A fairly new friend of mine was doing nothing but minding his own business.  Well, actually he was consumed with his own business.  Venting to God about said business.  This idea of even talking to God as if he were really there is a new thing for my friend.  But he was trying it out, and found out that it works.  God responds.    

After a few times of doing this kind of prayer-therapy with God, venting his frustration and asking hard questions and directions regarding his own life, he called another friend of mine and had a very interesting question.  Choking back tears, he whispered into his cell, “What the %@#&* is happening to me?  I’m trying to pray but I keep saying words I don’t understand.”

This gets me thinking.  How many people experience glossolalia (speaking in tongues) for the first time and have no idea that it is the Holy Spirit?  

I had a friend in college who was en route to become a Catholic Priest, and when we got together one day and prayed, he was obviously moved on and began speaking in tongues.  

I asked, “When were you first filled with the Holy Spirit?”

He said, “Is that what that gibberish funny-talk is?”  

For me, I don’t think the Spirit is simply tongues, but I do think God has has poured his Spirit into people around the world and they have received supernatural power, a counselor, the Spirit of truth, a comforter and more … and they have no idea.

What stories can you tell of people who wondered what the %@#&* was happening to them, when it was just God at work … in them?

At The Journey, we’re making some decisions that clarify our goals as a church.  

These are not goals, as in a destination … but goals as in the direction of our journey … they are declaration of intentions … borrowed from Graham Cooke.

Decisions that define us

We’ve decided that teaching the Gospel without demonstrating the gospel in not enough.  Good preaching, good doctrine, being good people is not enough.

We’ve decided that having a good church club is not enough. Good fellowship is not enough. And just being a member of that club is not enough.

We’ve decided that having good Bible studies is good, but not good enough. That just making it to heaven is not our goal, and that knowing about God without truly knowing and experiencing God is meaningless. 

We’ve decided that having good programs is not enough; that change without transformation is intolerable. And that staying the same is not an option.

We’ve decided that gifting without character is futile. 

We’ve decided that singing songs without worshiping is hollow and having meetings without God showing up is pointless.

We’ve decided that having faith without works is not enough and having works without love is not acceptable – that our function comes out of our relationship first with the Father and second with each other. 

We’ve decided that reading about the book of Acts without living the book of Acts is unthinkable.

We’ve decided that confident faith is good…..bold faith is better.

We’ve decided that hearing about the Holy Spirit without experiencing Him….. is silly. That believing in His presence without seeing it manifested in signs and wonders……is hypocrisy. That believing in healing without seeing people healed……is absurd. And that believing in deliverance without people being delivered………is absolutely ridiculous. 

We’ve decided to be Holy Spirit filled, Holy Spirit led, and Holy Spirit empowered – anything less doesn’t work for us. 

We’ve decided to be the ones telling the stories of God’s power – not the ones hearing about them.

We’ve decided that living saved, but not supernatural is living below our privilege and short of what Christ died for. 

We’ve decided we’re a battleship not a cruise-ship! An Army not an audience! Special Forces not spectators! Missionaries not club members!

We’ve decided to value both pioneers and settlers – pioneers to expand our territory and settlers to build on those territories – but we are not people who take up space others have fought for without improving it … we are not squatters.

We’ve decided to be infectious instead of innocuous. Contagious instead of quarantined! Deadly instead of benign!

We’ve decided to be radical lovers and outrageous givers.

We’ve decided that we are a mission station not a museum.

Therefore: 

We honor the past but we don’t live in it. 

We live in the present with our eyes on the future.

We see past events – the successes and failures – as stepping stones not stop signs. 

We pursue learning in order to be transformed, not learning in order to know.

We are people of engagement not observation.

We focus on what could be – not on what is or has been.

We are not limited to the four walls of this building – our influence is not restricted by location. Not even the nations are out of bounds. 

We are more concerned about how many we send out into the world then how many we convince to come into the building. This building is meant to be filled and it will be – but it will NOT be the measure of who we are or the measure of our effectiveness. 

We raise-up world changers, not tour guides. We train commandos, not committees.  

We are a people of our destiny, not our history. 

