Sunday's Music - October 18

I posted this on Summit Crossing's internal site and wanted to share it here.

Wherever I hear the phrase, “I sin in thought or deed every day,” uttered by a Christ-follower I get frustrated. That idea is in opposition to Scripture.

The apostle John wrote, “My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1 John 2:1, emphasis mine)

And then there’s Romans 8:11: “If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

Amazing! So there’s no reason for us to assume defeat. Yes, we still live in these tents of flesh and its our tendency to default to our old nature, but that is not the NEW default for those of us who have been buried with Christ and raised in His likeness, as His brothers and sisters.

Now, all that being said, I get mad at myself frequently because I realize this in my head, yet living it out can be frustratingly difficult. I like to indulge my own desires (there, I said it so you don’t have to). And that leads to sin. Therefore, I totally identify with the song we’ll be singing during communion time tomorrow:

Will Your grace run out if I let You down?

[Be]cause all I know is how to run.
Will You call me child when I tell You lies?
[Be]cause all I know is how to cry.

I am a sinner;
If it’s not one thing it’s another.
Caught up in words, tangled in lies.
But You are a Savior
And You take brokenness aside
And make it beautiful; beautiful.

I am thankful for Jesus Christ. I have no hope in this life or the life to come apart from His life, death, and resurrection. He makes my cruddy life beautiful in the sight of God. (Remember 1 John 1:9)

I’m sorry this is so late, but here are the songs we get to song together tomorrow:

• From the Day (I Am They)
• Absent From Flesh (Sojourn)
• Brokenness Aside (All Sons and Daughters)
• I Stand Amazed In the Presence (Daniel Renstrom)
• My Lighthouse (Rend Collective)

Below are your playlists! There is no recorded version of “I Stand Amazed” the way we’ll be playing it tomorrow so I linked to Chris Tomlin’s version.

Spotify: http://spoti.fi/1LVcHa7 

YouTube: http://bit.ly/1Pyu7J8 

Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!

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What To Do With Those Stinking Hypocrites

Some people are worth our help, our grace, and our forgiveness. But some are worthless. Right?

No? I fear that evidence in our lives proves that many of us hold to this philosophy.

Over the past couple of years I've had the opportunity to share some of my past -- some things of which I'm not at all proud -- with a few brothers in Christ. Not at some group confessional, but in one-on-one situations when I've felt that some of my screw-ups (rather, their solutions) would help those friends in situations they've been going through.

The reason they're able to listen to those stories and not write me off as a completely dispicable person is that they know I'm not still that guy. I've had to repent of some big things, and now my goal, my desire, is to continually change to be conformed to the image of Jesus. Some of you, probably most of you, would give me that same grace given current conditions. You may know me personally or have read enough here to know that I don't want to be the old Dean anymore, and that God has done some serious things in my life. He's made minor and massive "adjustments" that were painful to me, seemed illogical, and weren't even changes I wanted for myself.

But what if you knew me when I was going through those situations? What if you knew that I called myself a Christian yet I did things that completely belied that description; things you'd probably call "evil" without a second thought? (No, I've not killed anyone or done anything nearly so heinous as that.)

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First Things First?

Yesterday was our fourth "Laundry Project" work day with Loads of Love. One Saturday each month a group of about 10 people go to Five Points Laundromat and wash clothes for people who can use a hand. Our target group is the homeless, but those aren't the only ones who we're able to help. Several have been out of work for long periods of time. Some may be on a (low) fixed income. (I blurred faces in the photo below out of courtesy.)

In talking with one of our clients yesterday about his blog (which I still can't find in spite of the keywords he told me to use), I found out that he's gay. I'd wondered about that, to be honest, because he looks like a guy but he sounds more like a female. He has three blogs: one about helping the homeless in Huntsville, AL, one about stopping smoking, and one about gay and bisexual men. (Since he blogs about these things, I'm not revealing anything he wants to keep private.)

(He's not pictured in the photo.)

Regarding our friend's choice of lifestyle, I wonder what Jesus' response to discovering that info would be (yes, He'd already know, I realize that), and I want to examine what my responses as a follower of Christ should be. Most of my life I've been taught that the proper sort of thing to do would be to let this guy know he's living in sin, and that he needs to turn from it and follow Jesus. In that order.

