How long…(Revised)

Posted: Jul 28, 2008 in Prayer
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Today, I sit, struggling to find words. Feelings of sorrow for a family that is experiencing loss beyond understanding. Yesterday, the neighborhood was a buzz as Care Flight landed at our soccer fields in Savannah, TX to take Markus Lewis, beloved son, taken from them by a tragic accident. Due to some confusion as they got out of their car after coming home from lunch, his parents sadly left him in the car for around an hour. He passed away yesterday. I am terribly concerned for this family. I am terribly concerned with this community. I am frustrated by the self-righteous way in which the news always reports things from their mountain tops, disconnected, uncaring, hungry for the next savage evidence of our worlds terrible brokenness. It’s easy for us to sit with them isn’t it, looking down from on high, elevated and lifted up until…

I have already heard some of the most horrible and thoughtless things said, this frustrates me to no end (Father forgive me, as I forgive others), though I have also heard genuine concern for this family and their loss. You see this could have happened to anyone of us. Oh sure, we look at this tragedy and cannot believe that parents could forget about their child and yet, one can walk the streets of Savannah at all hours and see children of all ages running around, walking in groups, cloaked in the darkest corners of our community. We see parents who let their kids fill their minds with destructive messages from every form of media available, they teach their children to party like there is no tomorrow. While it may not be a hot car but instead it is an even more painful and slow death of one’s spirit down the path of addiction, depression and sin. Many parents don’t even have time to notice the incredible struggles that their children face. These once beautiful babies now demand too much of our time, we don’t talk, we don’t actively encourage, we treat them as mere annoyances that we live our lives through when they hit the home run but talk bad about when they get caught smoking pot or having sex at school.

How is it that we cannot compassionately relate our failings, mistakes and miscalculations, small as they may be, to the reality of the big ones. We all screw up, the question is not will we but how and to what cost. Maybe its a wrong turn, maybe its your speeding car that kills an innocent family on their way home from church (true story that just happened in Frisco a few weeks back). Who are we to judge the mistakes based upon the consequence? How dare we care so little about life that we wish harm upon those who have in their own right an emptiness that none can imagine?

I am saddened by the insensitivity of a broken world that masks its pain with medications, reality shows that promote the celebration of similar tragedies and crisis and/or the flavor of the month in alcohol, drugs, violence and pornography. Oh how we sit mightily upon our grand thrones judging the world that does not fit into our false realities, only to find our throne little more than a place to puke when we ourselves wake up from the hangover of life. For no person that has the breath of life is prone to perfection let alone exempt from a single, or many, costly mistake that could take a life. So please, remember your place among the rest of us fallen ones. Let us look upon the world as Christ looked upon his murders and with one last breath declared, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”

How long oh Lord? Please come quickly. Please be with the Lewis family. Help them to find comfort in you. Console them, help them to forgive themselves. Oh the pain and guilt they must feel. Protect their marriage. Protect their children. Help us to step back and remember how you have delivered us from our own crap and may that bring forth compassion. May the weapon of joy destroy the powers of judgment and anger at the loss of this precious boy. Yet, we thank you for your protection of little babies. For we know that today Markus Lewis is now awaiting the glory of your new creation. Even now he may be resting in the cool breeze of heaven. May he be laying beside quiet waters, may the Lord Jesus himself be one with this baby. God move powerfully, use your people to comfort and support this family in their time of need. Forgive my own self-righteousness, for I do not intend to judge, just to uncover our nature so we may be delivered from ourselves. Help us, Oh Lord, HELP US!

Amen

The Teens Mite

Posted: Jul 24, 2008 in Faith, Spiritual Transformation
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For the point scroll down to the bottom, otherwise the setup of what I am trying to say starts here!

There is a wonderful story about Jesus in Mark and Luke (MK 12.41-44 and Lk 21.1-4) in which Jesus has sat down at the treasury (the tithing basket for the Jews) and watches these people coming in and dropping their support of the Temple and the work of God. As he is watching, many rich people are putting their large gifts of money into the collection. But then came a poor widow, who walked up and dropped in two small copper coins, worth nothing more than a penny.

I can imagine the scene even now, here is a woman who just desired so desperately to give to God. I wonder if it even crossed her mind that this was the money that might be needed to purchase food for that week OR that the bill collectors would be calling later to collect and here she is giving to God. What was she thinking in giving for “she out of her poverty has put everything she had, all she had to live on” into the offering? I cannot even begin to imagine the struggle of this offering but perhaps not for the reasons you might think.

You see, I am very blessed and therefore I, like the rich, give out of the abundance God has given. Truth be told, I have a feeling that when this woman woke up that morning there was no question about the day ahead. Unlike the rich who tallied up there income and responsibly balanced their budget for the day, making sure that no debt was left unpaid, no meal unaccounted for or that no one needed clothes for camp and definitely making sure that the entertainment money was protected, this poor widow, went to the Temple that day in order to give everything she had. For she knew that even that penny was a gift from God and that if she did not give it in faith, how could she ever expect that her faith would allow God to provide.

