Discernment

Several months ago a friend asked me when the last time I'd read 1 Corinthians 14 was. We were having a conversation about spiritual gifts, specifically tongues. When I was 19 a friend of mine and I did an in depth study of 1 Corinthians and concluded that there was no way tongues had "ceased." However, neither of us had every experienced it for ourselves.  So my attitude from that time had been, "God, if you want to commune with me in this way, I am willing."  However, at my friend's urging I re-opened 1 Corinthians 14 and was immediately convicted by the first verse.

Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. 1 Corinthians 14:1

"Earnestly desire" certainly did not describe my attitude towards the spiritual gifts. This began a change in our congregation's expectations for corporate and personal worship.

On Pentecost of this year (I found the timing significant), a close friend of mine and I spoke in tongues for the first (and so far only) time. I cannot tell you what transpired exactly, although I have a guess, but I can tell you that it was without a doubt a move of the Holy Spirit upon me. My overwhelming impression was that what I experienced is described by Paul in his letter to the disciples in Rome:

Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  Romans 8:26

It had never previously occurred to me that the Spirit might speak those groanings through my vocal cords, but there is no better way to describe what poured out of me. I would say "uncontrollably" because in a sense that is how it felt, but I was very aware that while a torrent of groanings or words in a different language were rushing out of my inner man, I could definitely have quenched that flow.  It was if I was a fire hydrant on a hot summer day, and words were the water gushing out of me.

Paul said, "The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself," and "if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays but my mind is unfruitful." My conclusion has been that in my weakness, the Spirit prayed through my spirit for the building up of my inner man in ways that with my mind I am incapable of. I pray regularly with my mind; I have spent my life building up my mind, but my spirit had never before received intentional ministry.

In my experience this overwhelming, unmistakable action of the Holy Spirit has been rare. More often He seems to interact with me or with us in a way that is aptly described as a still, small voice. So still and so small that it is difficult to know whether it is the voice of your mind or the voice of His spirit speaking. It is at these times that I desperately wish for a more powerful discernment.

The discerning person can tell, for example, when prayer is not genuine contact with God but a conversation with oneself, when apparent humility is actually a twisted form of pride; when a vision is really an hallucination and an ecstasy a psychosomatic disturbance; when inspirations are projections of suspect desires and when a vocation to celibacy is more a flight from intimacy than a call from God.[1]

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[1] Sandra Schneiders, "Spiritual Discernment in the Dialogue of Saint Catherine of Siena"

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Impossible Expectations

Christianity (in general) is suffering from theological nonsense.  I have been attempting for several years to provide corrective insight to these theological problems when and where I had opportunity.  However, I have found that the average Christian either doesn't know what his theological assumptions are, or generally knows what his theology is but doesn't grasp how that intersects with the day-to-day existence of his life. This has proven to be a mostly insurmountable problem.

However, I have realized recently that the problem is actually much more endemic than our theology. The reason our theology has become disconnected with the life of the Gospel is that we have completely erroneous psychological assumptions. To be specific, Christians in general assume that an abundant life is theirs by virtue of grace, and make no connection between their actions and the state of their life.

In other words, we believe the equivalent of the idea that by virtue of believing that because Derek Jeter did all the work necessary to become an all-star baseball player we can also become all-star baseball players  by believing in Derek Jeter. We forget that Derek Jeter's all-star status was the result of daily following the regimen required to form baseball skills.

What am I saying? Yes, we are saved by grace, but what that means is we are given access to the baseball diamond.  It still remains up to us to pick up the bat and hit 100 pitches a day. It is still our responsibility to rise early each morning and run sprints.

This leads to the "elephant in the room" of Christianity; the big issue that no one wants to admit let alone talk about. We have the same existential problems as our non-believing neighbors, only our problems are further complicated by guilt and the nagging feeling that it shouldn't be like this.

The present status is that Christians espouse the idea that the Gospel provides the life abundant, but live as if the promises Scripture makes aren't really attainable today.  This has progressed to the degree that there are theologies which specifically state that Scripture's description of a believing life pertain to the world to come. Talk about capitulating!

Leo Tolstoy described our situation well,

all men of the modern world exist in a continual and flagrant antagonism between their consciences and their way of life.[1]

Messiah's death on the cross provides us the opportunity to be formed in His likeness as a result of the Holy Spirit's transforming work in us, which is itself a response to our physical efforts at the renewing of our mind.

Each of us grows up in surroundings that train us to speak, think, feel, and act like others around us. “Monkey see, monkey do,” goes the proverb. This is the mechanism by which human personality is formed, and it is largely for the good. But it also embeds in us habits of evil that permeate all human life. Humanly standard patterns of responding...seize upon little children through their participation in the lives of those around them. Sinful practices become their habits, then their choice, and finally their character.

The very language they learn to speak incorporates desecration of God and neighbor. They come to identify themselves and be identified by others through these practices. What is wrong and destructive is done without thinking about it. The wrong thing to do seems quite “natural,” while the right thing to do becomes forced and unnatural at best—especially if done because it is right.[2]

The Holy Spirit does a work of renewal, brings about rebirth, but a new character must be formed just as the old character was formed. Spiritual practices will become habits, and then our choice, and finally our character. 

Prayer, solitude, fasting, meditation on Scripture--these are tools that we are meant to use. Tools are designed to produce results. As Eugene Peterson says, what distinguishes us from the animals and from the angels is that we use tools.

We are not animals, living by sheer instinct, in immediate touch with our environment. We are not angels, living by sheer intelligence, with unmediated access to God. We are creatures, heavily involved with tools. Unlike animals, we use knife and fork to get food to our mouths, and hammer and saw to build a home for ourselves. Unlike angels, we use the scriptures to hear what God says to us, and the sacraments to receive his life among us.[3]

The spiritual disciplines are not tools for doing or getting, however, but for being and becoming. Our society is riddled with technology, but it is exclusively dedicated to doing or obtaining, while we neglect the spiritual technology that Jesus modeled for us. We neglect it because we have assumed that a new character is bequeathed to us by grace. And indeed we are given grace for each moment, but it is grace in response.

Let's adjust our expectations in line with reality. Character is not born but formed. Likewise character is not born again, but reformed (renewed, transformed) after being born again.  The transforming work of the Holy Spirit (progressive sanctification) is done in response to our effort. Can we earn salvation by effort? NO! However, we must work out our salvation in fear and trembling (Philippians 2:12). We must train ourselves for godliness (1 Timothy 4:7-8), we must discipline our bodies if we hope to attain the reality of the gospel promise (1 Corinthians 9:24-27).

G.K. Chesterton said:

Christianity has not so much been tried and found wanting, as it has been found difficult and left untried.[4]

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[1] Tolstoy, Leo. The Kingdom of God Is Within You. Trans. Aylmer Maude (London: Oxford University Press 1936). 136

[2] Gangel, Kenneth O. and Jim Wilhoit. The Christian Educator's Handbook on Spiritual Formation. Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books, 1994. (chapter 18 by Dallas Willard, “The Spirit is Willing: The Body As a Tool for Spiritual Formation”)

[3] Peterson, Eugene. Answering God: The Psalms as Tools for Prayer. San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1991. 1

[4] As quoted in Willard, Dallas. The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives. San Francsico: Harper Collins, 1991. 1

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Changing Character

When one is contemplating the changing of behavior from fleshly (or sinful) to godly there are a couple questions that naturally arise.  Since we want to avoid legalism how does one change outward behavior while the inner man still wants to speak crossly, or let a discipline slide, or entertain a lustful thought?

We have on our hands a "which comes first the chicken or the egg" conundrum. Since we all ready discussed "Believe => Think => Feel => Do" it would seem natural that this process should have something to do with our solution.

A second question seems to beg an answer: what role does the Spirit of Messiah play?

