Loving as God Loves!

I heard Andy Stanley talking about Ephesians 5:21 recently so I started reflecting and studying a little around that verse and had some thoughts that I would like to share. NIV, Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Andy talks about this verse in the context of marriage in his video study iMarriage. He talks about this, not as so many have preached in the past, but in the sense of submission to each other in reverence and awe of Christ. So, I don't submit to my wife because she has done something to deserve it, or because she has earned it, I submit to my wife because of my love for Christ and because he has told me to do this in order to love HIM. Not to love my wife, but to love Him, I should submit myself to my wife. Likewise, the wife should submit to her husband, not out of respect for him, but out of respect for the Lord. Again, not because he did the dishes for you and the laundry and fixed dinner. Or not even because he does a great job at supporting the family and protecting them and providing for them, but simply because of our love for Christ.

WOW, talk about mind blowing. Seriously, have any of you thought like this before? Have you lived like this before? Do you live like that now? Would your spouse agree? I don't know about you, but I'm pretty convicted of it. I am ignorant no longer, so now I have become responsible as it says in The Message, Ephesians 4:21 My assumption is that you have paid careful attention to him, been well instructed in the truth precisely as we have it in Jesus. 22 Since, then, we do not have the excuse of ignorance, everything - and I do mean everything - connected with that old way of life has to go. It's rotten through and through. Get rid of it! And then take on an entirely new way of life - a God-fashioned life. OK, so no more ignorance means a changed life; knowledge transformed into actions. I am responsible for changing what I am no longer ignorant about.

Oh, I know, this really sucks, I'm not liking where I'm headed here, but I'm truckin' on anyway. In further study I come across even more great stuff, and it applies even outside of marriage. Possibly even before it applies to marriage, because if we are applying it in general terms, then it will automatically apply to our marriages. You need to use your imagination here, what would this look like in our lives if this was who we were. It is who we are supposed to be. We know that, the Bible is telling us that, so now, ignorance is no more an excuse.

Listen to Paul in The Message, Ephesians 4:32 Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you. 5:1 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. 2 Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that......

Read that again, just stop right here and go back and read that last paragraph and ask God to speak to you through it............

I don't love like that. I'm not sure I know how to love like that. In fact, I know I don't, only Christ through me can love like that. Christ has to be loving through us in that fashion all the days of our lives. We can't just be intentional about doing that every once in a while. It has to be who we are. Can that ever happen? Paul seems to think so, and I bet there are a few people in History besides Jesus that we can look to and see that. What if we are all capable of that kind of love? What kind of transformation can take place in my world, not just my life, but in my world, if I now act on the instruction I have received.

I am no longer ignorant, Lord, teach me to love like you!

Brooke Fraser

This is a beautiful young lady I discovered this morning. Her songs have really touched me so I thought I would share a couple of links with you. I will definitely be getting the album. This first video is the first song I listened to; the second one is the title track from her latest album that releases in the USA tomorrow, May 27th, 2008.

I do it just for you

This is a poem I wrote over on myspace back in September 07. I was reading a book called "Organic Church". I actually rewrote it a little bit and added to it while I was reading "Seeing What is Sacred" in November of 07. I am going to try to convert at least one blog a week over from MySpace to here so that I have everything in one place. If you've read it, sorry, if not, hope you enjoy it.


Did you see me winking at you this morning,
before I sent the sun over the horizon?
Did you know it was me,
or did you just see stars covered in clouds?
Did you see the depth of my sky this morning,
the beautiful pinks, oranges, reds and blues,
the white puffs of clouds rolling gently through?
Did you feel the soft breeze blowing across you skin,
and know that it was my caress?
Did you hear me talking to you,
through whispers of birds and katydids and the rest of my creation?
Did you see the trees swaying gently in the wind,
or the leaves falling so silently to the ground?
Could you smell me drawing near to you,
in the clean, cool, refreshing air?
Did you take time to notice me this morning,
in all the glory I created?
I know you think I'm all around you, even now as I speak,
but do you really see me and know that I am here?
I love you Robert, but Have you ever thought
that everything I do, I do it just for you?
Well it's true, I love you that much,
but not just you, your neighbor too.
Please help them see how much,
help spread the Word, spread my love.
Help them see me in everything around them
and everything within them.
I do love you and I did do all of this for you,
but I love them too, it's your job to let it shine through.

Dazed & Confused....

Right now, about a lot of things. You know, I was once told to put down the books, just put them down. This was in reference to my brain overflowing with thoughts so fast that I couldn't sort them all out and file them away properly. Of course, I feel like I really need to ponder those thoughts so I can see if I feel like I even need to store them, you know what I mean?

I mean, if it's not something I believe or buy into, why file it away in memory right? So... I'm putting down the books for some good ol' fashion reflection. It's hard to do, I've got some great books started right now. Exiles by Michael Frost, The Practice of Praise by Oswald Chambers, Ministerial Ethics by Joe Trull and James Carter, and at least one other one I cannot remember the name of right now.

I'm going to stop reading all of them long enough to sort through some things, then I'll continue with Exiles until I'm finished. I think what happens to me is that I get in the middle of a few books, (that's normal, see the last section of this page to read more about that), and I kind of wade through all of it at one time, but every once in a while I grab a book (Exiles) that really spins me for a loop in my thought process and I really want to absorb ALL of it. I don't do that often either. I like to absorb nuggets from books and then put them into play quickly, but this book I really want to digest, so... I'll take a few days to clear my head, then dig back into it.

Which is it for you?

Moving into the neighborhood!

