brennan kicks ass and takes names in this one... bottom line. period. done... this is what i love about jesus. period. that He loves me. period. done... "."
Friday, December 26, 2008
Friday, December 12, 2008
The Leaven of the Pharisees
We've had some good conversation around the Scriptures on Sundays concerning the "Leaven of the Pharisees", lately.
Recently, someone asked me to define it...
Here it is: "Hypocrisy"
That is the leaven of the Pharisees.
You know what I like about the Pharisees of the Bible? a LOT.
They believed in the Resurrection, Angels, the Judgment, an actual Messiah...
They were fervent believers in the authority of Scripture, but not in a way that confronted their HEARTS.
In their hearts, they were devoid of love and fully devoted to the things of this world, albeit religious forms of those things...
They loved money.
They loved to look good to others...
They lied about God.
They oppressed people...
They were full of death (dead men's bones)...
But in their practise! They were great! They set up a GREAT temple, with benevolence and worship and sacrifice and deep symbology, all in accordance with what Moses commanded the Israelites in the desert... At least as long as you didn't REALLY look at what they did... their symbols, wardrobe, words... all very full of bible and piety... but they cheated the poor widows and didn't really love God or their neighbors, or even their parents, by the time you get to all Jesus said to them...
They were terrible. They were great! Why both? Because they were hypocrites! It is impossible to argue with a hypocrite. They get to believe whatever they want to, about themselves.
Jesus told us to watch out for this. Not to allow hypocrisy to get the upper hand on us. He also told us to leave the Pharisees behind. Who calls the shots in your heart, head and life? Wack religious leaders whose practise doesn't match their teaching?
Check for it! I've been in so many church board meetings where Jesus just isn't loved or honored... decisions to withold truth or help from the poor, or needy saints... decisions to spend all the money on US and not on Jesus!
Wow. gotta rest...
Recently, someone asked me to define it...
Here it is: "Hypocrisy"
That is the leaven of the Pharisees.
You know what I like about the Pharisees of the Bible? a LOT.
They believed in the Resurrection, Angels, the Judgment, an actual Messiah...
They were fervent believers in the authority of Scripture, but not in a way that confronted their HEARTS.
In their hearts, they were devoid of love and fully devoted to the things of this world, albeit religious forms of those things...
They loved money.
They loved to look good to others...
They lied about God.
They oppressed people...
They were full of death (dead men's bones)...
But in their practise! They were great! They set up a GREAT temple, with benevolence and worship and sacrifice and deep symbology, all in accordance with what Moses commanded the Israelites in the desert... At least as long as you didn't REALLY look at what they did... their symbols, wardrobe, words... all very full of bible and piety... but they cheated the poor widows and didn't really love God or their neighbors, or even their parents, by the time you get to all Jesus said to them...
They were terrible. They were great! Why both? Because they were hypocrites! It is impossible to argue with a hypocrite. They get to believe whatever they want to, about themselves.
Jesus told us to watch out for this. Not to allow hypocrisy to get the upper hand on us. He also told us to leave the Pharisees behind. Who calls the shots in your heart, head and life? Wack religious leaders whose practise doesn't match their teaching?
Check for it! I've been in so many church board meetings where Jesus just isn't loved or honored... decisions to withold truth or help from the poor, or needy saints... decisions to spend all the money on US and not on Jesus!
Wow. gotta rest...
Dangerous God...
God IS love. Period. All that he does is done in, by, love, Himself...
Like when Jesus personified Way, Truth, and Life, God (of whom Jesus is the perfect view) is LOVE.
Many of us have trouble integrating what we feel to be polar opposites in the grace and wrath of God.
Blessing on that trouble... but understanding Father is our great joy and boast in this sojourn! Look at Jeremiah 9:23 where it says that!
We truly can understand that grace and wrath are not separate at all, but both expressions of the great personality of our Father!
We may be horrified at the extent of His wrath, and we may dare to be stunned at the depths of His love, but they are both from Him.
He is good. He is love. and he is God.
Fearing him is a doorway to wisdom. That is, knowing how dangerous He is will calm our hearts at the myriad lesser fears that surround us.
A person captivated with the grace of God in Christ is not cowed by the majesty and danger of Father, the King of the ages. They are lifted by relief, being secure in the rescue that Jesus has wrought in his own flesh on the cross...
"Fear not...I have inscribed you on my palms..."
Isaiah's scroll...49:16
Like when Jesus personified Way, Truth, and Life, God (of whom Jesus is the perfect view) is LOVE.
Many of us have trouble integrating what we feel to be polar opposites in the grace and wrath of God.
Blessing on that trouble... but understanding Father is our great joy and boast in this sojourn! Look at Jeremiah 9:23 where it says that!
We truly can understand that grace and wrath are not separate at all, but both expressions of the great personality of our Father!
We may be horrified at the extent of His wrath, and we may dare to be stunned at the depths of His love, but they are both from Him.
He is good. He is love. and he is God.
Fearing him is a doorway to wisdom. That is, knowing how dangerous He is will calm our hearts at the myriad lesser fears that surround us.
A person captivated with the grace of God in Christ is not cowed by the majesty and danger of Father, the King of the ages. They are lifted by relief, being secure in the rescue that Jesus has wrought in his own flesh on the cross...
"Fear not...I have inscribed you on my palms..."
Isaiah's scroll...49:16
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Something Dangerous
Danger.
Danger is the key word when it comes to dealing with fear and God.
-- Post From My iPhone
Danger is the key word when it comes to dealing with fear and God.
-- Post From My iPhone
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
What's the deal with fear, again?
First and last, check out Psalm 85. This is a prophetic marriage of truth and grace.
Think about how Jesus Himself is our peace. (Eph.2:14)
Hear Jesus call His disciples "friends" in John 15:14.
...and hear the old apostle arrive at "...perfect love casts out all fear" in 1 John 4:17.
What a marvel that the holy God of all creation and beyond has called us to Himself as His own beloved children!
-- Post from my iPhone
Think about how Jesus Himself is our peace. (Eph.2:14)
Hear Jesus call His disciples "friends" in John 15:14.
...and hear the old apostle arrive at "...perfect love casts out all fear" in 1 John 4:17.
What a marvel that the holy God of all creation and beyond has called us to Himself as His own beloved children!
-- Post from my iPhone
So do I still have to fear God?
Short answer? "You sure will."
Have to? What is this a choice thing? Maybe it is. Maybe that's what's behind Jesus telling us what he does in Matthew 10... That is to disciples. You and me. Period.
But it is only a choice thing for a little while. One day everyone is going to stand before Him.
First peter five talks about the impact that knowing this has on us. That we consider this life a pilgrimage and walk it in that kind of fear that keeps on track.
And check out Hebrews three and four to see how afraid we ought to be of getting off track.
Period.
-- Post From My iPhone
Have to? What is this a choice thing? Maybe it is. Maybe that's what's behind Jesus telling us what he does in Matthew 10... That is to disciples. You and me. Period.
But it is only a choice thing for a little while. One day everyone is going to stand before Him.
First peter five talks about the impact that knowing this has on us. That we consider this life a pilgrimage and walk it in that kind of fear that keeps on track.
And check out Hebrews three and four to see how afraid we ought to be of getting off track.
Period.
-- Post From My iPhone
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Psalms 116
I love the LORD, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
2Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
3The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
4Then I called upon the name of the LORD:
"O LORD, I implore You, deliver my soul!"
5Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
6The LORD preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
7Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
8For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
9I will walk before the LORD
In the land of the living.
10I believed, therefore I spoke,
"I am greatly afflicted."
11I said in my haste,
"All men are liars."
12What shall I render to the LORD
For all His benefits toward me?
13I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the LORD.
14I will pay my vows to the LORD
Now in the presence of all His people.
15Precious in the sight of the LORD
Is the death of His saints.
16O LORD, truly I am Your servant;
I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant;
You have loosed my bonds.
17I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
And will call upon the name of the LORD.
18I will pay my vows to the LORD
Now in the presence of all His people,
19In the courts of the LORD's house, In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!
v.17
thanksgiving is the only thing left...
Heb. 13:10
We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. 12Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. 13Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. 14For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. 15Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. 16But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
You see, now that Jesus has fulfilled the Law and the Patriarchs, we are in an age of Praise and Thanksgiving. That's what this Psalm was feeling when he wrote that his rendering unto the LORD would be taking the cup of salvation! See? His Service was to Recieve! His Sacrifice was to say Thank You!
This is what Isaiah is saying in Is. 30:15
15For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:
" In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength."
But you would not,
There are just so few who will take up the faith to believe in and trust in and rely on the Grace of Jesus Christ and bear the fruit... this is the narrow way, and the Psalmist was on it! Didn't "get it", but was on it! Wow!
And that's how the Kingdom is, so often. We're in it and don't even get it: like the Tax Collector in Luke 18. Like the Thief on the cross in Luke 23.
I mean, this is amazing! And the "arrived" crew, they were washed up, didn't know it, and HATED Jesus... makes you tremble to consider yourself a religious/devout/christian person, eh?
I love the LORD, because He has heard
My voice and my supplications.
2Because He has inclined His ear to me,
Therefore I will call upon Him as long as I live.
3The pains of death surrounded me,
And the pangs of Sheol laid hold of me;
I found trouble and sorrow.
4Then I called upon the name of the LORD:
"O LORD, I implore You, deliver my soul!"
5Gracious is the LORD, and righteous;
Yes, our God is merciful.
6The LORD preserves the simple;
I was brought low, and He saved me.
7Return to your rest, O my soul,
For the LORD has dealt bountifully with you.
8For You have delivered my soul from death,
My eyes from tears,
And my feet from falling.
9I will walk before the LORD
In the land of the living.
10I believed, therefore I spoke,
"I am greatly afflicted."
11I said in my haste,
"All men are liars."
12What shall I render to the LORD
For all His benefits toward me?
13I will take up the cup of salvation,
And call upon the name of the LORD.
14I will pay my vows to the LORD
Now in the presence of all His people.
15Precious in the sight of the LORD
Is the death of His saints.
16O LORD, truly I am Your servant;
I am Your servant, the son of Your maidservant;
You have loosed my bonds.
17I will offer to You the sacrifice of thanksgiving,
And will call upon the name of the LORD.
18I will pay my vows to the LORD
Now in the presence of all His people,
19In the courts of the LORD's house, In the midst of you, O Jerusalem. Praise the LORD!
v.17
thanksgiving is the only thing left...
Heb. 13:10
We have an altar from which those who serve the tabernacle have no right to eat. 11For the bodies of those animals, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned outside the camp. 12Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. 13Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. 14For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. 15Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name. 16But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.
You see, now that Jesus has fulfilled the Law and the Patriarchs, we are in an age of Praise and Thanksgiving. That's what this Psalm was feeling when he wrote that his rendering unto the LORD would be taking the cup of salvation! See? His Service was to Recieve! His Sacrifice was to say Thank You!
This is what Isaiah is saying in Is. 30:15
15For thus says the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel:
" In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and confidence shall be your strength."
But you would not,
There are just so few who will take up the faith to believe in and trust in and rely on the Grace of Jesus Christ and bear the fruit... this is the narrow way, and the Psalmist was on it! Didn't "get it", but was on it! Wow!
And that's how the Kingdom is, so often. We're in it and don't even get it: like the Tax Collector in Luke 18. Like the Thief on the cross in Luke 23.
I mean, this is amazing! And the "arrived" crew, they were washed up, didn't know it, and HATED Jesus... makes you tremble to consider yourself a religious/devout/christian person, eh?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Manifesto Material
because people have lately been "coloring me" with the "house church" "brush", i've felt moved to provide a little "manifesto" material to help "clarify". If you want to paint, go for the Jesus-colored crayon. That is my biggest hope-- that I'd be something like Jesus, somehow. By His grace alone, I am and will be...
Here we go:
I have had a passion to equip people to live in an authentic church life, wherever they are. Since by God's hand we have landed here in Northside, I've had the last 4 years spent in discipling folks in the city...
