Brian Dolleman's Blog

“Sasquatch, Godzilla, King Kong, Loch Ness, Goblin, Ghoul, a Zombie with no conscience…

Question—what do all these things have in common?” (lyrics from the song Monster by Kanye West)

Yeah, monsters are scary.

They cause physical harm and produce fear by their actions and appearance.

Our word “monster” comes from the Latin, monstrum—an aberrant occurrence, usually biological, taken as a sign that something is wrong within the natural order.

God’s plan for his people and his church does not include us being monsters.

“A body isn’t just a single part blow up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together.” (1 Corinthians 12.14 MSG)

“No matter how significant you are, it is only because of what you are part of. An enormous eye or a gigantic hand wouldn’t be a body, but a monster.” (1 Corinthians 12.19 MSG)

When Christians decide to live solo, separated from the body—the church, they become severed body parts.

When Christians live to serve and satisfy only themselves, they become a single part blown up into something huge… a monster.

Our strength and significance comes from our place within the body.

“The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part. You are Christ’s body—that’s who you are! You must never forget this.”

“Only as you accept your part of that body does your “part” mean anything.”

“No part is important on its own.”

“I want you to think about how all this makes you more significant, not less.”

“I also want you to think about how this keeps your significance from getting blown up into self importance.”
(1 Corinthians 12—select verses, MSG)

When we become Christians, God adds us to the church—his body.

In this body, we are becoming something new together…

A new family.

http://made-new.com/

You belong.

You fit in here.

You’re noticed, valued, wanted, and needed.

We’re in this together—we are family.

“God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by brining us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.” (Ephesians 1.5 NLT)

“You… are no longer strangers… You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family.” (Ephesians 2.0 NLT)

Maybe your family experience hasn’t been the greatest.

Perhaps you’ve often felt like you didn’t fit in or belong.

God doesn’t want to simply bandage or fix up your sense of belonging…

It is being made new!

In this new family, there is security, strength, and confidence.

Here, you will find significance.

Here, you belong.

http://made-new.com/

So you’re a butterfly now…

Ya got all that butter-fly-ness going on.

You’ve been made new—the old you is gone and the new you is vibrant and has wings.

The Bible says, “If anyone belongs to Christ, they are a new creation. The old things have gone; everything is made new!” (2 Corinthians 5.17 NCV)

You’re no longer a caterpillar.

You’re a new creation.

Some practical points about butter-fly-ness…

1. Your butter-fly-ness comes from God. It’s his work, his gift to you. You got nothing to be proud of or to brag about… except in God who made you new.

2. Butterflies come in different shapes, sizes and colors. Don’t assume because someone doesn’t look, sound, talk, or act like you that they’re a caterpillar. Appreciate and honor the beautiful diversity present in God’s kingdom.

3. Never forget where you came from. You used to be a caterpillar. Heck, you used to be a pupa. If not for God’s grace, you still would be a pupa.

4. Rather than seeing caterpillars as pests, we must see them as future butterflies. They might destroy a few plants but they don’t destroy butterflies—so quit worrying about their current state of caterpillar-ness.

5. Encourage caterpillars who are cocooning. There’s no reason to be dogging-on, criticizing or complaining about those who are works-in-progress. Be gracious, patient and kind. Speak positively about them and to them.

6. Speaking of cocoons—the church is a cocoon factory, not a butterfly exhibit. It is impossible to be “too good” to hang out with certain people (think about Jesus—he was perfect and he was known as “a friend of sinners”). How we welcome caterpillars and how we treat those who are cocooning is the real test of our butter-fly-ness.

7. We’re not a butterfly gang. Our group isn’t exclusive—we don’t exclude butterflies because of their characteristics, we include them. We’re a butterfly family—a growing family, a family that can’t stop adopting.

http://made-new.com/

Going into the cocoon, they were caterpillars…

Coming out of the cocoon, they are butterflies.

The caterpillar goes into a cocoon in order to end its caterpillar-ness.

It doesn’t emerge from the cocoon as a slightly improved caterpillar or a much better caterpillar.

It is something new—not a caterpillar, but a butterfly.

Caterpillar are considered pests.

I remember helping my dad cut caterpillar nests down from our trees and burn them in a fire pit.

I don’t recall ever trapping and burning butterflies.

