Sojourn

Appalachian Spring!

2012-01-01T07:10:00.003-06:00

I went to sleep in 2011 and woke up in 2012. My alarm did not blare, but in soft tones, sang to me. Hugh Wolff and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra played the last 90 seconds of Aaron Copland's original Appalachian Spring. To be honest, I can't think of a better way of waking up to a new year. The first thing that came to my mind was "thank you Lord for whispering such a lovely wake-up to me!"

Isn't it interesting how God whispers words of confirmation and encouragement to us? Those 90 seconds spoke volumes to me about life, about the new year and about God. 2012 is a special year.

Happy New Year my friends.

I know it has been awhile since I have blogged, so I must share a bit about what has been going on in my life. If you are a facebook friend, then you probably know a little already, but let me summarize a bit for you here.

I have been in Bozeman, Montana for almost a full year. In two weeks it will be a full year. It has been one of the most interesting years of my life thus far. As much as I loved Howard Payne and the teaching ministry I had there, this move was the right move for a variety of reasons. I look back at my time at HPU as a time of preparation. Preparation for what was to come in Bozeman. I miss my friends and I miss my older daughter who is at HPU. I made memories at HPU that I think of often, some joyful, some painful. Nevertheless, as time gathers momentum, I see that time and its purpose in my life.

Moving to Bozeman has not been without its difficulties though. It took seven months and a lot of work to get into our house. All of the flying back and forth as well as the work on the house caused some serious back problems, for which I am now going through physical therapy and treatments through an orthopedist. The church, as people, started out well, but has been stumbling along as of late. I refuse to be discouraged though. I knew this would be a five to seven year turn-around when I came. The core group of the church is resilient and loving though and we will not only survive, but will thrive in the near future!

2012's challenges are also its blessings. Here they are:

1. Finish my thesis.

2. Faithfully lead Bridger Community (FBC, The Rock Youth Center, CSR Ministries, The Montana Centre and Montana College) to a new level of thrival!

3. See my family into a new era of beautiful living.

4. Love God more.

Let me close now with a prayer now for the new year. It is not mine, but St. Elizabeth of Dijon's prayer. Enjoy.

Much love to each of you for a happy new year.

Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity: Prayer to the Trinity

O my God, Trinity whom I adore; help me to forget myself entirely that I may be established in You as still and as peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing trouble my peace or make me leave You, O my Unchanging One, but may each minute carry me further into the depths of Your mystery. Give peace to my soul; make it Your heaven, Your beloved dwelling and Your resting place. May I never leave You there alone but be wholly present, my faith wholly vigilant, wholly adoring, and wholly surrendered to Your creative Action.

O my beloved Christ, crucified by love, I wish to be a bride for Your Heart; I wish to cover You with glory; I wish to love You...even unto death! But I feel my weakness, and I ask You to "clothe me with Yourself," to identify my soul with all the movements of Your Soul, to overwhelm me, to possess me, to substitute yourself for me that my life may be but a radiance of Your Life. Come into me as Adorer, as Restorer, as Savior.

O Eternal Word, Word of my God, I want to spend my life in listening to You, to become wholly teachable that I may learn all from You. Then, through all nights, all voids, all helplessness, I want to gaze on You always and remain in Your great light. O my beloved Star, so fascinate me that I may not withdraw from Your radiance.

O consuming Fire, Spirit of Love, "come upon me," and create in my soul a kind of incarnation of the Word: that I may be another humanity for Him in which He can renew His whole Mystery. And You, O Father, bend lovingly over Your poor little crature; "cover her with Your shadow," seeing in her only the "Beloved in whom You are well pleased."

O my Three, my All, my Beatitude, infinite Solitude, Immensity in which I lose myself, I surrender myself to You as Your prey. Bury Yourself in me that I may bury myself in You until I depart to contemplate in Your light the abyss of Your greatness.

England 2011, part 1...

2011-11-08T08:39:00.003-06:00

Hola!

Of course, it has now been months since my last blog entry. What can I say, other than...well you know me, if you know me at all. Just busy. To get everyone up to speed, we finally moved into our house in Bozeman, Montana. I laid our wood flooring myself, moved and unpacked over 100 boxes of books. Then my back crashed...again. One of these days I will learn, I am sure. Anyway, I'm back in beautiful Bristol, England again, with side trips planned to Bath Spa and Oxford, maybe London if I have time. Regardless, it's good to be back in the Mother country!

While I am here I am wrapping things up with my current thesis supervisor, Jeanette Sears and entering the final stretch with a supervisor yet to be named. This doesn't really trouble me; maybe it should, but it doesn't. Maybe its because I'm 47, almost 48 and already have one doctorate. Maybe it's because I'm under no pressure at my new post to 'get it done'! Either way, I'm not stressed. I am going to enjoy finishing this piece up because I want to do so!

I had an interesting journey here. It took four flights and 26 hours. I saw the Amsterdam airport for the first time and was really impressed. Think contemporary upscale shopping mall meets airport, all staffed by 'Stepford' types. Hey, you've got to love the Dutch - they not only do soccer right, they also know how to treat the traveler in their airport!! Anyway, I arrived Bristol at 8:20AM - tired, but intact. My luggage made it with me and the wonderful folks in immigration let me pass without a hassle. My good friend Chris Bliss picked me up in his way cool Alpha Romeo and dropped me off at his place for a spot of tea and some toast with orange marmalade. Ah, to be back in England!

Anyway, I had a nice jet-lag nap and am now going to walk down to the Shirehampton village center to pick up some items for my hosts. Hopefully, it will be a nice, relaxed evening and a good night's sleep. Shirehampton is a truly beautiful suburb of Bristol. There are areas that remind me of a Jane Austen movie, really.

Well enough for now. I'll make another post tomorrow. In the meantime my friends, remember this:

God's grace is always greater...

wow.

2011-07-29T21:43:00.003-05:00

It's been awhile since I posted. Almost a month! It has been a crazy month, so you will forgive me. We have been moving off of the ranch and into our home in town. It has take a lot of work. We've laid flooring, painted, put down baseboard and quarter round. My back hasn't been too happy, but I've lost 10 pounds and we are starting to really feel at home. Today was a breakthrough, we got closer to normal - I mowed my new lawn (almost a quarter acre!) and smoked a brisket. Tomorrow I will install some bookshelves, take a hike up the butte with Hannah and Catherine, then settle in for some more sermon preparation.

I am taking this break not to share with you all about my personal life, but to share an amazing insight with you.

It is when we confess our own inability and act in simple obedience

that God reveals Himself in strength.

Now I have amassed quite a bit of education in my 47 years, but I realize now more than ever that my education at times hampers ministry more than facilitating it. I have seen the power of God at work here in Bozeman like never anywhere else I have lived. God has doubled the attendance of our church in six months. People have attended worship and given more in the last 8 months than in the last 8 years. Spiritual strongholds have been broken, psychological and spiritual oppression has been lifted, young men and women are coming to know Christ. God is bringing together the personnel for Montana College in a fashion that only God can.

And guess what else? As much as I would like to take credit I can't. It's all God. I just preach, teach, pray and love people. It's absolutely not me. A congregation and a community is looking towards God in humility and finding Him. I am humbled and invigorated all in the same moment.

So what's my role? I am just being obedient. I am equipping people for ministry and encouraging them to engage their community. I am preaching what God has given me. I have never been a great preacher; I pray that I am a clear communicator; but if God has shown me anything, it is that the love, beauty and kindness of the gospel will go places that my education and skill cannot.

This has been a hard move. I've left dearly loved friends and family in Texas. My back has caused me severe pain at times. It took a long time to get into this house and off the ranch. Melissa is still looking for a job and the list goes on. Yet in my weakness He is made strong. Paul, another highly educated man, says this in 2 Corinthians 12:19, a passage that has put this all together for me:

And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

I get it.

I love God. I love God with my mind and my heart. As I get older and am less able to do the things I once easily did, I am reminded over and over again, that truly - it is Him; not me. Amen.

An Update for All My Friends… July 3, 2011

2011-07-04T00:01:00.004-05:00

Although this is is a break from my regular theological reflections, it is about my journey, so I hope you will forgive my brief repose!

It is July 3rd, 2011 at about 11:00pm Mountain Standard Time. I am sitting in a rocking swing outside of my unit at the Copper Spring Ranch bunkhouse. My new friend, "Franchesco" - a young male ginger cat is tired from chasing gophers and is at my feet. It was a warm day in the Gallatin Valley - about 94º at its peak. Now, close to midnight, it's a lovely 64º with an ever so slight breeze. Hannah, my daughter, is fast asleep and Melissa is reading.

From my vantage point at the foot of Pine Butte, in Gallatin County Montana, I am situated perfectly to the southwest of the city of Bozeman and to the southeast of the city of Belgrade. I know the picture to the left isn't great, but I am located just to the left of the picture. The butte is located on the ranch. Anyway, my elevation allows me to see the lights of both cities. The scene at 9:00pm was incredible. The Bridger Mountains to the north were like huge shadows, that provided an almost eery backdrop for the Independence Day festivities that had begun two nights ago.

Tonight, I sit here in the swing, listening to the flow of the Gallatin river and the occasional 'whump', 'crack' and 'fizz' of the fire works. The breeze is nice. It has given me an occasion to think and reflect just about me and my last 24 months. It has been a whirlwind. Two years ago, the summer of 2009, I was in Bellingham, Washington on a mission trip with the First Baptist Church of Brownwood. Last year, I was in Bellingham, but this time with Coggin Avenue Baptist Church of Brownwood. This year I am on a new adventure - not with a church from Brownwood, but as pastor of a church here in the valley - Bozeman First Baptist Church - now a part of Bridger Community Ministries. BCM has as its component ministries First Baptist Church, The Rock Youth Center, and, eventually, The Montana Center for Faith, Adventure and the Arts. As I think about it, all I can muster is, 'wow'....

The hard part for me has been missing my friends. As I get older, I realize more and more how dear my relationships are. I miss my close friends. I miss my afternoon talks with my good friend and mentor Wallace. I miss my friends, the McCutchen's. I miss my colleagues in the School of Christian studies. I miss my friends in Bangs and in De Leon. I miss my students - I found out today that one of my favorite students this past year is leaving HPU to go to nursing school at a university in San Antonio. I know that this is life though.

As I sit here, I realize that although I miss my friends, this was absolutely the right move. God's finger prints have been all over it! I have connected with the people here in a way I could have never imagined. The church is growing. We literally add new people every week. I am able to mentor students here and I have intellectual colleagues that satisfy my thirst for dialog. My time in Brownwood and in Bellingham have been preparing me for this stage in my life.

I think the hard part for me is realizing that this may be my last real challenge. I love the challenge, I love this place of incredible beauty. I miss my friends and my daughter Catherine - tremendously. But I realize that I am closer now to 50 than 40. I am the mentor. Although I have many projects, I can only tackle them one day at a time. I love each and every person that comes into my sphere of influence. I pray that God continues to lead me and to open doors in this ministry.

I miss all of you though. Rob, Monte, Corey, Wallace, Carol and the rest. Keep me in your prayers as I seek to follow Christ in this challenge. Oh, and visit when you can!

Community on the Edge: Church Outside the Comfort Zone.

2011-06-20T07:02:00.003-05:00

Dusk came last night in Bozeman at about 9:55pm. Dawn came this morning at 4:56am (or so). I've got to say that kind of schedule is tough. The day becomes so long at this time of year at this latitude that it is practically disorienting. Needless to say, I didn't get much sleep! Indeed, it can be so disorienting for people that they don't stay here but return to a location that has a more consistent day length, closer to the equator. But I am not unfamiliar with this situation. My old home in Bellingham, Washington was even further north and it too had long summer days. Those kind of long days in the summer and short days in the winter create a unique environment and a unique community.

We live in disorienting times. Some call this time "the postmodern era"; a time when all that we know about life and all the means we used to navigate this life has been turned upon its ear. The institutions and methods to which we have grown accustomed no longer have the appeal or effect they once had. This is no more true anywhere than in the church. The church is inherently embedded in culture. At its heart, it worship and reveres an historical figure (Jesus) as God who spoke to a specific culture in a specific way. Yet the ethic that Jesus taught was, and is, Truth (His teaching and ethics are experienced by all people as 'eternal' - His teachings transcend the culture and historical context to cause change in the hearer-reader; you see, the 'truth' of Truth is that it inaugurates change) and it must be applied in the ever changing culture around us. Thus as the culture changes around the church, the church too must adjust its methodology as it proclaims the Truth that is Jesus.

In a time where change is common; indeed where change is the norm and where steadfast adherence to any static context or tradition means quick death, the living church finds itself - if it is to be faithful proclaimers of the gospel - as a 'Community on the Edge' - a church outside of the comfort zone. As the comfort of the modern age fades into the quantum change of the postmodern (or is it ultramodern?), the survival of the church depends upon its willingness to be at the very edge of culture; reaching out to the lost, the hurt, the child and the widow, who always are the victims in culture.

It would be easy for the church trying to survive in the waning comfort of the modern era to continue its methods for as long as they can. And some churches in North America, located in cultures still relatively ruled by the ideas of the modern period (the Bible Belt, for example) will continue to rely on those methods. But a note to pastors: even as you rely on the tested programs of the 20th century to build the church body, start to equip people to make relationships with their neighbor. Rather than relying on attractional evangelism, start equipping people to engage in missional evangelism, where they go out of the building and into the world, making relationships, sharing the truth of Jesus with their lives, leading them to the Truth as we experience it in life and as it is codified in scripture. If you begin this process of equipping your sheep to do the meat of ministry, be prepared: you will soon find yourself outside your comfort zone as a community on the edge, challenging the norms of your culture and society. But be encouraged: that's exactly where Jesus and Paul were! I like what Paul says and what the church must take to heart today:

"To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak; I have become all things to all men, so that I may by all means save some" (1 Corinthians 9:22)

Learn to live as a community on the edge; seriously engaging culture with the Truth and Love of God in order that some might be saved.

Spiritual Warfare: Addendum

2011-06-13T08:24:00.002-05:00

Weapons of the Believer:

1) The Holy Spirit

2) Prayer

3) Boldness in the Jesus' Name

Some Outside Resources:

Boyd, Gregory A. "God at War: The Bible and Spiritual Conflict" (IVP)

Kraft, Charles. "Defeating Dark Angels: Breaking Demonic Oppression in the Believer's Life" (Regal)

Kraft, Charles. "I Give You Authority" (Chosen)

Kraft, Charles. "Christianity with Power: Your Worldview and Your Experience of the Supernatural." (Wipf & Stock)

Rankin, Jerry. "Spiritual Warfare: The Battle for God's Glory" (B & H Books)

All of these authors have accredited doctoral degrees and have extensive experience!

Other believers who have experienced spiritual warfare!

The Toll of Spiritual Warfare

2011-06-13T07:32:00.002-05:00

To engage in warfare of any kind takes a toll. The goal of spiritual warfare is to 'exorcise' or drive-out the demon or resident evil and to begin the process of restoring the person or community to health. Thus the toll is two-fold; the extraction of the demonic, and more importantly, the spiritual, psychological and physical drain that occurs on the part of the believer. Spiritual warfare requires such focused prayer and attention that one is left at least weary and often times absolutely exhausted from the engagement. Our core energy sources are drained.

This account sounds as if I am implying that "we" do the work - not so - we are simply being obedient to the call to engage. The Holy Spirit within us is the power. The drain comes from facing and engaging something for which we have no love and quite often causes confusion and even fear. Thus each believer must be drenched with the Spirit of God through prayer before and after the engagement. Thus the believer is physically, psychologically and emotionally exhausted after the engagement.

This is why pursuit of the spiritual disciplines is important. Just like the training armed forces go through to increase their knowledge of the enemy and their ability to withstand attacks and attack on their own, Christians must be spiritually disciplined in order to enter their battles with evil. Spiritual battle is not for spiritual wimps. Luke tells the story of the seven sons of Sceva in Acts 19:13-16 to illustrate this point:

God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.

But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. And the evil spirit answered and said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” And the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

To fight the good fight of faith, one must be a true follower of Jesus, filled with the Spirit of God and prepared to do battle. If not, we enter into this spiritual battle on our own folly and risk the injury of Acts 19:16. The evil at hand must recognize Jesus in you for it to yield to the words you speak!

As a believer though, we need not fear the enemy, but simply engage it. The name of Jesus, used by the true believer, is the power feared by the enemy. The enemy must obey. The battle is won by Jesus, but it costs us something; energy and some emotional pain; thus we must renew our strength and reconnect to God in prayer. Jesus does this several times in the gospels, most notably in Matthew 14:23, Mark 6:46 and Luke 5:16.

The perils of post-spiritual warfare is simply more spiritual warfare. The enemy is insidious, always looking for your weakness to to exploit you, especially if you are engaging him. Thus right after an engagement, we must look to God in prayer, seeking protection, strength, insight and renewed strength. I believe this is what Jesus did when he went to the mountain to be with the Father.

Our biggest mistake as Christians in a modern world is first to ignore the spiritual battle, but second, to engage the enemy thinking that there will be no cost. This attitude can only be describe as flippant and careless. Those who are not prepared for the battle are always injured, sometimes they are so psychologically wounded that they never quite recover. The Christian must be prepared for the battle and the toll. It is only then that we can continue to engage in spiritual warfare and live the victorious life God has for us.

Be prepared friends, its coming.

The Nature of Spiritual Warfare

2011-06-12T06:56:00.003-05:00

Jesus doesn't talk about 'spiritual warfare' at length, He primarily teaches about the relational, moral and economic nature of discipleship. I believe that in itself says much about the nature of spiritual reality. Indeed, although we see Jesus casting out demons, those actions tend to be witnessed within the larger context of his 'signs and wonders' ministry of the Kingdom (Mark 1:34-39, 6:13, et al). Going a step further, the Gospels of Mark and Luke have the majority of references to demons and the 'casting out' of demons, and those references tend to cast spiritual warfare as a normal part of the life of the disciple in the world. Truly part of every disciple's commission is to exercise God's power over the demonic in the name of Jesus (see the 'Sending of the Seventy' in Mark 6:13 and Luke 10:17). The contested ending of Mark even states that the 'casting out of demons' will be part of the signs that accompany the one who believes in Jesus name. Yet Jesus does not give any direct instructions as to the methodology of 'casting out demons' as it were. The narratives suggest that Jesus naturally comes into contacts with the demonic when He is in there presence. At that point, Jesus confronts them and tells them to leave. In the late addition to Matthew - 17:21 - Jesus tells the disciples that there is a certain type of demon that does not come out except through 'fasting and prayer' although a few verses earlier, in Matthew 17:18, Jesus 'rebuked the demon and he came out and the boy was cured at once.' My question is two-fold: On one hand, is Jesus saying that there is a demon that is of such strength that one must prepare 'more' to confront it, or is He saying the depth of the disciple's life must include regular fasting and prayer - as Jesus would seem to have pursued - in order to engage in spiritual warfare. In other words, the spiritual life and spiritual warfare demand a devoted spiritual regimen or you simply aren't prepared to address absolute evil? This is an interesting question. Spiritual warfare must not be engaged flippantly! So what is the nature of spiritual warfare?

1. Spiritual conflict between God and evil is normative for the disciple. It is a part of the fabric of reality in a fallen world.

2. Evil exists along side good and is personified in the demonic. Demons are personal and have an agenda - to interfere with the expansion of God's Kingdom and to hold captive humankind. Jesus says that the "thief has come to steal, kill and destroy, but that He has come to give life and that more abundantly!" (John 10:10)

3. God has absolute power over creation, including evil and the demonic.

4. Jesus, as God, has given human believers - better, disciples - power, in the Holy Spirit, to confront and defeat evil in the demonic, in His name.

