I'm continuing to pray and listen, last night and today. And God is continuing to speak to me through the words of His Old Testament prophet Habakkuk.

HABAKKUK 2:1-4 / THE AMPLIFIED BIBLE

1 [OH, I know, I have been rash to talk out plainly this way to God!] I will [in my thinking] stand upon my post of observation and station myself on the tower or fortress, and will watch to see what He will say within me and what answer I will make [as His mouthpiece] to the perplexities of my complaint against Him.
2 And the Lord answered me and said, "Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by.
3 "For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behind hand on its appointed day.
4 "Look at the proud; his soul is not straight or right within him, but the [rigidly] just and the [uncompromisingly] righteous man shall live by his faith and in his faithfulness."

THOUGHTS ON v. 2 …

God, thank You for being the God who not only listens to the prayers of His children, and is attentive to their lives … but who actually answers them! You are not distant or ticked off, even when You seem to be. You are not silent or disengaged, even when You appear to be. You are not an "impostor", but there is a sense of mystical illusion to trusting You. I cannot see You, but I am called to trust You.

It seems unfair at the least, and downright impossible at the best. And yet this is the recipe of faith. At different times in my life the ingredients in this recipe have left me frustrated. But during this current chapter it is simple stirring up in me a nearly insatiable desire to see You more clearly, to love You more dearly, to follow You more nearly, day by day. For if marble is the essence of Michelangelo's David, then trust is the essence of love.

Thank You for being the God who answers. Sometimes slowly. Sometimes quickly. Sometimes elaborately. Sometimes simply. Sometimes loudly. Sometimes in whispered syllables. Sometimes in ways hoped for. Sometimes in ways filled with surprise. But You answer. You always answer.

"Wait my child. You must wait a bit more." "Take up your mat and walk! Yes, right now. Come on, get with the program!" "Go up the mountain and sacrifice your 'beloved' (whatever dream, person, desire or hope your 'beloved' might be)". And the gift of Your answer is precious in that much of the time it is not just about me having a greater understanding of Who You are and what You are up to, but it also bring greater clarity about how You want to use me in this world. And in understanding and embracing these answers from You, my destiny is uncovered and I am humbly equipped to live into it.

Thank You that while Your vision for me is straightforward, but it isn't just busy-work. There is a sharpness, a strength, a depth, and a purpose in a vision marked by God-pointed-conciseness. This is the kind of vision You are pouring into my heart. One free from frills, intentionally lacking unneeded ornamentation. But as clear and sharp as a tack.

When a little boy waits for his daddy to come home after work, he dreams of being scooped up in His father's arms, and smothered in love and hugs. Sometimes the door seems to never open. Sometimes God's lingering is mistaken for disinterest. But not today LORD. Today You have walked through the door in ways obvious and undeniable.

I feel Your arms around me LORD. I smell the scent of heaven on Your collar. And like a new mother's love for the child in her arms eclipses the pain of having given birth, my focus in this moment is on the great joy I know at being held tightly by You, and not on the nearly unexplainable route You have taken me on in order to give birth to this moment. Blessed be the arms and the answers of the LORD. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

Here are the verses that have been rattling around in my soul all day. I woke up thinking about them. God's gift to me today I think. I journaled about the first verse ... and those thoughts are below as well.

HABAKKUK 2:1-4 / NEW AMERICAN STANDARD

1 I will stand on my guard post and station myself on the rampart; And I will keep watch to see what He will speak to me, And how I may reply when I am reproved.
2 Then the LORD answered me and said, "Record the vision and inscribe (it) on tablets, That the one who reads it may run.
3 "For the vision is yet for the appointed time; It hastens toward the goal and it will not fail. Though it tarries, wait for it; For it will certainly come, it will not delay.
4 "Behold, as for the proud one, His soul is not right within him; But the righteous will live by his faith."

THOUGHTS ON v. 1 …

God, I've been standing at my "guard post" and remaining as attentive as I can be -- out on the "rampart" for a long time. And yes, I do know what "rampart" is. I looked it up in a dictionary. It means "a defensive wall of a castle or walled city, having a broad top with a walkway and typically a stone parapet." And a "parapet" is "a low, protective wall along the edge of a roof, bridge, or balcony."

Of course, all of this is a metaphor … a word picture to describe that for the past fourteen months I've invited You to be my defense – both in the things I have left behind, and in the new things I have reached out toward as potential new beginnings.

Along the way I've invited You to be the "spacious place" where I have found my breath and my bearings, and where You have serendipitously been my vision … pruning and refocusing me in just the right ways and t just the right times. And You have also been the "broad space" under my feet so that my ankles have not turned (PSALM 18:19; 36).

And from this position of safety and loved-ness, You are teaching me to see what You are up to with the eyes of an eagle ... and to hear what You are saying with the ears of an owl. I'll admit that not everything I have seen You do (in me and through me), and not everything I have heard You say (directly, through Your WORD and through the words of others) has been easy to accept.

Solomon said over and over again in his book of riddles and rhythms, that "a fool rejects instruction." And so out of a desire to not be a "fool" but also wanting to see the "meaning behind my experiences" You've taken me through, I have sought to remain teachable.

And so for granting me the joy of accepting Your will for my life, and for all that You have done and are doing for me, and in me, I am today, above all else, a man whose heart is grateful. I will BLOG on the other three verses of this passage in the next few days. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

I've been engaged in a series of emails with an old friend. He is moving into a new chapter of life and ministry and I have been challenging him to learn from some of the lessons God has been schooling me in these past fourteen months -- lessons which have often centered around the need to see "honesty about our lives" as a priceless virtue that must be uncompromisingly pursued at any cost. Here's a few lines from our last correspondence ...

I will pray with you and your bride ... that you will soon feel clear and united about this new position that seems to have opened up for you. But I exhort you my brother ... do not walk through a door that you alone have opened.

Charm, a snappy resume, a slam-dunk interview, tailor-made references ... these are far too easily more related to "marketing" than to "God's direction". So always double-check your motives. Not to create self-doubt or fear. But to cultivate both a sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and a willingness to recognize and steer away from something just because it's the BBD (the Bigger-Better-Deal).

I also hope that you've been ruthlessly honest with this future employer about the ups and downs in your life and ministry these past years. Because when we merchandise our successes while airbrushing our failures we set ourselves up to become what Brennan Manning rightly calls "the impostor" and we'll eventually and inevitably sink to new heights of shallowness, both in our character and in our ministry endeavors.

Living this way with God, with ourselves, with our families, with our colleagues, and through the application/interview processes of our lives, will most surely hold us back, train our hearts to believe that secrets are okay, and subtly deceive us into believing the lie that the unhealthy or ungodly patterns of our lives aren't real if they can be consistently covered up or ignored.

And of course, nothing could be further from the truth. As Frederick Buechner wrote in his book Telling Secrets, "Each of us not only has our secrets, we are our secrets."

God's best to you as you begin this hew chapter of life and ministry. I'll also let you know where I land. Good night and Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

My life, intertwined with God and the ones I love, is all that is truly in focus now. Dreams of vocation are nothing compared to dreams of them. Hopes of any success in life are dull in comparison to the vibrancy I see in them -- even though they remain at a distance. Goals mapped out clearly in bullet-form pale when written next to words describing the blessings I know to be mine for having loved and been loved.

