Dump a Toilet on His Head or Pray

OK. Just bear with me for a few minutes. I need to say something unpopular and clearly outside the culturally acceptable norm. Yesterday on MySpace one of those stupid baiting ads wanted me to play a game to win a ringtone. The object of the game was to dump 3 port-a-potties on the head of President George Bush. That did it for me. Did what, you ask? Pushed me to write this blog.

It is now the easy, culturally acceptable, popular, "hey look at me I'm smart like everybody else" thing to do to bash and insult the president. If you don't, people look at you like you are wearing clothes from the '90s. "Eeek! You aren't cool!" If you say anything positive, anything even remotely complimentary you surely must be stupid or naive or just blind as a bat Republican. Don't believe me? Go ahead....experiment with the notion of saying anything, and I mean anything decent or kind about President Bush in a group of more than 5 people. Or, if that's too daunting for you, read this blog to someone or follow the potential comments that will be added....

I am absolutely frustrated out of my mind by the war in Iraq. I hate the growing death toll of both war fronts. But the only thing we accomplish by our immature carping and whining and publicly humiliating the president is a diminished capacity for honor, esteem (if you want self-esteem, you must first learn to give esteem outside yourself) and the courage to stand alone against "approval ratings".

Those who know me best will tell you that I started this rant during the Clinton administration. I said then that the greatest danger of the disrespect for that president (that became like a sport for some evangelical Christians) was that we truly devalued our own sensibilities. II Peter 2:9-16 is a striking indictment that warns against being dishonorable even against the most dishonored. Why? Because we marginalize the potential beauties of our own soul by coarse behavior toward any in authority. The greater damage is far greater than any one president.
"Honor the king" (I Peter 2:17) was written in day when kings were pagan monsters. Honor given is holy humility received. Pilate and Herod make all of our politians look like God....yet, Jesus kept His own dignity intact in their presence. It deeply troubled me 10 years ago when high profile preachers dishonored President Clinton. It is even more troubling to me now when we are told that 70% of our nation is doing the same thing. I believe that the "toilet dumping" is on our own head.

There you have it. I am now officially unpopular. While I'm at it, I'll go home and dig out my old clothes from the '90s and start growing a mullit. "Eeewwwwww, gross!"

Only the Mediocre are Always at Their Best

Back in the middle '80's the Dean family lived in Austin, Texas. One of the coolest towns on earth. Art and entertainment venues, natural eye-popping sights and a variety of people and cultural types that live in one of the best kept city secrets in America. I'm proud to say I lived there for a short time. One of the best and free entertainment spots was the State of Texas Capital.

I went there at least once a week to pray and people watch. When the legislature was in session, the variety show was better than anything on TV. One time sitting in the balcony and watching the dog and pony show going on the main floor, I was laughing hard and trying not to be a disruption. Suddenly from behind me someone tapped me on the shoulder and I thought I was going to be kicked out. Instead, I turned around and here was Ann Richards (then State Treasurer, soon to be Governor and nationally a Democratic Party power player) laughing with me. Through her own laughter she said, "Pretty good show, ain't it?"

Not long after that incident I was in that same spot when a local Southern Baptist preacher was asked to open the session with prayer. His words were short and riveting. He took the podium, simply said, "Let us pray", and proceeded to hit a grand slam with one of the shortest prayers I've ever heard. "Lord, remind us today that only the mediocre are always at their best. Amen." The legislative floor was stunned into unusual silence. I wanted to laugh and shout, "Amen" at the top of my lungs!

Allow me to take a leap of truth from that statement and offer my own; I would rather fail at attempting the miraculous than to succeed at mediocrity. Lately, my insides are on fire with spiritual desire. The youth camp I spoke of in my last blog is history and the young people from it are about to make history. They were challenged to find their own voice by the power of the Holy Spirit and attempt the miraculous with every step they take.

One story I heard from camp was that a group of teenage boys were praying into the morning hours after an evening service and the suggestion came up that if Jesus could walk through walls, we should too. So, one boy got up, prayed and walked full force into a door. The door did not yield. He picked himself up, declared it must be his lack of faith and took off for the door again. The door won again, but this little band of brothers was not discouraged. They declared that someday, they were going to win this challenge! I can already hear the growlings of the religiously mediocre; "Someone should instruct these children to temper their expectations". Why? So that Pharoah's magicians can continue to eat our shepherd's staff? NO! Keep experimenting with your faith, boys. One day, you'll get it right and Pharoah's serpents will be consumed by a shepherd's staff.

My point here is that for too long Christianity has allowed for a mediocrity at almost every level of its expression. We screwed up the motto, "Failure is not an option" by reversing it into a call to be safe and never daring. I would rather fail at attempting the miraculous than to succeed at mediocrity. Good has always been the greatest enemy of the best and the best was never intended to be leveled off at mediocrity.

Finding Our Voice

Next week I'll be speaking and ministering at a youth camp with the theme, "Finding Our Voice". I actually suggested the theme a few months ago and it immediately resonated with everyone at that planning session. For me this has been a life long passion because it has to do with far more than the words I speak. It has to do with the prevailing influence, weight and power of who I am.

We all know people whose mouth moves and sounds are emitted from that cavern but no one is interested in spending any energy to actually hear and decipher what was just said. That's because the words are not vitally connected or rooted in any living dynamic. If I say, "war is hell" and you ask me how I know that and my only response is tell you where I found that quote and who originally said it, we might end up having an enlightening conversation but little else is likely to come from it. But if I'm a marine being treated in a military hospital for multiple fresh wounds from an ambush I just survived, and I look up into your eyes and fight to reach for enough air to say those same 3 words, we are going to have an altogether different exchange of thoughts. In fact, those 3 words might be all that is necessary.

In grammar, the concept of voice has to do with the form of a verb showing the connection between the subject and the verb, either as performing (active voice) or receiving (passive voice) the action. "The dog bit the boy" is the active voice because the subject is the dog and the dog is active. "The boy was bitten by the dog" is the passive voice because the subject is the boy and he is on the receiving end of the action. I'm going to strain the analogy for a moment because I hate the word, passive. To find our voice we must learn that all of life is waiting to be lived. We are the subject and we must act or we will be acted upon. I hope the grammar works here because I don't want you to miss the point.

Jesus said that we, His people, are the light of the world. When you enter a room that is pitch black, you don't ask, "Where did all this darkness come from?" do you? You enter the dark room reaching around the corner with the demand, "Where's the light?". If we fall for the notion that our voice is for the purpose of informing the darkness of its varying shades of dark, we are wasting our breath. Our voice IS the light!

The Voice of Jesus calmed storms, forgave unrepentant people, healed sickness, awakened the dead, rebuked religious bigots, raised hopes, loved losers, spoke when silent, silenced ignorance, blessed those who cursed Him, prayed heaven into hell, changed names, called the unqualified, drove demons into pig prisons, opened prisons, lit fires of the heart, whispers peace and trumpets triumph.

Psalm 29 says, "The Voice of the Lord is upon the waters; the glory of God thunders...the Voice of the Lord is powerful, majestic. The Voice of the Lord breaks the cedars...the Voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire. The Voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness...strips the forests bare and in His Temple everything says, 'Glory'." This is the Active Voice. This is the Voice that calls us to be a Voice of equal harmonic beauty, power and true influence.

This boy bites dogs.

King's Quote

In my previous blog I referenced Martin Luther King Jr. For a full reading of the context of this quote you can use the internet to look up, "Paul's Letter to American Christians, November 4, 1956 by Martin Luther King Jr." I distinctly remember reading this entire letter in the library of my middle school in 1965. I felt like the room had suddenly entered a heavenly realm and that I was all alone with this man of God. It was many years later before I understood the words or the spirit of what happened to me that day. King's words are distinctly and profoundly Christian. I fear that too few today appreciate the depth of his faith and the width of his covenant to Christ.

Anyway, here is the portion of that letter and the quote for my blog:

"I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world. This is the end of life. The end of life is not to be happy. The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may."

Passionate Desire

Passion is rooted in knowing the will of God and doing it, no matter what the cost. This is a definition I extracted from a quote attributed to Martin Luther King Jr.; " The purpose of life is not found in avoiding pain and seeking pleasure. The purpose of life is doing the will of God come what may." I live in and love this kind of passion.

Then, there is this quote, which I believe comes from the movie, "Braveheart"; "Everyone dies, but not everyone lives". Add to this another word I have recently heard by Kris Vallotton from Redding, California; "The greater tragedy is not that 3000 brave people have died in Iraq, but that many millions back home will live for nothing." Shortly after I heard him say this, I picked up a newspaper and read an article about vets of the Iraq War who have lost a limb. They've been sent home for recovery and are being fitted for prosthesis and yet they desparetely long to get back into the battle. The reporter was perplexed but I understood their passion. Once placed in a circumstance where life and death is determined by your focus and by the focus of a passionate team around you, you'll never be happy with life on any other level. Channel surfing or sitting in a bar listening to people laughing at inanity is unacceptable.

Don't get me wrong, I like having fun as much as anyone. But isn't "having fun" the reward at the end of some term of sacrifice and not a prolonged end in itself? I thought that the word, "recreation" was based on a need to re-create when we've been spent on a worthy cause.

C.S. Lewis once said, "You can hardly open a periodical without coming across the statement that what our civilization needs is more 'drive,' or dynamism, or self-sacrifice, or 'creativity.' In a sort of ghastly simplicity we remove the organ and demand the function. We make men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst. We castrate (the beast) and bid the geldings be fruitful." I am caught once again in a season of my life where I am carefully inspecting the boiler of my soul. I'll do my best to blog while I carry out this inspection so that anyone interested can join me for a re-firing. I need to warn you, however.....I will not go gently through my own inspection, much less, leave you in a "ghastly simplicity."

