The invisibility of repentance Part 1

Today's blog is not a solution...it's a beginning to a thought process.  Think of it as a jumping off point....you may not agree.  You may not find resolution...it's not sewed up and finished.  That's fine....Here we go...
This thought's just been running through my head and I'm a little concerned for the church of America today and it has to do with God's grace and forgiveness. 
I believe somehow in our society, we've gotten the impression that "admitting" or "confessing" your sin is enough for God's forgiveness and grace.  It's become accepted, almost, to some, for us to feel that if we own up to a sinful behavior, but tack on the end, "God will just have to forgive me", then somehow, someway, we feel that's enough to settle accounts with God.  Sadly, it's not.  I wish I could tell you that only giving the "head nod" and the "yeah, you're right" was good enough for God's forgiveness and grace, but it's just not. What then finishes off that forgiveness for God? REPENTANCE.
Repentance means that you turn around from the direction that you are heading, do a 180 and do it God's way. That's what it is. That's all it is. There is no substitute for that. In other words, if I'm not being kind to someone, then my repentance is to start treating them with kindness. That's what it is. If God has told me to do something, then my repentance is to do what God says, that's the only way that relationship with God is maintained.  Here's a thought for you to chew on...I'm not done with this, so really chew on this.

The grace of God is a magnificent thing, but it is designed to cover us until we come in line with God's Word...NOT instead of us coming in line with God's Word.

What do you think?

Next time....we'll start here.

 "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left."
Hebrews 10:26

The definition of God

You know...I don't think we take enough time to think through what being "God" means.  It's impossible to fully grasp.  God is unique and has a set of rules that apply only to Him.  Just wanted to throw out some random thoughts on the subject.

God is perfect...He lacks NOTHING.  In other words, He does not need you or I.  You and I must act on the basis of need.  We need food.  We need relationship.  We need rest.  God is in a total state of perfection...in other words, at every moment, He has NO need.  In turn, He never acts out of want or need...He acts ONLY out of free choice.  We cannot understand that, because every decision we make, every action we attempt, is, at it's most free, a coerced choice or a "forced choice".  At some level, every choice we make is effected by "need".  In fact, our entire life is colored by need.

God owns everything.  That's me, that's you, that's your Mom, your house, your stuff...it's all His.  In the faux ownership thing that we live everyday, really just minding HIS stuff, we don't like anyone telling us what to do with our (HIS) stuff...well, neither does God, and even more, because it is His stuff...and it really is.  He's not caught in the fake state of ownership like we are, attempting to "own" everything, including our own bodies.  He really owns it all.  Unlike us, He's not just holding it until the real owner decides to take it back.

God is not moral.  Before you lynch me, follow me a little.  I'm not saying that God is immoral.  When we say that something is "moral", we are saying that here is a "moral standard" and this thing/act/person conforms to that standard, therefore they are moral.  God conforms to no standard...He is the standard.  It would be more correct to say "Moral is God."  The standard by which we determine something being right or moral or just is what God is.  That's the only requirement.  In this sense, God is not just...Just is God.

Whatever God decides to do in the moment is right.  He is not bound as we are, by a standard that is out there that depicts justice or righteousness that we try to model.

For example, if God decided to completely flip the rules of life tomorrow (which He would never do, because He is unchanging and consistent to His character, but for sake of argument)...if He did...say...make murdering people right and correct.  That's just crazy, but I'm just picking something "nuts" to make a point.  If he made that switch in morality, then that would be the right and moral thing to do, because He is the standard of right...there is no other.

For us, we can easily fall into a very American mentality of thinking that the authority needs to meet our approval.  God cannot be judged or evaluated.  There would never be an evaluation that comes back but "that's the most perfect action to be taken".  Why?  Because whatever God does, by definition of "being God", is absolutely right.  The misconception that we all fall into at times is that there is a standard set that we are supposed to judge God by, that He should meet to determine if He deserves our allegiance.  That is completely wrong and it makes terribly misguided conceptions of God.  It lacks an understanding of what it means to be God.  Think about these questions...

What if whatever you decided to do was instantly a law of the Universe? 
What if gravity was your decision? 
What if what you felt defined reality?
What if the concept of perfection was based on what you are?
What if the way you are determined the way the world worked?
What if physics was based on you and not the other way around?

Getting the picture...to question God is not to understand who or what He is and to demonstrate an ignorance of life itself. 

There is no effort required to be perfect or all-powerful or all-knowing...it's just who He is.  It's more natural to Him to be all of those things than it is for us to attempt to breathe.  Easy and hard are irrelevant terms to God when "nothing is impossible" for you.  As I said, the normal rules and assessment techniques don't apply when it comes to God and when we attempt to say things like "God didn't do that right" or "God is wrong" or "I think it would have been better to have done", we just spout ignorance of the reality of the situation, not some sort of evaluative wisdom that God didn't understand somewhere.

