Hi Everyone-
I hope your Christmas rocked and wish blessings on you all as we move into a new year. I've found over the years that music and songs are one of the biggest ways I connect to God and others. Instantly a song can bring me back to a specific time and place or fill me with happiness or make me think deep thoughts in a new way. The song that's provoked the deepest thinking in recent memory for me is "White Man" by Gungor (a brilliant band) ... plus it's really catchy in my opinion.
You can check "White Man" out here in a fun video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WybvhRu9KU
I think this song comes out swinging right out the gates, especially for those of us who are white Americans. They sing "God is not a man. God is not a white man." But, we call God, "Him" all the time right? And it's the Father and Jesus Christ, two men ... right? Paintings, mental images, verbiage, and more almost universally depict God as a male. Yet, I think this is in some ways our modern form of idolatry. God is God, not a man. One of the ten commandments is to not make images of God. I learned at school that while the Jews of antiquity called God, "Father", this commandment led them to not picture God as a male. In other words, "Father" God to them was sexless. But Jesus was a man though right? Yes, but the ironic thing to me is that He looked far more like Osama Bin Laden than the white, blonde man we usually think of/see Him depicted as.
I think a huge affect of the incorrect way we perceive of God is that it limits our view of God. As Gungor says, "God cannot be bought. God will not be boxed in. God will not be owned by religion." Maybe, just maybe, the reason God said not to make images of Him/Her is that they make us limit God in our minds, thoughts, beliefs.
But us Americans are safe and good though because America is the chosen nation of our day, right? In God we trust, don't we? Hmmm, but if we don't make our own images of God then, "God is not a flag. Not even America." God isn't a white, capitalist, who support our foreign policy, who loves our consumer culture, etc. I've often confused (and think a lot of us do) the American dream for the Kingdom of God. However, they are not the same. We make God into our image, the white, American, middle-class image that dominates our society ... and I'm starting to think that's idolatry.
God, however, is so much more awesome than we make God out to be. "But God is good, God is good, and He loves everyone." God loves atheists, communists, lesbians, and even terrorists. God is amazing. In the U.S. the currency is the almighty dollar. Yet, in God's economy the currency is grace. God is defined first and foremost by love ... and that is awesome!
What do you think? Does this song go too far? Not far enough?
Grace and peace,
Lang
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Friday, December 30, 2011
Sunday, December 25, 2011
The Word Becomes Flesh
Hi Everyone-
Merry Christmas!! I pray your day is blessed with every good thing. Today I am incredibly thankful for the Word becoming flesh. To steal from Rob Bell's recent farewell sermon ... There is a movement in the Bible of word becoming flesh. Jesus is referred to as the Word and Him becoming human is the most blatant manifestation of this trend, but there's even more to it...
In the Old Testament, we are commanded not to murder. Not killing each other is pretty basic, but the command comes in the form of words. Later, Jesus tells us to love our enemies. This is taking it to the next level, don't just stop killing each other, love everyone. It's still words though. Yet, then Jesus puts flesh on this. He lives this truth, and in doing so word becomes flesh. Jesus dies on the cross for everyone, while we're still his enemies. If that's not living out loving one's enemies I don't know what is!
The thing is, though, we have this tendency to try and move flesh back to words. I know at times I'm all about talking of and talking up my beliefs much more than living them out. I can be all bark and no bite. Words are all bark and no bite, but flesh is something much more ... Flesh is life. It's Jesus living as a human and transforming us. It's us living this transformation out and changing each other.
Today this is one of the most important parts of Christmas and the Word becoming flesh to me, but there's one more thing I'd like to mention. The very act of the Divine becoming human brings salvation. Christmas brings salvation. This is usually a conversation reserved for Easter, but Jesus' life transforms and saves us every bit as much as His death and resurrection. Jesus united Divine and human and that union brought healing and redemption to humanity.