I've been thinking about this for several weeks now, and it has been an interesting time to ponder because I've simultaneously been on the Maker's Diet for a little over 40 days (and have lost 35 lbs to date). In the process I have noted that once one sets your will to do a thing, it becomes easy with practice. This seems so simplistic, yet it is the key.

Will => Do => Realize is the pattern of transformation. This is connected to our earlier formula in that the setting of one's will happens as a result of something believed.  The pattern of thinking is determined by that belief and the subsequent willing. That setting of one's will and the thinking process that accompanies it creates a feeling of "wanting" to do whatever it is that needs to be done. In the case of my example, changing the content of what I eat.

Because I believed the contents of what I read in Jordan Rubin's book, The Maker's Diet, I determined to act on that belief, and then felt like eliminating sugar, grains and starches from my menu.  The first week it was very difficult to stick by my newly diminished menu. In the moments where my feeling flagged it was my will which asserted itself. In fact, in order to accomplish it successfully I took a week of vacation from work so that I could spend extra amounts of time planning and then preparing my meals.

By the third week, it had become second nature to reach for a handful of almonds when I felt the urge to snack that habitually accompanies TV watching, for example.  The aptly identified force of habit is a power that we must harness for positive effect.  When one is in the habit of submitting momentary emotions to the dictates of your will (and it must be your will, by the way) transformation becomes the natural realization of your habitual practice.

This, of course, is all assuming that what you believe is sound. Since belief is the foundation, what you determine to do will be either beneficial or harmful as a result of whether you believe truth or a lie.

This, I suspect, is what Solomon had in mind when he penned:

"Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live. Get wisdom; get insight; do not forget, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she will keep you; love her, and she will guard you. The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. She will place on your head a graceful garland; she will bestow on you a beautiful crown."  Proverbs 4:4-9 (ESV)

You might wonder where the Spirit of God is in all of this? Let's discuss that in the next post.

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Sharing Common Ground

I've been reading a lot of Dallas Willard lately.  One of the reasons is that his premise is the same as that I've been championing for several years, but some of the "therefore" thinking he has done from that premise is really putting some pieces of the puzzle into perspective for me.  So I started re-reading The Great Omission yesterday and here are some excerpts that pertain directly to the premise that Willard and I share.

Who, among Christians today, is a disciple of Jesus, in any substantive sense of the world "disciple"? A disciple is a learner, a student, an apprentice--a practitioner, even if only a beginner. The New Testament literature, which must be allowed to define our terms if we are ever to get our bearings in the Way with Christ, makes this clear. In that context, disciples of Jesus are people who do not just profess certain views as their own but apply their growing understanding of life in the Kingdom of the Heavens to every aspect of their life on earth.

In contrast, the governing assumption today, among professing Christians, is that we can be "Christians" forever and never become disciples....That is the accepted teaching now. Check it out wherever you are. And this (with its various consequences) is the Great Omission from the "Great Commission"....

For at least several decades the churches of the Western world have not made discipleship a condition of being a Christian. One is not required to be, or to intend to be, a disciple in order to become a Christian, and one may remain a Christian without any signs of progress toward or in discipleship....So far as the visible Christian institutions of our day are concerned, discipleship clearly is optional.

...Obedience and training in obedience form no intelligible doctrinal or practical unity with the "salvation" presented in recent versions of the gospel.

The only thing I would change if it was me writing those paragraphs is that I would say, "The Scriptural literature, which must be allowed to define our terms...."  Man, I feel like cheering!

The next step is for someone to develop a "curriculum" from the Scriptures. A "since we can't literally go walk with Jesus through the highways and byways of Galilee and Judea, this is how to become his apprentice today" manual.  I feel called to do this and I am currently petitioning God to make clear the practical details of how to make this possible.

To quote Willard again, I need to be "systematically and progressively rearranging my affairs to that end."

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Culture

I want to energize cultural shift; I want to invigorate soul healing; I want to ooze the Gospel. I am stymied in this desire by a cultural misperception of what the Gospel is designed to permeate. I believe that the Gospel does exactly that - permeates - leaves no stone unturned, penetrates to our core and transforms from the inside out.  But North American Christians don't expect to have their lives over turned by the Gospel. After all, many of them "received" the Gospel years ago and it hasn't radicalized much since then!

Eugene Peterson conveys my thoughts well...

My concern is provoked by the observation that so many who understand themselves to be followers of Jesus, without hesitation, and apparently without thinking, embrace the ways and means of the culture as they go about their daily living "in Jesus' name." But the ways that dominate our culture have been developed either in ignorance or in defiance of the ways that Jesus uses to lead us as we walk the streets and alleys, hike the trails, and drive the roads in this God-created, God-saved, God-blessed, God-ruled world in which we find ourselves. They seem to suppose that "getting on in the world" means getting on in the world on the world's terms, and that the ways of Jesus are useful only in a compartmentalized area of life labeled "religious." (pg 1)

The prevailing ways and means curricula in which we are all immersed in North America are designed to help us get ahead in whatever field of work we find ourselves...The courses firs instruct us in skills and principles that we are told are foundational and then motivate us to use these skills so that we can get what we want out of this shrunken, desiccated "world, flesh, and devil" field. And of course it works wonderfully as long as we are working in that particular field in which getting things done is the "end." (pg 2)

When it comes to persons, these ways of the world are terribly destructive. They are highly effective in getting ahead in a God-indifferent world, but not in the community of Jesus, not in the kingdom of God. We we uncritically accept these curricula as our primary orientation in how to get on in this world, we naively embrace the very temptations of the devil that Jesus so definitely vetoed and rebuked. (pg 3)

Warnings are frequently and prominently posted by our sages and prophets to let us know that these purely pragmatic ways and means of the world weaken and enervate the community of the baptized. The whole North American ways and means culture, from assumptions to tactics, is counter to the rich and textured narrative laid out for us in our Scriptures regarding walking in the way of righteousness, running in the way of the commandments, following Jesus. In matters of ways and means, the world gives scant attention to what it means to live, to really live, to live eternal life in ordinary time: God is not worshiped, Jesus is not followed, the Spirit is not given a voice. (pg 3)[i]

This is what I want for my family, for my congregation, and for Christians everywhere. To live in technicolor, to truly be a firstfruit of the world to come when all will have been not only redeemed, but re-made by Messiah. This will require a new comprehension of the ongoing nature of conversion, and a renewed commitment to the body (the community) of Messiah over and above our personal obsession with God’s salvific work in our person.

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[i] Peterson, Eugene H. The Jesus Way: A Conversation On The Ways that Jesus is the Way. Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 2007.

 

Now Listening: Jason Upton - Remember - Fly

 

Now Reading: Inhabiting the Church by John Stock, et al, The Jesus Way by Eugene Peterson and On the Way to Jesus Christ by Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Benedict XVI)

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WWJD

In recent days I have been talking often about the human propensity to ride a pendulum and a related issue that is actually what I want to comment on today.

I often find myself in the position of discussing a truth that has been widely accepted.  It is so easy to be understood as attacking that idea, when in reality I usually want to affirm that a particular idea is true, but there is more to it than is commonly perceived.  In other words, "that is true but here is the rest of the story."  Yet again, "let's expand your understanding of that idea, but I don't want to swing your pendulum all the way to the other side of the spectrum."  I'm not talking true and false here, but true and "truer." 

Am I in any way suggesting that truth is relative?  Absolutely not!  On the other hand, while truth is absolute our perception and understanding of it is rather subjective, and prone to misapprehension.

The bracelets and the concept of WWJD or "What Would Jesus Do?" is a great example.  Is it a good idea to focus on trying to act as Jesus would act? Most certainly.  It's a great idea. However, if we are suggesting that in momentary occasions we can significantly modify our responses to mirror those Jesus might make/have made by wearing a WWJD bracelet, we are fooling ourselves.

The significance of the WWJD bracelet is in conforming the day-to-day pattern of our normative lives to the same pattern that Jesus lived out.  In other words, if we hope to respond to crisis moments like Jesus, then we have to pattern the non-crisis moments of our lives to His habits.

