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Jesus Loves Thugs!

Thursday, May 08, 2008 7:25 PM

NewsMax magazine published an article "blasting" Otis Moss, the young associate pastor and future Senior Pastor at Trinity UCC in Chicago. The humor to their assault is that EVERYTHING Reverend Moss says in the sermon is correct. Here is their list of offensive lies that Rev. Moss is perpetuating.

  1. “Jesus has a soft spot for thugs.”
  2. “God is always using thugs to do God’s work.”
  3. “Everyone has a little bit of thug in them.”
  4. Noah was a “thug” who “was drinking much gin and juice and got drunk on the eve of reconstruction.”
  5. Abraham “pimped his own wife.”
  6. Jacob was a “hustler” who “stole his own brother’s birthright.”
  7. Moses was a “thug” and “if he got mad would give you a royal beatdown.”
  8. Sampson was a “thug” and a “player.”
  9. David was a “thug,” a “shot caller,” and a “player,” and a man after God’s own heart.
  10. “Jesus is on the cross being lynched between two thugs. The moment of execution, the moment of murder, Jesus, the son of God, is hanging out with thugs.”
The problem with their accusation is that ALL of these statements are Biblically true. Jesus affirms his soft spot for thugs in Luke 5:31 in fact the entire Bible story affirms Jesus' passion to take the unlikely failures of this world, and empower them to be key instruments in his kingdom. These Newsmax writers do not get that highlighting the failures of the Bible's Heroes is not controversial, it is included in the text of the word by God himself, to demonstrate the very point that Mr. Moss is making,, "Your condition does not dictate your conclusion." God's Lost n Found is filled with those people he would later use to revolutionize the world. It seems the author of this article is so trapped in the power methodologies of the fallen kingdom that he can not see the beauty of God's kingdom that uses the foolish & failures of this world to shame the wise & winners.

Here Is their Excerpt From The Sermon: Seems Right On To Me!

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Can A Balloon Change The World

Thursday, May 08, 2008 10:21 AM



I ordered 3 bags worth of balloons today for our Memorial Day retreat programs. They are Fair Trade balloons! Seriously! You might laugh at me, being naive enough to believe that a balloon can change the world. Yet the truth is, I DO believe a balloon can change the world. In order for them to change the world, we have to change the minds of people, the heart of Christians, and even the connotation of certain words.

Let's start be redefining the connotative implications of a word. Sacramental. Classically, this words pertains to any object created by the church to aid in devotion. Items meant to assist the user in preparing their heart and mind to receive the sacraments. Catholics would place holy water, the rosary, and saint cards in this category. Evangelical churches have sacramentals as well, they just do not refer to them as such. In our church we use music and a meditative thought, and even some iconography occasionally. In both of these cases this word sacramental is disconnected from everyday life. I "GO TO CHURCH" and use an object or an activity to prepare my mind and heart for the Communion meal.

This is the idea that needs to be changed. Recently the phrase a "sacramental lifestyle" has been used in many missional and emergent conversations. This idea, for those of you who are not familiar with it, is that we are called to live in such a way that our LIFESTYLE is constantly engaged with God in his redemptive work. The sacramental lifestyle understands that we do not prepare to participate in a sacrament of atonement bust instead we are perpetually participatory as the incarnation of God's atonement.

Buying a balloon is a sacramental decision! The decision of where I spent my fiscals resources is FUNDAMENTALLY SACRAMENTAL! I can not be honoring with God in my heart as a eat a piece of cracker and take a shot of grape juice, if I am not honoring to God in the places where I buy my food, my clothing, and all my purchasing. When Christ states that the love of money is the root of all evil, he challenges the distribution of all our resources! Am I searching for the "Best Deal Available" at the expense of ignoring the slave labor in it's manufacturing, or am I purchasing responsibly to participate with God who "hears the cries of the oppressed."

There is SO MUCH available now that one can buy responsibly. Coffee, Tea, Chocolate, Fruit, T-Shirts, Socks, Flowers, and more I am forgetting. Yet, this is only the beginning! For love to change the world EVERY PURCHASE must be God honoring! The more products we the people of God insist on buying only when they are life affirming rather than life destroying, the more products that will be available.

I recently heard Rob Bell point out that Solomon's great mistake was to use forced labor to build the temple to the God of the slave and the oppressed. Once Solomon lost sight of the identity of his God, and his identity in God's Kingdom, his own kingdom was on a ripcord toward collapse.

