It's Not About Me

I've been reading "When God Whispers Your Name" by Max Lucado. It's an awesome book. The chapters are short and manageable - perfect to pull out for a little break between the stressors of my day. I started it at the beginning of the semester and I'm slowly working my way through it because its so good, I want to soak it all in. There are many chapters that i've read multiple times because I don't want to miss anything.

Anyways, my favorite chapter thus far is "The Choice." In essence it has changed me dramatically. My routine is different, my reactions and priorities are different, and its all because my mindset is different...

The chapter shows that in the midst of all the junk we face in life we have choices - choices of how to respond. The push is to respond in alignment with the Fruits of the Spirit, which are of the God which we are to imitate! Imitate means to use somebody or something as a model, attempting to copy an existing method, style, or approach - basically, to be or look like something else. The way we do that is by bearing what he bears - His fruit. What we produce is the basis of other's opinions of us, so if we produce what Christ produces then they should recognize that we are like Christ.

Galatians 5: 22, 23 says, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

• I choose to love when I'm not loved in return. I choose to love when my natural reaction is judgement. I choose to love when it takes all of my energy. I choose to love what is different and uncomfortable. I choose to love in whatever form the other needs.
• I choose joy when it is easier to complain. I choose joy when it seems all life is against me. I chose joy when my spirit is hardened. I choose joy when resentment feels better. I choose living in Christ's joy instead of the world's happiness.
• I choose peace when all else is in conflict. I choose peace when retaliation is more fun. I choose peace in knowing I am forgiven, and in forgiving others. I choose peace when it means in making amends I must admit fault even when it isn't min.
• I choose patience when it doesn't accomplish anything. I choose patience when my tasks are long and the time is short. I choose patience when someone is really testing me. I choose patience when it puts my selfish priorities aside.
• I choose kindness when I haven't been shown kindness. I choose kindness when I don't feel sympathetic. I chose kindness when others are different than me. I choose to show kindness in words and actions.
• I choose goodness when dishonesty would be easier. I choose goodness when it means I have to sacrifice. I choose goodness even when I won't get recognition for it. I choose goodness even when nobody would catch me in my sin.
• I choose faithfulness when I want to go back on my word. I choose faithfulness when another option is better. I choose faithfulness when I don't feel committed anymore. I choose faithfulness when that which I am being faithful to is not faithful to me.
• I choose gentleness when harsh-words are natural. I choose gentleness when I can only get what I want by force.  I choose to only raise my voice in praise and clench my fists in praise. I choose to only be rough with myself when making demands.
• I choose self-control when my natural instinct is to react in anger. I choose self-control when it means getting ready of something when I can't control it. I choose self-control when my desires are strong. I choose self-control when I'd rather out act.

I just finished Eccesiates (1:1-11 is my favorite!) this morning. It's the "everything is meaningless" book. If you don't read it with the right understanding you'll likely get confused. The writer is not pessimistic, he is only emphasizing how a life not centered on God and holiness is meaningless. Without Christ, nothing can satisfy (wisdom, pleasures, work, etc - it's all meaningless and has no true reward). With Christ as the reason for life, we can gratefully receive the good gifts He gives and enjoy life. 

So, how am I making sure my life is not meaningless? .... Imitating Christ by sowing His fruits in my life. I'm using this for Kingdom-work instead of Jessie-work. Cause a life all about me is meaningless.

Irresistible Revolution 2

Economics of Rebirth

As a Christian, my purse should be spent differently than before I was a Christian. Money is one of the most common topics in the New Testament, therefore it's pretty important.

Shane Claiborne said, "I'm not convinced that Jesus is going to say, 'When I was hungry, you gave a check to the United Way and they fed me,' or, 'When I was naked, you donated clothes to the Salvation Army and they clothed me.' Jesus is not seeking distant acts of charity. He seeks concrete acts of love: 'you fed me... you visited me in prison... you welcomed me into your home... you clothed me.'" Have I consistently done this or do I too easily rely on my gifts of money to empower others to do it? When I let others do it... I am kept in a separate world from the poor. Inequality is cautiously controlled but not eradicated.

