I am Your Pastor

I am your pastor.

“…the pastors and teacher[s] responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church.” (Ephesians 4:12)

I can teach you the truths of God from His Word and show you his love by example. I am redeemed by the same blood of Jesus and live in the same undeserved love and grace as you. I am not an expert on marriage, relationships, sex, raising children, politics, or the economy. Some may expect their pastor to fill these roles but the apostle Paul warns against pastors and teachers getting in over their head in areas they don’t belong: “Don’t let them waste their time in endless discussion of myths and spiritual pedigrees. These things only lead to meaningless speculations, which don’t help people live a life of faith in God.” (1 Timothy 1:4)

I tell dear people all the time, “I will meet with you once to determine what it is you want to work on and how to best approach it.” You see, I will listen to you. I will pray with you for healing, grace, strength, and courage, both spiritually and physically. I will connect you with the appropriate experts with the experience and gifts to help you deal with life’s issues. My role isn’t to do your thinking or living for you by giving you some religious expectation, a cliché, or scripted biblical answers or explanations – it’s to teach YOU how to think, to pray, to listen, and to act. In this way, your faith is in Jesus Christ by listening to the Holy Spirit and not in me or what I think. Your faith has to be your own. Jesus said, “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches.” (John 15:4-5)

I - am just your pastor.

God-Given Rights?

Echoing around the hot buttons of the headlines today on gun control, freedom of speech, the right to a fair trial, national security, etc.; I’ve been hearing this statement a lot, “God-given rights.”

The American Bill of Rights was actually written AFTER the Constitution was ratified by the original thirteen states. Although they liked what it said and the balance it represented they figured the people needed a reason to obey and follow it. Basically, what’s in it for them that can be applied to the life of the everyday citizen? Then, it will go over better as we declare this Constitution. 

http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/bill_of_rights.html

What we have come to know in our world today as our “God-given rights” began as an attempt to make good citizens – not good Christians.

So, I figure, if we are measuring our Christian maturity and righteousness by what we believe are our “God-given Rights” because God will be pleased that we have been given those freedoms by a well-meaning and benevolent government, then we should go back and re-read Matthew 5, 6, and 7. The Bill of Rights is only man’s attempt at doing some things on God’s heart better than others. They never point anyone to Christ. Go figure.

People can tell if you are a follower of Christ or not by the fruit your life reveals in living the teachings of Christ. Jesus said that he left us with a gift – peace of heart and mind. And it was a gift that the world cannot manufacture (John 14:27). I believe him.

My conclusion: The Bill of Rights enables us to be good citizens – not good followers of Christ. 

Out of Context

Have you ever overheard a conversation and only got a part of it? You heard the words but they just didn’t make any sense. The meaning of the words you heard, the way they were put together, and what you may or may not know about the people who are speaking all combine to take the words you heard and put them out of context. You’re not really sure what they are saying even though you recognize the words.

N. Ripperger, a father and artist, has created posters you can buy on-line with comments he has found himself saying to his kids. Looking at the posters with the sayings on them leaves the rest of us in the dark as to the context, but that’s what makes them so funny. For example: “Stop riding that penguin. We’re leaving.” Or “I am not talking to you…until you are wearing underwear.” Or “Get that toilet seat off your head. Now.”

Not being there or hearing the rest of the story of where the toilet seat came from, or what that penguin actually was leaves us to figure it out for ourselves – most often with images in our mind that are funny because it just doesn’t make any sense without the context.

I believe it is the same way with religious words and explanations. We’ve heard and maybe even used words and conversations like, Jesus saves; God so loved the world; The Bible says…; and one of my favorites, Christian values. And the out of context response comes back like this, Saves who from what or what from whom?  Really, with all this crime, war, disease, and global catastrophes? Who gave the last word to the Bible? What, only Christians can take care of the poor or fight injustice or do good things?

I believe this is what the apostle Peter was getting at in his letters to the church. He said that we have been called out of the darkness into his wonderful light so that we could show the goodness of God to the unbelieving people we live among (1 Peter 2). This is how to put it into context – your personal story, your testimony of the events of God working in your life. This requires relationship. This requires time. This is what he means by “show” others the goodness of God. That’s the difference between “show” and “tell.” Just telling allows the context to be foggy. Showing, on the other hand, allows context to be seen.

So the next time you share your faith or testimony with someone, be sure you are using your relationship and conversation in context so they can see the goodness of God in your story, or it may just turn out like Mr. Ripperger said: “Stop riding that penguin. We’re leaving.”

Can You See It?

John 3:3 Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Born from above, or from God, is the meaning of John’s words. To experience this spiritual rebirth, a person must be completely renewed through God’s power. It’s not a belief or an understanding; it’s an experience of becoming right with God by faith in the work and person of Christ.

Sort of blows the idea of doing religion out the window doesn’t it.

Born from above, of God, a spiritual rebirth tells me that the life I now have must change – even dare I say my will, my rights, my privileges, and my priorities? My life. My self.

Apostle Paul put it this way: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 NLT)

Paul is telling us how his rebirth looks in everyday life. My old self. Me, myself, and I. Numero Uno. This person that wants to do what he wants, when he wants, with whom he wants, for any reason he wants, because after all it’s my life and I can do what I want, is as if it has been crucified with Christ on that cross. But, it has risen again in newness of life just like Christ did after that cross. So the life I now live in this earthly body that is me, is actually Christ in me living out what He wants. Oh, this earthly body gives me a run for my money now and again wanting to do what it wants, but I live day to day trusting in the Son of God who is now my new life.

He also framed it this way: “For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3 NLT)

You were supposed to have died to wanting your own way, you were supposed to have died to your earthly rights, you were supposed to have died to yourself when you were crucified with Christ; it’s not you that is supposed to be living this life, but Christ in you that is supposed to be living it! He is your real life!

Christianity has become a religion of crisis. We come to God when in trouble or afraid or in pain or heartbreak and want him to fix our life. But Jesus and the apostles taught us that we were supposed to give up our life. Yet many of us come to Him wanting Him to verify our convictions, our politics, our values, and our priorities thinking they are in line with His wanting Him to put His stamp of approval on them thereby fixing all our woes (or at least justifying our condition and circumstances). We need to be reminded that the prophet Isaiah wrote: “We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags.” (Isaiah 64:6 NLT)

I bring nothing to God but my old life, my self. And as much as I think I may be doing some things right, even well, it’s that old life of my rights and privileges, convictions and values I bring to Him to create new. And for all our attempts at being good enough…the writer of Hebrews quoting Psalm 46 writes: “When Christ came into the world, he said to God, ‘You did not want animal sacrifices or sin offerings. But you have given me a body to offer. You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin. Then I said, Look, I have come to do your will. O God.” (Hebrews 10:5-7 NLT)

Jesus came into this earthly life to do God’s will. He laid aside His divine privileges and doing what He wanted to do in this world (self) and offered Himself, innocent of sin, to the Father for us all.

Peter said this is how we do this: “[Christ] is our example, and you must follow in his steps. He never sinned, nor deceived anyone. He did not retaliate when he was insulted, nor threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. (1 Peter 2:21-24 NLT)

To follow in His steps of laying aside our own life we start with:

He never sinned. We give up our life to Him and experience a rebirth into the Kingdom of God – not our will or life anymore but Christ’s will and life in us and lived out through us.

