Have you ever begged Jesus to go away and leave you alone?
Friday, March 20, 2009
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Quote of the Day
"A person consciously filling a vase with water—out of a union and love of God—is giving more glory to God than a priest at the altar who is standing there in a state of anger or separateness."
-Mother Teresa
"It’s all about the who (God), not the what (works), and we spend all of our time concentrating on what “I” should do."
-Richard Rohr
-Mother Teresa
"It’s all about the who (God), not the what (works), and we spend all of our time concentrating on what “I” should do."
-Richard Rohr
Monday, March 16, 2009
Religious for Religious sake?
Zechariah 7 study: A Call to Justice and Mercy.
I was reading Zechariah today and I came across this passage. The people of God are in exile from their homeland, their promised land that God had blessed them with, and had lost favor with God because of their breaking the contract they made with God. They have a question for God.
“Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction, as we have done for so many years?”
In essence they are asking, God are you still mad at us, are you going to be mad forever because if so, we want to know if we need to continue on with all this religious stuff that seems to be giving us no progress in our life whatsoever. It all seems pointless God.
I know that I have been there. God, do I really need to (fill in the blank with spiritual exercise) is it going to get me anywhere, is it going to advance me in anything, will I make any progress? I love God’s answer. He seems to be able to see to the heart of human selfishness and call us on it.
“During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting? And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves?’”
I love how God answers questions with questions. God stares our selfishness in the face and says, “Are you serious? You really think this way?” We ask God, “What’s in it for me?” and God responds, “What if it’s not about you?” This response leaves us speechless. “But it has to be about me, what else is there?”
This leads me to a question that God is asking, “Are you religious for religious sake?” God has always asked one thing from His people and he restates it over and over in the Old Testament, and Jesus echoes it again and again in the New.
“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.”
But it can’t be that easy, it can’t be all about that. It has to be some big complex religious theology that we must wrap our minds around. But the response of the Israelites is the same response we give today in most cases:
“Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the LORD of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them. “Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. As with a whirlwind, I scattered them among the distant nations, where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. They turned their pleasant land into a desert.”
Our response is to keep on being religious for religious sake so that we do not have to confront our own selfishness and ugliness. We wish to take a mask and hide it from others and ourselves. But the truth is still there, we are selfish, we are sinful, we are ugly. The gospel is so transforming because God opens our eyes to our own ugliness and says, let’s heal this. Then we become conduits for that same transformation that God has brought in us!
We are a people who need to be born again and again and again… We need multiple conversions, not from a salvation standpoint but a refining one, because our sinfulness, and ugliness, and selfishness runs deep into our DNA and God takes us along a path called sanctification, a process of being made holy and like God. God is in constant refining mode on us.
When God transforms us we then become the people who fulfill His purpose, being a people who are concerned with bringing justice, mercy, and grace into a world that is in desperate need of it.
So, why are you religious?
I was reading Zechariah today and I came across this passage. The people of God are in exile from their homeland, their promised land that God had blessed them with, and had lost favor with God because of their breaking the contract they made with God. They have a question for God.
“Should we continue to mourn and fast each summer on the anniversary of the Temple’s destruction, as we have done for so many years?”
In essence they are asking, God are you still mad at us, are you going to be mad forever because if so, we want to know if we need to continue on with all this religious stuff that seems to be giving us no progress in our life whatsoever. It all seems pointless God.
I know that I have been there. God, do I really need to (fill in the blank with spiritual exercise) is it going to get me anywhere, is it going to advance me in anything, will I make any progress? I love God’s answer. He seems to be able to see to the heart of human selfishness and call us on it.
“During these seventy years of exile, when you fasted and mourned in the summer and in early autumn, was it really for me that you were fasting? And even now in your holy festivals, aren’t you eating and drinking just to please yourselves?’”
I love how God answers questions with questions. God stares our selfishness in the face and says, “Are you serious? You really think this way?” We ask God, “What’s in it for me?” and God responds, “What if it’s not about you?” This response leaves us speechless. “But it has to be about me, what else is there?”
This leads me to a question that God is asking, “Are you religious for religious sake?” God has always asked one thing from His people and he restates it over and over in the Old Testament, and Jesus echoes it again and again in the New.
“This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: Judge fairly, and show mercy and kindness to one another. Do not oppress widows, orphans, foreigners, and the poor. And do not scheme against each other.”
But it can’t be that easy, it can’t be all about that. It has to be some big complex religious theology that we must wrap our minds around. But the response of the Israelites is the same response we give today in most cases:
“Your ancestors refused to listen to this message. They stubbornly turned away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the instructions or the messages that the LORD of Heaven’s Armies had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the LORD of Heaven’s Armies was so angry with them. “Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. As with a whirlwind, I scattered them among the distant nations, where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. They turned their pleasant land into a desert.”
Our response is to keep on being religious for religious sake so that we do not have to confront our own selfishness and ugliness. We wish to take a mask and hide it from others and ourselves. But the truth is still there, we are selfish, we are sinful, we are ugly. The gospel is so transforming because God opens our eyes to our own ugliness and says, let’s heal this. Then we become conduits for that same transformation that God has brought in us!
