Sometimes You Just Know...

My wife and I played dominoes with our friends Arnott & Jennifer last night.  That fact alone has nothing to do with this writing; however, while we were playing it came to a point in the game where we had to keep drawing a domino until we got the right one.  There was a lone domino off by itself and I made the comment…”this is the one right here”.  I turned it over and the revelation that I was correct made me feel like I was clairvoyant or something.  You know how it is sometimes when you feel like you just “know”?  Now the truth is that I had probably guessed before and got it wrong…but the last time was definitely my most certain claim.

Sometimes we just know.  We know that someone isn’t telling us the truth.  We know what the outcome of a situation will be.  We know what someone will say before they say it.  We know the next song before it starts playing on the radio.  The person we are thinking about happens to call at that precise moment.  I can’t explain it but I am certain that these phenomena have happened on more than one occasion to every child and adult.  I don’t think it all that strange or spooky when you think about it though.  With the thousands and millions of thoughts occurring within our mind everyday….how could we not have this happen occasionally?

Today’s passage in 1 Corinthians 2:9-13 is about discovering God’s plan and action within our individual lives as well as what He is doing in the world around us.  Our physical senses can’t pick up on such things and teaching can’t convey it to our hearts and minds.  All we can do is stand on the Scriptures as God has been pleased to reveal them to us. My friend Rick is always quick to point out the necessity for being in the Word of God for this very reason. 

As Christ-followers, we are not guided by worldly principals.  We aren’t solely directed by what our five senses can perceive and by what our minds can understand.  We are guided by the Spirit living within us who knows the mind of God.  Are we in tune with the distinct person of the Holy Spirit?  Do we give heed to what He impresses upon us even when it doesn’t make sense to us?  Most importantly…do we know Him as is only possible by what He has revealed to our own hearts?

To Kill a Swallow...

When I was about 12 years old, I went and spent the day with my friend, Jeff.  Jeff lived out in the country and his dad had an old dusty barn that probably more closely resembled a shop with old equipment in it.  What would a barn be without swallows?  They hated these small birds because of the mess they would leave over everything.

I don’t recall if my friend and I actually had his parents’ blessing to go out and try to shoot the birds or not.  My guess is that where there are 12 year old boys, pesky birds and a BB gun…well, you should have no problems drawing a proper conclusion.

Jeff and I alternately took turns drawing a bead on one of these tiny birds up in the rafters.  Not an easy shot at such a small target over your head and 20+ feet away.  We tried and tried and eventually the inevitable happened, one came fluttering down in a heap.  The bird was not dead, just wounded and scared.

It was amazing how quickly my aggression turned to remorse.  Everybody knows what it is like to suddenly wish that they could turn the clock back a few seconds and take back the action or words that have escaped from their person.  The reality of what I’d done made me kind of sick in my heart and I felt dirty and ashamed.  I had been caught up in the excitement of the moment but in my heart I knew better.  The hardest part of the experience was that we had to complete the job.  We couldn’t leave the bird like that and the right thing to do now was to put the delicate creature out of its misery.  I’ll spare you the details.

1 Corinthians 2:6-8 reminded me of that day in the barn where I realized that I hadn’t thought through the consequences of my actions.  So it was with the rulers that crucified Jesus.  I wonder when it hit them that they had made the gravest mistake of not only their lives but of human history?

Is the gravity of their actions really so unlike our own?  We may not have literally been the ones to crucify Christ, but how often do we wound Him and cause Him pain and sadness by our sin?  Stranger yet is that we know better.  It’s pretty hard to get self-righteous when we prove time and again that our understanding is no better than theirs.

Like a Gerbil...

I decided pretty early on that I would never want to write for a newspaper or periodical.  I figured that always living under a deadline would give me an ulcer.  So what do I do?  I go into an occupation that requires multiple deadlines every week.  I didn’t get an ulcer in my stomach but I sometimes think I would rather have the physical pain of a stomach ulcer than the pain of a mental ulcer.  For a guy who appears to others as never having a shortage of words…I have to confess that I feel like I’m exhausted.  Not physically—that would require labor, which my hands can attest to the lack of since they don’t have many calluses right now.  What I don’t do in physical exercise, I think I more than make up for in my time on the mental gerbil wheel…always running but never arriving.

 
When I first started teaching on a weekly basis some 23 years ago, the most overwhelming and difficult thing for me to deal with was that constant deadline week after week.  As soon as I would finish teaching a Sunday school class, I would have about 30 seconds of relief before I began stressing over the “what am I going to do next” question that grips every new teacher.  Yeah right…new teacher…I’ve been doing this for almost a quarter of a century and I’m still prone to that weekly panic attack.  This is especially true when I happen to hit a “home run” message because I always ask the very same day, “How am I going to top that?”

