Being Jesus

It's Wednesday morning. I'm at the Corner Bakery with a room full of people in community. This is the new community for our culture, a place where we can gather, drink coffee and fellowship. People need this! With the electronic age so dominant people don't have a place to connect. A coffee shop or restaurant like this offers such a place. A place to visit. The buzz around me is loud, people connecting. We so need that. We need someone to talk to, someone to listen to us. We need people and a little food on the table is always a good thing.

It's what Jesus did. Eat, visit, fellowship, focus on others. I would have loved to sit at a meal with Jesus. I'm sure it wouldn't have been a meal focused on him. I'm sure he was one of the best listeners ever! I can see him in my imagination even as I write this, intently listening as his dinner companion would ramble on about life, problems, people, fears and struggles. I can see his laser focus on the other person's words and thoughts. You would have thought, if Jesus were listening to you, that you were the only person in the world at that moment! Food, fellowship and a visit with Jesus, there is no counselor on earth that could accomplish what a meal with Jesus would do.

We are designed for community, for fellowship, for others. We are designed to be connected to others. That's how God made us. Our culture today is doing everything it can to get away from this, but we are never satisfied with this isolation, we need others! We need community. I watch as young people around me are busy texting someone who isn't there even while sitting in the presence of a real person. I watch as a couple out for dinner together are both on cell phones talking to someone else instead of talking to one another. Amazingly we are isolating ourselves in the midst of community, we are alone in a crowd. It's not the way we were designed, it's not healthy for us.

If Jesus sat down to a meal with you he would gently take your phone, turn it off with a smile and then focus all his attention on you. He does that even now. He listens, cares and is focused on us because he designed us to be in community, to be connected…..and connected to flesh and blood, not to electronics. I'm sure he would set aside everything to focus on me, and he does. It's something we desperately need and until he returns he has given us the task of being Jesus to those around us.

Simple instructions

I have to admit that I'm a very simple person. I don't think about grand thoughts of glory or have amazing insights into life and eternity. I am just a very simple guy who is trying to follow God and walk with him. I honestly find that most people are just like me, trying to find their way.

This morning, as I read Micah 6, I once more come to these simple instructions,

"He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

In my simple language I would instruct someone else with these directions, do what's right, be nice and respond rightly to God. It's not all that hard. Life comes down to some very simple instructions. That helps a guy like me.

Jesus repeated these instructions and framed it in an even clearer way. He said "Love God and love each other." That's Micah 6 in its simplest form. Basically scripture tells us to focus on eternal things- God and people. Those are the things, the relationships that will be eternal. Everything else will burn up, rust, rot or be thrown away.

So today, I hope to focus on the eternal things- God and people. I hope to respond to them as Micah describes, do what's right, be nice and walk humbly with God. I'm so glad this is simple. It helps to know how easy this really is. The secret is this- it's not about me, it's about God first and others second. It's a life focused outward, focused not on the frantic scramble for security and stuff, but on people and God.

Simple instructions.....for a simple race, do what's right, be nice and walk humbly with God.

Prophetic words

“Religion today is not transforming people; rather it is being transformed by the people. It is not raising the moral level of society; it is descending to society’s own level, and congratulating itself that it has scored a victory because society is smilingly accepting its surrender.”
- A. W. Tozer

Much about nothing

One of my morning rituals, like many of you, is to read the news. It's becoming quite clear that nothing ever changes. The news is the same every day, they just change the names and the places. Every day a celebrity does something wrong. Every day there is war somewhere. Every day there is conflict and chaos. Every day the news is the same. We are masters at making much about nothing.

I would love to read the news one morning and find that we have made much of the right things. It won't happen until Christ returns, but imagine the morning news in this way: Today God is on the throne, those who have extra are helping those who don't, no one was shot anywhere, no one cried last night as they went to sleep, no baby felt unloved anywhere, there were no divorces yesterday anywhere we can report....imagine such a place. It would be the most wonderful place, wouldn't it? Why, it sounds like heaven and it is.

One day this will be the morning news. One day all will be right with the world because God will be on his throne, satan will be in his place, sin will be dealt with and every tear will be gone. One day is near. I long for that great day....that day when we can make much of the right things.

