How do we see people? Today is the memorial circus for Michael Jackson and we will be bombarded with more stories of how people will remember him, either the rascal or the entertainer. How do people see him? How will he be remembered? I turned on ESPN this morning and the first story was Steve McNair, recently shot and killed allegedly with by his girlfriend. It was followed with former coaches and teammates talking about how they will remember him.

Two guys who have died and are having their legacy discussed in the media. Two guys who certainly made mistakes and took some wrong paths. Two guys who did a lot of good things and helped people in various ways. Two guys who, except for their fame, aren’t much different than the rest of us. How do we see them? How will we talk about them?

I read The Shack recently and what the book gave me was the idea, the question, of how I will see people. Do I see them through my experience, through my idea of justice, through my idea of right and wrong or will I see them through the eyes of their Maker and Creator, of their Father who is also my Father?

I walk through Wally World and see People and National Enquirer magazines with all the latest scoops (and a little dirt) or get snippets of the latest rumor about people on the Internet – how do I see them? With my eyes or God’s eyes?

Brandon Heath sings a song that speaks to me. The chorus goes like this:
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see

I want to see people through God’s eyes. I will see them differently.
I want to see people through God’s love. I will feel differently about them.
I want to see people through God’s heart. I will have more compassion.

God, give me your eyes, your love and your heart for people.

Grace and peace to you.

Does it seem like Monday gets here faster than any other day of the week?

July 4th came and went uneventfully. No fires, no one lost an eye. I think I saw more fireworks than ever before though. Out driving Saturday night, they were going off everywhere. Big ones.

I appreciate the country I live in and am thankful for what I have. The freedoms we do have are a gift from the sweat and blood many have poured out for us.

As thankful as I am for this freedom I have, there is a greater freedom for me to grab hold of. I still get too many emails trying to link my freedom through Christ with the country I live in. I heard a question yesterday that had me thinking – does God love Americans more than Brazilians? more than Russians? Does God love Americans more than He loves Muslims? Does He love me more than He loves Osama Bin Laden? I don’t think so.

We Americans need to remember living in this country doesn’t give us greater favor in Heaven. Satan is an equal opportunity killer and his desire to rob our souls is no different than his desire to rob the soul of a terrorist. He gives them the desire to kill and has them think it is in the name of God. He gives us the desire to feel pride, maybe arrogance, and to feel safe in our prosperity and some try to tie it to a “Christian nation.”

I won’t be surprised to see a day when our prosperity ends and our freedoms fade in this country but no one can take away the freedom I have in God – the freedom to love, to give, to share, to be gracious and merciful – those freedoms are mine forever. The sweat and the blood have been given for me and the cross is my constant reminder that I have a freedom that far exceeds anything I can know because I’m an American.

Grace and peace to you.

The 4th invokes so many thoughts and feelings for people because of all that it represents. While this is a great opportunity for a stirring, patriotic moment, the 4th always takes me back to a Sunday lunch when my grandmother kept telling me about a fire someone started years earlier shooting off fireworks. The conversation came up because I was going, that night, to shoot fireworks with a friend. We would be out in the country shooting them over a clay ravine. No hint of potential fire.

We were having a blast and everything was great with only one misfire – a bottlerocket that flew off behind us. Weird but everything seemed OK and we kept firing away. It was a few minutes later when my friend yelled “FIRE!” I turned around, saw a fire, turned back around to light another bottlerocket when realization clicked in. Yep, that was a fire. Our little misfired bottlerocket had gone behind us into a pile of dead pine needles. At this point the fire was a good 8 feet across and growing…growing towards the house of the brother of my friend who was out of town.

I’ll spare you all the crazy details (I learned what a party line phone was that night) but the fire was eventually put out with the help of the fire department who got there more than an hour after we had been fighting to contain it on our own.

If you are shooting fireworks this weekend…don’t start a fire. Take some time to remember what we celebrate and be safe.

Grace and peace to you.

Whatever. I’m not sure it will ever be cool again.

Hammerin’ Hank hit a 2 run walk off homerun last night and the Rangers beat the Angels 9-7. Francisco doesn’t look like he’s ready to resume the closer role just yet but the bats are coming alive and the Rangers just took 2 out of 3 with the division leaders.
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Do you ever notice Satan blinding you to your own problems? Do you ever notice Satan blinding someone else from their own problems. I think most of us would fit in the second category more than the first because that’s what Satan wants to do – get our focus on someone else and their problems.