5. Disciples of Jesus, must be actively pursuing spiritual discipline to be prepared for this confrontation.

a. They must understand the reality in which they live - spiritual and physical

b. They must understand that there is nothing in their own flesh or spirit that can withstand evil.

c. They must understand that it is the power that indwells the believer - the Holy Spirit - which roots out evil and defeats the enemy, when called upon in the name of Jesus.

d. They must understand that if they seek to follow Jesus in this world, spiritual warfare is a constant reality, and that vigilant preparation is necessary. The disciple must have a rigorous life of prayer and fasting, worship and study as they seek to embody the love and virtue of God, as well as confront the powers in this world.

6. Disciples of Jesus must be unafraid to engage in this battle. By dismissing or not engaging, the battle is lost.

7. Disciples must never forget: It's Jesus. But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk! Peter finally got it. To defeat the enemy, it's not about what we possess, but who possesses us. All Peter had was Jesus, and it was Jesus who worked through Peter in the power of the Spirit.

For next time: The Toll of Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Warfare: Introduction

2011-05-27T06:48:00.008-05:00

The Bible describes a world that is far more complex than the world we have inherited from modern, empirical science. The biblical world requires that we not only engage our reason and senses, but that our faith-filled imagination also be constantly engaged in order to understand fully the world around us. Indeed, the Bible posits a world that contains beings that elude our ability to identify them 'empirically'. We 'sense' them, we experience their presence or their activity, but not usually in any scientifically quantifiable way. We simply know we have experienced something; pleasant or unpleasant. The Bible calls these beings, 'spiritual' beings', and they inhabit the same world you and I inhabit, yet their existence involves another aspect; one which eludes the modern, mostly 'faithless' world. We experience these beings but they elude our common empirical categories of description. We know them, but we can't explain them with scientific categories. Indeed, the only way these beings make sense to us, is that the Bible gives us a socio-linguistic framework by which to understand their existence.

The Bible tells the reader of the existence not only of God, but of 'angels' (from the Greek a‡ggeloß meaning, "messenger") and 'demon' (from the Greek, daimo/nion meaning,"demon"). In the scriptural narrative, the angels are messengers from God and serve God with absolute loyalty. We see this in the Old Testament as well as the New, from Genesis to Revelation. They are transcendent beings; beings that elude qualification in our empirical reality. They are ever present to the timeless, spiritual realm which God the Father inhabits, but also have the ability to participate in the earthly reality which human beings inhabit. They have the ability to remain hidden from human eyes, or, they can 'reveal' themselves. Likewise, the demons in the scriptural narrative are present in both the Old and New Testaments. These transcendent beings do not operate in the heavenly realm of God, but according to intratestamental or apocryphal literature - have been relegated to the earthly realm. These beings stand in opposition to the angelic beings and indeed stand in opposition to God's will on the earth. Rather than serve God, the demonic serves the former angel of the presence of God, Lucifer; also called Satan or the Devil. He is the great deceiver, the father of lies and seeks to keep humankind from attaining the eternal destiny God has chosen for them in Christ. This 'fallen' angel, according to non-canonical sources, led a rebellion of angels against God, who then banished these angels to an earthly existence, where they remain with fallen humankind until the final Judgment. While on this earth, they seek to keep humankind from obedience to God's will with the final goal of defrauding humanity of salvation and eternal life.

While demons seek to hamper God's will upon the earth and defraud humankind of salvation, Angels seek the opposite. Angels not only seek to implement God's will on the earth, but they stand ready to aid humankind in their struggle against evil and in their effort to find redemption in Christ. They respond only to the commands of God the Father.

Human beings, blissfully unaware of this battle between Angel and Demon, good and evil, tend to be pawns in this war, until they receive Christ in the process of salvation and the Holy Spirit enters their lives. At this point, everything changes.

For next time: the nature of spiritual warfare.

Spiritual Warfare?

2011-05-20T08:21:00.002-05:00

In recent days, I've been dealing with what can only be described as "spiritual warfare." Although my worldview has always had a chapter titled 'spiritual warfare' and it is something that I have 'tacitly' affirmed, it, nevertheless, has always taken a 'secondary' status in my theology. I assume this is because I live in world tinged by 'modernity' and its assumptions. A 'modern' worldview assumes that 'unseen' things, related to religious belief, evade empirical evaluation and thus are dubious concerns and best related to the category of 'hocus pocus' and other fictional ideas. On top of that, contemporary media - television and film - have so abused the concept of incarnate evil that most people in modern cultures simply dismiss the idea of spiritual warfare.

I am here to tell you that I have been engaged in the "Gettysburg" of spiritual warfare for the past several weeks. Now in the past most of my spiritual warfare has dealt with my own choices and battles in regards to the flesh - temptation, lust, deceit, etc. Things not uncommon to most human beings. Not this time. I feel as though today, over 3 months of pastoral care and prayer have brought me to the "Pickett's Charge" of this pitched battle. It involves the forces of evil and the forces of Christ in my immediate community. Its not about me personally, but I have been drawn to the fray out of sheer necessity. The good news is that I am the II Corps of the Union Army... and although General Hancock took great casualties in the assault, Pickett was soundly repulsed. "I can do all things in Christ, who strengthens me!"

In the next few weeks, I hope to detail the framework of a theology of spiritual warfare. Maybe it will be a help to some of you engaged in the same areas that I am. Until then, I appreciate your prayers!

Sunrise Over the Bridgers

2011-05-11T06:53:00.003-05:00

I slept almost 8 full hours last night. Sounds relatively mundane, doesn't it? Not for me though. Lately, I've been turning into a 5 or 6 hour a night person. Restless, I would get up two to four times every night. I could never seem to find the gear for REM sleep. I think I'm changing though. The stress of flying every other week, switching mental gears constantly and generally living in crisis mode from day to day had taken its toll on me. I was always tired, frustrated and generally not healthy. That is changing! So, I've come to the conclusion that I'm becoming human again. I'm getting good sleep. I'm focusing on fewer things and becoming more productive. I look forward to the new day.

My coffee is almost done now. Time to watch the sunrise over the Bridger Mountains!

A Clarification: Abandoned by Those Whom You Love the Most

2011-05-08T20:11:00.002-05:00

I mentioned in the earlier post that I had been "abandoned" by several whom I at one time considered "good" friends. I am a person, I feel. I invest in everyone around me. My assumption is that those whom I call "friend" will indeed be a "friend" in return. Thus, it is a shock to me when those whom I expect to support and encourage me, even in the most difficult of times, simply push away. With very few exceptions, I was alone my last week in Brownwood. One of my friends even told me that I should "expect" this treatment. Wow! I was stunned. This seemed to be a justification that allowed this person to behave in this fashion, even though he knew, deep inside, it was wrong, even petty. Now before I dig myself into a 'hole' here, I need to make a clarification; not a retraction mind you, but a clarification.

When you leave people you love, they react in different ways. I get it. Some are hurt that you are leaving and can't face it. Some are glad to see you gone and finally are able to revel in your departure. They just don't do it in front of you. Some are jealous of your departure, because deep inside they want to leave as badly as you, they just don't know how to leave or don't have the opportunity. That sadness in all of this is that it reflects a base selfishness. Selfishness on my part because I want my friends to support me. Selfishness on their part because, well, they are unwilling to stand with me for their own reasons.

I hurt right now, but I'll get over it. Too much to do here. My friends will eventually get over their hurt or anger. Maybe they will even keep in touch with me. I hope so. They will eventually get their chance to leave as well. And that is where their character will reveal itself. As I look carefully in the last analysis on all that has transpired, I realize that I have not suffered abandonment like our Lord, or like so many others in our world. I am good. I pray that the sun shines upon the faces of those whom I left behind in Texas and that our Lord gives them peace.

I'm Home.

2011-05-08T08:04:00.002-05:00

For the last five years I have been living in Brownwood, Texas. It is a special place to me. Home of Howard Payne University, where I earned a bachelors degree, where I taught theology and bible and now where my oldest daughter is in college, it will always be a special place to me. But it is no longer home. Indeed, though it is a special place, I'm not sure if it was ever truly home. I never felt completely settled. I never felt completely accepted, nor did I ever develop roots. There are lots of reasons for this, but deep inside maybe I knew there was something else, someplace else. Brownwood would be a 'layover' in life and I would need to take from it "life's lessons" make friendships and go where I needed to go next for ministry and mission.

Sadly, when I made the decision to leave, several people I considered 'good' friends simply abandoned me. Although I made some great friendships - Pastor Tim, Sam, Don, my SCS colleagues, many students - some people to whom I thought I was closest just shut me out. I continue to wonder and reflect how you can call someone friend and then just shut them out. They didn't even say goodbye. All I can do is reflect on my own actions and examine what I may have been to sow injury or hurt. C'est la vie? Oui?

Well. Bozeman, Montana is home. The challenge awaits. It has already proven to be a place of promise and hope; a place of challenge and tears. That's OK, because deep in my heart, I know it is home.

Thank you Father for leading me home;

for giving me the wisdom to hear your voice;

for giving me the courage to follow your call;

for allowing me to be in Brownwood - even for a short time

so I could love, learn and live -

love others

learn from my mistakes

and live life as courageously as possible.

Thank you.

Amen.

Touching Orion's Belt

2011-03-26T00:46:00.002-05:00

It has been a very busy four plus weeks since my last post, and this will be a short one. Melissa, Hannah and I have just returned to the ranch from "Hawks Night Live" - a musical review put on by the Bozeman High School students as a benefit for Bozeman Friends of Music. (http://hawksnightlive.com/) It was a lively evening. All three of us were entertained, touched and amazed by the presentations. But that's not what I want to write about.

After we returned to the bunkhouse, I had reason to go back out to my car in the garage, a walk of about 30 yards from our door. As I stepped out into the quickly cooling night air, I noticed how many stars were close to the horizon; then I looked up...and stopped in my tracks.

I've never seen stars like I've seen tonight. The stars were brighter than I had ever seen before. Later winter stars...and they were twinkling. Orion, the hunter was so close I reached up as if I could touch his belt. Rigel was pulsing - I could even make it out its blue light. The cool air kept me from staying too long (it's funny how you can call 27º cool!), but I stayed long enough to offer a prayer or two for friends and family. The stars reminded me tonight of the many, many blessings in my life and the opportunities that yet lay ahead. They reminded me of how much so many of you have shined brightly in my life.

Thank you.

-14 Below Zero

2011-02-25T07:52:00.003-06:00

You can get used to anything. Really. It's surprising, I know, but I am now getting used to living in snow. If you would have asked me a year ago if I could be comfortable living in a climate where snow was simply a daily reality and that temperatures were an average 60º lower than where I was living, I would have just laughed. Really. But I am now living in a place where snow is as soft as fine powder, people don't go nuts when driving in below freezing weather and when you go outside you need a scarf to cover your face because the possibility of frostbite is a daily reality.

The picture on the left is of my commute to the bunkhouse yesterday at about 5:30pm. The temperture was 0º with a windchill of -22ºF. Visibility was limited to about 50 yards. What you are seeing is snow being blown across the road from east to west. It wouldn't just come straight across though. It would swirl too and so the angle was constantly changing. It was difficult to see the road, almost disorienting. The effect it had on the sun and moon was interesting too. Obviously, it obscured them, but it also produced some interesting effects. I saw my first winter rainbow yesterday for example. I am not quite sure how the rainbow was created, though I can only assume that the angle of the sun through the blowing snow somehow created it.

This kind of weather, normal for the Gallatin valley, is also reflected in the actions and attitudes of the people. The ruggedness of the weather creates an interesting character. There is a craving for community, an openness and a deeper desire to understand the things of God. The natural beauty of the valley lends itself to the existential questions of life, but the harshness of the winters - which last roughly from November to May! - also embeds a deep respect for the power of God. You must respect the cold and the snow in the same way a Texan respects thunderstorms in the spring and heat in the late summer.

Just an observation.

The Cateye Cafe

2011-02-11T08:33:00.002-06:00

The "Cateye Cafe" pictured at left is on Tracy street, just north of Main street in downtown Bozeman, Montana. It is an extraordinary place and I don't mean just because the food is good. Located in the old telephone company building, it is owned and operated by Tina and Kevin. Tina and Kevin are fun. Tina is a native of Montana and Kevin, her husband is a native New Englander. She is the personable host and he is the creative chef. The dining room is small, but the personalities are large. Wait service is excellent. It is both personable and efficient. The food is spectacular. (I suggest trying the banana bread french toast!) All walks of life can be found at the cafe. It is open for breakfast and lunch daily, and dinner on Friday and Saturday. Now this is not simply a 'plug' for a good eating establishment. What I have found there is a representative of the postmodern life: a life that eschews traditional religious expression, yet is simultaneously desperate for the good news.

At the Cateye, the secular crowd gathers for community. People find fun, food and personal acceptance. It is a rudimentary fellowship, bound together by the ethos of its owners, who function as both hosts and priests. The people who gather there find love and acceptance, sprinkled with a little joy. The most injured of human beings find an atmosphere where they can let down their guard and laugh a little while they enjoy a feast.

I sometimes wonder if the church couldn't learn from the Cateye and I couldn't learn a little more from Kevin and Tina.

An Outpost of Love: Addendum

2011-02-11T07:35:00.003-06:00

A friend of mine wants me to go further on my ideas. But before I can explore the "outpost of love" further, I need to post an addendum. My journey has been one of agnostic 20 year old to charismatic to fundamentalist to generous Evangelical and then simply to generous Christian. It has been an interesting journey. When I look back on this journey, I think two things. First, I see a life in process with God and second, I observe what it means to take scripture seriously. Let me take these two observations in order.

1) A Life in Process with God. It has now been 27 years since Christ came into my life. It has been a life that has reflected Psalm 150, Psalm 51, Psalm 150 and Psalm 27. There have been spiritual highs and lows. I have experienced grave disappointment and deep sadness but I've also experienced tremendous victory and the accompanying joy. As I look back on these 27 years I can see how God has used time, circumstance and Spirit to lead me along and indeed to shape me. I am who I am because of the great I AM. It is indeed a 'walk', a journey and as well a 'shared' walk or journey. Although there have been times where I walked without human company, God has always been there. The journey is shared first and foremost with Father-Son-Spirit and then with other human beings. I have been lonely, but I have never been alone since Christ came into my life. Now, I see life not only as participation in and with God, but as one of becoming* - by 'becoming' I mean transformation into that instrument which God utilises for His glory, His Kingdom and the benefit of humanity. It is only in this participation and transformation that I gain my true self.

2) Taking Scripture Seriously. Aye, here's the rub. As a young Christian, I became involved with fundamentalist influences. I don't see this as a negative, simply part of the process. For if there is one thing in which fundamentalists excel, it is taking scripture seriously. Many of my more 'permissive' friends don't truly take scripture seriously. Now don't get me wrong; they read and preach the bible - but problematically, they don't take its claims as seriously as they could, or as I argue, should. They have allowed another ideology- usually science, history or secular psychology - to determine how they will handle or understand the scriptures. Sadly, this approach to scripture inevitably leads to a diluted faith and a weak theology. In extreme cases it leads to a biblical atheism or unitarianism, where one posits the existence of God, but the Father is Mother, the Son is not deity and the Spirit is an ambiguous 'world consciousness'.

This is not acceptable to the fundamentalist. Of course, they have their own set of bizarre problems. They too tend towards a biblical unitarianism but it functions through a focus on the sovereignty of God the FATHER ALMIGHTY, and then proceeds to treat the balance of the divine Trinity hierarchically: the Son is divine, but he only gets it from the FATHER ALMIGHTY, thus it is a derivative divinity. The Spirit is the 'toady' of the Trinity, the errand boy of the Father or according to my fundamentalist pentecostal friends, the essence of God that motivates Father and Son, and, for a generous love offering and slaying of the Spirit, can be at your beck and call. Now I don't want this to become too negative or harsh, for I have benefitted from my Charismatic brethren as well. More importantly, in order to maintain a literalist, scientific approach to scripture, my fundamentalist friends have to affirm crazy millennial schemes, the marginalisation of women from ministry, the denigration of any type of evolutionary science and an exclusive focus on penal-substitutionary atonement as the only explanation of Jesus' death. If anything, my friends are not fundamentalists, but rather, 'saddamentalists'.

Let me make my point. Out of this trajectory, I have taken scripture seriously; and if one takes scripture seriously, you end up not with a rigid confessional theology as much as a theological ethos. I could not remain a fundamentalist because in actually reading and wrestling with the truth in scripture, I could no longer affirm the strange theological schemes and vacuous, angry ethic. I could not remain a Pentecostal or Charismatic because of their generally skewed understanding of the Holy Spirit.

What I found in taking scripture seriously was that a life informed by God does not dead end in confession, but rather explodes outward in transformation.

If we take scripture seriously, we find that God wants a personal relationship that results in a peripatetic, Jesus-like life. A life of grace, mercy and unconditional love. A life of loving the enemy, where forgiveness is our lone weapon. A life poured-out. Paul understood this. Peter understood this. John, James and Philip understood this.

Yet far too often, modernist, American Christianity emasculates the truth of the gospel and the scriptures in favor of an individualistic, commercialist corruption.

Too many well intended, bible-reading Christians make the confession of faith, only to hold transformation at arm's length. In this fashion, they can control the operation of God in their life. Their walk with God becomes stunted, precisely because they refuse to allow God to be in control of their transformation. The Christian life becomes a neat, tidy, acceptable way of living. They can even get away with a little sin if they are crafty enough. This is American Christianity at its best. I have lived this form of Christianity and it is ultimately vacuous and unsatisfying.

I want more and if you take scripture seriously, how you view and live life changes.

An Outpost of Love

2011-02-10T08:14:00.002-06:00

It has been interesting cycle, ministering in Montana for 9 days, then back to Brownwood for 5 days and repeat. In all fairness, two of those five days in Brownwood are travel days. Nevertheless, I consider it a great privilege to teach my courses and simultaneously get to know a new community of people. Although it is physically demanding, it is also mentally stimulating!

What I want to share with you though is not my personal travel and schedule. It is a developing set of ideas.

1)People are sinners. All of us have some idea of this concept, it is not new. Sinners are not necessarily 'bad' or 'evil' - there are some people out there who obey the laws, go to work, have families and retire, but are still separated from God. We see this separation from God in our generally self-focused behaviors. In business speak, we are not maximizing our potential as human beings. We are unrealized. However, our generally selfish approach to life coalesces into a communally tragic situation over time. Our sinful condition manifests itself in anger, lying, greed, lust and a multitude of over painful behaviors. We are in desperate need of God.

2) Salvation is transformation. Salvation is not found in a confession of faith or even in a set of theological principles. Salvation begins with grace, resulting in confession, profession and transformation. Thus, our confession begins a transformation - a living theology. We are judged by the Creator in the end of time, not based simply upon our confession, but on the accompanying transformation! (See below) Most Christians don't get the transformation part because it is humbling. We like feeling superior; we like the fact that "we are chosen" and they are "not." Pride is always the final sin to go and it is replaced with a self-controlling humility. But the end of transformation isn't simply humility.

3) The end of salvation is love. God is love, agape love (1 John 4). Agape is "selfless concern for the other." Agape is not simply a noun, but a verb. One does not simply possess love; one lives love. Or better, love is lived through us. When love is lived, it becomes a fixed aspect of life and takes on objective, noun-like qualities. Understood in this fashion, salvation is the process where we learn to live in relationship with God, who is love, and allowing God, who is love, to love others through us. Jesus stated, "By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for each other" (NIV). We have often interpreted this 'each other' as 'one another' - this is a legitimate translation, just not a good interpretation. We naturally interpret this as others 'like us' - Christians. This is the ornery residue of the sin nature, the natural man, seeking the easiest path, the wide road. But the Spirit gently directs us 'other' wise!

