Then God said, “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth in the vault of the heavens.” God created the great sea monsters and all the living creatures that swarm in the waters, each according to its kind, and all the winged birds, each according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them, saying “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth” (Genesis 1:20-22).
When I read “Let the waters teem with swarms of living creatures” a week or two ago as I finished my usual solo lunch in the main conference room at DiamondBack, tears welled in my eyes. God wants our oceans and lakes and rivers to teem with life.
On my walk last night I tried to work out with God why I’ve been so unhappy this week. Toward the end of a mildly frustrating, brassy-heaven walk, I heard “Coffee!” At first, I thought this was referring to my actual intake of the decaf I recently secure via Jen Bean via Josh Potter from Standing Stone: Perhaps the intake of some other chemical from the coffee was depressing me. But after reentering the house, it occurred to me that wasn’t it at all. This decaf coffee was a great example of me treating something as a must-do that clearly is not. So here was the answer: I have been unhappy because I have been treating as musts things that are not.
Was reading Hebrews 6:1-3 this morning which lays out the very basics of the faith:1. Repent from any attempts to work toward “goodness”2. Have Faith in God’s forgiveness in Christ3. Baptism at the start of your allegiance to Christ4. Laying on of Hands - to receive the Holy Spirit? And Gifts?5. Resurrection of the dead (for those “in Christ"?)6. Judgement in the age or everlasting judgementMy reflection is that I have largely ignored “judgement” as a primary thing in my toolbox when preaching the gospel and I wonder if I should be rethinking how I communicate the message.[To] the last persons I’ve been involved in helping to allegiance to Christ […] I spoke heavily of the love of God, of their purpose is spreading that love, and becoming like him. The wife was baptized […] and we laid hands on her and prayed for the Holy Spirit. I think she would be able to articulate points 1-5.But I don’t think I shared much of anything about the judgement and that concerns me,...
I just heard Greg Boyd acknowledge that the Holy Spirit was all over a meeting at a meeting of an open and affirming church where he preached and where probably half the congregation was gay couples. I just heard Greg Boyd exult over the effect of the love of God on a 6'2" masculine person with whom he is friends who is inwardly female.
[I sent the following email in answer to a question from a friend:]
Hi!
No, there is nothing inherently wrong with using large scale processes and mass communication to train people to do micro church. Recall that Jesus and the first apostles and evangelists did preach to crowds. And some parts of the New Testament were purposely written with the express intent that they be circulated widely. I could be wrong, but I think writing was the most advanced, wide-reaching communication technology of the day!
Nevertheless, there is more than one thing inherently risky about this stuff. Namely, it can too easily:
distract sender and receiver alike from actually living out the message,
distort the message as we subtly begin to prioritize reach over fidelity,
intoxicate with power, and
put the easily measurable things (e.g., conversion rates, audience size) above the more important, harder-to-quantify things (e.g., faithfulness, hope, and love).
So we keep watching and praying that we may not...
Damn it. Never book a flight (or any scheduled transportation) such that you’ll have to wake up earlier than usual to catch it. It is a guarantee that you will be forced to pull an all-nighter by subconscious nerves.
I have wrestled on and off over the past several years with the harshness of Jesus’ words to some folks. In some cases, I have been able comprehend the loving meaning behind His words by understanding cultural differences or cultural milieux (e.g., the word about the dead burying their own dead in Matthew). But in a general sense, it still bothered me.
Until today.
There I was, walking up Enterprise Drive midday today, kvetching to You about this, asking you for an understanding—when, boom, it hit me: Carla often cannot evoke the change she wishes to see in me, Sullivan, or Éa without yelling, cursing, or calling us names. Now, to journal this is to make Carla sound like a monster, which she is demonstrably not. She only deploys this strategy when we are apparently refusing to respond to any other approach of hers.
And it works.
Case closed. Jesus wins. He knew what His hearers needed. He spoke harshly because He loved the Pharisees, et al.
Sometimes, behavior change only happens with harsh, hyperbolic epithets.
Life is people. Bored? Be with people. Feel like nothing’s happening? Sidle up next to someone. Conversation will come up if simply put yourself next to someone and apply yourself.
I think I’d like to organize all the thoughts that go into my approval of same-sex marriage and its preludes so that when conversations like this evening’s at Elliott and Megan’s house, I am better prepared to make my case.
I want to make this case as an evangelical, that is, without doing any violence to the text of the Bible or my high regard for it.
New spiritual discipline if I haven’t mentioned it yet: When I think of someone, I shall find a way to demonstrate to them that I give a damn about them.