Archive - September, 2010

Heart Muscle Memory

September 29, 2010 in Meditations 26

Heart Muscles

Heart Muscles

When I was younger I played a lot of basketball. At night I used to lay in my bed practicing my shooting form by rolling the ball off my fingers.  I would lay there for hours just doing it over and over again. Sure enough, when I got out on the court my jump shot improved.  My muscles became used to the repetition and simply remembered the fluid motion that I repeated constantly.  By the time I got on the court, I didn’t even think about my form…it was just natural.

According to Wikipedia, muscle memory is a form of procedural memory that involves consolidating a specific motor task into memory through repetition. When a movement is repeated over time, a long-term muscle memory is created for that task; eventually allowing it to be performed without conscious effort.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? Matthew 5:43-46

The muscle memory principle applies in more than just a physical sense but also in a spiritual sense.  Our default isn’t always love.  However the more we live like Christ, the more we train our heart muscles. Every opportunity we take to love the unlovable strengthens our muscle memory. Every opportunity we get to bless and pray for our enemies makes the process more natural.

I want to live a life where my default is love. Where it isn’t even a thought; it comes without conscious effort.  I believe it is possible. I believe I can train my heart by loving over and over again. I believe I can love without fear. I want to keep trying until it is no longer a sacrifice but a lifestyle.

Are you strengthening the muscle memory of your heart?

From Slavery To Sonship

September 28, 2010 in Meditations 17

Sons and slaves have very different roles in a household. There are different expectations put on a son and a servant. One is part of the family and one is a hired hand. After a powerful teaching Sunday evening by my pastor in our Eleventh Hour Institute, I thought it would be interesting to put an outline of it on my blog to spark some discussion.

First a few key verses:

“He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.” John 10:12

“No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” John 15:15

“He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will.” Ephesians 1:5

The following is a list of differences between slaves and sons. Keep 3 things in mind when reading the list: attitude, position and motive.

    From Slavery To Sonship

    From Slavery To Sonship

  1. Sons build the house; servants merely maintain the house
  2. Sons inherit; servants take
  3. Sons are sent; servants leave
  4. Sons are family oriented; servants are issue oriented
  5. Sons use the language of the family (we, us our); servants use individual terms (me, my, their)
  6. Sons cover the nakedness of their fathers; servants expose nakedness
  7. Sons honor the chain of command; servants continually question the order of authority
  8. Sons share their lives with the father; servants are independent
  9. Sons bond new people to the family; servants bond new people to themselves
  10. Sons are secure; servants seek validation
  11. Sons share inner conversations; servants share what they want you to know
  12. Sons can handle correction, discipline and change; servants place the blame on others
  13. Sons have growth potential; servants come into the house fully grown

I purposely omitted detailed explanations of each point in order to provoke thought.

What do you think of this list? Is there anything you would add/change? Are you living as a son or a slave?

Birthday Wishes

September 24, 2010 in Exceptional Living 12

Birthday Wishes

Birthday Wishes

I love celebrating birthdays. It is the one day that belongs to you and only you.  Christmas is great but everyone else gets presents and technically we’re celebrating Jesus’ birthday, right?

As a kid, I remember making my wish list and eagerly giving it to my parents. We weren’t rich but my parents were usually able to get me the things I wanted most. Every year something new would grab my attention and I would be sure to ask for it on my birthday.

As I got older my tastes evolved into more expensive things.  My wish list would be one extreme or the other.  I either wanted a $10 book or a $1500 computer.  Soon, I realized that no one really had that kind of budget so I usually put the inexpensive things on my list for my family.

I turn 31 tomorrow and I’ve been reflecting on the past 30 years of my life.  It has been interesting to see how my thought process has changed about my birthday.  The things I want are no longer the same.  Today, no one can purchase the things I really want by going to my Amazon wish list.  My birthday wish list goes directly to God.  Here are a few of the cool things he got me last year:

  1. I went on my first missions trip. This was absolutely mind blowing.  Being a Christian for 20 years, I figured it was finally time to do it.  I went to South East Asia with two other men to train local leaders about church planting. I met some amazing and humble men and women of God who were suffering for the Gospel and had a passion to bring the Word of God to their people in their tongue. These were regular, many not formally trained,  men and women. It was a humbling experience and one that stirred something deep inside of me.  How’s that for a first missions trip experience?
  2. I visited California, Nevada & went skiing on Mt. Rose. I went on a trip with a buddy to visit one of my closest friends in Cali. I spent time road tripping to San Francisco, Napa Valley, Sonoma and Redding, then on to Lake Tahoe in Nevada to ski for the first time in my life.  All that in 5 days.
  3. I wrote  a list of 20 dreams in my heart. Inspired by a friend, I sat down to write out the dreams in my heart. It was meant to be things that I’ve always wanted to do but specifically things I didn’t think I would or could do in my life. Doing this exercise stirred up so many things in my heart that I didn’t even realize were there. Even though they are pretty far out there, writing them down actually made them seem possible.
  4. I pursued a woman like a man for the first time in my life. Like most guys, I’ve been pretty fearful of rejection. I’ve always taken the safe route when I liked a girl. For the first time in my life, I took a big risk. I went all out in pursuit of a woman without knowing exactly how she felt about me. I did some pretty dramatic things that I never knew I had in me.  While I didn’t get the result I wanted, I learned that I was able to do it. I learned that anything that is worth something requires risk.  For a conservative guy like me, it was a huge breakthrough!
  5. I picked up photography. I bought a DSLR camera. I have a new found passion for photography. It’s crazy how when you start taking pictures, you begin seeing beauty in the most mundane things. I have a lot to learn, but I’m excited to grow in this new found love.
  6. I went to Israel. This may be one of the coolest gifts I received this year. My company wasn’t doing very well last year and I receive a bonus partially based on how well the company ends the year.  This year I received my full bonus and it completely covered my trip!  The journey to Israel was life-changing in so many ways.  You can read my Reflections on Israel on this blog.
  7. I started writing consistently. This is actually the gift I’m most excited about. I had been writing off and on for the past 8 years but this year God put it in my heart to determine to do it consistently.  Due to the “gifts” He has given me this year, I’ve had a lot to write about.  I’m absolutely thrilled to learn more about writing technique and finding my unique voice.  To let you in on one of my dreams, it is that one day I will publish not one, but 10 books.  Dream big or go home, right?

Last year I didn’t even make a wish list.  This year I think I will.  I mean, look what God gave me without even asking this past year.  I’m going to spend some time in prayer and I’m sure He’ll put things in my heart.  I’m excited to see the results!

What was on your birthday wish list to God this year? I’d love to hear about it.

The Easy Way Out (My Open Letter To The Church)

September 16, 2010 in Poetry 22

It’s easy to complain about others
It’s easy to find fault in their actions
It’s easy to criticize
It’s easy to make fun
It’s easy to disgrace someone publicly
It’s easy to make yourself feel superior
It’s easy to be self-righteous

It takes much more effort to love
It takes much more effort to have compassion
It takes much more effort to find beauty in brokenness
It takes much more effort to develop a personal relationship
It takes much more effort to find out why someone does what they do
It takes much more effort to restore
It takes much more effort to have grace

But isn’t that what you received?

Will you choose the easy way out today?

Grace For Works

September 14, 2010 in Meditations 10

Mount of Beatitudes
Mount of Beatitudes

Mount of Beatitudes

Most people have heard grace defined as “unmerited favor”.  Another definition of grace is “the influence or spirit of God operating in humans to regenerate or strengthen them”.  When my pastor defines grace he calls it “supernatural enabling power“.  I love that!  Do a word search in the New Testament for the word grace and replace it with that definition.  You’ll see how well it fits.

We typically hear grace preached in the context of saving grace.  The number one verse for this is Ephesians 2:8-9:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

This verse shows the beauty of the Gospel and the finished work of Christ. It is important to understand what was already accomplished so we aren’t striving in our relationship with God.  There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation.  If you’ve been in church long enough, this has been ingrained into your being.

Faith Without Works Is Dead

Once I got Ephesians 2:8-9 ingrained in my brain, one of the verses I then had difficulty with is James 2:14-17:

“What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

So I am saved by faith and not by works but I still need works or my faith is dead.  It seemed to me a bit of a paradox.  After a lot of wrestling with this verse, I came to the conclusion that works are a result of love.  This has to be more than brute force obedience. The validation of a relationship with Christ is following His commands. While you can’t save yourself, the faith that you used to receive the grace for salvation is the faith that will produce works because of love.

The catch is that rather than making it easier, which many interpret as grace, Christ made it impossible for us to do on our own.

A New Standard

Jesus preached the greatest sermon ever recorded starting in Matthew 5.  He was preaching to a crowd which up to this point were striving in their own strength to fulfill the 600+ laws given in the Old Testament. He was saying some of the most revolutionary things to the people of His time. They were offended and there was question that Jesus was trying to do away with the law.  Jesus addresses this in 5:17:

“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill.”

He then goes on to give six examples contrasting Pharisaic distortions of the Law with His own interpretation, thereby demonstrating the higher righteousness.  Starting in Matthew 5:21, he states “You have heard that it was said…but I say” and proceeds to display not the letter of the law but the Spirit of the law.

For those striving in their own strength to fulfill the law, this passage has to be exasperating!  Just when you began to feel righteous about being faithful to your spouse, Jesus goes on to say that if you even look at someone else with lust you have committed adultery.

So How Can We Fulfill The Law?

We have been saved by grace through faith.  We also see that faith without works is dead.  Then we see that we aren’t expected just to uphold the law, but an even higher standard.  Is there any hope in this?

Our hope of glory is Christ in us (Col 1:27).  Because we have Christ living in us, we have grace to fulfill this higher standard. It is a supernatural phenomenon. This is not a result of striving or even obedience and discipline. The Pharisees had discipline and obeyed the law but they missed the whole spirit of the law.

