blogless one

Sorry that I have been neglectful on posting for the bog. I have been busy helping tile my kitchen and by the end of the day, I am exhausted from being on my feet most of the day. I will do my best to post something tomorrow night.

can we legislate morality?

                        I recently typed a response to a comment that my friend made about  legislating morality. His comment was “you can’t legislate morality”. My response was legislation (law ) is all about changing behavior; to change people to a more “moral” behavior for the good of others.  Law exists to make unmoral behavior, one that harms people for selfish gain, wrong and punishable. So I guess we can legislate moral behavior, but as my friend said, we cannot legislate morality.

That is because morality is not just behavior; in fact, morality is really what happens inside. Behavior should be the result of what is going on inside. That is why what my friend said is true, you cannot legislate what goes on in the heart of men.

Jesus was always looking to change the hearts of men. He knew better than anyone that the law would not make a man moral.

As Jesus said in the scriptures, it is what comes out of a man that defiles him. Therefore, what is inside is the most important because that is what causes the moral behavior to be from the heart.

So, I would have to agree with my friend, we can not legislate morality, a moral heart. And after all, it is the heart that needs to be changed for morality to work.

why not me Lord??

I have a very close friend that confides in me many things about his life. I am sure that we all know and admit that we all have issues. Admittedly some have more than others. This friend is one of the best examples of a follower of Jesus that I have seen. He is a devoted husband and father and has gone out of his way to help whoever he could. I really admire him.

We were talking the other day about sins that we have in our lives. You know the type, the ones that you think you have concurred through the power of the Lord and all of a sudden they are back? He was relating to me a story of how a man was a drunk and had many other problems. When he came to Christ they all vanished.

I know that many people, including myself, may be dealing with issues in life that you have been praying about. You may have been praying about for some time. I know how frustrating it can be to see others be “ delivered” and we are still asking God what about me?

I am sure you have all heard “well if you had enough faith God would take it away.”

The proof text that most well meaning Christians use to justify this is Matt 9:29
29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, "According to your faith be it done to you."

This is an example when Jesus was healing a man of blindness. As we look through the gospels we see many examples of Jesus healing people. In some cases the faith of the individual asking for the healing was necessary ( Matt 9:2, 15:28), in some faith of another, not the person needing healing, is needed ( Matt 8:13)and in still others faith was not an issue ( Luke 22:51 ). So if we read the scriptures it becomes clear that faith is not always the issue when it comes to God’s healing.

I have also heard 2Cor 5:17 be used as a proof that if we are in Christ we should not have any isues from the past.

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

If you look at the context of the scripture it is clearly speaking of our old nature. The nature that caused us to think about thinks of the world and not things of God.

So what is the way we should deal with those nagging issues that we battle over but they still come back? We should look at it through the Apostle Paul’s eyes
2Cor 12-6-9
If I had a mind to brag a little, I could probably do it without looking ridiculous, and I'd still be speaking plain truth all the way. But I'll spare you. I don't want anyone imagining me as anything other than the fool you'd encounter if you saw me on the street or heard me talk. 7Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! 8At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, 9and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it's all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.


We don’t really know what Paul’s issue was that he wanted God to take away. Some speculate that it could have been that he was obese. Some think it was his eyesight. I have even heard some that say it was not a physical thing, but the presence of people that used to follow him around and discount what he taught. But no matter what it was, it obviously caused Paul a lot of anguish. Paul was obviously a person with a passionate relationship with God. And yet that old thorn in the flesh kept digging and digging at him.

We need to understand that God is not our fairy god father. He does not exist to make our lives easy or to remove the obstacles in our lives. He wants us to come to him for all the difficult things, not so he can remove them but so we can build the relationship with him and see his grace and mercy in action.
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gettin down to the nitty gritty

I remember a time in a church around election time when I noticed a “Christian voters guide” in the bulletin we were handed. I remember think wow is this inappropriate. I related my feelings to many people and was surprised at the reaction I received. Most of the people believed that this type of handout is necessary to make sure that biblical principles would be used in selecting the elected officials and propositions on the ballot. I wanted to say “who’s biblical principles” , but I didn’t.

