Christian spirituality

In the context of speaking about 21st century spiritual trends in the Church that have dislocated spirituality from that of the ancient church, Webber notes how the experiential spirituality of pietism and revivalism have turned into narcissism. He says,

Evangelism's focus on God's story taking experiential root in our lives is in itself not narcissistic. It only becomes narcissistic when one becomes fascinated with his or her own journey and gives priority to self-reflection. Our contemplative wonder and awe is not to focus on the spiritual journey of the self but on the journey of God who creates and became incarnate in his own creation to re-create. And our participation in the spiritual life is not a continuous search for a transcendent experience but the transfiguration of this life through a life lived in the continual pattern of baptism - dying to sin and rising to the life of the Spirit.
-Robert Webber, The Divine Embrace

"The Christian way of knowing [the truth about God]," Webber says, "is reflection on Scripture [God's revelation about himself] within community [that lives God's revelation]."

And "spiritual theology," says Eugene Peterson, "is the attention we give to lived theology - prayed and lived, for if it is not prayed, sooner or later it will not be lived from the inside out and in continuity with the Lord of life."

According to Webber, the problem with much contemporary spirituality, Christian or otherwise, is that it is focused on and preoccupied with the self. In Christianity this is manifest in spiritualities of legalism, intellectualism, and experientialism. True spirituality is not only centered on God revealed in Christ, but proceeds from God's story of creation, incarnation-Christ's birth, life, death, and resurrection, and re-creation through the Spirit.

These differing perspectives will manifest themselves in how we interact over issues from worship styles and environmentalism, to ethical discrepancies, doctrinal disagreements, and relational conflict of all kinds. In short, what is at stake is the Gospel, which is the "power of God for salvation to all who believe, the Jew first and to the Greek."

Patience

Two quotes on patience that a friend of mine shared with me:

“God never hurries. There are no deadlines against
which He must work. Only to know this is to quiet our
spirits and relax our nerves.” A.W. Tozer

“The strength of patience hangs on our capacity to
believe that God is up to something good for us in all
our delays and detours.” John Piper

This is seriously needed, especially in my line of work when job descriptions are over-weighted with the lead-based expectations of "eternal urgency" and "kingdom consequences".

What is required of us but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God in stillness and acknowledgment that He is God and we are not?

Confessions #14: T-shirts

01.12.08
After a long break for Christmas and New Years, I return, with nothing much significant to say, as you'll see.

"With what end in view do you again and again walk along difficult and laborious paths?

There is no rest where you seek for it. Seek for what you seek, but it is not where you are looking for it.

You seek the happy life in the region of death; it is not there.

How can there be a happy life where there is not even life?

He who for us is life itself descended here and endured our death and slew it by the abundance of his life." - Augustine

In the New Testament letter to the Hebrews, the author talks about how Jesus, by "the power of an indestructible life", was ordained into perpetual priesthood. I've always thought that would make a good Christian t-shirt. On the front it would say "indestructible" in those bold blocky letters that are each vertically misplaced giving that "under construction" or "hey-the-ground-is-shaking" feel. Then on the back it would say "Melchizedek style" in a cool script with the Hebrews verse reference on the back. I think it could sell. Does anyone know Mardel's buyer? Pretty ridiculous, I know. Maybe it's obvious I had the idea while working for a church youth group, or maybe I just made it up... It reminds you of a superhero, does it not?

Of course more serious things could be said, things about seeking life outside of the one who is life, things about his life in us being indestructible, breaking through the cracked and dying flesh-skin of the old man, things about how we ought to follow Paul in seeking the fellowship of Christ's suffering and the power of his resurrection..., but for now it's t-shirt ideas. Have I told you about the one that combines Benjamin Franklin and Aretha Franklin?

Confessions #12: Magneto

One of Augustine's stumbling blocks to Christianity and the Bible in particular initially was his aversion to the stories of the Old Testament where he often found those reputed to be "righteous" to do some seemingly very "unrighteous" things. He, like the Manichees with whom he spent many years in fellowship, was disgusted by the polygamy of the patriarchs, the character of those like Moses and David who committed murder, and the Old Testament sacrifices.

