Lee is the Senior Leader of Abundant Grace Fellowship Church in Keene, NH
He is the father of five wonderful children. Married for over 26 years to his wife Tina. Loving life with family, friends, faith, fun and food!
I grew up in a different generation. My kids would tell you. I struggled with the idea that so many cars look alike. I fell in love with cars from day one. The first car I remember my Dad had was a 1955 Dodge 2 tone blue. When my mother got her job teaching they got a 1945 Pontiac so they had two cars. We had moved to Northford by then and there was a garage. My grandfather passed away leaving my parents a 1961 Plymouth Valiant.
My first car was a 1936 Chevrolet Master Deluxe. I bought it when I was 15. I paid $50. My friend said it did not run. My father had it towed with a chain behind his 1970 ford pickup F100. WE had shot the cylinders up with kerosene. As we got the bottom of Village Street and approached Route 17 the car “started” and bumped into the step bumper of my dad’s car pushing him towards the intersection.
Over time I am going to write about some of my fun cars. Love to hear about your!
I find that it is not the law of the Bible that causes me consternation or difficulties. The sting of death [is] sin; and the strength of sin [is] the law.1 Corinthians 15:56 It is the ones I keep in my head!
I am not likely to run out and cheat on my wife or kill someone. But I am likely to remember something I might deem superstitious (black cats, broken mirrors, etc.) or a rule for me. “Step on a crack and you’ll break your mother’s back.” Urban legends, old wives’ tales, myths and legends are often the mixture of partial truth. (Was that not how the serpent deceived Eve? Just enough truth to make it credible?) Or in my case I get caught up in “focus” thought process.I “have” to finish this. I have to do the dishes before I relax. Please understand I am not saying there is not value in delayed gratification or completion of tasks or chores. What I am SAYING is this. Anything that controls, creating anxiety or unrest has become a law in your mind and your thinking. It would biblically be considered a stronghold. How many of us never investigated some of the stories well meaning parents* and teachers may have bestowed upon us?
I do not denounce truisms like “early to bed, early to rise, makes a young man healthy, wealthy and wise.” There is value as long as it does not become compulsive or anxiety ridden. I know people who are compulsive givers. Lovers of life with intent in their hearts. But if it causes you issues in other areas of your life (Like home!) or causes you to look down on one who has not given, what truly is the life value of it? And has the “law” you may have set up created sin in your life?
Sin comes in all forms, shapes and sizes. It goes away when we are at rest and allowing Him (Christ) to change us. It returns when we determine to fix something ourselves or live under the pressure of the “law” in our head.
Compulsivity in any manner works against the idea that He(Jesus) can do it. Try not to think about Polar Bears? Did that work? Not usually, because that which we try to avoid we walk right in to. So we end up thinking about Polar Bears. Try not to be anxious about money and you usually find yourself developing methods and thought process to avoid it.
God wants us to not only be free of the Law, but of the laws in our mind as well. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.
What are the rules you have made take precedence in your life? Have they made you feel worse about yourself? Do they supersede the peace of God? If you find yourself compulsive, thought driven or addicted to thought processes, consider turning your eyes to Him, the author and finisher of your faith.
*There’s a story about a guy who called his grandmother the first time he cooked a roast. “I did it just like you used to. First, I first lopped of the ends of the roast, then seasoned it, added onions and carrots, and put it in the oven for two hours. It was perfect.”
“You cut off the ends?” she asked.
“Didn’t you?” he countered.
“Only when the roast was too big to fit the pan,” she said.
Do you ever wonder where you dreams come from or the whys. I do. All the time.
I was out late last night for the fireworks, baseball game. My daughter and grandchildren were going to spend the night. By the time I crawled into bed it was approaching the 1AM side of life. I went to sleep. 5AM hit hard. I wandered out, started the coffee and turned the AC on. I went back to bed and fell asleep.
The first dream-I was somehow working undercover in a community much like where I lived. I recognized the building style and even some of the people. In the dream some well known people were using their influence to control people. Their method was through a medication familiar to many former drug or opiate users. Suboxone® or buprenorphine. The purpose of this medication is to provide enough of an effect so as to avoid withdrawal and yet provide a ceiling of sorts-no super high.
