dangerous rebel

Jesus.

If you or I just pause and think about that name for a second.








Words and actions like love, grace, forgiveness, teaching, obedience, example, miracles, sacrifice all come to mind.

What about "dangerous rebel?" Probably not.

But if you look in the book of John, you see the crowds confused and stunned. Religious leaders were convinced he was completely out of his mind. They wanted to arrest him, and I doubt that killing him wasn't far from their minds.

If you look at the compound title, "dangerous rebel," it's not hard to conclude that Jesus was in fact that: a rebel who was dangerous.

He was a rebel because He taught and lived completely upside down compared to the religious leaders and the society they created.

What made Him dangerous was that through this rebellion, He had followers, He had influence. The real danger wasn't necessarily Him (although in hindsight, I'm sure the religious would think otherwise), but rather the uprising He was creating. The uprising could be described with words used at the beginning of this blog: love, grace, forgiveness, teaching, obedience, example, miracles, sacrifice.

What made Him a rebel was the fact that He went against the religious flow. He died for it. He rose again to defeat it.

So the question now becomes this: At what point do you go from rebel to righteous?

It's as soon as perception is changed. Jesus changed perception with His life and death on the cross.

It was then that He went from being the black sheep to being the Shepherd.

-NW

Reality O.T.V.

What I love so much about God's word is that you can read a story you grew up with and it comes to life in a whole new way. For example, the story of Jacob and Esau fighting over the bowl of Campbell's Chunky Soup.

Their dad is getting old and wants to give Esau his blessing. Jacob overhears, probably while watching The View or HGTV with his mom and the two start scheming to steal the blessing. He then goes into Esau's closet and steals his hairy Armani clothes and tries to pass as his brother so he can get the firstborn's blessing.

He dresses up like his brother and steals the blessing right from under his nose hairs (the Bible says he was hairy). Then he flees for his life and stumbles into what appears to be West Virginia because he ends up working 14 years just to marry his cousins, Leah and Rachel.

There are so many people to blame in this story. You could blame Jacob for lying and deceiving his dad. But it was his own mom's idea! So you could blame her for going against her own husband. But then you could blame him for not even knowing the difference in his own son's voices. It's almost like an episode of Desperate Housewives of the Old Testament.

Doesn't matter. The point is this: Jacob had to dress up and cover up his own identity to fool his father into giving him a blessing because he didn't even come close to growing peach fuzz compared to Esau and his snuggy-like body hair.

What appeared to be his reward turned out to be his curse. He took the easy way out by conning his own brother and father but got conned in return by his uncle. It's reality-O.T.V. at it's best.

This really is a funny story and you're almost amazed at the fact that it happened. But what isn't funny is this story re-occurs in our lives everyday.

We dress up and cover up our sins and lifestyles, thinking we can fool our heavenly father into thinking we are the children He really loves and wants. We'll put on a smile and bring our Bibles to church with us. We'll serve in ministry and tithe 10%. But we'll also delete our internet browsing history or spend too much time off the clock while staying on the clock.

We dress up and fake it because we're afraid of approaching the Father the way He desperately wants us to: humbled, open, honest, vulnerable and as sinful selves.

Man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. You can't hide from God. And that isn't news that Fox News or CNN broke.

What is really interesting and really amazing and really impossible to grasp is this: Whether it is Jacob's lying, deceiving or conning or our very own, God still makes promises and reaffirms His love for us.

What does that say about His character and the relationship He seeks with us?

-NW

hometown hero

Pick a hero, it can be anyone. It can be an athelete. Teacher. Firefighter. Politician. Musician. Humanitarian. Youth Pastor. Parent. Sibling. Relative. What do they have in common?

They all come from somewhere.

Still thinking of that hero? Where are they from? If you go there, there is probably a statue or a road named after them. Maybe a museum or library in their honor. Some have sandwiches that carry their name. Others of less popularity have toilets that carry on their identity.

Jesus whas a hero. (No, duh, Nate. Did you really pay for that education?) No, he was. In John, you read about how He goes home and gets received by His fans. But not because of who He is--but because of what He did. Every hero is the same way. They aren't given hero status because of who they are, but what their accomplishment was.