But isn't Jesus' modus operandi to say, "Follow me"? There isn't a step before that; at least, not one that a human can induce. Conviction of sin is the work of the Holy Spirit.

Part of our preaching (by the "layperson" -- not only "clergy") must be repentance of sin. I'm not denying that or in any way saying that it's not part of our message! But it seems to me that our actual idea of "conversion" is not when someone meets Jesus Christ, but when they stop doing bad stuff. In our theology most of us don't say this, but in practice it guides us.

We also face the struggle of failing to love people and failing to have compassion for them when we focus on their sin and not on their need to know their Creator through Jesus. (See yesterday's post.)

I'm curious about your view on this. There's much I'm leaving out here; I'm just trying to hit the high points. In looking at this, be careful about referring to Matthew 16:24, where Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." He was talking to His disciples -- His followers.

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Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin

Short post...

"Love the sinner, hate the sin."

This is possible for God. Is it possible for us? I've seen that our habit is to think we're loving the sinner and hating the sin, while we're actually hating both.

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Max the Sinless?

Max the Lovable is a great little dog. Perfect? I suppose that's for you to decide as you read this...

Max is staying with us for a while as his family moves into drag new surroundings in the deeper south. Sadly, I believe he'll be moving back in with his old family soon. He's the brother of our two yapper dogs, Buddy the Christmas Puppy and Molly the Needy.

When Max the Lovable wants a puppy treat or wants to go outside for poo and recreation, he'll get in front of me and jump into the air, his back legs reaching almost a foot off the ground, I'd guess. The crazy thing is, when he wants to get on the couch or into the recliner with me at any random old time, he'll give what I know to be a half effort and eventually (within 15 seconds or so) begin audibly begging for me to pick him up and sit him down next to me.

In theory, he CAN get onto the couch, yet in real life he can't, right? I've seen him go beyond such a little jump, yet he thinks, for some reason, that he can't jump onto the couch.

Are you familiar with the idea that we, being human, will sin every single day, period? We'll sin because we're human, right? The Bible says so? Or does it?

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The String Incident

Being aware that something bad or unwanted may happen doesn't ensure that you can avert catastrophe. This is one of the reasons that it's really not a good idea to be paranoid about stuff. Be prepared, yes. Paranoid, no.

Earlier this week at my friend Dwight's birthday shindig, I talked with him and his dad about the topic of archery. We talked about restringing a bow and I mentioned a time when I'd shot a compound bow and the string had twanged against the inside of my left arm on its way to propel the arrow toward the target. It hurt.

A short while later we were in the back yard and Dwight brought his bow out. I'm betting you have an idea where I'm going with this. Dwight is a big guy. He MIGHT be able to lift more weight than I can. I say that because he has 70 lbs. of tension on his bowstring and uses it like that all the time. As I pulled it back I said, "Sheesh, Dwight!"

So there I was, bow drawn, sights on the target. I couldn't let fear of hitting my arm make me mess up, so I ignored my instinct. "Thwipp!!!" The first arrow was away. Good joss! A clean shot! It went about five inches to the left of where I was aiming, though. That was unacceptable; I had to compensate on the next shot.

Let me break here to quote from a couple of websites:

Hitting your arm is one of the unpleasantries of archery. (Amen, brother.)

The effort of overcoming the force of the bow may well have caused you to rotate your forearm into the path of the string. At best, this could result in a spoiled shot owing to the deflected string. At worst, you could end up shaving off a substantial amount of skin from the inside of your arm.

The latter is what happened when I let go of the second arrow. I pushed my left hand in a way that brought my arm into the path of the string.

I just knew I had fileted a quarter inch of skin off of the soft part of my arm. At the very moment of scraping impact, I thought, "No way. I was just talking about doing this, and here I am doing what I was aware that I shouldn't do." Or something like that -- it took a fraction of a second to think it.

What would the solution be for next time? I'd probably want to do some minimal research on how to hold the bow, listen to Dwight's coaching (In most situations I'm prone to think, "Yeah, yeah. I know, I know."), etc.

What's that sin that so easily trips you, personally, up? The one that you're definitely always aware of, but you seem to mess up and do it again? Being on your guard doesn't ensure that you're going to stand strong.

To be fair, the bow incident was an accident. When we give in to sin, we're going in with eyes wide open in almost every case.

These things happened to them as examples for us. They were written down to warn us who live at the end of the age. If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall. The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
- 1 Corinthians 10:11-13 (NLT)

Interested in your thoughts.

