Spiritual Formation

Archived Posts from this Category

July 11, 2011

Learning to Listen to the Voice of God

Posted by JeremyJK under Gospel Of John, Jesus, Prayer, Spiritual Formation
Leave a Comment 

Jesus taught that his sheep know his voice.  But have you ever told another Christian that the Lord told you something and they look at you like you have three heads?  Or they act like you just told them you met with Elvis, Tupac, and Ghandi and they told you that they wanted you to lead the advertising for a comeback concert? The fact of the matter is that many Christians don’t believe God talks to his people like that anymore, I mean individually, in their hearts, or like God spoke with Moses face to face (Exod. 33:1).  But has God really stopped speaking?  Does he have nothing left to say?  Does he not want to help us with the day to day moments of life?  Are we supposed to cast lots like the apostles did in Acts 1 to figure out God’s will is?  Are we to look around for “angel feathers” and interpret such things as God communicating to us?  Seems like God can do better than that, doesn’t it?

I think God has a better way of speaking to us.  He doesn’t have to resort to the Patrick Swayze’s methods in the movie Ghost.  Remember him struggling to knock vases over when he is trying to get Demi Moore to realize he still exists?  Maybe there are some Christians he has to do that for because they are not listening.  But this was never meant to be the means God had to go to get our attention.  He does speak and he wants to speak daily to you and me.  In the words of Richard J. Foster in his book Celebration of Discipline (which you can find a link to on the sidebar of this blog), “He [Jesus] is not idle, nor has he developed laryngitis.”  Thus his sheep truly do have the opportunity to hear and know his voice.

When can you hear his voice?  Well it is possible to develop your hearing to the point of being able to hear him throughout the day even amongst the hustle and bustle.  Yet I personally find that I hear from God most when I am able to quiet my mind and heart and in Christian meditation…LISTEN for him.  Will it be audible?  There will be times when it seems like it, but usually not.  And it may not come right away.  But we must learn to WAIT and LISTEN.  Those are two things in our culture that are not very popular to do, especially “waiting.”  We want everything instantaneously.  But God does not work that way.  In fact, I often wonder if God likes to see if we are willing to WAIT for him.  Or are we going to say, “Come on I need an answer now.  I haven’t got all day.” 

No, we need to patiently listen for God and wait, maybe days, weeks or months.  I have learned that one of the best ways to know it is God’s guidance is listening for consistency over a period of time.  If it is God, he will not give up, he is relentless…especially if you are being a faithful listener.

But how can we be like what Jesus describes?  How can we KNOW his voice?  Answer: Time, Commitment, and Patience.  Elijah spent many days and nights learning to hear the “still small voice of God” in the wilderness (1 Kings 19:9-18).  In time, one is able to distinguish God’s voice from others.  But be patient with yourself and don’t get discouraged and give up.  And remember, no one get’s it down perfectly, but we are all learning. 

It is no coincidence that the Gospel writers often mention Jesus getting away to be alone and pray.  It is in these moments that he heard from the Father.  It is at those times he saw what the Father wanted him to do, for Jesus did nothing unless he saw the Father doing it or saying it (John 5:19; 14:10).  Then he could truly say “as I hear, I judge” (John 5:30).  That is, Jesus made judgments based on what the Father’s judgments were.  Not on feelings, opinion, prejudices etc. 

There is no perfect formula for hearing from God.  Like anything else, one learns by practicing.  Begin to listen and take that time with God.  As you do, rely on his grace to help you to hear and recognize his voice.  Remember, “ask and you will receive.”  Ask God to help you and I promise he will.  In time, you will experience such an overwhelming joy and peace that you can  journey through this life with the guidance and companionship with the Creator.  Is there anything more exhilarating than that?

 

July 7, 2011

Walnuts and Gifts? Recognizing the Value of Each Others Gifts in the Church

Posted by JeremyJK under Apostle Paul, Bible, Christianity, Church, Corinthians, Holy Spirit, Scripture, Spiritual Formation
Leave a Comment 

So I have this tree.  This tree is a black walnut tree.  It doesn’t bloom and get leaves until June and begins losing it’s leaves in August.  At some point in July it grows black walnuts.  Sounds cool huh?  Walnuts in your own backyard.  Well it’s not so cool.  Because as soon as these walnuts come on the tree they begin falling off the tree all over the yard.  Needless to say, this tree makes a mess of my yard and the leaves and walnuts begin killing the grass.  Last year I got so frustrated with the mess I told my wife I wanted to cut it down this year.  So at one of our picnics I told my father-in-law that I wanted to end this tree’s life. 

My father-in-law knows a guy who would do it for us and would take the wood too.  It would be a quick easy clean up.  I had my mind made up…this tree was going to get whacked!  But then my father-in-law said, “Yeah  we can cut it down, no problem.  You’re gonna lose some shade though.  It’s a really good shade tree for your backyard.”  Why did he have to say that?  I had my mind made up and everything.  I looked around the yard to see how much shade it really offered throughout the day and sure enough it covers almost half the yard.  But it makes such a mess.  “Nope we’re cutting it down.” I thought. 

