The Phil Files

Welcome to the season of SPRINTER. Yes, we were in the season of Spring the last few days, when suddenly Old Man Winter re-invaded. Short sleeves and sweat gave way to rain and smoke up the chimney. It’s not less treasured as a time of reading and writing, but a bit confusing on the body and thermostat. The hardwoods have more buds today — probably due to the 80 degree days recently — but the temperature is having a hard time making it north of 40 degrees today. The rain is welcome, but the cold has a hard bite we could all do without. Seasons change, but not smoothly for most of us.

Transformation doesn’t come easily either. We’d like to have reality change with our intentions, but that isn’t the way life is. We point in the direction of a desired change, we lurch off in that direction with the help of the Holy Spirit, and God begins His work in us, but it is in fits in us. We trust that the needed change will come just as surely as the seasons do because of God’s work and our commitment. But we grow impatient with the invasion of past weaknesses and frustrated with stumbles we thought were past. We don’t want the return of Winter in the warmth of Spring!

When the chill of winter blasts us in the face afresh, rather than getting frustrated with the failure, let’s find a way to warm ourselves in the company of those who will both call us forward and also accompany us on the journey. And yes, SPRINTER will shed it’s cold and we will find ourselves in true Spring once more.

Yep, those are camo Crocs & I’m in my favorite writing position!

What a refreshing break from the routine. I am hiding away in a pretty place reading, resting, and wrting. Sorry, occupational hazard to alliterate. My essentials, a couple of computers, an internet connection, several translations of the Bible, my new Kindle 2 (wow, is that ever great for folks that read like Donna and I do), a beautiful view, books to read, and time to write! Here’s the view:

So what’s been the reading agenda so far?

• The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight (finished)
• Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God by Francis Chan (finished)
• Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus: How the Jewishness of Jesus Can Transform Your Faith by Ann Spangler & Lois Tverberg (finished)
• A Theology of Reading: The Hermeneutics of Love by Alan Jacobs (if I have time)
• Gospel of Matthew (many times in multiple versions — in progress)

All of the books are challenging and interesting. I am a big fan of McKnight’s book, The Jesus Creed and did not know what The Blue Parakeet: was about till I got into it. Very interesting read and written well. Moves along, but of course I checked out every note and had to think through a bunch of stuff. Hang on, this book will take your brain and your way of approaching Scripture for a ride.

Crazy Love is Francis Chan as a speaker in written form. It has interactive videos online for the early part of the book. I actually found the latter part of the book more challenging and better reading.

Sitting at the Feet of Rabbi Jesus will be a hot book on the evangelical market for several reasons:

1. Spangler is a popular author, especially among women.
2. The content and title of the book sounds interesting. It is! I found the first half of the book absolutely outstanding. The second half didn’t seem as crisp. I read every footnote with interest and eagerness. I was very impressed with the conversation with scholarly sources while keeping the message of the book very readable for interested Bible students.
3. Great background information in a readable format to help moderns understand much more of what Jesus said and who He was in His time so we can understand Him for our time.
4. Practical tools for incorporating or experiencing some of the Jewish heritage we share as Christians.

The focus of my time has been and will be the Gospel of Matthew. More will come out about all of this later, Lord willing, but I am absolutely certain that Matthew brings us a great resource that has long been neglected while we gravitate toward the other Gospels. I believe Matthew’s story will be a great Gospel for our times for many of the same reasons it was the most popular Gospel among believers for centuries until recent times.

O, one other thing: while not on the nutrition pyramid, those BBW tater chips and a great view help make study better, more focused, and an act of joyful table fellowship with the Lord as I study and read.

Grace!

Why is it so hard for us to let the next generation extend the trajectory of our own dreams and have dreams of their own?

From my perspective, so many older leaders — in other words, folks who are my age — become bitter toward those who come after them simply for carrying out these older leaders’ dreams in their own generation. Yet when you look closely, that second generation is really only extending those dreams in the language and culture for their generation. The leaders from younger generations are not disrespecting those who nurtured and trained them: quite the opposite. They learned to dream and reach and pursue the goals that God has fostered in their hearts because of the influence of those original leaders.

