The great romance

I believe in the Great Romance. I believe that it is the best metaphor I have for scripture. I believe that since the days of tragedy of Eden, God has been pursuing his beloved. We are the bride. We are the lovely princess of Zion who once danced before his throne. Now we have been shamed by the evil villain, the false lover who shames the bride of Almighty Christ, the dying/living God. He will avenge the honor of His bride upon his enemy. He will restore her and lift her again to far beyond her former glory. He will woo her in kind words and sweet stories. He will breath poetry and sweet songs in her lovely ear, if only that she would return and know her true love. To Him, she is beautiful. She is lovely and glorious and good. Her shame matters not to her lover. She was made for Him, how can He not restore her? What else can he do but lift her up, love her with the glory of His name and the sweetness of His songs.

We sing his songs of glory and romance, of adventure and danger one to each other. Especially in the love of a man for a woman does His sweet passion burn. We borrow from HE, Almighty God the ultimate lover and sweet High King. His name is forever good.

Then why am I so confused? Why does this Great Romance, this modeling of the love of God, burn within who I am? Why does it feel so much bigger than me, like I must give this poetry to someone or I will explode? Do I need a girlfriend for it? Why can't I talk to girls then? Why can't I express or convey this? Why does every time I try to be Christ to anybody, much less a girl, do I feel like I have nothing to say?

Maybe its cause I'm trying to be Christ instead of letting Christ be himself in me.... Only then, when Christ is Himself above all else, will I be able to truly be myself.

Now some people are going to see this as an emo post. Some will say, "Daniel has girl issues and so he's letting out his frustration on the blog. It's really the work of a lonely college student. I will offer him some solace in his loneliness, something like 'God has the right one out there for you be patient and give it to God'." I dunno, maybe they will be right. At which case I thank you for your advice as I try my best to apply it. I certainly shan't scorn good advice.

However, that's not the point of why I am writing. If all you do is give good advice here (however much I gladly welcome it), this hasn't affected you. I'm telling you all....

Want this Great Romance!!!!!!!!!!! Can I make it any more clear? I feel like I am being too angry when I say this, but I feel very passionately about it. In fact, I would rather have the passion of God burn within me than not feel. I would rather yearn for such fire from heaven than lose my heart. I would rather want this Great Romance and be totally confused about girls and life and people then live a sleeping life.

Don't even mistake me. I am not even saying that you guys don't yearn for this, that my heart is the only one that burns and that I look down on you all from my poetic high horse. I am the least of you, noble readers. If I have learned anything about the burning heart of God, it is probably been directly because of your noble intervention. You all are my friends because God, through you, has taught my heart how to burn. How can I ever think anything different?

However, this burning in our heart, for God to teach us the ways of life and love, is Almighty God, calling us to Himself. Despite the fact that I have no idea how to model the passion of God, that I cannot talk to girls, and my mouth clams up when my heart would scream sonnets, I cannot help but think that God calls us to Himself as the first and best object of our love. That God is the object and nothing else will satisfy our burning. He should be our first love in this drama of salvation. He is the Holy One and all other hearts are by pale shadows of His glorious grandeur. They, the things around us, are good lovers, but He, the God of love, is better. We shan't forget such glory, for then, we should forget our true selves.

In the Great and Holy Romance, wrought in the blood of God,

Daniel

zach 4-6 all respond, I'm curious what you think...

The angel who talked with me came again, and wakened me, as a man who is wakened out of his sleep. He said to me, "What do you see?" I said, "I have seen, and behold, a menorah all of gold, with its bowl on the top of it, and its seven lamps thereon; there are seven pipes to each of the lamps, which are on the top of it; and two olive trees by it, one on the right side of the bowl, and the other on the left side of it." I answered and spoke to the angel who talked with me, saying, "What are these, my lord?" Then the angel who talked with me answered me, "Don't you know what these are?" I said, "No, my lord." Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbavel, saying, 'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the LORD of Armies. Who are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbavel you are a plain; and he will bring out the capstone with shouts of 'favor, favor, to it!'" Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, "The hands of Zerubbavel have laid the foundation of this house. His hands shall also finish it; and you will know that the LORD of Armies has sent me to you. Indeed, who despises the day of small things? For these seven shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbavel. These are the eyes of the LORD, which run back and forth through the whole earth." Then I asked him, "What are these two olive trees on the right side of the menorah and on the left side of it?" I asked him the second time, "What are these two olive branches, which are beside the two golden spouts, that pour the golden oil out of themselves?" He answered me, "Don't you know what these are?" I said, "No, my lord." Then he said, "These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth."

(Zec 4:1-14)

You are the light of the world. A city located on a hill can't be hidden. Neither do you light a lamp, and put it under a measuring basket, but on a stand; and it shines to all who are in the house. Even so, let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

(Mat 5:14-16)

I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. Having turned, I saw seven golden menorot. And among the menorot was one like a son of man, clothed with a robe reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest.

(Rev 1:12-13)

Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your menorah out of its place, unless you repent.

