This world is full of burdens and many of those burdens are not ours to carry. The problem is we don’t know the difference between what we’re supposed to carry and what we should unload. When we hide our problems, we end up carrying them around with us. The weight of these problems can be crippling to say the least.
This week as you sit around the table with your family, or look in on them virtually, take a moment to unload those burdens. Don’t throw them at other people. But unload them on Christ. We’re invited to run to Jesus and give him our troubles.
Today, just pause for a minute. Consider the things that are weighing you down. Say a little prayer and give them to Christ. Then let yourself be held in the arms of the Father. Let him be your comfort. Let him be the one who keeps you strong and safe.
My prayer for you today is that you find rest for your soul, comfort from your pain, company in your loneliness, and calm for your distracted mind.
I’m pretty sure there are times in all of our lives when we get something so engrained into our minds that it’s hard to see it differently. Well this week I had a bit of an Aha moment. The lightbulb really went on for me when I was looking at some things I’ve seen a million times before. So why didn’t I get this one until now?
If you’ve ever heard of these things in the Bible called the 10 Commandments, then I would venture to guess that you’ve probably fallen into the same mindset when you think about them. But I’d like to stretch your mind a little, and help you see them from a little different angle.
Well, this week we were looking at the four remaining commandments in our series when it dawned on me. These all have a similar focus. Admittedly, their topics are not related at all but when you lay them side by side they really all deal with contentment.
Contentment is a tricky monster. It’s so easy to fall into the comparison game. But the danger of comparison is that we lose contentment. Take a few minutes and listen to this week’s message to where you fall on the contentment scale.
Ok so I’m going to just be blunt for a minute. I’m sick and tired of this mess. No, I’m not talking about the whole covid thing, although I’m getting tired of that too but something bigger than that. I’m not even talking the politically charged world that’s become the normal, at least for now.
I’m talking about the hate. I’m sick and tired of the hatred people are slinging around lately. Have you ever been to the zoo? Ever watch the monkeys when they get upset with each other? They sling their crap at each other. Well, this world is starting to act like a bunch of monkeys doing just that very thing. And it’s ridiculous.
Look – I get it. You don’t agree with your neighbor. Who cares? Your family member voted for a different political candidate. Well, good for them. You don’t wear a mask but your friend does. Sure sounds like a ridiculous thing to let ruin a friendship to me!
Can you please tell me when hate became the new normal? Why is it that we feel so much more comfortable throwing people under a bus than having an honest and civil conversation? And when you have that conversation, don’t expect the other person to bend to your will. You see that’s the fallacy many are working with right now. They think that as soon as they present their case in a well-thought out manner, the other person no longer is allowed to disagree.
Well, sorry to be the bearer of truth here but if you’re allowed to have your opinion, then your neighbor is allowed to have theirs too.
This is not rocket science. It’s not even science! It’s common sense! Just be kind. Quit trying to be king. Just be kind! Don’t agree? Get over it. I’m not trying to be mean here but seriously don’t let a disagreement tear apart a friendship or family. Be kind!
You see if you really look at it. We can all defend our position. You can defend your political stance, but so can your neighbor. You can find someone who speaks your viewpoint on covid, or seatbelt use, or vaccines, or the safety of online shopping. But so can the person who does things different than you. The issue isn’t that we do things different. The issue is that we let difference divide and breed hate. Be kind!
Today’s Music Monday is about just that. It’s time for a revolutionary idea. Let’s get back to the basics of humanity for just a minute. Be kind! It’s really that simple. Disagree and be kind. Agree and be kind. Argue but be kind. Be angry but be kind. It’s possible – you should try it!
In our midweek assemblies at church, we’re digging through the messages found in the gospel account for that Sunday. So this week we took a deeper dive into Matthew 25. It’s the parable of the wise and foolish wedding attendants.
The story is about 10 bridesmaids who were all excited about the wedding that was to happen. In the frenzy of getting ready, half of them really showed how prepared they were while the other half showed a complete lack of understanding of how this whole night was going to go.
I explain in greater detail in the audio attached below but the gist is simple. Five of them had lamps with extra oil to help them navigate from the bride’s home to the groom’s home where the wedding party was to take place. The other five didn’t have enough oil, so they would not have made it all the way without some kind of trouble.
The five unprepared ones, the ones the Bible calls foolish, then tried to borrow oil from the wise ones. At face value it seems to be a reasonable request. But what they failed to understand is that when you take away from the one who has to give to the one doesn’t have then no one has enough. And essentially the system brings all into a deeper state of want. And it’s all because they weren’t prepared.
