Hope Fearlessly Excerpt III

Below is a continuation from the previous posts of a message I preached this summer at a local church. I hope you are able to get some benefit from it. Since I endeavor to be a better communicator, critiques are welcome.

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I say hope fearlessly because hope is not always easy. Hope is beset by fears all around. So often, our hopes remain nothing but dreams and later bittersweet remembrances of dreams. These dreams may concern a relationship, a calling, your church, the Church, the world, some great and godly thing that you yearn for, or some humble and simple desire to be satisfied. A certain perseverance in hope is required for a dream to become more than a dream.

Without perseverance, the life cycle of many dreams goes something like this:

At the beginning, we may dream easily. We may boldly develop a desire for that dream. We spend time imagining it. We may talk about it. We may even go so far as to write it down. We can see it, touch it, feel it as if it were already come.

However, after thoughts of what we call practicality and sensibility, after considerations of what we like to call reason and realism, and after taking assessments of our resources and the expenses involved as well as measuring our own insufficiencies, we stop imagining. We no longer talk about those hopes of ours. To read the written expression of our dreams is embarrassing and painful.

Later in life, we may regard with a sweet fondness the memory of the dream once held admiring that now lost ability to believe that such dreams will come true.

Later in life, we may remember with bitter regret the memory of the dream for now we wonder what we could have had if only.

Why this frustration except that our fears and doubts stunt our hopes in the early stages of development. Many hopes are aborted soon after conception because our fears are so great.

The truth is that the thing that so often separates hopes fulfilled and hopes unrealized is believing. While one may not always get what one expects, one will always get what one settles for. You may not get what you want but you will get what you are willing to put up with. When you stop believing, you stop trying. When you stop believing, the dream starts dying.


So I say, HOPE FEARLESSLY.

Hope Fearlessly Excerpt II

I continue posting the text of a message I delivered this summer.

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Now, my exhortation to hope fearlessly is not meant to be suggestive, but rather, imperative. This is not merely a preferential state of mind, though it is that. This is not merely a healthy attitude to possess, though it is that. And, it is not merely a positive outlook on life though it certainly is that as well.

No, hope is what love does for love "hopes all things", and to love is commanded. Jesus declares this the greatest and most fundamental of all of the commands:

Mt 22: 35-27
35 Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and
with all thy mind. "
38 "This is the first and great commandment. "
39 "And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. "
40 "On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."

According to Jesus, the first and second greatest commandments deal with love for God and love for people. Taken together these commandments are called the Law of Love. Therefore, the supreme law of the kingdom of God is love. It is the greatest law and a law in which every other law is contained. If you could keep in mind only one law that God has established, it would not be one of the laws about the appropriate manner of presenting one of the ritualistice sacrifices in the old testament law. It would not be one of the various laws against types of sexual immorality. It would not be one of the Ten Commandments. No, it would be the law of Love that you should always remember.

Remember in 1 Corinthians Paul told us what love looks like. In your life then, it is commanded that your relationships with God and with other people should be characterized by love as described in the verse from 1 Corinthians 13:7.

Regarding God:
"If you love the Lord your God you will be loyal to Him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in Him, always expect the best of Him, and always stand your ground in defending Him."

and regarding other people,

"If you love someone you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him."

An attitude that always believes in and expects the best of God and other people is an attitude of fearless hope.

Hope Fearlessly Excerpt I

I will post a series of excerpts from a message I preached a few months ago. It seemed encouraging to some so I thought it might be useful to others.

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1Cor 13:4-9

4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity
vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not
easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things,
endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall
fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be
knowledge, it shall vanish away.

In the letter that Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, we read of the character of love. This is important because love is often mischaracterized. For example, Lust is often confused with Love, but

Lust consumes while Love contributes,
Lust grabs while Love gives,
Lust ensnares while love empowers.

Feelings are often confused with love, but

Feelings fade while Love never fails,
Feelings are easily offended while Love overlooks an offense,
Feelings may be self-centered while Love is not self-seeking.

So Paul characterizes love that we not be confused. The particular characteristics of love that I want to draw your attention to today are in verse seven:

"Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

The Living Bible paraphrases this verse in these words, "If you love someone you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him."

So because it is commanded of us to love and we know that love believes all things and love hopes all things, I want to encourage you this morning to:

HOPE FEARLESSLY

A pair of defining beliefs

Pastor Brent made this statement at church today and it struck a nerve.

"Whether or not you agree with the following two statements will determine a lot about how you live as a believer.

God loves me and:

(1) there is nothing I can ever do to make him love me more.

(2) there is nothing I can ever do to make him love me less."

