Love & Forgiveness

This morning, I got up early and spent some long overdue time with Jesus and the Scriptures. I was reading and studying from 1 John 4:7-16 about what true love is. It is always interesting to see what the Word can do to you as you study Scripture. What I was reminded of this morning in my study is that God is love and we know that he is love by what he has done for us. You see, love—like faith—can only be expressed through deeds (actions). We know that God is love because of what he has done for us, namely the incarnation of Jesus and his death on the cross as our atoning sacrifice.

Think about it: Jesus is God. He is Creator and Sustainer of all living and non-living things in the universe. Yet because he loved us (humans) so much, he left his home outside of our dimension, and limited himself to become a human being for 33 years.

In my study this morning, one question that was posed to me was: “Think of someone you find it especially hard to feel warm toward, someone you are thrown together with regularly. Why is it difficult for you to love that person?” It took me a while to figure out who this person was, but I finally did come up with an answer: the people at my old church. The reason I find it hard to love the people at my old church—specifically the leaders and the people behind them (if you know what I mean)—is that they hurt me very badly by the way they treated me, their “pastor”, in an effort to protect their institution. It’s a long story, so I will spare you the details. I realized this morning that I have a right to be angry with them for what they’ve done to me, but in order to live in love, I must give up that right. Jesus had a “right” to act as God on earth, but chose to limit himself. In the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8), Jesus had the right to stone her according to the Law he himself wrote, but he limited himself in that right to show her love. In instance after instance in the Gospels, I read of times when Jesus gave up his rights in order to show love. Ultimately, he gave up his right to live and teach us so that he could die on the cross, setting us free from eternal damnation. That is the greatest expression of love anyone could ever show.

So, I want to publicly say I’m sorry for being bitter and feeling hurt towards my brothers and sisters in my old church. While I have the right to feel this way, I want to live in Jesus and him in me by living in love. My witness as a follower of Jesus will never be fully known if I continue to hold onto the hurt and bitterness I feel. I forgive them for what they’ve done and by God's grace I will try to live in love towards them from this day forward.

Redeeming Sundays

I was in the shower the other day and my wife's clock radio was on in the bedroom playing (rather loudly) the 80's Bangles song "Manic Monday." The chorus goes something like: "...I wish it were Sunday, that's my fun-day. Just another manic Monday..." The song goes on to talk about how much she hates Mondays going back to work and doing chores, etc. I remember as a kid listening to the song and shaking my head in some sort of pious disenchantment towards the song's feelings towards Sunday--"that's my fun-day"? Sunday isn't a "fun-day" After all, Sunday is the Lord's day. We're not supposed to have fun on Sundays. But this time as I listened to the song without my pious religiosity getting in the way, I began to resonate with the song's lyrics. I love Sundays. Back when I was in ministry, I remember often dreading Sundays with all of the pomp and circumstance, all the running around, all the hand-shaking and baby-kissing, all the meetings, and NO REST and NO FUN! Admittedly, not all Sundays were bad--probably not even most. But there were enough bad ones to make Sunday have a certain "yuck" that was undeniable.

As my family and I continue down the road of simple Christianity, we find ourselves actually enjoying Sundays. We no longer have a rigorous schedule to keep. No longer do we have to wear certain clothes and go to a place at a certain time. We no longer feel guilty when we sleep a little longer than normal and miss a Bible study. We don't have committee meetings to go to or chorus practices to make. Simple Christianity is redeeming our Sundays for us. Now we feel more like we are experiencing a Sabbath rest without all of the obligatory assemblies and meetings. We still gather with other Christians most Sundays and we still celebrate our relationship with the Lord Jesus as a family, but now it is without all the manic Sunday stuff. I love Sundays!

Subject to Change without Notice

Have you ever taken the time to read the fine print in some sales ads or tried very hard to listen to the extremely fast-talking legal voice at the end of TV and radio commercials? Many times you’ll read or even hear the person say something like, “Subject to change without notice.” What they’re trying to do is allow themselves the opportunity to stick it to you without telling you about it. That’s why they put it in fine print or say it so fast.

Well, I want to go ahead and put this in large print and in very understandable language so that there’s no misunderstanding:

My beliefs about God and the Church are subject to change without notice.

How’s that for honesty? I spent the better part of my adult life in professional ministry, thinking that I had God and his Church pretty much figured out. It’s like to old saying, ”The more you learn, the more you realize that you do not know.” I certainly understand that now more than ever (with a healthy realization that I probably do not understand it as much as I one day will). I went to work as the Senior Minister of the Gallatin church of Christ with the intent to help them build a wonderful church that would be the epitome of what God’s Church should look like on earth. But over my four-year tenure there, I began to understand more and more about what the Church really should be as I read the Scripture through different eyes. Then as we sort of “fell into” The Way last Fall, I had the intent to build up a huge network of house churches, believing that that is what God wanted for his Church. Now—once again—I am beginning to understand more and more about what the Church really should be as I read Scripture through different eyes again.