In fact, as a kid I had the impression that seeing a butterfly was something notable, special, rare.

Did you know that Jesus didn’t come to make people better?

He didn’t.

Jesus didn’t come to make people better—he came to make people new.

When someone gets baptized in water, they are identifying with Jesus’ death (he went into the grave / we go down into the water).

Jesus didn’t stay in the grave. He rose again. He is alive!

The person being baptized doesn’t stay in the water…

When they get lifted back up out of the water, they are identifying with Jesus’ resurrection.

Baptism symbolizes death to the old self and a brand-new life in Jesus Christ.

Kinda reminds me of the caterpillar—ending it’s caterpillar-ness by going into the cocoon, being made new—and emerging as a new creation: a butterfly.

Self-improvement isn’t the goal.

Getting better and being better isn’t the objective.

“The important thing is being the new people God has made.” (Galatians 6.15 NCV)

Jesus didn’t come to make you better—he came to make you new.

Perhaps it’s time for you to let go of your old caterpillar-ness and be made new.

http://made-new.com/

I take terrible Driver’s License pictures.

It makes me wish Driver’s Licenses had to be renewed every year—then maybe I’d get a better picture instead of being stuck with the one I have for the next 4 years.

Passports are even worse.

I was stuck with a Passport picture in which I still had hair for 9 years after I was a bald man.

These ID photos are visual reminders of who I used to be.

Sometimes, I just want a new (better) photo ID.

Quite a few Bible characters were given new ID’s and new names…

Old man Abram didn’t have any children. God promised him descendants and renamed him Abraham—which means “father of many”.

Simon was emotionally-charged, flighty, and impetuous. Jesus renamed him Peter—which means “rock”.

God wanted people to grasp the reality of their new ID so much that he even gave them new names.

Maybe you’ve been holding on to an old ID, the old you.

Perhaps the picture you have of yourself is the you from 4 years ago, or even 10 years ago.

I love this little line in the Message Bible: “Live out your God-created identity.” (Matthew 5.48)

It’s time for a new ID—a new picture of who you are and who you’re becoming.

It’s time for the new you!

http://made-new.com/

Have you met the new you?

My guess is that you are well-acquainted with the old you.

Usually no one is more familiar with your fears, failures, weaknesses, insecurities, struggles and sins than you are… nobody knows the old you like you do.

You know the old you—but do you know the new you?

Do you know who you’re becoming?

Do you know where you’re headed?

Do you have a sense of your new identity?

There is someone who knows both the old you and the new you…

The Bible says “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God. Everything is naked and exposed before his eyes.” (Hebrews 4.13 NLT)

God knows you—who you’ve been, who you are today, and who you’re becoming.

When God looks at you, he sees the new you.

I believe He wants you to see and know the new you too.

“You have begun to live the new life, in which you are being made new and becoming like the One who made you.” (Colossians 3.10 NCV)

Welcome to the new you!

You are being made new and becoming like the One who made you.

Here’s a simple challenge—be better at embracing the new you than you are at holding on to the old you.

http://made-new.com/

In 1987, the Irish band U2 released their hit song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.”

I remember a friend of mine saying she would NEVER marry a guy who was shorter than her.

Guess what? She did…

And her husband is the perfect man for her.

Somewhere along the way, she had to let go of a certain picture of what she was looking for.

She had to decide what was really important—and what wasn’t so important.

John the Baptist sent a couple of his disciples to ask Jesus a question…

“Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?” (Luke 7.19 NLT)

John and his disciples weren’t sure about Jesus yet.

He didn’t perfectly match the picture they had in their minds of the coming Messiah.

I think the question is funny: “Are you the one we’ve been expecting or should we keep looking?”

It’s kind of like saying, “Are you going to meet my expectations? If not, I can keep searching…”

People do this all the time.

Are you going to meet my ________ expectations or should I keep looking? (friendship / romance / church / etc.)

I guess that’s why U2’s song was so popular. It struck a chord. We can relate.

We’re searching, looking…

But maybe what we’ve been looking for was there the whole time.

Maybe our expectations have blinded us.

John the Baptist and his disciples found what they were looking for.

Yes, the packaging was unexpected—I’m sure Jesus didn’t match all their expectations for the coming Messiah.

Yet Jesus was who they were looking for.

