The joy of the Lord

Todays message is going to be coming from the book of Nehemiah and lets cover a little history so we can understand are passage better before we come to it. The book starts out with Nehemiah pleading to God on the behalf of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. The city of Jerusalem is destroyed and a portion of Israel was hauled off into captivity for the sins and disobedience of the whole nation. God was using the captivity as a form of punishment for Israel disobedience. Nehemiah was reminded of this destruction and the consequences of Israel’s actions. He was mourning over what had happened and He was pleading with God to remember His promises and to keep the covenant. This promise or covenant is saying that the nation of Israel will be Gods people and dwell in His presence and that God is a gracious and forgiving God. Lets dive into our passage which is Nehemiah 2:1-10


1. In the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was brought for him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had not been sad in his presence before, 2 so the king asked me, "Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart." I was very much afraid, 3 but I said to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?" 4 The king said to me, "What is it you want?" Then I prayed to the God of heaven, 5 and I answered the king, "If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so that I can rebuild it." 6 Then the king, with the queen sitting beside him, asked me, "How long will your journey take, and when will you get back?" It pleased the king to send me; so I set a time. 7 I also said to him, "If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? 8 And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the royal park, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?" And because the gracious hand of my God was on me, the king granted my requests. 9 So I went to the governors of Trans-Euphrates and gave them the king’s letters. The king had also sent army officers and cavalry with me. 10 When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites. Nehemiah 2:1-10


This passage is our starting point today and we will hit a few highlights throughout the rest of the book before we are done. There are several things that captured me about Nehemiah and some of the qualities that he displayed. The first quality that I see with him is one of vision. I think true vision is standing in the present, seeing what has been and seeing what could be and making it happen. As we see with this passage, Nehemiah saw the destruction of his homeland, and he wanted to make things right. It is more than just getting things done, because we can all get things done and have it fall apart again. True vision is seeing things being restored to who what they were meant to be. Nehemiah wanted the nation of Israel to be Gods people again, to have a place to worship and to have a city where they could live, worship and dwell with each other. When we have a vision, it is being passionate about something on steroids. Passion tends to fade and it tends to be what we want to do. Vision is about bringing Gods kingdom here on earth. Vision is seeking God and seeking His passion for us and combining it with follow through to impact the lives of others.

Having vision also takes courage. When Nehemiah made the request to the king, the king had every right to say no. If the king thought if it was a dumb enough of an idea, he could of had Nehemiah killed. The thing about vision and courage is that it often calls us out of our comfort zone. When we have a vision from God to be a bridge for someone or a community, it takes courage because it is often scary and it pushes us to grow and to rely on God. As John Wayne put it, Courage is being scared, but saddeling up anyway. When we get to this point, there is no backing out, no throwing in the towel, because there is to much on the line. There are people here who have been with the church from the very beginning, because of any circumstances, were there thoughts of throwing in the towel, quitting, questioning if it is really worth it. But having vision and courage is this plan is from God and if it is to work, it needs to be His plan and trusting that God will come through because if He doesn’t it wont work.

Having vision and courage also takes a risk assessment.  What good is having a vision or courage, if there is no real chance that failure could happen.  I am not saying that we should want or expect failure to happen, but we live a fairly safe life when failure is not an option.  So here is my question for us all, what is that God sized dream that you have, that they only way it will succeed is if God shows up in a mighty and powerful way.  None of us like failure, but God is calling each one of us to get up off of the couch in some way and live outside of our comfort zone.  It could be with reaching out and starting or continuing a relationship with someone, doing something you have never done before, moving on from a job, relationship or habit.