Then my niece overheard that I wanted to take this tree out.  “Oh my gosh, you can’t do that!” she said.  “I love that tree!”  And in fact I did recall that every time she comes over my house one of the first things she does is run to that tree with a book, climbs it, sits on one of its branches (it looks like it was made for sitting) and reads.  Her younger brother went into the same type of panic mode as well.  He’s a young boy and loves to climb it too.  But dog-gone-it I hate the mess it makes.  But it does provide some nice privacy as well from neighbors. 

Then I realized, I was so obsessed and focused on the negative characteristics of this tree that I failed to see and appreciate  gifts.  In fact, I underestimated this tree and took it for granted.  Maybe this tree isn’t so bad.  So what if I have to clean up a mess now and then.  I think I want that shade and I really do enjoy seeing the kids run to that tree as soon as they get to the house. 

But isn’t this how we are with people?  At times we get so caught up in what we don’t like about them that we fail to see and appreciate the gifts God has given them.  Instead of encouraging them in their gifts we often become jealous, envious, and at times even covet their gifts.  One of my gifts is a gift of learning and teaching scripture.  I can’t count how many times a week I am told by some Christian that “you can have all the knowledge in the world but it doesn’t really matter to God.”  I am constantly reminded that one doesn’t need to go to seminary to be used of God, as though I was not aware of that.  I have even mentioned to my wife countless times that being a seminary student is one of the most thankless things I have ever done because of the passive aggressive attitudes I get about it, FROM CHRISTIANS.  Yet I believe it has mainly been my wife and father and a few other family members and friends who have strongly encouraged me in this calling.  Usually from others though it is a smug dismissal.

But it has caused me to reflect on 1 Corinthians 12-14 where Paul addresses the fact that we have all been given various gifts from the Holy Spirit.  Those gifts come to us only by the grace of God.  Paul often uses anatomy metaphor to illustrate this sundry gifting.  The hand for instance has its own gifts which are far different from the eyes’ or ears’ giftings.  But do we ever get mad or jealous of the eyes because they have the gift of vision or the feet for walking.  No way!  Why?  Because we clearly understand that we NEED them and if they all work together the harmony creates a glorious and productive outcome. 

Am I ever jealous of another’s gifts?  I would be a liar if I said, “No.”  But I have tried to transform that reaction from jealousy to genuine excitement for that individual.  How can I be mad at or jealous of them because of what God has chosen to give them by his grace?  I can’t.   I think the remedy therefore is to be thankful to God and appreciate the fact that he has given the body of Christ an individual with such wonderful blessings as to edify the Church and its mission to the world.

Just like that tree, I have had to change what it is I am focusing on.  Am I distracted by the seeming weaknesses and being blinded to the precious gifts?  I think so.  But now I can’t imagine a backyard without that shade, privacy and special children playing on it.  So I will keep the tree and my cherished brothers and sisters I have in the body of Christ.  “Thank you Lord for the gifts you have given to us all in your wisdom and grace.”

Amen.

 

June 28, 2011

Hooking Souls

Posted by JeremyJK under Christianity, Church, Spiritual Formation, Teachings of Jesus
Leave a Comment 

When it comes to premarital relationships, men will often pursue their female like a hawk or a lion hunting their prey.  They become hungry for her endless attention and obsessed with her affections.  Finally, her father entrusts her hand to him in marriage that special wedding day before all to see.  As they both exchange their “I do’s” the ring is slipped onto her finger.  It is at that moment that the predator of love knows his prey has finally been safely snatched.  The ring becomes the fishing hook that has landed his catch.  The man is exhilarated. 

The first several months and perhaps into the next year the new husband still shows his bride sole affection and attention.  Yet as is often the case, his feelings change, the excitement wanes, and his appetite for his prey of love fades.  He has captured his prey, the fight is over at last and he moves on to fresh and new pursuits.  His lover, though not forgotten, has surely been placed on the back burner and often times seems more of an annoyance than that object of pursuit that she once was.  In time this young bride catches on to what is really going on and finds another lover.  And so the epidemic continues.

This is not a romance novel I am writing my dear friends.  This is what I see as a parallel of contemporary evangelism in the Church today.  The Church is in hot pursuit to make unbelievers become Christians.  The hook we have made bigger than it needs to be is “the sinner’s prayer.”  Like the groom winning his bride, the Church today wins souls and slowly loses their affection for them.  The excitement of pursuing these individuals diminishes once they are “saved.”  Once we get them saved and convince them that they are on their way to heaven we begin to neglect them.  We fill their “new lives in Christ Jesus” with bulletins, services, songs, pie sales, cake bakes, offerings, and empty spiritual clichés. 