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remembering what god has forgotten

A song that David sang, recorded in 2 Samuel 22:21-25:

The Lord rewarded me for doing right;
   he restored me because of my innocence.
For I have kept the ways of the Lord;
   I have not turned from my God to follow evil.
I have followed all his regulations;
   I have never abandoned his decrees.
I am blameless before God;
   I have kept myself from sin.
The Lord rewarded me for doing right.
   He has seen my innocence.

Changing gears slightly, I know what Jesus said about the greatest possible love that we can have: "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13, NLT) I also know what Whitney Houston sang about in 1986 as the greatest possible love we can ever have: "Learning to love yourself; it is the greatest love of all." Those two concepts don't exactly match up.

And here's how much God loves us: "But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners." (Romans 5:8, NLT) And as part of that love, God will forgive us for our sins if we confess and turn from them.

Have you ever done something for which you can't seem to forgive yourself, even after you've pleaded with God for forgiveness and have renounced and forsaken that sin? One reason I've struggled with this over certain things is that I don't want to embrace Whitney Houston's concept of great love. It feels like psychological babble to me to say to myself, "Dean, God has forgiven you; now you have to forgive yourself." But there's no indication in the Word that we're to hang onto past sins in an effort to do penance once God has forgiven us.

Just as I've been saved by God's grace, I'm also forgiven by God's grace alone. Putting myself through the paces of doing penance in an effort to buy back God's favor after my sin is pointless. But the thing is, if I don't put myself through those paces it makes me feel like I'm buying into the Whitney Houston gospel.

That's where I'm wrong.

Apparently David had a firm grasp on the concept that when God forgives, He removes our sin from us "as far as the east is from the west." (David penned that, by the way.)

I'd like for you to go back and read the passage at the beginning of this post, this time bearing in mind that David sang this in his old age, not long before he died. David sang this; the guy who had lusted after a woman so much that he murdered her husband, committed adultery with her, and eventually fathered four sons as a result of that union.

Apparently David actually believed that God had completely forgiven him. I don't know that I'd feel the same if I were in David's shoes, and that bugs me.

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some Scripture for the day

The Psalms give me encouragement in a ton of different situations, whether I'm up, down, or strangely in between. I've pulled together a few verses that I was reminded of after reading the first bit of Psalm 119 today.

As I learn your righteous regulations,
I will thank you by living as I should!
- Psalm 119:7 (NLT)

Not everyone who calls out to me, "Lord! Lord!" will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.
- Matthew 7:21 (NLT)

Then [Jesus] pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!”
- Matthew 12:49-50 (NLT)

But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves.
- James 1:22 (NLT)

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
- Romans 12:1-2 (NLT)

When you come to worship me,
who asked you to parade through my courts with all your ceremony?

Stop bringing me your meaningless gifts;
the incense of your offerings disgusts me!
As for your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath
and your special days for fasting—
they are all sinful and false.
I want no more of your pious meetings.
. . .
Wash yourselves and be clean!
Get your sins out of my sight.
Give up your evil ways.

Learn to do good.
Seek justice.
Help the oppressed.
Defend the cause of orphans.
Fight for the rights of widows.
- Isaiah 1:12-13, 16-17

Isaiah 58:1-9 (read this passage via the link)

But at the end of the day, sometimes I realize that I've messed up. I hate to admit that there are times I intentionally move off of this path of righteousness that God has designated for me. And when I take all of those passages, and many others, into account, a very heavy weight winds up on my shoulders.

But the very next verse in Psalm 119 (along with many others, stating that if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins) makes me realize that even those who put Scripture into ink weren't immune to sin:

I will obey your decrees.
Please don’t give up on me!
- Psalm 119:8

"Please don't give up on me." Wow, I identify with that sometimes!

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staying clean

Imagine a 10- or 11-year-old boy who does his best to stay clean. To that end, even though it's summer break he decides that he won't play outside or do anything that will cause him to get sweaty or dirty. He's very diligent about this, and for a week and a half he sticks to the plan, not venturing into the yard at all, but staying in the house without doing anything physically taxing.

But during that week and a half, he doesn't take a bath or a shower because he's been doing his best to stay dirtless and assumes that there's really no need.

