2010. That's a strange year to say, isn't it? Do we say 20 10? 2000 10? or just '10? Anyway...

I was thinking about that old favorite, the new year's resolution. Actually, I've never been a fan. I honestly can't remember any resolutions I've ever made. I suspect there have been some, I just can't remember. I guess they weren't too significant.

Maybe it's because the focus is a little off. Should our greatest resolutions be about what we are able to willpower into reality? Should our goals be summed up in do's and don'ts?

Shouldn't our resolves be about who we are? Our character, our views, our life decisions? If those are our resolves, will they naturally begin to translate into our decisions, our do's and don'ts?

What is your resolve this year?

I visited an elderly man in the hospital last week. He had just had a stroke. He was pretty affected by it. He talked nonsense if you could understand him at all. It didn't seem that he was aware of where he was or what was going on around him. The room was rather quiet so I began to read Psalms to him. This is a man who is not familiar with the Bible at all, but I thought it might be therapeutic anyway. I started with Psalm 139. Shortly into the Psalm, he declared, "incredible." As I continued to read, he started to nod his head. When I finished the Psalm, he sighed and said, "holy smokes." I proceeded to read another Psalm. He proceeded to nod, and when I finished he said with a sigh, "holy smokes." I went ahead and read another Psalm, then another. Every time I did, he would nod along in agreement and then bring his amen of "holy smokes." I figure I read to him at least 15 Psalms, each with the same punctuation from my aging, bed bound, stroke impaired patient.

What was going on? What could he hear/understand? How was his jumbled brain interpreting what he heard? Or was there ministry riding on the words of the Psalms, spirit to spirit ministry? I know what I saw, heard, and felt. However, there was much more happening that I can't fully explain. At the time, and even now, the unexplainable was perfectly fine with me, because what I had the privilege of witnessing was both very genuine and very precious.

In all things God works for the good of those who love him.

Everything happens for a reason.

One of these phrases is scripture - a truth longing to be mined and polished so it will shine. The other phrase is more common, possibly more believable and more believed, and yet always leaves me very empty. Why, because it's simply not true!

Seriously, does it satisfy you at all when someone tells you that 'everything happens for a reason'? Does it fill the gaping hole in your mind? your heart? your gut?

Why do we believe it? And why don't we believe the first phrase, the scripture, the truth?

Why do we settle for a false superficial answer and dare not wrestle with the profound Word of God?

This past weekend I had a brief conversation with a lifelong faithful Christian who completely blurred these two phrases. It was sad to see the confusion. It was sad to think of the years and decades of poor teaching and/or understanding. Mostly, it was sad to witness the tainted view of God it had caused, and therefore the missed opportunity for a deeper relationship with the lover of her soul.

Do you understand the difference in these seemingly similar yet polar opposite phrases? Can you articulate the difference to a struggling friend? Give it a shot. Here's a good place to practice.

[ a few helps: 1. ask God for revelation, 2. study the context by looking at the whole Romans 8 chapter, and 3. after 1 & 2, if you want you can listen to my sermon on this topic http://wellspring.net/?q=node/309. Note, the recording begins with a skit]

I watched the movie The Soloist. Granted it was on a plane, so my viewing quality and personal attention was less than ideal, but this is what I saw. The movie is a true story about a LA Times reporter who befriends a homeless man. The appeal is that the homeless man is an amazing musician, and he's been diagnosed with mental illness. The result is a volatile mix of moving interludes and rash reactions.



Throughout the movie religion is presented as a cold, uncompassionate, empty form insisted upon by simple-minded people. However, the inspirational hope of redemption that is available for both the homeless man and the reporter is through the saving grace of relationship. It is the channel for both awakening the heart (the reporter) and clearing the mind (the homeless man).



As I watched, I felt sad. Is it true that the world's view of religion stands in direct opposition to life-giving relationship? Is it true of all religion? Have we all failed to reveal the God who so desperately wants to be in relationship with us that he laid down his own life for us? Is there no distinction between empty formality religion and genuine born again transforming Christianity? How does the world see me and what I profess? What I live, what I've become?



As I watched, I also was encouraged. I saw a worldview that clearly grasped the power of relationship. I was challenged by it. How can we bring the greatest relationships, the truly transforming relationship with God and his body the church? How can we bring the eternal relationship to those who are endlessly seeking? How can we introduce a loving life-giving God to a world desperate for that very relationship?

