Live Christ

"For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life." - Romans 5:10

Set right in the middle of Paul's amazing theological treatise in Romans, this verse just pops with the real life I was talking about in the last post.  We have been reconciled to God through Jesus' death, now how much more shall we be saved by his life.  Now that's a promise!

How much time do I take to ponder the new life we have in us?  How often do I think about this great promise of salvation?  How much do I believe the reality that Christ not only died for me, but now lives to save his children IN THIS LIFE?

Not often.  Sadly I think about it a lot, but do I revel in it and rejoice?  I don't think so...

But that's the promise: that God's very own Son is living, breathing and active in Philip Long's (insert your name) life taking him from glory to glory.   I will be thankful forever that my sins are forgiven and that I'm reconciled to God, but am I thankful daily, that each day I wake up on this planet is a day that Jesus Christ will work in Philip?

This is bold stuff.  This is the stuff that has had saints passionately giving their lives away to the cause of God's Kingdom throughout history.  Why?  Because it's God, and with God "anything's possible" and I'd say all bets are off.   

Good stuff.  Live Christ, live.

Bloggled Turns 200!

"It will be said on that day, 'Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us.  This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.'" - Isaiah 25:9

My blog turns 200 (with posts) today and I feel like celebrating.  I should probably get the blog some orthopedic shoes, but I'm lazy and I think he'd (I guess it's a him, I don't want to make Melissa jealous) just prefer me to do him the honor writing the 200th.

I find it's odd that the 200th has landed on a Monday, which is a hard time to write, let alone celebrate, but it's good and it reminds me that God is faithful even on Mondays.  That is a big claim!

We've has this church-planter dude staying with us recently and he pointed me to Isaiah 25 and the rich celebration that is pictured there, as God brings his salvation and fulfills his covenantal promises to his people.  I can't wait to be there on the day the passage describes, it's going to be a really good day.

But it's hard to keep that hope in my vision.  It's so very difficult to celebrate and rejoice when life throws you into tail-spins and whirly-do-dads and you're not sure which way is up and which is down.  And on top of that, then it's Monday all over again.

That's why it's so important for me to remember, and especially on the 200th post, that God's reality is REALITY and in Jesus we find life, real LIFE.  These have been the themes that I have looked at the most through the past 200 posts, and my guess is that these will be the themes that occupy me for a while.

I guess I'd call this theme "Real Living."   Real living first and foremost entails a firm knowledge that Jesus Christ is risen (something that pastor friend reminded me of this weekend).  Armed with this knowledge everything is different.

EVERYTHING IS DIFFERENT!  I'm free now to really be sad, while having hope.  I can really pour out my heart and be broken, with full knowledge that I am being healed.  I really can play and be silly, knowing that Christ made me funny (or at least made me to think I'm funny, which can be even funnier).  I really can father, husband, and worship simply because Jesus Christ, this dude who God rose from the dead in the 1st century, is alive.

It's the beautiful insanity of being a Christian, that our most insane desires will and are being met.  It's the insane hope that the holes we all feel (thank you Ann Voskamp), the hurts we all know so well and the longing for real life that dominates the trajectories of our lives are will be filled, healed and met in Jesus.  He's my hole filler, the doctor, and my life's satisfaction .

So I guess as this is my 200th post, a milestone for me and for my blog, there's one thing I want to highlight:  The reason that this blog is still alive is because there's something real going on behind it.  So thank you Jesus and may your real life continue to fill the next 200.

God in the Wetlands

"My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender...  for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath."  - Hosea 11:8,9

God is so misunderstood.  I hear him batted around in some secular discussions as wrathful, indecisive, paranoid and even a tyrant.  Then in some Christian circles he's talked about as if he's a great big grandpa in the sky - kind-hearted and lovey-dovey but sometimes distant, detached or confused.   If I was God I'd have long ago gotten frustrated with stupid conceptions of myself floating around and smited everyone.  I would have been a God who liked to smite, I'm sure of that.

