I captured this image because I really like how it shows that something we generally consider ugly and unwanted, in this case a blackberry bush can be transformed into something beautiful. The frost transforms the leaves and reveals their intricate and beautiful structure. When I study the individual leaves and then their overall pattern I am amazed at how gorgeous God has crafted a bush which I work so hard to eradicate from my yard. Just in case your wondering I didn't shoot this one in my backyard but don't worry, I am still locked into a multiyear backyard battle.

Why I find this important is that we often miss how God illustrates biblical principles (his written word) through creation (his spoken word). He does this so that we can continue to learn and to see how these principles work in the world we inhabit. He also doesn't want us to get lured into thinking we need to have lived 2000 years ago in Palestine to understand the connection between Creator and creation. The frost transforming the blackberry into something beautiful reminds us that "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" (2 Corinthians 5:17).

While the frost will disappear from the blackberry the scripture tells us that the transformation we have in Christ is new and permanent because the "old has gone". I am convinced that too many of us spend too much time thinking about how we were or somehow think we will be like the blackberry and go back to the way we were. By only speaking about the old is the past tense saying and emphasizing the "new creation" God makes it very clear that our new creation in Christ is permanent. Our new creation in Christ is beautiful, wonderful and fashioned by God in Christ. This is who we really are and while it is tempting to think of the old let us mediate on the beautiful and eternal new creation that we are using our energy to live from truth and not lies.

Basic Guidance in Prayer

1.      Make time to give Jesus our undivided attention.

a.      I know we can and should pray and be prayerful as we go throughout our day. However, the reason it is so important to dedicate time to Jesus is that our time is all we really have and how we spend that time expresses our values and intentions. Therefore, giving Jesus our time without external distractions is a way of prioritizing Jesus and our relationship with him. In doing this we need to realize that he knows we have daily chores and responsibilities which is why we need an achievable and sustainable approach. It is best to start with too little time allocated than too much and fail. I recommend 5-10 minutes 4-7 days a week. Make sure to have several weeks of meeting this allotment of time before adding more time. It is generally helpful to find a regular place and time for our time with Jesus.

2.      Be honest with Jesus.

a.      Sometimes we are afraid Jesus doesn’t want to spend time with us just as we as we are. We figure it is like going on a job interview where we present “our best selves”. Other times we think he will be no longer love us if we are angry with him or have a ton of doubts. He wants us to be honest with him and ourselves because that is the only way an authentic relationship can grow and flourish. He knows all our sinful ways which is why he was crucified for us. We have nothing to fear. When we are most vulnerable is when we experience his deepest compassion, forgiveness and love.

3.      Keep most of your prayer life private.

a.      There are times when it is helpful for your growth in prayer to share with a spiritual director, mentor or coach. Also, sometimes it is helpful for a brother or sister to share your prayer life.

4.       Ask Jesus to help.     

 

a.      Prayer is something we learn so it is normal and necessary to ask Jesus for help. He wants to offer us guidance and help because he desires an ever-deepening relationship with you and he is the shepherd of your soul. Do not use adjectives to describe your prayer life. Too often we hear people say they are bad at prayer because someone is more eloquent in a prayer group. I have yet to find in scripture where eloquence was critical for someone to have a deep prayer life. I find it can be a stumbling block because sometimes it can lead a person to think they are “good” at prayer. When Jesus’ disciples asked for help, he told them to prayer what is now known as the Lord’s Prayer. (Luke 11:1-4) Simply go to your prayer place and say “hi” to Jesus and ask him to help you to pray. Share with him anything you want to and then be quiet for a bit then close saying the Lord’s prayer slowly. If he instructs you in a different way to pray then follow that pattern.

Principles Part One

One of the best ways to grow in humility is to let others help you. It is amazing how hard this is for us as a people. We have been taught to be self starters and self made men or women who pull themselves up by their bootstraps when things get tough. Jesus's death on the cross contradicts this false notion since we know that if we could do it on our own we wouldn't have needed him to die for us. Grace can only be received by the humble because the proud think they somehow deserve or are worthy of the gift given to them. 

We are called to be humble (Philippians 2) and one of the best ways is to simply say yes when someone offers to help. This means the we don't try to repay the gift because that makes it something we have bartered for. I encourage you to find small ways to say yes to help because growth in humility will help you grow closer to Jesus. 

twitter

I have now added a twitter feed. I know it is an older medium and it is a little weird to think in sound bites but some important things can be said in a simple sentence or two.

My twitter feed is here: https://twitter.com/ols8304

Vision of Genuine Love in a Community

One of the most obvious realities in the human experience is how deeply relational it is. We are born into and will live in a multitude of dynamic and complex circles of relationship that include but are not limited to: family of origin, ethnicity, extended family, gender, friends, religion, and government. The health of these relationships shapes the nature of how we experience life. If these are healthy and whole then we experience the world in one way yet if these relationships are unhealthy then we experience the world in a completely different way. 

With the advent of sin in the human experience through Adam and Eve we see brokenness in all our circles relationship. Our relational circles are so broken due to sin that we experience great pain in many of our relationships and perhaps have even lost the vision of healthy and whole circles of relationship.