I am like a man both dying and being reborn ... both held back and set free ... both breathing and breathless. The great turning inside out is taking place ahead of eternity's beginning as what is seen, known and understood from within creates and shapes the reality of my life today -- and that which is seen, known, and understood from without plays second fiddle. The "joy of the LORD" IS my strength in ways I've never known; His presence my fear relieves.

Today, in lands around the world, people will die for their faith in Jesus Christ. God, today, may my thoughts, my words and my actions show me worthy to be called a follower of Your Son, and my Savior, Jesus Christ. And may the life of faith I am choosing to walk, be a life lived out in faithfulness and much cheer. Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done. On earth, as it is in heaven. Amen.

Thank you for your blessed partnership in love, faith, worship, ministry and in the daily shenanigans of living. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

What I need more than anything right now is "God's perspective."

If I want my with-God-life to head in a certain direction ... if I want my with-God-life to be defined by certain things along the way ... if I want my with-God-life to end up at a certain place ... then it matters how I think, which way I head, which way I steer my ship, which compass I look at, which maps I follow, which currents I travel, and which winds I turn my sails into.

"When you are feelin' really down,
read Job, and see what that guy
had to go through!"
- Winston Groom, Forrest Gump

Groom's book is short but spicy, much better than the movie. Forrest is a man-child with a heart of gold, and more of an inner-longing for God than was portrayed in the movie. I haven't felt quite down enough to need to read Job for encouragement, but if that day comes, I think I'll take Forrest up on his advice.

Because again, most of the time, moving from doubt to hope and from obfuscation to clarity is more about "discerning God's perspective" than it is "needing some kind of brand new knowledge or revelation". So it was good to be reminded of this important truth this morning.

In his little book, The World As Best As I Remember It: Thoughts and Reflections, songwriter-singer-author Rich Mullins penned some words that give greater dimension to what Winston Groom was getting at ...

"God did not give Joseph any special
information about how to get from being
the son of a nomad in Palestine to being
Pharaoh's right hand man in Egypt. What
He did give Joseph were eleven jealous
brothers, the attention of a very loose
and vengeful woman, the ability to do
the service of interpreting dreams and
managing other people's affairs, and the
grace to do that faithfully wherever he was."

I want to wallow in this "grace" Mullins speaks of and calls us into. I want to be baptized in it – inviting it to saturate me and define me. Why? Because I believe there's a perspective God wants to bring into my heart and mind through this process that I won't be able to come by any other way.

In an exchange between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in his book Alice's Adventure In Wonderland, author Lewis Carroll tells us that where we're going at any given moment has got to dovetail with our goal of where we want to finish up at the end of all our given moments. Carroll writes …

"Which way do you want me to go?"
Alice asked the Cheshire Cat. "Would
you tell me, which way I ought to go
from here?" "depends a good deal on
where you want to get to," said the cat.
"Oh, I don't care much where," said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which way
you go," replied the cat.

We have nine engaged couples at Ogden Church right now. Instead of trying to do six individual counseling sessions with each couple, I started a class. This saves me time and helps build relationships between the couples ... a relationship they're wanting to continue by beginning a young married couples small group in the Fall. Yippee ... mission accomplished!

This morning I've been working on tonight's fourth-session; weaving some of these thoughts into what I'll share with them tonight ... and so I thought that I'd share some of them here. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

Years ago, while attending a workshop, the speaker used an ice-breaker-initiative to try and get us in touch with our "inner poet". Kind of touchy, very feely. Anyway, here are the opening lines of the love-sonnet I wrote to my treasured bride Teresa that morning ...

Who would have have guessed
that a man on a self-centered quest
would have been chosen by someone like you ...

My little ode of love went on to express my love to my dear wife in ways that would have made Mr. Hallmark blush, Helen Steiner Rice chuckle, and Bill Shakespeare get out his red pen. But the sentiments I wrote that day were true and came from a resolute understanding that I'd married above my position, that any "success" I'd had in life had more to due with the support of my wife than with my own tenacity or talent, and that I'd not only love her all of her life, but that I'd love her all of mine.

Which brings me to what I want to write about this evening – the reality that these past thirteen months of uncertain quest would never had been possible without Teresa's steady whispering to me, in ways simple and quiet, and in ways complex and insistent ...

• That God had a plan ... even when we couldn't see it.
• That together we could seek God's plan and find God's plan ... even when it would require more faith that we'd ever had to draw upon.
• And that together we would walk this road and not give up ... even when we were discouraged, tired, separated, or ticked off.

And so tonight I want to let everyone know how blessed I am to have Teresa as my wife. Here are just some of the words that describe her: graceful, tenacious, attentive, wise, gentle, unselfish, consistent, thoughtful, prayerful, and peppy.

Please keep praying for Teresa as she holds down the Newberg fort during my time in Michigan. I leave again for three-weeks this coming Monday at 6:40 a.m. She continues to do some property management, cook monthly meals for a dear Christian sister here in Newberg who is developmentally challenged, and she also cleans two homes besides ours. This is all hard, and mostly thankless work, and she needs to sense God's calling and provision during these last feel months I am in Michigan.

Please pray for Ian as he tackles the final two months of his Junior year at Newberg High School, and as he wraps up the last two weeks of an Old Testament Survey class he's taking at George Fox University. He's also playing rugby, involved in Young Life and needs to hear God's voice and know God's presence as he's the "man of the house" in my absence.

I am continuing to have good conversations with three churches about whether or not God is opening the door for me to be their new lead pastor-teacher. Thanks for your ongoing prayers for this process. I wish we knew right now what door I am supposed to walk through. But we do not. I haven't heard any new updates from the two churches in Hawaii for several weeks, so I'm assuming that this is not the direction the LORD has planned for us. But here are the three churches I'm talking with ...

1. 2nd Street Community Church, in Newberg, OR (my hometown)
   
2. Emerald Bible Fellowship, in Eugene, OR (100 miles South of Newberg)
   
3. Foothills Church, in Stayton, OR (25 miles SouthEast of Newberg)
   

And so we will keep trusting Him, waiting on Him and believing the undeniable truth that almost nothing significant has ever come about within the Kingdom of God without a significant time of waiting preceding it. And so our waiting is not in vain. Nor is it empty. God is alive in our waiting ... and He is shaping us, pruning us, and creating us for the place He has created for us.

To be honest with you, it really wasn't all that long ago that I was a man on a "self-centered quest." Sure I'd like to think I moved past that way of thinking the moment I realized Teresa had chosen me, but I didn't. But what I can confidently say is that I'm not the man I was a year ago. And so for the work God has done and is doing in me, and in Teresa, and in our family, I will always be thankful. God knows what He's doing. He always has and He always will. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

I'm very thankful for a friend who took the time to write me an encouraging email today. Sometimes all it takes to nudge another human being from the place of feeling disconnected and nearly hopeless back across the line to the place of feeling connected and hopeful is the kind of compassionate human connection this email brought me. I'm not clinically depressed, but I'd be lying if I didn't 'fess up to the effects of being away from my precious family for most of the past five months. It's damn hard.

