God is My All in All

Two days ago, I felt lead to visit a friend of mine who owned a jewelry store. When I got there, he was ministering to a homeless woman and giving her some food.  We both prayed for her and felt God's presence in the room.  A beautiful moment for each of us feeling God's love and pleasure all around us.  My friend and I both felt led to go to the Alley the next night for Friday night worship among the weak, the powerless, the ex-cons and prisoners of this world.

The next morning, I sensed strongly in my spirit that God was telling me to meditate on the word "all."  I began looking up verses in the Bible, seeing how some verses dealt with the whole cosmos and some dealing with particular situations and others were used figuratively as in hyperbole in giving a greater significance to the biblical meaning of a story. I prayed for God to have all my heart and that I would follow God all the days of my life and that God would always be my all in all.

The next night I went to the Alley with my friend.  The presence of God's Spirit was among His people and a beautiful sense of brokenness and surrender seemed every where. The title of the message was "All In." What does it mean to be all in for Jesus? Wow, God blew me away once again. I went forward afterward simply to surrender all my life and all my situations to the Holy beautiful God of the universe who holds all things together and is my all in all.

Who Is Unclean?

You would think the church of Jesus today would welcome all people because we are all sinners in need of God's grace. Why then are some people excluded or not welcome? Why do we treat the poor and the sexually immoral as unclean? Did not Jesus break down these walls and did not Peter finally start getting it when he had a vision from God in Acts chapter 10? But what about the Levitical law of Moses? Since we still don't get it, here are some questions we might want to ask God or Jesus?

1.  Leviticus 25:44 says I can possess slaves as long as they are from neighboring nations? A friend of mine says this applies to Mexicans but not Canadians. Can you clarify why I can't own Canadians?

2.  I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Ex.35:2 clearly said she should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill her myself or should I ask the police to do it?

3.  Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Leviticus 19:27. How should they die?

4.  I know Leviticus 11:6-8 says touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

5.  My uncle has a farm and violates Leviticus 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field and his wife wears garments made of two different kinds of material (cotton and polyester).  Do I have to get the whole town together to stone them? (Lev.24:10-16)

Do you start seeing the problem by the absurdity of all this? Unless we interpret the law of Moses by the spirit of Jesus rather than as surface legal codes, we will miss the deeper, spiritual, and moral implications of these texts. These biblical laws and texts are speaking about not living or imitating the sinful lives of the dominating demonized culture around us. Why do we do what we do? To please God or to please others around us? Do we care about what God may think about holiness or do we get our new codes of ethics from the surrounding culture around us? Maybe that is the question?

Was Jesus an Evangelical?

I have always associated myself with Evangelicalism as long as I can remember. Sometimes out of pride, "Hey, I'm neither a fundamentalist or a liberal," or out association, it's Evangelical Christians and Evangelical biblical scholars is the circle I have run in my whole life. In the United States, our culture is changing so fast and churches and Christian Evangelical publishers and schools and institutions are losing ground so fast that one wonders, is the term Evangelical still worth maintaining? There has been such a loss of respect for the name and identity confusion among those who claim the name.

As a label, to be Evangelical in America is quickly becoming a liability. Being Evangelical is now associated with hypocrisy, heresy hunters, whatever is fashionably hip and hot and new for people seeking relevant worship services that seem to get more irrelevant as time goes by. If Jesus would talk to Evangelicals today, what would he say and would he even look like an Evangelical? Has exclusivism, separatism, and legalism unhinged Jesus life giving gospel in too many people who identify with the name Evangelical? Are not Evangelicals known today for shooting their wounded while safely protecting their theological sacred cows of what they think it means to be an Evangelical?

So I guess I come back to the original question and say maybe it's the wrong question. Maybe saying was Jesus an Evangelical is Evangelicals own way to tame, claim, and divide over the name of Christ. Maybe the better question would be, "Are Evangelicals willing to look like Jesus?" Now that's the question!

(some thoughts and impressions inspired from the writings of Ray S. Anderson)

WWWW.Jesus

Our culture is fascinated with Jesus but doesn't want to get too close to Jesus. We don't live like Jesus but we will wear t-shirts or bracelets that say "WWJD" ("What Would Jesus Do?"). When people don't live their daily lives like Jesus, how in the world can someone do what is right on the spur of the moment by simply trying to follow "WWJD?" I want to challenge people to WWWW.Jesus (Who Will Walk With Jesus?" Now some people will be thrilled to walk with the Sunday school Jesus who was like Mr. Rogers and a very really nice sort of guy. But is that the Jesus of the Gospels? Some people may even like the fire-breathing Hell talking Jesus the preacher as long as they have their own safe asbestos suits on to keep from getting burned themselves.

