Dave Burchett's Blog, page 65

A Wonderful Endorsement

I am very excited and honored to have received this praise from a truly credible source for Stay. You can count on one opposable thumb how many books hold my interest. But Dave Burchett has written an incredible piece that describes what we’ve been trying to model to you all about God’s grace, His astonishing love, and what life feels like when humans discover who He’s remade them to be, even on their worst day. And the pages smell like a freshly cut lawn. I gotta get my master to read this! ~ Bali Lynch    John Lynch’s Golden Retriever Bali, who loves to chew on her master’s books The Cure and On My Worst Day Thanks Bali! Your best friend writes some pretty good books! Give him a nuzzle for all of us.

The Dogs of Stay: Maggie and Discipline

I am delighted to share a brief snippet of my new book Stay. The book releases in less than 2 weeks. You can pre-order a copy now by clicking here. Today Maggie and I traversed the usual path. She sniffed and I listened to a podcast as we paced briskly through a comfortable Texas fall morning. She spotted something and moved toward the curb. My eye caught something at the same time, and I jerked violently on her leash to pull her toward me. She looked surprised, puzzled at what she had done wrong for such a harsh correction from me. The truth was that she hadn’t done anything wrong. Some knucklehead had shattered a beer bottle and a jagged piece was right in her path. She could have been seriously cut by the razor-sharp glass. I was thankful I had spotted it, but I could see that my action confused and maybe hurt Maggie’s feelings. I needed to assure

The Dogs of Stay: Sweet Hannah and Condemnation

I am delighted to share a brief snippet of my new book Stay. The book releases in about 2 weeks. You can pre-order a copy now at my website. Paul talks about no condemnation from an eternal perspective. It is the passage that contains a verse that has already played a role in this journey. I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death? Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but

The Dogs of Stay – I Once Was Lost

Several years ago youngest son and dog lover Brett called from Baylor University. He had spotted five abandoned puppies along the side of the road. He tried to round them up but could only catch one. Brett called to let me know that he intended to bathe, feed, care for the dog and then take him to the Humane Society on Monday for adoption. I knew I was in trouble when Brett decided to let me know what his rescued puppy looked like. I called the lovely Mrs.Burchett. “He is working me,” I told her. “He is falling in love with this dog.” On Sunday I was driving through Waco and I stopped to see Brett and his alleged short term friend. The way this puppy followed Brett around and looked at him was astounding. He appeared to sense that Brett was, for him, the canine version of Amazing Grace. That dog seemed to understand that he once was lost and now was

The Dogs of Stay – Shake it Off!

Leading up to the release of Stay I will be posting some brief excerpts from the book. This lesson came from a summer outing and watching Hannah “shake off” water in impressive fashion. The life lesson from Hannah was not how to shake off water. What I need to learn is how she can shake off rejection and disappointment way better than I can. If I say no, Hannah doesn’t get insecure and touchy. When she is rejected, she doesn’t start wondering why she is not good enough. She doesn’t hear condemning barks from her puppyhood. She doesn’t flash back to her littermates mocking her with cruel yips. She doesn’t think, Maybe Dad doesn’t like that toy; if I bring his favorite toy I’m sure he won’t be able to resist. Hannah doesn’t slink away and hide, thinking she is worthless if I don’t respond. She simply accepts that now is not the time and communicates through her body language

The Dogs of Stay – Part 2

One of the great philosophical questions of our age was addressed lyrically a few years ago. And I quote from that thoughtful anthem by Baja Men. Who let the dogs out (woof, woof, woof, woof) (woof, woof, woof, woof) Today we know a partial answer to that haunting query. On February 24th Tyndale Publishing House will let the dogs of Stay out to your E-Reader, bookstore, and online vendor of choice. As a lead up to that day we thought it would be fun to do some bios of the dogs featured in my new book. The stars of the book are Hannah and our new rescued friend Maggie. Hannah was our amazing friend and canine comforter during Joni’s cancer journey nine years ago. Hannah’s best canine friend was Sadie. Our son Scott adopted Sadie while attending Baylor University and it was love at first sight for both of them.      A bit later Hannah joined the family and these

The Dogs of Stay

I almost changed the title of this series of canine bios leading up to the release of my new book Stay. The title sounded like the followup reality series to the Housewives of Orange County. But rest assured the Dogs of Stay are far less catty. Sorry. Couldn’t resist.

