"I say yes...you say no..."

Forgive me father, it has been two weeks since my last blog...

I really need to put this in my weekly plan (Ryan) so that i mark out the time to just do this. Otherwise, it goes by the wayside as the "urgency" of so many other things crowd out the blog.

So, last night at the Wednesday Night SHIFT_ I did something that is pretty uncharacteristic of me...
For you who know me, I'm pretty laid back and don't typically have a confrontational tone to my communication/teaching.
However, and maybe this is because I'm getting old and cranky, I firmly planted my foot in the sit down part of our student body last night...

I was talking about the love of God, (yes, I know, the irony is comical) and what our response to his love is to be.

For those of you who read this who were there, this will be a bit of a re-run, but none the less, for context sake, I press on.

For many of us, our problem when it comes to responding to God's love is; we put Him on this sliding scale of relationship worthiness...similar to what we'd use for any other potential suitor.
Example: when we're "falling" for someone we base much of our opinion or impression of them on what we see...are they visually appealing? etc...

With God, it's like dating in the dark..."he's a good kisser and all, but when the lights came on, it's like, on wow, um, he's not like the people I usually date..."

We can't see God and so when we are, pardon the term, groping around trying to determine what he's like and keep getting bad advice from other people who've never seen Him and base their opinions solely on hearsay instead of firsthand experience...
We don't like what we think we can "see" and typically avoid any further interaction.

Or we base our opinion on how He makes us feel or what He can do for us...
And when we use this flawed system of evaluation on God, 9 times out of 10, he's not even going to register.

You see, here's something we usually don't figure out until we've made a series of poor relationship decisions or until we're older and bear the scars of time; you fall in love with a person based on who they are, not: How they look, What they can do for you, or How they make you feel.

Because, looks don't last...I should know, I used to be smokin' hot!
Stuff (possessions) loses its luster and appeal,
Feelings are a false indicator; feelings are just feelings...

When it comes to love, it's all about choice.

We choose to love, not; "Oh today I feel like it, so I guess I'm in love...but tomorrow I might not be..."

Every single day we must choose to love, if we don't, on those days we don't feel like it, we probably will walk away, disillusioned, confused, angry and bitter.
And then turn around and jump right back into a relationship based on the same criteria...my what an intelligent bunch we are...

So, how does this all shake out with God? We have to take this infinite, all powerful being off the sliding scale of relationship worthiness and chose to love Him, in the same way that we must choose to love one another, every waking moment of every day.
And like in any other relationship, another primary factor to falling deeply in love is, TIME.

See, we can become infatuated with God, much like we do with people...We like the way He makes us feel, He does stuff for us, but when the feelings fade and the stuff He does isn't as obvious or it becomes, just not enough, we quickly fall out of "love" with Him.

...and this is where the foot gets firmly lodged...We've gotta stop farting around and commit ourselves to knowing God.
Not knowing of Him, or about Him, but in our brains, hearts and soul, spending the time, making the commitment to know Him! The Bible tells us, from cover to cover, that the only worthwhile pursuit in life is to know God.
"...but Pastor Troy, this sounds a lot harder than simply loving Him..."
Is it? When you're truly in love, you commit everything to being with the person, to knowing them...
In fact many of you know exactly what it's like to be in love...because,
you commit all your time to your: sport, music, theater, homework, vanity, so-called relationship, recreation, entertainment...
You love the world around you, but you're avoiding the one who loves you most.

God desperately loves you! And He's shown it, over and over again...all He asks in return is for your love and devotion.
The only question you have to ask yourself is, are you willing to choose invest the time, in spite of what you don't know about Him?

It's a yes or no answer.