So the most important times to ask ourselves, "What would Jesus do?" is not when a crisis strikes--we will respond instinctually at that moment--but at the beginning of each day, or better yet when planning the next day, week or month. Thus we will form our instinctual responses as a pattern of transformation takes hold in our lives.

See what I mean? True and true-er, not true and false.

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Thinking, Humanity and God

We can describe God, but we can never define Him. We can describe aspects of God, but we can never really explain Him.

If the universe is an intelligible machine—and science is the master screwdriver to take it apart—then analysis is the ultimate form of thought, the universal screwdriver. By taking wholes or effects apart into smaller and smaller parts or causes, each of which becomes understandable, analysis renders the universe both knowable and controllable. The fact that to us thinking and analyzing seem to be synonymous suggests how successful modernity has been at marginalizing all other forms of thought--imagination, intuition, pattern recognition, systems thinking, and so on.[i]

The Scriptures use anthropomorphic language and analogy to describe God, but description is never complete. This is amplified when the finite attempts to describe the infinite.

Even among those enamored of the Hebraic, we are plagued by many who insist on analyzing the Scriptures rather than pondering them, failing to realize that in so doing they are practicing the very “Greek” mindset that they so abhor.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a place for scientific analysis of both things and ideas. However, if we allow scientific analysis to be the only mode of acceptable or honored thinking then we will have lost much of the richness of life.

We face in the Hebraic Roots movement today a crisis. That crisis is two-fold.

On the one side you have those who in attempting to analyze the Scriptures by benefit of their intellect have abandoned what Scripture declares about Yeshua without explaining it. In their quest to be authentically Hebraic they have applied their Hellenistic modes of thinking to the Scriptures and come up with heresy: the idea that Yeshua is fully man, but not fully God.

On the other side we have those who are equally well motivated and equally earnest in their intentions. Also, passionate to defend truth they practice the missteps of our forefathers and attempt to define the particulars of who Yeshua is according to their analysis of Scriptures’ message, thenceforth demanding that all ascribe to their particular creed or confession without regard for the incompleteness of their comprehension.

Though I would venture to say that none of the parties on either side are cognizant of it, both are being driven by arrogance in regard to their intellect. I can sympathize; particularly for those who are intellectually gifted and thinking oriented it can be very easy to function as if God created us as one big brain. But He didn’t. He created us in His image: body, soul, and spirit.

If we don’t allow our soul (the combination of mind, will and emotions) to be guided equally by the Spirit’s influence on our spirit we will find ourselves effectively declaring that our minds are capable of understanding God on the basis of the finite language He used to communicate to us something about the Infinite.

How tragic! I return again and again to the reality that the very reason I so cling to God, is that I cannot understand Him. If I could comprehend Him, I would not need Him. Glory be to Him Who is incomprehensible to my finite mind! Come Lord Jesus, fill me with the fullness of God that surpasses knowledge, and awaken within me the power of Your Spirit to do Your work in the Kingdom.

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[i] McClaren, Brian D. A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001.

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Transformation, Power & the Holy Spirit

While praying for his beloved saints in Ephesus, Paul requests:

...that you, ...may...comprehend... the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,

Ephesians 3:17-20 (ESV)

What does it mean to "surpass knowledge" and what is the "power at work within us?"  And how does one become "filled with all the fullness of God?"

Perhaps just as Paul indicates that prophesy edifies the mind, while tongues edify the spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit within us is designed to surpass what knowlege-the realm of the mind--can afford us.

It seems evident that power and the Holy Spirit are connected in Scripture.  The verse everyone thinks of is:

But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." Acts 1:8 (ESV)

But one of my favorites is:

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Romans 15:13 (ESV)

Now that is transformation!  I don't know about you, but a person that abounds in hope sounds to me like someone filled with at least some of the fullness of God!

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A Mikvah

Today I was privileged to officiate at a mikvah for a dear brother who will be married in a few hours.

A few things struck me.  The first is that God really knows His creation!  Of course, right!? But I am repeatedly impressed upon realization of a specific way in which God designed His instructions with our nature in mind. 

As a father shows compassion to his children, so the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.  Psalms 103:13-14 (ESV)

There is something about us humans that benefits from coupling an external action with a mental determination.  I suspect a lot of the significance of the ritual found in Torah is related to this.

The other thing that hit me is another aspect of the importance we attach to what has come to be known as baptism.  I often related to folks that a mikvah symbolized any significant change in status.  That the ancient Israelites took a mikvah when they changed from the status of unclean to clean, when they got married, when they took a vow, and when they repented of sin.  I've written or said these words hundreds of times.  But for some reason, when considering baptism as it is used in the Christian church, I have always focused in my thinking on the issue or repentance from sin, on the change from walking in darkness to turning and walking in righteousness.  And this is true, but not until today when we practiced a mikvah in the context of a wedding me, was I struck by the significance of baptism representing our vows of marriage to Messiah.

A change in status from that of one having no hope and without God in the world, from someone separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and a stranger to the covenants of promise to that of one who has been brought near by the blood of Messiah and bound by vows of marriage and an adoption as children.

And this takes me back to my first thought.  I was baptized at age nine, and I've contemplated baptism and its relation to the mikvah for years, but it wasn't until today in the practice of this statute that a fuller awareness of its truth dawned on me.

If we consider ourselves to be "free" from the practice of God's commands as they are outlined in the so-called "Old Testament" we are relegating ourselves to a less full apprehension of God's truths.  I choose not to debate with most folks over whether we are obligated to observe the "Old Testament" commands. However, I cannot but point out, that whether it is a matter of obligation or not, it is most certainly an opportunity potentially lost.

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Nothing New Under the Sun

The state of affairs today is little changed from that which has persisted for centuries.  As evidence I offer the following.  In 1923 Dr. Claude J.G. Montefiore wrote in his book The Old Testament and After:

"Jewish critics of Christianity and Christian critics of Judaism make precisely the same charges against each other. The Christian says: 'Judaism thinks of nothing but reward. It is a low and selfish religion.' The Jew says: 'Christians think of nothing but saving their own souls. Christianity is a self-regarding and selfish religion.' Yet one set of critics is as wrong as the other."

While Jewish-Christian relations have been the emphasis of many scholarly books and conferences, the average person still thinks largely as Montefiore described above. The reality is that neither relgion is truly focused on self, but rather on the glorification of God. How then do the adherents of each come to be characterized by such a misfortunate reputation?

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Community: A Malleable Attempt at Definition

I've been pursuing community as the ideal expression of the Gospel life for a long time.  It's an elusive goal; though even limited expressions of community can provide wonderful experiences.

I have also witnessed true community first-hand, and it is radical, it is spiritual, and it is inescapably life-altering. It brooks no besetting sin in its midst, it forms halacha as a living, breathing thing that flows from the text (of Scripture) and is informed by the Ruach's guidance amidst a plurality of elders. It is evangelistic in operation, not "evangelistically-minded," by its very nature it produces disciples, not converts. It is charitable, and what it has spills over into the lives of those around it. A majority of the children raised in true community, stay in the community.

I've seen it, and I've lived amongst it for several short periods and I've realized that it is only possible for people who are willing to be other than.

What, you may ask, is "other than"?  It is different than the majority; it is different even from those who profess to share the same goals and values.  The difference between those who profess and those who are "other than" is observed when you mention the idea of abandoning their white picket fence or their late-model car, or a single-family dwelling.  But that is another post; note to myself--work on a description of "other than."