A couple of years ago I don't think that I believed that at all. I thought God loves one category of persons a certain amount and other categories at different amounts. By my obedience, devotion, and faith I can move into higher love categories. Failure to obey, doubt, unbelief, and lapses in devotion would result in my falling into lower love categories. Though everyone does get a guaranteed minimum love allotment.

Relational breakdown

“It is not enough to insure that people understand you, but to insure that they cannot misunderstand you.”

Halford Luccock, Professor in yale Divinity School from 1928 to 1953

I am convinced that churches split, friends fall out of favor, marriages wither, and relationships in general fail because this bit of advice is rarely consistently observed.

I'll see if I can't make this quote a rule for my communication this coming semester.

Change the world in your spare time!

Most of us check our email using what a few decades ago would have been considered supercomputers. That laptop or desktop computer is probably being under utilized as you type your newsletter. Some clever people have figured out ways to harness the unused computational power on your machine to help solve some difficult medical research problems. I have discovered 3 such projects you may want to donate some processing power to. They are described below:


1. Folding@home:

Proteins are biology's workhorses -- its "nanomachines." Before proteins can carry out these important functions, they assemble themselves, or "fold." The process of protein folding, while critical and fundamental to virtually all of biology, in many ways remains a mystery.

Moreover, when proteins do not fold correctly (i.e. "misfold"), there can be serious consequences, including many well known diseases, such as Alzheimer's, Mad Cow (BSE), CJD, ALS, Huntington's, Parkinson's disease, and many Cancers and cancer-related syndromes.
You can help by simply running a piece of software. Folding@Home is a distributed computing project -- people from through out the world download and run software to band together to make one of the largest supercomputers in the world. Every computer makes the project closer to our goals.
http://folding.stanford.edu



2. Genome@home

Our partner project, Folding@home, is striving to understand how existing proteins attain their specific, functional three-dimensional structures. The goal of Genome@home is to design new genes that can form working proteins in the cell. Genome@home uses a computer algorithm (SPA), based on the physical and biochemical rules by which genes and proteins behave, to design new proteins (and hence new genes) that have not been found in nature. By comparing these "virtual genomes" to those found in nature, we can gain a much better understanding of how natural genomes have evolved and how natural genes and proteins work. Some important applications of the Genome@home virtual genome protein design database:

-Engineering new proteins for medical therapy
-Designing new pharmaceuticals
-Assigning functions to the dozens of new genes being sequenced every day
-Understanding protein evolution

To design these large numbers of protein sequences, we need lots of computers. By running the Genome@home protein sequence design client, you can lend us your computer while you're not using it, for as long or as little as you like. ...A day or two's worth of running Genome@home is enough to design new protein sequences that the world has never seen before. All the sequences get added to the Genome@home database, so every little bit helps.
http://genomeathome.stanford.edu/


3. FightAids@home:

Now more than ever, your help is needed in the fight against AIDS. In the mid 1980's, HIV infections exploded and have continued to rise at alarming rates. Nearly twenty years later, technology has reached a point where you can make a difference by contributing the idle processing time of your computer.
http://fightaidsathome.scripps.edu/help.html

People I admire- Rita Springer

Last night I was at a Rita Springer (www.ritaspringer.com) concert at my new church. I am not a fan of her music, and last night only served to confirm that. However, her testimony of adopting and raising Justice, her 2yr old Zimbabwean baby boy, as a single woman at the prompting of God made me a fan of the woman in spite of the music.

Really, I just admire people who express a simple faith in the Scriptures and/or the leading of the Holy Spirit. I also admire people who express compassion for people that are not their own, people that they have no reason to care about except they do, people that they have adopt for the purpose of loving them.

On unliking people

There are a few people who I once liked very much. As I got to know them better, I liked them less but loved them more. They used to be people I wanted to be around because of commonalities. Upon closer inspection, their uniqueness became apparent and distasteful. By then, it was too late. I'd already decided to love them. Now, they're stuck with me.

I think like this

I saw this comic at http://xkcd.com and i could relate.

multigenerational family and friends

I'm in NY with my parents, my brother and his fam, and a bunch of cousins and old family friends for the holiday weekend. I know I've posted about this before, but it is great to spend time with people that have known you and a couple of generations of your family all of your life, care about you, and feel like they have some stake in your life.

I don't know exactly how to quantify the benefits of this, but they are huge. It's like an underground kindness/community economy. People trade time spent looking after each others kids in lieu of daycare, laughing with family and friends instead of therapy, and family favors for financial support. You yield a certain measure of control over your time, money, and privacy, but you as long as you don't feel that you're giving more than you get, it works.

