2007 in Review

“I am afraid to trust him, consequently it makes it hard to seek him.” 

In June, when I started my pilgrimage toward spiritual renewal, those were my words. That was my greatest difficulty. That is what caused me to waiver and step off the path. Where am I today? That’s a good question.

If I were to summarize the past five and half months, I would put it in these terms. Cautiously optimistic. Not so much about my faith per se, but about how I flesh that out. I am more analytical than I was in my former days. I am more cautious and quick to question what I see, hear, and read. However, in all of that I am still moving forward.

Examining things is not a bad thing. I think someone should know why the believe what they believe and understand its foundation. Some of the most profitable times during these past few months have been sitting and talking with my wife about some of the basic issues of “the faith”.  There is also my friend Jon who has been a great example and encourager. Since I see him and talk to him often, or can call him with thoughts or ideas, he has been a valuable “resource”.

There have been others in my circle; Jerry, Todd, CW, Nurmi, all of which have been praying for me and encouraging me with phone calls and e-mails.

Bottom line, I am still walking and talking. I am still growing. Part of me wants to run to the deep end, climb up the high board and plunge in. The other part of me – the stable part – says, “Take your time and do things right.”

What God has in store, I do not know.  How I fit into His long-term universal plan is yet to be seen.

So right now I will continue doing what I am doing watching for the  time to push it to the next level.

Thanks to all who have participated directly or indirectly in this process. Whether it’s reading this blog and commenting, or just being there when it has been necessary.  I thank you!

Happy New Year!!!

Thus Says the LORD

Discernment was a concept I mentioned in an earlier post. It is a difficult concept to grasp and a hard principle to employ. Some would say it is a selective gift given only to a few. That may be true for a special kind of discernment.  However, when you see passages like the one noted below one tends to think otherwise.

“Those who are spiritual discern all things, and they are themselves subject to no one else’s scrutiny. ‘For who has known the mind of the LORD so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.”  (1Cor. 2:14-16)

“…But be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God – what is good, acceptable and perfect.”  (Romans 12:2b)

In the mid chapters of Jeremiah there is a constant “struggle” between those prophets who say “thus says the LORD” and get it wrong and Jeremiah who says “thus says the LORD” and apparently gets it right.  All the while there is this tension between what God wants and what the people perceive to be His will.

A good example is God’s instruction for them to be at home in Babylon. To take wives, give their sons and daughters in marriage, build houses and plant gardens, etc.  This would seem so contradictory to what God seemed to want earlier. Times when they were to annihilate the foreigners and not participate in their culture in any form. Not only that, those who did not participate in the exile would be annihilated themselves. (Jeremiah 27-29)

Israel will be in captivity seventy years. Hard to imagine that they would accept that when someone else is offering them two as a result of “thus says the LORD”. (Chapter 28) So it is easy to see how they might convince themselves that what this prophet is saying is better than what that other prophet is saying.

Discerning “God’s will” and the truth of scripture is not an easy thing. It is not an attribute that comes naturally. There have been multiple times in my life when I have discerned incorrectly. Times when I wanted a certain course of action so desperately I convinced myself that my responses were a result of “thus says the LORD”. Then when things did not work out like I thought, it was easy to say apparently this is what “thus says the LORD” meant.

Some people I know provide simple solutions for discerning God’s will. Does it comply with scripture, does it violate God’s character, does it lead you to do something that is morally questionable, WWJD, etc. All are nice and helpful I am sure, but it is still my opinion that discerning God’s will is the most difficult aspect of the Christian life. We don’t get much “thus says the LORD” anymore other than through scripture. There are many preachers who may think they intercede for that, but I suspect that they will get theirs soon enough.

In this new year, I am hoping to be within the scope and will of God. I am not certain I will know that is happening other than by walking the path I see before me one step at a time.  If I am successful doing that, then I believe God will be satisfied.  Perhaps I will see you on the journey.

