Holiday Hocus Pocus

Can you believe how quickly the Holiday season changes? The second Thanksgiving is over, a title wave comes called… Christmas. The trees are up, wreaths are hung, coffee shops new flavors are simmering, stores are crazy. Wow. You would think that with all of that instant changeover, the lingering emotions of thankfulness would find their way through as well. But rather, we label “the next day” (after thanksgiving) as BLACK FRIDAY titled for the early bird, caffeine crazed, warrior mode woman hitting the shopping courageously checking off their own buy lists. Not that you need it from me, but let me take a second to give you the permission to maintain a spirit that you have always craved. Sit back and rest a little, savoring Jesus and the Rescue he did unto us. Let this steam into a sentiment of thankfulness and reflective worship. The “Christmas Spirit” doesn’t begin the 24th… it has begun now. So take a moment to reflect on the person you were, want to be, and will become this Holiday season.

~Deep thoughts from a shallow guy~
mn

Listening, Running, Turning, Following and a Side of Fish Vomit

We have begun to move forward from our journey of draw near…and although it is our heart that each of you would continue to draw near to God, we then have to ask ourselves the question…As we are continuing to draw near to God, how would He have us live? How would He have us speak? What would He command of us? How would He send us forward?

I think a lot of these questions we are hoping to answer and pursue over this next three weeks as we look at the life of Jonah. Jonah is given a command from God that within a moment’s notice he turns and runs away from. God commands him to go to a hard group of people…a group that we would only know how to describe as the worst of sinners & really scary dudes. But within our own realm of influence, who we encounter day to day, even those in our surrounding neighborhoods and families, we all face “scary dudes.” Mostly I think it just stems from our own unwillingness to get comfortable and really love the way Christ calls us to love. We love by sharing; we love by PROCLAIMING AND DEMONSTRATING the gospel to those around us.

So as we think about this and we realize we are all called to “go”, the question remains will we obey or will we run? I think the answer to this question really can help us search our heart with how much we have truly allowed God’s grace to transform our hearts and give us a love for the lost and really “bad dudes”. In the book “The Radical Reformission” I am reading right now the author Mark Driscoll talks about this in relation to looking at Jonah’s life. He says…

And Jonah leaves us to ponder who we would be if God had stopped running after us and simply left us to ourselves. In what ways are we running from God’s call to bring the gospel to others? What will repentance look like for us? What could happen if God captured the hearts of people in our town because you pointed them to Him? What if the heart God’s people had for their cities was like Jesus’ heart for Jerusalem instead of Jonah’s heart for Nineveh? (pg. 107)

This pretty much cuts my heart open because I realize I don’t break for the lost in my town. I don’t seek to proclaim and demonstrate who Christ is to those around me when God calls me to everyday. Think for a minute about how much you run & draw near to Jesus…if it’s a lot, and I hope it is, now think about the people who don’t have that hope, peace, contentment, security and love because they don’t know the good news.

Now, as you move forward in continuing to abide in God, I pray that you would move forward in pursuing others in the name of Christ and sharing His love & grace with them. I pray that unlike Jonah you would say “yes” to the command of God as he calls you to move forward & live as His ambassador.

~Bold thoughts from a loud woman
ew

T.R.I.B.E.

We had a fantastic time this weekend on our Camp Trek trip. The subject we discussed while picking marshmallows out of our teeth, wafting at smoke in our eyes, and anxiously waiting for “that girl” to realize someone put a bug on her shoulder…was…MISSIONAL LIVING.

It’s a topic we have been circling for a long time now, and feel like it’s time to start landing the plane. Therefore, over the next 4 weeks on Saturday nights, we are going to look at an Old Testament example of this in the book of Jonah. You may hear us as well discuss an acronym giving us confident steps in the “how to go about” it. Here it is:

T. arget (who is the Lord putting on your heart to minister to due to: friendship, circumstance, similar talents, etc…)

R. elationship (What steps do you need to take to develop a deeper trusting relationship with them?)

I. nitiative (What are some gospel steps or situations you could be proactive in?)

B. aby steps (What small steps need to be taken in the process of “them having the full gospel”.

E. engage them with Truth (What hard questions are being presented that the Word is the ultimate answer too?)

We’d like for you to process and pray through this on your own, in your small groups, and with your monk mentors. We are trying to wrap out hearts around Christ’s missional charge to Go and Make Disciples out of every TRIBE and nation.

