This is a video of Kerney Thomas who hosts a prayer TV program on the BET channel.  I’m sure this guys heart is made of gold, but I just can’t stop laughing!

Come on… admit it.  You want to be a ’smarty pants’.

Everybody does… well almost everybody.

You know how rewarding it is to ‘be in the know’. To have your facts straight. To come across like you have a solid handle on what you’re talking about. To be an expert on the subject… and to not get caught with the wrong answer - or even worse, without an answer at all!

People like to listen to those who have done their research and give out of their endless understanding.  Likewise, we have short patience for those who have a shallow reserve of wisdom, and put on a big show of smoke and mirrors to cover it up!

All in all, I really do believe that there is a desire inside of just about all of us to have a little (or a lot) of King Solomon’s wisdom at our disposal.  Answering questions.  Leading people through their issues. Solving the problems of the world.

Something else I see is this.  Our lives don’t have nearly as much evidence of such desires as we would like to think they do.

When was the last time we finished a good non-fiction book?  One that stretched us in our life and leadership for God.  How often do we break open the Word of God during the week and really dive in to His truth (not including Sundays)? Do we read the Bible with intentionality… meaning do we have a pointed focus of what we are studying and digging in to (as opposed to just closing our eyes, dropping the book on the floor and reading wherever it opens up)? Do we have any real-life mentors, that are further down the road than us, who are opening up our minds and spirits to new things?

These are just a few signs (of many) that would be evidence of a real desire to take hold of God’s true wisdom.

Proverbs 4:7 says: “Wisdom is supreme; therefore get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.”

Though it cost you ALL you have.  Wow.  I don’t think my life comes anywhere near to matching up to this statement.  I mean, if you really take this literally, I have a LONG way to go.

Maybe all it costs us now is the leftovers of what we have.

We give our time to so many other things (and many of them good things).  It seems that the pursuit of wisdom is forever stuck as the lower rung on the ladder of our priorities.  Below our jobs, our relationships, our rest, our recreation, our housework, our TV sets… you get the picture.

I wonder what would happen if we were really to pursue God’s wisdom with the tenacity laid out for us in the scriptures.

Proverbs 2 says we will discern the fear of the Lord.  It says we will discover the knowledge of God.  That wisdom will enter our heart.  That knowledge will be pleasant to our soul.  That discretion will guard us, and understanding will watch over us.

Even further, you see all throughout the Proverbs that wisdom (when saught after) will cause us to walk in our ways securely and be blessed beyond measure.

I don’t know about you, but all that and more makes me want to be a ’smarty pants’.  Yet, wanting is not enough.  Not for me.  Not for you.

WANTING must translate into GETTING.

Go get it.  It is yours for the taking…

JJ

OK, so I have been diving into this song lately, and it is just rocking me.  The Father’s love is so strong, and it really comes out during this worship video.  Enjoy!

JJ

Here is the video we created for our big Master’s Commission Graduation service earlier this month… themed “Moving Forward”.  It was a whole month’s worth of storyboarding, planning, shooting and editing - but was worth every moment!

JJ.

On the continued subject of plans… I have something further I want to share with you.

I’ve been reading this book (In a Pit With a Lion on a Snowy Day) that is challenging me to unlearn my fears, embrace uncertainty and be open to God-sized challenges.  I’m seeing that our most impossible situations can be opportunities for us to experience a whole new dimension of God’s destiny over our lives - IF we are willing to stop creating God in our image and let Him create us in HIS.  WOW… it really is a good read.

So here is an excerpt out of this book that I want to share with you on the subject of my previous post “Plans“.

“Here is one of the biggest mistakes many of us make in our relationship with God: We focus our energies on telling God exactly what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.  In fact, we repeat ourselves over and over again just to make sure God didn’t miss any of the important details.  But, what if, instead of spending all of our energy MAKING plans for God, we spent that energy SEEKING God?

Isn’t that what happened on the day of Pentecost?  The disciples didn’t have a plan.  They were clueless. But sometimes uncertainty forces us to pray like it depends on God.  And that is what the disciples did…“

After reading that, there really isn’t much to SAY about this… just much to meditate on for our own lives and situations.

JJ

Life is complicated… and it requires PLANS.

So today marks the beginning of a week off for me, and the morning began with some good old fashioned Bible reading. I remembered that it has been a long time since I’ve visited the Proverbs, and so I ordered my fingers to dance over to chapter 16 of that book (a long time habit to read the Proverb of whatever day of the month it actually is).

The verse that jumped off the page to me was #9, which reads: “The mind of man plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.“

Quite a timely read considering my family and I are in need of some heavenly plans to manifest in our lives quite soon now.

We are moving out of our house in 12 days. Carrie and the kids move up to Illinois in 13. My job at Victory will be wrapping up in a few weeks after that. There are countless decisions to be made about housing, insurance, immigration, vehicles, taxes, savings, schooling, children, etc that all hinge upon where we will be heading next in ministry.

