Principle or Precept… You decide!

As I consider the Word of the Lord for today (actually tomorrow), my thoughts go back to a conversation I had with God this last week. Oh stop, I’m not the only one that has conversations with God and most of the time I do it out loud.

What we were talking about was the difference between principle and precept. In a nutshell the difference is this. Principles are derived from bits and pieces of wisdom teaching. Not always visible to the naked eye or brain, but they’re there. Often they are a compilation of precepts. Precepts are things that God lists in clear language like commands or admonitions that He expects us to follow or obey.

Law is precept. Yet there are laws buried deep in principles that God gives. If we decide to follow God’s principles, it’s very likely we’ll be following many if not all of His laws. But just because we follow certain precepts or laws, it doesn’t necessarily mean we are living by principle or even wisdom.

Let me go a bit deeper.

As a pastor, teacher, prophet and part time evangelist (not to mention being a husband, father, painter, carpenter, handyman, office manager and all around good guy) life is very compressed for me. I’m tired much of the time and the amount of time that is given to prayer and study of the Word is far less than ideal. As a matter of fact, because I work outside of the church to earn the majority of my living, I’m deeply saddened that I don’t get more time to do such necessary work.

As a result the bottom line is this: Preaching the precepts of God is way easier and requires far less study time than preaching principle(s). Yet herein lays my dilemma. People need far less of God’s precepts as they do His principles. For precepts (dos and don’ts) only go so far. Most often they become prohibitions that we who are religious use to control each others behavior. But it rarely works in the long run. And it’s usually fraught with guilt and condemnation. I think that’s very wrong.

Principles are what people really need to live by (core values maybe). Principles are the why behind God’s precepts. Principles are where the real wisdom of God is found. But principles require a greater amount of time in the depths of God’s gold mine – the Bible, and time on our knees before the thrown of Grace.

Reference, cross reference, compare and contrast, pray, think, write, re-write, pray and pray more and study a bit more. Internalize the Truth you’re mining from the Holy Ghost mother load. Yet all of this TAKES HUGE AMOUNTS OF TIME and EFFORT!!!

So what do I end up doing? I find simple precepts and cast them at my sheep. I don’t know if it helps them live better, but I figure I’m not gonna be held to blame if people don’t know what God expects from them. Right?

But that’s the problem, Jesus took the Law and lived it and fulfilled it. All the precepts of God that are necessary for an eternal and earthly relationship with God are fulfilled in Christ. Can you see the problem I’m dealing with?

Now we need the Wisdom of God that comes as we live by principle and not simple precept alone. Precepts like law will bring death if that’s all we have. Principles become the path by which we travel our lives, the path that leads to life and freedom.

So even as I type these words, my heart is broken. Because less and less of God’s people are learning and living by principle. More and more of God’s precepts are being used, but often to little avail. Oh not because they’re powerless, but because principle is what remains even when we can’t live by precept alone.

Principle keeps me loyal to God, because therein are found the stones on which I can build my life. Therein is found the basis of all our faith. Therein is found the proof of what God teaches in His precepts.

So the next time you opt out for the supposedly easy road of living by Law, stop and ask yourself: WHY would God command me in this manner? Maybe if you ask that question, He will lead you into the principles that uphold the precept. And you will discover that all things are lawful, but not all things are expedient… because principles matter and wisdom is real!

Well I better go find some more principles to bring with me to the pulpit in the morning!

Strive No More

I was just listing to an old Keith Green song When I Hear the Praises Start and it flipped a switch inside me. It reminded me once again that all of my striving is in vain. The best of my efforts can never hold a candle to the power and majesty of the work Christ did on the cross.

My head can’t seem to get around that truth, but that really doesn’t matter. What matters is the Work that Christ did in my stead. Because I could not, He did. He did what He did so that I may find rest and comfort in Him alone, so that my rest and comfort are not contingent upon living comfortably. Because more often than not, living comfortably is elusive at best and at worst it is expensive, vain and empty.

Let me ask you, do you know the difference between comfort and comfortable?

Most of us don’t, until all hell breaks loose and the comfortable explodes into chaos and loss. For those baptized in loss, God’s truth seems rather amazing, almost impossible. That we can, in and through Christ, find comfort even when we are not comfortable with outward circumstances?