But along the way of his education, Augustine came upon Cicero's Hortensius, in which he was drawn irresistibly to the search for wisdom and truth in the study of philosophy. Augustine comments, "The book changed my feelings. It altered my prayers, Lord, to be towards you yourself. It gave me different values and priorities. Suddenly every vain hope became empty to me, and I longed for the immortality of wisdom with an incredible ardor in my heart. I began to rise up and return to you."

Augustine also recalled about Hortensius that he was "impressed not by the book's refining effect on my style and literary expression but by the content." In the footnote, Chadwick remarks that "among Augustine's sharp criticisms of contemporary culture of his time is the proposition that it valued for far higher than content." How true that seems to be today! How many more albums have been sold by the packaged pop bands than by those that sing about meaningful issues? Or how many times has the latest blockbuster been more of a glorified fireworks show with some witty lines and a vague moral platitude than a film of substance and reflective analysis of life and culture? It is not much different in the Church where if the music doesn't sound a certain way or the design isn't quite cool enough, we pass it by regardless of the content of the message. We live in a very similar age.

So it was Augustine's reading of philosophy, particularly Hortensius, that lead him back to the Scriptures. Cicero had exhorted him "not to study one particular sect but to love and seek and pursue and hold fast and strongly embrace wisdom itself, wherever found." One thing that held Augustine back in his enthusiasm for Cicero's call to philosophy was this--"that the name of Christ was not contained in the book." Because of his mother's influence, the memory of Christ was implanted in him deeply, and "any book which lacked this name, however well written or polished or true, could not entirely grip [him]."

In Augustine's return the the Scriptures he found "something neither open to the proud nor laid bare to mere children; a text lowly to the beginner but, on further reading, of mountainous difficulty and enveloped in mysteries." He was not ready at that time to begin the ascent into the mysteries of the Scriptures. Augustine was still thought too highly of his own taste and preferred the large tomes of philosophy current at that time. He was not yet able to start from the beginning, as it were, as a child. But the seed had been planted in him; the seed of hunger for wisdom, for truth, over against the love of vanity and physical pleasures. Not only did Augustine direct his search upward through the thoughts and words of the philosophers, but also through his reflection on the created order. Still, in all these things, Augustine still was hungry, hungry for truth, for nourishment. As he said, "I derived no nourishment from them, but was left more exhausted than before." So it was this memory of Christ and the hunger that his absence affected that would eventually lead Augustine back to the Scriptures and to the God whom Scriptures reveal.

The last line of one of John Donne's holy sonnets (which are holy not because they're sonnets, though many a high school teacher might disagree, but because their content is about that which is holy) goes like this: "And thou like Adamant draw mine iron heart." Adamant is a magnetic loadstone, so you can imagine what would the nature of its relationship with iron be like. So it is with our hearts, hard and heavy as iron before the Lord. We do not, indeed we cannot, rise to meet him in the air, as the rapture imagery so goes. His Word hangs in the air like a thick cloud, unreachable, but even if we did reach it, we have not the capability of capturing it's shape or form. So we need him, to come on those clouds, like Magneto, to draw us up into is his atmosphere, His Word, His life. Come Lord Jesus, come quickly.

Confessions #9: the love of love

Having now traveled a few days into the Thanksgiving holidays, my little writing project has been set aside for other things that have been more immanent, namely our regional staff retreat with Campus Crusade for Christ staff and the normal catching up with the family. So, I may only have a couple of entries this week, but I hope they will overcome their poverty of quantity with a wealth of quality. ;)

Here I start on Book 3 of The Confessions, where Augustine recounts his coming to Carthage in 370 A.D as a young man of 16 to begin his formal studies. It was in Carthage that Augustine began his life of high culture, learning, and promiscuity. It was not until he reached 18 and read Cicero's Hortensius that it dawned on Augustine that happiness was not found in food, sex, and purely material pleasures. In that respect, there are not a few similarities between Augustine as a young male university student and the experience and temptations of many today. The lure and hunger for physical pleasure, notoriety, and and materialism are as alive today, or even more so, as they were in the fourth century. There is nothing new under the sun.

