GLENN'S PODCASTS!

CERTAINLY BEYOND AVERAGE

I've been so blessed with Wendi. My wife of nearly 33 years is the most incredible person. Those who've heard her story- before she followed Jesus, abused, loving godly mom, sad, weak, drunken and immoral dad, deviant grandfather (and both men preachers...) whew! For her to follow Jesus after all the mess she'd seen, experienced, and then in her own backslidden state, to finally come to Jesus and surrender... only to marry me (a preacher... and perhaps crazier, a musician!)- this is one amazing woman. I love her and do so rather poorly at times. But her kindness, wisdom and everlasting servant-heart to myself and others is an inspiration.

Her mom (Dawn) is, as I've often said, the godliest person I've ever met. Her sense of grace, kindness but unyeilding commitment to God and His Word, and feet-on-the-ground truth is amazing.

I have a long list of pastors who I have served with for years... I could go on and on about their love, commitment to Jesus, the fellowship we serve and to myself and my family. Amazing.

There are countless people most of us will never hear about in this life, incredible saints who so encouraged us and inspired so many of us to go beyond ourselves to Jesus and His will in life.

Then tonight I found myself listing D. Bonhoeffer, Billy Graham and Mother T.- three of my greatest heros in the faith. All very different, but all very much the same in terms of love for God and deep love and service to others in need. All paid the price. Two wear the crown and one shall in good time.

Still, I find myself so thankful for this large group of people who (as Tozer once said) refused to be average. They were and are beacons of hope in a world fully twisted up in hopelessness. But one thing is clear: all of them took a narrower road than the majority of those around them- and not simply due to selfish ambition, carnal stubborness or petty authority schemes! They were not radicals for mere sake of radicalism, or to somehow "one up" those around them. They were and are servants of God first. May God help you and I to choose carefully, with the same clarity of purpose, passion and surrender.

REVOLUTION... NOW!

The above title was a student-activist slogan in the sixties. I know, I was there.

I was involved in writing songs about peace and change, worked on an underground paper, did "hunger hike" volunteer work to help feed the poor, participated in peace marches and did any number of things to try to change society for the better. The main thing that got changed was... me!

One night in one of many of my loaded stupors (if I recall correctly, this particular episode was due to smoking hash and drinking a lot of wine) a friend sat me down. She told me gently, that I had been a poor excuse for a boyfriend to the girl I was living with. She basically said that I had been so selfish and focused on my own pleasure, drugs and music that I was really hurting the girl I was living with. She was right, though at the time I was too high AND too much in a spiritual fog to care.

On the one hand I cared a great deal about people and situations that clearly needed help. On the other hand I was seemingly incurably selfish and had neither the sense nor the power to change my own life. I needed revolution... now!

So many people are spiritual tourists. So many pray a prayer and walk away from God. So many ignore His Word yet spend hours in various media that feeds them anything but truth. And the sad fact is that I'm now talking about Christians, even many Christian leaders.

If the Bible and all we believers say we have faith in is important, how important to us is it... how important is Jesus Christ to us... really? Important enough to die to self, to actually turn around and do something differently, even though there is immediate pain in doing so?

The end of the story regarding my live-in girlfriend is that God told both of us to quit living together. We knew in our hearts we were sinning, messing one another up, that this couldn't go on. That was the summer of change for me. It took the whole summer and half of September, but that was the year I entered full-time ministry. I didn't realize that ALL Christians are truly "full time ministers" until then... but that's another story.

YOU CAN CHANGE! You, weak, tempted, stumbling, full of yourself and not Christ, ignorant of the Bible's truths, without many Christian friends, not knowing which church to link with, struggling to put food on the table, drug-dependent, pregnant, whatever! YOU CAN CHANGE. But you'll never do it without Jesus Christ and the help of at least a few of His mature disciples. Note, I didn't say "perfect", I said "mature".

I regret a lot of choices I've made in my life, but two of them I've never regretted were repenting of my sins and surrendering my life and future to Jesus in prayer and practice, and secondly, linking with a group of mis-fit but serious Christians who were intent on applying the Word and Love of God to their lives, mine and all who would listen and receive whatever help we could offer.

Have I, have we, have ANY of us believers done it perfectly? No. But God knows just as many of you do, what we need is a revolution, a spiritual/moral change toward the love, truth and will of God. We need it now! It starts with me. It starts with you. The real deal can ONLY start with surrender to Jesus Christ.

It's your move.

