Unbelievers and Heaven

February 13, 2009 at 7:03 pm (evangelism, serving)

I was randomly listening and flipping TV stations and stumbled across a concert with Live.  I have always liked their music and ended up listening to most of the concert.  The lead singer gave a few words before singing their song, “Heaven” about how this song was his prayer for his daughter and his famly.

I’m fairly certain…not positive, but pretty sure…that these guys are not Christians as you and I would define it.  However…the lyrics to this song are such a vivid analogy of Romans 1:20 where Paul describes the unrighteous as being without excuse in not knowing God.

I wanted to share this simply because of late, the circles I run in have had many discussions on unbelievers capacity to serve and can unbelievers impact our lives for God’s glory, etc.

I included all the lyrics, as repetitive as they might seem…but in reading them, keep Romans 1:20 in mind. 

“Heaven”

You don’t need no friends
get back your faith again
you have the power to believe
another dissident
take back your evidence
it has no power to deceive

I’ll believe it when I see it, for myself

I don’t need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don’t need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive

I sit with them all night
everything they say is right
but in the morning they were wrong
I’ll be right by your side
come hell or water high
down any road you choose to roam

I’ll believe it when I see it for myself

I don’t need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don’t need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive, yeah

darling, I believe, Oh Lord
sometimes it’s hard to breathe, Lord
at the bottom of the sea, yeah yeah

I’ll believe it when I see it for myself

I don’t need no one to tell me about heaven
I look at my daughter, and I believe.
I don’t need no proof when it comes to God and truth
I can see the sunset and I perceive

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assessment and the meaning behind it all

September 22, 2008 at 8:14 pm (church plant, evangelism, serving)
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The time is getting closer to our assessment with the Acts29 Network of church plants.  We attend the October conference in St. Louis and will spend the last day being assessed as church planters.

I have listened to nearly every Mark Driscoll message out there.  I have laughed till I cried, I have wept till I couldn’t breathe and I know that God is in our lives, in our ministry and in our marriage.  And for some odd reason, I find great security in that.  I find great peace and contentment in the knowledge of the Kingdom picture.  That’s definitely new for me.  I’m more of an “in the moment” kinda gal.

I think I am looking forward to meeting other people who have a similar “demographic” as we do.  We’re not inner-city, we’re not a “downtown” kinda area, we’re not even suburban by definition.  We’re in a county surrounded by 160,000 blue collar workers with incomes on the low side of middle income.  Football is a religion, shopping is nobody’s pastime, and Budweiser is how you spell relaxation.

We’re smack in the middle of a country music video with achy-breaky-big mistakey-haircuts.  The people here work hard, very hard – nearly every home is two income.  Their weeks are filled with jobs, taking kids to various activities and shopping for food to feed them all.  These families love one another, love their community and would like to love their neighbors.  They’ve just never met them.  They don’t make to time to meet them.  They live in an area 25 years and don’t know their next-door neighbor, because it’s not something we do today.

I love our community.  I love the people around here.  They work hard all week and spend the weekends caring for their homes, their yards and trying to squeeze in a movie or sporting event. 

They need Jesus…and they need Him desperately.  Our neighbors are lonely, but fearful.  They’re friendly, but distant.  They’re in need of the truth and how it will set them free from their burdens.  We have reached out our hands to our neighbors and while it’s been kinda weird for everyone…they’re starting to reach back.

At our assessment in October, I feel like we’re representing more than just our community.  I know there are other areas with similar people, similar lifestyles.  I pray we can share our stories, gain encouragement and learn to keep our ears to the ground, listening to the heartbeat of our own community.

It’s weird, but assessment sounds so personal to me.  My temperament will be assessed and then they will determine if I do indeed possess the character that exhibits Christ in my life.

I will be given the approval from a group of men so that I may go out to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.   Wait a minute….didn’t I get that already?  Some guy about 2,000 years ago said something about going out … hmmm

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titus 2 and the highly functional female

September 3, 2008 at 7:52 pm (church plant, serving, wife)
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How many times have you heard women talk about how tired they are, worn out, burnt out, overwhelmed and devastated their lives are. And how many times have we, as listeners bothered to go beyond lip service in the lives of the women in such need of comfort or encouragement?

God created me as a woman with the capacity to love, to have responsibilities, to have great integrity and to worship. And when I say “capacity,” I don’t mean that in a mandatory way, but in a more qualifying manner. I don’t have to…I get to.

Women today work inside and outside the home, they raise their children, they plan menus, cook meals, clean an entire house, take care of laundry, coach sports, help with homework and at the end of the day, they need 4 more hours to get it all done. No wonder so many are overwhelmed and frustrated. No wonder women are not in bible studies and feel left out on the fringe, alone and dying.

Women have the capacity to do “it all.” God created us this way. However, God did not create us to do it alone. And I’m not talking about blaming our husbands – there’s enough of that going on in our culture without our help. I’m speaking about other women, other sisters in Christ. I’m talking about Titus 2. And not the Titus 2 where we sit down once a week, drink coffee and memorize a bible verse or turn our time into a support group for whining and complaining about our spouses.

I’m talking about Titus 2 where women live in community. The Titus 2 that allows us as sisters, to share ourselves with helpful suggestions, meaningful recommendations and counsel beyond the 7 Habits Of A Highly Functional And Angry Female. The kind of relationships that sanction our involvement in each others lives – not as an authority in each others business – but an involvement that we can walk out to the glory of God and to the delight of a well-managed home. (you know what I’m talking ’bout.)