Our hearts and minds must be changed. We must understand that our God is not a god like the corporate demigods of comfort, convenience, and consumption! He is the God of the bruised reed and the smoldering wick. He is the God who hears the cries of the slave, who feels the pain of the orphan, who longs for the release from bondage to the sex addict, the alcoholic, and the crack whore. He is the God who proclaim Jubilee, the redemption of all that needs to be restored.

A sacramental life can change the world because it is in that lifestyle that we align with God in his redemptive work, even in a purchase as simple as a pack of balloons, or maybe your mother's day flowers.

SOME FAIR TRADE LINKS:

Trade As One
Bright Hope

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Come Alongside Me!!!

Monday, May 05, 2008 12:05 PM


I really must tell you the truth, I'd like to already be in Swaziland, working at the orphan village, pastoring and discipling these precious fatherless children. Since God has confirmed this calling in our lives, the path from here to there can seem discouraging and irrelevant.

Yet I know that is NOT God's way. To God no step along the path is irrelevant. I feel more than ever before I need to curl up close in the Father's side, and use my hands to join his work Here, Now, Today!

A Prayer: Holy God, I am so thankful for my precious second child and her love to work alongside me in our kitchen. I need to get my step stool out and join my daddy in his work. Thank you Lord for showing me that if I am alongside you, I am right where I need to be. Your Kingdom Come - On Earth As It Is In Heaven - In My Hands as they are guided by you!

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Women God and Rock-N-Roll

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 8:10 AM

Jed Brewer's newest album God Quit opens with a track titled "Women God and Rock-N-Roll. Here is the video to the track! Make sure and watch all the way to the end, because the very last few seconnds are a great conclusion to the song!


Jed Brewer - Women, God, and Rock and Roll from Jed Brewer on Vimeo.

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Shocked By God

Sunday, April 27, 2008 11:08 PM

One of the cool honors in my life is to live with two amazing prayer warriors. Although only six, I am often amazed at the things my oldest remembers to pray for. Her prayers often inspire me to be more mindful of the things I consider important in prayer. I am literally floored by her quite regularly when we pray together. This is obviously genetic, because in the few months since my God rescued my wife from her addictions she too has impressed me with the vast depth and urgency to her prayer life. Although God has had a tendency to drop people with a great deal of emotional pain into our path for many years, recently she is learning that God has called her to reach deeply into the wellspring of prayer for people's healing and freedom. She is meticulous and dutiful to pray for the release from bondage of the people God has placed in our lives.

Without revealing any details at all, there is a particular situation between a few people that we both love deeply that seemed to me to be to hopeless for even God. It was not that I did not think God could intervene, I just did not think these friends could choose to respond. Yet God has placed it on my wife's heart to claim bold prayers of deliverance in this situation. I love these friends deeply, and have felt called to join her in claiming release through Christ for their situation. Over the last two to three weeks I would say we have cumulatively spent several hours praying together for redemption.

So the other day when we received a call from one of the people involved, the conversation was humbling. God was healing the situation, and both people knew that God wanted to bring redemption into their mess. The initial reaction was, "I don't know what's going on..." Yet then I was humbled, literally brought to my knees in my daughters room as I realized the foolishness of such a crass statement.

After HOURS of prayer, I would have the ignorance to wonder the reason for the break in the situation. I was shocked! God was answering the very prayer he led us to pray! These were his children, and he wanted to speak healing into them all along! Now here, in this time, in this place, as we responded to his call to prayer, heaven' floodgate was opened, and the holy salve of God's intervention was being shown more powerful than the situation I could only see as hopeless.

I am more inspired, to pray more bold prayers. I want to be a warrior healer, like God has called my wife to be. I now understand just a little more what Jesus means when he says, "On earth as it is in heaven"

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Save Me From Myself

Sunday, April 27, 2008 9:32 PM


There are a list of reasons Brian Welch's memoir would have never made it across my nightstand. The fact that I am not a fan of hard music, so his former carreer in Korn, was not in the least impressive to me and that I am not a memoir guy anyway are two of the most obvious. I had seen the book, but had no interest in it. However, I was asked by a friend to read it because he wanted to discuss it with me, and so I ran over the Borders and picked up my copy.

