Just Talk to Me Already!

So the other day my 17 year old son texted me asking for $20. As expected, I replied, “K.”  A few hours later, he came home and kind of stood around me shuffling his feet. Then he went and took the trash and recycling out followed by feeding the dogs and giving them water. In other words, he actually did all his chores without being asked. He then came over and stood around looking at me some more. I knew he wanted the money and I was willing to give it to him but I wasn’t going to give it to him until he actually asked for it since that seems to be the only time he ever talks to me. He finally asked and I gave him the money. At which point he left the house and I didn’t see him again for a couple days.

As soon as he left, I had an epiphany. I realized how much the interaction I just had with my son parallels my interactions with my Heavenly Father. You see, I am just like a teenager. When I want something, I start trying to be good and doing my chores and I expect to get blessed. I want things from Him and He is more than willing to give them to me. But He waits and makes me ask for them. I used to wonder why we should have to ask if He knows what we want, what He is going to do, and wants to give us what is best for us. Maybe it is just because it is the only way He can get us to talk to Him. Even if all we do is ask for stuff, at least we are communicating with Him.

I know this is a strange way of looking at prayer. But I am beginning to understand that Jesus did not die on the cross just to get me out of hell. He didn’t suffer in my place so He could impose rules on me and take away my fun. He did what He did to have a relationship with me. He was literally dying to talk to me… and to you.

What is hard to believe is that He values me that highly. I struggle to understand why He wants me to spend time with Him. I don’t even want to spend time with myself most of the time. I can feel it now. I know how desperately I want my teenage children to spend a few minutes with me. That desire is just an infintesimal portion of the intense longing God has to spend time with me… and with you.

Angry at the Wrong People

A couple nights ago I was working at the hotel and I met a lady from Florida. She was out in the courtyard smoking a cigarette and had had a little too much to drink. She began asking me about Savannah and we were having a nice conversation until I mentioned that I was a pastor when I wasn’t securing hotels in the middle of the night. She began apologizing and put out her cigarette. Our conversation came to a screeching halt. The more I thought about it, the more it grieved my spirit that mentioning being a Jesus follower made her so uncomfortable. Why is it like this? Why are so many people who do not follow Jesus so uncomfortable with those of us who do (and we around them)?

I think the answer is found in Matthew 23. In this chapter we see the only time that Jesus got angry and “judgmental” with people. And who are the people He yelled at? The religious leaders of His day! The only people Jesus got upset with were people who claimed to follow God but didn’t show love for other people. Specifically, they did not show love for “sinners.” Jesus loved “sinners” and yelled at religious hypocrites. The church (myself included) seems to coddle hypocrites and yell at “sinners.” Why do we act the opposite of our Lord? Do we think we know better than He does? We need to turn this thing around. Love the “sinners” and those outside our fellowship and confront the judgmental amongst ourselves.

Prostitutes and sinners were comfortable hanging out with Jesus. They loved being around Him. Why do they hate being around us? Why am I so uncomfortable around people who smoke, drink, and curse? Could it simply be that I don’t want to be like Jesus badly enough to be uncomfortable? Are we so insecure in our beliefs that we fear being around “sinners” will ruin us?

I am again struck by how far we, who call ourselves followers of Jesus, have strayed from following Jesus. I know that is a very generalized, blanket statement but before you close this window, realize I am including myself in this group and admitting that many times I do the same thing. I am not pointing a finger at all of you from my perch of self righteousness. I am asking what is wrong with me and many of “us”?

I am challenging myself to spend more time with those who are not already following Jesus. I am not there yet. I admit I am uncomfortable. I think it is a good sign though that I am now more uncomfortable when someone feels uncomfortable around me. At least I am recognizing the problem. That’s the first step to recovery, right?

What Am I Worth?