The explosion of social media is a perfect example of our need to connect with others and it also highlights the brokenness of those circles with things like cyber bulling, sexting, and Facebook depression. I was told the other day that kids who heavily use social media are more depressed than kids who use less social media.

The New Testament is filled with the vision of circles of relationship being redeemed through both Jesus’ presence in those circles (where two or three are gathered in my name I am there Matthew 18:20) and the power of the Holy Spirit filling the disciples of Christ (Ephesians 1:13) who live in those circles. A well know text which gives us a vision of what it looks like to live with each other based on agape love is 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. You will notice that agape love isn’t a feeling but a way of treating each other.

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. (1 Corinthians 13:4-7)

We need to stop and thinking only briefly about what it would be like if we actually lived this way, to realize how truly wonderful it would be. It would be so different than how most of the world experiences their circles of relationship. In short it would be truly revolutionary. Circles of relationship based on agape love is what our society is most desperately in need of. Renewed circles of relationship based on agape love is possible for disciples of Jesus because God has given the disciple of Jesus power to live a new way based not on their power but by his power. Living by Jesus power and grace is what gives us the boldness to sing “they will know we are Christians by our love”.

¹⁷ I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, ¹⁸ so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. (Ephesians 1:17-19 NRSV bold type mine)

The Church is to be a place where we experience and offer genuine love based on the grace and power of our Lord Jesus. It is hard, but not impossible to experience agape love in the large public gatherings of a congregation or during her task based gatherings. Rather it is something cultivated in smaller gatherings which are marked by trust, vulnerability, and availability. These smaller gatherings are where can be known and get to know others. If these gathering are to be transformative they must rooted in God’s Word. It is in these smaller gatherings where genuine love can be learned and can grow to be the norm. These groups provide support to the disciple and a witness to the world of what life in Christ looks like when lived with others. The biblical word for these gatherings is koinonia which means communion or fellowship.  Romans 12 provides a beautiful vision of koinonia or true community saturated with the Holy Spirit and yielded to Christ Jesus as Lord.

I am deeply thankful of Dallas Willard’s list (from Renovation of the Heart) of what living a life of grace and power looks like in our social relationships from Romans 12.

1.      Letting love be completely real.

2.      Abhorring what is evil.

3.      Clinging to what is good.

4.      Being devoted to one another in family like love.

5.      Out doing one another in giving each other honor.

6.      Serving the Lord with an ardent spirit and all diligence.

7.      Rejoicing in hope.

8.      Patient in troubles.

9.      Devoted to constant prayer.

10.  Contributing to the needs of the saints.

11.  Pursuing hospitality.

12.  Blessing those who persecute us.

13.  Being joyful with the joyous and sorrowful with those in sorrow.

14.  Living in harmony.

15.  Not being haughty.

16.  Not seeing yourself as wise.

17.  Not repaying evil for evil.

18.  Having due regard for what everyone takes to be right.

19.  Being at peace with everyone as far as it depends on you.

20.  Never taking revenge but leaving revenge to God.

21.  Providing for the needs of our enemies.

22.  Not being overwhelmed by evil but overwhelming evil with good. 

Where is the love?

I am part of a national denomination that is broken down into smaller geographic regions called synods. The word synod is interesting because it came sometimes be rendered “together with”. The idea is that the congregations in our area are “together with” each other in a common ministry. Often it feels to me that we are together in name and heritage but not in reality. I think one of the reasons for this is shown in a recent newsletter article that our synod published.

In this article one of the pastors wrote an unintelligent attack on one of the fundamental doctrines or teachings of the Church. He attacked the notion that Jesus died to save us from the consequences (punishment) of our sin. He attacked one particular thinker (Anselm of Canterbury) and claimed the idea to be unbiblical. At first it would seem that this post should seek to defend his attack but it is so clear he is wrong that a defense is unnecessary. One simply has to read Hebrews 9 and 10, Romans 3:23-26 to know how mistaken he is. Those are only two passages among dozens that show his error. 

I was dismayed at his apparent lack of biblical understanding and his willingness to write something so clearly in error but I was even more struck by the tone and nature of his article. He basically said that to hold a position different than his was satanic. I am shocked that a pastor in my synod would condemn anyone who disagrees with him. His article was filled with anger, arrogance and judgment. This is the antithesis of what it means to be a Christian. We are to be a people who are humble, kind and who refrain from judgment and condemnation. This type of approach was distressing to say the least.

Some of my follow on conversation with our staff were similarly disheartening. Our youth director told me that when she goes to youth director meetings in our synod the youth directors are clear whose pastor hates whose pastor. I asked her if the word hate is accurate and she said that there is deep enmity between the various pastors and it feels like hate. I have to wonder what the heck is going on.

I did a little calculation to figure out how much time a pastor might spend in prayer and bible study in order to prepare for a sermon and or a bible study. I figure that ten hours a week is a good estimate. I know some spend more and others less but ten seems reasonable. I was taught to spend one hour of prayer and study for every minute I preach so ten seems to be a good conservative figure. I also estimate that a solo pastor will preach about 40 sermons a year. That gives us 400 hours a year in bible study and prayer. After a decade of ministry a pastor will likely have spent 4000 hours in prayer and study and after 25 years in ministry that would be 10,000 hours of study.