I want to let God be in control of what I see, not Satan, and I want Him to make me aware of my shortcomings because doing so will draw me closer to Him who can give me the strength to win.

How focused can people be on Michael Jackson, Governor Sanford, Tony Romo and Jessica Simpson or even where the Rangers are in the standings and never examine their own lives? I don’t want to live in that world and be caught up in the things that don’t really matter. I want to know and see the battle I am engaged in and be focused to fight that battle through the power of my Lord.

Grace and peace to you.

Yes, I do know my days of the week and the Rangers lost again. I listened to some of the post-game radio show and there are calls to hire a new hitting coach. People are so reactive at times. There are times when nothing but time will fix things. The hitting coach has been regarded as a guru for years and players who are suffering at the plate want to come to him to find what they have lost. Just because not everyone finds it at once, on the same pace, at the same time, others want to denounce the guy who can help them the most? Crazy.
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We had a bit of a cold front yesterday and I actually saw a temperature of 77 and felt a few rain drops. Woohoo! Do you ever wonder why God doesn’t set the thermostat at 75 degrees around the world and leave it there?
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One of the best things in my life are people who will talk to me about what they believe and what I believe, share our agreements and differences, challenge each other to think and examine our beliefs more and do it with mutual respect and love for each other. It’s a beautiful gift.

I can’t get going this morning.

I’ve wondered while watching all the Michael Jackson hoopla and Iran protests on TV what it would have been like if there was TV back in Jesus’ day.

I enjoyed it while the Rangers were on top. Now I’m left to wonder what the rest of the season will be like. The past few years, the Rangers have started off horribly and finished strong. Maybe they are in a collective slump and will still finish strong and be in the playoff hunt.

I am a little concerned with all the trade talk. I don’t think they are in a position to contend for a World Series spot this year so why trade the prized farm system they keep talking about. Play the string out and see what the young guys can do unless we can get a great deal.

The Angels are coming to town. We want learn everything over the next 3 games but we may learn about the heart of the team. I’ll be watching.

I wonder how much more attention Farrah Fawcett’s death would have received if Michael Jackson hadn’t died the same day.

I love to grill but it’s weird thinking about starting a fire when it’s 108 degrees outside.

We’ve started a class at church titled “What Is Truth?” Pilate asks Jesus that question and then walks away. Why wouldn’t he stay for an answer? We’re just a few classes in but I’m interested to see where it goes. I keep asking myself what we have done to truth over the years. Have we really upheld truth or have we mutated it to fit our desires, have we legalized it thinking it would make it easier to follow? Have we stayed true to exactly what Jesus taught? Questions that I don’t have all the answer to.

I know this…God loves me deeply and He loves you the same way. He paid an incredible price for me and for you because He loves each of us so much. That is truth.

Grace and peace to you.

It’s hard in a short blog to always cover all the bases but I want to add a little bit more to my last two posts.

The finger I am pointing is pointing square at me. It’s not pointing at my current church or past churches I have attended. It’s not pointing at the church across the street or around the corner. Just at me.

Maybe there’s a better way to phrase “my church experience” but it’s all I came up with . Anyway, it’s MY experience and it’s MY heart that has needed changing all along. I will say if you felt your toes were getting stepped on you may want to examine your own heart but please do not think I was talking about you or anyone else.

I am growing and experiencing a new relationship with God and through that my eyes are opening to all sorts of things. My church experience was a part of that. Do I think there are lots of people out there who were like me? Sure. I am trying to point out their issues? NO. Just mine.

I have learned that my view is shaped in great part by my heart relationship with God. I’m sharing some of what I’m learning because a) it is part of my healing and b) it may help someone else who has traveled the same or similar paths to mine.

Please know and believe my desire is to build up the kingdom. I believe God is a perfect God and I believe His ways and His desires are perfect.

I love God and shout hallelujah that I am His.

Grace and peace to you.

I beat up on my church experience yesterday but I don’t want to leave the story there because it’s not complete. The crazy thing about a church is that it will not be perfect. It’s made up of people who, though made in God’s image, are sinful. I think God knew this was going to happen but it didn’t stop Him from creating the church.

When I was a teenager, I was at a friend’s lakehouse and his dad told me “I can find God out here easier than I can at church.” At the time, I didn’t know what to say and, even today, I’m not sure I can give a good response to him because it’s not about the church but his heart. Christ established the church with Peter. In Matthew 16, ¹⁷Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸And I tell you that you are Peter,^a]”>[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades^b]”>[b] will not overcome it.^{c]”>[c] 19}I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be^d]”>[d] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be^e]”>[e] loosed in heaven.”