"Give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread. Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you and say, 'Who is the Lord?'" - Proverbs 30:8, 9.

When I get dressed I wear a different outfit than the day before. When my clothes are dirty I put them in the washing machine. When I go outside I pick from lots of shoes. When I'm thirsty I get a clean class of cold water. When I'm hungry I open the fridge or cabinets and eat whatever I want. When I don't like food, I throw it away. When I'm cold I turn up the heat; when I'm hot I turn up the air conditioning. When I'm dirty I shower. When I'm bored I turn on my entertainment system. When I'm tired I lay down in my own bed. When I want to go somewhere I have a car I can drive, and when it's out of gas I refill it. I went to an expensive, private, Christian school; now I go to an expensive, private, Christian university. When I'm sick I go to the doctor. When I want something, I buy it. When I sleep I'm not fearful of my safety. Even worse - when I do all these things I don't think twice.

Again, Claiborne says, "True generosity is measured not by how much we give away but by how much we have left, especially when we look at the needs of our neighbors." The early Christians taught that charity is merely the rich returning to the poor what they stole.

Isaiah 58:6, 7 says, "Is this not the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter - when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" When I fast... is that how I do it?

When the church becomes a place of brokerage rather than an organic community, she creases to be alive.... she ceases to be something we are - the living bride of Christ. The church becomes a distribution center - a place where the poor come to get stuff and the rich come to dump it off. . . . Is the organization meeting the needs or is the organism? Jesus did not organize a "program" but rather personified the reign of God through love. Needs are met by His infection of love through us. BUT 1 Cor 13:3 says, "If i give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the glames, but have not love, I gain nothing.". . . you figure it out!

"'Truly I tell you,' Jesus replied, 'no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and fields - along with persecutions - and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first" - Mark 10:29-31. Rather than accumulating stuff for ourself, followers of Jesus abandon everything, trusting in God alone for providence.

Though I've lived more simply this summer than ever before...God is speaking to me... calling me... and I'll be honest... I'm scared of what it means.

Song of Songs

How can you help but not fall in love all over again when you read this book? In the past few days I have read it multiple times in multiple versions. It is unabashedly erotic but it's not a one night stand, it's a permanent relationship. The book follows this love through all the season. The physical descriptions of one another are fascinating - full of pure, beautiful love. While Solomon wrote it for one of his wives, this song is also an allegory for God and His people - us as individuals. I resonate with the sentiments of the beloved in chapter 5. My lover is mine and I am his. Never wanting to part... I am captivated by the dialogue between the lover and his beloved. I am in love with my Maker and what and who He has for me. I love love.

Like an apple tree among the trees of the forest

is my love among the young men.

I delight to sit in his shade,

and his fruit is sweet to my taste.

He has taken me to the banquet hall,

and his banner over me is love.

Strengthen me with raisins,

refresh me with apples,

for I am faint with love.

Don't excite love, don't stir it up

until the time is ripe - and you're ready.

Irresistable Revolution 1

On to a new book... one which I've already read and dramatically convicted me. I felt like reading it again - I started it in the Philippines but never finished it, so I started it over again today :) I'm already 3 chapters in and quickly reminded how powerful the book is.

In the midst of talking about how its hard to truly find a Jesus follower, how we stopped living Christianity and now we just study it... how we skip over certain parts of the Bible because we don't want to do what they say... or we don't want to do them to that level (his biggest focus is on taking care of the poor - giving all we have to them). He then quotes Soren Kierkegaard:

The matter is quite simple. The Bible is very esasy to understand. But we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend to be unable to undersatnd it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obliged to act accordingly. Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly. My God, you will say, if I do that my whole life will be ruined. How would I ever get on in the world? Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship. Christian scholarship is the church's prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, the ensrue that we can continue to be good Christians wihtout the Bible coming too close. Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you? Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.

