Trendy?

First of all let me just say that this pic is not being posted for artistic or photographic qualities what so ever! This is a cell phone pic that wasn’t even taken by me. I saw something similar to this but was too disgusted and embarrassed to take out the iphone and snap a shot so I came back and googled to find this pic.

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The reason for posting this “mess “on my blog, is for the content. While I am sure that this young lady, at least I hope, was unaware that she was making a fool of herself, and not just trying to be trendy, today this is indeed a trend that is growing. Indeed when I googled low rise or sagging jeans the amount of modeling or advertisement adds outweighed the real pics like this one at least 10 to 1.
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It is amazing what is trendy today!

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I recently picked up a book titled “Radical, taking back your faith from the American dream” by David Platt. IT is an easy read but an incredibly convicting and insightful one as well. In it David Platt challenges us to begin to rediscover the gospel and center focus of Biblical Christianity vs. our American version of it. It is amazing how much the church in the U.S. and yes, I have allowed myself centered Americanized culture to influence how I live out my life and my Christianity
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Case in point…

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I have become a huge Rangers fan this year. Not just because they are winning. Rather I became interested when they declared bankruptcy and had a change in ownership that involved a lawsuit, an auction and months worth of “dirty laundry’ aired for the world to see.
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Well now that they are in the playoffs and one win away from going to the World Series many more have become or at least begun to express their support of the Rangers. I must admit, I have watched every game at home in HD with the surround sound blaring and even converted Kim to where she is sitting down watching the games with me and she is even screaming at the umpires with me when bad calls are made.

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Even as diehard of fans as we have become I have seen some facebook posts recently from friends that have caused me to take pause. Below are a couple of versions I have seen this week.
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Our Cliff Lee, who art in Texas, hallowed be thy name. Thy win will come, thy will be done, in New York as it is in Texas. Give us this Monday our daily win. And give us our strikes and home runs, but do not let others strike and home run against us. And Lead us not into frustration, but deliver us from evil Yankee Empire. For thine is the MVP, the power and the glory, for ever and ever

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Or
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Our Rangers, who art in Texas, winners be thy name. The Yanks will come, they will be done, in New York as they will be in Texas. Give us this week a series win, and forgive us our bullpen loss as we cause losses upon their bullpen. Lead us not into theoffseason, but deliver us a Championship title. For the Rangers are the swingdom, t...he claw, and the antlers forever. It's time! AMEN!!!!!from Kathryn Hardaway
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Now please do not misunderstand what I am about to say. I am not saying that the individuals who are posting this are heathens! Rather, that in all my fan craze that I have been going through myself is there a line where that craze can go too far? Is there a place where the line between our Christianity and our version of it is so close or in tune with the life we live or culture we live in that the two can blur and cross into each other with such ease that we don’t skip a beat?

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Let’s consider for a second what the quotes are spoofing.
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Our Father Who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.

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These words have become so commonplace for us that we can rattle them off by memory. They are so familiar we do not pause to think about the meaning of those words hardly at all. We neglect the verse just tow before these that states we should “not use meaningless repetition.” In the original language the passage here in Matthew really states that we should not use “idle” words or “babble.” No instead Christ suggests that when we pray we should be very intentional with our affections and praise.
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To one of the facebook posts one person replied, “--God probably has a hand in the Rangers winning--I'm sure there have been prayers lifted up for them, right? : )”

Now I am sure this was a comment made not as a statement of belief rather as one intended for humor.

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But that is just it. We have trivialized the gospel down to that. Jesus died for us; prayers to God are for Him to provide for our needs and our whims. There are 6,783,421,727 people in the world today. According to the most liberal estimates, approximately one-third of the world is Christian. These numbers include all those who identify themselves as Christian, whether religiously, socially or politically. Likely, not all of them are actually followers of Christ. But even if they were that still leaves 4.5 billion people who are separated from God and will spend eternity in hell if nothing changes.
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CHRIST DOESN”T CARE ABOUT THE RANGERS!

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He is about His Fathers Glory! About His Fathers Will manifest in the earth! HE dares to ask for His daily need not desire. Remember this is the Christ who is a shepherd that would leave the flock for the one that was lost! He didn’t die so you could become “a better you” so that if you planted a seed he could bless you tenfold! He came to invest in Twelve lowly men and then left the salvation of the world in their hands commanding that they go and follow His example and carry on His legacy by living as he would. Even more than that by dyeing to themselves and allowing His Holy Spirit to transform them and move through them.
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Not so we could take His examples and make them cliché phrases to exalt our American pass time. A bunch of guys throwing and hitting a ball for a game.

