FLOWER OR WEED

This time of year when I'm out in the yard and things a sprouting up, it is hard to tell whether they are flowers or weeds. Sometimes their both. For example:

Its, pretty, edible and fun to shoot the top off, but most people call it a weed rather than a flower. It's a matter of opinion I guess. It's unfortunate, but truth is that way in our day and time. It's relevant, meaning people can determine their own truth. Or is it Absolute, meaning their is one Truth that presides over everything. I'm imperfect and I'd rather trust in a TRUTH from a perfect source: God's Word. It is truth for every situation, crisis, struggle and test. The Word is True and the promises in it or true too. God Loves you. His Son died for you. He will never leave you or forsake you. Seems more like a flower to me and it sure is beautiful.

THE FORMULA

I think I'm on to something. It may be elementary or even just obvious, but here's the formula:

Participation + Persistence = Produce.

How do we get the most out of an experience? The Formula. How do we make friends? P+P=P How do I get to know God more? I'll give you one guess. If we keep on trusting God, He Proves Himself. If we persist in reading His Word, He reveals Himself. If I keep eating candy bars the produce will be a bigger belt. We reap what we sow. If you you want spiritual fruit in your life...use the formula. I think this could be a movement.....

PLAYING POSSUM

It must be possum season in the road kill hunting world. On the way to work I have seen several this week. But I saw one that was sitting up and looking over something. I didn't look dead, but more dazed or stunned. I got thinking that the possum is a nocturnal creature and normally aren't seen in the day much. I had a "twilight" vision of it getting caught at sunrise in that position and being stuck until nightfall. Or maybe is had car lights shine on it and it got that "possum caught in the headlights" look. When we are out of our comfort zone we get the same way. I'm a firm believer that Christianity in America is about comfort. Lord protect us, keep us safe, provide for us, heal us. Do you ever ask God to put you in a place where you will need Him more? I also believe that to many, Christianity is about control. Keep God in a box. (It's all cool unless someone unleashes the charismatic gifts.) Sadly too, we have made our faith an intellectual property. Something explainable and debatable that we can think on, but seldom act on. These kind of thoughts make a lot of pew dwellers nervous. Many of us get paralyzed, dazed or confused when we get uncomfortable. That might be good because when we are too scared to move; God can and does. When everything is right we don't feel like we need God. Let something go wrong and we are on the hot line to him. Back to the possum . Possums have the ability to make you think they are dead. It is called playing possum. When danger is near they kick into this mode. As children of light (God's kids), when we are in a place of darkness we should freeze. When were are in places where sin is the only option we should stop our steps and do what it takes to move back into the light. God, through Christ, has brought us from death to life. We shouldn't be playing possum when it come to living for Christ. We should be seeking God and his will constantly. We should be LIVING for God constantly. HAPPY HUNTING.

SIMPLE STUFF

We finished up our Sunday Night Youth Gatherings last night. Some of our awesome moms made sure we went out fat and sassy with burgers, dogs, ice cream and home-made cakes. Thanks ladies. We were waiting for a program the Israel Report to start so we played a little kickball out back on the pavement. No one tried to slide and that was good. It doesn't take to many supplies to play kickball. A ball is really all that is needed. You can make bases out of anything. It is simple. Roll the ball, kick it and run. Simple stuff. God has made it simple for us to have a relationship with Him. Accept Jesus and what he did for us. Simple. But we make it so hard. As humans we are complex creatures and for some reason we let that complexity enter in to most areas of life. Which makes it harder than it should be. Kickball got difficult last night. Can you steal or lead off? Can you throw to get someone out? Faith gets that way too. Can God forgive anything? What about murderers? Can God make a rock so big he can't lift it? We all do it. So maybe on this Monday we can start our week by resting in the fact that we are not God, but we accept his unmeasurable love and love Him and others in return.

