The Dream Factory

This Isn't All

I've posted this before, but you and I need it today as we often do. Be encouraged by this scripture set to music. Whatever you are going through, remember that the key word is the preposition, "through!" It is not your destination; it is a passage. The resurrection says, no, shouts, "This isn't all! God gets the last word!"

So keep on keeping on.

 

http://youtu.be/L2P70a7S4ks

Focus on the "to" and not the "through.:"

"I remembered you, God, and I groaned. I meditated and my spirit grew faint." - Psalm 77:3 (NIV)

What about the comfort, assurance, and peace pour quiet times are supposed to give us?

What aboout the nurturing, loving, contemplative moments that we are told we will experience daily through the spiritual disciplines?

This sounds like work. It sounds soul-wrenching, agonizing, and spiritually surgical? Groaning? Fainting?

Read on to see doubting, complaining, and restlessness.

The psalmist wrestled with his heart in prayer to God. He went deeper. He dug into the rocky soil of his soul and extracted  ... dirt!

But every geologist knows that dirt isn't just dirt. it is minerals and organic material. It is microscopic life. It is nutrients.

You can't grow much of a garden in a sanitized pool of water.

So, the question is: Do you want to grow something inside of you, and thus, grow yourself or do you want to lulled, rocked, and soothed?What do you want from your quiet time? If you meet God, you muight also bump into yourself. There might be a collision. There might even be a transofrmation.

I don't often call it a "quiet time" any more. It is a devotional time. It is "dropping anchor." It is a meeting with God. It is all those things, but it is nbot always quiet within me. I get disturbed, shaken, rattled, and inspired. I also get shaped and encouraged.

Read on. Read the whole psalm. God wins and the psalmist is ultimately comforted and encouraged.

But it wasn't easy.

 

    For the director of music. For Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A psalm. ¹ I cried out to God for help;
   I cried out to God to hear me.
² When I was in distress, I sought the Lord;
   at night I stretched out untiring hands,
   and I would not be comforted.  ³ I remembered you, God, and I groaned;
   I meditated, and my spirit grew faint.
⁴ You kept my eyes from closing;
   I was too troubled to speak.
⁵ I thought about the former days,
   the years of long ago;
⁶ I remembered my songs in the night.
   My heart meditated and my spirit asked:  ⁷ “Will the Lord reject forever?
   Will he never show his favor again?
⁸ Has his unfailing love vanished forever?
   Has his promise failed for all time?
⁹ Has God forgotten to be merciful?
   Has he in anger withheld his compassion?”  ¹⁰ Then I thought, “To this I will appeal:
   the years when the Most High stretched out his right hand.
¹¹ I will remember the deeds of the LORD;
   yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago.
¹² I will consider all your works
   and meditate on all your mighty deeds.”  ¹³ Your ways, God, are holy.
   What god is as great as our God?
¹⁴ You are the God who performs miracles;
   you display your power among the peoples.
¹⁵ With your mighty arm you redeemed your people,
   the descendants of Jacob and Joseph.  ¹⁶ The waters saw you, God,
   the waters saw you and writhed;
   the very depths were convulsed.
¹⁷ The clouds poured down water,
   the heavens resounded with thunder;
   your arrows flashed back and forth.
¹⁸ Your thunder was heard in the whirlwind,
   your lightning lit up the world;
   the earth trembled and quaked.
¹⁹ Your path led through the sea,
   your way through the mighty waters,
   though your footprints were not seen.  ²⁰ You led your people like a flock
   by the hand of Moses and Aaron. (Psalm 77, New International Version, ©2011)

A note; It is Palm Sunday. On the outside, it seemed that everything was affirmative and welcoming for Jesus. i suspect even He enjoyed the moment. But He also knew what lay ahead and that it wasn't going to be an easy week ... but it would be a transforming week ... and what would be acccomplished would change everything forever.

 

Seeking the Peace of the City

⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” (Jeremiah 29:7, New International Version, ©2011)

If only for selfish reasons, let us seek a pray for even the cities where we are exiled.

So often, we have this stranger-exile complex that separates us from the daily concerns of the people of the cities where we dwell. After all, we are "pilgrims and strangers" in the earth, a holy people, a kingdom of priests. All these things we are as God's people, but they are reasons for engagement rather than isolation.

Here is a key phrase:

"... to which I have carried you."

We are here, in this time, in this place, for a purpose higher than we can know.

