Nonabel

Hey Everyone, I'm back in blog world. Won't waste my time or yours with excuses, just been re-evaluating the honor inherent in blogging.

Here's the parable I shared on Sunday during the teaching time -- a lot of folks asked to hear it again. Enjoy!


The land of Nonabel was beautiful place of lush green mountains ruled by majestic trees and valleys with fish-filled streams running through them. Every day the sun rose and every night the sun would set, and the time in between was filled with wonder and delight for all the inhabitants of the happy land.

Then one day, some people from another land happened upon this choice peace of beauty and decided to make it their home. Because the land of Nonabel was large and expansive, it was declared a kingdom that was divided into four provinces ruled by four governors.

The first governor ruled the Land of Business.

The second governor ruled the Land of Politics.

The third governor ruled the Land of Family.

The fourth governor ruled the Land of Church.

Each citizen paid taxes annually to the government to ensure the efficient and healthy growth of the kingdom. The governors distributed the funds to the each province as was seen fit by a selected group of leaders that no one knew personally but that everyone was sure they did not like and could not trust.

The citizens of Nonabel would live their lives in the various provinces, moving from one to another through the course of a day as fit their needs. When it was time to work and make money, they would catch the tram to the Land of Business. Important decisions were made in the Land of Politics, while love, peace and harmony were sought out in the Land of Family. No one was truly sure what the Land of Church was for, although an archaic manuscript was discovered that seemed to speak authoritatively to the matter. But the manuscript was strangely worded and understanding it would require reading it and discussing it, and reading it and discussing it would mean lots of work and possible conflict and things were going so well in the other three provinces that the citizens really wanted to concentrate their time there. So at a regular Tuesday night meeting of The Discussion Of Important Things in the Land of Politics, a decision was unanimously passed to simply divide the province of Church into a thousand tiny provinces. The governors of the lands of Business, Politics and Family simply passed a resolution that required the small provinces of the Land of Church get along as well as they could and not stir up too much trouble. In fact, as a measure of safety and peace, an amendment was added that everyone should simply reserve their time in the province of Church to one morning per week – Sunday as it turned out -- except for some select rebellious splinter groups who chose to meet Sunday evening as well (mostly people who called themselves Baptist and Pentecostal). This decision was wonderfully received and everyone loved the way it made them feel. Nonabelians even began dressing up for the occasion.

No one really knew what happened to the governor of Land of Church. As it turned out, He was asked by the citizens of the kingdom to remain in hiding except for Sunday mornings. He could be a pretty demanding fellow and the people didn’t want Him stirring things up when affairs in the other provinces were going so well. The governor of the Land of Church was pretty offended by this request and decided that, for the most part, He wasn’t going to show up where He wasn’t invited. Very few people in the kingdom of Nonabel could hardly find the time to issue such an invitation or pursue such a relationship. He even went so far as to suggest that He be allowed to run the whole Kingdom. That was a bit too much for the Nonabelians. As stated before, He could be demanding.

These arrangements were put into effect immediately and the people enjoyed overall happiness and prosperity. Concentrating all their efforts on three provinces instead of four provided a streamlined form of capitalistic bliss that put money in the Nonabelians’ pockets and stuff in their lives. There were the occasional disputes here and there, but a firm hand from the governors of the Lands of Politics and Business kept things moving very smoothly.

Then something began to go terribly wrong in the kingdom of Nonabel.

In the Land of Family, the fathers and mothers began to leave. Eventually, a search party would be formed, and they were almost always located in the Land of Business or Politics with him passed out in a gutter, or her at the office late at night, or with his arm around a woman who was not his wife, or with her at another endless meeting of The Discussion Of Important Things. This absence of fathers and mothers caused a massive disconnect in the homes of the Land of Family. Overworked and undervalued, the mothers and fathers became control freaks who, according to the fathers, “won’t stop nagging” and according to the mothers, “won’t see me”. This tension between mother and father drove peace and harmony out of the Land of Family altogether. And the children felt like orphans.

This concern was taken up by the governors of the Kingdom of Nonabel. They called for a joint meeting of the governors at the next Discussion Of Important Things to talk about this issue at work in the Land of Family. Of course, no one knew where the governor of the Land of Church was. A letter of invitation was sent to His last known address, but secretly, the other governors hoped He wouldn’t show. After all, He could be a demanding fellow.

