Journey Church Forum

THE SIMPLE ACT OF STARTING

2007-04-24T13:30:00.000-06:00

In terms of developing a life of prayer, the single most important step that we can take is the first one. I think that sometimes we overestimate our importance in the act of prayer, while at the same time severely underestimating God's grace and activity in the prayer. This is the attitude that leads to the belief that to truly pray, the individual must do it "right" or the whole activity will be botched. It is also the attitude that prevents many from even beginning to learn to pray.
So the best piece of advice I can give is to say simply this: begin. Do not worry about doing it wrong. It isn't our business to know how to pray, it is our business to let God teach us. If you are a seasoned vet at prayer, the following might be somewhat useless to you, but if you are, like me, a beginner, then may I offer a couple of things to keep in mind:
1) God is active when we pray. I think we need to learn to cultivate an attitude that recognizes that we are not to be the more active/vocal partner in prayer dialogue. This is a hard discipline to develop because learning to recognizing God's voice is difficult and frustrating and a life-long process. That being said, let God lead. Do not feel like you need to fill the entire prayer with chatter. Even in silence, God is at work in you as you let yourself be open to His leading Spirit. Prayer is communion with the living God; who are we to thing that the activity depends on our activity? We are not the lead partners in the prayer-dance.
2) God honors even broken prayers. As I said above, it is not our business to know exactly what to pray for. The hard truth is that we are sinful, limited beings, and God's perspective is not ours. Therefore, it is not an inappropriate thing to admit to God that you are unsure of what to say. The Bible says that God's Spirit intercedes on our behalf when we are overwhelmed an unable to discern the best thing to pray for. Even the most pitiful, uninformed prayer is a blessing to God if it is offered in honesty, with open hands. It is an important thing to learn to pray for our prayers.
3) The goal of prayer is God. This is a personal soapbox of mine. I don't like the idea of prayer having as its core purpose submitting our requests to God. We should not pray because through praying we tell God what we want. We pray because in prayer, we encounter God Himself. Communion with the divine is our chief end. In prayer we are exposing our deepest selves to the governance of sovereign God, letting our hard hearts be shown sensitive to the will of our loving Father. We pray so that God will tell us what He wants.
Hopefully these things are helpful to you in establishing a habit of prayer in your life with Christ. Obviously, there is far more that could be said about prayer, and eventually we must move past these humble beginnings. But the important thing here is to begin. Do not delay, simply come before the God of grace and begin. As you do, you might want to share some of your joys, frustrations, experiences or anything else on here or with someone you trust.
"Lord, teach us to pray."

A PRAYER FOR BEGINNINGS

2007-04-17T10:32:00.000-06:00

Our Heavenly Father,

You alone are God, you alone are good. We were dead in our sin and you bought our salvation with the sacrifice of your beloved son, Jesus Christ. May you be glorified forever for who you are and what you've done.
But God, if we've been saved and our sin is removed forever, it's hard to understand why we still live the same way we always have. Why is there such a large gap between who you call us to be and who we actually are? Lord, unless you save us, this is who we are. Please save us.
As we, Journey Church, begin this new season of growth and transformation, we give it all to you. We acknowledge that we are powerless to help ourselves, powerless to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps. Your Spirit at work in us is our only hope. We give ourselves to you. Take us and root out the false gods and evil tendencies that cling to their ownership of our souls. Pour your living water into us and enrich our inner beings. Make us receptive and soft to your convictions and guidance. Don't leave us as we are. God transform our souls.
We lift all up to you in the name and power of Jesus Christ,
Amen

RESURRECTION?

2007-04-10T08:45:00.000-06:00

They tell me it's spring. That's what it says on my calendar; March 21st, "First Day of Spring." Well, it's April 10th now, and I'm looking out my front window and I feel a little deceived. It may be officially spring, but from where I'm sitting, it sure looks like winter. The sky is gray and the ground is white. There are no leaves on the trees. The grass is still brown. From my perspective, we are still living in winter.
Winter, in a certain sense, is characterized by death. At least to me, when I think of the winter I think of the death of the living vibrancy that inhabits summer. Winter is a cold, dull, quiet, even death that consumes the entire landscape. It is beautiful, in its own way, but by the time April hits, winter feels mighty old. The winter of the soul is very much the same. We are Christ-followers, we've heard and believed that death has been defeated in Jesus; in His resurrection. Life has come! Death is undone! The only problem is, from where I stand, I still see a whole lot of winter, and sometimes very little spring.
Maybe I'm just a pessimist, seeing only the negative aspects of a fallen world, and not recognizing enough the redemption at work around me and in me. To be fair: I have seen life overcome death in people around me, in myself. I've seen addictions die, hatred dissolve, hard hearts melt like ice in the sun. I've seen life come to houses where once only death lived.
Sometimes though, I look out and all I see is the winter. You've probably been there. How do we reconcile the tension between death seen and resurrection hoped for? This is a continuation of last week's message from Malcolm and blog subject. How do we hold both the Already and the Not Yet in healthy tension?
Jesus said to Martha in John 11:25-26, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?
Jesus' very presence IS the resurrection. Do you believe this? How do you live this truth out when death seems so prevalent?

LIFE BETWEEN THE BOOKENDS

2007-04-02T14:38:00.000-06:00

"So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." - Romans 7:25

Paul, who wrote the above passage, understood the tension of living saved, but living sinful. You see, Jesus did in fact die to release us from the prison of sin. Even while He was pinned to the cross, He cried out, "It is finished." His work was finished. At the moment of His death, the curtain in the temple that separated the holiest part of the temple from the rest was torn in two. This ripping of fabric symbolized the entrance of a new era where religious institutions were no longer required to access the presence of God. Direct communion with Holy God became a reality in the person of Jesus Christ.
But (and it is a big but, as Malcolm pointed out on Sunday), our present lives don't always appear to reflect these truths. In fact, some would say that they rarely, if ever do. If Christ crucified my sin, and I am free from it forever, and I have direct access to God's Holy presence, why does evil still run rampant in my life? In my world? Why do I still sin? Why do I still crave false gods instead of the One True God? Why do I still struggle with the same temptations and frustrations and aches year in and year out? It would appear that there is a contradiction between my theology and my frame of experience.
My theology professor used to call this tension life between the bookends. Looking both backwards and forwards we see certain victory. The past shows us the reality that it is, indeed, finished. Christ's blood washes my sin. Once for all time. Looking ahead to the promise of victory in the future, we look forward to the final, total, complete redemption that comes with Christ's return. Right now, this present day, however, we live between the bookends. It is what the Bible refers to as the "Last Days." The Already Not Yet. In this time, we are seeing the beginnings of salvation. We ache for the end.
How do you balance this tension of life between the bookends? How do you reconcile the two? Where does your hope lie? How can we walk this path together?