It all started when Jesus simply talked to a Samaritan woman. It was like a Yankee fan eating with a Red Sox fan. Republican and Democrat. Paula Adbul and Simon Cowell. Jon and Kate.

Jesus broke the rules. And His hometown loved Him for it. And eventually killed Him because of it. They hated Him for it. It required them to give up their traditions and routines of a holier than thou attitude and simply, come.

What He taught and how He lived was so radical, so extreme, so crazy that it actually made sense: love.

Where people drew lines, He drew circles. He did the unimaginable and simply befriended the people who were not born of the Jewish heritage which makes Him--GASP--a hero.

So what does that make us?

-NW

fresh start

It is an argument that has been around for years: If God is so loving then why does He send people to hell?

Our persepective is completely off course.

We are too focused on how loving God is that we forget how just He really is. So we build a case against God and make ourselves believe that God is just too good and loving to send anyone to hell. We rule out His justice nonsense because it's more convenient that way. But it's impossible to remove one without the other. I invite you to look at Genesis.

God is fed up with His creation, so He flushes it down the toilet with a flood. That is God being just.

God, at the last minute, scoops down and saves Noah from the drain and uses him to start over. That is God being love.

Not long after, God irritably laughs at the people when they try and build a tower to Him and knocks them over and changes their languages. That is God being just.

The new nations are in serious need of the Rosetta Stone but are allowed by God to start over. That is God being love.

When God wipes the slate clean and gives us a frest start, we tend to think it's God just being love but in the end it's just God being....God.

-NW

the doggy in the window

I only know one line from the song and it's "How much is that doggy in the window? I do hope that doggy is for sale."

I can envision a child walking past the pet store and seeing the puppy all chaotic and energetic with tail wagging like a wiper blade. He is leaving paw prints all over the window and letting the window fog up from its breath. The child, so captured by the puppy's cuteness, excitement and emotional connection, starts begging to be the new owner of the pup.

This must be what Enoch felt. In Genesis, we say hello and goodbye to Enoch practically in one verse. It says "Enoch walked steadily with God. And then one day he was simply gone: God took him."

I can imagine Enoch playing the role of the puppy and God the role of the child and God was so amazed and impressed with just the sight of Enoch, let alone the consistency, that God just flat out took him out of the window called Earth and became a proud new owner of another committed follower.

I ask you to look at your life and consider how much it cost God to purchase it through His Son, Jesus.

Did He get a bargain in you like He did in Enoch? Or did He overpay?

-NW

the merry-go-round

So goes the merry-go-round, so goes life.

It is the endless routine of going in circles and it always costs a quarter each turn.

Whether you're riding a horse, fish, zebra ostrich or any other exotic animal, the journey is the same. One complacent, predictable future of left-hand turns.

It is the same each day. Doesn't matter which day of the week or month of the year. The variables like temperature, holidays and weather all change. But the end result? All left-hand turns.

When you finish a grade in school, there is another one waiting for you a couple of months later. When you graduate, there is another 4 years of school preparing for your arrival. When all of your hard work adds up to a degree, there is more hard work already waiting for you in an office called a 'career.'

Maybe that is what the Ecclesiastes author wrote "chasing the wind." Maybe he should have just written, "life is like riding a merry-go-round."

If this is true then I'm amuzed at our amuzement park dilemma. Why do we live out our lives riding the merry-go-round waiting desperately to get off but then feel the regret, sorrow and emptiness of a missed opportunity when we feel our bolted down exotic animal coming to a stand still?

-NW

throwing the dart

You've been given a dart. You are staring at the dartboard aiming for the bullseye. You throw. Miss.

Life is like that and seldom we hit our target. And most times when we do we do it blindly or just out of sheer coincidence. It isn't based on what we actually do.

But what if we could have the best of both worlds. We actually had the ability to throw the dart properly and, at the same time, hit the bullseye everytime?

That is what God promises when we give our dart to Him to throw however He pleases. But what scares us most is we act like we just gave our dart to a little 4 year old and we can just forsee them poking their eye out with it.

Why do we treat God like a 4 year old? He created the dart and the bullseye. Surely He can handle both.

