Being With

I love theology and philosphy. I love to think and stretch my mind. It is one of the reasons I love to read so much. I once took a sort-of “spiritual gifts inventory” that gagued how we primarily relate to important things in our lives - specifically how we primarily find meaning in our faith. Some are primarily guided and energized by doing. Others are primarily energized by how they feel about God and their faith. Others, like me, find joy and fulfillment in thinking. It’s no wonder that one of the largest sections in my library is theology. While many pastors stock their shelves with books on leadership, method and/or devotion, those sections are small for me compared to theology and commentary.

It would be very easy for me to promote the idea that a significant part of our faith entails “right” theology. I believe theology is important and that there are some aspects of it that are vital, essential to the Christian faith.

But as I read the gospels I’m struck by how little those first disciples had right, doctrinally. Read more

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

God Still Speaks

There’s been this tension in the faith I’ve grown up with and I’m not sure how to resolve it, or even if it needs to be resolved. Sometimes I think we expect cut-and-dried answers from God only to find him responding like he did to Job asking, “Where were you…?” or to Paul saying, “My grace is sufficient.”

The tension is between what we call the “closed canon of the Scriptures,” and God’s guidance in the everyday activities of life.

This weekend I was flipping through the channels on TV and I stopped for a minute on a Perry Stone program that was on local cable. It appeared that he was at the old temple wall in Jerusalem being a tour guide and he made a statement, calling it a “prophetic word.” He was teaching from Jesus’ parable in Matthew 20 about the laborers in the vineyard. He went on to proof text some other passages from the New Testament giving what he believed was some sort of “deep” or “hidden” meaning of what the “third hour,” the “sixth hour,” the “ninth hour” and the “eleventh hour” meant. His conclusion is that the various “hours” mentioned represent various epochs or ages in history and that the eleventh hour is the hour we now live in. It is an hour in which all of the blessings of every other age will be brought together and poured out in the world. Strange view for a Dispensationalist who takes the Bible “literally.” Read more

Things You Need To Know About You

Today I want to point you to the blog of Ernest Goodman. Ernest is a missionary in Western Europe. I consistently learn oodles of stuff about myself, about how I approach my faith, about how I lead others in living out lives as followers of Jesus, and especially about things I need to quit doing and things I need to start doing in reaching out to others around me, by reading what he writes.

When you visit his blog, go with your defenses down. Go as a learner. And be ready to hear the heart of someone who can teach the church in America a lot about how to reach our own culture, as explained from the perspective of one who is reaching out to people in a not-so-different culture.

Who Sinned, This Man, Or His Parents?

In John 9 we find a story about a man who sat in the temple courts of Jerusalem day-by-day, likely begging for a living, because he was blind.  First Century Jewish culture didn’t have much of a place for people with infirmities.  Begging in a heavily trafficked place in hopes of finding some kind-hearted person of faith who might have mercy on you and spare some change was often the best they could hope for.

Society generally looked upon those people as sinners.  It was in their DNA one way or another.  They were what they were because of something either they had done or something their parents had done.  It was hard, if not impossible, for anyone to think of them otherwise.  That’s why those disciples only had two viable options in their question to Jesus - "Who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?"  They simply couldn’t imagine a third category.  We both know innately and through Old Testament Scriptures that our sin has a price, a consequence.

But the Old Testament Scriptures also taught that the sins of fathers are visited on their children to the third and fourth generation.  So which was it?

I was thinking about this passage this week as I was talking to a friend going through some difficulties.  Bad news from the doctor.  Not life-threatening, but pretty devastating nonetheless.  News that has ramifications for the rest of life and the disappointment that the kind of life hoped for will never be a possibility.

As a pastor I’ve dealt with these sort of situations before.  "Preacher, I’ve asked God over and over why this is happening to me?  What have I done?  Is there some unconfessed sin in my life?"

My answer this week was the same as it normally is: "It was nothing you’ve done.  Quit beating yourself up."

How can I be so sure?  Do I have some special window into the hearts of others?  Or am I more Catholic than Baptist and think that I have some sort of authority to pronounce a person sinless?

The Bible speaks of God as our heavenly Father.  As a parent I hope to take my own responsibilities as a father seriously.  On occasion I have to discipline my kids.  I try to measure the punishment according to the offense.  If anything I may occasionally be too easy rather than too hard.  Sometimes I want to be harder than I know is appropriate.  But there is one thing I always try to do.  This is true both for your children and for your pets.  Don’t wait until weeks, months or years after the offense to mete out the punishment.