Agonist-An agonist is a chemical that binds to some receptor of a cell and triggers a response by that cell. Agonists often mimic the action of a naturally occurring substance. Whereas an agonist causes an action, an antagonist blocks the action of the agonist and an inverse agonist causes an action opposite to that of the agonist. (Emphasis mine)
In the dream I found myself working to uncover what they were doing. I found that the people were just as addicted to the “replacement” as they were with their first choices of heroin and such. What I also found was that they felt bad, guilty and without value or hope.
At one point I found the table set up before one of the buildings. On the table was a Bible with a cutout carrying these medications. As I thumbed through and found the hidden hollow, the men pulled guns. I took off running as fast as I could. They were older and I was faster but I did not think I could keep it up. I ran up in the woods and they continued to follow. The dream ended there as I thought “climb a tree” or “hide in a cave.”
Dream 2
It happened seemingly on top of the first. In the dream I had been identified as one who advocated “freedom without restraint” and many were opposed. They had control of people’s money, housing, food and even relational choices. I found myself forced “underground” sharing the scriptures of His freedom, His calling, His hope. Many were “brainwashed” as to what scripture said, often taking it out of context and reducing it to rules. As I explained that the scriptures were not a set of rules to govern by, but in fact the representation of a person in Jesus Christ, I was found guilty and chased.
I began to speak loudly against the controls, the laws that held in bondage. Throughout the night and day, I found myself going house to house. Each house once darkened, turned to light in my wake.
I awoke.
It is clear to me that the “law” will not work or set people free. Whether that law is from the Old Testament or a rule made up in the minds of men to have people act proper.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
1Corinthians 15:56 The sting of death [is] sin; and the strength of sin [is] the law.
In both cases, men used the law to constrain, to withhold the goodness of God. We are on the cusp of an outpouring of His grace in this country. It is not rules but relationship. It was once said that “rules without relationship breed rebellion.” Much of what we see in this country from our schools to our government and even to much of the church is a system of flaw, empowering sin by the setting of rules with no understanding or grid (Acceptance of Christ is part of that grid.) for change, for it has little value. We have exchanged education for enlightenment. We have traded relationship for rules. Cared more for godly experience than Godly expression. And in many cases wrapped it in scripture to make it “right.”
We are in the midst of a change. Many will be surprised. We are encouraging people to imbibe more of the same. I have said for years we have “inoculated people with just enough Jesus to make them miss the real thing.” Perhaps that is wrong on one level meaning that if they get Jesus, it is His job to overhaul. At the same time has our presentation of Christ and who He is made them have no hope?
Even as I type this I see a groundswell of His goodness. Is it too easy? Yes! Perhaps that alone is what pulls it out of the realm of “us” and puts it into the realm of “Him.” 1 Corinthians 3:19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.
Do not steal from others what is His to give. Do not offer a Jesus not in keeping with New Testament realities.
I love the 4th of July. My birthday is July 3rd (A day later and my name surely would have been Samuel!) and ever since I can remember I have had just about the most awesome parties in the world. As a child, we spent our summers on lakes in the Adirondacks. And my parents made sure that we got to see the fireworks displays. (There is nothing cooler than being on a boat with fireworks in the air!) And so over the years I have made sure children and grandchildren have had the fireworks experience. But along with all the cool fireworks, food and parades there is a serious side. Continue reading The Fourth Of July – A Little History→
I have spent a lot of my birthday morning working on the chapter dealing with the characters of the Bible who faced interruption.
Adam-got to bed-wake up married.
Eve-think your promise evaporated in the death of your son.
Noah-build an ark…”Right! What’s an ark.”
Finding out you’re a eunuch.
Pregnant by God.
As I mark 58 years today, I think back to a time where I was pretty convinced I would not see another. This year my birthday will be celebrated on the 3rd with friends and family at a baseball game and fireworks. Like most years I catch fireworks. And then this weekend is the big party.
I was born in what was called Grace-New Haven in New Haven Connecticut. My parents lived on Orange Street in New Haven on a 3rd floor apartment. A few years later they moved to Raymond Court. And just a few years later they moved to Old Turnpike Road in Northford Connecticut. My dad was a timekeeper at Sargent’s in New Haven and my mom with her Masters in hand began teaching in Foxon.