I read and reread my friend's words and was reminded of many things. God knows me, God has plans for me, God isn't done with me, and most of all God can be trusted. I wish life was more cut and dry -- decisions able to be quickly and cleanly made after God lays out all the options in front us. No sweat really. Easy-peasy. Like trying to pick out the one Caucasian in a lineup of Koreans.

But it's not like that most of the time.

In fact, more times than not our way is more obfuscated than in focus, and God's voice is more muffled than crystal clear. It's nuance and sway, and options and then no options ... all playing out in front of us like a ballet on a stage. And we have two choices -- we can passively watch from the auditorium seats or we can jump up on stage and get into the dance. You wanna see my flying leap? I've been practicing it for months. It's really quite stunning.

Thanks to all of you who've stayed connected to me and my family these past thirteen months since I felt so clearly led by Christ to resign my position at George Fox University. Your prayers, emails, financial gifts and tender care have meant more to me than I can put into words.

I wish I had answers to all my questions. I wish I knew where God wants me to go next. But this isn't Disneyland and I'm not God. And so I will keep living in the real world and I will keep trusting the One who is God. As I go to bed I'm praying that you will know God's presence, provision and peace as powerfully as I do tonight in my little house on the Michigan prairie. Good night and Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

I'm in the middle of my most interesting life-chapter. Having spent six months unemployed, and now four months employed as an interim pastor-teacher, I am in the process of uncovering and learning to live into God's more permanent will for my life.

And based on my experiences with the nine churches I applied at for pastoral positions, on some of the books I've read during this past year, and on many conversations I've had with other pastor-teachers about their "finding God's will/transitional" experiences, here are six of the important lessons I've learned ...

THREE LESSONS LEARNED DURING MY SIX MONTHS OF UNEMPLOYMENT ...

FIRST, it was easy to lie to people about my level of hope. When continually asked "how things were going", usually by people I loved, trusted, and who I even knew were praying for me and for my family, it became all to easy to say "I'm doing okay” and “I'm trusting God" when the reality was that much of the time I was doubting, fearful and anxious about my future.

God has taught me to be honest, even when it possibly showed a crisis of faith; inviting people to pray specifically for my doubts , my fears, and my anxious heart. And the more honest I become, the more I’ve strongly felt the presence and support of God through the prayers of these folks.

SECOND, it can really be hard to know which churches to apply to – because just like candidates want to "market" themselves as the real-deal, honest, wise, experienced and caring … it's easy for churches to "market" themselves as healthy, organizationally sound, spiritually mature, and confident about the vision God has given them for who they are to be, than they actually are.

God has taught me to have a "rifle" approach instead of a "shotgun" approach to the application process. Praying about what specific churches to apply to instead of only praying for God's will once I've applied at a plethora of churches was a refreshing philosophical shift that I experienced a month or two into this unemployment chapter.

I want to trust others intentions and not assign motives. But I also want to be as discerning about them as I want them to be about me. This perspective has helped me view the churches I'm "in process with" as colleagues who can be trusted, rather than as adversaries who need to be "won over."

THIRD, email is a great way to communicate, but it has limitations.

Applying for jobs and communicating over the Internet has become common and even helpful in many ways. But nothing can take the place of a phone call and/or a face-to-face conversation. Eye contact, tone and posture just aren't discernible over email ... either from the candidate to the search committee, or from the search committee to the candidate.

THREE LESSONS LEARNED DURING MY FOUR MONTHS OF EMPLOYMENT ...

FIRST, healthy churches do exist – and most of them are committed to lifting up the person of Jesus Christ, aren't shy about the teaching of God's WORD, are passionate about listening to and obeying the direction of the Holy Spirit, and have a vision for equipping and encouraging their flocks to turn their inward faith outward.

While many of house-church adherents are crying "the sky is falling" in regards to the no-hope-crisis they believe the modern-day Christian church has degenerated into, I’m not dismayed about the "state of the church."

On the contrary, I have great hope about what I see the church becoming and doing. I see a growing vision to know and live into the reality and the power of the Kingdom of God.

I see a passionate willingness on the part of the church to be teachable at all times, pruned when necessary, and trained in righteousness – all through the consistent, creative, and compassionate teaching of God's WORD.

I see flocks who have abandoned the "fortress mentality" of the church for good – embracing instead a desire to go into their neighborhoods, their cities, and their world with the transforming, missional Truth of Jesus Christ.

SECOND, healthy churches want their pastor-teachers to lead them, but not without accountability, partnership, and process.

Having been led by leaders who lacked integrity of word-and-deed, and/or having been mentored by leaders who let them down through moral failure – it’s easy to see why many flocks are skittish about asking a pastor-teacher to really lead them.

Because of this reality, leaders must be committed to accountability, partnership and process.

When a pastor-teacher doesn't want (and even request) accountability in ministry, they should be suspect of having more pride (and it’s fruit, arrogance), than humility (and it’s fruit, confidence).

When a pastor-teacher doesn't desire partnership in ministry, they will never know the joy and peace that comes through the sweet fruit of being yoked with others in ministry endeavors.

And when a pastor-teacher doesn't value process, they will never learn to rely on discernment and courage as the two equal halves of obedience ... and in the end they’ll far too easily mistake "opportunistic zeal" for being "Spirit-led". And we all know the result of that fatal flaw.

THIRD, healthy churches have staff members who know how to have fun and who don't take themselves too seriously – while at the same time maintaining vision, purpose and passion.

"Taking ministry seriously" and yet "not taking oneself too seriously" … all pastor-teachers, and church leaders must embrace these two priorities.

"Taking ministry seriously" will be the fruit of a heart of conviction, a will given over to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and a life centered on Jesus Christ.

"Not taking oneself too seriously" will be the fruit of a pastor-teacher, and of church leaders who are seeking to be set free from ego, who have relinquished the need to be territorial, and who feel secure in who they are, what God is asking them to do, and their obedience to God's calling.

When pastor-teachers, and/or church leaders feel the need to control people, outcomes, programs, ministries and even worship, they will always be led into a life of non-joyful bondage.

But learning to be ourselves, to plan simply and expect profound results, and not being afraid of admitting our mistakes, our weaknesses and the sins we struggle with, is a freeing posture to adopt. And as pastor-teachers adopt this posture, the rest of the flock will feel free to do the same.

I am still greatly enjoying my life at Ogden Church in SE Michigan, but I invite you to join me as I continue on the journey of seeking, finding and living into the next, more permanent chapter of God's will for my life. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

George Fox, the founder of the Quaker denomination in the mid 1600’s in England was a powerful combination an apostle (a sent one), an evangelist (one who speaks forth the message of salvation), a prophet (one who calls the church back to it’s First Love, Jesus Christ), and a pastor-teacher (a shepherd of the flock who both grounds and guards the people under his care through the teaching and living out of God’s WORD). George Fox wore so many hats that I’m sure at times he wished he had more than one head.

The Church of England was the only real church at the time … at least the only one that was recognized and allowed by the British Crown and by the military man turned politician named Oliver Cromwell, who called himself “The Lord Protector of England.” And to say that Oliver “was not a good man” would be one of the great understatements of history.

