"Sensational Sunday" Leaving Smallville

We didn’t fence you in. The smallness you feel comes from within you. Your lives aren’t small but you’re living them in a small way…Open up your lives. Live openly and expansively!” (2 Corinthians 6:12,13 The Message Bible)

“The smallness you feel comes from within you”. Ooh, what an indictment. So we have no one else to blame. Before we blamed it on what side of the tracks we were born on or whether anyone in our family tree ever went to college, Mommy or Daddy, alcoholism or drugs,a broken heart. Our pain and disappointment fenced us in. Here, Paul, paraphrased by Eugene Peterson, says the constriction is internal, not external. “Your lives aren’t small but you’re living them in a small way” What a waste of good potential. God who is big enough to fill the universe is also small enough to live within our hearts. So faith capacity shouldn’t be at issue. No need to stay in "Smallville" forever.

Here we are living in Smallville, the town "Plano" Illinois. Not living within the limits we sometimes place on the Living God, You've done it, I've done it. We limit God at times based on our own personal inventory of disappointment, When plan "A" failed and plan "B" fell short we went to Plan "o" Plano. Disappointment may be divine re-appointment. Where is God is calling out to you to trust him? To live expansively and open? Believe me, Life has become anything but plain in Plano.

You have to SEE it to BE it. Maybe you can't fit a new house into your faith because of a bankruptcy, divorce or your not making enough money but if you can see it,visualize the impossible, call something out of nothing,it can happen. Can you fit whatever you desire into your inner man? Once your spirit-man has caught the vision the rest will be history,Then God and you can make history.

What can you fit into your inner man? Will a new house fit in there? Is it wide enough to accommodate opening up a business, taking that vacation to Europe, or drawing up blueprints for a ten-thousand seat sanctuary instead of five-hundred seat? I’m stretching the elastic to accommodate my life for a few faith "things" like a new lawn mower. Well, you have to start somewhere. Seldom does a man sit in the cockpit of the plane until he has first visualized it. That is called a flight simulator. No red cape under the suit? The Bible is a faith simulator (and stimulator). When you see what Paul could do, what Peter could do, what Jesus did, your own faith is stirred with that motivation that voices, “I can do that!” Capacity stretches and moves you on to the Big "Metropolis" of "I can do "...

Time to leave "Smallville"
What you couldn’t do at sixteen doesn’t determine what you can or cannot do at thirty-five, forty five even seventy five. Paul said, “We didn’t fence you in”. We are our own worst enemies. We dig our own post holes, pour in the sack of Quick-crete to secure the base then string the wires of our own defeat. We build our own walls of doubt, fear and insecurity. Blame it on a lack of collateral, lack of mother’s affection when we were small, lack of education or lack of whatever, but usually it is more a lack of spine, lack of vision or lack of temper.“Winners are just ex-losers that got mad”. Our spiritual “insides” will stretch or shrink just like the spare tire under the ribcage, according to what we feed it. Faith has to be fed a strong diet of God's Word, the promises of God. Once you can see yourself at the wheel of that new car or holding the keys to your new house, then you can free yourself to believe enough to SOAR…or whatever else you think God desires for you.
Leave"Smallville" the smallville of your doubt and God may lead you where you never could have imagined he would.

Nuff Said,

TERRIFIC TUESDAY! Harvey Two Face?

Psalm 119:113 (Moffatt)
“I hate men who are half and half…”

Jesus is either Lord of all or He’s not Lord at all. We’ve quoted that before but it is only part true for there are areas in most believers’ lives that aren’t yet totally yielded to Him.Harvey Two-Face is of course a Batman villain.Harvey Dent, District Attorney for Gotham City is touched by tragedy when acid burns away half of his face,thus scarring him and splitting his personality.The duality he struggles with rides on the flip of a two headed scarred coin.As he does with any villain, Batman looks to find the good in Harvey and help him in his struggle to be free from the dark side of his split.Our Lord still loves us despite any lack of sincerity or double mindedness we emit.Despite our being split down the center at times,God waits patiently for us to decide. David, on the other hand, isn’t as merciful. He said, “I hate the half and half”. What a strong word, but it is used often in relation to sin. “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil” (Proverbs 8:13). “Hate the evil, and love the good” (Amos 5:15). I don’t think we can interpret that David hated the person, but that he hated the attitude, the spirit behind the person. The old version translates it, “I hate vain thoughts” (KJV). “Vain” there is italicized, added by the translators, so it should read simply, “I hate thoughts”, plural, implying uncontrolled thoughts, thoughts that jump from here to there. Another translation says “double-minded” (NRSV), Amplified reads, “undecided [in religion]”. But Peterson’s Message Bible paraphrases, “I hate the two-faced”

 James assured that the “double-minded man is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8). David spoke of those who flatter with their lips and speak “with a double heart” (Psalm 12:2) Half and half is not a coffee creamer, it is a covenantal schizophrenia. The half and half lives somewhere between saint and ain’t. He tries to thumb a ride down both sides of the road at once without any clear destination in mind. There is no way to be happy with halfway. halfway leads to misery.Jesus told the Laodicean church, “If you’re not sold out you’ll be spewed out!” (Revelation 3:16) In other words choose sides. In Bible days that meant you either believed in Saul or you believed in David. Its God that draws the plumb-line to get us off the fence-line.No straddling the fence,it could be really bad for the groin.

