I've discovered something. When I mention it most of you will say, "Well, duh!" But then again, if you think about it and understand it about yourself and your life you might just say, "hmmmmmm!"and then "ohhhh!"
It's kind of a secret to living, the kind of secret that doesn't make you smarter or richer or better looking or younger (not that those two go hand in hand), rather a secret that calms the spirit, makes things simpler in life, allows you to breathe and enjoy.
Want to know what it is? Do ya? Huh?
I'm not in charge of my life.
That's it, simple as it is. I have a role to play as a Christian, with my own gifts and graces. I fit into a greater function of the church. I am supposed to do my part and only my part. And all I have to do is do that. I don't have to worry or fret about others, about the church, about about the world. God's in charge of that. I have only to fit in, to love, to be who Christ made me to be.
I was watching a movie last night (Your's, Mine and Ours). One of the characters is considering taking the job as Commandant of the Coast Guard. As he was walking toward what would be his ship, men were standing in salute, helicopters were moving from here to there, people were busy doing their tasks all in a correographed fashion. And it made me think. The Commandant doesn't fly the helicopters or cook the meals or swab the poop-deck (if they still do that sort of thing). The Commandant commands. That's his role, his gift, his part. For him to "rollup the gang-plank" or "batton down the hatches" would be to forsake his role, to take on too much control. His charge is to make the whole Coast Guard work, but not do the work of the whole Coast Guard. While he is in charge of the organization he is not in charge of his life.
And neither am I, nor are you.
While we have charge over our roles, God holds charge over our lives. Our things don't control us. God does. And when we accept this reality of God and of our life, we can live without worry. We can enjoy living, we can become more like Christ. We can do as Paul suggested, "Keep a smile on your face." (Romans 12:8, The Message)
Enjoy today being who you are, as God's own with a unique role in the church, in the kingdom. For that's all God wants of us.
Peace ><>
pc
Friday, June 30, 2006
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Be Our Guest!
The song from "Beauty and the Beast" is going through my head as I write this morning, Be Our Guest.
It's hard to believe that it's been 13 years in pastoral ministry. In the spring of 1993 I was sitting in the living room of our home in Lapel, Indiana studying the book of Romans when I finally understood what God wanted of me, what God wanted me to do. I had been working in youth ministry for a couple of years with my partner, my wife, but I had started to feel uneasy, unsatisfied, incomplete. I wasn't fulfilling God's purpose for me, or maybe a better way of putting it, I wasn't allowing God to work enough in me and through me.
That's when I read from Romans 10...
"It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”
Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.” It’s exactly the same no matter what a person’s religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.”
But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it?"(Romans 10:8-15, The Message)
It's this last part that helped me understand my calling, but it's the first part that burns within me, helping others to understand, helping those who do not believe to come to belief. God has placed within me a passion to bring people to Jesus and help them grow.
But isn't that the great commission anyway? Isn't that what the church is called to be about?
Exactly! "Go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the threefold name: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you."(Matthew 28:19-20, The Message)
Re-reading Romans 10 today made me think about our church. I'm proud of the work that has been accomplished in our Vision Statement and our Purpose Statement. They both proclaim that our mission is to those who are not yet in our church. But we are not there yet in our practice. A careful reading of Paul's argument in Romans reveals something I think we all need to hear, we shouldn't be too proud of who we are or the position we have received in the kingdom of God. We were outsiders who were let in on the action of God, but once inside, we are no better than those who are still on the outside. While we have come to salvation, it doesn't make God love us more or make us more special.
O, and the church isn't ours, it never was. It's not ours to do with as we please. It's not ours to keep people out of or to measure who comes in. It's not ours to make it most comfortable for us. God has placed us in Christ's Church to make it a hospitable place for others to experience the completeness of God and his salvation through Christ. We are simply hosts, proud to welcome others into our midst and servants, making sure they get everything they need while in our care.
While my calling is about going and telling, our calling is about welcoming and sharing. We are hosts for Christ, eagerly awaiting and preparing for the guests of Christ, so that they may know the assurance and love of God.
Our song is, Be Our Guest, because that is what Jesus sang to us.
Peace ><>
pc
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Roadblocks
I took a walk yesterday to clear my head, to think, to leave the office for a while. The walk led me to my car and to my house where I started cleaning off the work bench in my garage. ( I started cleaning the garage last weekend and have several more weekends of work to complete it.) I was confused, hurt, aggravated, disappointed and maybe other feelings that I can't identify right now.
I don't like getting hurt, but I expect it. I expect to have conflict in a growing church. I expect to have varying opinions and ideas. I expect for some to tell me I'm making mistakes even when I am not. It's not that I am right always. I make mistakes, but the greatest mistakes I've made came by trying to please people and not doing what I knew was right.
It's a difficult place to be sometimes, between God's will and our will. Sometimes both look equally as good, both might work, both would function okay, but one pleases God and the other pleases a few. Hmmm, which one do you choose?
God's will isn't always easy, but it's not always the most difficult path either. What I've discovered, though, is that God's path is usually not the selfish path. "Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They wre absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their "God projects" that they didn't notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. Isaiah (again!) gives us athe metaphor for pulling this together: 'Careful! I'veput a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion, a stone you can't get around. But the stone is me! If you're looking for me, you'll find me on the way, not in the way." (Romans 9:30-33, The Message)
What is the key to finding what God is doing and wants from us? Look for God along the way. If you're stuck or stumbling it's because Jesus is in the way. If you are moving ahead, it's because you've met him!
Peace ><>
pc
I don't like getting hurt, but I expect it. I expect to have conflict in a growing church. I expect to have varying opinions and ideas. I expect for some to tell me I'm making mistakes even when I am not. It's not that I am right always. I make mistakes, but the greatest mistakes I've made came by trying to please people and not doing what I knew was right.
