My Homeless Brother

My homeless brother has been emailing lately. He uses the public library computer bank to stay in touch. I am trying to encourage him to start a blog. What do you think of that? Would you be interested in reading a daily glimpse of homeless life, written by a real homeless person - not someone who goes undercover as homeless as in Over the Underpass?

The Most Amazing Jewish Holy Day Ever: Christmas!

Tomorrow we celebrate God keeping His promise to Adam...we celebrate the fulfillment of THE ancient Jewish prophecy being fulfilled: a messaiah returning. Tonight we celebrate that moment when God entered man. The appointed time: perfect. The Christ is born!

Give Me A Revelation -Show Me What To Do

How many of us have asked this in prayer? I ask it all the time. "Oh, God, oh sovereign Lord, give me wisdom and revelation...to know your will in my life..." or "so that I can know you better"...or "so I can do your will in my life." Sound familiar? Do you pray this too?

I ask with the anticipation of something wonderful and awesome being revealed to me regarding God's plan for my life. And, remarkably, I always assume that God's will for my life is going to be something that I will absolutely love.

Well, the other day I got a glimpse of what I look like through God's eyes, and...it wasn't good. It was sad and pathetic. I got such a huge vision of how I fall short of anything great. I got a view of how unproductive I am...eternally...Of how ineffective I am...spiritually...

Who I really am in God's eyes is not pretty. I have a lot of work and repentance to do before I can even think about doing anything productive for the kingdom.

It was a good too see, but hard to accept.

Get it Straight or Get Out - No Fakes Wanted - Go to Some Other Religion

Married men who call yourselves Christians: are you really? If you had to come down into a category of faith, where do you land? Do you sit under a blanket of Christianity because it is how you were raised? If you are living under a blanket of Christianity - do you walk the talk? Do you even know what the 'talk' or 'walk' is? Or are you just another one of those people who call themselves 'Christian' then proceed to live the way you want?

And do you wonder why you're not content? Why your family seems so distant? But why aren't you yourself happy? Answer the following questions and see how you rate:

1. Do you try your best to love the triune God (God + Jesus + Holy Spirit) more than you love your wife?

2. Do you try to hold your relationship with your wife - as flawed as she is - above all other relationships in your life EXCEPT for your relationship with God?

3. Would you die for your wife, really die for her, even if she is 'wrong'?

4. Do you try to ignore your phone if you are alone with your wife?

5. Do you try to respect ALL your wife's wishes?

6. Do you try to encourage your wife to focus on Jesus, God, or praying, in your advice-giving?

7. Do you try to lead your family in prayer (not just at the dinner table)?

8. If you only have time to either A watch a football game, or B rake leaves with your 4 year old, do you choose the rake knowing that it's a father moment?

9. Do you intentionally put aside time consistently to spend with just God?

10. Do you intentionally put aside time consistently to spend just with your wife?

If you answered ANY of these questions with the word "no" - you are not a Christian. Get out and go find another religion to call yourself cause you are only a frustrating joke for the real men who actually are intentional Christ followers.

LISTEN UP: As a Christian husband your priorities are: God, Wife, You, Kids, then every relationship follows these. That means, if you answer your phone while your wife is talking - your priorities are out of whack. If you are not actively seeking a relationship with God and also encouraging your wife and kids towards Christ, you're not really a Christian. (If you happen to be a man who lives in a family where your wife and kids are actually faithful believers who actually pursue a relationship with Christ, guess what? You ARE doing something right. It is YOUR job to lead your wife and kids to Christ - good work.)

If you are cultivating relationships that are not Christ-honoring, wife-honoring, kid-honoring, and self-respectful, you are not really a Christian. You are - a FAKE.

If you answered any of these questions, "yes", you are indeed a Christian leading your family as a reflection of the church (which is what you are called to do). Well done and THANK YOU. This world needs more men like you!

Apply Jesus. It Works.

The other day my son's class had a movie party. His best friend brought M&M's and passed out a bag to each student right before the movie started....well, he passed them out to everyone EXCEPT my son. So when he asked for his bag (which no one else had to do) his friend said, "I already gave you one." With all the other kids watching my son insisted that he didn't get one, but the friend - even though he had one extra bag - would not give it to my son. To make matters worse, no other kids in the class offered or shared their candies. My son was crushed and broke down in tears later in the car.