Living a life that abides in Christ
bears fruit that lasts
telling the truth
being the church, together
as a family
in obedience to our Lord's commands
every
day
working with our hands to have something to share
living quiet, humble lives
being godly
husbands
wives
sons
daughters
brothers
sisters
workers
friends
at home
at work
speaking and spreading the Word of the Lord
everywhere around us
like a fragrance...
watching our life
and our doctrine
closely
in hopes of our own salvation
and that of our hearers
This is the root stuff of my teaching, my writing, my living (O God that I would really LIVE with God, from God, unto God),
and this is the root stuff of our life in Northside.
No, we don't have a "mission" to "reach" some people group that is delineated by geography, economy, race or any other earthly measure. We have a commission to preach everywhere to everyone and to make disciples that would bear lasting fruit... We are blown by the spirit, as the testimony of every person who has found the Lord in our small group shows...
Almost every single person in our group has been led to the Lord, or has been significantly discipled, or brought to growth in Christ, through another person in our church. There is very little about our church that could hinge on any single person or personality, and almost nothing for which we could ever take any credit, though we do each take a certain pride in good work that we do from time to time. This is a Biblical pride and not a stink to God.
everywhere is our mission field. every person is our people group, starting with ourselves. We preach the gospel to ourselves, too.
may the Lord renew your heart!
Here we go:
I have had a passion to equip people to live in an authentic church life, wherever they are. Since by God's hand we have landed here in Northside, I've had the last 4 years spent in discipling folks in the city...
Living a life that abides in Christ
bears fruit that lasts
telling the truth
being the church, together
as a family
in obedience to our Lord's commands
every
day
working with our hands to have something to share
living quiet, humble lives
being godly
husbands
wives
sons
daughters
brothers
sisters
workers
friends
at home
at work
speaking and spreading the Word of the Lord
everywhere around us
like a fragrance...
watching our life
and our doctrine
closely
in hopes of our own salvation
and that of our hearers
This is the root stuff of my teaching, my writing, my living (O God that I would really LIVE with God, from God, unto God),
and this is the root stuff of our life in Northside.
No, we don't have a "mission" to "reach" some people group that is delineated by geography, economy, race or any other earthly measure. We have a commission to preach everywhere to everyone and to make disciples that would bear lasting fruit... We are blown by the spirit, as the testimony of every person who has found the Lord in our small group shows...
Almost every single person in our group has been led to the Lord, or has been significantly discipled, or brought to growth in Christ, through another person in our church. There is very little about our church that could hinge on any single person or personality, and almost nothing for which we could ever take any credit, though we do each take a certain pride in good work that we do from time to time. This is a Biblical pride and not a stink to God.
everywhere is our mission field. every person is our people group, starting with ourselves. We preach the gospel to ourselves, too.
may the Lord renew your heart!
Friday, August 22, 2008
Why I Don't Go to Church Anymore
This article is for anyone out there that considers "grubbykupp" or "Just Some Jesus People" their church.
First of all, there is almost no such thing as "grubbykupp". That's just a word that we got years back that said, "you can only be loved by me as who you actually are, with wounds and lack and sin and all the mess of who you are, so be the cup and get filled and washed and just go go go and walk with Me!" Jesus seemed to be saying...
I got that word prophetically when I preached Jeremiah 31 about the New Covenant at a Methodist Church in Loveland OH in 2001 or 2000 or something. They've got the tape... Judy came up to me after and said she was getting that word and that the Lord was calling us to be vessels, as we were, with the good news of Jesus, the lover of sinners... Jesus, loving us and telling us to tell you he loves you... what? so simple, yet far too rare...
and we're a mess and he loves us...
But grubbykupp isn't a "thing", really. the Thing is JESUS! He really does love you, now, today, as you are, and he's calling you out of your guilt and to know the indescribable Father-Love of Abba... What? so simple... soooo... simple...
And "Just Some Jesus People" is a little trick i play on people who need a label in order to start a friendship. I mean, look at that... enjoy...
But the linked article is goood. For anyone there who thinks that by meeting together or living together, or whatevs, that they are "joining a church" or a "community"... you joined the only church there ever has been when you first realized that the Someone you need is Jesus! all those years of loneliness and brokenness and here's Jesus, arms open, loving you and speaking HIMSELF as the final message on how God feels about you.
You know what else?
any time you joined a church before?
No you didn't.
Some of the people at the meetings may have been the church, but they weren't behaving in a full understanding of the true definition of church--the reality of church (forget just defining it: it's there to LIVE IN)
that wasn't behaving like what Jesus calls a church, if you had to join it like that...
sorry, dude.
the church Jesus started doesn't name itself after itself and do like that. seriously... what? Does that indict something dear to you? something you may have confused for something else??? hope so.
I really do.
I'm not here to make you comfortable if you've set your hope on some wack imitation of the reality of the gifts of God. God has LOVED US and has given us such immense GRACE, and the imitation stuff kinda gets stinky! really.
God is hardly who we have imagined him to be... He is in LOVE with you.
Now go read the book of Hosea. Go. Read it. Why did God put that in there? What the heck is that? Yeah. Goood. be perplexed now. and go with that...
First of all, there is almost no such thing as "grubbykupp". That's just a word that we got years back that said, "you can only be loved by me as who you actually are, with wounds and lack and sin and all the mess of who you are, so be the cup and get filled and washed and just go go go and walk with Me!" Jesus seemed to be saying...
I got that word prophetically when I preached Jeremiah 31 about the New Covenant at a Methodist Church in Loveland OH in 2001 or 2000 or something. They've got the tape... Judy came up to me after and said she was getting that word and that the Lord was calling us to be vessels, as we were, with the good news of Jesus, the lover of sinners... Jesus, loving us and telling us to tell you he loves you... what? so simple, yet far too rare...
and we're a mess and he loves us...
But grubbykupp isn't a "thing", really. the Thing is JESUS! He really does love you, now, today, as you are, and he's calling you out of your guilt and to know the indescribable Father-Love of Abba... What? so simple... soooo... simple...
And "Just Some Jesus People" is a little trick i play on people who need a label in order to start a friendship. I mean, look at that... enjoy...
But the linked article is goood. For anyone there who thinks that by meeting together or living together, or whatevs, that they are "joining a church" or a "community"... you joined the only church there ever has been when you first realized that the Someone you need is Jesus! all those years of loneliness and brokenness and here's Jesus, arms open, loving you and speaking HIMSELF as the final message on how God feels about you.
You know what else?
any time you joined a church before?
No you didn't.
Some of the people at the meetings may have been the church, but they weren't behaving in a full understanding of the true definition of church--the reality of church (forget just defining it: it's there to LIVE IN)
that wasn't behaving like what Jesus calls a church, if you had to join it like that...
sorry, dude.
the church Jesus started doesn't name itself after itself and do like that. seriously... what? Does that indict something dear to you? something you may have confused for something else??? hope so.
I really do.
I'm not here to make you comfortable if you've set your hope on some wack imitation of the reality of the gifts of God. God has LOVED US and has given us such immense GRACE, and the imitation stuff kinda gets stinky! really.
God is hardly who we have imagined him to be... He is in LOVE with you.
Now go read the book of Hosea. Go. Read it. Why did God put that in there? What the heck is that? Yeah. Goood. be perplexed now. and go with that...
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Winter Vine Pruning
sam and i are at the dinner table this morning, enjoying a cup of coffee and talking about the book of John, chapter 15. I pulled up this clip of pruning. I don't understand a lot of what he's talking about, but the point is that the guy knows what he's doing, just like Our Father knows what He's doing when he gets down to pruning us... and that's good news.
Sunday, July 27, 2008
Scriptures from this sunday together
these are the scriptures that came forth in our meeting time, from the Holy Spirit's teaching of the Body during the week. Enjoy the Lord as you meditate on them...
John 12:24
2 Cor. 5:15...
Gal. 2:20...
John 20:29
Heb. 13:9...
Phil. 4:11...
John 15:4...
Colossians 3
John 12:24
2 Cor. 5:15...
Gal. 2:20...
John 20:29
Heb. 13:9...
Phil. 4:11...
John 15:4...
Colossians 3
Friday, July 11, 2008
Fasting: be good to your guts
smoothies are good, keep you able to work, and you're still "empty".
beer was invented by dudes who fasted for a long time every year. Monks. you know how monks get so chubby?
in fact, beer lore is littered with monks. Now, for all of you coming out of the party lifestyle, steer clear of the beer! have a smoothie.
Also, they didn't have cars back then, so a beer for lunch and a nap and then you're back to illuminating some text... or something...
beer isn't a good thing to drink if you're fasting because you get drunk.
but smoothies, especially homemade ones, are really good. I just wanted to show you that liquid refreshment has long been considered cool for fasting... we good? good.
I like a smoothie because it has a lot of good stuff in it, and tastes good and i make them myself, but i still feel empty and notice that i'm not eating...
But if you can go on water alone for the first 2-4 days of total "hunger sickness", you're gonna shut down and get "light". That's a kinda dangerous state. Your guts have slowed to almost a stop and you're gonna need to restart them gently.
no one does this.
I know a dear man who restarted after a long fast with a plate of beef and noodles.
hospital stay. really.
tore up.
so please, please be good to your body and if you're gonna shut down and really get a serious fast on, consider the pipes, eh? start back up slow with broth, then soup, a fruit meal, and then on to the main stuff...
If you fast for more than a week, you should spend at least 2 days restarting yourself gently. This is hard and almost never works because we are so HUNGRY after a fast. Wow. hungry...
One time i ate a ton of oreos after a fast...
that's a mistake. My guts were fine, but my system was shocked.
i attribute bad habits for the five years following to the way i mishandled the re-entry off that one fast, so please pay attention to good sound health advice when you fast...
i am not a medical professional. please don't treat me like one... if you don't know how to fast, try not eating for a while and see if that helps. For medical considerations, check with a doctor. just be good to your guts, eh?
beer was invented by dudes who fasted for a long time every year. Monks. you know how monks get so chubby?
in fact, beer lore is littered with monks. Now, for all of you coming out of the party lifestyle, steer clear of the beer! have a smoothie.
Also, they didn't have cars back then, so a beer for lunch and a nap and then you're back to illuminating some text... or something...
beer isn't a good thing to drink if you're fasting because you get drunk.
but smoothies, especially homemade ones, are really good. I just wanted to show you that liquid refreshment has long been considered cool for fasting... we good? good.
I like a smoothie because it has a lot of good stuff in it, and tastes good and i make them myself, but i still feel empty and notice that i'm not eating...
But if you can go on water alone for the first 2-4 days of total "hunger sickness", you're gonna shut down and get "light". That's a kinda dangerous state. Your guts have slowed to almost a stop and you're gonna need to restart them gently.
no one does this.
I know a dear man who restarted after a long fast with a plate of beef and noodles.
hospital stay. really.
tore up.
so please, please be good to your body and if you're gonna shut down and really get a serious fast on, consider the pipes, eh? start back up slow with broth, then soup, a fruit meal, and then on to the main stuff...
If you fast for more than a week, you should spend at least 2 days restarting yourself gently. This is hard and almost never works because we are so HUNGRY after a fast. Wow. hungry...
One time i ate a ton of oreos after a fast...
that's a mistake. My guts were fine, but my system was shocked.
i attribute bad habits for the five years following to the way i mishandled the re-entry off that one fast, so please pay attention to good sound health advice when you fast...
i am not a medical professional. please don't treat me like one... if you don't know how to fast, try not eating for a while and see if that helps. For medical considerations, check with a doctor. just be good to your guts, eh?
Fasting: too secretive?
You know how Jesus says that we should keep stuff we do (like alms and prayers and fasting) short, sweet and secret? well, i wonder sometimes if we've gotten a little bit "shut down" about all that.
I mean, when i was young in the Lord, I attended a church among which people fasted and prayed often... that is, until a teaching on that passage (matthew 6) arose from the leadership and got us all bound up.
That teaching was, in a nutshell, that if we glory in anything on earth, we lose jewels from our crowns. It was based in large part on an interpretation of Matt. 6 in light of some "prophet" person's "visions" of jewels popping out of hovering spiritual crowns. Anyone know about that? Late eighties?
