Quiet times

Sometimes we have a tendency to try to find a formula to get to God. Or think that we need to be religious in our prayer life. Praying with the old thee's and thou's but what God wants from us is to be real with Him. Listen to this from Matthew 6: Here's what I want you to do: find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense His grace. With all the hustle and bustle of daily life, the holidays, kids and everything else; this is a challenge. But I have found personally that these are some of the most rewarding, sweet moments in my relationship with God. I know it's hard to do this, but make the effort and watch God show up

Musings

It has been such a hectic last few months with the holidays and the adoption and everything else that has been going on. It has been good to get back to some sort of normalcy. I normally try to read the bible through intentionally every year. Sometimes I try to read the NT twice through. This morning I was reading Matthew. No, I didn't start in Matthew, I am actually ending with Matthew this year. But I came to Matthew 5 and couldn't go any further. The first few verses jumped off the page. I am reading the Message this time through and here is what it says; "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and His rule. You're blessed when you feel you have lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. You're blessed when you're content with just who you are - no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.." There is only one more day left in this year. When I look back I see a lot of accomplishments, but I also see a lot of things left undone. There have been those moments when I felt like I was at the end of my rope, there have been those days when I felt like I was losing those things dearest to me, there have been days when I looked in the mirror and wondered if I really liked who I saw there looking back at me. If we are honest I think most of us struggle with these thoughts at times. But according to God's Word, that is the point where blessings can occur.

Elections Over

Last night as I watched the election results for president one thing stood out more than anything else to me. This country is deeply divided. As far as I could tell there were only a few states that were overwhelming victories for either candidate. As a country it will be hard to move forward with such deep divisions in place. The bible teaches us that there is power in unity and that kingdoms cannot stand when they are divided. I prayed hard last night as the returns came in. Asking God to have mercy on this nation for thinking that the economy is the number one issue. If the economy is more important than protecting the life of unborn babies, or more important than protecting marriage between one man and one woman then we as a nation have lost sight of who we were founded to be. This nation was founded on biblical principles. We have lost sight of this. Our priorities are mixed up. We must honor God first. Now that the election is over and we have a new president, our role as Christians is to pray for those who are in authority over us. We must pray for this administration. Pray that their hearts would be in God's hands. Pray that they would stand for biblical principles. Pray, repent and turn to God as a people.

Election Day

Today we face one of the most important elections in U.S. History. Sometimes we can get caught up though n the things that we see and miss the unseen things. We can focus so much on the economy, and the war in Iraq and other things that are tangible. But in God's kingdom things work differently. God says that righteousness exalts a nation. God says that if we as His people will humble ourselves, repent and turn from our wicked ways that He will heal our land. This election day as you cast your vote for president, senator, congressman or any other ballot issue, pray. Pray that God will show you who and how to vote. If we will exalt God first, His will will be accomplished.

Lonely

There are times in our lives when God's desire for us is to come to the wilderness or desert in order to get closer to Him. What that translates into is that sometimes we must leave the crowd, the familiar things, the ordinary daily routine and get away to find God. We are the body of Christ and we need one another to hold each other up, the strengthen one another. But their are times when we need to be strengthened in the Lord. King David did this when he spent time all alone on a hillside with only his sheep. Jesus did this may times during His ministry when he withdrew to solitary places. We grow together, with one another. Bill Johnson writes on this: God brings moments into our lives when we have to stand alone in difficulty and testing. God will even blind the eyes and deafen the ears of our closest friends in those moments so we can learn to minister to ourselves. He is talking about strengthening ourselves in the Lord. This means that there are those times in our lives when God wants us to come directly to Him. To spend time with Him and seek Him only. This is hard for many people. We need our friendships, we need our mentors, we need our families. But more than anything else we need God Himself. He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother, the Holy Spirit is more wise than any man, and when we truly trust God, He is our Abba Father and we are His children. So when those moments come when you feel lonely; go to God. Seek Him. Spend time strengthening yourself in the Lord.

