A Christmas Present


The call came as we sat down for dinner. I had decided to take my wife out to eat dinner. We don’t get out by ourselves that often and I thought it would be nice to surprise her before the Christmas rush and family came to town.

We had just sat down and ordered when the phone rang. Now I don’t know about you but there is a time to answer the phone and a time to ignore it. As a guy I am not very good at knowing when but I felt that to be responsible I needed to at least see who was calling. Maybe it was the sitter. I hate getting sitters but my wife loves when I make the effort. I don’t know what it is but scheduling a sitter just doesn’t sit well with my football watching persona.

Anyway, I looked at the phone and saw that it wasn’t the sitter but someone from our fellowship. I had to decide at that moment do I risk ruining this date or do I take the call. Again as a guy I usually choose wrong but I decided I should take the call. You see, I will call her Judy, rarely calls and I had not seen her for a few weeks. She comes sporadically, here and there. We have helped her out with some dental work in the past and tried to be with her through some different situations.

As I headed outside the restaurant to take the call Judy informed me that she had checked herself into rehab. She needed someone to pray with her before going in. She had poured the last bottle of vodka down the drain and she was gathering her things. We prayed and talked and I encouraged her.

We have talked since and she has dried out and is moving into the phase of treatment where they talk about how she will live without her long relied on crutch.

It is a Christmas I wouldn’t have imagined several years ago, a Christmas where greater gifts are given than a new video game or clothes or perfume. The gift is redemption. A Christmas with a woman starting down the road to recovering her life.

I was reading in the first chapter of Mark the next day and noticed something I had never seen. Jesus heals a man with an unclean spirit but what I struck me was their location. They are in a synagogue. Jesus has spoken and the text says that a man with an unclean spirit amongst them interrupted the service. The man with the unclean spirit was in the synagogue. As I contemplated that I thanked God that this story was repeated in our place, maybe not as dramatic but the same.

I give thanks to God this Christmas that I am in a place that welcomes those with demons.

A Worship Service


They were waiting at the door. They began to arrive around 4:30, some as early as 3:00. The line began to snake away from the locked doors as everyone waited for the doors to open. The doors don’t open until 5:30 so they had some time to wait.
When the doors finally opened the people filed in. They did so in a nice and orderly fashion, no one pushed or shoved. The man at the door who let them in said hello to all who entered. Many of the faces were familiar, they had been here before.

As the crowed filed into the sanctuary they began to congregate in the back. You see this is where we have our sign in. People let us know whether they need to see the doctor or just receive refills on their medication.

On the first Wednesday night of each month our sanctuary is turned into a waiting room. Our tables become a place for people to sign in and kids to color. Our parking lot welcomes the Good Samaritan mobile clinic, a doctor’s office on wheels. Worship has begun.

This past Wednesday I was struck with the fact that this is the most uplifting worship service I ever attend. I experience God more richly than at my favorite Third Day concert. No contemporary song reflects such a powerful movement of the Spirit. So many people touched in the name of Jesus for His glory. So many people prayed with, so many opportunities to talk about salvation.

No two Medical Mission nights are the same. You never know what God is going to do in this place as we become the hands and feet of Jesus, as we share our lives with others.

This is why I considered it pure joy this past Sunday as one of those individuals, I will call her Patty, came and joined us for worship. Patty informed us that she had been very far from God. She said she wanted to come back to Christ. I love it when a wonderful worship experience, our Medical Mission, leads to an even more wonderful worship experience.

Working through it with your kids

I often times have the opportunity to help people and yet at times I forget to invite others to participate. This Christmas season we have a couple of opportunities to help some people. In the past I probably would have just asked my wife and given to those in need but, and I am embarrassed to admit this, we have not talked about it with our kids.

This year we will sit down as a family and decide what is best. For those of you who already do this, thanks for telling me.

Bible Class and Boredom


I must confess to hating Bible Class. As a part of my job I often am asked to teach. At certain points in my life I actually enjoyed this but after several years of teaching adults I really have become cynical and jaded.