Sooo... everyone locked it down. Got secret... and that is gooood, except that...
FASTING IS HARD TO HIDE.
I mean, get real. Nobody who fasts for 20 days is going to be able to keep that a secret and be a real, truthful person. sheesh.
I mean, the real church eats together daily. Someone stops eating and the jig is up--they're obviously trying to get better than the rest of us...
then the pathetic insecurities of a worldly-minded past life arise in so far too many of us... self-condemnation arises out of comparison: "Should I be fasting, too?" "I'm just not as good as them" and subtly the Body gets divided...
I believe (personally) that fasting is something that God grants us to enjoy with Him, as His Spirit leads us by the spirit, into the Life, who is Jesus Himself. Think about the way I said that. It's important. it flies in the face of a lot of stuff that would hold you back from...
...not from fasting, but from JESUS, Himself...
yes, fasting is never the question, but whether or not God has loved you today, in the Beloved. Whether one fasts or eats, they do it in the Love of God in Christ Jesus, right?
Oh. not always? How so?
Oh. because a lot of people live by duty-bound slogging and self-measuring? Oh. How disappointing.
Well, let me tell you all this: the reason Jesus died on the cross, among all the other stuff, was so we could have the life that He has. So we could enjoy sonship with Father God like He did, and be led by the Spirit of God. Sheesh. this is so totally what the Bible is totally talking about
all
the
time.
yet our flesh and the devil conspire in this swill of the world to topple us from that sure place, and get our minds all bound up in all kinds of stuff...
So if someone is fasting, RELAX. Look at Jesus! is the spirit telling you, or leading you to fast, or to desire to fast? Does your heart of worship and love for Jesus lead you to want to fast? then pray about it and try it out.
get some practical advice, though... that helps, too... or don't. (but do)
and remember that the text of matthew 6 deals primarliy with the intent of the heart--in order to be seen by men.
you just can't avoid being seen by men. Fasting shows up. go ahead. go 20. go 40. it'll only kill that part of you that you need dead, anyway--as long as it's done in submission to the Spirit of God, initiated by Him.
Not familiar with that kind of thing? You may have some good news ahead of you. Get in touch wth the Spirit of God. Until He says so, don't sweat fasting. It's not commanded. Getting in touch is. Loving is. Forgiving is. Believing/Trusting is...
How many sad souls fast without trusting? without loving? in unforgiveness? and check their box and pin their badges on and go on to worse than oblivion?
I mean, when i was young in the Lord, I attended a church among which people fasted and prayed often... that is, until a teaching on that passage (matthew 6) arose from the leadership and got us all bound up.
That teaching was, in a nutshell, that if we glory in anything on earth, we lose jewels from our crowns. It was based in large part on an interpretation of Matt. 6 in light of some "prophet" person's "visions" of jewels popping out of hovering spiritual crowns. Anyone know about that? Late eighties?
Sooo... everyone locked it down. Got secret... and that is gooood, except that...
FASTING IS HARD TO HIDE.
I mean, get real. Nobody who fasts for 20 days is going to be able to keep that a secret and be a real, truthful person. sheesh.
I mean, the real church eats together daily. Someone stops eating and the jig is up--they're obviously trying to get better than the rest of us...
then the pathetic insecurities of a worldly-minded past life arise in so far too many of us... self-condemnation arises out of comparison: "Should I be fasting, too?" "I'm just not as good as them" and subtly the Body gets divided...
I believe (personally) that fasting is something that God grants us to enjoy with Him, as His Spirit leads us by the spirit, into the Life, who is Jesus Himself. Think about the way I said that. It's important. it flies in the face of a lot of stuff that would hold you back from...
...not from fasting, but from JESUS, Himself...
yes, fasting is never the question, but whether or not God has loved you today, in the Beloved. Whether one fasts or eats, they do it in the Love of God in Christ Jesus, right?
Oh. not always? How so?
Oh. because a lot of people live by duty-bound slogging and self-measuring? Oh. How disappointing.
Well, let me tell you all this: the reason Jesus died on the cross, among all the other stuff, was so we could have the life that He has. So we could enjoy sonship with Father God like He did, and be led by the Spirit of God. Sheesh. this is so totally what the Bible is totally talking about
all
the
time.
yet our flesh and the devil conspire in this swill of the world to topple us from that sure place, and get our minds all bound up in all kinds of stuff...
So if someone is fasting, RELAX. Look at Jesus! is the spirit telling you, or leading you to fast, or to desire to fast? Does your heart of worship and love for Jesus lead you to want to fast? then pray about it and try it out.
get some practical advice, though... that helps, too... or don't. (but do)
and remember that the text of matthew 6 deals primarliy with the intent of the heart--in order to be seen by men.
you just can't avoid being seen by men. Fasting shows up. go ahead. go 20. go 40. it'll only kill that part of you that you need dead, anyway--as long as it's done in submission to the Spirit of God, initiated by Him.
Not familiar with that kind of thing? You may have some good news ahead of you. Get in touch wth the Spirit of God. Until He says so, don't sweat fasting. It's not commanded. Getting in touch is. Loving is. Forgiving is. Believing/Trusting is...
How many sad souls fast without trusting? without loving? in unforgiveness? and check their box and pin their badges on and go on to worse than oblivion?
Thursday, July 10, 2008
fasting: Acts 13
Acts 13 has some fasting in it... Look at how they weren't in a worship service, but engaged in ministry "...to the Lord..." The Church flows in the Spirit... Peter on the roof, John on patmos... "in the Spirit..." Jude says to pray in the Spirit, building up our most holy faith...
Get into this.
Get into this.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
things are busy...
things are very very busy around the house here... from the multiform goodnesses of sunday morning meeting, wednesday night special prayer, thursday night men's and women's bible studies, to the daily give and take of living together... things are good and busy...
this week, our dear friends Eric and Aimee Byman and their two children are staying on the first floor, and brother Mark Weaver is living on the third floor, sharing a room with Sam...
I hope to get the upstairs freed up to house 6 people at a time, with a more regular daily bible study and prayer life around here...
things are good. and busy.
this week, our dear friends Eric and Aimee Byman and their two children are staying on the first floor, and brother Mark Weaver is living on the third floor, sharing a room with Sam...
I hope to get the upstairs freed up to house 6 people at a time, with a more regular daily bible study and prayer life around here...
things are good. and busy.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
an ocean tide's a-comin'
thisarticle mirrors a report i heard on NPR yesterday. Now, i'm not a news-blogger, but there have been a sludge-ton of dreams in our community, along with scriptures and revelations in the spirits of our people (that intuitive place where mind and God meet in the grey matter) that indicate that there is a rising tide of what the Bible calls "The Spirit of Antichrist".
Now, I'm not talking about the worldly secular folks, but among the "Christian" Teachers and churches.
Get your pants on, folks. Learn to discern and judge the spirits, like 1 John 4 says, because you're gonna need it. You already DO need it. Get in the Word and in the Spirit, in study and prayer, and band together in the church and serve the Lord with obedience to what He has commanded us!
Now, I'm not talking about the worldly secular folks, but among the "Christian" Teachers and churches.
Get your pants on, folks. Learn to discern and judge the spirits, like 1 John 4 says, because you're gonna need it. You already DO need it. Get in the Word and in the Spirit, in study and prayer, and band together in the church and serve the Lord with obedience to what He has commanded us!
Monday, June 23, 2008
we were kindly linked...
here is a blog that used one of our church posts in a way that really kind of says it... the gloves have to come off! and the rose-colored glasses. We're in a Jeremiah 6 and 8 generation, chock full of religious professionals who make bank on our shopping for jesuses.
there is a jesus in the bible. he's described there. now come to him for the life. John 5, late thirties...
L.
there is a jesus in the bible. he's described there. now come to him for the life. John 5, late thirties...
L.
Add this to your RSS!
Do you all know how to use RSS and other feeds? it is a great way to keep up with the new posts on all your favorite blogs. Check it out. A little bit of work and you're always up to date.
Click today's title to hear a bit from brother John Piper about being unoriginal.
Love.
Click today's title to hear a bit from brother John Piper about being unoriginal.
Love.
Monday, June 16, 2008
A Good, Clear teaching on Hell...
you know, with all the "Fear of God"/"Fear of the LORD" stuff we've been trafficking in lately, i thought it may be helpful to post this teaching from brother John Piper. Check it out.
just click the title of this post...
just click the title of this post...
In Louisville
I'm in Louisville Ky today with Judy for a thing with her work. Got to "tag along" and enjoy a night away.
I was going to skate the big skatepark here (world class!) but it's raining. Honestly, I'm really pleased. Not relieved. I'm up to skate at a hat's drop, but I'm glad for a chance to catch up with you, dear readers.
We've hit the summer rhythm over here. Take Seth and Kadin to camp, Get Aaron and Marcelo involved in something, work on skatepark stuff, meet with people around the church and the gospel and Jesus and whatnot...
Recently, I've been batting around some interesting possibilities for myself as a man of God, husband, father, pastor, and worker (in that order).
One of the developments that is rich in opportunity is the loss of my status as "ordained". Our organization (The Body of Christ, Intl.) has shifted hands and we have opted to use this as a fresh beginning.
Presently, I am unable to sign marriage papers, issue tax receipts (some of you have a phone call coming, and I am holding a few checks), and... i think that's all. just can't do those things.
Do i need to? I talk to Jesus everyday! and He leads me into richer and richer ministry stuff everyday! every day! He was an uneducated Rabbi, without papers! They were freaked at how much he did in the power of the Spirit that they, with all their credentialing, couldn't touch...
hmmm...
why start a church when we're already being a church? Isn't there a denial of some sort embedded in that behavior?
isn't there a disowning of God's kingdom, there? hmm...
I was going to skate the big skatepark here (world class!) but it's raining. Honestly, I'm really pleased. Not relieved. I'm up to skate at a hat's drop, but I'm glad for a chance to catch up with you, dear readers.
We've hit the summer rhythm over here. Take Seth and Kadin to camp, Get Aaron and Marcelo involved in something, work on skatepark stuff, meet with people around the church and the gospel and Jesus and whatnot...
Recently, I've been batting around some interesting possibilities for myself as a man of God, husband, father, pastor, and worker (in that order).
One of the developments that is rich in opportunity is the loss of my status as "ordained". Our organization (The Body of Christ, Intl.) has shifted hands and we have opted to use this as a fresh beginning.
Presently, I am unable to sign marriage papers, issue tax receipts (some of you have a phone call coming, and I am holding a few checks), and... i think that's all. just can't do those things.
Do i need to? I talk to Jesus everyday! and He leads me into richer and richer ministry stuff everyday! every day! He was an uneducated Rabbi, without papers! They were freaked at how much he did in the power of the Spirit that they, with all their credentialing, couldn't touch...
hmmm...
why start a church when we're already being a church? Isn't there a denial of some sort embedded in that behavior?
isn't there a disowning of God's kingdom, there? hmm...
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Hepi Brdej! Happy Birthday Prari!!!!
Our own Prari Parran has a birthday today!!! I left the following Bulgarian Birthday Song on her voicemail! Everyone join us in celebrating the gift of God who is Prari!!!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
One Sunday Morning at GrubbyKupp
just wanted to share a moment with you from this sunday's meeting... we cook and eat first, with everyone filtering in during that time. Then, around 11:15, we sit down together to sing and share in the word of God (who is Jesus, whom the Scriptures describe) and prayer.
the fear of the LORD
this is a recurring topic that seems difficult for us to get our heads wrapped around. Not different from so many of the facets of the Truth, who is Jesus.
One thing I'd like to note about all that is that the FEAR of the LORD is something delightful to the soul that is inclined to OBEDIENCE. This is central in Jesus' command that we make disciples, teaching them to OBEY. Not just teaching them about Jesus, but to OBEY all He commanded.
soooo... you get this thing, that 1 John deals with (read the whole book) by saying that if we obey him we don't fear condemnation, but if our hearts condemn us in any way, He is greater than our hearts.
