Delta Student Ministries

New Beginnings...

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 15:07:00 +0000

The Attic is finally open! If you don't know already, The Attic is a multi-use area that Riverside has just opened---If you haven't seen it, it's pretty incredible---Kind of a warehouse/art house movie theatre feel to it.

Amanda Delfunt has joined us as our worship leader on Wednesday nights for Delta/Flood. Amanda is a young lady who has led worship for the past 5-6 years at large youth groups like Grove Level (Maysville) and Hopewell (Gainesville). Amanda and her soon-to-be hubby, Brian (who I simply call "The Cowboy"), will be living in our area once they're married, and I'm praying that these two great young Christians will become more and more a part of the Riverside family. Amanda and I have grown up in ministry together---The first time I ever preached, she was the soloist that night---It was also the first time she had sang in front of a crowd. She does an incredible job of ushering in the Holy Spirit---If you had been in our Wednesday night service last week, you would have seen the evidence in the brokeness of our students. Please stop by The Attic on a Wednesday and meet Amanda soon, and make her feel welcome!

Also, check out Youtube for video of my most talented and beautiful wife Carly singing an original song on opening night called "Breathe Me Into Life"---

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ7LsmFMxtQ

I read an incredible quote from William Barclay last night---"The hand of Christ is strong enough to uphold the heavens, and gentle enough to wipe away our tears". Imagine that---we serve a God that spread out the stars with His hands (Isaiah 48:13), but is compassionate and caring enough to be a Comforter when we need Him (Isaiah 42:3, Matthew 12:20). My prayer for today is that God would show me His great power, and His gracious mercy.

Peace---

Lee
I Thessalonians 2:8

Praying for a New Reformation

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Sun, 11 Feb 2007 18:47:00 +0000

Delta has a ton of good stuff coming up---Student Life on March 9-10, Walk on Water the 2nd Tuesday in March, Six Flags in April, a summer mission trip to a Navajo reservation in New Mexico, our upstairs room about to be completed, etc. So many things are happening that I really believe will grow and unify our youth group, and grow our students closer to Christ. If you know me, you know that this is my great prayer---That students will know Jesus intimately. Intimacy with Jesus is so different from intimacy with another person. Andy Stanley defines intimacy this way---"Knowing someone fully, and being fully known by that person, without any fear of rejection". This is the intimacy that Christ offers.

I long for growth in our group, change in the lives of our students, for the church (not Riverside, but THE Church) to change, and for the world to change as a result. I read a book last year called "The Irresistible Revolution" by Shane Claiborne that has really challenged me on this. This book tells the story of a Buddhist monk, who as a young man, wanted to change the world. He tried, and failed, so he decided he would change his nation. He failed again, but believed with his experience, he could change his city. Again, he failed. He thought then that he might focus on just changing his family. Again, no success. As a very old man, he finally realized, that if he wanted to change the world, then he must first change himself.

This is where I am in life, and in my relationship with Christ. I have turned in my letter of resignation at the hospital I've worked at for the past 19 years, so I can have more time to devote to Christ and advancing His kingdom. It's a scary time for Carly and myself, but I know that if I want our students to be fully committed, then I must demonstrate full commitment. Not only must I be a better steward of my time, but I must pray more, love more, and care for my own body more.

I have come to view life as something bigger than just a struggle to pay the bills, or to get a bigger house or a newer car. God has called me, and all of us, to be a part of something legendary, to have our names written as a part of God's great story. I know I won't ever be a Moses or a David, a great leader that has his name recorded for all history as an incredible prophet or a mighty king. What I want to be is someone who was called, and followed that call with all of his heart. There are some folks that I've talked to about my recent decisions that swear I'm ruining my life---For Jesus' sake, that seems like a worthwhile endeavor, or a great prayer---"Jesus, ruin my life. Take away all of the distractions and let me follow You." This is where a new reformation will begin---inside of the hearts of Christians who love Jesus enough to not only die for Him, but to live for Him, as well.

Pray for Carly and I during this time, and for Delta and Riverside as we continue on this amazing adventure.

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 20:26:00 +0000

It's a brand new year, with tons of brand new possibilities. Delta will have more activities to offer this year than ever before, with opportunities, challenges, and something completely different for every student in our ministry.

We continue our partnership with Walk on Water this year---Pastor Perry had asked us to come back for three services and dinners this year, but he has been so impressed with our students and their hearts for the hurting and homeless of Athens, he altered his schedule so that Delta would be in charge of six visits in 2007. Our first trip of the year is Tuesday 1/9---we'll leave Riverside at 5:45PM to meet with our great friends at Walk on Water. Everyone is invited to attend and serve!

This spring, we'll head to Atlanta and Hebron Baptist Church for the Student Life/Clarity Tour, featuring speakers David Platt and Jeremy Kingsley, plus worship led by Leeland (one of the best new bands I've heard in a while) and Passion's Kristian Stanfill---You can check out links to both artists on our Delta Music page, or on their Myspace pages. We'll also do a Six Flags trip in April, where Carly and I will probably fall asleep on a bench, and we'll undoubtedly hear the girly screams of Mark Christopher Lawson, Jr., echoing throughout metropolitan Atlanta once again. We've got a second conference set for July at Gwinnett Arena, featuring Hillsong United (the greatest worship band on the planet) and Ed Young, pastor of the second-largest church in America, and absolutely the most creative guy you'll ever encounter in mininstry. All of our teenagers --- 6th-12th graders --- are welcome on these trips. See our "upcoming events" page for the Delta Calendar, where you'll find dates for our trips and deadlines for students to turn in money for them.

For our summer mission trip, and we're anticipating several of our Delta high schoolers and H2O folks participating. We'll be travelling to Cusco, Peru for 7-10 days in June with Spirit-Led Expeditions. We'll spend the first couple of days doing street evangelism in Cusco, which the ancient Incas considered to be the center of the world. From there, our group will travel into the jungle to care for the kids and staff at an orphanage for Quechea indians. The folks from SLE tell me that we're guaranteed to meet people who have never seen white people before (don't worry, moms---no one's going to eat us). This promises to be an incredible adventure for all of us, and an opportunity to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the very ends of the earth. Eric Lovin with SLE tells me to warn our participants that if they're afraid of falling in love with Peru and her people, then they better not go! Again, see our calendar on the "upcoming events" page for some planning details about the trip.

Finally, our students and adults in Delta have been challenged to read the Bible in chronological order in 2007. We've given our students a plan to follow, and we're going to do something that will stretch them and me---I'm going to go through the entire Bible with them this year, and I'm praying that our students will follow the reading program, so we can make our time together a conversation instead of just a sermon---In Connections, during Sunday night's Deep End services, and on Wednesdays during Flood, we're going to cover the entire Book! It's a daunting task, but my prayer is that our students will know God's word better than any student group around by the end of 2007!

Our students and adults in Delta have made a committment in 2007 to love God and love people (Mark 12:29-31), forgive each other(Colossians 3:13), be peacemakers (C0lossians 3:15), obey (Colossians 3:20-24), do everything as if they were doing it for God (Colossians 3:17, 23), and as an end result, become part of something legendary (Philippians 2:14-16; Daniel 12:3). That something legendary is the amazing story that God is writing, a story that compels us to make an eternal difference in the lives of of people, because we are so moved by the Savior that has made an eternal difference for us.

Peace...

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 17:50:00 +0000

Christmas is upon us now---We went this past weekend (Carly, Sara Jones, and myself) to see Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God", an incredible collection of songs written by AP that carry us from Exodus all the way through the time of Christ's birth. One song has really rung in my head for the past few days---"So long, Moses", which explores Israel's desire for a king---The chorus varies a little after each verse, but says something along the lines of "We want a king on a throne full of power with a sword in his fist...Will there ever be, ever be a king like this?"

There's tons of directions I could go with this, and the temptation is to focus on Christians and politics, and the cultural desire to have Christian presidents, senators, legislators, county commisioners, etc. I'm going to avoid that one, though (at least for now), because I think that Israel's desire for a king is representative of something much deeper---It's not just a want for political or military might, but a shift in priorities. When Israel cried out to Samuel for a king so they could be like other nations, God responded by saying "...they have rejected me as their king" (I Samuel 8:7).

God almost sounds despondent as He's speaking to Samuel in this passage, like He's truly disappointed and hurt. He understood the people's hearts---They didn't just want someone to call king...They wanted anybody to be king, other than God. I kind of imagine Saul as looking kind of George Clooney-ish, with all the people gathered around shouting, "That's my king!"

Look at what happens...Saul is adored by the people for his height and good looks, but becomes a jealous, petty, disobedient king who is more concerned with self than Israel. The end result is that Saul's story becomes a story not about Saul, but intro for King David.

David is adored by the people---He's a folk hero after he slays Goliath. The Bible says that people were writing songs about what a great man he was before he was even the king! I can see the crowds..."Look at our giant-killer! That's my king!"