But I believe it is best to understand 'other' as those not us. To love each other then becomes the command to love each person that is not us. Hence, Jesus tells us to love our enemies, to forgive those who abuse us and even those who would kill us - "forgive them father for they do not know what they do..." (Luke 23:34). We are to love as Jesus loved.

In Matthew 25:31-46, "The Parable of the Sheep and the Goats," the sheep, those who "entered into their rest" (heaven), did not do so based upon confession, but rather on transformed living. The sheep did not even realize that their lives were characterized by unconditional, selfless concern for the other. Their lives were lived love. They were transformed and being transformed.

4) The Church is a Movement of Agape-Love. Awash in the inner strength of the Holy Spirit, the church - made up of persons brimming with the Love of God as the Holy Spirit - penetrates its community. Rather than being a specific social strata of people who gather for a few hours each week for worship and discipleship, the church is the ekklesia, those called out by God to demonstrate the righteousness of God in selfless concern for the other.

My home church has started a project called, "Love Brownwood." That is the heart of what we are called to be and do. We go to the laundromat, to the impoverished neighborhood, the hurting professionals, the struggling businesses and we live selfless concern for the other. No fancy programs, no slick bible-teaching, no contemporary worship can replace the command to love. The church is an outpost of love, sending out sorties into the world, so that person by person, community by community, our world is changed into what God intended from the beginning of time.

Amen.

From the Bible Belt to Bozemania - part 2

2011-01-27T18:17:00.003-06:00

When I last left an entry, it seemed as if I was 'dogging' Brownwood, Texas. Not true. Many of the churches in that community are attempting to connect with others in a culturally relevant and authentically 'New Testament' fashion. The Bible Belt culture simply makes it more difficult to do so. Thus said, I was making a comment about the culture in which much of the south is mired. Many of America's seminaries are located in the South, and many of them continue to train students as if all of the United States reflect the Bible Belt approach to the church. This is a serious problem. The culture is changing, the church is changing and thus theological education must adapt.

The Bible Belt and Bozemania have one important thing in common: people. People still yearn to understand the ineffable. They seek answers to the greater questions of life and the possibility of existence after death. They crave acceptance, forgiveness and love. This aspect of being human would seem to be universal.

In a culture that is not bound by the assumptions and theological considerations of the Bible Belt, there is a much greater chance that disciples will move beyond superficial understandings of salvation and the church. Indeed, explosive church growth in third world countries and the coastal and urban communities of the United States suggest this might be the case.

To the point: I am now outside of the Bible Belt. The ministry opportunities are challenging, yet invigorating. God is at work in a way I have not seen in quite some time. And so I pray for my friends in Brownwood and the work of the gospel that goes on there. I look forward to the day when they can join me in the 'fields of the Lord' in Montana - where the harvest is ready!

From the Bible Belt to Bozemania!

2011-01-22T08:23:00.004-06:00

Good morning from Bozeman, Montana!

As I start my first full week of ministry in Bozeman - a stunningly beautiful place! - I am noticing the differences and similarities with my other place of ministry in Brownwood, Texas. The biggest difference I have noticed is that I am no longer in the "Bible Belt."

Brownwood, Texas is in the middle of what many scholars, pundits and just regular people call "The Bible Belt." The map on the right shows the density of practicing Baptist Christians across the United States in 2000 and it is a fairly good representation of the geographical location of the Bible Belt in general. This is how the author of the Wikipedia article on "The Bible Belt" defines the phenomenon: "Bible Belt is and informal term for an area of the United States in which socially conservative evangelical Protestantism is a significant part of the culture and Christian church attendance across the denominations is extremely high." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bible_Belt) If you would like to read more on the topic, Christine Heyrman's book, Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt (Knopf: 1997) is the book you want to get.

My observation of "The Bible Belt" phenomenon is that Christianity in this region takes on a "Constantinian Veneer." In other words, Christianity, rather than being the embodied living of faith in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and expressed through the community of faith, tends to take on a much shallower, individualistic and cultural gloss. People often speak about "going to church" rather than being "a part of the church." In this context, 'church' can become a social obligation, rather than participation in the body of Christ through a sense of 'call'. And, at worst, community standing is often measured by which church a person attends or how many 'ministries' or activities in which a person is involved.

Now don't misunderstand me. Although Brownwood, a community I love and respect, is in the Bible Belt, that doesn't mean that this mindset is 100% manifested. The problem is that churches have to fight the mindset in order to reflect accurately their gospel commission. They do this generally by embracing a turn to mission. They become outwardly focused. They see powerful conversions and the church becomes healthy and experiences healthy growth. Theology in this perspective grounds mission.

On the other hand, the church that is hamstrung by the Bible Belt mindset focuses on an apologetic for an exclusivist theology - a theology that can be either a stinging fundamentalist polemic or a more moderate apologetic for specific theological stances. These churches can grow, but the growth is based primarily upon their theological stance or their profile in the community - thus however mission is defined, it supports a skewed theology. My Bible Belt friends will die on many hills, usually just not Calvary.

Now I admit that this description is reductionist and a bit too simplistic. Some of my friends who read this blog are residents of the Bible Belt and will take issue with this description. Nevertheless, it makes the point. The Bible Belt, with all of its good intentions, can be a difficult place actually to reach people with the gospel. In an increasingly postmodern culture - even in rural Texas - the Bible Belt bound church is struggling to communicate with an increasingly skeptical, hurt and disenchanted younger generation. They have watched the Bible Belt church in-general fight, bicker and wound each other in theological turf-wars so often that they are abandoning the church of their childhood in favor of nondenominational churches or they even have abandoned the faith altogether. So to my friends who live in the Bible Belt, I simply encourage you to be an instigator of cultural change in your church. Put the gospel and its transformative power at the forefront of your faith!

Not so in Bozemania.

Bozemania isn't simply Bozeman, Montana. It is the area outside of the Bible Belt. Christianity in these places hasn't become a "taken-for-granted" part of the culture. Indeed, 70-95% of these populations do not have any religious affiliation. Most would consider themselves spiritual; just not 'religious'. They see society as basically secular in nature, with a few people on the fringe. They don't have any opinions for or against the church or Christians in general, unless of course, their politics collide. There are Christians here, of course; but they constitute a small segment of the population. There are Buddhists, Muslims, Jews and Mormons. There are also scientologists and atheists. They too constitute a small minority, more or less. The vast majority is either undecided or simply secular - unconcerned. In a democratic republic where the economy is capitalist in orientation, a person is prone to a secular orientation.

The key is that there is little or no Bible Belt bias. These people are willing to engage you, listen and discuss the deep things of the faith. They want to discuss these things. They may not be convinced quickly, but they will engage. The key for this generation, however, is action. This generation is not a generation of 'pew potatoes' - they want faith to mean something whereby they can make a difference in another's life. The form and trappings of religion - the tradition, if you will - is way down their list. This is golden. This is a paradigm shift.

Part 2 - Later!

Agape.

One last week...

2011-01-01T11:44:00.008-06:00

With the new year - it is New Year's Day today - I contemplate the next four months ahead. I've remembered a year past, with all of its difficult decisions and now look forward to a four month transition that I can only describe as adventuresome! Beginning January 10, I will be spending alternate weeks in Brownwood and Bozeman. I know the physical aspects of this adventure will be tough; nevertheless, the spiritual challenge will be invigorating. So now I have this week, January 1 - 9, to wrap up the planning process and tie up loose ends before I leave on Monday, January 10 with a 14' Uhaul

full of books, some furniture and clothes. I will be ending my 'preaching life' in Brownwood on Sunday evening, January 9th, preaching at Coggin Avenue Baptist Church. It is a fitting conclusion to the ministry part of my time in Brownwood. The next morning I load the Uhaul and head for Oklahoma City. As you can see, the truck is pretty mundane. But the journey, from Brownwood to Bozeman with stops in Oklahoma City, Wichita, Denver and Billings in the middle of winter will be an adventure in itself. My traveling companion will be my father.

We will be dressed in our warmest clothes for the journey although it could be as warm as 27º when we arrive in Montana! Nevertheless, you want to be prepared for the very real possibility of being stuck in a blizzard or stranded in the middle of Wyoming in negative temperatures!

While in Oklahoma though, I plan to make a side trip to see my Aunt in Tulsa and pick up a case of my favorite root beer: Weber's! A native Oklahoman can't go to Montana without it - as well as a few of their fine hamburgers! Weber's is an institution, where one can major in the field of culinary studies with emphases on Grillology, Hamburgerology or the disciplined study of rootbeerology! Either way, its a side trip I've got to make. (Of course with stops in Marland, Ponca City and Blackwell too!)

Now enough about the trip itself. It's an adventure. What do I want you, my followers and readers to know? I have this one last week in Brownwood to tie up my loose ends, to see people that I will miss in Montana, or simply never see again. I've made good friends in Brownwood and I will miss them. If there is anything that I have found out over time, it is that places come and go, but a friend is a friend to the end. I don't want to leave this place without these people knowing that each one of them has made a mark on my life and that I'm a better person because they made it a point to befriend me. From the youngest to the oldest, I'm honored by the lives of these people. So I have one last week. I hope to make it count!

An Open Letter To My Students

2010-12-04T07:11:00.002-06:00

It has arrived, the end of the semester that is. On facebook, I've been seeing quite a bit of "I'm ready for Christmas Break" or "Why do the professor's save all the work for the end?" or even, "I give up!"

Well, don't give up! And let me challenge you - All of your professors have been right where you are. None of us have any desire for our work to be punitive or overwhelming. It is, however, all a part of the process of learning. The lectures (and hopefully lecture notes!) reading, the discussions, the papers, the casual conversation in hallways, soccer fields and offices, the blogs and the exams all work together to shape the knowledge that is going into your brain and shapes how you live your lives and eventually perform at your vocation.

More than anything, your time at university is about learning. Not simply knowledge accumulation, but about opening yourself up to new worlds and new processes. It's about understanding why life is what it is and how each area of knowledge - humanities, sciences, kinesiology-sports and faith contribute to making you a human being and to help you understand how the world in which you live works. University is more than simply earning a degree so you can prepare for a career, it's about shaping you as a person.

This time in your life comes only once. We are 18-24 years of age only one time around. There really aren't any 'do-overs'. You began soaking in knowledge at an unbelievable rate at about 18 months of age. You learned like a sponge soaking up water until you were about 12; then it began to slow a bit. You began to process more. You began to think about the opposite gender - boyfriends and girlfriends. You began to think about skills, talents, careers - the future. What did you want to do and to be. Well university is the capstone to that process. Everything begins to fall into place for you here - career, graduate school and even family.

Every classroom, every lecture, every assignment provides you an opportunity - an opportunity to learn and to find a way to apply that knowledge to your life, in some small way, that will make you a better person; and eventually a better professional, better spouse and a better parent.

University is your moment, your opportunity. Don't miss it because you are tired or bummed. Talk to your professors about learning. They will honor your request, I promise you I will.

Life's Transitions on my 47th year...

2010-11-29T09:24:00.013-06:00

Well, it's official. My family is moving to Montana, where I've been called to pastor and teach. An exciting new era begins for the Smith family. My oldest daughter is a college student and will remain in Brownwood at Howard Payne University, where I have taught for almost 5 years. Indeed,the end of the Spring semester will make five full years. They have been good, enriching years at a good school. My coll
eagues are exceptional and my students have been a treasure... for the most part! I feel as though I am leaving my 18, almost 19 year old in good hands.

My youngest daughter will attend a junior high where Italian, German, Spanish and French is taught, as well as choir, band, orchestra and world percussion. She will also have the opportunity to perform with one of three ballet companies, including the Montana Ballet. At the local high school, many of the students are National Merit Scholars and go on to Ivy League schools. She will have the opportunity to learn to ride horses and learn to snow ski.

My wife will be able to pursue whatever vocation she would like. The world is her oyster in Montana. She can teach school, work at a university or for a myriad of other companies in a growing community. I know she is ready to settle in and contribute and I am as excited for her as I am for me!

We will live in a growing community of 40,000, located in the beautiful Rocky mountains. There is a major university, an arts community and an incredible outdoor recreation community. The church is promise itself - exactly the kind of church that suits my gifts and talents. The people in the congregation are hardy, lovely and committed. They are ready to reach out to their community.

I will hit the road running. This Spring, I will spend every other week in Montana, while commuting back to Brownwood to finish teaching my classes. Both my church and HPU have been very generous to allow this opportunity. I don't like loose ends, and though requiring lots of travel, it will allow me to bring closure to my full time teaching at this dear institution. On the weeks that I am in Brownwood, I will be teaching a Monday night New Testament Introduction and on Tuesdays and Thursdays I will be teaching my Christian Doctrines classes... Wednesdays will be office hours and thesis work. I will be staying in the guest house of a good friend in Brownwood, so I will have some private space to relax and collect my thoughts. Saturdays I will be returning to Montana.

As I get older, transitions become harder - and indeed, I find myself becoming more and more resistant to change - but I am committed to following God's call on my life and this is the move I need to make.

Brownwood has definitely been a time of sojourn for me. It has taken its toll in several areas of my life, but I've learned so much about 'me' and ministry that it has been worth it. I must thank my friends, Scott, Carol and Rob, for helping me through this time. These three friends have been privy to all of the difficulties I've encountered during my time here. I must thank my colleagues in the School of Christian Studies, as well as the Provost and President for understanding my burdens and making this transition easier than I would have thought. My friend Sam McCutchen and the Lady Jacket Soccer Team as well as Corey Ash and the HPU Yellow Jacket Band have become special as well. Some of you who read this blog are former students - you need to know that spending time with you was one of the great privileges of my life, especially you Caty.

I will miss all of you, but I am eager to move on now to what God has next for me after this May. It is time. Maybe this will be my last move; I hope so, but I will trust that God will do what He needs to do with me.

Rob, you're my best friend. Visit me this time.

Carol, I've missed you for two years now, but know that you are always my friend. You and your delightful family remains in my prayers.

Scott, I know I will see you soon. Might even convince you to move your practice up north!

Sam, I look forward to hosting you in the near future!

HPU faculty and students: you will always be welcome in my home and I hope to see you when you can make it up north! I hope to mentor some students in ministry from HPU and even possibly minister with some of you.

Well, time to close this entry. Today is my 47th birthday. I've got to pack and reflect some more. My mind is a whirl as I prepare for classes and this move.

I love you all.

Watching your life be sold...

2010-11-20T11:00:00.004-06:00

We're having a garage sale today.

yep.

It's the American way of preparing to relocate. However, this is not my 'thing' if you will; it's my wife's thing. Now, don't get me wrong, I help. I collect stuff, set up and assist in whatever needs to be done; but I don't 'haggle' or 'sell'... It's just too difficult. I feel as though I am selling my life.

Bit by bit, piece by piece, clothing, furniture, kitchen ware, tools, knick-knacks and other memorabilia that have marked portions of your life are sold to others for next to nothing. We sold a rocking chair for $7, a cabinet for $20 and who-knows-what-else at 4 for a $1 or less... In the heat of the sale, it is strange to see strangers pawing over your life, grabbing some things with lustful possessiveness and simply dismissing other things as if it was junk. Maybe it was, but it meant something to me once.

I walk out to give Melissa a break an hour into the sale and I saw a table cloth, a blue patterned table cloth that I had owned before we were married. I don't remember where I got it; I think from my father in Oklahoma. I couldn't part with it though. So I brought it back inside the house. It was too large a part of my history to let go. Maybe my daughters will want it some day; or maybe they will bury it with me, I don't know. It marked a part of my life though that is worth remembering.

I let go of a lot of other things though - a brief case, some tools, clothes, posters, furniture - and with those things, I saw the memories of each go as well. I don't think I will forget immediately, but over time, without those items, the memories will fade. Obviously, if the memories were that important, I would still have those things.

But alas, life moves onward - new memories and new 'memorabilia' to accompany them. There will be new furniture, new kitchen bowls and more clothes.

It's tough though watching your life be sold to whomever will pay the price your asking; but its actually a very good thing to do.

Aren't you glad that your life is more than the material things you wear and use? Aren't you glad that those things don't own you? Fetishism is what occurs when we imbue common objects with a 'magical' power. When we don't let go of those things because they have a hold on us, we can become crippled by the power we give them... But God takes care of us and stuff is just, well, stuff.

I guess garage sales aren't so tough after all.

The Ladies That Changed Me.

2010-11-15T05:58:00.004-06:00

It is every professor's privilege to help his or her students not only amass knowledge in a specific discipline, but also help them to grow into better human beings. Part of the commission - the 'call' if you will - to teach is that you not only share a knowledge base, but that you enable those students to wisely apply the knowledge that has been bequeathed to him or her. I realize that this might be an idea unique to the Christian educational perspective, but I hope not. Being a teacher is a weighty call.

This past fall however, I was involved with a group of young women that changed me. They are the Lady Jacket Soccer Team - specifically four young ladies, their coach, a university photographer and a student groupie. All six of the young women (four players, a university photographer and the soccer 'groupie') had been or are in my Old Testament Introduction class. The coach is a valued friend of mine. Together, they did something that I try to do in all my classes - they showed me that I was valuable.

It is one of my deepest concerns that all of my students not only take away information from my classes and be able to wisely apply that information in their lives, but they walk away from my classes experiencing "value" - when they leave they know that each of them is valued as a person. Sometimes I am successful at that, sometimes I am not so successful - nevertheless it is something for which I aim. This fall, as I have had a "full plate" on my table, so to speak, I have wondered as to whether I have fallen short or not in my aim. Hopefully, I have succeeded, but I have had my doubts. Indeed, this fall has been a very trying time for me personally. Many prayerful decisions have been made and changes are in the works. But in the midst of all of these issues - these seven plus people - six young women, a coach and a soccer team - have shown me that I have value. They have shown me that the time I have spent in the classroom and as a participant in greater university life has made a difference. I needed to know that as much as they needed to know that they are valued too.

So my hat is off to the 2010 Lady Jacket Soccer Team, and especially, Sam, Kerrie, Bri, Mallory, Shannon, Megan and Kayla. Thank you for reaching out to me (though you didn't even know it!) when I was at a crossroads. It has made a difference. Thank you for your character - it is such a rarity in our time and culture. Thank you for your studious pursuit of knowledge and wisdom. But most of all thank you for the care and time you have shared with me. I am a better person because of who you are.

For those of you who are wondering - I am the guy right in the middle of the 'swarm' on the back row. STING 'EM Ladies!

Viva (vie • vuh)

2010-11-10T00:37:00.003-06:00

The word, "viva" literally means, "to live." I think it is an interesting term, especially in how it is being used in my current context, "Upgrade Viva". An upgrade viva in the English context means "an interview where two outside examiners (PhDs in your field of enquiry) question you about your thesis and all of its attendant details. The enquiry last for as long as it takes for the examiners to ascertain your knowledge base and your potential for further scholarship. If you "pass" the examination, you are allowed to finish your thesis and submit it as a doctoral thesis, for which you can earn the doctor of philosophy degree. If the examiners find you deficient, then you are relegated to completing the M. Litt degree or Master of Letters - to be quite honest, it is a second class degree in this instance. It says your research is not good enough, complete enough or does not merit continuation towards the doctor of philosophy degree. So now the term "viva" is understood a bit better: it is the academic colloquy that determines the life or death of a scholar.

Well, my upgrade viva is tomorrow with two scholars I respect greatly. They have been reading my material for the past month and will make a decision tomorrow on its merit. If I were younger, I might be disturbed or even nervous. I find myself in a different place altogether. I am at peace; serene. (Well, a bit chilled at the moment - it's cold and wet here!!) Nevertheless, my demeanor is unaffected. I know my subject. I do.

