Christian Music #1 Evie

My first exposure to Christian Music was when I was in my mother's womb listening to her sing praise songs to Jesus.  Praising Jesus has always been a part of my life.  I am going to share in the next ten posts Christian Music that has been influential in my life to lead me to Jesus.

My mom played Evie records in our house growing up, and our favorite was "I may be 4 foot eleven but I'm going to heaven, and that makes me feel ten feet tall."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quPBRwFsljU

The faith of Judas

At the end of John 6 many disciples walk away from Jesus because of his hard teaching that they could not accept.  Jesus knew the ones who did not believe.
The twelve did not turn away but stayed and believed that Jesus was the Holy One of God.
One group did not believe and walked away.
One group believed and did not walk away.
One group had unbelief.
One group had belief.
Their belief shaped their behavior.
What about Judas?  What kind of belief did he have?
Judas was known to Jesus as the one who would betray him, as also Jesus knew those who did not believe.  So it seems that Judas is in the lot with those who did not believe.
On the other hand, Judas was one of the Twelve, who did not walk away, so it would appear that Judas was with those who believe.  What group was Judas in?  I believe that Jesus hints at this when he calls Judas a devil.
The devil is a liar, and the father of lies.
Judas had devilish belief.
Judas was a liar.
Judas pretended to go on with belief in Jesus, even though instead of following Jesus he intended to lead Jesus into a trap.
How am I like the many who walked away?
How am I like the twelve who believed and stayed with Jesus, having no plan B?
How am I like Judas, clinging to my own agenda, and pretending like it is following Christ, when I am only using Christ for my own purposes?

Lord, search my heart, and if there is any devilish belief, strip it out of me at whatever cost.
Please, Lord search our hearts, and help us to have true belief.

Carefrontation

When I was in college at a Christian University, someone introduced me to the idea of care-frontation.  Confrontation sounds so bad right?  It often can go bad, especially when I am confronting my kids.  I am also a soccer coach and I coach the blue team.  Often I have to yell these two words from the sidelines of a game, "SAME TEAM!"  I feel like someone should yell these two words to me when I am yelling at my kids.

Let me discuss three main aspects of how confrontation usually goes normally with my children. After something triggers my anger I decide what the main goal is, and 1. the main goal is for me to win the arguement.  After the main goal is established, I go about accomplish it by 2. the strategy of fight or flight (mostly fight), by using my voice as a weapon.  3.  I see myself as my ally, and the kids are my enemies.

Funny how this confrontation style, the one that comes naturally to me, is not very effective.  It usually creates a war in which win or lose I always feel horrid about later.  Is there any hope for confrontation, or should we not confront?

That is where Paul in Galatians 6:1 helps us in describing what I think is where people must have found the idea of carefrontation.

"Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.  Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted."

Essentially Paul was crying, "SAME TEAM!"

1.  The goal is not for me to win but for the team to win.  Restore him to what? - to the team.
2.  The way toward restoration is not fight or flight, but in a spirit of gentleness.  If I come calmly, the other person will not as easily perceive me as the enemy.
3.  The enemy is myself.  There is no I in team.  Not only could I fall prey to the very sin the other person was caught in, but I could be caught in the more destructive sin of self-righteousness and pride.

How can you do this in your life?

Decide who God is leading you to confront.
1.  See the goal as a team win not an individual win (same team).
2.  Approach not as an enemy, but as a friend (same team).
3.  Watch yourself, especially lifting yourself above the other (same team).

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.