$10 Rambler Theology

When I was 16 my dad promised me he would buy my first car. The only caveat to this tantalizing teenage dream was that he would observe my driving behavior and purchase a car that he felt was equal to my level of maturity. Four months into my test, dad drove up with a 1959 Rambler which he found rotting in a backyard and bought for $10. Painted with house paint and 2 of the 4 doors rusted completely into useless oblivion (the 2 useful doors were on the passenger side) this finely crafted piece of automotive genius was my dad's way of trying to tell me something.

When it rained, the house paint drooled off the fenders of this Rambler and onto the driveway. The chrome letters in the grill that once proudly spelled, "Rambler" were diminished to "amle". Since my humility was not so much chosen as it was imposed upon me, I took the low road approach to my father's object lesson. I decided to run this "thing" into the ground. I drove it harder than any car should ever be driven. I'll spare you the details, but suffice it to say that I was a geeky, yankee duke of hazard with a Private No Class Amle and not a General Lee. That dumb car had no better sense than to last a complete year! My dad had successfully taught me a valuable life lesson.

At the risk of straining an analogy, let me pose a few questions. I walked past a "Christian" section of a book sales rack the other day at Wal Mart. On the cover of the most prominent book for sale in the Name of Jesus, for all of the millions of middle America to see, is a full color picture of a nuclear bomb. The author wants us all to know that God is fixated on His wrist watch, the middle-east is in the oven and our "goose" is almost cooked. So I ask you, with the apparent popularity of this kind of tripe, is it possible that God, our Heavenly Father, has allowed for a theology that matches our maturity level?

Is He standing back and allowing for us to be sufficiently humbled by this embarrassingly shallow interpretation of the treasury of the scriptures? How many widely varying predictions of the late great planet earth have to be dead wrong before we look to the Holy Spirit for a more complete and soul satisfying revelation of Jesus Christ? If the devil can not get us interested in out right miserable lifestyles, wouldn't it stand to reason that he would have us obsessed with self-destruction which is labeled "holy" so that we can not effectively exercise our faith for the healing of the nations? Why would I pray or believe for a nation to be healed if I am taught that that nation is just a pawn for the "showdown" at high noon? Here's another intriguing question for you: why would I have any true vested interest to pray and act for the Kingdom of God to come on earth, just as it is in heaven, if I am convinced that everything is just hooked up to God's time table for a group of angry little nations who have been bitterly fighting each other for the past ka-zillion years?

What if God's time-table (if such a thing exists) is connected to the Body of Christ growing up and becoming a magnificent partner of and mirror image to Jesus Christ? What if the metaphors and the artistic, poetic majesty of books of the Bible like "The Revelation of Jesus Christ" held explosive spiritual secrets waiting for hungry, curious, insatiably and voraciously eagar seekers to find a True and Irresisitible Spirituality? What if some of us decided to walk to that goal rather than to drive a contribution to the spiritual pollution that has been killing the ozone of God's Highest and Best?

And, by the way, hasn't the greatest enemy of "Best" always been "good"?

Renamed

I grew up with a love-hate relationship with my name. “Randy” just never seemed cool enough or tough enough. I had friends named, Bob, Joe, Al, John, Roger and David and for some reason I saw them as regular “guys”. It was like I had a mental image in my head that said, “Their name can beat up my name.” The “y” on the end of my name had a girlie sound to it in my thinking. Of course, it didn’t help anything when in 7th grade a new girl showed up at my school with my name. The fact that her name ended with an “I” did nothing to ease my angst.

For a little while I tried my legal name, “Randall”. That was until a junior high teacher started saying, “Good morning Ran-doll” and all the Bobs, Joes and Johns around me started having way too much fun at my expense with the “doll” part of that equation. So, did I say I had a love-hate relationship with my name? Maybe if you figure it as 10% love and 90% hate.

Somewhere in high school everyone started calling each other by their last names and that came just in time to save some of my tattered self-image. “Dean” felt cool. But then the summer before I went to college I got a job working with a couple of British seminary students and all it took was a moment of weakness on my part when I introduced myself, “Hi. I’m Randy”. Do you know what I mean when I describe that awkwardly long wait for someone to stop laughing at you so you can ask them, “Did I say something funny?” only to have them start laughing again? If you aren’t sure what’s funny about my aforementioned introduction look up my name in a British friendly dictionary.

Well, all of that is to say that I have always been fascinated with how quickly and easily God took to changing names in the Bible. Abram to Abraham, Simon to Peter, Saul to Paul. I completely understand why God needed to do this in some cases just from the standpoint of the need for these folks to drop their previous self-loathing behavior. A name was a prophecy and a name was a destiny.

So, without going to court for a legal name change, I have, a long time ago, found my way to be renamed. I am convinced more people need the same spiritual therapy. Self-prophecy, empowered by the Holy Spirit, will do you more good than you may be able to imagine. In fact, one scripture says, “making melody with (and in) your heart”. That means change the internal dialogue, find your name and every time you hear it….say “AMEN!”

Releasing the Power of Forgiveness

Right after His resurrection, Jesus "popped" in on the disciples. I like to think of it as a playful moment on His part. In some measure just to leave a lasting impression of what He was about to say to them. John records that Jesus breathed on the group and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained."

I have no interest the doctrinal debate that can swirl around the Words of Jesus. Quite frankly, I don't think Jesus had any interest in that sort of debate either. He came to give us Life, not doctrinal statements. He was laying a principle of Life in these pregnant Words. He was daring all of us to search out the Life inherent in this principle.

Receive the Spirit and release forgiveness. To me, this is not about dealing with someone who hurt my feelings which in turn requires me to forgive them. This is about the larger picture of what is loaded into this scene. A recently butchered man is now alive again! He has just passed through a locked door. His body still bears scars and His first Words are, "Peace!", followed by the quote from the previous paragraph. Jesus clearly wants His statement to have a lasting and profound impact!

Here's what I believe that impact should be; get loaded with the reality of the Holy Spirit and then blast the world with spiritual shock waves of forgiveness. Walk through market places and intentionally "oooze" forgiveness, especially when you see someone who is easy to judge by appearances. Aim the devine power of forgiveness at every cultural and politically charged issue that comes across your line of sight. Frankly, I believe that one of the reasons so many people remain so incredibly sinful, by our own definitions, is that too many people who call themselves the people of faith choose to retain sins upon groups we deem either deserving or too guilty of their failures to be helped. We have too rarely given them any other air to breath around us.

The crippled man lowered through the roof in the gospel of Mark had not spoken a word, but Jesus started the conversation by telling him that his sins were forgiven. The woman caught in the act of adultry and brutally dragged to Jesus had not whispered a word of repentance when Jesus just took charge of the situation with the anointing to forgive her. The butchers standing around the cross were likely barely coherent due to their vile task but Jesus spoke to the mountain of their sin and commanded forgiveness upon them.

So, what would Jesus do with the next political petition against a group of people that we get asked to sign? What would Jesus do with the next anybody "caught in the act" and taken to the town square of the evening news? What would Jesus ask us to release with every footstep we take protesting abortion on one side of the politcal spectrum or war on the other?

Let me help you; He would breath on us, command us to be genuinely, radically, ridiculously and uproariously filled with the Holy Spirit so that we could become clouds filled with the water of heaven! Forgiveness, in this context, is an atmosheric shift, an environmental energy and a transcendent domain placed within our charge.

A Culture of Life

The death of Jesus Christ was brutal and vulgar. It demonstrated the worst of human systems gone mad. God allowed all of our most confused, bureaucratic, religious stupidity a full and tortured expression on the Body of Jesus. Every human system participated and Satan kicked back at the end of the day, looked up at heaven and asked, "Hey, God! What do You think of Your creation now? Still think its 'good'?"

God answered three days later. With the physical resurrection of Jesus God has forever stated, "What I have made IS GOOD. Creation was kissed in the beginning and now it has been twice kissed."

Some elements of Christianity today are obsessed with original sin and total depravity. They are fond of announcing that we are born in sin. The follow up to that is the mantra, "We are just sinners saved by grace." My response is, "Alright, already. We get it. But what about now....post resurrection. Aren't we born AGAIN? This time, born again RIGHT and righteous?" At some point we have to start being the New Creation!

I love the cross and its message, but the cross is not God's final statement. LIFE is God's final statement! And since it is, the implications are off the charts for what we have been called to be and to do. Jesus said, "The thief has come to steal, kill and destroy. I have come that you might have life and that with flourish, dynamic and complete animation!" The church is called to be a culture of life. Not a parenthesis holding cell awaiting life after death.

We are a culture of life filled with belly laughs, loud glorious singing, expansive divine curiosity, entrepreneurial inventiveness and a passionate exploration of the Life and Character of God that might challenge safe theological boxes. The vacated grave of Jesus is the genius of God which calls every hungry heart to reject death in all of its expressions. Somebody, somewhere is going to leap into this culture of Life and live it for all its worth, someday. I believe this is my destiny, will you join me?

Heirs of the World

I'm enjoying Romans chapter four these days. Massive doses of "oh, my lanta" come to mind when I allow the raw material from these words strike me with any reality or honesty. Need a for instance?

Abraham is called an heir of the world and we are collectively considered partnered heirs with him. Now, the difference between him and most of us is that he acted like an heir of the world and too many of us don't give it much thought. The upshot of that is that God saw Abe's faith, liked it so much (what's not to like about a 100 year old man believing for a baby) that He just decided that Abraham should get a free season pass to being a righteous man.

Now, mind you, Abraham got this righteous season pass NOT for believing for being forgiven of his sins, going to heaven, etc. That's the stuff we spend an inordinate amount time obsessing about. Abraham believed God for becoming a father at 100 and through that miracle, becoming an heir of the world! That kind of absurd faith just made God's mood elevate right through His heavenly roof. God said, "Whatever else this guy does or does not do, I declare him right."

So I've been thinking about giving God another reason for a good mood. I've been considering raising my own faith to some absurd level. Praying outside safe boundries. Preaching like my life depends on it. Living spiritual abundance enough to leave hands full of the Kingdom of God in my wake. Some goof balls stare at spoons and try to bend them. I'm staring at mountains and I am determined to see them move.