It is all a matter of perspective, isn’t it? We all grow up living under certain paradigms, which are sets of assumptions, concepts, values, and practices that constitute ways of viewing reality. For me, my paradigm about God and the Church was solidly formed by and through the institutional church—specifically the church borne out of the Restoration Movement of the 1800s. In 1999, I began a journey that would eventually crumble the foundation of that paradigm and I am still traveling on that journey. As I come to know who Jesus really is more and more very day, and as I gain more insight into the Scriptures without having to strain it through my church of Christ “filter,” I am finding that quite a bit of what I believed to be absolutely true about God and the Church is changing.

And as I take a much more honest and freethinking approach to the Scriptures, I find that there is way more to God and his Church than I ever imagined. God is not limited by our preconceived notions of his abilities or even our pressurized paradigms that have been built up over 2000 years of Church history. I spent about an hour yesterday reading the posts on this blog that I wrote back when we first started The Way and realize that my beliefs even about The Way are changing. It is amazing to see what God will bring to light when we loosen our grip on the things we believe about him and his Church.

Spiritual Baby Food

On Thursday, May 17, I posted a thought on this blog about living out of the overflow. I had several good comments from others about this post and even one kind warning that it may be misconstrued as I cut myself off from God for a time. Well, be assured that the valve I was talking about was not God--it was the valve of Christian teaching. I ran across a rather poignant thought in a book that I am reading now and thought I'd just quote it and leave it as my post for today. This is from Paul Vieira's book Jesus Has Left the Building. Enjoy!

“There is an epidemic in the church of the West. At large, we have stayed in infacny. We are in constant need of spiritual baby food. This is much like what the author of Hebrews wrote: ‘For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food.’ (Hebrews 5:12) Here we have believers who don’t seem to ever mature. By now they should be teaching others, but instead they are constantly on the bottle. ‘Feed me!’ We hear this all the time. This is the reason people go from church to church. It is the excuse most given when members leave a church; ‘I wasn’t getting fed.’ Why is someone feeding you in the first place? Who told you that you still need to be fed? In my own home, one of the signs that my children are getting older is that they start to feed themselves. Something is stunting the growth of God’s people.

“The writer goes on to define infants in Christ as being those who are ‘unskilled in the word of righteousness. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use (or practice) have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.’ (Hebrews 5:13-14) The secret to passing from immature to mature in ‘use.’ We have to practice and use the truth we are learning. When this happens, we begin to think as God thinks, and we instinctively know what is of god and what isn’t. Truth must be learned in a context of action. We become skilled in the word of righteousness by actively using it. Learning in passivity will not lead to maturity.

“This is a phenomenon that was noticed in the training environments of the health profession. In medical school, if a student watched their instructor perform procedures for too long without having the opportunity to attempt it themselves, an intimidation factor would settle in. Fear of performing the medical procedure would quickly replace any confidence in their ability to learn this skill. ‘ I might put the needle in the wrong place. What if I kill this person?’ they’ve watched the ‘professional’ do it so many times, it built up fear and intimidation. So they realized that a student should only watch the procedure once, and then do it themselves. As a result, they have developed a motto when teaching medical procedures. ‘Watch one, do one, teach one.’ The best way to reinforce what you’ve learned is to teach it to someone else.

“I believe that the body of Christ has been watching the ‘professional minister’ for too long. We too have instilled an intimidation about the ministry of the church. It is time we change our method of training. We must get back to what Jesus did.”

The Nature of God

It is amazing--this journey I'm on with God. So many of the previous assumptions and beliefs about God that I held so closely and adamantly are changing ever so much with each passing day in the presence of Father. I admit that even my thoughts and beliefs about “house church” and what we are doing with The Way are changing and evolving into something I am sure is closer to the heart of Father.


Let me make a very strong recommendation for you: go to www.theshackbook.com and order a copy of The Shack. I just finished this book today and I find myself stepping into the waiting room of the house called “Understanding God.” I have known about Jesus all my life. I grew up in a Christian home, earned a degree in Christian Ministry, and even spent 13 years of my adult life working as a professional minister in the church. So many years of learning about God, yet so little understanding of whom He really is. This book, The Shack, has offered me a level of insight into the nature of God that I have never even dreamed possible. I am so touched by the insight into the nature of God that this book offers, I plan to buy multiple copies and give them away. Everyone—no matter his or her relationship to Father—should read this book. Besides the Bible, this book has done more for my faith and understanding of God than anything I've ever consciously experienced.