Over thirty years ago, my youth pastor Jerry Holte, coached a handful of disciples to memorize scripture. Not so we could attain some kudos from God, but that we may know the freedom that only comes from the promises of God. That we may know genuine comfort, despite the fact that life can sometimes be uncomfortable. Because in life there are often great losses, yet God promises comfort from Heaven.

The passage of scripture that stuck with me was Philippians 4:13. I won’t quote it because maybe you could look it up and read the context for yourself. But the Apostle Paul was teaching the truth about God’s comfort and strength – with or without the comfortable things of life. Paul was teaching us that as we cease our striving for the comfortable, we can find genuine comfort in and through Christ our Lord. That truth is just as real to me today as it was in 1977. I just needed a gentle reminder.

Thanks Keith, thanks Jerry, thanks Holy Spirit, thanks Dad.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV)

Is your soul at rest this hour? Are you striving for something that you cannot attain? Are you running life’s race in vain? Do you work hard and find little solace for your soul? Are you religious and fearful that you cannot ever measure up to God’s expectations? Are you emotionally tired? Are you feeling empty?

May I encourage you to go to Jesus? Consider this, being comfortable in life is of little significance if you do not have comfort of soul. If you have never known the Comfort that only comes from God the Father, as He draws near with Love and Grace, cry out today and receive. Tell Him you are tired of striving. Tell Him you need His Comfort more than you need to be comfortable. I promise you, He will deliver. You will find the Comfort that only He can supply.

So go ahead. Stop striving. Stop working to please an unattainable standard or formula and start relating to a Father who will come and slake your hunger and thirst for what only He can supply. Remember, comfort is about relationship. Comfortable is about stuff. Which would you rather have, greater relationship or more stuff?

Selah

True Repentance

In the New Testament John the Baptist and Jesus both inaugurate their place on the timeline of life and Kingdom purpose by including a word that is so often left out of our religious vernacular. Usually because we just don’t know or understand the real meaning of the word.

I’m no Greek scholar (that’s my brother-in-law Jac Perrin), but a simple understanding of the word in context can clarify our need for its use and application in many if not all areas of our lives.

Many people repent over the course of a lifetime. And most of the time it has little to do with God or their eternal destination.

Let me note the definition of repentance: to change one's mind, i.e. to repent; to change one's mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one's past sins.

"Repentance (metanoia, 'change of mind') involves a turning with contrition from sin to God; the repentant sinner is in the proper condition to accept the divine forgiveness." (F. F. Bruce. The Acts of the Apostles [Greek Text Commentary], London: Tyndale, 1952, p. 97.)

Let me elaborate on this matter that seems all too often like a bitter pill for many to swallow.

People all over the planet and all through human history have lived out the practice of repentance. How many of us have “changed our minds” for the better? Maybe we’ve changed jobs, changed relationships, changed our worldview on matters of conscience, and even changed brands despite long term loyalties to one product over another. Why?

Because we’re all looking for an upgrade and that upgrade only comes when we change our thinking about our present condition. Some might argue that they are content in all areas of their life and they aspire to no change or improvements, but I would suggest that by our very embrace of technology and lifestyle improvements, we’re all hooked like a first time crack user.

Whether it’s any of the things I’ve mentioned above or a myriad of other things we face in life, change happens and especially in our minds. And most of the time we’re not conscious of the progression.

Because thinking affects behavior, biblical sin begins with thinking that does not reflect God’s heart or mind. Granted, none of us could match God’s thinking prowess nor the depths of His heart, but because we are created (Imago Dei sorry I just like those words) in His image we are designed to be like Him.

When we stray from our original design and purpose (relationship with the Designer) therein emerges the element of sin. Make sense?

Because none of us can fully know Truth (until we meet Truth face to face) all we have is a collage of facts, ergo the joy and frustration of science and religion. Neither the greatest scientist nor the greatest theologian can fully get their minds around ALL the facts. Therefore, no one has cornered the market. Real Truth is the ability to know the beginning and the end. That is simply impossible for the human heart or mind to comprehend. All we can do is string together bits and pieces of facts (and even those can be suspect) then throw the dice and hope we don’t discover something that would cause us to repent of our thinking on previously held sacred ground.

If and when that happens, I mean the reassessment and realignment of our thinking on any matter for the better, we have repented. For this I have no fear. And I would challenge each of you readers to embrace the same.

