A Tale of Two Passovers

There were two major revivals in the OT, with Hezekiah and Josiah, that were both marked by a reinstitution of the Passover Festival. The one by Hezekiah was considered to be the greatest one since the the time of Solomon. However, the one by Josiah, about 100 years later was considered to be the greatest one since the time of the judges. I have an opinion on why Josiah's was considered deeper and more meaningful and I think it relates directly to today's generation:

I. Hezekiah's Revival / Passover

II Chronicles 30: 2 "The king and his officials and the whole assembly in Jerusalem decided to celebrate the Passover in the second month."

II Chronicles 30: 18 - 20 "Although most of the many people who came from Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not purified themselves, yet they ate the Passover, contrary to what was written. But Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, “May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets their heart on seeking God—the LORD, the God of their ancestors—even if they are not clean according to the rules of the sanctuary.” And the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people."

Hezekiah had a passion for God that was driving him and the people to celebrate, whether they got every aspect of it right or not. They celebrated it in the second month, a month later than prescribed, because they couldn't get it ready in time. They allowed "unclean" people to participate for the same reason. They just wanted to have the celebration and the rules were somewhat cast aside because of their passion.

Hezekiah understood this and prayed to God that it would be okay, that in this particular moment they could bend the rules a bit - and God allowed it. God, in a sense, sidestepped His own stipulations of the Passover to allow the people to celebrate because He knew the intention of their heart, and He healed them.


II. Josiah's Revival / Passover

II Kings 23: 21 - 23 "The king gave this order to all the people: “Celebrate the Passover to the LORD your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.” Neither in the days of the judges who led Israel nor in the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah had any such Passover been observed. But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was celebrated to the LORD in Jerusalem."

Josiah had found the Law buried in the rubble and idolatrous pornography that that had filled the Temple, and had thus proceeded to "clean house." Everything that was not of God was smashed and burned and scattered over the dump site outside the city. They were going to get it right, because they had the Word. When they celebrated the Passover, they did it according to the Word of God. They got it right.

Josiah's revival and Passover celebration leapfrogged the acclaim of Hezekiah's because it combined the passion with the truth of God's Word. There is a reason God prescribes things a certain way - because it is under this prescription that we are able to fully find the joy and power that He is offering to His people.

Summary

So why is this so important in today's generation? I believe that we have young people who are on fire, who are returning to the Lord, who want to be in Him, who have a passion for celebration and revival, and who want to get into the lives of others with the message of Christ. However, in their passion the Word of the Lord is in some ways being set aside, or not embraced to the level of fullness that it demands. If this is left unchecked, this passion will either burn in the wrong direction or it will burn out. It will be a useless fire.

I fully believe that as God allowed the people of Hezekiah's day some wiggle room to celebrate apart from every "jot and tittle," we must embrace this generation and give them the same slack as they enter into their own celebrations. But we also must continually direct them and disciple them into the truths of His Word so that they will experience the fullness and the power that God desires for them.



II Kings 23:25 "Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses."

Josiah had an intense passion for God that burned to the depth of his soul. What made it so effective and cleansing was that it was fully aligned with the Word of God.

Right Behind

With all this "rapture" talk, I started thinking. . . . .

What if there were a "rapture" but with one caveat: You had a choice to go or not. What if God gave you the choice to opt-out and say, "I'll be Right Behind you guys," and stay amidst a world that would now be almost totally devoid of everything you valued and found security in, just lost people with ever-increasing evil and ever-decreasing communities of faith? Not like some demented game of "survival" - but with the intention of bringing God's redemption into the most hostile world imaginable.

Would you stay or would you go? Are we so focused on not being "left behind" that we forget that this is exactly what Jesus did to His disciples? He said, "I'm going - and you are NOT coming with Me." Then He left them with the tools to bring redemption to the world they were still living in, to bring salvation to them.

With Jesus, salvation was never merely about getting out of this world and into heaven. It's a big part of our hope, of course, but it's not the be-all, end-all of salvation. Salvation is about being a disciple of Christ here and now and even "then" whenever and whatever "then" is.

