Today’s groovy topic might cause you to flip your wig if you can’t dig it. It will play with your head. I’m hoping this blog will make you mellow and not be a bummer, but who knows. It might just send you trippin’. Slang. We all use it. Check Google, and you can find popular slang by the decade to refresh your memory. That doesn’t even include jargon, which is work slang developed around any job or work type or situation.

Each generation creates its own way of saying things, short cuts, slapped-together metaphors, references, allusions, images, or, now, techno types of things like emojis. I’m sure the parents of Egyptian teens were wondering what the teens were saying during the time the pyramids were being built. It seems to be human nature.

Slang is a way of inclusion and exclusion. It separates those in the know from those who aren’t. Civil war youth had an entire language with fans, flowers, and gloves to give dating cues to the opposite sex in ways that the parental chaperones could not get. Slang can be subversive. It is weaponized communications used in many ways to include, exclude, separate, isolate, intimidate, love on, and meet many other needs of the communicator, sometimes just self affirmation.

I think about this when I overhear Christian speak. Christians have their own language, slang, short cuts, logic, and Bible based understanding. It is beautiful when they are together and have the same Christian speak. However, it is painful when Christian speak is used with non believers.

I’ve heard witnessing persons ask a person if they were “saved.” That is a question that a Christian would understand because it carries a lot of logic and theology with the term. A non-Christian won’t understand that. They will probably understand a potential threat and that they have been made a target, but not understand the term.

Christians use scriptures to verify their thoughts which is great, except when they are doing so with a non believer who does not recognize or understand the Bible. Jesus told parables. He explained heavenly principles in the terms the common man could understand. He only used the Bible terminology with the Pharisees and Sadducees who were trained in their common faith. Jesus communicates with us in ways that we can understand. That is loving.

I am challenged to consider how I am communicating. Am I forcing others to understand me and my thinking processes, or am I trying to understand them so I can communicate clearly and thoughtfully? Am I stretching to understand and love them, or forcing them to stretch and understand me? The truth of Jesus and heaven can be told in any language, circumstance, culture, and career. Jesus proved that in the way He taught and shared.

Seeing the beauty of God everywhere and in everything is encouraging. That encouragement can and should be shared. We are called to witness, but not to alienate through thoughtless language and slang.

I once was invited to a ministry at a retirement home for military personnel. I was extremely concerned because I had never been in the military and didn’t know how to talk to them. I realized that all I had to do was listen. Jesus had been every place they had gone and with them through all they had experienced. All I had to do was listen, and I would be able to point the Lord out to them in their own life experience. It was not about me, my understanding, or my slang. It was about the creator of the universe who truly and deeply loves everyone.

I have grown addicted to the GPS apps. Someone sends me an address, and the app will tell me where to go, how to get there, and which is the best route to take. Some GPS apps even include all the details like slow traffic, interruptions, road hazards, police, and all the places you might want to stop along the way. Convenient right? So – do you know where you are? Ask Siri or Alexa. They know.

I’ve often thought about the Tardis in Dr. Who and Hermione’s carry-all bag in Harry Potter. They are bigger on the inside than they are on the outside. Humans are that way. We are much bigger on the inside than our outsides show. We have years of history, places, things, emotions, memories all jogging along with our feet during our daily movements. The demoniac in Luke 8 had enough room to house a legion of demons who took out a herd of pigs when he was delivered. Our souls are greater than houses holding on to all kinds of treasures and junk. We carry all that while we are growing and gathering more.

Periodically, people, like me, take on a project to dejunk. It is shocking how much I have in closets and storage. My heart, soul, and mind are bigger than that, filled with all kinds of stuff. You might even think of the inner you as being as big as a city, a country, or a world when you consider all it contains. The GPS maps can’t map that. Ask Siri or Alexa where you are in the inner dimension and you won’t find any coordinates or directions. I think that many times you can’t know where you are except by looking back at where you were after the fact because our hindsight is better, or seemingly more clear, than present sight.