I have a funny little thingamajiggy (technical term) on my myspace page. It is a little sign that says I am worth $2.44 million dollars. I took a quiz about my education level, health, and habits and it put a price tag on me. I am still looking for a buyer if you are interested…

I was reminded of this quiz as I was reading Matthew 13:44-46 again. I love these verses because they tell me that I (and you) are worth much more than $2.44 million. For many years I didn’t understand what the verses were saying because I thought they both said the same thing. Then one day I actually READ them and realized they did NOT say the same thing.

Most of us are famiiar with verse 44, “The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field.” This is easy enough to understand, right? Heaven is so valuable that we should give everything to be there. We should “sell out” for God! We have heard this preached all our lives.

What is interesting are the next two verses, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” Did you catch the subtle shift? The subject changed. In the first one, we find God and give everything to gain HIM. In the second, God finds us and gives everything to be with us. This blows my mind. I (and you) am the “pearl of great price.”

Now, I understand that nothing good dwells in me and that I have nothing to offer HIM. But HE is so crazy about me (and you) that HE sold everything and gave HIS own life to be with us. I will never understand why since I know I am unworthy but I have learned over the years that the best thing to do when someone loves you is to accept it greatfully instead of asking why. I learned this after many years of driving my wife crazy trying to figure out why she loved me. I finally quit asking and said, ‘thank you.’ I know I married “up.” I know I don’t deserve her. But I have learned to be thankful she loves me. The same with God. I know I don’t deserve HIS love, but I am sure glad HE thinks I am worth more than $2.44 million. He thinks I am worth giving HIS own life.

What Are YOU Waiting For?

It is funny to read in 2 Peter that people were already questioning YOUR return to earth way back then. They were saying, “where is the promise of HIS coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were before from the beginning of creation…” (3:4). If the first generation of the church was asking what was taking so long, how much more those of us waiting 2,000 years later! The interesting thing is that YOU answered the question all the way back then. We spend so much time trying to prove that such and such prophesy has to be fulfilled before YOU can return but in this passage, YOU told us what YOU are waiting for.

Peter writes that (YOU are) not slow in keeping (YOUR) promises as some count slowness, but (are) patient toward (us). Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (9). YOUR patience and mercy are holding YOU back from returning before more people have the chance to know YOU. It is not about prophesy and history. It is all about YOUR wanting to see less people spend their eternity apart from YOU.

That means that if I want to move things along, I need to lead more people toward YOU. There is nothing I can do about the mark of the beast or the antichrist. But I can help bring about the culmination of history by partnering with YOU to help people know YOU.

Flee TO Love

Paul tells us to flee youthful passions (2 Tim 2:22). In 20 years of ministry, at least 12 of those with youth, I have found myself teaching this over and over. I have preached quiet a few “Don’t do this…” “Stop doing that…” type sermons. No wonder people develop religious/ controlling spirits. We teach rules; people try to follow the rules and impose those rules on more people. Eventually, we realize that we struggle with the rule so we create a new, more stringent rule to protect people from breaking the first rule… And the wheel keeps spinning around. Then we wonder why dead religion is so prevalent.

But Paul did not teach dead religious rule keeping. He did NOT stop with flee youthful passions, he went on to say and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace… Paul was not just telling us not to be bad, he told us to pursue the good. Many times I have tried to resist temptation and found myself failing because while I was resisting, the temptation was all I thought about. Paul says, run from the temptation and replace it with righteousness, faith, love, and peace. Flee TO these things. When tempted to exact revenge, don’t just resist it, DO good to them. When my spirit is dry and I’m tired, I need to do more than just not let the enemy steal my joy. I need to force my flesh to get up and worship God. I need ask what true love would do in the situation. I need to let the love of God flow out through me. In short Paul is saying be more concerned about righteousness, faith, love, and peace and you won’t have to worry so much about righting youthful (or not quiet so youthful anymore) lusts… Stop fighting against things and start running to God.