I would like to say that things like the situation above surprise me, but they do not. I have a long history of this happening to me. While in high school I remember, being told that I needed to get a “good Christian haircut” by some of my church friends. I remember a time when I was going to a very large church that many of your would recognize the name of, when I heard a sermon on “Grey Areas for Men”. The pastor told us all about the gray areas like men with longer than collar length hair, men with facial hair, and men that had pierced ears. I turned to my wife and said “geese I’m a walking gray area.”

I am not putting this under the categories of pet peeves but maybe I should.  My question to those who believe some of this stuff is “what gives you the right to judge what is Christian or not and why must you try to biblicize your personal beliefs or cultural preferences.”

I remember the first time that one of my oldest son’s friends got a tattoo.  I was sitting there watching this high school band do the worship and doing a great job when I was tapped on the shoulder and asked” do you know the scripture that says we should not tattoo ourselves?” This was before I learned to hold my tongue better and I turned to the man and asked him when the last time he ate shrimp was, or did he have a shirt with mixed fibers.I knew he was talking about Leviticus 19:28.

Why is it that some people can take some laws of the scriptures, like eating meat with blood in it, or not  shaving the sides of their heads( like in most modern haircuts) or eating fruit from a tree that is less than 5 years old and remove them from the list that is no longer accurate ,but when it comes to something that they don’t like for personal or cultural reason they want to enforce that law.

I think what it all comes down to is this; all of us want others to believe what we do. I know that most of us in the emerging church would say that is not so, but if we are honest we would say that it would make life and ministry a whole lot easier.

I have always been the swim against the steam kind of guy. I have good company though so it does not bother me so much. If you think about it the United States was founded and established by the same type of people.

I always try to use Jesus as my example. I know that I am not always successful, but I do try. Let’s face it, Jesus was a radical. He messed up some stuff; he turned the religious leaders on edge. He was the radical of radicals.

The one thing that Jesus did not do was fight just to fight. When he did go against the flow it was to point to the real thing, a relationship with the Father; the destiny of every human being. He also tried to show people that faith was not about what others told you to do, but what God tells us to do.


I think it is time for all of us, myself included, to look at our personal opinions and cultural biases and do our best to put them aside. After all, we need to be sharing Jesus Christ and what he has done, not our opinions of dress codes and bodily adornment.

a church that the church does not think is a church

We have really been having a great time in Texas. We are staying at our friend’s house in Aubrey, that is about 35 miles north of Dallas. It is what the locals say is “out in the country” nothing really but horse ranches. Their place is 3 acres which is small compared to the others around them ,but has a great 3600 sq ft house, a big pasture for their three horses and a lot of area that they are going to develop to have more animals, like goats and chickens.

I was really presently surprised when we got here. A lot of our friends told us to expect totally flat land. It is anything but. It is beautiful and our friends’ say that it is dry and not as green and lush as it usually is.

Our youngest is having a great time running after the dogs and helping feed the horses.


I was speaking to another pastor from our area the other day and he asked me about our church. I told him that we used to have more people but many moved and we were down to about 20 and they met at our home. He was very gracious when I described the church and what I felt God was calling us to. When he started to leave he said “good luck on your bible study group.” I have to admit I was a little peeved at that comment. Why is it that the modern church sees itself defined by a building?

It seems to me that the home churches were what the believers were used to , the norm as it were in New Testament times. I am not so pretentious as to think that because our church meets at a house that it is somehow better. I believe that all size churches have advantages and disadvantages.

Our people have no desire to do church as usual. They like our group and the ability to have dialog during the teaching. It is very similar to a college class situation where at anytime people can share their thoughts on the subject or ask questions.

We practice Lectio Divina on a regular basis to help people understand the importance of listening to the voice of God. We exist to get people to understand the importance of giving God you all, in worship to him, service to others, prayer and fellowship.

We are a church , but not by the standards of many people.

We take God seriously, but ourselves no to seriously.

the w word

I am going to talk about a word that strikes fear in the hearts if the strongest of men. A word that is so hated, although a secretly hatred, that people don’t want to talk about it. A word that can alienate you best friend, your family and complete strangers. The word is ( dum da dum dum ) witnessing.

The great commission verse is one of those verses in the Bible that some wish they could erase and replace with their favorite activity. Kinda like” go ye into all the world and show how to cook to every nation. Please understand that I am not trying to blaspheme, just trying to make a point .

