How do you come before the Lord? And, with what do you come before Him?

Psalm 100 is one of those magnificent and attention-altering passages of Scripture that beckon the reader out of temporal living.

Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.

Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the LORD is God.

It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. (NIV)

The Psalm urges you to approach the Lord with some attitudes and actions. We’re counseled to do so “with singing” and “with thanksgiving” and “with praise.” It is the picture of jubilant entry. Let us as His people – as “the sheep of His pasture” – not stumble or drag ourselves dejectedly or halfheartedly into His presence.

The New Testament gives us another thing to bring with us as we come before Him:

“Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4.16, ESV)

Our approach to God reveals our attitude towards Him. Do we view Him as a loving Savior and Gracious Redeemer? Or do we view Him as a Capricious Creator and a Demanding Deity?

It’s obvious that the attitude that we approach Him with reveals our experience (or lack of) with His love. Even when times are bad, we are to approach Him with joyful trust. James 1.2 give us countercultural advice: “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds…”

In truth, if we do not have a rejoicing heart towards Him and, we may not know Him. We may have only acquainted ourselves with a half-god that is no god – a figment, a fade, a little “g” god that disappoints, fails, and is unable to deliver. Our faulty approach may reveal that we’ve created a non-god out of all our disappointments  with ourselves, others, the church and life.

If you regularly come before god with anger, with doubt, with anxiety and with _________, look up for a minute and realize that there’s no God there. You’ve got the wrong equipment and attitude.

You want to approach the Living God? The God of Redemption? The God of Salvation in Jesus Christ? Come before Him with singing, thanksgiving, praise and confidence.

That’s not to say that He doesn’t dwell with the brokenhearted and the contrite. He does. We don’t have to put on a false face of forced happiness. Rather, we clothe ourselves with humility (1 Peter 5.6) and trust (Proverbs 3.5) and come before Him with a new attitude. His perspective and knowledge is far grander than our own.

How do you come before God?

Invite your friends, and help us spread the word! You can buy tickets here.

As a follower of Christ, I sense it all the time in conversations with others who a) are not a follower of Christ or b) are only a nominal Christian. It gets easier to detect the more contact you have with the person.

I usually notice it in the eyes. It’s a far-off look. A shift, a blink, a quick glance away. Sometimes I hear it in their voice or in their polite avoidance of topics of significance.

I’ve been marginalized.

You know what I’m talking about. It’s that feeling of being “labeled.” It can happen in any area of life for which you’re passionate. It’s how people deal with you. Heck, you do it to others. Typically, it’s how we relate with people that we may be a little uncomfortable with.

“He’s an Amway rep.” (or insert any other MLM company)

“She is a dog freak.”

“Uh-oh, here comes Mr. Granola. Don’t let him see the milk carton in your trash can.”

We label and compartmentalize people so that we can deal with them better. When we put them into a category, we marginalize them. When they’re marginalized, then their particular passion or interest has no effect on us. It’s been relegated to a file somewhere – to only be examined if we’re truly interested… later… if ever.

The problem with what we all do is that we miss out on truly relating with another person. And even if we’re not passionate about cloth diapers or homeschooling or pet adoption or the like, we can still relate and enjoy their part in the Grand Drama.

If everyone played the role I play, it would be a fantastic gig, but pretty short-lived, right? We desperately need to wide swath of colors, hues and views that other people’s passions paint on life’s canvas.

When we marginalize people, we force ourselves to see life in monotone.

Another danger in marginalization is that we may actually miss truth.

You see, when I sense that I’m being marginalized, it most often comes as a result of my joy in Jesus.

“Here comes the preacher…”

“He thinks he’s a real Christian…”

If Jeff Noble is being marginalized, that’s one thing. If the Gospel of Jesus Christ is marginalized, that’s an entirely other thing.

If you push truth to the side, if you relegate it to a mental file somewhere, if you stick it in a compartment… you essentially begin living half-life.

Even Jesus faced marginalization:

He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”

From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.” (John 6.65-68)

That’s the danger of marginalization. If you relegate an important/truthful message to some mental or digital graveyard, your world suddenly becomes only what you make it to be. You will suddenly begin living a life and reality that only you define. If you push the magnificent to the margins, you’ll discover at some point that your life page is bland – or even worse, blank. And if you choose to live in the margins, you’ll be ignoring the content that lies between them.

And for your viewing entertainment…

Yes, Virginia, there is a Halloween.

Not that we thought it was an exclusively Arkansas entertainment event…

We spent a relaxing, overcast day with college football, a neighborhood parade and activities for kids in costume and of course, trick or treating. Adelyn was a clown this year – and she dressed as one too. She borrowed one of our church member’s orange clown hair that he uses only for Clemson games. It was a quite an honor, we were informed.

This was the first year that Sam purposefully chose NOT to go trick or treating. He did buy a scary mask and sat on the front porch with the candy bowl in his hands, unmoving. It was rather entertaining to watch the kids hesitantly approach and anxiously attempt to peer through his eye-holes to determine whether he was a real person or not.

On occasion, he would yell, and a couple of times (one being when Adelyn and friends came to the door), he hid in the garage and then burst out to chase the screaming menagerie down the driveway. All in all, it was a pretty successful event. I define “successful” as whether the kids raked in enough candy for the parents to have some as well.

