Give your husband lots of brownie points

Hubby and I were sitting at lunch with the senior pastor and his wife today, talking about marriage and a video on marriage they were watching.

We laughed about how wives give husbands brownie points for doing the things we ask them to do. Or for surprising us with little things or doing an unasked household chore. And they are doled out one at a time. "Thank you for giving the kids a bath, honey. You earned a brownie point."

Husbands don't generally give wives brownie points. Back to the truth that they are simple and uncomplicated. They love all the things we love, they are just less intricate about it.

Dinner? We want a nice sit down meal with the food in bowls in the table. They want something hot and a paper plate that won't collapse when they load it up.

Back to brownie points. When a husband does something undesirable, or forgets an important date or event, he loses those precious brownie points in droves! "Didn't you remember to pick up the clothes from the dry cleaner. Minus a bazillion brownie points."

He's in the hole for eternity now. Why bother with the favorable acts only get one point at a time.

As we laughed about this, trying to understand why wives give points at all, I said, "I don't remember how many brownie points Hubby has, but one time he did something nice for me and I gave him 1500 points on the spot. When he did something "bad" he only lost one."

Pastor was impressed. I said, "Well, Jesus finds all kinds of ways to give us credit where we don't deserve it. I figure I can do no less."

Jesus said if you give someone a cup of cold water you won't lose your reward. How generous is He? As if the Cross alone doesn't tell me.

How can I be stingy with honoring and esteeming others? And honestly, I'd like the same treatment shown to me. Mercy! Generosity. Honor!

What about you? Do you honor? Are you generous with giving brownie points and stingy when taking them away. Or generous with deleting them from your spouses account and stingy when rewarding?

Let's not be like that beloved! Give. Rejoice. Honor. God will make sure you do not lose out. It's not in His nature to be stingy and if we are in His image, it should not be in ours.

Give some brownie points today!

Personal Expression verses God Encounter

I've noticed something lately. Church has changed. And I don't mean in the Emergent kind of way where intellectuals gaze at their navels asking, "Is Jesus really the Christ? Is He the only way?"

Yes, in case you're wondering. Unequivocally yes.

My observation of the Evangelical Bible-believing church is we've become about personal expression rather than God encounter.

Let me explain. I was recently sitting in our church's leadership meeting, looking around at folks I love, listening to our wise and steadfast pastor talk about our Simple Church model, and I wondered, "Why would any one want to come to here, to our church?"

We offer corporate prayer, home churches, children and youth church, and a Sunday morning service. We don't have a choir or drama team. No book club or weight loss meetings. We don't offer art or exercise programs. The women's ministry is a monthly Bible Study. The men's ministry is a bi-weekly Saturday morning gig.

We don't have a video or multi-media team for the techies to join. No financial ministry, marriage encounter or grief overcomers, or a group for those who want to support the troops (though our congregation does), no bi-lingual ministries. . .

And it's not that we don't care about these things. We do. But we are too small (200) to support such diversity. So, back to my original question: "Why would any one come to our church?"

Church has become a place where we expect to express ourselves, to get our needs met, endulge in the Christian version of the Saturday Night Playhouse for those who love drama, the Coffee House with Christian Rock Bands for those who love music, the more spiritual versions of recovery mininstries like Alcoholics Anonymous or Overeaters.

We have none of these things. No coffee house, no drama team or choir, no rocking band other than the worship team. ;) Where are the artists, singers, dancers, actors and teachers supposed to go? We have no ministry to support their gifts?

I envisioned a new family coming into our sanctuary and pursing the bulletin. Youth and home churches on Wednesday. . . Sunday morning meeting. . . prayer three mornings a week, but hmm, he's not into prayer and "intercession" is not her gift.

There's no scrap booking night, or wood shop, or a kid's orchestra for twelve-year-old Lila.

What they expected when they entered our church is what they've been conditioned to expect in the past twenty years: a place to express themselves.

But what they should have demanded, no, yearned for, was a place where they encountered God.

The one offering besides Sunday morning where they might meet with Him and others, morning prayer, was dismissed. While I fabricated this story, the scenario comes from very real situaitons.

