He repeats over and over, in different ways… the same, central theme all the time…

There are only two kingdoms.

the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of Satan.

That’s it!  nothing else.

the question is…  which kingdom are you in?  Which master do you serve?  because you can’t serve both!

Shalom is a huge idea for the early followers of God. It was all about the never-failing presence of God in their every day lives.

Shalom was not just peace.

It is peace, health, well-being, prosperity, contentment, joy, and the never-failing love of God!

This is what every Hebrew family was looking for and praying for when they prayed for shalom to be upon their lives and the lives of those they loved.

The idea of Shalom was very important to the early followers of Christ also!

These followers of Jesus believed that ultimate shalom would be brought to earth by the messiah. God’s deliverer! And they believed that Jesus was the Christ…the anointed one of God.

Because Jesus was Christ, He poured out of Himself the Shalom of God onto all people.

And now…we are to take that Shalom and give it away!

The kingdom of Jesus is all about Him fulfilling all things. And that means that we are redeemed and we are now fulfilled by Him and in Him! And that means that we are to allow Him to live thru us!!!!

So…let’s get living! We are the ones that Shalom has been given…now we are to give it away!

peace! out!

I believe that most Christians have no idea the purpose that suffering serves in our lives. I believe the church is mostly to blame for this ignorance. Most pastors teach a very narrow view of suffering, usually these views are not biblical.

one view that has been taught is that suffering is simply an attack from the enemy and the “good” Christian will recognize the attack and stand against it or “rebuke” it when it comes.

the other popular view that is taught is that Christians should not suffer…therefore, if you ARE suffering, it is most likely because of sin in your life or a lack of faith.

To a small degree, I can see where these teachings come from. The bible does teach that Satan will attack God’s children and that we should resist him. The bible also teaches that our sin brings with it consequence.

however, the greater weight of teaching in the bible about suffering, is that God is directly involved and will actually allow and bring suffering into our lives to teach us and mold us into His children.

the bible says that Jesus learned obedience THROUGH suffering! Wow! that is heavy! So this means God actually wants us to suffer!

the question we need to ask ourselves when (not if) we suffer is not “Why this?” but instead we should ask “What now?” What is God doing in me now? what is He teaching me now? Where is He taking me now?

Instead of stiff-arming suffering and trying to keep it out of our lives…we should embrace the suffering and learn from it!

peace.

so, with that in mind last week we talked about singing.

as you scan the Bible you notice there is a lot of singing going on with those who follow God. we sing with stuff is good, when stuff is bad, when we need deliverance, once we have freedom, when it is dark, when God provides, when i am happy, etc. etc.

but here are the basic reasons i think we are to sing or worship God…

.: Because His love is better than life!!!

“Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you.
I will praise you as long as I live, and in your name I will lift up my hands.
My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with singing lips my mouth will praise you.”
Psalm 63.3-5

His love is better than anything! Anything else i worship is an idol, and it cannot deliver what it claims it will deliver. it cannot comfort or satisfy me. only God can satisfy! This is why i cannot help but worship Him! Once i feel His love, i HAVE TO worship Him…i HAVE TO sing!

.: To bring HIM glory!!!

“Sing the glory of his name; make his praise glorious!” Psalm 66.2

the other reason we sing or worship God is to bring Him glory! Plain and simple. No glory should ever come to me. i worship so i will reflect any attention and glory off of myself ON to Him! We are created to praise Him, we are created to worship Him, we are created to give Him glory!

so, let’s get back to basics and sing!

I believe the vineyard owner and the gardner BOTH represent God. God is the judge, who can say “Cut it down!” and He is also the merciful gardner who says, “Give them one more chance!”

I know God has given me tons of chances! He is a forgiving, loving, merciful God. But i don’t want to take advantage of His love and forgiveness. I don’t want Him to look at me and see that i am taking up good soil!

I ask myself everyday, “Lord, am i doing YOUR will? Am i producing Kingdom fruit in the vineyard you have planted me in!?” We all need to ask ourselves these tough questions. So what about you? Are you producing what God wants you to produce? or are you wasting good soil?

“And when I am doing well, Help me to never seek a crown…For my reward is bringing Glory to Your Name!”

That’s an awesome statement!

Can I say that it is true in my life???? Is my reward that HE gets the credit and the glory? Or, am I too selfish? There are times I struggle with wanting the credit and the accolades! What I am realizing is that I – WE- have been made to bring HIM glory! That’s it! Nothing else.

