Week 4 pt. 1 (essentials blue)

“For:  The Institute of Contemporary and Emerging Worship Studies, St. Stephen’s University, Essentials Blue Online Worship Theology Course with Dan Wilt“

For our main assignment this week we were asked to write (in 500 words or less) our Chrisitan worldview.  So here is my cross post from the essentials blue facebook classroom,  a 500 word worldview.

As goes Genesis, in the beginning God created which sets the world as we know it in to motion.  At the peak of His creation God makes humanity, not in the same manner as He creates plants and animals, but reflecting the very image of the Trinity.  God endows these human creations with His very breath and calls it “very good.”  He gives man a sacred calling to reflect the essence of the God head to creation, caring for it, shepherding it and lavishing the love of the Father upon it.  God walks intimately with Adam, showering His glorious presence upon man.

In the garden, man and woman reject God’s call of loving obedience and choose their own way, causing the first of many departures from the Lord.  God responds as a perfectly holy Father must, disciplining His children by letting them live out the consequences to their own actions.  Generation after generation God sought to return to a place of right relationship with His people.  He formed covenant relationships with them, gave them the law to guide their way, but even God’s perfect law and all sacrifice could not restore the people to their God, it only served to show their sin.  At His appointed time, God took on flesh and blood and the person of Jesus was incarnate on the earth.  He came not only to die for remission sin but to represent the fullness of humanity.

Jesus came preaching the Kingdom of God, not as merely an eternal kingdom that is to come but as a physical kingdom that was (and still is) at hand, near enough to touch.  Jesus himself was a representation of the intersection of the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the earth.  Upon His death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit came to empower and guide those who choose to follow Jesus from ages past to the very present.  In doing so, the Spirit’s indwelling power causes us as those who follow Jesus to be (like Jesus, our co-heir of the Kingdom) points of intersection between the Kingdom of God and this present kingdom of earth.

The church, which is not a physical location but the collective of all who follow the way of Jesus, is the collective voice for the Kingdom of God.  The role of the church is ever to seek to expand the reach of God’s Kingdom by means of sacrifice and love through the Holy Spirit not by our own striving.

As history unfolds, one day Jesus will return to install His rule and reign upon the earth once again, in a physical real sense.  Revelation tells that the Triune God is in the process of making all things new; heavens, earth and under the earth.  Let it come quickly, Amen.

Video

I saw this video on the Monday Morning Insight Blog this morning and it really hit home with some things that Liz and I have been discussing and dealing with lately. Check it out.

American Church :(

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Quick Link

Really messed up stuff happening in the world of late, thoughts and prayers go out to the folks at VA Tech.

Lately I have been keeping tags on a blog called Internet Monk. Some of the stuff I have a hard time swallowing but some things posted just hit it out of the park. His post today on Christ’s Righteousness just floored me. Great stuff.

Teen Mania (Literally?)

Once again it has been some time since I last made my contribution to the blogosphere. No real reason for the delays, partially that life has been full of normalcy which has been nice after the couple weeks of spring break and visitors. The other part is that I haven’t been feeling particularly eloquent with anything to write about. There have been some really great things going on with both Liz and I in the arena of our growth in the Lord but not exactly stuff that I am going to be laying out for all to see. If you are really interested you know how to reach me and we would be more than happy to share in person.

Something that caught my eye this week elsewhere in blog-land was a link to this article, “Teenage Holy War” in Rolling Stone of all places. It is looking at the Battle Cry events put on by Teen Mania Ministries and Ron Luce. These events are particularly concerned with the intersection of teens and culture and their perception is that culture is ruining teens. Particular targets include Internet gambling/porn/hate, sexualized television, sexual/foul music etc. I have to agree that these issues are something to be concerned with but I take exception to the method that Luce and the Battle Cry take to do so.

Understandably, I know that Rolling Stone has a different perspective and a distinct agenda about how they report on these events and their bias is visible from a mile away but Luce’s words speak for themselves. The language is about a battle against the culture and putting teens at odds against the culture and even their peers. It is frustrating to read statements about Jesus being angry about the state of culture today. I rather think that he is heartbroken, that those he came to save and died for, worship at other altars, and the church that he commissioned to redeemed them in many ways looks the same.

Loved this:

Jesus didn’t come here, giving up His rightful place on the throne of Heaven and
the active praise of creatures which will make you cry out in fear because they
are flames of fire, and die on a cross so we can have a global America. Middle
Class American culture is not the reason the Son of God spilled His own blood.
He did not walk out of the tomb to hand you the keys to a new SUV or a house
with a nice, flat sod yard. Jesus came to die for sinners, and it wasn’t
because He was angry but because of Love.

