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Archive for the ‘Formation’ Category

Commitment That Costs

Posted in Church, Family, Formation on November 6, 2009| 2 Comments »

Wednesday I had the privilege of sharing a devotion with the Board of Directors for an association to which I belong and I thought it appropriate to share my thoughts here as well.  So, to fellow board members who might be reading today, please forgive me for the repeat.

As I read Luke 14, I find that Jesus offers a lesson on what he expects of us who call ourselves Christ followers – believers in the way.  I have often struggled with this passage (you can read it here).  Jesus’ command to forsake (even “hate” in some translations) our families has been hard for me to understand.  I have always felt that my relationship with God should be my first priority and that my relationship with my family should be a close second.  But Jesus uses some pretty strong language suggesting that we have to completely forsake our families in order to follow him.

But as I meditated on this passage this week, I began to realize that Jesus was attempting to make a strong point both to his listeners and to us, that following him will be costly and that we should stop and count the cost before committing to follow him.  Now you may be thinking – well yeah, what is so hard to understand about that?

But I think what hit me between the eyes in this meditation is that Jesus was not just making a point, he was giving a warning.  We tend to “sterilize” Jesus words sometimes, but I think we loose the impact when we do that.  What Jesus was saying was that we need to really be sure we are ready to commit everything we have and are to him.  I think what he was saying was this, “Now wait a minute before you just jump on board because everyone is doing it.  I don’t need half-hearted, fair-weather followers.  In order for God’s plan to work, I need followers who are all-in, sold out, no turning back kind of followers.  If that is not you – then go follow someone else.”

While this may seem harsh, imagine with me for a moment, what would the church look like if everyone in it had this level of commitment?  What would our world look like if our churches were filled with believers committed to this level?

I dream of living in that world!

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Stranded On An Island With a Bible

Posted in Church, Formation, Leadership on November 5, 2009| 4 Comments »

What if you were stranded as a child on a desolate island with only the Bible to read?  Now imagine that after 20 years you were rescued from the island and you found your way into your church.  Would what you had come to believe from the Bible be consistent with what you experience in your church?

This is the scenario Francis Chan presents in the first few pages of his new book, Forgotten God.

I have to admit, I am not sure what I would see.  I say that because I have been so conditioned by my culture and my upbringing in the Baptist church that I don’t think I can say, without doubt, that there would be no inconsistencies – in fact, I think I could name a few.

So where does that leave us?  I think it should give us reason for pause.  Moving forward, I think we should:

  • Weigh everything we do against scripture – if there is no justification that can be found in the Bible for what we are doing, maybe, just maybe we should jettison it.
  • Bend what we do to meet scripture – not the other way around
  • Approach each issue with humility not arrogance – make sure your heart is beating in unison with the heart of Jesus
  • Err on the side of grace – being judgmental and obstinate has not served us well to date
  • Love – just love!

 

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A Triangle Has Three Sides

Posted in Church, Community, Formation, Missions on November 4, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I just finished Brian McLaren’s book, Finding Our Way Again: The Return of the  Ancient Practices.  I have read other works by McLaren and have never been disappointed in what he says or the impact of what his words have on my spiritual walk.  I encourage you to look into his books.

This particular book is one in a series published by Thomas Nelson covering spiritual practices.  I have mentioned spiritual practices or disciplines here before.  While the thought may be foreign to some of us, the use of different spiritual practices to draw us closer to God is as old as Christianity itself.  At any rate, in this book, McLaren focuses on three categories of practices that he suggests (and I agree) are inseparable – using a diagram of a triangle to illustrate the connection.  On one corner of the triangle we find the contemplative elements (meditation, prayer, etc.).  On another corner we find communal elements (worship, communion, fellowship, etc.).  And on the third corner we find the missional elements (service, outward focus, etc.).  The point that McLaren makes is that we cannot be complete without all three areas.

The tendency for most Christians is to strive in one or two areas to the detriment of the others.  We have to be balanced.  Contemplative elements without missional elements becomes pharisaical introversion but missional elements without the contemplative and communal elements become secular socialism.

God called each of us to a relationship with God.  The result of that growing relationship will have dramatic effects on everyone around us.  McLaren says that if we don’t have all three elements, we are incomplete and “sub-Christian.”