DISCIPLING IN ACTUAL PRACTICE

In an online leadership forum a bro. recently asked what different ones of us had found fruitful in making disciples. There is a lot of joking and fun there, but a lot of the discussion waxes quite theological and theoretical at times. So with that background, here was my response:

Und how DAAAR U shhhpeak of practical dizibleship!! Do uwe nicht know dat ve only meet heir to shhhpeeeak uff T-ologie, not practize?!! But to shhhpek of -how- ist nicht intaaaaaarrrrrreeeestung! Ve know Nothing! NOTHING!! Ve luv T-Obabble, und dat's dat!

O.K., the short form answer:

RELATIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP, RELATIONSHIP
-where ALL, not only leaders/teachers/pastors listen, speak, interact, socialize, formally teach, answer questions, pose questions, apologize when we blow it, i.e., show a mature Christian life by example.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION (intentionally being where they are) All of the above -more- than "at a distance" for an hour per week (whenever possible). Ongoing friendships. Presence, just being with people. Extending a lot of grace and patience as we live all this out. Sharing whatever we have to share with one another. Forgiveness, kind yet direct discussions, integrity, not playing roles or playing our cards real close to our vests, not trying to "win" but love and relate. Simple, revolutionary, fruitful. It indeed works when you work it. It only bears lasting fruit when both/all parties are committed to a basic degree. It is often fun but often quite the opposite! No matter, the Holy Spirit is of course ALWAYS committed to our spiritual growth.

The secret to discipling is- there ain't one... it just costs more than some are willing or are convinced they need to invest.

WHY TALK ABOUT SIN & HOLINESS?
(When Love and Grace Are So Preferable)

Grace (in the Bible) literally means "unmerited favor". God's love, kindness, mercy and forgiveness are all wrapped up in grace. Grace is God's response to sin. Grace is ours for life, death, sickness, natural disasters and more. It is also God's answer to sin. IF we are not going to face sin, there is little need for the grace of Jesus.

God's law (and by this I truly mean GOD'S Law, i.e., the whole of the Bible, not only the Ten Commandments) on the other hand, not only reveals God and His love toward us, it reveals our sin and hence, our NEED for His grace. If sin doesn't exist, there is truly no point in- nor need for- grace!

There are indeed people who love Jesus and others who do not truly know Him in any genuine, personal way, who heap human-made laws, rules and regulations on others. Sometimes they also load themselves up with these so-called "laws". There are also those who have decided that unless we strictly obey each and every commandment of God perfectly, we will end up in hell. These are people who truly have not even begun to grasp the love and grace of God Who, in Christ, came and fulfilled the Law of the Father perfectly. We do not, cannot and will not! Nobody can "earn" what is UNearnable. Unmerited favor means UN-merited, period!

And yet as there are those who teach and preach "works righteousness" (meaning that we must and can somehow EARN God's love and favor and entrance into eternal life by our own efforts) there are also those who out of ignorance, false doctrine or basic rebellion against God, ignore and neglect the Bible, the Word of God as "the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine and practice".

Practice?!! But to mention that word or anything like it some folks- even otherwise intelligent, thoughtful Christians- being to worry about legalism. In fact some begin to think of the Bible in total as a book of Law alone... and they are going waaaaay to far in this rejection of what they consider "law" and "legalism".

Some folks have somehow come to believe that because our sins are all covered- forgiven by God via Jesus' atoning sacrifice, i.e., "under the blood", that there is now -only- grace and no commandments for Christians to care about nor live out in daily relationship to God and others.

The fact is that I have preached repentance and a practical, daily, living grace in application for many years. Note that term "application". Love walks, it does not only believe or talk. Practical holiness involves living your faith, not mere intellectual agreement about God's love and grace. Love was manifested by Jesus' actions. Our love for God and others- based entirely in grace, not "works-based-salvation"- manifests itself in forgiving, serving, caring for people in practical ways.

Such teaching and preaching can and sometimes is mis-interpreted as "law" or "legalism".

At the same time, teaching that nearly always focuses on God's love and imputed righteousness with no discussion of the reminders, warnings and even commands of the New Testament gospels and letters to Christians could be considered something other than biblical grace as well. Why?

God's love and grace moves me to change, to grow, to sacrifice my selfishness and my "rights". In fact, it is His grace that leads me and calls me to repent when and where needed!

The sad reality is that while there are truly condemned, enslaved Christians who are caught in cycles of trying to "work their way into God's grace" (as impossible as it is useless and erroneous... because Jesus ALONE paid the price for us on the cross and ONLY Jesus makes us righteous!) there are also a great many more caught in spiritual apathy, perhaps a good word might be "tourism" and sometimes outright rebellion with regard to truly applying the Word of God in their daily relationships to God and others.

