Curt – Life Church

Falling Hard

Curt — Wed, 10 Oct 2018 20:07:36 +0000

Chapters 10-15 of 1 Samuel depict the gradual transition of a humble young King Saul into a pride-filled dictator that he himself would no longer recognize. We get enough of a glimpse to see the seemingly small choices that took him from dependent to defiant, from mercy filled to merciless, from being filled with the Holy Spirit to being tormented by an evil one. It was a slow process as the young and humble king started believing the headlines, taking matters into his own hands, and abusing the power he’d been given.

Unfortunately, it’s an all too familiar story. Over the past few years, we’ve seen way too many leaders fall to moral or ethical failures in the same way King Saul fell. Not one of them would have said, “Hey, I think I’ll faithfully serve in ministry for 25 or so years, then I’ll throw it all away for next to nothing.” Like King Saul, each one of them would instead probably admit that the little choices or lapses in character built into habits that grew into strongholds that shut down their capacity to hear the voice of the Spirit in their lives. It always starts small.

So what needs to be done to prevent a similar fate in our own lives? What keeps us standing? The Apostle Paul knew we’d have a hard time staying upright against an enemy that prowls about like a lion “seeking whom he may devour.” He warned the faithful in Corinth with these thoughts: “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it” (1 Corinthians‬ ‭10:12-13‬).

When Saul was overtaken by temptations of greed and pride, he wanted to cover his disobedience through a religious ceremony. Samuel’s rebuke of this request simply reminds us all that, “To obey is better than sacrifice.” And when Jesus was asking what commands were most important to obey, he said to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. When I put those things all together, there’s a real connection between standing firm and loving God, people, and yourself.

The only way I’ve been able to stay standing through the years has been through the consistent practice of staying rooted through confession (loving God), staying grounded through worship (loving myself because God loves me), and staying connected through accountability (loving the people around me). There’s no where to fall when you’re already on your knees, looking up to heaven, surrounded by those who are fighting to stay standing with you.

Trust me, it’s way easier for us all to choose a night of Netflix over a night with your LifeGroup or an extra hour of sleep over an early breakfast with an accountability partner. That said, it’s always those little choices that lead good people to follow King Saul’s footsteps to no longer recognizing the person you never thought you’d become.

Praying with Paul for People

Curt — Wed, 20 Jun 2018 15:47:08 +0000

Jesus told his followers that if we ask for anything in His name or according to His will, that we would have it. So we ask…and keep on asking. Prayer is the strategy. We keep praying these five kingdom requests that we know are “according to His will” for LifeChurch:

That God would use us to bring 20 new Christ followers into His
family in 2017 (influence).
That God would raise up 100 intentional and brave 1:1 relationships within our body to support and sharpen each other (invest).
That God would have each of us understand and experience use of their spiritual gifts at least one time this year (seek & learn).
That God would provide $30k each month for current Kingdom work and future dreams of LifeChurch (all).
That God would guide us to the 7 Day-a-Week Space, clearly open doors for that dream, and provide for that vision (direction).

As we continue to pray these five, we’ve spent the last few weeks looking into the prayers that Paul prayed. I’ve been convicted during this study that the topic of my prayer is often of a physical nature … healing, finance, relationships, etc. Paul’s prayers seem to center around the kingdom’s advancement in people’s lives, rather than the physical/tangible needs they had. Here’s the list of categories of the prayers he wrote to his fellow believers:

-for Godly Living

-for Ministry Opportunity/Success

-for Strength

-for Increased Knowledge

-for More Love

-for Grace and Peace

On Sunday we took time to pray for people using Paul’s kingdom centered prayers (CLICK Paul’s Prayers for the PDF). Take some time this week and in the weeks ahead to pray through these prayers. Pray for whoever the Spirit drops into your heart as you read through them. I’m confident that we will have “more than we can imagine” as God answers.

A Kingdom of Love

Curt — Wed, 23 May 2018 01:03:22 +0000

As much as I’ve generally played by them all my life, I’ve never really liked rules. They’ve always seemed confining, restrictive, something to be broken, meant for other people. I’ve spent my life convincing people that Christianity isn’t a bunch of rules to be followed, but rather a relationship with the Ultimate Ruler worthy of following. But on Saturday I re-read a rule I’ve been glossing over all this time: “do to others what you would have them do to you.”

Finally a rule I can follow … why? Why did the 4millionth time I’ve read the Golden Rule finally grab my attention? Because it’s not a rule prohibiting some behavior – it’s a rule promoting one. Because it’s not a rule telling me what I can’t do – it tells me what I can. Because it’s not a rule that pushes my flesh toward rebelling against something, it compels my heart toward participating with the Creator in the one thing He does perfectly: loving the people He created.

In usual Christlike revolutionary fashion, He spins the usual edition of this rule “don’t do bad things to people, because you wouldn’t want bad things done to you” into “love people so much (ALL PEOPLE) that you are driven to do good things for them like you would like good things done for you.” Now there’s a rule I’m more eager to fall in line with.

