This is perhaps the best highlight video of Arizona Wildcats football I’ve ever seen – I’m pumped for football!
It Makes Me Feel Loved Again
Fatherhood changes everything.
Everything.
It changes your schedule, changes your temperament, changes the smell of your house & the arrangement of furniture. It changes how you act, what you watch on TV, where you go.
It changes your perspective on God. If you’re like me, you have maybe a more-than-healthy dose of fear of God. I saw way too many of those Heaven/Hell dramas as a kid, and it freaked me out. Big-time.
I still know enough about God to know that I am to have a respect for Him and His holiness. But I now understand a little bit more of the “father” part of the whole Heavenly Father title.
One of the biggest ways I’ve come closer to understanding my relationship with God is when I come home late. I quietly tiptoe into Breah’s room and peek into her crib, and just watch her breathe as she sleeps.
I know, I know, your typical sappy movie line. But it’s completely true!
It makes me smile to realize that my Father does not exist far away, but watches me up close. And since He’s an awesome multi-tasker and can balance the entire world and yet listen to a small prayer, I know that He comes close…and just watches us breathe as we sleep.
Sometimes when I watch my daughter sleep, I can’t wait until the morning when she wakes up and sees me. With little children, the look they give is like they’ve just seen you for the first time all over again!
I bet our Dad can’t wait until we finally awake from this slumber that we call ‘life’ and see His face.
I can’t wait.
Are You Eating or Are You Playing?
A few weeks ago Breah did something that she had never done before. She took her food, and instead of diligently eating it like she always had, she decided to throw it over the edge of her highchair. I patiently grabbed the piece of food, turned around, and went to throw it away. When I turned back around, I saw yet ANOTHER piece of food on the ground. Breah continued to repeatedly throw food off the side of her chair, thinking it to be hilarious. I finally looked her in the eye and asked her:
“Are you eating, or are you playing?”
It’s funny, because I think our God asks us the same question time after time again. In John 6:35 Jesus calls Himself “the bread of life.” The answer is right before us – everlasting life, joy, peace, goodness, it’s all right there for the taking.
Are you eating of the bread of life, or are you just passing time away and playing around?
Honor and Loyalty
Perhaps it’s because of Memorial Day Weekend, but I’ve really been mulling over some ideas lately about honor and loyalty. Hopefully they will make sense.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see a lot of loyalty in the church today. Maybe I was raised different because my father was in the military, maybe it has to do with the fact that I’m Korean and part of heritage truly embraces honor and loyalty, maybe it’s because I played sports my whole life and I truly buy into the team concept and coaching. Perhaps it’s because I’m a weirdo who watched Braveheart way too many times.
I just don’t see a lot of loyalty in the church today, particularly loyalty to leadership. It’s weird, but I thought the church was supposed to set the benchmark for society, but it doesn’t seem to be that way at all (mind you, this is a totally different conversation if definitive sin comes into the picture, I’m in no way excusing sinful leadership). I realize that people are imperfect, but every aspect of success in life I’ve ever come to know in the world of military, sports and leadership are all hinged on a system in which the superior/commander/coach/leader is to be respected, his orders to be followed to the best of one’s ability, and the utmost of teamwork being used to accomplish the goals set before us.
I just don’t see that today, mainly for two reasons: weak leadership at the top, and weak loyalty in the support. The first issue I honestly am not sure if I’m qualified to speak on, perhaps I’ll study more and more of it in God’s word and gain enough confidence to blog about the topic. But the second I feel more than capable of speaking of.
I’ve worked in some capacity at 6 churches, all of them with different leadership structures and styles. Some had weak leadership, most had terrible support, very few had both strong leadership and great support. The best was a church plant that started from scratch, perhaps there’s more to the idea I’ve heard kicked around from the very leaders of some prestigious seminaries in my denomination that church planting is the greatest form of evangelism and is a preferred method of ministry rather than revive an existing church because it’s easier to birth a baby than it is to raise the dead.
Nevertheless, I do think support staff need to (shocker) show support, I do think if you can’t follow the head leader’s vision you need to leave gracefully, and I do think that many churches would be more successful and many lead pastors wouldn’t suffer burnout if support staff and volunteer leaders showed loyalty and simply followed obediently or gracefully left.
Perry Noble put it best, describing the scene in Acts 14 when Paul (the leader) was stoned and Barnabas and the disciples (support leaders) surrounded him. He basically explained that if support staff and volunteer leaders will realize that the lead pastor gets rocks thrown at him every day and would choose to support him and pray over him when he’s down, he will get back up rejuvenated with loyalty at his back and be so pumped that people have his back that he’ll be ready to “storm the gates of hell with a water pistol.”
Can we the support be a blessing for our leaders? Not grumble, not throw them under the bus, but support them? Can we watch out for their spiritual/emotional/physical/mental health, guard their family time, and support them financially? Most of all can we realize that God has given them a vision, and that if we all work together and get on board we can see great things happen for the kingdom?
