Not Who I Am...

I woke up early this Christmas Eve. My thoughts were not on gum drops and little babies but on what I have become. I don't know if Christmas is a good time to take personal inventory or not, normally a thing left for New Years, but I have and so I will.
I couldn't stop thinking that my spirituality has been beaten and bruised and because of this brutality I have not been the man I should be, not for God, not for Jenni, not for the students in my ministry (I am not looking for accolades so please don't tell me how wrong I am). It is not as though I have abandoned any of those three or others, it is more like I have been choosing easy routes. Churches can be messy places, having people in them an all. Sometimes what should be is a far cry from what is, and when you are young and idealistic and run into those walls of resistance and messiness, it can really throw you off course. I have literally not done things in my youth ministry in the past few years because I have said "it is not worth it". Not, "it's not worth the time," or "worth the effort", "money", "sacrifice", etc. the "it" is the putting my neck on the chopping block in order to maybe share the gospel with a few kids. Doing something that might rock the boat a little bit, not for the sake of rocking but for the sake of the gospel.
Realizing that my bruises have left me a bit broken is one thing, but beginning to choose the path less trodden is another. I want every area of my life to be centered around Christ like compassion and service, often times it is centered around Kent like desires and complaining... I need the renewal of the Spirit of God, I need the Christ Child to smile on me and heal my brokenness. I need the self-control and servant heart that only God can deliver. I don't know that big changes are necessary, rather, small changes - after all, life is lived in the details with rare moments of grandness and beauty.
Well, how is that for confession and repentance.

Terabithia...

I Passed...

I took my greek alphabet test today and passed! Pretty sweet!
I didn't know but I had to read out of the Greek text, which I hadn't practiced, and he quoted some words to me and I had to write them in Greek, but evidentally I passed! It's so funny how nervous I was when talking to him, even though I have nothing to be nervous about, I know the stuff. I sounded like a third grader or something... Oh well, I made it.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

Jesus does Hosea

Hosea 2:19-20
I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.

I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the LORD.

As I read Hosea today, I could not help but see the picture in Revelation 19 of the wedding of the Lamb!
In Christ this prophecy of Hosea's will be fulfilled.
It is quite a thing to be caught between these two passages, awaiting the day when to two will become one. New and Old mesh into a single thread of prophecy fulfillment!
The passage in Revelation says that the "bride has made herself ready." She is adorned in white, a white that claims its color from the righteousness of the saints of God. She is beautiful and he has come to sweep her off her feet. I love the idea that she has made herself ready. She is indeed, expecting his return. If Christ is the fulfillment of Hosea, the church should be the fulfillment of those words of readiness. We should be a beautiful bride dressed in white, a white that is not of a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but that which is by faith! So put off your jealousy, fits of rage, grumbling, gossip, back biting and all sorts of evil and dress again in the clothes given to you at the time of your death and resurrection in Christ!
Our suitor has gone to prepare a place for us, but mark His words, He will come back again!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

I sing the song let it snow as my prayer for snow, I'm pretty sure God thinks it is wonderfully entertaining, and I find it rather pleasant to sing. My only complaint is I keep missing the snow. Last year during the big snow I was in Chicago with only flurries, this year it skips over us and hits Wichita. I believe that enough of us sing this song as our snow prayer, that maybe, just maybe, God will dump on us and we will all get to go sledding and drink hot chocolate.
Oh, the weather outside is frightful...

Greek Tools

Today I begin my first Masters course. It is a Greek Language Tools class. It looks like it will be pretty simple, I have 9 tasks I have to complete. Hopefully I can stay on course and get through it. I am such a flake about stuff, I am just concerned that I won't follow through. I would love all of your prayers for this... Thanks!

Rocky...

Man, I love Rocky, I can't wait to see this movie when it comes out. Here is a preview for those of you who haven't seen it yet...

It would be so nice, to grow old with you...

