A shiny quarter for the first person to tell me what movie, what scene that line is from!
This is a subject I've been thinking and praying about for a while. The thoughts are still in development, so forgive me if they seem somewhat disorderly.
I've heard no less than 3 teachers talk about the necessity of belonging to a local "church" body in the past week. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but the specific teaching was basically that if you wanted to really know the will of God for your life, one of the key things is you must be a part of and be faithful to a local church, meaning, a local modern institutional church.
Some really good friends of ours recently stopped attending the "church" they were a part of and weren't sure when or where they were going to attend next. They basically felt their path had diverged from that church's path, and it was time to move on. They were basically told that it wasn't God's will for them to not know where they were going next, or for them to not be a part of a local church immediately thereafter.
Where did we get this idea that you MUST be a part of a local church to be a good Christian? And how ridiculous is it to say that we can't know the will of God for our life unless we are faithful to a local church? If someone knows where this is found in the Bible, please reply or message me or call me or something, because I've looked, and I can't find it.
Yes, I know the verse "forsaking not the assembling together, as some are in the habit of doing" in Hebrews 10. But if we think that verse is referring to the modern day church, we are, at the very least, very mistaken. When early believers assembled together, it was not like "church" as we know it today. And it did not refer to a specific weekly meeting time. Whenever believers gathered, the church was there, because it was not a place, it was the people. They shared life together, shared meals, shared fellowship as the Body of Christ, no matter where they were or what they were doing. This is what the author of Hebrews was referring to.
Do believers today need fellowship with other believers? I wouldn't say they need it. If we were ever in a place where we couldn't find other believers to fellowship with, Jesus would be able to take care of us and sustain us. But should believers who are growing in a relationship with the Father desire fellowship and quality relationships with other believers? Yes!
I just don't think it has to take the form of a local church all the time. And I don't believe there is anything in the Bible to say that it must, either. You can be meeting in your home with a few other believers and experience that. You can be talking at the coffeeshop with a close Christian friend about God and be experiencing the life of the Body. You can attend a different "church" every week, and if you are genuinely connecting with the believers there, you can be experiencing Body life. I think there are so many more expressions of life in the Body of Christ than we are experiencing- and just as we limit our worship to singing, I believe we limit expressions of life in Christ and fellowship with believers to only one expression- the modern Church. And anytime you start trying to limit God, you'll never experience true freedom in life with Christ.
Once again, this may seem unorganized but please know this blog does not exhaust all my thoughts on this subject. My fingers can only take so much typing. And I tend to ramble anyway.
Please share your thoughts with me, especially my friends across the Pond. Do you believe if you are a follower of Christ that you must be attending a local church regularly and faithfully? Do you believe, as I have heard taught recently, that you cannot personally know the will of God for your life if you aren't "plugged in" to a local church? But please, if you disagree, be nice. Remember I attend modern "church" just like most of you. This blog is not intended to cause arguments, just to get some thought and healthy discussion going.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Dreams, Chaos, and Excommunication(or, Will the Real God Please Stand Up?)
Anybody know what it's like to have so much going on in your head you can hardly think straight?(I almost typed "can't hardly think straight" but while I freely use Texan and southern slang when speaking I find it extremely hard to use it when I'm writing- it just seems wrong, somehow.)
Anyway, that's what's been going on in my head for some time now. I have a supply of books to last me a good 12 months or so on a wide variety of subjects. I have over 140 articles and writings(over 16 MB) saved on my USB drive, and I add more articles to it everyday. I get to thinking about a subject and go to the internet for research, opening every article I can find and copying and pasting them all into Word documents arranged by subject or specific theme. These documents often span several dozens of pages. The articles cover every angle of the subject from pros to cons and everything in between, and from all sorts of writers from all sorts of backgrounds, from educated to non-educated, traditional, contemporary, modern, and postmodern thinkers. I've had more questions about things having to do with God, the Christian journey, and modern theology in the past 2 years than I have in the 27 years of my life before that.
These questions, and subjects I'm thinking about and researching, cover just about anything and everything you can think of. Some of the things I've been really thinking, praying, and studying about lately have been the presthood of all believers, institutional "church", house church, charismatic and pentecostal worship, the modern clergy, Old Testament Law vs. the New Covenant, and tithing.(just a side note- did you know that the mosaic law didn't command Jews to give 10Ðthere were actually three different tithes, of which one was every three years, making a total of 23.3hat the Jews were commanded to give! All of these were tithes of the product of the land- produce, livestock, etc. None of them referred to income. One of them was commanded to be transported, and if it was too much to carry it could be converted to money and spent on whatever the person wanted to, even strong drink! It's true! look it up![Deut. 14:22-29])
Now some of you have had to listen to some of my musings on many subjects, so you know how my mind has been working lately. I really believe Father has brought me into a season where He is revealing things to me to take me into a new level of relationship with Him. These are not things to me that are worth arguing over, as I do not believe that they will change whether you will spend eternity with Him or not. The ONLY thing that will exclude someone from an eternity with Christ is a rejection of the gift of salvation through Jesus.(that's a whole other blog for another time.)
Now already there may be some of you thinking I'm heading off the deep end, and that's fine. But I'm to the place where I refuse to be bottle fed anymore. I refuse to let someone else cut up my food for me and feed it to me. It is time for me to feed myself, and not assume that everything that is given to me is entirely edible or good for me. I am learning to think for myself and search the scriptures for myself, to "work out my own salvation with fear and trembling". It's the beauty of being a priest- and we ALL are priests, according to the Word- I don't need someone else to hear God for me. I don't need someone else to tell me what the Bible says, nor should I depend on someone else to always do it for me. They will interpret the Scriptures according to their journey, and their journey is not the same as mine. I have a responsibility to hear what God is saying through the scriptures to me for myself.
