Most of us have been raised to be mental Christians. We've started early on in our lives to be "educated" about our faith. Sunday School. Sermons. Vacation Bible School. In fact, the innocent, childhood beliefs we had have been intellectualized right out of our hearts.
It's sad. We've replaced the wonderment and awe of a child with facts and figures about the Kingdom. One time I was at a meeting of Mennonite clergy. One of the ministers bored us all with Bible trivia. How many donkeys did King David have? What Honda did the disciples drive around in? It was boring and made light of a walk of faith with the Father. Sad. Very sad.
So what's wrong with having an intellectual faith in the Father? For one thing, it turns the Bible into a book of facts and figures and not a living Word. When we try to dissect the Gospel as just another book we kill the life of it. The Scriptures are meant to be a living letter from the Father to us, not to be the end of His communication with us, but to train us by experience how to hear the Father speak to us.
We lose the living Spirit of the Bible when we try to limit what God is going to say to us to just the specific examples of how He has spoken in the past. We are to be having a vibrant, daily conversation with the Father with whom we have a relationship. Sounds more like the conversations of a child than the words of a theologian.
When we have an intellectual faith it looks just like what we did when I attended seminary. We, Pat, the kids and I, were dependent on others to send us gifts to meet our daily expenses. I mustered up my best intellectual faith, posted a note on the refrigerator that "God is our source" ...and worried every time bills were due. My faith was not in a loving, immovable Father but in the "fact" that He would support us. My belief was in the words and not in the Word. My worry demonstrated what was really in my heart about my Father.
True belief is not what we can mentally spout off. It's what we act on in our daily lives. Do I believe that God is my source? If I really know Him in that way then I can live in peace when financial catastrophes loom on the horizon. I trust that He will show up and walk with me through the difficulty. I don't rush out and sell everything I have and expect the world to end. I don't go borrow more money to see me through. I don't go crying the blues to those around me looking for sympathy...and donations to my plight.
Does the Father want me to lose my house? Probably not. But He may want me to downsize...or relocate...or simplify my life? Maybe. Why? Because He loves me and wants the best for me. And what I think is the best might not be the best.
What we truly believe is demonstrated in our actions...not our words. I have a peace in my heart about what the Father believes about me. I trust Him. I know His heart toward me is good. I know He wants the best for my life. And I can wait until He unfolds that will in my life, living each day in peace and tranquility.
Am I the model of faith? No, to the contrary. I face battles of my belief. I am attacked by an enemy who wants to remind me of how I used to think and believe before I saw the Father show up in His loving glory. I have to allow my Spirit to speak to my heart and not my head. I must allow my actions to be based on my experience with the Father. I learn more about His trustworthiness as I trust Him on a daily basis. I don't need to go around spouting off what I know about the Father. I just live it and let my actions speak for my belief.
Ah, yes. I am ready, as Paul said, to give a report about why I believe what I do. I can quickly tell you how good my Father has been to me. I see Him daily showing me how He loves me.
I pray for you today that you will know the depth and width and height of the love of God for you...in your heart and not in your head. Watch for it!
Friday, April 29, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Trying Harder
I had a check in my spirit yesterday right after I posted about "Now what?" It was confirmed by a comment Nissa, my daughter, made about my post.
So many of us have been raised with the idea that our spirituality is up to us. We have to make the effort to make God want to speak to us, to be with us and to teach us. What we end up doing is carrying our spirituality on our own shoulders. I once had a person tell me about someone I was trying to have a relationship with that I can't carry both sides of the relationship.
The same is true with God only he doesn't require me to carry both sides. It's just that most of us have gotten used to being both sides of a friendship and we don't know how to let God love us without doing so much.
My parents raised me with the best of the tools they had at that point. They ingrained me with the idea that I had to act so that everyone liked me. Besides watering down who I am, it led me to collapse emotionally. I was trying to please two sides of a congregational fence as their pastor and I got caught in the barbed wire.
I don't know when I came to the realization that God didn't require me to try harder. I suppose I learned a lot about that while I was working with Theotherapy. I remember once driving along listening to oldies from the 70's (not meditating on God's goodness) when he spoke and told me to turn off the radio. He had something he wanted to tell me.
At that time in my life I had quit reading the scriptures, stopped praying (at least on Wed nights, before meals, etc) and was trying to give up all the religious things I had learned. I discovered that the Father still wanted to communicate to me and didn't require that I try harder.
So many people that we worked with in receiving emotional healing had had the following formula crammed down their throats by their churches in response to their brokenness..."Just pray more, come to church more, tithe more, serve more...(try harder to be good). They were worn out and had given up on the church. They had also given up that they were ever going to measure up to God's (man's version of it) standard.
