Well Christmas is around the corner and I am excited. Yes, I will continue to say Merry Christmas, not because I dislike other religions and festive celebrations, but because this season is encapsulated in Christ for me. Some have been trying to get me to say 'happy incarnation' so that I can apologetically defend the incarnation. I think that this type of reasoning is nice, but sincerely misguided.
In other news, I am currently reading The Jesus Way by Eugene Peterson. I am enjoying this spiritually formative read and I will keep on this blog my thoughts about what I am reading.
This book is predicated on John 14:6 where Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth and the life..." Peterson would like to point out that the 'truth and life' can only be accomplished when we are on the 'way.'
In his introduction, Peterson discusses how Jesus is not offering a complementary way to the ways and means of the world, but an alternative way. The manner in which God goes about defining success and production is completely different from the way in which the world offers these signposts of greatness. Peterson also critiques the consumer driven American church with a strikingly harsh, but true, statement; "A consumer church is an antichrist church (page 6)."
The flow of thought continues to show just how far reaching salvation is. Peterson shows that the 'end' goal of the Christian experience is salvation. It is highly important to realize that this salvation is not just an eschatological divine pardoning, but also a life altering and transforming, long lasting experience. "This is a salvation understood as comprehensive, intricate, patiently personal, embracingly social, insistently political. Salvation is the work of God that restores the world and us to wholeness (page 7 emphasis mine)." Peterson continues to discuss how to often the church will use the ways and means of the world that are at odds with what God desires.
It is integral in this understanding is the realization that Jesus is King. "We live in a world where Christ is King. If Christ is King, everything, quite literally, every thing and every one, has to be re-imagined, re-configured, re-oriented to a way of life that consists in an obedient following of Jesus (page 9)." This coheres well with NT Wright's understanding of the word 'gospel' as being the pronouncement that Jesus is King. Those who try to divorce Jesus Christ and his work from political action misunderstand the nature of the gospel. The gospel according to Jesus was "the kingdom of God is at hand (mk 1:15)." The reason the gospels are so inundated with the Kingdom of God is that Jesus came to establish a kingdom, not a simply a system of how people get their sins managed. Peterson continues, "The ways and means promoted and practices in the world are a systematic attempt to substitute human sovereingty for God's rule (pg 9)."
To conclude the introduction, Peterson speaks against what he calls the 'Laity Myth.' There is a pervading myth in the Christian church that people who do not have a degree in theology or who do not the gifts of preaching/teaching are sort of second-class believers. This is completely untrue. The people of God are built up of mainly people without such degrees and the like. Jesus's disciples were not those schooled in theology, but those who knew how to fish, do taxes, be zealous and the like. A problem connected with this is that people invest too much of their identity in what they can do well, rather in who they are (in the case of believers, Children of God). It is important for the 'leaders' of the church to get involvement from those without the official training. It is important for those who are not officially trained to believe that God desires earnestly to use them.
That is it for now. I am challenged and encouraged in reading this book, I hope that my synopsis has aided you as well.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
3 reaons hy I hate finals week:
Here are some reasons why I really dislike finals week, especially in the dorms.
1. Guys get crazy. There is something about the last few days of a semester that bring out all of the stored in frustrations. Also, guys just like to do stupid things and they have been working hard for an entire semester, they want to do something fun, so they do something stupid.
2. School shuts down. I like the routine that school gives my life. I am not a very structured person, but the structure that I get from school is beneficial to healthy living. I find it very hard to adjust and make up a new structure.
3. I hate leaving my social network. All of the friends with whom I have spent large amounts of time with are no longer around me when break comes. As I write this I realize that I will only have this type of community for another semester, then things will change drastically. I am not looking forward to reestablishing a good community. I hope that I will be able to find one.
Well that is about it. Tests are not a problem, projects aren't that big of a deal. It is mainly about relationships.
1. Guys get crazy. There is something about the last few days of a semester that bring out all of the stored in frustrations. Also, guys just like to do stupid things and they have been working hard for an entire semester, they want to do something fun, so they do something stupid.
2. School shuts down. I like the routine that school gives my life. I am not a very structured person, but the structure that I get from school is beneficial to healthy living. I find it very hard to adjust and make up a new structure.
3. I hate leaving my social network. All of the friends with whom I have spent large amounts of time with are no longer around me when break comes. As I write this I realize that I will only have this type of community for another semester, then things will change drastically. I am not looking forward to reestablishing a good community. I hope that I will be able to find one.
Well that is about it. Tests are not a problem, projects aren't that big of a deal. It is mainly about relationships.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
A Few Thoughts About God
The title could be no more nebulous, I like that.
I am finding that all the intellect in the world does not matter as much as I might think. Being smart might be nice, I wouldn't know, but knowing God is the only worthwhile pursuit. No matter how much I could tell someone about the facts of Christianity (whichever facts I may believe) that is generally not what changes a person. What changes a person is meeting other people whose lives change other people. Great people inspire greatness.
