This is sooo good I'm tempted to say, "The Lord showed me these 8 things....".... then again, I'm allergic to dishonesty.
Unless you've been living in a cave lately, you've likely heard of the current hoopla from a group that believes "We Can Know...because Noah knew, WE can know". According to them, Saturday is the rapture and October 21st is The End.
In my book, Radiance, I do address nonsense like this, but Kris' words below establish a brief but powerful grid for discernment. Give a read...then pass it along. I routinely vaccinate the sheep under my care with truth like this as an ounce of prevention worth a TON of healing. Enjoy-
Kris Vallotton’s 8 Core Values Regarding Eschatology or
“the End-Times”
1. I will not embrace an end-time world view that re-empowers a dis-empowered devil.
2. I will not embrace an eschatology that takes away my children’s future and creates mind-sets that undermine the mentality of leaving a legacy or an inheritance or my kid’s future. I intend to leave my children a world in revival.
3. I will not tolerate a theology that sabotages the clear command of Jesus to make disciples of all nations and the Lord’s Prayer that the earth would look like heaven. Why is it that just the bad things have to be fulfilled? What about the amazingly good things?
4. I will not allow an interpretation of the scriptures that undermines hope for the nations and for the restoration of ruined cities.
5. I will not allow an eschatology that changes the nature of a good God.
6. I refuse to accept any mind-set that celebrates bad news as a sign of the times and a necessary requirement for the return of Jesus Christ.
7. I am opposed to any doctrinal position that pushes the promises of God into a time-zone that cannot be attained in my life or generation and therefore takes away any responsibility I have to believe God for them in my life-time.
8. I don’t believe that the last days are a time of judgment nor do I believe that God gave the church the right to call for wrath on sinful cities or nations. There is a Day of Judgment that God alone has the right to pass any judgment…but even that is a DAY …not days.
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Tuesday, May 03, 2011
Double or Nothing
This blog is about me. Yes, it is all about me. I need to read it. I need to live it and I need to express this. I don’t necessarily need anyone else to read it nor do I need anyone else to feel as I do. As Barney Fife used to say, “Nothing to see here folks, move along.”
Yesterday I found myself needing to put a Word in the atmosphere. I was duty-bound and inextricably drawn beyond ME. Yesterday was the first full day of our nation digesting the news about Osama Bin Laden’s death...BUT, this blog isn’t going to be about that. I’ve moved on to something far, far larger for me. But to get there, I’ve got to go back one day.
So, let me tell you about me (get the idea?....ME). Sunday night, when the networks jumped on the TV screen with the bulletin about Bin Laden, my most visceral reaction was a fist pump. My gut said, “YES!”, and then the Holy Spirit said, “Virus alert”. Later, after I went to bed, I laid there feeling dirty. I had to get up and work this out.
I do believe that one duty of civil government is the protection of its citizens. They bear the sword, in a righteous sense, for good purposes for those who are potential victims of genuinely bad people. Romans 13:3,4 “Rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil.”
While humanity sorts out its need for salvation, I’m thrilled that Navy Seals bear a sword for our protection. But, I am committed to labor for the change of all of society until that day when we can beat our swords into plowshares (Micah 4)! The fact that the military has to do what they have to do is to ME a testament to my failure to do what I should be doing… praying, laboring and seeing “on earth, as it is in heaven” through the wielding of MY sword!
I failed where 24 brave Navy Seals succeeded. For that, they have my undying gratitude and my genuine honor…THEY ROCK! That being said, now I have to deal with ME!
The sword I carry is the Living Word of a Transcendent Force of the Immaterial. My sword is destined to be regarded with a higher respect for world changing power than the swords that stopped Osama Bin Laden. And yet, I failed to carry my sword to that destiny so now, I have to deal with ME.
I am moved to repent, moved to grow, moved to clutch this conviction and I am being seized to step up to my assignment in this life. I AM dealing with me. I am an elder in today’s church, an elder who dreams a dream because I have invited the Holy Spirit to roar in me all the days of my life. True elders must rule in a worthy manner to the Spirit’s dream.
I Timothy 5:17 says, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching…”. I hold preaching and teaching as a holy skill with a Kingdom high potential. To ME, preaching is not about entertaining a crowd; it is about healing, revelation power and literally changing the world by putting the Kingdom of God in the soil as a seed which will dominate every field.
Jesus said of Himself, “…the Spirit is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel…” (Luke 4). All through the ministry of Jesus, believers and unbelievers alike knew that His message was with authority; force and tangible power. The atmosphere around Him changed when He spoke.
This is about me. I aspire, seek and yearn to be one worthy of double honor because I am passionately fulfilling an assignment to put a Word out that has tangible atmospheric efficacy and usefulness. Now, back to the hours that followed my “fist pump” last Sunday night…
After a dozen attempts to clear my mind and go to sleep, I finally got up, opened a Bible and found Proverbs 24:17 “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles…”. Remember, this is about ME…
To “let” is to allow for, permit and welcome. I had a choice. At first, I let my heart be glad. Something in me wanted to stay right there and just savor the justice, but the Holy Spirit wouldn’t let me. He had more to say to me.
For ME, to stay right there, to continue to allow my heart to percolate and find relief in the Navy Seal’s victory would have kept me cheated from a ravenous hunger for my own personal victory. Like eating candy before a good nutritious meal, my larger appetite was in danger of being spoiled.
When King Saul, David’s personal Osama Bin Laden, was dying on the battlefield, an unsuspecting and shallow little fellow happened upon the scene (2 Samuel 1). At Saul’s insistence, he assisted Saul in ending his misery. This shallow little guy then assumed that David would love to hear this good news. He found David and brought him the DNA evidence…. Saul’s crown.
David tore his clothes and wept for the rest of the day. No fist pumping. What’s happening here? I can’t speak for anyone else, but for ME, God is offering three life altering prescriptions:
1. Guard your heart from accepting cheap substitutes for celebration. The possibility of the end of the war on terrorism is celebratory but a man’s death, however evil that man, is not a matter for bringing cheer to my soul.
2. Keep your expectations and faith on the highest possible goal on the horizon. My destiny is to preach the impossibly good news of the Kingdom of God until every knee bows to the extravagant goodness of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
3. For David, to kill Saul and celebrate, was to become Saul. For Randy, to be given to deeply celebrate anything less than, “…not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4) is to steep my soul in lukewarm water. If true passion is my destiny, the fire of the Holy Spirit must be my living room.
Yesterday’s “good day for America” (President Obama’s words, and I agree) was yet another wake up call for me. As I said in an earlier paragraph, I am ravenously hungry for Kingdom Come! Too much satisfaction at the wrong table is the worst kind of distraction, for ME.
Paul’s word to Timothy about elders worthy of double honor is my calling and I’m passionate to be found worthy of the same. As such, I’ll always find myself preaching toward an even better day for America. Celebrating the physical sword, while appropriate for the brave who carry it, will always be somewhat muted for ME. Parents often tell their children, “Others may, but you may not” when they have higher aspirations for their sons and daughters.
In 1 Samuel 17 a young David came to the battlefield with lunch for his soldier brothers. Goliath had Israel intimidated into impotency. Upon arrival David heard that King Saul would heap a sizable reward on the household of the man who would defeat Goliath. One hearing of the reward wasn’t enough…just before taking the dare, David asked, “What shall be done for man who kills this Philistine?”
I am unashamedly as aimed to be worthy of double honor as David was for Goliath’s forehead. The Holy Spirit was tapping me on the shoulder the other night. He wanted to know if the fist pump was where I wanted to stay. He was asking if I wanted more honor than the Navy Seals and how far I’d like to go on this quest for double honor. My answer is, “double or nothing”.
Yesterday I found myself needing to put a Word in the atmosphere. I was duty-bound and inextricably drawn beyond ME. Yesterday was the first full day of our nation digesting the news about Osama Bin Laden’s death...BUT, this blog isn’t going to be about that. I’ve moved on to something far, far larger for me. But to get there, I’ve got to go back one day.
So, let me tell you about me (get the idea?....ME). Sunday night, when the networks jumped on the TV screen with the bulletin about Bin Laden, my most visceral reaction was a fist pump. My gut said, “YES!”, and then the Holy Spirit said, “Virus alert”. Later, after I went to bed, I laid there feeling dirty. I had to get up and work this out.
I do believe that one duty of civil government is the protection of its citizens. They bear the sword, in a righteous sense, for good purposes for those who are potential victims of genuinely bad people. Romans 13:3,4 “Rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good, and you will have praise from the same; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath upon the one who practices evil.”
While humanity sorts out its need for salvation, I’m thrilled that Navy Seals bear a sword for our protection. But, I am committed to labor for the change of all of society until that day when we can beat our swords into plowshares (Micah 4)! The fact that the military has to do what they have to do is to ME a testament to my failure to do what I should be doing… praying, laboring and seeing “on earth, as it is in heaven” through the wielding of MY sword!
I failed where 24 brave Navy Seals succeeded. For that, they have my undying gratitude and my genuine honor…THEY ROCK! That being said, now I have to deal with ME!
The sword I carry is the Living Word of a Transcendent Force of the Immaterial. My sword is destined to be regarded with a higher respect for world changing power than the swords that stopped Osama Bin Laden. And yet, I failed to carry my sword to that destiny so now, I have to deal with ME.
I am moved to repent, moved to grow, moved to clutch this conviction and I am being seized to step up to my assignment in this life. I AM dealing with me. I am an elder in today’s church, an elder who dreams a dream because I have invited the Holy Spirit to roar in me all the days of my life. True elders must rule in a worthy manner to the Spirit’s dream.
I Timothy 5:17 says, “Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching…”. I hold preaching and teaching as a holy skill with a Kingdom high potential. To ME, preaching is not about entertaining a crowd; it is about healing, revelation power and literally changing the world by putting the Kingdom of God in the soil as a seed which will dominate every field.
Jesus said of Himself, “…the Spirit is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel…” (Luke 4). All through the ministry of Jesus, believers and unbelievers alike knew that His message was with authority; force and tangible power. The atmosphere around Him changed when He spoke.
This is about me. I aspire, seek and yearn to be one worthy of double honor because I am passionately fulfilling an assignment to put a Word out that has tangible atmospheric efficacy and usefulness. Now, back to the hours that followed my “fist pump” last Sunday night…
After a dozen attempts to clear my mind and go to sleep, I finally got up, opened a Bible and found Proverbs 24:17 “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles…”. Remember, this is about ME…
To “let” is to allow for, permit and welcome. I had a choice. At first, I let my heart be glad. Something in me wanted to stay right there and just savor the justice, but the Holy Spirit wouldn’t let me. He had more to say to me.
For ME, to stay right there, to continue to allow my heart to percolate and find relief in the Navy Seal’s victory would have kept me cheated from a ravenous hunger for my own personal victory. Like eating candy before a good nutritious meal, my larger appetite was in danger of being spoiled.
When King Saul, David’s personal Osama Bin Laden, was dying on the battlefield, an unsuspecting and shallow little fellow happened upon the scene (2 Samuel 1). At Saul’s insistence, he assisted Saul in ending his misery. This shallow little guy then assumed that David would love to hear this good news. He found David and brought him the DNA evidence…. Saul’s crown.
David tore his clothes and wept for the rest of the day. No fist pumping. What’s happening here? I can’t speak for anyone else, but for ME, God is offering three life altering prescriptions:
1. Guard your heart from accepting cheap substitutes for celebration. The possibility of the end of the war on terrorism is celebratory but a man’s death, however evil that man, is not a matter for bringing cheer to my soul.
2. Keep your expectations and faith on the highest possible goal on the horizon. My destiny is to preach the impossibly good news of the Kingdom of God until every knee bows to the extravagant goodness of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
3. For David, to kill Saul and celebrate, was to become Saul. For Randy, to be given to deeply celebrate anything less than, “…not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts” (Zechariah 4) is to steep my soul in lukewarm water. If true passion is my destiny, the fire of the Holy Spirit must be my living room.
Yesterday’s “good day for America” (President Obama’s words, and I agree) was yet another wake up call for me. As I said in an earlier paragraph, I am ravenously hungry for Kingdom Come! Too much satisfaction at the wrong table is the worst kind of distraction, for ME.
Paul’s word to Timothy about elders worthy of double honor is my calling and I’m passionate to be found worthy of the same. As such, I’ll always find myself preaching toward an even better day for America. Celebrating the physical sword, while appropriate for the brave who carry it, will always be somewhat muted for ME. Parents often tell their children, “Others may, but you may not” when they have higher aspirations for their sons and daughters.
In 1 Samuel 17 a young David came to the battlefield with lunch for his soldier brothers. Goliath had Israel intimidated into impotency. Upon arrival David heard that King Saul would heap a sizable reward on the household of the man who would defeat Goliath. One hearing of the reward wasn’t enough…just before taking the dare, David asked, “What shall be done for man who kills this Philistine?”
I am unashamedly as aimed to be worthy of double honor as David was for Goliath’s forehead. The Holy Spirit was tapping me on the shoulder the other night. He wanted to know if the fist pump was where I wanted to stay. He was asking if I wanted more honor than the Navy Seals and how far I’d like to go on this quest for double honor. My answer is, “double or nothing”.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Resurrection Insurrection
In the face of very real dangers in our world, the Church can not afford an anemic teleology or a pitiable theology of destruction and decline. In fact, on this side of the Cross and Resurrection of Christ a demand from Heaven has been put upon the people of God to be laudably and heroically optimistic out of the detonation of the Resurrection!
