Salt

In Do Hard Things, they started talking about how we are asked to be the salt of the earth. In biblical times, the salt was what was used to preserve the meat for people to eat. It was rubbed into the meat to slow the process of decay. But the only way to slow the process of decay was to be rubbed into the meat, to be spread out over the decaying flesh. It wasn't done by just the act of being salt, it had to be put to work. It had to be removed from the comfy spot next to all the other salt crystals...it had to be spread out from the others it had spent time with to be useful...we have to be in the world but not of it.

This is pretty counter to what has been done in most churches for a very long time. We only go out to scream at people that they are decaying, we love to yell and "preach" to them all about their decay, but we refuse to infuse ourselves into their lives. We refuse to touch them and mingle, why do that when yelling is so effective? But to really preserve them, it is messy...it takes throwing yourself in...risking touching others who are decaying, and getting some of that decay on you...it is inevitable, when you rub up on decay, it will get on you, and it will be stinky, nasty, death...but you will be bringing that person life, and life more abundant...you will be helping to keep them alive to fulfill their purpose.

It takes a sacrifice...and it takes strength. The next line is a warning: DO NOT LOSE YOUR SALTINESS!!!!! This is the churches job: retain, refresh, renew our saltiness, so that we may go back out into the smelly, stinky, nasty, DYING world and preserve it for the coming of our Savior. We are to be brothers and sisters to the other salt crystals, we are to help them retain their strength for the battle. There will be some who will be overcome by the death all around them, they will be losing their battle to preserve and will actually start decaying themselves. We need to be after them too.

The church is to blame for the state of our country. We haven't been preserving the meat, we have been preaching at it about the hot fire they are about to partake in (the Grill). We haven't been stopping the decay effectively, probably because we have been refusing to go out into it and get ourselves dirty. It's not wearing t-shirts and buttons for the political candidate of the hour...it is not holding signs and rallies to push our agenda...it is not standing out holding a sign to change people's minds. NOT THAT ANY OF THOSE THINGS ARE BAD!!!!! WE ARE TO STAND UP FOR OUR BELIEFS!!!!! BUT...we are to get into lives and change them one at a time...we are to preserve individuals...we are called to people not politics...we pray to God, not to government...we fight the death and decay by jumping into the midst of it and beating the hell out of it...we are called to preserve and save that one single piece of meat because it is vitally important to our God; then once it is preserved, we find the next one to do the same.

Ok, a thought just jumped on me, so it may not fit into the "flow" of this post. If we are battling a SIN we are surely to lose. Satan is the author and authority of all sin, HE IS SIN!!!!! We cannot defeat sin/Satan in this world...God is coming back soon to do that for us. We are to take on the people, they are created by God and have that light somewhere within them...it is a winnable battle. We are salt, we can preserve the meat...but we are not really able to put out the fire. We need to do our job.

This post was supposed to be about salt and light...I kinda got stuck on salt...maybe more on light to come later...maybe not...

Isaac

Do Hard Things

Okay, so I am reading the book "Do Hard Things" with is a book written by teens to challenge other teens to push themselves to their limits...to not settle for the bare minimums that most adults set for them...to start becoming what God wants them to be NOW...to gain experience...to grow. I am loving it, it is making me think about my teaching and dealing with teenagers everyday and how I can do them a disservice to go easy on them. I need to keep challenging them, and pushing them, and encouraging them to reach out and stretch, for that this the only way they will know their true reach. I highly recommend it for anyone who works with teens or is parenting them. Anyways...

They are currently taking about stepping out of your comfort zone and pushing past that first step. It really is the hardest one. They talked about a cartographer in England who was mapping North America and in places he never went he wrote things like "Here be giants," "Here be fiery scorpions," "Here be dragons." Now I haven't seen all of North America, but I have never seen any of those things in my travels. Now imagine being that next cartographer charged with mapping North America, you would be more hesitant and fearful of THINGS THAT ARE NOT REALLY THERE. It is the fear of the scary things, not the scary things that most often stop us from DOING.

How many times have you not done something out of FEAR that something might happen? Our imaginations are powerful things and we can come up with some real far-fetched concepts and stories that can hold us back from doing things. Does that mean we shouldn't lock our doors at night, or anything like that? Of course not, but if you feel God urging you to do something, if you know that something is right, and the only thing stopping you is the fear of something unseen. You need to overcome that fear and do it. Even when we fail and we fall flat on our faces, very rarely is the outcome as bad as the vision our mind has played out hundreds of times before.

