Decisionism versus Discipleship

MUCH OF WHAT CHRISTIANS AND THE CHURCH PROCLAIM IS NOT WHAT JESUS AND THE APOSTLES PREACHED - Scot McKnight

I had said recently that I have come to the conclusion that church membership diminishes discipleship. Why should people choose the difficult way of discipleship when the easy road of church membership already has them "in" the church. It's like handing a college graduation certificate to students and telling them "we hope you take the classes." How many college students would do the hard work if they were told they already have the completed degree in their hands?

Scot McKnight new book "The King Jesus Gospel" raises some hard questions that the church today needs to answer. Questions like:

1. Is the gospel we are preaching the same gospel of the Scriptures and how is it shaping you into a disciple of Jesus?

2. Is the focus on making disciples in our evangelism or is it simply on getting a decision?

3. Is the "sinners prayer" or "accepting Jesus into our hearts" really spiritually transforming people's lives? Is this the approach that the early Apostles took?

4. Is the gospel and salvation the same thing? If they are not interchangeable, then how are they different?

So McKnight asks the big question: What is the gospel?

How would you answer?

Favorite Song

First John says not to love in word or in talk, but in deed and in truth.  I have been meditating on what that means for a couple of weeks, especially the in truth part.  Knowing deeds is the easy part.  As far as "in truth," I am beginning to think of this as from the heart and in the intentions.

This leads me to this:  I can remember from at least my teenage years being conscious of seeking the perfect song.  Now, when I listen to music, I do not just listen to the words or the sounds, I listen for the mood, the spirit of the song, if you will.  I really did not understand this until recently.  In fact, I can think of times in my life where the song had a direct spiritual impact (not saying good or bad as each time could be either or a little of both).  Another similar thought would be about the principle of something is the spirit of it(side note).

The end of 2008 and into 2009, something amazing was happening to me in terms of God that I cannot speak of much yet, but I can say that in May of 2009, I found the song that is the most intimate, pertinent song to me that I have ever heard.  It is the song that you might say is my Anthem.  Interestingly, I have known of the band and this particular album since at least 2003.  It is the song This Love by the Christian Rock band Stavesacre.  The album is Speakeasy and is available, but I could not find a youtube with the whole song, but this video has it at the beginning.  So what's amazing about the timing for me to hear this song.  Not only in terms of my own life, but it seems the lyrics are really speaking to the times in which we live.  Example: 

Revolution is just a word
it loses more each time its heard
won't mean a thing until it hurts
is anyone out there

Passion hoping to find
Someplace safe for it to rise

This love is real
it's pure, this love endures
in burning hearts
taking sides
it sends and it divides
it awakens you
or you sleep as others do
This Love

Now, they are speaking about God's Love, but love by definition, to impose it onto my favorite quote, is unkillable (Truth is unkillable, Balthasar Hubmaier, Anabaptist Martyr).  Do we take love as deliberate action as the most powerful force in all of creation?  If love cannot be defeated, then what else is there?  Evil by definition cannot prevail as since it takes life instead of increasing it, it is temporary.  Evil may seem to be more prevalent, but is it not more that it is more overt, whereas love is quiet and persistent and willing to go beyond itself for the sake of the other?  Well, these are just some random thoughts...

Who Goes to Hell?

"THERE ARE THREE PLACES WHERE RACIAL DIVISION STILL PERSISTS: BARS, PRISONS, AND THE AMERICAN EVANGELICAL CHURCH" - Francis Chan

The church has often focused on the unchurched as those who are going to hell. What is refreshing of Chan and Pringle's book "Erasing Hell" is the self-critique style and looking at oneself first before they consider looking at others.

They list several ways from Jesus words on why we should take a hard look in the mirror:

1. Our words can condemn us. When we call people fools and condemn others, we are not showing God's kingdom but are actually unwittingly participating in hellish ways. We either speak words of life or death. We speak words of hell that demean others or heaven which esteems others.

2. When we don't help the poor may be an indicator that we are on the road to hell. Chan and Pringle write, "Yet many hellfire preachers are overfed and overpaid, living in luxury while doing nothing for the majority of Christians who live on less than two dollars a day (p.121).

3. Jesus did not warn drunks, thieves, or adulterers about going to hell but he did warn teachers who taught God's word. Teachers of God's Word should take the teachings of hell most seriously since it particularly pertains to them.

4. The lukewarm are in danger of hell. People who confess Jesus with their lips but deny him by their actions that the Bible gives it's strongest warnings to.

As I have been reading the fifth chapter of Chan's and Pringle's book, they sum it up by saying, "Racism, greed, misplaced assurance, false teaching, misuse of wealth, and degrading words to others are the things that damn people" (p.124).

They end with these strong words, "I want to shock my enemies with Christian love."

Now that's a shock that more people could use!

Take Heed, I have told you all things beforehand - Mark 13:23

"A DREAM IS AN ANSWER TO A QUESTION WE HAVE NOT THOUGHT TO ASK"
(from the X-Files)

We struggle with so many concerns and decisions without realizing that God has many of them handled if we have eyes of faith to see. There are several scriptures that show how God also lets us know some things ahead of time. Like a Father wanting to let His children know what is coming next, God has a way of revealing things before they come about.

