Co-laboration

Isolation is deadly. Individuals, communities, agencies, nations, et cetera - they all need each other. Life has been designed that way. Coming together is not enough. The strength that results from a strategic coming together is immeasurable, but the results are very powerful. There is no one that can win alone. Everyone brings some strength to the table that all of us are in need of.

We have fire ants where I live. There are several large mounds in my yard right now. It would be a fearful, yet intriguing, thing to see all of them that exist underground. One ant in isolation I can squash. Millions of them working in tandem, they win. In fact, they are winning. Each of them has a role that it plays for the success of the whole. My individual war against their existence only messes with the visible surface while the underground currents seem to be unstoppable. The ants always pop up with a new visible presence.

The thing about ants is that collaboration is in their make-up and seemingly unhindered. It's in our design too. The problem with us humans is that we have opinions and wills that are sinfully rooted in self. Self preservation does not naturally lead to collaboration. "What's in it for me" somehow does not nurture effective togetherness.

What if we uprooted our drive for self preservation and aggrandizement, and conversely nurtured new growth in the soils of life-restoring co-laboration? What kind of shape would life begin to take?

I think I will dwell on this path for a while....

Blessed Are The Pure...In Motivation

One of my biggest and most recent struggles for my personal life and my work with churches is motivation. Not the problem of getting going, though the closer I get to 50 the more that is a factor. The motivation factor that churns my deepest being is the answer to a toddler's favorite question - "Why?". Something happened to me at 40. Okay, a lot of things happened to me at 40! Anyway, I started asking that toddler's "Why?" about everything.

On a personal level it has caused me to stop feeling guilty about some things - namely heavy baggage from growing up in the church. But, it also includes things like, "Why am I washing laundry and serving my wife her coffee in the morning?" and "Why do I have certain expectations for my children?".

As I work with churches I ask why a lot; probably ad nauseam. It doesn't matter how cutting edged they think they are, motivation is an extremely valid concern. Where most churches want to start - "How can we grow our church?" This question goes to a church's motivation for reaching people. For whose good? Is life-restoration your greatest passion, or is growing your church your greatest passion? It matters.

"Why?" is a fun question when you are asking it of someone else. I long for my motivation to be pure in all things, no matter how hard the change may be. I wonder why?

For the Love of...Pigs?

Matthew 8:28-34

In this story of two demon-possessed men, a disturbing scenario arises regarding Jesus’ redemptive presence. Upon Jesus’ arrival the two men surface from some tombs and recognize Jesus immediately as “Son of God.” The demons not only knew who Jesus was, but they knew their future with Him and feared him.

After Jesus sends the demons to the herd of pigs nearby, the pigs ran to the lake where they drowned. The response of the people was to run to town and tell what had happened. As the townspeople arrived, they saw Jesus and pleaded with Him to leave, so He did. Verse one of chapter nine tells us that Jesus got in a boat and went to the other side; He removed His presence from them. Why? Because they did not recognize him for who He was. Strikingly, the demons honored Jesus more than the people did. The demons saw His authority as Son of God and responded to him in obedience. The people saw Him at work and responded with rejection.

What or whom do you love more than Jesus? Are there times when you wish that Jesus would go away and leave you alone? Could it be said that the demons recognize and respond to Jesus better than you?

“Father, help me to know when Jesus is present and active so that I do not reject His activity, even when that activity is devastating to what I believe to be of greater value. Help me to see the insanity of valuing the ‘pigs’ in my life over the redemptive presence of Jesus.”

© Chuck Coward 2008

Power of Touch

Matthew 8:1-4

The redemptive presence of Jesus brings a loving and healing touch to anyone in need. In this story, a leper kneels before Jesus asking for healing. As in many gospel stories the attitude of the broken one is that Jesus can if He will. There is a very real sense of unworthiness expressed in such a plea.

Having been followed down from the mountainside by a large crowd of people, Jesus was in full display before the masses. Once again, his presence became a blessing to one whose life had been void of blessing and filled with marring physical and emotional pain. Probably the greatest pain this leper had experienced was the isolation from relationships, especially human touch. Jesus showed his love first by touching the disfigured body. That alone brought much healing to the man’s soul. The touch of Jesus removed the pain and redeemed the man.