How about you—whatcha looking for?

Before my daughter had a real vocabulary, I was able to recognize her voice.

I could identify her laugh or cry in a noisy room full of babies and toddlers.

I knew her sound—not just her words.

Jesus said, “The gatekeeper opens the gate… and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.” (John 10.3 NLT).

Jesus calls us by name. I love that! He knows us personally—we’re not just a number to him (sheep #1,245,973).

Yes, Jesus knows us… and we know him.

We recognize His voice.

We follow Him.

Voice recognition is important.

We like formulas. We try to predict what God will say and how he will say it—what he will do and how he will do it.

If we’re not listening for His voice, we could miss out on what He’s saying because it didn’t fit our formula.

Remember the story of Elijah on the mountain?

“A mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was the sound of a gentle whisper.” (1 Kings 19.11, 12 NLT)

In this instance with Elijah, God wasn’t in the wind or the earthquake or the fire… He spoke in a whisper.

In other instances, He was in the wind, earthquake, and fire (day of Pentecost, Isaiah’s vision, Moses’ call).

God is bigger than our formulas of how he works.

Formulas are what religion is all about.

Unfortunately, our formulas sometimes void or cancel out what God is actually saying and doing.

“You cancel the word of God in order to hand down your own tradition.” (Mark 7.13 NLT)

We need to be more confident in Him—knowing Him and knowing His voice—than we are in our formulas.

“His sheep recognize his voice…”

Sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I can’t find what I’m looking for at the grocery store.

Usually, the item I’m looking for was there the whole time—right under my nose.

The hangup: my mental picture of its packaging and/or location in the store.

I walk by the thing I’m looking for multiple times but just can’t see it.

The item is there, by my mind isn’t open to the idea that THIS is the place or the packaging for it.

When Jesus came, people were looking for the Messiah.

They were looking for the Messiah and they had a mental picture of this Messiah’s packaging…

But He came as a baby. He wasn’t born in the capital city to a royal family.

He didn’t have a national or political agenda.

He colored outside the religious lines.

He hung out with the wrong people.

Many were blinded by the unexpected packaging.

They scoffed, “He’s just a carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon. And his sisters live right here among us.” They were deeply offended and refused to believe in him. (Mark 6.3 NLT)

When he was a baby, his parents brought him to the temple to be dedicated.

At the temple, two older folks—Simeon and Anna, recognized baby Jesus as the Messiah.

There’s no way Simeon and Anna could have ever pictured the Messiah coming the way he did.

Yet, they recognized Him. They knew God was among them.

I don’t want to miss God’s work today because my mental picture of how things should work frame Him completely out of the picture.

I want to be like Simeon and Anna.

I want to recognize God—his work, his voice, his presence… even in unexpected packaging.

We like to flirt with the edge…

We want to see how far we can go, how close to the edge we can get without falling off.

God’s grace is huge. I think His grace is bigger than I will ever fully understand.

My job isn’t to define the lines of who is in and who is out.

I’m leaving that one for God.

My job is to love Jesus and point others towards him too.

When Israel moved into the Promised Land, a few of the tribes decided they wanted to live outside the lines.

Rueben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh chose to live on the East side of the Jordan rather than inside the borders of the new territory that God had prepared for his people.

I don’t think this scenario was the best—but God allowed it.

They chose the East side of the Jordan even though God was giving them the land on the West side.

I’m not sure how good this was for them from a national security point of view…

But there was grace for them there.

I guess you could say they were flirting with the edge.
?Yes, God’s grace is huge.

There are a lot of things we can do and still be under the umbrella of His grace.

It’s just that when we flirt with the edge, we usually miss out on something better.

“Everything is permissible—but not everything is beneficial. Everything is permissible—but not everything is constructive.” (1 Corinthians 10.23 NIV)

I want what’s beneficial, constructive, healthy, good… what’s best.

I don’t want to settle for OK, acceptable or good enough.

I don’t want to flirt with the edge.

I want God’s best.

God’s not ripping you off, keeping things from you.

He’s not trying to ruin your life and make you miserable.

Don’t forget—the devil is a thief and liar. The Bible says he comes to steal, kill and destroy.

Jesus came to give us life—life to the full, life more abundantly.

Quit chasing the edge and start following Jesus…

This is where life really gets exciting.