On to Bethlehem

As I have stated often, there are a lot of options at Advent/Christmas musically. I have at times been spoken to through a wide variety of songs. This year the song that is really speaking to me is On to Bethlehem. It was recorded in about 1999 by Bill Mallonee and the Vigilantes of Love. The mellow sound and the introspective lyrics are how I am experiencing this season. If you let it, I believe God can speak to you and provide comfort as well.

"So tell me, what is your little secret? What's on your blister soul? What is that one little secret? The one that has taken its toll?" "God wrapped himself in human skin, for those who want to touch."

Below I have pasted the lyrics and and a link to the version I am listening to recorded by the worship band at the church where I served 14 years ago. This was done during our New Noel Christmas production.

If you go HERE you can listen to the version I am referencing along with a list of the musicians involved.

On To Bethlehem

       Bill Malonee and VOL

So I'm at this wheel
It's 3 a.m.
Waiting for the caffeine to come around
Life rears its ugly head again
They say, "Your radio's cool, and retail's way down"
And I'd like to say I'm faithful to the task at hand
Speaking Gospel to a handful and others with their list of demands

It's cold this year, and I'm late on my dues
It's cold in here
Ah, but that's nothing new
My heart's electric with Your love again
So it's on to Bethlehem

You might surmise that I ran there, but I really only crept
Lead me to the place where love runs wild and then it dogs your every step
You know how fickle my heart is and prone to wander, my Lord
Yeah, we talk, but it's at arm's length
Always got one eye on the door

God wraps Himself up in human skin for those who want to touch
And God let them drive the nails in for those of us who know way too much
And You come bearing all our burdens and take Your lovers for a ride
We stayed holed up in our cages fashioned by our own design

So tell me, what is your secret?
What's on your blister soul?
What is that one little secret?
You know, the one that has taken its toll
'Cos Daddy's banging on your gate again
Yeah, He won't leave you alone
Got a whole lot of dry, warm rooms in the finest of homes

Meeting Me - An Advent Poem #3

Meeting Me

Holy Child, why is it that you would

leave heaven’s glory

to lie

in a feeding trough?

Why would you

surrender unlimited power

to become

the most helpless of beings?

What was your goal?

Why did you come?

Why are you here?

You will not remain this way.

You will grow

first into a boy, and finally into a man.

You will die

upon a cross for my sin . . . you will die.

You will rise

From a death that should have been mine.

Why would you choose to meet me here?

Is it because of my need?

Is it because of your love?

Is it because . . .

Holy Child. You will not remain this way.

But

This is the path that leads to your goal

and humanity’s gain.

That is why you came.

That is why we bow.

That is why we worship You.

That is why we call you Savior.

That is why.

How Abounding - An Advent Poem #2

How Abounding

How deep is the sin

            that runs into my very being?

            It stares back when I look at my reflection.

            It is a part of my nature.

            I am left with no hope of escaping it clutches

                        unless God delivers me.

Is that what this is about?

How amazing is the grace of God

            that extends beyond the grasp of my sin?

It sees I am

 unworthy of this honor.

I am totally unable to undertake this task alone.

This grace makes me

worthy . . .

and available. . .  for God’s purposes.

Perhaps THAT is what this is all about?

How abounding is the voice of God

that calls me

to something other than myself?

This is something I could never have imagined

No human can fully understand this

            or believe it

. . . without His assistance?

Maybe that is just the point

            it is his aid of which I am in need.

It is that same aid of which we all are in need.

            And soon I may hold that very aid in my arms.

How abounding. How abounding indeed.

Persons - An Advent Poem #1

Persons

So many faces

Each one different

beautiful in its own way

Do they realize how important everyone is?

So many minds

Each one thinking different thoughts

bowing to their former self

Have they truly comprehended the significance of this?

So many expectations

Each one coming from a personal bias

bringing a different vantage point to this experience.

Are they willing to see what is actually taking place?

So many viewpoints

Each one with a slant all it own.

bending this night into their own experience. 

How will I get them to allow my Father to work?

So many persons

Each one unique, and loved from above

bonding with a baby they cannot comprehend.

How long before they understand?

So many needs

Each one greater than the one before

becoming larger as the night passes.

Will they allow me to point them to the true answer?

They are all looking at me.

Pain in their heart.

Expectation is in their face.

Hope is in their voice.

Modern Day Puritanism

Ours is a strange time to be alive. We talk outwardly on being tolerant. However, we all have seen that quite often the most intolerant are those who preach tolerance. We see it in individuals quite often, but it shows up in odd ways collectively as an American culture. Here is what I am referring to.

