I'm thinking I should go. I think it would be an empowering and challenging experience. The only thing holding me back is money, or rather the lack therof. I just don't really have the income that justifies spending that kind of money, though its only $80 for the conf, and $40 for transportation down there. Maybe I'm just avoiding making a committment, but I'm letting worry hold me back.

I think I need to talk to some of the others that have already committed to going. If I can connect with them, it will make it easier to commit to going.

More guidance on areas of work

2004-05-23T22:56:00.000-07:00

This afternoon was a good four hour class on spiritual development which unfortunately tried to cover far more ground than there was time for. The first part was reading the bible, and studying the context that a passage takes place within. One possible reference is various texts that talk about the history of the time (various books cover either the old testament or new testament). Some focus even narrow on sections, such as the life of Paul, or the gospels.

However, I still can't shake the feeling that I'm missing out on quite a bit of significance as I read the chapters (especially when reading one-a-day style of read the bible in X days/months/years). For instance, we studied Acts chapter 10 a little while back, and our pastor provided some background that made the last part particularly significant:

Acts 10:19-23 While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, "Simon, three men are looking for you. So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them." Peter went down and said to the men, "I'm the one you're looking for. Why have you come?" The men replied, "We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say." Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests.

Now, normally, I would have read that last part and thought nothing of it. But in Acts 10, Peter is being ripped from his prior believe of sanctity and kosherness (as a Jew), and being told that all things are of God which has declared all of creation clean and acceptable for consumption. But besides food, the Jewish faith had definite rules about association, and in taking that last step of inviting Gentiles into his house, he was internalizing this revelation and reaching out to unclean people (which God had also made clean and acceptable, as Jesus brought salvation for all people).

Ok, this was very interesting to learn, but reading this chapter on my own, I would have missed it completely. I'm just not very good at connecting the dots (I made a very lousy detective and lawyer back in high school mock trial). If its not there up front, I'm probably going to miss it. I guess what I really need is a study guide that gives an overview for the book, some more information for the chapter, and then highlights important points for each "section" (usually 15-20 verses covering a particular part of the story or lesson). Until I find that, i'm going to be reading through not quite comprehending the true significance of what's going on. Of course things are at least better now than the last time I was reading through the bible, which was back during high school. In my immaturity then, I probably missed 90% of what was going on, though even now, my attitudes trip me up when studying chapter like Judges 11.

Judges 11:30-31 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD : "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."
Judges 11:34-40 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break."
"My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD . Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry." "You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin.
From this comes the Israelite custom that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

This passage is disturbing on many levels. Primarily that Jephthah offers a human sacrifice up to the Lord, something he's not very keen on:

Deuteronomy 12:31 You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.
2 Kings 17:17 They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the LORD, provoking him to anger.

And there are more references to God being plenty unhappy with his people doing evil, such as in 2 Chronicles 33:6. In fact the only other time something like this is going on is when God tests Abraham by commanding him to take his only son Isaac into the mountains and sacrifice him (Genesis 22:1-19). Of course at the last minute God told him not to go through with it, and provided him with a ram instead.

So I read about Jephthah and just scratch my head. Did he just screw up and make a bad pledge, or is there some positive lesson in this story. After discussing it with Don, his best spin on it is that it shows Jephthah's obedience to God and to his word, and more importantly his daughter obedience to him and his tragic promise. But I still don't get why the Israelites developed a custom around this to commemorate it.

Leading within and without.

2004-05-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

I attended the mens breakfast this morning where our pastor was speaking. He's doing a multipart series on Uprising as our general focus is making an impact on our city, but part of what he was reflecting on today was the visit by Ted Haggard, and Ted's observations about christians in Flagstaff. Ted noticed that when the pastors got together for the Friday morning breakfast that no one took notes and hardly anyone had a bible. Its like we all just all showed up to listen and nod our heads, and then go back to our regular life.

This situation is no better in our congregation, and Jim is tired of it. His tone with us men this morning was the most serious and severe I've ever heard. First he asked everyone if they remembered the focus of the last men's breakfast:

Deuteronomy 6:5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

Now, I didn't go to the previous breakfast, so I have some excuse for not knowing what the focus was, but Jim was not happy with everyone else not knowing either. Next was a pop quiz on the mission of our church, which is

Matthew 28:19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Along with that goes the three points of focus: strengthening a relationship with god, strengthening a relationship with members of our family, church & christian community, and reaching out to the world (and the lost).

His reminder that if we hear this and know this, but do not do what God has commanded, its as if we do not know it.

Matthew 7:26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.

He further pointed out that if we do not study the bible and commit its verses to memory, that we cannot set an example for our children. While we may say that studying and knowing God's word is important, our actions will speak louder than our words. We cannot teach what we do not know.

Todays main focus was on standing out in the community:

Romans 12:1-2 Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will.

And its not that we are to stand apart from the community/city. We must create relationships within the community so that we may influence others. By being what God called us to be, we should be examples of kindness and Godliness. With a visible transformation we can use our influence to make disciples of others, and change our community. But this change starts within.

One part I always have a problem with is the transformation. I was raised in a christian family, and was brought up with the teachings of the bible, and at the appropriate time, I dedicated my life to Christ. It wasn't a change for me, it was all part of the plan. I've never been the rebelious godless sinner. Now I'm not a mature Christian yet either, I still have plenty of growing to do and many areas to work on. While I learned most of the books of the bible back in sixth grade, the most used page in my bible is still the index of books of the bible--I always have to turn there first before jumping to Ephesians or Job or Joshua. Ok, I can find Genesis and I think my book has a color code for the gospels, but that's about it.

So what am I going to work on immediately? Taking serious the study of God's word I think, and communicating it with my children. I took the first step this afternoon, having a conversation with my four year old son:

"So papa went to a meeting to learn more about God and what I need to do to fullfill his will."
"There is a lot to learn about God, and even Papa needs to learn more."
Max nods his head
"Does Max learn about God's word in bible class?"
"Yes," says Max.
"And are we going to keep learning more all the time?"
"Yes," says Max.