On my part it's clear- emphasis (as a friend of mine just reminded me) is important. IF we only emphasize our daily walk we may be preaching or truly focused only on application of the Word. It -can- be a legalistic bent. IF we only talk about God's love and grace, that won't feed the poor or take actual care of widows and orphans.

It's BOTH/AND, not either-or.

Yet, it does appear to me that most Christians in this world have more problems with their walk than with their basic faith regarding salvation.

I can't speak for everyone and won't try, but what I read in the New Testament alone moves me to both promise and command, grace and application (note, not "grace vs. law"), encouragement and warning. I understand it at core to say: "by love (or 'let love make you') serve one another", not "love one another in your mind and emotions but blow off demonstrating it by actual acts of caring".

The thing I hear most often in discussion with Christian leaders the world over is real concern over the sometimes lack of biblical love, spiritual formation and evident discipleship in the lives of those God has called them to care for. Hmmm. Is this merely a matter of belief?

Jesus rarely said words to the effect of "I love you". But whew, He LIVED love toward His disciples and all of us including myself, including each of you who read these words.

His Words have meaning because He lived them before His disciples. His Words have power because they were lived out in action. Love is an act, not merely a concept. And so it is with God's grace!

If we are to teach grace as something more than an abstract idea, we must walk as Jesus walked. Anything less is at least immature, at worst, a travesty.

I often say that my wife knows I love her because I take out the garbage, not simply because I tell her I love her with words- which I do often.

God help us to believe in and demonstrate His love and grace in daily action- for this is precisely what He did... and does!

LEWIS GOT IT RIGHT!

Actually, the late C.S. Lewis, in my view, got most things right.

In His "Narnia" series the comment is made about Aslan the Lion, who is in fact his Christ-figure in the tale, that Aslan "isn't safe... but He's good". Amen!

We do want a safe God. A God who doesn't much muss our hair, allow us to stub our toes or experience discomfort much less real and deep pain.

Alas, what He orchestrates or allows, either way, we begin to wonder if the One we must trust for life and eternal life to make real sense isn't also the one we should in some sense, mis-trust. What IF He... and of course our faith is about hoping for the best while gripping our heavenly Father's hand hard and close when it seems (and may truly be) NOT the smooth, sweet ride we hoped for.

Throughout human history I would guess a great many people took the "curse God and die" approach which Job's wife suggested he take.

Things look bleak, just grind your teeth and reject God, sort of "get back at Him for His horrible choices in how He's allowing all this to come upon you" sort of thing. Put another way, He's not safe.

But He IS good. Good when good seems absent. Good because of Who He Is and will never change from being... and because we don't understand as He does, nor see the future and the past from end to end, and because He knows how all things work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose... well, He may be good but we still want only good to come into our lives. Or at least we want the trouble to be shaped as WE want it shaped.

You know, the soft chop during long flights, not the side-to-side, violent wrenching of the plane as though you are a bobber in a storm-tossed sea!

It's not our job to be God, rather to risk trust in Him, to cling to Him, to rely on Him, because there IS no other God but God. His Son Jesus said what He said, lived and died for us, and rose again for us. WE were in His mind through all the turmoil and outright agony. Will HE, the not safe but always good King be on our mind as we find life tossing us about?

Here's advice for you, which has seen me through plenty of turbulence in life:

Diligently seek Him. Don't worry about rewards, or even whether or not the shaking will pass. It always does, and most certainly will. It is Jesus, here and hereafter- not safe, but eternally GOOD who we will share eternity with if we will risk, trust and in faith, follow. No matter what does or does not happen.

WHY THIS BLOG IS DIFFERENT

After watching tonight's Night Line feature on blogging, I just wanted to clarify a few things that some of you who read this may be wondering, and my reasons for doing things "outside the box" of typical blog sites.

I decided early on that I would only write, and write only when I felt I had something that might be of interest to people.

I wanted to be able to:
-post quickly and not fill up the server my website is on
-write quickly and sharply, not trying to close off all arguments against my basic points, not doing a thorough biblical treatise complete with verse-quoting in order to establish everything, rather to simply write and bail
-leave the response option out of my blogsite, cuz those who want to interact with me can easily go to my site and write me personally. I'm not interested in online contention... I have better things to do
-here and on my website I take a stand against visitor numbers. I don't need the ego stroke and there are a number of ways to find out how many hits my sites get if I have legit. reason for that
-leave audio, video and photos off cuz again, you can find that stuff on my webpage or other places on the Web if you want to search

I decided that my own homepage (http://www.glennkaiser.com) would be the place to write longer articles and more in-depth stuff, and leave the blogsite for hit-and-run.

