I read an article yesterday about Bill Johnson of Bethel church in Redding, Ca and then did some research on Rob Bell. From the small amount I know of each of these guys and their ministries it seems as if they are nearly polar opposites in their beliefs. Now I'm sure that's not totally true but the self proclamation of core beliefs that they make their stand on and launch from I'd say it's mostly true. Johnson reminds me of the farmer of Faith like Potatoes fame. He is the same miracle working God now as in the first century A.D. Then there is Rob who challenges the traditional view of everything from hell to marriage to most of the basic tenants of the faith.
It seems to me that Bill is pretty right on but I'm not completely sold on his school of ministry. Now, I don't question what goes on there, that all seems legit from my seat in the stands, but I do question what becomes of it when one comes home. There is no reason to doubt that a group of people gathered to worship God daily and dwell in His Spirit will see miracles and prophetic utterances. If they didn't that would be reason to worry. One could stay in that atmosphere forever and get closer to God than they ever imagined. My question is: Can one come down from that mountain top experience back to their home, get a regular Joe job, and continue to thrive in the Spirit? Can that person bring healing and prophecy to those around them? Does the (Force) remain strong with them long after the mountain has been left behind? In the ministry where I've been involved that to me is an amazing mountain experience I find that some people are an absolute mess away from the ministry times. In other words, a camp or retreat or mission experience should serve to feed and grow the roots of your faith in God. The fruit of which should be seen in one way or another all throughout your everyday life. If you only experience the greatness of God in a retreat setting, it's probably time to sequester yourself from those experiences. Not to isolate yourself from God, but to isolate yourself with God. Anyone can be swept away in a raging river but few can be swept away when there is no river in sight. In the quietness of your mind, in the quietness of your soul, God is waiting to cultivate a deep intimacy that just cannot be farmed in the mass produced manifestation of the Spirit. A different type of quality vs. quantity.
I don't know if I can tie this all together in a coherent way. Kinda seems like this should have been two separate posts. So now to Rob. I just finished a Bible study recently that was more than anything a study of the love of God. It really challenged my religion. So much so that in the fifth chapter I think it was I almost threw out the book. If I'd just been reading it on my own that would have been the end. Luckily it was in a group that I treasure. That, and I shared my struggles with my wife and she saw it so differently that she had trouble understanding my difficulty. God continues to bless me through her. So Rob's ministry is based completely on loving people. Coincidentally, God's ministry is based completely on loving people. Where the two clash is in how that love is framed. God has designed us with a very specific set of operating protocols. When that love is framed in God's design it is a very beautiful and powerful thing. We tread on very dangerous ground though when we put loving each other above the laws of God. Those laws are as unchanging as the God who wrote them, yet somehow we think that the principles of God's love have precedence over God's laws. The most obvious area that Rob abuses this is with Gay marriage. Now before you throw this post in the garbage or start to cheer let me just say this: I believe we will see folks who lived a gay lifestyle in heaven. Homosexuality is a clear cut black and white sin. But so is sex before marriage. No one except for Jesus lived a sin free life. All of us will continue to sin and yet some will go to heaven. This is the grace of God. Given freely to those who pursue God with all they have. As the chasing after God comes before and during my sin I will still have sin when I am whisked away to heaven. Some will have great sins and some small. Addicts and prostitutes, gays, saints and sinners will all be there. But we can't endorse the sin. God designed it (us) a certain way for a reason. Whether we understand that reason has no bearing on things. The collective understanding of the human race would not consume one breath of the Lord's lungs. So how is it we think we understand better?
My wife is so amazing. She is showing me by example how one can love unconditionally never compromising God's truth. Never condemning one's sin but not endorsing it either. Jesus didn't condemn their sin but said go, and sin no more. Our sin is a hindrance to God. A barrier between us and Him. If I am therefore hell bent on loving God at any cost, I must strive at all cost to eradicate sin from my life. So my challenge is to give myself fully to loving others and let the Holy Spirit speak to others about their sin. Because I am already loving them, I get to be a part of helping them heal as God points out sins He wants them to deal with.
As God continues to challenge and forge my theology I find myself cheering along with some and totally at odds with others. The funny thing is that I know without a shadow of a doubt that I would stand toe to toe with God and debate for all I'm worth of some things that He is wrong and I'm right. To admit fault is the first step of recovery right? If it is then that's a pretty powerful self eval. The journey is the destination. No one person will ever get it all right. It's never been a journey of finally understanding it all, but a journey of unending seeking. Searching, seeking understanding is the victory. Does that make sense? I can learn lots from Rob, and Bill, and Oprah and Rich Mullins, from Jews and Gentiles, Muslims, Catholics and Christians and a carpenter from two thousand years ago. Every piece I learn must be weighed against God's word, strained by the Holy Spirit.