Many of my summers were spent on lakes in the Adirondacks. Schroon Lake, Indian Lake, Lake George. One summer I celebrated with friends like Donald Jones, Gary Gilbert and my family by going to Powers Pond(Blueberry Hill) in Wallingford and paddleboating! Other times Frontier Town, Santa’s Land and Ausable Chasm.
So here I am readying to celebrate with friends and family this weekend. My youngest grandchild will join us. I am looking forward to it. As I looked at pictures of previous birthdays and friends, I am so grateful for all of those I have connected with.
For many a year, one of the lines used in ministry was about the generation to come. Any many bought into it. I want to say I believe it.
But here are a couple of thoughts for both sides.
A-If I am to be your floor,
I need to be prepared for people to walk on me.
I may no longer be visible when you are standing.
I may need to be more secure in who I am in Christ and less in others.
I need to bear the weightiness.
I honor you.
Be more I am. Be greater, bigger, higher.
B-If I am to stand on your ceiling
I need to stand on that which is in place.(foundation)
To dishonor my ceiling can bring shifting, shaking or even destruction.
Despite your unwavering life as my “floor”, my life must be in Him.
To leave may mean I must start from scratch.
I honor your work that you have accomplished.
I am thankful for you going before me.
There is one true foundation. His name is Jesus (1 Corinthians 3:11) For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
My security does not come from man. It comes from the Lord. I take responsibility for my life. I take seriously the responsibility of my life for the sake of those that might learn from me. It means my ceiling is your floor. I don’t want my people, whether they be my children or my spiritual children to repeat my footsteps, but to take what I’m capable of and go far beyond. I am not leaving legacy, but I am in fact creating legacy. In many respects it is like a relay race. The first is just as important as the last.
For my ceiling to be a floor for those to come, they must embrace or stand on that which I have done. Wandering off may well mean that you have to start as I did. It is so much easier to build the second floor of a building than it is the first! Choose wisely those who labor amongst you! If I was younger I would want the best mentor, the strongest and most responsible to learn from.
As a leader, often I may find that I can be creative and innovative, but if I never hand it off, what value is it. I must give it away (If for no other reason than I might get more!) I want my life to be a starting point for those I love. Those I care for and care about. I want the momentum of the goodness of God in my life to be their starting point. To empower people to start from here and develop their own creative ideas and thought processes. I do not want them to run the race I did. (Yes, we had cooler cars, awesome music & lyrics and better hair, but hey!)
Sure you can recreate the wheel…but why?
To you out there I want you to run with my best and then go further, farther and better.
This morning I had a dream. In the dream I found myself viewing HTML (HyperText Markup Language) coding or the ability of a person to build a web page. For someone such as myself who has been involved in the internet and the building of pages (Well, since Al Gore invented it…) this dream was interesting.
In coding there are a lot of things you do not see. These codes or strings of code, determine everything from font color, style or size, to where a picture or column is located. For instance, <font color=”red”>will give you this 6.
In the dream I saw the hand of the Lord touching people behind the scenes, putting code in lives. There was also code that was predetermined through birth or DNA (a code of its own that determines genetics like hair coloring, size, etc…) and then there is additional code which has a lot to do with what you put in your life.
In many respects, our lives are often like what we may now call a web page. A web page for the most part operates on three levels. The operating system (what you do not see.), the output or page(what you do see) and the “personalized” page that reflects answers you may have given in the past or choices you have made.
Life is a lot like that and I saw it in the dream.
The Operating System or OS
There is a code that runs the whole site. That may be more like what the Lord puts in to “run the whole system. And then there is the individual code of the page that has a lot of similarities to DNA coding. And then there is an additional process that revolves around forms where you may be asked for email addresses, etc.. The information you put in here determines what you may receive in coming days, etc..
One of the things I have noticed is our “operating system” or what goes on behind the scenes, never changes. God died as you and an operating system of God is always at work in your life. Whether you accept it or see it is irrelevant. You can choose never to see the wonder of what He does. You can be content only with what is in your life and what you do.