John 17: 15 - 19

"I am not praying that You take them out of the world but that You protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world as I am not of the world. Sanctify them by the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. I sanctify Myself for them, so they also may be sanctified by the truth."

Oh, the Humanity

I was driving back to work from visiting some people at the hospital, and I passed a young woman pushing an older woman in a wheelchair down a pothole-filled sidewalk in the pouring rain. I looked at the old woman and started groaning inside . . . . humanity stinks. It's all about relentless decay and pain. Rain, muddy puddles, wheelchairs, an aging process that has one destination. In my discouragement I had an urge to write a book and call it "Humanity Stinks." Or whatever stronger word you want use. It was a picture of continual pain heading to a greater pain.

Then my thoughts turned to the younger woman, pushing this older lady through the muddy puddles in the driving rain, and my thoughts changed completely. It suddenly became a picture of continual love heading to a greater love.

I had one quick glimpse of two women, a rainstorm, broken sidewalks, muddy puddles and a wheelchair. I guess there are two ways you can look at humanity. God says in Deuteronomy 30, you can choose life or choose death as your viewpoint, then pleads with us to "choose life."

Choose life.

Be Careful . . . She's Somebody's Wife

If you want to make a lot of money in Christian circles today all you have to do is write a book that slams the American church. It's an easy target with a large target audience. I have read a number of them, finding myself nodding in agreement at the critiques and criticisms.

However, this morning in my devotions I was reading through Leviticus and I started getting a nagging feeling that maybe I shouldn't spend so much time slamming the bride. You see, I read Leviticus as a marriage covenant between God and His people. He brings them out of the bondage of Egypt, walks them up to His holy mountain, and . . . . marries them. They become His bride. The rest of Leviticus is basically the vows of the marriage, the conditions of their covenant relationship.

The bride, regrettably, was prone to adultery. She broke the terms of the marriage in the most vile ways possible. But God was relentless in His love and ultimately brought His bride back to Himself, cleansed through the blood of Christ, and renamed her The Church. He filled her with His presence and put His heart into her heart. His desire is that they would become one - with Him, through Christ.

Though still prone to wander, this broken body is Someone's wife. Instead of cynicism and a critical spirit, I need to extend my hand in love, to treat her as I would want someone to treat my own beautiful wife if she were hurting. Not kicking her when she's down, but lifting her up to restore her to where she belongs.

I know there are issues - but rise above them and look upon this broken woman as one who is loved with a deep passion by the God of Love. Don't get me wrong, the issues can run deep and have hurt many people and have stifled true discipleship, and they should be addressed. I'm just saying be careful - she is still Someone's wife, and she is very much loved.


Ephesians 5:25 -32

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church."

Freedom

John 8: 31, 32 "To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Where does true freedom come from, the point of entry (salvation) or following Christ (discipleship)? I think this question is more important than it may appear.

Of course there is a freedom that enters into your life at the moment you become a child of God, by repenting and believing that Jesus is the Messiah, that He did die for you and rise again. Your past, at least the guilt and condemnation of it, is washed away. The freedom and release associated with this moment is indescribable - and very real.

However, there is still the slavery of your former mindset that holds you and keeps you from truly experiencing the full freedom that Christ promises. The freedom from chasing the things of the world, from living and reacting the way the world does, from thinking the way the world does. Free from the fight - in every way.

According to John 8:31, 32, this freedom only comes after you commit to His teachings and become His disciple. It is beyond the salvation experience. It is salvation at a much deeper level, the salvation of everything you are, the release of the grip the world has on you and the grip you have on the world.

We talk about knowing the truth and the truth setting us free, but mostly this is done in the context of the "salvation experience" - at the point of entry, so to speak. But Jesus says that this freedom comes AFTER you become His disciple, which comes AFTER you hold to His teachings, which comes AFTER you believe.