Happy New Year!

Uhm???

I am not usually in the habit of posting BS except my own, but this has to top even that. A transcript from al-Qaida regarding the recent assassination in Pakistan.

If any one believes that, than I have a bridge to sell in N.Y.

Our God

I think about God a great deal. Whether that makes me godly or just one who has bizarre thoughts, I am not certain. Nevertheless, I think of Him often.  How often do you think about God?

There seems to be a lack of godly thinking these days. It seems that most people just take what they are given, or blindly read what they read without any attempt to dissect what they hear or read. That is not a good thing. Even Jeremiah talks about good prophets and bad prophets. Those who say “thus says the LORD” and those who say, “thus says me.” If we are not astute enough to determine the difference it can lead to a great deal of confusion.

Discernment is not something that is talked about a lot these days. However, it is something that is necessary. Whether it is reading the daily paper or reading the latest novel, discerning truth from error is critical. It is critical to enhancing our worldview or slowly destroying it.

Some of the teaching I have heard lately has caused me to sharpen my discerning tools. It has prompted me to think outside the box as they say. Knowing that two people can look at the same scripture and have different interpretations is confusing if not alarming. Without discernment, it would be easy to get seduced into either loose interpretations or down right heresy.

Did I mention I think about God a great deal? Well I do. It is not because I am godly, it is merely because I want to know Him. To know what He might be like in order to properly worship Him. To understand “salvation” and what my responsibilities are within the scope of that experience.

Christmas seems like a good time to ratchet that thought process up a notch or two because it is the season of the incarnation. Yes, I know that Jesus was most likely not born this time of year. That is not the point. The point is – God incarnate.  Is it God’s last resort or His ultimate gift?

Happy New Year!

In the Saddle Again

Well we are back. I thought perhaps I could keep things going during the Christmas break, but our family did not have a computer that worked properly, so I just let things ride and soaked up the benefits of family.

It is nice to spend time with those you love and simply spend time talking and sharing – kids included. I think I spent a total of zero minutes watching actual TV. We did watch The Bourne Ultimatum, which was a gift, but other than that, I stayed away from the TV and read, talked, played with Eli, or just sat and enjoyed the company of family. It was rather nice.

We attended a Christmas eve service at a nearby church – Keith and Audrey have not landed on a church home yet – and it was rather unusual.

As part of their service they were doing the Lord’s Supper. That struck me as odd since the chances of having a great number of visitors was pretty high.  That part of the service had a “common cup” and large loaves of bread. You would go down, tear off some bread and dip it in the cup. It was probably very close to what Jesus and the Apostles did, but it was a procedure I had not done before. I don’t think I liked the process but cannot say for certain.

I also managed to get several chapters read in Jeremiah. It is a hard book. Not so much regarding content, although that is difficult at times, but rather keeping things straight since his ministry covered such a large period of time and the book may not be in chronological order.  One thing I did note is that God has done some serious “relenting” so far. Not only that, the people of God make some rather bizarre choices when confronted with options.

Making bizarre choices may be something we all do. For apparently no serious rationale, we make choices to our detriment rather than for our good. I suppose some of it has to do with temporary pleasure to the sacrifice of long-term good. A sort of “it feels good now” mentality with a willingness to endure the consequences later thinking “they can’t be that bad.” When in reality the consequences are severe. However, once we discover that it is too late to retract our earlier choice. Some of us do not even learn from those who have gone before us and attempt to point out our error.

With the New Year approaching, many of us will make some “resolutions” that have to do with critical choices in our life. Certainly some of them will be just like the year before, unfulfilled, but that will not deter us from making new ones. And a few weeks in or a few months in to the new year, we will abandon our efforts. We will do that primarily because the “old way” is more comfortable. The new way is awkward and often difficult. The consequence is we do the same thing with the same results.

I believe I will be a bit more cautious about my “choices” this year. I would like to have different results in some areas of my life.