The Web Page
Then you walk in the DNA or the output of your parents and the generations before you. You may resemble Aunt Tilly or Poppa Don. You may act like your father or smile like your mama. There is little you can change outside of reconstructive surgeries, additions or subtractions. It is interesting that many are concerned with this to the extent that perhaps billions are spent in this area to change the visual or the “page” itself. So many work to get away from the “code.” It is here that appearance is changed, corrupted or distorted.
Personalization
The data entry of personal information builds a database that becomes uniquely you to even further extent. It can be the result of upbringing, education or culture.
When I gave my life over to the Lord I was given what can only be called a new “operating system.” It was more than an upgrade. Everything became different. (Scripture tells us that once we were “darkness.”) Up until that point my operating system was “corrupt” and my output corrupt. With this new operating system, many things changed. Not all, but many. Instantly it was like the Lord removed my database of profanity. On the hand I would try to reverse or operate this new system from the direction of the old with results that were less than productive.
I still had the DNA of parents and the personalization of experience, but now I had to run it on a different system. I found that some of my favorite “programs” I had used no longer produced or in some cases no longer existed.
In the dream the hand of the Lord was giving not just “upgrades” but new systems of operation. I felt the Lord saying “this is a day of great harvest. The corruptions of this world are not what you are to be concerned with. Be concerned with the newness of the operating system.” Too often we bring people out of their culture and encourage them to do what they have always done…but differently! We need to put emphasis on Him and not the output or the result. Christ and Christianity is not self help. The best “coding” in the world will not and cannot run without a proper operating system.
I am not being disrespectful or irreverent of Christ. He is the “system” that made way for my corrupt ways to change. It was not for lack of trying I had been unable to accomplish these things before Him. Let us stop trying to change the person. That job belongs to Christ and Christ alone. Let us not see conformity to a system of “proper” output but let us seek the transformational change that comes with Christ.
Encourage the operating system change and you will see the results. Stop focusing on the output of people and concentrate on He who can change.
Today I completed the greatest interruption of process. The birth of Jesus. It messed with the lives of Mary, Joseph, Herod, the wise men and the people of Jerusalem. And of course the world.
This may be more for our friends where we gather as a fellowship, for our region, but overall I think the principles and the truth behind it are true for many.
When I first came through the doors of Christianity I am not sure what I expected. Probably not what I saw or even where I ended up. I know in retrospect, the idea of women in dresses and men in suits and that all had to “look the same” might have been tucked in there. My difficulty was I identified with those who could not afford a suit or had never been out of jeans and t-shirt. I have been in the services where people have been asked to “cover up.” (I once had friend who was told he had to wear a tie to church and someone gave him one. He was young black man sporting an Afro. When he showed up at “church” the tie was wrapped around his Afro! He died while doing missions in Tanzania some years later.) Where all the men looked the same, all the women in the flowery dresses and big hair and yes I have been irreverent about it. I do apologize for some of that. Not all, but some.
My walk was orchestrated by Him and no other. I remember falling in love with an album by Steve Taylor and thinking “I don’t want to be a clone.” I remember taking flak over it and my thinking. When I first started in church, I ended up in an “inner circle” of sorts. I began to look the part. But there was always a part of me that hungered for the life of being with those less fortunate. I began to bring them to church. Why? Because He loved me and I loved Him and I wanted to spread it around.
My first two weeks as a believer 23 young people came to the Lord. The man with Tourette syndrome (TS) and his verbal outbursts and crazy mannerisms. Rick got saved in our living room. My former “body guard,” a refrigerator with a head screwed on who was a blackbelt. He gave his life to Jesus in my store as the presence of God filled the room and a “mist” began to manifest. A young army veteran gave his life to the Lord, moving out of his girlfriend’s house and in with us. A practicing homosexual who while buying a gift found himself shaking under the power of God in our store. A man who “found” me, showing up at our home after a truck accident with one leg shorter by nearly 5 inches than the other. He was headed to the Social Security office when I encountered him. The Lord miraculously healed him and he began pounding nails with us that summer. Prostitutes, porn stars, thieves; men and women convicted of all sorts of debauchery. Continue reading When They Come – The Power Of Grace→