I know this struggle well as I make sure that my tithe is accounted for in my checking account. I don’t know what it is to depend on God because I so often depend on the balance of my accounts as my God. And if that gets to empty, I look to other people’s money and borrow to feed the family OR put clothes on my back that aren’t faded or from last year. Oh how I wish that I could live like the widow.

WHAT I REALLY AM LEADING UP TO IS THIS!

Actually, I wish I could live like a wonderful teen at my church. This one, who should not understand giving so well, this past week gave all that had they had worked so hard to make from babysitting some other kids at church for five hours. $60 to be exact. This teen didn’t even hesitate to give and in fact went out of the way to make sure Mom and Dad didn’t see them put it in the basket for fear they might hinder the spirit of giving. $60!! For a teen!! As a teen, 60 bucks is a lot of money and I know there were already plans for some of that money.

Eventually Dad found out about this great gift and when he went to his child in his wisdom and said, “I would not have stopped you from giving but you do need to know, you don’t have to give everything you earned.” Then, from the mouth of His dear child came this paraphrased reply, “Why not, I don’t need it but the church and its people do. Besides, I have babysitting jobs coming up, there will be more coming later” (faith in the provision of God, from a teen who should be asking Dad for a $20 bill,or at least that is what I would have been doing as a teen).

To this wonderful example of giving, we say, thank you for showing your brothers and sisters how to give good gifts! You, dear child of God, are precious and holy in God’s sight. I am sure Jesus was looking upon your gift and saying, “this one, from little, has put in everything they had into the offering. Well done my good and faithful servant.”

* Name and gender have been left out in order to protect the identity of this wonderful person.

The Pain in the Complaint

Posted: Jul 17, 2008 in Meaningless, Prayer, Tangents
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On complaining.

Why complain? More importantly how do you deal with complaining without complaining? Moreover, what is complaining?

I have just begun a 40 day fast from unnecessary talk, which I have failed miserably at already. But tomorrow is a new day and the next minute is a new minute so we will see how God works powerfully in our lives. I look forward to it.

So here is MY answer to these questions. It seems to me that complaining is nothing more than an expression of our inability to control things that were never in our control to begin with. Complaining is nothing more than another form of GOSSIP because in complaining about anything people are often attached to such complaints and it serves to raise self up over the situation without having the need to take any responsible action toward a solution. It easily tosses the responsibility off on someone else. Now mind you I am not talking about true issues that need resolving. I am speaking of the types of complaints that restate the obvious time and time again without any productive solution to offer. I am speaking of the possibility that perhaps I, with God’s help, can tame the tongue with thanksgiving and move to a life where I am less concerned about having things in the way I think I should get them or believe I am owed.

So here is my hope for myself. It is my goal to come to the table with solutions, a willingness to be a part of the solution and a tongue that is bit not loose. It is my intention to realize that sometimes constructive criticism is beneficial but it is not constructive beyond a single mention, especially where I have no alternative to offer. Yes, I do want my concerns to be heard but dwelling on them seems to only create within me a very American mentality of I am owed something.

That said, I also understand that, I will fail miserably in this regard. IN such a case, it is good to remember that our complaints are a reflection of our estrangement from our true home. In the kingdom we will have no need to complain for we will have more than we could ever imagine. God’s rule will be all sufficient and our lives will be sustained by his glory. So in the discontentment of our present circumstance, may we realize that God is using our estrangement as a way to keep us longing for vaster things. Lord come quickly for I am weak and a wretch of a man.

Papa Prayer (from Jesus Manifesto blog)

Posted: Jul 16, 2008 in Prayer, Spiritual Transformation
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Well it has been a long while since I posted. I truly want to but I feel as though in some ways I have been hindered by the Spirit (felt it unnecessary). I am sure I will catch flack for such a statement but I don’t know how else to describe it. Anyway, below is a blog entry from the Jesus Manifesto it is quite convicting and it is definitely a prayer that needs to be prayed. I know that at VineLife we have a huge struggle with giving, not because we don’t want to give but because we have been slaves to credit and the almighty interest rate. Lord, help us.

Subvert this society of spiritual insincerity! These pseudo-saints
wear masks of metaphysical maturity
veiling their vulgar visage and voluminous villainy
Prattling proudly, they publicly proclaim their piety. It’s pathetic!

Don’t buy it, brother.
Don’t get snared, sister.
They’ll get their due.
But as for you,
Do the prayers you do…
In the quiet place.
With simple words.
And an open heart.