Courage also takes determination and dedication. Here is the thing about the rebuilding of the Temple and of the wall, its was going to take time. I am sure that Nehemiah would of loved everything to of been done in one day, but that wasn’t a reality. How many of us struggle with instant now and we become a hot mess when we don’t get what we want yesterday. It doesn’t help when we have instant coffee, we can find out what someone is thinking half way across the world instantly, or even a boss or significant other or child wanting that particular thing done that particular way done five minutes ago. How do we develop or have endurance for our community, relationships, church, work and any other number of things. Here are a couple of suggestions. The first one is a reminder that there are some things that is a race and not a sprint. When you have vision, courage and endurance, it means that you are in it for the long haul and there are no easy fixes. You are willing to see it through the end. To bower a popular fishing metaphor, we are not and should not be on the catch and release program. When we do this, we are saying that there is always something bigger, better, less trouble, or even not as much work. Another suggestion for endurance is prayer. There are various ways we can talk with God, find what we works best with you and do it. A third way to develop endurance is to have deep relationships. Find a person or a group of people that you can do life with. This means that you are in this together, to give encouragement, to be a sounding board and to kick each other in the butt when needed. The quickest way to loose endurance is to think we are doing it alone and we are the only ones who can do it. The fourth idea is that everybody does there part. Everybody had a job in rebuilding of the Temple and the wall surrounding Jerusalem. When everybody does their part, it makes everything go so much smoother. It also prevents people from thinking they need to do everything and bing superman. The last idea is treat people as people and things as things. How often do we treat objects or our pets better than our own family members? Just remember, we are to be with people and to encourage each other and use things and not vice versa.

When we are doing what God has called us to do, there is going to be opposition. If you have any sort of leadership responsibilities and you never have had someone disagree with you, you might be doing it wrong. In the story of Nehemiah, this person was Sanballat. The full confrontation can be found in chapter four. He was questioning everything that the Jews were doing and were even hurling insults. He even got the king to hault construction on the wall for awhile. When we face actual opposition, we have to ask ourselves and have listening conversations to decide wither the issues are really valid, or is it people not wanting to change. In any group setting when a decision is made, there are people who are going to disagree for various reasons. Then there is what Taylor Swift calls haters and yes haters going to hate. It is more than just having an opposition to someone or something. They try by every means to tear down, destroy and be a pain the the side. It often goes from disagreeing to character assination through gossip, and trying to turn people against what God is trying to do. They are often disgruntle or mad at either God or themselves, so if they are miserable, everyone else should be to. We need people to hold us accountable in our lives and there are Godly people who we can seek advice and counsel from, but here is my question for you all. Are we more concerned about what others have to say to us or about us, or what God has to say? The ultimate test to know what one is suppose to be doing is in so much the praise or discontent of people, but do we have the applause of God in our ear no mater the situation

The story of Nehemiah does finish up with the exile Jews returning home, the wall around Jerusalem being built and the Temple was finished. Starting in chapter 7, there is the gathering of Gods people together as a nation to consecrate themselves, to bring tithes into the temple and to hear the Word of the Lord. Israel realized who they were in relation to each other and to God. If they were to be called Gods people and for God to dwell among them, they need to follow Gods laws. Gods laws are not meant to be legalistic, but are to promote healthy boundaries in our relationship with God and others. In 8:10, there is a profound statement that we all should consider and that is the joy of the Lord is my strength. God wants to and desires to be in a relationship with us, and when we stay with in the healthy boundaries, God dwells among us, and He protects us. Our joy should not be in what we can do for God or the degrees we have on our wall, or the job title we carry at work. Our joy should come in that God dwells among us and He is our defender, protector and giver of life. We can have a great vision, everyone does their part, endurance, and have a handle on haters, what does it mean to have the joy of the Lord as our strength.

Having the joy of the Lord is realizing that it is not about me, but its about God. When it is about me, its about my talents, my agenda, and what I need to do or serve instead of what can God do through me, I am using the talents He has given me and I want to serve. I think a lot of this comes down to our attitude and how we perceive ourselves, God and others. I encourage everyone to read through Phillipians 2 this week and it is where Paul explains to us that we need to have the very same attitude of Jesus, who was God, and yet humbled Himself to become a servant and to die on a cross, so He could be raised again.

Another way to have joy in the Lord is through our time of worship. This goes beyond singing a few songs and hearing a long winded preacher. True worship is how we live our lives on a daily basis and who we are giving glory to. There are only two people we can give glory to, and that is wither ourselves or God. Worshiping God is about singing songs, reading ones Bible, but is also working for more than just a paycheck, it is how our children our raised, its having wholesome conversations with other people. True worship is connecting with God on a daily basis, in the greatness, to the mundane and even in the worse of it all. Worship is pledging allegiance to God and only to God and making Him first.

The third thing about joy is that it does not mean we are always happy. Happiness is the warm fuzzy feeling when someone buys us our meal. Joy is not so much based on what happens to us, but what our response is to life. Joy is going about life and praising God because of or in spite of our life circumstances. Joy so often is a conscience decision to thankful, content and humble. I think true joy is knowing who we are in God and that we do not have to earn anything because God freely gives grace and that we are one of His children and nothing can change that.