(Rev 2:5)

I got a lot of this from the Keil and Delitzsch commentary on E-sword (www.e-sword.net) just so you know…..

In the temple, the menorah (lamp-stand) didn’t have the bowl and the pipes that fed the lamps (it goes without saying that there were no trees in the temple either!) The way this commentator makes it out, the menorah was fed by the fruit of the olive trees that stood on either side. God made the trees grow, produce fruit, and his fire brings the light of God to the whole world. But according to the commentator, we are the trees, receptacles of the manifest life of God to a lost and dying world. However, our light is not meant to be hidden or kept to ourselves. It is meant to be shared and given and dispersed to the whole world. This is imagery of mission.

This is also imagery of triumph. Zerubbabel will succeed because God is the one behind his growing and bearing fruit, not by his might, nor his power, but by the Spirit of God will the trees grow. The temple will be built because GOD built it through Z, not because of anything Z did. No man did this thing. It was God. When all is said and done, nobody will be able to deny the awesome power of God of the Angel Armies.

I think this really can be construed as a message for the church. The Church in America is blessed with resources beyond belief. We live in the wealthiest, most technologically advanced society in human history. God is making things easy for us.

Now, I don’t believe God likes America better than anybody else on the planet. That’s just foolish. God is no respecter of persons nor does he stoop to our petty political games. But the fact is, things are stupendously easy for us, here in the middle of suburbia. I mean, I’m writing this paper on a laptop bought with resources people in Calcutta or Africa can only dream of. Sitting next to me are people who paid in upwards of 4.00 for steamed milk, chocolate mixed with filtered bean-water.

The thing is, with that ease comes responsibility. If life is easy here, it is for a reason--- so God can grow us, we can produce fruit, and the world can be lit on fire with the light of God’s glory. We, being blessed to be a blessing to others (See God’s words to Abraham), must follow through or he may remove the lamp stand. Ask Ephesus (the church talked about in Rev 2:5): this is a scary thing. We have a responsibility to do something here.

But what? What do you guys think? How do we live life as a tree of God in the midst of a dying world? What do you think Scripture wants us to do with this? At the risk of sounding like a Blues Brother, we are on a mission from God: what is it?

the God of all comfort

I would encourage you, if you just want to get stuff off your chest, God is good with that. He is secure and can take a harsh word every once in a while. Our God lets us be honest with Him, even if we are mad or angry or confused. He just comforts us, tells us it will be okay and in some weird way, we get the strength to keep moving in Him. Catharsis is a Holy Tradition, wraught in the blood of God. He is good. That is all I have to say.

Daniel

not being afraid

I'm afraid this might be a reiteration of the last post. Ah well, I'm bored, sick of working on my paper that is due in a week, so I thought I would re-share this epiphany.

The only thing that holds any body back from living how they truly are is fear. Mainly fear of being hurt, as if the offering of your heart was to be scorned if one were to truly know you. But that is a lie to God and his kingdom, it is wrong and false and from the pit of hell. God longs that you just not care. He loves you. He validates you. You have NOTHING you have to prove or perform for ANYBODY. Almighty God, not a girl or a boy or a friend or a position or ANYTHING ELSE, can tell you are.

And if we don't care of their vain opinions, we can do anything. We can flirt and dance and sing and worship and cry out at the feet of our Holy God, the Muse, our Poet-King. We don't have to conform to ANYBODY ELSE'S expectations save God alone. When we realize that, the glories of His great Romance with Him (and yes, with the opposite sex) are spread out as a banquet in the most Holy Country of Aslan, Yeshua, the Dying and Rising Poet-King of all.

In His approval, nothing can stop us at all.

Pascal's Fire Memorial

The following is the memorial to Blaise Pascal's conversion which he stiched into his coat upon that fateful night.


The year of grace 1654,
Monday, 23 November, feast of St. Clement, pope and martyr, and others in the martyrology.
Vigil of St. Chrysogonus, martyr, and others.
From about half past ten at night until about half past midnight,

FIRE.

GOD of Abraham, GOD of Isaac, GOD of Jacob
not of the philosophers and of the learned. Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
GOD of Jesus Christ.
My God and your God.
Your GOD will be my God.
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything, except GOD.
He is only found by the ways taught in the Gospel.
Grandeur of the human soul.
Righteous Father, the world has not known you, but I have known you.
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have departed from him:
They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.
My God, will you leave me?
Let me not be separated from him forever.
This is eternal life, that they know you, the one true God, and the one that you sent, Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
I left him; I fled him, renounced, crucified.
Let me never be separated from him.
He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel:
Renunciation, total and sweet.
Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.
Eternally in joy for a day's exercise on the earth.
May I not forget your words.
Amen.