Friday, December 19, 2014
Monday, December 15, 2014
Christian hero
How many of you get spoken to by God in movies? I think we can see/experience God anywhere if we are open to it. Maybe there's something to removing the construct of Christian vs. secular that can help one to experience God in unexpected places.
Die Hard 4. I love good action movies. Good plot and action mixed together. Like Die Hard 1-4, Terminator 1-3 and I'm dying to see 5, Serenity, Red-both and the Chronicles of Riddick. The last movie was a stinker though. There's a bunch more for sure. One more gotta mention. Tomorrow When The War Began. I can watch that over and over.
So if you'll remember, in dh4 Mclane is sent to retrieve a young hacker and turn him into the FBI. Of course lots of people are trying to kill him and John has to kill lots of bad guys in spectacular ways. But, throughout the film there is a thread run about what a hero is and how and why one becomes a hero. At one point John tells this kid that being the hero causes you to lose your wife and family. Then the kid asks, so why do it? Because no one else can, answers our hero. Now we know that being the hero is not what robbed him of his family, not fighting for his family is why they have left him, but there is a tremendous nugget for the Christian here.
We are called to be the hero. Not in a blockbuster stop the hackers or skynet kinda way, but like John Mclane says. The hero steps in and does what no one else can, that's what makes them a hero.
As Christians we have this calling or spiritual profession that is out there waiting for us. Too often though we sit and wait for it to come to us or we spend all our energies preparing for that one thing. It's like we are training and stockpiling weapons for a zombie apocalypse while everyone around is dying of bird flu. All around us are jobs just waiting to be done. People are wasting away under the weight of sins they don't know how to escape. Secretely, Christians are dying all around us as we earnestly seek our calling, preparing for that great ministry up ahead. God is looking for hero's.
The Bible is chock full of heros. Story after story of people who didn't have the skills, were not prepared, not educated for the task at hand. So what will we do? On the road to your great calling are a line of people. People who need what you have right now. People who will give you what you need as you serve them.
I bumped into a guy at Home Depot last week. He 'Meredith' was picking up a few maintenance items for the church. Said he was just doing whatever needed to be done. Filling in the unfilled gaps. He's done this as long as I've known him. A true servant, or hero if you will.
So what will you do? What will I do? This is as much to me as it is to you. This is where I am at right now. The journey IS the destination. Every place I am at is a place of service to the King. Every place! Every minute is a moment for worship. If you read my last post you know I fail miserably. I do not become a failure though. Never do you or I become failures. Not possible in the eyes of our Father. We fail and yet receive redemption. Conviction not condemnation.
So what inspires you? Where does God touch your heart? Spiritual epiphany? Look for those places. God is speaking. Let's be listening.
Die Hard 4. I love good action movies. Good plot and action mixed together. Like Die Hard 1-4, Terminator 1-3 and I'm dying to see 5, Serenity, Red-both and the Chronicles of Riddick. The last movie was a stinker though. There's a bunch more for sure. One more gotta mention. Tomorrow When The War Began. I can watch that over and over.
So if you'll remember, in dh4 Mclane is sent to retrieve a young hacker and turn him into the FBI. Of course lots of people are trying to kill him and John has to kill lots of bad guys in spectacular ways. But, throughout the film there is a thread run about what a hero is and how and why one becomes a hero. At one point John tells this kid that being the hero causes you to lose your wife and family. Then the kid asks, so why do it? Because no one else can, answers our hero. Now we know that being the hero is not what robbed him of his family, not fighting for his family is why they have left him, but there is a tremendous nugget for the Christian here.
We are called to be the hero. Not in a blockbuster stop the hackers or skynet kinda way, but like John Mclane says. The hero steps in and does what no one else can, that's what makes them a hero.
As Christians we have this calling or spiritual profession that is out there waiting for us. Too often though we sit and wait for it to come to us or we spend all our energies preparing for that one thing. It's like we are training and stockpiling weapons for a zombie apocalypse while everyone around is dying of bird flu. All around us are jobs just waiting to be done. People are wasting away under the weight of sins they don't know how to escape. Secretely, Christians are dying all around us as we earnestly seek our calling, preparing for that great ministry up ahead. God is looking for hero's.