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Cities of Refuge Controlled by Enemies of God

it is noteworthy that five of the six cities of refuge (Israel’s ancient judicial system) are now under the control of Islamic countries. The names of the cities are Golan, Ramoth Gilead (now in Jordan), Shechem (now the Islamic city of Nablus), Hebron (now in the control of Palestinians), Bezer (also in Jordan); the only city left is Kedesh on the way to Dan and Mount Hermon on the Golan Heights. Syria is presently demanding that the Golan Heights be returned to them, which will, in fact, be the end of ancient Israel’s judicial system of the cities of refuge. That must have spiritual implications.

Care to join me in speculating on what the spiritual implications of this are?

Quote from: http://jerusalemthroughmylens.blogspot.com/2007/05/israeli-tribe-of-dan.html

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Re-evaluating an Author

I did not like Walter Brueggemann's Theology of the Old Testament. It was inaccessible, ethereal and elusive... and it was verbose.  I didn't like it so much, that I almost missed what may prove to be a phenomenal book.

Where Theology of the Old Testament is a massive tome of a book (700+ pages) this one is 77.  Perhaps if Brueggemann had limited himself to the same brevity...well, nevermind.

Anyway, I may be jumping the gun, because I've just finished the Preface. However, if the Preface is any indication then Spirituality of the Psalms is going to be a great book!

Listen to some of these quotes:

We understand in baptism that the loss of control of our lives (disorientation) is the necessary precondition of new life (new orientation). - pg xi

...Psalms...is finally an act of hope. But the hope is rooted precisely in the midst of loss and darkness, where God is surprisingly present. - pg xii

...the Psalms invite us into a more honest facing of the darkness. The reason the darkness may be faced and lived in is that even in the darkness, there is One to address....Because this One has promised to be in the darkness with us, we find the darkness strangely transformed, not by the power of easy light, but by the power of relentless solidarity. - pg xii - xiii

But the psalm writers will not tolerate a faith in which human well-being is not honored. - pg xiv

Well, I start Chapter One tomorrow.  I'll let you know if the rest of the book is as good as the Preface has promised.

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The Nature of Yeshua

While the blood of animals must be continually applied, the blood of Yeshua applies eternally because He is eternal.  This is one reason why He must be God enfleshed.

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Distinctly World-Wearied

We are not just in the world, we are of the world.  I'm sorry to have to be the one to say it, but it is true.  I am myself guilty. However, I have been noticing a significant groundswell of recognition among American Christians that God designed a rhythm into the universe and we are designed to live in sync with it.  I've noticed quite a few books discussing this idea, and quite a few blog posts on the topic. Here's an excerpt from one a couple days ago: 

The great festivals of Judaism accomplish the same thing. They shape time. They bring to remembrance things that happened in the past. They focus life on HaShem and, through him, lives find their meaning. This is what Sabbath was created for: it was created to set a rhythm to life. That ‘tradition’ brought with it meaning: to remember the Creator, to remember that we are creatures, and to remember to rest physically from activity and also spiritually in God. Sabbath, like the Jewish festivals and holy days, shape and give meaning to time.

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People need traditions because humans are time bound creatures and need something to bring shape and order to their time. We need rhythms in life. In one of my favorite books, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman writes, “With the invention of the clock man stopped focusing on eternity.” The reasoning behind this statement is that what shaped time after the invention of the clock was numbers and seconds and minutes and hours. Before this point time was shaped by evenings and mornings, by Sabbaths and Purims, by Shemas and Sukkots. What gave shape to time were traditions that had a meaning which pointed to our Creator.What ‘traditions’ shape your time? What meanings do those ‘traditions’ bring?

traditions and the rhythm of life « finitum non capax infiniti

What defines us? Biblical time markers or minutes and hours? Who do we work for? With what system do we cooperate, the one that cares for widows and orphans or the one that rewards the arrogant, the greedy and the power-consumed? 

Have you ever considered that something as seemingly innocent as being a slave to your day-timer, your watch or your PDA is being of the world, rather than in the world, yet distinct?  How do you measure the passing of time? It's Q2 - 2007, it's almost Spring Break, or it's almost Pentecost?

People sometimes think that I'm an extremist, and I'm afraid this post may confirm that thought in the mind of some, but my hope is that it can put some things in perspective.

I'm not arguing that wearing watches is dooming our society, rather that it is a small representation of just how far away from a truly biblical mindset and lifestyle we as Christians are.  Not because watches or PDAs are evil, but because they are master over us.  We align our lives to the things of this world, rather than to God's time markers.

God said:

"Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, Genesis 1:14 (ESV)

Why do you think Sabbath is marked from sunset to sunset?  Why did God command us to observe the beginning of each new month by the sighting of the new moon? Because our lives are to be defined by the cycle that God set in place during creation.  The word translated "seasons" in the ESV is after all, the Hebrew word moedim, which means "appointed times", and is used in Leviticus 23 to describe the "Feasts of the Lord" that His people are to observe for all their generations.

I hope the reader will understand that when I plead for changes in our lifestyle in order to align our lives with the pattern, the rhythm, and the distinct culture that God designed and intended for His people, it's because in most cases the manner in which the world's system has seeped into our lives is so pervasive that we are totally unaware.

People want to protest, "Is that really necessary!?" To which I answer, "You have no idea the myriad ways in which you are of the world rather than in the world, and no idea how thorougly it is impacting your life.  Why are we not light? Why are we not salt? What, I ask, is the difference between your life and that of your neighbor?  Do you look different, eat different, observe time differently, spend your time differently, hold different priorities?  Or is the difference really just that you "believe" something different, and so your eternal destiny is different?  At least, you think it is...

Some books that may help change your perspective:

• Out of Control by Young & Adams
• Making Room For Life by Randy Frazee
• Keeping the Sabbath Wholly by Marva J. Dawn
• The Sabbath by Abraham Joshua Heschel
• Pilgrim Heart by Darryl Tippens
• The Connecting Church by Randy Frazee
• Serve God, Save the World by Matthew Sleeth, M.D.

Listen to the word of the Lord:

But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away. They do not say in their hearts, 'Let us fear the LORD our God, who gives the rain in its season, the autumn rain and the spring rain, and keeps for us the weeks appointed for the harvest.' Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good from you.  Jeremiah 5:23-25 (ESV)

In ignoring the appointed times, the cycles and the seasons that God has ordained we have turned God's good away from us.  Heaven forbid that this trend continues.  May we turn back to God, to His ways, to His times, and to his cycles.

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Believe, Think, Feel, Do, Believe

For a long time I have been a fan of the theory that what you believe, determines what you think, and what you think determines how you feel, and how you feel manifests itself almost inexorably in how you act (or what you do). (I first ran across this idea in a book by Robert S. McGee titled, The Search for Significance; a book I highly recommend, by the way.)

Believe => Think => Feel => Do

The title of this post indicates my belief that this process is cyclical.  In other words, if you think and feel, but do not act it circumvents the cycle, and the disconnect will produce cognitive (and emotional) dissonance.  This static in the process eventually causes a change in what we really believe, whereas a completion of the cycle further embeds the original belief.  So, in my estimation the process really ought to be visualized like this:

Believe => Think => Feel => Do => Believe

Unfortunately, the American mindset seems to be dominated by an implicit assumption that Christianity consists of:

Believe => Think => Feel

As if whether we feel "happy," for example, is the goal of the Gospel's transforming power.  As if, the Gospel can work in us mightily without extending itself into the things we do, the words we say, the way we live, the priorities we cherish, etc.  This abortive philosophy of metamorphosis has resulted in "Christian" lives that look no different from their suburban neighbors, in a world that sees the Gospel as powerless, and an overwhelming number of Christians who do not equate being a "believer" with being a "disciple."

We can only live changes: we cannot think our way to humanity. Every one of us, every group, must become the model of that which we desire to create. - Ivan Illich, as quoted in The Forgotten Ways by Alan Hirsch, pg 101

There is another aspect to this conversation which I ought to mention before wrapping up this post.  One can study incessantly, but there are certain truths that will never be apprehended without being practiced.  Additionally, the practice of God's commands (the walking in God's ways) inherently reveals truths that we would otherwise never connect.  We are human beings, not human doings, however, the act of being cannot be separated from the physical.

