Read this tweet tonight from Hugh Halter:

“Conversion, according to Jesus, was not about joining or switching to another religion. It was a change of heart and a subsequent process of learning and living kingdom life.”

I’m letting this sink in tonight and marinate.

What do you think are the implications for someone serious about following Jesus?
How does it affect how you “do” church?
Better yet, how should it affect how you live each day?

“In my class there is Landon, she’s a girl. And there’s Piper oh yeah and Mary Claire.

Oh and there’s this boy in a red shirt, no one knows his name; he’s not a girl. No one wants to play with him. He doesn’t want to play with me but I don’t want to play with him. I don’t want him to be on my team. His name is Tina. OK, his name is not Tina, cause I don’t know his name. I don’t know what to call him, he’s in my class.”

Mary Jane, 3

Jesus speaking, is quoted as saying this in the Bible, Matthew’s account…

1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

6 “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.”

Part of the great discourse known as the sermon on the mount, but the wisdom here has taken me to the limit this last week. I’ve heard this text somewhere in the neighborhood of a gazillion times, but this week it was these words that really got to me:

Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

Why don’t you judge? Why don’t you point out the faults of someone else when you have your own? Jesus take: You’re wasting your time. You’ve got bigger fish to fry and they’re sitting in your lake. The moment you forget, you’ll get bitten.

A good reminder that living with grace, gets me a lot further. Not that there aren’t moments when things should be brought to light, but it’s better to live giving grace away than to sit in a judgement seat, focused on my own personal adventure in missing the point.

Just thinking out loud, what do you think?

Docé, Tolve, Douze, שתים עשרה - I can’t believe it either.

So, only twelve years ago, this lady right here, walked down an aisle and said, “I do.”
I must admit, when we left the church that day headed for the reception I thought to myself, “I wonder if she realizes she just married me?”

Everyday since, I promise, she’s proven, she meant it.
She knew exactly what she was getting herself into, well maybe not “exactly” (no one could’ve ever predicted what this ride would be like) but she’s been “all in” from day one.

From the first day, we began to spend time together, I found myself awestruck by a beautiful woman. Almost 13 years of awestruck…

From the day that we got engaged over 12 years and not a few months ago I’ve known a girl who was so focused on caring for me that she forgot about her own needs.

From the birth of two beautiful girls to moving, transitioning, starting, restarting, planting and every moment in between she’s not only been on the team, but the teams greatest cheerleader. Taking on whatever role is/was necessary to make things happen.

Twelve years of marriage have passed and I’ve known a girl so filled with love, kindness, grace, beauty, friendship, commitment and servanthood that I still think to myself, “Really, this girl, married me?”

And the answer is, yes.
If I had the chance I’d do it ALL OVER AGAIN!
Good news is, I do.

I’ll start again, today!

Happy 12th Anniversary to the girl who helps to make the world make sense, puts the butter on my bread and is the cherry on top in every part of my life.

I love you, Susan! I’m so thankful you are my wife!

This passage has been working through my heart for the last four months.

It has been marinating.
When something marinates the marinade completely changes that thing.

It challenges me in new ways daily. It’s changing things for me, in me.

It reminds me that my life purpose has everything to do with merging heaven and earth….

Matthew 6:9-13
“This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’

This reminds me daily, it’s not about “me.”

I don’t know if you’ve seen this article or not. If you haven’t you should…

So, I reference the article above because in some very odd and also sad way I found myself relieved in the fact that I wasn’t all alone.

What happened to those kids….happens…

I guess.

It isn’t always the popular thing to say something when injustice occurs. But if you know me, you know that I never cared a whole lot about popularity contests.

I’m sharing briefly some of the things that have happened to me in the last few months and I don’t share it flippantly, as a matter of fact I have had to continually convince myself that sharing it might be more helpful, especially if it keeps someone else from having the issues I’ve had and in light of what I’ve heard from others.

