As the journey began, everything seemed to be falling into place. I met former employees of South who could only say good things about the church. I preached at South and felt completely at home. And, we sold out house in 5 days! All of these things and more served as confirmation for us that we were indeed following the Lord. Things seemed to be falling into place in miraculous ways. Our was due to close on May 30th and we were driving to Colorado on June 1. The timing couldn’t have been better. And then, the rug got pulled out from under us…

I got a phone call that telling us that (because of the type of loan our buyers had) our house appraised for $20k less than what we sold it for. Devastating! All of the timing that we were praising God for was out the window. The fact that we were actually going to walk away with some money in our packet, non-existent. The ease of timing, a thing of the past. One of the hardest parts of the past few days has been wrestling with the reality that so many of the things that we viewed as confirmation from God that we had made the right decision had vanished into thin air. To be quite honest, I was left reeling – emotionally, physically, and spiritually. I started to get chest pains and this morning I had to take my once-a-decade voyage to the doctor to make sure everything was ok. Luckily my EKG revealed that nothing was wrong – I guess I’m just stressed out.

There are a few things that I have learned from the rug being pulled out from under me:

1. It’s easy to worship the “rug.” That transition  happens so subtly in us. God blesses us with good things and slowly our allegiance gets tied to the gifts rather than the giver.
2. I have to remember that decision making is more about following the call of the Holy Spirit rather the signs of things falling into place exactly the way that I want them to. Undoubtedly God is using this situation to shape me more into the image of Jesus.
3. I have to constantly strive to remember that my sufficiency is in God. Should he give me nothing else, he has already given me enough. He is good, and he is for me.

And so, even in the trial and the storm I will remember that he hasn’t changed. He is good and I will cling to Him.

Totally like whatever, you know?
by Taylor Mali

In case you hadn’t noticed,
it has somehow become uncool
to sound like you know what you’re talking about?
Or believe strongly in what you’re saying?
Invisible question marks and parenthetical (you know?)’s
have been attaching themselves to the ends of our sentences?
Even when those sentences aren’t, like, questions? You know?

Declarative sentences—so-­‐called
because they used to, like, DECLARE things to be true, okay,
as opposed to other things are, like, totally, you know, not—
have been infected by a totally hip
and tragically cool interrogative tone? You know?
Like, don’t think I’m uncool just because I’ve noticed this;
this is just like the word on the street, you know?
It’s like what I’ve heard?
I have nothing personally invested in my own opinions, okay?
I’m just inviting you to join me in my uncertainty?

What has happened to our conviction?
Where are the limbs out on which we once walked?
Have they been, like, chopped down
with the rest of the rain forest?
Or do we have, like, nothing to say?
Has society become so, like, totally . . .
I mean absolutely . . . You know?
That we’ve just gotten to the point where it’s just, like . . .
whatever!

And so actually our disarticulation . . . ness
is just a clever sort of . . . thing
to disguise the fact that we’ve become
the most aggressively inarticulate generation
to come along since . . .
you know, a long, long time ago!

I entreat you, I implore you, I exhort you,
I challenge you: To speak with conviction.

To say what you believe in a manner that bespeaks
the determination with which you believe it.
Because contrary to the wisdom of the bumper sticker,
it is not enough these days to simply QUESTION AUTHORITY.
You have to speak with it, too.

A few weeks ago I preached at a church in San Diego and they were having a baptism service. They wanted the message I gave to have something to do with baptism, so I was brushing up a bit on the theological reality of our inclusion in Christ that baptism beautifully symbolizes. One of the verses that always comes to the forefront of my mind in regards to baptism is romans 6:3-5. It reads,

3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection.

The Holy Spirit stared to burrow into my soul the reality that today I have an invitation to live a new life. The truth is that I have been included in his death on the cross AND I have been included in his resurrection from the dead. I think we are comfortable with the reality of all that means for us AFTER we die, but I’m not sure we have grasped what it means for our life today. That For all believers a new reality is within our grasp. While we may know that truth theologically, I wonder how many of us have practically stepped into that glorious invitation?

Now, I know what you are thinking about all of the issues and the problems that are going on in your life. The struggles that you just can’t seem to overcome, the relationships that are falling apart, and a litany of other things. That’s my first thought too. But, I wonder what might happen if we really started to take God up on his offer – if we started to believe that I is possible. I think a lot of us view this new life in Christ sort of like the closet door to Narania. It’s as though we stand at the door to the closet, we might even crack it open and look at a completely new and different life inside, but we rarely walk in to experience all that God has for us.