Are there people in the world that you avoid? Who are the “untouchables” that you encounter? Who is it that you don’t want to have too close to you? How far are you willing to go as God’s agent?

“Father, make me a person who is practicing Jesus’ redemptive presence through a loving and healing touch among the “untouchables” of our world. Break my heart with deep compassion.”

© Chuck Coward 2008

Core Reality

Matthew 7:13-23

The redemptive presence of Jesus changes who a person is, not just what a person does. The evangelical world has had a strong tendency to focus upon what people do to determine if they are righteous. But, in this passage, Jesus gives a very interesting twist. At the end of this Sermon from the Mount of Olives, Jesus begins to summarize the gist of His heart in all that has been said. He makes it clear that His expectations are not easy – “the gate is small and the road is narrow that leads to life and only a few find it.” The few who find life are good trees and capable of producing good fruit. Jesus goes on to explain, however, that good fruit is not as easily recognized as one might think.

What we think is good fruit, because of the “beauty” of the outside, might be rotten on the inside. To further explain, Jesus speaks of those who will come to him declaring they have done the activities that were prevalent in Jesus’ ministry. In essence, a person could say, “I did what Jesus did” believing that such activity will be considered, by God, to be good fruit. What was Jesus’ response to this idea? It is evil doing; rotten fruit. Why? Because your “being” is evil. Jesus is aiming at the heart of who we are – motivation, desires, aims, etc. If our actions, though good-looking, are not from a redemptive heart, they are rotten at the core.

Who are you…down deep? Why do you do what you do? Do you “serve God” for the praises of the people around you? Does your service to people express the heart of Jesus who “came to serve and not be served and to give his life…for many.”

“God, please don’t let me be a good Pharisee! I want to BE like Jesus, knowing that the “doing” will follow. I don’t want to be rotten at my core! Change me, as only you can, from the inside out.”

© Chuck Coward 2008

Beyond a Message

Matthew 4:23-25

The redemptive presence of Jesus brings good news, compassion and healing. People came from as far as over one hundred miles away to see Jesus, because of what they had heard his presence brought. He was preaching the good news of God’s reign as King of all that is. This news, however, was followed by evidence of God’s reign through the healing of EVERY disease and sickness as well as exorcisms among the masses. Large crowds from all around followed Jesus. The news spread like wildfire! It is amazing what happens when Jesus’ redemptive presence is manifested in visible ways. With Jesus, it wasn’t just kingdom words spoken it was redemptive deeds done.

But, what does that mean for our day? How is the redemptive presence of Jesus being displayed through His Body, the church? The question is not about our steeples and Sundays but the everyday lives that we live among broken people. Some of the people with whom we are in contact have brokenness that plagues their lives and you can’t see it – bad marriages, runaway children, financial disaster, potential job loss, depression…the list goes on. Are you in the position of heart, mind and vision for God to utilize you as His visible presence and activity in the lives of such people?

Are you willing to slow down enough to see the people around you? What cries for help do you hear? What need for support and encouragement do you see? What will you do?

“God will you display your transforming and healing power in and through me as you did in Jesus’ day? Help me to believe you for the broken lives that surround me daily. Help me to understand the role you would have me to play and help me to be faithful.”

Hunger Satisfied?

Matthew 4:1-11

When you are seeking to practice the redemptive presence of Jesus, those who are against Jesus will show up on the scene. There will be attempts to distract and even destroy. Such attempts must be resisted – the urge for glory, power, position, possessions…must be cast aside. Jesus faced the strongest force of all, Satan himself. The devil did all that he could to tempt Jesus away from His calling as a redeemer, but Jesus was undaunted. This was not the last attempt the devil would make to distract this man’s humanness. Jesus, the Son of God, knew the ramifications of not being faithful to the agreed upon means for redeeming the world He, the Father, and the Spirit had created. He stood as a stalwart upon that redemptive vision.

How about you? When the enemy, people, or circumstances come against God’s redemptive work in and through your life what do you do? How do you handle the temptation to pursue glory, power, position, and possessions? Do you stand firm or flounder? The One who stood firm for you can stand firm in you. Surrender only to your Redeemer.