So, how do we help those original leaders take satisfaction and give encouragement to coming generation for their risks and efforts to honor God and do Kingdom work for their emerging generation?

How do we make our goals be more a trajectory rather than a static target so we can value those who embrace the cause even though they may stretch our original landing point?

Rather than seeing this passion in the generation that follow us as threatening, why can’t we not celebrate their pursuit of faith and desire of reaching their generation?

For years, I have been haunted by the following passage (italics are mine):

After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for Israel (Judges 2:10).

My fear is that we will so over-control those we teach to dream that we allow them no room to grow, dream, experience, and lead in ways where they experience God for themselves.

O God, please convict me and move me to allow the next generations to lead your people in ways that honor You and bring Christ to their culture and time.

Risk for God! It’s not a suggestion, it’s a way of life … the way of life God called us to embrace!

Folks are off and headed out for Spring Break campaigns — I’ve got kinfolks headed out of the country and last year I went to Uganda with Compassion International myself. All of these folks are jumping in and serving and risking and doing great things for God. Others I know are involved with church planting efforts and house church efforts. One brother in Christ and his family left business and went back to school to prepare himself to be a church planter.

Far too often we try to play it safe and never really do what our hearts call us to do and spirits hunger for us to do. The tottering economy and a host of other things intimidates us and backs us down from the adventure of faith. So for the next several days, I’d like to nudge us in the direction of taking risks for the Kingdom and give you some interesting things to think about and see — from passages of Scripture to Heartlight.org articles to video resources to check out.

For some reason, those who take a biblically conservative view of Scripture often fear risking anything — risking their point of view, their physical safety, their approval from God — and playing it safe. However, the more literally we take the words of Jesus and the examples of the early followers of Jesus, the more we should be willing to risk almost everything for the sake of the Kingdom.

So … today, I want to point you in the direction of a Heartlight.org article and a video.

The article is entitled “Step into the Water” and calls us to have the kind of faith the children of Israel had to cross the Jordan River. It’s worth a peak!

The video is entitled “Uncontrollable Current” is available on Highway Videos.

I am blessed to get a lot of pre-release music to review and every-once-in-awhile I get a CD release that really touches me. BlueTree’s “God of this City” is a powerful song that we have sung at Southern Hills and now the group that wrote the song, BlueTree, has an album to go with it. In addition, there are some added lyrics to the song as well. When you know the origin of the song, you cannot help but be even more moved by it.

While not all the songs on the CD grab my heart, the middle songs on the album all seem to resonate. You can’t fake real faith street cred, and so the crucible of real life amps up some of the songs for me. Here is a promo release that talks about the CD and the group. (CD Releases late March 2009.)

 

Bluetree: God Of This City

by Christa A. Banister

— “For Greater things are yet to come, and greater things are still to be done in this city.”

Even with an ocean separating the United States from Bluetree’s home of Belfast, Ireland, the band definitely identifies with the common struggle of desensitization to a seemingly constant stream of bad news.

 With bombings, a long history of bloodshed between those who actually claim to love and serve God, and random acts of violence the stuff of daily headlines in Belfast, the band’s lead vocalist and guitarist Aaron Boyd admits that “you eventually grow so numb that when you hear that a car bomb killed 10 people, you immediately go on with the mundane business of the day without as much as giving it a second thought.”

That’s precisely why Boyd and his bandmates, which includes drummer Johnny Hobson and deejay Pete Kernoghan, have never been interested in writing feel-good worship songs that may incite a few goosebumps on Sunday morning, but don’t exactly inspire change and action once the church service has ended.

 “What we often forget sometimes is that we’re the solutions,” Boyd says. “Jesus Christ has already done everything, and now, we are His hands and feet in the world. Let’s not just ask God to change everything, but let’s be a blessing and speak words of life into people’s difficult circumstances. That’s where I’ve been writing songs from—the simple truth.”

Driving the message home is Boyd’s emotive vocals and the album’s lushly crafted soundscape that brilliantly underscores the very real hope that’s alive and well when we actively pursue a relationship with God. While an unabashed attitude of worship runs through all of the songs on God Of This City, even a sunny track like “Each Day” wasn’t inspired when life was leisurely coasting along. Instead these songs reflect the highs and lows that inevitably come with the journey of faith.

