Word & Way

Connecting the Justice Threads

2012-01-25T12:21:00.002-05:00

Christianity is the single largest contributor to justice issues in the history of the world. The Christian faith, with its emphasis on the dignity of all human beings, has throughout the centuries been the impetus for justice in both large and small ways. Great works like the Magna Carta and the Declaration of Independence are laced with Christian foundations and theology. For example, the words "All men are created equal and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights - among them are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" are words that wouldn't have been written if not for the teachings of Jesus and the larger teachings of the Bible. There is particularly in these Christian teachings, a sensitivity for the weak and powerless - those who are trapped, who are defenseless, and therefore are in a position of weakness, subject to abuse.

Today's interest in the church for justice issues is encouraging, particularly in efforts to combat human slavery, especially sexual enslavements. At root, underneath it all, is the sanctity of human life - the value of a human being. Precious to God, made in His image, loved from His heart. I suspect it will not be a good day when a person meets God who has knowingly participated in the enslavement, abuse, or destruction of human beings. Particularly the abuse of the weak and the defenseless. Note that I said, "knowingly." In the mystery of life and human awareness this is an engaging matter. Jesus prayed to God on the cross, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." But what about those who do know what they are doing? One surmises that judgement might be a less graceful experience for a person who knowingly and willingly participated in the abuse or destruction of human beings and was unrepentant about it. Another key "and was unrepentant about it." God, in an amazing way, offers forgiveness and grace to the repentant.

The dignity of human beings, whether weak or strong, pretty or homely, rich or poor, born or pre-born, is the foundation of all human justice concerns. This dignity is rooted in Genesis 1:26-27 and manifests in many other places. It does not mean all people deserve equal experiences or lifestyles. It does mean all people are of equal value to God and thereby should be to us. It's risky in today's emotionally charged environment, but it's true - that all justice initiatives have their origin in "original justice" which is the right to life. Starting by protecting the dignity of all human beings, especially these who are the most defenseless - we then gain a growing vision for justice for all other human beings and the plight of defenseless.

No other religion, no other philosophy, comes close to Christianity in catalyzing justice for human beings. The cultures that embrace the legacy of a true Christian and biblical belief are those that work for the highest levels of justice. I'm grateful for this legacy.

Boys to Men

2012-01-05T09:55:00.003-05:00

1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

This post is for men, and perhaps any women who might be interested. It's a call, an invitation, a plea for manhood. What's this all about? Let me explain.

Over the last several years in ministry life, I have observed a disturbing immaturity among men. I am finding men who are emotionally immature, men who are living like and behaving like boys - even though they may be in their 20s, 30s, 40s, and even into their 60s. This is primarily manifest in men who seem to be unable to take on adult responsibilities, unable to govern their personal interests and emotional or sexual appetites, and apply self control to their desires. I see men in their twenties and thirties who haven't outgrown hours-long video gaming with their friends - doing pretty much the exact same things they were doing with their friends when they were 12 years old. Okay - so before getting blasted for being anti video game, let me say that sure - the occasional gaming session for entertainment can be a fun diversion. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about men who spend many hours a week gaming.

I see similar but different manifestations of "adult adolescence" as well. I see men who are unable to love their wives by putting their own interests second to the needs of their wife. Men who are unwilling to deny themselves personal desires such as drinking, drugs and pornography - all while their families suffer for lack of attention, strength, character, and responsibility. I see men who are unwilling and unable to make clear commitments. I'm concerned about it.

I'm not quite sure how we got here, but I do see some suspects in our culture and other places that likely developed in our upbringing. Our culture has so pressed for the feminization of men that we are now seeing results of that. That's a book in its own right. Further, I think our problem may result from parents and mothers who coddled us, perhaps afraid that if they placed a high bar for us we'd rebel, or turn to unhealthy places. I think it's possible that this is the result of more absentee parents - or just distance from our parents. I think that comes from cell phones, personal computers and other things that have fostered relational isolation and individual living rather than more family relating. With everyone having their own computer, we retreat from family conversations, accountabilities and socialization, to the personal entertainments of our computers. Some of those entertainments take many men toward pornography. The pain this is causing marriages is enormous. I can hardly tell you how much time I spend with couples on this issue. I'm not sure if I'm right about these causes - these reasons and sources. I know that life is complex and the stories are likely unique for each person, but there have to be common contributors too. I am sure however, that many of us have turned to unhealthy practices and places. I am sure that I see many, many men who are little more than adult adolescents.

Here's the hard blow - ready? I find that women are generally much more mature in these matters of life than men are. Not all of course. But in general I find more women who are emotionally mature and able to commit to healthy relationships. But their desire for male companionship is so strong, that many believe they have to settle for an immature man - and then the women too can be influenced by the lower bar of the behavior of men. The other day a woman asked me, "Where are these mature men? Because I'd like to meet one." I get that.

Okay - so guys, I'm with you and I think we need to help one another rise to new levels of maturity. We need to take responsibility, put our wives and children before ourselves, learn self-control for our desires and learn that love is sacrificing ourselves for higher purposes and callings: other people, our wives, our kids, our communities. Higher callings also include less tangible things like character. Becoming a person of mature character is a high calling and the benefits that come from this are enormous for our marriages, families, children, communities, and yes - for ourselves.

So guys, let's help one another grow. Grow in character, grow in emotional maturity, grow to take on responsibility, grow to provide the strength that yes, the whole world needs - - from men. This isn't a tirade against men - please don't mistake it for that. I'm one of us. It's a rallying cry to a new vision of mature manhood. Women are waiting, children are waiting, our society is in deep need.

Success?

2011-12-27T14:50:00.002-05:00

Richard Halverson said, "Christianity began in Palestine as a relationship, moved to Europe and became an institution, then came to America and became an enterprise." Fascinating, sad, and I think true.

In the U.S. I find that many Christians tie their sense of value to an idea of "what I have accomplished for the Lord." This takes the form of writing books, starting ministries or churches, developing "kingdom centered" businesses and other things like this. It has a characteristically american entrepreneurial flavor to it. Is that bad? I suppose like a lot of things, it has it's good sides and it's not so good sides. I could reflect on that for several pages.

However, for the moment, my greater interest is how the bible tends to portray success. Ironically, many of the people our entrepreneurial and quantifiable measuring sticks might consider successful are portrayed somewhat negatively in the bible. Solomon was a man who had amassed tremendous wealth and had a heart for God; for a while. The tragedy is that at the end of Solomon's life the bible says he worshiped foreign gods. His wealth took his heart and led it away from God. Then in the new testament there is a man called only "the rich young ruler" who was apparently very successful. He however, turned away from Jesus; he was too devoted to his wealth and status. Even Job, in all his struggle, is a story of a wealthy man who appeared to have a wealth-formula theology. His struggles led him out of this false theology toward a relationship with the grand and glorious God. The guys who were "successful" are generally not held in esteem in the bible's economy.

Then there are others who are huge successes - stand-out luminaries who shine as examples. They are people like Ruth - who had nothing, but was a woman of profound devotion and character. In the new testament, there are three people that come immediately to mind (since it's Christmas time): Simeon, Anna, and John the Baptist. These three people appear to be very modest people. They are without worldly acclaim or accomplishment, yet they are towering figures of success in the bible. Simeon was a man of deep devotion who had shaped his heart into expectant devotion awaiting the messiah. You could say that giving his heart to God and expectantly awaiting the messiah was his vocation. Anna was a woman who spent seemingly all her time in the temple courts praying and worshiping. John the Baptist was the one who said one of the most significant things any human being has ever said regarding God: "I must decrease and he must increase." Of John the Baptist, Jesus Christ himself said "there is none greater born of woman."

Simeon and Anna were people to whom the world paid little attention. John the baptist received attention, but likely was seen by most as a kind of religious kook. The bible however makes it clear that these people are a huge "success" and the "successful people" were often not what the bible considers successful.

If this question is ever a struggle for you - you've wondered "what you've accomplished for the Lord," take heart and realize that Dick Halverson was right. Christianity started in Palestine as a relationship, and giving your heart to God is the highest version of success in His eyes.

Christmas Thoughts

2011-12-21T15:09:00.005-05:00

A Sign: Both Isaiah 7 and Luke 2 say essentially: "this shall be a sign to you, the virgin will be with child..." A sign? A sign is something that shows us something else or points to a larger destination. A sign gets us somewhere. But when we're talking about Christmas - I thought the manger was that destination, that place where we would find the baby. Isn't he - the baby Jesus, the big payload of Christmas? Isn't he the point? Well, yes and no. Or yes, and not exactly. It's helpful for us to be reminded that Jesus' birth was not exactly about Jesus. Jesus wasn't born so we would come to Jesus; he didn't come into the world to lead us to himself. Jesus came into the world to lead us to God. God then, is the full destination. So if a sign is something that helps us get to our full destination - then the baby in the manger is a sign. The one by whom we can get to God. "God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ..." Col 1.

Heavenly Host: In a recent email exchange with a friend, we were talking about the word "host" as it describes the angels. The word host is a watered-down word. In greek the word is στρατιᾶς (stratias) and this word has a very normal translation which is "army." I suspect in our modern days where we wish away violence (but fill our minds with it on TV) we have sentimentalized ourselves away from heavenly armies and distorted them to hosts. This may have started with the King James version, but most modern translations pick up on it. Translated more accurately, the sky was filled with the heavenly "army." As my friend wrote, "this was no baby shower, this was an invasion force and this is one more reason the shepherds had to be told to not be afraid." Well that changes the scene a bit. Now we have a baby who is announced and supported by an army. This puts some teeth into what Christmas is about: Bethlehem, a beach-head stormed by the son who's come to get his people back. Bethlehem the beach-head of a battle, a cosmic war that was won through the cross and the resurrection. The baby is cute, but he's a warrior, and the sky was filled with his troops. This idea is furthered when we realize that the angel who is named in the birth accounts is Gabriel. The name Gabriel means "warrior of God."

What Child is This? I have always liked this Christmas song. If I'm not mistaken it's one of very few hymns or songs with a title that is a question. It's a good question. It suggests the answer is not obvious, and even when it becomes clear that it's Jesus, we've an eternal life to reckon with the fulness of who HE is. John says he's the one through whom all things were made, whether in heaven or on earth. Paul says in Colossians that "He is before all things and in Him all things hold together." You tell me if you can grasp the fulness of that. I get the general idea, but I'm certain I have no idea of the grand scale of this. And trying to grasp the grand scale is all the harder when juxtaposed with the fact that here before us in a manger is a tiny (much smaller than us) baby. A much smaller than us baby, who is the much bigger than us creator, of everything. "What child is this?" Good question. Something to sing about, think about and grow into. Forever.

Merry Christmas Friends. Christmas is God saying, "I'm here, I'm real, I love you." In a whisper.

"I Had No Idea"

2011-12-17T21:40:00.007-05:00

One of the things that happens in life comes when we gain new levels of experience which make us say, "Wow, I had no idea." For example, when you were a child you may have had lots of thoughts about your folks and how well (or not) you thought they did as parents. Then you had children of your own and you said to yourself, "I had no idea." Or, perhaps you are a person who dreamed of starting your own business. You may have seen others who had their own successful businesses, and you figured it was something you'd do one day. So you embarked on the journey and in a short time you found yourself saying (or thinking) "Wow, I had no idea" how much work it takes. This pattern of coming to the point where you say, "Wow, I had no idea" is a normal part of life for those who pay attention as they mature. Maybe you lose one of your parents to death, and then you remember some conversations you had with a friend who's mother died who had told you it was hard. Well, when you lose your own parent, you grieve and realize the depth of it and say to yourself, "I had no idea."

