“Religion is fueled by the craving for certainty. Faith is fueled by the craving for intimacy. I think. Maybe.”
Ken Wilson
Love is the most ruthlessly demanding thing. So we prefer a religion of rules. Especially if the rules don’t impinge on us too much.
also Ken!
1John 4:16
And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
God is love.
Rom. 11:36
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
From love, through love and to love are all things.
Col. 1:15
(love) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 16 For by him (love) all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by (love) and for (love). 17 (love) is before all things, and in (love) all things hold together. 18 And (love) is the head of the body, the church; (love) is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything (love) might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in (love), 20 and through (love) to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Don’t see a qualifier here…
Col. 3:12
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
But here we are to clothe ourselves in love.
1Cor. 13:1
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1Cor. 13:4
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
1Cor. 13:8
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
1Cor. 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
“If might is right, then love has no place in the world.”
The Mission
1Cor. 15:52
in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
Anyone can read the bible, anyone can preach a sermon or give a talk. Anyone can teach a class.
But not everyone raises the dead, heals the sick, frees the captives, or sets the prisoners free.
I find it wondrous that the Christians that stand on the premise that miracles ended when the ancient apostles died, still believe that you can communicate with the Living God through prayer.
What sets us apart?
I have been away from church and christians for several months, things seem so much simpler without all the Christian clutter. If it were not for daily bible reading, and thirty years of christian fellowship, i’d walk away. But one thing alone cements things firmly in place.
Grace
Grace that cared for us when I was laid off.
Grace that delivered a real good friends demons. (complete with voices)
Grace that heals. I’ve see the lame walk, the blind see, limbs healed, pain gone.
Grace that sent three men to stand by my side when my dad died. These three have no idea how significant their couple hours were.
Miracles set us apart.
Because of His love.
“It’s important the Church is interacting with God. I’m afraid were headed toward the mindset of keeping the cameras on; the audio running and money in the bank to pay for it all. We cant take time to interact with God because we’ve created a time where people are entertained rather than interaction with God. If we change it, then the people wont like it? Then what will we do with all this overhead?
Job 4:12
“A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it.
Breathe
I was having lunch with my friend Bob several years ago. I was busy unpacking how stressed I was at work and he gave me a simple piece of advice. “Breathe deep” he wrote it on a napkin, I put the napkin in my journal.
It has changed everything for me. When I get out of sorts, and I remember, I step back and breathe deep. Stopping and breathing has brought me back to center on God many many times since then. From time to time I forget then I hear Bob say, “I’m serious, stop right now and breathe deep, I’ll wait.”
Gen. 2:7
the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Breath is the first gift we received from God. In my opinion, along with silence, It is the highest form of worship.
“…the very existence of human beings comes from God. We live, not so much on a borrowed, but on a given breath.” Miroslav Volf
Rom. 11:36
For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.
It is all a gift. Each breath, each heartbeat, a gift, given by God.
1Cor. 4:7
For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
God is a giver.
Divine love gives and does not receive.
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Faith recognizes and affirms, and gratitude appreciates that everything that we are and have comes from God…God gives so that we can exist and flourish, but not only for that. God gives so that we can help others exist and flourish as well…God gives so that we, in human measure, can be givers too.” Volf
I like the writing of Madame Guyon, she wrote…”God gives us gifts, graces, and natural talents, not for our own use, but that we may render them to Him. He takes pleasure in giving and in taking them away, or in so disposing of us, that we cannot enjoy them; but their grand use is to be offered in a continual sacrifice to Him; and by this He is most glorified.”
If we take on the attitude that everything comes from Him, then nothing is impossible. We do not shy away from the miraculous.
Matt. 10:8
Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. Heal real sick people, raise real dead people, cleanse real lepers, drive out real demons, and give, give, give, give, give, give freely. This is what we are told to do.
In that light read Romans 12:1-12
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Rom. 12:1
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Rom. 12:3
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. 4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man’s gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully.
Rom. 12:9
Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.
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1Kings 19:19 So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. 20 Elisha then left his oxen and ran after Elijah. “Let me kiss my father and mother good-by,” he said, “and then I will come with you.”
“Go back,” Elijah replied. “What have I done to you?”
1Kings 19:21 So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.
1Kings 19:21 The Message
So Elisha left; he took his yoke of oxen and butchered them. He made a fire with the plow and tackle and then boiled the meat—a true farewell meal for the family. Then he left and followed Elijah, becoming his right-hand man.
Burn the equipment, cook the meat, feed the people.
You cannot serve both God and money.
“Faith is the art of hearing the invisible; Hope is the art of believing the invisible; Love is the art of trusting the invisible.” Leonard Sweet
I have been away from other Christians and Christian culture for the past several months thanks to work.
