Green Flip-Flops

By my back door sit these two pair of green flip-flops. One my wife's the other mine. For some reason as I was cleaning up around the house this morning this image caught my attention. It grabbed my mind and I saw such significance in our flip-flops sitting next to one another. They're both dirty. We wear them out in the backyard when we're too lazy for shoes. I started connecting these parallels in my mind of how much I love Kristin and this journey of life we're on together. We both come to the table with different things. We have different perspectives on some things. She's a bit more conservative than I am and I'm the one who's always thinking bigger than I probably should be. She reigns me back to earth. We're going to go through good times and hard times. We're going to get a bit dirty along the way I'm sure. The thing is she'll always be by my side and I'll always be by hers. She's my bride, my wife, my help mate, my partner, my love. I'm so thankful she's by my side. So thankful we can take these steps in life together. My God is so good to give me such an amazing wife.

The Furious Longing Of God | Pt.2

Luke 11:1-4 NCV - ¹ One time Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his followers said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray as John taught his followers."² Jesus said to them, "When you pray, say: 'Father, may your name always be kept holy. May your kingdom come. ³ Give us the food we need for each day. ⁴ Forgive us for our sins, because we forgive everyone who has done wrong to us. And do not cause us to be tempted.'

Reading through Brennan's chapter on "our Father" has been a truly settling experience this morning. Once again there's not a whole lot of "new" material here but such good truth to be reminded of. In the chapter Brennan focuses on prayer. Specifically how Jesus taught His disciples to pray, beginning with "our Father", or "Abba".

"Abba means in literal English: daddy, papa, my own dear father." "Pagan philosophers such as Aristotle arrived at the existence of God via human reason and referred to Him in vague, impersonal terms: the uncaused cause, the immovable mover. The prophets of Israel revealed the God of abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in a warmer, more compassionate manner. But only Jesus reveled to an astonished Jewish community that God is truly Father."

Brennan uses this beginning notion of "our Father" to ask the question "Is your own personal prayer life characterized by the simplicity, childlike candor, boundless trust, and easy familiarity of a little one crawling up in Daddy's lap?" There is a beautiful calm in know and loving God as our Father.

There are so many horrible stories of "fathers" who haven't lived up to their Godly example. So many who have hurt in more ways that I care to elaborate on here or imagine those they were charged to care for. If God is our Abba, our Father, then the greatest single act of rebellion against his character would be for a father to not act like one. To not offer the love his family needs and deserves. I'm so sorry for any of you who have experienced that type of a man. I do not understand nor have I experienced that. But, know that Abba loves you. You belong to Him. He welcomes you with open arms into a sweet embrace of his furious love for you.

For the next few days I will be doing as Brennan instructs. Maybe you should to. Find a chair. Sit quietly with palms turned up and pray with the rhythm of your breathing, "Abba, (as you inhale) I belong to You (as you exhale)".

It's so necessary to remember these truths.

Blessings.

The Furious Longing Of God | Pt.1

Galatians 2:20 (NCV) - I was put to death on the cross with Christ, and I do not live anymore - it is Christ who lives in me. I still live in my body, but I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself to save me.

"In a fascinating footnote to that verse, the Jerusalem Bible adds: "The living acts of a Christian become somehow the acts of Christ!" (Brennan Manning, The Furious Longing Of God, 2009, 31.)

If you hadn't guessed it, I'm reading through the book The Furious Longing Of God by Brennan Manning. I got it through a viral blogging site and it's my first book I've received from them that I've been able to read here recently and beginning blogging on. I would have to say that so far this book is leaving me very refreshed. It's not telling me things I didn't know or unlocking some new spiritual truth but, it's refreshing some things in my heart and in my mind I haven't thought on in quite a while. It's good to be reminded of God's love for me. Of how He longs to know me and be with me. He longs to have such a relationship with me that I am completely replaced and that my actions reflect Him completely.

