“You are a snowflake!”
“You are a boomer!”
If you ever heard one of these statements, I hope you realize they are insults. Insults to generations. Insults to children, parents and grandparents.
Continue reading Generations? Generation? Are You Listening? Getting It RightMany of us have read the parable about the wheat and the tares. (It is easier when it is the first book of the New Testament. 😊 ) Unfortunately, the reading of it hasn’t always brought the church to focus on souls, but instead a lot of finger-pointing at folks who do not do what people believe they ought to be doing.
I want to give you a little of my pre-Christianity or pre-kingdom history.
I was born in New England. My dad, “a lapsed Catholic” and my mom, who leaned more towards the Episcopalian and Congregational church thinking. My mom was the one who “took us to church”. But truth be told, other than the social piece, church gatherings seemed to have little to do with the Bible.
Continue reading Take the time to Let Your Light ShineThere are many people that are angry at others and they have made decisions according to their anger.
Each day social media is filled with rants and raves. The airwaves overwhelmed with statements of who is right and who is not.
This week, the Pope, talking on Lent, said in partially improvised remarks, “is a time to give up useless words, gossip, rumours, tittle-tattle and speak to God on a first name basis,” he said.
“We live in an atmosphere polluted by too much verbal violence, too many offensive and harmful words, which are amplified by the internet,” he said. “Today, people insult each other as if they were saying ‘Good Day.'”
Continue reading Lifting up the oppressed without destroying the oppressorI was on my way home from our church fellowship. I had just taught on “signs and wonders that follow” the believer. I shared many of the miracles of Jesus, as well as the healings that are spoken of. (37 collectively, though the scriptures in John 21:25, say “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written.”
And then, I heard the words “judgement free”. Now, lots of people use those words, including Planet Fitness, but, what does it mean to the church at large?
Continue reading Judgement Free? Our choice?I love to write. Yet, I allowed a circumstance or two, to take me off my game in the area of life this past year or so.
Life can do that. Continue reading Action or Reaction – 2 Ways We Approach Life
Last night I met with a group of youth. One of the topics was commitment. The reason it came up, was because when you are working with young people, they often are having their times dictated by their home life. Single parenting, weekends with another parent, etc.. There is nothing terrible about it, other than the fact it is often hard on the families. And it makes things related to children difficult sometimes.
So, the question came up as we establish the youth group, as to what did the young people think about those who only “show” up for the “Fun Friday” every second month. The answers and thought process were interesting. Continue reading Am I Committed?
You can not be a believer in Christ and not think about justice. About rights (Or lack of rights.)and what that entails. (At least I hope not!)
The political season has fueled a lot of talk about rights, justice and more.
But what you do with those rights, what you say and how you act or more important.
Three Dog Night put out a song in 1969, “Easy To Be Hard”. The cry was about the need for a friend, but it also addressed the missing piece between protests and care for “the bleeding” and “how about us”.
How can people be so heartless?
How can people be so cruel?
Easy to be hard, easy to be cold
How can people have no feelings?
How can they ignore their friends?
Easy to be proud, easy to say no
Specially people who care about strangers
Who care about evil ‘n social injustice
Do you only care about the bleedin’ crowd?
How about a needed friend?
I need a friend
The gist was the song was pointing to a culture that was caring about “the big stuff” but missing out on the “one to one” relationship and responsibiity.
There is a lot of this happening in the church on multiple levels. We can blame Facebook, TV and the media as the “reason”. We can cite Frank Zappa’s “the slime coming out of your TV sets”, but it is really a heart issue.
Christianity is a multi-faceted belief system. Within it, there is the belief that God is all powerful, that we are to love one another, help others and more.
A lot of social programs have been birthed out of Christian values.
Yet, as the season moves on politically, I hear a lot of “they don’t deserve this (or that)”. What is it they do deserve? What is it you and I deserved?
Lately I hear a lot about the “rights” of a believer. “What about us?” I think it is a valid question, but I ask where does the answer come from? Does it come from the world of senses and soul? Or is it to come from the place of spirit?
“What’s in for me?”
Have you ever heard that spoken? (Maybe you spoke it.)
People who speak like that have not understood a) how good God is and b) what He has ALREADY given them. If they did they would not run around with hands out, seeing what they can get and who they can get it from.
Real understanding of this scriptures creates a reality of “there is no lack”. If you are still thinking there is lack and holding on to everything you can you do not understand this. In God there is no lack and therefore in His people there ought be no lack.
