Return to Discipline

Last week I was gently reminded that I had been neglecting this blog.  And its true.  I could cite a thousand reasons and try to pretend that it is not really my fault.  After all life is busy.  But all the excuses in the world will not hide one simple fact: that I lacked the discipline to keep this going.  While my life isn’t out of control, it definitely lacks the discipline that it should have.  So I am in a learning mode right now.  Learning how to put the pieces together in a way that makes sense — with enough flexibility to allow for spontaneity, but the structure that will produce the discipline I need in all aspects of my life.  This blog will be a central portion of that.
I started this blog as a space to hash out what was going on in my head and heart as I worked through the Scriptures or books I was reading.  It was also supposed to be a place where I could develop a discipline of writing regularly — the end goal being the creation of a book.   I chose to create a blog rather than a private journal, because I enjoy the feedback a blog has the potential to bring.  When I say feedback, I don’t just mean “great job Melissa!” or “I agree!”  While that kind of feedback is always enjoyable, I also value people pushing back, posting questions, bringing insight from a different perspective.  So as I return to this blog, I want to ask you to (re) join me in this journey.  Participate in the discussion.   And may the Holy Spirit guide our discussion and bring us to a deeper understanding of Him.

 

God’s Silence Always Breaks

Last week I had the opportunity to speak at Spring Branch’s midWEEK service.  Currently midWEEK is working trough a series called “Whispers – Conversations with a Living God.”  Probably one of the hardest things to figure out in this thing we call faith is how to converse with God.  We pray and seek God’s wisdom, but how to you hear God back?  That is what this series looks at.  I was given the title “When Whispers Deafen” and pondered God’s silence.  To hear the message, follow this link.

As so often is the case, the message was a timely one in my own life.  Since I left my former position, I’ve been in a bit of a sound void.  Not that I didn’t see the Holy Spirit’s movement in my life, but because I could not gain any traction finding out what’s next.  As I prayed and dreamed there was …. silence.  It seemed that one door after another was closed.  I kept moving forward as best I could, but at times it was discouraging.  And then, as it always does, it seems that God’s silence (on next steps) is breaking.

Last Wednesday Mac chose a seat for the service beside a man named John.  He’s a publisher.  A local publisher.  An independent, local publisher.  He and I started talking and “whoosh” the silence lifted.  Specifically, after I was finished speaking John said, “that could be your first chapter.”  I’ve dreamed of writing a book, but its only ever been a dream.  Now it is taking shape.  It’s still a long way off.  I have ideas to focus.  An outline to write.  Many, many prayers to speak.  And pages to craft.  I don’t know how this writing project is going to take shape, but I am excited to follow this journey and see where it leads.

Painful Paws, Prayer and Miracles

Recently, Tori, my seven month old German Shepherd, has been suffering from Pan-o.  There are a lot of medical terms I could throw at you, but simply put she has growing pains in her bones.  Pan-o can be short-lived, but it can also last months, coming and going, jumping from one leg to another.  As this is my girl’s third outbreak, I am thinking we’re in for the long haul.  Having no children, my furry friends are the closest things I have to kids.  It breaks my heart a little bit more each time I see her limping her way down the hall.

In the past few weeks, Tori has started sitting at my feet and offering me her painful paw.  Ears folded back in submission, her head cuddled into my one hand and painful paw cradled in my hand — she is the picture of a dog in pain.  I know dogs are instinctual animals and don’t have the emotions humans do, but I wonder if she is telling me this:  ”I hurt, please fix me.”  Oh Tori how I wish I could.  I can’t take away her pain, all I can do is make sure she rests and do my best to keep her comfortable.

Reading in Peterson’s Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places I came across these words:

As “save”/”salvation” …[is] used in our Scriptures, the word nearly always (but not quite exclusively) tells us that God, rather than removing us from the trouble we are in, brings something into the human situation that is not already here.  I AM THAT I AM enters and is present with us in the conditions; he doesn’t abolish the conditions.

Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, 173

This got me thinking.  How often to I limp over to my God, place my wounded paw in His hand and ask for Him to make it stop.  Take away the pain.  Take away the tension.  Fix the broken relationship.  Heal the infected body.  Remove the depression.  Remove me from my circumstances.  But too often it seems like He doesn’t hear me.

I have heard grand prayers command the Holy Spirit to miraculously heal and beautiful songs describe flying with God above the fray.  But I wonder how often we see the miraculous healings and how often we actually feel like God has carried us out and away from the struggle in life.  This doesn’t seem to be the norm.  We pray and the struggle continues.  Billions around the world pray for the end of poverty, but it continues.  We don’t ask for prayer in church because we can’t help but wonder, does it really make a difference?

Please don’t misread me:  Prayer is important and I believe in miracles, I’ve seen them happen.  I witnessed God heal a definite concussion in a matter of hours.  There was a woman in my church diagnosed with some form of female cancer, and when she went back to the doctor, it had completely disappeared.  God does miraculous things all the time, but I wonder how often we misunderstand the miracle.

