All posts by : Joel Phillips

I was so excited to eat some honey I had bought the other day.  It was in one of those little plastic bears and actually made locally.  I took the cap off and begin to squeeze some on my toast but nothing came out.  So I squeezed little harder, nothing until, Splat!  Honey everywhere!

You know those “sealed for your protection” things that are on almost everything (I’ve even seen them on toilets), well the little plastic bear’s sweet contents were sealed for my protection. If the seal was protecting me from the honey, it didn’t work too well.

As I was cleaning up the sticky mess, the thought came to me how certain people remind me of that little honey bear.  They have wonderful things inside them, but they are sealed off from everyone and everything.  And when you try to extract some of the good things in them, if you’re not careful you will have a mess on your hands.

We tend to seal ourselves off from others when we’ve been hurt and are in some kind of pain as a result.  Pain has a way of causing us to avoid things, places, and people that remind us of what hurt us.  And when and if we do start to open up it’s often mixed with bitterness and anger.  That’s exactly what we see happening with the children of Israel when God began to take them out of Egypt. 

Instead of trusting God’s instructions through Moses, Israel was frightened and wanted things to go back to how they were.  The pain of years of slavery and being under their heavy-handed taskmasters began to speak…

“When they saw the Egyptians marching after them and were very afraid, and they said to Moses, ‘Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?  Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, “Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians”? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’” (Ex 14:10-12, NIV)

Pain has a way of clipping our wings and keeping us from being able to fly, and if left unresolved for very long, you can almost forget that you were ever created to fly in the first place.  God wants to release us from the bondage of pain, and give flight to our hopes and dreams. 

It may be a little messy at first as the protective seal comes off your life, but that’s okay…I know somebody who’s got some good recent experience cleaning up.

The other day after a one of our church services a person was telling me how they had been out working in their yard, not really thinking about a whole lot, when something reminded them of a person they knew back in the day. They laughed as they thought about some of stupid things they had done with this person. But then their thoughts starting wandering into things that were not so laughable. The person looked at me and said,

“Most of the people I have had as friends are no longer in my life. I feel like almost every relationship I’ve had has fallen apart.  The truth is, I have made a lot of mistakes. I know I’ve hurt people.  But I’ve been hurt too. Many of those people have done things to me that were wrong!”

I could see the hurt and brokenness in their face, and at the same time sense anger and bitterness in their words.  I paused for a minute, then asked if they had asked God to forgive them for things they had done wrong in those relationships.  They said they had.  I asked if they had forgiven those who had hurt them.  Again, they said they had.  But something was missing.

This person, like so many of us who are believers in, and followers of Jesus Christ, do not live with the freedom of knowing that our sins are truly forgiven.  When we think about various mistakes and sins in our past, or maybe something recently we’ve said, done, or a behavior we’ve indulged in repeatedly, it seems difficult to believe that we can be forgiven.   Paul evidently felt the same way,

“My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge. I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question? The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.” (Ro 7:20-25, The Message)

When theologians describe God’s greatness they use words like omniscient or omnipotent.  Those are true descriptions, but Psalms describes God this way,

“For You, Lord, are good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy to all those who call upon You.” (Ps 86:5)

“As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that’s why you’re worshiped.”
(Ps 130:4, The Message)

In other words, what makes God great to us who follow him is his willingness and power to forgive, no matter what we’ve done or how often we’ve done it.  When the memories come of past failures, sins, and fractures that we’ve caused, or things that have been done to us, or where we are currently falling short, we can rest fully in the greatness of our God, who is rich in  mercy and always ready to forgive. 

Remember this the next time you’re out doing yard work, and you start reminiscing.

I hadn’t seen my friend’s 6 year old son in awhile.  I was starting to catch up with him when I interrupted, “Whoa!!! You’ve grown a foot since I last saw you!”  He looked at me sort of puzzled and said, “Really?”  “Yes!” I said, “are you keeping marks on the wall somewhere at your house?”  Even more puzzled, he asked, “What is that?”