The next Discussion Of Important Things was the most well attended meeting in the kingdom’s history. It seemed like every Nonabelian in the land had come out for this Discussion Of Important Things. As the meeting opened, it was noted that the governor of the Land of Church had indeed received His invitation. He was standing outside the door of the meeting hall but, for some crazy reason, would not enter unless personally invited to come in and granted permission to run the Kingdom. He said He had brought Kentucky Fried Chicken for everyone and He could break more if there were more people than there were biscuits and chicken. The governors declined His invitation stating that they just weren’t comfortable with the demands of such a governor. KFC would be nice, but His presence was not worth the cost of their power. The people unanimously agreed. They suggested He disperse the chicken and biscuits to the tiny provinces of the Land of Church for the Sunday morning time that week. He agreed, stating His desire to not run them over, and that He would simply stand outside the door for the duration of the meeting and knock. The first resolution passed that evening was to cover all the doors of the meeting hall with foam padding.

The meeting continued with each of the governors voicing their profound concern over this absence of fathers and mothers in the Land of Family. Therefore, three other resolutions were passed that night to curb the lack of peace and harmony in the Land of Family:

1. A time of freedom was established that would coincide with time spent in the Land of Church. This declared time of peace was to be known as “weekend”. Things were declared to be peaceful during this time and parents were to cater to the needs of their children for this two day period. “Being a taxi service is no shame”, the governors would say. “You don’t have to talk to the other parents during this time” they would declare. Just be peaceful. Engagement in the affairs of the Lands of Business and Politics during this weekend was encouraged, but not mandatory.

2. A longer time of freedom was established. This two week period was to be known as “vacation”. Families were to live for this judicious experience together – the ultimate in peace and harmony. It was reasoned that the obvious lack of peace and harmony (some even used the word “love”) could easily be rectified with this extended time of concentration on said virtues. The governors also assured the fathers and mothers that this “vacation” would curb the complaints of children that they were tired of being forgotten. How could a kid feel bad about his home life while having his feelings anesthetized in the indulging of extreme excess at Disney Land?

3. Every citizen in the land of Nonabel received part of their yearly income tax, as well as part of next year’s income tax refund, direct deposited into their checking account. The governor of the Land of Politics put it this way: “A good bit of money that looks like a gift even though it was their money to begin with will shut the mouth of even the most virtuous of people.” He wasn’t far from wrong.

The citizens of Nonabel in attendance at that Discussion of Important Things left the meeting hall extremely pleased with the outcome of their time together. No one actually believed that peace and harmony would be restored, but they were very satisfied to have something to live for in the form of “weekend” and “vacation” and very pleased with a gesture of monetary generosity from the governors of the kingdom. The incessant thumping on the door of the meeting hall was a bit distracting. But after the meeting concluded He had set up a table with the chicken and biscuits and a note attached to it that read:

“I’ll keep knocking, and whenever you want to open the door and let me in, I will show up with chicken and biscuits and sit down and hang out with you while we eat. Bloody knuckles are worth it for you.”

Everyone was deeply touched by this gesture of affection from governor of the Land of Church. A resolution was quickly passed on the lawn of the meeting hall to increase the amount of foam padding on the doors so as to alleviate the bloody knuckles of the governor.

The children of the land of Nonabel were tired of the lack of peace and harmony, not just at home, but in the whole kingdom. To them, Sunday mornings were terrible because they hated getting dressed up and the Land of Church was horrifically inauthentic because it was a bunch of fathers and mothers who were doing their duty of being peaceful and harmonious while being hateful and selfish at home. All the tiny provinces of the Land of Church were trying not to upset or offend any other provinces, so Sunday mornings became this putridly boring time of inoffensiveness. Furthermore, they could not understand why in the world no one was inviting the governor of the Land of Church to rule His own province. The children knew exactly where the governor lived and they loved to go play on His playground and sit on His lap and eat His chicken and watch Him make something out of nothing.

In the wake of this situation, some of the children of the Land of Nonabel decided to start their own province and they invited the governor to rule the province. This proved to be a wonderful situation. They didn’t have to dress up anymore, they could be real with the hurt they felt from their parents and the governors and they could really have fun with Him when they got together. More and more people started coming to this province and things started to get a little crazy. The children in the province had a lot of fun and enjoyed their relationship with the governor, but the governor kept asking this annoying question, “Why are you here?” No one had an answer, so they just ignored the question. He would keep asking, “Why are you here?” and still, no answer.

Finally the children got tired of the question, so they said, “Why don’t You tell us why we are here?” And the governor pointed to the archaic manuscript that had been discovered centuries before.

