Thoughts from Inside the Marble

Oh hey friends! It’s been awhile. This is my “touching base” post, where I briefly explain what happened to me.  I got a day job.  But I’m quitting that soon, so I’ll have time to post again! Yay!  I look forward to dumping more thoughts on you lovely supportive people soon.  Until then, Merry Christmas! Don’t worship Santa [aka the father of lies].  Also, here’s a picture of an espresso machine I decorated a long time ago.

Spoilers: It doesn’t matter!  Let’s be honest. Sometimes, (pardon my language) life just sucks. Naturally, when things go wrong we want to find out why. In small settings, such as finding out which co-worker ate your lunch or disciplining the correct child for leaving legos foot-wreckers on the floor, that tendency can be noble. We want to find out where and why the problem started so we can fix it; We play the Blame Game! But while the world certainly could use more children who clean up their own legos, nobody actually wins the Blame Game.

When faced with real and challenging issues in life we often turn to the Blame Game as the easiest way to deal with deep, unresolved pain: She made me do it! It’s her fault for being controlling; My alarm clock didn’t go off; It’s my boss’s fault, he doesn’t pay me enough; It’s the devil’s fault for tempting me; It’s my dad’s fault for not being there. The list goes on.   It’s just easier to offset our pain by making it someone else’s problem, an attitude that’s run in the family since the beginning. [See Genesis 3] Sometimes we blame satan: If he just hadn’t tempted me, I wouldn’t have sinned; If he hadn’t caused that guy to be an alcoholic, the crash never would’ve happened; The devil sent that disease; He made me lose my job; He’s making me depressed; etc. When we do that, we either become helpless prey to the big bad wolf, or we embarrass ourselves by shadowboxing imaginary devils everywhere. While I’m certain that this wicked being initiates all sorts of trauma and heartache, making him the focus results in ascribing to him more power than he has. Then we end up with more faith in the devil than in God. Bad plan. Sometimes we blame ourselves: If I had just said what I needed to say, she wouldn’t have left; If I had just worked harder, my business wouldn’t have tanked; If I had just been stronger, he wouldn’t have hurt me like that; If I was more handsome, I wouldn’t be so lonely; if I was a smarter kid, my parents wouldn’t have separated; If I was born the other gender, my mom wouldn’t have said those things. This heart-wrenching category of shame is terminal. It kills. Thinking this way turns you into the source of the problem, the victim of the problem, and ultimately the solution to the problem. Spoiler alert, it’s a trap. There’s no jailbreak when it’s “all your fault”. I’ve struggled with versions of this and let me tell you, blaming yourself never results in anything good, or hopeful, or true. Finally, we sometimes end up blaming God for either causing bad things to happen (which makes him sadistic, manic, and untrustworthy) or allowing bad things to happen (wherein he’s guilty of negligence, or he’s aloof, or he’s simply not as powerful as he claims). I don’t have time here to unwrap the nasty layers of this ‘lil stinker, but for now let’s suffice to say that it isn’t God’s fault, and even if it was blaming him doesn’t help. To put it bluntly, only victims play the Blame Game. You can play all day if you want, but you'll never heal the hurt or solve the problem that way. In fact it will make things worse.

So what then? How do we re-process painful experiences in life if we can’t default to blame? How do we get our legos cleaned up?  Let me tell you!

This is a scary word for some people! But it doesn’t have to be. Prophecy has been used and abused by well-intentioned (and many not-so-well intentioned) folks for as long as it’s been around (aka, always). In fact, I’ve heard horror stories about how prophecy has been used for manipulation, condemnation and shaming, promiscuity, greed, power, corruption, etc. Trust me, I’m well aware of the atrocities, and definitely aware that its driven people away from the things of God, which breaks my heart.  I have good news! A tool used incorrectly doesn’t make it a bad tool.  Believe it or not, there is a right way to approach Prophecy. In my circles, the topic comes up frequently so that its just a normal part of life. I don’t think it’s necessary to apologize for it or come up with a more palatable word for it. We just need to define it and demonstrate it well.