If this is true with normal experiences of human life - imagine how it might be when we meet God. See, in each of these normal life experiences, it's not that you knew nothing of the topic at hand, it's just that you hadn't experienced it first hand. When you did though, you began to say "I had no idea." The Bible suggests a similar experience awaits us regarding meeting God when we enter Heaven. It says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, what God has prepared for those who love him." (1 Cor 2:9) In other words, we can expect to get there and say, "Wow... I had no idea." Not that we hadn't heard about Heaven's experience or thought about it - it's just that when it's first-hand it's a whole lot different, much bigger than our small-by-comparison thoughts could have grasped.

Finally - this makes me think of Christmas. What is really happening here - this small baby in a manger in a tiny village. We try to grasp the magnitude but it's hard to do, even with the assistance of Christmas carols and Bible texts. The Bible suggests people talked about the baby, some revered him, others had little recognition of his magnitude or majesty. Who is this child in the manger? Who is he really? Well, a little later in the New Testament we read "He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross." (Colossians 1:15-20)

There we have it. This is who the baby is. Wow. We had no idea.

How Do We Recognize Love?

2011-11-29T11:26:00.001-05:00

Love will heal you. Love will give you life. Love will make your soul grow. Love will make you a freer person. Love is not the same as strong feelings which can be often possessive, sometimes obsessive. Love does not manipulate you or treat you as something to consume or possess. Love may let you learn a difficult lesson to protect you from a more difficult one. Love may say yes, love may say no – it depends, because love always wants the best for you.

Love will tell you the truth which may sometimes hurt. Love will not assist you in self destructive behavior. Love can manifest in anger when it sees evil being done, but love is not self-centered anger. Love may discipline you because it believes you are better than your poor behavior and it wants better for you, believes better for you. Love exhorts you to your best because love is always “for” you and for your well being. Yes, love is for you, never against you.

God is Love

Love is emotion, love is intellect, love is highest ideals and virtue. Love is rescue, love is sacrifice, love serves and love gives. Love is not in it to get your love; love is in it to give you love. Love does not require and certainly does not demand, sex. Love is rich in friendship, tender toward the weak, protective of the vulnerable. Love never exploits. Love gives affirmation and often affection. Love does not always like; it is deeper than that and stronger too – love always loves.

Love comes from God, He is its source. Love seeks reconciliation, love works for redemption, love is the first to a sincere apology. Love is life giving and identity affirming; love changes lives, changes hearts and changes the world. Love is the work of the church – of all believers, and it is the hunger of every human being’s deepest place.

God is Love

Love will not betray you or double cross you. Love is not apathetic; love cares deeply. Sometimes love cries, sometimes love fights when a person or a relationship or a thing is worth fighting for. Love is the highest virtue because all other virtues are sub categories of it. This is because God is love.

Because Love is from God we may not always understand it because His ways are higher than ours. But as longing has an object – as thirst has water and hunger food, Love is our highest longing needing the highest answer. Yes – God is love.

Advent & When God Does Religion

2011-11-28T11:17:00.005-05:00

People tend to do religion quite differently than God does. You probably know that the word "religion" means to "reconnect." That in its own right is provocative to me. Reconnect to what? To whom?

Well, Christmas gets to the core of Christianity. You might say that wrapped up in those swaddling cloths, IS the core of Christianity. Here we have neither abstract theologies or philosophical debates. We have no denominations and spats about free will or ways of baptism. Here we have, quite simply - what is real, what is alive, what is relational, what is human, what is God. What could be more real, more present, less debatable, than a baby lying before you? This is how God chose to do it. It's not theological, and yet it's the highest Christian theology - Jesus Christ, God's son, a newborn. What could be more normal than a baby? What could be more everyday than a baby? You try changing diapers and getting up in the middle of the night. What could be more life than a baby? What could be more miraculous than a baby who is God's son? Here you go, in a manger, the normal and the miraculous. Two words that describe the ways of God.

How would you have done it if you were God? How would a transcendent, awesome God who wants a relationship with us, show himself to us without scaring the pants off of us? So God, the one whom all the "religion" is about - chose to do it this way: a baby. It makes me think -

Where religion drifts toward the intellectual, this is personal.
Where religion gets into debate, this is about relationship.
Where religion gets philosophical, this is actual.
Where religion can be distant, this is present.
Where religion gets institutional, this is human.
Where religion gets abstract, this is quite simply, God.

Six words for Christmas: personal, relationship, actual, present, human, God. I hope all six saturate your soul. That'd be quite a gift.

Questions

2011-11-22T08:35:00.003-05:00

We can presume that people are the only living things that ask "why?" Human beings are the only living things that have a hunger to know, to understand the larger picture, the philosophical mysteries. Only Gary Larson's "Far Side" would have animals asking "why?" I'm full of questions. Perhaps you are too. Children are the ones with the most questions, as their curiosity sends their minds on a constant search to know why. In this regard, perhaps I haven't outgrown childhood.

A few reflections on all of this: There's a difference between curiosity and skepticism. Curiosity is open while skepticism is doubtful. Both have their place but skepticism runs the risk of thinking too highly of itself. It has a "know it all" thread underneath. The skeptic also has to be skeptical about skepticism, asking "is this attitude and approach really appropriate?" Yet, to be skeptical sometimes is healthy - perhaps even a God given gift. When you smell a rat, it's probably a good thing to be skeptical. I have my share of skeptical queries, but I've learned to try to see the risk of having an attitude when it comes to skepticism. "Having an attitude" is never life giving, never a place of soul growth. Curiosity is different however.

This brings me to the important understanding of balance, when it comes to questions. There are lots of important balance points it seems to me. One is knowing when to admit our smallness and to embrace an appropriate humility up against the great mysteries. (That's part of being a child, and Jesus said the Kingdom is for those who come to it as a child.) The second is sticking to what the Bible says and not prognosticating far beyond.

Regarding the deepest mysteries of life - we pretty quickly come to questions of origins - "how is there something instead of nothing, and how did that something begin?" In my view, the most aggressive philosophical pursuits take us to a point where we have to admit our smallness. It's like saying, "beyond this point, we have no answers." Both an evolutionary atheist and a Bible believing Christian come to a point where they have to "just accept things" at that point. For the atheist, it's where did matter originate? Where did it come from? No matter how small the particulates, we have to ask "where did it come from?" For an atheist on the question of origins, to have a position on this is to make a statement of faith - to believe something we can't fully understand.

For the Christian, we accept that in the beginning, before anything we know as "the world" existed, God existed. We then ask, "Where did God come from?" The answer is, "He didn't come from anything - he always existed, and he is the source from which everything else comes." To accept this is to express faith. Faith is not unreasonable, it the position we hold as the result of our reason. On the matter of origins the atheist and the believer both have a point of faith. There are lots of other matters like this too - predestination and free will being one example.

On #2, what the Bible says - I find it unpersuasive when people try to create dogmatic biblical positions by assuming things that the Bible doesn't say. The bible speaks to many things, but there are also many things it doesn't cover. I think it's helpful when trying to glean from the Bible, to stay with what it says. After that, I have to say, "I'm not sure about that - God has chosen not to reveal that in the Bible." We either accept that or not. One is a position of humility which is life giving, the other a position of superiority which isn't life giving. On this topic, someone once said, "Trying to answer a lot of scientific questions from the Bible, is like trying make Moby Dick a manual on whaling and oceanography." That's not what it is, and it's not why it was written.

So "balance" is the word that comes to mind. On the biggest, most mysterious questions of life, I want to seek them out as rigorously as possible. But I have to balance that with knowing that up against the biggest mysteries, my intellect is small. I accept that there are things I will not know. That doesn't mean I don't keep seeking though.

On Biblical debates, the balance is to stick with what the Bible clearly says, and accept that there are mysteries in the space beyond what it talks about. When a position is required and the Bible isn't clear, then we're best to hold our position with a significant dose of humility.

Grace Like Manna

2011-11-14T14:09:00.004-05:00

In Exodus, God set his people free from Egyptian captivity and then provided food for them on their journey toward his promised land. The food was a daily supply of bread-like nutrition called manna, and it appeared each new morning. God told his people to gather enough to last for one day, and then tomorrow they could gather enough fresh manna again. Being fearful and untrusting people like most of us, some of the Israelites sought to gather more than one day's need. After all, "what if God doesn't hold up on his promise and give us manna again tomorrow?" To this, the Bible says essentially that "manna doesn't keep." Those who sought to store it found that it spoiled and had maggots. Gross. Yesterday's manna wont do and tomorrow's manna isn't here yet.

Grace is like that. Grace is a daily thing with God. See, through the cross God has set us free by his forgiveness. On the new journey of life with God, he offers us grace for our sin so that we might keep living as free people. Kind of like manna for Israel. Grace is his daily supply of what we need to live in his freedom and with joy; with a clean conscience from the past and without fear of what will happen if we sin in the future. But many of us have a hard time trusting grace. What if God doesn't give us grace for sin in the future? When will he just say, "enough grace for you already - do you know how much grace I keep pouring out for you? No more." We can get fearful about this so we try to "store up grace" in case we need it in the future should God decide to no longer provide it. Or sometimes we reach for yesterday's grace when we felt it in a special way. Like manna, yesterday's grace doesn't keep however. Is that bad news? It'd only be bad news if there wasn't a fresh supply of grace every day. Sometimes we keep trying to retrieve yesterday's grace because while God has given us forgiveness, we're still living in the regret of our yesterday, not believing that his grace was sufficient for it.

Will you trust God for today's grace? It's likely that to do this you will also have to grow to trust him for tomorrow's promised grace. Otherwise you will you try to "store up grace" the way some Israelites tried to store manna; and grace like manna, doesn't keep. God made it this way, so our relationship with him would never get stale, so we'd keep coming to him daily, living with him in his fresh supply of today's grace.

"Prosperity Leadership" and the book of Numbers

2011-10-24T13:26:00.003-04:00

The book of Numbers is a very helpful study in leadership. It couldn't be any clearer that Moses was God's called leader. It couldn't be any clearer that Canaan was God's given vision. It also couldn't be any clearer that the challenges for God's leader were enormous and difficult as he led God's people toward God's vision.

The reason this is worth noting is that it debunks a false leadership narrative. That narrative goes something like this: "If we really have the person God has called, and we are really following God's vision - then it should all go smoothly and easily." I have seen this false theology of leadership expressed many times in the church, through many different statements and sentiments. "Gee, this is hard, maybe we aren't following God's vision for us." "I wonder if our leader isn't really the right person - if he/she was, this would be a much easier journey." No, there's much more to it than that simple formula.

The book of Numbers tells it differently. The journey was hard for the people and for the leaders. There was complaining and rebellion, insurrection and doubt. Moses as leader was challenged with hard decisions, dilemmas, a legion of obstacles and difficult people. My own leadership experience suggests to me that this menu of leadership challenges may be common fare. The bible tells numerous stories of God's appointed leaders dealing with one hardship after another. Talk to the apostle Paul about this - who was shipwrecked, flogged, opposed, mocked, stoned and starved.

I'm not sure where the idea of "prosperity leadership" originated. I suspect it is tied to some form of prosperity theology where God's favor is calculated through ease of life and comfortable circumstances. Summed up, this theory suggests, "If God is in it, it's going to be easy." Try telling that to Moses, Joshua, Daniel, Paul, Peter, and most of all Jesus.