Social Justice
Just a quick thought. I don’t know about the over-arching world of Christians who lean more heavily on Social Justice, but the ones that I’ve come to encounter usually make me feel guilty for proselytizing, as though all I’m trying to do is make another convert. I’ve always wondered why this bothered me, and maybe I’m just really slow but a few days ago it dawned on me. Romans 1:16
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”
The greatest gift we could give somebody is the Gospel. It not only sets free the bonds of slavery of sin, but it gives us everlasting life – something nobody can take away. I’m not trying to convert somebody to make myself feel better or to add to my legacy, I’m trying to help someone encounter the greatest gift ever in glorifying the Almighty God. There is nothing to be embarassed about, nothing to be ashamed of. The Gospel stands alone.
Now if someone wants to dialogue on the best way to deliver the Gospel, that’s understandable. But don’t make me feel guilty about wanting to give someone more than just a band-aid to their situation but the cure to life itself.
A Political Rant
Doesn’t it seem like reaching people for Christ would be a little easier without other so-called Christians? Even strolling on social networks and seeing how fellow Christians get to the point of sheer stupidity in their care for politics that they choose to build YET ANOTHER WALL between the church sharing the Gospel with other people…not only that, I’m seeing the ridiculous activity being passed on to children, who have absolutely no frickin idea what on Earth it is that Barack Obama is doing that is angering all the conservatives but want to let the whole world know that they are on the anti-O train. Seriously, that’s the impression you want to give? My citizenship is in heaven, and I definitely lean one way politically. While I have no problem with people who disagree with certain political stances using their freedom of speech to give their opinion, the hateful manner in which some of the faith choose to express their frustrations with our president is uncalled for. I just want to know if people could see past what’s happening right here in the moment and looked more at the eternal significance of making sure every fabric of our lives point to Christ.
More Beauty from Psalm 51
16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.
How often do we try to ‘do’ things to please our God, to receive forgiveness by some man-made tool, as if we could somehow achieve God’s favor by our own deeds? As if that’s good enough.
The greatest sacrifice? Your heart, the center of your devotion, being broken for Him.
Reminds me of the words to the classic Matt Redman song, “The Heart of Worship.”
“I’ll bring You more than a song
For a song in itself
Is not what You have required
You search much deeper within
Through the way things appear
You’re looking into my heart”
The Sinner’s Redemption
Most people know Psalm 51, most likely mainly through a popular Christian song:
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
I find the next verse to be fascinating:
13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners shall be converted to You.
**WARNING: NERDY HEBREW LINGUISTICS TALK**
I’m guessing that the “then” on this next verse is a conjunction ‘wa’ in Hebrew that is ambiguous, and most translators use “then” because of context. However, I still find it fascinating, because it makes so much sense (even if you used a different conjunction it still makes sense!). When God gives us a clean heart, when he restores us anew, THEN we can move forward and I believe God will bless us with reaching out to many people.
I know that some would surely try to take this out of context, using it as an excuse not to do anything for the kingdom of God until they are ‘perfect.’ But that’s not what it’s talking about.
It’s about a story.
A testimony.
It’s about being like the blind man that Jesus healed, who went throughout the city and exclaimed how he had been healed by the Messiah.
When we seek out God to redeem us, we find that He weaves us into an even greater story of redemption that involves far more than just our own selves.
We participate in God reaching the nations.
On a personal level, with our own mouths, with our own stories, all as a part of His one incredible redemptive love story.
West Side Story
So a lot has changed, and I’ve been absolutely TERRIBLE at keeping up through blogging. Hopefully, this current blog will get me rolling again.
In late November, my pastor, Kent Stewart, left our church. I was very proud of him doing so with an incredible amount of grace, reassuring the church body that all was peaceful and well and that he had no doubts that 22nd Street would continue pursuing a vision of fulfilling God’s plan for Tucson. He equated him moving on to a head coaching change, where some times all a team needs is the top leader to change and the team naturally flourishes just because things are different, not necessarily because of a complete overhaul in the system. He went on to compliment his staff, calling us excellent ‘coordinators’ who would continue on putting together a great gameplan for our church.
Cut to 2010. Trei Watters is now the interim pastor at 22nd Street and doing AWESOME there. I cannot say enough about how amazing it is to see God continuing His work through leaders like Trei. We just finished up an amazing Easter weekend that saw several people come to know Jesus. It never gets old!
Kent is now planting a church here in Tucson called 180 Church. Currently it will begin meeting in May at the Berger Theater at the AZ School for the Deaf and Blind, which is just west of I-10 on Speedway. Austin Ryan of Worship Catalyst and I will be helping to lead the worship there for a season. The other night, several of us who will be helping this plant launch met together in the evening at Tucson’s “A” Mountain to have some acoustic worship and pray together. It was an amazing event! The first time I had ever been there was with Kent to scout it out before we had a prayer night there, and Thursday was the first time I had ever been there at night. It was beautiful! At one point during prayer I leaned over to Danielle and whispered, “from this view it actually looks like there’s some hope for this forsaken city!” I was, of course, speaking in jest, knowing that with God there is ALWAYS hope. But there is some truth to that statement, as Tucson seems to take even the best ministers and make them feel as though there will never be a great awakening for this city.