We actually do have an internal GPS called the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes to live in us upon the day of salvation when we join Jesus’s family. The Holy Spirit knows where He is in each of us. The Holy Spirit is constantly at work, walking the streets and hallways of the interior world of a child of God, mapping territories, cleaning closets, repairing destroyed areas, and proclaiming the Kingdom of God to all the areas inside that secretly don’t want to come under the authority of God.

The New Testament tells us how Jesus walked through Israel doing the wonderful things He did to free people and bring them in to the joy of the life He offered them. He is doing that in each of us, walking through all the inner areas of our souls bringing His life, love, hope, and healing, piece by piece, event by event, area by area throughout the entirety of our being. The Holy Spirit is our GPS.

We can see His footprints and know where He is and where we are with Him. How? Consider — How many times a day are you reminded to do the right thing? Be loving? Forgive someone? Pray? Be honest or thoughtful? Get a sudden insight that teaches you how to be a better you? Get a revelation or any kind of experience that draws/points you in the direction of Jesus? Get an understanding of Bible verses that you’ve read dozens of times and experience it like you are truly seeing it for the first time? Finding the Holy Spirit isn’t playing “Where’s Waldo” because He is busy talking to us all day, every day, in ways that make our lives, and we as people, better and closer to our Lord Jesus.

I can’t watch “I Love Lucy” because it embarasses me. How can a TV show do that? Easy. I think I got a silly gene from somewhere, and funny things happen to me. I’m the guy who could stand up in a restaurant, knocking over the waiter with a tray of hot soup, which lands on the next table, creating total chaos, that escalates through the restaurant. 

I didn’t want to pass the silly gene on, but my youngest son got a dose of it. He really makes it work. His children adore him, as he adores them. I see in him, and his version of the silly gene, a complete lack of pretence or self presumption. In him, the silly gene is the ability to lovingly and innocuously move to any level with any person, even a small child, and communicate. I’ve seen people without the silly gene be able to do the same thing. Maybe I’m the only one who gets the embarrassing side of the silly gene, but I don’t think so.

Embarrassment comes when irony happens in real life, the opposite to what you should reasonably expect. (The teacher in me had to add that definition.)  It is that moment you get in your car to head to get some new tires and find that all four tires are flat. I have learned to fight the rigid fight response to those moments, because anger is a native best friend to embarrassment. Learning to accept and go with the humor of the moment is the opposite of my natural response, but the one that works the best. So why bring this up?

God very often works in complete opposition to human normal. His kingdom is upside down to our way of thinking. Leaders are to be servants, the first shall be last, in giving you will receive. His ways aren’t our ways unless we are learning to be more like Him, which has to be an intentional choice. It is learned behavior to let our guard down, give up our pretense and our self presumption. 

Time has taught me that those embarrassing moments become bonding moments between myself and those who love me. They see me as I am and accept me when I’m silly and when I’m not. We gain intimacy, depth, and joy through all the good and bad moments because love accepts and encourages. It builds up without tearing down. It allows you to be completely yourself without the defenses that always lead to conflict and division. 

Destructive defenses destroy relationships and potential relationships. The “I must look good according to how I think others see me” creates walls and warfare which not only hurt others, but keeps a person from receiving the love and healing so desperately needed by everyone. God’s way is upside down, but it works. Love has no need for walls, defenses, or perfection from anyone. Love does not fight to maintain an image of self, but it relies on the truth.

I guess that it should be no shock that the death on the cross is necessary for the life of relationships because no relationship can exist without forgiveness. Forgiveness destroys walls, defenses, and an individual’s unreasonable belief in his/her own perfection or ability to be right no matter the cost to others. God’s way works. Death gives life, another upside truth, because it takes the death of selfishness to love others. Loving others is more fulfilling in every way than loving self.

With all that said, I still can’t watch “I Love Lucy.” I may be learning, but, apparently, I’m not there yet.

A good fire, some hot dogs, a few smores, and a few good friends can be an extremely good time. Fires can be productive, destructive, or informative. How informative? I’m not talking about the musing moments passed staring at the fitful flames in a fireplace with a cup of hot cocoa. I’m talking about the flames that are a tie of the first two, productive and destructive. How can that be?