Then he gets lazy, and stays at home in the spring when all the other kings are at war. He sees someone else's wife naked (which never seems to have a good outcome for any man, kings or otherwise), and makes a mistake that divides his house and, at least temporarily, destroys his rule. David's story, from this point forward, becomes less about David, and more of an intro for Solomon. Solomon was wise and rich and powerful, and the kingdom loved him and cried out "That's my king!"

The story proceeds on and on that way through 39 kings, a kingdom divided, prophets galore, then 450 years of nothing.

Silence.

Then a babe was born in a barn. A Savior in the straw.

He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied ; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. (Isaiah 53)

That's my King...

Brand New Possibility...

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Wed, 29 Nov 2006 19:39:00 +0000

Check out new pics from flag football, yuck night, and other Delta events; Reviews for "The Nativity Story" and "One Night with the King", and be sure and look at the upcoming events for December---there's much great stuff happening with Delta and Riverside that you need to know about! There's also a great organization that you should check out on our Resources page called "To Write Love On Her Arms"---TWLOHA is currently on tour, raising money to battle depression, cutting, suicide, and addiction in young people.

Carly and I just got back from Charleston, SC, where we to see some amazing historical stuff---houses and churches built in the 1600's, places where people like George Washington actually walked and sat and ate, plantations where people amassed great wealth, and others were held in cruel slavery. It was amazing to see all of these things---I love history to the point where I can literally read books and watch TV shows about nothing but the past, and be perfectly satisfied. Sometimes, though, I must remind myself that even though history teaches us so much, I must keep an eye toward the future. 2000 years ago, men honored history, its lessons, its rules, and its traditions to an extreme degree, to the point where it was almost impossible for anyone to believe that they could live a life that was pleasing to God. With Christ, though, there was a brand new possibility---Something that no one ever even imagined, outside of a few prophets, that many had written off as crazy. With Christ, there was reconciliation to take the place of rules, healing for hurt, beauty for ashes, and hope where there was heartache. Jesus Christ presents us each day with the opportunity to have a new life...not just a new day, but a NEW LIFE! The thought staggers the imagination!

Thank You, God, for the babe in the straw...for the "brave little boy, who was God, and made Himself nothing...He gave up His pride, and He came here to die like a man".

Thank You, God, for Jesus...

UPDATES EVERYWHERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Wed, 15 Nov 2006 22:39:00 +0000

Do a little exploring on your visit to our website today---we've got new music links for The Swift and Mute Math; tons of new resource links, including Threadsmedia, Thinkbooks, Seekfindbible.com, Intervarsity Fellowship, Urbana, New Attitude, Relevant Books, Ed Young, Planet Wisdom, and the greatest T-shirt site ever, Randomshirts.com! Check out new photos from our Halloween night trip to Walk on Water, as well. Calendar updates are coming soon, as soon as I can motivate my sorry keister...

We've seen a lot of great things happening in Delta lately---an incredible night at Walk on Water, Miss Elaine Anglin's amazing testimony at Mystory, and our students are doing a really good job of raising money for the families we've adopted for Give a Christmas.

Here's some listening recommendations for you for this holiday season---John Fahey's "New Possibility" is an old acoustic recording of some Christmas classics by one of the greatest guitarist's ever. Now, for something you might actually be able to find---Andrew Peterson's "Behold the Lamb of God" really pushes us to remember the whole story behind Christmas---It takes you from creation all the way to Jesus' death and resurrection in the span of one album. If you have the opportunity, the "Behold the Lamb of God" tour is coming to Heritage Christian Church in Fayetteville, GA on Dec. 8. It's an incredible concert, featuring artists like Derek Webb, Sandra McCracken, Jill Phillips, Randall Goodgame, and many other great Christian songwriters and musicians. Check it out!

Peace---

Lee

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 20:32:00 +0000

The following is an article recently published in Relevant Magazine's online version (www.relevantmagazine.com) , written by our own Pastor Lee...

“Youth pastors! All they do is eat cheese pizza and go to Six Flags!” My mentor in ministry used to make visits to a local high school, and invariably, this was the comment made by the football coach as they met in the hall. I suppose most adults consider student ministry to be just that—somewhere to send your teenagers for entertainment and “no sex” preaching (usually, parents decide their child needs abstinence training after they catch a daughter making out in her bedroom; why they think it’s a good idea to let them “watch movies” unattended in her room is another issue altogether).

Student ministry is flashing lights, loud music and games that usually involve obscure canned meats or swallowing someone’s pre-used toothpaste, stuff that Shane Claiborne calls “chicken poop for the teenage soul.” Those things attract teenagers, an important aspect of student ministry. Gather youth pastors together and without exception one will ask, “So…What are you running?” Many youth pastors, as they announce their average weekly attendance, look to the left, the universal symbol for, “I’m telling a lie.” Who can blame them? Student ministry is numbers-driven. If you don’t have a large number of students attending, you must be doing something wrong; either that, or the kids don’t think you’re cool. (Listen closely, and you’ll hear the simultaneous thud of youth pastors fainting all over America.) If your ministry isn’t growing, the parents will start clamoring for a new youth pastor, someone more entertaining, someone who doesn’t turn their kids into “radicals,” someone who will teach the kids to be “good boys” and “good girls.”

This is the expectation for many student ministries—train the students to be “good,” to avoid sin at all costs. Don’t have sex. Don’t use bad language. For God’s sake, don’t get tattoos. Many train their students to do nothing unusual, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing to rock the boat. Many train them to do nothing, and frankly, they become quite good at it. They learn it from their parents, and unfortunately, they learn it from their youth pastors.

Enough.

The attitude must change. Youth pastors must become bold and encourage their students to become those “peculiar people” that Peter wrote about, even when their parents don’t understand the change in their habits, attitudes and desires. Parents must accept the idea that their children’s idea of what constitutes “Christian living” may be different than their own.

The goal of ministry is to promote pure living, but to instill a heart for social justice as well. Our own ministry recently spent 13 weeks learning who Jesus ministered to, what He did for them, and how they should respond. Students met and fed the homeless, worshipped with them and wept over a little girl with no shoes. They spent two months exploring human trafficking and raised funds to give to International Justice Mission. They have heard stories of individuals who led passionate lives for Christ, from Joan of Arc to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This summer, they will travel to downtown Atlanta to minister to the homeless there. Students who didn’t even know Christ one year ago now cannot wait to finish high school, when we will give them opportunity to spend extended time overseas on mission.

It’s a hard concept for some. We once did an event called “Destination Unknown,” taking the kids to an undisclosed location for a night of fun. Some members of our group were conspicuously absent. One mom reported to me that she didn’t send her children because, “We thought you would take them to some homeless shelter or something.” She went on to add, “By the way, when are you taking the kids to Six Flags? That’s the kind of thing they really like to do.”

I’ve grown to believe that student ministry is about much more than just numbers and telling teenagers to “just say no” to temptation. It’s an opportunity to place oneself at the forefront of a great rebellion, a war on the idea that Christianity is just about your inactions. “Follow” is a verb. Something must be done in order to meet the requirements of the command. If I follow Christ and my students follow with me, then they no longer have to settle for being a shadow of the greater culture. Instead, they can lead the Church into the next generation, making her what God intended her to be—a cool shade for the world to rest beneath. If they can accomplish this, the world will look at the Church and know: This is where I go when I need help …when I’m hurting …when I’m homeless … when I’m addicted …when I’m far from home …when I’m hungry … when I’m sick …when I’m ready to give up … But if I choose not to go to the church, there’s no worry, for I know that she will come to me.

Yuck Night...

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 15:53:00 +0000

Yes, we survived Yuck Night at Flood last evening...It was quite an experience, watching the guys wimp out at the smell of a little buttermilk, and the girls chowing down on pig brains in milk gravy like it was ice cream. It wasn't all fun and games, though...We had a hard-hitting sermon on Proverbs 26:11---"As a fool returns to his foolishness, so a dog returns to his vomit."

One of the greatest challenges to working with teenagers is seeing young people with great promise make the same mistakes over and over again. Youth pastors everywhere see this, and often, the message you hear in their ministries centers around behavior modification. Problem---behavior modification won't save you.

I want our students so badly to run from their sin, and live pure lives. The great challenge is finding balance. Our ministry strives to plant God's Word deep in our students' hearts, ground them in solid spiritual habits, then allow the Holy Spirit to change their lives. I can't change them. No matter how good my sermons are, no matter how much time I spend with them, it's up to Jesus to change their hearts. We plant the seed, do all we can to promote growth, and pray. We encourage avoiding sin, and challenge our students to avoid the heartbreak of missed opportunities to do something great for God by simply doing something. Mark Twain said that "In twenty years, you'll be much more disappointed by what you didn't do than what you did". I believe that's true. Our ministry stands for action...Do something for the Kingdom of God, Do something to eternalize your life, Do something for people, Do something for Jesus. Doing something may involve some changes in behavior---eradicating foolish things, adopting wise habits---But most of all, it involves loving God and loving people, and "loving" is a verb. It requires action.

Pray that our students wouldn't be complacent Christians, but that they would be people of action.

