Heaven Sees You, Do You See Heaven?

"God has torn us to pieces so that he can heal us" (Hosea 6:1)


We continually ask the wrong questions and focus on the wrong things.  If one reads the book of Judges, people will ask the question, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"  God's Word asks us, "Why do good people do bad things?"  People ask "Why does waiting on God take so long?"  God's Word tells us that God is waiting on us.  And then we focus on our problems, concerns of the world, and the weaknesses of our flesh.  God sees what is not yet, what we are becoming, what God is perfecting and making stronger.  A thousand times a day Jesus is telling us "Focus on Me."  Jesus is greater than our problems and bigger than our circumstances.  Jesus asks us like he did Peter, "Do you love me?  Feed my sheep."  Do we love Jesus, feed others.  Do we love Jesus, focus on what he is doing and not on what everyone else is doing.


In my brokenness, I am realizing Christ is my healer.
Hope in Christ is what holds the future.
Joy is realizing Christ is all I really need.


God is calling me and each of us to walk in the Holy Spirit every day.  Everyday I am learning to ask God to help me do that very one thing!  God wants to bring a change of perspective, a change of pace, and maybe even a change of place in our lives.  Are you ready?  Heaven is invading earth right now.  Are you ready?  God sees everything where we only see partially.  God sees the beginning and the end where we are caught in the middle and can't see or grasp the big picture.  God is doing more than we can even ask or imagine.  So if heaven sees you and the things of the earth, do you see heaven and the things of heaven?

Amazed and Perplexed

"In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it" (Isaiah 30:15, NIV)


Several months ago, God powerfully spoke to my spirit and told me "I was going to be amazed."  Since that time I have been amazed but nothing like I thought it was going to be like.  Yes, I have seen amazing answers to prayers, miraculous turn around in situations but I never suspected that I would end up with two hurt knees, issues with my throat and acid reflux, and anxiety attacks all at the same time!  Just like Isaiah 30:15, we want to write down or quote the first two thirds of the verse rather than reading and highlighting the whole verse.  What God has been showing me is I am pitiful wretched, poor, weak, and not invincible.  God has been destroying so many illusions and wrong ideas I have while also showing me His glory and power all at the same time.


God is preparing me and cleansing me all at once.  For over a year now I have been telling God I was going to make some better health choices, better eating choices, and exercise more.  After I hit rock bottom, someone in the church spoke powerfully to me and said, "Chris, why were you not asking God to help you do those things rather than telling God what you thought you should do for him?"  It was like God himself spoke right to me through that person.  Since that time, I have had partial healing of my knees and I still battle anxiety almost every day.  I own Psalm 143 now which has new meaning to me since I am not dealing with physical enemies from the outside but inner enemies from the inside.  One day when I just got done praying for God to deliver me from these enemies I have been battling, a friend texted me on my cell phone and told me to read Deuteronomy 28:7.  These have become life-giving words in how God speaks and uses other people.  This verse powerfully says, ""The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways."


So I have been amazed but not surprised.  I have been perplexed but not down and out.  I am seeing things in the spirit realm I have never seen or experienced before and God has been comforting me and giving me revelation on almost a daily basis.  I am praying bolder prayers and daring bigger dreams for God.  I am even asking God to perplex me and complicate my life more which I struggled to pray at first which is becoming more a way of life as I continue on.  I am discovering how to rest in God's love and move in God's presence.  I have been waiting when I should have been moving and moving when I should have been waiting on God. I am repenting and trusting God for the abundant increase he is bringing in me and around me.  God will not leave me where I have been or let me fall back into the same old routines as before.  Do we really fear the Lord.  Psalm 55:19 basically says if we are not changing then we really don't fear God.  While we may at times feel overwhelmed by our circumstances, I am simply overwhelmed by God's goodness.

Heaven, Hell, and the After Life

"We only know what we know or we see as we are"

I had an interesting conversation with several pastors yesterday about heaven, hell, and the after life.  One pastor said to me that it seemed like there was a lot of this stuff I did not seem to have tightly nailed down.  It seems like many Christians are not comfortable with mystery, paradox, and vulnerability.  But what are we really putting our confidence in?  All of our knowing comes from certain experiences and even lack of experience.  We strongly believe things because someone told us to believe them or we experiences it for our self.  We also disbelieve certain things because they are outside of our experience and unless that changes, we will probably remain skeptics for the time being.  And what are we to believe about heaven and hell?  Is there an intermediate state or place of waiting or purgatory until God judges all things in the end?  What about ghosts, near death experiences, and we could throw in a huge list of the paranormal?  It seems like people explain their beliefs in or against these things in whether they have experienced them or not.   We often agree on what we believe in but it usually is what we disbelieve in that people divide over.  I don't believe in angels or demons.  I don't believe in miraculous spiritual gifts for today.  I don't believe in speaking or tongues or prophecy.  I don't believe in ghosts or people dying and going to heaven and coming back.  I don't believe unless something happens within my own world of experience or somebody I thoroughly trust happens to them that I can not easily explain away or dismiss.  In the end, is our confidence in our ability to know things or is it in God knowing us?

God is speaking, am I really listening?

We are rapidly heading towards 2015 with so many issues facing the church, our country, and other nations globally.  We want to talk about the latest news or what is going on in other countries.  If something is happening in our own back yard, than that will be the talk of the town.  But what is God saying to you?  And what are you doing about it?  Here are a few things God has been dealing with me over the past few weeks.

1.  Stop living by the flesh and live by My Spirit.  My ordinary week is a mix of walking and thinking and feeding what my flesh wants rather than listening, learning, and living by the Spirit of the Living God.  If God has taught me one thing this year, it is we all can live a life in the Spirit every day if we continually surrender our lives to him fresh each day.