THE WAY OF THE CROSS

2007-03-27T08:34:00.000-06:00

It's not a pretty picture. Our modern representations of it are nice and sentimental, sure, but they ignore the real horror of it. The cross is a despicable thing. It was the most painful, humiliating undignified death that a person could die in Jesus' day. As Troy talked about on Sunday, this cross was no sanitary, polished thing. It was shame and foolishness and death and filth and all the worst of the criminals and evil men were subjected to it. The cross is sin and death. Jesus became those things for our sake, for our good. His love motivated Him (fully God) to allow Himself to be subject to the worst death available. He became literally God-forsaken on the most godforsaken instrument of torture there was.
Sure, I'm being sensationalistic, melodramatic, even crass to some. What could possibly be the purpose in being so graphic about Jesus' death on the cross? Mel Gibson got the same questions about "The Passion". It's uncomfortable to be so blatantly confronted with the violence and gore of the cross. It's uncomfortable, but we need to know because we need to count the cost, realistically. Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me." (Matthew 6:24). We hear those words and they are almost meaningless. We say things like taking up our cross and denying ourselves means taking out the garbage or emptying the dishwasher, even when it's not our turn. But imagine you are one of the disciples, listening to these words for the first time. You've walked down the roads; you've seen the criminals dying on their crosses. You are all too familiar with the horror, pain and shame of the cross. But here is Jesus saying, take up your cross and follow. Embrace your instrument of torture and follow me. The disciples didn't have the luxury of taking Jesus' words metaphorically.
Honestly, this is an uncomfortable passage. I'm not sure what it looks like for me to take up my cross and follow Jesus. What I am sure of is that we need to know what we are getting ourselves into. We need to be realistic about the nature of discipleship. Dietrich Boenhoffer said that grace is the free gift that costs us everything. We need to count the cost.
What does it mean to walk the road of the cross? How do you respond to Jesus words? How can we obey such a radical commandment?

CHRIST: THE KING AND THE KINGDOM

2007-03-12T14:15:00.000-06:00

"Regnum Dei Deus est" ("The Kingdom of God is God") - Origen.

More and more every year I realize that God's desire for us is exeedingly simple; too simple, indeed, for muddy-minded and convoluted humans like us. We turn every little thing, including religion, into a debate or a competition or a test of worth. But what I am continually learning (being taught is more appropriate, really) is that to God, religion is very simple. If I could sum up the entire duty and responsibiliy of the individual in regards to relationship with God, it would not be a statement at all, but rather a question. My question for you is: "Do you just want to be with Jesus?" Do you simply want to walk beside Him, live with Him, learn from Him, spend time with Him? Do you want to be with Jesus?
It's really too bad, because in many cases, my answer to these questions is, "no." No, I want someone to give me what I ask for, someone to take away my guilty feelings, some sense of security in the grand scheme of the world. I want a friend who will love me, accept me and support me, but not one who will challenge me or convict me; not a friend who will ask me to change behaiviors that are wrong. I have a feeling that I am not alone in my misplaced devotion here.
If you really want to know what the Kingdom of God is like; if you really, honestly want to know what it is like to live in the Kingdom of God, then spend time with Jesus. Look at Him and you will see the Kingdom. If the Kingdom of God is the place where God's effective will is carried out, then Jesus IS the Kingdom of God. His central message, as well as His central prayer was, "Father, your Kingdom come. Your will be done." Walk beside Jesus and walk like Him, and you will find the Kingdom of God is closer than you think. Pretty soon, you will start to discover it within yourself.
"In the presence of Jesus is found the presence of the kingdom. Just as in Jewish doctrine, the Torah [law] didn't so much come from heaven as the Torah is itself heaven. In the same way in Christian doctrine, Jesus is Himelf the kingdom. Just as Jesus is the One who Was, and Is, and Is to Come, so the kingdom has come, is coming, and is now here. The kingdom of God is the presence of Jesus." - Leonard Sweet, "The Three Hardest Words".

THE THRONE INSIDE

2007-03-05T09:05:00.000-07:00

"Before the Lord God made man upon the earth He first prepared for him a world of useful and pleasant thisngs for his sustanance and delight. In the Genesis account of creation these are called simply "things". They were made for man's use, but they were meant always to be external to the man and subservient to him. In the deep heart of the man was a shrine where nonE but God was worthy to come. Within him was God; without, a thousand gifts which God had showered upon him. But sin has introduced complications and has made those very gifts of God a potential source of ruin to the soul. Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and things were allowed to enter. Within the human heart things have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk stubborn and aggresive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne.
This is not a mere metaphor, but an accurate analysis of our real spiritual trouble..." (A.W. Tozer, "The Pursuit of God").
I am drawn to Tozer's "Throne Room" imagery used to describe the human heart and condition. Within each of us exists a throne, and whomever or whatever sits upon that throne is the entity that rules us. That entity is served as god and first priority. Troy used this image of a central shrine on Sunday when he was talking about David's life. I would agree with Troy; David's life is a classic study of a human letting himself be ruled by different masters. In many cases, David had it right. Indeed, he seemed to grasp the idea of relationship with God more that anyone else in the Old Testament. The Bible describes David as a "man after God's own heart". He knew intimacy with his creator and was a willing servant to that creator's will. As we know, however, David let someone other than his God sit on the throne of his heart. Bathsheba became his god, and in the end he served her and was ruled by his lust for her to the point of becoming an adulterer and murder.
Within each of us exists unimaginable potential for both holiness and utter depravity. I think that the primary difference between sinner and saint is the object that is found to be sitting on the throne of the soul. Whatever sits on that throne gets our allegience. When God is in occupation, He rules with love and grace. When things sit upon that throne, they dominate and beat hearts into submission.
Who, or what, is sitting in the throne room inside of you? Where does your allegiance lie? AS Bob Dyla so aptly put it, "you gotta serve somebody". Who gets the priority in your life? How have you seen God at work when He has occupied the cental shrine of your life?

