I was reading this morning in my quiet time and was astounded by the words in Psalm 27:4-5, “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple. For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me inthe shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock.”

A couple of things touched me this morning. The line about being set high upon a rock is pertinent, for I am leaving Friday for the Rockies to climb a mountain with some crazy teens and wild adults. We will indeed be set high upon a rock. I was also convicted when I read the words, about the one thing I seek. Sometimes my desire is for more than the one thing. I get distracted, tempted and stray off course. I love how God realigns your vision and focus with his word. The Psalmist asks to dwell in the house of the Lord all of his days and to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord. I felt really small and dirty when I considered these words. Who has gazed upon the beauty of the Lord? No one in Scripture has ever seen God. But, yet He comes in flesh in the person and ministry of Jesus, and even tells Philip that if you have seen Jesus, you have seen the Father. Oh, that my eyes might see Jesus! Even Jesus tells us through Matthew 25, that we do see him when we notice the needs of those around us, and when we love one another we are showing Jesus to the world.

But compared to the beauty of the Lord, I still feel small and dirty. I think this is the way we should feel. Humbled by the grandeur and awe that is and surrounds God. For we are made from the dust of the earth and our lives are short, here today and gone tomorrow. God is beauty. He is perfect, pure, light, and love. He is all that hoped for and more than we ever dreamed for. He is our reality, our past and our future. I want to see you too Lord!

“So, Lord, help me to see your beauty today.”

Well is it? I don’t know if you have ever heard that phrase before. I bet though you have never heard asked at a baptismal confession! I kid you not, a couple of weeks ago, during the first week of camp Lu-Jo, after studying with one young man, and his outpouring of his heart he wanted to put Christ on in baptism. We prayed, and then we walked down to the baptistery. I spoke briefly about this young man and his desire to change his life, and then I asked him the most important question of his life, “Alex do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?” He paused, looked me square in the eyes, and said, “Is a fat dog heavy?” I had to look away, I lost it. Everyone was laughing so hard. But, this young man was heartfelt. So, we have a new brother.

I got to spend two weeks back to back at camp Lu-Jo. It is great place, and is home away from home. God did some pretty cool things once again and am thrilled to get to be a part of his work in the kingdom.

2nd week was awesome as always. One night the speaker was making a point about God’s promises, and a double rainbow appeared. It was pretty breathtaking. As if that wasn’t enough, a cloud also appeared in the shape of a vertical pillar. It was as if God was boldly declaring, “I am here, don’t forget it. My promises are true!”

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This Friday, I am taking a group of adults and kids to Colorado for Wilderness Trek. We will spend several days hiking, bonding, growing, and enjoying God’s creation and each other’s company. We are so blessed to get to witness the beauty of His creation from 14,000 feet.

In the last post, I wrote of the accident that my brother and I witnessed. I just learned through the Dayton Daily News that both the driver and the passenger were killed Tuesday afternoon. I am heart broken for both of the families of these two young men. The accident happened so fast.

I have the image of the mangled car in my mind, and it won’t go away. My brother summed up how we both feel, “it’s just not fair.” He is right. When tragedy strikes, it is not fair. Death, tragedy, disease are no respecter of persons. We live in a world where death is a reality. We cannot escape it. We cannot hide from it. We pretend, we can push it away. We exercise, take our medications, watch we eat. And yet others who don’t exercise or take their meds live well into their 90’s or longer. What plagues me the most from witnessing this accident is that there wasn’t anything we could do to stop it. Time seemed to slow down, things progressed, we stopped, called 9-1-1, and prayed. I asked God to spare these two men. It is not fair that they didn’t make it. It is also not fair that there are thousands upon thousands of children, and men and women go to bed hungry every night. Our world is a dangerous, un-kind and at times un-hospitable place.

Why? Is there a lesson to be learned from experiencing tragedy? I think so. I believe that Bible is clear that suffering produces Christ-like character in us. I also believe that Scripture teaches that there is a spark of the divine in each one of us. Two weeks ago, I showed a Nooma video, Breathe. There is a great moment where Rob talks about the name of God being breath. If YHWH, is supposed to force us to breathe, the name of God is breath. And since the word for Spirit and wind/ breath are the same, I am comforted by the fact that I saw the presence of God in young man as he took his last breath. God was on his lips, and I believe was present in the mangled wreckage of the accident. How? He was present in the people who stopped and helped wave traffic through a congested area before the emergency vehicles arrived. He was present in emergency responders who worked tirelessly to aid the two men. God was present in the preservation of life of the other vehicles. We, finite, sin-stricken souls that we are can’t always see God in the mess around us. But, if the Bible is true, then his promise to be present always is true. We have seen how much God cares about humanity in the story of Jesus, he is the God that enters the mess of humanity taking on himself our own sin-stained flesh and living as man for a time. He understands our weaknesses, our frailties, he weeps with us in our tragedies, and hurts with us at our hurts. He sees our tears and has shed his own with us. If that isn’t proof of His presence, then I am not sure how else to view it.