God understands this.  We often reflect on the message of Sabbath in relation to the need to cease from doing and rest, however, the converse message is that on the other six days of the week we are to be actively doing the good works which God created long ago for us to walk in (Eph 2:10).  If one is not doing, then one is robbed of the power of ceasing to reflect on the truth of one's being.  The truth that we are new creations in Messiah, and the anticipation of our eternal Sabbath, which yet awaits the return of Messiah.

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My Favorite Recent Post on Community

I have become increasingly convinced that the whole of life is intended to be lived in community. I don't mean the tie dye shirt, hemp underwear, and cow dung houses kind of community, although I am sure that could qualify. (I am also sure that a house made of dung would still be cleaner than anywhere I lived before I was married and taught how to clean.) What I mean is that written into our DNA is the need for other people to be let in on what is going on in our lives, including the embarrassing or even downright ugly portions. I would like to think that the past three years I have gotten a little closer to the way I am supposed to live regarding other people, although it is still unnatural for me.

Jobless Minister

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Working and Resting...and Saving, well on everything

I highly recommend the article "Physical Work, Spiritual Health," by Dr. J. Matthew Sleeth.

Here's an excerpt:

All honest work can be done for the glory of God. As time passes and we grow in our understanding of God and the uniqueness of this planet, we reject more and more "laborsaving" machines. There is an old saying: If you are troubled, chop wood and carry water. This is wise advice. If you pray at the same time, so much the better. Begin to build an hour of work into your daily life. The result will be more life in your day. The flip side of work is rest. God commands all of us to take a day of rest each week, but how many of us take His advice?

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But Beyond All These...

"After we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides, and gravity, we shall harness the energies of love. Then for the second time in history, man will have discovered fire."

- Teilhard de Chardin

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Emerging

We are all emerging from something.  I like the biblical metaphor of emerging from Egypt to Sinai and beyond. The process of becoming a former slave, part of a new people, and a person with a mission.

A pivotal question for us all to ask ourselves as we leave behind our past, is whether we will allow our past or our present (and our future) to define us.

Sounds good, eh? However, when the rubber hits the road it becomes a different thing.  For some of us that means letting go of bitterness over having been lied to in the past.  Focus instead on the overwhelming amount of truth that was imparted to you.  For some of us that means holding on to our identity as members of a flawed ancestry, rather than attempting to embrace a new identity that is not really our own.

The "emerging church" sparks a lot of reaction these days, and I have often said that I like a lot of the questions they're asking though I cringe at some of the answers posited.  I was glad to read someone from the midst of the emerging movement say that it is not enough to embrace disequilibrium, one must also cling to the healing nature of the Gospel message.

The emerging church is a place where people have felt the freedom to explore questions and experiment with new forms of lifestyle and corporate practice. Often these questions have been about the essence of the Christ-message, vocation, the nature and form of the church, cultural and philosophical analysis, and the present agenda of God in the world.

...

We should acknowledge that, for many of us, the door was opened to re-imagine faith and the church through pain, disappointment, failure, fatigue, burn-out, public or private humiliation, or a sense of personal alienation. ...

At times I’m fearful that permission to be deconstructive has attracted personalities that are prone to criticism, angst, and melancholy. Some of us seem to avoid our unresolved personality issues, organic depressive tendencies, and relational difficulties by transference to a perceived “spiritual crisis.” Some among us need encouragement and support to face our personal difficulties more directly, rather than attributing so much of our struggles to ecclesiological or philosophical issues.

An Emergent Manifesto of Hope: Some among us, like the animals of the forest, have sensed a storm on the horizon...

My question is: will we embrace the transforming changes the Holy Spirit is working in our lives while still cherishing our history, or will we plant the seeds of our own brokenness in the lives of our children?  Thereby forcing them or more likely their grandchildren to working through the same issues that crippled the beginnings of our spiritual walks.

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Community prayer

"Our prayer ought to be short and pure, unless it happens to be prolonged by divine grace. In community, however, let prayer be very short." - St. Benedict of Nursia

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Progress on The Offerings of Our Lips

Well, this is not actually about progress.  I took vacation from my work for all of last week with the goal of completing the final rev of The Offerings of Our Lips.  Unfortunately, God apparently had some different thoughts on the matter.

At the end of the week preceding I had to rebuild my primary laptop.  No problem, as I back up religiously. However, when I began the process of restoring my data from the external hard drive that I back up to, the entire hard drive corrupted and I lost 90% of the data including my most recent revision of The Offerings of Our Lips!

Now, I mentioned that I back up religiously.  Fortunately, a couple months ago I backed up my back up by burning all my data to DVD.  So I did recover an older draft from October of 2006.  So... I finished this past week further behind than when I began my vacation, as opposed to almost done.

Never fear, I'm inspired to make this even better than it was going to be! But for those of you who were anticipating receiving a draft copy in April, I'm sorry to disappoint, but I'm going to have to.

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Nothing New Under the Sun

I have no idea if this is true or not, but according to a book by E. Stanley Jones (The Christ of Every Road) written in 1930:

"The oldest known bit of writing in the world is a piece of papyrus in a Constantinople Museum. On it is written: ‘Alas, times are not what they used to be. Children no longer obey their parents and everyone wants to write a book.'" (pg 23)

I don't know about you, but that cracked me up!  How true today!! Truly did Solomon write:

What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.

Ecclesiastes 1:9 (ESV)

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Good Memories

They go by too fast, and I'm awful glad for photos. And yes, I was the donkey...

Dads always get the bad roles; didn't you know?

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Christianity or Biblical Judaism: Must We Choose?

There is a trend that I have noted for some time, but which has been taking on new steam lately in Christian scholarship in an effort to emphasize the difference between Jesus and the Jewish Sages who were roughly His contemporaries.

I understand both the motivation to try and preserve these "differences," and the scholarly data which supposedly supports this line of thinking, but there really is no need.

"Many modern theologians increasingly attempt to define the message of Jesus over against Judaism. Jesus is said to have taught something quite different, something original, unacceptable to the other Jews. The strong Jewish opposition to Jesus' proclamation is emphasized....Even though he gave his own personal bent to jewish ideas, selected from among them, purged and reinterpreted them, I cannot honestly find a single word of Jesus that could seriously exasperate a well-intentioned Jew."

David Flusser, of blessed memory, Professor at Hebrew University-Jerusalem, as quoted in Jesus: The Jewish Theologian by Brad H. Young, PhD (p. 127)

Many find it quite scary to think that some of Yeshua's sayings and some of Hillel's were almost verbatim; I understand that. However, the reality is that Yeshua did not vigorously alter the Judaism of the time.  Certainly, He contested hotly those areas that needed correction, but that is no different than what He would do to Christianity if He arrived on earth today.

Can you imagine the issues Yeshua would have with the state of the Church today?  I expect there would be quite a few "Woe, to you's" spoken.

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Which Ones?

All the mitzvot [commandments] I am giving you today you are to take care to obey (Deuteronomy 8:1).

This Scripture actually describes God's commandments in the singular (kol hamitzvah). The emphasis is not on following each one of God's instructions as separate or distinct parts. Instead, they need to be viewed as a whole, as the Artscroll Tanach reads, "the entire commandment." In other words, each part of the Torah is interconnected. Ya'akov (James) makes the same point as he reflects on this passage in James 2:8-12. This means we cannot treat Scripture as a dinner menu, selecting just those items which are most appetizing.

'The Voice of the Lord' on StudyLight.org

Have you ever reflected on this reality?  How do you decide which commandments in Scripture to obey and which to ignore?  Are there any that can be ignored?  Some people suggest that only those mentioned in the Apostolic Scriptures must be followed. However, this is misleading for several reasons, not the least of which is what we mentioned in the last post. The common assumption being that Jesus boiled the commands we have to worry about down to just the big two, but au contraire...there are actually considerably more in the so-called "New Testament" than in the Hebrew Scriptures.