There are certain definitives in life.  Struggle is one of them.  Sin has guaranteed it.  Things are not as they should be and there is no one we can blame except ourselves.  In the midst of the mess that we have created, God doesn’t sit up on some cloud and let the chips fall as they may.  He planned out salvation.  He joins us in the midst of our mess.  He was on earth in human flesh.  And though Christ is no longer physically on earth, His Spirit is here.  The Spirit guides us through the mess, teaches us, strengthens us, corrects us, fortifies us, removes sin and reforms us.    Even before we limp to Him, offering Him our injured limbs, He is at work, saving us in the midst of our pain.

What if the real miracle, as Peterson points out, is NOT that God instantly heals or removes us from catastrophe, but that God meets us in the midst of catastrophe?  What if the real testament to the love, grace and power of God isn’t that He removes the pain, but that He sustains us during the pain?  What would happen if we stopped asking God to remove the chaos we find ourselves trapped in, but asked God to show us where He is already at work within it?

Your thoughts?

The Responsibility of Teaching

My favourite class in grade 9 was guitar.  My teacher had a mullet, 80s skinny jeans and a little gottee.  He could explain the musical theory of guitar in ways that made sense.  He could play anything on the guitar.  If I was stuck on a piece, he break it down, step by step, and show me how to play the song.  I started grade 10 excited to continue to grow in my guitar skills.  There was a problem, my teacher had been replaced by Dr. Brown.  Dr. Brown was a nice enough guy.  He had a doctorate in music and could explain the musical theory really well.  The students didn’t like him much though.  It might have been that he wanted us to call him Dr.  Fair enough he had a doctorate, but every other teacher was just “Miss” or “Sir”.  But it probably had more to do with his absolute inability to play guitar.  If I was stuck on a piece, he could play it on piano just fine.  He could tell me what I should do, he could explain the theory of the piece and he could even give me a glimpse into how it would sound.  But he couldn’t show me by example.

I wonder if that is a bit of what James is getting at when he said:

Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.  Jas 3:1, ESV.

I had absolutely no respect for Dr. Brown because he could not do what he was taught.  He said one thing, but could not do it himself.  In the church there are teachers who teach on things they are unable or unwilling to do themselves.  They teach on grace, but cannot forgive a colleague.  They teach giving to the poor, but do not practice generosity.  They teach humility, but are proud.  They teach Jesus crucified and risen, but have no hope.

Now as teachers you are expected to know what you are talking about.  We expect our pastors to have spent time learning under others — often in a seminary setting. We expect them to spend time each week praying and studying God’s word so they are ready to present God’s word to His people.  In the same way, we expect our Sunday School and Small Group teachers/leaders to spend time in prayer and study preparing for the lesson of the week.  We expect our teachers to be living out the life they teach.  Not because they are held to some higher standard of spirituality or Christian life, for, as Christians we are all called to the same standard.

Please hear me on this.  There is a mindset in the church that pastors and teachers need to be or should be more godly.  At times there is an unspoken assumption that the pastor no longer struggles with sin.  This is simply not true.  Pastors and teachers are just as fallen as every other person in the pew.  The standard of Christian life is the same for all who are followers of Christ.

But the teacher will be judged with more severity.  James doesn’t speak to what kind of judgment, he seems to assume his listeners understand.  But perhaps he follows Jesus’ lead from the sermon on the mount.  Those who judge others without mercy or forgiveness will be judged the same.  James 1:26-27 gives the measure for pure religion.  If you do not practice what you preach as a teacher, you will be severely judged.

What does this look like?  Here are my thoughts:

It means remembering we are sinful and just as much in need of God’s grace as everyone else we teach.

It means disciplining ourselves to take the time to really prepare.  We need to ensure we are teaching truth.  That means study.  I know life is busy and things come up.  They always will.  But as teachers we have the responsibility to be disciplined in our study.  Sometimes that will mean forsaking the good and better to do the best.

It means taking the necessary time not only to prepare the message/study, but to prepare our hearts.   For instance, if my lesson is on pride and humility, I need to honestly look for the prideful areas of my life, seek forgiveness and repent.  It doesn’t mean I pretend to not have pride.  I have to be honest with myself before God and those I teach.

It means having accountability.  You are not going to be able to tell your small group or your congregation everything you deal with.  But you need to be able to share your struggles with someone.  If you know you have a problem in a certain area, you need to trust someone else enough to 1) share it with them and 2) for them encourage you and help you overcome it through the power of the Holy Spirit.

It means being humbled and thankful.  This is a big job and God has called you, a flawed and sinful human, to teach His word to His people.  I am still in awe of this.

It means being honest with yourself.  Not everyone who wants to be a teacher should be a teacher.  It could be a phase of life thing or a state of the heart thing.  Sometimes our estimation of our gifts is far removed from reality.  Why do you want to teach?  Have you taken time to be discipled by other teachers?  Do you have a good foundation in the Scriptures and Christian Doctrine to build upon?