The book which is divided into two sections was an amazingly easy read from one perspective. Welch has a informal tone that seems conversational most of the time. I read all of the first section in a single setting last night, and then read the second section this afternoon. Though simple in form, it was an emotionally burdensome read. On multiple occasions in the first section I found myself so invested in his situation and addictions I would have to stop reading for a few minutes, just to feel sane. The second section was equally an emotional roller coaster as he shared in the joys and pain of God's sanctifying grace. Though wonderfully amazing throughout most the book, it was emotionally very taxing.

I can not believe how blessed I was to have been given the opportunity to share in this personal account, in all it's genuine vulnerability, of the means God will goto to redeem his prodigals.

Even if your nature would be to write this book off like I did, I sincerely implore you to reconsider, you will be blessed to share this journey.

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Jesus For President

Tuesday, April 15, 2008 12:48 PM

David Swanson, of Out of Ur, has spent three blog post doing a very thorough review of Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw's new book Jesus for President.

I loved the quote he quoted from the book in this last review:

Church father Ignatius said that if our church is not marked by caring for the poor, the oppressed, and the hungry, then we are guilty of heresy- and a new reformation is long overdue. Some of us who were pretty discontent with how the church was embezzling money belonging to the poor to build buildings and pay staff began to dream again what it would look like to reimagine tithes and offerings, which God intended to be instruments of a redistributive economy… and we came up with the something beautiful and small- the relational tithe.
So here are the three links to the review, and a link to the book on Amazon:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
The Book

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Jacob, Israel & the Incarnational Church

Tuesday, April 15, 2008 9:06 AM

Jacob, the father of the Hebrew clans, was loved by God. However he was deceptive and arrogant and in need of being humbled. God loved Jacob, but was not content to leave him who we was. God wrestled Jacob, crippled him with a limp, and gave him a new name as a symbol for his true identity. Israel, one who wrestles with God, would become the name of God's tribe on earth.

Through out the prophets God addresses his people by both the name Jacob and the name Israel. Many people ignore this as if they are only synonyms used for literary variety. However, on closer study it becomes clear that God is addressing his people in one of their two states before him. Jacob is the condition of God's people when their mind is set on the carnal things of the kingdom of man. Israel is name used by God to address the heart state of people when their mind is set on the Kingdom of God.

As I was reading Isaiah 9, this idea seemed to break down:
Isaiah 9:8 The Lord has sent a message against Jacob; it will fall on Israel.
At first it seems like both Jacob and Israel are about to receive God's wrath. However after reading and meditating on the chapter several more times, it meaning begins to take shape. There is responsibility placed on Israel for the fulfillment of God's Kingdom on earth.

Let's look first at the 3 promises God gives Isaiah in this prophecy:
Isaiah 9:4 - End of Oppression
Isaiah 9:5 - End of War
Isaiah 9:6-7 - God physical presence on earth

So then did Christ end oppression, end war, and establish an eternal physical presence on earth, or is God a liar? It takes only a very short look at a daily newspaper to know the answer to these questions. Sex Trafficking and the Iraq Conflict stand as testimonies that oppression and war are still among us. As far as Christ physical presence, that is up for debate too. Of course the church is stated to be the physical incarnation of Christ, yet it only seldom seems to reflect the same business and priorities that Christ has in his personal ministry.

This is where verse 8 and following began to make sense. Christ is judgment against all the Kingdoms of man. War, oppression, disease, and poverty are defeated. "It is finished" Christ said in his last words on the cross. Yet as Isaiah 9:9-16 points out the kingdoms of man keep moving onward. Though defeated by God the dark kingdom keeps it's engine spinning, continuing the work that it has always been about. Since we are citizens of a parallel kingdom, this judgment falls on the citizen's of the God's Kingdom to proclaim and act out this defeat in every place we are present. Where Christ is physically present in the words and actions of his church, there is no war, there is no oppression, there is no disease, there is no poverty. The power to be present in healed Kingdom is waiting to be spoken and waiting to be acted upon.

It is our commission to enter the places of filthy darkness. It is our calling to goto the places of disease and oppression. Redemption is realized when we the community of Christ ACTS in the world . Where Christ's church is living out the Kingdom of God, the consequence of sin is redeemed. The church as the incarnational presence of God among the world, is the only hope for darkness to be renewed in light. I want to be living in that Kingdom reality!