It wasn't so much the candy. It was that a best friend treated him so badly in front of everyone, and that no one came to his side. That really hurt. And kids are way more sensitive than we give them credit for. We adults always think that kids forget about tough situations quickly, but this event, I could tell, was leaving an indelible mark on my kid.

He immediately began scheming ways to 'get back' at his friend, thinking of all kinds of mean things he could do the next day so that his friend could go through the same humiliation.

With my stomach in knots that my kid was mistreated, and with all my will to do otherwise, I reminded him that we as Christians need to do what Jesus prescribes for such mean people. Even though it's harder than retaliation and doesn't hold the same allure, to do something nice for the person who persecutes us is what Jesus recommends we do. And we need to give it a try because Jesus knows our hearts more than we do...and if my son were to do something nice for the mean best friend, he would feel better inside than if he did something mean to retaliate. I told him that if he just got revenge that he would feel really good for a short time, but that he would damage the friendship for a long time, and that would make him feel worse in the long run. I urged him to rise above what happened knowing that friendships are worth more than this one event, and I urged him to do something nice for his friend the very next day. However, I also told him that whatever he did, I would support his decision, but that I knew he would do the right thing.

The next day my son brought candy canes to the class party - one for each student. He passed out one candy cane to every student saving the last for the mean best friend. After every one got a candy cane my son walked to his friend's desk, boldly held out the sour punch candy cane and said, "this is for you."

Later that night I told him how proud I was that he chose Jesus' teaching over his own desire for revenge. He said, "you know, my stomach actually feels better than if I didn't give him a candy cane."

Put a Face on The Homeless

My oldest brother is homeless. Here's his email from yesterday:

"Please note my new email address in your list.

I will be sleeping on the steps of St. Joseph's Cathedral Basilica for the rest of the month. I have checked out a Catholic Study Bible from the library for my leisure time. I have 2 blankets. I will be fine.

Happy Holidays,"

Are Your Church Leaders Followers?

Sometimes the most ardent followers of Christ - true believers- become church leaders. And sometimes those followers of Christ, in their position of church leaders, somehow become evaluators ...of others....judges. Why? Has a leader in your local church become an evaluator?

MARRIED CHRISTIANS ONLY

Married Christians Only.

First things first: The church is Christ's bride. Meaning, we are, as a people, married to Christ, and He is our head, and we are His body. Whether we are following Christ in the way he wants us to follow, whether we are supporting each other and therefore supporting the direction of the Head, whether we are collectively in good spiritual shape or not...we are Christ's bride. The only question is this: are we a good wife, bad wife, supportive wife, bitchy wife, condescending wife, bossy wife, loving wife, or what KIND of wife are we? Looking around America in the local Christian church, I would say we the people are a disinterested, whining, complaining, lazy, high-maintenance, but well-intentioned wife.

The big question of the day (in church) is: How do we change/reform/transform the heart of the church to be a better body to this wonderful Head? Basically, that is the question. Right?

May I propose we look at our individual marriages as a starting point? For, how can we individually support the church marriage to Christ if our own earthly marriages are not in line with the same priorities laid out for the heavenly, collective marriage to Christ?

The husband is the head. He just is. His job as the head is to be the spiritual leader. His role is to love God/Christ/Spirit first, then his wife, then his children. If these three things are not prioritized as such - your personal church is out of whack, and you are contributing to the larger church being out of whack - dysfunctional. For example if you give up time with your wife in prayer so that you can work on a hobby, computer, watch the TV, etc. , your marriage will contain discontent. The husband's job in relation to his wife is to lead her to Christ. In relation to his children, his job is to lead them to Christ and mentor them spiritually. If these two actions take a minor role in your household, your personal church is out of whack and you are contributing to Christ's body being out of whack.