Last night I preached on the story surrounding the birth of John the Baptist. I realized shortly before I got up that the last time in the history of Israel when an elderly couple got pregnant was with good ol Abraham & Sarah. Through their child Issac and his child Jacob, would come the whole nation of Israel. The first covenant between God and man came from the birth announcements sent out by this old couple. We fast forward a couple thousand years and again we have a barren elderly couple who has faithfully followed the Lord. Except this time their child will usher in the new covenant not through his bloodline, but by his preaching and pointing people towards the messiah. I think it is as if God is saying, "this covenant I am now bringing will be similar in form to the old but will far surpass it in every way..."

Broke Bread

I understand the desire in churches to return to the pattern found in Acts, whatever that may be. One thing that is interesting to me is Acts 2:46-47 where it talks about the believers meeting to break bread in their homes, this follows vs 42 where they speak of devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 46 starts by saying "Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts...". Every day. I wonder if this is the reasoning behind Catholic Mass every day of the week. These folks lived in community with one another. As the church we do not hold to having a true fellowship like this. I wonder what would happen if we began to devote ourselves to a more full living out of the early church's pattern?
If I had a time every day for my students to gather together, would they? Would adults? Should we? I'm not sure yet...

32 of 72

This past weekend, Friday - Sunday I drove for 32 hours in a 72 hour time span... We went down to Pharr, TX. (we were right north of the pool) for Jenni's grandparents 50th. It was a good time and it stretched my manhood for driving. I did all of the driving except for 2 hours from Medicine Lodge to there and back. The whole way down and back when people were sleeping I listened to Mark Moore sermons, they were really good, very challenging (worth the listen, especially the series on Revelation)...
I had a lot to think about as I drove, I will try and articulate some of my thoughts later...

I don't want a lot for Christmas.

I was just thinking how funny it is that people get upset about the commercialization of Christmas, and yet they buy still go out and buy gifts... If you are upset that Christmas has become more about selling and buying goods than the Christ Child, then maybe you shouldn't add to the problem. I personally don't expect the world to stop. Stories of babies come to save the world do not put as much cash in your pocket as ipods & Wii's. Sometimes I think Christians hurt the cause by whining and complaining and trying to change the rules instead of trying to change hearts. Christmas is going to be commercialized until Christ comes back and we don't need it anymore, or until we as Christians get busy about sharing the gospel with those who are lost in this world without a savior...

Author's Intended Meaning?

I was reading a book for my greek tools class last night and the gentleman (Alan Black) was discussing doing good exegesis. One of the things that he was stressing, as all good bible college professors do, was the need to find the Author's Intended Meaning (AIM). I have always struggled with this idea. I struggle because there seems to be a dichotomy between our means of interpretation and our stance on the source of biblical literature. What I mean is this. When we talk about scripture, defend it, etc. we express the idea that these are not man made works but Spirit of God driven, divine masterpieces. Yet when we study them our goal is to find out what "Paul" or "Matthew" meant. We would argue that they are divine in origin and yet study them as though they were any other piece of literature. I guess the question I am struggling with, is if the Spirit of God is big enough to create within the scripture itself nuansces that even the hand that was writing them did not fully grasp. Is it possible that Paul was being carried along by the Spirit and wrote things that amazed him? If so, what would his intended meaning have to do with anything? I hope this makes sense.

21

Romans 12:21
"Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

Vongo

I recently signed up for vongo, free 14 day trial... It is a movie download service. So far the quality of the movies is pretty nice, we will see if it is worth the $10 a month or not. If so, it may be better than netflix... Although you can't get TV shows which is a major draw back. The nice thing is that you don't have to wait two days for your movie...

Oil Ecology?

What part do you think oil plays in our ecosystem? What major effect will it have to remove it from the crust of our earth? My new crazy theory is that the removal of oil from the earth's crust is causing global warming, not emissions...

Turkey & The Speed of LIght

Hey everyone, first, I just want to wish anyone who looks at this a happy Thanksgiving. I thank God for all of my friends, their faith and families!
Second, I was thinking this morning when I woke up about the speed of light. Is it possible to create slow light? I mean does all light have the same speed? What gives it it's speed. The same with sound, are there slow sounds and fast sounds? Do different frequency's travel at different speeds?
I was laying there at 6 in the morning thinking how cool it would be if you could figure out a way to slow down light enough that you could see it move...

Anyway, happy Thanksgiving!

