Spiritual Lessons - Learning The Hard Way

Several months ago I was having a conversation with a man who has been in church and in church leadership most of his life. He’s been a prominent figure in his church. We were discussing one of the specific teachings of Jesus. It was one of those passages that I imagine he’s taught from at church at some time in the past. Toward the end of the conversation he said these words that took me by surprise: “Sometimes that just doesn’t work in real life.”

Now, it didn’t really surprise me that he said that. To be honest I think a lot of people in church think those very thoughts about some of the difficult teachings of Scripture on a regular basis. Love your enemy? Turn the other cheek? If your enemy is hungry give him something to eat, if he’s thirsty give him something to drink. They sound good in Sunday School, but not so much at home, at work, in Wal-Mart or anywhere else we might call “real life.” That’s really no surprise. What surprised me is that he admitted it publicly. Read more

An Interesting Experiment

What happens when you remove the American flag from a church’s place of worship?

You make some people really uneasy.  So uneasy that they’ll find which closet you hid it in and put it back "where it belongs."

I’m not an unpatriotic guy.  I appreciate the freedoms afforded us in America.  I’m thankful for those who have served our country in various capacities.

But I also have a firm conviction that I am not a true citizen of America.  Now I can hear the voices already: "If you don’t like it here in America go live somewhere else."  Well, I would move to my preferred country of residence except that I’m waiting for God’s timing to transport me there.  You see, of all the countries in this world I like America the best.  I’m just aware of another city that’s even better.  It is one who’s architect and builder is God.  There is a place where the kingdoms of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ.  Its flag is not red, white and blue.  Or red and white.  Or black white and green.  Or red and yellow.  Catch my drift?

The kingdom of God subverts every other kingdom.  Including America.  And that’s not a popular thing to say.  After saying such a thing in a sermon I was approached afterwards by one who seemed almost ready to argue over the virtues of living in America.  I would have likely agreed with most everything that person would have said.  In fact, I did agree with everything that person did say that day.  But I was left with the distinct impression that if we had to choose between America and the church some would choose America.  The fact that we can choose both, but subordinate the church to our country says something profound about our country and where some in the church in our country are in terms of the meaning of faith.

The message of the gospel is a radical message.  The most basic confession of that faith is "Jesus is Lord."  What we need to realize is that such a statement necessarily means that Uncle Sam is not.  But do we understand that?  Are we ready and willing to make such a radical claim?

When I removed the American flag I left the Christian flag displayed.  I suspect that were I to have put the Christian flag in a closet somewhere it might still be there.

Christo-fascism?

I just recently ran across this post: The Jig is Up: American Evangelicals and Fascist Seduction by Paul Grabill, pastor of State College Assembly of God in State College, Pennsylvania.  He gives a strong challenge to consider our true allegiance as American Christians.  Check out a few salient quotes:

I’m saying it as clearly as I know how to say it. Christian patriotism
in America has crossed the line into clear idolatry. We evangelicals
are very close to apostasy, and I can tell you that many of our
brothers and sisters around the world can see it. I believe this
idolatry—not Sun Myung Moon, not the DaVinci Code, not Hillary
Clinton–is our our last-days deception. Those other things are bad,
but there’s little danger that evangelicals will be deceived by them.

It ain’t deception if it ain’t seductive.

and then this one:

It’s time for American Christians to repent (turn around). Yes,
liberals need to repent for selling out the core of the gospel, but
conservatives also need to repent of our nationalistic idolatry. Truth
will set us free, not leaders that promise us security by means of an
endless war and torture. Our rage toward the enemies of America has
blinded us. We don’t even recognize God’s Word when we hear it applied
to our times. Can it get worse than that? Jesus said, “My sheep hear my
voice.”

What’s worse, spiritually lost people in America see our hypocrisy when
we don’t. No wonder our evangelism efforts have flat-lined. How can we
convince them of the Truth of Jesus if we aren’t convinced ourselves
(i.e., “What Jesus taught doesn’t work in the ‘real’ world)?

Sadly I’ve actually heard long-time church members who would claim to be spiritually mature believers repeat that last phrase almost verbatim multiple times recently.  The church needs to wake up.

Spiritual Discipline Tuesday - Study

"Mystics without study are only spiritual romantics who want relationship without effort."  - Calvin Miller

*******

In Romans 12 the apostle Paul tells us that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds.  Spiritual transformation does not come about primarily by going on retreats, singing worshipful songs, inner excitement about God or profound religious experience.  Spiritual transformation primarily comes about when we "think God’s thoughts after Him."