RED SEA RULES

2007-03-01T11:10:00.000-07:00

We all have times where we find ourselves in seemingly impossible situations. My husband and I went through a really tough period about 3 years ago, where our future security and his character were being threatened and we didn’t see any way out of the situation.
During that time I just happened upon a short book and a great read by Robert J. Morgan called the “Red Sea Rules”. The Godly principles and wisdom shown in that book became my pillar of strength during that time when we really did feel that we were trapped between “the devil and the deep RED sea”. I felt that that if I took my eyes off God then we would drown.
We didn’t drown and God made a path for us out of that horrible situation and we look back now and know that it made us stronger, better people and out of that crisis has come opportunity.
When I found myself in any type of double-bind, I often find one of these rules popping into my head and I am reminding that “the same God who lead me in will lead me out.”
God’s promise is that He is always with you and He will make a way for us. The Lord says “I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert. “ (Isa 43:19)
When you’ve been caught between the ‘devil and the deep Red Sea’ how has God made a way for you? What promises from God, or what illustrations from the bible have you used as your pillar of strength to enable you to walk God’s path?

The Red Sea Rules
"The Same GOD who led you in will lead you out."
-Robert J. Morgan.

Rule 1
Realize that God means for you to be where you are.

Rule 2
Be more concerned for God’s glory than for your relief.

Rule 3
Acknowledge your enemy, but keep your eyes on the Lord.

Rule 4
Pray!

Rule 5
Stay calm and confident, and give God time to work.

Rule 6
When unsure, just take the next logical step by faith.

Rule 7
Envision God’s enveloping presence.

Rule 8
Trust God to deliver in His own unique way.

Rule 9
View your current crisis as a faith builder for the future.

Rule 10
Don’t forget to praise Him.

BACK TO THE GARDEN

2007-02-12T13:06:00.000-07:00

In my first year of Bible College, one of the courses that I took was "Old Testament Literature". The class was an overview of the entire Old Testament, from Genesis to Malachi. One of the assignments that we were given was to choose five major stories from the Old Testament and rewrite them as children's stories. The idea of the assignment was to get us thinking about key events of the Old Testament, but also to help us see the major themes of the Scriptures. To communicate Biblical truths to five year-olds you need to think in very broad, thematic terms. It was a fun assignment to complete, but on top of being fun, I also learned something (who would've thought?).
My group chose our stories and began to examine and rewrite them, trying to discern the major themes and truths of each one. What amazed me was that there was striking continuity between each of the stories. Every one carried major themes of God's father-like pursuit of His wayward people.
As a species, humanity's story had a perfect beginning; pure, harmonious relationship with God, with each other and with the world. It was God's perfect dream. We choose our own way, however; turned away from God's will and choose to make ourselves gods instead. Since then, God has never stopped chasing us. Throughout all of Scripture you can hear God's pleading, tender call, "I am here. Where are you?" His voice still calls.
Joni Mitchell's "got to get ourselves back to the garden" (from the song, "Woodstock") resonates something of truth and longing for me. Maybe I don't share the same hippy-topia vision that the song conveys, but I understand its longing for something lost. We were once whole. Now we are not. We are caught in a world at war, and we ourselves are at odds with everything, including God and ourselves. But this world at war is not God's dream. And in His dream there is still hope, even in the midst of our nightmare. The Biblical image of the garden is not only found in Genesis, at the beginning of all things, before corruption was conceived. The image is also found in Revelation, a vision of the end of all things. It is a vision of restoration, a vision of hope. Mainly though, it is a vision of a place where humans have stopped running. The is no voice of God calling, "Where are you?" His call will only be "Here I am. Here we are."
Are you running from God? Do you sense that He is calling you back into restored relationship with Him? How are you responding to his call?

HINTS FOR PRAYER

2007-02-05T18:36:00.000-07:00

"Prayer is friendship with God. Friendship is not formal, but it is not formless: it has its cultivation, its behavior, its obligations, even its disciplines; and the casual mind kills it. So we offer here, as a guide-map not as a chain, a simple regimen of private prayer." - George A. Buttress
Many people don't pray simply because they don't know how. The following is a sort of guideline for what a time of private prayer might look like. These "Hints for Prayer" have been adapted from George A Buttrick's book "Prayer" (Read this book!!).

1) Begin in Silent Preparation:
Start your prayer time by quieting your heart and meditating upon God. Say to yourself, "His light fills the world. It fills this room."
2) Make an Act of Faith:
"In this initial silence of prayer we say to ourselves that whatever we ask 'in the nature of Christ' is ours, granted only our earnestness in prayer and life." Take these words literally and step out in faith and trust that God hears and answers prayer.
3) Start with Thanksgiving:
Deliberately call to mind the joys of the journey. Be very specific. Thank God both for the blessings of the day as well as for His continual blessings. Resolve to leave your prayer time with an attitude of gratitude.
4) Confess:
Be honest about your wrongs; be neither overly aggressive nor casually indifferent towards your sin. Again, be very specific. Accept God's forgiveness; let your sins be forgiven. Resolve to walk away from your sin and towards a new life.
5) Pray for Others:
Be mindful of who your neighbors are. Be specific. Call to mind individual faces, not a mass of people. In this, you should start with your enemies, then for leaders, the needy, your friends and loved ones. Pray daringly: be resolved to move and act in love in response to your own prayers.
6) Pray for Yourself:
Be honest and specific. Trust that God wants to hear and respond to your prayers for your own life. Allow God's will, not your own, to be done.
7) End in Reflective Adoration and Trust

A special note: At all intervals, your prayers should be filled with listening meditation. Listen at least as much as you speak; ideally you will listen more.