UNCLAIMED LUGGAGE

Traci and I took a fun little day trip to Alabama yesterday to the Unclaimed Luggage Store. A fun little place with lots of deals. How it works is this. There is luggage, cargo and freight the goes unclaimed. For 38 years these people have been buying it and selling it. My big purchase. Sony noise canceling earbuds for $6 and some funky shirts. What is awesome is that we don't have to go through life unclaimed. God wants us. He paid huge price in Jesus to reclaim us. We don't have to sell ourselves out to bidders of power, worth, or purpose. He wants to give all of those if we will trust Him. He has claimed us as sons and daughters. He stands at the door and knocks. Let Him in.

ROYALTY

Parade magazine's cover story yesterday posed the question "Do we still need royalty in the 21st Century?" Sometimes I wonder what I would do if I were King....then I see yard needing mowed, my underwear needing laundered and I wake up. I don't think anyone would want me to be and truthfully, I'm a subject of a risen King. What is so so cool though is that I'm an heir with Him. His word to us informs us that we are royal too! "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light." (1 Peter 2:9) Do you act like royalty? Not in a selfish-bring-me-tea or off-with-their-head kind of way, but in the way it should be. Royalty are supposed to be caretakers of their people. Shepherds if you will. James lays out the task of royalty: If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing right. (James 2:8) We are royalty. We should act like it. Love People.

SAWING WOOD

I spent the last 24 hours helping students make an imprint on Knoxville. 24/7 has been our Spring retreat (advance) this year. We provided students with 3 service projects and they got creative and found ways to share the love of God and serve Knoxville. One of our projects was cleaning a fence row at the Wesley House. Wesley is a children's center that helps kids in our inner city. 89% of them are from single parent homes and after being in the program 80% of them are on the honor roll. We cleaned the fence row over our High School and Middle School Weekends. Today we decided some chain saws would help us move a little faster. They did, but in the process the chain on one kept popping off. When I used it on thicker trees it was fine. That is what is was made for. However, when I tried to use it as a weed eater on steroids, it acted up. The little stuff tripped it up. Come to think of it, I'm like that a lot of the time. When I am doing the things God has gifted me for and called me to, I'm fine. It is when I get bogged down in little knit picky things that I get off track. When I worry about other peoples sins, the devil has his way with me. When I care too much what others think about me, Lord have mercy. But when I focus on just being obedient to God in my life, I feel victorious. Guess that is a pretty good reason to just keep chopping wood instead of sawing weeds!

BE STILL

I ran into my friend Micah as we entered work together today. He'd been to the dentist and couldn't talk for another 15 minutes. I thought it would be hard for him, others were asking for 20 minutes. Micah is an extrovert like me. One thing I've noticed about myself and my personality type is that it is hard to just be still. The Bible gives some good advice that we should be still and know that God is God. But for me, silence and solitude are tough. It gets a little easier as I get older, maybe because I realize how little I actually know and how small I am in the scale of eternity. The truth is I need to discipline myself to be still. God wouldn't tell us to do so if it wouldn't benefit us. His plans are to grow us and to prosper us; not to give us tasks that will drive us crazy. Obeying Him brings life. Disobedience brings all kinds of crap into our lives. While crap can make things grow it is no fun to wade through. So take some time to be still and quiet. Listen for is voice. If you are His sheep you will know it.

Empty

The good news is foolishness to those who are dying. Emptiness is a viewed as a flaw in our society. Bookstores are loaded with self help titles written to fill readers with purpose and meaning. No on wants to be empty. But it is the beautiful irony that emptiness brings us the fullness we long for. The empty tomb gives us all we really need. Our world tells us we need numerous things to be happy, but the one true thing we need is found in the empty tomb.

"He is risen" and in that simple phrase we have every aspect of emptiness in our life filled. We have purpose, value, hope love... If you don't get this you are probably dead spiritually. The good news of Easter is that you can be alive and reconnected to God through Christ. Empty your self and let Him fill you. Happy Easter.

REMEMBERING

I bit the bullet. I'm now on facebook. It has been interesting catching up with some old friends from high school. It has brought back some memories that time had sanded over. When it comes to remembering, I think there is one most important thing we can do on a daily basis. Remember our imperfection. Remember that we are not judge or jury of others. Remember that we are not perfect and neither are the things we produce. No, we are sinners. All of us. And the best thing we can do is remember that we need a Savior. We need the kindness and love offered only by God, through his Son, Jesus Christ. If God had a facebook page, How many friends do you think he'd have? He gives the us the prerequisite for being his friend. John 15:14 says, "You are my friends if you do what I command." It really comes down to this: DO WE LOVE? On facebook you can suggest friends for one another. That's the challenge. How many people cant we point to God.