Spiritual transformation is not a microwave process.  It is more like a crock pot.  In our day and age we want the quick and easy fix.  But God will not do the work of transformation on our terms.  He has already set the terms.  It is our task to place ourselves under his care and in obedience to follow the path he has given us.  Otherwise, we are doomed to failure.  And study, which is the ongoing process of renewing our minds, is one of the primary means God has given us.  Read Psalm 119 and begin to get a taste of the joy and the fruit of study.  In Philippians 4:8 the apostle Paul writes: "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is
just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if
there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think
about these things."

Dallas Willard writes, "relationship with God, as with any person, soon requires a contribution from us, which will largely consist of study."  To know who God is, who we are, how the world is ordered, what works in this life and what doesn’t, what will ultimately bring us joy and peace and what will not.  These are many of the things we learn in our study of God’s Word.  I heard someone recently say that if we pay attention to some of the cultural answers to life’s questions we will end in absurdity.

Richard Foster reminds us that "the ingrained habits of thought that are formed will conform to the order of the thing being studied.  What we study determines the kind of habits that are formed" (emphasis his).  Thus we have Paul’s words to the Philippians.  Foster gives us four steps in study: 1) repetition, 2) concentration, 3) comprehension and 4) reflection.

There are numerous things worthy of our study.  The Scriptures are always the place to begin and continue.  It is also worthwhile to study the lives of godly saints in the past, to read of their struggles and triumphs and to be challenged by their faith.  It is also good to study the times in which one lives.  I believe it was Luther who said that great preaching has a Bible in one hand and the news of the day in the other.  Study the times and the culture to see God’s movements in them and to discern what is wise and to be adopted as well as what is foolish and to be avoided.

In the words of a TV spot for the United Negro College Fund that I heard regularly while growing up as a kid, "The mind is a terrible thing to waste."  Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

For what others are saying about the discipline of study be sure to check out Joe Kennedy’s blog and click on the Spiritual Disciplines banner.

Spiritual Discipline Tuesday - Fasting

[For a list of others writing about fasting today be sure to check out Joe Kennedy’s blog.  Be sure to click on the Spiritual Disciplines link.  I especially recommend Adam Feldman’s post.]

Fasting is one of those spiritual disciplines that we know we find in the Bible, but about which we typically know very little.  Until recently very little had been written on fasting from the perspective of the Christian’s disciplined life, but that has begun to change.

There are a number of both spiritual and practical aspects to fasting.  For a good in-depth treatment of both I would recommend Arthur Wallis’ God’s Chosen Fast.  It is particularly helpful for those who do not know where to start when it comes to fasting.  If there is some interest in my writing something about those practical matters then let me know in comments.  Otherwise, I will concentrate on some of the spiritual dimensions.

One question that is often asked is: Is fasting still for today?  The answer is, yes it is.  In Matthew 6 Jesus teaches his disciples about fasting and assumes that they will do so with the words, "when you fast."  We also see the Christians in Antioch fasting as they set apart Paul and Barnabas for their missions work (Acts 13:1ff).

Why should we fast?  I want to give two primary answers to that question.  In the above mentioned book Arthur Wallis says that fasting is at God’s choosing and is for a particular spiritual purpose.  We know that the hyper-religious Jews of Jesus’ day fasted twice a week yet remained far from God.  Fasting, as with any other spiritual discipline in our lives, can become a "religious duty" that we take on as a way of demonstrating our devotion, sincerity and spiritual fervor.  However, fasting is not something that will win you brownie points with God just because you’ve done it.  As with any other spiritual discipline we can approach fasting with improper and even selfish motives.

There are particular times in our lives, however, in which we particularly need to hear from God.  The Antiochian church in Acts needed to hear confirmation that God was setting apart Paul and Barnabas for their missionary journeys.  I have faced a number of times like these when an important decision needed to be made.  Fasting can be a means of setting our thoughts and attention on God instead of on the competing voice of our grumbling stomachs.  Those may be good opportunities to use the time normally spent at meals spending them in prayer and seeking God for direction instead.

But we don’t have to wait on a particular circumstance of importance to arise in order to fast for spiritual purposes.  Regular fasts can be a way of conditioning ourselves in new habits of seeking the voice of God.  We begin to condition ourselves by the use of our calendars to set aside time intentionally so that we might hear from God and what he is saying to us.