For about 10 years, Oliver Cromwell crushed the hopes, the confidence, and the faith of the people living in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland. He was an equal-opportunity oppressor who made the church bow down to him and his ideals, subjugating all the religious leaders of his day to either follow him or be executed. You gotta love that choice.

In fact, Oliver Cromwell was such a scoundrel, that after he died of natural causes in 1658, he was so hated and reviled by the people of England and by the people who succeeded him in leadership … he was so completely despised and loathed, that in 1661, three years after his death, his body was exhumed and he was publicly executed.

Now I’ve heard of people getting an award after their death … but getting publically executed three years after you’re dead and buried?! Wow! That’s got to be a new height of lowness! So Oliver was a real piece of work … and the oppression he brought to the British Isles politically, socially, economically and spiritually was not soon forgotten.

Sound a bit like the Roman Empire, and the cultural atmosphere of the Early Church doesn't it? And yet out of this time of great persecution and suffering, God raised up a variety of leaders and Christian movements, through which He could bring Truth and Light to the hurting, discouraged, oppressed people of the British Isles.

These groups had various names, including “The Children of the Light,” “The Ranters,” and “The Society Of Friends” who were also called “The Quakers” ... a group of Christians who took the name “Friends” from Jesus’ words in John 15:14 when He said, “You are my friends if you do what I command you to do.”

George Fox, was a shoemaker and about 25 years old when God used him to turn Cromwell and much of England on its ear. The church is the people, not the steeple George Fox was fond of saying. Out of context Fox’s words sounds simple, almost like they've been lifted out of a nursery rhyme.

And yet God used the context in which George Fox’s words were spoken in the birthing process of a new perception of what the Church was and could become.

The church is the people not the steeple. At Ogden Church, we don’t literally have a “steeple", and yet I believe Fox’s words need to be paid attention to because we have a building, we have a location where we come together on Sundays and throughout the week. And what Fox was trying to get across to people is that it is God’s design, God’s plan, God’s heart for us that the church not be a place, but that …

The church must be a living organism made up of
walking, talking, breathing, fully-alive people who
are making it their daily choice to invite Jesus to teach
them how to think, how to speak and how to live …
and who are inviting others to join them in their quest.

The church is the people, not the steeple. Sometimes the people who make up the church are the church gathered. Like on Sunday mornings and at other times throughout the week. We’re literally together. But we don’t come together just so we can have a “holy huddle” designed to keep the world and all its “ungodly influences” outside our doors. No way!

We come together as the church gathered so that we might be grounded in the WORD of God and guarded by the WORD of God … so that we might be equipped and encouraged to live for Jesus in practical, down-to-earth, day-in-and-day-out ways. And for what purpose? So that during the other 160-something hours in the week when we’re not the church gathered that we will be the church scattered … the church out in the world, engaging the world, living out our faith in ways both radical and strong and in ways simple and quiet.

The church gathered … and … the church scattered. This holy rhythm of gathering together for Jesus-focused worship and then being scattered out in Spirit-led ministry is how the influence of God and the presence of Jesus Christ in us and through us will have the power to change the world. This God-cadence of gathered-and-scattered is how the Kingdom of God grows, matures, and becomes more than just a good idea.

God calls us, during all the hours in every week when we’re not the church gathered, to intentionally let our "inward faith turn outward" and become the church scattered. Scattered out into our homes, into our schools, into our offices, into the grocery store, into wherever we go. Because it’s only as we begin to “get this” and “understand this” that we will begin to live “missional lives.” Lives no longer centered in our egos … lives no longer directed only by our priorities … lives no longer paralyzed by fear.

To live “missional lives” means living lives that find their source in God, that find their purpose in God, that find their hopes and dreams in God … lives that see the world, not as a “den of sinners” to be judged, feared and shunned … but …

• That see that the world is a place filled with people just waiting for someone to explain to them that the longing in their hearts for significance, for purpose and for a place to belong …
• That see the world as a place filled with people just waiting to be loved into the heart of God …
• That see that ultimately this longing and ache inside of people isn’t a desire for worldly success. But rather, it’s a longing to know God and be known by God … it’s a longing to know themselves, their real selves … and it’s a longing to know others and to be known by others.
• And that this is a longing and a nearly inexpressible yearning to experience the transforming power of spiritual community.
• And that this is a hunger to connect with Jesus Christ, the One who stepped out of heaven for the single purpose of stepping into our lives.

Can we really begin to live this way? Yes we can, but only with God's help and direction. And I am filled with great hope that this is who we are becoming and who we will continue becoming the group of Christ-followers who meet as the church gathered at 3201 E Highway 223 in Adrian, MI ... and who then goes out as the church scattered ... out into Adrian, Lambertville, Tecumseh, Blissfield, Tipton, Palmyra, and all the other locations we've been called by God to live and be His presence, His light, His hands and feet, and His ears and mouths? Without a doubt.

And if this a vision of who the church can be that you want to learn more about and live into, then you’re in luck. Because this is a description of who the leadership at Ogden Church longs for it to be and to become in greater measure.

The church is the people, not the steeple. The church isn’t a location. It’s you and me. It’s people caring for one another, watching out for one another, crying with those who cry and laughing at those who, frankly, need to be laughed at … I mean, laughing with those who laugh. But there’s always more to uncover, discover and live into about what God’s intentions are for us as “the church”, as the Bride of Christ.

There’s always more for us to learn about what it means for us to "become the church". And I know that God gets excited when you and I long in our hearts to connect with what’s in His heart and on His mind for us as “His church.” Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

Today I spent most of the day studying and preparing for this Sunday's teaching from First Peter 1:22-25. I thank God for the opportunity to be the interim pastor-teacher at Ogden Church here in Adrian, Michigan.

The reason so many pastors download sermons from the Internet or copy them from books is because their flock literally doesn't give them the time they need to study and prepare to teach God's WORD. And so I am very thankful to the leadership at Ogden Church for giving me the time needed to do this each week – and for not making me feel like I should spend the 12-20 hours a week I put into this (depending on the week and how many times I need to share from the WORD) doing something else they've labeled as "more important."

Nothing is more important. When a pastor-teacher studies and prepares to feed the flock, it is their 'spiritual act of worship', it is their commitment to 'seeking first the Kingdom of God', knowing that all the other pastoral duties, all the other shepherding responsibilities on the plate of their life will be "added unto them ... and unto to the flock as well.'"

When a shepherd isn't "released" to do this primary work ... when a shepherd isn't given the time they needs to prepare to feed the flock, the flock is set up for failure as believers.

Is the shepherd of a flock the only one who can effectively teach them? Of course not. But they will be the one who sets the pace, creates the tone, and the one who God most often uses in a public way to open the eyes of the hearts to hear God ... so they can dialogue with God ... so they can partner with God ... so they can live the "with-God" life consistently and with passion.

I'm just a guy, a regular person ... no different than the rest of the folks at Ogden Church. But to study and teach God's WORD to the people I am shepherding ... this is how God has wired me, gifted me, and called me. To use God's WORD to feed, guard and ground His flock – this is the joy, the privilege and the glad responsibility God has asked me to live into.