One of the things I have enjoyed the most about this book is the questions at the end of each chapter. Sometimes chapter questions are simply to have the reader review what He's read. Here Brennan lays out questions that cause you to dive deeper into what you've just been reading. In the chapter on FURY, the first question particularly started digging deep into my heart: "There is the "you" that people see and then there is the "rest of you". Take some time and craft a picture of the "rest of you". This could be a drawing, in words, even a song. Just remember that the chances are good it will be full of paradox and contradictions."

I was immediately reminded after reading through that question of a song by Switchfoot in which singer Jon Foreman croons "This is your life are you who you want to be? This is your life is it everything you dreamed that it could be when the world was younger and you had everything to lose."

There is the YOU that people see then there is the REST OF YOU. What do you look like? Are YOU who YOU want to be?

The Cross + (Anything) = Worthless

1 Timothy 2:5-6 (NCV) - There is one God and one mediator so that human beings can reach God. That way is through Christ Jesus, who is himself human. He gave himself as a payment to free all people. He is proof that came at the right time.

The cross of Christ plus anything else is worthless.

Here in Timothy as I read this morning I'm reminded of this fact. Yesterday in our Glory Revealed book study that we do with the powersource worship band the topic was the exclusivity of Jesus. We looked at Jesus claims to be THE way THE truth and THE life. This wasn't A way, or a POSSIBLE truth, or IF YOU'RE LUCKY life. Jesus was exclusive in the fact that he claimed to be God. There was no way around it. There were not other paths to eternal life.

In John 14:6 Jesus is exclusive:

John 14:6 (NCV) - Jesus answered, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. The only way to the Father is through me.

Another passage we looked at was in Jude:

Jude 1:25 (NCV) - He is the only God, the One who saves us. To him be glory, greatness, power, and authority through Jesus Christ our Lord for all time past, now and forever. Amen.

Over he past few weeks here at Thomas Road pastor Jonathan has been working through a series called "Jesus is Enough". He's walked through how Jesus is enough in our good times, our bad times, our strength, our weakness, and Jesus is enough for our salvation. His sacrifice on the cross covers all our sin. His death on the cross was enough. If we needed anything other than the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ for our salvation then we decide that the cross wasn't enough and we cheapen Christ's death.

This week is Passion Week. It is the week which leads up to the event of Jesus death and resurrection (easter). It's hard for me to read through the crucifixion passages and not distance myself from them. I don't like to remember that I am a major player in that story. I distance myself from the fact that Jesus was nailed to that cross because of my sins. I distance myself from the fact that Jesus had to take on all the pain and suffering and guilt of my sin and pay the penalty of death that was rightfully mine.

But, this story is my story.

Jesus died on the cross for me.

Out of love he laid down his life.

Because of love he took the nails.

All for love.

For me to look at that scenario and brush it off by saying it wasn't enough for my salvation makes me sick to my stomach.

The death of Jesus Christ on the cross was more than enough for my sin and the sins of the entire world.

He is it.

Jesus is truly the answer.

I'm so thankful for the cross.

I'm thankful for the cost.

I'm thankful for this sinner saved.

Blessings to you and yours this week. Remember the cross of Christ and be thankful for it.

We Still Don't Know What Love Means by Jamie Tworkowski

This is such a good post I decided to repost it on my own blog.

I've been listening to Ray Lamontagne for the last couple years. Ray is a brilliant songwriter who delivers stories in something like a deep smooth whisper. He has that golden voice but I think it's his honesty that I connect with even more. His songs seem to be born from questions and pain, and if I myself am honest in saying more, I think I connect with this because I am a person who thinks a lot about pain. I wrestle with the broken stuff in my own life and in the lives of the people around me. I have a lot of questions.

It is for all of the reasons above that some friends and I drove 500 miles from Florida to Atlanta to see Ray Lamontagne play on a Saturday night a couple months back. We parked and made our way excited to the door, and as we took our place in line, I heard it:

"You're going to Hell."

The man's voice was loud and not kind and he added his thoughts on fornication and homosexuality, angry answers to questions that no one was asking. In the first moment I was shocked and I then I was sad and then I was walking towards him.

"Do you think this is working?," I asked.