Here's the way I've got it figured: if I am nothing else except a man believing God absurdly, I figure that God will, at the very least say, "Wow. He's entertaining. Let's give him one of those free righteous passes....Hmmmm....and, hey! All heavenly hosts and resources. Listen up! Let's vaporize a mountain for Randy just to see the expression on his face!"

Too Long, No Blog!

My apologies for the long pause between blogging. Hang with me. Google has had some "issues" with their blog site and I've been locked out of my blog for almost 2 weeks. Stay tuned...

It's Not About "Them"...

It's not about them, it's about us. It's not about the "world", it's about the church. "They" aren't the problem, we are. If we shine, they will see. If we are salt, they will taste AND see. We must get off the world's back, get on our knees and repent.

What if we loved "them" the way God loves "us"? What if an epedemic of forgiveness swept through the people of God, so widespread, so contagious, so prolific, and so virulent that no sin, no wrong done, no past issue, NOTHING mattered more than being a river of God with trees growing on our banks that produced leaves that healed entire nations?

It's not about their sin, it's about our ignorance.

I'm not the least bit concerned about a documentary claiming to disprove the resurrection of Christ. That's the nature of unbelief. I'm far more concerned about Christians whose living shows no evidence of resurrected life. The uninformed may be convinced by this documentary, not because it is compelling, but because we have not been compelling.

It's not about "them".

Heaven's Lent

Today is Ash Wednesday, the traditional start of the Lenten season of being serious, giving up something "for lent", repentance and reflecting on the life of Jesus (especially leading up to His trial and crucifixion). This traditionally culminates in Good Friday, where, traditionally speaking, believers are supposed to wrap themselves in the sadness of Christ's death so that, traditionally, on Easter Sunday we can finally whoop it up.

C.S. Lewis said, "Joy is the serious business of heaven." I am more and more and more and more convinced that Christianity has yet to fully tap into its truest potential. "On earth AS IT IS in heaven" is packed with truth waiting to be revealed in sons and daughters of God who are ready to be revealed as true sons and daughters of God. And, of course, there are elements of truth to everything in the first paragraph, BUT....

Unfortunately, Lent has played into the natural mind that says, "If we regularly beat ourselves up over bad behavior and allow for a sufficient amount of 'holy self-loathing', we can get right back to all that bad behavior we enjoy so much. And, of course, next year start all over again."
If you have any doubt that this is true you have but to look at "Fat Tuesday" celebrations.

Here's my Lenten challenge: give up joyless, unhappy behavior wrapped in the Name of Jesus! Turn on and tune into the serious business of Heaven's Lent. Sing loud. Worship hard. Pray passionately and genuinely. Love furiously. Hope like a kid. Laugh in the Name of Jesus. Going back to prayer; ask, seek and knock with delirious abandonment. Ask big. Seek widely and knock the door off the hinges. When you are through, walk as though you believe that you have received those things that you have prayed. Celebrate the results before you "see" them with your eyes.

Heaven can not do a thing that earth will not allow. If the serious business of heaven IS joy, and I believe that it is, then let's loose on earth what is loosed in heaven. Unspeakable joy.

The Mystery of Potential

The western rational mind gets nervous around the mysterious, the mystical and the spiritual. As such, American church circles are quick to label such things as "of the devil" or "false teaching". Interestingly enough, however, God did not chose the western rational mind as the platform for the launching of the scriptures. God, from His eternal perch, could see that the eastern, tribal mind would best serve His purposes through out human history. Ever read about tribes in the Bible? How about Wise Men from the East?

That's why the Bible poses several challenges for us. Let me offer a sampling of some of these challenges and examples of the ones that annoy me the most. If you are bothered by these questions or concepts , or you bother other people with these things....duck. "Where are the dinosaurs?" "How old is the earth?" "Where did Cain get his wife?" "The Bible's version of Creation should be taught in our public schools as a counter balance to evolution!".

Ignorance in these matters is not bliss. It's a pain in the tail. The Bible is not a book of science. I repeat, not a book of scientific explanations, scientific data or anything remotely related to science. To impose western scientific questions upon it is like looking for the meaning of life in a calculus textbook. If people of faith taught and lived the Bible from its truest value we would actually fight to KEEP it out of public schools for fear and concern that the public school system would dumb it down into science! It MUST be handled by the hearts and hands of people born from ABOVE and genuinely born of SPIRIT. Our silly fear of evolution (and a myriad of other modern boogie men) is rooted in our lack of BEING people of SPIRIT! Dare I say that the best way to resist the theory of evolution is for church people to stop acting like religious monkeys?

The Bible intentionally raises the bar of mystery to call out to and from the human condition the spirit factor. God's Voice is calling deep unto deep waiting for a child to respond. The Holy Spirit seeks hearts first, not minds. The resonance of the human heart echoes back to the chords of God's mysterious Voice. Listen. Stop imposing formulas and lists and shallow bureaucratic filters on God's passionate language of love.

In his book, "Leading Without Power", Max De Pree says that organizations of all types and kinds degrade and suffer, "when poets are terminated and bureaucrats promoted". The American church has allowed this virus to truncate our truest power and value in the name of rational debate and even for political purposes. I say its time to reach for our core values of the sweetly mysterious Spirit and let the Wind blow "where it wishes" so that once again we can "hear the sound of it" because, "so is everyone who is born of the Spirit". Read the source of these quotes again, for the FIRST time; John 3:8.

I'm ready for the mystery of our potential to be released and realized! How about you?

Mo' or Jo'?

Moses had a relationship with God that bears little or no resemblence to anyone, anywhere I see today. Yet, curiously, I hear people invoke how God dealt with Israel under Moses' leadership as a parallel for what God is speaking to America today. Things like destruction upon our country for its sin and evil deeds. I promised myself to aim high with this blog and avoid going head to head with the prophets of doom....so lets just move along before I brake my promise to myself.

Back to Moses. When Israel decided that Moses was gone too long on his mountain retreat, they invented a new religion and made a golden calf. God slipped this into the morning devotional with Moses and said, "Let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them, and that I may destroy them; and I will make of you a great nation." Did you catch that? And not just a one "that" but there are two "thats" here...

First of all, God said to a man, "Let Me alone..." or "Get out of the way..."! And secondly, in a naked appeal to the man's pride, God offered to make a "great nation" out of that man. On the first account, Moses did NOT get out of the way so that God could smoke Israel and on the second account Moses made an equally naked appeal back to the character of God and said, "Turn from Your burning anger and change Your (almighty) mind!" (I added "almighty" just for grins). In fact, Moses later added that if God was going to fry Isael, then He should start with Moses.

Too many current religious leaders would have stepped aside, with a smug smile and given God their blessing, found the nearest TV camera and announced, "God told me..." To say nothing of the fact that they would gleefully accept becoming the founder of a new great nation/ministry. Aw shucks...I think I just broke my promise.....

There's another Old Testament story that comes to mind here as well. God told Jonah to give the city of Ninevah a 40 day notice that a terrorist act would blow them up...or something akin to that. Did Jonah do his best Moses imitation? No. He looked more like us. He ran right into the digestive tract of a fish in order to hide from his God given responsibility. When it finally occured to him that being obedient might be better than becoming fish manure, he repented and the fish puked him up within a 3 day walk of Ninevah. Upon his arrival, he preached, Ninevah did some serious repenting and the terrorist plot was canceled. End of the story? No....

Jonah pouted and prayed to die. In the midst of his praying to die, he admitted that he knew the character of God so well that he said, "I fled...for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and One who relents concerning calamity (terrorist attacks)". In other words, he wanted them to get what they deserved so that the end result of destruction would make him look like a real prophet. As it was, nothing bad happened like Jonah hoped it would....hmmmmmmm...

It seems to me that God is looking for something deeper in those of us who represent Him than just the ability to scare the pants off the nearest bystander with predictions of doom or pronouncements of God's "will". I know there is much more that needs to be said about all of the above, however, for the sake of this one blog let it be summed up that more of us need to look like Moses and much less like Jonah!

What if your one life means the difference in historic change or historic calamity? Would you chose to pay the price to introduce change or would you take the path of least resistance and step aside and watch calamity with the explanation, "Oh well, it must have been God's will..."?

Fight Like Hell

Lance Armstrong, cancer survivor and Tour De France champion, is credited with saying, “If children have the ability to ignore all odds and percentages then maybe we can learn from them. When you think about it, what other choice is there but hope? We have two options, medically and emotionally: give up or fight like hell.”

Of late I am in the process of God’s yanking me upward in my faith and hope. Last week I read the book, “Rees Howells; Intercessor” by Norman Grubb. It was like a spanking that made me laugh and cry all at once. When I was a kid growing up in the harsh realities of Milwaukee’s ‘60s I had a good friend who bragged that when his dad spanked him he would laugh. I knew his dad to be a brute and I didn’t believe him until one day I was a witness to one of these weird rituals. Now, I know the illustration fails to be entirely accurate to the character of God (God is not a brute; although you might think so if you managed to push Him hard enough) but the idea of a spanking making you laugh at yourself is the best way I can describe what I learned from this incredible book. Read it for yourself….I think you’ll discover what I mean.

Anyway, all this takes me to Lance’s quote that finishes with, “fight like hell”. I’ve fought like hell. In fact, going back to my Milwaukee roots, one of the survival tactics I lived by was to spread far and wide the following information: if you pick a fight with me, you will likely win. Just know this: you will never forget me! I’ll be the skinny little white guy who left teeth and toe-nail prints on any part of your body I could reach. Think ‘Tasmanian Devil’. You’ll always wish you had not enjoyed the pleasure of beating me up!” That strategy probably saved my life.

Now, I’m no Lance Armstrong and the following musing is with all due respect to him. I’m just Randy Dean and from my perspective I’ve learned that there is a better way to fight. It IS fighting in the same spirit that Lance suggests except with a different root source in place. I’ve found out that Heaven fights too. The difference is that heaven always wins and uses temporary loses as stepping stones toward greater victories. One story in the Old Testament says that ONE angel from God went to battle and killed 185,000 skilled and successful warriors in one night. I’ll take those odds.

