long awaiting

cyndi and i have not been on a legitimate vacation since our honeymoon in May of 2002, so this next week is something we have been long awaiting.

we're taking the family down to Daytona Beach in Florida and we're going to just sit on the beach for a week. i won't be answering my phone or email. i may twitter, but i won't be communicating with anyone else but my family.

some of you know this isn't going to be easy completely. i like being connected. i like talking to people and texting and twittering and all that. but my family needs my undivided attention more. i'm reading a book called "The Rest of God" by Mark Buchanan about sabbath. not many people celebrate sabbath.

i used the word celebrate intentionally. often sabbath is something 'observed' and sometimes begrudgingly. we celebrate at church and birthdays and weddings, but in rest, we often feel like we are just waiting for the rest to be over. that isn't rest. that isn't sabbath.

i am going to attempt sabbath in this next week. rest from work, and hopefully experience the rest of my family.

sabbath was made for man, not the other way around. it isn't supposed to be a legalistic weight of waiting. it is supposed to be a coronation of the deepness of God meeting with the shallowness of our own hearts. without it, we waste away. with it we learn that we truly are wasting nothing in resting.

a friend of mine once told me that God can do more with six days than we can do with seven.

i'm hoping to continue a consistent celebration of sabbath even after our long awaited vacation has ended. i encourage you to seek out sabbath and if you feel unable, ask God to show you his rest and how you can get to a place of consistent sabbath and finding the rest of God.

new and unmoved

this sunday marked the beginning of a new chapter in the life of The Vine, we moved into our new facility and held our first services at a new address. everything was new! okay, not everything...it was the same worship band and pastors and sound board and offering baskets and etc. etc....

pastor david made some incredible observations about progress and moving forward and you can go listen to his first sermon in the new facility here.

lately i've been reading a lot of the old testament, and have been taking in all the times the temple and city of jerusalem was destroyed and rebuilt and destroyed and rebuilt...or built in the first place for that matter.

God has always been clear about one thing, from the days of a moving tent (the israelites were the first mobile church) to the days of solomon's great temple...God's home is not in a tent or a building and cannot be restrained to a location or contained in one place.

neither is God a destination. we are on and in a journey "toward" God, but God is not "somewhere". God is here. God is there. God is everywhere. so we may move, but God remains unmoved. God was just as much in the last location as in the new location.

we are continually beginning and entering newness, but nothing is new to God. God is not new; God is not old...God is.

so what we are doing now, is new, but God is unmoved.

what we know for sure is God is seeking those that will worship Him in spirit and in truth...and without getting into what that means, because i've heard 10 differing interpretations on that, what is clear is that spirit and truth has nothing to do with location and everything to do with state of being.

bigger and newer things can make you think you have arrived or that you can relax and sit back... but i know this about myself; i don't need a big new building or anything else that would give the sense of 'arriving' to lull me into complacency...i will do that all on my own.

and then is when i choose... be present with God or be present in a place. be aware of the movement of Jesus and the Spirit all around me, or think about the next thing i have to do.

though God is unmoved, we are being called to be moved. though the world continually pushes and prods for the new and improved, i want to see the new and unmoved.

no limit dippin'

see that sauce in the middle? did you know if you want extra Zax Sauce at Zaxby's it costs $.25? can you think of another fast food joint that charges for dipping sauce?

think about Arby's or Chick-fil-A or McDonald's or any of the many restaurants that have a slew of dipping sauces. not one of them charges for extra sauce. as a matter of fact, many of them have keg like dispensers of their signature sauces. no limit dipping.

i wonder how many customers Zaxby's has lost because their sauce costs extra if they want more than one, or if they'd like some sauce for a meal that didn't include any already? it may seem incidental, but people can be fickle. i wonder what you think? should it be free like so many of the others?

i of course apply all these little things i notice to the church. what is the church's "signature sauce"? is it something that should be free? or should it cost something?

oh! like grace maybe? or maybe something else? what do you think?

i remember when i was a kid and i'd go to Arby's. i would take my sandwich over to the Arby's sauce pump and literally drown my sandwich in sauce. i really can't recall the taste of the roast beef even, only the sauce. how much money would Arby's save by charging for anything over half an ounce? would they lose that in additional sales lost due to their sauce snobbery?

so again, what is the church's signature sauce and do we or should we hand it out freely, even if used in excess, or should it be rationed?

choose your battles...

I read something interesting about Conflict in 2 Chronicles yesterday. I had never noticed this before.

Josiah was a great king. He rid the nation of foreign Gods like no other had, celebrated Passover in a way no other king had, but at the end of his reign he died because of an avoidable battle.

He didn't know the difference between his battle and "a" battle. He takes his army out to meet King Neco, who is on his way to fight an unnamed enemy. King Neco tells Josiah not to get involved because God is for him and Josiah would lose.

Then the bible says something strange, it says King Neco was right. God was with this king from Egypt. But Josiah disguises himself and they battle anyway and Josiah is killed with a random arrow.

I started wondering why he fought. Was it an old grudge against Egypt? Was King Neco on his way to battle one of Josiah's friends? We're not really told.

What we are told is King Josiah died pointlessly in a battle that wasn't his business and ended up fighting against the God he loved and served more faithfully than most of the kings in Jerusalem.

Because he didn't know the difference between his battle and "a" battle, he died.

It is particularly sad to read what happens to his people and his country in the following few months and years because of his death. This is an important lesson for me and think its worth asking the question to you....

What battles are you fighting? Any chance you're actually fighting against God?

I get the sneaking suspicion Josiah thought God could never be with or for a King from Egypt...and sometimes we may be convinced God couldn't be in or for or with this or that or the other, and we open our mouth and disagree before seeking God to make sure we aren't really fighting him in the name of fighting "a" battle.