"Minutemen"

"Minutemen were members of teams of select men from the American colonial militia during the American Revolutionary War. They provided a highly mobile, rapidly deployed force that allowed the colonies to respond immediately to war threats, hence the name," states Wikepedia.

Perhaps the greatest need in the Christian Church today is for minutemen/women. The need for Christ Followers who are highly mobile and rapidly deployed is greater than ever. There are plenty of Christians with whom God must first check their schedule. There are many more Christians for whom God knows not to even bother to ask. But even in a Church full of the apathetic and unavailable, the Kingdom of God continues to be ushered into existence on earth because in every generation God still has his minutemen/women.

I just got off the phone with one of his minutemen. One of our High School Students, Michael Collins called. He explained that in a high school assembly today a women shared her story of past drug abuse and imprisonment. She will be given her freedom next week. She shared her story to encourage teenagers to choose a different path. After the assembly, Michael and his friend stopped to talk with her. They asked what she would do when she was released from prison next week. She explained her plan was to contact a local homeless shelter until she could restart her life. Michael invited her to Living Hope and shared about Celebrate Recovery. He then called me to see if she could call me for us to see if there was anything we could do as a church. I love it! Praise God! That is being a minuteman for God...You see a need and in the name of Jesus Christ you don't sit around and wait for someone else to act; you act!

I have seen minutemen/women in action every week this school year. They are folks in this church and six others in Centerville. We Had no idea how Food 2 Go would feed 100 children a week who would other wise go hungry on the weekends. But every week...did you hear me? Every week, the food has come in, sometimes just in time, but always in time. Why? One reason...minutemen/women of God are highly mobile and rapidly deployed.

I have watched minutemen/women of God step up every time we have listed the need for people to serve children in our classes on Sunday mornings. We do not have childcare at Living Hope. We have life-changing ministry for the children of Living Hope. The reason we have it is because minutemen/women of God see a need, step up and go the extra mile to ensure children are experiencing the love of Christ.

This week I received an email from the "No Restrictions" Life Group. They are now partnering with Gospel Mission to serve meals to the homeless. This group has also responded to serve those in Appalachia, Ky and to help visit the sick and shut-ins in our church family. The whole group is made up of minutemen/women of God!

In the next month we will watch as minutemen/women of God respond to the need of Ukraine orphans by committing to one of the Expeditions in 2011. The people who respond will not submit to all the reasons why they can't go; they will simply submit to the call of God and watch him make happen what they could not...they will watch him clear schedules, overcome fears and provide the resources. Minutemen/women get to see God do what few others see simply because they are highly mobile and rapidly discharged. People who have to wait for all the ducks to be in a row before they will trust God enough to go don't see God do the impossible, because they don't give him the chance.

We have an incredible number of minutemen/women who make up the church called Living Hope. I thank God for you! You are a powerful force that scares hell to death! Don't back down! Don't give up! And never let those around you, even other so-called Christians, discourage you from going after what God has for you next!

"One Tulip"

Last year I had two nice rows of big, beautiful red and yellow tulips. This year, I have one small, but pretty yellow tulip. That's it...just one. It appears that something ate the others. Every time I look at my front yard I think, "I wish the other tulips would have bloomed." I was thinking that just the other day as I pulled out of the garage..."I wish the other tulips would have bloomed." Then, it hit me...something inside of me said, "Why can't you enjoy the one you have?" Its true. Apparently, I needed the others to enjoy the one. Why? Why couldn't I let the other tulips go, accept that they were not going to bloom and simply enjoy that single, pretty, yellow bloom?

I have been known to do that with more than tulips. How about you? Do you ever find yourself wishing life was like it used to be to the point that you miss out on what life is now? Do you ever long for more even though the reality is you have enough? Have you ever found yourself dwelling on all that is going wrong so much so that you cannot embrace the one thing that is going right? Do you ever miss the beauty of the little things in your pursuit for that which seems so important in the moment, but even a year for now, not to mention 100 years from now, will mean nothing? Do you ever get so focused on what you do not have, that you become blind to what you do have?

God, help us! Help us not to miss the tulips even when only one blooms. Help us not to trade what is most urgent for what is most important. Help us to celebrate what we are given instead grieving what we are not.

For someone like me, it takes a lot of intentionality and work to appreciate the one, but with God's help, each day that yellow tulip is looking better and better.

I think that was what Solomon was getting at when he wrote these words in Ecclesiastes 3:

1 There is a time for everything,
and a season for every activity under heaven:

2 a time to be born and a time to die,
a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3 a time to kill and a time to heal,
a time to tear down and a time to build,

4 a time to weep and a time to laugh,
a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5 a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

6 a time to search and a time to give up,
a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7 a time to tear and a time to mend,
a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8 a time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.

