The human enigma

The hardest thing to believe when you're young
is that people will fight to stay in a rut,
but not to get out of one.

Ellen Glasgow

No interest in heaven

"When the followers of Jesus Christ lose their interest in heaven they will no longer be happy Christians and when they are no longer happy Christians they cannot be a powerful force in a sad and sinful world."

A.W. Tozer, Who Put Jesus on the Cross

We're reading and studying "God as He Longs for You to See Him"with our small group; we hear Chip Ingram often quote Tozer. He's a great, classic author who's been mostly lost to our generation; he's one we need to revive.

Kierkegaard on church

Christendom has done away with Christianity without being quite aware of it. Soren Kierkegaard

I read that line in Neil Cole's Organic Church the day after getting an email from a friend. The email included a link to a news story about a massive church split in Florida -- the split was over "style, not substance" and there were big names involved. The friend said, "it's reading stuff like this that makes me never want to participate in a church again." If the outward forms and man-centered expressions of Christendom were all there was to "church" I'd agree wholeheartedly!

Serious Intake

A friend and I going to try it:

• read a significant portion of Scripture in a week's time, asking God to speak to us; if one of us (in a group of 2-3 men or 2-3 women) doesn't finish the reading, we do read it again until each has completed the reading and each hears God speak.


• we get together and discuss what God has said and confess our sins to one another.


• we pray strategically for 2-3 people who need Christ.

The reasoning behind a heavier intake of Scripture -- in part -- to develop your appetite for God's Word. Doesn't happen with a verse or short passage every day or two or less often. This week, Steve and I agreed we'd read John's gospel. My dear wife was gone Tuesday evening, so I sat down with John. He held my attention for a solid hour and five minutes. I saw such good things, ones I've not put together before, like: Jesus' clear call to the curious and the crowds and then the committed to -- "believe" (John is the "gospel of faith"), then to "come to Me", then "love Me" and finally "obey Me." But with the religious leaders -- the terms are often the same, but sort of in reverse. "You don't believe in Me because you don't believe, or know My Father." "You will not come to Me." Then, the final description, speaking to His men, "they will hate you because they hated Me."

It was astounding, and deeply encouraging to read through a longer book. I remember someone saying once: when you're reading the Bible "don't get too far from Jesus" -- don't stray too far from the gospels. Think I'm going to have to get through John again, before Monday.

Serving

Ray Stedman alludes to a thesis of an old book, The Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life; in it, a group of psychologists -- decades ago -- proposed that television was at the root of Americans forgetting how to serve. Stedman says: “perhaps in a Christian congregation this is not nearly as evident as it is in the world at large, but we face it also in the body of Christ.”

Jesus said that He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give Himself as a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45, Matthew 20:28) Stedaman wrote, the source of true richness and fulfillment is in serving, not being served. When we demand to be served, always have something titillating our senses; “the end is loneliness, emptiness and ultimately despair”. The proof of that is visible everywhere today.

Imagine the influence if a group of Christians simply determined to connect what Jesus connected in that statement: serving and reconciliation. I wonder how a people who've forgotten what serving looks like would react if they saw it lived like He lived it?

The rare value of a good sidekick!

Reading a great book by Neil Cole (Search and Rescue, Becoming a Disciple Who Makes a Difference) I was reminded of a scene in Lord of the Rings. Describing the futility of being lone ranger Christians, and needing "sidekicks" Cole paints the picture of Frodo and his faithful companion, Samwise, collapsed on the side of Mt. Doom in their attempt to destroy the dark and evil ring of power. Alone in a dark place, surrounded by evil and hiding from the ever watchful eye of the dark lord, it was Frodo's task to get the ring to the end of the journey where it would be destroyed. Sam tries to encourage Frodo by describing the beauties of home in the Shire. But there was nothing Frodo could see but the dark lord's evil eye. Finally, faithful sidekick Sam spits out, "Then let's be done with it! I may not be able to carry it [the ring] for you, but I can carry you!" And Sam lifts Frodo up onto his shoulders and proceeds one step after the next up the steep climb of loose rocks, with his friend on his shoulders.

Sidekicks in life and ministry are exceptionally rare, therefore of highest value -- imagine the kingdom impact if everyone had one, and was one. (cf. Exodus 17:12)

He's willing to forgive

Ernest Hemingway told the story: there was a father and his teenage son, whose relationship got so strained, the boy ran away from home. His father began then the journey -- searching for his rebellious son. Finally in Madrid, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father placed an ad in the newspaper. It simply read: "Dear Paco, Meet me in front of the newspaper office at noon. All is forgiven. I love you. Your father."

When the father arrived the next day he saw the staggering sight: eight hundred sons named Paco were there in front of the newspaper office -- all wanting forgiveness and all hungering for the love of their father.

We pardon to the degree that we love. And so does our Father. (Luke 15)