And God hasn't asked me to do this to make me look good. God knows that for that to happen it would take more than this! Rather, God has made this request of me; so that as I remain diligent to do what I've been asked to do, the flock at Ogden Church might have the blessed opportunity to become more fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ. Good night and Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

THREE KINDS OF LOVE …

I want to share with you about three kinds of love. I’m not talking about the three well-known kinds of love talked about in The New Testament … agape (God-love), eros (sexual love), and phileo (brotherly love). Those three kinds of love are all good, but I want to share with you about the three kinds of love I’ve seen couples who are "in love" encounter and wrestle with … and about the benefits and non-benefits of each.

My words here may touch on things you've thought about before. But I invite you to hear them again; not because you’re slow on the uptake … but because you’re human. The primary word used for “wisdom” in The Old Testament is the Hebrew word chokmah which means “that which is pounded in.” So let me “pound away” for just a few minutes about these three kinds of love … two that find their root and fruit in the ways of the world … and one that finds its root and fruit in the very heart of purposes of God.

LOVE THAT IS FALLEN INTO …

The first kind of love is the kind that couples FALL INTO. We’ve all heard people talk about “falling in love.” Frankly I don’t know how this saying got started! In a Thesaurus, synonyms for “fall” include: drop, plunge, descend, plummet, collapse and accident. Not exactly words I want associated with the love I have for my wife Teresa.

When I think of "falling into something," the first thing that comes to mind is “falling into a hole or into a well.” Bummer. The image is of a person walking along with their eyes closed and their brain in neutral, and them YIKES!” they fall down! The root of this kind of FALLEN love is often the fear and anxiety of being alone. Fear and anxiety usually lead us to confusion not clarity, and they're often at the genesis of us being compulsive and impulsive in our decision-making and in our responses … neither of which are components of God-given love.

When people FALL INTO love they’re usually at the least, shortsighted, and more often than not they're completely blind. FALLING INTO love is the stuff of fables, movies and cheap novels … and has little to do with real life -- certainly not with the kind of "abundant life" God has in mind for His children.

The fruit of FALLING INTO love is sprained hearts, damaged emotions and a legacy of going from relationship to relationship to relationship. Because the bottom line is that that which can be FALLEN INTO can easily be FALLEN OUT OF.

When Paul writes in First Corinthians 13:7-8 that “Love patiently accepts all things. It always trusts, always hopes, and always remains strong and love never ends,” he’s not writing about the kind of love that’s FALLEN INTO. Because that kind of love can never be any of these things.

LOVE THAT IS FOUND …

The second kind of love the world advertises is the kind of love that IS FOUND. Born out of some kind of thinly-veiled-spiritual-romantic-scavenger-hunt, love that IS FOUND is usually a little less chaotic than love that is FALLEN INTO, but ultimately it’s not any less unrewarding.

Usually rooted in the notion that God owes everyone in His creation the experience of a dreamy love relationship, people who FIND somebody to love soon smother the person they’ve found, and within a short time the relationship is defined by two people screaming to get out.

This is the kind of “noisy bell / crashing cymbal” love Paul talks about in First Corinthians 13:1. And as things become dissonant and clangy, soon nothing is left, except two people wondering what in the world happened to the love they’d found … the love they once thought was precious and everlasting.

The sad fruits of FOUND love are usually emotional-whiplash and discouragement. And often times, when the honeymoon is over there’s a bitterness that sets in … not just toward relationships in general, but when Christians settle for this kind of love, there’s a bitterness that comes back towards God.

No longer is it just that the relationship didn’t work out, but now the perception is that God let the person down, that God led them to find the wrong person, that God’s relational compass is somehow out of whack. And the dreadful bottom line is the often-formed conclusion that "God cannot be trusted."

In a day and age where many folks, sad to say, Christians included, think that committing to marriage is the relational equivalent of Russian roulette, I’m excited to "know in my knower" that God wants to lead people into a third kind of love.

LOVE THAT IS FORGED AND FORMED …

Now by FORGED I obviously don’t mean a love that’s been “faked” or “counterfeited” like a 3-dollar bill. Rather I’m referring to a love that has been hammered out, tested, and tempered by God Himself. And by FORMED I’m referring to a love that has been shaped with purpose, had the impurities smelted out of it and been made to last … a love that’s not based in emotions or touch-feely mushiness.

How God the Father longs to see a man and a woman standing at the marriage altar robed in a love that has been FORGED AND FORMED instead of in a love that’s simply been FALLEN INTO or FOUND.

When couples come before God and others to “become one” God wants to see them coming together for the right reasons. Because only then does their relationship become a Kingdom of God union … and only then will they be choosing to live into God’s will God’s way.

In Philippians 2:3-4, Paul writes some words to a young group of Christ-followers, and I believe they’re words that well-describe the attitude God calls married people to pursue as the core philosophy and attitude of who they are as a couple and what they will do as a couple from their wedding day forward … Paul writes:

“Don’t be selfish; don’t live to make a
good impression on others. Be humble,
thinking of others as better than yourself.
Don’t think only about your own interests,
but be interested in others, too, and
what they are doing.”

Thinking about Paul’s words from the perspective of a couple whose love has been FORGED AND FORMED, let me paraphrase Paul’s words, focusing them onto what I believe he’s saying to a man and a woman who are married (or anticipating marriage), who are experiencing the pattern of leaving, cleaving and weaving God teaches about in His WORD …

“As you live together as husband and wife,
don’t ever begin buying into the lie (no
matter how subtly) that you’re the more
important part of the equation, and that
your spouse is less important. This attitude
of selfishness has been around since the
Garden, and it’s bad math. If you adopt
this attitude (again, no matter how subtly),
it will fraction and divide your hearts and
subtract from your joy. Why not follow
God’s lesson plan instead? His desire is that
through humility and servanthood you add
to one another’s lives and multiply one
another’s joys.”

I love the way Eugene Peterson renders this passage in The Message …

“Agree with each other, love each other,
be deep-spirited friends. Don’t push your
way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way
to the top. Put yourself aside, and help
one another get ahead. Don’t be obsessed
with getting your own advantage. Forget
yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.”

What does God want to see in the lives of couples seeking to live out the Truth of Paul’s words from Philippians 2:3-4 in the day-to-day realities of their married life?

• Two hearts FORGED AND FORMED by God’s love and FORGED AND FORMED into the pattern of God’s love.
• Two lives committed to the furthering of God’s Kingdom no matter what the cost.
• Two people becoming one.

So let’s keep our eyes on Jesus … recognizing that apart from Him there is no other way to pursue this kind of life. With our words and with our actions, let’s keep admonishing each other and others that when it comes to LOVE, it always pays to avoid cheap substitutes and worthless counterfeits. That when it comes to finding and following God’s best for our lives, shortcuts only lead to heart-ache, but that God’s will, done God’s way, is the best way. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

If we want to introduce Jesus to people (and people to Jesus) in caring, creative, compassionate, consistent ways – with the goal of them considering and engaging His claims about who He is and on their life – then we must be passionate in our personal pursuit of Jesus.

