The Gospel According To Ellie

This morning started like lots of other days. I heard the footsteps of little feet entering my room and then I heard my daughter, Eva, crawl into bed on my wife's side of the bed. My son was soon to follow and he ended up crawling up on my side. It has to be one of my favorite ways to wake up! My wife was the first one out of bed and threw on some coffee. The coffee, full of the Spirit of Christ, raised me from the dead and I entered the land of the living as well. After a hurried morning ritual I took off to work doing some remodeling at a friend's house. Shorty after I arrived, my wife called. Her voice trembled as she spoke. "Ellie died this morning...."

Immediately my heart imploded.

All I could say was "Ohhhhh noooo!", as my heart broke for our friends.

I called my dear friend Tano to just let him know I am praying and love him. His daughter Ellie, and my oldest, Acacia, are the same age. Our wives were pregnant at the same time and we both experienced the joy of first time fatherhood in the same season. But, his experience would be much different than mine. For the first 18 months or so we shared much of the same things. We enjoyed playing with our little girls and naps on the couch. But things began to change with Ellie. Tano and Abbey began to notice different things about Ellie's development. Ellie began to shake sometimes and didn't seem to be developing at the same rate as others her age. Ellie had been born with Rett syndrome, a debilitating disease that seems to occur in girls due to it's genetic nature. Due to the way that this disorder affects the nervous system little, precious, Ellie, became a prisoner in her own body. Ellie would never learn to walk or talk. Ellie's mind would continue to grow but her body isn't able to respond. Tano and Abby developed a blink language that seemed to allow Ellie to communicate simple needs but only in a limited way. For 8 years now Tano and Abby have loved, nurtured, and cared for their daughter through some of the most difficult circumstances. Ellie fought for life here on earth for 8 long and grueling years. Not a single day went by without struggle. There was never a morning when Tano or Abs heard the sound of Ellie's little feet on their floor, nor did they ever hear their daughter tell them, "I love you." Our friends never saw their daughter's first steps, or heard her read, nor did they watch her run and play like other children.

BUT..............

Today, everything changed. Ellie is prisoner no more. Her first "I love you" will be to Jesus. Her first steps will be on streets of gold. Her new resurrected body now works perfectly. Ellie no longer sits long hours to watch while others play. She is no longer in constant pain. Ellie will never know struggle again. Her hands can be lifted at any moment to the King of Kings, her voice soars with sounds of praise to the only immortal, wise, God. Ellie's suffering in this present life isn't even worthy to be compared with the glory she shares in now. Her face glows from the radiance of the Father and her feet can dance to the tunes of thousands upon thousands as they sing "Glory, honor, and power!!" And from heaven's vantage point Ellie will declare, along with the others in heaven, "Righteous and true are Your judgments Oh Lord!" All the damage that a fallen world has done to Ellie, is now undone so that she, (and we) might be able to say, "Death is swallowed up in victory! Oh Death where is thy sting? Oh grave where is thy victory?" And if she could talk to us right now I think she might remind us just what the "gospel" means......

GOOD NEWS!!!!

Where Is Thy Victory?

Heavy hearts, broken groans
Sleepless nights, in sorrowed homes
Feelings rule the rainy night
While He sits silently upon His throne

How could you do this?
Why allow such pain?
You claim a sovereign
And righteous name?

The questions dissipate in the air
While He just sits silently there.

Then comes anger
wielding the sword
" A pound of your flesh
For not keeping your word
You promised it would all work for good
But that's not how it's happening in my neighborhood"

The gavel slams down, as I hand out my judgment
"I find you guilty, of breaking your covenant!
This world is full of sadness and pain
And your only solution is "believe on your name?!"
Away with this soul ache, and away with you
If you have the power
then there's something you could do

"Why settle for a pound?" came the reply
"I've given it all, I came and died.
It was that soul I purchased, the one for which you grieve
It's her I redeemed, it's her I've received
All that I have is now hers to keep
Do you question my love, is this why you thus speak?
Your eyes haven't seen, your ears haven't heard
you can't imagine, you can't put it into words...
There is a place with me here
That's waiting for all
That understand my love and respond to my call
The world you live in is all upside down
I've made a place to turn that around !
When life ends there it's the end of the story
But here we go from glory to greater glory!
You go from birth, into life, then death
The world you live on goes from order to mess.
But this place I've prepared
Won't need to be repaired
It's where all is made right you see
Lay down your sword and come to me
Put down your gavel and give me your pain
I know that you're hurting, just call on my name
I mend the broken, heal the hurting, and give sight to the blind
It's all included in this gospel of mine!"

My lips became silent, what more could be said
by His loving power, He raises the dead!
So even while the torments of death still loom
I can rejoice in the victory found at His empty tomb!

The Desire for Beauty

I got this thought off of a page where a guy was giving his top ten list of lessons from great christian minds.

(The picture is of me and my son, Elijah at the beach in Brookings on Saturday! It was a "Beautiful" sunset!)

