Important

^15-17Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity

. 1 John 2:15-17 The Message

The word of God truly does cut like a double-edge sword. I read this passage today and was cut to the quick. So much of what of I do, is motivated by a desire to appear important.
As much as it stings, I really needed this message this morning. Lately, I have been feeling like God is just not there, so to have Him speak to me through His word, even words of rebuke, is comforting.

Victory??

From The Traveler’s Gift by Andy Andrews:

“I will persist without exception. I will continue despite exhaustion. I acknowledge that most people quit when exhaustion sets in. I am not “most people.” I am stronger than most people. Average people accept exhaustion as a matter of course. I do not. Average people compare themselves with other people. That is why they are average. I compare myself to my potential. I am not average. I see exhaustion as a precursor to victory.”

Usually a quote like this pumps me up but these are not usual times. If the quote is true, I must be on the verge of winning some kind of Olympic medal.

The space of God

I never realized it before but God will use our circumstances, good and bad; our relationships, edifying and toxic, to create space in us that he wants to fill. Each of the conditions listed in the beatitudes creates a space in us, that if we allow Him to, God will gladly fill. Too often, way too often, I try to fill those spaces on my own.

He said:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Matthew 5:3-12

123 Meme

Ed, over at cross the road, tagged me. So here goes:

Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
Find Page 123.
Find the first 5 sentences.
Post the next 3 sentences.
Tag 5 people.

No cheating, Ed said, so from the book closest to me at this moment, The Ryrie Study bible, NASV, red letter:

All the people perceived the thunder and the lightning flashes and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, "Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we will die." Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you may not sin."So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick cloud where God was.

If there are still five of you reading this blog consider yourselves tagged.

Be Careful what you ask for

Late last week and in the early part of this week my prayers focused on servant hood. Specifically, I prayed that I could be more of servant to my wife and kids. That said, Jared, the younger Kayos kid, came down with a case of the pukes while at school on Monday. His older brother Jake, came down with a nasty flu-like virus on Tuesday. By Wednesday, Jared shook the pukes and was back at school. Come Thursday morning the kid had a 103 temp and had caught whatever Jake had and was home for the duration of the week. Jake made it back to school for Friday. Meanwhile, Gail was getting slammed with school work as she pursues her masters. Yikes...I didn't really have a choice, serving was my only option.
The previous week I had been praying for opportunities to share God's love with someone who might need it. Out of the blue a casual acquaintance, and I do mean casual, like I met the dude once, casual, emailed me, asking if we could talk. It turned out he had a pretty crappy couple of weeks and a friend suggested he call me. So he did. We hung out a bit, traded some emails and are supposed to get together again. Someone who was hurting tracked me down. Again, I didn't really have a choice.
Every once in a while I will drift through these "Does prayer really do anything?" phases. I'm glad God isn't above smacking me in the back of the head to get my attention.

Jesus was matter-of-fact: "Embrace this God-life. Really embrace it, 23 and nothing will be too much for you. This mountain, for instance: Just say, "Go jump in the lake'--no shuffling or shilly-shallying--and it's as good as done. 24 That's why I urge you to pray for absolutely everything, ranging from small to large. Include everything as you embrace this God-life, and you'll get God's everything. Mark 11:22-26

Things I'm learning

a few things I have been learning lately:

discipline leads to desire
This one I am learning by getting it right.


obedience leads to peace
This one I am learning by getting it wrong.

Christmas Bumblings

This year's Kayos Christmas was great. Here are the Highlights:

Christmas highlight #1: I was finishing clean-up after our 6:00 Pm service this past Sunday and the band started rehearsing their Christmas eve songs. Everyone else had left. I sat down in the back row and just listened. Audrey, Kris and Heidi sounded amazing as their voices filled the sanctuary. I felt the Spirit of God move through our building as the three of them sang.

Christmas highlight #2: We hosted this year's Middle School Christmas party at our house. R. was the last student to leave. I have spent the last three years trying to make her laugh, say hello to me, something, anything. R. was having a conversation with one of our female leaders so I plopped my self down on the couch, next to them. R. looks at me and says, "So TK, let me ask you a question." And we proceeded to have a 15 minute conversation. The first of hopefully many. That may not sound like much but that was my Christmas miracle. It was a huuuuuggggge thing for her to engage me in conversation.

Christmas Highlight #3. December 26th, around 7:00 am, Jared, my six year old, sits alone, in the dark, on the living room sofa with his new optimus prime transformer. Gail comes out and sits down with him. He looks at the aftermath of the Christmas celebration around him then he looks at her and says in reference to our Christmas day festivities, " that party rocked!"

Here's hoping your Christmas highlights were many and your Christmas miracles amazing.

Peace and prayers in the new year to you,

Living Victoriously

Sometimes, unfortunately more often than not, we who call ourselves Christ followers, can be a whiny, negative bunch. We forget that we play on the winning team. How great is that? No matter how badly a particular at bat, or series of downs or single race may go, the whole shootin' match has already been won.

