How to [be/not be] a Cowardly Lion

Our family chose a Wizard of Oz theme for Legacy's first Trunk or Treat.  I volunteered to be the Wizard or the Scarecrow or the Tin Man, but I didn't want to be the Cowardly Lion.  Maybe it's being a guy and maybe it's being in my 30s...but I'd choose to be associated with the mindless Scarecrow than the cowardly kitty cat.

You remember the cowardly lion, don’t you?  He was supposed to be the king of the jungle, but he had no courage.  I’ve known many people like the cowardly lion.  If I’m completely transparent—at times it’s been me.  Whether it be making decisions without guarantees or dealing with interpersonal conflict, facing any uncertainty takes great courage.  You've no doubt encountered measures of cowardice in others...perhaps you would even admit you've been a cowardly lion once or twice before.  

-Cowardly Lions often say what people want to hear even if it's not the right thing, or the thing that should be said.  
-Cowardly Lions frequently avoid conflict.  I'm not suggesting we should look for conflict, but ignoring problems never leads to healthy solutions. 
-Cowardly Lions are never willing to make the hard decisions.  Most people don't prefer change.  Change is in the nature of hard decisions.  Not engaging in these moments makes us stuck, and stuck makes us stagnate, whether your decision is about a relationship, an activity, or a direction to take.
-Cowardly Lions bail on others when things become difficult.  Basic human behavior seeks to protect oneself at all costs.  It takes real courage to stick with others, even when it costs us time, energy, resources, and reputation.

In the Bible, Paul wrote to Timothy to encourage his faith and life.  2 Timothy 1:7 says, "For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline."  As Moses was about to die, and Joshua would take over as leader, Moses encouraged Joshua in the same way as Paul to Timothy, in Deuteronomy 31:6, "Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the Lord your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.”

Fear hinders what God has given us: His power, love, and sound mind.  Are you dealing with fears today that are gripping you so tightly that you feel helpless and hopeless?   

In the Wizard of Oz, the Cowardly Lion does not understand that courage means acting in the face of fear, which he actually does, over and over throughout the movie.  As christians, we're called simply to "walk humbly with our God" (Micah 6:8).  This is the idea of "abiding" that we studied in our EVERYDAY series.  We trust fully that God is with us and for us, and that He will not forsake us, and we act in the face of fear, depending on his strength, kindness, and wisdom to carry us through.

How can we practice courage with confidence in the everyday stuff we face?  
1) Start by praying for the Lord to open your mind and help you understand how to use the power given by His Holy Spirit. 
2) Pray for your heart to be filled with His love, knowing that His "perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18).  
3) Ask the Lord to clear your mind and bring to your thoughts His words, taking captive those thoughts not of Him. 

Let’s be people of courage.  In fact, since our "God is for us" (Romans 8:31), maybe courage should be one of our most defining traits!

What does it mean to "Walk in the Light" & what happens when I do?

Do you remember how popular those magic pictures were in the 90s?  They’re called “stereograms” (3D hidden pictures), and at the height of their popularity, you could find them on posters, t-shirts, notebooks, books, and they were a favorite in PowerPoint Presentations created on Microsoft Office 95!

It never really happened quickly for me, but I would stare hard and unmoving until the blur of colors began to take shape and a 3D image would come into focus.  What had seemed random and flat might become a person, an animal, or a beautiful garden scene (hint for the picture at the top).

This is what happens to us when we experience God: we aren’t given a new picture, but our "fellowship" with God brings our eyes into focus to see the deeper picture that’s already there.  It starts at our earliest moments of trusting Jesus, and the picture of God’s holiness, our sin, and Jesus’ grace become more and more 3-dimensional (bigger and more real).

I was reminded in this study of the conversion of the 18th century minister and theologian, John Wesley, who described attending church one evening, when against his will: “I felt my heart strangely warmed…and saw that Christ had taken away my sins (even mine!), and saved me from the law of sin and death.”  The picture was already before him, but now he saw the whole story with greater depth and personal experience.  For the person who walks in the Light (1 John 1:5-10), the picture just gets more and more beautiful and real, and allows us to daily walk in the Light!

As we really dive into our new series, EVERYDAY (advice from the little Johns), draw deeply on your fellowship with God.  Share in His vision, peace, power, and love in the midst of everything you do in everyday life.  As you do, you might just be surprised at what comes into focus.  It might just be that life can be more beautiful and the spiritual things more tangible than you realized.

*If you missed the opening of the series, check it out here: PART 1, and we'll see you this Sunday for part 2!

Before You Tweet

Before you speak (or tweet or FB) in passion, speak with God in humility.

