When heaven comes down

What’s the deal with heaven? We rarely think of it. We want to go there, or at least not to hell. But we have our whole life ahead of us. We have dreams we want to fulfill. We want a spouse, a house, and some kids. Guys have adventures to tackle, mountains to climb or promotions to earn. Chicklets want spa days to enjoy, romantic dinners to share or to start their own business. With all of these dreams yet unfulfilled, where is the room to long for the after-life? Of course we want heaven, but at a much more convenient time…translation – after I’ve lived a full life.

The Bible speaks of the eternal state as New Heavens and New Earth populated by New People (Rev. 21 & Rom 8). Along with these things which God reforms or restores to perfection there will be the absence of some old and familiar things.

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away. Revelation 21:4

No tears, no death, no suffering, no pain.

Maybe that is the key. The reason we don’t long for the next life is because this life has not yet come in contact with pain and loss. Maybe that is why the apostles spoke longingly of heaven, they suffered….alot. Maybe that is why old people long for heaven…they’ve lost all their friends and many family members and their bodies are decaying. Maybe that is why the parents who have lost an infant long for heaven, because death and mourning is a reality to them.

If you have suffered, wept, lost or tasted the bitterness of death your longing for rest will be realized. Charlie Hall captures this longing beautifully in a recent song.

Come For Me
Jesus come take me away,
I long to see your face
This world is broken yet beautifully made,
Jesus come take me away,

Jesus today I am tired,
I need your music to come and inspire
I give myself to be refined in this fire,
But Jesus today I’m so tired,

You’ll come again with a shout,
Like a thief in the night you’ll come riding on clouds
Finally the voice I have followed for life
Has a glorious face that is lit up with light
And you’ll come for me,
no more pain, peace,
no more fear, release,
just lost and consumed with my glorious King,

Remember the Hills

This past weekend 12 of us from 727 left town and ventured down to Hocking Hills. We got far enough away that we could see the stars. It was a time to laugh and play and discuss our faith. We stayed at this quirkily designed but sweet little lodge that really fostered a family-style experience. We stayed up late, we ate a bit fat breakfast and we burned some serious carbs on Saturday with both a 2 1/2 mile hike and a 5 mile canoe trip. See more photo's. In addition to fun we challenged each other in 2 areas of faith:



What should I do? We all agreed that we want to please God, but we often wonder exactly what God wants us to do. And sometimes we end up doing nothing and letting moments of opportunity pass us by. The "more spiritual" of us cunningly suggest we are praying about it, but really we are just afraid to act. So we challenged each other to repent from our sin of inactivity with the words JUST DO SOMETHING.

Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it. James 4:17

What difference can I make? We want our lives to count and as we watch opportunities pass us by we see our moment slipping away. So talked about the needs we each see and the gifts we each have and the passions that are on our hearts. Then we discussed that fact that when you make an impact often times it impacts you. When we mark others we can get marked or scarred or wounded. It is just part of the game.

What would happen if every place we went, every environment we stepped into, we would look around and ask ourselves, 'Is there a way that I can make an impact? Is there a way that I can leave a mark and through my life leave the fingerprints of God all over someone else's life? Erwin McManus

The choice is up to you...

I came across a statement by Erwin McManus, in his recent work "Chasing Daylight" that highlights the importance of choice.

"The most spiritual activity you will engage in today is making choices. All the other activities that we describe as spiritual - worship, prayer, meditation - are there to connect us to God and prepare us to live."

Make a choice.

Do you feel connected?

Do you have relationships with a few other people? Real relationships…more than acquaintances. People who you can turn to in tough times and they’ll care for you. People who know you well enough to see you veering off track and step in to draw you back. People that you can call your people. If not you feel lonely and disconnected.

I ask this because I’m thinking about you, knowing that you need a few real friends. And I also ask because I care about the church, which I believe should be a place where you find a few real friends. If that doesn’t happen, either there is a problem with you or with the church.

I recently read Andy Stanley’s book “Creating Community.” I read it in a day. It tells the story and strategy of North Point Community Church, which states as their goal “to encourage all people to move into a small group.” And they are doing it. They observe that today’s church are filled with "crowded loneliness” and that “isolation breeds selfishness.” Their small group purpose is “To provided a predictable small-group environment where participants experience authentic community and spiritual growth.”

Most people won’t argue against wisdom like “Christian community is the final apologetic” (Francis Shaeffer) or “God creates in us a “human-shaped-void” that God himself will not fill” (John Ortberg). Most completely agree and honestly say, where can I find such a place. I suggest the church.

I agree with Larry Crabb who says, “the center of Christian Community is connecting with a few” (Connecting, xiii). So do you feel connected? Do you have a few people that will be there with you or for you or a few people that you will be there for? Are you connected to people that are journeying through life with you to laugh & celebrate and if necessary cry with you?

Kyle's Film

Kyle Lake, 33, the pastor of University Baptist Church (David Crowder's church) on the campus of Baylor University in Waco, TX died an untimely in 2005 during a baptismal service. He left behind a wife and 3 young kids. This film will memorialize his legacy and has grown into a nationwide phenomenon.