2.  Quit being distracted by the enemy and keep your focus on Me.  This is a lesson we think we learn and then the enemy turns right around and throws something at us and like Peter in the Bible, we look at the waves and wind and sink rather than walking on the water keeping our eyes on Jesus.  Satan is not always trying to tempt us to sin.  Many times His goal is just to get our eyes off God and onto anything else so that we will not walk out our purpose that God has for us.

3.  God reveals the secrets of our hearts and that is not to shame us but to challenge us to depend on Him more.  My baggage is stuff is being revealed by God rather I like it or not.  God will not let me stay where I am but God is preparing us for greater things and that means we must be changed more into His likeness if we are going to accomplish the things God has for us in the future.

4.  Worship Me in the moment and make time for worship.  I pray, I read God's Word but I struggle spending that quality time in God's presence.  I find my life filled with so many good things that I miss the greatest thing and that is to spend time in God's presence experiencing heaven on earth.  God is calling us into His presence, will we come?

5.  It's not about our goodness but it is about the goodness of God.  Everything is about surrender to God because He is the only one good.  Even Jesus challenged people of his day when people used the word "good" loosely.  Only God is good!  Every day is another opportunity to live in gratitude of God's goodness or miss it for something that distracts us from the only One who is truly good.

Towards Baptist Catholicity

Stephen R. Harmon.  Towards Baptist Catholicity: Essays on Tradition and the Baptist Vision, UK: Paternoster, 2006. 275pp. $30.00.

One sees among some Evangelicals and even in the emergent movement a clarion call to what some identify as an "ancient-future church" where the "Great Tradition" is a resource for renewing the Christian Faith.  We are starting to see series like the Ancient Christian Commentary series and Evangelical Resourcement series from publishers like InterVarsity, Eerdmans, Baker, and especially Baker's subsidiary, Brazos Press.  Steven Harmon among others has joined a chorus of voices in trying to reclaim the ancient tradition of the early church for Baptists.  Catholicity for Harmon should lean towards a fuller realization of a visible-unified church demonstrated in Eucharist fellowship. 

Patristic scholars like Harmon among others are realizing a growing importance of tradition as a source of authority along with the ancient liturgies, creeds, and catechistic material.  Historically, a larger gathering of churches contributed to a greater authority and consensus than we see in todays divided Christendom.  What Harmon does is examine his own Baptist tradition and history in how it relates to biblical authority.  He lists a web of authorities like the formative authority of the Triune God, the transformative authority of Christ and conversion, the conformative authority of the church in the image of Christ, the illuminating authority of the Holy Spirit, the performative authority of Christian conduct and the imitation of Christ, and the multiformative authority of the priesthood of all believers, the congregation, and the global church.

Harmon examines the living tradition of the undivided church to which all Protestant denominations and nondenominational churches are rightful heirs.  He asks readers to go deeper into the communion of the saints.  He calls for a cross-fertilization of Christian and Jewish scholarship to gain a larger perspective of church history and its development of dogma and doctrine.  He examines the strengths and weaknesses of Thomas Oden Paleo-orthodoxy, Karl Barth's community faith perspective, and the French Catholics 'La Nouvelle Theologie' resourcement renewal.  He also tackles newer theologies like Radical Orthodoxy, liberation theology, and George Lindbeck's post-liberal theology.  He is conscious of the troubled waters of postmodernism and uses Barth as an example to navigate through them.

This volume ends with a provocative chapter on what keeps him from becoming Catholic.  His identity and history is within the Baptist tradition, and he believes he can best serve his church from challenging others from within that tradition.  He also does not see the point of moving from one imperfect communion to another promoting ecumenism.  He is sympathetic and understanding to those who have done so but he opts for "staying put" in the tradition that baptized and forged his Christian faith.

Some unaddressed issues and questions in this work can be raised.  How does tradition develop and what distinguishes faithful development from mutation of it?  One also wishes Harmon would have explored the issue of Episcopal leadership in the early church.  How does this effect his views and practices and the Free Church tradition?  Lastly, many Baptist beliefs and attitudes follow the radical Anabaptist independent movement rather than the more catholic British Baptists.  This important issue of catholicity is hardly on the radar for most Baptists or Protestants today despite some Christian historians and church leaders who are taking a second look at the earliest Christian tradition and its implications this has on ecclesiology, ecumenism, and discipleship practices.

Chris Criminger
Minister of Vallonia Christian Church
Vallonia, Indiana

Camp Electric Rocks

I had the privilege of attending the Christian music Camp called Camp Electric at Cedarville Ohio.  It was amazing to see some of the most talented gifted musical teens being mentored and taught by some of the leading Christian musicians of our time.  Kids would sit around in groups of five, ten, and twenty and just play their instruments and sing their hearts out to God.  I was amazed that even during the major Christian concerts, some of these kids would rather worship God than see a performance of worship.  The environment of Camp Electric was electrifying by the very presence of God.  Worship leaders were not performing to large teen audiences but were performing to an audience of One.  People saw these humble passionate God seekers and it was contagious.  If there was a day that a Christian Rock and Roll gathering was an oxy-moron or contradiction, for those who experience these conferences may be transformed in the Presence of God and realize that all music is God's and its only when the enemy tries to steal it and take the glory away from God that music turns dark and ugly.  May all creation celebrate the glory of God that is every where as God's holy fire falls onto people who have spiritual eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to receive the gift of music from the Creator of those gifts.

