Drunken Mystic

My blog has changed over the last few years.  I used to put everything up on my blog.  My political views, my views on church, various teachings, personal updates, funny videos, and whatever else I kinda had on my mind that day.

With the advent of Facebook in my life, I eliminated the personal updates and funny videos.  At the same time, I wasn’t as motivated to keep up with the my political ramblings (but hey, I’m a social studies major … if I was a farmer, I’d periodically talk about soil and seeds and manure and stuff … so part of it is just gonna come out) and I also got rid of some other fluff.  For the last couple years I’ve tried to focus this blog on various teachings that I feel would apply and be appreciated by the larger Christian community that I have relationship with, everyone from Catholic to charismatic to Baptist to organic church folk.  That has been intentional; even though I still feel that this blog has been good and challenging, it has been on my heart to have a place where the principles of real church can be discussed and focused on in its own blog.

But I didn’t want to start another blog of my own, individually.  When discussing the Church, that is a collective thing and should be expressed, well, collectively.  One man’s revelation might be good, but the testimony of Christ in a people is meant to come from an assembled body of people.  So I shared this idea with – yep, you guessed it – the Body of believers I call my spiritual family and love me more than I deserve.  We discussed it and came up with a new blog, called Loving the Church.

Why “Loving the Church”?  Well, many who are involved in the organic church movement are understandably critical of the institutional models that still dominate our current American Christian landscape, but that criticism isn’t necessarily constructive, and our group specifically has learned that the best we can do is say: What we have is awesome.  This is church and it has life in it.  We hope you have a fellowship that you can truly call a family and you get life from the congregation of true disciples of Jesus, because it is amazing.

We believe and live what we do not because we hate the church, but because we love Her.  Just like the organic farmer doesn’t do what he does because he hates pesticides but because he loves and seeks the benefits and life from real food grown from real dirt.  We know the assembled, redeemed, restored, Holy Spirit-filled people of God and the beauty and life within Her.  We experience Her on a daily basis.  It is not easy and takes great sacrifice – Christian discipleship always will … anything of great worth will – but it has life that we want to share with any who are interested.

So make your way over there if it interests you and share with your friends.  It will challenge you and encourage you.  There will be testimonies and teachings, but we will try to share our successes and failures as we endeavor to BE the church.  We’ve stopped “going to church.”  There’s a better way.  We hope to be a resource and encouragement for those looking into what people call “organic” church and we just call our family.

Peace.

There is a story about Mother Theresa (could be more legend than truth, not sure), where this young man travels across the world to see her.  After trekking across continents to see this wonderful woman, she agrees to see him.

He gets to Mother Theresa and he asks her to pray for him.  “I don’t know what to do,” he says.  “There are so many directions to take, things I could do.  Will you pray for me that I would know what to do?”

Mother Theresa answered: “I will not pray for that.”

He was shocked.  He had come half way around the world to get this woman to pray for him, but she refused.

“What you need is peace,” Mother Theresa continued.  “I will pray for peace.”

I am more and more convinced that one of the greatest needs of a Christian is to learn how to apply the peace that the Lord gives by faith and just be content.

Our God is not an anxious or nervous God.  He is pictured for us seated on a throne.  Jesus sat down before He taught.  Jesus never rushed anywhere He went.  And the Spirit we are given from Him is not one of fear but “power, love, and a sound mind.”  We are told to be “anxious for NOTHING.”

What you need is peace.

Paul had to “learn” this.  If you’re waiting for God to just give you contentment, probably won’t just happen.  You have to learn it.  And that generally means you’ll be put in situations where you would normally not be content.

Paul says, “I’ve learned that whatever state I am in, to be content.  I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.  Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

“I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

Philippians 4:13.  First verse I ever memorized.  I was probably five years old or so.  I thought it meant that I could do these awesome things like fly or lift buildings or be some sort of superhero.  Made sense to me, I went few places in those days without wearing a cape.

Not that God cannot and does not empower us to do great and miraculous things, but that’s not the point Paul is making.  Paul says, “I can be content in EVERY circumstance because of Christ who strengthens me.”  All things means all things … oh yeah, I just went over that with “God will make all things new.”