Lord, help me get this deep down in my spirit. I need to live FOR you not against stuff. If I immerse myself in YOU, the lusts of the flesh will melt away. Help me get it straight. Help me focus on letting YOUR love flow in and through me. I can’t do this alone, Lord, fill me.

Keep My Eye on the Ball

As a kid I played baseball in Little league and High School. Because I was big, everyone would back up when I came to the plate. They didn’t realize that I really couldn’t hit. I just never developed the skill. The coaches would always tell me, “keep your eye on the ball.” I always pretended that I understood and appreciated their advise but it never helped because I couldn’t really see the ball and even if I did, I just don’t have that kind of hand-eye coordination. I would just close my eyes and swing the bat blindly.

As I was reading 1 Timothy 1:3-7 this morning I was reminded of those words about keeping my eye on the ball. In this passage, Paul tells Timothy to “charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrines, nor devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies which promote speculation…” He goes on to say that “The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith…” Then he goes back and says that “Certain persons by swerving from these have wandered away into vain discussions…” Sounds like Paul is telling Timothy, and me, to keep our eye on the ball.

In this case the “ball” seems to be LOVE. Paul is saying focus on love, not geneologies, theological contoversies, and hidden truths. Not only am I to focus on love, that love is to issue from a pure heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. How much time have I wasted in every kind of theological dead end and vain discussion? Paul is saying, don’t get into all that stuff. Just work on love. Once I think I have love down, I have to start working on making sure that it comes from a clean heart, a good conscience, and a sincere faith. That should pretty much take the rest of my life. The truth is that I am more comfortable arguing about the end times and eternal security than dealing with the fact that love rarely flows from my life and when it does it is usually from a junk-filled heart, a seared and suppressed conscience, and selfish faith (if I give, I will get). The things Paul wants me to focus on are too hard. They will take too long, like the rest of my life… Maybe that is the point. YOU want me to focus on love until I get it right by which time I shouldn’t care anymore about trying to prove who is right and wrong or to impress people with my theological prowess.

Lord, help me keep my eye on the ball. Help me focus on love even when I get bored and think I need to focus on other things. Help me spend the rest of my life on one theological principle, love.

Community is a Command

A week ago I did a talk on how fellowship is spiritual. Many times, we don’t think that it is. We think that prayer, bible reading, witnessing, worship, etc… are spiritual but fellowship is a waste of time; or something that we do during our “off time” from God. This could not be further from the truth. This is a series of five blogs explaining five reason why I believe that fellowship is spiritual and vital to the follower of Jesus.

The fourth reason that fellowship or community is spiritual is that Jesus commanded us to do it. Fellowship was not a social benefit added by the church to augment our worship.Community is so important that Jesus addressed it many times. We will look at two of those.

The first is found in John 13:34 where Jesus says, “A new command I give you… love one another as I have loved you.” What is amazing is that he does not say, “love me as I have loved you…” That would make sense. Instead, Jesus says His followers should love each other and everyone as AS HE HAS LOVED US.

Another place where this is reflected is in 1 John 4:11 which says, “since God so loved us, let us love one another…” Again, I would expect it to say that since God loved us, we should love Him. That is NOT what it says…

Herein lies the problem. It is impossible to love people without interacting with them. I know it is very American to “live and let live” and call that love. Actually, that thought comes from Confusious who said, “do not do to other what you do not want them to do to you.” In other words, don’t bug people if you don’t want to be bugged. But that is not Jesus’ definition of love. He said, “DO to others as you would have them do to you.” Love goes first. Love acts even when other people don’t deserve it. That is how He loved us and how He commands us to love others.

Lord, help me to not try to avoid people. Help me to engage them and love them as You have loved me. Help me to go first in loving them. I can only do this by being filled with Your love. Thank You for Your power and strength in my life.

Video Talks

Hey everyone,

I just figured out how to connect video of the talks I do with our church. Check out “Tim’s Talks” in the right side bar. Each time I do a talk, it will get loaded there and I will try to let you know when there is a new one.

