Flaming Speech

This week a small town in Northern California was devastated by fire. Many homes in the city were lost and hundreds of people displaced. Video footage of the fire’s aftermath looked like a warzone. In the days following the fire, I would discover what gave the small town of Weed its birth would eventually create a situation that would bring about its destruction.

The city of Weed got its name from its founder, Abner Weed who purchased the original land in the late 1800’s for the sum of $400.00. His plan was to build a logging mill. By the 1940’s, Weed’s sawmill had become the largest lumber mill in the world. Mr. Weed chose this location because of the high winds that frequently blew through this mountain region. The winds would quickly dry the lumber making his product readily available to worldwide markets. What is sadly ironic is the reason for which Abner Weed chose the location for his sawmill was the same reason that would eventually aid in the city’s destruction. On the day of the devastating fire mountain winds that previously dried lumber were now being used to whip a single spark into a violent firestorm sending walls of fire into the streets of Weed.

Our words can have the same effect. I can speak words that affirm, build and honor or I can speak words that ignite destruction, death and dishonor. James said, “the tongue is a flame of fire – it can set your whole life on fire”. God gave us words to create, not to destroy. God used His voice to create our earth and when He was finished He said it was good. Goodness is the result of speaking in the name of God. This is the kind of breath we are called to release into our world – words of life filled with goodness, solutions and trust, not words that contain the spark of condemnation, suspicion and distrust.

The Three R's

When I came to Medford, Oregon 15 years ago to pastor what would become Living Waters Church, I remember one particular day shortly after my arrival when the Lord gave me a distinct assignment for our church. 

I remember the day well.  I was driving on an overpass that crosses the interstate freeway that travels through the heart of our community. About midway across the overpass, I heard the Lord say to me, “I have called you to refresh, restore and release My people.”  I recorded that moment and those words and have used them over the years to share with Living Waters Church what our unique assignment would be as a local expression of the larger Church.

When the Lord spoke the three R’s to me, I instinctively knew what He meant. 

When people would come in contact with God’s presence in His people He would begin to refresh them as they exchanged a weary and burden-laden life for a life of freedom.  The refreshing presence of God was an invitation of hope. Once refreshed, God would begin a process of restoration to bring them back to His original intent for their lives.   The process of restoration would plant a sense of destiny in their hearts. These released ones would then become the refreshing presence of God walking the streets of our city and the nations of the world. We have seen this process take place over and over again in multiple lives.

For several years we have been working on the conclusion of my role as Senior Pastor at Living Waters Church.  October 26 will be our “Transition Sunday” when we hand over that assignment to a new leadership team. As the transition plan developed, a man in our church from a ranching background went to a blacksmith and had a branding iron made that reflected the Three R’s and he gave it to me as a gift.  This was so appropriate because over the years, this kind of ministry – refreshing, restoring and releasing people - has branded me, in a right way, to settle for nothing less.

A Summons For Your Voice

Your unique ethnicity, gender or social status does not provide you with superior insight into the issues of life. Your humanity is what makes your contribution valuable.  Paul told the church in Ephesus that God created “one new people” in Christ to become a single body with a unique and redeeming voice in culture.

You are free to speak about racial issues, not because you wear the same skin color as the oppressed.  You are free to speak because you bear the same image as the Creator and the ones being oppressed. You are free to speak out when the opposite gender is denied expression because in this “one new people” the labels of male and female no longer apply.  You are free to move between the different levels of social strata, from rich to poor, educated and uneducated, valuing each person for who they are as a person, not by their position or possessions.

This is a summons for your voice to be heard in the courts of culture. You have felt you had no right to speak about issues that were not unique to your circumstance of life. That lie has limited your impact and your contribution.  As you test these new waters walk with wisdom and patience.  Draw your vocabulary from the dictionary of this “one new people” and your voice will carry a new authority and gain a new audience.  When you speak your words will be empowered by the breath of God’s Spirit.

Colored People

When I was thirteen years old, I traveled with my family into the Deep South where my mother grew up.  This was in December of 1963 just weeks after President Kennedy was assassinated. We flew to our destination, picked up a car and then drove back home to the San Francisco Bay Area.

On one of our gas stops, I got out of the car to use the restroom.  As I walked around the side of the building I noticed three signs – Men, Women and Colored.  No Colored Men and no Colored Women signs – just Colored. I had never seen a sign like that in my thirteen years of life. I really had to go to the bathroom, but all I could do was stop and stare.  I can still see that sign in my mind’s eye.

What made that sign so degrading and wrong is obvious.  What is not so obvious is that we could have signs like that hanging in some parts of the United States and not in others – both at the same time.  Some of those who lived daily within this prejudice accepted it as a reality of life.

