The Comming Kingdom

We just got done with a political season where the two presidential candidates raised close to two billion dollars between them and here is the thing that not only intrigues me, but makes me sad.  Who gets elected from the President of the United States to local city and state government, people voice their opinion.  It ranges from the elected officials are going to get us back on track and save us, to they are going to ruin this city, state, or country by running it into the ground.  These two opinions and every other one has been voiced since September.  Here’s the thing, not much has changed since the birth of Christ in the first century. 

            The nation of Israel was in an uproar because not only were they trying to follow God through a list of rules and waiting for the Messiah, but they were under Roman rule as well.  Which means that when in Rome, you play by Roman rule, which didn’t sit well with the Nation of Israel.  The Israelites were hoping that their Messiah was going to come and over throw the Roman government and set up God’s Kingdom.  With in this hope, there was a group of Israelites known as Zealots, who took it upon themselves to initiate the coming Messiah by taking on Rome and trying to defeat them.  There was even this thought among Jesus Disciples that He was going to over throw the Roman Empire to set up God’s Kingdom and Jesus rebuked them.  So my question is that what does the Kingdom of God look like and how does it get put into practice on a daily basis. 

            I think there are three ideas that help us usher in God’s Kingdom, and by no means is this list exhaustive and the end all be all of.  The first Kingdom concept  is focus on ones heart and our relationship with Him.  If we are not growing in grace and maturity, are we really participating in God’s Kingdom.  God’s Kingdom requires a focus change from being a me first kingdom, where everything circles around me and my happiness, to putting God first and others second.  It is a realization that doing it our way ends in destruction, not matter how good our intentions our.  The other two kingdom ideas really come out of this idea of putting God first and not only making him our Savior, but the Lord of our life as well.  The second Kingdom is loving God with everything we have and others as ourselves.  It is realization that the world is bigger than my needs and wants and its not always about making sure that I am happy.  It is living that transformed life and maturing in God to who He has created us to be.  The third Kingdom concept is that we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God.  In other words, what does our earthly relationship look like?  Are we showing mercy to those we like and to those we have a hard time of liking.  How about acting justly, are we giving back the extra changed we received at the local store, not for who we claim to be, but it is the right thing to do.  Being a part of God’s kingdom is being in right relationship with God and others and how we interact with them on a daily basis.  With in this, we are not only bringing God’s justice, but we are bringing people into right relationship with us, others, and God.  This means praying for God’s blessing on people, even the ones we don’t like and who may be “out to get us.”  It also means forgiving people and seeking forgiveness, because being in right relationship often requires not only forgiveness, but it can also mean restitution.  So where are you at in God’s Kingdom? 

Worshiping Attitude

  As I have done some pondering lately, especially on the idea of worship and the attitudes that we carry into it.  I am probably not the only one, when I get to church, my mind is often anywhere but there.  Some of it is because I worked late the night before, or that I have to go to work after church, or some other reason.  There are times where I struggle just to pay attention.  There are many times I wish I could just focus in on the worship service and the Worship of God, but there are other distractions.  Through this thought process, I thought of King Saul and his leading of the nation of Israel.  Saul was in the hill country of Bethel with the Israelite army taking on the Philistines.  As the Philistines were gathering, the Israelite's were becoming outnumbered quickly and Saul got scared.  He waited seven days for Samuel to come and provide a burnt offering to God as an act of worship to God, so Saul did it himself.  As he was finishing up, Samuel showed up and Samuel rebuked Saul.  There are two directions we can take with this story, the first one, is validating ordain-able ministry which is another post, or how we worship God, especially in the time of adversity.  I chose the latter because I think it is applicable.

  If we were to go on reading 1 Samuel, we would find out that after Samuel rebukes Saul and that not long after that he cuts off all communication with Saul (with an exception of the Witch of Endsor incident).  This was a sign of God rejecting Saul and his lineage as king, and that Saul's rule did not finish well.  One of the things that got Saul in trouble is that he not only failed to wait for Samuel to perform the sacrifice, but performed the sacrifice himself.  Not only did Saul get nervous, but he got cold feet and took things into his own hands.  I think when we get nervous and cold feet during life circumstances and with God, we tend to do things our way and develop three dangerous attitudes.

