The Moment...

One of the things that happens every spring is Opening Day, as a friend says, "Baseball is inevitable."

Spring Training camps have broken. Teams are heading to their final destination for Opening Day.

The home team, in my case, The Detroit Tigers, will send out their ace to the mound. He stands on the mound as a lone sentinel facing the opponent with nothing but a ball and glove. 60 feet 6 inches his opponent stands armed with a maple or ash bat.

50,000 people come to a momentary hush...

PLAY BALL!

A deep breath.

A wind up.

And...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLWYeMzWqhg

 

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The Problem With Grace

"You know what your problem is..."

This is apparently something that I have often said. Although most people can't tell me when I have uttered such a phrase, it must come out in my tone or body language. I know that it runs through my head. For some reason I see problems and like telling people what their problem is. It has to be the "older brother" in me. I suppose it's just one of those things that big brothers do, they see the potential problems that are facing those around us and we want to stop it. I wish I could say that it was always because I wanted to help people. It's often times because I want to be right.

When I first began to understand grace I realized that it was bereft of problems. There are so many ways to abuse grace. Chief among them, license. Within the radical grace of God there is so much freedom that people like me are afraid. We are afraid that people will just get their "fire insurance" and then live however they want to live. We are afraid that they won't try and be good. We are afraid that they will abuse grace and slide into license.

It's funny though, we don't see Jesus worrying about that. We don't see Paul worrying about that. We see them concerned about big brothers who want to limit grace. Big brothers who want to make sure that people will follow the rules.

Grace opens the door to people,who are not like us, to enter into relationship with the God of the universe. God's grace is extended to people who despise him.

Can we extend grace to the people we despise?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg_j7n4BcVA

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So Do I Just Not Speak?

In a previous post I wrote about the false sense of persecution that many Christians seem to have. I received a nice little nudge for clarity from a friend of mine over on Google+, check out our conversation:

I really appreciate Jeremy's question. As I mentioned to him, I don't want to be throwing any babies out with the bathwater. So how do we as Christians respond to things that we disagree with in the public sphere? Do we simply sit on our hands? Do we balance every negative thing we say with something positive? What should our engagement look like?

Not very long ago, it was my practice to press against every single error that I saw in the world. I felt as though I needed to speak out against all things anti-Christian. I am sure to many of my friends and family member I was insufferable.

Then something changed; I realized that I was making lots of noise.  While important, I was arguing hard against issues not as important as other things. It was during a time I was studying the book of Colossians in depth God began opening my eyes to some of these areas in my life.

Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.

-- The Apostle Paul   Colossians 3:1-3

I read this passage, and read this passage, and read this passage again. I was struck by the simplicity and clarity of what Paul was trying to get at. He wants our very identities to be transformed so we would get our heads and hearts set on things that matter most.

Through my time with Colossians, my heart was changed. Trying to change someone else's errors was not what I wad convicted to focus on. It became clear the primary thing God was calling me to do was to positively state the beauty and truth of Jesus.

This means there will be times when we, as followers of Jesus, must necessarily make a stand against evil and injustice. Jesus stood up against such things and challenged the status quo of his time. Paul pressed against issues of injustice in his letter to Philemon. The gospel, by its very nature, puts us into conflict with injustice, hatred, and evil. It is itself offensive. We don't need to help it.

So do I just not speak? By no means!  Let's just be judicious in the things that we speak against. Let's be wise in the way we act toward non-Christians; let's not play the victim card. We are not victims. Let's focus on the things that are above.

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Persecution! Really!?

Everyday I open my social media news feeds and it seems that there is a new perceived persecution of Christians in America. The American Christian is apparently under heavy attack, our very way of life is being threatened on all fronts.

Except where it really matters.

Just about everyday I open my Bible in public to read and study. Every week we gather openly in my home for worship and community. We even post it on Facebook and Twitter. We take pictures and celebrate the beautiful things that God is at work doing in our midst.

We keep using the word "persecution" but I don't think it means what we think it means.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhXjcZdk5QQ

This Sunday I had the briefest of interactions with someone who is heading to a country that is hostile to Christianity. This person cannot create a Facebook page about their ministry. This person cannot talk about the call of God on their life in specifics on social media. Their email has to be secured.

My wife works with our denomination's world mission organization. Before she can send out financial reports to some missionaries she has to scour the spreadsheets to make sure that there is no sign of "christian language" on them. Why? Because every attachment is read in these countries and if these missionaries are found out it could be deadly.

If you are checked into the world at large you know about countries where Christian pastors are being imprisoned and killed (North Korea, Nigeria, Kenya...). The persecution of Christians in these places is real, violent, and ongoing.

Yet, we in the United States cry persecution because a law we don't like gets passed. We cry persecution when a president we don't like gets elected. We cry out, "persecution" when celebrities do something "ungodly".

We need to reorient ourselves to what persecution is. It's when one's faith is being eradicated by direct oppression. We simply are not experiencing that in the United States. What we are experiencing in the US is simply multi-culturalism. Our relative mono-culture is becoming more and more diverse. We are not being persecuted. Our worldview is being challenged. We are misunderstood in the public square, but we are not being persecuted.

Since the inception of the culture war in the 1980s,Christians have in large part been stating what they are against. This has led us into a posture of conflict. We must change the conversation and narrative. We must begin to speak and write about what we are "for". As we do, the beauty and truth of the gospel will ring forth. Will it be met with cheering crowds? Probably not. However, there is a better chance of being heard if we will change our tone from one of conflict to that of grace.

