Music: John Mark Macmillan- "Death In His Grave"

If you're one of my students, this song is nothing new to you. Since I was practicing playing it tonight (yeah, I'm picking up the guitar again after about a year of not playing), I thought I would share it with those who haven't heard it...I love hymns and this is a modern-day hymn of sorts. Jesus has defeated death and this song is a celebration of that struggle and victory. Hope you enjoy it!

Now We See in Part...

Recently, I heard something so simple that it shouldn't have been profound...but I've had a hard time shaking it the last couple of days so maybe it's more profound than it seems at first glance.  Basically, it was said that our attempts to explain God (think of the water-ice-gas comparisons) consistently fall flat because "God isn't like anything else."  Well, that makes sense, doesn't it?  I'm not sure why something that simple has never occurred to me, but boy have I tried to explain God to people over the years. 


As I think about this truth, I am drawn to Paul's words to the Corinthians.  He writes, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known." (I Corinthians 13:12) In all my best efforts to understand God (much less explain him)---all the books I read, the conversations I have, the conferences I attend, the church I align myself with---I will never see any more than in part while I am flesh and bone.  I can't even begin to comprehend the heights and depths of who God is.  He isn't like anything else I have experienced, am experiencing, or will experience.  My humanity can't offer me anything that is even comparable to who God is and what He offers me now and eternally.  In fact, Paul says that what I think I see now is just a poor reflection...my vision of who God is now is poor, despite my good intentions.  One day, we will see Him face to face and experience the surpassing greatness of his love, a love that knows no boundaries.  I know that love in part now; one day I will be completely overwhelmed by the fullness of that love.   And just think, God knows me fully now!  There is nothing about me that God doesn't know.  He knows my every thought, my deepest secrets, my most difficult struggles, my most embarrassing sins, and the depravity of my heart.  Yet, God's love is bigger than my falleness.  He knows me completely and loves me completely, one of the all time great miracles.

So, as I think about how little I really know about God---how little we all know---it sure does slap my critical heart in the face.  Who am I to think I have things figured out when God has made it very clear that I am only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Him?  I'm seeing in part.  Yes, I see some and He continues to reveal more to me as I look to Him.  But I'll never know it all, and neither will any of you.  And that's okay.  But let's allow the truth of Paul's words to gently remind us to approach the Church humbly and with loving kindness as we work together to piece together the biblical vision of God's kingdom on earth.

Do You Live in a Christian Ghetto?

For some of you students who are reading this, ghetto may not mean what you think it means.  Well, it might mean "gangsta" or "hood" in your venacular, but I'm using it a little bit differently.  A ghetto is a place where a particular group (sometimes stereotypical) lives, and it's usually not a very desirable place to reside.  Most of us are familiar with the socioeconomic sense of the word or perhaps the historical sense of the word (i.e. Jews being herded into ghettos during 1930's and 1940's)...but, in recent times, the term "Christian ghetto" has surfaced as a hot topic of conversation amongst progressive evangelicals.  So, what exactly is meant by "Christian ghetto?"  Well, the idea is that many evangelicals have retreated into holy huddles in which every area of their life is saturated with Christian "stuff"---everything from people to programs to concerts to t-shirts.  We go to church on Sundays.  We belong to a life group.  Christian conferences are hot social events.  Our kids go to every youth group outing or camp we can possibly get them into, and if we can afford it they're in Christian schools.  If we can afford the time, they may even be home schooled.  We love to go to Christian rock concerts ("If you love Secular Rock Band X, you'll love the Christian Alternative Rock Band X!") Why read a great "secular" novel if there is a new Francis Chan book to read?  (Mind you, I really enjoy Francis Chan's books and highly recommend you read them...just read some other stuff, too.)  Consider your life---who do you spend the majority of your social time with?  What events or groups do you participate in?  What music and movies entertain you?  If all of your answers include "Christian," "church," or "Bible" as an adjective, you probably are living in a Christian ghetto.

You are probably wondering, "What's so wrong with any of these things?  Shouldn't we want everything we're involved with to be Christian?"  In and of themselves, none of these things are bad and most are actually really good things.  But, when we get sucked into a Christian bubble in every area of our lives then we are missing the mark.  Jesus spent the majority of his time with his inner circle of believers, and you should do the same.  However, he also encountered his culture without insisting on a spiritual adjective being attached to everything.  He touches a leper, dines with a tax collector, hangs out with a prostitute, and isn't shy about pushing back against a religious establishment that was on the wide path.  I'm not sure the residents of the Christian ghetto would have let Jesus move into town.  If Jesus were living in our culture today, I honestly don't think he'd be at many Christian events.  You would find Jesus in the dark corners of the world searching for the sick and broken...after all, they are the ones who need a doctor, right?  He understood a very basic, logical concept that most of us choose to ignore most of the time---if you want to reach the lost, you have to spend time among the lost.  You have to be in this world and not of it.  So, we are left with a choice...we can remain immersed in our Christian ghettos and we can be very ineffective in reaching the world and making disciples.  Or, we can move out of town and bring light into darkness.  Just so I am clear, you need to stay in Christian community to do this.  You will fail miserably without the encouragement, teaching, admonition, and love of brothers and sisters in Christ.  You just have to be intentional about moving into community with those outside of the faith so that Jesus can reach them through you.