As it begins, Augustine recalls that he "came to Carthage and all around me hissed a cauldron of illicit loves. As yet I had never been in love and I longed to love." How often this is the situation for not only the modern college student, but even for those entering high school and even junior high. The "cauldron of illicit loves" has boiled over and filtered down through our tv's, computers, iPods, and lunchroom conversations. In that respect, I wonder if the cauldron burns hotter and broader than it once did in Augustine's day.

Augustine goes on to say, regarding the fact that he longed to love but had never been in love, that "from a subconscious poverty of mind I hated the thought of being less inwardly destitute. I sought an object for my love, I was in love with love, and I hated safety and a path free of snares." It should be said that Augustine's understanding of "love" was certainly age-appropriate and not the mature, self-giving sort of love that is true love, marital or otherwise. On reading these remarks at first, I didn't quite understand what Augusine meant by saying he "hated the thought of being less inwardly destitute." I thought that certainly he did not want to be more inwardly destitute. In Albert Outler's translation, we have Augustine saying it this way, "from a hidden hunger, I hated myself for not feeling more intensely a sense of hunger." So, it occurred to me that although Augustine had not experienced that love for which he longed, he was reflecting on the fact that he loved his desire for illicit love so much so that he hated that it was not stronger than it was. He thought the idea of his becoming less hungry for this illicit love as something to be despised and avoided altogether, and only later on did he realize that this was an indication, not of the virtue of his illicit hunger, but of its poverty and the magnitude of his real hunger beneath it for incorruptible love. Augustine loved his illicit hunger, not knowing that it would overtake him to consume him. He said,

"my hunger was internal, deprived of inward food, that is of you yourself, my God. But that was not the kind of hunger I felt. I was without any desire for incorruptible nourishment, not because I was replete with it, but the emptier I was, the more unappetizing such food became...I was glad to be in bondage, tied with troublesome chains, with the result that I was flogged with the red hot iron rods of jealousy, suspicion, fear, anger, and contention."

I have noticed this same inclination in my own heart, that I find many times that I am in love with desire, illicit or otherwise, to the exclusion of its object, the corruption of the purposes of desire itself, and the loss of real love. This affects relationships in the most radical way. Several years ago while interning with a youth group in near Houston, I realized during the Sunday morning worship time that my anxiety over how I "felt" during the singing time was really more an indication of me worshiping not the Lord who is to be worshiped but the experience of worship itself. It was and is an idolatry to be repented of, worshiping the relationship over the one I relate to, or in the words of Romans, "worshiping the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever." I also find this principle at work concerning human relationships, especially of the romantic kind, that I (I would say "we", but I dare only speak for myself) tend to love the experience of the relationship more than the one with whom I am in relationship. This is that very same self-centered destructive principle also at work in worship that I mentioned earlier, where we become "spiritually inbred". If Christ and his image is not at the center, then things become convoluted indeed!

Toward the end of this first paragraph, Augustine recalls how he had "rushed headlong into love, by which I was longing to be captured." But then he prays, "'My God, my mercy' in your goodness you mixed in much vinegar with that sweetness." So this continues to be the theme of much of Augustine's journey to conversion, that God exposed to him the depravity of his own pursuits so that he would turn to the source of true satisfaction and love. He was restless, and his heart would be at rest until it rested in God. We also pray with Augustine that in His mercy God would mix in vinegar with all that is at first sweet in our sinful pursuits so that we would return to Him, "the shepherd and guardian of our souls."

Confessions #5: Heart-rest

"You are great, Lord, and highly to be praised," begins the first paragraph of Augustine's Confessions. Although humankind bears "'his mortality with him', carrying with him the witness of his sin and the witness that you 'resist the proud'...Nevertheless," Augustine prays, "to praise you is the desire of man, a little piece of your creation. You stir man to take pleasure in praising you, because you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it rests in you." Doubtless you have heard this refrain before but possibly did not know where it came from. "You have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you." It is the theme of the Confessions and of Augustine's story found in its pages.