We are a people who need to be born again and again and again… We need multiple conversions, not from a salvation standpoint but a refining one, because our sinfulness, and ugliness, and selfishness runs deep into our DNA and God takes us along a path called sanctification, a process of being made holy and like God. God is in constant refining mode on us.
When God transforms us we then become the people who fulfill His purpose, being a people who are concerned with bringing justice, mercy, and grace into a world that is in desperate need of it.
So, why are you religious?
Quotes of the Day
If we do not transform our pain, we will most assuredly transmit it.
-Richard Rohr
No problem can be solved with the same consciousness that caused it.
-Albert Einstein
-Richard Rohr
No problem can be solved with the same consciousness that caused it.
-Albert Einstein
Thursday, March 12, 2009
N.T. Wright is my Hero (kinda)
I know that N.T. can be a bit wordy, a bit stuffy, and a bit overwhelming informationally, but I love to listen to his messages. I have to listen to them 3 times just to figure out what he is saying, and then I have to listen to them 5 times to sort out all the information, but I love it. One of my spiritual disciplines that connect me to God is the study, in depth, get into the Greek, get into the History, get into the Theology study.
One of the reasons is the fact that I love angles. I love to look at the gems of scripture at a different angle and see how it reflects the light in a new way. Same light, same gem, different angle. N.T. provides some historical perspectives that really get me looking at the scriptures from some more angles.
When I deliver a message, I try to have as much information on the subject as I can fit into my head, and then communicate one idea at 3 or 4 angles. Having the information in my head gives me the confidence to speak. One of the dangers of being too informational is losing people, people who don't care about history or Greek or Theology. But if you can provide many angles on the same subject, a subject that matters to real people in real life, in one sermon, the chances of losing people diminish, and you get to communicate to the differing levels of maturity in the room. Someone may have heard a sermon on this parable thirty times already and immediately shut it down with, "Oh, I've heard this before." Even if they are not practicing or applying the parable. Love your neighbor. We've heard that fifty billion times, but sometimes it takes a different angle to get us to think about it again and then re-apply the message.
You can check out some of his MP3's here
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Is American Individualism Killing the Church?
Interesting Article over at Mark Riddle's Blog
"I saw this article this evening. It states that America is less Christian than 20 years ago. I'm not sure this is news. It was interesting that the article pointed to a rise in individualism as part of the cause. Again, not really news.
Here's my take.
The article is extremely generous. It's worse than this.
Why?
Because in growing segments of the evangelical church there is fundamentally no difference between the individualism of those who deny being Christian, and the individualism that many evangelical churches preach. This will not last because it is empty. An individualism, me first mentality, wrapped in the language and ideas of Jesus, isn't the way of Christ, because it makes Jesus an accessory and the programs of the church a way to keep my kids out of trouble and help me become a better educated individual. So Bible Studies and programs fill our calendars, and we sit in pews of large churches, and maybe watch our pastor on a screen, while we learn more about Jesus, then we walk out as isolated and alone as we were before."
"I saw this article this evening. It states that America is less Christian than 20 years ago. I'm not sure this is news. It was interesting that the article pointed to a rise in individualism as part of the cause. Again, not really news.
Here's my take.
The article is extremely generous. It's worse than this.
Why?
Because in growing segments of the evangelical church there is fundamentally no difference between the individualism of those who deny being Christian, and the individualism that many evangelical churches preach. This will not last because it is empty. An individualism, me first mentality, wrapped in the language and ideas of Jesus, isn't the way of Christ, because it makes Jesus an accessory and the programs of the church a way to keep my kids out of trouble and help me become a better educated individual. So Bible Studies and programs fill our calendars, and we sit in pews of large churches, and maybe watch our pastor on a screen, while we learn more about Jesus, then we walk out as isolated and alone as we were before."
Brilliant Parable!
Absolutely Brilliant parable from my friend Joe.
"Once there was a kingdom with a King who owned many horses. A certain man worked hard every day from sun up until sun down carrying bags of food for the kings horses to eat. It was an important task as the horses were the Kings prize possession. He did this every day, pulling the heavy cart through the streets. Everyone thought he was a hard worker, and eventually he became the most famous horse food carrier in all of the land. Finally he died. And the next day someone else carried the food."
"Once there was a kingdom with a King who owned many horses. A certain man worked hard every day from sun up until sun down carrying bags of food for the kings horses to eat. It was an important task as the horses were the Kings prize possession. He did this every day, pulling the heavy cart through the streets. Everyone thought he was a hard worker, and eventually he became the most famous horse food carrier in all of the land. Finally he died. And the next day someone else carried the food."
Wednesday, March 04, 2009
I Love Jesus!
Quote of the Day:
"We have not built a church capable of welcoming the manifest presence of God. We have built a church for our ministry, not His." Graham Cooke
Cause a Ruckus?
-should we go in and cause a ruckus?
-They're doing fine on their own. We're not needed there.
Perception is Reality
Dialogue:
-What are you building?
-God
-You mean your perception of God?
-perception is reality
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