Frank Turk

Jesus had a way of turning everything upside-down from what people thought should happen. When he was realized as the messiah he was expected to wrest control from Rome with force, instead he gave up his life to establish a different type of kingdom. The kingdom where the least are the greatest and if you want to live life, give yours away. Jesus was never at odds with those who had no knowledge of God and felt far from him, he sought them out and gently returned them to the fold. He saved his harshness for those who claimed to be religious but used their status to marginalize others and condemn them.

I don’t disagree that there is a problem of culture today; too much sex, commercialization, isolation, and general hopelessness but I doubt the solution is to condemn that culture and those who are wrapped up with it. Rather, why not love those who have no knowledge of God and his love for them and redeem them from the culture in to the Kingdom that is counter-cultural since it’s beginning.

Security & Fear

Saturday we heard a message from Mark 7 24-30 and Eric spoke on hearing God’s truth & grace. One of his points was that often we like to receive the grace and don’t appreciate or accept the truth. Speaking honestly, I didn’t connect with the teaching but during the time after the message I did ask God to reveal truth and grace and make me open to receive both. One of the things I realized is that I had been feeling very insecure about my place in life and thereby becoming defensive towards a lot of people and situations but after some searching I felt that the root of it was fear. This was quite a shock to my system because I don’t consider myself a fearful person. Mostly, it came down to realizing that I hadn’t fully accepted my identity in Christ. Theoretically, I knew my identity but I didn’t “own” it, the reality of who I am in Christ hadn’t made an impression on my own self-perception. This was the root of my fear, that I somehow don’t measure up to where I should. The interesting thing was my hope was found in the fact that I DON’T measure up to God’s standards but the standards of people aren’t that important and God still thinks of me as a son and an heir. I was very encouraged by the words of Psalm 40

1 For the choir director: A psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD to help me, and he turned to me and heard my cry. 2 He lifted me out of the pit of despair, out of the mud and the mire. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. 3 He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see what he has done and be astounded. They will put their trust in the LORD.
17 As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord is thinking about me right now. You are my helper and my savior. Do not delay, O my God

Those words fit my place well, I realized that I am in need of God and that even as I continue to fail, His thoughts are upon me and will rescue me from myself as much as from the peril of this world.

I wish I could say there was a neat and tidy resolution and that I was freed from fear in the moments I was on my knees but I think it will be a more ongoing progress of discovery and healing but an important milestone is the realization that there is some “junk” to deal with and hopefully, the revelation of truth in to my life will continue to be accompanied by grace.

The Evolution of Hell

So for no apparent reason as I was eating lunch today I started thinking about the concept of Hell. Particularly as I have learned about it since the time I was a child. My view of Hell that I remember and I am sure resonates with many others evolved in the following way.

Young child stage: If you are a bad person (i.e. don’t listen to parents) you go to hell.
Hell at this stage was a place for naughty children. It was obvious that you didn’t want to end up there because you would be on fire forever..
Late childhood/Early Adolescence: If you do more good than bad you can avoid Hell.
This understanding of hell was more of a cost/benefit analysis than anything else. I weighed the good I felt I was doing and the guilt I felt about negative actions to decide about behavior.
Early Christian Mindset: During my early days as a Christian (and sometimes still) I thought about hell as a place for “those people” and I thought about it A LOT, it seemed like much of what I heard in church was about knowing Jesus for the sake of avoiding Hell. I felt like because I had accepted Jesus I was OK, even if I screwed up on occasion. Those going to hell were the people who didn’t think like I did and I needed to spend a bunch of time telling them about Hell so they would accept Jesus.

Currently, I worry less about hell in terms of eternity and who will or wont be there based on my presumptions, because the problem with presumptions is that we presume to know much more than we really do. One of the things that I find a lot of (Christian) people struggle with(including myself at times) is the “Who is in, who is out” mindset towards eternity. Many want Hell to be a justification for their perceived sacrifice and piety, basically saying, since I believed the right things and was “good” and you weren’t I need to know that someday there will be payment for you and your bad actions. In reality, this whole mindset reeks of bitterness and personal revenge, both of which Jesus cautions against.