WHAT'S GOING RIGHT

What is going right for you? Inspired by the people that make the Trigger video series, we posed that question to our students and asked them to write their answers on post its.
It is a simple question, but difficult to keep front and center in our minds. Somewhere I have heard or read that it takes six or seven positives to overcome a negative. (Psychologically not mathematically) The bad stuff sticks with us. I think that is why accepting the forgiveness of Christ is so hard. It is foreign to our human nature. We like to dwell on things that we can't change or reverse. It makes sense that the Bible tells us that we are "transformed by the renewing of our minds." We need to continually pour in God's stuff to clean

out the sticky bad stuff. How? 1. Give thanks in all situations. (1 Thessalonians 5:18) Giving thanks reminds us we are not in control and the one who is loves us and blesses us like crazy. 2. Apply Philippians 4:8 to your life. It says, "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." This is where the transforming and renewing happens! So What is going right? Make a list, you'll be surprised how much is.

POWER OF PRAYER AND GUILT

We had our final INDULGE of the school year last night. If you are not hip to it, Indulge is a monthly party for high school students at Cokesbury in Knoxville. The original intent was to give students a place just to hang out and to be an outreach to the community. We have learned a few things along the way, but last night I was reminded of how God is using everything in our ministry. One student started coming to indulge last fall, but quickly plugged into Sunday mornings too. One of his Sunday School teachers was working the front gate last night and asked him how a situation was that he had asked his class to prayer for the previous week. He was a little surprised because he forgot about asking the group for his request, and he was a little blown away when he thought about how much better his week had been. Chalk it up as a lesson in the power of prayer and the care of our youth workers. Good job Alsyssa! The second thing that had God all over it was when a student was on their way out and asked for prayer for their father who has been ill. There seemed to be much more to the situation, but as the kid wept there came an apology for not being at church much lately. It was almost as though they thought that their absence had brought about the sickness. Guilt is a powerful thing too. Satan likes it that way because it keeps us stuck in the mire of failure and hopelessness. Please remember this: There is no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. That means God is our only judge and through the forgiveness and righteousness we have in Christ, we can approach God at any time and talk to Him about anything!

COUNTDOWNS

I have spent a large portion of the last week consumed with countdowns. (cue the music- band=Euorpe, sound= The Final Countdown) We were trying to put a 24 hour countdown on the screen for our 24/7 event last weekend to let kids know how much time was left. Ever-able Carter figured one out, but it wasn't good enough for me because I wanted our logo on it. I enjoy marketing and advertising and branding is important to me. I tried lots of things and finally figured it out. Consequently I put a countdown on our Ground Zero Design Blog (it is private, sorry) and have been wondering how else to use them.

We live in a countdown. From birth we are counting down to death. The earth growns (counts down) for the return of Christ. Unfortunately we can't see the numbers. Nobody knows the day or the hour of Christ's return or of our own death. But we are told to be ready. That means we should let our brand be seen. We represent Christ. We are sons and daughters of God. Let the world know it.

ALWAYS FOOLS DAY

1 Corinthians 4:10
We are fools for Christ, but you are so wise in Christ! We are weak, but you are strong! You are honored, we are dishonored!

Romans1:22-23
Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

Most often foolishness is paired with wisdom in Scripture. What is interesting is that Romans tells us that when we claim to be wise, then we are fools. I don't think the opposite is true. There is no wisdom in proclaiming foolishness. But there is wisdom in knowing that we are very very small in the span of all things eternal. Despite our minute stature, God finds us worthy of redemption and offers undying love to us. When we accept that we are on the road to wisdom. Then we learn to be fools for Christ, following in faith when the world would say we were blind. The cross is foolish to the lost. But it is our only hope. It is power over death, sin, and satan. It is foolish to think that we control our own destiny. Wisdom trusts in God and leans not on our own understanding. We are always fools to the lost. Happy April 1st.