We’ve decided that it is better to fail while reaching for the impossible that God has planned for us than succeed in settling for less. 

We’ve decided that nothing short of His Kingdom come and His will be done, in our world as it is in Heaven, will satisfy. 

We’ve decided that we will not be satisfied until our world freaks out and cries out, “Those who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”

These are some of the decisions that define who we are as a community and how we live our lives.

These decisions are not destinations – but rather a journey – a journey along an ancient path – we’ve not found some new way – but rather rediscovered the path as old as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The same path followed by Moses, Joshua and Caleb – Paul, John and Peter.

The path followed by the first century church – a church that revolutionized the culture of the first century and beyond. 

It’s a path that will impact the world we live in today. It’s a path of Bold Faith – believing that what God says is really true and acting on it. 

It’s a path of Outrageous Generosity – giving our life away in order to demonstrate His Kingdom. 

It’s a path of Radical Love – loving God with EVERYTHING in us and our neighbor as ourselves. 

This is a path of liberty, freedom and healing.

On this path – you will find significance, purpose, and destiny. 

It is a path less traveled however – it’s not a path only available to a select few – but to whosoever will … they may come.

It’s for people of EVERY nation, tribe and tongue – for those in any occupation or vocation.

No matter where you are in your journey – there’s room on this path for you.

Yep.  We’re adopting finally.  After 12 years of marriage, Ellen and I have found our sons, or they have found us.  Elijah and Enoch (10 and 9) have been with us 2 weeks, and after 6 months of doing the foster thing, we can adopt them.  So this summer is all about relationship building.  

What’s better than camping?  To endure rainy, cold, bear-crawly woods together is our method, and building relationship is our goal.  And last night we used the living room to gear up for fishing.  The boys were bouncing off the walls.  Grandpa Yadon was giving knife sharpening lessons.  I was putting new line on old reels.  And in the midst of it all I had to make some impromptu rules.  Here are a few:

Rule #1: No sharpening pocket knives while wearing fishing waders.  We’d hate to dull the knife while cutting strips out of our new waders … or legs.  

This is what I fear would happen during our "pretending to stab the bad person who really deserved it" fiasco.

Rule #2:  Fishing poles are to be pointed downward when inside.  How often does someone have to make a rule like this?  It seems that our ceiling fan creates a magnetic draw to fishing poles, and the boys couldn’t stop it because “it just happened.”

Rule #3:  Knives are tools, not toys.  They are are sharp and not to be thrown at someone, to someone, or pretending to stab someone … even if the pretend person really deserved it.

Rule #4:  What’s mine is yours … technically.  These lures here are yours to “oversee”, while I “oversee” these over here.  This pole is the one I use, and these flimsy ones are the ones you use.

Rule #5:  Hooks are tools, not toys.  They are sharp and not to be thrown at someone, to someone, or pretending to stab someone … even if the pretend person really deserved it.

Rule #6:  ”Because I say so” is a valid reason for obedience.  I knew this one was coming, and I sounded just like my mom when it so easily rolled off my tongue for the first time.  I now understand.

An Anchorage gun dealer informs bear-wary buyers, “Wherever there is dirt, it is bear territory, and the concrete areas probably have bears too.”  For many people, killing unwanted bears is a solid solution.  After unprovoked “city bears” attack joggers and bicyclists last year, and when bears were struck by cars in our business district, it makes sense to lean towards capital punishment of potential problem-makers.  The issue then becomes determining which bears are or are not potential problems.  With tempting trash cans and pets around, who can blame a hungry bear?  And who can blame a dad for wearing a .44 when riding bikes with his kids?

Another way of handling the issue is to be proactive.  While schools and neighborhoods have informed people about bear activity and how to respond to potential threats, the city of Anchorage has recently hired a wildlife specialist to deal with problem bears. This first-time position with the city was created in response to the series of attacks last summer; the goal of the wildlife specialist is to prevent all inappropriate relationships between wildlife and humans.  We will see how effective this solution turns out.

One less popular way of dealing with the bear situation is cohabiting with bears peacefully.  Strange as it sounds, it has been done … sort of.  Charles Vandergaw has has lived with wild grizzly and black bears at his cabin just North of Anchorage for 20 years, offering them cookies and dog food in exchange for friendship.  