"The LORD our righteousness", the Israelites said of YHWH, their faithful, covenant, creator-God.
"He himself is our peace", said the apostle Paul of Jesus, YHWH incarnate, God in the flesh "reconciling the world to Himself."
Jesus himself says, "come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
And we therefore follow the urging of the author of Hebrews who says, "let us therefore strive to enter that rest."
So we say, "Yes, Lord. You urge us to 'keep ourselves in your love, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life.' So fill us with 'joy and peace in believing' so that we may 'abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit'. We are yours; you have made us for yourself, and our heart is restless until it finds its rest in you."

Confessions #4

So the final comment on what is written in the the introduction (I must get on to the book itself!) will be in relation to this quote:

"In Augustine's time there were a few educated people for whom all religion was superstition; but the dominant consensus held to belief in divine providence, visible in the mathematical order and coherence of the world, and given special manifestations to individuals by dreams and oracles. Design was evident to the eye."

How different it seems to be in America these days! Do you agree? Is belief in "divine providence" more common than not among the average American?

Throughout his life and wanderings, as Chadwick observes, Augustine "never lost his belief in the being and providence of God." Even though he was at times very far away from the Christian faith, he still seemed to hold on (unknowingly) to the promise of Hebrews 11:6 that "whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him."

Even in the very first paragraphs of the Confessions, this theme of seeking and finding is already apparent:

"In seeking them they find him, and in finding they will praise him. Lord, I would seek you, calling upon you--and calling upon you is an act of believing in you...It is your gift to me."

So, in Augustine's day, although there was a common assumption in divine providence with the occasional divine "flare up", it seems that the belief in a real, immanent God who is actively involved in world and people's lives was not the reigning perspective. But Augustine discovered otherwise. Let us pray that would be the case in this day as well.

Orthodox and Born Again

Dr. Brad Nasiff of North Park University and an Orthodox theologian reflects on what has kept him believing in Christ after years and years of scholarship and life. His answer may surprise you!

http://audio.ancientfaith.com/nassif/so5_pc.mp3

Great Light of the World Come to Impart (old and new)

I make the cross of Christ upon my breast,
over the tablet of my hard heart,
and I beseech the Living God of the universe -
may the Light of Lights come
to my dark heart from Thy place;
may the Spirit's wisdom come to my heart's tablet
from my Saviour.

-From the Aidan compline, who lived in the early 7th century in Ireland.

Sometimes at night
I am afraid
I cover my eyes,
Cover my shame
So here in the dark
Broken apart
Come with your light
And fill up my heart
Oh great light of the world
Fill up my soul
I’m half a man here
So come make me whole
Oh great light of the world
Come to impart
The light of your grace
To fill up my heart

The wind of this world
Can push us around
Folding us up
Backing us down
But here in the dark
I’m not alone
So come with your strength
And carry me home
Oh great light of the world
Fill up my soul
I’m half a man here
So come make me whole
Oh great light of the world
Come to impart
The light of your grace
Oh great light of the world
Fill up my soul
I’m half a man here
So come make me whole
Oh great light of the world
Come to impart
The light of your grace
To fill up my heart
The light of your grace
To fill up my heart

-Bebo Norman, Great Light Of The World

With M. Teresa in view...

You must have often wondered why the enemy [God] does not make more use of his power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree he chooses and at any moment. But you now see that the irresistible and the indisputable are the two weapons which the very nature of his scheme forbids him to use. Merely to over-ride a human will (as his felt presence in any but the faintest and most mitigated degree would certainly do) would be for him useless. He cannot ravish. He can only woo. For his ignoble idea is to eat the cake and have it; the creatures are to be one with him, but yet themselves; merely to cancel them, or assimilate them, will not serve.... Sooner or later he withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs--to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish.... He cannot "tempt" to virtue as we do to vice. He wants them to learn to walk and must therefore take away his hand.... Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trace of him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.*
-Uncle Screwtape
C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