Like little kids call for papa
Call out to your Heaven-Father.
Yes, he is Huge and Holy,
But still closer to you
than you are to yourself.

Reach up to him and say:

“We need a regime change,
From Bush or Obama or McCain
To a divine administration.

We don’t need laptops and lattes,
Macbooks or machiattos
We don’t need Red Robbin
Or Little Debbie
Or Colonel Sanders
Or Ronald McDonald
Or Famous Dave.

All we need is
what we need
right now.
And that’s you.

We’re beggin’ you, papa
For debt forgiveness.
Our bedrooms are wallpapered with past due notices
Our cars run off violent oil
Our homes built upon a mountain of bones.
So we declare bankruptcy!

But we can’t point a finger of judgment at others.
We pass along the debt relief that you’ve given to us
And forgive everyone for what they owe us…

…at least in theory, papa.

‘Cuz we are cracked people.
Greedy, lusty, and grumpy by nature.
Always willing to secure ourselves
At the expense of the other
Even if it makes you look bad, papa.

So help us not to be tempted
To secure ourselves with dark dealings…

Deliver from this damned depraved design
of the despicable deceiver who devours divinity!

written by: Mark Van Steenwyk is the editor of JesusManifesto.com. He is a Mennonite pastor (Missio Dei in Minneapolis), writer, speaker, and grassroots educator. He lives in South Minneapolis with his wife (Amy), son (Jonas) and some of their friends.

I must say, this is tough to hear. In fact, many do not have ears to hear this message. They chalk it up to Tree Hugger mentality or extremism. Truth is, I struggle with Green friendly stuff because it seem too hard to embrace, so radical so unnecessary for me in my life. But I wonder is it really about me OR is that exactly why we can’t hear it? Beyond that is this cycle one that can truly be overcome with faith and self sacrifice?

Of course I have my opinions but I want to know what you think… SO? What do you think? Be prayerful, let yourself be questioned, be open to the Spirit’s leading. Here are some scriptures for consideration.

Micah 3; Romans 13:8ff

pointLesblog

Posted: May 16, 2008 in Updates
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I have to admit. Sometimes I wonder why I even signed up for this service. I wonder if what I have to say is even relevant to the people I am hoping will read. I kind of trailed off my writing a couple of months back due to a VineLife follower of Christ who said that he can’t understand half of what I write. So, I guess you could say, I wondered what the point of writing was if I can’t even communicate effectively to those who I am writing to. However, I also find that in writing, I bring a bit of order to the chaos of thoughts going through my head. It is a door way into a human heart. While my thoughts may not be relevant to certain people, they represent the freedom that God has granted us to explore the full gamut of his kingdom come.

You see as I read some blogs (not intended as a generalization), I often still sense a bit of a tendency to nail down truth in the realm of whatever the blog topic might be; baptism, theology, decline of the church, etc. However, what I am finding is that God is not interested in our defining truth. Rather, he has already defined it once and for all in Christ. OK, this is such an ambiguous statement, that in many ways is trying to define truth. But hear me say this, I am not trying to define truth beyond the foundation in Christ that has been laid. The freedom comes in, when we apply truth to any given context or situation. It is when we engage culture with Christ leading the way in.

Truth is not something we master or even uncover rather it is revealed. The crazy thing is that though many of us had the Truth revealed to us by God’s Spirit, we now think it is up to us to reveal the Truth as truth bearers. I wonder. Is this our job? Or perhaps we are called to simply reveal the Truth of God’s reign in the way it was revealed to us. Perhaps, it is in the telling of the story that we find others coming to Christ. Think of Deuteronomy 6. Where is evangelism? Some would argue it’s not there. I would say it is there, just not in the marketing, self-promotion or condemnatory ways that we so often see. Right in the midst of raising up stories and stones (see Joshua 4) that will help us remember what God has done for us. Sadly, truth has become for many nothing more than a judgment of what we believe is right for our lives laid in black in white upon others. Is this oversimplified? Give me your thoughts and opinions. That is, if I have effectively communicated, the Truth. ; )

The Things We Hold

Posted: May 15, 2008 in Meaningless, Personal, Rants, Tangents
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Today I write with a heavy but joyful heart. Today, I am officially without a grandparent from my side of the family. While Heatherly and I still have one grandmother and one grandfather, in the past two week we have lost my dad’s dad (Dale McDaniel) and my mom’s mom (Sarah Woodruff). We have also lost my cousin Grant Hinds to early and in a tragic way. Death has been ever present. We mourn, we weep and yet for each we are grateful and excited for their new and eternal life. For these, time is no more, only eternity.
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The Reason For God

Posted: Mar 7, 2008 in Co-Missional, Ecclesiology, Theology
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Check out this website. Listen to the MP3′s, especially Exclusivity. In my opinion, it is very important to listen to.

Let me know your thoughts.

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