Are God's commands, whether they are in the first 2/3 or the last 1/3 of the Scriptures, intended to be burdensome?  As Paul would say, "Certainly not!", they form His Owner's Manual to Life. How many of us men have ignored the Instruction Manual too long when attempting to put together the latest furniture purchase that our wife has proudly deposited on the living room floor--in a box of course?  Guilty as charged! However, on a side note, I must say that I have learned my lesson and I religiously (pun intended) follow the instructions now.  It's amazing how I only have to put the darn thing together once or perhaps twice before I have it right.  Whereas in the past...well, we won't talk about the past, my blood pressure is doing just fine where it is, thank you.

Does this mean that if we can't keep the whole of Torah we might as well give up and not keep any of it? That's like the story of the bear who goes into the cornfield and fills his arms with ears of corn. As he leaves, he drops one ear. Dissatisfied with losing part of his haul, he throws down the rest and goes back to gather more. Again he drops an ear as he leaves the field. Again, dissatisfied, he throws away the remainder and returns to get more. He does this repeatedly. Eventually, he goes away hungry.

'The Voice of the Lord' on StudyLight.org

That's right, though I too often hear this argument, "Why should I worry about everything the Torah says, I can't even do what's in the New Testament right?!", it's actually a completely ridiculous idea.  First of all, not to beat a dead horse, but there's more commandments in the New Testament than in the Old. 

Ok, if I don't get to a new idea soon PETA is going to be picketing my blog.  Stay tuned, for a totally new idea...

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A Poem

Here's a poem by Ben Witherington III that I greatly appreciated.

 

We demand the evidence,

A clear and certain sign,

We show no bit of reticence

Ask God to please divine.

 

Here a little miracle,

Or there a stellar light

To shine upon our darkness

And give us all insight.

 

But what if God’s not hidden,

Not remote or too aloof,

What if we’re just blind

And cannot handle proof?

 

What if all the world’s a stage

And the play’s long been going on,

But we’re not paying attention

Or listening to the song?

 

What if the heavens shout ‘glory’

And the rocks and all the trees

But we’re too damn distracted

To fall down on our knees?

 

What if believing leads to seeing

Not the other way around,

What if believing’s our 3-D glasses

To see the more profound.

 

In a world of truth decay

We perish for lack of hope

We settle for compensation

For that which helps us cope.

 

A visionary person

Is one who believes the most,

She sees the path before her,

But she trusts the Holy Ghost.

 

If you ignore all the evidence,

Then you cannot handle proof,

Only open hands receive it,

Only open minds find truth.

BW3 2/17/07 (Ben Witherington III)

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Words for Torah

In Psalm 119:129-136 the psalmist uses seven different words to describe the Torah: today we look at the second word. It is “word/s” (devar). Psalm 119:130: “The unfolding of your words gives light;it gives understanding to the simple.”

Jesus Creed » Bible words: Word

It is great to read a traditional evangelical scholar focusing on Psalm 119! The reason I wanted to highlight this is that Scot McKnight has recognized the seven words used as synonyms for torah. Too often this reality is ignored when we Christians read the psalms.

We all ought to go through the Psalms and Proverbs on the lookout for the following words:

• word
• instruction
• teaching
• commandments
• precepts
• light
• truth

I think it would revolutionize our concept of the way Torah (throughout Scripture) is supposed to interact with our day to day life. (I think it might change our understanding of a few other things as well, but I'll look forward to hearing about that from you.)

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Gazelles

Have you ever wondered why Jewish boys were prohibited from reading the Song of Songs until age 13?  I distinctly remember the first time I heard this as a young adolescent.  Guess what I went home to read that evening?  I also recall my disappointment..."is that all there is to it?"  Now, of course, I realize that a lot went over my head (isn't God masterful?). 

Rabbi Akiva said,

The entire world, all of it, is not equal in worth to the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel. Why? Because all other books in the Writings are holy, whereas the Song of Songs is holy of holies.(Sefer Ha-Aggadah, Section 136 - Song)

So while I have a more mature appreciation of Shir HaShirim these days, one phrase has continued to puzzle me--until today.

Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle, that graze among the lilies. Song of Solomon 4:5 (ESV)

And then I ran into this fascinating insight on the Blue Cord biblioblog:

...He (Marvin Pope) notes that in Akkadian, anpu means "nose," just as its cognate ap does in Hebrew. But in Akkadian, it also means "nipple." Hebrew probably also had this meaning, but it is not preserved. So, just as the face of the gazelle slopes down to the nose, so does the breast slope down to the nipple. It is not only a wonderful image but a great play on words as well.

So there you go, you've always wondered and now you know.  I have a totally new appreciation for gazelles.

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Blessings

The practice of blessings in our life has been pretty dramatic; although, in another way, it has been very subtle. I suppose the best way to describe it would be to say that the cumulative effect of the subtle changes has been significant.

The concept of bestowing blessings is incredibly old. The first instance we find that relates to humans is in Genesis 1:28, where it says,

“And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

Isn’t it interesting that blessing is immediately tied with the idea of a commission or a charge to do something? Noah blesses Shem and Japeth and curses Canaan, God blesses Abraham, Melchizedek blesses Abraham, and another intriguing example is when Bethuel and Laban bless Rebekah before she leaves to go marry Isaac. The Scripture reads:

“And they blessed Rebekah and said to her, "Our sister, may you become thousands of ten thousands, and may your offspring possess the gate of those who hate him!" Genesis 24:60

Isn’t it interesting that this blessing is also a prophecy? When Jacob blesses his 12 sons, the same thing is true; in fact, repeatedly in Scripture we find that the blessings bestowed upon people (and the curses) come true.

There are quite a few examples of the practice of giving blessings in Scripture, but one question we might ask is whether that practice continued into the New Testament, and we find that indeed it did.

Jesus blesses the children in Mark 10:16,

And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

This passage is also significant because it affirms that the “laying on of hands” is synonymous with the idea of giving a blessing. Acts gives us an interesting story that confirms that the giving of blessings is not restricted just to apostles or patriarchs. When Saul was in Damascus (Acts 9:17) recuperating from his experience on the Damascus Road, God uses the blessing of a man named Ananias to heal Paul of his blindness and to impart the Holy Spirit.

Paul instructs Timothy not to be hasty in the laying on of hands (1 Timothy 5:22), which indicates that while Timothy was to continue the practice of giving blessings, he was to take it seriously and not consider it something casual. Also, we see in 2 Timothy 1:6 that Paul gave Timothy his commission through a blessing and the laying on of hands.

The Jewish people have preserved this practice for centuries, and it seems that Christians probably ought not to have let if fall by the wayside either.

A couple of things to note here: 1) the Bible indicates we are a nation of priests or as the Apostle Peter puts it a “royal priesthood”, 2) for centuries the Jews have considered the family table to be a sort of mini-altar where the father of the family functions in a manner reminiscent of the Levitical priests in the Temple.

Just as the priests of old were also teachers, worship leaders, servants on behalf of the people of Israel, the husband/father of a family is to be the “head” or “source” of spiritual activity and awareness in the family. As part of that role, he is to blaze the path forward, walking always in the ways of God. Another aspect of that role is blessing his wife and children, providing both his direction (as discerned from his personal relationship with God and study of Scripture) and the benefit of his “blessing.” This blessing appears to be a unique method of direction and guidance which God desires to release into the lives of His beloved people through the leaders that He has ordained to serve those same people.

When I first began to contemplate that God might wish to speak into and transform the lives of my wife and children through the words that I speak over them, through the laying on of my hands, this seemed a very intimidating thing. In fact, for some time after I was convinced that we ought to be practicing something of this sort I procrastinated for some time until I felt very confident that the state of my life and walk with God was something that my wife and children ought to respect, but more importantly that didn’t cause me to feel like a hypocrite when laying my hands on them and trusting God to speak His words through me for and to them.