I would never think to save up some punishment for years, even decades, so that I might come back and punish my kids for what was done decades earlier.  It just wouldn’t make sense.  To them or to me.  When I took our dog Nikki to obedience school and they talked to us about potty training they told us that if your pet has an accident never wait until the next day to correct the problem.  If you do they won’t be able to connect the dots.  They’ll wonder why they are being punished.  And they won’t learn what you are trying to teach them.

So I approach these questions, "Why is this happening to me," in a similar way.  I do believe that our actions have consequences and that sinful actions have damaging consequences.  But most of those consequences are very obvious.  I’ve never met a lifelong smoker who got cancer who also asked, "Why did I get lung cancer?"  They know why.  I’ve never known someone who’s child was killed while driving 100 mph wonder, "Why did God take my baby?"  They know that their child was driving 100.  The cause and effect, or in Biblical terms the sowing and reaping relationship, is obvious.

But when we are unable to connect the dots I don’t believe that the God the Bible describes to us is the sort of God who decides to put off our punishment just long enough for us to forget what it was that we did.  It’s a very poor view of God that sees him sitting in heaven thinking, "Ok….now that she’s forgotten all about this particular sin I can now punish her for it, and oh, the joy of watching her wonder what’s going on!"  No.  That is a sadist, not a Father.

So if a person cannot see their current suffering as a direct consequence of something they’ve done I am more than happy to help relieve them of their burden.  And in the case of John 9 Jesus’ answer was, "It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him."  So my next step is to work with the person to try to discover what "works of God" can be displayed in their circumstances.  The ways really are almost endless.  But I have found that this opens up new possibilities of hope in the midst of tragedy.  Instead of getting lost in hopelessness and despair they begin to get a renewed sense of purpose.

What do you think?  Does all of that sound too trite?

Spiritual Discipline Tuesday - Worship

As I thought about what to say today about worship my thoughts drifted back to a newsletter article that Robert Webber wrote in July of 2003.  There is much to be said about worship.  This should probably be a series.  Too much worship today has become narcissistic.  But rather than try to reinvent the wheel I want to reproduce that newsletter article here because it says much of what is on my mind about worship.

Is Worship an Experience?

I have found that it
is common to speak of worship as an experience. If you tell someone you visited
a different church, most likely you will get the question, "Was it a good
experience?"

It is hard to know what people mean by this question. It is
also difficult to understand what people mean by their responses: "Oh, yeah, the
music was great!" "Loved the sermon." "Great skit!" "It was worshipful." "Yep,
had a good time."

So what does "experience" mean? In its broadest sense,
all of life is an experience. Life itself engages the whole person. We think
about things, feel, make choices, move about, relate to people and our
environment and engage all our senses; we smell, hear, taste and touch. And all
these experiences include emotions such as fear, trust, love, anger, fidelity,
and the like.

Worship is a specific experience within the broad
experience of life. But usually the worship experience is defined more
narrowly.

For some, a good worship experience is cheerleading for God; a
rally—"rah-rah"—for Jesus. For others, a good worship experience is more quiet
and contemplative.

Lindsey Johnson sent me an interesting e-mail telling
me her story of worship in both the approaches mentioned above. She writes: "I
knew how to raise my hands at the right time and close my eyes and tilt my head
heavenward. I knew the perfect time during a song to kneel down, when to bow,
and when to jump exuberantly … I thought that no matter how I was feeling I
needed to ‘give my all’ to Him in worship and that was how to do it."

Let
me offer an interpretation of her experience. It sounds like the worship that
arises from me (see July newsletter, 2003). This worship can become a "new
worship legalism": "I can do it better than you. My worship is more intense and,
therefore, more acceptable to God."

Next, she describes a worship
experience more like the one I advocate in Ancient-Future Talk. She writes: "God
taught me something new about worship—the whole time filling me with His
incredible, indescribable, non-contrived, and uncontainable worship for Him.
This worship nourished my heart and made me feel vibrant all over."

I
interpret her second experience as worship that comes from above. That
is, God is active in this worship. It is not only God who is worshiped, but it
is God who acts upon the worshiper.

Worship that arises from the
self is exhausting. The worshiper feels that he or she must produce
worship. Essentially this kind of worship is a "work-worship." I must do it.
I must act excited. I must close my eyes. Lift my hands. Tilt my head or bow my
knee as an offering of my worship.

Compare this worship with a worship
that actually derives from God who is at work in the assembly of gathered people
in Word, sign, and gesture:

One kind of worship demands of us; the other
fills us.
One worship is a legalistic effort; the other is a grace-filled
gift.
One worship will tire your spirit; the other will bring you to rest.

One worship will make you think, "I did it," and the other will make you
aware that God’s presence has filled your heart, energized your spirit, and
filled you with the sense that, in spite of all your life issues, all is
well.

The first worship seeks a relationship with God through the effort
of self. The second worship is union with God through prayer.

