A New Look at an Old Story!

Notice anything different?!
A friend put her nativity out yesterday with the usual set of participants. This morning she found a creative twist to the traditional scene. The dinosaurs had also come to worship Baby Jesus! Wonder if they came before or after the shepherds or between the shepherds and the wise men?
It's kind of cool, isn't it? It's pretty tragic when the wonderful story of the Gospel becomes so commonplace that we lose our sense of wonder!
It's interesting that dinosaurs can bring back a sense of wonder!
It's not just the Gospel story; it's life in general! We so easily lose our sense of wonder, joy and expectation! We get all mired down in sloughing through the mud of daily existence until that's all we see and we miss the wonder! 

Ragamuffins Need Jesus!

We think we show well to the watching world, don't we? God has a different view of all our attempts to look good and do good: ...all our righteous acts are like filthy rags ... (Isaiah 64:6) In God's eyes, we are all ragamuffins! (Raggamuffin is a dirty, shabbily dressed child.) In fact, there are ragamuffins running around all over! The world has been INVADED by ragamuffins!

And what ragamuffins need most is Jesus! Think about how Jesus spent most of His time. Check it out in the Gospels. He did a lot of walking and talking. He met a lot of people with big needs. Sometimes He even stopped in mid-stride to help. (Luke 8:42-45) Jesus hung out with ragamuffins a lot!

God's kingdom was His theme ... What did God's kingdom look like when Jesus was doing it? It looked like caring for people - people with messy lives, people in pain, people who needed His time and touch! In a word, raggamuffins. Doesn't that mean we should be hanging out with ragamuffins (like us!).

After reading the Gospel of Luke for the first time, a young post modern observed: Wow! Like Jesus has this totally intense thing for ragamuffins. (Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel, p. 49)

Yes, He does! And it's a very good thing because this means He wants to hand out with you and me - raggamuffins like us!

Jesus' thing for raggamuffins is the best news there is! And when we get finished letting Him love on our raggamuffins hearts, then we need to go out and find a ragamuffins to love on today in Jesus' name! There are raggamuffins everywhere - people with messy lives, people in pain, people who just need a kind word or touch. Love a raggamuffin for Jesus today!

He went all over ... He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God's kingdom was His theme - that beginning right now they were under God's government! He also healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their bad lives ... whether mental, emotional or physical. Jesus healed them one and all. (Matthew 4:23-24, The Message)

Lord Jesus, I am a raggamuffin. I am lost and and lonely. I need You today. Help me reach out to other raggamuffins like me and love them like You love them! In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.

The Wonder of the Gospel Matters!

My friend Tim Keller (from long ago when he wasn't world-wide famous) is a wise man who truly understands and articulates the Gospel! You will be blessed by his thoughts and he's spot on!!!

If you think you really understand the gospel – you don’t. If you think you haven’t even begun to truly understand the gospel – you do. As important as our ‘gospel theologizing’ is, it alone will not reach our world. People today are incredibly sensitive to inconsistency and phoniness. They hear what the gospel teaches and then look at our lives and see the gap. Why should they believe? We have to recognize that the gospel is a transforming thing, and we simply are not very transformed by it. It’s not enough to say to postmodern people: ‘You don’t like absolute truth? Well, then, we’re going to give you even more of it!’ But people who balk so much at absolute truth will need to see greater holiness of life, practical grace, gospel character, and virtue, if they are going to believe.Traditionally, this process of ‘gospel-realizing,’ especially when done corporately, is called ‘revival.’ Religion operates on the principle:I obey; therefore I am accepted (by God). The gospel operates on the principle: I am accepted through the costly grace of God; therefore I obey. Two people operating on these two principles can sit beside each other in church on Sunday trying to do many of the same things – read the Bible, obey the Ten Commandments, be active in church, and pray – but out of two entirely different motivations. Religion moves you to do what you do out of fear, insecurity, and self-righteousness, but the gospel moves you to do what you do more and more out of grateful joy in who God is in himself. Times of revival are seasons in which many nominal and spiritually sleepy Christians, operating out of the semi-Pharisaism of religion, wake up to the wonder and ramifications of the gospel. Revivals are massive eruptions of new spiritual power in the church through a recovery of the gospel. In his sermon on Mark 9 Lloyd-Jones was calling the church to revival as its only hope. This is not a new program or something you can implement through a series of steps. It is a matter of wonder. Peter says that the angels always long to look into the gospel; they never tire of it (I Pet. 1:12). The gospel is amazing love. Amazing grace.- Tim Keller

The Gospel for My Heart Today

Does discouragement preach to you a false gospel that forgets that your future has already been written into the pages of God's book?
Does vengeance preach to you a false gospel that focuses more on what someone did to you than on what God did for you? --Paul Tripp

Someone did me - and a whole group of people - wrong, wrong to the max over a period of time! It makes me mad and sad and a whole bunch of other emotions! The MOST frustrating part of the whole story besides the collateral damage is that there is absolutely nothing to do about it and the damage is huge!