But when I pick up my bible and actually read it, I find something totally other and totally alien.  He's not somewhere in the middle of the character speculations above.   He's actually alien to our brains.  He doesn't make sense because he doesn't act at all like us.  (In case you're wondering, he's not a real alien with big eyes and tentacles.  Although I'm not sure what God as spirit looks like.  My guess He's not some fuzzy white glow.)

There's a weightiness to God's character in scripture.  A whisper of his glory, and constant hints that he is beyond searching out completely.  He's a God of both wrath and a God of love.  He speaks in anthropomorphic language so that we can understand his feelings, but they are way-way deeper than we are.  Dude, they're seriously deep dude.

I had a lady once tell me that she doesn't believe that God's a micro-manager.  In the conventional understanding of micromanaging, I'd agree, but God is both the micro-manager of the entire universe and the one who super-cedes it all.  And on top of all this he has time for each individual human.  He's a big God with a big heart for his world and for those lost in it.

I know this as I was pretty lost in the Floridian wetlands yesterday.  I was already as tense as bow-string, walking face-first through spider webs, when I stumbled upon huge gator slides, yikes, big poops, yikes-yikes, and a place where bush-hogs had torn up the marsh for about an acre, gulp.  They had literally blown the place up.  I'm glad I wasn't around when they were doing it.  Oh, and I saw an armadillo.  Oh, oh, and I saw a flock of turkey-buzzards which had my "fear of birds meter" hitting "run for your piddly life you fool!"  I'm pretty sure that 3 of them could take me and there were about 50!  Yike, yike, yikee-yike!!!.

But while I was lost, I was never really lost.  God knew exactly what I was doing and where I was, even though I clearly did not.  Of course I'm not going to start testing God and start hiking around without a compass (come to think of it, I didn't have a compass). God doesn't work like a magical GPS.  Plus he might decide to test me with some natural consequences.  I would, I'd smite, smite, smite: Alligators, turkey-buzzards, bush-hogs, and just for the place-where-my-presence-is-withdrawn-and-is-therefore-totally-evil of it I'd even let the armadillo have a go!

Back on topic:  In the passage above I hear God's heart.  He says himself that he's not like man, who's quick to wrath.  He's a God who clearly leans towards compassion.  Ultimately this is most evident and clearly seen at the cross, where his justice and mercy kiss.

I've thought that maybe a good practice is to take the best human qualities I can think of and multiply them by a trillion-gazillion and then apply them to God.  But this doesn't work in regards to him.  God's simply off the map when it comes to goodness.  And he exhibits a goodness that hates evil, loves good, and rescues sinners.

So here's to pressing on to know the real God.  Not the grandfather in the sky and not the petty and mean-spirited judgmental god.  Oh, and not the Florida wetlands GPS God.  

The more I actually study my bible, the more I realize that I need humility in approaching the character of God, for he's so good and way beyond what I can fully understand that I really need him to help me think on him rightly.

What do you think about God?  Would you, like me, really like smiting if you were God?  Comment bellow...

Drink the Christian Kool-Aid. It will make you happy, FOREVER!

"I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul."  - Job 10:1

My friend was at his office desk with his head down, face covered with his hands, trying to just find a little space in his tiring day to work through his feelings. He was soon interrupted by a coworker who asked how he was doing. He told her that he wasn't doing good, and that life can be hard.

Rather than listening she went into commiseration mode, pouring out all of her difficulties with life, while my friend was thinking, "This is ugly, but I really don't want to hear all about her miserable life."

Then, since she was on a roll, she did what we Christians often do, she reached deep (or not very deep) into her bag of spiritual tricks and produced this gem, "Don't let Satan steal your joy."

When my friend related this to me over the phone, I was reminded of the movie "Office Space", when the main character is asked by a miss-was-a-cheerleader-20-years-ago-so-now-must-always-be-happy-office-lady-no-matter-how-much-pain-life-dishes-out (aka "Miss Chirpy-Pants". You know the one I'm talking about) if he was having a case of the "Mundays?"