   The first one is that we get desperate.  Not only do we try to do anything and everything, we often become irrational. Its the attitude that something has to be done and I am not going to wait.  We make it all about ourselves and what we can do, and we often do what has worked in the past, but the trick is, it God is not there or in it, we will fall flat on our face.  We often are looking at the gathering army and wondering how its going to be defeated and we get scared. We either carry that hero mentality that I am going to save the day and I am hoping and praying that God shows up through my effort and that He ordains it.  We make it all about us and we fail.  We tend to do this in worship, and thinking worship is about what we can bring to God and how well we can do it.  I don't want to diminish this thought, but true worship is more than just bringing sacrifices, but it is living in right relationship with God and others and that takes trust and sometimes patience and trust.

  The second attitude is the one of defiance.  I work at Wal Mart, so I see defiant toddlers quite often where if they don't get something, it is an all out scream fest.  I have seen some epic tantrums in my day.  How often do we get defiant of God, especially with our worship with God.  One of the causes of the worship wars in the church is because of tantrums we are having with God and others.  In other words we are telling God that we want things our way and we aren't budging.  The only way we will worship God is either through particular song, liturgy, or action.  In essence we are wanting God to play by our rules.

  The third attitude is art of distraction.  This is probably the most popular because we try to make the most of our time and multitask, which in the end, we are not being as productive as we could be.  Another reason that we are distracted during worship, is that we are not getting prepared before hand.  How often do we take time to prepare ourselves for worship.  It is usually a rush to get out of the house so we can just to make it to church on time.  When we are rushed, we aren't focused or prepared.  There is a story of a pastor of a small church who tried everything to get the church to grow, but nothing was working and he was at the end of his rope.  One day he was lamenting to God about this and God spoke and asked if he was ready to stop trying so hard and join in with Him.  God challenged the pastor to spend every Saturday night in prayer and preparation, and the pastor agreed.  When the pastor did this, God took over and the church became one of the fastest growing churches in the United States.  We often let things, not matter how good they are distract us, and we need to remember the Lords prayer of They kingdom come Thy will be done.

  Now these attitudes are far from exhaustive, and they are just many of the ways the enemy tries to distract us from doing the will of the Father

Sunday Sermon

     This past week I got to provide pulpit supply for a pastor friend of mine.  He had just started a series out of the book of Numbers, and to keep up with the flow of things and to challenge myself, I continued with the series.  This was the first time I preached out of Numbers 3:1-13 and it was a great experience.  Here are some of the highlights of my sermon.

     The first observation is that God not only called, but also consecrated the tribe of Levi to not only be His representation to the nation of Israel, but also for them to be the voice of Israel back to Him.  Among the tribe of Levi, there was the Levites, who were responsible for the day to day happenings with the Tent of Meeting.  Whether is was moving, the leading Israel in the worship of God, or the general care of the Tent of Meeting, they took care of it.  They were also the "Judge Judy" because they took care of disputes and acted as judges along with the keeping of records.  The Priest were not only the overseers of the Levites, but they were the ones responsible for performing the sacrifices.  Whether it was the sacrifices of the individual families, or the nation of Israel, it was their responsibility to perform these task.  They communed directly with God and God with them.  Not only were they the official voice of God to the nation of Israel, they were interceding for them and helping the Nation of Israel be in right relationship with God.  They were also the moral compass for Israel.  As moral and upright the priest were, so was the nation of Israel.  Or if the priest were immoral and broke God's commandments, so did the Nation of Israel.  God set the Tribe of Levi aside as consecrated for a particular purpose and a calling to be holy.  He has called us to do the same. 

   The second observation I made was this idea of what it means to be consecrated/set apart.  When I think of this, two meanings come to mind.  The first one is that I think of my mom's fine china where we only use it for holiday meals, and the rest of the year it sits in the china cabinet looking all pretty.   The danger with this is that we are set apart and holy, but we are not being that agent of Change that God has called us to be.  The second idea of being consecrated/set apart means that we have a specific purpose to go out and change the world.  I agree with this, but we have to be careful of the extreme that we forget that we are holy and set apart and we come away looking like the world. 

  My third observation and conclusion to this whole idea of being set apart/consecrated means that we are to take the Biblical commands seriously that we are to be holy as God is holy.  Being consecrated means that we are holy.  I tend to see holiness as perfection, not as I have done nothing wrong, but as maturity.  This means that we are living in right relationship not only with God, but with our fellow man.  It means that we are putting away things that hinder our relationship with God and others while continuing to grow in Gods grace and mercy.  In essence, its maturity or growing up and the end result is that we love God with everything we got and we love our neighbors as ourselves.  As the Apostle Paul states that we should not stay on spiritual milk forever, we need to grow up.  One sign of immaturity is that we continue to struggle with the same issues.  A sign of someone who is maturing is the over coming of those issues.Just as we need to grow up from teen to adulthood, we need to mature spiritually.  So how does this look practically.

