He hitch-hikes to Hope, Washington to reconnect with Delmore Berry, the only other surviving member of his unit, Baker Co.

When he arrives, he discovers that Berry has passed away after being ravaged by the effects of Agent Orange.  Will Tassel, the local sheriff, judges him to be an undesirable and tries to bully him out of town.  Something snaps inside of this warrior and all hell breaks loose.  When the locals discover that he is a trained killer, beyond the scope of their ability to manage, the National Guard is called in to capture Rambo.  Trautman arrives alongside the Guard with full realization that the situation has changed.  There are simply more people in danger now and Rambo is not one of them.  The reservists are merely “weekend warriors” (reservists who attend weekend meetings of their unit to fulfill military obligations)

Now here’s the point …

Scripture records the following description of the children of Israel as they exit Egypt:

“So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea. The Israelites went up out of Egypt armed for battle.” (Ex. 13:18)

God frees his people and they leave captivity for the wilderness.  The wilderness is a difficult enough experience on its own but often it is the pathway to freedom.

So they march out “armed for battle”.  They feign a false battle bravado which evaporates when the enemy appears.

Pharaoh changes his mind and pursues.  The pretense is gone … though physically they are free they remain slaves at heart.  They are simply weekend warriors on maneuvers and they cave to a real challenge.

I think I am safe to say that the church today is filled with “weekend warriors”.  The majority of people who attend a Sunday service are there for a 90-minute experience and not much beyond that.

Look at the definition again:  “reservists who attend weekend meetings of their unit to fulfill military obligations”.  Let me push this envelope just a bit farther.  There certainly are true soldiers in the organizational church … but there are more reservists.  And many of the warriors are occupied protecting the reservists and attending to their comfort and convenience.  Meanwhile the enemy advances over a battlefield unattended or sparsely manned.  And still we win … amazing.

Let me ask you what you truly are?  Which term is the more personally descriptive?  These are the opening hours of 2012 and there is much ground to be gained at a personal level … at a Kingdom level.  The battle rages 24/7 with or without you, whether or not you realize it.  This battle requires true soldiers who engage at the same level.  You don’t have to leave what you are doing to engage – it is taking place all around you.  It’s not won on Sundays, … it is fought in the trenches with weapons that are spiritual in nature and absolutely counterintuitive methods.  It is not a battle in which we fight “flesh and blood” but “spiritual wickedness” (as opposed to your basic garden-variety wickedness) in “high places“.  Far too many of us are oblivious to the fact that the battle rages and often the opposition comes from within, not without.

I have concerns for weekend warriors and their ultimate well-being.  I beg you dear brother and sister … don’t be a reservist in this battle.

Karl

David knew the elation of God-given victory, when all the odds were against him.  The ensuing sky-rocketing fame, took him to the pinnacle of national prominence and growing disfavor of yet another giant.  Saul, the rejected king of Israel, could not bear all the fanfare that should have been his alone.

That’s what drove David to the caves.

So many of them were written from this dark, damp perspective looking outward to hope’s light at the end of the tunnel.  I thought of Psalm 151 specifically.  You should read it.  Psalm 151 and “November Wind” remind me that the psalms go on.  They are still being penned.  Some are pretty and some are simply honest.  They are our red, mall-map dots … “You are here.”  As simple as it sounds, knowing where you are is essential to getting where you want to be.  You can’t find your way to your destination without a starting point. That’s where too many are so lost … unwilling or unable to admit where they actually are.

Psalm 151 is the ongoing song of God’s working in your life.  You should read it … better yet, you should write it.  One way or another, whether we realize it or not, we are all doing just that.  We think we are the original owners of the caves that have become our homes, our lives.

But we’re not.

So many heroes of the faith have lived there as well.  If you look around you’ll see the faint graffiti.

“Moses wuz here.”

“Life sucks. – Laura”

“Jesus … born here.”

Most of the really great songs are written by people who have known what the cave looks like.

Start writing …

There is still that feeling of pain deep in my heart. Perhaps it is disappointment in myself, thinking that I should have been able to grit my teeth and “tough it out”. Maybe it is the predictability and structure that I miss? Maybe it has nothing to do with missing anything at the church house?

Sometimes I wonder if I am a disappointment to God in all this.