As opposed to the previous views on Hell I think about this, one of the most common definitions of Hell is being separated from God. That says a lot if you really think about it. There are many ways that people are separated from God here and now, not only in the context of eternity. Broken relationships, families, lives all exist here and now and that causes many people to be separated from God. War torn countries, poverty, discrimination all currently existing conditions that seem pretty Hell-like to me. If we are really so concerned about Hell, let us work to bring little bits of heaven in as many places here and now as possible and let our Heavenly Father sort out eternity.

Random Dialogue

So here is the story, a while back a friend of mine sent me the post that will follow from his friend on Facebook and I felt compelled to respond… So the following is the post of the female friend of a friend on Christianity. It is quite long as is my response so be prepared. I would appreciate comments if you feel led.

ok this is very forward, if you are offended, i wont say i dont care. i care. im sorry if you’re offended. a few years ago, i made a conscious decision to lose faith in my personal practice of the christian religion. i lost most faith throughout the majority of my church-going years, but in the end, i decided to just completely toss whatever was left, because i felt there was very.. very.. very little chance that someone could how can i say, bring me back? um lets see, i had been going to church since i was .. 6, i went all the way til.. 17 ish? i was never baptized, although that is irrelevant, i was an active part of the youth group, i active in praise band, and i was on my way to become a youth group teacher. funny, right. im trying to just write about this calmly without going off on a rampage, cuz theres a lot of frustration and overall irritation i get from discussing this topic. i might be being a little too personal, but whatever, im an open book.long story short, i saw so much
hypocrisy, judgment, and contradiction, that it just completely turned me off. ALL 11 years of going to church. im a logical, sensible, reasonable, rational, but mainly logical person, and i pride myself in that, but wow even after 11 years of active experience, i have not felt that moved. in fact, it looks.. cult-ish. i said someone may be offended, but im just splashing down some honest opinion.so someone tell
me.. how do christians justify their actions of sin? sure, you can repent. but while you’re judging non-christians that are doing the same thing you did last weekend? yes, i understand and fully practice judging people, like any human being does, but come on. isnt it easier to judge people when they dont share the same views? and the reason im so erplexed by that is, what about ‘love thy neighbor, love thy enemy?’ i mean they’re really.. really.. really simple concepts. i know its not that easy, we’re people, but i just find it REALLY difficult to find christians who at least ATTEMPT to practice those important and vital aspects of the religion. so even if you can admit that, shouldnt someone be apologizing for making those mistakes? maybe if christians were more humble about their errs and wrongdoings, i wouldnt be so irritated. but i only see christians who are hypocrites in what they say, practice, or judge, while somehow holding their head up high. i am NOT saying that christians are bad for going out and getting wasted, ok? dont get it wrong, everybody is human, everybody makes mistakes. i take that into account 100%. but being arrogant in hinking that you are actually better than people who lead extremely similar lives as yourselves.. and also, extremely different ones, is
really what the worst part bout it is. is the act of doing the latter, an actual mistake as well? why are there so many justifications for human behavior, but it
only seems to apply to a certain group of people? i already realize you can tell me all sorts of things about how god loves everyone, etc etc.. then why dont christians at least put an effort out to try? if jesus taught not to judge, not to hate, why dont you TRY. it sounds so extremely elementary, i know. but the christian religion is so contradicting and flawed in so many aspects, and i cant HELP but to notice those things only because it is shoved in my face everyday from television, radio, news/media, conflicts around the world, personal relationships, people, friends.. ok, lets be cliche for a second. WHY is it so damn wrong.. for someone to be gay? tell me. since some of you christians know all, come on, seriously, tell me. if gay is a sin, and sins dont carry levels of extremity, whats the difference in leading a gluttonous lifestyle versus being gay? they’re both lifestyles. i mean at least the fat guy chose to eat, come on. what if u’re a christian slut? you are consciously practicing this sin called lust, maybe on a weekly, daily basis, but what about the gays, people?! if you’re a christian slut, although you are judged and hated on, im going to assume you hold a little more status in the christian community than a fag.oh, the contradictions. the funny thing is, i would actually start to understand, if a christian decided to admit the faults and apologize for being too proud in the
public media, instead of actually trying to defend it with some proverbial nonsense that just puts the whole conversation into a neverending cycle of more contradiction. people make mistakes, that is widely accepted, and yes, i think through time christians are really practicing this religion in the WRONG way. if
theres a god who wrote all these things, who had all these visions, who knew what was to happen, i honestly dont believe this is the way he would have seen it out
for his followers. that is just.. my opinion. i dont think im wrong, but im not denying that i couldnt be. so you can justify that by saying, this is a time of difficulty, of testing. can you seriously say that things are perfect and right in the christian community? and if you realize its not, and its definitely not, and you choose to justify it with ‘things happen for a reason,’ why dont you try to change that? if you know somethings not right, why not try to make it right. what about god knows everything?’ everything happens for a reason, etc etc.. ok thats a little out of my rational boundaries. its so easy to point to everything happens for a
reason, it justifies pretty much every action you take. what.. a.. copout. heres here i get a little less considerate. if you’re expected to take responsibilities for your own actions, um, do it. to me, it feels like.. if you claim everything happens for a reason, you cant deny that when you say it, it eases your mind a little bit, takes the pressure off your shoulders knowing that someone else holds the fate to your life, and that you really dont have full control, therefore, ITS NOT REALLY YOUR FAULT. even if you take responsibility for your own actions, claiming that the event happened for a reason, takes part of that responsibility, OFF. it does. thats the logic, sorry. im not saying i only believe in logical things, id someday love to be a bit more spiritual, and i definitely believe there are things we cannot understand. but simple concepts that we’ve learned through the history of life,
are just there and absolutely obvious.anyway, im getting tired, i have TONS more
on the plate, but this is probably way more than enough. anyone, please enlighten me. give me some answers that i can understand. you can try to convert me for all i care, but all i ask for is to make some sense.