This makes perfect sense if you think about it. While the condemnation is removed at salvation, it is in following Him, truly understanding His way and living in it (the real Way, not your idea of what His way should be) - - - then and only then that the strongholds and strangleholds of the world start to fall away and true freedom is found.

There are far too many Christians who claim freedom because they "accepted Jesus as their savior" but actually don't experience any freedom because they have never subsequently followed Him as a disciple. They are caught up in the ways of vengeance, money, anger, lust, hatred, lack of forgiveness, worry, depression - all the things the world struggles with.

The progression of Jesus' teaching in this passage is fairly straightforward:

• Believe Him
• Hold to His teachings
• Become His disciple
• Know the truth
• Be set free

There are no shortcuts.

Sharing with our Oppressors

There's a great story in II Kings 6, 7 in which some lepers are outside the city during a famine and come across the spoils of the enemy army. God has just caused the army to leave their camp in fear and the food is abundant and the riches are laying all around. The lepers first thought, of course, is to hoard it and keep it to themselves. Why not?

But then they make this amazing claim: “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves." (II Kings 7:9)

In other words, they will share these riches that have been poured into their laps with those who have oppressed them and kept them outside the city gates.

This thought brought me to Hebrews 13:11 - 16

"The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased"

Jesus was beaten, stripped, and dragged outside the city in total humiliation. Yet He still offered peace and forgiveness to those who did the beating, stripping and dragging. Not only that, but He offered the very riches of heaven to them. You see it's one thing to offer an oppressor forgiveness. It's quite another to turn around and offer them something from your own storehouse.

There is a suffering outside the camp that we will endure if we truly follow the words of Christ , but there is also the indescribable riches that are beyond anything the world has to offer. However, too many of us go outside the camp to be with Christ but never return to our oppressors and share with them the riches of the good news. We would rather see our enemies suffer and die than to bring them love and peace and forgiveness and a chance for a redeemed life.

We could learn a lesson from these lepers. The way of Christ is to return to those who spitefully use and abuse us and offer them the riches of God. Unconditionally.

The Last Drop

I have too much, and to whom much is given much is required. But where do I start? What do I release? As I walked around my house one day, under the intense conviction of the Holy Spirit, I could hear Him saying over and over that this world was not my home and that there was too much "stuff" in my life.

I didn't know where to start. But in my scripture readings for that week I came across a great passage in Deuteronomy 24 beginning at verse 19:

^"When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this."

Don't try to squeeze the last drop out of everything that you have - give the excess to the poor and the hurting. It is already assumed that the Israelites give their firstfruits, and my wife and I have covenanted to do that. But then what? God tells them not to be intent on draining the last drop out of the remainder of what they have harvested.

It's the mentality that has to change. If we tithe (as we should), then what . . . . we're okay? As I stated, it's already assumed that the Israelites are giving their firstfruits, but God also requires that they don't have mindset of grinding out every last sheaf, olive or grape.

I've been challenged in 2011 to start stripping away the excess - not just literally, but to have my mindset changed so that I don't feel the need to squeeze every last cent or every last second for my own gain. To use these "excesses" for the alien, the widow and the orphan.

So if you're challenged on what you should do with the blessings in your life, a good first step is to simply bringing the excesses into the lives of the poor. I think if you do that, you'll also begin the process of emptying the entire storehouse.

Blowing off the Stink

Jeremiah 48:11 "Moab has been at rest from youth, like wine left on its dregs, not poured from one jar to another - she has not gone into exile. So she tastes as she did, and her aroma is unchanged."

When I was a lazy teenager sitting on the couch watching tv, my mother would come in and say, "Why don't you go outside and blow the stink off." I tried to act offended, but I knew that what she was saying was right. Sitting around, you kind of collect a stink about you. You need to shift positions, to get into a new place, or else your "aroma is unchanged."

Elijah spent three years in the desert being whittled by God, poured from one jar to another, before he was standing on top of Mt. Carmel. David went from cave to cave before he was settled as king. Joseph spent years in an Egyptian prison and then ascended to second in command of the entire country. Peter entered into a self-imposed "prison" with his denials and failures before truly becoming "the rock."