Yes, Jesus wants to be our Savior. But what are some other things He wants to be to us? List some of the names for Jesus in the WORD … names you’ve experienced lately, or that you long to experience more intimately (or for the first time!) so that you can become a more consistent witness to Him in the neck of the world He has called you to …

As leaders within the body of Jesus Christ, we can pass onto others what we know – but ultimately the people God has entrusted to us, the folks we are shepherding, those we are leading, mentoring and walking alongside … these people will become what and who we are.

If this is true, then what about who Jesus is – His character, His values, His priorities, His vision … how He thought, what He said, what He did? What about Jesus are you coming to know with greater clarity and passion during the past 30 days?

If Socrates lived and died like a philosopher,
Jesus lived and died like a God. – Jean Jacques Rosseau

People often say about Him, “I’m ready to accept
Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His
claim to be God.” That is the one thing we must not say …
You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is,
the Son of God; or else a madman, or something worse.
– C.S. Lewis

Who do you say I am? - Jesus Christ
- Mark 8:29

If you believe Jesus and the message He brought was comfortable, then you haven’t really read the Gospels. And so the next time you start slipping back toward believing the lie that Jesus was mainstream, start reading more of the black words in the New Testament.

It’s easy to major in the red words … with the words Jesus spoke and taught. But if you ever start to get bored by Jesus, by who you think He was, or what you think He said, just start flipping through the Gospels and when you see a big bunch of red words … just keep looking down through the red words and then usually when the black words begin again, you’ll see the response of the people listening to Jesus’ teachings. Some of the responses recorded are from Jesus’ disciples, others are from casual observers, and still others from those who actively hated Jesus and what He was up to.

Here is just a sampling of what we find sprinkled throughout all four Gospels … a few of the responses of some of the people who heard what Jesus really said …

• “They were amazed and asked, ‘What kind of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’” (Matthew 8:27)
• “The crowd was amazed and said, ‘Nothing like this has ever been seen before in Israel.’” (Matthew 9:33)
• “This amazed everyone and were glorifying God, saying, ‘We’ve never seen anything like this before.’” (Mark 2:12)
• “And immediately they were completely astounded.” (Mark 5:42)
• “They [the disciples] were even more astonished.” (Mark 10:26)
• “And Pilot was amazed.” (Mark 15:5)
• “And they were all amazed at the greatness of God.” (Luke 9:43)

And then my new favorite verse these days … from Luke 5:26 … “And they were all struck with astonishment, and they glorified God and they were filled with fear, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today.’”

Or here is how this verse is rendered in The Message …

“The people rubbed their eyes, incredulous – and then also gave glory to God. Awestruck, they said, ‘We've never seen anything like that!’”

Or how about in JB Phillips’ The New Testament In Modern English …

“Sheer amazement gripped every one present, and they praised God and said in awed voices, ‘We have seen incredible things today.’”

Or how about in The Amplified Bible …

“And overwhelming astonishment and ecstasy seized them all, and they recognized and praised and thanked God; and they were filled with and controlled by reverential fear and kept saying, ‘We have seen wonderful and strange and incredible and unthinkable things today!’”

Read the full stories before each of these “response verses” … with an eye toward discovering what was so shocking in what Jesus did, what Jesus said, who Jesus was? In each of the cases you look up, try to imagine yourself there and think about how you have felt.

Read Mark 6:45-52 …

How do you suppose His followers’ understand of Jesus changed after this episode?

Is it possible to focus on Jesus too much? On our deathbeds will any of us say, “I wish I’d spent less time looking at the life of Jesus?” I have a feeling that there will be a lot of things that take up our time now that we’ll look back on one day and regret spending some much of our time on. But after thinking about this question for a long, long time, I don’t believe we’ll ever regret a single moment of considering Jesus.

I don’t believe it’s possible to become too centered on Jesus because in His words, in He actions, in His thoughts, in His responses, in His conversations, in His prayers, and in His teachings, the beauty and the character of the invisible God is revealed and unfolded. And He’s willing to show us as much of Himself as we’re willing to soak up.

The whole Old Testament points to Him. Acts and all of the Epistles in The New Testament are saturated with Jesus. Considering Him. Going deeper with Him. Pressing into Him with greater intent.

“And they were all struck with astonishment, and they glorified God and they were filled with fear, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today.’” (Luke 5:26)

I believe that the more we see this holy, strange, counter-cultural, axis-tilting Messiah … the more we wear out the pages of our Bibles between Matthew and John, the more we’ll see His fame and our unity grow.

Think about the early church for a moment. Different people, different cultures, different beliefs, different values. But the same Jesus – and in Acts 4:32 we see them described in this way … “Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul.” The focus was on Jesus and their unity grew as His fame spread. This is what I long to see happen here at Ogden Church!

In Acts 17 Paul and Silas and their band of disciples were in the town of Thessalonica. And as they taught in the synagogue … and as they shared their lives and their hearts and their minds with the people God was brining across their path, “many of the God-fearing Greeks and many of the town’s prominent women” came into life-changing relationships with Jesus Christ. And of course, the Jews in town got ticked off. And when they couldn’t find Paul, they hauled one of his new Greek disciples named Jason to question him about Paul and the message about Jesus that he was bringing …

And how did they describe Paul and the Jesus Way? Acts 17:6 the Jewish officials said, “These men and the ones with them … the ones who are turning the world upside down with their teachings about Jesus … they are here.”

Getting to know Jesus intimately is a journey that will turn our interior life upside down, that will rock our hearts and minds, that will bring great shifts of thinking, words and actions into our live … and why? Because this personal transformation is the very blueprint of God … and without this happening in our lives we will never participate with Him in His primary purpose of desiring to “turn the whole world upside down.”

In 1971 a college student was in Britain’s Western Central Lake District doing some live recording in pubs of drinking songs for a research paper he’d been assigned. After a rousing evening, and as he was about to wipe the suds of his microphone and put it away, he heard an old man over in a far corner of the pub quieting singing a little song over and over again. He went over to the table next to the man and began unobtrusively taping his simple little song … a song he later titled “Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet”. Here’s how the lyrics go …

Jesus’ blood never failed me yet, never failed me yet.
This one thing I know … for He loves me so.
Jesus’ blood never failed me yet, never failed me yet.
This one thing I know … for He loves me so.

Several months after finishing his “pub song project”, the student came across the tape of “Jesus’ Blood Never Fails Me Yet.” And as he listened to the song … he was loved into the Kingdom of God through the old man’s words. It all came back to him. The messages of Jesus he’d heard as a little lad. The love of Jesus he’d known as a child. The Scripture verses he’d learned in preparation for his confirmation. The longings of his heart were exposed, and he was brought home to Jesus.

Years later this student became a music producer in London, and one day he shared this tape … one of his most precious possessions, with his friend and musical mentor, Gavin Bryers. Gavin and his staff (not a particularly “religious” lot) were also moved by the old man’s song – and eventually Gavin looped the 5-minute tape into a much longer piece and wrote a full orchestration for it – eventually releasing a CD with several different versions of it … including a version of American Tom Waits, singing harmony with the old man.