Jonathan Edwards (18^th century): God is beautiful, and all beauty is divine. The fine historian Mark Noll—who spoke here at Taylor last week—has called Jonathan Edwards the “greatest evangelical mind.” If that isn’t an incentive to study this man’s brilliant work, then nothing is. Like Augustine, Luther, and Calvin, Edwards emphasized the sovereignty of God. Everything God does, he does for his own glory. This is, in fact, the point of history and the point of your life and mine: the glory of God. But Edwards recognized that the concept of glory is essentially an aesthetic concept. It falls within the category of beauty. So what this world is all about is showing the beauty of God. And all of our longing for beauty—whether in the form of art, good music, good films, poetry, or the beauty of other people—is really an aspect of our longing for the One who is beauty itself. And all of the finitely beautiful things we experience are so many expressions of God’s beauty.

So here is the question for our blogging purposes;

What do you think is beautiful?
How is that beauty exemplified and ultimately fulfilled in God's person and nature?

Pondering doubt???????

Ok, I'm reading this book by Tim Keller called "The Reason For God". So far it is a great book! In the opening chapter he brings up the issue of doubt. He made a really profound statement that I have been thinking about ever since. On Page 17 of the introduction he states" All doubts, however skeptical or cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs. You cannot doubt belief A except from a position of faith in belief B."

That got the wheels spinning for me about the doubts that I have as a believer. All the doubts that I have are really a belief in something else. Can I identify the underlying belief that is at the root of the doubts that I wrestle with?

For example:

I sometimes have trouble believing that a miracle has occurred. Someone may say to me, "God healed me from my migraine headache!" To which I will respond outwardly" Praise God! That's awesome!" But on the inside I am really questioning if a miracle really took place or if the migraine headache just went away. Why do I doubt that it was a miracle? It could be that I believe that God only does miracles in big ways like blindness, leprosy, and raising the dead. Or , more likely, because my experience with people and their propensity to claim God did something that He in fact, did not do, I believe the person telling me the story is embellishing or just emotional.

What doubts do you struggle with and what are the corresponding beliefs that accompany them?

Music That is My Style

Finding good music as a christian is hard to do. As a reflection of the church our music tends to be geared to a time that has already passed. There are few artists that come on the scene that are a reflection of what it means to be real, normal, and in love with Jesus. Every once in a while some pops up that surprises me. I look for someone that isn't singing what is canned and sells. Someone that thinks more about how they relate to God than coming up with some cookie cutter christian version of the same old repeated lines and phrases..... And it doesn't hurt if they've got a little soul. (Just cause that's my flava!) So here is a dude I just discovered tonight.

Josh Garrels



You can listen to some more here if you want. I loved what heard!

Things I love from the body of Christ:

The passion of the Pentecostals and Charismatics....
It reminds me of the fact that God isn't just after my brain but my soul. Jesus said true worshipers worship in truth but also in spirit. (Jn4 )

The compassion of the Catholics...
I am totally inspired by the selfless live of those such as Mother Theresa, Saint Francis, and others. They remind me that having a heat like God's wil give me a love for the hurting.

The conviction of the reformed...
I love the fervent passion that these guys have for the truth. The doctrine from the reformed church is very thought out. They inspire me to know why I believe what I believe and that the truth of God's word is beyond our ability to exhaust.

The community of the house church Amish-ish type movements...
I love to see the deep sense of love and community that these folks have for one another. There is a total dedication to help one another out and hold each other accountable as they travel life together.

The cultural sensitivity of the post-modern movement....
While most of these churches tend towards liberalism. I am totally in agreement that Jesus didn't come to change each culture (including our own) into some cookie cutter version of the church. I love the thought that churches should be a reflection of the culture that you live in (i.e. music style, decoration, building structure, and the way you dress) while not compromising the truth of God's word. It reminds me that I am a missionary and not a mercenary.

The purpose of the evangelical movement...
God chooses and uses all those who will say "here am I, Lord, send me!" It reminds me that my life automatically serves a purpose and that purpose is to reach the unreconciled. 2 Cor 5

The christocentricity of the Calvary movement...
They inspire me through the verse-by-verse study of God's word that Christ is the message of the bible from cover to cover. I am challenged to remember that if I can preach the message I have in a Buddhist temple or a synagogue that it is not a "christian" message and not good news.

The simplicity of the Applegate Fellowship family...
I love how keeping things simple has been guarded by our church family. Through strong leadership we have all stuck to simply teaching the bible simply. I have seen the radical and continual transforming power of keeping the main thing the main thing.


And, while I have not exhausted the list of all the things I have learned from the body of Christ, I sit here, even now, amazed at the working of God through the different giftings and callings that He has placed in each of our lives. So, I rejoice in knowing that I have a place that is prepared for me here and now. I have a spot in the plan of God. I am free to be who God has created me to be and as I grow in that freedom God is glorified in who He created me to be. In an effort to encourage the we often make the mistake of trying to get others to do what we are called to do. We can even look at the other parts of the body of Christ and begin to be critical because they specialize in one particular area or giftingand are not like us. While this doesn't mean that you don't deal with issues, it does mean that we should not be so quick to see the world through the lenses of our own glasses. At the end we will all stand before the same Lord, saved by the same cross, on the same crystal shore, with each of us throwing the crowns we earned at the feet of Jesus. Why? Maybe because while we were all busy fighting with each other here, by His grace, we managed to get some work done. And when we see us the way He sees us we will realize that our diversity was His idea. What do you think?