A royal inheritance, a wonderful invitation

Galatians 4:⁴ But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. ⁶ Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

What an amazing passage! The God who made us has provided a way for his creation (you and I) to become adopted, to be his sons and daughters. We are not only adopted, but we have his Spirit living in us to lead, teach, guide and grow us up. And, we can come to God not as creator, but as Father, as "Daddy." But there's more...now, because we are his children, we are his heirs as well! We get the inheritance of sons and daughters of the father. These things are astonishing to me....as a creature on planet earth, a fearful little creature, I am invited into relationship, sonship and heirship with the God who made me! Who wouldn't respond to that invitation? Who wouldn't want to be part of this grand plan of God?

Saturday's cartoon

Disciple-making

"A schmuck like one of us"

A cup of cold water

I had a refreshing experience yesterday. It was sadly unusual. One of the guys in our church sent me an e-mail to talk about some issues in the ministry and then, as he closed, he asked, "While I’m at it, how’s your spirit lately? Do you need encouragement? How can I serve you?" It was like a cup of cold water on a hot day for me! I am especially worn right now with prep for the fall, people's needs and other considerations so for someone to ask how I am was a surprise and refreshing. He followed up our dialogue with an invitation to a coke later that day. He said, "I’ll bring the cold water." And, in fact we did meet. The first thing my friend ordered was a cup of cold water. What a treat. I drank it with joy because it represented so much more than refreshment for the body. He had refreshed my soul. A cup of cold water...often it does more than you could ever imagine!

Community

Take a few minutes. Watch this video. Tell me what you think....

Hold on!

I've been thinking about my own walk with God, my life as a Christian lately. I've been thinking about what a life of a Christian should look like. I wonder that because my own walk with God isn't really very exciting. Sometimes it's just downright boring! I seldom have brilliant thoughts. I seldom stand out as a wonderful witness for the faith. It's rare when I feel that I have had a great day as a Christian.

So, I've been thinking about my walk with God. What should it look like? What should I be doing? Am I missing something? Is there more than I know to this walk with God?

I think I ask these questions because I want to make sure I'm not missing something. I don't want to finish poorly. While many are optimists I find that I am the perpetual pessimist. I am always asking, "what did I miss? what didn't I do?" instead of enjoying what I did do right, what I did understand.

Like a good mountain climber I would be the guy dreading the fall instead of enjoying the view. It's a challenge to enjoy the moments when life and death are in the balance, but there are two simple rules for a mountain climber, 1. never let go (hold on!) and, 2. keep climbing. You may not be at the top yet, but you are further than you were an hour ago. Mountain climbing, like the Christian life, is just boring hard work at times, but the rewards are amazing. As the climber nears the summit there is a growing excitement in both the quest and the distance down. The key thing to remember is this- all the work and effort will rewarded at the summit, it will be worth the work, just hold on and keep climbing.

I wonder....even as I think about my walk as a Christian, how much of this is simply a step by step climb to the summit? How basic are the rules for us? 1. Hold on and, 2. Keep climbing! Hold onto God, your faith, the word, other believers. Hold on, and keep climbing, don't stop! There's no place to rest here, the only rest is at the summit. Keep going, don't give up. It will be worth all the effort once we reach the top.

Jesus spoke of this in Revelation when he said through John, "To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne." That will be the ultimate mountain top experience!

Quote of the day

"Jesus didn't come to make bad people good. He came to give dead people life."

Ramadan

I went to the local Muslim mosque tonight to attend their Ramadan celebration and

dinner.

What a great experience,

what nice people,

what amazing food!

Saturday's cartoon

The gods of convenience

2 Kings 17 describes why Israel, as a nation, was finally dissolved by God. In the aftermath of the exile a group of people were brought into the land to live there. It was an ancient custom of conquest. The new residents soon discover that "the god of the land is upset" and so they ask for a priest from Israel to teach them how to worship "the god of the land," but the whole time they continued to worship their own gods as well.

For them worshipping the real God was simply a necessary part of living in this new country. It was a necessary part of their life, but they continued to worship the gods they had brought with them. It made me wonder about my own life...how many "gods" do I worship? Am I a closet polytheist without realizing it....simply to make my life easier?

These are only the seeds of thought for me right now, but the story has me wondering about my own choices. I'm still working on this. I will let you know what I find in my walk that I need to correct.