Christmas Beauty

I have not always loved Christmas. I tried real hard when I was a kid with some successes and some terrible failures. What I didn’t know then but I’ve learned since is that drug addictions and family dysfunctions don’t take a holiday break….in fact, they ramp it up. It can be summed up in the holiday greeting I grew up with, “Merry Kiss My A__”. Lovely sentiment, isn’t it?

But somewhere in life with two little kids and a wife who grew up with a family that relished Christmas, I had a Scrooge-like epiphany. Something, somehow broke into my reality and lodged in my heart and thinking. This life, this world, this one and only shot we have at spreading good cheer, needs Christmas.

And here, I am not talking about the Christmas “wars”. That’s nonsense. If I’m upset about losing influence in the world due to the fact that not enough people say, “Merry Christmas”, it is not a sign that the nation is in a moral free-fall….it’s a sign that I need to regain my credibility.

And, I am not talking about the droning of some who argue that Jesus’ Birthday is not actually December 25th (they’re right), or that we need to end the commercialization of the holidays (simple heart-felt gifts are always of higher value than money spent), or that various traditions of Christmas have been borrowed from a variety of pagan rituals (yep, it’s true; along with the modern calendar, astronomical maps and more names of people places and things than an encyclopedia could list) … blah, blah, blah.

I still believe this life of multiple disappointments and grieving needs a Christmas break. This world of scary people and hatred needs a Christmas break. This one and only shot we have at spreading good cheer, needs Christmas.

It’s about the insertion of beauty in a collection of far too much indignity and disgrace. It’s about clearing a small patch of ground, declaring a cease fire and singing Silent Night. I looked this up in Wikipedia, so the details might not be completely accurate. Just bear with me and read this;
"The truce began on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium, for Christmas. They began by placing candles on trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols, most notably Stille Nacht (Silent Night). The British troops in the trenches across from them responded by singing English carols.

The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were calls for visits across the "No Man's Land" where small gifts were exchanged — whisky, jam, cigars, chocolate, and the like. The artillery in the region fell silent that night. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently-fallen soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Proper burials took place as soldiers from both sides mourned the dead together and paid their respects. At one funeral in No Man's Land, soldiers from both sides gathered and read a passage from the 23rd Psalm:

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”

In a world of reality shows that become ugly reality, we need beauty. In a world of unhinged ego, we need beauty. In a world where a friend of mine presides and weeps over a daily parade of human agony in the justice system, we need beauty. In a world where the f-bomb is a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb and artistic musical expression, we need beauty.

I want you to understand why I don’t care if pagan paltry has had a role in shaping Christmas. In my opinion, if something is beautiful, it was created by and belongs to God. Winter solstice provides a unique opportunity for reflection on dark bone chilling nights. In the mind-set of the Old Testament, if you touched a leper, you got leprosy. But now, on this side of the Cross, when we touch the leper, the leper is healed! Some people just need a bigger God, a far more real Jesus and much more completely defeated prince of darkness.

Let me tell you about my own personal Christmas tradition that brings me to tears every year. I started this when my kids were tiny. Late on Christmas Eve, after everything is done and a quiet has settled in, I take my car keys (or bells if they are available) and I go outside. I look up at the sky as if to look for Santa, throw my head back, jiggle my keys and as loud as I can I shout, “HO, HO, HO! Merry Christmas!” I’m not kidding. Ask anyone who lives within a mile of me. Dogs howl and the valley around me echoes….and I cry.

I cry because it is my shout for beauty. I cry because I hope some kid somewhere hears me and wonders if there really is a Santa. I cry because I love the moment. In this one and only shot for bringing peace on earth and good will toward all people, beauty deserves at least 15 minutes of fame every year.

So, Merry Christmas…HO, HO, HO!

Pre-Christian World

It has been said that Christianity has not failed but that it has rarely been authentically attempted. I believe we are not living in a "post-Christian" era as much as we are living in a PRE-Christian era; a time of genuinely REpresenting the beauty of Christ and the true character of His Father.

What if we are not at all living in a society of past Christian glory? What if the history we tend to see only with the most romanticized ideals does not at all support the notion that our best days of faith are behind us? Isn’t it possible we’ve never known a truly, majestically thorough impact of genuine Kingdom Come influence in the U.S.A. and the western world?

Think about it; a Christian nation did not advocate the ownership of slaves. Christianity was not the core value supporting the Natives of this land being herded off to reservations and marginalized into the near extinction of their culture. It was not a Christian nation that forbade women the right to vote for most of our history. A nation living out the full bloom of Christ like beauty did not sponsor segregation with its ignorant “separate but equal” world view.

To be perfectly transparent about it all, some people painted the above crimes with the brush stroke of their silly interpretations of the Bible, but they were utterly and completely wrong! The error of their ways is so thoroughly egregious it is impossible to say with any certainty how long it will take to live it down!