The result of thousands of hours of study by our synod’s pastors is that they are known for who they dislike (hate) and who they are against. Sometimes I wonder why we wonder at the decline in the vitality of our synod’s congregations. If after so much study and prayer our leaders don’t seem to be more loving it could make one wonder what the point or value is to reading the bible. Clearly something is wrong with this picture. The result of that kind of time spent in the bible study and prayer should be the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22). We need to repent and seriously rethink who we are and where we are going. If enmity is the fruit we are bearing maybe it would be better to pack up, sleep in on Sunday or go somewhere where the gospel is being lived and changing lives.

It seems clear somewhere along the line we missed something and unless we can rediscover what it means to be saved, live by the Spirit, and experience resurrection power we have nothing left to offer the world anymore. My hope is that we will no longer be known by hate but be known by love as Christians once were. 

Thoughts on Earth Day

Today is April 22nd, Earth Day. If you have been a reader of this blog for any length of time you know that conservation is an important part of my thinking and there are always some links on this blog to inform and inspire creative thought about what it means to care for the planet. One of the essential parts of the conversation around environmental issues is the why. The reasons to care for the planet are numerous and varied. They range from economic to recreational to altruistic to just about everything in between. I would like to do today is to write an about why I care about environmental issues.

"He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together." (Colossians 1:15-17). The reason I care for the planet is simply because it is was created by Jesus, for Jesus and is held together by him. The planet is not mine, it is his and my care for it is an outflow of my love for him. It seems to me to be incongruous to say that I love him and then trash what is his. Early on in the book of Genesis we see that God created humanity to cooperate with him in the care for all that he made.

When we stop caring for what God created we are living as less than human since we are living at odds with our basic crated purpose. It is no wonder that we are less than fulfilled as a race and that the earth is struggling under our demands. When we are alienated from God we become alienated from our very purpose and mission. On the other hand when we are reconciled to God through Jesus we are now renewed to care for all that God has created and we are going to see that creation in light of the one who redeemed us, Jesus our Lord.

I feel like it is a sacred responsibility to steward all that Christ has entrusted to us for his glory and for his benefit. We can't divorce loving Christ and caring for a planet that was created by him and is held together by him. This planet is a sign of the Lord's grace and mercy, he gives us so much and so freely and our response should be to care for it, not for the planet's sake, but for Christ's sake.

One of the practical ways to connect our life with Christ with the care for the planet is to think about the Lord when making a new choice relating to care for the planet. When we do this we are offering our choices to him in a new way and lifting up the reason for our actions as an outflow from our prayer and devotional life. This is actually how we are are called to live all of life. This practice really helps us to live an integrated and whole life. I encourage you to try it with something simple once a day and see how it changes your perspective.

Message Online

The congregation I serve (Peninsula Lutheran) now has the ability to post my Sunday messages online. You can them on the media page at www.plcplace.com

Stillness

Psalm 46:10a “Be still and know that I am God”.

Stillness seems to be the antithesis of our current lifestyle. So much of life is about being busy and doing more. In some ways it is odd since several decades ago people thought ours would be an age of leisure. They thought that as “modern” conveniences such as dishwashers and microwaves became more available people would spend less time on chores and be free to pursue leisure. We now laugh a little at this notion since we feel anything if not hurried all the time. Our lives are so full that we move from activity to activity hardly knowing what day it is or where we are. By the end of the day we are exhausted from having been up early and pushing until late in evening. We might have less time washing dishes or cooking food but that time is now full with a host of other activities.

This state of hurry is expected, if not encouraged by our society. We often see this as a sign of success in business, medicine or even ministry. If a doctor isn’t busy we might assume that they aren’t busy because they aren’t good. We might even wonder if they are lazy since they haven’t been drumming up more business.

The problem with excessive hurry in one’s life is that it can impede our ability to get to know God. The Bible tells us to “be still” and in our stillness to know God. When Elijah fled from Mt. Carmel after his showdown with the prophets of Baal he wanted to spend time in the presence of God. He was told to go to Mt. Horeb where he was to have an encounter with God. While he was on the mountain there was wind, an earthquake and fire.  God was not in the wind, nor the earthquake or the fire. It was only in the gentle whisper that Elijah heard God’s voice and entered into his presence (1 Kings 19). He was still before the Lord and discovered both the voice and the presence of the Lord.

For us to hear the voice of the Lord and experience deeper times of his presence we need to have times of stillness in our lives so that we can grow deeper in our life with Christ. We must protect this time and see it as an essential part of our lives, not a luxury. We can think of stillness as times where we come before the Lord simply to sit in his presence with our only agenda to give him our loving attention. This is not a time of quick intercessions or speedy prayers. It is time to be still and simply get to know God, to wait on him and minister before him.