Very occasionally I will put the same content in both places, but that's very rare and basically because I believe a few blogs deserve greater consideration.

Lastly, I wanted my blog to load fast, get right to the guts of my thinking and just write a fair bit more and more often with the least fuss or hassle.

By the amount of email I get mentioning my blogs, I guess some folks like the offerings, and for this I say THANKS and praise God for His grace :)

MARTHA... ME?

Yesterday was busy. In fact, for about 3 or 4 days the pace had picked up... a lot!

My wife and eldest daughter were ill so I helped fill in the gap a bit with various chores and child-watching.

I had to learn several songs for friends who were getting married, which took a bit more effort than I'm comfortable with.

I had pastoral duties as well as some writing duties, and my sleep-cycle had gotten bonkers on me for the apparent stress and in another sense, no obvious reasons. Sometimes when I wake up early I tend to think about a lot of things, pray a lot and when I can get back to sleep I do. It's not really a stressful thing and often I just get up and begin getting things done. It really depends on the day and the specific duties and "time-certains"/deadlines. Of course some deadlines I impose on myself, but I'm usually pretty gracious, heh!

Anyhow, I found myself pressed to do several things at once and not forget the most important matters while doing them.

Suffice it to say that as the day ended and the deadlines were met I was really thankful!

A couple friends helped by doing some of the things I would have had to do had they not volunteered. Yahoo and Praise God!! A couple other friends stopped when I asked them for prayer and I must say that I began to realize a great calm soon after we brought our requests to our Father.

Jesus in essence called Martha to settle in and not fret over her sister (Mary). And like Mary, we all need times at Jesus' feet, just listening, resting.

I have learned to appreciate sabbaths!! Rest is a GOOD thing, and we all need it.

From time to time I find myself needing to take my own advice (written years back on the importance of rest, reflection and recreation) in order to avoid spiritual burnout.

So I spent a bit of time surfing the web, then building the cigarbox guitar I recently blogged about.

We ALL need times of rest. But I think that what impressed me most was that it was in retrospect I realized the peace that came within minutes of my friend's praying for me. Brothers dwelling together in unity is a precious thing... and I think it saved the day.

Prayer is the singlemost stress-reliever I know of, and the Holy Spirit certainly carried me through the currents when I most needed to be carried... and yet was not fully able to get out of the river.

May you experience the same :)

Jesus told us "My peace I give to you... not as the world gives". Yep. It's true!

I LOVE MY CHURCH!

You know what? I LOVE the people I hang out with. In our church/community, we see each other daily. Ninety-nine percent of us live in a couple HUGE buildings and serve, work, play, moan and laugh together. It's a bit like a town within the city of Chicago. But it's a miracle we're still around after all these years, no doubt about it!

Part of our calling is open the doors to some really hurting, troubled and yes, obnoxious and clueless people whom I'd bet most churches would LOVE to only see for an hour a week. Living together 24x7 is a calling, and when you have a lot of broken people it's not always fun- by any measure.

We've ALL made a load of mistakes, get mad, sad, crazy but we also party (non-substance partying:) pretty well. With all the pain (and that factor is pretty real at times) it is SO worth seeing Jesus working and the character of God being more and more reflected in my brothers and sisters, and I see it a lot.

I've been travelling the world for most of my life and have been in some huge and really cool churches and ministry centers. Know what? A lot of folks love their churches, but of course a lot of people carp, bite and fuss about all the problems. In a great many cases they brought the excess baggage themselves.

At the same time as I said earlier, we long-time members sin, make mistakes are are equally "pills" that aren't always easy to tolerate.

Having said all this, the bulk of the folks I live and serve Jesus with are gems. No doubt, like myself, with lots of rough edges, none perfect. But as I think of them in my mind, their faces, their daily hard work, their general attitudes, I'm SO blessed to serve the Lord alongside them.

And then it stikes me that in the present day I hear a lot more griping and complaining about people's local churches than I do praise and gratitude for the obvious love and grace of God in their fellowship.

It shouldn't be that way, but humans are fickle and often quite self-centered. Grumbling and complaining are listed right in the New Testament letters as one of the things we Christians need to quit doing. I blow it in this area too at times. Thank God we can continue to grow up and out of the old habits, 'eh?!

And thank God for eyes to see His grace and truth in others, not simply their faults.