Let me also point you to the June 2003 newsletter where Webber specifically addressed the narcissistic nature of much that gets passed off as worship these days.

Be sure to check out Joe Kennedy’s blog for what others are saying about worship today.

Spiritual Discipline Tuesday - Confession

Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.  James the Apostle

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Dallas Willard writes, "nothing is more supportive of right behavior than open truth."  Confession is said to be good for the soul but bad for the reputation.  The sad reason for that can in many ways be attributed to the spiritual shallowness of the day.  Too many, even within the church (some might say especially within the church) do not know how to redemptively deal with another’s confession.  Thus, it becomes little more than fodder for gossipers.  However, confession can be a profound shaper of our souls and our lives when done Biblically.

One of the appeals of the Emergent movement is its call for transparency.  People are not only tired of watching others come and "play" church as if their lives are running like well-oiled machines, but they are tired of putting on that sort of performance themselves.  For too many sin is something we all do in theory but few of us are willing to admit to in practice.  But forgiveness and transformation only come through confession.  It should be assumed that an ongoing struggle with sin in our lives should be accompanied by an ongoing confession.  Surely we confess these things to God because he is the only one who can really do anything about them.  But we must not ignore the words of James to confess them to one another as well.  There are a number of things that happen when we do.

Read more

Spiritual Discipline Tuesday - Silence

"Real silence, real stillness, really holding one’s tongue comes only as the sober consequence of spiritual stillness."  - Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Life Together

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There are two aspects to silence that can really impact our spiritual formation.  On the one hand, silence goes along with solitude.  Silence completes solitude.  It does little good to get ourselves alone only to fill our time and the air with endless noise and chatter.  And yet modern American culture is endless noise and chatter.  In that context silence can be very intimidating.  It is often uncomfortable.  Try it in a prayer meeting sometime.  More than about 60 seconds and someone, anyone, will almost surely break the silence because we just can’t stand it.  Dallas Willard writes that "silence is frightening because it strips us as nothing else does, throwing us upon the stark realities of our life.  It reminds us of death, which will cut us off from this world and leave only us and God.  And in that quiet, what if there turns out to be very little to ‘just us and God?’  Think what it says about the inward emptiness of our lives if we must always turn on the tape player or radio to make sure something is happening around us" (The Spirit of The Disciplines, p. 163).

It is often the case that we do not hear from God because we cannot hear from God.  We have so turned up the volume of life that God refuses to shout over all of the noise.  So if we need to hear from God then perhaps the best route to hearing his voice is to get away from all other voices.

The second aspect of silence is the silence of not speaking.  As the New Testament book of James tells us, the tongue is one of the most powerful members of the human body.  With it we bless and with it we curse.  The one who can control his/her tongue is perfect in every way.

There is one particular area of life where we use words in ways that show a lack of faith on our part: self-justification.  This is one area where I often struggle.  When someone accuses us of something that is not true our first reaction is to come to our own defense.  We put together incontrovertible evidence of our innocence.  We protest, often too much.  But I say this is a lack of faith because it is unnecessary.  The apostle Paul told us that Christ is our justifier.  We do not have to bear the burden of our own self-justification.  We do not have to immediately jump to our own defense.  What matters is not what others have to say about us.  What matters is what God has to say about us.  If we can be satisfied with that then we have learned true satisfaction.

But let me conclude with a bit of a warning.  Silence toward others can often be used as a weapon.  It is a way of shutting people out, and in shutting them out we show a lack of love and respect for them.  When children ask their parents a question, or when spouses are trying to talk, silence can become a club which we use to beat the other down.  Do not use silence as a weapon against others.  But do practice silence to hear the voice of God.

Check out what others are saying about Silence at Joe Kennedy’s blog.

Spiritual Discipline Tuesday - Simplicity

"Riches and abundance come hypocritically clad in sheep’s clothing pretending to be security against anxieties and they become then the object of anxiety … they secure a man against anxieties just about as well as the wolf which is put to tending the sheep secures them … against the wolf."  Soren Kierkegaard

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There are some disciplines at times and in certain circumstances that are more needed than others.   Fasting, for instance, will not be an every-day practice (though I’m sure we should find a happy medium between the Pharisaical twice a week and the Baptist "duh, what is fasting?").  Fasting may be focused on a particular season or decision in life.

There are occasions when certain disciplines play an increasingly important role in our spiritual formation and that is generally when they speak to a specific area of life that is in particular need of transformation within us.  If, for instance, I am being ruled by my physical appetite and my stomach exercises a considerable amount of lordship over who I am and am becoming then fasting should probably rise to the top for me.