Both Paul and Jesus tell us to be content with food and clothing.  Didn’t they have shelter in those days?  Oh yeah, they did, and other luxuries.

So how do you get this contentment?  How do you learn it?  Well, it’s been my experience that you cannot just deny certain desires.

You have to replace them.

Jesus says to “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.”  Paul says that “godliness with contentment is great gain.”

Are you seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness?  Do you have faith that in that seeking you will find your satisfaction and contentment?  Are you a godly person?

Jesus, when with the woman at the well, ministered to her.  After, His disciples came back to Him with some food.  He said, “I’ve already eaten.  My food is to do the will of My Father.”  His obedience to the Father satisfied even His physical hunger!  This just after telling the woman that He has water, that if she drinks it, she will never thirst again.  That is complete satisfaction.

In the wilderness during His temptation, Jesus says, “Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that continually proceeds from the mouth of God.”  Who is the Word that proceeds from God?  Jesus.  He also says that He Himself is the manna from heaven.  The manna from Moses’ time was miraculous, but still bread that if you ate it you would be hungry tomorrow and those men all died.  But if you eat of the Bread of Heaven, you will be satisfied and never die!

I often see believers unsettled and unsatisfied.  I call them “chasers”.  They chase the next thing, sometimes get it, but are always unsatisfied because of it.  Their actions are often geared towards finding the perfect situation that will satisfy them (the right mate, the right job, the right house, the right place to live, the right way to use their talents, the right church, the right prophet, the right meeting, the right blah blah blah).  None of these things are in and of themselves bad, but they will not satisfy you.  You were not born again of the incorruptible seed to be satisfied by the things of this world.  You were born again to be satisfied by Christ Himself, His Kingdom and His righteousness.

Anyone who knows me knows I am not advocating passivity or a lack of action.  But the root of that action must be a place of godliness with contentment, a place of peace with God and satisfaction with Him.  Then our actions will be placed in their proper context and not be idols we seek to gain more from than they were meant to give.

Peace.  (sorry so long!)

Yesterday I got up early.  Really early.  At least for me.

Met with my brother and friend, Adam, who is also a huge blessing and a part of our local church community here.  We met up at a local park and ride and went down to MARTA (they say it’s “smarta”, but I’ve been in cities with great subway systems, and was reminded how much we lack here in the ATL again … frowns).  Then we rode down to the Georgia capital building.

We went to a Presbyterian church right across the street from the capitol building.  There we met with hundreds of other people, most of whom (if not all) were Christians, gathered by a couple local parachurch ministries, notably Street Grace.

Street Grace is an organization that facilitates the cooperation of local churches and Christians with local services and ministries that surround the issue of sex trafficking of kids in Atlanta.  The local services and ministries aren’t all Christian or faith based.  Street Grace is attempting to mobilize the local churches to get involved in this issue.

Our church joined them last year after hearing about the horrific issue that Atlanta is one of the major hubs of the sex trafficking of children.  We prayed and talked about it for a while before hearing about Street Grace.  Then we prayed and talked about how and when we wanted to get involved.  Adam now does the social media for Street Grace (pro bono) and Eric now is their IT guy (also for free).

Last year was the first year that Street Grace organized a lobby day, where people have the opportunity to spread awareness and encourage the passing of laws and the provision of services that can help to stop this issue.  They had two hundred people last year.

This year 600 registered and more than 200 extras came yesterday before the press conference.  I would guess close to 900 people showed up yesterday (quite a few were late, so it is probably difficult to get a good number).

What kind of laws?  You might ask.  Well, one of the issues is that most of these kids are forced into prostitution by parents or other adults, but when caught, they are arrested for prostitution (at young age).  So some of these kids have a criminal record before they are out of middle school age.  That should be changed.  Also, of course, harsher punishments for the men participating in this crime.

What kind of services?  This covers a wide range of things like foster care, adoption, education, and other things that are more preventative.  Once these girls are victims, there are needed services of counseling, halfway houses, job training, etc.

Many of the ministries and other organizations Street Grace supports and links up with churches are more in the services area.  And that is appropriate.  The church isn’t designed to be the local police and mete out punishments, but we are meant to be redemptive and involved in compassionate prevention and restoration.