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Am I a fan of the Rangers? You bet! Will I watch their games? You bet! Will I cheer for them? You bet! And enjoy every minute of it.
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Will I be so bold as to take what I consider to be words of my God and an example of what is truly important and minimize them to nothing more than a catch phrase that I will use for a meaningless pass time in lieu of the hundreds of thousands who have lived out those words and have been martyred for believing in them strongly enough to try and see them realized in their countries and cultures?

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I choose not too!
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Trendy, What is it really and is it worth getting caught up in? I think naught, after all “I wouldn’t want to get caught with my pants down.”

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Now there is a catch phrase for ya!

What Do You See?

When you look at this man what do you see? Do you see his white hair? His plaid wrap? His Smile? Does this image cause you to question his age? How someone his age can still have his muscle tone? How on earth does he have the flexibility to be able to sit on his heals? How can he smile while sitting on his heals?

I took this shot while I was in Cambodia. A couple of friends and brothers in Christ were in Cambodia with me trying to explore the possibilities of our church getting involved in spreading the gospel in a nation where only 2% of the population claim to know Christ and 71.4 % of the people groups in the nation have literally never heard the Gospel nor do they have access to it.

During our trip we were filming a documentary of sorts and traveling all over the country. This particular shot was taken one afternoon as we were traveling from Phnom Penh, the capital, on a six hour drive to Siem Reap. We had been driving for a while and had just come out of a typical afternoon rain shower which had cleaned the air and what was left of the clouds was filtering the light of the sun perfectly making it perfect for picture taking and right there was this small village off of the road.

We immediately asked the driver to stop the car and off we went just trying to catch a glimpse of real ordinary Cambodian life. After all that is what we had set out to do. We weren't as interested in the normal tourist spots as much as the real everyday life of the people. So off we went hiking down the small dirt path you see coming out of the right of the picture. Carrying our cameras and equipment along with some bread (a nice commodity we had brought with us to hand out as a gift.) I can only imagine the sight as these people who had most likely never seen Americans before watched as these two tall white men came walking down their path into there little village of seven huts built on stilts. This was definitely not on the tourist track and I'm sure they were as intrigued by us as we were of their living conditions. Indeed, for us it felt much like it would if you were with National Geographic out in the jungles filming some documentary of this people group discovering their way of life for the first time.

It was quite exhilarating! After asking if we could take some pictures and giving out the bread Chiv our Cambodian brother began sharing the gospel while Mark and I began taking shots. Soon after we began taking pictures the old man in the first pic of this post came to the threshold of his little one room hut. His was the biggest hut right in the middle of the little village.

I imagine that this village was an entire extended family and that this must have been the patriarch of the family. As we took pictures he just sat there on his heals in his door and watched us without saying a word. He quickly caught my eye and eventually the eye of Mark as well and before to long we were both taking pictures of him in his doorway as he smiled back at us. Usually the kids and people are tickled to see pictures of themselves after we take them and show them in the little LCD displays of our digital SLR's but this man was content to just sit there and let us take his picture for a good thirty minutes to an hour all the while just smiling. Which as we would discover later is not customary for Cambodian culture. In fact when most Cambodians are having a picture of them taken it is customary to look serious. While here in the U.S. we tend to smile, in Cambodia they do just the opposite. So for this man to smile for us most likely meant that he had never been photographed before.

So back to my original questions.

When you look at this man what do you see? Do you see his white hair? His plaid wrap? His Smile? Does this image cause you to question his age? How someone his age can still have his muscle tone? How on earth does he have the flexibility to be able to sit on his heals? How can he smile while sitting on his heals? Or do you see a precious loved one of God, who has never heard the name of Jesus. One who has never known the hope that only the true gospel of the Bible can bring. Do you see one of more than a billion people today who have yet to hear the gospel? Does he cause you to reflect on the gospel you believe in? Suddenly catch phrases like "You do your best and God will do the rest" or "just plant a seed and God will return it ten fold" don't seem to matter much. The color of our churches carpet seem to lose their meaning. What style of music is played and whether or not it is to our liking as we "worship" God seem to become petty.

No, when you look into the eyes of a man that survived the single largest genocide since the holocaust of WWII, a man whose next meal depends on how his crops did that year, a man who has never know electricity or plumbing, who most likely owns the single pair of pants he is wearing, the gospel that the American church has created just wont do. For this man one must return to the true gospel of the Bible. The gospel of Luke 9 or Mark 10 or Matthew 13.

I began this post with a series of questions and will end it with a few more.

Are you willing to risk it all for the gospel? For people like this man? For the sake of the more than one billion people today who have yet to hear the gospel? For the sake of the twenty-six thousand children who will die today of starvation or a preventable disease? For the sake of a church subculture that has trivialized and changed the gospel into one of their liking?

I would like to think that I am