I think that it is more than that. It is the sadness that believes that the church that I gave my life to, doesn’t really want Jesus. They want to be an efficient, well-organized, growing organization, that does some God things.

They want to talk about Jesus.

They want to study Jesus.

They want to have programs that are about Him.

And they love to sing about Jesus but can’t agree on what kind of music He likes best … and sometimes they fight about Jesus.

But they don’t love Jesus enough to really love people who offend their sense of self-righteousness. That’s largely because they haven’t allowed themselves to be sufficiently loved by a Jesus who is an offense to their sense of self-righteousness.

I’m sad because the church that I have become intimately familiar with would rather just be “Martha-busy” than “Mary-awed”. Not that there is anything wrong with working hard. But being busy with the wrong things is of no value and being busy representing the Jesus we don’t know to a world that doesn’t know him either … that’s just idiocy.

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41, 42 NIV84)

“Martha-Stewart” Martha was the epitome of house keepers and event planners. There was much to “do” to honor Jesus. Everything had to be just right for Jesus’ visit.

Mary, on the other hand might have been a better help if they were having a VIP to entertain. She never thought of Him as anything but family.

Jesus was just that to Martha and her intentions were excellent. But Jesus never wanted to be treated like a VIP … and He still doesn’t.

He doesn’t want fanfare.

Fanfare means nothing and no one knows that better than Jesus. Hands that waved palm branches before Him would be clenched in fists within days. Lips that sang Him “Hosanna” would curse Him and call for His crucifixion.

I don’t think that He cares about well choreographed, scripted, carefully rehearsed performances and stage shows. The harder we work at getting ready for Jesus, the greater the likelihood that He will come and go a stranger.

I’m not suggesting that there are no Mary’s in the church house. I am saying that there are not nearly enough. The Mary’s don’t call the cadence.

They don’t want to.

They feel no obligation to turn Martha’s into Mary clones. They just want to enjoy Jesus, even if the house is not as presentable as it could be. The house is far less important to them than Jesus is.

But the “Martha Stewart” church house is always a better place for people to visit. They come and go. They enjoy the sights, sounds and smells. Mary’s home doesn’t garner the ratings or attract the crowds … not like Martha’s.

And if Jesus couldn’t visit both sisters in the same house, he would likely find himself much more often “at home” with Mary.

I might be able to tolerate the structure if Mary were the housekeeper.

But I can never go back to Martha’s place again.

I had an aunt who was like Martha and Dad would force us to visit. It wasn’t a fun place for kids. I hated going there. It was immaculate. I remember one day, sitting in the kitchen in a straight, stiff-backed chair. I briefly leaned my head back against the wall. She barked at me … “don’t lean your head against the wall … you’ll leave a stain.”

I felt dirty, … condemned. I couldn’t relax.

Every visit was a showcase experience. But I could hardly wait to leave and get home, where things were not nearly as nice. But at home, no one seemed overly worried about head marks on the wall paper … truthfully, I had never noticed one.

I am sure by now that you can write your own ending to this all-too-familiar story.

Karl

I have a friend who just returned from an African safari. His wife, daughter and Angleburt, the guide, freely 4-wheeling across the wild savannah, experiencing the wild life up close and personal.

They have pictures to prove it. Lions, cheetahs and leopards(above just a few feet from their vehicle) hippopotamus(the bully of Africa), alligators, wildebeests, warthogs and I could go on. My friend & his family had the adventure of a lifetime.

Many of us have seen the captive versions in barred zoos and synthetic environments. Interesting but no adventure.

Angleburt was incredible. He knew what to look for and could spot the picture prey at long distances where even the binoculars would not serve my friends.

My buddy, we’ll call him George, because that’s what his real name is, … has been in a box-less(faith box), bar-less(jail bars) state forever. He has discovered God at work in the wild and joined him there. He can see God working where others can’t even see God. Every once in a while, I have joined him on mini spiritual safaris to discover what God is up to in the wild. Amazing. Conversations, prayers, openness with people who are highly unlikely to ever darken the doors of a church.

I asked George, after his safari, if he would like to come with me to the zoo. He wasn’t much interested.

