Preaching To the Choir

Every once and awhile a song will come along that I can only explain as an encounter. The artists involved in its creation probably heard its faint whispers from their vantage point whilst they were soaking before the Throne of the Grand Composer. Well recently I heard the song “All the Poor and Powerless” by Sons & Daughters. The lyrics, harmony and instruments tug on your heart. It has recently become the central soundtrack to where ever God is leading me right now.

The other day as this song’s lyrics were resonating in my thoughts I found myself reading the below scripture in which the ancient Prophet Ezekiel was reprimanding the spiritual leaders…

+Ezekiel 34: 4-6 You have not taken care of the weak. You have not tended the sick or bound up the injured. You have not gone looking for those who have wandered away and are lost. Instead, you have ruled them with harshness and cruelty. ⁵ So my sheep have been scattered without a shepherd, and they are easy prey for any wild animal. ⁶ They have wandered through all the mountains and all the hills, across the face of the earth, yet no one has gone to search for them.

My heart quite literally breaks at passages like this. What a tragedy that God would ever have to speak out against the leaders of the Church. These very people who are supposed to be a picture of God to those around them—they are not even seeking out the lost. But can I say that today, here and now, we are really even beyond that? I am sure that you are able to come up with one or two ‘christians’ that could fall into the category of this scripture. Would someone else name you? Maybe I should instead ask whether you would name me?

I recently read a poem by a class mate that recounted her experience growing up in a ‘christian school.’ After lines about the rigidness of the program she writes, “God I am willing to acknowledge you/ But after twelve years of being forced to do so,/ I am not willing to step back into your house.” The saddest part about the conclusion of her poem is I can’t really blame her. Too often it seems many Christians, well meaning or not, have driven people away from the Church rather than welcoming them in. When I read this poem written by a friend I wanted to grab her by the shoulders and beg her to remember, the church is not GOD. GOD doesn’t disown you when you do wrong. He doesn’t disqualify the broken, and He doesn’t abandon the needy. But as I had this thought-- I felt my heart sink. No, the hurt people who dwell with in the walls of the church—they are not God himself. But should I really be pleading with someone to not view the church as God? The Church is supposed to put flesh to the Words and Actions of Christ.

One Sunday morning as I was singing in worship at my home church, the room was erupting and passionately singing out the lyrics “Shout it out, go on and tell it to the mountains, go on and scream it to the masses, that He is God.” I had to stop and think, are there those of us that actually go out and truly proclaim his goodness like we so comfortably sing from inside the walls of church? How many of us are really living lives that declare who the LORD of our life is? Are they walking out of these doors after singing these songs and screaming to the masses about our God? Am I?

I don’t have some super solution to the sickness I see in many parts of the Body of Christ, I know that many a church is being used in amazing ways. Not supposed to despise small beginnings right? Start small, start here. Live what you believe, let word and deed go together. I know there are genuine leaders and people in churches world-wide, I guess I am writing simply to ask you to allow your words and actions to not be contradictions. Help the word Christian deviate from being a synonym for judgment and hypocrites. Maybe we’ll reach a day where the cry won’t ever have to be uttered, “Jesus—save us from your followers.”

Love Much

+Luke 7:47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love.”

If I were to be entirely honest with a person sitting across from me at a coffee shop in regards to this verse, I would have to say that it haunted me for a time. My first reaction to reading this scripture is something akin to having wounded pride. The thought flickers through my mind, ‘just because I didn’t spend a season of my life purposefully walking away from God-am I only able to love others to a certain capacity?’ Maybe I even allowed myself to buy into this lie because it was a way to pacify my apathy when it came to love in action. These thoughts amongst others have lead to me grappling with the validity of a testimony that is surrounded by the walls of churches. Mine was a childhood surrounded by felt boards and Easter sunrise breakfasts (which I clearly remember sleeping through).

As I got older, and people would ask what my testimony was, I began to feel like didn’t have anything worth telling. I knew God had saved me, but was it possible that having grown up knowing about him from day one could have actually negated my ability to experience his grace in some way? God had miraculously rescued people in my life from life altering addictions, he had healed them from terminal illnesses, He had plucked them out of cycles of familial destruction. Me? I said a prayer when I was five years old. Big deal.

In the last few years God has begun to show me the reality behind the lie I had believed. In the very act of letting myself think this way I had begun to buy into the Pharisee’s propaganda, after all what had I been forgiven of? You know, since I had grown up in church.