Let me end with this. Ever wonder about the proliferation of gambling? People are looking for the ultimate upgrade. Despite the facts that the house always wins, people still gamble.

Facts have not ultimately stopped stupid human behavior nor have they raised the incidence of wisdom. Yet historically mankind has always sought for an upgrade. May I suggest that we all repent? Change our thinking. Come into alignment with the facts as we know them and fill in the gaps with faith. We cannot prove God’s existence, but we can marvel at the facts as presented and wonder with awe at the mysteries unexplained. And we cannot disprove God’s existence either, because the beauty of science is the use of a hypothesis. Of which leads us to the next hypothesis, and the next and the next and the next.

See the pattern? Repentance IS the fabric of advance, and in my case, the ultimate goal of reconnecting with God and living by His original design. When I’m wrong, deep in my heart I want to change. But entropy of the soul keeps me unrepentant. That’s when my faith in Jesus and what He came to do, kicks in.

As it stands, I’ve spent most of my life experiencing change of thinking for the better. When gaps exist in the continuum of facts, we tend to throw in theories (faith). My theory (an old and historic one) God IS and I’m not and Jesus is the Christ (the designed answer to fill in the gaps between the facts) and I want to know and experience Him as much as I possibly can… because I still want an upgrade. Don’t you?

Metanoia to All

Living In a Sound Bite World

Looks like North Korea has continued with their plan for unilateral insanity and it smells like Iran is not far behind. People are still dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. The economy is on the wagon for a while but who knows when it will take off on another bender. Swine flu is still spreading but we all got side tracked by the American Idol winner. And another kid committed suicide allegedly because he was being bullied. Gas prices are up slightly and Jay Leno will soon be prime time.

I say all that because it seems like we’re on course to compress more and more gravity into more and more sound bites (or video bites) with less and less impact to really change us from within. I mean really, if the media can flood us with enough rapid fire info streaming at 10mbps plus, is it even possible to soak in the depth of meaning behind any of it? When you compress gravity so much, doesn't it turn into a black-hole?

For that matter, even as I type these words my son and a friend are in the family room playing xbox360 at thumb-eye-and-brain speeds that even Evelyn Wood could have never imagined possible. But are they better off for it?

With attention spans shrinking year after year and the gravity of global events getting greater and greater, will the next generation even have time to ponder things like the long term effects of battery powered cars or nuclear weapons small enough to make it into the class room some day?

If all we are is a culture that is texting and sound biting, is there any hope for real relationships and contemplation over the bigger things in life? I wonder?

The days of people getting one or two bits of information regarding a topic and then allowing that info to percolate and assimilate into minds that were taught to think and process with wisdom and foresight may all but be over.

The Value of Stopping

My final thought for the moment, before I fire up the grill is this. Since many parents have ceased using the word “no” or “stop” when they communicate with their little ones, and anything goes and very often does. My concern is a generation that has no understanding of the value of stopping. Go, go, go seems to be the mantra for all too many families today.

Will there be anyone left who simply stops and takes time to listen, to smell, to observe, to wait, to be quiet, to think, to rest? I could go on but I won’t.

Let me close with this. Stop. Rest. Think. Listen. And by all means try not to live on sound bites and Red Bull. Remember man does not live on bread alone, but on EVERY WORD that is vital to life. Not just the blur of ones and zeros that fly through the air as we carelessly go about life. Remember that every word matters. Every event matters. Every person matters. Every second matters.

MISTAKEN IDENTITY

Have you ever looked at old family photos or pictures of yourself from way back when? I know that when I do that I look at myself and wonder who is that person?

Maybe I’m kind of weird like that, but old pictures of me make me ask that question? We all tend to look back into our lives and use the power of hindsight. Yet hindsight can never explain the sense of mistaken identity we lived with at the time the photo was taken or the event occurred.

At any given point in our lives we think we know ourselves and we hope others know us accurately, but in all reality, time and hindsight are the only true identifiers of who we are.

Time allows for growth and change and ultimately lessons learned by mistakes or deliberate steps toward transformation. Hindsight gives us the choice of learning from our previous wanderings or winnings, so as to hopefully make us wiser in all our decisions.

Many years ago a local pastor made a judgment call about me. He based his opinions on my outward appearance and some rumors that he heard and believed to be true about me. The unfortunate fact was he did not know me. He didn’t have a clue about what made me tick or who I really was from the inside out. All he did was develop a bias and bigotry based upon externals.