I asked him if he thought that Angleburt might ever want to become a tour-guide at the zoo since he knew the animals so well and could spot them so easily. He thought that Angleburt was likely happy where he was. I thought he might make more money in the zoo, being able to guide more people and not needing a land rover. George was fairly certain that the money wouldn’t matter.

A walk around the zoo is the closest that most of us are likely to get to some of these animals. But it is a poor substitute … in some ways a great tragedy. Lions were born to hunt not to lay in a man made environment. In captivity they are no longer what they were created to be.

Neither are we.

The bars hurt us as much as they protect us. Our church bars. Every now and then something wild wanders in and we don’t have a clue what to do so mostly we just run away.

Dear brothers and sisters, there is a wild world out there beyond the church zoo and the King of the jungle is at work, … in the white fields. He is doing things that we cannot see even when we get up close because we are used to watching from the safe side of the bars. That’s what we’ve become … picture takers … digital disciples, celebrating past victories and triumphs in our synthetic environments.

You can live like that if you wish … spending your life on the wrong side of the bars. Somehow we have become the curiosity while life has gone on all around us. Every once in a while someone comes in with a grandchild in tow, to show them what they used to be before their safari.

Help ME Lord … to know YOU and to see your beautiful ongoing work as a laborer in the harvest fields.

… he descended into hell

Beautiful Saturday morning … the “between” day on Easter weekend.

He is Alive … though in the grave … laying siege to hell itself and Satan is on the defense. His miserable fortress is being shaken and this day is the one that forever haunts him … the day that God descends as Conqueror to his domain.

It is a terrible mistake.

Victory turns to loss.

One checker taken turns for a net loss of two … he has been “played” … outplayed because he pridefully underplayed.

A Pyrrhic Victory … one too costly to gain.

Gaining geography but losing the war …

“Check” becomes “Checkmate” …

The grappler wins from the bottom …

He is never safe … he’ll never be safe … anywhere … anytime.

His pretend kingdom is an illusion and he is a puppet. Where once in heaven he ruled with Christ … now he is a vassal … his will is subject to the true king. Any decree that he makes can be overturned in a nano second.

This truly is hell … more than he ever imagined it would be. No one longs to see his end more than he. Immortality is to painful to endure.

As misery, his only recourse is to create misery.

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Fresher than ever.

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 1,900 times in 2010. That’s about 5 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 18 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 37 posts. There were 26 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 15mb. That’s about 2 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was March 15th with 89 views. The most popular post that day was Against the Wind . . . .

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, firstwesleyan.ca, twitter.com, ca.linkedin.com, and web.mac.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for karl ingersoll, london big ben, see a doctor, dog going crazy, and unity in the body of christ.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

Against the Wind . . . March 2010
1 comment

Old Friend . . . New Beginning February 2010
8 comments

Same Old Same Old February 2010
4 comments

An Ingersoll Update April 2010
4 comments

Never Judge a Man . . . April 2010
1 comment

When asked by people “What is your vision for the church?”, I feel so obligated to lay out the future before their eyes. I can’t see ten seconds into the future. I can’t tell what the next sentence in this paragraph will be until it is done.

Oswald says it so well, “You do not know what you are going to do; the only thing you know is that God knows what He is doing.” – Oswald Chambers

I think all of us ought to resolve to never again ask a man what His vision is for the work that God is doing . . .His work . . . the work that He alone can do.

Perhaps the good question would be to ask what a person’s vision of God is. Great leaders throughout the Bible answered that question as they gave us
what they were given by God.

A bigger vision is surely and sorely needed but not one of what we can do in the future but of a God who is bigger than we can possibly conceive and of what he has laid before us . . . right now . . . to do for His Purposes.

I think this New Year, it might help us to Realize:

