Jesus Adventure

There's no other place I'd rather be
Than be in Your embrace on bended knee
Your love soars higher than the sky
I fall down and worship and cry

Wide and deep your presence descends
Dazzling light everywhere the night ends
My life with Jesus is concealed
Your love rescues me for He is my shield

Laughing and dancing I begin to weep
Your floodgates are open, your love so deep
Life so full within this grand adventure
Sweet release in joyful surrender

Reverse Creation

In the end, man destroyed the heaven that was called earth.
The earth had been beautiful until the spirit of man moved over it.
And man said, "let there be darkness."  And there was darkness.

On the last day, there was a great noise over the face of the earth.
Fire consumed the beautiful globe, and there was . . . silence.
The blackened earth now rested to worship the one true God

And God saw all that man had done,
and in the silence over the smoldering ruins,
God wept.

[anonymous, in The Dawn of the Mystical Age
by Frank X. Tuoti (Crossroad, 1997) p.29]

Universal Mystic

Mystical Wisdom
  Eternal Revelation
    Transforming Spirit
      Holy Encounter
        Incarnate Love
          Radiant Humility
        Broken creation
      Fragments of the Divine
    Empty Barrenness
  Resident Exile
Dark Chaos

Can Anyone Love Me?

My heart keeps breaking
The tears won't stop coming
There's a part of me dying
I feel like I'm falling,
Why?
It just keeps happening,
Why?

The pain on my face I can't erase it
My heart aches so bad I can hardly take it
Does anybody care if I live or die?
Can anyone hear my heart cry?

Can anyone love me?
Can anyone love me?
Can anyone love me
if I don't love myself?

Hold me close Jesus
I'm so lost without you
You died on the cross for me
So I could live forever
And feel your great pleasure
Your love without measure

Can anyone love me?
Can anyone love me?
Can anyone love me,
If I don't love myself?

I don't even know myself
I only want to see your face
For you are all I really need
If I will simply follow Jesus lead
I so desire to follow your lead

I know you love me
I know you love me
I know you love me
because of Christ,
I can finally love myself.

The Way of a Child in Reading Scripture

Is reading scripture really about proving a point, winning an argument, or formulating a doctrine?  Can reading the Bible be simply cultivating a sanctified imagination, a sense of wonder about the world, others, and ourselves?  Can the reading scripture open our eyes to heaven, perceive something hidden but now revealed, bring about a holy curiosity or astonishment?

All of life is God connecting us to the aha moments, the haunting melody of the universe, the beauty of music and poetry, and the mathematics of the Spirit world.  Our desires let go of idols we see and awakens us to wonder filled desires of the Spirit of God.  It is only approaching the Bible like little children that we begin to see everything with new eyes.

Suddenly the world of the Bible draws us in, shakes us, puzzles us, embraces us, and draws us into greater awareness of heaven and earth colliding together.  Can we read the newer testament as God's love letters to us?  Can we read the Bible as a love poem to humanity?  There will always be surprising twists and turns in our understanding of holy scripture.  One moment we think we are onto something to only discover in the next moment that it slipped right passed us.  So many moments with scripture are like a coming to the text for the first time or falling in love all over again where everything seems mysteriously new.

Learning from the Best

Who are some of the best Christian writers down throughout the ages?  Who have taught you and who are you learning from?  Some of the best Catholic and Orthodox writers through the centuries are as follows: 

Origen,  Iranaeus, Ignatius, Athanasius,
Gregory of Nyssa, Maximus the Confessor,
Gregory Palamas, John Chrysostom,
Thomas Aquinas, John the Cross,
Symeon the new theologian, Bulgakov,
G. K. Chesterton, Hans Ur von Balthassar


Some of the best Protestant writers and theologians:
Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Jonathan Edwards,
Soren Kierkegaard, C. S. Lewis, Karl Barth,
John H. Yoder, Lesslie Newbigin