How do you suppose he's going to look and smell? No matter how unsullied he's attempted to keep himself, he's still going to have accumulated some not-so-good odors, his hair will probably be greasy, and though his attempt was valiant and long-lasting, he will have been unsuccessful.

Just as the avoidance of doing dirt-collecting things isn't enough to keep a kid from stinking, the simple avoidance of wrongdoing by a Christ-follower isn't enough to live in obedience to Christ. "Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it." (James 4:17, NLT)

Paul wrote, "Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21, NASB) An integral part of not being overcome by sin is to overcome evil by doing good.

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public restrooms and conviction

This is the post that I said was going to be disgusting. I want to reiterate that before you read any further. It's not really "bathroom humor," but it does involve bathrooms and nasal congestion, so again, I suggest that you stop reading now if you're squeamish or you feel like you'll be participating in something untoward by reading it. I was going to use a visual aid (a photo), but I'm sure your imagination will do just fine.

Oh, and I need to say one more thing before continuing: this is really your last chance to stop reading.

Have you ever been in a public restroom? I'm betting that you have. These facilities will go from "generally neat and clean" to "oh, wow" and will hit all points in between. For this scenario, I need for you to imagine the "oh, wow" ones. Also, you'll need to imagine that you have problems with your nose/sinuses being stopped up. (It's worth noting that when someone says, "I have sinuses," you may congratulate them for being part of the human race. We all have them. When they're stopped up, however, that's where the problem comes in.)

Let's say you're having trouble with nasal passages being stopped up and the only place to go is the public restroom (I dunno -- you're on a road trip or something). As you venture into it, you notice how filthy it is. (I think this is probably going to be more typical of men's facilities, but I can't be certain.) You get to the toilet paper, roll off a bit of it, and start to blow your nose. If you're a manly man, you may want to imagine that you use the brown, cardboard-texture paper towels for this. Whatever is more realistic for you, imagine that.

After a few minutes of valiant attempts that only seem to succeed in more nasal air stoppage, suddenly you hit pay dirt -- sweet relief!!! Your nose is unstopped! This is a sensation that's not dissimilar to coming to the surface from an underwater swimming time where you've pushed your limits; you hit the surface and your first breath is as welcome as your favorite dessert would be after a meal.

You have managed the impossible -- fought with an uncooperative nose and won! And as you drink in the first whiff of air, your eyes suddenly grow as big as saucers... That's not air, it's toxic venom!

Now, what would you do at this point? Would you hang around in the putrid-smelling, nasty bathroom, or would you make a fast break for the door? Truth is, the longer you stay in a place like that, the more you'll get used to the smell.

Something like this is what happens when the Holy Spirit convicts a person of sin. Even if it comes after a time of God slowly revealing it to us, the moment of truth is often unmistakeable. Our eyes (or nostrils) are opened and we become aware that we're in a place we don't want to be. I'm convinced that we don't always run for the Door at that point, and if we hang around that place for long, we'll become acclimated to our surroundings. Things that can keep us there are rationalization, compromise, tradition, not removing ourselves from sources of temptation, etc.

If only we could always see our surroundings for what they really are.

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thanksgiving and instant hand sanitizer

Happy Thanksgiving! I noticed that this is my 601th (even better than "601st") post. I suppose that's appropriate somehow, but in what way I'm not exactly sure.

God has blessed us, and has allowed us to be blessed, with so many material things that my prayer is that we will be able to love Him with all our hearts, fix our eyes firmly on Him, and obey Him in spite of all these things; not just because of them.

Some time last week I sent a tweet (a message on Twitter) that said something like this: Waterless hand sanitizer is excellent for discovering small cuts and scratches that you were previously unaware of. (I chose this particular image because at first it looks like the burn of the hand sanitizer has actually stripped the skin clean off of a hand. In actuality, the image is made up of lots of things that the sanitizer sanitizes.) That tweet was automatically posted at my Facebook page, and friend and commenter Preston noted there, "I'm sure there's a biblical analogy in there somewhere!"And so there is!

If you have a different or better analogy, you're invited to leave a comment explaining it. Here is mine...

I've been reading through Psalm 119 in one of the many "read the Bible through in a year" plans, and it's striking that the author (taken to be either David or Ezra) repeatedly communicates this idea to God: "I love you so much that your commands are life to me, and I hate sin because I love you so much." So one analogy would be that the hand sanitizer represents sin, and its presence should cause stinging pain to the person whose life is centered on their love for God.