CHANGE

2007-01-22T14:07:00.000-07:00

A.W. Tozer wrote the following in an essay entitled "Missing Jewel", which I was reading last night: "Why did Christ come? Why is He now at the right hand of the Father? The answer to these questions is, 'To make worshipers out of rebels; to restore us again to the place of worship we knew when we were created.'"
The phrase, "worshipers out of rebels" stood out dramatically to me. To Tozer, the center of the gospel is transformation. Christ did not come to give us 'get out of hell and into heaven free' passes. The argument that Tozer makes is that Christ came to transform sinful lives into divine ones. As I read these words, I was reminded of Troy's last message. Real Change. Change is so crucial. The proof that an individual is following Jesus is not whether or not they can recite the Apostle's Creed, or if they "don't smoke, don't chew, don't go with girls who do" (as my Grandpa was fond of saying). The real evidence that a man or woman is a disciple of Christ is this: are they being transformed? Are they growing? Does their life bear the mark of continual shaping and transformation? Sadly, in may cases the majority of people sitting in the pews at church do not reflect this central purpose of the Gospel.
We've got to move past mere mental assent of God's lordship. This is absolutely imperative. It is not a difficult thing to say, "I believe in God". Oh good. You share the same set of beliefs as a demon (James 2:19). That statement is not what it means to be a Christian. That statement is only the beginning of faith. Real faith takes that belief and says, "I am going to do everything in my power to give my life up to the God I beleive. I am going to walk as much like Christ as I can and depend on the redemptive power Jesus to do what I am powerless to do."
If the people who come to Journey Church services and Care Groups are the same people after a year (and after two years, and after five years) of coming to Journey, then everything that we've done is meaningless. If that happens, we've all missed the point. We must be a people characterized by transformation. If that is untrue in our lives, we need to question if we are really living God's will for our lives.
So the question that I want to ask is: honestly, how has God been transforming you lately? Is transformation occurring at all? If not, why? If so, what have been the reasons?

Facing Temptations with Thomas

2007-01-17T00:23:00.002-07:00

I was recently reading something by Thomas a Kempis (Excerpts from "Imitation of Christ"). As Troy was speaking about temptation on Sunday, his words kept coming to mind. I hope you find wisdom and life in them as I have.

"The beginning of all evil temptations is an unstable mind and a small trust in God. Just as a ship without a helm is tossed about by the waves, as a person who lacks resolution and certainty is tossed about by temptations. Temptation reveals our instability and our lack of trust in God; temptations reveal who we are. This is why we must pay attention to them."
- The reason I latch so tightly onto these words is because I've seen their truth play out often in my own experience. Temptation is not merely an issue of wanting something that we feel as though we ought to have. The issue is, at it's core one of unbelief. I give into temptation because I don't truly believe that God is really working on my behalf and that he will provide the things I need to grow and love and live. I seek stability and control and intimacy and things that I think I need to be complete and in turn make my temptations the provider of these things, revealing how little I really trust God. In reality however, every good and perfect gift comes from God, and saying no to temptation is as much about saying yes to the positive, life-giving love of God as it is about rejecting the negative, soul-wounding grip of sin.

"We will do better in dealing with temptations if we keep an eye on them in the very beginning... The process works like this: First, the thought is allowed to enter into our minds. Second, the imagination is sparked by the thought. Third, we feel a sense of pleasure at the fantasy, and we entertain it. Fourth and finally, we engage in the evil action, assenting to its urges. This is how, little by little, temptations gain entrance and overcome us if they are not resisted in the beginning. The longer we let them overcome us, the weaker we become, and the stronger the enemy is against us."
- When you are tempted, admit that you tempted. Even if it is simply an admission to yourself, do not try to pretend that what you are going through is non-issue; a non-event. This is a trick that the devil loves to pull, but every act of illumination weakens his power in temptation. If the issue stays shadowy and convoluted, you may remain convinced that the road you are allowing yourself to walk is harmlessly acceptable. That is until you've been dragged away by sin to some place you don't want to be. Bring you struggles into the light. Name your temptations for what they are and simply, quietly, expectantly pray to God for His strength.

"Finally, I want to show you the way of peace and true liberty. There are four things you must do. First, strive to do another's will rather than your own. Second, choose always to have less than more. Third, seek the lower places in life, dying to the need to be recognized and important. Fourth, always and in everything desire that the will of God may be completely fulfilled in you. The person who tries this will be treading the frontiers of peace and trust."
- There is also power in standing together. Share the story God has given you of how you've faced temptation (it might even be a negative example) with another person this week. What helps? What is harmful? Where have you found "true liberty?"

A STORY

2007-01-10T09:44:00.000-07:00

Once there was an old man who lived in a tiny village. Although poor, he was envied by all, for he owned a beautiful white horse. Even the king coveted his treasure. A horse like this had never been seen before -- such was its splendor, its majesty, its strength. People offered fabulous prices for the steed, but the old man always refused. "This horse is not a horse to me," he would tell them. "It is a person. How could you sell a person? He is a friend, not a possession. How could you sell a friend?" The man was poor and the temptation was great. But he never sold the horse. One morning he found that the horse was not in the stable. All the village came to see him. "You old fool," they scoffed, "we told you that someone would steal your horse. We warned you that you would be robbed. You are so poor. How could you ever hope to protect such a valuable animal? It would have been better to have sold him. You could have gotten whatever price you wanted. No amount would have been too high. Now the horse is gone, and you've been cursed with misfortune." The old man responded, "Don't speak too quickly. Say only that the horse is not in the stable. That is all we know; the rest is judgment. If I've been cursed or not, how can you know? How can you judge?" The people contested, "Don't make us out to be fools! We may not be philosophers, but great philosophy is not needed. The simple fact is that your horse is gone is a curse." The old man spoke again. "All I know is that the stable is empty, and the horse is gone. The rest I don't know. Whether it be a curse or a blessing, I can't say. All we can see is a fragment. Who can say what will come next?" The people of the village laughed. They thought that the man was crazy. They had always thought he was a fool; if he wasn't, he would have sold the horse and lived off the money. But instead, he was a poor woodcutter, an old man still cutting firewood and dragging it out of the forest and selling it. he lived hand to mouth in the misery of poverty. Now he had proven that he was, indeed, a fool.

