Posts Tagged ‘faith’

Be the LEAF!!

Posted: January 4, 2015 in fizzy faith
Tags: , , , , ,
1

My big stage debut was in a first grade play. It was a sweeping musical production about changing seasons.

I was a leaf.
It was not a speaking part.
I was a leaf.
That’s not as glamorous as a snowflake, that role went to the more graceful kids, it seems that snowflakes have to be graceful and coordinated.
Leaves do not.
I was a leaf.
It was pretty easy. I got to jump/fall out of the tree, that was the fun part.
But, then I got raked around on stage by the farmer (played by my overall clad friend, Terry Shipman).
My stage direction was pretty clear…fall and flop.
It was really the perfect role for me. It didn’t require any coordination or memorization.
I fell down…
I rolled around…
I nailed it!!
I WAS a leaf!

Since first grade I’ve learned a few things about leaves.
It turns out there is a CIRCLE of LEAF.
it looks something like this…
1. Leaves are produced by the tree.
2. Leaves are attached to the tree and live out on the limb.
3. Leaves give shade.
4. Leaves give life – they produce oxygen.
5. Leaves experience seasons. Each new season brings new expressions of beauty.
6. Leaves fall from the tree and die.
7. They get trampled on and become mulch (which is a very ugly word that sounds like an ugly sound effect)

That, my friends, is the CIRCLE of LEAF. That is the inevitable life span of a leaf. It is just the way it is…the way it has always been. Leaves live, die and become mulch.
The secret to their life is their attachment to the tree.

BUT…HOLD ON…WAIT A MINUTE…what if there was a little rebel leaf?
Imagine a little rebel leaf, who decided he really didn’t like the way it is…the way it has always been. He decided to change the CIRCLE of LEAF. he didn’t have a problem with items 1 through 5, but he hated items 6 and 7, the whole dying and mulching thing.
So he decided, “NO…I’m not gonna fall…I’m not gonna be mulch…HECK NO, I WON’T GO!!!…I’m not leaving (or LEAFING…HAR!) I’m staying! I’m clinging to this tree. If I leave the tree I will die. I will not die.”
The little rebel leaf breaks the CIRCLE of LEAF.

What does that have to do with us?
I think Jesus has invited us to be the rebel leaf.
Break the CIRCLE of LIFE.

Look at what he tells us…
“Abide in Me, and I will abide in you. A branch cannot bear fruit if it is disconnected from the vine, and neither will you if you are not connected to Me. I am the vine, and you are the branches. If you abide in Me and I in you, you will bear great fruit. Without Me, you will accomplish nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is like a branch that is tossed out and shrivels up and is later gathered to be tossed into the fire to burn. ” – John 15:4-6

Life…real life comes from abiding…from rebelling against going with the flow.
It comes from clinging to the tree and refusing to let go.
Stay attached…be the rebel leaf.
We are meant to live out on the limb.
We are meant to give soul shade and life.
We are meant to go through seasons, each with glorious new expressions of beauty.
We don’t have to become mulch.
We need to refuse to leave the tree.
Hang on for dear life…literally!
How do we break the CIRCLE of LEAF?

“If anyone is united with the Anointed One, that person is a new creation. The old life is gone – and see – a new life has begun!” – 2 Corinthians 5:17

Life…new life…quality life is all about getting attached to the Anointed One and leaning in.
Rebel against the old by becoming the new!
Find yourself by losing yourself in the tree…in the life of the one who beat death.
The rebel leaf…the new creation has broke the CIRCLE of LIFE by discovering new life!
Be the leaf…
Be the rebel leaf.

Let’s get dirty!

Posted: January 2, 2015 in fizzy faith
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

Recently we went to a race at a dirt track, it was awesome!! We were surrounded by some really fun people…lots of mullets and muscle shirts. We watched the cars slide around the track. As they did they kicked up ALOT of dirt. It got in our eyes and teeth, we were covered in it. It was seriously dirty fun!

There is an undeniable magic in dirt. It attracts us. We cultivate it and plant seeds in it…it gives us food. We dig in it. As kids we want to play in it. We make mud and sculpt it into wonderful things. I don’t think it’s accidental that we like to play in the dirt. Genesis 2:7 says “One day the Eternal God scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human, breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul.”
It turns out that God loves working with dirt.
The most common ingredient combined with the breath of God creates…
Art…
Wonder…
Soul…
US!

