Come on over and check it out.

Congratulations. It is a great thing that you have accomplished. I am honored that you would ask me to be a part of celebrating with you.

You’ve spent 113,880 hours of your life working to earn that piece of paper. No question, you have achieved something substantial, but it wasn’t supposed to be like this. We were never intended to be achievers. When God made the heavens and the earth and placed mankind in the Garden of Eden, independence was not part of our original coding. In fact, man was intentionally engineered to be dependant. It was not God’s intent for us ever to be separated from Him.

Think about it. The Garden of Eden as we all imagine it—full of lush vegetation, and exotic animals was the nothing more than the setting that framed a perfect relationship between God and man.  It was a relationship so real and tangible that Genesis says that Adam, Eve took a customary walk with God in the cool of the day.  For a brief period of time, perfect people walked through a perfect world in perfect union with God. Every physical and spiritual need was fully met. There was no achievement, no ambition, no struggle. There were no empty stomachs or hollow spirits. Adam did not know loneliness. Eve had never endured depression. There was no identity struggle. Mankind knew only the fulfillment of his purpose– fellowship with the creator.

God never intended for us to be separated from one-another, either. Adam and Eve lived in perfect union. There were no secret plots, hurtful words, fear, shame, guilt or rebellion. There was no competition, mixed feelings, or complicated personal history. When things were like God intended them to be, there was only understanding, communication and love. Life in the garden was better than anything we can visualize in our sin-scared imaginations.

In a moment it all came crashing down. All of the beauty in that world was instantly and permanently scared because of a single act. When sin came on the scene, it affected every human activity. Everything was different. Sin reshaped the world into a place of paradox, double-mindedness, and self-worship. Now, we desire to be served, but we hate serving. We crave to be in control, and we nurture alien ideas like self-sufficiency, independence, and pride. We have forgotten about our creator and turned to worshipping the creation. We cannot help but worship something, its how we were designed after all, but self-worship became the culturally accepted religion.

In the words of Paul David Tripp, “Rather than loving people and using things to express it, we love things and use people to get them.” It only took us one generation to move from perfect harmony to homicide, and from there it has only gotten worse.

The world that God had called ‘good’ and the people that God had called ‘very good’ were ruined by sin. But God, who is rich in mercy, with his great love wherewith he loved us, was not willing to let sin ruin his creation, so he set a plan in motion. It would take thousands of years, and would mean re-directing the entire course of human history. But more than that, God’s plan to reconcile with his creation would require a deep and personal sacrifice. God orchestrated events in every generation from the fall until the time was right, and El-Shaddai, the God who Provides, sent his Son into the world to make a way for us to be redeemed. It was through his Son that he would (Colossians 1:20) reconcile all things to Himself. He would make all things new.

Jesus entered the world as a man just like you and I. He called out to the people that he loved, the people who had all like sheep gone astray. He spoke, “The time has come. The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe in the good news.” The time has come. He was saying, “This is it! God has not forgotten you or lost interest in you. This is what God has been working on…” Jesus preached with his lips and his actions the love of God. He acted out his message of hope—a living demonstration of divine love for mankind.

Today, 2000 years later, His actions and message are refreshing to those of us who know our situation is hopeless, but offensive to anyone who is trying to orchestrate their own redemption.

The message that Jesus preached provides the only valid reason for hope to all of us who have endured the harsh reality of a sinful world. In a way that offends our deeply-rooted, prideful sense of independence, Jesus took on himself the sins of mankind. He did for us, what so few of us are willing to admit we cannot do for ourselves.

He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;

Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions;

He was crushed for our iniquities;

Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,

And with his stripes we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray;

We have turned everyone to his own way and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

Two very important things happened at the cross. First of all, our sins were paid for, past, present and future. God extended mercy in the blood of His son to cover every single one of our sinful actions, words, thoughts and desires.  Paul put it this way, “Even when we were dead in our trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ.” The punishment that we deserved because of our inherent sinfulness was placed on Jesus Christ, and the record against us was wiped away. We will never be held responsible for the sins we have committed, are committing or will commit because our debt has already been paid. There is no record of our wrongs, the slate is clean.

But something else happened for us at the cross, and it’s something that we don’t talk about nearly enough. You see, not only did Jesus pay our sin-debt with his blood, but we received the pure righteousness of Jesus Christ. We were all made sinners by Adam, and the infinite righteousness of God is available to all of us through Jesus. “… As one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.” (Romans 5:18-19) Not just forgiven, but righteous.