A word from Edna

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Wed, 30 Aug 2006 21:12:00 +0000

Last night, Mark Lawson, the Gowans, the Bird family, the Cliftons, Coach Crouse, and several players from the MCHS basketball team traveled to Walk on Water on West Hancock in Athens. It's an overflow shelter in the Winter, a church/soup kitchen on Sunday nights and Tuesday nights for the rest of the year. It's a great place where people with literally nothing more than the clothes on their backs worship their hearts out, share a meal, and share community with each other. I always meet the most interesting people there, and it's always a great time. Last night, it was too hot and there were too many people to worship inside, so we sat out in the sun, praised God, and I preached the Word as trucks and cars passed by us. There were children and old men; alcoholics and cocaine addicts; prostitutes and college students.

Then there was Edna. Hardly a tooth in her head, flip-flops that were barely hanging on her feet, clothes torn, and a little more than three sheets in the wind. Edna wandered up long after church was over, and actually, long after the food was gone. When she arrived, all we had left after feeding about 100 people was less that half a bag of Laura Lynn ranch style tortilla chips. I told her, "Edna, this is all we have left". She smiled the biggest smile I had seen in weeks, hugged me as tight as she could, and said "Baby, that's okay...I'll just visit a while."

I hugged her back. My wife, Carly, saw and scrambled to put together the fake doritos, some cookies, and a pound cake that was hidden in a box under a table. You would have thought that Edna had won the lottery...What a smile! She told Kay Clifton later on,"I don't have anything or anybody...I don't have no place to stay...But I've got Jesus, and that's all I need!"

Jesus, make me more like Edna.

"I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was alone and away from my home, and you invited me into your house. I was without clothes, and you gave me something to wear. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me...I tell you the truth, as you have done to the least of these, you have done it unto me."----------------------------------Matthew 25:35-36; 45

Welcome to 34 A.D.

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Sun, 27 Aug 2006 13:19:00 +0000

The apostles were doing many miracles and signs, and everyone felt great respect for God. All the believers were together and shared everything. They would sell their land and the things they owned and then divide the money and give it to anyone who needed it. The believers met together in the Temple every day. They ate together in their homes, happy to share their food with joyful hearts. They praised God and were liked by all the people. Every day the Lord added those who were being saved to the group of believers.----Acts 2:43-47

Acts gives us a clear picture of what 1st century church was like---believers lived together, shared their money, ate together, and met in the temple every day. They lived in true community---supporting, encouraging, and helping each other. They gave up everything---their homes, their money, their jobs---To spend time with each other and with God.

In today's world, we would consider these people crazy, cloud-cuckoo fanatics. What's interesting is, they were living exactly how Jesus commanded them to---to sell all they had and give it to the poor; take up your cross daily, etc.

Theology teaches us that we shouldn't take these commands of Jesus so literally---Maybe he just intended the whole "sell your stuff" thing for one particular individual; Maybe "taking up your cross" just means being nice, doing good things for people, and maybe occasionally praying or reading your Bible.

Or just maybe He meant exactly what He said.

These are hard teachings indeed. Many of us Christians highlight the hound out of Bibles, underlining the verses that inspire and comfort us. We don't usually make much note of the things that drive us toward community--- It's not a style or worship music or a cool 5 step growth program, it's a lifestyle that draws the kingdom of heaven closer into being reality; a lifestyle of giving, sharing, loving, laughing, crying, and pouring out our lives for the sake of the cross, and for the sake of each other.

The end results are fabulous---Acts says that they were liked by all people...every day people were added to the numbers of new believers.

This is the concept that Delta is striving to get across to students when we do 34 A.D. on Sunday nights---community. Community where you share your hearts, hurts, and triumphs. Community where you pour out your worship to Christ, and give your lives to each other. This is the ultimate growth program for churches---advance the kingdom of heaven by loving God, loving people, and truly taking up your crosses...Then you'll see miracles happen.

It's been a long time...

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 23:50:00 +0000

Yes, it's been a woefully long time since I posted. It's been a really busy summer---We had an awesome mission trip to Blood-N-Fire in Atlanta, where we met some amazing people. Carly, Jonathan Russell, Hannah Chapman, Candace Homer, Josh Tiller, Mark Lawson, the Gowan triplets (Michael, Brittni, and Melissa), and myself spent a little over one week living in community with the homeless folks at the shelter---Actually, the folks there aren't homeless---Blood-N-Fire is their home. They're more like "relationless", lacking the support they need to make it in a tough world. We also did VBS at South Jonesboro Homes---what a tough, incredible experience! We also did initiative conversation in parks around the city. Within a span of about 5 minutes in Centennial Olympic Park, we met a guy named Zebedee, a lady named Ephesians, and another lady who said SHE was Jesus!

We started a new Sunday night program last night for 6th-12th graders called "The Deep End". Last night, we had our first night ever of "34 A.D."---a first century-style worship service. We worshipped, shared our hearts, prayed as a community of believers, and learned from God's Word. Edward Krizinski gave his heart to Christ last night---Be sure and congratulate him! Next Sunday night is our first ever "Sobre La Mesa" ("Across The Table")---You don't want to miss it!

Thank God for all He is doing in the lives of our students, and in my life, as well....

Peace---

Pastor Lee

MORE TALL TALE --- GRACE UNVEILED

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Wed, 21 Jun 2006 18:04:00 +0000

What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn't put it out.
John 1:4-5
The Message

In the first book The Author ever wrote, Genesis, He laid out not only what became known as The Creation Story (In the beginning…), He also mapped out The First Love Story Ever. The logical thinker would say, “Oh, how predictable …Adam and Eve.” The Author tells a more subtle love story though, and if you look deep enough in that pool, it will drown your sensibilities, and refresh your hope in Him.

I’ve come to accept that if He made the world, it’s only logical to believe that He made the first people, too. If you believe in the Tall Tale, you’ll believe that the first man, a guy named Adam, was a wholly imperfect being planted smack in the middle of a perfect world. God has the most unusual way of creating things sometimes. Up until Adam, he just spoke, and things came into being. From “Let there be light…”, all the way to “And He looked on all He had made…”, the only thing God used to make anything was His voice. He spoke, and there it was. The sun, the moon, the stars, the ocean, the land, the plants, the fish, and all the animals were made just through the notion of His voice.

Adam was made differently, though. Adam was made intimately. God had looked on all His work from above up until this point. The Tall Tale says that “His spirit moved up over the waters”, and in order to see all He had made, and decide that it was good, He most definitely had to have a bird’s-eye view. But Adam’s creation was up-close and personal. It involved an aspect of God’s ability and nature and action seldom seen in history. It involved touch. The Tall Tale says that the Author took dust from the ground…..Worthless, useless dust. Dust and dirt are infinitely different. Dirt can be used for planting and growth, and it symbolizes fertility. Dust isn’t dirt, but it’s considered dirty, or maybe filthy is a better adjective. Most of us hate dusting more than any other household task. Dust is a nuisance. It’s annoying. Dust, in the bigger context, is a symbol of dryness, lack of life, choking, stifling, and making it hard to breath. We sweep it up, and throw it away. It has no practical use. Dust, as a general rule, is hated.

So The Author picks up the most useless thing He can find on this planet He made, holds it in His hand, presses it to His lips…and breathes on it.

I remember the first time my wife breathed on me. I was sitting on the couch watching “Spy Kids 2” (She married me in spite of the fact I carried her on some really loser dates). She sat down next to me. After a while, she laid her head against my shoulder, let loose a sweet, soft sigh, and when she did...She breathed on me. I swear, it was like one million volts shot through my body! I felt like my dog, a big boxer named Daisy. She’s a perpetual motion machine, totally spastic, but if you start rubbing her belly, she gets totally still. I mean, paralyzed kind of still, as if to say, “Oh, Lordy, please don’t ever let this sensation end in my entire life!” On the outside, you’re experiencing this paralysis, hoping the sensation will never end, but on the inside, there’s avid fans of breathing on the neck and doggie belly rubbing doing the tomahawk chop and the wave and Yosemite Sam shooting pistols and steam whistles going off and your entire central nervous system starts break dancing and the world’s greatest football announcer ever, Keith Jackson, shouts “Whoooooa Nellie! It’s Good!”

It’s an intimate sensation. It’s fulfilling. Comforting. Exciting. Enticing. Pleasurable. It makes you pause and remember the best times, look forward to the future, and dream that this breath, this moment could last forever. More than anything, that intimate, miraculous, loving breath gives us life. Life like we’ve never experienced before. Life that we hope will never end.
So that’s how The Author made Adam. Scooped up some garbage, embraced it intimately in His hands, and breathed on it lovingly. The love story didn’t start there, though. The love story started before He ever even bent over to pick up the dust. The entire thing, all this wonder called Creation, He made lovingly, passionately, with man in mind. He made light to keep him warm, to allow him to see clearly, and to give him the opportunity to get a really even tan. The Author made darkness to provide a still coolness in which the man could find perfect, peaceful rest. He made terra firma so man wouldn’t have to live ankle deep in the water and mud. He made the sky so man could daydream, make fantasy shapes of the clouds, and wonder what was on the other side. The Author created stars so man could have a nightly opportunity to gaze in great wonder at the beauty and artistry of His work. He made fish so man could occupy his quiet time with leisurely sport, and so there would be catfish lodges all over the American South for his dining pleasure. He made birds to teach man to sing, and to make him long for the ability to soar above the earth. He made domesticated animals for companionship, and livestock for food. And finally He made wild animals to challenge man, and to fill him with a sense of adventure.