What is it?  In it’s simplest form, Prophecy is what happens when God communicates to us and we communicate that to someone else. Since Jesus is the Word of God [John 1:1 & 14] its in His nature to communicate with us. At some point I’ll lay out a more comprehensive biblical foundation for the premise that God still speaks, but for now suffice to say that if God wants to talk to you (and he does) then he will! And he does! God will speak to us through his written word (the Bible), through the Church (sermons, testimonies, etc), through impressions and feelings in our heart and mind (pictures in our imagination, “gut feelings”, and “feeling” feelings, etc), sometimes even through circumstances. He’s not short on ways to get a message across to us. Whenever we tell someone what God is saying, it’s prophecy! It’s just like giving someone a little love note from Him.  “Hey friend, I felt like God wanted to tell you just how much he loves you!” Boom. It’s not weird, it’s not “oogly boogly”, it’s not mysterious or cultish or hyper-spiritual, and it is definitely not just for “those weirdos”.  It’s one of the ways we interact with a relational God, and everybody who is in relationship with Jesus can (and should) participate.    What’s it for? There’s some discussion about exactly how it works and what it’s for, and we may get into the nuances later. The basic purpose of all prophecy (Old Testament and New Testament) is to connect people to Jesus by revealing who He is [John 15:26, Eph 1:17-18, Rev 19:10]. Jesus, and everything He says, is loving, encouraging, comforting, convicting and guiding [1 Corinthians 14:1-3, John 16:7-11]. So healthy prophecy will always point to the character of Christ and result in encouraged, comforted, convicted and guided people.  And if that’s the goal of prophecy, every christian should want to learn more about this. We all need encouragement, comfort, conviction and guidance sometimes. So why not prophesy? It’s a wonderful tool that God has given us to love people, and to reproduce His love and character in people’s lives. No need to “throw out the baby with the baptismal water,” right? (….that is a terrible analogy, who says that?)  What it’s not Like I said, I’ve heard the horror stories.  Prophecy is NOT about: -Predicting the future -Gaining money or influence -Being powerful, impressive or “spiritual” -Being 100% accurate  -Uncovering sins or sore spots -Talking to, or battling, demons and spirits   -Manipulation or control  -Having a title  -Or being weird just to be weird (which happens).

Again, the goal is to connect people to Jesus. We want people to have more faith in God as a result of our prophetic messages. They should walk away feeling encouraged, comforted, hopeful, relaxed, and excited to know this man better. When we prophesy, we have a responsibility to be respectful, dignified, gentle, open to correction, and overall having the character of Christ because it’s about showing people who Jesus is, not about showing off [James 3:13 -18].    I plan to post about some prophetic experiences I’ve had, both good and bad, so I wanted to lay a framework for what I mean when I use that word. If it strikes a chord or raises a red flag, let me know! I’d love to talk about it.

Let’s take a look at a picture of a quarter.  

You’ve probably both seen these and spent these here and there throughout your life. On one side of this quarter we can see a face, we see writing, etc. No matter what you notice about this side of the quarter, you’ll probably agree that it’s worth 25 cents, a “quarter” of a dollar (which may be enough money to fill one of your tires with air...sometimes). Let’s look at the other side. 