Father God- THANK YOU for brothers and sisters who in all their weakness, needs and issues, are people of faith, love and joy. Thank you for the chance and blessing of serving with people who are growing in walking the talk. Thank you we can BE church, not simply pretend or just plain gripe about all the issues we all carry within our own lives! I LOVE this community, Glory to You! Amen.

ACCOUNTABILITY- FOR LEADERS
(*again)

*This blog is yet another of many bits of writing I've done in response to reading emails, other blogs and Christian leadership online forums where this subject comes to the fore.

Over my years of travel in the U.S. and abroad I've been a personal witness to (and gotten to know a great many individuals directly involved in) many local church/parachurch difficulties, splits and shall we say, "spiritual malfunctions". Of course our own fellowship, JPUSA Ev. Covenant and I myself have also had to repent of sinful behavior, not merely mistakes! This is the reality of all believers in all groups.

Regardless of your "stream of church", theology or doctrine, there are few formulas or "one size fits all" answers as to how spiritual and moral failure could have been avoided in all cases. Those verses of God's Word that might constitute such a thing are well known by the majority of Christian leaders.

Yet when one really takes time, and I mean asks a lot of questions, listens attentively and sifts through the issues, -in my experience- one factor rises above all others.

The Bible says a great deal about what we normally refer to as "accountability", but I do not personally see a hardwired template laid out as to what such accountability must look like in all contexts.

Actively seeking out, linking with and maintaining right (and weekly or even more regularly that that) relationships with godly counselors who know the Lord, know His Word and know YOU well enough to speak with loving advice into your life... well, in most every case I know of where leaders fell, such was simply not the case.

Again, I find no absolute template of one-on-one or small group accountability laid neatly out as "the norm" within scripture. What I do know is that I would have never experienced either the grace of God nor the stability in my personal life and varied ministry without such people and such commitments.

All too often it was not that the individual was biblically ignorant, didn't know what the practical tools were for freedom in Christ, not that they were merely professional clergy yet unsaved. In many cases it was not even that there were no boards, friends or significant people near the fallen leader during his/her downward spiral.

Time and again a major practical element in the person's backsliding experience had to do with their lack of forthright consultation- voluntarily- with people whom they could have/should have been transparent.

They chose to walk in darkness, not in the light of honest, humble fellowship with the people of God(see the first Letter of John, chapter one).

The individual was attacked by the devil, caught in the cycle of temptation-sin-pride-silence-temptation and so on, and the very people who could have encouraged repentance, healing and restoration weren't consulted until great damage occurred. Often the prodigal was caught, "found out" rather than confessing.

I've lost count of the number of times this exact scenario has repeated itself in my own knowledge of fallen leadership.

The ONE factor that could have turned the tide or avoided the flood in the first place was a genuine accountability.

It's humbling, hard work- for the one seeking it as well as those helping him/her to actually establish and maintain it. It's key to our sanity and spiritual welfare, and if we aren't including it as THE major practical tool in our personal box...

I have always wondered at folks who say "Wow! I just don't understand how such a godly person could fall so far. I just don't get it!"

To me, there is little mystery involved.

There are plenty of times accountability is a major pain- but the fruit of not being accountable is so much more painful. That sort of misery is typically shared by a lot of people including the leader's spouse, children, parishioners and so on.

I have seen the "sin cycle/lack of genuine accountability" pattern finally reel a person in until they lost everything, and I mean everything.

Can accountability go wrong? What about being accountable to the wrong person(s)? What about manipulation, abuse, or well-meaning but biblically ignorant/false input from an accountability person? Where are the boundaries? How often ought we to meet or at least talk on the phone? Is email enough?

It is beyond the scope of this article to suggest answers to all of these questions- and such issues and more are important to ponder and answer.

Yet I am convinced that for every believer- especially in leadership- who is being duped and harmed in false or spiritually harmful relationships of "accountability", there are perhaps six dozen who aren't bothering to really link with folks in a healthy manner. And I will add this: the same goes for most every Christian in most local churches and ministries.

I chose and choose to cultivate, grow in and maintain accountable relationships of love, trust and yes, correction (to me, not only from me!) that have served me incredibly well for nearly the entirety of my Christian walk- about thirty-three years as of this writing.

I KNOW the point at which God's love and grace flows into my life like a stream! Though it is first directly from God Himself, a great deal of it comes via those I'm directly accountable to.

"Woe to the one who is alone when he falls...". "Faithful are the wounds of a friend". "Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed".

We not only need grace for sin, we need grace for personal repentance and forgiveness. We need grace for accountability and the will to risk it -before we wish we had!