Jesus’ resurrection is either an anecdotal historical event for my personal future pleasure, insuring my escape from this blue planet roasted to ashes by God’s fury….OR…
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is an ongoing event with an invitation for the faith full person to hungrily reach for its intrinsic calamitous force of life to be practically applied to every day living with every ordinary footstep! The revelation that Jesus staged a jail break from the prison of the pessimistic cycle of the walking dead reverses all need for doom to dominate our voices! “He is risen, indeed!” yearns for expression to resonate through every word we put into the atmosphere.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21) sets an astonishing banquet for a spiritual feast at the appearance of Jesus to His disciples after His resurrection in John 20:21-23. In that account, Jesus passes through a locked door, invites the disciples to inspect His physical wounds, speaks “Peace”, breathes the Holy Spirit on them all and says, “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them: if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
In other words, take a long hard look at the butchery of what is a most unforgiveable deed—the crucifixion of Jesus. Soak it in and then get this revelation in your heart: Resurrection trumped injustice! NOW, get blasted with the Holy Spirit and move out through society with the power to forgive. And not just in the metaphoric sense of spreading good feelings, but in the transcending force of the immaterial world pounding into oblivion the treachery of sin. SET THE WORLD FREE!
Don’t waste your energy on storing food for calamity. Spend your faith in an exhaustive feeding of the world with amazing grace! Don’t give your mind to the zombie virus of “The End is Near”. The outbreak of radiant healing is ours for the release of captive brains and broken hearts! Don’t fall prey to the oldest rip-off of religious prediction societies when they chortle over disasters and human misery. Our new found life vigor must now be lavishly spent in proclaiming, “release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18,19).
The narrative of Luke 9:51-56 always makes me smile. The disciples are strutting a bit of power obsession when they ask Jesus if He would like for them to call fire down to consume some bad people. The mix of this exchange is both silly and sobering. It is so close to home for us. Jesus simply replies (my interpretation), “What? Are you in any way aware of the spirit you are dipped in when you talk smack like that? I’m not here to roast people…I’m here to restore people!”
I wonder if we know what spirit we are dipped in when it is easier to believe for judgment and collapse? On the other hand, it is a far greater challenge to believe for a Holy Spirit baptism with true grit faith for restoration and resuscitation. One nuance of the Greek meaning for resurrection is, “to stand up again”. Jesus stood up for all humankind. He beckons us to join Him in standing up with Him for our world.
It is time to be THE LIVING for the sake of our time and for the Glory of God!
Jesus’ resurrection is either an anecdotal historical event for my personal future pleasure, insuring my escape from this blue planet roasted to ashes by God’s fury….OR…
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is an ongoing event with an invitation for the faith full person to hungrily reach for its intrinsic calamitous force of life to be practically applied to every day living with every ordinary footstep! The revelation that Jesus staged a jail break from the prison of the pessimistic cycle of the walking dead reverses all need for doom to dominate our voices! “He is risen, indeed!” yearns for expression to resonate through every word we put into the atmosphere.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21) sets an astonishing banquet for a spiritual feast at the appearance of Jesus to His disciples after His resurrection in John 20:21-23. In that account, Jesus passes through a locked door, invites the disciples to inspect His physical wounds, speaks “Peace”, breathes the Holy Spirit on them all and says, “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them: if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”
In other words, take a long hard look at the butchery of what is a most unforgiveable deed—the crucifixion of Jesus. Soak it in and then get this revelation in your heart: Resurrection trumped injustice! NOW, get blasted with the Holy Spirit and move out through society with the power to forgive. And not just in the metaphoric sense of spreading good feelings, but in the transcending force of the immaterial world pounding into oblivion the treachery of sin. SET THE WORLD FREE!
Don’t waste your energy on storing food for calamity. Spend your faith in an exhaustive feeding of the world with amazing grace! Don’t give your mind to the zombie virus of “The End is Near”. The outbreak of radiant healing is ours for the release of captive brains and broken hearts! Don’t fall prey to the oldest rip-off of religious prediction societies when they chortle over disasters and human misery. Our new found life vigor must now be lavishly spent in proclaiming, “release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are downtrodden, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:18,19).
The narrative of Luke 9:51-56 always makes me smile. The disciples are strutting a bit of power obsession when they ask Jesus if He would like for them to call fire down to consume some bad people. The mix of this exchange is both silly and sobering. It is so close to home for us. Jesus simply replies (my interpretation), “What? Are you in any way aware of the spirit you are dipped in when you talk smack like that? I’m not here to roast people…I’m here to restore people!”
I wonder if we know what spirit we are dipped in when it is easier to believe for judgment and collapse? On the other hand, it is a far greater challenge to believe for a Holy Spirit baptism with true grit faith for restoration and resuscitation. One nuance of the Greek meaning for resurrection is, “to stand up again”. Jesus stood up for all humankind. He beckons us to join Him in standing up with Him for our world.
It is time to be THE LIVING for the sake of our time and for the Glory of God!
Monday, August 30, 2010
Mosque Madness
I simply will not remain silent any more about the “proposed mosque” near the World Trade Center site. The sheer volume of misinformation, the volume of the sheer misinformation and the misinformed voluminous sheer determination to perpetuate misinformation presses me to speak. The following is my own view, my own opinion and my own rant.
The building site in question is two full blocks away from the WTC site. Have you walked the blocks of Manhattan? How many buildings and businesses occupy those two full blocks? How many people would you pass walking those two blocks? Count ‘em…two. full. blocks. It is not overseeing, not adjoining, not connected to the WTC site. It is near, yes, but not a part of the WTC site.
Let me start with one basic premise; in my humble opinion, using this site as a Muslim prayer room, so close to the WTC tragedy is another tragedy waiting to happen. I fear every crazy loon on the planet will target it as their claim to some insane and bizarre attempt for justice. Christian, Islamic and maybe even Jewish extremists will view it the same way the murderous lunatics of 9/11 viewed the World Trade Center Towers. Security alone for this project will likely create a nightmare for the new owners.
But now, let me transition to the true heart of my thoughts…
The building site in question was formerly occupied by a Burlington Coat Factory Store. On September 11, 2001 this building was struck by a chunk of landing gear from one of the hijacked planes. The building was rendered irreparable by that moment and has remained abandoned since. To my knowledge, no church has looked into creating a memorial there. No charitable organization has proffered enough money to purchase it. Until a local mosque showed up to turn it into a prayer room connected to what happened on 9/11, this building was a Burlington Coat Factory store. When the local mosque offered to buy it, it was sold; that’s the American free market system in full operation.
Imam Feisal who leads the local mosque in question (which has been in this neighborhood for several years previous) has been in the employment of the United States government since the George W. Bush administration. He was hired by them to represent the U.S.A. in Islamic countries as a loyal, peace loving citizen of our nation. The Bush administration, no doubt, saw this man’s potential of giving our nation an intellectual, understanding face with which civilized Muslim people could relate. Feisal’s stated goal is, “We want to push back against the extremists”.
His wife, Daisy Khan, was invited to sit on an advisory board overseeing the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum to assist in memorializing the heart wrenching events of 9/11. Again, for the record, both of them have been serving us since 9/11/01. They are not recent employees of the current president; they were contracted by the State Department and the F.B.I. under the charge of our previous, Republican president, George W. Bush. In fact, the F.B.I. has publically stated that their work with Imam Feisel has been, “positive”.
Imam Feisal has been complemented by a neighboring rabbi, Arthur Schneier, who said that the Imam was a man of “like heartedness” to him (the rabbi). Additionally, the presence of the Muslim community in New York City is a well documented historic fact. The mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg (a Republican), is fully supportive of this Muslim physical presence in the former Burlington Coat Factory building because, he thinks it is a restorative gesture. I think that is, at least, a reasonable thought.
Now, it seems to me, that when we look at this proposed Islamic prayer site, two blocks away from the WTC site, we should, at the very least, try and understand the true simplicity of this transaction. All mystery, of any nature, should first be processed in simplicity.
My thought is, maybe, just maybe, this is no more than the desire of genuine, American Muslims to make something good of the terrible events of that terrible day. Since this former Burlington Coat Factory Store was damaged by a piece of one of the hijacked planes, perhaps the thought is that this building is a natural physical point of reference for prayer for healing. Maybe good people want to do something good as a small gesture of reparation for an awful act of cowards. Is that at least possible? I think it is and until proven otherwise, it ought to be given an equal chance to stand or fall on its own merits.
I have gone on record for years, publically wondering why no reasonable Muslim leader was pressing for attention to bravely right the public record of Islam’s supposed peace loving nature. I think now I have seen one reason why civil Muslim leaders have stayed quiet; they get threatened by some of their own followers and have their character assassinated by the loud misinformed masses outside of Islam. Lose, lose…
I am, in no way, a defender of the Islamic religion. I am completely, thoroughly and resoundingly an adoring believer of and in Jesus Christ, Lord of all. That being said, I know that Jesus said, “Love your enemies…” and He said, “…do not resist him who is evil, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also”.
Remember, I said in the third paragraph I think this project is a security nightmare. For instance, you won’t find me building a Christian house of prayer in Mecca any time soon. However, as a Christian, I believe we should let this project stand or fall on its own merits. If they are, as some suspect, seeking to pour salt in our national wounds, their own evil will be their undoing. But if they are simply seeking some gesture to heal our wounds, why, in the name of all that is pure and holy, would we resist such an act of potential decency?
Start with the truth. Let all your opinions be rooted there. However, if you start with your opinion and look only for the truth that supports your view, you will miss the greater beauty of truth that could make you free. Always start with the truth, even if it is uncomplimentary to your opinion.
I do not like or agree with the Islamic religion and the practice of the Muslim faith. That is my opinion. In the case of this building project near the ground made hallowed by the blood of innocent victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, the truth might be that Muslims are attempting to do something spiritually and lovingly restorative. If that is the truth, and it seems reasonable to me that it is, then I will start there, even though it might cause me to admire an Imam with whom I have enormous religious differences.
If the Imam and all Muslims simply want me and all who disagree with them dead, how is that any different from the goals of Rome and the major religionists of Jesus’ day? How did their blood thirsty, terroristic pursuit work for them? Isn’t the world’s largest Christian denomination today headquartered in Rome?
Wasn’t the story of Saul, who was a religious leader and avowed enemy of Christians, about a man who was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples…and asked for letters to bind women and children” (Acts 9:1,2)? Didn’t that turn out to be one of the most significant miracles of the infancy of Christianity?
As I said at the top of this blog, these words are just my own opinion. When I first heard about a mosque on the WTC site, I reacted negatively, like many people did and still do. So I searched for truth...and my opinion changed when the light of truth weighed in on my views. I hope you'll join me, at least, in the pursuit of truth.
The building site in question is two full blocks away from the WTC site. Have you walked the blocks of Manhattan? How many buildings and businesses occupy those two full blocks? How many people would you pass walking those two blocks? Count ‘em…two. full. blocks. It is not overseeing, not adjoining, not connected to the WTC site. It is near, yes, but not a part of the WTC site.
Let me start with one basic premise; in my humble opinion, using this site as a Muslim prayer room, so close to the WTC tragedy is another tragedy waiting to happen. I fear every crazy loon on the planet will target it as their claim to some insane and bizarre attempt for justice. Christian, Islamic and maybe even Jewish extremists will view it the same way the murderous lunatics of 9/11 viewed the World Trade Center Towers. Security alone for this project will likely create a nightmare for the new owners.
But now, let me transition to the true heart of my thoughts…
The building site in question was formerly occupied by a Burlington Coat Factory Store. On September 11, 2001 this building was struck by a chunk of landing gear from one of the hijacked planes. The building was rendered irreparable by that moment and has remained abandoned since. To my knowledge, no church has looked into creating a memorial there. No charitable organization has proffered enough money to purchase it. Until a local mosque showed up to turn it into a prayer room connected to what happened on 9/11, this building was a Burlington Coat Factory store. When the local mosque offered to buy it, it was sold; that’s the American free market system in full operation.
Imam Feisal who leads the local mosque in question (which has been in this neighborhood for several years previous) has been in the employment of the United States government since the George W. Bush administration. He was hired by them to represent the U.S.A. in Islamic countries as a loyal, peace loving citizen of our nation. The Bush administration, no doubt, saw this man’s potential of giving our nation an intellectual, understanding face with which civilized Muslim people could relate. Feisal’s stated goal is, “We want to push back against the extremists”.
His wife, Daisy Khan, was invited to sit on an advisory board overseeing the National 9/11 Memorial and Museum to assist in memorializing the heart wrenching events of 9/11. Again, for the record, both of them have been serving us since 9/11/01. They are not recent employees of the current president; they were contracted by the State Department and the F.B.I. under the charge of our previous, Republican president, George W. Bush. In fact, the F.B.I. has publically stated that their work with Imam Feisel has been, “positive”.
