Floating Axhead

Back in March Scott Williams asked whether secular music had a place in the church or not. Responses ranged from those with no problem using secular music in church to those who believed that only “Christian” music should be allowed.

Yet a lot of mainstream groups have spiritual meaning in their songs, whether or not the intent was to glorify God.

This morning I was listening to an old Linkin Park CD and these words really spoke to me like never before:

I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real
I wanna let go of the pain I’ve held so long
(Erase all the pain till it’s gone)

I wanna heal, I wanna feel like I’m close to something real
I wanna find something I’ve wanted all along
Somewhere I belong

There are a lot of people standing at our church doors singing the same song. Maybe we could learn a thing or two by listening.

I read a pretty good article on flirting on a blog at Psychology Today…sometimes the worldly, secular stuff resonates just as much truth because it’s not wrapped in the Kumbaya stuff.

Here are some of my favorite parts about flirting …

• Flirting creates a relaxing, calm, and enjoyable atmosphere
• It is a subtle and enjoyable flattery that is closer to praise than to a lie
• An activity that should be harmless and not lead to anything
• Caring for others-by listening to and showing interest in them-while not taking them too seriously
• Honesty together with an element of innocence, as well as a mild level of deception
• It is a kind of game in which participants move closer to the borderline-and sometimes even step across it-and then move back to a comfortable distance from it
• “We flirted with and seeked each other constantly, until one day we realized we were not just playing anymore”
• Typical flirting offers participants an enjoyable, frivolous form of sexual communication with no serious intent; however, often flirting is not restricted to such harmless communication and leads to a sexual relationship
• Flirting also involves the mystery and uncertainty associated with sex
• It’s teasing, playing, innuendos-it’s about making someone feel special, it’s about being attentive, it’s about walking on the edge of danger & getting caught
• When people enjoy flirting for its own sake, it may be commendable
• Thus, flirting may help to reduce loneliness and boost one’s ego and self-confidence
• One survey has found that most working-women believe that flirting is good for their health and confidence. Indeed, three out of four of them have flirted with a colleague, while 28 percent have had a sexual relationship with a fellow-worker. Some findings indicate that flirting at the workplace makes people more comfortable around each other
• The distinction between online sex and flirting is not clear-cut, and the two activities often overlap
• People are attractive when they are relaxed, feeling good, and enjoying themselves
• At first it was just a nice friendly chat

I don’t see anything regarding flirting from a place of faith…hmmm.

Anyway, is flirting healthy? Does it help our self esteem to be flirted with and to flirt, and does it strengthen marriages…or is it irrelevant to our marriages…no effect.

Many of these characteristics sound like the people doing church…pastors and attenders. But more importantly, are you flirting with God or are you committed to him?

Read this recently…

“I believe that each of us has a rubber band with one end attached to our backside and the other nailed firmly to the wall of tradition. Even when we want to change, and do change, we tend to relax and the rubber band snaps back into our comfort zones.”

Think about it in terms of losing weight. Once you shed a few pounds you think you can relax - maybe even celebrate by eating pizza and ice cream. Before you know it, the rubber band has snapped you right back where you began.

The same thing happens with our faith.

Maybe your a new Christian and once the excitement wears off you snap right back to your comfort zone. Changing your life is too difficult.

Or maybe you read a great book or heard a speaker who motivates you to change. You start off with great intentions, but before you know it - SNAP, and you are right back where you were.

Here is the challenge. We need to be so open to changing our lives that the elasticity of the rubber band is stretched too far to return its power to pull us back to our comfort zone.

I recently read Neil Anderson write that to cover up anything is to walk in darkness. We wonder why we struggle with sin and the enemy…because we walk on the edge of darkness…we don’t think we’re really there but yet we conceal…we mask…we choose not to disclose…(Acts 24:16).

And this is not just to our spouse or our friends…this is also to God. Even though all this is laid bare before his eyes (Hebrews 4:13)…we just let it go…pretend it doesn’t exist.

Anderson also stated that the Greek word for confess (homologeo) means to agree…to agree with God. To agree that he is right and we’re not…not to just be sorry…sorry I got caught or sorry your feelings are hurt or sorry you took it that way…no, it is to agree we sinned.

It’s difficult to live forgiven when we haven’t even agreed that we need to be…

I flew over the Colorado River twice last week. From 20,000 feet you can really see the impact this river has had on an entire region.

The 1,450 mile long river starts in the Rocky Mountains and flows into the Gulf of California (at least it used to, before the water was diverted for irrigation purposes).

The landscape of the Colorado River is drastically different than that outside of the river basin. Deep and winding canyons, visible from space, dot the landscape for hundreds of miles.

The journey of the Colorado changed the course of history.

Revelation 22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.

I reflected on my own journey…

As God looks down, does he see my journey as having an impact on those around me? Have I changed the landscape around me or have I allowed it to change me?

