Red-Metal-Bunk-Bed-Revival...

Last night after arriving home from Vacation Bible School, Pamela and I were tucking kids into bed. We put the girls to bed first... always first... then headed to the room of our sons. I read their nightly devotion and was getting ready to pray with them when I remembered something. One of the volunteers at VBS had told me that they thought they heard Caleb, my oldest son, say a bad word... the "female dog" kind of bad word!

Wondering where he picked that word up and horrified that my precious, innocent little son was capable of such a word, I began to ask him if he had said any bad words that night at church. He shook his little head back and forth indicating that he had not, but his face went flush with exposure to his forgotten sin telling me that he had.

I pressed again, "Caleb, did you say a bad word tonight?" My voice was soft, but sincere. He then began to stammer around and asked me, "What word?" So I said, "The word that starts with b-i-." He was truly puzzled and didn't know the word. I could tell. I gently but firmly asked him for the truth, "Did you say any bad words tonight at all?" His younger brother wanted to interject on his big brothers transgression, but I halted his input - and then Caleb's face turned flush again indicating to me something had been said. He responded, "I did say one word."

In dramatic shock (for affect) I asked, "Caleb, what did you say???"

"The Lord's Name in vain," was the only response he could make. I was shocked because I had expected some other word. Wanting to make sure he knew what he was talking about, I asked him, "What exactly did you say, son?"

"Oh my G-d!" was his reply again with a flushed-face and nervousness.

I turned a quick glance toward Pamela somewhat relieved that I wouldn't have to re-enact the scene from "A Christmas Story" with bars of soap and a phone call to some unsuspecting parent, but I also spotted an open opportunity for a lesson.

"Now, Caleb, you know that's one of the commandments right? And we're not supposed to take God's name in vain, right?

"Yes, sir."

"Well, son, should we pray and ask God for forgiveness?" He affirmed that we should and I said, "You're going to have to lead this one, okay?"

I grabbed his hand and his brother's hand as well, who had been watching in quiet wonder that his big brother may or may not about to be getting a spanking... he just wasn't sure at this point. He hoped for the former.

What happened next caught both Pamela and I off our guards. As the three Hitt boys all held hands forming a triangle of support, our little lesson was about to transform into a "come-to-Jesus-revival." Caleb began to pray and he became overtaken in heart felt emotion where he couldn't hardly get the words out as he prayed, "Please God forgive me for taking Your..." then he broke into tears, "...name in vain. I'm so sorry, God."

I shot another quick glance at Pamela and both of us were so struck by the deep sincerity of his prayer and repentance that we both were near the point of tears ourselves. Choking the tears back, I began to reassure Caleb that God had forgiven him and that his sins would never be remembered anymore. I told him how proud I was of him and that God was forming him into a great son for His kingdom. I pressed even further by asking him if he believed God had forgiven him, and with a slight smile he nodded in agreement.

Who had expected such deep emotion to be felt by an eight year old boy over such an innocent thing?

The whole atmosphere of the room had changed. Pamela and I went from being on the fast track of getting kids into bed so we could get some peace and quiet ourselves into feeling God's presence surrounding their red-metal-bunk-bed.

Just then, Caleb's younger brother, Zeke began to confess that he also had said a bad word that night. He told me that he had told someone to "shut up!" I asked Zeke if he knew that was wrong, with a smile in my voice, and asked him if he wanted to pray too. He did and he knelt there on the top bunk of their red-metal-bunk-bed and asked God to forgive his sins as well.

What started out as a good night devotion, turned into a red-metal-bunk-bed-revival-of-repentance for two small boys concerned with pleasing a God they are just getting to know.

Just like that, two hearts were changed that night... but they belonged to Pamela and myself.

God had done a mighty work of convicting two of his children... again, me and Pamela. The scriptures say that a child shall lead them. And in the midst of our red-metal-bunk-bed-revival there were no physical manifestations of healing, no bodies falling to the floor, no 3 pole tents, no offerings received in spirited-coercion, but I stood there profoundly humbled by my own lack of sincerity. My heart had been renewed in this little revival of sorts.

Oh, Father, that my prayers would be soaked in tears of child-like sincerity instead of some spiritual-disciplined-obligation to pray to you, as needing to fill some prayer quota for the day. Bring more bunk-bed-revivals into the lives of us, your church. My how we need them... .

Remembering Autumn In July...

I can feel Autumn, if I try just hard enough,
Remembering the blades of grass in the Fall,
As they begin their muted decline to dormancy.

The sun beats down now in unforgiving rays
Of abusive power it won't apologize for.

