Still trying the new site, but realized I gave the admin link last time. Here's a good link to the new post:
http://ifgraceisanoceanwerealldrowning.wordpress.com/2012/03/18/fear-of-the-lord-is-wisdom/
Monday, March 19, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Trying new site
I've had several complaints in regard to using this site, so I'm trying WordPress. Here's today's blog:
http://ifgraceisanoceanwerealldrowning.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4&action=edit&message=6&postpost=v2
grace and peace,
Lang
http://ifgraceisanoceanwerealldrowning.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4&action=edit&message=6&postpost=v2
grace and peace,
Lang
Monday, March 5, 2012
Imagination
Hi Everyone-
I pray you're doing well on this wet and windy day (here in the Northwest). On my walk to the ferry one gust of wind blew my umbrella inside out and my hat off! Craziness.
What do you think of when you hear the term imagination? I think of art, stories, children, fairy tales, music, and the like. But what about God and the Church? I know I don't typically associate the two directly that often. So, I was struck by what Barbara Brown Taylor writes:
"The church's central task is an imaginative one. By that I do not mean a fanciful or fictional task, but one in which the human capacity to imagine--to form mental pictures of the self, neighbor, the world, the future, to envision new realities--is both engaged and transformed." She goes on to add that, "'Faith,' says theologian James Whitehead, 'is the enduring ability to imagine life in a certain way.'"
Personally I love that. Faith and what we're called to do and be as the Church isn't fanciful or fake, but it is imaginative. We must first imagine a world without sickness, poverty, abuse, war, and the like before we can make it a reality. It takes imagination to envision God's past, present, and future recreation of the world through the works of Jesus. On a personal level, I use imagination to see the better husband, father, friend, brother, son, student, etc. that I can be through the transforming work of the Spirit before I start becoming those things.
This brings to my mind some of the words of John Lennon from "Imagine":
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too (I view Christianity as better than religion)
Imagine all the people living life in peace
You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
What do you think? How's your imagination today?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I publish new posts, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
I pray you're doing well on this wet and windy day (here in the Northwest). On my walk to the ferry one gust of wind blew my umbrella inside out and my hat off! Craziness.
What do you think of when you hear the term imagination? I think of art, stories, children, fairy tales, music, and the like. But what about God and the Church? I know I don't typically associate the two directly that often. So, I was struck by what Barbara Brown Taylor writes:
"The church's central task is an imaginative one. By that I do not mean a fanciful or fictional task, but one in which the human capacity to imagine--to form mental pictures of the self, neighbor, the world, the future, to envision new realities--is both engaged and transformed." She goes on to add that, "'Faith,' says theologian James Whitehead, 'is the enduring ability to imagine life in a certain way.'"
Personally I love that. Faith and what we're called to do and be as the Church isn't fanciful or fake, but it is imaginative. We must first imagine a world without sickness, poverty, abuse, war, and the like before we can make it a reality. It takes imagination to envision God's past, present, and future recreation of the world through the works of Jesus. On a personal level, I use imagination to see the better husband, father, friend, brother, son, student, etc. that I can be through the transforming work of the Spirit before I start becoming those things.
This brings to my mind some of the words of John Lennon from "Imagine":
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too (I view Christianity as better than religion)
Imagine all the people living life in peace
You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one
What do you think? How's your imagination today?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I publish new posts, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
Monday, February 27, 2012
What Do You Do With ...
Hi Everyone-
I hope you're having an awesome day. It's beautiful and sunny up here in the Northwest. I love riding the ferry to school on days like this.
Today, my question is what do you do with those stories in the Bible that are hard or just don't make sense? Take for instance when God sends the Flood to wipe most of humanity out or when he orders Abraham to slit Isaac's throat or God tells the Israelites to kill all the people (including women and children) and animals in an area. Here's what Barbara Brown Taylor has to say about these passages:
"It is a book in which wonderful and terrible things happen by the power of an almighty God, whose steadfast love for us does not seem to preclude scaring the living daylights out of us from time to time."
I love that last part, "does not preclude scaring the living daylights out of us from time to time." Too funny.
Still, what do you/we/I do with those passages?
I've been reading a lot about the Book of Job for a class I'm in this term, which doesn't give me definitive answers to my question, but I do have some ideas. My starting point here is that God is love. What I think the Book of Job shows through its behind the scenes description of Satan talking to God and God talking to Job at the end is two key things. One, God is very close to us and desires relationship with us, so much that when Job "calls" him out, he comes and talks to Job. We are after all made in God's image. Conversely, God is also completely beyond us, beyond our comprehension, beyond our definitions, and beyond our ability to understand his purposes and plans in every situation.
When I have time I've been reading Peter Rollins' How (Not) to Speak of God, and this is a major point he makes. In a concept that blows my mind, Rollins points out that God is in actuality beyond our "definition" of him as beyond definition. Crazy!
So, some of what I do with hard stories in the Bible is remember that God is love and desires to be close/in relation with us, but God is also God and thus way, way, way, way beyond my little self (in a good way!).
