Worship Jam 1.0 with Carl Tuttle recorded live April 24, 2010 at Celebration Center, Redlands, CA.
May 052010
I have been having a great time at the Church that meets at Ian’s house on Tuesday nights. Last night we shook things up a bit and shared a meal. I think that may have been my favorite part of the evening, fun conversation around a meal that was prepared with love. Outstanding! Then we sang together in worship and our leader, Ian, opened up the first letter of John and we shared.
We have some give and take, you know the kind that followers of Jesus have as they attempt to use words to explain the unexplainable. We even got busy slicing and dicing some pretty deep concepts. I really feel like I am getting to know and care about these people, and that part is fun!
As I was thinking about our interaction this morning I felt like the Lord gave me an insight into what appeared to be some contentious moments in our discussion. The first paragraph of the letter talks about having “fellowship” so that our “joy” can be complete. As we wrestled with words choosing to have fellowship and having joy about it seemed elusive. I wondered about this. I have relationships of many years with the two men in the group. We have stood side by side through some tough years and tough situations. We have deep caring for one another and for that reason cut each other a lot of slack.
I realized that each of the members of our church are at different places in their journey with Christ. We are each having the thrill of victory that comes from new revelation and the agony of defeat that comes when our flesh jumps up and bites us in the rear end! There is no way that we can really join hands and sing Kum-ba-ya about our understanding (revelation) of Jesus. If we were a committee I doubt that we would agree about anything. When I think about it, I just want to laugh my head off! But Jesus whispered to me this morning that we are absolutely perfect as a mighty missionary team! Hilarious! He has put us together and is forming us into his image, each of us at our own individual place in our journey with him, and as a team for some exploits and adventures he has in store for us.
In the meantime, we read the tea leaves to determine if we are “alive” or “dead” in Christ! I think our meetings are playing as a reality shown on the heavenly cable TV channel. The drama and the comedy must be great fun. But I see Jesus among us. Encouraging us. Loving us. Shepherding us. And encouraging us to ‘respect the journey’ of each one of us.
Wonder Working God with Carl Tuttle
Real Life
Comments Off
May 012010
Wonder Working God with Carl Tuttle
Recorded live at Worship Jam 1.0, April 24, 2010, at Celebration Center in Redlands, CA.
Recovering Pharisees…
Following Jesus, Missional Church, Real Life
Comments Off
Apr 232010
Recovering Pharisees, by Charlie Wear and Scott Bane from Charles Wear on Vimeo.
This is a message that I gave with Scott Bane, Next-Wave editor in March of 2010.
Bam! Hit and Run…
Following Jesus, My Life, Real Life
Comments Off
Apr 172010
I’ve really been enjoying the last couple of weeks. We leased a Honda Accord and I have felt like everything is coming up roses! There’s nothing like driving a new car to give you that feeling. Then yesterday afternoon on the way home from the office, Bam! I was rear-ended, and pretty hard! I avoided hitting the car in front of me, and drove the car into the parking lot of a service station on the corner. I was a little light-headed from the adrenaline and the bump on the head, and was amazed that the person who hit me, had driven off.
Rear-ended!
A couple of young people witnessed the accident and stopped in to see if I was okay and to wait for the police, in case their statement was needed. I called 911 and waited. A few minutes later another young man drove up in a truck and told me he had witnessed the whole thing and had followed the person who hit me. Unfortunately, he did not get the license plate. A Riverside Police officer drove up a little later and took my report and the witness statement and gave me information for the insurance company.
Driving home I felt a definite disturbance to my “mojo.” A little earlier that day I had been talking with a friend who mentioned that he had lost his “mojo.” When we were talking about it I thought I knew what he meant, but I asked him anyway. He said he just had not been feeling on top of things. I looked up the dictionary definition of:
mo·jo
/?mo?d?o?/ Show Spelled[moh-joh] Show IPA
–noun,plural-jos, -joes.
1.
the art or practice of casting magic spells; magic; voodoo.
2.
an object, as an amulet or charm, that is believed to carry a magic spell. [dictionary.com]
It’s true, the last several weeks have been feeling magical, but I don’t believe in magic, I believe in real life. But it is kind of human to enjoy seasons when it feels like we are going from mountaintop to mountaintop with no trips to the valley. But that is not the way life really works, is it? Even though I have been experiencing a season of profoundly experiencing the Holy Spirit’s presence in my daily life, literally going from what feels like one divine appointment to the next, that feeling couldn’t last forever, could it? I was listening to a sermon the other day and the preacher seemed convinced that watching “Sex and the City” could definitely block the presence of the Holy Spirit. That didn’t sound exactly right to me, but I am still thinking about it.
Purple Flowers with Thistles!
As a recovering legalist (Pharisee) I am learning that God’s presence does not depend on my activity, but on His activity. My salvation does not depend on my actions, but on his completed action. I can’t “conjure” up God any more than I can make bushes burn or Red Seas part! I am learning to enjoy my friendship and partnership with God. It seems that the more he floods into my life, the more I experience his overflowing. One example? My wife was thinking about the accident in the midnight hour last night (she told me about it this morning) and before she knew what had happened she found herself praying for the person who hit me. Praying that they would find and experience God! What a great example of the overflowing of God’s Spirit.
We live on a Ranch in Riverside County, California. And the ranch is in full bloom this spring with all kinds of wild plants (weeds) that have an abundance of flowers. I like these little purple flowers that grow on the thistle plants. When the plants dry out later this summer it won’t be safe to walk among them. Our dog’s coats will be filled with stickers. So, this is what life is like, huh? Flowers grow among the thistles, and then they dry out and the seeds fall to the ground. If the next year is particularly rainy, the plants will grow taller and the flowers will abound.