Here’s my thundering point; it is utterly and completely possible that we are wrong to think of our current day as being a “post-Christian” era! I’m proposing that to live in the illusion of our past being something it was not is to rob us of the potential of an outrageous dream inspired faith for today and tomorrow!

We have not yet seen what God could do in a truly Christ inspired environment. “Behold, these are the fringes of His ways; and how faint a word we hear of Him! But His mighty thunder, who can understand?” (Job 26:14).

Our day is a time of birth pains waiting the revealing of the authentic children of a Father Whose love is prepared to make an appearance on the stage of history. What wonders we will behold are limited only by our allegiance to fables of the past.

Heal the Sick and Say, "This Is the Kingdom!"

Two years ago I was awakened by the Presence of God on a Sunday morning. He poured into my heart the following promises for healing in our house and upon our region. The phrase “deluge and oceanic appearance of a Healing Presence and an environmental shift” is as near a quote as I can ever remember God speaking to me.

I urge you to join us in believing for these broken areas of our humanity to be healed in magnificent ways. This day October 11, 2011 we covenant again to the promise of God for our region.

God has promised me: A deluge and oceanic appearance of a Healing Presence and an environmental shift for the following 7 areas of healing and health;
1. Emotional healing; from unfounded anxiety, sudden-harsh, but brief; crippling nevertheless~ healed!

2. Thought life healing; self destructive-from self sabotaging success to unreasonable surrender to defeat~ healed!

3. To be significantly loved; undeniably, permanently connected to significant relationships ~ healed!

4. Healing from the inability to effectively convey the truest quality of love~ healed!

5. Healing from the victim mentality; asserting that my life has challenges that only others can correct ~ healed!

6. Healing from the spirit of poverty; “there’s never enough” must change to, “there’s more than enough” ~ healed!

7. Radical, raw, real, recognizable physical healings. YES, YES, YES!

As our doubts abound, so the pain will continue to own our quality of life. As a faith and passion for God and His presence abounds, so will our quality of life arise. Stay where you are and keep what you've always had. Or, you can arise and reach for what you have never known and you will grow beyond you're wildest dreams.

MQ = IQ

Business and management gurus tell us that a person’s ability to think metaphorically is as important as intelligence quotients; hence my title, MQ = IQ.
I think that sails beyond the business world and is exquisitely true for all of life. Metaphor is defined as a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. “I’m so hungry I could eat a horse” is a simple metaphor. It begs the listener to expand their knowledge base without undue or extreme literal explanation.

The Bible is rich with metaphoric delights. The person who says that every word is intended to be taken with a wooden and literal eye is unwittingly draining the Book of its potential awe and power. Even “Thou shalt not murder” grows when the Holy Spirit is allowed the breath of Jesus who says, “But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty…whoever says, ‘you fool’ shall be guilty…”. Suddenly murder becomes a subject of inventory for every single one of us whose resentment, dishonor and unkindness lives unchecked neatly tucked away in our hearts.

Cognitive researchers whose life is spent in thinking about how people think (how’d you like to live with one of these folks?) tell us that as the world grows more complex “imaginative rationality” has become ever more valuable. Metaphorically speaking in a tired cliché that’s called, “thinking outside the box”.

The Apostle Paul said it this way, “I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened so that you may know what is the hope of His calling and what are the riches of His inheritance in the saints”. We are on the brink of a spiritual renaissance, or as Kris Vallotton calls it, “the eve of construction”.

Literalists have the world blowing up while others of us have the earth being consumed in the passions of an outrageous God whose Throne is encircled by a rainbow and surrounded by a leadership team saturated with eyeballs beyond count and bodies carried about by six wings.

Which reminds me; God told Noah that every time He looked at a rainbow He would be reminded to spare creation. As if to underscore this notion, God filled His own Great Room with a round rainbow. Metaphor or not, that’s just cool.

Wake Up!

I’ve noticed when I hear, “They need to wake up!” or the twin saying,
“They need a wake up call!” the clear suggestion is that someone else needs an alarm clock blast. Oh, and here’s the best one, “This nation needs a wake up call!” Seldom is it said, “I need a wake up call!”

Ephesians 3:14, “For this reason it says, ‘Awake, sleeper, and rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’”

The definition for “awake” in this passage is of particular interest to me. It means to collect one’s faculties, to waken. To rouse from sleep, sitting or lying, disease and death, obscurity, inactivity, ruins, non-existence. To awake, lift up raise and rear up, to stand and take up.

My definition is this: change your patterns. Shake up your standard procedures. Get out of your predictable thinking and force yourself into emotional, intellectual and spiritual fresh air.

A few days ago I downloaded a bargain book to my Kindle, “Poke the Box” by Seth Godin. The basic premise is about a researcher who built a simple buzzer box and put it in front of a one year old child. The box had 2 buttons, a buzzer and light. Push one button and the light comes on, push the other button and the box buzzes. Left in front of a child long enough and the little tike will learn to “poke the box” for the reward of sound and light. The sub title of this bargain book is, “When was the last time you did something for the first time?” I’m officially on the lookout for things to do for the first time.

