Cellulitis–Grrrrrr!
I haven’t been around much because I’ve been fighting a stubborn case of cellulitis. An emergency trip to the ER exactly one week ago was no fun but it could have been worse. Sleep is a fantasy for me. God give me strength.
Words Worth Listening To: Featured Sermons
There are some very good series out there worth listening to and meditating on.
1. Cross Point and Pastor Pete Wilson just kicked off a great series “Pursuit”, based on the book of Proverbs. Awesome insight. (HERE )
2. Substance Church and Pastor Pete Haas (one of my fave new poddies to listen to) has a powerful series on fasting and praying called “Awakening”. (HERE)
3. National Community Church and Pastor Mark Batterson are on the third installment of their series “Primal”. Check it out. (HERE)
Something About Joseph, Pt. 4
Ouch
Principle #4: There is no such thing as circumstance-driven obedience.
Joesph could have done like countless folks did during the Bubonic Plague during the Middle Ages by medicating his horrific circumstances with licentiousness and reckless abandon. Joseph’s God-shaped character kept his head above the crashing waves of a storm created by the colliding winds of other people’s unresolved issues.
How do you respond when life lands a dirty punch on you?
Martin and the High Cost of Being a Prophet
One of my students asked me recently why Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. I told him simply that prophets of God are without honor in their own back yards and speak the will of God in a way that the hard-hearted. If prophets are murdered verbally through slander, they are murdered in the literal sense.
Martin experienced both.
Yet, he forged on, provoking through Scripture and models of peaceful and philosophical discourse those who would hinder our right to be treated like our white brothers and citizens. People ask every year, “Is his dream still alive?”
I say that the dream was never his to begin with but God’s. He simply chose MLK Jr. to be the voice for the victory He wanted to proclaim to America. God had enough with Jim Crow, so He sent Martin.
The March on Washington speech:
Haiti, Suffering, and the Sovereignty of God
Whenever a catastrophic tragedy occurs anywhere in the world, I can always count on two things: first, the body of Christ knows how to pray and mobilize for the good of the suffering in need and second, Pat Robertson will say something stupid that the media will magnify.
I won’t do their dirty work.
Many a book and dissertation have been written about the mystery of God’s sovereignty and how one explains suffering fits into the theological assertion that God is good and just. But in times like this, arguments over the issue won’t really address the immediate needs of the Haitian people.
What they need is us helping, serving, rescuing, comforting, and loving them. Theological grandstanding is a poor stand-in for the incarnational presence of the Lord Jesus Christ through His Church.
The Undisclosure Statement
My Undisclosure Statement
This blog is a personal blog written and edited by regenerate x or the person typing this now. Everything on this blog is free and I generate no income from this blog as this would create a great deal more paper work for me and create an even deeper dent in my purse.
Although I provide links to other ministries and sites, I receive no money from them as they could not afford me because my fees are too high for most clergy to pay. The ideas expressed here are solely my own unless they drip with such wisdom that they would have to belong to the G-O-D I would not be allowed to discuss in certain government sectors.
This blog has no money, no adverts, no bling and no frills. Yep, that sums it up.
“Port-Au-Prince is flattened.”
Such is a the heartrending quote from devastated Haiti in the wake of a catastrophic earthquake. Pray not only for the country but also for churches who were doing missions work before the tragedy. Lord, have mercy.
Jesus Matters: Malaysia
Pray for Christians in Malaysia as they continue to endure persecution and bombings in the wake of a ruling allowing them to use “Allah”, the Arabic word for “God” in literature that promotes Jesus and His gospel.
Pray for Christians to remain strong in their faith but also for Jesus to reveal Himself to Muslims.
Something About Joseph, Pt. 3
Principle #3: You must be prepared for the vision God has prepared for you.
God laid some very heavy insight on Joseph, so heavy that his family was ready to kill him. Joseph endured and intense and sometimes painful preparation process before God’s vision for him actually manifested. First, he was betrayed by his own brothers and sold into slavery (Genesis 37:12-36), wrongfully accused of rape (Genesis 39:6-23), and forgotten by people who promised to remember his situation (Genesis 40:20-23). God did not inspire people to sin against Joseph but He used those experiences to sharpen Joseph.
Negro, Black, or African-American?