The second answer to the why question is related to that purpose, and that is as a very real reminder of the Lordship of Christ in all things.  In a typically modern way of Christian thinking we often recognize Jesus as Lord of all spiritual things, but not all earthly things.  Of course, his Lordship of earthly things has yet to be completed, but for the Christian Jesus’ Lordship should always be making ever-increasing inroads into every sphere of our lives.

One of the areas of modern life in America where we have a great battle on our hands is in the area of Jesus’ Lordship over our appetites.  Every time our stomach’s growl or feel the slightest bit empty our natural reaction in our culture of plenty is to feed it.  It is not unusual for us to eat three meals a day and snack in between and after.  Obesity is a plague in our country and Christians (and Baptists) are often the worst offenders.  In so many ways our bellies have become our gods.  When that lord speaks or even gives the slightest whisper we rush to its aid to give immediate comfort and satisfaction.  We simply do not know how to tell our stomach’s "no, you are not lord."

But fasting begins to recover for us the Lordship of Christ even over our bellies.  We tell ourselves that there is something more important, someone more important, than that lying voice that would have us believe that we would wither and die if it is not immediately fed.

It also teaches us that there is something (someone) that sustains us like no earthly food can.  Dallas Willard says that "fasting is feasting."  Fasting from earthly food is feasting on Christ, the bread of life.  We don’t simply fast replacing that meal with nothing.  We replace that meal with the Christ who satisfies.  We discover that we are sustained not by breakfast, lunch and dinner, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.  And we are truly filled.

When we find that spiritual food we discover that there is no longer a reason to be enslaved by food and drink.  We don’t have to run to a box of Twinkies to find comfort.  We don’t find satisfaction at the bottom of a box of Ding Dongs.

In a day and age where our stomachs rule us in so many ways, recovering the spiritual discipline of fasting can have a tremendous place in our spiritual growth into Christ-likeness.

Missional Order - The Follow-up

Last week I posted on a gathering that will be hosted by Allelon in October to discuss the formation of a Missional Order (follow the link for new updated info on the Allelon website).  My friend Alan Cross has asked what this missional order might look like.  While I don’t have any specific answers for this particular order (and since it has yet to be formed I doubt anyone does as of yet), I want to say something about what it could look like in light of some current trends in the church.

For about four years now there has been a movement arising that is becoming known as the new monasticism.  You can read a little about it here and also in this Christianity Today article.  Scot McKnight also posted a question about it back in February and you can read some responses in the comments of that post.  For a concrete example you can check out the Northumbria Community.

According to the newmonasticism.org website there are twelve distinguishing marks of the new monasticism.  They are:

1) Relocation to the abandoned places of Empire.

                   

2) Sharing economic resources with fellow community members and the needy among us.

                   

3) Hospitality to the stranger

                   

4) Lament for racial divisions within the church and our communities combined with the active pursuit of a just reconciliation.

                   

5) Humble submission to Christ’s body, the church.

                   

6) Intentional formation in the way of Christ and the rule of the community along the lines of the old novitiate.

                   

7) Nurturing common life among members of intentional community.

                   

Support for celibate singles alongside monogamous married couples and their children.

                   

9) Geographical proximity to community members who share a common rule of life.

                   

10) Care for the plot of God’s earth given to us along with support of our local economies.

                   

11) Peacemaking in the midst of violence and conflict resolution within communities along the lines of Matthew 18.

                   

12) Commitment to a disciplined contemplative life.

As Jamie Arpin-Ricci mentions in the comments of Scot McKnight’s post, these marks could and perhaps should characterize every community of believers.

What I discovered at last year’s Emergent Gathering is that there is no one definition of what a missional order might look like, but there are some common characteristics.  Such orders may or may not involve communal living.  Some will live communally in the same home/building.  Others will live in the same neighborhood or community while yet others may be separated by states, or even countries.  I would suspect that the Missional Order that develops out of the Allelon meeting will focus more on a shared commitment to a way of life than shared space and economic resources.

A common characteristic of these "intentional communities" is a commitment to a shared way of life, known as the rule of the order.  The rule will generally involve a vow or vows to one another which may address any number of commitments.  While we are perhaps most familiar with monastic vows of chastity and poverty, these commitments in new monasticism tend more toward a simple lifestyle and certain values.  For instance, the Rule of the Northumbria Community involves commitments to availability (to God and others) and vulnerability (through prayer, devotion to the Scriptures and accountability to one another).