I'm sitting in the house I grew up in and I'm sleeping in the same bedroom I had when I was 5. A number of the neighbors have lived here for the past 40 years. Parents have passed away and their kids have taken over the homes. That is amazing to me. I wonder if I'd love it so much if I actually lived here. The tough thing about being together with people for decades is that you may end up having a few decades-long disagreements and contentions. It requires greater relational skill and dexterity to avoid being entangled in other people's offenses than is the case where the neighborhood turns over every 5-10 years.

The funny thing is that I didn't even want to come to NY this holiday. Sometimes, I have the most fun doing things that I didn't want to do.

submission11-17-06

I don't really know Him well at all. I thought that He exercised power differently. His Way is unlike my own. His manner and methods are not those that I would have chosen. Submission is the model, the method, and the goal. If I had it, I think that I would use power to satisfy immediate desire and remove any impedence. That isn't His Way. Odd, yet refreshing.

-Rev 1:1, John 8:38, 10:25, 10:37, 14:10,

on preparing messages and prayer

I was told that last week when I spoke at "Pimp My Life", the campus student meeting, I delivered a great message. As a follow up to the complement, she asked "What did you do different to prepare?"

Now my pride was a little injured at that last question. I happen to believe that I gave great messages at our previous meetings as well. Apparently however, this opinion is not as widely held as I had believed.

As I began to prepare next week's message, I thought more about this and came to some conclusion. Maybe this will be useful to someone, or at least the principles behind it will be. When attempting to speak the Truth from the Scripture to others with the intent that it be applied, the preparation of the man is vastly more significant than the preparation of the message. The role of prayer should not be underestimated. The manner of prayer should not be taken for granted. Prayers to seek God's blessings to achieve my goals generate less peace than prayers to seek God's goals and His favor that I might perform them.

When I ask God's blessing, I assume that I know what He is willing to bless. This is unwarranted overconfidence at best. I've misunderstood and misapplied Scripture often enough to provide no basis for such assumptions.

On the other hand, seeking God's goals assumes that I may not be continually aware of what is on God's mind. This is more in accord with the reality of my relationship with my Father. Following that search with asking for His favor to perform, assumes that I may not be in a position where His favor may be received. This could be do to doubt, unbelief, or some other of the many sins to which I am prone. Again, this assumption is safer being more likely to accord with my actual experience.

As true as I've noticed this to be in general with prayer, it is just as true when praying about a message. This stands to reason since the idea behind delivering a message in practical terms is that the message originates with someone other than the messenger. Understanding the intentions, desires, and emotions of the sender will help the messenger to deliver the message as the sender intended. My Father makes these known more often when I ask Him what He wants me to say, what impression He wants to make, and how He feels about the people that I am to speak to.

Hope this will be as useful to you and your hearers as it was to me and mine.

Just for Laughs-"White & Nerdy"

This is soooo funny! I'm not normally a fan of this guy but this video is great. "Weird Al" Yankovic's music video from his new album "Straight Outta Lynwood" (in stores Sept. 26)

His Name

I want to walk humbly before God content to bear His Name.

I'm not strong enough to create a lasting name for myself.

There exists no institution, organizaiton, family, nation, or race whose name is worth devoting myself to.

His Name is honorable and everything sacrificed for the sake of His Name is worthwhile. His Name is worthy of unreasonable extravagant expense.

Here are the clues I think I got

Thanks Mike for reminding me that I failed to mention the clue I got from that 5 hr drive I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. As I said in that post, I'm generally pretty clueless when it comes to the fairer sex. However on that drive, as I sat in the car those two women discussing what it means to be feminine, I think I got one. In fact, maybe I got two. The first is, I think, linked closely with the second. They are attention and approval. What I understand that to mean is described below.

Attention: They need a lot of it. This may includes a lot of talking to, listening to, touching, acts of kindness, etc. Basically, they have a greater desire to have a big fuss made over them. I used to think that was due to vanity, maybe, it's insecurity. Perhaps, it's just by design. If it is by design, then there are probably some good things that result from the need for attention.

Approval: They need it constantly. They want to know they are valued and accepted as is especially with respect to physical features, emotional fluctuations, and personality quirks. It helps them to be assured and reassured of this approval. This is the purpose that the attention serves.

If you are a woman, and/or you have access to one, I'd love to hear your opinion. I could be off here. If I am off and I've angered you, please keep the swearing in your comments to a minimum.

