My Top Reads of 2015

Posted on December 17, 2015 by Joe Chambers

A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.~ Mark Twain

My books

Every year’s end I post a list and summary of my top ten reads for the previous year.  In doing this I have to be selective in what I post because I read significantly more than ten books in a year. (Sorry if that sounded arrogant. No, I’m not sorry.) I will list the title, the publisher’s summary and a comment or two. So here goes my top reads for 2015 in no particular order:

The Way of the Heart, by Henri J.M. Nouwen

One of my top five favorite authors of all time. Henri Nouwen brings some of the most important truths a Christ-follower needs live out in such a very accessible way. While we couldn’t be more different in our faith traditions, me a Southern Baptist and he a Roman Catholic, I have read few writers that push the truth of the Gospel as deeply into my soul as does Mr. Nouwen.

One of the greatest of all spiritual writers, invites us to search deeply for the well-springs that nourish true ministry in his classic The Way of the Heart. Interweaving the solitude, silence, and prayer of the fifth-century Egyptian Desert Fathers and Mothers with our contemporary search for an authentic spirituality, The Way of the Heart not only leads us to a fuller encounter with God, but to a more creative ministry with our fellow human beings. Here is one of the most profound works from a writer known for his fresh and perceptive insights—and who stands alongside C.S. Lewis and Thomas Merton as an essential Christian scholar and thinker.

Inside Job, by Stephen W. Smith

I wish I had read and assimilated this book 20 years ago; lots of life-pain might have been avoided. What I love about this book is the honesty by which the author discusses the interior issues of a leader’s heart. He pulls no punches and sugar-coats nothing. He can’t afford to. Too many lives are at risk.

The discussion in chapter 5 about the four quadrants of the heart was especially insightful. I want to be a leader that leads from all four quadrants: the part people see, the part that I reveal to a certain few, the part I show to my boon companions, and the part that I don’t know, but want to learn about—the deeper heart.

Another part that I found helpful was the chapter 9 on Leader Transitions. Because I have recently moved my wife across country to lead an organization that is culturally different than what I am used to, this looks to be a daunting challenge, but with the tools of transition the author outlines in this chapter, I feel better equipped to find contentment, resiliency and satisfaction in the latter years of my vocational life.

I highly recommend this book. Very little attention is paid to what is going on the inside of a heart and soul in popular writing about leadership. This book goes deep and stays there. The metrics are mostly external in our culture. But external metrics are of little good if the life I am living is only as deep as a bird bath. If read, processed and assimilated, this book will deepen your soul—preparing you to live the life you’ve always wanted and the one God as offered: Shalom. I purchased ten copies and gave them away to many of my pastor friends.

Effective leaders work very hard to succeed, but often at the cost of their own souls. They are challenged to keep themselves emotionally and spiritually healthy in order to survive success―to keep their humanity intact. This is the work within the work. Stephen W. Smith helps leaders in the marketplace and in ministry set aside the life-draining values of power, fame, fortune and position and instead explore the life-giving qualities of building character.

There is a better way to live than the craziness we experience in our driven world. Inside Job is your invitation to journey inside and do the work within your work.

The Art of Pastoring, by David Hansen

This is not a church growth book. This is a soul growth book. The idea of a pastor as a living parable of Jesus was one of the most humbling and empowering concepts of this book. I found myself cheering the author on at every turn of the page.  I would recommend this book as required reading for any young pastor.

Every pastor has encountered those who struggle to hear God’s voice in a hospital room, who reach for Jesus in the sacraments. No systematic answers can meet their deep, eternal needs. What can touch them, Hansen contends, is a life itself, a life lived as a parable of Jesus. “As a parable of Jesus Christ,” Hansen writes, “I deliver something to the parishioner that I am not, and in the process I deliver the parishioner into the hands of God.”

It is this knack for getting to the heart of things that makes The Art of Pastoring valuable for pastors in any setting–rural, suburban or urban. Parachurch workers, missionaries, church leaders and ministry volunteers will also find inspiration here.

In this significantly revised new edition, Hansen includes new insights into his view of pastorate as parable and adds a new postlude in which he comes clean on his “constant attempts to leave the ministry.”

The Allure of Gentleness, by Dallas Willard

Few authors have influenced me as deeply and as profoundly and the late Dallas Willard. I can’t get enough of his wisdom. I have read and re-read his works several times.  Mostly I re-read them because I didn’t understand them the first time through. But I also read them because they are so rich I have to savor the nuance of the wisdom so that it will seep deeply into my soul. This is one of his most accessible books and it is about such an important topic in our times.  The art of expressing our faith to an increasingly secular world and to do it in such a way that we win them with kindness.

When called upon to explain their faith, Christians do not always feel equipped to do so—particularly when some of the most difficult questions arise. In The Allure of Gentleness, esteemed teacher and author Dallas Willard not only assures us of the truth and reasonableness of the Christian faith, but also explores why reason and logic are not enough: to explain Jesus’s message, we must also be like Jesus, characterized by love, humility, and gentleness.

Based on a series of talks and lectures on apologetics given by the late author and edited by his daughter, Becky Heatley, this book constitutes Dallas Willard’s most thorough presentation on how to defend the Christian faith for the twenty-first century. This beautiful model of life, this allure of gentleness, Willard tells us, is the foundation for making the most compelling argument for Christ, one that will assure others that the Christian faith is not only true but the answer to our deepest desires and hopes.

Home, by Marilynne Robinson

One of the most thoughtful writers of our times. A deeply committed Christian and yet she doesn’t write the shallow-as-a-birdbath that dominates Christian fiction. In fact, I hate that term “Christian Fiction.” When I hear it I immediately move quickly away. It has become synonymous with bad writing. If you go to a book store today you won’t find Ms. Robinson in the Christian Fiction section. You will find it in the award winning literature section.

Home is an entirely independent, deeply affecting novel that takes place concurrently in the same locale, this time in the household of Reverend Robert Boughton, Ames’s closest friend.

Glory Boughton, aged thirty-eight, has returned to Gilead to care for her dying father. Soon her brother, Jack—the prodigal son of the family, gone for twenty years—comes home too, looking for refuge and trying to make peace with a past littered with tormenting trouble and pain.

