raising hell

evil wins… really?

Last week I was playing paintball at a local field and saw a guy wearing a shirt that said “evil wins”.

I literally laughed out loud at the guy as he walked by me. He didn’t look so comfortable. As I walked away grinning at the stupidity of it all, it made me start thinking…

There’s a phrase to ‘raise hell’. We joke around with the phrase “I’m gonna raise some hell!” but do we stop to consider what that actually means? It is more than a little disturbing. It usually refers to bringing chaos, destruction, pain, rebellion etc. to a certain situation. To literally raise Hell.

bringing heaven to earth

Recently, I’ve heard several men that I respect talking about the exact opposite. Instead of “raising hell” they discussed Bringing the Kingdom of God to earth. Literally. Living in such a way that little pieces of heaven are exposed through the way we live… To wage Peace.

kill or be killed?

Does that comes into play with the way we live? Honestly no one cares if you or I support Israel or Palestine or any other war in the world - So how can we be the Peacemakers God called us to be? Do you wage war to stop war? Do you threaten with destruction to stop destruction? Do you kill to stop killing? When does it all end?

Can we bring snapshots of peace to the world we live in through our actions?

truth, love & politics

I’m not sure the poilitics of any situation are as inexorably tied in to the reality of these struggles as many in our media would like us to think. When it comes down to it, the individuals involved in these struggles are all just people - people with kids and parents and brothers and sisters - people who feel pain and love and hurt and know joy and suffering.

what is the answer?

So what can we do to stop the violence and pain? So whats the answer? How do we Bring heaven to earth? When does love win?

It is not a matter of preaching love and peace on a street corner with a bullhorn or attending some political rally. The only way to truly make a difference is to actively live a life of overflowing love and peace to the people in my world, in the places I have some little bit of influence

Is that the entire answer? No, but it is a beginning. It is a place for each one of us to start... because, after all, love does win.

grace

The joy of kids

Children are an amazing gift. Karen and I have been blessed with 4 truly remarkable kids. Each one of them is so unique, so full of life, they bring a deep abiding joy to our lives.

Dating after you are married

Most nights we enjoy just hanging out with them and playing board games or cards and watching cartoons (No sarcasm there, I love cartoons! From the hero type teen titans & ben ten down to the ‘sillier’ cartoons that are full of more adult humor than most sitcoms, I truly am entertained by them.) . Once in awhile, however, Karen and I get this crazy notion to do something without our kids. Months of careful planning and management are often required to make sure these date nights happen.

Last weekend, Karen and I had a spontaneous date. One of those, “Hey lets go out without the kids” moments struck me and she agreed. Now it wasn’t a date in the truest sense of the word as we had Isaac, our youngest with us – however on short notice it is about as close as we were getting.

We decided to go to one of our favorite style restaurants, a Japanese Steakhouse in Warrenton.

There are several reasons we enjoy Japanese steakhouses so much, but the primary reason is the food. The simplicity of the soup, the ginger dressing on the salad, the grilled vegetables, fried rice, and the meat quality is always the very best. On top of all that, you can get sushi at these places, so Karen and I always split a roll.

Is God found in really good food?

As Karen and I were sitting there savoring our food and just relaxing, I had a minor epiphany. I began to think how incredibly blessed I am. I began to think of my family, our beautiful home, my job, even the food in front of me. How many people all over this world have little or nothing to eat and live in deplorable conditions? Yet here we were enjoying some amazing food in an air conditioned restaurant.

Why has God blessed us so much? Has God given us riches so we can feel bad that we have them? I believe that God has given us all the things we have for us to richly enjoy. That does not mean we have the freedom consume everything we have upon our own selfish desires, God also wants us to meet the needs of others. There are factors of balance and stewardship involved. We can enjoy His blessing and reach out to those in need simultaneously, but that is not the point I’m making with this story.

Guilty pleasure?

What I felt at that moment was not guilt, nor was it a need to run out and share my meal with someone who was homeless. In a very simple, yet extremely powerful way it was a overwhelming appreciation, a gratitude toward God for what He has given me.

It is quite difficult to put into words exactly what it felt like. This connects to some degree with my unworthy but highly valuable theme from my last entry. When you realize how unworthy you are and God still gives beyond what you deserve, there is no adequate response other than a deep gratefulness for His grace.

Worship or meaningless drivel?

Isn’t that what God wants? Or do you think he’d just rather hear the words? Many of us pray before our meals. More often than not, that prayer becomes rote and cliché, it becomes rehearsed and empty. Is that what God wants us to do before we eat? Is it simply a matter of going through the motions? It took my listening to my kids pray before meals to realize what I was teaching them.