Moses was out on the job in Midian when he saw a burning bush that wasn’t consumed. The contradiction amazed him. He stopped, transfixed, and had a meeting with God. That meeting confronted the history of Moses, the history and agony of his people, and the purpose of God — all more than enough to consume Moses in flames. Two burning bushes faced each other, a bush that brought Moses to focus in God, and a Moses who would bring God’s people’s focus to God. Both the bush and Moses were insufficient to the tasks they were given. Both should have been consumed, but neither were. 

I am sure that each of us can relate a life event in which our personal destruction was imminent. I remember when my first child was born, a surprise caesarean when Tona and I were both unemployed. There was no way we would survive. Even now, I’m not sure how we did. Somehow jobs came, bills got paid, food was on the table, and a roof was over our head. We were in front of a burning bush. We should have burned with the bush. God provided then and for any and all of the other moments we thought were totally cataclysmic at the time of the event. 

So, why the bonfire that didn’t consume? Actually it did consume. The fire consumed my ambivalence toward God. I was brought to sincere prayer and focus. It consumed the path I was walking to set me on a better path for God’s purpose in my life. Like Moses, I quit doing what I was doing and started doing a more focused and intentional walk in the direction God was pointing me. 

I would like to say that I was good about it, but even Moses complained and tried to get out of the job. God adapted the plan to get Aaron as spokesman because Moses was hard pressed to go along. I’m not sure that I could say I was as cooperative as the uncooperative Moses at my times of being refocused and redirected. Moses created many excuses, and so did I. Excuses are not the point. 

The point is that God set up an impossible situation to refocus and redirect. The appearance of a cataclysm that didn’t consume is a miracle that I often remember only through the fear of the moment, rather than as a starting point for dramatic change that was created by a Jesus intent on rescue and not on destruction. Miranda, our first born, is still alive and well. I found the career I was meant to do. We were shifted toward victories we couldn’t imagine at the time. That is just one example. With Jesus, there is always more.

I have the luxury of looking back. My experience teaches me to be extremely grateful to Jesus who was not satisfied with less, but intended to give me more. Looking back teaches me to look forward. A burning bush is a time to truly expect the Lord to speak, refocus, redirect, and prove Himself as God over all the small things like nature and my life. He is trustworthy and worthy of all praise. He tells us, as He told so many of His leaders in scripture, to be bold, to be courageous, and to trust Him, even when the bush is on fire.

I was thinking about the Ten Commandments and thought I’d do a little comparison. What does God want versus what does humanity provide based on the big ten. Following is a list contrasting the two. 

Here are a few comments to consider before the lists. God’s list prefers God and others in all behavior. The sinner’s list does not. God’s list requires sacrifice of the individual. The sinner’s list requires sacrifice of others. In God’s list, the individual is accountable. The sinner’s list makes others accountable. God’s list provides for relationship, community safety, trust, and productive interaction. The other does not provide for any such trustworthy behavior.

Humans are impure creatures. I have met many passionate people, but none that were pure in their passions. There always seems to be some wavering, somewhere inside. We see publicly how private things can corrupt otherwise beautiful people. Some preachers have been passionate about the Bible until they were caught with their hands on the money or adultery, or ? 

I guess for humans it is a matter of degree. “I’m not a murderer” may disguise a person who has betrayed others, taken advantage of others, or spoken lies that hurt others. I find that the first person I lie to is myself because I want to see myself in a good light, even if that is not a true mirror image. 

I confess that I value the first ten below, but constantly fight being pulled in the direction of the second ten. I am committed to Jesus, but also to myself. I am embarrased by my failures and don’t want others to see them when I should rather be honest before myself, the Lord, and others. Learning to be a transparent person, instead of an Adam searching for a fig leaf and an opportunity to blame others, is a challenge from small to large, every day. I’m human. 

The cross is critical because all relationships require forgiveness. Forgive me please. God is still working on me, and I’m not there yet.