Nor deceived anyone. He didn’t look to stack the deck for Himself or sway the favor of anyone with false information or accusations.

He did not retaliate when he was insulted. It’s impossible not to offend someone along the way – we’re human. But when people got up in arms over what Jesus was showing them He didn’t retaliate to justify His position.

Nor threaten revenge when he suffered. Jesus knew He would be honored by the Father and He knew what trouble the whole world was in. Yet, He saw no need to threaten anyone with who would get the last word. He was not afraid of anyone’s sinfulness, hatred, or acts of disobedience and irreverence shown to God.

He left his case in the hands of God, who always judges fairly. In our earthly life we may not understand the timing, but in the course of history our life-span and what is going on in the world around us is only a vapor. And as Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun.” The world is not any worse today than it has been throughout history. We are just closer to our redemption and God will eventually wrap it up. We may feel that urgency, but God is always just and His patience, kindness, and tolerance lead people to repentance.

He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. This is what we are talking about. Our old life went to the cross with Christ. He paid for all its sins and disobedience there, once for all time. We can be dead to it’s wanting its own way all the time so that we can be free to live for what is right. If we want to be free to live for what is right and see the Kingdom of God come; we won’t see it by demanding laws or behaviors, theology alignment or what some call revival. We see it by submitting to truth: Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Can you see it?

Labels

I really don’t like labels.

Not the kind that identify the ingredients in a product, which I should read more carefully, but the kind that attempt to polarize who is “right” and who is “wrong” measured by an agenda. It reminds me of what President Abraham Lincoln said when asked if he thought God was on the side of the North, “Sir, my concern is not whether God is on our side; my greatest concern is to be on God’s side, for God is always right.” And everybody wants to be right, so we label, if not to identify who’s right, at least so we can point out who’s wrong. Not good.

“As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died. It doesn’t matter whether we have been circumcised or not. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation. May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God.” – Galatians 6:14-16 New Living Translation

You gotta love Paul and his way of bringing everything back down to earth.

What he’s writing to them about is labels. These are groups who want you to identify with them: Join us because it’s us against them, you know.

In particular, the people of Galatia were being forced to be circumcised under the Jewish tradition as a condition of their salvation in Christ. Paul warns them that this was nothing but an attempt by religious teachers who wanted to look good in front of the Jewish leaders, and not be persecuted for teaching that the cross of Christ alone can save. He also warned of those who wanted them to join with them just so they could boast about gaining more followers than the other groups (6:12-13). Labels.

We see it today, too. We’re calling them: Conservative, Moderate, Liberal, Atheist, Agnostic, Fundamentalist, Anti-This, Pro-That, Right-Wing, Left Wing. Polarizing-- makes my skin crawl.

Paul takes us to our own heart condition and motivations, “May I never boast about anything except the cross…” In the King James Version the word glory is used instead of boast, “May I never glory…”  Both use the same Greek root: kauchaomai, meaning to vaunt or a vain display of self-worth, to brag based on a wish.

If he were writing to us in our churches today I imagine he would probably use the same root. He would probably approach the subject with the same look into our heart and motivations. If we’re going to boast, glory, make a vain display of anything, let’s keep it limited to the cross of Christ that has done all the work of our salvation. Let us not bring in our own religious efforts by attempting to label who’s more right, and who’s more wrong. It’s wishful thinking, and it’s vain.

He’s saying that boasting in this kind of manner leads to these labels and the measurements and standards of man. Looking for and trying to identify with a label creates division, factions, isolation, pride, anger, envy, malice, and all sorts of evil things that can come up from inside our heart and dictate our actions. But Paul says that all who live by the principle of not following a label for a label’s sake should be at peace, having recognized their experience of the mercy of God.

He’s saying that because of his experience with God’s mercy at the cross of Christ his interest in being labeled has been crucified with Christ on that cross. Instead of joining up with a group that leans this way or that way on religious topics, he says that draw or that pull should have died to us. He says having a label doesn’t matter, what matters is that we have been transformed from what we were by the sinful world’s standard to a new creation by Christ’s standard.

These are the new people of God. God was doing a new thing in the hearts of men and women through the cross of Christ!

When I read what Paul is trying to teach us I read it like this:

“As for me, may I never brag in a vain attempt to justify or prove my faith, righteousness, or self worth about anything I have done or value except having gone to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of the work accomplished in me from that cross, my interest in being labeled as a ____________ has been crucified. Their interest in me has also died because I no longer measure my righteousness or worth by their standards, so I will be no good to their agenda. It doesn’t matter what our personal perspective is or where it comes from. What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation and no longer have those agendas. May God’s peace and mercy be upon all who live by this principle; they are the new people of God.” – Galatians 6:14-16 (through Mike’s eyes).

Love Spread Around

I’m so excited for the Sock Hop at Branches Church this Saturday! Sometimes you just have to pull out the stops and have some fun and this is one of those times. It’s Valentine’s Day Week – turn up the music and let’s dance!

Growing up in the Midwest, Valentine’s Day at school was a big deal. We decorated the classroom with hearts and streamers and brought shoe boxes to decorate with slits cut in the top for everyone to put their valentine card in. We would put them on the top of our desks and make a parade out of it. Everyone brought cards for everyone – nobody was to be left out. It was a good life lesson. Oh, and candy…don’t forget the candy!

Of course, there were kids that you picked very carefully what was said on that card; you didn’t want to give the wrong impression! Then there were the cards that you would scrutinize for the girl you wanted to get a particular message to. It was all in good fun. It was affirming to get a card that had a particular sporting skill or talent that was yours written on it and was recognized by your classmates. Looking back I’m amazed at how the teachers combined art, social studies, current events, and twenty-some elementary students into an organized event that created so much excitement that lasted for days. Good memories for me.

In February at Branches we are asking ourselves, “What does love require of me?”

Much of those early life lessons around Valentine’s Day in school are applicable to this question for sure; respect, inclusion, affirmation, participation, thinking of others, etc. but these are actually out of a social or moral obligation, they do not necessarily have to come from a love that is within me; just follow the rules and everyone gets along.

When Jesus said, “So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” (John 13:34-35) he was talking about more than getting along. He wasn’t adding an eleventh commandment to God’s top ten. He wasn’t being redundant by repeating what he had already taught them about loving God with all their heart, soul, and mind and their neighbor as themselves. He was taking them to a new level of definition and understanding that love comes from God – like he did – and it goes beyond (or should I say comes from beyond) our moral fiber and our social convictions and our intrinsic ability to be nice and follow the rules.

Jesus gave us this much: that we were able to obey loving God with all our heart, soul, and mind and our neighbor as ourselves. This is good, he said, being obedient, to get along, to acknowledge God, to take care of your neighbor, it’s what you are capable of so it is good that you do it. But this new commandment to love each other is commanding a love that is not obligatory, nor is it obedience alone, nor is it for anything that I may get out of it because of my moral or social obligations toward justice and fairness. In the Greek, it is Agape, or abundant love that comes from God for the benefit of others.

For the benefit of others; Hmmm. Jesus said, “Just as I have loved you” meaning, I gave up my rights to come love on you. I left what was mine and came to include you. I don’t have to pay for your sin but I am willing to. So, love each other just as I have loved you. THEN, you will be known as my disciples.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a church or someone in the church say, “What do we get out of it?” to excuse not doing something, I could buy a lot of gas with said dollars. Agape love, love that is for the benefit of others, love that will identify the disciples of Jesus doesn’t ask that question! We have a long way to go just to lay aside our own rights and convictions and personal agendas in order to love like Jesus loved. 

