Everything orbits around me...

Happy Tuesday,


If we were to take inventory of ourselves what would we find? What items might be left in the "back-warehouse" of our souls? There is one thing that no matter how we label it will always be the same. It may be put in a different place, or found under a different title but it still remains just as corrupt as it started. This dreaded piece of us that cannot be lost is our pride. If you and I were countries it would be our #1 export. Pride is our top commodity.

This serious character flaw that we drag around is wrapped in selfishness. In fact being focused on its self is prides DNA. And we are essentially plagued with this disease inherently. As apart of our sin nature was this pride that continues to haunt us today just as it did everyone in history. Tracing its roots we see it in the Garden of Eden as well as in Lucifer (the original gansta).

In heaven some time ago Lucifer, being a prominent angel, had an epiphany "I'm cooler than God!" How wrong he was. This lead to a massive rebellion and a permanent deportation of L-dogg and his posse. This is the writer's speculation but I'm guessing this motivated his sabotage attempt in Eden. He was probably pretty upset at his massive embarrassment in front of his friends. So he figured "I aint goin down like at!" so he plotted how to take mankind down with him. The O.G. doesn't play.

To successfully disrupt the harmony in Eden he knew he needed to get them to really screw things up. Not just missing an evening stroll through the garden with Jesus, but something huge. A mistake that would cost them eternity. What could be added into the equation that would set things off worse than anything imaginable? Lucifer found his trump card, the final hammer that would severe ties between mankind and the Godhead. Self-preservation a.k.a.-PRIDE.


The charity that hastens to proclaim its good deeds, ceases to be charity, and is only pride and ostentation.
William Hutton

Our pride, that is attached to our flesh, has been the foundation for so many wrongs that have been done. Pride is the root of our sin. Pride has our focus off of God and others and has turned it inward. How can I look the smartest, best, most in charge, least embarrassed, most knowledgeable, most all-together, most spiritual, least sinful, most holy, and best person all-around?


Proverbs 11:2
When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom.

Proverbs 15:33
The fear of the LORD teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honor.

Philippians 2:3
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.
Though we may have been stuck with this ball and chain of vanity, we have a tool to fight it, and fight it we must. Everyday there will be opportunities to feed your pride or kill it. Kill might be a misnomer but severely wound it is just as good. This is a genetic flaw that was added to the mix with Adam and Eve but we still have the ability to combat it. So let us fight with everything we have in us.

Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

1 Peter 5:5
Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."


Let's drag out our rusty weapons of humility and begin to do some damage on this wall of pride in our lives. We would be surprised at what might happen if we made a conscience effort to make the change, to choose humility instead of self-protection. To walk the narrow road rather than the wide. To seek that place of grace instead of the tension because of opposition from God.

Today when you are in a place of difficulty and you can feel something inside of you rising up ready to chop down someone or something in order that you might be the one that comes out on top, take a step back and find the route of humility rather than pride. Try and carve your own path of meekness instead of the six-lane freeway of arrogance, conceit and selfishness.


Take care,
Pastor Chris

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paternity

Happy Tuesday,


How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He's the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and he takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
-Ephesians 1.3-6 (MSG)


I remember when I was growing up in a fit of rage I would say "I must be adopted!" Figuring that I was different than the rest of my family and the only logical explanation would be that these people aren't really related to me. I held this belief in the back of my mind until someone could prove me wrong. Until one day I saw a picture of my father when he was 18 or 19 and it felt as if I was looking in a mirror.

I believe there is a point in our childhood that we are connected with God in a way that is indescribable. We may not have even been conscience of it but it was there. We were untainted by this world of corruption. Sin and deceit hadn't crept into our consciousness yet. We were connected with God. Then one day we had to come to terms with the fact that this world hurts. Pain is a very real thing. People will harm you to get what they want. All the ugliness of this cruel world had to come crashing down on us at some point... and the weight of that knowledge hurt.

