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In Faith in Real Life

Who is following Who?

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Do you ever wonder what God is doing? It is easy to take a look at life and be disappointed with the current state of your life and assume that God has decided to take the day off. Or let’s be honest, sometimes it feels like he took the entire year off. It could feel like the wheels have fallen off of your life and you’re stuck in the same position unable to move forward. However, what if we’re looking at it from the wrong angle?

Jesus invited a group of people to follow Him, to be His disciples. A disciple was someone that apprenticed with another more experienced teacher. And in this case, these disciples were the apprentice to the Son of God. Everyday for 3 years they followed Jesus and listened to His teaching. They asked questions of Jesus. They ate together, and went on boat rides, long hikes, and navigated all kinds of challenges together. But it all began with a simple question. Jesus asked the disciples to follow him.

Jesus came to Peter and Andrew and told them to leave their nets and follow Him. Jesus did the same to James and John when they were fishing with their father in the family business. Matthew was busy at his tax collectors booth when he heard Jesus’ invitation. Their activities may have been different, but the question from Jesus was the same–Follow Me.

I’m afraid that too many of us hear Jesus’ invitation of “FOLLOW ME”, and we say, “yeah, yeah, Jesus, that would be awesome.” We get excited because we hear the voice of the Lord and it feels fresh and new. But somewhere along the way we start taking our eyes off of Jesus. We stop going where He is going, eating what He is eating, and doing what He is doing.

Then we turn around and say, Jesus, how about you follow me? If we’re not careful we can take the invitation from Jesus and get it backwards. Jesus invited us to follow Him, not the other way around. There are any number of ways to get people to follow you in today’s world, from social media, to different apps on your phone. Jesus never said, let me follow you. He invited you to follow Him. To take up His ways and follow Him. To do what He does, love the way He loves, forgive the way He forgives.

If you’re wondering what God is doing, and it looks like God isn’t active in your life, I wonder if maybe the problem isn’t that God has left you, or that God isn’t interested in you. What if you have gotten it twisted up and instead of following Him you’ve slowly let the expectations switch to where He’s supposed to follow you now.

If you want to experience God, and experience the close presence of your savior move to where God is moving. Pay attention to the disciples. What did they do? They went wherever Jesus went. They moved where He was moving. And do you know what they saw? They saw a MOVE OF GOD!

They saw people healed. They saw a blind man regain his sight. They witnessed a woman who was being shamed to death protected and brought back to life. They watched as a man who couldn’t walk got up and stretched his legs and walked off healed! They watched as a violent storm was brought to peace. They saw a man who was possessed by demons brought back to his right mind. The witnessed a move of God!

If you want to see a move of God, you’re going to have to move to where God is moving. It’s not about forcing God to move to where you are.

In what ways have you been expecting God to follow you? What would it look like for you to be committed to following Him?

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In Faith in Real Life

The Virus of More: Confessions of a Materialism Battle

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It’s hard for me to look at a Range Rover and not want one. Their lines are smooth, they look Uber comfortable, and I  feel like I can take on a mountain with it and win. The other morning a Range Rover cut me off on my way to a meeting with a good buddy of mine. I felt everything inside of me tense up. Maybe that was because I was running 10 minutes late to my meeting or maybe it was because he had something that I wanted. It was hunter green, and it was new. The windows were tinted out, and the rims were classy. The only thing that my car and his car have in common is the color of the paint. My rims are not so classy, my windows are not so tinted, and I most certainly could not take on a mountain and win.

Welcome to my internal struggle with materialism. Materialism is the virus that grows inside of you convincing your mind that you need more and more and more.  Materialism not only affects your mind, It affects your eyes too.  They begin looking around at the things that you already have and it causes you to see them as old and out dated.  It’s like a set of contact lenses that magnifies every ding, imperfection, tear, or sign that your stuff hasen’t been unwrapped from their cellophane covering in a long time.  

I’m pretty convinced that materialism has been fed to us by the mass market like small pox blankets were to the Native American’s.  The more we watch and believe the commercials, the more we itch with the need to buy the latest and the greatest.  Be careful my friends!  You don’t need to drive what turns you on.  You need to drive what gets you there.  There is a big difference between need and want.  We get those two things mixed up very easily.  That’s part of the game of the materialism virus- it makes it harder to keep your head on straight.  

