Freak With A Capital "F"

Garrett and I are a bit quirky. And, if you know us..this isn't news to you. :)



But, one of the funniest quirks about Garrett is that he really HATES being called a Christian. He despises it enough that he wants to make up his own name for his faith.



His explanation is that everyone that believes in God (regardless of their actions or lifestyle) labels themselves as a "Christian". Anyone that isn't Buddhist, Muslim, Mormon, etc. that believes that Jesus existed just checks the little box by Christian. But being Christian is supposed to mean so much more. We are supposed to be set apart..actual FOLLOWERS, not observers.



But are we?



I'm just not sure how "Different" Christians (myself included) are from the average, every day, Mr. Nice Guy, non-believer down the street.



That's why Curtis's sermon hit home. We are not called to be common, average or normal. We are called to follow Christ with a reckless abandon. As Curtis put it, maybe we are called to be a little bit insane.



I have been wrestling with turning away from my earthy Idols for the past few months and I admit its not easy. I've been making conscious decisions to not watch shows or listen to music that would not be pleasing to Christ (Hello, True Blood!). It gets especially hard when people ask why I don't do things I did previously. They seriously think I'm a freak with a capital "F"!!! But it sparks some interesting conversations and a chance to give my 2 minute shame-less plug. (Thankfully, if anyone knows me they know that 99.9% of the time, I don't care what people think.)



But, I've got a long way to go in casting out my earthly idols.. I need to take another long, hard look at my life and continue "Taking out the trash."



This is me signing off...I helped coach my baby niece out of the womb and I'm toast.



Shameless, Insane, Jesus-lovin' Toast, That is.

Creed

In light of being called out for being introspective I am wondering why no one else is blogging? I wonder if it is because our pastor, our leader, our Sheppard is putting people down. Calling people out and failing to create an environment that is safe, open, and welcoming? Could this be the reason? I don't know...so I will continue to blog eagerly waiting for the day when someone else joins me. I will try my best to, because obviously I was not doing that before, and blog to the constraints that Curtis has placed on me. On second thought, I will blog in the way the sermon spoke to me because after reviewing Curtis' request for me to blog that is exactly what he said.

Despite being introspective, as if it is a bad thing, this week Curtis left us with a practical application step. There was not a whole lot of room to make the creeds we created introspective. However, everyone made personal creeds (statements of belief that depict truth and action in their life). I don't know if we were supposed to state them daily this week, but if we were I have failed. I just stated mine out loud while alone in my office for the first time since writing it. There is something empowering about talking to yourself when no one is around.

My creed stated that I am answering the call to Listen and Obey Gods Words. I am responding in action through love. I will let God transform me to what he designed me to be as I focus on Him alone. My creed is based out of the belief that truth creates demands on our lives; therefore I cannot make a claim/creed about truth unless it is evident in my life. I guess it would be an axiomatic truth now that I think about it. I am still working on letting my creed become axiomatic, but part of my creed includes transforming me...so I guess I will let it do its work.

That's all I got this week...the blogs are shorter when you can't get super introspective.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 - The Living Creed: SHEMA

The latest message is up! This is a familiar passage, but I hope Saturday Night offered a fresh look at it. Once again, Matt didn't offer us much but introspection last week. :) Though, I did appreciate that he signed off in order to go and spend time with Jesus.


The main idea behind this week's message is that we are called to live the words we claim to believe. 


How are you doing that this week?


How are you giving God's words central priority in your life this week?


Listen on iTunes

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Obey This!

So Curtis' quick post to this week’s message is frustrating because he basically set the ground rules for this week’s discussion.

I enjoy speculation and deep reflective thinking. It allows me conceptualize, and keep things at a cognitive dissonance. Basically what I am saying is that I like to keep juxtaposition from thinking and doing. As I think about actualizing the "Obey" command (which is repeated and repeated throughout Deuteronomy) I wonder if Moses was a senile old man (rambling on about the same thing) or if we are really just big "stiff necked" aka moron people. After looking at my life I am inclined to say that Moses knew we were morons stuck in a rut and he had to drive home the point. (this is actually what the Hebrew implied for those of you who can’t read Hebrew, your version in your Bible softens this up a tab bit)

My sermon on Sunday was about "my desires" and how they don't always align with God's for me to desire him. As I said Sunday..."I always get in the way!" With my sermon for Sunday, Curtis gave me a sermon that basically says "Obey and do what you're told!" Easy? I think not. Not only do I have a strong reaction to anytime someone tells me what to do (particularly my wife), but when we talk about God, I feel that it is unattainable... I want to keep the deep conceptualizing ideas because it removes action. I am able to stay in my safe realm of libraries and class rooms. When I take my thoughts and actions to the street to actualize and "Obey" I get uncomfortable, things start to hurt, I start to lose me....there is a war going on inside of me. Only I am losing both sides. I don’t feel that this is new or earth shattering news…just hard. So hard that as I sit here writing this…I can’t help but think that I didn’t spend any time with God today. I like the easy and comfortable life of doing work, reading the newspaper, checking up on sports, etc.