The wife is the body of the marriage. Yes, she is submissive BUT submissive in this specific transactional way: when the husband is leading her to Christ, she is to submit in the action of being lead to Christ. And likewise, if the husband is partaking in an action that is NOT leading his wife to Christ, the wife's job is to re-orient the husband to Christ. When these two things are happening progressively and in tandem, the marriage is partaking in honoring the way in which Christ designed His church. This complicated yet beautiful relationship is all spelled out in Ephesians. And you can read about it in This Momentary Marriage, By John Piper.

So, husbands, if you believe that bossing your wife around is your right because she is 'supposed to-be-submissive-because-the-Bible-says-so' you are wrong...not only are you wrong, but you are idolizing yourself over your wife - -which takes the marriage out of whack and makes it dysfunctional. Husbands: only when you are leading your wife to Christ is she called to submit - that means, leading in prayer, initiating the process of going to worship, worshiping, giving thanks to God, praising His blessings in your life. When you step up spiritually, guess what? Your wife will support you, submit, back off, be encouraging, be loving...be all those things you complain you don't have. I bet there are NO divorce petitions that complain the wife was too helpful while being lead to Christ, you know? And when you don't understand the importance of going to worship, you know, when you feel like you are separate from the church, like you can take it or leave it - - guess what? You are still the church. The mentality of thinking that the church is irrelevant is like an eye saying the hand is irrelevant - - or better yet, that sentimentality is the rebellious kid who refuses family - YOU ARE STILL A PART OF IT. The only question is are you good at your job/role or bad?

And wives, are you running around church all the time, giving all your time to ministry and wondering why your husband doesn't 'catch up' with you spiritually? Are you wondering why he's not 'saved'? Trust me, if you put anything or anyone or any ministry or any worship, or any relationship in a higher priority than your personal mission of being a help to your husband, then, guess what? Your marriage is out of whack according to your calling. Your number 1 priority is the spiritual well-being of your husband and your job is to encourage and help him to get and remain oriented on Christ. It just is. So any time you find yourself wondering why he doesn't go to church with you, or why he doesn't pray with you, ask yourself: when is the last time you tried to help him? Your church is your marriage. Do not mistake going to a building called church with your real and personal church. Get your marriage in order, Ephesians order. That's the first church of Christ. I am the most guilty of putting my desire to worship before my calling to be a help to my husband. That's idolatry.

And last of all, Pastors. What's your marriage like? Do you actively, intentionally, practice leading your wife to Christ? Do you put the relationship with her above all others? Above your relationship with all your ministries, the church board, the deacons? Are you leading your children in prayer? Do you miss evenings at home because you are out doing hospital visits? Do you invite all kinds of people to your home all the time? All these things are good, don't get me wrong, but...if they take precedent over your wife - you are running a dysfunctional marriage and therefore a dysfunctional church. Look around you. Chances are your church attracts families or people who have the same dysfunction as you in your marriage. All this stuff ties together. So many pastors are who are NOT ready to pastor a church find themselves in charge of a congregation, then years later wonder why their leaders are so prideful, etc. Or wonder why there is so much divorce in the congregation, or wonder why they don't appear to function in a caring way as the body of Christ. Pastors, when you are first starting out - please get your marriage right before taking on a congregation.

Awesome is Good!

Why do some of us Christians protect the word, "awesome" so much? I hear pastors making a big deal out of the fact that they don't use 'awesome' because, they say, "only Jesus is AWESOME". Then, of course there was that church lady, D.K., who chased me around the office one day Bible in hand and finger in Bible, telling me I was abusing the name of the Father by saying something was awesome.

Anyway because it's in the Bible - third party- that God is awesome and that Jesus is awesome we Christian's should respect that, and only use the term when referring to God or Jesus...not things of this earth. And actually, I kind of dig this kind of reverent respect, and try to honor it. And weirdly enough, I respect the part of D.K. that felt the need to stand up for God in a perceived threat situation.

But what about the word 'good'? I notice Christians who protect the word 'awesome' have no problem using the word 'good' when Jesus himself flat out says, "Why do you call me good? Only the Father in heaven is good."

So, what's up? We use good ALL the time. No worries. Isn't this kind of inconsistent practice?

Oh well, yes, I AM talking about us Christians, after all.

xxoo