Jesus said this to Peter, the same Peter who would later vehemently deny he knew the Christ, Peter the fiery cut-off-someone’s-ear guy. Hmmm. Maybe, just maybe, even Jesus knew things wouldn’t always run perfectly in the church because Jesus says “on this rock I will build my church” and surely He knew what Peter would later do. Should we think He expects we will be better than that?

What I have found at my church are some people who love the Lord our God deeply and intimately. I have found some people who will carry each other’s burdens an extra mile. I have found people who love unconditionally, who bear with each other, who endure with each other and who believe in each other. I have found people who come together on Sunday morning to worship, fall at the feet of and give praise to the Lord.

For all the imperfections that exist, there is also something perfect in the church – the desire of God for us to come together and it is in that perfection that I have grown to love my church and look forward to the times we are together in worship and in fellowship.

Grace and peace to you.

I’m part of a theological movement often referred to as the Restoration Movement – the idea being to restore the 1st century church. I think it’s a great idea but as I look at my church experience, I don’t think I see things matching up real well.

This from Acts 2:
⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. ⁴⁴All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. ⁴⁶Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.

I am guilty of participating in being devoted to a lot of things other than the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer, of being together with everything in common, of giving all I have to anyone as they have need, of meeting every day to study.

I am guilty of participating with people in the church who are more concerned about getting to keep all my money because I earned it instead of giving it all away.
I am guilty of participating with people in the church of being more devoted to a certain political groups teachings and fighting the other group instead of focused on the apostles’ teaching.
I am guilty of participating with people in church who want to segregate ourselves from other groups because our worship style is different or we want to fight a public battle over our doctrine while the lost stand on the outside wandering what all the fuss is about but knowing they don’t want anything to do with it.
I am guilty of participating with people in the church who pass emails around with Congressman explaining why we are a Judeo-Christian nation to build up our country instead of talking to people who don’t know Jesus and building up the kingdom.

I’m not saying my church isn’t important because it was something established by Christ. I think the church is very important (and I’ll have more to say about that another day because we just aren’t perfect people, are we?) but I also think our movement has been less about restoring 1st century Christianity than it should be. I think many of us have been misguided and I think there are spiritual forces at work that want to keep it that way – let us fight over music and dress and women’s roles and buildings and a 1,000 other things instead of doing what the church in Acts 2 was doing.

I pray for churches that are led by the Spirit and not the desire of men. I pray for churches that are building up the kingdom instead of fighting the battles of egos and politics. I pray for churches that are enjoying the favor of people and enjoying the fruit of the Lord adding to their numbers daily. I am praying that I will begin to look more like a 1st century Christian than I do today.

Grace and peace to you.

I’ve got several ideas for posts this week and hope I can get them all done without writing a novel and making sense. I may have to stew on some of them a little longer.

Today, health care seems to be back in the spotlight. I didn’t hear all that was said this morning on GMA but know they were talking about the pros and cons of Obama’s plan that is coming soon. While government run anything makes me immediately think “FAILURE” I’m also an advocate that our current system doesn’t work so well either. Currently, I make 2 house payments each month – one for my house and one for my health plan. It’s not a joke, I pay roughly the same amounts for my mortgage and insurance. Does that sound like a good plan? Then, I’ve got Newt Gingrich as the Republican spokesman for the evils of Obama’s plan. A guy who is living off a government paid pension funded my tax dollars, a guy with the best health care available fund funded by my tax dollars and a guy who gets paid millions of dollars to speak while still taking a salary paid for by my tax dollars. Great. What I would like is for my spokesman to be the husband of one of the ladies in my office. She’s pregnant and his company just cut health insurance to save money. I think he’s got a better grip on reality than Newt for most Americans.

Tell me the government cannot effectively manage a health program and I can’t disagree with you. Tell me the plan we have now is good enough and I will disagree with you. Tell me the Republicans have a better alternative and I’ll just laugh. Ask me for a solution and I’ll tell you I’m as lost as the next person because I don’t have the time to invest in it right now. Who does you ask? Unfortunately it’s the people who are getting paid by my tax dollars, people who don’t live in the real world and who don’t seem to really understand the needs of the typical American.
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This is leading me to a place I don’t fully understand and reserve the right to change my opinions as I think out loud. For today, I’ll simply throw the broad question out of what is the church’s role going to be in the future?

Grace and peace to you.