Shouting the gospel with our lives:
Remembering the invitation that Mother Teresa always gave to curious seekers, we have from the beginning invited people to "come and see." And people have, hundreds. As and evangelical, the only way I know to invite people into Christian faith is to come and see. After all, I'm not just trying to get them to sign a doctrinal statement, but to come to know love, grace, and peace in the incarnation of Jesus, and now in the incarnation of the body, Christ's church. So if someone asked me to introduce them to Jesus, I would say, "come and see. Let me show you Jesus with skin on." Sometimes we have evangelicals (usually from the suburbs) who pretentiously ask how we "evangelize people." I usually tell them that we bring folks like them here to learn the kingdom of God from the poor, and then send them out to tell the rich and powerful there is another way of life being born in the margins. For Jesus did not seek out the rich and powerful in order to trickle down his kingdom. Rather, he joined those at the bottom, the outcasts and undesirables, and everyone was attracted to his love for people on the margins. (We know that we all are poor and lonely anyway, don't we?) Then he invited everyone into a journey of downward mobility to become the least. As the old Franciscan slogan goes, "Preach the gospel always. And when necessary, use words." Or as our seventy-year-old revolutionary Catholic nun, Sister Margaret, puts it, "we are trying to shout the gospel with our lives." Many spiritual seekers have not been able to hear the words of Christians because the lives of Christians have been making so much horrible noise. It can be hard to hear the gentle whisper of the Spirit amid the noise of Christendom.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Be in awe of God
Honestly, I have nothing in the way of qualifications when it comes to writing this. I don't do a good job at living this, and I sure as heck am no expert on the matter. Now that I've got you wondering why on earth I'm writing about this anyways, I must say that I don't really have an option. I can't contain what I know to be true.
So let me start off with this statement: whatever your view of God is, I PROMISE you, it's too small. In fact, if we combined views, and multiplied them, all the believers everywhere, multiplied by each believer, that view is still pathetic compared to what God is really like.
Now you understand where I'm coming from when I say that I am no expert on the matter. My goal here is to expand your thinking on what God is like and my prayer is that you will have a deeper understanding of this by the time I am done.
Let's start off with these amazing lightning storm that were here the past two nights in DFW. If you didn't get a chance to watch either of them, you really missed out. Perhaps the most amazing electrical storm I've ever seen.
Go read Revelation 4. It's 11 verses long, it won't take too long. Don't have a bible handy? I wont let you off that easily, go to http://www.youversion.com/ and look it up.
Now, there is much to be said about this chapter, and I certainly won't be able to cover all of it with a blog post. But think with me for a minute back to the lightning storm. Some of those whom I talked to would say it was awe-inspiring. Others would say it was scary. Imagine all the crazy lightning and loud cracks and peals of thunder all coming from a central point going out in every direction with WAY more intensity than the past couple of nights. Now imagine being right next to it. Lightning bright as day and thunder that is deafeningly loud.
This is just one of the little details John gives about the throne of God. This isn't even God we're talking about, this is His throne. Try and picture this in your mind for a minute. This being that we call God, that we really understand very little about, He is so powerful, that the chair He sits in has this crazy intense electrical storm like you've never seen coming from it! This is no minor deal here. This is God we're talking about. He deserves more respect than you give Him, than I give Him.
This isn't intended to make anyone feel guilty, this is intended to bring you to awe and to try to put your life on this earth in perspective. We are not worthy of serving this God. But He wants us to anyways. We don't deserve to be in His presence, but He made the sacrifice necessary for us to experience Him, not just some day after we die, but here, right now, on the earth. He desires a relationship with each of us. That's crazy in my mind... I mean hey, I don't go seeking after a relationship with ants, and the difference in power of a single ant to me is infinitely smaller than the distance in power from me to God.
Does this ever boggle your mind? Do you ever stop to think about it? Just how amazing God is, and that He WANTS us to love Him, and He desires our affection. Not only that, but He already loved us first so that we would have the ability to love Him.