Infinite righteousness became available on demand to anyone who asks for it. I trust you do not have to imagine it because such a wonder is a part of your everyday life. If not, I would love to show you how it could be. I would love to introduce you to the God who gave his life for yours and mine, and makes righteousness available to us. I would love nothing more.

And so, in a way, the Spirit of Eden is rekindled in each person who chooses accept God’s free gift of grace. Fellowship with a righteous God is possible for mankind once more. We talk to Him, grow to understand our relationship with Him, and the day is coming soon when we will see him face to face just like Adam did on those walks in the garden every evening. And that is how things were meant to be.

I am happy to be here, celebrating your achievement today but the piece of paper that you have earned does not represent your greatest asset, or the greatest cause that we have for rejoicing. The knowledge and skills represented by those diplomas are valuable, and I do not want to diminish the magnitude of your accomplishment; but I would challenge you to count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord. Be found in Him, not having a righteousness of your own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness that God offers which depends on faith.

The greatest question that all of us must answer, is not, “What did you do with your education?” its, “What did you do with Jesus?” Your greatest gift is not your education, upbringing, talents, skills or anything like that; because nothing like that could possibly make sinful men righteous. But, what we have is “power, power, wonder working power in the Blood of the Lamb.”

Today, we stand here on the doorstep of heaven and the only thing that keeps us from entering into perfect fellowship once again is our own pride. It’s the great paradox that sin creates in each one of us—we are filled with self-love, but despise our own nature as God’s dependants. We are not satisfied with divine orchestration on our behalf; we, like every two-year-old learning to tie his shoes, must do it ourselves. We do not want to accept the righteousness of God freely bestowed to any humble enough to ask for it. We want to be good enough on our own.

Even those of us who have thrown ourselves on the mercy of God for the forgiveness of sins, now want to stand on our own merits in our relationship with Christ. We want to prove our worthiness of the gift we have been given. We think that if God went to all that trouble it must have been to save someone truly valuable, like myself.

The human pre-occupation with ‘earning our keep’ means that no longer is it just sin that stands between us and fellowship with God; it’s our home-made brand of righteousness as well. As Christians, we are heirs to the kingdom with access to every spiritual blessing, the peace that passes all understanding, freedom from sin and the immeasurable greatness of his power; but we politely decline. No, those resources should surely be put to use in the life of someone with a greater need. We would rather generate good works of our own design. That is why Paul spoke of self-made-righteousness as “filthy rags”.

And so Graduates, on this day of celebration, it is my charge to you not to go out and accomplish great things. I do not dare you to take risks. I challenge you to act like the Kingdom Heirs that you are. Don’t spend your life trying to impress God, or earn your own way. It will never be enough for to work hard and accomplish something great in Jesus’ name. There are few things in life as fruitless as working to earn that which you already have, and Graduates, you already have it. You have access to every spiritual blessing. I know that if you humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, he will lift you up.

In the last year or so, I’ve come to believe that humility and faith are mostly synonyms, and faith is the assurance of all the things that we hope for; the conviction of all the things that we cannot see. And without faith it is impossible to please Him.

I love this video. It is simple, powerful, thought-provoking and there are some very important truths communicated in this 3-minutes & 16 seconds. But… there are parts of this video that could also be very confusing.

Here’s what I like:

God isNOT a White Man. It’s true, God supersedes any boundaries of race, gender, language, political party or culture. Derek Webb also has a fantastic song about this. He writes, “the two greatest lies that I have heard is that if you eat the fruit of this tree, you shall not surely die; and that Jesus Christ was a White middle class Republican.”

God IS love, and to be like Christ is to love unconditionally. John 13:35 has been one of my favorite verse lately. True, genuine love cannot be faked. It’s like the un-forge-able mark of genuine Christianity.

God CANNOT be bought. Not only does God not identify more closely with one racial or political group, he cannot be contained in an institution. A God experience cannot be manufactured and mass-reproduced. God is not subject to the rules of government or economics.

It’s amazing how quickly the song changes tone. It is doubtlessly light-hearted throughout until the bridge. When Gungor starts singing “Please Stop the Hating” I quit laughing. It wasn’t funny anymore, it was passionate. I love songs/videos that can change moods in the middle. It’s a funny video, but it has a very serious point. Hate is the opposite of Christ-likeness, but it is what conservative Christianity is most known for.

Here’s What Made me Laugh…

• Terrorists, Lesbians, Abraham Lincoln and Pat Robinson were listed in the same group of people. (what really sets these people apart from one another?)
• The church congregation chasing “God” with butterfly nets. (Don’t we do things equally as absurd?)
• The angry-driver switched to pogo-stick. (Is my mood so easily affected?)
• The Pat Robinson balloon-head in the parade. (Why is Pat Robinson so funny?)

