When Evil visits

There are no words for these tragedies...
... nor should there be.

I felt a similar panic last year when our little town had the elementary school on lock down with my daughter inside. The deputies pursued and arrested a man with a gun that had tried to outrun them by going through the school yard. Similar is as far as it goes. The depth of panic and pain of Friday's events cannot be measured by our words; and it seems like we have to have the trite expressions of comfort or clever zinger or quip... not appropriate today... or for time to come.

As parents we are never meant to bury our children, meant to look at unopened Christmas presents that are now, in home in Newtown Connecticut,  symbols of tragedy. We see our children as the best of what we have to project into the future, and leave the worst of our world behind them... on to a better life and future promise. Therein lies the hope of our lives and love. Trusting what God has designed that parents would never see that day.

Romans 12:20-21

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

²¹ Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

  

Evil came to that school. Now we overcome.

At the Mothership

The mothership being the Anaheim Vineyard... and I being at the Regional Pastors Conference. So much going on and so much of the time all I can do is listen. From the tensions of being a Pastor there is the constant reminder of this being so much more then a job or even a vocation. It is really a life to be given away. There is truly so much out there, so much to be done and yet my job is this. Give away what I have been given, love those in my care, and love a town... yes love my little town. So I will and try to figure out to keep that in the forefront of my mind and capture the fire that fuels the ministry the sacred fire of the ancient Christian mystics... more to come.

Ugh!

Working with Christians can be hazardous to your mental health! I surf the web and find more gossip and back biting in the name of right doctrine, and honestly, it get's old. Right doctrine doesn't get old, people ranting about any person agenda or opinion, and then spraying a little "Jesus Theory",  or famous (out of context) theologian quote, over it and all of a sudden, their (usually under-educated or Oprah based) opinion is made right. Then it gets worse, the distancing that takes place if you disagree, you know, the "I'm too busy to call", the stealth facebook de-friending, and the avoiding of your usual meeting times in public places. You know, the typical small town shaming process that let's you know you are no longer accepted, and that usually culminates in no one waving as you drive by anymore. Of course this all comes to an end when you do something they approve of and then suddenly, you are now a Facebook friend and they wave.

So what keeps my sanity? Thursday at the Hitchin' Post saloon...You see there was a fund raiser there for a new family at church, about to lose their house. The "Ole Hitchin' Post, was packed and they had sold out of food an hour and a half into the night, and it turns out, there was just enough food. So some of these folks are really new to following Jesus and I showed up to show my support. What a great time. I show up in the usual pastor regalia - ball cap and jeans and am greeted by the folks throwing the shin dig... instantly I am asked if I was offended by their consuming beer, I said no, "It's the Budweiser products I find offensive, but it's not beer so really no problem". Now, they were in no way over the line as far as consumption goes but they were excited to introduce me to everyone around them (who, by their own admission, where a bit toasted) and tell about what they had learned about Jesus over the last two months. To be honest, they remembered more of the messages than I did, and I gave them! The excitement over what God had done, the joy as they spoke about the healings they had seen was incredibly encouraging. These beautifully honesty and simply "in love with Jesus" people are the sanity of my day.

Now to disciple the and not ruin their simple, honest love for Jesus.

Shalom

Food for thought...

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket- safe, dark, motionless, airless--it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.”

C.S. Lewis

Beliefs do play out...

It seems that if we practice what we believe then the core of what we believe can be seen in the practices we express in our faith every day, or in crisis. So if we love our fellow man, we express love by serving, meeting needs and so forth. Yet it is interesting to see how a religious system lives out it's values. One of the more interesting observations was made recently by the BBC in the rescue/recovery efforts in Haiti http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8517070.stm.

We need to know that our beliefs always end up under scrutiny, whether we act or not, a choice not to respond is indeed a statement... just made in silence.  I am glad that the efforts of many Christians has been seen and noticed and our actions have been honorable in comparison to a belief system that is repressive and destructive. The question is how are our expressions and actions of faith playing out in our day to day? I think in-action is a statement... It is just an anesthetized way of coming to this core belief... I really don't care. So if we care about the principles of Jesus, how will this play out tomorrow?

Just a thought.

The Divine Signs...

I read Hosea and all I can say is this... though I have been through a lot I couldn't do that. Marry a prostitute, have my kids named after 3 curses, all of those said children from different fathers DURING OUR MARRIAGE and then woo  and charm her back into a love relationship.

But this isn't us... these passages are never about me, my soul's infidelity, nope, it's about someone else, has to be. If that's the case then when will we enjoy the promises and restoration... the good, assuming we can come clean. Because we need to see God as this:
 ¹⁴ "Therefore I am now going to allure her;
       I will lead her into the desert
       and speak tenderly to her.
 ¹⁵ There I will give her back her vineyards,
       and will make the Valley of Achor ^[a] a door of hope.
       There she will sing ^[b] as in the days of her youth,
       as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
 ¹⁶ "In that day," declares the LORD,
       "you will call me 'my husband';
       you will no longer call me 'my master. [c

We see God as a master, which he is, but he now also calls us beloved.

Just a quick thought.

Advent 2009

I was reading USA today (usually I find myself avoiding the local the paper, which I affectionately call... "the fish wrap") and came across this headline "Some in $4.6B Christian industry copy designs, logos" an article about the christian "knockoff / copycat" logo industry... here's the link  http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-12-18-christian-copyright_N.htm


It's a sell out... of all the things we say, I don't the the God that is the source of creativity wants us spoofing an ad campaign. So now more then ever I am into the principles behind the Advent Conspiracy:
Worship Fully- That all of life is an act of worship.
Spend LESS - Be a steward of the powerful resources God has given you... it's all HIS! 
Give More - OF Your SOUL! Give presence not presents!
Love All - That by our love we could radically change our generation.


This is the hill to die on, God loved us so much, that he stripped himself of every power and advantage to be with us, speak to us and then redeem us. He came inside a teenage single mom, born in a barn, and changed the face of history. 

With the money we saved on gifts we are sponsoring a well for a 3rd world country. Love is a powerful thing. Join us in the story...