I am so thankful for the godly men and woman who have been teachers in my life.  I only hope that as I am obedient to God’s call of teaching in my own life, that I will be a blessing to others as they have been to me.

Getting the Word Right…. Moralism v. Religion

 

 

The derogatory use of the word “religion” has been much on my mind of recent.  In truth, its something that I’ve pondered for a while.  If you were to flip back in my blog to here, you find a discussion on Pure Religion from James 1:26-27.  My most recent blog post is in response to Jefferson Bethke’s spoken word youtube video, Why I Hate Religion, but Love Jesus.   Then, last night,  I was reading Eugene Peterson’s Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places.  I believe Peterson offers us some useful vocabulary in this discussion.

Peterson writes,

When things go wrong, whether at home or in society, in church or in government, it is easy to find a moral reason: disobedience or ignorance of the biblical commandments is obviously at the root of a lot of what is wrong with the world.  We conclude that if only we can educate our children and our parents, our politicians and our professors, our business leaders and our celebrities in right thinking and right behavior, things will improve dramatically.

All this is true enough.

But the moment this becomes our basic orientation for dealing with what is wrong with the world, we have turned our backs on the cross of Christ, on Jesus as our Savior.  The moment the moral life defines our way of life we turn our backs on most of what is revealed in our Scriptures, refuse to admit the presence of God in what is happening around us (history), but worst of all, refuse to deal with the most significant thing we know about Jesus [that He suffered and died],  having replaced the real Jesus with a crude, one dimensional cardboard cutout.  It amounts to a defiant denial of Jesus.  We place ourselves in a position to receive Jesus’ most serious rebuke: “Get behind me, Satan.  You are a stumbling block to me; for your are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things” (Matt. 16:24).  When we rip the moral life from the living context of the Christ life, pull it up by the roots from the nourishing, loamy soul of Scripture, we end up holding a withered, drooping, and finally dead flower, a cut flower.

I am going to use the term “moralism” to designate this common, seemingly inoffensive, but in fact disastrous betrayal of Jesus.  But not the word carefully.  The root of the word is “moral”, a glorious and necessary word.  Morality is built into reality as deeply and inescapably as atoms and protons and neutrons.  We are moral beings to the core — the very universe is moral.  Right and wrong are embedded in the creation.  It matters what is done, said, believed, even thought.  Morality is fundamental and non-negotiable.

But moralism is something quite different.  Moralism means constructing a way of life in which I have no need of a saving God.  Moralism is dead; morality is alive.  Moralism works off of a base of human ability and arranges life in such a way that my good behavior will guarantee protection from punishment or disaster.  Moralism works from strength, not weakness.  Moralism uses God (or the revelation of God) in order not to need God any longer.  Moral codes are used as stepping stones to independence from God.

Moralism works from the outside: it imposts right behavior on oneself or others.  There is no freedom in it, and no joy.  Moralism is a moral grid that is set up on life.  Up against this grid, I can see exactly where I fit or don’t fit, what actions are right and which are wrong.  And once I know that, what else is there?  I either do it or don’t.  And you either do it or don’t.  Simple.

Eugene Peterson, Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places, pp 144-146

I think what Peterson offers a valuable corrective to all this “religion” talk.  People like Bethke rightly point to problem areas in local congregations.  Where the Bride of Christ has chosen to set a moral code to control people and behaviour is problematic.  There is no recognition of the reality of the messiness of life.  There is no freedom for the Spirit to move through our failings.  When we focus on measuring up to some “moral right”, we fail.    But let’s call a spade a spade.  This is not a religion problem.  This is a moralism problem.

Your thoughts?

What’s in a word?

Recently I have seen a certain video circulating around facebook.  I’ve watched it a few times, seen the discussions folks are having about it and…. I am troubled.  I am tired of rants by Christians about other Christians.  I am tired of one party telling another party how they are right and how everyone else is wrong.  I’m super tired of the religion versus relationship conversation.  But right now, I’m very concerned about the “truth” of the I Hate Religion but I Love Jesus video.  (If you haven’t seen it, you can view it here.)  Can we thoughtfully walk through it?

“What if I told you,  Jesus came to abolish religion”

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. 19 Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Mt 5:17–20.

“What if I told you voting republican really wasn’t His mission?”

So does that mean Jesus is a Democrat?  All jokes aside, I have no arguments here.  Jesus is not Republican, Democratic, Independent, Leftist, Rightist, Centrist, Communist, Socialist, Statist, Monarchist anything-ist.

“I mean if religion is so great, why has it started so many wars?”

Let’s actually look at some real figures from the past 150 years: (These figures come from this site.  For a complete breakdown of the wars battle by battle, and for specific academic references, please visit the site.)