Not a day goes by without one of our friends, family members or someone from the church asking us… ’so have you found a church yet?’

And not a day goes by without me wrestling through the answer of… ‘well, we’re still working on our plans and waiting for the LORD to reveal His.’

Do I ever hate I mean love these seasons of trust and waiting for the plans of God to unfold.

I read the verse again, and it appears to me that there is some kind of partnership that takes place for a man to walk in the divine will of God. I get it that a man ‘…plans his way…’ but that isn’t enough.

Man proposes what he wishes for, but God answers as he thinks proper. Man thinks as he pleases, and asks what he desires, but God will give, or not give, as He thinks proper.

God does want us to initiate and get our feet moving - but He knows that we aren’t always going to end up directly where He wants us. Our own stuff gets in the mix and puts us off course.

Motives. Desires. Fears. Selfishness. Worldliness.

So, He wants to get involved and ‘…direct our steps…’. He wants to make sure we end up where He designed us to.

If a man plans his way, striving to make God’s glory his end, and make His will his own purpose, then he should expect that God will “direct his steps”, so that he would not miss his way, or come short of his purpose.

BUT - we have to let Him in to that process. He won’t force His way in. I can just see Him standing on the sidelines saying ‘I’m over here with the answers… with the right gameplan. So, whenever you’re ready…’.

So God, if you’re reading my WordPress journal today… I AM READY!!

JJ

Have you ever been caught out of your world?

Ever been lost and having nothing familiar in sight to help you with your bearings? Or maybe you remember being at some social function buried in the back corner of the room, or locked away in the bathroom wondering when someone you actually know is going to arrive and bring a safe sense of familiarity. How about that time when you sat through that new class in school thinking ‘How in the world am I going to make it through this - I don’t have a sweet clue what’s going on in here.’

I could go on and on with analogies of memories that bring up that same sense of uneasiness.

I don’t recognize ANY of this… it all seems so foreign to me… I’ve never seen this kind of thing before… this seems so far away from my own every day life experiences.

This was me in Miami last week.

I took my Master’s group to spend a week there in the inner-city with Rich Wilkerson and his Peacemakers organization (www.peacemakers.org).

And I learned I was out of my own world.

Their community ranks in the top 1% of crime in the nation. Homeless shelters and rescue missions seemed as abundant as gas stations.

When you think of Miami, you picture manicured landscaping, miles of white beaches and scores of beautiful people as depicted on the CBS show CSI Miami.

Not so where we were. Quite the opposite actually.

BUT - it wasn’t the outward appearance that pushed me out of my world. I’ve been to the poorest nation on this side of the planet. I’ve seen people starving, and struggling to stay alive. I’ve walked through shantytowns and scraped the bottom of the barrel in a sense. Seen it before and wept.

This was different though. It was on our own soil. You see, when you travel to Haiti, or Cuba or other impoverished nations… you expect to see these things and prepare for it.

But, when you minister in North America, you don’t really enter into that mode. You make plans to minister the same way you would to your own church of thousands of white overfed, under-performing Christians.

I knew when I drove on the campus last Saturday, that wasn’t going to be the case.

And I was happy about that. I felt free like I haven’t in a long time. Free from the corporate pressures. Free from the need to perform and produce. Free to just be Jesus with skin on. It was amazing.

It all makes me think what we’re really building in our churches. And please - don’t get me wrong. I’m not about to put myself in the dangerous position of tearing down the church of Jesus Christ. I just think we haven’t got everything lined up in the right priority.

Will God look at our accomplishments and say ‘Well done, servant, for building that nice big building and paving that parking lot with 1,000 spaces. Well done for garnering the attention of Christians across the country who marvel at your conquests. Well done for getting your face on the cover of Charisma magazine. Well done for ignoring the poor, broken and suffering all the while.’

Then why do we spend so much time focused on these things?

This trip put me out of my own world. A world of safe and comfortable boundary lines. And I’m happy about that. This trip reminded me of some ever so important priorities that I have to fight to hold on to, and I don’t want to let go.

I want to be a giver in this world, not a taker.

Fredrick J. Streets said this: ‘When we turn our resources into a god, we can become obsessed with acquiring them, possessed by having obtained them and held captive by the fear of losing them.’

There’s a chorus from a U2 song I want to end this post with…

“You speak of signs and wonders, but I need something other. I would believe, but I’m not able. Because I’m waiting for the crumbs off your table”.

JJ

Trust is such a crazy concept if you really start thinking about it.

It asks you to believe in something you can’t see. It asks you to hope for the uncertain. It asks you to be confident in an outcome that has no guarantee…maybe even no evidence of it’s coming manifestation.