Same quarter, totally different picture, different writing, etc. But it has the same functional value as it did when we were looking at the first side. It’s still 25 cents, and I can still use it to buy things (like air). At the end of the day, both pictures represent one and the same thing, not two separate contradictory things.  I believe the Church has unnecessarily created false theological paradoxes which lead to confusion, division, and even great fear within the body of Christ. It should not be so!! For example, some have envisioned a contradiction between God’s justice and his mercy, saying “a merciful God would never allow sinners to be punished for their sins”. Even though that’s not true [our example of the synonymity of justice and mercy is in the Cross: He justly applied punishment to sin while mercifully bearing it on our behalf so that sinners don’t have to], the intellectual distinction between justice and mercy makes an error which skews the truth. The truth isn’t the problem. There’s no paradox in God because He’s not two separate things at odds with himself. There is no “balance” in God because He’s not made up of multiple things that need balancing. God is one; He’s wholly united in himself, with himself, and there’s no contradiction in Him [James 1:17]. We don’t have to find some mysterious “balance” when it comes to the truth, we just have to see and believe what’s true. If I perceive a contradiction, the problem is on my end. It happens when we look at spiritual things through unspiritual lenses. [John 3:3-12, 6:63 and Romans 8:5-8]. Both sides of the coin represent the same thing, even though it looks different from different angles. That would be enough for its own blog post, but I’m going to continue. (Two-in-One post! Woah!)  I want to apply this concept to the discussion of salvation. The classic Predestination dichotomy (A can of worms!! Oh boy...here we go). Does God choose us, or do we choose him? Which side of the coin do we spend? This discussion has literally divided church bodies (including that of my teenage years) and set denominational boundaries that don’t need to exist because we’ve made an intellectual distinction between free will and God’s sovereignty. How silly (and wrong).  Here’s why this is important. I’ve had too many discussions with wonderful people who struggle with legitimate fears about their personal salvation: “What if God didn’t choose me?”, they ask. “What if He saved me, but I mess up and get unsaved? What if I thought I was saved but really I’m not? How do I know either way?” Yikes! Where do these fears come from? Jesus made it pretty clear how this works. I think these fears stem from useless and confusing teachings about one or the other “side” of the salvation coin.  So for the sake of length, I’ll just outline the bare-boned simplicity of how Jesus preached the sureness of salvation: If you follow Him, He will feed you. [John 6:35] If you confess Him, He will embrace you. [Matthew 10:32] If you draw near to Him, He will draw near to you. [James 4:8] If you reject Him, He will reject you. [Matthew 10:33] If you seek Him, you will find Him. [Matthew 7:7-11] If you repent, He will honor you. [Luke 15:11-24] If you obey Him, He will answer your prayers. [John 9:31 & 14:21]  If you love Him, He will make his home in you. [John 14:23] And if you believe in Him, you will be saved. [John 3:16-21] If you do your part, He’ll do his part. He offers you a gift that only He can give, then it’s up to you to receive it and live it out.  And if you make a mistake, fear not! Sin doesn’t keep us from God, stubbornness does. Jesus already paid the penalty for your sins. If they couldn’t stop Jesus 2000 years ago then they certainly can’t stop Him now. He knew what he was getting into. Just repent, nail that sin to the cross, (or “flush it” as I like to say”) and keep pressing on towards Jesus who has already forgiven you  for it [Philippians 3:13-16]. Boom! Easy. You’re still saved! Yay!  So have no fear! It really is that simple. If you believe what Jesus said, your salvation is secure in Him.  [See 1 John 3:19-24, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9, Jude 15, Philippians 1:6, 2 Corinthians 1:21-22, and John 14 and 15 for even more biblical context and support]. 

“Oh. I’ll clean it up!” he said.  Words, and subsequent actions, which have become one of the clearest demonstrations of grace that I’ve ever witnessed.  ~~~~~ One day last year, I stood with all of my roommates in the hallway, preparing to embark on a group adventure. I live with 4 other guys in the upper level of a church. The sanctuary is right below our apartments. It’s pretty trendy.  I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth. Upon walking in, it was hard to miss the puddle of “golden glory” sitting smugly on the toilet seat. Lovely.  I was annoyed. All of my roommates are grown adults! Is it really so difficult to pee into the toilet, not on it? Come on guys! 

