Archive for the 'Thoughts on Christ and His Church' Category

Judgement vs. Discernment

June 8th, 2010

I have long been known to be a highly intuitive individual. Since I was a child I could sense things and underlying motives like no one else I knew. It was awesomely terrible in a cool kind of way. If I was not raised in a Christian tradition one might even say that I was “psychic” or “empathic” for your trekkies out there. It is a wonderful gift to have, if you use it right. However, in my 33 trips around the sun I have used it very poorly at times.

“9And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, 11filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.” Phillipians 1: 9-11

The word discern appears in the NIV version of Proverbs at least 13 times. Most often it has to do with wisdom and character formation. Paul in the above mentioned passage says that discernment is an outworking of love and that you abound more in love by getting knowledge and depth of insight. Discernment however can turn into an ugly problem, the problem of Judgment. I believe discernment when applied has a few key characteristics that set it apart.

1) Discernment is a spiritual activity. When we are regularly praying, seeking God and living a communal life with those around us (i.e. the church) discernment will be stronger and more focused.

2) Discernment works for the greater good of the community. Discernment, since it is an outworking of love will always be used for the good of others and ultimately for yourself.

3) Discernment needs to be worked out in community. We are communal people. All wisdom, knowledge and discernment rightly applied needs to be filtered through those who have wisdom. A community that is properly functioning will have those within its leadership who have the maturity and strength to pour themselves into the situation. Elders and leadership need to be free of their own agenda and willing and able to see the ideas and the underlying motives.

Discernment outside of community and the use of wisdom is dangerous. I have been in situations where God has given me a word or a feeling about an individual or situation and it is an odd place to be. I immediately snap to a decision and it then peppers my decision making for the rest of that interaction, or my relationship with that person. Often times my judgment of the situation is correct, but my response to it is wrong. Sometimes I am just a (insert your own colorful adjective here) and I am completely wrong about the situation.

What I am learning, again and again, is that we are communal people. Everything you and I do is in the context of community. Either a church, an employer, a neighborhood, we all operate in a community. God has instituted His church to bring Him glory and to give us a place to be encouraged, exhorted, taught and refined for living a life to the glory of God. Remember what Paul said in the above scripture, ultimately what we are doing is for the “glory and praise of God.” The community of believers called the church is to be that place where we work out or gifts and use them for the greater good of our community and to reflect the love God has for them.

No one wants to be a (insert adjective here) and the community of believers is the place to grow and learn in a safe and loving environment.

~Selah~

Listening to the Text of God.

April 2nd, 2010

When I study the Bible (something I should always be doing more of) I read in the style of lectio divina. I do not follow every prescribed step, but I pray for guidance, read the scripture, read it slowly again, ask questions and rely on the Holy Spirit to direct words and thoughts to come for the from the scripture. I want to share one experience I had yesterday. It was God in all his glory speaking to me in an intimate and personal way.

“God’s your Guardian, right at your side to protect you-

Shielding you from sunstroke,

Sheltering you from moonstroke.”

Psalms 121:5-6 (Msg)

When I first read Psalms 121 yesterday I was happy to realize that a contemporary Christian song is basically a sung version of Psalms 121. I recognized the patterns in the words pretty quickly and easily. It was refreshing. Then, as I prayed and read over the scripture a second time I began to ask questions and ask God what he wanted to show me. Pretty quickly God had me hone in on “sheltering you from moonstroke”. It follows the passage “sheltering you from sunstroke” and sunstroke is pretty easily understood. However, when the moon is out it is not as hot, you should not sweat so much nor be so miserable. So, what does it mean?

As I contemplated it further and read the scripture again I realized this is one of what is commonly called The Pilgrim Songs. They were common hymns and prayers of people who were traveling the roads to get to Jerusalem for Passover and other Jewish festivals. Many times a person had to travel day and night to get where they were going, which was the temple, for several days. It is an arduous journey and very fatiguing. One would repeat a psalm like this any time they were on the journey and were fearful and fatigued. Traveling by day one could overheat and become delirious and then continuing at night could easily be subsumed by hypothermia from cooling off to fast and die. You also would be a prime target for thieves and cheats who wanted to capitalize on your unfortunate situation by stealing your stuff, or worse.

