“If you aren’t close to someone who is far from God you may not be as close to God as you think.”
Vince
Category: faith
What question(s) do you have?
Tried this yesterday on the encounter blog and twitter feed but we received no responses. Maybe everyone knows everything… or doesn’t want to be known for asking their question.
So we’ll try it here and feel free to remain anonymous or use a psuedo-name.
what is something you feel you can’t say or ask in church?
share away in the comment section below.
Steven Curtis Chapman’s daughter killed
My heart goes out to the Chapman family today. It was announced at their church service last night that their youngest daughter, Maria (adopted from China), was killed yesterday afternoon after she was struck by a vehicle driven by her older brother.
I can’t imagine the pain, the hurt and probably guilt the family is feeling right now.
Lots of questions from folks I’m sure but I know this – God wasn’t surprised by this. Just like he wasn’t surprised by my sister’s death, he wasn’t surprised by Pearl Harbor, he wasn’t surprised by 9-11.
He didn’t turn around in Heaven yesterday and say, “well why is Maria here? I wasn’t expecting her for another 70 years.” He knew and saw this long before any of us came into existence.
Psalm 139
God, investigate my life; get all the facts firsthand.
I’m an open book to you;
even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking.
You know when I leave and when I get back;
I’m never out of your sight.
You know everything I’m going to say
before I start the first sentence.
I look behind me and you’re there,
then up ahead and you’re there, too—
your reassuring presence, coming and going.
This is too much, too wonderful—
I can’t take it all in!
Is there anyplace I can go to avoid your Spirit?
to be out of your sight?
If I climb to the sky, you’re there!
If I go underground, you’re there!
If I flew on morning’s wings
to the far western horizon,
You’d find me in a minute—
you’re already there waiting!
Then I said to myself, “Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
At night I’m immersed in the light!”
It’s a fact: darkness isn’t dark to you;
night and day, darkness and light, they’re all the same to you.
Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.
Your thoughts—how rare, how beautiful!
God, I’ll never comprehend them!
I couldn’t even begin to count them—
any more than I could count the sand of the sea.
Oh, let me rise in the morning and live always with you!
And please, God, do away with wickedness for good!
And you murderers—out of here!—
all the men and women who belittle you, God,
infatuated with cheap god-imitations.
See how I hate those who hate you, God,
see how I loathe all this godless arrogance;
I hate it with pure, unadulterated hatred.
Your enemies are my enemies!
Investigate my life, O God,
find out everything about me;
Cross-examine and test me,
get a clear picture of what I’m about;
See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong—
then guide me on the road to eternal life.
Till death do us part
Listened to the latest Mars Hill podcast on the way into work today.
The (guest) speaker made a great point about the significance of baptism. He said that in the early church, people identified with Christ. It made a lasting impact on them. They saw who he was, what he did and what the kingdom he was leading us to.
So when the early church (Jews) said, “well we don’t want you to eat this or do this or wear that” the early converts were OK with it. Even when they said, “yeah there’s this little ‘operation’ the men will need to do to show that they’re committed to the cause.” Many of the converts said, “well OK we can do that too.”
And they did these things because they saw the impact of what living in the Kingdom of God was all about – right then and right there. They saw a new economy, a new community, a new way of living and they said “we’ve seen how powerful this life Christ called us to really is and we want to be a part of it – even though it will likely mean death for us.”
For many, being identified as a follower of Christ in Rome meant death. And folks still signed up for the cause because they saw a better way, a third way of living.
And so when someone stood up and said, “I want to be baptized and identified with Christ.” The entire community knew what he was saying. He was saying I want to be a part of bringing the Kingdom of God to earth. I want to take part in the redemption of the world. I want to live in community with my fellow man — even if that means death.
Powerful image.
Reminds me of several I met in Nigeria who said their families left them, their friends left them and their life was threatened because they converted to Christianity. Yet they did it joyously and willingly because they wanted to take part in the Kingdom of God.
What we war against
As part of the encounter 9 and our Wednesday morning What-A-Study, Brian’s been focusing on the battles/wars men face and wrestle with in our daily lives.
Last week we discussed the idea that we can’t battle our wars alone – we need other soldiers to come along side us and fight with us – side by side.
Today we discussed some of the things we as a church fight against. We came up with our own collective list and then Brian shared some of the things he sees us, as encounter waring against.
Here’s the list of what we war against:
- the idea that you can’t have a great marriage because your spouse is unwilling or unresponsive.
- the idea that I am a prisoner of my addictions, failures, pains and the seemingly impossible solutions of my life.
- the idea that the church is a building, a location, a program.
- the idea that walking with Christ is about rules, guilt and lifeless religion.
- the idea that life is destined to be mundane and meaningless.
- the idea that church is about membership, bureaucracy, internal introspection, exclusivity and it exists for itself.
- the idea that the gospel is a singular event to experience and separate from the very real and relevant areas of my life.
- the idea that the church is to be against the non-Christ followers: looking to remove itself from them, condemn them and blame them and compete to overtake them politically, socially and economically.
- the idea that the gospel and church are irrelevant to the everyday issues of life.
- the idea that the problems are too big and nothing can be done.
We added a couple more things to the list, like waring against “private faith” and the idea of “picture perfect families and lives.”
I think looking at the list, it comes down to one thing – we war against ME… not just me as in Jonathan Blundell, but as you, your ideals, my ideals, my wants, your desires, my selfishness, your selfishness. We battle against the idea of ME and battle for idea of WE and us and the community of believers.
At the risk of sounding cliche or trite, I want to be the standard bearer for this battle. I want to raise the flag high. Sure I’m gonna trip and fall and I may have trouble getting back up again – but that’s why we need our fellow brothers and sisters to join us in battle, who pick us up and will be willing to carry the standard when the standard bearer struggles.
What do you war against? What role do you want to play in this war?
More quizes
Well I’d like to think I have a generous orthodoxy. I’ve told Laurie recently that I couldn’t tell you where I fall in the “theological spectrum.” But apparently, according to this quiz, I fall primarily in the emergent/postmodern mindset. But because I’d like to think I have a generous orthodoxy – know that where ever you fall – is cool with me ;-). Oh and hat-tip to Chad for the quiz link.
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| What’s your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com |
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| You scored as Emergent/Postmodern
You are Emergent/Postmodern in your theology. You feel alienated from older forms of church, you don’t think they connect to modern culture very well. No one knows the whole truth about God, and we have much to learn from each other, and so learning takes place in dialogue. Evangelism should take place in relationships rather than through crusades and altar-calls. People are interested in spirituality and want to ask questions, so the church should help them to do this.
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