I would venture to say that these times of being poured from jar to jar were what enabled these men to blow the stink off and be brought to great heights.

When we are uprooted, when the rug is pulled out from beneath our feet, it is God at work. He is changing our position so that our aroma will be changed. A settled body of water becomes rancid and undrinkable. A settled Christian becomes the same.

God pours us from one jar to another to change our aroma. As painful as these times may be, it's better than the alternative - a useless pool of stench.

The church in America needs to undergo this same type of pouring. We have become stale and have lost our aroma. In our quest for relevance, we've lost our distinction. In our desire to maintain traditions, we've become stale. Neither place offers anything to the believers or the unbelievers. The true Church should be an aroma to both.

We need people like my mother to come into our churches and say, "Why don't you get up and get outside and blow the stink off!"

II Corinthians 2:15 "For we are to God the aroma of Christ . . . among those who are being saved and those who are perishing."

Armor Bearing

I Kings 20:11 "One who puts on his armor should not boast like one who takes it off."

As I push through everything in my "noble" attempt to get to the truth, I need to remember the above verse. It's easy to dismiss prior generations and say that we alone have a stranglehold on the biblical truth, the way of Jesus - that we alone know what the Kingdom really looks like. We need to remember in our search for the truth that there are people taking off the armor who have already spent a lifetime fighting the good fight, living in the Way.

Don't get me wrong. I want the truth even if it means pushing aside the empty ceremonial water jars for the new wine. I don't want, out of respect for my elders, to ever tolerate traditions and methods that are not of the truth. If all they have to offer me is a lifetime of no wine, then I will dismiss it.

But there are those before me who have lived out lives in the new wine. Maybe not necessarily in the jars that I would choose (music, church, methods) but they lifted high the Cross and they sought the Truth. They loved God with all of their heart and their neighbor as themselves.

These are the ones I better be careful not to dismiss too easily, because in many ways I am just putting on my armor. They were able to take it off and know that they had finished well. Only a fool would make a claim before the battle that they knew the better way.

The reason I write this is because I am studying John, and currently as I preach through chapter 2 I see Jesus eradicate the uselessness of the old ceremonial water jars by filling them with the new wine. As I read this, my first thoughts were: "This is what I'm going to do! I will push aside the old, useless ways and be filled with the new wine!" Then, as I prepared for another Bible study, I read I Kings 20 and God set me straight. So - I'm just letting you know that I've been humbled and will not look so condescendingly upon the saints of the past as I pursue the Way, the Truth and the Life.

The Way of God

Hebrews 8:7 -
"For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said . . . . . I will put My laws in their minds and write them on their hearts."

There is a problem with discipleship, and the expectations of the disciples of Christ, and it is that people, for some reason, aren't actually expected to live out the "way" of God. They're expected to be in Him and be saved by Him, but the Way of God has been cast aside as not relevant anymore, as if the death of Christ put it to death.

Christ did not put to death the perfect Law of God, He put to death the stranglehold that this law had on us, causing frustration and death. He put to death the Way of Man that had been superimposed over the Way of God. He put to death death itself, the condemnation of our inability to keep His law. But He did not put to death God's perfection and His holiness.

According to Hebrews, God did not find fault with His Law, He found fault with the people. If the Law was flawed and ultimately irrelevant, then why would His ultimate goal be to write it upon our hearts and minds?

Why is this important to me? Because I think that we are dismissing the Way of God too easily. Jesus calls Himself "the Way" and I believe as self-proclaimed disciples, we are not truly following His way. We are creating our own ways and then claiming it to be His way.

There is a demand upon someone who claims to be a disciple - it's to follow in the way of his master. You can't cast aside His way and claim to be in the Way. I was reading in a book (Mere Discipleship) this past week that somehow, somewhere in the development of Christian thought, moral action was replaced by moral thought. Almost to the point where you could justify DOING things by saying that they had no hold on you. Accumulating wealth, for example. As long as it didn't have a grip on you, you could amass "stuff" for yourself.

