Burn Baby Burn

The king builds a statue and demands worship. All of this was about the king’s ego. Most of the great manmade disasters of life start with someone’s ego. To push the ego button harder the king built a furnace. He said “worship or burn, you choose”. The king was calling for a commitment. There is no worship without commitment. Now the king’s commitment was a forced one but one none the less.
The problem was there were three guys living in the God culture. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refused to bow down to the king’s statue. I found it interesting that the Bible calls them by their Hebrew names here. These guys had made a decision to live facing God in spite of the circumstances.
The decision to live in the God culture always comes before the crisis of belief. In our day the culture is always building furnaces that will push us into conformity. What we have learned in the church is to retreat into the Christian sub culture and not face the culture. Of if we do face the culture we face it with aggression. What God wants is for us to have the resolve of these three and live facing Him while in the culture. The three faced the king with respect, love and resolve a good guide for us! More later…

The Frat

This Thursday we will host our first Men’s gathering. I call it FOTH frat but it is not about Fellowship of the Hills. It is about guys connecting and living in healthy God honoring relationships. I will be leading a discussion on “How to get smart” from the book of Proverbs. I hope this is the first of many gatherings.
I think it is important for guys to hang with each other and become brothers. Being a man is difficult so we need the gatherings to keep us strong.
So guys it is time to make history and be at the first Frat meeting tomorrow at Beef’s on Thomasville road. We will start at 11:45 and I will have you back to work by 1. Come and bring a buddy. The rush is on, FOTH frat!

I am back!

I just rolled in from a week at Saddleback with Rick Warren. Pastor Rick is one of the most outstanding minds in God’s service. The week with him was a refreshment and a reminder. I am thankful to God for the opportunity to know and learn from such a leader.
While there God reinforced my call to Tallahassee to build lives. I was reminded that God has called me to build people and he will build his church. The next years of my life will be given to just that, building people.
Many things catch our eyes but few catch our hearts. Tallahassee has caught my heart. More later!
Guys, FOTH frat starts next Thursday at Beef’s on Thomasville rd. 11:45. It is rush week at the FOTH frat! Bring a friend and let’s have some fun. Oh yea, it is Dutch treat!

Stupid Move

Nebuchadnezzar is an idiot and chapter three of Daniel proves it! For some reason this kings forgets the power of God revealed to him through Daniel’s interpretation of his dream and goes on the big ego trip of building a statue to himself. There is nothing more over the top than a statue to you but this one is really out of control. He builds a statue 90’ high and 9’ wide. He erects it on a flat pain outside of the city so everyone could see it. To make things even crazier he demands that everyone in the kingdom bow down and worship this statue. Oh yea, this statue is made of gold, yea gold!
As I read this I can’t help but think, who was whispering in his ear. What advisors were so “sucking up” to the king that they pushed this ego monster to this stupid act? Ok, teaching point, God is not into statues to yourself that you demand to be worshipped.
In “The God Culture” there is only one god and it is not you! We often attempt to erect a statue based on our ego and we end up down “stupid road” right beside Nebuchadnezzar! Be careful to whom you listen and who you worship.

Going Public

Ok one more for today. I have been in a spiritual funk so I know God is brewing something. I am going public with what I am thinking about Fellowship of the Hills. I will cover this more in my talk this week but here is what I am sensing God doing in, for, and through me … us in the days ahead!
• This is what I see ….
– I see a church that touches the heart of Tallahassee
– I see a church that cares about people being connected to God
– I see a church that grows into service to each other and to the world
– I see a church that is passionate about sharing the Good News that God is for you!
– All of this flowing out of a heart of worship
– I see the FOTH campus as a destination for life change
– I see a major university (FSU) that becomes more know for the pastors it produces than football or partying
– I see pastors and leaders coming for all over the nation and the world to be trained, loved, and encouraged
– I see heaven crowed
– I see and I am amazed!
Ok, there it is. I know I just opened the door to criticism. So what, it is time to see what should be and make it be for the GLORY of GOD! Join me as I join God.