Some of the best living Christian writers today I like to read:
N. T. Wright (Anglican)
Ephraim Radner (Anglican)
Stanley Hauerwas (Methodist)
Peter Leithart (Presbyterian)
William P. Brown (Presbyterian)
Hans Boersma (Reformed)
Matthew Levering (Catholic)
Raniero Cantalamessa (Catholic)
Peter Bouteneff (Eastern Orthodox)
Andrew Louth (Eastern Orthodox)
David Bercot (Anabaptist)
Steven R. Harmon (Baptist)
Justo l. Gonzalez (hispanic Christian historian)
Richard Middleton (Jamaican-American Biblical scholar)
Mark Noll (global Church Historian)

Heaven's Sound

The path I'm walking feels like a lonely road
My burdens are heavy and life seems so cold
The weight on my shoulders wants to pull me down
As your Spirit speaks, I hear heaven's sound

You know I'm hurting when I fall
One word from you, I will answer the call

Can you hear the sound of heaven, it's all around
Filling the spaces that are hidden
Filling the spaces that are hidden
Filling the spaces that are hidden

Do you hear my cry, do you feel my pain
I'm tired of living a life, I need heaven's rain
I fall to the ground to worship you
You've rolled away the stone and made me new

You know I'm hurting when I fall
One word from you, I will answer the call

Can you hear the sound of heaven, it's all around
Filling the spaces that are hidden
Filling the spaces that are hidden
Filling the spaces that are hidden

No more grudges, no more withholding forgiveness
You're love has entered and my sins are lost in your forget-fullness
I'm lost in our love as you make me whole
The truth of Christ has lifted my soul

You know I'm hurting when I fall
One word from you, I will answer the call

Can you hear the sound of heaven, it's all around
Filling the spaces that are hidden
Filling the spaces that are hidden
Filling the spaces that are hidden

Forever Yours

You move the mountains, the earth shakes
You light the skies, the whole world quakes
No more wandering from your side
Forever yours, in your love I abide

The darkness within is gone
Your love is brighter than the sun
No more wandering from your side
Forever yours, in your love I abide

Peace washes over me
Your grace has set me free
No more wandering from your side
Forever yours, in your love abide

Constant in your love so deep
Falling into your arms I weep
No more wandering from your side
Forever yours, in your love I abide

You've Captured My Heart

In your presence, you've captured my heart
I've finally found the place where I am truly free
You are teaching me new songs for my soul to sing
Even in the storms of life you are with me

All I want is to be with you
All I want is to be where you are

You've captured my heart
You've captured my heart

You've picked me up so I can dance again
I'm going higher, soaring in your grace
You are taking me to places unknown
Walking by faith, I see your face

All I want is to be with you
All I want is to be where you are

You've captured my heart
You've captured my heart

Best Mystical Poems

Treasures Old and New:

1.  St. Ephrem - Hymns of Paradise

2.  St. Symeon -  Divine Eros

3.  St. John the Cross -  Collected works

4.  Rumi - Essential works (Sufi)

5.  T. S. Eliot - Four Quartets

6.  Teilhard de Chardin  -  Hymn of the Universe

7.  Hans Von Balthassar -  Heart of the World 

8.  Contemporary Christian mystics today - There are progressive Christian mystics like Thomas Keating; Richard Rohr; and Theodore J. Nottingham who are alive and well and still writing.  A Catholic Jesuit from India who died in 1987 worth noting is Anthony de Mello.  Many Christian mystics, saints, prophets, poets, and missionaries remain anonymous but fill this earth with heaven's glory and joy.  Ultimately, they make this planet a better place to live in by their presence and positive influence.

Christian Singer NF and David Crowder Stories

1.  Story Number One: NF -  My two boys love the Christian song writer and rapper NF.  He speaks their language and sings his heart out to this younger generation.  When I was at Camp Electric, NF was their favorite artist as he put it all out there on stage before many of the best and most talented teenage Christian singers and musicians.  If someone is not familiar with him, check out his "Wake Up" video on You Tube.  Several months ago I listened to his mansion song and I loved the lyrical words to this album and particularly the vulnerability, realness, and transparency he brings into his music which is very personal.  I had just read Theresa Avila's Interior Castle where she says the soul is like a mansion with many rooms.  As I have been reading the great Christian mystics of the past, I felt like I was supposed to buy and give a Christian book on prayer to NF.  I was going to mail it to him but found no real way to get him the book.  Then I found out recently that he was going to be a camp electric.  Somehow I knew God would work it out that I could give him the book.  One day I saw a car parked in a strange spot and quickly discovered it was NF.  I handed him the book and I pray that God may bless him and give him peace and rest as he grows in his spiritual life through prayer.