It was a case of mistaken identity. I wonder how often I do the same thing. I wonder how often we drive people away from Life and Hope that only God can give, simply because we choose to identify them based upon what we see and hear.

Who among us, with the exception of a few prophets, can know the insides of someone? What motivates them? What causes them to have apathy? Why do they think and feel the way they do?

All too often it’s easier to judge someone wrongly, instead of loving them rightly. Loving them rightly means we get close enough to smell what their life has been rolled in. Most people get rolled in some pretty bad stuff and they usually don’t ask for it.

So the next time you make a mistake about someone’s identity, based upon your perception, ideology, dogma, religion, fear or the pain of your own life, remember people did the same with Jesus.

Following a wonderful and stimulating lunch with an old friend, my wife and I found ourselves savoring a fresh cup at Zanzibar’s Coffee Adventure. I love places where business executives are there hashing out some new marketing plan, med students are cramming for there next exam, neo-hippies are lovingly hanging on each other and painters are welcome.

I thought about my visit to this coffee shop and some of the bars I used to frequent. The beauty of places like that is because everyone seems welcomed and no one is an outsider for very long. Regardless of their identity common ground is found. We all just wanted to be where someone else is and to have something refreshing to drink. That’s a pretty simple church growth formula.

May God help me to foster a community where common ground becomes uncommon experience? And may God help me to never again mistake someone’s identity simply because of how they look, act or what I’ve heard about them. May I earn the right to know them by spending time with them, before I make that judgment call, before it becomes a case of Mistaken Identity?

Let’s have coffee and get acquainted.

Killing Time versus Killing Self

Most of us have never really considered what the term Killing Time means. I know I’ve not thought much about it until right now. I’ve had a broken up day and didn’t make much money. We got home early to go to Anna’s track meet and found out that the meet was cancelled due to weather. Funny, I remember walking to and from school in 9 feet of snow and tornados howling. Life has changed.

Anyway, I sat down to consider the implications of an open evening to catch up on some mindless office work. Youth Convention gobbled up my weekend and I woke this Monday morning feeling like I had a hang over (3 Monster’s and enough coffee to keep me from having a stroke in this life time).

Looking at my desk piled high with mail, papers, scribbled notes from my Sunday sermon (I started a series on Wisdom – don’t laugh), receipts, the latest 2 books I’m reading, my new music CD’s (Third Day Revelation, RemedyDrive Daylight is Coming, and The Best of Bebo Norman – I still can’t believe I listen to a guy named Bebo), DVD’s me and Andrew make for our worship service, an old dictionary I’ve had for many years, my Tyndale New Testament Commentary on Luke, my Day Timer that’s bulging with stuff I need to file, USB cables, post-it-notes with all my internet usernames and passwords, and some coupons from Menards, makes me just pucker a bit in my gut.

My desk can wait until after dinner at Subway with my straight A kids (they get those free combo meal certificates – you’d think they could give ‘em cash for all the taxes I pay). And for now I’m gonna kill some time blogging. Its way too cathartic for me and way too irritating for some of my FB friends and Network buddies to quit, plus I plan to be the writer my dad never got to be (cut short by a stroke).

As for killing time, I think many people choose to kill time instead of themselves. I think that’s a good alternative to the latter. But really what is killing time all about, but wasting precious moments that are irretrievable. You know what I mean? Not that there’s anything wrong with margins in our lives. Margins and boundaries and Sabbath are all essential to spiritual, emotional and physical health, but time is irreplaceable.

I heard it once said that Bill Gates once said (if that’s not gossip I don’t know what is), when asked what he wanted, since he could have anything, he supposedly said, “more time”. It’s probably true. Think of it for a moment. Time represents life. When time stops, life stops (at least as we know it). So when we choose to kill time versus doing productive and progressive things needing attention or responsibility, we might just be choosing life versus the alternative. Yet many would frown on the thought of killing time (they’re probably the ones right now scraping the roof of their mouth with the muzzle of a gun).

It seems that when we get overwhelmed with stuff that we need to do, many of us find ourselves reaching for the knurled handle of a snubbed nosed .38 and a bottle of Jack. Except it all takes the form of idleness. That’s right, for the wise and the cowardice; killing time is a much better alternative than killing self.