     Since we are set apart and consecrated, we are called to be God's hands and feet in a very dark and broken world.  With Christ becoming the ultimate High Priest, He is inviting us to be apart of the Priest Hood of all believers.  Just as the priest of the Old Testament were interceding for the nation of Israel, Christ does the same.  If Christ is interceding for us on a daily basis, how can we not do the same for the world in which we live in.  It is being the dispenser of God's grace to this world.  It is more than just getting people saved (which is important), but it is bearing each others burdens, interceding for those who can't, it also is bring justice to a broke world.  Justice is not just bringing punishment, but it is bringing people back into right relationship with not only each other, but God too.  It is the dispensing of forgiveness and reconciliation not only with God and others, but ourselves as well.  As mentioned earlier, we need to put away things that hinder our relationship with God and others.  We can only change the world in ways we are willing to grow up and change.  This isnt meant to be works orientated, but as we grow in grace of the living God, it will change the world we live in. So in closing lets be the presence of God in a broken world interceding and being that agent of Change God called us to be and that Christ is working through us

An hour at the art museum

  I have developed a fascination with photography over the last several years.  I like looking at pictures, especially sport orientated photos.  When I heard that a local art museum (Tweed museum on the UMD Campus) had a new showing of someones photography work, so I went and I checked it out.  The pictures were good, but what caught my attention was a big painting that was on the wall.  The painting was of a person in chains wearing noting but a loin cloth and he has been beaten.  The person is looking towards the sky with a smile on his face.  There is also a solider and other people surrounding him.  As I learned with art, it is open for interpretation.  Five people can look at the same piece of work and get five different meanings.  So, I asked about the painting and a person who works at the museum went and found some information on the piece.  The piece of artwork happened to be a rendition of the martyr of St Blaise, who was a fourth century Christian who liked to spend time out in the woods in prayer and contemplation.  He was also a friend of animals and people often compared him to St Francis.  There is a fokelore has it that he also had the gift of healing. 

 As I did some pondering over the painting, it really had me captivated.  I thought of the Apostle Paul and how this picture could be him.  He had spent much time in prison and he even written several of his epistles from the jail cell.  During these letters, Paul is not only praising God despite of his circumstances, but also encouraging others from his cell.  Paul had a different view of prison than I would if I were ever in prison.  he wrote to the Philippian Church that because of him being in prison that others were coming to know Christ as their Savior (1:12-14).  Or in His letter to the Ephesians is that he was a prisoner of Jesus Christ for the sake of the Gentiles (3:1).  Or that he is an ambassador in chains and that he must boldly speak the cause of Christ (6:20.  Or to the church in Colossians  that he was rejoicing for suffering for the others and those who have done the same (1:24). 

   I have never been locked up in jail for any amount of time, and I would imagine it wouldn't be a very pleasant stay.  But here is the thing, no matter if we have ever been in jail for a day, week, month, or years, or never, we all have or had life opportunities where we felt like we were in prison.  Could it be the loss of a spouse, a bad health diagnosis, a troubled relationship, a bad job or no job.   In each of these situations, it we are given the opportunity to get out of, make it better, or just make it go away, we would.  Here's the thing, are we grumbling about our current circumstances, or praising God.  God has a bigger purpose than just to keep us happy.  There things that happen because we live in a fallen world and we have to suffer the consequences.  Are we going to let life's circumstances where us down, or are we going to give thanks in all things, no matter how bad they get.  When I give thanks to God for every situation, it is a realization that it is not about me.  It is also realizing that even if we live in a fallen world, we still have a Savior that holds the future.  When giving thanks for the presence circumstances (even though we might not like or enjoy it) to move forward.  Every day we are given the opportunity to grow in grace and maturity, or to do nothing, which usually ends up as regression.

  Having a grateful heart is not the last stop in life, it is what we do with that gratitude is what makes the difference.  Having a grateful heart means action.  It means living at peace with family and friends.  Seeking forgiveness when wrong is done and bestowing forgiveness when wrong is done to you.  It is loving and being patient with people who are just plain hard to be with.  It is having joy in every circumstance, not matter if we just got a batch of homemade cookies or cut off in traffic.  The Apostle Paul was in prison for preaching the Gospeland he had every right to be mean, hateful and bitter, but he chose not too. 

random thoughs

  I was coming home from an arousing game of cards and my grandmas house and I got to thinking on some sermon notes I read through yesterday.  The sermon notes were on how to be a godly parent and training your children in ways that they should go and they wont stray from them.  What got me thinking is what is my role in child rearing?  Just to be clear, I am single and no where close to having the children conversation with anyone.  There are people who do not have children either because of singleness, choice, or life circumstances, and I truly believe that we can come along side the people in our lives and help them in the raising of their children. 