performing

Why do I feel like I have to perform in social settings? Like I have to be good enough or wise enough or strong enough to impress or amaze or woo. Why? There is nothing I can do to impress people apart from the mercy and grace of God. I have nothing to prove or impress about. All I want is God. Honestly if, (girl A, guy B, or random person C) doesn't think I am the kind of person they want to hang out with every minute of every day, how does that detract from my life with God, or those around me? Other than not having that one person like me, what other consequences are there? So what if I am a spaz or I offend or generally irritate? If that bothers (random person A) then there are 6 billion other perfectly good people on the planet. Hang out with one of them.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not writing this because I am mad or angry with somebody. More myself. This need to perform or impress is a pretty frequent phenomenon in my diverse adventures. I think it's a pretty universal tendency in most of human psychology/ethical issues. We see our value from outside ourselves and when we seek that value in an outside-us source other than God, we set outselves up for what one of my favourite authors (Donald Miller) calls the "lifeboat"

The lifeboat is that hypothetical situation where there are 6 (doctors, lawyers, artists, grandmas, etc) people escaping in a lifeboat with rations enough for 5. The idea is that each person has to justify why they should get to live (while the other dies). When we try to seek our glory outside of God, we fall into just that trap. This is why we are afraid of what others think, we are afraid we will lose our place in the 'lifeboat', that we will be the outgroup and everyone else will be the ingroup. We become terrified that nobody will see our worth and that we will never receive the validation we so eagerly crave. We want people to tell us we are beautiful and wise and good, and we are afraid that if we don't take action to make ourselves look as good as possible (and maybe make others look as bad as possible), then nobody will validate us and we will have to swim: cold and alone in the sea of sharks.

This is wrong and a large part of what Jesus came to abolish. The disciples were probably flunk outs of the educational system of their day: so intelligence isn't a good enough reason to throw someone out. He touched lepers, so sickness or misfortune are not good enough reasons. Race or religion? Nope, ask the samaritan women at the well worshipping in a 'perversion' of Judaisim. She gets to stay on the boat too. Or how about the immoral, the whores and mobsters (the judaic version of tax collectors). They get to stay to.

Are you catching what I am saying here? It's not that some of this stuff isn't wrong or bad or harmful. Of course you shouldn't sleep around, murder, (insert sin here), (ask the next aids victim you see if maybe abstinence would have been a good idea). It will hurt you because the maker of the human machine said so; he knows how it should be run and will clue you in to it's optimum mode of operation, obviously.

No, what I am talking about is changing the ground on which we relate to the non-Christian world. So few approach those in their work or home (Christians and non Christians) as people who are hurting themselves and need God to come and show them how to live in this adventure. No, we see morality as this standard we need to meet in order to stay onboard the stupid lifeboat. We don't want to be good, we just want to be better: better than the next guy in our vain attempts to stay onboard. All the while we miss out on the God of the swimmers and the outcasts. We miss out on the God who insists that trying to survive in the context of this lifeboat will ultimately kill us and those around us.

Instead, a much healthier view is that we all are worthwhile, we all have value and merit. But we all also do stupid stuff. We admonish and correct because we are concerned not because we are trying to conform to a standard to stay onboard. The lifeboat is death but the great seas of Elyon, the redpool of the death of God, that is where we find LIFE!

Follow Him in his Death

returning....

Here is the meditation I did for BS yesterday. I hope you like it! I love you all and wish you a most God-drenched day!

And a question..... What do you guys think of the new pope?


Now let them put away their prostitution, and the dead bodies of their kings, far from me; and I will dwell in the midst of them forever. You, son of man, show the house to the house of Yisra'el, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities; and let them measure the pattern. If they be ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the form of the house, and the fashion of it, and the exits of it, and the entrances of it, and all the forms of it, and all the ordinances of it, and all the forms of it, and all the laws of it; and write it in their sight; that they may keep the whole form of it, and all the ordinances of it, and do them. This is the law of the house: on the top of the mountain the whole limit of it round about shall be most holy. Behold, this is the law of the house.
(Eze 43:9-12)

I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a man with a measuring line in his hand. Then I asked, "Where are you going?" He said to me, "To measure Yerushalayim, to see what is its breadth and what is its length." Behold, the angel who talked with me went forth, and another angel went out to meet him, and said to him, "Run, speak to this young man, saying, 'Yerushalayim will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and livestock in it. For I,' says the LORD, 'will be to her a wall of fire around it, and I will be the glory in the midst of her.
(Zec 2:1-5)

A reed like a rod was given to me. Someone said, "Rise, and measure God's temple, and the altar, and those who worship in it. Leave out the court which is outside of the temple, and don't measure it, for it has been given to the nations. They will tread the holy city under foot for forty-two months.
(Rev 11:1-2)


