I don’t write the news, folks, I just report it.
I just came across this video of Pastor R.A. Vernon preaching, and well… here you go.
The new “F” word, huh?
Wow. 
What’cha got to say about it, Cee-Lo Green??
I see you driving ’round town
With the girl I love and I… forgive you!Although there’s pain in my chest
I still wish you the best, and I… forgive you!
You know someone is just ITCHING to rewrite that one now!
.
I read a Rick Warren quote a couple weeks ago that I haven’t been able to escape ever since.
The last thing many believers need to go to is another Bible study. They already know far more than they’re putting into practice.
Dang.
Reading that really challenged me. Its often easy for me to think that learning more about what Jesus said gets me off the hook for having to actually walk out and do what Jesus said do and be who Jesus said to be. Personally, I grew up in a church environment that knew all about “church” and all kinds of doctrine and could quote you half the Bible, but never really did anything with it but try hard to be “holy” and come back to church.
I’m currently reading John Ortberg‘s book The Me I Want To Be and he made a statement in it that really challenged me.
Often, people in the Gospels who got in the most trouble with Jesus were the ones thought they were working hardest on their spiritual life. They were trying so hard to be good that they could not stop thinking about how hard they were trying, and that got in the way of their loving other people.
That Jesus just spent time with the oppressed, dejected and broken isn’t what set Him apart. It was that He LOVED them. To be honest, anyone can serve a meal to a homeless person. You don’t have to believe in Jesus to serve the oppressed. But as followers of Christ, what should make us different than everyone else doing what we’re doing is who we are and how that filters how and why we do what we do.
Last night at Stretch, we talked about how as much as we love how the group has grown and we’ve been able to mobilize a lot of people to service and action, ultimately we’re doing a disservice if we only get people to serve a meal to a homeless person but don’t challenge them to LOVE that homeless person, look them in the eye, remember their name and dignify their humanity the way Jesus would have.
We’re about to dig into David Platt’s book “Radical” together and challenge each other to go deeper into community and service, and allow ourselves to be uncomfortable to a degree that we begin to understand what it means to live like Jesus tells us to.
Josh Wilson has a great new song called “I Refuse”. In this video, he talks about how he was praying for the people affected by the Nashville flood earlier this year, and praying for people to step up and come help. But then he wondered if it was possible for him to be hiding behind his prayer and using it as a defense and a cop-out to actually doing something himself. I was really moved by that and thought it was a perfect compliment to how all this fits together. We showed the video at Stretch last night and begin to challenge people with the awareness of the great needs that exist all around them and ask the hard question…
One of my greatest joys is when people make up words, use words that don’t really fit what they are saying or inadvertently use words that could very easily, and more likely, mean something else. I especially enjoy this when said semantic slips and vocab faux pas are made available for public consumption, and bonus points are given when any of this happens in, at or around church. Preachers can be the WORST at this, which I absolutely love. Oh the many times I have sat through sermons where the speaker would use a word that was either NOT an actual word or what he meant got lost in what he said.
In 2004, a friend of mine, knowing my penchant for said public displays of diction carnage, told me about a church in south Nashville they drove by which had a very questionable message on it’s marquee sign. When they told me what it said, I think I literally fell out of my chair laughing. I could not get back to my house, get my camera and drive to this church to see it for myself and capture a pic of the sign in all it’s unfortunate, double-entendre glory.
I drove 45 minutes each way to get this picture, but I didn’t care. It felt like Christmas and Jesus had given me the best present EVER! If you live in Nashville, it’s very likely you know exactly where this church is. God bless them… every one.
Of course I knew what they MEANT, but… flag on the play!!!!
So, if you’re looking for a take-away, of course there is a great life application here as well: I know what you MEAN, but what are you SAYING???
Another example is this one from when I lived in Dallas a few years ago. I lived near a Golden Corral restaurant that I would drive by many times a week on my way to my office. One morning as I drove by, I caught a glimpse of their marquee out of the corner of my eye and nearly had a wreck trying to turn around and go back to get a picture.