Where can we start?

If I could go back and redo my childhood years I would change this: I would not bring a Valentine for everyone because I was told to. I would change my heart. I would choose one and bring it to the awkward girl with the dirty clothes who had no friends just because it would make her feel so special. I would choose to not worry about what people thought of me or if they accused me of liking her like kids do. I would do it for her – not because I was told to.

Now, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we’re going to get together this Saturday and open up the gym, turn up the 50’s music, put out the cookies and punch, pass out prizes, and dance the night away just to be able to love on the community of Menomonie. No obligation, no law forcing us, no agenda to justify it, just to let people know we are glad for what God has done for us and we are glad to be a part of this community!

Come join us at the hop Saturday, February 9^th, 6-8:30pm at the Wakanda School gym for some good old fashioned fun and games. You might even leave a little nostalgic remembering that love is supposed to be spread around!

Behind the Scenes

“Love the snow, hate the cold” has been a common phrase at our house.

Having lived in Minnesota and Wisconsin all our lives we know it will be cold for a little while this same time each year but we still have to say it. Maybe you have a similar line you’ve used or a ritual you go through on the coldest of days – like starting the car to let it warm up before you take it anywhere, or being the first one on your block with the snow blower out in the storm. Maybe you just look forward to the beauty of a fresh snowfall that cleans up everything with a fresh look, so you wait inside with a hot chocolate or coffee and sit by the fire.

We bought snowmobiles a few years back so we could get out and do something in the cold. Maybe, like us, you’ve been involved in a hockey program with a commitment to many games and tournaments to attend regardless of the weather.  We have pro football games, ice fishing, sledding, ice skating, slippery roads, four wheel drive vehicles, and ATV’s. It seems we are a hardy bunch up here in the frozen north who have found some pretty fun and productive things to do during the cold and snow!

One thing I don’t think that was invented in the frozen north, though, was doing a portable church.

At Branches, we rent our meeting space. We store everything we need for our group gathering during the week, set it up for three hours, then take it down and pack it away again until next week. Everything from sound equipment to communion trays, chairs for kids to coffee makers goes back in the trailer. Every week everything has to be set up, plugged in, cleaned, fixed, adjusted, arranged, filled, replaced, warmed up, and then taken back down and packed away for next Sunday.

Most things, that is. In the cold, you can’t forget the baby wipes and put them in the trailer or next week you’ll be trying to wipe a child’s nose (or other parts) with the equivalent of a popsicle. Someone has to take the cleaners and disinfectants with them to keep them inside all week or they will freeze. The sound board does not do well in the cold all week then brought back to room temperature for a sound check within thirty minutes – diodes and circuits just don’t respond to condensation well!

But behind the scenes, making all this happen week in and week out, are the unsung heroes that deal with setting up and taking down all we need to do portable church. Yes, it’s nice to come to a church where the coffee is on and the snacks are out and the sound is rockin’ and the kids room is set up and the video is working properly and the chairs are laid out in theater fashion, and with trustees who monitor and count and deposit what has been given in the offering boxes. But, it takes people who are willing to get up earlier than most on a Sunday morning – even in the frozen winter of Wisconsin – and start the truck to get the trailer,  unload the drums, warm up the sound system, fill the coffee pots and communion cups, and run wires under the seats, so that the space that begins as a lunch room can be transformed into a church for three hours each week.

These folks are my heroes! These folks are among the greatest in the kingdom of God according to Jesus’ teaching. They are willing to serve others, get down to the basics of it all and get up on a cold and snowy day, get the portable stuff to the school, and start building the place we call church. They do it for you, they do it for the kingdom, they do it because they believe in what we are doing in building a place where people can come as they are and find a place to grow in their faith.

But it is a LOT of work and I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who is involved in this part of our worship at Branches!

And I would ask that if you aren’t involved in the set up and taking down of Branches Church each week that you look into it. This is a great time with a small group of people who create a lot of energy in the room before church and have a great time working together.

If you are loving this portable church thing in these frozen days of winter in Wisconsin, I encourage you to jump in and put your hand to the task of what it takes to do this for real!

God on Our Terms

Preach the word of God. Be prepared, whether the time is favorable or not. Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.

For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.

But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you. – 2 Timothy 4:2-5

I have often committed to our congregation that I would not preach Christianity but I would preach Christ. I believe that Christ is our Good News and Christianity has become our expression of it. But no more than a painting of a person can introduce you to the person in the portrait can the expression of Christ introduce anyone to him. They can see him, but not know him. You have to meet the person in the painting face to face to say you’ve actually met them, to get to know them.

This is the basis of the ministry God has given me. Working at telling others, to the best of my ability, the difference between the Good News of Christ himself and the personal expressions of it we have come to know as religion.

I have found that people in general have a real struggle with trying to understand the boundaries between faith and personal convictions of religious behavior. As I talk with people I try and listen where they are coming from. Everyone has had a journey of experiences and what has happened along that journey is a pretty good indicator of why we filter what we do, or react the way we do, or value what we do. More often than not, I’m afraid, these experiences come from peoples' expressions of religion rather than from actual experience with Christ.

We have to remember: God did not send a religion into the world to save it, he sent a person – his Son!

I have heard this phrase recently: The age of irrationality. It was in reference to the world we live in today where the facts have become secondary to what we want to believe. We do it with who is, or is not, in the White House. We do it with who is, or is not, elected to congress. We do it with who is giving the news. We do it with who we choose as friends and who we associate with. And we do it with the bible, our church, and our faith. When I say we, I don’t mean just Christians, but all of us who are looking to hope for and believe in God on our terms. We tend to want to vilify what we don’t want.

The apostle Paul addressed this critical and judgmental attitude in Romans 2:1 “You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.”

In this age where we have more access to global technology, social media, and more information at our fingertips than at any time in history, we still tend to lean to what we want to believe rather than look at the facts. Let’s face it, it’s easy to believe something bad about somebody when it affirms what we want to believe about them. It’s easy to believe a rant on Facebook by someone who we think holds the same convictions as we do without checking it out factually because it confirms what we want to be confirmed in – that we’re right about that person or law or situation, whatever it might be.

This mindset was seen in the history of Israel, too. Isaiah 5:19 says that the people were challenging God to hurry up and do something to prove that he really existed and was in control of the world. What they didn't see coming was that when God did as they asked, it was they who were on the receiving end of his judgment because of their critical and judgmental attitudes. Verse 20 states that they had missed what it was that God wanted to do among them because they had turned evil to good and good to evil.

I know we want to say that is what the godless world has done, it’s the world that has gone backwards, it’s people who don’t follow Christ who have turned evil into good and good into evil. True. It has. They will. But in Isaiah’s day, it was God’s people who were doing that. And now, we have Paul addressing Timothy about the same characteristics among the followers of Christ; “They will reject the truth and follow after myths.”

Don’t believe everything you read! (says the guy writing the blog…)

Why? Because it’s easier to follow after that which affirms what we want to believe is right rather than suffer for what is right, be patient for what is right, lay out the cost for what is right, spend the time for what is right, think about what is right, be kind in doing what is right, listen to the Holy Spirit for what is right because ultimately it is he who will lead us into all truth! (John 16:12)

If Jesus is truly the Word from God for us, if he truly is the Good News from God for us, we have to preach and teach Christ, not our personal take on Christ, but Christ. Not the religion of Christ, but the person of Christ. Whether the times are difficult to understand or not, whether the circumstances of our country or the world economy or global weather are favorable or not; I am committed to fully carry out the ministry God has given me and “Patiently correct, rebuke, and encourage your people with good teaching.”

