Yeah, yeah, I know…

It’s been close to a month since I blogged.  This can be attributed to my procrastination with my school work.  I was supposed to be doing work, but I was blogging.  Now, I can blog, but I still have some work to complete.

Mainly, I wanted to ask for some prayer from my avid readers.  All two of you.  Atleast I can say it is plural.

I am preaching at my home church this sunday.  Things have been really interesting there, and this sunday could be an important step in my journey.  So please, pray. 

I am speaking on the Community of Humanity, a step past my post “On Relationship and Community.”  Though I may have to throw some of that in there.   I will post a link to the audio after I get a handle on it.  The church usually posts it for about a week,  I kinda want it longer than that though. 

Anyways, I’ll post more starting this week coming.  Sorry for missing you guys. 

 

Matt Lauer is an idiot…

I really think that in order to host a morning television show attached to a news program, you have to be an idiot.  Apparently, in all divorce situations, the couple tries their hardest to save the marriage.  This according to Matt Lauer.  Idiot thing to say.  To assume, that all parties involve really want to try their hardest and make it work is retarded.  Sorry for not being politically correct, but Matt Lauer may have something not firing right upstairs.  So, here’s to Matt Lauer, the idiot host of the Today show.

 

On relationship and community

The Following is something I submitted for a class that I am in at LBTS.  Thought it was worth sharing:

 

There is, within the ideology of the Trinity, a pre-existing community. It is central to our understanding of the identity of God. We, as monotheistic believers, have a God who exists in three persons, yet one. The very make-up of our God is that He exists in community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It would be, and is, consistent to believe and hold that mankind, made in His image would also exists in community.

Man was created in relationship. We read in Genesis of how God walked in the cool of the evening with Adam; How Adam and God were together as Adam named the animals. We see how God understood Adam’s lack of companionship and brings him a woman. God knows that we desire relationship. He created us that way. So it is only reasonable for us to understand and utilize in sharing His gospel that we are meant for, and God desires, community.

Foundational to sharing the Gospel is sharing the story of Christ and encouraging new believers to have a relationship with Him. The Book of James makes it clear that faith without works is not faith at all. The works being the evidence of relationship and growth with Christ. Yet, if we just step back, and logically think of what faith is without relationship, it really amounts to nothing at all. Maybe some words on a certain day where we say, “this is what I believe” and then nothing afterwards. 

It is most apparent, in the NT description of the early church, that community was near essential to the rapid spread of the Gospel. Acts 2:42-47 describes a church as a close knit group of misfits, from all backgrounds, united and flourishing in their cause due to the facts that they shared everything, meals, money, sleeping arrangements, etc. When one became a member of this new “Way”, you found identity not only with a Living Savior, but with every single one of his followers. You all had Christ in common, so now, you have everything in common. Look at Paul and his relationships with Timothy and Titus, almost an adoptive father to these two young leaders. Paul was brilliant at developing meaningful lasting relationships with people. Again, it cannot be denied that the early church leaders were impeccable at building and maintaining relationships and community.

We as the modern Church, should be working towards this kind of community again. A community where others are taken care of. Where the spread of the Gospel is attributed to the moving of the Holy Spirit and the Love of Christ within his Church. The Gospel is a message of love and love is best expressed and felt within the embrace of true lasting community.

 

The value of an apology… pt.2

So, I re-read the value of an apology and realized I had not divulged the value of the apology given.

In essence, apologies are multi-faceted in value.  What they do is more than merely levee a conflict resolved. Apologies are crippling, apologies are brutal, apologies kick butt and ask questions later.  Apologies render a man useless in his own self-afflicted guilt, shame, and the like.  

Apologies are humbling. Only the humble can truly apologize.

You see, an apology is not words.  It’s an attitude.  True, real apologies require a repentant spirit.  Let’s face it, the selfish, bold, proud attitude that lead to the situation in which conflict arose is not the same spirit in which one should come to offer apology.  The two are incongruent, their sides don’t match up.  Square peg, round hole.  

