Friday, February 20, 2009

A Lame Hobby

Church is a really lame hobby.

I heard Matt Chandler of the Village Church in Dallas say that in his weekly podcast. No truer words were ever spoken! He talked about if church is only a hobby to you then it's really nothing more than weekly Christian version of Halloween. You get all dressed up in your costume and pretend to be something you're not.

Church is a really lame hobby.

I think that's what Jesus was talking about when He said, "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship is a farce, for they teach man-made ideas as commands from God" (Matt 15:8-9 NLT).

If church is only my hobby then I'm just wasting my time. And yours. Church is SO much more than that. It's folks in community who share a radical and counter culture belief in Jesus and who are on a mission to reach as many others with His message as possible. Church is no hobby. It's a passion. A passion for Jesus. A passion for people.

If that's not what church is to you, then go home. Do something else. Sleep late. Play golf. There are plenty of great hobbies out there. But Matt Chandler was right...

Church is a really lame hobby.

In Christ,
Jay

Thursday, February 5, 2009

A Coat Rack Moment

It was a "Coat Rack Moment." Not to be confused with a Kodak moment.

I've had a couple of them recently. One in a very physical sense. Another spiritually.

The first "Coat Rack Moment" happened a couple weekends ago. I was carrying wood into the house to stoke a crackling fire. Somehow, someway, I stepped on the foot of the free-standing coat rack in the front hallway as I was closing the front door.

WHAM!!!

The coat rack cracked into my forehead and sent me and the firewood sprawling in the hallway. My forehead was cut open like Ric Flair in a cage match. Needless to say, it got my attention.

The second "CRM" was this past Sunday at church. Lead Pastor Lee Towns sermon dealt with "forgetting what lies behind" from Philippians 3:12-14. His basic message...get past your past. As he spoke, I realized that I had some pretty nasty bitterness from the past year that I had never really gotten over. The day before, I received an email that didn't just poke at an old wound, it torn it wide open. Bitterness and unforgiveness boiled over. So as Lee preached his message on Sunday, the Holy Spirit slammed His divine coat rack into my forehead once again.

WHAM!!!

No blood this time...but a boat load of conviction. I've had the chance to confess my sin to close friends over the past couple of days. That's REALLY helped me drain the bile from my life. I needed to confess. I needed to repent. I'm sure there's still more work to do. But I'm thankful that God used this moment to get my attention, however painful it might have been.

A "Coat Rack Moment."

In Christ,
Jay