• Congo Free State (1886-1908): 8 000 000
• Mexican Revolution(1910-20): 1,000,000
• First World War (1914-18): 15 000 000
• Russian Civil War (1917-22): 9 000 000
• Soviet Union, Stalin’s regime (1924-53): 20 000 000
• 1st Chinese Civil War, Nationalist Era (1928-37): 5,000,000
• Second World War (1939-45): 66 000 000
• Post-War Expulsion of Germans from East Europe (1945-47): 2,100,000
• 2nd Chinese Civil War(1945-49): 2,500,000
• People’s Republic of China, Mao Zedong’s regime (1949-1975): 40 000 000
• North Korea (1948 et seq.): 3,000,000
• Korean War (1950-53): 3,000,000
• Rwanda and Burundi (1959-95): 1 350,000
• Second Indochina War (1960-75): 4 200,000  (This includes Vietnam War (1965-73): 1 700,000)
• Ethiopia (1962-92): 2,000,000
• Nigeria(1966-70): 1,000,000
• Bangladesh (1971): 1,250,000
• Cambodia, Khmer Rouge (1975-1978): 1,650,000
• Afghanistan(1979-2001): 1,800,000
• Sudan(1983-2005): 1,900,000
• Kinshasa Congo (1998 et seq.): 3,800,000

More people have died in the 20th Century in conflicts started by stateists and those obsessed with their own power than all those who died in the centuries prior.    The statistics simply do not back up this false statement.  There have not been more wars started by Christians/Religion and I am embarrassed that a Christian would buy into that thought.

“Why does it build huge churches, but fails to feed the poor?”

This is a strawman argument.  Are there big churches?  HUGE churches?  Yep.  There are tiny ones too.  Are some of those churches inwardly focused and don’t give two cents to what happens outside of their walls.  Definitely.  Are there churches making huge differences in their community and around the world?  Definitely.  If you were to remove all of the Christian hunger charities from the world, world hunger would be a significantly bigger problem.  For every miserly church you show me, I can show you more that are feeding the poor.  Oh and by the way, James 1:27:   Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

“Tell single moms God doesn’t love them, if they’ve ever had a divorce? But in the Old Testament God actually calls religious people whores.”

Here’s what I love about the Old Testament.  God is speaking to specific groups of people in specific times and places.  So did God call His people  prostitutes? “Long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said, ‘I will not serve you!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute.“ Je 2:20 (NIV) Most definitely, but what was the context?  Was it because they were all caught up in religiosity?  It looks more like they were saying “F* You!” to God and doing their own thing.  As a nation Israel had decided to go their own way, do their own thing and weren’t really even TRYING too look like the people of God. And the reality is that God says in the Old and New Testament that He hates divorce.  Does that mean He hates the people who have been divorced?  No.  But the pain, anguish, anger, bitterness, resentment etc, etc, etc that divorce causes was not part of God’s plan for humanity.  God hates what divorce does to people.

“Religion might preach grace, but another thing they practice.  Tend to ridicule God’s people.  They did it to John the Baptist.”

I’m not sure what he is saying here.  Who are “they?”  Who are “God’s people” in this sentence?  Best I can figure he referring to the Jewish Leaders who maligned John the Baptist.  These weren’t comments coming from inside the Christian community.  One thing that seems to be clear is this is incendiary language meant to inflame.  How is that gracious?

“They can’t fix their problems, so they just mask it, not realizing religion’s like spraying perfume on a casket. The problem of religion is that it never gets to the core, its just behaviour modification like a long list of chores.  Like lets dress up the outside make it look nice and neat.  It’s funny that what they used to do to mummies while corpse rots underneath.”

Ok here I give “partial credit.”  While it is true that people use their faith to mask their pain, fear, doubt, sin, [insert other descriptive here], we ALL do this out of pride, not religion.  And as individuals we have the ability to take our faith as deep as we choose.  I can’t blame my local church community if I choose to be shallow.  My faith is my responsibility, not my pastor’s.

“Now I ain’t judging, I’m just saying ….”

Really?

“… quit putting on a fake look.  Because there is a problem if people only know you’re a Christian by your facebook.  I mean in every other area of life that logic is unworthy.  It’s like saying you play for the Lakers because you bought a jersey.”

Agreed.

“See this was me too, but no one seemed to be on to me.  Acting like a church kid, while addicted to pornography…I spent my whole life creating the facade of neatness, but now that I know Jesus I boast in my weakness.”

Kudos to you.  This is a great testimony!

“Because if Grace is water than the church should be an ocean.  It’s not a museum for good people, its a hospital for the broken.Which I means I don’t have to hide my failure,  I don’t have to hide my sin.  Because it doesn’t depend on me, it depends on Him.”

Agreed.

“See when I was God’s enemy and certainly not a fan, God looked down on me and said I want that man.  Which is why Jesus hated religion, and foreword he called them fools.  Don’t you see so much better than just following some rules?”

I am not sure how the second statement (Which is why …) depends on the first.  And ignoring the fact that Jesus never said He hated religion.  We are called to more than mindlessly following the rules.  We are called to be part of God’s mission of redeeming the world.

