Why Have An Explanation For Everything, Even God?
April 9th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Donald Miller had a post on his blog today examining the question: Does God Exist? In the post was this great line:
Love cannot be explained logically, nor beauty nor wonder nor eternity or our endless cosmos. Much of our existence defy’s logical principles. As does God.
There’s something to be said about not having to have a neat explanation for everything, including God.
Chucking The Church To Follow Jesus
April 2nd, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Andrew Sullivan had a great piece over at The Daily Beast. In it, he looked at what he called a crisis in Christianity. The church he argues, has strayed from the message of Jesus by seeking political power, by failures of church leadership and by teachings that run counter to the message that Jesus taught.
I have no concrete idea how Christianity will wrestle free of its current crisis, of its distractions and temptations, and above all its enmeshment with the things of this world. But I do know it won’t happen by even more furious denunciations of others, by focusing on politics rather than prayer, by concerning ourselves with the sex lives and heretical thoughts of others rather than with the constant struggle to liberate ourselves from what keeps us from God. What Jefferson saw in Jesus of Nazareth was utterly compatible with reason and with the future; what Saint Francis trusted in was the simple, terrifying love of God for Creation itself. That never ends.
This Christianity comes not from the head or the gut, but from the soul. It is as meek as it is quietly liberating. It does not seize the moment; it lets it be. It doesn’t seek worldly recognition, or success, and it flees from power and wealth. It is the religion of unachievement. And it is not afraid. In the anxious, crammed lives of our modern twittering souls, in the materialist obsessions we cling to for security in recession, in a world where sectarian extremism threatens to unleash mass destruction, this sheer Christianity, seeking truth without the expectation of resolution, simply living each day doing what we can to fulfill God’s will, is more vital than ever. It may, in fact, be the only spiritual transformation that can in the end transcend the nagging emptiness of our late-capitalist lives, or the cult of distracting contemporaneity, or the threat of apocalyptic war where Jesus once walked. You see attempts to find this everywhere—from experimental spirituality to resurgent fundamentalism. Something inside is telling us we need radical spiritual change.
I couldn’t agree more.
Brennan Manning on Being Poor in Spirit
March 26th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
To be poor in spirit means to cling to your impoverished humanity and to have nothing to brag about before God.
- Brennan Manning, Souvenirs of Solitude: Finding Rest in Abba’s Embrace
This attitude is something I need to cultivate more of.
Brennan Manning on The Wild, Uncontainable Love of God
March 11th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
I could more easily contain the Gulf of Mexico in a shot glass than I can comprehend the wild, uncontainable love of God.
- Brennan Manning, Souvenirs of Solitude: Finding Rest in Abba’s Embrace
What a great quote.
Living In A World Of Both Faith And Doubt
March 10th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5 ESV)
A note on this verse in the ESV Study Bible says:
“Jesus’ reply indicates that even a very small amount of faith, if it is genuine trust in God, can lead to remarkable results. The issue is not the size of faith, but its presence.”
I find this verse and the accompanying comment to be very hopeful. I must admit that I don’t always think that I have a faith that would “move mountains”. In fact, sometimes it’s I find myself vacillating between the faith and doubt. If you were to draw a line with doubtless faith on one end and complete and total disbelief on the other I probably spend a lot of time towards the middle of this spectrum. Sometimes I swing towards one end, other times I creep towards the other. But at all times I exist in a world of both faith and doubt.
I have to remind myself that I am not alone in my inconsistency. So many other who have gone this way before us have also struggled. The disciples who were there with Jesus, eating the same food, traveling the same dusty roads and were eyewitnesses to miracles, who heard the voice of God and even saw Jesus transfigured before their eyes doubted. Those who tell themselves that if they had been with Jesus that they would never doubt are fooling themselves. Why do you think the disciples bolted after Gethsemane? Why do you think Peter denied? Why do you think Thomas got his unfortunate nickname?
It’s not that we doubt, it’s what we do with our faith while we have doubts.