Trust requires you to make your move FIRST. To invest your portion FIRST. To take your step out FIRST. To lay it all on the line FIRST.

It is not within our human nature to be comfortable with this process. We want the answers, the guarantees and we want the proof that our action and investment is not going to waste. This is why trust is so difficult.

We don’t purchase a home until we see some warranties and guarantees on the building. We don’t invest a large portion of money into a mutual fund or other investment vehicle until we have evidence of the past record of proven positive performance. And likewise, it is very difficult for us to move out into obedience and sacrifice following the Lord’s leading into new territory - without a long list of evidence and proof that we’re going to make it.

But, I believe God works on a different system, and that system is based on TRUST.

Jeremiah 17:7-8 says; “Blessed is the man who TRUSTS in the Lord, whose CONFIDENCE is in him. He will be like a tree PLANTED BY WATER that SENDS OUT ROOTS by the stream. It does not fear WHEN THE HEAT COMES; its leaves are always green. It has NO WORRIES in a year of drought and NEVER FAILS to bear fruit.”

What I have been learning is that it is hardest for us to trust in God when the heat comes. In other words, when we are facing adversity, when we are walking through a desert season, when we are wrestling with surrender, or dealing with heavy temptation.  When there is no evidence of a positive outcome.  When all we see on the outside is drought, heat and dying… will we still trust in God?

This is when we should exercise our trust, and tap our spiritual roots underground (areas where no one else can see) into the streams of living water.  Then, when others are dying back…and failing to produce any fruit because of the negative circumstances, we have a full bloom of life and fruitfulness that will cause others to wonder: “How in the world are you staying alive and well through it all???”.

At that point, you will have one easy answer to one difficult process.

I chose to TRUST in God… and I am blessed because of it.

JJ

I’ve been finishing up an eye opening book lately called ‘UnChristian’, written by David Kinnaman (President of the Barna Group - www.barna.org) and Gabe Lyons (founder of the Fermi Project - www.fermiproject.com).

This book comes out of a new research project, which describes the increasing negative reputation of Christians, especially among young Americans. It unveils the main criticisms held against Christians, and is helping me to understand why these negative images exist.

The back sleeve of the book describes it like this: “Christians are supposed to represent Christ to the world. But according to the latest report card, something has gone terribly wrong. Using descriptions like ‘hypocritical, ‘insensitive’ and ‘judgmental’, young Americans share an impression of Christians that’s nothing short of… unChristian”.

It’s pretty scary stuff. Scary but true, because I see it happening all over.

I think a big part of it comes out of the difference of values represented by our different generations.

If you look at the ‘Boomer’ generation, they are generally more focused on outward things, such as behavior, action, accomplishments, obedience, numbers. Even more, statistics say that they have a strong value system of right and wrong. Their values are based on black and white truth, and most of anything that doesn’t fit within that system is tossed.

If they’re not careful, it could quickly turn into a judgmental religiosity that lacks a healthy balance of love and grace.

Then you’ve got the Busters (my generation). As a whole, we tend to lean much more on relationships. That’s why I believe countless sub-cultures are popping up everywhere these days - it gives everyone a place to ‘belong’. That’s what seems so important to us - to belong. I remember back in my own days of high school, there were maybe 3 distinguishable cultures in the hallways. Now, there’s dozens, maybe even over a hundred that call out for the loyalty of teenagers.

But, in our quest for relational connection and belonging, the “morality line” our previous generation is holding so tightly to has begun to blur. I think what is driving this comes down to what I hear in my own generation so regularly now - ‘I want to be authentic.’ Keeping it real is a big buzz word and we want to stop pretending to be something we’re not, while being wide open about our faults.

We haven’t been careful in this, though. I’ve seen over the years as a Master’s Commission Director, how despite being exposed to regular messages on ethics and morality, our generation does not seem to be getting the message. It seems to me that more and more young Christians are living out their faith with deepening moral laxity… and it doesn’t bother them that much.

In my own eyes, this looks like a battle between truth and grace. One generation is fighting for absolute truth and spiritual morality. The other is fighting for the power of grace, and spiritual relevancy.

I don’t know if anyone is winning.

Actually, I think it’s only provoking a deeper divide between us. And, the world is watching us with the same skepticism like they’re watching the Democrats beat each other’s heads in right now.

So, on all this, there is a particular chapter in ‘unChristian’ that is hammering away at my own heart, and I wanted to share the reading and my thoughts on it with you.

“Being salt and light demands two things: we practice purity in the midst of a fallen world and yet we live in proximity to this fallen world. If you don’t hold up both truths in tension, you invariably become useless and separated from the world God loves. For example, if you only practice purity apart from proximity to the culture, you inevitably become pietistic, separatist and conceited. If you live in close proximity to the culture without also living in a holy manner, you become indistinguishable from fallen culture and useless in God’s Kingdom“.

Wow. Doesn’t this just nail it?

How many times have we seen someone get pushed out of church, because they couldn’t ‘meet up’ to the standard portrayed by a Christian of how to live for Jesus?

And, how many times have we seen someone back out of church, because all they saw was hypocrisy lived out by someone proclaiming to be a Christ follower, who’s life was a far cry from the integrity Jesus desires?

I wonder if we could embrace His love and law at that same time. I wonder if we could hold on strong to truth and grace together. Because, truth without grace is only legalism, and grace without truth is mere compromise.

I wonder what our churches would look like if we were able to walk in purity and proximity together…

JJ

The other night, I got the opportunity to preach a brand new message God has been stirring in my heart lately… and it was all about “Nothing”

Now, before you drift away on the basis of the title, please let me explain.

We serve a compassionate and loving God who is mighty in miracles and supernatural intervention. My own life is littered with testimonies of His love, provision, healing and grace in my greatest time of need.

But - what should we do when life hands us nothing? What should we do when we pray and hear nothing? What should we do when we need a miracle, and get nothing? When God says nothing? When God does nothing? When God gives nothing?

When God is Absent. When He is Silent. When He is Dormant.

When we end up praying prayers like:

Where are you God? Why aren’t you intervening? Why am I not healed? Why am I not delivered? Why aren’t you speaking to me? Why am I not seeing this miracle? Why won’t this mountain be moved?

When discouragement prevails, and we might begin to believe the lie that God is indeed ‘against’ us, instead of being ‘for’ us.

What should we do in moments like these? When we don’t have all the right answers in a neat little box we can pull out in the middle of our circumstances. When we don’t have much strength to keep struggling through the moment. When all we want to do is give up or give in.

In my short experience of serving God, I’ve learned that He doesn’t always make sense. God doesn’t always intervene, and He doesn’t always send his angels.

And what are we supposed to do with that?

All I know to do is go back to His Word, and HABAKKUK 3:17-19 speaks directly to this kind of situation.

‘Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior. The Sovereign LORD is my strength; he makes my feet like the feet of a deer, he enables me to go on the heights.’

This is the great song of ‘Nevertheless’. Though my life is falling apart in every way I could imagine, nevertheless I will still find a place of joy in the Lord. He will still give me the strength to make it through.

This praise isn’t birthed out of victory and prosperity, but defeat and poverty.

It is a refusal to let the troubles we’re facing be bigger than God.

As I was studying and preparing for this, this statement kept resounding in my heart: He is the Great I AM, not the I WAS, and not the I WILL BE.

He is present with us in the moment, and has not abandoned us at all. Though everything inside of us is screaming such things. There must be a reason for all of this then.

Maybe, when all we see is ‘nothing’… God is actually up to something.

There’s no better example of this in the Scriptures that I know of than that of Jesus.

HE WAS REDUCED TO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

The most sophisticated religious system of its time allied itself with the most powerful political empire against a solitary figure, the only perfect man who ever lived.

No miracles broke in.
No supernatural rescue attempts.
Nothing.

In Gethsemane, Jesus told the disciples His soul was overwhelmed to point of death, and that they should stay with him and keep a prayer watch. Yet, they failed Him by falling asleep. The only time Jesus really needed His disciples, and they gave Him Nothing.

Beyond that, I believe Gethsemane depicts the story of unanswered prayer. We see Jesus asking for the cup to pass from Him, but the cup of suffering was not removed. Prayers went up, but Nothing came down.

We know that Judas betrayed Him.

We know that all of the disciples abandoned Him. When it became clear that Jesus kind of kingdom led to a cross, and not a throne, all the disciples fled. Couldn’t they have finished this journey together with Him? When He needed somebody to walk Him through His pain, they abandoned Him. The result of pouring His whole life into them for 3.5 years amounted to Nothing.

We know that Peter denied Him.

We know that in all of His trials and interrogations, not a single witness rose to His defense. No leader had the nerve to speak out against the impending injustice. Nothing was done to defend Him.

We know that He took a terrible beating for us all. The guards flogged Him, beat Him to a pulp, spit on Him, pulled out His beard, stripped Him naked. There was no one there to protect Him. He was physically reduced to NOTHING.

He lost His family, His leadership, His prominence, His comfort, His dignity.

Matthew and Mark quote Jesus’ last words as “My God, My God why have you forsaken me?”

All His other prayers listed in the gospel, Jesus addressed Him as “Abba” or “Father”, but this time, Jesus used the formal, distant word “God”. Maybe He was expressing a strong sense of abandonment.

When it seems like God has abandoned us, we have to look past the pain of the moment and know He has bigger purposes. How can I say this?

Because, we are all here today, because God did NOTHING on that day.

Hang in there, whatever you are going through. You never know what is going to be birthed out of our own Nothings.

JJ