*See also, Mother Teresa's Crisis of Faith in TIME

Nooma:thoughts

Until today I had only seen one of Rob Bell's Nooma films. At the time, for various reasons, one of which was pride, I didn't fully appreciate it (sorry to the friend that showed it to me!). I read Velvet Elvis several months ago and bought six of the Nooma films this summer in order to jump in once more. I just watched two of them and wrote down a few thoughts I had in response. Overall, I really like them. I like the concept, the topics; the production is top-quality (not that I would really know, but it seems well done); Rob is a great communicator; and, they are multi-lingual (with subtitles)! Also, I didn't realized until I bought some that they come with a booklet with some quotes, scripture, pictures from the film, and reflection questions which would be great for small group discussion. So, I definitely recommend them as ways to open up or further dialogue on the topics presented and relevant passages of Scripture. They're great for those that follow Jesus and for those that are still looking. Following are a few thoughts and questions that I had as I was watching them today.

Nooma:Rhythm
Rob evaluates what it means to be in relationship with God in terms of the process of relating and following instead of the in/out terms common in conversion language. Near the end he says "you ARE in relationship with God," and on the back of the DVD package it says "maybe it's through trusting Jesus and living the kind of life he taught us to live...that we have a relationship with God." Is this "discipleship to converted discipleship"? What does it look like for someone to walk the path of Jesus before they are counted "in Christ", reconciled to God in Him?
In the notes, the question is asked, "Which is more important to Jesus: what we believe or what we do?" I think I understand what he's getting at, but to me, really, it's neither, because what we do betrays what we really believe, and what we really believe is inevitably worked out in what we do. Jesus repeatedly told people to "believe" in Him, and there was no gap in His mind between believing and doing. To believe is to do and to do is to believe. It is trust. So the question is really "Who or what do you trust?" because life and reality is personal, relational, or at least it was meant to be.
So, maybe at some point those that begin to walk the path of Jesus and listen to the words of Jesus begin relate to him and finally come to say, "You have the words of eternal life. I have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God."
And this is renewed, just as the grounds of our baptism is remembered in the Eucharist week by week, so at points we are reminded of our confession when we find Jesus asking us, "Do you love me more than these? ... Then feed my sheep." And so it continues until we die, finally, with Him.

Nooma:You
Rob made a lot of assertions about many of the New Testament concepts being firmly in relation to and in opposition to the 1st century religious and political context, concepts and expressions like "No under name by which men must be saved" and "Jesus is Lord" and "Gospel" and "Ekklesia (or church)" and even the resurrection of the savior-god. I'm familiar with a few of these points of contact and conflict, but I wonder if the emphasis is too heavily placed on the 1st century context on not enough on the language and tradition of the several thousand years before as revealed in the hopes and experience of the nation of Israel. He brought it through a little bit in talking about the hope of the Messiah, the brokenness of the world, and the hope of God's program to fix it.
Some good questions to ask would be: "What are the sources and context for some of the sayings like "No other name..." and "Caesar is Lord" and "Gospel" and "Ekklesia"? Are there roots in Israel and the OT for these concepts and assertions as well (e.g. the Lord as YHWH, salvation in the name of YHWH, the gospel or good news of Isaiah 52, the congregation of Israel as ekklesia)? Where's the overlap? Where's the conflict? How were the Jewish concepts translated into the Greco-Roman? What influenced the Jewish concepts? What influenced the Greco-Roman? Any other influences? What were the apostles and 1st century church aware of? And Jesus?
I think the most powerful part of the film was near the end when Rob said, "There's a deeply personal dimension to this. Jesus is saving me, he's saving me from my sins, from my mistakes, from my pride, from my indifference to the suffering of the world around me. From my cynicism and despair, the brokenness I see in the world around me is true of my own soul."
As some of have observed in response to the popular recent discussions about evil and those on the side of evil, "If we look close enough we will see that the line dividing good and evil runs right through the middle of each one of us."

Anyone seen these, thought about this stuff? Thoughts?