And the glorious thing is, in the middle of this situation, that He is aware of our almost insulting ignorance and He's quite willing to walk patiently with us through the complicated and impossible process of understanding...why?  Because He loves us that much...and because, nothing is impossible for Him...another by-product of being God.

Please continue to pray for us at Bay West Church as we try to be the church of Jesus to west Palm Bay Florida.

A little reminder about relationships

I know we talked about why we have them yesterday, how important they are and that they are one of God's primary learning tools for us and a top-level revelation process about Himself to us...but really take this with you today.

We can, in an almost obliviously selfish way, go into autopilot thinking that our relationships are for us.  I challenge you not to live that way today.  Give it a shot and just try it.  The first time that you have that moment today where you think "What the devil are you thinking?" whoever your "you" is...stop it a minute...take a breath and ask yourself this question..."What is the goal of my next response?"

A few reminders...
"...to spur others on toward love and good (God) deeds..."  Hebrew 10
"...gently restore" someone from a sin  Galatians 6
"...to seek and to save that which was lost"  Luke 19

Take a breath...accomplish your purpose, which, btw, isn't to prop your rep?  Some people may look at what you do and think you are just taking junk...they might even call you a "doormat".

A huge secret/key to cultivating relationships with God's purposes in mind is to find your self-worth in pleasing Christ and not finding it in living up to the expectations of those around you.  It's not easy...but it's the key and it's the way you are going have to do it to succeed in living a life that follows Christ.  It's just the way it is.

Please continue to pray for us at Bay West Church as we continue to try to be the church of Jesus to the people of west Palm Bay Florida.

So what is the heart?

Reading this morning...Proverbs 4:23 "Guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life."  It's funny, but I've read that many times, but some days the Word hits you differently than others.

It's really true.  Picture a flowing spring of water...picture a hole that it comes from, as it runs along the ground making the stream.  If you go to the source and pour in green food coloring, think about what would happen.  It would turn the stream green or at least, greenish.  Hopefully, it would run out or clear out, but it would effect it for a while.  Imagine setting up an I.V. of green food coloring that dripped at a steady pace into the wellspring or the source...it would effect the spring, turning it greenish or green consistently...whether that's good or bad, depends on your perspective on green and food coloring.

Apply that to our heart, the source, and our life, the stream.  We should be careful what we allow to dump into or to drip into our life, because it can turn it green or whatever...and as I said, the good or bad is dependent on your view of green, because what we allow into that wellspring of life can do either.  Carelessly allowing a temporary thing or even an ongoing habit/activity to "drip" can drastically effect many areas of your life. 

For many of us, the stream of life takes a turn around a tree, out of sight of the source of the stream, and looking at life there, we honestly can't tell why the life is effected in the way it is.  Nothing is poured into the stream at that point...nothing is in the immediate vicinity, but the life is effected negatively or positively anyway.  If it's negative and you are trying to solve it, it can be maddening...there is no cause, seemingly...nothing related to the direct issue...how do you fix it?   You just can't find the cause at that location...the problem is that it was what was dropped in at the wellspring, the heart, seemingly having nothing to do with it, and the effects show up far from the site of the problem.  It's just how it goes, and like it says in vs 19 of the same chapter, it can put you on a path of wickedness, that is darkness, and they "do not know what makes them stumble."

I picture standing determined guard over this spot of my life, making sure that whatever gets here, as best as I can make it happen, is Jim-tested and Jim-approved...better still, that Jim's test standards come from the Word of God.  Because what gets there will color my life...there is no way to avoid it.  Protect it.

Proverbs 4 is all about wisdom and it's got several cool deep nuggets that can shape your activity/thinking for the better in it...some of the verses I'm committing to memory right now are from here (incidentally, I just changed my Scripture memory process...awesome  Android app called "Remember me"...free app, it will even speak the verse to you if you need it...try it out.)

Try it out...Proverbs 4, I mean...the Android app is optional.  iPhone users are on their own.  :)

Keep praying for all of us on the leadership team at Bay West Church, as we try to be the church of Jesus in Palm Bay.

Interesting deal about "SMALL is big" from Last Sunday

Last Sunday, in the intro talk to our message series "Focus", we talked about the parable of the talents from Matthew 25.  We talked about how Jesus was teaching about the kingdom of Heaven, but the real issue that He was teaching everyone about was how to live and maintain in uncertain times...in situations where there is limited info and visibility is hampered.

In that parable, we learned that that zeroing in on the small things...the moment by moment decisions and honoring God with each one, keeps us in focus (which, is all about zeroing in on the small things and that's why they are so big.)

In that context, we talked about the guy with the 5 talents, 2 talents and the 1 talent...interesting bit of knowledge on those guys that I forgot to bring out.  A talent was the largest single unit of money back then in Jerusalem.  It was equal to 10,000 denari.  Interestingly enough, a denari was basically looked upon as one days wage....or 10,000 days of work.  If you worked somewhere for around 40 years, you'd probably hit 10,000 days of work or somewhere thereabouts...which in our culture is basically your working lifespan as an adult, give or take a few years.  In a sense, the talent was a life or a life's work.