I know it is not a normal occurrence in my life. I know that while my lips give service to the words of Jesus regarding the “one another’s” of scripture, my actions do not always follow those words. I need help and I have the privilege to give help.

Women are more tired from isolation than they are from interaction. Women tire at the thought of the to-do list at home. But, these women can get energized from those same to-do lists when they know their sisters in Christ are a phone call away to help or serve them.

Titus 2 is not a club, not a sorority, not a private society. It is sharing our lives as sisters in Christ. It is sharing the burden of managing our homes and caring for our families even in the course of employment inside or outside the home. Titus 2 is for our edification, our encouragement and also our admonition.

I pray the women of Oasis will continue to share this distinctive within and with-out our community.

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impact of the spiritual

July 24, 2008 at 8:59 pm (church plant, serving, spiritual battle, spiritual storm)
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What if this is your welcoming committee upon entering the kingdom of heaven:

Convicted felon now teaching bible studies
Meth addicts now praising God
Angry sons and daughters now filled with God’s love
Suicides now sitting at the banquet feast
Adulterers who are forgiven
Rebellious teen turned missionary
Serial killers reconciled to God

I recently viewed a video titled, Cardboard Testimonies. Powerful stuff. Thought provoking. And, in the moment, life changing.

I say “in the moment” because as soon as the next life altering crisis or trauma enters my life, that video will be forgotten. I might remember it as I’m falling asleep, but the impact this video has in my life will not be as weighty as its content warrants.

There are a handful of powerful videos, songs and messages that impact me intensely as I’m watching/listening to them. Every single time. But it would seem that the effect stops there. I don’t carry the message of impact with me into my everyday life. I feel greatly moved, deeply touched and then WHAM! The phone rings, the cat meows or someone else needs to be served and the message of hope and love I was just immersed in is like a vapor in the wind. It’s gone. Just like that.

What is wrong with me? Am I so weak-minded that I can’t stay focused and meditate on these things? Am I so weak-willed that I allow other issues to cloud my mind?

Or…does God have me right where He wants me so that “none may boast…” When I do finally become a mature Christian, it will be so blatantly obvious that it was all due to His work in me, that I am able to do nothing but point others to my Lord and Savior?

Of course, the last option would be my choice. It is, after all the “holy” answer. The answer that makes me feel better about the blackness of my heart. The answer that allows me to continue in the same manner I am, displacing all the pressure of results on God alone.

What do we do with the impact of the worshipful in our lives? How do we share it with others when we can’t get it to stick in our own lives?

I struggle with these things. A lot. I want to be God’s vessel for change, for ministry, for furthering His kingdom. But I’m not sure if I’m the willing vessel for God or simply the vessel of convenience for the emotionalism of this human body.

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passion re-defined

July 1, 2008 at 9:05 pm (church plant, serving, women's ministry)
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When Christians say or hear the word passion, a few specific things come to mind.

The Passion of Christ – as so vividly demonstrated in the recent movie. Or this question, What is your passion or calling with regard to ministry?

I’m speaking of the latter in today’s blog.

I remember being asked that question many years ago and trying to figure out what it meant. What was I passionate about? What did I get excited about, what rejuvenated me, etc. I always thought it was women’s ministry since the programs, the studies, the events all fit under the banner of women’s ministry and it was really all I knew.

After many years of thinking this way, I just got so frustrated with the same programs, studies and events. Wondering why women were not being reached.

what was wrong with them?
or me?
or anything aside from the actual program, study or event?

Because it couldn’t possibly be those things. Those things had been meticulously thought out by people smarter and much more holy than me. Thought out, put in writing, correlated, stapled, glued and packaged into a neat box, ready to implement with a group of willing women.

Then another epiphany. I seem to be getting these closer together and somewhat more obvious, so the end must truly be near.

But I digress…

I heard an amazing and clarifying word from the Lawd via Shawn Maze, the founding pastor at Sanctuary. An amazing group of people who love the Lord with a great passion.

He spoke of passion in terms of dying for something. Serious terms of being so passionate about something, you would be willing to forfeit your life for it.

Wow.

Jesus did it. That must be why it’s called His Passion. He loved us and was so passionate about the Father, that Jesus died for it. For us.

Well, I can tell you. That changes the way I view my passion for anything now. I am surely not willing to die for a program or a study or even an event. I am not willing to die for a building or a tradition. I’m not even certain I’d die for an ideal or even the baby seals, no matter how many signatures were on the petition.

But I would put my life on the line for the Truth. The Truth that is Jesus. The truth that is the body of Christ.

So, what am I passionate about? What would I be willing to sacrifice my life for?

It goes without saying that I would give up my life for my husband, my children, my grandchildren, my parents, my brother and sister and any other family member.

However, I wanted to talk about the non-obvious…

I am passionate about those women who have been shot in the foot by other Christians. Those women who have been dissed by their Christian sisters in the name of homeschooling or some other ridiculously unbiblical cliche. And no…homeschooling is not unbiblical but making it a cliche to keep others out most certainly is.

I’d put my life on the line for those women who suffer, those women who stumble through life just looking for a kind word, a loving smile and genuine relationship.

My passion is for women who don’t know what they’re missing when they focus on anything but Jesus. When they find greater satisfaction in things of this world than their Lord and Savior.

My passion is for those dear sisters who don’t know that they are loved. They don’t know that others feel what they feel. Other women have been through what they have been through.

And through it all…they are loved by a God with a passion for them. A passion that I finally get. A passion that has now been adequately defined.

A passion for redemptive relationships.

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