“Father, help me to stand against the multitude of enemies that enter my world at every turn. You are my strength and my fortress.”

© Chuck Coward 2008

Confident-Humility

Matthew 3:13-17

The redemptive presence of Jesus brings confident humility. John could not imagine the need for the King of the universe to be baptized by him. This sanctifying act could not be necessary, could it? “No, Jesus! I must be sanctified by you.” John knew who Jesus was. So would everyone present, at least those who listened as the voice of the Father rumbled from the sky. Indeed, it was not John who sanctified Jesus, but the Father who declared, “This is my Son, whom I love.”

Humility comes when you know your rightful place. God certainly has a way of helping us remember who we are in light of who He is. John the Baptist probably had a bit of a shift in his deepest self when he realized that Jesus was on the scene. Chances are, there was at least a little pride in this preacher because of the fruit of ministry; that is until Jesus arrived and John was confronted with who the real John was.

But, you can also have confidence in Jesus’ presence, when you know you have been restored to your Creator. Confidence comes because you are in right relationship with a God who loved you enough to buy you back and restore you to that relationship. There is also a confidence that what God calls you to do for Him, He will equip you to do. Confidence, properly rooted in who God is, and not who you are, is a life necessity.

The result is a confident humility – knowing who you are in the never-ending presence of your Redeemer.

In what ways is God saying to you, “You need to come down a few notches.” How is he humbling you? What about your confidence level? How is God saying to you, “You can, because I can”? Talk to Him about it.

© Chuck Coward 2008

Significant Presence

Matthew 2:6

When Jesus’ redemptive presence is a reality, what is considered to be small or insignificant becomes full of meaning, purpose, value and greatness. Bethlehem was originally a pagan city established by the Canaanites. They named the city after Lahama, their god of fertility, and had a temple built to this god that stood on the present mount of the Nativity. The worship of fertility gods produced a lot of…let’s say, not so good activity. Bethlehem eventually was a strategic city, militarily, and a fruitful place, agriculturally. From her humble and even filthy beginnings, this city became the place where Rachel, Jacob’s wife, was buried; Benjamin was born; King David was born; and ultimately Jesus was born. Over the years this city became great, but her crowning glory was the Redeemer of the world. When asked about Bethlehem of Judea, most of the world knows her as the place where Jesus was born.

Now about you; if Jesus’ redeeming presence is a reality in your life, you are a wellspring of meaning, purpose, value and greatness. God’s desire is that when people are asked about you, what they know best is that Jesus is born out in your life. You are to be known as a person who knows why you exist and you clearly live life out of that deep meaning and purpose. Your world is to be blessed because of Jesus as redeemer being expressed through you everyday, everywhere, to everyone your life touches. Pretty overwhelming, huh!? Don’t let the overwhelming nature of reality keep you from expressing the Jesus in you.

Do you understand the value that you hold having been created in God’s image? What clarity of meaning and purpose has been brought to your life as a result of Jesus’ presence?

“Jesus, thank you for blessing my life with your presence! Thank you for the clear meaning and purpose you restore to life through your redemptive activity. Help me to be a redemptive blessing to the world around me as you are expressed through my life.”

© Chuck Coward 2008

Never Lose the Wonder!

Matthew 1:22-25

Here in the beginning of the New Testament is an old hope brought to reality. Jesus – Immanuel, God with us – was born. The presence of God is now expressed physically upon the earth that He created. What does this mean? How did it happen? It just doesn’t make sense that the God of all that is would come as a man to live among such brokenness.

But He did! God stepped mysteriously from His otherness to become like us. He has revealed Himself in a very definitive way. The Creator has now come as the created, as one of us. We don’t really know how, but we do know why. God came to us so that we can come to Him. He came to live so that we could know what living is. The God of all life came to die so that we could live again. The transcendent One has showed Himself as immanent One all at once – Immanuel, God with us.

Has a cutesy approach to the story of little baby Jesus in a feeding trough overshadowed the amazing reality of God’s greatness come close?