Can we get real? The Jesus of the Bible is very dangerous person to be around. His disciples disputed among themselves about Jesus and were repeatedly rebuked by him. If the truth be known, the Jesus of the gospels is quite scandalous. He was a lawbreaker, hung out with the rift raft, and was known on different occasions to get into knock-down drag out verbal fights with the established religious leaders of his day. People sought to kill Jesus, stone him to death, push him off a cliff, throw the crazy false leader into prison. Is this the guy you really want to hang around for too long?

A little over a decade ago, I got to spend a weekend at a conference that Clark Pinnock was the lead speaker. Clark and I hit if off and I loved being with the guy.  His humility and boldness for the gospel was contagious. But Clark would say the most extreme things and never back down. Even when the whole crowd was against him and all you want to do is disappear into the crowd and wonder how you got mixed up with this guy in the first place left me very bewildered and upset by the whole ordeal.

It took me several days to realize that being around Clark Pinnock for a weekend was both thrilling and exhausting, fascinating and scary. It took me several days to reflect on the whole encounter and suddenly realize that this is how it must of felt to be like one of his disciples or followers of Jesus. Why does Jesus have to be so radical and disruptive?  Why does Jesus demand everything and won't leave some things that should be better left alone and won't let it go?

So forget WWJD and think more about the meaning and implications of WWWW.Jesus. Maybe then we better think twice before we say we would really like to just hangout with Jesus because Jesus often does the unexpected and puts us in positions we might later think we would rather really not be in if we had thought about it more in-depth at the beginning.

The Controversy Over Andy Stanley

1280 × 720 - youtube.com

I have always been a fan of Andy Stanley. I love the way he preaches and teaches. I love his missional heart and trying to do the gospel in new ways for more people to actually hear the gospel in today's world. I find Andy often misquoted, misunderstood, or more acting like Jesus than the gatekeepers of the faith that want to make Andy either look bad or he simply does not follow the conventional wisdom of some church leaders and those in the Christian academy.

So I view Andy as a friend and not a foe. His church reaches more outsiders, even the gay community that says something in our politically polarized world of Christendom. My view is when in doubt, I will give Andy the benefit of the doubt. Just recently there has been a debate about Andy prioritizing unity over truth, at least some politically correct truths. Again, I give Andy the benefit of the doubt and I understand his zeal to reach as many people as he can for the gospel.

After saying all this, Andy's latest controversy was saying the Old Testament is out or really does not apply today for modern believers. I understand where Andy is coming from: He does not like the violent imagery of God in the Old Testament nor the legalistic ways some Christians have either used it as a weapon against others or have abandoned the gospel altogether because they can not reconcile it with the loving self-sacrificing God of the New Testament. I get it. I understand that Jesus sums up the whole law with two commandments and even gives us another harder and impossible one to follow, love everyone like he loves them. The only way to do this is by the power of the Holy Spirit and Jesus empowering people with his life giving Spirit to love with God's heart.

Maybe it was semantic confusion on Andy's part but he could have been closer to the truth by saying the old covenant does not apply because Jesus superseded it rather than saying the Old Testament is out.  Andy says the ten commandments are out not because he does not believe in them any more but he believes God calls us to a higher command of loving God and others through the words and witness of his final revelation Jesus. But how do we really understand the newer testament if we cut if off from the older testament? And what about the parts of the newer testament that find their source and meaning within the pages of the older testament?

What about messianic Jewish Christians and how de we even evangelize much less dialogue with orthodox Jews if our view is the Old Testament is out for New Testament Christians? At best, Andy simply falls into linguistic confusion and at worst, he borders on the ancient heresy of Marcion. I wish I could have a sit down talk with Andy because I consider him a brother and a wonderful Christ follower. But I would hope that Andy would not disregard the very Bible that Jesus read and studied as he tries to follow Jesus faithfully in our twenty first century world. When the book of Hebrews says the old covenant is made obsolete, he is not saying that the old covenant is out or worse, the old testament is out. What he is saying is the temple, sacrifices, and system of priests is out because Jesus has fulfilled these in his sacrificial death and resurrection of renewing the old covenant and making all things new.