Jack is one of the great characters in recent literature. A bad boy from childhood, an alcoholic who cannot hold a job, he is perpetually at odds with his surroundings and with his traditionalist father, though he remains Boughton’s most beloved child. Brilliant, lovable, and wayward, Jack forges an intense bond with Glory and engages painfully with Ames, his godfather and namesake.

Home is a moving and healing book about families, family secrets, and the passing of the generations, about love and death and faith. It is Robinson’s greatest work, an unforgettable embodiment of the deepest and most universal emotions.

Home is a 2008 National Book Award Finalist for Fiction.

Blue Horses, Mary Oliver

The older I get the more I value poetry. Poets tell us the best stories in the shortest space. They play a note that makes me think of a chord on either side of the note that harmonize. At least the good ones do. I go back the ones I like time and again. And when you combine great language with the scenes of the natural world, you get this wonderful volume of poetry.

Mary Oliver returns to the imagery that has defined her life’s work, describing with wonder both the everyday and the unaffected beauty of nature.

Herons, sparrows, owls, and kingfishers flit across the page in meditations on love, artistry, and impermanence. Whether considering a bird’s nest, the seeming patience of oak trees, or the artworks of Franz Marc, Oliver reminds us of the transformative power of attention and how much can be contained within the smallest moments.

At its heart, Blue Horses asks what it means to truly belong to this world, to live in it attuned to all its changes. Humorous, gentle, and always honest, Oliver is a visionary of the natural world.

Small, Strong, Congregations, by Kennon L. Callahan

I used to want to pastor a huge congregation. I have come to realize that several things about that dream. One, is that it is not God’s desire for me; second, I don’t’ have the talent for it; and third, a strong and healthy congregation is better for the Kingdom than a large sick one.

Create a small, strong congregation that is dedicated to advancing God’s mission “The twenty-first century is the century of small, strong congregations. More people will be drawn to small, strong congregations than any other kind of congregation. Yes, there are mega-congregations; Their number is increasing greatly. Nevertheless, across the planet, the vast majority of congregations will be small and strong, and the vast majority of people will be in these congregations.”

With uncommon wisdom Kennon L. Callahan-today’s most noted church consultant-moves ahead of conventional thinking and in Small, Strong Congregations offers his unique vision of the church of the future. This important book chronicles the emergence of a vast number of congregations that are questioning the bigger-is-better notion in church membership. These congregations are deliberately small, active, and happy in their dedication to creating strong church communities that advance God’s mission.

The Grasshopper Myth, by Karl Vaters

This book. My goodness.

The validation that I am Okay as a Small Church pastor was so liberating. I found myself highlighting passage after passage. The best and most liberating thing about this book is that it is NOT bashing megachurches. I find myself doing that from time to time and feel convicted about it now. I have known for years that I am a Small Church Pastor, but never felt very proud of that.

Eugene Peterson’s memoir, The Pastor made me proud of my vocation. Karl Vaters’ book made me proud of being a Small Church Pastor. Best line from the book, “Joel Osteen couldn’t do my job.” Loved this book and wish I had read it many years ago before I nearly killed my sheep and my family. I will be giving this book away to many mountain pastors here in Colorado.

90% of the churches in the world have less than 200 people.

What if that’s not a bad thing? What if smallness is an advantage God wants us to use, not a problem to fix?

Vaters takes on some of the unbiblical beliefs we’ve held about church growth and church size for the last several decades. Then he offers a game plan for a New Small Church.

The title comes from the story in Numbers 13. When the Hebrews were at the edge of the Promised Land, ten of the twelve spies come back with this report: “All the people we saw there are of great size. …We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” – Numbers 13:32-33

The grasshopper myth is the false impression that our Small Church ministry is less than what God says it is because we compare ourselves with others.

The solution is for Small Churches to see themselves the way God sees them. A church of innovation, not stagnation. A church that leads instead of following. A church that thinks small, but never engages in small thinking.

If big churches are the cruise ships on the church ocean, small churches can be the speedboats. They can move faster, maneuver more deftly, squeeze into tighter spaces and have a ton of fun doing it. They just have to see themselves that way.

The Road to Character, by David Brooks

David Brooks is becoming one of my favorite pundits and authors. I like the way he thinks. This book is as close to a book about Christian ethics and character as one can get without being a bona fide Christian. To my knowledge Brooks in not a believer, but he is very very close.

Looking to some of the world’s greatest thinkers and inspiring leaders, Brooks explores how, through internal struggle and a sense of their own limitations, they have built a strong inner character. Labor activist Frances Perkins understood the need to suppress parts of herself so that she could be an instrument in a larger cause. Dwight Eisenhower organized his life not around impulsive self-expression but considered self-restraint. Dorothy Day, a devout Catholic convert and champion of the poor, learned as a young woman the vocabulary of simplicity and surrender. Civil rights pioneers A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin learned reticence and the logic of self-discipline, the need to distrust oneself even while waging a noble crusade.

Blending psychology, politics, spirituality, and confessional, The Road to Character provides an opportunity for us to rethink our priorities, and strive to build rich inner lives marked by humility and moral depth.

Under the Unpredictable Plant, by Eugene Peterson

Last summer I preached for messages on the Old Testament book of Jonah. I picked up this old copy of Peterson’s treatment of Jonah and couldn’t put it down. I underlined and scrawled all through it. What a delightful book about the pastoral call and vocation.

He clarifies the pastoral vocation by using the book of Jonah where he points out how subversive this ancient book is to restoring our sense of calling and “vocational holiness.” He probes  the spiritual dimensions of the pastoral calling and seeks to reclaim the ground taken over by those who are trying to enlist pastors in religious careers.

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce

Lynette and I read this together. It is one of the most moving books either of us have read in years. Simply a captivating story.

Harold Fry, recently retired. He lives in a small English village with his wife, Maureen, who seems irritated by almost everything he does, even down to how he butters his toast. Little differentiates one day from the next. Then one morning the mail arrives, and within the stack of quotidian minutiae is a letter addressed to Harold in a shaky scrawl from a woman he hasn’t seen or heard from in twenty years. Queenie Hennessy is in hospice and is writing to say goodbye.