Ok that was a bit long I know… Here is my response..

To start, this may seem odd that someone that you don’t know is responding to one of your notes. My apologies up front about that, I saw it linked through another profile and was interested to see what you had to say. First off, let me put myself out there a bit and let you know where I am coming from. I grew up in the Catholic church and had a bit of a crisis of faith myself at 17-18 and left the church for a while. Eventually I returned to a mainline protestant church and have been in several since then. So I would consider myself pretty entrenched in the culture of church and Christianity.
That aside, I have to agree with much of what you say in you note. One of the issues that really caused me to leave the church and still struggle with is the double faced approach that many people in church take to life. On Sunday they go and have their time with God in a church but it only goes as far as the doors of the church building. The rest of the week they don’t let the message of Jesus penetrate their lives. There is definitely a crisis of identity within the church where people want to be associated with it for any number of reasons but don’t want to take Jesus seriously. I think that this is one of your main causes for concern/irritation. One distinction that I think is important to make is that there are a lot of people who claim the name “Christian” but don’t exactly live up to the expectations that the name asks for. This is not to say that people who call themselves Christians have to (or even could be) perfect. I will be the first to say that even as I grow in my faith I feel like less of a good person because my knowledge of the character of Jesus makes me realize how impossible it is to measure up. I think the real testament to whether or not someone is doing the “Christian thing” to their best ability is do I love people more than I did yesterday, and do I love God more than I did yesterday. If those two things are true than there would be a lot less of what you have seen and are disgusted by in the church.
To briefly touch on your discussion of gays in the church, I’ll give it a go. I think that again you hit the nail on the head. Personally, I feel like there is little distinction in the eyes of God between being gay and being the gay basher. If you really look at the overlying themes of both the old and new testament in both cases the main theme is LOVE. In the OT, God demonstrates his love for the people he has chosen as His own by continually being faithful to them even when they reject Him for other gods. In the NT, Jesus whole ministry and life was an act of love. He summed up all his teachings in “love the Lord with all your heart, and love your neighbor (read as everyone) as yourself.” And his sacrifice on the cross was the ultimate act of love. I think where people are confused is that they mistake the conservative political agenda for the message of the gospel. Politicians have co-opted Jesus in to the gay-bashing, abortion hating, tax lowering, poor neglecting mascot of their agenda. The Jesus you see in the gospels loved everyone including the poor, the tax-collecters, the prostitutes and even the people who sent him to death. He taught his followers to take care of the poor and fight for the oppressed.
The reason I wanted to take the time to write this all out was that I am just starting on this journey of discovery about what it looks like to take Jesus’ words seriously and it looks a lot different that what you will find in any political campaign and in most churches.