Pam and I are off to New York University in the morning to drop off Kyle (our youngest son). How do we "drop off" our 18 year old son in NYC, 10th and Broadway, Manhattan!? How can we protect him? How can we make sure he stays on the right track? How can we see to it that a huge university in a huge city doesn't chew him up and spit him out?

The simple answer is we can't. He won't be under our roof, in our watch, or within our reach. Our confidence can no longer be in our parental nest. We must now rely on him, and what we have instilled in him. It has always been our goal to raise him to be a man of integrity and destiny. Therefore, for 18 years our role has not simply been to protect, and direct. It has been to nurture a Godly character in his own spirit, a spirit that is set on what is right and just. A spirit that comes alive as it is aligned with God and Godly inspiration. A spirit that embraces life as an image-bearer of the divine.

I recall a time when I was dropping off Kyle and his brother at a middle school dance. Before they left the car I said, "Hey, I only have one rule...make good choices!". I could not predict what they might face, but I was engaging their spirits and their wills to rise up and embrace the truths they had been taught. I was calling forth their consciences to the relationships with God that they had professed.

Now, in a few hours when we once again drop off Kyle, we will have but one desire of him...make good choices. As we have had the privilege to watch him over the years, we're fully confident that he will. We can't wait to see the bite he takes out of the Big Apple!

In Matthew 14 we hear the account of Peter walking on water... or did he? Science would tell us that it is impossible for water to hold up a person. So, in this story do we need to dismiss science? Do we interpret the story to mean that if we have enough faith that we also can walk on water?

I believe that if we think that we can walk on water, we will surely fail.
I believe that if we think we can walk on God's Word, we will surely be victorious.

We don't need to, in fact shouldn't, dismissed science. That is, the genuine scientific approach to understanding-observation leading to truth. A false interpretation is that water held up Peter, so therefore, if I believe hard enough water will hold me up to. However, if we use the science we know then water cannot hold up a person. Therefore what did? It appears that it is the spoken word of God, in this case, Jesus' command to Peter. Note what Peter said: command me or order me to come to you. In essence: declare the word like a foundation for me to come to you, to walk on. This is extremely different than: help me squeeze my faith muscle so I can do the impossible.

From above comes the word, a declaration of God, which is greater than the reality of this world. It is the eternal invading the temporal. It is "your kingdom come".

What are the words of God that you are being invited to stand upon? Not someone else's word (like Peter's) but words for you. These can be specific words or universal words, but they are words for you. Let the greater reality of God's kingdom, his eternal kingdom, invade your world so that the impossible is made possible.

Any thoughts... Please share...

"One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty."

I came across this verse today in Proverbs 11. What is the connection between generosity and wealth? What is the connection between ownership and poverty? What is the difference between living with a spirit of open hands and living with a spirit of grasping and clinging?

Isn't it true that the more we give away the less we will have? Isn't it true that the more we can hang on to the more we will have? Come on, that's simple understanding, simple math, simply true - or is it...

But what if this verse is true? It seems to be saying the exact opposite. Let's look at the next verse:

"A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." The original Hebrew for generous is blessing, and the word translated man is really soul. Therefore, "a soul of blessing" will prosper. Also, the word refreshes is taken from "to water". If we choose to let water flow from us, out of a soul that desires to bless, then the refreshing water flows to us as well. Jesus said that the one who believes in him, streams of living water will flow from within them.

If you have a stream of water that is literally damned up, the water begins to stagnate and become unhealthy. The way to correct it is to undamn the water, which opens a flow of fresh water to that pool.

These verses describe a flow. A spirit of generosity is a heart that desires to step into the flow. By doing so fresh blessing and refreshing water continues to flow to that same heart. Notice, this has nothing to do with a false teaching of a prosperity gospel. A heart that gives simply to get is not a heart operating out of a spirit of generosity. A soul that desires to bless is what opens the flow, and the purpose of the flow is to continue to bless.

A spirit of poverty clings to what one has and is afraid of losing it. The problem is that the very act of clinging stops up the flow. The word for poverty in Hebrew is derived from the word lack. Therefore, the spirit of poverty inflicts poverty.

Out of a spirit of generosity flows a wellspring of life.