~deep thoughts from a shallow guy~
mn

The Meaning of 'in me' in John 15

Last Saturday night, we looked at John 15, the story of the vine and the branches. We hit a snag (no pun intended) when we came across a controversial element of the passage. Theologians have long debated the meaning of “in me” that is used throughout the passage, as in “every branch in me that does not bear fruit” (John 15:2a). We said that there are traditionally two ways to understand “in me.” In this article, we want to explore these to interpretations and see if we can learn anything about them. The first interpretation is that “in me” refers to our salvation. To be “in Christ” is to be a born again child of God. In the second interpretation, “in me” refers to fellowship or relationship with Christ. The difference is something like this. Compare it to the relationship between children and their parents. We can talk about whether or not children legitimately belong to their parents. Or we can about their relationship. Children can have a bad relationship with their parents and not lose them as parents.

Now, I am no theologian. Most of what I will discuss here come from Joseph C. Dillow’s article “Abiding is Remaining: Another Look at John 15:1-6.” Let’s consider first the idea of “in me” meaning salvation. This reading makes sense to us because we so frequently hear “in Christ” refer to salvation, as in “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (2 Cor 5:17a). Under this interpretation, when Jesus says “every branch in me” He is referring to saved believers. There is a bit of a problem with this. Verse 2 says that “every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away” and later in verse 6 “if anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers.” If we understand this passage as talking about salvation and heaven and hell, we have two options. Either Jesus is saying that genuine believers will lose their salvation if they do not abide or somehow the “in me” in verse 2 must be different than the other “in me’s.” We know the first option cannot be correct because of the overwhelming amount of Scripture that teaches that we cannot lose our salvation. Therefore, most theologians who take the salvation view of “in me” claim that the branches that do not bear fruit merely claim to be “in Christ” but are not so. This is difficult to justify, but there is another option for interpreting this text.

We must recognize the context of Jesus’ teaching. Judas has left to betray Jesus, and the only people with Him the 11 faithful disciples. Therefore, He is speaking to those who are all genuine believers who will serve Jesus faithfully all of their lives. But, they are scared and confused over the news that Jesus will be leaving them soon. Jesus is teaching them how to follow Him and bear fruit when they can no longer see Him face to face. It would make sense that Jesus would not need to teach these men about being saved, but rather how to maintain this wonderful relationship they have been building for 3 years. There are at least 4 reasons to understand “in me” as being good relationship.

1) The various passages in which “in Christ” refers to salvation are written by Paul. We have to look at how John uses the phrase, which is mostly to talk about relationship. This does not mean that they teach different things, but rather that they use words differently.
2) The context lends to the idea that Jesus would want to give His disciples practical, comforting words about how to stay with Him.
3) The command to abide means that Jesus thought that the disciples had to work to “remain in Him.” This does not make sense in salvation, but makes perfect sense in relationship. The whole of Scripture teaches that salvation is God’s work in us. We are not saved by our works, but by faith in God’s grace. However, we do strive and work to know the Lord more fully in our lives.
4) It removes the problem of interpreting the branches not “in Him.” We then see that Jesus is using the dried up branches to describe the relationship between Himself and non-abiding believers, not the state of their soul.

Though there are good reasons to follow both interpretations, I believe that understanding “in me” as referring to fellowship with Christ is the most accurate interpretation. It explains that Christ is urging the men He dearly loved (and also us!) to stay close to Him by abiding. He longs for relationship with us. This abiding relationship yields fruit, which glorifies the Father (John 15:8), witnesses to the world (John 15:8) and gives us joy (John 15:11).

For His glory and our joy,
nr

Subculture

What a great week my wife and I had on our anniversary in Portland. One interesting statement was said to me: “Portland is a land of subcultures. Anything you want to find here, whether it is pirates, kickball leagues, hippies, clowns, ANYTHING…that subculture exists”. It was actually pretty funny to witness and intriguing to process.

My walk away was this: a lot of times I think we live in this fib that we have to move away and change everything to live missionally. This can be true and false. TRUE: many of us need to change everything if we were to really live this way. FALSE: we need to move away to accomplish it.

We have subcultures here! We have neighbors, teammates, coworkers, friends, and (listen up) enemies that need to be loved with the purest love of Jesus. To be honest, high school can be a highlight time for this because students are already immersed with these subculture opportunities. Perhaps this is what Jesus meant when he pulled a child on his lap and said we need to learn from them.

Living missionally means living on the edge…changing how we do this life thing…and figuring out how to intersect the ordinary with the extraordinary, bringing the kingdom of heaven to the hearts, souls, and realities of needy people.
Amen?