To me they often seem more like a time to tell everyone what we already know, boy aren’t we smart. A time to ask the most minuscule questions or to point out the oddest facts. Yes the Magi, they were Magi not Wise men you know, came to a house not a stable, but should we spend the entire class discussing this fact? They seemed to be a time to talk about things we had no intention of doing or changing.

Maybe you know what I mean. It is good when God reminds me that this may not necessarily be so. We have been doing a study entitled Flesh vs. Spirit. We have spent the past several weeks looking at the battle that rages between what our flesh wants and what the Spirit brings.

We had ended by looking at what Paul tells us comes from our flesh and what comes from the Spirit. At the end of class I was approached by a gentleman that I will call Jack. Jack has been coming the past 6 months to worship with us at New Heights. Originally he came because of his girlfriend but when she broke up he decided to stick around.

Now this means a lot because Jack has a rough past. He hasn’t gathered with a church since he was a boy. His opinion of Christians isn’t particularly a high one. He has met too many who didn’t seem to practice what they preached.

He not only began to come with his girlfriend but he started attending class. This past week he approached me afterwards with a question.

He said, “Let me see if I understand this.” He paused as if he wanted to make sure he got this right, “You seem to be saying that if we love God and we appreciate what he has done for us, then we are going to love others and this is the way we love.”

He had another pause before he finished, “Am I hearing this right?”

For all of the times I thought I was wasting it, for all the moments I think we are just talking to hear our own voice, I will remember that day. My friend Jack had no idea that was what it was about, that the idea of Christianity is to love God and love people. Do we hear the irony of this fact? That a person can grow up and have some church experience and yet not know that this is the point.

I think sometimes we have complicated Christianity to a point of confusion. Which way is the right way, which belief is true. What facts must I know to be saved. Jack reminded me that there are a lot of people who don’t understand Christ because they don’t understand church. What makes me sad is that this is our fault.

May we be people who understand what it is all about because there are too many Jack’s in this world.

If you have not followed this story I recommend that you do.

Professor Jack

Romantic Past

As humans we tend to romanticize the past. I was listening to a TV preacher talking about the good ole days of the U.S. of A. He was speaking in glowing terms of our countries past. No need to remind him about lynching and murder, white only water fountains and Japanese internment camps. All was good and glorious, what a great past. He was attempting to insight believers to defend this past.

We must avoid romanticizing our past. It is not pretty and it never will be. This lie infects churches and movements and it keeps us from seeing what matters most. The book of Genesis certainly doesn’t romanticize our faiths past. We have Abraham twice giving his wife to others in an attempt to save his own neck. We have Peter and the apostles failing on a regular basis. The church in Corinth is certainly not the poster child for healthy congregations. We must avoid this tendency at romance.

It leaves us open to self righteousness and deceit. Jesus warned that we should seek the plank out of our own eye before we look to help a brother with his speck. When we romanticize our past we see no plank because one could never exist. We either look like liars or fools to those whose eye contains the speck. A classic example today is marriage. Many believers attack the homosexual movement and warn about the dangers of homosexual marriage and yet when believers have just as much divorce as non-believers than romanticism has begun.

It leads us to put our hope in the wrong thing. When believers romanticized the early church it led them to think that restoring it would make everything better. This romantic lie has caused many a division and ended up taking our eyes off of Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and placed it on a set of randomly chosen institutional markers.

Many people today are still digging out from this romantic dream, others probably never will. The beauty of being a Christ follower is that we are following, we are on a journey that will only be completed upon Christ return. We live looking forward not back.

As Christ follower we can admit our mistakes, our sins and our failures, because that is not the point. We don’t have to romanticize our past because that is the story. This is why the Messiah had to come. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and there is nothing romantic about that.

What if in heaven we experience intimacy with all who are present? Intimacy with God and man? What if our closeness is so warm that we feel content each moment of our existence in that place? What if all of the relational pain and hurdles are gone, removed, perfected in such a way that everyone is a friend and we share memories with all? A closeness that we know exists because we long for it and yet closeness we will never experience in this place?