It was only when they began to experience the unconditional love of God that they realized that he is a friend who initiates friendship. He wants to be in a relationship with us and he is pursuing us. He wants us to stop trying harder...and just yield to his promptings.
Whew! Was that ever a load off my shoulders when I realized it wasn't up to me to initiate it. All I had to do was respond to his love. His Holy Spirit was going to lead me into all truth. He was going to deepen my spirituality as I spent time with him in whatever context I found myself. He was going to lead me to repentance if I'd quit trying so hard on my own to be righteous.
Funny, the scriptures remind us that all our righteousness is as filthy rags...not just dirty ones, or soiled ones...but filthy. We don't have enough Tide or Clorox to get our righteousness up to par.
As I walk out my daily relationship with the Father the interactions I have with others come out of the abundance of that love between us. I don't have to try to be nice to others. I just show the love I have been shown. I don't have to remember to be polite. I am just polite because I was loved first and now I can love.
I am enjoying my walk with God, my Father, my friend, my Savior as I yield to his loving attention to me. I am enjoying the improvement in my relationships with others as I bask in His love. I have given up trying harder. It just wears me out.
So many of us have been raised with the idea that our spirituality is up to us. We have to make the effort to make God want to speak to us, to be with us and to teach us. What we end up doing is carrying our spirituality on our own shoulders. I once had a person tell me about someone I was trying to have a relationship with that I can't carry both sides of the relationship.
The same is true with God only he doesn't require me to carry both sides. It's just that most of us have gotten used to being both sides of a friendship and we don't know how to let God love us without doing so much.
My parents raised me with the best of the tools they had at that point. They ingrained me with the idea that I had to act so that everyone liked me. Besides watering down who I am, it led me to collapse emotionally. I was trying to please two sides of a congregational fence as their pastor and I got caught in the barbed wire.
I don't know when I came to the realization that God didn't require me to try harder. I suppose I learned a lot about that while I was working with Theotherapy. I remember once driving along listening to oldies from the 70's (not meditating on God's goodness) when he spoke and told me to turn off the radio. He had something he wanted to tell me.
At that time in my life I had quit reading the scriptures, stopped praying (at least on Wed nights, before meals, etc) and was trying to give up all the religious things I had learned. I discovered that the Father still wanted to communicate to me and didn't require that I try harder.
So many people that we worked with in receiving emotional healing had had the following formula crammed down their throats by their churches in response to their brokenness..."Just pray more, come to church more, tithe more, serve more...(try harder to be good). They were worn out and had given up on the church. They had also given up that they were ever going to measure up to God's (man's version of it) standard.
It was only when they began to experience the unconditional love of God that they realized that he is a friend who initiates friendship. He wants to be in a relationship with us and he is pursuing us. He wants us to stop trying harder...and just yield to his promptings.
Whew! Was that ever a load off my shoulders when I realized it wasn't up to me to initiate it. All I had to do was respond to his love. His Holy Spirit was going to lead me into all truth. He was going to deepen my spirituality as I spent time with him in whatever context I found myself. He was going to lead me to repentance if I'd quit trying so hard on my own to be righteous.
Funny, the scriptures remind us that all our righteousness is as filthy rags...not just dirty ones, or soiled ones...but filthy. We don't have enough Tide or Clorox to get our righteousness up to par.
As I walk out my daily relationship with the Father the interactions I have with others come out of the abundance of that love between us. I don't have to try to be nice to others. I just show the love I have been shown. I don't have to remember to be polite. I am just polite because I was loved first and now I can love.
I am enjoying my walk with God, my Father, my friend, my Savior as I yield to his loving attention to me. I am enjoying the improvement in my relationships with others as I bask in His love. I have given up trying harder. It just wears me out.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Now what?
Yesterday my two good Mennonite neighbors mowed their lawns so I was assured that it was okay to do the same to my lawn on Easter Monday. Don't ask me where Easter Monday came. I think it's an Amish holiday...another way to get a day off. Maybe it celebrates that Jesus rested after being resurrected. I checked to make sure there weren't any other restrictions on Easter Tuesday.
I've been waiting for Easter since Christmas. It was then that I had a conversation with a devout Hindu, the father of a friend of Ben and Rose's. He mentioned in the course of our conversation that he had seen a sermon title on the sign of a Lutheran church somewhere..."He is Risen...now what?"
Easter has so many memories attached with it. Easter egg hunts. New shoes and an outfit for church. The energy of spring after a long winter. Sunrise services. Breakfasts at church so we didn't have to go back home between the services. But now that it is over, what do we look forward to? Or as I entitled this blog...now what?