Here’s what I didn’t like:

God DOES care what happens in this world. He is concerned about our actions. Certain human activities please him and others do not. God’s love for everyone is the same, but, “without faith it is impossible to please Him.”  I believe this video stretches the word “love” beyond it’s semantic range. God is love and God loves everyone, but he is not pleased with the actions of everyone. And difficulty comes (communicated in the form of vegetables, traffic and storms) to everyone. The fact that God loves me doesn’t change the fact that life is hard. The video seemed to say that God’s Love makes the world a perfect place with candy for dinner, fireworks instead of suicide bombs and resurrecting hamsters.

It’s true that contact with God’s Love will change a person’s life irrevocably, eternally and instantly but it doesn’t mean that life is “pogo-sticks-in-traffic” ever after. Allowing oneself to be a conduit of God’s Grace will certainly make for more pogo-sticks all around.

The act of “becoming a Christian” involves admitting our own inherent sinfulness and a complete in-ability to save ourselves. It means an abandonment of any other means of spiritual self-preservation. It is ultimate humility. Placing ourselves at the mercy of God, we ask to be forgiven. And we are. We are forgiven, and we are welcomed into His family as a son, joint-heirs with Christ. We call it salvation, but it starts with humility.

Humility only grows the more we understand our place in God’s spiritual family. Think about the things that God commands his sons and daughters to do: yield (Galatians 5:16), submit (James 4:7), present (Romans 6:13), and confess (1 John 1:9). Our spiritual journey is advanced only by further humbling ourselves before our Spiritual Father, Savior and God.

The idea that we could earn our way to spiritual growth is absurd. It’s laughable to think of acquiring a spiritual merit-badge by way of skill and perseverance. What could we ever accomplish that would impress God? Actions generated from a prideful desire to “level-up” spiritually is the opposite of spiritual growth. That is legalism. That is pride.

But if I’m honest, many of my spiritual activities are attempts to please God. Pride is more a part of my spiritual history than humility.

The problem with humility is that it’s just un-American.

We Americans value hard work, responsibility, success, courage and ownership. We hate the idea of dependence. We loath surrender, and we detest submission. We want to earn our own way. Isn’t that desire the heart of the American Dream?

I love my country, but lately I’ve been realizing that the things which make me a good American also make me a lousy Christian. After all, “God opposes the proud, but give grace to the humble.”

If you remember from your Philosophy class in college, Plato believed in a duality of good and evil– all things physical being evil and all things spiritual being good. This made for a problematic existence. If all physical things are inherently evil, then evil is impossible to escape. It is in the air we breath, the clothes we wear and the furniture on which we sit. Plato, a secular thinker, obviously didn’t know Jesus, the sinless man.

The issue discussed in Total Truth is how Plato’s philosophy of dualism enters our Christian Worldview. While we would not claim that ALL physical matter is sinful, we do draw lines around SOME physical matter and call it sinful. Tobacco for instance, is almost universally considered evil matter in conservative Christianity. We separate the good things (church, bible study, suits and skirts) from the evil (tobacco, rock music, and tattoos). We draw lines of morality based on traditional connotation rather than biblical principles. We ignore motivations, intrinsic value and intent, and choose instead to  make create a duality of spiritual vs. secular activities.

We quote, “Come out from among them and be ye separate,” and ignore 1 Timothy 4:4. We cite Biblical teaching to be “in and not of” to refer to a specific set of physical vices that we grew up being forbidden to experience, when all along God is trying to get us to bring a Christian worldview with us into the culture in which we find ourselves. We create an alternative cultural atmosphere in which we can live “separate” from the “world”, and yet our understanding of that Biblical principle stems from Platonic philosophy!

God’s Word teaches that Christian philosophy should pervade every aspect of our lives, that no part of this world exists beyond the reach of God’s influence. We amputate portions of our culture because they have been tainted by sin, and wholeheartedly embrace others. This duality creates a dangerously wide cavern between the spiritual and secular parts of the world. We understand what God’s Word teaches about church, but what does it teach about theatre? What Christian principles guide the actions of an engineer or an architect? Many young Christians  find themselves chasing after “spiritual” professions under the false assumption that God’s work only takes place in the spiritual workplace of a pastor or missionary.  I myself became greatly disheartened  that I had to abandon my passion for theatre because God was calling me into the ministry (which in mind couldn’t possibly include a secular activity like acting).

This duality is dangerously pervasive, and while I knew that something was amiss in my own thinking I couldn’t put my finger on it until I read Nancy Pearcy’s masterful explanation of it in Total Truth.