With angry hands on my hips, I walked back to the laughing cluster and said, “Who left pee on the toilet seat?” Any moment now, I expected someone to fess up and offer to go wipe it off. How “just” of me, right? Teaching someone responsibility and general hygiene. I was making the world a better place by enforcing the standards of basic humanity and “trusting” my roommates to take ownership; to be the dignified men God has called them to be. I represented God’s own “White Throne of Judgment” [Rev 20]. Thank goodness I lived here so that righteousness could be established in the house of the Lord!  (Oh brother...) What I expected is not what I got. My friend, Anthony, happened to be with us that day. He’s officially been a pastor for only a few years, but his wisdom and character reflect a much deeper walk with Christ than I usually get to see in most folks. On this day, while I sat on my critical seat of judgment demanding justice and accountability, Anthony surprised me with his quick and kind response: “Oh. I’ll clean it up!” Crazy, right!? He didn’t make the mess. In fact, we never found out who was responsible. But he took ownership, bringing the solution by doing what only potty-training dads do. He cleaned up somebody’s pee! (....gross)

“What!? No!” I thought. “How are we going to punish someone if you clean it up for them?  But Anthony didn’t think like that, because he knew who sat on the throne of his life. He demonstrated a kingdom principle that day which has stuck with me ever since. It’s all over the bible, but sometimes you have to see it in action before it sinks (or in this case, flushes). He demonstrated grace. With a servant’s heart, he covered someone else’s mistake by cleaning up their mess, without the need for punishment or retribution. Nobody got in trouble. Nobody was publicly shamed. The issue was solved, and we went on our merry way without further incident. I didn’t say anything at the time but I was deeply impacted by that moment. That kind of attitude only comes from one person. The apostle John says, “Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands...rose from supper...Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was wrapped around his waist.” Later on, Jesus explains what he’s doing. “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example...” [John 13:1-15]

One of my biggest pet peeves. 

In the days of social media, where we’re encouraged to share the intimate details of our lives in extremely non-intimate settings, it’s common to see well-meaning christians make their intimate prayer life go viral. In our efforts to be genuine, to accurately represent our values, spirituality, and personalities online, we basically just project our inner thought-life onto the screen of social media platforms. And why wouldn’t we? After all, that’s what they’re designed for!

This may come across as a mean rant here, and this time I won’t apologize for it. I love you, I want the best for you, please hear my heart when I point out that you gettin’ crazey, okhay? Alright. Real talk.  In my honest (as usual) opinion, Facebook is just not the place to post your prayers. Even prayer requests put me off. Let me explain. Jesus’ functional description of prayer goes like this: “When you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray publicly, that they may be seen by others...But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.” [Matthew 6:5-6] Simple, right? The Prayer Post According to that verse, it’s hypocritical to blast your personal prayer life in public settings. It’s self-indulgent, self-glorifying and attention-seeking. In truth, it’s cheap “spirituality” designed to make you look good, not to glorify God’s powerful ability to answer prayer.  When you’re really praying the way Jesus taught, in a private one-on-one with the Lord, there’s no need to post those things online anyway. Using social media to replace a healthy prayer-life indicates a lack of genuine connection with Christ, and that breaks my heart. How can he answer prayers that aren’t directed towards him? How can you know how much he loves you if you’re “texting to a phone number he doesn’t have”? If you are in the habit of posting things like this online, stop it. It makes you, and consequently Jesus, look bad.  

The Prayer Request I have two problems with this. 1) Why aren’t you making a real connection! Reach out to real people. Get connected to your church! Where are your actual friends? We have cell phones, if you have an immediate prayer request then call someone! Call me, I’ll listen to all your problems, tell you you’re being crazy, then pray for you right then and there on the phone! Boom! Don’t turn your (probably) legitimate needs into bait to see what you can “catch” in answers (which is really just you finding out “who actually cares about me”, not seeking the will of Christ). That’s wrong and manipulative. Trust the church to be genuinely helpful. Reach out to a real person, in private, to get your legitimate needs met, and watch God really come through for you. 2) How in the world will you know when the prayer is answered? If your vague request is floating around the cybernetic aerospace of “online”, at what point will you know that God has responded? Did you know that God will actually answer specific prayers specifically? He wants to be glorified in the answered prayer [John 15:7-8]. There’s no basis for marveling at God’s goodness if there’s no place in the real world for him to demonstrate that he heard you. It’s all about God’s goodness anyway. 