There are other analogies to be had. One, for instance, would be that the hand sanitzer represents the Holy Spirit, and when we are made aware of sin it hurts horribly.

As with many sermon illustrations that are given from pulpits across America, this analogy does little to help anyone in his walk with Christ, in my opinion. The best way that I can see for it to have any lasting impact in reminding us that we're to live a life of holiness (1 John 2 is a great chapter for this -- read the whole thing) is to make it into a physical experiment:

Gentlemen, when you've just finished shaving, be sure to have a bottle of waterless hand santizer... ah... on hand. When you've just gotten through scraping your face with the razor and wiping off the excess shaving cream (or when you've put down your electric razor), use the sanitizer instead of aftershave.

Ladies, use this process after you shave your legs. (Is this inappropriate for me to put on a blog? I'm not sure, but I don't think so, because it's pretty much a day-to-day occurrence in America.)

I believe that taking physical steps to drive the illustration home will go a long way in reminding us that our body's pain receptors are reacting in the same way that our hearts should react to sin in our own lives. It's something that we won't want to keep doing.

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Things That Stink - Story One

When someone comes to Christ, he is to leave his old ways behind and take on the new nature -- the nature of Christ -- as he moves forward. (Let me clarify that the separation from the old happens after we come to Christ -- trying to become good enough to merit God's favor is an exercise in futility.) Romans 12:1-2 is one of the many wonderfully straightforward passages on this.

Unfortunately, many of us choose to not completely leave our old ways behind, because, let's face it, some of those ways are just so darned fun. And this following Christ bit...? It sounds like we won't get to do much fun stuff along the way, so we'll need to pack a little bag of the old to take with us, just in case we're right.

But any retention of the old things of self really messes up the new things in Christ.

I like Irish Spring soap. (Even rendered that sentence in green in its honor.) I love the original flavor, not Aloe scent or Action Sport or whatever thing they've come up with now to compete with other brands. Just plain ol' Original Irish Spring soap. And yes, I'll guarantee that it has a flavor, although I've not tasted it; I've only smelled it.

Having said all that, I used to like Irish Spring soap more than I like it now. Matter of fact, only nine days ago it was like soap utopia to me (Usoapia? or maybe Soapri La?) -- a blend of perfect smells. Now, though, this soap is more along the lines of, "It'll work but I don't love it." Here's why...

I took my hallowed Irish Spring soap to Haiti when our team went last Tuesday. I reasoned that if I were going to a place where I'd stink of B.O. because of potential sweat issues, having along the perfect soap would at least make a fresh, clean dent in the smell. For a couple of hours, anyway. That proved to be true! But here's the rest of the story...

Sarah the Haitian Mission Team Guru noted on our first day in Haiti that we needed to take "Haitian showers." This is how I'd render the step-by-step process of taking a Haitian Shower:

1. turn the non-heated water (that's all shower water) on
2. get wet
3. turn the water off to soap/shampoo
4. turn the cold water back on to rinse. Sure, you can turn on the "hot" water, too, but it won't really matter because it's the same temperature as the "cold" water.

Given this, I new right away that typical showers in Haiti are different from typical showers in the USA.

Because of this mental note, when I saw standing water in the bottom of the shower stall on the first evening, I reasoned that Haitian drains were typically backed up due to lack of USA-like plumbing. I was thinking, "Wow, this is disgusting" as my foot went into the standing water. I repeated the process daily, and since the water for washing in Haiti actually doesn't smell terribly good, the standing water really didn't smell good. Every day I'd grab the soap and think, "Irish Spring, help me out here," and it would always offer me a respite from the bad smell of the water at my feet. Every little break from the smell was good.

It wasn't until day eight, I think, that I found out that Haiti has a problem that the USA has. It's called "hair is stopping up the drain." That's a disgusting problem to fix, but it takes all of 30 seconds or so if the hair is close to the surface of the drain. I'd taken every single shower under the assumption that I could do nothing to fix the standing water problem. It could be that the hair thing just amplified an existing drainage problem, but I hadn't even checked. I felt silly.

I got home a little after midnight on Wednesday morning and took the long, hot shower I'd been looking forward to. The problem was that when I grabbed the Irish Spring and smelled it, I immediately mentally "experienced" the smell of dirty standing water. Yep, it's true. Now the smell of Irish Spring takes me back to one of those not-so-special-smelling times in Haiti.