The cities where we live are our own. Our lives, prosperity, well-being, and peace are intimately interwoven into the same fabric as our neighbor's. We are people of God, but we are also people of the city. Incarnational witness means that we rise or fall with the tide that moves all ships.

We shall transcend and we shall rise, but, in the meantime, we sink or swim with the poor, downtrodden, oppressed, and repressed people around us at every place on the social or economic strata.

All the people around us are our people.

We must seek the peace of the city and pray for it. Notice in the text how seeking comes before praying. This may be merely a literary device or it may be an intentional reminder that the prayers of those engaged in active seeking are more heartfelt, specific, and effective than those of the passive and unconcerned. Our passion arises from our engagement.

Our involvement is our witness as much as and, probably more than, our words. Let us present ourselves to God during this season of Lent, and always, as instruments

through which our prayers for peace can be used to bring shalom to our cities.

“We are a colony of heaven on earth.” (Philippians 3:20a, Moffatt translation)

 

 

" Let the poor and helpless praise you."

 ²⁰ Remember the agreement you made with us,
       because violence fills every dark corner of this land.
 ²¹ Do not let your suffering people be disgraced.
       Let the poor and helpless praise you. (Psalm 74:20-21, New Century Version)

There is this recurring theme in the scripture of justice for the poor.  We are called to be fair and compassionate in our attitudes and actions toward the downtrodden and marginalized. This is the work of God and God works through us. At the same time, there is a theme of acknowledgement that we are all, somehow, in some way, poor ourselves. So, what we wish for them, we wish for ourselves.

This prayer, possibly from the days of exile, intermingles praise and lament in a cry of hope for the oppressed.

Tables turn, sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better. It is crucial that we invest our confidence in what is worthy of our confidence.

Real estate, once thought to only increase in value, can become a bottomless pit of devaluation. Stock markets fluctuate and individual stocks in companies with great assets and greater possibilities, can plummet to near zero. People may fail us; they may move away; they may die. Careers may crumble. Our carefully honed skills may become obsolete. Guarantees made my insolvent guarantors gravitate downward to an abyss of worthless promises.

But there is a covenant that is sustaining and sustainable. There is a guarantor that will never lose power, authority, and ability to remember that covenant of love. There is One who is faithful and whose providence emerges amidst a backdrop of hopelessness to lighten our loads and lift our broken souls. The poor and helpless join the chorus of praise because they are not disgraced.

Violence fills the dark corners of our planet and seeps into hamlets of perceived safety and isolation. There is no isolation from the decadence of our day, only insulation. Our bodies may be bruised; our purses may be emptied; our homes may crumble with our false securities, but the covenant of hope and grace continues because the One who made it is strong and faithful.

Great is God's faithfulness. This season of lent lengthens our perception of the degree to which our God will go to reach us, teach us, and redeem us from destruction. God descends into the darkness and illuminates our spaces and places with abundant graces. Like the psalmist, we are invited to cry our in utter honesty, but also to affirm faith - audacious and irrational - the kind that activates our side of the covenant, reis thy faithfulnesswhich is to receive with gratitude, the gift. of hope.

Great is Thy faithfulness!

 

Just Get on the Bus

It was 1961. Laws were different then. Some were inherently wicked because their sole intent was to keep people down. That is happening all over the world today. Jim Crow had a franchise on the South. Businesses could decide, based upon genetics, whom they would serve and whom they would exclude. To defy these laws and break these barriers was risky. It would require some folks standing together, sitting together, and moving together. It would require some blood, some bruises, some jail, even some death mingled with a lot of uncertainty, much fear, and even more faith.

It would require getting on a bus and riding in the freedom ride to the heart of darkness, deep into Alabama.

There would be joy and singing on the bus, but the looming reality of danger was always present. It would change the lives of those who took the ride, but the courage it took to get on is beyond imagination!

It took a decision. Once the decision was made, that decision informed a person's feet and one got on the bus. Then the bus itself moved the travelers along.

But they had to get on ... and many did.

Recently, an historical researcher asked the question of some students, "Would you have gotten on the bus?"

The answers were mixed.

I heard this report in those moments between sleep and awakening with the news in the background and they startled me to wakefulness. The question was personal and much in line with the season of Lent.

Would I get on the bus?

Will I get on the bus?

Jesus got on the bus.