I believe that the heart and mind must be changed - as well as the actions. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's still a sin if I do it, isn't it?

I believe that there is a Way that is right, and it's more than just a thought of the the heart. It's DOING what your Master says is His way. True discipleship is walking in His steps, adhering to His teaching, and doing what He said to do.

This Way has not been cast aside by the Cross.

sunday 10.17.10

we here at cbc are going to try a little experiment. we are going to post an outline of points from tom's sunday sermons for further discussion throughout the week. here is the first installment in our little experiment.

I. opening passage of scripture: john 1:1 - 18
- "the Word became flesh

II. intercession - the highest calling a christian can have
1. your vision must change
- not sympathy or empathy...we are called to action
- your vision of Jesus must change
- your vision of other people must change

2. your methods must change (unlearn the "egyptian way")
- exodus 2:11
- moses kills the egyptian in order to avenge the mistreatment of a hebrew slave. this is not the way of God

3. enter into their life
- Jesus enters in and becomes one of us
- he voluntarily takes our form because he loves us
- not an easy task. people come messy and broken.

4. expect something to happen!
- we give up too quickly on people

5. pray like crazy
- ezekiel 37 - God brings that which was dead to life (dry bones)

we are called to a live of service and love for the people around us. how can we take this call seriously in our daily life?

feel free to comment with thoughts, opinions, objections, questions, etc.

Victory by Diversion

Mark 9:29 "This kind can come out only by prayer."

I do not want victory by diversion. I do not want to have thoughts in my head that are only cast aside during momentary times of prayer and Bible study and general busyness.

Upon coming down the Mt. of Transfiguration, Jesus confronts a demon-possessed boy and frees him, telling the demon to "come out of him and never enter him again."

Can there truly be an exiting in this life? Or is every victory simply a temporary stay of execution - the inevitable execution of the sin that is working through your mind?

I find that many times in my devotions I enter with thoughts raging through my brain, then I enter into times of prayer and study that often become so focused on God and His Word that I feel free. However, upon exiting this time, the thoughts, and worse - how to put these thoughts into action - return.

Jesus says that "This kind can come out only by prayer" and that IT is to "never enter" again. There is an underlying assumption of an eternal exiting. In this life. Only by prayer.

I fear that I give up too easily and that I lack the faith to move this mountain.

Changed by a Third Grader

I got a bunch of birthday cards today from the kids at elementary chapel. I do this chapel each Wednesday - one of the highlights of my week. Their innocence and pure love for God reminds me of what it's really all about.

Anyway - I'm sitting at my desk reading each one and this particular prayer from a 3rd grader's card struck me:

"Thank you Lord for Mr. D. I pray that he will continue to serve you with all his heart. Amen."

It seems so simple but it slayed me on the spot. I know my heart can drift, and I forget that I need to be fully there because these kids need me to be fully there. It refocused me and brought me to a place where I needed to be.

They see me as serving Him with all my heart. I need to be serving Him with all my heart. "From the lips of children . . . . you silence the foe and the avenger." (Psalm 8).

Satan was silenced this morning - in my heart - as I read a card from an 8 year-old boy. That's a good day.

I Think Not

I Corinthians 8:11 "So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge."

I read an interesting article a few years back about former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Her husband of 54 years has Alzheimer's and is in a nursing home. . . . where he found himself a girlfriend. Justice O'Connor goes and sits with the two of them, knowing his level of understanding doesn't allow him to remember the depth of their relationship, their decades together. She sacrifices this knowledge and swallows her own personal feelings to allow him to have peace. What an incredible act of submission.

It is an incredible act of submission to God and your brother when you forfeit your incredible knowledge of the deepest theological truths (said sarcastically) and stoop to the level of understanding of a weaker brother to allow him to be at peace.

We should never forfeit the Truth. But really, how much of what we cling to is the actual Truth and how much is simply the arguments of man?