Imam Feisal has been complemented by a neighboring rabbi, Arthur Schneier, who said that the Imam was a man of “like heartedness” to him (the rabbi). Additionally, the presence of the Muslim community in New York City is a well documented historic fact. The mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg (a Republican), is fully supportive of this Muslim physical presence in the former Burlington Coat Factory building because, he thinks it is a restorative gesture. I think that is, at least, a reasonable thought.
Now, it seems to me, that when we look at this proposed Islamic prayer site, two blocks away from the WTC site, we should, at the very least, try and understand the true simplicity of this transaction. All mystery, of any nature, should first be processed in simplicity.
My thought is, maybe, just maybe, this is no more than the desire of genuine, American Muslims to make something good of the terrible events of that terrible day. Since this former Burlington Coat Factory Store was damaged by a piece of one of the hijacked planes, perhaps the thought is that this building is a natural physical point of reference for prayer for healing. Maybe good people want to do something good as a small gesture of reparation for an awful act of cowards. Is that at least possible? I think it is and until proven otherwise, it ought to be given an equal chance to stand or fall on its own merits.
I have gone on record for years, publically wondering why no reasonable Muslim leader was pressing for attention to bravely right the public record of Islam’s supposed peace loving nature. I think now I have seen one reason why civil Muslim leaders have stayed quiet; they get threatened by some of their own followers and have their character assassinated by the loud misinformed masses outside of Islam. Lose, lose…
I am, in no way, a defender of the Islamic religion. I am completely, thoroughly and resoundingly an adoring believer of and in Jesus Christ, Lord of all. That being said, I know that Jesus said, “Love your enemies…” and He said, “…do not resist him who is evil, but whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also”.
Remember, I said in the third paragraph I think this project is a security nightmare. For instance, you won’t find me building a Christian house of prayer in Mecca any time soon. However, as a Christian, I believe we should let this project stand or fall on its own merits. If they are, as some suspect, seeking to pour salt in our national wounds, their own evil will be their undoing. But if they are simply seeking some gesture to heal our wounds, why, in the name of all that is pure and holy, would we resist such an act of potential decency?
Start with the truth. Let all your opinions be rooted there. However, if you start with your opinion and look only for the truth that supports your view, you will miss the greater beauty of truth that could make you free. Always start with the truth, even if it is uncomplimentary to your opinion.
I do not like or agree with the Islamic religion and the practice of the Muslim faith. That is my opinion. In the case of this building project near the ground made hallowed by the blood of innocent victims of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, the truth might be that Muslims are attempting to do something spiritually and lovingly restorative. If that is the truth, and it seems reasonable to me that it is, then I will start there, even though it might cause me to admire an Imam with whom I have enormous religious differences.
If the Imam and all Muslims simply want me and all who disagree with them dead, how is that any different from the goals of Rome and the major religionists of Jesus’ day? How did their blood thirsty, terroristic pursuit work for them? Isn’t the world’s largest Christian denomination today headquartered in Rome?
Wasn’t the story of Saul, who was a religious leader and avowed enemy of Christians, about a man who was “breathing threats and murder against the disciples…and asked for letters to bind women and children” (Acts 9:1,2)? Didn’t that turn out to be one of the most significant miracles of the infancy of Christianity?
As I said at the top of this blog, these words are just my own opinion. When I first heard about a mosque on the WTC site, I reacted negatively, like many people did and still do. So I searched for truth...and my opinion changed when the light of truth weighed in on my views. I hope you'll join me, at least, in the pursuit of truth.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Kids These Days....
Somewhere along the timeline of my youth I had a deep conversation with myself. Someone had said something harsh and diminishing about me and my generation and it stung. Now, mind you, I’m 57 and this internal chat was going on during the wild ride of the ‘60’s. If you don’t remember it, or have not recently reviewed the history, let me remind you of a few things.
This nation was being torn apart by a string of assassinations. Thousands of soldiers were dying in southeast Asia and those coming home from that bloody war in Vietnam returned to the noise of angry protesters. College campuses were deeply shaken by protests, rioting and blood shed. Drug usage was celebrated as a means of coping and celebrating and, as a result, rock stars routinely died from over-dosing. Days-long urban riots were in the news for at least two summers. At that time, I lived in Milwaukee, inside the cordoned off zone, where soldiers patrolled in front of our apartment house. I could hear gun shots in the night all that week. The Kroger Store directly across the street from us was boarded shut and the corner on the other side of that block had a machine gun posted check-point.
Now let me return to my internal conversation. I told myself to remember what it was like to be a frightened confused kid. I firmly resolved with myself that I would hold these memories as fresh as I could into my adult life so that I would be a man of understanding and compassion for youth. I promised myself that I would avoid at all costs being someone who would flippantly brush off an entire generation with a brusque sneer of, “…kids/youth these days…”. I was determined to remember the pain I felt from those cynical and pessimistic words.
Youth these days have their own set of fears, uncertainties and questions. For example, their generation will tell the next of watching, on live TV, as 3000 souls perished on 9/11. Kids, these days, need our validation, our courage and, I think most importantly, our faith! They want to know who our God is and if our God still loves, “the little children”.
The only way they will know this is if the adults around them are a determined corps of people whose habit is blessing and not cursing the next generation. Have you read the Bible stories about the patriarchs blessing their children? Do you remember how Jesus took children in His arms, blessed them and said, “This is My Kingdom” (Matthew 19:14)?
Kids these days…are absolutely amazing!
This nation was being torn apart by a string of assassinations. Thousands of soldiers were dying in southeast Asia and those coming home from that bloody war in Vietnam returned to the noise of angry protesters. College campuses were deeply shaken by protests, rioting and blood shed. Drug usage was celebrated as a means of coping and celebrating and, as a result, rock stars routinely died from over-dosing. Days-long urban riots were in the news for at least two summers. At that time, I lived in Milwaukee, inside the cordoned off zone, where soldiers patrolled in front of our apartment house. I could hear gun shots in the night all that week. The Kroger Store directly across the street from us was boarded shut and the corner on the other side of that block had a machine gun posted check-point.
Now let me return to my internal conversation. I told myself to remember what it was like to be a frightened confused kid. I firmly resolved with myself that I would hold these memories as fresh as I could into my adult life so that I would be a man of understanding and compassion for youth. I promised myself that I would avoid at all costs being someone who would flippantly brush off an entire generation with a brusque sneer of, “…kids/youth these days…”. I was determined to remember the pain I felt from those cynical and pessimistic words.
Youth these days have their own set of fears, uncertainties and questions. For example, their generation will tell the next of watching, on live TV, as 3000 souls perished on 9/11. Kids, these days, need our validation, our courage and, I think most importantly, our faith! They want to know who our God is and if our God still loves, “the little children”.
The only way they will know this is if the adults around them are a determined corps of people whose habit is blessing and not cursing the next generation. Have you read the Bible stories about the patriarchs blessing their children? Do you remember how Jesus took children in His arms, blessed them and said, “This is My Kingdom” (Matthew 19:14)?
Kids these days…are absolutely amazing!
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Tell Me Your Vision For the World...
Tell me your vision for the world, not your vitriol against it. Please don’t explain to me how wrong your opponent’s ideas are, tell me how brilliant your ideas are. Why do we love the blame game? Because in faith, politics and relationships blaming others pays off a huge bonus to our ego.
Isaiah 58:9 says, “Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness…”. We all want God to answer our prayers and respond as quickly as we can cry out. It might surprise you to know that this is what He wants too! Jesus proposed that we would always get whatever we have asked for in prayer (John 15:7). Heaven wants this more than we want it but we have too easily overlooked our culpability in the failure.
We are culpable for unanswered prayer in that we have spent our energy on blame and not progress. In the case of Isaiah’s words God is calling for a fast, not of food and drink, but of negativity that feeds the ego. The prophet’s vision is of a people who become like a spectacular garden glistening with the water of encouragement(58:11). This vision is built upon the premises of the words in verse 9. Look again;
1. Remove the yoke—the yoke of our own making! Which is…
2. Pointing the finger – externalizing the reasons why we can not make progress. A over-fed ego loves to reason why the wide world is conspiring to keep its host down.
3. And speaking wickedness – this Hebrew expression goes to the notion of describing how nothing you do matters or works. It literally means, “nothingness”, the ultimate negative energy.
New Age teachers love to talk about negative and positive energy. Avoiding these terms is surrendering them to that venue and I will not do that! It is clear that this principle is a core value of the Bible. Philippians 4:4-9 concludes with, “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of a good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” Let everything that has breath (could be translated as energy), praise the Lord (Psalm 150:6).
Blame is the ultimate negative energy and praise to God and honor for people is the ultimate positive energy. When we fast the former and furiously embrace the latter our lives will spiritually and psychologically blossom with a beautiful flourish. Blame will easily feed your ego with always being right even at the expense of truth to the contrary. You will not maintain vital connection to God and others in this spirit, however, praise and honor will heal your ego by connecting it to every outside source designed to sustain the real and only you.
Bill Johnson loves to say, “You can not go in faith where you have not gone in intimacy.” Simply put, the more profound my love for God, enthusiasm for life and passion for Kingdom Come reality in my world the more explosive my prayer life will be. If I’m routinely sour about politics, life and relationships it is likely my prayers are extensions of my unpleasant mood.
If I’m lit up through worship and love for Daddy, if I’m drinking in the glory of life all around me, if I’m energized about being a servant with solutions then my life becomes a prayer because positive living is a sacrifice worthy of the King!
Isaiah 58:9 says, “Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness…”. We all want God to answer our prayers and respond as quickly as we can cry out. It might surprise you to know that this is what He wants too! Jesus proposed that we would always get whatever we have asked for in prayer (John 15:7). Heaven wants this more than we want it but we have too easily overlooked our culpability in the failure.
We are culpable for unanswered prayer in that we have spent our energy on blame and not progress. In the case of Isaiah’s words God is calling for a fast, not of food and drink, but of negativity that feeds the ego. The prophet’s vision is of a people who become like a spectacular garden glistening with the water of encouragement(58:11). This vision is built upon the premises of the words in verse 9. Look again;
1. Remove the yoke—the yoke of our own making! Which is…
2. Pointing the finger – externalizing the reasons why we can not make progress. A over-fed ego loves to reason why the wide world is conspiring to keep its host down.
3. And speaking wickedness – this Hebrew expression goes to the notion of describing how nothing you do matters or works. It literally means, “nothingness”, the ultimate negative energy.
New Age teachers love to talk about negative and positive energy. Avoiding these terms is surrendering them to that venue and I will not do that! It is clear that this principle is a core value of the Bible. Philippians 4:4-9 concludes with, “…whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of a good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” Let everything that has breath (could be translated as energy), praise the Lord (Psalm 150:6).
Blame is the ultimate negative energy and praise to God and honor for people is the ultimate positive energy. When we fast the former and furiously embrace the latter our lives will spiritually and psychologically blossom with a beautiful flourish. Blame will easily feed your ego with always being right even at the expense of truth to the contrary. You will not maintain vital connection to God and others in this spirit, however, praise and honor will heal your ego by connecting it to every outside source designed to sustain the real and only you.
Bill Johnson loves to say, “You can not go in faith where you have not gone in intimacy.” Simply put, the more profound my love for God, enthusiasm for life and passion for Kingdom Come reality in my world the more explosive my prayer life will be. If I’m routinely sour about politics, life and relationships it is likely my prayers are extensions of my unpleasant mood.
If I’m lit up through worship and love for Daddy, if I’m drinking in the glory of life all around me, if I’m energized about being a servant with solutions then my life becomes a prayer because positive living is a sacrifice worthy of the King!
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Just One Thought Away...
For the last 3 weeks I’ve been soaking in the words of Mark 8:31-33. In the past they have seemed almost anecdotal, off the main subject and only there to prove how all knowing Jesus was and is. This is Mark’s version of when Jesus asked, “Who do people say that I am?” After Peter hits the bulls eye and is winding up for an astronomic miss, Mark records this, “And He (Jesus) began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He was stating the matter plainly. (Amplified Version says it this way, “and He said this freely, frankly, plainly, and explicitly, making it unmistakable) And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him.”
I drew this passage as the starting point for a sermon series on supernatural psychology. I have gone after a few other points from these words, but I didn’t expect to be wonderfully caught by a picture of Jesus standing there with the 12 stating freely, frankly, plainly and explicitly, making it unmistakable how this journey with Him would culminate. I’ve always known that He had warned the disciples but I’ve never been drawn to really calculate the implications of this incredible and altogether missed point of truth.
In order to take you where my mind is (brace yourself) look at the possibility of what would have happened if the Holy Spirit had been allowed to continue with the spirit of revelation that briefly bumped into Peter prior to this. The following is a summary of how different the gospels would have been:
1. At the garden of Gethsemane the disciples could have been riding the wave of the Spirit’s revelation of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. As such, they might have stayed awake to see the angels ministering to Jesus in the depths of His prayer.
2. No one would have reacted to the arrest of Jesus with anything but subdued yet profound worship.
3. After Jesus’ beating and mock trial Peter might have stood his ground about knowing this man. He might have even been arrested himself; only to be released by a band of angels sent to insure that God’s purposes and promises for Peter would not fail.
4. All but Judas would have been standing at the cross with Mary unafraid and surrounded by the legion of angels that would rather have been rescuing Jesus.