Richard Foster writes about the materialism virus.  He says this,

This psychosis permeates even our mythology.  The modern hero is the poor boy who purposefully becomes rich rather than the rich boy who voluntarily becomes poor.  Covetousness we call ambition.  Hoarding we call prudence.  Greed we call industry.

It is time to set possessions in their proper place.  It is time to find joy in the abundant gifts that God has given us.  After all Jesus said in Luke 12:15, “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”  The writer of Hebrews says, “Keep your life free from the love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, ‘I will never fail you nor forsake you'” (Heb. 13:5)

I’m praying that God shows me that it is more about the people around me than the possessions in my home.  I bet I’m not alone in this struggle… Where are you at with it? 

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Saints or Sinners?

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Saints or Sinners

When you walk into church on a Sunday morning, who do you see around you?  What are those people like?  Are they people who have it all together?  Do they struggle?  Do they doubt?  What do you think and feel?

I know that walking through the front doors of a church can be incredibly overwhelming for some people.  Some people are afraid that if they come to church their skin is going to burn from the holy light that is in that space like some sort of exorcist movie.  They believe that they have done so many horrible things that they won’t ever be accepted in a place like this.  Maybe that is how you feel, or used to feel.  Interestingly enough, the way that we view others affects the way that we engage with others.

It comes down to this?  Do you see church as a collection of saints, or a collection of sinners?

One of the primary reasons that people don’t spend more time engaging in confession and accountability is because they are afraid of being judged by you and me.  Too often we think that the church is a collection of saints and that we are the one sinner that slipped into that community.  That couldn’t be further from the truth.  In fact, we are all sinners, we are all people who at one point in time or another were separated from God.  Too often we believe the lie that I can never measure up, or I’ll never change.  We loose hope and we start to just throw in the towel.

Don’t buy the lie.

That’s the amazing thing about Jesus.  Anyone can come to Him and find that there is still hope no matter how dark their world may seem.  It is because of Jesus’ death on the cross that each one of us with our bruises, scars, and warts can come before God and be seen as beautiful and clean by Him.

The church is not filled with better people, just people who are better off because of it.

So what do you think?  In an honest moment here, do you lean more on the side of seeing people as saints, or sinners?  Let’s take a poll.

~Peter

[polldaddy poll=7439758]

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In Faith in Real Life

Automatic Toilet’s and the Holy Spirit

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Holy SpiritDo you remember the first time that you walked up to a toilet and looked for the handle to flush it and it wasn’t there?  The individual that created this little device is a genius, and deserves a pat on the back.  As a pastor I shake tons of peoples hands on a Sunday morning.  I have made it my routine to go wash my hands after each service.  You people are carrying some serious amounts of germs on those hands.  So, it’s even better when I go into the bathroom and not have to touch that nasty little lever coated in sickness.

In our office each of the toilets there have automatic sensors on them.  Which totally enhances the experience.  However, one particular toilet flushes when you walk in the stall.  You know, it’s just a preemptive flush.  The first time that this happened to me, I was completely taken by surprise.  I mean you expect that at the end, not in the beginning.

One of the things that I have always thought about and shared with others is that we should see life through the lens of a parable.  What I mean is, what could God be showing you or teaching you through life’s everyday ordinary objects?  When Jesus taught the people He often told parables, or short stories that were embedded with images and pictures that people were familiar with.  It was a teaching strategy.

Right now you can ask yourself 3 questions to help understand your life’s parable.

  1. Where have you seen God lately?

  2. What is He trying to say to you?

  3. What is He prompting you to do?

Back to the automatic flusher…  Every time this happens I am reminded that I am never alone.  Even when I think that I am going to be alone, I am not.  Let’s be honest, sometimes as parents we retreat to the bathroom because that is generally a place where there is still a little bit of privacy.  But as followers of Christ we are never alone.  Do you remember what  Jesus told His disciples?  In John 14:16 He said, “I will ask the Father to give you another helper, and He will be with you forever.”

