Bleeding Into Society

The darkness is real. It is still lingering all around you.
Rip the match over that little sandpaper strip and ignite the little stick to life! Flick your thumb in that short quick motion and turn on the flashlight. Melt the wax off the tip of the wick and give your candle the flame it is hungering for. Flip the switch. What good is having a light source & not shredding back the darkness with it? What’s the point of placing 100 lights in one room while the rest of the house remains shrouded in darkness?

Listen believers! Light your torches & plunge into the thickening darkness. Ease into the black corners, the lowly out-of-the-way places. Head underground if you have to. Take the back alleys. Find a patch of the prolific darkness all around you. Then set it ablaze with the light of the good news that God misses those who are far from Him. He wants them back in his sunlit arms.

What good is the salt in the shaker? Shake it out! Fall onto some tasteless meat. Sprinkle yourself into the cracks & crevices of your own personal mission field. You know the one. You call it ‘My Life’. Season the unique culture, relationships, acquaintances, locales & interests you find yourself blessed with. Salt isn’t for church. It’s for the world.

Is God surprised by the people you work alongside, live near, sit next to, play with? Is it by accident that you live where you live, work where you work, sit where you sit in class & play where you play? Are you salting these people & places?

What about a new metaphor? The phrase ‘bleeding into society’ is ringing true in my spirit. It makes me think of the very real, very wet, very precious sacrifice that my Savior poured out for the world. It brings to mind the way a bit of dye soaks in and spreads into the very fiber of a cloth - in it, around it, through it. The cloth drinks in the dye - absorbs and receives it. But the dye must first come in contact with the cloth.

Are we doing all we can to make sure this color-changing grace seeps into the fabric of the lives all around us? As the body of Christ as a whole & as individuals in particular, are we bleeding into society? Or are we shrinking away from it – creating our own safe Christian version of it? The dye must touch the cloth.

“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?” Luke 14:34

“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.” Eph 5:8

Lord, what do you want me to do to make a dent in the lostness right where I live? Help me bleed into society, be salty salt, be shiny light. Show me how I can help you in redeeming this place for yourself.

Random Year-End Thoughts

Random Thought I:
The Lord has been moving in my heart & life these last couple weeks.
As the year comes to a close, there are a few swallowtail questions that keep circling my mind. Where are we heading as a church? Why do we even exist in the first place?
Are we fulfilling that purpose? Am I doing my part?

Random Thought II:
If I were asked to name our greatest need as believers, I believe my answer would be that we need to be utterly broken before God. Then, his strength could be made perfect in our weakness. It wouldn’t hurt for us to catch a vision - like an incurable disease – to genuinely love the lost around us with both our words and our actions. That’s what I’d say if I were asked…

Random Thought III:
I have made some mistakes this year. I guess Solomon was right - there’s nothing new under the sun. (smile) Thankfully, my Jesus has helped me stay faithful and a few things have ended with eternal significance. I can see many beautiful ripples on the sea of 2007. I expect to see their rings grow increasingly larger in the upcoming year.

Random Thought IV:
Patience is a good, hard, slow & painful thing.

Random Thought V:
Sometimes we confuse paralysis with patience.

Random Thought VI:
As believers, we are !!FREE!! in Christ.
Free to dance. Free to love. Free to sing.
Free to serve. Free to breath. Free to laugh.
Why do we sometimes choose to return to bondage?

Where Did All the Genres Go?

I came across something unexpected at the new Wal-Mart in Marshall. The CD section in the store is not broken down into the separate genres of country, rap, rock, Christian & pop. Instead, it is arranged in simple alphabetical order by the artist's name. I'm sure this is a tremendous help to the employees who are stocking merchandise. As long as they know that "M" comes after "L" and then "N" comes after that, then they have it made.

We have a lot of categories that divide up those who squeeze onto the shelf of Christianity. There are little signs snapped into place that divide conservatives from liberals, evangelicals from mainliners, moderns from postmoderns. Further distinctions then subcategorize us by all kinds of topics from preferred musical style to eschatological outlook, baptism method to view on women in leadership, ecclesiology to spiritual gifts. Each local church and individual can peel and stick the labels they deem the most appropriate. There are an infinite number of designations within the broader Christian section.

Heaven is going to be like the CD section at the new Wal-Mart. No subcategories. There won't be an endless list of genres to neatly divide up and categorize followers of Jesus. We will all be one, in the presence of a holy God, worshipping for eternity. We will be there in a state of divine unison. No genres. Not even lined up from "A" to "Z". Just there in one accord, overwhelmed by the great truth that is the Alpha & the Omega, the beginning & the end.

"You need to know that I have other sheep in addition to those in this pen. I need to gather and bring them, too. They'll also recognize my voice. Then it will be one flock, one Shepherd." Jesus in John 10:16 (TMSG).

Christmas reminds me that each believer is part of a diverse, worldwide family of faith. We share a common Father & are bound together by a common bloodline that flows from our common Savior. Those who believe in Jesus' substitutionary death are members of that global family. Very soon, all of his true followers will be gathered together in one place with no unnecessary distinctions. Imagine Christ's entire body worshipping together in a community without categories. Christmas reminds us that God was born as a baby to make that dream a reality. While it may be harder to find a specific genre at the Marshall Wal-mart, we won't even think to look for any kind of label in Heaven.