The God in Me

Okay, so the title may be a little misleading, but in writing they say you need a hook. Really, I want to talk about self-centered “faith.” This week I had several conversations with people that included phrases such as “Well, it’s working for me...” or “The way I see it...” or “I feel that..” and then go on to describe how they can twist who God is to suit their particular needs or current place in life. I call that a “god of my own making.” By the way, I’m not talking about non-believers here, and it’s not a new problem. Historically, God’s people have made excuses, set our own agendas, tolerated sin because God’s word seemed a little intolerant about it, put our own rules in, applied our own slant, and so forth. We have tried to make God fit our system of beliefs, based on “what works for me.” The problem is, we are not God, so what works for me, where it conflicts with the Word of God as it is written, cannot be truth.

Let’s start with the easiest one: “I feel...” Stop right there. Feelings lie. That’s the truth of it. As I have said in other blogs, perception is NOT reality, reality is reality. Our feelings frequently get in the way of truth. That’s why text messaging can become the source of arguments. We read emotion and intent into the message we receive based on our immediate circumstance, emotional state, perception of the words, etc. Feelings are just that, feelings and, devoid of comparison with truth, relevant data, information, they lie! “I feel” is self centered. “I believe,” when based on evidence, is another matter and perhaps another blog.

In my everyday job, I am a science person. I know research, I know what makes good research and what makes poor research, and I know when research is setting out to prove a pre-conceived notion. A friend shared with me some, what I will loosely call research, which they said supports their new belief system about who Jesus is - I won’t go into those details here. The problem is, scientifically speaking, and they were purported to be science, these studies were filled with fatal flaws. No peer reviewed scientific journals would print the studies because they had so many errors in design, implementation and analysis. Yet these were being used to convince people of who Jesus really is - that if we can get past things in our mind, we can be the Jesus we need. Really? Is that what scripture says, in essence, that we can be God? Then why did Jesus show up on the scene? I thought it was because I was trying to be God and couldn’t, or trying to get there on my own and, again, couldn’t.

In chapter 3 of his book The Blue Parakeet, Scot McKnight talks about the puzzlers - those people who read the Bible as if it were a puzzle, if we put all the pieces together, then we will understand the mind of God. He discusses four basic problems with this, but in finality, the puzzle that we piece together is fraught with error and in the end, “my puzzle is not the puzzle of anyone’s in the Bible. It is my puzzle, not the Bible’s.” So, the “way I see it,” has its basis more in me than in the reality of God. It is difficult to read scripture without filters, because we are human, but we need to be keenly aware of it when we do apply those filters. Are our thoughts consistent within the context of the Word, is Holy Spirit guiding us, have we asked for that guidance, and are we listening?

A mantra of the Evangelical Covenant Church is “Where is it written.” This is our starting point. We need to read scripture as the story of God’s relationship with us, not as an explanation of God or a defense of a position or belief. We have to submit and take God on His terms, whether or not (and especially when not) it fits our system of belief. Until we do so, we will continue to be ineffective little gods of our own making.

Return

Well, It's been a long time since anyone found me here. It's been quite a year in my full time job at school. "Bi-Vocational" means I have a full time job as well as the pastoral one. This year I have given up coaching girls' soccer so that I could spend more time with the ministry. As the girls' season is just around the corner, I will use the time off to study, meet with people and prepare for worship. And I'll return to the blog business where I reflect on things I am learning, and talk about things I believe God wants me to say. Look for regular postings each week. The current plan is to write Saturday, but it may be sooner. See you here.

The First 2 Chapters

I have heard it said that the Bible was only supposed to be the first 2 chapters. It is in Chapter 3 of Genesis that everything "goes to hell in a hand-basket." Chapters one and two set things up as they were intended and then the rest of scripture is the story of repairing the damage done in chapter three.

Today I began my summer study. When school is out, I take a sort of sabbatical from that job and get to spend more time in my Worship Pastor role. This summer, I am studying Psalms, specifically how God's constancy and faithfulness is born out psalm by psalm. The psalmist frequently asks for protection and in the end of the same psalm, iterates how God has been, is or will be our refuge and salvation. That is the main focus, but today I noticed something else about Psalms 1 and 2; They set up the whole story. It is the story of God and His work. Here it is all laid out quite simply:

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked

or stand in the way of sinners

or sit in the seat of mockers

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on His law he meditates day and night

If you read the rest of Psalm 1, you see that the righteous will prosper and the wicked will perish. If you try to place that in the here and now, it doesn't seem to be the case but, as the psalmists know, in the end, God will be true to His word. In Psalm 2, the psalmist lays out the next part of the story, one we experience all too frequently in the day to day lives of nations:

Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand

and the rulers gather together against the Lord

and against His anointed one.

As we continue reading, we find one of my favorite lines in Psalms:

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;

the Lord scoffs at them

God laughs because He knows the vanity and insanity of their efforts. "I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill." God's already got it done, and the efforts of the feeble rulers of earth are of only passing interest. Once again, in the first two chapters of a book, God has set forth how it is going to be, no matter the efforts of the wicked to stop it. Picture the angry rantings of a four year old saying to his parents "I'm not going!" No matter how many stampings of his feet, no matter how many tantrums he throws, he is going. In my house growing up, I learned quickly that at best, these outburst only became a frustration for me, at worst, they ended in punishment, and I went anyway. So it is with God. His way is the way, and in the end, we will all go before Him.

