Tag Archives: jesus

Brothers, we are all broken

1 Feb

My heart is hurting for people who have been deeply hurt by a church in my area.  As a leader in a church I know that it is not hard to offend someone.  As someone who goes to a church I know that it is not hard to be offended.

But the stories that I am hearing lately are too much.  Church discipline is intended to ultimately be redemptive, to help people get closer to Jesus.  It’s not intended to show your power or authority over your followers.

Pastors can you please take a moment to pray for the people in your area who are hurting because of church leadership.  It’s not fair to those people that their image of Jesus is tarnished because of human agents.

The truth is that we are all incredibly broken people.  The grace of Jesus is the only thing that helps us get our lives back together.  Can we talk more about that?  Can we humbly recognize our need for Jesus?

Leaders, let’s get out of the way of people who are trying to find Jesus.  We are not meant to be gatekeepers of faith.  We are guides.  The only reason that we can guide anyone in their faith journey is because some one guided us.  That person was a broken human too.

Let’s be honest.

Let’s be humble.

Let’s celebrate Jesus’ transforming love and grace.

Let’s help people walk away from sin and towards the grace that we find in the Cross of Christ.

I think that’s what people are looking for when they come to church for the first time.

Love.

Hope.

Healing.

Forgiveness.

Compassion.

Community.

We should be the best at creating environments like this because we have received all of this from Jesus in the first place.

Erasing Hate

2 Nov

Erasing Hate

This is Bryon.  Bryon is a reformed neo-nazi.  He used his tattoos to show his beliefs to the world.  When he had a change of heart and realized the destructive path he was on, he didn’t want to project that hate to the world anymore and so he went through the painful process of having his tattoos removed.

You can see the AP story here:

and you can see the trailer for the documentary Erasing Hate here:

Bryon considered this process a form of pennance for all the pain that he inflicted on others.

Wow.

Here’s the really amazing thing.  While no one can see my sins, Jesus bore all the pain of my sin on the Cross.  When God looks at me, he doesn’t see my sin anymore, he see’s Jesus.  What Bryon went through to change his physical appearance, Jesus endured something even worse to change Bryon’s and yours and my spiritual appearance.  That’s incredible grace and Jesus did that.

When God looks at us he sees Jesus grace.  When we look at others do we have that same kind of Grace perspective?  Do we see how Jesus wants to change people?  Or do we simply see the sin?

I’m amazed by Bryon’s story.  And I’m glad that he was able to transform his face, and I hope that his story will help many people to see the error and destruction of racism.  And I hope that this story will help us to see that even the people that we don’t think can ever be changed, can in fact be transformed.

Jesus please help me to walk in grace!

 

 

 

Sunday’s Message Had Legos

16 Aug

This past Sunday I had the privilege of speaking at Creekside Church.  We are working through a series called “Can You Trust the Bible.”  On Sunday I talked about how to read the Bible as a narrative.  Too often I think people approach the Bible with the wrong motives or assumptions about the text.  My understanding of how to approach the Bible is that it is the story of God rescuing his people.  As a Christian I understand that Jesus (his sacrificial death on the cross and resurrection) is the ultimate way that God rescues his people.  I’ve been influenced by N.T. Wright and the book The Drama of Scripture.

I encouraged Creekside to read the Bible as a narrative and to understand that we have a part to play because God’s story is not finished.  You can listen to the sermon here or get the video here.

I also used lego images from BrickTestament.com to help illustrate my message.  I have been asked to post my presentation so here that is as well. Narrative of Scripture presentation.

Enjoy.

___________ Christian

18 Apr

I have a friend who identifies himself as a reformed Christian. This is a new development in his faith journey, and he is very excited about all the implications of the Gospel, the Sovereignty of God, and all that amazing stuff. There is nothing wrong with the reformed tradition in my understanding of the tradition. I find myself more inline with the Reformed Tradition in a lot of areas of theology. There are some things that I just can’t buy into though. Mainly the L in T.U.L.I.P. (if you don’t know what that means then google it).

One of my concerns with the resurgence of the reformed tradition among young Christians is the way that they are identifying themselves. This was highlighted over a silly twitter dialogue about sports and idolatry. My friend at one point identified himself as a “Reformed Christian”. This set off an alarm to me. My fear is that those who identify themselves with this term are putting their tradition first and Christianity second.

Now, you may read that statement and say that I ma over reacting. To be honest I hope that I am over reacting. The problem to me is that those in the reformed tradition are using that term to create a division between their group and all the rest of the Christian Traditions. And the formed group are not the only ones who do this, they have been the most vocal lately. They have been the ones who have been drawing lines in the sand. But every tradition in the Christian faith has a tendency to do this. Charismatic Christian, Reformed Christian, Home-Church Christian, Social-Justice Christian, Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Baptist, Episcopal, Anglican, Arminian, etc. We have created labels, labels have created divisions between our traditions, and that has caused confusion in the world outside the church looking in.