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Spiritual Warfare - Daily Scripture Memory

Monday, April 14, 2008 12:06 PM

Daily_Bible_Promises is a collection of verses to be read out loud with your children as part of their bed time ritual. At least that is my plan for these texts. When Christ met temptation he answered it with scripture. This reading guide is meant to commit key texts to your mind that you will need to combat the lies Satan places into our minds.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday readings are the actual scriptural text Neil Anderson uses in his "Who I Am In Christ" material. Thursday and Friday pick up where Dr. Anderson leaves off and are meant to place scripture into our minds that reminds us that God has purpose for our lives. Thursday - I am Called - reminds us that Christ commands to follow him are fully consuming and yet completely freeing. Friday - I am Commissioned - reminds us as to what work God wants to accomplish through us.

Again, these texts are meant to be placed into our minds so that we have the word of God implanted and ready to answer Satan's lies, whether they are about my value or about my calling.

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Awareness Test

Friday, April 11, 2008 1:06 PM

My wife and I have been talking a lot the last several days about spiritual warfare. We have talked about how when we are numb to the forces of darkness that are waging war over our hearts and minds we can go on numb to their influence. However, once our eyes are opened we see that those forces have been present, and influencing our lives in very real ways.

I saw this video today on Larry James Blog:




I think that it illustrates this point VERY WELL. What task did you focus on, did your intensity focus on the task on counting passes, or were you instead aware of the really significant event going on in the room. Ephesians 6:12 reminds us to not be focused on the seeming priorities of this world, to the point where we miss the significance of what is going on unseen around us.

Let me illustrate this in a way that I personally struggle with. Bob walks into my office and says, "Kevin, you suck! You're the worst IT guy we have ever had. I can't wait till you leave for Africa and we get a person with some competence!" My reaction is to react by raising my voice and illustrating Bob's incompetence and returning his anger with anger. However, our battle is not flesh and blood. Satan wants me to miss out on community with people, Satan wants me to feel insecure as a person. If I see Bob as my enemy I will question myself and dismiss Bob. HOWEVER, if I am looking through the lens of what is REALLY going on in the things that are unseen, I enter into Bob's pain and look to restore him in love! I return anger with love, motivated by the fact that Bob doesn't hate me, Satan hates me! Anger and defensiveness is easy, being open and vulnerable to Bob as a means of restoration is hard. LOVE IS DANGEROUS, because it requires me to see the unseen and focus on the ENTIRE spectrum of events present in the exchange.

God has equipped us with the right tools to see be warrior in the bigger picture. Listen to how Eugene Peterson puts the following verses in The Message.
Ephesians 6:13-18 Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting you'll still be on your feet. Truth, righteousness, peace, faith, and salvation are more than words. Learn how to apply them. You'll need them throughout your life. God's Word is an indispensable weapon. In the same way, prayer is essential in this ongoing warfare. Pray hard and long. Pray for your brothers and sisters. Keep your eyes open. Keep each other's spirits up so that no one falls behind or drops out.

Understanding that we are a united community, working together to keep each other's eyes open. Seeing real truth solution in God's word to encourage and bind each other together, that is passing the Awareness Test in the spiritual realm.

The old adage, "Hate The Sin, Love the Sinner." is wrong because it is a euphemism to masquerade judgment and condemnation. In the light of awareness of the spiritual warfare going on around us, we should "Hate the ENEMY, Pray REDEMPTION into the Sinner." Any action on our part that does not intend to move an individual toward being recreated into the image of Christ, is carnal! Anytime we react rather than interact we have failed the awareness test.

Our struggle in NOT against flesh and blood. Are you watching to be aware of who it is against?

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900 Posts

Thursday, April 10, 2008 5:00 PM

This is my 900th Blogger post. My very first post using Blogger was December 3rd 2003. My VERY FIRST blog post was on October 16th 2002. Counting those posts I am at 933 posts. It has been a great 5 ½ years!

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American Idol Shout to the Lord Thoughts

Thursday, April 10, 2008 1:35 PM

So I don't watch American Idol and never have. It is not my kind of programming in anyway. However since I know something obviously happened last night that had 1/2 Christendom excited and 1/2 offended, I decided to Google it to try and figure out what it was.

The second result had the contestants singing "Shout to the Lord" while images of humanitarian projects flashed behind them. Ok, so now I knew!