We Are Created For Community

Last Sunday I preached on the fact that fellowship is spiritual. Many times, we don’t think that it is. We think that prayer, bible reading, witnessing, worship, etc… are spiritual but fellowship is a waste of time; or something that we do during our “off time” from God. This could not be further from the truth. This is a series of five blogs explaining five reason why I believe that fellowship is spiritual and vital to the follower of Jesus.

The first reason is that we are all created for fellowship. This true whether we are “people people” or not. Personally, I am not a people person. I have all kinds of reasons for not wanting to interact with people much. I am a guy and generally we are not the most social. I am an American and in general, we are not the most communally minded people on earth. After all, accomplishing tasks and checking them off our lists is way more important than people. I am from Los Angeles, so I grew up in a very rushed and busy culture. In LA we don’t talk to cashiers. They don’t want us to either. They want us to get our stuff and get out so they can help the next person and we are usually more than happy to oblige. When I moved to the south I had a very hard time getting used to cashiers and service individuals wanting to talk. OK, I am still uncomfortable with this… I am form a disfunctional home. I never learned simple, polite personal interactions. I struggle with things like manners and being polite to people. Lastly, my whole spiritual experience has been in the Pentecostal church. We Pentecostals look down on those denominations who fellowship a lot. Why spend our time in worship and at the altars! By the time we have started late, had extended worship, preached for an hour and had altar time, there is no time left for fellowship. We leave that for those churches that get out early. And we hope they eat quickly at the restaurants so they will be empty when we get there.

The problem is that these are all excuses for not being who God created me to be. He created me to be in relationship and to live in community with others. After all He created me in HIS image. According to Gen 1, God said, ” Let US create man in OUR image…” Even before God created the universe, He lived in community. The Trinity shows God as a communal being. He created us in His image so we must be made for community also.

Almost immediately after creating us, God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone…” He knew we were created for community and fellowship. So when I isolate myself, “it is not good…” None of us can be all we were created to be in isolation. Shunning relationships falls short of God’s best for us. I believe that is the definition of sin…

Lord, help me today to overcome all my excuses and strive to build relationships. Help me become who YOU created me to be by living in community with those around me. Overcome my excuses and preferences with YOUR love and power.

Don’t Start Backwards

Lately I have begun to really struggle with the way I have always been trained to share my faith. I was always taught the Romans road. Everyone is a sinner that needs salvation; sin causes a break in our relationship to YOU; YOU died to make a way for restoration; we must repent… I have always heard that we have to convince people they are sinners so they know they need to be saved. This all comes form the book of Romans where Paul lays these ideas out in this order.

The problem is that the book of Romans was not written as a tract. It was not written for unbelievers. It as a letter to a church. Paul is setting out systematic theology so that those who already believe could understand their faith better. When I look at Paul’s sermons I don’t see him walking into the marketplace and telling people they are sinners. I see him walking in and explaining the good news that YOU came and died and were raised. He always concludes with a warning about what happens if we reject YOU but that is not the lead. He does not start with the threat of hell. When YOU talked about hell, it was always in warnings to the religious people, not to those who were not yet followers.

Could it be that we have the good news backwards? Should we be starting with the good news, the message of YOUR love and ending with a warning of what happens if we reject YOU rather than start with a threat and hope they grasp the life preserver? I believe we should. Starting out with the threat of hell only leads to lifeless religion. Understanding YOUR love leads to real life and freedom. Fear of hell only lasts for a little while. YOUR Love is eternal. If I try to follow YOU to escape hell, I may never understand YOUR love, YOUR purpose, YOUR plan, or how to have a relationship with YOU. If I begin following YOU because I understand that YOU love me more than YOUR own life and that YOU desperately desire a relationship with me, then my heart leaps to follow YOU and to trust YOU. After all, actions flow out of what is in my heart. Action does not produce love but love produces action.