The Reset Button

I like the line in the movie from A Muppet Christmas Carol when Scrooge asks the identity and origin of the spirit of Christmas past; “…there have been more than 1800 before me…” comes the reply. Christmas is a birthday celebration. Once a year, every year, the date set aside to remember the birth of Jesus comes around.

But whether you celebrate Christmas for that reason and with that focus or not, an annual celebration can be considered a time to hit the reset button. We need it from time to time anyway. A time to regroup and rest because life gets busy, difficult, we lose sleep, we fight for policies and politics, we wrestle with our relationships with family and friends, we suffer losses and health issues, we don’t know what to do sometimes, we get tired. Even in the best of environments like we have here in the United States for opportunity and advancement in our pursuit of life, liberty, and happiness we still do life one day at a time and each day brings only so much we can actually control.

So, as Christmas is here, the annual birthday celebration of God becoming like us and paving the way to what a good and abundant life is intended to be, let’s take the day to use it as a reset button. Let’s evaluate our relationships, our time, our health, our passions and priorities, and most of all our heart and soul. Solomon wrote that out of the heart come all the other issues of life. So if my heart isn't doing well; if it’s stuck in a rut, or overwhelmed with grief and sadness, or fearful or angry, or even selfish, this could be the time of year to hit that reset button and re-evaluate how it’s doing.

Even with the humble and lowly circumstances at that first ‘Christmas’ with the Son of God born as a human baby lying in a bed made from a manger, the angels still partied in the skies saying, “Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will toward men,” so, we too, can let the peace of God which passes all human understanding fill our heart and mind with the knowledge of God’s favor because He is for us!

Merry Christmas!

Sad Christmas Songs

“Merry Christmas,” “Happy New Year,” and “Happy Holidays” are common greetings of joy and gladness at this time of year. They are expressions of good will and hope for love in action to spread; for justice and mercy to be shown here and abroad and so much more. A pretty good thing considering the hope that Christmas represents. We are a broken world in need and we recognize it more at Christmas than any other time of year.

In regard to this merry, happy, and well-wishing season, some song writers have opted to go against the grain of the traditional feeling of joy and happiness with songs that tug on our heartstrings.

I was listening to a radio station the other day when they played a song I had never heard before. It was done by Nat King Cole, a wonderful vocalist for sure, but as the song progressed I heard the lyrics attempting to pull at my emotions to get me to feel something for this little boy it was talking about.

Maybe I wasn’t in the “Christmas spirit” or maybe I was being a “Grinch” or a “Scrooge” but my emotions turned to skepticism instead of empathy. As I listened to the beautiful arrangement of the orchestra and Nat’s smooth jazz vocal, the words just didn’t seem to sync with the rest.

It was Christmas morning; the little boy was out in the street looking for someone to play with. All the other little boys were out with their new toys and too busy to notice him. So he went back into his house to play with last year’s broken toys because Santa had forgotten this little boy. As the song continued it told me that this little “Laddie didn’t even have a daddy.”  Each verse seemed to make the situation more tragic and disappointing. I was skeptical. Is there a verse about his health next? Will there be another chorus with his momma not having any food in the house? I felt sort of sad for myself instead. Do I not have any empathy? Am I comfortable with my life and that’s good enough? Maybe that was what the songwriter was after – reflection.

I am not really sure but there are just some songs that I do not like. I’m sure you have your list too.

But this reflection is something to be considered. At Christmastime, we hope, we wish, we dream, we long for, we share, we bless, but most of all we reflect. Reflect on what? The classic words, “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas just like the ones I used to know” give us a model. There is something in the human heart that longs for purpose, justice, to love and be loved, to make life better for not only ourselves but for someone else. Solomon wrote that he wondered what people got for all their hard work in life and concluded with these words: “God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart.” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)

Christmas is a season of good-will, joy, happiness, hope, love in action, dreaming, all the things that Jesus said He came to bring us because of God’s love and favor for us. It is available. And now we celebrate Christmas each year as a reflection of the longing, or eternity, that God has placed in our hearts. That eternity is more simply put as hope, joy, love, justice, righteousness, gladness, healing, grace and mercy and more than that they represent the character of God, actually, all the things our Christmas songs point to; even if they are trying to pull at our emotions.

The words to this traditional Christmas song say so much about that eternity in our hearts, that which we are reflecting on even if we don’t realize it, it’s what we hope for and really want for Christmas!

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

Joyful, joyful, we adore Thee

God of glory, Lord of love

Hearts unfold like flowers before Thee

Opening to the sun above

Melt the clouds of sin and sadness

Drive the dark of doubt away

Giver of immortal gladness,

Fill us with the light of day

All Thy works with joy surround Thee

Earth and heaven reflect Thy rays

Stars and angels sing around Thee

Center of unbroken praise

Field and forest, vale and mountain

Flowery meadow, flashing sea

Chanting bird and flowing fountain

Call us to rejoice in Thee

Thou art giving and forgiving

Ever blessing, ever blest

Well-spring of the joy of living

Ocean depth of happy rest!

Thou our Father, Christ our Brother

All who live in love are Thine

Teach us how to love each other

Lift us to the joy divine

Mortals, join the happy chorus

Which the morning stars began

Father love is reigning o’re us

Brother love binds man to man

Ever singing, march we onward

Victors in the midst of strife

Joyful music leads us sun-ward

In the triumph song of life

The Season of Joy

"It’s the most wonderful time of the year"… "Tis the season to be jolly, fa la la la la, la la la la"…"Have a holly, jolly, Christmas it’s the best time of the year"…"A very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Let’s hope it’s a good one without any fear" even the songs of the season that are not about the actual birth and celebration of Jesus contain lyrics of hope and joy and gladness. It’s inherent. Mankind longs to be free, to be whole; to wake up in the mornings feeling complete, like it is going to be a good day without fear and full of hope and joy.

But we look around at the real world in which we live and what we see with our eyes, what we experience with our relationships, what we are going through with our health, what we hear with our ears on the evening news doesn’t seem very capable of providing that place of hope, joy, and completeness. So we look forward to Christmastime with the anticipation reflected in the children singing the opening song from A Charlie Brown Christmas, “Christmas time is here. Happiness and cheer.” We hope. But even with hope being a good thing, I believe as a whole, our hope has been placed into what has become as the “season” of Christmas.

When the angel of the Lord appeared in front of the shepherds in the hills around Bethlehem two thousand years ago this was the message they heard: “Don’t be afraid. I bring you good news that will bring great joy to all people. The Savior – yes, the Messiah, the Lord – has been born today in Bethlehem.” (Luke 2:10-11) No fear? Good news? Great joy to all people? This is the stuff our Christmas songs long for!

But even more is the actual news, the event to which the announcement of and the anticipated hope for couldn’t compare, was that the Savior, the Messiah was here – born on earth! The Greek word here for Messiah is Christos which means “anointed one” referring to the coming of the Savior from the line of David as God had promised centuries earlier.

