I probably spend a little too much time complaining. It’s not a good habit. I assure you that I have been working very hard to correct this readily evident flaw in my character.

So today, something different. And I invite you to share the things you are thankful for too.

Today I am thankful for my job, that I am gainfully employed.

I give God all the praise!

“In all things, give thanks…”

Joy to the world! The Lord is come.
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart
Prepare Him room
And Saints and angels sing
And Saints and angels sing
And Saints and Saints and angels sing

Joy to the world, the Saviour reigns
Let Saints their songs employ
While fields and floods
Rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat the sounding joy
Repeat, Repeat, the sounding joy

Joy to the world with truth and grace
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness
And wonders of His love
And wonders of His love
And wonders and wonders of His love

No more will sin and sorrow grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He’ll come and make the blessings flow
Far as the curse was found,
Far as the curse was found,
Far as, far as the curse was found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And gives to nations proof
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love;
And wonders of His love;
And wonders, wonders of His love.

Soli Deo Gloria!

December 08, 1980

⁵ “See, I will send the prophet Elijah to you before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes. ⁶ He will turn the hearts of the parents to their children, and the hearts of the children to their parents; or else I will come and strike the land with total destruction.”

Malachi 4: 5 and 6.

I’ve been thinking about these verses a lot lately. I think we’ve done a really good job in the last 10 years or so of teaching people to recognize their wounds from their parents and how that is impacting their life. We have done a good job of helping people to realize that they don’t have to be like their parents. They don’t have to make the same mistakes.

But…

I wonder if we have done as good of a job teaching people to explore their parents wounds. In other words, what does it look like to look at the people who have wounded me and try to understand what it means to minister to them? I wonder if we worry so much about how others hearts should be toward our hearts that we forget the second half of this verse and others like it that talk about turning our hearts toward those who have come before us.

“…a charge of lying against someone whom you have always found truthful is a very serious thing; a very serious thing indeed.” –CS Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe, 44

“We have only one life, and the choice of how we are going to live it must be our own choice, not one that we let the world make for us.”–Secrets in the Dark, 39

“You were created to become like Christ.”

–Rick Warren, The Purpose Driven Life, 171

I was editing my church’s listing information on Google when I came across this:

This is designed for businesses.  Plumber?  Yes, this business serves customers at their locations.  Hardware store?  No, all customers come to the business location.  Simple.  I put “No” for our church.  Somewhat because we are still stuck in the business church model of the last 100 years, but mostly because I’m having a hard time bringing myself to say Yes.

This past Sunday I preached a first-person sermon from Jonah (you can listen to it here if you want):

 

 Jonah - Called to Go: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

During my sermon study I always try to examine my own life in light of what I am going to be preaching and you can’t help being changed when you spend the necessary time and depth that a first-person sermon requires.  Jonah was called to go to Nineveh.  One of the extraordinary things about Jonah is that the book is the only latter prophet whose message is presented in narrative prose.  One of the functions of the literary genre of narrative is that the audience naturally identifies with one or more of the characters.  A talented narrative writer is adept at drawing the reader into the story, not just to be surrounded by it, but to become a part of it.  Part of the function of the book of Jonah was to do that for the people of Israel: to see themselves in Jonah.  To see their rebellion against God was a rebellion of the heart, a rebellion against His very nature.

And so I did.  I saw… I see myself in Jonah.  And I can’t even claim to have any enemies.  Jonah didn’t want to go to those he detested.  I don’t want to go to those I am uncomfortable around.  I know that my God is compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love, patient.  Maybe that’s why I’m still allowed to be where I am… to do what I do… even though I don’t want to go.

I think it’s time that I– that we– started to say “Yes, this business serves customers at their locations.”

I thought this was sort of interesting.

It does sort of make one wonder exactly what role there is between the theology of Jesus and the politics of sovereign nations.

What do you think?

Tags: Jesus, love, Theology, war

I work at a Mental Health Facility. Quite honestly, we take away people’s liberty. They do something (to be fair, usually a multitude of somethings) and we remove them from society. At any given time there is at least 3 locked doors between them and freedom. Their entire schedule becomes controlled by someone else.
What time they get up.

What time they eat. What they eat. Where they play. What they play.

What time they go to bed.

Now, they rant and they rave. They argue. Sometimes they punch and assault. They always talk about what is wrong with everyone else and the ever illusive system. What’s interesting to me is how often they come back after they have worked to obtain their freedom.  They leave and with in a few days they’re trying to get back inside. It’s comforting there. It’s warm or cool depending on the season. They are familiar with what happens there every day. No matter how much they are willing to criticize and complain, they need the system to function.  It’s easier to let someone else dictate to you what you believe, and to be critical of what someone else has set up then it is to create your own.

Take those thoughts to the blog world. What happens when the thing that you have built your entire “ministry” around no longer seems relevant? What happens when people just don’t care about what you are writing about because your writings are akin to writing about the dangers of 8 track players in cars?

You kick and scream, that’s what happens. It started out with a silly little tirade about the Tall Skinny KiWi blogger, Andrew Jones. He put up a post about how to deal with critics. Never mentioned any angry bloggers by name, but oh boy did one angry blogger in particular go a little sideways. We learned that TSK was condescending. That he was think[sic] skinned, and that he was ill advised.

Then a few days later, there was anger directed at Frank Turk, for asking what “discernment bloggers” actually believe. Apparently it is wrong to want to know what someone actually stands for, not just what he is against.

Then today, someone sent me a link to this blog post where once again a discernment blogger is not only called to task but his arguments are dismantled in the comment thread.  There are too many good quotes to have a favorite but this one was particularly interesting,

I think I’ll just let Jesus lead me as to what areas I’ll be addressing.

Why is that interesting? Well because that is something that Mr. Silva and his friends have taken many a person to task for. When Rick Warren said it, there was great gnashing of teeth. When Rob Bell refused to answer their questions because he answered to God and his local church only there was a war cry.

You can read the whole post on your own, but it does bring up an interesting point. The self labeled discernment bloggers now have an opportunity. One that some of them have taken. I have my issues with Chris Rosebrough and I’m sure he has his issues with me but to his credit he has many posts up regarding what he believes.  The opportunity to do the same now lies before Mr. Ken Silva and his friends.

Of course, by putting up what they believe they will be open to criticism to it. This all begs an interesting question. What happens when the **Truth War** you are fighting either ends or changes battlefields? The emergent church was and will remain to be something of an easy target because there are so many different sides inside of it, but I have said before that it is more and more becoming irrelevant to the conversation of how we are to share our faith in the years to come.

Perhaps, that will mean the end of some *ministries* that don’t seem to actually be ministering. What happens when a ministry needs there to be a boogey man?

Indeed, what happens when…