My point here is this: GET YOUR HOPES UP! Refuse to live by resources short of heaven’s bounty! HOPE like crazy. HOPE like there IS a tomorrow. HOPE in spite of every haunting doubt. Grab, claw, scratch and snag at heaven’s extravagant treasury. And if by some definition, you “lose” (whatever that may mean!) for God in Heaven’s sake...at the very least, LEAVE SOME TEETH MARKS BEHIND AS A TOKEN FOR YOUR ENEMY TO REMEMBER YOU BY!

God With Us or Us With God?

My title here is too important to give passing notice. You really must pause and read it. Now, which is it? Be careful...this is a trick question. The trick is to get all of us asking ourselves some hard and overdue questions.

The Christmas story teaches us that the angel told Joseph that his new son, Jesus, would be called, "Emmanuel". More than the most common name of a Lutheran church, this title tells us the depths of God's thoughts and character for what He intends to be an unbending reality of our faith. God.....WITH.....us. GOD.....with....US. However, in more ways than I care to count or discuss, we have unintentionally and intentionally distorted that most basic of all truths and have literally reversed it; Us....with God.

After all, we often tell people that the ultimate goal of going to the altar and "getting saved", being confirmed, "praying the sinner's prayer", finishing catechism classes, believing the 4 spiritual laws, receiving Jesus, etc. is that we "go to heaven when we die". Hence, "us with God" is the goal. If we are not careful, and I might add, we have not been careful, this ideal becomes "true north" on our spiritual compass. Hence, I believe that we have lost our way....pun fully intended.

Problem is, everything about Jesus, His life and teachings, was anchored in the prophetic power of the Emmanuel reality. God stepped into and became The Human. The human did not become a god. The human did not achieve divinity. Divinity, if you will, achieved humanity. God dignified the human condition and forever made a statement of His goals "down here". Even when we imply subtle changes to that order, we vary from the path like a car drifting over the yellow line or into the ditch.

God with us means transcendent realities are part of the everyday life of the folks with whom God IS. God with us means no more being afraid of "this old world"; in fact, in means "this old world" should be put on notice that world changers are on the scene. God with us means we can be carriers of an insuperable, irrepressible Presence. God with us means that Jesus meant every little Word of His prayer, "...ON EARTH, as it is in heaven...". And every word of His other prayer, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one". God with us means we can shred the barrier between us and "heaven" and expect heavenly realities breaking out in ever increasing measures in us and around us.

"GOD WITH US" changes everything, and NOTHING about that should be ANYTHING less than the "true north" on our compass.

Hail Mary!

I love Mary, the mother of Jesus. Her story, her life, her spirit makes me want to shout out, "Hail, Mary!"

I heard a great man of God, David du Pluesis, say, "Catholics worship her, which is a mistake, but Protestants ignore her, which is an equal mistake". In other words, to make her a god is to miss the power of the reality that God wants to be mightily glorified in little, simple, normal human beings. But, to minimize her because some rigid religionist might accuse us of being too "catholic-y" (an accusation I have actually heard) is just as evil as making her the fourth member of the God-Head. The gospel of Luke says that her faith made her sing, "all generations will call me blessed and declare me happy and to be envied!" (Amplified Version of Luke 1:48)

Pretty heady stuff for a peasant girl living under the political boot of Roman blood-thirstiness. Not to mention the sheer spiritual audacity of her faith in the atmosphere of a stale and dead Jewish religion. The fact that the angel Gabriel came to her in a full material appearance should say more to us than we usually accredit to this kind of event. Angels don't appear with good news to folks who are not inclined to believe such an outrageous event. She is clearly a firebrand of faith prior to her visitation. Pretty heady stuff indeed!

Now, what about you and me? Are we inclined to believe that God is looking for more peasants to exalt in the face of political and material arrogance? Do we have any expectations of angelic visitations? Is there anyone out there walking in any kind of faith that is rocking any ships of state or status quo? How about some virgin spiritual soil ready for a Kingdom Word that will give birth to some transcendent supremacy on the earth AS IT IS in heaven?

We simply must stop reading the Bible like we're visiting a museum. It's a calling! It's a dare! It's a document, 1400 years in the making, of prophets, poets and warriors relating how God is fishing for people who are willing to risk everything for an evening stroll on stormy waters. Praying, "Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth AS IT IS in heaven..." is pure stupidity if we are not ready, eager and willing to make room for Gabriel to challenge our normal sensibilities about what can or cannot logically happen!! Heck, I'd settle for a chat with an angel named Snorklenose if it meant being chosen for making some Kingdom history!

Where are the Marys of 2006? If its you, let me be the first to shout out a "HAIL" in your direction. Let's pray and live some Kingdom disruption on earth AS IT IS in heaven.

Christmas Predictions

I am The Great Rann-Dee', or at least The Average Rann-Dee'. I see all, or at least I sort of see some things. I know all, or at least kind-0f know some stuff. Hear me as I make Christmas Predictions for 2006!

Christian Family Councils will urge you to to boycott stores who do not say, "Merry Christmas". Your friends and family will warn you about the political agendas of merchants who will not allow bell ringing in front of their doors. Nativity displays will be banned from public properties. Other holiday greetings will be mixed into our Christmas celebrations. The Up-tight, Up-Right, Intoleration Patrol will demand Holy Action! I know, I know. You are overwhelmed by my prowess...or at least by my mediocrity.

Let me now predict what discerning, wise spiritually alert people will do. They will re-read my last blog and apply that truth to the Christmas season. Instead of fighting the nasty evil liberal conspiracies of our day, they will channel their energies toward positive purposes. They will bless those who curse us, they will pray for those who abuse us, they will love their enemies, turn the other cheek, walk the second mile and practice other idealistic virtues taught by the Christ of our Christmas.

Wait....I'm getting another message from the Beyond, or maybe just the Book Shelf. Here it comes..."if your enemy is hungry, feed him and if he is thirsty, give him a drink...do not be overcome with evil, but overcome evil with good". There you have it...I must go now. I am so exhausted from the use of my mystical powers.

Blinding Your Predator

I heard a anecdote the other day that falls into the category of, "Gee, this is so good, I hope its true and even if it isn't, it still makes a powerful point". Bear with me if you happen to be one of those folks who has to know the absolute accuracy and validation of a given illustration. The principle involved is Truth all by itself.

Eagles have few natural predators. I imagine that nature has deposited sufficient brain cells in potential enemies that instill in them a sense that even if we catch one of those beauties, we will pay a bloody price from talons and a beak that will extract a painful price for our bravado. However, as in humankind, the animal kingdom has its share of moron chips that are tolerated in the hard drive, which means eagles have a few predators.

But, eagles, I have heard, have an instinct for out flying their enemies with a strategy that I love. If an eagle is pursued, the eagle has a radar for flying straight at the sun. Apparently, according to this unverified anecdote, they also have the ability to protect their eyes when they do this without losing track of their pathway to the sun. It's as if the eagle says, "You want me? Come and get me. In a few minutes, I'll be eating your freshly fried eyeballs."

Had any predators on your behind lately? Felt the breathing of an enemy on your neck? Then fly for the Presence of God. Get militant about being thankful. Get aggresive about praising God for every beat of your heart. Get a bead on the highest point of faith in God that you can possibly imagine, pin your ears back, get some streamline to your profile and rocket yourself high into the transcendent supremacy of the radiance of God in and around you. BLIND YOUR PREDATORS with a life lived to glorify God.

The Dance of Heaven and Earth

Down through the years, and more especially in the past century, essential components of Christianity have been marginalized, diluted, “tamed”, domesticated and even eliminated for the purposes of mainstreaming the message. While I certainly believe that the truths of Christ are for the everyday person (Jesus emphasized the importance that the gospel was getting out to the “poor”, or what we would call “Joe 6-Pack”), I also believe our efforts to get it there have fallen far short of that noble goal. In fact, the mainstreaming effort has BECOME the goal. “Git ‘em saved!” The bridges that cross the obstacles have now become the destination. We’ve gathered the masses onto the bridges when there is a road that stretches out in front of us for as far as the eye can see!

In the book “Velvet Elvis” by Rob Bell, he says, “Here’s what happens: Somebody comes along that has a fresh perspective on the Christian faith. People are inspired. A movement starts. Faith that was stale and dying is now alive. But when the pioneer of the movement dies, the followers stop exploring. They mistakenly assume that their leader’s words were the last ones on the subject, and they freeze their leader’s words. They forget that as the innovator was doing his or her part to move things along, that person was merely taking part in the discussion that will go on forever. And so in their commitment to what so-and-so said and did, they end up freezing the faith”. I would add to this that corrective movements start in reaction to these fresh perspectives and often label the fresh insights, “heresy”.

The result has been a fear to explore. A fear of what the Apostle Paul called, “A spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him”. (Ephesians 3:17) There are “riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints” and a “surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe” that is the same power that raised Christ from the dead AND seated Him at the right hand of the Father. All fear to explore these spiritual diamond mines must yield to the divinely created need of our time.

Historically, we are in a “moment”. A moment like when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the Temple and they were met by 2 determined explorers; Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:25-38) Simeon was said to be “waiting for the consolation of Israel”. The word consolation means the urging, the calling or simply, “Why the heck did God put us here? There’s got to be something more!” He snatched the baby from Mary’s arms and said, “This is the revelation!” Anna then came up “at that very moment” and, in so many words, said, “This is more than a baby! This is what we’ve been waiting for!”

The air around me these days is crackling with the Spirit’s static electricity. In the middle of the summer I started preaching a series of messages I called “The Transcendental Church”. I’m still preaching that series. Sunday I’m changing the title just to help our media department keep track. “The Dance of Heaven and Earth” is where I’m headed. I’m not entirely sure of what I’m even trying to say in this blog. I just know, I refuse to miss this “moment”. This moment is the moment for which I was born.

