that the King of glory may come in

Lift up your heads, O gates!
  and be lifted up, O ancient doors,
  that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
  the LORD, strong and mighty,
  the LORD, mighty in battle!
Lift up your heads, O gates!
  and be lifted up, O ancient doors,
  that the King of glory may come in.
Who is this King of glory?
  the LORD of hosts,
  he is the King of glory!

Psalm 24:7-10

In the time of David and the Kings of old, there was a time of great rejoicing when the arc of the covenant would come into the holy city (see 2 Samuel 6:16-19).  Though David was a king, he knew that the LORD was THE King.  There was a call to the city "Open your gates!"  The honor of having the King of glory come to dwell inside!

In the time of Herod the King a messenger from the LORD came to speak of a greater king than Herod.  The angel spoke to a young woman named Mary, a woman who was willing to open herself to the King of glory.  In a sense, it was as if the call to the city of old, came to a young woman, "Open your gates!" and open herself she did.  The honor of having the King of glory come the dwell inside!

In our own time each is his or her own king or queen, and yet at Christmastime we sing of a baby king.  A baby who grew up to be a man, a man who took his own cross, a cross on which he died, a death though, which could not hold inside the King of glory!  The King of glory cannot be contained even in death.  And the Risen King of Glory now pours Himself into those that open their gates through His Holy Spirit.  "Open your gates!"  he calls.  The honor of having the King of glory come to dwell inside!

Soon will come a day when the kings of this earth lose all their crowns and thrones and only One King will shine brighter than the light of the sun.  The King of glory will come to the open gates of the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, and the dwelling of God will be with humans.  That city's gates will be open!  The honor of having the King of glory come to dwell inside!

for white men: a white man's ideas on four dead black men

If you are already angry at the title, please know that this is intended for a specific audience:  white men.  Also know that although Tamir Rice was a boy, the man who would be also died.  This post is for my fellow white Christian men.  I am a white man.  I grew up in a small town which was almost exclusively white.  Almost no one in my town had any black friends.  I grew up not knowing who black people were.  There have been and there will continue to be many comments regarding the deaths of Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, and now Rumain Brisbon.  I understand that some of you are police officers yourselves or are family of police officers.  This post in no way is intended to demonize police officers.  In fact, the more police officers you get to know and be in relationship with, the more you come to love and respect police officers.  On the other side of the coin, the more I have begun to know and develop friendships with black men, the more I have come to love and respect black men.  This post is not intended to debate who is right and who is wrong.  The facts remain:  four black men are dead, one was just a boy.  How do we view these mourning families?  Do we view them as getting what they deserved?  Do we view these families as the problem of American society?  I believe that the less we know black people, the more we make assumptions like this, when really, we do not even know who black people are.  But in our internet posts we seem to know everything:  we could be the judge and jury in every case from Abel and Cain to Rumain Brisbon and the white officer who shot him.

If my wife is mad at me for something and I just keep telling her how wrong she is, our relationship is in a bad place.  If I say gruffly, which I have, “okay, I’m ready to listen. . . go ahead, tell me,” she is likely to stay silent.  My wife is quite intelligent and knows if I really want to listen or not.

Similar is the story of the white man and the black man in America.  Do I really want to listen?
Do I want white and black to be divided?  Do I want white and black to be reconciled?  Is my answer to that question the same as Jesus Christ’s answer?  This issue of reconciliation is not a political issue, but THE Christian issue:  God reconciling people to Himself and people to each other. 

I write this post for my fellow white men, men who are mostly in relationship to other white people.  I am suggesting, as a white male who still knows almost nothing at all about what it is like to be a black male in our society, the way towards racial reconciliation.

Very bold, you say, and you are right.  The way out is something that has been around for about two thousand years.  The way out is reconciliation in the church.  If churches continue to be white churches and black churches the racial divide will continue.  If churches become a family of believers united together across racial lines and begin to develop relationships in the Lord, I believe change will come.  I believe the time is ripe for pioneers, like my hero Ruby Bridges did in an elementary school, for people willing to take integration to the next level:  the church.   For such a time as this, we can take down the dividing wall on Sunday morning.  "It is appalling that the most segregated hour of Christian America is 11 o'clock on Sunday morning…," Martin Luther King Jr. spoke over 50 years ago.  What has changed in 50 years?   Are you willing to be a pioneer?  Am I?

Practically speaking, what can a white man do? 