The standing water represents the old nature of a believer. Irish Spring represents the Holy Spirit. After we "commit" our lives to following Christ but no effort is made to actually repent -- not just to move forward with a new outlook, but to intentionally remove the old things -- the experience (dare I say "experience"? I can't think of a better one here) of new life in Christ is horribly tainted. So tainted, in fact, that the good things that He gives us may be scarred because of the old things we wouldn't let go of.

I can think of a number of real-world examples of this principle. How about you?

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Making Scents

I have a vanilla air freshener in my vehicle. It doesn't really smell like vanilla, though. Not even coconut (which is typical of some vanilla-scented things). It smells most like Play-Doh. Helps me to relive my childhood, I suppose.




In thinking of other stuff that's supposed to smell like one thing but really smells like another, I thought of various disinfectant sprays. It doesn't really matter what the can says its delightful, fresh scent is supposed to be ("Spring Waterfall," anyone?); they all generally smell like disinfectant sprays. Glade air freshener? I'll give you one guess what I think its floral scent actually smells like.

So how about me? I have a label -- Christ-follower -- yet I wonder if the way I "smell" actually communicates that.

(Taking the analogy a bit further, and in a slightly more disgusting direction (you're warned, so stop reading if you like...), when one applies deodorant to a body that smells like B.O., what's the typical result? Actual covering of that disgusting smell? In my experience, it smells mostly like deodorant-scented B.O. I'd venture to say that's what it's like when we attempt to put on a front that we're living for Christ without actually allowing Him to wash us.)

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Molded Food, National Geographic, and Sin

As I cleaned out our refrigerator the other day, I found some things in it that I thought didn't really exist: beef that smelled like fish, salad that had become something like a meat product, and a rather old dish of... ah... beans, I think.

And that prompted me to think. I surmised that a bowl of moldy beans is like a box of National Geographic magazines. I think most of you already know that, but I'll elaborate: the longer a bowl of food sits in the refrigerator, the more fuzz and unusual growth it accumulates. The longer a box of National Geographic magazines sits in your floor, the heavier it gets. Don't believe me on that last one? Put a stack of National Geographics in a box, let it sit there for a week or two, and see how it exponentially accumulates weight by the time you're ready to move it.

When I refused to confess my sin,
    my body wasted away,
    and I groaned all day long.
Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
    My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.
Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
    and stopped trying to hide my guilt.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.”
    And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
- Psalm 32:3-5 (NLT)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.

- Hebrews 12:1 (NLT)

Don't think about these Scriptures in a way that says, "Yep, isn't that the truth..." Instead, think about what it is in your own life that needs to be stripped away. What's accumulated? What's the rebellion that you need to confess and then intentionally neglect forever? Anger? Resentment of a family member? Pornography? Frustration with your spouse, a co-worker, or a church leader? Worrying about finances?

Throw out the moldy beans: stop it, confess it, and don't do it anymore.

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Squishy Floating Cat Food

I'm a very humane, tolerant pet owner. I let Jesse the Cat walk on my stomach even though it hurts, I let him scratch his face against my goatee, and things like that. I get upset with him only when he bites and claws my ankles (which is usually a cry for attention) or attacks things with wires (like game controllers or speakers).

I was giving Jesse the Cat some food and water the other day and noticed that there were some mostly unappetizing chunks of food (the once-dry kind) floating around in the water dish.

(I need to make an aside here to note that I'm one of those people who thinks that dog food smells really good and cat food smells pretty good, so when I say "mostly unappetizing," it comes from the standpoint of actually thinking that it could potentially be good-tasting if one were really, really hungry.)

Rather than putting fresh water in with the disgusting floating catfoodbergs, I did the humane thing and emptied the dish and wiped it out, then filled it with fresh water.

I think that filling the water dish with good water without cleaning out the spongy chunks of food would be similar a couple of things: 1) a Christian attempting to clean up his act by doing good things without going to the source of the problem, 2) a person who points to the problems of others without caring, or maybe even noticing, that he is personally riddled with sin.

Jesus said this:

"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and self-indulgence! You blind Pharisee! First wash the inside of the cup and the dish, and then the outside will become clean, too.