"Keep Looking Up!"

Keep Looking Up!

Here’s my dilemma. I’m taking some much needed time off. My wife is in Texas attending to family business and I’m relaxing, reading and winterizing our yard. This morning I made a terrible mistake; I tuned in to Christian TV. Now, I need to blog some steam out of my system….bear with me.

In a short 23 minutes of “Christian” TV I listened to the following:
1. A painful song loaded with sappy sentiment about, “lately I’ve got leaving on my mind…”, sprinkled with the vocalist’s admonition to his audience, “I’m tired of this ‘ole crazy mixed up world! How many of you join me when I sing, ‘lately I’ve got leaving on my mind?’”
(this singer sported a hair sprayed mullet, a colorful ‘80s sport coat and 2 tone shoes…my dad always said, “never trust a man wearing 2 tone shoes”)
2. A “commentator” behind a “news desk” telling me that he has “good news”. What would that “good news” be? His sources tell him that a nuke has been smuggled across the Mexican border into the U.S. And…
3. If you don’t know Jesus, why don’t you give your heart to Him today. As we close today, “Keep looking up!” Hmmm, looking up should be pretty easy given the low point of this pit.

The network broadcasting this misery cut away to their promo at the end of the show and told me, “…we’re presenting the finest in family and Christian entertainment”. Lovely.

On behalf of pastors and Christians everywhere, please forgive us! On behalf of Christianity down through the centuries, I’m sorry we’ve become this bizarre caricature. In this corner of the world, please hear this one voice in the wilderness, “TURN CHRISTIAN TV OFF!” I know…I should have heeded my own advice.

OK, OK…that’s it, that’s all for today….I’m on vacation…I’m going outside to pick apples in my yard. I’ll be singing, “How Great is Our God!” and praying, “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN!”

If One Mountain Moves...

Mark 11:22-26 has always been one of those Words that won’t leave me alone. I mean leave me alone in the sense that were times, I have wanted it to leave me alone! “Jesus answered saying to them, ‘Have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted him. Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they shall be granted you.”

I’m quite sure that many honest people have looked at these words of Jesus and secretly thought, “What the heck was He thinking when He wrote that blank check!?” Like I said in the above paragraph, I’ve winced at these Words, in part because when people try these outrageous promises and nothing happens, they run to me, as a pastor and demand satisfaction. Somehow, I’m often chosen as the customer service representative for God when these things require some kind of unlimited warranty.

In my earliest days of faith in Christ, I was given a Bible with the Words of Jesus printed in red. I didn’t know how that worked or even why some of the Words were in red, so, in my simplicity, I decided that those were the most important Words. The absolute first Bible passage that jumped out at me was Mark 11:22-26. In those days, I was a customer and not a customer service agent; just a teenage kid. This passage transfixed me! I read it every morning and every night. I left my Bible open to that passage in my bedroom. I was amazed, intrigued, curious and not the least bit eager to try this promise on “for size”.

I’ve walked a million spiritual miles since then and today, that verse isn’t just printed in red, its red-hot! Today, I know that if the Kingdom of God, God’s transcendent supremacy, is large and in charge inside me, if I sneeze right, entrenched arrogant externalities that mock me are blasted aside. Today, I know that the insuperable prowess of Christ the King is looking for opportunities, through my obedient faith to vaporize inferior material realities. A mountain climber will say that they climb the mountain, “…because its there.” Believers need to learn to move mountains for the same reason.

“But I tried that and failed.” Then try again. If you fail again, don’t cry, don’t whine, don’t marginalize the promise and don’t call customer service! Suck it up, wipe your nose, check your motives, be an overcomer and out of the faith that says, “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God”, give your mountain directions to the nearest ocean to sink into.

If you speak to 99 mountains or if you have to speak to one mountain 99 times, and on the 100th attempt the earth shakes, boulders roll and the mountain moves, wouldn’t it be worth it all?

Political Ads and Mr. Poopy Pants

Political ads are a delightful study in human nature. Both from the design and delivery of the ad itself, to the presumed assumptions the campaigners hope to achieve. For the sake of illustration, let me offer a fake ad for a fake candidate from a fake political party. Ready? Prepare yourself. This could get complicated.

“I’m Snow White and I approve this ad. Are you sick of Mr. Poopy Pants? Me too. Vote for me November 7th and I promise to be Jesus, Buddha, Mahatma Gandhi and Bullwinkle.” Miss White clearly wants you to believe 2 distinct things: She is good incarnate and he is the Anti-Christ (with irritable bowel syndrome). Tough choice. Better think long and hard about who you will support. The issues are painstakingly spelled out here so that there can be no mistake about what you are voting for: Snowy or Poopy.

Somewhere, in the past decade or so, in some ad design meeting room, somebody convinced the political powers that be that the American public should not be bothered with clarity of thought or distinctly articulated vision. The decision was made to simplify the information process down to the lowest common denominator: the other side has poopy pants. That’s it, that’s all, don’t look any deeper than that. Poopy pants.

When I was a kid, one of my favorite TV shows was the Dick Van Dyke Show. Dick’s character, Rob once decided to run for a political office and ended up running against a complete genius, played by Wally Cox. Long and short of it was that at a public debate the genius smoked Rob and Rob ended up sitting in front of him asking questions and saying, “Wow. I didn’t know that!” over and over. Ironically, Rob won the election even though he tried really hard to lose so that the best man would win.

Wouldn’t it be fun if my fake campaign ad went like this: “Hi. I’m Mr. Poopy Pants. I have I.B.S. It’s embarrassing but, I manage. Miss Snow White is a good person and she might even do a better job than me. Oh, and she smells good too. Anyway, I’d appreciate the chance to work for you if you’d let me. I’ll do my best, but I’m sure I’ll make a few mistakes along the way. Maybe Miss White could be on my staff and help me if I’m elected. I have some pretty cool ideas at a web site you can visit. Thank you for your time.” Ah, doesn’t that just make you want to say, “POOPY FOR PRESIDENT”?

Go To Heaven!

OK, OK. No more hinting. This is it. I'm going to get this off my chest and out in the wide open for all to see. I'm here today to confess my real motives, my truest thoughts. Here goes….deep breath….I WANT HEAVEN ON EARTH.

How did I get this messed up? Who influenced me? What book, what conference, what false teaching got to me? How could a pastor of over 30 years get caught in this ideology? Oh, I don’t know; maybe it has to do with all the child-like theology I’ve sung through the years. You know what I mean, right? “The B-I-B-L-E, yes that’s the Book for me”. Then I open the B-I-B-L-E and it says, “Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it shall be granted to him.”

Then, add to it that since I am a pastor and some people expect me to explain everything God does, or, maybe it would be better to say, what God DOES NOT do. “I spoke to the mountain and it moved alright….it jumped right on top of me! What’s up pastor? Explain the furthest reaches of the unfathomable, unreachable, omniscient God to me! But make it quick, because I have picnic with some friends straight up at noon and then the Packers are playing on TV and then I want to see a movie tonight and then, OH my gosh, have you seen the latest TV hit? Desperate House-Mice! There’s this cat and then there’s this bunch of hormonal mice….Anyway, why don’t the mountains move?”

I WANT HEAVEN ON EARTH! I want to see an army of believers raised up who believe the B-I-B-L-E when it says, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven…” and when it says, “If you are raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” and where it says, “Now to Him who is able to do above and beyond all we can ask or think, according to the power that works with in us…”. AND they believe it day by day by day by year by year by year until someone somewhere is “built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit” and “grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the Head, even Christ”.

I WANT HEAVEN ON EARTH! I want to be one gift of the five (apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor and teacher) who is equipping the saints with a determination that the goal is nothing less than, “the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer children, tossed here and there by waves….”. Which coincides with the Words of Christ when He promised, “If you abide in Me and My Words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you…” Is it just me, or does anyone else see that there’s a connectedness to all of this?

Mountains of a lesser ranking to the Mountain of the House of God not only move they are disintegrated by the Presence of God in the arrival of Sons and Daughters of Heaven’s Substantiality. When we live in the Heavenlies because we are consistently connected to our position of being Seated with Him, Heaven arrives in every step we take on earth.
“But pastor! That’s just my spiritual life…what about my ‘secular’ life?” Heaven on earth means that everything came from God and is going to God, which by implication means that everything, and I mean everything, is spiritual and nothing, and I mean nothing is secular! When I pray, that’s spiritual. When I picnic with my friends I don’t “turn off” spirituality, I bring it into that arena. When I go to church, that’s spiritual. When I go to a board of education meeting, that’s spiritual. When I sing at church, that’s spiritual. When I sing “Wild Thing” in my car that’s spiritual. Do you know what will happen when a sufficient number of us believe and live this to be the most superior reality on earth? Heaven will start arriving on earth in ever increasing dosages!

I WANT HEAVEN ON EARTH! Hell has been here too long. It’s a tired old reality. It’s time for hell to go to hell where it belongs. And, its time for Heaven to COME TO EARTH WHERE IT BELONGS!

A couple of nights ago I was awakened with a start at 2:45am. My heart was pounding and my mind raced, "What's up God?" He said, "Everything's fine. You're OK. Go back to sleep." Hmm. The next day this person shows up at my office who I have never met or ever heard of before and says, "Last night I woke up at 3am and this voice says to me, 'If you go and see Pastor Randy Dean everything is going to change'" Hmm. I prayed with that person, lead them to Christ and when we opened our eyes, heaven was in the room. Hmmm....Knocking on Heaven's Door? Maybe its more like, HEAVEN IS KNOCKING ON OUR DOOR!

Saved?

A few blogs ago I promised to take a swing at the current Christian use of the word, “saved”. Now, before I go any further, let me say that I have been as guilty as anyone in my use and misuse of this word. I’ve said more times than I can count. “I’m saved! Are you saved?” Let the reader progress with that information, and yet, I intend to challenge all who read this to join me in a dive into a deeper end.

