Madrid - The Tour

Shots from Madrid

Here are some shots from Madrid today. Forgive that we're all gally-vanting around Madrid in our Salvation Army Uniforms - though it does make it somewhat more funny.

Anywho, the first couple of shots are of Real Madrid's home soccer stadium - a soccer Mecca. The SECOND photo is of a HUGE soccer fan, Matthew Sims, celebrating the visit.

Then I held up a leaning building using just my back, and Charlie licked a fake ice cream cone.

The last couple of shots are from around the Royal Palce - the last photo being one that I think I will stick Kristy in later.

Concerts and open airs, and such, are going well. The best is doing open airs in places for where we don't have permits to do so - the police show up, ask a few questions. We have seen a few folks a couple of times now - people that were at one of our open airs and whom we invited to another. That's good.

The idea of this whole trip is to build the public knowledge of ALL that the Army does. It is an extremely hard-fast religious culture, 97% Catholic, but in a Catholic church that has been assoctiated with dictatorship in this country. Many people are turned off from anything having to do with Church or Christ.

Sounds like a job for Delta Force.

In any case - we have a string of other open airs following morning worship tomorrow. Continue to pray for us.

Grace.

Welcome to Spain

Hola!

Welcome to my first post from Spain.

It will be short.

No sleep on the plane - full schedule today - Madrid is beautiful - but aparently, there are plenty 'o pick-pockets. I have not yet lost my Canadian Passport - perhaps the most valuable document on the planet, next to the dead sea scrolls, the declaration of independance, and Da Vinci's jounals.

That is all.

More to come . . .

Grace.

My Reign in Spain

Tomorrow, less than 24 hrs from now, I will be on a very long flight to Spain. It's going to be exciting - which is not to say that I've been 100% looking forward to it for the past few months, but it will be whatever I choose it to be.

Please pray for the group - it's going to be a crazy schedule. I WILL be taking photos, and video though, and HOPEFULLY, I'll be able to post from over there. If not, I will when I get back - both on my picture blog and some official pics on our departmental site (http://www.nscmusicandarts.com). Also, I'll be on Google Talk, if I have broadband there, so if you have any need to talk to me - download that client and you can find me at desmondcsmith@gmail.com.

Anywho, that's it - I'll let you know how everything goes. There is some fun stuff scheduled - like playing for a 100 yr. old's birthday at a Seniors' Complex. Fun. Partying like Jesus.

Grace.

Perspective (for those of you that don't watch the news)

NEW ORLEANS - Hurricane Katrina probably killed thousands of people in New Orleans, the mayor said Wednesday - an estimate that, if accurate, would make the storm the nation's deadliest natural disaster since at least the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.

"We know there is a significant number of dead bodies in the water," and other people dead in attics, Mayor Ray Nagin said. Asked how many, he said: "Minimum, hundreds. Most likely, thousands."

WOW. Thousands? Remember to pray for this whole situation. Get involved, somehow, if you can.

Grace.

Let's not forget these

BAGHDAD Trampled, crushed against barricades or plunging into the Tigris River, more than 700 Shiite pilgrims died Wednesday when a procession across a Baghdad bridge was engulfed in panic over rumors that a suicide bomber was at large.

Most of the dead were women and children, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Adnan Abdul-Rahman said. It was the single biggest confirmed loss of life in Iraq since the March 2003 invasion. Sabah Ali, a senior official in the Health Ministry, said 719 were killed and 383 injured.

Grace

An Image of Christ

Sometimes, friends of mine give me a hard time about my choice of morning radio show. I listen to Ace & TJ, here in Charlotte, on Kiss 95.1. They're actually pretty good - sometimes a little crude, but ALWAYS funny. I don't listen to Christian radio in Charlotte, because, IMHO, it stinks. Sorry New Life, just what I think.

With all of the recent happen on the Gulf Coast, an interesing thing occurred. I realized that I, in fact, DO listen to a Christian morning show - perhaps the most Christian morning show in the region.

Course of events: Following the landfall of Katrina, Ace and TJ (normally on from 6 -10 AM) stayed on the air all day and organized an impromptu telethon to benefit the victims of the disaster. They solicited supplies, volunteers and even prayers.

Hmmmm.

So far, they've raised tens of thousands of dollars and have a CONVOY of 18-wheelers headed that way, full of supplies.

And they didn't sit around and gossip - they just got the work done. They didn't complain about someone else getting the limelight, they just got the work done.

Praise the Lord, for Ace and TJ.

Grace.

Notorious Sinner

Mark 2:15

So, I think I either want to be a notorious sinner or find out who they are and invite them to dinner. Who are the notorious sinners today? Who are the "Tax Collectors"?

Are they the porn industry? Are they drug kingpins? Are they speeders? Are they Christians?

But it seems like having a party with them would be a good time. Jesus would have done it.

Grace

New Friends

I've added some friends to my friends list - this list is not exhaustive and the biggest reason you may not be there is A) you don't have a blog or B) it's annoying to add those links and I couldn't normally be bothered.

I keep getting amazed by Google. I would like to work for Google. They are, in the words of one friend of mine, "No joke." Everything they touch turns to gold. So, if you want an invite to join GMail (the most amazing web-based email on the planet) let me know and I'll hook you up.

It's cloudy today. The weather has been amazing for the past couple of days. Every morning, just a little hint of coolness. I think all it really is, is that the air was dry (read: not humid). Very very nice.

I apologize for the lack-lusterness of this entry. But I'm serious about the loving Google bit.

Hmmmm.

Grace.

Talk about Weird News

OK . . . so there are some weird things happening. I'm not exacty sure what it all means, but somehow, I think armageddon is involved. Are you ready for the news?

Alright . . . . Air Canada was voted to be North Armerica's #1 Airline.

Yes . . . I know. If any of you are Aeroplan people you may have gotten an email about it. My theory is this . . . the only people that care to be voting about what the #1 Airline are drunk Canadian men returning from a weekend away to see a hockey game.

There's no way on the planet that Air Canada is better than any other airline on this continent. My best experience with Air Canada occurred during a trip to Ottawa, when I had been flying Canadian Airlines and their plane all but exploded, so, the only way they could get me home was to put me up in First Class on an Air Canada flight. They gave me a nice hot facecloth and a beautiful ham and swiss on a baguette.

In any case, Air Canada is about as useful as my armpit . . . or my appendix . . . or my appendix pit.

I'm very disappointed . . . I'd like to meet all 7 people that voted on this and . . . get mad at them.

That is all.

Grace.

Other Interesting Quotes from my Google page

Here are some other quotes that are making me think.

There are people who think that everything one does with a serious face is sensible.
- Georg Christoph Lichtenberg

Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra and then suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night, the ice weasels come.
- Matt Groening

Interesting

Sometimes I feel very callipygous.

Also - Interesting quote from Confucius:

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance.

Grace.

Jesus' Burden

We always quote the verse, "Come unto me . . . and I will give you rest." Jesus said that, in Matthew 11. It's great and gives us peace. It even says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."

Problem is, as with most things, we stop there because we have all the comfort we need in those few words.

But Jesus goes on and says, "Take my yoke upon you (ie be harnassed up like oxen), and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

Here's your comfort - let me take your burden and I'll replace it with a burden, albeit a MUCH lighter burden. But if you let me guide you (ie like a farmer guides an animal) you'll have rest.

He doesn't just take away all your burden - He gives you more.

But it's different. And we should take responsibility for it.

Grace.

The PodCasting

Long story short . . . I've finally discovered the joy that is podcasting. With iTunes, you can download the latest episodes of SO many radio shows or other audio programs (like Science Friday, from NPR).

The idea, of course, is that you would listen to them on your iPod. Well, I don't have one of those . . . yet. But you can also listen on your computer or burn them to a CD.

Nice.

This is Daphne - she's an Eastern Fence Lizard, and she lives at our house.

In the Middle of the Storm

I was reading a while back about Jesus calming the storm - you know - where he's asleep and there's a huge storm happening and the disciples were frightened . . .

It's in Matthew 8.

Anyway, the thing that stuck out to me is that Jesus was asleep. We always talk about Jesus being right there for us when times are tough, when the seas are rough, when we've had enough (corny song coming on!). The disciples, however, felt troubled and Jesus was right there asleep. Not making them feel comfortable. Not making them feel good about themselves.