JUNGLE BOOGIE

I had the chance yesterday to sit in with Bill Easum as he was here speaking to pastors at the Cokesbury Leadership Academy. Bill, is a church growth consultant and I guess you could say a student of culture. He Twitters (I don't) and is about twice my age, so that should say something. If you haven't noticed our world has changed. Metaphorically we are in the jungle, while most of our churches are still in the National Park. Throughout the day we discussed making disciples and several times it came back to our Wesleyan heritage. Wesley was about "behavior modification". He believed that when we come to Christ and are saved that our behavior should change. We should be in obedience to Christ and stop sinning. Yesterday we stopped short of the sin part. It wasn't really the place for it.

But what strikes me is that at the places we should be talking about sin we stop short too! If making disciples is about behavior modification then we should be pointing out sinful behavior. Here is a question: In our Bible-illiterate, truth-is-relative world, how else will people learn what sin is? The jungle is full of it. The answer lies in being a right handler of Truth (2 Tim. 2:15) Sermons should! Small groups should! Families should! It is every believer's job to go (into the jungle) and make disciples. A disciple is an intern or apprentice learning the trade. We are the ones to be modeling and teaching the trade of obedience to Christ. It must be done in the spirit of love, as Jesus did.

We need to drop our self righteousness and model obedience and just how tough it is. I believe jungle people smell pride. It is like a pheromone that drives them away. We are not the judges! We are the hands and feet of Christ going into the jungle to be salt and light, dealing with our junk and sharing the love and redemption we have found in Christ. Get your machete out.

UNKNOWN DISCONNECTS

I saw a bumper sticker yesterday that read:"Standing on a corner in in Winslow, Arizona
Such a fine site to see.." That comes from the Eagles tune which goes on to say, "there's a girl my Lord in a flatbed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me." The disconnect for me was that the bumper sticker was on a Chevy. I know the guy doesn't have to be in a truck while standing on the corner and that the song isn't really about the brand of car, but for me there was a disconnect there. It made me think about disconnects, relationships lost or faded. I think back to high school friends I'd no longer recognize. I think back to people I worshipped with or served in other churches. I think about people I've let down or hurt and in the disappointment they have cut ties. I think about those who hurt me. I think about the natural deterioration of relationships that happens when physical distance of time and space have their way and lives drift apart. Disconnects. But now my thoughts move to this. Do my life and actions show Jesus and His undying love? Am I a disconnect for people to the thing they need most? The Westminster Catechism says the man exists to Glorify God and to find joy in doing so. When people see me do they see Jesus? That is my question today and everyday for that matter.

COOL ASHES

What do you get when you have an over zealous young pastor with a history of Youth Ministry and a bent to mischievousness?

You get a forehead of ashes that kids think are cool. My friend Micah loaded me up last week as we began lent. What is funny is how students and adults came up to me and wished their ashes were as dark as mine. There is a coolness to the cross, when you are in Christ. May we live our lives that way too. Leaving people wanting what we've got. I pray that God would make us irresistible to the lost.

I have used the word "compelling" a great deal in the last couple years. i.e. we should compel people to come to God's house. But we should take heed that we don't think that God needs us to make him sexy to the world. John says that the Father will lift up the son for the world to see. May we live so that our eyes are open to the the power of our Holy God, and that our need for him opens the eyes of others. I need God and relationship with him. I, like you, am not good, but while I was a sinner, Christ went to the cross and shed blood that made me clean and gave me that which I need most: GOD. Our existance here is about that and that alone. That we glorify God. May your ash be dark and compelling! May your love be up and out!

TRUST

Okay, it has been a while, but the good news is that God has taught me tons since my last post. I think the biggest thing though is trust. God is faithful and there fore He can be trusted with everything in our life. It is easy to say isn't it? The hard part is letting go. Especially if you are like me and have a habit of holding on and surviving by your own strength. Let me let you in on a little secret. Trust is worth it. There is peace on the other side of surrender. Jesus said it best when he said something like get over here with me, I show you how to live with out the pressure. I can make it easy and light on you. How crazy is it that we all have to relearn that a bunch in life? God is Good All the time. Trust and obey, there is no other way....