Idea number one:  Join a black church. 

I believe that if even one person reading this decided to join a black church, not in your comfort zone, not in your denominational preference, something different from what you are used to, for the sake of learning to relate to black people even as I need to learn to relate to my wife, then you will be changed.  Yes, you getting up on Sunday morning and walking through the doors of a black church.  You can’t?  Why not? 

Idea number 2:  Start a multi-racial church.

If you absolutely cannot leave your church for some reason and join a black church, try to make your church into a multi-racial church.  For more information see http://www.christenacleveland.com/2013/10/a-road-map-for-diversity/   If many of us started being part of multi-racial churches, developing relationships across the racial divide, then I believe that change will come.

One last note on Rumain Brisbon:  When my mother died in an automobile accident, she hit another man head on and he died as well.  It was her car that swerved over and hit his.  She was at fault.  Maybe she fell asleep, maybe she reached down.  When the myriad of people came to the funeral to hug me, not one brought up how stupid it was for her to swerve into the other lane.  It was many of you that hugged me and grieved with me.  I ask that we give Rumain Brisbon’s wife and four children the same consolation.  Let us not shoot a dead man again. 

Idea number 3:  Speak no evil of black men on the internet.

Words are very powerful.  I have used words many times to hurt and wound people.  I have also used words to heal people.  The words we put on the internet are very powerful.  Let us not say one bad word on the internet or anywhere for that matter. 
Idea number 4:  Ask God to soften your heart towards black men.
Satan cheers when my heart is hardened to anyone.  God does not cheer at that.  It is black men who are dying in the street and being locked up in jail in staggering disproportion to white men.  Weep with their Heavenly Father.  Weep with their families.  Could we, as the family of God, grieve together over the death of Rumain and the other men?  What if Rumain was Danny Smith instead?  What would you say on the internet if I had been killed?  Those Christians reading this, let’s remember what Jesus said in the parable of the sheep and the goats at the end of Matthew 25.  You can read it for yourself.  Whatever I do for the least of these, the black widows and orphans, the black men who fill the prisons, the black men being shot and killed, I do for Jesus Christ, the King of all Kings.

For those reading this who may be grieving the loss of someone, whether it be one of the four dead black men, or the million black men in prison (see http://www.naacp.org/pages/criminal-justice-fact-sheet) I take time now as I end this post to weep over your loss and our loss.

The three rules of soccer: Advice for soccer coaches.

***********Disclaimer**********
These are the three rules of soccer for the young kids that I coach.  In some ways these could be the three rules for any sport, even individualistic sports like cross country which I have participated in as much as anyone.  If you are looking for your child to win your particular sport you may be upset and disappointed by these simplistic rules, but the kids I coach can remember them, and if the first two rules help them to actually follow rule three, which is what I have begun to see even in my kindergartners, what an effect it would have on their whole life!

Rule #1:     HAVE FUN.  Do all the things your parents say you cannot do inside: run, yell, jump, etc.

Rule #2:     BE SAFE.  Do not kick people, or their hands or heads.

Rule #3:     PLAY AS A TEAM:  "I will give a double high five to every player who passes the ball to someone on your team."  They started passing the ball to each other.  Training humans to work together toward a goal instead of working toward a goal solo is one of the hardest tasks of a teacher of any group, from preschoolers to middle-agers.

Why I have always liked LeBron James

I started liking Lebron James when he was a sophomore in high school and he was ranked the best high school basketball player by Parade magazine that comes with Sunday papers.  I said he was going to be great - that he was great, and that he was my second favorite basketball player ever (I began liking Michael Jordan when he was injured early in his career).  During mock drafts with my brother and friends I picked BronBron over the college players.  They all laughed at me.

Then our referee friend told a story of LeBron grabbing the top of the backboard (read that again) and hanging there during pre-game at a high school basketball game.  The laughter slowed down quite a bit.  I watched him on DVDs from Kenya while we were missionaries and he was in high school.

Then everyone knew him.  It did not take long.  I rooted for the Cleveland Cavs and LeBron James.  So did a lot of people.  I had the opportunity, like many others, to watch him at a game in Indianapolis.  He has obviously been blessed with ability from God.

Then he decided to go to Miami and everyone began to hate him.  People did not hate me when I went to Kenya, or Kentucky for that matter.  Why would anyone hate someone for moving?  Isn't this, as I have heard all my life, a free country?  Or is LeBron James really the PROPERTY of any man or town or state?  When kids from Cleveland or Akron go to college somewhere else, are their pictures burned and their memories erased?

