Unchanging and Everchanging

One of the biggest challenges we face is to stay fresh. For a business to stay competitive changes must be made constantly. The world is changing so quickly that it's easy to settle into the comfort of the present. Our defense: "If it ain't broke don't fix it." However, what is working for us today may not work for us next year, or for that matter, next week.

We must make changes on a regular basis to keep up. If you want to get ahead, you're going to have to make even more changes that anticipate what is to come way beyond what we can see clearly today.

We made a decision 8 years ago to abandon our land line and rely completely on cell phones. At the time there were people who thought we were crazy. Now people without cell phones are the minority and about 1/3 of households are cell phone only. Many hotel chains are considering removing phones from their guest rooms. We did well with that decision but we haven't always been able to keep up with everything.

Next to that challenge is another, holding on to values that shouldn't change. Integrity, love, courage and faith are in demand more than ever. Sometimes the fast pace of modern life pushes timeless values to a back corner of our lives. By the time we notice that these values are misplaced a lot of damage can be done.

Somehow we have to stay connected to the stability of timeless values while constantly making changes. Figuring this out is a key to happiness in life. I have found that a connection with the eternal God connects us to the unchanging and the everchanging. Paul expresses this in his benediction to the church in Rome.

Romans 16:25-27 (NIV) Now to him who is able to establish you by my gospel and the proclamation of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all nations might believe and obey him—to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

God, being eternal and wise, can clearly see what was, what is and what is to come. He reveals these things to us. People struggle to maintain balance in an environment of constant change and the answer is in a God who doesn't change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. He also equips us for success wherever we happen to be in His eternal history.

The balance is found in the person of Jesus Christ, who walked in the world we live in yet lives eternally in the unchanging.

The Curve Ball

Just when I think that I can anticipate what God will do next He throws me another curve ball. I swing for all I'm worth at the point of impact I anticipated and miss it completely. Then there's that embarrassing human corkscrew thing that happens when you fail to hit the ball.

I try again, but this time I pay more attention to how God is handling the ball. I analyze all of His previous pitching patterns. I watch game films to study His style and method. Again, anticipating where the ball will be when I swing I give it everything I've got and end up in a pathetic heap.

For some reason we often go back to what worked last time, but God doesn't do everything like He did it last time. He tells us, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

The only way to get it right is to keep your eyes on what God is doing right now. It is definitely helpful to know how He did it in the past. It doesn't hurt to be familiar with His style. But in the end you have to take each pitch for what it is or you'll miss it.

I sometimes wonder why God changes things up. I mean, wouldn't life be a lot smoother if we could really get good at hitting one pitch? I think that God wants us to keep our eyes on Him and what is coming our way. He wants us to base our life on what He has in store more than what we think we can do.

By the way, that's not me in the photo.

Desperate Innovation

If "passion plus lack of resources equals increased innovation" then I finally understand one of the reasons we are seeing success here at our church. We are experts in lack of resources. My dreams are so much bigger than the resources at hand.

You see a guy at the entrance to the church who is crippled and begging. What if he could walk and get a job and not have to beg anymore? What if we could just reach out and lift him up and the handicap just disappeared? I want to see that? I don't have the money to send the guy to the best medical facility available. All I have is a passion to see something change.

What I do have is a faith in a God who is in charge of all resources. What if the resources of heaven could be poured out on all the problems we see around us? What if we became so aware of our lack of resources concerning the realities of everyday life and we became full of passion to see a real change? It might lead us to the greatest innovation, the greatest change that would produce lasting results.

The innovation is God. Lord my we get humble enough and desperate enough to let you be the great innovation in our lives.

The Quickening of Moldy Dirt Ball People

I was teaching on one of the "hats" worn by the Holy Spirit of God, the Spirit of Life. It was one of those teachings that I couldn't have spent too much time preparing for. The subject of God breathing life into our world is huge. Even after I was done teaching on the subject I was still receiving a flood of reflections and thoughts. It was really connected to one of those "what if" ideas. What if all of God's people in all of the churches were profoundly "quickened" by God's Spirit? What if the lifeforce of God always prevailed in the life of every person who says they belong to God? No doubt, it would be shocking.

I have seen this idea applied to several things in our world. There is a "quickening" of technological advancement, kind of a techno enlightenment. When mom feels her baby move for the first time...the "quickening" moment. Even in the Highlander stories when the head of an immortal is removed his lifeforce leaves in what they call a "quickening." We use an accounting program called "Quicken." I think the accounting program name is grossly overstated.