Corrie ten Boom said, "Never be afraid to trust and unknown future to a known God." It comes back to your trust in God...how big is He?...How much does He love you?...Does He care for your everyday struggles? Do you have faith that He will catch you if you fall, or that He will let you fall so that you learn how to take a few bumps and bruises along the way, or just to see that the fall wasn't as bad as you thought anyway. But it takes that faith of the first step...once you have taken it, each on there after is easier...but it is hard to leave the comfort of the boat. Someone recently asked me if I had a quote I could share on the importance of doubt in faith. I didn't have one for them (if you do, leave it as a comment, I would love to read it)...but here are my thoughts on it...If there is no doubt, there is no room for faith in God. I have never met a person who had put every bit of their flesh and "rational" mind aside enough to have NO doubt when they are stretching themselves, it may be minor or just a little glimmer, but there is some doubt there. If there isn't are you really trusting Him? If you could do it on your own without God's help, then your faith is in you and not Him. So if you are stretching and pushing and growing and trusting, you are doubting, but you are also defeating that doubt. That is the important part. Mark Twain said "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-not absence of fear." The same is true for faith and doubt.

I LOVE TWLOHA!!!!

OK, I have been really being attacked lately in both this world, and spiritually. No posts in a week due to just being...blah...busy...tired...annoyed...whatever. I knew I needed to post today...needed to get me out there to my friends and followers. But I felt nothing, I am reading a great new book about challenging teens to live up to potential, to get out of the rut of the easy way out. Loving it, but nothing really to post about. I was starting to wonder if God was taking a break from my endless ramblings...maybe just telling me to shut-up for a while (and maybe He is/was). So I will give to you in my stead the ramblings of Jamie at TWLOHA. This is his blog post...makes me love that community even more.

http://www.twloha.com/blog/happy-birthday

Thank you for being my community. Kinda a small community, but you are the best. I love you all, thanks for giving a shit. You are the best...

Isaac

More on Church

I am loving this book So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore? I think I was clear in my last post that I am not against church, in fact I love it, but it can be (and so many times it is) seriously screwed up. I also don't think I could be reading a better book so soon after Ragamuffin, it is almost like these 2 books should be sold in a 2 pack, one for the non-fiction "real" perspective, and one for the fiction application story to understand grace and how we so often screw it up (and many times in well meaning and very subtle ways).

I just finished another chapter, and once again I was hit with this overwhelming grace that we get from our Lord and Savior, yet so often we refuse to receive it. It is a gift given to us at all times, but when we get ourselves so wrapped up in judging ourselves and feeling so unworthy of it (basically when we need it most), we refuse it. In this passage from the book, the 2 main characters are talking about how we equate Christianity to good ethics. And one says to the other, "You are so caught up in a system of reward and punishment that you're missing the simple relationship he wants to have with you." The other asks about getting His love by living up to his standards. And I love the response. "That's where you are backward. We don't get His love by living up to His standards. We find His love in the most broken places of our lives. As we let Him love us there and discover how to love Him in return, we'll find our lives changing in that relationship." Christians love to say, "He loved you when you were yet a sinner." But even after salvation, we are sinners, and HE STILL LOVES US!!!!! He loves us in spite of our sin...He hates the sin, loves the sinner...He doesn't have a hierarchy of sins, some He can overlook and love you through, He loves you through them all. How 'bout them apples? My Christian "Sunday School" mind wants me to add, "He is disappointed, but He loves you," but I am not so sure about that. All I know for a fact is He hates sin, but He loves YOU. Disappointment conjures ideas of removal of love, and I don't believe that, no matter how much my mind tries to convince me of it. It makes me feel unlovable, but it doesn't affect His love. It just causes me to harm my relationship with Him. He doesn't change...God is always there...I just pull away.

I love the phrase..."We find His love in the MOST BROKEN PLACES OF OUR LIVES." Have you ever found that, one the way down, while the cracks are forming and you are starting to fall apart, you feel no love...you feel unlovable...but if you ever "hit bottom" and you give up your pride and self-consciousness...when you are completely broken and you can no longer hide it...do you not ALWAYS FIND HIM THERE...ARMS OPEN...TEARS FORMING...NO QUESTIONS...NO CONDEMNATION...NO PUNISHMENT...JUST A GIANT BEAR HUG FROM YOUR LORD AND SAVIOR.