You’ve just received an insight into what I believe to be part of most every speaker’s, teacher’s or writer’s psyche.  1 Corinthians 2:1-5 speaks directly to this but I’m honestly frustrated by its simplicity.  Simplicity implies ease yet I’ve never experienced anything easy about this weekly rollercoaster of thrill and terror.

It isn’t easy to do what Paul said of himself.  He says that when he came to the church in Corinth, he had one message…Jesus and the cross.  It is interesting to note that this one message caused God to show up in power to the hearers.  It wasn’t good illustrations, clever analogies, well-delivered points of doctrine or even a hip and happening worship band.  It was a very simple message about something we’ve grown mostly tired of hearing.  As someone who has tried really hard to get better at speaking over the years, it is hard to admit that all of that hard work really doesn’t matter in the bigger picture.  The truth is this…if God doesn’t show up when I open my mouth, it is better that I just keep it shut.  Simple?  Yes.  Easy?  No.  If we want to avoid running on the wheel to nowhere, our only course of action is to rely on a demonstration of God’s power and not our own.

Pick me! Pick me!

Last night we had a church board meeting.  These aren’t typically an example of what one thinks of when one thinks of intense, high action, adrenaline rush experiences…and that’s okay.  I’ve been in board meetings that had all of that and though they might be memorable, they weren’t at all fun.

At this particular board meeting, we were required to undertake the annual responsibility of voting the officers and the portfolio’s upon the different board members.  It is a very routine process and there are generally not many surprises in the way it turns out.  I’ve been involved in this process for several years now and the roles seem to turn out the way I figured they would even without exercising any influence.  We all seem to have a general sense of the best fits.

Something about the process amused me last night though.  I wasn’t surprised by anything except once.  I was surprised by the sense of child-like gratification that I felt when I was chosen to be the Vice-Chairman again.  I figured that was probably the best fit and I would have been surprised had I not been nominated for that.  The amusement was that I felt like I was on the playground again.  We’ve all been there right?  Growing up, I don’t recall being the first one picked very often…unless I was in 6^th grade and we were choosing teams against a bunch of 2^nd graders (what one will do for an ego boost!).  Everyone knows what that inner turmoil is like when you are left wondering if you’ll be the last man standing in the lineup.

I was actually caught off guard by how liberating and uplifting it is to be chosen.  That is why today’s passage in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31 really stood out to me.  In these few verses, we are told no less than three times that God chose us.  Sure, you’ve heard that God chose you…pat yourself on the back.  Let’s look again though…did you ever catch what He chose?  It says that He chose the foolish, weak, lowly, and despised.

You know where we get tripped up?  We try to think in the past tense about these verses.  We think something like, “God called me when I was foolish and weak…but look at what He has made  me into now!”  BZZZZT--Wrong answer.  My Bible doesn’t tell me that I’ve stopped being foolish, weak, lowly, and despised.  Yes, I am certainly a different person now than when God first called me…because I wasn’t even a person when that happened.  It tells us here in no uncertain terms that the only reason I know Christ is because of God.  I did NOTHING.  I wasn’t in some celestial line-up raising my hand like Arnold Horshack saying “Ooo…Ooo…Pick me! Pick me!”  God chose me before I even knew about a choice.  I did nothing to merit His favor.  I wasn’t skilled.  I wasn’t beautiful.  I had no redeeming qualities.

“Well Donnie, that isn’t very uplifting.”  Oh yes it is!  In comparison to Christ, regardless of our great faith or non-existent faith…we are all foolish, weak and lowly.  Think about it…if we think we aren’t foolish, weak and lowly then we are full of pride…proving that we are indeed foolish.  The difference between our lowly humility and foolish pride is perspective.  Who do we think we are?  We can either boast in ourselves or we can have the correct perspective and boast in the Lord for His gracious choice of us...and live accordingly.

King of Fools...

As I look back on the last 15 years that I’ve been pastoring…I quickly recognize the seasons and shiftings of my approach to faith and ministry.  I started out with the destination of holiness…and a “don’t spare the horses” mentality.  I had a single track mind that was convinced that there was only one way to engage the culture and that was head-on.  Gee…that worked well.  It didn't work because holiness is wrong, but because I wasn’t holy.  I was judgmental, prideful, ignorant and an island unto myself…even if my intentions were good.

Ten years ago, I entered into my first recognizable shift when I came to Gresham.  I began to soften and see the bride of Christ for what she is…lost, confused and without clear direction as to what would restore her.  I was still judgmental and prideful but I wasn’t as ignorant to the plight of the church any longer.  I saw the need but didn’t know who I was or how to engage a generation of young people.

Five years ago, I found myself shifting again.  I felt like a fish out of water because I found myself embracing a postmodern mind set that I couldn’t really explain if I had to.  I just knew that everything that I had been trying, who I thought I was…wasn’t engaging the world of church ministry that I was immersed in.  Amazing, relational things were happening all around me in my regular life, but church ministry felt dead.  I was ready to throw in the towel and follow Jesus back into Frito-Lay and my community...except that wasn't where God would have me just yet.