After fifteen days, the horse returned. He hadn't been stolen; he had run away into the forest. Not only had he returned, he had brought a dozen wild horses with him. Once again the village people gathered around the woodcutter and spoke. "Old man, you were right and we were wrong. What we thought was a curse was a blessing. Please forgive us." The man responded, "Once again, you go too far. Say only that the horse is back. State only that a dozen horses returned with him, but don't judge. How do you know if this is a blessing or not? You see only a fragment. Unless you know the whole story, how can you judge? You read only one page of a book. Can you judge the whole book? You read only one word of a phrase. Can you understand the entire phrase? "Life is so vast, yet you judge all of life with one page or one word. All you have is a fragment! Don't say that this is a blessing. No one knows. I am content with what I know. I am not perturbed by what I don't." "Maybe the old man is right," they said to one another. So they said little. But down deep, they knew he was wrong. They knew it was a blessing. Twelve wild horses had returned with one horse. With a little bit of work, the animals could be broken and trained and sold for much money. The old man had a son, an only son. The young man began to break the wild horses. After a few days, he fell from one of the horses and broke both legs. Once again the villagers gathered around the old man and cast their judgments. "You were right," they said. "You proved you were right. The dozen horses were not a blessing. They were a curse. Your only son has broken his legs, and now in your old age you have no one to help you. Now you are poorer than ever." The old man spoke again. "You people are obsessed with judging. Don't go so far. Say only that my son broke his legs. Who knows if it is a blessing or a curse? No one knows. We only have a fragment. Life comes in fragments."

It so happened that a few weeks later the country engaged in war against a neighboring country. All the young men of the village were required to join the army. Only the son of the old man was excluded, because he was injured. Once again the people gathered around the old man, crying and screaming because their sons had been taken. There was little chance that they would return. The enemy was strong, and the war would be a losing struggle. They would never see their sons again.
"You were right, old man," they wept. "God knows you were right. This proves it. Your son's accident was a blessing. His legs may be broken, but at least he is with you. Our sons are gone forever." The old man spoke again. "It is impossible to talk with you. You always draw conclusions. No one knows. Say only this: Your sons had to go to war, and mine did not. No one knows if it is a blessing or a curse. No one is wise enough to know. Only God knows."

"In the Eye of the Storm" by Max Lucado, Word Publishing, 1991, pp. 144-147.

WEAKNESS EXPLORED

2006-12-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

God works in the most beautiful ways. When God breaks into humanity, the frail become mighty warriors, the weak break down strongholds, shame is woven into grace and virtue. In His Kingdom, strength and power and holiness are found in the most unexpected places. The cross, foolishness to the Greeks and shame to the Jews, becomes the power of God for salvation. A tiny baby, lying in a filthy feed-trough is the light and hope of the entire cosmos. Dirty, unacceptable shepherds are chosen to receive the announcement of the greatest news that the world has ever heard. Yes, I think it's fair to say that God has a sense of irony.
All through Scripture, God works in this beautiful, paradoxical way. Prostitutes and murderers are listed in Jesus' lineage. An adulteress woman at a well becomes the first missionary to the Samaritans. Christ preaches that children are closer to the truth about his ways than religious authorities. And if God delights in using these weak members to do the most important business of His Kingdom, then the question that begs to be asked is this: who are we to judge what is weak and useless in this world? I think that we often make the tragic mistake of dismissal. By dismissal I mean that we don't even take into consideration the incredible potential that every human being has in the Kingdom of God. Sometimes we dismiss ourselves; sometimes we dismiss others. We don't think we are good enough or smart enough or strong enough to step into the battle against darkness ongoing that Christ leads us into. How dare we think so lowly of ourselves. Really, if God can use weak, betraying men like the apostles to change the face of the entire Roman world, surely he can take us in all of our brokenness and turn us into forces to be reckoned with. He's done it all along. He will work his beautiful irony in us as well.
What weak parts of your life do you dismiss as being un-workable or un-usable? Have you ever experienced something wonderful come about through something that you considered unimportant or weak? Are there other people that you've dismissed as being unreachable or untouchable?

REDEMPTION

2006-12-12T09:23:00.000-07:00

At my Care Group on Sunday night, after hearing Troy's message and the stories that people shared about God coming through when it looked like things were falling apart, Tim, who is in my group, asked a question. You know those questions that haunt you and won't leave you alone until you've obsessed over them for three weeks? It was one of those questions. He asked if when we talk about God working good things out of bad situations (like Troy and others were talking about) it is the same thing that non-Christians are talking about with things like Karma or Fate? It was a question that I don't think there is an easy answer to. It certainly sounds the same, or a least similar to talk about God showing up and things working out when we didn't think they would. Maybe people who believe in karma and fate really believe in an over-simplified and incomplete piece of the same thing that we do. But that idea troubles me. I don't want to believe in some sort of vague hope that things will work out. I want a God who enters into my pain and walks through it with me. Whether or not things work out, I want to believe that it's worth living in a world where the apple-cart gets spilled, if only because God is there with me.
As I've reflected on Tim's question, I've come to see that what we were really talking about on Sunday was Redemption, not Karma. Karma, or fate, or whatever you want to call it, is only concerned with restoring something to the place it was in before. But Christ is not in the business of karma; Christ is in the business of redemption. Redemption is not simply a restoration of original balance. Redemption picks up the things that are out of balance, the shattered fragments of a broken life and builds a mosaic or a tapestry out of them. Redemption builds a work of art more beautiful than anything that we could have imagined before things came crashing down. This is possible because Christ Jesus (a personal, loving God manifest in human flesh and not an impersonal, vague force like karma) enters into the dirt of what we are going through and bears the worst of it for us. That is the Christmas story. Jesus comes to be with us, takes on the very worst of who we are and what we do, and turns all of it to glory.
Don't make the mistake of thinking that pain will never affect you because you are a Christian. Sometimes, it might not even come to the place where you can see the good in the pain at all. But God is There. And He is in the business of redemption. Have you experienced redemption? Does any of this ring true for you or do you see things in a different way? I'm interested to hear other perspectives on this, so let me know what you think.

