Child of Weakness

Every now and then there are lyrics in songs I have sung hundreds of times that suddenly leap out at me and slap my spirit across it's ethereal face.  A year or two ago it was the carol, O Holy Night.  The line from that song that got me was, "til He arrived, and the soul felt its worth."

Wow.  Think about that for a second.

                                    The soul felt its worth.  When Jesus showed up.

How cool is that?  Yeah, pretty darn cool.  Yesterday it was the song, Jesus Paid It All, the Kristian Stanfill version.  Honestly, either version has the same lyric.  Both are great.  There were three words that leaped out of this song yesterday that really got my attention.  But they are only part of the full thought that redeems those three words.  Those words are of course, the title of this post.

I can hear the Savior say
Thy strength indeed is small
Child of weakness, watch and pray
Find in me thine all in all
Jesus paid it all
All to Him I owe
Sin had left a crimson stain
He washed it white as snow

I thought to myself as those lyrics escaped my lips, That is exactly what we are.  What I am.  We are all a child of weakness.  I started to think about my sins.  And they are legion: anger, jealousy, fear, lust, hate, rage, lies, gluttony, selfishness, laziness, fear, pride, self-righteousness, envy, greed, and all that impure stuff.

Fail sauce.  Weakness.

There are many things I am not proud of in my life.  I'm not going for full confessional here.  If you want to talk with me personally, you can email me through my profile and we'll talk.  Some people have been shocked when I've shared some of the things I've done.  I've heard comments such as, "You are not the person I thought you were," or "I'm seeing you in a whole different light."

Let that light be the light of Jesus.  Yes, I am full of sin.  This is not me bragging or trying to claim the title of chiefest of sinners.  Paul can take that one.  Some might look at my past and say, "Well, those things aren't so bad.  Everyone does that."  I hear that a lot.  Versions of "everyone is doing it," or "That's just how things are now."

When did jumping off the cliff with your friends become acceptable?

And when did parents, teachers, mentors and the rest decide they would jump too?  Why do we accept so much that is clearly not good.  Why do we tolerate the intolerable?

Because we are weak.  I know I am.  But that is where the rest of those lyrics come in.

Find in me thine all in all

Me there meaning Jesus.  Jesus is our strength.  The siblings Moses and Miriam sing this after crossing the Red Sea.  (Exodus 15)

The Lord is my strength and my song;

he has become my salvation.

Think about that.  The Lord is our strength and song.  Is he?  Is he your strength?  Is he mine?  I can only answer for one of those questions.  And it's not yours.  In our weakness the strength of God will show through.  Moses didn't make the sea part.  God did.  Moses knew he couldn't do it.  It is beyond the strength of a human to do that.  But, God told him what to do.  His weakness allowed God's strength to be shown.

So can mine.  So can yours.

God's strength will carry us past our addictions.  He will lift us over our own pride.  He will break down the walls of depression and fear.  His strength transforms our weakness.  Our weakness with God's strength is an incredible story.  A story we can share with others around us.  To give them hope, to see their weakness and allow the strength of God into their lives.

One of my favorite passages of scripture is found in Joshua 1.  Joshua has taken on the responsibility of leading the Israelites after Moses' death.   God is telling Josh what's about to happen.  What he is going to do.  Joshua has already seen God do some amazing things.  But God still tells this guy, "be strong and courageous."  God tells him three times, and the people even chime in once to make sure it really sinks in.

This passage really took hold of my heart several years ago.  So much in fact that it's the basis for the tattoos I have (in Gaelic - Old Irish) on each arm.  On my left arm is the word Strength, because it is the weaker of my arms, and on the right is Courage because it is the arm I lead with.  Now I know tattoos aren't for anyone.  These words on my arm do not give me strength and courage.  But they remind me that I need strength and courage.  Like Moses, I know that I am weak.  But God is strong.  It is his strength and courage I look to when I see these words.

So in your weakness, like mine, turn to God's strength.  It's in him we find our "all in all."  He is the everything in everything.  He is.

grace, peace + hope
-Bear

In the Meantime

"Christmas Time" is funny.  Funny in the way you have to laugh to keep from crying or punching a wall.  I can not speak for other countries, but here in good ol' America, it's consumerism at it's best.  Best of course meaning worst.

But this is not about that.

It's not even about how December 25th really isn't the calendar day Jesus was born.  (Many scholars believe it to be some time in the spring.)  It's not about Christmas Trees having nothing to do with Jesus.  If anything they are related (by way of stage plays) to Adam and Eve.

It's about your heart, my heart, and the heart of God.

We see slogans all over the place from well meaning Christians: "Keep Christ in Christmas," or "Jesus, the Reason for the Season."  I see many people get bent out of shape because someone says "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas."

Where is your heart this season?

Is it caught up in buying the perfect gift?  Are you worried about what you'll get this year?  That one more thing will finally make you happy?  Today, in concept, is not about what is under the tree for you, or what you put there for someone else.  But what about better to give than receive?  Yeah that is good, so long as you're not giving to make yourself better.  (Besides, Paul uses that concept in Acts to show we need to help the weak.)

