So I came across this in Proverbs...

"To do justice AND righteousness is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice." 
(Proverbs 21:3, ESV. Emphasis mine)

     In scripture, righteousness and justice are always mentioned together. Like conjoined twins they are inseparable. They are two sides of a single coin; both are necessary for the coin to be of any worth.

     Justice is big these days among young evangelicals. They are understandably sick of the apathy, sick of the lazy church sitting in pews and singing dry, dusty hymns while the world goes to hell all around them, sick of the hypocrisy of claiming the title: Jesus-follower" but not actually following Jesus into the world to heal the sick, care for the poor, touch the leper, and love the outcast. There is a lot to admire about the "social justice" movement in the church these days. The world is dying to see if there is an ounce of authenticity left in Western Christianity. But there is a caution to be taken if we are to follow Jesus into the world: Justice is never far from righteousness. Never. Ever.

     Many want to cast off the holiness of God in the name of His justice. Some would feed hungry stomachs with bread, but starve their souls of the Bread of Life in the process. They want to reach out and embrace the marginalized and outcast, but not require repentance from sin. They cast off God's unflinching call to purity and holy living because, after all, who are we to tell anyone how they should live? Aren't we all sinners? Isn't everyone broken in one way or another? We imagine that enough efforts to promote justice will somehow excuse us from the demands of righteousness.

     In fairness, the vast majority of American Christians have done the inverse: we have reduced the gospel to a set of doctrinal statements and a moral code of conduct: "If you agree to the truth of these statements, and can manage to avoid these particular sins (usually sexual in nature), then you are a Christian." Meanwhile, the cries of the oppressed and impoverished largely go unheeded. They can barely be heard above our state-of-the-art sound systems in our multi-million dollar facilities. Justice is re-labeled "Missions"and left to those who "feel called" to it. (BTW, you don't "feel called;" you ARE called. You either listen and obey or you don't.)

     But the truth is that Jesus requires both. The Proverb above doesn't say, "Righteousness is acceptable to the Lord, but justice is optional." Nor does it say, "To do justice is better than righteousness." It says that both together were more acceptable to Yahweh than merely superficial religious ceremony. Why? Because they are the metric of our spiritual maturity. They are the barometer of our hearts -- where they are, what they desire, how we regard the Lord.

     Righteousness is how we live before God. It measures our moral choices as they flow from the affections of our hearts. Like water that will seep through and rise to its own level, what -- and who -- we really love will be revealed by how we live. God is very concerned with what our hearts desire and how we go after it. There are ways to live that promote human flourishing in every area -- physically, materially, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. And there are ways to live that destroy us, sometimes quickly and obviously, but more often quietly over a lifetime, like a slow poison working its way through our bodies, shutting it down one system at a time until we stop living.

     Morality is what we think of most when we talk about righteousness but it is actually much more than that. It's not rule-keeping; it's loving God more than we love ourselves and trusting that His commands are an expression of His love and protection towards us. Righteousness deals more with our relationship to God, while justice is more about how we treat other people because of our relationship to God.

Righteousness and justice always go together. To attempt one without the other is to accomplish neither.

     Jesus said this was the sum of the whole Law and Prophets: "You shall love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength (righteousness), and you shall love your neighbor as yourself (justice)." He told His followers to "seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness." Righteousness and justice always go together. To attempt one without the other is to accomplish neither.

     You cannot claim a zeal for justice and embrace or accept something God calls sin. You are not being just towards those who are trapped in that self-destructive lifestyle, misleading them to believe they are safe from the wrath of God and penalty of their sin. Nor are you being just towards God by treating His Word and His holiness as something that can be casually dismissed whenever it's expedient or unpopular.

     Conversely, you cannot claim a zeal for righteousness -- holding up your morality and doctrinal positions as evidence -- if that never results in action taken to oppose oppression, injustice, exploitation, corruption, or abuses of power. What kind of righteousness leaves the helpless undefended, the hungry unfed, the naked unclothed, the sick uncared for, and the captive left to rot in captivity?