The Universalist Project

Chris asked me in the fall of 2016 to write an article on my thoughts and understanding of Universalism, or rather, the restitution of all things including the salvation of all rational beings and all creation,  I do not have much time to write, hence why it is now May 2018, but I wrote much material for about six to eight months.

When it became apparent that I would not be able to complete it (to my satisfaction and without anxiety), and this did not occur to me all at once, but the idea came to me to change my whole approach.  First, as I describe in the introductory files, early on in my journey in Universalism(Not my preferred term as for many people it has the wrong connotations), I studied the subject in terms of four areas:  Scripture, History, Logic, and belief.

So the change I made was that I was going to come up with five thoughts on each of the four areas, as well as an introduction.  I ended up with about 22 separate thoughts.  Then I also did several files on my overall belief on what I believe God is doing and going to do to bring this about.

Anyway, I have created a google site that I am going to post the mp3 files, which are really me speaking off the cuff.  I have uploaded two preface files and eight introductory files.  Here are my first links!

Home Page

Preface Files

Introduction Files

Reading Scripture through the Lens of Teilhard de Chardin

One of the great theological problems in the last century of biblical studies was trying to figure out what is the hermeneutical center of all of scripture? There were many views set forth but one of the more popular views among Evangelicals was Walter Kaiser's proposal that promise theology or God fulfilling his promises throughout all of scripture was the center that held all scripture together. What critics of Kaiser rightly showed was that the wisdom material of scripture did not really fit into Kaiser's promise theology.

Maybe if Evangelicals would have simply been more immersed into the theology of the early church fathers and their theological interpretations of scripture, they would have been more sympathetic to Christ as the center of the Bible. Many had made moves like this through the centuries including the great theologian Karl Barth. The problem of western dualistic theology is it has too often segmented and separated the older testament from the newer testament and the literal from the figurative or symbolic. The person who had the greatest vision of the cosmic Christ in the twentieth century from my estimation was Teilhard de Chardin who holistically viewed science and the Christian religion together as well as all humanity could be caught up in the great cloud of witnesses where God is all and all and all reality is one with God.

One of the things missing in Teilhard de Chardin studies is a stronger working model from scripture. Chardin would typically say Jesus or Paul or the Gospel of John says this theologically without hardly ever saying where in scripture this came from or the exact reference. So I was excited when I heard of Marie Noon Sabin's book Evolving Humanity and Biblical Wisdom. On the one hand, Sabin's book only very loosely and generally relates her studies of wisdom literature and the gospels to Teilhard De Chardin. One might had hoped she would have unpacked more exact references from Chardin's theological works. On the other hand, one will not be disappointed in her mystical and scriptural vision way of putting various biblical texts together and how they weave into a beautiful tapestry of the image of Jesus Christ throughout all of scripture. She sees God revealing himself everywhere discovering Christ's centrality but also humanity's divinization of entering, participating, and becoming like Christ. She not only shows how Christ ties wisdom literature together but all of biblical scripture in what Teilhard would call the omega point which is Christ.

If Jesus was a Contrarian, why aren't we?

One doesn't look far in the gospels to see Jesus was viewed as a troublemaker and a blasphemer. He was always pushing the envelope theologically and had such a fearless faith that even his own disciples were shocked at his words and actions at times. There is this satirical episode in the Gospel of John in the eleventh chapter where Jesus disciples are begging Jesus to heal Lazereth where he should hurry but Jesus will not be hurried. Then when Jesus finally decides to go, and waits to late, his disciples don't want to go. Why? Because they were stoned the last time they were there. Almost comically, the disciples are scampering around hesitantly saying, "remember the rocks, Jesus, remember the rocks?"

So what has happened to that untamed, fearless, contrarian faith that goes against the religious tide and the status quo? What happened to that Evangelical fervor and passion to live a risky sacrificial life while all the while theologically can not be pinned downed as an Evangelical? I have sometimes wanted to write a postscript for contrarian Christians but here are a few books I have read over the years that give a kind of counter-cultural faith challenge, not to the world but to Christians which is closer to what Jesus did during his earthly ministry.

1.  Kierkegaard: A Christian Missionary to Christians by Mark Tietjen. Kierkegaard was a master at satire, irony, and self-critical theology.

2.  Ray S. Anderson Dancing with Wolves while Feeding the Sheep. Many did not know how much of a gadfly Anderson was in his theological musings.