Harold pens a quick reply and, leaving Maureen to her chores, heads to the corner mailbox. But then, as happens in the very best works of fiction, Harold has a chance encounter, one that convinces him that he absolutely must deliver his message to Queenie in person. And thus begins the unlikely pilgrimage at the heart of Rachel Joyce’s remarkable debut. Harold Fry is determined to walk six hundred miles from Kingsbridge to the hospice in Berwick-upon-Tweed because, he believes, as long as he walks, Queenie Hennessey will live.

Still in his yachting shoes and light coat, Harold embarks on his urgent quest across the countryside. Along the way he meets one fascinating character after another, each of whom unlocks his long-dormant spirit and sense of promise. Memories of his first dance with Maureen, his wedding day, his joy in fatherhood, come rushing back to him—allowing him to also reconcile the losses and the regrets. As for Maureen, she finds herself missing Harold for the first time in years.
The Wright Brothers, by David McCullough

I am not certain, but I think I have read everything McCullough has written. In this latest book I was surprised to learn that the brother’s father was a devout Christian minister. Such a wonderful story of the carefulness in which they went about their task of inventing the first self-propelled flying machine.

On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio changed history. But it would take the world some time to believe what had happened: the age of flight had begun, with the first heavier-than-air, powered machine carrying a pilot.

Who were these men and how was it that they achieved what they did?

Far more than a couple of unschooled Dayton bicycle mechanics who happened to hit on success, they were men of exceptional courage and determination, and of far-ranging intellectual interests and ceaseless curiosity, much of which they attributed to their upbringing. The house they lived in had no electricity or indoor plumbing, but there were books aplenty, supplied mainly by their preacher father, and they never stopped reading.

When they worked together, no problem seemed to be insurmountable. Wilbur was unquestionably a genius. Orville had such mechanical ingenuity as few had ever seen. That they had no more than a public high school education, little money and no contacts in high places, never stopped them in their “mission” to take to the air. Nothing did, not even the self-evident reality that every time they took off in one of their contrivances, they risked being killed.

“If you are too busy to read, you are too busy.”~ Richard Foster

“If you are too busy to read, you are too busy.”~ Richard Foster

McCullough draws on the immense riches of the Wright Papers, including private diaries, notebooks, scrapbooks, and more than a thousand letters from private family correspondence to tell the human side of the Wright Brothers’ story, including the little-known contributions of their sister, Katharine, without whom things might well have gone differently for them.

There were so many others that I could have mentioned, but this is already longer than most of you will have read. I hope you will go to a library, or your favorite bookstore and get your hands on these books.

You will be the better for it.

 

 

 

 

 

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Getting out of God’s Chair

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Joe Chambers

 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. ~ Saint Paul

My oldest son, Cole, was UNinvited to preach at a church because the previous week he had quoted from Eugene Peterson’s version of the Bible—The Message. He didn’t use it as his main Bible, he just quoted from it to add color and nuance to a familiar verse of Scripture.

It hurt his feelings. He told me about the dis-invitation and it didn’t hurt my feelings, it made me flame-throwing mad. I wanted to call up the church and give them a piece of my mind that I can’t afford to lose. I wanted to spray paint on their front door, “Legalists!” I would have done it but I couldn’t find my black spray paint and the Broncos were playing.

Another time a business partner and I got into a disagreement in his office and then he tried to physically block me from leaving his office until we had settled the issue. (Which meant that I capitulated to his will.) I was dumbfounded that a man would try to physically keep me from leaving a room. I’m a big guy and I don’t suffer fools who try to impose their wills on me physically. My anger meter began to rise to a dangerous place.

He eventually moved and I walked out and drove away. On the drive home I processed the incident and began to replay it in my mind—over and over again. Bitter bile began to rise in my throat and leached over into my soul. I began to imagine things I would like to do to him with black spray paint.

Jesus told a story about a king, and he had a servant. The servant owed the king 10,000 talents. Commentators always freak out over that number, because it really meant billions and trillions of dollars. It was a ridiculous sum. It could not have meant, therefore, a loan. No king could’ve possibly given any servant 10,000 talents.

It must mean the servant was a high official in the kingdom and through mismanagement and malfeasance he had lost an enormous amount of money, so the very economy and very kingdom was in jeopardy. So the king comes to the servant and says, “Where’s my money? Pay me.” The servant says, “I can’t. Forgive me.” The king, though he had every right to sit in judgment, forgives him and has mercy on him.

So then that servant walks along and sees a second servant. That second servant owes the first servant (the forgiven servant) a few dollars. The first servant says, “Pay me.” The second servant says, “I don’t have it. Forgive me.” The first servant says, “No,” and throws him into prison.

When the king hears this, he grabs the first servant, and he says, “Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant as I had mercy on you? Didn’t you have an experience of my mercy? How can anyone who has experienced my mercy have a grudge and hold their fellow servant liable?”

At the end of the parable, he throws the first servant into prison. Jesus ends with this chilling line:

“So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”

What is Jesus saying? “If you hold a grudge, if you retaliate against somebody else, then even though you say you believe you’re a sinner saved by grace, you don’t functionally believe it. You’re denying it, no matter what you say.”

When a servant acts like a king or a judge, it’s incongruous. That’s why we’re angry with each other. That’s why we’re paying each other back. That’s why we’re sitting in judgment. We’re servants acting like kings and judges.

What will change our hearts? The only thing that will change a servant from acting like a king is by getting a view of the amazing love of the King who became a Servant.

We should be in the dock; we put ourselves on the judgment seat. But the Lord, who was on the judgment seat, came down, put himself on trial, and he went to the cross. The Judge of all the earth was judged. He was punished for us. He took the punishment we deserve for all the ways we harm each other.

The gospel humbles us. We can’t stay angry at somebody unless we feel superior to them. It humbles us out of our bitterness. Then we can forgive.

When Jesus Christ was dying on the cross because he was being executed unjustly, do you remember what He said?

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:24

Do you see the balance? He says, “Father, what they’re doing is wrong. They need to be forgiven. They are guilty, and I’m dying for their guilt.” And instead of screaming at his enemies, “You’ll get yours,” what does he say?

“Father, they really don’t understand the magnitude of what they’re doing.”

Eugene Peterson's version of Romans 12:17-19

Eugene Peterson’s version of Romans 12:17-19

Jesus has something good to say about his executioners.