Is your heart torn to pieces by where you are in life right now?  Is it angry?  Hurt?  Lost?  It would be shallow and mean spirited of me to say, "get over it."  But I will say do not wallow in that pain.  There is Hope.

What today, "Christmas," represents is the physical collision of the Spirit of God with humankind. 

For God so loved the world that he sent his only son,  so whoever believes in him will not perish, but have life eternal.  He did not send his son to condemn the world, but that through him the world could be saved.  (John 3:16-17)

This is God showing us his intentions toward us.  He's saying, "Hey you, World.  I love you.  I want to be with you.  So here I am.  For you."  It's the greatest love story ever.  Nickolas Sparks, Stephenie Meyer, and Shakespeare can't hold a candle to the Author of Creation.

Jesus grew into a man.  He performed miracles.  He called his disciples.  He taught.  He healed.  He turned the tables.  He told stories.  He died.

He lived.

For you.  For me.  For that lady we cut in front of at the store this week.  For the guy we cussed out from the safety of our car for not giving us the right of way.  For the parent who just doesn't understand.  For the friend who doesn't want anything to do with God.  For the young family around the corner that is not married.  For God so loved the World.

That is what has been given to us.  We accept it or we don't.  If you accept it, the story doesn't end there.  In fact it's only the beginning.  If you call yourself a Christian, follower of Christ, or whatever the label du jour is, you do get a happily ever after...at the end. 

In the meantime, there is work needs doing.


Jesus gave us a lot to do.  In a few seemingly simple sentences he gave his disciples a monumental task.  The greatest commandment is to Love God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind.  Then, love your neighbor as yourself.  He later said to go into all the world making disciples and baptizing.   Also to teach them everything he commanded.

Simple yet massive.  Christmas is about remembering what Jesus came to do.  His birth and life are not just to be celebrated one day of the year.  As followers of Jesus, it should be our daily directive.  Celebrate him by living out what he asked us to do.  By loving him, our neighbors...and yes, yourself.  Not in a self serving way.  But see yourself as the fearfully and wonderfully made creation he intended you to be.

Christmas isn't a holiday.  It's a way of living everyday.  Let us get to work doing our father's business.  Cause the happily ever after will come, but in the meantime...

Happy Christmas!
-Bear

Confession of a former deacon

I just finished reading an email news letter written by a fellow M28 Ministry staff member. In the letter he mentioned a quote attributed to St. Augustine.

“Hope has two beautiful daughters: Anger, at the way things are, and Courage, to work for change.”

My fellow staff writer goes on to write (and I quote),

"This sums up where I (we) am (are) these days and why I grow more passionate about Jesus. He is the hope of the world—you know. Without hope, all is lost. This is why I have become angry at how I have wasted so much precious life doing things that don’t matter. Anger can be a useless passion if it is not harnessed in the right direction. When it is, it can change people, places and things. It does not allow you to remain silent, absent, immobile or with excuse. I thank God for righteous anger. But what I need most is courage. Courage to think, to be, to do what needs to be done—to do what Jesus did. It is courage that I pray for most.

What he said resonates with me. I pondered what he said and realized I'm angry too. I'm angry how I have wasted time doing what I thought were "churchy" things: serving on the deacon board, playing in the worship band, serving as a leader in various sub groups of the church- things I thought were necessary to advance the kingdom of God that Jesus mentions so much when He spoke to his disciples in the Gospels. I believed it was my "ministry" to help keep the church finely tuned allowing it to be "attractional" to the "lost". I believed this was God's plan for me and this was necessary so they ("the lost') would come to a church service, listen to the pastor "do his job" (since I already did mine) by preaching a rousing sermon, and then at the end they would "make a decision" for Jesus by repeating a salvation prayer at the end of the service. This was the means to the end. From there they would join the church (and maybe a small group or a Sunday Bible class) and come faithfully every week. Then maybe once in awhile invite a co worker or a neighbor to a church service. Please don't read me wrong-It's important that everyone comes to a faith decision concerning Christ, but is this where it ends? Is this what Jesus was talking about concerning the advancement of the Kingdom? Jesus admonished us to go (Matt 28:19). His instruction wasn't getting people to come to church. I'm not down on "coming to church", I'm down on this being the primary exclusive role of the church. In the book, "Right Here, Right Now", the authors mention there is no distinction between the NT phases kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven. It should catch our attention that these phrases are used over eighty times in the Gospels regarding Jesus' message, while the word church is used a mere three times in all the Gospels. It is also intriguing that the word disciple is used over 260 times in the Gospels alone. The author points this out because of the undeniable fact that the vast majority of Christians and their leaders emphasize church but give scant attention to the kingdom of God and disciple making. I pray we all have the "courage" to be disciple makers and to what Jesus commands us to do-GO!