So the concept of blessing my family calls me as the husband/father to a very high level of faithfulness. Similarly, it has been fascinating to see the effects that viewing me in this role had on Elisa and the kids. This is difficult to describe, but I would say that beginning to observe the Sabbath and the practice of blessing my wife and children brought about the second most significant change Elisa and I have ever experienced in our marriage. It has been amazing.

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Why Community?

A community that heals is a community that believes the gospel provides forgiveness of all sin, a guaranteed future of perfect community forever, and the freedom now to indulge the deepest desires of our hearts, because the law of God is written within us—we have an appetite for holiness.

…

Either we can live as unique members of a connected community, experiencing the fruit of Christ’s life within us, or we can live as terrified, demanding, self-absorbed islands, disconnected from community and desperately determined to get by with whatever resources we brought to our island with us.

The calling of community is to lure people off the island onto the mainland where connection is possible and to provide it. Only then do we truly bear the image of the Eternal Community who created us to enjoy connecting.[1]

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[1] Crabb, Larry. Connecting. Nashville: Word Publishing, 1997. p 31

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Evangelism

When God forgives us for violating his design, he pours his life into us; and that restores our capacity to connect, first with him, then with others. He makes us alive with the actual life of Christ. The energy with which Jesus heard and obeyed the Father, the impulses that lay behind everything he did...are in us.  The impulses that energized Jesus' life on earth are actually in us. That's part of what it means to be alive in Christ.

Non-Christians do not have that life. They are still dead in sin, separate from God, controlled by a very different energy....

At the core of non-Christians, however, is the same capacity for relationship that exists at the core of Christians. Everyone was designed to connect. In non-Christians, though that capacity is functionally dead, there is a haunting memory of what once was, a lingering appetite for what could be.

When a person possessing the life of Christ pours that life into non-Christians, the memory gets clearer, the appetite deepens. When the Spirit of God then whispers, "This is what you've been looking for," he draws non-Christians to Christ, to the source of the connection for which they long.

In Christ, peope are then forgiven and quickened, adopted as members of the family of God and provided with the nature of that family.[1]

---

[1] Crabb, Larry. Connecting. Nashville: Word Publishing, 1997. pp 29,30

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Avinu Shebashamayim

For those who regularly pray from the siddur, I believe you will find this of interest.  I have often pondered the specifics of how The Lord's Prayer fit in to the liturgy of Messiah's day.  Over on the FFOZ blog, Aaron Eby has made a compelling case that the Lord's Prayer was prayed at the end of the Amidah in place of the standard conclusion known as Elohai Netzor.

The essence of his point is that Elohai Netzor was composed by Mar, son of Rabina, and taught to Mar's disciples, as was the case with many Sages who used their own custom concluding prayer, and taught it to their disciples.  As disciples of Yeshua, it would seem fitting then that we would conclude ha Tefillah with His prayer.

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Rosenzweig & the Shaping of Thought

In his essay about Franz Rosenzweig, Rudiger Lux writes the following as a summary of the third section of Rosenzweig's climactic book The Star of Redemption. The third section is titled Gestalt or "The Form":

In The Form he (Rosenzweig) poses the questions: Does all that happened in the past culminate only in the present, in the moment of perception? Is there nothing that gives direction and character to this stream? Is there nothing left but the unredeemed instant? For this final part Rosenzweig chooses as his sub-title, "Against the Tyrants". The present kingdoms have no remaining form, because the redemptive future shines already into the present. Rosenzweig saw this anticipation of the eternal kingdom realized in the communities of synagogue and church, in their alternation of everyday life and day of rest, their liturgy and their festive year cycle. Both synagogue and church have their basis in the revelation of God's name: "I am there and I will be there." (Ex 3:14). (emphasis mine)

In the writings of Franz Rosenzweig, I believe I may have stumbled on to the great shaping influence behind the thinking of Dwight A. Pryor. I shall have to write and ask him.

But what a powerful phrase, "the redemptive future shines already into the present." And "all that has happened in the past culminate(s) in the present, in the moment of perception." Wow!

Rosenzweig (1886 - 1929) grew up in a marginally observant Jewish family, almost converted to Christianity and then had an epiphany during Yom Kippur services at an orthodox synagogue. He later expressed his failure to follow up on his intent to convert like this:

"It [conversion to Christianity] seems unnecessary and for me impossible now. I remain a Jew....We agree on what Christ and his Church mean in the world: no-one comes to the Father but through him (Jn 14:6). No one comes to the Father - but it is different when somebody does not have to come to the Father because he is already with him. And this is so for the people of Israel...."

Rosenzweig understands the meta-narrative of Life/Existence and of Scripture as having three movements, Creation, Revelation & Redemption, as expressed in the Past, Present and Future. For Rosenzweig, God is revealed through creation by acts which are always already there, in regard to realities of the future that are breaking in on the present. In other words, "the kingdom of God is at hand." As Dwight Pryor likes to say, "we are to live not just redeemed but redemptive lives."

May the Kingdom of God break into our lives daily.

"Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven."

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Tradition

I've just realized something that I think I knew, but somehow I had forgotten.  Part of the power and allure of traditions is that it is not just you who cherishes them.

Still chewing on this...

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Irresistible Revolution

Well the title is accurate; I've resisted reading this book for several months, just because it is so popular with a lot of people I know. Sigh. Yes, I know; I'm incorrigible. But anyway, last night it proved irresistible, and I'm now half way through (only because my wife intervened and made me stop reading and go to bed...probably because every other page I was saying, "Listen to this!", so as long as I was up reading, she wasn't going to get any sleep either).

So what am I here to say? Stop everything you're doing and go get yourself a copy of Irresistible Revolution by Shane Clairborne. Don't order it from Amazon.com unless you're willing to pay for overnight shipping. Nope, go get in the car, drive to whatever your favorite local bookstore is, and pick yourself up a copy today. Yes. Go. Now. The blog will be here waiting when you finish the book.

Later, I'll come back and edit this post to be a full-fledged book review.

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The Kingdom Now

I believe that when Yeshua said "the Kingdom is at hand," He meant at least two things.

1. It is coming quickly.  This refers to the coming Kingdom which will not be established until Messiah's return to rule and reign over the Earth.  Of course, "quickly" is a relative term since quickly to Yeshua hasn't happened in over 2000 years.  But I suppose if one has eternally existed (or at least since before the creation of the world) that 2000 years can accurately be considered "quickly."
2. It is here now. By the Yeshua meant the first fruits realization of the future kingdom that would be evidenced in the lives of those here and now (and then) who acknowledged Yeshua as Lord and King.

This has been sort of a recurring theme for me because I view understanding this reality as being so important for impacting the way we live out what we supposedly believe.  Also because I believe this concept of a first fruits of eternity in the lives of believers here and now is an integral part of the concept of tikkun olam. 

In their book, The Insider, Jim Peterson and Mike Shamy expand on what I'm trying to describe:

"But we know the kingdom is among us whenever we see people, motivated by Christ's rule in their hearts, showing mercy instead of judgment, speaking the truth instead of spinning it, giving grace instead of seeking revenge, serving people instead of using them."

"When we see things such as these happening, we know that God's rule is established.  For now, it is in people's hearts and we see only its signs.  These "sightings" are previews of the day when "every knee should bow…and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord."  Many will bow in defeat, others in celebration!"

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The Nitty Gritty

Why do you believe what you believe?  Is it because of proofs and theorems, white papers and historical data? 

Ultimately, my answer to that question is "no."  Of course, when I go beyond the bedrock reason for my personal belief system it is nice to know that the historical and archeological data support Christianity, but at the core of what I believe is an inability to account for the empirical data of my life in any other way than a Supreme Being who personally relates to His creation.

