in need of a long-suffering servant…

The aftershocks can still be felt from the earthquake devastation that decimated the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, Haiti.  As the reality of the situation sets in, images of leveled buildings, mass graves holding hundreds of thousands of the dead, and orphaned children wandering the streets in search of missing mothers and fathers shock those who are brave enough to look upon the horrific images.

As if to add more insult to injury, basic First Aid, food, and water have been in short supply as global first responders have been increasingly overwhelmed by the magnitude of the need.  Rich Stearns, President of World Vision, frequently updated his Twitter account on the ground in Haiti and wrote, “You have enough food for 1000, but there are 10,000 people at the distribution site, it is very difficult to control the crowd.  One of our biggest challenges right now is distributing food without causing a riot.”

This isn’t to say that the outpouring of generosity has not been felt in Haiti…because it has.  But, it is to say that the magnitude of the situation is on a scale that many could not anticipate or even imagine.  Additionally, the scope and scale of this catastrophe is not something that can easily be put back together in a few weeks.  In fact, this is what gives me the greatest concern. 

When the attention span of the average American is accustomed to the fast-paced and ever-changing news cycle, will our interest in this poor, ravaged country wane as quickly as it grabbed our attention when it happened?  Will our hearts still break for the traumatized individuals, families, and orphans after all of the dead are buried and when the rebuilding begins?  Will we pass by our half-dead brother lying helplessly on the roadside when other matters and other affairs demand our attention?

The truth of the matter is that our half-dead brother needs the sustained support and assistance of a loving and generous friend who will pick him up off of the roadside and help to restore him to good, quality health.  Our brother needs someone who has the heart and compassion to extend mercy and to serve with long-suffering and loving kindness until he can stand on his own once and for all. 

The truth is that the problems of Haiti are not new problems.  They have only been intensified and exacerbated by the earthquakes and are now made visible for the world, especially Americans, to finally see…and to finally come to terms with.  Yes, the need in Haiti right now is beyond comprehension, but the need has been great for quite some time.  

In our global neighborhood and in the middle of the street in which we live lies a poor brother who has been in need of help for quite sometime…and now needs our help more than ever.

The average Haitian brings in just over $500 annually in the least developed country in our hemisphere, making Haitians among the poorest people in the world.  UNICEF reports that sixty percent of Haitians lack basic healthcare.  One in three Haitians cannot read or write, while only half of school-aged children attend classes.  They also report that Haiti has the highest child mortality rate in the Western Hemisphere.

All of this from a country that is located just 600 miles south of one of the most affluent countries in the history of the world. 

So what can you do?  You and/or your church can help by praying for and donating to reputable organizations, such as the Red Cross and World Vision among others, which are on the ground and mobilized to meet the most basic needs of the people in first aid, food, water, and shelter.  But moving forward, it will be just as equally important, if not more important, for the Church in the Western Hemisphere to take a more active role in being a long-suffering friend and servant to Haiti, not only by helping to piece back together the lives of the people…but by working tirelessly to raise the Haitian quality of life for future generations.

Join the [living] room at 1412 Sycamore Street in Columbus, Indiana for artNITE! on February 6th at 7pm as we join together to raise money for the ongoing relief and aid to Haiti through World Vision (www.worldvision.org)…

peace…

brandon

Merry offensive Christmas…

This Christmas message will be different than most.  It is not a message of remembrance as much as it is a message of action.  It is not a message of what God has done as much as it is a message of what God is continuing to do.  And it is not a message depicted by a nativity scene or spoken as a sermon as much as it is a message proclaimed and demonstrated to every man and woman through the lives of those who have experienced the transformational power of the word becoming flesh.

The Christmas message is Incarnation.  The Christmas message is the word becoming flesh.  And it is not only our collective memory of the word becoming flesh on Christmas day, but the word becoming flesh in the daily lives of those who celebrate the Christ-child.

It was in the beginning that the word, or logos, existed.  And the logos was with God and the logos was God.  And the logos became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 

For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in this Jesus, and through him to bring humanity out of the dominion of darkness and into his Kingdom of light, making harmony to all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven.  The logos from with-out broke with-in…in order to be in all and through all. 

And this is where we leave the Christmas message, as something that happened in the past that needs to be celebrated annually, but it is rarely a message that calls us to offensive action in our lives.

But the very action of logos becoming flesh, of Christ being born, is offensive.  It is the way of love confronting the hostile forces of hatred.  It is the way of forgiveness confronting the systems of retaliation.  It is the way of peace confronting methodologies of war.  It is the way of joy confronting the masses of misery.  The Christmas message of the Christ-child, of logos becoming flesh, is offensive to the powers of evil. 

The logos becoming flesh is a confrontation to Satan and the demonic forces that enslave and lead the entire world astray.  The logos becoming flesh stands in stark contrast to the conventional ways and workings of every single oppressive kingdom of the world.  The logos becoming flesh is the very offensive action of the Kingdom of God breaking in, taking root, and then moving outward and onward throughout the world destroying the works of Satan through love, while reclaiming and restoring all of God’s good creation.