The thing I think Paul W was nailing is that we christian folk are on the danger side of 2 Cor. 13:5 and Matt. 7:21. Way on the danger side of it. There's a warning to the whole body, along the lines of the book of James, right now! And the book of James will put the proper fear into you--the very fear that Philippians 2 is talking about.
Go read this stuff:
Phil. 2
James (whole book)
2 cor. 13:5
...and go find in another NT book where it says that each individual should look into whether or not they're ok with the LORD. I think Gal. 5 will help with that...
1 John, with a focus on the relationship of obedience to fear to forgiveness to freedom from sin...
Matt. 28:17-20
Heb. 3, with a good look at v.12
think on these things and don't flop around. Get solid in the fear of the LORD.
now, paul washer speaks to a certain audience, and some of it doesn't translate, but the Apostle Peter preached, "Save YOURSELVES from this perverse generation..." that was acts 2, and a clear call to get out of the trouble of God's wrath...
whether or not you like the "total depravity" rhetoric that is so commonly used to bind people under men's control, we see clearly that there is a serious wrath issue in regard to unbelief, pride, and not yeilding to the truth, who is Jesus.
So there's some food for thought.
Ultimately, it's not about the preacher, but the truth...who is Jesus Christ, Himself, among us, and soon to return.
One thing I'd like to note about all that is that the FEAR of the LORD is something delightful to the soul that is inclined to OBEDIENCE. This is central in Jesus' command that we make disciples, teaching them to OBEY. Not just teaching them about Jesus, but to OBEY all He commanded.
soooo... you get this thing, that 1 John deals with (read the whole book) by saying that if we obey him we don't fear condemnation, but if our hearts condemn us in any way, He is greater than our hearts.
The thing I think Paul W was nailing is that we christian folk are on the danger side of 2 Cor. 13:5 and Matt. 7:21. Way on the danger side of it. There's a warning to the whole body, along the lines of the book of James, right now! And the book of James will put the proper fear into you--the very fear that Philippians 2 is talking about.
Go read this stuff:
Phil. 2
James (whole book)
2 cor. 13:5
...and go find in another NT book where it says that each individual should look into whether or not they're ok with the LORD. I think Gal. 5 will help with that...
1 John, with a focus on the relationship of obedience to fear to forgiveness to freedom from sin...
Matt. 28:17-20
Heb. 3, with a good look at v.12
think on these things and don't flop around. Get solid in the fear of the LORD.
now, paul washer speaks to a certain audience, and some of it doesn't translate, but the Apostle Peter preached, "Save YOURSELVES from this perverse generation..." that was acts 2, and a clear call to get out of the trouble of God's wrath...
whether or not you like the "total depravity" rhetoric that is so commonly used to bind people under men's control, we see clearly that there is a serious wrath issue in regard to unbelief, pride, and not yeilding to the truth, who is Jesus.
So there's some food for thought.
Ultimately, it's not about the preacher, but the truth...who is Jesus Christ, Himself, among us, and soon to return.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
...about that paul w. thing
the thing is, there's all this stuff in the Bible that Jesus says that totally ruins american-style christianity.
just ruins it.
ruins it.
so, when we live in a country, among a church that is so largely and deeply false... how do we live out our MEMBERSHIP with the church in our land?
Look at how nehemiah prayed,
and daniel...
just ruins it.
ruins it.
so, when we live in a country, among a church that is so largely and deeply false... how do we live out our MEMBERSHIP with the church in our land?
Look at how nehemiah prayed,
and daniel...
checking ourselves...
there's this idea that i find operative in a lot of my conversation with church folks: the idea that self-doubt is BAD.
but there's a capacity to which it is necessary and good.
2 Cor.13:5
Jeremiah 17:5-14
In Philippians, we are given the "fear" line, too.
...and in Matt. 10
thoughts?
but there's a capacity to which it is necessary and good.
2 Cor.13:5
Jeremiah 17:5-14
In Philippians, we are given the "fear" line, too.
...and in Matt. 10
thoughts?
Friday, May 23, 2008
Paul Washer did good.
compare this with the crossroads video i posted last week.
wanna put these two dudes in a room together? i do.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Sunday
church was intense on sunday.
we looked at how much of the bible talks about false teachers.
how many of the NT books...
how much of the prophets (jeremiah 23)
and how appropriate it is for us to discuss the reality that there are many false doctrines out there to "tame" the Jesus whom Scripture describes into something they can use to build movement and preserve attendance and giving.
Tonight, I was asked what I do "during a day". I told the dude (you are a very cool dude, btw) that today i dug footers for a deck, but on a normal day I am the pastor of a "Jesus People Church" (which is how I say that).
He looked intrigued. I don't know what he was thinking, exactly, but this tends to be one of those "moments of truth", so I laid it out:
We are a bunch of folks who've gotten tangled up in the Jesus that the Bible describes, who tends to be a whole lot more incredible and untame than the "Jesus that american churches dictate"... or something like that.
I don't know, but lights seemed to go on.
The definitely did for me, because upon returning home I realized, "That was the gospel". The good news.
The good news for today is that the Jesus whom the Scriptures describe is the way out Way Out. He is the best! He is Wonderful! Counselor! Everlasting Father! Prince of Peace... of His Kingdom there's no end... and we're actually waiting for Him to return... Life begins to feel like the snowdays we used to have in NY, where I was all dressed up and ready for (hell on earth) school and the radio said I could stay home. I had TIME. And freedom.
And with the Jesus that the Bible describes, you can get with him and STOP. You can turn from your ways and turn to HIM right Here and Now! No need for a uniform. No need for a pedigree! Anyone who wants OUT can have it. Just turn to Jesus and follow, leaving the old life behind...
That isn't confusing when you're in the market for salvation. In the market for comfy cozy, selfish religion? you don't know what to do with the Bible Jesus. Shopping for a self-realization? forget it, Dude'll never make sense to ya! He's answering your questions with questions...
but when you're on your face, gripping the edge of his robe, about to get killed with rocks for being an adulterous idiot--the Bible Jesus is the dude. He's not all, "it's okay, we all struggle..." He's like, MERCY: "...neither do i condemn you." and TRUTH: "Go and sin no more." Forgiveness and Holiness...
that's the Jesus!
There are just too many jesuses around! Don't settle for just any jesus, please (many will. they'll read this and go on ahead and pick a jesus--or create a new one--that suits their shopper-holics)...but please, don't settle for just any jesus. Pick out the One in Scripture... Join with others who have searched Him out.
Accept no substitutes! even if that means you have to have coffee in a living room over scripture, rather than enjoy vid-screens and pop-presentations.
Try not to die with regrets.
we looked at how much of the bible talks about false teachers.
how many of the NT books...
how much of the prophets (jeremiah 23)
and how appropriate it is for us to discuss the reality that there are many false doctrines out there to "tame" the Jesus whom Scripture describes into something they can use to build movement and preserve attendance and giving.
Tonight, I was asked what I do "during a day". I told the dude (you are a very cool dude, btw) that today i dug footers for a deck, but on a normal day I am the pastor of a "Jesus People Church" (which is how I say that).
He looked intrigued. I don't know what he was thinking, exactly, but this tends to be one of those "moments of truth", so I laid it out:
We are a bunch of folks who've gotten tangled up in the Jesus that the Bible describes, who tends to be a whole lot more incredible and untame than the "Jesus that american churches dictate"... or something like that.
I don't know, but lights seemed to go on.
The definitely did for me, because upon returning home I realized, "That was the gospel". The good news.
The good news for today is that the Jesus whom the Scriptures describe is the way out Way Out. He is the best! He is Wonderful! Counselor! Everlasting Father! Prince of Peace... of His Kingdom there's no end... and we're actually waiting for Him to return... Life begins to feel like the snowdays we used to have in NY, where I was all dressed up and ready for (hell on earth) school and the radio said I could stay home. I had TIME. And freedom.
And with the Jesus that the Bible describes, you can get with him and STOP. You can turn from your ways and turn to HIM right Here and Now! No need for a uniform. No need for a pedigree! Anyone who wants OUT can have it. Just turn to Jesus and follow, leaving the old life behind...
That isn't confusing when you're in the market for salvation. In the market for comfy cozy, selfish religion? you don't know what to do with the Bible Jesus. Shopping for a self-realization? forget it, Dude'll never make sense to ya! He's answering your questions with questions...
but when you're on your face, gripping the edge of his robe, about to get killed with rocks for being an adulterous idiot--the Bible Jesus is the dude. He's not all, "it's okay, we all struggle..." He's like, MERCY: "...neither do i condemn you." and TRUTH: "Go and sin no more." Forgiveness and Holiness...
that's the Jesus!
There are just too many jesuses around! Don't settle for just any jesus, please (many will. they'll read this and go on ahead and pick a jesus--or create a new one--that suits their shopper-holics)...but please, don't settle for just any jesus. Pick out the One in Scripture... Join with others who have searched Him out.
Accept no substitutes! even if that means you have to have coffee in a living room over scripture, rather than enjoy vid-screens and pop-presentations.
Try not to die with regrets.
Friday, May 16, 2008
being a radical
the other day my good friend whom i love dearly in Christ said i was a radical and he wasn't. He's a denominational minister who sees me like someone more "radical" than he is.
I responded, "What's not radical about someone who believes in the stuff of the Apostle's Creed?"
indeed, it must be said. I may have a beard and wear jeans and skate a lot. I may seem "radical". But if you are joined with Christ you are radical. Jesus is coming back! Jesus is coming soon! Jesus is King and Lord! Jesus is Judge of the living and the Dead! Jesus will reign!
These are BASICS to us! Root-level. That's what "radical" means. Like a Radish--just a root.
from root to fruit, we're just christians.
that is, unless you 've let someone cut in on you with gobbledygook that messes up the power of connection to the Crucified One. If you've lost the simplicity and purity of devotion to Jesus (2cor11:3), you need to repent and tear down your idols and sell all and follow Him.
even if it means loss of position and influence and all the "good" you could do, it is far better to serve Him in the clear, passionate preaching of the word, without compromise or fear whose toes you step on...
boy i love you... all of you readers. I hope in the depth of my heart that you continue to dive deep into the simple love that Jesus holds for you. That you become wise and sophisticated in applying the simple wisdom of that love to your daily steps in this world. that you not be blown about by the winds of men's trickery and false teaching, but that you grow into maturity in the real Jesus of Scripture--the one the Scriptures describe...
that you not just read about him, but that you would LIVE with him, NOW and forever... and me too.
I responded, "What's not radical about someone who believes in the stuff of the Apostle's Creed?"
indeed, it must be said. I may have a beard and wear jeans and skate a lot. I may seem "radical". But if you are joined with Christ you are radical. Jesus is coming back! Jesus is coming soon! Jesus is King and Lord! Jesus is Judge of the living and the Dead! Jesus will reign!
These are BASICS to us! Root-level. That's what "radical" means. Like a Radish--just a root.
from root to fruit, we're just christians.
that is, unless you 've let someone cut in on you with gobbledygook that messes up the power of connection to the Crucified One. If you've lost the simplicity and purity of devotion to Jesus (2cor11:3), you need to repent and tear down your idols and sell all and follow Him.
even if it means loss of position and influence and all the "good" you could do, it is far better to serve Him in the clear, passionate preaching of the word, without compromise or fear whose toes you step on...
boy i love you... all of you readers. I hope in the depth of my heart that you continue to dive deep into the simple love that Jesus holds for you. That you become wise and sophisticated in applying the simple wisdom of that love to your daily steps in this world. that you not be blown about by the winds of men's trickery and false teaching, but that you grow into maturity in the real Jesus of Scripture--the one the Scriptures describe...
that you not just read about him, but that you would LIVE with him, NOW and forever... and me too.
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
how we got to Northside
I got up really really early today because i have a cough that only works sideways.
and i posted on www.lewminator.com about Dad Weiss' sickness and Mom Weiss' passing.
and i reflect again on the fact that we don't live here because of a specific calling to "urban ministry", or inner-city hoo-ha. We moved here because a dear friend, sister, mother...was dying and we needed a house with a ramp and enough room to do the stuff.