Often we feel like we aren't doing anything or achieving anything. While initially it might seem this way the deeper reality is that we are simply obeying the Lord’s command to be still and get to know him. We come to this time with simple trust that obeying him is time well spent and that this is fundamental to what it means to be human. Over time we will come to treasure our time with the Lord since getting to know him is wonderful and life giving. I encourage you to think about how you could carve out some stillness in your life so that you can get to know the Lord more fully. 

From Mike Breen

I've learned a lot from Mike Breen's work and I thought I would share his latest post.

Are we on the brink of a new Reformation?

If you could have a big tree with only a little fruit or a small tree with lots of fruit, which would you choose? It’s about a choice, right?
But we’ll get back to that in a second.

I’ve noticed there seem to be two things I can do with Jesus. Either I can increasingly look like Jesus, or I can make him look like me.
I can look like Jesus or I can try to make him look like me.

The funny thing about Jesus is that I’m never sure we give him quite enough credit. Sure. He came to earth, left the throne of heaven, took on the nature of a servant and died on the cross in our place, rose from the dead and now sits at the right hand of the Father. Yes. All that happened.
But we really don’t give his three years of ministry much reference.

Here’s what I mean: We think Jesus was the Son of God, but when we read the Gospels, do you think he was the smartest person who ever lived? Most accomplished? Best fisherman? Best evangelist? Best church planter? Best movement leader? Best discipler? Most successful leader?

For instance, in Luke 9 and again in Luke 10, Jesus gave the most detailed strategy you will ever find in the scriptures for how to evangelize, and then we see the exact same strategy used in the early church. Shouldn’t we be using that same strategy? I’m guessing we’re not arrogant enough to think we’ve come up with a better strategy than Jesus. (Example: for most churches, the evangelism strategy is “invite your friends to church and then let the professionals take over. We’ll do the heavy lifting if you get them here.” Not exactly Jesus’ strategy!)

We acknowledge what Jesus did on the cross, but what about what was started before the cross? What about the movement he began that changed the course of human history when it was released and catalyzed after the Resurrection and Pentecost? If being a disciple is “who Jesus would be if he were me” (Dallas Willard), shouldn’t we be learning the patterns and practices of the best whom ever lived if we too want to change the world for the Kingdom?

Yet often when we look at the Western church, I’m not sure we see many of the practices of Jesus among the way we lead. Though…that’s starting to change!

Back to the original question: Big tree/little fruit or little tree/lots of fruit?

It feels that at some point, we might have lost our way. Perhaps we became more concerned with success than fruitfulness. Jesus says we evaluate things in the Kingdom on their fruitfulness…but somewhere along the way it became about the size of your tree. Now having a big tree is a fine thing. Just know you’re only successful in evaluating yourself against the size of other trees, and God has never been terribly concerned about tree size. Just fruitfulness. That’s it. The point of a tree isn’t how big your tree is but how much fruit you have. It’s about fruit! And in the Kingdom, fruitfulness is always about reproduction. (Specifically, reproducing disciples…multiplying Jesus’ life into the life of others who can then go and do the same.) 
My experience tells me having a big tree doesn’t mean you have a lot of fruit. In fact, what I’ve seen happen a lot more often is people going after the big tree and hoping to get fruit, rather than going after fruit and knowing you get the tree along the way.

Choose the best, and you always get the good. Choose the good, you very rarely get the best.
Are we trying to start or lead churches, create Kingdom movements and aspire to all the breakthrough Jesus saw apart from the way Jesus did those things? Am I trying to make Jesus like me or do I honestly believe he was the best in the Kingdom business?

The Reformation was a significant moment because among other things, it put the Bible back in the hands of the people. But when we look at the church of the last 100 years, I have to wonder if we have been more influenced by the Enlightenment than the Reformation.

This is the gut check question: If you had to choose between being known as a movement leader but not really having one, or actually being a movement leader but no one knowing it…which would you choose?

Tree or fruit?

Here’s the good news: I believe we are on the cusp of a new Reformation, one that sees the kind of fruit we saw from Jesus’ ministry, because we, once again, embrace not simply what Jesus did on the cross but the way he led and made disciples. Yes. I think we are on the tipping point of a new Reformation and it is about putting discipleship and mission back into the hands of ordinary people. Because when we equip the people of Jesus with the patterns, practices and way of Jesus, it will once again be ordinary people equipped to do extraordinary things.

The key is to embrace the mission of Jesus AND the way of Jesus. He’s just the best there ever was!

Hopefully you hear what I’m trying to convey clearly. I’m not suggesting we should go after a new Reformation. I’m suggesting it’s already happening. And maybe we don’t see it on every street corner yet, but I see it happening all around. A small group of communities, ready to be bloodied in going through the wall first, who are getting the beachhead of breakthrough for the rest of the church.
It’s already happening!
At the end of the day, I don’t want a big tree. But I don’t want a small tree either. I want an orchard. I want a Kingdom movement where reproduction of Jesus’ life within individuals and communities is happening on every level. I’ve seen this happen before. I know it because I’ve seen it. And I think we are starting to see glimmers of this reality again. Lord, may it be so! May we see a Kingdom movement wash upon these shores.