Friends

Until a few months ago, I think I was living the christian version of the sitcom "Friends." I was living within a 10 minute walk of 6-8 of my closest friends. Most of the group had lived together as roomates or neighbors for at least 3yrs and some as long as 5yrs. We had lots of funny stories about each other. We dropped in unannounced and went in each other's refridgerators. Okay, there was never very much in mine, but they were free to go through it anyway. In our version, we also worked/volunteered with each other in the same campus ministry and went to the same church.

We knew each others quirks. We knew how to work with one another. We knew how to work around each other. We knew the strengths and weaknesses of each. We lived together, worked together, celebrated together, laughed together. We didn't always get along; there were fights between us. Okay, they had fights between them. I refereed. How could anyone not get along with a sweet guy like me?

Now I live a more typical American adult life. This means that I live at least barely know the people that I work and go to church with. I live too far away to to drop in on anyone I'd like to be close with. The typical American adult life sucks.

One more thing bounded emotions

One observation from that car trip was the contrasting ways we seemed to approach managing one's emotions. The women in the vehicle seemed to have as a goal to live with appropriate boundaries around their emotions or at least their emotional responses like the upper and lower bounds on y = sin(x). It has been my practice to try to match my emotions and/or my emotional responses to that which I believe is appropriate in a given situation like the way the limit of y approaches 0 as x goes to infinity in the function y = 1/x. I'm not sure if this observation is characteristic of women and men respectively, but I found that contrast interesting to ponder.

We return home today, and we're adding another woman to the car. It should be interesting

boss and friend

My big brother and I have an oscillating relationship. He is my boss as well as my friend. I sometimes have trouble seeing him as both friend and boss. Sometimes I treat of him as a boss and desire to do the best work for him that I can. Other times I just want to hang out and get to know him better. He's great at both and I'd hate to lose him in either capacity. Right now I need a friend.

What's this, a clue?

Yesterday, I completed a 5.5 hr drive with two women. Being in a confined space with two women is generally a no no for me. But I made and exception. Once the conversation turned towards the meaning of femininity, I thought that perhaps I'd overestimated my environmental estrogen tolerance level.

It was somewhat enlightening though. If you know me at all, then you know that I am relatively clueless about women. I know I'm clueless because several times I thought that I had some clues, but sisters in my life have been kind enought to correct my misconceptions. More than half the time I just nod knowingly. Honestly, I've just been getting by on some female management techniques I picked up from an old creole friend of mine.

Yesterday, though, I think I may have stumped my foot on a clue.

Tertius

In the entire bible he is mentioned only once:

I, Tertius, who wrote donw this letter, greet you in the Lord.
-Romans 16:22

Throughout Romans, you get no clue that this guy is writing the letter. Not until the last chapter, four verses from the end do we even know that anyone other than Paul is responsible for writing the letter. Then he inserts his name, "I, Tertius."

He was the guy who took dictation for Paul, and his name is memorialized in the most significant book in the world. Did Tertius know he was helping to write the New Testament which would become the basis of faith and practice for believers for thousands of years? Perhaps, he was simply serving from a humble heart.

As I was finishing this book yesterday, reading his name served to remind me that God recognizes and rewards the little things that we do for Him. I'm so glad that my Father remembers the small details. No good deed goes unrewarded. Nothing we do for Him is ever wasted. It isn't a waste of time, nor of effort, nor of finances to serve my Father or His children, my brothers and sisters.

The worst thing that could happen

The worst thing that could happen is you never gave it a shot. If you gave it a shot and you missed, at least that's not the worst thing that could have happened.

Expect to Fail

It's gonna happen. It's okay. Write it off. Enjoy the experience. When you succeed, you will fail. Failures can be sweet if you persevere. Rarely will you build character through success. Success is often more satisfying when preceded by a sereis of failures to attain it.

Scenerio 1) You try. You fail. You learn. You grow. Your appetite increases. Your vision increases. You do it all over. If your vision is big enough, you'll always fail, and along the way inspire others to see the same vision. If the vision is big enough, they will fail as well having inspired others to see the same vision.

Scenario 2) You try. You fail. You question why you ever tried. You can't remember why though it was worth the effort. You feel like a fool. You live with what you have. You wonder what could have been like.

How I want to lead

I want to follow God and barely notice that people are following me, or I'll notice that I happen to be walking in front of a crowd of people who are following God.

My Default Vision

In my default vision,
All that I own is a message and the media on whch it is recorded.

In my default vision,
My tongue is on fire with a message that consumes my life.

In my default vision,
I am enveloped by a light emanating from within so only a shadow of self is visible.

In my default vision,
I walk with God until I am not.