The older I get the more I wait for this place, the more responsibility I believe I have to point the way. What if I were to say “Come with me to our real home”, “the true existence that squirms and cries deep within your heart.” Would you come? What if I could give you no more information than what is already inside, would you believe?

What if I said only a wise sage named Jesus could show the way? Would it sound really good until you heard His name? Would you say that is not what it is all about, a leader taking us to our home, the real home where all of the “what ifs” are answered.

How we have simplified an epic tale. I remember reading Star Wars comic books as a kid. Princess Leia just didn’t have the same pop. The bun hairdo just didn’t have the impact. It was easier to read and simpler to understand and yet it was not as fulfilling as the full movie experience and the story lost its impact.

How sad that we thought it wise to simplify Jesus to a comic book character. Trying to make Jesus something easy to understand has made Him hard to get. Just say this prayer and get saved, just get dunked under this water so your ticket is punched. Here are a list of facts about the man now get out there and be a nice person, and the epic was lost.

What makes it even sadder is that when you try to reignite this epic tale many don’t want to listen or hear or agree. Jesus is this simple list right here and the Bible was given so I could find this list, admittance is guaranteed.

My struggle has been with the giving in. I know better but it seems too hard. Pray for me that I will stand up and share, reality waits, if you think HD TV is great you haven’t seen anything yet.

God bless.

My Daughter, God and Tap Dancing


Today I had the honor of taking our youngest daughter to her dance class. She has been involved with the class for the past few weeks and my wife needed me to both deliver and pick up our dancing ballerina. I was glad because it gave me the opportunity to watch our daughter practice.

Upon our arrival I sent our daughter to do whatever it is she did to get ready. There were a couple of mothers sitting around and so I sent my daughter off to get dressed not knowing what that really meant or entailed, I only new that I wasn’t going to be any help in that area.

As I joined the waiting moms I began to ask how it all worked. The studio had a window that allowed you to watch the girls as they rehearsed and I noticed it was dark. I asked the ladies if this meant that it was a mirror on their side and they informed me that it was, and that the girls would usually not be able to see those looking in.

The class is an hour and for the first half hour they work on ballet while the second half is focused on tap. I basically was able to experience a combination of Swan Lake followed by River Dance performed by 4, 5, and 6 year-olds.

The watching mothers explained that the girls could see us through the mirror at times if the light was just right and especially when they came near to the glass. I caught my daughter’s eye several times as she realized I was watching behind the mirror and she smiled and waved.

Several things struck me as I watched our daughter twirl and tap her way around the dance floor. I watched with pure joy as I watched her perform. A since of pride came over me as I realized I was experiencing a part of her life, her development, her joy.

I also watched her as she sat on the sideline playing with a friend instead of paying attention to her instructor. A part of me wanted to enter the room and admonish her to behave but the other part of me new that this is not how life worked. My daughter needed to learn to do the right thing because it was the right thing. She needed to learn to listen because it was a sign of respect not because her father had forced her.

As I sat there enjoying my daughter I couldn’t help but think of our Creator. It was one of those beautiful moments as I thought of the pride and emotion that welled up inside of me as I watched my daughter practice and perform, unaware of my gaze. I thought about how often God must look at me the same way. Watching even though I am unaware, loving and longing in His heart, pure joy as I perform my own little river dance.

I thought about the moments when my daughter came near and she could glimpse me through the shadowed mirror and I thought about those times when I have truly glimpsed God. The birth of our children, a time of prayer, a moment during worship. I enjoyed the glimpses with my daughter and I can’t help but think about how much our Father enjoys them as well.

It was somewhat funny because at the end she accused me of not watching because at one point she had looked and could tell I was looking away. She had trouble trusting that I had paid attention to her day. I eventually reenacted her program so that she would know that it was true. Thankfully there are no videos of my performance, the Nutcracker I am not.

At times I accuse our Father of the same and yet on this day I learned something about his gaze. I pray I will hold it near as I dance through this gift of life that He has given.