As I view life through the lens of a parable, a malfunctioning automatic toilet flusher reminds me that the Holy Spirit is with me, ALWAYS!  This means that when I am tempted, I am not alone.  When I am afraid, I am not alone.  When I am weak, I am not alone.  When I am hurt, I am not alone.  There is no where I can run, no place that I can hide from God.  And I love that the toilet sensor reminds me of that.

So, where have you seen God lately?  Keep your eyes open, you never know what may pop up in your life that reminds you of what God is doing in the world around us!

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Good news! You don’t have to be pinterest’y

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the real youWho are you?  I mean, who are you really?  Now let me ask a much safer question, who do people see you as?  Maybe people see you as the incredible business man who has it all put together with the perfect job, the incredible salary, the 401k, and the quarterly bonus.  Or maybe people see you as the super-hero mom.  You know, the mom whose Facebook page says, look at me all you other moms.  Take notes, cause I’m gonna kick your butts.  My kids will write books about how great their summers were when they grow older.  Pinterest was created because of my house.  Or maybe people see you as the college student who is going somewhere fast.  You get good grades, and you hold down a job while balancing sports and extra curricular activities.  But who are you really?

I was at Ikea the other day waiting in a ridiculously long return line when it hit me, who am I really?  This wasn’t a pity party, or way of  patting my own back.  If anything it was a reality check.  (to be honest, it helped pass the time too…)  I was wondering, who am I really, and where do I find my identity?

Henri Nouwen wrote in his book, In the Name of Jesus,

I am deeply convinced that the Christian leader of the future is called to be completely irrelevant and to stand in this world with nothing to offer but his or her own vulnerable self.  That is the way Jesus came to reveal God’s love.  The great message that we have to carry, as ministers of God’s word and followers of Jesus, is that God loves us not because of what we do or accomplish, but because God has created and redeemed us in love and has chosen us to proclaim that love as the true source of all human life.

That challenges me!  It strips away any proud thoughts that I am something amazing or uniquely special.  I am unique and special, but it is only because I am a child of God who was created in His image.  As followers of Jesus we have the incredible privilege to share with others the good news that Jesus died for them and that God loves them with a never ending, never giving up, unbreakable love.  Here’s the really good news.  You can just be you.  No pressure to be anyone other than who God made you to be.  It isn’t through any kind of crafty language, or cunning illustrations that people are going to connect with Jesus.  In fact, it is with you just being you.  Simple, right?  It may even be as simple as asking someone to come over for a backyard bbq.

Quit trying to look like you are someone incredibly special.  You already are, you’re a child of God.  You don’t need to pretend like you are something more than that.  Relax.

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

What kind of a mist are you?

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The other day Pete Wilson, pastor at Cross Point Church in Nashville TN, blogged over on his site about a mist worth celebrating.  Here is an excerpt from his post.

This morning I was reading in James 4 and was reminded of this important truth.

James 4:14 “Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes.”

It’s true. We are but a “mist”. In other words, life is short. We’re here and then we’re gone. I could see how, at first glance, this verse might be a bit depressing. But for me it’s motivating.

James 4:14
My dad and I at Old Westbury Gardens

I couldn’t agree with Pete more.  I think about some of the people in my life who have been incredibly life changing to me.  I wrote about my dad here, and I spoke about him here.  My dad had an enormous impact on my life.  I am who I am today because of the way that he loved Jesus and the way that he loved me.  I think about some of the people in my life who have been in and out of it only for a few short years.  Friends like Chris, & Bob who have mentored me and helped shape my life.  There are so many others.

It is easy to think about all of the people who have had an eternal impact on your life.  What may be a bit more difficult to think about is what kind of a mist are you becoming?  Or what I mean is, who are you becoming, and how are you impacting the lives of others?  Do you have someone in your life who you are building into, encouraging, and loving on?  If not, you should find someone.  Do it fast, because as James says, our lives are like a mist, here and then gone.

Let’s make the most of the time that we have!