What we are not often times doing effectively is what Jesus commanded us to do…”make disciples.”  What ever happened to discipling?  What ever happened to mentoring?  What ever happened to making a lifetime committment to a couple of people with the determination to see them grow to full maturity in Christ?

What’s that Germy?  Oh I see, it’s the pastor’s job? Your right Germy.  But guess what?  It’s not his “job” it’s his/her calling.  It’s all of our callings as Christians, to make disciples of all humans.  We ALL have a part to play in this crusade of love.  And perhaps that pastor isn’t doing it as effectively because he/she is burned out from babysitting Christians that should be matured by now and should be contributing instead of just feeding off of the table of service the Church offers. 

My plea today is this: Don’t treat souls like fish.  We have twisted that imagery Jesus used as “fishers of men” and taken the analogy way to far.  We are not to get our hooks in their mouths and once we pull them out of the stormy waters to throw them either back into the water or toss them to the back of the boat like pieces of meat.  The pursuit is never to end.  We are to be as excited and thrilled with discipling them to full maturity in Christ as we are in getting them “saved.” 

WARNING!!!! This is going to take a lot of time, energy, and effort.  Discipling is a process filled with gradual changes and transformations. Making a disciple takes a lifetime.  We are all being transformed into the image of Christ…this is what true discipling is.  Heed the call of the Lord, but realize it is not a cat and mouse game that ends with the cat catching the mouse.  It is a courtship, filled with loving and wooing, that never ends but continues into marriage, with a lifetime of intimacy and unity. 

May the LORD help us all to make disciples of all humans.

Blessings!

 

June 24, 2011

The Therapy of Alone Time

Posted by JeremyJK under Jesus, Just Life, Meditations, Spiritual Formation, Uncategorized
Leave a Comment 

The Gospels all speak to Jesus being a man who often got away to be ALONE and pray.  Perhaps Luke brings this out the most.  Many scholars have pointed to the strategic locations in the Gospels where Jesus is seen praying before he casts out a demon or heals the sick.  Prayer is something that Jesus views as being an essential discipline for living a life of service to God and others.  There are many reasons why it is essential but there is one that I have found that does not get as much attention…the therapy of aloneness.

We live in a world of a constant whirlwind of people and noise.  When our calling is to be a servant of ALL, it is inevitable that we will most likely spend alot of time around people and often times be enveloped by their situations.  As honorable and necessary as this may be, we need to get away to be alone and alone with the Lord.  I believe that this is key to a successful ministry and Christian life.  There is something therapeutic about being alone and being revived and reenergized by the silence and stillness.  It allows us to refocus and regain our barings. 

Finally, I would like to mention that we need to be supportive and respectful of others’ needs for this alone time with the Lord.  I know that as a married man there are times I need to allow my wife to be alone with no children.  After a long week of working, it may feel like I deserve it more than her.  There are also times when she feels the same way, she knows I need alone time but wonders when we can fit it in.  The truth is…we need to MAKE time for ourselves and for others to just be alone.  Even if it is for an hour or two…it is NECESSARY!

Is there anyone that you could offer a time for them to be alone?  Maybe they have kids and you could watch them, or pets.  Maybe they work for or with you and you could offer to cover for them.  Usually people won’t ask for that time from us.  So don’t wait for them to or say to them, “Well I didn’t know you needed alone time…you never asked.”  Just assume they need it on this one, okay?

 

May 18, 2011

Stupid Bumper Stickers and Bad Attitudes: Caring for the Needy in 21st Century Capitalistic Evangelical America

Posted by JeremyJK under Bible, Christianity, Church, Culture, Jesus, Kingdom of God, Money, Needy, Politics, Scripture, sin, Spiritual Formation, Teachings of Jesus
[3] Comments 

Not too long ago I was driving home from work and all of a sudden my car was swallowed up by the shadow of a mammoth SUV/pick-up truck.  This thing was a gas guzzlin’ monster-beast of a truck.  We came to a red light where the beast-truck was in the right lane and I in the left.  As we sat at the light and I was diagonally behind him, I could hear him revin his engine…VROOM…VROOM!!! Then my eye caught a white bumper sticker on his truck that read in red and blue patriotic letters…”I can drive this truck because we can’t all be on welfare!!!” 

Suddenly the light turned green and rubber tires pealed-out leaving smoke everywhere.  As I coughed on this manly man’s dust I couldn’t help but think about Deuteronomy 15:7-11 and feel the heart of God aching.

 

7 If there is among you anyone in need, a member of your community in any of your towns within the land that the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your needy neighbour. 8You should rather open your hand, willingly lending enough to meet the need, whatever it may be. 9Be careful that you do not entertain a mean thought, thinking, ‘The seventh year, the year of remission, is near’, and therefore view your needy neighbour with hostility and give nothing; your neighbour might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt. 10Give liberally and be ungrudging when you do so, for on this account the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. 11Since there will never cease to be some in need on the earth, I therefore command you, ‘Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbour in your land.’