Why is it important to get this message out? Why are TWLOHA and HopeLine and other networks of their ilk so important, and why does the church need to become relevant and outreaching again? Because there are people out there that are hitting bottom...they are suffering...and their picture of love from people is so messed up that they can't recognize the love that Jesus has for them...even at that rock bottom place they are at. Jesus is the only thing that can save them, but you and I and other people can help to be that bridge to get them there, to listen and love and not judge or condemn and let them know love from us so they can see the more awesome and powerful love from HIM.

FROM HEAVY AND LIGHT

Here was the opening video from Heavy and Light the other night, we couldn't really see it there because of where we were when it played, but it basically sums up the purpose of TWLOHA and the night itself

ENJOY

http://vimeo.com/2807386

A New Book, Same Result

Now I am reading So You Don't Want to Go to Church Anymore? (Thanks Chuck) This is not what I would usually consider my cup of tea...fiction and, without giving anything out, just not my thing. But this has really gripped me thus far (only 2 chapters in). Kinda obviously by the title, it is about being disillusioned/fed up with Church. Which I think we all hit from time to time (or seemingly live there). But what gets me is how many people get turned off, disillusioned, go away, then end up coming back. This tells me there must be something to church, and I think it must be the community of it. The collection be believers. We do not do a great job of this even at COMMUNITY Church. We bicker, fight, moan, argue, gossip, and beat each other up more than we do anything else. We make a list of things to discuss and reflect on changing or adjusting...and we make this list because we all know something is missing...and it is easy to see the tangible, and even easier to give "solutions" to those things...but aren't we really missing something bigger? But how do you put it into words...without being accusitory...without a hard and fast solution...how do you bare the soul, the rotten, dirty underbelly of what is going on? But the question should be how do we not? Sure it will hurt and it will be embarassing to see we are lost, but God loved us when we were lost once, and He loves us now. He fought for us then, and He is fighting for us now, but we are too busy talking about lights and music and meetings instead of GOD and LOVE and COMMUNITY and HOPE.

I got to go to HEAVY and LIGHT presented by TWLOHA the other night. TWLOHA is about creating community, getting people entangled in each other, immersing ourselves in others, and in that we find out so much more about ourselves. I got to go to this presentation with part of my community, my teammates, and we go to talk and laugh and play games and get upset about not getting better places to stand (that one was probably just me). I enjoyed the ride as much as the concert, because we were in community, nothing life changing happened, but we talked and in just talking we grew together. And we aren't even close to being "there" we are just scratching the surface, but I love that I have community.

I have been to a dark place before, I have been up to my eyes in it, I have been exposed in it (not coming clean, but exposed), and the only thing that got me out was the love of the greatest woman I have ever known, and the community I was able to get involved in. Which was basically me and one other guy. It takes a lot for me to get there, I don't like to be open...to let you know what I am thinking...to take off my armor...to show my weakness, my scars, my stories...because if you see those, what do I have left, what if you tell others, what if you expose me, what if you make fun of me, what if you label me...or what if you leave me. I can handle people not liking my "persona" because it is not the real me, but could I handle you not liking me...the REAL ME?

This brings me back to the opening about church...it is not perfect, we screw it up more times than not, but it is community. No matter how strong or weak that community is, it is there (and if it isn't there for you, find another community to immerse yourself in) People start churches out of a need for community that grows into a church, then they deal with the same hassles that go on in most churches, and in some ways lose the community. And maybe the "home church" concept is the answer, but then what about growing and reaching? They all have their issues, the church is MY answer, and Community Church is my community, and I am going to make it and people in it my community, I am going to stregthen that community, I may not know everyone, be in community with everyone who shows up, but I can help them find a community in our doors (and if they can't I would love to help them find a community outside our doors).

Not sure if I made any sense, but there are many days I don't want to go to church anymore...but I will go and I will try to make the church into something I do want to go to

Isaac

The Answer

It was Tom Hanks' character Jimmy Dugan in the movie "A League of Their Own"

PS

I'm not sure if anyone is listening out there, but I can set up my blog to email with I update...but only 10 people...2 are gone; those are the followers (AKA the Kool-Aid Drinkers)...let me know if you want me to add you. First 8 win...

Just a quick note

The other night at the Haiti talk, I concluded by challenging to "go and do." I think that takes us INTO the world making us the "in this world, but not of this world" concept we so often hear about. I forgot something though, or maybe I just didn't make it clear enough at the time...this was a CHALLENGE...it is supposed to be hard. If you are going and doing and there is no pain anymore, you are not going and doing enough. I AM NOT SAYING YOU NEED TO RUN YOURSELF TO DEATH!!!!! But there is a challenge aspect to it, there is a pushing and a breaking and a difficulty. Muscles don't grow unless there is some tearing down in the process. Then they can be built back up bigger and stronger. Make sure you make it a challenge...I could lift a 5 pound dumbell all day long, but it will not make me stronger...my mom needs 5 pound dumbells, to each their own, but if I don't push myself I will never get the potential out.