So then, a part of my story…

The last few months have wielded what have seemed to be challenge after challenge. I’m not really afraid of a good challenge, but I admit, it has been a difficult time for both myself and my family, largely in part to what I’ve been through.

It all started in December, when our church rented a space on the square and shortly after a city employee informed me, “You know, we don’t allow churches on the square.” Mind you this was brought to my attention as we were standing in the square serving people cookies and hot chocolate on a chilly day as folks were waiting patiently to see Santa. (Which by the way, according to this person, giving away free cookies and cocoa on the square is strictly prohibited.)

It was about two weeks after this, that I attended a meeting with the city and was told we needed to apply for certain permits to be able to use this space on the square. That was fine with us so we began working on it.

Christmas passed and on the third Friday of January I received a phone call from a man who declared to me that he was a local “officer.” His question was, “Why don’t you tell me why I shouldn’t send a patrol car out to pick you up and put you in jail?” 

My response, “Jail? For what?”

This fellow continued that I had missed a court appearance in city court and that if I didn’t get myself down to city hall he would send an officer out to put me in jail.

I asked again, “Why was I supposed to be in court?” He explained that, our church was not allowed on the square and we had to respond to the citations that had been issued.

Now mind you, the citations in question were sent to our PO Box. Which at the time, I wasn’t the main checker of, and not to mention, I was not the one who signed for said citations and I didn’t even know we had received them. A pretty dumb oversight on my part, I admit. But jail? And I still wasn’t 100 percent sure what for. (Side note: Interestingly, these citations were sent to me, care of me and not addressed in any way to the church.)

So, that Friday afternoon, I did what any law abiding citizen would do. I went down to city hall, oh and with my sick three year old in tow. At the meeting we discussed that I had a new date in court and I had better show up. 

My day in court came. I’ve never had to go to court for anything before so this was a new experience for me. I showed up to court five minutes late because I had to take my daughter to a friends house so they could drop her off at school, which didn’t start for another hour. Silly me, I even took my daughter with me to court initially arriving five minutes early because I didn’t think that this was that big of a deal.

Boy, was I wrong.

By my experience in municipal court, you would have thought that I stole the statue in the middle of the square and had held it for a healthy ransom. No, I was there to deal with the fact that “I” didn’t have a permit to have “my” church on the square. Now, if you’re the religious type the way I just explained the church would rub you the wrong way, we all know it isn’t “my” church. Well, all of us, except the city, I suppose. 

To keep a long story from getting even longer I’ll try to keep what happened in court, short.

Before the judge, I was asked, “How do you plea?” My response, “Plea? Ummm, I don’t really understand.”

I was told I could plead guilty, not guilty or nolo contend-re. (Which I guess means, “”I’m guilty but I’m not admitting it?”) Or I could meet with the solicitor (aka prosecutor - wish I had known what that meant that first day in court) and work out a “deal.”

I did, I went in to work out a deal. Some deal.

I mean I guess I could kinda see where this was a deal. The fines I was on the hook for were supposed to be about $4000 I think. Yeah, that’s what I said, all for a permit. They were reduced to $1400 and I admit I wasn’t happy. (Of course maybe this is standard process but I’m still not sure why everyone from community development, or so it seemed, was also in the room to help me with my “deal.”) I started feeling better about my “deal” when the the solicitor gave me the option to pay it out over a year. I thought, this is the least that should be done. So I accepted this because I believed this was the best thing.

By the way, don’t ever and I mean ever go to court of any kind without an attorney. 

I get out of the solicitors office to confirm my “deal” and find out that that little payment plan I signed up for. DIdn’t include court fees or get this, probationary fees. Yep, you heard it, that sweet little “deal”….PROBATION. All because I didn’t have the extra cash to cough up $1400 on the spot. I wasn’t getting a payment plan, I was getting a monthly check-in. 

Maybe for some of you, you’re thinking, you’re stupid.

You’re probably right, but I really had no idea that that was what I was getting myself in to.