Kingdom Mindset part 2

This is a continuation of the thoughts from my last blog post...
I just can't get over the images conjured up by my own children.
Life really is meant to be done together.
In order for us to do this Kingdom of God stuff effectively, it must be more about others and less about us. Jesus said, "the son of man did not come in to this world to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many."
Giving sacrificially of ourselves for the sake of others ultimately benefits all. The problem is, even in church, we have become so self absorbed that others really don't even come in to focus. It's like we have blinders on and all of our actions, our conversations, eventually come back to us as the central figure.
How can life be done together if we won't let any one else come in to view?
This brings up the primary thought for this post:
We must become committed to building the success of others more than we are to building our own...
The longer I do this thing called ministry, the more I see how easy it can be to become enamored with the things one can do and be.
However, I think this is true in any vocation, not just ministry.
We can become impressed with ourselves. So much so that we will guard that image of success or our achievements with an almost paranoid intensity.
I think this occurs because our sense of worth becomes attached to those things we have accomplished or can accomplish.
We must begin to get over ourselves and look to the development (raising up) of others. Especially as adults, it is incumbent upon us to invest in the young people around us.
If you attend a church and you're just a casual observer, you love Jesus, but you don't feel "led" to get involved in a particular ministry...get off your lazy butt right now and put your comfort in the trash and begin, maybe once each month to start, volunteering in some capacity that allows you to speak into the lives of children, youth or young adults.
The longer you live, the more you have to give.
Your life experiences and wisdom have not occurred or been obtained for you to wear as some cheap badge of honor, that no one will remember when you're gone.
You've been given those experiences or had those privileges in order to allow someone to learn from your life.
"My own children are my mission field"...great, now what about those kids whose parents are not in the picture or who do not presently have the capacity to provide a positive role model for their children to follow?
What about them, huh?
Sorry, got a little fired up over that one...
We must become committed to building the success of others more than we are to building our own...
Ask yourself these questions:
Am I o.k. with some one else being better at something than I am?
Can I teach some one who will ultimately become better than I am at a particular skill or activity?
If the answer to either of those is no...reality check time.
The students who are presently in our ministry at Bethel Church, are so much smarter than I am...their brilliance astounds me.
The only things that separate us intellectually are wisdom and life experience...once they figure that out, I'm toast, but here's the point.
Some where along the line...(my mama used this one on me years ago), there will always be somebody who is better than you.
If you have the opportunity, why not be the one that shows them how?
The Kingdom of God is built by such sacrifice.
It is destroyed by insecurity, selfishness and the like...
Would you rather be known as a builder or a destroyer?
Whether you look at this through the lens of the church or through the lens of your vocational environment, see above questions...
Christ is shown through your life in many ways, one such way is your willingness to serve rather than be served.
Think about it.

Kingdom mindset

I love my children.
In fact, my family really is the joy of Jesus in my life. At times they stoke the fires of hell...but more often than not they are joy personified.
example: our youngest son Spencer has this thing that he's been doing for the last 18 months or so, where he's constructed a miniature church in our home.
He's got it set up on one of the end tables in our living room...worship team with instruments, the platform set, the whole nine yards, and he does two weekly services.
It is aptly named, Table Church.
Now when I say he does two weekly services, I mean he does two full blown services each week, with worship, teaching, announcements, the whole deal...for like, 45 minutes to an hour each time.
So, by now you've formed one of two opinions; a. the kid needs to get out more, or, b. "awww, isn't that cute, he wants to be like his dad..."
It would be cute and all, except he's deadly serious about it...which in my mind makes it pretty dang cool.
But, that's not all. The other day our oldest son Jacob says, "hey Spencer, can i start a table church of my own too?" And Spencer says, "yeah sure, I'll help you set it up." Wait, wait, it gets better. Spencer says, "I'll leave my church and come help you set it up." So, he leaves his church in the capable hands of his little sister and goes to help his older brother plant a church.
It was amazing to see this unfold...
Kathy and I were blown away, that, totally unaware of the implications of their actions, our sons had just shown a beautiful example of Kingdom mindset church planting in our own living room. There was no ego involved, no quibbling over finances or facilities, no lobbying for personnel or territory wars.
There was a desire expressed and they went and made it happen.
Humbly, sacrificially, beautifully.
I was and still am in awe of the whole scene...especially as they started to construct the thing together and then proceeded to lead the service, together, sharing every responsibility, no posturing, no power struggles, just cooperation and community. Together.
You might think I've taken this simple child's game and extrapolated the thought beyond a reasonable limit, but let me remind you of what Jesus told his disciples, "...unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 18:3)
Now, I do not even pretend to stand in judgment, I only hope to remind you and me, that we shouldn't hold to tightly to our models of success or think that we are doing ministry in a vacuum and no one cares about us or can help us...
What we really need to do is open our eyes to the beauty and simplicity of helping one another fulfill our God given dreams and visions. Together.
Kingdom of God kind of stuff...not kingdom of me.
I've learned a lot from my kids...I think we all might stand to benefit from their example, if we can get over our "big person" mindset and think about it.
...just a thought.