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation. -- 1 Peter 2:11, 12

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The Beauty of the Skies

I arose this morning to see the sun in the sky lighting the world with fresh beauty. Immediately my heart was filled with hope, joy, and awe. These words were exploding in my mind,

The heavens declare the glory of God,
and the sky above proclaims his handiwork.
Day to day pours out speech,
and night to night reveals knowledge.
There is no speech, nor are there words,
whose voice is not heard.
Their voice goes out through all the earth,
and their words to the end of the world.
In them he has set a tent for the sun,
which comes out like a bridegroom leaving his chamber,
and, like a strong man, runs its course with joy.
Its rising is from the end of the heavens,
and its circuit to the end of them,
and there is nothing hidden from its heat.

The law of the Lord is perfect,
reviving the soul;
the testimony of the Lord is sure,
making wise the simple;
the precepts of the Lord are right,
rejoicing the heart;
the commandment of the Lord is pure,
enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever;
the rules of the Lord are true,
and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold,
even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey
and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

Who can discern his errors?
Declare me innocent from hidden faults.
Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins;
let them not have dominion over me!
Then I shall be blameless,
and innocent of great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable in your sight,
O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.

-- Psalm 19 (ESV)

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The Power of the Person of Peace

When I was a missionary with Cru, we were trying to launch movements everywhere. I had a really bad attitude about it. I was very comfortable as a missionary to Illinois State University. Then our leadership mandated a scope change to all of Central Illinois.

I wasn't buying it.

I didn't buy that there was any way that we could be effective as campus missionaries running all over the state of Illinois spending a few hours here and a few hours there focusing on raising up a "person of peace". It didn't seem realistic.

I was right. 

I was right; what we were trying to accomplish wasn't going to work. We weren't going to be able to accomplish the task set out for us because we had a proximity problem.  However, this wasn't the problem I had anticipated.  I thought the "person of peace" concept was silly and didn't make good strategic sense. But our real problem was the distance and the lack of connection to the universities we were seeking to reach.

I was wrong. 

The person of peace concept is legit.  You need a person of peace who will help you network and connect with people in your community. You need a person of peace to help ground and give you insight about the people you are seeking to love and point to Jesus. This person of peace is someone you aren't going to find by helicoptering in and out of a place. You will find them as you begin to be present in your community; they are a person living in the trenches.

We have discovered a person of peace in Ypsilanti and as a result we are seeing a movement begin to roll. The movement is rolling in a pub and not in a church. But it's on the verge of getting messy and wild. It's beautiful!

There are evenings at Doubt on Tap that I leave and have to pinch myself, I can't believe it's actually happening. I can't believe these people are becoming a community. I can't believe people are talking about things that matter every week and like doing it!

Do you want to launch a movement? Then you need a person of peace.

Putting out from the harbor at Troas, we made a straight run for Samothrace. The next day we tied up at New City and walked from there to Philippi, the main city in that part of Macedonia and, even more importantly, a Roman colony. We lingered there several days.

On the Sabbath, we left the city and went down along the river where we had heard there was to be a prayer meeting. We took our place with the women who had gathered there and talked with them. One woman, Lydia, was from Thyatira and a dealer in expensive textiles, known to be a God-fearing woman. As she listened with intensity to what was being said, the Master gave her a trusting heart-and she believed!

After she was baptized, along with everyone in her household, she said in a surge of hospitality, "If you’re confident that I’m in this with you and believe in the Master truly, come home with me and be my guests." We hesitated, but she wouldn’t take no for an answer. -- Acts 16:11-15

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Father UP!

Last week's Parenthood was filled with amazing stuff to think about. On the one hand there were religious issues that were fascinating and on the other we saw something we rarely see in pop culture, a father grabbing his role with authority.

Zeek Braverman is a man's man. He is a Viet Nam Vet, works on cars, gets his hands dirty, and loves sports. He's rough around the edges and a bit cranky. He is fully flawed. He is broken, especially as he traverses his relationship with his wife, Camille. Yet, he's constantly growing, changing, and maturing as a man. As we watch this family evolve we are starting to see Zeek acquiesce to his oldest son, Adam more and more. Adam is slowly taking the lead as family patriarch, and Zeek lets him. It's quite a beautiful thing to behold, and shockingly well written.

There are times though when Zeek pulls back on the rope and steps in as only a Dad can do. In this week's episode Zeek grabs the role as patriarch and steps into the spotlight in the way only he can do. Julia's (his daughter) marriage is falling apart. So Zeek finds Joel (her husband) and confronts him. He reminds him that he has entrusted Julia to Joel because he believed that Joel was a man worthy of Julia.

These are words that only a father can speak to the heart of another man.

Men need fathers. It is reality. We need fathers and we need them to speak into our very souls. We need brothers too, but we need fathers most of all. Zeek, in that moment, by taking hold of his identity and role of father spoke words of life to Joel that he needed to hear. He needed to hear from a father that he was a man and he was a man that was worthy of the woman to whom he was married. Joel needed the clarity of identity that only a father could bring him.

Zeek: Well, let me ask you something. What the hell are you doing?
Joel: What the hell am I doing? Well, I'm trying to figure things out, you know? Figuring things out.

We men have a lot to learn from Zeek. We need to learn to protect our daughters. We need to learn to fight for them. We also need to learn that we need to speak into the hearts of our sons words of identity and truth.

In that moment when the world is falling apart some times we need a father to look at us and say, "What the hell are you doing?"

 

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