bride-loving-bloggers.

A few years ago I started writing a book… it was called “I hate christianity”. I know, I started writing a book … I’m too young, too inexperienced, too immature in my faith, too… a lot of things. 

The first promise I made to myself as I set out writing was:

Promise #1: I will not deal verbal spankings to Jesus' Wife just because I can.

… My writing didn’t last very long. The honest truth? I ran out of things to “hate” about Christianity. If you get close enough to the heart of Jesus Christ your heart starts saying, “yeah, I’d die for her.” Broken, Branded, Cold, Cantankerous – You would die for her too, because Jesus did.

But recently I’ve noticed within myself an inevitable leaning towards the negative. It’s easy to get at least a few words of criticism in from your armchair. It is easier to withdraw into the safety of a coffee shop, put your head in your hands, and “write the wrongs” rather than “right the wrongs.”

In fact, the more Christian blogs I read the more confounded I become. Time and time again I am finding it hard not to gravitate towards the “issues.” My generation’s Christian bloggers love to sit down at the feast of the church’s deficiencies and gorge themselves. The table is vast, there’s no denying. At this point I'm pretty sure that blogs on Rob Bell’s Utopia, Homophobic Bishops, and Religion vs. Relationship are the re-runs they'll play in hell.  They're easy targets when you want something to write about… There’s always some pastor acting the fool or some church program that shouldn’t be. Always something to nitpick always some quibble to quack over.

Christian blogging has, as a whole, become a shark-feed that has managed to mutilate every beautiful aspect of the bride of Christ, de-limb every strain of doctrine, and turn everyone into a cynic. Where one blog sings praise another breathes curses. Were every Christian blog Truth I should be expected to walk away a religiously-paranoid, profanity-slinging, American-missions-hating, program-snobbing, self-taught-and-self-proclaimed theologian. There would be no preacher, no denomination, no tradition, no creed, no form of worship that could stand under the weight of some blogger’s “two-cents” and certainly none that I could trust. No one is safe when there’s a blogger around. No one.

Where are the main-stream bloggers that clack about the beauty of creation? Where are the Christians that have something to say about the lavishness of the love of Jesus? Where are the grown ups who actually listened when their parents said, “if you don’t have anything nice to say, then don’t say anything at all”?

They call themselves “faith-bloggers” but often their faith in God’s redemptive power for the sake of His Wife is more or less yet to be seen. Where He says, “If you are faithless, yet still I remain faithful” their elegantly written letters would condemn their weaker brothers and sisters and whisper behind their backs in dark corners of the web that they will never see: “My Brother is going to hell in a hand-basket! And my sister to the pit!” How is it that faith-blogging culture has so bread a movement of faithlessness that we could monopolize on the misgivings and weaknesses of our own family?

It might be accurate to say that the most trending Christian blogs, the most cultured, and the most read are also the least reflective of Jesus Christ’s love for His Wife… “But his blog is a wake-up-call to the church.” “But her writings are prophetic!” some will say. To which I rebuttal and rebuttal with a clinched jaw – show me a prophet or messenger of God, who when proclaiming wrath cannot help but also proclaim, even in the same breath, the redemptive hope and promise of the love of the Bride-Groom. Show me, please.

Computer-chair prophets? I never heard that term used in Bible College… I must have missed that lesson. 

For all these scribbles, these prophetic-slams I’m just going to say: “shame on you.” Jesus didn’t die so that you could make a living off of writing hate-letters about His Wife. All this “do as I blog, not as I do” bull-crap has become itself the disease it hates in the church. It is hypocrisy. It is as blasé as Obama’s drama, as non sequitur as the prosperity Gospel, as ugly as sin.

Admit it, you’ve thought it at least twice – “So wait… He’s blogging negatively about blogging negatively?”

Darn tootin’.

I say this all from a blog… Resolute to see with new eyes the beauty I find in the love Jesus has for His Bride and skimming the horizon for any mainstream blog that is hell-bent on scribbling it for the masses.

Calling all Bride-Loving-Bloggers. The masses await you to tell of the love of Jesus. Feed them.

“If you love me, feed my sheep.”
John 21:17

Revitalizing Hymnody

I love the great hymns of old. 
Masterpieces. Magnetic harmonies. 
Water gushing out like clarion calls to the Great Amen and enfolding from hearts bent low beneath a million tons of reverence. I grew up listening to these… twelve-part harmonies to Oh For A Thousand Tongues To Sing… Organ blaring to Crown Him With Many Crowns. And the words linger on my tongue – even now envisioned in this wandering mind stands resolute the image of King Jesus, and no amount of crowns can do Him justice.