     The Proverb is saying, "Don't look at your religious service as the metric of how well your relationship with God is going. Rather, look at the interplay of both righteous living before a holy God and compassionate justice towards those made in His image. That's what God is really after." James affirms this in his letter:

     "Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (James 1:27, ESV. Emphasis mine.)

     Justice AND righteousness. Never one without the other.

     Father, help me to live a life pleasing to You. I fear there are days when not only do I not do both, but some days that I do neither. God, make me more like Jesus, who loved You more than life itself and expressed it by loving others. In Jesus' name I ask these things. Amen!

   

"Why doesn't God answer my prayer?"

Reading in the Grand Story this morning from Isaiah...

"Behold, the LORD's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or His ear dull that it cannot hear, but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear." (Isaiah 59:1-2)

What goes through our minds when we pray and it feels like God doesn't hear us, or when we beg God to do something for us and it seems like He doesn't come through? How do we interpret that? What do we think about God in that moment? That He doesn't care about me? Doesn't love me? Doesn't exist? Does it even cross our minds that the problem is with us and not God? Is that a category that we even think in?

Proverbs 19:3 is a familiar interpretation on the silence of God and our reactions to it: "People ruin their lives by their own foolishness and then are angry at the LORD." (NLT) But scripture says it's not that God can't or won't act on our behalf; it's because we are living and asking at cross purposes with Him. God has a purpose: to draw people from every tribe, tongue, nation, and people to Himself through Jesus Christ and make them a Kingdom. That's what the whole Bible is about, start to finish. That is Plan A, and there is no Plan B.

But that is not our purpose. Our purpose is to live as comfortably as possible for as long as possible, surrounded only by people who will tell us how great we are -- even if it cost us our freedom, our humanity, or our very lives. The apostle James says the source of our broken relationships and jacked up lives is this very thing: "What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (James 4:1-4)

"Enemies of God." That's what our sin makes us. And then we have the gall to be indignant when God doesn't answer our selfish prayers and grant us our three wishes. Like He owes us something! Ha! He owes us something, alright. Thank God, Jesus took what we are owed on Himself on the cross, and left it in the grave when He rose from the dead!

New category to pray in: Change what I want, God. Sync my heart to Yours. Align my life to Your purposes. "Incline my heart to Your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!" (Psalm 119:36) You can't expect the power of God on your behalf apart from the purpose of God. The PURPOSE of the POWER of God on your behalf is to bring about the Kingdom of God IN YOU. "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." (Eph. 3:20-21)

On this mountain...

-->

Great news from the Grand Story this morning... Isaiah prophecies:

"On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples

a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine,

of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

And he will swallow up on this mountain

the covering that is cast over all peoples,

the veil that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever;

and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces,

and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth,

for the Lord has spoken." (Isaiah 25:6-8)

"On this mountain." What mountain is this and where can I get me some of that? Isaiah speaks of Jerusalem which is situated high on a mountain in Israel. The same site where Abraham offered his only son and God spared Isaac by sending a substitute to take his place. ON the same mountain where David paid the full price of the threshing floor because he would not offer sacrifices to God which cost him nothing, and where the sacrifice he offered saved the nation from the penalty of sin. On the same mountain where Solomon built the Temple to be the place where God chose to gather His people and be present among them, in their midst. On this mountain Jesus, the Word made flesh, would be the substitute sacrifice, would pay the full price for our sin, and where He will return to dwell among us as our King.

"For ALL peoples." No matter who you are, where you've come from, or what you've done. This feast is available to you.

"He will swallow up... death." The veil that is spread over us all. All lay under the curse brought about by our rebellion against God. But the death and resurrection of Christ defeated it forever and made a way for us back to the life we were intended to live all along.

"God will wipe away tears from all the faces..." All the pain and hurt and suffering, sickness, disease... gone. All the shame, guilt, tragic consequences of selfish lives, the cumulative effect our brokenness has wreaked on the earth... wiped away. Jesus echoes this promise in His revelation to the Apostle John: "And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.' ' (Revelation 21:3-4)

"for the LORD has spoken." This is the best part. He promised. And He never breaks a promise. Not one word of His promises has ever failed. I know some who refuse to believe it. But He never promised we would never experience pain or suffering. He never promised we would not have to face the consequences of our selfishness. He never promised bad things wouldn't happen.