“What is worship and why do we do it?” I was asked by one of my students last week.  Yikes. That’s a big question, and one which honestly caught me off guard. “And keep the answer simple, like you were explaining it to someone on the street.” ....right.  Thankfully, she spent some time explaining her question so I had time to formulate a response. While there’s much more to it than just this, here’s the answer I gave her. “What Is Worship?” The most basic building block of worship, the “atom” if you will, is simply to tell God who he is. Jesus said, in John 4, that the Father is looking for those who will worship him in Spirit and in Truth. Every time I read something in the bible that is true of God [ex- “The Lord is my shepherd” Psalm 23], and repeat it back to him [ex-"God, you are my shepherd!”], it’s worship.  While there are a multitude of ways to express truth back to God, you can’t remove truth from worship and still call it “worship”. So we celebrate the reality of God’s character in worship by telling God who he is.  When we tell God who He is, his Spirit “bears witness” to our heart. He shows up to confirm our declaration, saying, “Yes, I am your shepherd!”. In other words, God reveals God to us in worship. [2 Corinthians 4:6]  Which brings me to the second part of the question I was asked; “Why do we do it?” Now I have a two-fold answer. The first reason that we worship is simply because He is worthy. If we were to stay silent, the rocks would cry out with praise instead, because He is so good, so holy, so beautiful, and so worthy of worship. All of creation worships him for the sake of his absolute worthiness. That’s reason number one. The second reason is more profound, as it highlights something unique to how humans worship. Jesus is God [Romans 9:5], and he worshiped by celebrating the revelation of God, the “unveiling” of the Father’s goodness, to his children [See my last post on this topic]. When we follow Jesus we begin the process of becoming like him who was the perfect example of redeemed humanity.  .....that sounds needlessly complex, doesn’t it? I’ll state it bluntly: We worship because Jesus does. Boom. That’s it. We become more like God when we do what God does. And that’s what God wants; for us to become more like his son Jesus. The transformation process happens while we worship in spirit and truth.

That’s right. The capital “R” word that bible-thumpers and old timey fire-and-brimstone preachers throw at people on the sidewalk. It has a bad rap... But I fell in love with it when I found out that repentance was the core of Jesus’ message. The gospel of Mark summarizes the thrust of his ministry in chapter 1: “After John [the baptist] was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God, saying “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.” Woah! Repentance wasn’t just something John the Baptist preached to get people ready for a “messianic invasion”. And it’s not just something religious fear-mongers use to scare people into salvation (though sometimes that happens too, unfortunately). The message of repentance is what the Messiah himself proclaimed as the Good News of God! If Jesus, who is only good, who perfectly represents the character and desire of God, and who loved us so much that he died on our behalf to give us eternal life and freedom, embraced this message of repentance, then I can embrace it too! Here’s what I love about it...

(Oh, John the Baptist. What a guy.) In repentance, God honors our decision to believe him by empowering us to obey him. By default, humanity is stuck in sin. We were hopeless, helpless, and destined for damnation until Christ came and gave us another option: to live instead of die. [See Deut 30:19-20 and Ezekiel 18 for the old testament precedent]

Instead of coming in force, or coercing us to bow in fear and trembling, or bullying us into submission, he comes with a gentle yet powerful offer: to transform us from the inside-out if we say “yes” to believing and trusting him. He asks us to consider our lives, count the cost and make a decision. When we decide to take him up on that offer, he sponsors our decision by giving us his Spirit, enabling us to fulfill his “righteous requirement” [Romans 8:3-4]! He gives us the ability to get unstuck!

