Author: jameskim

Just a guy doing his best to love God, love others, and serve the world.

Don’t Do It

Screen Shot 2017-01-26 at 1.11.05 PM.pngMaybe it’s just me…but I have a suspicion that I’m not.

My thoughts and the desires of my heart sometimes are so horrifying, so wrong, so heinous it shocks me…

The thing about these thoughts and desires is that they surface all on their own. They arise without bidding. I didn’t ask for these thoughts or desires. They just happen.

The issue is not that these thoughts and desires happen. That they do only goes to prove how right God is when he tells us “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure” (Jeremiah 17:9).

The crux of the problem comes down to whether we choose to allow these thoughts to hold us captive and whether we allow these desires to take residence in our hearts. It’s the entertaining, welcoming, and giving space to these thoughts and desires that is the problem. For by giving these thoughts and desires residence and space, sin is conceived, and sin – unless it is repented and checked – leads to sinful behavior.

So check yourself.

Don’t be ashamed that these thoughts and desires happen. That’s part of what it means to be a fallen creature.

But if you allow these thoughts and desires to take you captive and take up residence…well, that’s all on you.

Don’t Do Stupid

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When things are going well in the life of a church – the giving is good, the church board is healthy, the vision is clear, there is growth and vitality, etc. – there are two sets of people who can derail all the great things God is doing: Staff and leaders.

It’s amazing how arduous, time-consuming, difficult it is to be in a position where growth and health is present. It takes years to build such an ethos and environment. And one person, with one stupid act, can derail the entire thing in minutes.

This typically happens in three arenas: money, sex, and relationships.

The Little Church on the Prairie finds herself in a healthy place. We are positioned for God to do some amazing things in the future.

I have been reminding both the staff and the elders, and most importantly me, “Please don’t do stupid things. Be pure and God-honoring in our dealing with God’s money, sex, and relationships with one another.”

 

Someone Has to Break the Cycle of Retaliation – Reflection on MLK Jr

Screen Shot 2017-01-13 at 2.42.50 PM.pngSomeone has to break the cycle of retaliation…

Let that sink in. Read it again.

Someone has to break the cycle of retaliation.

A week doesn’t go by without stories of hatred, bigotry, violence, rape, atrocities committed against humanity. Stories bombard us from abroad and from our own communities.

One way to respond is to build bigger and better walls. Let’s protect what we can. Better alarm systems. Better lighting. More surveillance. Bigger walls. More guns. Keep the evil out.

That’s one way to respond.

And violence and atrocities continue to march on. Nothing changes.

Someone has to break the cycle of retaliation.

The cross of Jesus Christ is the ultimate breaking of the cycle of vengeance and retaliation. The cross is God saying, “I’ll take it all. Bring it! Bring the hatred. Bring the violence. Bring the evil. Bring the violence. Bring the frustration. Bring the pain. Bring it! I’ll take it all!”

On Good Friday, Jesus bore the brunt of sin and evil. Jesus bore it all.

And by rising from the grave on resurrection Sunday, Jesus crushed hatred, violence, frustration, pain, and evil.

What our world needs is not better ways to keep people out and apart. What we need, and what our world needs is a people called and a people who will answer the call the break the cycle of evil and retaliation with the hope and love of God in Jesus Christ.

May we be such people. May this be the generation that turns the cycle of violence and retaliation.