This morning,  I am asking myself where in my expression of faith do I have similar restrictive signs in place.  These are signs that I accept as my assumed reality that lumps people into narrow groups and assigns them a lesser-than-me designation.  We unconsciously put “Colored” signs over the doorways of people groups and experiences with which we are unfamiliar and uncomfortable.  We do this over styles of worship, how people respond to the moving of God’s Spirit and over anything we think is different from our limited perspective. There is only one sign in God’s Kingdom and Jesus wrote across its face the words, “Follow Me.” That is a sign without personal prejudice and it invites all of us to step through its doorway into a place of real freedom.

Choose Your Battles Wisely

Twenty-five years ago, I asked a wise pastor his opinion about the battles he fought over issues of faith.  As a younger pastor he was known to have had a history of picking verbal fights with anyone with whom he disagreed.  He had thankfully mellowed over the years.

I asked this pastor to describe the most important life-lesson he had learned.  He said, “I have learned to exercise more wisdom in the battles I choose to fight.”  In other words, he only entered battles that had eternal consequence.  The rest of the battles were over personal opinion and interpretation of non-essential issues and none of those battles were worth shedding relational blood over.

The Apostle Paul said, “Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do. And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with.” (Romans 14:1, The Message)  If our lives are going to model the oneness that Jesus said would have the power to cause an unbelieving world to actually believe the message of Jesus Christ, then we need to greet each other with open arms and stop jumping into battles that don’t need to be fought.

Something Is Coming

Jan and I live on a quiet street nestled in the foothills of Southern Oregon. We are shielded from much of the noise generated by the communities in valley below. There are times when it is completely silent. This morning in the stillness, I heard the distant and barely discernible sound of a train horn. The train tracks are seven miles from our home and the distance made the horn sound soft and almost poetic in the quiet of the early morning hours.

As soon as I heard the sound of the train’s horn, I felt a nudge of the Spirit and heard the words, “Something is coming.” I knew this was the voice of the Lord. I also knew He was not speaking about a coming disaster, a war or another terrorist attack. These will always be with us until the kingdoms of this earth become the Kingdom of our Lord. This was a different kind of announcement. This was an announcement about the release of a new measure of God’s presence upon the earth. This arrival of God’s presence will take place while the noise and fear of culture tries to deafen the ears of God’s people to His ultimate work of goodness and restoration.

There has been so much of this surface noise in every culture throughout all of time. This cultural noise tries to fill our ears with hopelessness, fear and discouragement. As a result, the ability to rest is stripped away and people begin to live in a perpetual state of emotional fatigue that the noise of an unredeemed and fear-based culture produces.

As I heard the distant sound of the train horn this morning, I realized God is inviting us to listen in the same way. Today, amidst the noise of a fearful culture, find a peaceful place in your heart where you can hear the gentle invitation of God’s Spirit and you will begin to hear the sounds of something new that is coming you way.

Our Unleashed Comments On Social Media

A couple of years ago, I was hiking on a mountain trail above our home. As I hiked, I came across a very large and aggressive dog. I could see the owner had let his dog off leash to enjoy a run. Unleashed dogs are not allowed on this particular trail system. There are signs at all the trailheads telling dog owners to keep their pets on a leash. I am guessing the primary reason for this restriction is to prevent dogs from chasing the wildlife.

When the dog saw me he began to growl, lower his head and move toward me in a very threatening fashion. The owner tried calling back his dog, but the dog was now deaf to his owner’s plea. The man called out to me with words that were less than reassuring, “He’s never done this before!” I felt vulnerable to say the least. In the end the man was able to get his dog under control and I was able to continue living my life without bite marks. This unleashed dog reminds me of what has happened with social media to some people in the Church. The comments, likes, shares and tweets of some have become like unleashed aggressive dogs let loose without thinking about the ramifications of what will happen when they allow their words to run unrestrained on the Internet.

Self-control was listed as one of the fruit of the Spirit for a reason. Self-control seems out of place listed alongside the other fruit that have more poetic names like love, joy, peace patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and gentleness. Self-control is like a greasy wrench in the fruit bowl. It seems to not fit. It is actually listed last because the rest of them won’t work unless you attach the leash of self-control to your potentially aggressive input. Try being gentle without having self-control or being kind without self-control. It doesn’t work. Paul told the prophets in Corinth that a prophet is in control of his spirit. Self-control is one of the hallmarks of a Spirit-led life.

The next time someone criticizes a well-meaning benefit for the cure of a horrible disease or a big-name pastor who is a friend of sinners or someone who swims in a different stream of the Spirit than you – stop. Stop and go get your leash and connect your emotions to the fruit of self-control. Like all forms of distant and impersonal criticism our participation makes us look like a rabid dog meeting someone on the trail of God’s Kingdom. The signs on this Kingdom trailhead tell everyone to believe the best about each other and not allow a devouring spirit to be our only witness to a world already bitten and bleeding by the effects of sin.