It's a difficult place to be sometimes, between God's will and our will. Sometimes both look equally as good, both might work, both would function okay, but one pleases God and the other pleases a few. Hmmm, which one do you choose?
God's will isn't always easy, but it's not always the most difficult path either. What I've discovered, though, is that God's path is usually not the selfish path. "Israel, who seemed so interested in reading and talking about what God was doing, missed it. How could they miss it? Because instead of trusting God, they took over. They wre absorbed in what they themselves were doing. They were so absorbed in their "God projects" that they didn't notice God right in front of them, like a huge rock in the middle of the road. And so they stumbled into him and went sprawling. Isaiah (again!) gives us athe metaphor for pulling this together: 'Careful! I'veput a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion, a stone you can't get around. But the stone is me! If you're looking for me, you'll find me on the way, not in the way." (Romans 9:30-33, The Message)
What is the key to finding what God is doing and wants from us? Look for God along the way. If you're stuck or stumbling it's because Jesus is in the way. If you are moving ahead, it's because you've met him!
Peace ><>
pc
Tuesday, June 27, 2006
Happy Lifeday to you!
I fail too often. I fail to to be totally faithful. I fail to be totally focused on God. I fail to follow God's commands every day. I fail to steer around the temptations that come my way. I fail when I sin and I fail way too often!
Some would see this as a life that couldn't be connected with God.
Some day it feels like it.
"It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge." (Romans 7:21-23, The Message)
Those are St. Paul's words, and they are mine. They are probably yours, too, if you're honest. Even though we are faithful, we still live in this human, sinful world. Sin still works in us and on us. Until we are completely at home in heaven with Christ, we have to deal with the world around us and that includes sin. And dealing with it takes effort, discipline and the knowledge that we cannot do it by ourselves.
We cannot over come sin.
But Jesus can!
Paul goes on to say, "I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different." (Romans 7:24-25, The Message)
When Christians sin, and we do, the temptation is to withdraw from God, from church, from our Christian friends and family. The temptation is to think badly about ourselves, to question our faith, to wonder if we were ever really a Christian in the first place. But it's just that, temptation. Sure God isn't pleased when any of us sins (especially Christians), but God doesn't turn his back on us. In fact, it's God who reminds us what actions are sin. It's not our conscience, its the Holy Spirit. And He's not judging us, but reminding us who we are...
and Whose we are!
And that's exactly what Satan wants us to forget.
So you're not a perfect Christian. Neither am I. But we are Christians not because of our sinlessness or our earned righteousness. We are Christians because we trust in the Son of God who takes away our imperfection and gives us God's righteousness. (It's called justification.)
It's a gift.
And when we feel like Christian failures it's because we forget to open the gift every day!
Today is your Lifeday (every day is.)! It's a day that Christ's life has been given to you.
Enjoy it.
Peace ><>
pc
Some would see this as a life that couldn't be connected with God.
Some day it feels like it.
"It happens so regularly that it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God's commands, but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge." (Romans 7:21-23, The Message)
Those are St. Paul's words, and they are mine. They are probably yours, too, if you're honest. Even though we are faithful, we still live in this human, sinful world. Sin still works in us and on us. Until we are completely at home in heaven with Christ, we have to deal with the world around us and that includes sin. And dealing with it takes effort, discipline and the knowledge that we cannot do it by ourselves.
We cannot over come sin.
But Jesus can!
Paul goes on to say, "I've tried everything and nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different." (Romans 7:24-25, The Message)
When Christians sin, and we do, the temptation is to withdraw from God, from church, from our Christian friends and family. The temptation is to think badly about ourselves, to question our faith, to wonder if we were ever really a Christian in the first place. But it's just that, temptation. Sure God isn't pleased when any of us sins (especially Christians), but God doesn't turn his back on us. In fact, it's God who reminds us what actions are sin. It's not our conscience, its the Holy Spirit. And He's not judging us, but reminding us who we are...
and Whose we are!
And that's exactly what Satan wants us to forget.
So you're not a perfect Christian. Neither am I. But we are Christians not because of our sinlessness or our earned righteousness. We are Christians because we trust in the Son of God who takes away our imperfection and gives us God's righteousness. (It's called justification.)
It's a gift.
And when we feel like Christian failures it's because we forget to open the gift every day!
Today is your Lifeday (every day is.)! It's a day that Christ's life has been given to you.
Enjoy it.
Peace ><>
pc
Monday, June 26, 2006
Daily Scripture Readings
Today, I had to leave very early for a pastor's gathering in Wabash, IN. So I didn't get a chance to blog before leaving. (I'm sorry, the bed just was too comfortable at 5:00 this morning!) But I did my reading via a "Bible on tape" that I love to listen to. It's interesting to hear the scriptures. It brings a different perspective. This week we begin Romans as a response to the message on the Truth about Jesus. Paul has such a way explaining it.
The question I have is, are you reading daily?
Last week I didn't change the scripture readings just to see if anyone would notice and do you know how many emails I got to ask me about it?
Zero.
So, I wonder, are you reading daily? Are you reading the suggested daily chapters? They are not just a random collection, but related to what we're doing on Sundays. These will be the focus of our studies on Wednesdays in the Pastor's Class.
Just wondering. Let me know what it is you are reading and how I can help in your growth.
Peace ><>
pc
The question I have is, are you reading daily?
Last week I didn't change the scripture readings just to see if anyone would notice and do you know how many emails I got to ask me about it?
Zero.
So, I wonder, are you reading daily? Are you reading the suggested daily chapters? They are not just a random collection, but related to what we're doing on Sundays. These will be the focus of our studies on Wednesdays in the Pastor's Class.
Just wondering. Let me know what it is you are reading and how I can help in your growth.
Peace ><>
pc
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