"What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs—beautiful on the outside but filled on the inside with dead people’s bones and all sorts of impurity. Outwardly you look like righteous people, but inwardly your hearts are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness." (Matthew 23:25-28, NLT)

You know what? Jesus said these words to the religious leaders; those people who supposedly set the standard for others to follow. We in the Church see ourselves as the standard for others to follow, don't we? How often do Jesus' words apply directly to us?

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To Fall From the Pedestal

I was talking with a friend yesterday; someone who had just heard the news and was very upset that former Christian music artist Ray Boltz has admitted to the world at large that he's gay. People in my circle of friends have generally been very disturbed by this, and they don't know how to react, because, to be honest, not many of them have had experience with this kind of a situation. They're not being angry or judgmental; they're just shocked and upset.

I have to admit that I'm glad that I've never been a great big fan of Boltz' music, though it certainly has touched many, many people. Now, I would honestly be hit pretty hard if news came around that someone like Don Moen made a startling announcement like this (he's finally got a blog! Just discovered it while making the link to his site...), so I can understand the saddened amazement of many people who've been so moved by his songs.

However, this should serve as yet another reminder that it's a really bad idea to place men and women on imagined pedestals of super-Godliness. For instance, I believe one of the key roles of a pastor in the local Church is to direct God's people alongside of God -- to model service and to disciple them so that the people themselves can serve and disciple others; not to do the service for them or to somehow present themselves as The Main Spokesperson of Christ. I'm not suggesting that most pastors do this. Rather, I'm suggesting that most churchgoers probably tend to see pastors in this way, and that's a setup for potential disappointment, sometimes to a faith-shattering degree -- if the faith is in men rather than God.

On a slightly lighter note, my only response to the many friends who have asked me, "So what do you think about Ray Boltz?!" has been something like this: "I never thought that there could be anything worse than that mullet he used to have, but this has proven me wrong."

(I should note that one of our administrative assistants at Wall Highway, in a "people in glass houses" vein, having seen photos of me from my less-than-wise years, said, "You don't need to be talking about anyone's mullet!")

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Dirt in an Otherwise Clear Pool

On Saturday I picked up a Nerf ball from a dirty area of the yard. As a result, my hands got some wet dirt (that'd be mud) on them, and I brushed my hands together to knock the loose stuff off.

On my way back to the nearly-complete deck (about which I'll post an update at some point), I looked at my hands and saw that they still had some dirt and grass particles on them. Not much, but enough that I didn't want to wipe my hands on my pants. I was walking past the (above-ground) swimming pool and thought briefly about dipping my hands in the pool to rinse off the mud. I thought, "It's only a little bit of debris. With the volume of water in the pool it'll barely be noticed."

Then I decided against it -- we make deliberate efforts to keep the pool as clean as it can be, and that would have introduced more matter into the pool for the pump and filter to ostensibly clean up. If the pool had been dirtier, I probably wouldn't have felt so bad about rinsing my hands in it (if it had been too filthy I'd probably have not even considered it, though).

It struck me that Christ-followers seem to think of gossip or slander in the way I briefly thought of cleaning my hands in the pool.

"It probably won't hurt to tell this person about what I heard. After all, they're a fellow Christian and they'll understand and won't spread it around. Better to tell a Christian than a non-Christian." Just a tiny bit of dirt in a large pool that's otherwise cleansed of impurities.

I think that when it suits our purposes, we must think of other Christ-followers as super-humans. Do we really think that a little bit of gossip is okay? Do we think that spreading the "joy" of our otherwise-unknown tale or opinion is harmless? If we're tempted to spread something around, won't they be tempted, as well?

I did not write the following, in which the word "gossip" appears right in the middle of a number of actions attributed to "haters of God." While it's just one behavior in this long list and you may not participate in the other things, it's obvious that gossip is not an acceptable action for the Christ-follower.

"But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness... Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too." (Romans 1:18, 28-32, NLT)

Remember, I did not write that. Also understand that I'm not calling you a "God-hater" if you happen to have participated in gossip. I use that Scripture to encourage you to purge a particular behavior from your repertoire of behaviors.

When in doubt as to whether or not your piece of information is gossip, it's best to err on the side of caution. Sometimes the choice is difficult -- really difficult. Continually ask God for discernment and wisdom, with faith; never doubting (James 1:5-8).

"Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you." (Ephesians 4:31-32, NLT)

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5ive O' Clock Shadow

NOTE: The title of today's post is borrowed from an old friend's band's name, 5ive O'Clock Charlie

I have discovered something over the course of my post-15-years-old-or-so life: if I don't shave my facial scruff in the morning before getting out in the sun (to swim or to, oh, say, work on a deck), I will develop a facial tan line that looks really silly when I eventually do shave.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us." (Hebrews 12:1, NLT, emphasis mine)

As we grow in our relationship to God through Jesus Christ, we will become more and more aware of the apparent "little things" that are hindering that relationship (if we don't, I'd go so far as to say that the relationship isn't flourishing). Lately I've become more and more aware of little niggling problems that just have to be removed. A year ago I don't think I'd have noticed them; that, or I wouldn't have seen them as problems or cared to do anything about removing them.

Simply being aware of my five o'clock shadow will not remove a single whisker from my face -- my mug will not shave itself, but deliberate action will be required on my part. I can't think of a more obvious analogy (except maybe friend and blogger Christy's "rather obvious analogy" a couple of weeks ago) to extricating ourselves from sin, or rather, extricating sin from ourselves.

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Pharisees or The Tupperware Aboriginees?

Tomorrow I think I'm going to try to find something humorous to write about, because this post and the last are pretty heavy.

Sometimes I run the risk of sounding like I think I have it all together, as if I'm pointing fingers at everyone except for myself. This isn't so. With that statement, I'm going to ask a question that I feel a little apprehensive about asking. I recently read Matthew 23, and I don't think that Jesus particularly liked the way the Pharisees conducted themselves, and I wonder how I compare to them.

Which of these two do you think is "worse"?

1) A group of people who don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ, who go to a nightclub to hear a band (let's call the band "The Tupperware Aboriginees"), or

2) a group of people who have a relationship with Jesus Christ and gather in His name and harbor resentment and anger for others while they're there.

It's okay to say that both are bad, or potentially bad. Both can lead to evil things. Someone from the first group, by drinking heavily and talking with someone he shouldn't, may get crazy drunk and wind up doing something he'll regret for the rest of his life. Someone from the second group, by sitting with an angry, stone face, may be a stumbling block for an unbeliever who sees their attitude and as a result intentionally writes off Christianity forever.

There is, of course, the fact that in one of those places, a person is not at all likely to meet Christ (unless a Christ-follower is there at the nightclub sharing the Gospel, but why would anyone want to do that?), and in the other, a person is more likely to meet Christ, at a worship service where the Word is preached.

Some words of Jesus, in Matthew 23:23-24 (NLT): "What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law—justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. Blind guides! You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel!"

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73 the Cow, Part One

Rural America is pretty sweet. This morning at 6:25 or so I chanced to look out my front door, and I saw a cow placidly grazing in the front yard, meandering toward the peace of our typically (and surprisingly, given our rural location) busy road.

I immediately realized that the electric fence surrounding the field behind our house must be down somewhere, and running outside in my blue pajama pants with messed up half-Jimmy Neutron hair (tip of the hat to Lisa), I gave the cow a wide berth, ran out into the road, and closed in making ominous, menacing noises.

I'm altogether thankful that no one except for the cow (hereafter known as "73 the Cow" because of the red tag in her ear), Jesse the Cat (staring out the door) and Hershey the Dog (who now makes it a habit to break out of his pen every morning) saw me. I'm further thankful that animals can't laugh or communicate with humans (or carry cameras).

Half an hour later, as my father-in-law and I were putting the electric fence back in place while 73 the Cow stared absent-mindedly at us from her place back in the field, my father-in-law said, "Now that she's been out, she'll try to find another place to get out again."

It dawned on me that Hershey the Dog (a chocolate lab) already follows this procedure. A couple of weeks ago he discovered that he was strong enough to bend the chain link fence at the bottom of his pen at any place he chooses, so that he can push it aside and get out. I've succeeded only once in making reparations and implementing safeguards that lasted for more than a day in preventing him from doing this. Thankfully he's a homebody, just as I am, and doesn't wander anywhere.

"Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death." (James 1:14-15, NLT)

I know a sure way to begin to begin regularly faltering in your walk with Christ (why we'd want to do this, I have no idea): allow yourself to be enticed by sin and give in to it just one time.

The alternative would be that when you notice the gap in the proverbial electric fence, realize that you have a choice to stay in the safety of the field or get out and take a potentially painful stroll in the road, and then choose to stay in the field.

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