Big Dream, Bad King

God puts the big “push” on Daniel. So many times God sends tests into our lives to check our devotion and dependence. He doesn’t do this so we will fail but to help us prevail. This is one such case.
The king as a dream that troubles him, in this culture dreams are a big deal. In fact, in the east dreams are still a big deal. These people believe that wisdom, the future, and spiritual truths are revealed in dreams. In my dealings with eastern cultures I have experienced God using dreams to bring people to Christ. Dreams are a big deal and this king as a bazaar one.
Instead of being normal and telling folks about his dream, he chooses to be over the top ego driven and demand that his wise men interpret the dream without being told what he dreamed. He then capped it off by saying that if no one could answer him, he would kill all his wise men. Talk about pressure!
All the wise men freak out and the King orders to have them all killed. Now, Daniel was one of these dudes and he didn’t know what was going on. When they came to kill him, he discovered the problem. He then asked for time and was given it.
Daniel refused to let circumstances dictate his reactions. He went to the source of wisdom, God Himself. He didn’t ring his hands nor did he allow fear or speculation to grip him. He asked the officials for time. He asked others to pray for him. He was confident that God would come through. He knew that there was a God in heaven who can do anything, so he placed his trust in Him.
God came through! Here is the deal; this whole thing was not about the King, Daniel, or the dream. It was about God! God did something only He could do and Daniel gave Him the glory. “The God Culture” is about making God famous not you. So many times I have heard this passage and people pay attention to the dream and build their view of Biblical prophecy spending all their energy showing that God knew what was going to happen. Do you think God needed some kind of validation? NO! Do you think that God knows the future? YES! So what is the point? God is so amazing that He can cause a man to dream another man’s dream. Nothing is too hard for Him. All of this sent a revival to the Kingdom. God became famous and Daniel was rewarded. WOW! That is life in "The God Culture".

Daniel's challenge

Chapter one of Daniel we find desperate times. Jerusalem has fallen and the brightest and best of the Jews were carried off into exile. All of this happen because of disobedience and sin. The Jewish people had wandered off into a lifestyle of paganism. For several hundred years they had mixed their devotion to God with the pagan cultures around them. This blending of cultures was rooted in a decision to not fully obey God’s instructions regarding the people of the promise land. God instructed them to remove them but the Jews did not. The influence of the pagan religions that was sexual and perverse overcame the purity of following God. The Jewish people began to act like the pagans around them thus causing God to move in discipline. God responded this way out of love and only after years of pleading through His prophets. God’s desire was that the world would be blessed through the Jewish nation but they would not obey.
As I read this I can become prideful but I realize that I have the same “bent”. I want God on my terms and not on His.
The Jewish nation was broken, the temple of God, which was the national symbol of God’s presence, was destroyed. The Jewish people were carried away from their homes and those that were left in Israel were uneducated, unqualified, and unprotected. It was the worst of times.
God stirs a man and his friends to live in “The God Culture”. Daniel and his three friends, Hananiah, Misheal, and Azariah, were exceptional young men who lived fully facing God. They were selected to be immersed into Babylonian culture and to be trained as leaders. The Babylonians believed that conquered people should be assimilated into a common culture thus maintaining unity. Daniel had “made up his mind” (v.6) to live fully facing God and not to follow the god or culture of those who held him captured.
This decision lead Daniel and the three to challenge the common practices of his captors and to fully rely on God. God came through launching Daniel into a place of influence. Because of Daniel’s obedience God gave him and his friends unusual abilities and wisdom.
God will do the same for us. Notice that God didn’t remove Daniel from his situation. He blessed him in the situation. History shows us that Daniel and the three were so influential that they lead a revival in that pagan culture. What would happen if followers of Jesus Christ made the same decisions? We so often want to be separated from the influence of our culture that we live in the “Christian bubble”. We then become weird and detached. That is not the desire of God. Living in “The God Culture” is influencing the culture for God’s glory!

The God Culture

What would our lives look like if we lived fully facing God? What choices, decision, and commitments would we make? What would we do and stop doing? How would we live if we were facing God?
The truth is that we are facing God. Most of us chose to ignore Him. Over the next few weeks we will track a man who lives his life in full view of God. I will call that lifestyle “The God Culture”. All of his actions were measures by his devotion. This man is Daniel. From him we will learn how to make decisions, take actions, and excise faith. If we chose to live in “The God Culture” we will be different and make a difference.
Here are a few thoughts.

“The God Culture” is not a hunker down and hold on attitude.
It is not a “pull yourself out of society” reaction.
It is not “I am better than other people because I have Jesus” attitude.
It is not “I will put a fish on my car, a bible on my coffee table, but live life on my own terms” attitude.
It is a lifestyle of Lordship, courage, and risk taking all for the glory of God.
It is a life that says “Jesus, I am yours”.