▾ Laws of God and man

▾ Bible Ten commandments

• 1. You shall have no other gods before me
• 2. You shall make no idols
• 3. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain
• 4. Keep the sabbath day holy
• 5. Honor your father and mother
• 6. You shall not murder
• 7. You shall not commit adultery
• 8. You shall not steal
• 9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor
• 10. You shall not covet

▾ Sinners big ten

• 1. I am most important. Whatever I want should dictate the circumstances and people around me.
• 2. Things and people are most important to me when they serve my pleasure or best interest. I will sometimes be thoughtful of those things that bless me.
• 3. Cursing is power. It shows my anger, displeasure, and it degrades those things and people less than me.
• 4. I work and play until I have enough money or pleasure, and there is never enough. I’ll rest when I die.
• 5. Mom and dad’s purpose in life is to take care of me and make me happy.
• 6. Anyone or anything that gets in my way is disposable. I can destroy it or get rid of it in any way that is expedient.
• 7. Sex is pleasure. I feel free to take or require it from anyone regardless of what it may cost them or others I’m committed to, from lurid comments or actions on my part to complete use of their body.
• 8. I should have what I want, and I feel free to acquire what I want in any way I can. Laws don’t apply to me.
• 9. I say what I want others to accept or believe. The truth is irrelevant if it does not serve my desires.
• 10. My appetite grows every time I see something I want. I grow to meet my appetites because they must be fed.

David’s entire kingdom was drawn into the drama of personal passions and hatreds in the royal family. I’m sure their Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook were full of the news. Check 2 Samuel 10 . . .

I have often seen my theater students provide more drama offstage than on stage. I thought if they just did half the drama on stage that they did off stage we would have a nationally recognized program. Drama is not limited to schools and students. We see humans performing dramatically everywhere we look. It is a wonder that Hollywood or television could create programs people are willing to pay to see when the public is exposed to nonstop drama all the time.

The media, including all forms of social and news, thrive off the personal foibles the of the rich and famous. We cannot escape the stage slap, the divorce court, the political scandals, the corporate scandals, and the criminal injuries one person does to another. It is easy to complain, asking where the good news might be found. Jesus is the good news. We don’t have to live, scuba diving in the septic tank.

Stage drama at least struggles to find courage in suffering and reasons for suffering. Stephen King and his book The Dance Macabre indicated that horror movies are an attempt to deal with the harsh terrors we face in our world. Terrors, like the atom bomb, turn into radiation monsters and become a tangible reality we can fight. Isn’t that really a healthy prescription for life drama. Chris Jones says that you can’t defeat a problem until you define it. Once you define it, you must accept your part in the issue with humility and personal accountability.

Drama continues when we don’t see the healthy response to an issue. Politicians cover up until the world finally stands at their doorstep and forces them to face their wrong doing. That doesn’t mean they change. “Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies” (Groucho Marx).

The sad dramas we face every day should be the signals or symptoms that call us to change. It becomes evident that many people prefer to be right than healed, king of the cage instead of set free. We can be liberated and join Jesus in liberating others.

Accepting Jesus requires humility because He is God. That gives Him the power to correct. It accepts that we need to be corrected, a pivotal point. I grew up with good parents. They never told me to do anything that would harm me. I would have lived a superlative, nearly pain free life had I followed their directions. Jesus is better than that. He speaks correction to heal and liberate. The faster we agree with Him, the sooner our suffering stops. We can pay for drama as entertainment instead of being the source of drama for the people around us.

Balaam and the children of Israel in Exodus are scary stories because it is easy to see how I have the avalibility of some of their worse traits. They showed that you can get in the presence of the Lord, see his miracles, and still remain the same. Not everyone gets the message. Even Moses, the greatest of the great, didn’t pay attention all the time and failed to enter the promised land. These stories should create a powerful sense of humility in all Bible readers. All are vulnerable to ignoring the Lord from the greatest to the worst.

Balaam seemed to be a great guy at the beginning, blessing the Israelites instead of cursing them. He was under duress. The Lord was speaking to him, but clearly required him to bless instead of curse. Later, Balaam was killed by the Israelites. He betrayed them and God when he was left up to his own ambitions. He changed his behavior in the presence of God, but not his heart.