5. And best of all, perhaps, just maybe, they would have all been at the tomb, night and day until the triumphant moment when the angel blasted the stone away and Jesus stepped out. Their shouts would have moved clouds as they declared to one another, “YOU SEE! He told us! He has never lied to us, never mislead us, never given us false hopes! He is LORD!”
Now, we all know this didn’t happen. It would be easy to teach and expound on the reality that the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out on them in order for them to be this powerfully and profoundly illuminated. We know that it wasn’t until the Day of Pentecost that their collective eyes and hearts were slammed open and they became an army of invincible world changers. But here’s where it gets really interesting….
We live on this side of the resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit! We have this illumination for the determination of the destiny of the Kingdom’s invincibility! We are the extension of the army they began when at long last they could see, really see the truth that was always there, always teeming with divinely pressurized potential. We have the Holy Spirit on us to lead us into all, all, all truth. There is now no reason, no excuse for any freely, frankly, plainly, and explicitly, making it unmistakable promise to be missed which could otherwise alter history and determine our destiny!
We are all one thought away from achieving our destiny; and that one thought, that one revelation may very well have been laying on our mental book shelf for the past several years! It is that thought which was always a promise that seemed so irrational, so impractical, so far-fetched and even comparable to Jesus saying freely, frankly, plainly, and explicitly, making it unmistakable that His death was not final.
Is your forward progress waiting for your revelation of one simple promise? And is that one simple promise been with you all this time, while you may have been seeking more promises, more prophesy, more encouragement, when all along your greatest revelation has always been with you?
I drew this passage as the starting point for a sermon series on supernatural psychology. I have gone after a few other points from these words, but I didn’t expect to be wonderfully caught by a picture of Jesus standing there with the 12 stating freely, frankly, plainly and explicitly, making it unmistakable how this journey with Him would culminate. I’ve always known that He had warned the disciples but I’ve never been drawn to really calculate the implications of this incredible and altogether missed point of truth.
In order to take you where my mind is (brace yourself) look at the possibility of what would have happened if the Holy Spirit had been allowed to continue with the spirit of revelation that briefly bumped into Peter prior to this. The following is a summary of how different the gospels would have been:
1. At the garden of Gethsemane the disciples could have been riding the wave of the Spirit’s revelation of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection. As such, they might have stayed awake to see the angels ministering to Jesus in the depths of His prayer.
2. No one would have reacted to the arrest of Jesus with anything but subdued yet profound worship.
3. After Jesus’ beating and mock trial Peter might have stood his ground about knowing this man. He might have even been arrested himself; only to be released by a band of angels sent to insure that God’s purposes and promises for Peter would not fail.
4. All but Judas would have been standing at the cross with Mary unafraid and surrounded by the legion of angels that would rather have been rescuing Jesus.
5. And best of all, perhaps, just maybe, they would have all been at the tomb, night and day until the triumphant moment when the angel blasted the stone away and Jesus stepped out. Their shouts would have moved clouds as they declared to one another, “YOU SEE! He told us! He has never lied to us, never mislead us, never given us false hopes! He is LORD!”
Now, we all know this didn’t happen. It would be easy to teach and expound on the reality that the Holy Spirit had not yet been poured out on them in order for them to be this powerfully and profoundly illuminated. We know that it wasn’t until the Day of Pentecost that their collective eyes and hearts were slammed open and they became an army of invincible world changers. But here’s where it gets really interesting….
We live on this side of the resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit! We have this illumination for the determination of the destiny of the Kingdom’s invincibility! We are the extension of the army they began when at long last they could see, really see the truth that was always there, always teeming with divinely pressurized potential. We have the Holy Spirit on us to lead us into all, all, all truth. There is now no reason, no excuse for any freely, frankly, plainly, and explicitly, making it unmistakable promise to be missed which could otherwise alter history and determine our destiny!
We are all one thought away from achieving our destiny; and that one thought, that one revelation may very well have been laying on our mental book shelf for the past several years! It is that thought which was always a promise that seemed so irrational, so impractical, so far-fetched and even comparable to Jesus saying freely, frankly, plainly, and explicitly, making it unmistakable that His death was not final.
Is your forward progress waiting for your revelation of one simple promise? And is that one simple promise been with you all this time, while you may have been seeking more promises, more prophesy, more encouragement, when all along your greatest revelation has always been with you?
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Supernatural Psychology
Some church folks have nasty habits. Listing all of them would require a large book; maybe I’ll start that manuscript as soon as I’m done with this. One of our many bad habits is that of trashing anything that does not come from us, or even what someone from among us has deemed to be from the unsafe list of us.
Here’s an example: church man A is looking for a good attorney. He meets church lady B at, of course, a church function. He asks her for the name of a good lawyer and she gives him one with these words, “This lawyer is a Christian!” And church man A is off to the races.
What’s wrong with this logic? Three basic fatal flaws: 1. Too many church folk already spend too much time with each other. 2. Being a Christian is no guarantee of being good at anything else, and 3. It ignores the glorious resourcefulness of the wide world around us. We may live in an evil world, but make no mistake about it, we live in a world full of valuable resources!
Psychology is an easy target for some church folks because it comes from “out there”. We really need to get over that fear on several fronts.
Modern medicine has been on the historic map for over a thousand years while modern psychology has only been around for about 150 years. In terms of classic research and development, that qualifies as very young and it may explain some of the idiosyncrasies resident in some psychological circles. But the idiosyncrasies of some is no reason for demonizing an entire profession.
It’s not my purpose here to endorse all psychological enterprise. My purpose here is to turn some lights on for Christians to take a look at the possibility of our cynical review of psychological endeavors. More importantly, I want to make a clear call for the church to be a people and a place of supernatural resource for any and all healing pursuits!
What would happen if the church became known as an environmental influence of profoundly beautiful mental health? What would it look like if the world around us heard that if you hang out with us church folks you’ll feel more secure and lucid? How would our reputation change if pure happiness was known as our most identifiable trait? What would it take for us to be free enough to acknowledge that all of us could stand a wide spectrum of input from the Wonderful Counselor, Jesus (Isaiah 9:6)? And, perhaps accept the assistance of some of His counterparts on earth for a check-up from the neck up?
Isaiah 51:11 says, “So the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” This sounds to me like God is offering us Supernatural Psychological health and I’m crazy enough to believe this kind of promise has outrageous ramifications for any of us willing to take a dive into the deep end!
Here’s an example: church man A is looking for a good attorney. He meets church lady B at, of course, a church function. He asks her for the name of a good lawyer and she gives him one with these words, “This lawyer is a Christian!” And church man A is off to the races.
What’s wrong with this logic? Three basic fatal flaws: 1. Too many church folk already spend too much time with each other. 2. Being a Christian is no guarantee of being good at anything else, and 3. It ignores the glorious resourcefulness of the wide world around us. We may live in an evil world, but make no mistake about it, we live in a world full of valuable resources!
Psychology is an easy target for some church folks because it comes from “out there”. We really need to get over that fear on several fronts.
Modern medicine has been on the historic map for over a thousand years while modern psychology has only been around for about 150 years. In terms of classic research and development, that qualifies as very young and it may explain some of the idiosyncrasies resident in some psychological circles. But the idiosyncrasies of some is no reason for demonizing an entire profession.
It’s not my purpose here to endorse all psychological enterprise. My purpose here is to turn some lights on for Christians to take a look at the possibility of our cynical review of psychological endeavors. More importantly, I want to make a clear call for the church to be a people and a place of supernatural resource for any and all healing pursuits!
What would happen if the church became known as an environmental influence of profoundly beautiful mental health? What would it look like if the world around us heard that if you hang out with us church folks you’ll feel more secure and lucid? How would our reputation change if pure happiness was known as our most identifiable trait? What would it take for us to be free enough to acknowledge that all of us could stand a wide spectrum of input from the Wonderful Counselor, Jesus (Isaiah 9:6)? And, perhaps accept the assistance of some of His counterparts on earth for a check-up from the neck up?
Isaiah 51:11 says, “So the ransomed of the Lord will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion; and everlasting joy will be on their heads. They will obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing will flee away.” This sounds to me like God is offering us Supernatural Psychological health and I’m crazy enough to believe this kind of promise has outrageous ramifications for any of us willing to take a dive into the deep end!
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Hubble and Horton
Inestimable, immeasurable, incalculable, fathomless, infinite, inexhaustible, unbounded, limitless; and these are just the descriptors of the universe! What of the God Who made it?
I just read another cosmologist reflection of Hubble’s recent photography who said, “Wow! I don’t get it….we’re dust mites in the bigger scheme of things...” He (or she) went on to say something like this; if pre-Copernicus thinking was drearily limited on the inside of all that we were, how many ways can this view of the infinite universe change us now? (Here’s that link: http://blog.speakingoffaith.org/post/189520874/the-wonder-of-the-cosmos-through-an-upgradedspeakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2010/asteroids/ )
Before Copernicus we surmised the sun was out there to serve us by revolving around the earth. That view built into human reasoning a shrunken and withered estimate of God and us. Now we know there are trillions of suns and not one of them gives a centimeter of revolving response to the earth. To me, this does not diminish the earth, indeed, it expands our existence and upgrades every possible vision of God.
When Horton heard a Who, his community laughed him to scorn. But dear old Horton could not un-hear what he had heard as surely as we can not un-see what Hubble has seen! If you will…Hubble has seen a Who… and I love how that freaks me out!
Who to you….BOO!
I just read another cosmologist reflection of Hubble’s recent photography who said, “Wow! I don’t get it….we’re dust mites in the bigger scheme of things...” He (or she) went on to say something like this; if pre-Copernicus thinking was drearily limited on the inside of all that we were, how many ways can this view of the infinite universe change us now? (Here’s that link: http://blog.speakingoffaith.org/post/189520874/the-wonder-of-the-cosmos-through-an-upgradedspeakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2010/asteroids/ )
Before Copernicus we surmised the sun was out there to serve us by revolving around the earth. That view built into human reasoning a shrunken and withered estimate of God and us. Now we know there are trillions of suns and not one of them gives a centimeter of revolving response to the earth. To me, this does not diminish the earth, indeed, it expands our existence and upgrades every possible vision of God.
When Horton heard a Who, his community laughed him to scorn. But dear old Horton could not un-hear what he had heard as surely as we can not un-see what Hubble has seen! If you will…Hubble has seen a Who… and I love how that freaks me out!
Who to you….BOO!
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Jesus Versus Christian Terrorists
“Christian Militia” is what the news media is calling it. I call it Christian terrorists. You might want to duck because I’m about to go after something that needs to be spoken to and it needs to be spoken to rather directly.
After September 11, 2001, I waited for something for which I am still waiting. I wanted to hear a clarion, passionate, piercing and powerful Islamic Clerical voice speak out, consistently and intentionally drawing the proverbial dark line for all the world to see explaining this hideous act of terrorism of that dreadful day did not represent Islam. Yes, I have heard an occasional and respected Muslim leader denounce terrorism, and for that, I am thankful. It just seems to me that Islam has yet to find a true voice to represent itself clearly, at least, in the western world.
But that is not my point. My point here is to step up to my own platform and be a clarion, passionate, piercing and powerful Christian pastoral voice to speak out consistently and intentionally to draw a proverbial dark line for all the world to see explaining that armed militias, cults and even angry noisy churches do not represent authentic Christianity.
I want to take that a step further. Here’s the part where you might want to duck. Matthew 5:21-26 proposes some rather interesting values which we all would do well to revisit at this particular period of history. In these words of Jesus’ Inaugural Kingdom Sermon, we are challenged to go far beyond the rules of the Law.
The Law says, “You shall not commit murder”, but Jesus says, (my paraphrase) “You shall not be people of the minimum requirement. I want to take you where humankind once walked with God in the cool of the day. I have come to fulfill the Law with blazing, living hearts of real love. Your indicator of how this New Heart is functioning will be listening to yourself. The mere utterance from your voice of degrading another human with a dismissive wag of, ‘…you fool…’ will, in My Domain, shout to you that your heart is not yet living supernaturally. Indeed, to hear yourself speak in that tone will, in My Domain, strike you as if you had pointed a gun at someone and coldly pulled the trigger.”
Christian Militias are the direct result of hearts separated from Heaven by slow and infinitesimal steps away from Heaven through angry unforgiving internal realities tolerated in the name of righteous and holy living. The Christian Militia folks being searched for and arrested today did not start with guns and bombs; they started with words formed in cold dead hearts. The current angry and curt tone of some Christian voices addressing political debates is where Christian terrorists are born.
In a time, not that long ago, when laws in America promoted the marginalization of a race of people, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stepped into the national stage and shouted, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word on reality.” This came from a man whose home was bombed, his body scared and his life routinely threatened. He prevailed because his heart was supernaturally connected to The Domain of Heaven and his voice spoke love’s supremacy over hate.
I hear Christians suggesting today that “big government” is stealing our freedoms. Really? Where is the “big government” today that once banned a black child from drinking from the same water fountain as a white child? I propose to you that a young southern preacher crushed that “big government” under his feet with a message of “unarmed truth and unconditional love”.