+James 2:10 And the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as the person who has broken all of God’s law.

Just because my sins have been so much more inverted then that of someone who found salvation on the streets doesn’t mean I’ve been saved from any less. The question that I now have had to wrestle with is whether my hypocritical tendencies are worse than an open disobedience. But does it matter? I can’t judge the actions and heart of another when I have been hiding behind the faith of my parents for half of my life. In the past years I came face to face with the ugliness of religious routine. I found that it traveled often with it’s best friend of being offended quickly. But my life, though it may not be a spiritual Cinderella at first glance, is all the same a testament to the faithfulness of a powerful and loving God. Is a shattered life put back together any more miraculous then the whole piece of glass remaining intact?

No matter that state you find yourself in—you have a story to tell about God’s grace at work in you. This truth has only become all the more clear as I continue to be privy to the stories of other’s lives. Never take for granted the chapter God has written for you. Don’t write yourself out of it by assuming someone else is better or lower than you.

I have been forgiven for all the things I’ve thought, for all the things I’ve done and for all the things I would have done if I didn’t have the people in my life God has blessed me with. My one lie, my one hard hearted response to God-more than qualified me for separation from my Savior. Yet I find myself with a melancholy smile playing on my lips this night, as I am—underneath it all—content. I’ve been forgiven much. God help me to also love much.

As a Result

                God did it again. You know, when he sneaks up behind you and puts his finger on that one lesson that you've learned one thousand times before-but got so busy and distracted that your forgot it again? Yeah, he did that to me. I was reading during my God time and came across a verse I had already underlined in my Bible. This means of course that I at some point found it profound and wanted to remember it. However this day as I read over the verse one single phrase stuck out.

 
 

+ 1 Thessalonians 3:12-13 (NLT) "And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. ¹³ May he, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Jesus comes again with all his holy people. Amen."

 
 

Did you catch it? Paul is encouraging the believers to continue in the pouring out of their lives in love. We all know about the times that Jesus specifically shared how the greatest commandment, even about the Law of Moses, is to LOVE the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and to LOVE your neighbor as yourself. (Matt 22:34) How far we stray from this reality of faith! How many churches make the Gospel all about the style of music they play, or the color of the carpet-or my personal favorite, the version of Bible you read. That's a deal breaker. No, Jesus on more than one occasion stressed what the hinge of the door of salvation was-love. To love God, and to love others.

 

Now while many a church is debating whether the keyboard is worse than a drum set there are many Christians who are working on their spiritual complexion. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not just harping on churches. I love church. I love the body of Christ; there is just the reality that many who claim to be part of this body are actually currently taking a saw-zaw to their ankle. I don't feel too horrible about calling out the pride filled Christian because I've been there. I've been self focused and misdirected. But God's grace and loving family have helped me realign my own focus. Like I said, we as 'the church' can get so wrapped up on achieving holiness that we forget the reason that we are to be holy. God called us to be holy-for he is holy. But his holiness draws the lost to repentance. It's always about others; it's never been just about you. We have to stop getting so caught up in fixing ourselves that we stand right in front of a person and watch them crumble, and we never lift a finger from our own face to help them.

 

I want to propose to you that you should stop fixing yourself. Some friends and I have been discussing this and it just keeps coming up. Now this isn't to say that we ignore our own problems, Jesus also addresses hypocrisy. Yes grow, be challenged and address the issues in yourself-but not at the expense of the people in your life. If we would open our eyes, if we would stop looking in the mirror then maybe, just maybe, others would have the chance to see the piece of God you've been so zealously polishing and hording. If you read the scripture I mentioned again, it says that God is working out love in our life, so that it over flows—and as a result we become strong and blameless and holy. And isn't the Bride of Christ supposed to be spotless and holy? How else are we ever going to get there without love?

Love other people today. Let God do a work of holiness in you. He calls us to be holy like he is holy-and he is love, as a result, God will see us as holy.

 

 

 

“Summer Air from Somewhere”

Summer air symphony outside my window,

Riding on the fresh after breath of the moon.

What if I could catch you in a jar and study your unique tune?

Who is it that directs with sounds so sweet?

Do the stars twinkle to keep the time?

I wonder whether the crickets know their strings were assembled by the Divine.

The breeze that builds the acoustics so resounding,

Helps to amplify the trees rustling percussion.

Me? I am just a passerby who paused as I sauntered past the amphitheater.