I can only assume that that is where He would have stayed if they didn't go and bother Him. He probably would have stayed asleep.

So they ran below deck, woke up the soon-to-be Saviour of the world and shouted, "Lord SAVE US - we're going to drown."

His response was funny. I take it as a scold, or a burn even: "Why are you so afraid?" Yes, it's rough. Yes, your dinner might come back up. Yes, it SEEMS scary. Omniscient saviour of the world KNEW what they were afraid of . . . but that's not what he asked . . "WHY ARE YOU SO AFRAID? YOU HAVE SO LITTLE FAITH."

What's that? A test? Sarcasm?

He rebuked the storm and it stopped. Did they get what they asked for?

I don't know. I don't think they really knew what they were asking. It seems as though, in hindsight, they were never in danger to begin with. He didn't SAVE THEM as such, given that. He took away the elements that they were afraid of, the elements that troubled them. AND he rebuked them as well. Gave them a life lesson. Stuff is going to stink all around you, and there is going to be a lot that you don't like. I CAN take it away, but it does you more good to learn from it.

Interesting, I thought.

Grace.

Stupidity should be painful

Nothing uberinspiring tonight . . .

Except that I was driving behind a Jeep today with the following two bumper stickers:

• The whole world is going to hell and I'm driving the bus

AND

• Stupidity should be painful.

Rather ironic, I thought.

Grace. More to come.

None of my business

So, I'm still at TMI - still missing my wife - and still reading through "A New Kind of Christian". It's a very interesting read. One of the chapters today was called, "It's none of your business who goes to hell?"

Also, it was a very interesting series of arguments that followed.

Essentially, McLaren says we get so concerned with getting everyone into heaven, but what if that's not the ultimate goal, but rather a by-product? What if living out your purpose in Christ is what you're supposed to be doing and heaven/hell is merely a by-product?

So, we just need to serve people and let God sort out the rest - don't worry about their (or our eternity). Just do what we need to do. If we were needed to be a judge, I'm sure we would have been apointed such.

What I'm realizing (read: what I'm coming to terms with) is that I have a lot of 'knowledge' about Christianity. Much of it, however, is Christianity with the spin of how people have lived for the past 500 years (i.e. intellectualism, scientific answers to question). In other words, my understanding is by no means pure. It's Christianity inside the envelope of modernism.

Time to open it up.

Grace.

PS (Jennifer): I'm not familiar with Christian Hedonism . . . so I'll have to read up on it. For the rest of your question, that may be the next post.

Gotta go down before you go up

Short post: I'm at the elective interview at Territorial Music Institute.

But on the way here, today, I was reading "A New Kind of Christian" by Brian McLaren. Interesting point that was made.

If you're on a mountain peak, and you want to go up to a higher one, you first have to come down from the lower before you can go up the higher . . .

Grace.

Coming Soon

Well, Camp, for me, is over. Hallelujah. Kids were great, staff was great, God blessed it . . . that is all. Not to say it wasn't without it's issues - pray for our recuperation.

Now, I'm not quite back to my regular blogging schedule. I've still got our Territorial Music Institute coming up for the next 10 days - not sure that I'll have much blogging time there. But soon I'll be able to think again.

For those of you that know, or care, I'm one of the ones that have been dealing with the thoughts that worship may, in fact, have nothing to do with what we like, and everything to do with what God likes. No reason for me to hide that. I believe it.

One of the questions asked of me is "Why would God reject my offering?" If I offer my sacrifice to God from my heart, then He should accept it.

There's a lot to consider. As I start to write all this, I realize that it's probably too much to get into at the moment . . . . here's a synopsis:

Worship is our actions that speak to God of His value. It doesn't necessarily speak of how valuable he is TO US - but rather how much we value HIM (there's a big difference in those two statements, I hope you can see it).

Worship is not just singing. Neither is it simply praying. Neither is it speaking to God how much He's worth.

Exodus 8:1 is one of the versus where God tells Moses to go tell Pharaoh to "Let my people go" but it doesn't stop there . . . the reason God wants them let go is different depending on what version you read - some say worship God, others say work for God.

• Let my people go so that they can worship me
• Let my peopel go so that they can work for (serve) me.

Working for God is neither singing, dancing, speaking, or praying - but it is worship. In essence, worship is our 24-hour-a-day statement that God 'reviews' and puts whatever priority he deems fitting on. Our track record speaks of what we love - it is our belief in action because of who GOD IS, and in the processing supporting (or not supporting?) what we say we believe.

(I know - it sounds like salvation through works. It's not. Faith without works is dead. It's still faith, it's just dead faith. I put that priority part in for this very purpose - He PROBABLY puts more weight on our BELIEFS but He certainly still considers our actions too - it's all one big offereing).

Praise is a different thing - it's more about what God has done for US - here's my major concern: WE'RE SO TIED UP THINKING ABOUT WHAT MORE GOD CAN DO FOR US THAT WE SEEM TO MISS THAT HIS DESIRES AND EVEN THE DESIRES OF OTHER PEOPLE SHOULD COME BEFORE OURS; THAT WE ARE SELF-CENTERED CHRISTIANS.

Egocentric Christians . . . . now there's an oxy moron.

The only other point I wish to make is this. God often rejected offerings. Cain comes to mind quickly - his insufficient offering paled in comparison to his brothers. Also, interestingly, in Amos 5, see this:

²¹ "I hate, I despise your religious feasts;
I cannot stand your assemblies.

²² Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings,
I will not accept them.
Though you bring choice fellowship offerings, ^[b]
I will have no regard for them.

²³ Away with the noise of your songs!
I will not listen to the music of your harps.

²⁴ But let justice roll on like a river,
righteousness like a never-failing stream!

Just because they're done FOR God, essentially, doesn't mean he wants what you're bringing. Worship, without letting justice roll on like a river, and righteousness like a never-failing stream, seems like it is turned away.

Maybe I'm interpreting that incorrectly.

Grace.

Recant

Words can be very deceiving. Please understand that, through my last posts I did not intend to offend - but I assumed that it probably would just because of the way we Christians are. Also interesting is that Christ came, in his words, to bring division.

The longer we bicker about our denomination directives, the longer we're wasting time that we could be spending serving others or worshipping God.

Someday we will all be united - not he United Church of God - small 'u' united.

I apologize if I offended. That said . . . agreeing to disagree perhaps not such a bad thing.

Recommended reading: A Generous Orthodoxy, Brian McLaren.

Exactly what I thought would happen.

Interesting comment on my last post. Exactly what I hoped would happen, deep down in the perverse sections of mind, but interesting nonetheless.

Carefully reading my statements, you will see that I did not, in fact say that we should all be Catholic, but rather that we should be catholic. The former is a denomination. The latter is a state of unity. But it perfectly illustrates the lack of understanding or concern that we seem to have for each other, in the brotherhood of God. I'm not at all suggesting that we return to any particular roots. I'm suggesting that God knows exactly what He's doing by telling us to love one another, to encourage each other, and to work together for His glory instead of furthering our kingdoms.

Just like there was salvation before the Salvation Army, the state of being catholic existed before the Roman Catholic church.

Despite what we may think about particular denominations within the body, our DIRECTIVE from God is that we make EVERY effort to keep the bond of unity.

I apologize for deliberately leading this conversation directly into the lion's den. It's a little thing I like to do. For future reference please remember: Catholic=denomination, catholic=unified Army of God working to extend his kingdom on earth.

Blessings to catholic Christians everywhere!

Grace.

A Long Break

It, again, has been way too long.

Camp is going very well - don't really expect much to change.

I said the other day during a conversation that we should all be catholic. The response was something to the effect of, "Yeah, whatever" followed by a number of other interestingly-worded statements that I don't care to mention.

Us protestants, why do we think it's OK to keep protesting? And what are we protesting over? I understand the Lutheran split, I think . . . but it's become way to silly hasn't it?

In any case, I can't help but go back to the idea in Ephesians to make every effort to keep the bond of peace through the spirit of unity.

Why we gotta hate?

Infighting = Cancer

There have been some things happening that have made me think about infighting in the body of Christ. Isn't it cancer when a body turns against itself?