WORLDS APART

2006-12-05T11:25:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, there just isn't anything new to say. Someone somewhere has already said how you are feeling in a beautiful way, and so the best thing to do is fall silent, and let those words speak for themselves. The following are the lyrics of a song that I've come back to over and over again over the years, Jars of Clay's "Worlds Apart". Something about them touches the deepest part of my soul. I know that this blog is usually a place to keep dialogue going from what Troy speaks about on Sunday, but I don't know, this seems to be the only thing that I can think of to say. So, enjoy the poetry; get wrapped up by the mystery of the song. Maybe you want to share an important poem or song on here. By all means, let's be blessed by the words that others have been inspired to write.

"Worlds Apart"

I am the only one to blame for this
Somehow it all ends up the same
Soaring on the wings of selfish pride
I flew too high and like Icarus I collide
With a world I try so hard to leave behind
To rid myself of all but love
to give and die

To turn away and not become
Another nail to pierce the skin of one who loves
more deeply than the oceans,
more abundant than the tears
Of a world embracing every heartache

Can I be the one to sacrifice
Or grip the spear and watch the blood and water flow

(Chorus)
To love you - take my world apart
To need you - I am on my knees
To love you - take my world apart
To need you - broken on my knees

All said and done I stand alone
Amongst remains of a life I should not own
It takes all I am to believe
In the mercy that covers me

Did you really have to die for me?
All I am for all you are
Because what I need and what I believe are worlds apart

I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
and wipe away the crimson stains
and dull the nails that still remain
More and more I need you now,
I owe you more each passing hour
the battle between grace and pride
I gave up not so long ago
So steal my heart and take the pain
and wash the feet and cleanse my pride
take the selfish, take the weak,
and all the things I cannot hide
take the beauty, take my tears
the sin-soaked heart and make it yours
take my world all apart
take it now, take it now
and serve the ones that I despise
speak the words I can't deny
watch the world I used to love
fall to dust and thrown away
I look beyond the empty cross
forgetting what my life has cost
so wipe away the crimson stains
and dull the nails that still remain
so steal my heart and take the pain
take the selfish, take the weak
and all the things I cannot hide
take the beauty, take my tears
take my world apart, take my world apart
I pray, I pray, I pray
take my world apart

TIRED OF CHRISTMAS AND IT'S ONLY NOVEMBER

2006-11-27T15:31:00.000-07:00

Most people love Christmas. But some people LOVE Christmas. These are the people who've already had their lights up for three and a half weeks, who set up three trees in their living room and four in their bedroom (not to mention the two in the bathroom), who don't ever get tired of hearing Christmas carols and have maxed out the 40GB on their iPod with them. These are the people who really LOVE Christmas. You know at least one of them, probably more. I am not one of these people.
Christmas is my favorite holiday, for sure. I love getting together with friends and family, sharing gifts, getting gifts, the best food you can imagine. It's great. The lights and anticipation and joy are wonderful. But, if you're like me, by the time January hits, you're ready to sleep until sometime in March and you've sworn off eggnog forever. It's not surprising to me that more people are diagnosed with depression in December than any other time of the year. For many, it is only an all-too painful reminder of how lonely they really are.
We've all seen "The Grinch Who Stole Christmas". We realize by now that presents and roast beef are not the true meaning of Christmas. And yet, it is the busiest time of year for most of us. It is a time where we burn out, or at least come closer than is healthy. So, this year, I would like to issue a challenge. Consider it my gift to you (I know, it's a bit of a rip off, but it still beats fruit cake). This December, take some time to be with Jesus. That's it, that's all. We are celebrating His birth after all, and hopefully we are trying to honor Him with what we do. But I think that it would honor and please Him best if we stopped once in a while to let Him be our friend. Don't worry about saying the right thing or acting the right way; simply be present with Jesus. Take an hour a week, and let Jesus remind you that His presence is what the holiday is about. It would be a shame to get so caught up in celebrating that fact that we miss simply enjoying it.
How has the truth of Christmas been made real for you, this year or in years past? How do you maintain peace in this season of business and noise? How can you bring the reality of Christ's presence to the people around you?

THE CLOUDS OF DEPRESSION

2006-11-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

I hate depression. They say that statistically, one in four people will undergo a state of clinical depression (what Troy referred to as bio-chemical or physiological depression) before they are forty years old. That means that very likely, a quarter of the people who came to Journey this past Sunday have been, currently are or will at some point be depressed. I hate depression because it is a liar of a condition. People who are depressed hear the voice of depression telling them who they are and what they deserve. And the things that that voice tells them are lies; "There is no hope," "You are worthless," "You are totally alone." It is a voice of shame, guilt, fear and despair.
In my own life, I was clinically depressed for four and a half years. Most of that time I was taking a minimum of two pills a day, just so that my body could tell my mind that I was normal. The worst part of that entire time was the feeling that there was no escape. Depression is like being lost in a black cloud. You see no daylight and have no sense that you are even walking in the right direction to find it. You feel alone; many people see you either as a charity case or a faker, neither of which are helpful attitudes. During those years, I was close to giving up many times. A few times, I tried to.
I am not writing these things because I want pity or attention, but I know that God has given me a unique story, and it is my obligation and burden to share that story with others who need to know that they aren't the only ones dealing with this. Those were the worst times of my life. But now, standing from where I am today, I wouldn't trade those experiences for happier ones, even if I was given the choice. You might call me crazy or even insensitive, if you are struggling with depression right now, but it's true; I wouldn't want to miss out on who I've become. See, I needed to know hurt so that God could show me healing. I needed to feel despair so that I would know what it is to hope. Writing about his experience in prison, Malcolm X wrote, "It is only after the deepest darkness that the brightest light can shine." I needed to know depression so that God could give me joy. I needed to know joy, because I need to share the joy of Christ with a world that desperately needs it. There is a joy hat runs deeper than the hurt and stronger than the wounds. I'm not saying that you should just endure the pain because what doesn't kill you will only make you stronger. I don't want to oversimplify an extremely complex issue. There are no easy answers. Believe me, I've been there. It took me four years to get to the place where I could say that I was really healed. Even today, I am still affected by depression. I won't say that there is an easy way out. But I will say this: there is a way out. Please, don't give up. You are beautiful, you are loved. You are going to go on to be bigger and stronger than you could ever dream possible right now. I've walked that path, believe me when I say that depression is a liar. Find the true voices and never let go of them. Don't give up. You will one day be more.