Access

There exist requests which will not be granted on the basis of relationship,but will be granted because my persistence in asking. Though, my relationship may give me access to make the request. This is true in my relationships with other people, and it is true in my relationship with my Father.

Lu 11:
5 And He said to them, "Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves;
6 'for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him';
7 "and he will answer from within and say, 'Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you'?
8 "I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.
9 "So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
10 "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

I didn't suck!

For the past eight years, I have felt like I was a failure in college. I did not do as well as I wanted. I have at times considered that I spent too much time and effort in church and ministry activities distracting me from my academic work.

Now, I realize that I've been tripping for the past eight years. I just looked at my transcript from school, and in fact, I finished with a B-. That isn't outstanding, but it's nothing to be ashamed of. Add to that, I made significant contributions to grow a fledgling church and campus ministry. While I was not a great student or even a very good student, I didn't suck!

Cold

My brother reminded me last week that I am cold. He has mentioned this before as have some other friends of mine. I always took it as a complement. I thought that they meant cold as in decisive, practical, and resolute.

This time when he called me cold, though, it was more like he meant insensitive, abrasive, and unemotional. After considering this for a few days, I have to admit that he's not all wrong. I must also confess that cold is not a good thing. Jesus, my big brother and role model, was not cold. I'll have to talk to Dad about that one. I'm sure He will help me make the adjustment.

Give it away

I started to become unreasonable about 8yrs ago. At least I became significantly more unreasonable. Through a series of circumstances and with the influence of people I respected, I got the idea that I should give my life away. I began to talk with Father about what I could do to give it away. I wanted to do it to honor Him . So, I thought to ask what would He be most satisfied with. Some people think it's ridiculous to let your Father have so much control in your life, but what can I say? I'm a Daddy's boy.

Sometimes Dad is a little mysterious about answering these sort of questions. He's pretty good at getting your attention when He wants it. He's started fires, made people crazy, sent messages special delivery by really scary looking guys. I was hoping He would work hard to get my attention focused on the right things. He didn't . I had to keep bugging Him, reflecting on things He'd already told me, and examining my performance and enjoyment with the volunteer activities I was already involved in. Our conversation on this matter resulted in my being convinced that I could best give my life away by becoming a professional recruiter/marketer/promoter for a very famous man.

The position may seem prestigious, and it is, but it is also an unpaid position. After spending 5.5 years in college and becoming the only one in my family to graduate, my decision only brought confusion to my parents. They thought my intentions were honorable, noble, and charitable, but my choice they thought misguided. They've been lovingly supportive while making their opinions clear.

They don't understand what I do. It is pretty countercultural to work for free. It seems to them be poor judgement at best and irresponsible at worst. I think I'm being very responsible. I'm responding to my Father's voice and my Father's heart as best I can understand it. I'm still learning how to give my life away. I might be doing it the wrong way; there may be a better way. I'm not doing the wrong thing.

No regrets.


mark 10:28-31; mark 8:35; matthew 6:33

Security

I am my Father's son. I did not merit this position. This is not an honor awarded to those found worthy. I am His son. This is based on His initiative involving my response. I am chosen. My relationship as a son is based on my Father not on me. I cannot disgrace my way out of the relationship by bringing my family shame. Lack of productivity may cost me income, benefits, and rewards, but it will never affect my sonship. Failure may hurt my pride. Happenstance may disappoint. Promises I'll break, and promises to me will be broken. I will be then as I am now and as I have been since my birth into forever life, my Father's son.

1peter 1:23; john 3:16-18; 1tim2:11-13;eph1:5;gal4:4-6

Themes for the summer were

Love Courageously

Hope Fearlessly

Productive Pain

Derived Significance

His death gives me life
His life gives me hope
His love gives me meaning
His will gives me purpose

How, not What

I seem to be learning something. It seems like a thing I once knew something about, but then forgot much of. I won't know if I am really learning until I'm tested, but what I seem to be learning is the following:

How I live and how I pursue goals is more important than what I pursue. It is even more important than the success of the pursuit. Also, how I react to situations is significantly more important than the circumstances themselves.

How to Hate

In order to hate someone, alienation is the key. You must first refer to them as something inhuman. Call someone a rat, cockroach, piece of trash, or other thing you consider worthless. If you do this well enough, you can redefine this person or group or people as worthless in and of themselves and will no longer have to relate them to something else to hate them. In the future, you may enable yourself to hate new persons or groups by thinking of them just like you thought of the previous group you learned to hate. Alienation is essential. Before killing, no one says, "This is my brother no different than myself."

For sustatinable hatred between groups of people apply the above techniques and begin a cycle of violence. This may be very difficult if the group to be hated is very peaceful and meek. Keep trying, eventually someone in the group should crack.

