So… I wrote a song today. It may have come from all my recent feeling of helplessness with all the craziness in the middle east. All those folks killing each other and vowing to not stop till the last one of the other guys is dead. All the hatred. It’s so so crazy. And it makes me wish God would just end it sometimes. All the stuff with the gay movement and all kinda stuff going on now where we are constantly moving away from God… it’s just crazy. (Have I mentioned, I think it’s crazy?)

So, I think that’s where this song came from.

Here’s the MP3 … lyrics below…

Longing

One day this will all be over, this stuff that we call history

And all that seems important just won’t matter anymore

How I long to get there, and call this life my yesterday

Leave behind the pain and doubt – I long for so much more

I’m longing for the day

chorus

When all I need to know is that you love me

And all my pain is dead and gone

And all I ever thought was gain, is quickly put to shame

By the life I’m longing for

I’m pretty good at getting, the most out of my life today

The bad can have less impact, when you focus on the good

But sometimes it’s too much for me, the evil and the selfish way

We live today together… I long for so much more

I’m longing for the day

bridge:

Never again will pain have it’s way

Death will have no sway

Sorrow’s gone away

Cause this is the day

Was on my way to a meeting tonight and heard on the news of a set of triplets (4 years old!!!) who died in a house fire… their younger sister was critically injured and their older sister (15) was the babysitter. My heart just sank when I heard that. I don’t know them at all… but I felt the weight that must be on the 15-yr-old’s heart… knowing she was responsible for them (as babysitter) PLUS the fact that they are all her siblings anyway…

And I just thought again about what I was saying yesterday… with the whole Longing song… one day this will all be fixed. No pain. No death. No sin. No sinfulness. No hurt. No sorrow.

Wow.

You know, there are just some things in life that I could really do without. Brushing my teeth is definitely one of them. Don’t get me wrong… I enjoy the feeling and taste of a clean mouth. BUT, I just HATE standing at the sink brushing my teeth. I ALWAYS feel like I am wasting LOTS of time!!!

My parents got me a SonicCare Toothbrush for my birthday. It’s super cool. Get’s my teeth feeling extra clean. Makes fun noises. Kinda tickles. But… it’s cycle is TWO MINUTES!!! GOODNESS! I’m done after like 12 seconds if I am trying to brush extra long!!!

So… until I can figure out a way to prevent cavities and other decay without wasting time brushing my teeth…

I have to keep brushing….

So… I was listening to a song on the way to play some basketball this morning… and the words just slammed me in the face with the "power of love" (and no, I don’t mean the Huey Lewis version…)

Listen…

What I Would Say She was a lovely girl, a charming brown-eyed beauty You were the bright young man who swept her off her feet The high school class ring soon became a wedding band And you went off to sail the seas for Uncle Sam But they say it was the demon in the bottle That took you far away never to return And you never knew your son would be my father And now sometimes I think about you and I wonder If I could talk to you what words would I choose

OK… so that part is the set up… but here’s the part that WHACKED me. Oh wait… this song is written by Steven Curtis Chapman to his grandpa, whom he never met… OK… now… here’s the chorus (and the rest of the song):

I would say I wish I could have known you And I would say I wish you would have stayed But most of all I would say I forgive you I know your love was strong I read it in your letters I read how hard you tried to break free from the chains I know we all could say how you should have done better And wear our anger and resentment like a fetter But that’s why I would say this to you if I could I would say I wish I could have known you And I would say I wish you would have stayed But most of all I would say I forgive you I’d love to tell you how the lovely girl you married She’s been my hero and a treasure to us all I know you’d be proud of the way your name’s been carried These are things I would love to tell you if I could I would say I wish I could have known you And I would say I wish you would have stayed But most of all I would say I forgive you I wish you were here to hear what I would say written by Steven Curtis Chapman ©1996 Sparrow Song / Peach Hill Songs (BMI) (admin. by EMI Christian Music Publishing)

Wow. Seriously. That was not what I was expecting to hear or think about this morning.. but emotionally stirred inside, I said outloud to God, "Love is SO powerful!"

It is amazing. The way that it can melt us. Just to hear this story about a guy who messed up his life and his families life, and then to hear the forgiveness, driven by love… it’s amazing.

