Drop Kicking Depression

This is the time of year when depression runs rampant. Whether it’s the dark rainy days, cold weather, monotony of "tis the season to be stressed out….ayayayayayaya, loneliness, or noticing your getting older every year, we are easily pulled down.

I am kind of a pessimist by nature and so I have some pointers I would like to offer up to you, that have literally been life saving for me over the course of my constant struggle with the big D.

1. Worship—I grab a guitar and start to sing praise. 10 out of 10 times this changes me. If you don’t play a guitar then play a cd, or put on some headphones and worship in praising Jesus for He is God With Us. Start your day with the Living Word of God. If your a mom write down a scripture at night to meditate on in the morning like a cow chewing its cud :). I thought you’d especially like that analogy :)

2. Excersice—there’s nothing like benching 350 lbs to put a smile on your face. Stress kills our bodies and it is proven that exercise kills stress and builds endorphins. A gym membership is not a bad idea and worth it. You are going to spend money on other stuff when your depressed anyways. 
It takes discipline and planning, but that is life. Do a dorky video workout on netflix if you have to.

3. Seek help. Sometimes we get so low it seems we can’t get up. God designed us to need each other. Call someone and tell them the truth, and ask for prayer.

4. Eat real food. There is so much unhealthy food that screams our name through commercials and billboards that show us that if we eat huge quantities of food that is very fattening we will be overcome with joy and gladness. The truth is we will be overcome with fat and discouragement. There is tons of evidence that naturopathic remedies are the way to go. Eating the food God designed us to eat is the way to go.

5. You may need to seek help from a doctor that can help you—after you have sought the Lord over it. If you are suicidal, sick, or unable to get out of bed, it may mean your body is saying “my hormones are completely shot” at which point medical help is needful. Keep in mind the doctor is required to tell you that the pills he will prescribe will not heal you. They can surely help you get going though, and you may need this to make progress. What is heart breaking to me are the countless number who get on medication but do not change their lifestyle to be God-honoring in their health.

6. Bless Someone. 
Get involved on the city and find a way to bless someone. Only thinking about yourself seriously sucks the life out of you. God did not design you for this intention at all. This is the only way to experience a great Christmas.

7. Watch out! You’re about to get super busy in the next week and a half. You need time with Jesus. He is Immanuel “God With Us”. We are created to connect with him. Sin in our lives kills us. Repent of sin in your life and pursue holiness. The passions of the flesh wage war against our souls. If you are a college student and are in your home town, please spend time with Jesus. There are so many temptations that Satan wants to hit you with. Stand firm and know you are not alone in your temptations, and that the Lord will provide a way to escape. The Lord wont allow anything to come our way that we cannot defeat in the power of the Holy Spirit.

another note to the college person….
It’s ok to be alone. If you don’t go to that party you will survive. Instead, seek the Lord. The time I had one Christmas break ended up being the crossroads of my walk with Jesus. My life radically changed 10 years ago by being alone away from all the junk, and the Lord met me in weakness. Grab a Bible and your journal and seek the Lord. Good books are a great way to spend some time. If you would like any recommendations for books just hit me up on the city. Express order a book. I do it all the time!

A God Story

Friday afternoon Miranda, Lisa, and Becky had made a crazy trip to Winco loading up 2 grocery carts full of food. There were some inquisitive looks and questions by others at the sight of three gals having fun loading up on groceries donated by some families from our church family.

I was getting a bit nervous because all I had was an address given to me by a school nurse of an apparently single mom in need. What if she wasn’t home? What if she would be offended? What if she doesn’t care? What if’s filled my head. I called Jake, and Steve, and we loaded up the groceries taking Becky with us.

After having trouble finding the place (thanks to google maps) we found the street and cluster of apartments. I have to confess I felt a bit silly and extreme going to all this trouble and getting others to go to all this trouble to get some groceries to a specific location without knowing if they were even home.