Maybe we need to rethink what it is to root for someone versus what it is to root against someone.  Why the great need to root against anyone?  Why, as a Hoosier must I root against the Boilermakers?  Why, as a Buckeye must I root against the Wolverines?  Why as someone from Ohio must I root against #6 Heat?

So as Lebron comes back home I will still root for him.  If you are a Heat fan or a Kobe fan or a whoever fan, remember - you do not have to root against LeBron James.  I won't root against your team or your player or your son or your daughter.

That is why I have always liked LeBron James.   Looking forward to a great season.

Praying as Retirement

Retirement:

This is something that many people talk about how much money you are to have, but few talk about the purpose of retirement.  If a retired person does not have a purpose, what will that person do?
Here is an idea of a retirement purpose:  PRAYER.  What follows are some ideas about Praying as retirement that you can use and discard as you wish.
1.  Spend time listening for God's voice.
2.  You could set a time for listening, such as one minute for every year you are old.
3.  Go on a prayer walk every day praying for the people who live where you walk past.
4.  Go on a prayer walk and pray for other things.
5.  If you like variety like I do, have a prayer focus for every year, or even every month, such as wisdom, listening, patience, love, joy, endurance, purity, etc.
6.  Pray for different people each day of the week, for example, Sunday pray for your church body, Monday pray for your enemies, Tuesday pray for your friends, Wednesday pray for your President, Thursday pray for the famous people in the news who get into trouble, Friday pray for you town, Saturday pray for your siblings and their families.
7.  Do Yoga Prayer.  Do different Yoga positions and while in each position pray for a specific person.  Add a position and person each month.
8.  Do basketball prayer.  While shooting baskets talk to God.
9.  Pray while in the grocery store for the people who work at the grocery store, and pray for opportunities to share the Gospel with them.
10.  Pray through the newspaper.  After every article you read in the newspaper, pray for the people involved or effected by that article.

Circle of Love II

I had an earlier post about a circle of love for college dorms, and now I need to share some more on the circle of love for the Christian family.
First, the Christian family is not always a husband and a wife and some kids.  Sometimes it is two women living together, similar to the case of Ruth and Naomi.  Sometimes it is a polygamous family in rural Africa.  Sometimes it is what it is.  Whatever family you find yourself in, you can use the idea of circle of love, if there are people in your family willing to talk.
The circle of love is for talking and listening.  It is a circle of couches or chairs in which people can talk with one another.  Here are some ideas regarding the circle of love.
1.  Turn the TV and internet phones off.
2.  Ask the one who does not share as much if there is anything they would like to share.
3.  Let each person talk about whatever they want.
4.  Practice your listening skills.
5.  Talk about where you would like to live.
6.  Talk about a dream vacation.
7.  Talk about your favorite food.
8,  Talk about your favorite book or movie.
9.  Talk about stories from the past, so that they can be passed on to the next generation.
10.  Talk about things you want to do as a family.

What word does the sprinkled blood speak? (Hebrews 12:24)

The blood of Abel spoke "LEAVE!" and Cain was banished, stained, and left without much hope, being the first of many to kill his own brother.
The blood of Jesus Christ speaks a different word, "COME!"  Jesus invites his disciples to drink of the new covenant in his blood the night before he dies.  "Come!"
The blood of Jesus says "Come and be Clean" (1 John 1:7).
The blood of Jesus says "Come and Overcome (Revelation 12:11).
The blood of Jesus says "Come and Move Home (Hebrews 10:19).
The blood of Jesus says "Come to Eternal Life (John 6:54).

Come and be Clean
                      Overcome
                      Move home
                  to Eternal Life

Are you dirty and beaten down?  Do you feel banished and that death is knocking on your door?
The blood of Jesus knocks stronger - "COME"

Whatever our circumstance today, let us together come to the foot of the cross and let the blood of Jesus clean us, make us to overcome the evil one, move us home, and give us eternal life.

Jesus does have a wife

Jesus does have a wife, that is, in the eschatological sense.  The new text spoken of here: 

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/04/10/new-tests-show-evidence-forgery-gospel-jesus-wife/IusII8b4eI86HgDTKipLhN/story.html
    
that may be a forgery saying Jesus had a wife, or just someone in the eighth century writing for the Enquirer is not the first reference to Jesus being married. The last book of the Bible, Revelation, describes the Bride (wife) of Jesus, speaking, indeed, of the time to come, the eschaton.  "Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb."  Revelation 21:9.  