With this passage in mind I don’t understand the attitudes and prejudices that people who can obviously drive gas guzzlin’ trucks have.  Now one might say, “Well, you don’t know if he was a Christian or not so how can you hold him to that standard?”

Well first…I don’t know if he was a Christian but I have met MANY Christians with that same exact disgust for those in need or on welfare. These are Christians who have gotten caught up in the American dream and love affair with capitalism more than the economy of God and the ethics of the kingdom. 

Secondly, God does hold the unbeliever to ethical standards.  Unbelievers are not given a get out of jail free card and dismissed from a standard because they don’t believe in it.  There are several places in the Bible where unbelievers are held accountable to ethical standards of God.

But for the sake of this post, let’s explore our own feelings about those in our society who are in need.  How about the elderly, the orphan, the widow, the immigrant, the family stuck in the ghetto, the disabled, etc the list is unending?  It is so sad the bitter and horrible things I hear said about these people…from CHRISTIANS!!!  We can tolerate the widow and orphan as long as the orphan grows up and “get’s a damn job.”  We have little use for immigrants, especially “illegals” (as we title them) regardless of the circumstances they may be trying to escape. If they are “legal” we say “they can stay as long as they learn to speak our own damn language!”  And “there are NO families STUCK in the ghetto, this is capitalism they need to go to college and go out and get a job!”

WHAT CARELESS IGNORANCE!!!

I have heard all of these things, even from elderly church-going grandmas.  HOLY COW!!! What terrific attitudes we have toward the needy.  The Old Testament get’s a bad rap on a lot of things, but especially on this issue…it does not have the often affluent evangelical capitalistic American attitude toward these people.  On the contrary, the Old Testament goes to GREAT lengths to help and provide for these folks. 

Now do I think there are some people leaching off the system and taking advantage of it?  Absolutely.  But we are not called to be their judge of intentions on those issues.  We will be held accountable for what we do when we are met with those needs.  They will be accountable for their own intentions…but even God allows the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.  He provides for all…and a so are we called to do so. 

We all have certain types of people in our hearts that we have been conditioned to despise.  Who are they in your heart?  Are they black?  Are they white or asian?  Are they Muslim?  Are they drunk, poor, homeless, elderly, ghetto, white-trash, rich, catholic etc?  When those feelings and thoughts arise we need to repent of them and reject them.  We need to love those people and “Open your hand to the poor and needy neighbor in your land.”  God loves them and so should we.  We are called to love our neighbor…they are our neighbor!

We are not to be “hard-hearted or tight-fisted.”  We are not to “entertain a mean thought” against them.  But we are to “give liberally and be ungrudging.”  We are not supposed to drive around with stupid bumper stickers on our vehicles and join the culture in abhorring these people and treating them as lazy, invisible, and pests to society. 

I pray for you and for me that we can overcome this bitterness we have for different groups of individuals and see them not as  the world sees them but as Christ sees them in Matthew 25.  Jesus identified with the needy and said when we minister to them…we minister to him.  When we feed the hungry, we feed him.  When we clothe the naked, we clothe him.  When we allow the customer to shop freely without spying on their every  move because they might be stealing, we allow Christ to shop freely.  You get the point. 

May we see every human being as created in the image of God.  May we see them as Christ sees them.  May we see them as Christ.

 

May 11, 2011

Listening For Silence In A Blaring World: For God and Self

Posted by JeremyJK under Bible, Christianity, Church, Culture, Faith, Jesus, Just Life, Meditations, Scripture, Spiritual Formation, Teachings of Jesus
1 Comment 

So I have a rather abstract thought for you today but it’s one that really got me thinking.  I’ve been reading a book called Monk Habits for Everyday People: Benedictine Spirituality for Protestants, by Dennis Okholm.  Don’t ask why I’m reading it, I just read everything that crosses my path.:) That is not always a good habit but it get’s me to look in books I probably would usually shrug my shoulders at. 

There is a chapter about “listening” in the book.  You know that action that most Americans are really poor at…especially in the Church.  Everyone wants to talk but few want to listen even though the proverb says, “Be slow to speak and quick to listen.”  Anyhow, in this chapter Okholm brings up the point that most of us listen to the external but not the internal.  That is to say, we fill our ears with music, conversation, TV shows, News, the sound of cars, jack-hammers, emergency sirens, constant chatter etc. 

We hear what we are trained to listen to.  To further this point Okholm gives an example of a naturalist walking down a city street at night with a friend who lives in the city.  As they are walking, the naturalist turns to his friend and says, “I’m surprised at all the crickets in the city.” 

The friend responds, “What crickets?  What are you talking about?”

“Can’t you hear them?” the naturalist asks.

“I don’t hear anything.”