While I was reading it and realizing this, the Holy Spirit told me that it was reassurances that while you journey towards God that he is going to be there for you, day and night. He will be protecting you and keeping you. I took so much reassurance from it because as often as I journey “toward the temple” metaphorically speaking, I get anxious, I get angry, and I get confused, I get tired. More than once someone has tried to take advantage of my insecurities and tell me that the calling I have on my life is not a calling but a personal goal. Others have told me that I can’t ever be an effective minister for the gospel unless I choose a denomination to ordain me and send me out with all the material support I need. What God was telling me is to keep my eyes looking forward on the cross and the calling that is before me and the rest will fall into place.

As I contemplate Easter this year and what it means, my challenge is to keep the cross ever before me even when Easter has come and gone. When the cross is before me it is easier to genuflect than if it is behind me. If I ever let it get behind me I am tempted to be prideful and arrogant and full of myself on my journey. With the cross, the bloodied, beaten, maimed cross; that an innocent and beautiful man lost his life on simply based on the arrogance and lust for power of others sitting before me, I can only weep and humble myself.

How great is our God indeed!

~Selah~

Posturing for Success

May 17th, 2009

“And when the hour had come He reclined at the table and the apostles with Him.”

Luke 22:14 (NIV)

At church last night I got asked, with about 1 minutes notice, to do the communion welcome and prayer. I love when I am called upon last minute because God in all his creativity and glory can show through me so much more then if I prepared for hours. I can go into the theology and history and why all night, after all I am a preacher. But when it is last minute it is messy, unprepared and all in all quite beautiful.

When I pulled up the scripture in the pew bible in front of me and went to the common text we use I saw in the NIV that he reclined (emphasis mine) at the table. All other common translations have him as sitting at the table, coming to the table etcetera. None of them take the time to share his physical posturing while he was at the table.I was intrigued and I ended up sharing it with the congregation.

In an informal setting it was not uncommon for men to sit at a table to eat in a reclined position, usually on one side. If it was a more formal setting or a setting where women were allowed then he would be in a more formal position. Sitting upright like what I am doing now, and likely you who are reading this are. The point in all of this is that Jesus was relaxed. All I can say is “why?” At this point in the narrative Jesus was about to be betrayed by Judas, about to be shackled and taken to Caiaphas and humiliated and treated so poorly that I physically become ill to contemplate it fully.

The take away I have from this is that when we take communion or we administer any sacraments we need to take ourselves and our mission seriously…ALWAYS seriously. But, when we have done the soul searching, when we know we are in God’s will for our life, when we are in a position where all the hard work has been done for the moment we need to just rest. I don’t know about you, but when I take communion and I spend those few minutes before taking them searching my soul for sins and errors and I do not hear anything specific or direct I begin to question if I am listening. I think I am and I think God is saying to just rest and receive the sacraments with all grace, humility, and love. More sins will show themselves soon enough and they will be dealt with in their time.

So I think that the equation for taking the Lord’s supper should look something more like this:

RELAX which will lead to REST which will put us on the position to

RECEIVE.

At the outset this seems so simple and so natural. Put yourself in a perplexing position away from a church circumstance and enter into the workplace. You have a deadline, a large project, people not carrying their weight, others carrying to much and there is NO grace in the deadline. You are panicked and have no idea what to do. So what do you do? You sweat it out, get overwhelmed and so mentally torn up that you are of no use to yourself or to anyone. The leadership you should be showing is destroyed. Now, take 2. You are stressed, the boss is not available and you do not know what to do. You step away, go to lunch, relax and call in some outside support. A work mentor, someone who has done your job before, or someone who you can trust. You get back, they diagnose the problem, and then lead you to the solution. Which scenario is the better of the two? In scenario number two the person in the perplexing position decided to relax (take a break), rest (lunch break with a mentor) and then you receive (the assistance in diagnosing the issue).