I figured he would be excited that someone actually wanted to talk to him, and he certainly seemed prepared for an argument. Instead, the yelling guy told me that I would need to talk to a different person, pointing toward the younger man to his left. (The yelling guy needed to keep yelling.) Now, this whole thing surprised me because I had no idea that these people had assistants. I guess the kid was learning the ropes, hoping to be prepared to yell on his own within the next year or two...

I told the kid that they needed to stop, that they were only doing damage, offending everyone. i told him that people respond to love, and that I could hear no love in their shouted judgments. His response made me more frustrated, and after a brief back-and-forth, I rejoined my friends in line and entered the show.

It took a while to calm down and let it go. In theory, the yelling guy and I believe some of the same things. "We're on the same team", you might say. But I believe in a God who maybe doesn't scream at people the first time he meets them. Evangelism aside, screaming at strangers seems a horrible marketing plan to me. I believe in a God who places a great emphasis on love, a God who loves people and asks his followers to do the same.

By the time Ray took the stage, I was able to enjoy the show. The best music is the kind that moves you, reminds you you're alive, takes you on a journey. I smiled through the opening "You Are the Best Thing", imagined during "Empty" and remembered during "I Still Care for You". I had been hoping all night to hear a song called "Jolene" and so I smiled again when it's opening chords arrived as the encore.

The song is a story song about a man lost and looking back on a broken relationship. You can see it from start to finish and the chorus echoes the words "I still don't know what love means". It is a confession, something like a question. Something in me stirs when I hear it - there is freedom in honesty and those are words I can sing myself.

And it hit me during that encore that I wished the shouting man could have heard Ray Lamontagne sing those words. I wish he could have attended this show he chose to protest. I don't know how hearing happens - how certain things move and change us, but I wished it could have happened to the guy outside.

I think I went back to him in my mind because he is also the reputation of The Church. We are known to the world as something like the guy outside. We tell people how to vote and think and live. We shout our judgments. We are quick with our answers and slow to confess our questions, maybe slower even still to meet other people in theirs.

A shouted "You're going to Hell" is an awful introduction to a God who desires to love and know His children. Ray had my attention with "I still don't know what love means." I can relate to that, and I can't help but think that a lot of other people can as well.

And it's interesting that all of this happened on a Saturday night, because Saturday nights set up Sunday mornings. Some people stay out late, hunting for meaning and answers in songs and bars and a thousand other places, because they're certain that our Sunday mornings would only be more like shouting strangers. But what if we were known as a people in true pursuit of love, a people committed to representing it well? What if we were known for constantly showing up to wrestle the needs and questions around us, and what if we took it so far as to be honest about our own.

Jamie Tworkowski is the founder of To Write Love on Her Arms, a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. Jamie's TWLOHA blog is one of the most-read blogs on MySpace and he speaks frequently, bringing a message of hope, help, community and honesty to universities, concerts and churches throughout the U.S. and as far away as Australia and the United Kingdom. Jamie will be speaking at Catalyst West Coast in California next month, and again at Catalyst in Atlanta this Fall.

The Love Of Our Lord

Listening to Punk Goes Pop: Volume Two this morning. Steaming it from imeem.com feeling pretty god about the mix so far. There a re few I could do without but there always are. Reflecting this morning on the love of Jesus and specifically how to love like Him. How to cary His example of love over into my life. In John 15 Jesus says in v.12 "This is my command, love each other as I have loved you."(NCV) It's not an option. It's a command. Jesus then continues with what 'the greatest love a person can show is to die for his friends." v.13 Wow. Jesus did this ... he literally fleshed this out. His flesh and bone has town from his body during his scourging before the cross so much that he was unrecognizable. The man of sorrows found in Isaiah. Jesus thank you for the cross. Thank you for the cost you paid no greater love have you ever showed to me than to be nailed to the tree. There is no one like you God.