As they continue walking down the busy city street the naturalist grabs his friend’s arm and they come to a stop in the middle of the sidewalk.  The naturalist drops a handfull of coins on the sidewalk and suddenly a whole group of people on cell phones, iPods, reading newspapers and magazines in the remaining sunlight, and talking to people next to them, come to a sudden halt to bend down and pick up the change and pocket it.

We have been trained to listen to the things that our culture has informed us is important.  But are we trained to hear the voice of our Lord?  Do we hear the voice within us?  Do we hear what is really going on inside of us?  Is there anything going on inside of us?  Is there anything there?

Okholm mentions Anthony Bloom, an Orthodox metropolitan, asking if we were alone as a Christian in prison, stranded on an island, or out in an national park for a couple weeks alone on a sabbatical, with nothing but our thoughts–would we get bored?  Would you (and I ask myself as well) get bored with yourself?  Or is there enough in you to be busy and deep in thought, reflection, and conversation with yourself and God?  Or does God bore you? 

I wonder if I have enough scripture in me to remember and recite in my thoughts to keep me busy pondering and meditating for weeks without a Bible in my hands.  Do you know any verses?  What about a chapter?  A book of the Bible?  I know of people who have actually committed the entire book of Ephesians to memory.  Those people would not be bored but would be delighted by the opportunity.

What about a work of literature?  A poem?  Is there anything inside of you that you could bring up?

And have you been trained to hear the voice of Jesus?  Scripture says, “My sheep know my voice.”  Ever wonder how that works?  Probably because the sheep are in the presence of the shepherd everyday, all day.  Do you listen for the voice of the shepherd?  Would you recognize it if you heard it? 

I for one am going to commit myself to putting more in me, so that I have something to withdrawal on a regular basis.  I think it would be a great exercise to go for a walk in a quiet park with NOTHING but myself and practice listening to what is inside and see if I get bored or not. 

Let’s train ourselves to listen to what is inside and not just what is external filling our ears constantly.  Let’s train ourselves to hear the voice of the Lord.  Let’s devote ourselves to times of quiet instead of turning on the TV or radio in the car.  We turn on the radio in the car like a crackhead grabs for his baggy.  We do it out of habit…we do it without thinking…we are at times wondering how that stupid thing got turned on.  Imagine a world without all that noise.  Let’s be blessed by the sound of silence…and listen for that still small voice.

 

 

May 4, 2011

God Hiding, So We’ll Seek

Posted by JeremyJK under Christianity, Faith, Psalms, Revelation, Scripture, Spiritual Formation, Teachings of Jesus
[2] Comments 

There are times in our lives when God can seem quiet and far off.  These periods of time are desparate and lonely.  We may pray and feel like we are not getting any answers.  Then we grow discouraged and often drift further away from God.    We may find ourselves getting angry with him and frustrated.  We may blame him for our feelings, emotions and struggles.  We may even call out, “GOD WHERE ARE YOU?”  We have all been there even though there are some around us who may put-on as though they haven’t.  You know those Christians who act as though they always have it right and are perfectly in-tune with God.  But I think the truth of the matter is life is filled with different experiences that cause us to interact and experience God in different ways. 

The Psalmist offers some perfect examples of these moments of dispair and wondering where God is.  Psalms has several psalms that Walter Brueggemann has labeled “psalms of disorientation.”  These are psalms where the psalmist feels…well, disoriented.  He feels lost, dispair, and even confusion.  One person once told me, in an attempt to shine a positive light on these psalms, that they always end with the psalmist correcting himself or repenting of his doubts and complaints.  Though this is true sometimes, it is not even usually the case.  A prime example is Psalm 88.

1 O Lord, God of my salvation,
   when, at night, I cry out in your presence,
2 let my prayer come before you;
   incline your ear to my cry.

3 For my soul is full of troubles,
   and my life draws near to Sheol.
4 I am counted among those who go down to the Pit;
   I am like those who have no help,
5 like those forsaken among the dead,
   like the slain that lie in the grave,
like those whom you remember no more,
   for they are cut off from your hand.
6 You have put me in the depths of the Pit,
   in the regions dark and deep.
7 Your wrath lies heavy upon me,
   and you overwhelm me with all your waves.
          Selah

8 You have caused my companions to shun me;
   you have made me a thing of horror to them.
I am shut in so that I cannot escape;
9   my eye grows dim through sorrow.
Every day I call on you, O Lord;
   I spread out my hands to you.
10 Do you work wonders for the dead?
   Do the shades rise up to praise you?
          Selah
11 Is your steadfast love declared in the grave,
   or your faithfulness in Abaddon?
12 Are your wonders known in the darkness,
   or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness?

13 But I, O Lord, cry out to you;
   in the morning my prayer comes before you.
14 O Lord, why do you cast me off?
   Why do you hide your face from me?
15 Wretched and close to death from my youth up,
   I suffer your terrors; I am desperate.*
16 Your wrath has swept over me;
   your dread assaults destroy me.
17 They surround me like a flood all day long;
   from all sides they close in on me.
18 You have caused friend and neighbour to shun me;
   my companions are in darkness (NRSV).”