I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be sub-Christian.  I want my devotional, contemplative life to flow into my communal life in relating to and serving along side other believers.  These two elements should then naturally flow into service or missional efforts in the world around me.

Just remember – God did not call us out of boredom – God has a plan.  God expects us to seek to grow spiritually, grow closer to other followers of the way and to be light in a dark world.  It all goes together.

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Your Own Personal Jesus

Posted in Formation, Grace on November 2, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I am going to show my age and my eclectic music tastes here but I was listening to an old song from Depeche Mode today titled “Personal Jesus.”  Depeche Mode is far from a Christian group, but the song has a distinct Christian message.  It starts by telling us to “Reach out and touch faith.”  I think all of us want a faith we can touch and feel.  But the message of the song is more along the lines of Jesus’ personal care for each of us.  Jesus cares about us individually – he knows us individually.  That is an awesome truth and one we should never forget.

However, what we tend to do is look at Jesus not as personal but as customizable.  We want to make Jesus fit our mold – not change ourselves to fit his.  We want a Jesus we can call on to protect us, to make us feel better, but when it comes to actually listening to and applying the teachings of Jesus, we tend to gloss over those things.

My challenge to you today is to make Jesus personal but don’t try to customize Jesus to fit your needs and wants.

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The Unknowable God

Posted in Formation, Hope, Motivational on October 29, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I am still reading in Romans 11.  Today I got to the end of the chapter and ran across this verse and I have been rejoicing in it ever since.  Do this for me – stop reading right here, just for a minute, and click the link in green and read the verse and then come back here and read the rest of the post.

Now just let that verse settle for a minute . . .

There is no way we can ever fully understand God.  We talked about this earlier this week.  I learned early in my college career, a very frustrating lesson.  I really like to have things nailed down and really understand things, but I learned early on that in a lot of areas, the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know.  Now that may not bother you, but for me, it has been a lesson that frustrated me at first.

But when I understand this truth about God, I have to stop and praise my Creator!  God is so magnificent, so big, so beyond anything we can understand, that it makes me realize there is nothing I can encounter that God cannot handle.

God is so awe inspiring that I don’t have to worry about anything – nothing!  In fact, simply thinking about how overwhelmingly unknowable God is shrinks my problems and concerns.

How big is God to you?

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Does Hearing Lead To Action?

Posted in Formation on October 28, 2009| 1 Comment »

I had the unique opportunity to hear Francis Chan, a pastor in Simi Valley, CA, preach yesterday at a conference in Arlington.  He is an exceptional communicator and did a great job.  One of the things he said in one of his sermons has haunted me ever since he said it.  He talked about how we often pray to hear a word from God.  We set aside time to pray and read in hopes that we will hear from God.  But then he asked the question, “When we hear a word from God, do we do anything about it?”

He used an illustration of playing a game of Simon Says.  He reminded us that when you play Simon Says, all those playing must do what the leader says (emphasis on the word DO).  However, when we read in the Bible what Jesus taught, we have taken the approach that we should memorize it but little more.  We can quote scripture of what Jesus said, but has it impacted the way we live?

I am still wrestling with this question.  How about you?  When you hear from God, do you do anything about it?

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It’s All or Nothing

Posted in Formation, Motivational on October 27, 2009| 1 Comment »

One of my favorite authors of all time is Thomas Merton.  He has been described as one of the most influential spiritual masters of the twentieth century.  He was a monk, a poet and a writer.

I ran across this quote yesterday and it has had me thinking ever since:  “A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all.  No man can serve two masters.  Your life is shaped by the end you live for.  You are made in the image of what you desire.”

“A life is either all spiritual or not spiritual at all” – Wow!  That hits home for me.  I think we all have a tendency to compartmentalize our lives – our spiritual lives are lived at church, our family lives are lived at home and our work lives or school lives are lived there.  But Merton reminds us that it is all or nothing.

Is your job spiritual?  How about your home or family life – is it spiritual?  God wants all of you not just part of you.

I challenge you today to spend some time contemplating your life.  Is it spiritual (focused on God – serving God) or is it non-spiritual (focused on yourself)?

