Aidan is getting to that age where he is not really content to be still. Moving. Crawling. Always chewing on something because he is teething. I get frustrated with him only because he is frustrated. Often, I just have to take a moment to relax and get a grip on how much I love him.
We took my parents out to eat for my dad’s birthday on Monday. We went to Japanese Steakhouse where they prepare the food in front of you. It tends to be a little show while you eat. It’s really good. But Aidan was sleepy. His mouth hurt because of his teeth coming in and there really wasn’t much we could do. We gave him medicine and tried to help him calm down. Nothing worked. He wasn’t really loud, but it made me uncomfortable knowing that he was uncomfortable.
Then there are those other moments. Those times where he is happy and feeling great. First thing in the morning when he wakes up. He is wanting to cuddle and be held and play.
I don’t like when my child is uncomfortable, but sometimes it’s still the best thing for him.
I wonder if God feels that way about us too?
Maybe God is saying something like this:
“I know you are hurting. I know you are frustrated. Your tears, well.. I’m crying too. It makes me sad to see you this way, but I love you. I know you don’t understand the fullness of my love right now, but it would be enough if only you knew. Be still and know I am God.”
For several years I’ve been wanting to get a new camera. Not a cheap little point and shoot digital either. A nice pro-grade dslr. Something I could go out and take some nice shots with that I could have printed up and possibly sell. Maybe do some professional quality photographs for family and friends and just document life together.
This isn’t a passing obsession.
I’ve done photography for Olan Mills, photographing children, families and senior pictures. I’ve worked occasionally for a local professional photographer who’s been doing it for over thirty years. I’ve played with unofficial camera hacks to get more out of my little point and shoot canon.
For years, I’ve enjoyed incorporating photography into worship and fellowship by taking photographs at church events.
There’s a song that has come to mind as of late. Called “It’s all who you know” by Newsboys.
For the want of a marker
the doctors lost their place
For the want of a cut-line
they couldn’t lift his face
For the want of a facelift
his ratings dropped
Then the sitcom folded
then the network floppedafter the climb
after time turns designs to despair
it is good
nothing’s fair
it’s all who you knowFor the want of a cough drop
the musher’s throat went hoarse
For the want of direction
the huskies went off course
Then the sled got snowbound
it took some time to free `em
Now they’re on display
inside the British Museumafter the climb
after time turns designs to despair
it is good
nothing’s fair
it’s all who you knowand after the fall
after all of our strivings are dust
even so
good for us
it’s all who you knowFor the want of a compass
we’d be shuffling charts
For the want of good radar
we’d be glacier parts
For the want of a lighthouse
can’t you see
we’d be lost at sea
lost at sea
The frustrating part is that even so badly as I want this camera, I don’t want it at all if it’s not what God wants for me. It’s taken a long time to get to that. Today it became clear. In fact there are other things in my life that need the same kind of surrender/leap of faith and trust in God.
There are lots of things I want right now. Some things I even think I need. A new job. A new camera. To pay off debt. A new car. To even fix the car we have. I think these things overpower me. My own desires entrap me. These (and I hate to put it this way) lusts, covets, and desires become my gods and idols. I start scheming new ways to make the money I can to afford these things. I went through the Dave Ramsey financial peace classes a few years back. We got rid of all the credit cards. We went gazelle intense and lived off of beans and rice. All in all, God allowed those attempts to be thwarted. My pay was cut at the church multiple times screwing up our family budget and I had to get another job. Eventually, I just realized that what people required of me at the church and paid me for was not what God wanted from me. I resigned in the midst of all of it. I worked full-time doing photography for awhile with Olan Mills.
I have heard people say that the difference between succesful people and those who are not is this. “Some people – things happen to them. Other people – they happen to things.”
I think there is another category that I need to add.
Not because I think I am smarter or more able to do it.
“Some people trust that they have a God who can do anything.”
It is all who you know.
This is indeed an area I know I need to work on myself. So what are some areas for you? How do you need to trust God more in your life?
Today in Church I heard an interesting message that focused in on how we are spirit, soul and body. It’s an uncommon topic for a Sunday morning message, but it made me think about some things I hadn’t really delved into for awhile.
- Our soul – the intellectual part of us understands reason, knowledge and emotions. The seat of our personality.
- Our body – the physical realm of our existence that feels cold, hot, pain and pleasure.
These above two are easy. We went to school and fed our souls, we can read books and gain knowledge. As for our body we can change it only so much as our soul which controls our determination and willpower enables us to. It is our spirit that we have trouble with.
- Our Spirit – that part of us which lives in and interacts with the spiritual world.
Oh scientists will never quantify the spirit of man or of God. Proud humanists would deny it completely. This is the hardest for us to interact with. It is even assumed from scripture that the spirit of man is dead until it is reborn in Christ. We could assume that without Christ we are nothing more than clever bipeds that walk and talk and drive cars.
Once we come to repentance and acceptance of Christ, Christ dwells within us. Genesis three is reenacted for us personally in that God breaths into us and makes us live again. Jesus does this in John even for the disciples.