Sometimes that means leaving the job you are currently "going and doing" because it is an entry level position. If you just add another job, you are not leaving that position for a new person to step into, so that they may "go and do". Sometimes that is the hardest part, letting go of what you are currently doing...Satan loves this hold...he attacks us with conceit "No one else can do it as good as you can"...with feeling of weakness "if you give this up, people will see you aren't special, you aren't necessary and vital"...with self-doubt "you don't have what it takes to do the new job, so you better not give this one up." Could it be that you have what it takes, you just have to concentrate on that new job, that new calling? You don't need to be sidetracked, serving 2 masters, doing 2 jobs half-assed instead of one job kick-ass.

I meant for this to be really short, but as is usually the case, I can't shut-up my brain (I think I needed to really hear this one today). I will leave you with a great quote bonus points if you know where it comes from (without Googling).

"If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. It's the hard that makes it great."

Isaac

I didn't think it would be this soon

Like I said earlier today, I am reading Rob Bell's book and it is far out and beautiful and wonderful, and it kicked me in the teeth today.

He talks a lot about the church and what it should be and how we keep trying to contain it and market it and bottle it and sell it and grow it, but it's not about that... it is about the people. It is about being the body, and serving and giving and loving and standing with or better yet standing in place of. He makes many Eucharist references, but what hit me is that if we are to be the body...to be the Eucharist, we must be broken. That means we willingly offer ourselves up, like Jesus did, we make ourselves available to be the broken body of Christ, not just the strong muscular body that we envision. We like to imagine we are the big body parts, but weren't those the ones that are hardest hit at the crucifixtion? The hands, feet, arms, back, side, head...not a good day...to be those, you are going to get seriously effed up at times.

OK, so that is not even where I was going when I sat down here to write...I really wanted to focus on a line of the book. "The church is an organization that exists for the benefit of nonmembers." We are not here for us, we are here for them, gaining strength, gaining support, gaining friends, regrouping and recooperating, to go back out there for them. We are the front line outpost. We are there for the soldiers to come in and be replenished, rearmed, and redeployed. When we get nicked, we spend a little more time there recooperating, but when we are healthy, we are kicked in the butt to get back out there. In Hebrews it says they should continue to meet together so they can "consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds." Our services should be spurring us on, they should be sending us back out into battle, they should be kick-ass halftime speeches, not dreery, morbid sounding funerals of better times and easier circumstances.

Then the question is asked, "if our church were taken away from our city, our neighborhood, our community, our region - who would protest?" Surely the members, but would the nonmembers? The ones we should be there for in the first place? People would miss the rummage sale, but would they protest? This got me thinking about people taken from us too soon, Luke and Emily. They were and are sorely missed, and in some ways, isn't a funeral a type of protest? A way to say how much that person meant, that they are missed and loved - that they made a difference in your life. Those services were packed, packed by people whose lives had been touched - not just family members - but the nonmembers as well. The ones who were made to feel like members, like they belonged. The nurses, doctors, co-workers, those who were going about their normal routine lives and then - BOOM!!!!! - they got hit with this person who make his/her life about their lives. Who inspired not by trying to be inspriational, but by being the broken body of Christ. That God was seen in them and through them, not through their shouting and proclaiming His name (though that was done and is vitally important), but they aren't drawn in by the shouting and proclaiming, they are brought in by the actions of LIVING.

Would our church be missed? Are we being that body? Are we kicking the healthy back out into the battlefield to fight the good fight? Are we being broken and beaten but doing it for His name?

Then personally, would I be missed? By the nonmembers? Have I touched those lives? Have I lived that way? Would I be protested? And the answers are irrelevent...because I can change it, I can grow it, I can be it, I can show Him, I can live it, I can do it, I can be the joy of the Lord, I can blossom into the life that oozes Christ, because if I don't I am falling short of my calling...

Sinner Anonymous,
Isaac Morford

Followers

I have followers...I feel like some all-powerful cult leader...I will try to not let this go to my head...Reading Rob Bell's new book...Thinking a lot...Posts should be coming soon...It may be too late about the going to my head thing