When I Look at the World

When you look at the world
What is it that you see
People find all kinds of things
That bring them to their knees
I see an expression
So clear and so true
That changes the atmosphere
When you walk into the room

So I try to be like you
Try to feel it like you do
But without you it's no use
I can't see what you see
When I look at the world

When the night is someone elses
And you're trying to get some sleep
When your thoughts are too expensive
To ever want to keep
When there's all kinds of chaos
And everyone is walking lame
You don't even blink now, do you
Or even look away

So I try to be like you
Try to feel it like you do
But without you it's no use
I can't see what you see
When I look at the world

I can't wait any longer
I can't wait till I'm stronger
I can't wait any longer
To see what you see
When I look at the world

I'm in the waiting toom
Can't see for the smoke
I think of you and your holy book
While the rest of us choke
Tell me, tell me, what do you see
Tell me, tell me, what's wrong with me

- U2 "When I Look at the World"
**************************************

Brother Bono

Do You See Your Calling?

. . separated to the gospel of God. . .

—Romans 1:1

Our calling is not primarily to be holy men and women, but to be proclaimers of the gospel of God. The one all-important thing is that the gospel of God should be recognized as the abiding reality. Reality is not human goodness, or holiness, or heaven, or hell— it is redemption. The need to perceive this is the most vital need of the Christian worker today. As workers, we have to get used to the revelation that redemption is the only reality. Personal holiness is an effect of redemption, not the cause of it. If we place our faith in human goodness we will go under when testing comes.

Paul did not say that he separated himself, but "when it pleased God, who separated me . . ." ( Galatians 1:15 ). Paul was not overly interested in his own character. And as long as our eyes are focused on our own personal holiness, we will never even get close to the full reality of redemption. Christian workers fail because they place their desire for their own holiness above their desire to know God. "Don’t ask me to be confronted with the strong reality of redemption on behalf of the filth of human life surrounding me today; what I want is anything God can do for me to make me more desirable in my own eyes." To talk that way is a sign that the reality of the gospel of God has not begun to touch me. There is no reckless abandon to God in that. God cannot deliver me while my interest is merely in my own character. Paul was not conscious of himself. He was recklessly abandoned, totally surrendered, and separated by God for one purpose— to proclaim the gospel of God (see Romans 9:3 ).


-Oswald Chambers - "My Utmost for His Highest" (January 31)

We are all doomed, start running to your Y2K bunker now!!!!

Ok, the title exaggerates....only slightly. Why do political parties feel the need to make everything sound like it is the end of the world and all civiliazation if something happens that goes against their ideological belief?

http://www.jesuscreed.org/?p=703

Wonder - RESURRECTION WONDER

It is a wonder that is unfathomable. Resurrection wonder. It is a wonder of the power over the grave: "O' death where is thy sting!" The power that has been given to all born-again Christians, resurrection power. This power over death brings utter and total wonder. This same resurrection wonder should captivate all elements of my life. Stop and look around at all of God's creation with resurrection wonder. Resurrection wonder (and our faith in it) allow us eternal life. Eternity is near impossible to understand (if not completely). The totality of this amazing, phenomenonal, wonder is gripping. I've grasped this and it makes me shudder, resurrection wonder shakes me to my bones.

Resurrection wonder - how can I look at anything the same again?

Resurrection wonder - awe...in all of God's creation.

I canot stop to smell the roses or the coffee. I do not stop to notice the small things. Instead, I stop to look around, with resurrection wonder, at the Master's Creation.

Take it all in - there will be no more mundane, no more boring.

RESURRECTION WONDER!!!!

Amen!

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Personal Reflection: Resolution?

I guess this qualifies as one, but it is kind of coincidence. A day or two after the new year, I was walking around the local Christian bookstore in my community trying to find one specific item and just perusing everything else. I came across the "Sale Bin" where everything in the bin was drastically reduced in price. Right there on the top was the world famous Oswald Chambers' 'My Utmost for His Highest' for $3 (maybe $4, that whole $2.99, $3.95 pricing strategy gets me sometimes). My eyebrows raised and I grabbed it. I mean for $3 I am getting a world's bestseller! Anyway, I finshed my wandering of the aisles, paid for my couple items and walked out of the store. As I drove home I decided that for 2006 I would use this book as my daily devotional. I have never read any part of the book (as far as I can remember) and had heard many people talk about it. So when I got home, I promptly read the 3 or 4 days I needed to catch up on.