If Jesus can enter into the most trying time of His earthly ministry reclining at the table with some trusted knuckle heads called the Apostles who in the next portion of the narrative still don’t get it and ask Him the all important question “Lord, in your kingdom to come, who is going to be the greatest, the most beloved, the most revered of us all? (new revised Carl version) They, despite 3 years walking the Earth with Jesus, still did not get the paradigm shift. I know that our Bible is a little sanitized at points, but can you imagine being Jesus in this scenario? No longer reclining He probably was standing up looking down on them and saying YOU KNUCKLEHEADS… I LOVE YOU SOOO MUCH… BUT WHAT IN THE WORLD DO YOU MEAN??

As I enter into my days I am going to do my diligence to pray, to listen, to learn from the master and lover of my soul. I can do no better by any other then to do those things diligently, and boy do I slack at them sometimes…O.K., most the time. But when I have done these things and I am still in a position needing wisdom, grace and guidance I will do well to remember to Relax, to Rest, and then to Receive the Wisdom of the Ages coming down from the Father of all Life spoken gently into my life via the Holy Spirit…

Yeah, I can dig it.

~Selah~

Worshiping under our own power

April 25th, 2009

How many times have you sat down in a worship service and felt like something was out of place? How many times do you walk away thinking that it was something with you and how you approached God? How many times are we tempted to blame it on the worship band not doing their job, or not singing the right songs? Our approach to worship determines how we worship. No other external factor should be interfering with our worship. If it is then it is an idol and it must be dealt with as such.

Reading 2 Samuel 6 this week has been an interesting experience. Why is it that God would strike Uzzah the High Priest dead for touching the Ark? He was simply trying to keep it from falling off the cart? Why was it that David’s dancing and praising earned the scorn of Michal and why was it that God caused her womb to be barren? These all seem to be pretty harsh things. I think that they were two symptoms of a greater problem, the problem of hindered worship.

2 Samuel 6:3-7 (NLT)

3 They placed the Ark of God on a new cart and brought it from Abinadab’s house, which was on a hill. Uzzah and Ahio, Abinadab’s sons, were guiding the cart as it left the house, 4 carrying the Ark of God. Ahio walked in front of the Ark. 5 David and all the people of Israel were celebrating before the LORD, singing songs* and playing all kinds of musical instruments—lyres, harps, tambourines, castanets, and cymbals.
6 But when they arrived at the threshing floor of Nacon, the oxen stumbled, and Uzzah reached out his hand and steadied the Ark of God. 7 Then the LORD’s anger was aroused against Uzzah, and God struck him dead because of this.* so Uzzah died right there beside the Ark of God.

Continue Reading »

Puzzled and Pleasantly Perplexed!

April 15th, 2009

I had to have 3 P’s in the title. Two just would not do. Something about 3 makes it all balanced. O.K., so on to the crux of the post.
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In Luke 8:26-33 we see Jesus casting the demons out of the man and into the swine. The text says:

They sailed on to the country of the Gerasenes, directly opposite Galilee. As he stepped out onto land, a madman from town met him; he was a victim of demons. He hadn’t worn clothes for a long time, nor lived at home; he lived in the cemetery. When he saw Jesus he screamed, fell before him, and bellowed, “What business do you have messing with me? You’re Jesus, Son of the High God, but don’t give me a hard time!” (The man said this because Jesus had started to order the unclean spirit out of him.) Time after time the demon threw the man into convulsions. He had been placed under constant guard and tied with chains and shackles, but crazed and driven wild by the demon, he would shatter the bonds.

Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“Mob. My name is Mob,” he said, because many demons afflicted him. And they begged Jesus desperately not to order them to the bottomless pit. A large herd of pigs was browsing and rooting on a nearby hill. The demons begged Jesus to order them into the pigs. He gave the order. It was even worse for the pigs than for the man. Crazed, they stampeded over a cliff into the lake and drowned.