My world is falling into place. God truly puts you in the right place at the right time. He gives you the confidence you need when you need it. He makes your paths straight. If you seek God's world, God's vision, He gives you glimpses of it and of His glory. Then he opens it up bit, by bit as we are faithful.

I thank you O Father for this beautiful day.

Help me to live it moment by moment

Seeing your glory

and sharing your love

in all that I do.

Let Jesus live in me

and your Spirit speak through my life…

Amen.

What happens when you hurt your friends.

2010-11-09T17:17:00.002-06:00

I know it has been a while since my last post, but I want to share briefly some thoughts with you all the way from England. It's one of those times where I just need to share.

I have a friend who really makes me think.

We should all friends like that. Maybe my blog makes you think, and if so, that's good. Well, this friend - the one who really makes me think - is a person I have hurt very deeply. I'm still trying to wrap my head around all the stupid things I did to hurt this person - the older you get the more complicated it gets! - but I really know just one thing: I hurt someone I care about deeply. So much so that they really don't want to have anything to do with me. Now I have never really been in that position. The position where someone was so upset with you that they don't want to have anything to do with you, except maybe an ex-girlfriend, but this is not an ex-girlfriend.

So I've apologized, I've tried to reconcile and its just not happening. I think any sane person would just let it go; but I'm having a hard time with that because this person is someone I care about. You could even say love. I love my friends: Scott, Dave, Mel, Fran, Chris, Jo, Carol, Ken, Chuck... I hope I love them like Christ loves me; you know, the whole, "No man has greater love than this, than he lay his life down for his friends" kind of love. That's who I am. At least, that's who I hope I am and who I want to be...

Nevertheless, I hurt them and I know I hurt them. I had no desire to hurt them, but I did. I also know that they don't want to hurt and the best way not to hurt is to simply avoid me. I can't help that, can I? Its just the way it is. So I should move on. I know. But why is this pain still so deep, if I know that I've done all I can do?

My guess is that to "hurt" a friend is to break a trust, to betray the love that I say I have for my friends. You know, that selfless love Jesus proclaims. My love had become self-ish, not selfless. I needed my friend to be there for me and I wasn't there for them, listening like I should have. And so I said and did thoughtless things and now I am paying the price. But again, why the deep pain?

I can only guess. To have cared so deeply for someone and then to have that relationship destroyed is tantamount to having a piece of yourself destroyed too. I have lost something of me in them and I can never get it back. I can only learn from it...So that love, that friendship and now that pain is a part of me. Will it be a burden I always bear? I don't know. Maybe after a while the pain will dull, but it will never be forgotten. Love leaves a scar. Just ask Jesus.

So my friends, as someone on the journey let me say this: love your friends; listen to them, listen to their hearts; give them the space they need and forgive them generously when they err. Do all you can to be the love Jesus wants you to be for them.

Vertiginous Change

2010-11-01T06:27:00.003-05:00

The past 3 months of my life have been a veritable roller coaster. I know that all of us have had segments of our lives that could be defined in that manner. Events, decisions and unplanned happenings come at us so quickly and with such force that they can overwhelm us. So 'rollercoaster' like is how I describe these past few months: towering peaks followed by massive valleys, more peaks with twists and turns in between and all navigated at lightning like speed. When you finally get off the coaster, you suffer from a form of vertigo that leaves you out of balance and without a firm sense of direction. Well, that's where I am - a little dizzy and ready to sit down for a moment (although this Saturday I leave for a week in England!).

I realize that life is never easy, but wouldn't you like it to be a little less vertiginous some times? I know I would. I would like to deal with one issue at a time, rather than seven issues, with each issue complicating the over all situation!

Its at times like these, when your faith in God centers you. It is our unwavering faith in Christ that anchors us during the storms of life. Christ gives us center and focus. He gives us peace of mind and energy for the journey. He sustains us. I am reminded of the old revivalist hymn Solid Rock: "My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly trust in Jesus’ Name."

Well, enough for now. The cares of the day call. Tomorrow I will tell you about "my soccer girls!"

7 hours, 25 bands and 3,750 students later

2010-10-10T21:30:00.005-05:00

I survived.

I survived judging the USSBA Central Texas Regional marching band competition in Kyle, Texas. There were 25 bands made up of approximately 3,750 high school students. I commented on every performance from 1:45pm to 9:30pm. That is 200 minutes (3 hours and 20 minutes) of taped commentary. Additionally, I made written comments and assigned scores. I was in the press box of Shelton stadium for over 9 hours. 9 hours. NINE HOURS. Most of it in an 8' x 8' room with two windows opening up to the field.

And I loved every minute of it.

Listening and watching those 25 bands - each of those over 3,000 students focused intently on the task at hand. They performed as experts. Each student had an intimate awareness of his or her musical and visual responsibilities. They were finely tuned (no-pun intended) musical marching machines. They had worked hard for over 2 and 1/2 months for those 8 minutes of performance and all of them - ALL OF THEM - left nothing behind. They gave everything they had and then some. They left the field sweating, gasping for breath - spent. The crowd roared. They performed for the sake of performance. They performed for the love of music. They performed for love of their schools, their directors and their peers. They performed for the crowds. They performed for me, the music ensemble judge and six of my colleagues. I was honored by each and every performance to be a part of that moment of musical and visual pageantry.

Not many things in this life enable us to 'transcend' our mundane existence, but music is one of those things. In music we find joy, hope, sadness and despair. We are moved personally by music. In music, we find the utmost range of emotion and purpose.

I understand why some would believe that in music they can experience a moment of heaven - primarily because I believe that music is the language of heaven. For every note, every rest, every rhythm, every melodic phrase and rhythmic impulse speaks to us in a way that speech cannot. Every note of music witnesses to a transcendent story, a universal purpose for our lives. Music can reflect the pain of living, but it also communicates the hope of resurrection.

You should have seen the faces on those kids - from the box five (superior) to the box two (fair) band - each student had a smile as they stepped on and off the field. For in performing - by playing the music - each student won. For a moment, each one spoke the language of heaven, and were changed forever by it.

I am so glad to have been a part.

Le Grande Aventure!

2010-09-30T09:28:00.004-05:00

I can read several languages fluently, but I must admit, French is not my thing...but under the circumstances and my flair for the dramatic, it seemed appropriate! Anyway, this weekend is "the grand adventure." Melissa, Hannah and I are taking a weekend off - no football game on Friday night! - to envision a new future for the family.

Since Melissa and I married 23 years ago, life has been an amazing adventure. It's had ups and downs, but for the most part, its been good. We have gone where the Lord opened doors and to the best of our ability have been faithful to His call. So we go. My prayer has always been that my daughters would share in this adventure -that they would see the influence of God in their lives and in their futures through all of this, and ultimately would learn to trust Him; and always know that no matter where we were or what we did, love would always bind our family together. God's love.

Sometimes I wonder if this adventure is equated with instability, but I don't think so. If that was the case, the apostles were the most unstable of people. Indeed, you could say that about any biblical personality. To follow God in this world is perceived as "foolishness" and thus the question of stability will always be there. But we know that is not the case. Melissa and I are from the southwest, Catherine was born in Virginia and Hannah was born in Washington state - there is only one direction for us to go then in these 48 states - north. And so we go.

For those of you who read this blog, this sounds "cryptic" - and it does, admittedly - but know my intention here is to talk about 'adventure'. Merriam-Webster defines adventure in the following manner:

1. an undertaking usually involving danger or risks.

2. an exciting or remarkable experience.

Of these definitions, I would like to think that the second, or latter is my reference point. I see adventure as an exciting or remarkable experience. I want my children to have those experiences and to be better for it. They will always have a stable home, though it may not be in the same house. Nevertheless, they will have experienced the new, the different and the unknown and thus will never have to be afraid.

I am not afraid to try new things, to attempt those things that others say is improbable or impossible. I'm not afraid, although I do not always succeed. But that is the adventure. To be faithful and to let success or failure reside in the hands of God. I am not afraid to let God be in control. In my tradition, we sing the hymn tune: "Wherever He Leads I'll Go" - but quite often we don't do we? We sense God's call, but we refuse to follow because of fear: fear of the unknown, a fear for safety or simply the ultimate conviction that we need to stay 'in control'... but what does that do to us over time?

All I can tell you is that I will go until I am called home.

I wish I could take all of you with me! (arf)

Let the adventure begin!

Held together by love...

2010-09-28T07:39:00.003-05:00

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.

He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.

He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.

For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,

and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him,

I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

Colossians 1: 15-20 NASB95

I sent an instant message to my daughter late last night, simply saying, "I love you Boo." She responded, quickly, "I love you too, daddy." A few hours earlier, I gave my youngest daughter a hug and said, "I love you too," when she said, "Love you daddy, night"... I tell my wife that I love her every night. I tell my own dad and mom that I love them when I say goodbye on the phone. I even tell my close friends I love them when the opportunity is there and the context demands it. Love is a part of my life, naïvely so at times, but yet a very important part of my life.

Indeed, I've come to realize that "love" holds my family together. Blood might be thicker than water, but love - the selfless concern for the other - trumps even blood. I would die for those whom I love. A 'heady' statement, I know, but that's the "end" of love. In other words, when it comes right down to it, to love someone is a surrender of self. It's a willingness to sacrifice self for the sake of the other. Paul says this in so many words in Galatians 2:20. We sacrifice either portions of our lives or even forfeit our lives for love of the other. Parents do this all the time for their children. They forfeit elements of their own lives so that their children might have life. Spouses do this for each other and so do friends.

I quoted the passage from Colossians above, because it tells us that our very world, the cosmic creation if you will, is held together by love. 1 John 4 tells us that God is love and that you and I were created for love. This Colossians passage tells us that our whole existence is bound up in love - for indeed, Jesus is the essence of God's love. John 3:16 - for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son... God's love is that rich and that deep. God is love. His love, Jesus, not only ransomed the universe from captivity to sin and death, but even holds that same universe together! I am captive to this love. More and more each day I see the crucial need for this love.

So I will never withhold love from my family. It is the bond that holds us together. I will not withhold love from my church or my friends. It is how they know care and hope. I will love those who seem unloveable, why? Because they are precisely the ones that God loves, for the world in which they live is hopeless and seemingly devoid of love. But it is not. We need to be love. We need to be love for and to each other. That's God's plan to change the world and that is my plan to strengthen my family. love.

The USSBA: Why I am a marching band adjudicator.

2010-09-19T09:12:00.008-05:00

I am an adjudicator with the US Scholastic Band Association.

http://www.yea.org/site/DocServer/why_USSBA_nationalversion2010.pdf?docID=20503

Like most adults, I have far too much on my plate to add anything else. I am a husband and a parent of one college student and one elementary age student - who by the way, are also involved in far too many things! I am a university professor, a scholar - always working on journal articles or books - a music arranger for the last 30 years and a part-time minister - which means I work on Sundays! So my again I say, my plate is full. But add to those distinctions, music adjudicator for the US Scholastic Band Association.

I was a full-time band/drum corps director for the first decade after I got out of college. I taught, I arranged and composed, and I adjudicated. I ended my full-time vocational pursuit of music in 1995 after having taught at the U.S. Naval Academy for several years. Not bad for a 32 year old. But that doesn't mean that I stopped. I have continued to arrange for bands, choirs and orchestras (700 arrangements and counting!); act as a clinician and adjudicate non-stop since then. My vocation as a theology and ethics professor is combined with my passion for music at Howard Payne University where I currently teach. Why do I continue this torrid pace? Because I love music and I find incredible satisfaction helping young men and women achieve.

In the years since I left full-time music education, I have found that my passion has not waned for the activity that gave me so much - marching band and drum corps - but increased exponentially. So I have found ways to continue helping young men and women achieve their goals and dreams through music and the arts. Indeed, my own professional interest in theological and philosophical aesthetics has only enhanced this pursuit.

But why USSBA? I would suggest clicking on the link above to find out more about the organization. But in a nutshell, let me say that my passion agrees with their passion. They want to provide an educational venue for bands to compete in, with the emphasis on education. They want every band to walk away from their events, not dejected over placement, but rather proud of their achievement and having gained further insight into the art and skill of marching-music pageantry. Now I am all about that!

As I look at other competitive circuits or other competitions, I see adjudication that focuses on well-known personalities, taped comments and trophies. (You get these things at USSBA shows too!) This is not bad, necessarily, but I also know that for some of these personalities, it's not about the kids or even the education process; its about them. It's about the $500 fee and the exposure. I don't want to over generalize though. That's what many of those contests want. You pay the big bucks so that fill-in-the-blank-named personality will talk to you about your band. But you get no face time with that judge. Just comments. I am sure much of those comments are good, but I also know that many of those comments could have been made by anyone - "You need to tune your flutes here," or "The percussion is phasing from the batterie in the back to the front ensemble."

But that's not the ethos of the USSBA and certainly not mine. For the USSBA its about education. The adjudicators are not only very experienced designers and creators, they are educators. They have weekly conferences during the fall in order to address deficiencies and to improve as adjudicators. The USSBA staff does everything in their power to make sure that every adjudicator is qualified and continuously educated. If you don't perform up to expectations on your evaluations, you are not asked to judge again. This is a win-win situation for bands. There are other high profile 'competitive' circuits today in North America, but none of them have educational achievement aims of USSBA. As a band director, you get quality adjudication tapes, a quality experience for your students and face time with the judges in order to make sure you understand what was said and how you can get better.

I am an educator. This gift is delivered as a professor, an artistic creator and as an adjudicator. If it were not for USSBA, adjudication would not be worth it to me. It's about the opportunity to educate and edify, rank and rate. It's about the opportunity to imbue students with a life long passion for making music and to invest in the pageantry of the marching arts. Thanks Hop, for the opportunity.

The Rich Love of God

2010-09-17T07:53:00.001-05:00

As I was saying - before I accidentally posted just my title! - I am a man obsessed with the rich, overwhelming, incomparable love of God. Although that doesn't seem very 'manly' in our 21st century Western culture, I'm finding that God's love must be the essence of every man, woman and child.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, in no uncertain terms: "For God so loved the world...."

Paul, in his letters to the Ephesians stated: "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

And of course, the great 1 Corinthians 13:13, which ends: "But now faith, hope, love, abide these three; but the greatest of these is love."

All of this ends with John's great claim in 1 John 4:16, "We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. "

Our world has trivialized, marginalized, degraded and sensationalized "love" to the point that now it is categorized as just a feeling or worse, something to feared and avoided. People are afraid of love. Or worse, love is something you reserve for one person. Even Christians believe this lie. Interestingly, if I recall correctly, Jesus stated plainly: "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you." (John 15:12f) Amazing.

Yet there are Christians who walk around having no idea what God is asking of them. They confuse love and lust; they confuse marital commitment with being 'in love' or not being 'in love'. We just don't get it.

The Beatles were right when they sang, "All you need is love." But what does that mean for us? The infighting in churches is at an all time high. We argue over the fine points of theology, but ultimately fail the love test above. We will remove from fellowship a neighbor who questions penal substitutionary atonement, yet we tolerate those among us who actually foster discord and even, dare I say it, anger... These people hold the church hostage over whether or not it is proper to stop holding men's breakfasts and women's luncheons in favor of a block party outreach.

Lust and physical attraction will always be a part of our human life. We are biological creatures; but don't confuse this with the unquenchably rich agape of God. Indeed, it is the Spirit within us that enables us to crucify the physical passions in service to agape. This is why Paul can say "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:28)

How can we claim to be biblical Christians, yet have lost sight of this truth? The reality is the enemy has corrupted God's concept of love in our world and reduced it to the confusing mish-mash of definitions and actions we have today. Let me challenge you to open the book again on "agape." In prayer and in study, find a way through this jungle. Do not let your lusts be confused with love. The ultimate definition of love is Jesus on the cross. Love is found in the one who lays his or her life down for the sake of the other.

Live love.

Opening and Shutting Doors...

2010-09-15T07:31:00.002-05:00

I don't know if you have children, but one of the greatest challenges of parenting is instilling in your children the habit of turning off lights and shutting doors when they leave a room or enter a house. I have come to the conclusion that many people don't actually learn this habit until they have to pay the electric bill, but nevertheless, we try. We can only hope that someday our kids will understand the value and habit of following through, and shutting a door or turning off a light when one is not in a room!

But opening and shutting doors is also a metaphor for something else. As a person of faith, a believer in the living God, I believe that God directs our footsteps in life and one of the means by which He directs us is by "opening and shutting doors." Another way we talk about this, at least in secular terms, is by talking about taking advantage of "windows of opportunity."

In the last year, I have had a sense that doors and windows were shutting in my life. The opportunities to pursue my call and vocation were becoming limited. The signs were all there as I understood them. I did not understand why these things were happening when I was so convicted that this was what I needed to be doing. So I entered a season of prayer, seeking more specifically what God wanted from me, or in what way could I better serve Him.

He has answered that prayer by opening windows and doors. So like a person who opens their front door after a tornado has passed through, I slowly looked through the door that was opening before me and began to look around. The view is both exhilarating and challenging to look beyond the door. Yet, I stepped back in to the house and began to pray some more. I began to ask the hard questions of my wife and friends.

And I continue to pray. I have invested so much in this part of my life, and at my age - 47 this November! - I wonder if this isn't a good time. But then I realize that doubt is "anti-faith" and if there is anything I need to exercise right now, it's faith. I've got to trust God that this is the right thing, the right opportunity at this stage of my short life.

So I continue to pray, but I also begin to step beyond the open door more and more. Each time I do, I become more and more convicted that the door is open for a reason, God's reason, and my only response can be faithful obedience.

Helen Keller once said, "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure."

Jesus said, "Take up your cross and follow me." He also said, Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Seek God. Look for the open windows and doors. Then walk through them in faith.

So I mowed the lawn...

2010-09-13T20:07:00.003-05:00

Do you live with regret? Regret is a feeling of sadness or disappointment over something that has happened or been done; or something that has not happened or not been done. Well, tonight I am experiencing regret. Maybe what I have to say will help some of you...

I ran into a friend today and it surprised me. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised; we live in a small town! But it did. I had not seen or talked this person in a while and the last time I really spoke with them it was a difficult discussion, even a painful one. But life goes on.

And when I say life goes on it really goes on - my friend is a busy person and I am a busy person. I can only speak for myself when I say that a lot of water has passed under the bridge in the 7 months since we last spoke - my daughter graduated from high school, I've made several trips out of state for business and pleasure, I've been on a mission trip, I've been working on articles, I've been working on a thesis, I'm leading a church through transition, I'm counseling folks, I'm preaching regularly, I'm teaching new students, I'm preparing to adjudicate during the new marching band season, I'm pondering lots of changes, yada, yada, yada... you get the picture. And in the flow of life, the memory of our last conversation has slowly faded into the background.

Until this evening that is...

And so I have this chance meeting, better - "passing" - with this friend. I am walking up some stairs and they are walking down. We exchange a few quick words and go on our way. My friend was polite and I was so stunned all I could do was mumble; and if you know me, you know I am never at a loss for words - hence I am a blogger!

But that was just enough to trigger regret. I regret not stopping to talk; I regret not finding out how things were going for them; I regret not saying a million things any friend should have said. Just seeing this person brought a flood of memories. I couldn't even focus on the reception I attended because I was overwhelmed with regret. But I tried. I put on my best face and made conversation with some great people until I couldn't any more and I drove home. Thinking about what I wish I would have said to my friend.

I became so unable to focus that I mowed the lawn. It's the man thing to do. When things get tough, mow the lawn, sweat, get the weed eater out. Work on the car. Put on your running shoes and run until you cramp up. There is nothing like good hard physical exertion to make you stop thinking about what you should have done or wish you would have done. Yeah, right. I think deep inside I'm hoping that just blogging about this experience will be cathartic for me, but only time will tell.