Our hope is in grace, this supernatural enabling power.  The minute you begin to feel that fulfilling Christ’s commands is difficult, you know that you are striving in your own strength.  If we believe Jesus when he says that His yoke is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 11:30), then it cannot be difficult. Fulfilling His laws must be natural.  It is a result of a renewed mind.

We cannot rely on our own strength because with everything we have, we will never measure up.  However, with the grace given to us through Christ, we will have supernatural power to walk worth of our calling.  It gives a whole new perspective to John 1:17:

“For the Law was given through Moses; grace [supernatural enabling power] and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.”

P.S. If you’re wondering about the image in this post, it is the view from the Mount of Beatitudes where Jesus gave the Sermon on the Mount.  It was taken on my recent trip to Israel.  You can read more about my Israel experience here.

Gray Areas

September 10, 2010 in Meditations 9

Gray Areas

Some of my favorite topics to discuss with other Christians are those areas that aren’t explicitly mentioned in the Bible.  I believe as we mature as followers of Christ, this is one of the key subjects that we must be able to wrap our heads around.  With that in mind, I saw this quote Tweeted yesterday:

“If there were no gray areas, we would have no need for leaders. A leader’s job is to navigate gray areas.”

Now I realize that a 140 character quote is easy to misinterpret since there isn’t much context.  However, taking the quote on its own, I have to say that I don’t agree with it.

I believe there is a lot of good intention in this type of thinking. Then again, good intention apart from the very Word of God is exactly what got the Pharisees in trouble.  I was on a trip to Israel recently and our Messianic tour guide said that one of His greatest struggles in sharing the gospel with Jewish believers is the Talmud. The Talmud is the Oral Law.  It is the tradition and interpretation of the laws in the Bible. In Exodus 20:10 it says:

“But the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.”

Gray Areas

Gray Areas

The Torah provided the laws directly from God, and the Talmud is man’s way of crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s by stating exactly what you can and can’t do. I found that the Orthodox Jews do not even turn on a light switch on the Sabbath because the interpretation of this scripture considers that to be work!

While the Torah (the first 5 books of the Old Testament) is holy to the Jews, the Talmud has come to supersede the weight of the Word of God.  This is a very precarious situation for the Jews and a stumbling block for their ability to see Christ in the scriptures.

So this brings me back to the quote.  If our leaders are navigating the gray areas for us, do we even need to read the Scriptures for ourselves? This same thinking was perpetuated in the Catholic church which eventually led to the Reformation.

Does that mean we don’t need teachers? Absolutely not. Teachers are a gift to the church (Eph. 4:11). The greatest gift a teacher can give to someone is to show them how to think on their own.  Paul illustrates this beautifully in probably the most comprehensive chapter on this subject in Romans 14. In this issue of gray areas Paul says in verse 12:

“So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.”

Paul doesn’t tell his readers what they should do.  He shows them their liberty, and appeals to their maturity.  The temptation is to make everything black and white. That is the safe position. You can’t eat foods dedicated to idols. You must esteem one day above another. Or in our case, you can’t drink wine (after all it was just watered down grape juice, right?). You can’t watch an R-rated movie.  The list goes on.

The thing is that not everyone has had the same experiences. Not everyone is in the same place in their walk.  When they start hearing a list of rules, it stops being about a relationship with the God and living a life that pleases Him and it becomes a list of rules that you must follow to be accepted by Him.  That doesn’t sound like a very healthy relationship to me.

So what do you think?  Should leaders be responsible for navigating the gray areas or is each person responsible for his own position? Let me know in the comments.

A Road Rage Confession

September 1, 2010 in Meditations 10

Let me paint a picture for you.  You wake up refreshed after a great night of sleep. You open your Bible and get in the Word.  You spend some time praying and you feel great.  Reading through a great book, you highlight some excerpts that you decide that you will put in a blog post and add your own insights.

You leave the house on time and hop in the car.  It’s going to be a good day.  You have some awesome worship blaring and you’re singing along.  All of a sudden, you get cut off by a guy on his cell phone.  This is what the fly on the wall hears:

I love you Jesus, you alone are worthy…DUDE, ARE YOU SERIOUS? WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM!? JEEZ!…yes, I love you Savior, you alone are holy.

Road Rage

Road Rage

These were my words this morning. I wish I could tell you I was joking. After a few more moments of singing I realized how silly that sounded. I laughed at myself but it got me thinking, “How can I still be so quickly thrown off my game by something so trivial?”

Giving it a little more thought, I hit the root of the issue.  I was honestly feeling prideful this morning. I was patting myself on the back for spending some good time with the Lord. I was thinking ahead of the insightful blog post I was going to write and in eager expectation of some great comments. The beginning of pride was welling up in my chest and I didn’t even see it.

Instead of feeling shame or condemnation for this, I feel happy. I’m thankful that God loves me enough to show me my vulnerabilities. He constantly shows me how His power is made perfect in my weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).  I think He was probably even laughing Himself, as I went from singing, screaming, then back to singing.

So instead of an insightful post about what I read in Watchman Nee’s “Sit Walk Stand” this morning, I share a confession of road rage. While I might not look as holy, I feel a lot more humble. And honestly, I’d rather be humbled.