2.  Story Number Two:  David Crowder - I was resting at Camp Electric and suddenly sensed that I was going to get a free copy of David Crowder's new CD.  I logically tried to figure out how this was going to happen like maybe I'll work his booth and someone from his group would give me the CD?  I was asked later that night to work David Crowder's merchandise table so everything was going according to plan and then I was told that the CD's came in late and their would be no CD's that night.  Not only was I not going to get a CD, but neither was anybody else!  I was getting ready to leave my shift when a lady asked me if David Crowder was coming out because she wanted him to sign her CD.  I told her he was not coming out and then she preceded to give me the CD.  I told the story to one of my friend's at camp electric and he asked me, "Why did God want you to have the David Crowder CD?"  My answer at that moment was "I had no idea!"  I went to a song writer's seminar where the instructor told me in my inquiry about my writing poetry and how to write songs that I should listen to some Christian singer I thought was a great Christian song writer and take the words and rewrite my own words and learn the form of song writing.  Instantly I thought of David Crowder because one of the purposes for me at Camp Electric was my hope of learning how to write Christian music.  Right after the seminar I ran into my friend and I told him I now know why I got the David Crowder CD and the rest is "His Story!"

Where's Your Focus?

We Focus on many things and therefore become distracted from the one important thing

If we could see a counter number of how many times a day we say something negative or positive, we might be shocked at how we have strong tendency towards the negative.  Are we speaking words of life and faith into others or are we speaking words of death and curses on those around us?  So what is your focus?  Our focus can determine how fruitful we are as followers of Jesus today.

We pray about many things and many people but wonder why we don't see more answer to our prayers.  We read large sections and many verses of scripture but wonder why God's Word does not seem to deeply effect us?  We have lost our direction because we have lost our focus.  When it comes to focus, how about a change of focus.  Instead of focusing on many thoughts and many things, how about focus on one thought, one image, or one phrase or verse of scripture.

Can we learn to slow down to a higher rhythm of life?  When we do this, we suddenly start seeing and experiencing connections and intersections between heaven and earth that we have never seen or experienced before.  When we lost ourselves to Christ and him crucified, it is then we come to the crossroads of life where our life becomes shaped by the cross of Christ.

So sit down, be still, meditate, listen, contemplate on the oneness of God, the oneness of our humanity, the oneness of all creation as God's peace and grace penetrates the depths of your soul.  Feel the presence of God, the energy of the Holy Spirit breaking forth new light and power for your life.  Smell purity, taste goodness, hear gentleness, and see the Bridegrooms everlasting love for you.
Psalms 113:6 says, "I humble myself to behold the things of heaven and earth."

Today, I tremble in your presence O' God.  I tremble in your presence.  I tremble!

Reflections on Camp Electric

I just spend a wonderful week with some of the brightest and gifted Christian teens in this country.  They came from all over and a few even from other countries.  As I listened to their stories, their concerns, their dreams, I am amazed how God calls these children at a very young age to lay everything down and to follow Jesus.  Wherever we go or are at, there are these biting at the bit young people who want to do something significant for Christ.

So here are a few things to ponder:

1.  Jesus called twelve disciples and most of them were probably teenagers.  Rabbis took teens and discipled them or terms we might use today are terms like coach them or mentor them.  I spent a week mentoring fifteen of these teens personally and striving to speak blessing, life, and pray for God to transform these young people into an amazing force to change this world into a better place.

2.  Where ever you see God at work, join with God there.  Don't be passive about faith but act on it and take radical steps towards places and people where you see the work of the Holy Spirit happening.  Don't sit on the sidelines or wonder why nothing is happening with you, join in where the Spirit's action is going on.