So the message Jesus teaches here is to be ready. Be ready for His return all the time. Not just some day off in the distance when he might come back, but today, now, in this moment. Are you ready?
But how do you get ready? For that one, you’ll have to give the following a listen.
This world is a hot mess! I don’t really know how else to say it. People are fighting. Accusations are flying all over the place. Everyone things that their way the is the best way. We want things to get better and honestly many think that better is tied to a policy or person. But that’s not what’s going to make things better.
This week we baled on a message series to address the matters in our world. But not quite how you might think. While the issues in our nation are very much politically driven and we’re trying to find the right person to offer the right policy to fix what we feel is wrong, we have a short sighted view of the real problem.
The more time and effort we spend on short term, quick fixes the more short duration fixes we’ll discover – if we discover a fix at all. Specific people and policies are not what this world needs.
This world needs those who call themselves believers in Jesus to actually live like believers in Jesus. The world needs the church to be the church and or Christians to start living what they are claiming to be true. The world doesn’t need more love or acceptance or tolerance. The world needs forgiveness, healing and some hard truths spoken.
Some won’t like the message. Some will. The point is not to please everyone. The point is what’s needed isn’t always the thing that’s wanted. Sometimes the most needed thing is the least desired thing.
Power. Money. Prestige. These are all things that many people in the world today want. We’ll do what we have to do to gain any of these. As a matter of fact, in the world’s eyes, these are markers of success.
But there is a better way. Not that money or power or positional authority are all bad. There’s just a better way. It’s been said that the greatest enemy of great is good. We see the bigger and the better that can be found in a bigger bank account, a window office, a larger house and a host of other worldly accomplishments.
But these can and will all go away. One day we will lose our job, either by our choice or a choice that is forced upon us. One day we’ll realize that the money in our bank account didn’t buy us time with our children and it won’t go with us when we die. The things we value as the good and successful things on this earth will one day leave us wanting.
In the message below, and in the bible section to which it refers, we will see an alternative way of living. We’ll see how there are better things that will come, but often on the other side of challenging situations.
So in the meantime we need to be ok with mourning, sadness, pain, loss, and emptiness – because on the other side of these things we will find something truly amazing. We’ll find a blessing like we cannot imagine.
This week I wanted to share this song with you. It’s a song about who we are and how we need to view one another. This song isn’t about which side of the aisle you sit, what color your skin is, what gender, nationality, or financial status. This song is really about everyone on this earth.
We’ve lost sight of something really important. We’re all made in the image of God. Whether you believe it or not, doesn’t really change the fact that we didn’t have life until God gave it to us. We often live this image well, but there are times when we falter and live out a broken image.
Today I ask you to pause and just look around. Look at how different we all are. But look at how similar we all are too. It’s easy to see the things that make us different. It’s easy to see the things that separate us and cause division. It takes work to focus on the things that unite us. We all need air to breathe and food to survive. We all walk by putting one foot in front of the other. We all need sleep to stay healthy and exercise to stay fit.
We don’t all eat the same things or sleep at the same times or workout the same way. But just because we do things differently doesn’t mean we’re any less made in the image of God. Take time today and look around you and value the image of God that is present in everyone around you – yep even those people who are way different than you!
There’s one thing I really have a hard time with and that’s hearing someone tell something that’s not true. I don’t care if it’s a big lie or a little white lie, a lie is a lie is a lie and that is just not cool. So for me the idea of truth is pretty important. I grew up as a child with the understanding that a half truth is still a half lie so tell all of the truth all of the time.
Truth in our world, however seems to be in short supply in general. Everyone seems to think they can come up with their own idea of truth. People seem to have a hard time dealing with the concept of absolute truth. But if you absolutely deny absolute truth, then you’ve made an absolute claim about something you believe to be absolutely true. You see there’s no such thing as a lack of absolute truth. The question is, what is the basis for absolute truth?
As we look at truth, it’s easy to think that truth is found in a word or a book or a concept. But throughout the Bible, we find that truth is not found in a book. It’s found in a relationship. Jesus is the truth. The relationship that we have with Jesus comes through worship, bible study, devotion time, prayer, fasting and any other of the spiritual disciplines. Find a way to come close to Christ and rest in the truth of the relationship that he has begun with you.
In the church we’re called to live within two realities. It’s even been called by some living in two kingdoms. If we’re truly honest, we’ll admit that it can be a real struggle trying to balance the promises of the bible with the reality of what this world has to offer.