These two questions really speak to my heart today! Is this situation discouraging? You betcha!!! Do I want to fix it? You betcha! Do I want the person who did the damage to get his/hers? In spades! So now we're about done taking about my heart, is there a remedy? It's not a pretty picture! BUT the reality of the Gospel is pretty wonderful! I'm going to choose to camp out in the Gospel today with the help of Jesus Who overcame sin and death forever!

Lord Jesus, help me to live today in the truth of the Gospel today and in all my tomorrows! Help me to lay THIS circumstance at Your feet. Help me to trust You to love me (and the others hurt by this betrayal) no matter what the circumstances look like! Help me to believe and practice that Your Gospel is way big enough to take care of all this - my heart, this other person, the circumstances and the damage!

The Color Purple

Purple is My Favorite Color!
In 1982 The Color Purple was a new novel. It dealt with being a black female in the South. This is where my discussion of the novel, film and subsequent musical ends!
HOWEVER, the color purple has always been my favorite color! It was my grandmother's favorite color and perhaps that is one reason purple first caught my attention as a color of choice but I have always loved the color! In my grammar school days I even had a room with purple walls - well, lavendar, I guess! The many colors available today just weren't then.
Today I was reading on Twitter and discovered what I may have known and let pass right on through my brain - or not known at all - that purple is the color for epilepsy awareness! Apparently today is International Purple Day (with a play off the color International orange - an attempt to raise awareness about epilepsy.
Several of my Twitter friends are urging everyone to wear purple March 26th to commemorate this international day to raise awareness about epilepsy. I probably will - because I usually wear purple in one shade or another just about every day! I am totally for raising awareness about epilepsy. I remember well the first time I ever witnessed a person having a seizure. It was in school. It was scary for everyone and very humiliating for the boy who had the seizure.
There are good and bad aspects to the openness of our culture in 2012. Mostly it is a good thing to talk openly,to understand better, to accept others who are different but sometimes not so much!
One summer Sunday morning in a small church in Virginia a missionary family (Mom, Dad and at least four kids) gave a presentation about their work and ministry in Africa. I have known many missionaries but their presentation was very refreshing, real and a different perspective than I had ever heard so it caught my attention. Actually it shifted my paradigm about cultural differences and many differences in general!
Each person in the family had a little memorized sentence and then the entire family quoted the "refrain" in unison. One said (something like), "In America we get hamburgers, cheeseburgers and french fries at McDonalds; In Africa we don't have McDonalds, hamburgers or french fries." Then they all said, "It's not better or worse; it's just different!" Then another person would make a comparison between life in America and life in Africa like "In America we wash our clothes in
a washing machine; in Africa we wash our clothes on the river bank." [I don't remember the specifics they gave so I'm making these up.] "It's not better or worse; It's just different!"
And THAT, my friend, is exactly how we should treat people we meet and know who are different for whatever reason or in whatever way! We should see them as not better or worse but just different! It goes a LONG way toward building bridges to connect us rather than
divide us!
The BIGGEST reason to build connecting bridges is the "two-year-old answer"! Do you know the "two-year-old answer"? It's the answer any self-respecting two-year-old gives his Sunday School teacher to any and every question asked: "Jesus!" Jesus was and is the biggest bridge builder ever! He spent all his time in ministry on earth building bridges. He built bridges between sinners and the Savior, between Jews and Gentiles through Himself and His cross. He built bridges between disability and ability and through His healing miracles actually made a way for some to walk across from disability to ability!
Because of the Gospel record we know that Jesus healed people with epilepsy. I won't go so far as to presume that Jesus would wear purple today, but I am absolutely certain that His heart of love reaches out to every person afflicted with the disease of epilepsy because He always cares about brokenness in all its forms. He came to redeem all the brokenness sin brought into our world - including epilepsy. The day when He makes all things new (still in the future) will be the day all brokenness is restored to wholeness but - in the meantime - He reaches out to all who are broken and burdened who come to Him! He even seeks all who are broken and burdened to bring His love and healing touch into their brokenness!
Part 2 of about Purple, Disability and Epilepsy tomorrow ............

Random for St. Paddy's Day!

Never iron a four-leaf clover. You never want to press your luck!

What do you call a leprechaun with a sore throat? A. a streprechaun!

And St. Patrick himself:

• I, Patrick, a sinner, unlearned, resident in Ireland. I am greatly God's debtor, because he granted me so much grace.



• I am a servant in Christ to a foreign nation for the unspeakable glory of life everlasting which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.