I am really excited about Stay and I thought it would be fun to get to know some of the “stars” of my new book. First up is our unforgettable Golden Retriever Charlie.

      Puppy Charlie making sure the dishes are all clean.

Most of us remember our dogs because they leave paw prints on our heart. Charlie certainly did that. But just to make sure he was not forgotten he left chew marks on our table, scratch marks on our doors and teeth marks on our doorknobs. I quoted John Grogan (of Marley fame) in Stay about the charm of dogs like Charlie. “Dogs are great. Bad dogs, if we can really call them that, are perhaps the greatest of them all.”

By that standard Charlie was one of the greatest dogs that ever lived. At least our three boys thought he was. My long suffering wife was not so sure.  I describe his humorous (and sometimes not so humorous) destruction of our house in Stay along with a poignant moment shared with a NYC Policeman.

    Our boys loved Charlie and he loved them back with the same exuberance that he did everything else.

    Charlie was eccentric.

     Funny.

                                                    Charlie was eighty pounds of hard charging intensity.

 

He was loving. Infuriating. And he was intensely loyal to his three boys.

Charlie gave me a bonus lesson that is not in the upcoming book. Sometimes I wonder how God can love someone as messed up, inconsistent and sorry as me. And I remember how an impatient and selfish man like me could love that disaster of a canine that was Charlie. If I can muster that in my soul then why can’t I believe that a God who sent His Son to the Cross for me would still love me with all of my flaws? God loved me first and completely. I will have some fleeting moments when I please God but for the most part I will be leaving a trail of well intentioned disaster in my path just like Charlie. And God loves me just as much at those moments. Amazing.

Featured next will be Hannah’s best friend Sadie.

 

 

Can We Ever Really Get Together?

A peace anthem from my youth came on the radio today. The Youngbloods recorded “Get Together” in 1967 and it became one of the quintessential peace songs of the era.

I remember listening to the static on my AM transistor radio while singing along with The Youngbloods. I was sure that my generation could make a difference. We would fix the mess that my parents and grandparents had made. We believed peace was possible. We just had to get together. This would be easy enough. Just love one another. Everybody sing now…

C’mon people now,

Smile on your brother

Ev’rybody get together

Try and love one another right now

Nice words. The problem was contained in the last line of lyric above. Try and love one another right now. How is that working out for our peace loving generation? Not so well. It is far easier to sing about loving one another than it is to actually love another. No matter how much I “try” I seem to fail miserably when I determine that I will, in my own strength, love others. It is easy to love some people. But loving the unlovable is the challenge. On that count we have not done so well. Jesus pointed out my hypocrisy on that count.

If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else? Even pagans do that. (Matthew 5:46-47, NLT)

As an idealistic teen I believed that more education, communication, and edification would change the world. I believed that the problem was not sin. The problem was a lack of knowledge. I was wrong. The problem is sin. Education and communication certainly help. But real change comes from the inside out. And for me that came from the most amazing revolutionary in history, Jesus Christ. How we have marginalized the powerful teachings of Jesus. He bluntly said that peace was not going to be found in this life.

“But the time is coming–in fact, it is already here–when you will be scattered, each one going his own way, leaving me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”   (John 16, NLT)

Jesus said the Holy Spirit would comfort us in times of trouble and that the peace the world advocates would fall short.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  (John 14, NLT)

I watch the news and my heart aches. I wish we could have peace on earth but I have come to believe that is not possible through human institutions. I truly wish it were possible.

It is not in my trying that we can get together. It is by trusting God and allowing Him to love me. Then I can love others because of Christ. Only then can we truly love one another.