Luke, who was not Jewish, wrote the account of Jesus standing in the synagogue and proclaiming his purpose: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” (Luke 4:18-19) As the “Good News” spread beyond the culture of the Jews and into the cities of the Gentile’s  the name Messiah was used less and less and the Greek word Christos began to be used more; Christ – Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Lord, the Savior, the promised one who would bring great joy to all people. This, this is the real stuff of the season of Christmas lore! The event. The person. The Son of God come to be among us as one of us to show that a right relationship with God (peace between us who were disobedient and God’s wrath against that disobedience) can be accomplished.

 “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God” and “God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ.” (Colossians 1:15, 19) Christ, Jesus, the baby in the manger, the Savior born in Bethlehem as the prophets wrote about, God loved us so much that he sent him to be born a human just like the rest of us and God, according to his faithfulness and promise to fix our broken relationship with him, chose to live in Christ while he was here as a man with flesh and blood.  It wasn’t because Jesus is the Son of God that God chose to live in him; it was because he chose not to sin and walk with God that God chose to live in him. It pleased God to do this. Jesus was modeling it for us in the flesh! God, in all his fullness, God, omnipotent, omnipresent, all encompassing and all consuming God chose to show us that it can be done! All of him can live in me! I need nothing else! There is nothing else I can find to fill the emptiness or calm the fear or fill with joy other than the fullness of God living in me! This, this, brings the season of joy for all people! This is what we long for!

So the next Christmas season song you hear, whether it says anything about the birth and event of Christ or not, let it remind you that the shepherds that heard the angels’ message that night near Bethlehem could have skipped with real joy all the way to town to see this amazing thing singing, Fa la la la la, la la la La!!!! Because it really is the season of joy! 

Real Life

In Wisconsin, along with preparing for Thanksgiving and the holiday season comes the annual gun deer season. Many a conversation around the Thanksgiving feast inevitably begins with, “Did you get your deer?” I’ve begun answering with the cliché that it’s called “hunting” and not “getting” for a reason and it’s the getting away and not the getting that is valuable to me. Pretty good excuses anyway. The trophy wall I can see in my mind of the ones that got away from me over the years is pretty impressive but it still doesn’t discourage me from heading to the woods each year with family to share and laugh and tell stories and dream a little.

I get lots of time to think too. To appreciate, to prioritize, to evaluate, to pray and to hear from the Lord in those quiet times; it’s a time to hit the reset button in my mind, my heart, and my life. I have begun looking for more than deer while out there too. In the beginning, God created man from the dust of the ground out in the wilderness and then made a garden and placed him in that cultivated and groomed place. I believe there is a time for doing the work a man is given and a time for adventuring out into the wilderness for a closer look at the big picture of life – even deer season has become more than about deer for me!

While out in the woods walking with my father, we came upon a cedar swamp with full grown trees rooted in the rotted stumps of their predecessors. You could see that the former trees were once huge and had been logged off a long time ago. The sun rays were shining through the branches; you could smell the cedar in the air, and we both looked at these new trees coming out of the cut-off stumps and thought the same thing – that it looks exactly like what God had said about Christ coming though the lineage of David as king but it would stop there and a new thing would begin; the very thing God had been up to all along.

It is found in the book of Isaiah 11:1-4 Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot – yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root. And the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. He will delight in obeying the Lord. He will not judge by appearance nor make a decision based on hearsay. He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited.

Well, this made me think about my own life too. How many of us feel like we’ve been cut down at some point in life, or wounded in a way that hinders us from growing? Oh, it may have been a hurt from a friend, or a loss, or a dream that was crushed, or a disappointment, or our own sinfulness. Our kids may not be doing what we thought they would be doing, our parents may need us more than we can find time for, our bills may be piling up, or our retirement shrinking due to the current economic situation. We pray, we give, we do church, and we say we believe, we claim faith, we keep on keeping on with what we should be doing to be counted among the faithful, but it sometimes seems like it’s going nowhere. I submit that we are getting good at putting on spiritual clothes and walking around playing the role of a Christian, or Jesus followers, but when it gets down to the reality of it all we are finding it difficult to apply it to the life we have right in front of us every day. I am thinking we are getting our walking around this earth life mixed up with our real life!

Here’s the missing piece: 2 Corinthians 5:17 “…those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” Paul also said that we died when Christ died, and our real life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). I can see my old life as that stump, the stump is still there – anyone can see it; but my real life that is by Christ is a new tree growing healthy and alive the way he wants it growing because it comes from his life.

So, I’m looking at the old, rotted, cut down stump of a cedar tree that was once healthy and vibrant and growing. The old stump then became a place for the new tree to take root and begin a new life of its own. And if I were to apply that to my own life I can see that as a Christian I am no longer supposed to continue the old life but begin a new life. I am still me, I still have the same dreams and skills and circumstances as before but they are a place for the new life that comes with Christ to take root and make the new life I can live. “I am crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:19b-20)

Flowers vs. Cacti

The old saying, ‘You catch more flies with honey than vinegar’ is similar to what I’m thinking. 

Nobody wants to be around a cactus person, someone who is all prickly and hard to get close to; we like flower people, all pretty and they smell nice. I was saying this the other day and someone said to me that the prophets were all prickly so that set the example for Christians today…implying we have to be course and tough and hard and, well, prickly in order to separate ourselves from people who do not believe in Christ and to get our point across. It’s scary to me what that whole mindset points to. I chose to be a flower person and just walk away.

Jesus said that all the prophets were until John (Luke 16:16) and all they did and all they wrote pointed to him (John 5:39). He said he came to proclaim God’s favor for all of us who were poor, blind, captive, and oppressed (Luke 4:18-19). It’s a new day and a new way from him forward. No demands, no judgment, no condemnation, no finger pointing – no more prickly. 

His message of God’s favor was not a behavioral alignment with the laws of Moses that the Jews had assumed were the very “truths” of God (Mark 7:6-8); but a fulfillment of what behavioral adherence could NOT do – heal the hurts, repair the brokenness, remove the darkness, and forgive the sin of the human heart (Matthew 5:17). He came preaching and teaching that the sorrow we experience when we realize that dysfunction in our hearts is the Holy Spirit at work drawing us to the Father (John 6:44). He taught us that repentance isn't a bad thing but the very thing God is looking for (Luke 18:10-14)! That message, that we are ALL sinners in need of repentance, made him prickly cacti only to the religious leaders who thought they had all the answers. They continually prodded Jesus for an alignment from him to the way they stood up for the “truth” of their religion. They were so blind to what the “truth” really was that they couldn't even define who their neighbor was so they could fulfill their own idea of what the “law” or, “truth” as they saw it demanded of them (Luke 10:29-37).

Jesus turned the demand for behavioral alignment upside down and pointed to the human heart and our actions in a different way. When asked out of all the commandments and demands of the religious law which one is the greatest (which one should we really concentrate on to align with), his reply was to love God with all our heart and soul and mind and our neighbors as ourselves (Matthew 22:36-40) No prickly, no demands, just options and opportunity.

Instead of demanding alignment he paved the way for people to begin living with the Spirit of God in them. To see themselves and their neighbors as God sees them. That Spirit would reveal and direct them through and out of their sin and into a fullness of life never available through self justification from having believed certain things or even doing certain things. And some of that revealing takes time – it doesn't always happen overnight.