3.  If Israel name means "God wrestlers" then you too will have to wrestle with God.  God is big enough to handle your questions, disappointments, anger, and hidden sins.  Wrestle with God for truth and integrity and a life of peace and joy in a world of chaos and strife.

4.  God is bigger than religion but God still uses religion.  There is intense spiritual warfare and battles being fought among religions today.  There are even internal battles being fought within local churches so be battle ready.  Somebody said, "The great threat to the church today is not that people are spiritual but not religious but they are religious but not spiritual."

5.  In the midst of pain and struggles, may God's grace and power see you through to the end.  Nobody likes dark places or intense struggles or betrayals from people you thought were your friends.  But sometimes we need to remind ourselves at times, especially during those times which are the most difficult, that "where the battle rages the most is where God is often most at work."

Incarnational Apologetics

I have been reading Barton Priebe's book The Problem of Christianity.  Another hot button issue is the problem of violence in the Bible.  If God is loving and good, why is God killing people or commanding the killing of so many people in the Bible?  Priebe wants to deal with the genocide of the Canaanites as a test example but I want to dig even deeper as we explore this issue.

Several of the main points Priebe raises are we need to be careful of proof-texting a few hard texts without understanding the larger picture or bigger backdrop of the biblical story.  The Canaanite idolatry and perversity was so great, God waited 700 years patiently before God's judgment or punishment of these people.  Israel itself was a rag tag oppressed minority group that had gone through its own long history of judgment and punishment.  Priebe says the warfare language is full of hyperbole and rhetoric about killing them all and it is true that Israel did not kill all the Canaanites.

The main issue of the Canaanite "holy war" framework was "driving out" the people rather than "killing off."  The truth is there was a lot of both in seasons of war.  Priebe also prophetically speaks about our own nation's idolatry, child sacrifice through abortion, and the illusion that we think we are so much better than these ancient wicked people. Lastly, Priebe shares the sacrificial imagery of Christ taking God's wrath and punishment in our place as the final apologetic for evil and dealing with what's wrong with the world.

What Priebe has done is given a very good summary of the various ways Christian scholars and preachers have tried to answer the problem of evil in the Bible.  Although I think Priebe should be commended for giving a very concise response, there are some cultural assumptions and modern inherited apologetics which I think are potentially destructive or counter-productive in opening up new problems for the person one is trying to give a reasoned response to questions concerning the Bible. 

First of all, Christians have to live out the peaceable kingdom rather than continue in the inconsistencies that saying they are "pro-life" in regards to abortions but may be pro-death in almost every other area of life when it comes to violence of the state.  Are Christians willing to live their counter-cultural kingdom values out even in the face of persecution or punishment by the state?  Unless Christians untangle their dual allegiances to the kingdom of America and the kingdom of God, then confusion will continue to abound.

Secondly, there are many images given for atonement in the Bible and focusing exclusively almost on legal models like penal substitution raises as many problems for some people as solving them.  Certainly there is a powerful sacrifice image of atonement in the Bible but this is often interpreted as a focus on a shame and punishment model or an angry God who wants to punish people and torture them forever in hell.  No matter how graciously one tries to explain this emphasis, it will still raise more questions and create new stumbling blocks for people's understanding of God, goodness, evil, and suffering in the world.

Lastly, the redemptive sacrificial love of Christ in the newer testament should challenge some of the more literalistic readings and shadow side of revelation in the older testament.  Jesus has a way of turning violence on its head as he resists violence by taking violence upon himself.  The whole new ethics that Jesus taught of enemy love and laying one's life down in martyrdom does not go over very well with people who simply want life to be easier and better.  Violence in the book of Revelation is actually self-destructive and Christians are commanded several times not to pick up the sword.  Living out (incarnationally) Jesus words is the hard part since we live in such a violent world.

In the end, Christians need less fighting words, less rationalistic apologetics and more loving faith communities where the gospel of Jesus is modeled, even to those who disagree or are different or who are willfully opposing God's people.  The early Christians were known for their love, not their arguments in sharing their faith with others.  How far are we willing to go in showing others the love of Christ?  Can we go farther than simply rationally defending the Christian faith with things like history and archaeology and find the spirit of Jesus within the written text?