You will often hear people in places of prominence talk about believing in giving individuals a second chance. If pressed individually and pressed further on their own failings, most would indeed fall under that umbrella. Most of us less prominent folks would also fall into that camp.

Here is where it appears to be breaking down.

Primarily, through the use of social media we have become a nation that desires instant punishment. It goes from A-Rod, to Jerry Sandusky, to Donald Sterling, to Danny Ferry, to the mayor of Toronto, to Tony Stewart, to Joe Paterno, to Governor Christi, to Ray Rice or Adrian Peterson, to the police in Missouri, to any number of politicians, to the latest public figure who we think is guilty of a crime. Now, I am not saying that some of the individuals listed above are not guilty. Some indeed are.Others however have been exonerated or never proven at fault or the case is still under investigation.

In actuality it does not seem to matter if the person IS guilty or not. We have judged them guilty based upon our limited evidence and we then want to see them punished. We want to see them punished quickly and here is the rub . . . we want to see them punished publicly. It appears to me that we, as a culture, are acting in eerily similar fashion to the Puritans of a few hundred years ago who punished folks in the most public of settings available to them in that day Where the extreme Puritans put folks into stocks and publicly mocked and otherwise humiliated them, we do it now via the Internet. We assassinate their character. Quite often, just as the legalistic wing of the Puritans did, we even resort to attacking their family. With our words and posts we "convict" them quickly and viciously and without regard as to whether we may end up being wrong.

Just as tolerance goes away when it is not our belief we are seeking tolerance for, it seems it is no longer innocent until proven guilty. We have become guilty until proven innocent on many fronts. We see ourselves as having moved so much beyond the folks of a few hundred years ago, yet here we are acting in much the same way. I am not in favor of being soft on criminal acts of any sort, but we must exercise care not to violate the old "log and splinter" principle while the facts play out.

Donating Blood and Fatherhood

Last Friday I made my regularly scheduled trek that I take each 8 weeks to donate blood. This time, I talked to Kay and took Gavin with me. (I so wish I had done this with my three, now adult, children.) I wanted him to understand what I did and then help him to understand a bit why I do it.

Donating blood is something I learned from my father. For all his shortcomings due to his addictions, I saw him more than once give blood. I remember him telling me “Someone needs this blood and I can give it to them.” It made an impression upon me to the point that I still recall it. I tried to think of how much I have given in the nearly 40 years I have been donating blood. While I have not always been at the 8-week mark, I have been regular in my donating and I assume I am in the 15 – 20 gallon range of donating blood totally all three states where I have lived.

Since they were not terribly busy, the ladies at the donor center allowed Gavin to go back and watch the process for which I was grateful. He has had blood drawn on numerous occasions due to his growth hormone issues, but never in this volume and he was amazed, especially at the size of the needle, which I no longer notice.

As we left he and I had some dialogue about it. I mentioned to him that when Kay was in her cancer treatments four years ago she had blood transfusion on at least two occasions and received a total of four units I think. I told Gavin, I have always given to help others, but now whenever I give, I am giving in gratitude for the individuals who gave blood that was given to my wife. He said, “Grandma had someone else’s blood put in her?!” I told him that is exactly how it works and explained a bit of the science behind it (well as much as I understand!)

Here is my point, being a father is about teaching on so many levels. I firmly believe in the verbal, intellectual and spiritual side of it, but I also believe my role as the father in Gavin’s life is to teach him about his responsibility to other human beings and their care. Giving blood is just one small way I can model just that, the way my Dad (unknowingly) did for me.

Strength Based Approaches

Anyone who has been around me longer than 30 minutes knows that I am all about the Strength-Based approach as stressed by Gallup and Marcus Buckingham specifically. It infiltrates everything I do. I had a wonderful discussion with an individual a few weeks back regarding this.

I was at my grandson Gavin's 5th grade end of the year outing at a local amusement park. As we were leaving I was chatting with one of the three teachers in his team. Now, Gavin likes all three of his teachers, but really liked this particular one. I had thought perhaps it had something to do with the fact that this teacher was male. I was so wrong.

As that teacher and I walked to the final departure location at the end of the day, we were chatting about how Gavin liked him and blossomed in his classes. The teacher then said something like this:

"I believe every child has a strength. My goal is to discover what that strength is and then play to that. Gavin loves details and likes for things to be exact and logical. If they do not make sense, he cannot buy it. He wants facts to support what you are saying."

He could not have hit the nail on the head  better. Gavin is so much that way, that at night you cannot say, "Gavin it is 9:30 . . . bed time." He will reply, "It is not 9:30, it is 9:26."