This is really good news because sometimes my efforts look like dirt.
Dirt happens…
God breathes…
LIFE is created!

The breath of God changes everything!
Give Him your dirt.

He breathes life into the dirt of our life…
Into the common.
He makes beautiful things out of dust.

taste and see that the Lord is FIZZY.

Posted: December 29, 2014 in fizzy faith
Tags: , , , , , , , ,
1

The last few years have introduced a trend that is both cool and kind of creepy. Some celebrities are making a comeback…sort of. We are hearing from entertainers that have…well…um…died. It’s nothing supernatural. It’s all technical. We have seen
holograms of Michael Jackson, Tupac, Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. All captured in their prime – dancing, singing, rapping, doing their thing again…in spite of the fact that they have actually left the building.
It looks pretty real. But, it’s just a little fuzzy.
It got me thinking, what if the Christian subculture capitalized on this? Someone could create a hologram of Rich Mullins or Keith Green. Can you imagine? It would be HUGE!!! There could be a big comeback tour probably sponsored by K-LOVE or Chick-Fil-A. They could fire up the magic hologram machine and sell lots of tickets. The hordes would sing along with the familiar songs, people would cry and talk about recapturing something that the modern church has lost. I would go! I loved both of those guys and their music was a very special part of my journey. It is a great memory! I’ve seen both of them in person, I remember them. But it’s been a while, so it might seem kind of fuzzy.
That’s the funny thing about memories…they get fuzzy. We forget that the past wasn’t perfect. We start thinking that the past was better than the present and less scary than the future.
We are constantly trying to recapture something that once was and we end up with fuzz.
Instead of recapturing something that once was, let’s contend for something that never has been.
It seems like God is up for it…
In Matthew 9:17 Jesus put it like this, “And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. For the old skins would burst from the pressure, spilling the wine and ruining the skins. New wine is stored in new wineskins so that both are preserved.”
New wine has fizz…not fuzz. That seems like our choice…fuzzy or fizzy.
Live in the past, everything is safe and really familiar yet a little FUZZY.
Live in the moment and taste and see that the Lord is FIZZY.
Live for a memory or live for a movement.
Don’t recapture fuzz when you can discover fizz.
Jesus is not a hologram. He is alive and real.
Jesus, whose first miracle was turning water into new wine, wants to pour out new wine into our lives and gatherings.
He wants to bring the fizz!
Let’s pop a cork.

Misfits and Magi.

Posted: December 23, 2014 in fizzy faith
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
0

The cast of the Christmas story are a pretty diverse group, everything from farm animals to angelic host. There were even bedazzled mysterious Wise men. They were Influential men of means. They were dignified and they brought gifts! They were important enough that they got the attention of King Herod. They were VIPs, so it’s really not a surprise that these blinged out star gazers got invited to the first Christmas party. But they weren’t the first to get invited or show up. In fact, the wise men were fashionably late to the party. They didn’t meet sweet little baby Jesus in a manger. They, probably, showed up after a year or two after the Nativity and met sweet little TODDLER Jesus. That is just proof that when God shows up the party can go on for a while!

The first to get an invite were…brace yourself… a bunch of smelly sheep herders!

WHAAA? What will the neighbors think?!

Shepherds were the first to hear about the Savior!

Shepherds were burly, socially awkward outsiders.

They lived their lives like gypsies or carnival workers.

They sure didn’t get invited to parties!

They were the overlooked and overworked. They were the minimum wage workers who did the dirty work.

They lived on the fringes…with sheep. (Have you ever smelled a sheep? It’s nasty. Ever tried to carry on a conversation with sheep? It’s awkward.)

The shepherds never got invited to parties. They were never welcome at big, important events.

They would screw things up. They would do or say the wrong thing. They smelled like sheep. They were a walking talking social faux pas. They were simply not welcome.

YET…these are the first ones to get the message from heaven

The Savior is here…there is reason to celebrate…AND…

YOU ARE INVITED.

This was probably the first party they got invited to.

The BIGGEST news of ALL time was delivered for the FIRST time…in a pasture!

The BIG news was not delivered to BIG people, not the high and mighty, politically powerful, rich and famous…it was delivered to the disenfranchised…the last and the least.