Beauty Killed the Beast

We distort and twist and kill with the tongue
The light is banished and night is sprung
The princess awakes in the dawn of the night
The beauty within her draws her to the moon light
Suddenly the prince appears dancing and singing
Their lips meet in a hushed kiss with the whole world spinning
The princess stumbles but the young prince catches her
What brought pain and confusion is lost in wonder and love's lure

Creation Speaks, Are You Listening?

Creation spoken forth, always being born
Out of the womb of the universe the Spirit bears Christ the firstborn
Seeds of life planted deep into mystery
Renewing waters cleanse the earth now full of history
Every where one looks is a grand theophany
The rising son is God's gift opening our soul to epiphany
Stripped of my pride and filthy garments
Christ rescues me and fills me with holy reverence
The goodness of the earth spills over every crevice
In the silence my heart stops, for I am breathless

Simple Prayer

Lord Jesus,
Let me see the radiance of your face in the other person who is different than I am
Help me overcome my own bias and prejudices rather than seeing them only in the face of another
Hold me so close to your heart that I can hear the hearts of others beating around me
Even if the beauty fades and the flower withers, let me never lose hope or not feel your love
How can I love my neighbor I do see if I don't love my neighbor who I can see?
I let go of all things to be gripped by your grace
I lose myself in Christ so that I can be one with all in Christ
This wounded world is looking for one gentle embrace to invite others in
Grant me the courage to be that one person
Amen

The Problem with Christianity

I typically don't buy Christian apologetics anymore for many reasons (mostly, I don't find them particularly helpful).  Here is a simple book by a pastor on six unsettling hard questions asked of Christians. 

Barton Priebe's The Problem with Christianity lists six questions in his book:

1.  Why does God seem to hate gay people?
2.  Why should I believe in miracles in an age of science?
3.  Why should I worship a God who commanded genocide?
4.  How can there be only one way to God?
5.  If God is good, why is there so much evil in the world?
6.  How can a loving God send people to hell?

Why I bought and took a chance on this book is it certainly is asking some of the most difficult right questions that Christians are often asked.  The sad reality today is despite Jesus gospel of love yourself, neighbor, and God above all else, Christians have problems getting along with each other much less with those outside their circle of friends.  Christians can be hateful and mean towards gay people; mock the latest findings of science and support war; keep their secret sins to themselves as they condemn the sins of others; and think their way of thinking is typically the only way to know God while many others are going to hell which they rightfully deserve while knowing they rightfully are not going to hell (this is one side of the problem spectrum).

Then there is the other disfigured side where enlightened Christians support the gay lifestyle (without always knowing what exactly that means?) and embrace science over the mistakes of the Bible, pride themselves that they are tolerant, not bigoted, peaceful and loving while they have nothing good to say about all those homophobic bigoted warmongering Christians who believe in a horrible God since they believe in a literal horrible hell.  Let's be honest, the church is in great trouble and this huge elephant in the room is difficult to talk about by those who either love the church fiercely or have been hurt by it terribly.

I will say that even though the issues are more complex and deeper than Priebe can possibly explore in a small book, he has done a remarkably well job of summarizing issues and striving for balance on difficult topics which most Christians probably hope do not come up in a conversation.  On the gay issue (which is not really an issue but about people to be loved and cared for), God loves gay people, Jesus receives everyone equally at the foot of the cross, sexual identity does not define people but our choices do; Jesus is the true person to show us what it means to be truly human; God created marriage as the boundary for sexual behavior; identity is found in Christ who loved us and sacrificed himself for us.  In the end, I have one suggestion for dialogue on difficult topics for Christians.  The church needs to stop having private conversations about divergent sexually oriented people and have conversations with them.  Where ever this conversation leads, I have to believe it's better than what I too often see in today's wounded church and so many who have sadly left her behind.