• Christ beside me. Christ before me. Christ behind me. Christ within me. Christ beneath me. Christ above me.

St. Patrick's Day is far more about a great Gospel than green beer. Green beer's fine (if you like the stuff), but Living Water is da finest!

Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. --2 Cor. 4:16-18

The magnificence of this promise is stunning in such a broken, sin-stained world!

• Why God would choose to set His love upon me is astonishing and radical beyond comprehension!



• Why God would care about my heart "losing heart" after all my acts of rebellion against Him is only due to His utterly amazing grace!



• Why God would plan for eternal life and send His one and only deeply beloved Son to accomplish that plan is the marvelous message of the Gospel!

Think of the rest - "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
A week after His resurrection Jesus appeared to the disciples as He had a week earlier. Thomas was missing the first time and he doubted that Jesus was really alive. Jesus encouraged Thomas to put his finger into the wounds in His hands. Thomas proclaimed Jesus as "My Lord and My God!" Then Jesus makes a statement that is perhaps keyed to these verses from Corinthians. Jesus said, "Thomas, you believe because you see. Blessed are those who have not seen but have believed." --John 20:19-31 Jesus is the unseen eternal One in Whom we have believed! He had me (and you) in His heart when He spoke to Thomas! He knew that God would draw us to believe in His Son and that we would fix our eyes on what is unseen but eternal! Therefore, we do not lose heart because our focus is on Him who walks with us thru every trial and difficulty and knowing HIM makes ALL the difference!

Talk about Restoration!!!

This is what God's restoration of one heart at a time looks like in real life lived in the light of the Gospel! Tullian's story is the story of many ministry families without the same public visibility but this same formula is true over and over again in life and ministry when we live and walk as sons and daughters of the Most High God. Then truly Jesus + Nothing = Everything!

How can someone live without depending upon the approval of others?

This is something that we as sinful people will struggle with for the rest of our lives. None of us will ever come to a place where what people think about us (good or bad) doesn't matter to us at all. But a deep grasp of the gospel does help us to become less dependent on the approval of others because the gospel announces that all of the approval we long for and need, Christ has already secured for us. We no longer need to live under the slavish pressure of trying to earn the approval of others because Jesus has already earned God's approval for us.

In the book [Tullian Tchividjian, pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, recent author of Jesus + Nothing = Everything] I tell the story of how this became real to me.

With the merger of the church I planted and Coral Ridge back in 2009 and the leadership transition that accompanied it, a small but vocal group of long-time Coral Ridge members immediately began voicing opposition to practically any and every change we initiated. Blogs were posted, letters were circulated--some anonymously--with false accusations about me. Just three months after I arrived, a vigorous petition drive was started to get me removed. Battle lines were drawn, rumors raced. There was a crescendo of misunderstandings, frustration, and pain. Just three months in, I was ready to call it quits.

About that time, I opened up my Bible and in the reading plan I was following, it so happened that the day's passages included the first chapter of Paul's letter to the Colossians.

Desperate for help from God, I read those verses and my eyes were opened to see the incredible sufficiency of Jesus with greater clarity than I'd ever experienced. In my misery I told God that I wanted my old life back. The answer from God that I received from Colossians that morning was simple--but sobering: "It's not your old life you want back; it's your old idols you want back, and I love you too much to give them back to you."

You see, I never realized how dependent I'd become on human approval and acceptance until it was taken away. For the first time, I found myself in the uncomfortable position of being deeply disliked and distrusted. I was realizing just how much I'd been relying on the endorsement of others to validate me--to make me feel like I mattered. In and of itself, human approval and acceptance are not bad things. They are, in fact, a gift from God. But I had turned them into idols by making them my primary source of meaning and value and worth and significance, so that without them I was miserable and depressed.

The verses that set me free, specifically, were Colossians 1:9-14. In those verses the Apostle Paul says (my summary): You will grow in your understanding of God's will, be filled with spiritual wisdom and understanding, increase in your knowledge of God, be strengthened with God's power which will produce joy filled patience and endurance (v.9-12a) as you come to a greater realization that you've already been qualified, delivered, transferred, redeemed, and forgiven (v.12b-14).

What those verses liberatingly taught me was that because of Jesus' finished work for me, I already had the justification, approval, acceptance, security, freedom, affection, cleansing, new beginning, righteousness, and rescue I was longing for. I started to see the many-faceted dimensions of the gospel in a more dazzling way. I was realizing in a fresh way the now-power of the gospel--that the gospel doesn't simply rescue us from the past and rescue us for the future. It also rescues us in the present from being enslaved to things like fear, insecurity, anger, self-reliance, bitterness, entitlement, and insignificance.