Vandergaw became a sensation this April when he was featured in Animal Planet’s “Stranger among Bears”.  For 51 days a filmographer lived at the isolated cabin with him, documenting his spectacular life with bears.  Each episode shows Vandergaw hand-feeding wild bears, petting them, and lazing around with them in the sun, touching hand to paw.  Wherever Vandergaw walked with his blue bucket of food, a dozen bears followed. 

Many Alaskans hear this and immediately think of Timothy Treadwell, the Californian bar-tender who spent 14 summers living among bears in Katmai, but was finally eaten by the bears he thought befriended him. Vandergaw says he is not remotely similar to Treadwell,  “I’ve tried hard not to invade the bear’s space,” he says. “They are coming in here and entering my space.”  He does admit that by feeding the bears he has created something unnatural, but he says he is obsessed with touching the bears.  “I’ve created a fairyland here. This is not the real world … they’re comfortable with other humans here.” 

Bear biologists believe he is sitting on a time bomb (or feeding one), and his actions are not safe for the bears or for other humans. They feel he has habituated the bears, so that people equal food.  If the food is not present, though, the bears may leave, rummage, or attack. Despite the professional input, Vandergaw still believes bears and human can cohabit peacefully.  This he says while carrying his blue bucket of peace offerings.

By feeding the bears on a consistent basis he intends to prove they are not as threatening as people believe.  And after 20 years, he has made some believers.  But skeptics want to know if he’s ever been attacked by his “friends”.  Vandergaw said, “I’ve been slapped. I’ve been knocked unconscious. I’ve been T-boned by large bears and had a hard time getting up … in no way any of those was an all-out attack.”  Even during the Animal Planet filming, both he and the filmographer were bitten.  The very bear he believed had made the most progress bit through his hand, jerked him off his feet, and slammed him to the ground.  He took himself to the hospital to be stitched and treated.  Just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so the definition of “attack” is in the eye of the victim.

Biologists disagree with Vandergaw’s theories.  By habituating wild bears with human food, he can pretend wild animals are his pets, but when the food runs dry, the friendship is over.  State troopers also disagree with Vandergaw’s methods and have charged him with 20 misdemeanor counts of illegally feeding bears.  This proves that it’s never good to do illegal activities under your real name on national television.

Though the opinions vary as to how Alaskans and legislation ought to deal with the increasing bear encounters and attacks, it is safe to guess that Vandergaw’s idea of peaceful cohabitation with dangerous wildlife is not going to win out.  What would be next?  Mosquito whispering?

Does anyone really focus on the essentials of the faith anymore? Can someone step outside their traditions and not be labeled a heretic by those closest to them?

For the 15 years, I’ve been a part of an organization myself that has held a strong stance against the drinking of alcohol since the 50’s (they drink nothing at all … not even in moderation).  It is preached and taught against.  It is looked down upon, but it is strangely not in their beloved articles of faith; though they do declare boldly that they wholly disapprove of co-ed gym classes where boys and girls play baseball together. 

What’s the point, you may ask?  My point is that I know we have to have “house rules” for churches and organizations.  But we need to call a spade a spade, and house rules are based on the personal convictions or even the spiritual convictions of a church’s or denominational leader.  Okay, I get that.  It is leadership.  God expected Moses to draw a line around Mt. Sinai where the people couldn’t cross over, and then didn’t tell Moses the details of where the line should be.  That’s what pastors … of which I am one … that’s what we do.  But the reason I have chosen this particular ministerial organization to be part of is because of their Fundamental Doctrine; it is so pure and simple.  Every organization has house rules, but when the house rules overshadow the essentials in importance, there is a major problem.

But can we please have some honesty?  Can we have some thorough study of scripture, without trying to start with a conclusion and find out how the Bible can support it?  Yes, alcohol can be abused.  So can coffee.  I myself am having to limit myself because coffee is tearing up my stomach one drink at a time.  But the issue isn’t really about alcohol, or music styles, or tatoos, or church-appropriate clothing, or hair length, or tithing.  What does the Bible label sin?  What does the Bible say will keep someone from the kingdom?  That is our list of don’ts.  If a pastor or denomination has personal convictions or spiritual convictions given by God above this list of don’ts, please explain the biblical principle behind that conviction … and don’t declare it as sin.