A week or so later, I am reading it everyday, I also have made sure to read each Bible entry that Chambers used for his text that day and in his exposition of that text. I read this (takes maybe 5 minutes to do all the reading), mull it over in my mind for a couple more and then I just say a simple prayer in regards to the "lesson." I also do this same thing at lunch time as a refresher to myself, also as a checkup to see how I did or have done so far.

I am very happy with this. I am no where even close to a morning person. My wife "harasses" me alot over the fact that I hit snooze on my alarm clock more than once every morning. I wake up with about 10 minutes to get ready every morning. So that early morning devotional was rarely happening. This new method allows me to do it at work at my desk and takes maybe 10 minutes. Additionally, a co-worker spotted me doing this and asked. This allowed me the chance to be a witness to them. Open the door or plant an initial seed.

This is one resolution that I am going to keep.

The Life Group Experience

Dear Pastor Jeff,

Our Life Group experience has exceeded

all of our expectations! With open Bibles,

open hearts, and open minds we study the

Word and apply it to our daily lives. Be led

by the Spirit and share with each other the

joys of growth in our Christian lives and seek

help during difficult times. The weekly

fellowship also allows us the opportunity

to share our own individual experiences.

Weekly, through the sharing of our personal

lives, we all rejoice together, pray together,

laugh together, support each other, and

continually challenge and grow together.

The uniqueness of each individual, the

intimate setting, and the open culture have

truly benefited us all and helped us all grow

in our Christian life. Michele and I look

forward to Wednesday nights every week.

The blessings we receive from everyone

that has shared our home are too many for

us to count (honestly). The only thing that

could surpass our blessings is the group wide

eagerness and excitement that surrounds our

Life Group and praise be to God -

IT CONTINUES TO GROW!!

***************************************************************************

The Life Group concept that Friendship Baptist Church embarked up on in September of 2005 has been a truly unique experience and a Godsend. The usual Wednesday night church service has been replaced by "Life Groups" meeting in the same home, every Wednesday night, to read, study, and apply the word. To pray and sing together and share in the joy that is life and a Life in Christ.

The Life Groups are spread out through the Lincoln Park, Allen Park, Trenton, Grosse Ile, and Brownstown communities. 6 for adults and 4 for youth. Thankfully, Michele and I were asked by the church leaders to host an adult Life Group in our home. Somewhere between 8 - 15 of us gather around our dining room table and over a couple pots of coffee have a church service. I cannot help but sometimes think we are being just like the early church (like the book of Acts church). Except we are not in hiding, with windows closed and shades drawn and lights out. We may not have a Paul or Peter or Silas or Barnabas teaching us but we have open dialogue and study over God's word.

One day, God willing, the Life Group will grow too large to fit in our home and we will spin off a 2nd location. Then this location will spin off another (we'll spin off a 2nd one), and they'll spin off more, and on and on it goes. This is the "goal" or idea surrounding the Life Groups. Spread throughout the downriver community and slowly work individuals who normally do not do the "church thing" and bring more people to Christ.

The letter that kicked off this post is a letter to my Pastor in response to him asking about the experience Michele and I have had with Life Group. I would be very shocked if anyone felt opposite of the feelings conveyed in the letter. It is truly an idea many churches should attempt in one way or another.

Free Verse 2: Matthew 6: 5-13

The "Lord's Prayer," the "Our Father," whatever name you want to give it, Jesus provided us with a very simplistic prayer that covers all human neccesity. The Lord's prayer encompasses verses 9-13 of Matthew 6, but we need to look at the verses before it to lay down some foundation. To put these in bullet point form, Jesus simply states this:

• Do not make a show out of your prayer (verse 5)
• Find a quiet secluded place, be as honest as you can, and focus on God (verse 6)
• Avoid supposed forumlas and specific techniques that others claim is the only way God answers prayer (verse 7a)
• Keep it short and sweet. No need for grandiose speak. (verse 7b)
• Do not be like the people who do this (verse 8a)
• Your father knows better than you what you need, before you even ask it(verse 8b)

Laying this groundwork, Jesus proceeds to tell the multitudes "after this manner therefore pray ye:" What follows is a 66 word prayer (KJV version) which can be said in less than a minute and encompasses everything we would ever need and have to acknowledge in our human life.

