A New Kind of Fathers

Since my early days in church I’ve often been told I had to relate to God as a father. I just couldn’t… I tried but.. Couldn’t.

See, I never knew my father, he caused my mother horrible pain and left our family to fend for itself excelling us into a deeper poverty and depression.

Amongst all of the constant struggles just for daily food and hoping for shelter in the coming months as bills piled up, in church I was told to pray to God, my ABBA father.

That word ABBA was foreign to me. Not in the sense of the definition, i knew how church folks defined it, I just didn’t know what it looked like.

In my mind I didn’t see much of a difference between God and a deadbeat father.

Over the past decade my thoughts have changed. Now I want to share with you some insight about real fathers. I hate to disappoint you but this blog won’t be specifically tied to God being our father, nor to biological fathers.

In my last book I taught of a new way to understand fathers. One of the Hebraic words for Father is אמן and is pronounced ‘aman.

The definition for the Hebrew word for father is one “who offers his right hand.”

The definition beautifully brings to mind the prefect expression of what a father is and can be.

This word father here is more than a person who works, provides and loves. This wisdom in the word father is about a person who seeks to lead, guide and walk with you.

I’ve never had a father. But I have been very blessed in my childhood to have many men and women come into my life to lead me and take my hand while on this spiritual journey and this life journey.

My hope on this day when we celebrate fathers we include those mentors, spiritual fathers and all who have had a hand in leading someone.

I am convinced that God loves puns when reading the Bible, and this Hebrew word used for father is ‘aman…or as our English eyes might see it, A Man. A man is someone who leads. A man is an example. A man is a guide.

Let us not only celebrate the men in our lives doing this but embrace anyone who leads and instructs regardless of gender.

To all the Leaders out there… Thanks from a former broken and lonely kid.
Ricky Maye

Wrestling with God

I sat down with Scott Blair and the wrestling with God podcast. Give it a listen.

Lots of new stuff coming up. Stay tuned in.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wwg-episode-5-interview-christian/id643511551?i=159693240&mt=2

What does it really mean to Live Biblically?

People often surprise me. That is to say I am often surprised by how people interact with other people.

This week was no different, with tensions surrounding the Supreme Court’s recent contemplations and multiple recent tragedies this week. I happened to witness a lively but very civil debate.

However while walking by I overheard the phrase, “you just need to live the Bible.”

Is it possible to live the Bible? If so than how do we go about living the Bible, or living biblically?

Living a phrase of the Bible can be damaging. Expressing the Bible in your own life can be life changing.

In our pick & choose society we can often forget that the Bible isn’t a book full of good phrases and suggestions on how to live.

It is the raw and unfiltered accounts of real men and women who were trying to live and know God in their culture.

The word Bible is a fairly new word in  the whole picture of history. The word the ancients often used to describe the words of God or the inspired words of God was scripture. The word Scripture is used all throughout the Bible and Old Testament books such as Daniel and the book of Psalms.  In Hebrew the word is כתב and is pronounced kathab, it means a record of things.

The Bible isn’t an account of broken people who become perfect and try to live in a certain standard. The Bible is a chance for us to see the unique paths people that people travel with God.

The Bible is an exposé, and gives us a look into what real spirituality is; a journey that for each person is unique and distinct to that person. The Bible is a raw look into different people from different cultures exploring what is means to follow God  and share that hope in their day.

I believe living Biblically is essential to a life of faith.

Living Biblically means embracing diverse roads, different journeys and celebrating uniqueness.

If we take living Biblically to mean a set agenda for everyone to live by, than we are no longer dealing with a divine inspired spirituality, we are dealing with  man made standards.

If that was the case living biblically would be…

Dashing little ones against stones.– Psalms 137:9

Having slaves. — Leviticus 25:44

I will not go on with the many Old and New Testament scriptures that would not be fit for today’s living. My hope is that you begin to see the Bible not as an explanation of God but as an exploration of God.

When a faith is bound by two covers, it’s a book. When faith is built on God it has no boundaries and no walls.

So let us live Biblically and embrace difficulty and rise up against injustice and destroy walls people put up around God.

Resurrection

Death is the one time we see Jesus angry in one situation and tearful in another. Death for all even God is a powerful occurrence.

He responded to one of his disciples, “Let the dead bury themselves…” (Matt 8:22) when a young follower needed to go to a family funeral, Jesus was angry because other business had to be taken care of at that moment.

In another incident Jesus was approached by two sisters who had a history with him; Mary and Martha. Their brother Lazarus was lying dead in a tomb and they needed the help of Jesus. (John 11)

A pause follows, and then we read that Jesus wept, simply and shortly said, but powerfully visual (John 11:35) this thing called death even brought Jesus to tears.

When I hear that vibrant “come forth” for Lazarus to rise out of that tomb from the lips of a trembling Jesus, I personally hear, come forth dead dreams, dead hopes. Maybe Jesus was trying to hint at something bigger than just physical death. He being God would have been familiar with death and departure.

I am defined by what I overcome.

Jesus taught that we, yes you, and even me, we can overcome this death. Because I’ve died, I’ve woken up and I’ve felt so dead some mornings and with some unexpected blessing Life comes out of nowhere.

This week we have heard much about death and even Jesus resurrecting. Often in my teaching I quote Paul in his principle of an often spiritual and physical meaning in many things. Many of the acts of Jesus are not unavoidable instances but certain solid statements. The cross was a statement. The resurrection was a statement for each and everyone of us. The resurrection was not about death is was about Life.

I can go on all day about life because I’ve experienced death, death is not who I am, I have overcome death, and I am overcoming death every day.

Death cannot stop you, depression cannot stop you. Life is promised to you.