Such a theology of leadership is shallow and I imagine it makes for shallow leaders, as well as shallow followers. I suspect it has also led to a lot of division in churches, as well as the forfeiture of following God's call and God's vision when things began to get a little challenging. It requires no real faith, it asks for no growth and frankly it's a model I have never seen in the scriptures.

The Little Word with Huge Meaning

2011-10-17T12:04:00.002-04:00

In the New Testament there are a number of places where Jesus teaches the disciples through the use of the word "as." As, suggests "in the same way." When you begin to give real thought to this you begin to see the remarkable and sometimes startling power of this little word 'as.'

In the Lord's prayer Jesus teaches us to seek to do the work of God's heart so that His will is done on earth "as" it is in Heaven. Same priorities, same character, same vision, same love. Then in the prayer, we ask God to forgive us our sins "as" (in the same way) we forgive those who sin against us. Wow, that'll get your attention. In reality, I'd like God not to forgive me as I forgive others. I'd like God to use much more grace and mercy than I do. Of course there's a teaching point, "Well David, perhaps you need to have much more grace and mercy."

Jesus said on a couple of occasions, "As (in the same way) the father has sent me, so are you being sent." Jesus was sent to live a life of redemptive purpose and to give his life a sacrifice for others. "As" here, suggests we are sent to live the same way.

Jesus prayed in John 17 "may they be one 'as' we are one." Here he is praying for us to have the same unity the same depth of love and soul connectedness, the same yieldedness and mutual love and support that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have in the Trinity.

There are many more "as" places in Jesus' teaching. When this little word shows up, it carries huge meaning that needs real reflection and prayer.

Morning Prayer

2011-10-15T19:02:00.004-04:00

I am a morning person and I often feel most alive in the first few hours of a day - most optimistic and also most clear minded. I should also say that sleep has a lot to do with this. I am grateful because I generally sleep well and I usually wake up feeling rested and ready to for a new day.

I particularly like the quiet of the morning as a time to meet with God, to think about His goodness, to read the scriptures and to pray. In so doing, I embrace the rhythms of newness as the cycle of creation offers a new day as God has made it.

From the time I was a kid, the little bit of church going that I did was in the Episcopal church which was liturgical and mostly from the Prayer Book. While I usually prefer other styles of worship, one thing the liturgical tradition impressed upon me was the idea of prayers that were offered for various occasions. Couple that with the fact that at a recent staff meeting our staff discussed Psalm 90 and the idea of "numbering our days," implying each one of them is special and unique. This prompted a discussion about a "Prayer for the Morning" - an expression to God that could set our hearts and minds with Him as we enter this new and unique day. Each day of course is unique, it has never been before, and it will never be again. Our staff asked me if I would try to write a prayer like this - so here it is:

Good morning gracious and beautiful God.
With the sun I rise to you, with creation I praise you, with the saints I adore you.

Thank you for the gift of sleep and the arrival of this new day.
You alone are God; my Lord and my forgiver.

Heavenly Father, help me move through this day with the wonder of a child;
with my heart open to both give and receive love.

Fill me with your Spirit so that I am communing with you throughout the day;
moment by moment and breath by breath.
Grant me the faith to face challenges, the character to be true, the grace to forgive.

And when the sun seeks the western horizon and this day's end draws near,
help me rest in the knowledge that you are my life,
and all that I am is secure through Jesus Christ. Amen

Thinking and Thanking

2011-10-03T18:32:00.002-04:00

Recently when studying Jesus' prayer in John 17, the thought hit me that Jesus was praying about God's interests. It made me ask if I ever do this. There are times when I have asked God to glorify Himself, to reveal Himself and things like this. But what struck me about the prayer was a sense that Jesus was not praying for God's interests for any other reason - not as they have to do with His own (Jesus') plans or hopes. Rather, Jesus was simply aligning His heart with God by praying for God's interests.

To pray for God's interests requires first that one knows God's interests. To know God's interests, one has to really know God Himself, or as Jeremiah said, that a person "understands me and knows me." See how all of this builds - one step on top of the other?

All of this then took me to another place of prayer - and for lack a better way to say it, this other thread is "thinking and thanking." The thought occurred to me that one of the great aspects of prayer is to simply think about God. Yes, to direct my spirit and my mind to think about who God is and make these thoughts intentionally God directed such that they are prayer. In so thinking about God, I can come to no other conclusion except to begin to delight in who God is - what He is like, His personality, His priorities, His character - His Glory. To think about these things is going to make me grateful. I'm going to start thanking Him for who He is and then my prayer is going to turn into a little worship service of gratitude. As I continue to thank Him, my mind is going to be continually stretched to be thinking more about who He is. And the more I think about who He is, yep, the more I'm going to be thanking Him for who He is. So the two are going to propel one another forward in a prayer cycle of higher reaching thoughts and deeper reaching gratitude. For what? For nothing other than God. A beautiful dance and mutual encouragement that comes when God directed prayer is woven in the pattern of thinking and thanking.

10 Year Remembrances

2011-09-07T14:01:00.002-04:00

In honor of the horrible and tragic events of September 11, 2001; remarks from my message delivered the following Sunday are reprinted here:

The prophets speak about how we mis - take life. How we substitute the false for the true, the superficial for the sublime. How we neglect the important and entertain, even work for, the vain things.

Now tragedy is our prophet. Her voice has made many things clearer now. Sadness is our nation’s unity and anger is knocking at the door, while vengeance is an unwelcome outsider that wishes to come in – brandishing its grim sickle.

In our sorrow that sometimes seethes, our laments become our confessions – but they need greater definition from us. They need to be faced and named so we wont be the same again. So we will seek God for real and for good.

Now our generation has met with calamity and a new fear. Now we understand our parents more, or our grandparents. Now we live more together, and less full of our selves. Now our hugs mean
more. “I love you,” means more. Friends, family, real community in Christ, mean more.

When will it be like it was again? Do you want it to be? Now that what’s meaningful is meaningful for real. Today our living is more profound, more sublime, more grateful, and imminently more a gift. Those who lost loved ones feel a pain that aches, and anger too. But their death is not wasted. And if I might say it, their death has become a gift to us. For their death has given us a call to life and to meaning and to God. Theirs then is a sacrificial death, pointing us to the one who died as the sacrifice… the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ.

And so, when I seek God, I think of a verse of Scripture that is perhaps my favorite. But I sometimes feel unsure of saying so because when people have the “What is your favorite verse?” discussion this one does not appear very personal and it is not about Jesus. But I am a morning person, and on countless mornings, I have risen to a new day and sought a quiet place – which is usually my back deck. I often go there with my Bible and a cup of coffee, and this verse is how God and I greet one another…..

Lamentations 3:21-24

Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, "The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him."

God Being With Us

2011-09-04T08:23:00.002-04:00

15 years ago, a friend gave me a small piece of paper with the following words typed on it. I placed it in the mirror over my dresser, and it has served as a foundation for me, a reminder of God's goodness and presence through all the experiences of life.

"With You, nothing is accidental, nothing is incidental, and no experience is wasted. You hold in Your own power my breath of life and all my destiny. And every trial that You allow to happen is a platform on which You reveal Yourself, showing Your love and power, both to me and to others looking on. Thank You that I can move into the future non-defensively, with hands outstretched to whatever lies ahead, for You hold the future and You will always be with me, even to my old age, and through all eternity."

I do not know who originally wrote this, but it has been very meaningful to me and I hope it might be helpful to you.

The Ultimate Questions

2011-08-22T11:16:00.004-04:00

Lately I've had some meaningful and warm conversations with people about faith, the possibility of faith, questions about truth, science and religion and things like that. I enjoy these conversations a lot, I like the intellectual pursuit of them and the way they offer opportunities to make new friends over meaningful interaction and thought sharing.

The question of whether God exists is of course one of the oldest questions of human inquiry. The two basic conclusions have placed people in either the "yes" or "no" families for many millennia. The yes or no families tend to represent those who draw their conclusions through religion and those who draw their conclusions through science.

In my view, a serious thinker who is a person of character (both are important here) sees two important points in this inquiry: The first is that these questions are about the very highest and most mysterious aspects of existence. In our day, people who approach this intellectually, will not in this life "prove" that their position is right - proved as to make an air tight, locked up case. That is to say, I believe that both sides must admit that faith is involved - faith being a component of trust into the space where one is not sure. A person of religious faith should agree to this, but a person who has placed their trust in science must also agree that they are putting faith in certain places of the argument. So faith is involved, regardless of which side you choose. Secondly, because there will not be an air tight, completely conclusive proof, a person must then choose based on the side he/she finds to be the more persuasive one, the more logical one, the one that presents the most intellectually intelligible position - the one that is founded on rigorous intellectual examination while at the same time must be accompanied by sterling character. The character part is needed to ensure that a person will not be deceitful, that they are humble enough to concede where they may be wrong or where the other person has made a good point, and finally, that they will not manipulate information in order to gain currency for their position. Finding people like this is not always easy.

Okay - now on to why I once was an atheist who embraced the scientific view, a view without God, where all that exists is the result of random physical forces, but I no longer hold this view. There are two main streams for me, and remember that the point I'm making is not "which one is right" but "which one do I find more persuasive - more logical to me, makes the most sense." The first stream is the question of origins - "where did anything come from?" Science says "matter, elements, sub atomic sized particles that banded together and became something more" etc... I appreciate that, but the question remains - "where did that come from?" Science says "it was so tiny, it was gaseous, it was...." It doesn't matter how small it is, size is a relative concept. It's not a "how big" question, it's a "yes or no" question, an "it exists or doesn't" question. Size is immaterial. Thus, to hold a position that "it just came out of nothing" is illogical to me. It does not have intellectual credibility to me. There is nothing that exists, that comes from nothing. Something, or someone - made it. That's normal every day life reasoning. Remember when you were a kid and you saw a magician pull a rabbit out of a hat and it seemed to you that "something just appeared." Well, later you learned that the rabbit was always there, it didn't come from nowhere - but that it's "appearance from nothing" was not actually an appearance from nothing - but it was done with a sleight of hand. Actually the magician brought it to our attention through some mysterious means. Interesting.

To me, it is not persuasive to say that matter came from nothing, even if it was tiny, even if it was elemental or gaseous. It is much more logical to say that God has always existed, and then at a point of his choosing, he chose to create. Science may then ask, "Where did God come from?" That's a good question - but the answer is "He always existed, he is the ultimate reality - thus everything came from him." A science person might say "I don't buy it." Okay - fair enough. We can only operate on what we personally find the most persuasive position. To me however, this view is much more persuasive, more logical, than the view that physical existence came into being, from nothing. Another aspect of the purely scientific view that began to grow hollow for me, was that advances in science, meant changes were made to "scientific facts." For instance, 50 years ago - there were scientific views that were held to be "fact" but now they aren't, because advances have changed our understanding. In other words, "that was wrong, cuz now we know more." Take one of the simplest examples; when I was a kid, there were 9 planets, scientific "fact." Now however, there are 8; scientific "fact," because Pluto it was discovered, did not qualify as a planet. I find the changes in the facts to be disconcerting to intellectual progress as well as determinations through logic.

In wrapping up this part - someone's gonna say "do you believe in science." My answer is definitely "yes." I believe in so much of what science teaches us, and has uncovered and discovered. I'm really grateful for it. But on the question of origins, I do not find the science side to be persuasive.