• Start by addressing Our Father (God) who is in heaven and whose name is sacred, holy, sanctified, and blessed (verse 9)
• His Kingdom will be here, and his will will be done on earth, just as it is in heaven (verse 10)
• Ask God to provide provisions for you daily. (verse 11)
• Ask God for forgiveness, and ask him to forgive those that have sinned against you (verse 12)
• Ask God to keep us from Satan and all his demons (verse 13a)
• God can do anything he wants because everything is, all the power, all the glory , and the whole kingdom (verse 13b)

This prayer acknowledges God's existence, pours out utter reverence and awe, allows supplication to God for our daily needs and specific prayer requests according to his will, asks God for mercy on us and mercy on those you have done us wrong, pleads with God to be our shelter and keep the arrows of the Evil one away, and finishes, quite literally, in a blaze of triumphant glory and worship.

So why do we not pray this prayer daily or in some kind of consistent timeframe? What about those times in the car, or jut before bed when you want to pray, but memory escapes you and specific words and requests fall away? Why not say the Lord's Prayer? Jesus already said, Our Father knows specifically what we need, before we even ask it. I find nothing wrong with being specific with our prayer requests, but we don't always have to be.

Jesus tells us we don't always have to come up with the big adjectives and catchy phrases when we pray, matter of factly, he asks us not to. Just pray what is on your heart. Avoid shallow words done to appease the crowd and make yourself look some kind of prayer-warrior. When not done in "vain repetition" this actual prayer of Jesus covers all the necessary bases.

I wonder what would happen if one time at church, the pastor asked someone to pray and they recited the Lord's Prayer? I have no doubt that my pastor would be 100% ok with it, and may even thank the church member for doing it, but what would the rest of the congregation think? I wonder if I would ever say that prayer out loud in front of the congregation as well?

When we strip away layers and tradition and selfishness, we find that the true command of Jesus is to pray with simplicity. Prayer doesn't have to be some huge production or said at the right time in the right manner. It doesn't always have to be said a loud or in only specific places. God will never be disappointed because you couldn't find the words to truly express your total love, reverence, and admiration for him. Just say it, mean it from the heart, and that is all.

The more I studied this and really looked at this, the more I have just prayed this prayer on an almost daily basis. Down times at work, driving in the car, laying in bed, drinking coffee in the morning looking out the window. I just say it to myself.

I encourage all of you to do the same.

God Bless.

In the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

Interesting take by Scot McKnight on "The Sign of the Cross" that Roman Catholics are famous for doing and Protestants are famous for not doing.

http://www.jesuscreed.org/?p=624

Rediscover the Qualities of Being a Child

Rick McKinley is the author of 'Jesus in the Margins: Finding God in the Places we Ignore.'

Writeup from webpage:

God landed in the margins. On purpose.
Jesus is our ultimate model for finding identity, acceptance, and
legitimacy from the Father. As we pull back the curtain on His life,
we discover that Jesus knows what it's like to be marginalized.
He understands how it feels to have society shove you to the side,
to not really be accepted, and in the end to be totally rejected.
He can identify with life in the margins because when God came
to earth in the person of Jesus Christ, He landed in the margins.
On purpose. And He chose to land there because it's in the
margins that broken lives get mended, prisoners are set free,
and the poor hear the Good News.


It is a very easy read and I only have 2 chapters to go (about 20-25 pages), and I started it about a week ago. The subject matter can (and maybe should) be heavy but Rick has done a great job not making it so. I think it was done on purpose. The audience is for people who "live in the margins" of life and they really do not need to be put into deep psychoanalysis anymore. Just be told the great and glorious Gospel of Jesus.

But the reading is great for myself as it soldifies the image of Jesus and the fact that he was born to a poor carpenter and hung out with "drunkards and gluttons" and he will meet you right where you are and that you do not "have to have it all together" to meet Christ. And really, the "margins of life" are where all the normal people are.

One specific chapter was on being like a child as Jesus commands us in Matthew 18. Rick recaps this with 4 specific choices we must make each day that will have has live like a child of God:

1. Walk in the wonder of worship
2. Trust Jesus with childlike faith
3. Live unashamed before Jesus
4. Walk in innonence

This captures childhood about as best as anything I have read. The older we get and the more "mature" we become we gain skepticism and realism and lose wonder, trust, and innonence that defines childhood.

If we could make our daily choices using those 4 guidelines, I wonder how much easier life would be? I wonder where my stress level would be at? I wonder how I would spend my time throughout the day? I wonder what amazing truths I would realize by taking away the "life filter" that I apply to everything? I wonder what things I would do for other people without even thinking of the consequences (for the better, obviously)?

What about any of you?