And yes, I realize some of this could get me excommunicated. Jessica, don't go telling SAGU about this blog. lol Pretty soon Bro. Trask will be sending out a recall on my ministerial papers. But when I stand before Father at the end of the present age, it will not be good enough to say "Well, that's what they taught me!" He will just say, "Didn't I give you my Word to instruct you, a brain to think and learn, my Spirit to discern and guide, and free will to decide and choose?"
So here I am again, at the end of a long seemingly random bog. You now can see the way my brain thinks- almost like "stream of counsciousness" style writing, in a wierd sort of way. And on top of all these thoughts, amongst rethinking the God I was always taught to know an the theology I've always been taught to believe, the real God gives me these crazy dreams! Or revives dreams he planted in me long ago but I had forgotten- well just one dream, an old dream that suddenly is beginning to make sense in the context of the place he has brought me to. It is crazy to think of, but it just makes so much sense in this season of my life, with everything He's been teaching and showing me over the past two years(I often think of this time as my own renaissance period. Or my own personal Industrial Revolution, without all the industry and revolution.). Or is it just my own desire to do something new, to know Him and make Him known, to connect, to finally find a real sense of community, and to escape the mundane rut of modern evangelical Christianity?
Agh....maybe I'll never know. Maybe my blogs will never make sense. Maybe I'll never get all my books read and thoughts sorted out and my theology all worked out and my dreams realized. One thing's for certain, I have enjoyed the journey...and I can't wait to see where Father leads me next.
Anyway, that's what's been going on in my head for some time now. I have a supply of books to last me a good 12 months or so on a wide variety of subjects. I have over 140 articles and writings(over 16 MB) saved on my USB drive, and I add more articles to it everyday. I get to thinking about a subject and go to the internet for research, opening every article I can find and copying and pasting them all into Word documents arranged by subject or specific theme. These documents often span several dozens of pages. The articles cover every angle of the subject from pros to cons and everything in between, and from all sorts of writers from all sorts of backgrounds, from educated to non-educated, traditional, contemporary, modern, and postmodern thinkers. I've had more questions about things having to do with God, the Christian journey, and modern theology in the past 2 years than I have in the 27 years of my life before that.
These questions, and subjects I'm thinking about and researching, cover just about anything and everything you can think of. Some of the things I've been really thinking, praying, and studying about lately have been the presthood of all believers, institutional "church", house church, charismatic and pentecostal worship, the modern clergy, Old Testament Law vs. the New Covenant, and tithing.(just a side note- did you know that the mosaic law didn't command Jews to give 10Ðthere were actually three different tithes, of which one was every three years, making a total of 23.3hat the Jews were commanded to give! All of these were tithes of the product of the land- produce, livestock, etc. None of them referred to income. One of them was commanded to be transported, and if it was too much to carry it could be converted to money and spent on whatever the person wanted to, even strong drink! It's true! look it up![Deut. 14:22-29])
Now some of you have had to listen to some of my musings on many subjects, so you know how my mind has been working lately. I really believe Father has brought me into a season where He is revealing things to me to take me into a new level of relationship with Him. These are not things to me that are worth arguing over, as I do not believe that they will change whether you will spend eternity with Him or not. The ONLY thing that will exclude someone from an eternity with Christ is a rejection of the gift of salvation through Jesus.(that's a whole other blog for another time.)
Now already there may be some of you thinking I'm heading off the deep end, and that's fine. But I'm to the place where I refuse to be bottle fed anymore. I refuse to let someone else cut up my food for me and feed it to me. It is time for me to feed myself, and not assume that everything that is given to me is entirely edible or good for me. I am learning to think for myself and search the scriptures for myself, to "work out my own salvation with fear and trembling". It's the beauty of being a priest- and we ALL are priests, according to the Word- I don't need someone else to hear God for me. I don't need someone else to tell me what the Bible says, nor should I depend on someone else to always do it for me. They will interpret the Scriptures according to their journey, and their journey is not the same as mine. I have a responsibility to hear what God is saying through the scriptures to me for myself.
And yes, I realize some of this could get me excommunicated. Jessica, don't go telling SAGU about this blog. lol Pretty soon Bro. Trask will be sending out a recall on my ministerial papers. But when I stand before Father at the end of the present age, it will not be good enough to say "Well, that's what they taught me!" He will just say, "Didn't I give you my Word to instruct you, a brain to think and learn, my Spirit to discern and guide, and free will to decide and choose?"
So here I am again, at the end of a long seemingly random bog. You now can see the way my brain thinks- almost like "stream of counsciousness" style writing, in a wierd sort of way. And on top of all these thoughts, amongst rethinking the God I was always taught to know an the theology I've always been taught to believe, the real God gives me these crazy dreams! Or revives dreams he planted in me long ago but I had forgotten- well just one dream, an old dream that suddenly is beginning to make sense in the context of the place he has brought me to. It is crazy to think of, but it just makes so much sense in this season of my life, with everything He's been teaching and showing me over the past two years(I often think of this time as my own renaissance period. Or my own personal Industrial Revolution, without all the industry and revolution.). Or is it just my own desire to do something new, to know Him and make Him known, to connect, to finally find a real sense of community, and to escape the mundane rut of modern evangelical Christianity?