Inactive God

"Apart from the natural and spiritual laws He established to govern creation, God acts in the realm of human affairs exclusively by proxy. Except by the faith of someone expressed by prayer, pronouncement, action or some other means, God makes no alteration in circumstances no matter how unjust."


I suspect this is true. If I conclude it is, then it will have significant repercussions to my life and of those I minister too as I apply it. It will only take one counterexample from scripture to disprove it, though. Do you know of one?

Coward

coward

n 1: a person who shows fear or timidity

I notice that when I direct love inward I prioritize self preservation for its own sake. This results in avoiding risky behavior such as acts born of caring deeply for others, and I tend to seek comfort and consider those my enemies who disturb that comfort. In that frame of mind, fear becomes reasonable expectation and timidity caution. Preserving oneself is necessary to be available to serve others , but is futile as an end unto itself.

The following scripture got me started thinking about the consequences of being timid and fearful:
Re 21:8 "But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

So, not only is the coward less useful to others, but he is also subject to severe judgement. Obviously, fearfulness is not a slight sin but a grave offense. When I read that eight years ago it shook me. I thought I needed more hugs and comforting words to push me out of self pity and discouragement. I needed a stern warning.

Nothing More, Nothing Less

The gospel is nothing more and nothing less than Jesus Christ … who He was, what He did, and the fact that He is alive. He is alive to save and to create a community of faithful people who will proclaim Him, live and act as His presence in the world, and make real, at least in part, the Kingdom that one day He will establish in power and glory. Who Jesus is, what He did and does is absolutely decisive, uniquely authoritative, and universally valid.

In Matthew 28 Jesus announced His desire for all nations to be baptized in the name of the Triune God and to be taught all the teachings of Christ. This was and is His invitation to the Church. Could it be that the Great Commission is no longer a part of the DNA of the church because the church is no longer convinced of the uniqueness of Jesus as the incarnation of God and God's gift of Himself for the salvation of humankind? If we are unconvinced of the uniqueness of Jesus as Son, Savior and Lord, then we have no compulsion to share the gospel with the world. This is our problem in the mainline church in America. We have allowed a distorted understanding of inclusiveness to diminish the exclusive claims of the Christian gospel. We have allowed our commitment to ethnic and social pluralism muddy the water of our response to doctrinal pluralism.
 
Fifty years ago James Stewart said, “The one thing that can justify the church is a great passion for Christ." He warned that if ever a time should come when Christ and His uniqueness are no longer the central theme of the Christian Church, then the day of the Church will be finished. I'm afraid this has already happened to a marked degree. The church has lost her passion for Christ and is thus losing her identity. By diminishing the authority of Scripture and enthroning doctrinal pluralism, we have diminished, and in some cases, even denigrated the saving incarnation, death and resurrection of Jesus.
 
Lesslie Newbigin was a great apologist in the past century and the Anglican Bishop of the Church of South India. After preaching at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland a student addressed him, "Bishop Newbigin, I didn't expect to hear such a provincial message from you this morning. You've traveled all over the world, you've lived in many different cultures, and yet all you talked about was Jesus Christ. Why didn't you bring some light from Mohammed or some inspiration from Buddha or some insight from the Upanishads?”
 
Newbigin looked at the young man and courteously asked, "Are you Muslim?" The fellow responded, "No.”

"Well then, are you a Buddhist?” 

"No, I'm not.” Newbigin graciously inquired.  "If you are not a Muslim or a Buddhist, what are you?”  
The young man stammered, "I don't know," he said. “I'm supposed to be a Christian."
 
I like Newbigin's response. "You know what, young man?  If I were you, I wouldn't worry too much about Mohammed or Buddha until I had made up my mind about Christ. Depending on what you do with Him, your path in life will then take shape."
 
So, we are back to where we started. The gospel is nothing more and nothing less than Jesus Christ … who He was, what He did, and the fact that He is alive. Alive to save and create a community of faith, people who will proclaim Him, live and act as His presence in the world, making real, at least in part, the Kingdom that one day He will establish in power and glory.
— Maxie D. Dunnam


Maxie D. Dunnam is internationally known as an author and church visionary. He currently serves as the Chancellor of Asbury Theological Seminary. Maxie and his wife Jerry live in Memphis, TN.

priviledged

It is the believer's priviledge to draw from an unlimited reservoir of hope and joy in all circumstances whether wealth or poverty, inclusion or isolation, honor or humiliation and to enjoy fellowship with the Holy Spirit, our comforter and teacher.