The other night I had a dream that is so big and so out of my control that I believe God gave me this idea to pursue. All I know is I have no power or any way of pulling off the idea. Only God can bring it about. I have such a sense of peace and strength knowing that God is going before me and all I have to do is rest in him.

Scripture or Tradition?

There has been an ongoing discussion between Scripture and its relation to tradition and how our pre-concieved ideas, church dogmas, and repetition of stories in the Bible and how that effects our understanding of the meaning of Scripture. But let me give a few examples of what we have been taught and does what we believe really come from scripture or a subculture of interpretation and tradition about these texts?

1. Doubting Thomas: Why do we refer to Thomas as "doubting Thomas" when there is only one text that shows this failure? Why don't we call the disciples "betrayers of Jesus" or "denying Peter?" Are we not selecting one instance and universalizing it in this instance and not others who do similar things? If Thomas died a martyers death for Jesus, why do we continue to refer to him as the 'doubter?"

2. The Prodigal Son: The Prodical supposedly squandered his inheritance on wild parties and wild women? But how do we know this? Does the Bible actually say this is what the Prodical son did or is this an accusation by the older brother? If there is so much sibling rivalry here, why take the older brother's word for it? The son surely squandered his inheritance but the biblical text actually does not say how he did it?

3. The inn keeper in the birth of Jesus story: How many times have we heard not to be like the innkeeper who had no room for Joseph and Mary in the Inn. Is the innkeeper a negative or positive model in the biblical text? Most people assume bad but where in the text does it say he was bad? Should the innkeeper throw paying customers out? Did Jewish hospitality demand he go the second mile and provide for this young pregnant couple with the place he did provide? Can it be we have heard the story of the bad and cruel innkeeper for so long that we can't see him any other light?

4. Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night: What about the cowardly and fearful Nicodemus who does not even have the courage to come to Jesus in the day but comes at night. Is there anything in the text itself that says that Nicodemus was cowardly or fearful? Were most meetings held at night and could not the night more show the spiritual darkness of Nicodemus for one who was supposed to have been enlightened? How is Nicodemus portrayed in the rest of scripture? Fearful or brave? Cowardly or courageous?

Do not all of us bring some baggage to the biblical text? Is that what the Bible really says or is it something someone else told us it says?

Interesting economic views

I found these interviews the other day entitled the "Looting of America" )Part 1 of 4 - but the blog I found them on had 5 parts) and they are worth listening to. 

I study Catholic Distributism and Anabaptist communitarian leanings.  Even though I am "stuck" right now, I envision localism as the answer to much of what our problems are economically.

If God's Kingdom is about the ultimate reality and foundation of all things, then certainly there is a real economy based on that reality.  As a whole, it will result in using less technology.  This is too brief to go into any detail, but I think the basic lesson is that the level of society that can best handle a certain thing, that is the preferred level to which that said thing should be produced from.

Luther

"HERE I STAND, I CAN DO NO OTHER!" - Martin Luther

I watched the movie "Luther" today with several other ministers. I could not help but wonder what it would be like to see one movie made by the Catholics and the other to be made by the Lutherans and then compare and contrast the two accounts? This movie was made by the Lutherans showing their perspective on the one who ignited the Protestant Reformation.

Luther is viewed in this film as meloncholy, manic-depressive at times, and full of wit and boldness. Luther is somewhat of an enigma to me. His courage to stand up for truth is daring but his quick temper and sharp tongue showed little mercy towards those he disagreed with. What the movie does is want you to cheer for the rightness and reforms that Luther was pressing the Roman Catholic Church to respond to. One is tempted to simply hurray the courage to break away and start another church but I for one am saddened when catholicity is thought so little of today and division is seen as normal and sometimes preferable to unity.

Jesus last prayer was for unity and I believe many of the early apostles to other church leaders throughout history have literally died for unity. Are we as quick to fight for unity as we are for truth? Are we as quick to surrender ourselves to others as we are to defend ourselves and condemn others? Which way is really the way of Christ?

Working Class Hero

On the Merry Monk's blog he put a video of John Lennon's Working Class Hero on for Labor Day.  It does have a couple choice words on it, but through that I found a more recent version by Green Day here(Official Video) and here(live on American Idol) - these two do not have any choice words.

Anyway, and here is where it hits me, the official video, which Green Day put together for an album to support the stop of genocide in Darfur (sp?), is perhaps one of the greatest music videos I have watched.  I have not seen a band put so much of their heart and soul out there and in the live version there is much the same emphasis.


Which leads me to another thing.  They have survivors talk about some experiences and the emotion in the whole video is truly from God's heart...  A question that I have been asking and having to live in for the last few years is this, and I cannot hold a candle (no pun intended from the end of the video) to the experiences that are talked about on the video:  How do we hold onto the flame for life when (and the words from John Lennon even hint at the fact that things in life try to take our spirit) we go through difficult to impossible circumstances.  You can see it on their faces...   This desire to conquer by the good rather than by evil.