The Israelites were the same. They came to crisis, behaved terribly, were rescued, behaved well for a while, until the next crisis. They behaved when pressed and believed when convenient, but they never changed their hearts toward God. They died in the wilderness. This is terribly scary when you think about what they witnessed. Was that just them? How about now, today? What about you and me?

We are surrounded by the miraculous presence of God every day in all of life. Nature boasts of God. Every event in our world testifies to elements of truth God revealed in scripture, truth about the nature of sin and its fruits and the nature of salvation and its fruits. How is it possible to ignore the presence of the creator of life when He is constantly working to reveal Himself to us?  Do we see the lack of profit like Balaam or the hardships like the children of Israel? Is there some other reason, like if God is God then I can’t be? Why is He so visible to some and not to others? Do you have to believe to see or see to believe?

We can start with the tangible. Scripture is truth. It clearly paints a picture of God. It clearly reveals the humanity of man. It clearly reveals the sin that brings suffering into life. He clearly provided a rescue through Jesus. The picture is painted clearly. We can look in scripture and look in life and see Him. Here is the hard part. We have to choose to see or ignore. One way or the other, we choose the visible or the invisible God of creation. Jesus is alive. He rescues every day. Salvation is the start in a lifetime of rescues. We are not in this wilderness alone. He is visible to those who choose Him. Let us open our eyes together and share the Jesus we see in our midst.

The servant of Abraham went to seek a wife for Isaac. He carried the wealth and the authority of Abraham with him. Servants or slaves have no doubt to whom they belong. Belonging in these situations was a 24/7 kind of deal. They were unable to do anything without considering the master. When the master spoke, they could not act differently than required without potentially suffering consequences. The amiability of the relationship depended on the disposition of the master and the slave.

This story in scripture does not carry all the heart rending hateful images we have of slavery in America. This was the most trusted person in Abraham’s household, sent to perform a critical task for the family. Isaac must have a wife for the prophecies to be fulfilled.

Jesus grafted us into Himself at the cross. We belong, not like the slave or servant, but like family with one difference. Most of us do not consider family as deeply and intimately as Jesus considers us. Up front and before we knew Him, He thought more, gave more, and sacrificed more than any living family member ever could. He went beyond the limitations of man and gave heaven’s wealth and joy.

We belong. We belong to Him beyond any measure we have to calibrate belonging. We belong in every state that we could possibly find ourselves. We belong in every moment, no matter how praiseworthy or disgusting. We belong in the darkest corner or the brightest light. We belong to Him. Belonging to Jesus is a miraculous gift of heaven.

Belonging carries the mark of the master. It carries the authority and treasures of the master. It is inseparable from the master. We have this whether we recognize it or not, in times of awareness to no awareness. We do not touch the ground except through the miraculous belonging path, which we walk with Him.

We are like Abraham’s servant in that we search for the bride for the Master’s Son Jesus. We go with the authority and wealth of the Master to free the bride from her former family, the world. We should seek her with the same prayer and faithfulness of Abraham’s servant.

Easter is resurrection Sunday. It is the fulfillment of scripture, Jesus, salvation and the truth about this world we live in. It is hotly contested by those who don’t believe in it and ignored by many who neither believe nor disbelieve. How can you prove the resurrection? What do you believe? Why do you believe that?

Resurrection means Jesus is alive, alive in scripture, alive in circumstances, and alive in people. He is verifiably alive today and making Himself known, as promised in scripture, through the non-stop work of the Holy Spirit, His living presence is in and among us. 

Sin is in denial of the living Christ, and sin is all around us and in us too. The problem becomes one of faith and choice. Some people believe that only science has the answers, but I don’t believe it (see the irony there).

Take evolution as an example. There are scientists on both sides of the discussion, each believing they have the definitive proof of their arguments. Science requires faith and choice as much as religion. Science is tied to its time and often disproves what it knew through what it learns in what is current.

The scripture prophecies have been proven absolutely accurate after centuries when fulfilled. The revelation of Jesus is rock solid throughout time. Love requires faith and choice. Jesus reveals humanity as it is, how it was created, what the Creator meant for it, and how the Creator resolves the destruction of sin through the life, death, resurrection — the truth — of Jesus.