While “Each Day” is ultimately an upbeat declaration of a believer’s unwavering trust in God, when Boyd sings of “You never leave me alone/Even when storms cloud my way/And I can’t see the breaking day/You never leave me alone,” the lyrics were actually born out a season of struggle when his daughter Lily was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis not long after birth.

 “When I first heard the news, I freaked out. I didn’t even know what cystic fibrosis was,” Boyd shares. “This thing just rocks your world because you really begin to look at what you believe. God is a loving God. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. And I know He does not bless you with an incurable disease to teach you a lesson. He does not do that. So I suppose I got to a place where I struggled, even when I knew that God is a good God.”

And that’s exactly what Boyd hopes that listeners will experience when listening to Bluetree—hope not necessary dictated by circumstance—the moment when God does some of His best work and shaping.

Armed with encouraging words for a hurting world, Bluetree has made it a priority to live missionally, which eventually led them to a life-changing gig in the Red Light district of Pattaya, Thailand, a beautiful city badly tarnished by sexual slavery. Known as the capital of the world’s sex trade, Boyd admits he was “a bit frightened” by what he’d gotten himself into. But “the intense darkness” the band “simply couldn’t miss” inspired Bluetree to lead worship in the most unlikely of places, a club which doubles as a brothel known as the Climax Bar.

Proving yet again that “God works in mysterious ways” something special began happening during one particularly memorable two-hour set. As the band worshipped and prayed, a message of hope for the people of Pattaya emerged—a revelation that even in that darkness, God was still the God of these people. Despite all the depravity and darkness, whether they were the victims or even those who chased after the darkness, God loved them and pursued them—even if they weren’t even aware of it. And before long, it became apparent that this “prophetic shout over the city” wasn’t just for those living in Pattaya, but for the whole world.

You’re the God of this city
You’re the King of these people
You’re the Lord of this nation
You are …

The simple lyrics for what became Bluetree’s “God Of This City,” the title track of the album which releases in the States on March 3, not only blessed those listening in the Climax Bar that night, but also deeply resonated with another fellow worship artist, Chris Tomlin. In fact, when Tomlin first heard the words during the band’s 4 o’clock set in Northern Ireland one afternoon, he knew there was something particularly special about this anthemic cry for God’s intervention in every city on the planet.

After connecting with the band later on, a partnership was eventually forged, and “God Of This City” was not only covered on Tomlin’s critic and commercial smash Hello Love, but it played an integral role in the Passion’s recent world tour—something that Boyd still can’t believe.

“It has been one crazy journey,” Boyd confides. “It felt really amazing to be part of speaking into the Passion movement. I remember standing on a stage at a Passion event in Los Angeles, and I still couldn’t believe this was happening. Here this group of Irish guys were playing alongside David Crowder Band and Matt Redman, and I wondered ‘What is going on?’”

Since then, the band’s momentum has been nothing but fast and furious. “Everything has gone so crazy so quickly, and it’s only going to get crazier,” Boyd says. “But it’s all been so much fun, and we’re up for the challenge. We have a common goal and a great camaraderie as a band. And it doesn’t hurt that we’re all a wee bit crazy.”

But when Bluetree plays in a city near you, don’t expect them just to play a show and hit the road. “We don’t want to just roll in, do our thing and leave people with the Bluetree spirit or whatever. We want to build relationships with people,” Boyd says. “We want to be able to come back and see people we know. That’s what I love about my guys in the band. They absolutely love meeting people.”  And that community spirit is befitting of the band’s name, which is all about being unique in a world that often reveres conformity. “If you’re in a forest and there’s nothing but green trees —everything being as you’d normally see it—but then you see a blue tree with blue bark, blue leaves, blue branches, well, it would catch your eye,” Boyd says. “And as Christians we’re called stand out, to be different—like blue trees.”

For more information about Bluetree, check out www.bluetreeonline.co.uk.

 

Listen to the feature track now!