I suspect that the Missional Order will involve some shared commitments to some missional ways of living and that those who participate/join the order will take some sort of vow to those commitments.

More specifically to Alan’s questions:

Would it work in a local church?  I almost certainly imagine so.  The challenge will be in preventing something like this from appearing to be a group of the "super spiritual" in the midst of the "common folk."  Can that be done?  I believe so.  But there would have to be some intentional ways to stress the common journey of all in the church and that this is simply another avenue to pursue God’s direction that does not make one more spiritual than others nor would it be exclusive.

Is it something like a missional covenant that people would make?  Yes, I think it would be something exactly like that.

What would be involved?  Hopefully I’ve covered much of that.  Beyond what I’ve already said I think we will simply have to wait and see what comes out of the gathering in Washington.  The fact that Andrew Jones will be helping to lead the way in this gives me a lot of confidence that it will be well-grounded, Biblical and balanced.

By the way, if you are interested in the Allelon gathering be aware that space will be limited to 50, so make up your mind quickly and register at their site ASAP.

The Christ In You

One of the books in my "Recommended Reads" category in the left sidebar is Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together.  The first time I read it that little book made a huge impact on my conceptions of the church and church life.  Well…let me correct that just a bit.  It didn’t simply make an impact on my conceptions of the church, but it made a rather significant impact on my attitudes about the church.

Being affiliated with the "Emergent crowd" it would be easy to plead guilty to a sort-of griping attitude about the church.  By and large I think the emergent conversations that are predominant these days have moved well beyond the whining or complaining stage and have become much more constructive.  But the appeal of the ongoing emergent movement has been a shared sense that the evangelical church has, by and large, let us down.  We see the lavish lifestyles of evangelical poster preachers and our guts tell us that there’s got to be more to our faith than that.  We see the plastic lives represented in the plastic stage sets on TBN and the plastic hairdos of their leader’s wives and we long for something of greater worth than synthetic polymers.  We watch as so many in our churches seem to simply be going through the motions and we long for something more enduring.

It was during a period of criticizing the church, even my local church, that I first read Life Together and was summarily beaten about the head and neck by Bonhoeffer’s words.  I remember phrases like, "God has not called you to constantly be taking the church’s temperature."  Bonhoeffer called me back to a love and appreciation for the bride of Christ even when she’s laying on the couch in sweats, not wearing any makeup, eating Bon Bons and watching Jerry Springer all day.  The perfect church is a myth, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t strive for something better than a church-going Peg Bundy.

Occasionally, even in the prevailing evangelical church or church-type setting we get glimpses of what we long for church to be like.  I got a few glimpses of that this past week.  Bonhoeffer wrote about experiencing the Christ in others, particularly when the Christ in us seems weak, remote or beyond our outstretched grasp.  Now, I’ve been around teenagers long enough to have a more-than-healthy cynicism when it comes to some of the expressions of faith that come out of youth camps.  Too many years of seeing too many of those commitments fall too flat in too short a time will do that to you.  But last week I saw the Christ in those kids shine through in some ways that pointed me to the potential that exists in the church of tomorrow.

I saw senior high students voluntarily partnering with middle school kids - even the really annoying ones - to talk about what the Scriptures are saying and how God is working in their lives.  I saw kids who are not an ongoing part of our church or youth group who were welcomed by the others as if they were longtime friends.  I heard as one after another shared about their brokenness and how they were beginning to experience healing through the presence of Christ and the presence of Christ they experience in their Christian friends.  I watched as they helped plan how they would share this work of God with their moms and dads, grandparents and church family and they didn’t come up with your typical, "We want to thank the cooks, ’cause the food was really great and I had a great time and thanks for letting us go," but instead led us in a deep calling out to a great God who had encountered them in the Arbuckle mountains of southern Oklahoma.

I will remember this camp experience.  Not for that infernal hill we had to climb several times a day making my knees sore.  Not for the new air conditioned tabernacle where we met to worship.  Not for the music or the preaching.  Not for the multitude of "decisions" that were made.  But for the Christ I witnessed in those kids which was unparalleled in all my years of summer youth camp.

Spiritual Discipline Tuesday - Introduction

Each Tuesday, for several months, I will join a group of other missional-minded bloggers in a series of posts on spiritual disciplines.  I hope it’s Tuesdays or I’m going to be out of sync for at least a couple of weeks. [By the way, check out Joe Kennedy for the list and links to the others who are joining in.]  Today is for introductions - to spiritual disciplines, that is.