As you can see, this psalmist has no closure and the reader is left wondering what is the outcome of this distraught person.  This person is obviously angry at God and even blames Him for his sufferings.  Our theology and experience of God could indeed end at this point and we would be left with a God who always ignores us and seems to enjoys our suffering.  Such a theology reminds me of being a young boy.  My confession goes like this: I used to be the “ant bully.”  That’s right.  I used to drown them with frigid cold water, or boiling hot water.  I used to crush them with large stones and do aerial assaults on their villages.  Kind of like the U.S. bombing the snot out of impoverished nations then puffing out our chest as though we abtained some daring feat of heroism. 

Is God like this?  Does he enjoy and get entertainment out of our suffering?  Is he the equivalent of an “ant bully?”  I don’t think so.  Yet often times, we interpret our negative experiences as being God.  Now let me qualify my thoughts.  I do believe in judgment.  I do believe we live in a world where bad things happen to good people as well.  I believe that God can take those situations we are experiencing, rather good or bad, and use them for our benefit.  However, I do not believe everything that happens to us is God trying to test us or teach us lessons.   But I do believe that in all things, at all times we need to draw closer to God.

But why does God seem quiet at times?  Why does he seem far off?  Well, there are many answers.  It could be sin.  It coud be our experiences.  It could be bad theology.  It could be us not paying any attention to him except when we need something.  But I think it could also be God trying to get us to come find him. 

 Is this possible?  What is this some type of game? 

I have two beautiful children and they love to play hide and seek.  However, they don’t usually play the traditional way.  It often begins with my daughter saying, “Daddy, we’ll hide and you count and come find us.” 

So I begin to count and my daughter says, “Ok I’m gonna go hide in my room Daddy and you come find us.” 

They run off to her room and I finish counting.  I make my way to her room, pretending I don’t know where she is.  So I peak in the other rooms and I will hear a little voice say, “No Daddy I am in MY ROOM!” 

So I get to her room and she will either say, ”Daddy I am in the closet.”  Or she will come running out yelling, “Here I am!!!”

I wonder if this is how God is.  He may be quiet sometimes to get our attention.  We may find ourselves saying, “Where’s God?”  Hopefully, we begin looking for him in those moments. 

I am reminded of Deuteronomy 4:29 “From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.” 

And Acts 17:26-28

From one ancestor* he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, 27so that they would search for God* and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. 28For “In him we live and move and have our being”;

This idea of searching and groping is much like hide and seek.  Why doesn’t God just jump out and show himself.  He is more like my daughter in that little voice calling out, “I am over here.”  “This is where I am, come find me.”  We are encouraged by the words of Jesus to “seek and you will find.” 

Although God may seem hidden, he is calling us to seek, search, grope after him.  As we do we are told that we WILL find him.  I am learning in this life that there are many people who are not finding God because they are not even looking for him.  God has initiated relationship by grace but we are called to react and respond to the grace by seeking after him.  It is not a game.  It is not a game that God plays to torture us while all along not planning to reveal himself.  He does want to reveal himself, and he will even more as we look for him.

It can even be said another way according to Matthew 5.  “Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be filled.”  Hungry and thirsty people go looking for food and drink.  We are all aware of the fact that if we don’t go into the kitchen and LOOK for something to eat it isn’t just going to come to us.  If we do, we are going to die of starvation and dehydration which many people are doing spiritually.  Nor can we wait for someone else to do the looking for us.  I know that my wife will often fix meals for the family so that we all don’t have to go fend for ourselves.  If I just sat in the living room, watching TV and waiting to be served–I would go to bed very hungry many nights. 

The Lord may seem hidden but he is always present but waiting often time for us to find him.  After all, the Psalmist says elsewhere that there is nowhere he can go to escape the presence of the Lord.

 Where can I go from your spirit?
   Or where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
9 If I take the wings of the morning
   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me fast.
11 If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light around me become night’,
12 even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is as bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light to you (Psalm 139:7-12).

Therefore I suggest, if you find yourselves wondering where God is or even questioning if he exists…start looking for him and I promise…you WILL find Him. He will jump out like my daughter saying., “HERE I AM!”

 

April 19, 2011

The Power of Testimony: What the Critics and Atheists Can’t Take Away!

Posted by JeremyJK under Bible, Christianity, Church, Culture, Ecclesiology, Faith, Gospel Of John, Jesus, New Atheism, Reason, Science, Scripture, Spiritual Formation, Teachings of Jesus
[7] Comments 

Let me start by saying this, “YOUR TESTIMONY AS A BELIEVER IS THE MOST POWERFUL TOOL OF EVANGELISM YOU HAVE IN YOUR ARSENAL.”   Piggy backing off of my previous article, it is apparent that the world is filled with Christopher Hitchenses.  That is, our faith as Christian believers is being challenged on a daily basis.  I have watched several of Hitchens’ debates against many Christians and people of various faith backgrounds.  He has debated theologians, scholars, authors, ministers, social activists etc.  As I have mentioned, overall, I think they have all lost the debates to Hitchens for various reasons.  Yet in the midst of all of these debates there was one debater, and one single moment that seemed silent but POWERFUL. 