I don’t believe that an apology can be offered without the thought of repentance.  Repentance being when one knows they are wrong and decides traveling further with such wrong would be unfit, then leaving said wrong behind with the goal to never go that route again.  It takes a humble man to admit repentance.

Apologies are becoming of a follower of Christ.  We don’t always like to admit this, but there is a lot in this world that Christians can be blamed for.  Much of the hate from latter generations was fueled, supported, or at least ignored by someone in a place of power in the Church Universal.  The Church has been guilty of the sin of omission, or ignorance, or involvement on so many wrongs it is countless to defend it against them.  Simply put, the Church became proud, arrogant, full of itself and not of Christ.  So much so that it failed to recognize soon enough that it needed to change.  Today, Christians have to stand up against a lot of intolerance in a “tolerant” nation.   Instead of fighting, lets be humble, admit that in the past We slipped up.  But, we recognize that Christ is about repentance.   We are leaving those mistakes behind and pressing on in our campaign to usher in the Kingdom of God.  Bring a little heaven to earth, make an apology.

Be humble as Christ was humble.

 

I’m always seriousing you…

So, I figure I always write on serious stuff. Never fun, or funny.  Considering I am a generally funny guy.  Not that I am good with jokes, just quick witted.  I’m also very handsome.

I have a little brother who is black.  I am white.  He is not really related to me at all.  In fact, the only reason we are related is because when I was a younger, I had trouble distinguishing that I myself was not a black child.  My parents friends always questioned with I would ask them about, “Dis and dat”  and would tell them “what we be doin”  that day.  

There was me, my boy Hollice, and his older brother LaMar.   We were inseperable.  Most days.  We used to hang out at the end of the block, where the streets intersected kind of diagonally, so they made an empty lot at the end, which we turned into a baseball diamond.   To run from home to first took 5 steps; yet to run from first to second took a year.  There was no logic to it.  Simply put, God put a tree at first, a street sign at second, a street light at third, and finally the end of the houses for home.  It was amazing.  The “House that Ruth built” is nothing in comparison to what we had.  

There was a fence about 50 yards from home plate.  Over that fence was what we called “the Bamboo”.   Bamboo grew back there, because it was pretty much swampland.  It was always wet, and there were little viola crabs that used to grow back there in the mud.  It was pretty cool.  I remember once, we played hide and seek back there.  I had heard of Vietnam by this age, since most of the contemporary war movies had to do with that War, so I imagined myself in Vietnam many many times back in “the Bamboo”.  Me, Duke, leader of the G.I. Joe’s stuck in “the Bamboo”, fighting for my life against the likes of Cobra and James Bond, jr.  I hated James Bond, jr.  He sucked. Taking up good space on saturday mornings when Captain N or Ninja Turtles were supposed to be on.  Freakin’ James Bond and his illegitimate son ruining a perfectly good saturday morning.  Oh man, I’d like to pay the nerd that came up with the idea for a man-whore like James Bond to have a son who “takes up the family business” and beat him with Snoopy fishing rod.

Anyways, baseball was great.  Baseball was life.  I imagined myself growing up and playing for the Mets. I loved the Mets because for 40+ years, they were the MLB team for the Tidewater/Norfok Tides.  I always wanted to be a Met.  When we played, we played with tennis balls because none of us really had a mitt to begin with.  Then, when we all got mitts, we broke too many windows with actual baseballs, and could not hit them as far.  Plus, for the price of a baseball, you could get at least 3 tennis balls.  Remember “the Bamboo”.  Well, we lost a number of tennis balls to “the Bamboo”.  This is because we were awesome; and tennis balls bounce right off of aluminum bats much farther than a regular baseball. 

I miss being that innocent and carefree.  I miss playing baseball.  I missed beating the crap out of James Bond, Jr. and Cobra Commander.  Life was awesome.  Life is awesome.   

I believe very much that one day, Jesus is going to have a scratch game of baseball back in my old neighborhood.  He is going to pick me, and on the other team will be none other than James Bond, Jr. and Cobra Commander.  And Jesus will pitch the first ever tennis ball no-hitter.

Because James Bond, Jr. you suck!