If he treats his executioners like that, how dare you and I be cold and withdrawing to people or sarcastic, insulting, slashing, and burning people? How dare we talk like that?

He wouldn’t even talk like that at the very end.

Much less scrawl graffiti on their doors with black spray paint.

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The Disciplines of Peace

Posted on December 7, 2015 by Joe Chambers

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

….whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.    Philippians 4:6-8

I don’t know if you ever have anxiety or not.  I don’t know if you worry.  I don’t know if you ever get restless and struggle with feelings of discontentment. Sometimes I do.

With our world spinning out of control, seemingly we may need to ground ourselves in some of the ancient wisdom of Saint Paul where he taught about a peace that surpasses all understanding.

Do you need some peace? Then implement these three disciplines in your life this frenetic season.

Thinking

Thinking about what? He’s not talking about reading Hallmark Cards or watching Joel Osteen. He’s talking about Kingdom thinking.

Modern day self-help books will never ask you hard and transcendent questions. None of these books will ever say, “So you’re stressed. You’re unhappy. You’re anxious. Let’s start by asking the big questions.

  • What is the meaning of life?
  • What are you really here for?
  • What’s your life all about?
  • Where have you come from, and where are you going?
  • What should human beings spend their time doing?”

They never ask you to think, but they have a ton of techniques to alleviate symptoms of restlessness, stress and anxiety.

They want to discuss your work/life balance.  They want you to minimize your external stressors.  They want you to think “happy thoughts.”

Did you know there is a stupid peace, and there’s a smart peace? Stupid peace says, “Distract yourself with the trivialities of this world. Put all of your effort on increasing the external tranquility of your life. The challenge is that we can’t control one single bit or our externals.

Smart Peace says, “Think big, big picture. Think and ponder the epic Kingdom narrative arc. Everything is going to be okay.

If my grandgingers lost their puppy they would be devastated. They might even believe life was not really worth living.  But from an adult perspective is that remotely true? No. In fact there might even come a day when they will struggle to remember the name of that puppy. We know that in the larger narrative-arc of their life’s story they will be fine.

Isn’t it safe to assume that something infinitely more true than that is what God might think in regards to our current trials?

Think Kingdom thoughts.  Large, Biblical thoughts.

Thanking

It’s a little counter-intuitive, isn’t it? What we would say is you make your requests to God, and if you get your requests, you thank. That’s not what it says. It says you thank him as you make the request.

God did not make the world to be a world filled with sorrow and death and violence and suffering, but he has a plan. He has a plan to restore it. He has a plan to get it back.

Thorpe Cross

Cross on Thorpe Mt. Washington

On the day Jesus Christ was crucified, all of his friends might have looked up at him and said, “I can’t believe God could bring anything good out of this.” And yet had you actually been there, you were looking straight at the greatest thing God has ever done toward the redemption of the world.

God is saying, “That is the prime example of what I’m doing in everybody’s life. Even the terrible things that are happening to you, I’m working out for good.”

When I was in my early twenties, I asked God to let me marry a girl named Lisa. I begged Him. We got engaged and I just knew God had answered my prayers. Then I went on a Wilderness Leadership Training trip in Colorado for eleven days—when I returned I got all of her letters and arranged them by post mark in chronological order, smelled them, and opened them one by one. The last one said that she was breaking up with me. I was devastated. She had betrayed me and, it felt like God had betrayed me by not answer my prayer the way I wanted. I yelled at God and He was silent, until He wasn’t.

Today, some three sons and four grandgingers later I am more than a little thankful He answered my prayers differently.

I look back at it, and God in His deafening silence was saying, “My son, when a child of mine makes a request, I always give that person what he or she would have asked for if they knew everything I know.”

Do you believe that? To the degree you believe that, you’re going to have peace. If you don’t believe it, you don’t have peace. Whose fault is that? Is it God’s? Make your requests known with thanksgiving.

Loving

 “… whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, [whatever is] excellent …” Vs. 8

He says it’s not enough just to think on the right things. It’s also important to love the right thing.

Children grow up. They change from darling little babies to difficult teens and independent adults. Jobs come and go. So do money, fame, looks, health, and every other facet of our reality. But God can be depended upon to be the same loving savior today, tomorrow and into eternity. We can let go of the rest, because we will always have him. Augustine famously said of God, “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in thee.” As one writer paraphrased it, “only love of the immutable can yield tranquility.”

Now, find a nice quiet place, sit down, and try to love the immutable. You’ll say, “I’m not feeling anything yet.” God is just an abstraction. But Paul reminds us of a very powerful truth.

The Lord is near…. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  Vs.5, 7

Paul says, “I want you to find Jesus Christ lovely. That’s the only way you’re ever going to love the immutable and find that tranquility.”

On the cross, Jesus lost all of his peace so that we could have His presence. And when we have His presence, we have His peace. Remember? It was on the cross that Jesus cried, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Jesus died with a cry. He died screaming.

Jesus lost all of his peace so you could have eternal peace. Looking at that is what will get you through. That’s what will make him lovely.

Listen to this clip and find some peace…

My sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought!

My sin, not in part, but the whole,

Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

What does that have to do with his four little girls who died? Everything.

When things go wrong, one of the ways we lose our peace is we say, “Maybe I’m being punished.” But no! Look at the cross. All the punishment fell on him.

Another thing we say is, “Maybe God doesn’t care.” No! Look what he did for us! Look what he bore for us! The Bible gives you a God who says, “I’ve lost a child too, but not involuntarily. Voluntarily, for your sake.”

You sing that hymn, and you watch a man thinking, thanking, and loving himself into the peace of God. It worked for him under those circumstances. It worked for Paul under his circumstances. It will work for you.

Shalom!

 

 

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Ugly Trees

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Joe Chambers

I grew up nine miles from town, three miles from our nearest neighbor, at an elevation of 9,000 feet in Colorado.  One year my dad, brother, sister, and I went to the woods half a mile away to find our Christmas tree. We post-holed through the crusted snow from tree to tree.  “How about this one, Dad?” Again and again, he said no. “But it’s perfectly shaped,” we would respond.  “Let’s leave the pretty ones in the forest.”  “Why, Dad?” “So God can enjoy them in his forest,” my dad replied.