I searched measurement in e-sword and came up with a couple conclusions, I am honestly not sure what I think about. God tells people to measure stuff in the Torah. He tells them very specifically that he has very specific instructions for how things are going to be built.
Then, in Ezekiel, he reminds the people that he still has very specific plans for her. They are in captivity, mind you, when Zeke says that if the people are ashamed that their sin has gotten them into trouble, that they should keep ‘whole form of it’ this plan of God should be the ‘law of the house’, the framework of their daily life and where they dwell. God’s law should be where they live in the deepest most primal way. At the end of Zeke’s book, the angel tells Him that THIS is where God is- this law of the house that God has measured out to His people.
Then Zack sees someone try to measure Jerusalem (this is where the crack about the walls comes up--- the walls were how you measured a city). God says very simply, “Don’t even try! I am the definition and scope of my people. I give them life and hope and substance. I am the wall of fire. I measure but I cannot be contained. I cannot be measured!” In a very real sense, this glory of the Lord, this heaviness and wall of fire that one could say is part of very God Himself. This is the law of the house we are supposed to live in—the law of the house is our awesome God of the wall of fire who defines his people, provides their shelter and their very house, but he Himself refuses to be defined. He cannot be measured.
Now, this is all God or angels of God doing the measurement here. Rightfully, it should be. However, in the New Testament, God hands us the ruler. He gives John the stick to try and measure the temple. It is almost as if he is saying that He wants us to process how we define ourselves in the law of His house (which is himself). This is not relativism, a mushy soup of values where we make our own truth. This is deeper than that highly unthoughful idea. No, this find out what living in God looks like today really looks like. We are to seek out our own definition in HIM, we will fail (notice John never actually gets around to measuring the temple….) but to seek God to find out what living in His house really looks like. God gives us the reed and tells us to work it out….

seeking peace

Sorry I haven't been posting a whole lot, either new or in response to you guys. It's difficult with school getting out. I had a nice talk with my mom and Rachel the last couple days about how I just need to take it one step at a time and I need to stop worrying. I need to be fully present. It is important that I live in this moment, that is all I have control over.

Daniyel

Memorial

Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. For by this, the elders obtained testimony. By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible. By faith, Hevel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Kayin, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God testifying with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks. By faith, Chanokh was taken away, so that he wouldn't see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God. Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. By faith, Noach, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a teivah for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. By faith, Avraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Yitzchak and Ya`akov, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised. Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. If indeed they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had enough time to return. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. By faith, Avraham, being tested, offered up Yitzchak. Yes, he who had gladly received the promises was offering up his one and only son; even he to whom it was said, "In Yitzchak will your seed be called;" concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead. By faith, Yitzchak blessed Ya`akov and Esav, even concerning things to come. By faith, Ya`akov, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Yosef, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff. By faith, Yosef, when his end was near, made mention of the departure of the children of Yisra'el; and gave instructions concerning his bones. By faith, Moshe, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's mitzvah. By faith, Moshe, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Par`oh's daughter, choosing rather to share ill treatment with God's people, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time; accounting the reproach of Messiah greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward. By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. By faith, he kept the Pesach, and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn should not touch them. By faith, they passed through the Red sea as on dry land. When the Egyptians tried to do so, they were swallowed up. By faith, the walls of Yericho fell down, after they had been encircled for seven days. By faith, Rachav the prostitute, didn't perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies in shalom. What more shall I say? For the time would fail me if I told of Gid`on, Barak, Shimshon, Yiftach, David, Shemu'el, and the prophets; who, through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to flee. Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth. These all, having had testimony given to them through their faith, didn't receive the promise, God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect. Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking to Yeshua, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 11:1-12:2)

Today is the two year anniversary of the death of Stephen Robert Johnson (1986-2003). In honor of Steve, celebrate life! Our context makes us stronger as this passage says. Because we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us run our race to win! Christ followers celebrate life from the midst of death. They see the Great Conductor guiding the orchestra of history, even in the death of 17 year-old dj from the suburbs. Celebrate because the various and sundry hosts in the stands are cheering you on, waiting for you to reach the goal of this race, Yeshua d'Natzret- Jesus of Nazereth. In the midst of this strength-giving, holy context, all of you CELEBRATE LIFE!

Tremendum Dei

I'm not sure if I have a whole lot to say. Other than, "pursue God." Practice needing Him. It's a skill I don't have but I deprately want. To never forget and wrap myself in the Tremendum Dei.

Should I leave Lansing this summer? I have to call and get my interview taken care of and I don't know if I should stay or go. I feel like God has given me a ton of people whose back I can watch and who will watch my own. Part of me really wants this language camp job, but part of me wants to develop with the people God has given me. I don't know.....

In spite of this, I must need God...

and now the words of someone I would have rather liked to meet....

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, People may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight. Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; Do good anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best you've got anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them anyway. ~engraved in the wall next to Mother Teresa's bed

beauty....

I got called out the other day. My friend Linda posted here about women and how they long to have their beauty recognized. They long for affirmation and validation that they are beautiful and worthy of pursuit. I mean, you can read it yourself, she said it a lot better than I could.

This is something I intuited for a while, but I never had enough guts to put it in the words. In a very real sense, I wanted to fight for a beauty and that's why I pursued a lot of the relationships I did in High School. I wanted someone to appreciate, to fight a war for, just like women want to be the one for whom wars are fought.

This leads to two conclusions.

1. As I was walking to Royale the other day, with me having to avert my eyes from girl #347321 who thinks because the weather is warm it's okay to walk around half-naked, it occured to me that these women don't know they are beautiful. Plus, a lot of women especially in the community of Christ followers, forget this vital truth. The men in their lives haven't told them because they are off trying to find a beauty to fight for, ignorant of the beauty right under their nose.

