obedience...what??

"We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands. The man who says, 'I know him,' but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did."
-1 John 2:3-6

Does anyone else feel as uncomfortable as I do? Why of all passages do I feel most weird about putting this one up for everyone to see? How many "Christians" does this contradict? Who feels just a little hypocritical? It's not just about what we can claim to believe...it's about our actions. It's about our walk. A verbal commitment or proclamation doesn't count for much if there's no reality to back it up. In fact, a declaration of the mouth should be the last thing on our mind when it comes to looking at ourselves and seeing where we "match up." I feel a little exposed right now....also, Jesus was a carpenter. Just a note.

The gift of the prophetic...

"Scholars can interpret the past; It takes prophets to interpret the present."

-A.W. Tozer

There are many things that the human intellect can never achieve, but one of the most important is the gift of prophetic insight. We can study all we want, read all we can, and grow wise beyond our years, but unless we get on our knees and pray for the Lord to interpret the present for us, we will lack Godly understanding. The gift of prophecy, contrary to popular belief, is not the ability to tell the future. It may encompass that, but primarily it is the ability to see from God's point of view. Given that definition, how important is it for modern prophets to be raised up during these difficult times in our world?? We don't need one more talking head or pundit to "interpret" anything for us, nor do we need our supposed leaders to come up with their version of solutions for our problems. The people of God need to be praying earnestly for the voice of the Lord to be raised up, and the eyes of His faithful to be opened. The truth won't come through the likely channels of communication, and it won't come from the people we expect it to come from. The prophets of the Lord have rarely been attractive to anyone, and usually they are rugged. They don't care for man's wisdom, and earn the scorn of people...including large parts of Christendom. We need to pray for these people to come along, and for the eyes to see them when they do.

listening

This morning I was meeting with my staff and we were talking about a book we're going through called "Listening to God." At first it seems like it would be just another self-help thing with 7 easy steps to hearing the Lord. I've seen so many books, articles, and sermons that take that approach, and truthfully I didn't want anymore. I opened it up, read the first chapter and it blew me away. He starts by talking about his wife's slow death of cancer and how it acted as a catalyst to bring him to his knees and cry out for the Lord. He showed how suffering plays a crucial role for many people in showing them their need for God. Some people would say that this is proof that we have "made God up" to suit our needs or provide outside help for ourselves when we're hurting, but I think that it's just the opposite. God moves during this time. It's not just a conjuring up of feelings that goes on when we hurt and look for an explanation, it's an active moment of intervention in our lives on the part of God. Similar to the way that the wind blows without our doing or consent and physically affects us. Need brings about provision. Talk to the countless number of people that have spent time serving in abject poverty and ask them about the crazy ways people get their needs met. It's more tangible. We don't need the provision of God in our every day lives. We've already "provided" it all for ourselves. If we do ask God for something it's usually emotional or theoretical. How often is it a basic human need? How often do we hear his clear answer? How often do we wait until he speaks? There seems to be a connection with suffering/need and hearing the voice of the Lord. Read the Bible and see when He shows up most.

football

Right now I'm sitting on my couch and watching the undefeated Broncos lose to the winless (in their last 12 games) Chiefs. I've had to re-realize that "it's just a football game" over and over again in my life. When I sit down and watch my team play I don't want to see them lose, and as much as I would like to I don't want to see just a "good game." I want them to win and win big. It's nice to pull for a team that dominates...but seriously, how often does that happen? It sure doesn't happen with the teams that I cheer for. (check out Texas A&M for example...) I've started thinking to all the times that a team I love loses and it puts me in a bad mood. All the times that I'll yell my face off at a game, only to be dissappointed when my team get's their butt kicked. Don't get me wrong, I love sports and there is an element of it that's fun regardless of the outcome, but most of the time my heart and emotions get away from me. Maybe it's just that I'm an overly passionate person, or maybe it's normal...either way I don't like it. I feel like we can easily put the passions, interests, and hobbies ahead of the more important things in our lives. I think I can border on "worship" of these things sometimes. When all put in perspective, I realize that dudes I don't know playing catch and tackle in front of thousands of people shouldn't determine my mood. For better or for worse. I think to all the people who put their identity in things like this (sports, politics, work, cars, relationships, etc...) and I don't want to be one of them anymore. I have one God.

Know your world...

I recently found this on another friend's site and thought it was amazing. If there was ever a time to know about the Middle East it's definitely now. This is a test to see whether you know the geography of the area or not. It includes North Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia. I've been there twice and I still had some trouble figuring it all out...see how you do. Here's the link: http://www.rethinkingschools.org/just_fun/games/mapgame.html

Slacklining

If you could map out all the people who slackline in the world and put me and my friends somewhere on the spectrum of talent we'd fall near the back. There's so many ridiculously amazing slackliners out there (backflips) but the mere fact that there's few people who do it makes us look good. Clark and I went out on Sunday to the park on Canyon St. and set up a long one. Pretty soon we had a nice little crowd around us. Whatever works. These two high schoolers came up, broke out their bong and soon we had a nice little convention around us fascinated with our every move. They asked us what we did for a living and I told them I worked with kids at the church down the street. One of them told me he was a quaker, but didn't know what communion stood for and wanted to. We shared some Jesus with them and they listened for awhile. I ended up giving them my number and telling them (plus all the others around) to stop on by and I'd buy them lunch. Hopefully they'll come. That's how it works sometimes.

Today...

Lately I've been thinking a lot about the word "today". It should be my life theme....who knows. As people, and especially as Americans the idea of the future is drilled into us constantly. Plan ahead, be smart, go to school, get a job, set goals, etc... While all this is good to a certain degree, we get obsessed by it. When we look at our character, we can easily apply this same principle to the formation of ourselves. The thought process goes something like this: "someday I'll be a person of character...I'm going to map out how to do that right now and act as if I already am because that's what any respectable person should do." The problem with this thinking is similar to saying that I want to build a skyscraper but I can't get past thinking how awesome it's going to be someday. That's all good and fine, but the reality is there is a lot of work to do between then and now. Each individual brick, support beam, window, bathroom, air duct, and light is going to need to be constructed before it looks remotely like a finished product. This process takes a long time. It takes having to wake up every morning and get up the motivation to work hard for that day. Take this back to ourselves and the formation of our character. The same thing applies. Every morning you wake up you can make the choice on how you want to live your life and who you're going to live it for. God and other people, or ourselves? Can we patiently let the Lord work out his plan through us?

With a million stones, hard labor, and time you can build the Great Pyramids.