 

The value of an apology.

This week I learned something of humility.  My job requires it.  Most of the time, I don’t bend to it.

I work with disadvantage children.  My focus, is teenagers, ranging from 13-18.  I am basically a state employed youth pastor minus the pastoring.  This is a very hard thing for me to do, being as my goal is to pastor.  With all that is in me, my deepest burning desire is to be a pastor.

Well, this week I made a mistake and potentially destroyed a relationship I had with a client.  In doing my job, I called into question the character and sexuality of one of our older clients as he persisted in horseplaying with a younger client.  The horseplay was mostly innocent, but the younger client was very uncomfortable with it as I heard him exclaim a few times, “Get the hell off me!”   Initially I laughed, because to here a 12 year old stand up to a larger, stronger, older kid is pretty funny, especially when he says, “Get the hell off me!”  

Well, in coming to the aid of the younger, I insulted the older.  After repeatedly asking the client not to touch the other any longer, and after receiving a barrage of f-bombs for intervening, which is the norm with this specific client, I made the comment, “Alright, dude.  You are the one that is touching a little kid.”  At this, my client, who I hope will look to my example and begin a new path different from the one he is on, lost all confidence in my ability to build him up and support him.  This was evident in the now numerous “Fat Fucker” remarks coming from his mouth.

Now, normally, this would not bother me.  Normally, I would just shrug this off as another incident between me and this client.  I am however, sick of these interactions being the norm.  The altercation haunted me for the remainder of the day, night, and following morning.  I had to salvage this kids dignity, his respect for me, and his respect for others.   How can be an agent of healing empowered by the Gospel of Christ if I am one of those causing the damage?

 Amputation is an effective method of medicine, but if all you do is amputate you will have nothing left.

I want people to rid themselves of all this sin and deceit and malcontent towards each other as much as the next guy.  But, you cannot just cut off hundreds of years of ingrown, self-afflicted, hate for others.  Many of the people and families in our communities suffer from this.  Whether it be the white mans fear of black people, black peoples loathing for white people, the affluents fear of the ghetto, or the poor man’s disgust with the affluent.  There are layers upon layers of problems with our current situation, be it of racial or economic influence.  We all understand this.  We all have grown up with certain amounts of these fears influenced by the years of conflict between each group.  So-called experts would have us just cut off the conflict, much like one would amputate a gangrenous foot.  Which is great, but you leave society crippled. Furthermore, you have only taken care of one piece of the problem.  Our diagnosis is much more than one of racial tension, economic disconnect, or the like.  Maybe we don’t have gangrene at all.  Maybe there is a much bigger disease at the core of our problems.   I don’t know why I keep saying maybe, when we all know the problem is a lack of love.

In the much forgotten words of dcTalk, “We all want to be loved.”  And we all deserve to be loved.  God has counted us all worthy of love.  We may not be able to love.  But by golly, my God has stated that He loves us and has made action upon that thought.  There is affection for all of us.  There is connection for all of us.  There is communion for all of us.  

Those that have accepted love, must then communicate love in all circumstances.  We are agents of the Gospel of Christ, which is the Gospel of Love.  Good news world, someone loves you and has done something huge for you and he wants me to communicate this to you.  How?  By doing huge things for you.  By redeeming people and societies and destroying them with Love.  

Social Injustice sucks, but we live in a world that lacks love.  We can try to remedy the problems that are in our world by changing programs and the focus of governments, but when we do not respond out of love, we are merely altering the focus of the pain.  

Major Payne once said, “You want me to take your mind off that leg. Give me your finger.”  

 

Essentials to existence…

I was showering this morning and was thinking about what makes me tick.  Thinking about Creation, and how when God made Adam he had certain qualities.  Qualities that we can call the “image of God.”

But, what is to this “image”.  I mean, if God looks like me, well, then I don’t know if I would worship me.  So, I don’t think it is a looks thing.  In fact, I know it isn’t.  Don’t get me wrong, God has a face, hands, feet, arms, a heart, mind, all that stuff.  But, I wanted to get at what things God instilled in us that let us know we are human.

