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Pillars Part 5

August 31, 2008

This week the focus of our teaching was the discipline of the study of Scripture. One of the key verses mentioned was Prov. 4:20-22. This talked about the words being given to us equating to life for our bodies. This is an analogy echoed by Christ in the New Testament when He proclaimed that “Man cannot live by bread alone”, that man needed to also partake of “the Word of God”.

To me a perspective shift is in order for us to truly understand all that is taking place when we enter into the discipline of study. First, we have mental focus, much the same as during meditation. Our focus for a period of time is on a portion of scripture. Layer after layer we look at what the words mean to our current context in terms of description and action. Secondly, there is a sort of fast going on. Instead of indulging in something else we have chosen to spend time looking into scripture.

Thirdly, and most importantly, we are not on a search for answers to our questions. There is no promise in scripture that we will know every answer for every question. Yes, there are certainties, but these certainties are far fewer than the traditional fundamentalist would like to admit. Let’s face it, if the real answers to all of man’s problems were found in scripture don’t you think things might be just a bit better in the world? We generalize and say that Jesus is the answer, and to many questions He is, but not all.

Often I have been engaged in conversation with someone who has a file for every question and an answer for each question tucked neatly inside. Sometimes I want to be like Dr. Phil and ask, “So how’s that going for you?”. Christianity is a journey, a process full of unknowns and questions. Somehow this is unsettling to people in church today.

Jesus never said He was the destination, He only said He was the Way. One of the key problems we have in scripture is that it is written in words. Words are concrete and definitive. Following Christ is anything but concrete and definitive. Following Christ is organic and fluid, spur of the moment and transcendent of words. The Buddhists in their search for truth are open and honest about not knowing. We demand a truth stated perfectly in words, but Jesus only said that He was the truth – His being, His presence.

We could go much further, but for now, embrace the path. Become enamored with the insignificant and fleeting. Read scripture and let it become living within you and show you what it is speaking to you. Let go and let the words fall to the ground like seeds and then wait – who knows what wonderful things may arise in your life!

Categories: Belief, Context, Life, Message Series, religion

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Pillars Part 4

August 23, 2008

This week we talked about prayer as a discipline. For me, during the past few years I have run the gamut between prayer needing to be a fixed point in my schedule to wondering that if God is in control – what is the real point of prayer at all. I’m certain that you’ve thought about the idea of prayer and wondered if “you had it right” or whether you could “do it” at all. Prayer is such an enigmatic topic that many times we chose not to dive into it. We wait for priests, rabbis, imams, pastors or teachers to tell us “what it is”. Here is the interesting point, those guys you are waiting to tell you what prayer is often have the same struggle defining it and practicing it.

Loved the discussion about prayer we had Sunday. If you missed it you can hear it here. One of the aspects I want to just touch on is Centering Prayer. The idea was brought into prominence by Father Thomas Keating several decades ago. In a simple nutshell, centering prayer is about sitting and allowing the thoughts in your mind to pass by unattached to you. Think of sitting by a stream. Carried by the current of the stream are the thoughts that are passing through your mind. Consciously let them pass by. It takes effort. but eventually the number of thoughts will decrease and the static/noise level in your mind will subside.

Doing this for just twenty minutes can have a dramatic difference in your day. I know you may be saying that if I’m praying I should be saying something. This is one of the misconceptions we have with prayer. Think of a situation where you asked an opinion about something and your inner thought was your true feeling, but you said the opposite. Our true self resides within and can be heard when we sift through the myriad of brain chatter that vies for our attention each day.

Try each day to visualize yourself for a few moments at the streams edge and watch the thoughts go by and dissipate. This is the “centering” part of centering prayer. Just like everything else in our lives, practices that have the greatest amount of impact take time and effort to learn and become part of our daily rhythm.

Categories: Awareness, Centering Prayer, Context, Message Series, religion, Rhythm

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Hauerwas quote

August 22, 2008

Stanley Hauerwas is the Gilbert T. Rowe Professor of Theological Ethics at Duke Divinity School. Throughout his career, he has focused emphasis on the importance of virtue and character within the Church. I found this quote and it embodies what I feel the church is to be.

“The work of Jesus was not a new set of ideals or principles for reforming or even revolutionizing society, but the establishment of a new community, a people that embodied forgiveness, sharing and self-sacrificing love in its rituals and discipline. In that sense, the visible church is not to be the bearer of Christ’s message, but to be the message.”