Let’s enjoy “The God Culture”.

Kill my wife?

This morning while reading Ezekiel 24 I read once again about Ezekiel’s wife’s death. This passage disturbs me like none other. As I read I understood that God allows his wife to die as an example. God told Ezekiel that He would remove his delight and not to morn, not to cover his face, not to eat the food his friends would bring by the house. God’s purpose was to show the Israelite people His glory and power and how they will react when he brings judgment on them.
I just don’t understand. Why would God kill Ezekiel’s wife? This poor guy served God with passion and zeal. He never gave up even though the people didn’t listen nor respond. He was a man who followed God completely. It seems unfair for him to suffer this kind of loss for a sermon illustration.
As I prayed through this several things came to my mind. First, I am an example for the Lord to use. He has the rights over my life and my relationships. God is not mean or cruel. Even when I don’t understand what He is doing I still must trust His character. Ezekiel became real to me. So many times I read the bible and miss the people of the bible. I read to understand academically or for some hidden truth and I miss the real people who contented with a Holy God. My pursuit of God become real when I see the lives of those who went before me.
Other than these reflections I have no answers. All I really understand is that life is hard and God is good. What do you think?

Keeping leading

The adventure through Nehemiah has been fun. This series of “posts” have generated more discussion than any to date, which leads me to believe that leadership is still an important topic. So in the coming weeks I will write more on this topic.
Here are some things I have discovered about leading.

Leadership is influence so that means influence is based on relationships.
No one follows without trust. If folks don’t trust you they will not follow you.
Leadership requires confidence. People smell uncertainty. Confidence comes from God’s call not your ability.
Leaders are born and made.
If no one is following you, you are not a leader.
There are different types and levels of leaders.
Leaders need a network of other leaders.
The most important person you lead is yourself.

This is a short list, there is so much more. Over the next few weeks I will keep “posting” leadership stuff. The next leader we will look at is Daniel. I hope you enjoy, learn, lead, and pass this stuff along.

the last of Nehemiah

Things left in their natural order can go from bad to worse. The negative critical spirit displayed by the three godless leaders went from words to plots. It is interesting how God revealed to Nehemiah the plots of the three. When we stay close to the Lord we learn to heed his promptings. Nehemiah didn’t even grace these guys with a meeting. His only response was that he was busy doing God’s work. This is a great leadership lesson. We should never feel compelled to give openly critical people our time. Meeting with critics is a waste of time. I have never seen an openly negative person convinced or converted. I am not saying that God can’t redeem the person; I’ve just never seen it. Let me press this further, even when I have given a critic my time and had some success in answering their criticism it was never long term. The sooner you expose their division and move on the better. As pastors we are trained to be compassionate and loving. Remember, you can’t pet a rattlesnake!

Critics don’t give up easily. Nehemiah had to keep saying no to their attempts to meet with him. Leaders must be tough!

The last ditch efforts of Nehemiah’s critics was to make him look rebellious and arrogant. Don’t be surprised when this happens to you. Their efforts were self serving. They wanted to make themselves look better than they were. This is a classic critic move! Critics will do what ever it takes to discourage you and slow the work of God. The sad truth is that the church has been held captive these unredeemed folks. Expose them! Critics will try to gain a following and create a “tempest in a tea pot”. Trust God, inform the people and press on. Leading renewal is worth your life

Some more ....

Nehemiah took a hard stand about those who were taking advantage of others. The spirit of spiritual renewal is the spirit of self sacrifice. As a leader Nehemiah knew that the bond of relationships would lead people to be tender toward others and not take advantage of under resourced folks. Renewal starts with personal renewal which leads to relational renewal!

Nehemiah displayed publicly his distain for usury by tearing his robes. This is a big time Jewish display of discontent! The clothing of a man represented the covering of God so when he torn his robes he was declaring that God would “uncover” you if you took advantage of others. In the south we would say “God would slap you naked”.

Nehemiah worked right along with everyone else. His leadership example was contagious in that the other officials worked as well. Leaders should not expect their followers to do anything they would not do. There is a pattern to leadership. Lead by example, lead by modeling, lead by equipping, and by releasing.

Nehemiah expected God to be one who met his needs. God is the great provider and as a leader we can never lose sight of that core truth.