That’s so honoring. It’s honoring of him to let us take the first, practical little baby step into eternal life, which is simply to stop doing bad things our way, and start doing good things His way.   So repent! Make a change! Do the right thing! Don’t stay broken! Don’t stay dysfunctional! Partner with His Spirit to change the way you think, act, and make decisions. Say “Yes” to the Son of God, who nailed your sin to the cross and extends to you the option to live an abundant life of joy, freedom, and redemption.

And that’s the message of repentance! Hardly as scary as it sounds, right?

There’s an odd little phrase floating around in my beloved church circles which goes like this: “God, I give you permission to interrupt my day”, and its corporate version, “Lord we give you permission to come and do what you want to do!” The heart of it is so good; “God, I don’t want to get in the way, and I know you’re full of surprises, so let me make room in my head and heart for your will to be done!” I’m not unduly offended by it and I would never ever correct my friends for saying this phrase in public prayer. It’s not that big of a deal. But I am going to make a point about it and gently offer a course-correction. Now, I’m not sure where it came from (it’s not anywhere in the bible) or who started it, but I must say I think the phrase is redundant at best, inappropriate otherwise. It’s useless, it doesn’t mean anything, and it feels misinformed.  Last year, I had a startling, 2-part epiphany concerning this phrase, and this is why I bring it up. I used to put a lot of pressure on myself to make sure God had space in my life. I felt guilty when I couldn’t feel him, when I wasn’t “connected”, or if I prayed for healing and it didn’t happen, etc. This is how God broke through that pressure.    1) God doesn’t need my permission, and I couldn’t stop him anyway. He does what he wants. Literally... Isaiah 14:24 & 27 says, The Lord of Hosts has sworn,  “As I have planned, so shall it be, and as I have purposed, so shall it stand...” Who can change his plans? His hand is stretched out, and who can stop him? When I was a baby, I never gave my parents permission to feed me, wash me, clothe me, or otherwise do the things good parents do. I let them know what I needed, and they faithfully took care of me because they loved me. They did good things for me even when (sometimes especially when) I didn’t like it.  How much more, then, am I incapable of hindering God from loving me? It’s silly for me to presume that my authority and/or ability, or the lack thereof, could keep God from doing what God intends to do.  Now that doesn’t leave me entirely out of the equation. The second thing I realized is that 2) While I can’t stop God, I can choose which side I’m going to be on when He moves. This was the core of Jesus’ simple message when he began his ministry. ”Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” [Matthew 4:17]  In other words, God is about to move whether you like it or not, and you have a choice to make! 

I’m so excited for this! Ever since this post, I’ve been wanting to share my alternative reaction to brokenness in the world. It’s hardly fair to take away one without offering a replacement. I think a common experience in our faith, especially in the west, is to get so wrapped up in the pursuit of purity and correct thinking (both noble ventures), that we forget our mission. Or rather, Christ’s mission: “For the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.” [Luke 19:10] “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” [Matthew 28:19]

When we agreed to surrender our lives to Christ’s lordship, when we got “saved”, we simultaneously signed up for His mission to bring God’s gospel of redemptive love to a lost and broken world. 

I was reminded of this a few months ago, when I realized that I can’t be effective in this mission until my heart aches for the lost. My prayer since then has been, “Break my heart for them, God! Don’t let me harden my heart to their pain.”  Offense moves me away from sinners, people who need God’s love. It compromises the mission! I refuse to be offended by sinners so I can move towards them with compassion, like Jesus did [Matthew 9:36]. 

Not being offended frees me to be moved by mercy. It frees me to take initiative and get closer to people in the midst of their struggle. I don’t have to fix them, I get to forgive and love them. I don’t have to shield myself from their “dirtiness”. I can embrace them with all their mess, the way God embraced me in my mess. Obeying the call to this mission means not being offended. It means forgiving, and being available to the ones who need to see God’s compassion demonstrated...

“Panacea.” It’s in that lion king song: “Paaaaaanacea love toniiiiiight...”