I was relieved to hear some stirring as I knocked on the door with no porch light tucked in the back of the complex. A very confused mother in her 40’s along with her 12 year old daughter answered the door. It was a weird moment. Me and my mother in law, white suburbanite middle class America standing in front of a Hispanic single mother and her 12 year old daughter at 8 o’clock at night. There was an awkward pause as I tried to explain to her I was a pastor (that one is always a shocker) and then I simply told her we were wanting to bless them. She invited us in and I noticed a painting of a man praying over some bread, and sensed some excitement in Sara her 12 year old daughter. I also noticed they were having Peanut Butter and Jelly for dinner.

Jake and Steve backed up the truck and we started bringing groceries in. Once they were unloaded I could just see Udella the mother beginning to fight back tears. I asked her how we could pray and she said her daughter had been sick for a long period of time. I began to pray and could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit so thick in the moment. Udella began to freely cry, and her daughter began to cry as I prayed for them. I was trying to choke back tears while I prayed but there was no use. We found ourselves smack dab in the middle of a moment with the living God. All I know is that God likes to show up in moments like these. I felt like Peter seeing before his eyes the Holy Spirit working as he went to a place he wasn’t used to going. I realized then and there that when the ministry and message of reconciliation are united, the Holy Spirit brings it hard. He penetrated all of our hearts that night.

I wonder when Jesus said, “do this in remembrance of me” as He broke bread with the disciples, if He was not alluding to more than a ritual. A ritual absolutely as we remember Him, but perhaps more. Maybe He was saying, be broken and poured out as I have been broken and poured out for you, “do this in remembrance of me.” “He who seeks to save his life will lose it”, and “he who loses his life will find it.”

He Hears Their Cry

 "And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows."  Exodus 3:7

God is a God of mercy who hears the cry of the oppressed. These Hebrews were certainly oppressed as they built brick after brick after brick, to build the Egyptian empire.  He delivered those who were oppressed in Egypt and called them His people.  He chose them to be a people who would be his body, representing Himself to the rest of the world.  God commanded them to sabbath, to take a day off once a week to remind themselves that they aren't in Egypt anymore, and that their identity doesn't come from how many bricks you can produce and how big your empire can be.  Their significance comes from the God who rescued them, and the new life outside of exile that He offers.

Exodus means to deliver out of exile--deliverance.

These Hebrews quickly began to prosper after they were delivered out of Egypt.  They were at the height of their prosperity under the reign of Solomon.  But something happened.  Solomon's heart was turned away, and they began to create their own empire and began to oppress their own......slaves.

And God began to hear the cry of the oppressed once again.  His people hardened their hearts and they forgot He had delivered them out of Egypt--that world system of thinking.

They were commanded by God, "do not mistreat or oppress a foreigner, for you were foreigners in Egypt.  Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan....Do not deny justice to your poor people."

It's as if God is saying, "the deliverance you have experienced--go and make that happen for others who are oppressed."  But they didn't...

they forgot...

May we not forget we are blessed to be a blessing.  God's heart has not changed.

The Theology That Matters

I attended George Fox University, and Corban College……..

and then there was……..

Lane Community College.

Quite the contrast, and if you have ever lived in Eugene you will know what I am talking about. They say Portland is the brain, Salem is the heart, and Eugene is the lower intestine. I went from George Fox to Lane C.C. I realized then and there that all my theology was fake. It was simply a structure in my mind. My life had little impact on the world, and the world was having big impact on me. I felt like the guy being ground and pound in a UFC bout. Why?

I realized everything I was taught only worked around “churched” people. I then realized the theology that matters is not the theology we profess, but the theology we practice. Don’t take that as me saying a Christian doesn’t need to know how to share the gospel, but rather no one is going to listen to you if they do not see your theology fleshed out. No one will want to be discipled by you if your life is categorical.

John Stott has said, 
“Our static, inflexible, self-centered structures are “heretical structures” because they embody a heretical doctrine of the church. If our structure has become an end in itself, not a means of saving the world, it is a heretical structure."