I believe we as a church (Branches in particular) need to assume this very same attitude that Christ had. LET THE HOLY SPIRIT DO HIS WORK! We want the people who do not have Jesus’ forgiveness and healing and life to find it but what are we doing about it? I believe the root of our anemic and powerless effectiveness in our culture is because we haven't experienced that godly sorrow, repentance, forgiveness and healing of our hearts fully ourselves. Oh, we do church, we sing songs, we pray, we give to the cause, we believe, we feel secure in our faith; but what are we actually doing about it? The role of the church in the dark world is not to turn on the light to condemn sin and godlessness, but to share how he has brought us out of that darkness into his light and life.

At Branches Church we want to be able to come as we are and continue our faith journey from there. That is available for everyone – gay or straight, rich or poor, greedy or generous, lustful or faithful, believing or unbelieving, addicted or clean, single or married, pro-life or pro-choice, citizen or alien, employed or unemployed, receiving welfare or self-sustaining, able to forgive or not able to forgive, loving or hateful, trusting or skeptical, all need to be able to start or continue their faith journey from where they are at without judgment or condemnation or prickly demands from God’s people so that the Holy Spirit can do his work in all of us. That means we have to accept people as they are and let them journey forward in their faith just like Christ allowed us to do when we first came to know him (or like the apostle said, rather, now that he knows us).

Is there definable sin? Yes. But that revelation and awareness comes from the Holy Spirit – not the church. You may say that people will not know if we don’t tell them. The only way I am going to listen to you tell me how you see, say, greed in my life and I need to repent of it is if you have earned my trust or friendship. This is what I mean when I say ‘what are we doing about it?’ We can say this is a sin or that is a sin all day long and we all can find a million ways to justify it or reason it out or redefine it so that it isn't.  But when the Holy Spirit reveals it to us, and a friend is there to help us through it using God’s word to confirm what the Holy Spirit is doing and saying in our hearts (John 16:13-15) we can identify what it is and repent, forgiveness removes it from our lives, we are justified before God, and we become a new creature. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Another step in the journey has taken place without the church demanding a behavioral alignment on the outside that does nothing to change the life on the inside.

I believe we will see more people come into the Kingdom of God because of being flower people rather than being cactus people. James said it best: “If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealously and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving. Gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. And those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.” – James 3:13-18

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July! With all the frustrations that can be felt over healthcare and budget and politics in general, especially during an election year, I can still mean it when I say, “Happy fourth of July!”

I know it’s easy to complain and worry over our election process – like who gets in and who gets left out, who spends what and who says they won’t – but I am reminded that this same election process has gotten us this:

I can still call the fire department when my house or land is burning and they will come and put it out.

I have an armed police force at the tip of my finger ready and willing to protect me, my family, and our property just for asking.

I have the freedom to travel from state to state whenever I want without citizenship papers or language barriers.

I have an armed, trained, and capable Coast Guard patrolling our shores for enemies of our way of life risking their lives every day trying to quench drug paraphernalia and illegal infiltration of criminal activity.

I have a military that defends our way of life and the right to argue our convictions and religion and politics to the last man so I can go about my life daily with the freedom to think and speak as I see.

I have zoning offices and local government offices that have mapped out the difficult work of the land and its uses for me when I want to build a house or make improvements to my existing driveway so that everyone is safe.

I have local municipalities that make sure I have clean, healthy water running in my home and a food and drug administration keeping watch over what becomes available to the general public.

I have friends and neighbors who have used their resources and freedom to do business as they see it to open grocery stores and gas stations so that I can get these items just down the street from my house. And, I can expect that same thing as I travel through neighborhoods across this country.

I can go to school whenever I want to.

I have more money in my pocket to go see fireworks and eat an ice cream tonight than most people in the world have to live on for a month. (and there is something wrong with that!)

I have insurance that protects the money that I put in the bank – as well as my life and property.

I can get the current news on multiple channels of media.

I can take a vacation and relax without the fear of losing my job or being harmed or kidnapped by drug lords or guerrilla fighters opposing the government.

I get to work without being a slave and it’s acceptable to take holidays like July Fourth to play! So, Happy Fourth of July everybody!

Going to Camp

If you’ve ever spent a week at a summer Bible camp secluding yourself away from your ipod and cell phone, taking time to hear from the Lord, making friends and having a ball, then you know that this next week for me is going to be a lot of fun!


I have been helping with the counseling, music, teaching, and speaking at Senior High Alive at Lake Lucerne WI for about a decade now and still don’t get tired of it. The friends, the ministry connections, the camaraderie, the way we all want to see lives transformed and growing in Christ, all make for a week of hard work of harvest but worth every effort.

The friends I’ve made there over the years have been solid. They have turned out to be friends that have changed the course of my life – literally! Branches Church exists as a member of the Association of Related Churches because of my connections through Senior High Alive. Ministry partners from camp are now on our Board of Overseers that hold me as the lead Pastor at Branches accountable and on track and encouraged. One of our former Children’s Directors was connected with me through this camping ministry – I say former because marriage and school and career have placed her and her husband in Minnesota. I have watched boys who had me as their counselor years back grow into strong and faithful young men who are using their vacation time from work returning and counseling the boys now as staff.

So say a prayer for us at Senior High Alive this week that God would show Himself faithful and true to each and every person setting aside their schedule of work and summer in order to be among a group of Christians who want to see lives changed and made Alive!

What I Learned from Harry Shay

During the late 1930’s and early 1940’s while Europe was embattled in the beginnings of WWII most of America was assuming a posture of isolationism. Basically, let’s not get involved in another European conflict; let them deal with it themselves.


The reasons were plenty. Two decades after the war to end all wars America just wanted to get through its depression and get back on its feet again. It’s hard to worry about what the neighbors are doing when you are worrying about finding enough for the kids to eat or keeping the family farm.

With this past Memorial Day weekend and June 6th coming in next week I’ve been taking a few moments to reflect. This is what I’m thinking:

On June 6th, 1944 my grandfather’s younger brother, Harry Shay, was in a landing craft headed toward Omaha beach as part of the third wave of soldiers to assault the German defenses. As I visited with him just last year (right before he passed away) he spoke of the difficulties of making headway through the pounding the Germans were throwing at them and the friends he lost that day. His wife, Lorraine, said that he had been recently waking in the night screaming names of people she had not heard of before. When I asked him about what was happening he told the gruesome details of how friends were killed and the guilt he felt of decisions he made that now made him ask, “Why am I the one who is alive?”

He told of the artillery, the noise and mayhem, the beach held no safe place and the tide coming in on them. He told of the machine gun fire crisscrossing the fields as they reached the top of the bluffs. He told how they reached the hedgerows and found that the Germans had the best fortified positions by just using the giant hedgerows as a natural shield and barrier from the American assault. He said that they couldn’t move without exposing themselves to the gunfire.

“It was us farm boys from Wisconsin, I’m proud to say, that said, ‘get us a torch and a welder up here and we’ll put some teeth on these tanks and bust through these hedgerows!’” He said. But with every story he had of a victory or a good idea he had one of loss and trouble and death too. But it was the initiative of those individual soldiers, the citizen soldiers as author Stephen Ambrose called them, that was able to get them through the difficulties of not only that day but it’s what shook America out of its isolationism.

I said, “Harry, why did you volunteer to sign up in the first place?” His answer kind of surprised me. He said, “The whole world was in trouble and we knew it. If we didn’t do something about it we were all going to be in trouble. So, me and my three buddies went down together and signed up…that’s all there was to it. We had to.”