In an interview in the 1980’s Bryer's tells the story of putting an early-edited version of the looped tape on in his office one day. He wanted to listen to it for several hours as he prepared to compose the orchestration that would go along with it. But what happened was that Gavin (and others in his office) got saturated with was Jesus Himself.

He went to lunch, forgetting that the tape was looping through their production/recording studio “house sound system”. And when he returned from lunch he found several employees crying and praying … sharing their hearts and spiritual hungers with one another. It was powerful.

“And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” - John 12:32

This is the Jesus I want to know. This is the Jesus I invite you to come to know with me. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

Family and Friends,

I am home in Newberg for a week and thought that it might be a good time to send out an update. Life and ministry in Michigan continues to go well. I miss my family each day, but am also feeling led by Christ each day in my work at Ogden Church.

Lessons are being learned – sometimes through trial and error. As I help to put together, redirect and keep together the pieces of our staff after Jeremy's resignation (our associate pastor), I've needed to learn more about the challenge and joy of seamlessly welding together equipping, encouragement and exhortation.

Equipping is helping people become who God has hard wired them to become through the discerning and intentional use of their spiritual gifts, their personalities and their life-experiences within the context of both "ministry", and "everyday life".

Encouragement is helping people keep their focus on partnering with Jesus Christ in what He is doing in the present, while being hope-filled, discerning and courageous about joining God in what He wants to do in future.

Exhortation is challenging people to look and think outside the box about how to do ministry – believing that God's desire is to lead each part of Ogden Church forward in unity toward the goal of both being and becoming the church He has in His heart for them to be.

This is the prophetic part of pastoral ministry ... for it is includes both "calling the flock back" to the voice and intentions of God, and "calling the flock out" into the world with purpose and missional vision.

The Ogden Church staff (both paid and volunteer) is solid – as is the core leadership. They are giving me great freedom to "be myself" and minister out of my strengths, instead of expecting me to be "all things to all people." And for this I am very thankful.

People are being loved – sometimes "as part of the job" and sometimes in ways that defy coincidence and have the aroma of destiny. Day in and day out, I'm ministering to people hurting because of addictions, physical challenges, family pain, or disappointment with one or more members of "the triad" of 1) themselves, 2) God and/or 3) others).

Sometimes people come to me, other times I seek them out. I am thankful that many people are taking my life and ministry among them seriously – and they're not just waiting until their "permanent" pastor arrives before giving themselves permission to connect with their pastor-teacher.

And whether I'm connecting with people in my office, at a local coffee shop, or meeting them for the first time while on Prayer Walks in downtown Adrian, God is daily fine-tune my calling as a pastor-teacher, and using my spiritual gifts in ways that seem to be making a difference. And for this I am also very thankful.

Shepherding is a joy not a burden – it's so awesome to feel challenged and useful at the same time. During the many months I was unemployed I didn't feel much of either. But now I feel like I am being used by God to both guard and ground the flock.

Guarding them from discouragement and division during this season of transition. And grounding them in the heart of God by calling them to embrace the twin priorities of 1) God's WORD and 2) prayer like never before.

Beginning Wednesday night, 1 February I will start a 6 week Wednesday night focus on what it means to be a disciple of Christ ... and what it means to develop a devotional life, or as Richard Foster calls it, a “with-God” life.

I am sleeping well and riding my exercise bicycle each day. Both good signs that even though I am working many hours each week, I am finding peace and joy in what God is asking me to do at Ogden Church. And again, for this I remain very thankful.

I will return to Michigan on Monday, 30 January. Beginning Sunday, 5 February I will begin a multi-month teaching journey through the New Testament epistle of First Peter. I'm really excited about this and believe that God really wants to use Peter's words to bring life, hope, rootedness and joy to the Ogden Church flock.

Thanks for your ongoing prayers for me and for my family during this time. Also, beginning next month I will re-start an active search for the flock God wants me to serve as the pastor-teacher. What a joy this search will be for me.

I continue to believe God called me to resign at GFU, and that He is preparing me now for what He has in store for me in the future. I'm attaching a picture my brother brad sent me the other day. It's a beautiful reminder that oftentimes what seems big is actually small and insignificant and what oftentimes seems small is actually gloriously big and significant.

"God, give me Your perspective on life, on priorities, on people, on ministry, on myself. Amen." Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

Tonight as I sit in my little house I'm experiencing a range of emotions -- most of them good, all of them meaningful, each of them instructive. I hope the words of this email help explain a few of them to you.

I came to SE Michigan on the 5th of December ... and really, the month of December is kind of a blur to me. Everything new, each experience navigated through exploration, and filled with joy. Friendships and teamwork built, along with trust. The outline of the story written each day. When I traveled home to be with Teresa and our sons for Christmas, it was so good to be with them. And yet the day-to-day life of the flock at Ogden Church was on my mind and in my heart in ways big and small.

As New Years and the day of my departure eastward approached, it was difficult -- but it was also a delight. I didn't want to worry my family or make them doubt my calling to serve God at Ogden Church ... and yet, without talking much about it, each of them sensed the tension between my desire to stay and my joy to go.

And in the end, the encouragement to gave me to keep following God's will for my life (even if the cost directly affected them) gave me the courage I needed to return to Michigan. Not that I wouldn't have gone back. I mean, I'm loyal. But the fear and the anxiety was gone. God took it away. And He used my family to deliver this gift of peace.

And what has January held for me?

The month of January has been much different than December, both situationally and emotionally.

Situationally our associate pastor, Jeremy Pietrocini is no longer just "going" -- he's "gone" ... moved with his family to Cleveland to work for the Gallup Organization and help several old friends begin a new church.

Situationally the Pastoral Search Committee's work has become more real, and the Truth that God had called me here for a "season" and not for "the long haul" has moved from the back of my mind to the front.

Emotionally, I'm feeling strong, loved, challenged, focused, invested, busy, accepted and serene.

And the joy remains. Has it been hard to adjust to living alone in my little house? Sure. I haven't lived on my own since I was in seminary, 25 years ago. Am I adjusting? Yes. I've bought an exercise bike and am riding 5-8 miles a day on it. I'm reading books I've put off reading for too long. I'm playing Scrabble with Teresa via the Internet on a regular basis. And I''m assessing the condition of my soul, asking God questions like ...

• Why in the world did You bring me to Michigan? Show me more.
  
• What are the lessons You want me to learn here? Teach me more.
  
• How are my life experiences, my strengths, my weaknesses, my spiritual gifts and my personality what Ogden Church needs during this time in their life's story? Equip me to be who and what You and Ogden Church most needs between now and when their new lead pastor-teacher begins.
  
• How can I become a better steward of my body -- treating it more like God's temple and less like a landfill?

And as I talk with God about these questions and more, He is talking back -- pruning me and teaching me. Paul Tillich (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Tillich), a German/American psychologist and theologian (1886-1975) wrote "Language has created the word 'loneliness' to express the pain of being alone, and the word 'solitude' to express the glory of being alone."

God, teach me about the transforming power available within the gift of solitude You have given me in my little house on Gorman Road. Show me in ways big and small the beauty and healing to be found in this new book of life I'm reading -- a book that includes a daily visit to a chapter entitled "Being Alone".