As the children read the book, they loved the wonder of the stories of the governor in all his majestic exploits, especially the ones where He healed people or made the winds and waves be still or made the governors of the other provinces drop their stones. They especially loved the one where He conquered death. As they got to the end of the book, they started reading about their very own province. It was like He had seen it in advance, maybe even planned for it or made it happen Himself. They could see themselves in His story and they could see the insanity that was taking over their very own province. The governor was right! The answer to their confusion was in the Book. But the answer caused them to pause in fear.

“You must trust Me,” He said.

“We do trust You,” the children declared.

“Then you must trust one another,” He replied.

So the children called the governor of the Land of Business to place an order for their own bulk shipment of foam padding.

Obedience As Identity - Key Principles Pt3

For years and years, I obeyed and followed Jesus because I was afraid of Him. Looking back on it, I’m not sure what I was afraid of because I could tell you what grace and mercy were and I could quote a lot of the Bible and I had a great family that showed me Jesus’ love in really deep ways. My past is not marked by physical or sexual abuse causing spiritual amnesia a split soul like some of my friends have experienced. I’ve been immersed in all things Jesus and church for what seems like forever.

But about five years ago, I began to come to the realization that I was terrified of God. What if he found out the kinds of things I was doing in secret? What if people at my church saw how I talked to my wife when it was just the two of us? How would I keep God on my side if He ever found out how often I didn’t follow Him? And to make it worse, I was a pastor. If anyone should have had it together, it should have been me.

I can remember sitting in a dark hospital room while Christy slept one night and wondering if God felt what was going on. I knew that God knew what was going on and He had everything under control and He was still on His throne and He is sovereign and all that jazz, but I wanted to know if He actually felt anything.

It was then that I realized that He wondered the same thing about me.

He knew that I knew that I loved Him and obeyed Him (usually, anyway) and that I was a pastor…but did I ever feel anything.

I had always equated submission and obedience to God with a need to separate me from myself, to step outside of the ugliness of who I was in order to do what He wanted. Why should I do what He wanted? Because He’s God and if I don’t do what He says, He’ll smite me.

Now don’t get me wrong, a deep part of that is true. Why obey? Because He’s God and what He says goes. At the end of all things, falling back on that is OK. The only thing is, that as a person grows up in Jesus, there comes a longing to know the Father more deeply than that, just like a child who is growing up. I have three kids, ages six, five and three. Because of their lack of growth and maturity – an inability to think and process abstractly – they must obey and I must ensure that they obey because my posture toward them is good, or at least it should be, and usually is – and their obedience to my will as it lines up with God’s will is the greatest highway they have to the face of Jesus.

And that’s the key to this whole obedience and following thing…that the heart of the Father toward His children is good. As my kids grow and mature in life, they will begin to experience me on new levels. Their questions of “Why?” are actually places that my heart and their heart can connect. A pre-teen or teenager initially pushes against her parents because they are the only standard by which she has to judge herself and her ability to be who her parents are forming her to be…a young lady on a road to her own destiny.

Submission and obedience to God is not about His control over your life.
The question of who is in control has an obvious answer.
God does not need to prove His ability to dominate you,
His sacrificial love is His domination.
God does not need your obedience to validate His existence.
He created and sustains everything.
God does not need your submission to love you.
His grace initiates this relationship.

God’s identity is so rooted in Himself and His Trinitarian nature that He is able to stand completely outside of His creation and be at joyful peace and rest in His own glory.

When your identity is rooted in Jesus and His loving nature, you can stand outside of yourself and be at joyful peace and rest in submission and obedience to His will, because it is His will that brings Him most glory, and God’s rest in His own glory is the most loving thing He can do for His children and the world.

The most freeing thing about all that stuff is that obedience comes as a fruit of being in Christ rather than a system of earning His love and favor. God’s love and favor rests on You because You are His child. He desires submission and obedience because it’s the only way He can love you to the depth that you were created to feel His love.

The more you submit and obey out of identity rather than fear, the more you feel the Father’s love. The more you feel the Father’s love, the more you feel the joy of obedience because obedience is who you are in Him.

33 Days Later: The Choice Has Been Made, This Battle Is Finished

"Suffering Servant" by Marcella Paliekara


Then, when our dying bodies have been transformed into bodies that will never die, this Scripture will be fulfilled:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless.

33 days, 172 dead

"So fear the Lord and serve him wholeheartedly. Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshiped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord alone. But if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose today whom you will serve. Would you prefer the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates? Or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live? But as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord.”