Marks on the wall were a high priority for Kathie and me with our four children.  We would regularly check their growth and celebrate each little increment upward.  It seems like yesterday our kids were standing as tall as possible with their backs against the wall. We would carefully make a mark and then celebrate each little increment upward.

Everyone knows that kids grow fast, but when you are around them all the time, it can be hard to notice.  My friend’s son shouted to his parents, “Dad! Mom!  He said I’ve grown a foot!”  They smiled.  I added, “He has grown a lot!” They didn’t seem as impressed as me.

I remember hearing the story about the man who built the Taj Mahal.  His name was Shah Jahan, and he was very rich.  When his wife died in 1629, he placed her casket in the middle of a field and commissioned an elaborate tomb to be built around it.  Over the next few years the project reached enormous dimensions, and the Shah’s grief gave way to an inordinate passion for the project.  One day while he was surveying, he stumbled over a part of wooden box that had been thrown on the project’s trash heap.  To his dismay, he realized that the box was part of his wife’s casket.

Whether it’s building a elaborate building or raising kids, in situations that we are around regularly, and where changes are happening over a period of time, we can miss the importance of what’s happening.  What’s worse we can  lose track of the purpose of why it’s happening. 

“When each of us does our own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.“ (Eph 4:15-16)

Take a moment and think about the people in your life.  Even though they are all on different schedules and at different stages of life, all of them are headed somewhere and changes are taking place.  And all of them could benefit from your noticing their growth.  You can help them grow, be healthy, and feel loved!  Make a mark on their wall.

Teddy Stallard was student in Miss Thompson’s 5^th grade class. Even though Miss Thompson was a Christian and tried to show love to all her students, with Teddy is was difficult.  He seemed disinterested in school and always answered in monosyllables.  He was unmotivated and distant, and just plain hard to like. Whenever she marked Teddy’s papers, she got a certain pleasure out of putting X’s next to the wrong answers.  And when she put the F’s at the top of the papers, she always did it with flair. 

Then one afternoon she took a moment and read through Teddy’s records:

1st Grade: Teddy shows promise with his work and attitude, but poor home   situation.
2nd Grade: Teddy could do better.  Mother is seriously ill.  He receives little help at home.
3rd Grade: Teddy is a good boy but too serious.  He is a slow learner.  His mother died this year.
4th Grade: Teddy is very slow, but well-behaved.  His father shows no interest.

For Christmas that year the students in Miss Thompson’s class brought her Christmas presents. Teddy’s gift was wrapped in brown paper, and written on it were the simple words, “For Miss Thompson from Teddy."  When she opened Teddy’s present, out fell a gaudy rhinestone bracelet, with half the stones missing, and a bottle of cheap perfume.

The other boys and girls began to giggle and smirk over Teddy’s gifts, but Miss Thompson silenced them by putting on the bracelet and putting some of the perfume on her wrist.  Holding her wrist up for the other children to smell, she said, "Doesn’t it smell lovely?"  And the children, taking their cue from the teacher, readily agreed with "oo’s” and “ah’s.”

At the end of the day, when school was over and the other children had left, Teddy came over to her desk and said softly, “Miss Thompson, you smell just like my mother, and her bracelet looks real pretty on you, too.  I’m glad you liked my presents."  When Teddy left, Miss Thompson hung her head and asked God to forgive her.

Miss Thompson became a different person.  She was now a person committed to loving her children and doing things for them that would live on after they left her class.  She helped all the children, but especially Teddy Stallard.  By the end of that school year, Teddy showed dramatic improvement.  He had caught up with most of the students and was even ahead of some. 