There are few people who would have disrespected Mother Teresa. Her kindness was tempered with humility that almost forced people to listen to her speak. Her stature was small, I'm not sure she was even 5 feet tall, yet her presence was enormous. She had authority, an unassuming authority that graced people. She was not powerful, she was authoritative. It is authentic authority that people will listen to.
I met a man at the National Missionary Convention whose life will hopefully change me permanently. His name is Ash Barker. He moved from comfortable Australian living to an urban area of disaster. He moved with his wife into places that most people would consider untouchable. He did this in order to share the gospel with these down and out people. Ash correctly realized that a gospel that is not good news to the poor, is not good news at all. The gospel that Ash taught was not that the poor will become rich, but that the poor can have worth and value in the eyes of God, and hence in the eyes of God's people. It is in this that the people can then rejoice. For the community will take care of them, the poor can rejoice. Sadly, the community at large has forgotten this. But through Ash's work, the neighborhood he moved to became an area of hope.
Ash started an organization called Urban Neighbors of Hope (UNOH). With that, he moved his family (wife and daughter at the time, he now has a son) into the Klong Toey slum in Bangkok, Thailand. This community of 80,000 people live in 2 square kilometers, and do not have a proper sewerage system. The area is rampant with disease, the people are incredibly poor. This is not the type of place most peopel visit, let alone want to life. But because Christ has called his people to serve the poor, Ash went. He started a community center and began helping out in a local church. He is helping show God's love to people who need to hear some good news. Ash's voice to others is a voice of authority, no one can doubt the sincerity of this man. Yet probably the most remarkable of all Ash's attributes is that he does not condemn those who are not as active in serving the poor as he is. He believes (and rightly so) that Christians need to be invovled in solving proverty in the world, but he is not condemning of those who have not realized this yet. His attitude is not cynical, but grace-filled. He a person to whom people will and do listen carefully. He has authority.
Authority comes from knowing God. When Jesus spoke, he spoke with authority. His authority came from knowing God. May I ever be a person who knows God. May I always spend my energy on the only thing worthy of pursuit, knowing God. May God be as real and intimate with me as my own self. I wish to know God, I say. Better and better every single day. I wish to hear his tender voice. I long to have his blessed insights. His tender mercies to be my speach. His great love to be my reach. Within my hand he grace to give. And for his sake, my life to live.
And this is eternal life to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
I am finding that all the intellect in the world does not matter as much as I might think. Being smart might be nice, I wouldn't know, but knowing God is the only worthwhile pursuit. No matter how much I could tell someone about the facts of Christianity (whichever facts I may believe) that is generally not what changes a person. What changes a person is meeting other people whose lives change other people. Great people inspire greatness.
There are few people who would have disrespected Mother Teresa. Her kindness was tempered with humility that almost forced people to listen to her speak. Her stature was small, I'm not sure she was even 5 feet tall, yet her presence was enormous. She had authority, an unassuming authority that graced people. She was not powerful, she was authoritative. It is authentic authority that people will listen to.
I met a man at the National Missionary Convention whose life will hopefully change me permanently. His name is Ash Barker. He moved from comfortable Australian living to an urban area of disaster. He moved with his wife into places that most people would consider untouchable. He did this in order to share the gospel with these down and out people. Ash correctly realized that a gospel that is not good news to the poor, is not good news at all. The gospel that Ash taught was not that the poor will become rich, but that the poor can have worth and value in the eyes of God, and hence in the eyes of God's people. It is in this that the people can then rejoice. For the community will take care of them, the poor can rejoice. Sadly, the community at large has forgotten this. But through Ash's work, the neighborhood he moved to became an area of hope.
Ash started an organization called Urban Neighbors of Hope (UNOH). With that, he moved his family (wife and daughter at the time, he now has a son) into the Klong Toey slum in Bangkok, Thailand. This community of 80,000 people live in 2 square kilometers, and do not have a proper sewerage system. The area is rampant with disease, the people are incredibly poor. This is not the type of place most peopel visit, let alone want to life. But because Christ has called his people to serve the poor, Ash went. He started a community center and began helping out in a local church. He is helping show God's love to people who need to hear some good news. Ash's voice to others is a voice of authority, no one can doubt the sincerity of this man. Yet probably the most remarkable of all Ash's attributes is that he does not condemn those who are not as active in serving the poor as he is. He believes (and rightly so) that Christians need to be invovled in solving proverty in the world, but he is not condemning of those who have not realized this yet. His attitude is not cynical, but grace-filled. He a person to whom people will and do listen carefully. He has authority.
Authority comes from knowing God. When Jesus spoke, he spoke with authority. His authority came from knowing God. May I ever be a person who knows God. May I always spend my energy on the only thing worthy of pursuit, knowing God. May God be as real and intimate with me as my own self. I wish to know God, I say. Better and better every single day. I wish to hear his tender voice. I long to have his blessed insights. His tender mercies to be my speach. His great love to be my reach. Within my hand he grace to give. And for his sake, my life to live.
And this is eternal life to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
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