But He did promise that He would defeat death, lift the curse, and make all things new. He promised that the coming kingdom, for those who believe His promise, would be so great that all the tragedy and horror of centuries of human cruelty and evil has wrought would seem like "momentary, light affliction" by comparison (2 Cor. 4:17). Paul said they weren't even worth bothering to compare at all! (Rom. 8:18) God promised that we would be so comforted and healed and restored in the coming Kingdom that "the former things will not be remembered." (Isa. 65:17)

How good would something have to be to make the cumulative suffering of human history seem like nothing more than a dim memory? I don't think we have the capacity to even imagine it. So instead we are faced with a choice: believe the Promise and live like it's true, or give up in despair and make a god out of whatever you can find laying around that will numb the pain until you die.

I have made my choice. I believe the Promise. I've made my home "on this mountain." I hope to see you there!

A Place At The Table: The Gospel According to... Mephibosheth?!?

Week 18, Day 2…. Love this beautiful picture of the gospel in the story of Mephibosheth…

“And David said to him, ‘Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father, and you shall eat at my table always.’ And [Mephibosheth] paid homage and said, ‘What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?’ … So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king’s table. Now he was lame in both his feet.” (2 Sam. 9:7-8, 13)

The story of Mephibosheth begins back in 2 Samuel 4:4: “Jonathan, the son of Saul, had a son who as crippled in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel, and his nurse took him up and fled, and as she fled in her haste, he fell and became lame. And his name was Mephibosheth.”

The name literally meant “dispeller of shame,” and it carried within it the idea of a breath of air blowing away shame and humiliation, specifically as it related to idol worship. In 1 Chronicles 8:34, his name is recorded as Merib-baal, meaning “grapples with or struggles against Baal,” a pagan deity that was commonly worshipped in that region. Both names suggest that idol worship had brought shame and humiliation to Israel, and maybe Jonathan had hoped that his heritage would be to one day put an end to that shame and restore Israel to the pure worship of God again. Whatever the reason, Mephibosheth’s very name invoked hope for the future.

That day in the nursery when he was five, all hope must have seemed lost. One minute, he is the son of a prince, the grandson of the King, in the line to assume the throne. The future seemed bright and certain. The next a messenger from Jezreel is announcing that his father and grandfather have been killed in battle. His nurse knows the chaos that will come in the wake of this news: there will be a mad scramble for power. Death and bloodshed in a desperate grab for power by relatives and kinsmen. And there is David. The sworn enemy of Saul. Rumor has it that God has chosen him to be king over Israel. Surely, he will come and put to death any that stand in his way.

In fear, the nurse snatches little Mephibosheth up, hurriedly packs a few things she will need in hiding, and runs from the nursery. What happens next is a blur; all she knows is she is falling. Hard. Mephibosheth is injured. Both feet are crippled by the accident. He will never walk again. In a culture where the strength of a man to work his field and tend his flock is everything, Mephibosheth’s bright future, all the hopes and dreams of his father for him, crumble into ashes.

Mephibosheth. Dispeller of Shame. His own name must have become a cruel joke to him, and it probably felt like gravel in his mouth whenever he spoke it. How many times he must have heard it on the lips of others and thought, “Dispeller of Shame? Ha! Dispeller of Hope, is more like it.” So for years, Mephibosheth lives in humiliation, depending on the pity and charity of others, unable to contribute to the work, hding out, living in constant fear that his identity as a Saul’s grandson might be discovered and he be put to death. Maybe it would be better that way, he might have thought. After all, I am already as good as dead. A dead dog in the street. No one will even miss me, except those to whom I have become a burden, and they will probably be relieved.

You can imagine what he must have felt the day the messengers from King David showed up at his house, asking for him – by name! He must have thought, This is it. I’m dead. The day I have dreaded for so long has finally come. He can hardly believe his ears when he hears why they have come. David doesn’t want to kill him; David wants to show him kindness for the sake of his father.