I began to talk to this teacher about Marcus Buckingham and the strength-based approach. I learned he teacher had never heard of it. He simply had noticed that kids respond when you play to their strengths. As I talked about how we do not grow our weaknesses, we simply have to manage around them and not let them pull us down, he became more and more interested.

Now to us, as a parent or grandparent or whatever interaction you have with others, do you seek to recognize their strengths and play to them? If not, you are missing a golden opportunity. It is something I do in leadership capacities and folks always respond. If you have never checked out this leadership / parenting / friendship / co-worker / colleague tool, I encourage you to do so at Marcus Buckingham's Site here and others. Read the book Now Discover Your Strengths, (and his Buckingham's others as well) take the inventory, grow yourself and help others!!

God's Economy and the US Ecomony

This morning I read about the following store closings in an article lamenting our lack of real economic growth.

• Staples - 225 stores by 2015
• Radio Shack - 1,100 stores
• Albertsons  - 26 stores
• Abercrombie & Fitch - undisclosed in 2015
• Gilly Hicks - 20 stores
• Barnes & Nobles - 218 stores
• J.C. Penney - 33 stores
• Toys R Us – 100 stores.
• Sweetbay Supermarket – 17 stores
• Loehmann’s  - shut down
• Sears / Kmart - 500 stores
• Quiznos - filed for bankruptcy
• Sbarro – 155 locations
• Ruby Tuesday - 30 restaurants
• Red Lobster selling unknown number of stores
• Ralph’s – 15 supermarkets
• Safeway - closed 72 Dominick’s grocery stores

I was reminded:

• God is not dependent upon the US economy.
• God is not surprised by any of this.
• God still meets our NEEDS just as he has always has.
• There is not a sparrow that falls that God does not notice.
• God still loves each of us more than we could imagine.

Do You Want to Get Well?

These are the concluding remarks of a message I delivered on March 23, 2014 at Covenant Presbyterian Church in Sharon, PA. It does not include the exegetical, interpretive and analytical comments made from the passage in John 5 prior to these comments.

======================

I want to spend the remaining minutes would have together focusing on one small detail in this miracle. That detail comes from what I believe is the most astounding, self-revelatory, soul-searching, life impacting question recorded by Jesus addressed to any one individual. It has ramifications that carry forward to the 21^st century and hit us in the face so hard as to leave us reeling from the impact.

The question was simply this, “Do you want to get well?”

Do you want to get well? Well, do you?

Many folks are not physically impaired, but have something that can be far more daunting. Many of you are lying by the pool emotionally or relationally or personally paralyzed.

In theological terms, what we have here is the delicate balance between divine sovereignty and human responsibility. The purpose of this question is to get at the heart of the individual.

Maybe Jesus’ question gets at the heart of this man's disability. Would he prefer the known, i.e. living with this disability or is he willing to risk the unknown, being healed and the massive life change that would follow.

Do we really want to be rid of our sin and our addictions and our negative behaviors? If we were to honestly invest 15 to 20 min. seriously thinking about this topic the ramifications could be huge.

I want you to seriously ask yourself, “Do I want to get well?” Because I can tell you from over 30 years of ministry experience everyone does not want to.

Some individuals like where they are.

Some folks are just too lazy to make the changes.

Some are afraid of what the change will mean.

There are some of you here today to have an issue with alcohol or tobacco or some other substance. It controls you. I am not here to tell you if it is right or wrong. Those questions have varying shades of gray attached to them. But Scripture is clear. We should not be controlled by any substance and some of you are. As I as I stand here and make these statements, please do not hear judgment from me. But do here this this is a decision you must wrestle with. You must decide do I want to conquer this or not. You have had family members plead with you to make changes. But they cannot make the change for you. Only you can do that. You know what it is going to take to conquer whatever it is. The question you need to ask yourself is "Do I want to get well?"

There are some men here today and your computer regularly takes you to sites it should not take you. It is sites that are demeaning to women and degrading to sexuality as God designed it. You know in your heart of hearts it is not right. The personal guilt you feel after having visited those sites tells you that. The question you must ask is "Do I want to get well?” Am I willing to set up accountability structures - serious accountability structures - to allow me to stop permitting this activity from controlling me?

Others here today have some relational issues that seriously need to be addressed. There are husbands and wives here and your marriage is not the way God would desire it and not the way you want it. But you have fallen into a trap. You fallen into a pattern. You may have allowed yourself to think it cannot get better. The question you have to ask is, "Do I want to get well?” Will I go to my partner and open my heart and tells them what is missing in our relationship and how it hurts me? Am I willing to hear from my partner things that I must address and myself? Because it is NEVER one person. Never. You may need to ask, "Am I willing to sit down with a mediator if that is what is needed?" Do you want to get well?