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

Hunger: a nagging reminder

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When was the last time that your stomach truly hurt from being hungry?  I’m not talking about the kind of hungry that we typically talk about… You know, the I’m starving, it’s-been-two-hours-since-I-had-a-cup-of-coffee-and-nibbled-on-a-donut kind of hungry.  I’m also not talking about the I’m bored so I’m going to eat something hunger.  I mean, how long has it been since you have really and truly been hungry?

HungryRight now, as I write this I am actively trying to stave off the desire to go downstairs, head to my pantry and pull out any number of different snack assortments.  Secretly I would surrender to my stomachs call for more if only I knew that I could chow down on some chips and salsa.  What can I say, I’m a sucker for some good Tex Mex with my favorite being Chuy’s.  UGH SO GOOD.  I mean look at that salsa!  So, what’s the deal with not eating?  No.  I don’t have an eating disorder.  Rest at ease.  This big boy is going to be just fine.

I’ve been reading Jen Hatmaker’s book 7 and I came across this quote from Martin Luther King Jr.

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’  But the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’

Do you see the difference there?

Often we think of ourselves first and foremost and others only when we have excess.

What if for once we flipped that on it’s head and thought of others first and worried about the excess later?  I wonder what kind of a difference that would make in the world around me.  And no, I don’t mean the whole, “Eat everything on your plate.  Don’t you know that there are starving kids in India” schtick.  I mean, what if instead of pampering myself I actually tended to the needs of others around me.  What would it look like for me to take care of my elderly neighbors?  What would it look like to serve the community that I live in?

What would it look like for me to experience discomfort so that others can experience comfort?

Do you remember the story of the lawyer who came to Jesus to try and stump him?  Moron… But anyway.  Here’s how it went down

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the great and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40

Crazy right?  Have you ever thought about what Jesus meant by love your neighbor as yourself?  There is no one in this world that I love more than me.  For real.  Just ask my wife!  When my body says it needs sleep, I tend to that.  When my body says I need food, I go get it.  I do exactly what I want to do, when I want to do it.  What would it look like if I loved my neighbor in that same way.  What if I put their needs on the same level as my own?

I love what Jen Hatmaker says in her book.  She says,

I’m going to bed tonight grateful for warmth, an advantage so expected it barely registers.  May my privileges continue to drive me downward to my brothers and sisters without.  Greater yet, I’m tired of calling the suffering “brothers and sisters” when I’d never allow my biological siblings to suffer likewise.  That’s just hypocrisy veiled in altruism.  I won’t defile my blessings by imagining that I deserve them.  Until every human receives the dignity I casually enjoy, I pray my heart aches with tension an my belly rumbles for injustice.

So tonight I go to bed with my stomach asking for more.  It’s a good reminder for me to ask my Heavenly Father to show me the ways that I can truly love my neighbors as myself.  I am praying for eyes to see the Samaritan that needs help and to have the courage to be the one that embraces them.  Time to see the excess in my life as not a means to increase my comfort but a way to care for others.

~Peter

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In Faith in Real Life

The Untouchables: Aids

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Liquid Church DropletTomorrow something really exciting is going to take place.  This weekend a crew of 215+ volunteers are going to descend upon the New Jersey Aids Service (aka the Eric Johnson House) and get cracking on an extreme makeover.  Why you might ask?

That’s a great question.  Pastor Tim Lucas, lead pastor at Liquid Church, explains that best.  You can watch it here.  Or you can download the audio version here.

In Luke 17:11-19 we see Jesus interacting with some people who were untouchable in His day and age.  These were the lepers.  They were the social outcasts who no one wanted around.  No one even wanted to be near them.  But Jesus did.  In fact Jesus loved the untouchables.  The question is, Do we?

The modern day lepers are those people with HIV Aids.  This weekend we are going to break into our community with nothing but LOVE for a select group of people who most people think are outcasts and untouchable.  Most people wouldn’t go near them with a ten foot pole.

IT’S TIME TO BREAK SOME POLES!

Check out the promo video below of what is going to go down in just a few short hours!  There are still spaces available to sign up and join us.  Sign up here.

[vimeo 41716283 w=500 h=281]

[vimeo http://www.vimeo.com/41716017 w=400&h=300]

Remember, “It is not a sin to be sick.”

~Peter

UPDATE:

We now have 293 volunteers!  INCREDIBLE!