In the concluding chapter of Colossians, Paul tells the believers how to deal with people outside the faith.

Col 4:5-6 Use your heads as you live and work among outsiders. Don’t miss a trick. Make the most of every opportunity. Be gracious in your speech. The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down not cut them out.

I love this scripture because it shows us that there was a time when relationship with unbelievers was valued.

I am always upset when witnessing is portrayed like going hunting. I have this view of a gun slinger that goes out and kills his man and then makes another notch on his holster. I know the great commission says we need to go to the entire world and preach the Gospel. Obviously I don’t have a problem with the preaching of the Gospel. My problem is the idea that getting “one for the team” is more important than helping people understand the importance of a life with Jesus Christ . Remember we are much more than just fire insurance sales people. To go and witness and then leave without helping them be in a place where they can grow, seems to me to be a selfish motive. Are we concerned about people having a living and breathing relationship with Jesus Christ, or are we more concerned that WE have won people. It is not just a point of semantics. Our motivation should be for the people that need to know Jesus, not for us to get brownie points.

Earlier this year there was a T V show on cable called 30 days. The premise of the show was that a person had to live “ in the shoes” of another person for 30 days. There were some interesting shows, but the one I remember the most was when a straight Christian young man had to live in the Castro district of San Francisco. What made it interesting was that the Christian man was able to understand what it was like to be viewed as a homosexual. The experience allowed him to see gay people as people not just sinners.


I do not deny that people need to repent and ask forgivness for their sins. I acknowledge the necessity for people to know Christ, to live in relationship with him and to have the promise of heaven. The question that I have is do we have to degrade them as a human being and not value them as God’s creation?

The clearest example that I have ever seen of people that devalue non believers is a group called godhatesfags.com. If you have a weak system or are susceptible to rage because of self righteous hypocritical Christian I would suggest that you don’t view the site. If you can observe something like that without getting outraged, then take a look. They are the grossest example of self proclaimed Christians that I believe w enrage God. I personally believe that Jesus weeps when he sees what they do and how they treat his creation. They will protest funerals of known gay people and shout out thing like “sodomite, that faggot will burn in hell”. Doing this kind of protesting is no longer limited to funerals of gay people. Now they have a site called godhatesamerica.com. On that site they praise the people that destroyed the twin towers and say it was God’s judgment. They are now protesting the funerals of our solders that have died in Iraq. They are shouting out that they belong to a faggot army.

How can anyone read the scripture in Colossians and see the life of Christ as portrayed in the gospels and think that God is honored by this kind of behavior? Now you may wonder why I bring them up in a blog about witnessing, well I bring them up to say this, how can they say they are followers of Christ and not preach the Gospel of grace, mercy and forgivness. They have a tremendous opportunity to show God’s love to people in terribly pain. What about the responsibility to try and show Gods love and mercy to the hurting?
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So this brings up some interesting questions: How are we to witness? What are we to say? What should our attitude be? Jesus gives a example and a clue in Matt 10:16

"Stay alert. This is hazardous work I'm assigning you. You're going to be like sheep running through a wolf pack, so don't call attention to yourselves. Be as cunning as a snake, inoffensive as a dove.


We need to understand that “don’t bring attention to your selves” means that we need to do the work or sharing our faith in a non offensive way. I am not saying that we are not to talk to people boldly sometimes, but look back at the example of Jesus in scripture and you will see that the only people Jesus ever got angry with or shouted at were the religious hypocrites. The people that thought they were the righteous ones when really they were in worse shape than the out and out sinners.

The scriptures say we are to be as inoffensive as doves, we are to be gracious in our speech.The goal is to bring out the best in others in a conversation, not put them down not cut them out.

We are not responsible to get people have to faith in Jesus Christ, we are responsible to tell them about who he is and what he has done so they can now have a right relationship with God.

I believe what I call shotgun evangelism is a thing of the past. That type of evangelism was really popular in the seventies. You know the type , walk the streets and get as many people as you possibly can to say the sinners prayer, I think the true way of reaching people is sharing your life. You know we have really great example of this type of evangelism in scripture; Jesus Christ. Jesus spent three years with the twelve. He spoke to them along the way. He spoke into their lives through his relationship with them.

