Category Archives: Revelations

Not the miss-pronounced name of the book in the Bible (it’s Revelation… no “s”)

Self Righteous, Self Serving, Isolationists

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So one of the many things I have the privilege of doing is helping tend the Web Store for a friend’s band. Recently the band has been challenged by an opportunity to perform in a very public and noteworthy venue. That’s prompted some interesting responses from those who claim to be fans. Today, I saw an email from a supposed fan that pushed me over the top.

In his email he was chastising the band for calling themselves a “Christian” band but playing “secular” venues and music. He pointed out verses of Scripture (out of context mind you) which he thought helped him build his case for an isolationist approach to living “the Christian life”. What he must have forgotten was the verse which was in his email signature and went out on all of his emails:

” And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. ”

—Mark 16:15

How can you “Go” if you stay in the walls? And it actually carries a meaning of “as you are going”. How can you preach lest you are in venues that provide and audience for the message? He likens the band to Satan who elected for power and tried to overturn God. He called for them to drop out of the commitment to participate in the venue in order to keep commitments to “the Christian community”.

I watched the End of the Spear the other day. First time I’d seen it. One of the things that struck me about the movie was the comment of the dad about the missionaries not shooting the natives if the missionaries were in danger because the natives were not ready to meet Jesus and the missionaries were.

Too bad this guy who sent the email was a missionary who was ready to shoot the missionaries for going to the natives.

Today’s Quote of the Day

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So this was the quote of the day served up by my custom home page today:

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Isa 53:4-5 NIV

What an amazing phrase I really never was struck by before. I guess I understood the concept and read what it said, not how it said it. Read it again. Wow!

All things point to Him!

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Several months ago Aaron, one of my fellow followers, explained to me a concept he had been developing a Bible study around. The conversation began with my noting the humor of our friend Ray’s synopsis of chick flicks to his wife… it was a very simple and to the point list of three or four things which most every chick flick contained as the marker points of the plot. Aaron’s focus took it a little deeper and definitely was on the more serious side of the same subject. I asked Aaron to send to me a written quote of his point. Here it is:

No matter who you are, where you’re from, or what perspective you have in life, all of us can recognize a common theme emerging in the world. We see it in the stories we love, we see it in history, we see it in our own lives. There is beauty and innocence, interrupted by tragedy and sadness, followed by longing for rescue, and hope for a better day. We love the stories best where a hero comes along to set the world right and bring a new day to pass where we return to that place of beauty and innocence again…changed of course…but back home again. That story is older than the middle ages, the roman empire, or even the Bible. It is the story written on the very heart of God…woven into our lives because we were made in His image.

The other evening I was leisurely riding west on Highway 7 in the Brighton CO area (which if anyone knows the area, they would know I was headed toward the gorgeous mountains) as the sun was setting. I was in awe of the picture God was painting before me. I began to think about how things we see, stuff we experience, literally everything we encounter (at least the natural stuff… laws of gravity, workings of the world, etc.) illustrates the creator who spoke it into being if we will only look for Him in those things. They tell us as much about Him and about His ways as do the words of Scripture and as does the life of His Son. So, God… here’s lookin’ at you!

The Cornerstone

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This morning I was reading in 1 Peter 2 about Jesus as the cornerstone rejected by men. It’s interesting how after you take the filters off you begin to consider applications outside of the ones you’ve always been taught and to which you’ve held on for decades. We typically gravitate toward embracing less than what God wants for us.

I read about Jesus being the cornerstone. A cornerstone that God has set as the foundation. A cornerstone “the builders” have rejected.

“Look! I’m setting a stone in Zion,
a cornerstone  in the place of honor.
Whoever trusts in this stone as a foundation
will never have cause to regret it…
The stone the workmen threw out
is now the chief foundation stone.
For the untrusting it’s
a stone to trip over,
a boulder blocking the way.”

Wow! As I remember back to Jesus affirming Peter’s profession that He was the Christ (Messiah), the son of the living God, I am reminded that Jesus explained to His closest followers that it was upon this realization and profession, which He notes is not revealed by flesh and blood but can only come from God, that His church would be founded.