During the debate between Marvin Olasky and Hitchens, Olasky says to Hitchens (my paraphrase), “I don’t know what teaching you have absorbed over the years that has made you believe the way you do.  But whatever the reason…I pity you.”  Olasky went on to say, “There is something that you and I have in common.  We were both married and then divorced.  In my first marriage, I was an atheist and did not know how to be a husband.  I was a bad husband.  It only lasted two years.  Then I got remarried but this time as a Christian.  Christianity taught me how to be a husband and a father.  I have been married for thirty years.”  WOW!

If you watch Hitchens, his demeanor changes and he seems taken back.  He even says something to the effect of, “Well said” to Olasky.  It may be the first time I have seen Hitchens like that.  Why do you think?  I think it’s because Olasky used, and maybe not purposefully, the most powerful element of Christianity we have.  EXPERIENCE!  No one can refute your testimony.  No one can dismiss your witness.  No one can reject your experience.  Why?  Because it is your proof that it is real, that something is going on here that no outsider can convince you with all their logic, reason, and rhetoric otherwise. 

What Olasky was saying was that he has experienced the power of the Gospel in his life and not even Hitchens in all of his brilliance can take that away.  Hitchens, I think, knows this too.  The Gospel has the power to change and transform lives and it has done exactly that.  Hitchens can’t convince the ex-drug dealer or alcoholic who came to Christ and was delivered that there is no power in the Gospel.  In fact, I know some of those people.  I have heard their stories how the impossible was made possible because they had an encounter with Jesus Christ of Nazareth. 

I work with a man who I knew as no more than an alcoholic bum.  God got a hold of him and flipped him upside down and then right side up. He went through a traumatic divorce during all of this and I thought for sure he would go back to drinking.  Yet the power of God that changed his life, identity, and desires stuck with him and he is still living strong for the Lord.  That’s an experienced reality of the power of God in someone’s life.  No one is going to tell that man there is no God and that Christianity is a flop.  I think he might just laugh at such a remark.

I am reminded of John 9.  I trust you have a Bible to look it up…if not you must be viewing this from a computer so you can search that passage on an online Bible.  If you need a Bible, email me and I will get one to you.  Okay back to John 9.  This is the passage where Jesus, rather sanitarily spits on some dirt and makes mud balls.  He smothers the mud onto some blind guy’s eyes and tells the man to go wash the germy mud off.  The man does and could see.  He was healed miraculously!  The Pharisees get their robes all in a bunch and get mad about the healing.  After much interrogation of both the blind man and his parents the blind man says one of the most profound things in scripture.  The Pharisees accuse Jesus of being a sinner and try to undermine him.  The blind man responds, “I don’t know if he is a sinner, but one thing I do know—I was blind but now I see.”  Wow that is awesome!!! 

The man was blind from birth.  Jesus heals him.  The Pharisees pout and have a hissy fit about it.  Who is really blind in this narrative?  Who?  Right…the religious leaders who should have known better.   These leaders were the intelligencia of their day.  You know…the guys who knew it all and were well studied in matters on many subjects.  But their whining and reasonable arguments did not matter a hill of beans to the blind man who could finally see.  HE COULD SEE!  Nobody was going to take that away from him…NOBODY! 

This is my argument against those who want to align themselves against the God of the Bible and Jesus Christ: all the bells and whistles of reason and logic don’t hold a match to what we have personally experienced as Christians.  I have so many testimonies I don’t know where to begin.  I know people who have so many testimonies it would take weeks to cover.  So while we sit around holding debates and theorizing about the God of the Bible and the reality of the risen Savior Jesus Christ being real or not—there are people all over the world experiencing his power NOW.  If you don’t believe me I will point you in the direction of many folks that are in the midst of it and seeing it move like wild fire across countries like China and Sudan.

For those of you who haven’t experienced it I say this…get out of your dead and dried up churches into a church that actually expects God to move and live.  If you haven’t been to church find one that expects God to be real and to move in their midst.  If you walk into a church that hands you a bulletin of how the service is going to go…walk back out… because they have obviously structured and choreographed God right out of the service. 

This may rub some of my Christian brothers and sisters the wrong way but listen.  There is a world that is hungry for the reality of God in this decaying world and they are depending on you to proof it to them.  Stop playing church for goodness sakes and start calling out for the fire of God to fall on you.  You don’t want to?  Then slowly wait for the day when your old church doors and windows are boarded up and ICHABOD is plastered across them. 