Agh....maybe I'll never know. Maybe my blogs will never make sense. Maybe I'll never get all my books read and thoughts sorted out and my theology all worked out and my dreams realized. One thing's for certain, I have enjoyed the journey...and I can't wait to see where Father leads me next.
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Sacred Pathways: Loving God According to the Way He Made You
This is an article by Gary Thomas- it basically sums up what we've been discussing in our life group...let me know what you think!
Spirituality is not a "one size fits all" deal. Humanity was created as diverse, so it makes sense that we were designed to love God in different ways.
Do you ever feel guilty because the traditional quiet time just doesn't cut it for you? Are you increasingly frustrated by a "one size fits all spirituality" that most definitely does not fit you?
Don't despair! Scripture and the history of Christian tradition reveal a remarkable diversity of personal devotion. Here are nine spiritual pathways for you to consider as you seek to love God according to the way He's designed you.
The Naturalist
In Psalm 19:1, David extols nature's ability to awaken our cold hearts to God's warm presence: "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork" (NKJV). The apostle Paul spoke of a similar reality in Romans 1:20a when he wrote, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." Both writers testify to the reality experienced by naturalists �� being outdoors does something to awaken our hearts to God.
Most of God's appearances in Scripture occurred outside: Hagar in the desert, Jacob beside a river, and Moses on a mountain. In fact, the very picture of heaven on earth was the Garden of Eden �� not a cathedral! Not a Starbucks. And certainly not a shopping mall. Adam and Eve enjoyed a close walk with God in a garden. Of course, others met God inside, in the holy of holies, but naturalists find more spiritual stimulation in a natural setting rather than in a cleverly crafted human one.
If you find that you can't sit still at your desk without falling asleep, or that you're bored by trying to comb through devotional books while lying on your bed, consider getting outside and using nature to help you see and experience God's glory.
The Sensate
The best avenues for some believers to commune with God are the five senses: taste, touch, hearing, seeing, and even smelling. Just as naturalists are spiritually awakened while walking through a forest, so sensates become spiritually attuned when their senses are brought into play. Your most powerful spiritual aids might be majestic music, symbolic architecture, outstanding art, or the sensory experience of communion.
The books of Ezekiel and Revelation reveal a God who comes in a very sense-oriented way: There are loud sounds, flashing lights, even sweet tastes. God designed our bodies, so it shouldn't surprise us that he made them in such a way that what we experience through our bodies can awaken our hearts to His presence.
The Traditionalist
For you traditionalists, religion isn't a dirty word - it's an outgrowth of your relationship with God. You're designed to appreciate the role of ritual, which builds on the power of reinforced behavior. There is something profound for you in worshipping God according to set patterns - your own, or history's. You may organize your life around scheduled times of prayer, and may even choose to carefully observe the Christian calendar, aligning yourself with centuries of faith. According to Acts, both Peter and John had set times for prayer. And Paul followed the custom of praying by the riverside on the Sabbath.
In addition to establishing rituals, you may choose to make good use of Christian symbols. We tend to quickly forget even convicting insights and soul-searing truth, but carefully chosen symbols help to remind us of those truths we want to live by. Types of symbols are limited only by your imagination. Some singles wear a purity ring; others wear a cross necklace. More sophisticated forms of symbolism include people decorating with colors that coincide with the Christian calendar: White is used on Easter and Christmas as a color of joy; purple is used for Lent, Holy Week and Advent; black symbolizes Good Friday.
The Ascetic
The best way to picture an ascetic is to think of a monk, or John the Baptist - someone who goes off on his own, in an austere environment, to get his spiritual batteries charged. You like to meet God internally; you don't want the distractions of a museum or a group meeting, as you prefer to shut out the world and meet God in solitude and austerity. Your preferred environment for personal worship is silence, without any noisy or colorful stimulants.
It's likely that you're part ascetic if you sense the need to have alone time on a regular basis. You may even prefer solitary retreats, or at least a quiet place with a rather orderly environment. You and your fellow ascetics are often advocates of all night prayer vigils and many of the classical disciplines, such as fasting and biblical meditation.
The Activist
Activists follow in the footsteps of Moses, Elijah and Habakkuk; you love to meet God in the vortex of confrontation. If you're an activist, you want to fight God's battles. Church is primarily a place to collect signatures and sign up volunteers for the "real work" of the Gospel that takes place outside the church building.
As an activist, you're one of the movers and shakers of the Christian community. You may have a political bent or adopt an evangelistic emphasis, but what marks you as an activist is that you feel most alive spiritually when you are in the midst of God's active work. That's when God seems most real, most immanent and most exciting.
The Caregiver
Caregivers love God by loving others. You're the Mordecais to the world's Esthers; the Dorcas's (Acts 10:36) to the local church. Providing care and meeting needs in Jesus' name spiritually energizes you, drawing you ever closer to the Lord. For you, caregiving isn't an obligation as much as it is a threshold to intimacy with God.
Caregiving extends well beyond nursing sick people to include fixing a widow's car, serving as a volunteer firefighter, or researching a cure for a disease. A caregiver is comforted by Jesus' words, "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40, NIV). God seems nearest to you when you are looking at Him through the eyes of a sick child or hurting friend.
The Enthusiast
An enthusiast, walking in the footsteps of David, loves excitement and celebration; you probably buy far more worship CDs than books. Enthusiasts tend to be more relational, and therefore favor group worship. You feed off the excitement of other believers praising God.