What does gospel-centered community look like? It might look like this.

• seeing church as an identity instead of a responsibility to be juggled alongside other commitments.
• celebrating ordinary life as the context in which the word of God is proclaimed with “God talk” as a normal feature of everyday conversation.
• Running fewer holy huddles and more time sharing our lives with unbelievers.
• Starting new congregations instead of trying to grow one huge one.
• preparing Bible-talks and sermons with other people instead of always studying alone at a desk.
• Having churches that are messy instead of churches that pretend to be “dialed”

Missional Madness

Missional has become a buzzword in Christianity.  It often times is a "junk drawer word" used to describe whatever way, you think the church is sucking and needs to be better.  But no one seems to know what it actually means to be "missional".  The following are three interpretations of the word "missional" that people tend to exit off the "missional highway".

Exit 1= It means missionary, which means contextualization.  In other words, we just need to learn the culture and communicate well in the culture--this means "missional".

Exit 2= Mission.  We need to be focused on the mission of conversion and transformation.  What good is it to give some one a cup of cold water without the message of reconciliation. This means "missional".

Exit 3=Missio Dei, Kingdom.  Social justice is what "missional" means.  We need to take care of the poor and needy.

What i find interesting is that every book I read on the church exits the highway off one of these exits based on their eschatology (view of the end times).  It seems to me that all three of these aspects are in fact what it looks like for the church to hold the keys of the kingdom.  The church is not the kingdom, but is God's instrument to live in the now and not yet kingdom.  Jesus is coming back, but he has also already been here.  He inaugurated his kingdom, but it is now, and not yet.  I have been convicted in realizing I love the idea of being a missionary about the mission, but have had a reserved heart towards the kingdom.  I do not believe we will create a utopia, and then Jesus will say, "great job, now I will come rule my kingdom".  Psalm 2 is clear in that Jesus will come back with a "can of stomp" before perfect peace is ushered in.  Peter also tells us that the times are going to get worse, not better.  I think because of this understanding of the kingdom being now, and not yet, we fail to care about the now.
I think we need to repent of our throwing around a word that often times has no meaning to us whatsoever.

Evidences Of God's Grace

The Corinthian church was truly jacked-up.  Yet Paul starts his letter off to them recognizing all the evidences of grace in their lives (1 Cor.1:1-7).  What are the evidences of God's grace in your life?  If you are married this makes for great conversation and great thoughts before bed.  If you are single this makes for great conversation with yourself. 

Paul was "separated to the gospel" the word separated is "pharisee". Pharisees were a sect of Jewish religionists who focused on what they would try not to do.   Paul used to be separated by focusing on things not to do.  Now he is "phariseed" to the gospel.  Focusing on your sin will never free you from it.  Focusing on something more enticing than sin--namely, Jesus will free you.  

All You Can Do Is Cry

Crying is such a blessing from God.  Last night as my boys sat on my lap in my office listening to Bon Iver I just broke down and cried.  I realized that in my sin and folly I could have so easily missed out on these blessings.  In my sin and folly, God could have left me to my self.  In my sin and folly, God could have let me be what I wanted to be, and become what I wanted to become.  It's in those moments, when the only proper thing to do-- is cry.  Why God has intervened in my life I have no known reason--it has all been grace.  He has literally snatched me out of the fire.  I am so thankful.  I am beyond thankful.  Heaven is going to rock, and I have tasted a glimpse in the now and not yet.  If you are reading this blog and wondering what the answer to life is....it is not family....it's not sex.....it's not money.....it's not comfort....it's not lack of suffering....it's not spirituality.....the answer to life is Jesus.  He is the messiah, he loves so deep and pure, in a way this world cannot describe.  He was crucified on my behalf to save me from myself.  You need to know my Jesus.
Isaiah 53:6 "We all went astray like sheep; we have all turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished Him for the iniquity of us all."
My boys always want things repeated, "daddy read it again, do it again, sing it again",  the gospel is something that will never tire in a world full of everything that tires.