Filed under: disequilibrium | Tags: craving, kingdom, longing, pursue, seek, transform
Perspective. If there is any on thing Jesus tried to show us, it was to “see” the truth. So much is wrapped up in that word, “see”. In fact seeing Jesus is seeing the exact representation of God the Father (hebrews 1:3). Jesus taught us about seeing the Kingdom of God at hand; in fact he stated that the Kingdom of God is within us. What? It is a perspective shift, or even better stated, a new paradigm. Time and time again we read the urgency in Scripture to “consider”, or to “fix your eyes…” or “fix your thoughts…” and so on. The apostle Paul taught us about a worldly and a spiritual point of view (2 Cor. 5:14-16). He also taught us that believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior means that we are a new creation! Talk about getting a new perspective (or life…)! (more…)
Filed under: searching, simple things | Tags: addicted, craving, holy spirit, longing, pursue, seek, story
i have been pondering what Jesus meant when he said that eternal life is knowing the only true God and knowing Himself. I always thought eternal life was heaven, but i guess that is only a place, but not the activity of that life. well, to be honest, i never really dwelt what eternal life would be like, besides the fact that forever is a concept that my head can’t get around. but eternal life is knowing God…hmmm…i sort of like that idea. i suppose it would take forever to know God because God is infinitely unknowable and forever is yet inadequate to fully know God. but we get to know more and more and more of God.
what can be better than that? what can be a higher goal to strive after? what can be a better thing to think about? nothing. absolutely nothing. knowing God, is the very best thing that we can do. (more…)
Filed under: simple things | Tags: addicted, craving, dangerous, kingdom, pursue, seek
I have been musing over discipleship. what does that look like? what does it feel like? how does it start? what all goes into it? i mean, christians flippantly use that word time and time again without understanding its deep implications. at least that is what i observe from the gospels and how discipleship looked like there. not just in the gospels, but also in all of the bible. this has lead me to some unrest and a thirst to learn what it means to follow Jesus, to be where He is (John 12), to feel what he feels, and to think how God thinks. to imitate our Master, for that is what discipleship is.
i found a good starting point for understanding discipleship. it can be seen in the Shema. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength…” (Mark 12:29-30).
that is alot of alls. all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. sounds like that should be one’s whole life. but when this is unpacked, you can see a holistic picture of discipleship, at least from a Hebraic stand point. (more…)
Filed under: simple things | Tags: craving, dangerous, experiment, kingdom, pursue, seek
Jesus once said, “Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be.” that sounds rather simple, but we also know that it sounds difficult. i often feel this tension with what Jesus says. it’s easy. i get it. but i struggle doing it.
but here in this verse, it’s simple. whoever serves Jesus MUST follow him. this speaks of urgency. speaks of movement. speaks of direction, of vocation, of action, of discipleship, of worship (what?), it speaks of love. how can we serve if we don’t follow? where Jesus is, we should be. i can’t read this and think that following Jesus is what we think it is. i hear often that phrase, following Jesus, but i wonder if we know or understand what that is. it is often equated as an Christian ethical behavior. where if I follow Jesus, i no longer act a (more…)
Filed under: disequilibrium, simple things | Tags: addicted, craving, holy spirit, kingdom, pursue, transform
perspective.::the state of one’s ideas, the facts known to one, etc., in having a meaningful interrelationship::the faculty of seeing all the relevant data in a meaningful relationship::a mental view or prospect
i have realized that having the right perspective is crucial. in relationships, in teamwork, at work, at life, and especially with faith. so often, especially in relationships our perspective is what blindsides us into conflict with another. we just have a difficult time seeing things from their side or perspective. we don’t just naturally possess the skill to understand all sides of a story. it takes time. and unfortunately, probably some conflict to teach us to be slow to speak and slow to act on things when we insufficient information. (more…)
Filed under: prayers, simple things | Tags: addicted, craving, holy spirit, longing, love, pursue
The other morning I was reading my bible while i was watching my baby princess sleep in her rocker. I caught myself praying for her and her future, time and time again that morning. Praying that God would give me the wisdom//patience//and all the other good stuff needed to be a great poppa and role model for her. Everything in my heart wants to see her succeed in this life and I want to be able to empower her in everyway to achieve that. (more…)
Filed under: searching, simple things | Tags: addicted, craving, kingdom, pursue, searching, seek, story, transform
Transformation.::change in form, appearance, nature, or character::to change in condition, nature, or character; convert::The Gospel, the good news of God, namely Jesus, transforms. changes people in nature, in character, in condition, converts. this is the beating heart of God. to redeem what once was, to renew what could be once again, to reconcile, to blossom onto the scene. this has been the story, His story, since the beginning of whatever was or could be.