As an enthusiast, you also revel in God's mystery and supernatural power. You like to take spiritual risks, and wake up hoping God will do something new and fresh. You don't want to just know scriptural concepts; you want to experience and be moved by them. Your exuberance tends to lead you to explore the livelier elements of worship, such as dancing, music, drawing, singing and other creative forms.
The Intellectual
You're an intellectual if your heart is awakened when you understand new concepts about God. Your mind is probably very active, with the result that new intellectual understanding literally births affection; it creates increased respect for your Creator, which leads to worship.
Intellectuals are usually the ones stressing Bible study as the mainstay of their devotion. But some of you, like the biblical Solomon, may also have curious minds in areas beyond the Bible - biology, astronomy, even physics. The more you understand about truth and God's universe, the more in awe of God - and therefore in love with Him - you become.
Just as the naturalist can't wait to get out of doors, the sensate is eager to visit the cathedral, and the ascetic scurries off into his inner world, so the intellectual seeks God in the pages of a book, the shelves of a library, or the vast ruminations of your mind.
The Contemplative
Contemplatives are marked by an emotional attachment and even abandonment to God. Like Mary who sat at Jesus' feet, you see yourself first and foremost as God's lover, and you want to spend your time in God's presence, adoring Him, listening to Him, and just enjoying Him.
You resemble ascetics in that your passion for God often leads you into solitude, where you can sit still and enjoy being in God's presence. Your watchwords are desire and relationship, as affirmed by Jesus in John 15:15: "I no longer call you servants... Instead, I have called you friends."
As a contemplative, you enjoy doing the things that couples like to do: Demonstrating your love for God through secret acts of devotion, giving gifts to God like a poem, or offering an anonymous act of charity. You often favor the discipline of journal writing, where you can intensely explore your heart's devotion.
Most of Us Are Blends
Intellectuals want to understand new things about God; activists want to fight God's battles; enthusiasts want to experience God; naturalists want to meet God in nature; sensates want to see and touch things that remind them of God; traditionalists want to faithfully remember God; ascetics want to be alone with God; caregivers want to be God's hands and feet; contemplatives want to adore God and to know Him better.
Do you see yourself in any of the above categories? Please don't feel that you have to choose just one; most of us are blends, and many of us will move in and out of certain temperaments as we age. The important thing is not to find the right "label," but to understand how you best connect with God so that you can more deliberately and consciously cultivate an increasing affection for your Creator.
One caveat is in order, however. Every Christian, regardless of their temperament, needs to spend appropriate time being shaped by God's Word. Some of you might join group Bible studies, others of you may sit alone with your word dictionaries, concordances, and lexicons, and others of you might regularly listen to the Bible on tape - but interacting with the Word on a daily basis should be a given. The same goes for prayer and times of worshipful adoration. How and where you pray may differ; but every Christian is called to spend time with God.
The good news is that God crafted you with a specific design. You will certainly bear similarities to certain other believers, but you most celebrate the creative quality of God when you give yourself permission to seek His face in a way that honors His creative genius - beginning with your own spiritual makeup.
-by Gary Thomas
So what do you think? As for me, I am a tie between a contemplative and a naturalist, with a very strong third being an entusiast. If you'd like to take an online assessment to find out what your style may be, follow this link- then let me know what your results were!!!
You've Got Style
Spirituality is not a "one size fits all" deal. Humanity was created as diverse, so it makes sense that we were designed to love God in different ways.
Do you ever feel guilty because the traditional quiet time just doesn't cut it for you? Are you increasingly frustrated by a "one size fits all spirituality" that most definitely does not fit you?
Don't despair! Scripture and the history of Christian tradition reveal a remarkable diversity of personal devotion. Here are nine spiritual pathways for you to consider as you seek to love God according to the way He's designed you.
The Naturalist
In Psalm 19:1, David extols nature's ability to awaken our cold hearts to God's warm presence: "The heavens declare the glory of God; And the firmament shows His handiwork" (NKJV). The apostle Paul spoke of a similar reality in Romans 1:20a when he wrote, "For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made." Both writers testify to the reality experienced by naturalists �� being outdoors does something to awaken our hearts to God.
Most of God's appearances in Scripture occurred outside: Hagar in the desert, Jacob beside a river, and Moses on a mountain. In fact, the very picture of heaven on earth was the Garden of Eden �� not a cathedral! Not a Starbucks. And certainly not a shopping mall. Adam and Eve enjoyed a close walk with God in a garden. Of course, others met God inside, in the holy of holies, but naturalists find more spiritual stimulation in a natural setting rather than in a cleverly crafted human one.
If you find that you can't sit still at your desk without falling asleep, or that you're bored by trying to comb through devotional books while lying on your bed, consider getting outside and using nature to help you see and experience God's glory.
The Sensate
The best avenues for some believers to commune with God are the five senses: taste, touch, hearing, seeing, and even smelling. Just as naturalists are spiritually awakened while walking through a forest, so sensates become spiritually attuned when their senses are brought into play. Your most powerful spiritual aids might be majestic music, symbolic architecture, outstanding art, or the sensory experience of communion.
The books of Ezekiel and Revelation reveal a God who comes in a very sense-oriented way: There are loud sounds, flashing lights, even sweet tastes. God designed our bodies, so it shouldn't surprise us that he made them in such a way that what we experience through our bodies can awaken our hearts to His presence.
The Traditionalist
For you traditionalists, religion isn't a dirty word - it's an outgrowth of your relationship with God. You're designed to appreciate the role of ritual, which builds on the power of reinforced behavior. There is something profound for you in worshipping God according to set patterns - your own, or history's. You may organize your life around scheduled times of prayer, and may even choose to carefully observe the Christian calendar, aligning yourself with centuries of faith. According to Acts, both Peter and John had set times for prayer. And Paul followed the custom of praying by the riverside on the Sabbath.