At the Edge of Tommorow

"Come Find Me When You Wake Up!" -  From the movie "Edge of Tomorrow"

I was not sure if I would like the new sci-fi thriller movie "Edge of Tomorrow" but it was more than I had expected or hoped for.  It has humor, good acting, a strong story line, and great special effects.  All the elements of a good-sci-fi movie.  The movie is about an apocalyptic take over of planet earth by aliens.  Has anyone noticed that it seems like the earth is being hi-jacked by the enemy Satan while the church remains asleep or in a coma?  God is saying to the church again, "Come find me when you wake up."  It may take the death of the church before we see its resurrection.  We need a world-wide spiritual awakening where people more want God than what they think they can get from God.  Where people discover and learn that they are called into a great cosmic spiritual battle and if they do not wake up others, who will?  Fear is all around me but I sense the Holy Spirit calling me to fearless hope.  Wounded soldiers and abandoned people are all around me, can we find God's power in the midst of our weakness?  Maybe the church is on the edge, will it fall over the cliff or will it rise up to being a church at the edge as it ministers to a whole new generation of people who seek an authentic robust faith that is more real than the illusions of this world system.  Only tomorrow will tell!

Surprised by Scripture

"We do not read the Bible the way it is; we read it the way we are" - Evelyn Uyemura

This Sunday is Pentecost Sunday and I am reminded of Jack Deere's book "Surprised by the Power of the Holy Spirit."  We all tend to be surprised by God, Jesus, and even the Bible at times.  N. T. Wright new book, "Surprised by Scripture," engages Scripture with contemporary issues like science and faith, the problem of evil and idolatry, and issues like politics and the end of the world.  I suspect it seemed like the world was ending for the first Christians until Pentecost happened and nothing was the same afterwards.  God is creating a new world where heaven and earth meet and join together.

Wright rightly challenges how Christians compromise their faith when they split reality between sacred and secular, history from story, and earth from heaven.  These realities work together rather than being divided and fragmented.  The church needs a new awakening or as Wright says a new understanding of what God's new creation looks like.  Or as Wright puts its, "The Bible is not about the rescue of humans from the world but about the rescue of humans for the world" (p.32).  And if we are really going to listen to what the Bible says, doesn't the Bible more talk about us living under Jesus authority rather than simply the Bible flexing its own spiritual authority?  There are surprises at every turn so when it comes to the Bible, don't be surprised to get surprised!

Let No One Deceive You, Heaven is for Real

"Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die!"

When it comes to other people's experiences of God, we need to be careful as Christians.  Can we show people grace and mercy even if we don't understand or find some things they say problematic or unscriptural to our own understanding of the Bible.  It is easy for Christians and atheists to show contempt towards others prior to investigation or truly trying to understand where the other person is coming from.  If this world needs heaven and more saints, this surely will not come from Christians being known as harsh critics and being judgmental.  There is a difference between testing the spirits and grieving the Spirit.

When people have spiritual encounters or even paranormal experiences, should they not receive our love and effort to understand them, no matter how hard it is to understand what is really going on?  It seems that since Satan counterfeits so many spiritual experiences, it is easier to discount all spiritual experiences outside our own limited ones.  Can other people's life experiences reshape or even challenge some of our assumptions concerning the Bible?  Even when other people's experiences sound wild, bizarre, or strange, we should neither mock or attack them.  Should not our attitude be more of open and cautious rather than closed and obstinate.

When it comes to the strange, bizarre, and weird, they are all found in the Bible.  One can not simply dismiss other people's testimony or experiences because they do not conform to what we think is either normal or safe.  The truth is silence does not prove anything one way or another in the Bible. If there has to be a biblical precedent for everything someone does then Jesus would have never met those standards of his day much less any new thing God may be trying to demonstrate or show us in the present. 

If Jesus taught us anything, it is we are to look at the fruit of people's experiences.  Is it drawing someone closer or farther away from God?  Does it produce a deeper love for God, God's Word, and God's people or does it hurt the body of Christ?  Rather than critics simply resorting to "Where is that found in the Bible?", can we come from the other side "Is it contrary to God's Word?"  Let's not confuse extra-biblical from unbiblical!

I have watched the movie and read the book, "Heaven is for Real" and I like many others, find the stories of a four year old both humbling and encouraging.  I will share some of my favorite quotes from the book in the next post but I find it very belittling to take a few of the weakest or potential troubling parts of the book like people have wings or the Holy Spirit is 'kinda blue' and then mock the whole thing.  What about all the inspiring and beautiful parts of the book or movie?  From the critics perspective, it seems they are only there to find the bad and not the good.  Is this how we would want others to treat us?

I have come to the place where I don't think the church can afford any more to simply rubber stamp every spiritual experience much less condemn anything they don't understand or can't neatly fit into Scripture as either deceptive, cultic, or from the Devil (even though there are these counterfeits, let's  please not throw the baby out with the water, even if the water gets pretty murky and dirty at times). 

There are many Christian people who have spiritual manifestations or events that happen in their life that are real and they must exercise discernment but that does not mean it's not real.  We simply cannot write off all spiritually weird phenomena, ghost stories, near death experiences and the like as simply fictions, lies, and spiritual deception.  It would be interesting to know the whole history of the church and document these strange experiences by people who are canonized as saints and are known for their orthodox theology.

In the end, there is something fundamentally wrong when sophisticated adult Christians are mocking the account of a four year old child.  It's like "you can't believe children, they are too young to know what they are talking about!"  One of the things Colton Burpo learned from his heavenly experience is "Jesus really, really loves children."  Do we?  It is a misunderstanding to equate Colton's heavenly experience or vision as he died and went to heaven and came back.  He never died and to put him into that category is a mistake from the get go.

What I find are a few teachers of the Bible who criticize "Heaven is for Real" and say very confidently that the Scriptures are clear that nobody goes to heaven and comes back to tell about it no matter how many people claim otherwise (people who have near death experiences are called "NDE's").  If one drops all the reading in between the lines concerning Lazarus who should have given us a full report of his four day journey when he died and came back, what I see are two scriptures where this whole edifice typically rests upon.  Two scriptures do not make up the clear testimony of Scripture and comes closer to looking like proof texting.