~deep thoughts from a shallow guy~
mn

Saved to Join the Game

There is this theme that has been floating around here a lot lately. Newman came back from Rwanda and really starting challenging us to join in with what God is doing in saving the world. I’ve been continuing to chew on this idea, and it is rocking my world. You see, when Scripture talks about our participation it opens a deep well of theological significance. Embracing what God has called us to do teaches us a lot about who God is. Let me point out just a few passages…

First of all, there’s this little encounter that Jesus has with a Samaritan woman who is burned out, dried up and beaten down by her own sin and brokenness. The conversation that Jesus has with this woman is amazing, but there’s one part that has stuck with me. You see, Jesus starts telling the woman about the “living water” that He could offer (they were standing by a well, so the metaphor seems appropriate. There are actually a lot of other great reasons for choosing “living water,” but that’s another conversation). Jesus goes on to tell her that when anyone drinks this water it will become in him or her a “well springing up to eternal life” (John 4:14). Now, what’s the purpose of a well? It’s where people come to get water. So, when we receive from Christ, he transforms us into something He uses to give to others. From the very beginning, before this woman had believed, Jesus is saying, “If you believe in me, I’m going to use you to minister to others.”

Later, Jesus is sitting around having dinner with His disciples. It’s just before He goes to be crucified, and He knows it. So, He takes this time to pass on His final words to the disciples. He tells them, among other things, that there is something different about how they are to follow His commands. He explains that slaves obey their masters but don’t really know his plans or why they’re doing what they’re doing. He says that He doesn’t call the disciples slaves, but friends, because He’s let them in on His plans. You see, God has made known to us His plan to redeem the world and has invited us to join Him.

Finally, in a letter to the believers in Corinth, Paul wrote that God “reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (1 Cor. 5:18). You definitely need to read the whole thing, but the key is this. God saves and redeems us, and then He invites us to be a part of His plan to save and redeem others. How tragic is it that we so often view ministry as mere “church work!” As if it is some chain of obligation that we wear! The God of the universe has shown that in His grace He extends His hand to invite us into the most exciting story ever told! As Newman has described it, the game is set. The winner has already been determined. We have just been invited to join the team and be a part of it so we get a ring at the end. So, you wanna play?

For His glory and our joy,
nr

If You Don't Feel As Close To God...Who Moved?

By Paula Pinto

An anonymous author posted a quote on the Internet that said, " If you don't feel as close to God as you use to, who moved?" The words of the quote penetrated within me and perhaps you can understand why. There have been moments when I did not feel the presence of God. There were times when the struggles of life, the setbacks, the disappointments or even my own decision to give more priority to the busyness of "life," took precedence over my relationship with the Lord. Instead of my attention being focused on the things that are vital to our relationship with the Him such as praying and reading my word, I chose to do my own thing.

Other times I found it difficult to understand why, as God's people, we are not "always" consumed by His presence, and was challenged to accept that in life sometimes bad things happen to good people. Perhaps, to an extent, my anger about that distanced my relationship with the Lord. And then in the midst of that I stood there saying, "But God where are you?" Instead of the situations pushing me closer to God, I pulled away. I stopped praying as much, reading as often, and my worship started to seize.
There have also been times when maybe I was in prayer and didn't feel this overwhelming feeling, so I questioned as to why, if I am doing this, don't I feel anything. Why if I am making this effort to spend time with him, don't I feel like He's there to spend time with me, and so I refrained from doing it as often....bad move.

You see, in our Christian walk we can hold many positions. Some are called to be ministers, others to be teachers, there are some called to be evangelists, others to lead ministries, but the most IMPORTANT position that one must find himself in on a day to day basis is knelt down before the Lord in prayer and worship. That is what will always be the direct line of contact between God and ourselves. It is when we put that secondary and all of the other things before it that we fell the "drought" from his ever flowing goodness, mercy, peace, joy and ability to continue on in our Christian walk.

Does that mean that when we make a choice to do this on a daily basis that we will not feel "numb" at times or hard to feel the closeness of God? No. Having done all that, there are still times when our nature will battle against our spiritual being. But when we apply these principles to our life, we are not so easily defeated.
We know, as the word instructs us, that we ought not go by feelings. Let's face it, we can feel great one minute and moments later something could happen that changes our mood. Sometimes something doesn't even have to take place for our mood to change. As Christians, we cannot go by feelings, because feelings change, but when we are continually feeding oneself with the things of God, we know that our feelings at the present moment do not determine whether or not God is there or has left us abandoned. When we can adapt to the realization that it is not Him that moves away from us, but we that move away from Him, we can better get ourselves back on track by seeking him more frequently and rejecting those things which so easily try to beset us.
If, at this moment, you are feeling that you are alone, that God has turned His face on you, be encouraged my brother or sister that He is still there, and feelings of abandonment from Christ are lies. Truthfully, it may be either one of two things and that is that we have strayed away from investing in those precious moments with Him or going by our feelings. Nevertheless, both reasons should remind us to take the opportunity to kneel down before him, where He is certain to meet us and let everything else be secondary.

Paula Pinto is the Managing Editor and a writer for a New York newspaper. She is a member of the Christian based writing community Faith Writers, and writes a column called Christian Food For Thought, published monthly on Christian News Today.
Ms. Pinto can be contacted at pintopaula7@yahoo.com