I can't imagine that something as horrible as cancer belongs in the perfect body of Christ. Infighting = death.

Grace.

At Camp

So, I'm at camp - and will get very little time to acutally post much - especially interesting stuff. But my wife found this today, and I couldn't let it go. It's pretty amazing.

"If sinners will be damned, at least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. And if they will perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If Hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned or unprayed for."

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Grace.

Open Doors

God is reall y doing some neat stuff as it relates to opening doors for Kristy and I . . . in life, in minsitry, it is pretty amazing to sit and watch it all unfold. Granted, makes it difficult to decipher what it is that HE wants us to do in all of that . . . but it's interesting to see the options.

That's all on that.

The other interesting thing is something that I wanted to mention earlier but didn't get a chance. The concept of the "miracle of reception" or receiving. I don't know where it came from other than to say it was a theoretical thing that came up at a rehearsal the other day. Basically, we were talking about watching horribly-peformed performances that just bless your heart beyond belief. That THAT is a miracle of reception. God lets you see through the junk to the real heart of the matter - the heart of the offering.

Maybe it's not so much a miracle as much as it is a choice. Its about enouraging others in their worship. God blesses you through it.

It's a pretty neat concept that I plan to put on my list of things to research.

Grace.

Alone

I'm in Atlanta. The Territorial Songsters are singing at our Family Conference.

There's a song called 'Give Thanks Unto the Lord" that we're doing, and have been rehearsing like crazy. Stan Colbert, an Army Officer, is our fearless leader - an incredible musician, and a great spiritual inspiration - I have referred to him as a guru in the past.

What I love about him is that he brings spritual moments out of many things that you would never think. In the lyrics, there is a section that says "Give thanks unto the Lord who alone doeth great wonders."

Stan said that he wanted us to really bring out the "...who alone..." because it was basically the message of the song.

Who alone . . . He doesn't need us. But He chooses people. It helped me worship. His majesty, my mistakes.

Grace.

Motivation

I want to be able to motivate people to do something useful and be less self-interested. How does one do that?

To Do List

There's a couple of things that I want to do:

1. Write a book - I'm about ready to start this one . . . I think.
2. Make T-Shirts
3. (At least learn how to) start a business
4. Find out what it's like to sleep on the streets
5. Be content with what I have, knowing full-well that I have a lot, even if it doesn't seem like I have a lot.
   

In a Strange Sea

I recently heard, for the first time, Out of my League, by Stephen Speaks. Good tune. WITH a fantastic line . . .

"It's frightening to be
Swimming in this strange sea
But I'd rather be here than on land."

The song is a love song. But that one line captures, I think, the essence of my life at the moment. As long as I've been here in the US, it's still a strange sea to me. I've been married for 7 months or something now, it's fantastic, but it's different than the other 24 years of my life.

Beats not being swimming though.

Grace.

Husbands submit . . . .

Chris Retz, whom has been in contact after he stumbled across my blog, recently sent me some CDs. One is of himself presenting a message, the others are of Brent Avery, founder of MEM Ministries.

I've just started to listen to these CDs - starting with the first of Brent Avery's. It's real interesting stuff - basically showing how Christ (and baptism specifically in this first part of his message) runs through all of scripture, from the first verse to the end. He even delves into the old hebrew and shows where the inspired word of God makes reference to Christ . . . very interesting stuff, which, once I finish listening to the whole thing I'll comment more on.

But he made some VERY interesting points, right at the end of his first sermon. He was talking about Adam, and how an old Jewish tradition says that Adam's sin was different than Eve's. Eve, it says, was deceived. But, in what is one of the very first foreshadowings of Christ in Scripture, Adam CHOSE to eat, knowing that the only way that he could be connected to his wife was to lay down his life in this way. Holy smokes . . . talk about humble pie.

And later, in Ephesians, it says to love your wife just as Christ loved the Church. I know the bible is the only inspired word of God. It'd be nice if he did more, but, man, when God inspires, he REALLY inspires. It's very interesting to hear about some of these connections.

I'm sure there will be more to come. Thanks Chris for the material.

Grace.

SNICKERDOODLE COFFEE

Oh wonder of wonders!

I got my hair cut today. You may have guessed that's NOT the excited news. On the way back, I decided to stop into a little coffee shop that I've passed many, many times but never visited. Hold this thought . . . .

A little background: Tilden - you'll know him from the recent wedding photo that was posted here - would always bring back Snickerdoodle flavored coffee from Philadelphia - he'd bring it to the office and we would all rejoice. However, that's a long commute when you run OUT of snickerdoodle coffee.

BUT, Dilworth Coffee House, of Charlotte, NC - much CLOSER than Philadelphia - ALSO SELLS SNICKERDOODLE COFFEE!!!!

I'm a little excited. I can't wait to tell Tilden!

AND, it's a WI-FI hotspot.

Grace.

Corporate Worship

Can anyone tell me where it is that we are commanded to participate in corporate worship?

Make EVERY Effort

Unity is a command. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Right there, loud and clear, it reads, "Always keep yourselves united in the Holy Spirit, and bind yourselves together with peace." It even gives rationale: "We are all one body."

Division is about disunity at it's core. It can be rationalized using styles or preferences or tastes, but it boils down to disunity. Perhaps what continues to be an arguemnt is based on our misgivings about worship - if we TRULY understood what it is, this may in fact not be a debate whatsoever.

Praise & Worship - are not the same thing. When we have a "time of praise & worship" we're actually trying to accomplish two things at once - but one thing RARELY gets done. We do a truckload of praising and very little worshipping. Worshipping is our actions, our expressions, of God's unequaled character. Nothing about US enters into the equation. In Teaching Kids Authentic Worship, the author says that we only worship when there are no personal pronouns present. I like that. It's ALL about God. I think she's completely correct in what she says, and may ADULTS can learn a lot from reading that book.

She says that Praise & Thanksgiving are by-products, VALUABLE by-products, of worship. Lets just not confuse those things. Praise and Thanksgiving ARE NOT worship. They depend on what God has done for us personally - Worship is ALL ABOUT HIM. Praise and Worship, then, may be affected a little more by personal flavor. But, maybe not Worship.

I'm quickly realizing that a lack of unity is not the problem in Churches wrestling with splitting. The glue that CAN hold us together is a common worship of God. Since a clear definition of worship has gotten away from us, the glue doesn't stick that well.

In the protestant church that's a hallmark of who we have come to be though, hasn't it? We don't like something, so we split. We talk about how there's absolute truth - apparently there's just 1000 different versions of it. Martin Luther was probably right in protesting some of the Catholic practises of his day, but I think we may have taken his lead just a little two far.

My prayer is that we can all be united - somehow. In a setting where, not only will traditional vs. contemporary not matter, it will be irrelevant. The western thought that our church "service" can meet EVERYBODIES needs, is pretty messed up. First of all, we don't have any needs as Christians (see 2 Peter 1:3). Secondly, no one is getting saved in church. "Evangelism" also happens outside of 'Worship'.

We're a body - yup, we have parts. I wonder, though, if we really need to divide all the way down to the cellular level. How far is too far? (<- Didn't think I'd ask THAT question about church division!). My concern is that we aren't making EVERY effort keep the body together. EVERY EFFORT!!!

Perhaps there's a better way.

Grace.

TWOnity - Unity Continued

I will eventually get to how I think all this ties back to unity in the body - and eventually what unity in the body looks like. But I'm still stuck on my understanding of worship. As promised, here's a bit more, involving Abraham, Isaac, and David.

OK - lets start with Abraham - I should say that a lot this was directly inspired by an article on Experiencing Worship, written by Rob Parsley. The first time that the Hebrew word, 'shachah', is translated as 'worship' in the Bible comes from the story of Abraham and Isaac. This is the OBVIOUS biblical introduction to worship - though many people worshipped before - if you're looking up worship, the is the first place at which you arrive.

After finally fathering a child with his wife Sarah, God says to sacrifice him. Wow. This is a guy who has been promised to be the FATHER of a great nation of people Talk about a legacy. It is relatively more difficult to do that if you have to kill your only son. But there's no rebuttal - Abraham knows what he must do.