“Now let me clarify: I love the church, I love the Bible and yes I believe in sin.  But if Jesus came to your church, would they actually let Him in?  See he was called a glutton and a drunkard by religious men. But Son of God doesn’t support self-righteousness not now, not then.”

I don’t honestly see much love for the church in what this man is saying.  He has been criticizing the church from the beginning of this video.  In fact the entire tone of this video, to me, seems to be self-righteous and all knowing.  The reality is this: if we saw Jesus in the flesh, ALL of us would be ashamed to realize where we have missed the boat.  Only when we see God face to face will we truly understand the depth to which sin corrupted us.

“Now back to the point, one thing is vital to mention.  Jesus and religion are on opposite spectrums. See one’s the work of God and one’s a man-made invention.  See one is the cure and the other is an infection.”

Ok fine. Religion is a man made TERM.  Christians are the only religious group in the world who have a hang up about the word.  We seem to conflate it with legalism.  But to the rest of the world it means:

1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, especially when considered as the creationof a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involvingdevotional and ritual observances, and often containing amoral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christianreligion; the Buddhist religion.

3. the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices: a world council of religions.

“See religion says do.  Jesus says done.”

This one concerns me.  A lot.  ”Jesus says done.”  Yes Christ’s death and resurrection was a one time thing.  He doesn’t need to do it again to forgive sin.  But the story of salvation isn’t over yet.  Jesus is coming back and we will live in eternity.  It’s an ongoing story.  We’ve barely gotten into the story.  It’s not done.  Not to mention that this whole poem is about what we should do.

 ”Religion says slave.  Jesus says son.  Religion puts you in bondage while Jesus sets you free.  Religion makes you blind.  But Jesus makes you see.”

I finally get it.  The word he’s looking for here is SIN not religion!!  We were slaves to sin.  We were in bondage to sin.  We were blinded by sin.  Now Jesus calls us brother and God calls us child.  The holy Spirit sets us free from the chains of sin through the salvific act of Christ.  However, we are bound to Jesus and in the words of Paul, “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God.” (Rom 6:22a).

“And that’s why religion and Jesus are two different clans.  Religion is man searching for God.  Christianity is God searching for man.”

The search is a mutual endeavor, however it is the power of God that draws the convert.

 ”Which is why salvation is freely mine and salvation is my own, not based on my merits but Jesus’ alone.  Because He took the crown of thorns and the blood dripped down his face.  He took what we all deserve, and I guess that is why you call it grace.”

Agreed.

“And while being murdered He yelled “Father forgive them, the know not what they do.  Because when He was dangling on that cross He was thinking of you.  And He absorbed all your sin and he buried it in the tomb.  Which is why I’m kneeling at the cross saying com’mon there’s room.”

I honestly don’t know what Jesus was thinking when He was hanging on that cross.  This guy doesn’t know either.  The scriptures don’t tell us.  They do tell us why He was on that cross — for the redemption of humanity.  I’m not a fan of the image of buried sin, because what is buried can be found.  Jesus didn’t bury sin, the word images used in Scripture are that He washed it away or that He destroyed it.  He didn’t hide it.

So for religion, no I hate it.  In face I literally resent it.  Because when He said “it is finished”, I believe He meant it.

I get that you hate religion.  You’ve been saying it throughout this video.  But I wonder if this is what you mean, for the seeds of hate and discord are not of Jesus.    We shouldn’t be fighting a war over the word religion.  The reality is, this is an “inside” Christianity fight.  I don’t know how many folks who don’t already follow Christ care about how the word religion is used.  I am concerned that videos like this do more to fuel the anti-Christianity crowd than to further the work of Christ.  If you know people who have issues with “religious” folks, live your life in such a way to show them different.  Christ says they will know we are different by our love.  Let that shine.

#toGodbetheglory

I  grew up going to church.  So I grew up hearing expressions like:

Glory to God

Givin’ God the Glory

Glorify the Name of the Lord

We do [.............] for the God’s Glory

But I have to admit…. I don’t think I every really figured out what it means to “glory” or to “glorify”.  To me the term has always seemed a little too … ethereal and transcendent.  It wasn’t something rooted in everyday life.  Or at least not in my every day life.  I didn’t understand the practicality of glorifying God.

North America has moved far away from the days of Kings and Queens.  We don’t go to court to pay homage to the almighty one of our regions.  We don’t bow down in respect and humility (or fear?) before the governor.  We don’t actively think about glorifying anything.  We just live our lives with the occasional shout out on facebook or twitter for the things we enjoy and appreciate.

A couple months ago I was speaking at a local youth conference.  As I prayed and studied for the evening, one theme came to the forefront: God’s Glory.  Being the good little geek I am I pulled out my Theological Greek Dictionary of the New Testament and looked up glory or doxa.  Here’s what I found: before the word doxa was used in the Scriptures it meant to “think” or “recognize”.