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Lesson On a Mini-Bike

Posted in Formation, Humor, Motivational on October 26, 2009| 1 Comment »

One of my earliest memories on a motorized vehicle was when I was about 6 years old or so.  My dad had found a mini-bike.  Now for you folks not familiar with such things, a mini-bike is a small two-wheeled invention with a five horse or so motor mounted on it – no gears, just a throttle and a brake.  This one was red and it had black handle grips and a black seat – the seat was a piece of plywood with 3″ foam on top and covered in black shag carpet – yeah, real shag baby.  It was stylish.

The brake was a foot lever that when pushed would make a steel plate press against the tire – yep, that’s how you stopped (in theory anyway).  My first time on that contraption was in the alley behind our house.  Now a key point to the story comes at this point – at the west end of our alley was a street but at the east end, the alley made a T and there was a row of houses backed up to the alley, each with a back fence (you may be guessing what comes next but don’t get ahead of me).

My dad pull started the engine, I got on and away I went, straight down the alley.  Things were progressing well until I realized I was going to have to slow down at the end of the alley.  A minor point omitted to this point, and unbeknownst to me at the time, is that the throttle had a tendency to stick.  I let off the throttle but nothing happened, I maintained my break-neck speed (probably about 20 miles per hour).  I began to push the brake with my foot but it wasn’t helping.

I got to the end of the alley and went head-on into a fence.  Oddly enough, that stopped me.  I missed a telephone pole by inches so I walked away with only a deep scrape on my knee from glancing off the pole.  But the fence didn’t fare so well – I had knocked it down.  I am sure my dad spent the better part of a day repairing the fence so it was fine.  But I was left with a fear of that mini-bike and a scar that I carried on my knee for years to come.

I quickly got over my fear, but the scar remained.

I am reminded today that we all have scars – all kinds of scars – physical, emotional and maybe even spiritual.  But here is the challenge for today, don’t let the scars hold you back, use them to remind you of the lessons you learn along the journey – let those lessons make you stronger.

God wants to use all of you to make a difference – scars and all!

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Don’t Be a Pharisee

Posted in Church, Formation, Grace on October 23, 2009| Leave a Comment »

We’ve all known people like this – loud, overly confident, always bragging about accomplishments they have made or how much they know – arrogance is all around us.  To be blunt, I don’t really like being around arrogant people – they annoy me, especially the ones who are arrogant about their faith or their Christian walk.  I have said this before, but if you ever encounter a person who suggests they have everything worked out and can explain all the mysteries of God – you need to run; get as far away from them as you can.

I don’t think God takes delight in arrogance.  In fact, that is what got the Pharisees in trouble.  The fact that they were so sure of what they believed is the very downfall that kept them from recognizing Jesus as the son of God.  I don’t want to be a Pharisee!  I want to remain open to what God is trying to do in and through me.  So this requires humility.

Humility is hard for all of us – more so for some than others.  Our society teaches us that it is ALL ABOUT ME!  I have rights and you can’t tell me what to do.  We are so programed to believe that the world revolves around us that it is sometimes hard to remember that God is in control – not us.

If we are truly going to follow God, we must do so out of a sense of humility – humility that understands God is in charge and others are just as important as us.  We have to remember that we do not have the corner on the market for understanding God.  We have to remain open to the fact that we can really only understand as much about God as God reveals to us.

Remember that God is God and we are not – don’t be a Pharisee.

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Be Full

Posted in Formation, Motivational on October 22, 2009| Leave a Comment »

I was reading in Romans 11 this morning of how Paul was considered the Apostle to the Gentiles or the non-Jewish folk of the time.  He talked here about how his hope was that through the conversion of the non-Jewish people, that the Jews (his very people) would be jealous and thus want to turn to Jesus as well.

But here is what caught my attention today, the word that will stay with me and hopefully form me to be more like Jesus today is “fulfillment.”  Paul said in verse 12 that through their reconciliation to Jesus, they would be fulfilled.

How many people do you know that are looking for fulfillment?  Are you looking for fulfillment?  Do you turn to your job to fill that need for validation and feeling full?  Do you turn to your spouse for that feeling of fulfillment?

The Bible teaches that true fulfillment – feeling complete and valued – can only come from God.  Why is that?  I believe it is because in reality, when this life is over, all that really matters is how we followed Jesus.  What did you do with your life to make an impact for God’s kingdom.

The only thing that really brings fulfillment is a life lived for Jesus – fleshed out in how we love others – that’s the full life.

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