I’ve got a big but.

In fact, I don’t mean to be nosey — but I’m pretty sure you’ve got a big but too. Several of them, maybe.

And I think we’ve gotten used to our buts being large. We like life with big buts, I think. We like fast paced life -and the busier we are, the bigger our buts get. We’re “but”-lovers, in a way.

Nothing is more important to me than my relationship with God – I really do believe that. I’m committed to my relationship to him. BUT I don’t always act like it.

Many times I go to pull out my Bible or have an urge to draw near to God in prayer or worship I’m really excited to do so, and then the big buts come into play…. “but” I need some sleep. …”but” I am busy with that project. …”but” I promised so and so I would do this other thing. The “buts” just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Really stupid, if you think about it. God is far more important, and as real as any other human. But for some reason I give other people priority over God. More often than that, I give my own moods priority over God. My big “but” pushes God right out of the way so I can do what I feel like.

May you be larger than my “but.” Help me further prioritize the details of life to let you truly be my Lord.

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I believe that being a Christian requires faith and actions. That’s not to say we’re not saved by faith alone — we are. But faith that saves us is never alone. Faith without actions is dead, and isn’t going to save anybody. With that said . . . .

A few weeks ago as I went to bed it occurred to me that there was absolutely nothing about my life that day – other than my job – that would have been Christ-like. I didn’t consider God at all in my day. I didn’t help anyone. I didn’t pray for anybody. It was a pretty selfish, Godless day. There was NOTHING about my life that day that was different than someone else who wasn’t a Christian. (I also believe that true Christianity should revolutionize your life; so this really bugged me).

I began asking myself almost every day, “Did you do anything today that would demonstrate Christ’s love in action?” or “Did you do anything today that any other ‘good person’ wouldn’t have?”

This has been a good check for me – and has caused me to seek God more than before. It’s also causing me to live more like I’m on a mission. Christians are — you know — on a mission. I’ll write more about this soon.

Tonight my pastor posed the question: If you were accused in court of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Ponder that. How is Christ changing your life?

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I am reading a book right now called “Untamed” by Alan and Debra Hirsch. In the first section, they make a case for “Untaming” (our perception of) Jesus. I thought this was very interesting. (For the record: I think Mark Driscoll is the man! But I also agree with this excerpt).

A recent example of reimaging Jesus was supplied by Seattle pastor Mark Driscoll. He has become somewhat infamous for his portrayal of Jesus as some sort of ultimate fighter. But in attempting to “butch up” [our perception of] Jesus and make him appeal to “real men,” has Driscoll come close to creating Jesus in his own image? Consider this from one of his sermons:

“Latte-sipping Cabriolet drivers do not represent biblical masculinity, because real men — like Jesus, Paul, and John the Baptist — are dudes: heterosexual, win-a-fight, punch-you-in-the-nose dudes. In other words, because Jesus is not a limp-wristed, dress-wearing hippie, the men created in his image are not sissified church boys; they are aggressive, assertive, and nonverbal.”

Now we don’t believe Mark’s original intention was bad. What he was trying to do is rescue Jesus from the overly feminized ways in which Jesus has been portrayed. We would agree and also want to rescue the image of Jesus from this. … But the problem with Driscoll’s ultimate-fighting Jesus is that Jesus has been freed from one distortion only to be captured by another.

It cannot be but a distortion. Is Jesus really some “punch-you-in-the-nose-type dude”? And is that really the model and type of Christlike masculinity to which every man should aspire? We think not.

I’m in full agreement. I prefer not to sweat when I work. I’ve never been in a fight. And I like lattes.

Was Jesus a manly man’s man? – You bet. But he was also kind and gentle. What if an effeminate man (with or without same-sex attraction) wanted to find salvation through Jesus? Does this demonstrate that our Jesus isn’t okay with him?

Jesus came to identify with all of mankind. Let’s be careful never to tame that.

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Waiting.

Although waiting can be one of the more difficult aspects of the Christian life, it is not wasted time. During periods of active waiting, the Lord may give us instruction or change our circumstances. He keeps us in step with Himself and prepares us for His answers. He uses delays to sift our motives and strengthen our faith. And when we choose to wait, God rewards us with blessings both large and unexpected.

-Unknown (to me) source

I don’t have much commentary on this one – I just thought it was great, never wanted to forget it, and thought you might enjoy it, too.

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Mondays are my day off. It’s my sabbath. It’s my time to recharge, detach, become renewed, and appreciate God. Most of us have this on Sundays – but for a pastor, Sunday is no sabbath.

So I came into Starbucks this afternoon for a few minutes – mostly just to do some online bill pay stuff and have a drink. It’s enjoyable here, you know.

When I walked in I saw my friend David Foster. He’s one of the pastors at Dayspring Community Church here in Auburn. We spoke briefly, and then continued about our personal business. About four minutes later I saw an email from David Foster, sent three minutes earlier. It simply read, “Sup dawg?”

I looked at him and said, “Did you JUST email me?”

He smiled and said, “Yep.”

Naturally, I laughed.

But then he continued, “The real question is why are you checking your work email on a Monday? Come on man, detach.”

Busted.

Thanks David.

Remember the Sabbath isn’t just about not working – its about what happens to us when we stop.

