Dictionaries, Babies, Wisdom

I have always been the kind of person who desired more knowledge. I have a fascination with information. I love to read, and make every effort to be a good student of life. Unfortunately this mentality didn't really surface until I graduated high school! I embraced the idea that the more information I pumped into my brain the more wisdom I would obtain.

This mentality is not evil in design, but  I believe has become a giant stumbling block. Especially for  those attempting to follow Christ and live lives that bring Glory to Jesus. We believe that we need to pump information from a pastor, a book, or other sources. We call it "getting feed" and we think through that we will obtain more wisdom that it will help us to be pure and holy. And for many this can lead to frustration with others especially the church, because that preacher isn't deep enough. This small group doesn't dig into and embrace theology. They don't even know what the word exegesis means!

Again, I am not advocating that we do not need to study and grow . But I would suggest we pause for a moment and really think about wisdom. Let's illustrate it this way. How does a baby learn to walk? Does he or she learn by studying adults? Or maybe by watching movies where the physics of motion are explained? NO, they start by rolling over, and then sitting up, and then crawling, and then falling. They start with one muscle group and then gradually add another until they have all the motions and strengths needed to walk.

So maybe one of the neglected keys to obtaining wisdom is simply being obedient to what we already know! Strengthening one muscle group at a time until we can add another and another. OBEDIENCE=WISDOM! So if you are a student, growing in wisdom could look as simple as respecting your parents today. Adults maybe it is respecting your spouse, our giving God control of your finances, or developing a daily prayer life.

Don't miss the blessing of simple obedience! It really is the foundation of growth.

Complainers, Blamers, and Sloths!

Wow, weeks since a post! I trust your holidays went well, and hopefully you have eluded the crazy flu that has been going around! Our holidays were busy, and then our family was decommissioned for a few weeks as we all got punched in the face with sickness! We are back on track now and posts will become consistent as I have lots of ramblings in my head and this helps.

Many of the posts to follow in the near future will have to do with a common theme I will introduce today. I can't tell you how many conversations I have with people regarding churches some pertaining to church culture, others focusing on church growth, and others that are just flat out disgruntled with anything resembling the institution of church. I personally have said and also have heard others say things that are just flat out crazy talk!

 It seems like everyone has an opinion of what should be different, how it could be better, what's wrong, we need bigger, we need smaller, we need more songs, we need less songs, we need better preaching, shorter preaching, relevant preaching, it's a big ship...change takes time, its a little ship we can change tomorrow, and on and on goes the list. I have concluded that at least for me those comments, some of which I have said tend to be based on my personal preferences or experiences. And I don't consider myself a highly intelligent individual, so I have deduced that for me to base what church should or should not be on myself is reckless at best. So as I hit this hot topic during the next couple of weeks, I am going to try to avoid personal preference and ideas. I also don't want to point fingers or suggest that others are doing it wrong.

The bottom line is this, CHURCH CULTURE NEEDS TO CHANGE. People are leaving the church at a staggering rate, churches are closing daily, the church has lost its voice in the public realm, and on and on goes the list. I have not found to many people that disagree with the above statement. Many agree but don't know what can be done, others claim that that state of the church is directly related to the end times. While I don't fully disagree with the later, I don't ever want to become complacent because I have put an excuse in place.

So what do we do? Where do we look for an example? The answer...JESUS! Jesus changed the culture, Jesus is still changing the culture, I mean Jesus has been on the cover of Newsweek and Time magazine and we don't even have a picture of Him. And you say well Jesus was the Messiah of course He was able to change the culture and society. Didn't He empower the disciples to change current church culture in the book of Acts? Didn't Paul also tell us that the same power the raised Christ from the dead lives in us? If that's true we need to quit complaining about the way things are and start changing to be more like Christ!

In the posts that follow I will share some key characteristics of Jesus that I think are vital in understanding who He was and how He influenced society. The importance of these is crucial since we are commanded to be like minded with Christ.  It's going to be a ride, I have been challenged and know that the beatings will continue and I hope you decide to regularly join in so we can grow together!And for those of you that are grammatically minded, see I told you I was not very intelligent!