What do you think/do?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I publish new posts, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
I hope you're having an awesome day. It's beautiful and sunny up here in the Northwest. I love riding the ferry to school on days like this.
Today, my question is what do you do with those stories in the Bible that are hard or just don't make sense? Take for instance when God sends the Flood to wipe most of humanity out or when he orders Abraham to slit Isaac's throat or God tells the Israelites to kill all the people (including women and children) and animals in an area. Here's what Barbara Brown Taylor has to say about these passages:
"It is a book in which wonderful and terrible things happen by the power of an almighty God, whose steadfast love for us does not seem to preclude scaring the living daylights out of us from time to time."
I love that last part, "does not preclude scaring the living daylights out of us from time to time." Too funny.
Still, what do you/we/I do with those passages?
I've been reading a lot about the Book of Job for a class I'm in this term, which doesn't give me definitive answers to my question, but I do have some ideas. My starting point here is that God is love. What I think the Book of Job shows through its behind the scenes description of Satan talking to God and God talking to Job at the end is two key things. One, God is very close to us and desires relationship with us, so much that when Job "calls" him out, he comes and talks to Job. We are after all made in God's image. Conversely, God is also completely beyond us, beyond our comprehension, beyond our definitions, and beyond our ability to understand his purposes and plans in every situation.
When I have time I've been reading Peter Rollins' How (Not) to Speak of God, and this is a major point he makes. In a concept that blows my mind, Rollins points out that God is in actuality beyond our "definition" of him as beyond definition. Crazy!
So, some of what I do with hard stories in the Bible is remember that God is love and desires to be close/in relation with us, but God is also God and thus way, way, way, way beyond my little self (in a good way!).
What do you think/do?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I publish new posts, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Surprised by Grace
Hi Everyone-
Sorry it's been a bit longer than usual between blogs, it's Reading Week at school, which means I don't have classes (although homework continues) ... so Carla and I are in Tucson visiting friends and enjoying the sun. I hope you're doing as well as we are.
One of the passages in the Bible I've long considered one of the most inspirational is Jesus talking about the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46). I don't want to post the whole passage, but the gist is in the end Jesus will come and there will be the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. He says to the sheep that when he was hungry they fed him, when he was in jail they visited him, when he was naked they clothed him, etc. And conversely he says to the goats they didn't. Both sides reply by saying, what do you mean? I don't remember feeding you? To which Jesus says, "‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’" In other words, a point he's making is that in loving and providing for those in need we're also loving and providing for Jesus.
At some level I've found myself thinking, silly goats, don't they know that to love people is to love God? ... Duh!
So, on my checklist goes: 1) Feed, clothe, visit, etc. the unfortunate ... So, when I do this I feel good.
Then, recently I was reading a book by Barbara Brown Taylor, and she points out that both the sheep and the goats are surprised by what Jesus says. The sheep are just as surprised at the goodness of their actions as the goats are at the less awesomeness of their inaction. I think perhaps this passage shows that at some level we should be ignorant of our own good works. Perhaps we should be so busy doing good that we don't even notice it?
I think today I'd sum it up by saying it's all grace. It's all grace from God that loves and saves us, which leads us to act towards others with grace.
Barbara Brown Taylor goes on to say, "One thing the sheep know how to do that the goats have never tried: to look, to see, to seek Christ in the last, the lost, the least. ... Charity is no substitute for kinship. We are not called to be philanthropists or social workers, but brothers and sisters. We are called into relationship ... We are called to look at each other and see Christ."
When we're in a healthy relationship I'd say we tend to do good things and take care of the other person without a second thought. We act out of grace, without even thinking. In some sense it'd surprise us if someone else pointed out a good deed we did for a friend. This makes me think of Carla during the accident. She stayed to take care of me for 6 months, losing her house and job and being separated from her son in the process ... A heroic act if I ever saw one, but her response is, "that's what anyone would naturally do." She acted out of grace. She saw me with grace.
Let me put it this way, Carla saw me with grace colored glasses. And I think Barbara Brown Taylor is saying we should wear them when we look at everyone.
So, perhaps in the Sheep and the Goats Jesus is calling us to wear grace colored glasses.
What do you think?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I publish new posts, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
Sorry it's been a bit longer than usual between blogs, it's Reading Week at school, which means I don't have classes (although homework continues) ... so Carla and I are in Tucson visiting friends and enjoying the sun. I hope you're doing as well as we are.
One of the passages in the Bible I've long considered one of the most inspirational is Jesus talking about the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-46). I don't want to post the whole passage, but the gist is in the end Jesus will come and there will be the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. He says to the sheep that when he was hungry they fed him, when he was in jail they visited him, when he was naked they clothed him, etc. And conversely he says to the goats they didn't. Both sides reply by saying, what do you mean? I don't remember feeding you? To which Jesus says, "‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’" In other words, a point he's making is that in loving and providing for those in need we're also loving and providing for Jesus.
