Shut It

Ah a line made famous by Doug on "The King of Queens". It is like the more politically correct way of saying Shut Up. And it always makes me chuckle when I hear it.

So I was just reading about the early church & the Apostles get to the point where the Pharisee's tell them to essentially Shut it. Stop talking about this Jesus - go live in peace - be great neighbor's - mow your lawn...or sweep your dirt in the case of Israel. But stop talking about him. It is not right, it is not politically correct. Just Shut It when it comes to this Jesus.

Yeah they didn't listen so the boys get arrested - thrown in jail. God breaks them free from jail...where do they go from there...back to the Temple...why...to preach about Jesus. Man this must have drove the Pharisee's crazy because the church started to explode. They didn't have all the cool stuff. They didn't even have their own building - they were using the Temple...ouch.

Our generation has been silenced in the name of being politically correct. The "people" have told us not to talk about Him. Religion shouldn't be essential to life, it is just another stoke in your wheel of life. As my friend Matt says, it is not a stoke in my wheel - it is the hinge that holds my wheel together. Christ is my center...not just a point in my life.

Now, I am not saying that we become obnoxious and start picketing and pushing our faith down the throats of everyone. What I am saying is that we must be willing to share who Jesus is. We must be willing to risk! Share Jesus' compassion, love, and mercy. We must live genuinely before God and before others. In a world that views Jesus as judgmental, boring, and empty - we must show them who he is!

Howard Hendricks said, "In the midst of a generation screaming for answers, Christians are stuttering."

The Great Commission mandates that we take this incredible news that we are forgiven for our past - we have been given mercy - we have been given purpose - and Almighty God knows our name. That we are more important than the money we make and the car we drive. When we are empty he is there to give us strength. He is there to guide us and his plan is laid out in this wonderful ancient book of life - the Bible. Not so that we can build a big church or big religion - not for power or fame. But because when it comes down to it people need something real and meaningful.

I love the Worship movement! I love the fact that it re-aligns things when I remember that he has everything under control. When I sing those words it enables me to express my heart & teaches me, or reminds me of who God is in a messy world. However, I must say that worship is not limited to singing songs - it is about obedience. That Great Commission must lead us to share with a lost people the fantastic news of Jesus Christ. Not a religion, but a Father who is waiting to pour out life into his children.

Or, we can just shut it and make the Pharisee's quite proud. But at the end of the day we can always say we didn't make anyone upset. Not really the title I was looking for on my headstone.

This Stuff

I am completely new to this whole blogging thing but I can share random thoughts quite well, and I get frustrated by foolishness that I see in the world - so I think I might enjoy this to the fullest.

I was challenged this morning by the thought of breaking away from the norm. (Watching the epic movie Gandhi...epic because it was three hours long and it has taken me a week to finish it.) Also reading more about Christ I get frustrated with how quickly I can slip into the norm of easy going life. I have just turned 30 and I finished reading an article about people who have accomplished great things before they were 30 and thought...boy I have a lot of work to do. Not just for the sake of making me feel better - and certainly not to become famous - but knowing that I have such an incredible responsibility not to waste my life.

I remember when I gave up my dreams of being a police officer/ general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs / actor / pilot and anything else that would make me rich to become a minister I had a very frank conversation with God. I told him that if I was going to serve him as a minister I would die a long painful death if I had to be the quiet nice man around town who just smiled and was happy making rules for seniors citizens.

Funny enough after me wrestling through this prayer I decided to read about Jesus - no holds barred - forget what I knew and just read about him. As I did I found that I think Jesus had made up his mind about the same thing...except for one thing - he lived it constantly.

And here in lies the dilemma. We all make different decisions about who or what we are going to be. We all promise ourselves that we are actually going to use every breath that we get to make it count. Many of us have at one point or another sat down and said enough is enough I am going to change...but then 2 months later we wake up -drive to the nearest Tim's- go to work - come home - have supper - take the kids to something - come home - lay on the couch & watch tv - go to bed...all to repeat this the next day over and over again.

What would happen if we all broke away from this and lived like it mattered. What if we lived like our favorite hero from a book or movie (hopefully it is a good hero - and yeah Batman is just too unrealistic) But what would happen if we broke away from the cycle of watching or hearing about people living their dreams to actually living out our dreams? (If your dream is to own a fast car and mansion in the Caribbean think deeper - one of the shallow features of our culture is that our dreams are centered around attaining wealth rather than using the lives to we have effectively - but that is for another day.)

I still dream about Believers in Christ knowing in their hearts that their thrill or purpose will be found in being sold out to Christ in such a way that we are moved. Sadly I will admit most of my life I have been sold out to Christ in such a way that might evoke a tear or deep thought...but rarely are we truly moved.