I have been reading and reflecting the Sermon on the Mount, and I made this little pencil sketch to sum it all up. I am not an artist, I know, but I do draw a mean stick figure.
If you can't see it, click on it and make it bigger.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Sermon on the Mount: stick figure style
I have been reading and reflecting the Sermon on the Mount, and I made this little pencil sketch to sum it all up. I am not an artist, I know, but I do draw a mean stick figure.
If you can't see it, click on it and make it bigger.
Quote of the Day
"a [biblical] text without a context is just a pretext for whatever you want it to mean." -Ben Witherington
meaning, you can make the Bible say just about anything you want it to, and justify anything you need it to. But as I state all the time...
"The Bible can never mean what it never meant." -Gordon Fee
meaning, you can make the Bible say just about anything you want it to, and justify anything you need it to. But as I state all the time...
"The Bible can never mean what it never meant." -Gordon Fee
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Weekend Wrap Up
We went up to SpringHill this past weekend with our Sr. High students. It was amazing!
I find it hard to sum up what exactly happened. Let's start with fun:
1. We all tubed until we froze. SpringHill has an amazing tubing hill that is open most of the time.
2. Some people went horseback riding. Lots of fun.
3. We got to hangout in the game room and gym and have plenty of fun.
4. Morgan sang at open mic night and was amazing.
5. The sessions were amazing.
Spiritual
1. A few of our students surrendered their life over to Christ for the first time!
2. The rest of us were moved as the speaker presnted Forgiveness is a powerful way.
3. Eric Timm was our speaker, and what an amazing job he did. He had us laughing one minute, and intently listening the next. Very talented individual.
4. Red Umbrella led worship, and they did a spectacular job.
Overall:
one of the best and most powerful retreats I have been on. If you get a chance to go to SpringHill, go. If you get a chance to see Eric Timm, go. If you can go to both, stop everything and go.
I find it hard to sum up what exactly happened. Let's start with fun:
1. We all tubed until we froze. SpringHill has an amazing tubing hill that is open most of the time.
2. Some people went horseback riding. Lots of fun.
3. We got to hangout in the game room and gym and have plenty of fun.
4. Morgan sang at open mic night and was amazing.
5. The sessions were amazing.
Spiritual
1. A few of our students surrendered their life over to Christ for the first time!
2. The rest of us were moved as the speaker presnted Forgiveness is a powerful way.
3. Eric Timm was our speaker, and what an amazing job he did. He had us laughing one minute, and intently listening the next. Very talented individual.
4. Red Umbrella led worship, and they did a spectacular job.
Overall:
one of the best and most powerful retreats I have been on. If you get a chance to go to SpringHill, go. If you get a chance to see Eric Timm, go. If you can go to both, stop everything and go.
Why do Freeways (Chruches) come to an annoying hault?
I read this interesting article, and then applied it to church.
1. Someone in front slows to 50mph (i.e. to avoid a car swerving in front of him)
2. The next driver slows to 45 to keep a safe distance away.
3. Drivers farther back see brake lights and begin to slow down
4. The pattern continues and more drivers apply their brakes until traffic is at a crawl.
5. By the time the rear drivers catch up to the source of the shockwave, the offending parties are long gone, and there is no sign of what started the problem.
What if we applied this to churches...
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Rick Warren's Inaugural Prayer
There are two types of Christians out there today. The type who can pray like this:
And the type who write garbage like this:
[Click Here]
And the type who write garbage like this:
[Click Here]
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
The Jesus Manifesto: Part One: Class Systems
I have been reading Richard Rohr's Jesus' Plan for a New World. This book really contributed to me wanting to explore the Sermon on the Mount. We love to take little pieces of the Sermon on the Mount out of its context, slap it on a t-shirt, and say, "Look, this is what Jesus said!" But if you don't read the individual teachings within the whole teaching of the sermon on the mount, you can easily become lost, confused, and misinformed on Jesus' intentions.
