Life In The Deep

One should not believe that because I have not posted about which candidate I support for the Presidency that I do not care which one is elected.  I care a lot, and I voted for Romney and Ryan a week ago with good reasons.  I don’t post about it because I believe my primary work is nearly singular in importance: to assist you toward knowing Jesus and his freedom and love and life for you.  It has been my experience that talking very much about current issues, specific candidates and the like quickly draws people into the shallow end of relationship, and it then becomes difficult to talk deeply and of the heart.  We lose each other.  We abandon our inner selves in favor of an attractive and nicely prosecuted argument, which then becomes our exterior identity.   Although the apostle Paul warned us against viewing people from a worldly and surface view because it isn’t enough and it will hurt us, we take hold of it anyway while our depths remain remote.  But that’s where real life is.

There are those who are, while reading this, placing me into a category (Republican, Conservative, or whatever) that may then become more real and more important to them than my true, below the surface, identity:  son of God, holy man, righteous man, dwelling place of God, servant of the church.  And, maybe, those people won’t be able to hear me as well anymore because they’ll think of me with a worldly ID emblazoned upon my forehead:  “Romney Voter.”  And we will lose each other.

So why post this if I’m assisting people with inner-wall-building against me?  I think because I want to explain all this in a way that might help us see why people don’t talk heart to heart—maybe with you.  Why they don’t share their inner fears.  Why they’d never confess failure or admit weakness with you because they’ve never ventured into anything deeper than shallow-end things with you.  Is that clear enough?  I love playing around in the shallows of humor and cartoons and seasonal beauty and stuff like that, which you’ll regularly see on my wall or blog or in LifeNotes.  But I’d much rather get out of the shallows with you so we can actually get somewhere that counts.  Somewhere that’s deeply true.  Life is found there, and I want to share.

Cat Wash

This makes perfect sense to me.

The Great Contradiction

In my travels throughout much of the world, I’ve seen that the more authority and freedom people give to government, the less there remains. That’s pretty simple. In other words, the bigger the government, the smaller the people. I do not believe it can be otherwise. That’s how the kingdoms of this world work.

However, only with Jesus is the opposite true. That took a while for me to figure out.

I didn’t want anything to do with Jesus when I was in my late teens and early twenties because I knew what giving away authority and freedom meant. I’d seen it and studied it, and found that history shows the surrender of authority and freedom in the hope of gain is a terribly false hope with tragic consequences. Frankly, we’re on that path in America—I can see it. Naturally, I thought that giving Jesus authority in my life meant the same, only cosmic. BIGGER equals WORSE. So I avoided Jesus. . .until I couldn’t. More accurately, until I didn’t want to anymore.

In sum, Jesus is The Great Contradiction to what I’ve found true in this world that competes for authority and freedom. Jesus has never taken mine away. Never. Not once. Instead, he has given me all of his.

I have never felt that Jesus was trying to over-rule me or dominate me or take away what I am. From the day that I received him, my days have been all about discovering what I had received instead of what I’d lost. Here’s what I’ve found. Jesus actually IS freedom, and he exercises his authority to make sure that I have it and enjoy it. Anything less than freedom is not the Jesus I know. I love him for it! All that he is to me and all that he has for me is the antithesis and the antidote for what passes for authority and freedom in this world. That’s why I hope and work for you to find the same.

I think when people look to a national or worldly government to find this, or to the government in their church gathering, the government over their employment, the government in the clubs and organizations they join, they’re lost—and act like it—because they’re maddeningly searching in the wrong place. It will always be terribly painful and disillusioning. Fortunately, Jesus offers himself as the end of the search:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.” Matthew 11:28-30

Right now when many of us are focused upon the kind of leadership and government we want for ourselves, Jesus says and proves, “I am.” And I can tell you, He is.

Post Halloween Meeting

After a raucous night of tormenting, the Halloween Character Group Therapy Institute offered its first meeting.

God's Best Treasure

What if God is working most pointedly with us every day so that we will recognize Him as greatest treasure? Not to correct us, not to direct us, not to answer our questions or even to guide our path. What if God’s best treasure is the one you discover Him to be?

Crazy In The Head

Today's sermon:

“Crazy In The Head” – Since God has made me a genuine new creation and given me a new heart, I don’t need to get the Word from my head to my heart, but from my heart to my head.

Romans 12:2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Humpty's Fall

Loves Extremes

God’s love is made complete when we know it and then can’t help but express it to others. I think it's His most-fun work—revealing and lavishing His love upon us, knowing it’s on the way somewhere else.  What a view He must have!  If you’re not much the loving sort just now, get some of His for you.  That’ll take care of things because that’s how love works.  (1 John 4:11-12; 16-21; 2 Corinthians 5:13-15)

Today's Sermon

Today's sermon:

“Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” -- The accuser, critical people and the judgmental scales of this world continually call us to the courtroom, there to be prosecuted. But we know the trial is over, the sentence carried out, and we’ve gone free, rich and famous.

Colossians 2:13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. 16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.

Galatians 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

Into Grace

A common reason that many of us do not receive grace and life and love from God is that we’ve accepted shame in relation to failure and sin, and gone into hiding from the Sin Bearer himself. Hiding, especially from him, is no way to live.

It is unbiblical for us to believe that after we fail we have “fallen away from grace.” In fact, it is accurate to believe that we have fallen INTO grace—even super-abundant grace. That’s when the reign of grace from Jesus is most obvious. That’s when we know him as ongoing Savior and lover—the one who shepherds us out of hiding and into freedom. At least, that’s how it is for me. Even today.

Romans 5:20 The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, 21 so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

True Love

“Christians waging secret war against the flesh have no chance of winning—and they hate themselves for it. However, Christians with trusted friends around them, who know and share in the battle to live by the Spirit while hounded by the flesh, will grow together as the body of Christ, with gifts and grace abounding. . .We’ll be like children! In this kind of community, there will be joy and laughter and stumbling and playfulness and support and worship and awe. And love! Loads and loads of love, both poured out and drunk in. In my opinion, a community that receives love is church.”

Today's Sermon

Today’s sermon:

“Butts, Beaks, Boobs and Brains” – The pieces of Christ’s body stick out awkwardly—even to themselves—unless they recognize designed dependence and beauty in the perfect whole.  

1 Corinthians 12:25-27 The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don’t, the parts we see and the parts we don’t. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this. Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything.  (The Message) 

Mississippi Day-ed

Today's Sermon

Today's sermon:

“Finders, Keepers / Losers, Weepers” – What a person does with joy after discovering that Jesus found all of her sin and kept it as his own.

Galatians 1:3 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Today's Sermon

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“Keeping Short Accounts With God” – Regularly talking with God about your struggles and failures so that, as The Great Accountant, He can remind you that your account was closed, and a new one opened in your name that will never perish, spoil or fade.

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1 Peter 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4 and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, 5 who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.