I’m truly afraid we have brought many personal convictions into the essentials of the Faith and called them necessary. It is confusing new converts, which is frustrating those who have been in our churches for awhile and don’t wrestle with these questions anymore.  

The Christianity Today article, which is a good read by the way, is a good indicator of where denominations are changing on their view of alcohol … but this is really only a surface level issue.  The bigger issue remains untouched.

What say ye?

I came home from the theater, pulled my old Schwinn bike out of the garage and began trying to do cherrypickers in the driveway that night. I quickly realized I had to get new equipment.  I couldn’t do what the RAD guy did with what I had (no footpegs, no number plate, no hand brakes, no name-brand stickers, no bmx t-shirts, no helmet, no pads, no ramps, no paper route). 

I couldn’t do what I wanted to do with what I had.  Looking back, I suppose I could race and be a freestyler with what I had, but it was easier on the front end to blame it on the lack of proper equipment.  Also looking back, I think this is the dilemma of all males. We just want more gear, for whatever venture we may be into.  Our closets and garages are not full of enough gear yet.  We always want to be prepared to go pro at something if we ever find that we are actually good at it.

So after laying out my reasoning before my dad, he told me he would buy me a new bike.  My newest dream could come true. He took me into the big city of Shreveport to pick out the bike I liked, But when he saw the price tags, and that they were not much better than the bike I had already, he decided to do something different.

Every detail in place, except for the yellow Skyway mags.

When we got home, we had work to do.  First, we cleaned the garage.  the work we were going to do required room.  We set up a “BMX magic area” that was designated to transforming junk into BMX magic. 

Dad told me this might take some time, and once we started taking it apart, I wouldn’t have anything to ride.  So I was going to have to be committed to this process.  I thought about it for 2 seconds, and told him I could walk for the next year if I could have that blue GT with the yellow skyway mags and blue tires.

We brought the Schwinn into the BMX magic area.  Dad showed me how to remove the handlebars, the tires, the seat, everything.  Together, we stripped the old Schwinn down to its bare, ugly frame and then we began abusing it.  We sanded and sanded until we had removed every bit of the old color.  Then we went to the paint store and picked out a beautiful GT blue, came home and painted it.

I scrubbed my dirty yellow mags until they looked new again.  I cleaned every part that we removed from the old bike.  Some old things we had to replace.  We bought a new blue tires, grips, a new seat, new crank, a number plate for the handlebars, a new helmet that matched the new blue bike.  We bought bearing grease and chain oil.  We tweaked the handlebars a bit so they were more freesyle-like, and then the day finally came.  We started the process of putting it all back together.

Part by part and piece by piece, the old Schwinn became that GT I had wanted.  The transformation was complete.  The last thing we put on it was the number plate.  Though I had never raced a day in my life, it looked like I was a pro … number 47 (I think).  I rode it around the neighborhood in complete victory, though I had won nothing.  Friends were jealous, and began asking their dads to make their bikes into GTs.  It was a glorious day.

But the next day was not so glorious.  I had supposed that having the right gear, and the right bike I could be like the guy in RAD.  But my skills had not improved when the bike changed.

After trying cherry-pickers, front foot endos, bar hops, bar spins, and other tricks that seemed so easy on the movie … I limped home with busted elbows and bleeding knees.  I hated that bike. After one afternoon of tying the tricks myself …. I was done.

Soon, the GT became just a mode of transportation again.  It was not a BMX racer, it was not a freestyle magic machine.  I couldn’t do anything on it.  The dream had died.

Until I went to the local bike store’s free BMX show.  Pro and corporate riders showed up to teach us tricks and show us what bikes are really meant for.  Their excellence and grace and pure guts re-ignited a spark in me.  I could do this after all!  I could be the champion of all things BMX.

I went home and tried the tricks again … and then got into skateboarding.

Let’s get right to the mother of all church issues.  Traditions.  Which ones are of God?  Which ones can we live without?

