Be the Church...

Here is a podcast I put together a few years ago. I was reminded of it today & thought I would share.

a matter of trust

I was looking at the back of a quarter the other day. You know what it says...at least I think you do. "In God We Trust". It reminded me of all the other things I place my trust instead of my God. There are so many things we look to ....

our jobs.

our spouse.

our family.

our government.

our friends.

our money.

our dreams.

Every single one of the things that I just mentioned will at some point inevitably let us down. I read today in Psalm 118:8-9,

"⁸ It is better to take refuge in the LORD

than to trust in man.

⁹ It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in princes."

How often we find ourselves desiring to find shelter and peace in stuff that simply will not ever meet that need? How frequently we find ourselves let down by people, our jobs, even our own dreams and than we realize...man, I got this all turned around.

Perhaps tt is a Sunday School answer...but it's also the right one when it comes to trust. If we look to God on a daily basis, asking Him to provide us with all we need...wisdom, strength, insight, and vision...He promises to provide us with that much and even more.

I don't know about you, but I am tired of running to the wrong places and putting my trust in people & stuff that simply won't come through. It's time to look to the One who can do it all & desires that we find refuge & rest in Him.

Led by our youth...

"Young people should be at the forefront of global change and innovation. Empowered, they can be key agents for development and peace. If, however, they are left on society's margins, all of us will be impoverished. Let us ensure that all young people have every opportunity to participate fully in the lives of their societies."

-- Kofi Annan

I saw it firsthand today. It actually happened inadvertently.  We hosted a local community meeting at our New Hope Church & Community Center in Far East Dallas. The purpose of the meeting was to begin to perform a "Land Use Study" and to gather thoughts and ideas from neighborhood residents. This meeting would serve to identify ways in which we could make our community a better one in which to live.

I had invited Anthony (11 year old in our neighborhood) to help me do some cleanup work around our property this morning. As I saw folks file in for the community meeting, I saw Anthony getting involved. My first thought was, "Well, he is going to be bored by this....but I'll let him figure that out on his own". I walked in an hour later....and Anthony was leading the meeting. He was expressing some wonderful, new ideas that the rest of the group had never even thought about. He presented his proposals to the group in a clear, confident way. As Anthony spoke, I looked around saw hope fill the room.

It reminded me of how one of the greatest resources that exists in each community is our youth. The problems that plague our society serve as great opportunities to empower our youth to lead the charge in doing something about them. Their ingenuity, energy, attitude, and fresh faith are exactly what we need to see in order to bring about a positive change in our communities.

We have been preaching a message of prevention to our youth for far too long. We have hindered them by telling them what they cannot and will not do. In the process we have left them no alternative for what they should do because they are "not old enough to do that yet" or “they don’t know how”. Now is the time for us to empower our youth...and let them lead us out into the community, walking alongside them to encourage and coach them (which means that many times we get to be on the sidelines and they get to be in the middle of the action).

I once read in a book ...

"Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in life, in love, in faith and in purity."

I am glad that Anthony took the lead today in our community meeting. After all, it is Anthony who will be living in our community far beyond any of us adults. There could not be a better time for him and all youth to join and lead in the process of transforming our communities, one block at a time.

The only thing we have to fear....

As a youngster, I loved playing little league baseball. I look forward to a new season rolling around and the opportunity to suit up in a new uniform, to play in front of a crowd, and to see how well our team would fair again this year.

There was the one thing that I struggled with early on in my career though - I was fearful of being hit by the ball.  I remember our coach going over with us in practice time and time again, "Focus on the ball ....you'll be sure to get a hit".  I seemed to have a focus problem...for as soon as I would step into the batter's box my first thought always seemed to be, "Can I make it through this at bat without getting hit by the ball". I eventually overcame this fear....my stats speak for themselves.

But isn't this our story time and time again. We can many times find ourselves distracted with a case of spiritual ADD.  All it takes is one unexpected moment in our day....an irritating phone call....an absent-minded store clerk....and we have gotten our focus all thrown off. 

I once heard it said, "wherever you place your fear is where you also place your focus".  How many times do we focus on the past or on the future instead of living in the present.  Have you ever caught yourself making something out of nothing because you got stuck thinking about it rather than on what you really should have been focusing on.

God's book says that we should keep our eyes on Christ.  It also says something quite odd ...."the fear of the Lord is where wisdom begins".  If we have a healthy reverence for God (and place our attention upon Him and all that he is capable of) then that will make a huge difference on a day to day basis.  It can be easy to blow up about something very small if we switch our focus from Christ to whatever lies in front of us. 

What do you have your focus on today? What is your greatest fear? God is bigger than anything that lies in your path....the question - do we recognize how much power God has? If we did, wouldn't we focus our fear and energy upon Him? 

to beer or not to beer....

I am certain that most of us have been following the story of Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. & Sgt. James Crowley these last few weeks.  The story was blasted all across the media & has been the source of many "elevator talks" and "water cooler chats" throughout our nation.  President Obama was asked at the end of a press conference on health care what he thought about the incident and he was quoted as saying that, "the Cambridge police acted stupidly".  He later apologized for making such an assumption.