Today, a culture shaping decision was made.  The US Supreme Court, by a vote of five to four, declared that same-sex couples may now marry in all 50 states, striking down the bans of states who have attempted do so.  We’re not the first country to come to this conclusion.  In the past five years, Ireland, Finland, Scotland, Luxembourg, England, Brazil, France, New Zealand, Denmark, Uruguay, Portugal, and Argentina have made decision to allow gay marriage (and many others before 2010).  This is also not the first culturally controversial and divisive decision made in the past five years.  Any number of issues have polarized our communities in terms of views regarding politics, economics, healthcare, war, technology, racism, and sexuality.  Are you curious what people are passionate about?  Just check your FaceBook or Twitter feed.  These are the domains that allow people to say things without fear of a punch in the face and the ability to walk away and ignore the consequences of their actions.  I wonder, on a day like today, when a current event brings about such heated debate, how many relationships go sour.  How many friendships fail?  And how many will let the sun set on their anger?  

Friends, let’s remember that Christian maturity involves a lot of things, but surely it includes knowing how to process your deepest emotional feelings.  Today (and everyday) before you speak (or tweet or FB) with passion, pray to God with humility.  This is wise advice, taken from the example of our Lord, Jesus.

Before Jesus’ passion, He prayed with humility in the garden.

On the eve of His passion, Jesus went to the garden of gethsemane to pray.  It was there that Jesus prayed the greatest prayer in the world.  Among the most debated, heated, and divisive issues you’ve encountered, none could be as controversial as the one Jesus faced.  Here, people rejected and were to kill, God’s own eternal Son, through whom everything and everyone has been created (John 1:3-5).  Without doubt, there was more angst and confusion, more passion and fury than in today’s decision.  The world itself teetered on this moment.  What hung in the balance was the glory of God’s grace and the salvation of the world.

Before Jesus’ passion, He prayed with humility in the garden.  He prayed openly and honestly, in conversation with God in heaven, and He consecrated Himself to God’s divine and providential will over His feelings of anxiety and hurt.  The righteous Son of God set aside His rights; His prayer was for God’s will, not His own righteousness.  Jesus then went, not to crucify others, but to be crucified.

Today (and everyday) before you speak or act in passion, pray to God in humility.  Ask Him to help you understand your feelings.  Ask Him to give you the posture that most glorifies Him.  And if it is His will, be ready to set aside your rights (of free speech and of being justified in your position) that His passion may be seen. 

Yes, God has spoken definitively on sexuality, as He has on many ethical and moral issues that evoke heated discussion today.  Yes, God’s intents, purposes, and His Word should be the final word for all of His creation.  Yes, Christians should watch their life and doctrine closely (a la Paul to Timothy) that we might live in the salvation that Jesus died to provide.  But when it comes to how we confront the world and all those we disagree with, we should follow the example of Jesus, and be more concerned with our own submitting to God’s will and dying to self than striking out to crucify others.

So today (and every day) would you, before you speak (or tweet or FB) with passion, pray to God with humility?

The Most Interest(ed) Man in the World

I recently introduced my girls to “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood.”  They’re fixated on this show now, in the same way that I was at their age.  Why is Mr. Rogers so universally and timelessly beloved?  It’s because the “Most Interesting Person” may grab our attention, but it’s the “Most Interested Person” that grabs our hearts. 

Any and everyone that Fred Rogers spoke to was the most interesting person in the world, because he took such great interest in who they were, how they felt, and what they loved.  [Watch his response to the woman, playing violin, in this episode from 17:04-17:24.]  We can be so quick to think and talk about ourselves that we never really listen to people.  And those we don’t listen to, we don’t know.  Those we don’t know, we don’t love.  Mr. Rogers was a pro at listening and paying attention to others.  In his neighborhood, everyone felt special.

Jesus had much to say about selflessness during His earthly ministry.  His first commandment was to love God completely, and His second was to love your neighbor as yourself.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught that the Christian is expected to love even the unlovable, because this is how we become more like God, who gives blessings to everyone (Matthew 5:45).

In Philippians we’re told that in coming into this world, “[Jesus] made himself nothing” and took upon Himself “the very nature of a servant”(Philippians 2:7).  Now, as followers of Christ, we are to “have the same mindset” (Philippians 2:5).

Selflessness runs counter to human nature, which is why being selfless is so much more difficult than being selfish.  Somewhere deep within each of us is a self-centered, self-preserving and gratifying nature that is brought on by sin, and popular culture can be so good at encouraging that in us.  Yet, the example of Jesus still calls out to me a a better way:

Philippians 2:3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; 4 do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. 5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

• Who do you see everyday, but not know very well?

• Who around you could really benefit from your Christlike attention and care?

• Who will you love, "as you love yourself", this week?

Adventures in Missing the Point: BIBLICAL GIVING

Do you ever wonder if we’re not doing what we’re supposed to be doing?  …That there’s a way that God wants us to live, and somehow we’ve missed the point?  Somewhere, as we wind through life’s journey, the things we see and experience along the way can distract us from what God is really up to.  It’s time to face our own distractions and rabbit trails, clear our vision, and be realigned to God’s best for our life.  Adventures in Missing the Point is for those who simply and passionately want to see.  As a church, we focused our first 'adventure in missing the point' towards where we may have misunderstood the point of giving away money; and investigated why and how God calls us to give.



God Needs My Money? (2 Samuel 7:1-23) from LegacyChurch on Vimeo.