In other words, Christmas saved us ... thank you Jesus. We love you. Happy Birthday!!
Grace and peace,
Lang
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Merry Christmas!! I pray your day is blessed with every good thing. Today I am incredibly thankful for the Word becoming flesh. To steal from Rob Bell's recent farewell sermon ... There is a movement in the Bible of word becoming flesh. Jesus is referred to as the Word and Him becoming human is the most blatant manifestation of this trend, but there's even more to it...
In the Old Testament, we are commanded not to murder. Not killing each other is pretty basic, but the command comes in the form of words. Later, Jesus tells us to love our enemies. This is taking it to the next level, don't just stop killing each other, love everyone. It's still words though. Yet, then Jesus puts flesh on this. He lives this truth, and in doing so word becomes flesh. Jesus dies on the cross for everyone, while we're still his enemies. If that's not living out loving one's enemies I don't know what is!
The thing is, though, we have this tendency to try and move flesh back to words. I know at times I'm all about talking of and talking up my beliefs much more than living them out. I can be all bark and no bite. Words are all bark and no bite, but flesh is something much more ... Flesh is life. It's Jesus living as a human and transforming us. It's us living this transformation out and changing each other.
Today this is one of the most important parts of Christmas and the Word becoming flesh to me, but there's one more thing I'd like to mention. The very act of the Divine becoming human brings salvation. Christmas brings salvation. This is usually a conversation reserved for Easter, but Jesus' life transforms and saves us every bit as much as His death and resurrection. Jesus united Divine and human and that union brought healing and redemption to humanity.
In other words, Christmas saved us ... thank you Jesus. We love you. Happy Birthday!!
Grace and peace,
Lang
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Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Double Knowledge
Hi everyone-
I pray the Christmas season has been a time of peace for you. So, you may have read the title and be wondering, "what is double knowledge?". Well, I'll get to that ... First, however, I think some song lyrics will help get to double knowledge. Carla recently introduced Me to this awesome band, Mumford & Sons. I highly recommend checking them out. One song in particular has been rattling around in my brain, "Sigh No More". You can check the song out at http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=6SkLweGve1E and below are the applicable lyrics:
"Sigh no more, no more
One foot in sea, one on shore
My heart was never pure
You know me
You know me ...
Love; it will not betray you
Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be
There is a design, an alignment to cry
Of my heart to see,
The beauty of love as it was made to be"
These say to me that us humans have one foot in the world and one in heaven. We are one part fallen/sinful and one part image of God. Yet, while we aren't pure, God still knows and loves us.
Now God is love, so I hear the second segment above as speaking of God in many ways. Love/God won't drag us down or destroy us, but will in fact set us free to be the people we are meant to be. This brings me to double knowledge. This is the idea that it is only through knowing God that we can truly know and become ourselves. We looked at this a fair bit in the C.S. Lewis class. In short, double knowledge equates to know God, know/become yourself. Only the love and grace of God set us free from our impurity to be the people we are meant to be.
What is more, this is how we're designed (as the third stanza eludes to). Our hearts are aligned to see God, live love, and turn into the beautiful people we are meant to be. In other words, we're beloved children made in the image of God.
I totally love this song and the concept of double knowledge.
What do you think?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I post new blogs, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
I pray the Christmas season has been a time of peace for you. So, you may have read the title and be wondering, "what is double knowledge?". Well, I'll get to that ... First, however, I think some song lyrics will help get to double knowledge. Carla recently introduced Me to this awesome band, Mumford & Sons. I highly recommend checking them out. One song in particular has been rattling around in my brain, "Sigh No More". You can check the song out at http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=%2F&gl=US#/watch?v=6SkLweGve1E and below are the applicable lyrics:
"Sigh no more, no more
One foot in sea, one on shore
My heart was never pure
You know me
You know me ...