Here’s where the word has a root in scripture: “…that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved…” (Romans 10:9) In itself, that’s straight and simple enough. It’s a principle of God’s great canopy of provision for the human race. However, let’s take a closer look….

The Greek word for saved in this passage, and others, is the word, “sozo”. It means to be healed and made whole. I love that last phrase, “made whole”. Last week I asked a judge to give me legal definition of being “made whole”. (By the way; Thank you, your Honor). Here is a synopsis of his response: the offender sets about, with system and community insistence, accountability, encouragement and support, to put things back right; restoring the break or tear that the violation has created in the community. In this regard, an arsonist should replace, rebuild and repair the harm done to the victim.

To put things back right. To restore the violation created in the community. Wow. Now, fill that into “saved”. Jesus has put things back right. He has restored what the violation did to the community of human kind for all history. We are saved, alright! But I’m not sure we have given ourselves fully to the power inherent in just how saved we are!

Too often, we Christians go about getting people saved like we’re selling vacuum cleaners. You are saved if you sign a card. You are saved if you respond to my manuscript lead directions to get you to say the right words. And yes, I know that some people can connect with Truth beyond our over-simplified mechanics. Some one, some where will always find salvation in spite of us. I am just crazy enough, however, to believe for a better day than that.

I am beginning to believe that Jesus wants His followers to live for a message that is filled with far more hope than we have ever imagined. Try this on for size: what if “saved” means that Christ has put everything back right going all the way back to Adam and Eve’s fall? What if “saved” means that the violation created in the community has been fully restored? What if there is a transcedency beyond the typical notion that asks, “Are you going to heaven?” What if the Kingdom of the Heavens has been restored to me and I’m saved from living out of the shallow end of a mere material life? What if seeing the heavens opened over my life is what being saved is all about? What if I’m saved out of a paper thin existence of fear, worry, anxiety and the paper chase into a wide expanse of a life of visions and dreams and wonders and awe and ecstatic beauty today? Bad things may still come my way, but because Jesus has truly and magnificently saved me, there will never be any bad to come that will be bigger than the good that is within me, now.

What if I’m saved from a living death into a Life that has become a radiance and a pervasive environment of health, goodness and being whole? What if those of us who love to talk about “being saved” started living “saved”? Wouldn’t the world around us want to be “saved”? Wouldn’t that become an attractive, light filled, salt flavored influence? I'm just asking a few questions.

And, I’m just asking….do you want to be saved? I know I do….

Let's Make a Miracle

She wasn’t supposed to be teaching public school at the age of 57. At least that was her goal 30 years ago. “The Plan” was to take early retirement at 55, move to the Florida Keys and get a perma-tan. “The Plan” was gone. Its exit began 7 years ago when her husband came home with a strange gray look on his face.

He had just learned that his business partner of 16 years had been secretly sabotaging the accounts of their small, but successful plumbing business. In a matter of days, the revelation of a long term gambling addiction erased years of hard work and a life-long friendship. Bankruptcy was the only way out.

He continued to do the only thing he knew to do; plumbing. Side jobs and the occasional new home project kept him busy. But the bankruptcy and his own integrity did not erase a fairly sizeable amount of debt that he simply chose to pay. And, they both agreed, that God would always receive the first ten cents of every dollar they earned. The tithe was and would always be, holy to God and them.

Now, on this first day of school, the hallways were buzzing with excitement that was in direct contrast to her bleak mood. She was not supposed to be teaching at the age of 57! But, here she was, going through the motions, decorating the room, dusting off her lesson plans and pretending to be interested in the fresh new faces entering her 2nd grade classroom. “If I am this emotionally drained today, what will I be in the dead of winter!?” she complained to herself as she called the names of her new students.

“Michael Mayes….Michael Mayes….? Michael? If you are here, please answer!” From the left corner a muttering weak voice said, “Here”. Her mind said, “Ugh. I can smell a problem.”, but the Holy Spirit said, “Look at him. Now! Make eye contact.” She knew to be obedient even in the midst of her weariness, and so, looking up and pausing, she gazed at the boy with the weak voice.

From head to toe, his appearance shouted, “I’m tired and I don’t want to be here. Leave me alone.” Her computer print out indicated that Michael was new to the school, which meant that whatever problems he brought with him would be new as well. The Holy Spirit picked up where He left off, “He’s one of the reasons you are back here again. Let’s make a miracle together.”

Her internal dialogue with the Holy Spirit took milliseconds, but the content was rich with revelation. “You’re hysterical! Here I am sucking my thumb clear up to my elbow and you want to ‘make a miracle’ with me for this little boy.” Woven into the conversation was a recollection of her pastor’s recent sermon, “As you go, preach, saying, ‘the Kingdom of heaven is within your reach. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” The Spirit closed the exchange with a verbal kiss, “I love you, oh mighty woman of faith and power.”

A smile broke across her face like a summer sunrise. “Good morning Michael.” She paused, he shuffled. Under her breath, she whispered, “Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done, in Michael, just as it is being done in heaven.” Suddenly, he looked back at her, directly in her eyes. It was as if she had thrown a water balloon at him. The Kingdom of the Eternal had just slipped into the moment. Darkness was fleeing at the speed of light and something dead in this little boy was stirring back to life.

A miracle was already made. An empty, wounded teacher became a Kingdom warrior in the blink of an eye.

Reality Faith

Recently, someone very dear to me (who, by the way, may be reading this) asked me for a way to help a friend to understand faith. My email response was this, “Defining faith to anyone is like explaining love to a junior high kid. It’s elusive. It’s not a feeling but it does have feelings. It’s not a bolt of lightening, but it can produce a ‘moment’ when the moment is needed. Faith is allowing yourself the privilege of seeing the unseen, reaching for the unreachable and letting your heart hold a possibility in the face of multiple disappointments.” I must say I was pleased with what jumped out of my heart and onto the keyboard. It was without premeditation and dripping with my own passions.

After I read what I had written, it hit me: I needed that definition for myself. If I’m not diligent, I can allow myself the subtle error of thinking that I am a “professional person of faith”. No such thing exists in this very real world. Faith must never become canned, packaged and reduced to formulas. In fact, at that level, it ceases to be faith. We pastors have an occupational hazard of sermonizing life instead of passionately living a life that, in itself, is a message.

Jesus responded to a variety of expressions of faith. In one case a broken hearted woman wept at His feet and washed His feet with her tears. He called that action, “faith” and His response to her tells me that faith is more “felt than tell’t”. He was not looking for a precise, antiseptic, robotic regurgitation of a memorized lesson. He was looking for the heart. In fact, one the most quoted scriptures used to "get people saved" is Romans 10:9,10. (Side-note; I'll write a blog someday about this much abused Christian cliche, "saved"...it seems to reduce the glorious beauty of salvation to a WWLtCGD? = What Would Larry the Cable Guy Do? Git 'em saved! The thought just gives me a sharp pain in my side...around the spleen region) Sorry for the digression. The Romans passage cries out for the full engagement of the heart to the power of the resurrection of Christ! "Believe in the heart that God raised Him...." Oh, that lights a fire in me just typing the words!

“Letting your heart hold a possibility in the face of multiple disappointments…”. Another way to say it is, “Faith is spelled, R-I-S-K”. It’s about putting your heart “out there” one more time. In recent days I've been putting my heart and my faith right out there on my sleeve. Quite frankly, there are moments when it's terrifying. So what, life isn't for the faint of heart. I dare you to join me.

"Look At Us!"

Once again, Dr. Luke must have felt like he was losing his mind. None of his medical training prepared him for the astonishing events he was called upon to record. In his gospel he told of how the crushing masses were being overwhelmed with a force field of health and well-being that was flying out from the sheer presence of Jesus. Now, he is recording the Acts (notice, not the doctrine or the belief system of, but the ACTS) of the Apostles.

Peter and John are walking time bombs of a transcendent supremacy. They are pregnant with the Kingdom of God within them. They've spent days, weeks, maybe months soaking the King's influence into their bodies, souls and spirits. If they don't find an outlet soon, somebody is going to get....well, not hurt, but really healed. And then IT happens.

They are going to the temple at the hour of prayer, not to GET prayer, but to release the Kingdom in their praying. Interesting, isn't it? We often go to church to "get" prayer, when the truth is, we should be loosing the King's reality THROUGH prayer everywhere and at all times. What would happen if the next time you go to church, you went to release the pent up flood of the Kingdom of God within you? What if thousands of us did that the next time we go? I'll tell you what would happen; A lame culture would rise up and walk in the Spirit.....but, I'm ahead of myself....

A lame man had been laid daily at the gate called, "Beautiful" so that he could beg for money. Humanistic religion is no better than humanistic politics. Throw money at the problem. It won't do them any good in the long run but we will feel better in the short term because we did something, and we get to be seen doing it by everyone passing by. That's not compassion, that's enslavement, for both parties. Am I against helping the poor? Not at all. I do it formally and informally almost everyday. All I'm saying is that feeding the hungry can be done by an atheist as easily as a believer. The believer's dilemma is that we are too easily satisfied with that alone. C.S. Lewis once said that the problem with modern Christianity is just that; WE ARE TOO EASILY SATISFIED WITH MODERATE BLESSINGS AND GAINS when richer realities await our faith.

Dr. Luke said that the man looked at Peter and John. Then he said something positively and wonderfully redundant; "Peter....said....'LOOK AT US!'" (Acts 3:1-10). I believe that in that crack of time, that seam of the eternal breaking in on the temporal, that the man saw a flash of what was coming at him. The insuperable prominence of Christ's influence was coming at him at the speed of light through the hand of Peter who "seized him" by the hand, made him stand and leap and leap and leaping, praising God.

It is time, TODAY, for all of us who believe that the invincibility of the Kingdom of God is within us to SEIZE some hands with more than our material answers, but with our transcendent goods! We have the potential of a prominence that could roar out from us. Mountains are supposed to move when we speak. Ten people are supposed to SEIZE US begging to be taken with us to our God. Whole nations are supposed to be discipled. Yet, it is not an unbelieving "outside world" that is the problem here....it is unbelieving "believers". "LOOK AT US!" Indeed....