John Maxwell rethinks ministry

I was reading the Sept/Oct 2006 Rev. Magazine today and came across an interview with John Maxwell. He was a pastor for 25 years, then made the jump to corporate leadership training, by spearheading Injoy. His answer to one question in particular sparked my interest...

Q: What would you do differently if you were starting (pastoring) over today?

A: I'd have a lot less church; I'd have less programs; I'd have less services. I'd have a lot less of everything....one of my major mistakes was thinking that life revolved around the local church and what we were doing... If I had it to do over again, I'd have people doing a lot more ministry outside the church, in their workplace or in their community or in their volunteer organizations. I'd find out where they had the greatest influence and make their ministry where their greatest influence was, not confine it to a church.

What if we did that?
What if everyone invested time ("had a ministry") outside their church?
How would ministry outside the church affect the life of the church?

To read the rest of John Maxwell's comments....

What’s on your iPod?

What if God saw your playlist? Some churches are taking this “God on the Pod” business pretty seriously. Read more...

Suffering for Cheeses

Creative highschool kids who are suffering for promoting their love for Jesus are outsmarting their persecutors by wearing “I love Cheeses” shirts which “when spoken, is almost undistinguishable from ‘I love Jesus’. Read more...

When I think of Suffering for being a Christian I have one of two responses. I can laugh or cry. The joke above is my typical response, a nervous attempt at laughter motivated by personal conviction at my extremely comfortable life. The other option is sadness that some suffer and that my life as a Christ-follower does not warrant such suffering. Am I doing something wrong, I often wonder?

If you want to read some Scripture about how to suffer as a Christian, you want to spend some time in 1 Peter. Peter wrote to Christians who are spread abroad in hostile foreign lands and as a result faced some agonizingly tough times. And what I read, shocks and floors me.

It reads in 4:12 “do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you.” Do not be surprised….are you serious! That’s not me. I am completely surprised… stumped… shocked when an ounce of difficulty comes to me. ‘But what about my rights’, I protest. ‘I don’t deserve this’, I retort. I know I shouldn’t be, but I am.

In the next verse he says, “rejoice” when we suffer. Again I my hand goes up…you can’t be talking about me. I don’t take joy when my rights are constrained, when my freedom is curtailed or when my happiness is impinged upon by others. Can you see that not only do I not suffer, but I struggle even with the idea. I should rejoice, but I can’t.

My only hope is for God to help me “not be surprised” and “rejoice” in suffering for His name. I can’t, but he can. So if I press into him and identify with him, “working out my salvation” through faith in him. Then he, through me, can accept and rejoice in suffering for Him. God help me.

Big Hairy Monsters

What will happen when Jesus Returns? That was the question we were tackling on Tuesday night. I was personally excited to walk through the biblical-timeline of glorious appearing of our blessed hope. I was sure that a greater understanding of Pre-Tribulation Rapture and Pre-Millenial Return of Christ would be an exciting topic and would foster greater evangelistic zeal within our group.

Then yesterday I spotted it. Someone had left their notes behind from the lecture. I glided over and proudly picked it up to see how well received the topic was. I secretly hoped that they had written their name on the top, so that I could return these valuable notes to them.

And this is what I picked up. I guess I held the attention of this guy (or gal) for the first 10 minutes, then they proceeded to draw big hairy monsters as I waxed eloquent on the finer details of the rapture and millenium. It does look like someone has some artistic promise. I feel it only right to return such fine drawings to their rightful owner and I hope to recruit this individual to our new cartoon drawing ministry. Please come forward to receive your prize and our admiration.

All You Need Is Love?

"….knowledge puffs up, but love builds up." 1 Cor 8:1

Doctrine divides, just love others like Jesus. Theology is cold and impersonal, but my faith is simple. I’ve often heard this verse used to support less focus on teaching and more focus on loving others. Would such an idea really be passed on by a guy who challenged his understudy to “preach the word” (2 Tim 4:2) or who encouraged a fellow church leader with “teach sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1)? I’m not trying to grind the axe that everyone needs a seminary degree, what I’m asking is what is Paul really driving at here?

What is puffed up? The picture is a balloon getting inflated or puffed up by air. Some people because of a certain degree of spiritual insight think themselves bigger or better than they are. They are prideful or arrogant. Is this talking about just any knowledge? NO…it is the realization that meat sacrificed to idols is fair game for eating because idols are nothing but man-made toys (1 Cor 8:4), even if some take them seriously.

The rub in Corinth was not that this knowledge was bad, but that not all possessed this knowledge (8:7). So you are dealing with the haves and the have-nots. The have-nots would see a fellow Christian eating meat to idols and would get wigged out because they used to do the same thing as part of their former idol worshipping days. As a result they would become conflicted about their new life in Christ and might stumble back into idolatry or at least would lose some serious sleep over it. And to cause such a stumble is a sin against that brother and against Christ (8:12).

The knowledgeable Christians had a right to eat meat (8:9). But if they did so in the wrong setting it becomes arrogant and prideful not loving. It then doesn’t build up the church, it tears it down. Paul could have discounted knowledge, but instead he affirmed it (8:4-6). His point is not less knowledge, but knowledge without love is sin.