I went to high school with one of the greatest pure athletes I’ve ever personally known.  I’ll not use his name because not everything I have to say will be flattering.  He was a basketball phenomenon.  He was dunking with ease at sixteen.  Our junior year in high school we won the state 5A basketball championship, the largest class at the time (no doubt the fact that some guy from Tulsa named Wayman Tisdale being hurt greatly improved everyone else’s chances).  And he didn’t even have to try.  When we’d run wind sprints in practice he always came in second-to-last.  Not because he was slow.  Because he didn’t try, and second-to-last only because he didn’t want to be dead last.  And he didn’t have to try.

Every tournament we played in that year he was named the MVP.  College scouts were all over him.  He went on to play for a major Division I college.  And that’s where his effort - or sometimes lack thereof - began to show.

He was still a really good college player.  He would have moments of brilliance.  In fact, he scored over 2000 points in his college career.  But there were games where he simply didn’t show up.  Nevertheless, 2000 points will get you drafted in the NBA.  But he never made it in the big league.  Within a few years of being drafted he was playing in the minor league Continental Basketball Association (now defunct).  It wasn’t long before his basketball career was also defunct.  Turns out he wasn’t even a superstar in the CBA.

I don’t believe the thing that made the difference was talent.  He had the talent.  He did not have the discipline.  Effort who’s goal is second-to-last may work in high school but it will not get you in the game with the likes of Karl Malone or Charles Barkley - or even Carl English or Charles Smith.

One of the reasons great players are great is because they try to be great every day, not just when they’re in the game.  I’m a 5′9" white man who could be the poster boy for "White Men Can’t Jump."  But I love to play basketball.  If I want to be any good, though, I cannot simply run onto the court at game time and expect to play like Michael Jordan.  In fact, Michael Jordan didn’t simply run onto the court expecting to play great.  He worked every day to practice great so that when he got into the game he would play great.

Spiritual disciplines are our way of practicing great so that when we are thrust into the moment of challenge we will perform great.  As followers of Christ we have been called to do the things he did.  But he made those things look easy.  To us they seem very hard.  Yet Jesus promised that his yoke is easy ad his burden is light.  His commands are not burdensome.  How can that be?

It is not because we take on his characteristics through spiritual osmosis.  It is because we do the things he did.  That doesn’t simply mean that as he turned the other cheek, so do we; as he blessed those who cursed and persecuted him, so do we.  It means that as he went out to a solitary place to commune with the Father, so do we; as he fasted, so do we; as he prayed, so do we; as he meditated on the Scripture, so do we; as he lived a life of simplicity, so do we; as he gave generously to others, so do we. 

In other words, as he disciplined his life, so do we.  It was in the day-to-day activities of life that Jesus honed his spiritual muscles and perfected his shot.  It was there that his fullness of the Spirit and communion with God because so overwhelming that he could truly do the things he did both naturally and with ease.  We, too, can learn that easy way of life.  It is actually much easier than all of the alternatives.  Try living life apart from the strength of the Spirit and that close communion with the Father and you will discover just how difficult life can be, just how heavy that burden.  But learn a way of life - his way of life - where doing the things he did comes easy and the load is light because we are not carrying it under our own efforts, but are yoked to him.  This is where the spiritual disciplines will lead us.

Too many Christians live their lives simply wanting to make sure they don’t come in dead last.  Second-to-last?  That’s not so bad.  But that is choosing the difficult path.  As long as life presents no greater challenge than high school then you may be able to make it.  But as you grow up you enter a world where high school spirituality simply becomes too difficult to adequately address the things you will face in life.  Come.  Let us learn together how to take on this easy yoke, this light burden.

Giving Away Spiritual Formation

Back to David Fitch’s book The Great Giveaway.  In chapter seven Fitch writes about the modern evangelical church’s giving away spiritual formation.  This chapter was a challenge for me.  I’ve had a fairly longstanding policy that I do not lay out the "counseling" shingle as a part of my ministry.  I tell people that I will giving them all of the Biblical counsel that I know how, but that if they present problems that are so deep seated that I feel I’m over my head I have no problem referring them to an outside Christian counselor.

Some of my feelings come from my time spent in Clinical Pastoral Education about fifteen years ago.  It was eye-opening as we sat in our small group time and "processed" the stuff in our pasts that have formed us into who we are while we remained largely ignorant of just exactly how those things had affected us, both positively and especially negatively.  Letting things out of those dark recesses was painful for many.  And these were fellow ministers.