Ok sorry for all the length here but I would appreciate any comments.. I tried to be as gracious and considerate in my reply and make a concise response to the major points of contention.. Thanks

Amazing Grace Movie

Real quick post, just to say that one of the producers of the Amazing Grace movie was in church talking about the movie and the UK abolition of the slave trade as well as the modern day slave trade. If you havent heard about this movie check out the link here. Also, check out the page dedicated to the practical aspect of the movie’s message The Amazing Change (click Amazing Change or the banner at the top of the page). It has tons of ideas and resources for information about the modern issue of slavery in the world as well as some resources and ways to make a difference. One of my personal choices was the IJM Prayer Guide for the Abolition of Slavery. Click on the name to download it, it gives some practical ways to pray for the work that IJM does in the area of slavery, forced prostitution, and bonded labor. Also, if you decide to start praying for this arena pray for my friend Marianne, she is working in Asia providing social work services to vicitims of these issues of justice.

Reflections on the Weekend

Not one of the greatest weekends ever, but produced some very interesting mind fodder. Friday, someone hit us while we were driving to work. Nothing major just some body damage, and even then not so serious. The problems were many, 1) I have expired MI tags on my car, 2) Other driver is not licenced Because of these situations the officer graciously let us both off without citing us for our transgressions. I felt quite dumb because I have been putting off getting my car registered and had just been challenged to do so because it honors God when we submit to the authority over us (even if they charge too much for registration.) So now I am in a predicament because there was no police report so no fault was determined and AZ is not a no-fault state when it comes to insurance. So now I have to duke it out w/ the claims dept. of State Farm if I decide to get repairs done.

Saturday evening was church per usual but again a challenge for me to chew on. Pastor Eric spoke about the Lord’s power and how many people live in knowledge of the Lord and His power but never come to experience it in their lives.. In many ways, and many times I have found myself as the poster child for this message. Part of this is my natural love of learning about things and once I get interested I find out all I can about something. I think with the exception of my sometimes addiction like intensity this isn’t inherently bad. I feel like the Lord desires that we should be excited about knowledge and gathering knowledge for the sake of wisdom. Where I have felt this impact me negatively is when I forsake my experience for knowledge. When I find myself like Will from “Good Will Hunting” having extensive knowledge and never being exposed to the things of life. One of the things that I felt specifically was that my knowledge of the things of the Lord were not knowledge of God Himself. It is as if the information I have gathered is the wall that keeps me separated from the experience of God and His powerful Spirit on a regular basis. On occasion, the wall comes down and the experience slips through but sure enough it fades.
In the last 2-3 years the experience of God has become more frequent but not to the place where I am satisfied with my level of connection with God. On the upside I feel that some of the issues that I am continuing to work through and have some experience with here in AZ and with the folks at CCOJ has been stretching me and prompting me to rely on less knowledge and really seek the Lord.
One other thing that was a blessing from church Saturday night was the phrase from the Lords Prayer “Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, here, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” I have heard many messages preached on the prayer but for some reason lately that phrase has carried weighted meaning. You see when we pray that line, we literally ask God to make the earth like the heavens. We should be expecting that the Kingdom of Light will invade the specific darkness that is being prayed for. The thing that was the newest to me that night was that this is not a “someday Lord, make this like heaven” prayer. This is a “right here and now Lord, bring Heaven to this situation” because God isn’t just concerned with what happens to us when we die and he isn’t only in the business of redeeming human souls. God is in the process of setting the whole world right and redeeming his entire creation. [To really get a feel for the idea of heaving breaking through would take more space and time than I have for now but Kingdom Theology is some awesome stuff(once again Dallas Willard's "Divine Conspiracy"). ]

Sunday was the Super Bowl among other things. Liz and I “watched” the game (I use watch loosely here) while working around the house and on some other things. We got some unfortunate news throughout the day that I found prompting me to come before God on others’ behalf. During the afternoon, our friends Greg and Alicia called from the airport and informed us they were flying back to Illinois to be with Alicia’s dad. Her father has been battling a relapse of cancer after 4 years of being in remission and had been fighting off infection during his treatment. Friday night he was in the ICU w/ pneumonia and by Saturday night was not showing much improvement. There was a prayer session for him after church Saturday and the news Sunday was that either he was going to make a turn for the better or a serious turn for the worst and the family should be there in case of the latter. Greg and Alicia have been our closest new friends and this news was disheartening to say the least. Reports today have been about the same as earlier.
Also Sunday our neighbor and friend Jason went to the ER w/ breathing difficulty and dizziness but returned home late Sunday night w/ a clean bill of health. The only information we had is from text msgs. so not much in the way of details.

And some good news on the medical front, Liz had been battling some laryngitis since Thursday and most of the weekend was w/out a voice. During prayer at church on Sat. we prayed that God’s will be done in her voice as it is in heaven and by this morning there was almost a full recovery that started right after prayer!! Praise God for being interested in the small things of our lives.