The joy of the Lord being our strength means that we do not have to do this life by ourselves or on our own strength. One of the hardest concepts to hear and learn from the Bible is that not only God loves us, but He adores us and wants to be in a relationship with us. He loves our warts and all, and the cool thing is, is that we do not have to stay the same way, God wants to change €us into His image if we allow Him to. When we have the joy of the Lord, it tends to lead to action and we see the world differently so that God can change it through us.

Prayer

Prayer

Introduction – There are two very common questions when it comes to prayer. The first question is why do you pray and the second one is how do you pray.  These are questions Jesus disciples asked, too(Luke 11). Does one pray to change the mind of God, or so that we can get what we want or need, or do we pray so that we can hear what God has to say?  In this chapter we will explore how to prayer through a method called ACTS. There are multiple ways to pray, and this is just one method. We want to encourage you to explore other methods and find what works for you. From there we will explore a little bit of why we pray.

A.C.T.S –

Adoration – This is where we become familiar with who God is and what His characteristics are.  God is someone who is holy, forgiving, gracious, righteous and many other things.  All of these attributes are a part of God’s character and adoration is simply praising God for who He is.  Adoration is more than just telling God who is, which is important, but it is us realizing who God is and aligning ourselves with who He is and having God change us.  

Confession – Confession is more than just saying I am sorry but is moving from also doing something about it. It is about allowing God to change our character and allowing Him to have more control of our lives.  One of the most famous confessions of the Bible is found in Psalms 51, where King David confesses his affair with Bathsheba.  Confession is seeking Gods mercy and realizing that our words and actions have consequences and accepting those consequences. Confession is also seeking God’s forgiveness, so that our actions will not be held against us by God.  It doesn’t let us off the hook for those consequences, but confession and forgiveness brings us back into right relationship with God and we have nothing to hide from God.  

Thanksgiving – Whether we do this through song, writing, or spoken word it is telling God and the world what we are thankful for.  Prayer teaches us humility and grace, because in it we realize that we do not have it all together and we cannot do it by ourselves. A prayer of thanksgiving allows us to be reflective and think on how God has worked in our lives over a period of time. It helps broaden our view and when we are in the middle of living life and getting bogged down, a time of reflection and thanksgiving will remind us how God has been there before and will be again. Thanksgiving is a reminder that God’s grace is perfect and new every morning and we can be grateful for what God has done for us.  

Supplication – This is where we tell God what we need. God is the giver of all good and perfect gives and sometimes we receive those gifts, is if we go and ask for them.  Just a reminder, God is not Santa Clause and is not there to give us our every want and desire.  God wants to provide for our every need in this life and the only way He can do this is if we spend time with Him in prayer talking to Him and listening to what He has to say.

Why do we pray? – Knowing how to pray is one thing, but we all have to answer a question of why do we pray.  Is it so we can dictate the will of God and to get what we want? Or do we pray so that we may hear from God? To paraphrase a quote from C.S. Lewis, “I pray not to change the mind of God, but so God can change me.” We believe there are several reason to pray and want to take a moment to explore a few.

We pray to communicate to God – God wants and desires to be in communication with us.  Prayer is a way where we can communicate with God and He with us.  Whether it is us telling Him how our day is or asking for guidance, God wants to hear from us.  Prayer is also about listening.  How else are we supposed to here from God unless we take time to be quite and listen?  God may speak through that audible voice or through our conscience or through His word.  This allows God to build us up and to share the areas where we need to change and He gives us the power to change through prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit.

We pray to build our faith – We all submit to someone’s authority, whether it is ours, Gods, or someone else’s.  When we pray, we are admitting that we do not have it all together and we are submitting to God’s authority in our life.  This is a realization that God is the King of the Universe and we are His creation. We are taking the problem out of our hands and bringing it to the only one who can truly do something about it. And as we see God provide and answer prayer it will only build our faith all the more.

We pray to be in community with others – Prayer is something we can do with other believers and a way where we can intercede for each other.  Whether we are praying for peoples healing (James 5:13-20) or life struggles, prayer is something that can unite each other as fellow believers.  We can share life with each other through prayer for each other and we can intercede on someone else’s behalf.

