Bleu Cheese Dressing

Matthew 1:19, "And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly."

I spent all day Friday hanging out with my friend Russel. Part of that day was making some deliveries to various food pantries scattered out around Houston. On Friday's fare, Russel had been given 2 pallets, yes pallets, of blue cheese dressing, a pallat of Chrox bleach, and most of a pallat of tall kitchen bags and those disposoable plastic tupperware looking bowls.

At each stop the people working the pantries were completely grateful. For me I could not help but notice the people groups at each stop. The first appeared to be ex-cons, finding meager employment at a thrift store. The second was a mixed bag of elderly men. From the looks of them I categorized them into homeless, substance abusing types. The third stop was  a group of prim and proper religious types. I asked the gentleman helping us unload if he was the pastor to which he replied, "Oh no, I am THE deacon." The next stop was a pantry tucked into a middle class white neighborhood.

For me, all I noticed was the people groups. That, and of course the ridiculous amount of blue cheese dressing we were unloading. But to Russel it was a surprise that I was focusing on the people groups, that I had a category for everyone. I guess he is so far down the path with God that he only sees God's children, and has become blind to the circumstances of various folks. All of which led us to a memory of a trip Russel and I made together to Argentina.

It was there God showed me for the first time that keys to the kingdom of God are often hid in people we find offensive. That if we will get past the offense, take some time to discover the person, then God will give us a key that will unlock a treasure. I see the very same lesson being played out again on our deliveries.

Joesph saw the lesson first hand with his wife - pregnant and he was not the father. What could be more offensive? And yet look at the treasure that came from that.

Stop categorizing and just deliver the blessing. That is what the Holy Spirit was saying to me.

Russel was saying, "You may not think you need blue cheese dressing, but if God says you are going to have it, then you are going to have it in abundance."

There was a second very important lesson in the day. Russel's ministry at its peak, before God told him to whined it down, was delivering 25000 pounds of food per week. In his whineding it down he has given away 4 panel vans, connected his distributing food pantries direct to his sources, and he looks forward to tomorrow, even though he has no idea what tomorrow will bring. He is 100% completely dependent on God.

At one point I said, "Looks like God made you a food pantry planter." (As apposed to a church planter.) To which he replied, "No, I am not a food pantry planter." I just do want God tells me, and that is what He had me doing.

I cannot wait to see what God has him do next. It was also a beautiful example of something Jim Spivey says all the time. Russel not only knows who he is, but he also knows Whose he is. Thank you Russel for the inspiration, for the discipleship. And thank you for the case of blue cheese dressing.

The Offense of the Cross

Galatians 5:11, "But I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? The the stumbling block of the cross has been abolished."

It is the cross and the offense it creates that stands in the spiritual way of so many people. I dare say that the cross is even offensive among people who call themselves Christians.

From the middle of Jesus' ministry to today the cross has been a point of contention for Christian and Jew alike. For the Jew they expected a Messiah to come and establish Himself Lord of an earthly kingdom. They wanted the Messiah to take what they had, and create something perfect out of it. This never has been the plan of God. God has never planned to make the earth His kingdom. His plan is that the earth and even heaven are destroyed, and that after judgment, those saved will inhabit a new heaven and new earth. I think Christians can understand this by and large.

The offense continues when it gets personal. Long before Jesus ever hung from the cross He was saying, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me." (Matt 16:24). Make no mistake... God is not a masochist. Taking up the cross, never has been and never will be about the potential pain. If anything, it is about the absolute otherness of God. It is about is complete and total disregard of anything earthly. Even in His creation, this thing of life on earth, He is not anything like any part of it. The whole has been contaminated. And so the cross offends those trying to hang on to pieces of the perishable v. the indestructible love of God.

The cross offends prosperity. It is offensive to happiness. It rubs against the American dream in the coarsest of ways. People look upon others in the midst of carrying the cross of Christ and judge them unworthy. Even carrying the spiritual cross is offensive in the pain it can yield. But something happens when that cross is carried to the top of the hill. In hindsight there is a joy, a relief, a knowing that somehow you just shared in the experience of Christ. The cross is a beautiful entrance into the Kingdom of God. A kingdom not of this earth but inside you. The cross, if allowed, if picked up, if accepted will transform your very soul in the act of sanctification. It is the cross and its weight that allows Christ to live more fully in us.

From T Austin-Sparks, "The Cross is the only way to spiritual knowledge. Important as study of the Word of God may be in its own realm, as laying a foundation for the Holy Spirit to work upon, you never come to a knowledge of the Lord simply by studying the Bible. The Holy Spirit may use what you know of the Bible to teach you much, to explain your experiences, to enable you to understand what the Lord is doing, but you never get this kind of spiritual knowledge by study and by teaching.

You must be prepared to let the Cross be so applied to your life that you are broken and emptied and fairly ground to powder - so that you are brought to the place where, if the Lord does not do something, you are finished. If you are prepared for that way, you will get to know the Lord. That is the only way. It cannot be by addresses or lectures. They have their value, but you do not know the Lord spiritually along those lines."

I will close with something I just read from Henri Nouwen. It is fitting to the last couple of post concerning standing firm and this one of the cross.

"Standing erect, holding our heads high, is the attitude of spiritually mature people in face of the calamities of our world.   The facts of everyday life are a rich source for doomsday thinking and feeling.   But it is possible for us to resist this temptation and to stand with self-confidence in this world, never losing our spiritual ground, always aware that "sky and earth will pass away" but the words of Jesus will never pass away (see Luke 21:33).

Let us be like Mary, the mother of Jesus, who stood under the cross, trusting in God's faithfulness notwithstanding the death of his beloved Child."