It was on that day that Jesus plus nothing equals everything became for me more than a preachable tagline. It became my functional lifeline!

It was rediscovering the gospel that enabled me to see that,
Because Jesus was strong for me, I was free to be weak;
Because Jesus won for me, I was free to lose;
Because Jesus was Someone, I was free to be no one;
Because Jesus was extraordinary, I was free to be ordinary;
Because Jesus succeeded for me, I was free to fail.
-- Ed Stetzer's blog 11/08/2011, interview with Tullian Tchividjian

A "Gospel Heart"

I want to be stunned by the Gospel today heart-deep! Then - by God's grace - I want Him to make me "stunning" as I walk the "Gospel path" with Him before the watching world!

Wise Words to Take to Heart Today!

Because Jesus was strong for you, you're free to be weak.
Because Jesus won for you, you're free to lose.
--quoted by various bloggers including Tullian Tchividjian

The Gospel is that we are FAR worse than we can ever imagine and that God's grace in Jesus is far greater than we can ever comprehend! God's grace in Jesus frees us to be weak and to lose for the sake of the Gospel! That's the Gospel we all need to preach to our own hearts every day as it frees us from a performance based mentality in our relationship with God and others!

That Achy Breaky Heart!

Billy Ray Cyrus achieved fame singing "Achy Breaky Heart." This country western song is all about the girl who left him and isn't coming back.
I'm singing "Achy Breaky" blues today but it has nothing to do with lost romance. I have this achy breaky feeling in the center of my chest. No, my heart is beating just fine and in no particular distress, thank you.
My heart problem is of another kind: too much life, too much pain, too much loss! My heart aches and breaks for what might have been because of what is. What can I do?
What I'm gonna do is the ONLY worthwhile thing to do: preach the Gospel to myself today - probably many times just so it sticks where I'm aching and breaking. I'm gonna tell my achy breaky heart that Jesus "knows all the trouble I've seen." I'm gonna tell my achy breaky heart that Jesus came to fix achy breaky hearts like mine (and yours).
Louie Armstrong is famous for his rendition of the African American slave spiritual, "Nobody Knows the Trouble I've seen." It goes like this:

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen

Nobody knows but Jesus

Nobody knows the trouble I've seen

Glory Hallelujah!

Sometimes I'm up and sometimes I'm down

Yes Lord, you know sometimes I'm almost to the ground

O yes, Lord!

The Gospel is for my heart when it's achy breaky "when I'm almost to the ground" AND when I'm not! The Gospel is where I plan to camp out today! It is the ONLY safe place to be! It is absolutely the place for achy breaky hearts like mine (and yours)!

Forgiveness

I am impressed that my friends who don't know Jesus yet don't have a clue about the wonder of forgiveness. It breaks my heart and compels me to model and share the Gospel as God gives me strength and grace!
Martin Luther spoke the truth when he wrote, "To be convinced in our hearts that we have forgiveness of sins and peace with God alone is the hardest thing."
The Gospel is the ONLY hope for the world of hurting people who don't know Jesus and haven't a clue about forgiveness!

Idols of the Heart

I live in Pittsburgh, otherwise known as "Steeler Town." In 2009 Pittsburgh is also known as "City of Champions." Now I have NOTHING against either the Steelers or champions - be they Penguins with a big silver cup or whatever.

However, I do sometimes want to stand in a prominent place in the city center (perhaps that's Heinz Field), and talk about idols of the heart. I am astonished at the people in this city who plan their lives around a football team!

Tullian Tchividjian - pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, FL - writes, "Idolatry is centering our attention and affection on something, or someone, smaller than God. In fact, most idols are good things in our lives that we turn into ultimate things–things that take God’s place as we unconciously depend on them to give our lives meaning."

John Calvin once said, “Our hearts are idol making factories.”

The great preacher Charles Spurgeon prayed, "Lord Jesus, take from us now everything that would hinder the closest communion with God. Any wish or desire that might hamper us in prayer remove, we pray You. Any memory of either sorrow or care that might hinder the fixing of our affection wholly on our God, take it away now. What have we to do with idols anymore? You have seen and observed us. You know where the difficulty lies. Help us against it, and may we now come boldly, not in the holy place alone, but in the holiest of all, where we should not dare to come if our great Lord had not torn the veil, sprinkled the mercy seat with His own blood, and asked us to enter."

Here's the shocking truth for my heart: I have my idols, too! My idols aren't Steelers, but I too make idols in my heart. I too center my attention and affection on something or someone smaller than God. My idols are "good" things, too. The problem is that my sinner's heart turns them into ultimate things - things that take God's place. God alone gives meaning to life! Idols - as the ancient prophet Elijah proclaimed on Mt. Carmel - can't do anything, see anything or be anything! (1 Kings 18:16-39)

So, before I "preach" to others, I need to "preach" the Gospel to myself!