WE know that love through Jesus… giving up his life in heaven to DIE on a large piece of wood… to say "I love you… and I forgive you…" And everytime we see that happen in life, whether we are the forgiver, forgivee or just an observer, we see the power of love in action all over again.

A friend of mine messed up some stuff recently. He’s in a world of hurt. And really, he is in more hurt because of the way he is being treated about it. There is some pretty stuff being thrown at him that he doesn’t really deserve. And unfortunately, it’s all by other Jesus-followers. 🙁 What if, instead of righteous indignation (or perhaps, self-righteous would be a better label?) … what if… just maybe… some of the above forgiveness was shown? What if the other Jesus-followers would use the power of love to melt the broken and/or sinful and/or stubborn hearts (of everyone involved) and see healing and restoration happen?

What if…

I am just blown away by the power of love today… (and unfortunately I’m going to be singing that all day, too!!)

I hope you get a chance to melt someone’s heart today with the power of love. In forgiveness, in mercy, in compassion, in affection, in encouragement, in praise… however you do it… just do it.

When we moved into the house… everything was AWESOME except the tub drained slow. I bought and poured every chemical known to man down that drain in the first several weeks we lived here… but to no avail. I even tried one of those snake thingies that you twist down through your drain… nothin. Then, I read a book in the library about unclogging slow drains… said to put a wet rag in the hole above the drain (I forget what it’s called…) 🙂 And then use a plunger to dislodge whatever is down there. So I tried it.

WHOOHOOO!!! It worked. The drain was good as new.

Well, now we are 9 months later… and… the drain is slow again. So today I finally got the screw driver out and thought I could fix it with the whole wet rag and plunger trick…

I plunged. And plunged. And plungered….

NOTHING.

Nothing but a couple burps from the sink to my right!

What!!??! Why won’t this work?!??!

I was again reminded pointedly today…

I am not a handyman.

🙂

Just for fun… here’s a nice photo of Kirstie sleeping. She’s awesome!!!

I just finished watching a movie. I don’t even know what it was called. But there was such an interesting part at the end… I had to blog about it.

The movie was about a series of brutal, horrible serial killings of young women. They did a good job of setting up like 4 different possible killers. So, well written. BUT… in the end it was the least likely guy – the brother of the main character… and even though he has killed so many people and hurt and messed up so many lives… you end up feeling sorry for the guy. There is a detective who has been tracking him for like 10 years or something… and the brother is trying to kill him at the end, so he can get away, and his sister ends up shooting him… killing him. (the brother)

And, as the movie ends… the sister is so sad she had to do that… and the police guy and the detective… they both have long faces. And I was right there with them. It was sad.

But immediately I thought… but wait! Justice has been served! They got the killer! They got the bad guy! Why is everybody sad! He’s been doing nothing but this for 10 years?? What’s with the long face. Do a dance of joy or something!!!

But really… in the end… it’s just not nice when someone loses. Part of us knows that. I mean, justice is a good thing. God is Just. And his "eye for an eye" thing is a good and right thing. But the thing is, we all mess up. Everyone one of us. Some mess up MUCH bigger than others… but we all mess up.

When someone gets what they deserve… if we really think about it… that should have been us. All too often, we DON’T get what we deserve. My Bible college professors called that "Mercy"… I call it lucky.

It’s way easier to jump and cheer and celebrate when Saddam is captured and we see the man stripped of any dignity as they show him dissheveled and weary and beaten down on TV… but that’s us. Left unchecked… we would do the same thing. Some of us just get farther down the road.

We are all made in God’s image. ALL. Even Saddam. Even Hitler. Even me. It is sad when any of us faces the consequences of our actions… we were meant for life, not death.

Justice is important. But Jesus proved that grace… and mercy… and forgiveness… and love… are SO MUCH BETTER. That is what the church is all about. A bunch of messed up people who get to love each other through the mess-ups… the every day variety, or the blow up in your face variety.

We can make some pretty big blunders. Maybe even cost us our life (if not literally, figuratively…) The cool thing is, we get to love each other through them… not pointing fingers, shaking our head and saying "I can’t BELIEVE he did THAT!!!" But really just understanding.

That detective didn’t see the vicious killer who killed his fiancee many years ago… he saw a messed up man – made in the image of God – priceless… who messed up big time, and paid for it. That’s not ever good.