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
From this we can understand one more element of the spirit in man. The spirit lives in man, but is not of man. In this we are most like God. His very spirit lives within us as Christians. The same breath of God that breathed into Adam now dwells in us. Here God truly reveals a great mystery. How He lives within us.
This is why when we enter into worship, we are also lifted up.
This is why when we pray we are powerful.
This is why when we read God’s word, it resonates within us.
“There is no god except God alone.”
This is the one phrase Christians, Jews and Muslims all would agree to. Unfortunately, we all mean very different things when we say it. There is a profound disconnect with the mere semantics and the meaning behind the words. One must come to the conclusion that either God is all-encompassing and fits the man-made perceptions of Him or that God is something else entirely. Each religion would conclude that God reveals Himself through prophets, and through them the written word. God could not be God if He submitted to our ideology of Him.
Divine Revelation.
So we have come at last to divine revelation. How does God reveal Himself?
Jews would say God reveals Himself through His Law, the Torah, and through His Prophets. When the prophets told of a Messiah, they would state they are still waiting for Christ. The way to Heaven is to observe the law and commands. Basically, “be good”. (note: must wonder why Jubilee was never celebrated or how sins are forgiven without the shedding of blood today). Much of the levitical law is no longer practiced or adhered to. Instead new laws have been added to the already long list.
Islam doesn’t seem to recognize anyone but Muhammed because in Muhammed, the final revelation was apparently given. Though they recognize Jesus as a prophet, albeit a minor one, they do not accept His claims about Himself. If this is true and God only reveals Himself through revelation then to the Muslim God is a silent unconcerned person yet they still pray to this silent deity though nothing will come of it. The best they can offer is undulated service to Allah and hope for Heaven.
Christians or “Little Christs” believe that Jesus was the culmination of the prophetic texts given to the Jews (or Israelites/ Hebrews) therefore the Christ. In Christ, the law was fulfilled, grace was administrated. In this, the revelation through the prophets has been proven infallible. In becoming a man, God gave us the ultimate revelation of Himself. He transcended His own creation and stepped down into it incarnate. Fully God and fully human He demonstrated His power over creation through the elements, through miracles, and His ultimate love for His creation. He continues to reveal Himself today through the work of the Holy Spirit. In the death of Christ, He is the sacrifice for all sin so that all who believe upon Him may enter into eternal glory with Him.
A God Who Loves.
Jews have half the picture but do not believe even in their own prophets. Muslims believe in a god who stopped revealing himself with Muhammed. Christians believe that God is alive and present today, active in His creation, communing with us through His Spirit and ultimately will return for His church (those who believe in Him as the Christ).
Hello, my name is William Lehman. I don’t know where God is taking me. I do know that it’s a wild ride and that He’s given me many gifts to do a lot of things. I graduated in 2003 from Circleville Bible College with a degree in Biblical Theology/Youth Ministry Emphasis. I’ve worked as a Youth Minister, a full-time associate pastor, a Studio photographer, a professional blogger and channel editor, a web designer, a freelance artist and a coffee server since. In the last five months, I’ve also become full-time daddy to our little son.
When it comes to the average church, I often see it as a bureaucratic facade of “fiscal maneuvering” designed to look like ministry. Meetings designed to put together action plans for increasing attendance, thereby increasing monetary means to increase attendance to again increase net wealth of “God’s kingdom” on earth. This from the role of someone who has been in those shoes, lived those meetings. Here are some questions I’d pose for that average church that feels they might be going through the same charade:
- If you really loved God and loved people as much as you say you do, would you still spend 12 hours a week going over action plans for five year goals or would you spend those 12+ hours each week actually listening to the hurting or caring for the broken?
- Aren’t you tired of trying to make it work, to make the numbers add up, or preaching to deaf ears on a Sunday morning?
- Does it really matter if everything goes smoothly on a Sunday morning or is it some kind of illusion of control that you want?
I for one am tired of feeling that I have to be so shallow as to be reduced to “getting it right” on a Sunday morning to have a relationship with a God who has forgiven my sins and genuinely loves me enough to die on a cross and make me a co-heir with Him.
I’d rather listen to the broken-hearted than to go to a meeting and try to figure out what is five years down the road. Because frankly, we don’t have tomorrow, next week, the year after, or five years from now. We have today. If we are called to live as bridegrooms ready for the return of Christ, then we’d best start understanding that our real treasure, our only treasure is the same thing that our God came and died on a cross for, that He may come back between now and our next goal realization meeting, and that no amount of goal setting will be excuse enough for the ones we were called to reach and did not.
I have the gifts to do a lot of things. To build websites, to serve coffee, to play drums, to lead small groups, to preach, to do design work and many more besides. If I had these and so many other gifts, I could do so much but it would be in vain unless I failed to do that thing that is called of me, of all of us to do, to love.
This is my personal mission statement, a sound out from the depths of my heart resounding with every stroke of a key.
Love God. Love Man.
I will fail at times to do this but I am confident that God’s grace is sufficient for even me.