Are we able to bring peace to our brothers and sisters by putting our knowledge on the altar and sacrificing it? It's a sobering thought.

He Ain't There

"Oh, for a man to arise in me, that the man I am might cease to be."
Tennyson

I used to have that quote written on the inside of my devotional book, waiting for the day that this 'better man' would arise out of the rubble of who I was. I was not satisfied with the things I thought, the things I said or the things that I did. I longed for that 'man' to emerge, the man that I wanted to be. This longing brought me to Shakespeare's Henry IV part I, which I read over and over. In this play, Prince Hal, spends his youth hanging with fools (Falstaff) and acting foolishly, all the while knowing that eventually he will emerge as the man he really is deep down. And he does, becoming a great king. I identified with Prince Hal, biding my time until this 'great man' arose from within the foolishness.

There was only one problem: This man is not there. There is no great man inside each one of us just waiting to come out. We are sinful to the core of our being and it isn't simply a matter of time and maturity: that man ain't there.

If you desire to be victorious, if you hate the man you are and like Tennyson long for a day when your foolishness and childishness is cast aside and you suddenly become the man that you desire to be, then you must come to a complete and utter end of yourself and be 'born again.' That's right, the phrase that makes most Christians recoil out of embarrassment is the only thing that will allow this man to exist. Because he is not just sitting inside of you waiting to come out.

You must be born again. The old nature must be crucified with Christ and you must be raised in a new nature, as a new man, not some modified version of your old man. The message that is often preached is that God will take you and bring you to a higher level of yourself. That is not salvation, my friends, that is a lie. It is not some higher level of yourself, it is an obliteration of everything that you are and the implementation of a new nature, from outside of yourself, into your being. You are a new creation, not a souped-up version of your old self.

The reason that this doesn't get preached enough is because in today's age of tolerance and humanism, we don't want to tell anyone that they are sinful to the core. That doesn't sell well. An add-on to who they are sounds better and less demeaning. But it is a lie and they will forever live in the body of death, never finding that 'new man' that they so desperately desire.

Do what I finally did: fall on your face, acknowledge that there is nothing good that lives within you, and receive the new nature that is promised by God. (I Corinthians 5). Be born again - because that man that you're waiting for to arise from within? He just ain't there.

True Calvinism

Calvin is gone. He's been missing for 6 weeks now, and even by his standards of wandering I don't think he's coming back. So I decided to put together my own Memorial TULIP for him. You see, I think I've learned more from my cat Calvin than the theologian Calvin. No disrespect intended, but that's just the way it is.

The original Calvin's TULIP is as follows:

T = Total Depravity. All of mankind is totally affected by sin to the core of our being.
U = Unconditional Election. God pulls us out of the mud with no will or work of our own involved.
L = Limited Atonement. The death of Christ was only for those chosen by God to be saved.
I = Irresistible Grace. The chosen will not resist when God pulls them out of the fire.
P = Perseverance of the Saints. The chosen will become progressively holier and will never be unchosen.

Well, here is my new TULIP:

T = Tearing Out the Matt. Calvin would get these intricately woven matts (or furballs) growing almost into his skin. To get them out I would have to hold him down and pull. He hated it and would scratch and claw at me when I pulled at them. I learned to get them early and often, or else the pain was intolerable for both of us. The longer they were left there, the less I could tell where Calvin ended and the furball began. It's like that with the things in our lives that we don't deal with right away. Eventually they grow into us until it looks as if they are a part of us and they're very difficult to remove. Holiness requires constant cleansing. I'm reminded to get up every morning and pour His Word upon me and His Spirit through me. I can't allow any of these thoughts to grow into me.

U = Unless You Become Like a Child . . . Once in awhile Calvin would revert back to his kitten days - playful and fun. (Most of the time he was a bit surly - like the rest of us.) I think we all could learn a lesson from this. No one likes the angry and mean Christian. Once in awhile we need to get back to our child-like simplicity and love and hope. Where we forgive immediately and don't hold grudges. Where we could be arguing one minute, but still best friends the next. The angry and mean cat would never cause a non-cat person to desire to get a cat. The angry and mean Christian will never cause a non-believer to say, "Hey, I want that." Our lives should be marked with child-like faith and joy.