The two texts often quoted against the movie and book and all "NDE's" is Proverbs 30:4 and John 3:13.  Both speak of nobody ascending to heaven or descending to heaven and earth except the Messiah Jesus (the only perfect man who came from heaven).  Before I speak to these verses of Scripture, I want to say we need to distinguish between people who have visionary experiences of heaven like Colton Burpo and those who say they actually died and was in heaven until they were revived back to life.  There are several people who have visionary experiences of heaven in the Bible from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Paul's third heaven vision, and John's grand vision of heaven in the book of Revelation.  The Bible is simply silent on people actually dying, going somewhere (intermediate state) and then returning and talking about it.  Just because it is not recorded in Scripture does not mean it never happened then or can't happen today.

The truth is these two texts taken literally mean that nobody ascends to heaven or descends to earth.  Only God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) and those with God in heaven (angels and the heavenly host) ascend or descend.  Something the church and world needs to understand and often does not get is heaven is not something you go up to but something that comes to you!  Heaven is both a present and future reality.  Heaven comes to us because of Christ and because of Christ in us, heaven is in us.  If there is one thing people need more of today are people living like citizens of heaven on earth rather than simply living a worldly life and waiting on heaven.  The world is crying out for the sons and daughters of God to bring heaven to earth.  The earth can no longer wait for God's children not to bring heaven to earth and if we really think about it, heaven can't wait either!

Recovering Holy Week

"Sometimes we wish our own heart would speak of that which made it heavy with wonder"  -  Abraham Joshua Heschel

If many Christians were honest, they would probably say that holy week has greatly lost its significance.  Ministers find themselves wanting to recover from their hectic schedules during holy week and holy week simply does not captivate Christians imaginations or hearts like it used to.  So I suggest we need to recover Holy Week.  I don't mean we are not practicing it but I mean speaking and living it in a new light.  Let me give a few thoughts from my experience this week as I meditate on this Holy Saturday.

1.  Palm Sunday should caution us.  We speak of cheering crowds, palm waving, and excitement on Palm Sunday.  And certainly there needs to be a higher dose of enthusiasm and celebration in many churches.  But as the people cheered, Jesus wept?  Why?  They missed their day of visitation.  The refused to repent and wanted religion on their own terms.  Essentially, the people celebrated their own misunderstanding of Jesus.  They though Jesus was going to fix their problems and conquer their enemies.  Jesus came to conquer their sins and the slavery the Devil had on their lives.  Do we ever celebrate a misunderstanding of Jesus today?  Have we missed the day to repent and missed God's visitation?

2.  Maundy Thursday should shock us.  We think of this as a night of communion and sharing the Lord's supper together.  A night of prayer and foot washing.  But this is the day the disciples are arguing over who is going to be the greatest in God's kingdom.  Everyone wanted to sit at either Jesus right or left and one of the person's who get the honored seat of position is none other than Judas.  No one could imagine one of Jesus closest friends betraying him.  No one could have imagined Jesus shocking words that he was going to die.  No one could imagine what was going to happen in the prayer garden where Jesus would be arrested, tried at night, and executed the next day.  This was the day that shocked the world.  Is there anything that shocks us during holy week anymore.  Is there anything that comes close to challenging us beyond the dullness of we have "been there and done that?"  Are we shocked in recognizing who Jesus really is and what he demands from us this day?

3.  Good Friday should terrify us.  We call it good Friday but there was nothing good in what those first disciples experienced on that day where Jesus was brutally tortured and murdered.  Betrayal, desertion, cowardly hiding, denials of even knowing Christ, these were the watch words of that day.  Sheer terror and fear gripped Jesus disciples.  There was no way for them to know that the earthquake that gripped their hearts was going to turn into an earthquake that raised the dead.  Do we dare enter into the sheer horror of this Friday we call good because the only good person that ever lived  hung dead on a tree.  Can we smell the shredded flesh, the grinding of teeth of the crowds, the sweat and dirt mingled together with the stench of death in the air.  This was not a tame Messiah just like this was not a tame crucifixion.  Do we ever feel the terror and fear of God in our souls?

4.  Easter Sunday should burn within our hearts.  I know one minister who is talking about resurrecting marriage as he continues his series on marriage through Easter Sunday.  I know other Christian leaders who have told me that Easter has lost its mystery and just seems like another day of the week.  Where is the power and beauty of the resurrection of Jesus?  Where is the burning within our hearts like those early followers of Jesus experienced on the road to Emmaus?  If Easter is dead then so is any hope of an afterlife with God.  If Easter is without hope, then we are as the Apostle Paul said people who should be greatly pitied!  My whole heart cries out that I am crucified with Christ and it is no longer I that live but Christ who lives in me (Gal.5).  There is no resurrection without death.  Easter is our hope for a better future, not only for this world but for the world to come.  Maranatha!

Ablaze with God

"The great tragedy today is that the situation is desperate, but the saints are not"  -  Vance Havner

This holy week has been different for me.  I have been spending more time in solitude and reflection.  There is something kindling in my soul and I feel God's pleasure all around me.  In the midst of all this, the world around me, especially the church world seems in total disarray.  We denounce risky people as outlaws and force people who are different to exit our safe havens we call sanctuaries.  Are there no more frontiers for the church?  Is there nothing to learn in the wilderness?  Have we sold our spiritual birthright for a cheap imitation with little substance to sustain the Christian life?

Our youthful idealism has faded by the world of conformity.  Our child like faith has become all grown up and jaded in the process.  We have become so proper and cautious in our faith that there is very little worth taking risks for any more.  Is it possible for the church to be intoxicated by God again?