We need to live like that. Not with a cocky swagger or worldly bravado but with a confidence in the victory that Christ gained on the cross. What would our daily lives look like? How would our relationships change? Whose life would we impact?

I have recently talked to some folks who have given up on fights because they are too hard; relational, emotional stuff that is just easier left alone. Too hard? Man up and fight the good fight!!

For me living victoriously has recently meant looking forward to each day because it is a chance to participate in the victory, a chance to live like a recipient of ridiculous grace and undeserved mercy. I don't think it's about being overly optimistic or having my head stuck in the sand. For me, it has been more about if there is fight let's fight it hard, if there is a celebration let's celebrate with everything we have. If there is loss, let's grieve the loss, cherish the memory, and what was, by moving on with character.

What would it look like for you live victoriously?

Church through a visitor's eyes

Guest blogger David Zimmerman, wrote a series on Church from a visitor's perspective, over at Church Marketing sucks.com. His third installment made me think of few church visits Gail and I have made.

Gail and I went to a big church right in the middle of town when we first moved to Arkansas. We liked the service and the teaching and all that good stuff. When we finally found the adult Sunday school we were obviously the only ones who didn’t know everyone else in the class. Not even the person running class said hello or introduced him self. We felt like we interrupted a personal conversation. It was quite frankly horrible. We didn’t go back.

The week after that we went to a much smaller church. The wall behind the altar was floor to ceiling windows. The altar boys stood with their backs to the windows. About half way through the service four birds started what appeared to be a strafing run right at the altar windows. Three of them pulled up but one must have not seen the window. It flew straight into window right at the height of one of the altar boys head's. The kid jumped about three feet. I don't think anyone else in the place saw it but I did and I laughed my silly rear-end off. Unfortunately that was the highlight of our experience there. We didn't go back.

Then there was the quaint little episcopal church on Cape Cod. We were by far the youngest people there, 30 something. During their announcements they asked any visitors to stand up. I wasn't going to stand but Gail elbowed me and we both stood. The ushers appeared from the back and handed us what appeared to be a loaf of aluminum foil. It turned out to be a loaf of somewhat stale cranberry bread. It was a nice gesture but not worth the discomfort of having to stand up in front of strangers. We didn't go back.

We went to this one church that met in a high school auditorium at the recommendation of a friend. I wanted to boogie as soon as the service was over. But someone stopped us and said hello, made some small talk, and introduced us to someone else. We went back a couple of more times. Someone invited us to dinner with some other young families from the church. We went back a few more times. And a few more after that and a few more after that. Eight years later we are still there.

Just in case you tend to be a little cynical, much like myself, we attended Crossroads for two years before I went on staff. This whole thing could sound a little self pimping that is not my intent. Crossroads is not without its faults but welcoming folks into our community is not one of them.

Looking back on it, and this isn't rocket surgery (yeah that's what I meant to write) it wasn't the preaching or music or children's program that led us to our church home. It was people who took an interest in us. And it wasn't obligatory faux interest either. No, the folks at Crossroads were actually interested in who we were and what God was doing in our lives.

What are your experiences, good, bad or ugly, with visiting churches?

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Discontent

There is within me, a discontent. I cannot label it or quantify it. I cannot point to a person and say you are the source of this dissonance within me. Nor can I view an event through the 20/20 eyes of hindsight and say there "it" is, the source of my frustration.

At the same time this discontent feels somehow holy. It feels right. It has driven me deep into thought. The thoughts have begun to drive me into areas of prayer not before encountered.

I want this discontent to stop. I want this discontent to last.

Good stuff out there

While my writing is sporadic as it has ever been, I have kept up on my blog reading and there is some good stuff out there. Here are some recent finds:

New (or new to me) Blogs: Reforming Students, The Gospel Driven Church

Church Marketing Sucks has a new series that is proving thought provoking to me: Church from a visitor's perspective

Erin at Biscotti Brain offers a review of Red Letters: Living a faith the Bleeds I think this one will be on my next amazon order.

Woot.com is an online store and community that focuses on selling cool stuff cheap., their words, which are pretty accurate. They have partnered up with yahoo to form Sellout.woot.com

I'm home

I'm home after a great summer of traveling.


We had amazing short-term missions experience with some high school folks in Mahanoy City, Pa.











We had a great outdoor adventure with High school and middle school folks in the Adirondacks led by the outstanding guides from Pathway Outfitters.














I even got to spend some time away with my family at the beach. We rested, relaxed, camped, swam, mini-golfed, played baseball and I actually played golf. Thanks to the generosity of friends and family Gail and I got night away on our own.




In the midst of that hustle and bustle we also had time to read, and be quiet and still. So I came home from vacation having made one fairly profound realization and with a question to ponder. More on those later.

All and all, it was an excellent summer.

a little too much Personality

I took the Meyers-Briggs thing as part of my pre-marital counseling some 13 years ago. I'm a little less schizophrenic than I used to be.