It's like we realized that God wasn't our real Father; he just adopted us. There was a harsh reality that he was trying to keep us from that he couldn't any longer. It's like he was just trying to do the right thing.

in loco parentis
Latin= (in place of a parent; in a parental capacity)

But maybe the truth is that He is our true Father and He just letting 'our parents' borrow us for a while. Maybe the truth is that this reality that smacked us so hard in the face isn't truly reality at all. I think we all carry a thought of not belonging with God, a sense of imperfection that haunts us that will lead us to believe that we can't be apart of His family. But one day we'll be able to look into the face of our Father (God) and it will cure any disbelief that He truly is your Daddy. (Romans 8.15)

I can hear Maury reading the results "The test is..... ........ POSITIVE, God IS your Father!!!" (And the crowd goes crazy)

Take care,
PC

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naked in truth

Happy Tuesday,

"It is better to live naked in truth than clothed in fantasy."
-some old guy


Directly after Adam and Eve fell into... (scratch that) walked into rebellion, the first thing they did was try and cover themselves. The now knew that they were naked. Up until that point they were naked as can be and had no idea that there was any alternative.

...she took the fruit and ate and gave it also to her husband with her, an he ate. And the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons.
- Genesis 3.6-7

In eating the fruit/ rebelling against God, there were so many repercussions that came along with this one act. Fulfilling your selfish desires always does come with more than you bargained for. Adam and Eve were left without communication with God (or what they were used to), they now knew that they were naked, Adam would now have to struggle to get food from the ground, and Eve would have great pains during child birth (I think she got the worst of it by far).

How we benefit from our ancestors foul-up is we live under these same curses of sin. The most prevalant is the fact that we know we are naked and it has become second nature for us to scratch and claw our way to cover that fact up. To disguise it from the rest of the world and look as 'holy' as possible to everyone else.


Because we never lay hold of our nothingness before God, ad consequently, we never enter into the deepest reality of our relationship with Him. But when we accept ownership of our powerlessness and helplessness, when we acknowledge that we are paupers at the door of God's mercy, then God can make something beautiful our of us.
-Brennan Manning (The Ragamuffin Gospel)

The fact is, we are all naked under these clothes we are wearing. None of us are exempt from this. We all have vulnerabilities that we go to great lengths to hide everyday. Have you ever been around a person that is super-open about what they've done wrong this week? When they begin listing off the ways that they have sinned there is this weird uncomfortable feeling that just comes over you. Your thinking "T.M.I., T.M.I., T.M.I.!!!" (too much information incase you've never heard that).

Its almost like a cruel joke that Lucifer played on God. Lucifer knew the naked state of this 'new' creation and thought, in his wicked, wanting-to-get-back-at-God, bad attitude "I should ruin all this beauty." He knew that if he could get us focused on us we would lose sight of God. If we were consumed with covering up our faults and failures we would never be open with God or with eachother so he set out to through a wrench in the works.

I used to hear the phrase " Love is blind" and it always carried a negative connotation. I thought Love is blind so people do stupid things when they are 'in love' with someone else. Believe I still think that to be the truth. But I think there is a deeper meaning too that old adige. Adam and Eve walked with True Love. They lived in True Love and they were blind to all else.

Being 'in love' has a way of making everything else in life fade into the background. Everything that was important is now just secondary information. But all the things that didn't matter like flowers, sunsets and blue skies all become more clear, more vivid and more real than they ever where before.

Lets accept the fact that we aren't perfect and have uncountable vulnerabilities that haunt us daily. But lets also begin to fall 'in love' again. If God is love let us begin again to fall into his warm embrace and let all the things that once mattered take a back seat to His beauty. And let those things that we never noticed before become more real to us than we ever imagined.

"It is better to live naked in truth than clothed in fantasy."

Take care,
Pastor Chris

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But a vapor...