I don't really know how to end this out, but I'm going to go worship and pray some. I hope that you feel moved to do the same.
-Nathan
So let me start off with this statement: whatever your view of God is, I PROMISE you, it's too small. In fact, if we combined views, and multiplied them, all the believers everywhere, multiplied by each believer, that view is still pathetic compared to what God is really like.
Now you understand where I'm coming from when I say that I am no expert on the matter. My goal here is to expand your thinking on what God is like and my prayer is that you will have a deeper understanding of this by the time I am done.
Let's start off with these amazing lightning storm that were here the past two nights in DFW. If you didn't get a chance to watch either of them, you really missed out. Perhaps the most amazing electrical storm I've ever seen.
Go read Revelation 4. It's 11 verses long, it won't take too long. Don't have a bible handy? I wont let you off that easily, go to http://www.youversion.com/ and look it up.
Now, there is much to be said about this chapter, and I certainly won't be able to cover all of it with a blog post. But think with me for a minute back to the lightning storm. Some of those whom I talked to would say it was awe-inspiring. Others would say it was scary. Imagine all the crazy lightning and loud cracks and peals of thunder all coming from a central point going out in every direction with WAY more intensity than the past couple of nights. Now imagine being right next to it. Lightning bright as day and thunder that is deafeningly loud.
This is just one of the little details John gives about the throne of God. This isn't even God we're talking about, this is His throne. Try and picture this in your mind for a minute. This being that we call God, that we really understand very little about, He is so powerful, that the chair He sits in has this crazy intense electrical storm like you've never seen coming from it! This is no minor deal here. This is God we're talking about. He deserves more respect than you give Him, than I give Him.
This isn't intended to make anyone feel guilty, this is intended to bring you to awe and to try to put your life on this earth in perspective. We are not worthy of serving this God. But He wants us to anyways. We don't deserve to be in His presence, but He made the sacrifice necessary for us to experience Him, not just some day after we die, but here, right now, on the earth. He desires a relationship with each of us. That's crazy in my mind... I mean hey, I don't go seeking after a relationship with ants, and the difference in power of a single ant to me is infinitely smaller than the distance in power from me to God.
Does this ever boggle your mind? Do you ever stop to think about it? Just how amazing God is, and that He WANTS us to love Him, and He desires our affection. Not only that, but He already loved us first so that we would have the ability to love Him.
I don't really know how to end this out, but I'm going to go worship and pray some. I hope that you feel moved to do the same.
-Nathan
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Modern Day Idolatry
Brace yourself, because this may sting a bit. So this is something that has been on my heart for a while now, and it's the topic of idolatry. Now, don't go and tune me out quite yet, because this is something that I don't often hear talked about in churches. I realize, we typically don't have a problem with making bulls out of melted down gold jewelry, but what if idolatry is just as big of an issue in this day and age as it was back in Bible times?
Could it even be a bigger issue than it was back then? Let's think about this for a minute. Supposed you live in or near a certain city with a certain sports team that just for the first time ever won the finals. You have people everywhere jumping up and down and screaming and partying and going absolutely INSANE while expressing their satisfaction and happiness about the fact that this particular team won.
I wonder how many of those people went to church earlier that day and DIDN'T get excited about it. Didn't express joy, didn't smile, didn't get so overly-excited about the fact that Jesus came and rescued them from a life of sin and depravity and offers hope for true joy, not just in this life but for eternity beyond that, that they had no choice but to express it outwardly because they couldn't contain it.
Doesn't that seem like a bigger deal? I mean really, being offered life instead of death, and life to the fullest, let's not get carried away and excited about that, lets get excited instead about a team that won a game that made no actual difference in the world. Does anyone else see the insanity of this? I wonder what God thinks about it.... Does anyone really believe that He is okay with this? That we get more excited about a meaningless game than Him?
But hey, let's not just leave it at sports, because not everyone cares about sports. For me, for a long time, my passion, my idol, was cars, fast cars. I studied them, I learned about them, I drove them. I got excited about a nice car, and did lots of things to be near them and be focused on them.
