This looks great
LA, Lakers and Life
I am sitting in a MacDonalds as I wait to pick up my brother and sister in law from LAX. I am trying not to listen to the guy nearby who is talking to his aged mother (I assume). He sounds just like Wood Allen. Sometimes I like to people watch and every time I do I am blown away by all the different kinds of humans there are. The diversity is absolutely amazing.
And every single one of them God loves. Jesus died for every one of them. And yet so few know of G0d's love. But that won't stop God trying to get through to them. I have just got to learn to recognize their likeness to God rather than the external appearance.
Game 2, Western Conference Final tonight! An where will I be? At a Dodger Game. Don't know how I worked that out. Go Lakers!
LA is usually sunny, warm and very pleasant this time of year. Today it is overcast, rainy and very unpleasant. I'm not complaining. Well, maybe a little. If I wanted weather like this I would live in New York. OK, got that out of my system. I just love the way God, every so often, says to us that He is God and He gets to say what happens. There is nothing like a tornado, a storm and thunder to remind you of His power and our dependence on Him.
A Light In Livermore
It made me think. We Christians are to be light to this dark world (Matthew 5:14). Yes, we are. But can we learn a lesson from the “long-lived light bulb of Livermore”? Oh, yes we can.
God puts us in the places where He wants us (Acts 17:26). That refers to where we live, where we build our church buildings and lot more that we probably don’t give Him credit. Whether I understand this or not, I do know why He has put us here to shine the light. We are the light of the world and we must shine.
One of the reasons put forward as to why the Livermore light bulb keeps on shining is that it never gets turned off. It does nothing but shine 24 hours a day. Now that’s another lesson for us, isn’t it. We have got to stop turning the light of God on and off. We aren’t just lights to the world on Sunday morning. We aren’t just lights when we are around Christians who know us. We are to be lights in the dark places. We are to be lights even when no one knows us.
As a church we must be light to the world. We must stop going through spasms of evangelism during which we turn the light of God on and then after some growth turn it off again. We are to be the witnesses of Christ every single day of every single year that God gives us.
The Livermore light bulb does what it can. It can only shine incandescently. No neon. No fluorescence. We are different. We can shine so many different ways. God puts it this way. “To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.” (1 Corinthians 9:22). We must shine however we can. It may be in a meal served to the needy . It may be in a good word for Jesus when someone asks what you did on the weekend. It may be in going the extra mile for a neighbor who really irritates you. It may be in an illuminated sign in front of the church building. It may be in an uplifting time of worship. It may be in teaching a Bible class. We aren’t like the Livermore light bulb. We don’t just shine in our fire house. We shine in the whole world that God has given us.
Where do you shine your light? I know we shine everywhere but are there times or places when you consciously to try and make sure you shine your light? Don’t know? That’s okay. Just shine. Shine. Shine.
The Forgotten Ways
I have been reading Alan Hirsch's book, The Forgotten Ways, this week. It is a great read. He does get behind the jargon and uses his personal experience to take you through the journey of how to reach the huge majority of people in our society who have no interest in the Constantine form of church. He doesn't get caught up in that whole theoretical, academic and overly jargonized presentation of ideas.
He refers to the period from 4th century Constantine's legalization (it was more than that) of Christianity as Christendom and it is typified by the church building based, priest based, "come to us model" that both Roman Catholic and Protestant churches have followed. He advocates a return to pre-Christendom forms and functions, even first century ones. He makes a very good argument. I do like the fact that in doing this he doesn't completely discount the existing forms and functions that lead him (and most of us) to Christ like so many authors about the emergent church seem to do today.
The other thing I like about this book is that it has a very strong evangelistic focus. While observing that most of our "church growth" methods are only mildly effective on small fraction of the world that is the evangelical world. He speaks to those who are drawn by God to reach the other 90% of our society.
He makes some really great points. And he is Australian. What's that got to do with anything? Nothing, except that we Australians are quite insecure and must always brag about our accomplishments. Did you know that it was an Australian who invented the motor mower, the rotary clothes line and put the bubbles in bear. OK, the last one was a bit of a lie but it was a good movie plot in Young Einstein.
Pray for Myanmar
What a mess? Over 100,000 people dead (more if you believe the reports of the anti government rebels), 5 million without homes. Add to that mess a military government that seems to be more concerned with itself than its people and this is going to be an even bigger mess. We need to be in urgent prayer for the survivors.
Healing Hands International is a great aid agency run by members of Churches of Christ who are able to get funds into Myanmar to people they have on the ground. I highly recommend them.
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