In reading this account this morning I was struck with the simple question of “why did he do it?” I understand why he healed the demoniac. He did it because he is God and he wants us to be healed and the demons were quaking in their boots. They recognized him and he sent them away. But why did he grant their peitition to reside in the swine? Why did he not just send them into oblivion?

Just as the demons were causing such great destruction in the man, it says they did more so to the pigs? I dont know about you, but if I was a farmer and I had pigs and I watched them all run off a cliff and die I would be a little cheezed off as well.

All I can think is that Jesus cast the unclean spirits into that which the culture considered unclean. We know from Jewish custom, as well as The Parable of the Prodigal Son, that Pigs were considered unclean, and those who tended to them had what would be the modern day equivalent of cleaning sewers. Was he saying something here? Was he saying unclean can only associate with unclean?

Still, sound off and lets discuss. God could have anihilated those demons in a milisecond, but instead he choose to honor the demons request and send them to the pigs… I am pleasantly perplexed.

Make Haste Dear Friend

April 2nd, 2009

This truly started out as an e-mail of encouragement to a friend. I think my imagination got away with me a little bit because I started feeling a little bit like the Apostle Paul writing one of his epistles. Anyway, I wanted to share it here. It was fun and actually very invigorating to write.

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My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

It has come to my attention that there are people among you spreading strife and derision. These people are coarse as sandpaper on the inside and are out for only their own gain. Do not just flee from their presence, run. Run like you are running a race to win. When they go east you go west. It is much harder for the enemy to hit a moving target then to hit one holding still. Give no quarters to the enemy in your body. Give no quarters to the enemy in Christ’s body; I am speaking of the church.

I humbly request that you get back to the faith of your fathers. The faith that let them out of Egypt, the faith that led them through the wilderness, the faith that God is good all the time no matter what the circumstance. Our heavenly Father does not shift or change His mind. He is faithful today, yesterday, tomorrow and forever. His love for us is never ending; it is our faithfulness that wavers.

Remember the faith of the saints that have gone before you; the faith of Abraham, the faith of Jacob, the faith of Gideon. All of them had no future apart from their faith of God. God gave them a vision and led the way. They were faithful and obeyed, the results of their obedience is obvious. We still speak of them today as the patriarchs of our faith. They are worthy of our honor and praise, but God is not done. He has a story he wants to tell, He has a divine story He wants to tell in you. He has works laid out for you that you can not imagine. You have laid out your plans for your life, but don’t forget that the plans you make are not always the plans of God. Listen to Him, follow Him, and commune with Him. He will guard your ways. His will and plan will be glorified, and I guarantee that His plan for your life is a plan of perfection. We must listen and obey.

Listening is hard and not often very fun. I know this because He has had to be loud and brash with me at times to make me hear Him. But oh when I heard Him it was so clear, so affirming that I could do nothing but obey. I wanted to obey. His words were loud, but his presence as soothing as the morning rain. It smelled wonderful, felt great and brought nourishment. It brought spiritual food for my soul, my withered and dried up soul. Oh how I want to hear Him so clearly.

God speaks to us through His creation, through His people, and His word. It is your job as a new believer to listen to what God is saying; not only listen, but then act in accordance with the grace given you by the Holy Spirit. Who among you can look at the mountains and not be in awe of the creative genius of God? Who among you can sit along the shores of the ocean and not be in wonder of God and His majesty? Do not listen to those who would tell you this is all by random chance and that God is not in it. Can a random act create such beauty, such majestic splendor in the world? The witness of God in his creation causes us to worship, to praise, and to glorify and magnify His name.

God gives us our friends and family and those more mature in the faith to guide us. Listen to them, take their words to heart. Let them speak into your life; let them give you peace and wisdom. Wisdom pours forth from the mouth of the elder, the deacon and the teacher. Hold onto what they tell you tightly and before you know it you will be speaking into the lives of others just as they have spoken into yours. Pursue this wisdom with all vigor; do not let your life be idled because of foolish things, lies and deceit. Listen to the wisdom of the elders and then apply it. Share the wisdom with other pilgrims on this journey, this journey toward the very heart of God.