Finally, we heard, “Here it is.”  We groaned at the first sight of it. It was medium height, sparsely branched, and one side was almost bereft of branches.  The crown drooped.  The color was pale green.  The trunk was crooked as a dog’s hind leg.  “Perfect,” Dad said.  “Your mom can make it beautiful once we get it into the house.” Down on his knees in the crunchy snow, he placed the bow saw against its bark and began to cut down the tree.

ugly-treejpg-7ab70e7001f78853

I remember looking at my brother and sister with raised eyebrows.  I think one of them said, “Mom’s not going to like this.”

I don’t remember how my mom felt about the perfectly imperfect tree, but she and we threw every ornament in the house on it. We turned the bareness towards the wall.  We threw silver streaming icicles on the branches; we shredded cotton balls and threw them on the desperate needles for snow.  Large baseball-sized globe ornaments went on the bottom and incrementally smaller ones towards the top.  Egg-sized lights were strung all around.  A star was placed at the bent crown.   With an adjustment here and there, a final turn of the tree for the best angle in the family room, and we were finished.

“See? I told you,” Dad said with a smile. “Beautiful.”

I don’t remember ever doing it that way again. My mom probably drew a line in the snow about bringing weeds into the house and passing them off as Christmas trees in a private conversation with Dad. I was associated with about 20 Christmas trees in my family as a boy growing up.  I don’t remember a single one but this one.

The ordinary became extraordinary.

The ugly became beautiful.

The unwanted became wanted.

The obscure became remembered.

That can happen again this year in your home around your tree.  The reason we celebrate gifts under a tree is because of another tree; a rough-sawn, blood-soaked tree.  One no one wanted but is now treasured.  Not because of its own intrinsic beauty, but because by dying on that ugly tree, Jesus made it beautiful.

On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,

The emblem of suff’ring and shame;

And I love that old cross where the dearest and best

For a world of lost sinners was slain.

Linger at that ugly, ancient tree and receive your gift of acceptance, love, and hope.

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Deep Change

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Joe Chambers

“Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.  And I tell you, you are Peter…” Matthew 16: 17-18a

I was on a long flight one time and the only in flight entertainment was the movie Talladega Nights. This is a exceedingly silly film, but there is one scene in the movie that does help me to set up the theme for this post.

Ricky Bobby, the NASCAR racing sensation played by Will Ferrill, sits down with his wife, Carly, and his family to say grace before enjoying a fine meal of Domino’s, KFC, and, in Ricky Bobby’s words, the always delicious Taco Bell.  Ricky Bobby begins to pray…

“Dear Lord baby Jesus, I just want to say thank you for my family, my two beautiful Will Ferrellhandsome, striking sons, Walker and Texas Ranger, and of course my red hot smokin’ wife Carly.  Dear Lord baby Jesus, we also thank you for my wife’s father, Chip.  We hope that you can use your baby Jesus powers to heal him and his horrible leg. Dear tiny infant Jesus….

Carly interrupts… “Hey, um, Ricky, ya’ know—Jesus did grow up.  You don’t always have to call him baby.  It’s a bit odd and off-putting to pray to a baby.”

Ricky Bobby responds, “Well I like the Christmas Jesus best and I’m saying grace.  When you say grace you can say it to grown up Jesus, or teenage Jesus, or bearded Jesus, or whoever you want.”

Carly sighs and Ricky Bobby begins again. “Dear 8 pound 6 ounce newborn infant Jesus, don’t even know a word yet, just a little infant and so cuddly…but still omnipotent.  Dear tiny Jesus with your golden fleece diapers and tiny little fat balled up fists we just thank you for all the races I’ve won and the 21.2 million dollars that I have accrued (Whoot!) over this season.  Thank you for all your power and your grace, dear baby God.  Amen.”

Who is Jesus? I’ve heard from countless people down through the years, “My idea of Jesus is____________________.”

Is He an enlightened Guru, a wise philosopher, a social revolutionary, a master teacher, or a savvy leadership maven? Who is Jesus?

Folks dream up what they want Jesus to be and create a persona of their own personal Jesus. But what is fascinating is that this isn’t how we approach getting to know any other human being. Think about going down to the local coffee house to meet a new friend and they tell you that their name is Tom and they just opened up the new House Rock restaurant, they just moved here from Colorado Springs and they are 47 years old. And you say in response, “That is all well and good, but I like to think of you as a yoga instructor from Northern California, who’s been here for 3-4 months, loves sunrises and long walks by the Ocean.

You would never do that. Because you and I have to relate to other people as they are, not as we want them to be. It only makes sense that we take the world’s most important citizen on His own terms.

Jesus has gathered here some of his very closest friends and follower and he has taken Who do men saythem on a bit of a road trip to a city called Cesarea Phillipi where many of his followers are from and where he does much of his teaching. While there Jesus asked his famous question. Peter clears his throat, steps forward and says, “You are the King. We think you are the One.”

Peter is saying that they believe that Jesus is the long awaited One who will come to set the world right; that Jesus is the One that the ancient prophecies hinted at and whetted our appetites for. A human being was coming who would somehow share God’s authority and life and God would work through him to rescue and restore his world once and for all.

Peter says, “I think you are that guy.” Peter recognizes who He is and Jesus changes his name—and who he is.

In the ancient world, and in many traditional cultures today, names defined and described identity. Someone’s name said something about who they were. Jesus is saying to Peter, “Because you are my follower and you understand who I am, this is going to deeply transform who you are. You used to be called Simon, now you will be called Rocky.”

This teaches us that following Jesus will change you. Because Jesus will always be moving to the center of our lives and transforming us at our very depths—down deep, where the knobs are. Jesus refuses to be an accessory to our lives.  He refuses to be window dressing to our careers, all the while we are still calling the shots in our lives.

Knowing and following the real Jesus will transform the very depths of who you are.

And by doing this deep transformation, he is not making you less of you—he is actually making you more of who you were intended to be all along before sin began to disfigure and devalue you. He will strip away all the dark, twisted and gnarled parts of you and restore you to what you might have been had you stayed in Eden.

The question I ask myself this morning is this: If my character is not being transformed, why not? Maybe I have a relationship with an imaginary Jesus.