In the King James Version of the Bible the word "quicken" means the regiving of life. It's almost like the implication is full life on top of life that is not fully alive or full life overriding half life. Romans 8:11 says "And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life ("quicken") to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you." The Message puts it this way, "delivered from that dead life."

I see so much attention given lately to the power of death in the world...vampires, zombies...and Halloween really brings it to the surface. One of my favorite television series is CSI, which has a huge following of people fascinated by forensic science...death.

I'm proposing a new movie. People all over the planet mysteriously come alive with a new lifeforce that is brilliant compared to the mediocre version of life everywhere else. World leaders and scientists try to explain it...but they can't. It's so far outside of their frame of reference. The movie ends with all of them being transported to their new home, which makes this little ball of moldy dirt look pathetic. The moldy dirt ball people make a futile attempt to explain all of it and finally their moldy dirt ball is incinerated.

Maybe a new television series like CSI or X-Files, we'll call it the "Q Files" because they're looking at these unexplainable "quickening" events. I can see it now...the scene of the event...some jerk who has destroyed his life...he cries out to God...then, the quickening moment...he is transformed...he looks the same but he is radically different...he becomes a vessel of transformational life...aliens? drugs? psychotherapy? God's Spirit of Life.

Lord, I receive You and the transformational lifeforce that can only come from You. Change me so dramatically that it would be so shocking to any moldy dirt ball people that they would be just curious enough to believe that there is a Creator who wants us to have a "quickened" life.

Fence Sitting

I have lately been describing myself as a "moderate." I know that I don't want to be lumped in with the far right conservatives and I definitely can't buy into the liberal side of what is happening in our world. Maybe I'm just looking for a position that keeps me out of the fray so I can just "live and let live." Well, once again, the Bible has caused me to rethink my moderate position, or at least the motives behind it.

1 Kings 18:21 (NIV) ²¹Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing. The word "falter" is rendered "hesitate" or "waver" in other translations. The Message says, "How long are you going to sit on the fence?" It could be translated, "How long will you claim an exemption concerning this decision?"

There are some decisions you just can't sit on the fence about. Sooner or later a decision is going to be made by somebody. If we were sitting on the fence, completely aware that a decision making process was happening in front of us, and we decided to claim our exemption, and subsequently let someone else decide...we shouldn't complain about it after the fact. We should be more engaged in a lot of discussion and decision making going on in the world around us.

This guy I know was periodically complaining to me about his church and his pastor. I put up with it for longer than I should have in the name being a friend and a good sounding board. One day I just told him to either stop complaining or just leave his church. He stayed at the church and I thankfully haven't heard another negative word. If you're going to complain, don't just talk. Do something constructive or productive or stop talking. I would rather listen to a rabid liberal or an extreme conservative than some complainer who just talks and never does anything.

Sometimes being "moderate" means we reserve the right to change our position so that we are "in style" or "not rocking the boat." I was watching the news about a current issue and every night it seemed like the polls showed a different result. Polls are fickle that way. What caused it to swing in such a wide range? It was all the "moderates" who really had not decided what they believe. Even more treacherous, our legislators swing back and forth on serious matters.

I could address a lot of hot button issues in this context, but the issue of who you follow is the contextual topic. Are you going to follow God or not? I'm watching a lot of people trying to stay "in style" and not "rock the boat" and it looks like they are trying to go in two directions at once. When it comes to the eternal God my timeless decision must be to follow Him. There is no neutral or moderate on this decision. If that makes me a "bigot" or "narrow-minded" in our contemporary culture at least I have made a decision and live by it. This decision of faith and following is too important for me to sit on the fence until someone else makes the decision for me.

Once God somehow is able to pry you off the fence when it comes to Him, you might just find yourself examining other areas of your life.

Am I "blogger" material?

What does it take to be a blogger? I mean, am I really blogger material? I'm pretty sure it doesn't have much to do with whether or not I have something to say. I'm guessing it has a lot to do with whether or not anyone will read my blog. It already sounds like a losing proposition. Read my "heavenly inspiration"....maybe. Read my "daily words of wisdom"...if people want wisdom it is accessible through God if they really want it. Read my "blog"....that's like "listen to my (insert a descriptor that a pastor wouldn't say)." At any rate, since I read some blogs (my daughter's blog is awesome) I'll join the blogosphere. More to come later....