I am grieving today for two men I never met. “Heavenly Father, be present with their families as only you can. They have a long road of healing ahead of them. Let them know you are walking with them. Help them to see you are near in every nook and cranny. You are present in our disasters and our triumphs. I ask you to help these families breathe knowing that you are present in the breaths that we take. Amen.”

I am back from vacation. I got to spend a week in Ohio with my folks, visiting friends and family. It was relaxing, well sort of.

Tuesday, my brother and I witnessed a fatal car accident. It was a sickening moment to be present for such an awful event. The accident happened so fast, and ended so abruptly. Please pray for the driver, he was care flighted. The passenger died on the scene. Ugh!

If you are like me, I will pray for you…in all seriousness, we have wondered where God is. I have lately been feeling rather glum about my walk with the Lord. I have been struggling with some things, and dealing with some other issues, and of course there is junk from my past that resurfaces from time to time. But, lately in addition to this stuff, I have been feeling distant from God. I know that the Scripture teaches that God is always present. I get that. I just don’t feel it. I know I am not saved by how I feel. But, I still feel distant from God. But, I am aware this morning that even though my self-absorption God has been showing me in small ways that He is near, or closer than I think according to John Ortberg.

I have been reading Ortberg’s book, God is closer than you think and have been hit hard by the reality of God’s presence. Also re-reading the Chronicles of Narnia, I was moved to tears this morning in the recount of Lucy meeting Aslan again! Also, my oldest and middle daughters continue to teach me about the love of God and his constant presence in our lives. They were singing just yesterday, “Jesus Loves Me,” when Rachel makes her own verse and it went something like this…”Yes, Jesus loves my daddy, yes Jesus loves my daddy, yes Jesus loves my daddy, the Bible tells him so!” Even as I retype what she sang, my eyes are filling with tears. I have more in common with Susan in Prince Caspian than Lucy, I have listened to the fears of the world more than I have listened to still small whisper of God. I was beginning to wonder if I was deaf. My hard-heartedness is crippling, and yet I realize now that I have never been alone. I almost feel like Shasta, walking at night unaware, if you will of what is keeping my upright on the path. Jacob says it best, “God is in this place and I was unaware.”

I got invited to go to an Oklahoma Redhawks baseball game today with one of the local elementary schools. Rain and more rain was in our state forecast. Needless to say, there was no baseball played today. I was drenched, away from the office, and got to spend some time with a couple of my 6th graders. It wasn’t a wasted day.

I was reading today in 2 Samuel 13 and 14. Isn’t it a shame that there was so much dysfunction in David’s family. I am encouraged too, for to read so openly of the failures of one who was called “one after God’s own heart,” leaves room at the table of the King for the rest of us. I think of myself, and if we were honest with ourselves would and could all say, that we are more like Mephibosheth (2 Sam 9), crippled in some aspect of our relationship with God. But, God call us anyway to sit with him at his table. When others would look over us, and despise us because of our short comings, God seeks us out to show us his favor. God is good.

But, back to family dysfunction for a moment. Families are to be places where God’s light shines to the whole world. But, look at our families in our culture, and we see that they are stressed out, over-stretched, and being pulled apart by a flurry of activity, we are fraying if you will. We need more than ever a solid foundation in God’s Word grounded in a relationship with God and with one another. God families, by the way, aren’t perfect families. There will be moments when we have to deal with the Absalom’s and Amnon’s in our family. We all have skeletons in our family’s closet. What we do with those secrets is important. The best antidote for family failure and dysfunction is forgiveness, and groundedness in the love of Christ.

This is a message from 1 Peter 2:11-12 I shared for our Graduation Day 2008·

Dear Friends

o Name calling 1:1,17; 2:11

§ Exiles, strangers, aliens

· X-files: marks of an alien

o

New birth (1:3,14,23; 3:21)

o New hope

§ Inheritance, imperishable, undefiled, unfading

§ A better tomorrow because of the resurrection 1:3

o New direction/journey (1:13)

§ New lifestyle 1:13-16

· Putting away the old habits 1:14; 2:11

· Embracing holiness 1:15

o Never-ending invitation (2:4)

§ Come to Jesus

o New life

§ Live such good lives 2:12

§ Infecting the world with God’s holiness

§ Be a “do-gooder”

o New Story

§ Share Jesus 2:9

· With words

· With your behavior 2:11-12

o Other people are watching

§ He’s coming Again 2:12

· The cross makes us all aliens and strangers

tell me what you think:

