I dare you

A few nights ago I was sitting outside just enjoying God. They sky was gorgeous… the clouds felt arranged. The moonlight was impressive and cozy. The sky was colored a deep, warm blue… Like laundry water. And it just so happend that beneath this inspiring sky I had a brave thought… I wanted God to intentionally intervene in my dreams. I wanted Him to specifically hold hostage my dreamwork, in the hopes of shedding some light and revelation on what our church staff could really take to heart in order to really feel refreshed at ouor labor in ministry. Part of me did this because I Love the people on my church staff and really wanted to bring a word of knowledge to them that would instill a sense of joy back into all our lives.

I also asked for this intervention because I Love experiencing  God in this way! When God meets me in such clear, strong and undeniable ways, it inspires such Bravery in me…After all, I have God’s word on the matter…and that does not fail. In those times I feel inclined to run through, if need be, all the world’s ridicule and recommendation against my following of God.

And so, God answered my petition. He invaded my dreams with a simple but strong vision…One that vividly made its way through me long after I pressed myself away from the pillow for the morning.

Everyone on our churchplant team has been going so hard, and so gung-ho on nearly everything we do, especially our Church, www.Remnantloves.me. He told me to let everyone (myself included) know the following…

Gospel negotiation

These are the words I most recently spoke to a friend…where I yet again took the position I’ve held for some time now. I wonder though, as I always do when I say the following…is there something I’m missing, or is it really that wonderful, intentional and asking of us when we make our way toward forever with someone?

“I know for myself, that I cannot kiss a girl before marriage. I only want to kiss my wife. This is something  that I’ve failed at more than once, but, that personal, tailor-made conviction from God remains. I cannot do this…I should not want to do this…and through His help, I will continue to not do this. I wonder while it is perhaps not the honorable route everyone need take, why does my extreme, as it ends up being by default, seem so far from what others say is okay for them to take part in…kissing, making out, etc? I wonder if I am just seeing to a very specific God-spun conviction upon my heart for my life, or, are other people just fudging on what was once pursued to be application of Biblical truth, only to end in negotiation into something not entirely truth? Or, is the Truth of everything somewhere in the middle of all our worlds? 

All I can say is that right now for me, I must hold to what God has impressed me to do. But I still do wonder and worry…are others taking an alternative path to relationships, filled with fast-track and short-cut that miss out on the courtly Love-approaches of old? …the lessons found in antiquity from those who have gone before us, and in my opinion, interpreted, applied and surrendered to God’s commands in ways that we’ve only negotiated with? I wonder if we’ve forgotten all about our heart’s motivation

someone’s someone

A friend wrote me a question tonight…

“Those that don’t follow what God calls them to do and those that don’t reach the people that God wants them to reach… it’s almost as though they have those “unreached” people’s blood on their hands. What do you think?”

and so I thought…

As much as the fire and brimstone preaching of old is frowned upon today, especially in the reform circles, I think they had/have it right in so many ways! No, not to promote fear for fear’s sake…but to promote an appropriate and necessary fear of God (1Pet. 2:17, Isa. 66:2, Prov. 1:7). They have a sense of urgency and affection that is

Baseball prophet

So, while only some of you may have watched the annual MLB homerun derby contest on ESPN a couple of days ago, while others would never think to sit down and watch baseball period, I think many people can appreciate and respect what took place on that night of mystery and majesty.

The spotlight was cast upon a young man named Josh Hamilton, a young Irish lookin’ dude who plays for the Texas Rangers. With tatoos running up and down his arms and a very athletic look, Josh looks the part for the typical cliche…the curly haired kid who grew up to call baseball his job and dream come true. But there’s far more than meets the eye, and what lies beneath the surface of this young man, culminated in a night of absolute wonder and rather hushed critics.

when fairytales died

As I was getting a ride back home a few nights ago from my mentor I asked him the question…

“Shouldn’t falling in Love be simple and easy?” 

This idea has been something I’ve happily poured over for the last decade… I was the guy who was writing letters to his wife at age ten, drifting off in the back of Mrs. Rogers 1st grade class. Haha, I still remember when I was asked to stay seated one day while everyone else made their way out to recess. Mrs. Rogers strolled her tall modest figure all the way ‘cross the classroom and sat right down right next to me…and then gently said…”What were you thinking about when you obviously were not listening to the lesson?” I looked right at her, paused for what might have been thought dramatic effect, but was surely just my little boy confidence…and said to her light blue eyes…”I was thinking about the person I might get to Love one day.” 