I am grateful to have walked away from my accident unharmed. I feel blessed. I know that Jesus loves me! Forget about “mojo.” I am just going to keep following in His footsteps.
Being nice…
Real Life
Comments Off
Mar 282010
It was late on a Tuesday or Thursday afternoon. The leadership seminar audience was full of pastors from Korea. The late John Wimber had been diligently moving through the written material giving it his best when he looked up with a kind of wry smile on his face and said, “We’re just a bunch of guys trying to keep our pants zipped up, our hands out of the till, and be nice most of the time.” These minimum daily requirements for leadership seemed to be something it was possible I could live up to.
Let’s face it though, it’s not easy being nice. I was on the phone with my cable company for about 40 minutes the other night trying to straighten out why I had a $400 bill. Not easy being nice. A client showed up to a hearing without the proper identification meaning I have to come back to court on her case, her response, “I didn’t know.” Not easy being nice. I drove from Moreno Valley to San Bernardino (about 20 miles) to pick up a part for my car, and opened the box to find it was the wrong part. The right part was not available. Not easy being nice.
Jesus said, “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” Jn. 15:13 (NLT via Biblegateway.com). Lay down my life? How about just being nice? In the life of church, this is sometimes not so easy. Have you noticed that couples get divorced? Usually the husband or the wife gets “custody” of the church. In most cases, this means that the “missing” spouse loses all of those “church” friendships. Trust me, that’s not easy.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal discussed the trials of “break-ups” with friends. From the article: “It’s a myth that friendships last forever,” says Irene S. Levine, a psychologist, professor of psychiatry at New York University’s medical school and author of “Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup with Your Best Friend.” We are tied to our family by blood and our spouses by law, so we are often more attentive to those relationships. “Friendships are relationships of choice, so we tend to overlook them,” she says.
The church is the “body of Christ.” It’s really impossible to “break up” with your left foot, isn’t it? Yet, it isn’t really a body, is it? Friendships, the truest kind, where people care for you and love you in spite of your messy ways, and your weaknesses, those are hard to come by. They are hard to lose. Miles and years, changing jobs, and changing circumstances are allowed to separate us from those we have loved and cared for! Thank God he invented Facebook! Now I can renew old friendships (kind of) and make many new friends with people I don’t even know! At least I can have up to 5000 friends before my friends have to become fans!
In times past you could always find someone’s closest friends on one of the handles carrying their coffin from the funeral chapel to the hearse for the ride to the cemetery. I guess this is the kind of thing that “older” folks think about. Who’s going to be hanging on to my coffin handles? Love, friendship, being nice and laying down my life, this is all pretty deep stuff to be thinking about on an early Sunday morning!
Feb 192010
9th and Figueroa
I was in LA yesterday for an appearance. I’ve made this trip enough times now, that I am used to it. I arrived early and decided to have lunch at The Original Pantry, former LA mayor Riordan’s restaurant at the corner of 9th and Figueroa. I had plenty of time to walk the two blocks to my meeting.
It was a beautiful day yesterday and there were plenty of people out around 12.30-1 p.m. Film crews and street vendors were there. And a big guy with a cup of money in his hand offering to sing to passersby. Over the last ten years I have hardened my heart to giving money in cases like these. I usually just say “No, Thank You!” and walk briskly by. I did the same yesterday, but felt a prick of conscience as I did. I promised the still small voice that if the “singer” was still there when I came back I would stop, notice and be open to giving.
About an hour and a half later as I crossed the street to my paid parking lot, the “singer” was on the corner, having given up on vocalizing and merely asking for money from pedestrians. I stopped and asked, “Are you still singing?” “Yes, I am,” he said. “What kind of songs do you sing?” “I sing Christian songs.” “Well, go ahead, sing one,” I said.
And there on the corner of 9th and Figueroa in LA, he started to sing, “Then sings my soul, my savior God to thee…” And to my amazement, I joined in, “How Great Thou Art, How Great Thou Art.” Then I took the tenor harmony! “How Great Thou Art, How Great Thou Art!” I opened my wallet and gave him a blessing. He told me he was a “saved man.” And that the Lord had told him that a blessings was coming his way on that street corner.
I thanked him for letting me sing with him and headed to my car. Nice!
Giving Up Fasting for Lent!
Real Life
Comments Off
Feb 182010
I’m giving up fasting for Lent. Okay, I’m just kidding, but I am kind of serious. It’s only been a few weeks now since I’ve been born again, again. I have an entirely new understanding of the good news of Jesus Christ. I have renounced sin management in favor of something I am calling “Real Life.”
In my real life I realize that I am not capable of managing my sinful nature. I am completely lacking in “will power.” On my own, I can’t do much. However, in my real life I am walking in and with the Spirit of God, living in an awareness of the Spirit’s presence. I am free from religious performance, duty and ritual!
If I am fasting from anything, it is giving up on trying to be a good person! This activity hasn’t worked out very well for me over the years. I have decided I would rather just BE a person. Rather than denying the parts of my personality that others may find prickly and unacceptable, I am embracing the way that God has made me. The self that I am denying daily is the self that is guilty, ashamed and somehow less than. The self I am embracing is the self that is a child of God, loved and loving!
If I am wearing ashes on my forehead, they are the ashes of the death of my old self and they are there for only a fleeting moment as they are washed by the baptism of the Spirit!