It appears that we are answering questions no one is asking.
I wonder what would make the good news really appealing?
Sin is the subject of jokes. Jesus is a cartoon, and all we can do is tell people what we are against. It is all upside down, no wonder the fastest growing religion is the “nones.”
Just what is it we are offering?
I say the unconditional love of the Living God.
We have our work cut out for us.
“Jesus is the God of peace and order, but in the process of gaining more of Him that sometimes means disorder. God is not predictable, nor is He to be controlled…”
John Wimber
From Jesse Wilson…”Thought from 1 John 1v5-10: Reality, apparently, is the kind of thing where love – and the life that flows from it – thrives / prevails / has its way / wins. Everything that suggests anything to the contrary is a lie.”
Most of the worship I encounter as response, is safe and tame. The worship team practices, tunes up, performs. There is a sense of calm. Two or three songs. Then a talk. Five or six more songs, then off to lunch and the Sunday paper. Perhaps some gardening. It is still worship, yes.
Or perhaps worship is series of repeated chorus’s song in ever increasing tempo until it climaxes like an orgasm, then the soothing music begins. As long as it is safe and no one really climaxes.
Worship must be dangerous, we are bringing ourselves before…
Ezek. 1:25
Then there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads as they stood with lowered wings. 26 Above the expanse over their heads was what looked like a throne of sapphire, and high above on the throne was a figure like that of a man. 27 I saw that from what appeared to be his waist up he looked like glowing metal, as if full of fire, and that from there down he looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded him. 28 Like the appearance of a rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day, so was the radiance around him.
This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. When I saw it, I fell facedown, and I heard the voice of one speaking.
Ezek. 2:1
He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” 2 As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.
I have quoted this from Annie Dillard before when writing about a similar idea:
” Why do we people in churches seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute?
The tourists are having coffee and doughnuts on Deck C. Presumably someone is minding the ship, correcting the course, avoiding icebergs and shoals, fueling the engines, watching the radar screen, noting weather reports radioed in from shore. No one would dream of asking the tourists to do these things. Alas, among the tourists on Deck C, drinking coffee and eating doughnuts, we find the captain, and all the ship’s officers, and all the ship’s crew. The officer’s chat; they swear; they wink. a bit at slightly raw jokes, just like regular people. The crew members have funny accents. The wind seems to be picking up.
On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions. Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us out to where we can never return.” pg. 52
— Annie Dillard
and
“There is always the temptation in life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for years on end. It is all so self conscience, so apparently moral…But I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous…more extravagant and bright. We are…raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.”
— Annie Dillard
Rev. 1:17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last.
God is love. He does not love because you are lovable, He loves you because HE is love.
He IS.
Ex. 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.
It is who he is, He is unchangeable.
I am.
Not a variable. He is love.
Jesus is the exact representation of His being.
John 1:18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.
John 8:58 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born, I am!”
It is present now. He is the present tense. now…love. Not I was, not will be, but is, now. Not he will be with you or he will love you. He loves you now. Ready or not.
now
Therefore we worship and worship is dangerous.
I am
life, love, light. IS the I AM.
death, hate, darkness, is not.
Therefore we worship.
we say AMEN to the I AM.
They know my name….Abba-Papa-Father
Eph. 3:14
For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge — that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Psa. 23:5
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.
overflows=to satisfy with abundance.
If worship is to be entertained, is it still worship? Can we just listen to worship and not enter the presence? Can we enter the presence and not be changed?
worship must be dangerous, we cannot worship without being changed into the likeness of that we revere.
Heb 13:5 (AMP) Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]
1Kings 19:21
So Elisha left him and went back. He took his yoke of oxen and slaughtered them. He burned the plowing equipment to cook the meat and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he set out to follow Elijah and became his attendant.
I’ll let you fill in the blanks.
From Jesse Wilson…Thought from 1 John 1v5-10: Reality, apparently, is the kind of thing where love – and the life that flows from it – thrives / prevails / has its way / wins. Everything that suggests anything to the contrary is a lie.
YES.
Have we become so accustomed to Christian culture that we are no good to the world?
I got an email today from someone that said, God is awakening hearts across…, as a Christian, I have the framework to understand such a statement. But sitting here in my secular office with my non christian co workers and looking at that statement…???
I wonder if we are so busy building church and holding conferences that we have forgotten, the reason we have all these things.
Perhaps we get back to the job of getting to know, follow, serve, and adore Jesus.
“Humility means to live as close to the truth as possible: the truth about ourselves, the truth about others, the truth about the world in which we live.” Richard Foster