Then it filtered its way UP…God is backwards like that!

I think inviting the shepherds was God’s way of thumbing His nose at man-made social rules and expectations.

“For God so loved the WORLD.”

that seems pretty clear.

The kingdom is for shepherds and wise men, homecoming queens and wallflowers, freaks and geeks, insiders and outsiders, rebels and rogues, the popular and the polarized….

“Every kindred, every tribe on this terrestrial ball”.

It’s for pretty much EVERYbody. You AND that guy that you don’t agree with.

The Kingdom of God is wide open.

The velvet rope has been torn down, trampled on and thrown out.

It’s a party for you, me and that guy over there…

The Savior is here…there is reason to celebrate…AND…

YOU ARE INVITED.

Don’t miss it!

The rebel alliance…

Posted: November 30, 2014 in fizzy faith
Tags: , , , ,
0

I was in 7th grade when my life was changed forever!

It was at the Crown theater in beautiful downtown Collinsville, OK.
The Crown theater was a little one screen movie house (yes kids, once upon a time we got a choice of ONE movie, instead of sixteen) the theater was dark, dingy and it smelled unnaturally nasty (it was a lovely combination of mildew and old popcorn). the floor was always sticky (from years of accumulated dropped milk duds), and the seats made loud screeching noises every time you moved. But it was in that funky old theater that something truly magical happened…
I saw Star Wars for the first time.
The Opening scene took my breath away and captured my imagination.
It was like nothing i had ever seen….star destroyers & amazing music! I was transported to a place, “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….”
I was hooked! I was destined to be a star wars nerd forever.
I Collected action figures, trading cards and stickers.i had a R2D2 lunch box. I made homemade light sabers out of old toilet paper rolls and duct tape. I still have toys in my office & an impressive collection of Star Wars shirts.

Star Wars changed my life in other ways. it made me proud of my name…Up until that point, I had been the only Luke I ever knew. It wasn’t a super popular name. I got called Luke the Puke a lot ( yeah, I know, REAL original!!) but, suddenly people were calling me Luke Skywalker ( much cooler than a nickname involving vomit).

It Changed everything!!

That was the first movie which, as it turned out, was really the fourth movie. at first it was just “star wars” then it became “star wars…a new hope”

It changed everything!!

I wanted to be a Jedi…a mysterious warrior…a freedom fighter…a card carrying member of the rebel alliance.

It tapped into something deep within my soul, I wanted to fight injustice and evil though out the galaxy.

Turns out those cravings to do something stellar are not accidental.

I have been called upon to be a freedom fighter, to join a rebel alliance that offers a new hope!

I am a Jedi…for Jesus.

We can live as Jedis for Jesus, but we gotta let Him be our Master. In order to experience everything he has for us, we need to join the rebel alliance!

Rebel against the world…rebel against the norm…rebel against average…rebel against selfishness.

Jesus was not a skywalker, but He was a waterwalker and someday He will be a skycracker.

and He started a rebellion! He Turned everything upside down…which actually made it right side up!!!

Jesus changed everything!!

He wasn’t the kind of God that anybody expected, but he WAS the God who everybody needed.

He hung out with all the wrong people. he didn’t worry about what anybody thought. He didn’t play by the rules.
He introduced a Radical new way of loving people and doing things.

He created a rebel alliance…
An alliance for anybody who is sick of the world and media telling you what to do, how to dress, how to be a winner…c’mon rebel!
An alliance for anybody who is sick of a luke warm, wimpy version of Christianity…c’mon rebel!
An alliance for anybody who is Sick of normal, appropriate or average…c’mon rebel!
An alliance for anybody who is sick of a faith that is more about behaving than following Jesus…c’mon rebel!
An alliance for anybody who is Sick of seeing injustice, watching people hurt…c’mon rebel!
Rise above…grab ahold of something exciting and UNnormal!

There was a Luke in the Bible too. He wrote two really cool books:
the Gospel according to Luke, which tells the story of everything that Jesus began to do and teach. The birth of the rebellion…a new hope for mankind.
Then he wrote the sequel…the empire strikes back otherwise known as The book of Acts. It tells the story of the mission of Jesus carrying on thru his rebel alliance.

We dont meet one of my favorite characters until the second movie…YODA!!!