Illustration

For the past couple of days I had felt a strong sense of discouragement or depression. I shook it off, and this illustration came to mind:

Depression is like a hand holding your head under water. You need to breathe but can't because you know you'll drown. Then, you realize that there is no water and the hand holding your head is your own.

Hope Fearlessly

I always thought of myself as a realist. Then I realized I was mainly "real" about the negative aspect of a situation. I guess that makes me a pessimist. I can't justify pessimism though so I setup mental detours, by God's grace, to help me get off of the pessimism track. These are really helpful when I start remembering failures and disappointments I've had because I'll see a detour sign like "Love hopes all things, believes all things...keeps no record of wrongs...."

Then, I usually grit my teeth and grunt as I recalibrate my will to hope despite disappointment in myself, my family, my community, my church, and my God. I continue with a groan and a growl as I renew my resolve to believe in myself and my dreams. At least that's how I did it yesterday.

Love Courageously,
Hope Fearlessly

Family Time

I spend most of the year at least a thousand miles away from any family, but for the last month I have been living with and near parents, uncles, aunts, and cousins and it's been great! It's hard to believe I can sometimes forget how much I love these guys. Especially, the two most directly responsible for my creation, mom and dad shown in the picture.

Progression of faith

A few days ago I wished I was.
I wanted to be .
I hoped.
Today I am.
Hope has been substantiated though not yet materialized.

Good, Love

God is love

Does this mean that God embodies the characteristics of love or is love defined by who God is?


God is good

Does this mean that there is an independent standard of goodness that God lives up to and can therefore be measured by, or rather, is what we experience as good only a consequence of what we perceive of the nature and character of God evident in creation?

I hold the later to be true in each of the above.

"No greater love has a man than this, that he would lay down his life for his friends." John 15:13

blessed mourning

"blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted"

when i refuse to hope in an attempt to avoid pain of desire delayed or denied, do I also by the same act of will prevent myself from being comforted? who comforts when there is no loss. where is loss where hope never was.

I think the pain of unfulfilled desire is preferable to the numbness of no expectations. At least then, there is the hope of comfort should other hopes fail.

on loving God and others

"Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself" Luke 10:27

first i thought that love meant obedience. partly because i thought obedience is what christianity was about and parlty supported by the statement by Jesus saying if we loved him we would keep his commands.

then i thought that love meant sacrificial service for the sake of another. this meant obedience to God and deference to others.

now i think it means consistent devotion so I endeavor to

consistently devote myself to the Lord my God in all of my desires, and in all of my emotions, and with all of my efforts, and with all of my thinking, and be as consistently devoted to my neighbor as I am to myself.

The Meaning of Fourth of July -articles, speeches, interviews, etc.

This is the most moving and inspiring 4th of July speech I've ever read. I read it every year on this day, and today, I thought I'd share ipost it. It was given by and extraordinary man, Frederick Douglass, a runaway slave turned abolitionist from the 19th century.




"The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro"

Fellow Citizens, I am not wanting in respect for the fathers of this republic. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too ‹ great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen, patriots and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory....

...Fellow-citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here to-day? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold, that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude, that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish, that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that, the dumb might eloquently speak, and the "lame man leap as an hart."

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. I am not included within the pale of glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common.‹The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you, has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak to-day? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn you that it is dangerous to copy the example of a nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can to-day take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people!

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! we wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, 0 Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

Fellow-citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, to-day, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, "may my right hand forget her cunning, and may my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth!" To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme, would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow-citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine, I do not hesitate to declare, with all my soul, that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this 4th of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past, or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America.is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery ‹ the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate; I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, or who is not at heart a slaveholder, shall not confess to be right and just.

But I fancy I hear some one of my audience say, "It is just in this circumstance that you and your brother abolitionists fail to make a favorable impression on the public mind. Would you argue more, an denounce less; would you persuade more, and rebuke less; your cause would be much more likely to succeed." But, I submit, where all is plain there is nothing to be argued. What point in the anti-slavery creed would you have me argue? On what branch of the subject do the people of this country need light? Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man? That point is conceded already. Nobody doubts it. The slaveholders themselves acknowledge it in the enactment of laws for their government. They acknowledge it when they punish disobedience on the part of the slave. There are seventy-two crimes in the State of Virginia which, if committed by a black man (no matter how ignorant he be), subject him to the punishment of death; while only two of the same crimes will subject a white man to the like punishment. What is this but the acknowledgment that the slave is a moral, intellectual, and responsible being? The manhood of the slave is conceded. It is admitted in the fact that Southern statute books are covered with enactments forbidding, under severe fines and penalties, the teaching of the slave to read or to write. When you can point to any such laws in reference to the beasts of the field, then I may consent to argue the manhood of the slave. When the dogs in your streets, when the fowls of the air, when the cattle on your hills, when the fish of the sea, and the reptiles that crawl, shall be unable to distinguish the slave from a brute, then will I argue with you that the slave is a man!