In addition to establishing rituals, you may choose to make good use of Christian symbols. We tend to quickly forget even convicting insights and soul-searing truth, but carefully chosen symbols help to remind us of those truths we want to live by. Types of symbols are limited only by your imagination. Some singles wear a purity ring; others wear a cross necklace. More sophisticated forms of symbolism include people decorating with colors that coincide with the Christian calendar: White is used on Easter and Christmas as a color of joy; purple is used for Lent, Holy Week and Advent; black symbolizes Good Friday.
The Ascetic
The best way to picture an ascetic is to think of a monk, or John the Baptist - someone who goes off on his own, in an austere environment, to get his spiritual batteries charged. You like to meet God internally; you don't want the distractions of a museum or a group meeting, as you prefer to shut out the world and meet God in solitude and austerity. Your preferred environment for personal worship is silence, without any noisy or colorful stimulants.
It's likely that you're part ascetic if you sense the need to have alone time on a regular basis. You may even prefer solitary retreats, or at least a quiet place with a rather orderly environment. You and your fellow ascetics are often advocates of all night prayer vigils and many of the classical disciplines, such as fasting and biblical meditation.
The Activist
Activists follow in the footsteps of Moses, Elijah and Habakkuk; you love to meet God in the vortex of confrontation. If you're an activist, you want to fight God's battles. Church is primarily a place to collect signatures and sign up volunteers for the "real work" of the Gospel that takes place outside the church building.
As an activist, you're one of the movers and shakers of the Christian community. You may have a political bent or adopt an evangelistic emphasis, but what marks you as an activist is that you feel most alive spiritually when you are in the midst of God's active work. That's when God seems most real, most immanent and most exciting.
The Caregiver
Caregivers love God by loving others. You're the Mordecais to the world's Esthers; the Dorcas's (Acts 10:36) to the local church. Providing care and meeting needs in Jesus' name spiritually energizes you, drawing you ever closer to the Lord. For you, caregiving isn't an obligation as much as it is a threshold to intimacy with God.
Caregiving extends well beyond nursing sick people to include fixing a widow's car, serving as a volunteer firefighter, or researching a cure for a disease. A caregiver is comforted by Jesus' words, "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me" (Matthew 25:40, NIV). God seems nearest to you when you are looking at Him through the eyes of a sick child or hurting friend.
The Enthusiast
An enthusiast, walking in the footsteps of David, loves excitement and celebration; you probably buy far more worship CDs than books. Enthusiasts tend to be more relational, and therefore favor group worship. You feed off the excitement of other believers praising God.
As an enthusiast, you also revel in God's mystery and supernatural power. You like to take spiritual risks, and wake up hoping God will do something new and fresh. You don't want to just know scriptural concepts; you want to experience and be moved by them. Your exuberance tends to lead you to explore the livelier elements of worship, such as dancing, music, drawing, singing and other creative forms.
The Intellectual
You're an intellectual if your heart is awakened when you understand new concepts about God. Your mind is probably very active, with the result that new intellectual understanding literally births affection; it creates increased respect for your Creator, which leads to worship.
Intellectuals are usually the ones stressing Bible study as the mainstay of their devotion. But some of you, like the biblical Solomon, may also have curious minds in areas beyond the Bible - biology, astronomy, even physics. The more you understand about truth and God's universe, the more in awe of God - and therefore in love with Him - you become.
Just as the naturalist can't wait to get out of doors, the sensate is eager to visit the cathedral, and the ascetic scurries off into his inner world, so the intellectual seeks God in the pages of a book, the shelves of a library, or the vast ruminations of your mind.
The Contemplative
Contemplatives are marked by an emotional attachment and even abandonment to God. Like Mary who sat at Jesus' feet, you see yourself first and foremost as God's lover, and you want to spend your time in God's presence, adoring Him, listening to Him, and just enjoying Him.
You resemble ascetics in that your passion for God often leads you into solitude, where you can sit still and enjoy being in God's presence. Your watchwords are desire and relationship, as affirmed by Jesus in John 15:15: "I no longer call you servants... Instead, I have called you friends."
As a contemplative, you enjoy doing the things that couples like to do: Demonstrating your love for God through secret acts of devotion, giving gifts to God like a poem, or offering an anonymous act of charity. You often favor the discipline of journal writing, where you can intensely explore your heart's devotion.
Most of Us Are Blends
Intellectuals want to understand new things about God; activists want to fight God's battles; enthusiasts want to experience God; naturalists want to meet God in nature; sensates want to see and touch things that remind them of God; traditionalists want to faithfully remember God; ascetics want to be alone with God; caregivers want to be God's hands and feet; contemplatives want to adore God and to know Him better.
Do you see yourself in any of the above categories? Please don't feel that you have to choose just one; most of us are blends, and many of us will move in and out of certain temperaments as we age. The important thing is not to find the right "label," but to understand how you best connect with God so that you can more deliberately and consciously cultivate an increasing affection for your Creator.
One caveat is in order, however. Every Christian, regardless of their temperament, needs to spend appropriate time being shaped by God's Word. Some of you might join group Bible studies, others of you may sit alone with your word dictionaries, concordances, and lexicons, and others of you might regularly listen to the Bible on tape - but interacting with the Word on a daily basis should be a given. The same goes for prayer and times of worshipful adoration. How and where you pray may differ; but every Christian is called to spend time with God.