Compassion Is A Dirty Word

This act of desperation is wearing me thin in fact

I can't hold on to this anger deep within

It's a movement beneath the weight of the winds

It's congruent with my heart breaking for this

So dig deep

Dig hard

Dig straight through the dirt and down into the heart

I'm feeling compassion brewing within

But will I stand here and watch without loving on him

As he sinks on down through the waves

When I have the capacity to save, his life

So dig deep

Dig hard

Dig straight through the dirt and down into the heart

I'm tired of just throwing money and problems

With the billions we spend none of it will solve them

But If I reach out just for one moment

To break out of this mold I have been holding...

If I dig deep

If I dig hard

If I dig straight through my comforts and do something hard

He can be free

He can have heart

He can be washed off and cleaned up and have a new start

So dig deep

Dig hard

Dig straight through the dirt and down into the heart

A Screaming Little Girl In My Church Growth Class

I'm in my church growth and evangelism class right now with Dr. Towns. Across the room from me there is a little girl, talking and screaming at the top of her lungs about her love for her daddy. She's sitting in his lap and crawling all over the desk and Dr. Towns is very calmly ignoring her. Wow. It's a snow day for almost all of the schools in the immediate area so this little girl is her with her daddy. She's talking non-stop and it's really hard to concentrate. The thing is this girl doesn't care about anything else but her daddy. She wants to play with him and talk with him. She doesn't care that class is going on. She doesn't care that she's distracting... all she wants is her daddy. While this is greatly aggravating to me and a few others around me I've started thinking about this girl and her out loud love for her daddy. Leave it to me to over spiritualize but, I can't help but thinking about how God must want us to be like that with him. When's the last time I cared about nothing else around me except for being with my God, my Daddy? When is the last time I have so recklessly and unashamedly run after God like that? I love Him. I've told God this and He knows it. I just can't help but think about the comparisons the apostle Paul (the apostle formerly known as Saul) makes in Galatians to Christ-followers as "children of God". Jesus calls little children unto himself and scolds his disciples for turning them away. Maybe this is a picture of how God wants us to be with Him? Maybe God wants nothing less that for us to be completely infatuated with Him. Funny how a screaming little girl in my church growth class can teach me so much...

Psalm 43 - Screaming At God.

Psalm 43, "God defend me. Argue my case against those who don't follow you. Save me from liars and those who do evil. God, you are my strength. Why have you rejected me? Why am I sad and troubled by my enemies? Send me your light and truth to guide me. Let them lead me to your holy mountain, to where you live. Then I will go to the altar of GOd, to God who is my joy and happiness. I will praise you with a harp, God, my God. Why am I so sad? Why am I so upset? I should put my hope in God and keep praising hi, my Savior and my God." 

In verse 2 of the chapter I think we see the Psalmist writing in a place that many of us of the Christian faith often find ourselves. He starts with "God you are my strength." A statement of fact and of hope and of reassurance. It's what he's holding to. Then it's followed immediately by, "Why have you rejected me? Why am I sad and troubled by my enemies?" Don't we all say these things at one point or another in our spiritual journey? One minute we're are praise God and thanking Him for His strength and the next.... we are asking God "Where did you go God? Where are you? Were you ever there?" We begin to doubt who God is in our lives. We begin to doubt His sovereignty and His authority in our lives. 

When these questions arise we should respond as the Psalmist does in the verses that follow. He begins to ask God to "Send me your light and truth to guide me." He stops pointing fingers and begins to look in the mirror. He is asking God to show Him the way. He begins to praise God with song. He focuses his heart toward His Father. 

Does doing this necessarily mean that everything is going to be alright after that? Certainly not. In verse 5 the Psalmist again writes "Why am I so sad? Why am I so upset?" He concludes however, that no matter how bad it's gotten, no matter how sad he is that "I should put my hope in God and keep praising him, my Savior and my God." He finds hope in the One who gives hope. He finds saving grace and peace in the Savior and Prince of Peace. 

Today maybe you are crying out to God in a similar fashion. Screaming to the heavens with accusations about God not being there and your world falling apart. May you stop pointing fingers, look in the mirror, and remember that this is not your world. It's God's. And may you rest in the fact that He loves you beyond what you can comprehend. May you find hope in Him. 

Blessings.