The easy and comfortable life is the reason that we fail to act and obey. It goes against our grain and everything that we have been taught to Obey. Although I know that I should and it would do me good to “OBEY!” I try to find any way out…even my post currently…I am hoping that by being honest I will gain sympathy so that you empathize with me….but I am still not obeying….therefore I will stop writing and go spend some time with God

I apologize for being gone the last couple weeks…vacation and then two of the most stressful weeks of my life. I was hoping someone would pick up the torch and carry on the blogs…Curtis has been trying but he needs help….just OBEY and write!

Deuteronomy 5:22-6:3 - Responding to Heavenly Words

::Good game given to Taylor::

Saturday Night's latest message is up. It was the immediate follow-up to the 10 Commandments and in it I attempted to help put legs on the desire that Meagan expressed here on the blog a few weeks back. When will we begin to do the hard stuff of authentically following after God? That's what Meagan asked us. Moses uses the word "Obey."

This isn't the week for speculation and deep reflective thinking. The question before us is this: "Will we live into God's Kingdom way of life?"

and the follow up: "How?"

Listen here at PodOmatic

The Last 4 Sermons Are Up!

Okay, so if you've been depressed about not being up-to-date in our series on the 10 Commandments, fret no more!

We had a minor issue with the 7th Commandment which kept us from posting the others (since we wanted to keep them in order). That minor issue had to do with not being able to find it... therefore, I attempted to re-preach it. The problem with re-recording that night was that the last part of the sermon was largely shaped through the thoughtful and insightful discussion that the various table groups had and offered to the larger worshiping group. There was no way to re-create that... Therefore, you will not hear Meagan say the words "anal sex" in the context of worship. Sorry. Do not despair. I tried to say "genitals" a few more times, just to make up for it. :)

Listen on iTunes

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The 7th Word: Sex and Marriage and Spirituality

The 8th Word: Stop Stealing

The 9th Word: Can You Handle the Truth? - The Jesus Way is the way of truth-telling. We have been invited into a new way of getting on in the world. The truthfulness of God refuses to allow us to continue living in self-deceit and unconfessed sin, or with dehumanizing and dishonest speech toward our neighbors. God created us to Live the Truth. The Truth needs a Truth-Telling Covenant Community in which find its home.

The 10th Word: Your Heart Desires - What a perfect bookend to the 10 Commandments. God's strong desire is that we would desire Him with all of our desire. This final Word names some of those desires that creep into our hearts and minds, begging for us to pursue them. These misplaced desires separate us from God and they separate us from our neighbor. Before we know it we have everything our heart desires, but we've lost our soul.

How Do We Grow In Our Desire for God?

Late have I love you, O beauty ever ancient, ever new, late have I love you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you.

In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would not have been at all. 

You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness.  You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in your breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.
St. Augustine, Confessions (Painting by Botticelli)

If you want to hear the song, "Late Have I Loved You," that Taylor and Jane sang for us, check it out at iTunes

Steve left us with a question during his benediction ("good words"): "How will we pursue God this week?"

So... what is pursuing God going to look like for you?  How will you pursue God in community this week? 

LINKS(ed) to the Rest of the World

Are you wondering who these people are?


Good.  

They don't know who you are either...


True story.  

And yet, you and me and this family are all linked together... through our sharing of our Father in heaven, our love for Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit that joins us together in mission.

August's Mission emphasis is LINKS.  What is LINKS?  Good question...

"The LINKS program of the Church of the Nazarene" is a network of personal connections between missionaries and Christians around the world.  Missionaries are assigned to districts (we are part of the Northern California district) and then, on the district level, connected to local churches. This gives each church the opportunity to become personally acquainted with the missionary family and their field of service. The missionaries are encouraged, knowing people care and pray for them." (from nazarenemissions.org)

Will you try to spend some time this week in prayer for Dana and Sherry Howard, our LINKS missionaries? 

Dana and Sherry will actually be with us on October 17th.  This will be a powerful time to connect with people we have been praying for. 

Reality and Truth: Is There a Difference?

Quiet week on the blog... Was the Ninth Word that straight forward?  :)


I came across an interesting distinction in a book that I was reading this morning.  Marva Dawn references a French dude, Jacques Ellul (could the guy's name be any more French?), who describes a difference between reality and truth.*

She says that reality is what we see on the surface.  Truth is what is really going on in a certain situation.

Dawn, then uses this example: The reality is that our world is full of economic chaos and political craziness; the truth is that Jesus Christ is still Lord of the cosmos and everything. 

So the question for us becomes, do we organize our finances and our hopes for the future around the "reality" of what is around us?  Or do our lives, economics, and hopes for the world rest in and reflect the TRUTH that Jesus Christ is Lord of all? 

Is this distinction between reality and truth helpful
?  How do you see it played out in your life? 

How do we orient our lives around what is true?

Feel free one and all to jump into the mix... hopefully, this is the place each week where we can begin to see how God's words might take on flesh in our lives.