Now this type of evangelism may not have immediate results but remember this, after spending all the three years in the very presences of the embodied Christ, the disciples still didn’t get it. Be patient, if you have a problem with patience, just remember how patient God is with you.

Get a dog little longie

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW Howdy everyone from
the lone star state. We arrived in good order and have had the opportunity to check out our friends house and go see a barrel racing competition.

The good news is my friends have a wifi so I will be able to post to the blog, at least till Friday. I am hoping that I will have enough time to write a few posts and email them to my account so I can post for the entire trip.


I was thinking about all the foods that people don’t like . I personally think the three top hated foods are brussel sprouts ( I cant see them without thinking about the pods that the aliens in the movie Invasion of the Body Snatchers were born in), broccoli ( I used to tell my oldest son that they were baby trees) and liver ( totally disgusting) . I will admit I hate two out of the three; brussel sprouts and liver. I really like broccoli, don’t know why I never really eat it as a kid.

Here is the thing that bugs me. Why is it when you tell people that you dislike something you so often hear “well you haven’t had it the way I cook it.” Ok, I admit I have not had liver cooked by every bubby/grandma along the way, but I can tell you this. I dislike liver with a passion, I mean I can’t even stand to be at the same table as people that are eating it. So when people tell me that I have not had it the way they cook it I want to say is “ LOOK ITS STILL LIVER AND LIVER TASTE LIKE LIVER. I mean why should I keep trying it if I don’t like it. I have tried many peoples recipe for fixing liver, both hot and cold (chopped). Sometimes people will tell me that I will like their way of cooking liver because it doesn’t taste like liver. Ok I am sure you can anticipate what I am going to say; why would I want to bother eating something that does not taste like it was intended to taste, What is the point of that? it.

Why are there all these people in the world touting the wonders of liver? Is there some kind of secret liver lobby that I am not aware of? It used to be people would tell you how good it was for you. I never believed it and now we know that it is not true.

The last time a friend went on and on about the wonders of liver I stopped them and asked the question “ do you know what a liver does” the person looked at me like I just asked them to explain quantum physics. I went on to say” basically a liver filters all the aaa….errr …crap out of your blood . So when you are eating liver you are eating a crap filter .” The horror on the persons face let me know that as usual I had gone a little to far. In my defense I would like to say if this person had not kept bugging me about trying liver when I had already told them how much I loathe it I probably would have let it go.

So here is the moral of the story. If a person tells you they don’t like something just accept it. and move on. That is why there is so much variety of food in life because people dislike something and like others. Do not proselytize people over to your personal food favorites. Its ok if your friend thinks that tuna casserole is not a food suitable for human consumption ( I would agree with that) . Its ok if you like peanut butter banana and mayo sandwiches .

So be bold with your food likes and dislikes, but be tolerant of others. Difference is what makes the world go around.

busy, busy, busy

Hey everyone, I’m sorry but I have no words of wisdom to share with you and as my favorite satirist once said “if you don’t have anything to say the very least you can do is to shut up”. Well I am not quite ready to shut up yet, but I have so much to do to get ready for leaving town tomorrow morning that I do not have the time to write anything. I am hoping that the people that we stay with have a wifi connection so I can use my lap top and send some entries to the blog. If for any reason I cant enter to the blog while I am away I will be back on 10/24 and will enter then. I will try my best to post, as I really want to keep it going.

pet peeve #2

Pet Peeve #2

I wanted to start of by stating that the numbered order of the pet peeves I place on the blog have noting to do with listing my pet peeves in order. Just in case you cared.

This is about pet food. I am talking in particular about dog and cat food. I would include bird food but I have never seen this on bird food. As far as rats, gerbils and guinea pigs, I do not mean to insult anyone but I think of them more as vermin than pets. Oh, and reptiles are most definitely not on my pet list. I never understood why people want pets that are not able or interested in returning their affection.

Ok here goes. What is the idea of putting comments like “new better taste!” on pet food? I mean really, is there someone that is paid to taste this stuff?  In addition,  how do they know it is better tasting to the animals just because the latest batch does not make them gag or is somehow more appealing to the human palette?

I love my pets, know that they are intelligent and do have ways of communicating their feelings to me. I can honestly say that my pets have never jumped up on their hind legs and said “ OH MAN THIS NEW STUFF DEFIANTLY TASTE BETTER THAN THAT OLD CRAP YOU USED TO FEED US!” I can also tell you  they have never lingered long at the food bowl savoring the  latest new pet food. How fine tuned can dogs and cats taste be? I mean look where their mouths have been.