God & Evolution

There is an unfortunate feeling among many Christians to their horror that they are related to everything in creation.  Humans evolving from something that is less than human offends and somehow demeans our unique humanity as people made in the image of God.  But what if we saw the whole universe flowing from God and that we could rejoice in all creation manifesting God's eternal attributes, love, and presence.

Nor does it help when some Christian scientists want to throw out major doctrines like the fall or creation as a special event.  This just reinforces the suspicions that somehow science is the problem or can't be trusted or somehow undermines the Christian faith (especially when Christians see their own either radically reinterpreting the faith or jettisoning major Christian doctrines in the light of the latest scientific understandings of life and the universe).  As long as Christians keep ignoring science as if somehow it will go away or telling their children they must choose the Bible against science will continue to have disastrous effects on the church and its young people.

We are long past the day that evolution is a theory or might be true.  It is established as a scientific process and law just like the second law of thermo-dynamics or the law of gravity.  Evolution may continue to evolve in its own understanding but we are way past whether evolution is true or not or a fact or not.  If the physical process of evolution is true, Christians need to embrace truth wherever it is found because all truth is God's truth.   Christians may be missing a great adventure of discovery that God has inter-connected all reality by God's sustaining grace and the implications of spiritual evolution for people made in God's image is huge spiritually.

Monday Prayer

O Sovereign Lord,
You captivate my heart today
The whole universe is filled with your holy fire
Your vibrant light fills the atmosphere
Your love enlarges my heart
Your beauty and truth intoxicate me
The hidden mystery of your divine Spirit fills the room
Your resurrection power breathes new life into my innermost being
I belong to Christ for Christ is my pathway

Cosmic Awakenings

The dark mystery of God encompasses all things
God created a matrix of life through eternal springs
Creation planted, the world watered, and the universe swirling
Space and time exploding in a moment and whirling

The holy mighty energy of God unbounded
Turbulent waters moving across the boundaries surrounded
Wild wind and creative energy joining unexpectedly
A garden of abundance silent before the great melody

Union of heaven and earth becoming one
Mystic marriage of cosmic fire and Spirit
melted together by God's Son
Waves of praise like a chorus uncontainable
Geometric design forming new life full of wonder unexplainable

The pregnant creation giving birth to new creatures
Inexpressible love capturing us and becomes our great teacher
Strange objects become familiar by heaven's touch
Awakening to self and finding the cosmic Child and that's enough

The Anti-Theodicy of the Cross

God's love is revealed ultimately through the cross of Christ.  Theodicies try to explain away the problem of evil and suffering but they do so in vain.  One can only point to the cross and say, even in the evil of this, God overcomes it.  We all must wrestle with the heights of God and the depths of misery (Jersak, p.162).  Jesus outstretched arms reaches across the cosmos of the infinite chasm of our pain and God's perfection.  Bradley Jersak powerfully says, "The cosmic crucifixion extends through time and space (A More Christlike God, p.172).  We struggle in the forces of heaven and hell on earth just as Jesus did.  God knows our suffering because he crossed the universe to come be one of us.  As Dietrich Bonehoeffer once said, "Only the suffering God can help!"

Creation's First Day Light

A kaleidoscope of light reflects off the waters
The colors of the earth fill the earth across all borders
The first days light is at the heart of life
Every species of creatures interrelated in a cosmos of strife

The fabric of all creation woven together by a divine thread
Divine dark flooding the universe completely widespread
The shadows of God's light gives glimpses into ourselves
The whole universe glowing in the brilliance that fulfills out commonwealth

Beauty and order within the chaos
Incarnate Word descended sweeping clean by Divine eros
Living as fugitives from the true light
Deep longings of the heart flame a fire to ignite

The mysteries of creation and redemption are one
The light overcoming the darkness through Christ the son
Creation planted in the light of Divine life
Light exploding in the universe in cosmic flight

Christ Haunted Questions

How does one discover one's true self?
Do I gaze at the world and put Christ on the shelf?
Do I stop at the cross or do I enter in?
The door of love is wide open, do I knock?
Will I die to self or hide love away?
Will God's love flow through me or just be out of reach?
The depths of the cross pierces my heart,
will I hide from its light or live in it?
These questions haunt my soul, what will I do?