• • Church’s mission statement:
    • Chisholm Trail Church of Christ is a New Testament church of Christ family committed to making fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ.
  • Youth Ministry purpose statement:
    • Our aim is to meet students where they are developmentally, and walk beside them through the fog adolescence, providing a Christ centered community where students can experience life, ministry, and worship together and with caring and nurturing adults; explore and own their faith, ask questions, discover and use their spiritual giftedness and lead them to a life-long pursuit of Christ with their journey-mates. A necessary component of our ministry to adolescents is their families, so in addition to meeting the students where they are, we will build relationships with the whole family, and providing training, resources, and offering encouragement.
  • Synergistic Goals: Catching the energy between two or more places
    • We love God
      • We want to know Christ and make Him known (Eph 4:14-19)
      • We will teach and model the priority of the kingdom of God (Mat. 6:33)
      • We want to be a place that encourages the worship of God freely
    • We are family (Eph 5:1)
      • We are a family of families and as such we have the health of the whole family in mind
        • We recognize that family can have a structural as well as functional definition
        • We desire to live as family, as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, as children of God.
        • For some members, (adults and kids) we are the only family they will ever know
      • We want to equip parents to do their God given job as leaders and faith builders in the home, and provide resources and training to lead within the home
      • We recognize that families are over-busy, over-stressed and over-stretched we want to be a place of help and healing not a place that causes or creates guilt or extra stress on the family through a hyper-busy youth calendar
      • We want families to be lights within their neighborhoods for the Gospel, making Christ known through their lifestyle. As a church we want to encourage faith to be lived out 24/7 outside of the church building’s four walls
      • We want to encourage cross generational contact. Scripture tells us (Titus 2 that it is the job of the older to teach and mentor the younger).
    • Make fully devoted disciples
      • We will do this through effective teaching, offering relevant classes, preaching, encouraging the spiritual disciplines, encouraging attendance at worship and class times
      • We will offer service projects, mission trips, relationship building times
      • We encourage others to get into the game, we want you to play to your strengths, and serve where you are best suited. We want to help you discover and use your spiritual gifts for the benefit of the kingdom.
    • Love Others:
      • We want to train and equip others to see themselves as part of a greater story, the story of God’s work in the world and as such
      • We want to people who are known for their love for one another and love for the stranger. We are told in Hebrews to entertain strangers, for they may be angels (Heb. 13:2)

As someone in ministry I am alarmed at the remarks of Jermiah Wright. I have listened to the sound bites, and a fuller pieces of his lessons. I watched him yesterday and the day before, on C-Span…

. He seems angry, proud and flamboyant, almost defiant. He kept referencing the “black church,” and attacks on him were attacks on the “black church.” I am not black, so I don’t know what it’s like to be an African American in this country.  I have seen racism though, I have watched ignorant people make dumb remarks about people of color, and I have watched good people do nothing about these statements. I am ashamed for all us whether white or black or whatever race we are, for not seeing each other as children of God, as precious and made in God’s image. I don’t consider myself a racist, but here is the problem with referencing the black church and the white church….it continues to create racial division. I believe the Bible is clear that in Christ there are no racial divisions, this is the mystery Paul talks about in Ephesians, how the cross made two races into one new humanity. Period. No Gentile church and Jewish church, just Christ’s church full of people of all ethnic stripes and languages. I know we have had a horrible history of racism in our country, but when someone who has the publics attention keeps using sectarian language, it doesn’t help to ease or end racial barriers. I understand my Bible in 2008 to say that there is not a black church and a white church, but there is one church. So, Rev. Wright if you want to help black and white Christians quit using divisive language and let the light of Christ shine from within you.

“God help us!”

5For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. 6For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”^[a]made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.

7But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. 8We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. 11For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may be revealed in our mortal body. 12So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you.

13It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.”^[b]With that same spirit of faith we also believe and therefore speak, 14because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you in his presence. 15All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.

16Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

You recognize the passage, 2 Corinthians 4:5-18. I was hit hard today with what I redisovered in this passage, and through what I’ve been challenged to be thinking about lately as a church leader. Often times, church leaders feel obligated to hide their struggles, to put on their “minister” face and act like everything in their own life is hunkey dorey. Well, sometimes life is not okay. I am confessing that my own life is messy. I am God’s number one goober. I try hard, fail often, and wonder daily how God would love someone like me. I don’t know how or why, but only that he does.

A couple of things that I was reminded of this morning in my quiet time, and some things all church leaders would do well to remember.

1. Life and ministry go together. It’s not like when we leave the church office that ministry is somehow over. We have families and responsibilities and the phone rings around the clock.

2. Trails, struggles, temptation, worries are real. Church leaders aren’t immune from dealing with real life issues.

3. Leaders need to be transparent. I heard brother Buddy Bell, say that as  leaders we need to lead in this area. When do most lies get told during the week? I think if we were honest with ourselves, we could all answer, that church hallways, and church restrooms are full of liars. I know this is a little harsh, but here me out…how do typical conversations go…”brother, so and so, how are you?” The answer, “I’m fine.” Now, most of us aren’t fine. Some of us have argued with our children or spouses on the way to church, or had a terrible week at work or are struggling with sickness or financial woes, and put on a mask and pretend everything is just fine. Leaders, stop it. I don’t think we need to unload all of our spiritual baggage, but we can certainly be more open and honest about our own shortcomings.

4. This life is temporary. Praise God, that this isn’t all there is. Our troubles are temporary, and even though we may be beaten down, because of the difference that Jesus makes we are being inwardly renewed.

5. Our shortcomings reveal God’s grace.