If the church were honest, we need to start another recovery group simply called L.A. (loneliness anonymous).  As the population grows, loneliness keeps increasing.  As we march into Good Friday, Jesus died to take away our sins, not our feelings.  Feelings need to be experienced and shared, not rejected or ignored or stuffed away for a later day. In the midst of all the noise, pain, and loneliness, I believe God is on the move.  For those who have spiritual eyes to see, God is doing immeasurably more than we could ever ask for or imagine.  My heart is pounding as a huge cyclone of God's Spirit is about to hit the world.  Are you ready?

Chasing Francis

"A miracle of humility in an age of vanity"  -  Elton John

I have always held a long deep respect for the Catholic tradition.  My western roots go long and far.  Even though I connect with Eastern Orthodox theology more than Catholicism, I still have my roots in the western church, a strong desire towards catholicity, and I greatly respect a combined liturgy with contemporary forms of worship (especially in the charismatic forms of the Catholic Church).  My experiences overall have been positive by my Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ.  I even had a Catholic seminary professor for a mentor for several years.

Pope John Paul II was such an inspiration to me for so many years of my Christian life that I was depressed for two weeks after his death.  I struggled with Pope Benedict but came to appreciate him as well.  But I knew something very strange and unusual was going on when Pope Benedict retired from being Pope.  This kind of thing simply does not happen and I knew something powerfull and spiritual was going on in all this.

Suddenly Pope Francis comes on the scene, the first Latin American Pope and a breath of fresh air since he literally is trying to follow the simple humble path of Saint Francis of Assisi.  Pope Francis is like the people's Pope.  He wants the church to be more inclusive, reaching out to the poor and disenfranchised.  He is so simple and down to earth and here it comes, so non-judgmental.  Even atheists and gays are welcomed by this Pope as he looks for new ways to build bridges and tear down walls that have kept Christians not only apart, but much of the world outside the walls of the church.

Here is a Pope who washes the feet of other religious leaders.  Who eats breakfast with the disabled and refuses all the luxury and trappings that go along with being Pope.   There are winds of change and renewal in the air with this new Pope.  Can you smell it?  Here is a Pope that wants to build bridges with Evangelical Christians and wants to decentralize the Papacy so there would be more power among a collegiality of bishops.  Here is a Pope who is willing in the spirit of Christ to give away power rather than exercising it over others.

It's almost like Pope Francis is a man in a hurry to start a revolution in the Catholic Church.  He wants all Christians to have a renewed encounter with Christ.  He yearns for a day that true unity and full communion can happen between separated Christians.  He is turning the Catholic world upside down or maybe more accurately, right side up like another much younger revolutionary did 2000 years ago when it came to the Jewish religion.  I wait in anticipation to see what God may do with Christianity where half the church is represented by Roman Catholics.  Christ's return may be closer than we think and seeing Christ get his bride ready for him may be sooner than we think.

Answering a Question with a Question

The religious leaders asked Jesus by what authority was he doing the things he was doing.  Jesus said he would only answer their question if they answered his question.  They refused to answer Jesus question so he refused to answer theirs! (Mark 11:27-33)

It amazes me that our conventional Christian wisdom of the day is so far from Jesus that we can call it "Christian" when it resembles so little of Jesus and the way he lived.  We teach our kids to get a good education and fit well into society.  In other words, we want our children to be successful.  Jesus lived a whole counter cultural lifestyle but we tell our children we want them to fit safely into society. 

We tell people who have doubts that doubts are bad, ignore them, hide them, and surely, don't talk about them.  When John the Baptist doubted who he was, Jesus still commended him for his faith.  Doubt unchecked can lead people away from God but doubt explored and challenged can lead to greater faith in Christ.

Jesus used humor, irony, satire in his teachings but for today's conventional wisdom, that is too impolite, mean-spirited, or just in bad taste.  Jesus drank wine but Christians can not.  Jesus hung out with all the wrong people and we are told using another Bible axiom, "bad company corrupts good morals."  Worse, people we see as opponents to the Christian faith we neither respect nor show them our love but all they get is our contempt.  Either they are to be pitied for being so foolish or they are simply a fool who has said in his heart there is no God (Psalm 14:1).  Never mine that the fool says with his mouth he believes in God.  Never mind that the larger context is about Israel's apostasy where they say one thing with their mouth and their lives tell a different story.  This text better applies to the Christian who lives like there is no God rather than the atheist who defines oneself as against God or God's existence.

Somehow in this world with all it duplicity and conceit, we are supposed to play it's power and manipulation games over one another.  The world says come out to play and Christians are expected to play by the world's rules.  Some of us are taking a more ancient path that is either not playing the game at all or changing the rules and then asking the world to play a new game so to speak. 

The late Robert Webber in his book "The Younger Evangelicals" wisely told atheists he was not playing the apologetic philosophy game any more when it came to whose arguments are better and may the smartest person win.  Webber challenged atheists to play a new game.  One where it was not one simply about ideas and arguments but stories.  Let me tell you a story of God, Israel, Jesus, and the church and how that has shaped the world and you tell me how your story of atheism makes this world a better place?

Webber comes off too much like Jesus so I am not surprised that it is not atheists but other academic Christian scholars who take Webber to task.  "That is not fair or how the game is to be played!"  Or as one academic Christian scholar said in an article that Webber is going into retreat and simply refuses to answer legitimate intellectual objections people have to belief.  He rightly says that people will probably then not hear your story.  But isn't this exactly the point and what happens to Jesus in his encounters?  The people did not want to listen to Jesus, they wanted to make him look bad.  The religious leaders did not want to follow Jesus, they wanted to destroy him.

In the end, how far does a Christian apologist really think he is going to get with a person who thinks Christianity is the real enemy to life and world peace?  How far does the Christian apologist have to go before he realizes he is dealing with some people who are not skeptical seekers but hostile antagonists.  How long does it take before Christians wake up to realize that our time may be better spent in quiet discipleship and spiritual disciplines that feeds the soul rather than loud debates and long drawn out arguments. 