BROKEN BY LOVE

2006-11-14T11:20:00.000-07:00

In the last few years I've gradually come to a perplexing discovery. When I examine my life, when I look back at where I've been and what has changed, I see that the periods that are the most beautiful to me are also the periods of time when I have experienced the deepest pain. I can't say that this is a universal phenomenon, or that I consider every instance of pain a good thing. I will say this, however: the broken places are the places where I've met God.
As we surrender our baggage; as we release the burdens and the chains that have owned us and bruised us, we are going to experience the harshest extremes of emotion and human experience. We will be broken. Releasing our idols and our captors will take us into realms of hurt, regret, shame, vulnerability, weakness, guilt, exhaustion, and places that we have resisted going our entire lives. We will also find joy and wholeness and grace beyond our ability to comprehend. Yet it is a terrifying thing to lay our souls bare and admit that we have nothing. This is a place of brokenness. Always remember though, brokenness is the place where God heals us. It sounds paradoxical, but when we are weak, God is strong.
I believe with my entire being that the most important lesson that God will teach us in the middle of our broken places is that we are loved. More than we can even fathom. God loves us. In "The Inner Voice of Love", Henri Nouwen writes these imperative words for the heart that is struggling to find healing: "You must believe in the 'yes' that comes back when you ask, 'do you love me?' You must choose this yes even when you do not experience it. Nothing else will provide healing or answers or satisfaction to the longings and hurts inside of you. You have to trust the place that is solid, the place where you can say yes to God's love even when you do not feel it. Keep saying, 'God loves me, and God's love is enough.' You have to choose the solid place over and over again and return to it after every failure,"
Have you owned the truth of God's deep love for you? Is that the place that you return to everyday, after every failure and in every weakness? You are named, you are loved. Unless you come to the place where that love is real in you, you will never find wholeness. God loves you, and God's love is enough.

LETTING GO

2006-11-06T15:09:00.000-07:00

LETTING GO

The root of all addiction is temptation. Temptation is the desire for thoughts, activities, attitudes images and objects that do not belong to us; things disciples of Jesus we should not own. Temptations may seem small and trivial, but when we start to give ourselves license to participate in their fulfillment, addiction creeps in. We become slaves to our pursuit of pleasure. We let our lust becom god.

Listen to these words from the ancient writer Thomas a Kempis ("Imitation of Christ"): "The beginning if all evil temptations in an unstable mind and a small trust in God. Just as a ship without a helm is tossed about by the waters, so a person who lacks resolution and certainty is tossed about by temptations. Temptation reveals or instability and our lack of trust in God; temptations reveal who we are. This is why we must pay attention to them."

The corrupt desires that reside within the human heart reveal the very character of that heart. We must be extremely aware of how much of who we are is wrapped up in our addictions and habits. The goal of this message series that Troy is giving is to help people let go; to surrender and release their chains to a God who loves more deeply than the hurt. However, be warned, when you let go of something that has held mastery over you for any length of time, you will be losing a piece of who you were, a portion of your way of life. Do not let this dissuade you from finding freedom, but beware, you will feel like a piece of your heart is missing. For this reason, it is absolutely crucial that you don't stop at letting go. You must also embrace something new. Replace the old with New life. God desires to fill your heart, to give you the joy and peace and sweetness of life that your addictions could never fill. Let Him! Make every effort to fill your mind and heart with His presence. Do not wait until you are faced with temptation again to start inviting Him into your struggle, but even when you feel that you are doing well, invite Christ into the very core of who your are. Memorize scripture (1 Corinthians 10:12-13 is a good place to start), recall it to mind while you are going to sleep at night or when you are waiting in line at the store. Talk about God with other believers every chance you get. Fast, pray, meditate, celebrate your victories. Whatever you do, stay very close to your God. He will fill every empty space within you.

What are some other experiences with overcoming addiction/temptations that you have had? What other exercises or habits have you tried to replace them?

One last thing: No matter who you are or what you've done, there is Hope. You are deeply loved. There is always Hope.

LEARNING THE RHYTHMS OF GRACE

2006-10-30T17:57:00.000-07:00

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me - watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." - Matthew 11:28-30, The Message.

These are the words of Christ. Tender, life-giving words spoke over two thousand years ago, yet words that still extend love and grace to every person who is willing to listen. Too many people in this city, in this world, are drowning in the weight of it all, burdened and weak and tired. We live in a culture of baggage. Nearly every person that you pass on the street is carrying a the weight of depression, anger, haunting memories, shame or any other number of hurts. The same is probably true of the person you pass in the mirror. It is true for me.

We have baggage in our lives. On our own, we are never truly free. No matter where we look to solve our problems, we find new burdens overtaking us. It is to poor slaves like us that Jesus speaks these words. He alone holds freedom from the crushing chains that bind us. Spend some time this week meditating upon the way that Jesus lived. Read through the book of Mark or one of the other Gospels. Learn the "unforced rhythms of grace". It is only in the presence of Christ that we learn to live and walk in the path of freedom. It is a long process, letting go of baggage. This is only the begginging, the first step. But take His hand, take that first step. Share your experience of spending time in Christ's presence with others. Share it on this forum if you feel comfortable. Or, let others know that there is hope, tell them your story of a piece of baggage that Jesus has already freed you from.

2006-10-23T12:29:00.000-06:00

THE JOURNEY TOWARDS THE WORLD

The Good Samaritan is a story that is familiar to most people in the western world today, even people without religious affiliation or any real knowlege of the Bible. Yet within that parable I find one detail in particular that really grabs my attention. Who is the man who takes a risk to help the man in the ditch? It was a Samaritan. I think Jesus was one hundred percent intentional in choosing a Samaritan as the protagonist in his story of love. When the story of the Good Samaritan was first told, Jesus told it to a Jewish lawyer; in other words, this story is addressed to the religious-folks, the "Churchies", as it were. Therefore, those of us who are pew-dwellers need to pay close attention to the point that Jesus is making by including a Samaritan in his story.