Ok, enough of me spitting out sound bytes....

What I appreciate about this story is what occurred this past week on Thursday.  All 3 gentlemen (along with VP Biden) sat down and got to know one another.  The content of their conversation is irrelevant....they made a statement to the American public & to the world that we can listen to one another....and that in fact, we should.

The polarization that occurs when the issue of race comes up is something that disturbs me in our country.  There is always the need for us to "choose sides" rather than listen to one another's stories.  Whether we want to admit or not, our reality is shaped by our own experiences.  The beauty of true freedom (not a patriotic sort, but rather spiritual) is that we can all sit together at one table and actually empathize with the one who sits across from us.  

Let's be honest - our country has always struggled with perking up our ears....& listening to the harsh realities of injustice. In order for true peace and justice to be reached, we have to open up our ears (and perhaps, depending on who you are....our beers) and listen to the story of the person who sits across from us.  

We each have our own stories and experiences that make us who we are.  Could it be that someone else's story might actually intersect and add to our story, making it more fully complete. We will, of course, never know unless we shutup and listen.... putting our mouths on mute so that we can better understand all of those around us and how we, as humans, are actually more similar than we could have ever thought.

To beer or not to beer....that is the question.  Who's story have you been interrupting or avoiding? Is it time to grab a cold one & get down to listening for a change...

LoVe defined....

I was walking through Target today & was delighted to see the aisles of Valentine's Day cards all nicely placed in a row...just in time for January!

I know that the holiday itself represents alot of different things...but the theme of the holiday is love.

Isn't that something we all desire?

But do we believe it is possible. When you lie in bed at night, do you believe that you are really loved. It seems to me that when I was growing up, I had much more capacity to recieve love & to believe that I was loved because I had not hurt that many people, said that many dumb things, and I honestly was still oblivious to the fact that many people did not really care for me...heck, I was a kid & I saw the world with innocent eyes.

But for many of us, as we have grown older our hearts have slowly grown cold to the idea of actually being loved....and believing that we possess something that makes us valuable & worth being loved.

So what do we do? We got on a search for love. Perhaps we venture to find it in a girlfriend or boyfriend....from our peers...from our parents...from our boss....maybe even Fido? Problem is...none of those people (not even Fido) create or possess love solely. If we really want to find love, we've got to go to the source.

God is love.

This line in 1 John has always thrown me for a loop. I understand that God is good. But for God, in his very nature, to be love. That's...mind-blowing. The very One who knows everything about me....and yet He loves me....and He delights in me....and He desires me!

If we really want to know love at its core, we've got to come to know more of who God is.

I'll never forget the day in July '05 when I was walking to my car in the 105 degree Texas sun...there was a lady who was sitting on the metal railing by our parking lot at the church. She had her head down, dejected. I struck up a conversation with her & she began to tell me about how messed up she was because of all the bad decisions she had made. In the midst of pouring out to me she said, "I want to be loved...but in order to be loved, I got to be forgiven. In order to be forgiven I got to forgive myself first." The woman could not have been farther from the truth....

Love is not dependent on us. God's love flows freely to all who will open themselves up to it. His love flows regardless of our love.....it has no limits & it does not play favorites. There is absolutely nothing we can ever do that would ban us from being loved by God. We know this because of Jesus & what He did on the cross. When Christ stretched himself out & died for all of humanities screw-ups....He was basically saying, "I love you this much and more...". You've got to know that God is love....and His love never fails.

So if we really want to experience & know love....we need only to get to know God through our relationship with Him. The more we know of God, the more we know of His love. It is in that relationship....which happens in a community of people who are committed to knowing & experiencing God and His love....that we then know real love & are then capable of loving not only ourselves, but others....the way that we love ourselves...the way that God forever loves us.

I want to be me...

I absolutely love the children's message at church. Today was another reminder of that. The pastor was using a teddy bear as an object lesson. He shared with the kids how we find comfort in our teddy bear's and how it is the same with Jesus. Then he closed up his message with the children repeating a prayer. One of the lines in the prayer went something like this, "And Lord, we want to be a teddy bear to the world. Help us to love them and care for them just like you have loved us." 

Almost immediately after the pastor finished praying, one of the youngsters blurted out, "I DON'T WANNA BE A TEDDY BEAR! I WANNA BE ME!".

Priceless....but yet so true. It's very easy for us to agree in one breathe that we want to share Jesus love, to be salt and light in a bland world. Yet, we still get tangled with that old flesh of ours that wars for our hearts and minds. We desire to walk in the Spirit, but that old guy comes along and gets us all messed up....we say, "I just wanna be me!".

Jesus said it plainly in the garden when tempted, "The Spirit is willing but the flesh is so weak".

We are so weak....but Christ is so crazy strong! He will not leave us hanging. All we need is to admit our disposition, of how we daily want to be who we want to be....and how we need a fresh, renewed breathing of His Spirit released into us.

To be quite honest, I don't wanna be a teddy bear either. My flesh has worse things that it desires to be.....but the Spirit keeps drawing me further into yearning to be like Christ. Oh Lord, I desire for your divine power to increase in me....let me fade away.