The Bible is chock full of heros. Story after story of people who didn't have the skills, were not prepared, not educated for the task at hand. So what will we do? On the road to your great calling are a line of people. People who need what you have right now. People who will give you what you need as you serve them.
I bumped into a guy at Home Depot last week. He 'Meredith' was picking up a few maintenance items for the church. Said he was just doing whatever needed to be done. Filling in the unfilled gaps. He's done this as long as I've known him. A true servant, or hero if you will.
So what will you do? What will I do? This is as much to me as it is to you. This is where I am at right now. The journey IS the destination. Every place I am at is a place of service to the King. Every place! Every minute is a moment for worship. If you read my last post you know I fail miserably. I do not become a failure though. Never do you or I become failures. Not possible in the eyes of our Father. We fail and yet receive redemption. Conviction not condemnation.
So what inspires you? Where does God touch your heart? Spiritual epiphany? Look for those places. God is speaking. Let's be listening.
Friday, December 12, 2014
I took the Lord's name in vain
Yesterday as I was showering Emma came in the bathroom and turned on the cold water in the sink. It wasn't the extra hot water that turned my temperature up but rather the pile of towels innocently lounging about in the sink. There are many choice explicatives that I could have chosen in that moment, I'll refrain from listing them out since most of you are Christian and would never use those words, hehe, but I chose God dammit. Ill get to the significance of that shortly.
My last post was a call to arms for Christians, and before that, well I don't really remember off hand, and then there was my journaling through the book of Mark. All good Christian stuff buuut, every Christian (like myself), contains within himself the God side, wherein is the lifelong process of becoming like Christ, and the dark side, or sin nature, which is why we need to engage in a lifelong process of becoming more Christlike.
My choice of colorful language was not merely an accident but rather a colorful release of something inside desperately needing to get out. God has trusted me with this little 'angel' who seems designed specifically to find and repeatedly target my buttons. But why? Why am I chosen for this most dangerous mission? Quite certainly I never prayed for patience. I'm already mostly insane. It is a simple thing to open the lid and examine those characteristics and trainings which lend me to service of the King, but in this case, in my little Emma, I find not reason. The sense of it, the logic escape me. I see but one thing. I was willing.
And there it is. Use me Lord. Even yesterday I did pray that time and again, in between my cries of why me. And He's using me to save the life of this little girl. Per chance one piece of this puzzle that is Emma pinpoints my overabundance of me. Me me me. I like me. I like me way too much. If I have a larger fault I know not what it is. Maybe this little girl is God's missile aimed straight at the me of me. I know that isn't the larger picture, at least I don't think so. I think the bigger picture is that this little girl needed saving and we were in the right place at the right time to say yes, Lord.
She pushes my buttons. Man does she ever. But she has also wrapped my heart around her little self. Try as I might, I just can't seem to grasp the impact she has on my life each day. I try to imagine if she were suddenly gone, how would I feel. I can't seem to do it. Maybe somewhere deep inside is a self protection mechanism protecting me from myself. From ever projecting a life without her. There isn't one. No more than there is without Chris, or Tony, or Josh, or Ashtin. God is love and He is using me to love this little girl.
So I will keep on loving her. And I will keep on arguing with God when I don't feel up to the task. And that's the journey isn't it.? More steps forward than back.
My last post was a call to arms for Christians, and before that, well I don't really remember off hand, and then there was my journaling through the book of Mark. All good Christian stuff buuut, every Christian (like myself), contains within himself the God side, wherein is the lifelong process of becoming like Christ, and the dark side, or sin nature, which is why we need to engage in a lifelong process of becoming more Christlike.
My choice of colorful language was not merely an accident but rather a colorful release of something inside desperately needing to get out. God has trusted me with this little 'angel' who seems designed specifically to find and repeatedly target my buttons. But why? Why am I chosen for this most dangerous mission? Quite certainly I never prayed for patience. I'm already mostly insane. It is a simple thing to open the lid and examine those characteristics and trainings which lend me to service of the King, but in this case, in my little Emma, I find not reason. The sense of it, the logic escape me. I see but one thing. I was willing.
And there it is. Use me Lord. Even yesterday I did pray that time and again, in between my cries of why me. And He's using me to save the life of this little girl. Per chance one piece of this puzzle that is Emma pinpoints my overabundance of me. Me me me. I like me. I like me way too much. If I have a larger fault I know not what it is. Maybe this little girl is God's missile aimed straight at the me of me. I know that isn't the larger picture, at least I don't think so. I think the bigger picture is that this little girl needed saving and we were in the right place at the right time to say yes, Lord.