I certainly believe Christians have to give answers to questions of faith but sometimes a Christian may need to be more like Jesus and answer a question with a question.  And if others refuse to answer our questions, rather than arguing with them, we may be doing them and ourselves a favor to refuse to enter into a whole debate that neither honors God and makes God's people look bad.

Easter Scandal

"Scandals followed Jesus wherever he went"

It is quite amazing that we have sanitized Jesus life so much that his whole life and death and resurrection seem less embarrassing much less scandalous.  The events around Jesus birth would scandalize conservatives and liberals alike.  Conservative would be scandalized by a baby born out of wedlock and liberals would be scandalized that Jesus was born at all, especially by such nonsense as a virgin birth.  There was the scandal of Jesus bad table manners and overturning tables and driving people out.  There is the scandal of Jesus hanging around the wrong people and supposedly drinking and eating too much to be any kind of a proper man of God. 

Then there was Jesus shameful execution.  Only criminals and frauds end up on crosses.  And then there is the whole embarrassment of the resurrection.  The Jews believed that God could raise a person from the dead but they did not expect the Messiah to be raised.  To be crucified was a sign of illegitimacy and a curse, certainly not a way to receive God's favor.  Besides, the Messiah was to be someone who would be victorious over Israel's enemies and bring in a long awaited vindication of Israel, not a vindication of the Messiah on Israel's and the world's behalf.

Let's face it, scandals are inconvenient truths and we have tamed and sanitized Jesus down so much that scandals have turned into politically correct conveniences for the church.  The scandal of Easter has been lost and we can all sleep better for it.

To Pilgrims, Monks, and Mystics

"I have found heaven on earth, since heaven is God, and God is in my soul"  -  Elizabeth of the Trinity

The more I study the Bible, the bigger it gets and the smaller I become.  The longer I meditate on God's Word, the more it penetrates the depths of my heart.  The more I learn, the less I know.  Instead of me mastering the Bible, the Bible is mastering me.  To be a mystic is to encounter God in the ordinary and the everyday.  The movie "Heaven is for Real" comes out tomorrow and I find Christian pilgrims, monks, and mystics stumble, run, and fall into the unseen realm of heaven all the time.  Many times we are neither looking for God or heaven but God and heaven have a habit of finding and running headlong into us.

My prayer life is changing.  My prayers are simply echoes of listening to God and His Word and praying them back to heaven where they come from.  I am learning how to come into God's presence every day.  I find myself at times simply praying my concerns to God and then God prays His concerns for the world back through me.

2014 is like a new season preparing us for another spiritual season of 2015.  I see the wheat and the tares growing together, God doing more than I have ever seen before and Satan trying more to stop God's heavenly advancement on earth.  I am not one for apocalyptic fevers but I pray for all my brothers and sisters in Christ for the coming days because I sense something huge on the horizon spiritually.  The spiritual always changes the natural and manifests in the physical world around us.
Things are not always what they seem.  People who are comfortable will find their world shaken apart and those who find themselves in the miry clay will be lifted out of it to a place they could have never come on their own but only by God's help and direction.

Be still, and know God!

From Doubt, to Faith, to Praise

"I remember an old story that as a young man, I thought I would win the world to Christ.  As a middle aged man, I thought I would win a few to Christ.  As an old man, I hope to win myself to Christ."

I love reading the early church fathers, patristic history, spiritual exegesis of scripture, and I'm enjoying Jason Byassee's book, "Praise Seeking Understanding."  This book reminds me of my own spiritual journey of struggling with doubt, using doubt in service of my faith, to faith seeking understanding, and finally, to know a life of praise that goes beyond even understanding.

One of the great truths from reading the Psalms with Augustine and getting to know the mind of the early church fathers is understanding the spiritual end of Scripture where the literal only touches the surface of biblical meaning but it certainly does not take us very deep into the world of the Bible.  Can we learn the skills to discern the mystery of Christ on every page of Scripture as the Fathers did?  It is so easy today in our modern world and comfortable church life to ignore or miss mystery and try to avoid the difficulties within the biblical texts.  We desire clever reading strategies to avoid the hard sayings of Jesus in the pages of Scripture.

The mystery of Christ helps us see things and live in such a way that is different and even in conflict with the ways of the world.  As we enter into holy week, Christians are drawn into the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus and are even called into an ascended life "with Christ."  When we read the scriptures with the early church fathers, we see patterns, types, and spiritual figures that unfold the mystery of knowing Jesus in a greater way.  When this begins to happen, nothing can remain the same because Christ himself draws us into his created order in ways where there simply is no turning back.

The mystery of Christ takes us into a mystical encounter with him every day.  Jesus can no longer be a distant stranger or a long, lost friend who is uninvolved in our lives.  They mystery of Christ reveals Christ for everyone and in everything.  While we are busy amusing ourselves to death, Christ is waiting and always present to us.  Christ can no longer be shut up in church buildings but God's people must go to the streets and the darkest corners of their neighborhoods.  And what others see and discover is not some belief in Christ, there is nothing mysterious about that.  What people begin to understand is we belong to Christ as we live in the beauty and mystery of His love.

Contemplating the New Atheism

"Every generation gets the atheism it deserves!" - Michael Hanby

So many of the books and articles against the new atheism have been as pedestrian, patronizing, and dismissive mirroring the same kind of rhetoric the new atheists employ against the religious and Christians.  Maybe the sheer hypocrisy and harsh judgments people have experienced from church people leads us to the out right hostility people see coming from the new atheism?  Sometimes Christianity harshest critics are the very people we need to listen and respond to.  Certainly when it comes to skeptics and people who have been hurt by the church, the church needs to pay attention more and listen to the concerns of her critics.  When it comes to the church's own cultural idolatries, these need to rightly be challenged and discarded.