So, I left, pretty dejected. Now what I haven’t shared up until this point, is that by this time we (the church) had decided we would pursue the opportunity to open a coffee shop in the building we were in and we had let the powers that be in the city know this. 

For us, this meant lots of new things had to be done. New types of permits, plans, preparations. We met with the folks in city development to be clear on what we needed.

Can I just tell you, that every meeting with city development was crystal clear?

Well, I’d like to, but I’d be a liar.

I felt like every meeting was like deciphering morse code, only I’ve never learned how to decipher morse code. Regardless, we jumped out to begin our preparations for the coffee shop. 

The goal was a coffee shop open all week whose purpose was to create a great environment on the square and at the same time give profits to community organizations with needs. This then would have allowed the church a space to meet at on Sunday mornings.

A la, a business with meeting space. By the way, the goal wasn’t ‘just’ to allow the church to use the space, the space would have been free to ANYONE who booked it as needed. Great idea, right? 

According to city, nope. Can’t be done. (Shh…don’t tell the city, it’s already being done.)

During this time, I met with a few local officials to find out what we were doing wrong…ummm…crickets…what can I say? I think politicians are great. I’ll leave it at that and just say, I’m praying for them, and if you pray, you should too.

Meanwhile, 5 literal days after my court appearance, I received to my home address, you guessed it, more citations. Why you ask? Well, apparently trying to accomplish the things on our list that the city themselves told us to accomplish in the building was also prohibited. We were not allowed to enter for any reason. This raised all sorts of dilemmas for us as a church, for the coffee shop, trying to get things done for permitting, for the health department. Sorry sir…back to court for you.

This time with an attorney I went, the results still weren’t much better, though I did appreciate my friend who helped me in the case. We managed to walk out, with more fines, court fees and more probation. Woohoo! I’m living the dream…

Let me stop for a minute and just say a few things about this. 

This hurt. The church grew smaller, it wasn’t helpful. We had to give up the building. We had to put the coffee shop plans on hold. And guess what, I personally was still on the hook for a lot of money in fines. I won’t give you the total, but think high.

Sadly, we’re still dealing with the repercussions of all of this, and still have issues that are unresolved. 

So after an attempt to try and improve our local community we were shot down…but it get’s better.

You’re probably wondering how this ties in to the article I linked for you. Well, I think it’s obvious, but if you somehow missed it, this should help clear it up.

Shortly after all of my court appearances and the hoopla, we had a church supporter kindly offer a part of his home for us to use for a simple Sunday morning bible study which we begin doing in May. This was very helpful for us and after all of the challenges it was nice to have a reprieve from so much of what we’d dealt with. Then on Memorial Day Weekend, it happened…

I was running late that Sunday morning the 29th. When I arrived one of the guys told me, that someone from the city had showed up and issued us a warning for violation saying. “I hear Chris Lockhart is having church here.” Huh? What does that have to do with anything? This “officer” then admitted he’s been checking our website to see where we were meeting. I wonder why, I mean he isn’t a member of our church…I digress, though this is the same “officer” who wanted to know why he shouldn’t “run me in” a few months earlier.  

This warning that was left for me said that I had 7 days to comply. Which means I was given the week to respond to this warning from the city, only one problem, I still received citations the next Friday, If you’re keeping score at home that’s 5 days, not 7. So much for “compliance” or whatever….

Yep, we didn’t have a permit to use the property for bible study. So, you may or may not know this but apparently in the city of McDonough you are not allowed to have a bible study in someones home without a special use permit. That goes for all of you who have a church small group or bible study at your house. Beware, the city will show up and oh, don’t worry, they’ll be there on Sunday AND on holiday weekends. No time or space is protected.

What does this mean?