And then every organ player disappeared off the face of the earth. Hymnals gathered dust and eventually found their way into cardboard boxes. The church moved on and those who cared left for smaller congregations. The organ got sold and the hymnals still sit like Andy’s forgotten toys in some dark attic.

I will openly admit - the Church desperately needed to keep up with the times. Overhead projectors and felt-boards truly needed to go. Drums and lights needed to be recognized as legitimate instruments of worship. I mean, every generation of the church needs to find their way in contextualizing the Gospel to the lost, but did we really need to trash the hymns?

All of a sudden instead of chewing on a verse of Come Thou Fount I was handed happy-meal-anthems – one line to be sung Fourteen THOUSAND times at the top of your lungs. You know them and I won’t offend you by listing them. But I also won’t pretend like I don’t love them… Some of my most intimate encounters with God while worshipping Him have been in the midst of meditating on a single thought “You Never Let Go” or “I Belong To You.” They are searing truths that burn their insignia into the flesh of my heart.

I’ve noticed in the last few years, however, a growing hunger for Hymns within the Church. And to my giddy-church-boy surprise Musicians have been responding with a multitudinous mass of re-made hymns being punched out and poured into some very thirsty hearts. They don’t sound exactly the same as when Grandma used to sing them, but they carry with them the same potency, same depth, same reverence for the Almighty.

To name just a few bands doing something new with old hymns:

• Page CXVI

• Wayfarer

• Ascend The Hill

• Kings Kaleidoscope

This may be weird but here’s one last thought: If anyone is looking for a good devotional book, go to your church and ask for a hymnal… and if your church doesn’t have one – then go two blocks to the next church and ask them. Cozy up to a hymn, memorize it, pray it, sing it, live it.

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What’s your favorite hymn?
What’s your favorite re-made hymn?
How often does your church sing hymns?

short-term christianity

Lord, please don't let this be a two-week thing...

Mid-summer Christianity is an odd bird.

Sometimes its stunning to think of.

Sometimes you wanna rip your hair out.

The world is flooded for a few months with a swell of Gospel-carriers. Youth groups in slums you never knew existed. College students, absolutely nuts about Christ, backpacking through Europe and nomadic steppes. Right now there are Christians sharing the Gospel for the first time with someone who is receiving it with joy! Yes, so many haven't heard the name of Christ... and YES, we really blow it in short-term missions... often... but for a few months the American Church hikes up her long jean skirt, gives up Her time and resources, and takes a jab at it. Somewhere between Jesus saying "Go" and Revelation's multi-ethnic worship service, people are going. Albeit clumsily as we go, the Bride walks into the harvest fields and, with shaking knees, obeys.
Yes... I said "jean skirt"... 

Mid-summer Christianity is more than over-seas missions work... ya know? On the outside it looks like Bible camps, men's retreats, church camp-outs, women's conferences, and CREATION FEST. But on the inside it's about taking some serious steps deeper into the heart of God, cozying up to Him, and staying there. It's about experiencing God first-hand and not just learning more about Him.

There are some who will go seeking God in summer events and return broken, beat-up, and alone... sometimes because of sin but often because The Holy Spirit is doing a distinct work on the heart - bidding one to a spiritual intimacy deeper than a tingling of the senses can attain. But most, however seem to experience some new and profound dimension of God's heart that grips and captivates them. We blow off the dust from our Bibles, stick our noses deep in the recesses of forgotten scriptures, and remember how to pray. 

And then...
We come back from our Mid-Summer experience with God, get on our knees and through tears and clenched teeth we scream something like:

Oh God, PLEASE don't let this just be a summer thing!

All the while there's this lump in the back of our throat tossing with fear, "I'm terrified that in a couple weeks my life will not have changed one bit." We pray that prayer hoping in the off-chance that if we scream it loud enough and mean it hard enough God might keep the ball rolling.

I want to press hard on that lump in our throats until we remember that we have unlimited, unconditional, unrestrained, inexplicable access into the presence of God Almighty through Jesus Christ. Any time, any day, any where. 
 
A steady, rhythmic, even-paced, daily walk with God in devotion trumps summer "highs" every time. For the one who walks steadily with their God, the mentality shifts to: All the time, every day, everywhere.

You're not in India anymore... SO? The Lord of The Nations goes with you - walk with Him and the flame in your heart for the lost will grow. You don't have a charismatic preacher letting loose on you for 3 sessions a day... SO WHAT? The God who spoke stars into the sky and breathed your first breath deep into your lungs has something to say to you and will speak if you'll listen!

Your mid-summer event was short term, your faith doesn't need to be.


So push back the lump in your throats my friends. 

Today is a good day to be in the presence of God.
Tomorrow is a good day to burn brighter for the King of Kings. 

Cling to Him. Tightly. 
Cozy up to Him, and never leave.