I've moved!

For all three of you that follow my ramblings I have moved to innovation ministries. I am trying to consolidate my cyber-life. Thank you for making the move with me.

Now What?

As I embark on this new adventure with God, I have decided to do something different, something ancient. I have sensed a calling from the Lord to step out of the boat.  I haven’t abandoned ship because of the storm or the rough seas. Like Peter, I heard Jesus say “come,” to experience Him in a new way. I have opted out of the institutional church; not in protest or bitterness, but spiritual necessity.

I am not alone; a faithful band of brothers and sisters asked me to walk with them. “Origins,” a simple church, was born. Our first worship gathering was last night. We broke bread together. Actually we had Taco Soup, but you get the idea. We sang and prayed together. Then we finished up with a discussion series on life lessons from Peter. You can engage in this discussion titled, “OK, We’re Out of the Boat! Now What?” at www.originsnola.org.

It is exciting to look into the face of Christ and step out. Thank God, when I focus on the storm, He will immediately reach out, take my hand, and rescue me.

(see Matthew 14 for the first hand account of Peter’s experience)

Test run

A Silence Broken (originally posted 08.29.2006)

An old Selmer tenor sax cuts the thick air along the river behind Cafe DuMonde with a melody from deep in the heart of Coleman Hawkins. The Canal Street Ferry blows a low tone as she returns from Algiers, and the big engines of the river boats fill out the bottom of the harmony that is the French Quarter. The rhythm is tapped out by the metal shoes of the carriage horses that escort visitors down Toulouse past Royal and Bourbon Street. The Quarter has a song unique in all the world.

The piercing cry of a baby, curled up hungry and alone, lofts above the roar of the bus that takes her young mother to work. The audible and enveloping drone of hopelessness moves through the Desire Street Projects. The rhythm cuts deep as the rapid report of a Glock 9mm drops another grandson to the blood stained ground of the 5-4. The Lower 9th Ward has a song unique in all the world.

New Orleans is a bitter sweet symphony where carefree and hopelessness awaits a tragic crescendo. Katrina, long anticipated, always feared, shattered this tension filled orchestration. Her deafening wail so out of tune. When her excruciating solo was over the band was gone and a global audience sat numb and confused. New Orleans had a silence unique in all the world.

The distinct tone that is New Orleans has resonated across the land. A season has passed and the chorus builds one voice at a time. The horns are muted, the baby’s cry faint, but the silence is broken. The leader of the band stands ready to arrange, to harmonize. The Great I am is our Conductor. While the Composer sits in a place of silence, He is the one who forms a collection of monotone elements into a masterpiece of meter and harmony.

New Orleans we must trust our song to the skillful hand of the Almighty Maestro.

Praise the Lord! Praise God in his Temple; praise him in his mighty heaven. Praise him for his strength; praise him for his greatness. Praise him with trumpet blasts; praise him with harps and lyres. Praise him with tambourines and dancing; praise him with stringed instruments and flutes. Praise him with loud cymbals; praise him with crashing cymbals. Let everything that breathes praise the Lord. (Psalm 150)

Go and Sin No More (originally posted 05.14.2007)

I have been labeled, at best a troublemaker, at worst a heretic . . . again. But, to know me is to love me. I am a 45 year old undergrad at Leavell College on the Campus of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, a lover of grace, and one who has great disdain for the law. I want so much for all Jesus went through to mean something to the people around me. After all, if the law had been effective in perfecting the sinner, I am quite sure a loving God would not have asked such a thing of His one and only Son. Focus on the scourging and the crucifixion if you must, but I think the thing worth sweating great drops of blood over was the act of a sinless man bearing the weight of the world's sin upon himself. The least I can do is accept this great thing, done for me when I didn't deserve it. Man, my sins hadn't even been carried out yet. The "paid in full" voucher had been sitting there waiting for me to pick it up. I didn't get some kind of starter kit, I'm 100% forgiven! I'm a new creation!

That said, I was so bold as to suggest, in a doctrinal theology course, that after someone is saved it is possible to finish out your Christian walk without sinning. Wow! You would have thought I was suggesting a dance contest with Jello shots. Now, before you draw your label gun, consider this, in order to disagree you must believe two things; 1) that you are a NOT a new creation, and 2) that God's not big enough to pull it off.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. (2 Corinthians 12:9)

For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, 12 instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, 14 who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds. (Titus 2:11-14)

Now in my personal experience it is improbable, even inconceivable, but I believe the Holy Spirit that dwells in me can do it. That is what gives me abundant life. I can't image what it is to live life anticipating your next transgression, so focused on inevitable failure that you miss the great adventure the Almighty Creator has planned just for you. Have I missed Christ's message altogether? Have I become a heretic? . . . Or the renegade I long to be.

The Holy Spirit: Just a Ball and Chain?

One of the most fulfilling elements of my life is my education. After four and a half years, (Katrina sabotaged my 3 year plan) I must be close to achieving my Bachelors in Christian Ministry. My “BaCMin” as it’s referred to around Leavell College. Leavell College is the undergraduate program on the campus of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. I have learned biblical history and ancient languages. I have learned about Postmodernism and contemporary Christian counseling. I have greatly expanded my knowledge, understanding, and application of God’s Word and His promises. I have had the pleasure of studying under some of the best theological professors anywhere. I have been richly blessed.

(Here it comes) But! One of my favorite professors trampled on a primary pet peeve of mine. “We are all just sinners saved by grace”- spoken with that defeated drone so common to the ball and chain dragging Christians I know. They talk a lot about how hard the walk is, and frequently moan over the challenges we all have in this life. They drag the Holy Spirit around like a ball and chain, hoping their Heavenly Father will throw them a happy bone once in a while. Usually what they are looking for is a financial blessing for all the burdensome toil and hard earned tithe they have agonizingly laid at the altar. A common thread among these melancholy brothers and sisters is the tendency to measure God’s acceptance of them by their circumstances.

It’s no wonder some of God’s children fall into this joy smothering abyss, preachers preach it, bands sing about it, and twelve step programs rely on it. The simple truth is that our humanness is too fragile to sustain the hope of glory, which is Christ in you. When we finally acknowledge our great need for the Savior we must be reborn in order to obtain this divine capacity to love.

To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27 ESV)

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (1 Peter 1:3 ESV)

The Bible is overflowing with teaching on grace and mercy and abundance. God’s Word also cautions us not to fall back on our own inadequate abilities. The Scriptures never model a life still lived as an improved sinner. Paul clarifies the antithesis of such belief.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. (2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)

We may experience failures, of our own doing, in our walk with the Lord. Those stumbles don’t make us sinners. We have the Holy Spirit to pick us up, dust us off, and put us back on the path of a saint. Paul encourages us not to even keep track of our offenses.

But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. In fact, I do not even judge myself. For I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me. (1 Corinthians 4:3,4 ESV)

It is heartbreaking to see how many miss out on the abundant life (John 10:10) because of this common teaching.

I have been richly blessed to be called to the Lord’s ministry with the charge to represent a radical life changing relationship. Jesus is the kind of friend you just can’t wait to introduce to everyone you know. He laid down his life for a friend (John 15:3) and that friend is you. Jesus didn’t die so you could be a new and improved sinner, who drags the Holy Spirit around like a ball and chain. He died for the forgiveness of your sins and rose to give you abundant life.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1 ESV)

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. (Romans 15:13 ESV)

Infallable Colbert

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but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
(1 Peter 3:15 ESV)

Or do it the Colbert way.