As I have been studying the church fathers, the concept of mystery (more to come in the next post on this), the apophatic tradition and contemplative Christianity, one needs to first understand that God is not an object or a philosophical idea to study.  God is a person to encounter!  I am reminded of the great contemplative Thomas Merton who once said that "the atheist's experience of God is purely negative whereas the apophatic contemplative is negatively positive."  A real difference between Christians and atheists are Christians read the Scripture as an icon, image, and full of Christ whereas the atheists read it as logic, argument, and a flat book.

Besides the gross lack of discipleship and Christian imagination in many churches, the new world we all find ourselves in privileges the modern narrative of interpreting life through the lens of science that reduces all reality to the explainable and natural as well as having little to no room for mystery and God.  The fragmentation we all face as Christians, skeptics, and atheists effects us all.  Fragmentation, loss of identity, and interpretive pluralism rule our brave new world.  In place of the church, the modern state now competes as the sole place at the table to ensure people's values and security.

In the midst of all this, the church seems to resort to name calling and criticizing the world rather than being the place where the world can find refuge and healing.  What the world needs to see is not more apologists combating atheists but more followers of Jesus turning this world right side up with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

What does Scripture say and what do the Early Church Fathers say?

"What if our modern ways of reading the Bible are nothing more than clever strategies to avoid Christ in the pages of scripture?" -  Jason Byassee

I am reading several books dealing with the early church fathers understanding of Scripture.  They were much more at home with mystery, paradox, and even saw scriptural difficulties as pointers to God rather than stumbling blocks to trip up Christian readers.  The early church fathers believed God's Word should be filled with riddles, enigmas, and difficulty.  Why?  Here are a list of a few reasons why the early church fathers though this and why we need to get back to doing the hard work of historical studies and not just contemporary ones.

1.  God wanted to conceal deeper truths of scripture from those who are unworthy.  To disclose the full magnificence of Scripture to all would be to cast pearls before swine.  Scripture is both to reveal and to conceal.  Only those who are willing to strive for virtue will succeed in unraveling the obscurities of Scripture.

2.  The fact that Scripture has hidden meanings allows for different levels of teaching to reach people at different levels of spiritual receptivity.  The more spiritual readers learn from the higher meanings which address the healing of the soul.  In fact, it can be harmful for people to take in teachings that are beyond their capacity to receive.  It is wise, therefore, for God to hide these more profound realities from those who are not ready for them.

3.  Obscure and enigmatic language is an effective means of communicating profound ideals.  Sacred texts speak obscurely precisely so that they may be explained in manifold ways.  Cryptic language was seen as a fitting medium to express deep mysteries (excerpts from "The Inspiration and Interpretation of Scripture: What the Early Church can teach us by Michael Graves, pp.61-63).

In other words, the difficulties within the Bible provoke the reader to dig deeper and work harder in understanding the Scriptures.  Searching, seeking, and digging become hidden ways of uncovering and discovering the depths and riches of God's Word.

Missing God at the Movies

"If the Devil is in the details, where is God?"

I went excitedly to see the big block buster movie 'Noah.'  I listened to other Christians concerns and controversy over the movie before the movie even came out and I wanted to see it for myself.  I went with my twin brother to the movie and I noticed all the people in front of me were going to see the movie "God's not dead."  Rather than paying closer attention to that detail, I quickly thought, low budget Christian movie versus big budget big actor movie.  The decision was easy to make at the moment with my fallen reason not paying attention to the details of what God might be telling me in all this.  So I went to see the two and a half hour long movie Noah and walked out after the first hour. 

Why? I simply was overwhelmingly bored and thought, if the first hour is this bad, why should I go through another hour and half of it?  A few days later I saw the movie "God's not dead" and was deeply encouraged and moved by the message.  It was by far the best movie Pureflix has ever produced.  I hope this trend continues in the future.  I was also amazed at Kevin Sorbo's great performance.  He will not win any awards for this politically incorrect made for Christians to watch movie but I was mesmerized by his portrayal of a college atheist professor.  I know the atheist community will be upset over this portrayal and yet I thought it was quite accurate of the intellectual elitism one often runs into at the university level whether that be an atheist, Christian, or any other intellectually seasoned teacher who misses the Bible's admonition that 'knowledge puffs up but love builds up.'

So the next time you go to the movies, pay attention to the details, maybe it's not the Devil in the details but God?

The Best Spiritual Books full of the Beauty of Scripture

C. S. Lewis once said that all the best books are written by those who are dead.  There is much I resonate with Lewis even though I still believe things are heavily weighted in that direction, I still try to read books that give the beauty and depth of Scripture from both treasures old and new. 

So for people who want to immerse themselves in the best I have come across and more that I have not read or seen (share your own best books that shine forth the beauty and depth of Scripture), then here is my top ten list from ancient Christian writers to the present.

1.  Patrology by Johannes Quasten (vols. 1-4) share the depth and multi-dimensions of the whole patristic heritage for the first four centuries of biblical interpreters of the early church starting in the second century.  Here are all the primary sources in four volumes.

2.  Meister Eckhart works give the beauty and depth and mystery of the mystical tradition.  God is always alive as God makes alive His word to His people.

3.  Soren Kierkegaard wrote in an age where the church was post-Christendom in how to live faithfully in a world that thinks itself already Christian.  Kierkegaard's writings are both challenging and illuminating for discipleship of the mind using many biblical concepts and scriptural texts.

4.  Beginnings: Ancient Christian Readings of the Biblical Narratives by Peter Bouteneff is a wonderful gem showing the beautiful diamond of the first three chapters of Genesis with its many colors by the early church fathers.  This is the best of the Eastern Orthodox tradition and scholarship that both Catholics and Protestants need to get more familiar with.