That’s just what I’m thinking…

Sorry for the prolonged abscence. My brain has not ceased to function… quite the opposite. We are (I think) in the beginning stage of some major transitions here… more on that later… but, for now… some thoughts from the past couple days:

God’s Power

A friend of ours lives in Afghanistan. Working with folks there. In Kabul. Last week he got to experience a fairly large earthquake that was over 150 miles away… but still strong enough to shake the building where he was. Thousands (i think) died. Which is insane. But, he was commenting on the force that it takes to do such a thing… and reflecting on the power of the God who made all this… and said:

And this weekend we’re reminded that the same God has conquered death and for some reason offers us the chance to "share in the power." I don’t know about you, but I need to understand more of what that means because it’s a lot more power than what I’m used to!

And I thought… yeah. We (Christians) do miss out on a lot of the Power of God that I think we could know in our everyday lives. He is BIG. He is POWERFUL. And He offers that to us:

2Tim. 1:7

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Eph. 1:17-21

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

Eph. 3:16-20

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

So… it would seem, we are to experience God’s power in our everyday lives… BUT… often we do not. I think mostly because we don’t EXPECT it. We expect little from God, so that is what we get. He still works amazingly and surprises us… but what would life be like if we really understood the POWER of God???

Ruth

We have a friend named Ruth – she usually goes by Ruthie… but she said once to me that she didn’t really like her name (kinda… "fuddy-duddy"…) till she heard about the Ruth in the Bible. I got to read that story again a couple days ago in my through-the-bible-in-a-year Bible… and… well… she has reason to be proud of her name! 🙂

Ruth, (NOT a Jew… the ones who were supposed to "get it") showed AMAZING commitment, loyalty and trust and faith in God… and God honored that. He provided for her and her family, when she gave up everything she knew to love the mother of her deceased husband. God even brought ME salvation through HER. (She was King David’s great grandma… and David was Jesus’ direct ancestor… and well… Jesus is my brother and my savior… and he rocks.) 🙂

So… good on ya, Ruth! 🙂

Hannah

We have another friend named Hannah… I don’t know if she likes her name or not… She’s 3. 🙂 But she should be proud of another lady with her name… (I read her story today…) She wanted children… and had none. And with great anguish asked God to give her children… for a long time…

And God did. He gave her a son. But there’s more to the story. It doesn’t end there…

When she asked God for a child, she promised to dedicate him to the Lord. And you know… she really did! I was amazed by that. Here this is the one thing she wants most in life… and she had lots of time to think of a way to get out of that once she became pregnant. I am sure she wondered how she could honor the vow and keep her child… but she went through with it.

1Sam. 1:24, 28

After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, … and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh… So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD. And he worshiped the LORD there.

I just thought… WOW… that’s so amazing. And God blessed her with three sons and two daughters. Amazing. I wonder how I am doing with giving God the first of what I really want from him? I try hard to do that with money… time? more? Just makes me think.

I want to be like Hannah. Trusting. Grateful. Bold. And Ruth. Commited. Loyal. Faithful. Trusting. God honors those whose faith is in Him. I want to know his power in my life.

Is. 8:17 I will wait for the LORD, … I will put my trust in him.

I love looking around and randomly seeing signs of my awesome little boys. 🙂 I was just outside cleaning some stuff up and noticed a little measuring cup. For the entire winter it has been out on the other side of the house – neglected by little boys who don’t care about their stuff. And each time I had seen it I thought of the irresposibility of my boys and how I need to teach them better…

But for an instant… I imagined the innocent and imaginitive little fingers that rediscovered this great little plastic treasure and toted it to uncharted regions… dreaming of the adventures to be had. And I smiled. I love my boys.

They are certainly not perfect (but, believe it or not, neither is their dad…) but they are God’s amazing gift to me. And along with their sister… I hope to find many more signs of little boys (AND girls) through the coming years. 🙂

Whoa. That just looks heavy. I don’t intend for it to be. We’ll see where this blog goes. I have been thinking about grace and sin and righteousness and all that a bunch recently… and had some interesting thoughts to share… and perhaps get some feedback on through the little comment feature here in blog-dom.