I guess one other reason the Golden Rule jumped out at me this time around came from the previous three days of pouring over who we are as a church with the staff. Together we returned to our mission of “loving, praying, and serving our communities into a life-long journey with Christ.” We returned to the foundational purpose we have of “loving God and loving people.” We returned to our core value of “life together: laughing, crying, unafraid to be ourselves.” We returned to the truth that “small things done with great love will change the world.”

As we return this week to Kamp Kerma, let’s let the rule stay golden in our lives by loving each other, loving God, and the world He died for. His rule (and reign) are worth following!

A Kingdom Stress Test

Curt — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 21:12:40 +0000

It’s no secret that the dark side of social medias of all types create an unattainable image of what your life should be like. Users end up comparing themselves to the “perfect” lives that everyone else seems to be living. Would it surprise you to find out that Jesus created this feeling of despair first? Long before Instagram perpetuated a desperate craving to be something we are not, Jesus paints a picture of what citizens of His Kingdom are like in the beatitudes and the rest sermon on the mount. The list includes merciful, meek, pure in heart, and other next-to-impossible qualities to aspire to. If that isn’t hard enough, he makes sure we have no possibility of actually being all these things when He simply says “be perfect.” Why would Jesus tell us what we should be like, knowing we could never live up to it? Didn’t He realize that we would give up trying and throw in the towel? The answer is … of course He did. He’s Jesus. C’mon. Here’s how Oswald Chambers puts in “My Utmost for His Highest.”

The teaching of the Sermon on the Mount produces despair in the natural man – the very thing Jesus means it to do. As long as we have a self-righteous, conceited notion that we can carry out Our Lord’s teaching, God will allow us to go on until we break our ignorance over some obstacle, then we are willing to come to Him as paupers and receive from Him. “Blessed are the paupers in spirit,” that is the first principle in the Kingdom of God. The bedrock in Jesus Christ’s kingdom is poverty, not possession; not decisions for Jesus Christ, but a sense of absolute futility – I cannot begin to do it. Then Jesus says – Blessed are you. That is the entrance, and it does take us a long while to believe we are poor! The knowledge of our own poverty brings us to the moral frontier where Jesus Christ works.

So here’s the challenge, next time you are on some form of social media and feel like you don’t measure up, remember this: YOU DON’T! YOU CAN’T! YOU NEVER WILL! And then remember this: it’s this place of despair and “absolute futility” that allows us, the spiritually impoverished human beings that we are, to become Citizens of His Kingdom in the first place. We belong when we realize that we don’t!

The Kingdom of Heaven is Near

Curt — Tue, 20 Feb 2018 21:42:09 +0000

He was baptized by John, then tempted in the wilderness by the Devil (where he was promised “all the kingdoms of the world”), and then “from that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”

I studied through the reality of Kingdom of God during a week that I attempted to consume all 2million hours of NBC’s Olympic coverage. Watching any event and every event in the same way: fast forward until the American Olympian’s turn. Cuz that’s my team, that’s who I root for, that’s the country I belong to … except I really don’t! Paul reminds us in Philippians: “But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.” And Peter’s label for us is a little more jolting: foreigners and aliens (1 Peter 2:9-11). I really don’t belong to USA … I belong to a different Kingdom. The one that Jesus said has come near.

The Kingdom of Heaven has come near. Two questions came to mind this week: “what is the Kingdom of Heaven” and how has it come near?

Question one. What is it?

The first and easiest answer is: God’s rule and reign throughout eternity, past, present, and future. To help us begin to comprehend what our finite brains can’t easily get our heads around, Jesus painted a picture for us through the canvass of story. His parables often began with the phrase “Kingdom of Heaven (or the Kingdom of God) is like …” Check in on a few of these from the book of Matthew: 13:24, 13:31, 13:33, 13:44, 13:45, 13:47, 18:23, 20:1, 22:2

Question two. How has it come near?

The first and easiest answer is: Jesus. Christ embodied and fulfilled the Kingdom of God. Through his sacrifice, we can experience mercy, and thereby be a part of the Kingdom of God.

1 Peter 2

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

So during this Season of the Cross, please take time to absorb how His death, burial, and resurrection provided us with the right to be in the Kingdom. It’s a Season of reflection that reminds us of what Kingdom has ultimate authority over us. It’s a Season to “repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

Steps to Surviving the Season of Stress

Curt — Wed, 29 Nov 2017 19:11:31 +0000

If you’re like me, sometime over the last week or so you heard a song at Target or while you were getting a haircut or in your car or [fill in the blank], and you woke up this morning with it like a bad rash that won’t leave you for the next four days. My mental melodic torture of the past few mornings has been the seasonal classic Sleigh Ride. “Just hear those sleigh bells jingle-ing, ring-ting tingle-ing, too.” Ugh. Make it stop. Please. Make it stop. And so it begins… The Holiday Season.

Experiment #1: Go back and re-read the last sentence of the previous paragraph out loud a few times. What images come up in your mind? What emotions do those words elicit? What’s happening to your stress level right now?

Experiment #2: Change The Holiday Season to The Season of Advent. What images come up in your mind? What emotions do those words elicit? What’s happening to your stress level right now?