Resource(s) of the Day:
This is a spectacular book about the Sabbath. It really helped me.
This is a pretty cool song about the Sabbath… well, kind of. (Emmy Rossum, “Slow Me Down”).

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I subscribe to Sanctuary Church‘s podcast, where I spent a summer as an intern back in 2006. Ed Gungor is the pastor there, and a few weeks ago his brother Mark preached the message. It was powerful and moving to me, and I wanted to share a small portion with you. If you consider yourself a church attender, you really need to listen to the audio file. Mark says some great stuff about our need to BELONG to our church – it’s not about a club, presentation, or activist group — it’s about our family.

I edited it down to just over 3 minutes, adding an audio “boop” every time I took something out. Listen to it here.

After you listen to that, consider this: Mark’s thought’s couldn’t be more true to me. Once, at the prompting of several worship-leading mentors in my life, I tried something a LITTLE stylistically different in my church’s worship service to help us be connected to God rather than a style. The next week a woman in my church asked me about it and why we did it. I explained it to her, but then she politely told me, “Okay well if you decide to do that again, please let me know because I’d rather stay home.” I should have said, “SERIOUSLY? You’d let THAT rip THIS apart?”

The full sermon is available here.

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“The bible is not boring-we are boring. We have been deluded into believing that true pleasure and fascination come in the form of loud, stimulating, immediately gratifying entertainment that we don’t even really take part in. We just sit there and passively watch or listen. Its over as soon as we turn off the TV, walk out of the theater, switch off the stereo, win the video game, or shut down the computer. This kind of entertainment doesn’t engage our spirits or make us more alive.

“the bible is divine entertainment- real entertainment. It contains the life of God, the creator of heaven and earth. And I guarantee that it will blow the mind of anyone who is willing to enter in. We must see the word of God for what it really is: a place of delight and pleasure.”

Quoted from “Pursuit of the Holy” by Corey Russell.

That first paragraph got me thinking. Maybe those loud stimulating forms of entertainment like TV cloud up our creative thoughts and desensitizes our spiritual receptors. How would we expect to receive a vision or hear Gods voice when we are in that state?

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“let’s stop reading the Bible just so we can feel good about having done our daily reading. Let’s begin to actually stop and meet with God during our quiet times. Let’s ask God to encounter is. God promises [in Psalm 1:1-3] that whoever meditates on His Word will bear much fruit and prosper in everything. That’s a massive promise — a promise that I believe will be fundamental to awakening the Church in this hour.”

- Corey Russell in “Pursuit of the Holy.”

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Okay so in the last post I talked about how the prayer furnace at new hope was doing a corporate 40 day fast. we are fasting from different things as the Lord directed.

In fasting the idea is to replace food with God. When your stomach growls, take it as a reminder to worship.

I’m doing the Daniel Fast which is only fruits vegetables and water. I occasionally have cravings for all the other stuff. That’s my “growl.” Some of us have given up other non food things … But the urge to do whatever can still be your “growl.” We must embrace the growl and let it remind us what we are doing.

But why don’t we?

Maybe its just me, but I’m tending to find other ways to occupy my time besides spend it with God. I even went as far as unplugging my TV for these 40 days to ensure I have more time set apart for God. But somehow I find other ways to fill that time. How silly. This is just a diet without embracing more time with God.

I’m gonna embrace the growl more.

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Recently I’ve been extremely busy. Now let me reiterate that … extremely busy. When I get stressed like that, I tend to do a hard shift to “Control Country” when it comes to my life and I get tunnel focus. Seriously – if it doesn’t help me accomplish something on my calendar or to-do list, I don’t do it. I’m not saying that’s good – I’m just saying that’s what I do. When this goes on for several days it gets to an unhealthy state… I start thinking things like… (I’m not even joking here…):

“I don’t have time to eat a meal — that’s time wasted.”

“I’ve needed to use the bathroom for 2 hours, but I can finish these three other things before I take that break. Urinating wouldn’t be the most productive use of my time – it’d be time wasted.”

“24 hours in a day – I’ll spend 8 at my office and 10 working at home. I can relax with the remaining 6 hours.”

Obviously with this pattern, it would be easy for me to have this “wasted time” mentality when it comes to my God time as well. But that’s the worst thing I could do. In the stressful times is when I need the God time the MOST.

So last Friday night God was dealing with me about this, and I just came to the conclusion that if my “God time” was wasted time, then I want to get wasted. I want to absolutely ruin and waste my life if that’s the case. All the stuff that’s “me” can be ruined and wasted if it means being closer to Jesus. I love Jesus.

Immediately after that moment, I started shouting out my prayer and promise to God. Then I began spontaneously singing it to a melody that I had actually written 8 months ago.

I want to be wasting my life seeking You. I won’t let anybody get in my way of reaching You. I want to be wasting my life finding You. And I won’t let the devil get my focus away from You.

It took me several hours figuring out how to use my new recording equipment, but I used this song to experiment with the features. I’m posting the whole deal… including a long and snazzy hip-hop keyboard solo and some very out-of-tune background vocals (sorry…). There’s some rough spots, but give me a break its the first thing I’ve ever done on my new equipment. Give it a listen, click here.

Lyrics and Recording are copyright Adam Diehl 2008…. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST!

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