This funeral home was the open door, perhaps the "bait", to get us into this neighborhood. We looked at many homes, but this was the only one in over 2 years of searching that had the right combination.
-Handicap access
-first floor bathroom just off a bedroom
-proximity to hospitals
all that and we ended up CLOSER to the majority of our church people, with room to meet and practise hospitality. to be honest, city living is the life for me, so far. Being a longtime skateboarder, living on concrete suits me well, with a coffee shop and internet just down the road.
our neighbors! Oh the blessing of living among noisy, chaotic, needy, ignorant, foolish, godless, drug-addicted neighbors. (sorry for not mentioning the smart, motivated, artistic, intelligent, rich and poor, idealistic, debauched, drunken, amazing, depressing people, too) you can just step outside and relate to Jesus, who had compassion on the multitudes, even though he was exhausted, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
(if you mind that last paragraph, i kind of do, too. I don't want anyone to not have their shepherd. if I had created the universe, we wouldn't need shepherding, but it wasn't me. it was God. Oh yeah, and if i created the universe you'd all be my slaves, too, so count your blessings.)
yes, over the years I hear a drum beating louder and louder, ominously threatening judgment on unfaithful religion in the land... lukewarm christianity and money-worship will fall.
...but here, i see the hand of Jesus reaching out in compassion and patience to the violent, lost sinners who don't know Him. ...here, loving your neighbor and turning the other cheek really show up in your behavior. every day is a day to love, in actual ways--you know, reality of action, NOW.
I can skate down the street and end up talking gospel with serious hardcore criminals, punkers, atheists, Mayan Calendar people... I mean it's astounding. This is even the "gay" neighborhood! Where better? (I don't believe in gay people)
And it is here in Northside...no, it is here in the pierced palm of Jesus' hand...that I have come to find my final denomination--i am one of the Jesus people. like when the pharisees adn sadduccees and the teachers of the law and the scribes were like, "These guys were with Jesus."
That's all I want to be. That is all we're supposed to be. The whole John the Baptist thing with the "I must decrease and he must increase" thing... the whole 2 corinthians 4-5 clay pots (grubbykupps) and "...put off this earthly tent..." thing...
So on my other blog I storied out on how our family got here...
and here I'm touching on how being here has been...growing us...
blessings. richest blessings on you, dear readers.
and i posted on www.lewminator.com about Dad Weiss' sickness and Mom Weiss' passing.
and i reflect again on the fact that we don't live here because of a specific calling to "urban ministry", or inner-city hoo-ha. We moved here because a dear friend, sister, mother...was dying and we needed a house with a ramp and enough room to do the stuff.
This funeral home was the open door, perhaps the "bait", to get us into this neighborhood. We looked at many homes, but this was the only one in over 2 years of searching that had the right combination.
-Handicap access
-first floor bathroom just off a bedroom
-proximity to hospitals
all that and we ended up CLOSER to the majority of our church people, with room to meet and practise hospitality. to be honest, city living is the life for me, so far. Being a longtime skateboarder, living on concrete suits me well, with a coffee shop and internet just down the road.
our neighbors! Oh the blessing of living among noisy, chaotic, needy, ignorant, foolish, godless, drug-addicted neighbors. (sorry for not mentioning the smart, motivated, artistic, intelligent, rich and poor, idealistic, debauched, drunken, amazing, depressing people, too) you can just step outside and relate to Jesus, who had compassion on the multitudes, even though he was exhausted, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.
(if you mind that last paragraph, i kind of do, too. I don't want anyone to not have their shepherd. if I had created the universe, we wouldn't need shepherding, but it wasn't me. it was God. Oh yeah, and if i created the universe you'd all be my slaves, too, so count your blessings.)
yes, over the years I hear a drum beating louder and louder, ominously threatening judgment on unfaithful religion in the land... lukewarm christianity and money-worship will fall.
...but here, i see the hand of Jesus reaching out in compassion and patience to the violent, lost sinners who don't know Him. ...here, loving your neighbor and turning the other cheek really show up in your behavior. every day is a day to love, in actual ways--you know, reality of action, NOW.
I can skate down the street and end up talking gospel with serious hardcore criminals, punkers, atheists, Mayan Calendar people... I mean it's astounding. This is even the "gay" neighborhood! Where better? (I don't believe in gay people)
And it is here in Northside...no, it is here in the pierced palm of Jesus' hand...that I have come to find my final denomination--i am one of the Jesus people. like when the pharisees adn sadduccees and the teachers of the law and the scribes were like, "These guys were with Jesus."
That's all I want to be. That is all we're supposed to be. The whole John the Baptist thing with the "I must decrease and he must increase" thing... the whole 2 corinthians 4-5 clay pots (grubbykupps) and "...put off this earthly tent..." thing...
So on my other blog I storied out on how our family got here...
and here I'm touching on how being here has been...growing us...
blessings. richest blessings on you, dear readers.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
web developments
well, now you can find lew at www.lewminator.com, instead of all the .blogspot stuff.
and you can find a budding website at www.grubbykupp.com
it's just the mock-up, but we'll be making that a hub for our community's web-presence.
thanks to Sam Weber for his multi-talented servanthood in that stuff...
Lew
and you can find a budding website at www.grubbykupp.com
it's just the mock-up, but we'll be making that a hub for our community's web-presence.
thanks to Sam Weber for his multi-talented servanthood in that stuff...
Lew
The Name of the Game
Discernment of Truth from Error and Deception, people.
Nowadays in the church there is a ton of verbal and written material masquerading as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Entire communities are being built on this stuff and wind up as a masquerade of the Church of Jesus Christ.
I'm talkin counterfeits, folks. Good old Matthew 7, stinky-fruited, counterfeits. Aplenty.
I'm talkin Galatian super-apostles with greed-friendly pseudo-gospels... I'm talking the leaven of the pharisees and the sadduccees. I'm talking the leaven of herod...
these three leavens are important keys:
pharisees: religious zeal worked out in the flesh. Look at Romans 10.
sadduccees: using religion to build a cushion around yourself. milking it for the benefits, while not believing...
Herodians: using religion to build up a political power machine. We all ought to be ashamed for how this has gone unconfronted in the church! Flags next to the cross! for shame.
and herod was a despot! I'll finish this up later...
Nowadays in the church there is a ton of verbal and written material masquerading as the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Entire communities are being built on this stuff and wind up as a masquerade of the Church of Jesus Christ.
I'm talkin counterfeits, folks. Good old Matthew 7, stinky-fruited, counterfeits. Aplenty.
I'm talkin Galatian super-apostles with greed-friendly pseudo-gospels... I'm talking the leaven of the pharisees and the sadduccees. I'm talking the leaven of herod...
these three leavens are important keys:
pharisees: religious zeal worked out in the flesh. Look at Romans 10.
sadduccees: using religion to build a cushion around yourself. milking it for the benefits, while not believing...
Herodians: using religion to build up a political power machine. We all ought to be ashamed for how this has gone unconfronted in the church! Flags next to the cross! for shame.
and herod was a despot! I'll finish this up later...
Friday, May 9, 2008
Thursday Nights
you can read back about thursday nights in our community. about 5 years back, Judy started meeting with Christine and maybe prari, and that morphed into a regular thursday night women's time of study, prayer and sharing...
the men hit the word on thursdays... with ol lew jammin it down their throats. We're going to be posting audio clips that you'll be able to listen to, soon... we have them going back 2 years or so...
and last night the women joined the men, and Lew started a study on Elijah.
hey, it was overwhelming to lew.
my head was spinning. i couldn't believe the hunger for the Word of God in the room. I felt like we needed to seriously commit to studying the history of Israel, starting with 1 Cor. 10, where it tells us why we even have the history of Israel in our bibles.
gogogogogogogo!!!!!
the men hit the word on thursdays... with ol lew jammin it down their throats. We're going to be posting audio clips that you'll be able to listen to, soon... we have them going back 2 years or so...
and last night the women joined the men, and Lew started a study on Elijah.
hey, it was overwhelming to lew.
my head was spinning. i couldn't believe the hunger for the Word of God in the room. I felt like we needed to seriously commit to studying the history of Israel, starting with 1 Cor. 10, where it tells us why we even have the history of Israel in our bibles.
gogogogogogogo!!!!!
Thursday, May 1, 2008
Just another...
just another minute or two with you, my readers, to attempt to press home one idea:
this idea is that JESUS, HIMSELF, is whom we are to please.
right now
right here
today
Jesus is the focus of our thoughts, life, everything...
Jesus is the one we live to please, and this isn't burdensome, in light of the great love with which he has loved us and the great price at which he won us back from sin, ourselves, the claim of the devil, the power of entropy...the suction of this swirling world...
Jesus. All the angels worship Him. ...in whom all the fullness of Deity dwells... whom Thomas calls "My Lord and My God"
Everlasting Father
Mighty God
Wonderful
Counsellor...
Jesus.
Name above all names at which every knee shall bow.
Nothing matters but what He thinks.
How does this shape your worship? How does this shape your outworking of faith? Do you think God put you here to serve your neighbor? your community? Do you think that serving men is what God commissioned you to do? No.
you are commissioned to make disciples for Jesus, preaching the gospel He preached and the Good news that He has come and that He is the One. We are commanded to love each other and to love Him with all we have, and our neighbor as ourself.
We are committed to endure shame with Him, bearing the stigma of the cross in a swirling world...
just another shot to focus us...
there's just nothing better around than Jesus Himself, of whom the Scriptures testify.
this idea is that JESUS, HIMSELF, is whom we are to please.
right now
right here
today
Jesus is the focus of our thoughts, life, everything...
Jesus is the one we live to please, and this isn't burdensome, in light of the great love with which he has loved us and the great price at which he won us back from sin, ourselves, the claim of the devil, the power of entropy...the suction of this swirling world...
Jesus. All the angels worship Him. ...in whom all the fullness of Deity dwells... whom Thomas calls "My Lord and My God"
Everlasting Father
Mighty God
Wonderful
Counsellor...
Jesus.
Name above all names at which every knee shall bow.
Nothing matters but what He thinks.
How does this shape your worship? How does this shape your outworking of faith? Do you think God put you here to serve your neighbor? your community? Do you think that serving men is what God commissioned you to do? No.
you are commissioned to make disciples for Jesus, preaching the gospel He preached and the Good news that He has come and that He is the One. We are commanded to love each other and to love Him with all we have, and our neighbor as ourself.
We are committed to endure shame with Him, bearing the stigma of the cross in a swirling world...
just another shot to focus us...
there's just nothing better around than Jesus Himself, of whom the Scriptures testify.
Thursday, April 17, 2008
The Poor: Discovering that you are them...
...and yet, as we enter into friendship with the poor through daily contact with Jesus, on his madman path of life in the Spirit...
we will discover, as soon-to-be-formerly-rich-people, that we are not rich at all. We'll find a bravery and a freedom among the poor saints that we lack. A peace and unfetteredness--a readiness for the Kingdom Above... and we'll find ourselves jealous and ashamed...
yet we are called to turn our visits into residency. your trips to mexico and Kenya... just go there. go and lead and be and grow. go and die and rise again. go and attain to the better resurrection-that city with walls whose builder and architect is God, who, in Christ, endured the cross, counting its shame a small thing...
comforted by angels, you will know God's face. pure in heart.
you will see that before you came here, with Him, you had nothing, and now you have everything.
all you rich christians! You're going to lose it all, soon. Either crisis, or death, or sickness, or God's hand of circumstance will soon enough peel the false face off your life. seek for the depth of God! give up STUFF along the way.
then your use and enjoyment (1 tim 6) of it will be free of greed, which finds itself next to homosexuality on the naughty list. do you want to be found with that on you? then plow up your fallow ground. (hos.10:12)
read these scrips and comment me others! get into this with God...
we will discover, as soon-to-be-formerly-rich-people, that we are not rich at all. We'll find a bravery and a freedom among the poor saints that we lack. A peace and unfetteredness--a readiness for the Kingdom Above... and we'll find ourselves jealous and ashamed...
yet we are called to turn our visits into residency. your trips to mexico and Kenya... just go there. go and lead and be and grow. go and die and rise again. go and attain to the better resurrection-that city with walls whose builder and architect is God, who, in Christ, endured the cross, counting its shame a small thing...
comforted by angels, you will know God's face. pure in heart.
you will see that before you came here, with Him, you had nothing, and now you have everything.
all you rich christians! You're going to lose it all, soon. Either crisis, or death, or sickness, or God's hand of circumstance will soon enough peel the false face off your life. seek for the depth of God! give up STUFF along the way.
then your use and enjoyment (1 tim 6) of it will be free of greed, which finds itself next to homosexuality on the naughty list. do you want to be found with that on you? then plow up your fallow ground. (hos.10:12)
read these scrips and comment me others! get into this with God...