This one located at the somewhere along the intersection between dream and thought.

I marvel at the harmony so true-

A sound hardly touched by ivory and wood.

This summer's symphony will soon give way to autumns textures and colors,

A canvas composed of artistic picture rather than a midnight song.

No matter the lyric, artistry or allure-the author tis all the same.

He is the one who sings the melody, a thread woven through all our joy or pain.

Heavy notes of love and faithfulness-so soothing for one to hear.

So whether you sleep, wake or rise-

Remember who you are in this grand composer's eyes.

End the question of the summer air from somewhere-the source is deeply known.

When it next comes to mind-take the time,

To listen to that which is sung around the throne.

A summer air's song from somewhere.

The Door Unopened

As usual, I have found a new meaning in a portion of scripture I've never seen enlightened before. A new dawning of understanding came over me as I was reading through the ministry of Peter and his adventures in Acts. I found myself reading the account of when he was in prison and has a miraculous release from his bonds. I previously blogged about how God spoke to me having a grasp on the vision for your dreams and future in "Following your vision out of the prison." This time around through Acts God placed his finger on another arena entirely. He was making my throat close and heart pound at the question-do you love me enough to wait for me?

You see, once Peter was lead out of

the prison in Acts 12, we then see him coming to the home of friends who were interceding on his behalf while in bondage. Now this is one of those instances that this narrative of Peter may not have been inspired by the Spirit for this exact illustration-but God wanted to speak to me, and I believe you, on this subject-and this particular passage is what he used. As Peter arrives at the door, the people inside are praying their guts out for him. They want him to just magically show up. They are praying a prayer that most in the back of their m

inds may be thinking, if ONLY he would just miraculously show up at our door-if ONLY God was supernaturally deliver him! And then, the most amazing thing happens. As the people in the house are eagerly and ardently seeking God for Peter to be with them-a knock on the door is heard. A young gal runs to the door-looks to see the answer to her prayers-Peter at the door. So what does she do? Does she burst open the door like an excited grandmother receiving her check from Publisher Clearing House!?! No…she runs back to the room where the others are and declares "He's here!"

How odd. Think about it, the answer to her prayer is there, but she is more excited to tell others about it then to experience the miracle. The thing God showed me was what made my throat close a little. Take this and make it an analogy of your spiritual life. As I looked at it in this filter-I am the person in the house, praying and praying for God's presence, for an encounter with him, for a flicker of his voice, for a sense of his beautiful face. We pray, we cry, we eat dirt in our 'prayer closet'. Then at the first sense of his presence-when the goose bumps rise on our arms we think mission accomplish and leave our room after a time spent in the word and think "mission accomplished," but we just heard a knock, recognized Jesus and ran off telling everyone how huge our God time just was. How often do we turn away before really ope

ning the door to let the Father enter his Temple?

How often at that first little sign we boast to others of the righteousness

we feel we're experiencing- but Jesus is still outside the door waiting?

What if we opened the door

to him fully when he knocked, when he came as we so ar

dently prayed for him to come?

What if God actually came to the door with intentions of going inside?

The Word says in Revelation 3:20 "Here
I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

He doesn't want you to run away at the sound of his voice and think that is all there is. He wants to spend time with you- he wants to be nourished with you. Imagine that, we are certainly strengthened in his presence, but he finds joy, fellowship, and yes strength and delight in spending time was us to! How much more could we be used, how much more of Jesus would we know if we opened the door? Then look, really look at what the Word says after those inside FINALLY open the door for Peter…

"Meanwhile, Peter continued knocking. When they finally opened the door and saw him, they were amazed." (Acts 12:16)

The pastor at my church said something this last week that made me catch my breath, one of those confirmations from God- "The degree of value you place on the presence of God determines the measure of access you have to the impossible." We should jealously guard our time with God-value it, make it a priority and never underestimate what God has planned for you. Do now allow this to lay guilt on you, may it place you in holy dissatisfacti

on with your time with God. May you hear his continuous knocking, his calling to us-his yearning to answer your prayers-and let him in. Let his presence saturate your life.

Lord teach us to wait on you, may we not sell ourselves short so that we run and get all self-righteous about the whisper we heard from you when you want to fellowship and have a conversation with us. God we want to see you face to face-give us the patience and endurance and expectation to walk forward and open the door.

(Photo by Linda Sannuti- check out her awesome pics at http://linda-sannuti.artistwebsites.com )