One of the first questions I asked was, "who is Jesus talking to?" Once I had the answer to this question, the Sermon took on an all new light, I could see it from a perspective of a first century peasant Jew instead of a middle class white American male of the 21st century.
Class Systems:
In our society, we divide up the population by class. The Gilbert-Kahl system, we see that America is divided into six classes:
1. Executive Class: Top politicians, corporate executives, and heirs of large buisnesses reside here
2. Upper Class: Doctors, Lawyers, Medium sized buisness owners
3. Middle Class: Proffessional laborers (electricians, plumbers) non retail sales, lower management positions
4. Working class: factory workers, lower skilled manual labor, clerical, retail sales
5. Working Poor: minimum wage workers
6. Underclass: part-time workers, unemployed. etc...
We can add a bottom class to this system. Your worth is based upon what you can consume and produce, so those who are not able or willing to consume or produce are not even classified here.
7. Expendable: criminals, welfare recipients, nursing home occupants, mental institution occupants, mentally handicapped, and the seriously disabled, the unborn.
This is not a knock on the bottom class, if you know someone who would be classified there. You will see.
The class system of Jesus' day had nine class systems, the top five ran society, and the bottom four were peasant classes.
1. Caesar: received 50% of the GNP, in Jesus' day it would be Tiberius
2. Governor: recieved 25% of the GNP, in Jesus' area this is Pilate
3. Retainers (maintain the system): military officers, lower bureaucrats (Herod), The High Preist (Caiaphas) pharisees and scribes (worked like H&R Block, helping you wade through all the red tape of religion for a fee)
4. Merchants: Lower on the scales than in our Consumer based society
5. Land Owners: Owned all the land
6. Farmers: Rented the land from land owners
7. Artisians: Fisherman, carpenters, masons
8. the "unclean" Lepers, tax collectors, pig farmers, gentiles (non Jews), and pig farmers (see story of Lost Son from Luke)
9. The Expendable: criminals, beggars, cripples, lame, blind, handicapped
When Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount he says, blessed are the poor (ptochi) which means destitute, those who are crouching, he is referring to the bottom two classes.
One of the first questions I asked was, "who is Jesus talking to?" Once I had the answer to this question, the Sermon took on an all new light, I could see it from a perspective of a first century peasant Jew instead of a middle class white American male of the 21st century.
Class Systems:
In our society, we divide up the population by class. The Gilbert-Kahl system, we see that America is divided into six classes:
1. Executive Class: Top politicians, corporate executives, and heirs of large buisnesses reside here
2. Upper Class: Doctors, Lawyers, Medium sized buisness owners
3. Middle Class: Proffessional laborers (electricians, plumbers) non retail sales, lower management positions
4. Working class: factory workers, lower skilled manual labor, clerical, retail sales
5. Working Poor: minimum wage workers
6. Underclass: part-time workers, unemployed. etc...
We can add a bottom class to this system. Your worth is based upon what you can consume and produce, so those who are not able or willing to consume or produce are not even classified here.
7. Expendable: criminals, welfare recipients, nursing home occupants, mental institution occupants, mentally handicapped, and the seriously disabled, the unborn.
This is not a knock on the bottom class, if you know someone who would be classified there. You will see.
The class system of Jesus' day had nine class systems, the top five ran society, and the bottom four were peasant classes.
1. Caesar: received 50% of the GNP, in Jesus' day it would be Tiberius
2. Governor: recieved 25% of the GNP, in Jesus' area this is Pilate
3. Retainers (maintain the system): military officers, lower bureaucrats (Herod), The High Preist (Caiaphas) pharisees and scribes (worked like H&R Block, helping you wade through all the red tape of religion for a fee)
4. Merchants: Lower on the scales than in our Consumer based society
5. Land Owners: Owned all the land
6. Farmers: Rented the land from land owners
7. Artisians: Fisherman, carpenters, masons
8. the "unclean" Lepers, tax collectors, pig farmers, gentiles (non Jews), and pig farmers (see story of Lost Son from Luke)
9. The Expendable: criminals, beggars, cripples, lame, blind, handicapped
When Jesus opens the Sermon on the Mount he says, blessed are the poor (ptochi) which means destitute, those who are crouching, he is referring to the bottom two classes.