The Kenosis of the Cross

In the cross I discover death to myself and receive divine life.
   In the cross I give my poverty and receive Christ's riches
      In the cross I trade my wounds for Christ's wholeness
         In the cross I go from
       darkness to light
     grief to joy
   despair to praise
 emptiness to fullness

The Cross as Divine Participation

I have to admit, most books I read often do not get better as they go but Bradley Jersak's book  A Most Christlike God does exactly that, it gets better as one travels through it.  He speaks powerfully of the synergy of grace and the panentheism of the early church.  Since the fundamentalist-liberal conflict and the debate between atheists and Christian theists, especially over science, I can't help wonder if the panentheism of the early church would be a kind of bridge between science and religion?  God not just saving man but the entire cosmos and universe, even our pets and animals have a place in Christ's redemptive story.

Jersak describes three areas of God's involvement which includes the cosmos, humanity, and incarnation.  God is the God of being for all reality and creation.  God is the wellspring of all reality.  Secondly, God participates in the world through willing partners (p.150).  These redemptive partnerships so that we can enter into God's self emptying love (kenosis).  Thirdly, God participates in the world through incarnation.  God is the lover and we are God's beloved.  God incarnationally is bringing healing and love into a broken world.

Falling Forwards

Man has ascended to the moon using machines.  The goal of the Christian is to rise to God without machines -  Elder Paisios the Athonite

There has been so much attention on the first chapters of Genesis and reading and interpreting the book through Augustine.  This has placed an huge emphasis on the fall of Adam.  What one does not see is very little referenced to the first human couple and fall until Paul's letters in the Newer Testament.  When we read the Genesis "fall" account, maybe its wiser to read it not so much as the fall of humanity (although that does happen) but a failure to ascend?  One especially sees the focus on the second Adam Christ in the earliest Christian writings in how he does ascend by his sinless sacrifice and his ascension to his loving Father in the book of Acts.  Maybe what is woefully lacking today is a greater emphasis on ascension theology.

In today's world, everyone recognizes the evidence of fallen-ness everywhere but few seem to recognize the spiritual evolution of rising after dying, of maturing and evolving towards becoming Christ-like is the telos or goal of the Christian life.  Early Jewish writers more spoke of the immaturity and imperfection of Adam and Eve rather than a fall from pure innocence.  Just like we learn and grow and learn to rise above and overcome our difficulties through Christ and "failing forward."  Whether we learn from our own mistakes or learning from the mistakes of others, there is this upward progression and growing in deification or like Athanasius is famous for saying, "Christ became as man so that we could become as God."

Cosmos

The universe is an embryo in God's womb
Time and space evolving toward cosmic birth
Evolution reaching towards love
The sacred heart of the universe
melting everything into unity
The great dream of life finding fulfillment in Christ
The contours of existence pass through suffering
The cosmos becomes a healing place in creative harmony
Mystery and wonder felt even in emptiness and surrounding darkness
New energy and joy explode on the horizons
Moving from feeling lost in the universe
to finding one's home in eternal love

Living Lord's Prayer

Your love is soothing, purifying the soul
Your majesty is deep, calming the heart
Your heart fills my heart with perpetual beauty

I tremble in your immeasurable presence
Your mercy roars throughout my inner being
Your outstretched arms holds me up
Your Spirit is like a mighty river that overflows my cup

Your love is infinite
Your mercy dances eternally
Your grace blesses repeatedly
Your truth shines magnificently

For Jesus is love incarnate
Jesus is mercy manifested
Jesus is grace fulfilled
Jesus is Truth embodied
Jesus, you are my everything

Cosmic Worship

Irresistable convergence in worship
Spiritual food incarnating for us to nourish
Time and space collapsing together in fruitful abundance
Planetary dimensions lining up into oneness

Evolution and metamorphosis leads to loving God and loving the earth
Tangibility and expansibility turns into a blazing fire that gives new birth
Magnetic attraction of love rises higher to the summit
The Spirit of God activating and penetrating everything from dawn to sun up