So I'm telling you this, my readers. Don't live with regret. Love your friends. Let them know you care. Don't let moments slip by where you wish you would have said something. I did today, and I regret it.

Rejecting the Culture of 'Nice'...

2010-09-10T08:04:00.004-05:00

While Jesus was saying these things, one of the women in the crowd raised her voice and said to Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You and the breasts at which You nursed.” But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” [Luke 11:27-28]

Jesus has just finished casting out a demon and explaining to the amazed crowd the principle behind spiritual possession [more or less!], when a woman in the crowd pronounces the above blessing on Jesus. Taken by itself, it is a fairly kind, even nice thing to say to him after he offered such a profound display of spiritual power and insight. Indeed, it is a recognition of his blessed mother and even of his divine status. Jesus does not reject the woman or her blessing, but he "proceeds to something more significant" according to New Testament scholar Leon Morris. The important thing, according to Jesus, is not simply the recognition of Jesus as blessed or divine; but rather hearing and keeping the Word of God.

Of course, Christians argue passionately about the nature of salvation all the time, especially in denominational circles and primarily because scripture seems to offer a variety of different positions on the subject. We want salvation to be an act of God without consequence; nevertheless, there must be a consequence: a changed life that acts in obedience to God rather than self - To name a few examples:

John 3:16 - “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life."

It would seem that "belief" - understood simply as cognitive recognition of Jesus' divine claim would be saved.

But look at John 3:21 - “But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”

It seems as though John qualifies this belief in the crucified Christ as manifest in 'deeds' or 'practices' of truth.

Or what about Matthew 25:34-40?

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. ‘For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’

“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? ‘And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? ‘When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’

“The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’

Here it would seem that Matthew's Jesus tells us we can merit eternal life through a works based righteousness...

Or how about Romans 10:9-13? A passage that most Baptists would say is the cornerstone passage in regards to the process of salvation - the end of the "Romans Road" as it were.

that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

In this passage Paul would seem to affirm that salvation results from cognitive recognition (belief) and confession (a verbalized, vocalized public statement)

Let's end with James 2:14-17...

What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.

Ultimately, our salvation is a gift from God, manifested "by grace, through faith/belief", resulting in a changed life, which is obedient to God. The two are inseparable. One who claims to be a Christian yet does not exhibit a life reflective of Christ then is not a Christian at all. So the scriptures would suggest...

So what gives?

Generally speaking, Christianity in America and specifically, Christianity in the Bible Belt, has become mired in the secular idea of toleration, or more specifically, "nice." If we say the 'right' things and attend gatherins at the 'right' times and don't say anything other than "nice" things to others, then we are evidencing a 'saved' life. Interestingly, as I read Luke 11:27-28, I am struck by Jesus response. The woman was amazed, even worshipful, but was just trying to be "nice." Please don't misunderstand me. I am all for being "nice" - which, according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary means, "pleasing, agreeable, appropriate, fitting, virtuous or respectable." But in regards to theological usage, "nice" is misleading and this would seem to be Jesus point. The more important issue for Jesus, isn't simply acknowledging God, but doing what God says. It is not enough to be nice. Mean people can be 'nice'. Lost people can be nice. Nice doesn't necessarily reflect God's saving grace. Hearing and keeping (read: understanding and living/doing) the Word of God does.

Nevertheless, many American Christians will do anything not to offend another person, ever. Because if that happens, his or her own self worth will be affected. The other person, will not "like" me, or my value in the community will drop or in the future this person will not help me with my projects. Thus, we have a paradigm problem.

As believers in Jesus Christ, Jesus says our self-worth is defined not simply by believing in him, but acting according to God's Word and will. Nevertheless, as American Christians, we still want to be defined by our own actions and motives; and thus garner the praise and appreciation of others. The problem with this tactic is that it relegates God to a secondary status in our lives. Our life in Christ then becomes stunted. It's like trying to be a marathon runner, while still smoking, drinking and staying out late at night. You'll never make it, you will never be competitive as a runner. You can't have it both ways. Either Christ is Lord or He is not.

Life is short. Be kind, gentle, loving, merciful, gracious, respectable and manifest all of the other fruits of the Spirit. But be real. Be honest with God, yourself and an accountability partner about your own issues, problems, 'sins' and inadequacies. Then, be dedicated to being a living testimony to Jesus, God's living Word. Be loving, yet honest and real with others. Don't sacrifice faithfulness to the gospel on the altar of cultural toleration or being "nice." Live your faith - Love others, be genuine; but don't gratify your fleshly desires. Encourage those who need encouragement; exhort those who need exhortation - but do not "be nice" to someone, only to criticize them later... Jesus called that hypocrisy and the road of hypocrisy is paved with "nice".

If want to live the life that God has given to us in Jesus, we can't simply claim the name, we must walk as He walked and do as He did.

Anticipation...

2010-09-05T09:07:00.004-05:00

Have you ever planned an event in the future, possibly a distant, but maybe not-too-distant future, and as you drew closer to that event 'felt' the excitement grow?

I have, and I am.

Several of my friends have blogged on similar type ideas: the approaching vacation that requires travel to see friends, or maybe the approach of a special day: an anniversary, birthday or special holiday. This looking forward to an event, with either positive or negative feelings is called 'anticipation'. When I am ill, I anticipate my visit to the physician with great dread! When I have a vacation coming up or a holiday or possibly a change of some type, I usually anticipate the event with great hope.

Well, I have not anticipated an autumn like this one in a long time. I am pleasantly excited about the research time with which I have been gifted this fall. I do not teach Monday, Wednesday or Friday so I can research and write undisturbed. I will be a music judge at three marching band competitions in the state of Texas, one at which my alma mater will be participating! I have the opportunity to take my immediate family on a brief visit to friends up north in October - and I am extremely happy about that visit! I am also smitten by my students that I do teach this fall on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. My Old Testament students are a pleasure, more engaged already than ever before! My Theology & Culture students are bold, opinionated and unafraid to speak their minds! The little congregation that I am leading is filled with beautiful people, truly seeking to be what God wants from them. What a fall this will be. The anticipation is almost too much!

There is a downside to all of this though.

Sometimes, anticipation can cause us to focus on the future to the neglect of the present. I know. I catch myself doing that far too often. When we neglect the present though, we can often damage the prospects of the future. Thus, when we look forward to the events of the future, we cannot neglect the program or the day that is right before us.

There are events and people who need a kind word from us; maybe a 'look of love'... we must pay attention to the mundane and the trivial with care, attention and love.

So let me challenge you.

As much as you, like me possibly, look forward to the future in anticipation of wonderful moments, pay attention to this day. Maybe there is someone that you have not connected with in a while - connect with them. Send them a note, an email or a text. Maybe you need to stop for a moment and play with your children. Maybe you need to have that quiet time with God. Maybe, if you have to make a grocery stop today, you can be pleasant with the checker and others that you meet.

Although God gives us a hint of the future and allows us to anticipate, hopefully, a good outcome - the true gift is today.

Thoughts on Friends: A Commentary

2010-08-30T07:40:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, a young friend of mine, Kalie, posted a blog on "the importance of friends." This is a topic upon which I have been reflecting for the last couple of years. Kalie basically qualifies her friends categorically: romance, best friends, seasonal friends and, I assume, just friends. These are fairly common categories and I appreciated her insight into each one. One of the categories struck me however, "seasonal friends." She states:

Sometimes friends are just for a season. This is kind of difficult for me to accept, because I really like permanence. I usually tell my close friends that they are stuck for life. It's true, because I really hate letting friendships subside. But, I truly have seen God place people in my life for a time, when I needed them or they needed me. And then we drifted apart, and you know, I think that's okay.

I agree with Kalie - I really like permanence too. I want to know that my friends will be there for me. I wonder, if I could ask her, if she is really "o.k." with this state of 'seasonal' friendship... I don't ask this question to be critical, but because it is something with which I am really struggling right now. As a man (now I'm qualifying!), I like things black and white, yes and no. Are you my friend, or not? Thus the idea of "drifting apart" is a bit repugnant to me. I want my friendships to work and I like investing in them. Indeed, earlier in her post, Kalie makes a statement about the very nature of friendship maintenance:

It[friendship] requires love, work, time, investment, giving of yourself, vulnerablility, honesty, kindness, acceptance and usually forgiveness from time to time.

I absolutely agree with this statement. So I wonder, are 'seasonal friendships' really friendships? Doesn't this mean that we have not actually invested in these relationships as we should, by definition, in order to maintain them as friendships? What's scary about this to me is that - taken to its end - it could mean that we sometimes enter into pseudo-friendships in order to get things from one another. It's simply a beneficial way of entering into a relationship to get something we want and then letting go once we have received it. But is that friendship?

Now I understand drifting apart - life circumstances take us all sorts of places - but does this mean that we are 'seasonal friends'? I also agree with Kalie that God brings people into our lives for a reason and then, for whatever reason, we are taken out of close proximity with them - but does this necessarily mean that they were a seasonal friend?

30 years ago, Sue and I were trombone players from competing schools. We became friends. We even went out on a couple of dates - by that I mean two. Once with another person and once to the "Rooster Days" fair in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Friend dates, if you will. She truly was a great friend to me. Then I moved to Houston. We went off to college and life took different turns. Then, 30 years later, she found me on facebook. We've reconnected. We've shared stories of marriage, family, careers and faith. It was as if the 30 years just dissolved away. I could say the same of my friend Brent. Since we reconnected about 5 years ago, we have kept a steady, regular, twice a year or so correspondence and have even visited one another several times. Although, it would seem that these two could qualify as seasonal friends, I don't think so. I think we are simply 'friends'.

If I might add to Kalie's assessment, I would say this:

I believe 'friendship' is something we choose. It is rudimentary 'phileo' - brotherly or friend love. It is a choice we make to care. Due to time, context and character similarities (or dissimilarities) we 'become' friends with people. The power of these friend/relationships ebb and flow. A best friend today can be just 'a friend' tomorrow, depending on time, context and character change. Nevertheless, they remain a 'philadelphian' until we choose to release them from that relationship. [But is this really possible? Once your heart has invested in a relationship of any kind, can you actually 'release' them? I say this because I have this sneaking suspicion that 'love' makes them a part of you...]

I believe that Christ asks us to 'befriend' our neighbor, in spite of our differences so that our world will be transformed into the Kingdom of God. But Kalie is right - to have this type of friendship - or really any type of friendship - requires, "love, work, time, investment, giving of yourself, vulnerablility, honesty, kindness, acceptance and usually forgiveness from time to time." But isn't this what the Kingdom is all about?

Kalie, this old professor thanks you for making me reflect once again on the deeper things of life!

internal or external?

2010-08-29T08:33:00.003-05:00

As of late, I have been thinking quite a bit about why churches cease to grow. Some well-intended people do not think that 'growth' should be a category by which the fitness of the church is judged; this defense, however, is usually an attempt to justify complacency or more often comfort. When looking at our 'blue print' - the Scriptures - for guidance, however, we find that the church indeed is mandated and even designed for growth. Thus, the non-growth party is simply misguided. For those of you who follow this blog regularly, you know that I have attempted to cast the church, as Paul has, as a "body". The failure of the church then becomes an issue of "health." A failure to grow is attributed to a variety of factors, but more often than not, it is because the members have become complacent and even rebellious in their attitudes towards health. It is like the person who has treatable cancer, but still refuses to stop smoking or working around cancer-causing materials.

But church health is more than just disease or accident. It's about focus. The church as a whole must have a singular vision. That vision may have several components, but it is still just one vision. The vision is to live in obedience to Christ. The components of that vision are to: love God, love neighbor, love one another and to make disciples. Neglect of any of those components means that the church is not seeing clearly and is bound to fall into problems. Most of today's churches then to skew their focus in one of two ways - either they have turned their focus internal or they have fought to keep it external.

The internally focused church tends to focus on keeping members satisfied. At first that focus tends to be on facilities accessibility, but then it turns into a focus on carpet colors, worship times, worship styles, worship service length, whether one should dress for church or come casually. The internally focus church is concerned about providing its membership with what it craves in order for those members to remain 'satisfied'.

The externally focused church places its resources at the service of the vision. This means part of its resources are used to promote love amongst the members (koinonia), love to God (worship), love to neighbor (evangelism) and making disciples (didaskalos mathetes). Ultimately, the eternal focus requires a shift from making ourselves the center of our understanding of the church, to God's understanding. This is difficult, but necessary.

The internally focused church, is comfortable but often in tension; the externally focused church can be uncomfortable, but exciting. The internally focused church wants to make you or at least some of you happy; the externally focused church wants to please God. The internally focused church doesn't want to 'offend' anyone; the externally focus church will always be offending someone. The biggest difference is that the internally focused church is willing to sacrifice the hard work of evangelism for the sake of a satisfied fellowship, while the externally focused church is willing to sacrifice personal comfort in order that the lost might be found and that the blind might be able to see. Where is your church's focus?

Reflections on Faith & Culture in the West: Montana

2010-08-18T09:27:00.003-05:00

Recently, I made a trip to the "Big Sky"state - Montana. In the popular "southern" imagination, Montana is simply 'Texas North' - a land of cattle ranches, farms and mountains. We learned this mythology from Larry McMurtry's "Lonesome Dove" with its bittersweet ending in the land of the Big Sky. The reality, however, is much different. Like Texas, it has its own geographical areas and divisions. But unlike Texas, the natural beauty of the northern range of the Rocky Mountains has created a stratified population that consists of recreative wealth and land owners, followed by an educated middle class and a lower service populace. Of course, this may describe anywhere in America, but more so in Montana. The natural beauty simply draws interest from all quarters of the populace.

What interests me though, more than the natural beauty or even the people, is the nature of faith practiced there. The natural beauty helps in this area. It helps people ask the question of God in general - but because of the beauty, the answer has to be robust. If God is real, then details are important. Thus the God that Christians worship is Father - Son - Spirit. But how so? What does this God look like? What does this God expect? How can does this God participate in my day-to-day reality? How do I participate in this reality? So in terms of Christian faith and practice, the reality of the risen Christ and the experience of the Holy Spirit are important aspects of the Christian life. There is no baptized culture in Montana, although you can see elements of the 'bible belt' there. It is still fairly secular and Christians must walk with integrity in order to influence the population with the gospel. Yet, unlike other places I have been in the United States, there is a tremendous openness to Christ and even a desire to know the living God in a powerful way. So the confessing Christians I have met are what I would call, "sticky Christians." They know what they believe, they want to know more and they aren't going anywhere. Christ is Lord.

Dennis Whitley: 1936-2010

2010-08-09T18:05:00.004-05:00

My great uncle Dennis passed away this past Sunday. He was the youngest of my Grandmother Smith's siblings and the father of two of my favorite cousins. He was one of my father's favorite relatives - indeed they were born only a year a part and practically shared a childhood in Verden, Oklahoma. It is not my intention to write an obituary; rather, I write this blog as a tribute to "family."

My uncle Dennis lived in Tulare, California most of his life. He was a math teacher in the Tulare school system. He didn't start out as a Californian though. He was reared in Grady county, Oklahoma and attended college at Central State University. He met my Aunt Donna there. They had two daughters, Shelley and Lauri. They have three grandchildren between the two. After graduate school at the University of Oklahoma, they went to California to teach in the 1970s. At least this is how I recall it. During the summers, he would drive big rigs full of agricultural products. He also fixed air conditioning units. I can recall three times in my childhood, all in the 1970s, visiting my Uncle Dennis and Aunt Donna in Tulare. It was a hot little town. We went swimming in the local pool, took trips to the coast, went to Knots Berry Farm and Pismo Beach. Most of the time, I hung out with my cousins, playing games, eating Baskin-Robbins ice cream and just goofing off.

The most memorable times I had though were with my Uncle Dennis. On my second visit, he took me to "coffee" at his favorite restaurant. I don't remember the name of the place off the top of my head, but it was a "Denny's" or a "Stuckey's" or some such place. Nevertheless, he had coffee, I had a coke, and we talked about family life back in Oklahoma. My parents had divorced and life had become difficult for a 12 year old. So he went to bat for me when I couldn't bat for myself. That meant the world to me. On my last visit with him, about 11 years ago, we sat on the swing in his back yard, a swing that my father had painted for him years ago, and swung. As a matter of fact, I remember swinging with my dad and Dennis once when I was a boy. My dad was doing most of the talking and Dennis most of the swinging, until finally my uncle just laughed and said, "Well hell Jody" why don't you just...." and then stated what we were all thinking, but had never had the guts to say it! My Uncle Dennis loved to swing, talk and laugh. Usually just swing though. It was the ritual. He would swing, and if you wanted to talk to him, you would swing too.

I inherited that love of the swing from my Uncle Dennis. There are times when I like to go out on my back porch and just swing. It helps me think through the situations in life. It helps me relax. It helps me get rid of extra energy and find the rhythm of life sometimes. More than anything, it reminds me of my Uncle Dennis. When I look at new homes, I always look to see if it can accommodate a swing. Porch swings seem to be a "Whitley" character trait, if you, my readers will let me use it like that... When I swing, I swing hard too... drives Melissa crazy; but sometimes, you just have to swing until the stress melts away.

That I can recall, my Uncle Dennis was not a complex man and did not have a complex faith. He loved his family, his girls and his grandchildren. He did what he had to do. He barbecued a good steak and was fun to be around. He enjoyed his relatives for the most part... He lived and he died. But I don't want his passing to escape notice. He made a difference in my life that I will never forget. I am proud that he was my uncle and that he taught me the love of the swing. Rest in peace Uncle Dennis.

Just a closer walk with thee...

2010-07-31T06:06:00.004-05:00

So many believers get frustrated with their faith because God hasn't answered a specific prayer request, because a special person close to them died, because a young person died who we think should not have, because the person in the pew next to them doesn't agree to the very same beliefs you do, because young people won't change to fit our traditional worship patterns, because the music minister repeated a chorus one too many times and the list goes on... We are obsessed with the trivial. We focus on the minutiae and no longer see the big picture.

Yesterday, I saw that Anne Rice 'left' Christianity. "The Marquee Blog" quoted Ms. Rice thus:

Rice wrote, “For those who care, and I understand if you don't: Today I quit being a Christian ... It's simply impossible for me to ‘belong’ to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious, and deservedly infamous group. For ten years, I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.”

Rice then added another post explaining her decision on Thursday:“My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand, to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me," Rice wrote. "But following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is, has been or might become.”

I've got to say this, to the great offense of some of you: I understand Anne.

American Christianity in particular, but Western Christianity in general, is prone to a terrible disease: consumerism. We 'shop' churches and we participate in the programs of 'our' choosing. We attend churches that fit our personal income and community status specifications. Then we comment and complain about those who don't "fit". The Western church has been made into our image rather than God's. Anne might be disappointed, even upset; but I think God has already passed judgment.

Anne wants to walk with God; so do I. As a baptistic Christian, I've grown fond of the old revivalist hymns as a source of theology. One of my favourites is, "Just a closer walk with thee."

Just a closer walk with thee

Grant it Jesus, is my plea

Daily living close to thee

Let it be dear Lord, let it be.

I am weak, but Thou art strong

Jesus, keep me from all wrong

I’ll be satisfied as long

As I walk, let me walk close to Thee

I think every church and without doubt, every Christian, needs to rethink and recapture that idea. As Christians, we believe that the very Spirit of God resides within each believer. We believe that Christ's presence is with us. Would he be pleased with how you walk, with the choices you make or the kind of presence you have with others?

