Chains shall He break

I serve the king of an upside down kingdom. A kingdom where the meek shall inherit the earth, where those who morn are comforted, where the last are first, where the oppressed shall be freed. Where rather than appearing in a palace to lead his kingdom with a sword, my king came and appeared in a lowly manager — surrounded by animals.

May we conspire to be an active part of this kingdom this advent season.

Truly He taught us to love one another,
His law is love and His gospel is peace.
Chains he shall break, for the slave is our brother.
And in his name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of joy in grateful chorus raise we,
With all our hearts we praise His holy name.
Christ is the Lord! Then ever, ever praise we,
His power and glory ever more proclaim!
His power and glory ever more proclaim!


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Merry Advent

As December approaches and we put up our traditional Christmas tree, I’ve been moving my thoughts away from writing #nanowrimo and towards the Advent Season.

As I child I remember lighting the Advent candles at church, and occasionally at home. But I don’t remember much behind the meaning or ideas of the Advent season vs the Christmas season. Is there a difference, does it matter? Advent is truly a word we don’t hear too often, but I’m planning to delve in and examine it more this month — even more so as I plan to speak at encounter on Dec. 7th (the 2nd Sunday of advent).

I found this explanation online helpful (that seemed to be repeated somewhat in the Wikipedia entry as well) ::

The word Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” The focus of the entire season is the celebration of the birth of Jesus the Christ in his First Advent, and the anticipation of the return of Christ the King in his Second Advent. Thus, Advent is far more than simply marking a 2,000 year old event in history. It is celebrating a truth about God, the revelation of God in Christ whereby all of creation might be reconciled to God. That is a process in which we now participate, and the consummation of which we anticipate. Scripture reading for Advent will reflect this emphasis on the Second Advent, including themes of accountability for faithfulness at His coming, judgment on sin, and the hope of eternal life.

In this double focus on past and future, Advent also symbolizes the spiritual journey of individuals and a congregation, as they affirm that Christ has come, that He is present in the world today, and that He will come again in power. That acknowledgment provides a basis for Kingdom ethics, for holy living arising from a profound sense that we live “between the times” and are called to be faithful stewards of what is entrusted to us as God’s people. So, as the church celebrates God’s inbreaking into history in the Incarnation, and anticipates a future consummation to that history for which “all creation is groaning awaiting its redemption,” it also confesses its own responsibility as a people commissioned to “love the Lord your God with all your heart” and to “love your neighbor as yourself.”

So Merry Advent to you and yours. May we continue to celebrate Christ’s first Incarnation and look forward to his second appearing.

A list of thanks

Well, we’re 5-10 minutes away from leaving for Thanksgiving festivities. I thought I’d jot down a quick list of thanks before we head off and stuff our bellies full of Turkey and the trimmings.

I’m thankful for…

  • My Life, Laurie, who supports me and loves me and overlooks all my many flaws. She inspires me to be a better man, husband and person.
  • My family, who also loves me, supports me and overlooks my flaws.
  • My granddad making it through surgery and pulling through so he could see another Thanksgiving (albeit from the hospital ICU 🙁 ).
  • Opportunities to join with God in serving and loving all of creation.
  • Jesus the Christ. The risen Messiah. My Redeemer.
  • My tribe, encounter, who help me enjoy serving our God and who inspire me to be a stronger follower of God.
  • My twurch, aka my online peeps. I’d love to start naming them, but they know who they are.
  • My podcast with Thomas. It’s given me the opportunity to talk with some very inspiring folks and hear their stories and in return, share those stories with others. It’s also helped me live out my passion for radio.
  • My life group, aka community 2.0 group. We started a new group in our house less than two months ago. I don’t think we’ve had the full group here at once, and I don’t think we’ve ever had the same group show up. But I’m thankful for each person that comes and the discharging of life that they share to help recharge my batteries.
  • The leaders of other community 2.0 groups at encounter. These folks are amazing in giving of their time and talents to host groups and lead others towards Christ. They’re a real inspiration to me and many others. And it amazes me that four of our current leaders never dreamed of leading a group a year ago. God is good!
  • The online tools I use to keep in touch with my friends, family and twurch. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, Google Reader, etc.
  • Our house that we purchased last year.
  • We own two vehicles to get us from place to place.
  • Clean drinking water.
  • Coffee in the pantry to make a hot cup in minutes, whenever I’d like.
  • A heater and AC to warm us and cool us as we see fit.
  • Electricity to power all the multitude of electronics and gadgets that we have.
  • Did I mention my beautiful, wonderful, Life?
  • The power of prayer – to change hearts – including mine.
  • A job.
  • Public transportation.
  • My BlackBerry. Sure it might seem trite but its something I’m thankful for. It helps me stay in contact with all the folks that matter to me. And no – I don’t use it for work.
  • Update :: I’m within 3,000 words of finishing my first full length novel! WOOT!

Sounds like its about time to pack up and leave. Happy Thanksgiving all.

Share your list on your blog or here as well.

What’s your Popeye moment?

Posted this question on Twitter and Facebook today. Interested to see what responses I get. I’ll try and post them here. Or you can visit search.twitter.com to see the Twitter responses.



question for today :: what’s your Popeye moment? what makes you say, “Thats all I can stands and I cants stand no more?” tweet with #popeye

Bill Hybels talks about this Popeye moment in his book Holy Discontent. He refers to the Popeye moment (see roughly 5:45 into this video) as an analogy for our Holy Discontent, or Passion Groove. It’s that moment when we see things going on around us and we simply can’t not do anything. We have to act. We have to take a stand for what we know is right.