 Well, I believe there are a few:

Work:  As a man, I base my identity on what I do.  When I meet other men, especially for the first time, the first question is always, “so, what do you do?”  In the response to this question, I can judge whether I will like this guy, whether he is better than me in any way, and whether or not he can buy me lunch. 

There is so much purpose found in the work that we do.  I mean, God creates Man, and he firsts puts him in dominion over all the Earth.  What a job!  I mean, dominion over all of creation.  To care for it, to take the time and make sure that it continues in such a way that glorifies the Creator.  That was our job.  That was our purpose.  Now, I identify myself as a gov’t worker who works with kids.  Originally that was called a father. But we have kinda strayed a little haven’t we.

Community:  Now, I believe this is a little obvious, and the topic may be getting overplayed in Christian circles, but it is very clear that central to our creation is the idea of community.  When God brings us to life, there we are, in our Father’s Image, embraced completely in love and fellowship with His Majesty.  God Himself, exists in community within the Trinity.  God looked at us as his friend.   He walked with us in the cool of the evening, engaged in conversation and the wonders of life ahead of us. 

Here and Now, it is obvious that everyone seeks community.  Everyone seeks someone to walk with in the cool of the evening and speak about life with.  This is why we pay Therapists to do a job that a friend can do.   We pay for medications that strip away a feeling, loneliness, that can only be erased by community.  The Church exists to bring us back to community.  Notice, that most paths to success require separation of self from others to some degree.  If  you want to get ahead in the office, you must work long hours and build superficial relationships with complete strangers in order that they will help you get a job that requires even more long hours and countless more superficial relationships.  God did not intend our hearts to long for relationship.  He intended that we be full, always.

Companionship:  The one thing that Adam asks for that God could not provide was companionship.  We identify so much with those that we see ourselves falling in love with.  I think this is the most beautiful part of God’s work in us.  You see, God isn’t a selfish God, where He needed our needs to be met entirely in Him.   God knows the intimacy of companionship within the Trinity.   This part of His image was also instilled in us.  We needed to know what it was like to be one with another entity.  One flesh, exclusively connected to only one.  It’s almost as if God made an entire race of halves, and we need to find the other to become whole.

This has also been skewed in Sin.  Homosexuality, polygamy, playa’s, all kinds of wrongness, not because of the people, but because they don’t fit.   These relationships are counteractive to the relationship of Husband and Wife.  Husband and Wife is the proper term because it emphasizes to the fullest the exclusivity of the relationship.  Boyfriend, girlfriend, lover, partner, boo, honey, chick-on-the-side, they all don’t work for some reason or another.  Humanity desires more than sex, more than love, more than intimacy alone. It desires all these with exclusivity. Only when all are found can a relationship really be deemed companionship.

Now, I know we need food, shelter, all that stuff. But, those things don’t make us human.  Those things make us alive.  But, dogs are alive.  Plants are alive.  Microbacteria are alive.  Humans are more than alive.  They are alive on purpose.  They are alive with identity.  We are alive because we are the image of God.

 

Chr1st….

I came up with it a couple months ago.  Though, I am sure someone has used it before me.

Chr1st = Christ First

It has kinda become a mantra for me.  When I need to remember what it is that I need to be about, I remember: Chr1st.

I encourage anyone who may read this blog, to remember that.  It is so hard in our day and age to put anything first other than ourselves.  We live in society where the glorification of self is the end all of existence.  It is necessary, by this logic, to remember this phrase when you forget priorities: Me First and the Gimme-Gimmies.  No, my friend, it is not just a punk rock cover band anymore.  It is the very way you are to live your life in order to get by.  Success is all there is to life, and success is only for you.

I am reminded of all the celebrities, and CEO’s and such that are successful, and how down right messed up they tend to be.  Britney Spears, God help her, has felt this the most.  I genuinely feel sick for her when I here of what she has been through in recent years.  All in the pursuit of success.  Now, she can’t have that which she really wants, and that is her family.  I could not imagine my job, my success, getting in the way of my Lily.  If that happened, I would straight quit.  It isn’t worthwhile to pursue success when it means we glorify ourselves.