The good news is that God crafted you with a specific design. You will certainly bear similarities to certain other believers, but you most celebrate the creative quality of God when you give yourself permission to seek His face in a way that honors His creative genius - beginning with your own spiritual makeup.
-by Gary Thomas
So what do you think? As for me, I am a tie between a contemplative and a naturalist, with a very strong third being an entusiast. If you'd like to take an online assessment to find out what your style may be, follow this link- then let me know what your results were!!!
You've Got Style
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Extravagant Waste and Oscar Schindler
This blog will depart from my normal philosophical and theological track- so I'm sorry- but I needed to rant just a little. I have to watch what I say though because of some of my readers- I dont' want to get myself in trouble. Pretty sad that you cant' be completely open and honest on your own blog, but hey, you know how it is. If you question anything, go against the status quo or be negative in any way, or even if you're just generally disagreeing, you're seen as gossiping or being rebellious. So, I guess I'll just speak in generalities. (I may have earned myself some questions just by making those statements.)
Ok there's no way to say this but just to come out and say it. It's amazing to me the things money is spent on. Why do I go spend $20 on a DVD when I could give it to a needy family and their child could have a lunch to take to school for a week or two? Or 5 of us could give up a DVD or our Starbucks coffee for a couple of days(and just drink the free coffee at work) and we could help pay a family's high electric bill so they wouldn't have to go without AC in these hot summer months. Or help them pay for gas in their car so they could get to work to support their family. Or send some bibles to China to those who have never had the privilege to own a Bible, much less read one! (I've got at least 25 Bibles in my house, all different versions, not counting the ones on my Palm. And there are millions of Christians around the world who don't own one. Instead of spending $50 to buy me another one, that same amount could buy dozens in a foreign country!)
Instead of raising money to buy new chairs at your church, how about keeping the chairs you have and sending that money to buy chairs for a church overseas who has been sitting on the ground(and probably doing more for the kingdom than your church)!
I waste money too, so I'm not trying to be self-righteouss. God knows Alisah and I could do better. But I'm not just speaking about individuals. That's not even my main point. I think there's a lot of wasteful spending. it irritates me, when money is spent on insignificant things when there are so much more important things that can be done. Things that actually impact the Kingdom. Things that make a difference to Father.
The end of the movie Schindler's List always gets me- it's the end of WWII, and the Allies are closing in on Germany, so all of the people who had been loyal to the Nazis are trying to escape Berlin so they are not captured or killed. Oscar Schindler is looking at all of his possessions, and saying very remorsefully that if he had just not spent the money on those things, such as his car, his jewelry, watch, coat, he could have paid for more Jews to come to work at his factory so they didn't have to go to the death camps. His words are "I could have saved 1 more".
How much money have we spent on unimportant things that we could have used to impact just one more life with Father's love? I think it's an extravagant waste. And that's all I am going to say about that.
Ok there's no way to say this but just to come out and say it. It's amazing to me the things money is spent on. Why do I go spend $20 on a DVD when I could give it to a needy family and their child could have a lunch to take to school for a week or two? Or 5 of us could give up a DVD or our Starbucks coffee for a couple of days(and just drink the free coffee at work) and we could help pay a family's high electric bill so they wouldn't have to go without AC in these hot summer months. Or help them pay for gas in their car so they could get to work to support their family. Or send some bibles to China to those who have never had the privilege to own a Bible, much less read one! (I've got at least 25 Bibles in my house, all different versions, not counting the ones on my Palm. And there are millions of Christians around the world who don't own one. Instead of spending $50 to buy me another one, that same amount could buy dozens in a foreign country!)
Instead of raising money to buy new chairs at your church, how about keeping the chairs you have and sending that money to buy chairs for a church overseas who has been sitting on the ground(and probably doing more for the kingdom than your church)!
I waste money too, so I'm not trying to be self-righteouss. God knows Alisah and I could do better. But I'm not just speaking about individuals. That's not even my main point. I think there's a lot of wasteful spending. it irritates me, when money is spent on insignificant things when there are so much more important things that can be done. Things that actually impact the Kingdom. Things that make a difference to Father.
The end of the movie Schindler's List always gets me- it's the end of WWII, and the Allies are closing in on Germany, so all of the people who had been loyal to the Nazis are trying to escape Berlin so they are not captured or killed. Oscar Schindler is looking at all of his possessions, and saying very remorsefully that if he had just not spent the money on those things, such as his car, his jewelry, watch, coat, he could have paid for more Jews to come to work at his factory so they didn't have to go to the death camps. His words are "I could have saved 1 more".
How much money have we spent on unimportant things that we could have used to impact just one more life with Father's love? I think it's an extravagant waste. And that's all I am going to say about that.
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Missing the Point
Call me crazy if you want. Many of you know God's been taking me on a wild journey over the past year or so. Most of you don't know how deep the rabbit hole goes though.
So I've decided it's time for me to be open with my thoughts and my beliefs; my new theology, if you will. Although even calling it "new theology" would say to some that I am trying to either point fingers and criticize existing theology, or start a new church. They might even say that I have started getting off track or even backslidden. None of that is true though, and if you think that, you're missing the point.
Which brings me to my first thought in this new series of blogs. (This may not be new thinking to some of you. If so, please be patient as I rethink my faith and "work out my own salvation" here on Blogger.) Have you ever looked at church and Christianity and felt like we're just not getting it? Like we're not quite doing what we're supposed to be doing? That we're missing the point?