The second stream is that science has no explanation for the non-physical world, and the non-physical world is an absolutely massive part of human life. Human beings live every day looking for love and identity, they seek forgiveness and hope. These are major, major aspects of human existence and science does not have an explanation for these things. If life was purely a science based, physical world, love would not be part of human life and existence. Yet love is a more significant player in human experience than the existence of many physical things like mountains or flowers. We must have some understanding for the question, "where did love come from?" Now this entry is getting really long and I could go on for a long time, but gotta cut it short - so by far the most persuasive answer to "where does love come from?" is "God." God is love, we're told in the Bible, and this foundational point explains a great deal of human existence. Without this foundational point, we are addressing only the physical world, which is no where near a full explanation of human existence and human experience. My mind demands some kind of persuasive answer to this massive category of life. And this category of love, is only one of many like it that are in the same conversation - grief, forgiveness, hope... are a few more.

I'm very appreciative of people who are seriously seeking truth and doing so with both character and intellectual rigor. I hope that I've done it this way, I know I continue to try. For me, this (constant) inquiry has led me to the position that I find most intellectually credible, most persuasive - that God is the ultimate reality and all comes from him. This is what first led me to become a Christian; and while there are many more aspects to my Christian life now that I have been a Christian for over 25 years, this one remains a mainstay of my relationship with God and life as I understand it.

New Testament Christianity

2011-07-05T10:12:00.006-04:00

Sometimes people read the New Testament and say things like, "I wish our faith was more like that of the disciples in the New Testament." There is an aliveness to their vision, a passion to their fellowship, and a commitment to their cause to take the message of the resurrected Jesus to as many people as possible. Much of this I suspect, has not only to do with the immediacy with which they experienced the resurrection, but also the cultural context in which the faith burst forth. In those days, Christianity was a very small minority of people living in the larger Roman influenced culture. That culture was violent, profligate, and decadent. It was far from God, it was indulgent, it was idolatrous, it was "anything goes."

In contrast, up through the 1950s in America, there was a broad embrace of the Christian faith, certainly the Judeo-Christian system of life and values. These values were present in most corners of the culture, they were received as authoritative. The vast majority of American people at least endorsed them if not lived them. Not so today.

Our culture today is much more... yep, like the Roman influenced culture in the days of the early believers about whom we read in the New Testament. We're not fully to that point yet, but we are increasingly resembling that world, and moving in that direction. The difference in the violence part, is that we try to hide our violence in today's America and we don't talk about it much. Certainly the mainstream media isn't going to talk about it - most prevalently in the form of abortion. In New York city for example, three African American children are aborted for every two allowed to be born, and among Down Syndrome children in general, 90% are aborted if diagnosed in the womb. (WSJ 7/5/11). That's a lot of hidden violence.

Since our culture appears to be moving to resemble the culture of the days of the early church, this may be our great opportunity to return to the passion and vision of the faith of those early believers. Some might lament that biblical Christianity (there are lots of non-biblical forms) appears to be moving away from its majority status. But I'm reminded that the church is rarely most vigorous and alive in times of ease, or when it has majority status. When the surrounding culture gets darker, the light of the gospel can shine brighter. The apostle Paul called the Christians in Philippi to "shine like stars in the universe." Stars only shine against a dark sky.

So as I read the headlines and move toward being distressed by what I read, the first place I go is to prayer. When I do this, I'm reminded that my real citizenship is in Heaven, my real leader is the King of Kings not the president or congress. My home country is the Kingdom of God. It seems clear to me that this was the way the early Christians lived and how they saw life. The big difference is that for them, this vision was a totally new vision of a much more hopeful life since all they had known was violence and oppression and profligacy. To us, this vision can seem a loss because some will lament that our culture used to be more virtuous. Perhaps. But it's the same vision regardless of what got us here, and this vision of living unto the real King, in the hope that only He gives, is the most optimistic vision I know for the living of a human life. It may be time for us to take up the mantel again, and shine.

Reconciliation

2011-06-29T08:48:00.004-04:00

I'm coming to think that all healing is about reconciliation. To be physically healed is to have one's body reconciled to the healthy way that God made us to be. To be spiritually healed, is to be reconciled to God by Jesus, through confession and His forgiveness. Relational healing is when repentance and forgiveness reconciles - brings back to unity - two people who were at odds with each other. The best reconciliation is resurrection, to be reconciled from death to the eternal life for which God made us. That's a cool thought to me.

The "largeness" of this concept of reconciliation begins to gain more footing when we read that "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ" (2 Cor 5:19) and "in Him all things hold together" (Col 1:17). In a spiritual sense, Christ is like "gravity" pulling all things closer to God the father - which means all people who are "away from the father" are being drawn to the father by Christ. And all things that are broken apart in life; disease, emotional brokenness, relational separation, can find their restoration to wholeness - to oneness - through Jesus.

So if you are tracking with me, if for instance, a person experiences God's healing from cancer, this person's body has been "reconciled" and the unity and oneness of all its parts have been brought back to their harmonious unity. Do you see what I mean? Mind you, I'm not trying to write this to start some new doctrine, this thought is more devotional than it is doctrinal. But, I like it, it's helpful to me. Jesus reconciles when he heals; heals bodies, heals relationships, heals broken hearts. "God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ." Simply, it makes me want to pray, "Thank you for this Father. It makes my heart jump."

Ah, the Bible

2011-06-22T10:21:00.004-04:00

Preparing to begin participating in our denomination's annual General Assembly, the main issue this year is the question of the ordination of women as ministers. Hold that thought, and pair it with the fact that yesterday I read Rob Bell's book "Love Wins" for a second and more thorough reading. Both the General Assembly, and Rob Bell's book, have a lot to do with how the Bible is read and interpreted.

Biblical debates are as old as the rabbinic tradition - thousands of years, so there's nothing new there. But how is it that people of equal sincerity and commitment to serving God can read the same book and come to different conclusions? It's really remarkable. And as is well known, when people start talking about religious views, the conversation can get emotional. Probably because we can quickly feel insecure when we are challenged on a topic that is so important to us.

So how can good, devoted people who have equal desire to know and serve God come to such different conclusions? Here's what I think: when reading the Bible, a person's interpretation of it goes something like this - Personality + Biblical Training + Life Experience + Environment = Your View. Reading the Bible is not like reading a weather report that simply reports the temperature and humidity. The Bible is inspired narrative and poetry and story, and therefore places itself in the realm of interpretation. Our personality plays a big part in this. Are we analytical or emotional? Are we aggressive or conciliatory? Add 100 other possibilities of human personality here. Then there is the nature of our Biblical training. Beginner or advanced? If trained in seminary - what type of seminary? If trained through a church - what type of church? Then the matter of life experience. Family background? Good experiences in religious environments or bad ones? Abusive background or healthy? This will make a difference in shaping your interpretation of many passages in the Bible. Then finally environment - what is the prevailing current in the environment you are in? We are all influenced in some way by our environment, and depending on personality, some moreso than others.

When you add all these factors together, we can begin to see how people come to such different conclusions. So, we seek the Spirit of God and ask for His help because when it comes to the Bible, Personality + Biblical Training + Life Experience + Environment = Your View.

Knowing and Understanding

2011-06-09T08:43:00.003-04:00

There is a big difference between knowing and understanding. One can know facts and figures for instance, in preparation for a history test. Dates and locations of battles can be recalled - the knowledge is in tact. But in terms of the history, this knowledge pales by comparison to understanding what brought this battle about. What were the issues behind it, who were the personalities that drove it - essentially, "why" did it happen? If one grasps these latter items, they have begun to understand the history, not just know it. Memorizing the dates and locations was sometimes required for passing tests in school, but that level of understanding is quite one dimensional, as compared to say, three dimensional.

Math has a similar concept. As a more liberal arts and language type person, I struggled with math when it got to sophisticated concepts. Differential logarithms I remember, were my jumping off point. Because I didn't really understand the concepts, I was forced to try to pass the tests by memorizing the steps. I learned how to pass (barely) by practicing what I had memorized - but in reality - I didn't know what I was doing.

You could say that "knowing" is a one dimensional engagement, while "understanding" is a three dimensional engagement. Knowing might be the black and white version, while understanding is the color version. When we don't really understand something, we operate by trying to memorize the rules and then "just do the rules." When we really understand something, we can engage at a much deeper level. We can often "figure it out" even without the rules - because our level of understanding enables us to figure it out - sort of organically, sort of naturally. The people that are only operating at the rules level ask in amazement, "how did you know how to do that?" Or, "how did you figure that out?" The difference is between knowing and understanding.

I think there are a lot of Christians who know the bible but who perhaps don't understand it. I don't say this as criticism really, mostly I'd love to help if I could. This means that many Christians don't really understand the Christian life either - they just "memorize" it, or they just operate by the rules. This distinction becomes very clear in observing the way of Jesus and the way of the Pharisees. Jesus said, "their faith is in vain, their teachings are but rules taught by men." (Mt 15:9) This is what people do when they don't understand, they live a one dimensional engagement at the rules level. In the world of Christian faith, this generally becomes a cheerless and then lifeless regimen of rule following. It's far from the life Jesus lived and taught. The Christian life he taught was a richly textured, organic and intimate life with God. Jesus took the water of everyday life and turned it into wine. The Pharisees however were adept at the reverse, turning the rich life with God (wine) into a dirge of obligation (water). Another of the many examples of their differences can be seen in the arguments about Sabbath. To the Pharisees, the Sabbath was a hard law of prohibitive obligation, to Jesus it was life giving intimacy with God. Jesus said, "The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath." (Mark 2:2)

One could write many pages on this topic - but for blog purposes, I'll close with a final illustration. This one makes the distinction between "knowing and understanding" through a very different picture: Job's life. If you know the story, Job lived through remarkable suffering. The accounts are strong, poignant, and heartbreaking. Yet remarkably, they are life-giving. At the end of it all, after the suffering, the false friends, the arguments with God and the reconciliation - Job reflects on his life before his hardship and now after. He says, before all of this "my ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you." Same idea - knowledge vs. understanding.

Violence and Honor

2011-06-06T14:18:00.004-04:00

When Jacob's daughter Dinah was violated by Shechem, Dinah's brothers went on the war path (Genesis 34). On the one hand, their passion for the protection of their sister is an admirable and almost beautiful chivalry. On the other, the force of their retributive justice is arresting.

After Shechem violated Dinah, Shechem's father Hamor proposed to Jacob that his people and the people of Israel should intermarry and combine cultures. Jacob's sons said in effect, "Okay - in that case all your men are to be circumcised in order to blend into our tradition." On behalf of the men of his tribe, Hamor said "yes," ostensibly so his son could get the woman he wanted. One can imagine him breaking this news to the men. "Okay men, I've agreed that all of you will be circumcised." "We'll be what?" "Circumcised. That's when a man...." The Bible says the men were agreeable to the idea, but I'm guessing Hamor's popularity polls may have taken a dip around then.

When Hamor's men were in their third day of recovery, still sore and unable to be active; Simeon and Levi, two of Dinah's brothers attacked all the men of Shechem to render justice for the defilement of their sister. In fact, they slaughtered all of them and sacked their town. Today, such a form of retribution would be considered excessive. I wonder if that's partly due to the fact that today, we live with almost nothing of the sense of honor. We have very little appreciation for the position of important people, we have nominal regard for the difference in generations. While we may be a less outwardly violent culture than that of Genesis 34, I'm not sure we are less so in the hidden places. I'm not a proponent of violence but I am a proponent of honor and this account seems to reveal something of their connectedness.