I know several people who have a 'church face' for their church attendance; a 'family face' for their time with family; and a 'vocational face' for their time at work. They serve on committees, they vote at business meetings, they even sing in the choir or do time in the nursery - but if you asked them to "take up their cross and follow Jesus" or to "be crucified with Christ" or to "walk the narrow road" or "to give all to the poor and follow Jesus" - they would look at you like you were an alien. In America, they call this reality; in the New Testament, Jesus calls is hypocrisy. You are either who you are in Christ, or you are not. You say you love your neighbor, but find ways to be angry with people who use to be your friend? That's hypocrisy. The last time I checked, every Christian was called to be a peacemaker and thus an emissary of Christ everywhere they went.

Now all of us have struggles. I do, Anne Rice does and so do you. But the hypocrisy has to stop. The church and its people need to get serious about the character and mission of Christ. If it does not get serious, then my church and your church can join the growing number of churches that are dying, losing members and closing their doors.

On top of that, why even be a Christian if you don't want to walk with God in this life?

A Messy Life....

2010-07-26T07:24:00.004-05:00

Everyone wants to find a "groove" in which to live. You know, that well worn path that 'feels' comfortable to us, that is both predictable yet stimulating... The life that doesn't catch us too much by surprise, yet has enough twists and turns to make life rewarding on occasion...

I watch as my students attempt to cultivate a life just like I have described. Even my most adventuresome students - the ones who want to go on the mission field, or live a shared existence in a Christian commune or live on the margins with a minimal amount of possessions or 'escape' the dying traditional church for an 'emerging' church experience eventually begin to crave a life that has signposts, markers and a regular manner of being. They find that the life which is filled with too many surprises can be disorienting and even frightening compared to his or her existence at home or before college. So they begin to find ways to 'settle down' or to be a 'localized radical' or to just admit that they were an 'idealist' and now they are a 'realist'... So they cultivate careers, bank accounts and retirements like the rest of us, and many times at the expense of what began as a vibrant faith.

The problem, however, begins with the fact that there is nothing more radical in this world than a devoted Christ-follower. To stand on your feet and proclaim authoritatively that Jesus died for our sins and rose from the dead; to declare that He is coming again to judge both the living and the dead and that all human-beings will experience that judgment is the heart of a polarizing, radicalizing life. It makes life messy. Not all people will like or appreciate your message. The gospel message paints not only a halo above your head, but a target on your back. To "take up your cross and follow Jesus" makes you an object of scorn and derision. To unabashedly declare your loyalty to God in Christ may even result in crucifixion.

The reality is, the Christian life is a messy life.

I presently live in the 'Buckle of the Bible Belt' - the heart of socially conservative Christianity. On one hand, this means that people have heard about Jesus, church and salvation. On the other hand, many people here separate his or her life of faith from their vocation and family life. This results in a very interesting religiously- oriented 'schizophrenia'. In other words, when with other "Christians" he or she will pour out bible and theological knowledge; they will volunteer to teach a class or even work in the church on Sunday - The Lord's Day. They may even engage in some simple Bible study during the week. But for the most part, his or her faith life has little effect on vocation, marriage and general daily life. They would like to think that it does... but then, they still hold grudges, gossip about others, curse and suspend religious activity when professional football is on the television. This religious orientation then comes to supplant the radical life of discipleship to which Christ calls us in scripture.

The Christian life is a life of radical obedience. You love God and love neighbor. You love your enemies. You go the extra mile. You take up your cross and become crucified with Christ. It's a messy life of love - a love always costs you something and always changes you. Once you have loved deeply as Christ loved, you are changed. There is nowhere to hide once you have loved like that. Once you have given it all to Christ on the cross, life becomes an adventure. Money will come and go; jobs will come and go; friends will come and go; and even family will come and go. (No, I'm not advocating divorce or any other such thing!) What I am saying is that there will be those in your family who just don't get it to the point that they will walk away or distance themselves from your radical call. Life will change for you.

But this is how the Kingdom changes things. This is how Christ chose to continue the mission. Radical love results in radical obedience. The problem lies in us. We don't want messy lives, so we allow Christ to have as much of us as we can bear - until our He impinges upon our comfort zone - and then we shut the door. We settle for the dance, rather than the marriage supper of the lamb.

I am asking you today to rethink your life a bit. It's not too late to get a little radical. It's not too late to allow Christ the title to your soul. It's not too late to take a stand and live the messy life of a true disciple. Think about it...

I saw you...

2010-07-19T21:41:00.002-05:00

I saw you today

walking along the sidewalk

by the old first church

in your crocs

and socks

watching children play

and adults talk.

I wondered deep

inside what you thought

or were thinking

you were walking with purpose

long deep strides

but not in a hurry

not rushed or pushed

just walking.

So I passed you by

slowed

and turned my head

a thousand thoughts

thought

in a second.

Were you thinking

about children

about work

about Him

about

God?

as you walked....

I thought

and nod.

Yes

you were.

I saw you today.

I saw

you.

Leadership Reflections

2010-07-18T21:27:00.002-05:00

[Friends: Unlike some of my other entries, this blog is an exercise in thinking in print. I hope you will engage with me, but it may get a bit dry! Hopefully it will be rewarding for those who are thinking through these processes with me!]

Church leadership is an interesting and complex phenomenon. When the apostle Paul drew an analogy between the church and the human body, he was more on target than he knew!

For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. [Romans 12:4-5 NASB95]

Paul continues in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians with this analogy as well. Each 'member' or part of the body has a different spiritual gift and together, under the direction of the 'head' - Christ - function in a cooperative, even unified manner. Paul paints a theologically beautiful picture, but a painfully difficult one to put put into action. It would seem that even Paul had a difficult time working with some of these churches!

Part of the problem would seem to lie in the ambiguity of the governance. Being 2000 years removed from the early church, we struggle understanding how the different governing roles of the church should operate. In other words, how are the pastors, elders and deacons to work together? Is there a 'pecking order' in regards to authority? Is the role of 'pastor' an office or a function or both?How does the congregation-at-large function in the governance? How does our Western, secular democracy influence the manner in which we attempt to implement these Biblical concepts?

These are questions every church must ask itself as it seeks to be faithful to scripture and effective in mission. How a church implements its governance may even determine the nature and success of its mission. Too much governance, too many committees and the church may become ineffective in fulfilling the great commission. The church simply becomes bogged down in its own bureaucracy. On the other hand, too much authority focused in the hands of one or only a few individuals could create a dictatorial governance that alienates the congregation. Church leadership constantly walks a fine line between effectiveness and ineffectiveness.

I would like to point out two small items though as I reflect on this topic: giftedness and authority.

First, church leadership operates according to the gifts given it. Paul goes to great lengths to point out leadership gifts in Ephesians 4:11 - apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers. In other words, church leadership must evidence the working of the Spirit in their lives that would suggest these gifts. It is significant that Paul in Romans 12:8 points out the spiritual gift of diligent leadership. Leadership, therefore, under the direction of the Spirit, is not haphazard or self-focused. It is bound to the directives of Christ through the Holy Spirit and to the glory of the Father.

Second, there is an authoritative structure to leadership. Foremost is the headship of Christ. All offices and gifts submit to the headship of Christ or they are illegitimate. (I believe the real issue is here - How do we acknowledge and rely upon the headship of Christ in our churches? I truly believe that we fail in this area over and over again!) The structure to leadership in the church, however, would seem to be flexible. Paul, in Titus 1:7 and 1 Timothy 3 suggests that the episkopos or 'overseer' is the primary administrative leader in the church. In 1 Timothy 3:8f, a second office of diakonos or 'servant' and its qualifications are outlined. Although 1 Timothy 5:17-19 and 1 Peter 5:1 refer to the 'elder' or presbuteros, this would seem to refer more accurately to older or experienced Christians, rather than to a specific office. Paul made it a point to designate 'elders' in the churches he planted in order to anchor the young church in a mature leadership base, hence the appointments of Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5 and the allusion to 'elders of the church' in Acts 20:17. The 'elders' then are those who inhabit the offices of 'overseer' (1 Tim 5:17) and teacher. The concept of a 'council of elders' is a holdover from the Jewish synagogue and thus would not have been unfamiliar to Paul and Peter.

Thus described, the entire church is given gifts by the Spirit to carry out the ministries of the church. The mature Christians, the Elders, are the ones who are to be prayerfully considered for the offices of the church - preaching, teaching, serving (diakonos) and administration (episkopos). These elders also serve as an advisory council, if you will, to those who hold specific offices. The deacons then assist the elders in their responsibilities. But, what about the 'pastor'?

In my tradition, each church has a primary 'pastor' or 'minister' who functions as the 'overseer' of the church on a daily basis on both a spiritual and administrative basis. What is the warrant for this office or activity? Throughout the Bible, the image of 'shepherd' aka 'pastor' is used as an analogy for spiritual leader. Although it is used as a noun, it is more frequently used as a verb - "to shepherd" - and refers to the activity of spiritual direction, leadership and general care. Paul uses the term only once, in reference to the duties of the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28. The pastor, then, is an overseer by appointment and an elder by qualification who evidences the spiritual gift of leadership, and is tasked with teaching, leading and defending the sheep.

You see, leadership is an interesting and complex phenomenon. The key, however, to which I keep coming back over and over again is the headship of Christ. The system by itself is fraught with difficulties. Nevertheless, when firmly placed under the authority of Christ - where the leadership is constantly measuring itself and its actions by the character and commands of Jesus - it can flourish in a miraculous way!

Life is about the journey...

2010-07-09T07:52:00.008-05:00

A good friend of mine was recently turned down for a residential grant to an institute in France. I, as well as several others, wrote references for him in the process. His research interest and his general situation seemed to make him an ideal candidate for just such a residency. Sadly, the foundation turned him down. The grant would have been a nice addition to any resume. A six to nine month residency at a prestigious institute always seems to entice publishers and thrill personnel committees. Nevertheless, my friend, a talented author, businessman, musician, hockey goalie and practical polymath was not chosen. The irony is, he will continue to be a talented author, businessman, musician, poet, philosopher, hockey goalie and polymath.

Having received the notice of his non-selection, I sent him a quick email telling him of my continued support of his work and friendship. He then replied to let me know that he would no longer be seeking these types of grants - just too much emotional energy expended for little gain. It then struck me, as it often does, that whether or not my friend got this grant was not a measure of his person. He has accomplished far more than most human beings will ever accomplish. But he has never put much stock in accomplishments for the sake of accomplishments. They are what they are. They are markers on a greater journey, but cannot be the goal of the journey itself.

Nevertheless, you and I measure our lives by our accomplishments all the time. It is the hazard of living in a capitalist-consumer culture. Indeed, one of the first things any American male will ask another upon being introduced is, "What do you do for a living?" - The question is designed to help us understand and assess a persons accomplishment in a millisecond. In short order it answers the following questions: Did you graduate from college? Did you marry well? Did you obtain high paying employment with a prestigious company or firm? Did you attend graduate or professional school? Are you a physician, professor, lawyer or CEO? Do you drive the right car, own the right home, attend the right schools? Do you vacation in the Hamptons, Martha's Vineyard, Big Sur, the Rockies or Europe?

Sadly, all this serves to do is to 'measure' our own worth in comparison to the other person's accomplishments. Yet that whole approach is flawed. Does this really give us a measurement of a person's life? What does it do to assess a person's value by their financial and material accomplishments? Can this really tell us something about a person? Yes. It can tell us that somewhere down the line they have forgotten what it means to be human.

Please don't mistake what I am saying. To have and to do these things is not "bad" or "evil" in and of themselves. Yet, to make them the end or goal of our lives is.

Our lives will not ultimately be measured by the things we achieve or possess. Our lives will be measured by how we lived them and the character they produced. Life is about the journey. The questions we should be asking are: Have I loved deeply? Have I sacrificed anything of value for the sake of others? Is my yes "yes" and my no "no"? Am I a liar or does the truth control my life? Do my possessions control me? Can I be content in any situation? How can I be the cause of the greatest amount of joy and peace, and minimize being the cause of pain and suffering? How can I love my neighbor and benefit his or her life? How can I love my spouse today? How can I best influence my children today in order that he or she might become a person of integrity and character?

And for the Christian, most importantly, how does my life reflect the life of the one who loved me and gave himself for me? (Galatians 2:20)

How you and I answer these questions will determine our worth, eternally.

I am 46 years old. I have travelled, accomplished and done. I intend to do more. I will succeed and I will fail. But in the grand scheme of things, they are but markers on the road. God reminds me that these 'things' are tempered by time. They occurred yesterday. He reminds me that I must live now. God does not remind me of past accomplishments, He simply says, "Jay, I love you. Now what will we do together today?"

Let me challenge you. Life is not about stuff. Life is about today's walk with God. What will you do with God today? Who and how will you love?

“But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you.

“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.

[Luke 12:31-32 NASB95]

The Church is a Movement.

2010-07-07T08:40:00.003-05:00

I have been around a lot of churches in the last 20 years. I've been a pastor, a staff member, an interim pastor, a "revival" preacher, a "guest speaker", a church-health consultant, a 'professional' theologian-in-residence as well as an educated lay person. I've led youth groups, conducted choirs, led musical worship, preached and taught. I've watched and listened.

I've watched as churches have blossomed and faded; I've watched as churches have grown tremendously only to splinter just as quickly. I've watched as churches 'maintained' - neither really growing or outright dying - but just held its head above the water enough to pay a pastor, a small staff and keep itself busy with a program of 'churchy-ness'... and I have watched as some churches have taken a whole new path and grown exponentially where others can't even take root.

In all of this time I've sought to understand why and how the traditional North American / Western church is fading so quickly. The church as we knew it in the twentieth century is quickly diminishing and something not very familiar to us is taking its place. When I say, "the church as we knew it" - I'm talking about the 'traditional', denominationally-oriented, doctrinally-focused and geographically located congregation. The church that proliferated in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries that is quickly becoming anachronistic.

The answer that is slowly coming to my mind is this: since the time of Constantine and the public ascent of the church, the church has forgotten what it is. It is a movement.

The church is not a building, a weekly meeting or even a group of people that does "mission" together. It is the movement of God in and through people. The images of God's people in the Bible that portray this group as healthy and blessed are dynamic, kinetic and not tied to one specific place or time. Paul talks about the church in terms of the "body of Christ" or the "called out ones" - another name for the militia or army. He talks about 'walking together' or 'running the race'... The only way to describe this phenomenon is as a movement. The church isn't missional, the church is mission.

The Cappadocian fathers in the fourth century sought to describe the inner workings of God by using the term "perichoresis" or "round dance" - It is a dynamic, kinetic movement of love between Father and Son in the Spirit. The church is that movement of people who have embraced and embody that same perichoresis in their midst. This movement is filled with the Spirit, armed with love and prayer, guided by the Scriptures and informed by just enough doctrine to remind them of who they are, what their purpose is and how they are to function. The church is a special forces team that undermines strongholds in the world by the power of Christ. It undermines hate and builds relationships. It exposes sin and restores righteousness. It plants the cross, preaches the resurrection and then continues on...

If the church builds a building, it must serve as an outpost, a refitting station, an aid station, a place of training and sending; a place that is temporary. It is not an end in itself. If the building becomes an end in itself - then it becomes a death trap, a tomb for those who have forgotten who they are and what their function is.

Jesus commissions us in Matthew 28:19-20. As the president commissions officers in the army, so Jesus commissions those in His Kingdom. He begins the commission with a simple word: "Go!" - It is an imperative. Go, go now into the world and make disciples. He did not say, "stay", "stay and build comfortable, inviting fortresses that look like modern temples where you can be happy and self-satisfied. And if your fortress is nice enough, others who are of like mind can come join you behind those walls every Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night - barring the imposition of another more important event."

This sounds harsh, I know. But aren't you tired of seeing the church as an ineffective and dying body? I know that I am. Aren't you concerned that the church no longer looks like the group described in the New Testament? I am. If you are, like me, then let's do what we must to see the church become a vibrant, living body once again.

Before I go...

2010-06-20T23:22:00.003-05:00

Yes, its that time again. Time for me to take off on another trek above the Red River. This time I am taking my daughter Hannah with me. We will explore and work together, seeing friends and family in Oklahoma City, Tulsa and beyond (I just pray that there are no hail storms, tornados or like manifestations this time around!).

I think deep inside, I love to travel, to be in different places - to see, do and experience new things. I like the challenge of living and breathing the unfamiliar. It is a challenge that I enjoy and take up whenever I can. I think this is why I enjoy the northwest so much and truly love my visits to the UK. It pushes and challenges me! Somewhere deep inside, I wonder if the same thing drove the apostle Paul? I like seeing a need and meeting it; going in faith and letting God work, wherever I may be!

I enjoy traveling with both of my daughters, but this opportunity with Hannah is special. She is developing her own understanding of God now and I love talking with her about it. She challenges and encourages me. I believe that as much as we shape and rear our children, our children shape us - it is from this process that we both grow and change as human beings. We will work together, swim together, eat together and be on long drives - where we can talk about Jesus, the Spirit, the Bible and other concerns of faith. Of course, we will also talk about ballet, school, friends and root beer!

We will also be discussing upcoming "possibilities." It seems like where God shuts a door, He always opens another, so Hannah and I will have the opportunity to talk and pray about what God has for us next. Truly, Helen Keller was right: Life is a daring adventure...

In the next few months, I am working on my thesis, arrangements, sermons, judging assignments and fall class lectures. I will be diligently helping my new friends at Hillcrest find their way to health as the Body of Christ. But I will also be looking to the future. The Spirit speaks to the heart and I need the quiet to hear a bit better! I know this trip will provide the time, quiet and insight I need to hear from the Father.

All though this might sound disconcerting to some of you, don't let it bother you. I know more than ever that I am where God wants me to be - in the middle of His will. Life is never static, but a journey. God takes us where He wills. Even if you never leave the county in which you live, life with God is a daring adventure. For me, each new friend, student and moment can be an adventure on my journey! I am blessed that I have a family that understands and friends that are supportive.

And so in a few hours, I will leave Brownwood with Hannah on an adventure. Keep us in your prayers as we travel and share. I like adventures and I like nothing more than sharing them with my children and friends. I look forward to sharing with you when I return.

The Most Powerful Weapon in the World.

2010-06-19T06:24:00.002-05:00

Men, it's almost Father's Day, so this blog is for you. Take it to heart. Embrace its message.

In my day to day existence, I run into people all the time that use the "F bomb." For example, "Hey, did you hear that guy over there? He was so angry that he dropped the "F bomb!" Of course, when I mention that phrase, most people understand that I'm talking about a substitute for a commonly understood profanity. When I was a kid growing up, the "F bomb" or "F word" was the "mother of all profanities", the use of which could get you a slap in the face, your mouth washed out with soap or a serious grounding. In other words, its use was simply unacceptable. People of education and culture were reared not to use that word under any circumstances and certainly practicing Christians would not use that word! (Paul in Colossians 3:8, 4:6 and Titus 2:8 addresses the importance of sound, graceful speech to the Christian).

Nevertheless, both non-believers and believers have been found using that word, that "bomb." Not so much in reference to the literal meaning of the word, but as an emphasis, used to 'vent' uncontrollable anger. In other words, someone is really angry if they use the word. It is not a casual conversation word for the most part, but an interjection used to reflect a state of being. Sadly, the word has entered into common usage among all people. We have even become de-sensitized to its use. We don't give it a second thought or at least in many circles it is not given a second thought.

Well you must know, if you know me at all, how much it disturbs me to even write about this word; for it represents all that I stand against - anger, malice, uncontrollable language, the belittling of another person and the denigration of self. Its a word that evokes tremendous sadness, anger and many other feelings. The word has become a weapon in our culture. Although this word is usually uttered by men, it knows no bounds - women will use it too. But must it be this way? Is this word truly the most powerful weapon in our world? Should the use of this word define what it means to be a man in our culture? It sure seems to do so... but is that really what it means to be a man, or a father?