It is very hard for us in this sexual time we live in to divorce intimacy with sexual intercourse.

Intimacy does not equal sexual intercourse.  Harvard professor Karen L. King's study of the ancient text would be much more quickly passed over if this belief that sex is intimacy and that no sex is death were not so dominant in our culture.

   "I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star."  The Spirit and the Bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who desires take the water of life without price.                        

                                                                 Revelation 22:16-17

52 Tattoos

How many people do you know who have gotten a tattoo only to regret it?  Maybe it was a relationship, “Billy Joe loves Betty Sue,” or somewhere too prominent like the forehead, or someplace too personal, “Can I see your tattoo?”  I know a few.  Maybe you or your child or brother is one.  I have an idea for you.

First let me make some other points about the downside of traditional tattoos besides their permanency.   They are costly.  You can tell me that $50 - $70, or even $300 is no big thing to you, but let’s say you get 52 tattoos for $50 apiece.  That comes to $2600.  If you catch the tattoo fever it is not unreasonable to think you could drop a couple of grand on tattoos.

I have an idea that will help you in your desire for tattooing yourself.  It will help you to be able to change your mind.  It will help you to be able to pick from several of your favorite tattoos.   It will also help you save a couple of grand.  Finally, it will help bring out the artist inside of you, and possibly your friends and family.

Open your junk drawer.  The one with the pens and pencils.  See if there is a permanent marker.  If you can find not even one permanent marker, then decide on your favorite color.  If you like lots of colors and cannot decide, no problem.  This idea is fine with indecision.  This could be called the tattoo idea for people who are indecisive.  Next time you go to the store buy a pack of Sharpie permanent markers (variety of colors).  You will spend approximately $5.  That $5 (okay maybe $10) will buy you 52 tattoos for you and 10 other people, a savings of $25,000.  Wow, you just funded one of your kid’s retirement or funded an orphanage in Nepal.  Okay, now go back home.

Now talk you’re the most creative artsy person you know – if that is yourself, talk to yourself.  Say, “Self, what do I want to tattoo on my body?”  If you want you can make a drawing of it on paper before you start drawing or writing on yourself.  If you are too impulsive for that, just start drawing on yourself.  If you want you can tattoo yourself, or have someone else tattoo yourself, once a week.  The advantages to this are enormous.  First, hopefully you can see how much money you would save.  Second, if you do not like it wash it off.  Third, if you do like it keep writing it on after you wash it off.  Fourth, if you really get crazy and write on your forehead, just wash harder.  Fifth, you can create a blog or a facebook stream about the new tattoo you get each week, posting a “selfie” and now having something steady to say on facebook instead of complaining about the weather or that your Hoosiers lost – although you could do a tattoo of the bad weather and the losing Hoosiers (maybe soon the winning Hoosiers).

Since you may not have 52 ideas for your tattoos, I will include a few to get you started.

1.        Tattoo “your name loves your spouse” over your heart.

2.       A Bible verse along your arm.

3.       Your mission statement (Don’t have one – make one).

4.       Those stick figure family things you see on the back of cars.

5.       Your SAT score on your forehead (It’ll wash off).

6.       Song lyrics.

7.       Movie Quotes.

8.       Have your kids draw on your back (If that is too scary, have them practice on paper first).

9.       Ask your kids for ideas.

10.   Ask your friends for ideas.

11.   Copy other people with real tattoos who do not have the advantage of erasing them easily.

12.   A silhouette of your dog.

13.   “Ain’t nobody got time for that”

14.   24601

15.   Other languages – my favorite is Hebrew and Greek bible quotes.

16.   The names of those close to you.

17.   Have your child who cannot write cursive learn by writing  the Gettysburg Address on your back.

18.   Another child – have them write John 17 on your back.

19.   Tattoo the names of your bones where they are: femur, patella, etc.

20.   Same as 19 but with muscles.

21.   Eagle on your back.

22.   Rubix cube (Remember you have lots of colors).

23.   Your momma’s name.

24.   Your family tree.

That should get you started.

the G.O.S.P.E.L.