This idea has been bouncing around my mind for a week or two in an unformed manner, but then I read a quote by Rudolf Bultmann that caused my thoughts to take solid shape.

If a man must say that he cannot find God in the reality of his own present life, and if he would compensate for this by the thought that God is nevertheless the final cause of all that happens, then his belief in God will be a theoretical speculation or a dogma; and however great the force with which he clings to this belief, it will not be true faith, for faith can be only recognition of the activity of God in his own life.*

This is the reality of my existence.  Whatever others may write, say, or do, the evidence of my life is incontrovertible; there is a God and I know Him.

* R. Bultmann, Jesus and the Word. ET Fontana 1958, p 113

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Personal Devotions

I will never forget sitting on my bunk in Dorm 4 at Liberty University, getting ready to open up my Quiet Time Diary. I was 21 years old and desperately in need of a connection with and a word from God. Before cracking it open to see where I would be reading that day, I pleaded,

“Dear God, I desperately need to hear from You. I need communication; I need to know what is true, what is right, what to do, what You mean. Please speak to me from Your word.”

The passage that day was somewhere in the Gospel of John, and I heard nothing from above. I recall the despair with which I confronted Him after reading the text over and over again.

“God, it’s just a story; it’s history, but I don’t see any deeper meaning. I don’t hear or see any answers to my questions…. I need to hear from You; what am I to do?! What am I to understand?!”

I didn’t receive an answer for 7 years. Those were 7 arid years of wandering in a spiritual wilderness.

It was marriage that revealed the proper role of personal devotions. The walk of a believer is one of relationship with our Creator. Just like any earthly relationship, the degree to which we feel the reality of that relationship is determined by how much we put into it.

In other words, I have experienced moments of pure relational ecstasy with my wife over the years. However, they were hardly daily events, and they would never have happened if it wasn’t for the many, daily moments of relational “drudgery”, which I invested into our relational bank account.

The amazing thing is those daily talks about seeming nothingness, the daily laying down my desires to honor her, are transformed by the relational highpoints into something much different than “drudgery.” What is the feeling of love after all, other than the sum of many highpoints? Highpoints that are the result of a daily, momentary decision to put the desires of your loved one above your own. And the amazing result is when you discover that putting your loved one above yourself has become your own desire!

When my brother and I were growing up he was a poster boy for proper fiscal behavior. It didn’t matter whether he received $2 or $20, he was going to deposit some of it in his savings account. I, on the other hand, felt it was hardly justified to deposit anything less than $20 or $50, after all it made no discernible difference in my account statement.

Guess who graduated with quite the nice bank account? Hint: it wasn’t me. Daily devotions sometimes prove to be $50 or $100 deposits, and I treasure those moments, but more often they are $ .50 or $1 deposits, that eventually add up to a deep, abiding relationship with my God. And the amazing thing is that years later I now delight in $ .25 deposits!

Sometimes I use what I’m studying deeply as personal devotions. Sometimes my study is dry and academic and I simply randomly read the Scriptures for devotional purposes; at other times I follow some sort of plan, like the weekly Torah portion or 2 chapters of the Old Testament and 1 chapter of the New Testament a day. It doesn’t really matter any more; the point is that I find out more about God in His Word to me. Sometimes I find gold nuggets and sometimes I leave puzzled. Either way, the information I’ve gained, re-iterated, or made available for meditative pondering is precious to me…all because I’ve chosen to love God.

Currently I'm studying the weekly Torah portion (among other things) and reading the weekly Gospel portions for devotions.  However, I am hesitant to make a hard distinction between devotions and study, because what is the point of Scripture study after all, if it doesn't relate to our daily walk.

There was a day when I forced myself to stay sitting at the supper table with my wife because it was the right thing to do. Today I look forward to those times. Those moments rarely merit recording in my diary, but I wouldn’t trade them for all the harems in history!

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Labels

Much to the consternation of some of my friends (and the glee of others) I persistently describe myself as a "Calviminian", and since I don't want this post to be about those two venerable Christian positions, I'll leave it to your imagination to decide what I mean by that.

However, and this brings me to my point, which is more about what we mean by words we use, as opposed to what others understand when they hear the same labels.  I read an anecdote on Prof. John Stackhouse's blog today that struck me as sort of funny and sort of sad, but definitely as an accurate commentary on the status of language and labels today. 

The story went like this:

A Presbyterian scholar had finished a public lecture and a questioner then spoke up: “Are you a Calvinist, then?”

The scholar was about to reply affirmatively, but then wisely asked instead, “Well, what do you mean by ‘Calvinist’?”

“I mean someone who worships a God who enjoys damning babies to hell.”

“O-o-o-kay,” he responded. “Then I’m not a Calvinist. But neither is John Calvin.”

I'd recommend the entire post, as it is a good reflection.

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Welcoming the Sabbath

I've finally fixed the content of the Erev Shabbat liturgy that we use as a family, and that will be a part of The Offerings of Our Lips. 

I've made it available for download on my website (in .pdf) or for purchase all ready bound (in this case stapled saddle-stich style) and printed here.

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One Unit Torah Clothing

A good friend of mine has been gifted by God with a considerable talent in the realm of the artistic.  He has opened up a cafepress.com store to put some of his designs on t-shirts and sweatshirts.

I'm wearing one of his designs as I write this, and it has become one of my favorite shirts.  I encourage you to check it out, and start wearing some of your convictions in a visible manner.

A link to his site will remain at the top of my blog page for future reference.  Go visit www.cafepress.com/oneunit and encourage my buddy, Joel, by expressing your support for whichever design strikes your fancy.

As he begins to get feedback in the way of purchases, he plans to take that guidance and expand his selections and eventually open up a full-blown Torah-believer oriented design internet-store.  Keep your eyes open for news of that move on this blog, and in the meantime exert your own influence over his direction.

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The Way People Talk

I never cease to be amazed at how differently people express themselves.  I'm sitting in a Steak & Shake and three highschool or college girls (I can't tell anymore, which is a sign that I'm getting old) were just seated in the booth opposite me.

One of the girls asked the others,

"Should I get a milkshake?  They're just so fattening."

After lots of intervening giggling and negotiations,

"I'll eat some of your fries if you get fries.  What burger are you getting? Hee, hee, hee!

Oh, My-lanta-a-a!"

She proceeded to order a double chocolate fudge milkshake! 

Granted, highschool girls are almost another race entirely, but still, it has never in my life occurred to me to ask the people I was dining with what I should order. (Upon further eavesdropping I'm guessing they're highschoolers, but what do I know.)  Nor have I ever hesitated to order a milkshake because it was fattening.  ...Perhaps I should start...

The reason this struck me is that I've been contemplating the complexity of communication today.  In several different scenarios I've been struck by the discord that was wrought by a failure on the part of the participants to lend one another the benefit of the doubt, let alone to try on the other's shoes for a moment before replying.

When boiled down to its essence one realizes that this is really an issue of pride.  Someone refuses to consider the reality that they may be mistaken, and another party refuses to be always ready to learn something new. Subsequently, we want to force the other party to "cooperate", rather than humbly consider that the view we brought to this conversation may be in need of revision.  Whether minor or significant, one won't know until further reflection, and this can't happen unless we've engaged in humble dialogue.

Here's another idea.  To some degree you just talk the way you talk; you are who you are.  A few weeks ago my freshly 6- year-old daughter asked me what DNA was, and I found myself about to reply with an answer that most certainly would not have shed any light on the topic for her.  However, I caught myself, tried to put myself in 6-year-old shoes and tried again.  So being myself, I would have answered with another set of words she needed to have explained.  Thinking of her, I was able to communicate in a way that had meaning for her, rather than meaning to me.

Perhaps it's a silly example, and in some ways I'm making light of what in reality is a pretty significant issue.  But, hopefully I've communicated in a way that may mean something to you.  And, if not, well it's the exercise that is the first step.

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