As I reflect on two millennia’s worth of a centralized focus on “building our churches” I’m reminded of the outcry from “God’s chosen people” for an earthly king to lead them when God had already revealed Himself time after time as their sovereign and one true God. A God like no other was not enough. We had to have a king like everyone else around us.

Our God took on the form of man so He could reveal to us His true nature and teach us about Himself.  In those days the rulers were kings and the domain over which they ruled were their kingdoms. Jesus explained the truth about God in terms the people could understand. Thus, an ultimate Kingdom with one true King made much more sense to those who lived in a world of kings and kingdoms. John Revell, a friend of mine who is writing a book helped me to think about this in regard to the fact that those of us living in America or similar countries who don’t have kings and kingdoms struggle to understand some of the fullness of kingship. Hence, some of the extremely rich understanding we could glean from thinking about God as the ultimate king whose kingdom is unmatched is lost in our lack of familiarity with kings and kingdoms.

It always intrigues me how often new gatherings of Christ Followers shortly after they first gather long to have a building where they can gather; a building they can call their own. In the Old Testament we see a people who, though they already had “a king”, were crying out for one like the nations surrounding them had. Likewise, this morning I find myself intrigued that Christ Followers almost always seem anxious to set a cornerstone for an earthly building so they can have their structure like, and be like the other religions that surround them, when they already have a cornerstone unlike any other. Why do we keep exchanging the things not of this world given to us by God for the things of this world? Could it be that this exchange began as early as the first generation of Christ Followers? Could it be that two millenia of established “church” practices are also diluted from the things not of this world given to us by Jesus?

Lessons in being attentive to our master

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Her name is Lily (or LiLeigh when we originally named her but it was too hard to spell). She’s our faithful Springer Spaniel. We love her and she’s part of the family. We joke about her role in the family: sleeping, eating, and shedding seem to be her primary role. Only as her owners can we recognize the intonation (Denver, this is for you… the word you taught me) of her barks and immediately know if it’s friend or foe pulling into the driveway or walking through the yard.

You can learn a lot from a dog. The other day as I was sitting in the main room in our house enjoying the quiet and a cup of warm coffee she helped me understand something about being attentive to God. I was in a chair and she was close by resting. Her eyes were closed (this time she wasn’t snoring but that’s another post) and she was still. I adjusted my head slightly to look her way. I swear I didn’t make a sound. But in the mere movement of my head turning toward her she snapped to, eyes fixed on me, anxious for any instruction I might give to her. It was far from the first time this has happened. As a matter of fact, it’s hard to sneak any movement past her (unless she’s snoring but that’s another post). Time after time, movements large and small, she’s ready to jump and run to fulfill the desires of her master.

In that moment her passion to serve me as her master stunned me. God spoke to me in the silence of that moment about the attention and expectancy with which I am to be watching for His work around me and ready to respond. Even if my reason for moving at that moment did not have her in mind she still responded by intently watching and waiting for the least hint of beckoning her. She was ready. Ready to please her master.

I’m amazed at how often those who profess to have been believers for years express an inability to experience God moving in their lives. When you talk about seeing God at work around you they look at you like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights. If we know Him, but are not attentive to Him, could He be working all around us and we never notice (maybe we are snoring but that’s another post). How can we ever jump to fulfill the desires of the heart of our Master if we are not passionately attentive to Him and what He is doing? God, I want to be that expectantly attentive to You and what You are doing in and around me!

Today’s Quote — March 12, 2007

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Okay, so I’m continuing to read Plan A. And There Is No Plan B. and today I come across what I’m pretty sure will be the key thought and central theme of the book:

People’s spiritual lives simply cannot be mass-produced.

They’re developed one life at a time through a slow process of relational transfer that cannot be bypassed through mass-production ministry.

Let me say it again: You cannot mass-produce Kingdom laborers.

—Dwight Robertson, Plan A. And There Is No Plan B.

Wow. Wow! WOW!

Dwight uses several illustrations, but the best begins toward the bottom of page 86 and ends toward the top of 87. I think I’m going to become a checkers player and armed with my checkers set and a bag of salt challenge many of today’s pastors and church staff to a game so I can illustrate this (or try to).