The Poor: Becoming them
you know what? one of the most difficult things about what Jesus says about the poor is that we'll become them...
look at the loss we'll suffer:
sell all, give to the poor, follow me...
love your life in this world? Lose it.
poor are rich in faith to inherit the kingdom
rich get in by a miracle of God-very difficult for them
poor have high position
woe to rich
blessed the poor...
look at the teachings of the master. Why do we cling to wealth? we do.
stop.
don't.
cling to the cross...
aah the cross. There's another thing. Not just His teaching, but his example. "He who was rich became poor so that we, through His poverty, may become rich..." look that up. someone tell me what scriptures I'm speaking from...
Jesus modeled the "downward mobility" of becoming a leaf on the wind... even better, the Wind itself...
isn't that the basic teaching of the kingdom he gave the old religionist in John 3? That those who are really Jesus people: born of the Spirit... that they're like the Wind. Not a leaf. The Wind.
Are you like the wind? or are you attached to this world in your heart. Lay it bare again, today, before the Master and make a fresh 100% surrender.
look at the loss we'll suffer:
sell all, give to the poor, follow me...
love your life in this world? Lose it.
poor are rich in faith to inherit the kingdom
rich get in by a miracle of God-very difficult for them
poor have high position
woe to rich
blessed the poor...
look at the teachings of the master. Why do we cling to wealth? we do.
stop.
don't.
cling to the cross...
aah the cross. There's another thing. Not just His teaching, but his example. "He who was rich became poor so that we, through His poverty, may become rich..." look that up. someone tell me what scriptures I'm speaking from...
Jesus modeled the "downward mobility" of becoming a leaf on the wind... even better, the Wind itself...
isn't that the basic teaching of the kingdom he gave the old religionist in John 3? That those who are really Jesus people: born of the Spirit... that they're like the Wind. Not a leaf. The Wind.
Are you like the wind? or are you attached to this world in your heart. Lay it bare again, today, before the Master and make a fresh 100% surrender.
Friday, April 11, 2008
The Poor: "Normative" discipleship
loving the poor
within the family of faith
and our neighbors geographically
isn't a special project or administration, separate from other parts of our faith.
it is the authentic outworking of a "normal", "normative" christian life, among the discipled, obedient students of the Master.
are you a disciple? Are you a Christian? this will be your fruit.
do you not have this fruit? Personally, individually? Corporately, as a church? Then Seek the Lord in the Word and prayer, laying down your life again to surrender to His will. Learn to HEAR and HEED the Holy Spirit! Don't just do what's right in your own eyes! Come to Him and Reason with Him! Engage Him.
It says in Is.55 to seek the Lord. Not to seek His Will. it says in Romans 12 that if you lay down your body (and its desires, plans and cravings) you will know his will. Knowing and doing the will of God are products of His laying hold of you and you laying hold of Him and surrendering your will to His. this is just christianity.
within the family of faith
and our neighbors geographically
isn't a special project or administration, separate from other parts of our faith.
it is the authentic outworking of a "normal", "normative" christian life, among the discipled, obedient students of the Master.
are you a disciple? Are you a Christian? this will be your fruit.
do you not have this fruit? Personally, individually? Corporately, as a church? Then Seek the Lord in the Word and prayer, laying down your life again to surrender to His will. Learn to HEAR and HEED the Holy Spirit! Don't just do what's right in your own eyes! Come to Him and Reason with Him! Engage Him.
It says in Is.55 to seek the Lord. Not to seek His Will. it says in Romans 12 that if you lay down your body (and its desires, plans and cravings) you will know his will. Knowing and doing the will of God are products of His laying hold of you and you laying hold of Him and surrendering your will to His. this is just christianity.
The Poor: the Flow
where you live
where you move
who eats at your table
who sleeps over
where your extra goes...
these things are claimed by God for the support of the saints in the Body, that the church may manifest the teaching of Jesus, embodied. What? is it too challenging for pastors to command the rich to be generous and not trust in wealth? (1 Timothy 6)
a flow of resources, impelled by God's love in our hearts (1 John 3:16-20) and a disposition toward obedience to Jesus' commands in our minds (2 Cor.10:5)
...this flow--from the rich to the poor (Jas.1: 9-10) will PROVE that JEsus is our Lord! This is a manifestation, a fruit, of the love we have for him who loved us and gave himself for us... so now we live with our hearts set on His Kingdom, and we live differently than we used to.
try to lay up a fat account for tomorrow with this kind of teaching going on! You'll end up rich toward God, depending on Him daily, and joining the Hebrews 11 parade!
where you move
who eats at your table
who sleeps over
where your extra goes...
these things are claimed by God for the support of the saints in the Body, that the church may manifest the teaching of Jesus, embodied. What? is it too challenging for pastors to command the rich to be generous and not trust in wealth? (1 Timothy 6)
a flow of resources, impelled by God's love in our hearts (1 John 3:16-20) and a disposition toward obedience to Jesus' commands in our minds (2 Cor.10:5)
...this flow--from the rich to the poor (Jas.1: 9-10) will PROVE that JEsus is our Lord! This is a manifestation, a fruit, of the love we have for him who loved us and gave himself for us... so now we live with our hearts set on His Kingdom, and we live differently than we used to.
try to lay up a fat account for tomorrow with this kind of teaching going on! You'll end up rich toward God, depending on Him daily, and joining the Hebrews 11 parade!
The Poor: Pastors and the Word
Pastors don't minister the Word without compromise. I'm talking about major compromise, here.
I mean, how many sermons have you heard that confront greed with a scathing insight? that really peel the skin off a greedy man?
...and how many times have you been in a meeting where there was church discipline of the adultery and greed that are carrying us downstream?
no matter how many times you have, it doesn't make much difference if we're still going downstream, does it?
We need to return to the Word of God and Obey our master and sovereign, Jesus. Then the refreshings will fall from heaven.
If you're a faithful pastor who ministers with integrity and shepherds with authority and love from our Savior, don't chicken out. Press in and do the work of the Word and prayer among your people.
I mean, how many sermons have you heard that confront greed with a scathing insight? that really peel the skin off a greedy man?
...and how many times have you been in a meeting where there was church discipline of the adultery and greed that are carrying us downstream?
no matter how many times you have, it doesn't make much difference if we're still going downstream, does it?
We need to return to the Word of God and Obey our master and sovereign, Jesus. Then the refreshings will fall from heaven.
If you're a faithful pastor who ministers with integrity and shepherds with authority and love from our Savior, don't chicken out. Press in and do the work of the Word and prayer among your people.
The Poor: Two Priorities
the prosperity that comes through the blessings of righteousness: a constant flow outward.
brings healing
refreshes the soul
allocates our affections to heaven
the prosperity that comes through the amassing of wealth through greed: a stagnating collection inward.
causes pressure
stagnates and putrefies
allocates our affections to the earth
Let us be on our guard against every form of greed!
greed. there i said it. greed.
this is as big a sin as homosexuality or what have you.
and more prevalent.
and the fearfulness and laziness of Christian preachers has allowed it to consume the church of God in this country. We have put aside the clear word of God and become servants to the greedy!
Rise up o men of God. Have done with lesser things! Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the king of kings!
brings healing
refreshes the soul
allocates our affections to heaven
the prosperity that comes through the amassing of wealth through greed: a stagnating collection inward.
causes pressure
stagnates and putrefies
allocates our affections to the earth
Let us be on our guard against every form of greed!
greed. there i said it. greed.
this is as big a sin as homosexuality or what have you.
and more prevalent.
and the fearfulness and laziness of Christian preachers has allowed it to consume the church of God in this country. We have put aside the clear word of God and become servants to the greedy!
Rise up o men of God. Have done with lesser things! Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the king of kings!
The Poor: The Power
in the last post I ended with a quote from the timothies about form and power... read that.
1 Tim 3:1-5
Be dismayed and amazed at how much of that behavior and mindset is PREVALENT among present-day MINISTRIES in their daily office life. Have you seen it? God sees it all. Now is the time for ministers and ministries to purge themselves of the flesh and the deeds of the flesh.
judgment starts at the house of God...
because of the increase of wickedness the love of many will grow cold (mat. 24).
and look at how cold we are. We don't even KNOW how to faithfully and obediently handle hospitality and ministry to the poor among the churches! Group after Group squanders their opportunities, their mind set on the things of men, not the things of God...
the power of God is found in the simplicity of obedience to Jesus Christ, in the Church, daily. But with "Church" defined as a meeting, whose success is defined by attendance and collection numbers... the Power will not be manifest...
behold the things the american church can do... without God.
1 Tim 3:1-5
Be dismayed and amazed at how much of that behavior and mindset is PREVALENT among present-day MINISTRIES in their daily office life. Have you seen it? God sees it all. Now is the time for ministers and ministries to purge themselves of the flesh and the deeds of the flesh.
judgment starts at the house of God...
because of the increase of wickedness the love of many will grow cold (mat. 24).
and look at how cold we are. We don't even KNOW how to faithfully and obediently handle hospitality and ministry to the poor among the churches! Group after Group squanders their opportunities, their mind set on the things of men, not the things of God...
the power of God is found in the simplicity of obedience to Jesus Christ, in the Church, daily. But with "Church" defined as a meeting, whose success is defined by attendance and collection numbers... the Power will not be manifest...
behold the things the american church can do... without God.
The Poor: Romans 12
Associate with the Lowly...
Jesus who was rich, became poor so that we, through His poverty, may become rich.
Along the lines of Matthew 25, we realize that the least of these His brethren, are important! We become passionate about this.
We read James and read how we're to avoid that gravitation toward affluence that gives preference to the things of rich-ness, and rich people... We see that we are to esteem the poor in this life (among the church, all of this so far) as greater in the faith and the Kingdom of our Lord...
As people of the Word, a core value, a passion, a reality from beyond and before us, begins to drive us. We begin to pray differently. We have a passion to be near Jesus, and we know where that will take us, no?
Perhaps this is the driving reason behind so many of the forms of Christianity that we see today. Affluent, meeting-based, drive-in/drive-away, hand-out, quick-visit missions, drive-by servanthood... These are forms of godliness that deny the real power of God, my friends.
Jesus who was rich, became poor so that we, through His poverty, may become rich.
Along the lines of Matthew 25, we realize that the least of these His brethren, are important! We become passionate about this.
We read James and read how we're to avoid that gravitation toward affluence that gives preference to the things of rich-ness, and rich people... We see that we are to esteem the poor in this life (among the church, all of this so far) as greater in the faith and the Kingdom of our Lord...
As people of the Word, a core value, a passion, a reality from beyond and before us, begins to drive us. We begin to pray differently. We have a passion to be near Jesus, and we know where that will take us, no?
Perhaps this is the driving reason behind so many of the forms of Christianity that we see today. Affluent, meeting-based, drive-in/drive-away, hand-out, quick-visit missions, drive-by servanthood... These are forms of godliness that deny the real power of God, my friends.
The Word: John's sharing about China
Among the persecuted church in China and the house church network that Brother Yun is part of, they ran into a big problem with Western Teachers and Missionaries.
The westerners could only minister in the Word for about 40 minutes, maybe an hour. That was WAAAAAY too short. The Christians there go for about 2 or 3 hours listening to and discussing the Word with their teachers, then break for lunch, then go for another 2 or 3 hours...