She didn’t hear from Teddy for a long time.  Then one day she received a note,

Dear Miss Thompson,
I wanted you to be the first to know.  I will be graduating second in my class.
Love,  Teddy Stallard

Four years later, another note came:

Dear Miss Thompson,
This just told me I will be graduating first in my class.  I wanted you to be the first to know.  The university has not been easy, but I liked it.
Love, Teddy Stallard

And four years later:

Dear Miss Thompson,
As of today, I am Theodore Stallard, M.D.  How about that?  I wanted you to be the first to know.  I am getting married next month, the 27th to be exact.  I want you to come and sit where my mother would sit if she were alive.  You are the only family i have now; Dad died last year.
Love, Teddy Stallard

Miss Thompson went to that wedding and sat where Teddy’s mother would have sat.  She deserved to sit there; she had done something for Teddy that he would never forget.

One of the oldest human needs is having someone who wonders where we are when we don’t come home at night. The ache for home lies in all of us. Home is that safe place where we can go as we are and not fear be ridiculed.  Be it ever so humble, there’s no place like home to get food, clean clothes, sleep, and love. Where we love, and are loved, is home. Our feet may leave, but never our hearts.

We are told that Jesus became human and made his home here with us. (Jn 1:14).  This fulfilled what had always been God’s desire. Early on he was telling people to make him a sanctuary, so that he could dwell among them (Ex 25:8).

Jesus seemed to be totally at home here on earth.  He attracted many followers and did many great things for them.  Then in the middle of everything Jesus began show his disciples how he needed to go to Jerusalem to suffer many things, be killed, and then be raised on the third day (Mt 16:21). No one wanted to hear him talk like that.  But he did go to Jerusalem, he did die, and he did rise from dead after three days.  It wasn’t easy for those near him to understand this.  Mary Magdalene was one of these people. 

Jesus had cast seven demons out of Mary Magdalene (Lk 8:2).  Her life was changed forever.  She was a transformed woman.  She owed Jesus everything.  She went to the place of the skull to witness Jesus’ execution. She heard his last words. She saw him die and then be carried off to a tomb. 

Then, one morning before dawn, she went to the tomb where he was. Somebody had opened the door and taken away his body.  She began to weep loudly.  A person heard her and asked, “Ma’am, why are you crying?  What’s wrong?” Mary said, “Mister, if you’ve taken him somewhere, just tell me.” 

The man then said, “Mary.”  She recognized that voice instantly. It was the voice she had heard just a few days ago crying out for water. It was also the voice that had commanded that horrible darkness surrounding her to leave.  It was Jesus!  She ran to hug him, but his response was strange.

“Don’t hang on to me,” he said. “Go and tell the others what’s happening.”

There’s an interesting analogy here.  Like Mary, we long for the good ol’ days.  We want things to stay the same.  We resist change.  We spend our energies wishing things were how they were.  The problem is that life is not static. It ebbs and flows.  It can be wonderful, it can be painful.

Kids grow up and move away. Some people get married, others don’t. You love people and sometimes they break your heart.  People are healed and others die.  Things seem easy at times and then very difficult at other times.  Great successes and rough failures.

Regrets, hurts, disappointments, or just thinking things were better back in the day, can keep us from experiencing what’s happening all around us right now.  If we live stuck in the past, we’re not fully in the present. 

Jesus has risen from the dead and Mary is thinking things are going to return to how they were.  But his death and resurrection changed everything, and still do.  Things will never be the same.  Go tell the others what’s happening!

Being a merciful person is right, but not always easy.

One summer afternoon in the middle of a Phoenix traffic jam, I noticed a elderly woman with a flat tire on the side of the freeway.  After fighting the, “She must have Triple A roadside service,” or, “Surely her husband, son, or grandson is coming to help her,” type of thoughts, I saw her open her trunk and begin to make efforts to pull stuff out.  My next thought was, “Even if I wanted to help her,  I’m stuck in the middle lane.”  No sooner than having thought that, both lanes to my right opened up.  “Alright!  I can take a hint,” I shouted at the roof of my car as I pulled over to the side of the road.

“May I help you?” I asked.  “That would be so sweet,” the little lady responded.  I began to dig the spare tire out, but she had no jack, and no lug wrench.  Fortunately, mine worked.  As I begin to place the jack under her car, she said, “No. That’s not where that goes.”  I paused for a minute.  She continued,

“That’s not how Bob does it!” 