For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not astonishing that, while we are ploughing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, silver and gold; that, while we are reading, writing and ciphering, acting as clerks, merchants and secretaries, having among us lawyers, doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators and teachers; that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hill-side, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives and children, and, above all, confessing and worshipping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!

Would you have me argue that man is entitled to liberty? that he is the rightful owner of his own body? You have already declared it. Must I argue the wrongfulness of slavery? Is that a question for Republicans? Is it to be settled by the rules of logic and argumentation, as a matter beset with great difficulty, involving a doubtful application of the principle of justice, hard to be understood? How should I look to-day, in the presence of Amercans, dividing, and subdividing a discourse, to show that men have a natural right to freedom? speaking of it relatively and positively, negatively and affirmatively. To do so, would be to make myself ridiculous, and to offer an insult to your understanding. There is not a man beneath the canopy of heaven that does not know that slavery is wrong for him.

What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their mastcrs? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply.

What, then, remains to be argued? Is it that slavery is not divine; that God did not establish it; that our doctors of divinity are mistaken? There is blasphemy in the thought. That which is inhuman, cannot be divine! Who can reason on such a proposition? They that can, may; I cannot. The time for such argument is passed.

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. O! had I the ability, and could reach the nation's ear, I would, to-day, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages.There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me, that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival....


...Allow me to say, in conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented, of the state of the nation, I do not despair of this country. There are forces in operation which must inevitably work the downfall of slavery. "The arm of the Lord is not shortened," and the doom of slavery is certain. I, therefore, leave off where I began, with hope. While drawing encouragement from "the Declaration of Independence," the great principles it contains, and the genius of American Institutions, my spirit is also cheered by the obvious tendencies of the age. Nations do not now stand in the same relation to each other that they did ages ago. No nation can now shut itself up from the surrounding world and trot round in the same old path of its fathers without interference. The time was when such could be done. Long established customs of hurtful character could formerly fence themselves in, and do their evil work with social impunity. Knowledge was then confined and enjoyed by the privileged few, and the multitude walked on in mental darkness. But a change has now come over the affairs of mankind. Walled cities and empires have become unfashionable. The arm of commerce has borne away the gates of the strong city. Intelligence is penetrating the darkest corners of the globe. It makes its pathway over and under the sea, as well as on the earth. Wind, steam, and lightning are its chartered agents. Oceans no longer divide, but link nations together. From Boston to London is now a holiday excursion. Space is comparatively annihilated. -- Thoughts expressed on one side of the Atlantic are distinctly heard on the other.

The far off and almost fabulous Pacific rolls in grandeur at our feet. The Celestial Empire, the mystery of ages, is being solved. The fiat of the Almighty, "Let there be Light," has not yet spent its force. No abuse, no outrage whether in taste, sport or avarice, can now hide itself from the all-pervading light. The iron shoe, and crippled foot of China must be seen in contrast with nature. Africa must rise and put on her yet unwoven garment. 'Ethiopia, shall, stretch. out her hand unto Ood." In the fervent aspirations of William Lloyd Garrison, I say, and let every heart join in saying it:

God speed the year of jubilee
The wide world o'er!
When from their galling chains set free,
Th' oppress'd shall vilely bend the knee,
And wear the yoke of tyranny
Like brutes no more.
That year will come, and freedom's reign,
To man his plundered rights again
Restore.

God speed the day when human blood
Shall cease to flow!
In every clime be understood,
The claims of human brotherhood,
And each return for evil, good,
Not blow for blow;
That day will come all feuds to end,
And change into a faithful friend
Each foe.

God speed the hour, the glorious hour,
When none on earth
Shall exercise a lordly power,
Nor in a tyrant's presence cower;
But to all manhood's stature tower,
By equal birth!
That hour will come, to each, to all,
And from his Prison-house, to thrall
Go forth.

Until that year, day, hour, arrive,
With head, and heart, and hand I'll strive,
To break the rod, and rend the gyve,
The spoiler of his prey deprive --
So witness Heaven!
And never from my chosen post,
Whate'er the peril or the cost,
Be driven.




The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass, Volume II
Pre-Civil War Decade 1850-1860
Philip S. Foner
International Publishers Co., Inc., New York, 1950

The text of the speech is from
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4h2927t.html