Rejection and Restoration

It's terrible business - the stuff of rejection! It hurts! It even feels like death! It is certainly no fun!

Can there possibly be any good in rejection? Can God use rejection to work His Gospel of restoration deeply into a battered heart?

Just this morning a long-time friend sent a second email in as many days with his own story of rejection. In his case he has been rejected by others who call themselves a church. He wrote, "... my heart is broken. God will heal it. For now I am not too interested in being around God's people." His honesty is sad but understandable! Some of the cruelest wounds of all are from those who should love us best!

Rejection is a common experience in life. It comes to all of us in time. Try as we may to avoid those times and places where we might encounter rejection of any of its forms, sooner or later rejection finds us all. It is hard to keep pressing on through rejection. There is sometimes wisdom in just standing still or even backing up.

Our great God of restoration will show us His strategy for each situation we encounter. His way, however, is NEVER the path of fear, failure, uncertainty or insecurity or even just being too tired to fight one more battle. He promises faith for our fears, His direction in our failures, His abiding presence ("I am with you always!" Matt. 28:20) in our uncertainty and insecurity and especially His strength in our weakness.

God gives us many examples of real people on the pages of Scripture who faced rejection in many of its forms and even endured severe adversity in that rejection:

• Joseph trapped in an Egyptian prison simply because he refused to act against his principles and God's rules for life
• Moses leading God's people in the desert in spite of their grumbling both against God and their leader Moses
• Jeremiah and many other of God's prophets who preached to people who shut their eyes and their ears to God's truth
• Hosea who lived a life of rejection when his wife left his home and children to be a prostitute - God called Hosea be a living parable of God's love in the world of his day.
• And the best example of all - the Son of God who "put on our skin and walked in our neighborhood" (John 1:14, The Message). Jesus faced rejection over and over again until it finally put Him on a cross beside a pathway outside Jerusalem!

I don't imagine Jesus enjoyed the rejection. In fact the Bible describes Him as setting His face like flint (hard stone) to go to Jerusalem where He knew He faced certain death on the cross. He set His face like flint because He had to intentionally face and walk into that rejection of all rejections He knew was coming! The crucifixion was an attempt to kill God! Jesus knew what was facing Him!
God has important plans for you and me today. He sends us on a special mission to the part of His world where He has put us. Our mission is to model restoration for the watching world. It's the radical, upside-down aspect of the Gospel that speaks of grace and love as nothing else can!

When the world sees believers willing to endure rejection and remain faithful and obedient regardless, they know they are seeing something out of this world! It is a glimpse of heaven as God reaches down and touches rejection with restoration - with love, mercy and grace!

Sometimes God picks particular ones of His servants to experience rejection. God is not so much concerned with the form of rejection as He is with how we respond! It's an opportunity to turn our upside-down world rightside-up for Jesus! It's also a way to experience God's restoring love in your heart and mine!

That Good Ole' Comfort Zone!

Comfort Zone? It's that place where most of us like to hang out. It's also that place it's very easy to get "creeped out" when we have to leave.

While I drank my coffee this AM, I turned on a brief glimpse of the news. There was no "news" except for the storm named Fay, but a guy (who shall remain nameless or you'd figure out which news outlet I watch) was interviewing Howard Wolfson.

Howard Wolfson was Communications Director for Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign. Mr. Wolfson was asked about a certain presidential candidate. It was interesting. O, not what he said. That was pretty much the same old, same old. What was interesting was the clear tension on his face and around his jaw. He was in a tight spot and being asked tough questions and he didn't like it.

All of a sudden the interviewer - quite unexpectedly - asked Mr. Wolfson, "Before you go, tell us your favorite video game of all time." It was amazing! After a startled second or two, all those tense muscles relaxed. Mr. Wolfson broke into a genuine smile, reached far into his sixth grade past and answered, "Galactica."

It was an interesting, totally disarming moment. But it was more, it was a classic illustration of comfort zones. We all have them. We all like to be in them. It is where we are most comfortable.

Comfort zones are great places to kick back and relax, but they are not places to get stuck. Pushing myself out of that good ole' comfort zone is something I practice regularly. It's a good thing to do.

At A Restoration Church we are pushing ourselves well out of our comfort zones with our focus to reach out to persons and families affected by disability with the love and hope of the Gospel. If you are willing to push into pioneer territory, come along. We'd love to "hang out with you"!

Porky Pig's Gospel

Porky Pig's Gospel? This past Sunday the sermon at a Restoration Church was on the text: Romans 14:8 - 9. The main points were:

• PPP-urpose
• PPP- eace
• PPP-erspective

Are you starting to get why it should have been titled "Porky Pig's Gospel"?

