I'll do what you ask, so long as it's within my 5 year plan

I listened to a sermon by a pastor named James Mangum (Austin Stone Community Church) this morning. He spoke a powerful and convicting word on James 4: 13-17. The message can more or less be summed up in this quote, "We say 'Here's my plan and God I'm going to invite you in on the journey. Bless me and walk with me.' And then, when we sense that we don't get what we want, we start to question his character." He didn't say it, but the implication was that we feel the greatest loss when we question God's character.

If you don't believe in a personal God that knows and loves you better than you know yourself, perhaps this message will be lost on you; please read on regardless. But if you feel that love, even for an instant, you will know it's true. Latch on to it, or in the words of Chris Tucker from the movie Friday (didn't think you'd see a Friday reference in a Christian blog did you?), "write it down, take a picture, I don't give a f***." Just remember it, because you will have times where that memory feels distant, or when you forget how real you once knew that relationship is.

As the pastor pointed out, these times of disconnection, and thus questioning, come when God's plan doesn't seem to line up with what we thought it was.

note: let's be perfectly clear, he has a plan, it's laid out in a big black book. There's free copies of it everywhere you go. If we study that and make our plans from that, share and evaluate those plans with others who study the same book, and then turn back and repeat the cycle when the plan seems to change, then we will most likely be okay. I know, easier said than done and I won't even try and tackle that topic in this blog.

Even the most sure footed of God's disciples have fallen victim to this same feeling of loss. For Peter, the humiliation, torture and crucifixion of the all powerful God-man himself was certainly not how he envisioned the King to come to power. For John the Baptizer, waiting in jail to be put to death was not the reward he had predicted when he dedicated his life to preaching the coming of the Christ. Both men saw God in Heaven reveal his own identity in Jesus Christ personally, both men knew Christ was God in the flesh beyond a shadow of a doubt, and both men doubted Him in a way that led to a season of personal devastation in their own lives.

If we are not careful, we may turn our faces from God when his plan for us isn't what we thought it would be. If (and He is) God is love, light and glory, then turning away is a turn towards darkness, depression and despair. Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus to death because he became convinced that He was not who he once believed him to be (yes Calvinist readers, I know he likely never loved Christ in the first place, but that is besides this point). The point is that we Christians do the same when we know his love and then we turn from it.

If you don't know God's love, you've probably either stopped reading by now, or are angrily confessing to yourself that I've lost it, you will no longer read this blog, and will choose to act strangely around me the next time we meet. The truth is, were I asked directly, yes, I worry for you and I want you to know the comfort Jesus Christ has given me in faith. But that doesn't mean I am unable to be around you without viewing you through some Christian judgement lens; I have a gazillion sins of my own that I need to work through. I am called to let you know the message of the gospel if you are willing to listen. Your fate is between you and God, I play no part other than that of a messenger. He he wants you to know him, and to live a life for him, I believe he will make that happen. Only then will I anticipate you wanting similar things in life as I do, as he has helped me to want.

To give an analogy that will likely bristle you a bit, lets say that you see a blind man walking down a busy sidewalk without his red tipped stick. You wouldn't judge that man for walking in a winding path as he reached for something to guide his way. You wouldn't condemn them for bumping into you, or stepping on your foot. You would expect nothing less from someone that could not see what you could. You would either reach out to help them, which is what I believe the sharing of the gospel message is, or you would continue on your way unaffected by his plight. Confident that he will find his own way. Is it arrogant to place myself in the role of the seeing good Samaritan that lends a helping hand? I imagine it would seem that way. But if you were the seeing good Samaritan, would you cross the street and leave them be because you wouldn't want to offend their perspective? There's a good chance that this man would not want your help. That it would damage their pride to be offered assistance from some stranger that doesn't see it from their perspective. There is also a chance that they have been waiting for someone to offer a helping hand for a long time.

Interestingly, I set out to write a short message about letting God set the course of our life and not clinging to our own well intentioned plans. It think I ended up giving a broken down version of an alter call instead. But God works in mysterious ways and I think it might go against the spirit of this letter in the first place to go back and tailor what I've written to suit my intended message.

In short, I'd love to chat if you would. I would be happy to have you tell me why I'm wrong and how surprised you are that I could fall for this Christianity thing. Provided that you continue talking to me. That you choose to not judge me the same way that I don't judge you.

Father I pray, not for my will, not for our will, but for Yours.

- until next time

James 4, 13-17:
"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin."

Fw: #praiseGod and #helpmeJesus

Subject: #praiseGod and #helpmeJesus

For those of you who don't know, tweeting with a hashmark before a word basically helps to catagorize the tweet so that it can be found by searching.

I'm thinking #praiseGod and #helpmeJesus are good hashmark catagories.

I don't know about you. But I find myself busting out my phone in times of jubilation, frustration, and idleness equally.

Let's say for example I am stuck in traffic, you might find a frustrated tweet "Ahh Seattle drivers make me nuts!" or "been stuck on ship canal for twenty minutes, great start to the weekend!". What if that tweet was instead "#helpmeJesus frustrated with traffic, feeling entitled to a quick return home."? How about, "Jacks Manniquin Concert rocks!" to "#praiseGod for good friends and good music"

My thought being on one, the #helpmeJesus side, we accomplish several things:
- we put out our frustrations and struggles in a place where our friends can see where we are struggling and engage us in conversation about it later.
- we create and outlet that leads us to nearly immediate prayer and reflection on our response to lifes encounters.
- by searching, we can see the similar struggles that people at large have and perhaps discover struggles of our own.

On the other, "praiseGod" we accomplish a host of other things:
- we make a point of taking note of how He works in our life.
- we provide a window for others to see how God works in peoples lives.

Best of all, by doing these two practices, we create a timeline to look back on and reflect on how God is sanctifying us, or not, over time.

So I, for one, plan on doing this. I would love to see you on the band wagon.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Do We Know the Harm of What We Do?

Leviticus 5: "(18)...the priest shall make atonement for him for the mistake that he made unintentionally, and he shall be forgiven. (19) It is a guilt offering; he has indeed incurred guilt before the Lord."

Reading this text this morning, it reminded me that simply because something is done without forethought, it does not free us from its responsibility nor its destruction. Think about it, if someone hit your kid with their car, on accident, they wouldn't be any less responsible for their actions than if they did it on purpose. Granted the punishment should be different, but the accountability remains in either scenario.

Since all sin principally hurts the one who is closest to us and thereby affected most, God is the one that needs to forgive us. As in any relationship, you need to seek forgiveness to receive it. So, how can we expect to be right with God if we don't think there's anything to be forgiven of?
Thank God that Jesus died for our sins and offers us forgiveness. Thank God that he gives us his word to reveal to us our Sin and his solution for it. He (the Priest) alone can make atonement for us through his son Jesus Christ.

side note:
I have noticed myself strarting to drift into "Christianese" speak a bit these days, so let me make a brief side note to explain. When I sin, I mean anything that is destructive towards God plan for humanity. Effectively, this means anything that is not done for him since even good things are not good if they are done for the wrong reasons (I would love to talk to any of you for hours on end about this if you're interested). I say that He is most affected because he created us, he knows what we were meant to do, what we are capable of, and how frequently we deny what we know in our hearts is right (again, let's discuss if you disagree).