Age & Assurance

Boy, as I grow older and gain more knowledge, I seem to loose more assurance. Not assurance in the important things of life, but more in my ability to be the thing that I have envisioned myself as. I have always thought I would one day be mature, intelligent, successful - a shinning star of sorts. The problem as I see it, is that the closer I get to that old reality of myself, the further I realize I am from it really being true. My thoughts seem so elementary to me as I compare to great thinkers, my intelligence is diminished by the lack there of and success is but a whisp of smoke. It is a very scary, humbling reality - to realize ones place in this universe. It is also a very exciting position to do business from. There is so much more out there, I am a mere student among students.

Upernikwmen

Upernikwmen - is a transliteration of a Greek word, it is pronounced, hoop-er-nik-ah'-o. The word means overwhelmingly conquer. It is used once in the entire New Testament, and that one occurrence is found in the book of Romans ch. 8 vs. 37. I love the idea found in this simple, chosen Greek word. The idea is that through Christ we conquer, in context, deth (had to mispell cause my computer is psycho and takes the real word out), life, angels, demons, things in the present or things to come, powers, height, depth or any created thing. The idea of hoopernikaho is not only that we conquer these things but that we overwhelmingly conquer, it's not even a fight. It is a word that is in the present tense indicative. That means that Christ is overwhelmingly conquering all things in the present, and will continue to, it is a simple statement of fact! He conquers all these things so that there is nothing that can separate us from the love of God, that is in Christ. What a powerful word...

Fwd: Luke 16:1-14 -- True Riches

The Parable of the Shrewd Manager (study these verses)

1Jesus told his disciples: "There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2So he called him in and asked him, 'What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.'
3"The manager said to himself, 'What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I'm not strong enough to dig, and I'm ashamed to beg— 4I know what I'll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.'
5"So he called in each one of his master's debtors. He asked the first, 'How much do you owe my master?'
6" 'Eight hundred gallons[a] of olive oil,' he replied.
"The manager told him, 'Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.'
7"Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?'
" 'A thousand bushels[b] of wheat,' he replied.
"He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.'
8"The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.
10"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else's property, who will give you property of your own?
13"No servant can serve two masters. Either he will the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money."
14The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15He said to them, "You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.

El Logos

On Friday I subbed at Jenni's school (St. Mary's Catholic School). We had to attend mass. I had several thoughts as I participated in the goings on, actually there was more observation than participation. One major thought I had was how much scripture is weaved in and out of their liturgy. The priest even hit on this in his homiletical address. He talked about the words they say right before they take communion and how they are a reworking of the words the centurion said to Jesus in Luke 7, "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed." (what Catholics say before receiving the Eucharist).
My thoughts over the extraordinary inclusion of scripture into all that they do made me ask the question of "Why?". Why does the Catholic Church have so much scripture inter weaved within their mass and prayers. I have a feeling that the answer has to do with several factors. One major and obvious factor is that the scripture is one of the places Catholics base their belief of Jesus upon (the other being the church - as I understand the Catholic theology). Other factors I might speculate upon would be literacy rates throughout history, the availability of printed scripture, etc. I don't know that I have a good answer as to why, but as I asked the question of "why" I found myself asking "why not?".
The typical protestant church puts much pressure on congregants to study scripture on their own accord. We have individualized the faith. The letters written in the New Testament were letters written to churches, not individuals (excluding Philemon, and the Timothy's - even these letters became documents that were passed around from church to church). It is also inconceivable that the early church had copies of every letter for every person, it is more likely that each congregation (however you want to interpret that) had it's own copies of some of the letters, and maybe not even all... I imagine these types of prayers and repetitious speaking was a common event in their services in order to place the words and thoughts of God in the minds of their people.
I can't believe that we have taken this completely out of our protestant churches. We elevate "fly by the seat of your pants prayers" above scripted ones because they have more personal meaning. By doing so we loose the benefit of filling anothers mind with the Logos (the word). We leave out the congregational reading because it is dry and dull, and yet for some it is the only time they will allow the words of life to pass through their lips.
I am not saying we need to adopt a Catholic service as our own. It was indeed interesting to me - but part of that has to do with it being different. I feel much of it is dull and slow paced, not because the content has lost it's power, but because our culture has lost it's patience. I will be doing thinking on this. I think it is a great idea to be instilling the scripture within a person without expecting them to necessarily have to go and sit down and read it...