So after gathering in the Presbyterian church, we went to a press conference and then went to give little cards to our representatives.  We were all wearing black shirts with purple scarves.  We invaded the capital.  Adam and I had to figure out where to go, and then we helped a couple people there by themselves and let them hang with us for a time.

It was cool to really walk around and explore the capital building.  As a social studies major, I enjoyed meeting some representatives and being involved in the process to some degree.  Got to see the governors office and the Assembly was in session, so we could go up into the balcony and check that out.  There were a lot of purple scarves in the balcony!

But even more encouraging was when I could look around and see hundreds of Christians, people who believe in Jesus, united in doing something good, in fighting against the victimization of children.  We were there united.  I saw black, white, Asian, Hispanics.  There were people in three piece suits and others in jeans and T-shirts.  I saw the very old and the very young.  I didn’t ask, but I can safely assume there were different political persuasions, too.  Didn’t matter.  We were united in our love for Christ and the compassion that compels us to try to make a difference, give relief, and be an active part of the redemptive acts of God.

We didn’t hold up protest signs but politely invited our representatives to join us in this work as they have some realm of influence.  And we were able to meet many representatives who were already on the front lines of this issue in Georgia, both Democrat and Republican.

I was so glad I was there to stand with brothers and sisters and others to look at this growing problem in many of our cities and say: “Not in our town.”  There was Life in it.

Peace.

Just when you think things can’t get any busier … well, they can …

Got stuff going on with our housing situation and I still don’t have a job and much tragedy in the midst of our church and we just got back from an amazing Rose Creek weekend and I got a stomach bug (or food poisoning … not sure) and I’ve got a billion ideas for blog posts and songs to work on and …

Well, now Tallskinnykiwi is coming through the ATL and we’ll get to host him.  A few in our group read his blog, which is pretty cool, and Ben contacted him when he said he would need a place to stay as he rolls through the country, never thinking he’d take us up on it.

He did.  And we’re very excited that we get to be hospitable and hear from someone who travels the world encouraging others to be more missional and real in their approach to ministry.

Otherwise, God is in the midst of shaking the things which can be shaken amongst His people, and it is an encouraging but bumpy ride.

Peace.

Went on vacation up to the mountains with the Mooney clan over the weekend.  Awesome trip, but ready to get back into the swing of things … starting with this blog post!

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Nicodemus, a “ruler of the Jews”, comes to Jesus in the middle of the night to talk to Jesus.  This is Jesus’ first statement recorded by the apostle John to Nicodemus.

Most assuredly, you have to be born again.

You’ve been born once.  You were cute and cried and hopefully lots of people were happy to see you, but that birth alone inhibits you from the revelation of the Kingdom of God.

If you have trouble with that, philosophically, you’re not alone.  Nicodemus, a teacher of the scriptures and a ruler among the Jews, also had trouble with it.

Essentially, Jesus is looking at a Jew, one of the “chosen” people of God, and a teacher and a ruler among them, and Jesus says to this man, “Your physical birth can’t help you see the Kingdom of God.”

Kinda difficult for anyone to hear, but especially this guy.  So Nicodemus expresses his confusion: “How can a man be born when he is old?  Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Again with the physical.  The apostles and the writers of the gospels continually show that people focused on the physical JUST DON”T GET IT.  Without fail.  It’s not faith.  Be careful when you veer in that direction.

Anyway, Jesus further explains what He means by “born again.”

“Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.”

Again with the “most assuredly.”  You’d think that Jesus just saying it would be good enough, but it is such an important point that even Jesus has to make it clear that this is THE ONLY WAY.

In the first statement, we can all recognize that Jesus says, “cannot SEE the kingdom.”  Now Jesus says, “cannot ENTER the kingdom of God.”

Here’s why.  The kingdom of God is spiritual.  Period.  Jesus makes this clear in his “good confession” before Pilate.  “My Kingdom is not of this world.”  God isn’t waiting for a physical kingdom to manifest itself here, as in a kingdom of national borders and presidents or kings or rulers of this world.  The kingdom of God is of the spiritual realm and must be entered and maintained in that way.