She pushes my buttons. Man does she ever. But she has also wrapped my heart around her little self. Try as I might, I just can't seem to grasp the impact she has on my life each day. I try to imagine if she were suddenly gone, how would I feel. I can't seem to do it. Maybe somewhere deep inside is a self protection mechanism protecting me from myself. From ever projecting a life without her. There isn't one. No more than there is without Chris, or Tony, or Josh, or Ashtin. God is love and He is using me to love this little girl.
So I will keep on loving her. And I will keep on arguing with God when I don't feel up to the task. And that's the journey isn't it.? More steps forward than back.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
The world around us. What the heck? This is a call to battle
Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Why is this so hard to remember? I have heard every possible person or group blamed in the Ferguson tragedy except the spiritual realm. What about when a child is raped or trafficked? How can that have happened? The war in Israel/Palestine?
Back to Ferguson. Can cops really not be trusted? Are they all dirty? All without honor? And what about black's? Are they all thugs and criminals? Of course not. Yet haven't we heard all these things said from so many places? And how many of us who claim to be emissaries of Christ have passed this junk along on Facebook? Even cute little meme's are not so harmless as they appear. Why are we so desperate to do the enemies work for him? Are we really so blind as to not see that that's what we are doing?
What if we said to the world the truth? What if we told everyone who would and wouldn't listen that this is the work of the enemy, of Satan? We would be laughed off of the face of the earth wouldn't we? Would that be so bad? Is this world that great that we would fight to stay in it? In the 1930s as Hitler was gaining in power the church had a choice. Put God and His tenets first, or put the government first and God second. They chose almost unanimously to put government first. One by one all the church's that didn't were exterminated. What if all the churches had stood their ground? What if they had had the faith enough to know beyond doubt the their God would fight for them? Germany was a Christian nation and that platform was twisted and turned until it became the opposite of anything remotely Christian. They fought a spiritual battle without the spirit. Being that Hitler's platform was a pure Christian Germany, it would have been pretty hard to make that fly if all the churches had stood together and proclaimed God's word, stood against the tyranny. And if they had all been exterminated that would have removed a substantial portion of his support base. Unfortunately, their earthly lives were worth more than eternity. I know that's a broad statement but more true than not.
We have got to start seeing what's really going on. Forget about the conspiracies of government and global baddies and remember whose we are. There is a veil that separates our reality from the true reality. That veil should begin to get thinner as we move closer to God. I fear that too often this just isn't true. I have this amazing desire to know God and for Him to infiltrate every part of my being. I wonder how many are with me here. We can't continue to fight to make abortion illegal. We must certainly take that stance but not as our first armament. We must fight for the hearts of broken strangers. A heart that knows Christ AND has hope is a heart that would be very unlikely to take the life of an unborn child. A Christ filled hope filled heart would transform the ghetto around itself.
Let's bring God into it. Into the discussion. What can fix Ferguson? God can. What can repair the life of the raped woman and the one who raped her? God can. How can we eliminate abortion, drug use, alcohol abuse, prostitution, slave trade? How about apostasy in church? God can. He will not do it for us. But He will do it with us. We must stand up and just do it. We cannot remain silent any longer. However, as we begin to speak, we must do so in love. No longer can we preach to the world that their sexual identity is wrong. No longer can we fuel the tensions in confused and scared cities across America. No longer can we scream what is right and what is wrong. No! We can't do it this way!
Hey you, I love your soul. Hey you, that pain that you never knew you would have from an abortion, I know where there's help for that. Hey you, you say you're tired of porn and you want your girlfriend to trust you again. I have the answer for you. Hey you, you say you know that black's are not all bad people but you can't seem to change the way you think about them. I have a cure for you. You raped a girl in high school and it's eating your soul. I can help with that. We have the answers for a lost and hurting world. We know the author of the story, we've read to the end. We know who wins the battle in the end, but there is victory to be had today. God wants us to have victory in every part of our lives. It is so past time to develop a craving for God. You say you don't know how? Ask God. I know I should want that but it's pretty scary. I mean what might God want me to do? Ask God for courage.
If you are not willing to step up and give your life, then give up. Go home, snort some coke, watch some porn, order some prostitutes. Take it all the way because there is no middle ground. Stop kidding yourself. There is a life of God's glory or there is a wide road to hell. If you think you are not that bad, where's not that bad in the Bible. It's nowhere you want to be found. There is no easy road. If you honestly can't give it all to God, don't be a coward, tell God. I'm a coward, I'm afraid. I want to serve you all the way but I don't know how. God will take you where you are. And then He'll take you where you could never dream. I'm talking about adventure man. Or woman. We cannot change the world. We cannot even change ourselves. What we can do is turn it over to the creator. Let Him change us. And we still don't change the world. But we do change the world around us. Then we trust God to continue the change through those changed souls. Man, we've got to do this.