We pray to be a part of God’s ministry – Many people struggle with prayer because they cannot wrap their minds around why God would change our circumstances based on us coming to Him. Why not just do what He is going to do anyway? The answer lies in realizing that God wants us to pray to give us the opportunity to participate in His ministry. This is why we preach the Gospel, serve the poor, and love our neighbor. Yes, God could do all those things and does not need us be He gives a chance to be a part of what He is doing in our world. Prayer is another part of this. God allows our prayers to change our circumstances because it gives us the chance to participate in His ministry.

Application

1. Spend some time with your discipler this week going through the ACTS model of prayer. Take some time to discuss any other models of prayer you would like to try and spend some time using those.

2. Commit to making prayer a more regular part of your daily life. With your discipler set some goals to be engaged in prayer and keep track of how you are doing.

3. As we discussed above, prayer helps us form Christian community. Take sometime this week to pray with some others. You may have to initiate the conversation and ask how you can pray for them.

4.  Explore different of prayers in the Bible such as ones of lamenting or prayers for healing, or of desperation. How are each of these important to the faith?

Discussion Questions

1.  Do you struggle with prayer, seeing God as a genie to grant your every wish? Or do you tend to struggle with why God would answer prayer at all?

2.  Read Psalm 51 together and discuss this passage. What do you observe about how David confesses? What would you like to adopt as a part of your own prayer of confession?

  

3.  How much of prayer is talking about or to God, and how much of it is listening? What are ways you can listen to God? What does it sound like or look like when God has spoken to you?

4.  Do you believe your prayers can change the circumstances around you? Why or why not? How does seeing prayer as participating in God’s ministry tie the two together?  

What is fasting

    A friend and I wrote a chapter on the basics of fasting and what it means within the Christian tradition.  There are even questions to ponder at the end.


The Lesson



Introduction – Within Christianity, there are several things that people do to express their faith and to help themselves grow. These practices or disciples guide us when we are interacting with God and it is a way for God to mold us and to shape our character. One of these disciplines we see in the Bible is called fasting. Let’s take a look at what fasting is and isn’t.



What Fasting is not – Fasting is not a diet program or way to lose weight. Even though one can fast meals the end goal is not about losing weight, but it is to hear from God. Fasting is setting aside extra time so that we can spend time in the presence of God and to be changed by Him. Fasting is also not a way to earn God’s grace or favor. We already have that in Jesus. This is simply a way of showing our dependence of God and desire to draw close to him.

What Fasting is –

Learning to Depend on God – Fasting is several things, and the first one is that it reveals what controls us. With a society that values and even promotes gluttony, fasting gives us a chance to break this habit or even character defining trait. The most common fast is from food but we can also fast from technology, entertainment, or any other thing that we feel the urge to do and if we don’t do it we are missing out. Fasting is about letting go of our control (and the things that control us) so that we can rely and trust on God and His grace. One of the popular ways we can do this is by taking time we would either be spending eating a meal or on the computer and spending it in a time of prayer and listening.
Learning Humility Before God – The second part of fating is that it helps us check our motivation. Psalms 69:10 states that fasting humbles the soul. Fasting allows us look at ourselves for who we are. Humility is learning that as broken as we might be we are loved greatly by God and He won’t let us stay incomplete and on the path of self-destruction. Humility is reaching out to God for Him to transform our lives.
Listening to God – The third part of fasting is that it is a chance for us to hear from God. When faced with a life decision fasting allows us to minimize the distractions so that we can hear from God. Whether it is about a job move, relational issues, or just finding out what the next step is, fasting allows us to focus on God and puts us into a position to hear what He has to say.
　

Application

1. Think through what takes a priority in your life over God. Consider the consequences of keeping these things in your life as a priority over Him.

2. Think through the things in your life you need to learn to depend on God for. Consider the consequences of depending on yourself instead of Him.

3. Create a fasting plan with your discipler that you two will do together. You can fast a meal, a type of food, social media, TV, or anything else as long as you use that time to focus on God. Decide what each of you will fast and pick a time period for the fast to last (a week, maybe 40 days). Review how the fast is going as you meet together and schedule some extra time to pray together this week during your fasting.


Discussion Questions


1. Are there things that we treat as more important that God? How can fasting us help us redirect our focus to Him?

2. What does it mean it be humble? How does fasting increase our humility?

3. Have you fasted before? If so, how did the experience go and what was your motivation behind it?




Homework

Read Matthew 4:1-17. What does it mean to live on every word that comes from Gods mouth?