Well Today, Thursday, July 21st when I could’ve been heading out of town with my kids for a last chance summer weekend followed by a little fun with my wife for our 12th anniversary on Sunday, I’m here, in court defending my first amendment right to assemble, in McDonough, a city I love and pray for…

In Luke 2, the gospel writer gives an account of Jesus & his family taking part in Jewish tradition. It’s really a beautiful account of a boy beginning to find his way in his culture and as a man, but also an account of God himself, in the flesh, taking his place as the savior of the world.

The thing that captures me in this text is what the writer describes at the very end. It is what every great story owns.

Pure emotion.

Not one that simply rolls through the scene, but one that creates a literal stopping point for thought and reflection. One I’m sure that welled up in Jesus’ mother for the rest of her life.

After a long pilgrimage to Jerusalem and a long, crazy roller coaster of emotional uncertainty for Mary, Jesus’ mother, He and his family are on the way home and the writer gives us a peak into a life we’ve all experienced in some way or another when he writes, “…his mother treasured all these things in her heart.”

Treasure.

She treasures his obedience.

His heart.

His focus.

His words.

But really, his person. Him, just him. A momma, loving her boy for who he is.

So pure, so real. So…us.

Tonight, it happened for me. No, I’m not a mom, but I am a daddy with a two little girls whose hearts are as pure as a freshly fallen snow. It happened when I read a note that Hayden left the tooth fairy tonight. She lost a tooth today and in anticipation, she left the the tooth and a note for the tooth fairy saying,

“Thank you for taking my tooth, in return I’ve made you one of my sketches.”

And here Susan and I found a beautiful drawing of a tooth fairy, my beautiful child had imagined and created all on her own. It wasn’t enough for her, simply to give up her tooth, she wanted to go one more step and give a gift to the fairy.

And her father treasured all of these things in his heart….

There are seasons in all of our lives. You know, much like the ones that occur during the year: winter, spring fall and summer. Some have warm moments and some cold.

Some fun and some not so much.

Some reaping and some sewing.

Some hard, some easy.

The last few weeks I’ve had a great realization about something that had never crossed my mind in regard to seasons:

People act in seasons too.

In their relationships, participation in things and even lifestyles. There are seasons.

I’ve had these seasons. There are seasons when I am really good at taking time off and others not so much. Seasons when I have no problem praying consistently and times when I’ve gotten too wrapped up in myself to do so.

I confess I have been in a season of challenges lately. But I was encouraged today by reading this passage:

Proverbs 18:24 One who has unreliable friends soon comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

In my times of challenge. I have a few people who have seasonally focused on something else and moved on.

But, more importantly, I have had also had friends who, no matter what I’ve struggled with, have been right there.

True friendship isn’t seasonal. It’s focused.

Consistent.

My best friends have been my friends when I’ve been wrong and when I’ve been right. When I’ve been smart and I’ve been dumb (which is often, unfortunately).

Tonight, I count myself thankful that my true friends do not see the need to love me when the season is right but encourage me all year long.

How about you?

What kind of friend would someone say you are?

Consider this remarkable assessment: “Other more accomplished scholars in these areas will have to examine and evaluate these possibilities in greater depth. But we can say here that we have come with some confidence to believe that a significant part of Christianity in the United States is actually [only] tenuously Christian in any sense that is seriously connected to the actual historical Christian tradition, but is rather substantially morphed into Christianity’s misbegotten step-cousin, Christian Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.”

~Derek Brown

Last week I was flipping channels and ran into this movie. It was about half-way over but what I saw was intriguing and interesting. Because I enjoy a good story I was caught up in this one.

What caught me though, wasn’t that this was a ‘real life’ drama or anything, cause it’s not.

What got my attention is that this story happens and it’s happening. Now.

Remove some of the backstory about professional marketers hired to play a part and live together.

Add everyday average folks like you and me and we could easily fit right in, playing the parts all to easily, and eerily, not even paid to. 

Actually, I would argue, we already do…

(Disclaimer: This isn’t a movie that everyone should watch. It is rated R and has some pretty intense happenings. I’m not necessarily endorsing the movie, but I am saying it is scary how true to life it is.)