After all, Jesus did grow up.  Perhaps it is time I did too.

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What is Your Temple?

Posted on November 9, 2015 by Joe Chambers

“Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ~ Jesus

“Are we not all of us fanatics?…Choose your attachments carefully. Choose your temple of fanaticism with great care. You are what you love….Who teaches your USA children how to choose their temple? What to love enough not to think two times? For this choice determines all else, no? All other of, what you say, are free choices follow from this. What is your temple?                                               ~ David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest, pgs 151

This character, Marathe, notices something about us. It is not only true of those of us who make a regular habit of gathering here to worship on Sundays. All of us worship at a temple. Whatever it is that we place at the center of our lives, whatever we are most deeply attached to, whatever it is that we love enough not to think two times—that is our temple of fanaticism.

cleansingthetemple02This scene in John chapter two is not what many of us associate with Jesus of Nazareth.  We tend to think of Jesus as a blond hared, blue-eyed, forty-year-old-white guy; a little on the effeminate side. We dial up the lyrics of the old him, “Gentle Jesus, meek and mild.” It is difficult for us to see Jesus here worked up to a lather, veins swelling on the side of his neck, brow furrowed and jaw muscles pulsing as he knocks tables over and uses a hastily made whip to drive livestock out of Church.

For ancient man a temple was a place where heaven and earth overlapped and interlocked. It was the place where broken people could bridge the infinite gulf between them and the divine. It was the place where the visible and in the invisible would meet each other.

But during the Enlightenment there were a group of intellectuals who said in various ways that all that is is what we can see, taste, touch and measure—scientifically. The implication of that is that there is nothing that can’t be explained or solved by scientific progress.

In the several hundred years after that, we have made all kinds of progress in understanding who we are, where we’ve come from and how to solve many of the problems of the world. And yet with all of the progress that flowed out of the Enlightenment, we have not solved our problems. We have found cures for many of the diseases that plagued those very men in the age of Enlightenment and at the same time we have invented catastrophic ways in which to destroy humanity. And post-modern man is left with this gnawing question: There has to be something more.

Like grass that slowly sprouts through cracks in concrete; spiritual desire, desire for a temple keeps sprouting up in our world.

In the Jewish tradition, the Temple wasn’t a retreat from reality, rather it was a beach head of reality into the world. It was a living sign that the one true God, the Living Creator, had not abandoned His world or the people who lived in it. Instead, was actively at work to renew and restore it.

When you look at the tapestry of scripture from the beginning of this book we love, all of God’s creation is “Temple.” This shows up when you read carefully the Old Testament description of the Tabernacle, which was the precursor to the Temple that Solomon built. Both of them are designed to echo back to the primal days of creation.

In the earliest days of life people communed with God face-to-face. And even after humanity turned their backs on God, He made arrangements in the tabernacle and then in the temple for broken people like you and me to be in his perfect presence.

And then down through the centuries, the Hebrew prophets over and over again would lean forward, squint their eyes to look ahead into the future for a day when God would act decisively to put what was wrong in the world right again and welcome people back into his living presence—when all of the world would be a Temple again.

By the time of Jesus’ day this theology and expectation had developed to such a point that most everyone believed that God would work through a singular individual — a Messiah. And one of the things the Messiah would do would be to reform or restore the Jerusalem Temple. It had become quite corrupt by Jesus’ day. This is why as He whipped that goat, and drove out that lamb and let loose that cage of turtle doves the officials stood wide-eyed and asked, “Who do you think you are, anyway?”

Jesus answered their question with a riddle that has a staggering claim lurking behind its door. The shocking claim is this: That He is a walking, living, breathing Temple. That His flesh and blood are where heaven and earth overlap and interlock. Where the visible and the invisible meet each other.

And through this mysterious figure, we actually see God’s glory as if we were standing in the Temple ourselves. And in a short three years Jesus would die—zeal for His Father’s house would literally consume him—but three days later God would raise Him from the dead so that people like you and I can connect with God, not by going to a place, but by going through a person.

Can you see why this is one of the most shocking things that Jesus ever said? No one else has ever had the audacity to claim this. When your family or friends tell you that all religions are the same, you can confidently assure them that only Jesus of Nazareth has ever claimed what he claimed.  All sorts of other religions, cults and groups have built temples, but Jesus says, “I am the Temple.”

This turns the tables on our whole lives

 

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How I Met Jesus

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Joe Chambers
Mennonite Hospital and Sanitarium, La Junta, Colorado

Mennonite Hospital and Sanitarium, La Junta, Colorado

I was born in the Mennonite Hospital and Sanitarium, La Junta, Colorado December 18, 1957. The hospital is no longer in existence.  It was originally built by Christians to serve those who had been afflicted by tuberculosis so that they might be fully restored to health.  It ceased being a TB Sanitarium in 1955 and became a full-time hospital.

My parents were young.  Dad was 20 years old and my mom was 19 when she had me.  I am grateful that they were both followers of Jesus when I was brought into this world.  I am certain I would not be a Christian without their influence.

My father was a Southern Baptist pastor and my mother was first class pastor’s wife.  I am the oldest of four children.  I use to “play Church” with my little brother.  I would preach and he would direct the music. We had an idyllic early childhood in Southeastern Colorado and central Texas while Dad was going to college and seminary.

Being the oldest I thought I was supposed to do everything first.  I walked first, talked first, and was potty trained first. (I hope)  I was to “look after” my little brother and sisters. That might mean keeping them out of the street or protecting them from the local bullies.  It felt important being that important.  I loved having the role of older brother and first born.

When I was seven years old while living in Eastland, Texas my little brother Jay walked forward in an altar call at our father’s church and prayed to receive Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  He became a Christian and was baptized.  He did this before me!  I don’t remember the emotions I felt as a seven year old, but I can tell you it hurt.  How did this happen?  I was supposed to be first!

I don’t remember watching him be baptized.  I am certain I was present, but I don’t have a memory of it. I’ve blocked the memory.

Mom

My mother, Earlene Chambers, in the spring of 1958.