What are the things we do that does not satisfy?

Read Matthew 6:16-18. What are our intentions when we do fast?

Who is the Holy Spirit

  I am helping a friend write up some basic concepts of the Christian faith and here is my section on who the Holy Spirit is.  I know its very basic but it is something that I am proud of and it gives people something to ponder. 


Advocate – The first role of the Holy Spirit along with Jesus, is that they are our advocates. Just as someone would go to either your boss or the president of the United States on your behalf, that is what the Holy Spirit does for us with God. An advocate is a go between two parties and is a messenger between them. An advocate also speaks for us when we do not know what to say and also reminds us what we should and should not do. Another part of being an advocate is being a comforter. An advocate and comforter is someone who comes and walks alongside us encouraging us, but also telling the truth in love


Convictor – The second role of the Holy Spirit is a convictor. Just think of this as your conscience on steroids. We all get that feeling when we know when we have said or done something that we should not have, and this is called guilt. Where the Holy Spirit comes in is that the Holy Spirit lets us know what we did was wrong (guilt), but also provides a way to make it right if possible, and also provides the power not to make the same decision again.


Prompter- The opposite side of convictor is this idea of the Holy Spirit leading us to do or not to do something.  Whether it is the prompting to go give a certain amount, say something, or not going to a particular places.  If we allow, the Holy Spirit guides us to particular places, people and conversation that often have eternal consequences for the better. 


Transformer – Third role of the Holy spirit character development. What good would it be to have forgiveness of sins if we are not able to change our character. Our character is more than just right action or what we do when no one is but it is about where we stand with God. Our character is what we stand for, and it is either ourselves or God, and the Holy Spirit grows us into a more mature child of God and our actions are the fruit of who we are becoming.


Revealer – The fourth role of the Holy Spirit is revealer. Anything we know about God, whether through our prayer time, reading of our Bible, listening in church, or any other time is because the Holy Spirit revealed it to us. In 1 Corinthians 2:16 Paul tells us that through the Holy Spirit we can even have the mind of Christ. The Holy Spirit reveals more than just the will of God to us, the Holy Spirit reveals God Himself. Jesus says that through His Spirit we can abide in Him. The Spirit is what makes our relationship with the Lord possible.


Worship- The fifth role of the Holy Spirit is worship. One of the struggles that the people in the New Testament faced is the idea of when, where and who is allowed into worship. In John 4 Jesus explains that it is not so much about the time nor the place of worship, but are we worshiping in spirit and in truth. When the Holy Spirit is residing in us, we are the Temple of God and the Holy Spirit resides in us. Worship becomes more than just singing a few songs, tithing or listening to a sermon, but how we live our life. Worship is doing life on a day to day basis through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit


Abiding- this is where the rubber meets the road. Are we putting into practice what we know and how the Holy Spirit is leading. We can know things about God and about ourselves, but it is useless unless we put it into practice. Abiding is taking what we know and through the power of the Holy Spirit, putting it into practice. It is as simple as putting one foot in front of the other and moving forward. Abiding also means relationship. Relationships mean that it takes two people to be in full communication and sharing with each other. Just think of it as doing with your best friend, where the communication is always open and honesty and vulnerability are the key ingredients to making it work.
Application

1. How does one worship in spirit and in truth ona daily basis?





2. When sharing truth with each other, can we over sugar coat it and drown out what needs to be said and where does tact come in?





3. How do we have real relationships that move from social media to face to face and what are some of those challenges?




Homework

Read Galatians 5:16-25 and what characteristics are present in your life and which ones need to be instilled?





God can reveal Himself through such areas as fasting, prayer, cooperate or personal worship, and Journaling, Try one or two and see what God reveals to you

Star Wars and Christmas

  I had a sort of epiphany today and here it is, there is a connection between the new Star Wars movie and Christmas.  It is more than just about connecting to galaxies (or cultures) from a long, long time ago, but it is about hype and our response to it.  One needs to be living underneath a rock not to know that there is a new Star Wars movie coming out along with countless toys, collectables, commercials and parodies.  This has been one of the most hyped movies I can remember in quite some time.  Here is where Christmas, Star Wars and hype intersect.  We get hyped up over these two things because they both promise finality/conclusion/explanation, anticipation, the remembering of a more simpler time, and the concept of good vs evil and that good will win. 