So… how then shall I live? Everwhere, everyday living out Biblical principles in concert with the way that God made me. Confront the culture rather than condemn it. Live a life set-apart, not from traditionally evil objects, but from secular worldviews.

They build relationships on purpose. I heard someone say that how he treats the “little guy” is truest test of a leader’s integrity. It is interesting for me to watch the most potent influencers that I see around me spending a substantial amount of time investing in relationships. Some of the most influential people that I know compromise their own productivity in order to spend time building relationships. I have seen that time have an exponential pay off later.

They’re Generous with Praise. With so many things in the world to complain about, the influential people around me always manage to find something to be positive about. They are not irrationally optimistic, but do maximize the things that go well. Generous praise and encouragement goes a long way to minimizing mistakes and imperfections.

They pick their battles. Influential people are realistic about the speed of organizational change. It’s never fast, and influencers prioritize. They pick the most important battles– the ones that can have the greatest impact, and they let the small stuff go. There will be a day for those battles, and the influential people know not to get caught up worrying about when the world will be perfect, and just may their mark on today in the most meaningful way they can.

They intentionally time their input. I have been reminded lately of just how powerful timing can be. I had an idea, and no one seemed to care. I thought it was a winner. It was an idea that would save my organization hundreds of thousands of dollars. I knew it would succeed, but no one seemed to notice my idea. It was brushed aside as fool-hardy. There were days I felt as though it wasn’t even heard. But when budgets were due and we were facing some major cuts, a cost-cutting idea was heard and embraced. Timing was everything. Nobody wanted the fire-extinguisher until they could see the fire. I would have saved myself quite a bit of frustration if I had just waited for the right time.

They are liberal with Ideas. One of my favorite John Maxwell quotes goes like this, “The most important member of any organization is the member with the most ideas.”Ideas are powerful. Ideas change the world. I think a lot of the best ideas die on the vine because the person who had them wants to get credit for them. Ideas are like people, sometimes they have to leave home in order to reach their full potential. If you want to have influence, let your ideas go. Let anyone use them, and they will go farther than you could ever have taken them by yourself.

They are impossible to discourage. Influential people have lots of ideas, as a result they have a lot of ideas shot down. They get mocked, stood up, ignored, and plagiarized. It just seems to come with the territory, but influencers are bullet proof. They’re hard to offend and even harder to discourage. They have a clear idea of what the world could (and should) look like, and you aren’t going to be able to tell them any different.

They think in the future tense. Influencers don’t care what happened yesterday, they’re already thinking about tomorrow. They’re looking toward the next time. Influential people are visionaries. They have ideas, and they love to share them. Strange, they are also constantly dissatisfied. They never settle, they are always looking to grow and improve.

This is the kind of person that I want to become.

If you’re free, head on over and check it out!

I hate to be the one who must tells you this, but Barak Obama is not going to fix the economy. I know that you are excited about change, but it isn’t going to happen like you seem to think that it will.

I’m excited about change too, to be honest. I’m excited that we as a nation seem to be rallying behind our leadership. I was excited to hear an inaugural address that was delivered in plain English, but I feel obligated to let you know President Obama will not be able to undo the damage that has been done to our economic system.

Understand, I’m not an economist, but it doesn’t really require one to understand how debt happens. We are in recession because “The American Dream” is not a sustainable lifestyle for every American. For many of us, debt is a lifestyle. It’s certainly become the accepted norm for our government. Debts cannot be forgotten or ignored. Debts must be paid. It’s a fact of life. If we (as individuals and as a country) do not pay our debts, the lenders cannot survive. The problem with our economy right now is that we owe money to ourselves.  The fact for many of us is that we cannot sustain our current standard of living. There is nothing that Barak Obama can do to change that. He can delay the inevitable, sure but sooner or later we will have to pay our debts.

Many of our debts these days are war debts. Regardless of when our troops come home, President Obama cannot change the fact that we used a whole lot of expensive bullets and bombs last year. It doesn’t matter what we do from here, we have to pay our debts. The opinions, vast and various as they are, about why we entered Iraq in the first place will never pay of our debts.

I guess the bottom line is that as excited as most of us are to follow someone new, we’re still deep in debt. Unless Mr. Obama has a few hundred billion dollars stashed away that no one seems to know about, our debt is not going to be changing anytime soon.

The Change that I believe in can only come from the grass roots. I believe in Americans, not only taking personal responsibility for themselves and their families, but stepping up to help others beyond our borders. I could believe in an America that didn’t wait for the government to bail them out, but lived within its means. I could believe in an America that conserved resources in order to help other nations. THAT is change that I could believe in.

