On reading the bible

"When I read my Bible in the morning I have a choice: I can come as an expert, or I can come as a child. If I come as an expert, I had better watch out that the Author doesn't step out of the shadows and put me to shame for thinking I had Him wrapped up and tied with a bow."  -Andree Seu Peterson

What I'm reading

One of my new favorite authors is Scot McKnight.  I'm only into the first few chapters, but I already know this is a much needed book for the church. Can't wait to work my way through his thoughts.  

I'll tell you more in a day or so. 

Quote of the day

"Trials and fire are always the places where 

God molds his best work."

Photo of the day

I got interested in photography in the mid 60's.  It started as a hobby, but quickly became a way to make money.  I worked as a photographer for our local newspaper for several years.  It was a great experience and a lot of fun.  

After many years of just taking photos for the family I thought I would once more indulge this passion and see what I could create.  Here's my first offering.  On occasion I'll share a photo with you I've taken.  I'm not going pro by any means, but I enjoy the hobby.  Hopefully I can capture a bit of the beauty of what God has made.

Saturday cartoon

(This could be a new trend.  I like it!)

Modeling Christ

"Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ." 

-Paul, 1 Corinthians 11:1

Paul did something I have not seen others do.  He offered himself as the model of what a Christ follower should look like.  As I read these words this morning they once more stopped me to think about what that would look like in my life and yours.

Paul was so confident that he understood the Christ life and was living it that he invited others to follow him and imitate his life.  "Boys, just watch me and do it like I do it" would be Paul's words to a young disciple.  

It demands two important things in a life, 1. that you know what a life lived as an imitator of Christ looks like, and 2. that you are actually living that way.  It demands a clear map of the route and a confidence you are on the path as a disciple yourself...that you are in fact imitating Christ.

But this is exactly what we are supposed to be doing in our lives, isn't it?  Dads, are you telling your sons and daughters, "just watch me live the Christian life and you will be ok"?  Pastors, are you inviting others to follow you around and imitate your life, your words?  You should!  

Paul has given us the foundational principle of discipleship- modeling.  "Imitate me as I imitate Christ" are heady words to say to someone.  It means you must know where you are going, what it looks like, and actually be going the right way. It means you know that others are watching you, following you, imitating you.  

If someone is imitating your life will they get it right? Will they be a follower of Christ or a deformed version of one?  Have you invited someone to imitate you as a Christ follower?  If not, what do you need to change? Where are you going that you wouldn't want another to follow?  Are you modeling Christ for others to follow?

This is our greatest need in the church today...men and women following Christ and inviting others to imitate them in the way.  What do you need to change to make that offer to another?  Could it be that most of us don't know where we are going in the first place?  If you have never offered this invitation to another what must you change to invite another to follow you?  

"Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ."  What an amazing invitation from the pen of Paul.  I've never been invited to follow another in this way, nor have I made the invitation.  I wonder what would change if we did.......

There are days...

Photo by Caras Ionut

There are days when it feels like life and death are in the balance.  Days when anything you do will mean total victory or complete disaster. Days when the world is watching to see if you will fall or if you will make it.  There are days when it seems this is the most important thing you have ever done or will ever do.

Then there is the rest of life.

Most of life is not like this.  It's filled with the boring normal days of living.  Get up, go to work, come home, go to a soccer game, eat dinner, watch TV, go to bed, get up and do it again.  Boring normal is most of our life.

We long for days that make us feel alive, but those are few and we are glad when they are over.  Funny, isn't it, how we long for the excitement, but can't wait to get to the other side and back to "real life".  We are torn....wanting a life that matters, but unable to stand the stress of what that means...so we sink back into boring normal and dream of the days when our whole life is on the line and what we do "really matters".

Why do we live like this?  Why do we hate the boring normal days, but dread the days of life and death?  Why do we think that the normal life we live each day doesn't really make a difference?  No one can live on the edge of life and death all the time, we all live about 98% of our lives in the routine so how do we make the routine of our days "really matter"?  

I have to tell you that it's the everyday life of Jesus...walking down a dusty road, eating with the disciples, listening to the hurting, sleeping in a boat...that really mattered not so much because of who he was, but how he lived.  He lived as if each moment and each person was the most important person and encounter of eternity.  People mattered to Jesus.  Moments were significant with him.  Food tasted better when you ate a meal with him.  He relished it all and loved each one he encountered. 

In the midst of a culture with no TV, no iPad, iPod, internet or cell phones Jesus made every moment significant because he was living out the life God called him to, walking with God in each encounter, in each moment.  Every day is a day that "really matters" if you know that you matter to God and he wants a moment by moment life with you, through you....even in the boring normal.

Looking at the stars

In my last post I mentioned a book I was reading by Scot McKnight.  I just finished it.  It's fascinating how your views change, broaden and gain new depth with a good book, but they do.  I'm still meditating on Scot's words and thoughts.  They were a rich feast for my spirit.  

