Getting current

I had quit using this blog for a season, but I am going to begin to update it again. I am a bit frustrated at the thieves of cyberworld. I moved this blog to my website berryalvis.com for a while and tried to move it back to my address on blogger. Only to find someone is poaching the site. Someone has stolen my site and is using it to advertise. My new address is http://berrya.blogspot.com. I am pursuing the issue with google but haven't heard anything yet.

Deconstruction

I got to hang out with Justin, Kelly and Aiden Nygren tonight at Starbucks. In our conversation the idea of deconstruction came up. I think Aiden mentioned it.

I was thinking on my way home that deconstruction is a part of every Christians life. When we are transformed in our hearts becoming sons and daughters of God then we begin a life journey of deconstructing all the parts of our lives that are not in unity with God. It is a deconstruction toward simplicity. It is deconstructing our lives to simply follow Jesus. It is deconstructing our religion to simply following Jesus.

I like that phrase "deconstructing to simplicity".

Ripples in the pond

I had the privilege of speaking to the songwriters of the At Your Feet community this past weekend and on Friday night to the greater community as a whole.

The key scripture that the Lord put on my heart to share was Hebrews 3:13. It says "encourage one another while it is called today, lest your hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin"

And also Acts 14:22 in which Paul exhorts disciples to continue in the faith.

Why would Paul encourage people to continue in the faith ? As I thought about it, I realized that life can be really hard on all of us as we journey this road of faith in Christ. As Hebrews says our hearts can be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Sin will lure us or seduce us into hardened hearts. Sin makes itself available when we are stressed, when we have been wounded (sometimes by other believers and even trusted believers), when we get overconfident because Gods grace has come through us.

Sin is like a mouse trap, luring us with bait that entices us only to snap on us and do real damage. And sin seems often at our doorstep.

This is why Paul is calling us to encourage one another. That word for encouragement is not just a pat on the back. It is a summons to fight the good fight, it is a passionate plea to continue. When I was sharing this with my wife, she said the picture that came to her mind was from Braveheart as William Wallace rides down the line of men to encourage them that the fight they were about to face was about their family, their sons and daughters, their country.

One encouragement can be a pebble in a pond and will send out ripples to the rest of the pond. Let's remember to encourage one another often because the battle is real and we all get wounded.

Time keeps on ticking ticking ticking into the future

It has been about ten months since my last blog. It has been a time of hibernation in some senses for me. A large part of that is becuase the business I am in has been very busy. I really think the Lord is directing me to a new season of time where my availability to people increase. I hope to spend time blogging again.

A vision aligned with "the vision"

My friend Loren Bishop has revisited his vision for his blog: Pulpit of the Last Days. It is a great reminder that our Biblical hermeneutic (way of interpreting the Bible)is to have a Christ centered one not a human intellect centered one. Check out his vision on his blog.

link

Real versus False Religion

One afternoon on our recent trip to Kansas city the kids and I decided to check out an authentic Kansas City barbecue restaurant. I had heard of the fame of KC barbecue and wanted to check it out. We ended up at a place near downtown.

We walked in and you could smell the smells of barbecue cooking on a grill. One of the first sounds we heard as we walked in was a high shrill voice almost yelling "Hi may Heeeeelp U". Honestly it was a little freaky because this lady was yelling this statement over and over. My first thought was that this was a gimmick used by the restaurant so that people would remember it. I've been to places where the waitress poured your tea from a distance of three feet above your glass as a gimmick or another place where all the employees had to say "Welcome to Moe's" as soon as you walked in the door. So again, I'm thinking okay this is a ploy to advertise and it's kinda weird.

As we got to the counter I saw a little sign saying you got your meal free if someone didn't say to you "Hi May I help you". It dawned on me that this lady with the shrill yell had taken on a false religion. The store had a statement that was intended on politeness to their customers. They so believed in it that it was required for every customer. It was meant to be done with a heart to serve. This lady had taken that principle and decided to yell an abbreviated version of it so often that every customer would hear it. She didn't realize that the meaning and heart of the matter had totally been lost. Instead of leaving customers with a sense of being truly served, they were left with entertainment at the most and irritation on the other side.

This reminded me of the church today and where we get in trouble. The commandments of the Lord were given as a means for loving and serving God and one another, but at times we manipulate them to serve ourselves. This was a great example of true and false religion.

postnote: the barbecue was good, but didn't quite hit Texas standards.

All the plates are never spinning at the same time

I was listening to Mike Bickle teach and he said some things that really made me think. He was talking about the human propensity to look towards the future to a time when everything in our lives is in sinc, we have all the plates spinning. He laughed and said this is not a perspective birthed from reality. The reality is that there is always a plate not spinning. It helps us continue to depend on God.

Either the devil is keeping one of the plates of our lives from spinning, or our own immaturity, or at times God keeps that plate from spinning.