New Every Morning

Today I was afraid. I was afraid of being insignificant.
Today I was proud. I wanted honor and success and notoriety.
Today I was ashamed. I did not size up, and I was sizing up.
Today was like yesterday.
And the day before, and the day before...
Will tomorrow be like today?
... but today's trouble is overwhelming enough.

The sun dies,
The sun rises,
each day
Does it die under the weight of our collective sin?
So that we help it over the noonday hump and push it back into the ground?
Does it mean to wake us up in the morning when our blinds are shut tight?
Does is muffle through the curtains
"Awake sleeper!
Arise from the dead
and I will shine on you!"?

Today the sun died, again.
Today I buried it just past the mountains.
Tomorrow the sun will rise, again.
Tomorrow will I rise with it?
Tonight the sun will not die for nothing.
Tonight the curtains are pulled back.




Picture from www.discosuperfly.biz

A Poem and Prayer

Jesus,
bread and light of life,

I am not
but you are
in me I am
in You alive.
















"But we, O Lord, behold we are Thy little flock; possess us as Thine, stretch Thy wings over us and let us fly under them. Be Thou our glory." - St. Augustine

The Shadow of Good Friday

To reflect and to pray.

"But what Christ did on the Cross was in no way intended to spare us death but rather to revalue death completely. In place of the 'going down into the pit' of the Old Testament, it became 'being in paradise tomorrow'. Instead of fearing death as the final evil and begging God for a few more years of life, as the weeping king Hezekiah does, Paul would like most of all to die immediately in order 'to be with the Lord' (Phil 1:23). Together with death, life is also revalued: 'If we live, we live to the Lord; if we die, we die to the Lord' (Rom 14:8).
-Hans Urs von Balthasar (as quoted at the BHT)

"If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you." (John 15:18)

VOM News and Prayer Update: April 3, 2007

"Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."(Hebrews 12:1-2)

UZBEKISTAN
Pastor Appeals Sentence - VOM Sources/Forum 18 News
Pastor Dmitry Shestakov has appealed his four-year work-camp sentence. According to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts, Pastor Shestakov's family will be permitted to go with him to one of Uzbekistan's open work camps. Forum 18 News reported that in imposing its verdict, the court said it would be impossible to "re-educate" Shestakov without isolating him from society. Forum has also reported that prison administration has banned Pastor Shestakov from kneeling to pray and his New Testament has been confiscated. In exchange, he has been offered the Koran to read. He remains imprisoned in Andijan until his appeal is heard. Pray Pastor Shestakov's appeal is successsful and for God to comfort his family. Psalm 41:2-3


NIGERIA
Teacher Killed by Muslim Students - Compass Direct News/VOM Sources
On March 21, 2007, Christianah Oluwasesin, a teacher at a secondary school in Northern Nigeria was beaten, stoned and burned by Muslim students over claims she desecrated the Quran. According to a Compass Direct News report, Oluwasesin was supervising a final examination on Islamic religious knowledge when she collected papers, books and bags from the all-girls class and in accordance with school procedure and dropped them in front of the class to prevent cheating. According to another teacher, soon after Oluwasesin dropped the bags in front of the class, one of the girls began to cry. She told her classmates she had a copy of the Quran in her bag, that Oluwasesin touched the bag and by doing so had desecrated the Quran, since she was a Christian. This led to a riot which was joined by Muslim extremists, resulting in Oluwasesin being beaten to death. They brought old mats to where her body was, placed dirt on her corpse and then burned it. The Voice of the Martyrs has met with her husband and is supporting her family. Pray God will comfort Oluwasesin's family and for her testimony to those that killed her, that it will bring them into the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 1:5