Interestingly subtle-not-so-subtle difference, eh? One Season delivers stress, the other Season provides peace. How is that possible?

Studies have shown that our society experiences the highest levels of stress between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day. The Holiday season. It’s packed with more office parties to attend and presents to buy and decorations to put up and nativity costumes to make and relatives to connect with and traffic to fight and cookies to bake and expectations to fulfill than we can handle. So we often endure or muddle our way through the “most wonderful time of the year.”

I think the Apostle Paul had just finished his Thanksgiving turkey (ok, not really) when he said these words to the Philippian church:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition,
with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.
And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble,
whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable-if anything is excellent
or praiseworthy-think about such things.

Paul offers a serious strategy for surviving stress in our lives. He says don’t worry about ANYTHING, pray about EVERYTHING, give thanks IN ALL THINGS, and think about the RIGHT THINGS. Easier said than done, right? Did I mention Paul wrote those words while chained to a guard 24/7 while awaiting execution? Wow. And we still struggle to follow these words!?!

In any event, following Paul’s advice here is much easier when we stay focused on the Season of Advent instead of the Holiday Season. This subtle and seemingly semantical switch directly applies Paul’s encouragement to think about the RIGHT THINGS. You can let the peace of God stand guard against anxiety and stress this year by starting each day remembering that this is the Season of Advent, anticipating the arrival of the Savior of the world. We’re going to make it a little easier to do this with a daily Advent lifeline scripture to read from December 1^st to December 25^th.

So this year, don’t worry, pray, be thankful, and remember it’s the Season of Advent. May the peace of God pour over you like the warm peanut brittle oozes out over the wax paper on the counter. May it fill every nook and cranny of your soul and make you as cozy as “two birds of a feather would be.” Ugh, make it stop, please make it stop!

The Greatest Invitation

Curt — Mon, 01 May 2017 16:51:47 +0000

Follow me. What’s that even mean? 2000 years after Christ said “FOLLOW ME,” we are left to our own devises as to what that actually means or how it’s played out in our daily lives. Especially since that phrase has taken on a whole new life of its own. On Twitter. On Instagram. “Follow me” is also a feature of your drone’s capabilities of following your every move (for the truly narcissistic among us that can’t get enough of watching ourselves).

We didn’t have any of that growing up. But I did know what following someone was all about. I followed Rock stars, TV stars, and sports heroes. I emulated their fashion, their swagger, their behaviors.

But in truth, the one I followed the most, as any dutiful younger brother as does,
was my big bro. Whatever he did, I did. He was into sports, I was into sports. He played an instrument, I played an instrument. He said playing with GI Joes was dumb, I cried and said playing with GI Joes was dumb. He wore a leisure suit, I wore a leisure suit. He got a perm, I … drew the line. My fourth grade reputation was on the line.

It was instinctual to emulate his behavior, to do what he did. I didn’t have to try, it just was. I followed the way of Darrin. Now at some point I outgrew that and started charting my own path. Although he maintained fashion guide status until Lisa took over that job.

So we all know to some extent what it is to follow someone. Whether we are willing to admit it or not, we do. So Jesus calls us to Follow Him. What does that mean? In order to answer that question, it’s important to understand what it must have meant to those he originally invited to follow him. What did it mean for someone to receive an invitation to follow someone else?

In the first century rabbinic culture, follow me meant “come be like me and submit to my authoritative teaching. You have made the last cut. You are now on the varsity team. You are good enough to be a part of my learning community!” “Follow Me” was a letter of acceptance. These words were affirmation of an exhaustive process that elite Jewish young men, rabbi-wannabes, would have to endure.

“Follow me” were the cherished two words that validated years of study. It was an honor to be welcomed into a certain rabbi’s “yeshiva” or learning community. It was also an instant life changing call… to take on the characteristics, behaviors, and teachings of the rabbi. You would forget life as you knew it and become a “follower of the way of Rabbi _________ (insert name here).”

As always, Jesus flips everything upside down. Instead of carefully weeding out those who couldn’t measure up, subjecting the candidates to an intense application process, and granting acceptance to an elite few, Jesus goes to the rabbinic wash outs and outcasts … AND DOES THE ACCEPTING WITHOUT AN APPLICATION PROCESS. He actually DOES THE INVITING.

The original 12 had no aspirations of joining the ranks of a rabbinic yeshiva. They weren’t qualified. They knew they didn’t measure up. And yet this man Jesus–this carpenter/teacher who’d been wowing the scholars since early adolescence and rumored worker of miracles — spoke the words to they never thought they’d hear: FOLLOW ME.

And He’s still speaking those words today. His call for us to follow him today is no less mind blowing than it was to the original 12. We don’t deserve it. We aren’t worthy. We never even asked to be invited … yet the GREATEST INVITATION you will ever receive is nonetheless yours to accept.

The only questions we all have to ask ourselves: will we forget the life we’ve known and “follow the Way of Jesus?” Are we willing to let the Spirit indwell and empower us so that we instinctively take on the behaviors, characteristics, and teachings of Christ? Are we willing to say YES the GREATEST INVITATION … never stop saying YES? If so, congrats! You’re in!