Lenten reflections

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When I was a kid Lent was so simple, we never celebrated it. Actually, I used it as an occasion to torture the Catholics and other high church weirdos in my school. Every year they gave up sweets and got a break on Sundays, honestly it seemed simple and rather silly. Seriously, didn’t Jesus give up so much more when He was in the wilderness for 40 days and nights being tempted by our enemy yet not succumbing? Years later I meant the love of my life and as I pursued her I found out something rather odd, she observed Lent. This sweet Baptist women followed a fast that many people in her church merely dismiss as sophistry. I will not say that I picked up the practice for the most holy of reasons (young men will do anything to impress a women, and I am not exempt from this fact), but as I did I decided to begin researching the history of this season and this is what I came across:

The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer, through prayer, penitence, alms-giving and self-denial, for the annual commemoration of the Death and Resurrection of Christ (Easter).

In our house we yearly practice this fast as a reflective and prayerful act to prepare our heart, soul/mind, and body for Easter. We concluded the fast with a Seder [meal] (pictured above) to reflect on three (3) important Seders:

Israel’s original Seder conducted in Egypt as they prepared to experiences the mighty deliverance of God (Exodus)
Our Messiah’s Seder which He shared with His disciples just prior to His execution and sacrifice nearly 2000 years ago
Our Seder which is conducted in our home as is we ourselves are actually a part of the original experience and to continually remember the willing sacrifice of our Savior, that released us from slavery to sin into the Freedom to follow and worship Him.

So this year we participated in the Daniel Fast. While searching on what to give up for Lent a friend of ours, Angie Lomas mentioned that she was thinking of doing this fast along with a program called Couch to 5k or C25k (this is the actual program). Immediately, I latched on to the idea and told Heather who has also seen the same post. The Daniel fast basically whittles you down to a few things to eat (depending on where you look and how literal you take His fast from scripture.

But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.” Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.” So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. Daniel 1:8-16, ESV

The fast was challenging on so many fronts but we endured and made it. We were praying for many things and God gave us clarity on some and left us in the dark on the others. A few of the things were:

Next steps after my residency at Concord has ended (it has almost been a year already and we have to begin thinking in that direction)
Clarity in my calling (i.e. what type of church)
Many personal things
Complete the C25K program

In the end the Father is always faithful to us and this time once again brought about some frank discussion and drew us closer together. Additionally, it was a great teaching point for my children to see another spiritual discipline exhibited by their parents. The reason I wanted to write this is to simply reflect on the goodness and gracious of our Father and the sustaining power of His Spirit in the Christian’s life. We are not super saints at all, we are just beggars trying to show other beggars where the bread is. Next time you should join us on the journey, I promise you wont regret it.

What would you die for?

By “give my life for,” I mean two things. First, I give my life “for” them by giving my life to them. The life that I now have the privilege of living, I endeavor to invest in these things. That investment amounts to a slow dying for. Second, I pray the Lord would strengthen me in any moment where I might be called upon to give my life “for” these things by dying more quickly, perhaps violently for them. In those two senses of the phrase, here are eight things I would give my life for:

God: The revelation of God as the only God, eternally Triune in nature and yet one, deserving all glory, honor, praise, and submission from His creation (Ex. 15:11; John 10:30; Acts 5:3-4).
Scripture: The Bible as the inerrant, infallible, inspired, authoritative, sufficient, nourishing, life-giving word of God (Rev. 1:9).
Jesus (okay I admit, this is a little redundant) : Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, fully God and fully man, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, the exact representation of God’s being and the radiance of His glory, apart from whom there is no salvation (Col. 2:9; Heb. 1:3; John 3:16).
The Gospel: The good news that sinful man is saved from the justly deserved, holy, eternal wrath of God by God’s grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, who in His perfect life and His substitutionary, penal atonement provides both our righteousness before God and satisfaction to God’s wrath, and to whom we are forever united by faith unto eternal life (Rom. 3:21-26).
Missions: The call and work of going to all the world to make disciples of all nations and to teach them to observe everything Jesus commanded so that the glory, honor, praise, and worship of God through Christ would fill the earth and so that the joy, comfort, salvation, and hope of all peoples would overflow in Christ (Matt. 28:18-20; 2 Cor. 11:23-29).
Discipleship (which includes Evangelism): My own personal profession of faith in and loyalty to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, God the Son, my Lord and Master, to whom I owe everything, for and in whom I live, breathe and have my being, and Who lives in me, completing the work He began until the day of His return, who will be perfectly and now is imperfectly my greatest and highest Delight and Satisfaction (Luke 9:23-26; Gal. 2:20; Acts 17:28; Phil. 1:6; Ps. 17:15).
My Family (surprised they aren’t higher?): The good thing and obtained favor of the Lord, my wife, who satisfies me with her love and comforts me with her presence, who is constant encouragement and whose virtue has made me known among the elders at the city gate, with whom I am an heir to life and a partner in the gospel of our Lord, and the arrows in our quiver, entrusted to us to raise as a godly offspring to the Lord, not to provoke but to bring up in the fear and admonition of the Lord, through whom we have no greater joy than to see them walking in the truth, who we pray represent one in what will be generations of godly Nelsons living for the Lord (Prov. 18:22; 5:18-19; Prov. 31; Ps. 128; Mal. 2:15; 2 John 4; 2 Tim. 1:5).
The Church: Those bought by the blood of Christ, granted eternal life and the gift of the Holy Spirit, adopted into the family of God, joined together by covenant love, journeying as pilgrims to the Heavenly City, entrusted by God’s grace into mutual care and leadership to deliver as a chaste bride awaiting her groom (John 10:10-15;Col. 1:28-29; Rev. 21).

These are just the 8 I came up with off of the cuff while borrowing so language that is much better than mine. Do you think that I missed any? Let me know below in the comments.

Politics and the Debt Limit

I am not really a person who speaks about politics much but this was brilliantly done. Check this out…

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A dead spot in the room

As a pastor I find my self drawn to sit towards the front of every church service I’m in. In fact, this past Sunday I noticed something rather curious. Usually, I sit on the 3rd or 4th row with my wife. I love being able to worship with her and I find that it’s is a valuable part of our relationship together. The weeks that I preach I am left to attend a service (usually the 2nd) by myself, so I end up on the front row. These are [supposedly] the best seats in the house, right?

You would think so, but it turns out that the way the speakers are positioned off of the ceiling, the sound waves shoot right past those of us on the front row. This creates an annoying dead spot making certain parts of the mix (especially the lyrics) almost inaudible until about the fourth row back my normal seats. Funny huh? The people who are closest to the action have the hardest time hearing the lyrics.

Those of us who are on the front row of what God is doing (Pastors, Deacons, volunteers, etc) are in the greatest danger of having the sound waves shoot right over our heads. That is we are so close to the action that we lose a sense of wonder and gratitude. We see God do remarkable things day in and day out and we no longer hear the rumble and feel the vibrations of the workings of the Spirit. Church leaders can often find ourselves with the best seats in the house, straining to hear the lyrics, in the dead spot on the front row. Honestly, I find myself in this position more that I care to admit, straining to hear the Father while sitting closest to the action. I don’t know the solution but I know that the first step is identifying the problem so I would love your thoughts.

Black Church: Rhythm

It is Black History Month, and every year I try to celebrate by writing a series of articles that particularly pertain with my culture and her expression through Christ. I must admit this relationship has not always been the most healthy for me, but over the years I have come to the conclusion of loving the heritage and culture I have been given. Additionally, I wanted to start off by talking about some things I love about this culture. Notice I am saying culture, this is not a racial thing because there are only two races: those who are saved and those who are not. I just want to clarify this as I will intersperse those words throughout my writing moving forward.

RHYTHM

The poet Leopold Sedar Senghor, first president of the republic of Senegal, stated that rhythm is the “organizing force” that makes the black style. Both Africans and African Americans use rhythm (not exclusively but uniquely) to articulate their moral, theological, and philosophical beliefs. Rhythm, the essential and central element in black music, philosophically communicates “religious” experience in African and African-American culture and helps its ritual participants reach “communitas.”