Once Mount Moriah is in front of them, Abraham and Isaac continue alone - no servants. Here it is: Abraham says to them, "We will worship and then we will come back to you." (Gen 22:4) Of course you know that Isaac lives - sorry to give away the ending to those of you unfamiliar - and God provides a ram for sacrifice.

Worship, then, is about, at least in part, SACRIFICE. Abraham was willing to give up EXACTLY that which God had given Him - the blessing that God poured out on Him, he was willing to give back. Abraham must not have had ANY pleasure in this - this was his son whom he loved as only a father can love his son.

I wonder, then, how much I'm willing to sacrifice. If I go to church and they don't sing my song, does that mean that I don't worship, or does it mean that I'm making some regal sacrifice: "Well I went to church and they didn't sing any of my songs - God must be well-pleased with my worship!"

This is from the author of that article I mentioned: "When we make the choice to worship God, we are emptying ourselves of our own rights and will and surrendering ourselves to Him. Worship is the foremost act of sacrifice. It proclaims death to our self."

Perhaps corporate worship is different. I don't think so, but maybe someone has that arguement. Corporate worship, as we understand it (i.e. going to church and singing songs and reading scripture . . . you all know what they do at church), seems like such a contradiction of terms to me, if you're arguing that people 'all worship differently'. Here's what I mean - people worship differently - they come to a place where they can worship differently together. They only 'corporate' part is that they're all in the same building. The corporate part implies together - the worship part (if everyone worships in their own way) implies apart.

Worship at its core is not different from person to person. There are endless expressions of it. But there should only be one motivation - the Lordship of God. Granted we may be aware of that Lordship whether we're being blessed or being tested, through times of comfort, or of loss, but the base motivation is always present when someone chooses to worship.

David also said something very cool - and I'm not entirely sure how I've missed it for all of these years. BUT, here goes. After realizing a grave sin, David wanted to make a sacrifice (<- key word) but had no animal. An owner of a nearby 'threshing floor' was willing to give David whatever he wanted, but DAVID said this: "No, I insist on paying the full price. I will not take for the LORD what is yours, or sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing."

HOW did I miss that? I will not sacrifice a burnt offering that costs me nothing. That in itself is a fantastic blog post - we're SO used to getting a lot for nothing: on Uncle Bill's tab.

In any case, King David realized that a sacrifice, by definition, has cost. The question is what does my worship cost me? I'm not rich, I'm not poor, I've got enough that's for sure (<- Old Mother's Day recitation - reliving my childhood, sorry). I've certainly got enough to sacrifice. I'm in the top 1% of incomes in the world (Global Rich List)!

Alright . . . I think I've set it up well enough. Next time, I deal with unity in the body of Christ.

Grace.

Congratulations

Some of the coolest people - and some of our best friends - in the world!

YAY - Tilden and Stephanie are MARRIED! We love you guys!

Grace.

Unity - Like you didn't know it was coming

As some of you may have already suspected, I've been thinking a lot about unity in the body of Christ over the past few days, and specifically how it relates to our worship.

First I should say that I don't like any of the terms that we've chosen to use to describe typical church worship services (e.g. blended, contemporary, traditional, etc). I think they're all wrong. I think they promote an interpretation of worship that has nothing to do with what worship is. Let me say also, that I don't know what worship is - and so that I'm actively trying to figure it out.

I have been quoted as saying (Marty) that "We have done to the word Worship, what we have done to the word CHURCH." That is, church is not the building - or never was intended to be, but if you say CHURCH to just about anyone, the first thing they think about is a nice building with a nice steeple, announcing that, if you're a Christian, come join us. We have similarly perverted the word worship. Worship can include, but is not limited to singing praises and lifting hands - I'm sick of hearing that definition. I'm also quite tired of hearing about how we worship differently. I think we do worship differently from each other - just not in the way that most people describe. I believe that worship, at it's heart, cannot be described as an event, in the temporal sense. Not even as a lifestyle.

Worship is the ACTIONS (yes, worship is a VERB - an ACTION word) resulting from our conceptualization of what/who we value. That is, if we believe that money is the most important thing, the most deserving thing, than our actions will reflect that concept. Our attempts to acquire more money will reflect that concept. Our attempts to guard the money we already have will reflect that concept. The words that we choose to use, the decisions that we make, the way that we live our life will reflect it.

This same idea also reveals where many other concepts are on our scale of worth - for example, if you love money and but hate peanut butter (hypothetically speaking) your actions will reflect that dislike. I . . . I mean, one who hates peanut butter will say that thy don't like it, they won't buy it, they'll avoid it at all costs, etc.

It's important to note that the ACTIONS are both ACTIVE & PASSIVE. We we actively choose to do and what we PASSIVELY do without much thought at all will both indicate where our love is, and to what degree that love is.

Now, if we love God, our actions (both passive & active) will reflect that love. It seems too trivial though to 'love' God. We also need to have a concept of Him as Lord. We also need a concept of Him as master, as saviour of the world, as healer, as friend, as EVERYTHING that he is. Inherent in having these concepts, is that we will attribute value to each of them. If we had been healed of some terrible disease we may place more value on God's healing aspects than something else. If we never have heard God talk to us, God as FRIEND, may be of little value.

Our worship (actions) reflect those feelings, whether we like it or not.

God really is more than someone who makes us feel good once a week when we sing a song that we like. God is more than someone who sits back and waits for us to worship Him. God is NO LESS than LORD. We don't have an accurate concept of lordship - that may contribute to some of the confusion - I know it does to mine.

Now, I know what you're thinking . . . what does ANY of this have to do with Unity? Well, I'm getting there, but I fear that I'll have to put it in a different post - just to break it up a little.

But I will say that worship is NOT about getting what you want, or deserve, or have been promised, or what you like. Worship is not even about you and God.

Worship is about God. We're only involved because thats what we were created to do. I hate when I'm at work, or anywhere and I have to 'bribe' people to do their job. It's their job - they shouldn't need more convincing that's what they're supposed to do. But we require blessings and healings and loving and having our preferences met before we 'agree' to do the job that we were created to do.

Sorry, I'm ranting now - but I have to go on, that example sparked me up - as much as I'm still learinign about worship, I'm CONVINCED that God didn't want to create a choir or a drama troupe or a band that spend their time practicing to sing or act or play. He wanted to create people that would do unto others that which they would want done unto themselves. He created people that he intended to do whatever for the least of humanity. He created people who would honor Him by keeping his commands (*** Remember that bit for later).

So, I probably sound like I had a turd sandwich for lunch. I didn't. I had soup - very good soup.

Up next time - the examples of David and Abraham/Isaac as worshippers.

I've got to rest my fingers.

Grace.

A Collision is Coming

I meant to post this a while ago - David Crowder Band is in the middle of recording a new CD. They have a really cool website/blog set up - go to http://www.acollisioniscoming.com. You can watch them on webcams in the studio and everything - it's VERY cool.

Grace.

EASY

Easy Hidden Mickey
I know they've been difficult - so here's a good and easy one - hopefully you can find it. It's the floor tile from the hotel.

Grace.

What to Say

During some recent worship I was participating in, the statement was made, "Lord, what else is there to say except 'thank You' for all that you've done for us." This got me thinking. If we stop thinking about ourselves and what God has done for US, there's a LOT more that we can say.

Here are a few helpful suggestions:

• You are good
• You're love endures forever
• You are a perfect judge (or You judge perfectly)
• The world declares your majesty
• Nations will bow to you
• You are love
• You are perfect
• Your anger is righteous
• Glory to you, God
• The earth is Yours, and everything in it.

No one should ever be stuck for things to say about the master of the universe, especially us, over whom He is soverign. Add more please - but don't use any personal pronouns, just to make it about God alone.

I'll add more later.

Grace.

Where's Mickey Now?

Difficult Hidden Mickey!!!

I don't know if anyone has spotted Mickey in the first installment of "Hidden Mickeys". THIS one is TOUGH. You'll probably want to find a way to zoom it - and stay to the right side.

Let me know if you find it.

Grace.

Pictures!

Greetings.

I'm going to start posting a bunch of pictures on ANOTHER blog - just to keep this one clean and clutter free. You can find it at http://desmerizingpics.blogspot.com. It'll mostly be like vacation pics and random things from our lives - nothing really interesting. Unless you find that stuff interesting. I know our family probaby will.

Anywho - it's there.