Samaritans were absolute scum in the minds of the Jews of Jesus' day. They were half-breeds, outsiders, unclean and pretty much worse than dirt. They only had a partial understanding of God's law, and they didn't participate in the same religious ceremonies that the Israelites did. To put it another way, the Jews had it together, they were God's chosen people, and the Samaritans weren't, plain and simple. Yet in the story that Jesus tells, it is the Samaritan that gets it right. This outsider is the one who actually fulfills God's law. It is the priests who can't see the love of God in front of their eyes.

The question that has plagued me is this: Why is the world so much better at helping others than the Church is? Now, this is a huge generalization, and I realize that there are huge issues that need to be considered, but the question desperately needs to be asked. Why is the Church regularily out-done in loving others. Throughout the history of the Christianity, the Church has done amazing things to help the world, radical things. Yet in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the rest of the world doesn't even expect the Church to do anything anymore because we have let others become the forces that reach out to help. Our failure to risk reaching out to others has crippled our relevance to our culture and obscured the message of the Gospel for many. Why is it that Bono and Oprah are doing more than the Church to help end the Aids crisis in Africa? Why is it that my hippy boss at the cheese store is more active in human rights issues than any single Christian I know? Why did Churches in North America spend three times what it would cost to feed the entire country of Ethiopia for a year on church building projects in 2004? One of the greatest tragedies of this generation is that in far too many cases, pagans and Samaritans are showing Christ-like love to the world and Christians are not.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree or disagree? What can be done to live the love that we so easily preach?

2006-10-16T12:07:00.000-06:00

THE JOURNEY TOWARDS EACH OTHER

Conflict. Hurt. Betrayal. Troy asked some difficult questions this last Sunday. What do we do when relationships are broken? How do we deal with the wounds and pains that we've been given by those we love? How do we deal with the wounds that we've dished out ourselves? The hard truth of the matter is that relationships between humans are messy, confusing, often painful affairs. That means that there are no easy answers or special formulas when it comes to healing the scars produced by fractured community.

So, as I sit in my living room pondering Troy's questions, I have to admit that I really have no idea. I know that I don't want to be a bitter person, I don't want to be forever dominated by the brokenness I feel inside. I want to trust my brothers and sisters, I want to love them recklessly, I want to forgive without a second thought. Christ calls us to lay our lives down for each other, just like he laid His own down for us. That is ultimate love. But it is the hardest thing in the world to do.

Maybe the first thing that we need to learn that it is not all about us. It's simple and profound and yet we are miserable failures at learning this truth. Each one of us lives with the unspoken belief that the world revolves around us. In his book "Blue Like Jazz", Donald Miller writes about the obsession with ourselves as being the root or of our failures in loving each other: "The most difficult lie I've ever had to contend with is this: Life is not a story about me...No rut in the mind is so deep as the one that says I am the world, the world belongs to me, all people are actors in my play." Later in the chapter, Miller continues with these words that were offered to him by a Bed and Breakfast operator: "If we are not willing to wake up in the morning and die to ourselves, perhaps we should ask ourselves weather or not we are really following Jesus." How can we expect to experience true community if we are all obsessed with our own lives, if we approach the world with the outlook that we are at the center? And waht if our neighbour is thinking the same thing? It will not work. The first step towards true love and unity comes in our admittance that life is not about me.

But what do you think? We need to work together to learn to love eachother. What ideas or experiences do you have that will help others to love more fully, forgive more easily, give more selflessly? Let us hear your thoughts.

2006-10-12T20:52:00.000-06:00

2006-10-10T11:09:00.000-06:00

THE JOURNEY TOWARDS GOD

"Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a wa y that hurt abominally and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of. Throwing out a new wing here, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be a nice little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself." - C.S. Lewis; "Mere Christianity".
We are being replaced. On the trip towards intimacy with our Creator, the self that we have known our whole lives (the selfish, petty, sin-filled self) must be done away with. God's aim is to give us a whole new life. To do this, we must let go of our old selves. While this is easy to say, it is, in fact, the hardest thing in the world to do. It takes a lifetime. Slowly, we must let God knock down everything dear to our world-focused bodies, and embrace the fresh gifts that He has for us. It is not an easy process, and sometimes it can cause us great pain, but God's desire is to live in us. That is what the Journey toward God is all about; He wants to make His home in his children. He wants to be intimate with them. God wants to be one with us.
Can you relate to Lewis' house metaphor? Have you ever experienced the pain and difficulty of being reformed by God? Have you experienced evidence of becoming a palace? What is the next piece of your old self that you need to let God re-work and replace?

2006-10-04T09:50:00.000-06:00

Well, the time has come; the journey has begun. Of course, the Journey began a long time ago, in the imagination of an immensely creative God. His mission and purpose is so much bigger that we could ever possibly imagine. It is far bigger than the launching of one church in south Calgary. I think it's important as we set out on this leg of the trip to remember that this is not our project, our ministry, our vision. God is the great initiator, all human activity has it's root in what He has already done. Our call is to respond to the work that He began, a work of grace in the world and in our hearts.
Troy gave an invitation to us all in his message on Sunday. It is the voice of Christ calling to each of us, whether we are taking the first steps of our trip toward God, or whether we've been walking that path our entire lives. It is a voice that calls to us everyday that we walk in this world. Christ says simply, "You are invited. Follow me. Learn to be like me, learn to love like I do. Walk in my steps. Learn the rhythms of grace as we walk towards God together." It is a path of love and grace and joy unspeakable. Of course, this invitation to follow Jesus requires that we cease to follow all of our other "leaders". When walking, if you come to a place where the road splits, you've got to choose which path you are going to take. It is impossible to follow two paths simultaneously. The same is true in the journey of faith. We can follow Jesus, or we can follow something else.
The question then, is this: What path are you on? Is God calling you to abandon a particular "rabbit trail"? What is the next step for you to respond to the invitation of Christ?

2006-09-20T15:09:00.000-06:00

One - Two, One - Two, This is just a test