In the Christian life we will view death as less of an unexpected occurrence and more of an opportunity for Life.

Death is an opportunity for God to bring back things that have died and bring life again.

Those unfinished classes.

That business.

That record.

That book.

I’m sure you’ve had some dead things in your life and maybe still have some dead things. But today is a reminder that dead is no longer the end. Jesus proved to us that death does not have the last word. Go and experience life this week.

What Jesus taught me about being an ass

“And saith unto them, Go your way into the village over against you: and as soon as ye be entered into it, ye shall find a colt tied, whereon never man sat; loose him, and bring him.
And if any man say unto you, Why do ye this? say ye that the Lord hath need of him; and straightway he will send him hither.
And they went their way, and found the colt tied by the door without in a place where two ways met; and they loose him.
And certain of them that stood there said unto them, What do ye, loosing the colt?”

Mark 11:2

We have an example of a God who would come bearing weakness and wearing brokenness. A God who came giving up his robe rather than wearing it. A God who sat in the dirt with a whore rather than on a throne, and ate with the scum. This is a God who needs me, even in my imperfection.

Heading into Passover Jesus called for a donkey to enter the city in.

In what I consider one of the Bibles most revealing and revolutionary statements Jesus says, “The Lord has need.”

Jesus has a need!

We receive a vital piece of information and insight into the person of Jesus by finding that he has a need for something and in that moment it is a need for a donkey.

As I’ve always taught and will continue to teach, the Bible has more layers and deeper meanings that will allow God to speak in a new way.

This story isn’t just about an ass that was an animal in the right place and right time to give the savior a ride though the city.

That colt is all of us; you and me. It is the story of a life bound and forgotten not being  experienced and one day a savior smiles upon him.

Why, because he has to make himself feel great? No. He has need.

He has need of a person tied down. He has need of that junky that has lost everything. He has need of that teen who feels like failure awaits every person she attempts to love.

This is one of the most powerful verses in scripture because it tells us why.

For God so loved…

But why?

Because he had need!

It’s exciting to me because this means Jesus wanted me with all my doubts.

Jesus wanted me even with all of my mess.

He wanted me with all my uncertainties and my insecurities. He has a need for me.

The gospel isn’t about winning souls; it’s about connecting an ass that is tied up to a savior who will liberate.

One thing I just have to say that I love about this scripture is that Jesus chooses the inexperienced donkey.

He didn’t want the donkey that traveled the land. He didn’t want a donkey who knew what it was like to carry a king. He wanted the donkey that was tied up and never ridden.

Some of the best people for the job will have never done the job.

Some of the best experience is the least experience.

The end of the verse reflects often what we see in our own lives as we begin something new.

As the disciples untied the colt and was about to bring it to Jesus as he asked, people questioned.

How many times have you wanted to start something, a business or even a career and the people around you seem to have all these questions.

Jesus had no incentive to question this colt, he just wanted to free it.

Don’t ever let your inexperience hinder you from dreaming. Out of your inexperience will come many blessings. You may be an ass with no experiance, no money and nothing looking up, But Jesus has need for you.

Struggling with Perfection

“You shall be perfect with the LORD your God”
Deut 18:13

Man searches for perfection. God charges us with perfection. However perfection is not always what we think.

In the passage above, Moses commands us to be tamim (תָּמִים), or, “finished,” “complete,” or “perfect” before the LORD. This Hebrew word is not defined as ideal moral perfectionism but is defined as being thoroughly made or heading to a complete or wholeness.

The rabbi note that tamim is used to describe completed years (Gen. 47:18); healthy animal sacrifices (Lev. 22:21-22); nourishing vines (Ezek. 15:5); truthful speech (Amos 5:10); finished building projects (1 Kings 6:22); and even the fulfilled destruction of a people (Num. 14:33).
Jesus echoed this when He said, “Be perfect…” (Matt. 5:48).

Our definition of perfection is different than God’s definition of perfection.

Perfection is not in an action, but in an acceptance. An acceptance of the perfection you are pursuing in your life.

God created and did things that we would see as imperfect. Since perfection isn’t a standard but a labor, perfection will then look different for each person.

Perfection is not something to be obtained but something to be embraced.

I am no longer struggling with perfection.

I am no longer striving to be perfect.

I, me. I am thriving as a perfect, complete me.

Our Last Easter

Our last Easter

With a handful of colored eggs and Jesus in a tomb on TV. I had the task of explaining Easter to my two year old.

If Easter is to offer a universal truth that goes beyond age and culture, then our celebration of Easter isn’t to be wrapped in atonement arguments or something as mundane as colored eggs and candy. My explanation couldn’t include the roots of 13 Century gods, bunnies or religion. It had to be bigger.

With this task ahead, I wanted to get rid of my theological assumptions and explanations and figure out what the Easter season means to me and my son.

Growing up I knew what it was like to fall; to be down.

Emotionally my childhood was spent very low. What often brought me back to the Jesus story was the notion of resurrection, and we are celebrating that around the world very soon. But how does a child understand resurrection?

I speak of resurrection not fully in the physical sense of rising from the dead. But the metaphorical idea of things not ending when it looks as if the end has come.

My two year old like many kids know what it’s like to fall or get hurt. He knows what it’s like to crash into a wall or two. He often knows what it’s like to be stopped in his tracks.

So we sat down last week and my explanation of Easter didn’t include bunnies or tombs but something he and I could relate to very easily.

I told him we would be celebrating possibilities and second chances.
You might find us eating candy, or painting eggs we may read some scriptures of the resurrection.

But most of all Easter at our house will be celebrating the timeless example of Jesus and that dead things, dead dreams, dead opportunities do not have to die. They can rise up.

How will your family be celebrating the Easter season this year?