This has actually happened in our house church before, and it was a blessing. I was exhausted and exhilarated. I have seen this among hungry disciples when I was young, tarrying in meeting through the wee hours...
I've seen it a lot, but always outside of the "normal" christianity we're fed en masse.
The westerners could only minister in the Word for about 40 minutes, maybe an hour. That was WAAAAAY too short. The Christians there go for about 2 or 3 hours listening to and discussing the Word with their teachers, then break for lunch, then go for another 2 or 3 hours...
This has actually happened in our house church before, and it was a blessing. I was exhausted and exhilarated. I have seen this among hungry disciples when I was young, tarrying in meeting through the wee hours...
I've seen it a lot, but always outside of the "normal" christianity we're fed en masse.
The Word
This discussion of the poor ends up being a discussion about the Word.
The Word is a person: Jesus, of whom the Scriptures speak. The purpose of the Scriptural witness is to illuminate Jesus. This is also what the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Jesus) is doing.
Any engagement of the Bible that doesn't result in connection to the Word, who is Jesus, is dead. It is just another in the litany of dead religious works we do in our flesh to feel better in this hostile and dying world...
The Word is a person: Jesus, of whom the Scriptures speak. The purpose of the Scriptural witness is to illuminate Jesus. This is also what the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Jesus) is doing.
Any engagement of the Bible that doesn't result in connection to the Word, who is Jesus, is dead. It is just another in the litany of dead religious works we do in our flesh to feel better in this hostile and dying world...
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
The Poor: Matt. 25 ...my brethren...
Acts demonstrates the care of widows within the community
"...especially to those who are of the household of faith..." (where is that in scripture, anybody?)
Timothy: delineation of priority in the ministry to widows
Julian the Apostate: they take care of (all of) their own, as well as a number...
There's something about Priority when it comes to the ministry to widows and orphans, isn't there? It's not just a sloppy love-fest, is it? And it's not just a hand-out to first comers, in the church, is it? Not just a social good-working organization, is it?
What is it then?
"...especially to those who are of the household of faith..." (where is that in scripture, anybody?)
Timothy: delineation of priority in the ministry to widows
Julian the Apostate: they take care of (all of) their own, as well as a number...
There's something about Priority when it comes to the ministry to widows and orphans, isn't there? It's not just a sloppy love-fest, is it? And it's not just a hand-out to first comers, in the church, is it? Not just a social good-working organization, is it?
What is it then?
The Poor: Doing what is right in our own eyes
Sometimes when we do for the poor, we do what is right in our own eyes, don't we. We get led astray from (2 Cor. 11:3) Sincere and pure devotion to Christ, and get roped into a life of philanthropy and concern for men's issues...
What we do must come from our love of Jesus. Love we receive and shine back, as the moon does the sun.
anything else, though borne of good intentions, can lead to perdition. "the road to hell..."
What we do must come from our love of Jesus. Love we receive and shine back, as the moon does the sun.
anything else, though borne of good intentions, can lead to perdition. "the road to hell..."
The Poor: Matthew 16
Jesus rebukes peter here because he had in mind the things of men, not the things of God.
Peter had something in mind that was ostensibly good: the life of the Master.
But although it was ostensibly good, it was not good.
It was fundamentally evil. Jesus called him "satan".
So we see that it is possible to have in mind something we see as good, yet to be fundamentally evil, because it is the "things of men, not the things of God." Amazing. Gives one pause.
I call this "things of men" attitude: Androcentrism. Centered on men and the purposes of mankind. It plays out in all kinds of good-looking altruism and philanthropy.
We are called to "Christocentrism". We are called to hear Jesus say, "I'm going to go and die and be raised" and say "Good. You are good and we trust you and we hope in the fulfillment of your words."
Now if I had been peter, I would've done worse. But I'm not him. i'm me. I don't live then. i live now. And I have seen by faith something that Peter didn't get to see until after that day, so I don't have to make the same mistake...
This "androcentrism" is at the heart of a lot of "good" things that lead us astray.
Peter had something in mind that was ostensibly good: the life of the Master.
But although it was ostensibly good, it was not good.
It was fundamentally evil. Jesus called him "satan".
So we see that it is possible to have in mind something we see as good, yet to be fundamentally evil, because it is the "things of men, not the things of God." Amazing. Gives one pause.
I call this "things of men" attitude: Androcentrism. Centered on men and the purposes of mankind. It plays out in all kinds of good-looking altruism and philanthropy.
We are called to "Christocentrism". We are called to hear Jesus say, "I'm going to go and die and be raised" and say "Good. You are good and we trust you and we hope in the fulfillment of your words."
Now if I had been peter, I would've done worse. But I'm not him. i'm me. I don't live then. i live now. And I have seen by faith something that Peter didn't get to see until after that day, so I don't have to make the same mistake...
This "androcentrism" is at the heart of a lot of "good" things that lead us astray.
The Poor: Intro
A good friend recently asked me to do some thinking and praying, and to share with him about "The Poor" and how Christianity/Christians interface with "them".
There have been many movements and ministries launched, a lot of books written, money raised and speakers paid to deal with this issue, yet the lions share (ironic metaphor?) of American christians have no daily contact, much less discipleship relationship, or friendship with people below their socio-economic status. Why is this? What's the deal? What the heck?
With all that we find from Old Testament to New Testament about "the poor", what should we as individual beleivers, and we as the church Body, be believing and doing (one without the other is dead)?
I am going to share some "raw thought" out here on the web, in hopes of stimulating discipleship among a wider listenership than I have in my daily life... So here come quick posts with individual "bites" of teaching and ideas about "The Poor".
Please receive these for what they are: thoughts shared to stimulate our growth. OUR growth: I'm growing here, too. That's what is so fun about blogging: we do it for ourselves, too.
enjoy...
There have been many movements and ministries launched, a lot of books written, money raised and speakers paid to deal with this issue, yet the lions share (ironic metaphor?) of American christians have no daily contact, much less discipleship relationship, or friendship with people below their socio-economic status. Why is this? What's the deal? What the heck?
With all that we find from Old Testament to New Testament about "the poor", what should we as individual beleivers, and we as the church Body, be believing and doing (one without the other is dead)?
I am going to share some "raw thought" out here on the web, in hopes of stimulating discipleship among a wider listenership than I have in my daily life... So here come quick posts with individual "bites" of teaching and ideas about "The Poor".
Please receive these for what they are: thoughts shared to stimulate our growth. OUR growth: I'm growing here, too. That's what is so fun about blogging: we do it for ourselves, too.
enjoy...
Saturday, April 5, 2008
and why are christians still gravitating to "nice" and "safe" neighborhoods? What is being taught in the meeting-houses of today? Obviously it is soaked in greed (niceness) and fear (safeness).
let's repent.
any christian discipled to OBEY all that he has commanded us is going to manifest a hearty desire to get in there and share the gospel in the tough places... most of the Cincinnati churchgoers think it's beyond good enough to visit a tough place a couple of days a year...
let's repent. Starting with pastors who model and teach to this. If your leadership isn't making a disciple of you--one who obeys all that Jesus commanded us--you need to examine your motives and get real with the Lord... are you into that?
and you pastor-folks... doesn't it make you fearful that the single greatest enemy to the kingdom of god (which is impossible to impede) has been institutional/organized/professional religion-people? Don't you tremble at the thought of facing a stricter judgment, having made man-pleasers and line-toe-ers of the people that Jesus called to deny self and take up the cross?
We are to equip our people to be holy and surrendered to Christ, even unto death. What? To resist sin and to serve to the extreme. Some of us are satisfied with "turn-outs" to "events" that do no more than advertise our meeting days... wow...
let's repent.
any christian discipled to OBEY all that he has commanded us is going to manifest a hearty desire to get in there and share the gospel in the tough places... most of the Cincinnati churchgoers think it's beyond good enough to visit a tough place a couple of days a year...
let's repent. Starting with pastors who model and teach to this. If your leadership isn't making a disciple of you--one who obeys all that Jesus commanded us--you need to examine your motives and get real with the Lord... are you into that?
and you pastor-folks... doesn't it make you fearful that the single greatest enemy to the kingdom of god (which is impossible to impede) has been institutional/organized/professional religion-people? Don't you tremble at the thought of facing a stricter judgment, having made man-pleasers and line-toe-ers of the people that Jesus called to deny self and take up the cross?
We are to equip our people to be holy and surrendered to Christ, even unto death. What? To resist sin and to serve to the extreme. Some of us are satisfied with "turn-outs" to "events" that do no more than advertise our meeting days... wow...
Live there, dude.
how do people do it? trying to minister on any daily basis among the church, when the church is a wide-spread conglomeration of individuals who drive up to an hour to come to a weekly meeting?
I mean, daily ministry is to be "neighbor-intensive" isn't it? Jesus told us to love our neighbors. and i'm talking about healing them and doing good deeds among them and to them... soooo... how does the church do that when its meaning is reduced to meeting-culture attendance/membership?
wow. what a systemic problem we face...
during this shifting time, Christians need to focus on ministering in the church, where they live, with the church as their family, daily, in real-time, as a body... this means that the christians you live near are more your church than the meeting community you attend on Sundays...
This implies a shift of understanding of "church" to mean a people: the people nearest your home, first...
All this "drive-in" christianity is producing "drive-away" christianity! This simply isn't the kind of service to which Christ called us. What?
forget how much more effective at the work it is to do it right. What about just the plain old pleasure of our Lord. Let's repent and redefine our terms in Biblical ways, no matter what the cost...
if anyone out there needs help talking this through or praying about it, feel free to connect with us. we are excited about you becoming a disciple who obeys Jesus, where YOU live. About this, we can have coffee...
Visit us and see it firsthand in all of its ordinary glory...
I mean, daily ministry is to be "neighbor-intensive" isn't it? Jesus told us to love our neighbors. and i'm talking about healing them and doing good deeds among them and to them... soooo... how does the church do that when its meaning is reduced to meeting-culture attendance/membership?
wow. what a systemic problem we face...
during this shifting time, Christians need to focus on ministering in the church, where they live, with the church as their family, daily, in real-time, as a body... this means that the christians you live near are more your church than the meeting community you attend on Sundays...
This implies a shift of understanding of "church" to mean a people: the people nearest your home, first...
All this "drive-in" christianity is producing "drive-away" christianity! This simply isn't the kind of service to which Christ called us. What?
forget how much more effective at the work it is to do it right. What about just the plain old pleasure of our Lord. Let's repent and redefine our terms in Biblical ways, no matter what the cost...
if anyone out there needs help talking this through or praying about it, feel free to connect with us. we are excited about you becoming a disciple who obeys Jesus, where YOU live. About this, we can have coffee...
Visit us and see it firsthand in all of its ordinary glory...
excerpt from this week
researching identity theft and preparing to help someone regain their finances from it...
...researching top Job leads to help local teens get their feet on the ground...
...counseling to young marriages and new parenting...
...teaching in Bible Studies all over the place...
...availability to conversation with neighbors who are... our neighbors! We're supposed to LOVE them, and so often hardly know them...
...working with Welcome Home to help a local family get their feet on the ground, out of extreme poverty. extreme...
meetings... there are so many scheduled meetings in a week...
...regaining my footing with the skatepark company i've started working with, after a 12 day hiatus for a trip to the Philippines...
...jetlag and a cold...
...the joy of my kids, every day. i LOVE picking them up from school every day at 330. It is a high-point and I crave it like a drug. What a joy, this lifestyle of work from home and Ministry in our own neighborhood...
...researching top Job leads to help local teens get their feet on the ground...
...counseling to young marriages and new parenting...
...teaching in Bible Studies all over the place...
...availability to conversation with neighbors who are... our neighbors! We're supposed to LOVE them, and so often hardly know them...
...working with Welcome Home to help a local family get their feet on the ground, out of extreme poverty. extreme...
meetings... there are so many scheduled meetings in a week...
...regaining my footing with the skatepark company i've started working with, after a 12 day hiatus for a trip to the Philippines...