True Christianity is not angry, much less, violent. True Christianity bears no weapon for revolution other than outrageous faith that all weapons are destined for the blacksmith’s fire for transformation to agricultural benefit (Micah 4:3). True Christianity believes in a God whose desire and actions are capable of ordering a luxurious catered buffet for a productive (and even spirited!) discussion with our most contrary political enemies (Psalm 23:5). True Christianity does not believe in threats, veiled or otherwise. Since true Christianity is not afraid of terror, it knows terror is a bankrupt bargaining tool, never to be brandished in our hands. Indeed, true Christianity has ONLY the Kingdom of God at our hands for the healing of all, up to and concluding in, the healing of the nations.
I read a commentary, not long ago, where in the midst of hand wringing over America’s current political climate, this person intoned, “It’s too late to talk but too early to shoot”. I felt suddenly inclined to run! I wanted to run like someone seeking distance from guilt by association to a crime. Why? Because, according to Jesus, words are indicators of hearts, either steeping in heaven’s bounty or marinating in hell’s vicious cruelty. I simply did not want to risk that writer’s venom near my heart.
I am simply one voice. The word, “Christian” and “militia” are completely incompatible. Additionally, I commit my voice to be given only to loosing love and forgiveness for even my most vocal political enemy.
Church….it is TIME to RE-present Christ. What we need is hearts and internal realities ignited from on high with the insuperable, undefeatable, transcendent supremacy of the Kingdom of God!
After September 11, 2001, I waited for something for which I am still waiting. I wanted to hear a clarion, passionate, piercing and powerful Islamic Clerical voice speak out, consistently and intentionally drawing the proverbial dark line for all the world to see explaining this hideous act of terrorism of that dreadful day did not represent Islam. Yes, I have heard an occasional and respected Muslim leader denounce terrorism, and for that, I am thankful. It just seems to me that Islam has yet to find a true voice to represent itself clearly, at least, in the western world.
But that is not my point. My point here is to step up to my own platform and be a clarion, passionate, piercing and powerful Christian pastoral voice to speak out consistently and intentionally to draw a proverbial dark line for all the world to see explaining that armed militias, cults and even angry noisy churches do not represent authentic Christianity.
I want to take that a step further. Here’s the part where you might want to duck. Matthew 5:21-26 proposes some rather interesting values which we all would do well to revisit at this particular period of history. In these words of Jesus’ Inaugural Kingdom Sermon, we are challenged to go far beyond the rules of the Law.
The Law says, “You shall not commit murder”, but Jesus says, (my paraphrase) “You shall not be people of the minimum requirement. I want to take you where humankind once walked with God in the cool of the day. I have come to fulfill the Law with blazing, living hearts of real love. Your indicator of how this New Heart is functioning will be listening to yourself. The mere utterance from your voice of degrading another human with a dismissive wag of, ‘…you fool…’ will, in My Domain, shout to you that your heart is not yet living supernaturally. Indeed, to hear yourself speak in that tone will, in My Domain, strike you as if you had pointed a gun at someone and coldly pulled the trigger.”
Christian Militias are the direct result of hearts separated from Heaven by slow and infinitesimal steps away from Heaven through angry unforgiving internal realities tolerated in the name of righteous and holy living. The Christian Militia folks being searched for and arrested today did not start with guns and bombs; they started with words formed in cold dead hearts. The current angry and curt tone of some Christian voices addressing political debates is where Christian terrorists are born.
In a time, not that long ago, when laws in America promoted the marginalization of a race of people, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stepped into the national stage and shouted, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word on reality.” This came from a man whose home was bombed, his body scared and his life routinely threatened. He prevailed because his heart was supernaturally connected to The Domain of Heaven and his voice spoke love’s supremacy over hate.
I hear Christians suggesting today that “big government” is stealing our freedoms. Really? Where is the “big government” today that once banned a black child from drinking from the same water fountain as a white child? I propose to you that a young southern preacher crushed that “big government” under his feet with a message of “unarmed truth and unconditional love”.
True Christianity is not angry, much less, violent. True Christianity bears no weapon for revolution other than outrageous faith that all weapons are destined for the blacksmith’s fire for transformation to agricultural benefit (Micah 4:3). True Christianity believes in a God whose desire and actions are capable of ordering a luxurious catered buffet for a productive (and even spirited!) discussion with our most contrary political enemies (Psalm 23:5). True Christianity does not believe in threats, veiled or otherwise. Since true Christianity is not afraid of terror, it knows terror is a bankrupt bargaining tool, never to be brandished in our hands. Indeed, true Christianity has ONLY the Kingdom of God at our hands for the healing of all, up to and concluding in, the healing of the nations.
I read a commentary, not long ago, where in the midst of hand wringing over America’s current political climate, this person intoned, “It’s too late to talk but too early to shoot”. I felt suddenly inclined to run! I wanted to run like someone seeking distance from guilt by association to a crime. Why? Because, according to Jesus, words are indicators of hearts, either steeping in heaven’s bounty or marinating in hell’s vicious cruelty. I simply did not want to risk that writer’s venom near my heart.
I am simply one voice. The word, “Christian” and “militia” are completely incompatible. Additionally, I commit my voice to be given only to loosing love and forgiveness for even my most vocal political enemy.
Church….it is TIME to RE-present Christ. What we need is hearts and internal realities ignited from on high with the insuperable, undefeatable, transcendent supremacy of the Kingdom of God!
Thursday, March 04, 2010
Wind Up Alarm Clocks and Dragons
Like many little boys, I took more than my fair share of risks. Ore boats in dock in Milwaukee were giant invitations to explore. An abandoned zoo had way too many caves and enclosures to ignore. Railroad yards were veritable gold mines of scrap metal and enormous chunks of metal just laying around begging for my attention.
On the less risky side of this equation I came into the possession of a couple of old style wind-up alarm clocks. The kind you might have seen in cartoons that have the big bells on top. I was fascinated by the sheer raw power of these mechanical puzzles. So, like any 10 year old boy, I took one of them completely apart so I could see for myself what made it tick!
At the heart of this clock was the main-spring. Isn’t it interesting today how we strive to have self contained, self powered machines that require little or no outside energy source and long ago we had alarms that needed no batteries, no plug in, no solar panel…just wind it up and listen to it tick. Anyway, I made the mistake of pulling that wind up spring out off of the frame…
What happened next was the spring sprung! It flashed wildly out of control and into uselessness. I tried in vain for hours to pull that spring back into its place. That clock became spare parts.
On to clock number two. This time I knew better than to take the spring off of the frame. This time I simply played with all the other parts and when I was done, I put it back together…my curiosity satisfied. From then on I would watch and listen to that clock and internally imagine all the parts cooperating.
I see Christianity today badly in need of brave little boys and girls who will open it up and explore. I’m not talking about exploring new kinds of church services and inventing catchy new phrases and trendy new slogans. Cleaning the decks and painting the walls of the Titanic would have provided the ocean floor with clean decks and freshly painted walls.
I’m talking about real exploration of truth. I’m talking about brave excursions into fresh revelation for the purposes of rediscovering God, Jesus and the Spirit. And, YES, I know that certain things are like that first main spring that should never be tampered with or you’ll have a pile of useless curled up metal laying on the floor.
But I believe this Easter season is a grand time for some risky adventures in faith exploration. Christianity was not born in a stale library but in a cold tomb when the Holy Spirit said, “Pssst…hey Jesus….wake up….let’s rock the universe with New Creation”.
There is still a 12 year old little boy inside me wanting to know what’s on the other side of that rusty door. In ancient times when map designers drew as far as they knew to draw, they wrote the words at the edge of the unknown, “Here Be Dragons”. It was supposed to stop sailors from going off into the fatality of the undiscovered. What they didn’t count on was the likes of explorers who were egged on to go see dragons, at worst, but at best, to discover the New World.
I don’t believe that Jesus was risen from the dead so that we could have better church services and hide eggs that we won’t find until they start stinking in a month or so. I think Jesus’ resurrection was for the explosive beginning of a new creation. I think Jesus blitzed the power of darkness and released a New Genesis that has yet to be significantly touched or experienced.
Jesus routed the Lord of the Dragons and invites us to slay all lesser beasts. We have nothing to fear but our own laziness rooted in western arrogance which suggests there are no more reformations needed. Stay where you are and you’ll keep what you’ve always had. Arise and reach for what you’ve never known before and you’ll grow beyond your wildest dreams!
On the less risky side of this equation I came into the possession of a couple of old style wind-up alarm clocks. The kind you might have seen in cartoons that have the big bells on top. I was fascinated by the sheer raw power of these mechanical puzzles. So, like any 10 year old boy, I took one of them completely apart so I could see for myself what made it tick!
At the heart of this clock was the main-spring. Isn’t it interesting today how we strive to have self contained, self powered machines that require little or no outside energy source and long ago we had alarms that needed no batteries, no plug in, no solar panel…just wind it up and listen to it tick. Anyway, I made the mistake of pulling that wind up spring out off of the frame…
What happened next was the spring sprung! It flashed wildly out of control and into uselessness. I tried in vain for hours to pull that spring back into its place. That clock became spare parts.
On to clock number two. This time I knew better than to take the spring off of the frame. This time I simply played with all the other parts and when I was done, I put it back together…my curiosity satisfied. From then on I would watch and listen to that clock and internally imagine all the parts cooperating.
I see Christianity today badly in need of brave little boys and girls who will open it up and explore. I’m not talking about exploring new kinds of church services and inventing catchy new phrases and trendy new slogans. Cleaning the decks and painting the walls of the Titanic would have provided the ocean floor with clean decks and freshly painted walls.
I’m talking about real exploration of truth. I’m talking about brave excursions into fresh revelation for the purposes of rediscovering God, Jesus and the Spirit. And, YES, I know that certain things are like that first main spring that should never be tampered with or you’ll have a pile of useless curled up metal laying on the floor.
But I believe this Easter season is a grand time for some risky adventures in faith exploration. Christianity was not born in a stale library but in a cold tomb when the Holy Spirit said, “Pssst…hey Jesus….wake up….let’s rock the universe with New Creation”.
There is still a 12 year old little boy inside me wanting to know what’s on the other side of that rusty door. In ancient times when map designers drew as far as they knew to draw, they wrote the words at the edge of the unknown, “Here Be Dragons”. It was supposed to stop sailors from going off into the fatality of the undiscovered. What they didn’t count on was the likes of explorers who were egged on to go see dragons, at worst, but at best, to discover the New World.
I don’t believe that Jesus was risen from the dead so that we could have better church services and hide eggs that we won’t find until they start stinking in a month or so. I think Jesus’ resurrection was for the explosive beginning of a new creation. I think Jesus blitzed the power of darkness and released a New Genesis that has yet to be significantly touched or experienced.
Jesus routed the Lord of the Dragons and invites us to slay all lesser beasts. We have nothing to fear but our own laziness rooted in western arrogance which suggests there are no more reformations needed. Stay where you are and you’ll keep what you’ve always had. Arise and reach for what you’ve never known before and you’ll grow beyond your wildest dreams!
Tuesday, February 02, 2010
Get a Life... An Abundant Life
In too many ways to count or give an adequate discussion here, Christianity has become this… thing, a system or even a world view. I know the tired adage, “…it’s not a religion, it’s a relationship”…but even that has become a thing we do and a system we manage. It’s one of the ways too many of us have manipulated conversations into a “witness”. Some poor unsuspecting soul might say to us, “I’m not a religious person” and all of our evangelism training snaps to attention and our mouth parrots the aforementioned phrase … yawn…
Jesus promised life… that’s our witness… being truly ALIVE! One version of that promise says, “…I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance -to the full, till it overflows” (John 10:10). While this is a popular verse to quote, preach and sermonize from, I’m not so sure we are actually living from it as it was truly intended. Jesus promised life! He is saying, “While you are alive, get a life…abundant, dynamic, animated, actualized, vibrant, radiant, happy, healthy, contented, cheerful, satisfied and even exciting.”
He also warned that there is a thief out there stealing, killing and destroying. It seems to me that this boils down to two options: Be alive or be dead. And here I do not mean in the shallow sense of “when you die, do you know if you are going to heaven or hell?” I mean, if you keep dragging air into your lungs, consuming calories and continue to occupy space on this planet are you living and contributing life back out of your consumption of these free-bees? Otherwise, it seems to me, you are offering yourself as a contribution to the thief…a reason for the thief to pursue his stealing, killing and destroying.
Being truly alive means being known for living, being, doing and making others alive as a result. Yet, how many Christians are more known for what they do not do or believe as opposed to what they really are? Living means actualizing the world around us with the energy to create and think. Too often we’ve allowed ourselves to be trapped in the noise of being against others, opposed to their lifestyles, not in favor of a list of laws and governing policies, in a snit about devalued world views and victimized by our perceived or real loss of influence on society. Is that abundant living? NO!
Abundant life is creative in the face of decaying imaginations. Abundant life is solution oriented as opposed to sniveling about problems. Abundant life prophesies answers and never prays the problem. Abundant life plays and prays. Abundant life even plays when it prays and prays when it is playing. Abundant life loves when love is completely unexpected. Abundant life loves love because love never fails.
Abundant life longs for change, longs for a fresh idea, longs for a new sound, longs for the reach of a new day. Life has no room for the shrunken notion of disgust with the past because life knows that the past was once the future. Life celebrates the past while courageous enough to stretch for a completely new day. Yet, while all of this is true, life lives now, not in yesterday, not in tomorrow. Today, this moment, is when life matters.
So get a life… and get it NOW.
