The Deeper Meaning

In one of the books I have been reading (The Crux of the Matter), there was a great quote about communion.

The New Testament connects the Lord's Supper to many different things- sacrifice, covenant meal, lifeblood, fellowship meal, marriage feast, thanksgiving, church unity, manna, the messianic celebration of heaven, and more. If we open up all of its Old Testament connections, we get a picture bursting with meaning. Yet some churches rarely hear the Lord's supper linked with anything other than...that of memorial.

This statement couples perfectly with the metaphor of the Bible as a telescope-(you can know everything there is about the telescope[lens sizes, focal points etc.], but if you don't use it to search the galaxies you have missed the whole point. In the same way if you can quote the Bible forwards and backwards but have never used it in a way that helped you search out the mysteries of God and to know Him better, you too have missed the point.)

The Bible is to be treated with far greater respect than we typically give it. It is alive and active and yet we settle for knowing its vital stats instead of having an intimate relationship with God. The way we myopically treat communion is a prime example. We were commanded to do it in remembrance and so that is what we do. We have met the status quo and there is no need to dive deeper.

I have heard of Christian married couples who treat sex in this manner. We were commanded to be fruitful and multiply and so we do it. Meanwhile there is an atheist who wrote a book called The Passionate Marriage who says there is a huge well of intimacy that is there for the taking for those who will explore their spouse through the regular activity of sexual fulfillment.

When it comes to God, and the religious activities associated with Him, where do you stand (or lie as the case may be)?

Restoration: What is worth restoring?

This is a question that has been on my mind for quite some time now, though I have not been able to verbalize it. I see the question in many of the ministers that I interact with, in many of the blogs I read, and I see it in the church. I think the vast majority agree that there are some very important ideals represented in the 1st century church that need to be emulated. However, there are some very different ideas about what needs to be preserved and how.

I am in the process of reading three books: The Crux of the Matter (an essential read for any restoration Christian trying to make sense of today's Church of Christ), Searching for God Knows What (A great follow up to Blue Like Jazz that challenges readers to look through the surface into the heart of God), and The Simple Church (a call to a simple discipleship model in the Church that gets everyone on the same page with "One Spirit and One Purpose").

These are three very different books with very unique authors. But as I have been reading them, they all seem to shout that there is a gravitational center to the Bible and the church must share it. One book calls it the core and the crux, another calls it the heart, another calls it the focus. Elsewhere I have heard it called target theology.

Call it what you want, but it is clear that there is a central theme that all else must revolve around. We must be a church of concentric circles. All of our ideals, practices, stances, and ministries must share the same gravitational center, or else our efforts become jumbled and unclear. If you happen to near a body of water while it is raining, through a small rock in and see how long you can keep your eyes on the point of entry. It gets lost quickly due to the hundreds of other ripples that are focused on where each drop of rain struck the water. But if you throw a small rock into a pond on a calm day, you can see clearly where the source of the ripples is long after the rock is thrown; even though the ripples can reach over the entire pond, the center is still discernable.

We must first restore the core of the bible, before we can ever attempt to restore biblical church.

That center is clearly LOVE.

God IS LOVE

God LOVEs mankind

We LOVE God in return

We LOVE those who God LOVES

From Genesis to Revelation the theme is clearly seen.

First and foremost, let us restore dynamic, revolutionary LOVE.

If we get that right, I think our churches need not fear their candle being snuffed out, and we as it's members need not fear the day we are laid bare before God in judgement.

The Huggable God

One of the things that fascinates me about our God, is that he came down to our level so that we could have a relationship with Him.

In youth ministry I get to learn a lot about a student when they are given some responsibility. There are those who, when given responisbility (such as Junior Counselor at our youth camp), they separate themselves from the campers to as if to emphasize their superiority. I would have to admit that my first experience as a Junior Counselor was in this mold. Then there are the others, those who are more secure in their leadership. These take the responsibility as a personal obligation to befriend every camper, especially those who aren't treated well by the others.

The first example is a great parallel to the idols and foreign gods found throughout history. They demand obedience without relationship. Disobedience is punished most severely without pity or restraint.

The second example reflects the heart of God, who, after consistent disobedience and rebellion for thousands of years, made himself human so we could wrap our arms around Him. What a feeling that must have been! Can you imagine what it must have felt like to hug the creator of the universe. To feel pure love in all it's potency beating in the chest pressed against your own.

Completely safe.

Completely secure.

Completely known.

Completely loved.


COMPLETE

The Call

I have always been apprehensive when asked about my "call" to ministry. Did I hear a voice from God charging me with the task of full time ministry? No. Was I reading the Bible and with sudden inspiration it hit me that I will be a youth minister? No.

But, I have received many other calls into ministry.

The most recent was a call from the father of a Sophomore in my youth group. Not just any girl, the one who brings joy to everyone she's around, young or old. The only one in the youth group who wants nothing better that to have sleep overs with Sarah and I. The one who teared up at the mere mention of us moving away some day. Anyone who has visited with us will know the one.