...jetlag and a cold...
...the joy of my kids, every day. i LOVE picking them up from school every day at 330. It is a high-point and I crave it like a drug. What a joy, this lifestyle of work from home and Ministry in our own neighborhood...
Friday, March 14, 2008
thoughts on giving, again
Thoughts on Giving, again
Last night I spoke frankly and openly to Sam about the symptoms of giving in the church...
frankly, our church body dishonors the Lord in the neglect of the collection, weekly.
we give when there's a "need" that we can identify as the purpose of the action of giving. this is good, but Scripture teaches the firstfruit gift as a prescription.
The widow's mite
proverbs 3
2 Cor.9
1 Cor.?
none of this is Mosaic Law, works righteousness, or judaizing. It isn't tithing and it isn't unspiritual...
the church is clearly prescribed the practise of collecting for the needs of the saints.
Saints are prescribed the discipline of setting aside for the saints in their weekly/monthly income...
the practise of collecting is normal and normative in Scripture.
So:
there should be a monetary representation of that in our weekly administration of the church.
there should be offerings of money
according to ability
according to willingness
some are unable to tithe. Good. don't. You never had to. Give a bit. Just something to say to God, "I love you." That is why we give.
Good that you can't "make a difference". That's what God loved about the Widow's mite! That it couldn't make a difference and that it was All about Jesus! All about love for God. Desperation and devotion.
That's the POINT.
If your giving is primarily motivated out of a feeling of meeting needs, beware of smugness. You may well be feeling all to confident in your act of righteousness. There needs to be a firstfruit offering to God that proclaims His lordship over your life, outside of the practical need-meeting.
An act that is PRIMARILY worship, and not primarily practical.
Think about this. Change your ways. Cut the amount and put it in the pot every week as worship.
Will it make a difference? Why do you ask?
If you ask because you can't feel good about giving outside the gratification of accomplishment, you're a pragmatist and you grieve God. Repent.
If you ask because you doubt the faithfulness of your church leadership's decision-making about the finances--Go find out what the Bible means by "Church" and make sure that's what you joined. If it's not and the collection is going into bricks, mortar, carpet and drapes--leave them. They are blind guides...
If you ask out of concern for the poor, beware the attitude that Judas had in regard to the alabaster flask.
If you ask out of jealousy for the name of the Lord to be glorified in the church--then ask indeed. For the church has been called, not to the interests of men, but of God. And if the church will not see to the work of God, first then it isn't being the church.
What is the work of God? Calling people to believe in Jesus. Living out true religion in the James 1:26-7 sense.
Take stock. If your church's budget leans toward bricks and mortar, you are undone. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Jesus has not called us to establish bricks and mortar, but to be living letters, proclaiming along with Christ that "the work of God is this: to believe in the One he sent".
That is lived out as we see to the needs of (our) orphans and widows in their distress... (check out the widows' list in Timothy)
...and keep ourselves from pollution in the world.
I'm serious that I believe we haven't even a bit of a grip on the heart of giving, yet. Repent!
Last night I spoke frankly and openly to Sam about the symptoms of giving in the church...
frankly, our church body dishonors the Lord in the neglect of the collection, weekly.
we give when there's a "need" that we can identify as the purpose of the action of giving. this is good, but Scripture teaches the firstfruit gift as a prescription.
The widow's mite
proverbs 3
2 Cor.9
1 Cor.?
none of this is Mosaic Law, works righteousness, or judaizing. It isn't tithing and it isn't unspiritual...
the church is clearly prescribed the practise of collecting for the needs of the saints.
Saints are prescribed the discipline of setting aside for the saints in their weekly/monthly income...
the practise of collecting is normal and normative in Scripture.
So:
there should be a monetary representation of that in our weekly administration of the church.
there should be offerings of money
according to ability
according to willingness
some are unable to tithe. Good. don't. You never had to. Give a bit. Just something to say to God, "I love you." That is why we give.
Good that you can't "make a difference". That's what God loved about the Widow's mite! That it couldn't make a difference and that it was All about Jesus! All about love for God. Desperation and devotion.
That's the POINT.
If your giving is primarily motivated out of a feeling of meeting needs, beware of smugness. You may well be feeling all to confident in your act of righteousness. There needs to be a firstfruit offering to God that proclaims His lordship over your life, outside of the practical need-meeting.
An act that is PRIMARILY worship, and not primarily practical.
Think about this. Change your ways. Cut the amount and put it in the pot every week as worship.
Will it make a difference? Why do you ask?
If you ask because you can't feel good about giving outside the gratification of accomplishment, you're a pragmatist and you grieve God. Repent.
If you ask because you doubt the faithfulness of your church leadership's decision-making about the finances--Go find out what the Bible means by "Church" and make sure that's what you joined. If it's not and the collection is going into bricks, mortar, carpet and drapes--leave them. They are blind guides...
If you ask out of concern for the poor, beware the attitude that Judas had in regard to the alabaster flask.
If you ask out of jealousy for the name of the Lord to be glorified in the church--then ask indeed. For the church has been called, not to the interests of men, but of God. And if the church will not see to the work of God, first then it isn't being the church.
What is the work of God? Calling people to believe in Jesus. Living out true religion in the James 1:26-7 sense.
Take stock. If your church's budget leans toward bricks and mortar, you are undone. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Jesus has not called us to establish bricks and mortar, but to be living letters, proclaiming along with Christ that "the work of God is this: to believe in the One he sent".
That is lived out as we see to the needs of (our) orphans and widows in their distress... (check out the widows' list in Timothy)
...and keep ourselves from pollution in the world.
I'm serious that I believe we haven't even a bit of a grip on the heart of giving, yet. Repent!
Why to read the Bible?
the goal of Bible Reading is the realization of Col. 3:16.
that the word of Christ would dwell in us richly to the equipping of our minds to teach and admonish one another with all Spiritual Wisdom...
there are a LOT of people who read a whole lot of Bible, yet lack spiritual wisdom.
these are the scriptures that are able to make us wise unto salvation... We see that salvation is something that is
work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to act (want and to do) according to His purpose...
worked out in the daily, and that
Hebrews 10-12
we can let go of that hope without holding on to it with intensity in our daily life...
So, in the Church it is God's purpose that the teaching of the word by the traveling teachers, resident Elders and Overseers, and Apostolic workers be accompanied by the ministry of the saints to one another in admonishing and teaching, by the wisdom of the holy Spirit in each other by the Word of Christ's rich indwelling...
You see, Bible Reading is no goal, in itself. It has a goal. It isn't a goal.
It is best to read the bible out of a sense of Spiritual appetite. Bookishness and box-checking devotional life are to be eschewed. Often the Scriptures fall flat to us because our inner man isn't joined in the willingness to OBEY them...
We must put behind us the days of dallying with sin, and living an unchallenged, unyeilded life. WE must deeply suffer the surrender of the Soul to the will of God so that our minds may be transformed, aand the Word will be formed in us by the Holy Spirit....
Rom 12: offer yourself. then transformation. then understanding...
Honestly, many Christians are completely missing the point of the existence of a Scriptural Witness in the church. We have the scriptures to bear witness to the Word, who is Jesus, abiding in the surrendered soul. Without thorough and ruthless surrender, the Bible becomes an idol, confusing the reader into a sense of achievement...
the letter brings death
the spirit brings life...
Possibility:
the scriptures are bringing death to many who put their confidence in their own reading/knowledge/discipline...
John 5:39-40
many who approach the Scriptures as source are wrong and are dead where they stand, their confidence wrongly placed in their knowledge and disciplinary, academic acheivements... they are lost.
to some, there is a degree to which they misplace their confidence that results in loss in the Life of Christ. They will suffer loss in the judgment.
Let's make it our goal to Connect deeply with Christ, in surrender to His will and confidence in His ability to lead us. Let us enter deeply into the reality of Potter/Clay, Shepherd/Sheep relationship with Jesus, and embody the reality of John 3, that as the wind so shall we be, who live not by letter, nor by best intentions, nor the thoughts of our own minds or best ideas, but are blown by the Spirit...
Let's move into a Mature use of the Scripture as the describer of the life of the Church, in the Spirit, and enter into the Spiritual life of Christ, that we may be fruit-bearing disciples...
These very scriptures will indicate to us that the fruit is good, affirming us as we are led by Him in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Then it will be true among us that "It's all about Jesus".
that the word of Christ would dwell in us richly to the equipping of our minds to teach and admonish one another with all Spiritual Wisdom...
there are a LOT of people who read a whole lot of Bible, yet lack spiritual wisdom.
these are the scriptures that are able to make us wise unto salvation... We see that salvation is something that is
work out your salvation with fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you both to will and to act (want and to do) according to His purpose...
worked out in the daily, and that
Hebrews 10-12
we can let go of that hope without holding on to it with intensity in our daily life...
So, in the Church it is God's purpose that the teaching of the word by the traveling teachers, resident Elders and Overseers, and Apostolic workers be accompanied by the ministry of the saints to one another in admonishing and teaching, by the wisdom of the holy Spirit in each other by the Word of Christ's rich indwelling...
You see, Bible Reading is no goal, in itself. It has a goal. It isn't a goal.
It is best to read the bible out of a sense of Spiritual appetite. Bookishness and box-checking devotional life are to be eschewed. Often the Scriptures fall flat to us because our inner man isn't joined in the willingness to OBEY them...
We must put behind us the days of dallying with sin, and living an unchallenged, unyeilded life. WE must deeply suffer the surrender of the Soul to the will of God so that our minds may be transformed, aand the Word will be formed in us by the Holy Spirit....
Rom 12: offer yourself. then transformation. then understanding...
Honestly, many Christians are completely missing the point of the existence of a Scriptural Witness in the church. We have the scriptures to bear witness to the Word, who is Jesus, abiding in the surrendered soul. Without thorough and ruthless surrender, the Bible becomes an idol, confusing the reader into a sense of achievement...
the letter brings death
the spirit brings life...
Possibility:
the scriptures are bringing death to many who put their confidence in their own reading/knowledge/discipline...
John 5:39-40
many who approach the Scriptures as source are wrong and are dead where they stand, their confidence wrongly placed in their knowledge and disciplinary, academic acheivements... they are lost.
to some, there is a degree to which they misplace their confidence that results in loss in the Life of Christ. They will suffer loss in the judgment.
Let's make it our goal to Connect deeply with Christ, in surrender to His will and confidence in His ability to lead us. Let us enter deeply into the reality of Potter/Clay, Shepherd/Sheep relationship with Jesus, and embody the reality of John 3, that as the wind so shall we be, who live not by letter, nor by best intentions, nor the thoughts of our own minds or best ideas, but are blown by the Spirit...
Let's move into a Mature use of the Scripture as the describer of the life of the Church, in the Spirit, and enter into the Spiritual life of Christ, that we may be fruit-bearing disciples...
These very scriptures will indicate to us that the fruit is good, affirming us as we are led by Him in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.
Then it will be true among us that "It's all about Jesus".
Friday, February 29, 2008
Church: a communion
church is a communion...
it is a communion in the heavenly realms--with JESUS. We are seated with Him in the heavenly realms. everything else will pass away. period.
church is a communion of saints. That's in that one creed thingy, right? We believe in that, right?
now, a communion like this transcends boundaries of race and nationality, space and time, gender and age... This is a communion with Jesus. He is the link between each of us as we gather around HIM. He is the SINGLE connecting point in the whole gob of us.
the church has meetings, but that's not the church.
we meet as a manifestation of what we are: a communion...
a communion means that we have one common union: JESUS
it is a communion in the heavenly realms--with JESUS. We are seated with Him in the heavenly realms. everything else will pass away. period.
church is a communion of saints. That's in that one creed thingy, right? We believe in that, right?
now, a communion like this transcends boundaries of race and nationality, space and time, gender and age... This is a communion with Jesus. He is the link between each of us as we gather around HIM. He is the SINGLE connecting point in the whole gob of us.
the church has meetings, but that's not the church.
we meet as a manifestation of what we are: a communion...
a communion means that we have one common union: JESUS
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