Monday, January 12, 2009
New Series: The Jesus Manifesto (title still in the works)
I am taking on a message series the whole month of February that I am really excited about. I love the opportunity to speak and teach. When I am not teaching, I am thinking about teaching. I am messed up that way I guess.
BUT... I am working on a series about the Sermon on the Mount. We went through the Advent and prepared for the coming of Christ, we are in the middle of the Jesus is the bridge series, and next we are looking into What did Jesus actually say and teach?
I will be sharing tid bits here and there on this site so you can get a sneak peak of it.
BUT... I am working on a series about the Sermon on the Mount. We went through the Advent and prepared for the coming of Christ, we are in the middle of the Jesus is the bridge series, and next we are looking into What did Jesus actually say and teach?
I will be sharing tid bits here and there on this site so you can get a sneak peak of it.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
God's Inaudible Voice
It has been a week that has taught me much about the state of my soul. I worry. I have been reading a book by Richard Rohr, Jesus' Plan for a New World, and it has been kicking my butt! He says:
"You can formally be a Christian...and go through all the rites of services. but if the grace of God hasn't moved into the conscious and unconscious levels and really touched you...you can keep the divine formulas in your head and have no real awareness of the divine. That's the malaise of Western Christianity today. People keep up the external observances of reliance upon God; underneath they depend only upon themselves...There is no active trust in the presence of the reality of God, or that God makes any difference."
I am finding out that I have been worrying about my house. So as I am reading this book God has been setting little "tests" in front of me, not for Him to see what I am made of, but to show me what I am made of, and what needs work. I think that is the whole point of crisis in our lives, to stir up areas of our subconscious that are not fully surrendered to Him and then let him teach us and change us through them.
He writes again:
"For Jesus, faith is not opposed to not believing in God, it doesn't mean you go to church, or that you're into religion or that you say "Lord, Lord!" (see Matthew 7:21). Faith for Jesus is the opposite of anxiety. If you're anxious, if you;re trying to control everything, if you are worried about many things, you don't have faith, according to Jesus. You do not trust that God is good and on your side. You're trying to do it all yourself, lift yourself up by your own bootstraps."
Again, I have been trying to control too much, and the end result has been anxiety. Let me give you a rundown of my week:
Day One: Insurance dude rejects the wood stove project, I freak out. have to make some tweaks.
Day Two: high winds hit the house, wood stove chimney fails I freak out. Gary Groom comes to the rescue.
Day Three: Calm.
Day Four: Saturday Service happens: I am taking them through the Prayer of Examen: will it work or totally fall apart? Sermon comes together, prayer works great.
Day Four: High winds hit again, chimney is tested, and passes BUT the Well pump stops working at 9pm, call Rob, call Well service. Be out in the morning. No water.
Day five: Well dude comes out, looks at the well and says, "you're pipes are frozen, turn on the furnace down here and thaw it out, that'll be $80.00." Attempt to turn on furnace, feels more like central air, call furnace guy, furnace guys shows up and says, "you're condensation drain is frozen, he fixes it, that'll be $147.00. In the end the water and furnace are working again. But my "well planned out" budget is tossed out the window.
Each step I see how God worked things out and built up my faith in the process, he also showed me areas that I have weak faith in. I am addressing them. And today as I went through the well and furnace ordeal, I kept reminding myself of how God came through all the other times this week.
I didn't freak out. I could have. I would have had I not been aware of what God was up to in my soul. I have been trying to live more with an awareness of what God is trying to say through circumstances, his inaudible voice: "You are not trusting me here. Let me show you how I can come through for you." This means that I have to go through circumstances where I need God to come through for me, and then not have so much anxiety during the process.