*Marva Dawn with Eugene Peterson in "The Unnecessary Pastor: Rediscovering the Call."

Journey Home Men

When Jane and I were getting married, we got connected with an amazing woman for premarital counseling.  One of the things that Jane and I were super impressed with was her ability to facilitate open conversation about everything and anything.  It just so happens, her husband was equally capable as a counselor.  Both of us found the frank dialogue so refreshing that after we got married we went back for post-wedding counseling.  It was incredible what that experience of truth-telling did for establishing an honest foundation for our marriage.

Our pre-marital counselor's husband (Jeff) became a mentor of mine for a season.  One of the ministries that he has been a part of is a group called Journey Home Men.  I don't know much about how it all works, but I have regularly accessed the meeting notes from the website: www.journeyhomemen.com

In light of Saturday's message, I thought this intro to the "community" was interesting.

  

A journey home is a community based men's group that has met since the early 1990s. The name implies that we are men in movement returning to the home of our Sacred Father. We confess that we have been extended healing through the sacrificial work of Christ on the cross. We need help in walking out this healing. Though many of us find ourselves living among many people, we tend to live isolated lives. Those around us don't always see what is going on under "the mask".

 

It is our belief that we forsook our sacred responsibility in the garden where we chose woman over our Father. We abandoned our post as keepers of the rythmn of life and love. This initial act was the rejection and betrayal of love and relationship first to God as well as to woman. We fell from being radiantly alive wih great potency to the shame based ways we live life today which often looks like little kids running around trying to demonstrate whose is bigger. This often manifests in we as men being arm chair quarter backs, talkers, b.s. artists, but not men of substance, not reliable, trust worthy. We also frequently see great passivity in men who shrink back and again abandon their role as life givers by slipping into pleasing and appeasing the women we share life with. We confess this as cowardice. Being monsters or whimps is an insult to our God. We repent of the delusion that our loved ones want more trinkets from us reflecting our false potency. We acknowledge that our loved ones and our world wants men who truly know, love and accepts himself and actively engages in the lives of these folks around us. We accept that the main emotion we as men feel is fear and what we fear is that we are not enough. We will face this fear squarely, understanding and coming to peace with the reality that we are not enough but Jesus' life in me empowers me to walk out life at its fullest.

 

We believe our healing will be walked out as we confess we live in fear and are often animated by shame. We have lost touch with our hearts and our true sense of self. Our journey then is to return to the heart of our Sacred Father and there recover the lost spirit of man. We learn to stop lying to ourselves and face reality. We commit to stop numbing ourselves through sex, booze, bucks or whatever other forms of compulsions or addiction we may chose. We recognize that we can not walk this out alone. We will seek "wing buddies" that will fly in formation along side us. A true brother will support when needed and kick me when needed as well. Our desire is to grow up into the image of Christ as true sons of the Most High. We believe a man fully alive reflects both the Lion of Judah as well as the Lamb of God, the warrior-poet. We believe that the ultimate man is both tough and tender and that the toughness must precede the tenderness.

 

We walk this process out together several Saturday mornings a month. This is a non judgmental format where we are invited in to know your brokenness and you will be encouraged to stop running from the long black bag we all drag behind us. Together we will seek to find that the place of vulnerability is truly our place of strength.

 

Our Saturday formats typically consist of prayer for one another, singing songs of worship, interacting over thoughts prepared for the morning, small groups, journaling, as well as times of silence. Our anchor is the Holy Scriptures. When we come together we do so with the passionate belief that Christ is present among us and desires to heal, correct and encourage us. We believe that what was true in the garden with God is still true today. That He created us to know Him and come alive with genuine life that is rich, full, and complete.

"The Invention of Lying"

In quite a bit of my study and reflection this week, this movie continued to come to mind. 

It has been interesting because several people have asked me if being a truth-telling covenant community (a.k.a. church) means we will be like the people in this movie with Ricky Gervais who say mean and hurtful things about each others' weight, appearance, and general lack of social  acceptability.

One of the distinctions I would make between the strong "truth" that is spoken in the movie and the truth that Christians are to speak is that one is truth and the other is poorly informed opinion.  We need to keep in mind anytime someone (wives...) asks us how she looks, whether we like her hair up, down, curly, straight, brown, with highlights, or shaved off, or if she is looking fat (see link) we need to consider whose standard of "truth" these questions are rooted in.  Do these questions and the answers they seek take seriously the reality that the person a fearfully and wonderfully made creation of God?

The challenge in all situations is to not mistake someone's opinions about "beauty" for what is genuinely true, good, and beautiful.  Beauty standards change by the minute... There are more important questions that offer truth that often lie beneath the surface.  Perhaps these are actually moments where we can drop beneath the superficial level and offer powerful and redemptive words to someone needing a reminder how precious he/she is to God.

Here are a couple videos that are both of Nick Vujicic that might help put this into perspective...
First Video

This one is special for our World Cup Soccer fans (Bryan and Chris)