2. Why can't I tell them? It could mean a lot to the women in my life if I were free enough with speaking the truth, that they are beautiful and worthy to be pursued. It also occured to me that maybe I don't need a romantic relationship with them in order to say this. Why I can't I appoach the girls I know well enough, those who worship with me in the Body of Christ, to tell them that they are gorgeous, not cause I want to score points but because they are truly gorgeous and they forget they are so? Why can't I do this as I would do it for my own sister?

3. It must be done correctly. If I go around saying to everyone I meet "you're beautiful" then I start to do it not because I think so, but because I feel obligated to do it. No, I must prepare myself to be as sincere as I can possibly be in recognizing my sisters' beauty. I have tried for that, and if you are reading this and I have told you that you are beautiful in the last couple days, I have told you that because you ARE, not because I think I should. Don't forget, any of you, you really are captivating!

I hope I don't sound like an overly romantic cheeseball. I really feel pretty strongly about this. Take it for it is worth.

In God's sacred beauty, woven into the fabric of space, time, and all creation,

Daniel

Some Great stuff....

Gordon Fee, a Pentecostal New Testament scholar, talks about 2 Cor 5:14-17. The text and his quote are below.

For the love of Messiah constrains us; because we judge thus, that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again. Therefore we know no one after the flesh from now on. Even though we have known Messiah after the flesh, yet now we know him so no more. Therefore if anyone is in Messiah, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new.
(2Co 5:14-17)

"Paul argues with the Corinthians who are calling into question both his gospel of a crucified Messiah and his cruciform apostleship. He responds that the new creation brought about by Christ's death and resurrection nullifies one's viewing anything any longer from the old age point of view (Gk. kata sarka, "according to the flesh"). Christ's death means that the whole human race has come under the sentence of death (v. 14), so that those who do live (in God's order) now life for the one who died for them and was raised again (v. 15). The result, he goes on, is that fromthis point on, to view either Christ or anyone/anything else from a perspective that is "according to the flesh" is no longer valid (v. 16). Why? Because being in Christ means that one belongs to the new creation: the old has gone, the new has come (v. 17). It doesn't take much reading of Paul to recognize that this radical, new order point of view- life marked by the cross- lies at the heart of everything he thinks and does." pg 57 Listening to The Spirit in the Text.

I guess the point of this is that the way of Jesus is difficult to pin down. It's not postmodern (cause truth is real- though I don't necessarily thing that postmodernism automatically equals relativism, another story I don't know enough to talk about). It's beyond modernism (cause truth can't be reduced to principles). It's not democratic, republican, masculine, feminine, pacifist, activist or conservative or liberal. It's beyond catholic or protestant.

Don't get me wrong. My friend Linda pointed out to me that it is absolutely necessary to understand that the Gospel is true in any meaningful sense of the word. It is real and true and objective. It's got to be worth proclaming for us to proclam it, but how we proclaim it is not in any type of human mold. The Bible is a story, first and foremost, and it cannot be justifably used to prove someone's human viewpoint. It is a viewpoint all it's own. It takes over life. It is a comprehensive, wholistic movement that we join, not a prayer that we pray or a thing that we do. It colors all our perceptions, thoughts, motivations, reservations and anticipations. It dominates. It's like the sky on a clear blue day, bigger than the scope of your perception, bluer than words can express, yet the very breath in your lungs and the wind at your back. It is the very essence of life, the very adventure of almighty God.

God is soooo cool!

Daniel

our story

a couple of things for your continued reflections....

"Our story does not begin in Genesis 3; it begins in Genesis 1."- Rob Bell

What does that mean to you guys?

A lot of the Christians I talk to don't want to be modern any more. They want something deeper, stronger and better. They want mysticism and the right to not have to prove things from the Bible at the expernse of living out of it. They don't want things to be reduced, but they want their minds to be blown.

hmmmm more on this later

Daniel

unstopable reliance

I'm starting to learn that I can't do things alone. I need God. I feel safe in Him, like the lies that the world tries to sell us all, lies that make us sin and seek after 'less-wild lovers', lies that corrupt and kill and destroy instead of woo and whisper and caress: those lies are null here in the Shadow of The Hound of Heaven, The King of the Great Romance.

I can think clearly here. I can see the world as it is, not the fake life the world, the flesh, and the devil try to sell us, that which brings death instead of life.

The way of Jesus brings safety in the midst of incredible danger, it brings triumph in the midst of incredible suffering. Jesus' way brings life from the midst of death. It makes us alive in a dead world. It wakes us up from what we think we know into what we are finally starting to learn: life, gulped cool and sweet from the fount that is the mouth of our God.

This way is the way of reliance. If we practice relying on God, no matter what, contiually practice that sustaining, life-giving presence, then nothing can stop us. Without God we are nothing, with God our soul soars as all things become emminently and doably possible. This is where our story begins and ends, in the neediness of God to show us who we truly are.