My kids were being taught to just say words. Very rehearsed, and incredibly empty.

Lashing out at… Me?

Anger would be an appropriate response, but who could I get angry at? Myself? Perhaps I should begin to teach them what real gratefulness looks like. After all, a heart of gratefulness is far more pleasing to God than even a flowery empty prayer before a meal.

Lets look at it a different way. Would Karen feel more loved if I told her I loved her or if I consistently sacrificed to do things for her? Which of those would lead her to confidence that I loved her?

Is it possible that God doesn’t want our empty words nearly as much as He wants our heart? Is it even in the realm of possiblity that He would rather have our gratefulness inspire us to DO something rather than just to say a quick ‘thank you’ we don’t even mean before a meal?

The point is worship

When our lives respond with true gratefulness, God’s character is revealed and those around us see God as He really is. They get an accurate reflection of God through our lives.

And isn’t that the point?

Hebrews 12:28 (NLT)
since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe

God is never found by accident

Hosea 6:3

Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.

That we might know the Lord… Does the idea of knowing God intimidate anyone else? Besides, how do we know God? Knowing God seems like an incredibly distant concept. Learning about God seems a bit easier, but knowing God? The idea of God responding to us? Where does it all begin?

The answer before the question

Christian Theology can help us move toward understanding with a doctrine called prevenient grace.

Prevenient means to come before; to precede. It has an air of expectation or anticipating of something coming. The basic theory behind prevenient grace is that God gives us what we most need, before we even know we need it and when we most certainly do not deserve it.

Our greatest need

So then, what do we most need?

Happiness? Health? Wisdom? Justice? Hope? Freedom?

Any of those answers could be argued, and those are all things we would like to have, but what is most needed is grace.

Grace is often overlooked and almost always taken for granted. It’s a very churchy word we are all somewhat familiar with. We see it from a distance and have a vague idea what it looks like. We know its general shape, and we are all comfortable with the concept of grace.

The problem with grace

Could that be our problem? Are we too comfortable with the concept of grace? Is it possible that in our comfort, we do not have a close up, painfully accurate view of what grace really is?

The prodigal son who returns to a father who accepts Him understands grace.

The spouse who is forgiven for infidelity understands grace.

The murderer who is pardoned understands grace.

The cancer patient who is healed understands grace.

But do we understand grace?

Enter the unworthy

You see, contrary to popular opinion, we are not owed anything. We do not deserve anything. We have no rights. Most of us continually struggle with the concept of how valuable we are. “I deserve…” and “I have the right to…” are both etched deeply within each one of our souls.

Understand, this does not mean we are unvaluable, we are simply unworthy.

The prerequisite to fully understanding grace however is seeing exactly how unworthy we are. The gift that is being offered us is only truly seen in the light of our unworthiness. We must come to a place of emptiness, where we see our depravity before we can ever appreciate the wonderful grace that is being offered. When we truly see how undeserving, how unworthy we are, then we can begin to see how amazing grace truly is.

The doorway to knowledge

So the very first part of grace is the ability to know God.

Before a sinful person can think a right thought toward God, they must first be enlightened by God. We can’t even seek God until God seeks us first to give us a desire to seek Him. The only reason we pursue God is because he first put an urge within us to chase after Him.

John 6:44
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him…

OK, so God draws us, but we can’t find God unless He wants to be found, right? He’s God and I bet He’s really good at hide & seek. Or is He?

Playing hide & seek with God

My 3 year old son absolutely loves to play hide & seek. The only problem is He’s not very good at the hiding part. If you walk into the room he is hiding in and say “Isaac are you hiding?” he will quickly respond, “Yes!”. Its like clock-work, he gives away his location every time. As much as he enjoys the game he just isn’t very good at hiding.

Maybe God is a bit like Isaac. After all He tells us exactly where He is! Maybe we just aren’t so good at the seeking part.

Grace, knowledge, life

To summarize our journey so far, God puts a desire in our heart to pursue Him, we chase after Him and begin to walk with Him and begin to know Him…

Who should get the credit for us knowing God?

Is knowing God really that important?

Bernard of Clairvaux said, “There are two reasons for loving God: No one is more worthy of our love, and no one can return more in response to our love.”

Its almost as if in the Christian cliché that we live, we have almost completely forgotten that God is a person and that He is our father. We can only know Him and relate to Him in that context.

After all, the point of life is simply knowing God.

John 17:3
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
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inspired by Day One of The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer