I spent the better part of the afternoon hanging out with some of my friends at one of our friends dad’s funeral. It was a really interesting time. These are the guys that I get to play cards with every other Saturday night. These are the guys I share cold beers with every other Saturday night. These are the guys that I scream at during football, basketball, baseball, and hockey games. And they scream back at me. Sometimes there is cussing involved. But it’s all in love. These are the guys that I sit in a smoke filled room until the wee hours of the morning talking about how great this movie was and how it was so much better than that movie. These are the guys that I love on a level I can’t explain. So here’s the deal. They know me. They know my heart for the Lord. And I know theirs. It’s safe to say that some of us don’t see eye to eye. But, it’s also safe to say they have never judged me, and I have never judged them. And today I got to see these guys open up their hearts to a brother who was hurting more than he has ever hurt before. I got to see these guys at the most vulnerable point. I saw them cry and they saw me cry. We all were hurting with our brother. I believe ever one us wished we had the answer or the cure for the emptiness that losing your dad brings. So that we could share it with Frye. But we don’t. All we could do is cry with him. Lock arms and hurt with him. And we did. I’ll never forget that moment. I’ve been building a relationship with the guys for nine years now. And this was the first time I have ever been through anything of this magnitude with these guys. Anyways, Frye’s father gave his life to the Lord two years ago. He was a chemist and had a very scientific mind. The pastor told a story about how Frye’s dad first started coming to church, and told the pastor that he needed proof. He needed scientific evidence that Jesus existed, died, and raised from the dead before he would buy into this story. So he researched, and researched, and researched. Until not long ago he finally told the pastor,”to many people witnessed this, for it not to happen”. He became a believer. Frye’s father slipped into a comma about a week ago. The doctors said he would not wake up. But on Sunday, he did. His pastor was by his side and said that Mr. Frye opened his eyes. He then looked at the pastor, threw his legs onto the floor, and stood eye to eye to him. He told him to make sure his family knows that Jesus was real and he grabbed the pastors hand and prayed for him. He knew the mission this pastor has in front of him and in his dying minutes prayed for the pastor to have the strength to carry on the gospel to his kids. Unreal.
I hugged Frye today and he whispered in my ear that he wanted to know this Jesus. I assured him that he already does and we will start this long road together. The reconciliation of all things for his glory. That sentence puzzles me to this day and always will. Because the mysterious ways of God never cease to amaze me.
What a short and great conversation I had with Grace. Rayn and Grace are both getting to the age where they are beginning to ask very interesting questions about God. The authenticity of them is remarkable. It’s as if God is asking me question through their questions. Does God see through our eyes? I think he does. But he sees through our hearts as well. He sees when we physically refuse to help someone in need, but he also sees the prejudice in our hearts that hide behind the decision. He sees when we turn away from our “lost” friends and neighbors to hang out with our “saved” friends and neighbors, but he also sees the judgement that lies in our hearts when we make those decisions.
Sometimes I think we walk around with our eyes closed, hoping not to see what it is God wants us to see. We think we have this get out of doing good works card if we walk around in a daze only concerned about what we want to see and do. Sometimes, secretly, we close our eyes as hard as we can and hope that a situation we should be in the middle of goes away. But it doesn’t does it?
Programming in church can be a good thing, I think. But it can also, more times than not, be a damaging thing.
Acts 2 talks about a new kind of Church. God’s Church. A Church of power, prayer, meeting, movement, and momentum. And a lot of times churches claim to be “Acts 2″ type churches. But I have to wonder if they really ever read Acts 2 at all. An Acts 2 Church gives God the freedom to move about how ever he sees fit through his spirit. It allows for his spirit to power what is happening. So here’s a question. How can God have any room to move, if ever single second is planned out on a piece of paper? I am all about some planning and organization. But, if you cannot allow the spirit of God to continue moving in people because you have to cut to a stupid video setting up the “message”, then that seems a bit unauthentic to me. God doesn’t need a script to work. He need s servants open to the Holy Spirit who are not afraid to represent him one hundred percent. Unscripted, ready to go where ever he is headed.
So tonight I saw God unleashed. I saw people standing in front of the Church pouring their hearts out unscripted. I saw redemption happen in front of a whole church. I didn’t have to “get connected to a small group” to witness it. It happened in corporate worship. People exposing their lives and showing what God had done in their lives which in turn affected others to pour out their hearts. I saw people’s shells sliding off and hearts becoming soft as they knew they were not alone and that there was a God and a group of people ready at that moment to embrace them and love them for who they were and to start wading through the mess they had made that was their life. None of it was scripted. Thank God. I have NEVER seen God work in a script. But I have seen him unscripted, unleashed, and in total control. No box for the God of the universe please……..
“Something is wrong when our lives make sense to unbelievers.”
This sentence has been haunting me for two days now. Francis Chan said it. And I have been thinking, meditating, and praying on it sense I read it. It has blown me away. Revolutions never make sense to those against them. To those who want no part of them. Jesus was a radical. An extreme radical. The things he did made absolutely no sense to the majority of people that were around him. So when you are going all out for God and your dreams and visions are so radical that someone looks you in the eyes and says your dreams make no sense, maybe we should say thank you.
I do not want to be a lukewarm christian. I have no desire to be one. There’s a verse in the Bible that says Jesus will spit me out of his mouth if am. I don’t think that is a good thing. I saw a lot of kids confess in front of their peers that they were feeling a bit lukewarm at church tonight. They have me praying tonight. Praying that I somehow find a way daily to be on fire for the restoration of the kingdom. For no one who meets me even has to question what it is that drives me. What it is that is leading me, teaching me, revealing things to me. That I can be the servant, follower, leader, and teacher God wants me to be. That I have the strength, courage, resources, teammates, desire, and ambition to change my community. Praying that I can love my enemies as much as I love my children and wife. Praying that I fall deeply in love with my savior like I never have before. Praying that I am not lukewarm.
It’s always interesting when you begin a new chapter of life. No matter what it is. A new relationship, a new job, a new…who knows what. You fill in the blank. And that’s where I am. Looking backwards wondering what happened, but looking forward with eyes wide open. Watching prayers get answered and coming up with brand new questions for my creator. It’s a new day. And a good one. All I can say is that I am very excited.
Ok, maybe I am a little behind. But my buddy Marty turned me on to this documentary and this guys music. Holy Cow. This is mind blowing. I have included the first ten minutes of the documentary below, but the whole thing can be watched on youtube and I highly recommend you do. This guy is a lyrical genus and he is completely off of his rocker which makes him that much greater to me. He makes Brian Wilson look like a nice little school boy. This guy is brilliant. Unreal. I think I have found who bright eyes has been completely ripping off for years. Be sure to watch this and go download his albums. They are unreal. Any guy who has been on acid trips with Gibby Haynes has got to have a story or two. Oh, and he loves the Beatles.
