Sunday Morning
Before some of us head to church this morning to worship Jesus, before any of my friends have preached, taught, or shared from a traditional pulpit to a contemporary table (so that you know this is not specific in nature and more for the flock) I loftily wish apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers were immune from blind spots and Achilles heals. We all have them, but somehow we expect leadership to be more than human. When we do, our unrealistic expectations are a recipe
for disaster.
All leaders have feet of clay but even this does not justify our refusal to submit to authority, be teachable, receive, and ASSEMBLE together because God may just speak to you through the person sitting next to you or the one directing you to a parking space. Without LOVE you will forsake the assembling together of yourselves. So love well, forgive leadership, and look to the one whose heel has crushed the serpent’s head, Jesus Christ the righteous. Follow Him and love like Him because not only does love look like something, love has a name!
For Today!
At 27 years old, on December 14, 1991, I experienced the fullness of being born again. Seven months prior I walked across the stage at the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center to receive my Green Beret and Special Forces tab. It was the culmination of my childhood dream after discovering a National Geographic article in grammar school titled, Special Forces in Southeast Asia. In it a Green Beret was fighting for the freedom of an indigenous people. I was captivated and everything about it was romantic from the palm trees and the huts they lived in to their tribal dress and the weapons they carried. I wanted to fight for their freedom with all my heart. I didn’t know it then, but God had wired me, before the foundation of the world, to be one of His liberators and destiny was pinging all over the place. It was the motto of the Green Beret, De Oppresso Liber – to liberate the oppressed, that set me ablaze for a dream I would stop for nothing. There was one glitch in this whole endeavor; when this kid from Newport Beach, California, whose every fifth sentence was a string of “dude,” “gnarly,” and “cool” became a Green Beret, he was empty. Read on…