This is such an important ideal to grasp – especially as we near the hard and heavy election season. Christians are best, not when they seek to infiltrate society and bend it to their will, but when they seek to embody the character of Christ.

Categories: Awareness, Belief, Context, Kingdom of God, religion

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Unconditional Love

August 19, 2008

I’ve had a question bouncing about in my mind for several months. My point here is not to answer the question or even come close to a few conclusions. What I want to do is offer this question as a beginning place in rethinking what it may mean to be a follower of Christ.

In regard to our proclaiming of a God who loves us with an unconditional love, we seem satisfied to only be able to receive this unconditional love after we have met the condition of (depending on faith) asking, believing, confessing, baptizing, etc. In it’s basic Sunday School representation there appears to be contradiction. Just as one is either pregnant or not (there is no “kind of pregnant”), you either love someone conditionally or unconditionally. In light of this, how does that effect the Biblical narrative we have been offered by previous generations and are offering to the next generation?

After all, this is the basis of our emotional connection with God. If we buy into the concept of a conditional loving God, fear of not measuring up becomes a primary posture in relating to God. If we buy into the concept of an unconditional loving God, performance barriers are gone.

So, what has been the full context of your view of God’s love and how has that colored your perception of God and your own potential? How crucial is a consistent “seeing” of God’s actions and motives?

Categories: Belief, Context, religion

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Wild Goose Chase

August 13, 2008

What has to count as one of the best recent examples of things coinciding has to be my wife handing me my copy of Wild Goose Chase at around 8pm last night. I had come home and had thought about the book, but had let the thought go.

I had promised myself that I would read the book when it came in, so when I was handed the package I knew that my current reading would stop and Wild Goose would begin. Little did I know that by 1:30am I would have devoured the book and had some major epiphanies of my own.

Now to the actual review:

I had previously held up In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day as one of my favorite books – especially books to give to people. In a Pit has been eclipsed by Wild Goose Chase, Mark Batterson’s second book. The greatest theme of the book is the paradox between a caged and wild animal. The caged animal is safe, fed, well taken care of; the wild animal is in danger, has to find food and is out in the elements. The question is – “Which one is really living?”

Then Mark states one simple wonder, “I wonder if churches do to people what zoos do to animals.” From then on we are catapulted into a no-holds-barred quest for the life that Christ has really offered us. His thoughts on the story of Peter’s denial and restoration in Chapter Five are worth the price of the book alone. His emphasis on playing offense instead of defense with your life has made my own mind reel and re-examine some of my routine “plays”.

The book as a whole wields a blow to the modern constructed “inverted christianity” we are familiar with and breaks through to a “responsible irresponsibility” that needs to define more people who present themselves as Christ followers. If a fraction of the people who read the book actually do what is presented, we will see a major shift in both the practice and possibility of the Church.

The book is out in stores on August 19th. Check out www.chasethegoose.com and get Mark’s 10 Steps to Setting Life Goals. You can purchase the book by going to www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.borders.com, and www.cbd.com. This is one book you’ll want to buy 2 copies.

SIDENOTE: A major theme in the book is having big, huge, audacious goals and changing the world. I have a copy of Wild Goose Chase to give away and would like you to tell me what your big, huge, audacious goals for changing the world are. We’ll have a drawing and send the book to the winner, but we’ll also come together and do some open source global aid work and make some of our goals a reality – how ’bout that!

Categories: Books I'm Reading, Context, Creativity, Influence, Life, religion

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Pillars

August 2, 2008

This Sunday we begin a new series based on some of the foundational ideas/doctrines/disciplines of the church. We will be looking at prayer, serving, fasting and all kinds of subjects that you may have heard about, but were unsure of their existence/relevance in today’s spiritual culture.

This is going to be a great change of pace and I’m certain it will bothrefresh and revive many people. Don’t miss this important new look at something old in the church.

Categories: Belief, Context, Lifepoint, Message Series, religion

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Box Top or Puzzle Piece?

July 27, 2008

Today’s message was spot on about the need to look closely at where we are positioning ourselves in our spiritual walk. Some of the questions that were brought up were – “Are we to follow the picture we’ve been given in putting the pieces together?” or should we “let the pieces come together and follow where they are leading us?”