I try to remember the cool mid-day air
That neither chills nor stifles breath,
In comfortable draws soaking lungs
With invigorating energy of brisk Autumn air.

I can remember Autumn, if I try just hard enough.

The Song Bird's Song

The Song Bird sang its swollen chesty song of love

Chirps and chirps and chirps and chirps-

Pausing its serenade to listen to hear loves song sang back to him.

When no song is sang to sullen lover Song Bird

He simply sings his song again

Chirps and chirps and chirps and chirps-

Still no wanting song of love returned only requited

For a moment by crickets and locusts’ calls for their

Own loves serenade.

Still the Song Bird sings his swollen chesty song of love

Chirps and chirps and chirps and chirps-

Waiting and listening for loves recall,

When in the stillness of his Waiting Song an ever so faint chirp he hears.

His love song returned back to Song Bird’s delight

Now singing his serenade not to empty forest of so many creatures not to his belonging

But his song sang to such a Singer who waits too for no empty tune returned

The Married Land... (Beulah's Shore)

That Married Land we've not yet consummated, yet holds our hearts near in wanting to express its love in an eternal burst of given-ness...

We cry for the Married Land as babes with no way to hold up even our heads, yet grow to have no want for the Eternal Marriage shore...

Until our Love comes and reminds us why we once cried dry our tears in painful longings to be alone no more.

The Married Land where flesh dresses in garments that do not weary or pain in prolonged slumbers of absent Spirited-ness of union-less wanderings.

Divorced from the Married Land our flesh longs to be; it loathes wholeness and wants not for perpetual despair...

The Married Land where lost purpose is viewed in infinite glimpses of being lead by Love - when we cried for a home we knew not of.

Elijah's Speech to Followers of Baal...

Elijah adjusts his lapel mic just a bit on his tunic, taps it just a bit to ensure its hot, grips the lectern with slightly sweaty palms, then clearing his throat he begins his speech. The audience leans in as the capacity crowd attending the annual convention of BWSI (Baal Worshipers Society of Israel) waits with tuned auricles to hear what the prophet has to say.

"Some problems are so big you have to team tackle them," he begins. "We Jews and you Worshipers of Baal have to set aside our "differences" and work together to end stereotypes for the greater good. We should become partners to end the five social giants of out time: war, poverty, corruption, disease, and illiteracy."

Elijah's speech lasted twenty minutes and he encouraged Baal Worshipers "who have been in Israel for generations" to help the newcomers understand what it means to be Israeli.

Most of the Baal worshipers agreed to what Elijah had to say at the BWSI convention and it is considered by most to be a landmark event for Judaism and Baal Worshipers alike.

~~End Satire~~

Can any Christian imagine such a scene? Well, one need not imagine it, it actually took place. Although, to liken Pastor Rick Warren to the Prophet Elijah is a stretch that I wouldn't attempt to make. This past Saturday, however, while enjoying our Declaration of Independence holiday, Rick Warren was speaking at the annual Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) convention.

In the name of being modern, politically correct or whatever else we're calling it these days, the church again has shown that we have no backbone, no conviction and Pastor Rick Warren will most likely be held by the world as a "bridge builder". He may one day win the Nobel Peace Prize and be held too as a champion of religious tolerance, but what he has done is to further illustrate to the world that Christ - the Way - is only afforded a single seat at the round table of world religions.

In his speech and by his efforts, Christ has been reduced to only a "difference" between the groups, or any religious group for that matter. And, as implied that "difference" can be put aside for the greater good of ending the worlds problems.

Christ is, however, that Greater Good! And, until Christ Himself returns war will remain, poverty will remain, corruption will remain, disease will remain... and, we might teach some people to read and write, but all deficiencies of the human condition will remain until it has been intersected with the Christ of the cross who the church at large seems so eager to brush aside for the greater social good. Could there be any greater oxymoron? I think now I know who the moron is...! (Glad I didn't waste my time reading the Purpose Driven Life. For whatever good it might have been, it is now shot concerning any possible credibility it may have once held.)

It seems to me that intolerance becomes a virtue when the tolerances of men replace the scarred hand of Salvation. This is all that has been done.

Praying for a Fiery Red-Haired Italian Grandmother Named Phyllis...

I reached to grab the dinning room table in an effort to slide its stubborn leaves together. As it slid reluctantly together, it met in a glorious union of wood and fingered flesh... then, WHAP!!! Another hand had, just as quickly as getting pinched, slapped me for mine iniquity.

This was my first meeting with my wife Pamela's Italian grandmother, Phyllis. My first memory of her involves near aggravated assault.