Grace.

Hidden Mickeys

Find the hidden Mickey!

You may or may not know that there are AT LEAST 400 hidden Mickey Mouse references, scattered all throughout Disney World - designers hide them in their work to make reference to their founding mouse.

Anyway, the last time I was at Disney, I spent the WHOLE day looking for them. This is the tree of life from the Animal Kingdom. See if you can find Mickey here.

Venting

We don't need anything else from God. We may want it. But, I believe it is wrong to say that, "I need to be fed." No. 2 Pete 1:3 says that, "His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." We have been blessed to bless God and to bless others.

Worship IS NOT about us. In any way. It's not about what I like. It's about God. The only that I'm even involved is that I have to be the one to do it.

Perhaps we're in a situation where we don't understand what worship is. That may be the bigger issue. I'm arguing with someone about worship . . . but it doesn't work if we have different understandings of what worship is.

But I don't want to be a group of self-interested people gathering together for mutual self-interest.

Sorry, I'm venting. I'm in Orlando still following a 'heated' session.

Grace.

Orlando

My wife and I head to Orlando, this week. We're at the Sally Ann Territorial Youth Workers Confernce. I'm getting tired of conferences. I could literally spend all of my life at conferences and NEVER get a chance to do anything with it.

I am excited about seeing old friends though.

In any case, I may not be posting for a while. Hopefully, they'll have a wireless internet signal (maybe I'll buy a small wireless router) so I can post from the meetings.

Grace.

If we only understood . . .

Let me first say that I write this FULLY INCLUDING MYSELF in the thoughts . . . .

I wish we understood who Jesus is; who God is. I look around and I see Christians who will 'gossip' about how bad another Christian person is because they swear. I see young people who care only about themselves. I see adults that are content in their complacency. I see porn, and murder, and violence and "worship" and, for some reason, it's not required that those things be mutually exclusive.

All the while, I can't find anyone who will do anything about it; who will take a stand and confront and correct.

Maybe it's time I did. I wish someone would've (or would) do that for me.

Grace.

Continued Aggression

I've been thinking a little more about aggressive Christianity (by the way, you can get an electronic copy of Catherine Booth's Papers on Aggressive Christianity from http://www.armybarmy.com - it's an interesting read).

Realistically, when I "enlisted" in the Salvation Army, I signed up to be a member of an army, but my agreement doesn't include anything warlike. It says that I have to be faithful to my God, to be very, very, adament about holy living; but it doesn't say much about waring with any one or any thing. It does say that I will make every effort to 'carry on the salvation war' but doesn't really define what that is.

We are enlisting, then, soldiers that aren't required to act like soldiers.

I am confused, then from where this definition should come. Traditionally, we believe it should come from the top down, because the top is where most of the information is. They have the broad picture. I like the style of 'guerilla' spiritual warfare that is sprouting up - and in some places has intensely evolved. It's grass-roots. It's front line. It's got specific information about a couple of things. Extrememly accurate.

This I realize, is rambling on and on.

All I really want to say is that we need Delta Force to be an opportunity to take regular old soldiers and raise the stakes. The Soldiers of the Army are stagnant, but the agreement they made is a little ambiguous about what they should be doing, so they're doing exactly what they agreed to. Delta Force will be something more. Intense, specific, goal-oriented missions. Soldiers will be selected based on passion and will be held accountable to specific agreements.

Delta Force - the proactive (I still hate that word - help me find a synonym that's cool) soldiery of The Salvation Army. The Salvation Army SWAT (special weapons and tactics) team.

More to come.

Grace.

MacMini

OK, so I'm not a MAC freak but these new little MacMinis seem to be INCREDIBLE. I really want one - click on the title of this post to see it, btw. It's a whole computer and it's about the size of two CD Portables stacked on top of one another.

Other than that, it's been a busy week. We're gearing up for camp at work and doing a week long bible school at church.

At some point, I WILL sleep.

Grace.

ProActive Christianity

I hate the word proactive. I first heard in in driving school - or that's the first place I can remember hearing it. Didn't like it then either. It sounds too much like what stupid people say to sound smart. Sorry. Don't mean to offend . . . that's just what I thought. It's also very weird because I LOVE the word active . . .

Incidentally, I'm indifferent to the word passive.

But we're talking about proactive.

It literally means to act in anticipation of future needs, changes or problems.

And I think I pretty much describes what Jesus was. Which stinks, for me, because, as you will remember: I really don't like the word.

There's a lot of talk about Agressive Christianity - and it's not that I don't buy into it . . .

I just don't think its fantastic at universally describing how our Christianity should be. Granted, I'm no expert. Proactive seems to be a whole lot closer. I'm not against Aggressive Christianity, I think some believers are called to that outright, BOLD, in-your-face Chrisitianity. Correciton: I think ALL believers are called to an outright Christianity.

My thoughts, right now, lean towards a Jesus that was proactive in seeking out people that needed Him, not aggressive in cramming Himself down someone else's throat (as described in Catherine Booths Papers on Aggresive Christianity). But, he definitely made amazing efforts to love and to confront people and their sins.

Perhaps what we really have here is an arguement (by me) over words; mere semantics that really refer to the exact same style of Christianity. We may be describing the same point on a continuum from two different perspectives.

I have to think so more.

My own DESigns

OK, so though it's not as cool an endeavor as I had thought it WOULD be, I have some shirts at: http://www.cafepress.com/desmerizing that I, if no one else, really like. Check them out! The site doesn't let me have more than one version of a product - e.g. I can only have on green t-shirt . . . so I'm trying to find a way around that. As soon as I do, I'll get some more T's posted.

I think I may start selling T-Shirts - and other items of customizable merchandise. That seems like something I'd enjoy.

"The Jesus that We See . . . "

I was listening to "Army of the Lord" CD by Salvo songs yesterday. One statement jumped out at me. "The Jesus that we see, is the Jesus that we'll be." I think it explains a couple of things. Firstly, I think that it explains the broad problem of passive Christianity; people who have no concern for DOING anything to spread the gospel. They're the ones who wait for sinners to show up to the church and can describe their emotional reaction to the salvation of another as, "OK". They just don't know Christ. They don't see any particular Jesus - because I don't know any particular Jesus that portrayed that example.

Equally, I think that's why more people aren't gung ho for Aggressive Christianity. They don't know an agressive Jesus - it's hard to use Jesus' example in leading a war against a man who only seemed to get mad about what was going on in the church. That's one of the reasons that people didn't follow Him right? Weren't people expecting a warrior and didn't they blow Him off when they found out He wasn't?

Still, it's probably best to err on the side of action . . .

Grace.

Sugar Water Doesn't Change the World - Execpt to make it BIGGER

I'd heard this reference many times, but I finally read it in a book (for some reason, making it all the more believable). The story goes that Steve Jobs (founder of Apple Computers), when building his company, lured a top executive from Pepsi-Cola away from a VAST forture, into the unknown. Basically Jobs asked him, "Do you want to make sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want a chance to change the world?"

Touché.

Grace.

. . . praying for inspiration . . .

Stephanie and Tilden had their shower today. 'Twas nice. I felt for Tilden, though. It's always awkward to be the guy.

Grace.

Am I a geek because I get excited about web design? Is it OK to be OK with that?

Choose, this day, whom You will Serve?

God has been teaching me some interesting lessons on choice. In its simplest form, we all have choices to make which either confirm or discredit our claims to love Christ. In theory, it makes perfect sense. In practice, it is sometimes to get past ourselves.

Without going too much into my personal life, yesterday the Lord introduced me to a man named Wade. The choice I was presented with was to waste my afternoon, or to serve Christ. I chose Christ - hardly any other decision in my life was so clear.

The thing is, in making that decision, God showed me that most of my decisions are a whole lot clearer than I make them out to be.

Pray that the Lord will bless Wade. Pray hard.

Grace.

Free E-Books

Hey - There are a lot of FREE E-Books, dealing with Christianity, at this site:

http://www.jesus.org.uk/vault/library_ebooks_index.shtml

There are a lot of old classics there - interesting stuff. Even some Sally Ann stuff.

Grace.

John 14:12

Somthing else I've noted lately is that there is a lot of Scripture that, depending on what doctinal directives we believe at the time, we either emphasize or forget.

