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.