Floating Axhead

Ever get the feeling that God isn’t listening? It’s frustrating because I am trying to do everything I am supposed to do. I’ve got my “God list” and most of the boxes are checked.

So God leads me to Isaiah 58:3-5:

…The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit. You drive your employees much too hard.

You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight. You fast, but you swing a mean fist. The kind of fasting you do won’t get your prayers off the ground.

Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after: a day to show off humility? To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black? Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like?

Alright… I get it. It’s not about me. So now what?

God’s answer (Isaiah 58:7-9):

What I’m interested in seeing you do is: sharing your food with the hungry, inviting the homeless poor into your homes, putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad, being available to your own families.

Do this and the lights will turn on, and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way. The God of glory will secure your passage.

Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.

What a great analogy…”Do this and the lights will turn on.” Start making it about others and you’ll finally get it.

Guess I have been working off the wrong list.

So two of my girls (8 & 6) go to a local church’s VBS…I’d tell you who but you know…they’re Baptists. We end up at a wrap-up event where we get asked if we’re coming back Sunday for the group sing-a-long.

So I say…”no, we have a home church where we worship”…stupid response I know but I hate getting recruited like an unbeliever. And the youth pastor says, “where do you go?” and I tell him.

He says…”Oh.”

What are we the plague…the other disciple or something.

If I never say anything else that someone hears…WE ARE THE CHURCH!

Maybe I shouldn’t be so rigid and only worship at one location but come on!

Seth Godin has a great post about the difference two seconds can make.

People do not like single solutions…it implies arrogance…it implies exclusivity. Well, not really…not if it is offered to everyone.

I heard my former pastor many years ago say that Christ made two statements that changed everything. He made the most inclusive statement in scripture in John 3:16…

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Then he made the most exclusive statement in all of scripture in John 14:6…

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

People hate one-way tickets…they want options…they want to be in charge…they want to be God. It’s the reason they don’t want their sin examined by others…the reason they don’t want to be accountable to others…they justify their sin by the sin of others…”we’re all sinners” is the motto.

This is actually the response of the embracing body not the cry of the arrogant sinner.

People struggle submitting to the exclusive lordship of Jesus…that’s why salvation can be elusive for people. And then we struggle submitting to the body of Christ…and that is because we want our sin to be exclusive to us.

Included in forgiveness but excluded from correction.

We like options.

Great article from David Broder of the Washington Post about the dumbing down of presidential rhetoric.

Here are some quotes:

The goal “Rhetorical presidency,” is to mobilize public opinion successfully enough to dominate dealings with Congress and foreign powers.

The real problem is not the increased quantity of words coming out of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. but the sharp decline in content.

The only organ to which no appeal is made these days — you might call it America’s only understimulated organ — is the brain

Messages were pitched at a college level through most of the 18th and 19th centuries. They have now come down to an eighth-grade reading level.

Presidents have taken the rhetorical path of least resistance by serving up simplistic sentences to citizens, they have correspondingly offered an easily digestible substantive menu devoid of argument and infused with inspirational platitudes, partisan punch lines and emotional and human-interest appeals.

Rather than seeking to persuade voters by arguing for their policies, presidents increasingly have sought to build trust by identifying themselves with those voters and their “common sense” view of the world.

Dumbing down the message, taking the path of least resistance, human-interest appeals, and offering a common-sense view instead of the truth…

Seems like we’ve heard that somewhere before (maybe it was here).

The worst quality in people in my opinion is lying…I detest it. My motto most of the last two years has been people lie and they’re stupid.

Lies and the secrets behind them…people make a deposit into their secret account and a withdrawal from the trust account.

Then this in Acts 5…

Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property. With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet.

Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied to men but to God.”

When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. Then the young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.

About three hours later his wife came in, not knowing what had happened. Peter asked her, “Tell me, is this the price you and Ananias got for the land?” “Yes,” she said, “that is the price.”

Peter said to her, “How could you agree to test the Spirit of the Lord? Look! The feet of the men who buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out also.

At that moment she fell down at his feet and died. Then the young men came in and, finding her dead, carried her out and buried her beside her husband. Great fear seized the whole church and all who heard about these events.

Perhaps our only account in the NT when God strikes someone down…so our “sin is sin” people take another hit across the bow.

What about pastors and all those quippish “me” stories they tell…lies or parables? Or perhaps just the script from wecantteach.com

What’s the thing you tolerate the least in people?

We’re halfway through 2008, so we thought we take a look at the “fearless predictions” we made back in January.

Democrats will lose the Presidential election. The Republicans have a better machine and come crunch time they will crank it up and make the Democrats look foolish - again.

Still feeling pretty good about this one. Forget that the current Republican administration has dismal ratings. Like the Cubs, the Democrats will find a way to lose.

A megachurch will make headlines when they stop counting attendance and focus on quality over quantity.

We might have gone a little too far with this one as it doesn’t look like this is anywhere on the horizon - unless you count the Willow Creek Reveal Study. Probably just wishful thinking.

Evangelicals will splinter. Does anyone really believe that James Dobson, Joel Osteen, Bill Hybels, Pat Robertson, and Rick Warren are on the same page?

Think this isn’t happening? Read this story from last week on the splinter that Global Warming is causing among evangelicals. Here’s what the other half says.

“Back to the basics” will be a common theme among churches. You’ll hear more preaching from the pulpit (that’s the stage for the megachurchers or microchurchers, or whatever you’re calling yourself) on studying and learning scripture. The pages of Acts in your Bible will be worn out.

There is some evidence of this here. Lifechurch.tv’s “One Prayer” was an effort to breakdown the denominationalism that has controlled our churches for decades and get “back to the basics” by joining together and creating real change.

Somewhere a Christian group will boycott something stupid that will make the rest of us look silly (okay, so this one isn’t really fearless).

Did someone say Fred Phelps?

The rest of the world will continue to develop methods to combat Global Climate Change and the United States will continue to consume resources as if they are infinite. Many Christians, believing the Republican Party is right on this issue, will continue to ignore that this is God’s Earth and we should treat it as such.

Alright…we take this one back. It wasn’t fearless after all.

Romans 10:17 - “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

Everytime I hear this scripture it reminds me of this line in White Men Can’t Jump:

“Look man, you can listen to Jimi but you can’t hear him. There’s a difference man. Just because you’re listening to him doesn’t mean you’re hearing him.”

How much time do we spend listening to God without hearing him?

Giving? I’m down with that. Just tell me who to write the check to. But don’t ask for too much because I’ve got big plans.

What? Give of my time. There are barely enough hours in the day for me right now.

Study the scriptures daily? Didn’t you hear what I just said?

Serve? Do you seriously expect me to hand out talk notes every Sunday? Have you seen the people who do that?

C’mon God, aren’t you listening to me?

Yes I am, but you aren’t hearing me.