His head must have been spinning when David called his name: “Mephibosheth!” Dispeller of the Shame of Israel. Bringer of Hope. Somehow it didn’t sound like a cruel joke anymore when he said it. “Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan…” Because of a sacred promise, a covenant between David and Mephibosheth’s father, the King wants to take all the love and kindness he had for Jonathan and give it to him! He had nothing to offer David. And David certainly didn’t owe him anything. By all rights, David should have had him slain as the blood relative of his bitter enemy and rival to the throne. Ha! The throne! Sure, as long as I can get somebody to carry me up and sit me on it!

David continued,”… and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your father…” Could this really be happening? All that was lost is being restored to him, even though he no longer has any rightful claim to it, much less the power to make such a claim. And here is David simply handing it to him. And for no other reason that because it pleased him to do it!

But David wasn’t finished. “…and you shall eat at my table always.” This last bit must have been almost too much for Mephibosheth to bear. King David had already been extravagantly generous in honoring his covenant with his father Jonathan as if it had been with him directly, in giving back to him all the land that was lost to their family, in letting him live! It would have been more than Mephibosheth could have ever dreamed possible if David had sent him away with all of that and had never seen or spoken to him again. But instead, David gives him a place with him, a seat of honor, at his table, beside him, always!

I don’t want to rush past this and miss this, because this is, I believe, where the gospel shines most clearly in this story. David wanted Mephibosheth to be with him always.  He wanted to get to know him, to dwell with him, for him to be like one of his own sons. For the first time since that horrible accident all those years ago, Mephibosheth must have felt wanted!

It must have undone him completely. Scripture records his response to this overwhelming of David: “And [Mephibosheth] paid homage” – in the original Hebrew it literally means to prostrate, to fall down on your face in submission before someone – “and said, ‘What is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I?’ “ All those years of living in fear and hiding who he really was, of feeling the weight of shame and humiliation, of having no hope for his future, and of feeling like a burden to a family to whom he didn’t belong, all that just melted away like waking up from a bad dream. Almost in echo of the day his future was suddenly snatched away from him and he was plunged into a nightmare, he found himself suddenly living in the King’s palace, eating at his table, accepted as a friend and member of his own family. It’s called grace. Undeserved favor. Unconditional love and kindness. For no other reason that because it pleases the King to do so.

This is one of my favorite stories in scripture because it my story, too – Our story.We are Mephibosheth. Helpless. Hopeless. “strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” (Eph. 4:12) But like Mephibosheth, we are the recipients of astonishing grace, based on a blood covenant made long ago, before we were born. Not for our own sake, but for the sake of Jesus Christ and His blood shed for us, we are welcomed into the family of the King, and given a place at His table – always!

Paul describes our part in this story well: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Eph.2:1-9)

Our sin had alienated us. We were enemies of the King, living in rebellion. Our selfishness had crippled us, made us unable to walk in the way we were meant to. We had no power to save ourselves. No future to give us hope. We were “dead dogs” for all intents and purposes. “But God” – two of the sweetest words in scripture – showed us unfathomable grace for Jesus’ sake. And here is the part I love most: “so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.”

In the coming ages. Though we may feel like Mephibosheth today, there is a new King in town, and His Kingdom is coming even now. In that Kingdom we have been given a seat at the table. “Because of the great love with which He loved us.” Take that to heart today, friend. Trust in the kindness of Jesus. He wants you to be with Him so bad, not even death could stop him. Let the truth of that sink in today and truly be a Dispeller of Shame.

HD or SD? Depends on your perspective...

Week 15, Day 3 of the Grand Story... reading in Psalm 73 about why God allows evil to seemingly prosper...

"For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works." (Ps. 73:27-28, NASB emphasis mine)

One of the difficulties we have in puzzling out why God allows evil to continue is in our very definitions of "good" and "evil." We tend to define these terms in relation to the effects we experience in the immediate moment. If it brings harm or pain or discomfort or death, we call it "evil." If it brings happiness, pleasure, comfort, prosperity, or good feelings, we call it "good." We can't for the life of us figure out why God seems to allow "evil" and withhold "good" from so many people.

It's a bit like HD versus Standard Definition. There is a standard definition we all assume about many things -- life, death, right, wrong, good, and evil. But there is something missing from the picture. We are settling for less than there is available. There is a clearer view available. God says, 

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa. 55:8-9, ESV)

God has a "Higher Definition" than the Standard Definition" we are used to.