Christian Idol

One of the reasons that I think God seems distant sometimes is because He wants to topple our idols. Most of the time we want a God who more like a butler or slave then the God of the Universe. We think that it is God's job to make us happy. That He would never want to drive us out into the wilderness, but the Bible says that it was the Holy Spirit that drove Jesus out into the desert to be tempted. The god many people have created in their imagination would never demand repentance, but instead tells us to just focus on the positive things in our lives. God would never scold us but would only speak kindly. That He is more interested in making us nice, not holy. That He isn't as concerned with our character as He is in our feeling good about ourselves. That He is more interested in us living a full fulfilling life than helping us to know Christ's sufferings. But that is a false image of God that has been created in many Christians imaginations. We sometimes worship a created god that makes us feel better about ourselves and demands nothing from us than the true God of the universe. So sometimes God seems distant, which He never truly is, in order that this false image would be destroyed in our lives. God knows what we truly desire, He understands what we need, and knows how best to help us. But before we can meet the true God, the false God must be abandoned. If we will not abandon it, God will destroy it for us. And between the time of that destruction and the time when the true God re-enters our lives, it will feel like God has left us.

Good News

This is going to sound weird but nevertheless; it is true. What I am about to say goes against our desires and our hopes. The feeling that God is absent from our lives is good because it means that we have a relationship and that we are not following after an image or an idol. Anthony Bloom in his book Beginning to pray writes this: "If we could mechanically draw Him into an encounter, force him to meet us, simply because we have chosen this moment to meet Him, there would be no relationship and no encounter. We can do that with an image, with the imagination, or with the various idols we can put in front of us instead of God; we can do nothing of the sort with the living God, any more than we can do it with a living person. A relationship must begin and develop in mutual freedom." The reality is that God is never absent from our lives. Every part of his creation from the raindrop to the sunset is full of His glory, and there is nowhere in any part of the universe where He is not there. But God longs to be sought after. To be chased so to speak. God cannot be manipulated but sometimes he will play hide and seek with us. I don't know about you, but I enjoy the chase!

Where is God?

Have you ever had one of those days in which no matter how close you try to get to God, it just doesn't seem to be working? You spend time worshipping and just waiting for God to move in your life. You lay face down on the floor hoping, praying that God will speak just one word into your spirit. That He will change you life just slightly. That he will encourage and lift you up. But nothing seems to happen. Mother Teresa experienced the same feelings. She wrote this in her journal: Lord, my God, who am I that you should forsake me? I call, I cling, I want, and there is no answer! Most of the time it seems like this happens when we need God most. We may be going through a tough problem in our marriage or another relationship. We may have lost our job. Death's hollow knock comes rapping on our door. We sinned in such a way that we feel like we blew everything. We experience financial difficulties; our stocks and mutual funds lose their value. It's a never ending list of problems and concerns that shake our world so we go running or crawling to God but...................... nothing but silence. There is a verse in the Bible where the Son of God experiences the same kind of feelings, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!?" Even Jesus experienced these same type of feelings. Theologically we have tried to explain this verse in so many ways, but why does it matter. In that moment Jesus felt like God had turned His back on Him. A feeling that we too share sometimes. God, My God, where are you?!

Reasonable God

One of the trendy saying's you hear in church circles is that we need to be relevant to the culture. But sometimes because of our desire to be relevant we strip down the gospels and deflate the power of God to a more reasonable level. A level that we can handle, a level that we can explain to others. One of the questions that I hear a lot is simply, "Why?" If there is one thing I have learned in following God is that God many times asks us to change something, or to do something, or even to say something to someone. But we don't want to obey until we know why He is asking us. Then if we suspect the reason He is asking us, we judge whether or not it is reasonable for us to listen to Him and obey. So what has happened is many churches have lost the power of God, the miraculous, because they cannot live with the "why" question unanswered and therefore cannot handle the mystery of God. Philosopher Soren Kierkegaard says this, "Woe to the person who smoothly, flirtatiously, commandingly, convincingly preaches some soft, sweet something which is supposed to be Christianity! Woe to the person who makes miracles reasonable. Woe to the person who betrays and breaks the mystery of faith, distorts it into public wisdom, because he takes away the possibility of offense!..... Oh the time wasted in this enormous work of making Christianity so reasonable, and in trying to make it so relevant!" Christianity or God is not meant to be reasoned away and explainable, it is meant to be mysterious. And as far as I am concerned, miracles will always be relevant.