I want to follow up to a comment I posted on Mars Hill.

OK, how do you move into a neighborhood. Do you move quietly in, stay to yourself, hope people approach you so that you can tell them your name, what you do for a living and that you are a good person, hoping also that they then open their lives up to you so that you can pour into them all of your great knowledge about life and liberty and pursuit of God? Or do you go to your neighbors doors and introduce yourself, maybe taking THEM some cookies, just letting them know you moved into the neighborhood and that you believe in watching out for each other, helping each other, loving each other?

I don't know, maybe you do a little of both, but I know I am trying to figure out ways to engage my neighbors in new ways. Not in gimmicky ways, or in weird ways, but in ways that may make an impact in their lives. We cannot expect the people in our lives to just come to us and say, I'm screwed up, lead me to Jesus, please. Why does the church do this, then? The church, at least in the western world, has traditionally been a place where you went when you were ready to find God, like he was all hunched over, stuffed inside this building, waiting for you to come. The churches have made it that way, fashioned it that way to some degree, some by accident, and some on purpose probably.

What if instead the church was you and I living among the people who are hurting, the down-and-outers, the depressed, the confused, and instead of saying "come to me, I have what you need" we would say, you know what, I see you are hurting, how can I help...... then.... help! What if we went out (like Christ) and found the people who were the "worst of these", and just loved on them. Built a relationship with these people. Took an interest in them outside of their ability to help us further our vision, or our "organization". If, as Christ-followers, we practiced what Jesus practiced, the body of Christ would be a lot more like Christ intended. Instead we decided somewhere along the way, that Jesus was going to setup shop, pulling off the latest, greatest tricks in order to pull people in by the millions.

Jesus had the latest greatest tricks (miracles) of anyone in His day, but did he do that then? Then why do we think he wants us to do it for him. Do we really think that Jesus would setup shop in an abandoned arena and turn it into a 72 million dollar church?

OK, I know, I'm going a little off path again, which I do quite often. I'm getting tired and I'm getting a little perturbed as I write, so I'm going to end now and maybe pick it back up again in a few days. In the meantime, let me know your thoughts. I'd love to hear from you.

The Simple Life!

My wife and I have really been pursuing simplification in our life lately, I would say, probably the last year or so.  We have pursued it on and off for three or four years, but I believe we are really starting to accomplish some form of simplification.  

One of our driving desires in the pursuit of simplification is to live, work, and worship all in the same neighborhood.  For us, this means within a mile or two of each other.  It really includes shopping, playing, school, etc.  

We have made huge strides toward simplifying our life by accomplishing the following:

• We sold our only TV in a garage sale, and had cox cable tv turned off..... what was that.... did you gasp..... you really should try it, it is extremely gratifying and freeing.... careful with this if you have kids, but it's still a wise move I would think (we don't have any).
• We have sold our house in Choctaw, moved to NW 27th and Penn in Oklahoma City.
• We downsized our mortgage in the process by about $45,000 dollars, which in direct correlation reduced our mortgage payment by about 40%, thus freeing up resources for other endeavors (or maybe just to fully pay our bills every month, lol).
• We have downsized our square footage by about 30%, thus taking less time for upkeep, cleaning, decorating, etc.  
• We are attending a church within one mile of our house.
• Rebecca is starting school at OCU in the fall, three blocks away.  
• We shop no further than two to three miles away, but in fact, most of the time, shop only four to five blocks away.

I'm not bragging by any means, please don't think so, I just want to challenge you to think about simplification and the things you want out of life, the important stuff to you.  Can you really accomplish it living the way you are living?  

Of course, the goal of simplification is to free up resources (i.e., time, talent, money, things, etc), but the real progress starts happening when you are able and willing to start investing those resources into other people, into relationships, into building bridges into people's lives.  I'll save that post for another time.  

Are you in need of a major simplification in your life?  Are you interested in doing it?  Do you have the guts to do it?  Will you make the decisions necessary in order to free up valuable time and money for your family, friends, neighbors, and Christ?  

To drink, or not to drink, that is the question!

Wow, I'm not sure I even want to open up this topic, but it's got to start somewhere, so..... here it goes.

I am really going through some inner turmoil right now, seeking God and praying about having a drink every once in a while.  Is it bad?  Is it good?  Does it matter?  Is it a "bad witness"?  I think the answer may be yes to each of these, just as easy as it is no to each of these.  

I've really been reading and praying over 1 Cor 8 the last few days and I do believe I'm seeing that topic in a new light.  For some reason, call me weird, I always thought that chapter was about not causing someone with an issue to fall back into an issue, (i.e., me having a drink, causing someone who is an alcoholic to think it's ok to have a drink, etc.)  Of course, it may be ok for me, but not ok for them, that's up to God, but I believe what's being said is that if it could cause offense or confusion, or any doubt among the people who see it, then I probably shouldn't be doing it.  Not because it (the drink) is wrong for me, but simply because it may impeded someone's relationship with Christ.  I'm not a theologian, in fact, I barely read my bible sometimes, in fact, I probably read other books much more than the bible, anyway, back to topic.  

I don't have a problem having a beer with a pizza, or having a margarita at Chili's over dinner, or having wine at Olive Garden, etc. I don't think it's right to do in front of anyone that does have an issue with it either, though, even though I have freedom in that.  Of course, that's a totally different issue, freedom in Christ, and that whole new "movement".  Not saying it's good or bad, again, trying to figure out what I believe.   I'm just looking to solidify my values/beliefs about alcohol.  

I would love to hear some thoughts on this.