Authentic Spirituality // Quote

“The only authentic evidence of spirituality is that we have personally sought and struggled for the health, wholeness, and freedom of others”

The Politics of Jesus by Obery M. Hendricks, Jr., Page 94

Constantine’s Christian Faith

Constantine (Christian Roman Emperor from 208AD-337AD) was responsible for the hierarchy in Christianity. Before he legalized it as the official religion of Rome, Christianity already had some hierarchy based by positions, but Constantine hierarchy was based on rank, they way a military would work. When he converted to Christianity he didn’t just become believer he became the head of the church, overnight. He even referred to himself as the thirteenth disciple. He started his structure by handpicking leaders for church positions based on if their opinion matched his own, not on actually biblical merit like say 1 Timothy 3. He even went as far as to bar people from churches if that taught something he didn’t approve of.

The Consequence of this rank system was the creation of an affluent, privileged ministerial class that was very similar to the Jerusalem priest class that Jesus died opposing. Now the functional roles that once served the church are the same roles that today govern it.

You can still see this system in place today in many churches with out the Pastors even knowing it. It’s a system where the Pastor runs the congregation like he’s the dictator, instead of a fellow follower. Many Pastors feel entitled now as if they are better then the people in their congregations, as if they owe him something for being so “blessed“. The rank system has transformed Church leaders from Shepard’s to elite privileged positions.

Jesus defined Christian ministry in one verse

Matthew 20:28
28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.

There is no doubt that Jesus would never stand for an attitude of entitlement or elitism found in many followers now.

-My thought inspired by Obery M. Hendricks, Jr.

What does Your Faith Do For You?

it’s time to confront the systems that everyone is owned by,
it will cost you something to be different from the norm,
but if your faith in Jesus Christ doesn’t change the way you live your life,
then it’s worthless
-My thought inspired by Rob Bell

Erwin McManus Quote

“The context for a miracle is always sacrifice”

If your not willing to sacrifice,

you shouldn’t be surprised in nothing amazing ever happens in your life

Erwin McManus, 7/22/07

When Faith Feels Like Scrambled Eggs

My faith feels like scrambled eggs

I can either apologize for it, hide it, or act like I don’t feel this way

all of which seem unacceptable to me

it’s easy to believe in God when life is easy.

Man, I wish that was the case

I think most people feel a sense of doubt about God when life gets hard.

If thats you,

Welcome

I’m not a bible expert, a theologian, a pastor, or even relatively that important to people over the age of 6

One thing I am is honest about God

When I read scripture, It doesn’t feel work, it feels more life watching a movie

I see the scenes frame by frame, I feel the emotions, I see whats not being said.

I see several layers to every story

the surface

the historical importance

the Jewish importance

the practical importance

and for me the most important

the emotional importance

The gospels are full of emotion

I guess that’s why I don’t apologize for mine.

Fahrenheit 9/11 // Michael Moore

I finally got around to watching Fahrenheit 9/11  by Michael Moore.

I know most Republicans will say they don’t like them with out even watching or hearing what he has to say. Even by now most people who have seen this have forgotten what it’s all about. So I have a few quick thoughts about the movie

1.Isn’t it funny that the rich and powerful are the ones to decide when we go to war, but they aren’t the ones who go over to fight. They won’t even let their kids enlist. Only 1 man in the congress has a son in the war. Instead the people that sign up happily to go fight are the poor, uneducated, and ignorant people who see the military as their only way out of this life style. Yet they are going to another country to fight for peoples freedom to give them the same thing that they just came from.

It opens your eyes to how broke the system is.

The other amazing point Moore made was that the Saudi royal family has more them $800 BILLION invested in the United States. What would happen to our economy if they just decide to take that money somewhere else. So who do you think has more pull in the government , some guy from the Midwest with an email petition or the Saudi Royal family, they same ones who fund terrorist.

Just some thoughts

Desire of the Everlasting Hills // Book Review

Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus by Thomas Cahill

Cahill is a great author, not the easiest to read, but his shear attention to details makes his books interesting.

One idea that stands out to me in this book was about the the society and culture of first century Palestine when Jesus was just starting his ministry. The Jews were so unimportant in the world that Alexander’s biographer doesn’t even mention that they were conquered by Alexander The Great. They were under Roman rule, and with a foreign government came a foreign society. So what was happening was that the Jewish people were in a sense ” losing their religion” . They were adapting to Greek culture, Greek trends and even began to replace their language, Hebrew was no longer the speaking language of the Jews. Which is the ultimate sign that a culture is leaving it’s history behind.

So when Jesus steps into ministry, and begins to use very Jewish parables, it was a reminder to his people to not forget the promise of God, to not forget who they are.

The Prodigal Son

The Prodigal Son

Luke 15:11-32
“A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, “Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me”. The younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living. He went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger! So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him for this son was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found.’ And they began to celebrate.

 

This is just a paraphrase of the story, But I feel the need to know more, about what’s going on under the surface of this story.