Remember how Porky just couldn't say his "PPPP's"? He stuttered. Well, there was no stuttering Sunday. It was totally clear!

The PPP-urpose of the Gospel is to bring us from death to life! We are dead spiritually unless God's Spirit gives our dead spirit life.

The PPP-eace of the Gospel is that through the Gospel (God's good news: He sent Jesus to take our place of punishment on the cross) we find peace with God. Our sin pits us against God and makes God and us at extreme odds - enemies. Jesus brings us peace because He lived a perfect life, died in our place and then came back to life again on that first Easter morning. Jesus proved His power over both life and death.

The PPP-erspective of the Gospel is that our view of both life and death is turned upside down. We see living as coming first before dying. That's the view from earth. Vs. 9 of Romans 14 turns life first followed by death upside down: "For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that He might be the Lord of both the dead and the living." Get the upside-down part? Vs. 8 describes the order from our perspective: "If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord." Jesus' perfect life and death demonstrate in "living color" that real life has to come AFTER death or it's not really life at all - rather only a process to death.

Jesus makes it possible for us to live eternally as sons and daughters in God's forever family! And "Th-th-th-that's all folks!"

The Look of Sincere, Centered Love

There's an old saying, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do." (St. Ambrose, 387 AD) It doesn't come from the Bible, but it was first spoken in a somewhat theological context. The story is that St. Augustine traveled to Milan, Italy where Ambrose was Bishop. Augustine noticed that the people of Milan did not fast on Saturday as did people in Rome. When Augustine started to judge Milanians because their practice was different, Ambrose gave his advice which eventually has come to be edited down to, "When in Rome, do as the Romans do.

In the New Testament book of Romans, Paul spends most of the book he wrote to the church in Rome explaining the Gospel (chapters 1 - 11). Then Paul fills the last four chapters of the book with very practical ways we can put legs and arms, hands and feet on the Gospel in our own hearts and in our loving service to God and our neighbors. In Romans 12 Paul talks about "sincere love" (vs. 9). The Greek word translated "sincere" is the same word we get "hypocrite" from. ("Anupokritos" which is actually the antonym of hypocrite meaning "without hypocrisy.")

In ancient Greece "hypocrite" first described someone who wore a mask in a play - either tragic or comic. So Paul's readers immediately connected - understanding that love "without hypocrisy" involves being real (no mask). Real love has no strings, no conditions! Real love comes from bold hearts willing to risk the pain of rejection by loving with abandon! Real love has no hidden agenda. Real love is self-less, not self-serving!

The Message renders Romans 12:6 - 21 in very practical terms:

• If you preach, just preach God's Message, nothing else.
• If you help, just help, don't take over.
• If you teach, stick to your teaching.
• If you give encouraging guidance, be careful that you don't get bossy.
• If you're put in charge, don't manipulate.
• If you're called to give aid to people in distress, keep your eyes open and be quick to respond.
• If you work with the disadvantaged, don't let yourself get irritated with them or depressed by them. Keep a smile on your face.

Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don't burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don't quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality.

Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they're happy; share tears when they're down. Get along with each other; don't be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don't be the great somebody.

Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody. Don't insist on getting even; that's not for you to do. "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."

Our Scriptures tell us that if you see your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.

Real, sincere love takes bold risks - goes and loves where it may not be safe - gives without counting the cost and is the REALLY REAL Thing! Real love can only come from a heart being restored by God's love!

I'm Sorry!

"I'm sorry ... " - may be the hardest words to say in the English language!

"I'm sorry ... " This short phrase - very hard to say and harder still to do - is perhaps the most significant key to relationships I know.

In 1970 there was a movie "Love Story" (based on a novel) where the line "Love means never having to say you're sorry" is spoken by the leading lady (Ali MacGraw/Jennifer) who dies before the end of the movie and again by the leading man (Ryan O'Neal/Oliver Barrett IV) at the very end of the movie as a kind of eulogy to Jennifer.

"Love means never having to say you're sorry" became a cutesy phrase that gradually worked its way into our cultural sub-conscience. BUT "Love means never having to say you're sorry" isn't cute! It isn't true! It's actually an awful lie straight from the pit of hell!

Even the likes of John Lennon and the ridiculous Simpsons on TV know better. John Lennon said, "Love means having to say you're sorry every fifteen minutes." The Simpsons watch "Love Story" in the episode "Catch 'Em if You Can" and when the line is spoken Lisa objects, "No, it doesn't!" In the movie "What's Up, Doc?" Ryan O'Neal as another character responds to the same line, "That's the dumbest thing I ever heard." Even Warren Ellis's comic Doktor Sleepless knows better when the good Doktor says, "Hate means never having to say you're sorry."