A few months later, in one of my many surly moods, I had  in a quarrel with my brother, sister and some neighborhood kids about what game we should play and they wouldn’t comply with my wishes so I stomped home in a huff.  My mother wondered if the reason I was having a difficult time getting along with others is because deep down I was still very selfish.  That maybe my relationships would be smoother if I learned to live more for others like Jesus did rather than just for me.  Would I like to have my sins forgiven and receive Christ as my Savior?  I allowed that I would like that.

So, we left the front porch of the parsonage and walked across the gravel parking lot into Morton Valley Baptist Church and found my father in his study.  He went over the “plan of salvation” with me.  I had heard it before in his sermons, but this was the first time I heard him explain it in terms that might make sense to a seven year old.

He asked me if I wanted to pray and invite Jesus into my heart and let Him forgive me of my sins.  I said that I did.  All three of us got out of our chairs and knelt and I repeated a prayer my father spoke aloud.  I remember seeing tears fall onto the carpet of the floor and disappearing into the fabric.  It was like my sins were falling away and disappearing as we prayed just like those tears.  We said, “In Jesus name, amen.”

I lifted up my head and saw my mother’s eyes wet with tears and a soft smile on my father’s face.  I asked if I could go tell my brother and sister what had happened.  They said yes.

Robbie, Jay and Joe at Morton Valley Baptist Church, Eastland, Texas

Robbie, Jay and Joe at Morton Valley Baptist Church, Eastland, Texas

I burst out of that study and into the woods behind the country church screaming at the top of my voice, “Jay!  Robbie! I am saved!  I am saved!”

My brother says that he and my sister said “Hallelujah” like a couple of little Pentecostals when they heard the good news that maybe now there would be some peace among the children.

The baptistery in our church was not working so I was baptized in a nearby church.  I remember looking into the deep pool and seeing a cinder block in the bottom my Dad said was for me to stand on; lots of pieces of debris floating on the surface and a wooden paddle floating with a blue and white cord tying it to the wall.

Freckle Face

Freckle Face

My Dad stirred the water with the paddle explaining to me it was to mix the cold and hot water together so that the water was warm for us. But I remember it being very cold and the floaties swirling in circles.  The baptism meant a lot to my father.  He got choked up when he said the words you say when someone is baptized.  It was strange to me that my father was getting emotional about me standing on a concrete block in a tub of dirty, cold water.

I have walked with Jesus a long time now.  I drifted from him in high school, repented and became a pastor.  I drifted from him as a pastor and had to rebuild relationships that my sin nearly destroyed. I have wept gallons of tears on my way back to the heavenly Father where I found mercy and grace in the face of my mother, father, wife, brother, sisters, sons and many friends.

Joe PicToday I spend a goodly part of each day trying to communicate to sin-infected people that there is a cure and a hope if they turn to Jesus.  Spiritual healing can be found not in a hospital or sanatorium, but on bent knee at the throne of the Great Physician.

Never fear repentance.

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The Confluence of Love

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Joe Chambers

If two lie down together, they will keep warm;
But how can one be warm alone?

                                                                ~ The Preacher

“I’m going to go out and cut some wood.”

There's something sexy about a woman in the woods with a chainsaw.

There’s something sexy about a woman in the woods with a chainsaw.

“Want me to go with you?” she asked.

“That would be great.”

Living in the mountains is something I have dreamed about for over forty years—and now that dream has come true at the foot of Mt. Princeton.  I am in heaven. I step out on my deck at night and can see a million pin-pricks of light in the night sky. Like so many tiny holes to heaven. I can go for a walk and dodge prickly pairs, see antelope, and smell the gentle decay of fallen leaves in the river bottom.

I am living my dream.

My wife is living my dream—not hers.

She is a city girl. She likes the close proximity of Hobby Lobby, Dollar Tree and Costco. She likes the security of people she loves very close to her or within easy driving distance. She likes well-kept lawns, paved streets and stop lights.

So what is she doing volunteering to step outside and hold logs while I cut them with a chainsaw? She isn’t living her life. She is living life. A life she didn’t choose. A life that is happening before us as we follow the calling of the Lord.

Nearly 34 years ago we entered a covenant together for better or worse and she is anything if not loyal to a promise. When we watch the Lord of the Rings trilogy the character she most closely identifies with is Samwise Gamgee. If Frodo, the ring-bearer, must go into Mordor then Sam will follow. It is who he is.

It is who she is.

Last night my hand was hung loosely over the arm of my chair as we were mindlessly watching one of our favorite shows and she slipped her hand inside of mine. We are living in the confluence or our lives—now that kids are grown and gone and grandkids are a thousand miles away. Our souls are knitting together. We are becoming one—our hearts are beating together.

Did you hear about the couple who had been married for 72 years and loved each other to the very end? The couple was hospitalized after a car accident just outside of Marshalltown, Iowa. They were given a shared room in the ICU where they held hands in adjacent beds.

At 3:38 pm on a Wednesday, Gordon’s breathing stopped. Though he was no longer alive, his heart monitor continued to register a beat.

The nurse told Gordon and Norma’s son, Dennis Yeager, that the monitor was beeping “because they’re holding hands, and Norma’s heart beat is going through him.”

Norma died at 4:38 pm, exactly one hour later.

Even when we are cutting wood together or praying together over a meal, we are living in the confluence of our lives.

Together.

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Value above all Values

Posted on October 3, 2015 by Joe Chambers

Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah…

Bible Series Jonah sepiaWhen the Word of the Lord comes to anything, it is never the same.  In Genesis when the earth was a dark, soupy mess, the word of God came to that mess and formed this spinning blue planet we call Earth. When God decided to make mankind, He spoke and mankind was formed from the dust of the ground and placed on this beautiful  blue planet. And in the fullness of time, God comes to us in person and speaks our language in the person of His son, Jesus.

Most scholars agree that this four chapter book was actually penned sometime after Jonah lived and died and several hundred years before Jesus came on the scene. And it is helpful to imagine Jonah as a ‘stand in’ for the people of God.  What God is saying to Jonah, He is really saying to Israel and all of God’s people. That’s why I can hear this as a word for me.  Whatever God is saying to Jonah, He is saying to Joe.

This was written to a group of people who had turned in on themselves and had forgotten who they were and why they were placed in that strategic part of the world. They mistakenly believed that because they were God’s chosen people that meant that they were His only people.  But God loved the Ninivites enough to warn them to change their wicked ways.  He needed a mouth-piece named Jonah.