Don’t flood my comment box, but I think we need to develop some leadership courses on the art of guilt free time killing. Because all the hours of leadership conferences I’ve logged have never really removed the guilt so often associated with my need to abduct some quality and random Sabbath.

Several months ago, in a conversation I was having with the Lord, I asked Him about this subject. I’ve always felt guilty for taking a nap when I’m tired. If someone would call the house, I would not ask my family to lie, but I would tell them to tell the caller I was busy and would call them back (busy napping). I could never bring myself to letting on that I was napping.

When I asked the Lord where that feeling of guilt came from, He showed me. Years ago, when I was a child, my dad would incessantly make us get up early on the weekends. He was always an early riser and would impose that compulsion on the rest of us. The Lord showed me one time when my dad came into my room and said “get up you’re sleepin’ your life away.” Mind you, it was probably 8:00 am or something, but to him that was lazy, good for nothing, white trash, apathetic, wasting your life away kinda stuff, and he wasn’t gonna tolerate that in our home.

As a result of that one incident, I’ve been terrified for all my life that people would think I was lazy. And I’m really not. I actually know how to make money and work hard and even smart sometimes. But I’m not lazy. Yet all those years I was bound by that memory, by that lie.

When I asked the Lord about all these things, He told me I wasn’t lazy. Ever since then, if I’m napping and someone calls I tell the family to tell the caller I’m napping. Actually I’m kinda proud of that fact now. So if you call and can’t reach me, I might be napping (get over it).

Or maybe I’m just killing time like right now, because I’m too wise and cowardice to choose the alternative. Let me encourage you to learn the art of killing time. You’ll be glad you did.

Now I’m off to Subway for an Italian BMT foot-long. Jealous?

Wisdom, Value and Feeling like Crap

As I sit here typing these words I wonder how much actual wisdom I possess. Some of you readers might argue very little, and for that I wouldn’t even know what to say. Because the assessment of our own wisdom is so stinking subjective and prideful that it’s really hard to get an accurate bearing on quantity let alone quality.

Yet Jesus said something so brief and poignant that I really have to use it as precedent for making a point. In Luke 7:35 we find the Lord’s words; “But wisdom is proved right by all her children.” (NIV)

Have you ever wondered what God’s purpose was in giving us the ability to accept wisdom or to reject it? The unfortunate fact is that most of us are so insecure (ever since we realized we were naked – about 8,000 years ago) that when our need for wisdom is suggested, we bristle and go hide in a bush somewhere. Or we stand up with our fists raised and determine that anyone else’s assessment of our need for more wisdom is grounds for a fight. Either way our reactions are usually pretty immature. And indeed reveal our bad feelings about being naked.

It seems that we’ve progressively gotten worse when it comes to the acknowledgment of our need for wisdom, because children are the payout. Look around, walk around, shop around, and talk around. Just rub up against anyone these days and you’ll find such a deficit of wisdom it’s scary.

Stupid seems to be really cool and hip these days. As a result, wisdom and knowledge are more and more the bastard children of some Department of Homeland Security’s latest extremist hit list.

And why might that be? Because in our own eyes each of us has lost value. Somewhere along the line we’ve believed the lie that we’ve got to compete with the folks next door. Before you know it we’re up to our eyeballs in nitrogenous waste, usually without a paddle. All because we rejected wisdom, then we rejected our own value, which led to the mad scramble of satiating our bad feelings, which always leads to throwing someone under the bus. All in the name of trying to make ourselves feel better about ourselves.

If the wisdom of man is good and suitable for life, then his children should be in good shape. But they’re not. And if we believe in the Wisdom of God, then so too like Jesus said, our children would be in good shape also, but they’re not.

When the Barna Research Group comes out with statistics that show well over 1/3 of self professing Christians do NOT believe that the Holy Spirit nor the Devil are real, but simply metaphors for good and evil, we better check the parents of these children, because we’ve got some bastards on our hands that are rapidly headed in the wrong direction.

And the crazy part is this: if we ask God for Wisdom, He says He’ll give it, but first He’ll check our motives. If the end result is an increase of man centered wisdom, then it’s likely our collective cry for God’s Wisdom either a) went unheard by God or b) our motives were wrong.

So the next time you think you’ve got some slick wisdom going for you, check the children. If they’re doing great, then maybe its God… if not you might have gotten sucked in by the oldest trick in the Book.