New life circling the constant flow of the presence of the Creator
The whole world becoming incarnate in an ocean of energy into Christ the divine Pantocrater
All things emerging to one single point to glimpse the face of the eternal
Creative activity merging and melting together towards transformation of the internal

The channels of nature filled with so much beauty that its intoxicating
The hidden mystery of love rising out of the womb of the earth and consecrating
All the elements of the world perceptible to the inward light
The cosmic center of Christ rising up and giving new insight

The Divine Liturgy

I believe that the divine liturgy is a place where heaven and earth intersect and one can feel or sense experiencing a kind of heavenly worship on earth.  I was at an Eastern Orthodox worship service recently and parts of the liturgy and beauty of the service were spiritually impacting.  Here are some of the things I really appreciate entering the hymn of the universe of cosmic worship.

1.  There is so much scripture throughout the service.  I am amazed how Evangelicals would say that their worship forms are more biblical when scripture plays such a huge and monumental role within EO worship.

2.  The liturgy being sung in a kind of Jewish form of worship is beautiful.  Male and female singing songs of worship to the living God reveal both the Jewish roots and the sense of symmetry of male and female worshipping together and in unison to the God of the universe.

3.  The icons, reverence, incense, and visual oriented with all senses touching and coming together is worship that is full and holistic.  Ancient forms of worship may seem strange to some but the way they deal with a full orbed Trinitarian and incarnational worship designed service by a full human person worshipping with all parts of the body is quite extraordinary.

4.  I cried when I saw a father carry his young son up to partake of holy communion.  So many churches, even with open communion will not let small children partake of communion.  Jesus said let the children come and forbid them not but we have ways in our contemporary worship to exclude some people, especially children from the sacrament of holy communion.  The irony is even though the EO's have closed communion, at least among their own they leave nobody behind.

The Invisible War That Becomes Visible

I am reading and preaching through the book Daniel and in Chapter ten is this amazing vision and Angelic interpretation of the vision given to Daniel concerning prayer and spiritual warfare.  The three weeks Daniel is praying and fasting is a three week time interval between an invisible heavenly battle.  Several major issues springs out from all this.

1.  The invisible spiritual battles are just as real as those that happen visibly.  We are all involved in a spiritual and cosmic battle that is happening around us whether we are conscious of it or not.  These battles can become very intense in the fall out of them in the natural realm.  I deal with people off and on that are going through major spiritual warfare and what they call "crazy stuff" happening in their lives that makes no rational sense.

2.  When it comes to spiritual warfare, we fight from victory, we do not fight for victory.  Jesus has already won the decisive war even though their are smaller battles yet to be fought.  We have already overcome the enemy in Christ (1 Jn.4:4).  We overcome the enemy through the blood of Christ, the word of our testimony, and even through martyrdom (Rev.12:11).  A surrendered life to God leads to the enemy taking flight (James 4:7).

3.  Jesus has given you authority over the enemy (Luke 10:19) so pray boldly before the enemy and walk humbly before Jesus.  Are we fighting in the power of Christ or are we choosing our own battles on our own limited power?  When it comes to peace, peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence and power of Jesus in our lives.  Often a spiritual battle is a test to get us to the next place of what God is doing if we persevere and do not give up.  The greatest blessing is often just around the corner just outside of our vision.

Jesus the Cosmic Healer

Jesus is the fullness of God in human flesh,
the perfect image of the invisible God

The universe wanted to communicate love to us
So God sent his Son, even in a universe flawed

Jesus on earth unveiled God who resides in heaven
God is in Christ reconciling the world to us

Cruciform love for all eternity
Cruciform power surrendering
itself to make us just

Cosmos, humanity, and incarnation
permeates all creation and enters even a man

We welcome and carry Christ within our hearts
We the beloved, God the lover, marked
forever before time began

Jesus is now and forever will be our eternal king
He overcame temptation by facing it
He forgave sin by confronting it
He conquered death by passing through it

Jesus is and always will be our wounded lover
and crucified Lord