“How does Bob do it? I patiently asked.  “I don’t know, but I know it’s not like that!” she snapped.  Did I mention it was 110 degrees? 

For the next 2 seconds, which seemed an eternity, I fought the urge to put my wrench and jack back in my trunk, and wish this dear woman adieu.  But something deep down inside me rose up that actually gave me pity for this woman and her situation.  I proceeded to change her tire, with her sideline directions coming over my shoulder the whole time. 

“Yes ma’am. No ma’am. Yes ma’am,” is all I said.

As I finished getting her flat tire in her trunk, I saw how dirty my arms and hands were, I also saw her digging in her pocketbook, then extending to me some cash.  “No, that’s okay ma’am, I don’t need any money.”  I shut the trunk, begin to say goodbye, when she said, “Thank you. Thank you so much young man.”  I told her it was no problem, and that I did it unto the Lord.  Then she said something that still amazes me,

“Things have been tough since Bob died.”

As it turns out, Bob was her husband of 48 years and had just passed away a few months ago. For another few moments she told me how he had always taken care of the car, and she never had to worry about anything mechanically.  Through the din of the traffic I listened.  Then I reached out my hand and asked if I could pray with her. She thanked me.

When I got in my car, I didn’t yell at the roof this time, but hung my head and said, “Forgive me God.  And thank you for using me”

This week is my wife Kathie’s birthday.  It’s one of those milestone birthdays.   Robert Browning said,

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be.

This is how I feel about Kathie.  As the years have accumulated, instead of growing cold and stale, my love for Kathie is greater than ever.  It’s not anything I’ve done or I’m doing, it’s her. It’s because of who she is. 

How she lives, thinks, loves, etc., captivates me.  She is like no one else on the earth.

She loves Jesus more than anyone.
She loves her family more than anyone.
She honors her dad and her mom, and mine.
She has a clear conscience.
She thinks about God, his people, and music all the time.
She’s the most unselfish person on the planet.
She never quits.
She’s never afraid to ask.
She hopes you’ll like her, but doesn’t care if you don’t.
She makes you feel like you’re the greatest person alive.
She’s way smarter than us.
She can get you to do things you don’t want to do, then thank her for asking you.
She’s mature but totally child-like.
She’s drop-dead gorgeous but never thinks about it.
She understands how animals feel and they love her for it.
She’s an amazing cook.
She doesn’t care about politics.
She knows what’s right, and does it.
She’s my wife!

Happy birthday Kathie!

As I write this it’s a beautiful sunshiny day, however there is a large winter storm looming on the western horizon.

It makes me think about how many of us have a love for Jesus, yet also carry shame for things we have done. The guilt threatens us like a low-pressure weather system pouring a mix of depression and unworthiness.

Even though you know you are forgiven, you can’t escape the troubling idea that your past disqualifies you from really counting for much in the Lord. You’ve blown it so badly, not just once but many times.  You’ve made such intentional and deep-seated departures from Jesus’ love and instruction that the best you can now imagine is that the Lord will only just accept you…barely.

Feel like giving up?  Feel like leaving?  That’s okay.

Some of the most important changes in our lives involve some kind leaving, but then a kind of home-coming.  The prodigal son packed his bags and left for a distant country, but then he packed his bags again and returned home. He was never the same. He was a changed man.

It’s about leaving the old ways of thinking and doing, and having something beautiful born inside of you.  Having something born in you that wasn’t there before. Learning to love yourself and learning to love others.  God wants to make this kind of character transformation in your life. Where before you might have been a person with an extreme temper, after God makes changes in your life you become someone who can hardly get bothered. Resentful people become gracious celebrators of others’ blessings. Bitter people become filled with contentment.

God’s plan is to recover you so completely that you become a living miracle. Jesus announced that people like you…

“…will be called a priest of the Lord, a minister of our God…Instead of shame and dishonor, you will enjoy a double share of honor.” (Is 61:6, 7, NLT)

It doesn’t matter to what extent you’ve made wrong choices. It is not about the past which you’ll never be able to escape. No. You serve a God who is alive. You serve a God who is real. You serve a God who can and wants to make huge changes in you.