This call informed me that a recent biopsy revealed the possibility that she might have lymphoma. It is a call that sent me into immediate tears...and into immediate action. Sarah and I began praying our hearts out for her. We made ourselves as available as possible to her and her family. Those are calls into ministry that I receive. Hearts calling out for God's love. Love that God allows me to dispense in His name.

Pray that my phone is never busy or run down and miss those calls.

P.S.- After blood work, they have ruled out cancer, but there is still a scary possibility out there. Please pray for her.

Filthy Rags

Our best efforts at righteousness, our most charitable donations, our most degrading service, our most selfless sacrifices, our greatest sermons (and writings for that matter), are nothing but bloody menstrual rags in the sight of our Awesome and Holy God. Sound harsh? Take a look at Isaiah 64:6. “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” At first glance this seems as though it would fit in well with Paul’s compilation of OT assertions about mankind’s irreparable sinfulness. (“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one. Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips. Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:10-18)) However, if you look closely, you will notice that Paul’s compilation denounces the wrongdoings of evil men, whereas this statement in Isaiah dethrones the righteous acts of men that we are quick to honor. How can he bring such an indictment against our righteous acts? Simple. The theory of relativity was around long before Einstein. The prophets, as they spoke the words of God, were given a clear view of the true nature of things. Things that appear tragic and loathsome from the human standpoint are actually good and pleasing in the sight of God, whereas the things that appear great and good from the human standpoint are seen as feeble and detestable through the eyes of God. For example, only a few chapters before the “filthy rags” comment in the beginning of Chapter 57 we find this paradox. “The righteous perish and no one ponders it in his heart; devout men are taken away and no one understands that the righteous are taken away to be spared from evil. Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death.” It is all a matter of perspective. In regard to righteous acts, even the best are tainted with selfishness and impure motives, and are based on woefully incomplete knowledge and understanding of God and His righteousness. This is why the Hebrews writer says that without faith it is impossible to please God. We can never give something to God that earns His respect by its own merit. It is like trying to impress Michael Jordan with my basketball skills, or showing Lance Armstrong how fast and long I can ride my bike. Nothing I could possibly do can come close to impressing them. This is the point God was trying to get across to Job. Job was so proud of His righteousness that God finally had to shout in a 4 chapter monologue, “YOU THINK I’M IMPRESSED!!!” So, if nothing we can do or accomplish can please or impress God, what does that leave us with? It leaves us with humble, childlike faith. Like a toddler’s artwork, our heavenly Father will take our filthy rags with joy and pride, if they are offered in humble faith, reverence and fear.

DELEGATE or DIE

This needs to be my motto. I have been told more than once lately that I am taking too much on myself. There are many gifted people at our church who would love the opportunity to help, but they are rarely asked. I now find myself only two weeks from the day we leave for our mission trip to mexico and I have Camp classes to plan, and then we have jr impact followed by sr impact. Which means, I only have today and the next two that I wont be on a youth trip. If I have any hair or sanity left by the time July gets here, I will consider it a blessing.

Funny Story (also happens to be confession pt4)

It has indeed been awhile. I have been dreading this post for reasons you will soon know. I truly appreciate the help all of you have been in digging through this topic of confession. It has been a great blessing to me and, Lord willing, to many others some day. I thought that day was to be May 6th, however...

On Monday April 9th, I went to our preacher and asked him if he knew what subject I could preach on in three weeks that would fit into his series on spiritual growth. He left it up to me so I told him I would like to speak on confession. He agreed so I began my preparations. This is when I enlisted your help and did my best to lay out the foundations of the sermon to be. I tried to think through everything well in advance because the week before my sermon was going to be jam packed with trips and events. With your help, I had my entire sermon ready to put on paper by April 22. But, when I arrived early that Sunday morning, I was stunned to see the title of that morning's sermon, "Confession".

That morning I realized that I had a long way to go in controlling my temper. There are now some knuckle holes in the wall of our sound room and some paint off of the door stuck to the back of my song book as reminders of my shortcomings in that area. I was amazed that anyone could be so thoughtless. But as I read his sermon, I realized that very little of what I was going to say was used in his sermon. So I decided to press on with what would now be the second installment of a two part sermon on Confession.

Friday, April 27th
I get an email from one of our elders asking me if preparations were going well for our Missions Sunday on May 6th. And this whole time I was thinking Dustin was inexcusably forgetful.

In the words of Homer Simpson, "DOH!!!"

I now had to scrap the Confession sermon and save it for a later date and come up with an entirely new Missions sermon. The problem is that the 28th-29th we were on a retreat to meet with the other groups going with us to Mexico. The 30th- May 2nd was a Youth Ministers retreat hosted by Lipscomb. May 4th-5th was our 30hour famine. Also on May 5th was a city wide service day hosted by 2 baptist churches, 1 methodist and our church. The 30 hour famine ended at 10pm Saturday night. Then I had some cleaning up to do so I didn't get home until about 11:15 the night before I was to preach. Fortunately, I believe God worked through me that morning. I was perhaps more bold in some of my statements than I would have been if I had been more prepared. All in all, things worked out for the best.

Since there is not much material here for discussion, lets see if any of you can figure out the connection between this post and the picture above.