Daniel

Grace

Sinned again last night. I believe that the point of grace is God forgiving you so you can get your issues fixed. But I desprately want to get them all fixed, it's just sometimes I forgive with the knowledge that God will get me "on the rebound" so I don't have to be pure. The problem is, in that thinking you begin to forget what pure looks like. You begin to get desensitized to what you do wrong. God, I pray desprately that I still be revolted by my own sin. I pray I can never fall into the trap of getting so cocky I forget I sin. I pray I can pursue you with everything I have. I pray I can never hide behind piety but become real and intimate with everyone God gives me to be so, so I have other soldiers watching my back.

the sacred feminine

So I finally capitualted and started The Da Vinci Code. I wanted to have some talking points with a girl at work who I ocassionally get into discussions about God and religion (hopefully stressing they are two very different things). Anyway, I'm starting to get the feeling that he (Dan Brown) strings together a lot of OH NO! moments and makes them a book. I think that makes for a good story (it's why I watch 24!), if it's done in a way that is not manipulative or cheesy.

He's a decent writer; however, the reason people outside of his fan base know who he is largely due to the fantastic claims he makes in his book about Jesus. Pretty much what it boils down to is the gospels are really a story of the love of Jesus and Mary Magdalene (his wife, according to Brown) and that the sacred feminine aspects of God have been suppressed by the Roman Catholic church because they are horrible people who sit in smoke filled rooms plotting the destruction of the world.

The thing is, if Jesus were found to have been married, I wouldn't be horribly shaken. 1. The Bible doesn't say He wasn't married. 2. I'm not Catholic so it's not like I'd have to deal with the "everything I know is a lie" (said in your best sylvester stallone voice) complex. I mean I certainly believe the Bible is inspired, but in all things non-Biblical "The Church is a whore and it is my mother." (the words of Augustine, lest you think I am being profane!)

Plus, while the Mary Magadalene question is kind of a moot point, I do believe in the sacred feminine, just not in the way Brown describes it. The Bible says the Holy Spirit is how God effects His salvation in our lives. The Spirit is our very life and serves as God in us, making us who we are supposed to be. Part of that "who we are supposed to be" is the Bride of Christ. If anything is to embody the sacred feminine, it is the Spirit of Christ in us, not Mary Magdalene.

Lest you think I am being heretical, listen to what I am saying. God is over and above gender. He made both male and female in His image. I believe that God romances us and we are romanced only by his grace. Christ woos His church groomed by His ruach (in the Hebrew, spirit (ruach) is gramatically feminine) and the vital element is our own choice to dance in God's Great Romance.

More later... plus I need to respond to Danielle's post....

Daniel

pentience and catharsis

Mike Thompson said last night at Visions that if put God first in your life and serve others, the sin we struggle with becomes a moot point.

I struggle with fear. Fear that I don't know. Fear that I will be confused or disoriented by my own flawed thinking and miss my chance to see God. Fear that I will never make good on my resolution. Fear that my flaws and failings and lusts will prevent me from telling a woman she is truly beautiful. Fear that talking to people will just make us both feel awkward because there are a great many times when I just have nothing to say.

There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out all fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.-- the Apostle John (1 John 4:18)

Lord God, make me perfect in love, not just so I can be free of fear but so I can love others!!!!!!!!!

Daniel

the pope

I read somewhere that it is possible to be right without being good and that Christianity needs to be both or it is not the way of Jesus.

The Pope died recently and I feel, to some degree, he was both right and good. God honoured him for that. Now, don't mistake me I think hierarchy is not how God wants things. God doesn't want anybody to be exalted above his brothers, that much is evident in the plain teaching of Scripture. Catholics have a lot I don't agree with.

(I apologize I cannot laud someone without feeling compelled to say where I differ with that person. I apologize for my need to always want the last word. That's not Christlike. I'm trying
:-) )

Anyway, whatever you think about the catholics, John Paul II worked for peace. He was partly responsible for the fall of communism. He spoke out for peace, the rights of the unborn, and the preservation of life. He fought for the rights of the poor and the oppressed. He did that all in the name of Christ, the God I serve.

I pray that his critics, whatever their stripe, will do the same.

Soli Deo Gloria, Amen

DGA

beating a dead horse

I am not sure how these promises of God work. We've very strongly established that I believe God doesn't have to do anything. He wants to do (heal/save/redeem) it because He love us and cares for us, not because we have any control over Him and can bend the King of Heaven to our will. We cannot.

Next, the promises. I just don't see any basis for an if-then theology. (By that, I mean a theology that says we must meet a certain specific sets of requirements in order to receive a specific result. If I do A, God will give me B.). The Bible is primarily a collection of true stories about God that show us Who He is and What He is about. It's God's autobiographical sketch, esp with regards to the human race.