He made all of this for man’s good pleasure, then gave man a thing called dominion. Total control. What a great dad The Author is! What great gifts He gives! It’s like the Richard Pryor movie, “The Toy”, where Jackie Gleason leans over to his son inside a massive toy store and says, “Look around, son….Check it all out…You can have anything in here that you want…” Adam didn’t do a single thing to deserve this kind of treatment, but God, being the first and most excellent dad, did all for Adam out of pure love. All of this, just for something He made out of dust. Then The Author did something really cool. He let Adam name everything he saw, including the animals. “Adam, son, you picked out the puppy, so now you get to name him…” He did pretty good with the task for the most part. You can picture exotic nature in the words Bengal Tiger, cute fuzziness in the name Koala Bear, and elegant majesty in a title like Arabian Stallion. Eventually, though, Adam just starts running out of ideas. That’s why we have animal names like Catfish, Dog Fish, Cow Bird, and Spider Monkey (“I can’t think of anything really good, so I’ll name you after something I named a few hours back, plus the other thing that looks kind of like you…”). He was just running out of vocabulary. You can tell he’s just getting tired of the whole routine by the time he gets to Black Snake, Blue Whale, and Redbird (“Okay, this is your color, and this is what you are…”). He’s pretty much punch drunk and acting stupid by the time he’s saying stuff like Aardvark, Dodo Bird, and Hippopotamus.

It’s difficult to say why The Author did things exactly the way he did. I certainly can’t read His mind. But if you look at the creation order, it does point to one fact…The Author of the Tall Tale was ultimately concerned with providing for man. He didn’t make man, then have to sit back and think, “Well, now the dust is alive…What in the world am I gonna feed it?” Remember, God is a God of forethought. He planned it all out, made it all perfect for the thing He planned to love the most, then planted that thing, man, in the middle of it. It’s like He bought an eternity’s worth of Christmas presents for a son that hadn’t even been born yet. The Father, the Author of the Tall Tale, built the nursery, bought diapers, purchased school supplies, filled up the college fund, built a house, and established an inheritance for a son that had not even been conceived yet! The entire act of creation and bringing man to life was an act of divine, infinite, unexplainable love.

All that effort, all that immortal energy poured out by a Creator during those days of creation intended to please a creation not even created. God clearly loves Adam with an amazing love, as demonstrated by His great desire to prepare for him the way He did, but it didn’t end there. There was more. The Author causes Adam to fall into a deep sleep. Once again, He does things in the most impossible and unpredictable way. Apparently, before this moment, The Author had tried some different combinations of Adam and monkeys, Adam and turtles, Adam and carrots, Adam and kudzu, and I don’t know what else, but just wasn’t satisfied with other potential partnerships that were possible for him. He gave him the best kind of mate with the best kind of surprise---The night-time surprise. You know the kind of surprise I’m talking about. The night-time surprise is the one that takes places in the middle of the night, when you’re sleeping. You wake up, see the surprise, and it absolutely blows your socks off. When you’re a kid, the night-time surprises usually involve the tooth fairy or Santa Claus. As you grow older, they can be even bigger---The unexpected concert tickets, flowers on the table, a love note left on your pillow, or the printout of hotel reservations for the weekend.

For Adam, the night-time surprise was more unbelievable and cool and intimate than any other surprise that has been given in the history of the world since. The Tall Tale says that once Adam fell asleep, it just plain got crazy. All at once, The Author performs the first exploratory rib-ectomy in the history of the universe, takes the rib He removed from Adam, and makes Woman. I’m not sure if He breathed on the rib, spoke to it, or what He did to make Woman, but somehow I imagine it involved that rib, honeysuckle, roses, Georgia peaches, and a whole bunch of lightning. I will say this…However He did it, He got it right.

Adam and Eve had it all. They had full run of the garden they lived in. They were perfect. They were naked. Not nude, as in a fine piece of art, but naked. Not, “Oh, my goodness, somebody get me a towel ‘cause the preacher just drove up while I’m ironing the tablecloth wearing nothing but my nature!” naked, but naked and unashamed. They were totally comfortable. Free. They could walk and talk and fish and tie tin cans on the monkeys’ tails and do whatever they wanted to do. They could do anything they wanted to do….Except one thing.

So many assume that The Author of the Tall Tale is just about rules and regulations and keeping us from feeling good and having fun, but nothing could be farther from the truth. When He made the first people, they only had one rule…”Eat all you want…Make all the love you want…Throw rocks at the lions…Whatever you want to do…Just don’t eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.”

One rule. That’s all they had to follow.

They blew it.

The Snake was the most deceitful of all the creatures The Author made. He was, in fact, The Author’s bitter enemy. It wasn’t always so. The Snake used to not have that horrible, almost invisible hiss. In fact, his song used to be more beautiful than any bird. His skin wasn’t always scaly and repulsive, and His appearance didn’t always provoke fear. He once was so beautiful, He almost looked like a reflection of The Author Himself. He looked like light, and light was obviously a thing that has great favour with The Author. It was the first thing He made “In the beginning…”, so obviously, The Author held light in high regard.

Trouble was, The Snake wasn’t satisfied with almost being The Author. He wanted to be The Author. The only problem with that was that it was impossible. The creation can never become The Creator. The Snake got into a big tussle with The Author, and The Author took away his song, and replaced it with that skin-curdling hiss. He covered The Snake’s good looks and light with dark, rough scales that would make man cringe. Then, just to remind The Snake that he would always be subservient to The Author, He put him permanently on his belly, to crawl for all eternity.

And The Snake hated The Author for it all.

The Author loved Adam and Eve with the greatest love story ever written; therefore, The Snake logically hated them, too. Then Snake wanted to draw them far from The Author, to create a gaping distance between Him and His choice possession, and he had the perfect plan.
“I’ve got to convince them that life could be better. Show them that they’re not as free as they could be. Get them to break the rule.”

One day, The Snake nestled up next to Eve, in the shade of that Tree. “Man, I sure am hungry. Some nice, cool, delicious, juicy fruit sure would be good right now. Eve, since I’m a little low to the ground, how ‘bout you reach up there and grab us one of them apples? I’ll even let you have the first bite…” (A talking snake wasn’t enough by itself to clue Eve in that something might be fishy about this deal).

“No way, Snake! The Author told me and Adam, that if we eat that fruit, we will die!” (A good, appropriate response).

“Good Lord, Eve, are you stupid? Has anybody ever died from eating a piece of fruit?” (Actually, no one had ever died at this point in history). “Surely you won’t die! God just knows that if you eat that fruit, you’ll be gods just like Him!”

The Snake is very clearly lumping his own issues onto Eve, much like the disgruntled employee who wrecks an otherwise happy workplace with his constant complaining about the boss. “I can do his job better than he does!” Before long, everyone’s unhappy, and people start to see his point of view. “We could all be better bosses than him! Heck, we could train a monkey to do what he does! I should make as much money and be a boss, just like him!”

Eve looks at the fruit. It does look good. In fact, rebellion fruit looks better and sweeter than any other fruit in the whole garden. So she pulls off that red delicious, and her and Adam have a bite, then all of a sudden, they don’t feel comfortable anymore. They don’t feel free anymore. In fact, when they hear The Author coming around the bend, the first thing they do is hide. Being naked is a shameful thing now, and they make a feeble attempt at fashion design with some fig leaves, as if to say, “Dang, I don’t care what I cover up with, just give me something that covers as much of me as possible, so I won’t be caught naked and ashamed out here in public!”

The Author sees them, huddling in the bushes. His heart drops. It has begun. He knew it would, but it hurts all the same. The creation, the choice possession, the original man and woman both gave up perfection and intimacy with The Author for something shiny. It would set off a chain of events that would go on for I don’t know how many years. The first disobedience would lead to the first greed, the first envy, the first hurt feelings, the first hard work, the first labor pains, and in the next generation after Adam and Eve, the first murder by death. Isn’t that something? The first disobedience is directly and so closely linked to the first murder. Cain, the firstborn of Adam and Eve, killed Abel, the second, out of jealousy. It was a generational curse. One generation’s disobedience caused the next to fall even farther away from The Author. And even today, it goes on and on and on. We constantly fall for the lure of things wrapped in attractive and enticing packages, whether it be in the form of addiction or pornography or someone else’s spouse, all because we think just like Adam and Eve…”Well, life is good….But couldn’t it be better?”