So in its simplest meaning, to glorify God means to think on Him, to recognize Him.  This is more than just a twitter shout out a la: “What a great day #togodbetheglory.”  This is intentional reflection of where God is moving and acting in your life.  God in your everyday life means LOOKING for Him in your place of work or study, in your friendships, in your family relationships, in your play time, in your nutrition, in your fitness.  As a human I can choose where I recognize God’s presence.  I can choose to seek Him or not.  I can choose to compartmentalize my life and only think on God, only know God in the places where I “allow” Him.  Or I can start with the realization that God is already involved with every aspect of my life and learn to recognize His hand at work.

Faith & Works: Getting Worship Right.

This past weekend I had the opportunity to hang out with the Students at Greenbrier Community Church and I wanted to share a portion of our discussion, because it ties into what we’re talking about in James.

We began our journey by looking at the houses we’ve built in our lives.  In the western world we like things neat, tidy and orderly.  And so we organize our lives into various rooms.  There are rooms we are proud of (our accomplishments, our families, our friendships, our strengths) that we are willing to put on display for anyone and everyone to witness.  There are other rooms we keep hidden (our failures, our shame, our fear, our weaknesses).  We are masters of our house and so we choose which rooms we will invite our guests into.  The problem here, for Christians, is that we are selective of which rooms we allow the Holy Spirit into.  And when it comes to integrity, this is a HUGE problem.  When we don’t allow the Holy Spirit into every aspect of our lives, then we end up living one way on Sundays and the “churchy” aspects of our lives and a completely different way in other aspects of our life.  And to one extent or another, we all do this.  Our outward actions don’t always line up with our inward beliefs.

So we need to transform the way we look at our lives.  We need to transform the way we look at worship.  Pause for a moment.  How would you define worship?  What words or phrases would you use to define it?  What actions would you point to as examples of worship.  Dictionary.com would define it as this:

1.  reverent honor and homage paid to god or a sacred personage, or to any object regarded as sacred.

2.  formal or ceremonious rendering of such honor and homage:They attended worship this morning.

3.  adoring reverence or regard: excessive worship of business success.

God defines it as this:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength.  (Deut 6:5)

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind.  (Matthew 22:37)

To me that doesn’t really sound like “formal or ceremonious rendering of such honour and homage” .. though the formal side is definitely part of it.  I would define worship as this:

Worship happens when all of who we are responds to all of who God is.

Worship is definitely caught up in the actions of singing, prayer, studying the Scriptures, corporate worship experiences, but that is the “formal” side of it.  Worship extends far past that.  Worship happens when we allow God to join us in our passions.  It is present when we celebrate the way God has formed our brains and how we engage in academics.  We worship when we feel His pleasure as we play that sport He has gifted us in or express ourselves creatively with the talents He has given us.  Worship happens when we love our friends and family well, when we look with the eyes of God at the hurting world around us and reach out with love, grace and mercy in the ways God has created us to.  Worship is, perhaps, most obvious when we meet hatred, injustice, oppression and malice with love when we’d far rather lash out in anger.  Worship happens when our “inside realities” of faith (the stuff that happens in our minds and hearts that no one can see) makes an impact on our outward actions.

James puts it like this…..

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?  If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food,  and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.  But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder! Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless? Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up his son Isaac on the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by his works; and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God.  You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.   (James 2:14-26)

There are a number of people who blast James on this passage because he seems to be going against the doctrine that we are justified by FAITH alone through God’s Grace alone.  But I really don’t think that is what James is talking about.  I don’t think he’s calling into question HOW someone is saved.  I think he is telling us that if your outward reality does not reflect your inward faith, you call your own faith into question.

Abraham’s action demonstrated his faith.  Rahab’s actions demonstrated her faith.  Think about how different the stories of the Scriptures would be if Abraham had said, “I don’t need to sacrifice my son, I know have faith in God so why demonstrate it by following this direction?”  What if Rahab had said, “I know God will be triumphant, I don’t need to hide these spies.  God will protect them.”    Their actions of faith defined them.   I also think that James used these two people intentionally.  We’re comfortable with Abraham being an example of faith.  But Rahab?  She was a prostitute.  Sure she did a good thing, but look at her life!  She is not the poster child for “religious faithfulness.”  But here is the good news: God calls you by your name, not by your deeds.  He calls us to be faithful to Him, and allow Him to work in the broken and shameful parts of our past for redemption.  And a life of faith is something that can be quantified or qualified.  It’s not about how many religious ceremonies you attend, its about all of who you are, responding to all of who God is.

All of use have been created uniquely.  God fashioned us with a combination of skills, talents, abilities and strengths that are different than anyone else.  And, I believe, God is pleased, joyful even, when He sees us enjoying who He created us to be.  So what better way to worship Him than to recognize His creative genius in our lives as we used those gifts in the places and spaces we find ourselves.  What if we expanded our understanding of worship, so that it encompasses our whole being responding to all of who God is, in every aspect of our lives?