In the movie, he later relates this to a friend who works construction, asking if this sort of thing ever goes on outside of offices.  I love his friend's response, "No...  Hell no man, I reckon someone's ass would could get kicked for saying something like that.  Why?  Did someone say that to you!?"

Why do we Christians sometimes abuse each other with pithy sayings?  Why do we sometimes wake up and think we have to put on happy make-up, make-up that we apply because we MUST NEVER ADMIT sadness, depression, confusion, defeat or hurt?

Frankly, this make-up is absolutely unbiblical.  If the Bible shows us anything about it's weird and diverse characters it's that they had a host of real and very raw emotions that they took to God, or flung at God, all the time.  Now I'm not saying that they didn't experience joy, but it wasn't this pasted on stuff we so often see today.

To look at it from another angle, I had a friend get on me recently for being spiritually timid.  "Don't you know that the Christian life is about victory over sin?  Claim your victory," my friend said.

No, I refuse to claim it.  To simply claim victory over sin is to refuse to deal with it's deep reality and deep problem.  The Christian life is about relating to Jesus as all of our emotions from deep despair and discouragement to deep joy and happiness.

As Job illustrates with his broken life and words above, we Christians have got to move from living in fearful happiness (yes, I believe it's fearful) or "peppy Christianity" to the LIFE God offers.  My guess is when we do that, we'll quit turning people off to Christianity as well.

Sorry about ranting, but I feel like ranting, and that's OK.  Some may call me the unhappy, defeated, and angry Christian, I'd be OK with that.  My guess is that most of you would be too.

But whatever you do today, be sure not to let Satan steal your joy.

The Perfect Prayer

"...circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter."  Romans 2:29

My daughter, Teya, has been showing more and more signs of spiritual interest.  In fact, I've been wondering if she is indeed a "Christian."  I say this somewhat tongue-and-cheek because I am growing more and more aware of my own tendency to rely on steps and formulas rather than the living God.

This is especially true when it comes to salvation isn't it?  I want so badly to make sure who's in and who's out by separating those who have prayed an effective prayer and those who haven't.

But what is an effective prayer?  "Um, God, I need you" may be every bit as effective as "Dear Father I recognize that I have sinned and fallen short of your perfect standard and that I need Jesus Christ to be substitutionary atonement on my behalf and I want to accept his sacrifice and follow you as my Lord from this day on."

I like the first prayer, because to me, it just sounds a little more honest, doesn't it?  We need God.  We simply need him.  Every moment, every second, every stage of our existence we need God.  We need this God who saves.

So while I think all of the concepts in the second prayer above are important and vital, I think that they are understandings that we grow into, and on our first utterance at our "point of salvation" hardly even understand.  I mean, I hardly understand them now, and I've been a Christian for 30 years!

"Important they are, but saving they are not."  - I say it like this because it's Chinese New Year today.  Yeah!

This gives me peace when I think about my children.  It is the Holy Spirit that convicts and saves, not me.  And while it is my job to help Teya understand her growing convictions and desire for God, it is his job to save.

So in my book, whatever her prayer sounds like is cool with me.  Of course now she'll probably say something like, "Dear Baby Jesus, I am so glad that I am a good person and that when I am good enough and at the height of my goodness, I will pray the perfect prayer and you will come in your clouds to take me to your heavenlies.  Amen, Oh Sweet Dear Baby Jesus."