As far as the multiple intelligence thing goes I'm not sure what to make of it. Kinesthetic thing makes perfect sense. but the musical thing.....idk...I love music, mostly listening to it. I can play guitar and read music but my ability to do either of those are limited.

I think if one were to spend some time with this it could prove beneficial from a self-discovery standpoint, especially if you have never taken Meyers-Briggs or anything like that. I think I might have my leadership team thake this test and share their results to help us understand each other a little better



What about you do have any personality?

ht to len for the link to this site

Great Photo Essay from Time magazine

Time magazine has a great photo essay exploring what the world eats in an average week and how much it costs. What do you think these photos and numbers would say from your neighborhood?

Be with me

Strong outside in
I labor & struggle and work
I put on a game face
I stumble, I fall, I crash
Be with me
You are with me
Strong inside out
My face becomes a reflection
albeit a poor one of you
You push, you guide, you lead
You shape, you form, you sculpt
Be with me
You are with me
Strong inside and out
To stand, to reach, to fight
My face is the way you intended it to be
Be with me
You are with me

Oh My randomness!!!

I heard the words today that I have been waiting for eight years to hear.

From my eight year old son Jake: "Dad can we watch sportscenter?" No joke, I actually got a little misty eyed. My boy is growing up.

I hesitate to write this but here goes. Once you put something in writing it's real. I have toyed around with making a new commitment. I would like to be in better shape at 40 than I was at 20. Yikes I wrote it. There it is. To help down this path I found this "jogcast." It's basically a trainer in your ear via an mp3 player with some surprisingly decent tunes as a soundtrack. "Run now," "walk now," "cool down now." A very manageable program designed to have you comfortably running 5k, 3x a week after 8 weeks.

I really enjoy background music when I am writing, studying, catching up on administrivia. For me, the key to background music is no or minimal vocals. There is a ton of music in this genre. I have been mostly into Trip-Hop and ambient stuff. The problem being my wife finds it creepy. I recently bumbled across the band This will destroy you.
I bought their album young mountain after listening to a couple of tunes online. I am really enjoying it and the wife has given it the non-creepy seal of approval.

Memorial Day Parade

Our little community of faith has been in it's new location for 6 months now. We are finally getting settled. By getting settled, I mean taking advantage of the new locale. We are on Main St about a block down from the town hall.
Every year the memorial day parade runs down Main St and goes right in front of the building we now share. There is a beautiful front lawn edge with Azaelas. People will drop chairs off on the side of the road at 9:00 am to save a prime spot for the parade. Many families with little kids will show up an hour and a half early to get a good spot where the kids can see everything and catch the candy thrown by the brownies or little leage or local firefighters marching by.



We thought we would offer free face painting and games for the kids and free lemonade and water for whoever might be thirsty. I did I mention it was free. I was really pleased with everything. The parents, from the community, who brought their children seemed relieved to have something do with the kiddos. And we went through 10 gallons of lemonade and 5 gallons of water. My hope and prayer is this is just the first of many times we can serve the community from our new diggs.

Alternative Social Ethic

Alternative Social Ethic--This is a phrase used by the authors of Colossians: remixed to describe one lens through which to view the bible. That is to say, a calling toward an alternative social ethic is one of the recurring themes present from the creation account, to Jesus' birth to birth of the first christian communities. This represents a call away from securing peace and prosperity, or as Walsh and Keesmat write, "fruitfulness and Shalom," through military and economic conquest. On a personal level, this means, not giving into the notion that the source of peace and prosperity is the empire; Rome, Washington, Wall Street, the mall.

So how do we live within the empire and yet not be shaped by it? Better yet how do we go about implementing an alternative social ethic? What does the concept of an alternative social ethic do to our relationships, our calendars and our checkbooks?



colossians remixed

point of re-entry

I have obviously been absent from the blogosphere for a while. Trying to develop some sort of Godly rhythm to my life and blogging just wasn't fitting into that rhythm. Here is my attempt at a healthy re-entry.

I have spent quite a bit of time reading and studying the book of Colossians lately. I picked up a copy of Colossians Remixed by Brian Walsh ans Sylvia C Keesmaat to supplement my reading. This quote really jumped out at me:

What god do you want? And on whose terms will you accept this god? You see the danger of wanting god, without being willing to allow this god to speak in a voice that is radically other to our own voice, is that the god we end up with is like any other consumer product we take off the shelf. p34

I have been noodling that one around for a while. For me, I think I have definitely been guilty of accepting only the parts of God that suit me at a particular time. I'm guilty of "shopping God" to me my needs. If any of you are still checking back here, what do you think?

Live differently

I want to live differently
differently than I did yesterday
say one thing, do another.
I want to live differently
differently from the world around me
that has everything but wants more.
I want to live differently
differently, like I believe in things
like grace and truth.
I want to live differently
differently like there is something bigger
than me and my needs.
I want to live differently.