“God, rescue me from the old story being stale. I pray that every time I ponder your greatness being near and becoming one of us, that I would forever find myself filled with wonder!”

© Chuck Coward 2008

Know-it-all Syndrome

Genesis 3

How does it make you feel when a “know-it-all” enters a conversation? The person that always has something to say about everything and their something is always right. These people are pretty frustrating and not a lot of fun to be around, huh?

Now, what would it be like to REALLY know everything and to have made everything, and have someone tell you that they “know better”? God experiences that with all of humanity! Here we have the Creator of the universe, the Designer of all that is and we tell Him He doesn’t know as much as He thinks He does. That is what sin is – telling our Designer and Creator that we know how to live this life better than He does.

This insanity started with Adam and Eve and has moved on to all of humanity. It is this self-sufficient attitude that separates us from right relationship with our Designer. God desires for us to live life according to His design because it is best. When we choose our own way, we stiff-arm the Designer and Creator of the universe and reject the only possible way to our best.

In what way(s) are you saying, “My way!” to your Designer and Creator? Do you understand the madness of such a move? Are you trying to hide from God out of embarrassment for what and who you have become? You can’t hide from Him. God sees everything, including your thoughts, heart, motivations … everything. Stop the insanity and run to Him for mercy!

“Creator God, I surrender all to you. I want to live life the way you have designed for it to be lived. Help me to know what that means as I live out my days.”

© Chuck Coward 2008

Seeing From the Beginning

Genesis 1&2

Where you start can greatly determine where you finish. To understand life, as we know it, we must understand (stand under) the beginning of “life” (see note). How we view the life we live and the people with whom we live, work and play is determined by where we start. The common starting point for the Christian conversation has become Genesis 3 – the fall of humanity – which makes a very big impact upon how we live with each other. But the fall, though true, was not the beginning. The story of how the journey began provides us with some very important realities. Here are a few.

1. God created all that is, (1:1-27)
2. God is a relational God, (1:26)
3. God’s image was the pattern for humanity, (1:26-27)
4. God said all He made is very good, (1:31)
5. God breathed life (His Spirit) into humanity, and (2:7)
6. God calls us to be life multipliers and protectors. (1:28)

Critical to our understanding “us” is that God created us. How long ago or how long creation really took is not the point here. That God is the originator of all that is matters most. Humanity was made in His image; like Him in creativity, like Him in relationship, like Him in goodness, like Him as bearers and breathers of life. The “very good” life you were created for is to be in life-giving, creative, relationship with God, fellow humanity, and the rest of all that God created.

So, what do you believe about how the universe came into being? When you see people around you everyday, how do you see them? What effect does that view have upon your attitude and actions toward them? “God, help me view, with new eyes, you, this world you made, and the people who fill the earth. Help me to better understand you, your heart and your vision as the creative, relational, life-giver that you are.”

NOTE: Life ultimately has no beginning or ending, because God, who is life, always has been.

© Chuck Coward 2008

Soda Bottle Principle

Redemption – it is a word that is used to speak of some very foundational moorings of the Christian faith. But, do we really understand what it means? When we hear or use the word it is most often to speak of Jesus paying the penalty of sin. While that is a partial description of the gift of redemption, it is not the full portrait.

There once was a time when soda predominately came in glass bottles. Because of the expense that the companies went to in producing these bottles, they held a value. That value was considered a deposit upon every bottle that was made. When a bottle was emptied it could be returned to a store and money received for the bottle. The reason the store would pay the deposit for the empty, dirty bottle was because the bottles’ original designer paid the store for them. Why? So that the designer of that bottle could bring it back and restore it to its original design and purpose – clean it, refill it, seal it, and send it back out to bless the world. This process of buying back and restoring to original design and purpose was called redemption.

Our redeeming God is active with humanity in the same way. What Jesus has done for us by paying our penalty and rising from the dead is to buy us back and restore us to original design and purpose – cleaning, filling, sealing by the Spirit and sending out to bless the world. God’s original design was very good. He liked it a lot; so much so that he did not recycle things by destroying them in order to make something else. God is redeeming what He made. That includes you. It includes a world of people around you.

© Chuck Coward 2008