Within us is the same force field that leveled the fields around Jesus. Within us is the same excellence of a presence that was pulsing through His clothing, beaming out of His words and stampeding the inferior reality of darkness. Within us, behind our eyes, waiting a MOMENT when you are too bulgingly pregnant to hold the promise within you any more. Push it out and say to someone, TODAY, "LOOK AT US!"

The Radiance of the King

Dr. Luke must have been freaking out as he watched thousands of tormented, disturbed and just generally sick people crowding around Jesus. Think about it. 2000 years ago, if you were sick….you were SICK. A bad cut could kill you. An impacted tooth could kill you. There was no such thing as antibiotics, aspirin, band-aids, “stitches”, vaccinations, tetanus shots and the list just keeps going on and on. And that doesn’t even begin to mention anti-depressants or any other kind of help for the psychologically needy person.

One of the words that Dr. Luke chose to use to describe some of the throngs crowding Jesus was the greek word “nosos” which had a notion of being morally messed up. Another word he picked was “astheneia” which had to do with being painfully backward and mostly emotionally feeble. Nice group of folks, huh? And we’re talking herds, packs, pulsing, pushing, grabbing masses. Oh, and one other thing….hygiene….deodorant….tooth paste? Forget about it….

But beyond that collective, crusty mess of humanity, Dr. Luke records his astonishment at what was happening to these people…. “the multitude were trying to touch Him, for power was coming from Him and healing them all”… “laying His hands on every one of the them, He was healing them”… “great multitudes were gathering to hear Him and to be healed of their sicknesses”… “the power of the Lord was present for Him to perform healing”.

Dr. Luke’s reflection of all this was that Jesus kept referencing that this activity was the presence of the Kingdom of God. This presence, evidently, was a radiance or a transcendent power that was pushing away and pulsing through crowds like a giant beam of creativity making broken lives completely well! Jesus was giving off this force field of health, well being and wholeness that was more contagious than the sicknesses which were being eradicated.

In one location, so many people were profoundly impacted by this “aura” that they, quite naturally, begged Him to stay. His response summarizes my theme here; “I must preach the Kingdom of God to other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.” Dr. Luke’s cataloging of these outrageous events is the chronicle of what the Kingdom of God does and how it influences a region.

What does this mean to me? I want to become a bearer of that radiance. And not only that, but I want to start a revolution of that kind of transcendent supremacy. If the Chernobyl disaster can leave a sickening radiation field for 10,000 years, then how much more can the Resurrection of Christ produce a domination of health that can send Holy Shock Waves through a region?

If the Kingdoms of this world are to become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, then somebody needs to start something that is seriously buckling some knees. I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can say for myself….I desperately want this kind of Kingdom Reality in and around me. Church status quo has now become part of the sickness of our society.

Enough! I cry out, “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven…”.

Dear God,

Dear God,

Hi. How's Your day going? Do You have "days"? I can't really wrap my mind around that. Well, any-hoo...

I've got several things on my mind today. I'd like a moment of Your time....hmmm....what's time like for You? Dang, there I go again.....oh....sorry for the "dang".....well, sorry for the word that was in my heart that got translated, "dang". Alright, here we go....to the point.

As I said, there are some pressing things on my mind today. A passenger jet went down in the Ukraine yesterday. I've got a couple of friends in the Ukraine this week. They would have been flying. Are they OK? I'm not hearing anything, so I'm assuming they're fine.....right? Right? That's bothering me....

Last month, do You remember.....sorry about that....of course You remember....one of our church board members, and a good friend, had a heart attack, right here in my office.....in front of me no less..... I wasn't sure why that was still laying pretty heavy on my mind until yesterday when I talked to another good friend who has to have bypass surgery this week. We are all about the same age, and suddenly I'm listening to every thump of my own heart. Could You fix it so that the rest of my friends would stop making me nervous like this? Oh, and heal my friends too.... sorry.....I'm being pretty narcissistic, huh? Yea....well...let's keep that just between the 2 of us. I have an image to maintain....

There's some other stuff too, but suddenly I'm feeling pretty selfish. I thought praying would help me feel better....it's not working. Are You mad? It's not that the whole "time" thing, is it? Hello....anybody up there? Crap; now I'm really bothered. Oh, sorry again for the "c" word... OK, OK, OK!!! I'm sorry for the REAL word that got translated into the "c" word. Geez......

Uhm.....does "geez" mean something else? Crap, I mean.....dang it.....I mean....hey look at the time....well, not that time means anything to You....does it?

Your Pal,

Randy

If Not Here, Where? If Not Us, Who? If Not Now, When?

When Jesus hit the shores of earth with His outrageous new message, He said, "The wait is over. God's strategic plan is finally and once for all, in place. The pervasive and pervading quality of God's perfect authority, command and domain is within everyone's reach. Change all your previous thinking about what constitutes 'religion' and believe in this announcement of perfect wholeness for all humankind." While this wording may not be familiar to you, it is the R.D.V. of Mark 1:15. I love the R.D.V. It's my favorite translation. It speaks from and to the heart. My heart, that is. It's the Randy Dean Version as revealed by the Spirit of Truth.

The last time this perfect and pervasive influence had been present on earth was at the creation. God and humans were at complete harmony with each other. Health, wholeness, happiness, artistic creativity, breathtaking beauty and true human potential were unlimited. Man opted out of that plan and chaos, disease and tragic limitations followed. But, because God is infinitely good beyond all definitions, He put in place a long range plan for the restoration of His creation. That plan found its new genesis in the aforementioned arrival of Jesus, the Christ.

God's desire for humans to own and manage planet earth has never been rescinded, but it awaited the arrival of the next Man, or Son of Man, to kick start the plan all over again. Hence, the announcement Jesus made. From that announcing point forward Jesus set out to prove His claim. He took control, or domain over the chaos, disease and tragic limitations that the first man had chosen. If someone was blind, Jesus said, "Here's a taste of God's original plan; SEE!". If someone was dead, Jesus said, "God never planned for death to be the 'norm' on earth. LIVE!". If a party needed wine, Jesus said, "OK. This pushes the limits just a bit, but I'm game. Hey water.....PARTY!".

Millions of dollars of lotto money are wasting away in banks all over America. Why? Because hundreds of winners have failed to claim their prizes. It's true. Prizes great and small have been neglected because many people have simply forgotten that they had a lotto ticket or they just tossed the numbers aside thinking, "What's the use. I'll never win anything." Similarly, a prize beyond measure has been "buried" in the field of the earth. Jesus said that the pervading and pervasive influence of God's domain was and is BACK. He also tantilizingly said (in Matthew 13:44-46) that it had been "buried" as a dare for someone, somewhere to sell everything they have in order to go buy that field and unearth the treasure.

Too many elements of God's church today are starving, spiritually bankrupt and totally ineffective when the truth is, they are wealthy beyond imagination. They could be a city placed on a hill, the light of the world with the nations streaming to them happily begging for their tangible Good and the Living God. But sadly, many are just resigned to an insignificant holding pattern, waiting for their number to be called so they can leave the planet that was assigned to their charge.

I don't want to go anywhere until I've finished my desparate search. Along the path of my life, I have worn out 3 or 4 shovels digging for that buried treasure I mentioned earlier. Just recently, however, my newest shovel went into the dirt and I felt a sudden "thud". Moments later I was weeping over an open heavens that I found just beneath my feet. With this discovery in hand, I'd like to invite you to join me at the local expression of the church I'm pastoring. I'm throwing a wedding feast for my portion of the Bride of Christ and the Groom is in the back room contemplating what to do with several water pots at His disposal.

Wanna party with us?

My Dance With the Groom

Life is full of "firsts". First steps, first words, first day of school, first job, first girl/boy friend, first kiss and the firsts go on and on. You'll always remember your "first" whatever. I've discovered that there truly is a first time for every thing and, indeed, the more "firsts" you have in life, the more life stays alive.

Last Saturday night I officiated a splendid and magnificent wedding in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. It was a marvelous night of "firsts". After a particularly moving ceremony and a lovely reception the wedding dance called us out of our shy reserved seats. Close to midnight, toward the end of the dance, without notice and without advance thought, I found myself having a "first".

Much earlier, I had asked the DJ to find and play Eric Clapton and Cream's "The Sunshine of Your Love". That song has been hanging around my internal karaoke for several weeks and I just wanted to hear it thump right out load. At long last, I heard the opening guitar riffs and my feet hauled my 53 year old body onto the dance floor.

Maybe some of you know what that "first" moment of a song and dance is like when you've been aching for some time to sing and dance to it.....there's something of a fog around you......its a transcendental/metaphysical moment.....or, something like that. Anyway, when I came to my senses, I realized I was pretty much out there, alone. Except for the groom......I'm doing the "Wa-too-see" (60's dance) with my clergy collar on....with a guy. A "first" was happening.

That "guy" was my son. The "first" was my dance with a groom. That might be a first in history, period. Pastor/father dancing with groom/son. What a night!

This morning I'm imagining the "first" blush of creation when God the Father said, "Let there be light!". And God the Son screemed, "OWW!! Dad, That's Amazing!" And God the Spirit picked up a Fender Strat, plugged it into a 5,000,000 watt Marshall stack and played the "first" edition of "The Sunshine of Your Love". And that's when God made a note to Self; "Rock music is Good.....p.s. Several thousand years from now, make sure Randy Dean gets a cool son named Jonathan to have the first father and son wedding dance in history."

The One Year Old Blogger

I'm officially a one year old blogger. I'm not familiar enough with the demographics of this medium to know whether that means anything at all. What I do know is that I thoroughly enjoy punching out my stories, thoughts and provocations.