 ⁵¹And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, (Luke 9:51, King James Version)

What is the bus I need to board today? What sort of courage and resolve will it take? What will be the risks? What will be the joy of it? What songs will I sing? Who will be on the bus to share the ride? What will it change in me?

Will I get on the bus?

Will you?

 

Sufficiency to Abound

^"And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work."   (2 Corinthians 9:8, New International Version, ©2011)

In the KJV, this verse reads that  folks, blessed by God will have "sufficiency in all things" so that they may "abound to every good work."

In these days of perceived deprivation and desperate anxiety over economic concerns, one takes comfort in knowing that God always resources His mission. That includes His calling for you and mission for your life, for His church, for His sacred work in the "secular" arena, and for the totality of His Kingdom enterprise.

"Thy Kingdom come" is shortly followed by, "Give us this day our daily bread."

The sufficiency promised was an assurance given to a group of poor but generous believers whose hearts were touched by the needs of their starving spiritual siblings separated by miles, language, and culture. They begged to give and the Apostle Paul encouraged them that God would supply them with that ability and with their own needs.

In fact, they would abound. Sufficiency is one thing, but abundance is a step beyond.

At energy's end, resource depletion, and the deserts where new ideas are like dry river beds, God is able.

At the end of the road, there is an unexpected bend and the road continues.

At the intersection of hopelessness and despair, there is an encouraging word.

In the pits of despondency, the caves of darkness, and on the very gallows of death, God shows up with something new to renew us.

Lent comes, etymologically, in the lengthening of days when the doors seemed to be closing on the life, mission, and ministry of Jesus - when in reality, His reach was extending. Things are not always as they seem. When our own capacity is spent, God is only beginning to reach into His wallet of possibilities to supply His sufficiency to abound.

My God is Able

 

Killing Birds

Let's start with this: I like birds and I don't want to kill them. So, "killing two birds with one stone" is a metaphor that is unfortunate, but descriptive.

I also like to multitask and I plan certain things in life to maximize effort by combining task and building multiple purposes into one activity.

Yet, it seems, without a primary focus, it is very easy to lose all sense of purpose and the activity itself becomes primary rather than what it is, a tool.

I can't find the word "focus" in the bible translations I normally use, but the word "seek" is very prominent.

So, I have spent some time seeking this morning. It may seem that I've been playing on Facebook and Twitter, but those activities have been peripheral to the primary focus. (I also PRAY on Facebook - I have found it a powerful too-l for intercessory ministry without getting in anyone's face about it).

I am seeking through the things I read, through prayer, through meditation, through what I write, and through thinking. 

I woke up with all of this on my mind because there is so much to do and so little time. Because of the rush, I felt led and compelled to slow down and build this space into my day. I am expecting lots of birds to fall - poor little birds.

I am not sure we often have the luxury of doing one thing at as time with full concentration. When those times come, savor them and embrace them. In the meantime, we need to focus on the primary and include the peripheral. That is life.

Take comfort, birds, I am not going to kill you. It is just an unfortunate expression.

In the meantime, we have to find the One thing of the moment and let that be our compass.

 

 

 

 

Repent or Die

 ¹ Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”  ⁶ Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. ⁷ So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’    ⁸ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” (Luke 13:1-9, New International Version, ©2011)

Jesus is confronted with the deaths of some people that His countrymen assumed were evil. They wanted to know if it was God’s judgment. He read the intent of their questions and replied that they were no worse sinners than the other Galileans, but cautioned the folks that unless they changed their living and thinking (repentance), they would die like the others.

Notice how he is always personalizing things, taking the onus off of the “other guy” and bringing it back to our choices.

Then He ups the ante and refers to some very fine people who had died. The question is rhetorical. Of course these did not have tragedy come into their lives because they were worse sinners than anyone else. That is not the meaning of tragedy – then or now.

Trouble comes to everyone, sometimes it just seems random.

Again, He points back to them with a life lesson – Indeed, however, lack of change (movement, repentance, elasticity in our lives) will lead to death. Here, He refers to death in the spiritual dimension whether He is referring to a last judgment or just to death for all intents and purposes in this life. In either and both cases, the loss is great to ourselves and to others who would benefit from our living. Above all, as He will indicate, the loss is greatest to god Himself.

REPENTANCE:

R – Resiliency in the face of tragedy.

E – Effort extended when ease is expected.

P – Progress when it is easier to sit, wait, and let the world pass you by.

E - Exiting the arena of negative habits and entering the realm of new possibilities.