A friend of mine is dealing with some sin in his life – some real and acknowledged… and some hard to pin down (like, is it really sin, or not — more on this below). And it has really made me think about what we DO with sin.

Sin is obviously anything contrary to who God is and what He wants for us. And sin is what Jesus came to pay the price for. We owed a huge, unpayable debt for our sin, and Jesus died once for all to pay for it. All of it. Forever. That is grace. Grace gives us freedom to live, messed as we are, in the fullness of God’s love and presence and greatness. Knowing full well that our freedom has been bought – past tense – and that we are God’s Righteousness. (2 Cor 5:21) Does not depend on what we DO. That is awesome. That is incredible. That is what we need to remember when we are worried about losing favor with God. Righteousness is not EARNED (even though we may convince ourselves that it can be) it is the free gift of God, so that no one can boast. (Eph 2:8-9)

But, what do we DO with sin? How do we live out righteousness? Better yet, how do we help each OTHER live out righteousness? Do we?

See, in college (Bible College) I remember a big emphasis on accountability groups and how they are vital to your "walk" as a Christian… and I have always been kinda leary of them… never been a part of one (I don’t think…)… cause it’s the whole guilt thing to me. It’s righteousness driven by Do-s and Don’t-s and the guilt of having to report your failings to your closest friends. I don’t think that is what Jesus was all about.

A friend of mine recently told me that Jesus was all about making people conform… I said quite the opposite. There’s no "MAKE" in Jesus. He does not guilt people into things. He does not condemn the broken. The only folks he railed on… the Religious Right. 🙂 The keepers of the Rules. The Pharisees. And was he bashing their sin? No, actually… he was bashing their attempt at righteousness! How crazy is that?

Jesus, from my reading of his life, and from my living daily with him now, is not about holding me to a sheet of rules or keeping track of my every move – grading each step I take. Jesus is about the full life of righteousness in him and in his grace.

Isn’t he?

Why then do we try SO HARD not to sin? This is where it gets fuzzy. And what is sin? Do we keep the extra stringent rules that Jesus told the Jews… (Murder is not just killin someone… it’s your anger toward them too. And adultery is not just sleeping with someone… it’s your lustful thoughts too.) Or, do we split hairs and try and argue around what each of the ten commandments really means etymologically? Do we keep all 600 or so of the laws in the old testament? Do we only go by the New Testament?

Is sin the acting out of the evil in our heart? Like malicious words spoken in anger or bitterness, sexual deviancy in its various forms, drunkenness, stealing, murder… all attitudes of the heart brought to fruition in sinful actions. Or is sin simply the evil in our heart? Should we be convicted (in our spirit and by others) for the evil that is in our heart, even if that evil is kept in check – kept inside???

The other night, my friend, whom we shall call Javier for anonymity, asked me to stop him from eating before he gets gluttonous. We were eating a rather scrumptious meal… and he did not want to sin in his great pleasure. And I asked him, is it REALLY gluttony (and thus, a sin) if we eat one bite too many? He said, yes… but upon clarification, he just said it’s an attitude.

I think I agree that sin is an attitude, or a condition of the heart… but I am not sure that we need to be so cautious in all that we do that we do not step one foot over the line… that we might somehow offend or lose favor with God. Was that Javier’s motivation… I don’t think so. But on the outside it appears that way.

I don’t think that is how Jesus wants us to live. Paul said in Gal 2:21 – "I am not one of those who treats the grace of God as meaningless. For if we could be saved by keeping the law, then there was no need for Christ to die." Certainly a desire to "Be holy as (God is) Holy" is not treating grace as meaningless is it???

In the end… I think not. More on this later. There is a goodness to striving everyday to be more of who Jesus is. But our motivation needs to be kept in check. I don’t think that God wants us doing good to earn his favor. We can’t. I don’t think He wants us doing good to earn the favor of others. That is missing the point. He certainly is not about to guilt us into doing what is right – or not doing what is wrong. But he does tell us how life will be best.

What do we DO with sin? How much do we have to keep in check? I think the better question is, how can I live the life-to-the-full that Jesus came to give me?

THIS is eternal life… to know YOU the One True God and Jesus Christ whom You sent.

Know Him. Live with Him. Love Him. Jesus will continue the work HE began in us. (Phil 1:6)

More later…