Tim King on Why Young People Are Leaving The Church
March 8th, 2012 § 2 Comments
The “war on religion” has become a frequent bogeyman among Christian and political leaders. But the reason church leaders have failed to stem the tide of a generation heading for the exit door is that they keep looking for an outside enemy to blame when the biggest problems are inside the church.
via My Take: Don’t blame college for young people leaving Christianity – CNN Belief Blog – CNN.com Blogs.
If your political posturing drives people from the church, maybe it’s time to reassess whether you are preaching the Gospel or something else.
Just In Case Harold Camping Forgets Again
February 27th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.” (Mark 13:32-33 ESV)
Should we really devote so much time and effort to figuring out when the Rapture, the end of the world or a zombie apocalypse is going to occur? It seems to me there is too much work to do to spend time trying given that the Bible says that no man, no angel and even Jesus didn’t know when this is going to occur.
Seeing God In the Crucifixion
February 18th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:54 ESV)
I’ve always identified with the centurion. I guess it’s because I spent a little over fourteen years as a police officer and still work in law enforcement as a civilian crime analyst. In a way I can identify with him. Likely, he knew little about the religious/political intrigues that got Jesus crucified. Had he been in Pilate’s position, he may or may not have come to the same decision to hand Jesus over for crucifixion. However, he did understand the need for the rule of law to keep order in society.
It was probably that understanding that caused him to carry out his orders to oversee Jesus’ crucifixion. After all, Jesus and the two thieves being executed with them had been judged and found guilty by the legal system of the day. Like the scene with a centurion in Matthew 8, he was a man under authority and knew the importance of carrying out orders.
As a centurion he had probably served as a soldier for quite some time. He had risen through the ranks and now was in charge of a detachment of 100 soldiers. In addition to fighting Roman wars, the soldiers acted to keep the peace in occupied territories.
Like soldiers and police officers today, he had probably seen plenty of depravity and death during his service. You don’t have to convince a police officer or a soldier that all men are sinners. They have seen it first hand. They have seen what sinful men will do to one another. They have seen the blood flow and smelled the peculiar smell that accompanies death. In this case, the centurion had likely carried out orders to crucify some poor wretch more times than he could count.
But this time it was different.
While the centurion had likely crucified hundreds of condemned men in his career, he had never crucified the Son of God before. Never had he seen someone die as Jesus did, not cursing his tormentors but blessing them. And never had he seen all creation rebel against this execution with darkness and earthquakes and strange happenings.
This centurion may have never set eyes on Jesus before that Friday. But in spite of that, he recognized who Jesus was by the way he died.
Who is Jesus to you?
Amazing What A Little Context Will Do
February 15th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
This is an interesting quote:
Human sacrifice, in particular, is expensive but effective. – J. I. Packer
Of course, in context the quote is not quite as arresting. The quote is found in the book In My Place Condemned He Stood: Celebrating the Glory of Atonement. In the section where he made the quote Packer was discussing how ancient religions appeased their gods through the sacrifice and was specifically speaking of the Greek myth of Agamemnon who sacrificed his daughter to appease the goddess Artemis.
Of course I think we Christians are also guilty of misusing context when we pluck Bible verses out of context to fit our particular agenda. Taken out of context, Packer’s quote in and of itself seems to wholeheartedly condone human sacrifice. Having read quite a number of Packer’s works, I feel pretty certain that this is not the case.
It also seems like political seasons are times for people to take Bible verses out of context. Both parties this year have appealed to the Bible to support their opposing political positions. I’m not sure I would trust the hermeneutics of a politician or his cronies on that one.
The Importance of Solitude
February 7th, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. (Matthew 14:13-14 ESV)
John the Baptist, Jesus’ relative had just been executed in prison. When Jesus got the news he got into a boat and headed out for solitude. In spite of his need to be alone with his grief, the crowds followed him anyway. Do you think he ever got tired of the peoples’ demands of him?
Just a little later on we see this:
And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, (Matthew 14:23 ESV)
What is it about solitude that seems so essential to Jesus’ prayer life? Often our world seems so filled with noise, either literal from radio, TV, etc. or figurative from Facebook, the Internet, etc. We could learn something from this; that solitude is important sometimes. That we need to push away every now and then in order to draw strength and encouragement from God.
Do you practice solitude in your own spiritual life?