America, I hope you know that I love you. I always will. You are my country, and it hurts me to see you broken and indebted. It hurts me to see you divided, but you are still my country. I will love you, and support your leaders, even if I don’t exactly see eye to eye with them. I will not mock. I will not berate, and I will not tolerate others who do. I love this country, but…

We’re in rough shape right now. Barak Obama can help, I’m sure but the future of this country rests where it always has, in the hands of its people. If this nation is going to survive to see its Tricentennial, it will be because of the American people. Just as Mr. Lincoln said, the United States Government is by, of and for the the people. It will be the people who cause the change.

We can’t expect Barak Obama to change our nation. We have to do it.

Loyal as Always,

Ray

The truth is that many expletives lose their original definition by frequent mis-use. The meaning of profanity is often heavily tied to the context of its use. Steven Pinker’s books, The Stuff of Thought breaks down profanity into five categories.

• Dysphemistic swearing — Exactly the opposite of euphemism. Forcing the listener to think about negative subject matter.
• Abusive swearing– The use of particularly offensive verbiage in an attempt to intimidate or insult.
• Idiomatic Swearing–Swearing without truly referring to the subject matter. Use of words to arouse interest, show off and gain attention.
• Emphatic swearing— To emphasize a point with offensive vocabulary.
• Cathartic swearing– Reactionary speech when something surprising or bad happens. Semi-instinctive response to express a negative emotion. (i.e. like spilling coffee)

We have all come into contact with each of these types at some point. We may not have thougth to classify or categorize them in this way, but we are familiar with each of them. What I have been thinking recently is that we spend all of our time communicating that specific words are vulgar, and thus, should not be uttered by Christians. While that may be true, the specific of which words fall into the cateogry of  “profanity” is constantly in flux. Some words that are perfectly acceptable in the United States are considered the most vulgar of terms in places like the UK and Australia. The rules of language are determinted by the culture, and in a post-modern culture the rules of language are… flexible.

It’s intersting to me that when many Christian communicators tackle this topic they preach/speak out against specific vocabulary terms. I think this is the wrong approach. What the culture thinks about various words and their status as swear-words is constantly in flux, but the reasons for using them never really change. Think about these different categories. Dysphemistic swearing is fairly self explanatory– not only filling one’s own mind, but spreading sexual or violent thoughts to others. Abusive swearing is clearly in violation of the biblical principle of, “Love your neighbor”. Emphatic swearing is nothing more than display of foolishness and a distinct void of wisdom and understanding.  Cathartic swearing represents a sinful lack of self-control.

So tell me, which do you think would be more effective: speaking out against specific words, or teaching the Biblical principles of self control, love, wisdom, and purity of thought? I think we’re missing the point when we speak against swearing. We put an experation date on our speaking/writing. The Bible is eternally relevant because it’s writers did not short-cut the issues they were addressing. They spoke to the heart of the matter rather than the symptom. I believe there is a lesson in that for us as communicators. Deal with the issue, not just the symptom.

Dealing with the issue does not limit the teaching of scripture, it broadens it. It allows a principle to be used in all of its potential applications rather than the select few that we, as communicators, feel strongly enough to speak out against. For example: what about euphamism usage or Christian cursing as it is often called? preaching against the use of the word “darn” while your points may be right and true, is not going to get you very far in a world like ours. But what about speaking on the Biblical defenition of Self-control? Relevant? yes. Practical? yes. Biblical? also yes.

We limit the reach of God’s Word when we wield it to enforce our hobby horses. The church today is in need of a Language Revolution. We need to get back to the teaching of scripture which speaks more deaply to a broader array ot topics than we can ever “preach-against”. Stop preaching-against things, and start communicating the truth of God’s Word.

Looking for your cellphone– Your mom probably told you something like, “A place for everything, and everything in it’s place.” No?…. was that only me? The point is the same, you don’t have time to hunt for a device that should be making your life more convenient.

Waste Time Driving– In the course of a lifetime, many of us spend thousands of hours in transit. That time is extended significantly by those of us who do not actively redeem that time. Invest in a GPS and you won’t get lost. Subscribe to some podcasts, buy some audiobooks and make use of time that would otherwise be wasted.

Checking More than One Email Account — There are several excellent programs to consolidate your email accounts, and most of those interact very nicely with a smartphone. Get all your email from one place.

Typing in URLs — Your browser stores bookmarks. Use them & keep them organized. Beside the time you spend typing, you will devote more time than you realize trying to remember the address that you need.