Hump Day Hope – Power Versus Influence

The pundits are parsing the State of the Union address this morning. My friend Ed Underwood wrote a wonderful piece on the topic of power versus influence. Today I yield my space to the gentleman from California.

(Reposted from EdUnderwood.com.)

Every time Jesus’ first disciples dreamed of position and power, He warned them that His measure of greatness was serving (Mark 9:33-37; 10:35-45). When we ignore His warning dreams of position and power sidetrack us.

Books and sermons on a Christian’s relationship to government often fail to distinguish between political power and cultural influence. The primary passages—Matthew 5:13-16, Romans 13:1-7, 1 Timothy 2:1-4, 1 Peter 2:13-16—clearly teach us that our role is to use whatever position we have to influence society toward righteousness and justice as we submit to governmental authority.

Biblically, influence and power are not the same. The influence is ours, but the power is God’s. Historically, when Christians confuse the two, we lose both—today and forever.

Confusing influence and power diverts our energies from the only true hope for any society—the transforming power of new life in Christ. The Bible says we’re new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) endowed with power from on high (Acts 1:8) to live a life only explained by God’s presence in us (John 14:20).

Where we choose to invest our time and resources depends largely on where we think the solution lies. As more and more of us decide that the solution is political power, it changes our priorities.

We know Christ commands us to influence our culture. And we know that one of the primary ways we do this as Americans is by voting. But, these are the questions that bother me most when I think of all the time and energy Christians have poured into the pursuit of political power in the decades since the 60s:

America hasn’t become more righteous and just; it’s more decadent and unfair. What would have happened if we had devoted more effort equipping Christians to live out the gospel of Christ and less to telling Christians how to vote?
Families aren’t getting healthier; they’re falling apart. How do you think the families of our country would be different if we had been more passionate about transforming families in the way Christ values—through the hard work of disciplemaking in the context of authentic spiritual communities and less obsessive about entrenching the family value message in Washington D. C.?
The church doesn’t have more impact; its influence is almost negligible. What if Christians had spent more time studying their Bibles and praying for their neighborhoods, communities, states and nation, and less time glued to conservative talk radio and cable news while worrying about exit polls and economic trends?

Confusing influence and power also deflects our focus from the state and final destination of human beings—either living in His love and power now looking forward to being with Jesus forever in a place called heaven or estranged from God in brokenness now and careening toward a forever in a place called hell. The Bible says we’re ambassadors of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:20) representing Him as strangers and pilgrims (Hebrews 11:13). Our earthly citizenship is only temporary because we’re citizens of a better, heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16). Our true identity is in Christ and our true citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3:20).

Monday Musing: Redeemed. Believe it.

One of my phone apps offers new music that I can redeem from the app. Recently I went to download a song and this message came up.

Already redeemed.

I had already acquired the song. There was no need for further redemption. It was mine. How I wish I could trust that for my relationship with God.

A song by Big Daddy Weave called “Redeemed” sums up my struggle and encourages me to know that I am not alone in this battle.

Seems like all I can see was the struggle

Haunted by ghosts that lived in my past

Bound up in shackles of all my failures

Wondering how long is this gonna last

Then You look at this prisoner and say to me “son

stop fighting a fight that’s already been won”

That is the truth I have to remind myself just about every day. The fight has already been won. Yet I too often live as if my self-effort is required to make up for past struggles and efforts. That I need to earn the grace that is already mine. I need to remind myself everyday what the lyricist proclaims next.

I am redeemed, You set me free

So I’ll shake off theses heavy chains

Wipe away every stain now I’m not who I used to be

I am redeemed

I am redeemed. Paul had to remind the Ephesians in the first chapter that they already could count on these three facts being true. They already were:

Adopted
Redeemed
Sealed

Makes me feel a little better that folks who were mentored by Paul needed a refresher course in who they were. It makes me feel a lot better that Paul understood that the first thing on the list was to remind them of who they were and then address their wrong behavior. We too often reverse that order. One more line from this wonderful song by Big Daddy Weave…

I remember oh God, You’re not done with me yet.

Praise God for that! And praise God for His amazing grace and amazing patience.