Yet there is another "F bomb" that people should drop - and without doubt - Christians should use constantly. It is a word-act that should define what it means to be a man and a father:

It is the bomb of "forgiveness". Or maybe "balm" of forgiveness!

Forgiveness, without a doubt, is the most powerful, most needed weapon/healing ointment in the world. In a world of hurt, a world of 'grudge holding' and a world of revenge, forgiveness is the only word-act that can change our reality. How can it do this? It can do this because forgiveness, at its heart, is an act of love. Love for God spilling over into a love for others.

Men should learn to love their wives with forgiveness. Father's should learn to love their children with forgiveness. Men should learn to forgive as easily as they have learned to speak in profanities. Why - because profanity only injures our world; forgiveness heals it.

Do you want to change dad? Are you tired of the strife in your family life? Then surrender the profane F-Bomb and exchange it for the balm of forgiveness. It will renovate your heart and bless your life.

Bitter Sweet...

2010-06-14T17:33:00.004-05:00

I reconnected with an old friend yesterday and it was almost too much. Sue and I were friends back in high school. We both played trombone. She played in the Catoosa HS band and I in the Broken Arrow HS band. We both took lessons from L. Dale Barnett and I truly believe challenged each other to always achieve more, although I know she was always better than I was. We hung out together a bit and even went out once; twice if you count the date we went on with Wally Thrun - another trombone player! Sue was, and and continues to be special. She is now married to a great guy, with great kids and still has the same big heart! She loves Christ, loves her church and still loves to play the trombone! It made me glad that she found me! (I guess facebook is good for somethings!)

Anyway, isn't it funny how your heart leaps when you reconnect with someone you haven't communicated with in a long time? Many people come in and out of our lives. Some of them we remember more fondly than others. But then there are those who really made an impact in our lives in a positive way. Although my window of time with Sue was brief - sophomore and junior years in high school - they were important years and important contacts. I can say this about a number of people in my life - Sean and Mark, Kale, Debbie, Don, Joe, Brent and quite a few others. I don't see them often, sometimes for years; but when I see them, my world lights up.

What is the intangible in my relationship to these people that does this to me?

My only conclusion is that it is one of the many forms of love - true friendship. The Greek word for true friendship is philadelphian - brotherly or friend love. The bond is deep and it is not simply a feeling, but a state of being. I have connected with these people and they have connected with me. We share philadelphia - brotherly love - on a very deep level. We are connected. Over time, I believe that philadelphian can transform into agape: the selfless love that God has for each of us, we can have for each other. Indeed, I believer we were designed for just that kind of love.

Although our world tries to define 'love' severely - as a biologic reaction, or a condition that is out of our control and leaves as quickly as it arrives, or as an exclusive condition between two people - that is not the Biblical warrant of love. Interestingly, not many people - not even Christians! - can handle loving others outside the world's definition of love. The very idea of love is too powerful, too intimidating. So we limp along, missing the completeness God has for us by not loving others as Christ loved us.

I have loved several people deeply - I know, because I have the broken heart to prove it! - but Tennyson was right: "it is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." I don't regret loving those people unconditionally, for I know that is how Christ loved me. And though I've hurt when that love was refused, unreturned or unappreciated, I don't regret loving. You see it is in the sharing of God's love and its consequent grace, mercy and hope that we are completed - regardless if it is returned.

Thank you Sue, thank you Scott, thank you... for finding me, caring about me and truly loving me as your friend. You will always have my love in return.

Indeed, Christ says, "They will know you are my disciples in that you love one another."

A Pastor's Eye View

2010-06-13T06:34:00.002-05:00

Yesterday afternoon I officiated at my 'umpteenth' wedding. (Yes, I've officially lost track now!) And although I cannot remember the exact number off the top of my head, I can tell you that it was a very special wedding for me as an officiant. The couple that married was not only made up of former students at the university where I teach, but the groom was the eldest son of one of my closest friends. Additionally, I had worked with the couple for over a year on premarital counseling. The two young adults are passionate about their faith in God and the success of their marriage. They wanted to get it 'right'.

For most people, a wedding is where you celebrate the union of two people into one, officially. The ceremony is usually held in a church building and followed by a reception - either modest or extravagant. You put on a suit or a dress, purchase a gift off of a registry and celebrate, with the couple, their new union.

A pastor's eye view is a little different. A wedding is a capstone event - the end of a long process of preparation and the birthing event of a new phase in a relationship. If understood properly, a wedding is a covenant event, where two people unite, with God, witnessed by many of their closest friends and family members. It is a transitional event, where new family ties are born and old family ties are changed. Indeed, a new family is born out of two others.

I never cease to be amazed at weddings. I love how a bride looks at a groom. How a groom stands amazed at the beauty of the bride. They are both full of youth and joy. Then there is the wedding party - it is interesting to see how these people represent the loves, concerns and interests of the bride and groom. And oh how the bridal attendants smile and the groomsmen fidget! Although most wedding ceremonies last between 15 and 45 minutes, they usually pass in a blink of an eye for the participants. But what an amazing moment in time it is.

As a pastor, I see so many beautiful things in a wedding, most of them having nothing to do with hair styles, dresses, tuxedos or decorations. I see God do something special in two people. I do my best to prepare these two people for the this covenant and to spend the rest of their lives together understanding that the two become one flesh in a relationship sanctified and indwelled by the living God. What a fortunate man I am to be able to participate in such a beginning for two people!

So Thank you:

James and Connie

Josh and Amanda

Jacob and Olivia

Nick and Tracie

Paul and Heather

Jeff and Bethany

Matt and Jamie

Chris and Bridget

Brian and Lori

Nathan and Shannon

Nick and Jenny

Gabe and Megan

Joe and Kim

Kirk and Chris

Troy and Jennifer

David and Chamar

Troy and Stephanie

Chris and Tinnell

Frank and Teresa

Bob and Kerstin

John and Patricia

Preston and Norma

Dallen and Christina

Michael and Salwati

and the many others who have allowed me to be a part of their special day.

Texas football...

2010-06-10T20:23:00.002-05:00

This blog is about our faith journey 99.9% of the time, but I've got to take a moment to address an issue: football. Like any southwestern born and bred adult of the past 40 years, I'm not only aware of, but also an ardent follower, even fan of American football. (I say American because I have friends across the Atlantic in England who read this blog.) I grew up bleeding the crimson and creme of Oklahoma University. I've watched Joe Washington and his silver shoes, Greg Pruitt, Steve Davis, Billy Sims and Adrian Peterson run back touchdown after touchdown for the Sooners. I remember when Uwe von Schamann kicked the game winning field goal for Oklahoma over Ohio State in 1977. I've played in the marching band as the Broken Arrow Tigers and the Cy-Fair Bobcats took the playing field in the late '70s and early '80s. I watched my Sam Houston State Bearkats, my Baylor Bears and of course my Howard Payne University Yellow Jackets play in both victory and defeat. I watched in satisfaction as my Navy Midshipmen defeated the much respected, Fisher Deberry coached Air Force Academy Falcons on a warm Annapolis Saturday in October 1993. I watched in satisfaction as my Baylor Bears beat the vaunted University of Texas Longhorns on a hot November day in 1997. I watched with satisfaction as the U.T. Longhorns defeated the USC Trojans in the 2006 Rose Bowl through the miraculous performance of Vince Young. I am a fan of the gridiron.

Now things are about to change. College football is about to become a lower priority on my list. Over the past 6 plus months, the Big 12 conference has been discussing the unthinkable - dissolution. Out of the north, the Nebraska Cornhuskers and the Missouri Tigers are being courted by the Big 10. The University of Texas is being courted by the PAC-10 and everyone is taking sides as to whether the Baylor Bears deserve to play Division I football with anyone! A recent Houston Chronicle article drew over 140 comments as to whether or not Baylor, Houston, Rice, SMU or TCU should be allowed to play in the Big 12 or the PAC 10. The fans and readers are screaming about Nebraska, Texas, Baylor, the Big 10, PAC 10 and anyone else within shouting distance.

What's all the fuss about? It would seem to be about money - television revenues to be exact - and simple pride: who's the best? The best would seem to be the conference who can get the the most lucrative television contract. The fuss is really not even about athletics - it's about football. It is certainly not about the fans. Most college football fans will not be able to travel some of the absurd distances involved if the Big 12 dissolves. If it were about 'total' athletics this would be a different blog. It's about football and money.

College athletics have now officially become "professional." I've never been a real fan of professional sports. Why? Because it reminds me how warped our society's entertainment values have become. Ancient Rome had the same problem. They went from the purity of the Olympic games to the blood lust of the Arena in a short 300 years: from marathon to gory gladiator quicker than history can blink an eye. And then Rome fell… Division I athletics have become a microcosm of our society's priorities and it should be scaring the daylights out of any intelligent American.

There was once a purity to college athletics. These men and women were scholar athletes. They earned their tuition dollars by competing for their school. Their goal was an education, athletics was a means to that end. They competed against other schools in the region for prestige, bragging rights and a trophy. But now its about television exposure, pro-contracts and indulgent alumni. Most promising NCAA Division I athletes are now drafted before they ever graduate. What happened to the scholar athlete? What has happened to our major universities and their priorities.

Times have changed. I am a Baylor alum and proud of it. I have Texas Aggie friends and a Longhorn loving father-in-law. But now more than ever, I am a fan of my Howard Payne University Yellow Jackets, an NCAA Division III school.

NCAA Division III athletics are non-scholarship. These students play because they love to play with little or no hope of being "drafted" or going on to professional athletic careers. They will become teachers, doctors, lawyers and ministers among other things. They truly play for "love of the game." They are my heroes.

So I say this to NCAA Division I football, "remember your roots and get it together fast, or you will become just like Rome quicker than you can blink an eye." You are already just a feeder league for the professionals.

What is it about wisdom teeth?

2010-06-08T06:58:00.002-05:00

Today my daughter Catherine gets her wisdom teeth removed. I had mine removed when I was 20 and my wife had hers removed before then. I think most people get his or her wisdom teeth removed. Here is where my confusion sets in though: Of all the teeth to remove, why remove the 'wise' ones? If these teeth are the teeth that give us wisdom, why do we take them out? Why not remove some of the foolish teeth? We have several sets of molars so maybe we should remove one row of those. Even the name 'molar' suggests that it should be removed. Removes some molars then and let those wisdom teeth come on in! I mean hey, are we crippling ourselves as a race by removing those dental fixtures that are credited as being 'wise'? I mean, really?

Anyway, my daughter is a little bit jittery about the IV sedation and all that has to be done in her mouth today, and I don't blame her. I try to reassure her that it will be fine, but she doesn't do well with all of the needle talk. Hey, I don't either.

Life is tough though and sometimes to cultivate a little wisdom in life we must go through a little pain. Maybe that's what the story of wisdom teeth is about. We gain wisdom when we ride out and learn from the painful moments in life. I don't know. But I pray today that my daughter does well in her oral surgery.

Where there is no vision...

2010-06-05T08:13:00.002-05:00

Proverbs 29:18 is an oft quoted passage, usually in the King James Version:

"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he."

Personally, I am a fan of the New American Standard Updated edition:

"Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is he who keeps the law."

The New Living Translation gives yet another version, which is yet easier to grasp:

"When people do not accept divine guidance, they run wild. But whoever obeys the law is happy."

Each of these translations come close to the point:

Human beings need God to give them purpose and direction or they devolve into chaos and death.

Although I believe this is true for all human beings, this truth is absolute for God's people. You cannot be a Christian and not be led by God's vision. In other words, if you claim to be the church or even a church, and are not driven by God's vision, God's revelation, God's divine guidance, then you have missed the mark: you are a civic club with good intentions; but not the ekklesia; not the body of Christ.

This is a harsh conclusion, but what the prophets proclaimed to Israel was harsh, wasn't it? However, in a world where the church is rapidly shrinking, becoming irrelevant and losing influence, we desperately need insight not only into our plight, but into God's solution. The Church is the Body of Christ; God will not allow it to disappear. Nevertheless, God will not allow the church to thrive where it pursues its own self-driven agenda at the expense of God's purpose. This is Jeremiah's point in "The Potter's House" prophecy of Jeremiah 18. God is the potter and we are the clay. If the clay does not retain its shape, or fails in its purpose, then the potter begins again.

The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, “Go down to the shop where clay pots and jars are made. I will speak to you while you are there.” So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again. [Jeremiah 18:1-4 (NASB95)]

The same is true of our personal lives in Christ. If you have claimed Christ, the expectation is that you will "take up your cross and follow." This does not mean that our walk in Christ is "perfect", "flawless" or even "without sin" - but it does mean that we are constantly seeking God's purpose or vision for the life He has given to us. If we are not seeking that divine guidance, then our lives will never be what God has destined them to be; indeed, if we are not seeking His vision, then the "anointing" falls upon those who are. This does not mean that you "lose your salvation" or are simply miserable. What it means is that you will not be what God destined you to be...and isn't that difficult enough?

The New Testament is all about God's vision for each one of us and for the church. Individually, God's vision for us is Jesus. He is our model, our exemplar. He is the nexus of truth, goodness and beauty. Jesus is what it means to be human. His vision for us is in Luke 10:27-37; it is in Matthew 16:24, Mark 10:21 and John 15:13 - to name a few parts of the vision for us.

But Jesus then calls us out of our radical individuality and into a radical corporality! His Spirit calls us into a new way of 'being' - we are incorporated into a larger community of persons that is governed by the Spirit and Vision of Christ. Indeed, we are no longer satisfied by the poor substitution of selfish desire, but only by the very presence of Christ. It is his "well done, good and faithful servant" that satisfies us. It is the fulfillment of His desire, His will and His vision that drives us. The person once ruled by selfish pursuits is now driven by the very love of Christ. Our unique personhood is placed into the service of the Kingdom of God, which is exactly that for which we were made. It is only there that we find true satisfaction and life.

Friends, enter into prayer today and ask God about His vision for you. Ask Him to reveal that which is getting in the way of embracing and embodying that vision. Then take up your cross and follow Him; for it is only when we are "crucified with Christ" that we can be the person or church we were destined to be.

The Broken Pot Business.

2010-05-25T07:04:00.004-05:00

The Christian scriptures are full of stories. The stories are about God's interaction with human beings - primarily those human beings of Semitic origin, yet even more specifically, the Abrahamic branch of the Hebrew people.

As one reads the stories, you are struck by the personal nature of the encounters and the passionate responses of the participants. But there is something else that strikes the reader as well - if they have read closely!

These people are all less than perfect.

They are too short, too young, left-handed, women, deceptive, faithless, frightened or unskilled. They are average or below average in beauty, they are unhappily single or unhappily married. Many of them have low self-esteem or simply have been overlooked by the rest of society. They are the proverbial "pound dogs" - the dogs nobody else wanted, and thus have been assigned to the pound - they are the people from which no one expected much and thus are overlooked and under appreciated. They have both physical flaws and character flaws. In a modern society, they would have been relegated to anonymity in either low-paying, low-expectation blue collar jobs or if an intellectual, assigned to positions in corporations, government or universities where they were useful, but not necessarily mobile.

As Christians, we have enshrined these people as "heroes of the faith" but we have assigned them character qualities and abilities that simply aren't a part of the narrative. We become offended when anyone questions his or her character, ability or veracity. Jacob was a deceiver, a liar. Moses had anger management issues and could be weak-willed. Ehud was left-handed, which the world equated as weakness. Samson was a philanderer and David was an adulterer. Solomon sold his soul to his wives' gods. Isaiah was a priest of low standing and Jeremiah never wanted to be a prophet in the first place. Peter probably couldn't read and Jesus was from Nazareth - what good can come from Nazareth? stated Nathaniel in John 1:46. Paul condoned murder, was a fast-track Pharisee and probably had vision problems. One could even make the argument that he was jealous of Peter. Sounds harsh doesn't it? Don't get upset with me, read the Book!

So what's the point. The point is this: God is in "the broken pot" business.

God takes that which is devoid of worth to the rest of the world and pours out His glory through it. He takes the broken pieces of our lives and makes something beautiful out of it. Although interested in the beautiful (B), famous (F), smart (S), wealthy (W) and industrious (I) - they already have their glory. (Which should be a clue to those BFSWI that they are broken pots too - pride, arrogance, self-sufficiency and control are their flaws, which can be the most insidious!) So God calls those in our world who are obviously - at least by our world's standards - broken, used up, impoverished and over-looked to be fountains of His glory. God loves children (beautiful, shapeable lumps of love!), the poor, the abused, the simple, the hurt and the rejected. He takes these broken pots and remakes them according to His purpose and for His glory.

Now if this is God's business, then certainly it should be the church's business too, shouldn't it? Sadly, we tend to emphasize our priorities instead of His. We focus on the beauty of our buildings and our own comfort in worship. It has been said that Sunday morning at 11:00 is the most segregated hour in America. Why? Because our churches reflect our desires rather than God's desire. Our churches are not only segregated racially and geographically; but they are also segregated economically and theologically. There are churches for every race and ethnicity; there are churches for intellectuals and churches for the blue-collar worker; there are churches for older, tradition-oriented and "mature" adults and churches for "emerging" young adults.

But what about the church that God wants?

My good friend, the Rev. Jo Regan is now pastor of a Baptist Church at Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire, UK. She is a she. The world doesn't expect her to powerfully preach the gospel or even to successfully (whatever that means!) lead this church to health and growth. But God does. My friend Jo realizes that it is all about God, and because of that, God will do great things in Burton-on-Trent. If only our churches in America could more fully understand that truth. Jo understands that the church is in the business of not only mending broken pots, but seeing the glory of God pour forth from them!

This Sunday, God has led me to a church where I will preach in view of a call to become part-time pastor. It is a small church, a very small church. It is a church that is broken, yet holding as much love as it possibly can. In the last few months, I have been on a roller coaster ride - suffering along with the travails of my family, turning down the call to a beautiful, large church in Oregon and preparing my oldest daughter for college. I am overwhelmed; Yet as I pray and seek God's wisdom and will concerning this weekend, I am overwhelmed by peace. There is no large salary, no manse and really no budget - there are only broken pots. But ironically, God does His best work with broken pots.

May God the Father richly bless each of you this week as you ask Him to mend your own "broken pot" and seek to become a fountain of His love.

Goodbye individual, hello personal.

2010-05-22T06:55:00.002-05:00

The human vocabulary is filled with first person pronouns: I, me and my. As a citizen of the United States, and an inheritor of contemporary Western culture, I understand the national ethos to be "rugged individualism."

We see this in our consumer approach to reality: "be all that you can be", "have it your way", "don't you deserve the very best?", "sink or swim", "my bologna has a first name" and other such sloganeering aimed at the individual. Life is about you and your individual choices. Life is about whatever makes you - the individual - happy.

Nevertheless, It's one thing to appeal to the individual in advertising, but another altogether to allow individuality to become the ruling metaphor for culture. You see, the end of individuality is isolation and separation. The individual becomes the center of interpretation and thus inhabits an increasingly isolated reality. This is one of the serious handicaps of American Christianity. We construct our own theologies - our own "God talk" - in order to satisfy or even justify our own self or better, selfish ends. (Once I had a student argue with me about the nature of the imago Dei - they insisted, contrary to scriptural and historical precedent, that the image of God in humankind is radically individual; ironically they did this in order to justify an obviously sinful behavior!) Thus, in this way we can objectify the other and in doing so, somehow make it more manageable. Yet interestingly, all we do is increasingly alienate ourselves from reality, rather than engage it.