What I find interesting about this whole pathetic controversy is that the some of the same people who will be upset over the term “Negro” are some of the same Black folks who say nothing when rappers drop “n*gger” like it’s nothing and think that it is cool.
Hello?
Comparing Negro and the other word is beyond ridiculous. If we as a people are going to get upset over issues related to how we are perceived, then get upset over rappers verbally abusing women and calling us horrific things that would make a street corner hustler blush.
Be mad about that.
Something About Joseph, Pt. 2
Principle #2: God’s vision for your life will not always please others.
Poor Joseph. All that vision and all that hateraid from his family. The fact is that not everyone, even some of your closest family and friends, will be happy with what God is doing in your life. That can be a hard pill to swallow unless we wash it down with a little biblical truth: Jesus is Lord, not your family or friends. The value of your God-given dream is determined by the God who gave it, not the people around you who don’t “get” it. Let’s be honest: 99% 100% of the time the dreamer doesn’t completely understand God’s dream for him or her either. Rest in God’s faithfulness.
Something About…Joseph?
Joseph, favored son of Jacob, has some important lessons to teach us about how God uses the stuff in and around us to make us into Christ-centered leaders.
Principle #1: Joseph received a vision from God before he demonstrated the character of God. Joseph was young, immature and a tad full of himself. Truth is, God’s intended purposes outstrip our current maturity quotient. God often shows us the end from the beginning and then He uses our circumstances to prepare us for His purpose for us.
Read: Genesis 37
Is Sunday Morning All That Important?
Before you shoot me, I’m simply concerned that too many churches are using Sunday mornings as the centerpiece for outreach. And I’m not arguing that we should shut down Sunday morning worship gatherings, for crying out loud.
What I am arguing for, however, is a radical rewiring of discipleship that challenges saints, the called out ones, to live out their faith in their respective spheres of influence (job, neighborhoods, family, school–you get the picture). I understand that culture and time are the skins that contextualize the gospel as we know it.
But when the heart and ethos of intention when it comes to how we make disciples is as compromised as it is in America, we need to rethink how we live out our faith in light of God’s Word and Jesus’ incarnational approach.
What do you think? Am I crazy?
One Thing: The Word of God
I almost changed the title of this post to “Two Things” because I have two particular spiritual goals for 2010 that I a committing to fulfill. But my main goal feeds into the second one so, problem sovled!
The one thing I am committing to for 2010 is to completely saturate my heart, spirit, mind, and witness with the Word of God. I struggle reading plans and my lack of discipline is the main red flag, not the plan. My “one thing” focus will also help me with my “second thing”: improving my own spiritual health. I am convinced that spiritual health (integrity, godliness, whatever you wanna call it) is not as high a priority on most leaders lists as it should be.
That frightens me.
I don’t want to become another sad statistic. And yes, women in leadership sin and can entangle themselves in moral/spiritual collapse that destroys lives and ministries.
Right now, I’m reading through the Pastoral Epistles, my favorite Pauline books outside of Romans. I am convicted by the Holy Spirit just about every time I read them and know that God will use them to both challenge and strengthen me.
Five Moments from 2009
There are five moments from 2009 that, for better or worse, left an indelible print on me.
* The Rise of Obama. The United States elected its first African-American as President. I cried because as a Black woman, I never imagined this would happen in my life time. Even though I disagree with many of his administration’s policies and his shameless pandering to every point of view to please everyone, I could at least celebrate the historical weight of the moment.
* The Death of Michael Jackson. Listen, there are very few things I loved as a child that I still love as an adult now. But Michael Jackson was never really on that list. I loved him at the height of Michaelmania and at the very bottom during the horrific child molestation allegations. Maybe now, they will leave you alone Michael.
* Economic Woes. I can’t remember the economy being this bad since the early eighties when I was a prepubescent girl. Churches grappled with how to be good stewards of what they actually had while encouraging the flock to remember that God alone was their Source.
* Swine Flu. Shortages of vaccinations plus the hysterical reporting about the ravages of the outbreak kept people on the edge.
* The Gay Debate Rages in Denominations. The Evangelical Lutheran Church decided to ordain gay and lesbians persons to ministry. Add this to the implosion of the Episcopalians over the same issue and you see why not only will this issue not go away but will continue to eat away at other denominations.