The Communion of Saints

Our recent move from Kwajalein has stirred a lot of things in my life and I have been so busy in the transition that I haven’t had much time to write or to share what has been stirred up by the move. One of the things that has been stirring has been a broader understanding of the classic Christian understanding of the communion of saints.  

I have most often thought of the communion of saints in regards to the dead and not the living. Perhaps this is because All Saints Sunday is the time of year when we remember those who have died in the faith; we hear the promise resurrection and honor both the people and the promise. It is a wonderful Sunday and one I am thankful for each year. The only downside, if there is one is that perhaps it has limited my thinking of what the communion of saints means. Truth be told that really isn’t the fault of the festival Sunday, just my own ignorance.

What the move has done is to show me how I have been and am in communion with the saints in each and every place I have served. I remember how when I moved to Kwajalein I ached for the people back in the States who I grew to know and love and wished they could have been with us on this new journey. The same has been true of this move. I have and still do ache for the communion of the people we grew to know and love while serving at Island Memorial Chapel. At the same time I have found my heart opening for the saints who are part of Peninsula Lutheran Church. They are all part of the communion of saints.

I am in fact in communion with both sets of people because we are all in Christ and have been reborn by the Spirit and call God our Father. My missing them doesn’t impact the fact that we are in communion and when I look it that way I realize that the communion of saints is broad, deep and eternal. It really highlights that communion with Christ and each other is central to the nature of what life is about and it is something we should be striving for. The realization of the communion of saints is why the early church called each other “brother” and “sister”. It is why they shared their time, prayer life and possessions. They realized that they had an eternal bond through Christ as a gift from the Spirit to the glory of the Father.

In a broken and fractured society where individuals and individualism reigns the recovery of communion and community is central to the healing of relationships and spiritual growth. I think this is why Jesus prayed “that they may all be one” (John 17:20). 

Borrowing

 We are moving back to the States tomorrow  and one of the unique things about moving from here is the length of time it takes to get stuff from point A to point B. Our household goods will be flown in two shipments, one that has already left and one that will leave this month, hopefully this week. From here our goods are flown to Hawaii, put on a boat and make their way to somewhere in California and then up the coast to the Seattle area.

Needless to say this process takes four to six weeks and so we had to pack our stuff out five weeks before we planned on flying out. It is interesting living without the bulk of your household goods for that many weeks. The government warehouse supplies things like beds, couch, desks and a TV. They also have what is known as a “hospitality kit” for the kitchen which has four plates, four cups, 8 glasses and some silverware. It is okay but some have also called it the “hostility kit” since it doesn’t quite cover the needs of cooking and baking.

This leaves a person in an interesting position of having some things that are needed but other things like a vacuum cleaner, ironing board and iron baking dishes etc… are on a boat, or a plane or a truck heading east (we hope). Needless to say we had to borrow a lot of things from our friends here on island. It reminds me a lot of Acts 2:44 “all the believers were together and had everything in common”. Our neighbors are members of our congregation and they have been invaluable in helping us through this time of transition. They have graciously loaned us so many of the basic things we have needed and done with a wonderful sense of grace and kindness. It is another way Jesus grants us “daily bread”.

Learning to borrow has been an interesting journey. I hope you noticed that I wrote “learning to borrow” since I am discovering that borrowing is a learned skill. In the States I rarely borrowed anything. There are times when I might have borrowed something like a car from my parents while mine was in the shop or maybe a coat when I forgot one or a piece of outdoor gear from my brother-in-law. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have borrowed something from someone who wasn’t part of my family.  I can’t remember ever borrowing anything from a neighbor.

In my experience of living in the States borrowing is something that is seldom practiced. I think that part of the issue is ready availability of goods and services. Here are on Kwaj there is a scarcity of goods and services to the point of people hoarding certain things. The latest shortage here on Kwaj has been Diet Coke (actually all diet drinks). We have been out for weeks and when it does come in people will stock up. In some sense it is rare to need a neighbor in the States since the goods are there. On a deeper level I think that needing a neighbor shows weakness and perhaps failure.

As a performance oriented society we don’t have much room for weakness and failure. We are a people who pride ourselves on succeeding and showing it though the homes that we own, our job title, the cars we drive and the clothes we wear,. To need something from a neighbor would mean that we somehow failed at the American Dream and most of don’t want to admit defeat or failure. It is humbling to not be self sufficient in terms of the things we need. I have that to be a wonderful part of my Kwajalein journey. To have to borrow has been good at teaching me humility. It has helped me receive grace since that is what our friends are showing us and it has made me thankful for people who are willing to invest themselves in us for the sake of obeying Christ’s command to love your neighbor.  I hope that is has helped me to rethink what it means to live in regards to my stuff and my neighbor.  I hope that it has opened my eyes to the wonderful possibilities that we who live as part of the body of Christ have in terms of how we share and make our resources available.

Daily Bread

Bikes are an essential part of life here on Kwaj as a car is an essential part of life in the States. With the highly corrosive environment here (think tons of rust) bikes are always breaking and needing repairs. Everybody’s who has been here long enough has a bike with lots of random parts and many have bungee cords holding things together. They say that a new bike will last a year out here with no maintenance. With regular maintenance they last a year and day. Needless to say bikes break down regularly and most folks have a spare bike since it is hard to get parts and make the fixes in a timely fashion.