Maybe for you it's not sports or cars, but fashion. You HAVE to have the newest and greatest and most exquisite wardrobe so that everyone will know that you are fashionable. It could be celebrities, who's dating who, which relationships are going well, which ones aren't.
Maybe instead it's knowledge. Or wealth, or power, or electronics, or video games, or movies, or your own body. (Gym addicts, anyone? I tend to be.) It could be music or friends, it even could be a relationship. An idol is anything that you put in a higher position than God.
Now, I'm not saying that any of these things are bad (except maybe celebrity gossip.) It's when more of our focus is devoted to these things than to God that there's a problem, or when we get more excited about something than God. I see people all the time who claim to be believers that will get so much more excited about one of the things I've listed than they do about their faith or God and it breaks my heart... I wonder if they even realize that while mentally, they may say that God is number one in their life but their actions prove otherwise.
I don't have a solution to this, except for the hope that by bringing light to it, some of your hearts may be broken in realizing you have put other things above God and that you will start making changes to that. I urge you to take a step back and examine your life. Ask God what you have put above Him, and ask Him to break your heart and change how you prioritize those things.
Most importantly, I urge you to share this with others, that hopefully more will see and examine their own lives, and we can all focus on the one thing that matters in this life, lifting High the name of God, and experience the joy that is to be found in him.
As always, any thoughts or observations, additions, comments, etc. are welcome.
Could it even be a bigger issue than it was back then? Let's think about this for a minute. Supposed you live in or near a certain city with a certain sports team that just for the first time ever won the finals. You have people everywhere jumping up and down and screaming and partying and going absolutely INSANE while expressing their satisfaction and happiness about the fact that this particular team won.
I wonder how many of those people went to church earlier that day and DIDN'T get excited about it. Didn't express joy, didn't smile, didn't get so overly-excited about the fact that Jesus came and rescued them from a life of sin and depravity and offers hope for true joy, not just in this life but for eternity beyond that, that they had no choice but to express it outwardly because they couldn't contain it.
Doesn't that seem like a bigger deal? I mean really, being offered life instead of death, and life to the fullest, let's not get carried away and excited about that, lets get excited instead about a team that won a game that made no actual difference in the world. Does anyone else see the insanity of this? I wonder what God thinks about it.... Does anyone really believe that He is okay with this? That we get more excited about a meaningless game than Him?
But hey, let's not just leave it at sports, because not everyone cares about sports. For me, for a long time, my passion, my idol, was cars, fast cars. I studied them, I learned about them, I drove them. I got excited about a nice car, and did lots of things to be near them and be focused on them.
Maybe for you it's not sports or cars, but fashion. You HAVE to have the newest and greatest and most exquisite wardrobe so that everyone will know that you are fashionable. It could be celebrities, who's dating who, which relationships are going well, which ones aren't.
Maybe instead it's knowledge. Or wealth, or power, or electronics, or video games, or movies, or your own body. (Gym addicts, anyone? I tend to be.) It could be music or friends, it even could be a relationship. An idol is anything that you put in a higher position than God.
Now, I'm not saying that any of these things are bad (except maybe celebrity gossip.) It's when more of our focus is devoted to these things than to God that there's a problem, or when we get more excited about something than God. I see people all the time who claim to be believers that will get so much more excited about one of the things I've listed than they do about their faith or God and it breaks my heart... I wonder if they even realize that while mentally, they may say that God is number one in their life but their actions prove otherwise.
I don't have a solution to this, except for the hope that by bringing light to it, some of your hearts may be broken in realizing you have put other things above God and that you will start making changes to that. I urge you to take a step back and examine your life. Ask God what you have put above Him, and ask Him to break your heart and change how you prioritize those things.
Most importantly, I urge you to share this with others, that hopefully more will see and examine their own lives, and we can all focus on the one thing that matters in this life, lifting High the name of God, and experience the joy that is to be found in him.
As always, any thoughts or observations, additions, comments, etc. are welcome.
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