Ours is a culture that stresses and strives toward equality. That's admirable on the one hand, and an important matter. However, if all are equal, then none are worthy of honor. The loss of honor is a significant loss. Honor lends a certain beauty and dignity to life, to people, to humanity. I don't mean false honor with superficial or duplicitous pretense, I mean the genuine honor that people deserve for their humanity, for their position, for their reputation. All people deserve honor, while some are of special stature to deserve extra measures. In a culture of honor, all women deserve to be protected. In a culture of equality I wonder if women are more vulnerable. In a culture of honor, the more gentle are protected by the more powerful. In a culture of equality, this may not be the case. In a culture that has forfeited honor, we have lost a great deal of dignity and we tend to have more of "every man/woman for himself." Without honor, there's less sense of caring for others, less sense of community.

I could do without the violence that sometimes accompanies the preservation of honor. But I'd love to find a way to regain a greater sense of honor in our lives. Dinah's brother's were passionate about her honor. There's a beauty to it, even though their vengeance was harsh.

Noah & Jesus

2011-05-31T10:58:00.002-04:00

Great parallels in the Old Testament and New Testament accounts are often an encouragement to me. There are big ones and small ones. This is a big one.

There are only two men in the Bible through whom God saved humanity. Noah and Jesus. One was fully human and God saved people through preserving him and his progeny, and one was fully God and fully human, and God saves people through his forgiveness and new life. Noah was a righteous man in a world of violence and sexual boundarylessness. The Bible says in hebrew that the design of God "yasar" had been turned to evil intent "yeser" in the hearts of men. Two words so close in sound, so significant in the Bible. God's good design turned to evil by the human heart. A solution was needed, so God found a righteous man, Noah. When the floods were finished, a dove returned to Noah with an olive leaf. It was a dove that landed on Jesus at his baptism. The dove became a symbol of Hope, that there could be life again. The dove is powerful in his meekness in both instances.

When the rain stopped, God told Noah he would place a sign in the sky as a reminder that he would never flood the whole earth again - the sign was a bow. The hebrew says "bow" not "rainbow," there was no such thing yet. A bow, paired with an arrow is something Noah would have known to be an implement for killing. So God is going to make this sign of killing into a sign of life and grace. Rainbows appear after rain, and to Noah, rain would have been a powerful memory of death. But now after it rained, the bow in the sky was a beautiful reminder of life. An implement of killing would be a sign of life and grace. The rain that had killed would now issue forth that sign of life.

Turn to the New Testament, where we learn that the problem of sin is what keeps people from being able to have a relationship with our perfectly good God. God sent a man, Jesus - the righteous one, to address this. Through Jesus God offers the new covenant of forgiveness that will forever offer grace and life to those who will accept it. The sign of this covenant? An implement of killing - a cross. A place where human beings put people to death, would now be a sign of how God will offer life through the one righteous savior. A symbol of death - a cross, now the sign of God's new covenant of life.

Turning something that people use for death, into something that God uses as a sign of life is so, well, so much like our God. Using the dark side of human hearts as the means to life. Only God does this this way. If you read the bible closely you'll see that he does this a lot.

Two men, two covenants, two symbols of death turned into symbols of life. Thank God.

Stories

2011-05-28T06:52:00.005-04:00

Years ago, if someone used the word "story" it had a pejorative connotation for me. It had the ring of something that wasn't true. From childhood, we're read stories which are usually intended for life lessons, but they're usually fables for the imagination. Add to that that my mother's way of asking us children if we were lying was to say, "Are you telling me a story?" Stories to me were fables and myths with an undertone from mom that connected them to lies. So when I was in my twenties, if in a Christian context someone said "let's talk about the stories of the Bible," I would recoil at the thought because I believe the bible to be true. To use the word "story" for the bible, cast doubt on its veracity for me and so "story" and "bible" were two words in opposition.

Then life happened. Then walking more deeply with others in their hardship happened. Then counseling happened. Now I see all of this very differently. Now I receive the word 'story' as a person telling what happened, as a person telling about their life and their experiences and in so doing, they are telling about themselves. Now I listen very differently than I used to.

Human beings are the only living things that have articulated language (except for God and that's for another post). Surely this has a great deal to do with the fact that we are made in the image of God, for intimate relationships. Human beings are the only living things that have the ability to tell their story - which is to know and be known - a deep longing of the human soul. Given this uniqueness, when a person begins to tell a story, I am keenly interested. Part of the beauty of a person telling a story is that the very way they tell it tells me a lot about that person. I love words and so I'm drawn to the words people use. I can get pretty interested and animated about words. I might ask for instance, "Why did you choose to use the word 'frightening' there?" If you listen to someone tell a story and pay attention to the person's voice, it can tell you a lot. How much character is in that voice? How much experience? Is the personality animated? curious? angry? a know-it-all? Listening to the words, the tone, the resonance of the voice is part of what I now love. Mostly because they all help us know the story teller better.

Often, our stories, our life-stories, are a big mixture of life's experiences. That usually means we have both positive and negative things in our lives. While most of us aspire to live well, most of us have our good moments that yield happy stories, and we have our not so good moments that may yield hard stories. But here's the thing - good and not so good, it's all part of our story. And now the challenge of stories in church contexts...

For various reasons, many of them unfortunate, most of us sterilize our story when we are sharing our lives in church contexts. Because we fear rejection if there are unsavory aspects to our stories, we clean them up, telling only parts of our story - which is to say 'we don't tell the whole story' which is to say 'we manage the information we share' which is to say 'we're not telling the full and authentic story' which is to say we are often dishonest about the reality of our lives. This dishonesty, this telling of the partial story leaves many of us feeling just as lonely as ever. Ironically, church becomes like Facebook.

Facebook is the largest story telling community in the world today. People, especially in today's tech age, want badly to be known. But most Facebook pages are nothing other than "let me try to impress you with my life" pages. The best pictures from the party, the best pictures of the family and the vacation - you get the picture. So everyone reads everyone else's Facebook pages and wonders "why isn't my life as happy as that?" Well the fact is, no one's life is as happy as their Facebook page. The pictures on the page are not the life I have, but the life I wish I had. And so we continue to peddle false impressions of our lives, telling incomplete and false versions of our lives - all the while leaving us to feel lonelier than ever. I find that ironic, that Facebook and church are similar - both places where we're looking to share our stories, both places making people feel lonelier.

Finally, to enter into a story is to learn the art of paying attention. Much of art is about just this - "paying attention." Listen closely, look closely - pay attention! One problem with many evangelical culture is that we are not good at listening to people share their stories. This is because we are prone to listen in order to judge what we think is wrong with the story. So we're not listening to embrace the person and know them and appreciate their story, we are listening to judge. This needs attention - because listening to judge aborts the authenticity of a person's story and has the effect of rejecting the person. Yes, this is why in church most people sterilize their stories and why people never find the quality of relationships they are looking for in church. So how might we listen to stories? We're no good until we begin to listen with sympathy - "feeling with." Sure there may be unsavory aspects of the story and we don't condone that, but one can listen with sympathy, even to the unsavory parts. At least a mature person can. We do well to be reminded that there is a Lord for every story and I don't have to be Him. Thank God, the master of all stories.

The Good Stuff

2011-05-11T08:25:00.003-04:00

If I could single handedly dispel a myth, I'd like to. The myth is that life with Jesus is all happy trails, and that if I'm walking with Him and "doing the right things" then He'll bless me and it will be pure bliss. There are numerous reasons to reject this myth. First is that a life of ease is rarely a life of growth. I remain convinced that God is more interested in our growth and maturation, our becoming more like Jesus, than He is interested in our happiness and ease. Second is that we have no Biblical precedent suggesting a life with God is a life of ease. Let's begin with Jesus' own life - Jesus who was God's son. His life was challenged with rejection, betrayal, misunderstanding and injustice. It ended with a torturous death. Then there are the disciples, frequently challenged by Jesus, often encouraged, sometimes rebuked. If we look at Peter as a case study, I would describe Peter's life with Jesus as one of rigorous love. This is getting closer to the real thing - rigorous love. Jesus calls us out of ourselves, into the work of the Father, but perhaps most challenging, into the character of the Father. This matter of our character being transformed to become more like His is like a blacksmith banging on his metal object to take it from useless and unattractive to a forged and beautiful implement to serve the living God.

Life with Jesus is much more about the quality of life than about the happiness of it. Once we have begun to really enter the Jesus centered life, the depth, the meaning, the love, the humbling, the shaping, the being freed of ourselves and called to something higher - all make for a life of remarkable depth and quality. Compared to life apart from Jesus, we might say, "it is far more rigorous but far better." My friend Tyler remarked on this saying, "Yes, Peter's life was ruined by Jesus for anything other than life with Jesus." It was a remarkable statement which clarifies that the life Peter was living was ruined by Jesus because once he had known life with Jesus, nothing else would satisfy the same way. It was hard at times, but it was so much better than life apart from Jesus that Peter stayed with it. Jesus asked the disciples, "are you going to leave me too?" Peter replied "Where else are we going to go, you alone have the words of life." It's as though Peter had thought about it - the "where else" suggests he'd thought about departing and considered other options, only to find upon deep consideration that none of those options had life, Jesus-life, real-life, in them.

Tyler's statement is similar to anything in life where we get introduced to the best version of something. Once we do, the cheaper version doesn't satisfy any more. Once you've had a sip of the very best wine, the cheap stuff you've been drinking and sort of enjoying, now no longer will do.

The Resurrection God

2011-04-18T13:53:00.003-04:00

These days, it is more fashionable than I've heard in a long time, to be pessimistic. Uncertain world events, serious political differences on the home front, threatening national debt with a struggling economy. Sometimes we feel that our pronouncements of pessimism somehow express our insight and enlightenment about the darkness of our days. But to express this deep level of pessimism as Christians, may suggest that our Hope is not Jesus - but is actually in world events and governments. It may suggest that our faith is not so much in the God who is over all these circumstances, but in the circumstances themselves. This is not Christian, it's pessimism. This can become our god if we're not vigilant.

Indeed the unfortunate headlines printed day after day serve as continual indicators of the hurting nature of this world - the very reason for which Jesus came. He, the one victorious after injustice, patient in opposition, loving after rejection, risen after buried! That's our story, that's our headline, that's our news and it is our hope. Time to transfer your hope from world events to the resurrection of Jesus? Maybe. Maybe.

Jill Carritini writes, "The greatest physician has confronted the pains of the world with a stark diagnosis but with a most promising remedy. The resurrection means Christ has announced the arrival of a kingdom that confronts our infectious despair, calling us further up and farther into the world where God reigns, and we are ever the harbingers of this good news."

There you go.

Good Friday

2011-04-13T17:42:00.002-04:00

I have often wondered why we call it good Friday. Seems to me that on it's face it was horrible Friday. Only the good and powerful God could turn a torturous cross into something that people would ever come to refer to as "good." If God can turn a cross into the place of redemption, then He can use our pain and turn it into something profoundly good. If we let Him.

Reflecting on the events of Good Friday, I thought about Peter's failures and denials. In Luke it says that after his third denial of Jesus, Jesus from a distance looked right at Peter. Then, Peter wept bitterly.

I wonder what was in that stare. . .
the eyes of Christ,
a heart laid bare,
shown now to be so fragile there,
before, a heart so bold.

I wonder if he remembered those eyes,
long after he was gone,
pain aching through his soul and breath,
his lord and friend, accused to death.
Could there be healing from that time -
a wound which turned a man sublime.

Did he see those eyes when he lay to sleep,
or looked out on those hills?
And could he accept the power of that cross,
forgiving all his ills?

Did ever the pain of that look -
find a warmer stead, in some other time of peace?
Or did it beckon the failures of a broken heart,
contained, with no release?

His final question, overriding,
all failure now hereto,
“Do you love me Peter, though you fail?”
. . . . “My Lord, My God, I do.