Jesus promised life… that’s our witness… being truly ALIVE! One version of that promise says, “…I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance -to the full, till it overflows” (John 10:10). While this is a popular verse to quote, preach and sermonize from, I’m not so sure we are actually living from it as it was truly intended. Jesus promised life! He is saying, “While you are alive, get a life…abundant, dynamic, animated, actualized, vibrant, radiant, happy, healthy, contented, cheerful, satisfied and even exciting.”
He also warned that there is a thief out there stealing, killing and destroying. It seems to me that this boils down to two options: Be alive or be dead. And here I do not mean in the shallow sense of “when you die, do you know if you are going to heaven or hell?” I mean, if you keep dragging air into your lungs, consuming calories and continue to occupy space on this planet are you living and contributing life back out of your consumption of these free-bees? Otherwise, it seems to me, you are offering yourself as a contribution to the thief…a reason for the thief to pursue his stealing, killing and destroying.
Being truly alive means being known for living, being, doing and making others alive as a result. Yet, how many Christians are more known for what they do not do or believe as opposed to what they really are? Living means actualizing the world around us with the energy to create and think. Too often we’ve allowed ourselves to be trapped in the noise of being against others, opposed to their lifestyles, not in favor of a list of laws and governing policies, in a snit about devalued world views and victimized by our perceived or real loss of influence on society. Is that abundant living? NO!
Abundant life is creative in the face of decaying imaginations. Abundant life is solution oriented as opposed to sniveling about problems. Abundant life prophesies answers and never prays the problem. Abundant life plays and prays. Abundant life even plays when it prays and prays when it is playing. Abundant life loves when love is completely unexpected. Abundant life loves love because love never fails.
Abundant life longs for change, longs for a fresh idea, longs for a new sound, longs for the reach of a new day. Life has no room for the shrunken notion of disgust with the past because life knows that the past was once the future. Life celebrates the past while courageous enough to stretch for a completely new day. Yet, while all of this is true, life lives now, not in yesterday, not in tomorrow. Today, this moment, is when life matters.
So get a life… and get it NOW.
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Beauty
I have not always loved Christmas. I tried real hard when I was a kid with some successes and some terrible failures. What I didn’t know then but I’ve learned since is that drug addiction and family dysfunction doesn’t take a holiday break….in fact, in ramps up. It can be summed up in the holiday greeting I grew up with, “Merry Kiss My ___”. Lovely sentiment, isn’t it?
But somewhere in life with two little kids and a wife who grew up with a family that relished Christmas, I had a Scrooge-like epiphany. Something, somehow broke into my reality and lodged in my heart and thinking. This life, this world, this one and only shot we have at spreading good cheer, needs Christmas.
And here, I am not talking about the Christmas “wars”. That’s nonsense. If I’m upset about losing influence in the world due to the fact that not enough people say, “Merry Christmas”, it is not a sign that the nation is in a moral free-fall….it’s a sign that I need to regain my credibility.
And, I am not talking about the silliness of others who argue that Jesus’ Birthday is not actually December 25th, or that we need to end the commercialization of the holidays, or that various traditions of Christmas have been borrowed from a variety of pagan rituals or, or, or… Let me borrow a phrase from the Latin; shut up!
This life of multiple disappointments and grieving needs a Christmas break. This world of scary people and hatred needs a Christmas break. This one and only shot we have at spreading good cheer, needs Christmas.
It’s about the insertion of beauty in a collection of far too much indignity and disgrace. It’s about clearing a small patch of ground, declaring a cease fire and singing Silent Night. I looked this up in Wikipedia, so the details might not be completely accurate;
"The truce began on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium, for Christmas. They began by placing candles on trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols, most notably Stille Nacht (Silent Night). The British troops in the trenches across from them responded by singing English carols.
The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were calls for visits across the "No Man's Land" where small gifts were exchanged — whisky, jam, cigars, chocolate, and the like. The artillery in the region fell silent that night. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently-fallen soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Proper burials took place as soldiers from both sides mourned the dead together and paid their respects. At one funeral in No Man's Land, soldiers from both sides gathered and read a passage from the 23rd Psalm:
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”
In a world of reality shows that become real reality, we need beauty. In a world of unhinged ego, we need beauty. In a world where one of my readers presides over a daily parade of human agony in the justice system, we need beauty. In a world where the f-bomb is a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb and artistic musical expression, we need beauty.
Do you understand why I don’t care if pagan paltry has been thrown on top of Christmas? In my opinion, if something is beautiful, it belongs to God. Winter solstice provides a unique opportunity for reflection on dark bone chilling nights. In the mind-set of the Old Testament, if you touched a leper, you got leprosy. But now, on this side of the Cross, when we touch the leper, the leper is healed! Some people just need a bigger God and a far more real Jesus.
Let me tell you about my own personal Christmas tradition that brings me to tears every year. I started this when my kids were tiny. Late on Christmas Eve, after everything is done and a quiet has settled in, I take my car keys (or bells if they are available) and I go outside. I look up at the sky as if to look for Santa, throw my head back, jiggle my keys and as loud as I can I shout, “HO, HO, HO! Merry Christmas!” I’m not kidding. Ask anyone who lives within a mile of me. Dogs howl and the valley around me echoes….and I cry.
I cry because it is my shout for beauty. I cry because I hope some kid somewhere hears me and wonders if there really is a Santa. I cry because I love the moment. In this one and only shot for bringing peace on earth and good will toward all people, beauty deserves 15 minutes of fame every year.
Merry Christmas…HO, HO, HO!
But somewhere in life with two little kids and a wife who grew up with a family that relished Christmas, I had a Scrooge-like epiphany. Something, somehow broke into my reality and lodged in my heart and thinking. This life, this world, this one and only shot we have at spreading good cheer, needs Christmas.
And here, I am not talking about the Christmas “wars”. That’s nonsense. If I’m upset about losing influence in the world due to the fact that not enough people say, “Merry Christmas”, it is not a sign that the nation is in a moral free-fall….it’s a sign that I need to regain my credibility.
And, I am not talking about the silliness of others who argue that Jesus’ Birthday is not actually December 25th, or that we need to end the commercialization of the holidays, or that various traditions of Christmas have been borrowed from a variety of pagan rituals or, or, or… Let me borrow a phrase from the Latin; shut up!
This life of multiple disappointments and grieving needs a Christmas break. This world of scary people and hatred needs a Christmas break. This one and only shot we have at spreading good cheer, needs Christmas.
It’s about the insertion of beauty in a collection of far too much indignity and disgrace. It’s about clearing a small patch of ground, declaring a cease fire and singing Silent Night. I looked this up in Wikipedia, so the details might not be completely accurate;
"The truce began on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1914, when German troops began decorating the area around their trenches in the region of Ypres, Belgium, for Christmas. They began by placing candles on trees, then continued the celebration by singing Christmas carols, most notably Stille Nacht (Silent Night). The British troops in the trenches across from them responded by singing English carols.
The two sides continued by shouting Christmas greetings to each other. Soon thereafter, there were calls for visits across the "No Man's Land" where small gifts were exchanged — whisky, jam, cigars, chocolate, and the like. The artillery in the region fell silent that night. The truce also allowed a breathing spell where recently-fallen soldiers could be brought back behind their lines by burial parties. Proper burials took place as soldiers from both sides mourned the dead together and paid their respects. At one funeral in No Man's Land, soldiers from both sides gathered and read a passage from the 23rd Psalm:
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the path of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”
In a world of reality shows that become real reality, we need beauty. In a world of unhinged ego, we need beauty. In a world where one of my readers presides over a daily parade of human agony in the justice system, we need beauty. In a world where the f-bomb is a noun, a verb, an adjective, an adverb and artistic musical expression, we need beauty.
Do you understand why I don’t care if pagan paltry has been thrown on top of Christmas? In my opinion, if something is beautiful, it belongs to God. Winter solstice provides a unique opportunity for reflection on dark bone chilling nights. In the mind-set of the Old Testament, if you touched a leper, you got leprosy. But now, on this side of the Cross, when we touch the leper, the leper is healed! Some people just need a bigger God and a far more real Jesus.
Let me tell you about my own personal Christmas tradition that brings me to tears every year. I started this when my kids were tiny. Late on Christmas Eve, after everything is done and a quiet has settled in, I take my car keys (or bells if they are available) and I go outside. I look up at the sky as if to look for Santa, throw my head back, jiggle my keys and as loud as I can I shout, “HO, HO, HO! Merry Christmas!” I’m not kidding. Ask anyone who lives within a mile of me. Dogs howl and the valley around me echoes….and I cry.
I cry because it is my shout for beauty. I cry because I hope some kid somewhere hears me and wonders if there really is a Santa. I cry because I love the moment. In this one and only shot for bringing peace on earth and good will toward all people, beauty deserves 15 minutes of fame every year.
Merry Christmas…HO, HO, HO!
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
What If the Church Fell in Love?
What if the church fell in love? How would we change? What if we removed all of our shaming bumpers stickers about what we perceive as cultural ills and channeled all of that noise into real, supernatural effort to love? How would our message change if Heaven’s Love became our love?
Would we stop threatening the world with catastrophe? Would Jesus’ Word from John 3:16 through 18 sound different to us if we, the church actually fell in love? How would our message change if Kingdom Love became our love?
Would we be far less interested in end times theories that ramp up the pressure getting ourselves motivated to serve God? Would authentic, passionate love of and for God be enough to ignite our labors? Would wildly loving Christians be far more interesting signs of the times than earthquakes and wars? Would sacrificial love born out of God’s bountiful heart into the lives of Christians be much more intriguing than who the next candidate is for “Anti-Christ of the Year”?
Do we know what spirit we are of when we are in any way pleased or interested in bad things happening to bad people? If hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, diseases and calamities fit into our definition of how unhappy God is have we truly calculated the damage we do to the character of the Father and the true love of Jesus Christ? Have we read Luke 9:51-56 with Christ’s core value of radical love burning in our minds?
Does our definition of love require God to be angry and unsatisfied? What role does fear and punishment play in our revelation of God, especially in the face of Jesus, who told us that seeing Him is seeing the Father? Does our definition of love drain the Gospel of real power? Does our definition of love weaken and possibly neutralize the very Word of God which we adamantly require the world to believe? Are we experts in theology and novices in love?
What would happen if the church fell in love?
I’m just asking questions.
Would we stop threatening the world with catastrophe? Would Jesus’ Word from John 3:16 through 18 sound different to us if we, the church actually fell in love? How would our message change if Kingdom Love became our love?
Would we be far less interested in end times theories that ramp up the pressure getting ourselves motivated to serve God? Would authentic, passionate love of and for God be enough to ignite our labors? Would wildly loving Christians be far more interesting signs of the times than earthquakes and wars? Would sacrificial love born out of God’s bountiful heart into the lives of Christians be much more intriguing than who the next candidate is for “Anti-Christ of the Year”?
Do we know what spirit we are of when we are in any way pleased or interested in bad things happening to bad people? If hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, diseases and calamities fit into our definition of how unhappy God is have we truly calculated the damage we do to the character of the Father and the true love of Jesus Christ? Have we read Luke 9:51-56 with Christ’s core value of radical love burning in our minds?
Does our definition of love require God to be angry and unsatisfied? What role does fear and punishment play in our revelation of God, especially in the face of Jesus, who told us that seeing Him is seeing the Father? Does our definition of love drain the Gospel of real power? Does our definition of love weaken and possibly neutralize the very Word of God which we adamantly require the world to believe? Are we experts in theology and novices in love?
What would happen if the church fell in love?
I’m just asking questions.
Tuesday, November 24, 2009
Thank You
Yesterday was nuts. Without boring you with intricate details, I can tell you that the simplicity of getting an insurance check co-endorsed by my mortgage company to pay the roofer for his work took three days, 300 miles of round trips to the bank, four completed forms with six different signatures, five phone calls, five different checks, five individuals, a notary public and a partridge in a pear tree. The actual roofing was done more easily and faster.
Then this morning I opened my mail from yesterday (a task put off due to the aforementioned fiasco) and I read two amazing stories; one about a friend who just returned from a trip to Mexico and the other about a beggar’s donation to Mother Teresa’s work in Calcutta.
My friend’s story recounted how he was blessed to participate in building two new homes in Reynosa, Mexico in six days. That’s right, two homes built in six days. Here’s the run-down….
One home was for a 74 year old man and the other one was for an 87 year old man. Both men were living in squalor and filth. The more significant of the two was the older man who lived under a tarp. I’ve been to Reynosa and I can testify to the dominance of its poverty. For the American mind that has only seen our version of poverty, it is almost impossible to describe. These two men would likely be classified as the worst of the worst among our homeless population. But for Reynosa, they are more likely to be among the average poor.
So, building two houses in six days to replace sticks, bricks and a rotting tarp was fairly simple. My friend celebrated the crowning touch on both houses….doors.
Then I opened a devotional based on some of Mother Teresa’s life experiences. One story immediately grabbed me. A beggar came to Mother Teresa with his handful of a day’s worth of begging. He insisted on giving it to her. She stood for moment staring at the man and she knew that to take this money would mean he would go hungry and to not take the money would be unfair and painful to him. She received his gift and celebrated the joy that filled his face.