The New Nintendo Wii

Have you seen this? http://wii.nintendo.com/. It is pretty crazy. A whole new way of doing video gaming. I wonder if it will take off. I would be concerned about the usability of the remote and nunchuk. I wonder how hard they are to get used too. I have always liked the idea of games based off of real motions, but you always end up feeling goofy, I wonder if this will be the same. We will see. Maybe Matt will buy one so we can all play!

A Cool Resource

I downloaded this program recently, it integrates with Firefox and IE 7, it's pretty nice www.browster.com. It preloads links on pages and allows you to view them without having to click on a link, you can search pages incredibly fast with it. I really dig it!

The Purpose of Prayer

If there is one thing I struggle with as a believer it is the discipline of having a personally devoted prayer life.

I think Jesus gets me best in Matthew 6 when he says...

"6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him."(emphasis mine)

When I pray I suffer from the knowledge that the Father already knows what I need before I ask him. I think many Christians have a nagging feeling about this knowledge that keeps them from having a devoted prayer life. I have wondered if it is my definition of what prayer is that keeps me from being motivated by it. I assume that prayer is a communication between God and I where I tell Him about me. What if prayer has very little to do with me (As far as providing God information of what I want, how I feel, etc. - he already knows, remember, he's God)? What if prayer has much more to do with me alligning myself with what Gods will is, what Gods heart beats for. What if it is about me seeking the coming of God's kingdome, and forgiveness of those I need to forgive as I am being forgiven. What if?

I Pose a Question or Three.

Is the Catholic History, my history?

Am I a part of Apostolic succession?

Thoughts anyone?

Fwd: On the danger of Christian Nationalism

I believe that blogging will meet its full potential when we begin to forward other blogs in our own blog.  I got this from the john 3:30 group this group is led by one of my profs. at Ozark.  He was one of the most stimulating profs I had.  Matt, I believe that you may have sat in on a class with him, it is Mark Moore (click that link to go to his online lectures page, I think you will find him worth the listen).
------------- Fwd: below-------------
The following is a quotation from a prominent 20th century politician: "The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests. It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality. Today Christians stand at the head of our country. We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit. We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in the theater, and in the press—in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of liberal excess during recent years." To find out who said this, read the first comment.

The Stars

Oh man, I got to work just a little while ago, and it was like 3:20 in the morning. The stars were spectatcular. I think for the first time I understood the Psalmist saying "what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?" I mean, wow. Have you taken a good look at the universe lately? I sat there and wondered at the fact that God takes me into account at all...
I have to say, I also find it amusing that when God was throwing all of the stars out there, he couldn't help but create some dot to dots. I mean, honestly, you can't tell me that Orion is an anomaly. How beautiful...

Barth's Burgers

there's nothing like a little "You Can't Do That On Television" to get ya going...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=_aLKlG0yuuw

The Pastoral Prayer

Today I was invited by our area Chamber of Commerce to lead them off in prayer. It's always funny to me when I get asked to do that type of thing. I know that it is a privilege and all that, it's just funny. I wonder if Jesus ever got asked to pray at events? If he'd a been praying, they would have only needed like two strips of bacon and three eggs (you know, cause he would have multiplied them - fish and bread - get it?). Well, I guess that's life as a Pastor, always interesting and sometimes funny. Always living in a weird dichotomy of trying to understand how to better spread the good news and how to remain personally faithful to Christ.
I must say as a side note, that I believe pastors should probably be better attenders of events like that than church board meetings. Hah. I'm sure many of those people there today were believers, but I know that I had a much better chance of rubbing shoulders with someone who is not than I do in my church. I often miss the exhilaration of discussing the passion and sacrifice of Christ with someone who has never heard it.