9 What does the worker gain from his toil? 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end. 12 I know that there is nothing better for men than to be happy and do good while they live. 13 That everyone may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all his toil—this is the gift of God. 14 I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will revere him.

"Bigger"

Recently, the four of us went hiking at Germantown Nature Reserve. It has been a long-time favorite spot of mine. I wondered how the kids would do. They did great! They loved taking this "adventure' as Anna called it. The only time Seth did not enjoy the hike was when Mommy said he was too little to walk the the rock path across the stream. He threw a fit, but Daddy rescued him and let the poor boy just be a boy (Come on, Mom, the worst that could have happened was he fall in a three inch stream and get his clothes wet and dirty). Long story short, we had a great time.

However, there was one part of the journey neither Anna nor Seth could make. They hiked down the large hill with no trouble, but what you climb down, you must climb up and therein was the problem. A big problem. It was a big incline for my long legs, but to them that hill might as well have been Mt. Everest. They could not do it. I was so proud of both of them. Instead of trying to do something they could not do, they turned to someone who could do for them what they could not do for themselves. Seth said, "Mommy, hold me." Anna said, "Daddy, can you carry me?" On our backs they went and up the hill we all went. And at the top, the kids proclaimed, "We made it!"

"We?" I was the one with sweat rushing out of every pour of my body, heart pounding and wheezing like I had emphysema...Was it "we" or "me"? My answer...it was "we." "WE" made it. Anna made it because she asked me to carry her. I made it by putting one foot in front of the other. And at the end of the day, "we" all made it.

Friends, why are you trying to climb the mountain on your own? Are you aching? Are you sweating? Are you trying and getting no where? Learn from my kids...sometimes the reason a mountain is put in front of us is not so we can struggle our way up it, but so we can learn to ask for help. "Jesus, will you carry me?" "Church family, will you hold me?" What if the mountain you cannot climb, is there not to climb, but to get you to accept what Jesus lived, died and rose again to teach us. He can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves...let HIM! Jesus said, "What is impossible with man, is possible with God."

I can see a pretty big mountain from where I am sitting right now. You know what, I am not going to take another step. I falling on my knees and asking, "Father, will carry me?"

What's that...its strength that is not my own...its hope that is beyond wishful thinking...its love that I don't deserve...yes...its, my Father carrying me where I could never go on my own.

There's plenty of room on his back for you too.

"Potty Time Epiphany"

Several months ago Seth, on his own, began going poo-poo on the potty. (This is an interesting stage of life for me...a time when such things as poo-poo and potty training are where I see God moving--no pun intended). I kept hoping he would do the same thing when it came to pee-pee. Well, Kimberly decided it was time to move from hoping to helping. Yesterday, she began the training process. Then, today, before leaving for work, Kimberly took Seth to the potty, congratulated him on a job well done, put his "big-boy underwear" on him and reminded him of everything he was learning. Right as she was heading out the door, his little voice said, "I have pee-pee Mommy." The kid had just gone less than 5 minutes ago and now he had to go again? My gut said it was a false alarm and I just ignored him. Kimberly took him to the potty and it was no false alarm. She is so much better with the kids when it comes to things like this. Honestly, both of my kids would still be wearing diapers when they were twelve if it were left to me.

And, honestly, you and I will stay in spiritual diapers if we leave our growth in the hands of best intentions and wishful thinking. At some point I have to decide if I am satisfied with living in my crap or if I am ready to let God help me grow up. God will not force us to grow, but he is completely comfortable with letting us sit in stench and discomfort if that is what it takes to get us to start following him down the path of maturity.

Hebrews 5:12-14, puts it to me straight in these words, "Though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil." Whoa! I don't know about you, but that puts me in my place.

I find the last line especially interesting and challenging when it says "have trained themselves." First, this is a call to take personal responibility for our own spiritual maturity. It is not the job of the Church to feed me or you. That would be like you going to a restaurant, ordering a meal, not eating a bite, leaving and then complaining that you are still hungry. It is not the restaurants' job to feed you nor is it the Church's job to feed you what you need to grow spiritually. That job, brother and sister in Christ, is solely yours. That being said, "have trained themselves" is also in the plural. While my spiritual growth is my responsibility, it is not to say that endeavor is a solo one. Spiritual growth never happens in isolation but always in the context of community. After all, what is spiritual growth other than learning to selflessly love God and others. You cannot learn to love others by yourself. Love is only love when it is received and given and that takes relationship. Spiritual growth requires me taking responsibility for my maturity along side of others who are taking responsibility for their maturity.

I want to thank you for being church that is committed to doing that. One way in which this is demonstrated is through the small groups. For example, in March an average of 447 people attended Sunday morning worship and 321 of you were involved in some form of connecting for the purpose of spiritual growth. That is incredible! Keep pursuing maturity! Seth will one day be glad his mom took the time to help him get out of diapers and as we train ourselves in maturity we will find meat is a whole lot more filling than a bottle.