We dont meet one of the main characters in the rebel alliance until the second book…Paul.
Paul went from trying to destroy the rebellion to being a leader of the rebel alliance. He went from the dark side to the light side. He was a hardcore jedi for Jesus.

He was the Obi Wan of the early church! He had several padawans, one of them was a dude named Silas (Silas Skywalker?), everywhere they went they made some noise, they got a reputation.

Acts 16:20: “The whole city is in an uproar because of these Jews!” they shouted to the city officials.”

Acts 17:6: “…Paul and Silas have caused trouble all over the world,” they shouted, “and now they are here disturbing our city, too.”

Everywhere they went they stirred things up! They were rebels!

The church was never meant to be a clone army,
It’s a rebel alliance of beautifully unique scoundrels.

The Rebel alliance is for people who are:
* Intensely passionate for God.
* Believe that they are here to love people by any means necessary!
* Respond to evil with good and to hate with love…that’s how you start a real revolution!!!
* Have a fire in their eyes and in their gut
* Have a nothing is impossible mind set
* Believe that Jesus is not meek and mild, he is mighty and wild!

There is No age limit…membership is all about hunger and passion…Courage and compassion.
The Rebel alliance is not safe…you gotta be willing to risk it all for the cause!
You gotta be crazy enough to turn the world upside down.
Don’t let anything hold you back!!!
Members of the rebel alliance destroy the death stars in their life…fear, unforgiveness, insecurity, conformity, mediocrity.
Members of the rebel alliance have heard God say “I am your father” and it has changed everything!!

They have rebelled against:
low living,
selfishness,
pride,
evil,
apathy

They use the force of the Holy Spirit and they have pledged allegiance to their true master…Jesus Christ.

Join up! Join the rebel alliance.

“I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you.” Ps. 51:13

Cue the dancing stormtroopers.

Posted: November 25, 2014 in fizzy faith
Tags: , , , ,
0

I’m wearing one of my favorite t shirts today.

It’s got a picture of stormtroopers dancing on a checker board floor under a mirrored ball.

I love this shirt because it combines my love for Star Wars and disco.

yes my friends, I said it…I love disco, I love the nightlife, I like to boogie on the disco floor. Don’t hate, when you should be dancing.

My happy little shirt does make me wonder…why would stormtroopers dance? They aren’t very nice guys, and guilty feet have got no rhythm, right?

Maybe…just maybe…these are renaissance stormtroopers, they would rather dance than destroy.

Maybe it’s a matter of not allowing their past actions and associations dictate their groove.

It’s a reminder to me, that life was designed to be more of a dance than a drudgery.

But the problem is some of us have lost the beat… We stopped dancing years ago… We lost the groove… We stand on the fringes, leaning against the wall, watching others dance. We hear the music but it just doesn’t move us like, perhaps, it once did.

What keeps us off the dance floor?

For some of us, it’s all about our carefully crafted reputation. we don’t want to take any risks. We are too cool for that. We are dignified. We are practical. We are entirely too grown up for that nonsense!

We don’t want to risk. but the dance of life, at its core, is a big risk.

The only safety dance is to avoid the dance floor all together. That eliminates all the risk, it also eliminates all the fun and adventure.

Sometimes we allow things to steal our groove.

We have danced a few forbidden dances and we think that has disqualified us to be on the dance floor. Don’t allow your past actions and associations to dictate your groove.

Clean off your dance shoes and get back out there.

Sometimes we think we couldn’t possibly dance because we haven’t mastered all the right moves. if we wait until we are perfect, we will miss the dance!

The truth is we all move a little differently (some more different than others).

We live in the land of a thousand dances, everybody has their own groove. It is the chaotic choreography of creativity.

Sometimes we’ve been dancing with the wrong partners.

We have to find the right partner…the Originator of rhythm and every other good thing , The Lord of the Dance. We need to let Him lead. He has given us the Spirit as our own personal dance instructor.

We need to learn to hear the right music. Sometimes we can’t dance because we’ve been listening to the wrong stuff. Some music was never meant to be danced to.

If something…anything has been stealing your groove, get rid of it! Shake it off!

Don’t be a wallflower when it comes to the big dance of life, hit the floor and bust a move.

Find YOUR groove and do a little happy dance.

Listen for the Spirit salsa…the rhythm is gonna getcha!

Cue the dancing stormtroopers.

Newer Entries