Jesus is a person and God. Scripture gives a true portrayal of His character, values, personality, and qualities, not just in the New Testament, but also throughout the Old Testament. One Bible, sixty-six books, centuries to write, one story, all in alignment, with Jesus as the perfect fulfillment of all of it, still living today.

I am thankful for Christians. They have chosen Jesus. You can see Jesus alive in them. They are proof of the resurrection. They are proof, not because they are perfect, but because God is at work in them and through them, with and without their permission, in perfect harmony with scripture. People who are not Christian are proof of the living Lord because they live according the the creation laws and the laws of sin which are clearly explained in scripture and through the life of Jesus. The enemy is also alive, proving the truth that Jesus is alive. We are surrounded by evidence. Those “for” and “against” both serve to prove the truth of the living Jesus. 

The evidence brings us to the faith and choice place. The truth is evident, but we chose what we believe. We choose the facts we use to explain our faith and choice from all the facts that exist, or from the facts that we can see.

I have tasted the freedom and change Jesus provides to His children. My life has changed and continues to change because He is alive. The entire world compares selfish gain to selfless love through all literature and news as villainous and heroic. The values of the villain and the hero cross all time, all cultures, all faiths, in believers and unbelievers alike. Jesus is the ultimate hero. I am one among many rescued by him and learning to be less selfish (an uphill battle, I assure you). Books are filled with the testimonies of people who have met Jesus and experienced Him personally in their lives.

Easter is a day to celebrate the truth of scripture and the fulfillment of God’s promises in Jesus. Every day is a day to celebrate the resurrection because Jesus is alive and with us, working to free us and rescue us in all the ways we need rescue. Life, all life around us, proves the resurrection because Jesus is alive and well on planet Earth.  The true joy of the resurrection is that Jesus is alive, here, now, and closer than the next prayer because He knows and cares for you.

I guess we all have images about church and what it is supposed to be and not be. The cult of personality is one of the “don’t be’s.” Many Hollywood stars know that branding, having a marketable name, is critical to getting the roles you want. Some churches operate the same way. It is about the preacher, the media hits, and other marketable items. We have seen those who have made their name and claim-to-fame be overcome and destroyed by the same success that built their churches. There is danger in marketing.

I want the church to be successful and reach large masses of people. The problem becomes one of degree. At what point does the marketing and fame of the church or individuals outdistance the truth of Christ? How can you tell when you’ve crossed the line? A wise pastor once answered me by asking me to examine anything I was clinging to and unwilling to lose in my possessions or personal image. Those things would be suspect. I would think that you have crossed the line whenever fame, money, and success of the church (or anything) causes you to cover, hide, or be disingenuous in your faith. All fall short of the glory of God, and repentance is the only road to victory.

One of my images of church is kind of frightening. It is about polishing. Polishing semi-precious stones requires putting a group of stones in a tumbler with some water and abrasive and turning on the tumbler. The tumbler runs for days or weeks, causing the water, abrasive, and stones to bounce against each other, knocking off all the rough edges and polishing the surface. Rough image, but what is the point of church? 

Jesus has saved us to change us from this world to His, from our values to His. Church is a gathering place for Jesus to work on souls, transformations, and redemptions. Church is His workshop to turn raw materials into working materials of the kingdom of heaven. The evidence of Christ and the church is change. 

Here is another image. I saw a movie about marines on a mission. They had to get over a wall to achieve their goal. One marine ran and placed himself against the wall. The next marine climbed over him and became the next piece of the hunan ladder and so on until the last marine achieved the top. The top marine attached a rope for all others to climb up. The focus wasn’t the marines. It was the mission. This is my image of church leadership. The goal is Christ, the top of the wall. All the members of the church are part of helping all other members get there. You can tell the maturity of the leadership by their focus for getting others over the wall into the presence of Christ.  

I want to express my extreme gratitude for my church and faith-filled friends. God is using you to work on me, whether you know it or not. I’m not like I was, but I am yet to become what I will be. I see Jesus alive in you, and I am encouraged and challenged. We are growing together through the generosity and faithfulness of Jesus, our Lord.