I think unless the pet food companies  are willing to tell us  how they can know  it taste better they should say things like “ new formula” and then say on the can or bag that the pets they tested it on seem to like it. That way I would believe them and could get this picture of a man in a lab coat on all fours eating this stuff out of my head.

the parable of the coffee bean

I read an article once that said “You know you’re a Pastor When” and then it listed all these things that would supposedly let know you were a Pastor. The only one that I remember when something like” you know you’re a Pastor when you can view any TV program or movie and come away with at least 3 sermon illustrations.” I think that is true, hopefully one of the gifts that God gives Pastors is the ability to take life situations and make them pertinent illustrations. This is especially necessary for those of us in ”postmodern” ministry. As I have always said, some people will not listen to people quoting out of the Bible, but will listen to you when you talk about a TV show or movie and then relate it to Scripture.


I remember when I preached in our home church, before we planted, and I used a live example of a common situation in life to illustrate a truth of scripture. The  sermon was  called “ The Parable of the Coffee Bean.”

Now first I must say that my wife has told me on many occasions that I am a coffee snob and I admit it is true. I have found an establishment near my home that roasts it own coffee beans. I can buy my beans within hours of the roasting. I then double wrap them in two zip lock bags, with all the air removed, and then only take out enough beans for the amount of coffee that I am making. I will not keep beans for more than 6 months with out throwing them out.

Now you may be thinking that I would never have them that long because I love coffee so much, but I have had to throw some beans out. You see, I do love coffee, but only good coffee and I don’t always have the time to make it.  I even have a coffee maker that has a timer I can set, but that would mean that I would have to grind the beans  and let them sit out in the coffee maker exposed to the air overnight and that just wont do.

I will drink Starbucks in a pinch, but they burn their beans to get people addicted to that strong taste. A quite cleaver ploy for them really; but I digress.

So let’s just say that I am known for having good coffee and people have come over to our house for coffee because it is not just a cup of Joe, it’s an event.

Now, having said all that I will describe the live illustration.  The first thing that I did was set up my coffee maker, a pitcher of water and my beans up front, oh and my grinder of course. I had pictures projected of coffee bean on the tree (if you have never seen them they look like little cherries), pictures of them before they are roasted and pictures of them being poured out of a roaster (yummmmm).

I then started to tell the plight of the coffee bean, showing what coffee has to go through to reach its full potential. Then I compared each step to the process to what we go through in our lives.

The first thing that must happen is the coffee bean must leave the nourishment of the tree, much like we need to establish ourselves as separate from our parents. Then the real trouble starts, it must be stripped of its outer shell, much like trials in life. Then it must endure the testing of fire from the roasting process, I am sure you can make the comparison there.  At this point I ground some beans and said last but not least it must be placed in a grinder to be able to be used to make coffee, more trials in life. I then placed the ground coffee in the filter and placed the filter in the coffee maker. I stopped for a moment and said that every person in the world goes through the same process. We as Christians go through one more step. I showed the people the water and said  the difference between people that know Christ and people that don’t is the presence of the Holy Spirit. The water represents the Holy Spirit’s presence in the life of the believer.  I put the water in the coffee maker and started brewing. I told them that with out the presence of the water, the beans will not be able to reach their full potential; coffee. And with out the presence of the Holy Spirit we can never reach our full potential either. I then related that we are all meant to have a saving relationship with God. Jesus came down to make sure it was available to all. When we as people reject that, we can’t reach the full potential of what we were intended to be.

We as believers have the opportunity to be what God wants us to be. People that not only have a promise of a future with Him in eternity, but people that are his eyes and ears, hand and feet on earth. We have the awesome privilege and responsibility to make a difference. A  difference  to go and do as Jesus did; feed the poor, visit those in prison, help the widows ,the orphans and preach the good news so that others can reach their potential too.