The first one that sticks out in my mind is that Jesus said that we can do even greater things SO THAT the Father is glorified. Not many of us seem to aspire to do greater things than Jesus - even though He said that we could.

Not sure why? I'll keep thinking.

Grace.

600

Happy 600th hit to me!

Don't Come to Church

I'm going to try to keep writing on "How We're Not Doing What Jesus Did" - I'm hoping that my thoughts come out clearly . . . because they probaby won't.

Brian McLaren writes that "Jesus didn't come to start another religion." I agree, based on the fact that he openly scolded the overly religious. His message was never about exlusive-ness, but that there is room for EVERYONE in the way of life that He proposes.

His message really seems to be summed up thusly:

• Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength
• Love your neighbour as yourself
• I died so that all the world could live
• Go tell others that I died so that all the world could live
• Don't get caught up in earthly things while you're going to tell others that I died so that the world could live

A far cry from the buffet-style church selection that we have available today, with minor doctrinal differences tearing apart congregations on a regular basis. It's no longer about the love, no matter what we say. It's about division. It's about protest (a la PROTESTantism). Because I don't believe that the Holy Spirit dishes out the gift of tongues to the same degree as others do, I have a sense that I can't expect to work with them.

But that's stupid. We both love Jesus. Shouldn't that unite us?

The more I read and hear and think, the more I fear that we are a group of self-interested people seeking more self-gratification. We may masquerade with service, saying that we're interested in others, but our talk leads me to believe that we're more interested in the blessings that come to us in return for the good that we do for others. At the very least, we use those blessings that come to us as a selling point to do good things.

Jesus didn't institutionalize anything. People institutionalize Jesus, to the point, as McLaren says, that he is more of our Mascot than our Master. We should produce Disney-style Jesus beards (like Mickey Ears) and sell them to our neighbours that come at Easter and Christmas. We're trying to sell Jesus instead of spreading his love on people.

Our message is more like:

• Love God as much as you can - we know there's a lot of things going on, so it's OK to spread your love a little thinner nowadays.
• Love your neighbours - you'll probably get something good out of it.
• Jesus died so that I, myself, could live.
  
• Go tell the people at your church that you know that Jesus died so that I, myself, could live.
• Don't get caught up in earthly things while you're going to . . . ooooh, not now, the superbowl is on.

Kind of related, hopefully is this: Jesus didn't plan evangelical crusades, or protest homosexual activity, or protest the stoning of alduterers, or demand that the sanctuary temperature be more strictly regulated, or the music be more appealing to his ears, or the scrolls be writen in a language that flowed more easily off of the tongue. He didn't debate whether or not a person is saved once forever, or many times after each back-sliding.

He, the perfect example from which we as disciples of CHRIST take our lead, spoke to people. He actively sought people out sometimes. Other times, they came to Him. He met their needs, whether they were grateful or not, whether they worshipped or not. He didn't ask them to come join a club, but rather to go and sin no more (He ACTUALLY sent them away!).

We could learn a lot from this Jesus guy.

This isn't really the way I was going to write this at first - so it probably means there will be more installments of it. In any case, I hope it makes sense.

Grace.

Visitors

As of right now - I've had 542 hits on this blog in under 2 weeks - that's more than I would have guessed.

So . . . Hi everyone.

Grace.

How We're Not Doing what Jesus Did

Sorry - I know it's been a few days - I've been travelling, dealing with allergies/ailments, attending funerals and visiting the dentist. My dentist got mad at me, incidentally, and said that if I were ever in a plane crash that there would likely be no way to identify me - since I have no fillings.

I think I'll deal with it.

I probably don't have time to expand on this thought a whole lot right now - but I read something very interesting last night. It talked about how we as Christians have a philosophy that, even if we don't do it, we SHOULD be bringing people into a church, a building, or a set of practices (not unlike the set of practices that we see today in the Christian places of worship all over the world). In other words, we want to de-culturize a people; we believe that the utmost of Christian practice, is Western Civilized World Christianity (e.g. Bible-Belt Christianity)

That's not what Jesus did, according to this author.

At least He didn't call people out of a WAY OF LIFE or a CULTURE. He warned people not to become obsessed with religious practises - a la Pharisees. He ministered to Romans, Samaritans, Jews, people from every place, and NEVER scolded them or put down their thoughts or culture or traditions or told them they were going to hell.

He engaged in dialogue, noting that the God of the Jews is about to provide a way for them to be saved (remember that Salvation used in the Bible hardly ever refers saving from hell and sin) and that they should live lives that honor the God of the Jews, their Creator, etc.

Theres a lot in this. Hopefully I'll get more added about it soon.

Grace.

Sometimes We Forget Who we are Not

The last time Kristy and I went to see Norah Jones, this guy Amos Lee opened for her. He was pretty incredible. He had an amazing stage presence, even when though was just him and his guitar. Very talented. Cool voice, great sound, fun lyrics . . . nice.

One lyric says this:

"Sometimes we forget who we are or who we are not."

It's very much a secular CD . . . but I love that God uses those too.

I've gotta do some more thinking on that lyric before I delve into it. In the meantime to to Amos' website. His new album, Clean, in on the same label as my good friend, Norah.

Grace.

I Got an Itch

This is keeping my promise from a few posts ago when I said I had this weird vision about the body serving itself (see "Whose Lord is it Anyway?" from a few days ago).

So . . . we have a body. When do we pay attention to it? Generally when we either are being vain or something is wrong. Example, we spend a lot of time focused at ourselves when we do our hair or makeup (not that I do makeup . . . I'm just trying to relate to y'all, yo). We have to tend to it when we itch or when we hurt. Sometimes, like if the itch is right in the middle of our back, we have to make a whole lot of effort to relieve it.

When we're paying attentino to ourselves we can't pay that attention to others. I realize that we often have to tend to our own problems . . . but I wonder how much God wants His body to serve itself . . .

Sorry . . . my mind works in strange ways, sometimes.

Grace.

It's a Boy('s car).

Exciting News:

Kristy and I are now proud parents . . . . of this car.

Cards and gifts can be sent to:

Me.

Why do I Love?

This morning, I was thinking about some issues I've been having - specifically, still dwelling on the "I love you, Jesus, for what you've done for me" issue that I see in myself and a lot of Christians. I probably won't have much to say about this, but I wanted to share these thoughts from today.

My wife (another person whom I love) often does stuff for me - for example, she often makes dinner, for example. Or she'll buy me little things at the store, or leave me little cards, or vacuum the floor, or whatever. But it's not her actions that make me love her - I don't love her for the fact that she prepares me a meal, or leaves me a card in my suitcase. I love her because of her character that motivates her actions (i.e. I love her that she is thoughtful and caring, not because of broiled chicken or sucking up dirt). It's awesome that she does that stuff - but there's something much deeper behind what I can see.

The very same is true of Christ. We say we love Him and/or praise Him for what He's done for us, for taking away our sins, for giving us life, for blessing us financially (i.e. for him doing and us getting). But he's got some premium characteristics that motivate HIS decisions to shower us with blessing that we tend to ignore substantially. He is the ULTIMATE in caring, the ULTIMATE in salvation (not only to us, but the the world; not only from sin, but from all kinds of bondage), the ULTIMATE in knowledge, and fairness, and loyalty, and every other good and perfect things.

Praise God for His character - not for His actions (as INCREDIBLE as His actions are). Praise HIM not because He has cleaned your house, and not even that he's cleaned the houses of MANY believers. Praise Him because He wants to.

Grace.

Could not be Saved by the Buoyancy of Citrus

Sad news - Mitch Hedburg died last night at the age of 37. Click on the title of this post for more information.

Grace

The Two Versions Below

Hey - just so you know - there are two versions of the entry below. I thought I had lost the first one. Then I couldn't remember everything that I had said.

Enjoy.

Whose Lord is it, Anyway?

"You TOO can have Jeeeezzzussss as yer own Personal savior!"

Whatever . . . OK, it's not that I don't believe it - I just think it's outrageously self-centered for a disciple of the most selfless man that ever walked the planet.

You will either be mad at me (a heretic) or agree with me after you read this post, I'm pretty sure.

I truly believe that we're way too self-interested. If you're a faithful reader, you probably have already noticed that. Yes, Jesus can forgive you of your sins, maybe He already has.