Over the last few months, a lot of my thinking has been changing. First, I read Brennan Manning’s “Ragamuffin Gospel” and still reading through it again. Then I started really reading my Bible for me again. Sure, I read it for messages, bible studies and the like, but not because I just wanted to hear from my Father (in Heaven). Now, I also have my little Son, Aidan, whom I love dearly. In a few short months, my life has been flip-flopped, tilted and turned upside down and shaken (like an etch-a-sketch when you are done drawing on it and want to start over). In trying to be the best dad I can to my little one, I’ve also begun analyzing my choices a bit more. I want to be a good example to him. I take it that the first few years is kinda a dry run before he is old enough to look to me for guidance. I’ll need all the practice I can get.
But in realizing these things about myself, I am finding out more than ever just how broken I am in places. Places where I thought I had my act together are in reality places of utter failure. A funny thing has happened though. The more I am realizing my brokenness, lack of faith and failures, the more I am seeing that God’s grace is sufficient for me. I used to laugh at people when they called Christianity a crutch. It is a crutch, and I won’t be too proud to use it rather than hobble along painfully on broken legs.
I have now come to a turning point. I have put resumes out all over the internet, called churches around the country and done all I can do to find a ministry job doing what I feel God has called me to do. None of it has come to pass. At one point, I got so fed up with job boards because I was posting on them and reading them so much, that I decided that I should make my own (www.minitriki.com).
I now feel that many churches do not meet people where they are. Sure, they say they do, but you walk in and they have their little agenda that won’t budge or give you a guilt trip when you can’t be at every small group meeting. Immediately, there is a stigma if you smoke or drink or live with someone who you are not married to. I grew up in churches all my life, went to a Bible College and I know that if I stood outside of a church and smoked a cigarette, I might as well have lit the place on fire and offered up a human sacrifice. I don’t smoke, but I’ve known people so caught up with trying to quit and the stigma that the church has attached to smoking that they never understood that Jesus wants a relationship with them first and foremost.
I’m not saying that the body isn’t a temple of the Holy Spirit or preaching the heresy of license (basically means to just keep on sinning to let grace abound all the more). But we care more about the sin in someone’s life than we do about introducing them to Jesus Christ. Homosexuality is a sin. Scripture clearly says it is. But somehow no one loves the sinner anymore because the sin is so stigmatized. Are they welcomed? You don’t take a drunk and stand him up (if he can stand up) as an example of Godliness any more than you would a homosexual. I will not affirm sin. I will affirm grace though.
Grace says “Come on in” “You are welcomed” or even “I struggle too”. But we can’t ignore the Word of God on this matter. When we encounter Christ, there is a transformation that should happen. Jesus told the woman caught in adultery “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
Jesus didn’t say “I don’t condem you, so go back to your lover”. But we needen’t be the other extreme either and picking up stones to take the matter into our own hands. God’s grace is sufficient.
I told a guy yesterday that he “probably cared more about his smoking addiction than God did and that God wants a relationship with him more than he wants him to go cold turkey. If God really comes into his life and works in him, then God can take care of the smoking.”
Anyway, all these thoughts have led me to the belief that we need a church that is about the smokers, the down and outs, the poorly dressed, the tax collectors, the smelly fisherman (oops, I went a little first cenury Palestine there) the average guys, who through grace and a transforming encounter with Jesus Christ can be called Sons of God, coheirs with Christ. If we admit it, we are all a little broken anyway. Here is our power. Aknowledge our brokeness and confess our sins, repent and believe that Jesus really loves us enough to die for us. To offer us this grace we could not earn through any means of our own.
I am still seeing if people are interested in being a part of this unique ministry. Check out the link below for more information.
I have been thinking a lot today about what God wants from me. Granted, He doesn’t “need” anything from me. Often I get overwhelmed with little things and forget the calling that has been placed on my life.
I’ve been feeling God leading me to start a ministry myself. I am not sure of the context that it will eventually take, but the initial idea is based off a book by Brennan Manning called “A Ragamuffin Gospel” I am still laying out the foundation of what this ministry will look like and part of it will be dependent on those God leads my way. Over the last seven months, I feel I have been spinning my wheels trying to make things work out on my own and applying for jobs all over the country. None of those things have worked out and I haven’t been offered a position anywhere around here, but I still feel the call to full-time ministry.
I can only do what God has asked of me. Everything else will fail in the sight of God. I may succeed in the eyes of men, but ultimately they aren’t the ones I answer to.
This has been a decision a long time in the making. I’ve prayed and thought about this for several years now. There was once a time I thought it would fit under the umbrella of another ministry. It can’t be put off any longer now. Keep us in prayer.
Have you ever heard a pastor who just didn’t connect with the people who were listening? Maybe too wrapped up in himself to really be able to preach effectively. I have. You hear it often today. “You have to meet people where they are” It’s the mantra of today’s churches. Often though, things go a little crazy when you actually have to practice that. Standing in front of a crowd of people and being vulnerable, relatable, and open is hard. A friend of mine calls this being “naked“. I’ve been helping him out with his blog and rereading a lot of his comics so this comic pulled a little of his style.