Now, say you have an autobiography of the President in which he recounts an instance where he was walking in downtown Texas and gave a homeless man a 10 dollar bill to go get some food. It would be foolish to now through yourself in front of the White House, dress up like you are homeless and try to earn some money. You might get lucky because the President is a generous man but most people would think reasoning

1. The President is a good man
2. The President gives homeless people money
3. If I dress up like a homeless person, the President in his goodness, will give me money.

is kind of foolish. How often do we do this with God? We think God gave Israel health/wealth/ whatever if they followed the covonant so that means he has to do that with us. However, that applied to Israel if they followed the Mosaic covanent. If that's the case, then go the whole hog (or the Kosher equivalent- ham is out the window for Moses, don't forget!!!) and follow the whole Torah.

There is this scene in the movie Fight Club where one of the main characters apartment gets burned down. He has no friends, no family, no one except this stranger he met on the plane ride home. He calls the stranger up and they go out for a drink. As they leave the bar, the stranger asks him if he needs a place to stay. The Friendless man tries to demure and politely refuse even though it's obvious he has nowhere to go. The Stranger upbraids him saying, "do you need a place to stay? Just ask! Cut the foreplay and ask!" Then he refuses to let him stay until he asks.

While a little vulgar, (I apologize!) it has a point. Just ask. Don't try to convince or cajole God with promises of what He has done in the past. He has given us the book of Holy history so we know what kind of person He is and what kind of stuff He will do now. Don't insist God give you what you want because He gave others what they want in the past. Just ask, know God is good and let the chips fall where they man.

I am trying to have this running conversation with my friends about these topics. I am loathe to seem antagonistic or hostile. To insist I know all about this or catogorically deny the other side is to become what I hate. I apologize should I be unclear that I have nothing but the utmost love and respect for my brothers and sisters in Christ who I am discussing this with. I love you all.

Daniel

I WANT THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe truth is something that we don't need to convince each other of. I don't see why we can't just live out the conclusions of theology and let God worry about the premises. He heals. He wants us to believe He will answer our requests (faith). He wants us to save the world. He wants us to be wise and good and true. He wants our love and respect. He wants to be our friend, our lover and our life. So why do we have to analyze it? Why do we have to tell Him, "this is how you work" and "you must not exceed my boundries nor my understanding"? Why is it we insist He must heal or He must not under whatever conditions we insist He must operate? He can do what He wants. He is good. He is God. That should be enough.

Since Laurie got healed the other night, the biggest problem I have is trying to encompass a God who is big enough to make sense with what I know is true. Last Friday, I discovered something about God that I ignored prieviously. He has this deep desire to help people who are sick. I want to get close enough to Him so I can bring some relief to people in this way. But do I want to get close to Him to make myself this mighty healer? Or do I want to get close to Him because He is my Lord and my God, my lover and life? Is that why He doesn't always heal? Because the healer is so worried about himself that he forgets the victim and the God from whom his life springs? I want to help people! How do we restore the hurting and the sick and the dying? Miracles? Medicine? Mission trips to empty out hospitals? WHAT?!?!?!

I'm sorry. It's difficult for me to process stuff like this without extreme emotion. It's a subject that comes with a lot of hurt that I must give to God every day for His healing and peace and life. Grace is not a point. It is a line we all must continoually walk. I want to know Him and advance His kingdom. Doctrine kills, religion kills, man's reason can only go so far.

BUT HOW FAR CAN IT GO? I feel like it would be a lot easier if I know when to draw theories and when to shut up and be mystical. You can say that reason never has a place in the life of a Christian but that would be wrong and dishonest to history. Jesus says love the Lord with all your heart, soul MIND and strength. (Interesting tidbit: the Hebrew conception of your mind had just as much to do with your emotions as it did with your head. Your heart was both reason and passion for the Hebrews). You will be hard pressed to find a guy more logical than Paul. Untill the enlightenment, most in science and math had some sort of religious background. Paul was a rhetorician in the old style.

At the same time, Jesus was widely acknowledged to be the most obtuse teacher around. He taught in mysteries and parables and was always talking about fire and life and truth and death.

This leads me to several questions....

1. What part does reason and theory/conclusion drawing have in the life of a Christian?
2. What part does trust have in the life of a Christian? (trust here is not the ephermal concept of faith that you must work up or build. Trust is the acknowledgement that there is information that you don't know and it influences your daily life on a regular basis. Trust in God is believing He knows what's going on and that it makes sense to Him even if it will never make sense to you. I am asking where these dark areas areas are in which we must appeal to the knowledge of God.)
3. How do I think about God as a lover and a lion and not as a doctrine or a concept or something to make me feel warm and fuzzy and nice? How do I think about Him as an objective personal reality with feelings and thoughts and passions and anger and great fierceness of love and compassion, with hands that throw down the pillars of creation and feet that pace the galaxies? How do I think about Him, like Donald Miller said, a great terrible being with a voice like the wind and feet like trees? Is there any way to do this without me coming undone?

I am entirely too dramatic. But to answer these questions of our faith feels as though it is to, somehow, ever so slightly, diminish the grandeur of God. That terrifies me and plus, I don't know if they have answers or if my feeble mind can even begin to approach them with any measure of justice.

I ask anyway. My judgement comes from God and it will stand with the great lineage of foolish question askers that extends all the way back to the days of Moses, David and the Apostles. Jerimiah was a prophet and He called God a liar and dishonest for the trouble of his office. I take some solace in that with the asking of all these questions.