I'm sick of us thinking of him as our own personal commodity, like a swiffer savior or a virus scan. Ooooh, I'm feeling bad - run the Jesus program so I can feel better about myself.

When we think of Jesus as our "own personal savior", we are the making our own lives of the utmost importance. We go to church with the mindset, "What's in it for me?" And, when WE win anyone to Christ with that attitude, it becomes perpetuated. We build churches that are shopping malls of spirituality. We have some, "FEED ME, FEED ME" concept. As Brian McLaren says, we gather out of "mutual self-interest". They body is not here to serve itself (I just got a wonderful image of that which I will post later, stay tuned).

McLaren, whom I just mentioned, has a FANTASMIC book called "A Generous Orthodoxy" which deals with many of the thoughts that I've been having lately. I can't believe I let it sit on my shelf for as long as it has.

He talks about the difference between Universalist (everybody gets rewarded) and Exclusivist (only the select get rewarded) views. Jesus, I think, doesn't subscribe to either. What we do as Christians is focus on what happens after we die. Yeah, it's important. Notably, its importance increases in importance as your self-interest increases. Jesus' messsage was universalist in that it was for, "the whosoever." Imagine that, God wants his freedom available to all - not just those that happen to swing by the local corps on a sunday morning. Imagine if we welcomed those that wanted to be Christians and still continued to serve those who didn't.

Now we may have to go find them.

We have to start believing that it is better to give than to receive. Isn't that in the Bible somewhere? Did someone leave that out? What's intereting is that we have relationship and power from the creator of the universe and we're completely content to hoard it for ourselves. At least if we keep it, we know where we're going. If anyone else wants in, they have to come find us.

Jesus is Lord of all - sinner and saved both. He is Lord of the druggies. Lord of the homosexuals. Lord of the gossipers. Lord of the Liars. Ultimately, He will have some sway over their lives. Someday, every knee is gonna bow and confess . . . what? He's also Lord of those who won't/don't know how to share that love with others.

There's a lot more to Christianity than our own personal salvation. It's a nice perk. But that's really not what it's about. It's about being blessed, to bless others. Its about universally spreading the blessings of God that we receive with EVERYONE.

Lets stop the greed and REALLY share the love.

Grace

Whose Lord is it, Anyway?

"You TOO can have Jeeeezzzussss as yer own Personal savior!"

Whatever.

You will either be mad at me (a heretic) or agree with me after you read this post, I'm pretty sure. Yes, by the way, before you get TOO mad at me, I do believe that Jesus saves us, but I also believe that there's a whole lot more too it than He and I.

I truly believe that we're way too self-interested. If you're a faithful reader, you probably have already noticed that. Yes, Jesus can forgive you of your sins, maybe He already has.

I'm sick of us thinking of him as our own personal commodity, like a swiffer savior or a virus scan. Ooooh, I'm feeling bad - run the Jesus program so I can feel better about myself.

When we think of Jesus as our "own personal savior", we are the making our own lives of the utmost importance. We go to church with the mindset, "What's in it for me?" And, when WE win anyone to Christ with that attitude, it becomes perpetuated. "FEED ME. Sometimes you just need to be fed." Bull-plop. We build churches that are shopping malls of spirituality. As Brian McLaren says, we gather out of "mutual self-interest". They body is not here to serve itself (I just got a wonderful image of that which I will post later, stay tuned).

McLaren, whom I just mentioned, has a FANTASMIC book called "A Generous Orthodoxy" which deals with many of the thoughts that I've been having lately. I can't believe I let it sit on my shelf for as long as it has.

He talks about the difference in Universalist (e.g. everybody gets to heaven) vs. Exclusivist (e.g. only the saved get to heaven) religions and how Christ didn't come to prolong either of those views. Instead, Jesus came to give everybody a fair crack at meeting God someday - whether greek or jew, rich or poor, gay or straight. "Those who want to become Christians, " he says, "we welcome. Those who don't, we continue to love and serve." And I'd add, that we actively engage. Actively find out what their needs are and actively try to meet them. Instead of waiting for the day when all of the "sinners" come to the church not act, I don't know, like Christ and go serve them . . . . YES, prostitutes, drug addicts, homosexuals, gossipers, liars, the jealous, the proud, the self-righteous and all.

If we continue promote the idea that benefits are for the "saved", disaster is for the "unsaved", we're promoting the concept of "every man for himself". It's easy, then, not to care because a) you're already saved (e.g. nothing to worry about) or b) you could lose your salvation hanging out with sinners (e.g. to which I say get back to examining where you REALLY are.). McLaren's missional model says that the Gospel brings, get this, benefits to ALL. The nonadherants, as he calls them, benefit by the body's giving, the body benefits, because, apparently, scriptures say that it's actually better to GIVE than to receive (do you remember reading that?).

You're mission is NOT to figure out who deserves heaven. You're role is not judge. What is the Christian to do? Worship (e.g. not sing songs, but prove your love for God), take your blessings and bless others, not in spite of, but because of race, creed, sexual orientation, chemical dependancies.

If we look at how we've taken Jesus Christ and molded Him to our own image, and if we could, just ONCE, compare that to the real Christ, I honestly believe that we would be in for a horrible surprise. "Feed my sheep." he said. "Preach the Gospel!" He said. "Do to others as you would have them do to you." He said. We're missing something very important when we ascribe to what God told Abraham when they covenanted ("I will bless you and make you a great nation"). There's more to it. God says, " I will bless you and I will make you a blessing to others. I will make your name and nation great and through you all nations will be blessed."

Tell me again why we have so much when others have so little? God's blessed us beause we've been so enduringly faithful . . . seems to easy. AND, it seems premature to stop there.

Who do we really love?

Grace.

The Recabites

There is an amazing parallel to some of the issues that I've recently been thinking about regarding the Salvation Army in Jeremiah 35. Johnny and my wife and I were talking about it last night over coffee. If you click on the title of this blog you can read the passage at Biblegateway.com.

In fact, you'll need to read it for this post to make sense.

Anywho, Jeremiah was sent to the Recabites with a message for the Recabites. And he was supposed to offer them wine. And he did just as the Lord commanded.

But, the Recabites turned the wine down, saying, we don't drink wine because some old ancestor of ours told us not to - he also told us to live in tents and never plant crops, and a whole bunch of other "regulations" that we still hold to this very day. God later says, somewhere around verse 18, that that's commendable - but in the meantime, Jeremiah has to go back and tell the God's people that they can learn a lesson from this whole thing. The recabites didn't drink et al because an ancestor told them not too. But the people of Jerusalem wouldn't even hold true to God's commandments.

The question that I ask the soldiers among us is, "Why are we agreeing to what we are agreeing too?" Is it because an ancestor told us not to? Is it because William Booth said not to drink Alcohol? There's nothing WRONG with that. I would just hope our commitments go much deeper than that. I would hope that we would be listening to God and what he is saying.

My wonderful wife also brought up a good point. We're VERY self-righteous people. We boast about the commitments we've made. We scorn homosexuals and their lifestyle, we view our homeless neighbors as less worthy, but we're all about the gossip, and anything else thats really of no eternal consequence.

Our commitment to the Army, I'm more convinced, needs to be a commitment to the Army. We've already covenanted with God based on receiving Salvation alone. We've already agreed to certain terms an conditions. Our Articles of War needs to be primarily to the Army, saying that because I love God, I am motivated to FIGHT under these additional stipulations, not that I like the people here, and it's a great way to learn to play the trombone.

I mean we still need to keep Him in the loop . . .

Grace.

In the Army Now

It's time to stop talking about 'the Army' as if it has power to change itself. The more I talk to people about 'the Army', the more I realize that we have to take the plank out of our own eye. Here are some common misconceptions about 'the army".

1) The army makes me wear a uniform - No. As with every other morning of the week, Sunday morning you may choose to wear a lovely chiffon outfit - or a form-fitting black polyester outfit. Either way, your daily woredrobe is a choice.

2) The army overextends (e.g. burns-out) it's congregants (e.g. soldiers) - No. Corps Officers may ask us to do any number of things. Our congregations may lean pretty heavily on 3 or 4 people to do 95% of the work. But we can say, "No." Granted, it may mean that people won't like us - but that's an isolated people problem. It's not an Army problem.