I am not sure if everyone that heard the sermon that day appreciated the illustration, but they did line up for some of my coffee.

sorry about that guys

Ok,Ok,  it’s past 12 am and I have not entered anything  for the blog.. I apologize, but my wife is away and I have the sole responsibility for my youngest son. Now I can here you says, “big deal”. Well I admit that it is not a big deal, what is a big deal is that I am selfish of my time alone to study and write. Although I love my son and love to spend time with him, when I am the only one home I am the only person he can play with. You see we live in a townhouse complex that has no children his age. I feel bad for him.  

We are taking a vacation to Texas. We have five friends that moved there and are begging us to do so. I am not sure that I want to live in a place that is known for snakes and three inch flying cockroaches; well actually they are called palmetto bugs, but just the same. I am open to whatever God has, and I have to admit that Texas is not like a mud hut somewhere, not that mud huts are bad if God calls you there, it’s just  not my first choice for a home.

So I will go to bed now so I can get up and be awake for my son when he gets up. I think we will go see the new Wallace and Gromet movie. I mean how can anything in life be difficult when you view 16’ clay figures fighting against the horrible menace of the weir rabbit?

Paradox is not two MDs sharing an office

I have never been a person that accepts what others tell me if I have the ability to research and “check it out”. Its not that I think that all people are lying to me , I mean I may be paranoid, but not that paranoid. I think it is because even though I am an opinionated person, I would hope that my opinions come after investigating the evidence that has been provided.

Regarding things of faith, I am not afraid to investigate or to question. I never question the validity of Scripture, but I will questions the traditions of men as it relates to what a Christian is and does.

I have always been offended by the “accept Jesus and all of life will be fine and easy” type of mentality. I think my main reason for the offence is that the statement is a lie. The reality is that Its kind of like that old song I Never Promised you a Rose Garden. There is nothing in scripture that says that life will be fine, in fact quite the contrary. As we look at the lives of the disciples we see that their lives were anything but rosy. What we do find is a group of individuals that knew that life was like a mountain range, lots of ups and downs. The issue was not life, but who we have by our side and in our hearts to deal with it.

I bring all this up to say this, as Christians we need to be honest. We need to tell people that life with Christ is a paradox at times. I know that many people have problems with paradox, some even don’t know the difference between paradox and contradiction. So I think we should look at the definition for both; so here goes.


contradiction:

1: opposition between two conflicting forces or ideas 2: (logic) a statement that is necessarily false; "the statement `he is brave and he is not brave' is a contradiction"

paradox:

That which is apparently, though not actually, inconsistent with or opposed to the known facts in any case.


The Bible is full of paradox, in fact that is one reason why people say that it is full of contradictions when it is not, because contradiction and padarox are often confused. Lets look at some statements of paradox in the scriptures:

Prov 3:7
There is one who makes himself rich, yet has nothing. And one that makes himself poor, yet has great riches

This next paradox from the New Testament seems to explain our one from Proverbs

Mark 8:35
For whoever desires to save his like will lose it , but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospels will save it.


And I think the following is my favorite:

Matt 10:16

Behold I send you out as sheep among the wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.


Some of the modern translations translate the paradox right out of the scripture. I think we miss out when they do that.

I have found a song that speaks of the paradox of the Christian life and it has become my signature song. It is by a band called Delirious and it is from their first album called King of Fools. I would like to tell you that the first time I heard this song that my mind reached out and grasped it with full understanding, but I would be lying. It took listening to a few times and going through a time in my life where the paradox became more evident. Please look at the lyric and see if you can relate.

King Of Fools

Waiting for you
Nothing in this world can bring me
Peace and madness
They've become the very best of friends

Walking with you
Blindly follow out upon the
Water runs down
You've become the very best of friends

I'll live for you and try to be the king of fools
I'll long for you and walk before the king of all

Joy has found me
Living life without you would be
Hell or heaven
Soon we'll find the greatest king of fools

I'll live for you and try to be the king of fools
I'll long just to walk before the king of fools

Written by Stuart Garrard/Martin Smith ©1997 Curious? Music UK


The scripture the title of the song was taken from is:

1 Cor 4: 9-10
For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. 10We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.

We take what the world thinks is foolishness and live a life of it . If we follow Jesus with our whole hearts we would have to live a life of paradox, why? Well it all comes down to that old sin nature thing. We know that we want to live for Christ, but if we are honest we know we often miss the mark. How can we have Christ in us and still blow it?

The most famous paradox in the bible illustrates and explains it so well.