I hope that one day God looks down and sees deep and winding canyons flowing for miles and impacting everything in my way…

Now this is not a boxer or briefs kind of post even though I’m a butt man, and a great basement or balcony always adds to the appreciation of the house.

I know I think I married about the perfect booty.

No this is serious…Anne Jackson recently had a post on boobs…more here.…and it got me thinking about all the men (and women) who struggle with lust. In this culture of less is more and many women trying to fit a misses body into a junior cut…is there a responsibility to others?

1 Corinthians 8:9…Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak.

I’m curious…don’t raise a cup to a brother’s lips or boobs to his eyes…

Do women…and men in certain situations, need to be more aware of others and their struggles or should men specifically, just be more disciplined in looking away…I mean you can’t control what walks in front of you but we can control at what we take a second look…second looks are usually of the lustful variety…thirds are definitive.

So who’s the heavy here…the “wear something different” or the “suck it up and don’t look then”?

A friend of mine, Vince, has a rule…whenever someone asks him for money he empties his wallet - no questions asked. 

Historically I have been one to quickly judge people. No compassion, just criticism. Giving my hard earned money (there is the problem - thinking that it’s my money) away to people who might use it unwisely was a difficult proposition for me. But I did it.

So you’re thinking… How much has this cost you?  Not much. Outside of giving one guy in Tulsa, OK $61 it hasn’t really had any monetary impact. 

Until this week. I’ve been in San Francisco for the last five days. Unlike home, where I might have one or two opportunities per week, here there are five or six opportunities an hour.

Within a fifteen minute time frame last night I was approached by a woman who was pregnant, a man suffering with AIDS, a guy who needed food for his dog, and one guy who was blatantly honest is wanting to pay for a prostitute.

However good I felt about helping those at home, I have been reminded this week that there is still much to be done.

It often only takes one person with a God-placed desire for other people to change the world, and age is irrelevant…well maybe not. Maybe the young identify more with a 13-year old Jesus teaching in the temple.

What if we follow this young lady’s example…can we start a food bank and feed the hungry…can we clothe those in need…can we adopt the parentless.

What is your desire to change the world?

(Denver, Colorado)—One day when Kristi Burton was 13-years-old and nursing a cold at home, she read a book on community service while watching the 2000 elections on television. “It just came to me,” said Burton, of the out-of-the-blue call to defend the unborn that day. “I prayed about it and knew God was calling me to do it.” (Photo: Nathan W. Armes/The Denver Post )

Now 20, Burton is the leader of a Colorado “personhood” ballot initiative to define a constitutionally protected person as “any human being from the moment of fertilization.”

According to a report in the Denver Post, Burton thinks the organization she started with her family, Colorado for Equal Rights, is close to having the 76,000 voter signatures needed by May 13 to trigger a statewide vote on a constitutional amendment.

Keith Mason, a founder of Michigan Citizens for Life, said: “In Colorado, we’re a small grassroots campaign started by a 19-year- old. I relish that. Kristi is exactly what we needed. She is a breath of fresh air. She has a pure heart. Her quiet demeanor wins people over.”

Burton acknowledges that her up-bringing (she was home-schooled) had a great deal to do with her passion for the unborn. “My mom had a broader, more compassionate perspective on how people make the decision to have an abortion,” she said. “It’s not just about the child, she’d say. It’s about the mother, too.”

“She’s an incredible leader for her young age,” said Judie Brown of the Virginia-based American Life League. “It took one person to get the campaign started in Colorado. I was surprised but gratified by her age.”

Years ago my wife and I decided to try our hand in a row boat.

There are certain situations that a husband should never put themselves in because it’s going to get ugly - and unless you know what you are doing, attempting to row across a lake is probably one of those situations.

It took us well over an hour to navigate a 20 minute tour through a botanical garden.  We were stuck on numerous occassions. There was screaming and at one point I am pretty sure there was crying. 

It was unchartered territory for us. Because we didn’t work together, each of us was operating independently of one another, which actually made it more difficult.

Isn’t that the way it’s working in many churches today? We’re all in the boat, but instead of working together we work against each another.

Or maybe its worse….everyone else in the boat is sitting back and letting the Pastor or other leaders row the boat.

Imagine how much easier our journey would be if we all picked up an oar and rowed together.

The term fundamentalist gets a bad wrap…there are different kinds…religious, political, science and Christian. Inside the Christian sect there are even Bible fundamentalists who believe following the Bible brings them closer to God.

But according to Jesus, the Bible is a narrative that tells us to follow the gospel. So following the Bible isn’t enough…He said we must use the Bible to point us to him, an then follow his teaching and example.

“You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life.

In an attempt to follow the Bible, some fundamentalists fail to follow Jesus, so I think it is clear…allow his example to interpret the Bible for us.

Be a Jesus fundamentalist…