L = Love Me! I'll never forget when we got another kitten a few years ago. Calvin must have felt threatened, because suddenly mice and other animals (dead) started showing up at my backdoor, laid out like a sacrifice. It was as if he wanted to remind me that he was still around and wanted to prove his worth or something. It was very strange. But we do that - we think we have to prove our worth to God with our sacrifices and works (certainly not bad things), when in reality God desires brokenness and repentance and emptiness. Concepts my Calvin never quite grasped! He was never sorry for anything.

I = Inside/Outside. Calvin was mean inside the house. He never would let me play or pet him (I know, you're wondering why I loved him so much. But we always love our own, no matter what.) But outside, he would roll around in the grass, climb all over you when you sat down, play with you, etc. I thought this was odd until I realized we do the same thing. We're funny, kind, playful to people outside our house, then we get in and act like monsters to the ones we love the most. Husbands - this should not be. Inside the house, with your wife and kids, we should be the same way we are to the people in your work and neighborhood. Even better. Sometimes we're nicer to a person we just met on the street than we are to the ones that are in our own homes!!! Ministry begins inside, not outside. Otherwise we're just hypocrites.

P = Please, Just Come Home! When all is said and done, I just want Calvin to come back home. In dealing with families with broken relationships and kids that have gone astray, I realize that this is their sentiment as well. They just want the prodigal to come home. It breaks my heart on a daily basis, but it's the best ministry to be in. The ministry that brings these kids home, that brings healing to these families. The ministry of Nain, restoring a dead child to their mother.

So, after all this typing, I'm going to go out into my backyard one more time, and see if Calvin is walking through that back garden. If not - maybe I'll plant a TULIP in his memory. Because he sure has taught me a lot of valuable lessons.

To Infinity and Beyond

"Dad, I will give him 5 chances."

So said my 11-year-old son to me when I told him that he needed to have more patience with his younger brother. It was a very magnanimous gesture.

This was after a little lecture from me regarding the passages in I John that dealt with loving your brother. I was really glad he listened and actually wanted to do something about it. He honestly felt that he was taking a stand on the higher ground. But still . . . he was setting a limit in his willingness to love and forgive. Not just a limit that he reached out of exasperation, but a pre-established limit, the worst kind.

"Joseph wept."

Those two words in Genesis 50:17 tell me everything I need to know about true forgiveness. Jacob had died and Joseph's brothers were now worried that any promise of forgiveness and protection would be eliminated, so they wrote a letter claiming (lying?) that their father had desired this covering of forgiveness to remain. When Joseph read this letter, he wept.

Why did he weep? I believe it was because it deeply pained him to think that his brothers felt the forgiveness was conditional, limited. When instead it was "to infinity and beyond."

I will rest in that forgiveness from my Father, who doesn't hold it over me like a guillotine, waiting to drop it on my head at the first sign of my unworthiness. It's eternal. I will offer that same forgiveness to my brother - an extended hand that has no limits.

Movie Theater Holiness

It never ceases to amaze me how seemingly normal people (like myself) can enter into a movie theater and suddenly start tossing trash around like we've gone crazy. Popcorn bags are tossed to the floor, cups are left in the holder, candy wrappers are kicked under the seats . . . . . it's like we've created this little sphere in our life where the normal rules of cleanliness and littering don't apply.

I've come to realize that we do this in other areas of life as well, using similar rationalizations. We create little spheres of our life that allow us to justify actions that we clearly would never do under "normal" circumstances. The Workplace. Politics. Sports. It's a "Survivor" mentality. We can backstab, deceive, elbow someone in the teeth, push down someone so that we can rise to a greater position, and then say that "it's within the rules of the game." Never once stopping to think that these are rules that WE created.