N – Nagging the part of ourselves that drifts into routine ruts of negative thinking.

T – Tickling and teasing our thinking so that we are always moving to the edge.

A – Accepting diversity and ambiguity as part of life.

N – Noticing the changes around us as the signs that call for adjustments of our courses and the urges through which God may be speaking.

C – Calling on God in confession and contrition for constant conversion to His image and purposes.

E – Ever energizing ourselves in the power of the Holy Spirit to be stirred, moved, disturbed and empowered to LIVE (opposite of DIE!) as people who make a difference …

OR .. we can …

DIE – We can die through …

D – Decline. We just die a little at a time, drifting away from the source of life and vitality into a dark abyss of disconnected despair.

I – Inactivity, irrelevance, inertia, or inward focus. These sap our lives in an endless loop of selfish hum-drum-ness.

E – Extinction of all that makes us alive to God, ourselves, and others.

BUT – Then He tells us a parable of a farmer and a fig tree. The fig tree story reminds us that God takes no joy in our death and has not given up on us. He is extremely reluctant to do so and stalls to give us ample opportunity to find the place of repentance (life and mind change).

We can change or die, but to change is far better. The resources are available. The grace is free. The power is abundant. The choice is ours … daily.

Hard Times

Hard times are creeping all over.

Everyone looking for a four leafed clover.

Life as we know it isn't so easy.

Verses like this getting mighty cheesy,

Days are long. Rewards come slowly.

More time to waste, less time to be holy.

Everywhere I go, huddled masses huddling

Folks talking about hard times and muddling.

They're just trying to make it, fake it,

Shake it, bake it, and rake it in.

Preoccupation with lack of occupation

Lots of people on a forced vacation.

Where two are three assembled be

There's an "Ain't It Awful" assemble-ly.

(or a discussion of the economy

with a large dose of "woe-is-me")

Here's the challenge as I see it play out.

And you can either agree of call it way out.

When hard times come, we can let them define us ...

Or ... we can lean in, leap forward, and let them refine us.

( http://youtu.be/4n9mCcpatig )

Isaiah 48:10
"See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction."

 

 

 

Stumbling onto Humility

Yesterday, I wrote about foolishness ... the good kind and the bad kind.

I posed the question, "What kind of fool am I?"

I feel most foolish when I make pronouncements, applications, and pontifications on faulty premises that time, memory, and mush have mixed into one cognitive soup that has hardened into a slab of concrete assumption over the years.

It is the dark side of getting older and wiser.

Alas, I have become my own illustration and I find it humbling.

Indeed, I did become pastor of my current church on April 1, 1996. Indeed it was April Fool's Day. Not so indeed, it was not Easter Sunday. That was a week later. Thanks to a new friend for pointing this out. Thanks to wonderful internet sources for confirming it.

I am humbled. I didn't seek humility. I stumbled onto it. I suppose that is a good thing.

Apologies.

 

Proverbs 11:2
"When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." (New International Version (c) 2011)

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hTAPhfiNjVo" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> 

April Fools

It is April 1, 2011. That means it has been 15 years to the day since I became officially the pastor of Baptist Temple, now the Fellowship of Joy and 4141 Ministries in Fresno, CA.

It was Easter Sunday, but it has never escaped my attention that it was also April Fool's Day.

Proverbs 1:7b says, " fools despise wisdom and instruction."

I am not there, and I have not said in my heart that there is no God.

So, what kind of fool am I (Not even considering the possibility that those who invited me were ... no, not that!)?

Of course, I have also read these:

 1 Corinthians 3:18 “Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.” 1 Corinthians 3:19  “ For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.”

1 Corinthians 4:10 “We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.”

And then, there is, II Corinthians 11:16, "I say again, let no man think me a fool ..."

The deal is that there is foolishness and then, there is foolishness. We want to shun moral-ethical foolishness and willful ignorance and avoidance of knowledge and counsel. We do well to embrace wisdom and pursue understanding.

What we can't afford to care about is the evaluation of the masses, especially if the masses are wearing glasses of distortion, limited thinking, and extreme conventional "wisdom" that discourages all innovation, introspection, and reflection.

I am OK with any implication that April Fool's Day marks my anniversary in Fresno and defines some dimension of my ministry if what is really being said is that I make it difficult to enforce categories on myself and the work of the kingdom here. No problem. If that is what it is, fine ...

But I'd do well to keep everything under constant evaluation.