  I may not agree with most of her political positions, but Hilary Clinton said something when her and Bill were in the White House that has not only stuck with me, but I agree with mostly.  She said something to the affect of that it takes a village to raise a child and I agree with her for the most part.  The only part I would add is that, this statement does not take away the responsibility of the parents and the parents need to take the lead in raising their child(ren) and I hope and pray that they are instilling a solid Biblical foundation for their children, both in action and in word.  I also hope and pray that they are modeling Biblical character in their own lives and it is not do as I say and not as I do.  We learn the most (both the good and the bad) from our family or the people who we spend the most time with. 

  Here is a quick rant, parents can teach a Biblical foundation and display what they teach, they child still has to accept that teaching and making it their own.  Sometimes having a free will stinks because we can control what other people do or don't do.  This still doesn't negate the parents responsiblities, to teach, pray for and with our children.  At some point children need to make faith their own and live with the positive and negative consequences of their actions.  Ok I am done with my rant

   So here is my question, how do people who are kidless, whether they are empty nesters or not kids whats so ever, come along side the people in our lives with children and help them raise Godly children?  By no means do I want to overstep boundaries or their authority, but I also don't always want to sit passive and let the parents do all the heavy lifting.  There are two kids that go to my church and they are brother and sister.  They can't be older than 6 and 4 and every time I see them, they want me to throw them in the air and then catch them.  For some reason, they find it fun, and their grandma usually has to drag them home.  How do I go from just being the big teddy bear to coming along side the parents and supporting them in raising the kids.  The Biblical image I get is that Moses lead the Israelite's into battle and he is sitting on top of a hill, and as long as he raises his staff above his head, the Israelites are winning.  As soon as that staff drops, they are losing.  It turns out that two people come along side Moses and help keep his arms up and Israel wins the battle.  So how can us people who are not at the stage of life of children, or who have children that have grown out of that stage come along side parents and aid them in the raising of children?

Contentment

  I will be honest with you all, I have two home churches and the problem for me is that my second home church is ten hours away.  Every summer I make a trip to Kansas for a Roayals game with my friend Russell.  While I am down there I attend his church and I have been there a couple of times and I feel really comfortable there.  Another thing that that makes Lifepoint of Topeka my other home church is that Russell often sends me the sermon notes to my iPhone.  It makes it really nice and when my phone vibrates every Sunday afternoon I know its him.  Well this Sundays sermon was good and the notes were what I needed to hear and here is what I needed to hear. 

  One of the issues that really hit home for me this week was this whole idea of complacency, and it is a very tough thing to get out of and break free from.  Being complacent for me is this whole idea of not caring along with throwing my hands up in the air and doing nothing.  There have been a few times in my life where I have been complacent and it has been a very dry spell for me spiritually.  One of those times for me I was going to grad school full time while working over thirty hours a week and it got to the point of being burnt out.  Luckily for me, I had a friend come along side me and not only did she listen to my rant about not caring, but she also told me to take care of myself.  Luckily, it was at the end of my semester and I was able to take some time off and do some traveling and some well needed rest and baseball.

  Another dangerous area where complacency can affect us is through our obedience, whether to God or others.  We may not me directly disobeying orders, but here is the thing, we are not doing all that we should.  Whether it is avoiding conversations that we need to have, not spending the time with God or the other important people in our lives as we should, or to put it bluntly, we are half-assin things.  We are not doing things to the best of our abilities or like we know how they should be done.  I find myself to be moody and kind of sarcastic when I am in this stage.  I often find myself in this stage when I don't like where I am at or what I am doing.  Whether it is a physical location, the work I am doing, or the stage of life I am at, this is when complacency sets in.

