Please indulge me a little and allow me to speak somewhat hypocritically.  I have been really brought down in the past few weeks.  Mostly it has been due to twitter and Facebook.  A recurring conversation in my mind and with my wife has been, "I really want to delete my Facebook and twitter."  We both agree that this could be a real blessing.  However, (and yes, this is an excuse) many of the people of my church and the friends that we have left in Texas are on Facebook and it provides a way of connecting and engaging with people, the church, and culture.  However, it is a double-edged sword.  I've been wanting to deactivate my Facebook account for two years.  I'm still on the fence about it.  Anyway as I find my way back to my point, I have been really brought down by social media the past few weeks.  The Chick-fil-a issue has been one of those things (don't read that statement and assume you know where I land on that issue, and no I'm not telling...yet).  But also there are some of my friends on Facebook who spend their entire time tearing down and being extremely critical of the church.  I will say more about that in the future.  it has just seemed to me that everything I tend to read on these avenues has been negative, vicious, and cynical.  I need a break from that.  And I realize that this entire paragraph is negative.  


And so here I go on the roundabout!

Jesus faced great critics, great sinners, and was forever surrounded by liars, sick, demon-possessed, ignorant, manipulative, and persecuting people.  And yet...he did not give in to the negativity.  He stayed positive for the sake of the Kingdom and His father.  You know we can learn a thing or two from Jesus.  Life is imperfect and predictably broken, dark, and awful at times.  However, we are to be the light in that darkness.  We are to be the healers within that brokenness.  We are to be the awe that is surrounded by the awful.  If Christians are simply the same as the world our message is weak.  If we join the complaints of the world our burden becomes like that of the Israelites in the wilderness and it is a burden that cries out for slavery and bondage when freedom is the promise.  Our burden should be that even while we are on earth where things have taken a alternate route from God's ideal, we live with the Holy Spirit in our heart connecting us to Christians all over the world.  Our burden is a message of hope, reconciliation, and love.  Our burden is not perfection, but redemption.

I am redeemed
I am accepted 
I am loved
I am healed
I am sheltered
I am sustained
I am forgiven
I am a light
I am an extension of grace
I am HIs

AND SO ARE YOU!!!!!

Lay down negativity and live in the Light of God.  It doesn't mean it will all go the way you plan and life will be easy.  It doesn't mean we won't mourn, lament and feel the troubles of the world.  It won't mean we will smile all day as we walk on rainbows and eat nutritious cotton candy.

It will mean we will have a perspective that is other-worldly.  A sightline that looks through the negative to the positive and our hope (read expectation) is in the one who makes all things new and will restore all of creation.

When it seems I'm drowning in life's negativity, yes I can deactivate Facebook or delete my twitter.  Or I can shine my light not so my stance can be heard, but so Jesus can be seen.

On this July 4th I’ve been thinking about our nation and the Christian Faith.  I have had some thoughts that I would like to share briefly.

Free to Assemble and Free to Worship

In the country that we live in, we are free to assemble as a church or religion and we are free to worship whoever we claim to be our God.  I thank God that we have this type of freedom.  However, even if we didn’t just like China we would find a way to worship and assemble even if it is unlawful.

My thought today was even though we have this freedom, if we the church do not break free from our comfortable walled-off settings of worship in order to go out and do the Kingdom business of God we are still in great bondage.  Satan seeks to lie and manipulate.  So strives to make us so thankful to have a place to worship that we won’t ever leave it to actually make a difference in the world around us.  So we must be careful to not allow our freedom of religion create a slavery of complacency.

Americans and Christians

  We are Christians who live in America

This is a great country that I appreciate, respect, and love.  I take pride in our flag, our soldiers, our forms of government, and our bond.  However, I am not a Christian because of America.  I am not an American because of Christ.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but sometimes we really do confuse the two or better yet act as if they are synonymous.   I am an American because I was born in America.  I am a Christian because I choose to do my best every day to live in the Kingdom of God and follow my savior Jesus Christ.  There are Christians in other countries.  They don’t follow Christ because its easy or in order to become good citizens.  They follow because he saved them and they wish to live for the Kingdom.  Being a good American doesn’t make me a good Christian.  Being a good Christian won’t make me a good American.  They are not synonymous, although since our country was founded by Christians there is quite a bit of overlap.  Enough said I think!

True Freedom

True freedom comes at a cost.  Freedom from the tyranny of other countries has cost our nation many lives.  Those lives were not lost in vain.  They died so that we could have certain unalienable rights.  We should honor those that have fallen, those that have suffered, those that have sacrificed, and those that have supported this country.  We honor these because of what they have done in the name of freedom for our country.  I honor them because without them I could not live the life I live in the United States of America.  I am thankful!

There is another freedom for which I’m thankful; a freedom from sin and death.  I deserve the sentence of death due to my own sin and brokenness.  However, I have been freed from that bondage because of what God has done IN me, Christ has done FOR me, and the Spirit has done THROUGH me.  It also has come at a great cost.  One I can never pay back.  One that is ultimately not owed.  Christ didn’t die so we could work our way into His grace.  He died that we might have grace immediately and life abundantly. 

While I enjoy, appreciate, respect, and live in both freedoms only one will last throughout all time and in any place…Freedom in Christ!  It is the freedom in Christ that taught our forefathers of this nation how to fight for its own freedom as a country.  I live in the unshakeable Kingdom of God that extends freedom to all who enter and live.

Last Word

I pray that as Americans we can see all people who reside in our country as Americans.  Not only those who have realized “The American Dream”, but with the eyes of Christ we can see all races, all economic levels, both genders, and all that express their American freedom the way they choose as Americans.  More importantly I pray we can see them as people who have a story and that are on a journey that will one day, if they haven’t already, intersect with God and us so that we can continue to build on the great story of God and His people.  With global eyes we will see that Christianity is stronger than one person, one church community, one nation and also see that America’s freedoms are something we can appreciate and celebrate.  Now, let’s go join God in His work and celebrate the Kingdom!

I was at a conference in Abilene, TX when I heard James Bryan Smith say that we live in the Unshakeable Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom is never in trouble."  I just can't let that thought go.  This Sunday I will speak to the senior class 2012 of the Highland Church of Christ Youth Ministry (3D Ministry).  I will read Psalm 145:13"Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations.  The Lord is trustworthy in all he promises and faithful in all he does."Then I will charge them to live a life that when it has ended, people will be able to say that they lived a life in which they never lost confidence in their God and always leaned on the Kingdom.We live in a time of great uncertainty and insecurity.  We know more about the world and its atrocities than ever before.  We can no longer be the Ostrich with our heads in the sand.  And while that can be very scary and disorienting, it can also be revitalizing as we assure ourselves that faith is the conviction of unseen things and God's promises are always YES!  We do not travel our life's journey in great wonderment or uncertain mystery.  We travel knowing that God is who he says he is and does what he says he will do.  Just like the taking of Jericho we march His path with great confidence that God has already overcome!  While there is mystery and wonder left in the kingdom for imaginative, awestruck, spiritual lovers we don't walk a path for what might be or what never could be, but what already was, is, and is to come.  We live in the unshakeable Kingdom of God and God's kingdom is never in trouble.