NEW WEBSITE!!!

I've been toying with the idea of moving my blog to an actual website for a few couple years now.  I have actually bought no less than THREE domain names, never used them and let them float off into the obscurity of the interwebs.  Then my lovely wife said she wanted to consolidate her thoughts, ideas and other creative notions (photography, DIY, etc…) into one easy to access locale and so she did… you can see it all here at All The Things.  After she did all the leg work on hers, it resparked the interest in me to launch my own thing.  I thought, “Eh, it seemed pretty easy for Sarah. No probs.” Yeah, not so much, still had to ask her for help on setting up mine.  Nonetheless, I launched and I’m pretty excited about it.  I present to you my new site…

#APPROACHGOD

www.approachgod.com

My new site consolidates both of my blogs, #APPROACHGOD and New Directions.  #APPROACHGOD will continue with the same feel, small truths about God’s availability to us through Jesus.  However, in keeping with its namesake, New Directions will move in a, well, new direction.  Over the last few months God has been moving my heart toward a new understanding of what it means to be with and follow Jesus (you can see the beginning of that in a recent post HERE).  I’m still fleshing a lot of it out, but New Directions will be a chronicle, of sorts, for the journey I’m led on.  My intent is to just write about Jesus.  No more leadership concepts, no more discipleship ideas, no more ministry ideas, just Jesus.  I have no idea what that will look like in writing and I’m not sure how long the season will be, maybe until I get it, which given my history, might be awhile.

Anyone, and I mean ANYONE, is welcome to walk this journey with me.  Share your ideas, your thought, your misconceptions, your hopes, whatever you want; I’d love to hear it.  What do you think of Jesus?  Not Christianity, the man, Jesus.

 

Everything is about to change.

Bruce

Confession of a Christian

Here it is:  I am an amazing Christian.

That’s it. I am. I am truly one of the best Christians I know.

I can tell you the Gospel story from birth to ascension.  I can tell you the parables and teachings Jesus spoke. I can tell you that Jesus said to love God and people and what that looks like.  I can break down Pauline teachings and how Jesus built His Church on the rock, Peter.  I can tell you what the model for building genuine gospel-centered community should look like.  I can tell you the flaws in both “institutional” and “organic” church.  I can tell you what it looks like to succeed in ministry and what it takes to fail in it.  I can tell you what you need to do to be an amazing husband, father, brother and friend.  I can counsel the crap out of you if you are struggling at work, in marriage, as a parent, in your devotional life, prayer life or even thug life (heh, just kidding, I’m gangsta, not thug).  I’ve read enough books on church planting I could probably; no…definitely, help you develop a strategic plan for launching a church.  I can even tell you what’s wrong with all the other “Christians”.  You know the ones.  The ones that hate gays, or liberals, or abortion supporters, or Muslims, or atheists. The Christians that aren't me.  I can break down scripture so you can understand it and even apply it to you life. I can teach, preach (not amazing at this yet, but getting there), lead a small group and disciple people. While all or some of that may seem pretty intense or difficult, for me it comes pretty easy.  Pretty amazing, right.

I should probably explain.

Over the last 6 months or so, God has been really challenging my heart on some stuff.  It’s been pretty heavy, paradigm shifting stuff and I couldn't exactly put all of it into context.  The stuff I did "get", I didn't exactly like what He was trying to get me to reconsider.  Then, last week, I began reading "Speaking ofJesus" by Carl Medearis. I'm only six chapters in, but God is already confirming a lot of stuff He's been saying.  Well, it's less like confirming and more like He's yelling, "Hey, stop ignoring Me and get on board with what I'm telling you!"

Here's the main thrust of what He's saying, "Being a Christian and following Jesus are not always the same thing. They're not always synonymous and most times, they're not even close."

Here's what that means, at least to my heart.

Medearis uses a quote given by author Donald Miller during an interview on a “secular” radio show.  The quote was Miller’s response to the question of why he wouldn't defend Christianity.  It was a great quote and long, but the gist of it was about the hurt people, throughout history, have caused in the name of Christianity (from the crusades to the inquisitions, the sexual abuse by Catholic priest to people simply being yelled at by a “Christian”).  He went on to say if you ask 10 random people what they think Christianity is, each would have a different answer.  Then he asked, “How do I defend a religion against 10 different ideas of what that religion is?” (I paraphrased)  Instead Miler opted to talk about Jesus, apart from Christianity.  When you present Jesus, without attachment to any institution, all you have is Him.  And when all you have is Jesus, you don’t have to defend anything, you just get to speak of your Lord and God, who loves you.

What God has been saying to me is Christianity (by itself) ≠ Follower of Jesus.

I’m positive it’s a right idea, but here’s my problem with it.  I’m good at being a Christian.  And if I’m honest, my real confession is…

I suck at following Jesus.

I’m not good at it.  I flat out fail Him on a continuous basis.  Sometimes I scream at my kids.  I deal harshly with my wife.  I often bring strife to my marriage instead of peace.  I hate my job and don’t appreciate it as a blessing.  I gossip.  Speak mean of others.  I’m sarcastic and often condescending towards coworkers.  I’m selfish.  I’m ungracious with others faults.  I hold grudges.  Occasionally a curse word slips out.  Sometimes, I read my bible out of duty, rather than to spend time with God.  I can be unforgiving.  I let fear and anger reside in my heart.  I point out other’s splinters, while looking pass the redwood in my eye.  Sometimes, I compare my small sin against other’s egregious sin, and then pridefully declare my righteousness.

It’s so much easier to DO Christianity, than to BE a follower of Jesus.

I want to change that.  I want to follow Jesus.  I want to follow Him unabated and unattached.  Just Him.

One of the things that holds me back is the fear of being labeled that, “Hippy, on the fringe, organic, crazy ‘Jesus’ guy”.  Maybe it’s an invalid fear, maybe it isn’t.  I’m comfortable in the “mainstream”, but I long for the not so mainstream.  It’s just, I believe in a lot of the aspects of mainstream (or what some call “institutional”) church.  I believe that churches like Mars Hill, New Spring, Community Christian, The Village, and my home church Element, are being used by God to reach the lost and the hurting and making disciples.  I also believe in a lot of aspects of not so mainstream (or what some call organic) church.  Frank Viola, Alan Hirsch and ministries like Verge Network are leading the way in community and movement and disciple making.  I’ve been a part of a ministry in which God allowed an amazing balance of organic structure.  But even that was a lot of DO and so little BE at times.

The other thing that’s been holding me back is the fear of not being good at it.  Failing Jesus, if you will.  I’m good at doing all the Christian things.  Most people would probably never peg me as a “mess”.  If I let all that go and just BE a follower of Jesus, I might (most likely WILL) mess it up.  The sad truth is I’m already a mess, so it's already not working out.  The better truth of it is, it doesn't matter that I'll fail, Jesus won't.  

To be clear, I’m not saying I don’t know or have Jesus.  I’m not even saying my heart is not being changed by Jesus.  It is.  But the process is slow going.  I have to believe the progress would be more substantial if I let go of all the peripheral “Christian” stuff and focused more on just Him.  Then I don’t have to defend anything.  I can just speak of Jesus and He’ll do all the rest.

I’m trying to figure out how to put all the junk away so I can just be with Him.  As always, comments or suggestions are welcome.  Maybe we should start a Christians Anonymous.

Hello, my name is Bruce and I’m a Christian.

Praise Him in the Storm? How?

~1 Thessalonians 5:16-18~

¹⁶ Rejoice always, ¹⁷ pray continually, ¹⁸ give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

~Philippians 4:6~

⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Can I be honest with you?  For me, those above verses are some of the HARDEST in the bible.  They're the hardest because of those words I highlighted and bolded.  Those verses tell me I'm supposed to ALWAYS rejoice (or praise God) and ALWAYS give thanks, no matter what is going on in my life.  What? How?

It Seems Impossible

How do I praise Him in those times when I feel alone, or angry or sad?  How do I praise Him and give thanks to Him in the midst of a storm, when all I know to do during a storm is run for cover?  I WANT to praise Him.  I know it's good and needed and refreshing.  I WANT to delight in Him.  But how, when your in a place of despair, do you rejoice?  How are you supposed to be thankful when all you want to do is break down, cry your heart out and run for it?

I suppose if you're a "good" Christian, you "just give it to Jesus".  I've been directed that way many times by Christians that either don't want to give their time or don't know what else to say.  You know how I know it's one of those two things?  Because, when I ask them how to do that, the answer is always, "You just do. Pray about it."  "Just give it to Jesus" is the Christianeze cure all.  It gets you out of being involved in what a Christian brother or sister is going through.  Ftr, I'm fully aware giving our problems and sorrows to Jesus is biblical, but it isn't meant to be used to brush the hurting away.  It's meant to provide hope.

But I digress, how do we praise and give thanks in everything, especially when we don't "feel" it or everything in our heart cries out hurt.  I know first hand the difficulty in praising and being thankful in the midst of despair.  So what do we do? Or rather, what do I do?

Run For It!!!

When the storm comes it's natural and necessary to run for refuge and cover.  So in our daily life, when the storm is laying waste to us, with full force, don't try to be Lt. Dan from Forrest Gump.  We're not meant to "weather the storm".  Ultimately we're fragile and dependent on Him, so run to Him for refuge.  Psalm 91:9 & 10 say, 

If you say, “The Lord is my refuge,”

and you make the Most High your dwelling,

no harm will overtake you,

no disaster will come near your tent. 

That's not saying storms will never come.  On the contrary, if there were no storms, we wouldn't need refuge.  And I know that's just as abstract an idea as "just give it to Jesus".  Here's what I've found taking refuge in Him looks like to me (I'm certain I'm not the only one either).  We take refuge in Him by taking refuge in the truth of His Word.  Since Jesus is The Word, when you take refuge in the truth of His Word, you're taking refuge in Him.  For me, that means verbalizing scriptural truths about who He is.  Things that remind me He IS love, He IS good, He is FOR me, He will NEVER leave or forsake me.  Even when I am not able or don't feel it would be genuine for me to lift up a "joyful" heart, I can get in His word and recite some very specific truths about Him.  I think that pleases Him.  When our heart feels alone and desperate for relief, simply calling out those truths can bring comfort and prepares the way for God to make His presence known and comfort you.  I love the way the AMP translation addresses Job 22:21. It says, ²¹ Acquaint now yourself with Him [agree with God and show yourself to be conformed to His will] and be at peace; by that [you shall prosper and great] good shall come to you. We acquaint ourselves with Him by knowing what His Word declares

Here's a couple verses I typically declare:

• Ephesians 3:19
• Deuteronomy 31:6
• Romans 8:28
• Psalm 91:9-10
• Jeremiah 29:11

That's just the ones I use, maybe you have your own.

Bruce