America wakes up when I wake up. Others will wake up if I wake up, if for no other reason but to keep an eye on me to make sure I’m not about to disturb their snoozey lifestyle.

Revival does not come when we pray for the nation to be revived. Revival comes when I draw a circle, jump in the middle of it, throw everyone else out of that circle and I pray for the one person in the circle …ME… to be revived. In fact, I would say it this way; the whole world is waiting for me to WAKE UP!

How To Walk on Water

Ephesians 4:31 “Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.”

I’m amazed at how many folks who read the Bible and say they believe every word can find so many routes around actually taking the Bible seriously when it comes to a passage like this one. Some of these same people can quote chapter and verse about what God has to say about sin in other folks, yet they don’t seem nearly as fascinated by what the Bible has to say about their own sin.

Ephesians 4:31 is a directive straight for the heart of the church. Get rid of bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, slander and malice. Here’s how each word of these nasty negatives is defined:
1. Bitterness – poison, sharp harsh feelings, acridity (the state of being constantly irritated)
2. Wrath – literally means to “blow smoke” or breathe hard. Fierce feelings of indignation.
3. Anger – violently passionate, indignant and generally abhorrent of others.
4. Clamor – to shriek or croak like a crow. An outcry of grief or agitation.
5. Slander – to vilify people. The greek word is “blasphemia”; as if to blaspheme a human like we might otherwise blaspheme God!
6. Malice – to aim worthlessness. To carry bad feelings and vilification of others.

I love the R.D.V. of the Bible….the Randy Dean Version. Ready? Here’s the R.D.V. of Ephesians 4:31; “Keep a healthy internal review of your emotions so that you are consistently aware of and removing from your heart every wasteful negative emotion. Sharp harsh feelings toward anyone for any reason must go! Breathing hard and fierce against anyone for any reason must go! Being indignant, disgusted and dwelling on how “against” someone your ideas are, must go! Making rude noises or disgusted sounds about other people must go! Turning people into villains because they don’t share your opinions, must go! (In fact, learning to look at all people as the expression of the image of God should keep this nasty habit far from you. Imagine yourself talking about God the way you talk about some people. It would be blasphemous!) Lugging around a generalized bad feeling about anybody and thus diminishing the value or worth of anyone for any reason, anywhere must go! Why? Because we were not designed to carry these high levels of toxicity in our bodies or our minds; we were designed to carry only the love and forgiveness that each one of us received from Christ and give it away as much as we like receiving it.”

I take aim at this kind of moral inventory on page 97 of my book, RADIANCE "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 adultery and brutally dragged to Jesus had not whispered a word of repentance when Jesus took charge of the situation with the anointing to forgive her. The butchers standing around the cross were barely coherent due to their vile task, but Jesus spoke to the mountain of their sin and commanded forgiveness upon them."

Jesus didn’t have any of the Ephesians 4:31 list of poisons in His system. He didn’t have it in Him to wonder, “I wonder if this guy is really sick or if he just likes the attention? I wonder if this lady has done this before? Maybe she’s got it coming. If these jerks tearing my body to shreds only knew who they were touching, they’d be plenty sorry…in fact, hey God! Show these perverts how wrong their sin is!”

No wonder Jesus was full of life when He called Lazurus out of the tomb. No wonder Jesus could touch the sick and they were immediately healed. No wonder a woman washed His feet with her tears and dried them with her hair. No wonder He walked on water…His personal burden was very light.

I’m preparing my body to be a living sacrifice emptied of toxins and consumed with the Presence of God. I’m longing to be just as light as Jesus.

Less is More...

If Christianity is to be genuinely Christian, we have no choice but to reach for a more authentic, happier and transcendent spiritual life. Less debates, more delights. Less damning, more dancing. Less political obsessions, more passionate worship. Less self-righteousness, more unselfishness. Less condemning, more compassion. Less pettiness, more powerful living!

If the powers of darkness can not get us to live outright dark lives, they will opt for having us dipped in self serving piety and walled up against the very world we could be joyously serving. No sin is so binding as the sin that masquerades as fierce opposition to sin!

If good, righteous living was all God ever wanted from His people, He would have had everything He needed in the Pharisees of Jesus’ day. If having a crowd whose disgust for national sin was accentuated with a proud higher standard was the end to all of God’s dream, He would have never inspired Jesus to say, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not sacrifice’, for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners”.

If Christianity is to be genuinely Christian, we have no other choice but to arise to a shining brilliance of delighted and thrilling lifestyles of the beauty of God alive in us. Our self serving righteous misery is not illuminating a dark world. The only righteous living God is sponsoring today is a celebration of the bounty of heaven on earth.

Less misery, more party! -- “Let’s get it started in here!”