in a previous post, i wrote about the authorship of God (who wrote this), and how it is attributed to Him as the author of life, the author of salvation, the author of our faith, but within the same line in hebrews 12, it is said that he is also the perfector of our faith. authorship::his story::his origination::his idea::his soverignty::his way::his timing::his heart…all exposed within this story. the story of the kingdom of God redeeming what was made for him, to introduce us to the King and to see his heart. during this process, things transform. his presence transforms people, communities, towns, cities, hearts, souls, maybe, just even maybe, the whole world…
the good news :: God wrote our stories. He makes a way. He can change and transform your nature, your character, your situations, in fact he desires to. he is the relentless hero. never stopping. never quitting. always pursuing. (more…)
I don’t know about you, but I have little patience for some things. Especially in the morning. My brain is very foggy in the morning and it takes me awhile for it to clear up (i like to use this as my excuse for being impatient). So, if I have to look for something in the morning, or do a task or whatever, my patience level is quite low. From shaving, to cordinating my clothing so I don’t look like a chump, to even eating breakfast.
This past weekend, I have a story that goes to show my level of impatience. I took some students on a retreat down in Iowa, and we stayed in a sweet cabin. I recalled my conversation that I had with the owner and how he told me that there would be towels for us to use. So in the morning, I was the first one to get up and shower for the guys (the gals were already up…ya, we are lazy). So, I rummaged for the towels in the obvious places. Didn’t see them there, so, I thought I would have to become resourceful. So, I used my panjama pants to dry up (kind of gross, especially that I slept in them!!!). (more…)
I am amazed at level of genius that it takes to be a good author. The creativity, the imagination, the time it takes to write, the wisdom of authors. Think about it, they have to think of names, places, obstacles, scenery, different characters with different backgrounds and then have them all mesh together at the perfect time to create the perfect scene to create the perfect tension that gives the story it’s own character.
When I think of the Lord of the Rings series by JR Tolkein, I become amazed at the level of creativity it has. The names of characters is astonishing. The names of land and places and buildings is mind-boggling. I always wondered how the heck did they come up with those names. Was it a bad game of scrabble where they made up words??? But the thing that gets me the most, is how they see the end being and how they write to achieve that end. Also, with that, an author is soverign over his story. He/she alone has complete authority over the story, because he/she is the one who puts the pen to the paper to create. No one else can dictate that. No one can influence what they write.
interesting…God is also described as an author. In fact, He is described as the author of life (Acts 3:15), the author of salvation (Heb. 2:10), and the author and perfector of our faith (Heb. 12:2).
(more…)
Filed under: disequilibrium | Tags: craving, dangerous, experiment, holy spirit
In acts 8:26-40 (http://bibleresources.bible.com/passagesearchresults.php?passage1=Acts+8%3A26-40&passage2=&passage3=&passage4=&passage5=&version1=47&version2=0&version3=0&version4=0&version5=0&Submit.x=35&Submit.y=4) we see a story of a regular man, who got a prompting from God to go. But to go where? To do what? In the previous part of the story, Philip was part of a mass revival in Samaria, but now God wants him to get up and leave that, to travel some obscure desert road for some unknown reason. He had to face a decision, to leave what was happening in Samaria, to disciple the new followers of ‘the way’, or to listen to this prompting and obey.
I must wonder about this road a bit. I wonder what Philip thought about it. It was a desert road, like in Robert Frost’s words, a road less traveled. Did he contemplate his safety? Did he sit and pray to double check that this was God’s will for His life? We don’t see any of that. What we get is that he got up and went, without knowing the final destination or the reason for going. All he knew, was go! He went. (more…)