In the message below we’ll deal with one of the struggles the followers of God had in the Bible. The issue was all about taxes. Is it ok to pay taxes or does this in some way break a commandment? And behind their question rests a deeper truth that we’ll hit on as well.
If you’re not into listening to podcasts or don’t have the 20 minutes it will take to listen, then here’s the quick abbreviated version of the message.
The leaders of the church of Jesus’ day didn’t like that he was so different than what they expected, so they tried everything they could to trap him. The question they posed was is it ok to pay taxes or is that somehow breaking a command of God?
Here’s the deal. Taxes in Jesus’ day were a little different from today. They paid something called a census tax. Basically it was a tax on the living and it equaled a day’s wages. This tax was paid with a special coin that had the image of Caesar stamped on it. And this is where the problem lies.
The Caesar’s of this time knew they were earthly rulers, but they also had this weird idea that they were something more than mere mortal kings. They thought they were in some way to be treated as mini-gods. So when the leaders asked Jesus if it was ok to pay taxes the Jews were wrestling with the idea of taxes somehow being like an offering in church. They thought that by giving taxes they were worshiping the king of Rome as if he was a god.
Jesus answers their question with another question, which is his typical method. Who’s image is on the coin? Now of course he knew but he was getting at a much deeper point. Give back to Caesar what is rightfully his and then give God what is rightfully God’s.
In other words, since Caesar is on the coin, then pay your taxes because it’s Caesar’s anyway. But your life, praise, worship and adoration belongs to God because he’s the giver of every good and perfect gift.
There you have it the short version is pay taxes but don’t worship the government. There’s a whole lot more to this but you can listen to the audio for the rest.
I’m going to admit that this post is very much directed at churches, pastors, and other leaders in church-topia. But if you’re not in one of those roles, I’d love for you to still read and hold those of us who are in these roles accountable. Because what we’re doing isn’t enough. I recently heard someone say we’re perfectly positioned to get what we’re currently getting. Or put another way we’ll keep getting what we’ve always gotten if we keep doing what we’ve always done.
So what needs to change?
As church people and church leaders we have big dreams for an Acts 2:47 kind of moment. That’s the moment when God added to their number daily those who were being saved. I mean who wouldn’t want that for the church they serve or even the church they attend!
I’ve been a pastor for over 18 years now and in every church I’ve ever served, we always wanted to reach more people so the kingdom of God would grow. We celebrated baptisms and new member classes. We would hold big welcome events when we brought in a new group of people to the church.
But when we weren’t seeing an increase in numbers we started to wonder what was wrong. What are we missing? Why isn’t God bringing them to us anymore? Why did attendance shrink? Why aren’t new people coming anymore?
This problem is only getting more vivid as we move through this post Covid reality. Churches are shrinking. Less than 75% of church members on average are returning to in person worship. Those who are staying home are saying it’s getting harder and harder to stay connected digitally because the digital time feels like the in person time just without the person connection.
And so many of our churches are pushing to go back to normal. It’s so easy to want to go back to regular in person worship. We want our coffee hour and our fellowship meals. We want to gather the way we used to between services and catch up on what’s going on in life. We want our Sundays back for crying out loud.
But we can’t have our Acts 2:47 moments without living in verse 46 first! Verse 46 is easily overlooked. We love verse 42 where we read how they devoted themselves to breaking of bread, fellowship, prayers and teaching. We expect God will add to our numbers daily in mass quantities. But what did they do with the fellowship, bread, prayers and teaching? Did they do it on Sundays? Did they keep it tucked away for an hour long expression of service and devotion one day a week? Here’s what Acts 2:47 says:
And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts.
Do you see it? Day by day! They saw something that we have forgotten. Church is not an hour on Sunday. It’s not a building we go to on the weekend. It’s who we are. It’s the people with whom we surround ourselves.
Do you day by day with Jesus and those in your community of faith? Do you day by day in the promise of the temple? Do you day by day around the breaking of bread?
It’s really not as hard as we’ve made it out to be. There are so many ways to day by day! You don’t have to spend hours a day. You don’t have to be a bible scholar. You don’t have to host a small group or be at church 24/7! Two of my favorite ways to day by day are the S.O.A.P plan and the 5x5x5 plan. I’ll explain the 5x5x5 plan more in a future post but the gist is five minutes a day in the bible, do one of five simple tasks with the verses (highlight, memorize, etc), and do it five days a week.
These are just a couple ways that we can day by day with God and one another. I’ll unpack a few more options in the weeks to come. But for now start where you are and lean into God a little more today and soon you’ll be in a day by day situation too.