When you begin to look at the parable of the talents as basically a "life" producing other "lives" and multiplying themselves in the Christian context...you begin to see the picture even more clear, as the layers of this teaching story really play out.  It spoke to me as in "what am I doing to multiply life with the life that I've been given?"  Or in other words, with this life-giving gospel that God has charged us all to take to masses and masses of spiritually dead people...am I hiding it in a hole in the ground or am I working smartly to allow God to use me to increase what He has?

Please pray for us at Bay West Church as we attempt to be the Church of Jesus to the people in West Palm Bay, Florida.

The way...

1   “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in me.
2   There is more than enough room in my Father’s home.  If this were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?
3   When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.
4   And you know the way to where I am going.”
5  “No, we don’t know, Lord,” Thomas said. “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?”
6   Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
John 14:1-6 (NLT)

These verses are pretty familiar to those around church...but in these verses, we zoom by wisdom every day.  I think that all of us that follow Christ, at one time or another, have felt Thomas' pain..."God, I have no idea where you are going with this."  We've all sought direction.  We fall into a trap of thought that paralyzes us.  It says "If I can't picture the end result or know the exact end destination, then how can I know which way to go today?"  We all feel as though we need to see the end result to know how to proceed., but that's just not true.

We treat life like Google maps.  We have to know the ending address and we want to plug that in to let our personal Google app generate the map...then we want to choose the options of the roads we want to take to get to the end destination.  One problem is that God doesn't work that way.

He's already generated the map...and He's not giving it to us to manage.  He's in full possession of that.  If He handed it to us, the complexity of the plan would probably blow our minds and we'd be filled with thoughts of "no way THAT'S going to work."  So what He does is give us, not the whole enchilada, but one decision at a time.  He calls out the instruction and we move.  That's the point of this Scripture.

Jesus said "I am the way"...I will be your momentary guide.  Don't look for the end, look for Me..just go where I go and do what I do.
"I am the truth"...I will never steer you wrong.
"I am the life"...do not look for life's fulfillment and purpose outside of me.  Anything you find to fulfill those roles will break like plastic when you lean on them...only I can handle them.
"No man comes to the Father but through Me."  I'm all you need to know.

That's about it.  It's really about that simple.  Need direction?  Make the next decision you make be the most God-honoring one you can.  One after one, one breath at a time...from the little to the big...

One old adage debunked...

"You can tell how popular the pastor is by how many people show up on Sunday morning. 
You can tell how popular the church is by how many people show up on Sunday night. 
You can tell how popular Jesus is by how many people show up at prayer meeting."

This is an old adage from church leadership from a while back.  Someone should be due this quote and usually it holds true...BUT...not at Bay West last Sunday.  Why?  Because we experienced our largest total in the worship service for 2010, but there was one thing missing...the campus pastor, ME!

Some guys might be a little sad and while I guess I was disappointed that I couldn't experience it with you, the first thing for me was to let out a "YES!"...on the inside, because Matt texted me the total while I was in church in Arlington, TX.  (and yes, I checked the text message...couldn't wait so I did it during the "welcome" time at the Church on Rush Creek, where Katye and I attended on Sunday).  That's exactly what I want to see in our campus and church, a body that comes because of a love for Christ and not a love for a particular leader or anything.

Some accepted thoughts that I've enjoyed seeing fall so far as well...
"You can't grow a church in Palm Bay, for some reason." - God's proving that wrong.
"You can't grow a church without the cherry location." - While we love our school, we are out on the outskirts of east buddha..as we say in Bama)
"You need a lot of experience to get it done."  campus pastor - 1st timer, worship leader - 1st timer, children's leader - 1st timer and MANY of our leaders are taking on their first shot at both their responsibilities AND being a portable church.  God has brought the wisdom. 
"People over a certain age won't attend a portable church..." - WRONG
"People over a certain age won't attend if you don't ________ {insert church tradition here}" - God proves that wrong every Sunday.
What I've enjoyed seeing is that our services at Bay West are LARGELY ageless...one of the most diverse churches generationally I've been around.

Some popular stereotypes about church I'd like to continue to see broken...
"Americans are too lazy and self-absorbed to give and serve sacrificially."
"Churches only care more about what goes on inside their walls than what goes on outside their walls." 

Please don't see this as "pride", because our people only go as far as our God moves us and sustains us and guides us.  If we give in to God and His leading, all these things and many more restrictions can be broken because God is limitless...He does whatever He wishes.

That's the lesson here...if you submit to God, the limits that you thought were there, probably won't be and you'll live a life that is bound only by the limits that God, not man, puts on it.

Please pray for us as we continue to try to submit to God's leading and be the church in Palm Bay for Christ that He wants at Bay West Church.