Success is the edification and building of the Kingdom of God.  Success is the return of Christ for His Church.  Success is the end of the Age.   Christ is all that is successful, since He alone has conquered death.  Our only success comes through serving Him and others for the sake of the Gospel.  And that comes only by His Holy Spirit. 

 

The First Easter Egg Hunt

Yeah, there was a sort of Easter Egg Hunt on the First Easter, though, there were no eggs involved, only a dead guy and his body.

 So, The day after Saturday, amazing things happened.  The entire of Christianity hangs on this simple fact.  Paul says it best in 1 Corinthians. Basically, if there is no resurrection of the dead than Christ himself did not rise.

So simple, and huge, and hard to accept.  Because, lets face it, we have to simply go on the words of the Apostles and Disciples to build our faith in the Resurrection.  But, the Twelve saw another guy resurrected. 

Lazarus.  Jesus, raises Lazarus from the dead.  He is resurrected.  Granted, he died again, so Lazarus in and of himself has no power.  But, Christ, subject to death, also displays his power over death in the Resurrection of Lazarus.  Peter saw it, John, James, Thaddeus, Matthais (Judas Replacement), they all saw it.

I think this lends itself to why the Apostles would believe that Christ was really raised from the dead, aside from the whole talking to and touching him.

I mean, they saw this man raise another man from the dead.  He obviously has power over death.  It’s like why the Patriots would resign Randy Moss, he has showcased his power over other cornerbacks.  Why not put our faith in one who has displayed his divine nature as divine?

I mean, its not like Christ hid who He was when He was alive.  You raise someone from the dead and you are somebody.  You feed 5000 from a couple fish and some bread and you got it going on.  You have part in creating all that exists and you may be something special, something more than human. 

 

What do you call the Saturday between Good Friday and Easter Sunday?

I’m proposing to the Committee for the Naming of Holidays, that this Saturday, be known henceforth as…

 I don’t really have anything.  Yet, this days is just as essential as any of the other in Holy Week.

 I Great Savior suffered the full brunt of the wrath of God on this day.  Remember in the Gospel, where the Temple Curtain rips in two from top to bottom?  This signified that the seperation of God from Man was over.  Communion was back on the table.

Check out Matthew 27:45, “From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land.”  I want to dwell on this fact.  I believe, that in this darkness, is the symbol of the Light of the World, no longer in the World.

from Matthew 27: 50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

    51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52 and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53 They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and ^[e] went into the holy city and appeared to many people.

Now, why were these people walking around when they had been dead?  Here is my thoughts.  None of this is found in Scripture, its just want I imagine Christ was doing from Friday Night to Saturday.

I think that Christ opened up Hades.  Now, I view Hades as the “holding tank of the Saints”.  Seeing as Matthew says all those that were risen were “holy people”, I don’t think this is two far from off.  I think he passes through there, reveals himself to all those of the old covenant, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, the full monty, and they in turn return to earth and testify.

Christ then makes His way to Hell.  Yes, I think Christ spent time in Hell, undersubmission to the Law.   If Christ takes on Sin and the penalty of Sin, He must meet it all, including Hell.  Now, Hell is complete seperation from God.  So, in the darkness and the storm, earthquake, and all, this is the moment in which the Trinity is no longer a Trinity.  To put it bluntly, all Hell is breaking loose.  Nothing is as it should be when God designed existence.  At this moment, God mourns the loss of His Son, since He can no longer be in fellowship with Him, since Christ has now become Sin. 

Now imagine if we lost a son or daughter.  We atleast would have the memory of them.  All the pleasure, all the good times, hopefully.  But, I don’t think God would have this luxury.  His Son just became diametically opposed to Him in becoming Sin.  God, couldn’t look back on His Son’s memory with good memories.  All He would be able to see, is the fact that He is covered in Sin, and God cannot be in the presence of Sin. 

Oh, but the Glory of it all is in the morning.

“Though the sorrows may last through the night, Joy comes with the morning.”