Finally my friends incline your ear towards the words of God. God has led men to write down the history of our people, of God’s people. We must incline our ears towards the understanding, and then the application of, what God has told us.

When we do these three things God walks in our midst. God looks at us and boasts to the angels saying “see what my servant has done, in him I am well pleased.” Seek to live your life like this. Live your life so that God has nothing to hold against you. Live your life for the purpose of Christ and Him glorified. In doing so you will bring honor not just to yourself, but to the kingdom that we are so blessed to be a part of. You will bring many into the kingdom by just following in obedience, in reverence, and in peace.

I pray for you dear friends. Pray for me as I continue to seek God and all his glory in my life. Send word if I can pray for specific things for you. It is my honor to share with you in these things.

~Selah~

Lament

February 24th, 2009

Like a shot between the eyes these words from The Message touched me this morning. So I ask you today, what lessons in lament do we need to take? Please discuss. I read this and immediately thought of the fat cats on wall street contemplating jumping off bridges. They I realized, painfully that I am the arrogant rich. I am the sinner.

And a final word to you arrogant rich: Take some lessons in lament. You’ll need buckets for the tears when the crash comes upon you. Your money is corrupt and your fine clothes stink. Your greedy luxuries are a cancer in your gut, destroying your life from within. You thought you were piling up wealth. What you’ve piled up is judgment. All the workers you’ve exploited and cheated cry out for judgment. The groans of the workers you used and abused are a roar in the ears of the Master Avenger. You’ve looted the earth and lived it up. But all you’ll have to show for it is a fatter than usual corpse. In fact, what you’ve done is condemn and murder perfectly good persons, who stand there and take it. James 5:1-6

May God poor out his richness of mercy and favor on us and may we find favor in His courts.

~Selah~

Advocacy

February 23rd, 2009

Advocacy begins at home. Time and time again sociologists, psychologists, religious leaders and others tell us that our worldview is shaped in the home. Within the economy of the home we are spiritually and intellectually shaped. I can not agree with this more, and scripture backs that idea up an exponential amount of times.

God is working in me. I am trying to “see the Calcutta in my back yard” to quote a wise and contemplative friend of mine. It started truly and deeply after the last story I shared on my blog, but it really was just a boiling up and final spilling over of God’s work, and His timing, and me.

Today I read this article on Fox News and it just brings it home for me, and I hope too many more people as well. We can no longer as God’s church sit in an isolated bubble, give our money to the missionaries and hope all goes well in places like India, Ukraine, Thailand and many other places. We need to bring these discussions into our homes. Talk to our children about what is happening, don’t scare them, but shape the reality of their worldview. How do you do this? Well, here are a few thoughts.

1) Do not raise your children to think that they are somehow privileged in the eyes of God because they are Westerners. This is HARD to do, I know this. But I believe that if we can limit the television time, read the Bible with them, and watch what they are learning in Sunday school we can do it. We must be diligent. We can not farm out our spiritual nurturing of our children to churches any more then we can safely farm out our child’s education completely to the public schools. It takes time, energy, and humility. I say this as I realize that I stink at this sometimes. I am going to work on this.

2) Fast. Spend time fasting for others. Do not fast in the typical fashion that most evangelicals think is fasting. I stop eating so as to get something from God. It probably will not work if you do it that way. Instead fast in response to sin and tragedy. Child prostitution is a tragedy; it is a sign of our moral failure as a nation. It is fasting that God listens to. Isaiah 58 6-9 states:

“This is the kind of fast day I’m after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts. What I’m interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families. Do this and the lights will turn on,
and your lives will turn around at once. Your righteousness will pave your way.
The God of glory will secure your passage. Then when you pray, God will answer.
You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’
I am fired up and I admit it, but I want to hear God say “Here I am.” And I want my son to be able to hear that voice as well.