Kim and I had a spare bike that we “gave/loaned”  to some really good friends of ours since he was waiting for a new fork which is hard to get for the frame he had. Since we are moving soon we figured no big deal. Unfortunately my bike went down (broken bottom bracket) and it was so rusted that a fix was impossible. That left us in a little bit or a lurch since we didn’t want to buy a bike and didn’t want to leave our friends high and dry.

Our other neighbor had wanted to buy his wife a new bike for awhile and when he found out we were in a pinch he bought his wife a new bike and loaned us her old one until we move. As I rode the borrowed bike to work it reminded me of how God has answered my prayer for daily bread. I find that it is easy to take for granted the many and varied ways God moves in response to this simple request for daily bread. This gift of a borrowed bike was a way God opened my eyes to see the vastness of daily bread being given each and every day. It awoke within me praise, thankfulness, contentment and confidence in the future.

There are so many things that need to be put together for an international move and each one of those will be a form of daily bread and God who has provided the bread in the past will be the God who will provide the bread in the future. It also reminded me that we are called to be part of bring daily bread to the world as we share our resources with those who have less than we do. In this way we are used by God as an answer to prayer as my neighbor was used by God for my daily bread.

In what ways has God given you daily bread and how might you be called to be an answer to someone's prayer for daily bread?

Dolphins

I have had a lot of what I sense to be shifting and deepening in my thinking on Christ, community and life moving around inside my head lately and I feel like I am in a phase of collecting my thoughts and then trying to organize them and then live them. I can see them creeping out in my Sunday messages and in my teaching but they aren't quite clear enough to write. I will as  I can.

Never the less we had an awesome experience a few weeks ago. We went on a boat with some friends of ours who lead our youth program and are truly wonderful people. The don't have any kids yet and are so kind and fun with our kids that Sophie and Gavin really enjoy being with them.

We thought it would be fun to go to one of the other islands for the afternoon named Begee. While we were on our way Mindi thought she saw some dolphins. Matt, her husband drove the boat over there and we found ourselves in the middle of a large (75+) pod of dolphins. They were everywhere, swimming next and in front of the boat, jumping in twos and threes and generally putting on a display. We were laughing from pure joy. It made me think of Psalm 108.

Sophie and Mindi were on the front rail of the boat and two dolphins jumped so close that their splash got Mindi and Sophie wet! It was one of our best experiences as a family to date.

Matt took some video and photos by sticking his camera in the water while the boat was moving. He got some good shots and these are a few of them.

Key Spiritual Concept: Guides

Learning to follow Jesus is a lifelong quest that we can’t do alone. We need others to teach us how to follow the way of Christ. The disciples had Jesus to teach and model what it looks like to live in a dynamic relationship with God and his kingdom. Jesus was a constant role model and guide. After his ascension he sent the Holy Spirit to fill the disciples and give them a dynamic interaction with God and the kingdom. These disciples taught and modeled kingdom living in their generation. If someone wanted to know what it meant to live the gospel they could look to Peter, James or John.

As Paul travelled he not only taught but modeled this same lifestyle. He invested himself in others so they too could model this way of living for the world to see. In his first letter to the Thessalonians he says “you became imitators of us and the Lord” and later he says that they “have become a model to all the believers” (1 Thessalonians 1:6-7). The pattern was to verbally teach and preach the good news and to live the good news so that others could see the lifestyle and learn to live it.

Having a role model in the faith and being a role model are central to the New Testament understanding of how the gospel is to flourish. Somewhere along the line I think we have lost the dynamic of being an apprentice in kingdom living. That is, we don’t seem to look as vigorously to being trained in how to live as a follower of Jesus and participant in the kingdom of God as we do to other parts of life. It seems almost everywhere else in our existence we spend time as an apprentice, or learner before we move into doing the thing by ourselves. Teachers student teach. Doctors have fellowships. The trade unions have detailed apprenticeships. Firefighters spend three years on probation as an apprentice. Almost all jobs have some form of on the job training or preparation whether it is weeks or years before a person is certified to fill the position. All of these require the guidance of others along the way. Why do we expect anything different from following Jesus?

Maybe it is because we forget that following Christ is something that we have to learn, it doesn’t come naturally. After all Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, lose our lives and take up our cross (Mark 8:34-39). Seeing as we are born selfish learning to be unselfish and focus on Christ is going to take some work. In fact it takes the work of God through the Holy Spirit to transform us. This is something we learn and desperately need modeled for us. While we can learn a tremendous amount from reading, there is something so powerful about being around a person we know who is living the lifestyle. If our heart is open and we are humble enough to learn then being around someone who knows Christ better than we do and who is also living more fully in the kingdom is the best thing we can do for our spiritual growth.

While some people might bristle at the notion of others knowing Jesus more doesn’t change the fact that some people do know Jesus more intimately and are living more fully in the kingdom. It doesn’t make these people more “saved” or “loved more”, they just have learned more and living more fully. I don’t think anyone would doubt that Paul knew Jesus better than a new convert. Both were loved equally by God, one just knew God better. Frankly if I am going to learn how to live life with Christ I would rather spend my time with Paul than the new convert. This remains true across the generations.

We all have a responsibility to find someone we can learn from and someone we can teach. Also the church is to be a community of disciples who are living in such a way that it helps draw people more fully into a relationship with Christ and kingdom living. The church can be thought of a school perhaps. The church is to be a school of love, where people are taught how to love God with all their heart, mind and strength and then in turn love their neighbor as themselves. We will never do this without people to teach and guide us in the ways of Christ and kingdom living.

wedding anniversary

Today is my fourteenth wedding anniversary. I feel so thankful to have married such a fantastic woman who has such a wonderful servant's heart and who is so kind and gracious.I know that I wouldn't be in the place I am today without her constant love and support and for that among other things I am so thankful. I consider my marriage to be an answer to pray.

Since today is my anniversary it makes some sense to write about a subject that I have had many conversations about and yet written almost nothing. The subject is marriage as a context for spiritual growth. For whatever reasons it seems odd that we don't talk more about marriage as a vehicle for spiritual growth. Perhaps it is because so many marriages are hurting and for many people it is a place of pain and heartache rather than growth and discovery.

Never the less it is worth looking at a few ways in which marriage can be a way for us to grow spiritually. Before I do that I don't want anyone to infer that abuse in a marriage in any form is okay or that all marriages have to last, I know of some situations where the marriage shouldn't last. With that being said here are a few ideas on how a marriage can be part of our spiritual growth.

Learning to love God and to love our neighbor is at the core of Christian spirituality. God calls us to be a people who can routinely and regularly love; that is we are called to be people who can will, choose and act for the good of another. This is the primary mark of a mature Christian. Maturity in Christ is about love, not how well we know the bible, or how many churches services we attend or the amount of money we give. All of these are good but they are no substitute for love.

Loving is something we learn. Love is something that requires God to inspire, teach and guide us.

A marriage can and should be a place where we learn to love our neighbor. We learn to make choices for the good of our spouse. We learn to give and receive forgiveness. We learn the meaning of covenant and promise. We learn to become more selfless and less selfish.

When viewed this way our marriage can be seen as part of a school of love where our hearts are formed in  Christlikeness. We start learning to love someone whom we have chosen and who has chosen us. The goal is to start with someone who is easier to love (our spouse) so that we can learn to love people who are more difficult to love. Perhaps as we mature in Christ we can learn to love those society has cast off. 

Seeing our marriage as part of school of love can help to give new meaning to the challenges all marriages face. They part of living in community and they can help form us as more mature people who are capable of loving God and loving our neighbor. Interestingly enough research shows that only 1% of couples that regularly pray together get divorced.

Vacation

I am blessed to be on vacation and travelling so my blog will lay dormant until the middle of August when I begin my series again on key spiritual concepts.

Rest-Work

I am not sure this post is part of my key spiritual concepts series, although maybe it is. Nevertheless it is what I have been learning lately and I think the key insight is worth thinking about.

Working from rest is at the heart of honoring the Sabbath. It means that we rest, work then as we swing back to rest we prune so that we can abide in Christ. This is an essential rhythm on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. Living on Kwaj I have learned the consequences of not being able to fully swing back to rest due to our location and the cost of travel off island. It has been very powerful experience in teaching me the value of this pattern.

One area I am noticing the impact of not working from rest is preaching. It is something I feel deeply called to do and really enjoy doing but by the time I go on vacation I will have preached something like 50 out of 51 Sundays. Frankly I can feel it. I don’t feel like I am at my best the last few weeks and it bothers me. I am thankful God is strengthening me for the task but I feel him teaching me that this isn’t the way to live.  In addition to the creativity needed to preach the Word this past year, I also have had to be creative as I lead over 35 bible studies in that same time frame. This isn’t the pattern we are called to live.

Living in a place with no restaurants and only three fast food places means that the meal preparation and clean up is intense to say the least. My wife has had very few breaks which means by the end cooking for her is largely a chore and burnout is on the horizon.  There are other examples of this pattern but I don’t want to turn this post into whining session. The examples are there to help illustrate the point that God has been teaching me from this experience.

The point is that when we ignore rest we lessen our ability to love God and love our neighbor. We get dull and find ourselves not really wanting to do anything now that they daily stuff has become such a chore. Rest reinvigorates us and gives us the renewal and space that we need to enter more fully into our calling to love God and love our neighbor. Without the time of abiding in Christ and being renewed we will never bear the fruit we are called to bear because we will be too burdened. Without rest loving our neighbor becomes unmanageable because we are simply trying to survive our own lives, let alone enter into neighbor's pain and struggles. Without rest being involved in the ministry of our congregation becomes too difficult because we just don't have the energy to invest. The consequences of not pruning and abiding in Christ are significant. I can see why honoring the Sabbath is in the top ten.

While my location might be unique I don't my struggle to honor the Sabbath is unique. I think many of us are challenged to live the rhythm of: rest-work-prune-abide then start working again.  If I am right that a lack of rest impacts our ability to love God and our neighbor then it becomes imperative for Christians to learn to live this pattern since love is at the heart of who we are.

How is the rhythm of your life?

First Key Spiritual Concept

A few weeks ago I set forth the idea that perhaps only a few key ideas are necessary for our spiritual growth. I have wanted to write more on those but I have been out of town so it has been hard to sit and have some time to write. I am back at my desk and in a place to give my theory a go.

So often we begin the spiritual journey focused on the self and what God can do for us. We wonder what can a relationship with God add to my life and how does it help me get ahead. That is natural since the American way of life is about getting ahead and gaining more. After all that is the sign of success in our culture. We come to Christ and realize that we now have “gained” forgiveness of sins and we realize that Christ has “given” us salvation; we have added an important element into our life. This isn’t a bad starting place; rather it is a natural part of our spiritual development. However, if we stay at this place of “me + God” then our Christian maturity will stall out and we will miss so much.

God longs for us to move from self focus (me + God), both focus (God + me) to God focus (God). In other words we move into learning that “it’s not about me” and our primary focus moves away from us.  Life becomes about Christ’s will instead of our will. The word for this is surrender.  The heart of all growth in Christian spirituality is an ever deepening surrender to Christ and his will. We can do all the spiritual practices and disciplines but if we don’t do them with an attitude of humility and surrender to Christ then we are simply practicing religion and missing the relationship we have been called into. Jesus is clear when he says that “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.” (Mark 8:34b-35 NIV)

The Apostle Paul calls himself a “slave of Christ” (Phil 1:1) and he also says that he considers everything “a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3:8). 

I think that most of us if we are honest with ourselves bristle at the idea of surrender. We have been taught to be strong, get more, achieve more, be in control and be the master of your own destiny.  To be asked to give up control (which is really an illusion), go where we may or may not want to go and embrace a servant’s attitude is hard.  It may mean embracing values and practices that aren’t consistent with our culture and frankly may at times be significantly at odds with it.

Practicing surrender forces us to examine if we really want God to answer our prayer “thy will be done and thy kingdom come”. Intuitively we know that sometimes God’s will and our will might not be the same thing and if push came to shove would be like Christ and yield our will to the Lord’s.

Despite the struggles we might have with learning to surrender and yes, it is something we learn little by little over time we shouldn’t fail to see the promise in Christ’s words. He says that those who give their life to Him will save it. Elsewhere he says that we should “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). Jesus shows us and teaches us that surrendering our lives to him is the way of life. When the focus of our lives becomes seeking the kingdom those things that we need will added unto us. Right after that Jesus tells us not to worry since he knows that when our lives are yielded to him and focused on the kingdom we grow in our freedom from worry. One of the fruits of surrender is a life marked with less worry, greater peace and deeper contentment.

I find that one of the first steps in surrender to Christ is to just begin to desire surrender. We need to start somewhere and our desires are a good place. We can journal and pray about the areas we feel like we are holding onto and can’t yield to Christ. It makes sense to reflect on what is holding us back and what we are afraid of. At this point meditating on the cross makes sense because there we see so clearly Christ’s love for us, his complete surrender so that we could have life. The God who gave himself so completely on the cross is a God we can trust more than we can trust ourselves or anything else. Christ wants us to live life fully and so has shown us that way through surrender and kingdom living.

Eventually praying a prayer of surrender on a regular basis makes sense, it will help connect our desire to give ourselves with the action necessary. It will shape our heart on change the focus of our spirituality from getting things from God to giving ourselves to God and wanting to follow his way.

Below is one of the classic prayers of surrender also known as a prayer of abandonment. It a beautiful description of what I have haphazardly tried to write about.

Father,
I abandon myself into your hands; do with me what you will.
Whatever you may do, I thank you:
I am ready for all, I accept all.
Let only your will be done in me, and in all your creatures.
I wish no more than this, O Lord.

Into your hands I commend my soul;
I offer it to you
with all the love of my heart,
for I love you, Lord,
and so need to give myself,
to surrender myself into your hands,
without reserve,
and with boundless confidence,
for you are my Father.

Charles de Foucald

Core Spiritual Items

A few weeks ago I read an article where twelve leading fitness experts were asked what their top five exercises were for overall fitness and health. It was a great article because it sought to get to the core of what one needs to do regularly in order to be in good physical condition. It is relevant since there are seemingly thousands of exercises out there and frankly people send lots of time, money and energy with little or no improvement in their health and wellness. If this principle is true for our physical life I have been wondering if it can be true for our physical life.

I am convinced that most Christians want to grow and want their lives to reflect the reality of their faith and relationship with Jesus. I think we sometimes even envy those who seem to have more peace, contentment and more spiritual passion. We don't really know how they "got it" and wonder if we could "get it". In vain we try the latest books or conferences but seem to come up short since we really don't know the necessary core practices and attitudes.

Threrefore, what I would humbly like to do in the following posts is to explore what I think the core ideas are for growth in our relationship with Christ. They certainly won't be the only ideas or only way to grow but I trust with the right intention and effort that God will use them to help mature us spiritually.