3) The army wants me to never drink alcohol - No. If you're a soldier or an officer, yes, but only because you promised God that you wouldn't.

4) The army wants me to make life-long promises to it and to God at 14 years old - No. The army allows you to make those promises beginning a 14 years old (or 7 for Junior Soldiers), but corps officers and parents, along with the kids, should be the ones to decided when you can 'enlist'.

The Articles of WAR is NOT a membership agreement, or guidelines, our some cushy country-club contract. I'm not entirely sure when it became that. When the the term war become so laxodasical? Yeah, it IS a big deal - and I would ask parents, and corps officers, and youth group leaders, and brothers and sisters to make sure that the people in their realms are NOT being prematurely ushered into somethey they don't understand. It's definitely a big deal. That's the whole point.

It goes back to what I keep saying about choices. We choose each day whom we will serve, and each action speaks of that choice. We can also choose to live under the expectations of people or of God.

I'm in the Army now. I'm not a sunday morning conventionist. There are enough of those - not saying it's wrong - it's just not Army style. If God is calling you to to a traditional church - I pray you find the best one. I chose the Army. I continue to choose the Army. I'm trying to choose to not complain about what I've agreed to.

Grace.

The Salvation Security Force

Wouldn't it be sweet to have Soldiers and/or Officers appointed to various locations around the city for the sole purpose of being a visible unit of the Salvation Army. Just so people know that there are Salvationists around, at the ready to assist, to pray, to help . . .

I got thinking about that just a few nights ago - thinking about the Security Guards at the bus station (read http://charminultra.blogspot.com if you're confused) and how cool it would be to have the Salvation Army equivalent of that. Someone who would walk around, talk to people, be available if anyone had questions, and, more important, help Christ to be present wherever they are.

Just a cool thought.

Grace.

As if 12 Years of Bleeding wasn't Bad Enough . . .

I've got two things I want to share . . . things I've been thinking about this weekend at Youth Councils.

Thing the first: God wants us to declare our love for Him. Publically, emphatically, and truthfully. Here's why I think that . . . there was a woman who bled for 12 years due to disease. She's the one that touched Jesus cloak (inspiring every Newfie corps to sing 'If I couuld but touch the hem of his garment'!). Now, it says that as soon as she touched His clothes, she was healed - but the story goes on. It says that Jesus asked, 'Who touched me?' Like He didn't already know or something. He asked again and the woman came and worshipped at His feet - declaring to Him and to the large group around Jesus that she loved Him.

The Bible also says: "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people, if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7:14.

Show me you love me, then I'll bless you.

Second: I'm tired of the "Jesus is my best friend" analogy. I think it's wrong and terribly innappropriate. Jesus isn't my best friend. There are characteristics about my relationship with Him that allude to that - I can talk to him about anything, we love each other, I can trust Him, etc - but there are far more problems than benefits of using this comparison.

Example - If I think about Jesus as my best friend, even though I can talk to Him about anything, there are going to be times that I take Him for granted. There will be times that I would rather hang out with my wife than go out with my friends. Perhaps I'm just a bad friend, but I also don't feel like WORSHIPPING at the feet of my best friends. They don't deseve it.

We use this comparison to teach kids because they 'understand it better'. What's the point if they understand the concept of a friendship if the concept is WRONG as it relates to God. You get a bunch of teenagers and adults who don't understand that God is KING and who need to be 'reprogrammed' if they're really going to get it. Jesus is not primarily my FRIEND. The bible calls Him my Father, my Lord, and my KING, but I really don't know of anywhere where he's called a buddy, a chum, or a colleague. Let me know if I'm wrong.

Love Him for who He is . . . not what you want Him to be.

Grace.

Momentum

I'm AT Youth Councils - writing about an hour before our Saturday Evening meeting. It's been good so far. Very busy. But my wife is here. And she's my wife. It's the first time.

Anywho, to get here, I had to drive the HUGE Emergency Services 5-ton truck. It's big. And it was loaded with heavy things. It was my first time - I'd driven much smaller stuff. So, it was a little intimidating.

AKA, I was scared as a little school girl.

But what I noticed is that once I got moving, it's momentum did most of the work. It was a lot more resiliant to changing it's direction and smashing into Granny in the next lane.

Spiritual things are pretty big - might be hard - or intimidating. But once they get going . . .

Grace

Crazy Times . . .

Sorry, loyal readers. It's been a crazy week. Youth Councils is coming up this week so my life is CRAZY right now. But, hopefully I'll have time to think about other things again soon.

CharMin Ultra

Just in case you don't know - I have another blog that I maintain - called CharMin Ultra that details what happens during our Sunday Night Charlotte ministry. Feel free to check it out.

The Breast Advice I can Give

Today's sermon was about how the Christians' job is to prepare the bride of Christ for their eventual marriage. It was a very cool concept. Think for yourself . . . how would you feel if you had to leave the picking of your spouse to your best friends? That's EXACTLY what Christ has done.

Anywho, as an illustration, Johnny referred to the Rock Opera, Tommy which has an exchange involving these lyrics: "See me, hear me, touch me, heal me." Johnny went on to say how there is a world that is crying these very words . . . a world that wants to be seen and to be touched and healed.

That's where God stepped into my sermon experience. He really got me thinking about a lot of stuff. Particularly stuff like pornography, even just the border-line exploitation that we see in music videos; even stuff like Janet Jackson's breast at the Superbowl. We get so shocked, and so offended at some things. We're so self-righteous about our puritanism, but for whatever reason, it's OK for us to be non-united as a body, looking for entertainment in church, etc, etc.

All the while, hip-hop music videos, playboy magazine, the media, and a whole HOST of everything else in our culture is SCREAMING at us that they want to be touched and healed. That they want to know Christ. But we're offended because the superbowl half-time show was a disgrace. We're fighting the wrong battle here people. Too bad the world doesn't know Christians for our love.

This perceived 'escalation' in immorality as of late makes me think that God is just turning up the volume on our TV sets. The world and our God is yelling, "WHAT'S YOUR PROBLEM? CAN'T YOU SEE THAT THE WORLD NEEDS JESUS? WHY DO YOU KEEP TURNING AWAY?"

The problem is, when we're in a 'loud' environment we often choose to leave the room rather than turn down the volume. How long does God have to yell? If we're so SURE of our salvation why are we worried about losing it? For the record, it's not a sin to see a breast on television. You probably shouldn't go looking for them afterwards . . . but it sure wouldn't be a bad idea of getting down off of our pedastals of self-righteousness. We hung our king on a cross . . . our perspective on everything else should probably be gauged by that fact.

Nothing should even compare.

Pimp my God

I'm continuing to think about worship . . . a lot. It concerns me. We've done the same thing to the word worship that has been done to the word Church. The Church was not a building, but now that it is, we have to go there to meet with Christ, and to be a Christian, depending on who you talk to. In the same kind of way, we have made worship about us, and have tried to customize for ourselves a God that likes what we like. It's comforting to have the master of the universe on your side. It's even more comforting to be able to tell Him what He likes.

Pimp my God . . . trick Him out so He's exactly what I want.

Unfortunatly, X to the Z can't do much to change what God wants. Neither can we. God has this funny thing where he wants us to love Him. He wants that love to flow from us, whether we are particularly fond of it or not. But instead, we say things like, 'God made me to like contemporary music.' Sure. You enjoy contemporary music . . . I hope we can still worship God if we go deaf, or mute, or all of the acoustic guitars in the worlds are destroyed by a freak sandstorm (sorry, looking for something ourrageous: it's the best I could do).

The other thing that's been wearing on my heart is 'infighting' as Gwenyth Redhead recently put it. I just couldn't find the right word to use. Thanks, Gwen. We gossip, and we talk about people behind their back, and we talk about peoples' views behind their back. We declare ourselves good stwards of our resources, when we use our energy to debunk a fellow believer with whom we don't agree.

All the while, Satan sits just outside our peripheral vision . . . cheering us on. As long as we are preoccupied with the one who doesn't appreciate OUR style of worship, Satan is free to do whatever he well pleases.

¹As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ²Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. ³Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴There is one body and one Spirit–just as you were called to one hope when you were called– ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.

Grace. There's much more to come.