"What if Worship is..."

What do you think of when you hear the word worship? Do choirs, songs, sermons and prayer come to mind? May be you have walked with Christ long enough to have had your vision of worship expanded outside the "worship service" to understand that worship is anything I do for others in the name and love of Christ. For instance, the Bible reminds us that giving a cup of cold water in Jesus' name is worship.

Certainly worship looks up to God and out towards others. But what if there is another aspect of worship that involves both the upward and outward look at the same time? What if God also desires our worship to be witness? What if worship as worship should be should be is as strong a witness as it is anything else?
Would you take some time between now and Sunday to think and pray about your worship being a witness? Perhaps there is no more important day for us to consider this than Easter Sunday. On the day when people who normally do not attend worship suddenly find themselves there, what better day for Followers of Christ to make our worship witness?

To make our worship witness means we outwardly express what God is doing in us. We make sure that even a stranger knows that we believe in a God who so loved the world that he died on a cross and overcame sin and the grave to give us new life now and forever! And because we believe that, we can sing when the world says we should cry; we can praise God when the enemy says to curse God and die; We can celebrate the victory that we have in Christ before we see the victory come to pass.

So, this Sunday, Follower of Christ, do not hold back! Sing loud even if you can't sing! Praise God will all your heart and mind! Put your whole Body into it...that is why often you see me raise my hand in worship...as I sing words that ring true in me, I raise my hand to say, "Yes, yes...I know that is true!" The only wrong way to worship God is to hold back. Make your worship witness this Sunday and just may be somebody sitting next to you will hear a sermon much more powerful than any words I could speak. Don't underestimate the power of your worship both in heaven and in earth.

Finally, why would we do anything less in our worship? After all, Jesus died for you and overcame the grave for you, so why would we hold back? Watch out...I am about ready to shout my praises to God...in fact, I think I will...HALLELUJAH! PRAISE GOD! NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH YOU, LORD! CHRIST IS RISEN!

"I Messed Up"

I blew it. I completely missed an appointment yesterday. I had it in my head that it was next Wednesday. However, it was yesterday. The people came to meet with me and I was no where to be found. I was fulfilling a different appointment. When I realized what I had done, I felt awful. I called the person but only received their voice mail. So, I left a message. I explained my error and asked for their forgiveness. This morning the individual responded to my call. The person was full of grace and mercy toward me. I was extremely grateful for their undeserved understanding.

Other times, I have offended some one with out any knowledge or intent on my part. I have tried to talk with them about the issue and work toward reconciliation, but the door was slammed shut so tight that they will not even acknowledge I am knocking.

That's how it is with us people, isn't it? Sometimes we offer forgiveness when it is not deserved and other times we hold a grudge even when the other person did nothing to deserve it. And guess what? There is really nothing you can do about it. As Romans 12:18 says, the only thing you can do is, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."

Of course, it is a different story with God. Jesus explains that through the stories in Luke 15. Give these old stories a new read, ask God which character you most relate to and what that means you most need to hear from Him.

"Happy St. Patrick's Day?"

It is amazing how over time, meaning can be lost. For instance, I cannot figure out how St. Patrick's day became associated with green beer, leprechauns and the luck of the Irish. It seems that the only true meaning associated with the day that has remained is its namesake. And St. Patrick did not bring to the world an excuse for a drunken search for a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Rather, he offered faith in Jesus Christ in place of blind luck.

In fact, St. Patrick was not even Irish. Irish raided his Roman Britain home taking Patrick captive and forcing him to be a slave-shepherd for the Irish King. Though Patrick was raised in a christian home, he had little personal interest. However, long months of isolation as a slave made him take another look at the faith of his parents. As a result, he had his own encounter with Christ. He wrote, "I would pray constantly during the daylight hours and the love of God surrounded me more and more." Eventually, God showed him an escape and he was finally home.

However, 30 years later, God called Patrick to return to Ireland to offer them the love of Jesus Christ. The Irish of the fifth century were a pagan, violent, and barbaric people. Human sacrifice was commonplace. Patrick understood the danger and wrote: "I am ready to be murdered, betrayed, enslaved—whatever may come my way." In response to his faith and courageous obedience thousands committed their lives to Christ.

So, whatever your plans might be this St. Patrick's day, I urge you to make them in light of this prayer of St. Patrick:

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven;
Light of the sun,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of the wind,
Depth of the sea,
Stability of the earth,
Firmness of the rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me;
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's hosts to save me
Afar and anear,
Alone or in a multitude.

Christ shield me today
Against wounding
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through the mighty strength
Of the Lord of creation.

To that I say, "AMEN!"