I love sports and I truly understand the need for rules within these games, but let's never mistake these rules as God-created. In boxing, it's okay to hit someone in the face. Because I've created that rule.

I don't want to go too far down this road because I might find myself getting convicted of things that I enjoy doing. I would never want to have to confront a non Christ-like attitude or action that I have already created rules that justify it.

Movie Theater Holiness. It's a pretty neat way to live your life. You don't have to be a true disciple of Christ ALL the time. You don't have to be clean ALL the time. You can create your own little dark places and start throwing your trash around with complete justification, then walk away and let someone else clean up the mess.

Just Men

Colossians 4: 7-18 contains a list of characters that have varying backgrounds. We have Onesimus, a runaway slave who has been transformed by the Lord from useless to useful (read Philemon for his story). We have Mark, who deserted Paul during the first missionary journey, creating the great divide between Paul and Barnabas (read Acts 15:36), now restored and seen as a fellow laborer who should be welcomed, not shunned. Then there is Epaphras, wrestling in prayer, emptying himself for others.

We also read about Nympha, faithfully holding church meetings in her home (not an easy thing to do, from personal experience). Aristarchus is a fellow prisoner, along with Paul, in chains for the Gospel. Finally we see Archippus, who like many of us seems to need a kick in the pants to finish what he started in the Lord, to follow through with something that we don't need to know the details of. Others mentioned: Tychicus, Luke, Demas, Justus - they're not just throwaway names of throwaway people.

I love this passage, because it shows what Christianity really is. Just men. Not better or worse than the rest of mankind. Just men (and women) changed by an encounter with God, still struggling but holding firm to the faith. Wrestling, encouraging, deserting, failing, faithfully opening their homes, witnessing to the point of chains, failing to finish the job, etc. Again - just men like the rest of us.

Sometimes my cynicism gets the best of me and I get frustrated with fellow Christians. Once in awhile it's valid, as hypocrisy and apathy rage, but most of the time it stems from my own self-centeredness. I want people to fit into my box, my own interpretation of justness and justice. I need to understand that for 2000 years it's been a series of people like those in Colossians 4. Just men, pouring through time like thousands of points of light. Not better, not worse, but justified through the blood of the Lamb and bringing Him, through their own broken vessels, into the darkness.

I read this list and I am brought to repentance in how I view my brothers and sisters in the Lord, holding them to a higher standard than I hold myself to, making the narrow gate narrower. I am driven today to read I John and remember that if I can't even love my own brother, how can I claim to have the love of Christ within me?

Brave Prayer: I Have an "Aachen" In My Heart

II Samuel 21:1 "During the reign of David, there was a famine for three successive years; so David sought the face of the Lord. The Lord said, "It is on account of Saul and his blood-stained house; it is because he put the Gibeonites to death."

There was a famine in the land and David inquired of the Lord. What he found out was that there had been some unaddressed sin: Saul had destroyed the Gibeonites when they had made an oath to protect them (Joshua 9). Because of the Israelites failure to keep their word, dryness entered into the land, and the only way to bring relief was to make atonement for this sin.

I am really challenged by this passage - because I can often be a cowardly prayer. The dryness that is in my life can most-likely be traced to some sin or thought process that I'm quite good at avoiding. It takes deep, soul-searching, honest prayer to come to a place where this sin is recognized and dealt with.

Toward the end of WWII, as the Allies pushed through France and Belgium to Berlin, they approached a well-fortified city called Aachen. The commanders knew that it would take a long time and a lot of casualties to defeat it, so they decided to simply surround it and keep moving. However, the Germans inside the city kept attacking the supply lines to the front, and the generals finally decided that they had to take it out. It ended up costing hundreds of lives as they were forced into door-door combat to root them out.

We need to approach sin that way. If we side-step it, our supply line will be under constant attack and we will be drained of energy and power. It's time for some honest prayer. Brave prayer. Prayer that acknowledges even our deepest sin. We need to go door-to-door and root out even the deepest part of our human nature.