What does it mean to be a Christian post Easter? How does it change my life that Christ, my redeemer, has risen from the dead? For one thing, no other religion claims their founder rose from the dead. For that matter I'm not sure any other claims to have come from the Father to show us how to live a redeemed life in relationship with God and then returned. It's more than my human brain can comprehend (and I would suppose anyone else's) to understand how God can be three in one. I don't think we're supposed to figure that one out.
So will people know that I serve a risen Savior because I have a new pair of shoes? Or I can show them the remnants of the candy I got (with the green artificial grass all over the house)? Or have the nicest lawn with my mulch already in place?
It's got to be more than that. In fact those other indicators don't even need to be repeated next year. I serve a risen savior and I have an intimate relationship with the Father because of Jesus. And it changes my life today...and every day since Easter. In fact, I downplay Easter now because I don't want people to get the impression that that is the only time I serve Jesus.
I serve him in the way I treat my neighbors. I serve him in the way I respond to aggressive drivers...first by not being one. I serve him by loving the unlovely. I have compassion on those who are angry and spiteful. I treat my wife with respect. I serve those around me. I live a lifestyle that is different because I serve a risen Savior. Not because I want to be in tune to the green focus our culture has now. Or give away money so I can get my name on buildings all over LA like the guy I saw on 60 Minutes a few days ago.
It's time for us to live as people of a risen Savior...every day of the year and not just on Easter. It's time for us to have an intimate relationship with him so that we can love as he loved us. It's time for us to repent of the daily ways that we don't reflect the Savior when the Holy Spirit prompts us. It's time for us to change our lives and join in the resurrection of our Redeemer.
Forget the dandelions in your yard and focus on removing the dandelions in your spirit. Forget getting a new pair of shoes and get a new heart by giving your life to him. Forget getting up so early for one morning of the year just so you can have coffee and donuts at church with your friends. Join others who need fellowship and need to know the risen Savior at the local Dunkin Donuts next Sunday morning. Love the checkout clerk at your local grocery store. Show compassion to the attendant at the convenience store. Come in the opposite spirit of the aggressive driver and bless them in their stress.
Now what? We've got a whole year ahead of us, 365 days to live like people who have been resurrected.
I've been waiting for Easter since Christmas. It was then that I had a conversation with a devout Hindu, the father of a friend of Ben and Rose's. He mentioned in the course of our conversation that he had seen a sermon title on the sign of a Lutheran church somewhere..."He is Risen...now what?"
Easter has so many memories attached with it. Easter egg hunts. New shoes and an outfit for church. The energy of spring after a long winter. Sunrise services. Breakfasts at church so we didn't have to go back home between the services. But now that it is over, what do we look forward to? Or as I entitled this blog...now what?
What does it mean to be a Christian post Easter? How does it change my life that Christ, my redeemer, has risen from the dead? For one thing, no other religion claims their founder rose from the dead. For that matter I'm not sure any other claims to have come from the Father to show us how to live a redeemed life in relationship with God and then returned. It's more than my human brain can comprehend (and I would suppose anyone else's) to understand how God can be three in one. I don't think we're supposed to figure that one out.
So will people know that I serve a risen Savior because I have a new pair of shoes? Or I can show them the remnants of the candy I got (with the green artificial grass all over the house)? Or have the nicest lawn with my mulch already in place?
It's got to be more than that. In fact those other indicators don't even need to be repeated next year. I serve a risen savior and I have an intimate relationship with the Father because of Jesus. And it changes my life today...and every day since Easter. In fact, I downplay Easter now because I don't want people to get the impression that that is the only time I serve Jesus.
I serve him in the way I treat my neighbors. I serve him in the way I respond to aggressive drivers...first by not being one. I serve him by loving the unlovely. I have compassion on those who are angry and spiteful. I treat my wife with respect. I serve those around me. I live a lifestyle that is different because I serve a risen Savior. Not because I want to be in tune to the green focus our culture has now. Or give away money so I can get my name on buildings all over LA like the guy I saw on 60 Minutes a few days ago.
It's time for us to live as people of a risen Savior...every day of the year and not just on Easter. It's time for us to have an intimate relationship with him so that we can love as he loved us. It's time for us to repent of the daily ways that we don't reflect the Savior when the Holy Spirit prompts us. It's time for us to change our lives and join in the resurrection of our Redeemer.
Forget the dandelions in your yard and focus on removing the dandelions in your spirit. Forget getting a new pair of shoes and get a new heart by giving your life to him. Forget getting up so early for one morning of the year just so you can have coffee and donuts at church with your friends. Join others who need fellowship and need to know the risen Savior at the local Dunkin Donuts next Sunday morning. Love the checkout clerk at your local grocery store. Show compassion to the attendant at the convenience store. Come in the opposite spirit of the aggressive driver and bless them in their stress.
Now what? We've got a whole year ahead of us, 365 days to live like people who have been resurrected.
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