Love; it will not betray you
Dismay or enslave you, it will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be
There is a design, an alignment to cry
Of my heart to see,
The beauty of love as it was made to be"
These say to me that us humans have one foot in the world and one in heaven. We are one part fallen/sinful and one part image of God. Yet, while we aren't pure, God still knows and loves us.
Now God is love, so I hear the second segment above as speaking of God in many ways. Love/God won't drag us down or destroy us, but will in fact set us free to be the people we are meant to be. This brings me to double knowledge. This is the idea that it is only through knowing God that we can truly know and become ourselves. We looked at this a fair bit in the C.S. Lewis class. In short, double knowledge equates to know God, know/become yourself. Only the love and grace of God set us free from our impurity to be the people we are meant to be.
What is more, this is how we're designed (as the third stanza eludes to). Our hearts are aligned to see God, live love, and turn into the beautiful people we are meant to be. In other words, we're beloved children made in the image of God.
I totally love this song and the concept of double knowledge.
What do you think?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I post new blogs, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
The Victory of Inclusion Over Exclusion
Hi Everyone-
I pray you're finding joy in this Christmas season. One aspect of Christmas that's hitting me this year is that it's a season of inclusion's victory over exclusion. What do I mean by that?
I think with His birth, Jesus brought inclusion to many people, and am hoping I can reciprocate that for others. In C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength one of the main characters, Mark, spends the better part of the book trying to get into the innermost circles of power at his job. He is constantly looking for the most elite, most exclusive, and smallest core of power brokers. The way I put it in some of my notes was that he desperately wanted to be one of the "cool kids." I know I can remember that feeling from junior high in particular. Let me put it this way, Mark thinks he needs to be someone smarter, better, cooler, and more powerful than who he is to be accepted and valued. He doesn't realize the err in this way until the end of the book. I believe Christmas, i.e. the birth and life of Jesus, change this paradigm and need to be in the inner/exclusive circle for us all.
In Acts we find a history of the early Church. In chapter 8, Philip feels moved by the Spirit to go south where:
27 So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
29 The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”
30 Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him. ...
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” 35 So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.
36 As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”[d] 38 He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
What seems at face value a pretty cool conversion story becomes brilliant when we learn a couple things. First, eunuchs weren't allowed to be in the Assembly of God before Jesus. The eunuch asks what would prevent him from being baptized (i.e. excluded)? Easy, he's a eunuch, so before Jesus was excluded by definition, but after Jesus that changes. Second, today in a highly Islamic area of the world, Ethiopia is 65% Christian, and most all of them trace their lineage, mark as their reason for being Christian, back to this eunuch.
A pastor I heard recently put it this way, "God loves those who are thirsty, not those who are worthy."
I think that's a brilliant summary of the inclusion Christ brings. I'm going to try and make this Christmas about the victory of inclusion over exclusion.
What do you think?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I post new blogs, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
I pray you're finding joy in this Christmas season. One aspect of Christmas that's hitting me this year is that it's a season of inclusion's victory over exclusion. What do I mean by that?
I think with His birth, Jesus brought inclusion to many people, and am hoping I can reciprocate that for others. In C.S. Lewis' That Hideous Strength one of the main characters, Mark, spends the better part of the book trying to get into the innermost circles of power at his job. He is constantly looking for the most elite, most exclusive, and smallest core of power brokers. The way I put it in some of my notes was that he desperately wanted to be one of the "cool kids." I know I can remember that feeling from junior high in particular. Let me put it this way, Mark thinks he needs to be someone smarter, better, cooler, and more powerful than who he is to be accepted and valued. He doesn't realize the err in this way until the end of the book. I believe Christmas, i.e. the birth and life of Jesus, change this paradigm and need to be in the inner/exclusive circle for us all.
In Acts we find a history of the early Church. In chapter 8, Philip feels moved by the Spirit to go south where:
27 So he started out, and he met the treasurer of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the Kandake, the queen of Ethiopia. The eunuch had gone to Jerusalem to worship, 28 and he was now returning. Seated in his carriage, he was reading aloud from the book of the prophet Isaiah.