I won't say that I agree completely with everything Kierkegaard said but he makes a good point. We're never going to win the whole world to Christ until we really start living the gospel. This would be dramatic and radical lifestyle changes for myself and so many others. This summer i've learned to cut back so much - lesson especially learned from living out of a suitcase for what's going on 2.5 months total now. I hope I can keep this up and continue to cut back. My life is so much simpler when my "stuff" is simpler. I don't want to collect meaningless things.

I am content. I am satisfied.

"It is among the wealthy that we can find the most terrible poverty of all - loneliness" - Mother Teresa

"Jesus never says to the poor, 'Come find the church,' but he says to those of us in the church, 'Go into the world and find the poor, hungry, homeless, imprisoned,' Jesus in his disguises." - Tony Campolo

When the Bible says "Thy Kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" that's not something only to expect to come true... its something to enact and live out.

This post doesn't do the book justice.

You should pick it up and read it yourself....

"Irresistible Revolution" AND The Bible!

The Blue Parakeet

I'm reading this book called "The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible" by Scot McKnight (author of "The Jesus Creed." Its called Blue Parakeet because he told a story of how someone's pet blue parakeet escaped outside, can't be caught, and now no one knows what to do with it. He talks about the grey areas of the Bible, especially the Old Testament laws. His purpose is to call his readers to figure out their pattern of discernment - to know why do I not do what this passage in the Bible teaches?... how to deal with the "blue parakeets" without taming them to something they shouldn't be. We all discern - through God's spirit and the context of our community of faith - a pattern of how to live in our world. NO one does everything the Bible says, I don't care who you are or how firm you are when you say you do, you don't do EVERYTHING. If you say you do, you must say it with the understanding that you live out the Bible culturally and in our day and our way.

I'm not saying this is wrong, I'm not the judge to decide that, but its just something that we should all think about...

Like what about these grey areas?
1. Divorce and Remarriage (Mark 10:11,12; Matthew 5:32; 1 Corinthians 7)
2. Circumcision- now done without spiritual connections (Gen 17:9-1; Acts 15:16-21: Gal 5:6; Deut 10:16; Jer 4:4; Rom 2:28, 29; 1 Cor 7:19; Col 2:11, 12)
3. Style of Christian Women (1 Peter 3:1-6)
4. Sun-centered vs. earth-centered cosmology (Job 9:6, 38:4-7; Prov 8:27-29; Rev 7:1, 1 Peter 3:19-22)
5. Death Penalty (Romans 13, Exodus 22:18, 20; Lev 24:13; Deut 21:18-21, 22:22; Num 15:32-36; Gen 4; Ex 21:12-14; Num 35:6-34; Deut 4:41-43, 19:1-13; John 7:53-8:11; Matt 5:38-39). Some of these passages seem to contradict other passages.
6. Speaking in Tongues (Acts 2, 1 Cor 14:18
7. Becoming all things to all - this is something i'm passionate about so maybe i'll unpack this later in more detail (1 Cor 9:19-23; Paul's adaptability - Acts 17:16-34 and 1 Cor 8, Romans 14:2,3,6)

God spoke in Abraham's days in Abraham's ways (walking between severed animals)
Moses' days in Moses' ways (law and ceremony)
David's days in David's ways (royal policies)
Isaiah's days in Isaiah's ways (walking around nude for awhile)
Ezra's days in Ezra's ways (divorcing Gentile spouses)
Jesus' days in Jesus' ways (intentional poverty)
Peter's days in Peter's ways (strategies for living under an emperor)
John's days in John's ways (dualistic language - light and darkness)

What is good for all these guys is also good for us. But, the precise expression of the gospel or the manner of living of these guys may not be our expression or manner of living. Living out the Bible means living out the Bible in our day in our way by discerning how God would have us living through adaptation. How do we do this - read the Bible and know the Bible and live out its story in our life. We should not seek to retrieve the cultural world (of when the Bible was written) - if we did that we'd be outside stoning people, offering lamb sacrifices, and excommunicating people all the time. Instead we should live the same gospel in a different way in our different day. Read the Bible with tradition instead of through tradition. Of course this isn't simple but its a good plan.