3.  Stanley Hauerwas After Christendom: How the Church is to Behave if Freedom, Justice, and a Christian Nation are Bad Ideas. Hauerwas is noted as a kind of Christian contrarian of the century.

4.  Robin Meyer Spiritual Defiance.  Meyers like Jesus wants to resist the powers that be and be subversive in his theology of revolution.

5.  Rob Bell Jesus Wants to Save Christians: Learning to Read a Dangerous Book. The Bible is not a safe book and neither is Bell a safe theologian. Bell has probably made more Christians mad and received more hate mail than any one I know of today which probably means Bell is saying something right in the midst of so much controversy.

6.  Morgan Guyton How Jesus Saves the World from Us. If Jesus offended complacent followers, be prepared to be offended.

Be prepared to have your theology challenged and your heart pierced by the living Word of Jesus!

My Favorite Books of 2018 in Reading Scripture So Far

1.  Greg Boyd's Cross Vision: How the Crucifixion of Jesus makes Sense of the Old Testament.

2.  Marie Noonan Sabin Evolving Humanity and Biblical Wisdom: Reading Scripture through the Lens of Teilhard de Chardin.

3. Brian Zahnd Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God.

4. Morgan Guyton How Jesus Saves the World from Us.

5.  Christian Smith The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism is not a truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture.

6. Ian Christopher Levy Introducing Medieval Biblical Interpretation: The Senses of Scripture In Pre-modern Exegesis.

7. Ilaria E. Ramelli A Larger Hope? Christian Beginnings to Julian of Norwich (still forthcoming)

No One Reads the Bible Today like Jesus Did

The modern way to read the Bible today is to think how the scriptural texts you are reading may apply to your life or circumstances. We could call this the life application reading way of the Bible. Then there is the cafeteria style approach that picks and chooses the parts of the Scriptures they like and ignore the rest. If one goes off to Bible college, it is not to simply read the Bible for all its worth but to read it according to a certain theological tradition. Modern philosophical systems and science are the academic ways to read the Bible now. For those who know Hebrew and Greek, parse the words, study the grammar, and look at the sentence structure. Dig deeper into the near eastern history behind the text. But does this really lead us closer to God or make us more Christ-like?

Reading the Bible with a Christ centered focus is what many early Christians did but what about the virtues of Christ and how He actually read the scriptures? We no longer read the Bible with Jewish eyes or with spiritual eyes. We see things from our own historical location through our American western eyes of economic prosperity. Do we see that all of Scripture is about Christ (John 5:39-40) and he is the perfect revelation from God (Hebrews 1:1-3)?

Sadly, I don't see much difference in how atheists read the Bible today and how modern Christians read it. They both have a strong tendency to read it in a very flat-one-dimensional way. Can't people see how God accommodated Himself to where people were at the time? It looks like God commands divorce on demand in the mosaic law and yet here is Jesus saying, that is not God's heart at all. God hates divorce just like the prophetic tradition says, it's because of our hardness of heart is why God said what He did (see Matthew 19:7-8).

Can we not see progressive revelation within the scriptures that lead to the perfect revelation in Christ? God requires animal sacrifices early on and then says later in the prophetic tradition that these are not what God desires at all. It looks early on in the Bible that God is about vengeance and holy violence but then we see later, He's really about mercy and forgiveness. If we really read the scriptures as Jesus did, we would see that violence of any kind is out while enemy love and sacrificial grace and mercy is what God is really about. Maybe it's time for Christians to move away from a crude Biblicism towards a cruciform community of following Christ. When we read the Bible like Jesus, it's not the literal letter of the law we follow but the heart of God seen in the face of Christ revealed through His Spirit that matters.

So how do we read the Bible like Jesus did? I would make these three suggestions for starters:

1.  Read every place where Jesus uses the older testament and see how he reads it differently than its original hearers did? See what Jesus focuses on and what he leaves out? What scriptures did Jesus read the most and which ones did he read the least or not focus on at all?

2.  Read the early church fathers Christological interpretations of scripture.  See how they read the Bible differently than moderns today? How do their epiphanies, stories, biographies shape who they were in their context? Develop a mind of the early Christian fathers and mothers.

3.  Read several books by the saints of the church.  Spiritual fathers and mothers who lived holy and devout lives for God. What guidance or revelation did God give these medieval Christians? What can be learned from them about discipleship, following Jesus in community, learning the art of contemplative prayer and reading scripture through 'lectio divina.'