We had to… I thought. No you didn’t. You guys chose to. Stephen Ambrose contends that Hitler gambled that the sons of a dictatorship would be better soldiers than the sons of a democratic society. He figured that the boy Scouts couldn’t produce the kind of man that his dictatorship could. He was wrong. The difference? Initiative.

Initiative awakened America out of its isolation to see the need. Initiative caused Harry and his pals and tens of thousands of others to march down to the recruiting offices and sign up for the fight. Initiative kept them going when the task or sight before them was more than bearable. Initiative allowed their training to kick in and apply it to their dangerous situations. Instead of hiding behind the obstacles trying to stay away from the machine gun fire and artillery burst initiative caused them to move forward and get to the tidal wall out of the line of fire. The men who tried to stay out on the beach and hide behind the obstacles were more likely to be killed.

I believe the church can take a lesson from this today.

Christians are always tempted to stay away from the “bad” things going on around us and keep to ourselves, to crawl into an attitude of isolationism, or safety, to hide behind our personal convictions or political affiliations or even Christianity itself. DON’T DO IT! It’s not what we are called to do. We are called to be salt and light in a dark and troubled world. When we became a follower and disciple of Jesus we signed up. Not to get away from the trouble, but to contend with it! When we begin to recognize that the whole world is in spiritual trouble, lost and wandering aimlessly without God, then we’ll have been awakened by understanding and ready for initiative which is not based solely on training and memorization of tactics, or God’s laws, but on wisdom from God. Solomon explains why he wrote the proverbs down for us:

Proverbs 1:2-7 Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair. These proverbs will give insight to the simple, knowledge and discernment to the young. Let the wise listen to these proverbs and become even wiser. Let those with understanding receive guidance by exploring the meaning in these proverbs and parables, the words of the wise and their riddles. Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.

Solomon wants to equip us with wisdom and understanding so we may take some initiative with confidence and DO our life with God instead of hiding from the turmoil around us hoping to get through safe and sound.

Proverbs 3:5-7 Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend in your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take. Don’t be impressed with your own wisdom. Instead, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.

Fear of the Lord recognizes total dependence on God for everything, including knowledge and wisdom. Fear of the Lord is the basis of all knowledge. How can we understand life without knowing the most fundamental truth about it – that it is God’s creation? It is not just a mental attitude but involves service, love, and obeying God’s laws and some initiative on our part to be awakened to the trouble around us and get involved.

Thanks, Harry, for choosing wisely and setting a good example for me to follow! RIP.

Put It on Your Calendar

One of the core values of Branches Church is to be authentic. Real people, real lives, real Jesus is a catch phrase we’ve committed to so we might never become an isolated group of religious people who are irrelevant to the community around us. This week’s blog is dedicated to that core value. We have a long way to go but we are committed to getting there…one person, one conversation, one event at a time.


When [Jesus] saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. (Matthew 9:36)

This kind of compassion is rare. Oh, we talk a good talk about it. We even expect it from others to do something about (name an injustice). This kind of compassion that Jesus was moved with comes from more than an emotional response to an injustice. This kind of compassion comes from deep within a person, from the core of who we really are.

This kind of compassion causes a young man or woman to forego starting their career until after they’ve joined the Peace Corps or a mission assignment for their church. This compassion causes the cancer survivor to give their time to fundraising for a cure. This compassion moves a family to spend time on a holiday volunteering for others at the shelter instead of sleeping in and staying home. This kind of compassion is more than words.

It’s no wonder we often avoid it. Who is comfortable with such an emotion that comes from so deep within us that it causes us to change our schedule, re-evaluate our leisure time, ask our family to sacrifice, or give up our Saturday to-do project to go across town and do something for someone else? Yeah, rare.

There are three things that will get you a job: having the talent, or ability; having the desire, or want to; and having the schedule, or time in your life for it. Any one of which, if missing, will take you out of the running for said job.

The same goes for compassion. We have the ability to see injustices, we have the ability to see needs, and we have the ability to see those who need help all around us. But if we took a look at our desire to do something about it, to actually be moved with compassion about these things, it involves more than seeing – we have to have the desire, or want to.

If we were to admit it, we really spend more of our effort complaining about what we see than being moved from deep within to do something about it. We may feel we can do nothing about it, it may seem like too big a problem, or it seems hopeless, or we don’t feel qualified, or their opinion and worldview is different than mine, or it’s against my religion…or whatever.

The ability to see the weary multitude like lost sheep, and the desire to do something about it if moved to compassion, causes us to change or adapt our schedule to accommodate the needs. This is the fruit of compassion.

The conclusion of Jesus’ compassion as Matthew recorded it?

He said to his disciples (the church), “The harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest; ask him to send more workers into his fields.” (Matthew 9:37-38)

Nobody really wants to know of your personal convictions or beliefs by hearing complaints of what you see around you; that’s wearying. Show me your schedule, show me your compassion, show me that you not only see it, but you are willing to use who you are with what you have and put it on your calendar!

Seeing Their Faith

The house where [Jesus] was staying was so packed with visitors that there wasn’t room for one more person, not even outside the door. And he preached the word to them. Four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t get to Jesus through the crowd, so they dug through the clay roof above his head. Then they lowered the sick man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” – Mark 2:2-5


I love the line that Mark uses when he writes, seeing their faith. Jesus obviously had to of heard the commotion put into tearing a hole in the roof, He saw the sick man, He knew there was a needy person there, this was all happening right above His head and in front of him. But what caught Jesus’ attention, as well as Mark’s observation, was the faith of the four guys.

Four unnamed guys, four men who could have been home doing chores, hanging with the kids, at work getting more done, taking their wife out to lunch, working on their own needs.

God knows that there are hurting people, broken people, and sick people inside and outside of the church. That’s why Jesus came in the first place! What was it He said His mission was; “…to preach Good News to the poor…to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the downtrodden will be freed from their oppressors, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come.” (Luke 4:18-19)

If we want to get God’s attention, it is better suited for us to show Him our faith than to try and show Him our troubles. He already knows our hurts and pain and dysfunctions and injustices; that’s why He sent His Son in the first place. It’s when we skip placing our faith in His Son that puts us in a faithless posture and turns us into a consumer with needs. He sees our need, our sickness, our helpless state!

Apostle Paul said, “This same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19)

This is a given to God’s children but…

“It is impossible to please God without faith.” (Hebrews 11:6)

So, as we at Branches Church are being real people living real lives in relationship with a real Jesus, we can know our needs are being met by God who loves us and sees us and knows our need; but does He see our faith?

What we do to get others who are sick and hurting and helpless into the presence of Jesus so they can hear the Word may cause a commotion, a bit of interruption for those in the room, a bit of awkwardness as we may set someone in front of Jesus in an unconventional way…but it will get the Lord’s attention as He sees our faith so that the kingdom of God can grow!

Act Like the King!

When you are the king, or the coach of a team, a department leader at work, or a dad, a husband, a mom, a wife, a mentor, a local or national political leader, any position that gives you a kingdom to influence and take care of, you are there to use your God-given place to benefit others. But with King David, there were times he used his influence, position, and resources for selfish purposes rather than for the people.


This week at Branches we looked at what it took for King David to act like the king. It took a tough talking friend and a guilty conscience, both of which he was willing to listen to.

David didn’t go to “king school” to learn how to do this leadership thing God had called him to. No. God had taken him from tending sheep in the pasture and selected him to be the leader of His people. (2 Samuel 7:8)

This shows loud and clear in two particular instances: when David’s son Absalom is killed by David’s army for trying to overthrow the kingdom and when David disobeys God by taking a census of Israel. Both scenarios show David being able to be the king by remembering that he is the shepherd. It’s an attitude adjustment that affects his behaviors.

As David is weeping uncontrollably over the death of Absalom, his friend, Joab, comes to him and challenges him to act like the king. He says that the people that David is king over are afraid to come back home again because his sadness makes them feel as if they have done something wrong in eliminating David’s opposition. “You make us feel ashamed of ourselves.” (2 Samuel 19:5)

Here is the king, thinking that all is about him, all should be for him, and all should go his way – I’m the king, all should go well for me! It doesn’t. Getting everything to go our way doesn’t make us the king, or the dad or mom, a good coach, a benevolent leader, an effective mentor, or a thoughtful husband or wife. How we respond to not getting our way can lead to being a good king, the dad or mom whose advice is sought after, a good coach, a benevolent and influential leader, an effective mentor, and a cherished wife and respected husband!

When Joab confronted his friend David with his selfish attitude I believe David might have finally remembered that he was there for the people in the same way he was there for his sheep years earlier. It hadn’t been that long ago when he had stood before King Saul and said he was willing to go out and face the giant Goliath with confidence because he had faced the lion and the bear that were after his father’s sheep. Having defeated them he knew he was able to defeat this giant too.

Later, when David chose to fall into the hands of a merciful God for his punishment for sinning against God’s command not to take a census of Israel rather than fall into the hands of his military enemies, he is astonished at the devastation that the people of Israel are under for his sin. 70,000 people are dead in three days by the hand of the death angel that God had sent. By the time the angel had reached the outskirts of Jerusalem, David makes an extraordinary statement: When David saw the angel, he said to the Lord, “I am the one who sinned and done wrong! But these people are as innocent sheep – what have they done? Let your anger fall against me and my family.” (2 Samuel 24:17)

Here again, David had learned how to act like the king by remembering that God had made him a shepherd. A shepherd not to rule over the sheep but to take care of them.

A shepherd can take one of two attitudes in their work. The sheep are there to build up and get me what I want or, the sheep are there for me to nurture so they can be all they are able to be. The end result is that the shepherd gets the sheep to market and that is ultimately why it is done. But the attitude in approach to how they are brought to that point changes everything.

That is why the apostle Paul writes to us this:

“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 affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing. Your attitude should be the same that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not demand and cling to his rights as God. He made himself nothing; he took the humble position of a slave and appeared in human form.” (Philippians 2:3-7)

This is Jesus being a good shepherd; a good king. He is here on behalf of others. He had the right to descend to earth and demand obedience, submission, and conformity – he is God, all things were created by him and for him, he gave us life itself. (John 1:3-4) But Jesus chose to humble himself on behalf of others, give up his rights, live as human as the rest of us, and pave the way for a right relationship with God for us all! “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)

So we can see the precedent laid out in the Old Testament Scriptures with the life and attitudes of David, and Paul setting up Jesus as our example of humility in how to treat those in our sphere of influence. Our thoughts, attitudes, and actions are to become more and more like those shown by Christ. As we reflect honestly on our lives, can we be humble enough to admit our faults, let alone the complaining of someone else’s? When we realize, like David, that we are to act like the king, we can then begin to use the experiences we’ve lived, the knowledge we’ve gained, and the understanding of our relationship with a gracious God to influence others – not demand their conformity to our thinking, beliefs, and convictions.

It’s giving up our “rights” and taking on the attitude of Jesus that we are here to live our life for others - whether they "conform" or not. I know it’s upside down in a world that is obsessed with “rights’ and selfishness…but herein lies the foundation of the behaviors and attitudes of the Christian faith: Do for others as you would like them to do for you. (Matthew 7:12)

To be honest, I have yet to see this evident in the whole of Christianity today. We should start to act like the king!

Even Good Guys get it Wrong Sometimes

Looking into the life of David as we go through the books of Samuel, Chronicles, and the Kings, allows us to see both the “Good Guy” David and the “Bad Guy” David. It’s hard to think that this is the “man after my own heart” that God chose to lead His people when we see his life laid out in detail.

We love the stories about success and triumph, obedience and loyalty, like his conquest of the giant Goliath or his friendship with Jonathan. We love to hear about his thirty mighty men who were his personal bodyguards and kept him alive on the battlefield, and how he rescued Abigail from a life that was beneath her abilities and brought her into his palace so she could become all she was meant to be. We like to read the Psalms he wrote when he is recounting the lovingkindness and unfailing love of the Lord and his passion to worship. We like to hear about his benevolence to the less fortunate in his kingdom. This is the “Good Guy” David; the one that makes sense to us that this is the kind of man God would choose.

David’s life is filled with the everyday things of real life. He’s the youngest of eight boys; he’s a talented musician; he’s brave and responsible; he’s got a great work ethic; he’s a friend, a husband, a father, an employer, a soldier, a lover, a thinker and a writer and yet, impulsive. He’s generous yet selfish. He’s a builder and a money maker and provider; he’s a leader and a mover and shaker. He has surrounded himself with good and capable people but still needs to be alone.

I do not envy the fact that David’s life has been laid out for all of history to see in detail. I would not want that for myself. David said to the Lord once, “Who am I? What can I say? You know what I’m really like.” And God let us all in on what He saw in David – the good, the bad, and the ugly because even good guys get it wrong sometimes.

His adulthood seems to have started here. In all his passion as a lover, he seems to have blown off his first marriage to Michal, Saul’s daughter. The bible says that she loved him very much. They were newlyweds when they were separated by trouble in the kingdom. She helps him escape with his life and covers for him so he can get to safety. He never returns for her. She starts over with a new life, a new husband, and a new town. When David realizes after eight years that it cost him plenty to have her as his wife he wants her back. He rips her from her new life and family and places her back into his home. But this woman has gone from loving him to despising him. Who could blame her? She has gone from number one in his life and risking it all for him to being number three in a growing list of wives. Then, even though he is the man of the hour, good guy David setting up worship for the kingdom of Israel, good guy David blessing all the families of the land and feeling pretty good about himself, Michal lets her contempt for him and his duties show. His reply? “Don’t forget that God chose me over your dad and brothers!”

There! That ought to put her in her place! Wow! One minute he’s blessing the households of his kingdom and the next he’s spitting out curses to his own. David and Michal never reconciled the relationship. The bible says that she died bitter and childless. This is the “Good Guy” David getting this one wrong.

It happens to us all the time. We misuse our time, our money, our judgment. We say selfish things, we do selfish things. It’s not that we don’t mean well or want to do the right thing. But, sincerity and good intentions without self-reflection cannot be used as an excuse for selfishness. It will get us into trouble most every time! Just like David.

When I read about David and see the bad along with the good, I think about his predecessor Saul; God rejected him as king of Israel because he sinned and was selfish too. What’s the difference I ask myself? Saul continued in his selfishness and it became his demise. David continually came back to the Lord repenting of his sin and disobedience and God seems to have had room in his heart for that!

David writes in Psalm 51, after one of his episodes of sin and disobedience, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart.”

The apostle Paul reminds us in Romans 5:20-21, “As people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful kindness became more abundant… giving us right standing with God resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ.”

God’s grace exists because even good guys, and gals, get it wrong sometimes!