And just for fun let me take a stab at the perfect prayer of salvation.  Here goes:  "Dear Trinity - Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons but one God, I understand that I am a sinner, born into original sin, totally depraved, completely tainted in every way by the Fall - due to Adam's disobedience as our federal head (Eve having tempted Adam as we all know).  Your Holy Spirit has quickened my soul to see that I am a sinner in need of your sovereign grace.  Your grace came to us in the person of Jesus Christ, the second person of the trinity, the word made flesh in incarnation, fully God and fully man, who on the cross was our full penitentiary substitution and atonement as he bore God's full wrath towards our sin and cried the cry of dereliction.  I believe that the Spirit's calling is effective upon my rebellious soul, convicting me of my need for this atonement and new life that is now exhibited in my regeneration and rebirth, having moved from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of everlasting light, and I now look forward to the perseverance and sanctification that is granted to God's children or saints.  Amen.  a-A-a-a-men..."

God has Dirty Fingernails

"Yet God my King is from of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth." - Psalm 74:12

God's a pretty old dude.  I was thinking about this the other day as I was trying to wrap my mind around Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology.  He was saying that though God's existence is infinite, we're not to think of God as on a time-line because he both works in and stands outside of time.  Try rapping your brain around that and not getting a headache.

I like the verse above because it reminds me that "God is from old," and he has a history (I think - Grudem).  And his history screams salvation.

It's also a gritty verse and I like that.  The idea of "working salvation in the midst of the earth" reminds me of how God gets dirt under his fingernails and works out our salvation.  He does not stand far off, he's closer than we can ever comprehend and even describe.

And who's the worker in this verse?  God is.

So often I'm tempted to think of myself doing this or that for God, or even "serving" him, but the reality is that God alone works salvation.  This is such a core concept for me.

I've got a day ahead of me of trying to engage with teenager's questions, fears, doubts and faith.  And I don't have the answers.  And I can't work their salvation.  But I know a God who can.

In this I have freedom to dive in to God's work, to be about God's work and if I fail, to say hey, it's God's work in the first place.

The Psalmist above is crying out, how long will the nations scoff at us and have you forgotten us?  But then he remembers who his God is.  And he remembers his God's history.

Then he asks "Arise, O God, and defend your cause."  So here I go, may my King of old do his thing and defend his cause.

Near

"... for me it is good to be near God; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may tell of all your works." - Psalm 73:28

My 3 yr. old dragged a rickety rocking chair into the hallway, turned it over, scrambled up on top of it and then leaped off and sprung into a somersault.  It was pretty impressive.  I hollered, "That was so cool David, do it again!"  His face beamed.

We had just been watching Parkour on Youtube, which is a potentially very painful mixture of gymnastics and stuntman stuff (some call it "freestyle running" as well).  Guys (and girls) were running up buildings, leaping over moving cars and doing things that would have their Moms wringing their hands and chasing them around with wooden spoons.

"Cool!" thought David.  "Cool!" I thought.  David and I had a simultaneous thought: "Let's set up some obstacle and do a twirly-do-dad over it and then flex our muscles like the guys in videos."  So David immediately set about dragging the rocking chair into the hallway, while I began wondering what a 35 year old body can still do.

Following my thought process, I remained on the couch.  Meanwhile David pulled off his stunt with aplomb and the heart of his father rejoiced.

This to me is the essence of being "near to God."  Having the same goals, aspirations and ridiculous antics in mind, and then pulling them off.

When I'm near to God, I know he's smiling on me as I beam over my "Look what I can do!" accomplishments.  It's the joy of life together.  It's the joy of Life.

After the rocking chair stunt, David began to pull out other obstacles.  And being an imaginative little fellow, he pulled out a plastic pretzel and a baby-bottle and attempted to "Parkour" over these innovative stunts.  I can still seem him contorting his body in an attempt to balance on the baby-bottle.  I'm thinking, "Koodos for trying little buddy."  And I'm proud.

I'm also proud of what happened as Mommy was putting him down for bed.  Thinking he was asleep, she began praying over him and apparently thought it would be a good idea to pray about his future spouse.  As soon as the words, "the girl that David will marry" came out of Melissa's mouth his eyes popped wide open, like two little angry saucers in the night, and he said "I'm not going to mawwy a giwl Mommy!  Yuk!"

That's my boy David.  "Beloved."  And near to his father's heart.