29 The Holy Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and walk along beside the carriage.”
30 Philip ran over and heard the man reading from the prophet Isaiah. Philip asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?”
31 The man replied, “How can I, unless someone instructs me?” And he urged Philip to come up into the carriage and sit with him. ...
34 The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, was the prophet talking about himself or someone else?” 35 So beginning with this same Scripture, Philip told him the Good News about Jesus.
36 As they rode along, they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “Look! There’s some water! Why can’t I be baptized?”[d] 38 He ordered the carriage to stop, and they went down into the water, and Philip baptized him.
What seems at face value a pretty cool conversion story becomes brilliant when we learn a couple things. First, eunuchs weren't allowed to be in the Assembly of God before Jesus. The eunuch asks what would prevent him from being baptized (i.e. excluded)? Easy, he's a eunuch, so before Jesus was excluded by definition, but after Jesus that changes. Second, today in a highly Islamic area of the world, Ethiopia is 65% Christian, and most all of them trace their lineage, mark as their reason for being Christian, back to this eunuch.
A pastor I heard recently put it this way, "God loves those who are thirsty, not those who are worthy."
I think that's a brilliant summary of the inclusion Christ brings. I'm going to try and make this Christmas about the victory of inclusion over exclusion.
What do you think?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I post new blogs, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Does Christianity Have a Monopoly on Good and Truth?
Hi Everyone-
I pray this Christmas season is bringing you joy this year. I finished my last final for school yesterday, so being on Christmas break is something I'm certainly joyful about. My last final was for the C.S. Lewis class, so he's still influencing my thinking quite a bit.
Assuming you're a Christian, do you think there's truths and goodness to be found in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Greek Mythology, or any other non-Christian religion? Lewis says there is. in "Religion Without Dogma?" he writes, "I could not believe Christianity if I were forced to say that there were a thousand religions in the world of which 999 were pure nonsense and the thousandth (fortunately) true. My conversion, very largely, depended on recognizing Christianity as the completion, the actualization, the entelechy, of something that had never been wholly absent from the mind pf man."
I know in years past I've often pitted Christianity against other religions and thought it had the universal hold on truth and goodness, but I think Lewis is saying we shouldn't do that. In fact, he's saying the reality is actually more beautiful than a strict Christianity vs. other religions competition, with Christianity winning. Lewis believes God gave all humanity throughout all history truths about Himself, the world, and each other, thus many of these appear in other religions. To put it differently, Christians can in fact learn goodness, beauty, and truth from say Islam or Buddhism. Do you agree?
However, I don't think that's the best part of what Lewis is asserting. He concludes that following Christ is the culmination, end, and completion of the journey humankind's been on for thousands of years to find the ultimate truths about us, the world, and the Divine. Worshiping Zeus back in 500 BC was one step on the path with certain truths, Hinduism was another, Islam is yet another, etc. Put simply, Lewis is saying Christ is inclusive not exclusive. To put it differently, all goodness and all truth is of and from Christ, whether a person recognizes or names this Christian or not. When Religion X says to feed the poor and hungry that belief is good and true and of Christ even though they say it's from some other being or belief.
What do you think?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I post new blogs, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
I pray this Christmas season is bringing you joy this year. I finished my last final for school yesterday, so being on Christmas break is something I'm certainly joyful about. My last final was for the C.S. Lewis class, so he's still influencing my thinking quite a bit.
Assuming you're a Christian, do you think there's truths and goodness to be found in Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Greek Mythology, or any other non-Christian religion? Lewis says there is. in "Religion Without Dogma?" he writes, "I could not believe Christianity if I were forced to say that there were a thousand religions in the world of which 999 were pure nonsense and the thousandth (fortunately) true. My conversion, very largely, depended on recognizing Christianity as the completion, the actualization, the entelechy, of something that had never been wholly absent from the mind pf man."