So again God gives us a choice: We can be like a tree planted by streams of living water, thriving and plentiful, or we can choose to plot against the provider and attempt to have our own way, for a time, but we will all end up in the same place, before the One enthroned in heaven. At that point, I'd rather hear what is described in Psalm 2 verse 7:

He said to me "You are my son, today I have become your Father."

Ummm...Really?

Every knee shall bow,

Every tongue confess

God is love,

Love has come

For us all

-Really?

I was driving home tonight and I heard this song on the radio. It's about how life is filled with sorrow and pain, and that there will come a day when that will end. But when the artist plays the hook, he paints a picture of Christ returning through the clouds "...and in that moment.." then comes the chorus written above. Now, before I start sounding like a cranky old man telling kids to "get off my porch," I understand what he is saying through the song, God's love is for us all. But I think that when you place songs in front of the masses, you need to get it right:

Phil 2:5-12 (NIV)-

⁵Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

⁶Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,

⁷but made himself nothing,

taking the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

⁸And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death—

even death on a cross!

⁹Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,

¹⁰that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,

¹¹and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father

¹²Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, ¹³for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose

The scripture referenced is not about love, it is about obedience, it is about judgement and working out your salvation in fear and trembling. You see, God already came as love. He did it in His Son, and in the Cross. Love came as sacrifice, and we now have the chance to choose. If we choose now, he will come for us, if we are still on the earth when he returns. So say that! Don't say that when He returns, He returns as love. Read Revelation 19:

¹¹I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. ¹²His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. ¹³He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. ¹⁴The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ¹⁵Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron scepter." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. ¹⁶On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:
KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS

Does that sound like love? My issue is that we focus too often only on the attributes of God that make us feel good. Can we avoid this judgement? Absolutely. How? Respond to the love He offers now, that is how God has already come, as I said earlier. God is Love and Love has come for us all. But when the clouds split, we had better have made the choice already, for then it will be too late. As for me:

My knee has bowed

My tongue confessed

Jesus Christ is Lord

To the Glory of the Father

Prayer in the Theater

As a scuba diver, I have always been amazed at the richness of the colors, the diversity of life, the amazing creatures that God placed beneath the waves. I am also a bit dismayed at the condition we have allowed this piece of our superintendency to fall to, but that's for another time. John Calvin referred to the world as a "theater of God's glory." There is nothing in it that is left to chance. Most often, things work precisely in harmony as God intended, no matter our interference and the impact of our fall on His creation. As a scientist who studies things under the seas, I have seen such things as what is called "social foraging" in which two unrelated species travel together, one following another, one uncovering food for itself and in the process stirring up food for the other. I have also seen what we may consider the violence of predation, one species killing and eating another. There is beauty, and cooperation, there is sand - there is violence and conflict, there is mud; yet all of it is a part of the real world.

We are part of that same real world. We live in it, make our way in it, love in it, plan in it, experience pain in it, experience joy in it. Every part of this "theater of God's glory" carries His fingerprint. And so we live in this material reality, and it impacts us. Prayer also exists in this theater, and is every bit as real. In "Answering God," Peterson says it this way:

"....there is no prayer, real prayer, outside the theater. Dissociated from creation, prayer drifts into silly sentimentalism, or snobbish mysticism, or pious elitism.

....The Word did not become a good idea, or a numinous feeling, or a moral aspiration: the Word became flesh and then went on to change water into wine and wine into blood."

I think about the real grit of the psalms and of the psalmist. When I was young, I encountered the "heroes of the Bible" as just that; glorified men and women who rose above the everyday, seemingly above it all. But they were not. See David as he hides from Absalom his son, who instigated a coup and ran David off into the wilderness, the same wilderness in which David hid from Saul years before, fighting for his life. Consider David as he sinned and repented before God - he was no spotless lamb. He was, however, "a man after God's own heart." He was cold, he was hungry, he was dirty, he was scared. He rejoiced, he danced, he praised, he sang. No mere enlightened gnostic spiritual teacher, David was fully immersed in the physical, he was a "theater-goer." And he prayed like it. Many times he begged, pleaded, bargained, argued, complained, was dismayed and all was not always to his liking - and he said so to God. Yet each time, he seemingly went back to the same place - that God had it under control and David acquiesced to Him. Why? Because David knew who God was. How? Because he talked with God, he listened to God, he knew God's words, and he believed them. He walked with God from his youth, he prayed. David prayed in the context of the material, physical world in which he lived, and that is how we should do it. Prayer is never separate from our story, it is not a compartment of our life. Prayer is not a laundry list, it is a conversation, perhaps about the laundry, but a conversation none the less. Share your life in the theater with the One who created it, and then listen for His answer.

Get Small this Christmas

“They put their minds together to rid themselves of this word so that their words can rule.”