An interesting moment, however, came during someone else’s prayer. It was Austin Ryan, praying that God would take all the statements that pastors have made over the years that the west side of Tucson is impossible to plant a church in.
Gulp.
Cut to the day before, with Kent, another church planter (who is a native of Tucson), and myself drinking some coffee. The church planter had just explained how difficult it would be for us planting a church that is on the west side of the I-10, even if it is barely a block away at a beautiful performing arts theater. I looked at Kent and said, “are you sure you want to plant there? Can’t we go somewhere downtown that is nicer and has a better reputation?”
Ouch.
I have no idea what God is going to do. I have no idea if He is going to bless this effort, if it will sustain, or if it will even be able to hit the ground running. I do know that I cannot go into it with the attitude of impossibility. My God is the God of everything, He knows no bounds and can do anything. And there is a large amount of people that He loves dearly and died for that need to know about Him – regardless of my doubts!
Practical Deism
Right now I’m taking an online class through Golden Gate, Theology I. It is actually a really interesting course, and I really love the book that we’re reading, A Theology For The Church by Daniel Akin. One of the things that I’ve been learning about is Deism, which basically asserts that there was a Creator but he has no place in our daily affairs. Akin also warns of a term he calls “practical Deism” that Christians can find themselves guilty of. “The practical deist, while affirming the orthodox doctrine of providence, lives as though God is not actually involved in the affairs of daily life.”
How true this seems to play out in the lives of so many of us Christians. We have the greatest resource of all time, somebody more powerful than anybody or anything else in all of history – the one true God that desires a personal relationship with us. And what do we do? We let our hearts be far from Him.
The current series that my pastor is preaching on is called Lies That Destroy. We’ve covered so many powerful topics, such as the lie of divorce, abortion, sin and religious masquerade. I think one of the more costly lies that Christians buy into is that we can make it through life on our own. We forget what the moments were like as we came to know Christ as our Savior, that feeling of helplessness and dependence upon Him to save us. We forget that connection to the Holy Spirit that used to guide every fabric of our lives, and fall into the trap of doing it all on our own, only seeking Him in our emergencies.
Lately I’ve felt a yearning to give God the best. Too many Christians give God their secondhand (maybe even third or fourth, figuratively speaking) stuff, instead of giving/doing/living with excellence. Why do so many churches look worn down because volunteers didn’t take the time to make it look excellent? Is the church more than a building? Absolutely! But if we have been entrusted to have a building to meet in, why do we treat it with such disregard? If the building is what we choose to strategically draw people in, to create an atmosphere that gives us the best chance to have many people hear the Good News – who are we kidding?!?! Thinking on a worldly level, who wants to shop in a worn-down, filthy mall? If I get frustrated and distracted by things in a church that are not quality or taken care of, what message does that send to someone who doesn’t know God and cares very little about the deeper things of God rather than aesthetics?
I want to do things for God with excellence. I don’t want to worship my church building, but I want my church to be so fantastic that it is a beautiful sight that reflects the love that we have for Him. I want everything to be done with such excellence that any person that comes in off the street will see that this group of people who worship God have put their hearts and souls into their dedication of Him. I want our small groups to be excellent, the epitome of koinonia. I want everything to be done for His glory, and if that is what we’re attaining for then we need to stop giving God our leftovers, and start giving Him the best.
Where am I going with this? Why am I talking about practical deism as well as doing things with excellence? God is also putting another conviction upon my heart, one that bridges these two thoughts. I must not allow myself to do things excellent simply for my own acclaim. I am an uber competitive person. I hate to admit this, but I get competitive with my fellow pastors, with other worship bands, etc, etc, etc. This is an attitude of pride, and it will eventually lead me to be excellent for excellent’s (my) sake, not for the glory of God. It would lead me to acknowledging that there is a God, but having my heart far away from pursuing Him. I would be pursuing excellence without pursuing Christ – a scary thought indeed!
Strangely, God has squashed my pride by opening my horizons. When I began to pray that I would focus more on being excellent for Him instead of being better than other ministries, God took my ideas of excellence to a whole other level. He began to remind me of the Old Testament, where God literally goes to war against other nations – specifically to squash their false gods. In 1 Kings 18 Elijah squares off against false prophets, but the bigger picture is that God Himself squaring off in battle against Baal. It made me realize that instead of focusing on competing with other ministries, we need to focus on the REAL competition. I want to compete against the malls, the ballgames, the movie theaters, all the things that take people’s attentions away from God. I want to make my church so exciting, so awe-inspiring that it piques the curiosity of the lost.
And I want to do this as an act of worship to God alone! I want the Psalm 115:1 attitude, that it’s not about us but rather it’s all about God’s glory and honor!