By looking at the last 100 years of church history and by listening to the questions being asked today, it seems that one primary issue people are trying to determine is this:  How do we tell the commands of God from the traditions of men?  And once we figure that out, how do we handle the division that will arise once somebody steps outside those traditions?

This “tradition” discussion is not new, neither is the solution.

A few hundred years ago, every respectable man wore a powdered wig. What rebels broke against that great idea? Young Jeezy and I agree ... Long live the wowdered pig!

 Look around. Many of the older generations of saints condemn the younger because they will not take up the traditions which have been their  heartfelt, personal identity markers for decades and centuries.  And many of the younger generation looks down on the older because they have too many identity markers they believe are unnecessary and outside of Jesus.

If my reading of church culture is too harsh here, read the Apostle Paul’s explanation of the weak and strong in Romans 14.  This chapter is Paul dealing with controversy over traditions in the church in Rome 2000 years ago. We see this is an age-old problem of God’s people. 

In the church in Rome, one faction believed you could eat and drink everything (the strong) and the other had traditions that strictly forbade some food and wine (the weak).  To the strong it was a matter of preference.  To the weak, it was a sin issue.  Paul’s response?  “Whatever you believe about these things, keep it between yourself and God” (vs 22).  

So what were “these things” Paul talks of.  In vs. 1 he calls them disputable matters … traditions passed down over time that may seem holy and beneficial, but are not outright commands from God.  In other words, these disputable matters are not essential and cannot be expected of people.  They are not covenant issues. They are not actually sin issues, though some may see it that way because of their traditions.

Jesus and the Pharisees
In this case in Mark 7:1-8, the traditions (the disputable matter) have become a tool of exclusion.  The weak ones who lived by the tradition couldn’t accept Jesus and his disciples who did not wash.  It made Jesus angry then, and it makes him angry now when weak saints use their traditions to exclude people from the church. 

In vs. 9-23 Jesus jumps on the Pharisees for actually twisting the intention of the Word of God with their traditions.  My friend says that when people make Bible say what they want it to say, they are “raping the word of God”.

So what do we do?
I think we ought to do as Paul taught in Romans 14.  Whatever we believe about traditions … about disputable matters, we ought to keep it to ourselves.  

THINK:

1. What traditions are you wrestling with, trying to determine if they are Biblical commands or just a weird misunderstanding of a scripture?
2. How do people in the church help turn others from sin if we are supposed to keep our opinions about such things to ourselves?
3. How do we know what sins are real sins and which are actually just breaking against traditions?

One of the best scenes is Glen Hansard (of The Frames) playing music on the street.  He works as a vacuum repairman for money, and plays music on the street for his soul-food. In this particular scene, it’s late at night, no one is walking by.  No one is tossing money into his guitar case.  It’s just him and his guitar, and his memories of a woman who is no longer in his life.  But the song he was singing … oh!

The rest of the songs in the movie are just as good, but i couldn’t pass up the link to this scene.

Check out the reviews and details on IMDB.

Judaism is a religion in which actions trump faith.  Checking lettuce for bugs (another weird Jewish law and real party favorite) is just as important as belief in God …

When we ask a rabbi about Judaism, more often than not it’s a legal question, not a theological one.  For example, we’re not allowed to mix meat and dairy food.  To be extra careful, we keep two sets of dishes.  Let’s say I used a dairy spoon with a meat pot by accident.  I need to ask a rabbi what to do with that spoon.  Do I throw it away?  Is there a way to make it “kosher” again?  Most likely, he’ll respond with a litany of follow-up questions.  What was in the pot?  How hot was it?  When was the last time the spoon had been used?  And so on. Compounding this problem is that asking a different rabbi will often garner you a different answer.

I’m not asking the rabbi, as a Catholic parishioner would a priest, how many Hail Marys I need to say in order to be forgiven for this transgression.  That’s not the point here.  I’m asking a practical question.  What the hell do I do with this spoon?

I’ll ask the obvious.  What does this have to do with spirituality?  Because once we go down this road, there’s no natural place to stop.  Forget the spoon.  What about the pot?  What about the food that was in the pot? What about the stove this tragic episode happened on? …

Maybe I’m crazy, but I thought religion had something to do with belief in God and being nice to your neighbor.  I wasn’t aware it had anything to do with oxen or pots or spoons, and even if it did, those things wouldn’t be of paramount import…

What kind of religion was this that worshiped minutiae over meaning?