Dumbing Down of the Miraculous II

I have been studying a lot lately on the miraculous ways God moves. Recently I read in a book the following: We avoid the reality of Christ's power in a number ways... We're tempted to spiritualize Jesus' power..... The stilling of the storm is about psychological storms in our lives. The healing of the lame is about solving emotional problems that cripple us. Jesus bringing sight to the blind is about God's ability to help us see our lives clearly. And so on and so forth. If we do that enough we begin to think the Gospel stories are nothing but metaphors, and metaphors primarily about us. I am guilty of doing this very thing. The gospels lose their power when we dumb them down to our level. The reality is that Jesus DID calm a real, physical, natural storm. The reality is that Jesus did PHYSICALLY heal the lame mane who came on a bedroll through a roof to see him. When Jesus spit in the dirt made mud and put it on the mans eyes, PHYSICALLY his blind eyes were opened. I think it is ok that we us these as metaphors for purposes of helping people, but we must never, ever forget that these were real miracles, physical miracles done by a real, physical Son of God, Jesus.

Dumbing Down of the Miraculous

The Holy Spirit has really been moving and challenging me lately on some issues in my life. Last Sunday's guest speaker just confirmed these challenges in my heart. God's heart is people, but more than that His heart is to move in and on His creation. He wants to set captives free. He wants to heal the sick. He wants to raise the dead. He wants to much, much more than we think He does. We limit Him, in a way. No man can limit God, but God allows Himself to be limited because He chooses to work through His followers. If we aren't willing to move into the miracle zone, then miracles, for the most part will not happen. We must be willing to move in the Spirit! We must be willing to risk! We must be willing to reach out!

Last Day of September

Today is the last day of September. If you have noticed the leaves the last few weeks have begun their change from green to brown. Some of mine have even fallen off the trees already. My yard, no matter how much I water it in vain, is turning brown. Tomorrow begins the new month of October. The month of harvest, the month of fall coming upon us. Change is in the air. I believe it is a sign of the times that we live in. Constant change is inevitable. Some are good and some are hard. Some we expect and some shake us at our core. As we get older we expect our bodies to decline some over time. But as we get older, we are hardly ever ready to lose those closest to us who have accompanied us on our journeys so far. This week two people who I knew graduated from this realm of fragile life into the realm of everlasting life. So as I sat at my desk in my office this morning opening one of my devotionals, I found this on the page dated September 30th. "The peace of God is different than any other peace. It surpasses all understanding; it helps you to keep your composure. You are not shaken by earthly things. It is a deep peace, created by the knowledge of a living faith, which is the living principle of the foundation of all truth. Christ in in us, the hope and the evidence of glory." I don't understand why things sometimes happen the way they do. But even though I don't understand, I can still have the peace that passes all understanding. That is what Christ brings into our life. I don't know about you, but I need the peace that only Christ can bring in my life today!

Danger of Sunday's Message

One of the dangers of preaching on taking risks is that we will take the biggest risk of all and just file the message away and do nothing with what God has challenged us with. Chasing lions is about going after God's best. It is about being proactive, being offensive, and using what God has given you to impact the world around you. There are so many areas where we need to step out and take a risk. Husbands and wives need to risk more in their relationships by being more open and honest and actually talking and communicating. Bearing their souls at the risk of sounding crazy or even mushy. Parents talking to their kids, pushing beyond the normal conversations and risking finding out what is really going on in their children's lives. Using your gifts and talents to push the kingdom of God further into your own world. Their are lots of risks to take. There are lots of opportunities for you to move out of your safe zone. The question is, will you chase the lion, or will he chase you?

Feels like Fall

It was a nice labor day weekend. My parents were here which was nice. I have been noticing a change in the way the days feel lately. Starting to feel like fall. When I took the kids to school this morning I definitely noticed a change in the seasons. I think it is a good parallel to what I sense God is leading us to do this fall. The small groups are starting to form and God has given me a great series of messages that will begin this coming Sunday. One thing I have learned in planning is to never plan ahead of God. Always stay right with God and He will direct your next step. Also, something that is extremely important in planning is to never ever plan so much programming and structure that there isn't room for the spirit to move and cause growth. My desire is to not just be known as a Spirit-led or Spirit-filled church, but to be a Spirit excited church filled with Spirit-aware people!