The real fun however was the comments. Although they much like most the blog world were a mix of praise and disgust this one really stood as the bottom line in Self-Righteous Stupidity

Christine
Apr 10, 2008 at 5:58 am

have been a big Idol fan, but now, I think I will boycott the show. If I don’t, what kind of example am I setting for my children? Its not lukewarm, it is wolves in sheeps clothing trying to dilute, devalue,re-direct focus, blasphemy……….

Now make sure it's not lost on you. This woman is offended that "Gasp!" A show with the word IDOL in it's title might not be a great viewing for teaching her children to build a life focused on God.

GET A GRIP!!!! Nothing changed last night! It was the same show last night as EVERY episode before it. The title explains the intents and purposes of the show. I am not moralizing here, whether Christian's should or should not watch a show titled "American Idol" I am just stating that this looks nothing like a sheep at all. The wolf has had his fanged grip into the flesh of this kingdom from the very beginning. The KINGDOM OF GOD is at war with every power, authority, and idol of this world! For goodness sake, please do not claim some naivety over the spiritual allegiances of the producers of this show.

Please understand, and I need to stand convicted as well, I watch programming myself that is contrary to the Kingdom. I DO NOT HOWEVER stand in outrage when the citizen's of this kingdom promote things that grow this kingdom! This is their CITIZENRY!!!! So let's stop trying to babysit the TV standards of the enemy's kingdom.

Now back to our regular programming!

UPDATE: Please understand that I am not denouncing the show, or anyone who watches it. I am denouncing the bizarre reaction from the blogging world. The show is called American IDOL!!!

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A 100 Person Family

Tuesday, April 08, 2008 2:42 PM

I don't know the answers to these questions. At least not on a functional level. I do know that through the power of Spirit I will learn the answers to these questions and others as we attempt to build a sense of family into the "orphan village" in Nsoko, Swaziland.

Here is a blog post by Gary Black, about the Nsoko orphan village, where our family will be moving to serve. This place is a haven of food, education, safety, and family for a group of the fatherless we will partner alongside the Swazi moms to knit into a family.

Dreaming big dreams are great to inspire us and set a goal even if their results are never practically realized. I see these orphan villages as being the redemption point of the disease of AIDS.

AIDS is a blood born disease. AIDS is DEATH in the blood. In the word of God BLOOD is always a symbol of life, "there is life in the blood." (Leviticus 17:14) So this epidemic of death is an attack on God's symbolic life. This attack is devastating. One needs not slide far down the slippery slope facing Swaziland and the rest of the southern African continent to see that a nation of orphans will be a people raised with no authority, no moral structure, and no hope. This disease decimates the people of Swaziland physically and also spiritually and emotionally. The very fabric of faith, the future of hope, and the participation in love ceases to exist as there is no example of these truths modeled and instilled into the kingdom's children.

DEATH and AIDS must be REDEEMED in Swaziland. Satan has used this plague to advance his kingdom. Yet, the Blood of Christ waits to make good what Satan has intended for harm. These orphan villages are redemption. Not in a macro way, not now at least, but in the lives of those who can be touched and can be trained, and can be taught to experience REAL ABUNDANT LIFE in Christ: the end of faith, the end of hope, the end of love that Satan intended through this pandemic of death can be reversed. The redemption of the plague of AIDS is when the causalities of it's consequences become the FAMILY of GOD knit together into a new tribe that will be EMPOWERED to take God to the nations.

That is the vision we hold onto, that is the future we claim, that is the truth we believe, though now it may be only hoped for, and in our lives it may remain unseen, we believe it in faith. God will REDEEM this pandemic of AIDS through fostering in these children a new future, a new family, and a new love!

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Milton's Poetry Corner

Tuesday, April 08, 2008 7:35 AM

One of my favorite blogs is "Don't Eat Alone" It had a short poem today I just thought needed to be excerpted!
and I am Nicodemus, wondering how we, as
collective Creation can carry all our weight
and worry back into God’s womb and come
forth singing a new song. Biology breaks down
in ways melody does not. We aren’t going
back, but forward, from womb to womb,
Now off with you, go and read the entire poem,

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Poverty and Success

Friday, April 04, 2008 12:13 PM

Last Friday Karen Gerber posted her thoughts about success and organic churches. I was thinking about that post as I penned this sermon.

Poverty and Success

I really did not go the same direction with these thoughts as she started the discussion, but I think if you listen and read her post, you can see the similarity in the ideals behind the thinking.

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