As always, thoughts are appreciated and posts are lauded.

in the Three-in-One

Daniel

poetry and the revolution

G.K. Chesterton said that the poet tries to get his head into the heavens, while the rational man tries to get the heavens into his head. Consequently, it is his head that splits. This is why there are no poets in the madhouse.

In about 2 weeks, it will be the 2 year anniversary of the death of Stephen Robert Johnson from cancer. For those of you who were not blessed to know such a great friend and God-bought soldier, he died within a week of his diagnosis. Nobody had any idea he was sick, one day he was healthy, the next he died.

Do you realize what that kind of stuff does to a little pentecostal kid? I thought God moved and worked and did stuff. I thought he was active and alive. I thought he healed! So why did my friend die?

I still don't know. But last night, I learned that I don't have to know. In some deep mystic sense, God allowed me to believe a contradiction: that I was not responsible for his death and God wanted me to pray for the sick so much so that I believed they would be healed.

I mean think about it. If we lived in the cold iron prison of logic, then because I prayed for him and he was not healed, I was responsible. I couldn't deal with that responsibliity, so obviously God didn't want us to pray for the sick.

I was wrong in both counts. Last night at visions, through a series of events most peculiar, I was led to pray for my friend Laurie. She has fiber myalgia and the doctors said she will live in pain for the rest of her life. She had to give up sign language, the violin and many other things she loves because of this pain that made efforts to dominate her life. We prayed for her and now she is no longer in pain.

I WAS NOT RESPONSIBLE! GOD WANTS ME TO PRAY FOR THE SICK! Logically, this makes no sense and I'm not advocating we check our brains at the door here, but maybe we should acknowledge our reason has limits. There were several varied factors that led to Steve's death; these factors were both spiritual and physical, emotional and mental. We live in a ruined world. Cells divide and destroy a man's brain, tsunamis kill millions of the coast of Asia, mothers kill there babies and children blow the brains out their classmates. Why? Where is God? Why doesn't he do something to fix His world?

I really feel after last night that we are the answer to this question. There has been this huge dichtomy in the middle of evangelicalism between social justice and miracles. The pentecostals (usually republicans) want people to help themselves. Have enough faith and be healed. Work out your own salvation. Pull yourself up by your own bootstraps (with the help of the word of God, of course!). The liberal Christians (usually democrats) want to look after the physical needs of a person, ignoring the spirtual. They exchange being happy for being good. "those who are too heavenly minded are no earthly good" they shout, never understanding that denying the people spirtual good is to slip them a poison just as deadly.

How does this relate to healing? Because the world is fallen, people hurt, die, sin. Bodies get sick, souls sin, earthquakes happen and DJ's die of cancer. All of these are problems and all of these, God never intended to happen. He designed the world with life in mind and not death. This is what he sent the church to fix. We will not get all of them. That's not the point. The point is that we try. Because in a mystical sense, fighting for God against sickness, disease, poverty and death rescue our own souls. To believe that God might actually say yes to something we ask is to treat Him not only as a person but as one who loves us. God is not a concept. He is a person.

I mean I understand God has a plan for everything, that trying to manipulate God with a contrived formula of faith is trying to tame the Wildness of the All-mighty Lion of Judah. God will not be cajoled nor will he be manipulated. You cannot put Him into a box so He must do what You want.

But you also cannot put Him into a box by saying He can't heal either. Plus, I think He is a sucker for people. He gives Israel a King because they asked. It was the worst thing that ever happened to them. The Kings were a large part of why Israel just got nationhood back 50 years ago after a dispersion of several millenia. The effectively shafted the people of God in the worst possible way. God is almost willing to try our requests out, even if He knows it will probably be harmful for His people in the long run. Maybe, He wants us to love Him so bad that He is willing to make every concession He can. Maybe He is infintely more concerned about being in love than He is about being right. Maybe, This is why Christ tells us to pray, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That when we pray the Lord's prayer, we really say, "God I will make petitions on a regular basis. Say no, even if I ask, because I ask for harmful things." Maybe to ask omniscience anything is to ask for a step down from His plan in the first place. Wouldn't He have know the best and given it anyway?

This is all speculation and proabably a lot more jarbled than it needs to be. I am not trying to make theological statements here. I have no idea how to begin such a discussion. All I am advocating is that we accept two very contradictory statements: We are not responsible for the world's sorid state of affairs, but we are called to fix it.

post lots

Daniel

deliever us, oh king of Israel

I woke up this morning, incredibly well rested for having been at Beaner's till 3:00 am. I thank God that I have a net of life around me, and that I form a like net for others. These people, while I cannot put all my hope in men, are the hand of God to the parched and arid country, brimming with life, that I dare to call my soul. I thank God that I have been given a new life through his sacrifice and that he raises that new life, a child fresh from the womb, with the church of God. I thank God that he has stood and lived and died and provided armies, kings and priests to our God. I thank Him that He has delievered us.

Daniel