Sooo…. “remodelation” huh? Nice. I’m not entirely sure what that is, but from the looks of it, it’s going to take 7 of something, which I’m going to go out on a limb and assume are days.
Have you ever had a dream shattered? Been disappointed? Had your hopes dashed? Had more questions than answers? Had to let go of your plans? Had the bottom fall out of your life? Had a broken heart? Of course you have. You know how I know? Because the blood is running warm in your veins. First time author and Nashville, TN area pastor Pete Wilson has just released his first book, “Plan B” (Thomas Nelson) and he has a message for you: “you are not alone!”
I’m going to be honest with you. I read much of “Plan B” through tears. I’ve shared various parts of my story here over the past couple months, and it would be an understatement to say that I am right in the center of my own “Plan B” situation. As I have been walking out my own “Plan B”, learning to let go of my plans and dreams for myself and embrace the story God is writing for me, I have wrestled hard with the questions… “why”, “when”, “how”, “what if”, “why not”, “now what”, etc. If it were possible for a book to be a life soundtrack, “Plan B” would be mine. If that sounds like I’m telling your story, then this book is for you.
Reading “Plan B” has been at times confirmation, at times cathartic and at other times a road map. There were moments when I felt like it was a checklist, where I could look back at the milestones in my own journey and match them to the heart-process Pete described in the book. Other moments, it was such a release for my heart, giving me permission to feel the way I feel and understand that the way I feel doesn’t intimidate God. Then there were moments when I re-read, highlighted and collected wisdom like a squirrel gathering nuts for the winter, knowing that I would need it again very soon.
Pete’s conversational tone and writing style make you feel like you’re just talking with a good friend about working through the nuts and bolts of life. When he talks, in chapter 6, about how “our faith must rest on God’s identity and not necessarily his activity”, it challenged me to look back over my life and remember the times when my heart was so swayed by what I thought God should be doing instead of being anchored in who God is. Ultimately, our “Plan B” is most often actually God’s “Plan A”, once He has dealt with our expectations and entitlement… what we think we deserve.
Is it possible you don’t really want God? Is it possible you just want what you think God can give you?
I’ve seen some criticism of “Plan B”, stating that while the book boldly poses a lofty question, “What do you do when God doesn’t show up the way you thought He would?”, it doesn’t deliver when it’s time for the answer. I take issue what that argument and propose that perhaps a significant misstep of much of today’s Christianity is that when it comes to offering answers, it often over-promises but under-delivers. Life is not full of answers, and neither is faith. But you know what both ARE full of? Questions.
Is it possible that we have become so accustomed to the bait-and-switch of modern evangelicalism, where the false promise of answers are dangled like a carrot before the cross, that we are afraid of actually living with the questions? Have we been so long seduced by 3-piece suit-wearing, name-it-and-claim-it Jesus pitch-men who write checks with their words that life can’t cash that our hearts are unable to fathom a God who is to be found in the balance… in the tension… in the questions?
In one of my favorite quotes from “Plan B”, Pete addresses this, saying:
Instead of an answer, God offers us something better. He offers us a solution. He offers us the cross.
While Pete reassures us of the finality of the cross as the ultimate solution, he also honestly confesses that does not relieve us, as believers, of both the opportunity and obligation to live by faith… to live with the questions.
Even as I write this and “Plan B” hits store shelves, Nashville has been hit with a historic flood that has left many people homeless, displaced, grasping for hope, asking the hard questions, suddenly and unexpectedly living their own “Plan B”.
You won’t find “5 steps to your breakthrough” or “12 ways to successful living” here. But what you will find is someone who is confident that God sits on the throne, but who also isn’t afraid to say that sometimes life still just sucks. Is “Plan B” going to give you your answers? Maybe not. But it will give you permission to ask the questions. And sometimes, that’s all your heart needs.