Seeing God in a Flamingo

I love my wife and my wife loves flamingoes.  She wears flamingo shirts, necklaces, and pendants. Every where I turn around in our house now I see flamingo pictures and magnets and flamingo decorations. So while staring at a Flamingo picture, I suddenly had an ecstatic experience of the holy. Somehow as my eyes were transfixed, my heart grew larger by God's unexpected grace and love. 

Like Job in the Bible, I contemplated a bird that is often viewed as ugly or insignificant and ran squarely into the significance and beauty and grandeur of God. I never fully understood why Job had to go through so much suffering, so much pain, so much loss? But the growing revelation is we often experience God's grace and power at work in our lives in these terrible times of darkness. In the darkness we see God's brilliance. In the darkness we discover the God who lights our path. In the darkness we come to an end of our way of doing things and seeing things and see everything in a new light and see God mysteriously moving in ways we never understood before.

So contemplating on a picture of a flamingo revealed not only my smallness but God's greatness. In the descent of contemplation one is lifted up (resurrected) to new heights of discovery and ascension. If Job came away at the end of the book a different man, I find myself going through my own mystical desolate moments only to find that I am the one changed in the process. I find in my own mystical moments that I am a different man changed by the grandeur of God's beauty in the face of Jesus Christ.

The Scandal of the Gospel

Brian Zahnd has written several provocative books and his latest is probably one of his best. Sinners in the Hands of a Loving God dispels the notion of an angry God image and suggests a God in the face of the loving Christ. When people read the hard texts of scripture, are they really about a wrathful God doing violence against anyone who gets in his way or are they more hidden and subversive texts that shows how the forces of evil has a way of turning back upon themselves and destroying one another? When we read the Bible in very one dimensional ways, we will often end up reading the scriptures like the atheists do. The difference is atheists reject this horrible view of God while Christians defend it as God can kill and do violence against whomever He wants to. Do we believe in a monster God or one that is revealed in the wounds of love of Christ?

It seems like Christians and skeptics and atheists have a way of projecting their own violence and immorality onto God. Good Friday is where we see more fully the suffering God sacrificing oneself for his beloved creation. When we read the Bible, do we see the face of God allowing evil to swallow itself up with evil or do we believe that the only way to overcome evil is with more evil or to overcome violence is with violence? Can we read the Bible more as the early Christians did as the self-sacrificial-love of God displayed in the enemy-loving-cross-of-Christ or do we read it as modern-American-empire-building Christians who seek vengeance on God's enemies? Maybe that is the question?

Is God a Moral Monster?

There has been an enthusiastic rise in secular atheism and its attacks on the God of the Bible. Rather than listening to many of these ex-evangelicals and post-Christians, we have either ignored them or wrote them off as people who don't know what they are talking about. Atheists are simply blind or stupid in their rejection of God. The sad reality is much of what they say is making sense to many young people because the evil and ugly God of the Bible, rather than being repudiated is often affirmed in different ways by Christians.

For example, God likes killing people and is evil in his killing of so many innocent people, especially women and children. Christians often respond that God is God and can kill anyone God wants to because God is God. As humans, we can't kill anyone we want to but God can. As humans and as Christians, we are supposed to love our enemies while God can hate or destroy His enemies. Even worse, our view of the end of the world says God wins in the end where he destroys the earth and saves a few people while condemning the rest of humanity and his good earth to an eternal fiery end of destruction. Is this the really the good news of the gospel?  If the gospel is good news, maybe we need a more beautiful gospel?

Our western culture has been shaped with so many myths like the myth of redemptive violence or our God is a God of peace and war, love and terrible wrath and judgment. What we don't recognize is the many nuances of the Bible where the cosmic evil powers often destroy people lives rather than God.  God is not inflicting the violence but withholds his mercy back while the destructive forces of evil and sin do their devastating work. Warfare language in the Newer Testament is usually spiritual warfare and God's prophets, as well as Jesus tells people to lay down their physical weapons. There is wrath and judgment in the bible but they are wrapped in God's love nature and not some kind of vindictive punisher model where God wants his pound of flesh for every infringement against him.

Can we stop reading the Bible like we did in elementary school? Can we stop reading the Bible like it's a flat book or only has one dimension too it, the literal surface level? I believe the Bible is more powerful and beautiful than the critics say it is and the gospel is more beautiful than most Christians have ever dared to dream.