I'll tell you why. Because we want to be the one who threw it when we hit it.

Which leads us to the question: Who really threw the dart?

Was it the person who held the dart or the One who held the dart thrower?

-NW

Death and Life

Why did we wait for Michael Jackson's death to celebrate his life?

This has been the question on my mind for the last 32 hours. Since news of his heart attack, coma and death, he has been the center of every conversation, his songs have dominated the airwaves and he has been a hot seller on iTunes. With as much coverage going on about him, those stuck in the 80's have no reason to think otherwise.

But before 3pm yesterday, Jackson was forgotten about. No one cared about what we was doing or eating for breakfast or what his nose would look like next year. And then he died and he made twitter and wikipedia crash.

Wow. How honored he must feel. "Thanks for playing my songs again and talking about me every minute of the day after I'm gone."

It's like when you're at a party and you leave and everyone starts talking about what you were wearing and the bad jokes you told.

Sure Michael Jackson was an icon, a legend, the real american idol. He transformed the music industry and made a lot of money doing it. He paved the way for a lot of artists. And by all means, we should celebrate his achievements.

Let me throw in a what if.

What if Christians did the same with Christ?

What if we put His name at the beginning and end of every sentence that flows from our lips? What if we sung praises about Him every minute of the day?
What if we spoke of His greatness to those around us?
What if we talked about His death and coming back from the dead like it happened YESTERDAY!

You might be thinking, "Nate, you're comparing Jesus and Michael Jackson?"

MJ would be so lucky.

The King of Pop died leaving us wondering if he had anymore to give.
The King of Kings died leadving us wondering how He could give us life and life to the full.

That is the true thriller.

Starved and Thirsty

I sit here completely full, 100% satisfied. Every hunger pain removed. Every parched part of my tongue saturated with moisture.

I ate at Bucco de beppo tonight. For those of you who are familiar, let me indulge. It's an Italian restaurant served family style. That's right, perfect portions for hobbits and youth pastors alike.

A swimming pool sized bowl of salad, a 12-inch loaf of bread, another swimming pool-sized bowl of pasta so big Michael Phelps couldn't finish 1 lap. Another Pacific Ocean-sized bowl of spaghetti, a sheetrock-sized slab of pizza and dessert to follow.......all for one table.

And then it hit me. No, not that. That most likely won't hit me until sometime tomorrow when it all digests. Something else hit me: Christians to the exact, stinkin' thing.

We eat and we hoard and we stuff and we claim and we dig in and we chew and we bite and we swallow and repeat. We do it with the Word of God. We do it with the forgiveness of God, the grace of God, the love of God, the Salvation of Jesus Christ.

We fill ourselves so much of that truth that we are lying to the world around us.

The message we preach is Jesus Christ is what I need. Get your own plate! If you're lucky, I'll give you some crumbs.

We abnoxiously and selfishly translate Christ's mission when He says, "I have come so that you may have life and have it UNTIL YOU ARE FULL." (JOHN 10:10 WORTHY VERSION)

No.

Jesus was talking about sheep. He is the gate. The sheep enter the pen through the gate: Christ. And Isaiah 53:6 draws this problem: "We all, like sheep, have gone astray." (NIV)

Since we're all sheep, none of us better than the other, I suppose God wants to save us and then help others find the way. He wants to feed us and then help those around us locate the food too!

TO ALL CHRISTIANS, STOP STUFFING YOURSELF AND START SERVING OTHERS!

-NW

Behind The Counter

I took my wife out to Olive Garden tonight to celebrate our 6-month anniversary. We were waiting to be seated and we saw a kid who was most likely 15 or so standing behind the hostess and her counter. I thought about how abnoxious that is and how I would react had I been the host with some 15 year old hovering over my workspace like it was "bring your little brother to work day."

Three hours later, I suppose that is what God must feel like sometimes. As sinners, we really have no business being anywhere near God, let alone in His presence at church or later on, in His own Kingdom. Yet He works in us, around us and, amazingly, through us as if He doesn't even mind. His patience, love, grace, tenderness and acceptance of us overpowers any human feelings we would have to strangle the person.

We shouldn't be behind the counter. But God still invites us to come over and take a look from His point of view.

-NW