Excess

I was Reading Commissioner Joe Noland's Blog today,http://joenoland.blogspot.com/ (I am actually a pretty faithful reader. It wasn't until after he retired that i began to see some of the things he did that truly benefited our territory)

Any way he posted on the Oscars and pointed out some of the excess and Irony involved in celebrities wearing 2+ million dollars in clothes and accessories while using the Oscars as a platform to proclaim the moral tragedies of Global Warming.

Wow!!! Commissioner that was good stuff.

Excess is something that every American Christian should struggle against. I don't take a lot of stock in things the only treasures i have to my name is my library and my Hot Sauce collection. But i find my self often struggling to to ask my self why i am buying something. often simply because i can.

God help us to be better stewards.

Divine Providence

Being a bit of a Wesleyan extremist i tend to play down those things that point towards a got that actually manipulates minor events in our lives. You know what I am talking about... like when you don't have any money for the train and a Metro Card just appears on the ground in front of you. Like Neo (Reference from the Matrix Trilogy) i like to believe that I am responsible for my own destiny, that the choices i make legitimately matter.

Also if God manipulates minor events it raises some legitimate questions about whey he doesn't manipulate much larger events. like the current genocide taking place in Darfur. I don't go as far as my friends and say that God Can't manipulate anything he wants (open Theology, Process Theology and Relational Theology all of which have something significant to teach us if we can learn to open up to something new) I simply avoid or play down those incidences, choosing to accept that God is bigger than me and there is a lot that confuses me.

But sometimes... The coincidences are just a little too much to chalk up to chance. At My church we have a youth drop in center. A place that provides a safe place video games and the Gospel to neighborhood teens. one of the teens had his Ipod stolen there about 3 weeks ago and it was not recovered. last night we took as many of our teens as we could coerce to a youth program up the street at another church. We had about 20 by the time the program started there were probably 200 in attendance.

They stared by picking three students to take part in a game that involved keys and whipped cream and Rayray the kid who had his Ipod Stolen won the game and a new Ipod. Ray ray also responded to the alter call at the end of the meeting.

I could chalk it up to coincedence or o could say that God manipulated the game results as part of a divine plan or I could simply accept that I have a wonderful God who does wonderful things and that i will never fully grasp his greatness. But... I will keep exploring it.

Enslaving my Body

Josh and I have been playing full tackle football with the neighborhood teens almost every other week. When we started I thought it was a great thing. I can get in shape and do minstry at the same time. (There is also the added benefit of being able hit those kids who like to run their mouths and it is ok)

Well that was all great when josh and I were joking about it beforehand but each time I play I realize a little more that I am no longer the 'juggernaut'. It seems that i am getting het as often as i am doing the hitting. I can be brought down. And you know what it hurts.

As I sit hear waiting for the train to come and take my broken carcass home, I am reminded of 1 Corinthians 9:27 that says: "No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

This verse became special to me after my last heart surgery. It is to easy to just accept out physical brokeness and become lazy but we don't have to we can get up every time we fall or are knocked down and do it again.

So as sore as i am i'll be back there in two weeks as soon as i mend from today

To Lent or No to Lent

Last year was the first year that i took lent seriously and Gave something up. I gave up HALO a first person Shooter Video game. At the time HALO was consuming almost all of my spare time. and i defended it by saying things like; "It's how i relieve stress and unwind" At the end of the forty days i felt truly blessed spiritually, in my family live, and physically. So when lent was over i continued my hiatus from the particular video game. I didn't give up gaming because without HALO i don't play a fraction of the time i used to.

Now a year later i no longer own Halo (I do play on a rare occasion with the teens of the corps but that is ministry.

Lent was such a blessing last year that i decided to do it again but... like last year i wanted to do something that could become permanent after the Lenten season. So i decided to give up 'time'. Time is our most valuable commodity is today's society and God doesn't get enough of mine.

If you know me you may be thinking: "What do you mean? You work for him. He gets most of your time." But there is a difference between working 'for' him and spending time 'with' him.

As a ministry it can become easy to confuse the 'for' and the 'with'. I read scripture every day whether it is preparing a sermon or bible study or just looking for the right thing to say when counseling someone. but while God is with me in those times they are not a substitute for a proper devotional time (don't ever use the term 'quiet time' but that is fodder for another blog)

This year i have gone the route of a traditional 40 day devotional book that i will faithfully (i pray) complete each day. Instead of giving something up i hope to add something.

Generous Orthodoxy

I have been off of the blog scene for a couple months now. I have still been lurking and occasionally even dropping a mini post. But whenever I try to sit down and really write a post I have been unable to adequately articulate what I am feeling.

You see I Recently read the book “Generous Orthodoxy” by Brian McLaren. This book made me angry, happy, excited and confused all at the same time and I am confident that this is absolutely the authors intent. I have tried to use my blog as a forum to respond to this book but every time I try I get so caught up on one aspect or another of the book that I was unable to say what it is inside me that I feel needs to be said in response to this “literary meany” . This time I have put the book away and I am going to generalize and respond that I believe is the main thrust of McLaren’s message. However, I will no0t use the book as a reference because that just distracts me.

McLaren argues that Christians have become so fractured and that we have in many cases missed the point as Christians. Now he doesn’t identify one point that is being missed but rather that most of “our” pet points really belong on the periphery and not the center of our spiritual lives.

He does point out three things that all Christians should strive for. (these are not in a particular order they are just all important themes in the book)

Christians should be “missional” (missional as in acting in such away as to be consistent with or further the mission of God. Not necessarily the traditional evangelism exclusive understanding of the word.)

Christians should strive to Truly Love their Neighbors

Unity among all Christians is essential.

All three of these things are things that I whole heartly agree with what has me so disturbed is the plan he describes to achieving them. My big concern is this.

Mclaren would have us down play our doctrinal distinctive in an effort to achieve unity: While it is important to be generous regarding orthodoxy. I believe that none of us have the answer but simply accepting that truth and simply focusing on the “non negotionables of our faith sounds a lot like throwing in the towel, with regard to understanding the complexities of God just because we never will understand God fully is not an excuse not to look into the subtleties of our creator.

The fact is I have some Truth as a Salvationist that a Baptist doesn’t have but he also has an import lesson to teach me and if we can truly love each other first than we should be able to enter into a dialogue with our Christian brothers and sisters and celebrate a unity with our diversity.

Once again I believe if we could learn to really love the way Christ wanted us to most of our other problems would be a lot easier to figure out.