• Much of what we resolve annually has never been resolved.  Look at your list and ask yourself how many times we have already resolved to do this and so far, . . . no resolution.  We’re like Mick Jagger . . . “I can’t get no . . . resolution.”
• We are living in a broken world and all of us are somehow broken.  Does your list contain items that relate to people’s perceptions of you or do they address the substantial issues of your life, regardless of what people may think?  For instance, health issues may be a better motivation for weight loss than beauty.  There are people who love you and want you around for as long as possible, whether you are a size “2” or “12”.
• Don’t look for other people to change their ways to support your initiatives.  Someone else in your home is still going to want to buy chips in 2011.  They’ll be there in the cupboard whispering to you . . . and until you can learn to live in the house with them you’ll never learn to live without them.
• It is better to add significant things to your life than to become obsessed with taking things away.  What we do necessitates what we do without.  As one of our heralded Canadian Olympians about the rigors of their training program.  What they chose to do, several years before doing it, automatically made other decisions for them.  In all of life, it is what you do that will change the world, not what you stop doing.  This is especially true in the Christian life.
• One more . . . prayerfully ask what you might do to bring the greatest glory to God through your living.  Perhaps that might be a great resolution in itself . . . to live in such a way that you would bring God glory.  You see, if God is not a part of making the goal, He is not likely to be part of realizing it.  In the end, it will be His call anyway.  What He has to say in the final analysis trumps what anyone else has to say.

Remember, the scripture tells us that we are not our own, we are “bought with a price” (1 Cor. 6:20,21).  Aligning ourselves with the Purposes for which we are created is a lifetime pursuit requiring regular adjustments in the ways we see the world around us and the part that God has for reach of us to play . . . now there’s a New Year’s Realization for you.

It was a motley, cross and non-denominational gathering of spiritually hungry individuals.  The unplanned and unforeseen “service” lasted about 5 1/2 hours and it seemed shorter than many of the 90-minute, Sunday morning variety.  In many ways it was because these folks don’t “do” church . . . they are church . . . wherever they are and whatever they are doing.  The denominational experience was varied and the theologies diverse, but there was a greater sense of unity there than in many meetings that I have attended over the years where unity means sameness, expressed in doctrines, creeds and stances.

If two people approach a common destination from opposite ends of the globe, they cannot get closer to their destination without getting closer to one another.  I believe that Jesus Christ alone is the source of unity in the Church, whether you speak of an organization, an organism . . . whatever.  Two people growing closer to Christ, coming from different ends of the theological spectrum, cannot possibly become more like Christ without becoming increasingly like one another.  That means that spiritual maturity expresses itself in commonality and community.  Seems as though I have read something like that in the book of Acts.

Years ago we espoused the virtues of denominational distinctives.  We loved the things about ourselves that made us different from other brothers and sisters.  I know this will sound harsh but this is ludicrous.  If we are to become like Christ we will become more like one another.

A set of beliefs commonly agreed upon does not produce unity.  Trying to give people “what they want” in a Sunday morning service does not produce unity.  Programs don’t produce unity . . . you get it right?  The only thing that produces true unity is Christ and people growing to become more like him.  The more that church becomes about anything else other than Christ the greater potential there is for internal strife and conflict and exrnal impotence.  The testimony of the Church in the community is empowered or negated by our willingness to establish Christ as the focal point of our living and believing.

Instead, speaking the truth in love,we will in all thingsgrow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:11-16)

I know this is long but not as long as what I experienced last night.  But sometimes a new perspective is what we need.

Most everyone has, or will have the parental experience of purchasing First Christmas gifts. Theoretically, the kids enjoy the process . . . maybe even as much as we do . . that’s what the goal is anyway.

Ripping paper – what fun! Opening the box and then emptying the contents. We all know what happens next . . . go ahead and tell me . . . say it out loud. They ignore the gift and play with the box and we are somehow surprised.

As adults we would quickly go to the gift. We know just how much time and money it takes to choose the right gifts. As we make the purchase we have this visual upcoming event trailer in which our children are overwhelmed with our love expressed in the very thing that they wanted.

It is so obvious in the Christmas setting.

What about the gift of salvation?

What does God see in the way that we receive His greatest gift?

Sadly too many fall in love with the presentation, the package and the wrapping. Many church goers spend lifetimes playing with wrapping and boxes and never experience the gift. Worse than that, they become like that in their own gift giving . . . the communication of the gospel is with all good intentions, morphed into box peddling.

As second generation givers, we spend more time than ever concentrating on just the right package rather than just the right gift. More and more, people are disillusioned and disinterested in beautiful empty packages that promise something in the promotion that is precariously absent in the presentation.

Let me challenge you just a bit at the end of this reading to look at the practice of your faith . . . find the gift . . . discard the package. As beautiful as the box may be it won’t satisfy you, your friends or your family.