• Why does the younger son ask for his inheritance?
• why did he go to a distant land?
• is it important that he feed pigs?
• Why did he come back?
• Why is his father waiting for him?
• Why does the story just end without wrapping up the details?

This is my best effort and trying to make sense of this:

Asking your father for your share of the inheritance was like say, “Your of no value to me alive, I wish you were dead so I would at least get your money.” It was the same as putting a curse on your father. It brought great shame to the whole family.

He then leaves to go live in a foreign land, that was unthinkable in Jewish culture, you wouldn’t leave the people that God has called you be to live in a country that was pagan.

He ends up broke and feeding pigs to survive, that’s about as low as a good Jewish boy can get, he now has made himself unclean because of his touching the pigs.

In Jewish first century, if you shamed your family you would never come back, it was the ultimate insult. But the son decides that it’s better to come back than to live this way. You could say he repents.

Then his father is waiting and sees him, and starts running.

Why is he watching for a son, that’s not suppose to come back?

As Tom Wright says “To see an elder in this first century Jewish society running, would mean that elder has lost all his dignity” So why does this father so willingly lose his dignity for a son that wished he was dead

The second half of the story is more about the older brothers reaction to this whole story, but then the story just ends! Jesus doesn’t wrap it all up. Why!

As Americans we value the end of the story, we like to have a nice neat ending where everything is cleaned up and explained, But in Jewish culture that’s not the way it works. Stories weren’t just blunt example to make a point, stories were dynamite. They had the power to move and persuade people. The value of a story came from the work and thought you put into it. The deeper you dig into a story the more meaning there is.

The story on one level is about the love of a earthly father, and the repentance of his son, then it gets deeper as you look for a spiritual meaning. It moves from a story about fictional characters to a story about you and me. How we have run away from God to a foreign land, so we could live by our own rules with out anyone telling us what to do. At some point we hit rock bottom, we come to our senses, and we start back home.

And even when we are a long way off, God sees us and starts running to us, losing all his dignity to be associated with the child who wasn’t suppose to come back, the child that shamed him.

The Psychology of Crucifixion

I read some stuff that gave me a new insight to the crucifixion. To lead me think about some of things that bug me about the story.

Like why weren’t the disciples other than John at the crucifixion?

It doesn’t take long if you study this event to find out that crucifixion had a huge Political Purpose. Anyone who challenged the Roman empire would await their fate on the cross.

No matter how brave you were, you can’t hide your emotions from being crucified, and no matter how strong you were, you weren’t getting off the cross. A lot of religions in the first century counted on a peaceful death as a sign that they were going to the after life, but being crucified stripped you of your identity and humanity. It was a brutal way to die, and was viewed as someone who’s life isn’t good enough to live eternally.

The cross was also used to stop radical revolutionary revolts. They would find the leader crucifix him, and the movement would soon stop, because his followers wouldn’t want the same fate.

The thought of Jesus one the cross would crash their whole world. It would make them question whether he was who he said he was. And to see him die would mean he was fake, he was no better then anyone else. Maybe that explains why only john was there.The disciples weren’t as terrified of what was happening to Jesus externally as they were of what would happen to them internally.

Healing Spiritual Abuse // Book Review

Healing Spiritual Abuse by Ken Blue

This was a book that was recommended to be, it’s not something that I just went shopping for. As I’m sure you can imagine from the tittle, it’s a heavy book. Not a real good “Summer Read”, and I don’t think it’s going to be on Oprah’s book club anytime soon. I know there will be people that might even be offended that I would read a book like this, thinking it somewhere categorizes a whole church as “abusive”, and that’s not what I’m saying, or even how I feel. The truth is though we all have had bad church experiences whether you’ve grown up in the church or just started going last week. And if you haven’t yet, your turns coming.

The big part isn’t so much how your abused, most of it’s subtle and unintentional, so it’s more about being able to recognize it, call it what it is, and then be free to more forward with your life. Ken Blue does talk about different ways church leaders abuse their communities, and the type of people that are most likely to be abused. mainly people who are LOYALIST.

Bingo that’s me.

I’m the guy who once he finds something he likes he keeps buying it. I drink coffee everyday yet I only drink Starbucks, I drink pop but only Mountain Dew, I wear socks everyday but only black socks. Ok That last one was just creeping so I’m moving on. I’m also the guy who never complains. Once at a restaurant I ordered a specific kind of chicken sandwich, the server brought me something totally wrong. It had chicken on it, and I though well I can eat this so it’s no big deal. I just don’t complain even if theres a legitmate reasons. But those two qualities which normally are great attirtbutes in a church, can easliy be taken advanatge of.

It’s just one of those books everyone in church leadership should read. It opens your eyes to see things you’ve felt and experienced that are stilling effecting you, even though you don’t think about it anymore or you thought you were over it. I can’t possable recomended it enough or summarize the entire book here so just check it out.