I am the first to admit that I am not the biggest Star Wars fan, and the only one I have seen is the last prequel and I slept through most of it.  But one of the talking points that the movie fans are making is that this movie can tie story lines together and explain them.  As people, we tend to crave finality and having everything tied up nice with a bow tie and with no ambiguity.  Why do you think that sitcoms are so popular, especially final seasons/episodes, because it puts things in proper order and we do not have to wonder what if.  Christmas does the same thing, it brings a finality to our year, and it helps us put things in order and bring things to completion.  For some, the last year has been a really hard one, for whatever reason and Christmas allows us to put things into place to put things to an end have some sort of finality. When one has finality on a situation, circumstance or year, it is a whole lot easier to move on.

  The second connection that gets hyped with both things is this idea of anticipation.  For the movie buffs, it is anticipating what the new story lines are going to be, the character development and are there going to be any new characters coming onto the scene or old ones going by the wayside.  Christmas is the same, we anticipate God coming as both fully God and fully man and dwelling among us.  We also anticipate what God is doing in our midst right now and how He is going to show up.  We even are anticipating His return to set things right.  With anticipation, there is a sense of hope, encouragement and that things will be set right.  It is that hope that wrongs will be righted and that we have the presence of God walking with us now and in the future we will be face to face.

The third area where both things get over hyped is a remember of simpler times.  We all like to remember those times when we didn't have to worry about a presidential candidate wanting to shut down the borders, religion phobia/extremism, to the more every day life of paying bills, relational conflicts, having a job and raising kits, because it takes us back to a time to where we either didn't have much responsibility or our responsibility looked totally different.  Both Star Wars and Christmas gives us a small break from the toils of the every day struggle.
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  The fourth hype is the idea of good versus evil.  In Star Wars this battle is found in Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader.  For Christmas it is Jesus coming to be the sacrifice so that sin may no long reign.  I think people in general, but especially Americans love a good story where there good is pitted against evil.  We all cheer for the good guys to win because the good guys (or girls) embody what we want to and desire to be.  We also want the bad characters to get what they deserve, because often we often think that the bad people don't get what they truly deserve in this life or it takes way to long to show up. In essence, we want things to be set right and for everyone one to get what they truly deserve somewhere, sometime, because it doesn't happen a lot in this life. 

  To close out, there are three things that hype can lead to.  The first one is that, it leads to a major let down.  We build something up so big and it does not meet expectations, so how do we manage our expectations? The second issue with hype, we tend to think that something is better that what it really is, so how do we take a look at something without rose colored glasses? The third idea is that hype is more about flash than substances, so how do we become people who look for and become people of substance, and character instead of looks and trickery?

Hospitality

  I am working through a book right now called Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine Pohl and it is a really good book so far.  One of the big premises of the book is that it differentiates between what hospitality and entertainment is.  The book makes the argument that as Christians we think that hospitality is more about socializing in our homes among friends and family.  As much as I think that there is a portion of hospitality in this, but this form of hospitality is more of entertainment.  This is a good way connect with people and catch up, but one of the underlying reasons we do this form of entertainment is because we are either repaying someone back for their generosity or hoping to get noticed and be repaid in the future.  There is nothing wrong with making your home open to friends and family, but hospitality calls us to something more. 


   The first thing that hospitality calls us to do is to check our motivation.  Entertainment is about getting noticed or doing something that somehow benefits you.   Entertainment is always looking to impress, or improve ones status.  Hospitality is about serving the other person and is about their needs and not yours.  When we display hospitality, we always put out more earthly treasure than we tend to get back, so our motivation has to be more than breaking even or getting ahead.  Our motivation has to be one of an eternal value where we care more about another persons well being and future than what we get out of it. 


  The second aspect of hospitality is courage.  Showing hospitality usually means we are interacting with people who are not like us.  Whether it is a different skin color, economic status, personality, religion or any other difference, this is where hospitality is a must, because it takes courage to go outside of our comfort zone and to interact with people because they are not like us. We tend to look down on these individuals for any number of reasons.  I work with two people who are universally disliked by everybody.  When you bring up their names, no one has nothing nice to say about them.  I have been convicted as of late to show some courage and treat them with respect and not to blow them off like everyone else.  When we show courage, it often takes us out of our comfort zone and for us to see ourselves and others for who we truly are and most of the time that we are hurting and dysfunctional. 