-Eugene H. Peterson

Answering God – The Psalms as Tools for Prayer

One of the nice things about this time of year is that I get to spend some focused time catching up on reading. The quote above comes from some of that reading and relates to Psalm 2, which reads:

Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth take their stand and rulers

Gather together against the Lord

And against His Anointed One.

“Let us break their chains,” they say “and throw off their fetters.”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.

Ps. 2:1-5 NIV

There are people in our world, and always have been, who would try to live lives apart from God, and to do so, actively plan how to discredit and diminish His words, so that their words rule over us. Removing “In God We Trust” from coins, trying to force public citizens to take down crosses displayed, doing their best to eliminate “Merry Christmas” in favor of “Happy Holidays” are only the latest in these plans. And God Laughs. He laughs because He knows that these “kings of earth” can only see a microcosm, and He is the entire Cosmos and beyond, so beyond there are not words to describe Him.

So God invades our realm, our small piece of His creative expression. In Psalm 2, Messiah is introduced. The word used in Psalm 2 for anointed is “Mashiyach” and simply means “anointed one.” This term is used in scripture repeatedly and is not strictly for Jesus of Nazareth. It is the same word used in 1 Chronicles 16:22 where it says “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” The prophets were also “Mashiyach.” I could go on here, but my point is this. God sent anointed after anointed to tell the people about Him and to try to restore broken relationship, to try to get those plotters to see a picture much larger than their own measly power allowed. In Mark, chapter 12, Jesus recounts that very story. The owner of the vineyard sends messenger after messenger, some are beaten, others killed, and then he sends his son, and they kill him too in hopes of getting the inheritance for themselves, "throwing off their fetters" as it were.

At Christmas, we remember that God sent us THE Anointed One, God presents Himself in the flesh. In His doing so, in the way of His doing so, He reduces the power of earthly kings to insignificant rhetoric. Without humbling themselves and accepting a baby, they and their kingdoms will come to nothing. Without acknowledging that their words are no match for His words, that their sphere of influence is far too small and His all encompassing, they will fade into insignificance. And that has been the way of things throughout history. Kings and kingdoms have come and gone, but the Word of the Lord, The Anointed One of Israel, the baby who came thousands of years ago still remains.

Christmas is the story of how God invaded our world, working from within its “smallness” to bring us to His limitless love. If we reduce ourselves, give up the petty control we think we have over things, God will lead us to a world beyond our imagining.

The wolf will live with the lamb,

The leopard will lie down with the goat,

The calf and the lion and the yearling together;

And a little child will lead them.

Isaiah 11:6

Perception is NOT Reality

We live in a world of moral relativism. Truth is only truth if I see it as truth. Some things are not as evil as other things. I was on a website the other day on which people were defending the legalization of marijuana, and the common argument was that marijuana was “not as harmful as alcohol.” Did you ever think of this: the lesser of two evils is still evil! I am tired of hearing “perception is reality.” What a crock! Perception is not reality. Reality is reality, truth is truth, God is God and I am not! What does the last comment in that sentence have to do with the first two parts? When we determine what is true and what is real by our perception of it, we put ourselves in the place of God. We are now the supreme being, everything revolves around us – we are the center of the universe and people should spend their lives pleasing us. Now, I know there are many that do not believe God exists, but this seems to be relatively new. If we look back through world history, some research indicates there are fewer believers today than ever before. This, of course, makes sense. If we can eliminate God, society becomes more permissive, more self-centered than ever before. Not only do we not need God, we don’t want God, because that would displace us from our desired position.

Moral relativism is a consequence of extreme self-esteem. We are always right, what we want is penultimate, our perception of our world is all that matters. Narcissism is rampant in our culture of self-esteem. When self-esteem becomes the be all, end all of how we function, we wrap ourselves in self-love that excludes, by definition, placing the others in the forefront. How many times have you heard the phrase “you can’t love others before you love yourself” or “if you don’t take care of you, no one else will?” This is totally backward. If we all spend our time loving and taking care of ourselves, when do we reach out in relationship and in love and take care of others? It doesn’t happen. Protectionism, entitlement, self determination and “Manifest Destiny” do not work in our world on a political, world level, why should we expect it to be true on an individual level?

We love because God first loved us. That is our example, we have it backwards. God loved us before we even knew who He was. I know someone who said that they never understood what love was until they loved in a situation in which there was no way the object of their love had the ability to love back. What a great lesson! Can we do anything for God to deserve His love? I don’t think so! Yet He loves us anyway. If we spend all of our time loving ourselves or loving others only when we get something out of it, we miss the point of love itself. We give because we love, not because we get. If we act like we love, if we do loving things and expect to get something out of it then it is not love, it is selfishness. If we put ourselves first, we are always asking for more, and resentment builds because we didn’t get what we expect, what we believe we deserve (there’s that entitlement thing), and the relationship breaks down. When people in a true loving relationship submit themselves to each other, give selflessly, there is mutuality in love. People in that sort of relationship get because both give without consideration of self. When we get it right, everyone gets loved. For God so loved….