As I write this the movie Slum Dog Millionaire cleaned house at the Oscars. I am glad, but I wonder if the message will really make an eternal impact or difference in the mind of the west? (In the interest of full disclosure, I have not seen it yet, but plan to very soon) I do not think it will unless we as parents and followers of Christ will enter into the discussion with strength of conviction, with tenderness of heart, and the resolve of the Lion of the King of Judah.

Would the Real Church step Forward?

February 16th, 2009

Please don’t read this as a rant against the church, take it as a call to action, or if you read it as rantings and ravings just write me off as a mad man. I love and respect the church, I am part of one, I am in leadership in one, and I love my church, but man do we have a problem.

I normally attend church on Saturday nights. I like having a full Sabbath day rest on Sunday and it just works well when you have a youngster. This week because of Amy having another seizure we did not go Saturday night, and I went to Sunday morning service. We had a leadership meeting after service as well so I felt it necessary to attend.

My church is not far from downtown Colorado Springs. Right in the heart of the city is a well frequented Starbucks. I went there regularly before moving because it was convenient on my drive to work and the service is usually pretty quick. One thing that made going to this Starbucks tough was the amount of pan handlers outside at any given morning. They have a regular supply of willing givers headed into the offices nearby, or driving through the area to a few large employers to the north. God used those panhandlers to convict me on numerous occasions about how I live.

I stopped going to this location because I moved. But yesterday I went and was immediately shocked to see no panhandlers. Not a homeless person in site. At first I thought maybe they all were being served. Colorado Springs has a large outreach through the city to the homeless in the area. All too quickly God quickened my heart and told me why. He told me as plain as day it was because the Sunday morning church crowd that comes through does not give them anything. They have better luck elsewhere. Oouch… that stung. The more I realized and watched the crowd, the more I could see it being very true. What hurts even worse is this Starbucks is right under the shadow of two very large, very well established churches in the area. Between the two churches they probably have 15,000 worshipers a week. Does not the church realize the mission before them, and that the mission is literally in their back yard? I went to my car and cried. I have not been moved like that in awhile.

Working in a mission’s organization is a wonderful thing. I truly do enjoy the satisfaction that I am working on behalf of “the least of these” but I have been hard pressed to remember that missions is not just in the aggregate. I can think on the global scale about things like justice, compassion, mercy, forgiveness and so on. But I can not forget that mercy, justice, compassion and forgiveness start in my own back yard. It starts in how I see my neighbor, and who I define as my neighbor. God reminds us so well in the story of the Samaritan that all people are our neighbors.

The one thing that frustrates me in global missions and causes me to loose sleep is how to lead people over the hump of just thinking that God needs their money, they give it and somehow God just shows up and uses it? God does not need our resources, but he asks for them. Money is a resource, but so is our time. What would it take for me to get more involved in my own back yard in helping “the least of these” at home? This is a question that I am beginning to ponder, and quite frankly I am loosing sleep over. Then, how do I (we) motivate the church to go beyond the giving, beyond the self satisfying feeling that they tithed and that is all that God requires?

God is calling workers into the fields of the harvest. I spent my childhood in a Baptist church and watching Lottie Moon and her missionaries come through from time to time asking for support. I was given the impression, either by being told, or by omission, that God called some people into the mission’s field, and called others to fund them. I agree to a small extent. I thank God there are missionaries who go to New Guinea and have a heart for writing a bible for them. I support them. But the field is ripe there, and it is ripe here, and it is ripe in Africa, and it is ripe in Europe. None of us can be in all places at once, but each one of us who follow Jesus can be present in our circumstances and showing and sharing the love of Christ. Sometimes that is a cup of cold water for a friend, other times it is getting out of your comfort zone and giving a car to the single mother household. God calls us ALL into the mission field, and he equips us ALL for the task that is at hand. That task is being present. Present for friends, family, neighbors, strangers, and most importantly, for the Holy Spirit to show up and give you a task or a cause. My question is, will you accept?