"...never having to say you're sorry" has NO place in a restoration heart! And that's the main thing! It's NOT God's way to live! What distinguishes walking through life with Jesus from any other "faith system" is the "I'm sorry" routine at its best.

Repentance, grace and forgiveness are the heart of the Gospel. The starting point is a heart-meant "I'm sorry"! There is no magic in the words. The cure is in the intent of the heart to repent (turn in another direction away from the sin or offense) and find God's abundant grace first for our own hearts and then our forgiven hearts can extend forgiveness to others. Only God can make our "I'm sorrys" meaningful! Only God can reach into our unsorry hearts and turn them toward the Gospel!

It's fascinating that the likes of John Lennon and Warren Ellis grasp that "... never having to say, I'm sorry" is NOT the right path in life when there are so many Christians who still don't get it! "... never having to say, I'm Sorry" is a denial of the Gospel!

When Paul talks about sorrow related to repentance and the heart of the Gospel in 2 Corinthians 7:9 - 10, he says, "... your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended ... . Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death."

The restoration heart is willing to do the hard work of saying "I'm sorry" and living out the repentance of Godly sorrow! It's the Gospel! It's why Jesus came - to make a way for us to get past our pride to kneel at His cross and say, "I'm sorry" first to Him and then to each other. AND we have to keep saying "I'm sorry" as often as we must to make things right in the restoration process God has begun in our heart. Saying and meaning "I'm sorry" is the only way to make things right in relationship with each other. God's love makes saying and meaning "I'm sorry" possible and necessary!

A Wild Week - Part 2

The first week of April blew through our life like a strong March wind. There was all the drama of our return flight to Pittsburgh from our trip to Orlando and the eventual recovery of our "lost luggage." And THEN there is the completely different opportunity to serve a brother and sister in the Lord with some HUGE needs just right now!

Back in November 2007 I received an email from my sister Helen. A friend of hers from high school was possibly facing major cancer surgery at a University of Pittsburgh hospital in the near future. Long story short, we invited him and his wife to bunk at our house during their stay in Pittsburgh - or at least for Sharon to stay here.

I didn't know Keith and Sharon's "story" until now. This same sister unexpectedly walked up to Keith at high school 30 or so years ago and "out of the blue" invited him to a Bible study. He said he would but he didn't come. The next week she asked him again. He said he would but he didn't come. A third week she invited him again. For the third time (reminiscent of Peter on the day Jesus was crucified) Helen invited Keith, he promised to come and she informed him that she "didn't believe him because he had already broken his word to her twice." A third time he didn't show!

A day or so later Helen walked right up to Keith as he was hanging out with some of his buds, stuck her finger in his face and said, "You lied to me!" Then she turned and walked away.

What got Keith to the Bible study eventually wasn't Helen's invitation (tho' the invitation was important as it started the chain of events), it was her exposing "the lie." Keith thought about that. He thought about the fact that his dad always taught him that integrity is precious, that integrity is a quality of character to protect at all cost, that integrity is very difficult to "get back" once it is lost.

That's what finally moved his feet down the path to a house on York Street in Chester, South Carolina, on a certain evening. Keith was so green at Bible study stuff that he didn't even bring a Bible. That evening Helen's (and my) mother taught the Bible study and then challenged Keith with the Gospel privately after. Keith listened with his heart! After all, God is really the reason Keith finally came!

God was chasing Keith! God wanted Keith's heart in His kingdom and for His kingdom! Keith met Jesus, and his life changed forever. Today Keith and Sharon are serving the Lord in middle Pennsylvania at Grace Fellowship Church. You can read about them at http://www.gracefellowshippgm.org/. Click on "News" in the menu on the home page and read Keith's "Jelly Belly Journal." It's the story of his latest adventure with God!

Keith had surgery for his "jelly belly" cancer April 1, 2008. My "wild week" meets up with Keith and Sharon the evening of April 1 and continues. Sharon is staying with us while Keith is in the hospital. We take her across Pittsburgh each morning and go get her each evening (except for the two nights she ended up staying with Keith after he got out of ICU).

What's so amazing about God's astonishing grace is that we have been blessed by Keith and Sharon FAR more than we have been able to serve them! They are incredible servants of Jesus Christ - new friends, new family!

Keith and Sharon know what restoration is all about up front and personal. Keith and Sharon have walked over some really rough ground in their faith journey. They even lost two daughters to a mysterious brain disease. Keith and Sharon have found God faithful and more than adequate to meet every need anytime and all the time!

Did extra time to chauffeur and love and serve this precious brother and sister make this week a bit wilder than usual? Absolutely, but I wouldn't take anything for both the privilege and the opportunity to be so hugely blessed by just hanging around with Sharon especially. Sharon has a restoration heart!