Today, the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions...
-Charles Steger (President of Virginia Tech)


Yesterday, Thirty-three people died on the campus of Virginia Tech. In a bizarre, unexplainable turn of events a gunman walked first into a dorm and then class rooms and began opening fire. Witnesses described his demeanor as "cold" and "emotionless". With what seems to be no motive the gunman shot and killed 32 people before turning the gun on himself.

When hearing a story like this there are loads of emotions that rise to the surface. Anger, confusion, bitterness, sympathy and even in a strange way relief that it wasn't someone you know. We are simultaneously repulsed yet enthralled by the drama that has occurred. We want to know why. Why someone would commit such a malicious crime? What could have set him off? What is happening to our world?

Prayerfully, this incident hasn't affected anyone reading this personally, but all of us have experienced something just as confusing. We have all come close to death at some point in our lives, maybe not ourselves but in someone close to us. A grand-parent, a sibling, a spouse or even a parent. All of us have come close to losing someone you care about and had to wrestle with the timeless questions of why.


He has set eternity in the hearts of men...
-Ecclesiastes 3.11


We were created for something larger than these few years we have and when we come face to face with the cessation of that life something just doesn't feel right. We peer into a coffin and something inside of us just doesn't jive with it. We hear of stories of people dying by the dozens and other than the obvious (hatred, anger, malice) we can't put our finger on what's not right about it.

Our design was for something greater. We will never come to a place of comfort in these things because were not crafted for such frailty. Heaven, eternity and beauty is set deep in our bones and this world that is broken and hurting cannot speak the language we feel deep inside of us. Peace eludes us in this temporal world and is only found in those things that are eternal.

In a day when sadness comes into our living rooms through television cameras, or grief creeps through our computer screens as we look at footage of such a tragedy; let us remember that this life isn't the end, it is only the beginning. Death hasn't won anything; it has been conquered and is only the door-way into eternity. We were crafted for beauty and nothing can take that from us.

So no matter how dark this life may become (i.e. "in a fish") circumstance can not take what it has not given, and that is life, which is scribed deep in our beings by the hands of our creator God.


Breathe Deeply,
Pastor Chris

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Quit Work/ Make Music

Quit work, Make music.

This t-shirt/ bumper sticker/ credo of the 9-5 zombie, has stuck with me ever since I first heard it. It may be because I have been dying to write some music myself. Or maybe because it has a way about it that everyone wants to follow. In this one statement we find a chord being struck in all of us. It might not to quit work or make music but it is relating to our need for significance not success.

Success and significance seem like polar opposites at times. The corporate world wants to tell you to be successful you must first "sell off your values" and everything that you hold dear needs to take a back seat to "getting the job done". In many other occupations we see the stress of the mundane has overshadowed any meaning found in the task that the employee is being paid to do. Where has significance gone?

Secretly most of us have dreams of becoming someone great. To be someone known for their humanitarian work abroad or for their talents finally being discovered and the known-world benefiting from them. Or for you it might be to take your son or daughter and pour into them everything good so that they will become a difference maker in a world that badly needs them.

Whichever it might be for you we all long for significance for our lives. Yet somewhere along the way we get drug into the race for success. To be the best so the boss will notice. To work as many over-time hours as possible so that this weeks check is pretty hefty. 'Selling your soul' to the company so your CEO will come out shining like a star and hope that he will repay you in the form of a raise.

Could there be a way of blending the two? Though they seem to be opposite extremes what if you could find significance in your success? Success will always be found in significance but it doesn't always work the other way. How could we take a little humanitarianism and being overworked and underpaid and arrive at a healthy balance? What would that look like?

The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance- and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.
-Oprah Winfrey

May we come to find that it's not in what we do that determines our worth in the world but how we do it. The things that come and go are a gauge of success but elements that are everlasting determine our significance. Your occupation might be rooted in things that will come and go; cars, money, equipment etc. But your job is found in those things that will last; your marriage, children, and relationships. Go and be Successfully Significant.

Take care,
Pastor Chris

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