An Evangelical Circus

Today I was thinking on how shallow of a job American Evangelical Churches have done when it comes to taking care of the poor, widows and orphans. I wondered if it has to do with that word "Evangelical", it means to share the good news. It is, the battle cry of our churches, and why not, there is a lost world that is in desperate need of saving. I will fight for that the rest of my life. I just wonder, as I'm sure a million men and women have wondered, is there more? Not more in the way of salvation, I believe that Jesus is the only way to the Father. I mean, is there more we should be focusing on. Can the substance of the message of Christ, be separated from the form in which it was delivered? I suppose it can, but does it loose it's power? Is this why miracles are few and far between in our body of believers, because we don't need them? Who needs a miracle when all you are doing is singing and listening? Miracles are the things of dirty alley's and God-forsaken avenues. Healing is for the broken and sick, not the healthy. I tell you what, I am as desperate in this area as anyone. For me it is simply easier to prepare a sermon than it is to serve at a soup kitchen. I am not saying we should forsake one for the other, I am asking, shouldn't we be doing both? Shouldn't our faith have actions? Some questions do arise though.
Where does the responsibility lie? Is it a corporate responsibility? ie. should I as the minister be planning all kinds of events for people to serve the poor? Sometimes I think this still negates a persons individual responsibility to walk as Christ walked. Yet, I do not think it is totally an individual response to Christ. I do think there is a place for the community of believers to stand together for those who are hurt, oppressed and overlooked. I sure as heck wish I were smarter.
I hope that I can learn to live a life that is more than songs and sermons...

Theologians

I was reading last night some works by great early theologians. It was interesting because the two were in stark contrast to one another. One, Justin Martyr, describes this synthesis between philosophy and theology. His argument is that philosophers were simply trying to describe the "Logos", the "word" as best as they could with their limited knowledge and that the truth found within their philosophies was still truth and was even "Christian" truth because it described the "Logos". He argues that the contradictions and so forth in their philosophy was only there because they had an imperfect perception of the Logos, but now that Christ has come, the Logos incarnate, we have a full picture of what it should really look like. All confusion is lifted.
Tertullian on the other hand had quite a different perspective, he said that the pagan philosophers and Christian theology had nothing to do with one another, he eludes to the the ideas found in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 of there needing to be a complete separation between the two ideologies.
Augustine comes to the rescue of both and says that there is some truth that can be gleaned from the philosophers of old, but that we should not presume to place to much importance on their ideas. We should let Christ supersede by all means those ideas of philosophy.
As I have been studying the Emerging Church and their movement, I see a similar argument arising. One group trying very hard to be relevant to a philosophical movement (post-modernism, whatever that may be), and one group saying that we should not adopt the morias of our culture, rather change them to be Christ-like. I am wondering who our Augustine will be that will help unite the cause in understanding. It seems like the two voices that are predominant in this discussion really do take the thing entirely too far.

Pollo Politics

I'll be honest. We just got done with an election and I had no idea who to vote for. I always end up asking friends who they are voting for and why, and usually end up voting the way they do, so basically they get two votes, they are so lucky... I have two main problems with the political process. One, it bores me to . I mean really, who has time to wade through all of the junk that both sides sling. And two, I don't know that I have ever felt like I really have had a candidate that I feel like supports the ideals I uphold. I feel like I have this choice between conservative greed hounds or liberal lifestyle proponents and neither parties really fit the perspective that I see Jesus upholding. One group puts personal rights ahead of moral responsibility, the other uses moral responsibility as a cover up for greedy ambitions... Ahhhhh... I feel like a political chicken on both fronts - not a scaredy cat, don't get onto the wrong metaphor. I feel like I am running around in this poop filled coup and I aint got nowhere to go and nothing to say about it. Sure, I can vote, I can be a part of the political process, but in the end, does it matter? What meaning is there in being a part of a process that I want to have no part of?

Well, there ya go. Politics are deep and consorted- not the kind of water I really want to be treading in, so I will leave this arena for now and ponder other stuff...

Nice Bible Tools...

I found a cool website the other day that has some great bible study tools on it...  http://www.searchgodsword.org/ you can look up the greek, commentaries and a whole bunch more, it's pretty nice!

Trying this out...

Heath said the new beta version is, "sooooooooo cool" so I decided to try it out and see how she works...

beta.blogger.com