Yet, I can't remember the last time I walked out of a Sunday morning service and overheard the people lamenting, "I just didn't encounter God today. I so wanted to meet with Him here. I need Him, I need His kiss on my heart."

Have you ever been in a meeting where everyone KNEW God was there? I have. Not enough, but I have a few times and it's pretty incredible. The love I felt universally is the room had only one source: Jesus.

Corporate gatherings are for edification and encounter. There's nothing like the Body of Christ worshipping together. I love corporate worship and prayer. There's a deepening and dynamic that doesn't happen when I'm alone.

If you and I have an alive, awakened heart, our personal expression of dance, music, woodworking, scrapping booking, whatever, will find a home, "out there" in the world where we can be salt and light.

When I worked for a corporation, the Lord said to me, "Welcome to your mission field." Through prayer, worship, fellowship, ingesting the Word, I remained focused on my journey.

If you love acting, why does it have to be in church dramas? Go to your local playhouse and join up. Serve. Love. Be humble. If your town doesn't have one, start one!

If you love to build things, start a group or look for elderly people who need work done around the house. Be salt. Be light.

We have something non-Believers don't have: access to God through the blood and Cross of Jesus. God literally ripped the veil that kept the Jews out of the Holy of Holies as a sign to the ages to come: "You can freely enter in now!"

Before Jesus, only a sanctified priest could enter the Holy place. He alone could encounter God. But Jesus made the way for you and I to stand before Him, sanctified, called, loved, just as the Jewish priest of old.

We can and must encounter God on our own as well as when we gather for corporate meetings. We must leave different than when we came in. Thirty minutes of worship and forty of preaching must not easily satisfy us. We should yearn and hunger to encournter God when we meet. The lame must walk, the blind see, the hurting healed.

I want my church experience to be about ENCOUNTER! Not about Rachel finding personal epxression. I want to worship beyond myself and see God.

I don't want church to be a laundry list of ministries. Beloved, if we encounter Jesus on a regular basis, we won't need so many ministries because lives will be changed!

Church is about loving God and loving others, serving one another. Until we're doing it well, let's set aside all the distractions. Focus on prayer and the Word, becoming empowered lovers of Jesus. Maybe we'll be blessed to be like the Twelve who encountered Him and turned the world upside down.

Dream Team and Sarah

After being out of youth ministry for a year now, I'm starting to pick up a few extra curricular activities.

One, I'm on a Tuesday night dream team. We set up in a corner of a local coffee shop and interpret dreams. One team member goes around with flyers telling shopees what we are about-sans the Christianese-and asks them if they have dreams they want interpreted.

We usually do 2- 3 a night, though we want to do more. But we end up ministering to the people because God shows up. Gasp. Big surprise. Not.

It's fun because people have some weird, disturbing dreams and we are able to debunk the mystery. The sigh of relief on their faces is cool.

I'm also back working with Sarah two hours a week. My friend Ted works for Sarah and her mom, Helen. It's a very long story, but Sarah checked out of life about forty years ago as a teen.

She's smart and clever, but her mind is just some place else most of the time. When I went over to today to pick her up to take her down to the beach, she did remember me.

At first she kept tell me to go away and calling me a "little sh--" but she got over it. I just talk to her and try to draw her out.

I said, "Sarah, if you were writing a book, what would you write about?"

"The beach." We were driving by the beach at the time.

"Good. What about the beach?"

"I don't know?"

"Is there a girl on the beach?" I asked.

" Yeah. A girl."

"What's she doing?"

"I don't know."

"Is she walking, swimming..."

"Yeah, swimming, playin the in the water."

"Is there a boy on the beach?"

"Yeah, yeah."

And so it went. She's interesting to hang out with, scary at times because she's not overly fond of clothes.

But, you know, I think she was truly happy to see me. She was smiling as we walked on the beach and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

Made me think more of my James 2 revelation from yesterday.

I know I promised a "Behind The Scenes" with Lost In NashVegas. I'll do part 2 tomorrow.

Blessings!