The people replied, “We would never abandon the Lord and serve other gods. For the Lord our God is the one who rescued us and our ancestors from slavery in the land of Egypt. He performed mighty miracles before our very eyes. As we traveled through the wilderness among our enemies, he preserved us. It was the Lord who drove out the Amorites and the other nations living here in the land. So we, too, will serve the Lord, for he alone is our God.”

Then Joshua warned the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is a holy and jealous God. He will not forgive your rebellion and your sins. If you abandon the Lord and serve other gods, he will turn against you and destroy you, even though he has been so good to you.”

But the people answered Joshua, “No, we will serve the Lord!”

“You are a witness to your own decision,” Joshua said. “You have chosen to serve the Lord.”

“Yes,” they replied, “we are witnesses to what we have said.”

“All right then,” Joshua said, “destroy the idols among you, and turn your hearts to the Lord, the God of Israel.”

The people said to Joshua, “We will serve the Lord our God. We will obey him alone.”

So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day at Shechem, committing them to follow the decrees and regulations of the Lord. Joshua recorded these things in the Book of God’s Instructions. As a reminder of their agreement, he took a huge stone and rolled it beneath the terebinth tree beside the Tabernacle of the Lord.

Joshua said to all the people, “This stone has heard everything the Lord said to us. It will be a witness to testify against you if you go back on your word to God.”

Then Joshua sent all the people away to their own homelands.

Key Principles Part Two

Obedience may be the doorway to intimacy, but it's not intimacy. Jesus says in John 14, if you love me, obey my commandments. He does not say, "if you love me keep my commandments and then you will be loved." Our relationship with Jesus is based in His work on the cross and through His resurrection. We obey because it's who we are, not in order to be loved.

If I bring my wife flowers and she asks me, "Why did you get these for me?", and if I respond, "Because I know you expect me to do that for you from time to time," that's a quick road to no intimacy. I get her flowers because I love her. I get her flowers because it's who I am -- I am her lover and flowers are the "obedience" that I live in because I love her. The flowers are an extension of my identity and open the doorway for intimacy which I define as spirit to spirit connection. Intimacy is primarily spiritual. Certainly there are emotional and physical outgrowths of that, but if we try to connect through either emotion or physicality first, it will always fall short of what it was meant to be.

Lego Gospel

Here's that link I mentioned this morning about the Bible story told through Legos. It's even better than I remember!

www.thebricktestament.com

10 Years Deep...Only Going Deeper

Today is our tenth anniversary. We're on our tenth anniversary trip in Denver. Sweet place for an anniversary trip. The pic is from our trip to the Denver Art Museum yesterday at a very cool bubble art project.

I could go on and on about all the things I love about my wife, and I guess this would be an appropriate venue to do that, but we've had those conversations over the last few days and that's not where we ended up in our thought process...with how great the other person is.

Rather, we marvel at the depth of ten years as opposed to the starting point. We did our pre-marital counseling with the pastor I grew up under, Pastor Shirey, and he told us that this is how it would be. "You love each other deeply now, but you will realize that it is nothing compared to what it will be five, ten, twenty, fifty years from now," he said.

And he was so right.

Deeper...that's the best word for it. Other words and phrases are fitting: stronger, tougher, sexier, sacrificing, more complete, more solid, more trusting. But deeper was the consensus. The deeper I plunge the depths of Sheri's being, the more beauty I see, the more light there is, the more Jesus is present, the more oneness we experience. And the same is true for her.

One-flesh-ness is about so much more than sex. It's about the depths of the other person's body, soul and spirit and finding and calling out their design in those places. For as much light as we have found in one another, we have found comparable darkness -- but that's part of the depth. Our goal is not to comprise a list of expectations for the other to conform to and then guage the health of our marriage based around those expectations -- although that's what I see in so many couples today in the worlds in which I live. Our goal is to seek out the depth of the other's design and calling in Jesus and love them for who they are becoming so much more than loving them for who they now are, because who they now are may suck. It might be a point of some ugly darkness, but that is part of the depth, and Jesus has light to shine on that area and that light will primarily be released in the other party of the one-flesh-ness.

We love each other so much more deeply now than before and we can't believe that the future together holds even more depth of love. But we can't wait to go that deep.

What a journey it's been...
What a journey it will be.
It is easier to sail across the sea than down into it,
But now that the world is mapped --
Where's the risk in that?
And if love is not risk,
Then it is love that is dead.
We choose to plunge the depths of the deep.