I think that I too easily become a micro-biologist instead of an astronomer.  I get stuck in the small details of life instead of seeing the grand scope of things.  It often takes the thoughts of a star gazer to lift my head to the skies again.  There is so much to see when we share our insights with others, so much more to understand when a friend says, "Oh, look at that!"  

So today I'm once more looking at the stars, but quite aware of how easily I drop my vision to get the focus on my microscope just right.  I hope I can keep my vision on the vastness of who God is and what he is doing, but I know I will soon turn inward once more and will need another voice to say, "Oh look, isn't that wonderful?"

What I'm reading

Today I'm reading Scot's book, "The King Jesus Gospel".  In his book Scot discusses what the gospel really is.  I am thoroughly enjoying it and changing some long held views because of it.  I love books like this that make me think. My head hurts a bit from the change in perspective, but a couple of aspirin will take care of that.

Post Script-  I just finished Scot's book this afternoon.  It is a wonderful work on the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It's a book I highly recommend to anyone wanting to grow in faith and gain an understanding of God's work in our midst.

The main thing

"To become Christ-like is the only thing in the whole world worth caring for, the thing before which every ambition of man is folly and all lower achievement vain."

Drummond, Henry 

Quote of the day

"I can't stand your religious meetings. 

   I'm fed up with your conferences and conventions.

I want nothing to do with your religion projects, 

   your pretentious slogans and goals.

I'm sick of your fund-raising schemes, 

   your public relations and image making.

I've had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. 

   When was the last time you sang to me?

Do you know what I want? 

   I want justice—oceans of it.

I want fairness—rivers of it. 

   That's what I want. That's all I want."

-God (Amos 5, THE MESSAGE)

Boxes

I hate to admit it, but I live in a box.  It's a box created for me by others, by business, family, friends and the world around me. But the really sad truth is that I willingly climbed in the box and taped the lid shut...never asking if it was a box I should be in at all, never thinking about the implications of such a box in my life.  Like everyone around me I was given a box by someone somewhere and willingly made it my own and even wrote my name on it!  It became part of my identity.

Like children playing, making cars, houses and forts out of boxes we adults build invisible boxes for one another.  Boxes of expectation, roles, position, and a hundred other words to describe the box we have come to call our identity, or role, our "place".  We never stop to think about what that box means, how it might affect us and our choices or the way we think. Our box limits our choices, restricts our vision, and frustrates our gifts.

This morning I had coffee with a good friend who told me I was living in a box.  He didn't know where I got it, but he described it well.  As he listened to me he made me aware  of how restricted my vision had become because of the box I had accepted many years ago.  It was humbling to realize I had been given a box and had never questioned its role in my life.  Was it right? Should I get into it? Is this the way I should live?  Is this how I should think?

Without any questions I took the boxes handed me and made them my own. They have limited me, identified me, and restricted God's work in my life.  How did I ever let this happen? Why did I believe this box was what I needed to identify me?


Children love boxes.  They aren't so much fun when they define your life, your thinking or your values as an adult.  I can't believe that I let this happen....happy to look out the hole I had cut in my box and survey the world around me....trying to make boxes like mine for others....only to find I had made prisoners of us all.  

I'm taking a different tack today as I look at my thoughts and my life.  I've decided it's time to be done with the boxes of childhood and walk in the freedom of the grace that Christ has provided.  

Read Romans 8 as you look at your own life. What boxes have you made your own?  How have you missed God's grace by accepting the boxes others have given you?  

The center of the universe

I've been at a restaurant since early this morning waiting for a man I was to meet.  He forgot.  I've watched the sun rise, watched people come and go, watched the waitress try to please everyone.  

I'm fascinated by people.  We all, aware of it or not, consider ourselves the center of the universe.  The world doesn't really revolve around the sun, it revolves around us!  Just watch people in a restaurant and you will see how true this is.

It's this self centering way we live that God is dealing with in the Bible.  We live our lives as if everything revolves around us.  God wants us to live as if everything revolves around HIM.  It's a complete change of what, who and how we live.  It changes how we think, how we interact with others, how we view ourselves and the world around us.  A God-centered life looks completely different than a life lived with me as the center.  

When I live my life, no longer as the center but centered around God, all the pressure is gone.  I no longer strive to find approval of others.  Approval is fleeting at best because everyone else wants the same thing.  We are like a bunch of puppies all wanting our bellies scratched.  We all want and need to be validated as the center of the universe.

How's that working for us?  To be honest it's a disaster!  A major shift in who is the center of the universe is needed.  Clearly, God says he is the center of all things and when we give him his rightful place life is easier, things work better and we find a peace we never had....no longer needing "our bellies scratched."  

So, who's the center of your universe?

Saturday's cartoon

Conviction and compassion