Check out these articles written about the outreach over at

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You complain about WHAT???

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Garden Gate to GethsemaneWhile I was in Israel, one of my favorite places that we visited was the garden of Gethsemane.  This is the recognized location where Jesus went to pray on the night that He was handed over to the authorities to be killed.  There was something amazing and beautiful about this location.  The garden was well taken care of, so that added to the beauty.  But there was something even more beautiful that cannot be captured in an image.

Garden View of Gethsemane

It was incredible to think of what the Bible tells us happened here some 2000 years ago.  The Church has placed a church on this location and inside of this church there are some incredible mosaics depicting the time that Jesus spent here that night.  Can you even imagine what Jesus was thinking, and going through that evening?

Inside the Garden of Gethsemane Church

Jesus in prayer

Thomas a Kempis tries to help us think about what that would have been like for Jesus.  What I appreciate most about this is that he tries to help us get a better baseline on our own condition too.

When Christ was in the world, He was despised by men; in the hour of need.  He was forsaken by acquaintances and left by friends to the depths of scorn.  He was willing to suffer and to be despised; do you dare to complain of anything?

~Thomas a Kempis – Imitations of Christ

I have been commuting 90 minutes each way for the last two months to get back and forth from home to Liquid’s office.  It has definitely taken a toll on me.  I loose three hours a day to my car.  Let me tell you, this is not fun.  I find that I can slip into periods of lengthy complaining and think nothing of it.  I may grow agitated because I hit traffic on the way home, or the price of gas puts a death grip on my budget.  Kempis provides a new baseline for me.  Jesus was willing to suffer and die for me, and He did not complain.  What basis do I have to complain about traffic being slow?  It certainly puts things into perspective.  My Lord was crushed so that I could be spared.  It is time for me to pony up and quit complaining so much.

Okay, there you go.  I spoke first.  Your turn.  What do you need to stop complaining about?

~Peter

bonus… Here are some pictures that I took at the Garden of Gethsemane and in the church.

[slideshow]

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In Faith in Real Life

Added Value…

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Callout, Value AddedMany of you know that right now Tiffany and I are in the midst of selling our house and looking for a new home.  We find ourselves asking questions almost everyday.  Questions like, “how many showings will we get?”, “when will someone make an offer?”, “will they like our house?”, “will we get what we are asking?”.  I am grateful to say that we have received a couple offers on our house and we have accepted one of them.  PRAISE GOD!  Seven days later and we’ve got ourselves a buyer.  That’s unheard of, but not when God is in the midst of it!

But now that we are through that hurdle we find ourselves looking at a different set of hurdles.  We have rounded the bend in the track and in front of us yet more hurdles.  We are asking even more questions, like, “where should we live?”, “what is that area like?”, “can we make that into something we can live in?”, “what can we afford?”.  It seems to me that most of our questions are based around the core idea of VALUE.  Monetary value, yes, but  not just that.  The questions that we are asking are centered around the value that this decision will add or detract in our future, and the future of our family.

Value is something that we deal with everyday.  I drive past probably 50-60 gas stations on my commute to work and each one has a slightly different value on the gallon of gas.  In the morning we value our cup of coffee so much so that some of us will not speak with our spouse until we have tasted the sweet caffeinated nectar.  Value shows up in almost every decision that we make.

We deal with value every single day.  We evaluate values every single day.  We will look at a product or a service and determine if we are willing to pay the value that is set on it.  It controls our spending and the use of our time, etc.  Yet, how often do we honestly evaluate the value that our own life is adding to our world?

Our lives are significant and valuable.  However, they can be used to do one of two things; add value to life, or detract value.  Our lives when lived in mission with Christ should add value to the lives of those around us.

So this leaves me wondering… Am I adding value to the lives of those around me?  This means the waitress that serves me lunch, the security guy who stands in the lobby of the building, the parking attendant, the lawyer who rides the elevator with me, my neighbor who is always interested in what I’m doing outside, and all of those other people whose lives intersect with mine.

How can I breathe value into their life?  Better yet, how can I help them see the value that they have in the eyes of their creator?  What about you?  Are you adding value to the lives around you?  

~Peter

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