Praying for Matt Chandler
Continue to keep Pastor Matt and his family lifted up before God as He walks with them. Thanks to Shaun King for posting the link for updates on Pastor Matt’s health. Here is the latest as far as I can tell: update.
Hard Lessons Learned from 2009: Part 2
Lesson learned from 2009 #2: Neither enslave people nor allow yourself to be enslaved to other people’s expectations. You serve one God and He will not allow your expectations or others of you to become the thing that drives you. That’s idolatry. Besides, I hate unnecessary frustrations and anguish over issues I have no control over.
The Mandate of the Church
Luke 4:18-19
Jesus’ prophetic proclamation of His purpose was not meant strictly for His time. As His ambassadors, we must follow Him, doing only what He hear from the Spirit of the Lord. We can glean some of the divine purposes that the Lord Jesus Christ has for His Church.
- We the Church must rely on the power and leading of the Holy Spirit.
- We the Church must understand that we have been anointed and appointed for a God-ordained task
- We must preach the gospel faithfully
- We must recognize the targets of God’s grace:
1. The poor
2. The brokenhearted
3. The bound
4. The oppressed
E. We must recognize our responsibilities:
1. To preach the Word
2. To bring healing
3. To bring liberation
4. To be agents of recovery and restoration
5. To bring a message of divine favor
Hard Lessons Learned from 2009: Part 1
The year 2009 has probably been the third worst year of my 37-year life. Still, I believe that lessons learned can redeem the time and help others along the way as we all struggle on the journey of life.
Hard Lesson #1: Answered prayer can disguise itself as grave disappointment.
I have questioned God about the necessity of praying but I think in my own way, I equated making requests with getting what I wanted. Not easy to admit but….juss sayin’. This year represented the answer to a major prayer that had been on my heart for over 8 years. Interceding for anyone’s salvation is like being a midwife. But what happens when the “baby” dies days after he or she is delivered?
I felt hoodwinked by the Almighty as questions and doubt about God’s sensibility and goodness cut away at my faith.
But…
over time, God continued to show His wisdom and faithfulness to keep His word. Were my prayers and their answers all about seeing and experiencing the results and chewing the cud about the journey or what is about the one lost sheep being found?
I chose the latter and that has helped me rest in God’s character after such a tumultuous experience.
“Who’s Afraid of the Baby Jesus?”
A close friend of mine made a razor-sharp assessment of the cultural celebration of Christmas as well as the chronic dismissal of its redemptive implications:
“If you’re not Jewish, you’re not Muslim, and you’re not an atheist and you listen to Christmas music and you open presents on Christmas morning, [then] you have no excuse not to get your a** to church Christmas Eve.”
Sometimes I think culture overindulgences on the “peace on earth” that the Baby Jesus represents to them while at the same time glossing over why there is no peace on earth to begin with. Let’s face it, unregenerate culture: for all your toxic bravado and reveling in the ridiculous and bawdy, for all your pinning yourself and all that you worship against the door to hold back the hope you need the most, and for all your tough neo-atheistic talk reducing the Savior to a mass produced toy in a Happy Meal box, you are afraid of a Baby from Bethlehem.
Blizzards and Pleasing God
My church cancelled worship service this morning due to the blizzard. I’m buried under about 24 inches of snow. Long Island natives tell me that haven’t seen this much snow since they were kids!
Some pastors, however, chose to have service in order to “honor God.”
Since when is asking people to travel in dangerous weather conditions “honoring” God? Don’t get me wrong: I hate lame excuses people give me for skipping out on corporate worship. Still, there are times when such experiences are not possible. We have a long way to go as the Church if we use blizzards as barometers to determine how much someone loves God. Juss sayin…
Missing Monk
Now that my students are on vacation, I’m getting a kick out of watching old “Monk” episodes I missed. Boy, do I miss him already.
Networking for Female Church Planters
It’s about time. I appreciated being invited to a semi-private Facebook group who is filling the void in cyberspace that we still struggle with in live space.
While church planting networks are great, 99% of the time, the planters are male and hence their gender-specific needs are addressed. Women are only mentioned in context of who they are married to. So it’s nice to hear from women and to listen to their wisdom of what it means to follow Jesus and preach the Word while still maintaining their most important ministry: their families.