Why is this so hard to remember? I have heard every possible person or group blamed in the Ferguson tragedy except the spiritual realm. What about when a child is raped or trafficked? How can that have happened? The war in Israel/Palestine?
Back to Ferguson. Can cops really not be trusted? Are they all dirty? All without honor? And what about black's? Are they all thugs and criminals? Of course not. Yet haven't we heard all these things said from so many places? And how many of us who claim to be emissaries of Christ have passed this junk along on Facebook? Even cute little meme's are not so harmless as they appear. Why are we so desperate to do the enemies work for him? Are we really so blind as to not see that that's what we are doing?
What if we said to the world the truth? What if we told everyone who would and wouldn't listen that this is the work of the enemy, of Satan? We would be laughed off of the face of the earth wouldn't we? Would that be so bad? Is this world that great that we would fight to stay in it? In the 1930s as Hitler was gaining in power the church had a choice. Put God and His tenets first, or put the government first and God second. They chose almost unanimously to put government first. One by one all the church's that didn't were exterminated. What if all the churches had stood their ground? What if they had had the faith enough to know beyond doubt the their God would fight for them? Germany was a Christian nation and that platform was twisted and turned until it became the opposite of anything remotely Christian. They fought a spiritual battle without the spirit. Being that Hitler's platform was a pure Christian Germany, it would have been pretty hard to make that fly if all the churches had stood together and proclaimed God's word, stood against the tyranny. And if they had all been exterminated that would have removed a substantial portion of his support base. Unfortunately, their earthly lives were worth more than eternity. I know that's a broad statement but more true than not.
We have got to start seeing what's really going on. Forget about the conspiracies of government and global baddies and remember whose we are. There is a veil that separates our reality from the true reality. That veil should begin to get thinner as we move closer to God. I fear that too often this just isn't true. I have this amazing desire to know God and for Him to infiltrate every part of my being. I wonder how many are with me here. We can't continue to fight to make abortion illegal. We must certainly take that stance but not as our first armament. We must fight for the hearts of broken strangers. A heart that knows Christ AND has hope is a heart that would be very unlikely to take the life of an unborn child. A Christ filled hope filled heart would transform the ghetto around itself.
Let's bring God into it. Into the discussion. What can fix Ferguson? God can. What can repair the life of the raped woman and the one who raped her? God can. How can we eliminate abortion, drug use, alcohol abuse, prostitution, slave trade? How about apostasy in church? God can. He will not do it for us. But He will do it with us. We must stand up and just do it. We cannot remain silent any longer. However, as we begin to speak, we must do so in love. No longer can we preach to the world that their sexual identity is wrong. No longer can we fuel the tensions in confused and scared cities across America. No longer can we scream what is right and what is wrong. No! We can't do it this way!
Hey you, I love your soul. Hey you, that pain that you never knew you would have from an abortion, I know where there's help for that. Hey you, you say you're tired of porn and you want your girlfriend to trust you again. I have the answer for you. Hey you, you say you know that black's are not all bad people but you can't seem to change the way you think about them. I have a cure for you. You raped a girl in high school and it's eating your soul. I can help with that. We have the answers for a lost and hurting world. We know the author of the story, we've read to the end. We know who wins the battle in the end, but there is victory to be had today. God wants us to have victory in every part of our lives. It is so past time to develop a craving for God. You say you don't know how? Ask God. I know I should want that but it's pretty scary. I mean what might God want me to do? Ask God for courage.
If you are not willing to step up and give your life, then give up. Go home, snort some coke, watch some porn, order some prostitutes. Take it all the way because there is no middle ground. Stop kidding yourself. There is a life of God's glory or there is a wide road to hell. If you think you are not that bad, where's not that bad in the Bible. It's nowhere you want to be found. There is no easy road. If you honestly can't give it all to God, don't be a coward, tell God. I'm a coward, I'm afraid. I want to serve you all the way but I don't know how. God will take you where you are. And then He'll take you where you could never dream. I'm talking about adventure man. Or woman. We cannot change the world. We cannot even change ourselves. What we can do is turn it over to the creator. Let Him change us. And we still don't change the world. But we do change the world around us. Then we trust God to continue the change through those changed souls. Man, we've got to do this.
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