Can God Be Robbed? (Malachi 1 & 3:5-10) from LegacyChurch on Vimeo.

“What have you and Jesus been talking about?”

Over an early morning breakfast this week, my friend, Chip, relentlessly asked me the question he always asks when we meet: “What have you and Jesus been talking about?”  

This is such a natural question for Chip, because he is a man of prayer and of conversation.  Chip is in continuous conversation with God throughout everyday.  (I’m pretty sure he’s even figured out how to pray in his sleep.)  He reminds me of a line from Richard Foster’s book, where he says “Of all spiritual disciplines prayer is the most central because it ushers us into perpetual communion with [God].”

Chip prays because He finds a continual deepening of relationship with God in prayer.  In fact, the more he prays, the more enamored he becomes with God, which drives him even more to want to speak with God.

In the incredible busyness that we all have accepted as an appropriate way of life, what is your view of God in relation to you and prayer?  Do you see God as distant or near?  Is He absent or present?  Do you see Him as stingy or generous?  Approachable or unapproachable?  

Did you realize that prayer starts with God?  It is His idea.  

God wants us to know Him.  The desire we have to pray is the result of God's greater desire to talk with us.  God loves His people and wants us to love and adore Him above all things.  

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,

and with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mark 12:30). 

This is the first commandment!  And the more we talk with God and come to know God, the more we come to love Him, because God is Love.

That’s what’s happening with my friend Chip.  His perpetual communion with God has given Him an astounding love for God that has captivated every area of his life.  And from the first commandment, this love has moved Chip into the world of the second commandment

You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:31).

That’s why he asks me “What have you and Jesus been talking about?”  And it’s why I ask you the same. 

“What have you and Jesus been talking about?” 

The Art of Joy

Did you realize it's possible to spend your entire life alongside of Jesus, call yourself a christian, and still miss the joy of knowing Jesus?

11:25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?” 27 She *said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are [f]the Christ, the Son of God, even [g]He who comes into the world.”   ...    43 When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth.” 44 The man who had died came forth, bound hand and foot with wrappings, and his face was wrapped around with a cloth. Jesus *said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

12:1 Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. 3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, *said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?” 6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. 7 Therefore Jesus said, “Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial. 8 For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.”

In John 11:25, Jesus says "I am the resurrection and the life..." just before He raised Lazarus from the dead.  In John 12, Lazarus, and his sisters (Mary and Martha), are throwing a thank you dinner in honor of Jesus (vv1-2).  Mary is joyfully worshiping (v3).  Judas doesn't share Mary's joy (vv4-6).  Jesus quickly corrects Judas' criticism and says that Mary needs to maintain her joy in Him (vv7-8).

What we find is that Mary's heart corresponded to the worth of Jesus, while Judas' contradicted Jesus' worth.

Judas is probably the saddest person found in the Bible.  He walked alongside of Jesus every day.  Had the benefit of eating with, talking with, learning from, and laughing with the Son of God on a daily basis for 3 years.  In the end, he completely missed the joy of knowing Jesus.

Have you thought about how that happened?  How did Judas become one of the 12, see the power and the miracles, and not ever really know Jesus…and experience (like Mary) the JOY that comes with really knowing Jesus?  And does that happen with us?  Why?

This is one of the central problems facing people throughout history: people fail to see Jesus for who He is.  (Maybe they’re looking, but not really seeing.)

While we can’t be absolutely certain why Judas missed the point of Jesus (missed the person and the glory of Jesus), we see signs of what may have led to his blindness.

First, I don’t think Judas ever believed Jesus really was God.  All the disciples progressively came to this realization (and at times) made great professions of faith and loyalty, but Judas never got there.  He never really trusted Jesus as God and Savior.  He didn’t look at Jesus in that way.  Judas had a faith problem.

Second, Judas not only lacked faith in Christ, but he also had little OR no personal relationship with Jesus.  He could hang with Jesus and even be His representative…but there’s no way that the friendship became deep if Judas couldn’t see or accept who Jesus really was.  Judas had a relationship problem.

Third, Judas had only looked at Jesus through the lens of what he got out of the deal.  He saw a cause, and opportunity, and a culture that he thought he could rise in and get his shot.  He wouldn’t look at Jesus without looking through the lens of his own selfishness, his own agenda.  Judas had a selfishness problem.

It is possible to walk your entire life alongside of Jesus; talk to Him, listen to Him, work with Him, play with Him, and still miss out on the joy of knowing Him.  SO WHAT CAN WE DO to avoid Judas’ traps? 

Here's some advice from the Apostle Paul:

4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice! 5 Let your gentle spirit be known to all men. The Lord is near. 6 be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

REJOICE – TALK WITH GOD – BE ANXIOUS FOR NOTHING – THINK ON THESE THINGS.

God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ

THESE ARE THE SIGNS OF JESUS. 

What helps us to see Jesus clearly?  You have to practice looking to Jesus and to the signs of His presence.

THE PRACTICE OF LOOKING (at Jesus) IS THE ART OF JOY.