National Day of Prayer is Today: Pray for the Nations

Pray For The Nations "Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know"! Jeremiah 33:3 Precious People of God, God has called us to be watchmen on the walls. He has anointed many of us to intercede for nations and peoples. As you sow seeds of prayer on behalf of people like you and me across the world, remember that the seeds you sow will bring a bountiful harvest, for your life and for your own nation. The Spirit is moving all over the world through the lives of people like you and me. God's children have been entrusted with His Word, which only we can release upon the earth to bring redemption, salvation, and healing. In these last days, the people of God are called to rise up and prepare for the powerful end-time anointing God wants to pour out upon His Bride. Let us get ready! Let us pray! The nations listed below are among many of the world going through turbulent times including persecution. May the Lord lead you as you pray, and may God bless you prayer warriors of the Lord as you lift up these nations in prayer. Please remember Somalia and Sudan where people are constantly face drought and famine. Please Remember these nations in need of Jesus and His love: Algeria, Tunisia, Egypt, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Nigeria, Niger Israel and all the turbulence happening in the nations of the Middle East. Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Viet Naam, Indonesia, Northern Korea, Myan Mar, China USA, The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Europe in general The countries of Eastern Europe and Russia Pray that human rights violations and persecutions will cease Pray for political stability and FREEDOM. Pray for God's hand upon the environment, and the cleansing of the land. Pray for the Righteous rulership of men and women appointed by God Pray for the Gospel to go out without hindrance Pray for missionaries who are working in these areas Pray for the hearts and minds of people to be turned towards Almighty God and Jesus Christ Pray for the churches in these nations to rise up in unity and begin to pray in preparation for the return of our Lord Jesus Pray against the deceptive, counterfeit spirits that come to turn the hearts of people away from the Kingdom of God. Pray for PEACE, and God's Kingdom to be established and His Will to be done. Pray also for the many nations and cities across the world struggling to overcome the effects of earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, floods, etc. The earth is groaning for the return of the King (Romans 8:22). "Come Lord Jesus - Maranatha"! Minoli Haththotuwa.

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We cannot deny it. Our nation is in trouble and we are facing peril. You can turn on your television or scroll through your Facebook newsfeed right now and see that there is so much violence, corruption, fear and hatred in the hearts of those around us. We are contending with issues that are causing the very foundation of our country to crumble.

In the face of all of this, it’s important that we pray not only for the healing of nation, but also for our president and all those in government leadership who are positions to make change happen. 1 Timothy 2:1-3 says that we are to pray, intercede and give thanks for kings and all people in authority. This is God’s command to every believer today. Praying for godly leaders is productive towards God’s plan and purpose for our nation. The Bible says the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. He can turn it however he wants, so prayers are important.

Use these eight prayers to pray for our nation an leaders. Pray it in faith, believing and remembering God watches over, loves and protects all:

Heavenly Father, today I pray for our nation. I ask that You would give our President wisdom beyond his own understanding and the courage to choose the right path no matter how narrow the gate. I pray for all in authority over us that You would give them the grace and strength to stand against the temptation to use power as a weapon but rather to carry it reverently as one would a child. I pray for the spiritual leaders of our country that they would hear Your voice and know your heart. I pray that they would lead from their knees and by that simple grace bring each one of us to our knees before Your throne. Have mercy on our nation Lord, In Jesus name, Amen.

Heavenly Father, I bring the needs of our government before You and ask You to bless our nation through godly leaders. I magnify the Name of Jesus and declare that He is Lord over this nation. Amen.

Heavenly Father, we pray that our president and leaders will honor You and respect You as the One and only True God. We ask that You give us government leaders who will pray for Your Will and guidance. Lord, we ask that You pour out Your Spirit on this nation to help each of us discern good from evil, not as the eyes of man but through spiritual eyes. Lord, we ask that You humble our hearts so that we will be a nation filled with gratitude and thankfulness. In Jesus Almighty Name, Amen.

Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/prayer/prayers-for-our-nation-and-president.aspx#h5C2b5pvkoYGODaK.99

We cannot deny it. Our nation is in trouble and we are facing peril. You can turn on your television or scroll through your Facebook newsfeed right now and see that there is so much violence, corruption, fear and hatred in the hearts of those around us. We are contending with issues that are causing the very foundation of our country to crumble.