Richard Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline writes in the chapter on solitude, "loneliness is inner emptiness. Solitude is inner fulfillment, [and it] is more a state of mind and heart than it is a place."

God, teach me about the "inner fulfillment" You have for me during these days and nights. Keep me alive in Your holiness, rooted in Your faithfulness and growing in Your grace and peace.

All this to say ... I'm glad I'm here with you. As I've said before, I'm thankful for the trust the leadership at Ogden Church has placed in me. I am feeling led by Christ as I study and teach God's WORD.

I am feeling led by Christ as I go to work each day and interact in person, by phone and through email with Ogden folks. And I look forward to the days, weeks and months to come -- new chapters of life and ministry to yet be discovered and walked through. Good night. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

I thought it was about time to finish this four-part "ship-burning" blog. So here's the final chapter.

BURNING THE SHIP OF SPIRITUAL PRETENSE ...

Listen to C.S. Lewis describe his own life and the lives of people who, having believed their spiritual maturity to be FATE … wake up one day to find themselves pathetically immature in Christ and feeling no way out but to pretend they’re more spiritually mature than they actually are because of guilt and the expectations of those around them. Lewis writes …

“Those, like myself, whose imaginations far exceeds their obedience, are subject to a just penalty: We easily imagine conditions far higher than we have really reached. If we describe what we have imagined, we may make others, and make ourselves believe that we have really been there – and so deceive both them and ourselves.”

The trap is that so many Christians can write, speak, preach, teach, elder and lead so much better than we can actually live. We have the experience of journeying with Christ, but we’ve missed the meaning of journeying with Christ.

Listen to me … Jesus doesn’t invite us to walk with Him because His needs the exercise. He invites us to live life at His side because we need to be changed. And when we begin to realize that what we’d hoped we’d be in Christ isn’t what we are in Christ, it’s easy to try and “fake it ‘til we make it.” But the problem with this strategy is that with an attitude of FATE we’ll never make it. Never.

In the third commandment, in Exodus 20:7 God says, “You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.” (italics mine). The King James Version of the Bible says that “we’re not to take God’s name in vain.”

We’ve usually assumed that this “misuse” of God’s name means that we’re not to use God’s name as a swear word. And what that’s no doubt part of its definition, the heart of the word “misuse” has to do with “blasphemy.”

Psychiatrist M. Scott Peck writes, “Blasphemy is using the name of God to pretend we have a certain kind of relationship with God, when we don’t.”

Peck’s words have a certain familiar sting to them because I doubt that there’s a person here this morning that hasn’t lived them out in one way or another. Within the confines of our own hearts and spiritual journeys, we’ve all, in different ways, settled for a mind-set of FATE instead of DESTINY … and we’ve reaped the consequences of cultivating spiritual pretense instead of spiritual honesty.

Christ calls us to burn the SHIP OF SPIRITUAL PRETENSE so we can live life beyond the lie of deceit, beyond the bondage of blasphemy, and beyond the torture of hypocrisy.

Where are you at with God … right now?

When it comes to your spiritual walk and your spiritual maturity, are you on the road of FATE … looking back all the time, hoping against hope to see some signs of change and growth, when you know there has been little … and then having to pretend you’re something / someone you’re not?

Or are you on the road of DESTINY … partnering with God to become the person God has planned for you to become since before you were conceived? When it comes to choosing DESTINY over FATE, Hebrews 5:11–6:3 scratches us where we itch. In his paraphrase The Message, pastor/teacher Eugene Peterson renders these verses this way:

“I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you’ve picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you needing someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one – baby’s milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milks is for beginners, inexperienced in God’s ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong. So come on, let’s leave the preschool finger-painting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ … Let’s get on with it!”

God knows us … and I don’t mean superficially. God is intimately acquainted with us. God knows what ships we’re burned and which ones we’ve kept anchored in the harbor … close at hand for a quick escape. God knows that all too often we settle for a connection with Him that is much more “approximate” than it is “intimate.”

But God also knows our hearts. God also knows our struggle to cast off a perspective of FATE and grab onto a vision of DESTINY.

Billy Crystal was right … at least in the first sentence of his Career Day speech when he said, “Value this time in your life kids – ‘cause this is the time in your life when you still have your choices.’”

But it’s not only fourth-graders who have choices. It’s any person who’s willing to burn the ships of SELF-RELIANCE … EASY, FEEL-GOOD RELIGION … AND SPIRITUAL PRETENSE and travel with Jesus Christ to those places where the work of spiritual maturity moves off the drawing board and becomes as much of a reality as our own laps.

The pages of our journals aren’t all filled in … not by a long shot. And so let’s, each one of us, commit to picking up the nearest pen and begin writing. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg

With 2006's swift approach I've been thinking about amends.

Have you ever been unwilling to make amends because the cost seemed too real or too precious? I know I have. Most of the time I've found it easier to over-estimate the cost of making amends and underestimate the cost of allowing unforgiveness, bitterness or other unhealthy emotions to live rent-free in my heart, in my mind, in my life.

Proving once again that math is more "rational" than "emotional" and that when rooted in emotion instead of truth, "estimates about the cost/benefit ratio of doing the right thing” are more often "off" than "on".

Making amends is probably the closest most of us will ever be to being a medical doctor ("I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV ... and in my own life!") Using our senses, our intellect, our experiences, and our hearts to "make a diagnosis" isn't "risky," enough to avoid doing it … despite what psychoanalysts say.

We are not helpless children, wandering through life – constantly looking for a hand to hold onto. We are adults. Not invincible, but strong and true, and in many ways wanting the best for ourselves.

Yes we all struggle with sin, but despite this bent to try and live life on our own, our search for wholeness and redemption isn’t always rooted in selfishness. And it’s in our moments of clarity, where our longings to “set things right” trumps our desire to “get our own way” that we can choose to turn our sails into the wind of God, so our ships can chart new courses of purpose and vision.

So let's not be afraid to diagnose our own conditions and then take the medicine we need, that we want. For it is in swallowing our pride and then this soul-prescription of making amends where healing begins.

Walking through difficult chapters of life brings us a certain kind of medicine we cannot find on any other road. In fact, much of the medicine we have the opportunity to digest during tough chapters (ie., hearty doses of compassion, honesty, determination, loyalty and trust) are what will later (usually just when we most need it) bring forth the discernment and courage we need to live into the amends needed.

During thorny circumstances it’s as though God softens our hearts, and stiffens our resolve to be different kinds of people. And without the episodes of pain and struggle, we seldom have the insight needed to stay on the God-path with passion, character and freedom.

I mean, damn, even a blind man can stay on the path if he has the right cane. But we need more than a cane. If we’re to begin trusting our leadings, become people of amends, and proceed through life without fear, we need a new pair of eyes.

God, give me a new pair of eyes. Eyes to see myself, others and You with the clarity I need. Give me a heart to be a repairer of bridges burned, a reblazer of relationship-paths that have been too-long neglected, and a restorer of the belief (in my own life and in others) of the reality that You care about the day-to-day stuff of my life – and that the closer I remain to You, the less of a mess my life will be.

God, help me to live life with fewer regrets by becoming who doesn’t fear making amends. Godspeed.

read.think.pray.live.

Gregg