He also said he considers this life like a 70 year internship preparing us for the kingdom of heaven.

For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels. that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 2 Corinthians 3:6,7

From the mouths of pups !

I ran across this on Dan Kimballs blog and thought it was relavantly funny.




Originally published August 9, 1976 by Charles Shultz

The New Blog and Dialogue

For a time I have wanted to put together a blog on the topic of the Kingdom of God. It seems God brings that theme to me over and over. So the Kingdom of God dialogue has been birthed . It is my random thought on the Kingdom.

This blog isn't designed to be a thorough treatise on the Kingdom or a well built linear theology of the subject. It is primarily a place for ruminations, meditations, and a growing ideology about the Kingdom. Come visit and feel free to leave a comment.

Zoom, zoom, zoom

How can it be almost Christmas time ? Time flies. I remember being in high school and wondering if I would ever finish those four years and then get out on my own. Now I'm on the other end of the curve, time is always flying.

We have decided that our community called Resonance is to be released into other endeavors in the kingdom. It seemed to be God's timing to move on. I will write a prologue on our church planting experience later. We are going to stay in North Dallas and focus on getting out of debt for the time being. We are not in a hurry to move on and will attempt to wait on the Lord and hear the next step from Him.

I am amazed at the hurried pace of life here in the metroplex. I am also awed at how quickly I am drawn in to that cycle. I can imagine the Father sitting on a park bench and saying Berry slow down and fellowship awhile. My response too often seems to be "Let me get caught up God and then we can spend some quality time together."

God continues to speak to me that His ways and His plans can never be separated from relationship. God speaks direction, and then God walks along the way fellowshiping in that direction. Truly knowing Him is not designed to get direction at the beginning of the day and carry out the task, but to stay in fellowship with Him at the beginning (guidance), throughout (the journey), and until the end (fulfillment).

Seek first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you !

Calling: the journey continues

In my Christian existance, I have found the understanding of calling to be an ongoing developmental process. Let me explain.

In my first years of truly following after Christ I began to recognize a pull within myself to encourage other Christians. If you would have asked me in my two year understanding of the Christian journey, I would have said that God had given me a gift of encouragement.

A short time after that, God allowed me to be a leader in our college ministry. I was the one who would plan our weekly prayer, worship, and teaching time on Sunday nights. At this point I probably would have said that my calling was to teach and encourage.

Maybe four years after giving my life to Christ a scripture, Isaiah 61:1-4 began to stir me greatly and was involved in a very specific call on my life. The unveiling of that call came with a very dramatic week that supernaturally confirmed a call of God on my life. At this point I would have said God called me to preach.

Years later I was involved in pioneering a young adults ministry as an intern at a large interdenominational church. My understanding here was that God had put me in a place of peer leadership. I taught, cast vision, discipled people as God led.

After some other wilderness experiences, some school experiences, some other ministry experiences God began to deal with me and say you are getting older, your no longer a peer leader, I am calling you to Father. I wasn't sure I wanted to be old and a Father but I recieved this direction from the Lord.

I give all this background to remind myself of the process and to say that our calling in the Lord is ongoing. It is not an event and it is not stationary, it is always evolving. It is a growing understanding. It is an ongoing relationship. We can't define it by yesterday or tomorrow, but have to define it within the context of our relationship with Christ today.

Today I am reminded that our callings are always subject to change. We are not our own, but we are bought with a price. It is God's will that directs us today in whatever direction He deems beneficial to His glory and His kingdom.

Riding under the waves

I like blogging, but like my life right now I am riding under the waves. Most people unless really close can't see me, my life, and the realities of my journey with the Lord. I keep saying over the next horizon I will have time for this or that.

I think reality is: accept the reality I have. So I'll keep popping up for air from time to time.

I'm learning about calling these days. It will sound simple, but I'm learning when my friend is mad at me, I am still called to be a friend. When my wife is mad at me I am still called to husband her. When my kids are mad at me, I am still called to father them. When I am mad at me, I am still called to pastor others, father my kids, husband my wife, serve the body of Christ. I am not my own but I am bought with a price. Circumstances don't dictate our calling, being obedient to Christ does. I'm learning.

Angelic

I ran across this mural on a side of a building in the Greenville area of Dallas so I took a couple of shots.

Stewarding our authority

God gives his children impartations of grace that enable them to serve others. Authority happens when we under the Holy Spirits guidance use what God has given us to serve Him and others. It is not our authority, it is His. We are to steward well the grace given us. God is challenging me and our community to use what He has given us faithfully. We can never assume that our lives don't make a big difference.

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 1 Peter 1:13

Girding up has the picture of tying tightly the belt around a flowing garment so the person can run or exert themselves. And then being sober is the opposite of being drunk. Being drunk is the loss of control. Being sober is giving control to God and being at peace. So we are rolling up our sleeves, giving full control to God, and then resting all our hope and expectations on Him (Jesus) alone.