Rhythm is particularly significant for rap because it gives rap its unique movement and momentum. Tricia Rose sucessfully demonstrated through her research that the lowest or fattest beats in a rap song are likely the ones that the most philosophically significant or emotionally charged. Whereas Western music finds its uniqueness in melodic and harmonic structures, African American music finds its uniqueness in rhythmic and percussive structure.

I love the sounds inspired by the black community, whether those sounds come from gospel choirs, blues, Jazz, R & B, Soul, Neo-Soul, rap, or hip-hop. Allow me to list three ways in which I am grateful.

Gospel choirs: I grew up in a church that did them well. The emotion, swaying, passion, heart are all things I sometimes miss on a Sunday morning. Additionally, the spirituals, these are something that as I have grown older have grown closer to my soul. The pure angst behind every word is still very evident to this day.
Christian rap/Hip hop: One of the most creative and faithful forms of worship to have arisen in recent years is Christian rap, with rappers like Shai Linne, Trip Lee, and Lecrae unleashing some of the most powerful and profound lyrics available in contemporary Christian Music today. I have to be honest this music saved me as I first became a Christian because most of CCM is acoustic guitar driven “soft rock” or ballets and I could not stand it. May their tribe increase (I wish I were part of the tribe but it is not my calling).
Mainstream Rap/Hip-hop: While there is so much with which I disagree in mainstream rap and hip hop, those art forms within themselves have served as powerful venues to entire communities to express their beliefs, feelings, and values (both social and political. Rap itself is an acronym for Rhythm and Poetry and gains its roots in pre-slavery African and serves a basis for most forms of “American”music that we know today. Even when these artists’ music are consciously and profoundly non-Christian, the Christian community is well served to pay attention to these art forms as a way of loving and understanding a community that is usually so misunderstood yet rich with insight.

God’s not done with you!

I am not sure who I am writing this to but I feel led to let someone know GOD’S NOT THROUGH WITH YOU!

It has been weeks, (maybe) months, maybe even years you have bought into the lie that “it’s over” when it comes to you doing something great for God. After all, you committed __________________ and because of that there is no way He could ever use you, or at least that’s what you’ve been led to believe.

Let me both encourage you, be very clear and to the point: If God were done with you then He would have killed you. The very fact that you have air in your lungs right now means that HE IS NOT THROUGH WITH YOU!

You messed up? Of course you did, you’ve heard me say it multiple times.

“All of God’s children have problems! If you go somewhere where they claim (or act like) they don’t, RUN!”

This being true still is NOT an excuse to go out and continue a downhill slide, but rather a reminder that in the Bible the ONLY people God used were people who had messed up (like you) and were broken.

David committed adultery and murder (Think about it, David would not have been allowed to serve in or attend a lot of churches!). He also repented of his sin (see Psalm 51) and today we know him as “a man after God’s own heart!”
Moses killed a man and God used him to lead the nation of Israel out of Egypt to the border of the Promised Land.
Paul was a murderer and God used him to write most of the New Testament.
Peter denied Christ, chose to walk away from Him and God used him to preach on the Day of Pentecost where 3,000 people accepted Christ in one day!

I could go on and on, but [hopefully] you get the point, your past does not disqualify you from an amazing future if you are in Christ. Yes, there are consequences for our actions but we act as if God is surprised of our shortcomings. Trust me He is not.

God’s not through with you and if you don’t let your past die then it will not let you live . The consequences of not letting it die is allowing the enemy to talk you out of the amazing things God has planned for you.

When we repent of sin (which is the most powerful thing we can do in our walk with Christ) we become unstoppable. If you have fallen, sinned, and/or screwed up but have repented of sin, then please (for the love of God almighty) STOP believing the lie that there is no way God could use you! Please look at I Corinthians 6:9-11 now.

God’s not through with you! Get up, Get on your feet and do what He has called you to do.