Dead Man Walking

God has been stripping me of all my illusions.  You believe the past is healed and you have moved on.  Then something bad happens to someone else that reminds you of your own past wounds.  All the sudden, all the pain and brokness comes rushing back once more.  I thought it was gone.  I thought I had dealt with it.  More work . . . more vulnerability as one steps back and asks God once again to do the deeper work.

The Jesus File

"ILLUSIONS MISTAKEN FOR TRUTH ARE THE PAVEMENT UNDER OUR FEET"
 -  The Poisonwood Bible

There are many illusions that even Christians fall prey to.  One pervasive one today is the American empire is what is for right and good in the world and will somehow even usher in the final judgment of Christ and His Kingdom.  How many times do we hear that if the right political candidates do not get democratically elected, then we are all doomed.  This kind of apocalyptic nay-saying has nothing to do with what Scripture teaches in regards to Jesus and the final judgment.

I was going to someone's house this week and I got bitten by a dog (in the face no less).  I was under the illusion that if I ever encounted an attacking dog, I could beat it and if need be, kill it.  I would be the victor with the dead dog held in my arms and hands.  What I realized this week is the dog bite I received was only a warning or a "back off" bite.  It was certainly not an all out attack.  If this dog wanted to, I would be the one dead in the jaws of the beast (the dog) rather than the other way around.  This whole incident has changed my mind and broken a long-held illusion of mine.

Illusions?  Do you have any?  And if it's an illusion, how would you know anyway?

Dying to Self

Over here someone posted a question about dying to self.  Since it is something that has been on my mind for a while now, I posted a response.  Enjoy!

Mondays With My Old Pastor

"SERVING GOD IMPLIES ENTERING A BATTLE, AND IT IS WISE TO REMEMBER THAT IN A BATTLE THERE ARE NO SOLDIERS WITHOUT WOUNDS"  -  Jose Luis Navajo

Battles can wound us and leave us crippled.  I am reminded how fragile life can be from a friend who because of self-inflicted wounds cost him his job as a leader in the church and another friend who was so battled scarred, not from the enemy, but from the leaders he served with that he just threw in the towel and quit.

I just started reading Jose Luis Navajo wonderful book, "Mondays with my Old Pastor (Thomas Nelson, 2012).  It is about a pastor almost fifty who is going through ministerial burnout and constant tiredness.  He knows there is something terribly wrong but he hides from the people who know him best.  Finally he takes his wife's advice and he see his old retried Pastor on Mondays.

If anyone is serving in a church and facing the three headed dragon of discouragement, frustration, and disillusionment, here is a book to read.  The book is centrally about how the cross of Christ can bring healing and restoration to tired and lonely souls.  Life doesn't start at almost fifty but it does start at Calvary.  It is only looking at the cross that we can really see and discover how valuable we really are to God!

Quest For the Historical Follower Of Jesus

"THE CHURCH HAS BECOME FOR MANY A CARTOON OF SELF-PRESERVATION, A PICTURE OF COSMIC CLUELESSNESS"  - Robin Meyers

"Going to church today" is safe, predicatable, and tame.  People do not think of the church today as risky, dangerous, or subversive.  The church more looks like the world and the status quo than the world becoming more like the church.  If we are really honest about the church, nobody expects anthing truly important to happen there.  People in the world are unimpressed with the church and the things that people argue and make decisions over in the context of the church often don't matter in the end.  We have spent decades studying "the search for the historical Jesus" but what about the historical community we call the church?  Scripture says we can only know Jesus by following him.  But maybe in the barreness of religion, people can find true faith?  Maybe in the death of the church, people will experience resurrection and new life.  The church has focused on the wrong questions for way too long!  The question for the church today is simply this: "What kind of community and what would it look like to bring us back from the dead?"

What would happen if the church was driven by the justice of God rather than the justice of some political system?  What would happen if Christians really came into contact with their ancient roots and the mystical faith that has empowered Christians through the centuries?  What if Christians radically considered nothing less than authentic community no matter where it is found?  Can we leave behind communities of comformity for communities animated by God's Spirit?  This is what much of the church looks like in the global Southern hemisphere of the world.  What about Europe and the American West?  Or here is another picture from Robin Meyers,

"Jesus was political.  He was a dangerous subversive, not because he wanted to help individuals escape a perishing world and make it "up" to heaven, but because he wanted to bring heaven's justice "down" to earth" (The Underground Church, p.56-57).

Seeing God #3

In May 2009, and I cannot remember the date, but I think it was early, I heard this song for the first time, This Love by Stavesacre.  Unfortunately, it cannot be heard in its entirety on You Tube, but the lyrics are here.  I think the lyrics are wrong in the chorus however.  I think he says it "Taking sides, it sends and it divides...

Anyway, this song was on the album Speakeasy which was released in 1999 and what I find of God is how I could have bought the cd prior to this as I really liked the song "minuteman" but for whatever reason I had not.  This Love is my absolute favorite song and the song I had searched for all of my life.

Seeing God #2

I have struggled for a while now, so it was probably Monday, May 28, 2012 and I asked God for His consolation because I was in such a bad place.  So, I worked the next day and I worked around home.  The subway had K-love playing this song: The Hurt & the Healer.  Then I was perusing Youtube and this video was on the main page:   NBA Commercial which is originally this song:  Live Forever.  I would say that Drew Halcomb and the Neighbors have some Christian background because his wife has an album about the Psalms here.  I am completing this post July 2, 2012.

Seeing God #1

This song I listened to for the first time just prior to April 18, 2012.  It is a little loud, but the song is about a subject that I think about a lot and I bet lots of people think about as well.

Song POD Lost in Forever

Update 7-2-2012

I just posted an update here:http://christianmystics.com/members/seeraftertruth/activity/5337 of what is going on in my life right now.