That line…those words…are piercing! My prayer this week, this day, this hour is that my reward will be when I reflect the attention off of me and on to my Lord and Savior!

my frustration level with the institution that is called the church is at an all-time high!
i just can’t believe that Jesus came to earth and died for what we call “church.” I think Jesus would be very sad at the condition of the church, especially the westernized, individualized version we have in america.

when i look around the “church world” or the “christian” landscape, all i see is hypocritical, judgmental, self-promoting people. we live in a church culture that may have started out with the best of intent, but we have slowly and consistently fallen into an organization that only creates the worst of outcomes.

instead of being about relationship and care and love…most “churches” have become institutions of fear and guilt! we guilt people into acting a certain way. in fact, most “churches” actually reward people for “proper” behavior and will beat the crap out of those who display “bad” behavior.

we have become an institution that rails against sinners. we are doing our best to keep the sinners out! we are extremely vocal about what is acceptable. we are constantly at war with our culture. we are constantly reminding everyone around us how they don’t measure up, how they don’t fit in, how they are less than perfect!

what the hell are we doing!!!!!!??????!!!!!!

how can we read the gospels and blow right past the fact that we are acting JUST like the religious leaders of Jesus day!? How can we be so blind to the massive log in our own eyes, but instead focus with such laser-like hatred on everyone else’s splinters!?

instead of BEING the Church, we have traded that in to build man-made institutions called church. this is where we live by the religious rules and duties put on us by our modern day “teachers of the law.”

but it feels so good doesn’t it? it feels good to judge. why? because it feeds our souls! it’s much easier to point out all the crap that is in someone else’s life than it is to deal with mine!!! after all, if i deal with my own soul, i might have to die to MYself and take up MY cross and actually FOLLOW Christ. and that’s just not as fun and keeping all the sinners out! i mean, i’d much rather drag an adulteress out into the middle of the town square and stone her to death, wouldn’t you?!

i’m just really tired of the institution of church. i’m really tired of all the hate, the back biting, the judging, the gossip, the fake friendships, the sin pointing.

i want to BE the church! i want to be around people who will LIVE in the LOVE of God, and allow that love to kill our flesh every day. I want to be in real relationships where i don’t judge you and you don’t judge me with some arbitrary, man-made, religious law. i want to know that i would die for you and you would die for me….and that we would both die to follow Christ!!!!!!

it’s getting harder, and harder to say that i am a christian and even harder to say that i am a pastor of a church. where is the real church?! not the man-made institution! the real thing!

So, now, here’s the rub.

As theedge church is growing larger, we are looking for ways to “become smaller.” we realize that our people are not connecting as easily as they did before. it’s taking longer for families to connect and make friends at theedge, because we are not a small group anymore.

with that as our dilemma, we are looking for ways to help people connect and get to know others in the church. and what’s the best way to do that? you guessed it…smaller groups!

i have been studying small groups like crazy for the past few weeks. what works? what doesn’t? what’s the best for theedge? closed? open?

we are just in the process of getting started, so if there is anyone out there who would like to contribute to the discussion please reply and let me know what you think? i could use all the help you got!

peace.out.

We had wonderful weather for our egg hunt and picnic on Saturday! Kathryn and Stacie (our eKids directors) did an unbelievable job with that! It was a ton of fun.

And, in typical Oklahoma fashion, i got sunburned on Saturday and then froze on Sunday! Oh well…it was still a great Easter sunday.

and just like last year, i won’t talk about numbers and salvations and stuff like that…but i will say it was a great day!

we talked about dog parks, poop, and prostitues…you know, the typical, traditional Easter stuff that you always hear! haha!

hope everyone out there had a great Easter weekend. now if we can just get through “black sunday.”

live out loud!
love.love.serve.

So here are a few pre-Easter thoughts i have for anyone who would like to know (and i’m not stupid enough to think that a lot of people out there care at ALL what i think), but here goes…

Why is Easter such a big deal? I mean, why do we in “church world” get all worked up into a religious tizzy over Easter? Sure, i get it! I mean, I understand that Jesus is alive, i understand that he rose from the dead, and if he had not, then there would be no such thing as Christianity.

But, here’s the rub…at least for me. Shouldn’t we celebrate Jesus and His completed work EVERY DAY! I mean, doesn’t Jesus Himself say that we should take up our cross………daily!
Easter, if i’m not mistaken, is about the cross. or, you could say the cross event. Which means we should be consciously aware, every day of our lives, of Jesus and his work on the cross for humanity.

I just get a little tired of churches doing stuff on Easter that they never do any other Sunday of the year. what does that say to our people? what does that say to our guests? if i didn’t know any better i would think christians aren’t “smokin’ what they’re sellin’.”

it just seems disingenuous to live a certain way the whole year and then come to Easter and turn it to something else.

just some thoughts. i’m sure this has been really helpful.

my moral of the story….ummm….let’s try to live like Easter every day!!!!!

peace.out.