This week I am starting a new series called The Other Side of the Cross. I’m a fan of Easter, but I think we too often let the resurrection have it’s one day a year and leave it there. I want to explore the new reality that we are invited to live in TODAY because of the truth of the resurrection. I don’t want to stand at the door and look in… I want to jump into the life God is inviting me to.

I’m grateful that this passage unintentionally (coincidence…?) fell right near Valentine’s Day. I’m convinced that we have such a marred view of love, and that what we often call love is simply lust. Read this excerpt from Lewis’ work. He is absolutely brilliant in the way that he exposes that what we often refer to as love is simply hunger… we are feeding on the other person, trying to be filled up by them, and having them define who we are.

I feign that devils can, in a spiritual sense, eat one another; and us. Even in human life we have seen the passion to dominate, almost to digest, one’s fellow; to make his whole intellectual and emotional life merely an extension of one’s own — to hate one’s hatreds and resent one’s grievances and indulge one’s egoism through him as well as through oneself. His own little store of passion must of course be suppressed to make room for ours. If he resists this suppression he is being very selfish.

On earth this desire is often called “love”. In Hell I feign that they recognise it as hunger. But there the hunger is more ravenous and a fuller satisfaction is possible. There, I suggest, the stronger spirit — there are perhaps no bodies to impede the operation — can really and irrevocably suck the weaker into itself and permanently gorge its own being on the weaker’s outraged individuality. It is (I feign) for this that devils desire human souls and the souls of one another. It is for this that Satan desires all his own followers and all the sons of Eve and all the host of heaven. His dream is of the day when all shall be inside him and all that says “I” can say it only through him. This, I surmise, is the bloated-spider parody, the only imitation he can understand, of that unfathomed bounty whereby God turns tools into servants and servants into sons, so that they may be at least re-united to Him in the perfect freedom of a love offered from the height of the utter individualities which he has liberated them to be. – C.S. Lewis

So, tonight I’m going to propose that the gospel actually frees us up to be able to love another person in a way that nothing else in the world does. My ability to believe and trust in the gospel is absolutely 100% essential to my ability to love another person.

Agree? Disagree? I’d love to hear from you.

Alright, all that is introductory to the passage that I wanted to write about. It’s the passage in Galatians where Paul writes about the fruit of the Spirit. Here is what he writes in Galatians 5:19-23,

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

In the context of the book, Paul has made the point that we are free from the law, and that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. he makes his point pretty clear. And now in this passage he is going to describe what a life that stays in step with the Spirit looks like. And describe is exactly what he does… he doesn’t prescribe. There’s a huge difference! Paul tells us what our life will look like if we live by the Spirit, but I think so much of the time we take Paul’s list and turn it into a new law (not all that different from the law that Paul spent the first 4 chapters telling us we are free from!). I can’t tell you how many messages I have heard where we are encouraged to try to be more patient or loving or kind… and we just totally miss the point.

The point of the whole passage is that IF we walk by the Spirit, THEN we will bear the fruit of the Spirit. We are commanded to walk by the Spirit, we are not commanded to bear fruit. So, if we are not bearing fruit, it means that we are not walking by the Spirit. That’s a little bit more scary than simply needing to work on our patience. Bearing fruit comes when we are filled with worship for our savior who has saved us, not because of anything good in us, but because of his grace and mercy towards us!

I guess I’m a little bit fired up because I taught on this passage last night at theWELL. Here is a link to the audio page on our website where you can download the message.

Here is what I’ve noticed about watching them play out there; I spend most of my time telling Avery not to eat the sand or drink the nasty water. The funny thing is that every time I tell her she looks at me like I’m crazy. If you have kids, you know that look!

So, I’m in the backyard today, we’re playing, I’m telling Avery once again to get contaminated water out of her mouth, and it strikes me… This is how I often respond to God. He tells me that things are contaminated; that they are bad for me, but I look at him like he’s crazy. Like he’s trying to rob me of some joy.

I’m reminded this morning that he is a loving father. That he is for me, not against me, and that he wants my joy more than I do.

So, today I’m trying not to look at Him like he’s crazy. Hope you will too.