What would Jesus do?  He wouldn't live in the ghetto.

Did he really mean that?

Today I spoke in chapel at VCA about Matthew 25...the famous "least of these" passage where we are reminded of our responsibility to take care of those in need.  And that passage stops there.  No, it doesn't.  Jesus actually says in that passage that the people who didn't take care of others are going to be separated into sheep and goats---sheep inherit eternal glory and goats are cast away.  Reading that passage gives me one of those "did he really mean that?" moments.  Am I really headed for trouble if I have faith but don't take care of "the least of these?"  Undoubtedly, this is a confusing passage when we consider our standard definition of salvation---faith and trust in the life, death and resurrection of Christ for the forgiveness of sin.  I'm not questioning eternal security (or even entering into that murky debate), but Christ inextricably links our salvation to what we do.  If we have experienced saving faith in Christ, our actions will show it.  If our actions don't show our faith, we might need to do a little soul-searching about our walk with God.  So, yes, Jesus really did say that if we make a lifestyle choice to not take care of the poor and needy then we will face the ultimate consequences...I am not willing to write off his words as figurative or as a message for another culture or generation.  He meant it and I have to take it seriously.


What passages seem too hard, too challenging, or too demanding to really be what God intended?  Those are the passages you should wrestle with the most...God can stretch you in those moments and shake up your life.  In a good way.  I mean it.

Movie: Rich Mullins- A Ragamuffin's Legacy

Can't wait to see this movie when it releases...Rich Mullins was a great man.  Enjoy.

The Miracle of Transformation

"One day Peter and John were going up to the temple at the time of prayer—at three in the afternoon. Now a man who was lame from birth was being carried to the temple gate called Beautiful, where he was put every day to beg from those going into the temple courts. When he saw Peter and John about to enter, he asked them for money. Peter looked straight at him, as did John. Then Peter said, “Look at us!” So the man gave them his attention, expecting to get something from them. Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God...Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is

“‘the stone you builders rejected,
which has become the cornerstone.’

Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say." (Excerpts from Acts 3 and 4)

Ever ask yourself, "Why don't we still see the miracles of the Bible?"  I know I have (although, the global explosion of Christianity has seen the miraculous in places with undeveloped theology and a hunger for God...maybe something we should take note of).  As I have been reading this passage over the last few days, however, I realize that two miracles took place.  Obviously, the healing of the lame man's feet and ankles was physically miraculous.  A man who hadn't walked for his entire life was jumping and dancing!  Unbelievable!  Yet, the second miracle may have been greater than the first.  This man, who I would imagine would have been a pitiful site, begged at the Temple in a heap as a way of life.  People likely pitied him or were disgusted by him.  This same man, was now completely transformed in personality, spirit, and attitude.  Imagine the most sour, down-on-their-luck, depressed person you know and then imagine them running through your neighborhood with joy, praising God for new life.  I would consider that pretty miraculous too, wouldn't you?

Notice that after Peter's sermon, the Sanhedrin aren't concerned with his message or his theology.  Anyone could argue with words or a belief system, and the courts surely did throughout the Gospels and the New Testament.  What they couldn't argue with is that a man's life had been completely transformed physically and spiritually.  He stood before them changed and they couldn't write that off.  Maybe, then, we should be less concerned with our theology and more concerned with being agents of change in the world.  Theology is definitely important, and I don't mean to downplay it, but if you know Christ you know enough to be a catalyst for change in the life of a hurting person.  Stop over-thinking and over-talking and just start doing.  The Holy Spirit can handle our clumsy words and our inability to articulate an article of faith.

"It's Kind of Cute..."

I've now read the same passage from surgeon Richard Selzner's Mortal Lessons (mind you, not in the original book) twice in the last month...it's a wonderful story.  When you look at people, who do you see?  Do you see the beauty of Christ in them?  This story illustrates the true love of Christ that sees through socio-economics, appearances, and any other barrier we impose when it comes to others.

"I stand by the bed where a young woman lies, her face postoperative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish.  A tiny twig of the facial nerve, the one to the muscles of her mouth, has been severed.  She will be thus from now on.  The surgeon had followed with religious fervor the curse of her flesh; I promise you that.  Nevertheless, to remove the tumor from her cheek, I had cut the little nerve.
Her young husband is in the room.  He stands on the opposite side of her bed, and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight, isolated from me, private.  Who are they, I ask myself, he and this wry-mouth I have made, who gaze at each other so generously, greedily?  The young woman speaks.  'Will my mouth always be like this?' she asks.  'Yes,' I say, 'it will.  It is because the nerve was cut.'     She nods and is silent.  But the young man smiles.  'I like it,' he says. 'It's kind of cute.'  All at once, I know who he is.  I understand, and I lower my gaze.  One is not bold in an encounter with a god.  Unmindful, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth, and I so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate to hers, to show her that their kiss still works."

Lord Jesus, forgive me for looking only at the outward appearance and not the heart.  Help me to see you in others and to love with the compassionate, unconditional love that can only come from You.