INDIA
Christians Attacked, Pastor's Arrested - VOM Sources

• ORISSA - On March 18, 2007, Hindu extremists attacked Abraham Burdhan with a sword. According to The Voice of the Martyrs contacts, Abraham was pulled off his bicycle, beaten with rods and sticks on his whole body and hit with a sword causing severe injury to his hand. Doctors are not hopeful they can save all four of his fingers and think he will lose two. Pray for Abraham's healing and the safety of more than 20 Christian families living in the area which is in the midst of more than 150 Hindu families.
• RAJASTHAN - Pastors Gorthan Leetha, Laxman Gorthan, Khana Gutta and Ramesh Gutta were attacked by Hindu radicals and handed over to the police, who are sympathetic with the radicals. They are being held in the local prison. In addition, more than 30 families had to flee the area when they were attacked and their homes destroyed. The families had to scatter to nearby villages and work as laborers. Meanwhile, VOM in partnership with Emmanuel Ministries is providing emergency food and clothing for the family, and their pastor is helping them relocate to relatively safe, Udaipur City. Pray for the pastors in prison and the families who have lost all their belongings. Ask God to comfort them and encourage them to continue standing for Him.
• KUNDRA - On March 25, Pastor Rajendra Chauhan was arrested after Hindu extremists complained he was involved in "forced conversions." He was charged under the State's Anti-Conversion Law because the police said he was holding large religious gatherings without asking permission. Through VOM's legal network, Pastor Chauhan was released. Pray his ministry will not be hindered by these challenges. Psalm 111: 5-9

www.persecution.com

The Hidden Smile of God

Light shining out of Darkness
(Book III, Hymn 15, page 571)
by William Cowper
(taken from ReformationINK)

God moves in a mysterious way,

His wonders to perform;

He plants his footsteps in the sea,

And rides upon the storm.

Deep in unfathomable mines

Of never-failing skill,

He treasures up his bright designs,

And works his sov'reign will.

Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take,

The clouds ye so much dread

Are big with mercy, and shall break

In blessings on your head.

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense,

But trust him for his grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.

His purposes will ripen fasts,

Unfolding ev'ry hour;

The bud may have a bitter taste,

But sweet will be the flow'r.

Blind unbelief is sure to err,

And scan his work in vain;

God is his own interpreter,

And he will make it plain

Light and Heat for the Path

This is from a professor at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Kevin Vanhoozer, from the beginning of an essay in the March 2005, edition of the Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society entitled "Lost in Interpretation? Truth, Scripture, And Hermeneutics". I'm looking forward to the rest of the article, but I thought this first part was too good not to share! (italics mine)

There has been too much wrangling over whether evangelicalism is a matter of doctrine or piety, the head or the heart. Those who see the essence of evangelicalism in pietistic terms tend to see the Bible primarily as a means of spiritual sustenance. Those who see the essence of evangelicalism in doctrinal terms tend to see the Bible primarily as a means of propositional communication. It is neither necessary nor advisable to take sides in this debate. Indeed, to do so is to reduce, and so distort, the very concept of biblical and doctrinal truth. Let no one put asunder what God has joined together. Far better to see the Christian life as a way where head and heart come together to get the feet moving. Evangelicals need to put feet on the gospel, and on our doctrine. Evangelical theology should provide direction for walking the way of truth and life.

2+2=Jesus

I'm working it out.

I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm working it out.

You see, some things are really hot right now. Social justice, redemptive history, church-planting movements, the "kingdom". It's not a time for specialists; there's too much to think about, to do. It's not a time for generalists either, one wouldn't even know where to begin.

People keep telling me that it's all about Jesus. I believe them, I do. 'Cause it is, you know, all about Jesus. I mean, he said it himself, "This is eternal life, that they would know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." And, whatever he meant by "knowing" and "eternal life", it certainly seems like He takes center stage and first place and number one and everything up to those.

So, I'm working out. Certainly Jesus didn't mean that it's just him and me and no one else or nothing else, but, shoot, what the heck did he mean?

I mean, I was thinking: What if knowing involves doing? and thinking? and speaking? and working? and resting? and worshiping? Didn't Jesus say, "He who loves me will keep my commandments, and I will show myself to him, and the Father and I will come to him and make our home with him"?

To borrow a phrase from Brother Andrew, "practising the presence of God" seems to involve some external activity as well as internal. John said that when Jesus returns we will become like Him, "because we will see him just as he is." With our eyes, the ones in our head, I expect. Kinda like when you see something indescribably beautiful or terrifyingly hideous, you don't recover from that too quickly. But when we finally see Jesus, with the eyes in our head, then we will be changed, permanently. Not just on the inside, but all over and all throughout, forever.