Here is an acronym for our biblical word Gospel.  Before I get to the acronym, the word gospel comes from an old English word, god spel, meaning good news.  The Greek word from the New Testament is euaggelion.  So what is the good news we speak of.  John 3:16:  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life."  The gospel is the good news of God's love for us.

God's (John 3:16)
Overwhelming (Exodus 34:6)
Sacrificail (John 15:13)
Perfect (1 John 4:18)
Everlasting (Psalm 136)
Love (1 John 4:16)

Listening to my teenager during 2014.

2014 is the year I have a teenager.  I feel like I already have one.  One of the things I notice most about having a teenager (almost) is - Oh how the tables have turned!  I was once the teenager who had parents who did not know anything, but now I am the parent who does not know anything.  I was once the teenager who had parents who did not understand, and now I am the parent who does not understand.

I have a tendency to tell my almost teenager to stop talking, pardon my language, to tell him to shut up.

Why?  Watch the first episode of the Cosby show.

He says things that make no sense.

Some of you reading already know this - I am the one who needs to shut up.  One of my worst faults is not shutting my mouth.  So this year in 2014 - the year of the teenage fatherhood, I seek first to understand, not to be understood.

I am setting as a big goal to actually listen to my teenager in 2014.

What is your ides for 2014?

Pants on the ground

“Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, looking like a fool with your pants on the ground, pull them up” was the song going through my head as I saw the man with his pants at his knee and all of his underwear showing.  I thought to myself, “Doesn’t he realize that is shameful, and that shame is something to avoid?  Doesn’t he know that the lifestyle of pants on the ground is one that leads to incarceration, where they take all your clothes, aka – all your clothes are on the ground?  So it begins with pants on the ground, a wasted life.”

Such were my thoughts as Jesus tried to speak to me.  I say tried because it took some time before I listened.  But faintly I began to hear Jesus say something to me.

“Danny, you are judging him based on only what he looks like.” 

Then Jesus said, “Let me show you something.”

He took me back 2000 years ago to where it started for him, a wasted life.

It started with the Pharisees judging him (Luke 5) much like I judged the man with the sagging pants.  Then Jesus was incarcerated (Luke 22) and he was shamefully stripped of all of his clothing three times (Matthew 27) and as he hung on the cross and his clothing on the ground being bartered for, they mocked him with songs similar to “Pants on the ground, pants on the ground, Jesus, you are looking like a fool with your pants on the ground.”

If Jesus died today in your town or state or country, what would the crowd say about him?  What would the Facebook posts say, or the twitter feeds?  We would say the same things we say about the people who are being executed today by lethal injection and all other means around the world. 

Jesus dying on the cross was the “foolishness of God which is wiser than the wisdom of men” (1 Corinthians 1).   In fact, this foolishness of God is the wisest thing that exists, and the only way by which we may become wise.  The weakness of God, Jesus Christ with his pants on the ground, is the only way for us to have strength.  The condemnation of Christ is the way we have no condemnation.  The incarceration of Christ is the way our prison bars are swung open.  The shame of Christ is our honor, the stripping of Christ clothes us with righteousness, and it is by His stripes we are healed, and it is through His death that we have life.  What Jesus wanted to show me is that the man with his pants on the ground was really a picture of Him. 

“God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise” (1 Corinthians 1:27).

The Pharisees said, “He has a demon, he is a blasphemer.”  God said, “He is my chosen son.”

I said, “Looking like a fool with your pants on the ground.”  God says, “I choose him.”

We say, “She is too sick.”  God says, “I choose her.”

We say, “He is a worthless alcoholic.”  God says, “I choose him.”

We say, “He is a sex offender, unfit to live.”  God says, “I choose him.”

What do they say about you?  God says, “I choose you.”

Why does God choose me?

Because He loves to show how strong the weakness of Christ is.

Because He loves to show how wise the foolishness of Christ is.

Because it has nothing to do with you and everything to do with Christ, and Him crucified.

“I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).

Paul added nothing to the gospel, the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ and him crucified.  We must add nothing either, not “pull up your pants,” or sag them, or drink, or don’t drink, or be circumcised, or be uncircumcised.

When we add one thing to the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified we poison it.  For if we add one thing we say that Jesus Christ and him crucified is not enough.

What if people take the grace of God for granted, what if they abuse the love of God? . . .

It was then that I realized. . .

Oh, the foolishness of God to love us without condition, whether we respond to your love or not, for abused you were, and taken for granted you were.

The foolishness of God.