I have long believed that Christian makes a horrible adjective, Christian Music, Christian Television Christian Dentist, Christian ________. Now I am also concerned with the labels that we are putting on our selves. ________ Christian might be helpful in creating groups that we find ourselves in agreement with. But all these divisions cause confusion to the world.

Did Jesus call us to be reformed, charismatic, Greek orthodox, etc.? Or did he call us to himself? Would Jesus identify himself with any of the labels that we put on him and his teaching? Why do you put them on ourselves. Why can’t we just be content with calling ourselves Christians? The kingdom is big enough for all of our traditions that look to Jesus the son of God, that believe in his death on the cross as the final sacrifice for all of our sins, that believe in his resurrection from the dead, that believe that Jesus is still alive, that he has called his followers to continue to build his kingdom, that heaven and hell are real (these are much more complicated than any of us can claim to understand).

They will know we are Followers of Jesus by our love for one another, not the labels that we put on ourselves.

Brussels Sprouts and Jesus

12 Jan

I had a recent conversation about sharing the good news with people who are not Christians.  Just that term, sharing the good news is problematic.  It has so much baggage associated with it.  So do evangelism, witnessing, etc.  When we use terms like this we bring our baggage into talking about Jesus into these conversations.  We bring our fears, anxieties and insecurities.

And you know what.  The people we are talking to have their own problems with the Gospel too.  I think it usually is because they have had a bad, painful, hurtful, or just plain awkward presentation of the Gospel.

It’s kind of like brussels sprouts.  Growing up I did not like brussels sprouts.  They were gross and I didn’t ever want to eat them.  I knew this to be true because of th bad presentation of brussels sprouts that I grew up with.  They were gross and they were always going to be gross.

Then one day I ate brussels sprouts that were prepared really well, and presented with care.  It changed my perspective on brussels sprouts.  It all came down to the preparation and presentation.

I think when it comes to talking about Jesus, we need to take greater care in our preparation and presentation.  We prepare through prayer and building our own relationship with Jesus.  And the presentation cannot simply be a quick and careless discussion.  If we are going to change the way people think about the Gospel we need to take care with our presentation.

The greatest presentation of the Gospel is a life that supports our words.  If you want people to try something that they think they won’t like, you have to change the presentation.  You have to give them a reason to try something old in a new way.

Getting Over Myself, or, Let Jesus Do His Work

6 Jan

I recently came across a website for a ministry that my gut reaction to was, “Really?!”

It had something to do with men beating each other up in tight shorts and Ed Hardee style clothes.  I’ll be the first to admit, I really don’t get the appeal of UFC or MMA or any of those things.  I never enjoyed seeing people in real life get punched in the face.

So when I saw this ministry I scoffed.  My attitude was simply, “Is this what Jesus really wants his church to be doing?”

But then I remembered that the people who love MMA and UFC and all that are also loved by Jesus.  And while I will probably never watch a fight or go to anything like that, that doesn’t mean that Jesus would stay away too.  The Gospel of Jesus needs to be worked into all areas of life.

My opinions about cultural trends are not the same as Jesus’ opinions.  I need to get over myself and let Jesus do his work through those guys, and pray that Jesus also continues to do his work through me.

I realized that my attitude at seeing this UFC outreach was very pharisaical.  Jesus did ministry differently than the religious establishment of his day.  I need to get out of his way and let him continue to do his work.

Here are some things that I think are untapped areas of outreach

Comedy – Not christian comedy clubs but christians going to comedy clubs and being friends with comedians.  Even the post op transgendered individual.  Comedy = tragedy + time.  How can we love people who get on stage and talk about their pain every night?  How can christians do Comedy where they talk openly about pain and the foibles of humanity?

Comic Books – Not christians making comic books about the end times, angels, or whatever.  What if Christians actually had conversations about Batman, X-men, Superman, etc. What if Christians got really good at drawing and writing for these stories instead of trying to do something “christian”.

Literature – I’d love to write a book to a mainstream audience that tells a redemptive story, without being pigeonholed into the Christian Section of the Christian Bookstore. Tolkien and Lewis were able to do it.  Can Christians do that today?  Can we write fantasy stories, or even a murder mystery that’s redemptive?

What else?

What are the things that you think are great opportunites to reveal redemption to the world?

The other question is will our churches let Christians do these things?  Will we get out of Jesus’ way?

Teach Us To Pray

2 Sep

I was recently cleaning out my book shelves when I came across an old book that looked interesting.  It’s called With Christ by Andrew Murray.  It’s a daily devotional book, 31 short chapter, all about prayer.  Prayer is one of the areas in my walk with Christ where I know that I need to be more intentional.  So I’m starting this book.  It’s old, written before TV and Radio and all the distractions of the world today, so I thought this would be a great resources.

The first chapter did not disappoint.  This quote was worth the time already.

Jesus never taught his disciples how to preach, only how to pray.  He did not speak much of what was needed to preach well, but much of praying well.  TO know how to speak to God is more than knowing how to speak to man.  Not power with men, but power with God is the first thing.