Off to the hardware to buy some heat tape for the water pipes. I will try to be more aware of God's inaudible voice.
"You can formally be a Christian...and go through all the rites of services. but if the grace of God hasn't moved into the conscious and unconscious levels and really touched you...you can keep the divine formulas in your head and have no real awareness of the divine. That's the malaise of Western Christianity today. People keep up the external observances of reliance upon God; underneath they depend only upon themselves...There is no active trust in the presence of the reality of God, or that God makes any difference."
I am finding out that I have been worrying about my house. So as I am reading this book God has been setting little "tests" in front of me, not for Him to see what I am made of, but to show me what I am made of, and what needs work. I think that is the whole point of crisis in our lives, to stir up areas of our subconscious that are not fully surrendered to Him and then let him teach us and change us through them.
He writes again:
"For Jesus, faith is not opposed to not believing in God, it doesn't mean you go to church, or that you're into religion or that you say "Lord, Lord!" (see Matthew 7:21). Faith for Jesus is the opposite of anxiety. If you're anxious, if you;re trying to control everything, if you are worried about many things, you don't have faith, according to Jesus. You do not trust that God is good and on your side. You're trying to do it all yourself, lift yourself up by your own bootstraps."
Again, I have been trying to control too much, and the end result has been anxiety. Let me give you a rundown of my week:
Day One: Insurance dude rejects the wood stove project, I freak out. have to make some tweaks.
Day Two: high winds hit the house, wood stove chimney fails I freak out. Gary Groom comes to the rescue.
Day Three: Calm.
Day Four: Saturday Service happens: I am taking them through the Prayer of Examen: will it work or totally fall apart? Sermon comes together, prayer works great.
Day Four: High winds hit again, chimney is tested, and passes BUT the Well pump stops working at 9pm, call Rob, call Well service. Be out in the morning. No water.
Day five: Well dude comes out, looks at the well and says, "you're pipes are frozen, turn on the furnace down here and thaw it out, that'll be $80.00." Attempt to turn on furnace, feels more like central air, call furnace guy, furnace guys shows up and says, "you're condensation drain is frozen, he fixes it, that'll be $147.00. In the end the water and furnace are working again. But my "well planned out" budget is tossed out the window.
Each step I see how God worked things out and built up my faith in the process, he also showed me areas that I have weak faith in. I am addressing them. And today as I went through the well and furnace ordeal, I kept reminding myself of how God came through all the other times this week.
I didn't freak out. I could have. I would have had I not been aware of what God was up to in my soul. I have been trying to live more with an awareness of what God is trying to say through circumstances, his inaudible voice: "You are not trusting me here. Let me show you how I can come through for you." This means that I have to go through circumstances where I need God to come through for me, and then not have so much anxiety during the process.
Off to the hardware to buy some heat tape for the water pipes. I will try to be more aware of God's inaudible voice.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Christmas Party
Last night for youth we made up 54 Christmas baskets to give to the needy in our area, then we ate some dinner and did our annual Dollar Store gift exchange. Everyone brought 3 items for our food pantry, and a dollar store gift to put under the tree. First person picks a gift and opens it in front of everyone, then the next person can steal it or pick from the pile. It is always a lot of fun.
Some of the best gifts:
1. a set of franks and beans, fiber pills, and air freshener
2. a gift bag with 4 potatoes in it
3. the rubber chicken
4. a prosthetic grill with bling
5. Hannah Montana note pad
6. Mr. Potato Head
7. A Horse head on a stick
8. The Whoopie Cushion (every year one shows up)
One of the most fun nights of the year.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Wednesday, December 03, 2008
Habitat for Humanity Day
We went and helped build at the Habitat for Humanity a few weeks ago. It was cold, but lots of fun.
Let It Snow
I can't believe that it is snowing in November and December so much.
On thanksgiving vacation we went to visit family and take a break from our crazy schedule. So we decided to make a snow man. We had fun.
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