  So whats the cure for complacency and a heart that is rather disobedient.  Outside a trip to the woodshed, here are some more gentler practical ideas that I have been pondering.  In Jeremiah 29 the Prophet Jeremiah wrote a letter to the Israelite who were hauled off into captivity.  I, essence what he is saying in this chapter is that quit praying to God that He will smite the bad guys and that He will let you go home to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple.  I am sure at least some of us have prayed that prayer to have the wrath of God come down on someone and for us to get out of a particular situation.  Whether it is being fired from a job and you want the former boss to pay for firing you, or the crazy former spouse or significant other who screwed you over and you want God's wrath to be upon them. What Jeremiah is saying here is not only be content where you are at, but start family, and for your kids to start families.  Not only pray for the city you live in, but actively get involved where you are at.  When we are on our knees for our location and where we are at in our lives, it makes being obedient a whole lot easier, and it also changes things and the circumstances.  Nothing great has ever happened without people spending time praying seeking after God and His direction.  In this chapter, it states that God is willing to be found, but we have to be willing to seek Him.  The big difference between complacency and content in this chapter is that complacency is often a spirit of laziness, distrusting and self reliance.   Contentment is relying on God and having Him be are all in all. 

  Through out Scripture, but especially the Psalms we find that God is to be our all in all and that we can take refuge in God.  Psalms 46 shares with us that even though our world may be crashing in on us, we are to be still and know that God is still God.  Peace isn't the absent of strife, but how we react to it when it is happening.  God does not command us to things and know that He is God, He calls us to be.  Everything we do, is an outpouring of who we are.  Being still allows us to commune with God and for us not only to talk with God, but for us to listen.  How can we be obedient to God when we don;t listen.  Being is more that just about doing and saying the right thing, it is about character change and being in right relationship with God and others. 


   So to wrap things up, being content is more than just being satisfied to where we are at.  It is seeking God where we are at.  Its transforming my thoughts, actions, desires from a me first to others first and that God is not only at the center point of what I do, but the energy and the change agent for doing those things. In essence we are replacing our yoke (or cinder blocks) of burdens and works righteousness with God's yoke of grace, mercy, fellowship and the justice of being in right relationship 

Songs and Fruits

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head for more than a day?  It can be a blessing or a disturbance, depending on the song.  The type of songs we listen too often tell the mood we are in.  If we are in a joyful mood, it is often an upbeat song, or if we are angry, the song is often heart pounding and talks about revenge.  Here is the other cool thing about songs and especially catchy tunes, they can help us remember things.  For me it was a song from kids camp many moons ago that helps me remember the Fruits of The Spirit.  They put the Fruit of the Spirit to the song  “Na Na Na, Hey, Hey, Hey, Kiss Them Good Bye.”  To this day, they only way I can remember the fruits of the Spirit is by singing the Fruits to that tune

In Galatians 5, Paul talks about how we are to have Fruits of the Spirit and we should cloth ourselves in them.  These things are love, joy, peace, patience, self control, forebearance, kindness, gentleness and self control.  We have to make a commitment on a daily basis to cloth ourselves in these things.  When we make a commitment to cloth ourselves in these things, God comes down and meets us there and He provides the grace and endurance for us to be clothed with these things.  These characteristics our not in our natural instincts if we are left to ourselves.  We tend to be impatient, not that loving, self centered, and losing our cool at the most inopportune times.  Clothing ourselves with these things doesn’t mean so much that we give up something, but it is what are we gaining.  If Christianity was truly about giving something up, I don’t think it would be worth it.  Could true Christianity be what we are gaining?  Instead of giving up vindication, retaliation, bitterness, which are all things that lead down a spiral and eventually to death, because we can not just stop and throwing one person under the bus, but its an addictive habit.   When we cloth ourselves with the fruit of the Spirit we are clothing ourselves with very nature of God.  The Fruits of the Spirit doesn’t save us, but they not only show who we belong too, but is also a sign of maturity.  Not only do these things bring us into right relationship with God, but it helps bring us into right relationship with others.  It helps us not only ask for forgiveness, but forgiving others when they have wronged us.  The goal of growing is not to still struggle with the same issues, but when we cloth ourselves with the character of God, we actually but away childish behaviors and move forward.  We are called to grow and to mature and not to be that slob that is so easy to be. 

There are two big theological terms here that we should discuss and they are imputing and imparting.  Imputing is what God does to us and He does to us what we can not do ourselves.  Imputing brings us back into right relationship with God through Christ work.  God imputes the Fruit of the Spirit to us, because it is something we can not do ourselves.  The other term is imparting, which is what God does through us.  In essence, it is the Fruits of the Spirit lived out in our daily lives.  It could be showing and having joy while balancing the checkbook, or having patience when a child is having a tempertantrum.  In essence, God is not only giving us grace, but we are being clothed in His righteousness and His character is becoming our own.  So in closing, are we letting God’s character become our character, and how are we letting it play out in our daily lives.  What is the point if we have God’s character and we do not let affect every part of our daily lives.  To finish up from last months newsletter, God did become one of us, not to be like us, but so we can be like Him and have our character changed.