I know in years past I've often pitted Christianity against other religions and thought it had the universal hold on truth and goodness, but I think Lewis is saying we shouldn't do that. In fact, he's saying the reality is actually more beautiful than a strict Christianity vs. other religions competition, with Christianity winning. Lewis believes God gave all humanity throughout all history truths about Himself, the world, and each other, thus many of these appear in other religions. To put it differently, Christians can in fact learn goodness, beauty, and truth from say Islam or Buddhism. Do you agree?
However, I don't think that's the best part of what Lewis is asserting. He concludes that following Christ is the culmination, end, and completion of the journey humankind's been on for thousands of years to find the ultimate truths about us, the world, and the Divine. Worshiping Zeus back in 500 BC was one step on the path with certain truths, Hinduism was another, Islam is yet another, etc. Put simply, Lewis is saying Christ is inclusive not exclusive. To put it differently, all goodness and all truth is of and from Christ, whether a person recognizes or names this Christian or not. When Religion X says to feed the poor and hungry that belief is good and true and of Christ even though they say it's from some other being or belief.
What do you think?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I post new blogs, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
The Will of God
Hi Everyone-
I pray God is bringing much grace and peace to your lives. This is the last week of the school term, which brings both joy and sorrow. I'm excited for a break, but sad that tonight is the last C.S. Lewis class.
Three of the books we read by Lewis are works of fiction dubbed The Ransom Trilogy. The hero, Ransom, travels to Venus in the second book, Perelandra, where he meets that planet's version of Eve, called the Lady. He helps her in her battle to resist the temptations of the devil to stray from God. When I read it one line in particular stood out to me as pretty profound. The Lady says, "'To walk out of His will is to walk into nowhere.'"
To walk out of His will is to walk into nowhere. Think about those words, "'To walk out of His will is to walk into nowhere.'" There are layers and layers to them in my mind. What do you think?
Here's what resonates most with me ... This is saying that God doesn't give us commands (i.e. His will) to be burdensome or painful or obligations, He tells us His will because it alone leads to life. To not follow His will is to walk into death and destruction. When we follow God's will we become more alive, while when we don't we are quite literally undoing (or killing) ourselves.
When I was younger, I thought all these types of things really only applied to some distant, eternal, when we go (in the future) to heaven or hell point in the future. But, what the Lady is saying applies to now. When we follow God's will we walk into a fuller life right now. Conversely, when we don't, we step into oblivion right now.
I'm interested to hear your thoughts...
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I post new blogs, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
I pray God is bringing much grace and peace to your lives. This is the last week of the school term, which brings both joy and sorrow. I'm excited for a break, but sad that tonight is the last C.S. Lewis class.
Three of the books we read by Lewis are works of fiction dubbed The Ransom Trilogy. The hero, Ransom, travels to Venus in the second book, Perelandra, where he meets that planet's version of Eve, called the Lady. He helps her in her battle to resist the temptations of the devil to stray from God. When I read it one line in particular stood out to me as pretty profound. The Lady says, "'To walk out of His will is to walk into nowhere.'"
To walk out of His will is to walk into nowhere. Think about those words, "'To walk out of His will is to walk into nowhere.'" There are layers and layers to them in my mind. What do you think?
Here's what resonates most with me ... This is saying that God doesn't give us commands (i.e. His will) to be burdensome or painful or obligations, He tells us His will because it alone leads to life. To not follow His will is to walk into death and destruction. When we follow God's will we become more alive, while when we don't we are quite literally undoing (or killing) ourselves.
When I was younger, I thought all these types of things really only applied to some distant, eternal, when we go (in the future) to heaven or hell point in the future. But, what the Lady is saying applies to now. When we follow God's will we walk into a fuller life right now. Conversely, when we don't, we step into oblivion right now.
I'm interested to hear your thoughts...
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I post new blogs, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
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