That very first line in this little story tells us that we were created to find our purpose, meaning and our center in the living God and what He says to us.  God wants His voice to define and shape our lives. This story teaches us that the only secure foundation for us to build our lives on is God and what He says.

All of us are on a search for a word that defines and validates our existence. There will be one WORD that is like a hub in the spoke of our lives.  This “word” defines our values, which drive our behaviors and our passions.  This word will give our lives definition. It will be the foundation that we build the structure of our lives upon.

Tim Keller quotes entertainer Madonna in one of his books:

I have an iron will, and all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy. . . I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being, and then I get to another stage and think I’m mediocre and uninteresting. . . . Again and again. My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that’s always pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I’ve become Somebody, I still have to prove I’m Somebody. My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.

That is more honest than you or I are often willing to be. Her value above all values is for people to think of her as interesting and special.

What is the ‘word’ for your life?

We are all driven for someone or something to define our existence: to say that you are worthwhile. What is that for you?  Some people believe if they get the right initials behind their name that they will finally be someone.  Others just know that if they achieve certain accomplishments in their career that they will fill that void deep inside.  Others rely on their physical attractiveness to feel special and noticed by someone significant.  Still others are aching for a significant person in their life to finally say, “Well done!”

None of these things are bad, the problem is that they are unstable. All of us are looking for a word to build our lives on and ultimately the only stable word to center your life upon is Word of the living God. The One who created you and formed you for Himself.

As God speaks to the preacher man named Jonah it quickly becomes clear that he has built his life on something other lastman-pieter-jonah-and-the-whalethan God and what God says about him, and so he runs…

God has a word for you.

Slow down and listen, that word is probably behind you and if you won’t listen to the whisper, just keep running and you might find a storm.

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Misfits at the King’s Table

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Joe Chambers

One Sabbath, when Jesus went to eat in the house of a prominent Pharisee, he was being carefully watched.   Luke 14:1

Meals say things about us. Throughout history meals have been used to show off and dramatize the power of the host.  But Jesus shows in this meal that God is saying something about how He feels about broken people.

This meal takes place on a Sabbath day and Jesus is going to dinner with a leader among the Pharisees.  Now, imagine this scene:  Perhaps Jesus and this man had just returned from Synagogue where they read Torah and worshipped Yahweh and now they are on their way to share a meal together.

The host of this meal is an important person.  He is a member of the powerful sect called Pharisees.  He not only was a member of this powerful group he was a leader.  This was no Storm Trooper Pharisee; this was a Sith Lord Pharisee.

And this dinner invitation is not as innocent as it might first appear. A person who is ill just happens to be present.  These religious leaders know that Jesus has a penchant for healing sick people and here one is placed right in front of him, tempting him to break a Sabbath rule.

Jesus looks at the crippled man and back to his host and says, “On this day when we worship a loving, compassionate God who creates, redeems and restores—would be Okay with you if I heal this person who is in pain?”

Silence.

Jesus takes their silence as permission and heals the man.

Then he asked them, “If one of you has a child or an ox that falls into a well on the Sabbath day, will you not immediately pull it out?” And they had nothing to say. Vs. 4-6

Apparently they had a rule against answering questions on the Sabbath.

And because everyone in this story is so prone to miss and misunderstand what God is doing in the world through Jesus, He tells a story and makes a parable out of the dinner itself.

Then Jesus said to his host, “When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. 13 But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, 14 and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.” Vs. 12-14

Thus Jesus clearly teaches that you should not have your relatives over for dinner. Some of you have been searching for this verse your whole life long! You’re going to go call up the relatives and say, “Sorry, Jesus says you can’t come to my house for Thanksgiving Dinner—Luke 14:12.”

Is Jesus really saying here that it’s a sin to fix a meal for your relatives? No! Of course He’s not doing that! He’s contrasting conventional human wisdom with life in the Kingdom of God. Conventional wisdom says, if you’re going to do something nice for someone, make sure that they can do something nice back for you. Quid pro quo. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.

But Jesus is saying that in the Kingdom, people sometimes do nice things for other folks who cannot do anything back for them at all.

Those of us seated at the King’s table ought to be marked by radical hospitality. There is a specific sequence to the people listed here.  It is a sequence that Jesus mentions several times in the Gospels.  The conventional and popular wisdom of the day among the religious elite is that those specific groups had apparently done something to sin away their spiritual standing.  Therefore they were going to be excluded when God set up his Kingdom.

So Jesus is telling this religious Sith Lord Pharisee, “The banquet God is throwing is for all the wrong people.” This means for those of us already seated at the table, that we are never to be selective about who we bring with us to the meal.  I am the wrong kind of person, who better than a person like me to bring others like me to the table?

Most other species forage alone, so that feeding is a solitary business, but human beings seem to love eating together. Even when we are stuck alone with a frozen dinner, most of us will open a magazine or turn on the television just for company. It is, at any rate, one of the clues to his presence. There is always the chance, when we are eating together, that we will discover the risen Lord in our midst. ~ Barbara Brown Taylor, “The Gospel Medicine”, page 95

Who around you needs to be welcomed into your life and into your home? This might mean you need to clear some time on your schedule for those outside your circle. I believe Christians ought to throw the best parties!

Who do you need to welcome to your Spiritual home? Most of you were invited by someone to attend a family of faith. Someone in your world right now would go to a gathering of believers if you invited them.  And there they will hear the Gospel of Grace and find a place they are welcomed and loved—you did.

Who do you need to make space for that is strange to you? Who is your Extra Grace Required (EGR) person?  In every gaggle of believers there is someone who is an extra grace required person.  If you look in your group and don’t see one, that means you areThe King's Table the EGR person. Who in your world do you think is too far from God’s grace or secretly hope they are too far?  Who is too dirty, rude, obnoxious or strange to sit at God’s table?

Who are the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind in your world that need to know that there is a chair waiting for them at the King’s Table?  Are they on your mind and heart?  They are on someone’s heart…they are on the King’s heart.

When we really absorb Jesus into our core we all will be people who are marked by hospitality.  It is a gospel for the misfits, a banquet for the broken.

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