To be honest I didn’t know what to do with most of that.  The CPE setting I was in was heavily influenced by both Freud and Jung.  Of course, I thought that was rather odd as many of their ideas seemed incompatible to me.  We got in touch with our "inner child."  Occasionally there was a little "dream interpretation."  In the end, people got some things out, but I wondered if they ever really got "better."

Ironically it was also during this time, as I was one day walking between Presbyterian Hospital and Children’s Hospital in OKC, that I had a copy of Time Magazine in my hand asking on the front cover if perhaps Freud was dead.  If he was it appeared that someone forgot to tell our CPE supervisors.  But I remember wondering how practically useful any of the psychological part of the program was, mainly because I just notice that we have an ever-increasing number of psychologists and psychotherapists in our culture but we don’t seem to be any healthier for it (no offense, Bowden).

But I had pretty well bought into the belief that the social sciences were largely neutral - descriptive more than prescriptive.  This is what Fitch tells us the evangelical church at large believes.  But he challenges that notion writing about the postmodern critique on modern psychology.  Foucault says that psychology is simply another power game that provides an interpretive grid from which to understand ourselves.  But make no mistake, it is an interpretive grid.  It is not reality.  It is a particular understanding of reality.  The therapist invites the individual to submit themselves to this understanding of who they are and the world around them.  Just because it goes by the name "science" does not make it neutral.  In fact, that has been a major critique of postmodernism: showing that the sciences, whether hard or soft, are not "objective" or "neutral" but approach their task from a particular perspective.

Fitch suggests that these psychological grids are not only not neutral but that they are designed to form the self (spiritual formation) in a particular way - be it the Freudian way, the Jungian way, the Rogerian way, the Adlerian way, or some other way.  He also suggests that all of these approaches are largely, if not exclusively, western in their approach and in their own ways show people how to live in a democratic capitalist world.  And they are fundamentally contrary to spiritual formation in the ways of Jesus.

The modern church - at least and especially the Protestant forms of it - have given away some important aspects of spiritual formation to the social sciences.  We’ve traded in the notion of self-denial for one of self-actualization; taking up our cross and following Jesus for taking up our inner child and returning to innocence; confessing our faults to other believers for confessing our dysfunctions to a therapist [I need to do a separate post on confession].  In place of forsaking our evil ways we learn to "positively appropriate" the dark aspects of our shadow side.  And sermons become therapeutic.

And that approach will shape us spiritually.   But what shape will that form us into?  As a gentleman in our church reminded me recently: we will become disciples.  The only question is what kind of disciples will we become?

So Fitch says there is no therapy apart from the church.  We can learn things from modern therapy.  We can learn the importance of unpacking our past and making a confession of those things.  We can learn how to be accountable to one another.  We can learn the necessity of owning our own sin and failures rather than blaming them on others.  But modern therapy views itself as the foundation in which one can overlay any spirituality they choose.  Fitch says it needs to work the other way around.  We submit ourselves to the foundation of life specifically and exclusively in Christ and if there is something from Freud or Jung that is of value in breaking down the barriers to that then fine, but spiritual formation in the way of Christ is our foundation.

Fitch suggests that we need to recapture the confessional in the church.  Not necessarily the Roman Catholic confessional, but the apostle James kind of confessional.  So he suggests that we move the work of the therapist out of the office and into the church.  I’ll follow up with some thoughts on confession.

What I Dig About Jesus

I was tagged by Bryan Riley, David Phillips and Art Rogers.  The instructions were:

1. Those Tagged will share 5 things they dig about Jesus.
2. Those tagged will tag 5 other bloggers.
3. Those tagged will provide a link in the comments section here of their meme so that others can read them.

So here it goes:

1. That he lived totally unconcerned with what others thought about him.  He was comfortable in his own skin.
2. That he knew how to live in the fullness of the Spirit of God paving the way for us to do the same.
3. That he inspired people everywhere he went, whether through the stories he told or the things he did.  He still inspires people wherever he is found.
4. That in being the crushee he actually became the crusher of the enemy securing victory over death and hell.
5. That he has chosen to share all his stuff with someone like me.

I’m supposed to tag 5 others, so I will tag Terry Hall, David Cecil, Benjie Potter, the venerable Paul Burleson and Kevin Stilley (or that really intelligent wife of his, Susan).

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