Such a needed reminder for my life.  Prayer is so important to God because he values our relationship with him.  I believe that God’s opinion of me is more important than anyone else’s opinion.  Prayer is one of the ways that I can build my relationship with God.

Jesus teach us how to pray.

Jesus teach me how to pray.

Gospel Urgency & Gospel Patience

9 Aug

Yesterday was a great day at Creekside. I got to preach about Livin’ Single, (not the tv show) and I got to play a bit of Pomplamoose’s cover of Beyonce’s “Single Ladies” which is probably one of my favorite songs. I’m not even ashamed to admit that. Pomplamoose’s arrangement is amazing and totally creative. Love it!

Between services we had the opportunity to gather some of our group leaders and potential group leaders and start to talk about our fall goal of launching 40 groups.

I was reminded of something after the service that. I had to share.

We should live with a gospel urgency. We need as many people to hear the gospel as possible. The gospel has the power to transform lives and to transform the world. The church, every single christian, is tasked with Sharing the gospel, both in words and deeds.

But as we do this we need to balance gospel urgency with gospel patience. We need to be sure to do the work that God has called us to do. But we also need to trust God and his timing. Whether we are developing leaders or systems in the church we need to be mindful that Jesus took three years to train 12 guys. He took a long view at what these 12 guys could do and invested in a few instead of trying to gather masses of people and training them poorly.

I think too often I want things to just work and have everybody do them and the system to be perfected so I can move on to the next goal. That’s the urgency in my heart. But I need to be sure to model Gospel Patience, and not push people before they are ready or require that every e be at the same place so we can keep moving.

It’s a lot harder than it seems to balance Gospel Urgency with Gospel Patience but if we look at what Jesus did, it seemed to work really well.

What if churches didn’t add any new initiatives for a year and just developed what they had and built a system that could be expanded.

Just some thoughts. I had to get off my brain

Why I Follow Jesus

18 Mar

I am not ashamed to call myself a Christian.  Something that I’ve been realizing while I practice my hobby stand-up comedy is that there are a lot of people who do not like Christians, Christianity or church.  This honestly breaks my heart because my relationship with Jesus has been so important to me, and I go to the open-mic and I always here something that is anti-Christian.

I can’t be ashamed of Jesus because as cheesy as it sounds he is never ashamed of me.  Even when I’m a complete idiot he still loves me and desires the best for me, more that I do for myself.  He is not afraid to associate with me.

Let me explain with Peter.

Jesus calls Peter by going fishing with him.  Peter was a fisherman.  Peter was having a horrible morning of fishing and Jesus said, “Hey Peter, through your net on the other side of the boat.”  Peter’s thoughts were probably, “Hey dude, what do you know about fishing?  Aren’t you a carpenter?  Why don’t you go and build something and leave the fishing to the professionals.”  But Peter obliged Jesus and threw his net on the other side of the boat, and they caught a boat load (literally) of fish.

From that moment on Peter decided that following Jesus was the way to go.  Now Peter wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed.  He was impulsive, sometimes reckless, didn’t think before he spoke, said he would never desert Jesus, but he did.  Jesus was crucified, Peter probably watched him die from a distance.

So what does Peter do?  He goes back to work to fishing.  Jesus was died, rose from the dead, appeared to the disciples, spoke to them, but what does Peter do?  He went back to fishing.  Maybe he felt like Jesus was disappointed with him, maybe Peter felt like he was out of favor.  So he goes back to what he knew.

While he was fishing someone yells from the shore, “Cast your net on the other side.”  I wonder if that story had spread, and Peter may have been sick of it.  I don’t know. But he throws the net on the other side, and what do you know, they catch a ton of fish.

Peter jumps out of the boat and swims to shore and there’s Jesus.  Jesus restores Peter, even thought Peter was ashamed of Jesus, Jesus was not ashamed of Peter.  I love that story.  Because I’m an idiot and I need Jesus because he’s not ashamed of me.  His grace is enough.

I follow Jesus simply because he sees more in me than I see in myself.  He believes in me when I don’t.  Am I embarrassed by some things some christians do?  yeah.  Am I ashamed of somethings churches do in the name of Jesus?  sadly, yes.  Kind of like a crazy uncle.  I love them because we are family, but I wouldn’t say the things they say.

I can’t speak for them and Jesus.  I can only speak for me and my relationship with Jesus.  And I know that Jesus is not ashamed of me.

The Pastor’s Job

13 Jun

I read this today in John 21:

15When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Feed my lambs.” 16He said to him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” He said to him, “Yes, Lord; you know that I love you.” He said to him, “Tend my sheep.” 17He said to him the third time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter was grieved because he said to him the third time, “Do you love me?” and he said to him, “Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.” Jesus said to him, “Feed my sheep. 18 Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go.” 19(This he said to show by what kind of death he was to glorify God.) And after saying this he said to him, “Follow me.”

Here Jesus gives Peter, who would become the leader of the church two jobs.  Feed and Follow Jesus.  That’s it.  If we love Jesus, we will follow him, and if we follow him we will feed other followers of Jesus.  It’s that simple.

Just some thoughts.

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