Been awhile

It has been so busy and hectic this summer that I haven't made the time to blog like I should have. Notice I didn't say I didn't have the time, I did. I just did make the time. It wasn't one of my highest priorities. It could have been probably should have been, but I just didn't do it. I was reading the book of 1 john today. It's a good book. Speaks a lot on sin and how if we continue sinning we really aren't children of God. Talks a lot about anti-Christs and how to identify them. But it was the very last verse that grabbed at me. Here is what it says, "Dear children, keep away from anything that might take God's place in your hearts." That grabbed me. Some translations say to keep away from idols. I like it better because an idol is a statue,something i can see, something that I can avoid. But when you look at idolatry from the standpoint of anything that takes God's place in your life, that is a little closer to home. The question for the day is, What is taking God's place in my life? People, relationships, things, jobs, pleasure, Me. Because in reality if we don't make a conscious effort to keep God in his place in our lives, he will fall down on our priority list like blogging did for me this summer.

Breathtaking!

My wife and I are in Colorado Springs today. I love the mountains. There are so inspiring and awesome to look at. They are a reminder of the faithfulness of God. Psalms 36:6 says "Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths." I think God made both the oceans and the mountains to be spectacular and breathtaking. The same way God's rightouesness and justice should be for us.

Rain, Rain

Finally got a couple of good thunderstorms here today. Everything was so brown. Hopefully this will green everything up. Its amazing how I can water my yard and plants and they still have some brown in them. Then God causes it to rain and they perk right up. Wonder what God spikes his rain with. The kids games were cancelled tonight so I just used my Espresso machine and made myself a homemade cappuccino. Pretty good! Worked on Sunday's sermon most of the day today. It's entitled "Potential."

Whoops!

I realized I haven't blogged in awhile. Came home and fixed lunch for my kids and ate with them. They are swimming now. I am excited about this fall at church. I think God is really getting ready to do something if we will listen and be open to changing some things up. That word "change" always gets our defenses up. But without change, nothing good can happen. Mark Batterson talks about this in a way in his book ID:The True You. Basically we cannot have anything new until we are willing to allow the old to die. For instance if you want to go to college, the dream of high school has to die. If you want to get married, the single life dies. I feel like God is moving in the area of discipleship for me. How we do it, what it is not, what it should be. Read a lot of books on this lately. Simple Church, Breaking the Discipleship Code, Organic Church. Read Colossians, Ephesians, and will be reading Hebrews and 1 Peter to see what discipleship looked like in the first century church. What we need to adjust and improve. Also the way Jesus did ministry many times was so much different than how we do it today. Kicking around the idea of a coffeehouse. A lot of really great ideas, just need to have God put it all together. Can't wait! Exciting!

Tuesday

I spent the day today with my kids. Took them all golfing. One by one. I would take one for six holes and then trade and go get another for six and then trade again. I love my kids and find it hard to believe that they are growing up so fast. I am a pastor and know that my job is to take care care of the church I pastor. But all that is nothing if I don't take care of my my family first. Ten years from now my kids will more than likely all be out of the house pursuing their dreams and their lives. I don't want to miss these moments. There were many of things I could and should have been doing. But what I needed to do was spend time with my children.

Home Early

We had to cut our trip short this week due to me getting sick. I fought it as hard as I could but the dreaded Bronchitis got me again. So instead of me writing this from our room in Wichita, I am writing it from my dining room table. It is just one of those things that I have to trust God with. For some reason that I can't see right now, He wanted us home early. What's hard though is that I have a very difficult time resting when I am sick. As soon as I could see Ulysses from the car I started to mentally got through all things I need to get done. I just have to remember to let them go for the next few days. So my plan for these next few days is to rest, rejuvenate, and recover.

Kansas City

We have been at our District Council in K.C. this week. Great speaker yesterday for a workshop and the ordination service. Mark Batterson pastor of National Community Church in Washington DC. He wrote a book called In a Pit With a Lion On a Snowy Day. Great speaker and great message about chasing the lions in our lives. Instead of running from things an constantly being on defense in our lives, go on the offensive and chase the lions God is asking us too. Loved it! Last week we had water baptism at the local pool. We had 19 new baptisms. It is always a wonderful thing when people take that next step!