God defines "good" and "evil" in terms of distance from Him, from His heart. "Those who are far" from God perish. They miss what life is all about. They are born, live, and die completely cut off from why they were even created. Is there anything more evil than that?

Conversely, the Psalmist says, "the nearness of God is my good." Scripture defines "good" as that which brings us nearer to God. Many of the things we think of as "good" might actually pull us farther away from God -- success, prosperity, comfort, certain pleasurable experiences. Likewise, much of what we call "evil," particularly in terms of suffering, can actually turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to us because of the "nearness of God" we experience in those times. I am speaking here from personal experience, not just sappy Hallmark-card sentimentality. The testing of my faith has proven to produce good things in me every single time.

I am not saying that suffering and pain are good things. Please don't misunderstand me. What I am saying is anything that results in us being increasingly more like Jesus should be considered "good." I don't expect everyone to agree with me here, or share my convictions. That's okay. Even the Psalmist said, "When I pondered to understand this, It was troublesome in my sight... UNTIL I came into the sanctuary of God; Then I perceived their end." (Ps. 73:16-17, NASB) Sometimes how we see things depends on where we are standing. Until we come into the "sanctuary of God" -- into His presence and get His perspective -- our view will be limited to our own understanding. We will be seeing in standard def instead of HD.

Dim Bulbs, Walking Dead, and the Word Made Flesh

In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. (John 1:4, NASB)

I have a confession. Even though I am a pastor and I love Jesus, I like the show The Walking Dead. I know, I know... guts, gore, and some cussing. How could a Christian find anything redeeming about a show like that -- especially a pastor, for crying out loud! Even my wife doubts my salvation for watching it.

It's hard to put a finger on. I don't "enjoy" it the way some people enjoy a TV show. It's not funny, it's not heartwarming, it's not escapist entertainment by anyone's definition. But there is something about it that is compelling. There is something in it that smacks of real life. Not dark, edgy, gritty, zombie-apocalypse reality. I mean real life, right now, where we all live. Underneath all that is a truth struggling to be seen and heard and recognized... and embraced. 

There was one scene early on in season 2 that stands out as particularly compelling. The little band of survivors are on the move in rural Georgia, desperately trying to survive against all odds, clinging to some semblance of hope and humanity. Exhausted and despondent, they stumble across a small church in the country. They exchange silent glances, a glimmer of hope for safety and sanctuary passes between them. They enter the church.  What they find there is forever stamped in my mind.
Sitting in the pews, silently facing the front of the church are a meager handful of zombies. Living dead. Going through the motions of a life they no longer possess. Empty shells, devoid of anything that made them human.  An empty pulpit and a replica of Christ hanging on the cross stare silently back at them, as if to say, "There is no hope here, either. Christianity holds no answers. Nothing here can save you or help you or change you."

I remember seeing that and thinking half-sarcastically, "I've been to that church before!" It would be funnier if it were not such a sad and sobering truth. (I am not speaking about my home church here, just some churches I have been to in the past.) Many have come to churches hope and healing and... life! Only to find it filled with the walking dead -- members who long ago gave up any hope that the gospel can make any real difference in the world. So they come. And sit. And stare. And go lifelessly through the motions of church without ever connecting with the only One who can give them life. And we as leaders have allowed this to happen. Somehow we have failed on a massive scale in this country to connect people to their source of life.

God said it this way through the prophet Jeremiah:

"An appalling and horrible thing

Has happened in the land:

The prophets prophesy falsely,

And the priests rule on their own authority;

And My people love it so!

But what will you do at the end of it?" (Jeremiah 5:30-31, NASB)

As Christmas draws nearer, my heart is drawn to one of the greatest passages about the incarnation of a Savior in all of scripture: John 1. The Word was God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. In Him was Light, and that Light was the life of men! I read that this morning and immediately thought of the lamp on my desk at work. It doesn't work anymore because the bulb burned out and I haven't replaced it yet. The dead bulb is sitting on my desk.