Jesus...Vocabulary...Change?

Has Jesus changed His vocabulary? Is that possible?

As Christians we are supposed to have Christ living in us, speaking through us. So does our vocabulary match what we see Him using in the Bible?

Approximate # of time these words appear in the KJV Bible. (and to dismiss the complaints now, I used the KJV because those numbers are the easiest to access.)

LORD- 7,946
GOD- 4,444
JESUS- 983
LOVE- 551
ANOINTED- 98 - Do an interesting word study, study all words with the root anoint, after the age of the prophets, priests, and kings.
ANOINTING- 28
REVIVE- 8
REVIVAL- 0

In no way am I saying that the words on the bottom are wrong and should never be used. I do question looking at many main stream ministries and listening to brothers and sisters who are learning from these teachers, it would appear that Jesus has changed His vocab. Is that possible? Hebrews 13:8?

If His passions and vocab were going to change, why didn't He give us the appropriate "new" vocab, before He completed His word?

Scissors, Bangs, and Grace...

So if you are like me, from time to time you have struggled with understanding grace. It is foreign that we would receive something that we do not deserve and we can't earn no matter how hard we try.

Through the antics of my ever entertaining 4 year old, God again showed me what a beautiful thing His grace is and how much He loves us as sons and daughters!

Recently my wife was doing some work while Gabby(our 4 year old) was working on some craft projects of her own. The projects involved cutting, pasting, coloring, all the normal stuff. At some point she became bored and scampered off to the play room, somehow managing to escape with the scissors!

Not to long later Alyson overheard my 10 year old daughter Haly enter the room and ask "why are you doing that Gabby?" The response given was "I wanted to cut bangs, don't tell mommy!" Haly responded as any great older sibling would "I think we have to tell mommy."

So as the two of them came into the room Alyson could no doubt see the look of fear in Gabby's eyes and Gabby responded "don't be mad mommy." To which,  Alyson responded "I am not mad, but I am going to need to fix it." Gabby knowing that she was unable to fix her hair herself willing let Alyson finish cutting her bangs.

Alyson did instruct Gabby that she shouldn't cut her hair again, and the response was classic..."but mommy what if I forget?" My wife being an awesome mother some how was able to keep it together and responded, if you forget we will fix it again.

What an awesome picture of how Jesus loves us even when we make messes of our lives. He says to us I am not mad but you can't fix your life. Only I can because of the work that I did for you on the cross. We don't deserve it but we are His sons and daughters and He loves us. And when we forget and do it again, He still loves us! 

Jesus, yellow skinny jeans, and game calls!

So post one, my identity crisis! Yes, I own yellow and pink skinny pants and even a mustard cardigan, while also owning enough camouflage to outfit a militia. I like blowing on a steamy cup of coffee with my hipster friends, while day dreaming about blowing into my game calls in the middle of nowhere! My justification…I have rural AND urban camouflage! I am who I am, I can embrace the confusion and live an extraordinary life!

I work in a church in a county where there is a church on every corner. With that said I can safely say that the church has an identity crisis! I talk to people all the time who are frustrated with the differences in church culture, others are so frustrated because the church is not what they think it should be. To the later, I would say are you what you should be? 

This blog will not be about pointing out the faults within the body of Christ, but more a call for an understanding that yes indeed…WE ARE JACKED UP! Jesus is not surprised, the bible acknowledges that even the early church had issues, and we see at the end of the story that churches have issues until the day of Christ’s return.

So together we will try to embrace the identity crisis, acknowledge that we are different and celebrate that the church has both urban and rural camouflage. 

Together hopefully we can encourage each other the way Paul encouraged what could possibly be the most jack up church in history…

“Finally, brothers, rejoice. Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.”  

-Paul’s conclusion to his letters to the church in Corinth.