I am suddenly and outrageously thankful for the hassle I went through to pay for my new roof. I am filled with gratitude for the insurance money that paid for 20 to 30 more years of a roof over my head. I love my mortgage company and all the people who make my house a dream come true. I love my insurance agent. I love my contractor.
I love my church family who sacrifice to give week after week and those sacrifices, great and small, make my salary look like a king’s ransom for most people living in Reynosa or Calcutta.
I don’t have construction skills and my back wouldn’t last a day digging ditches. My dad, an earthy east Texas oil drilling, truck driving, Teamster Union loving Irishman, once said (out of his definition of love for me), “It’s a good thing you can preach, because you can’t do nothin’ else.” His world was filled with sweat, blood, bare knuckles negotiations, cursing as second language and Chicago traffic jams. His slice of fame came from a picture on the front page of the Chicago Tribune when his truck slid sideways in an ice storm at rush hour and blocked the Dan Ryan Expressway. What’s my point? I am thankful that I live the life of relative ease I am living just by the sweat of my “voice”.
Thank you, all of you reading this, who have given me irretrievable pieces of your life to read my ranting. I love my extended spiritual family from near and far who speak and give blessings to me for nothing more than my ministry gift. Wow…thank you!
Thank you God, I am over yesterday’s nuttiness. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Gobble, gobble….
Then this morning I opened my mail from yesterday (a task put off due to the aforementioned fiasco) and I read two amazing stories; one about a friend who just returned from a trip to Mexico and the other about a beggar’s donation to Mother Teresa’s work in Calcutta.
My friend’s story recounted how he was blessed to participate in building two new homes in Reynosa, Mexico in six days. That’s right, two homes built in six days. Here’s the run-down….
One home was for a 74 year old man and the other one was for an 87 year old man. Both men were living in squalor and filth. The more significant of the two was the older man who lived under a tarp. I’ve been to Reynosa and I can testify to the dominance of its poverty. For the American mind that has only seen our version of poverty, it is almost impossible to describe. These two men would likely be classified as the worst of the worst among our homeless population. But for Reynosa, they are more likely to be among the average poor.
So, building two houses in six days to replace sticks, bricks and a rotting tarp was fairly simple. My friend celebrated the crowning touch on both houses….doors.
Then I opened a devotional based on some of Mother Teresa’s life experiences. One story immediately grabbed me. A beggar came to Mother Teresa with his handful of a day’s worth of begging. He insisted on giving it to her. She stood for moment staring at the man and she knew that to take this money would mean he would go hungry and to not take the money would be unfair and painful to him. She received his gift and celebrated the joy that filled his face.
I am suddenly and outrageously thankful for the hassle I went through to pay for my new roof. I am filled with gratitude for the insurance money that paid for 20 to 30 more years of a roof over my head. I love my mortgage company and all the people who make my house a dream come true. I love my insurance agent. I love my contractor.
I love my church family who sacrifice to give week after week and those sacrifices, great and small, make my salary look like a king’s ransom for most people living in Reynosa or Calcutta.
I don’t have construction skills and my back wouldn’t last a day digging ditches. My dad, an earthy east Texas oil drilling, truck driving, Teamster Union loving Irishman, once said (out of his definition of love for me), “It’s a good thing you can preach, because you can’t do nothin’ else.” His world was filled with sweat, blood, bare knuckles negotiations, cursing as second language and Chicago traffic jams. His slice of fame came from a picture on the front page of the Chicago Tribune when his truck slid sideways in an ice storm at rush hour and blocked the Dan Ryan Expressway. What’s my point? I am thankful that I live the life of relative ease I am living just by the sweat of my “voice”.
Thank you, all of you reading this, who have given me irretrievable pieces of your life to read my ranting. I love my extended spiritual family from near and far who speak and give blessings to me for nothing more than my ministry gift. Wow…thank you!
Thank you God, I am over yesterday’s nuttiness. Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Gobble, gobble….
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Too Much of a Good Thing?
"There is more hunger for love in this world than there is for bread."
~Mother Teresa~
If what Mother Teresa said is true, and it is, then doesn't it ultimately mean that if the people of God genuinely and authentically LOVE that the world will crash our gates?
I dream this.....
~Mother Teresa~
If what Mother Teresa said is true, and it is, then doesn't it ultimately mean that if the people of God genuinely and authentically LOVE that the world will crash our gates?
I dream this.....
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
"Too Much of a Good Thing is...WONDERFUL!" Mae West
“Too Much of a Good Thing is…WONDERFUL!” Mae West
The Radical Power of Love
I have said for many years now that the greatest unused power of the Church is love. Oh yea, I know…our bumper stickers shout the contrary. “Honk if you love Jesus”, “I love you, and God loves you MORE!”, “We Love you at (fill in the blank with your church name)”. I am personally allergic to bumper stickers. I break out in curmudgeon like sounds every time I see one, particularly embarrassing Christian bumper stickers.
I’m sorry…I verbally did what I physically do when driving my car and seeing stupid bumper stickers…veer off the road and head for the ditch.
Leonard Sweet (E. Stanley Jones professor of evangelism at Drew Theological in Madison, New Jersey) said, “If Christianity really wanted to get radical, the first thing it could do would be to stop privileging Western rationalization.” What this means to me is that we must intentionally take a dive in the deep end of the pool of God’s true character.
For instance, the rational Western theologian looks at a scripture passage that says, “Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:3) and deduces that men are the only legitimate power brokers in the church. The problem is that rational thought and the radical love of God are quite often incompatible. The radical love of God proclaims that now, in Christ and His obliteration of the letter of the law through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension to the Right Hand of God, there is now neither Jew or Greek, male or female, for we are all one in Christ (Galatians 3:28).
This messes with my head! No pun intended. How can one verse be so permissive of male dominance and the next one explicitly rip that notion right out of my manly hands? It can because now we believers are no longer permitted to be in the lock-down of the law and prophets. Jesus said in Luke 16:16 that John the Baptist was the exclamation point of the law and prophets and now the Kingdom of God, and its radical law of outrageous love is being proclaimed, and everyone is fighting their way into the atmosphere of this new message!
Here’s an instant replay of I Corinthians 11:3 through the rose-colored lens of Love: “Christ is the head of men. He told his believers before He left the earth, ‘you’ll do My works and even greater works than Me’, thus providing that ‘headship’ is love’s empowerment, not the law’s need for external controls. Furthermore, God is the Head of Christ which is easily understood when you know that Christ said, ‘If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father’, and with that Word Jesus lived out His Father’s love with an obedience born from intimate unity. And man is the head of a woman by being so filled with the Love of God that he is not afraid of her empowerment.”
Love goes where the Law stops.
Ah, this love thing might just catch on! Would you like another example that explodes harsh legalistic religious bigotry? OK….any suggestions? What’s that? You two there, waaaay in the back row….say it loud. Ah yes, politics and lifestyle choices… Well, maybe I shouldn’t….but since you asked, I’ll take a stab at it.
Remember that annoying sermon Jesus preached from a mountain? Matthew heard Jesus say something like this, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” Here’s something that really juices this up…ready? Jesus literally took an Old Testament scripture, in this case, and tore it to shreds!
The reference is from Deuteronomy 23:3-6. I will spare you the rigid details in this venue, but I would invite you to read for yourself the complete history behind this narrative. Here’s my take; Jesus is saying, “Remember how God told you that you should not seek to bless or support an old political rival with peace and prosperity? Blam…that’s done. Now I want you to pray blessing and prosperity on Republicans, Democrats and Independents all in the same breath! AND do it with your heart completely healed by the irrational reach of real love for your very real enemies. I want people to look at you and honestly wonder what ‘side’ you are on because your love is so completely all encompassing.”
“BUT, if I love people like that they’ll think I’m approving of their lifestyle! If I love like that my Christian friends will think I’m compromising! If I love like that people won’t know what my moral stand is!”
As to “lifestyle” question, Jesus completely loved one group of people so much He was called a “drunk” (Matthew 11:19). As to what my “Christian friends” think, I have found that living to please them is too exhausting and soul draining to matter. And, on the “moral stand” matter, if I am not being perfected in the Love of God, my moral stand is completely irrelevant and without merit. Christianity in 2009 can not afford to be known more for moral convictions than we are known for fanatic love!
There’s a lot of talk in church circles these days about, “world-view”. I have not read it all nor have I had the inclination to do so. What I have seen simply makes me nervous because it takes a squeaky-clean, hard edged approach that our culture and the church is in trouble due to an anemic Biblical “world-view”. Frankly, I think if the church really had a complete revelation of God’s true world view, some church folks might want to have God excommunicated.
The only world view I want is LOVE. God’s value for the world is in direct relationship to the value He holds for His own Son (John 3:16). That love THEN is the same love NOW, for THIS world. Crazy, huh? Yes, it is. But that’s the wonder of love out of heaven’s unlimited bounty. Mae West was right! “Too much of a good thing is WONDERFUL!” Does that make me a friend of Mae? I sure hope so.
The Radical Power of Love
I have said for many years now that the greatest unused power of the Church is love. Oh yea, I know…our bumper stickers shout the contrary. “Honk if you love Jesus”, “I love you, and God loves you MORE!”, “We Love you at (fill in the blank with your church name)”. I am personally allergic to bumper stickers. I break out in curmudgeon like sounds every time I see one, particularly embarrassing Christian bumper stickers.
I’m sorry…I verbally did what I physically do when driving my car and seeing stupid bumper stickers…veer off the road and head for the ditch.
Leonard Sweet (E. Stanley Jones professor of evangelism at Drew Theological in Madison, New Jersey) said, “If Christianity really wanted to get radical, the first thing it could do would be to stop privileging Western rationalization.” What this means to me is that we must intentionally take a dive in the deep end of the pool of God’s true character.
For instance, the rational Western theologian looks at a scripture passage that says, “Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:3) and deduces that men are the only legitimate power brokers in the church. The problem is that rational thought and the radical love of God are quite often incompatible. The radical love of God proclaims that now, in Christ and His obliteration of the letter of the law through His death, burial, resurrection and ascension to the Right Hand of God, there is now neither Jew or Greek, male or female, for we are all one in Christ (Galatians 3:28).
This messes with my head! No pun intended. How can one verse be so permissive of male dominance and the next one explicitly rip that notion right out of my manly hands? It can because now we believers are no longer permitted to be in the lock-down of the law and prophets. Jesus said in Luke 16:16 that John the Baptist was the exclamation point of the law and prophets and now the Kingdom of God, and its radical law of outrageous love is being proclaimed, and everyone is fighting their way into the atmosphere of this new message!
Here’s an instant replay of I Corinthians 11:3 through the rose-colored lens of Love: “Christ is the head of men. He told his believers before He left the earth, ‘you’ll do My works and even greater works than Me’, thus providing that ‘headship’ is love’s empowerment, not the law’s need for external controls. Furthermore, God is the Head of Christ which is easily understood when you know that Christ said, ‘If you’ve seen Me, you’ve seen the Father’, and with that Word Jesus lived out His Father’s love with an obedience born from intimate unity. And man is the head of a woman by being so filled with the Love of God that he is not afraid of her empowerment.”
Love goes where the Law stops.
Ah, this love thing might just catch on! Would you like another example that explodes harsh legalistic religious bigotry? OK….any suggestions? What’s that? You two there, waaaay in the back row….say it loud. Ah yes, politics and lifestyle choices… Well, maybe I shouldn’t….but since you asked, I’ll take a stab at it.
Remember that annoying sermon Jesus preached from a mountain? Matthew heard Jesus say something like this, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you.” Here’s something that really juices this up…ready? Jesus literally took an Old Testament scripture, in this case, and tore it to shreds!
The reference is from Deuteronomy 23:3-6. I will spare you the rigid details in this venue, but I would invite you to read for yourself the complete history behind this narrative. Here’s my take; Jesus is saying, “Remember how God told you that you should not seek to bless or support an old political rival with peace and prosperity? Blam…that’s done. Now I want you to pray blessing and prosperity on Republicans, Democrats and Independents all in the same breath! AND do it with your heart completely healed by the irrational reach of real love for your very real enemies. I want people to look at you and honestly wonder what ‘side’ you are on because your love is so completely all encompassing.”
“BUT, if I love people like that they’ll think I’m approving of their lifestyle! If I love like that my Christian friends will think I’m compromising! If I love like that people won’t know what my moral stand is!”
As to “lifestyle” question, Jesus completely loved one group of people so much He was called a “drunk” (Matthew 11:19). As to what my “Christian friends” think, I have found that living to please them is too exhausting and soul draining to matter. And, on the “moral stand” matter, if I am not being perfected in the Love of God, my moral stand is completely irrelevant and without merit. Christianity in 2009 can not afford to be known more for moral convictions than we are known for fanatic love!
There’s a lot of talk in church circles these days about, “world-view”. I have not read it all nor have I had the inclination to do so. What I have seen simply makes me nervous because it takes a squeaky-clean, hard edged approach that our culture and the church is in trouble due to an anemic Biblical “world-view”. Frankly, I think if the church really had a complete revelation of God’s true world view, some church folks might want to have God excommunicated.
The only world view I want is LOVE. God’s value for the world is in direct relationship to the value He holds for His own Son (John 3:16). That love THEN is the same love NOW, for THIS world. Crazy, huh? Yes, it is. But that’s the wonder of love out of heaven’s unlimited bounty. Mae West was right! “Too much of a good thing is WONDERFUL!” Does that make me a friend of Mae? I sure hope so.