The easiest way to create lack is to stop giving and start hoarding.
Philippians 4:19 (AMP)
19 And my God will liberally supply (fill until full) your every need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
I hear and see a lot of complaints. As citizens of the United States I think we have rights. But I wonder if more and more are playing the God card, the religion card to get what they want. The Declaration Of Independence offers the believer the following…
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.” –Declaration of Independence as originally written by Thomas Jefferson, 1776
Natural rights are those not contingent upon the laws, customs, or beliefs of any particular culture or government, and therefore universal and inalienable (i.e., rights that cannot be repealed or restrained by human laws).
You are given “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. (Meaning by the Creator.) It is up to you to keep yourself out of bondage.
There are certain rights that will need to be earned. Earned. Over time perhaps.
I understand we are a royal priesthood, but what about what that entails? Is not humility, love and giving just part of the reality?
On what hand we declare His kingdom and our walk as subjects to the King and on the other hand many are striving, crying and “working the system” of the world. Folks, that is dualism. Meaning you are “living in heavenly places” and moving as a natural person. That is a denial of the reality of Christ. The life of a believer is a supernatural one. A human body infused with the power and the presence of God Himself. We are no longer subject to the systems of the world. (You can be, but why would you want?)`
We have engaged in a form of consumerism. What that means in the natural is that is good to spend money on goods and services. It is necessary to consume to keep economies healthy.
But what about the believer? There is much to say on our methods of getting in the world. Are we frugal? Or just cheap? Are we feeding our demons under the guise of promoting economy?
What about the spiritual piece? In the kingdom we know God gives and there is no lack. So we can “consume”, eating of the Lamb and enjoying the favor, the blessing and the goodness of the Kingdom. But I also think this is where it gets sticky we are dualistic in our thinking. The Kingdom never is without, but man has the potential to be without. Trying to support the “house of cards” is a difficult process. So what do we get? What do we deserve?
I am tired of believers who know the value of the Kingdom and all that it encompasses throwing out the service or dedication of time, talent and treasure and only gathering from the “gimme” place. The church is really where the exchange of Kingdom into the earth takes place. If you have a consumer mentality of what you deserve, what is owed to you and when you ought to receive it, you are impeding the flow of the Kingdom. Remember you are the Ambassador. You do not live off the “host” country but your supply is from your home, the Kingdom itself.
How much more could be done within our church fellowships if people trusted God and saw His vision for the church on earth?
Ask yourself.
Depending on your answer may well determine whether you have been operating from a poverty mindset or a Kingdom mindset.
The very essence of the Kingdom is that of supply. Do you believe that? Or are you using the world for your supply when God has more?
John 10:10 (AMP)
10 The thief comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows].
John F. Kennedy — ‘Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.’
Shouldn’t we stretch a little higher?
I have been around the Kingdom long enough to know that you and I will always have the opportunity to trust or not to trust. To believe or not to believe.
So what is trust?
The simplest definition of “trust” from the Merriam-Webster dictionary is this, “firm belief in the character, strength, or truth of someone or something”. Living in a world where so many do not use a dictionary (or know how to) it is easy to get wrapped up in multiple meanings of words based on opinion. (”I don’t think it means that.” “Semantics.”) It is important first and foremost to know what is being said or defined to make sure communication is open and clear. Continue reading You Want Me To What?
A lot of people talk about process.
Why? Why is it mysterious for so many, educational for others and misunderstood by so many?
(I wrote this 3 years ago. I believe it still stands today. I actually wrote about process in my book, The Interrupted Process.)
Too frequently we do not understand the pattern or the process. People equate process with education. Education is simply a stone of the foundation. A key. The answer is found in the person of wisdom, Christ himself. Wisdom is critical to the finding of answers. More than knowledge, it is the wielding of the knowledge. We are told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of the wisdom. The recognition of “He is God and I am not.” Continue reading Have You Thought Why?
I thought about putting this aside. But something occurred yesterday that changed my mind. Add in a dream where the “prison cell” was constructed of actual words and I thought this was important.
There are three topics that have been on my heart in recent days. They are the thinking of innocence, bad headlines and news and the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon.
I am putting aside the innocence piece for the most part because it is still “emotional” in my head. Not a place I enjoy writing from. Suffice to say, I believe strongly in the word innocence from a Biblical place and the realities of it in the Kingdom. Continue reading What Are You Saying?