Because of their disobedience, they had to leave the perfect garden for a world of thorns and sweat and desolation and heartache, and The Snake thought that he had effectively ruined all of intimate eternity for The Author and man. He hissed in glee, “Reject me, Author? I’ll make your favorite thing, your great love reject you, and then you can reject them in return, just like you did me! They’ll crawl to me and adore me, and I’ll reward them with all the pain and torment and anger I can muster!”

But then The Author, The Creator, The First Dad, the Giver of Great Gifts, did something totally unexpected. He unveiled a brand new surprise, something that The Snake didn’t anticipate, something he just didn’t see coming. Remember, The Author is always thinking ahead. Adam and Eve are on their way out of the garden, heads low, bewildered, eyes to the ground, full of shame, and The Author reveals an unexpected gift for the very first time in the Tall Tale---a gift called Grace.

Adam and Eve are defeated, uncertain of how this chain of events just took place, and naked, and The Author does something unreal.

He puts clothes on them.

He puts clothes on them. It’s The Author’s way of saying, “This is a foretaste, just a sip of what’s to come. You’ve made a mistake, and there are consequences for your actions. But the love story will continue, despite what The Snake may imagine. I will take care of you. The darkness can’t put out this light inside of Me, the love I have for you. The Snake doesn’t yet fully understand The Whole Story. But you, you have faith in it. Even if you’re down right now, have faith in the end of the story. The darkness cannot put out the light.”

And the Tall Tale continued on.

More of The Tall Tale

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Sun, 28 May 2006 19:36:00 +0000

This is the story of how it all started, of Heaven and Earth when they were created.
Genesis 2:4
The Message

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth….”.

For folks who have real problems with the Tall Tale, it usually starts right here. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…” All the debaters, all the scholars, all the skeptics and cynics and naysayers, they all hear someone say this, and they just can’t accept it. It pushes their buttons. It offends their scientific sensibilities.

“You would have to be a total idiot to believe that some invisible God was sitting around in his big palace in the sky, and one day he was feeling lonely, and just decided he would make himself a planet with some people on it!”

I have to admit, it does sound kind of crazy. It sounds foolish to believe that some God up in the clouds…Well, wait a minute…I guess back then there weren’t even any clouds yet, so I’m not sure where he hung out. Anyway, it does sound crazy to think that a God we can’t see made everything, including us, according to his own specifications. Quite frankly, it just sounds impossible. But then again, sometimes you have to consider the alternatives. As difficult as it is for some folks to swallow “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth…”, it’s at least as hard for me to grasp that sentence that begins “Billions and billions of years ago…”.
I’m no scientist, but I like to think I’m not the dumbest man in the world, so the alternative to “In the beginning, God created…” is difficult for me to believe. The alternative story usually goes something like this…

“Billions and billions of years ago (the scientific way of saying ‘In the beginning…’), there was a whole bunch of gases and space dust floating around. We’re not sure where it came from, so don’t ask…That’s beside the point. Anyway, all this space dust and these gases run into each other, and BOOM! There’s the earth. Not only was the earth made that way, but everything about it fell into place so perfectly that it was the absolutely ideal place for producing and evolving life.”

Yesterday, I was smoking a cigarette in the factory I own where I manufacture dynamite, kerosene, and matchsticks. Not a wise move on my part. The whole place blew up. When the smoke cleared, it was revealed that all the matchsticks had fallen into place so perfectly they formed an exact replica of Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, complete with the three-hole basement privy where I’m quite sure he wrote the Declaration of Independence.

Something about the alternative story sounds just as impossible as the Tall Tale. Sometimes I just look at the alternative, and I can just as easily believe that the German government is breeding mind-controlled monkeys and teaching them to play Scrabble and eat my friend, Twig (a real dream I had after eating at a Chinese buffet late one night). I think the real problem I have with the alternative story is not that any geological evidence is contrary to the thought of a big bang, nor that the fossil record points us in a different direction than evolution. I think it’s just the idea that the whole universe was a cosmic accident; an intergalactic combo of sneezing and simultaneous passing of gas, if you will. Could it really have just been dumb luck, an embarrassing “oops” that has resulted in the amazing mess we live in today?

I believe the Tall Tale. Not because any Sunday School teacher or my Mama or any hell-fire preacher told me to. I believe it because I just can’t conceive a better explanation for things. But still, even what I believe with all my heart to be true sounds impossible.

I would never say that I know exactly how it all came to be. “In the beginning…” confuses me at times. Sometimes there seems to be an information deficit at the “In the beginning…” portion of the story. I believe in the Author of the Tall Tale, and I know that he knows how it all happened, and it appears to me that he wrote down about as much of that part of the story as he intended for any of us to know. I’ll never be fool enough to tell somebody that I have all the facts of “In the beginning…” figured out, and I know exactly how it happened. I think people who are convinced that they know all the details of “In the beginning…”, regardless of which side of the fence they stand on, are just kidding themselves, doing their best to make themselves believe they really have some knowledge that is deeply hidden from the rest of us all. Whether it was 6000 or 10,000 or 100 billion years ago, I just can’t say I know for sure. Then again, me believing in the Tall Tale and all, I can’t rightly say that the Author of the Tale intended for us to debate “In the beginning…” as much as we do. Just like the scientists and critical thinkers always say, “Don’t worry about where the space dust and gases came from…That’s not the point”, I believe that those of us who believe in the Tall Tale also have to focus on what’s really important…The whole story. The Author wrote all the facts about “In the beginning…” that we need to know. Those facts are an important part of the story, but they are not the whole story. Me being the deep and analytical thinker that I am (not), I think the real point of “In the beginning…” is that this whole production of asteroids and cosmic dust and earth and sky and light and gravitational pulls and frozen moons wasn’t just a chance occurrence. The real point is that “In the beginning…” was an action taken with forethought.

God is not a reactionary God. He is a God of forethought. He didn’t look down one day on Israel, and say, “Oh snap! Pharaoh has done made all my people slaves! Who was in charge of that situation? I better raise up a leader, and get those folks out of this mess. What’s that dude Moses doing these days? What? He killed somebody!?! He’s working as a goat herder!?! Man, if you want something done right around here, you just have to do it yourself! Now somebody get me some matches. I’m about to light that bush he’s laying next to on fire and fix this mess.”

The Author of the Tall Tale doesn’t think that way at all. He didn’t see a troubled situation, then develop a leader to overcome it. He knew the whole story before it even started, and sewed it all together perfectly through a Tale that covers thousands of years, millions of lives, dozens of biographies, sixty-six books, and a whole bunch of blood, intrigue, romance, rebellion, bravery, heartbreak, and triumph. Creation is a great part of the Tale, but it’s not the whole story.

The author of the Tall Tale does some backtracking once you’re about halfway through with the whole story. He does that kind of thing occasionally, to tie the whole story together in our minds, to help us understand the complete picture of what’s happening in the Tale. Kind of like a soap opera that shows you Lance Buckstrong, handsome police investigator, having a flashback during the funeral of a wealthy tycoon who was murdered. Buckstrong looks at the grieving widow, Camilla Brightface, and remembers that night of passion she and Lance shared, then recalls that moment when she said “I need to go now…I have to see about taking out some extra life insurance on my beau…By the way, can I borrow your pistol?” Of course, that makes it all come together in his head. Buck arrests Camilla, and it all makes sense to us, even if we missed the previous episode. The scriptwriter gave us a moment inside of Buck’s memory to help understand the story as it unfolds. The author of the Tale inserts the same kinds of thoughts in his story to cause it all to make sense to the reader, to help us understand The Whole Story.

You get to a part of the Tall Tale called John. John is telling his part of the story, and in order to tie it all together, to make what has already happened relate to what is about to happen, he has a flashback to “In the beginning…”, just in case we need a little reminder that the Author had the whole story mapped out before it was written.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

It sounds really complicated, but it’s truly pretty simple. The Word…That just represents the thoughts and emotions and ideas of God, and all those thoughts and emotions and ideas culminate themselves into the major player in the Tall Tale, a God-Man named Jesus. All those thoughts and emotions and ideas were always there, so the God-Man was there, too. God is a God of forethought. He didn’t decide one day to make the universe, tap one of the angels on the shoulder, and say “Watch this” with a sly grin on his face. He didn’t make everything explode just to startle Lucifer and make him jump and drop his hair care products while he was primping in a mirror. John reminds us that God made everything, he has a plan, and that the plan is about to come together, through the power of the Author and the God-Man. The whole story is about to start making sense.

The Author of the Tall Tale doesn’t think like the rest of us. We have a temporary perspective on things, while he sees the whole story laid out in front of him. The Author just takes a little pause in John to remind us that he doesn’t think like us. He thinks ahead, and we don’t. Chaos theory says that I can drop a tub of butter on the floor in my kitchen, the impact will cause a termite to fall and hit the ground under my house, the termite will crawl out from under the house into a bed of fire ants, the ants will go crazy and crawl out of their hole, I’ll walk outside and step in the ants, get to slapping and stomping the ground, then somebody driving down the road will see me pulling off my britches in the front yard, lust will fill their hearts, they’ll run off the road, hit a tree, and if you keep playing out the scenario, you can directly link my clumsiness with butter to the earthquake that happens in Argentina six hours later.