Back from Horn Creek

We got back from Horn Creek in Colorado last night. We spent Thursday through Saturday their with about 70 people in attendance. It was a great time. I had the flu so I didn't get to do all I wanted to do. I had the privilege of speaking on Thursday night. I used the illustration of a compass and how our lives are like a compass. My 3 points were:

1) You must have a fixed reference point.

2) Watch out for outside forces.

3) Keep your focus.

I had a great time doing it! On Friday night I showed a video called Indescribable by Louie Giglio. It is an awe inspiring message! I would recommend it for every single person. It reminds us of how big God really is and how small we really are.

One of Those Days

Do you ever have one of those days that you wish you could just go back and do all over again? Yesterday was one for me. Every pastor has a fear that he will stand up to preach and one of two things will happen. He will forget his sermon or forget his clothes and be standing berfore the congregation naked. Well yesterday one of those happened to me. No, it wasn't forgetting the clothes. It was the sermon. On Saturday night I made sure to change the clocks forward one hour before bed. Unfortunately, i think I forgot to turn my alarm on. When my wife yelled that it was 2 hours past our normal time to get up on a Sunday morning, that set the tone for the rest of the day. When I went to pull up my sermon on my computer a little later that morning, it was nowhere to be found. Gonzo! Somewhere out into cyberspace world I guess. If I knew where it went, I would have went and got it. So one hour before church was to start, I had nothing. The movie Groundhog Day came to my mind. Can I go back and start this day over again? Well I don't know about you, but I live in real world Kansas, not the land of OZ Kansas. So after getting my blood pressure down and stopping to think for a minute, I had a burning bush experience. This is not about me! The sermon, the cute PowerPoint slides, the videos, or even the words to speak. They are not mine. They are God's. Who am I to second guess God. If I truly believe that God is ALWAYS in control, then that means that even on a day when things don't go according to my liking, He is still in control. How many times do I miss what God wants to do because my plans have been messed with. How many times do I miss what God is ACTUALLY doing around me because my mind is still in the land of wishful thinking. Mark Batterson wrote about a similar thing in his book ID: The True You. I am going to paraphrase it; "How many people in Washington D.C. miss out on the grandness of the monuments because they have lived there so long. How many natives of Colorado miss out on the breathtaking view of the mountains because they are accustomed to them." How many people in western Kansas miss the sunsets because they have seen them a hundred times. How many times do I miss out on the new thing God wants to do because I have grown accustomed to way God has done things in the past. Mark Batterson goes on to say this; "The problem with God is this: He is so good at what He does that we tend to take Him for granted. He is so faithful. He is so available. He is so good. He is the ultimate constant so we take Him for granted." It is always sunrise and sunset somewhere in the world. Every moment of every day. The miracle never ends! What are you missing today because of your busyness? What is God doing around you that you are missing because your schedule got interrupted? Open your eyes and drink in what God is doing around you. Take a deep breath and relax because God is in control and you are not!

Conflicted Day

Today I preached a message at a funeral for someone I had never met. It's not the first time, I have had to do it quite a few times. It is such a challenge. The first time I ever laid eyes on this person was when I arrived at the funeral home for the service. Then the challenge is to try to build a bridge between the living people there in that room grieving the death of their friend and family member, with the living God who wants them to know Him. Hopefully as they left, they had some hope. My wife challenged me earlier in the day to look into their eyes and see their souls. It was a very humbling thing. As I looked out over them, it was a stark reminder that we would all at some point end our lives in that 3 foot by 7 foot box. But in all actuality many of us there today would not spend eternity the same way. It's our choice. I am thankful today for the life God has blessed me with. For my family and friends who love me unconditionally. I am thankful that maybe today God used me in some small part to change the eternal destination of someone at that funeral.

March 5, New Post

Today we enter the cyberspace world of blogging. This blog will be random at best. We don't desire to post everyday, just when we have something to say. So I hope you enjoy and are able to take something with you everytime you read one of our posts.