A note to the Christian:  the Incarnation…the word becoming flesh…the logos becoming flesh…the Good News of Great Joy is not on the defensive.  It is on the offensive march destroying every stronghold and every work of Satan through the word, the logos, becoming flesh in Jesus Christ and becoming flesh in our own lives. 

We have cowered and believed that we were on the defensive for too long.  We have been fighting the wrong battle through the wrong means.  Our battle is not fighting for the 10 commandments on government property, prayer in school, or Christmas to be publicly recognized.  And our means of fighting is not through arguing, bullying, suing, or twisting another’s arm in submission. 

The battle we wage is not against flesh and blood, but against the oppressive spiritual forces of evil.  And this offensive is fought with the sword of the Spirit, which is the very logos of God.  And this logos of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. 

John writes in the book of Revelation that, “[Satan] has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word, the logos, of their testimony.”  The logos penetrates deep, convicting and transforming us from the inside.  The logos becomes flesh in our lives, moving outward in testimony breaking down the gates of hell and destroying the work of Satan in other’s lives.

It is the life-changing testimony of how the love, forgiveness, and peace of God broke down the enemy strongholds in our own lives and changed us at our core.  It is the testimony of how the logos of God continues to rescue and restore the broken-hearted, the lost and afraid, and the enslaved and oppressed.

The logos becoming flesh happened and we celebrate it.  But the logos becoming flesh didn’t just happen and then end.  The logos becoming flesh continues on the offensive in and through our lives…in and through our testimony.  Moment by moment and person by person the logos of God continues to spread as it did two millennia ago, “The logos of God kept on spreading ; and the number of the disciples continued to increase greatly…”

This Christmas, let the message be one of remembrance and one of action.  A message of what God has done and what God is continuing to do.  And a message depicted through nativity and sermon but also proclaimed and demonstrated to every man and woman through the lives of those who have experienced the transformational power of the logos becoming flesh.

brandon

puddles of love for my enemy…

As she began to walk out the door I asked, “What do you think about loving those who are hard to love?” And she replied, “Like my dad? I hate it.”

My friend is as passionate about following the way of Jesus as anyone I know. In fact, she has given up everything to go around the world as a missionary to love, serve, and share the hope of Jesus Christ to the poorest people on the planet in the most remote parts of the world.

And while she is a great example to all of us who know her as displaying great love, selflessness, and sacrifice in her life for the benefit of those pushed away and discarded by the rest of the world, she may be a greater example in her demonstration of how difficult it is for a person who follows Jesus to love someone who is difficult to love or who does not deserve to be loved.

I am confident that when someone is teaching us about love, most of us just kind of tune out. I do. I have been there and done that…and I know all the verses about love. It is almost like, “Yeah, yeah I have this love thing figured out. You just love people. It is just that simple.”

The truth is that it is not that simple at all.

It is true that it is simple to love those who are lovable, but it is quite a different thing to love those who are unlovable, to love those who don’t deserve to be loved, or to love those who are our enemies. If we, as Christians, only love those who are lovable then our love is quite conditional and far from the kind of love that God has for each and every person in the world and then subsequently the kind of love that God wants demonstrated through us.

A great crowd of disciples were following Jesus when he stopped and began to teach them about the kind of love that they ought to exemplify in the world. He said that those who follow him would “love [their] enemies,” and would, “do good to those who hate [them].” He then went on to say, and this point is critical, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ’sinners’ do that.”

Here is the thing…every human being was created to have an unconditional love for each other and God. Each and every one of us was created in the image of God and has the Divine capability to express unconditional love. But we have been so wounded by the effects of sin (or our separation from God) that our ability to love unconditionally has deteriorated. So instead of being able to love everyone unconditionally, we are only able to unconditionally love those who we trust and those who haven’t hurt us. For everyone else, we believe that it is good and appropriate to stay at arms length in fractured and broken relationship, harboring anger, resentment, and grudges so as to not be hurt or wounded again.

This conditional love is not what God intends for those who have invited God to come into their hearts, minds, and souls. In fact, God is working to repair and restore that which has been broken and separated, the individual first and then the relationship between the person and others. God draws us in and envelops us in perfect love so that we may go out into the world and express this perfect, unconditional love to both the lovable and the unlovable, the friend and the enemy, the victim and the oppressor.

It is easy to love those who are lovable. Even those who do not know God can do that. But it is only through the power of God when we are enveloped in perfect love and given the power of the Holy Spirit that we can even begin to see people the way God sees people and then begin to love them the way that God does. That is the only way a person can love the father that has physically and emotional abused him or her. That is the only way that a person can love the drunk driver that takes the life of his or her child. That is the only way that we can love the murderer or terrorist who has taken innocent life. And that is the only way that we can continue to love and forgive those who continue to hurt and wound us daily.

It is absolutely impossible to love our friends and enemies in our own power. It is only possible in the power given to us by God.

brandon