Today’s passage in 1 Corinthians 1:I8-25 really resonates with the journey I’ve been on.  I spent about 10 years of ministry trying to convince the world that I wasn’t a nerdy Christian.  A lot of what I was about was trying to convince myself and the world around me that I could be a cool Christian.  Now my shift seems to have come full circle…the only difference is me.  I’m still trying to work out my holiness but the last 15 years have emblazoned one thing upon my heart and spirit and I embrace it completely…and it will really bother some in the church.  The greatest thing I can strive for is to be the King of Fools.

There, I said it…and it was very freeing.  God uses foolishness to confound the wise.  God uses weakness to supplant the strong.  I will happily be considered a weak fool in God’s eyes if that is where He can best use me.

Some drive me crazy...

Perhaps one should get out more if they have yet to hear the simile cliché of “Opinions are like armpits (butts, feet, garlic breath)…everybody has them and they all stink.”  This is only true if the opinion happens to differ from your own opinion.  Woe to the one who shares a different opinion and is vocal about it.

Today’s passage of 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 reveals that hard and fast opinion has gotten in the way of the harmony that God intended for His church.  Things appeared to have escalated from simple preference to abrasive and personal offense between factions.  That would sound absurd if it wasn’t so evident in the church of the 21^st Century…of which we are all a part.

Case in point, if you were to search the internet for a very brief time, you could discover quickly that there are a lot of websites dedicated to diatribes about spiritual leaders.  These writings and videos range from everyday contrariness to outright venom…and it seems that the majority would fall closer to the latter category.  I find it strange that some would dedicate such an inordinate amount of time loudly trying to prove the heresy of a fellow Christian teacher (who coincidentally always seems to be more “successful”).  If only they would use their influence to preach the message of the cross so boldly.  Yes, I believe that false teaching should be called false teaching.  Let’s leave it at that though.

There are some teachers, preachers, pastors, evangelists that drive me crazy.  I can’t listen to them for more than a minute or two before I really want to move on to something else.  I’m sure they are wonderful men (or women) who love the Lord with all of their heart…but their style is outside of my ability to engage and receive.  Their style doesn’t line up with my personal preference.  Case in point, I recently went to a conference that all of the speakers were really good but the one that most resonated with me wasn’t the one that resonated with the others.  The one that I like was extremely conversational in style…most like me…go figure that he was the one I liked the best.

Some really like the extremely passionate, shouting, old-school, fire and brimstone, slow sing-songing while enunciating that last consonant before adding “uh”…i.e. “Go-duh see-suh wha-tuh is i-nuh your hear-tuh!” (Most readers spent the time to work that last sentence out in their heads but now know what I’m talking about.)  That is categorically NOT my preference, my opinion of good preaching.  On the other hand, there are many in our church (if they stuck around) that would give their left arm for me to have that style.

God made us so different and I think we often get caught up in our differentness to the point that we think the way that we are as individuals must be the right way.  No…just different.  Have we become like those believers in the Corinthian church who began to identify with different camps to the point of not being able to receive God’s truth because of the medium through which He is speaking?  Ouch, I just nailed myself.

You gotta love em!

Some of my favorite people in the world are new Christians.  They remind me of all the years I spent working in Junior High ministry.  You tell a Junior Higher to run through a wall and they'll try it.  You tell a Junior Higher that they just need to run at it harder...and they'll try that too.

I love the passion and excitement that I find in new Christians.  It is so refreshing because it seems that the longer I am in church, the more dour the overall atmosphere tends to be.  New believers are the life blood of the church. Show me a church that lacks focus for new believers and I'll show you a church that is dying a slow, painful death.

In today’s passage (I Corinthians 1:4-9) Paul talks about how thankful he is for what he sees in these believers that he was responsible for.  Despite their problems and their immaturity, they have everything they need to grow to maturity.  God had already implanted every spiritual gift in order to catapult them to growth and successful maturity.

I think we tend to undervalue the new believer.  We tend to disregard their zealousness and fervor because they don't have a lot of head knowledge yet.  Because they can't recite the spiritual laws or know the "Roman's Road" by heart we discount their ability to be used.  Obviously Scriptural knowledge must happen, but it isn't to be placed on a higher pedestal than the Holy Spirit living within each believer.

I have a friend at church that has been saved maybe six or eight months.  Yet she has jumped into serving and mentoring and being used in the gifts that God has given her.  She is tearing it up in the spiritual realm.  Most significant to me personally is that she is one of our greatest encouragers, shaming this Christian of almost 40 years!

Wouldn't it be interesting if we did church differently?  Instead of making people prove their "faithfulness" by sitting in the pew for several years, we immediately release them in partnership with other Christians to begin serving.  Instead of making new believers run through this man-made obstacle course to ministry...we show them the goal line and let them start running?