Tiger’s Moment of Truth & Culture’s Lame Response
A fine mess. That’s the only way I can describe it. But instead of piling on to what is shaping up to be a laundry list of adulterous affairs on the part of the world’s greatest golfer, I focus instead on how the sports media has responded.
I cannot tell you how many times I have heard sports reporters express more concern about seeing Tiger miss games over the scandal that has erupted than they do about seeing a man and his family ruined.
Yet, if the alleged adulterer in question were a minister or vocal/visible Christian, they would call for “accountability” of the guilty in the name of integrity. Hmmmm…..
Advent: The Scandal of Promise
Advent Reading: Matthew 1:18-25
One of the many lessons that one can glean from the remarkable opening of the Greatest Story ever told is this: God-ordained change, some promise of God, is often encased in scandal and seeming contradiction.
The scandal of Jesus’ incarnation was and is a clash of common and uncommon, the pedestrian and the providential, known knowns and inviting unknown. Somewhere in the mish-mesh of the “hows” and “whys” of Advent is the wondrous reality that Jesus Christ, God the Son, arrived, delivered from the womb to deliver us from the penalty, pain, and power of sin.
Selah.
“Mary Did You Know”
Dawkins and the Militant Atheism Crew
My favorite atheist Richard Dawkins is at it again. In an interview with CNN, Dawkins makes his case for militant atheism rooted in evolution as taught by the apostle of evolution himself Charles Darwin. Having already listened to some excerpts of his latest book, Dawkins’ outrageous (and near laughable) assertions about the absolute truth of evolution. Yet, people like Dawkins make it easier for me to rely on Scripture as God’s revealed word as their posture reflects the scoffers who come, “scoffing and following their own evil desires” (2 Peter 3:3). What do you think? How are thinking Christians (those who actually know the Word and know opponents arguments as well as the opponents know their own) to respond to Dawkins’ posture?
The Disaster That Is Pop Culture
Heard about last night’s American Music Awards. A good friend of mine showed me a few Youtube clips and my disdain for gimmicks and machinery masquerading as good pop music continues. The lowlights:
3. Jermaine Jackson barely mentioning the brother (who was the only reason he was invited in the first place). Tacky, tasteless, and tired. This kind of blatant grandstanding on a sibling’s grave defies words.
2. Lady Gaga and the Flaming Piano. Listen, I’m all for edginess but like “relevant” theology in the church, folks can overdo it a bit. I miss the days when artists were known for their talents and could stand tall even after you turned off all the pyrotechnics and all the sound equipment they hid behind in the studio. Why this poor girl is setting her piano on fire made about as much sense as Bonnie Tyler’s 1983 headscratching video “Total Eclipse of the Heart” (please watch this hot mess…I have yet to grasp ridiculousness of it all).
1. Adam Lambert’s Coming Out…and Out and Out. Perversion with no melody accompanied by an overrated screaming voice to boot, Lambert simulating a certain sex act is exactly why I’ve reverted back to the playlists of my childhood when the last bastions of melody and good messages were still around (although on its last leg). I’ll take the last leg. Nasty nonsense wrapped in pleather. No thank you.
New Music
Check out the latest offering, Hello Hurricane, from Switchfoot. “Bullet Soul” is my personal favorite. One of the reasons I’ve always appreciated Switchfoot is that they are not “cheesy” Christian music with lame, lifeless lyrics. They are excellent musicians and Jon Foreman is an incredible songwriter.
Leadership Lessons from American History
My American history students asked me how in the world the British, who greatly outnumbered the Patriots, could have lost the American Revolution.
The reason was quite simple: the Patriots knew how to adapt their fighting strategy. When something did not work, they made necessary changes, recalibrated and moved ahead.
The British, however, were married to their style of fighting that required they march in a straight line, shoulder to shoulder. While their discipline and dedication were unquestioned, their marriage to tradition and inflexibility proved fatal.
Lesson: Sometimes, you have to change the way you fight to win the war you’re in.
God encourages a Christ-centered discipline but He is certainly not married to the methods we idolize in the pews and frontlines of the faith. Just because one group plants a church “this way” doesn’t mean I have to plant a church that way on this side of the kingdom of God.
Are you married to tradition? There are some spiritual battles we will find ourselves in that nothing outside of God’s Word and Spirit will be prepared for.
What change does the Holy Spirit want you to make in your daily life in order to overcome the enemy?
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