There probably are some students here who have allowed themselves to frequent activities they know are unhealthy. You know this is not in your best interest. I know. I know. I know. You say, "Everyone is doing it. I'm just in college. I'm just in high school. Everyone has to sow their wild oats at this age." NO, everyone does not do it! But I can guarantee you everyone must reap the consequences of any oats they may sow. Maybe you need to make some hard decisions about being real with yourself  and decide what you will go to and what you allow yourself to do. It may be a decision you need to make in a dating relationship. There may be some activities are allowing yourself and your partner to participate in you should not and you know you should not. Do you want to get well?

There are those of us here who look in the mirror or step on the scales and know we are not treating our body the way God wants us to treat it. Our eating habits and our exercising habits or lack thereof are not honoring to God. And our body is showing the wear and tear and we are paying the price or we will pay the price. Are you willing to address that issue? Are you willing to address your diet or exercise? It might mean going to see a physician. There may be some serious decisions you need to make medically to get help. There may be a cost to pay. But the question is this, do you want to get well?

Some of you wake up every day with a feeling as if there is a dark cloud hanging over you. You would like to see and feel and hear the joy in life you once felt. You put on that things are fine, but only a select few know just how much pain you are in. You have tried everything you can imagine to ignore it and move on, but it is just not happening. Maybe it is time you made an appointment with a counselor. Maybe you need to see a doctor. Perhaps there is medication that you need and have been putting off. I know the fear that comes from that. If not a counselor, maybe you start by finding and individual you can trust to guide you. Do you want to get well?

Some of you here today were wounded terribly when you were younger. For some it was physical abuse. For others it was emotional or mental abuse you endured and the scars run deep. Also based on my experience, I can promise you there are several women in this room who were sexually molested or raped when you were younger. Some of them on a date where they thought they were safe. There may be some men here with that scar as well. You have never told a soul. But it burns deep. Very deep. You have suppressed it and hidden it and denied it and quite frankly, we both know that is not working. If impacts the intimate relationships in your life, perhaps sexually with your spouse. You were the victim. You were and are innocent. Yet you are the one paying the price. Is it not time for that darkness to be owned and exposed to the light of day and allow Jesus to heal it. It may involve therapy and some hard honesty with the ones who are impacted. But the question remains, do you want to get well?

There are some folks here that have been wrestling with placing faith in Jesus for some time. You may have been attending Covenant for years. You may have never been in a church before. But either way, for whatever reason you have never placed faith in Jesus. In some cases if you did, it very well may surprise those who know you. For others it would not surprise anyone, but they would be glad for you. Here is the question, “Do you want to get well?” Haven’t you struggled with your sin long enough? Isn’t it time to finally place faith in Jesus and stop pretending?

Maybe your issue is something I have not even scratched the surface on but the Spirit of God is burning it in your mind right now.

Do we want to get well?

       Do I want to get well?

               Do you want to get well?

Well, do you? Because if you do, it is going to require you to make some hard choices and make some serious changes in your life, in your relationships, interpersonal habits, and what can prove to be the very core of your life.

Lifelong Learner

The Internet has altered the writing / publishing world in a way that I think will only be fully realized when it is looked back upon in the future. I am in the midst of it and enjoy it. I read things I would otherwise never be able to read. My research can be much more broad and encompassing without constantly jumping up and running to my shelves, which still must be done of course! Due to this change I am able to read a broader array of writers than I normally would. I would never have purchased their work but when it is written for all to see on a blog, like this one, then I am more inclined to read it. It is interesting how so many more folks have become experts on one subject or another simply because they have a forum to write it.

A few weeks back I was reading a blog written by a young theolog who was waxing eloquent about all he brings to the table. He described himself in some pretty interesting ways, many of which may be totally accurate. One phrase stood out when he called himself a "lifelong learner." I must admit I thought (and I hope I did not say it aloud since I was in a coffee shop!): "That would be more impressive if the life was longer than just thirty years, especially since the first 2/3 of that time was  not so much his own choice."

Do I consider myself and "lifelong learner?" Well, I certainly hope so. My Dad used to say I was a professional student. I think once you stop learning and stop opening yourself up to the possibility that you may actually have been wrong on some topics, you begin the process to die mentally, and I am convinced it carries over into the spiritual realm of our life as well. There are things I now believe that are almost 180 degrees removed from what I stated dogmatically in pulpits years ago. So, if I a true lifelong learner I am growing, improving, changing, admitting my many faults and seeking a more steady diet of Christlikeness in my life. As I approach my 60th birthday this year, I hope that is read differently than if I had written that when I was half this age.