In the face of all of this, it’s important that we pray not only for the healing of nation, but also for our president and all those in government leadership who are positions to make change happen. 1 Timothy 2:1-3 says that we are to pray, intercede and give thanks for kings and all people in authority. This is God’s command to every believer today. Praying for godly leaders is productive towards God’s plan and purpose for our nation. The Bible says the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. He can turn it however he wants, so prayers are important.

Use these eight prayers to pray for our nation an leaders. Pray it in faith, believing and remembering God watches over, loves and protects all:

Heavenly Father, today I pray for our nation. I ask that You would give our President wisdom beyond his own understanding and the courage to choose the right path no matter how narrow the gate. I pray for all in authority over us that You would give them the grace and strength to stand against the temptation to use power as a weapon but rather to carry it reverently as one would a child. I pray for the spiritual leaders of our country that they would hear Your voice and know your heart. I pray that they would lead from their knees and by that simple grace bring each one of us to our knees before Your throne. Have mercy on our nation Lord, In Jesus name, Amen.

Heavenly Father, I bring the needs of our government before You and ask You to bless our nation through godly leaders. I magnify the Name of Jesus and declare that He is Lord over this nation. Amen.

Heavenly Father, we pray that our president and leaders will honor You and respect You as the One and only True God. We ask that You give us government leaders who will pray for Your Will and guidance. Lord, we ask that You pour out Your Spirit on this nation to help each of us discern good from evil, not as the eyes of man but through spiritual eyes. Lord, we ask that You humble our hearts so that we will be a nation filled with gratitude and thankfulness. In Jesus Almighty Name, Amen.

Read more at http://www.beliefnet.com/faiths/prayer/prayers-for-our-nation-and-president.aspx#h5C2b5pvko

Transformed by the Deep

Some people have noticed that I have a love affair not only with old books but also with Catholic and Eastern Orthodox writers because they are often more rooted in the great tradition of the church and know how to contextualize history better than those who don't know history as well.  Recently I have been reading devotionally Donald D. Chambers reflections of a Caribbean Priest called Transformed by the Deep.  He writes as both a Catholic and liberation theologian. When he speaks of Scripture and history, I resonate more than his liberation remarks but certainly we have not cared for the least and the poorest as Jesus commands us to do.

Chambers prophetically challenges both Christians and the church to abandon their reputation, image, and possession and live the message of Jesus and not simply worshipping the messenger.  Can we bring our brokenness and wounds to Christ and His banquet? Can the church be a place of vulnerability, weakness, and wounded and meet people where they are really struggling? All of us are called to embrace the crucified Christ and die to our self-centeredness. God wants to breath new life and resurrect the broken temples of a wounded humanity and ascend to living as a new redeemed humanity. Can we together once again go and pray for the deep waters of Jesus blood and water to flow upon us once again?

Creation Undone: The Flood

I have been reading Greg Boyd's excellent book Cross Vision: How the Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of Old Testament Violence. I typically hear skeptics and atheists speak about God committing genocide when it comes to several of the violent conquest narratives, especially the flood story. Why did God kill all those people, women, children, babies and animals who were not on the ark? Here are several of Boyd's points and I will fine tune my own at the end.

1.  The flood narrative should not be interpreted as judgment violently imposed upon the earth.  It is an example of what human collective sin looks like that ends up destroying itself. The flood was not the result of something God did but what happens when God withdraws his merciful restraints from the cosmic chaotic powers of the deep.

2.  The ancient near eastern culture viewed God as sovereign over all acts whether God caused it or simply allows it to happen. Notice the actual depiction in Genesis chapter seven have the flood waters as the agents of destruction and not God. There is a cosmic battle going on here that effects the whole universe.

3.  Notice the flood narrative parallels the creation account in Genesis in reverse order. The flood is undoing creation as we see conflict and chaos and order in the creation narrative, here the separation of the waters and the floodgates bring destruction and chaos once again.  The purpose of the flood is not to punish sin but to rescue God's creation project.

Here are some of my own reflections on all this:

1.  The New Testament focus on the flood story is not judgment but salvation. The focus is on those who are saved, not on those who are destroyed.

2.  Judgment in the Bible is not so much punitive as it is restorative. The fires or floods of God's judgment is His love which is to purify us, not to destroy and punish us (except the pain people experiences of resisting God's presence and love).

3.  The Genesis structure and background story is one of idolatry and exile. The Bible's focus is on the non-violent self sacrificing love of Christ on the cross and we should interpret these stories through those lens. The focus again should not be Adam or Israel's sin but Christ and him crucified and him victorious over the principalities and dark powers of this universe.