What I Believe About the Church

2011-03-28T12:34:00.002-04:00

This entry is an excerpt from a message at Hope Church on March 27, 2011:

If a Creed is what one believes – I believe in the church because of its inseparable connection to Christ. The Bible is clear that the church is the body of Christ, and Christ is its head. This means that if a person believes in Jesus, he/she must believe in the church. If Creed is what one believes – and this week is the church – here’s what I believe about the church:

I BELIEVE:
• In the body of people who have given their lives to Jesus Christ, are committed to unity in the truth; and to reconciling the world to God – one life at a time.
• The church is people not structures, buildings, or denominations. I fully get that these are structural aspects but they are not themselves what I’m after.
• Not in going to church but in being the church.
• The church is not an antiquated hymn sing but an unstoppable force.
• The church is not hired ministers who do ministry, but every believer committed and involved in doing the work of Christ.
• The church is democratic and equal access.
• In the church there are no classes of important or unimportant people regardless of status in life, money, health or handicap, strength or weakness.
• The church lives on truth and grace, and gives both lavishly.
• The church is where you can be most yourself because the head of the church is the creator of your being.
• The church is people of repentance, grown on humility, fueled by grace, filled with gratitude, and raised for eternity.
• The church thrives on vision, lives on love, and welcomes honest skeptics and seekers.
• The church is at it’s best when it’s the underdog, at it’s worst when it’s arrogant and full of itself.
• The church is a healing place.
• The church is organic not institutional, relational over programmed – planted by God, given life by His spirit, alive, growing, inviting, seeking.
• In the church as tribe, an intergenerational community living the reality of our lives honestly together, without masks and the tiresome games of trying to impress one another with impressions based on our insecurities.
• In the separation of Church and state, not because I don’t think people should be able to express their faith in public but because I don’t want the state involved in the church.
• The church is a community of seekers, not a club of knowers. There are few things more enjoyable than a humble community of welcoming people; and few things more repelling than a group of proud people – know it alls, full of self righteous satisfaction.
• The church is a movement of His mercy, an agent of reconciliation, a harbinger of His healing and the greatest force for good the world has ever known.
• The church is imperfect people serving a perfect God.
• The church is nothing less than a spreading fire of God’s reconciling and redeeming love.
• The church does not arrive, does not settle, does not stop seeking God, nor seeking to help people find God.
• The church does not support missions, it IS a mission. It sees itself this way, structures itself accordingly, and sacrifices significantly – to reach the people of it’s town – its city – regardless of that city’s geographic location – near or far.
• A church that thinks it’s a church and not a mission misses the point of being the church. You can start playing taps there, because the church exists for mission as a fire exists for burning and anything less is really a waste of time.
• The church is a catalyst for change, a laboratory of creativity, and a movement of redemption – that is always asking how we can serve God better, and reach people more effectively. Freshness and newness are part of our life blood, because our Head is the one who said “behold I am making all things new.”

This is what I believe about the church. This is why I do what I do and this is what I hope you’ll believe too.

Security and Wonder

2011-03-14T13:34:00.004-04:00

Security and Wonder are two things human souls deeply crave.

Security is the sense that I am okay, safe where I am. We deeply desire a feeling of security. Indeed, if we feel insecure or threatened for too long a period of time, deep psychological difficulties and anguish generally set in. If you have ever been very short of money and not known where any more might come from - this is an anxious place. Obvious perhaps, but that would reenforce the point I'm making - that we all are wired with a need for security.

Wonder is also a need for our souls - we crave, even need, to know that there is more. More beauty, more transcendence, more glory, more emotional or intellectual joy. From a child's imagination, to the Hubble telescope - wonder captivates human beings.

To find both security and wonder, we need something much larger, much bigger than we are. God again, is the only source of both - God, rightly understood as much bigger, much more glorious that we are. He is "the almighty God" who can give our souls security. He is also the God who's majestic - giving our souls the breadth and transcendence that we require to live as healthy people of hope.

Security and wonder - the life blood of our souls. Secure where we are; yet full of wonder at the possible. God, the source of both.

There's a Lord for That

2011-01-27T10:49:00.004-05:00

Recently my wife and I were taking a walk, talking about a number of different hard situations we're aware of. Sometimes this kind of news comes in waves - when we are made aware of people going through hard times - illnesses, marital difficulties, family problems, financial problems - the normal categories. Sometimes in ministry life you can hear about so many things like this that the weight of the news can feel like a million pounds on your shoulders.

During our walk, we were reminding one another that these burdens are not supposed to be upon our shoulders, but rather they are appropriately placed in God's hands - since He's the lord of every life and every circumstance. What we can do when people experience hardship is care for them, love them, encourage them - but to take the burden on our own shoulders has two negative effects: it creates too deep a worry, and this level of engagement actually has a way of impeding our ability to care and love well. There are so many difficulties in life that we cannot solve, as much as we wish we could. What we're learning is that when we accept that we cannot solve them, and we let God be the Lord of them, then we can care for people with love in a way that removes a sense of pressure that we have to solve something. Or someone. That sense of having to solve is not often helpful when trying to give care. These things are hard, and so we reminded each other that God is the Lord of them - he knows, he cares, he's in control.

When we got home from the walk, I saw an advertisement for "apps" for an iPhone. You know - "if you want to find restaurants, there's an app for that. If you want to count calories, there's an app for that." Well, that phrase reminded me that for the various hardships of life - the places we feel frustrated, unable to fix - "there's Lord for that." Embracing God as the Lord this way, enables us to care but not control, to be freed up to move forward while reducing the sense that it's all on us. I think we know there's a balance to all this - we're not dismissive and flippant - but we are placing matters appropriately with God. So someone makes a decision at work that you don't like - "there's a Lord for that." Someone has a child who runs into real difficulty - "there's a Lord for that." You hear of a marriage that's struggling - "there's a Lord for that." This frees us from a mindset of "cure" or "control" and leads us to "care." It's been helpful for us.

Jesus - The Scar

2010-12-16T17:10:00.004-05:00

The latin word 'c a r n e' means flesh or meat. When learning that the word 'incarn' used to be understood to be the flesh that grows over a wound, this gave more meaning to the Christian doctrine of the incarnation - the idea that God became flesh. Not only did he become a person, but he is the healing flesh, the skin over the wound - a scar. Malachi 4:2 said that "the sun of righteousness would come with healing in its wings." The one to come would be a healer. And he did come, John 1:14 says the word became flesh. Combined with Malachi we can understand that He came as healing flesh - for the wounds of sin.

What is a scar? Is it the mark of wound, or is it the mark of healing? Amazingly, a scar is one bit of flesh that represents both a wound and a healing. The Bible suggests that Jesus in the flesh is the one man who deals with both our wound and our healing. Isaiah said it best, "by his wounds we are healed." One man Jesus; became flesh. A Scar - where both wound and healing are met. He takes our wound, he gives his healing.

The Incarnation. Christmas.

The Art of Learning

2010-12-01T17:35:00.004-05:00

People either see themselves as learners or knowers. The perspective is that they are seeking and journeying or they have arrived. I'm learning that life as a learner is richer than that of a knower. Mind you I'm not saying a learner doesn't know anything and doesn't have any clarity of thought or conviction, rather the learner is open to discovery and to wonder. The learner tends to "receive" more than "manage," - receive life, receive people, receive the work of God and the Holy Spirit. A knower has an answer before the question is finished and a verdict before the person tells their story. Knowers spend a lot of energy feeling a need to control. I'm growing toward a conviction that the life of discipleship is life as a learner, with all the accompanying attitudes and postures of the heart.

This brings me to art. Learning to appreciate art has been an interesting part of the last number of years for me. There is usually more than meets the eye in most art. A painting has a technique. A sculpture has a story. An artist has a unique biography that leads him to create what he creates, leads her to create the way she does. Most meaningful art is not understood by quick observations and assumptions. Most people aren't either. Both have a deeper story. And if anyone has a deeper story, it would be God. Talk about 'more than meets the eye.'

Learning to appreciate art, to be a learner before a created work, has similar threads and themes to what it means to be a disciple, a learning follower of Jesus. It takes time. There's more to what He's doing than meets the eye. The Bible speaks of the "unfathomable riches of knowing Christ." You'd have to be a learner to appreciate Him. This is where the wonder begins and the door to joy opens.

Mystery and Mastery

2010-10-26T10:46:00.002-04:00

Exodus 33:18-23
18 Then Moses said, "Now show me your glory." 19 And the LORD said, "I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. 20 But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."

We are frequently convinced that we want to know everything of God. Sometimes we sort of demand this. This is a great example of how our desire for knowledge exceeds our wisdom. If we demand to know all of God, perhaps without knowing it, we are trying to “master” God. It is of course not possible to do this – but some may believe it is. Anything you have mastered, you have placed beneath you. God will not be mastered, indeed cannot be mastered.

To feel that we must master God is to be left a person who has no ability for wonder. With nothing bigger than ourselves – no ability or capacity for wonder, we'll have no chance for joy. Joy comes from what is larger than us. So, our demand to master God becomes our road to depression. Neitsche and others created such a fellowship of cheerlessness.

No, what we want is enough knowledge to believe – not only about God but about all of life. Enough knowledge to trust, and then live the adventure. In other words, this means we want mystery – our souls need mystery – and thus wonder. Our joy depends on it.

If one demands to know all of God, then the mystery is lost. Lose the mystery, lose the joy.

An Easy Call

2010-10-04T16:41:00.005-04:00

Sometimes, more than I wish, I hear people say something like this: "I prayed about it, but I just don't feel like the Lord is calling me to do that." I know this way of expressing is supposed to be a kind and Christian way to also say, "So don't ask me any more about it." When someone employs the Lord's authority in what they say, it's kind of a conversation stopper. But I've got just enough skepticism to want to ask some more questions. "Why don't you think the Lord is calling you - what makes you say that?" This is where things sometimes get interesting. Sometimes the gist of it is that "it doesn't feel comfortable or familiar to me - so I'm pretty sure God's not calling me to it." Granted, everyone has a right to answer as they wish. But I wish we wouldn't use the God-card if what we want to say is, "That idea scares the pants off me and I have no experience in that, so for now I don't think I'm up for it." That's real, and it's understandable. I'd like to just say that.

I have a concern that somehow there is an idea being peddled that God is only calling if something feels very manageable and enjoyable. Now I know this is challenging ground, because call shouldn't be gauged simply on the grounds that something feels easy or rigorous. It should be gauged with deeper consideration than that - with things like prayer, honest self examination, and the wisdom of people close to us. But we have to move away from the "if it's easy, I'm called, if it's hard I'm not" mindset. Consider Abraham who was called to leave everything he knew - his family, his land, and all that was familiar. That'd be very hard, and it was without a doubt, God's call for him. Moses was called to lead Israel while living under the iron fist of Egypt. He would have to approach the Pharaoh and stand up to the injustice of it all. Understandably, Moses protested when he considered who he was and what he was up against. God confirmed this call.

Often in the Bible, when God calls, His voice calls for us to step up to a new challenge. It's funny to think about, but I wonder if as adults, when nobody is pushing us to the next step, if we settle into this comfort mode. See, as kids, we were regularly forced to step up to the next level, and it was often an uncomfortable step up. When you finished 2nd grade you went to 3rd. Your mother didn't say, "Johnnie, you finished second grade now and I wonder if you feel that God is calling you to move up to third grade." Imagine a child saying, "Mom, I've given this idea some thought and third grade's gonna be challenging. I've prayed about it, and I don't think the Lord's calling me to third grade." That's not how it worked. As kids we were used to this pattern of stepping up - to the next grade, the next league, the next level of competition. But as adults this dynamic is often long behind us. We're prone to settle.