   The third aspect of hospitality is the one of protection.  How many people to we come into contact with on a daily basis our are hurting and vulnerable.  Hospitality comes in and provides protection and is a stop gap for that person or group of people.  I don't know if this is the best analogy, but they are like a animal that is hurting and the prey can smell the blood and are gathering around for the kill.  How does a person come in and not only help fend of the predators, but help get that person back to health.  The story of the Good Samaritan is good example of this.  It is not about walking by or throwing money at the situation, but it is walking along side the person and journeying with them.  If you have seen the movie A Few Good Men, at the very end of the movie, one of the Marines who were accused of killing a fellow Marine realizes that protecting those who can not defend themselves is more important than following orders.


  The fourth aspect of hospitality is the issue of invitation.  How often do we invite people to where they would not normally go and making them feel welcome.  How do we make friends out of strangers and how do we do so without being to awkward.  I think a big part of it is humility.  Humility is realizing who we are nothing more and nothing less and it is also being comfortable in our own skin.  I think some of our issues come out because we are not comfortable who we are, and it takes a little bit of humility to do some introspection and see ourselves as who we are.  When we see ourselves as who we are, we tend to be at ease and we tend to make other people feel at ease because we are not trying to impress each other and we just value the relationship.  I don't know if this fits, but when I was in grad school, group of us got together for dinner and I didn't know most of the people in the room, but it was one of my most favorite memories because after dinner we sat around and shared stories with each other and we were comfortable with each other. We checked our ego and pride at the door and we saw each other for who we were.  The other cool thing is two of the people there were from Africa, and they shared about life back home and some of the cultural differences.


    This is just the tip of the iceberg when talking about hospitality, and how do we apply it to such issues as illegal aliens and what is our personal responsibility, the governments role and does the church have a place in all of this.  This will be a blog in the future

What is Good pt 1

I have noticed recently that a number of my friends of Facebook have made the comments that God is good without giving much of an explanation. A very cynical question comes to mind for me about the fifth time I have read the comment without any context or explanation. Is God good because all is good in my life and I feel happy. Or did He performed some miracle in my life or the life of a loved one. Or is God good because that is apart of His very nature and character in which who He is and how He conduct Himself. These statements often leads to a very churchy statement of God is good all the time and all the time God is good. I agree that God is always good, despite our circumstances we may find ourselves in sometimes, but it has me questioning what is good and how do we define it.

Throughout the Gospels, we are get a picture of that there are two very different definitions of good. One is based on what the Pharisees thought good was, and it is based on outward action or how it makes me feel. Here are some examples of what this kind of good looks like. The other is based on God's definition and we will look at that definition next time

I think our first example of good comes from us being hedonistic. If it makes me or others feel good, and if its pleasurable, it is good. A lot of this good is superficial and shallow, and at times very subjective. Whether it is eating a good meal, our favorite team winning, or the arch rival losing, often it is a very temporal thing and the basis for this goodness is \based on us being happy and not content. Happiness is based on our circumstances and how things benefits me in this moment in time. Being content is often based on things in spite of our current circumstances along with having faith in what’s to come along with looking at the big picture. There is nothing wrong with being happy, but when we stay there, we tend to become self centered and egotistical.

Another form of good is looking at the good of the whole. It might not benifit me or people I know, but is good for the whole of the society. An example of this would be having speed limits. Even though we have vehicles that can go really fast and urges that meet those fast vehicles, having speed limits helps get everyone on the same page and to keep our road ways safe for everyone who uses them. This form of good provides a sense of boundaries to keep people safe, consequences for those who break them and an aim to give people a sense of belonging. This form of good is dependant on what that group of people or society feels that is important and the morals they have set in place to live by.

The third example of what we may consider the definition of good is based on what we can or can not do. This is the heart of the Pharisees because this form of good is based on law and being legalistic. By me being good, I am following a set of rules to the letter of the law and not wondering from it. It also means that we avoid bad behaviors because the law says we can not do that. Some of these rules may come in as no drinking or dancing, showing up to every church event, to what we wear or don’t wear. This form of good takes out any form of relationship with God and others, because it is about what I can do and not about character development. We may look good on the outside, but in all reality , we become a white washed fence or tomb. Next time we will take a look at how God is good and how He defines it.