Take salvation, for example. Ask any Christian how they became a Christian and they'll tell you a story of how they answered an altar call, prayed the sinner's prayer at the end of a good salvation message, or were led in the sinner's prayer by a close friend, family member, or TV or radio preacher. Many will tell you that the point of the Christian life is to try to live like Jesus did, try not to sin, and share Him with everybody so that we can go to heaven when we die.
But is that really what being a follower of Jesus is all about? To make sure we have our "business straight with God" so that "if we died tonight, we know without a doubt we would go to Heaven"?
I don't think so. I think to be focused on trying to make sure we make Heaven, and trying to save the multitudes from eternal damnation is missing the whole point of Jesus's message. Sure, we want to get to heaven. Sure, we don't want people to go to hell when they die. But I think for Jesus, and for Paul and the other New Testament authors, the point of Jesus's message was that the Kingdom of God is here now. Jesus wasn't focused on getting people into Heaven, he was focused on changing the way people lived their lives in the Kingdom of God in the present. Jesus was concerned with Kingdom living today. Salvation wasn't a one time event, as we've reduced it to in our Sunday morning messages and Friday night crusades/revivals, it was a lifelong journey.
Imagine watching a race: the runners are lined up on the starting blocks, set to sprint to the finish line. The gun goes off, the runners explode off of the blocks, but after only 3 or 4 steps, they all stop, turn to each other, and start celebrating. Some are giving each other high fives, some are jumping up and down screaming, "I'm a runner! I'm a runner!" Some are off by themselves crying tears of joy quietly, others are gathered in circles holding hands and singing songs about how great it is to have started the race, and how wonderful it will be when the race is over.
Pretty ridiculous, isn't it? Yet don't we treat our Christianity that way? We often see salvation as the finish line; at the very least, if we don't see it that way, we often treat it that way. Once you've accepted Christ, that's it, hang in there til you die and you'll go to heaven! Now that you're a Christian, you're in this world, but not of it. God has saved you from this wicked, evil world. It's seen as the main focus of Christianity- get em saved and get em in church. How do we present salvation to people? That if they don't accept Jesus they will go to hell! "Salvation" means "rescue"- but I think it is not just rescue from our present problems, as it was for the ancient Jew, nor is it just rescue from an eternity in hell and this fallen world, as it is for modern day Christians. Rather, I think salvation means being "rescued from fruitless ways of life here and now, to share in God's saving love for all creation, in an adventure called the kingdom of God."
To sum up, I will quote the book I am reading now(which addresses many of the things I have been thinking and rethinking over the past 12 months)-
"Is salvation for you a one-time experience? Or is it a lifetime journey? Is it rescue from your uncomfortable circumstances...or rescue from this world after death...or is it about being rescued from a life that is disconnected from God and God's adventure, both in this life AND the next? Is salvation about stepping across a line--or is it about crossing a starting line to begin an unending adventure in this life and beyond?"
Let me know what you think. Are we missing the point?
So I've decided it's time for me to be open with my thoughts and my beliefs; my new theology, if you will. Although even calling it "new theology" would say to some that I am trying to either point fingers and criticize existing theology, or start a new church. They might even say that I have started getting off track or even backslidden. None of that is true though, and if you think that, you're missing the point.
Which brings me to my first thought in this new series of blogs. (This may not be new thinking to some of you. If so, please be patient as I rethink my faith and "work out my own salvation" here on Blogger.) Have you ever looked at church and Christianity and felt like we're just not getting it? Like we're not quite doing what we're supposed to be doing? That we're missing the point?
Take salvation, for example. Ask any Christian how they became a Christian and they'll tell you a story of how they answered an altar call, prayed the sinner's prayer at the end of a good salvation message, or were led in the sinner's prayer by a close friend, family member, or TV or radio preacher. Many will tell you that the point of the Christian life is to try to live like Jesus did, try not to sin, and share Him with everybody so that we can go to heaven when we die.
But is that really what being a follower of Jesus is all about? To make sure we have our "business straight with God" so that "if we died tonight, we know without a doubt we would go to Heaven"?
I don't think so. I think to be focused on trying to make sure we make Heaven, and trying to save the multitudes from eternal damnation is missing the whole point of Jesus's message. Sure, we want to get to heaven. Sure, we don't want people to go to hell when they die. But I think for Jesus, and for Paul and the other New Testament authors, the point of Jesus's message was that the Kingdom of God is here now. Jesus wasn't focused on getting people into Heaven, he was focused on changing the way people lived their lives in the Kingdom of God in the present. Jesus was concerned with Kingdom living today. Salvation wasn't a one time event, as we've reduced it to in our Sunday morning messages and Friday night crusades/revivals, it was a lifelong journey.
Imagine watching a race: the runners are lined up on the starting blocks, set to sprint to the finish line. The gun goes off, the runners explode off of the blocks, but after only 3 or 4 steps, they all stop, turn to each other, and start celebrating. Some are giving each other high fives, some are jumping up and down screaming, "I'm a runner! I'm a runner!" Some are off by themselves crying tears of joy quietly, others are gathered in circles holding hands and singing songs about how great it is to have started the race, and how wonderful it will be when the race is over.
Pretty ridiculous, isn't it? Yet don't we treat our Christianity that way? We often see salvation as the finish line; at the very least, if we don't see it that way, we often treat it that way. Once you've accepted Christ, that's it, hang in there til you die and you'll go to heaven! Now that you're a Christian, you're in this world, but not of it. God has saved you from this wicked, evil world. It's seen as the main focus of Christianity- get em saved and get em in church. How do we present salvation to people? That if they don't accept Jesus they will go to hell! "Salvation" means "rescue"- but I think it is not just rescue from our present problems, as it was for the ancient Jew, nor is it just rescue from an eternity in hell and this fallen world, as it is for modern day Christians. Rather, I think salvation means being "rescued from fruitless ways of life here and now, to share in God's saving love for all creation, in an adventure called the kingdom of God."