In life with God, faith is the necessary ingredient to make significant steps. Most of the people in the Bible could confirm that His call often came with challenges. Ask Paul, or Daniel, or Esther or, well, Jesus.

A Theology of Scars

2010-09-16T07:15:00.005-04:00

It is fascinating to me that when Jesus Christ appeared to the disciples after his resurrection that he had scars. The Bible is quite clear that he showed them his hands and his feet as evidence that it was indeed him - the one who had received nails through his hands and feet on a cross. The Bible is also clear that once resurrected we will be given new bodies - they are different kinds of bodies than the one's we live in now. They are still us, but they are new. And yet, Jesus' new body has scars. In Heaven, where there is no more pain, sadness, tears or disease, it seems odd that there would be scars on our new bodies.

A scar is a mark of a wound and usually a painful one. A sizable scar often has not only physical pain associated with it, but emotional pain as well. And yet, the fact that there is a scar indicates that there was healing. Healing is one of the grand works of God. Healing speaks of redemption and goodness over and against a world of pain and wounding. The moments when we received the injury and the wounding are often a painful traumatic time - in many cases a fearful one. But time has an interesting effect on scars.

Consider two people enjoying lighthearted company, when they begin to show each other their scars - perhaps veterans showing battle scars. In this case, the scars are something pointed to with fondness. Now that the pain and fear of the battlefield is long past, the scars are points of interest, places of healing and often accompanied by grand stories. Victory stories. See, anyone who is showing a scar is telling a story of healing one way or another. "What about the person who has a wound that they didn't survive?" That would be like Jesus. Even if the wound meant your death - the resurrection is God's answer - and so in the power of God's resurrection - all scars become marks of healing and victory. The more I think about this, the more intrigued I get. Will we have scars on our heavenly bodies. I think so. Thank God.

The Tent Idea

2010-07-19T15:59:00.004-04:00

About two months ago, my wife Elisabeth and I were talking about a good friend who is battling cancer. The conversation turned toward the mysteries of life and questions about eternity. We decided to read 1 Corinthians 15 together. Wow. More on that in a moment.

Sometimes I think "life down here" is just short enough to feel really short, and just long enough for us to not pay much attention. The Bible says "teach us to number our days" with the implication that in so doing we will begin to have a proper perspective of it all. Hard to do. At certain times in life, the days seem to go by so fast that we hardly know where they went. To some degree then, it seems that we're wasting our days.

Remember when you were 10 years old, and fifty seemed inconceivable? Then in the blink of an eye it seems, fifty is here.

This makes it clearer to us that heaven is our home and earth isn't. But if we believe this, why do we plant our roots on earth so deep? Why do we work so hard to acquire and "get the goods" when it really is a short lived proposition? Why do we spend so much energy on our physical bodies - when they are only uniforms that we wear for a brief period of time?

In Corinthians, the apostle Paul refers to our bodies as "tents." Tents are temporary dwellings, places that shelter us only for a short time. We want to stay dry in our tent, but to furnish it out with a roof and an hvac system doesn't make much sense. It's not worth that investment, it's not made for that. But we seem quite intent on trying to make our tent permanent. The apostle Paul had no such concept.

When we pay so much attention to our body, we tend to pay little attention to our soul. This is unfortunate really, we're like investors who bet everything on a short term gain with no regard for the long term. C.S. Lewis said, "You do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body."

Yes - these bodies we have are a short term housing arrangement. A uniform for our earthly life. They don't last forever, but our souls do.

Choosing Life

2010-01-09T22:20:00.004-05:00

One of the epic moments of the Bible comes at the end of Deuteronomy 30 when Moses is giving his parting word to Israel. The summation of his message is "Choose life - the Lord is your life." What about practical aspects of choosing life? What does it mean to choose life and live well? How do we do this? In that vein - here are 12 practicals for choosing life:

12 Practicals for Life

1. Keep your promises. Your life’s meaning, stability and health is built on them.
2. Make core commitments. Don’t dabble. Find a few things that are of most importance to you and commit yourself fully. Your sense of purpose and ability to make a difference will depend on this.
3. Give yourself to purposes and work that are bigger than you – and frankly, that are more important than you.
4. Make it a goal to learn the difference between what’s important in life and what isn’t. Then spend your time, money, energy, attention on what’s important. Enjoy material things while also realizing that they are not important.
5. Realize the significance of invisible things. Love, virtue, forgiveness, charity, civility, faith, hope. These things. Spend more energy on these invisible things and in time see the change in the quality of your life.
6. Among those things that are visible – tangible; family and close friends are the most important.
7. Don’t spend your life working to get. Necessities sure – but accumulation and materialism – not so much. Spend your life working to give. At the end of your life, the difference you make will be enormous. And the difference in your joy and satisfaction will be too.
8. Don’t shrink back from what feels intimate and vulnerable. Don’t look away. Say what you really feel and do so with sincerity and love.
9. Enjoy entertainment but seek higher purposes. In time the entertainment life becomes an empty one.
10. Take a mission trip to another country. It’s not the same as a vacation trip – you look at and experience everything differently. It’s not scary. It will change you, change your relationship with God, change your sense of purpose and increase your love for others in the world.
11. Read the Bible intentionally and frequently. You may not get it at first – it can take time. Ask someone to help you. You can’t understand and participate in a lifelong relationship with God without knowing His word.
12. Knowing God personally and living your life in a sincere daily relationship with Him based on gratitude and grace is the core of life. Receiving Jesus Christ as forgiver and Lord is how this begins. If you haven’t prayed to receive Jesus Christ – confess your sin and invite him to enter your heart to begin an everyday relationship with God.

copyright @ David Dwight; all rights reserved

Growing Up

2009-07-23T14:03:00.008-04:00

It sounds harsh to use the phrase "grow up." Generally it's a pretty strong statement to tell someone, "C'mon, grow up." But the reality is, "grow up" is a call to all of us, all the time, regardless of our level. Growing to be more mature, more understanding, deeper, wiser, better people is a call for all of us. In our day it's especially significant. I'm finding that there are ways that God is inviting me to grow up, to address some things in my life, to call it what it is and get truthful, transparent, and sincere. I'm finding this to be true for many others too. This growth can be hard work - it's a call of God's rigorous love.

If you're under 50 years old, you were raised like me, in times of prosperity and in a culture of prosperity. This culture has fueled many perspectives - some of which have kept people from growing up, from taking responsibility, from - well, from becoming adults. Prosperity has a way of keeping us immature. Plus, the 70s and 80s were a time of raising kids in the psychological parenting culture of self esteem - always wanting Johnny to feel that he's wonderful. I suppose it didn't end in the 80s.

At this stage of my learning, I'm believing that to become a man; or to become a woman; as opposed to being a boy or a girl - there are three areas of health that are needed. A healthy relationship with God, a healthy relationship with oneself, a healthy relationship with our actions. Actions would include thoughts, words, deeds. I'm convinced that if we don't have healthy relationship with any one of these - God, self, or our actions - we are still boys or still girls. Not yet a man. Not yet a woman. Generally still proud, self centered, living on an image.

What is a healthy relationship? It's one of grace and truth. So we've got to have a grace and truth relationship with God: we've addressed the truth of our faults, our sins, our smallness before Him and our need for Him. We've also accepted his grace through Jesus Christ and the forgiveness He offers. A grace and truth relationship with our selves means we accept and invite the truth about ourselves. No untouchable categories, no touchy irritableness around a weakness we have. We also receive God's perspective of grace about ourselves and don't expect ourselves to be perfect. A grace and truth relationship with our actions means we're taking responsibility for our behavior and actions, and we seek to improve regardless of our personality or our upbringing. It's a no excuses policy and no childish talk like "that's just the way I am." That said, there is grace for our faults as well.

If we have a healthy relationship with God, our self and our actions - we'll have healthy relationships with others. Anything less in any of the three categories and we're still boys and girls.

Mystery and Mastery

2009-06-12T16:28:00.002-04:00

We are frequently convinced that we want to know more of God. Sometimes we think we want to know everything of God. Sometimes our prayers suggest we are saying to him, "explain yourself - I demand to know!" This is a great example of how our desire for knowledge exceeds our wisdom. If we demand to know all of God, we are deciding that we must “master” God. It is of course not possible to do this – but some may believe it is. Anything you have mastered, you have now placed beneath you. God will not be mastered, indeed cannot be mastered.

To feel that we must master God is to then be left a person who has no ability for wonder. With, nothing bigger than ourselves – no ability or capacity for wonder, then we will have no chance for joy. Joy comes from what is larger than us. If we have mastered God, we have made him smaller than us. So, our demand to master God becomes our road to depression. Neitsche and others experienced this fellowship of cheerlessness.

No, what we want is enough knowledge to believe – not only about God, about others, and about all of life. Enough knowledge to trust, and then live the adventure. In other words, this means we want mystery – our souls need mystery. Mystery, unknown – is a necessity for wonder.

If we demand to know all of God, then the mystery is lost. Lose the mystery, lose the joy.

The Extraordinary and the Ordinary

2009-05-02T20:42:00.000-04:00

Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. "Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?" they asked. "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary, and aren't his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Matthew 13:54-55

As people wrestle with questions of faith and the “possibilities” of God, Jesus presents us with a paradoxical dilemma.

Sometimes, people say that they can’t believe in God because the supernatural and the extraordinary don’t work for their rationalistic minds. That can be an honest and authentic challenge. Can we believe that God created the world, for instance? Or perhaps, closer to Jesus, can we believe that he was born of a virgin? The rational thinker may say, “I can’t believe it – it’s too fantastic, impossible. I have to see it to believe it. I have to be able to touch it.”

On the other hand, there was an equal challenge that rejected Jesus. People suggested he’s too ordinary. Just a man. One of us. From a backwater town no less. He was a baby, a boy, a man – who was touchable and who touched, who was seeable and who saw. He walked, talked, ate and slept among us. Here he is. To this one, people said – “I can’t believe he is God’s son, the messiah. He is too ordinary, too much like normal life. No, he’s no messiah, just an ordinary teacher.”

So we reject the idea of God on the grounds of the supernatural and the extraordinary. Then reject Jesus as God on the grounds of the too ordinary. In his own hometown (where can you be seen to be more ordinary except perhaps in your own family) people were amazed at how extraordinary he was – miraculous powers and all. On the other hand, they were amazed at how ordinary he was, “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son?”

Interesting how God works. For today’s thinker who wrestles with the supernatural, how about the “natural Jesus?” For today’s thinker who rejects the ordinary, how about the sent from God, born of a virgin Jesus?

Hardly a day goes by that I don’t keep looking to see if my faith is true. Hardly a day goes by, that I am not amazed to see God in the unique truth of Jesus.

The Real Question

2009-03-16T13:57:00.005-04:00

This time of year I try to focus on matters around Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. The annual ritual of returning to the Gospels and their accounts of the suffering and victory of Christ are of course a part of the rhythm of the church year. They are more than rhythm for me though - they are ritual in the most living sense of the word. They are a rite of belief with a return to the injustice of the Lord's treatment and then God's victorious answer.

In considering the injustice and the suffering of Christ - I have come to understand that there is nothing we experience of life's pain that Jesus didn't experience in passion week. Betrayal, abandonment, humiliation, mockery, physical and emotional torture, powerlessness, abuse, anguish of soul and physical pain - all concluding in death. If we are to follow Christ, his experience in passion week is not a cheery invitation. Paul said, "I want to share in the fellowship of his sufferings." I wonder if I would say that? I wonder if the American Church would say this. And then, the question.