Don’t get me wrong.  There are brilliance and beauty in this faith.  I just haven’t found them yet.    ~ Benyamin Cohen, p 25 of My Jesus Year.

In looking at why the Pharisees and priests were so oppositional to Jesus and his apparent carelessness with Jewish traditions,  John Ortberg says

James Dunn notes that in the first century a disproportionate amount of rabbinic attention was devoted to three areas of the law: dietary rules, Sabbath-keeping and circumcision. This was in spite of the fact that rabbis would not have claimed these as the central aspects of God’s will for humanity. They knew that the essence of the law was the shema — the loving of God with heart and soul and strength. So why the relentless focus on dietary laws, circumcision and Sabbath-keeping?

The answer, Dunn says, involves “identity markers,” or boundaries. All groups of human beings have a tendency to be exclusive; they want to know who is inside and who is out. So they adopt identity markers — visible practices of dress or vocabulary or behavior that serve to distinguish who is inside the group from who is outside.

Henri Nouwen wrote that it is very hard to stop being the prodigal son without turning into the elder brother. Any time people are not experiencing authentic transformation — as in Mark 7:21-23 — they will inevitably be drawn toward some kind of faith characterized by boundary markers. We will look for substitute ways of distinguishing ourselves from those on the outside. The boundary markers change from century to century, but they all reinforce a false sense of superiority, fed by the intent to exclude others,

Ironically, the one human being who was perfectly free from self-righteousness is the only one who was completely righteous. The least exclusive member of the human race is also its most exalted. The only person who has ever been truly free of a messiah complex was the Messiah (Pharisees are Us).

I started reading Cohen’s book last week and have only gotten halfway through it … so I’ll let you know if he finds the brilliance and beauty he was looking for in Jesus.  Or I suppose you could read it for yourself.

THINK:

1. What traditions do you see in Christianity that can be misused and overemphasized just like eating with “unclean hands”?
2. Do you think traditions in the Church do more to exclude people, or include them?  Why?
3. What traditions do you use to mark your identity as a Christian?  Why?  Do they help or hinder your relationship with God?
4. How can you determine the difference between a tradition of man (that has some root in scripture) and an outright command from God?

Even though Jesus really wanted the rest, he took time out for the people.  The needy people.  The hurt.  The broken.  The hungry.  No politicians in that crowd.  No priests.  No famous people.  What does this mean for me and you?  Jesus cares for normal joes.  He will meet our needs and teach us truth.

No matter what my mother says, The Brick Testament is pure genius.

While Jesus takes some time alone to pray, to recoup from the rigors of ministry, the disciples pile into the slow boat again and head back across the lake.  

And after many hours of prayer, it is now between 3 and 6 o’clock in the morning (remember he is setting an example of how important prayer is for us).  When he checks on his boys, he sees them working hard, fighting against the wind.  So he goes out on the lake, walking on the water.  He’s God incarnate.  he can do whatever he wants.

Jesus told them he would meet them in Bethsaida, and that’s where he was headed when they saw him and cried like like school girls in fear.  They thought it was a ghost.  But aren’t these are the same guys that had power and authority from Jesus to cast out demons?  Again, Jesus is compassionate and changes his plans to help.  He calms them down and climbs in the boat with them.  

The moment Jesus steps into the boat, the wind suddenly stops.  To me that is scarier than the idea of a ghost on the water coming after me.

THINK:

1. Do you ever think that Jesus cares about other people and will heal them or guide them but not you?  Why?
2. Jesus knows things about the future, right?  So why does he send his disciples into lake that he knows will soon have an opposing wind?  Why is he compassionate about some things, but not about other things?
3. What is Jesus allowing in your life right now, that you really need him to calm you down and say,”Don’t be afraid, It’s just me!”?
4. Verse 52 says that the disciples are amazed by Jesus and have hardened hearts at the very same time.  What in your heart needs to be softened?  
5. When you realize a little more of who Jesus really is, do you get scared?