~Selah~

Adventures in Missing the Point!

December 16th, 2008

Working at a ministry on the phones can be a interesting exercise. I love people and I am never shy to speak to someone, especially fellow heirs to the throne, but today I could have passed. Many of you who know me on Facebook saw my status showing my frustrations today. Here is why.

I spoke with a woman today on the phone. I did what was necessary and served her well. At the end of the call I said “Happy Holidays” and ended the call. This was a normal call, on an ordinary day while working towards the holidays, or so I thought.

About 30 minutes after the call my supervisor called me aside and said I had deeply offended a long time constituent and that he just spent the last 30 minutes mending the fences that I so easily plowed through with my Hummer sized comment. My crime, I said “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”. (Insert your long, drawn out groan here, Lord knows I still am groaning). However, I made the call to apologize personally. This sponsor in this year alone has donated over 10,000 big ones to our humble little operation and her constituency means a great deal to us, so I apologized like I have not apologized in years. I apologized for the perceived offense, when there was no offense to be had. At the end of the call I was so zapped of any holiday energy that I nearly cried.

What is happening among Christians today? Are we so itchy for a good fight that we will go out and fight one another at the slightest offense? Why are we looking to little things to define our big things? My saying “happy holidays” does not espouse a particular world view. It is a simple statement. It is easier then saying “have a Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year while you are at it”. It covers all the bases in one easy to say statement. Regardless of what the American Family Association and the good Dr. Dobson will tell you, saying “Happy Holidays” does not advance the world view that Christianity is bad, Christ is out of Christmas and we just threw the baby in the manger to the shredder. It means what it says, have a good holiday season and I wish you well. I wish that you and your family be safe, I pray you will have a full stomach, a great time with you family and a few things to put under your tree this Christmas. I wish you contentment and peace, two concepts that Americans in particular can not seem to get a grasp on. We have denuded those two words of their value so much that they are unrecognizable in our common parlance, but that is another discussion.

I have been reading Eugene Peterson again. As many of you know I have a deep afinity for his thinking and I consume his books regulalry. He thinks well, and then he puts his thinking to good use for the kingdom. In his latest book Tell it Slant (yes I am still reading the book, I am digesting it slowly) he is imparting how crucial that our language reflect the character of Christ. The ontology of our words reflects how we feel, how we are in relation to our creator, how we express ideas and a whole host of other things. He shows how the language of our prayers reflects everything about our relationship to our creator and his creation. It is a strong endictment to me to remember what I am saying and whom I am reflecting back to those around me. I speak in public from time to time, I talk on the phones all day and I have a great witness to others every day. Today the language I wanted to use was a little less then holy, and quite frankly was quite earthly in it’s nature.

John 17 shows Jesus praying to God shortly before His arrest and ultimate hanging on the cross. One of the themes that comes out quite regularly during that prayer is the theme of Unity. In this passage we here Christ saying:

“I’m praying not only for them
But also for those who will believe in me
Because of them and their witness about me.
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
The same glory you gave me, I gave them,
So they’ll be as unified and together as we are—
I in them and you in me.
Then they’ll be mature in this oneness,
And give the godless world evidence
That you’ve sent me and loved them
In the same way you’ve loved me.”

John 17: 20-23 The Message

Unity is the reflection of the Glory of God. We reflect unity by bringing our language, our hearts, our minds into conformity with the Will of God, just as God and Jesus were in unity. Jesus set the standard, we should aspire to no less. So often in church I hear “we need to be unified against (insert pastors favorite pet peave here)”. Instead of being unified against something unity should be our cause!

I do not write this without a grasp of the battle that we are in. Jesus told us many times that the battle will be long and the victory will be ours. He never said not to do battle, but he never encouraged us to battle with one another. He encouraged us, commanded us actually to do battle with Satan wherever he may be. We are to be vigilant in rooting him out and shedding holy light on where he dwells. Well, if we are using this kind of division and language in the church today then Satan has found his dwelling place in…?”

~Selah~

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