Rom 7: 14-25
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do. 16 If, then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good. 17 But now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. 19 For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. 20 Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
21 I find then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good. 22 For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. 23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24 O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.


Wow is that like paradox personified or what? This is what the song speaks of, when it says “Peace and madness”. When it talks of “Life with out you would be hell or heaven” it speaks of the paradox that we saw in Rom 7.

But we need to know that through all of this paradoxical life, we have the answer. We hear it when the singer says. “I‘ll live for you and try to be the king of fools”.

When we live for God and not for ourselves we see the answer
Romans 8:1-9

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.


Indeed the above scripture is the answer. We know that what Jesus did allows us to be clean in God’s eyes, because he looks at us and sees Jesus instead of our sin. I think we would all agree that although we do live in the spirit it takes time for us to do so more and more. This is called sanctification. We are a work in progress. This is not an excuse for not doing our best to live according to the spirit, this is an admission that because of our sin nature we blow it sometimes.

Sometimes life is confusing, situations seem bigger than life, what can we do when this paradox slaps us in the face? The only thing that we can do is hang onto Jesus and what he did, and who he is. We don’t always have to understand it all, that is where faith comes in, but we have to trust when we can not see through the paradoxes of life and know Jesus is there and he understands.

pet peeve #1

I have some pet peeves in life, I mean doesn’t everyone?  Well one that has really been bugging me lately is women’s purses in movies and TV.

Is it just me or has anyone else ever noticed that when  a women carries a purse in TV shows or the movies it is totally flat like it just came out of a box. I know as a man this should probably not bug me but it does. I mean really, any women would tell you that there is no way that a purse can look flat because off all of the things they have to carry.  I mean what would women do without at least a wallet, car keys, sun glasses and the like? If we are honest and look back at the women in our life there would be at least one that had to have chiropractic care because of all the “stuff” in their purse

So here is my suggestion to the TV and movie industries. Have the actresses put the contents of their personal purses in the bags they will be using to shoot a scene. At least that way it will look realistic and I can remove one more pet peeve from my list

Rick Warren a New Ager????

                        I started writing about my frustration with  a new site that I found. The site was an anti contemplative Christianity site. I did post to their guest book  and I did try and say  not all people that practice contemplative Christianity are New Agers. I told them that I believed in the same things that they did, deity of Christ, salvation in Christ alone, the inspiration of God in the writing of the scriptures and of course the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in believers. But   as I perused the rest of the site it became clear that these people were way off base. Below is a list of “Fallen Angeles – Christian Leaders Who Have Given in to a  Spiritually That Denies the Cross” according to the site  www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/emergingchurch.htm
David Jeremaih
Erwin Mc Manus
St John of the Cross
Brother Lawrence
Eugene Peterson
Rick Warren





This is only a partial list,  the people that I recognized but I find it hard to believe these people deny the Cross.

It seems to me that this is another example of Christians that think their theology is the only acceptable theology available. I do understand that they do use the scriptures to justify their beliefs. If you look on their site you will see a comparison chart of what they say the contemplative/emergent Christians believe and compare it to their scripture references.  The problem that I have with their comparison is two fold: 1) many of the scriptures are taken out of context to “prove” their point 2) they make the assumption that all contemplative/emergent Christians practice or believe in all the points listed.


I have decided that instead of writing to them again and trying to justify my use of such things as Lectio Devian, contemplative prayer and other emergent church practices , I will let it be.  I guess if I went trying to prove myself right and them wrong I would be in the same place as them……………………..only in a contemplative way

Counter

Ok test two

Ok test two

For some reason there was a duplicate blog but with a different address, weird huh?  Well anyway I am attempting to use the blogger settings on word to post to the correct blog: I am praying for the best.

try ,try again

Well I am an inexperienced bloger and I guess it shows. I tries to update my first post but for some reason it now has two sights, but the one I updated is not viewable. oh well i guess this is my opportunity to learn all about this stuff.

My intention is to be able to share what’s going on in my life and the life of people at our fellowship called the community. There always seems to be a lot going on so there should be no problem having stuff to post, it will just be if I get to all of it.

Well we will see how it goes. Oh, by the way, I have no intention to make sure everything is punctuated properly so if that bothers you this is probably not the place for you, anyway, this is the first post and it is what it is