Looking back over the entries I can see a slice of my own journey over the past year. I hope you've enjoyed my postings and invite you to keep checking in with me. One of the earliest comments someone made a year ago says it well for me, "I'm glad you joined this bloggishness".

If you haven't looked back at my entries, take some time and browse. I promise to make you smile, frown or at least, think. Blog on brothers and sisters........

Loving Life

I'm loving life this morning. It's the 4th of July and God in His great lovingkindness saw fit to arrange the cosmos perfectly for my pleasure. This cosmic alignment is actually quite simple....here's the set-up:

NASA postponed the space shuttle launch due to weather and other conditions to be at a time when I can watch it on my satellite TV. While some folks are boating, camping and generally outside, I'm glued to the TV watching the astronauts getting strapped into Discovery. Every so often the camera cuts to a shot of the engines of the shuttle and they are heaving, breathing smoke and giving off a gigantic hissing that just makes me growl with pleasure. Now THIS is my tax dollar being used for productive purposes.

The countdown is perfect, the NASA geek guy calmly tells us, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1 and Discovery lifts off...". Its the only imperfection of the show. I say we get the guy who introduces boxers with, "Let's get ready to rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrumble!" I imagine myself strapped in this behemoth screaming, "Yeeeeee-Haaaaaa!" with Eric Clapton and Cream playing, "The Sunshine of Your Love" in my headphones. NASA just needs a better DJ.

Anyway, when all of this is done, I just can't wait to blog and tell you about it. So, there you have it. I'm loving life this 4th of July. I'm loving America. I'm loving God. Life is good.

Teleology, Continued

One clarification to the last blog: my challenge to research all those "ologies" came across poorly. It was not meant to be condescending, but meant to challenge. Underneath all my faith based optimism is the fact that 22 years ago I was challenged by men and women of God to look closely at what I said I believed, and it changed my life and my ministry.

I came from all the fear based end-times teaching and when I found all my current "ologies" the Bible suddenly and beautifully made all the spiritual sense I was longing for. When I said, "You've got the time to research" it was to call you out of any of any "hurry up" mentality and spend the quality time you need to find what the Apostle Paul called, "a spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of Him (Christ). And that, my friends, is Christology!

Thank you for visiting this challenging blog!

Got Teleology?

There’s no healing for my hope. I am hopelessly hopeful, incurably whole and beyond help for the view I hold of the God I love and the world He loves. I'm positively giddy about the future and drunk with a Holy Spirit induced high that won't let me go! And yes, I've seen the end-times forecasts on Christian TV. I've heard the gleeful singing about getting ready to fly away from this soon to be incinerated planet.

But my good cheer just will not let me go there with these bell ringers ding-donging doomsday. God has given me a theology with a teleology that has a methodology of an ontology rooted in the very nature of God as revealed in His Christology. It's just that simple. If you need any help on those terms, just do some research....you've got time.

Hmm...research and time; those are commodities that the sleazy salesmen of end-times products won't encourage you to use. Its just too costly to their bottom line. Trust me on this one; their "product-line" is generating a healthy profit that they can not afford to surrender. Bluntly stated, if they admit they are wrong, on any level, it costs them millions of dollars.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality”. In a speech following his acceptance of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1950, William Faulkner said, “I decline to accept the end of man….man will not only endure, but prevail….because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.”

There are voices in the church today who, with unchained reach and unfettered volume, are declaring the opposite. To them, there is a violent "end” of human life based solely on the evil nature of humans. Nuclear holocaust like hail stones from God with a garnish of devinely inspired 15.0 earthquakes......and those are just the appetizers! Their teleology welcomes the thief whose goals are killing, stealing and destroying.

"But pastor! Haven't you read the Book of Revelations?" Nope; but I have read the Revelation of Jesus Christ, if that's what you are talking about. And, my oh my, the optimism I live just rides ever higher. That part, where God says to John, "Come up here and I will show you what must take place after these things" just makes me squeal with delight, like a kid in a school yard recess "free for all" snow ball fight.

When John gets yanked out of his earth-bound funk by the power of the Holy Spirit, he sees a rainbow laced throne, glimmering with jewel like magnificense. That report alone makes me sound like a pessimist. What I'm trying to say is that in the face of the true dangers of the world in which we live, the Church can not afford an anemic teleology that plays into the plans of the enemy of God's creation! If you believe "it all blows up" in the end, then, whether you know it or not, you welcome and possibly subconsciously enjoy every incident that confirms your ultimate and final view of God's purposes. I just read in Ephesians that everything in heaven and earth will be summed up in Christ. Therefore, my teleology is producing a sky-high faith for everyday events that will lead to that summation!

Now, before I close this chapter, lets go back to William Faulkner's quote and speech. It's loaded with a healthy teleology. Google the speech with the quote, "I decline to accept the end of man". His warning 56 years ago was that if authors of any kind of literature stood among and watched the end of man, they would write not of the heart, but of the glands. They would write not of love, but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion.

In my view, even so-called Christian literature (Left Behind come to mind?) slides into this morass and has unwittingly contributed to the pessimistic immoral culture we so despise! So, tell me....Got Teleology? Is it brimming with unarmed truth and unconditional love? Is Christ risen from the dead and victorious over the grave? Or is His resurrection just an anecdotal historical event for your personal future pleasure safely distant from this blue planet turned to ashes from God's fury?

YOUR TELEOLOGY MATTERS!!!!

Route 666

Tomorrow will mark (pun intended) a scary day for a few people. June 6, 2006 or, 6-6-06. One Hollywood film company will cash in on the silliness by releasing a movie. Hell, Michigan (a real town!) is having some kind of festival tomorrow complete with people in devil costumes, temporary tattoos for the forehead and right hand and, more than likely, a gathering of "concerned" Christians to protest. It all just makes my spleen hurt.

Aside from the date, in my own experience I've been witness to a dozen or more theories about this much ballyhooed number, "666". Once, there was a giant computer in Brussels. Or was that a large brussel sprout in an old computer? Then, there was the arrival of the bar code on all of our merchandise! Right now I'm holding a book written in 1984 that devoted a chapter to the sinister power of the bar code with a concluding exclamation, "666 is here!". Then there was the Illuminati, the Trilateral Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Morgans, the Rothschilds, the Boogeyman! Quickly, someone call Ghostbusters! And that's not even giving mention to Y2K and 88 Reasons the Rapture will happen in 1988. Oh, my throbbing spleen!

I said in my last blog that I made a commitment to God many years ago to be a voice of Truth in the face of these ridiculous fantasies. The end-times conspiracy theorists have held center stage for far too long. They have abused the Bible, the work of the Cross and the Resurrection with impunity. I've offered my own ministry and calling to do whatever I can to call the people of God out of this shallow wading pool and discover an ocean of practical, liveable Truth, which does not require the memorization of a dispensational chart.

The book of Revelation (13:16-18)is the origin of the reference to the number "666". In spite of the current fanciful interpretations, shouldn't we ask ourselves, "What would the first readers of these passages have thought?" How about the "mark" of sweat on Adam's forehead (Genesis 3:19) regarding his disobedience? Or, what about the High Priest of the Old Testament, marked on his forehead with gold letters proclaiming he was "Holy to the Lord"(Exodus 28:36)? Then there is the "mark" of the law of God on the hands and foreheads of those who are blessed and called by God (Dueteronomy 6:6-9) and the warning not to think that the power of our own hands provided our wealth apart from God's blessing (Dueteronomy 8).

The "mark" in Revelation is to be a revealed truth about our calling to be blessed by God and to never fall prey to the temptation of thinking that what you have or what you own or what you achieve is anything apart from the goodness and generousity of God's power to bless! He calls us to the perfection of His devine nature which is represented by the number of perfection, "7". He warns us to never be satisfied with the "almost" good of a number just short of seven, "666". God calls us to His creativity and a freedom from the love of money. He longs to deliver us from the spirit of greed into the beauty of knowing, "it is more blessed to give than to receive".

The "beast" has been driving souls into an early grave for centuries, but Christ has conquered His "Anti-" and offers something else; "The thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy; but I have come that they may have LIFE and that more abundantly."

Happy 6/6/06!

Attention all fans of everything that has to do with the:
a. end times
b. book of Revelations (see my earlier blog by this title) and prophecy conspiracy scriptures
c. the mark of the beast and
d. the rapture......
This blog will bother you. It will basically make fun of the aforementioned theories. It will milk the sacred cows of these bothersome intrusions to a mature spirituality that loves and is vitally connected to the Living Christ. OK? Stop now.....c'mon now.....you haven't stopped yet.....well, so be it. You've been warned.

Next Tuesday is (spooky music please.....now the "ah-ah-ahs" of scary choir voices added)
6-6-06! The anti-christ will begin a tour of the nations with his tatoo shop in tow to offer all of us unsuspecting bobble heads the Mark of the Beast. No one will be able to buy or sell without it and if you refuse it, it will be "off with their bobble head!" Of course, this is just a synopsis of what some folks have been out to sell us but whatever their version is, it comes down to these basics.

It is unmitigated piffle. Tripe, tomfoolery, silliness and fantasy. I shouldn't be so vague. Let me just say it the way I believe it; it is deception. I decided many years ago that the Body of Christ had been drained and beleaguered for too long by these attacks on mature spirituality in Christ and that I was going to be a voice, maybe a voice in the wilderness, but still a voice for One whose character deserves better than all that.

Now that I have your attention, I need to end this short blog. I will come back next Tuesday to finish these thoughts. I know all the arguements, all the proof-texts from the Bible, all the pre, post, mid and "A's". The preterists, the literalists the blah, blah, blah. But I also know the Lord Jesus Christ Who came to seek and to save that which was lost. THE Christ Who trumps every anti-christ spirit that has ever walked this earth.

666? Its all about man's inability to be his own provision, his own perfection without God. What's the answer? The Mark of the Name of God our Father written on our foreheads. It's all about, "Who is your God? Who provides your life, whose Name is written in your mind? Whose love has seized your mind, will and emotions?"

Come back 6-6-06.....to be continued....................