The very essence of sin is individualism. It is the choice to place "I" before "Thou" as eminent Jewish philosopher Martin Buber reminded us. It prioritizes self preservation above all else and thus elevates the individual to divine status. God then becomes a pawn to do the individual's bidding in life. How quickly Christians forget the admonition of Jesus, "yet not as I will, but as you will" (Matthew 26:39 NASB95).

The human reality is that we are "persons in relation" as the Orthodox theologian John Zizioulas reminds us. Our individuality results in isolation; our personhood depends upon community. We can only be who we are when related to community. Our person is defined by the communities and other persons to which we relate. We relate to God, to each other and to the balance of creation. When we fail to live in an I-Thou relationship to God, none of the rest of our relationships function correctly.

Christians, John the Apostle is right - do you desire to be a disciple of Jesus and live eternally? Then let it begin now: love one another. That's how the world knows you are Jesus' disciples. Far too often we are Christian gnostics - as long as we have "salvation knowledge" it doesn't matter how we live. In the process we become exclusivists; justifying all sorts of unrighteous attitudes and behaviors in Jesus' name. Nothing could be further from the truth. To believe is to live a life of agape love. If you love like that you will live, truly. And if you live truly, you will not simply be an individual, but rather the 'person' God created you to be.

Oklahoma Apocalypse!

2010-05-19T06:59:00.011-05:00

This past week I had the opportunity to visit family and friends in the great state of Oklahoma. [Now I know some of my friends in Texas will take offense at the "great state" designation, but bear with me, there is a greater point at stake here!] I did a bit of archaeological exploration just north of Marland and south of Ponca City at the site of the Miller Brother's 101 Ranch headquarters site; visited the Marland Grand Home in Ponca City and even the Marland Mansion; I preached in my father and step-mom's church; saw uncles, aunts and cousins. Finally, I was able to visit the old homestead in Verden. A good visit all told, with one exception: hail.

For those of you who aren't acquainted with the phenomenon, it is frozen rain that has been tossed back and forth in the atmosphere and coated with more freezing water or clumped together with other hail stones until it attains a variety of sizes - from 'pea' size to 'shot put' size or even larger I assume. Hail is endemic to cumulonimbi - thunder storms. Hail is a common product of thunderstorms, especially in the Spring in the midwestern or Great Plains portion of the United States. It is here, in the spring time, that the heavy, warm, moisture-filled air from the Gulf of Mexico encounters cold fronts moving in from the north and west. When these two forces meet at the "dry line", thunderstorms form and the possibility of hail comes into existence! Having given you a brief lesson on hail, I want you to know that it is "severe weather" season in this part of the country and it can be terrifying.

Now back to my story.

It is Sunday, May 16. I've just finished preaching at my father's church in Oklahoma City and have proceeded to Edmond, just north of the city to visit relatives. On a lark, my cousin, Derek decides to take me back down to the city for a bit of 'exploration' and just some 'catch-up' time. On the highway, while on our way back to Edmond we run into the leading edge of a massive thunderstorm that had formed quickly on the northwestern edge of Oklahoma City. I took this picture as we headed into it, being simply amazed by its size and contrast:

Now as we drove into the storm - and by the way, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, necessarily - just another day in the springtime of Oklahoma! - I became very interested in white column coming out of the bottom of the dark cloud. I had never seen that before. But since we didn't see the 'green' color normally associated with the presence of hail, we didn't think about it. We decided we would just get tossed about in heavy rain and high winds. But then we saw the storm chaser on the over pass and decided we ought to turn on the radio. About that time, my cousin noticed the cloud was "greening" and that we were going to run into some hail. The radio announcer said to take cover, the storm had a huge hail column containing up to softball sized hail. (Now think about how big that is. I'd heard of softball size hail, but never seen it) So what I was looking at in the storm - the white cloud on the left - was the hail column.

Then we ran into it. We immediately took a direct hit to the windshield. It was as if someone had taken a sledge hammer to our windshield - it blew the rear view mirror off and cratered the upper middle of the windshield. I put my feet on the windshield as "shot put" size hail slammed into our vehicle. It was so loud you couldn't hear yourself think. Cars were slamming on their brakes as they hit the storm, some of them spinning out of control as they lost some or all of their windshield as they hit the wall of hail.

Immediately we sped up in order to get to the shelter of the next overpass. We kept taking hits though and we took another monster hit to the windshield by my right foot, which created another crater. Thank the Lord for safety glass! In about a minute (felt like 5 minutes!) We made it to the safety of the underpass. All of the lanes were packed with people. Some cars had even turned around and driven in backwards to get protection from the apocalyptic onslaught. For 10 minutes the storm continued.

Even under the protection of the underpass, the hail was coming in and continued to hit the vehicles, though the monster pieces were shattering as they hit the bridge or the road in front of us. I opened the door briefly to snap this pic of the hail under the bridge - most of these pieces are fist to baseball sized hail:

Compare the hail stones to the size of the car at the top of the picture and you will get a good idea of what was pelting us. Imagine that stuff coming down so hard and fast that it was like bullets raining from heaven! We sat under the overpass until we believed the hail core had passed (though we left a little early and had to stop under another overpass about 2 minutes later) and talked about the fact that we had never seen anything like it. Of course we discussed whether or not the apocalypse had begun or maybe that the 'global warming' was true and mother nature was getting revenge!

Eventually we were able to start heading out from under the safety of the bridge and the site that met us was just surreal - look at this last photo: It looks like snow on the highway - in May! I've never seen anything like this. Kudos to my cousin Derek for getting us to safety so quickly!

Now I know that many of you scientifically minded-readers understand the forces in nature that make these kinds of storms possible. The possibility of this type of storm hitting every so often are slim, but still possible. The right conditions can make all sorts of things happen in our world. But if nothing else, these events must make you think about ultimate realities. What do I mean by ultimate realities? I mean the questions of existence. Far too often human beings live their lives as if there is nothing greater than they are. We are masters of the universe and nothing can stop us. Nature reminds us that our reality isn't quite that self-assured. There is something greater than we are and we must respect it. We disrespect it at our own peril.

As I sat through this 'apocalyptic' event, I was reminded of the fact that I am only human and that my life is so very fragile. If we approach life in this fashion, every moment becomes a gift and every encounter a treasure. Not an hour before this occurred, a friend of mine had sent me a text message telling me how beautiful it was in Texas hill country that day. I found it ironic that 300 miles north, I was caught in what could only be described as 'judgement day' on the earth!

So today I can tell you that God has reminded me of the limited, fragile nature of my life. If I take care of my physical body and avoid too much danger, I might live on this earth between 60 and 90 years. But that isn't very long. Ultimately, God holds our lives in His hands. Each day a gift and each moment something that must be treasured and inhabited. Tell someone you love them today. Tell them how much they mean to you. Smile at someone you have not smiled at in a while and then take time to enjoy that moment. Smell a flower. Bite into a grape. Heed the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount:

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

“And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin,yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith!

“Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’“For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. [Matthew 5:25-34 NASB95]

Bless you my friends this day!

It IS a beautiful morning...

2010-05-12T08:56:00.002-05:00

So...

I get up this morning and I can tell its summer. In Texas.

A little humid, but the birds are singing and its still only 75º (24 Celsius for my UK friends!) at 6:00AM.

Anyway, I made a pot of coffee and went out into the back yard. The grass is green and growing. My grapes are ripening nicely and my blackberries are starting to turn, well, black - or better - a rich purple. (Note to self - time for bird netting on berry plants!) Melissa's onions, corn, squash and tomatoes are coming in well. The jasmine and honey suckle are so aromatic that its overwhelming at this time in the morning. Good coffee. I wander just long enough among the plants to get my toes wet, grass covered and even a bit muddy from watering.

Time to sit on the porch swing.

And I remember. I am praying for friends and family who don't have as laid back a schedule as I do at the moment. My mother has had cataract surgery and ironically my friend Carol is performing cataract surgeries, amongst other things! My dad is recovering from a fall; my sister is getting her art projects done. My friends in Oklahoma have suffered terrible losses. My students are looking for jobs and my daughter is getting ready to graduate high school.

In spite of all the difficulties we face - medical, economic, emotional and spiritual - we live in a world that is governed by God. God give us life and life itself - in the midst of the dirt, setbacks and suffering in our daily 'grind' - is still beautiful. To touch, to feel, to hear, to see, to love is a gift. To cultivate relationships - to rid our world of loneliness - is our general marching order as human beings. To cultivate a relationship with God, who reaches out to us; to cultivate relationships with each other and even with the rest of creation is that for which we were designed.

So I walk in the yard. Pray. Drink coffee.

Coffee is good.

Life is good.

Life is beautiful.

Turning the page on a new chapter

2010-05-07T06:27:00.002-05:00

The first and second weeks of May are always interesting weeks for me. As a college professor, these weeks mark several ends and new beginnings. It is the end of the Spring semester and it is also graduation time. Students take their "final" final exams and then turn the page for a new chapter in his or her life.

What is true for academia is true for us in the world as well.

We reach forks in the road, run into new opportunities or are simply faced with decisions that will change our lives. This doesn't mean that we "leave behind" or "forget about" what has happened before, but it does mean that as we accept these opportunities or make these decisions, our lives will change. Some of us don't do so well with change. We like things the way they are - predictable, routine and 'safe' - but that reality is false. It means that in our refusal to allow for change, we will not grow, we will not mature. Although we will age, we will not learn.

On the other hand, to face change is to grow. Growth, however, is never easy or painless. Growth extracts a price, either temporarily or permanently. Jesus says, "Take up your cross and follow me!" (Mark 8:34, Luke 9:23) It is an imperative, not an option. Inherent within that call however is the obvious call to suffering. Bearing the cross is neither easy nor is it neat. To bear the cross is a messy, life changing ordeal. It frightens us. It causes pain and it changes us. Nevertheless, it is the only way.

Sadly, there are many who insist on making Christianity a game to play. They want all the love and acceptance with none of the cross-bearing or pain. They flirt with the cross without actually bearing the cross. They crave forgiveness but have no desire to forgive anyone else. They have become the hypocrites that Jesus roundly denounces in Matthew 23. They avoid true change at all costs. They are not only disingenuous to God, but to themselves as well.

I've been there. Maybe we all have been there. But I don't want that in my life and I pray you do not want that in yours. I want to grow. With the Spirit's help, I know that we can. The truth is, we never arrive - God is always growing us, asking us to take up new challenges and turning the page on new chapters in life.

So here is my new chapter...

• My oldest daughter graduates high school and enters her own new chapter in college. Our relationship will change, but that's OK... it must as she grows into being the woman God has called her to be.

• I am accepting a call to lead a small church as a part-time pastor. Together we will face the future God has for us.

• I am working with other student groups at the University now, both athletes and scholars. We will be getting missional together for Christ.

• I am finishing my thesis this summer and looking on to the next writing projects.

• I am seeing some students off to bright futures, while forging new relationships with new, bright and eager freshman minds.

God is good and He's changing me. I know there will be difficult paths to tread. I know that I will experience suffering and privation. But that's OK - my master did it before me.

Grace.

The Last Day

2010-04-29T09:38:00.003-05:00

Today is the last day of classes at HPU for the semester.

Whew.

It has been a long semester, with several mountains and valleys. But life is like that, isn't it? I have attained several of my personal and professional goals, and yet I have watched as several goals have alluded me. My students have likewise realized or not realized their goals. At times the classroom learning environment - especially in theology, where we talk about personal beliefs - can be like a roller coaster ride. People are alternately thrilled and nauseated by the experience!

In all of this "realization," "attainment" and "education" process, however, I realize that there is one important intangible - relationship. I have been making relationships marked by a passion for Christ. I have been making relationships marked by a love of learning. I have been making relationships marked by grace. I have been making relationships that will last years beyond our semester together in the classroom and for that I am grateful.

In that I have been making relationships, I realize how important relationships are. We simply can't take them for granted. Relationships must be nurtured and cultivated or they will die. Relationships must be pruned or they will over grow healthy boundaries and become a liability rather than an encouragement. I get it now as I've never gotten it before. I want my relationships to thrive and be full of love, grace and beauty.

Jesus was the master of relationships. He understood the dynamics of interpersonal relations. I love the Gospel of John for precisely those reasons. He knew people, he knew how to love, but He also understood the need for boundaries and when boundaries had to be torn down. Above all, He dispensed love, forgiveness and grace throughout His walking ministry on this earth. He was as loving, kind and forthright with the Samaritan Woman in John 4 as He was with Nicodemus the Pharisee in John 3. In Luke 10 He relays what it means to love your neighbor as yourself in the story of the "Good Samaritan"... In the passion narratives, He asks the Father to "forgive them, for they know not what they do." Jesus knew people, Jesus is love. He is the master of relationships.

My last class of the semester meets today - doxology. I am taking them to the Sonic Drive-In. We will celebrate the semester and the bond of our relationship. Let me encourage you to celebrate and encourage those in your life whom you love and cherish. It's what God does.

Earth Day Thoughts...

2010-04-24T07:35:00.003-05:00

This past Thursday, April 22, was celebrated by many people as "Earth Day." BGCT Theologian-in-Residence Dr. Jim Denison recently commented on the phenomenon, which was then received with great criticism by his readers. Interestingly, I understand a bit of why his 'positive' understanding of this event was received so negatively by a handful of the folks that read his blog. So in light of this issue and my strange desire to join the fray and take some of the heat off of my brother, let me take my own stand.

First, Wikipedia has the following entry for Earth Day:

Earth Day is a day designed to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's environment. It was founded by U.S. Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in held on April 22, 1970 and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year. Earth Day is celebrated in spring in the Northern Hemisphere and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Many communities celebrate Earth Week, an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues. While the first Earth Day was focused entirely on the United States, an organization launched by Denis Hayes—the original national coordinator in 1970—took it international in 1990 and organized events in 141 nations. Earth Day is now observed each year on April 22 in virtually every country on Earth. Earth Day is now coordinated globally by the Earth Day Network. World Environment Day, celebrated on June 5 in a different nation every year, is the principal United Nations environmental observance.

There is a website as well - http://www.earthday.org/- that seeks to inform others about the issue. The issue, as stated above, is environmental concern. The late 1960s and 70s saw a massive escalation of pollutants in the Northern hemisphere, particularly in the industrialized nations. Now this was not new, pollution comes hand in hand with industrialization for the most part. The depth, breadth and impact of the problem however had not been assessed until late in the twentieth century. Then the verdict of the environmental scientists came out: pollution is bad and something should be done. So government steps in and regulation occurs. Thus, most human beings would agree that pollution is bad and that steps should be taken to control or eradicate it. For the last 40 years, however, scientists have been divided over the impact of humankind on the Earth and the issue of pollution with the side effect of global warming.

So what are the problems for the church and what position should Christians affirm on the issue?

1) Earth Day as government sponsored day to encourage environmental responsibility is not a bad thing. Christians affirm that the Triune God created the earth, sun, moon and stars and all that is in it. Indeed, Christians affirm that God appointed Adam and Eve as stewards of creation, commanding them to protect and cultivate it. It is that for which we are created in Genesis 1 and 2. Paul, in his letter to the Romans describes that the sin of Adam has even corrupted creation. Paul states:

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. (Romans 8:18-22 NASB95)

Christians have a responsibility, as human beings, to be aware of their responsibilities as stewards of creation, by not only cultivating, but also by protecting creation. Indeed, Biblical Christians should be at the front of the environmental movement for all intents and purposes as part of the redemptive strategy of God.

Then why are Christians so divided over the topic? Two words: bad theology. One interpretation of the end times have left Christians with the residual thought that the degradation of creation is a 'sign' of the end and that this degradation must be left to run its course, or else Jesus won't return. Another interpretation of the King James translation of Genesis 1 and 2 asserts that human beings are to 'subdue' creation - as if it were a wild beast - in order to force it to serve human ends, whatever they may be. The worst theological spin on creation however, is what I call "the lazy view," which simply states, "If God is going to destroy the heavens and the earth by fire in the end, before the coming of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21-22), then why should it matter what human beings do to creation? This is simply a poor, uniformed interpretation of an even poorer translation of the original Greek text.

No. All human beings, but especially those who have a developed theological sense of creation - as Christians should - must be aware of our dependence upon, and responsibility toward our co-creation, the earth.

2) On the other hand, elevating Earth Day to the status of worship, as some in the neo-Pagan or Wicca movement have done, is abominable sin. Christians do not worship the earth nor the creatures in it. This neo-Pagan (pagan, meaning 'rustic', in reference to the simple life of rural folk in ancient Greece, but evolving to mean 'uneducated non-Christian) movement has turned Earth Day into a regular liturgical event, a sacred day, on par with the summer and winter solstices. Sadly, this understanding of Earth Day is becoming more and more pervasive.

Can Christians ignore the earth? No. We have a mandate to be stewards of the earth, our environment. God has plans to redeem the earth in the eschaton, just as God is redeeming us. According to my mentor Stanley Grenz, God, in "making all things new" will be renewing the heaven and the earth, not destroying the earth itself, but destroying the degradation - sin, pollution, destruction and death - and in the process, bringing the Earth again to its edenic destiny. No, let's give Jim Denison a break. He's getting it right. If you don't believe me, just look at the words to Folliott Pierpont's timeless Christian hymn:

For the beauty of the earth

For the Glory of the skies,

For the love which from our birth

Over and around us lies:

Refrain:

'Lord of all, to Thee we raise

this our grateful hymn of praise.

Alternative refrain:

Christ, our God, to Thee we raise

This, our sacrifice of praise.

For the beauty of each hour

Of the day and of the night,

Hill and vale and tree and flow'r

Sun and Moon and stars of light

Refrain

For the joy of human love,

Brother, sister, parent, child.

Friends on earth and friends above

For all gentle thoughts and mild.

Refrain

For each perfect gift of Thine

To our race so freely given.

Graces human and divine

Flow'rs of earth and buds of heav'n.

[For the Beauty of the Earth (1864) Folliott S. Pierpont]

When God Calls Us, He Calls All of Us!

2010-04-16T06:24:00.002-05:00

As He was going along by the Sea of Galilee, He saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net in the sea; for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed Him. Going on a little farther, He saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. Immediately He called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants, and went away to follow Him.

(Mark 1:16-20 NASB95)

I had a great conversation with a friend of mine the other day about ministry. The question he had for me was, "If I can't preach, then can I still do ministry?" The answer, of course, is yes. It's yes because God calls all of who we are to ministry. Preaching is simply one part of ministry. Teaching is a part of ministry. Encouragement is a part of ministry. Healing is a part of ministry. Leadership is a part of ministry. And the list goes on... If God has called you to ministry, then he has called all of you. I am reminded of the passage above from the gospel of Mark. Which part of those fishermen's lives do you think God did not call to serve him? He called each of them to lay their lives down to follow him. They did not stop being fishermen, but they became fishermen for Him. They began to 'fish for men'.

When we lay down our lives to follow Him, He picks them up and uses every aspect of who we are for the sake of His Kingdom. The question is, will be attentive enough to His voice to minister in the manner He desires, rather than what we think is right? Now before you start making assumptions, let me say that I am constantly evaluating not only what God wants me to do, but how He wants me to do it.

Go ahead, ask God today how He desires to work through you for the glory of His Kingdom. I think you will be surprised to see just how God can work through the words, the actions and small kindnesses. There are times when we are convinced that 'our' ministry can only occur under certain circumstances with specific gifts - it's just not true though. Our God is bigger than that, and when we start to dictate the manner in which ministry can be done, then it is no longer God who is doing it; and the truth is, ministry done in our own power, is not ministry at all. Ministry done in our own power, by our own desires pacifies our own ego and does not build the kingdom. I have had to learn that lesson, and sadly, I've had to repeatedly learn it.

Go ahead, ask God today how he desires to work with you and watch as the Kingdom grows around you...