I put a lot of pressure on myself to come up with new things to write about and say.  More than most.  I enjoy the creative element of writing and blogging everyday.  The problem is that I read way too much and the sheer volume of the things I read leeches my creativity.

The solution is that I am my own person.  I am who I am for a reason.  Even if I take on a particular topic that someone else has already done a great job of writing about, I would take it on in my own way from my perspective.  The topic may not be unique.  In fact it probably would not be even if you thought it was.  What makes any content unique is you. The way you say things, the words you employ to get the job done make it yours.

This is the one phrase Christians, Jews and Muslims all would agree to.  Unfortunately, we all mean very different things when we say it.  There is a profound disconnect with the mere semantics and the meaning behind the words.   One must come to the conclusion that either God is all-encompassing and fits the man-made perceptions of Him or that God is something else entirely.  Each religion would conclude that God reveals Himself through prophets, and through them the written word.  God could not be God if He submitted to our ideology of Him.

Divine Revelation.

So we have come at last to divine revelation.  How does God reveal Himself?

Jews would say God reveals Himself through His Law, the Torah, and through His Prophets.  When the prophets told of a Messiah, they would state they are still waiting for Christ.  The way to Heaven is to observe the law and commands.  Basically, “be good”.  (note:  must wonder why Jubilee was never celebrated or how sins are forgiven without the shedding of blood today).  Much of the levitical law is no longer practiced or adhered to.  Instead new laws have been added to the already long list.

Islam doesn’t seem to recognize anyone but Muhammed because in Muhammed, the final revelation was apparently given.  Though they recognize Jesus as a prophet, albeit a minor one, they do not accept His claims about Himself.  If this is true and God only reveals Himself through revelation then to the Muslim God is a silent unconcerned person yet they still pray to this silent deity though nothing will come of it.  The best they can offer is undulated service to Allah and hope for Heaven.

Christians or “Little Christs” believe that Jesus was the culmination of the prophetic texts given to the Jews (or Israelites/ Hebrews) therefore the Christ.  In Christ, the law was fulfilled, grace was administrated.  In this, the revelation through the prophets has been proven infallible.  In becoming a man, God gave us the ultimate revelation of Himself.  He transcended His own creation and stepped down into it incarnate.  Fully God and fully human He demonstrated His power over creation through the elements, through miracles, and His ultimate love for His creation.  He continues to reveal Himself today through the work of the Holy Spirit.  In the death of Christ, He is the sacrifice for all sin so that all who believe upon Him may enter into eternal glory with Him.

A God Who Loves.

Jews have half the picture but do not believe even in their own prophets.  Muslims believe in a god who stopped revealing himself with Muhammed.   Christians believe that God is alive and present today, active in His creation, communing with us through His Spirit and ultimately will return for His church (those who believe in Him as the Christ).

When it comes to the average church, I often see it as a bureaucratic facade of “fiscal maneuvering” designed to look like ministry.  Meetings designed to put together action plans for increasing attendance, thereby increasing monetary means to increase attendance to again increase net wealth of “God’s kingdom” on earth.  This from the role of someone who has been in those shoes, lived those meetings.  Here are some questions I’d pose for that average church that feels they might be going through the same charade:

• If you really loved God and loved people as much as you say you do, would you still spend 12 hours a week going over action plans for five year goals or would you spend those 12+ hours each week actually listening to the hurting or caring for the broken?
• Aren’t you tired of trying to make it work, to make the numbers add up, or preaching to deaf ears on a Sunday morning?
• Does it really matter if everything goes smoothly on a Sunday morning or is it some kind of illusion of control that you want?

I for one am tired of feeling that I have to be so shallow as to be reduced to “getting it right” on a Sunday morning to have a relationship with a God who has forgiven my sins and genuinely loves me enough to die on a cross and make me a co-heir with Him.

I’d rather listen to the broken-hearted than to go to a meeting and try to figure out what is five years down the road.  Because frankly, we don’t have tomorrow, next week, the year after, or five years from now.  We have today.  If we are called to live as bridegrooms ready for the return of Christ, then we’d best start understanding that our real treasure, our only treasure is the same thing that our God came and died on a cross for, that He may come back between now and our next goal realization meeting, and that no amount of goal setting will be excuse enough for the ones we were called to reach and did not.

I have the gifts to do a lot of things.  To build websites, to serve coffee, to play drums, to lead small groups, to preach, to do design work and many more besides.  If I had these and so many other gifts, I could do so much but it would be in vain unless I failed to do that thing that is called of me, of all of us to do, to love.

This is my personal mission statement, a sound out from the depths of my heart resounding with every stroke of a key.

Love God.  Love Man.

I will fail at times to do this but I am confident that God’s grace is sufficient for even me.

But in realizing these things about myself, I am finding out more than ever just how broken I am in places.  Places where I thought I had my act together are in reality places of utter failure.  A funny thing has happened though.  The more I am realizing my brokenness, lack of faith and failures, the more I am seeing that God’s grace is sufficient for me.  I used to laugh at people when they called Christianity a crutch.  It is a crutch, and I won’t be too proud to use it rather than hobble along painfully on broken legs.

I have now come to a turning point.  I have put resumes out all over the internet, called churches around the country and done all I can do to find a ministry job doing what I feel God has called me to do.  None of it has come to pass.  At one point, I got so fed up with job boards because I was posting on them and reading them so much, that I decided that I should make my own (www.minitriki.com).