One of my favorite stories is from the book Desert Wisdom and the link I posted earlier to this Orthodox Writing has the quote from the book at the end of the article.  Here it is for emphasis: 

"Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said: Abba, as much as I am able I practice a small rule, a little fasting, some prayer and meditation, and remain quiet, and as much as possible keep my thoughts clean. What else should I do? Then the old man stood up and stretched out his hands toward heaven, and his fingers became like ten torches of flame. And he said: If you wish you can become all flame." (Nomura, 2001, p. 92)

Whatever you do, do to the glory of God eh?  What does that not mean except what is exemplified here?  To seek first the Kingdom of God (within) that is the flame that lights up all of our lives?  I want you to think about this:  We are born into this world kicking and screaming against our wills.  Life appears to be against us from the very start.  But greater is the will to live forever (eternity, is it not calling to us?) than all of that.

I love how they end the song both in sound and visually.  Truly humble in my opinion...

Rabbinic Stories for the Christian Soul

I am really excited for my first book to be published. This was a work in progress that took many years. If you would like a copy of the book, you can get it at:

www.createspace.com/3660907


I wrote this book with the Bible in one hand and the Talmud in the other. The Rabbinic stories are so powerful and beautiful that they alone are worth the price of the book. There are 40 chapters that reveal how these two ancient writings overlap and complement one another. I am reminded of Abraham Heschel's inspiring words, "The Bible is primarily not man's vision of God but God's vision of man. The Bible is not man's theology but God's anthropology."

We See As We Are

WE HAVE A TENDENCY TO RECREATE JESUS IN OUR OWN IMAGE - Francis Chan

We are quick to point out the many cultural distortions that lead to idolatry. Every kind of ism from nationalism, sexism, racism, militarism, and consumerism. But what about the many ways we make Jesus into our own image? We do like the first chapter of Romans says and turn the Creator into the creation or we return the favor at the beginning of the Bible and "make God into our own image."

Francis Chan and Preston Sprinkle deal with the problem of finding in the Bible what we want to find in the Bible. If we want to find hell in the Bible then it is there. If we don't want to find it then it is not there (at least the dark grueling apocalyptic imagery that scares the hell out of us if we believe in hell at all).

I remember many years ago when the owner of a Christian bookstore told me that Jesus was a Republican. She said unashamedly, "Doesn't everyone know that Jesus was a Republican!" This tells me more about the person making such comments than it actually does about Jesus. We like to think Jesus is just like us, all the way down to the flag we raise to our voting preferences.

Chapter two of Chan's and Sprinkle's book is provocatively called, "Has Hell Changed? Or have we?

Good question . . . .

A Discipleship Question

Everyone has questions for the Bible but how often do we listen to the Bible question us? In this vital area of discipleship which prepares God's people for mission and unity, here is a striking question that comes from God's word to us today.

"God's Word says in the last days there will be great tribulation and persecution and many Christians will even die for their faith. How are we preparing God's people to go through this?"

I will be praying and reflecting on this more but it seems to me one group of people who are living this out is the persecuted global church around the world outside of western Europe and North America. How they are doing it and how they are being trained, equipped, and prepared for a kind of "last days" ministries is a burning question that should haunt each one of us until we begin discovering the answer for ourselves and for those around us.

Spiritual Resilience

I read a lot about economics and current economic trends.  I read Anabaptist literature, Catholic Distributism, and Austrian economics.  Without caricaturing it, I believe Inside Catholic blog follows a more libertarian/ republican slant, which is fine.  I read this article last night and I think the author is spot on.  Both of my Grandmothers lived through the great depression so I am familiar with what he is talking about as I am sure a lot of people are as well.  I would say one was more affected than the other in some respects.

Anyway, while reading the comments, one quote really resonated with me:  "I think the key to survival may soon be spiritual resilience. That’s an unconventional thought at the moment, but it soon will become conventional."

This last couple of years, God has been gently moving me to seek His courage.  The bible character that He particularly used was Joseph of Arimathea.  His part in the burial of Jesus is in all four gospels.  In them, one says he (ESV version) took courage (other translations might use boldly) and in another says that he was afraid.  In another, this is the point in which Pilate directs the soldiers to report whether they are dead or not - perhaps Joseph was at the crucifixion and witnessed the final moments of Jesus' death...  Can you imagine being God's undertaker.  Where were the disciples?  Joseph took a huge risk as he was a pharisee and a secret disciple.

So what is this spiritual resilience and courage going to look like?  I will offer my sense and understanding, which is still forming.  This is the sense that no matter what kind of circumstances or difficulties we encounter, that our sense about who God is and what life is in reality, we do not reduce ourselves to the level of animals.  We would rather die than to deprive others of life.  We will Seek First the Kingdom of God and do what is in our ability to do consistent with God and His nature.  It is not "every man for himself" but "every man for every man."

Here is the rub, the commenter mentioned thought.  My sense is that this is something that needs to become intentional and sought after.  We are not going to be resilient if we do nothing.  We need to order our lives in such a way that the conditions for us to grow into this, and it is the old word fortitude (see Thomas Aquinas in the Summa for some understanding of that word in the 1200's), is possible.

All for now.