What a great reminder for me. Peter was talking to people who had left their home and were foreigners in other places. They were people of transition. They began to taste what it meant to be strangers and aliens in this world. And Peter was encouraging them not to lose focus, but to put their weight in Christ.

The reports of my death have been exaggerated

No, I haven't given up blogging, but working 65-70 hours a week takes away my creative energy to blog. I miss the normal routine of journaling through a blog.

I have hope that sometime in the days to come I will get to return to the social revolution found in blogging.

Check out these articles on blogging:

1. The Blogging Revolution (Weblogs Are To Words What Napster Was To Music)

2. Business Blogging for Beginners

Faithful in Little Things

The word tells us to be faithful in the little things and we will be given much. I've been thinking about how we turn that verse to the idea of promotion. If I work hard here I will be promoted and be in a better place. Then I began to see an application of this verse in Jesus life. He was faithful to be broken. His willingness to be broken in little things led to His being given much brokeness (the cross). The cross was the ultimate brokeness and the ultimate submittedness. It is a High King laying down His life for the peasants who He sees as friends.

I want to change my paradigm from seeing brokeness as a season I have to endure to get to the good stuff and rather see it as the avenue for love to be poured out to others. Brokeness is our friend not our enemy. True brokeness birthed out of love is to be admired and aspired to.

Real Stories

Callie (11 yr old): Dad, what does homie mean ?

Dad (44 yr old): Homie is like someone your close to, a friend, somebody you like to hang with.

Callie : hmmmm

Next day

Callie walks out the door and dad catches a glimpse of a new piece of art on the back of a white tee-shirt Callie is wearing: Jesus is my homie written in black magic marker.

Blitzed but not tackled

Work has blitzed my time to blog for a few weeks now. It reminds me of being a quarterback in football and seeing that blitz coming. You had to make quick decisions and be a bit elusive to survive. Some blitzes ended in bruising tackles and others in big plays.

Even though I am getting the life blitz right now. God is working some good things within me . I have been meditating on Psalm 1 for weeks now. It is coming more and more alive to me. I was very familiar with Psalms 1 having committed most of it to memory years ago. I am learning that a dangerous thing happens when you have studied and know a portion of scripture. You begin to think you have the understanding of it. It is not a pompous kind of pride that lifts up it's ugly head, but more like a sneaky little pride that slips in the back door. The whisper of this little pride goes something like this "hey, why read that scripture, you know it well, and it's really kinda boring."

I have taken some wisdom from something Kirk Bennett out of IHOP said. He said approach all scripture with a "God, will you teach me about this passage?" I have been asking the Lord to teach me more about Psalms 1 and it is beginning to take. One of the first things the Lord directed me in was a picture of this man in Psalms one who is blessed. The picture He gave me was one of Jesus. Jesus is the embodiment of Psalms one. Jesus delight was in the law of the Lord and on it He meditated day and night. We know that Jesus had a pure continual fellowship with the Father. Here is a key insight into that fellowship. Jesus meditated on the word. I can picture Jesus working at the carpenter bench crafting a new table for someone with Psalm 1 on his lips. "Blessed is the man, Blessed is the man, Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, Blessed is the man who does not walk, who does not go in the direction of ungodly counsel, who does not listen to ungodly counsel . . .". I picture Jesus repeating this in thought and with voice, reading the word, speaking the word, thinking the word, even singing the word, and praying the word He is thinking on.

Psalms 1 is becoming a delight to think on. I am beginning to glean some fresh manna from it. I hope to continue meditating on Psalms 1 for weeks to come and continue feeding my soul.

House Churches have no sex appeal

Check out the article by Andrew Jones. It brings up important issues that all churches should wrestle with.

link

Down from the mountain

Having a sabbatical week in Kansas City a couple of weeks ago was a mountain top experience for me. I came back refreshed and energized. This week has been the "your off the mountain week".
I have had some 15 and 17 hour days at work, our finances are on the edge this month, and emotionally I have been drained. I am aware that God is still working in weeks like this, just not in the ways I would rather Him work. Let's see Tuesday night I played basketball at a new place and offended someone I don't really know (I did apologize) . The same night someone landed on my foot and it broke the toenail at the base so my big toe is blue. I missed the bible study at my house because I could not finish work in time. I communicated poorly to my wife about the Bible study and it didn't go that well. Those are some samples of how this week has gone.

I write this not to complain, but to realize every week isn't storybook in the Christian life. I can read a biography of some Christian leader and it seems their lives are just filled with hearing God clearly each week and having supernatural events consistently happening. I have to remind myself that these are the highlights of this Christians life, not the everyday stuff. Christ is found in the mundane as well as the exciting.

I am also reminded of Paul saying: we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.