God is moving and waiting for YOU to jump in!  Throw off the chains of this culture that are holding you down!  Stop protecting your reputations and securities and get embarrassed for God!  Let him interrupt your controlled life and infuse it with the power of his Holy Spirit.  Does that make you feel uncomfortable?  Right…it’s suppose to. God wants to invade your life and fill it with his presence.  But you have to let him in.  Whatever is holding you back needs to be submitted.  Yuck, not that word again.  SUBMIT and YIELD yourself to God…I promise, you won’t regret it.

As you embrace him he will give you an experience, testimony, and reality that no one can ever take away. 

Blessings!

 

April 13, 2011

Chime In: Should Christians Watch ‘R’ Rated Movies?

Posted by JeremyJK under Apostle Paul, Christianity, Church, Culture, Just Life, Question of the Day, Scripture, Spiritual Formation
[9] Comments 

So this is how I want you to think about it.  We know that in many of the cities Paul visited and established churches there were theaters of entertainment.  In these Hellenistic cultures entertainment was everywhere…like our culture.  If they had ratings on the theatrical dramas they acted out in these theaters in Paul’s day, would he have gone to ‘R’ rated ones and would he have encouraged his churches to do the same?  Secondly, how does your understanding of that impact your opinion if Christians should go to ‘R’ rated movies now.  Let’s have fun with this one!

 

April 12, 2011

Emancipation of Slaves:Set Free From Sin

Posted by JeremyJK under Bible, Christianity, Gospel Of John, Jesus, Salvation, Scripture, sin, Spiritual Formation, Teachings of Jesus
[2] Comments 

In John 8:31-38 Jesus describes to the Jews who had believed in him what true discipleship is exactly.  He says, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  There response however, always strikes me as being a bit ironic.  They say, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone.  What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free (NRSV)?”

Uhhh–what?  “Never been slaves to anyone”?  What about Egypt for starters?  What about all the times Israel and Judea were reduced to paying tribute to great empires?  What about the exiles?  What about being conquered by the Greeks and Romans?  Obviously Egypt is the strongest case but according to much of the extant literature of ancient times many Jewish leaders and rabbis thought exile was worse than slavery. 

Jesus doesn’t bring up the points that I just mentioned but perhaps he didn’t need to because he was making another point.  They were not free because they were bound in slavery by sin.  Sin is a horrible task master; the worst task master in fact.  Sin will drive you to do things that you don’t want to do.  It seduces you with lies and deceit.  It convinces you that its way is rewarding and fulfilling.  No matter how hard you try to resist its will…it fights against you and knows your weaknesses. 

Slavery has always been a part of our world.  Slavery plagued Africa and still does in some places far before Africans were enslaved by Americans and brought to labor for wealthy plantation owners.  Slavery existed among the Native Americans often a result of lost wars.  Slavery is an evil oppression.  But there will never be a more oppressive slavery than to that of sin. 

Thankfully, Jesus points to our emancipation from this slave master.  The solution is Jesus the Son.  Only Jesus can make us free.  And if he makes us free we are free “indeed.”  That is, absolutely free.  Yet there is a condition…we must continue in his word to truly be his disciples.  When Jesus says “in his word” what does he mean?  Does he mean the Bible?  Well yeah…sort of.  But I think it means to continue in his message, his teaching.  Obviously his teaching is recorded in the Gospels namely, and also in the rest of the NT.  But in addition, he is still teaching us through his Holy Spirit who leads us into ALL truth. 

“But what is truth?”  asked Pontius Pilatus.  We have to know what truth is to be free.  After all this is what Jesus says: “you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”  So if we are going to be free from the slave master SIN, then we have to know what truth is and know it intimately.  But to know the truth we have to continue in Jesus’ teachings. 

Well, a little later on John reveals what the truth is in 14:6.  Jesus says, “I am the way the truth and the light; no one will come to the Father except by me.”  This passage is pregnant with meaning but it reveals one element that we are focusing on now.  Jesus is truth.  So when Pontius Pilate asks Jesus, “what is truth?” sarcastically and arrogantly; he was looking right at it.  Jesus is truth and only Jesus can set us free from the power of the slave master. 

Once we are free however we have some responsibilities in staying free.  1. John 8:31 “continue in my word”; 2. John 15:1-17 “Remain/abide in Me/Jesus/truth”; 3. Gal. 5:1 “For freedom Christ/truth has set us free. Stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery [sin].”  What these passages communicate is an ongoing process of us committing our lives to continuing, remaining, and standing firm in Jesus and his teachings.  This daily process will keep us free.  

Therefore I encourage those of you who are struggling with sin to be persistent in pursuing Christ and his teachings.  Be tenacious about fleshing out the live of Christ and his teachings in your life.  This will strengthen you and purify those sinful desires from your life.  Those of you who feel pretty safe and comfortable in your freedom…do not take it for granted.   Be even more purposeful in your pursuit of Christ because the devil loves to trap us when we are feeling the best about ourselves and strong.   

Stand firm therefore like a Roman Legion!

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.