Here are some thoughts I had on the idea from August of last year ::

  • What is it that motivates people to work where they work, volunteer their time to the groups they serve, and donate money to the causes they support? Simply put, why do people do what they do?”
  • That’s all I can stands, and I can’t stands no more!” – Popeye.. What happens when we reach the point where we can’t “stands no more?” What is is that you “can’t stands no more?”
  • The trouble with contentedness is that, when lived out in isolation, it can be lethal! If you’re not careful, you will become lulled into a state of satisfaction, safety and serenity, and you’ll altogether neglect needs in the world that should elicit deep discontent when you see them going unmet.
  • “I refuse to accept the idea that the “is-ness” of man’s present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal “ought-ness” that forever confronts him.” (- Martin Luther King, Jr) Friends, this is what it looks like to live from a place of holy discontent – where ought-ness simply overtakes is-ness.
  • On MLK: “The holy discontent that had taken up residence inside him simply wouldn’t allow him to give anything less than his entire life.”
  • Have you ever wondered why, when you turn your life over to God, you don’t get express-freighted right to heaven? Or, to put it a little more crassly, if you’re so heaven-bound, then why are you still sucking air down here? I love that question. It really makes you question why we’re here. What is it that God has placed us here for?
  • Eph. 2:10 says that “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
  • If you’re alive and kicking today, then there is a specific work that you are expected to do. There is a set of tasks with your name on it that God has given you to accomplish.
  • The goal is to cultivate your soul’s soil so that this doing-of-good-works process can unfold in your life.
  • “None of your tears or anguish will be wasted; I (God) plan to use every ounce of what you’ve been through for good in this specific area.” Can I make that first part any bigger? Go back and read that one again. Think on it. Trust in it. Believe in it. That’s one of God’s greatest promises to me and one that I hold to day in an day out.
  • How will you know when your one thing shows up? It will be the pesky preoccupation that vies for your undivided attention during the day and keeps you wide-eyed at night as is captures your heart and ignites your imagination. It will be the thing to force you to the floor, heaving sorrowful tears the whole way down. It will be the thing kicking and screaming inside of you, squawking for all it’s worth to be addressed.
  • My applecart got completely overturned by the thought of seekers going to hell simply because Christians refused to break out of their holy huddles long enough to embrace them… Seekers matter! And people far from God deserve better local church options that the ones available to them today!
  • When you find your holy discontent, feed it! Don’t run from it. Move toward it. If poverty is your holy discontent, don’t move to the suburbs to avoid it – move to the inner city where you can see everyday and night how it affects people until your blood simply boils over.
  • The pastor described how gut-wrenching an experience it had been to be told blatantly who mattered and who didn’t at church — and then to realize that his family was part of the “who didn’t” category — racism in churches is not acceptable.

So what is your Popeye moment?

From Facebook ::

Dave writes ::
“Oh man! How about the entire of city of Waco who continues a downward spiral of poverty. Worst of all the people equiped to help would rather help zoo animals and kennel Dogs! Ahhhhhggghhhg!”

Hitler does emergent


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Some of you might have no clue what they’re talking about here. So as a brief background, Tony Jones recently stepped down as the National Coordinator for Emergent Village. After he stepped down, Josh Case (now part of the Nick and Josh Podcast) posted a video suggesting that as part of the idea and concepts behind Emergent Village and “crowd-sourcing” (my words, not his) anyone who takes part in Emergent Village should now be a National Coordinator (I would add that it’s very similar in idea to the fact that because of Christ, we’re all now part of the priesthood).

But regardless, while this is a slam against Emergent Village I’m going to say this is greatness. Very funny. The “Scrawny Kiwi” writes that Matt, who posted the video, said it was made by Randy Brandt.

If you don’t quite understand the above video, maybe you’ll get a kick out of an earlier version that came out after my beloved Cowboys lost to the New York Giants in the playoffs last year.

How now should we live?

Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove writes ::

In the neighborhood where I live, people sometimes “flip” a house to make a quick buck. They buy it cheap because it’s in bad shape, but rather than fix the structural issues that compromise the house’s integrity, they just put some fresh paint on the walls, install a few flashy fixtures, and slap some new vinyl siding on the outside. The house often looks fantastic, but underneath the flash it’s still the same old shack.

For some time in North America, the church’s work has looked a lot like like house-flipping to many observers. Jesus easily becomes vinyl siding, a quick-fix for turning our lives around. Christianity becomes a way to clean up and make ourselves look respectable in the eyes of others, when all the while we’re still on the same path. Christians do business more or less like everyone else, but we do what we do “in God’s name.” If truly following God’s call to abundant life makes Christians into well-adjusted middle-class citizens, it makes you wonder how Jesus ever got himself executed.

Read the rest of Wilson-Hartgroves post.

He raises some excellent questions. Is Christianity all about becoming a well-adjusted middle-class citizen? My characters in #nanowrimo are struggling with some of these questions as well (and I’m struggling with giving them an answer ;-)).

What would you say? How does a person know they’re a Christian or my preferred terms – a Christ Follower or a Follower of The Way? What does it mean to be saved? Is it only a ticket to heaven when you die?

Look forward to your responses.