We carved four pumpkins this year – VT, Boo, a Razorback and a traditional jack o’lantern. Carolyn was pretty proud of them.

And speaking of proud, Caro was pretty proud of this shot. The colors this past week hit their peak. It’s been pretty breathtaking. You know we’ve pointed it out excessively when Adelyn said in the car once last week, “Don’t say anything or mom will start talking about the T-R-E-E-S.”

A new local news site – The NRVHub – is sponsoring a great competition. The local church that registers 100 users for their site by October 31 will receive $500! I’d like to humbly ask you to consider registering to help Northstar Church (or another local church if you’re a member there). You don’t have to be a member of Northstar to register. They made this clear in the following instructions:

Just go to the Hub (http://www.nrvhub.com) and go to the upper right hand column, where it says sign in or create log in; from here the user will be sent to a new page to create their profile. This is where they can type in the church affiliation. So far not one Church has reached 100 names. Gotta get there to get the $500!
Remember the user does not have to be a member of your church. It can be anybody that you ask to help you earn the $500………..

So spread the word. The $500 will be a great boost, and we’ll present to you some ways that it can be used specifically for kingdom purposes if Northstar should win it. Remember to put “Northstar Church” in the affiliation spot.

Thanks!

Ok… so I can’t come up with something special and fru-fru like “Gladituesday.” Amy is one of our favorite friends from OBU, and she’s surpassed my blog in Carolyn’s Safari bookmarks. Although she blogs about estrogenized topics a lot, I do enjoy lurking and will even admit to a beaucoup of belly laughs as a result. (Not that I’m laughing at women… I’m laughing with them; let’s get that straight!)

Her recent entry about gratitude nudged me out of my blogger’s block. I have so much to be thankful for, and our recent transition to Virginia has provoked moments of heightened gladness – both in looking back and in looking forward. So here goes…

• I’m grateful that there’s a Taco Bell right across the street from our church office and that Chicken Ranch Gorditos (sounds like a maffia investment in Texas) are only 89 cents. On long meeting days, I can dash across the street and eat for $3.73, which includes a medium Diet Pepsi!
• I’m glad today that I am a Mac User. I know that’s corny and you poor PC users are rolling your eyes. But go defrag your hard drive or something. Click here and get a virus. Really, these are good days to be a Mac fan, and I’ve been one since 1988.
• I am excessively delighted to be married to my wife. We had a “date” at Starbucks this morning – she is not a coffee shop frequenter, but she’s gorgeous and makes me look good when I’m out in public. We laugh hard and play well together. We are able to share our spiritual highs and lows, and I am eternally grateful to the Lord for His introduction of me to her.
• On that note, my most supreme gratitude is always reserved for my eternal rescue. Jesus Christ is my Savior, Lord, Redeemer, Rock and Strong Guide. I unashamedly profess my devotion and obedience to Him. I hope you release your life in faith to Him as well. It He is what you’ve been searching for.
• Another gift of God to me is my children. Sam and Adelyn are fun-loving, joyful kids that are growing up way too fast. I’m so glad that I’m a dad – even an imperfect one. It’s a humbling privilege to be a home hero. However, they are experts at making sure I’m not aware of any hero status. Why is it the duty of every preteen son to gloat over his father’s male pattern baldness?
• I’m grateful and glad for life friends in Arkansas. See more here.
• I’m glad and humbled for quick acceptance and respect granted here in Virginia. We are amazed at what God is doing in the lives of the people of Northstar Church, and we’re humbled by their eagerness to serve and learn and press into the future together.
• I am giddy about wonderful brain-candy shows like Heroes, Smallville, Fringe, Lost and now Community. I am thankful that I can sit down and enjoy such fare after long days of counseling and ministry. In addition, I love how Amy said, “I’m glad for fiction. That may sound crazy, but I’m so glad that people make up stories and write them down so that I can have a place to escape from time to time.  Right now, I’m especially grateful for Jan Karon and her little town of Mitford.  My brain’s default mode is very thinky. I’ve discovered that if I spend a few minutes in another story before I go to sleep, I can usually turn off some of the thoughts that try to keep me awake. The Mitford series has been wonderful for me.  The characters are sweet and quirky and I can relax in Mitford. I don’t know what I’m going to do when I finish the series.”
  I completely agree… not about Mitford, but about fiction. I too love great stories and epics. I’m thankful for the creative and the amazing gift of imagination.
• I’m grateful for ministry. It’s an arduous calling (The apostle Paul told his young ministry protege Timothy to “endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus.” (2 Timothy 2.3) Some days it feels like war, and some days it feels like a party. Yet, it is a “fine work.” (1 Timothy 3.1; See here for a great article on The Call to Church Leadership)
• I’m thankful for my scooter. Kevin Wieser gave me my first scooter, which was subsequently stolen. Then the people of Journey Church took up a collection to replace it. Having the Batmoped has been a huge blessing in Blacksburg.

What are you grateful for?

Rather than regurgitating my own notes from some of the other speakers at Catalyst, here are some links to their talks that have already been written about on other blogs. Just click on the image for the link.

Andy also opened up Catalyst with a great message which you can see summarized here.