 “I hate men who are half and half”. I hear some say “I’m not conservative or liberal. I'm a moderate.I weigh each issue and am somewhere in between”.Homosexual marriage,Gay rights,abortion these are the issues that are splitting churches today as well as society. While some attempt to kow-tow to both sides by remaining passive and uninvolved.Try that in a football game sometime. Try playing for both teams and see how banged up you get. I’m not saying there is no room for grace, of course there is. But some issues are by definition polarizing. Dancing around issues, trying to find a moderate pulse on things like abortion, gay marriage is not taking a side.Admittedly,the truth of God's word is not always pretty,even to some Christians I know. Whatever we’re going to do let’s do it but please don’t make the mistake of trying to be "Two Faced or half and half”. To us Jesus should be Lord of all if He is going to be Lord of any. That requires decisiveness then corresponding action.Believing is more about our behaviour than just our words.(Mark 16.16) Otherwise the blend is somewhere between room temperature coffee and warm diet Pepsi.Get ready to be spewed......... Yuck!

Nuff Said,

TERRIFIC TUESDAY! "Unmasked"

We refuse to wear masks and play games. We don't maneuver and manipulate behind the scenes. And we don't twist God's Word to suit ourselves. Rather, we keep everything we do and say out in the open, the whole truth on display, so that those who want to can see and judge for themselves in the presence of God. (2 Corinthians 4.1,Message Bible)


Is there an area of your life that you keep secret? Under wraps? Refuse to let people take a peek? Its a difficult life to live a life of secret identities.And no one knows what goes on behind closed doors.Remember that song? Diana and I just hosted a party where we gave access to everyone every area of our home.For me,that takes courage,Some might mistake it for bragging or boasting but its the soul's transparency that allows people to have a peek.Some soul's beg for an intimacy where masks can be removed, differences celebrated rather than questioned or condemned,where recognition is complete, acceptance total, admiration mutual and both parties complementing instead of the guarded cautiousness we label as "discernment" and tend to hide behind.Not hiding,being truthful with others involves integrity.Integrity is a concept of consistency of actions, values, methods, measures, principles, expectations, and outcomes. In ethics, integrity is regarded as the honesty and truthfulness or accuracy of one's actions. Integrity can be regarded as the opposite of hypocrisy, in that it regards internal consistency as a virtue, and suggests that parties holding apparently conflicting values should account for the discrepancy or alter their beliefs.Honest hearts produce honest actions but hurting people "hurt" people.Our first parents’ intimacy was easy, natural, and honest because Adam saw his own reflection in her eyes. No secret identities-no lies....When Eve walked through the door it hit him – “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh…” (vs 23) People connect because they see something of themselves mirrored in the other. A covenant was made – “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his own wife…” (vs 24) There would be leaving and cleaving. True friendship can be liberating.

For better or for worse accepts the blemish, the scars, both skills and the lack thereof, morning breath and shifting moods. It tests patience for sure but at the same time allows unrestrained access. Continued friendship is now not a matter of performance but of invitation. I allow you to be you; will you allow me to be me? No judgement and total forgiveness engaged.No one is more vulnerable than the unmasked. There is no oneness without transparency.If life doesn't strip us from all masks and facades then our enemies will do it for us. When trust is broken it can be restored but that takes work and effort.Super Heroes wear masks to conceal identity,to protect themselves and the ones they love from reprisal.Who are what are you protecting today?

Repentance is the deliberate undressing of the soul. It restores wholeness to our life. In this context, inner and outer integrity is the sense of "wholeness" deriving from qualities such as honesty and consistency of character. As such, one may judge that others "have integrity" to the extent that they act according to the values, beliefs and principles they claim to hold.Our job is to expose our every weakness so we can depose that weakness. The greatest of ministers are those most transparent. Those that are hospitable.Hospitality is a requirement for transparency.“Behold, you desired truth in the inward parts…” (Psalm 51:6) Truth in the inward can't help but flow outward.Its the same with the invited God into our fleshly residence.Most though keep the sign on the door-no trespassing.Until we are comfortable with our own nakedness we will never be able to open up in intimacy with God. I’m not talking about nudity, rather nakedness. There is a huge difference. Jesus hung on the cross exposed for our sins. He held back nothing, could we say, bared all.Jesus the Son of God-Unmasked. So that is how we should come to Him, spilling it out and spelling it out. If only friends and family could be as accepting of the bare facts as our forgiving Lord and if only we could become as vulnerable. Anyway, that is the cry from the inside. It longs to be known on the outside...........Transparent,Real,True,Unmasked......................

Nuff Said,