In the church world there is so much static in the airwaves, that to gain some understanding of what to do and where to go is virtually impossible. Everyone considers themselves an expert and wants you to follow “their way”.

When we stop and speak to God and listen and allow Him to work in us – however that may look or feel – we gain the authentic knowing that can only come from God. When we’ve heard what we should do, there is always a degree of question, but when we engage the spiritual and receive a response, our steadfastness becomes far more secure. Jesus was very truthful when He said, “Seek and you will find.” Our path will only reveal itself when we begin to walk it out…one step at a time.

Categories: Belief, Life, Message Series, religion

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The Joy of Silence

July 23, 2008

Silence is a subject that causes us to run. Some run toward it while others run away. In my younger years I would have ran from the silence. I would have needed noise to fill in gaps and keep me from gazing inside at my soul. Now, a little older, I’m finding that more and more I tend to run toward the quiet.

The soul is an amazing part of being human. The soul constantly shows us things and gives us insight, but most of the time we are to loud to hear it. We need television, radio, CD’s and podcasts to buffer us from ourselves. The astounding thing is that if we were to listen we would gain more direction in our lives without having to ask for it.

“The Kingdom of God is within”, is a phrase that haunts me because I think we leave untapped a great resource for living the life Christ told us we could live.

Take time, if only for a few minutes, and sit quietly. Become connected to your surroundings and yourself. In those few moments, a lot can be done in your life and in the world around you.

Categories: Awareness, Kingdom of God, Life, religion

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Restoration

July 20, 2008

A key word in today’s message was the word “restoration”. In relation to the typical meaning of the Gospel, I love the way that “restoration” completes a largely incomplete thought which for years,the establishment church has asked us to accept.

Many people have gone to church this Sunday thinking that they have a “ticket to heaven” or a “get out of hell free card”. The problem with this mentality is that it negates the vastness of the purpose of Christ’s coming to Earth in the first place. To buy in to a quick fix religion may make you feel better, but it hardly exemplifies anything that would require giving my life for.

Let’s face it, most of what is served up as Christianity today is a mixture of some three or four word phrase taken out of context to drive home a point that is at best a diluted truth and at worst a man-made, man-created, man-centered doctrine. What are you willing to die for?

That is a question that ought to bring up family and proven core ideals. If your church or belief system isn’t among the list of “to die for” items, you need to reevaluate the substance of your beliefs. Only then will you be able to “know” what you believe.

Restoration is not just a onetime process either, if a home has survived hundreds of years, it has gone through many restorations. Time and use wear away and restoration lets us bring back the feeling of new while preserving the past. The same is true with the church and ourselves. Restoration continually brings back the “new” in our lives. Our appreciation and value of Christ increases and we again reconnect to the Source with renewed vigor, excitement and confidence.

This cycle of wear, restore, wear and restore brings us closer and closer to an unwavering realness in our journey with God. With each cycle His reality overtakes our notion of reality and He is made anew in our eyes.

Instead of struggling against this process, embrace it as a way to be drawn closer to a heart that is affectionate and fond of you.

Categories: Awareness, Belief, Context, Cultural Ideas, Life, religion

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Uncertain certainty

July 13, 2008

For most of my life I sought after control over the various aspects of my life – job, finances, friends, vocation, etc. In each of these and many more I attained a certain amount of what I perceived to be control. The truth is, I have never had control and neither have you, but I can’t argue that there is comfort in the delusion that we have acquired control.

Lately I have found myself in a remarkable place – mentally and spiritually. In seeking to find “the answer” to a number of things, I have come to the realization that the end result of “the answer” is not near as important as the journey I take in seeking. This is counterintuitive to the nth degree, but the investment of time and emotion spent “in search of” something is vastly more valuable than any found answer.

We have a need to seek, find and move on to something new – a form of spiritual ADD – but taking in the moment by moment events in the journey toward an answer reveal themselves as divine stepping stones, not toward The answer, but inward toward the realm of The Kingdom Within.

In the end, I have found that the only thing I can be certain of is the constancy of uncertainty. If I refuse to act unless I have certainty, I will remain immobile and ineffective. The greatest joy is that the pull of Spirit to spirit is stronger than my need for certainty. So on I go in the journey.

The real revelation is that if we are eternal beings, the journey can’t possibly have an end.

Categories: Awareness, Belief, Context, Influence, Kingdom of God, Life, religion

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