Personally, I think that when we as believers get our worship right, the world stands up and takes notice.

Book Review: The Scent of Water

I received a copy of The Scent of Water by Naomi Zacharias from Zondervan to review on this blog about a month ago.  It has been a heartbreakingly wonderful journey.  I hope you enjoy my review (below) and HIGHLY recommend that you get your own copy.

The Scent of Water: Grace for Every Kind of Broken by Naomi Zacharias.  Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2010.  Pp 222. $16.99 or $9.99 on Kindle.

Once upon a time, reality broke through the fairy tale and left unimagined destruction.  We, in the western world anyways, live for the fairy tale.  We want lives that are easy and struggle free.  We don’t want to see brokenness, so we close our eyes to it, and feel betrayed when we encounter it in our own lives.  Where is God in the midst of heart ache, of devastation, of loss?  When a Tsunami hits, or a girl is sold into prostitution, is there anything left but desolation?  These are questions Naomi Zacharais, director of Wellspring International, a humanitarian branch of Ravi Zacharias International Ministries, asks in her new book The Scent of Water: Grace for every Kind of Broken.

Many of us fight to live in the fairy tale.  We want to believe that good triumphs over evil and that they lived happily ever after.  But then reality moves in.  Relationships crumble before our eyes, the innocent struggle, and mayhem strikes.  We wonder why.  But we have, as Zacharias points out, rewritten the fairy tales to omit the struggles and hardships.  We want the happily ever after without the death-defying battles that created heroes and heroines of our beloved fairy tales.  Struggling the pick up the pieces of her own life, Zacharias

wanted to leave the familiar — my own evil and heartache — and find people who were the most vulnerable: to be where something was tragically broken that was not me.  It was not to feel comforted by seeing the pain of another, but rather to feel another’s pain…The reality is that I was running from something I could not fix, a self I could not forgive, and a story I could not accept.  (p.25)

Her travels brought her to Banda Aceh, Indonesia in February 2005.  She was there to provide support following the devastating Christmas Tsunami of 2004.  She tells the stories of Annie and Elise, women working in Amsterdam’s red light district.  She falls in love with RJ, a six-year-old boy in India.  She struggles with Bijal a working-mother in Malaysia who has endured a marriage of abuse from her husband.  Her heart breaks anew as she travels through refugee camps in Pakistan for displaced nationals.  Zacharias travels, encounters, sees and finds ways to help.

A gifted story-teller, Zacharias uses the personal stories of people she has interacted with to put a face to reality of life around the world.  Facts and figures allow us to stay distant.  With facts we have the choice:

to walk away and only feel a dutiful amount of sympathy and recognition that this was, in fact, a terrible thing, or to venture inside, to look at the people, the places, and the soul of what was lost.  But we know that once we walk through this door, we will not emerge the same.  It’s impossible to truly engage in significant loss without losing a part of ourselves in the process.  (p.16)

That which we lose may be our desire to live in the fairy tale.  It may be the willful ignorance of the true nature of suffering in the world around us.  It may also be the desire to hold our pain and suffering in the forefront, allowing our pain to be the defining feature of our lives. For Zacharais, engaging in the lives of others allowed her to come to grips and grace with parts of her own life.  Throughout the book, the reader struggles with Zacharais as she learns grace and hope.  And, as she learns to see the beauty of what God can bring in the midst of absolute heartache.

Those looking for a theological treatise on the nature of pain and suffering will be disappointed with this book.  Zacharais does not provide chapter and verse as to why or how this happens.  But rather, through story, she shines a light on the reality of sin in the world and the power of Grace to change people’s lives.  She takes the reader on her journey of discovery of grace, hope, longing, honesty, pain and love.  At the end of her book, she shares:

I am not in a place where I can say I am grateful for all that has happened.  Given the choice I still wish very much that it could have been different, that there had been another way to have learned these lessons.  I struggle to accept the life that is mine because it is not the story that I wanted …But now I see the world with perspective; I view the people through vastly different lenses and recognize beauty in things that once escaped my notice.  God seems more mysterious — sometimes  mysteriously confusing, absent, and maddening.  But always mysteriously true.  If I am honest, life is even more complicated but undeniably richer. (p.203)

This is a beautifully told story written by a woman who is able to see beyond the labels of prostitute, victim, orphan and see the God-given beauty in the person.  Personally, her words have created a deeper desire in my own life to become more actively engaged in the lives of the vulnerable and, to borrow Zacharias’ words, “not to be comforted by their pain but to feel it.”  I don’t want to just feel that dutiful amount of sympathy and move on, I want to engage with their stories and use my gifts and abilities to serve them as discover their own God-given calling in their own lives.

What’s the big deal with Favouritism?

James makes a big deal about favouritism.  If you read James 2:8-13 you’ll see that James links favouritism with: breaking the Law of God at its very heart, adultery and murder.  Not that James is ever one to mince words, but these seem to be especially harsh.  Let’s look at that passage, bit by bit, so we can have a deep understanding of what James is doing here:

If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. Jas 2:8.

Some criticize James for being too Jewish in his approach.  In fact,the form of James is similar to Jewish wisdom literature.  However, rather than go to Leviticus or other Scriptures which talk about caring for the poor and destitute, James clearly places his teaching in the mouth of Jesus.  Here he is citing Matthew 22:39.  Jesus summed up the Law with two all-encompassing commands:  Love God with everything in you and love your neighbour (anyone you come in contact with) as yourself.  If we hold to these two things, we will be doing well.  This does not mean that everything is going along “fine”, it means that you are living out your calling by God according to what he has set down.

In fact, James sets for this specific command as the way to defeat favouritism.  I think this is something that we really need to ponder, because if we’re honest, all of us play the favourites game.  We really are far more comfortable with some people than others.  Specifically, here’s my question for you.  How do you label people?  Some of us are more obvious about this than others, but we like categories.  We like to keep things neat and orderly.  So when we meet people we put labels on them.  Here’s the problem with this.  We like to place people in categories because it saves us from really having to get to know who they are, what they think, what they believe and where they hurt.  If we know the label, we know how to rank their worth.  Or more strongly put, we know how to devalue people.  We deal with the people’s labels and not with the person themselves.   People who fit our categories we love, and those who don’t we dismiss.  We play favourites.

The antidote? Love your neighbour as yourself.  Neighbour doesn’t mean those who fit into the categories that you are comfortable with.  Your neighbour is any single person you come in contact with in your day to day life.  It’s the people you work with.  It’s the people you live with.  It’s the people you play with.  It’s the person ahead of you in the check-out line who is taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R.  It’s the person who is driving in front of you UNDER the speed limit.  And your neighbour is especially all those people in the categories you don’t like.  You defeat favouritism by removing the labels and the categories and getting to know and love the people you meet.  And as you love them, you serve them, touching their needs as you are uniquely gifted to by God.

Why?

But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it.  Jas 2:9–10.

Because when you don’t love the whole person, when you demean people and show favouritism, you are sinning.  You are breaking the Kingly Law of God.  And you are striking straight at the heart of Jesus’ teachings.  Faith is not a test that you can skate by on with a 75% grade.  There are no A- here.  If you miss on this you miss the whole thing.

Sounds harsh?  It is.  But I think James is intending this.  In other places of the book he talks about sin but does not add this condemnation (as we will see).  But here he does.  We need to sit up and take notice of this and repent for our favourtism!  James isn’t finished yet, so let’s keep going:

For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.  Jas 2:11.

Here James has linked favouritism to the acts of adultery and murder.  On one hand he’s speaking in hyperbole.   Can you imagine someone standing before Jesus on judgement day saying: “I don’t see what the big deal is, sure I killed someone but I was faithful to my husband!”  To imagine that is ridiculous.  It wouldn’t happen.  But when it comes to playing favourites in our own life, we don’t see it as a big deal — it’s not like we killed someone or cheated on anyone.  What’s the big deal?

The big deal is that we cheated on the law of God.  We sold out our neighbour so we could have the nicer more comfortable and less stressful life.  And because we were negligent in caring for the hurt and broken around us, we contribute to their demise.  Would we be convicted in a court of law for murder?  No.  But we are called to care for the broken.  We are called to love fully and completely.  And when we don’t we break the Royal Law of God.

The final word?

So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty.  For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.  Jas 2:12–13.

We are to conduct our lives as people who have experienced that grace of God.  We are to reach out and share that love and grace that we have experienced with the world around us.  And when we are in a position that we need to speak against a behaviour or an action or a person, we need to do so knowing that we are saved by grace, and we too are sinful just as our neighbours are.  Whenever we label people and treat them as their labels, when we play the favourites game, when we act without grace we a judging people without mercy.  We are acting against God and what He has called us to.

Ravi Zacharais speaks about “apologetics with a touch”.  He talks about the need not to just share the word of God, but create relationships and fill needs as God gifts us so that people can see the word of God reached out.  His daughter, Naomi Zacharais, tells a story in her book The Scent of Water of working hard to find a kidney donor for a young 19-year old Hindu girl in Malaysia.  Her family questioned why she, a Christian, would work so hard for a Hindu?  She quotes her colleague:

There are people all over the world who are needy, and they don’t need to be reminded that they are needy.  They need to be reminded that they matter.  And nobody said that better than Christ. (Naomi Zacharias, The Scent of Water, 125)

We need to be about apologetics with a touch.  We need to be about showing the people around us that they matter.  That they are uniquely special because, regardless of their beliefs or life style choices or political views, they were created by God and they carry His image in them.  And as we genuinely love and care for those God puts in our path, whether they are in our household, our work place or around the world, they experience a touch from our loving and gracious God.