If I really had forethought, and chaos theory is true, then I would hold on to my butter a lot tighter. I would probably also eat a lot less Mayfield chocolate ice cream, because I would be able to see myself as a morbidly obese 50 year old, instead of the moderately obese 40 year old I am now.

The point is this…No matter how hard I try, I just can’t see the big picture. Somehow, though, the Author can. I have started writing my little survey of his Tall Tale, and I’m not real sure what the last sentence of it is going to say. With him, though, it’s different. When he wrote, “In the beginning…”, he already knew what the ending was going to be, and every detail in between. He wrote the story in his mind before it ever made it to paper. He made the whole thing, and without him, none of it was made.

And it was good.

The Tall Tale

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Mon, 22 May 2006 23:02:00 +0000

-TIONS, APPLES, AND NAILS

If there’s any reason at all I’m writing this little essay about the greatest tall tale ever written, it’s because of all the controversy over the -tions.

Let me explain. I call the Bible a tall tale not because I think it’s a crazy myth that’s good for bedtime stories and nothing else. This is the holy book, the only book to be held in the highest regard. I call it The Tall Tale because it has all of the great elements of those epic story tales that captivated us as children. In myth, Pecos Bill rode the whirlwind, just as the real Elijah did thousands of years before. Moses parted the waters of the Red Sea so Israel could walk across the desert for forty years, eons before Johnny Appleseed ever thought of walking across America planting fruit trees. In fable, the giant Paul Bunyan could fell a forest with a swing of his axe; In reality, a vertically challenged boy with a bad complexion named David used a strap of leather and a small stone to fell a career warrior that measured in at over nine feet tall. John Henry, my personal favorite amongst the tall tale heroes, gave his life to show that man’s idea of progress isn’t always best; Jesus Christ, the epic God-Man center of The Tall Tale, gave his life to show that man’s idea of salvation was perfectly flawed.

The Bible is a radically true myth; a real legend; a scholarly study in impossible fact; the best collection of children’s bedtime stories ever assembled; the greatest biography/adventure novel/history book/life manual ever written; the tallest tale one could ever imagine.

People want to believe it. It’s a great story. The problem is, people get hung up on the -tions in and surrounding The Tall Tale.

Crea-tion. Immaculate concep-tion. Transfigura-tion. Resurrec-tion. Salva -tion. Sanctifica-tion. Justifica-tion. Predestina-tion. Revela-tion. Tribula-tion.

People just can’t agree on how all these things occurred, or whether they even occurred (or will occur) at all. Even the church, with all its sub-groups and sects and denominational squabbles over the -tions , can’t agree on these matters.

“Was the world and all in it really created in seven days? Seven thousand years? Or is the alternative to crea-tion, evolu-tion the answer?”

“Was Jesus born in a manger or a cave? Is the whole idea of Mary being impregnated by the Holy Spirit just conjecture, truth, or a young girl’s alibi for getting knocked up during a time feverishly filled with religious superstition?”

“Was John the Baptist the incarnation of the prophet Elijah?”

“Did Jesus really rise from the dead? Or is the whole thing about Easter just something figurative to give us hope and an excuse to buy new pastel clothing every spring?”

“Is Jesus really the only way to heaven?”

“Should we totally separate ourselves from people who aren’t Christians?”

“Is it really just faith that saves us? Shouldn’t something else be required?”

“When is Jesus coming back?”

Here’s another hot, divisive -tion for American culture today: “It’s an elec-tion year, so you better vote righeousness!” (Uhhhh…didn’t Paul say, “There is none righteous, no not one…?”).

Since us as Christians can’t get it together on the -tions, why in the world would we expect non-believers to desire this Christ of the Bible we all love so dearly? The worst by-product of all of this is that since we’ve become a culture of debaters within our own body, within the church, we’ve given non-believers, doubters, and seekers the perfect path out of knowing Christ. We’ve taught them all to debate the fine points, the -tions, when we could have offered them the one point we all agree on (or at least we should)---Christ.

Go to any college town in the United States, and attempt to find ten students who aren’t believers. Witness to them. In most cases, they won’t even attempt to argue Christ or who He was and is. They want to talk about the big –tion,. crea-tion and evolu-tion.

You can’t make them focus on Christ. If you do capture their full attention for a moment, and steer their thoughts toward Jesus, the doubts in their conversation will likely shift to resurrec-tion. They just can’t make themselves believe in something that sounds so impossible, so mythological, so unreal, so heroic. It’s hard to comprehend, to think that it could really be true.

The -tions are important. They are entirely relevant in every Biblical discussion you could ever have. One thing you will see in this little essay on The Tall Tale, though, is an emphasis on a thing I like to call The Whole Story. The Whole Story is the essence of The Tall Tale, the meaning and spirit and intent of it all. So without further adieu, I give you The Whole Story:

Apples and nails.

The End.

Adam and Eve ate an apple they shouldn’t have eaten, and the price for their crime was the death penalty. That penalty has been passed down generation to generation, all the way to us. For the death penalty to be satisfied, someone must die. That someone was Jesus. The method of death---He was nailed to a cross.

Apples and nails.

Here you will find a ordinary man’s interpretation of bits and pieces of the most complexly simple book ever written. Here we’re going to run as fast as we can from the -tions, and dive into the arms of the truly important aspects of The Tall Tale---things like love, grace, passion, power, etc., etc.

Deep enough to drown an elephant, shallow enough for a child to play in.

Welcome to The Tall Tale.

STRONG WORDS

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Thu, 13 Apr 2006 18:14:00 +0000

Easter brings about a ton of different emotions in me. Yesterday, I spent most of the day working on a powerpoint presentation at our communion service last night, helping set up the Gold Room for the service, running errands, and just generally going crazy most of the day. I ended up searching the internet for photos, and these were the words I "googled", trying to find images to use in the powerpoint presentation. If you are a Christian, the words alone should spark great emotion.

Sin

Washing Feet

Communion

Bread and Wine

Last Supper

Prayer in the Garden

Betrayal

Trial of Christ

Scourge

Cross

Crucifixion

Nails

Blood

Atonement

Passion

Preparing the Body

Burial

Empty Tomb

Resurrection

Jesus

Enough said.

Peace---

Pastor Lee

Greater love has not a man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.---John 15:13

THE GREAT EXCHANGE

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Thu, 06 Apr 2006 20:10:00 +0000

Recently, I was honored to be a guest speaker at MCHS's basketball banquet. I found myself surrounded by an extraordinary group of individuals. Now, you might think to yourself, "What in the world makes someone special, just because they cheer or play basketball?" These students are unique not only because they participate in an activity that only about 2-3 percent of the student body is a part of; not just because they have special abilities that other students lack; not because they work out harder or run faster or jump higher than others in their age bracket. What makes these students truly special is that they understand a principle of life that most individuals, even adults, just don't get---The principle of exchange.

I asked around the room how long particular students have been involved with basketball. The responses came readily---"4 years....7 years...9 years". One young lady had been involved in cheering for almost 10 years!

This may not sound to you like much of an achievement...To have run lines and shot free throws and fallen off of human pyramids for 9 or 10 years, but I find it quite extraordinary. Think about it---If you are a teenager in Northeast Georgia, and you complete four years of high school, then you are the exception to the rule. If you finish high school, and go on the college, it's a safe bet that you will only complete about 1 1/2 years of post-high school study. Once you get your first job as an adult, you are most likely to quit before you've worked there 3 years. Marriage is considered to be the most important commitment we will ever make, but the average marriage lasts less than 5 years.

If you commit to dribbling a ball, doing herkies, or playing tiddly winks for 10 years, then you are an absolute freak of nature in the culture we live in today!

The principle of exchange is this---Every day, when you get out of bed, you have a cause in life that you are willing to pour yourself out for, a great cause that you believe is bigger than yourself. Most of us lack this in life....We lack something that we are willing to give our very lives for. A young man or woman who has played basketball for 9 years has given his life in terms of time and sweat and effort and energy. Christ calls us to an even greater exchange, though...To be willing to give ourselves, even to the point of death, for the cause of Christ. A lot of people will pour out massive amounts of energy to be great at a sport, but not many are willing to die for it.

Athletics...careers...hobbies...money...We all pour out our lives for these things. In the Bible, though, a man named Saul poured himself out for something different. He poured himself out for the law. In her great book To Live is Christ, Beth Moore gives a detailed account of what Saul's life would have been like before he knew Christ. Saul would wake up in the morning, and put on his clothing in a specific order...If he put something on in the wrong order, he had to undress and start over. He considered dressing "out of turn" sin. He would tie phylacteries, little leather cubes containing pieces of scripture, around his forehead and left wrist after he was dressed, and he must have this done and done properly by the time it was daylight enough to recognize your neighbor when they were six feet away. If he didn't have this task done in time, it was sin. If he cut his fingernails during the day, he couldn't just trim them in order, like we do...He had to alternate fingers as he trimmed them, then immediately take the nails outside and burn them. It was considered sin to have dead things, like fingernail clippings, in the home. Saul would not spit on the ground on the Sabbath, for fear that his saliva might fall on a seed and cause it to grow, meaning that he had worked on God's holy day of rest...Sin. When Saul undressed at night, he had to remove his clothing in perfect order, or he would have to redress himself, and start over. He would do his best to fall asleep on his left side, for the health of his heart, and wake up on his right side, for the health of his liver. If he slept wrong, Saul considered it sin (If the rules about being still when you're sleeping are true, then my wife is most certainly going to hell).