We must be born “of water and the spirit.”  Let’s look at that for a moment.  There are lots of interpretations of what it means to be born of “water”.  Clearly, in context of the ministry of John the Baptist and Jesus’ own ministry by His disciples and the subsequent importance placed on the act in Acts and the rest of the New Testament, this refers to baptism.  Of course we could over-spiritualize it or make it a pure symbolic statement or deeper than it needs to be, but the point is that baptism represented repentance, a turning from the old life, the old man.  To be born “of water” is to be fully repentant, and in the New Testament, they consistently dunked those people in water.

What does it mean to be fully repentant?  Let’s see the list of what we’ve looked at so far: forsaking your possessions, your family, counting the cost, selling what you have and giving to those in need, and obeying without excuse.  Seems pretty repentant to me.

I heard one time, “We often think repentance is of what we’ve done, but we need to repent of who we are.”  The sins that we commit are only symptoms and manifestations of the state of our heart, the state of flesh, a state we are born into the first time but must be rectified if we are to enjoy a spiritual kingdom.  If you look at the list so far, these are actions done for those who have died.  And that is what Paul tells us in Romans happened at baptism.

Once fully repentant, repentant of who we are as beings of flesh, then we are born of the spirit.

Jesus further explains: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.  Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The state of how we operate must change.  And the change of that state will have certain results.  You were born of the flesh, so you operate according to the flesh.  So you must be born again, by the Spirit, because that which is born of the Spirit operates accordingly.

And a person who operates according to the Spirit, who is truly born of the Spirit by full repentance, operates by an unseen force.  Jesus uses the wind as a metaphor here.  The world cannot see or hear or understand the things of the Spirit, and so therefore will not truly understand the ways and the testimony of those who operate by the Spirit of God.  You can’t make sense of it in a worldly way.  True disciples operate by something unseen, and yet it manifests in acts of obedience and righteousness and fruit and power.

A person who makes decisions by the Spirit will by nature be an enigma to others, the world especially, but also today many who call themselves Christians.  It is the nature of the kingdom we are being discipled into, trained as sons of God to rule and reign alongside Christ.

As further truth of the need to be “born again” by the Spirit, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians that “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God.”  The things of the flesh (your ancestry, your earthly citizenship, your possessions, your career and earthly success, your talents and personality, your strengths and weaknesses) have no place in a spiritual kingdom and cannot inherit that kingdom.

The very nature of your being must change.  The former nature is bound to sin.  We must be made partakers of “the divine nature.”  In being born of the Spirit, you are no longer created by God but begotten by Him.  Jesus is the “firstborn of many brethren.”  As someone truly born of repentance and the Spirit, your nature is now that of the uncreated Holy Spirit, the “incorruptible seed.”  The New Covenant is not made with man but with the Christ in you by the Spirit, Christ in you, the “hope of glory.”

This is the New Creation.  Not to make men better but to make men like God.  And in order to be discipled by Jesus, to truly act like Jesus, we must be begotten by God as Jesus was begotten by God.  It is futile otherwise.

We have been given something even Adam and Eve did not have in the garden.  They were made in His image, or His likeness, a great gift indeed – nothing else in creation has that distinction, biblically.  But in the New Covenant we’ve been made like God at the source, in the very nature, no longer created but eternal, and therefore made partakers of the very nature of Christ and our inheritance is the Kingdom of our Father.

Even the Israelites were not given this, hence the New Covenant opposed to the Old.  The Old Covenant was designed to fail because it hinged on a people of the flesh to live up to one end of it.  The book of Hebrews says something important as the writer discusses how the Israelites disobeyed because they did not have faith: “But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.”

This is the New Creation, to be Christ on the earth by the indwelling Spirit.

You must be born again.

Peace.

Democrats on an escalator

Peace.

I mean, I knew that ACORN was bad, but just a big WOW.

and part 2

By the way, Obama gave these people billions of dollars in his “stimulus” plan … good job, there.

Peace.

with joy that someone else is saying it.  John Piper is, quite literally, DA MAN.

Peace.

There is a good article on Out of Ur over the last week, in two parts, that I thought was excellent.  While I don’t know if I agree with using only Calvin’s idea of what the church is, the basic principle applies.

There is NO Virtual Church Part 1.

And here is part 2.

Good stuff.

Peace.

I mean, sometimes a video comes along and just says it well … if you’ve seen it before, sorry I’m a little behind, but I do love it.

Peace.