When the scripture says "In Him was light, and this light was the life of men," it's like that dead bulb. It was created to give light. It contains the filament and the wiring, the potential for light. But it takes being connected to electricity. It needs a power source to realize that potential it was created for. Unless it is connected it will sit, unlit and unused, never knowing why it's there or what its purpose is.

I imagine myself as a light bulb trying to figure out why I am here. I can tell I was created for something. The stuff inside me is there for a reason and I have an unmet longing to be what I was designed to be. I would try my best to figure it out. But I would probably end up missing the point altogether and spend my life trying to be a paperweight or a door stop or decoration somewhere, unlit, unloved, and unfulfilled. And because I am fragile and designed for a very specific purpose, trying to live life on my own would end with me broken on the floor somewhere, feeling fit only for the trash can.

But I heard a rumor somewhere that there was a place I could go and they would tell me who I am supposed to be and how life is supposed to work. More than that, that they would connect me to a power source and I would actually light up! I would surge with electricity and be absolutely brilliant. And that the light I could cast would dispel darkness and make vision possible and illuminate the world around me so people could see the truth about where they were and what was gong on.

That's what people come to church for, if they come at all. And our job as the church is to connect dim bulbs to their source of power so they can be what they were made to be, for the glory of God and the good of the whole world. Our job is to connect people to Jesus. Because in Him is the light, and this life is the light of men.

Jeremiah was saying that there are reasons so many can come into churches and fail to connect with Christ:

• The prophets prophecy falsely. The ones who stand to proclaim "Thus says the Lord" say things that the Bible does not say. They either lie by not telling us what God's Word really says, or they lie by telling us it says something it does not say. Either way, we will never connect with Jesus if we do not know His heart. And we will never know His heart if the ones He has entrusted to speak for Him are liars. Like the empty pulpit fro the aforementioned scene, there is too often no one there to open the Word and simply tell people what God said.
• The priests rule in their own authority. Rather than obeying God and submitting to the authority of His Word, many pastors and church leaders run the church according to their best thinking, their market research, their strategies and focus groups and consultants. They gather together in conferences, they read each others blogs, and buy each others books, but when it comes to leading the church they spend more time following each others' tweets than on their face before God. They rely on their own wisdom and cleverness, or worse, the wisdom and cleverness of someone else, and make decisions without any prayer other than, "Bless what I have already decided to do without really asking You, Lord."
• My people love it so. This is the saddest part. We like it this way. We don't really want God showing up to church, revealing His glory, making His demands on our time and money. We want a church that pushes all our buttons, scratches all our itches, offers every program under the sun for every demographic in our community. It's a consumer mind set. we pick a church like we pick a car or TV or a smart phone. Does it do what I want? Does it have all my favorite apps? Will it give me everything I want but cost me as little as possible? I fear that the modern North American church model has more to do with the Great American Dream than the Great Commission. And even less with the Great Commandment.

"But what will be the end of it?" asks God. How will this play out? A handful of zombies gathered to stare at an empty pulpit and an image of Jesus who has been defeated by a cross. Walking Dead.

O God, stir our hearts! Wake us up! revive your church, Jesus! Help us to sync our hearts with Yours and to make it our passion to connect people to Your Light, the life of all people everywhere. Forgive us for making church a place of death and despair, when you mean it to be a place of life and hope. Cause Your Bride to be beautiful again.  In the precious, powerful, light-bringing, life-giving name of Jesus, I cry out to you! Amen.

Way to go, Ridgers! Pumpkin Patch 2010 update video

I am so proud of our Ridgers! The Pumpkin Patch has been an overwhelming success on so many levels. First, our people are pulling together to raise money to build clean water wells for the impoverished people of Burkina Faso, Africa. Secondly, they are reaching out into the community to meet and invite people to come check out what God is up to at Church at the Ridge. But also, I have personally seen the nods of love and fellowship grow as our people work, laugh, play, and pray together at the Patch.

One other really cool aspect of the Patch is the uniqueness of the opportunity we have. It's no accident that God led us to sell pumpkins this year. October 2010 is the first time in 823 years that there have been five full weekends (Friday, Saturday, & Sunday) thus maximizing the potential sales! How cool is that?!

This video is just a brief update on how the Pumpkin Patch is impacting lives both here in Paulding County and around the world.