5.  Praise Seeking Understanding  Reading the Psalms with Augustine by Jason Byassee and Robert W. Jenson.  Interpreting the Psalms and learning both their spiritual meaning and proper use is vital for the development of the Christian mind and Christian imagination.

6.  The Gospel According to Job by Mike Mason is probably the best contemporary example of a spiritual commentary on a book of the Bible that I have read to date.

7.  Return of the Prodigal by Henri Nouwen is such a masterpiece book on one of Jesus's favorite parables concerning the story of the Prodigal son.  Nouwen is no longer with us but his spiritual writings have been a favorite of mine.  No one I know to date has shownd the simplicity, humility, and love of Jesus like Henri's writings.  An honorable mention is Kenneth Bailey's works on the gospel stories.  Bailey more academic approach shows insightfully the details of early Palestinian Christianity from its Jewish roots.

8. Connections by Glen Carpenter is the best overall comprehensive book exploring the spiritual and symbolic meanings of the Bible's big picture story.

9.  Popular spiritual books that have perceptive uses of Scriptures are Erwin McManus "The Barbarian Way;" Guy Cheveau "Turnings" from what God taught him on a mission trip to Africa and Misty Edwards beautifully written new book "What is the Point?"

10.  The best academic scholar on the Bible today challenging people to read the Bible as if for the first time or from a new and fresh perspective is N. T. Wright.  His larger theological tomes are filled with gold nuggets for those who have the patience to dig into them.  Other honorable mentions of academic scholars I have liked in the past are Karl Barth, John H. Yoder, Lesslie Newbigen, Ephraim Radner and Telford Work.  Two commentary series that offer interesting perspectives from a kind of ancient-future perspective are the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and the Brazos Theological Commentary series.

What spiritually deep books have enriched your soul and help reveal the deeper meaning of Scripture to you?

In Search of the Historical Adam

"To be or not to be, that is the question"  -  Shakespeare

I am reading a new book called "four Views on the Historical Adam."  What is striking to me is how well defined and nuanced is each of the four contributors in their respective viewpoints.  One would think with four views that a reader of the book would identify with at least one of their viewpoints.  Ironically, I am not sure any of these viewpoints corresponds to my own understanding on this topic?  They are all coversant on Genesis and science whereas my focus has been on Genesis in dealing with its overall message and issues.  Three of the four take a historical Adam view whereas one does not.

One wonders if a historical Adam is really necessary in some of these views altogether?  Denis Lamoureux takes the no historical Adam approach looking at Genesis through its own faulty pre-scientific worldview and then comparing that to a modern scientific evolutionary approach.  Although most Evangelicals would struggle more with Lamoureux's approach, I suspect there is a growing consensus in the western church on whether Adam really existed at all when listening to the newest claims of modern science.

John Walton is an Old Testament Scholar who has written much on Genesis  and takes what he calls an "Archetypal" view of the Creation story.  Adam and Eve are types and representatives.  I remember one type that Peter Enns made in his book is Adam a type of Israel.  Enns does not believe in a historical Adam at all whereas Walton does.  It's interesting to note that the early church fathers saw Adam as a type of Christ and Christ is the first true human to follow God.  I am probably closest to Walton's view and like him, see the underlying Genesis issue not one of biology but one of idolatry.  Overall, I think we need an ancient-future approach to biblical studies whereas Walton seems to put all of his eggs in a modern scientific study of the Scriptures.

C. John Collins takes an old earth creation approach as well as Adam and Eve are real persons who fell into sin.  Collins seems to be between a rock and a hard place since he takes the evidence for an old earth but not adopting evolution as the model of how it happened.  Collins believes that taking an evolutionary approach will especially untie the knot between an actual first sin by the first couple.  I simply don't think this is the case at all when people are trying to connect their arguments so closely to science, logic, and deductive reasoning.  The early church fathers were much more at ease holding both literal and figurative, historical and symbolic (types) together.

Lastly, William Barrick takes a historical Adam young earth viewpoint.  He attempts to posit his view as both a right literal reading of the Bible as well as representative of a "traditional" viewpoint of the church.  It seems like Barrick's "traditional" view is not really that old since it really comes to the forefront only in the last century!  The problem I have with both Lamoureux and Barrick is how their own kind of science is read into the Genesis story (whether that be a faulty pre-scientific one or a modern young earth view that hardly any reputable scientists accept today).

I find it interesting that two hotbeds of controversy today among Evangelicals is the newest five views of Innerancy (Peter Enns view to me would be a denial of inerrancy rather than some form of it) and the four views of Adam book.  If Christians are ever going to start getting past some of the impasse of interpretive pluralism, then one way forward to at least attempt as greater consensus from my perspective would be to do as Jesus said, "bring both treasure old and new" in relation to ancient interpreters of the Christian faith and modern approaches which are legion.  If ancient and future can come together, maybe more Christians can learn to appreciate more their rich ancient tradition as well as keeping their other foot in the modern world in which they live in.

"God that's Funny!"

"The Bible never says Jesus laughed because he was telling all the jokes" - Joel Kilpatrick

I started the new year of 2014 with such a sense of dangerous wonder and hilarious excitement.  2013 was a year of major ups and downs emotionally.  But 2014 comes with such a sense of urgency, expectancy, and joy unspeakable.  If people keep looking at the world like the glass is half empty, they are not going to get the joke that God really is in charge.  If people don't stop watching the clock and start watching for the unexpected, they may miss all the surprises and beauty of knowing God in ways they could never imagine on their own.  God is stirring both hearts and imaginations of His people and I can't wait to see what is coming around the corner or what is going to happen next?  Maranatha!