To sum up, I will quote the book I am reading now(which addresses many of the things I have been thinking and rethinking over the past 12 months)-
"Is salvation for you a one-time experience? Or is it a lifetime journey? Is it rescue from your uncomfortable circumstances...or rescue from this world after death...or is it about being rescued from a life that is disconnected from God and God's adventure, both in this life AND the next? Is salvation about stepping across a line--or is it about crossing a starting line to begin an unending adventure in this life and beyond?"
Let me know what you think. Are we missing the point?
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
"I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into?"
I'll give you a shiny penny if you can tell me where that quote came from.
Have you ever walked in a room in the middle of a movie, or at the end, and you just didn't get it? Ever walked in on a bunch of girls watchin a chick flick and you just didn't understand what all the fuss was about? Have you ever walked in on someone watching reruns of Beverly Hills 90210, heard them cry, "Dylan really does love Kelly!" and you wondered what the big deal was?
Have you ever felt that way about life-like you walked in in the middle of something and you just can't figure out what's going on? I think a lot of us feel that way sometimes. Like we can't figure out what life is all about, much less what part we're supposed to play.
Want to know what I think? You probably do a little otherwise you wouldn't be reading my blog. I think that just like understanding a movie, or a book, we have to start at the beginning. Some people like to read the end of the book first, or fast forward through the boring parts of movies to see the exciting ending. Not me. I have to be a part of something from the beginning- the set-up, the character development, the build to the climax, etc. I think that's the only way to truly understand the depth of anything.
Take Easter, for example. Lots of people celebrate Easter as Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the grave. Yes, that's what happened at Easter, but I don't think that's what it's all about. Easter for me is the climax of the grandest love story of all time. Easter Sunday just doesn't make sense without the cross on Friday. And the cross doesn't make sense without the manger in Bethlehem. And the manger just doesn't make sense without the Garden of Eden. It's all intertwined, and I think if you don't remember that you've lost part of the story.
So let's apply it to our lives. What story are you a part of? Is it just what has happened to you since you were born 15, 20, 30 years ago? Are you just a part of the story of your family? Or are we all part of something much more epic, bigger than we could imagine yet casting us in crucial roles?
That's what I think. God's story didn't end with the revelation of John. That was just the end of another chapter. His story still goes on today, and I'm a part of it. And if I am to fully understand my role in the epic, I have to start at the beginning. I have to look at my story in context with the grand tale that has been going on for over 4000 years. Then I can begin to understand what part I am to play and what my purpose is in life.
And it all makes so much more sense.
Have you ever walked in a room in the middle of a movie, or at the end, and you just didn't get it? Ever walked in on a bunch of girls watchin a chick flick and you just didn't understand what all the fuss was about? Have you ever walked in on someone watching reruns of Beverly Hills 90210, heard them cry, "Dylan really does love Kelly!" and you wondered what the big deal was?
Have you ever felt that way about life-like you walked in in the middle of something and you just can't figure out what's going on? I think a lot of us feel that way sometimes. Like we can't figure out what life is all about, much less what part we're supposed to play.
Want to know what I think? You probably do a little otherwise you wouldn't be reading my blog. I think that just like understanding a movie, or a book, we have to start at the beginning. Some people like to read the end of the book first, or fast forward through the boring parts of movies to see the exciting ending. Not me. I have to be a part of something from the beginning- the set-up, the character development, the build to the climax, etc. I think that's the only way to truly understand the depth of anything.
Take Easter, for example. Lots of people celebrate Easter as Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the grave. Yes, that's what happened at Easter, but I don't think that's what it's all about. Easter for me is the climax of the grandest love story of all time. Easter Sunday just doesn't make sense without the cross on Friday. And the cross doesn't make sense without the manger in Bethlehem. And the manger just doesn't make sense without the Garden of Eden. It's all intertwined, and I think if you don't remember that you've lost part of the story.
So let's apply it to our lives. What story are you a part of? Is it just what has happened to you since you were born 15, 20, 30 years ago? Are you just a part of the story of your family? Or are we all part of something much more epic, bigger than we could imagine yet casting us in crucial roles?
That's what I think. God's story didn't end with the revelation of John. That was just the end of another chapter. His story still goes on today, and I'm a part of it. And if I am to fully understand my role in the epic, I have to start at the beginning. I have to look at my story in context with the grand tale that has been going on for over 4000 years. Then I can begin to understand what part I am to play and what my purpose is in life.
And it all makes so much more sense.
Monday, April 17, 2006
Myspace
I've been blogging over at myspace, if anyone cares. I kind of neglected blogger here. But I'll keep up with it now because I got new business cards and they have this blog's address on them. So, maybe I'll get more traffic here.
If you're wanting info on Ekklesia, we currently meet at The Worship Center for our monthly worship gathering on the first Sunday night of every month, at 6:00 p.m. We also meet the 4th Sunday night of every month(for now) at our house, for an ongoing conversation about faith and life. E-mail me for more details.
If you're wanting info on Ekklesia, we currently meet at The Worship Center for our monthly worship gathering on the first Sunday night of every month, at 6:00 p.m. We also meet the 4th Sunday night of every month(for now) at our house, for an ongoing conversation about faith and life. E-mail me for more details.
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