When it comes to the things of this world our culture, not to mention our own greedy appetites, exercises considerable influence over us, often in ways that we may not even be aware.  I’ve read from a number of sources that the average American is exposed to over 3000 advertising messages, in one form or another, in a single day.  I am typing this on my Compaq computer which has an "Intel Inside" sticker as well as one telling me this machine is "Designed for Microsoft Windows XP."  My browser is Mozilla Firefox and I have tabs currently open to Google’s Gmail and Bloglines feed reader.  I have a glowing Targus mouse sitting on a Disney mouse pad with a picture of Tigger.  Right next to my computer is my AT&T telephone and on the other side sits my Altec speaker and my Diet Dr. Pepper.  Oh, and I have a pens from the Baptist Foundation of Oklahoma (made by Paper Mate)  and Communication Federal Credit Union (made by BIC) sitting on the desk.  And I haven’t even looked away from my two foot by three foot computer desk to see any of that.  That’s fifteen messages within two feet of my face.

It is incredibly tough to live a life of simplicity in a world that has given us the iPhone.  This is not simply the plight of those who seemingly have everything that they want.  It is also the plight of those who desperately want what they do not now have.  I think we often forget that poor people can be as greedy as the rich, the only difference being that one possesses that which he wants and the other does not.  In the end they want the same things.

Dallas Willard writes, "In frugality [simplicity] we abstain from using money or goods at our disposal in ways that merely gratify our desires or our hunger for status, glamour, or luxury.  Practicing frugality means we stay within the bounds of what general good judgment would designate as necessary for the kind of life to which God has led us" (The Spirit of the Disciplines, p. 168).

While our own inclinations work against a life of simplicity, along with the cultural influences all around us, how do we learn the sort of life the apostle Paul described when he wrote, "I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.  I
know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every
circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,
abundance and need" (Philippians 4:11-12)?  As always Jesus has given us the answer.  Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you" (Matthew 6:33).

We must realize that the true longing of our hearts will never be fulfilled outside of Christ and his kingdom.  We begin with practice.  We may need to deprive ourselves of that thing we keep telling ourselves that we "need."  Then, when the longings arise within us we begin to ask ourselves why we think we need that thing?  How might we begin to have those longings met by the presence of Christ in our lives.

Simplicity is tremendously liberating.  We are no longer enslaved to the anxieties that come with "stuff."  We are free to use all that God has given us, not to slavishly fulfill every whim, but in a thousand different ways which will often result in great blessings to others, not simply to our own selfish desires.

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Be sure to check out what others are saying about simplicity by checking in at Joe Kennedy’s blog.  Click on the Spiritual Disciplines banner.

Can You Hear Me Now?

I had a computer meltdown at the office this week.  It wasn’t a total meltdown.  I didn’t lose my data, but the fan on my processor went kerplunk and Dell, who is the only company to make a replacement, no longer makes a replacement.  I could get a used one from them for around $140 or I could get a new, faster PC with more bells and whistles for $400.  I got the new PC.

But I needed Colby to help me get all of my stuff from the old computer to the new one, get it set up so that it runs ok and is properly networked into our system.  Thanks, Colby!

As I was sitting in my office this morning reading commentaries on Hebrews Colby was sitting at my desk working on the new computer.  We started talking about matters of spiritual formation.  He has a background in the medical field and got to talking about brain mapping as it relates to our spiritual formation as well as our intellectual formation and how that relates to issues such as coping, character and values.

KABOOM!  [Yes, that sound you heard was my brain exploding.]

It is interesting to Colby how I can preach a sermon on Sunday and that many of the people will hear something different than what I intend and will even hear it differently than others present.  What was even more interesting to me is that postmodernism says much the same thing, but Colby wasn’t expressing that as a philosophical perspective.  He was expressing it as an observable reality.  It’s just what really does happen.

As one who has been preaching for 26 years I can confirm that it really does happen.  There is a lot that goes into those differences: upbringing, worldview, values, culture, education, life circumstances and much more.  In that context effective communication can be challenging.  Screaming "OBJECTIVE TRUTH" at the tops of our lungs won’t solve the problem, either.  Communication is a matter of both speaking and listening/hearing.

Christians in other parts of the world often hear the Biblical stories differently than those of us in America.  The text doesn’t change, but what gets emphasized often does.  The gospel of Creflo Dollar won’t preach in Chad.  At least not with any long-term credibility (long term, in this case, being about an hour).  Christians in Chad would hardly even think to preach such a message.  Hundreds of ministries across America would.  And for the same reason a gospel of liberation sounds Marxist and repulsive here in America, but sounds like just what the doctor ordered in repressive regimes in places of abject poverty in South America.

All of this makes me wonder what the church in America might have to learn from our brothers and sisters in Christ in other parts of the world.  Can we hear them?  Would we listen if we could?