Needless to say, I was never again asked to stay after everyone else was excused, eventhough I clearly repeated my academic offense countless times after.

the Wedding Ring

I’ve often wondered about the whole expectation surrounding the wedding ring. I understand that a diamond is an amazing mineral to strap to one’s finger…it is rather captivating as a stone spilled from the earth’s arts and crafts section…but why is it the tangible epitome of nearly every wedding covenant I’ve heard of?

when possibility turns to promise, there is the diamond waiting to be worn.

I had lunch with a wonderful sister in Christ a few weeks ago and simply had to probe this question with her…I know, I know…probably not the wisest of topics to maintain less than romantic discussion, but I trusted I was not auditioning with my words, nor that they were being heard in such ways. Now perhaps I lucked out by sitting across from Chelsea, but she seemed to identify with my questioning of the whole wedding-ring-phenomenon.

I started by tossing my most overarching question at her…

homesick for the eventual

“What is a man to do in order to discover how to live with his heart…when he would rather be lost at sea as opposed to being what he often finds himself…lost at land?

Is his current port to be a thin line between test and torture… a delicate divide between serving in his place and time, and the insatiable desire for seeking the unknown, truly living alongside the destitute…defending those who are unable to defend themselves.
Is he in need of rescue, ever and always, more than he feels the need to rescue? Is it really as simple as he deems it when no one is around to hear…when his audience are pillows and ceilings…does he just want to find family…people to Love on…not out of Godly obligation, but b/c they are so created to incite all that is within him; Every capable fiber of affection I have they call home, like a lighthouse does the wanderer.

 To find people to call family…I thought they were found in Scotland, and to an undeniable degree they were, but Lord, You know that cannot be well with my soul…they are forever family…but not mine to live along side…at least not right now. I cannot serve there knowing I would detract from Your Kingdom in that place…and your Kingdom Lord is far more dear than any longing for family I might possess. 

And yet still Lord, I sit, I wait, more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning… wondering where I would have to go to find my niche…my place in this world…to find my Godly vantage in this fallen surrounding…what odd Lovers they make at times.

an End to a beginning

I just finished a conversation with a loving brother in ministry, Scott (from Scotland). We spoke of how a year ago around this time we were involved in sustaining and leading a church plant alongside my now mentor, Brian Luse. The church was called Phos Hilaron.

It was warm, thorough, honest, young, met in a pub, and never boasted more than two dozen in any service…but… it did mighty things for His Kingdom nonetheless.

Certainly uncertain…

Naturally, we are inclined to be so mathemathical and calculating that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing…Certainty is a mark of the common-sense life; gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life. To be certain of God means that we are certain in all our ways; we do not know what a day may bring forth. This is generally said with a sigh of sadness; it should rather be an expression of breathless expectation.

                                                      – Oswald Chambers

 

 

I can’t begin to tell you how many times, over the past two years especially, I have had the all too familiar conversation regarding my future plans. Sometimes it’s with the parents, sometimes with friends, sometimes with extended family, and sometimes with out-of-blue aquaintences I knew from way back when.

Sometimes I’ll find myself calling my future “plans” by other names. I call them “steps” or speak about “seasons of life”…all of which is an effort to hopefully tweak some of the semantics in order that everyone would understand that not knowing exactly what you are going to do next is so very okay…and in my estimation, so long as their is genuine seeking after what His will is for the next, it’s a better place to be.

In the first and second chapter of Matthew we see a pretty extreme example of someone living obediently within uncertainty. We all know who Joseph, Father to Jesus was…he’s the guy we put behind everyone else, cattle included sometimes, in our nativity scenes…which by the way is odd because the wise men went into their “house” to meet the newborn King, and did so two years or so after his birth…so yeah, the whole fresh-out-the-womb depiction, wise men gathered round at his moment of birth…more anachronism than anything else.

Anyway, we see in Matthew that Joseph was confronted in a dream by an angel of the Lord. It was here he was told that Mary bore a child of the Holy Spirit, of whom would save all the world from their sins. I bet he was thinking something along the lines of…”what the crazy!”

Such a man…

What is a man that his heart would little more than donnybrook within as it sought after falling in Love for Eternity and for the ages…

   what is a man toil and joy as he is struggles to surrender to the Greater…intimated by irresistable belief, and yet, he too finds the motive of tucking himself away from anyone, unable to get close enough to hurt anyone just as appealing…such emotions call in comfort and are driven by the conviction of past failures hushed deep down inside.. What is a man who dreams of a bride but begs for no such opprtunity..keeping himself and his insatiable selfishness just out of reach of those he truly cares most for. The delicate difference between ‘being set aside’ and ’setting yourself aside.’

How can a man reconcile his past not solely in Christ but through Christ; demanding that living-in-light-of participation with his today and certainly with his tomorrow?