The epicenter of the struggle of faith when one has lived long enough in pursuit of God through Christ and His Spirit, is this question: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" This is the only question left when all the others have been exhausted. "God, where are you? Why do you not do something? I do not feel as though I have any relationship with you - I feel abandoned by you." I have had times when I asked this myself, and I have had times when I asked it in prayer on behalf of other people who are struggling. Being the ultimate question, it is an expression of faith and faith's frustration. Only a person who believes there is a God asks this question. You wouldn't cry out to God in anguish if you had no belief in God. To ask the question is to affirm a faith. To ask it is also to express faith's doubt and aloneness.

The solace to this sublime question is the resurrection. I don't know what I would do with my faith if the resurrection hadn't happened. It is God's answer to the question - though it didn't come in the moment, didn't come "on time" and didn't give what I was hoping for. It came late, it didn't relieve the suffering but came after it was concluded. But it is the answer - the victory, the triumph. Faith cries in the crucifixion and triumphs in the resurrection. Thanks be to you Lord Christ.

Finding Time

2009-01-19T15:05:00.003-05:00

Time is part of the created world. Genesis 1 says "there was evening and there was morning, the first day." Originally the cycle of moon and sun was our measure of time. Now it's more technical, but no less a part of the created world. The international measurement of time is the second, which is a 9 mm cycle of the radiation of a cesium atom. This 9 mm cycle apparently does not vary - ever. It takes one second. Or... it makes one second. Measuring a cesium atom's radiation is what atomic clocks are all about.

God however, does not live in time. Since He made it, it serves Him but He is not confined by it or controlled by it in any way. He lives in eternity, the eternal present. He told Moses that His name is "I Am."

Still, time has this beckoning way about it. We who live within it in our earthly lives want to understand it more and make peace with it. The fact that in the U.S. we spend about $20b per year on anti-aging suggests we certainly haven't made peace with it. Mostly, we fight it.

What about time in the big picture? The world's cultures have generally operated on one of two concepts of time - either cyclical or linear. These are really the only options, sort of. In cyclical time, "there is nothing new under the sun." Anything that is has been before. Anything that could be, only repeats what has already been. The first time the cycle went round it could have been interesting, but after that it's all "do overs" and thus the cyclical model is without purpose. The good thing about cyclical is that it doesn't end. Good thing? Same thing over and over, with no end? Futility is the word for this view of time, the word and the feeling.

In linear time things progress, there is meaning because there is movement in a forward direction. It's not a "round and round" experience, it's a forward moving experience. The past influences the future, there are new experiences. There is purpose. Problem is, in the linear view, there's also an end. If we know that whatever we do or experience is all going to wind up with an ending, then all the experiences and effort aren't worth anything. Cuz they just all get thrown out. If cyclical time felt futile, this feels fatal. Cyclical doesn't end, but there is nothing new. Linear has new, but it ends. So which is it, cyclical or linear?

Neither. Really.

The Bible speaks of a beginning and an end, a kind of linear view. The end however, is not so much a conclusion but a transition. A transition to a newness of life where Jesus "is making everything new (forever!)" When this transition happens, when Jesus consummates time, we'll live in eternity - outside of time - where Jesus is making all things new. Now we have endless time, but unlike the futility of cyclical time where everything old goes round and round, we have an eternal existence of never ending experiences that are always new. It never ends, but it's always new. This is the thrill of eternity where Jesus reigns. And the bible says of His reign that "His kingdom will never end." Good times. Yep.

First and Last Words of the Big Story

2008-10-13T16:26:00.005-04:00

The Big Story of the Bible is that the whole story is just the preamble to the really big story - the realer story, the most real experience of all - eternity with God. It's what we were made for and this side of heaven we live in what CS Lewis called "shadowlands." These are the lands where we see in a mirror only dimly because our sight and capacity are limited by our separated condition - from God. But Jesus the healer reconciler has come and with His grace he changed the whole direction of the story from separation from God to reconciliation with God. It happened by His grace, you get it when you receive him. How kind of God.

Well it's pretty dynamic to me that the closing sentence in the whole Biblical story is "The grace of Jesus Christ be with God's people. Amen." Of course, that would be the closing word on the Bible because Jesus is God's main character in the bible. That being so, "the grace of Jesus Christ be with God's people. Amen" is the opening word on eternity. Jesus and His grace - the door to eternity. So God's last words of the bible become the first words - the opening sentence in the much bigger much realer story. Yes, eternity begins for us because of Jesus and His grace.

Pretty exciting to me that the last words of the Bible's big story would be the first words that open the book on the story of eternity. Strikes me as being Just like God to do something like that. I think CS Lewis had it about right when he concluded his big story of Narnia with these words - "And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story, which no one on earth has read: which goes on for ever: in which every chapter is better than the one before." (Last Battle. 183-184)

Believing Eternity

2008-10-06T11:37:00.006-04:00

Someone once said that most Americans don't believe we will die. If we did, we would talk about it more. So either we don't believe it, or we are fearful about it - so we don't talk about it. If we could unmask it a bit though, maybe we can be better prepared and live with a different perspective.

If you are fortunate to have a loving family - perhaps there have been times you have made a family trip to a place you all love. In a larger family, usually people are traveling from different places to get to the place that everyone loves. Some are able to leave on Wednesday - and they get there early. Lucky ones. Others can't get away until Sunday afternoon - so they'll arrive later. The one's who aren't there yet can see the place in their mind's eye and love thinking about how wonderful the place is. Furthermore, they love thinking about the family members who have already been able to get there because they know the joy of the place. They're already having walks on the beach on a clear morning or dinners on the patio looking over the mountains while the conversation along with the wine and the love flows among them. Some were on a schedule that enabled them to arrive early, others were on a schedule that got them there later. The ones who were able to get there first feel so grateful for the joy of it, but they wait for the others to arrive so the joy will be fuller. The ones who have to travel later miss not being there, but they can see and feel the joy of it as they think about the family that are already there. Then a day will come when everyone is finally there. That's the best day of all. The fullest joy.

Could getting to heaven be something like this? Different travel schedules, anticipating joy, loving reunion, that lasts forever? It's encouraging to me. Jesus went first, the rest of the family will come in their own time.

Faith with Questions

2008-10-01T14:40:00.001-04:00

Matthew 27:46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Luke 23:46 Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

Jesus’ last words were a question and a statement. “Why have you forsaken me?” is the deepest question of a believer’s experience. Many would not say it, even though they thought it – because they fear that in some way this honest cry of despair might be an affront to God. There are many questions in the life of seeking – philosophical, anthropological, etc… The most profound are those however that are experiential. They are the cry of our heart, from the perspective we hold.

It is comforting to me that Jesus himself cried out to his father with this profound question of loneliness and pain. It’s comforting because I sometimes think if my faith were stronger, I wouldn’t feel some of these feelings of loneliness, wondering where God is, and why he doesn’t do something – show himself, heal someone, comfort or encourage someone, provide relief or a way out. That Jesus cried this question gives me affirmation and also makes it clear that the life of faith is not without the questions of faith. If Jesus still had a deep question, then I don’t feel that my questions are just a sign of spiritual immaturity or lack of faith.

I’m also reminded that all questions are in some small way, affirmations of faith. Jesus wouldn’t ask a question to a God in whom he didn’t believe. Nor would we. Any spiritual question demonstrates some level of faith, however small.

“Into your hands I commit my spirit” are the words Luke records as Jesus’ last. Imagine – this statement coming after that question. We can believe deeply and still have questions! We might say, to believe deeply is to keep asking questions. If God is infinite, there is always much about Him we do not know. If we have lived a life of seeking God, praying to him, experiencing life with him – then we are likely to have foundations of truth that we know are without question. We’re also likely to have questions. At times this duality is painful, at other times delightful and fascinating. The life of faith.

We're Like Who We Follow

2008-09-22T17:28:00.004-04:00

I once heard it said that "you're the average of your five closest friends." Interesting thought, kind of makes you smile. For sure it conveys that we're a reflection of the company we keep.

I was reading 2Corinthians 11:14 recently, "And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." Satan is always masquerading - always showing up in some costume that's not the real him. To masquerade as an angel of light means he's always trying to look better than he is. He's hiding his real identity to not be discovered. He's a poser. That's the only way he's effective - trying to appear to be something he's not - looking better than he is.

Since over time we resemble the company we keep - if we are following the one who masquerades, then we behave the way he does. We hide our real selves, we masquerade - we pose. We're afraid to be seen for who we really are. So is he.

Jesus on the other hand calls us into the light - to come out of hiding - to confess the real you, to stop any kind of faking. "Those that practice the truth come into the light" says John 3:20. Jesus said about Nathaniel, "Here is a man in whom there is no guile." Nothing false. Not "nothing wrong" mind you, just nothing false. Jesus was drawn to people like him - and Nathaniel apparently was a man devoid of posing.

Yep, in time we imitate those we follow, we become like the company we keep. Unsettling to me, but true. The motto of the state of North Carolina is "Esse Quam Videri" - "to be rather than to seem." Very much like Jesus, very much unlike the tempter.

Heaven

2008-06-18T22:11:00.002-04:00

John 14:2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.

1Cor. 2:9 However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”—

There’s much we cannot know about Heaven – but there are also clues. The clues give me a stronger belief in the remarkable eternity that awaits those who have Jesus trust and seek Jesus life.

It's possible that upon reading John 14:2, we have in mind a large mansion-like dormitory with many rooms. One might think that Jesus is going to this place to prepare one’s room – sort of like a maid readies a room for a guest. Silly perhaps – but it’s what we have to go with.

I suspect it’s different than that however. I believe that what Jesus is trying to convey is that Heaven offers an endless progression from one experience to another. He is suggesting a mansion of magnificent proportions with endless (rooms) places of discovery. Perhaps you have been to some of the grand Chateaus of France or seen Buckingham Palace, or Windsor Castle or Versailles. His analogy is most likely a marriage analogy, the groom receiving the bride to live in His family's home.

So I imagine Jesus is saying that when we enter Heaven – it’s like entering the most magnificent place, with experiences and the presence of God that will thrill our souls and appetites beyond what we could ever imagine. Depending on our relationship with God, we may enter into one room, or another – whichever would be most magnificent for each. God being infinite, then Heaven in some way must be an eternal experience of discovering more of Him – but the discovery never ends, the thrill and joy and love and goodness our soul’s will experience grows as our Heavenly experience increases. It must increase – otherwise it is finite or static.

So when we have been delighted beyond our soul’s deepest desires, we come to the end of a room. Unlike the confinements of earth, this does not mean our experience is coming to a close, rather there is another door to another room. Opening it, we find that this room is more magnificent in its experiences, more thrilling, more filling to our desires. And, it was the experiences in the prior room that have enabled us to understand and receive and enter into, the experience in this room – which is larger in all respects than the prior room.

When we come to the end of this room – we are led to the door of another room – a new room. Add to this, that we will somehow share all of this with those we love, and with the family of the redeemed. Sharing it with others will increase the joy of it just as the mutuality of experience increases the joy of the best things of earth, over experiencing it alone. Then, then… add to that, that the rooms are all part, somehow, of a city – the new Jerusalem, a place of immense shared joy, where the presence of God is it’s light, filling each soul with it’s deepest longing. A pulsating city of activity, discovery, love, light, soul-filling.

Imagine next that since our minds have conceived this much of what Heaven could be, that it has to be far, far, more than that because in actuality – “no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him – “