American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow described loneliness this way:

“Ships that pass in the night, and speak to each other in passing.  Only a signal shown, and a distant voice in the darkness.  So on the ocean life, we pass and speak to one another.  Only a look and a voice, then again darkness and silence.”

This cold feeling of isolation is ubiquitous for so many people. They live life wondering if anyone notices them.  They face difficulties and wonder if anyone cares.  Hundreds of years ago David echoed the heart of the lonely when he said…

“I looked for someone to come and help me, but no one gives me a passing thought! No one cares a bit about what happens to me.” (Ps 142:4, NLT)

To people who feel this way, how comforting these words of Jesus should be:

“The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.” (Lk 19:10)

“I’ve come so they can have real and eternal life, a more and better life than they ever dreamed of.”  (Jn 10:10, TM)

“The mere sound of his name will signal hope, even among far-off unbelievers.” (Mt 12:21, TM)

People who follow Jesus should be saying, “Yes! There is someone who really cares about you…me!”  Absolutely Jesus cares for them too, but we are the ones who communicate the reality of his love and care.

“By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” (Jn 13:35)

“I am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing.” (Jn 14:12, TM)

Jesus calls his people to be a positive force.  We are to be people of mercy, grace, justice, peace, and love.  We are the flesh and blood, hands and feet of Jesus. We live in a world that is diseased and polluted, yet Christians aren’t known for doing much.  The message from people who claim to be followers of Christ is strange and distorted…

“Jesus always gives me a parking spot near the front of the store”…she said

“Praise the Lord!  Jesus helped my football team win!”…he said

“Jesus hates sin! Misery, death, and eternity in hell await you unless you repent!”…they shouted from a bullhorn

“This sinful and fallen world is destined for destruction. Until then we hold on and persevere.”…he preached

How did the greatest message in the world become so lame?  It’s through Jesus’ resurrection that death has been swallowed up. It’s through Jesus that we are living, and will never stop living.   We are not drawn to him because of what he can do for or to us.  We are drawn to Jesus because he loves us the way we are, and keeps loving us. The gospel is not to “get us somewhere else,” rather it’s to bring life, power, peace, change, and the hope of God here. 

Many long-time Christians have cut going to church out of their lives.  It’s not because they have lost their faith in Christ, but because church doesn’t seem to resonate with them anymore.  They have questions about how often they need to sit in a weekly service that has little or no place for them to utilize and express the gifts God’s given them.  They want to be released to do more ministry. They want make a difference in their world.

Pastors often view people like this as rebellious, un-teachable, and/or lacking a servant’s heart.  They will say things like, “All healthy ministry originates in and flows from the covering of the local church,” and then remind us that there are places to serve with the children.   In their minds the primary justification for  people to attend services and listen to sermons is so they will get the necessary training and tooling to do ministry themselves.  This of course is true, but when does ministry actually start to flow out? 

Jesus’ model and method for ministry was to engage and train regular people who eventually went about doing things that “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:6). The training the disciples received wasn’t systematic or highly structured. It involved spontaneous situations encountered in daily life. Jesus taught them in every imaginable setting. There was fluidly and uncertainty.  Then away from the crowds and the routines, he would give them extra insight, then send them back into their daily rhythms to make use of what he had taught them. Most churches today function in a way that misses these critical components of modeling and mobilizing.

I’ve been sensing a significant change in the near future for the church. As pleased as I am with the way in which we’ve “done church” over the years, I know with certainty that our methods must change. Too many things have changed in our world. And rather than shrink back, I believe the Holy Spirit is whispering something wonderfully fresh that will bring about a change in the way we think about and do church. 

What God is doing right now is very, very big. Even for someone like me who has walked with Jesus for decades, it is still hard to discern what He is doing—and what He wants us to do. But one thing I know for certain, our response in this changing season will determine how much we will be equipped and released to make a difference in our world.