Last night she sat sharing about their deaf ministry at Grace Fellowship while her food grew cold. Her passion for those who cannot hear is compelling! Put that together with all the restoration work God has done in Keith's and Sharon's hearts and these two are a dynamic duo for God's kingdom! "Wild" might be better described as awesomely and amazingly blessed!

God builds His kingdom where and as He wills. He uses a high school girl with the boldness to step outside her comfort zone to dare to issue an invitation to a Bible study to an unlikely candidate. God gives that same girl the faith and guts to persist even in the face of ridicule and rejection. God uses a mother to gently explain the Gospel to a boy until he "gets it" and comes to know Jesus. God used that boy to then invite his own crowd to come with him to the Bible study. Today many of those who came know Jesus. That chain reaction started with the faith of one gutsy girl!

God uses deafness. God uses death. God uses cancer. God builds His kingdom with some very unlikely "bricks" but He is always working to build His kingdom through His restorning Gospel one heart at a time! And that's the real reason there is a Restoration Church beginning in the South Hills of Pittsburgh - God is building His kingdom using unlikely "bricks" but God is doing His work of restoration and it's a beautiful and awesome thing to watch and participate in! You can be part of that restoration story, too!

Broken Beyond Repair? Too Lost to Be Found? Maybe or Maybe Not!

Oops! O, NO! ... Did you ever have something just slip out of your hands, crash to the floor and break into a gazillion pieces?

Did you ever do something so incredibly stupid that something is broken or someone is hurt in some life-changing way and it happened all in a moment? "OOOOOOO, NO!"

Did you ever get distracted for "just a second" and find something broken beyond mending just because you lost your concentration?

Did you ever lose something very valuable - never to be seen again - all because you failed to put it in a safe place?

Well, sorry to say, I've done all of these things and lots more. The end of the story in every case is exactly the same and equally sad - brokenness! Sometimes brokenness is "fixable" and sometimes not but brokenness never really goes away once it happens - not in this life.

Once long ago in just a second of tiredness coupled with haste my beautiful, huge cut glass punch bowl slipped through my soapy hands and cracked in two in the bottom of the sink. In that case, I found a master craftsman who could glue the punch bowl back together. I used it for years before it cracked again, but the crack was always there even if it was "fixed" so it didn't leak.

Once, just once, very long ago I had a beautiful ring, an heirloom. It was hot in our 4th floor walk-up apartment in Atlanta, GA that August evening. There was no air conditioning so the door to our little apartment was standing open to catch any flutter of a breeze. The apartment was only two small rooms. I took that beautiful ring off and laid it on the dresser in the most inside room. I'm sure that's what I did! I never saw the ring again. I don't know what happened to it. No amount of searching ever turned up that gorgeous ring - it is gone forever!

My grandfather lost both his legs in a freak accident with a gun. Being a careful man, I'm sure there were many moments over the years when he wished he had never borrowed that gun with an altered chamber and certainly never failed to check if it were entirely unloaded. But that didn't give him his legs back. That didn't change the next 55 or so years Granddaddy walked on artificial legs either. But, that particular brokenness (losing both legs in a depressed economy with a wife and four children and then losing home, business, and almost every possession in the aftermath of the accident), brought a wholeness of heart to both my grandparents they never would have had otherwise!

Brokenness and loss comes to us all. It is the "what happens next" that makes all the difference!

Jesus said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they might have life and have it abundantly." (John 10:10)

Different "thieves" sneek in under cover of night into people's lives. Sometimes the thief is pain or chronic illness. Sometimes the thief is heartache and loss so severe it takes one's breath away. Sometimes the thief is an accident or loss of some other kind. Brokenness wears many masks, and all of them are scary!

And the life pattern for life in this world is brokenness! Nothing is fixed! Nothing is ever like God intended it to be in the beginning! And there is only one Fix!

God - in His great love - for broken people in a broken world made a Way for broken lives to be mended, healed and restored. God's Way is Jesus! He said it, "I came that they (you and me) can have life and have it abundantly!" (John 10:10)

Broken lives, broken hearts, broken relationships can all be mended, healed and restored by Jesus!

Actually we have Easter to remind us of brokenness - brokenness beyond repair, brokenness beyond the lost being found, brokenness beyond healing. BUT the wonderful message of Easter is not brokenness. The wonderful message of Easter is that God sent Jesus to make all things new - to bring healing and hope and health and life! God sent Jesus to find the lost and broken and restore us all! That's the Gospel! That's the wonderful message of Easter!

AND that's exactly why there is a new Restoration Church gathering in the South Hills of Pittsburgh! That's what we are all about - brokenness and loss in many forms and finding God's restoration and healing! If that sounds like what you need, come gather with us!