The point can’t be love without knowledge… that is irresponsible.
It is certainly not knowledge without love… that is arrogance.
It must be knowledge with love… that is enriching.

War, Swords & Spirits

I love God's law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
(Rom 7:22-23)

The life of a follower of Jesus is joy… it is peace… it is life… and it is war. War?! We have received a gift of new life, real life you might say. Salvation is the restoration of our total being towards shalom or wholeness of mind, body and spirit. Yet our new life, the Christian life, is the process of feeding the new nature which loves God and simultaneously killing our old nature which loves sin. There is within us all a part which loves sin…so what is your poison? Anger, jealousy, pride, sex, back-stabbing, gossip, lust, gluttony, laziness, self-indulgence, caffeine, alcohol.

We are at war, in ourselves to kill these old desires and awaken new desires. Not to repress or cover over or avoid these desires but to kill, strangle, suffocate, lynch, mortify them. How? By the spirit. So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh… but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will live (Rom 8:12-13).

How do we engage the Spirit of God to kill the sin our lives? By feasting on the Word of God which is the Sword of the Spirit (Eph 6:17). Apart from faith in the Word of God we will disconnect the very power that is able to kill sin our lives. We must fight fleshly desires with all our might, but that alone will not kill sin. The dynamic power of the Word of God cuts to the heart and is the instrument the Spirit uses to root out the cancer of our sin. Don’t make peace with sin and cover it up, call a war. Don’t try to tame it, kill it by the Spirit. Embrace the war. Expose the war. Engage the war.

For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires (Heb 4:12).

Run the Race

I lay in bed at 7am on Saturday morning and I didn't feel like running. For a bit of context, I've been training to run the Columbus marathon for about 6 weeks now. Saturday morning is the long run day and I was schedule for 13 miles this past Saturday. But as I lay in bed half awake knowing what was before me, I simply had no desire to run. I thought out all of the reasons why I should sleep in and why running that day was not the wisest use of my time. I felt flat, windless, like my batteries needed to be re-charged. I didn't think I had 13 miles in me.

Have you ever laid in bed on Monday morning and said, "I don't feel like being a Christian today"? I sure have. It sometimes happens after I have been doing a lot of church stuff and I'm just tired. Or sometimes when I feel stressed about a situation or people that I've had to deal with. Or other times when I'm starting to lose the passion or the dreams that God has placed in me. I'll wake up and hit the snooze button and say, Not Today, I just don't want to do it. I don't think I have 24 hours of being a Christian in me.

I've heard that in marathoning the most difficult part is the training. It is stretched out over months and covers a few hundred miles. It takes discipline, it takes perseverance and even support from others. It's the same way with being a follower of Christ.

Life is a marathon and the biblical writers pick up this running/athletic theme to teach us how to run the race of life. First, we have a crowd cheering us on so we should "run with endurance the race that is set before us..."(Hebrews 12:1). Second, successful running requires self-discipline which prepares us to "run to win" (1 Corinthians 9:24-25, 1 Tim 4:7).

Probably the most encouraging idea to me, when I don't feel like being a Christian is the fact that "God has given us everything we need for living a godly life" (2 Peter 1:3). Nothing is hidden from me. Nothing has been held back. I don't need more I just need to tune in with what has already been given. The power is there. The resources are there. So let's run to win.

John Owen on Sin

Do you mortify; do you make it your daily work;
be always at it while you live; cease ot a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you."

John Owen
17th Puritan

The Face of Success

How do you define success? Success is a haunting word for some and a fleeting idea for others. And in the world of ministry, where heart transformation is the goal, it can often be difficult to measure. In this picture are the faces of nearly 40 campers and 1 dozen volunteers who made up the Northwest Soccer Camp.

By many standards of measurement this years camp was not a success, but a failure. First, this years attendance was less that 50% of last years attendance (40 down from 90). Second, we lost money running the camp this year. Third, we had no kids respond to the gospel invitation (compared with 7 last year). What I'm saying is that numbers were down. And I honestly struggled with that. I lost sleep over that...because I don't want to be a failure.

And interestingly enough my antidote was draped across my back. That was where this year's camp slogan was placed on our t-shirts, which read: "SUCCESS = ATTITUDE + ABILITY". We used that slogan to challenge the campers with the 3 keys to a successful attitude. Maybe my focus on the camp numbers was the source of my dour attitude. So lets look at the situation from a different angle.

We did have 40 kids who not only learned soccer but were challenged with biblical truths about successful attitudes. I wonder what seeds were planted in their hearts that might have an exponential return in the future. We did have 16 kids who had never been to our church before. I wonder how the hearing of the gospel now will affect them down the road. And don't let me forget the 2 dozen volunteers who spent their free time and vacation time to pull this off. What impact will their selfless investment have on them and the kids into whom they poured themselves.

When I look into the faces of this picture that I see people, not numbers. And it is hard to see failure when you invest in people. Because God cares about people, we must focus on the people whom he allows us to serve, not focusing on those whom we don't.