Pamela and I were dating at the time, it was Thanksgiving of '99 when Pamela, her mother Laura and I made the twelve hour trip to Spring Valley, Illinois. The stories surrounding this wonderful woman prior to my meeting her were fascinating, yet a little unnerving. I couldn't wait to meet her, yet I was a bit nervous not knowing what to expect - or knowing from the stories that had been told me - from this fiery little Italian woman I had heard so much about. Ten years later I see why her daughter and granddaughter love her so much. What a terrifically fascinating lady!

Phyllis is having surgery this week and she is in our prayers!

Living so far away, we don't get to see her often. In fact, she's never seen two of my four children. Yet, in a way I see her every day. Every time Pamela's Italian temper flares at me, every time she throws a spoon at me, or shoe or coat hanger flung at me, I guess I'm experiencing a little bit of Phyllis all these miles away...

Phyllis, may God bless you and keep you. May He gift you and cause you to prosper. May His face shine fully upon you... You are loved and missed.

Confessing Sin...

Last night REVOLVE! Student Ministry had the opportunity to attend the youth service at Tuscaloosa Church of God. They provided the Worship - which was excellent, by the way - and we provided the Word. Which translated to me speaking... always a fun thing for those who listen, right? (please note the sarcasm)

I spoke last night from I John 1:9 - "If we confess our sins...". It was the only sliver of inspiration that I had reading through several books of the Bible and seeking God for, not just a message to preach, but something from God's heart.

In studying, I found that the word confess comes from the Greek word homologeo. Wow! Fascinating, right? Well, like you I had no idea what this meant but upon looking into the word it basically means "to say the same thing to another." So, when John writes, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness," John is saying that we are to say the same thing about sin that God says about sin. Confess.

Most of the time we confess our sin from either getting caught or wanting to fulfill a religious requirement so that we don't die and go to Hell. The latter seems innocent enough, right? But, really it doesn't carry enough force to encourage us to live Holy after Christ. The fear of going to hell is rather dimmed in the moonlight of a parked car on Friday night, if you know what I mean? Sunday morning in church after our Friday night flings we normally become overwhelmed with guilt and then confess that we sinned and go on to worship in church, raise our hands or whatever else we do on Sunday morning to express worship to God.

Then, comes the next Friday night... and we repeat our fling-and-repent-move again and again until we finally marry someone and the sex guilt is over..., right? Well it is until we begin to find the Friday night sin moves to a different venue. Instead of a moonlit back seat, our sin begins to take the form of a moment when our wife leaves for the grocery and we are alone in front of our computer screens watching things we have no business watching. This then develops into another habit that becomes a battle, and on Sunday morning in church we feel remorse, confess that we sinned... again... and begin the worship routine afresh.

What's wrong with this scenario? I'll tell you what's common with it... so many of us have, or presently are, experiencing this same scenario. We then question why we can't get deliverance from sin, and from a true heart we try, confess, try and confess over and over until we secure this sin away in the closet of our lives - as an unwinable battle - and pray to God that no one ever finds out about it.

The truth is we don't rightly confess our sins. We don't homologeo our sin. We don't say the same thing about our sin that God says about our sin. The truth is that we love our sin. We just either don't want to get caught, or we don't want to go to Hell. This is true of so many who attend churches everywhere today.

What if, and this what if is only made possible by the Holy Spirit's power and by our decision to change our mind on sin, but what if sin began to turn our stomachs? Instead of protecting sin or laughing about sin, giving each other the nudge with our elbow and chuckling under our breath about sin and giving our wink and a nod approval to sin, what if we truly got disgusted at the thought of offending God? What if we called sin what it really is and began to say the same thing about our sin that God says about our sin?

It would cease to be our little pet project and would begin to grieve us as it does God's Holy Spirit. This would begin to revolutionize our lives.

Oh, Father, that we would begin to be disgusted by the things that disgust you...! Oh, that our hearts and stomachs would turn at the thought of sin and at the world and churches acceptance of such sin! God help us, your people, to view sin as You do! Not as just something to hide and be successful at not getting caught at, but that we would truly despise wickedness and evil... calling sin what it is instead of giving it pet euphemisms to soften the grotesqueness of its very nature. Deliver Your people God from the notion that Grace is a covering allowing us to sin and show us that Grace is the power to engage in righteousness and live as such... and that to Your glory! Amen.

I challenge You, as I have myself, to begin saying the same thing about sin that God says about sin. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can begin to see it as such and start a path of deliverance where the church walks in righteousness instead of a covert life of covering up its tracks to not be found in the closet of sin. Homologeo...