I now feel that many churches do not meet people where they are.  Sure, they say they do, but you walk in and they have their little agenda that won’t budge or give you a guilt trip when you can’t be at every small group meeting.  Immediately, there is a stigma if you smoke or drink or live with someone who you are not married to.  I grew up in churches all my life, went to a Bible College and I know that if I stood outside of a church and smoked a cigarette, I might as well have lit the place on fire and offered up a human sacrifice.  I don’t smoke, but I’ve known people so caught up with trying to quit and the stigma that the church has attached to smoking that they never understood that Jesus wants a relationship with them first and foremost.

I’m not saying that the body isn’t a temple of the Holy Spirit or preaching the heresy of license (basically means to just keep on sinning to let grace abound all the more).  But we care more about the sin in someone’s life than we do about introducing them to Jesus Christ.  Homosexuality is a sin.  Scripture clearly says it is.  But somehow no one loves the sinner anymore because the sin is so stigmatized.  Are they welcomed?  You don’t take a drunk and stand him up (if he can stand up) as an example of Godliness any more than you would a homosexual.  I will not affirm sin.  I will affirm grace though.

Grace says “Come on in”  “You are welcomed”  or even “I struggle too”.  But we can’t ignore the Word of God on this matter.  When we encounter Christ, there is a transformation that should happen.  Jesus told the woman caught in adultery “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Jesus didn’t say “I don’t condem you, so go back to your lover”.  But we needen’t be the other extreme either and picking up stones to take the matter into our own hands.  God’s grace is sufficient.

I told a guy yesterday that he “probably cared more about his smoking addiction than God did and that God wants a relationship with him more than he wants him to go cold turkey.  If God really comes into his life and works in him, then God can take care of the smoking.”

Anyway, all these thoughts have led me to the belief that we need a church that is about the smokers, the down and outs, the poorly dressed, the tax collectors, the smelly fisherman (oops, I went a little first cenury Palestine there) the average guys, who through grace and a transforming encounter with Jesus Christ can be called Sons of God, coheirs with Christ.  If we admit it, we are all a little broken anyway.  Here is our power.  Aknowledge our brokeness and confess our sins, repent and believe that Jesus really loves us enough to die for us.  To offer us this grace we could not earn through any means of our own.

I am still seeing if people are interested in being a part of this unique ministry.  Check out the link below for more information.

RAGAMUFFIN CHURCH

I’ve been feeling God leading me to start a ministry myself.  I am not sure of the context that it will eventually take, but the initial idea is based off a book by Brennan Manning called “A Ragamuffin Gospel”  I am still laying out the foundation of what this ministry will look like and part of it will be dependent on those God leads my way.  Over the last seven months, I feel I have been spinning my wheels trying to make things work out on my own and applying for jobs all over the country.  None of those things have worked out and I haven’t been offered a position anywhere around here,  but I still feel the call to full-time ministry.

I can only do what God has asked of me.  Everything else will fail in the sight of God.  I may succeed in the eyes of men, but ultimately they aren’t the ones I answer to.

This has been a decision a long time in the making.  I’ve prayed and thought about this for several years now.  There was once a time I thought it would fit under the umbrella of another ministry.  It can’t be put off any longer now.  Keep us in prayer.

Ragamuffin Church

Today, I am feeling a bit sick.  Flu like symptoms.  I don’t think it’s swine flu.  Just the sore throat and glands hurt with a bit of fatigue and general stomach discomfort after eating anything.

Just trying to snooze and keep a low profile today while taking cold and flu medicines after every 4-6 hours or so.

Aidan had a big day yesterday, so he’s pretty wiped out too.

If you want to buy it, it’s available here.

A Month goes by, quickly, I might add.  A first time dad.  I was working at Olan Mills at the time.  I kept the external drive plugged in, thought, why not just use it as my “my documents” folder.  Everything is backed up to it.  It will keep my computer cleaner and save the extra step of backing up every time.

One night, returning home much intoxicated from one of my haunts about the town, I fancied that the cat avoided my presence…. oh wait, that’s Edger Allen Poe’s story, not mine.

One night, returning home, we had just opened the door, when I heard something fall.  It sounded heavy.  One of our cats was sitting in the middle of the floor, poised, ready to strike, and beside him was my external hard drive.  Being the curious animal he was, he had jumped up on my desk and knocked the hard drive to the floor.  Since my computer and the hard drive were on, the hard drive began making clicking noises. I plugged it in.  Nothing but clicks.  Everything gone.  I gave it up as a total loss.  I got frustrated, loaded up a linux distro I had laying around and got the hard drive working, at least until I posted about it.

While backing everything up from the drive, it failed again. I was too frustrated to post again that the thing had failed… miserable and angry at the whole ordeal, I again gave it all up for loss.  I had small images that I had posted when he was born.  Those would have to do.  Family started asking questions about getting larger images. I told them what had happened.  Now it wasn’t just me, other people were ready to kill one of our cats.

I remembered something this morning when Animoto, sent out their newsletter.  I had made a video with them and used higher quality images to make it than I have on my blog.

I emailed them this morning if I could get a download of those images.

They emailed back wanting the exact url for the video I had put together.

I emailed it to them.

They emailed back with an individual url for every picture I had uploaded to the video.

I have since downloaded them all and backed them all up online.

Thank You Animoto.  I also really loved the slideshow I put together using your service.