Are we over-thinking the church?

What if God never made the church in the way we think of it in it's present state? Is the "stage atmosphere" that we see in today's church the same format that existed in the early church? I'm not advocating chaos, and no order, but I often wonder how God sees the things that we would consider a "church service"? Are the essential elements of church (ie. worship, prayer, communion, the word) just building blocks and we are free to construct the order, style and length according to the needs of a particular body of believers? Is it helpful to rearrange those elements frequently so that the elements themselves do not become the idolatrous pattern that people perceive to be the way that we earn God's favor or blessing? To keep a grace centered church, that understands that it is not about works of righteousness that we have done, is it essential to dismantle the paradigm of worship to keep them from clinging to processes? These are the questions that I wrestle with as a pastor much of the time. Does God want less formality and more normality? Is formality a thin veil that hides our imperfections and keeps us from coming to God like we are? Has church, in the business style model that we see, become the next newest "fig leaf?" Do we hide behind formality because we are afraid that God will not receive the offering of ourselves apart from some ritual that makes us feel like we have checked off a checklist?

Jesus said in John 4:23-24 "... true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth; for the Father seeketh such to worship Him. God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth"

The word "truth" used here in this text is Strong's # 227 in the Greek. It literally means without concealing. The question from this woman at the well is essentially," What is the correct way and place to worship? Is it here in our worship house or there in theirs? Is it their way or ours?" Jesus responds by saying the Father is seeking those that will worship Him with the inner man (in spirit), and without hiding behind anything (in truth)? Is it possible that we have made the search for truth more about academics and less about coming to Him as we really are? Are we hiding behind our systems, policies, and methodologies? Does God desire something more real and natural, something that looks a little more like real life?

What if church service is supposed to look like life and not like a ceremony? Could we as a culture indoctrinated and raised with a ceremonious church service get past that concept? What if, what we know as church had never come into existence and all we had was people that were Christ followers? What would it look like if they got together and there was no blueprint for what to do? What would a natural, spontaneous time of fellowship look like?

In the past I have made the incorrect assumption that the church in the book of Acts had no preconceived ideas of what to do in organizing a worship get together. The truth is that they had two working models of what it means to gather together in worship. The one they pulled from what they saw before Christ came. The second example they had after they had walked for 3 1/2 years with Jesus. In the first model, man became the center. In the latter God Himself was the center. Are pastors (myself included) more concerned about making a name and reputation for themselves? Or are we willing to be made of no reputation, an environment where there are no "superstar" Christians in order that Christ might be the superstar.

What do you think?

The Gates Of Hell!

The last three weeks at our little church has been a great for me. I have been so refreshed in going over the simplicity of the gospel with our church.

Week 1:
We did a study of the "The Power Of The Gospel" in which we talked about the fact that the gospel does not need to be played up to make it more effective, or played down to make it not offensive, but played out as we share what God has done for us. We just need to proclaim the news of what He has done and..... Nothing else

Week 2:
We talked about "The Way We Share The Gospel". If we share from having been affected by the gospel ourselves it changes the way that we share. When we have daily come to the cross in need of God's grace, then we share from a place of humility and compassion.

Week 3:
We talked about "Why We Share The Gospel". In a word. Hell. The gospel doesn't just give us a better life. It is the only hope of salvation for a world that is condemned already.

Summation:
There are many difficulties in reaching out to the community that we live in. We can't expect that the world is going to walk through our church doors, fall on their knees, and ask us if we know Jesus. As a result, the typical forms of evangelism can often leave people feeling tricked because unbelievers show up for the "goodie" (concert, turkey giveaway, toy drive, etc...) and then realize that they have been hoodwinked like some sort of timeshare gimmick. As a result we are often pedaling the gospel with salesmanship rather than proclaiming the gospel in sincerity. Evangelism is often better received from someone you personally know, and in an environment where you don't feel like you were tricked or trapped. In other words evangelism should begin with the church going to the people that they already know and love and happen in a place where they don't feel like they are being targeted to sign up to be a part of an organization or club. We decided at CCF that the best way we could reach our community with the gospel is to give our people a platform and environment where they could share the gospel with their loved ones. So we handed out envelopes with cash amounts in them that were for they express purpose of taking someone they already know out to lunch or coffee and sharing the love of Jesus Christ with them!! In the coming weeks we will see what God does with those who used His resources wisely! Getting sixty people to walk into our church to hear the gospel would be next to impossible (apart from God) but the sixty or so people that took an envelope this Sunday will be reaching out to sixty plus people in our community with the gospel!!! May God fill their words with His power!

There are squatters (those who wait to be attacked) and there are soldiers (those storming the gates of hell!) Which one are you?