Saul gave his life for the law. That was his great exchange, and he was good at it....He even called himself "the Hebrew of all Hebrews", meaning he kept the law better than anyone.

When Saul encountered Christ, though, everything changed. When Saul realized inside himself that he could not win the love of God through his own efforts, he made the greatest exchange possible....His life for Christ. Everything about him changed, including his name...Saul became Paul. Paul would go on to become one of the greatest missionaries in history. His life was truly poured out "like a drink offering" for Jesus. Paul, given the choice of denying Christ or losing his life, proclaimed Jesus as the Messiah until the moment he was executed for being a Christian.

We live such comfortable lives. Lately, I've been feeling a lot of personal guilt over what I don't and won't give up for Jesus. Sometimes I think I have great ideas for books I could write that would give Him great glory, but I value my time spent in front of the television way too much to devote my energy to writing about Him. In other moments, I think, "Man, I love going to the homeless shelter and telling people about Jesus...I wish I could do that every night!" The truth of the matter is, I could do that every night, if I was willing. Sometimes I think, "Well, I want to make sure I get my rest, so I can live long and run a great race for Jesus!" Other times, I think "God, if I die tomorrow, have I really done all that you want me to do?"

It's a real dilemma...The demands of life versus The call to follow Christ. I want to follow Him, but more often than not, I don't. I just finished an incredible book by Steven James called Story, in which He frames Jesus' call to exchange our lives for His in these words..."So what do you say? Will you follow Me, or just keep admiring Me?"

My prayer today is that when all of history is played out, that I won't be remembered as just a fan of God's, but that I would be remembered as someone who picked up their cross and carried it daily. God calls us to be much more than casual observers, pew jockeys, and loyal church attendees. He calls us to give up our lives to give Him glory. In Eugene Peterson's The Message, Paul, as a new Christian, plans to go to Jerusalem, where his life will most certainly be in danger. He has rejected the religious system there, in favor of Jesus. Some discourage Paul from going, and he replied to them by saying "My life is worth nothing unless I use it to tell others abouts God's wonderful kindness and love."

The same statement is true for all of us. He gave His life for ours...We give our lives for Him. That is the great exchange.

Peace---

Pastor Lee

For when I tried to keep the law, I realized I could never earn God's approval. So I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ. I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me................................................................Galatians 2:19-20

Mt. Everest Christianity

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Sun, 12 Mar 2006 01:32:00 +0000

Blessed are those who realize their need for God, for the kingdom of heaven will be given to them. Matthew 5:3 (NLT)

I used to be impressed with things I could do. Believe it or not, I used to be a decent athlete. I wasn’t great at any sport in particular, but I thought I was pretty good at everything I tried. I played everything. From March-Sept., I played softball, 5-6 days per week. Sept.-Nov.---volleyball. Nov.-Feb---basketball. If I didn’t have anything else to do, I played tennis. I went to UGA, and I once changed majors because the PE majors wanted me to play intramural basketball with them. I was really a serious student---Not. I quit college for a while, but eventually a friend of mine talked me into going back---So I could play flag football on his team at Gainesville College. Later on, the same guy tried to get me to transfer to Piedmont with him to play baseball. I thought that I was really something, and I always had this fantasy that sports was where I would make my mark. I would accomplish great things in sports, and people would remember me for it. I always said that I wanted my kids to remember me as an athlete.

Today, I’m not as athletic as I used to be, and I’m not even remembered or well-known for my athletic achievements. In fact, it kind of depressed me the other night, when I was working on this sermon, Carly said, “Wow, you are really a good typist!” I almost started crying. I mean, I wanted to be the third baseman for the New York Yankees, not a really good typist from Ila.

When I got saved, though, God changed my dreams. I used to want to be a great athlete. That was my ultimate goal, the destination I was working hard to reach. God set my sights much higher, though. He challenged to aspire to a level of righteousness that I had never even considered before,
to reach a place in life where I handle all of life’s problemss like cheerios in milk --- to be Unsinkable! When you reach unsinkable, you can take anything---You can be tortured, thrown in jail, even killed, and you still have perfect peace and joy. He challenges me to be Immovable---so confident in what you believe that people who are against what you stand for don’t dare oppose you. They fear you---Not shaking “I’m scared of you” fear, but “I respect you so much that I would never mess with you or doubt anything you say” fear. God demands that I be Unbelievable, not living for the approval of other people, money, or possessions. What you really want, if you're unbelievable, is to be broken, to give your entire life for Jesus---Being willing to go anywhere, do anything, and give up everything so that Jesus can be lifted up. God wants us to be Unbreakable---You win battles over temptation and sin every day of your life. Instead of walking on the line as close to sin as you can get, you run from it, no matter what anybody might think. Finally God calls us to be Immortal. Jesus becomes more to you than just some fairy tale preacher in the Bible. He becomes real to you. His voice becomes more familiar and meaningful to you than your closest friends and family. You hear His words spoken, and they make you cry, shout, and bow down in worship. You know Him so intimately, you recognize the sound of His heartbeat. You see Him in the tallest mountains and hear Him in the laughter of little children. You understand what most people don’t…He’s everywhere, always has been , always will be.

Sometimes, I think I can get there. I think that all I have to do is read my Bible for hours every day, wake up at 5AM to pray, fast a few times every week, go on a whole bunch of mission trips, and just make myself appear very Godly in my behavior, then I'll be on top of that Mt. Everest of holiness and righteousness. I mean, that’s how life works---If you practice shooting free throws for 6 hours every day, you’ll be great at it. Work out 4 hours/day, 7 days/week, and you’ll be a champion bodybuilder. Christianity doesn’t work that way, though---It seems like the harder I try, the farther I have to climb up that big spiritual mountain.

A few years ago, my niece moved into a new apartment in Athens, on the third story of a building with no elevator. Me, my brother, and my brother-in-law, we’re all being macho, and carrying the heaviest stuff we can pick up. She had this chair that was just enormously heavy, and extremely awkward to carry. I picked it up, all by my mighty self. My brother-in-law asked if I needed help, and of course, I said “No.” About 20 minutes later, I had made it about halfway up the first flight of stairs, and my brother and brother-in-law were both standing up on the 3^rd floor, laughing at me. I looked up and said, “I think I need a little help”. My brother-in-law said, “No, I think you need a lot of help.”

As Christians, our goal is to become this picture - perfect reflection of Jesus Christ. We try, and most often, we fail. We get tired or angry or frustrated, and a lot of times, we give up. Eventually, we must get to the point where we say, “Uh ,God, I think I need a little help down here.” God, in His kindness, always looks down, and He says “I think I’ll give you a lot of help, instead of just a little.” Sometimes God uses our failures to help us see our giant need for assistance. God uses His law the same way…Without the law, God's commandments, we won't recognize the areas in our lives where we fall short, and we don’t know that we need a Savior . If you don’t know you’re lost, it never matters to you if you’re found. If you don’t know what being blind is, you don’t know what an impossibly great dream it is to see.

God wants us to dream impossible dreams, and He teaches us in His Word that the impossible is made possible only by Him (Luke 18:27). We can never climb this mountain alone. But is you ask God to take over your life, then all of a sudden, the dream becomes reality. Here’s how climbing that Mt. Everest of Christianity works---

1) Believe in the impossible, and chase after it.

2) Lose faith in yourself---Stop believing in yourself---Believe in God! Ask Him to show you how desperately you need a Savior, and start trusting Him to take you where He wants you to be.

3) Allow yourself to be carried---Give up control of your life totally---being carried by someone means you’re going wherever they take you, and you’ll trust them to get you there.

For I, though I tried to carry out God’s holy expectations, have come to my end and lost faith in myself that I might now live unto God. I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So I live my life in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loves me and gave Himself for me.
Galatians 2:19-20

Props to Eric and Leslie Ludy, When God Writes Your Life Story

Peace---

Pastor Lee

The Endless Frontier

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 20:53:00 +0000

What a week! It's been a busy, and sometimes even discouraging week. In the midst of all the business of everyday life, though, I've discovered a real gem of a book-------"When God Writes Your Life Story" by Eric and Leslie Ludy.

This book really slams home a point God made Himself in Luke 18:27---"The things that are impossible with men are possible with Christ." We as Christians often forget that Jesus is capable of doing anything...ANYTHING... through us. We forget this fact, and often end up settling for a mundane, meaningless existence. Life becomes more about what we DON'T do, instead of what we do.

What does this mean for Christians specifically? Well, what we DON'T do is sin...at least that's what we try to make everyone think. We try to appear all spotless and perfect on the outside, even if we're falling apart spiritually, emotionally, physically, etc., etc. That seems to have become the goal of the Christian life...just look good. We've become obsessed with this idea that the answer to "WWJD" is....just don't sin...or at least don't get caught.

The book "Dirty Faith" responds to "WWJD" this way: "HDYKWJWDIYDKWHD?"

"How do you know what Jesus would do if you don't know what He did?"

It's a compelling question. It blows out of the water the idea that "Christian living" means not doing something. It rightly implies that following Christ is a lot more meaningful than what we don't do...It requires action. Our faith is not measured just by the sins we don't commit, it also is weighed by what we do with the opportunities to do good that God presents to us on a daily basis.

Look around us. Homelessness in Athens. Addiction and heartache and loneliness in our own community. Aids in Africa. Genocide in the Sudan. Ethnic hate in Eastern Europe. Most of the world bound for eternity in hell.

You might think, "Those things are on the other side of the world...I'm can't do anything about that...What if I try to do something and fail?...I'm just not big or rich or important or famous enough to do anything about all that!"

If you read the Bible, it's filled with stories about men and women of action, men and women who were insignificant in the eyes of the world, but allowed God to work through them to accomplish the impossible. I love to read about David. David was short, had a bad complexion, was disobedient, adulterous, watched Saul pee in a cave, didn't fulfill his responsibilities as a king, made terrible choices as a father, and was left-handed (I really think there's something wrong with left-handed people---maybe I'll write on that sometime). Despite all this, God used David, as a teenager, to kill a 9 foot tall warrior that an entire army was scared to death of. I love David's actions as he's moving toward the giant---He pauses to pick up "5 smooth stones". What that tells us is that if he didn't kill Goliath with the first rock, he wasn't quitting. He saw the impossible problem, and dove in head-first to do something about it.

There is an endless frontier of problems/opportunities that God presents us with in this world. He intends for us to attack them with passion and fire, with a "never, never, never, never quit" attitude.

What great thing will you allow God to do with your life?

The Love Connection

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 16:05:00 +0000

MCHS was quite a scene this morning, with all the girls going crazy over their Valentine's candy and stuffed animals, and the guys walking around holding balloons---You know, it is really difficult for a teenage guy to maintain an adequate level of street credibility when he's carrying around a bunch of Care Bear balloons! I did see one dude this morning, carrying an enormous pile of balloons, and he had his slow, "Yea, I'm tough...Go ahead...Say somethin' about my heart-shaped balloons"...strut going on. It was pretty funny.

Yes, it's the season of love! Delta Worship this Wednesday is going to be all about love---We've got a little activity planned for our adults that we're calling the "Love Connection", and we'll have plenty of Valentine's treats for everyone, so you'll all be good and hyper while I'm preaching! We're going to be hitting purity pretty hard this Wednesday, but don't expect to hear what you've always heard before---Not one time will you hear me say that sex is a bad thing (Gasp! I can hear the parents speed-dialing Pastor Joe even as I type!). Sex isn't bad---In fact, it's good. In fact, it's really good---As long as it's done in the right context. God created sex---He told Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to be fruitful and multiply---And He wasn't talking about doing math!

We are created to have physical relationships in the context of marriage---one-on-one, for as long as we live. God wired us that way. It's pretty amazing---We are the most intelligent creatures that God made, but we can't seem to grasp the idea of having one mate for life. Orangutans get it---They only have one mate for life. So do chimpanzees, penguins, and doves. Doves have the smallest brain of any bird of flight---They are so dumb, they are the number one source of food for every bird of prey in North America---But they understand that God only made them to have one mate, for life.

Dogs don't get this. Dogs will mate with any other dog they see, as well as throw pillows and random people legs and pieces of furniture. Dogs also eat their own throw-up and poo. This should tell you something about the mindset of people who are out to have sex with as many other people as possible. We'll get more in-depth into the mind of the dog, and what the Bible says about sex and sexual immorality tomorrow night.

In First Priority today, Karen Yuhas did a great job of speaking on the importance of doing daily devotions, spending quality, intimate time with God. Christians and non-Christians alike will spend tons of money today on flowers, balloons, and candy, and then devote our time to the people we care about by taking them to dinner, going to movies, and what not. We devote our energies to showing love to the people that already know we love them. I'm reminded today that Jesus called us to even higher standard---to love God with ALL our hearts, to love our enemies, and to love our neighbors without narrowly defining who our neighbors are. Everyone has heard John 3:16---"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but shall have eternal life." Not so many folks have memorized I John 3:16, though---"We know what love is because Jesus loved us, and gave up His life for us, so we ought to also give up our lives for others." Take time today to let Jesus know how much you appreciate what He did for you, and do something nice today for someone that you normally wouldn't be so good to, in addition to the folks that already receive your love on a daily basis. Love God, love people--those are our greatest commands.

Peace---

Pastor Lee

Ultimate Freedom

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Thu, 02 Feb 2006 20:40:00 +0000

Welcome to goDelta! We've spent the past several weeks discussing Psalm 119:32---"I run in the path of Your commands, because You have set my heart free." It seems like a huge contradiction. Freedom seems to imply that you can do whatever you want to do---No boundaries, no rules, no authority figures to answer to. But here in Psalms, David is writing that he's free, so he's going to follow God's commands. We've been exploring what those commands are, those things that God really wants us to live by. I mean, how do we really know how He wants us to live?

I thought a lot about this, and I figure if God is a father, then He probably teaches us life lessons the same way our own parents do. If your mom or dad wants you to do things a certain way, they probably tell you how to do it over and over again, until they're sure you've got the point. God works the same way. The things that He really wants us to get right, He repeats time and time again in the Bible, His love letter/life manual written to us.

So what are the things He wants us to do? We're taking a month or so during Delta Worship on Wednesday nights to really explore this question. We probably could never squeeze in all the things God wants us to do, but we're hitting what we can. We're not just regurgitating the ten commandments, though; instead, we're exploring the whole Bible, finding the things that God repeats to us time and time again.

We started with two statements that have basically the same meaning---"You shall have no other Gods before Me" and "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength". Different statements, but they have the same spirit--Put God first. God tell us five different times that this is a really big deal (Exodus 20:3, Deuteronomy 6:5, Matthew 22:37, Mark 12:30, and Luke 10:27). How do we show God we love Him more than anything? In John 21, Jesus told Peter three times that if he really loved Him, he would "Feed His sheep". In other words, tell people about Jesus and care for them.

Next, Jesus tells us three times (Matthew 22:39, Mark 12:31, and Luke 10:27) to "Love your neighbor as yourself". We all need to work on this----We as Christians have to be careful to not make church into a "God box" where we leave Jesus after we visit with Him for a while on Sundays. I John 3:16 says that "We know what love is because Christ gave up His life for us...and so we also ought to give up our lives for others." "Conservative Christian" is a hot catch phrase these days, but we can't afford to be "conservative" with our love; instead, we should give our love recklessly, dangerously even, so others will know that what we stand for is real.
Then, we covered "The one you don't want to hear" if you're a teenager---"Honor your father and mother, so that you may live a long life" (Exodus 20:3). I researched what the Bible says about honoring your parents, and before I got even halfway through, I found this command mentioned no less than 45 different times, worded in many different ways. This was a great night---Derek Aponte gave his life to Christ, and several students made commitments to get their relationships with their parents right.

The fourth command we've covered is "Watch Your Mouth!" God instructs us to do this in three different ways---don't take His name in vain (mentioned at least 18 times); don't lie (at least ten times); and don't murder. What! Don't murder?!? We're talking about murder by mouth, which includes two things---harsh words (Matt. 5:22 and Proverbs 12:6) and gossip (at least 23 times).

We'll wrap up this series (maybe) after two more weeks---Next Wednesday (Feb. 9), we'll cover adultery in a way you probably haven't heard before; Then we're going to have Valentine's blowout on Feb. 15 called "The Love Connection". Hope to see everybody there.

Peace----Pastor Lee
I Thessalonians 2:8

Welcome!

noreply@blogger.com (pastor lee) — Wed, 25 Jan 2006 16:23:00 +0000

Welcome to goDelta, the official website of Delta Student Ministries! We're thrilled that you have visited today, and hope you'll take some time to explore our page. Carly, the youth pastor's wife/boss/lead guitarist, has put a tremendous amount of time and effort into creating a web environment for our students that is fun, informative, and grows them and their families closer to Christ. You'll find a little bit of everything on Godelta---links to musical artists, missionaries, activists, and cool places; music, book, movie, and television reviews; a weekly synopsis of what students are learning in Delta Worship on Wednesday nights; a "safe" message board for our students and staff members to use; a calendar showing all of Delta's upcoming events; and many other links that will hopefully inspire our teenagers and adults alike. Our purpose at Delta is to "Love God, love people". Our message is "Helping students live more passionate lives". Our goal is to "Reach the world for Christ". We're praying that God will use Delta, our students, and this site to do just that. Thanks to Miss Carly for taking on this major project. Enjoy your visit to Godelta. Peace.......