So, what if we know Jesus through our hands too? I mean, not perfectly right now of course, but a little bit, like when we see a sunset and worship its maker, or when we listen to Sufjan Steven's rendition of Amazing Grace and worship the one who makes grace sound so amazingly sweet. I think that our hands can be conduits of knowing too. Just ask Helen Keller. Or rather, touch her hands.

It is the Spirit who moves in hands and feet and words and images to bring the mind to apprehend and the heart to engage the mind and heart and spirit of Christ.

Would I think Jesus' thoughts after him? Would I work his works? Would I pray his prayers? Would I speak his words? Would I then know him?

Theology proper is the study of God, who he is, what he is, why he is, where he is, how he is. You get the picture. But is that all you get? Is that all I get? Is God like history? or math? or biology? or music? or art? or a good story? Can I know God without knowing anything about him? Can I know anything about God without knowing Him?

The world is theo-centric, and in the center are two pierced hands and two pierced feet and a bleeding side. Put your feet on his. Put your hands to his. Hide yourself in his side and step out into his world with a calculator. He is the sum of all things.

"Worship is the gathering up the praises of all creation, making them articulate, and presenting them to God." - N. T. Wright

Grab your baskets.

a trinity prayer

The following prayer is from a book by Tom Wright entitled Bringing the Church to the World. Sometimes we neglect the simple, repeatable, foundational prayers because of a misunderstanding of the prohibition to not use "vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words." The issue was the vanity of their babbling, as some translations have it, not just the fact that they said the same thing twice, or three or four times, and the fact that they expected to be heard by their idol-gods because of the quantity of their repetitions or something like that. But for those who personally address the one and only Creator, there is no vanity in addressing him, one, two, five, or even one hundred times a day, regardless of the variety of the content of the addressing. Did not Jesus validate the persistent (or nagging?) widow who won over the unrighteous judge? Or maybe we just don't know the benefits of it... I for one sure don't, but I know there are many whom have gone before me that do. And, I think I'd like to learn. So, anyway, here it is. If you'd like to read the corresponding chapter out of Wright's book, you can find it here. It's a good one.

Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth:
Set up your kingdom in our midst.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God:
Have mercy on me, a sinner.

Holy Spirit, breath of the living God:
Renew me and all the world.

Kerby

A Date with a Counselor

I'm feeling a little defensive about the idea that there's something wrong with just knowing about God as opposed to knowing God. I'm learning a lot about Jesus right now as I read through and study the Gospel of Matthew, and I think that a large part of getting to know someone is knowing about their life outside of their direct involvement in mine. Then I have a better idea and context for his involvement in my life. Otherwise I feel like it's just a series of appointments with a professional counselor whom you know nothing about outside of those appointments... Anyway, that's just my soapbox and justification for enjoying studying about Jesus. Sorry.

Thank God for calculus...

Sometimes God moves loudly, as if spinning to another place like ball lightning. God is, oddly, personal; this God knows. Sometimes en route, dazzlingly or dimly, he shows an edge of himself to souls who seek him, and the people who bear those souls, marveling, know it, and see the skies carousing around them, and watch cells stream and multiply in green leaves. He does not give as the world gives; he leads invisibly over many years, or he wallops for thirty seconds at a time.

We live in all we seek. The hidden shows up in too-plain sight. It lives captive on the face of the obvious - the people, events, and things of the day - to which we as sophisticated children have long since become oblivious. What a hideout: Holiness lies spread and borne over the surface of time and stuff like color.
- Annie Dillard, For the Time Being

I find the story of God to be full of paradox, full of contrast. I draw short of saying contradiction, mostly because of the crossed-finger belief that God is consistent and pure. But, nonetheless, His story - before, now, after - is one with asymptotes, discontinuities. As He disappears into heaven, He comes forth from the dust to catch us by surprise. Whew, what a relief!

The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever...

At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants."