Motives and Fruit

 Something God has me thinking about in this season is how it's so easy to evaluate, take a quick snapshot, and make a judgment.

Only God can truly see and judge. I think of when He spoke to Samuel, concluding, "The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

I feel strongly you and I can't measure the motives of a heart - not even close - but we can look at the fruit of a life.

Please consider this the next time you're evaluating ... anything. Or anyone. Only God sees, knows, and rewards what is lifted up to Him in secret, and you and I, friend, know nothing about it.

What Can Keep a Man Good?

"So .. how can an average person take down a pedophile?" These are the thoughts I have, typing them into an imaginary search engine, half kidding, half losing it. I'm also wondering if this delves into vigilanteism. "Seriously, if our legal system is broken, the government is broken, our leaders are broken, paid off or at worst in on all of it - what can we do? I mean, really, we, as in, the people, what can we do?" I pull away from the screen, sit for a minute, and shut the laptop, ignoring the stinging behind my eyes.

Like you, I'm tired of waiting. The headlines don't seem to go down quite as easy, churning up acid every time I reach for my son to change his diaper or his shirt, knowing for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction in this world, with however many less-innocent solicitations going on all of the time, and aside from prayer, which I believe is VERY powerful, I'm powerless to stop it. It's like when the player reaches the end of a record, but instead of a carefree heart, ready to put the next one on with the swish of her dress and a cocktail in-hand - there's just an endless muffled scratch.

How long, Lord? What can keep a man "good" apart from you?

We look to the courts for justice - for the judge to accurately interpret law in order to enact a punishment fitting of its crime. We trust this process. I guess I'm asking you - what if the only true judge is God, and we've abandoned Him? Why not return to the One who created what is truly true and what is truly just?

I think in our heart of hearts, we understand that these things do not begin or end with us. How could they? Left to our own inventions, where is the world? One quick scroll through Facebook alludes to our collective longing for justice in this world, but it's equally telling how we also won't define right and wrong. So justice becomes elusive, and the cycles keep cycling, and we wonder why we're frustrated, cynical or numb.

Remember the minor prophets as you read any of this, the Psalmists, Ecclesiastes. It's important to cry out to God in all things - especially the things we tend to hide from others, even ourselves. The bare, unearthed seedy, pit of a man's heart, created from dust - it's what He wants and it's what He holds. To long for God to return, to beg Him not to delay any longer in delivering what's just, when the perpetrator seems to repeatedly get off, when people are still inventing, after all of this time, new ways of being all kinds of awful to each other - to wonder & to maybe ask - if He's even there at all. He can take it.

I need Your mercy and patience, God. Create a clean heart in me - create YOU in me, yes - but I would be lying if I said it didn't feel too far from me, too unattainable. I'm not like you, God. When babies are being abused, slaughtered. Sold. I want justice now. For You so Loved the world .. but right now I really hate it.

Even so - especially so - come quickly, Lord Jesus!

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne; steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. Psalm 89:14

They Will Dream Dreams

I'm a doer. I've never been good at being still, to take information in & just sit on it. Glancing at our phones a million times a day, sifting through information overload with no practical outlet - I'm just not good at it. I'm convinced it's not healthy. The amount of access we have. I don't want to sit & wring my hands & fuss. For me, it's always been - if there's an issue, fix it.

With all that is happening in the world, I've asked God over & over - what will You have me do? In my tiny corner of the world, with very little in open hands - what will You have me do?

When I think of the prophets, often they were given only a handful of visions or statements to record & then their service was done. Ezekiel had six. I have one.

A few years ago, I snapped awake from a dream that was so lucid & disturbing; I knew it was from the Lord (& I am not quick to say that, because I take it seriously).

I was driving west on one of the main streets in my hometown - a shopping center on the left-hand side of the road, a pre-school, then bank & convenience store on the right.

The sky was what you probably think of when you think apocalyptic. Reds streaked through a cloudless sky, everything hued in amber, but not warm or uplifting. The air was heavy, dark & all elements around me were shaded in varying tones of black.

Looking out each side of my car, I was driving in a river of blood, and the blood was rushing toward the mountains. There were abandoned cars on all sides of the road. People were standing nearby, some shielding their eyes looking up in bewilderment, others calling out in mass hysteria & confusion. There were also dead horses & bodies all along the side of the road & scattered in the shopping center's parking lot. There were arrows sticking out of the horses, & many of the bodies were missing heads.

Just as I started to panic in the dream, I heard a loud voice say: "War is coming. I need my People to be ready."

And my eyes snapped open.

I have never had a dream before or after, on the scale of this one. I don't dream about God. I don't dream spiritual dreams. This was three or four years ago. I have asked the Lord, since then, to confirm it for me or to send another dream, but He hasn't.

Please don't mishear me. I don't think I am a prophet, or that my dream is on the same level as Scripture, but I also don't discount Scripture, the words of Joel, echoed by Peter in Acts when they said:

"In the last days, God says,
    I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
    your young men will see visions,
    your old men will dream dreams.
Even on my servants, both men and women,
    I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
    and they will prophesy.
I will show wonders in the heavens above
    and signs on the earth below,
    blood and fire and billows of smoke.
The sun will be turned to darkness
    and the moon to blood
    before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord."

So why mention this, & why now? It's because the verse goes on:

"And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

One-sided

On this frosty holiday, I have to admit that one-sided friendships are the trickiest kind.

I think often "oh I should ask them that", "I wonder how they're doing", or "they'll have great thoughts on this" only to be returned with one word answers and a disproportionate level of interest.

Who loathes themself so much as to try to continue a relationship with a ghost?

The pull

Something cultural I've been kind of watching, and find myself, even now, just resisting in my spirit, is the idea that it's ok to sum people up as "toxic" and consequently throw them away, or whatever we define as 'no longer serving us' (I'm not talking clinical personality disorders here, I'm talking the flippancy of it - you said something mean, or that I don't agree with, therefore you are toxic, therefore I'm justified in ghosting you.) Aren't we all a little toxic? We all need grace for our faults, not to be labeled and thrown out like week old meat.

(We all need grace.)

This is just one reason why I am a Christian (despite it being a wildly unpopular path). Think of the rebellion of Jesus. Jesus didn't play by the rules. He upset culture. Confronted it. People didn't know what to do with Him. He couldn't be labeled or shoved in a box. Thrown in the trash. Christianity - the real, unscrewed up, if everyone modeled it perfectly, Biblical Christianity - is uniquely distinguished amongst other religions and belief systems by GRACE - the idea that we get what we don't deserve. <Who does that???> We can't earn it, it's not based on how good or bad we are, or the things we do or don't do; with Christianity it's - we literally have no other card to play - but Jesus. Maybe that needs to be emphasized more.

Jesus holds sick people close, and we are all sick. It's the human condition. Have you ever thought of it that way? That maybe it's not hypocrisy you see but the human condition? I've seen the human condition inside and outside of the church.

Culture can do whatever they want with Christianity, they will and they do; the church will do what it wants with Christianity, it will and it does, and even now, the Church, Jesus' Bride is crying out in the same key as the world, for things to be made right, for justice, but none of anything we see unfolding holds a candle to the love and teachings of Jesus Himself.

His Love is unstoppable. He pursues even the weakest, most distant, angry, lonely, broken, the darkest, the most far gone, the most sociopathic, the most indoctrinated, the most - you name it - person - and He doesn't give up, and He doesn't throw people away. I choose to follow Him, and I will keep following Him despite the ebb and flow of culture. If you're toxic, cool, so am I. Welcome to the busted up hearts club; we're depending on antivenom that is not of this world.

It's never been cool to follow Jesus, I suspect it never will be. Jesus said in John's gospel that the world hated Him because He spoke out against its deeds and darkness (paraphrase). It's choosing today who I will serve. Culture or Jesus. The pull or Jesus. People or Jesus. Approval or Jesus.

Graverobber

Every song has a moment.

Maybe you'll know the one I'm thinking of. As Asa and I were jumping and worshipping around the kitchen this morning (daily occurrence) the "moment" came like it always does ...

(pause..2,3,4) AND I RAN OUT OF THAT GRAVE! (Fun instrumentation and dance party follows.)

Freedom. That's the line. The moment. The Gospel, and what it freely offers to each of us. Dropped chains, wild freedom.

I don't know what your grave is or was this morning, or how it maybe reburies you from time to time as we all keep walking with the Lord, 'working out our salvation with fear and trembling' (Philippians 2:12), but I do know our God is a graverobber. His shovel is made of steel, and nothing .. no thing .. is beyond His saving reach!

My grave this morning is a person, rusted and broken open at my feet. His Grace is greater, so I keep dancing.

Glorious Day - Passion, Kristian Stanfill

What is the Goal?

I've recently been going through some new resources & training material on church leadership, online/media ministry & tools for engaging both church and culture through social media. God continually describes His Church in the new testament as a body of believers - and I love that description; it's one I can really get - a diverse, divinely purposed, group of independent parts completely dependent upon one another in order to function - our primary function being to fulfill the great commission while we're here on earth with the time that's been gifted to us.

Here are some good questions being asked out there for church leaders to also assess for the overall health, unity & potential scope/influence of the Church:

1. What is the goal? What are we moving toward? If we are honest, is it to put on a "nice" service once or twice a week, with no hiccups? To appease a certain crowd/age demographic? Perhaps to not rock the boat? What about folks who aren't yet a part of our church - do our hearts earnestly beat and break for lost people?

2. If we are unconcerned at least (or hardened at worst) toward lost people (a huge red flag), what needs to change?

3. Are we asking millennials and the upcoming generations to "wait their turn" as to how we "do" church, or are we eagerly looking to them for ideas and collaboration? Is our church culture healthy when it comes to how we view, treat and minister to the generations, or are we too participating in culture wars within the church? 

4. Are we willing to be refreshed in the direction and leading of the Holy Spirit, or to potentially be replaced as God's leaders (Francis Chan, Letters to the Church)? (This last idea is not new but has stuck with me for over a year.) Refreshment or replacement requires braving outside of the comfort zone or "this is how we've always done things/this is proven to work" kind of mentalities and biases, and it also requires crazy humility.

5. Last, do we view and optimize technology as a means for reaching the lost, improving our services and our potential reach/influence, or are we hesitant, perhaps even resistant to this change? To change in general? It's okay - but if so, I wonder why? Which really brings it full-circle to question 1 - what is the goal?

If our primary goal is to reach lost people - and I believe it ought to be - we will use whatever means necessary in order to do so, knowing the methods will vary (and that it's even good the methods vary).

And of course, without compromising the Gospel.

I'd love to know what *you think, though; how has God called and equipped YOU to fulfill the great commission, in this time, in your place, and in this culture? If you are a church leader, what are some practical ways you are promoting unity within the generations in your church, and keeping a laser-like focus on the lost?