Monday, November 02, 2009
2012 is Yet Another Y2K
I’d like to get a jump on the current end of world fad. For anyone who has the blessing of not being in front of a TV set, or has missed movie previews of late, here’s the scoop…the Mayan Calendar has some kind of end predicted within it that points to December 21, 2012. Actually, some have a tick of the clock attached to this…11:11a.m.
I feel fairly confident to announce that I will likely be here, tapping words into my computer at precisely 11:12a.m. December 21, 2012 and beyond. In fact, I plan to be publishing another book…or writing a blog at that precise moment calling on everyone who profited from this fraud to donate all their ill-gotten gains to local food pantries and homeless shelters. I have experience in this kind of behavior. Allow me a moment to elucidate.
When a herd of noisy Christians were advocating that we should be storing food and water for the coming Y2K cataclysm (late in the year 1999), I was busy being a pastor. I told my flock that if they were storing food when their neighbor might be potentially hungry, repentance was the only option. I told people to empty their cupboards, basements, bomb shelters and every secret storage facility they had and give this bounty to the poor. Most people joined me in my good cheer. A few people quietly disagreed and shook their heads in disdain at my ignorance of prophecy.
Our church actually planned a fireworks display on News Year’s Eve 1999. We thought it was a nice touch to illustrate our disgust for this kind of sadness. When the clock turned 2000 without incident it was as if the world breathed a sigh of relief that yet another thief of hope had been exposed.
I am personally committed to the notion that Christianity must completely separate itself from every thief of hope. One of the most common examples of this is the “end of the world” predictions that make a run at us every so often. I hate it when, at best, too many Christian leaders take a stance sounding like, “Well, no one knows for sure” and, at worst, some high profile hucksters seize the moment for raising funds for their ministries and scaring people into faith or church. Yuck!
Let me recommend some enlightening reading for your spiritual edification: “Surprised by Hope; Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church” by N.T. Wright. “The Rapture Exposed; the Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation” by Barbara Rossing. And, “Victorious Eschatology” by Harold Eberle and Martin Trench.
We have ignored the incalculable damage done to the Name of Christ by this junk for too long. We have allowed ourselves to be guilty by association, at best, and guilty by outright manipulation, at worst. I will not stand by, I will not be silent, I can not let innocent hearts be soiled and I decline to accept the end of man (see William Faulkner’s speech in accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1950). There is a far more soul enriching manner in which to read and enjoy the scriptures than to be force fed with the notion that God is focused on His stop-watch.
For the record, the popular TV preachers, Jack Van Impe and John Hagee are promoting an interpretation of scriptures I find completely and egregiously flawed in this regard. It is based on a school of theology that slices and dices the scriptures in so many directions you can hardly trust any verse to mean what it really says. Note, I am not saying these gentlemen are evil or false prophets….I don’t personally know them. I just know that their interpretation of the Bible requires a catastrophic vision of the future. In my opinion, that interpretation is unacceptably damaging to the character of Christ which is the heart and love of God for the world.
Catastrophic events come and go, but they are, by and large, the result of our sowing and reaping and not God’s sadistic thirst for misery just to “get our attention”. The Bible actually promises the complete healing of all of nature. It speaks of every nation being healed and streaming to the people of God for visionary answers. Scriptures predict that all weapons will one day be converted to agricultural purposes and military academies will no longer be required to train for war. God actually set in motion a momentum for the reversal of the food chain mentality, in humans and the animal kingdom. (Isaiah 11, 60, 61, Micah 4)
I happen to believe that our participation in the scriptures has always been required for any promise of God to be activated. From the salvation of an individual to the salvation of the nations, we are co-laborers with Christ. Our will and consent has always mattered!
So, while I am sure that the Mayans were lovely people and ahead of their time in art and culture, I am equally certain that their calendar is predictive of nothing in particular. Some scholars suggest that the 2012 reference in the Mayan calendar is simply a point at which the dates are a “do-over” and not at all a cataclysm. Unfortunately, that interpretation won’t sell movies or promote a ministry.
I feel fairly confident to announce that I will likely be here, tapping words into my computer at precisely 11:12a.m. December 21, 2012 and beyond. In fact, I plan to be publishing another book…or writing a blog at that precise moment calling on everyone who profited from this fraud to donate all their ill-gotten gains to local food pantries and homeless shelters. I have experience in this kind of behavior. Allow me a moment to elucidate.
When a herd of noisy Christians were advocating that we should be storing food and water for the coming Y2K cataclysm (late in the year 1999), I was busy being a pastor. I told my flock that if they were storing food when their neighbor might be potentially hungry, repentance was the only option. I told people to empty their cupboards, basements, bomb shelters and every secret storage facility they had and give this bounty to the poor. Most people joined me in my good cheer. A few people quietly disagreed and shook their heads in disdain at my ignorance of prophecy.
Our church actually planned a fireworks display on News Year’s Eve 1999. We thought it was a nice touch to illustrate our disgust for this kind of sadness. When the clock turned 2000 without incident it was as if the world breathed a sigh of relief that yet another thief of hope had been exposed.
I am personally committed to the notion that Christianity must completely separate itself from every thief of hope. One of the most common examples of this is the “end of the world” predictions that make a run at us every so often. I hate it when, at best, too many Christian leaders take a stance sounding like, “Well, no one knows for sure” and, at worst, some high profile hucksters seize the moment for raising funds for their ministries and scaring people into faith or church. Yuck!
Let me recommend some enlightening reading for your spiritual edification: “Surprised by Hope; Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection and the Mission of the Church” by N.T. Wright. “The Rapture Exposed; the Message of Hope in the Book of Revelation” by Barbara Rossing. And, “Victorious Eschatology” by Harold Eberle and Martin Trench.
We have ignored the incalculable damage done to the Name of Christ by this junk for too long. We have allowed ourselves to be guilty by association, at best, and guilty by outright manipulation, at worst. I will not stand by, I will not be silent, I can not let innocent hearts be soiled and I decline to accept the end of man (see William Faulkner’s speech in accepting the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1950). There is a far more soul enriching manner in which to read and enjoy the scriptures than to be force fed with the notion that God is focused on His stop-watch.
For the record, the popular TV preachers, Jack Van Impe and John Hagee are promoting an interpretation of scriptures I find completely and egregiously flawed in this regard. It is based on a school of theology that slices and dices the scriptures in so many directions you can hardly trust any verse to mean what it really says. Note, I am not saying these gentlemen are evil or false prophets….I don’t personally know them. I just know that their interpretation of the Bible requires a catastrophic vision of the future. In my opinion, that interpretation is unacceptably damaging to the character of Christ which is the heart and love of God for the world.
Catastrophic events come and go, but they are, by and large, the result of our sowing and reaping and not God’s sadistic thirst for misery just to “get our attention”. The Bible actually promises the complete healing of all of nature. It speaks of every nation being healed and streaming to the people of God for visionary answers. Scriptures predict that all weapons will one day be converted to agricultural purposes and military academies will no longer be required to train for war. God actually set in motion a momentum for the reversal of the food chain mentality, in humans and the animal kingdom. (Isaiah 11, 60, 61, Micah 4)
I happen to believe that our participation in the scriptures has always been required for any promise of God to be activated. From the salvation of an individual to the salvation of the nations, we are co-laborers with Christ. Our will and consent has always mattered!
So, while I am sure that the Mayans were lovely people and ahead of their time in art and culture, I am equally certain that their calendar is predictive of nothing in particular. Some scholars suggest that the 2012 reference in the Mayan calendar is simply a point at which the dates are a “do-over” and not at all a cataclysm. Unfortunately, that interpretation won’t sell movies or promote a ministry.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
RENEWAL...HERE....NOW! Part 2
I love the prophet Isaiah: the book, yes, but even more so, the man. This dude has a clearer and more distinct revelation of Jesus Christ hundreds of years before Jesus arrives on earth’s shores than those of us who have mountains of written material about Jesus along with 2000 years to read it all!
It underlines for me the necessity of my relationship with the Holy Spirit. Many in Christianity today are happy with the Father, Son and Holy Bible… but only the Holy Spirit can truly reveal the Bible so that we can authentically know the Father and Son. There are visions of God, His beauty, His majesty and His destiny that can only be accessed by the Holy Spirit’s dynamic inside us.
Now, back to Isaiah, and specifically chapter 61. This is the portion of wonder that Jesus pulled out and read in the synagogue as recorded in Luke 4. It absolutely drives a stake in the heart of any stagnant religious behaviors, Old Testament and New Testament! It seems that when Jesus took this scroll and read aloud that He was saying, “RENEWAL….HERE… NOW!” (Read my previous blog "Renewal...here...now")
In fact, Jesus did say, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21). I’m captivated by the words, “…in your hearing…” because something in these syllables suggests to me that I should hear something more than words. I should hear prophetic destiny being constructed in my body, soul and spirit! It reminds me of Ezekiel being dared to voice life to dead bones! (Ezekiel 37)
I marvel today at the inability of some in the church to see the glory recorded in these Words. It seems to me that some folks are so determined to have God in a particularly nasty mood that they simply can not see Isaiah 61 as true. Or, if they see it as true, it is locked up in the twilight zone they call the millennium. My take on their doctrinal contortions is that they see these Words as too good to be true, so outrageous and so demanding of faith that we simply must push them out away from our responsibility to live in deep end of these treasures.
Open a Bible. Read Isaiah 61. Ignore Scofield’s notes. Listen to the Holy Spirit. I dare you to believe every Word in that chapter as True, NOW.
I dare you to seize the promise of every Word of that chapter as your destiny in life. Don’t limit this chapter to a “Promise Box” approach of all the truly sweet things that Jesus has come to make real in your personal life. I believe those promises….but when I read all 11 verses as my personal prophetic word, I am stunned to find out that His healing in me is for the purpose of wildly astonishing healing through me!
Ruined cities are waiting the arrival of a healing army that has been so amazingly healed, they can not contain the flood of healing out of their abundant virtue. Ruined cities are waiting for the footsteps of Jesus stepping out through our feet the radiance of a transcendent dominance.
Verse four says that generational desolations will yield to our faith! The definition of the word “desolations”is, “stunning, amazing destruction”. This says to me that a greater, more stunning and amazing CON-struction arrives when we believe who and what Jesus has redeemed us to be!
Since Jesus has declared this to be true, I agree with Him! TODAY, in our hearing, in our time….RENEWAL…HERE…NOW!
It underlines for me the necessity of my relationship with the Holy Spirit. Many in Christianity today are happy with the Father, Son and Holy Bible… but only the Holy Spirit can truly reveal the Bible so that we can authentically know the Father and Son. There are visions of God, His beauty, His majesty and His destiny that can only be accessed by the Holy Spirit’s dynamic inside us.
Now, back to Isaiah, and specifically chapter 61. This is the portion of wonder that Jesus pulled out and read in the synagogue as recorded in Luke 4. It absolutely drives a stake in the heart of any stagnant religious behaviors, Old Testament and New Testament! It seems that when Jesus took this scroll and read aloud that He was saying, “RENEWAL….HERE… NOW!” (Read my previous blog "Renewal...here...now")
In fact, Jesus did say, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21). I’m captivated by the words, “…in your hearing…” because something in these syllables suggests to me that I should hear something more than words. I should hear prophetic destiny being constructed in my body, soul and spirit! It reminds me of Ezekiel being dared to voice life to dead bones! (Ezekiel 37)
I marvel today at the inability of some in the church to see the glory recorded in these Words. It seems to me that some folks are so determined to have God in a particularly nasty mood that they simply can not see Isaiah 61 as true. Or, if they see it as true, it is locked up in the twilight zone they call the millennium. My take on their doctrinal contortions is that they see these Words as too good to be true, so outrageous and so demanding of faith that we simply must push them out away from our responsibility to live in deep end of these treasures.
Open a Bible. Read Isaiah 61. Ignore Scofield’s notes. Listen to the Holy Spirit. I dare you to believe every Word in that chapter as True, NOW.
I dare you to seize the promise of every Word of that chapter as your destiny in life. Don’t limit this chapter to a “Promise Box” approach of all the truly sweet things that Jesus has come to make real in your personal life. I believe those promises….but when I read all 11 verses as my personal prophetic word, I am stunned to find out that His healing in me is for the purpose of wildly astonishing healing through me!
Ruined cities are waiting the arrival of a healing army that has been so amazingly healed, they can not contain the flood of healing out of their abundant virtue. Ruined cities are waiting for the footsteps of Jesus stepping out through our feet the radiance of a transcendent dominance.
Verse four says that generational desolations will yield to our faith! The definition of the word “desolations”is, “stunning, amazing destruction”. This says to me that a greater, more stunning and amazing CON-struction arrives when we believe who and what Jesus has redeemed us to be!
Since Jesus has declared this to be true, I agree with Him! TODAY, in our hearing, in our time….RENEWAL…HERE…NOW!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Only the Mediocre...
"Only the mediocre are always at their best" -- unknown Texas preacher
"I would rather fail at attempting the miraculous than to succeed at mediocrity" ~me~
"I would rather fail at attempting the miraculous than to succeed at mediocrity" ~me~
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