At some level I've found myself thinking, silly goats, don't they know that to love people is to love God? ... Duh!
So, on my checklist goes: 1) Feed, clothe, visit, etc. the unfortunate ... So, when I do this I feel good.
Then, recently I was reading a book by Barbara Brown Taylor, and she points out that both the sheep and the goats are surprised by what Jesus says. The sheep are just as surprised at the goodness of their actions as the goats are at the less awesomeness of their inaction. I think perhaps this passage shows that at some level we should be ignorant of our own good works. Perhaps we should be so busy doing good that we don't even notice it?
I think today I'd sum it up by saying it's all grace. It's all grace from God that loves and saves us, which leads us to act towards others with grace.
Barbara Brown Taylor goes on to say, "One thing the sheep know how to do that the goats have never tried: to look, to see, to seek Christ in the last, the lost, the least. ... Charity is no substitute for kinship. We are not called to be philanthropists or social workers, but brothers and sisters. We are called into relationship ... We are called to look at each other and see Christ."
When we're in a healthy relationship I'd say we tend to do good things and take care of the other person without a second thought. We act out of grace, without even thinking. In some sense it'd surprise us if someone else pointed out a good deed we did for a friend. This makes me think of Carla during the accident. She stayed to take care of me for 6 months, losing her house and job and being separated from her son in the process ... A heroic act if I ever saw one, but her response is, "that's what anyone would naturally do." She acted out of grace. She saw me with grace.
Let me put it this way, Carla saw me with grace colored glasses. And I think Barbara Brown Taylor is saying we should wear them when we look at everyone.
So, perhaps in the Sheep and the Goats Jesus is calling us to wear grace colored glasses.
What do you think?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I publish new posts, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Wrestling with God
Hi Everyone-
I pray you are doing well this Sunday and enjoying the blessings of God. Another season of small groups at newlife started this week and I get to lead a group on studying the Bible, which I'm really excited about. Two of the coolest/most useful things I've learned in the last long while about studying the Bible are that we should read like a lover (as opposed to a consumer, student, etc.), which would be a good blog topic ... but it's not today's.
You might be familiar with the story in Genesis where Jacob wrestles God (Genesis 32:22-32), it's a pretty weird and memorable story. Can you imagine wrestling God? I know that seems a pretty far out there concept to my mind. That said, I think God wants us to, in a manner of speaking. Follow my thinking here:
Jacob wrestles God in the middle of the night and there's several results. First, God "touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket" (Genesis 32:25, NLT). When Jacob walks away in verse 31 he does so with a limp. This is just the first result though, the more important, and lasting, one comes later. In v. 26 Jacob asks for a blessing, and in v. 29 God blesses him. To put it bluntly, Jacob wrestles God and God blesses him for it. Wrestling God = blessing.
Now, we could say that was just Jacob and doesn't apply to everyone. However, at least two things indicate otherwise, in my mind. First, it's the Bible, the Word of God, and as such is meant to affect and apply to our lives in various ways, although not always directly/literally. More importantly, in v. 28 God renames Jacob. Jacob becomes Israel, the forefather of God's nation of people. Like many Hebrew words there are a multiplicity of meanings for "Israel", but the one that sticks out to me is incredibly relevant to this passage.
Israel means "one who wrestles with God."
Jacob wrestles God, is blessed, and God changes his name to "one who wrestles with God." AND God's chosen people are therefore named as people who wrestle with God.
Now the Bible is the Living Word of God, in many ways our most direct encounter with God. Other passages in the Bible indicate the same thing, but this one pretty literally shows God wants us to wrestle with him. Therefore, we should wrestle with God through our reading, grappling with, and striving to understand the Bible. In my mind, this means reading the Bible and wrestling with what it means to us until it blesses us. I think this applies in particular to the hard passages, like where God tells Israel to kill women and children or Paul says women shouldn't talk in church or Elijah has bears maul kids for making fun of him. We grapple with them, think about them, pray about them, and seek to comprehend them until they bless us. We many limp for a while, but God will bless us, and I think that's worth anything.
What do you think?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I publish new posts, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
I pray you are doing well this Sunday and enjoying the blessings of God. Another season of small groups at newlife started this week and I get to lead a group on studying the Bible, which I'm really excited about. Two of the coolest/most useful things I've learned in the last long while about studying the Bible are that we should read like a lover (as opposed to a consumer, student, etc.), which would be a good blog topic ... but it's not today's.
You might be familiar with the story in Genesis where Jacob wrestles God (Genesis 32:22-32), it's a pretty weird and memorable story. Can you imagine wrestling God? I know that seems a pretty far out there concept to my mind. That said, I think God wants us to, in a manner of speaking. Follow my thinking here:
Jacob wrestles God in the middle of the night and there's several results. First, God "touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket" (Genesis 32:25, NLT). When Jacob walks away in verse 31 he does so with a limp. This is just the first result though, the more important, and lasting, one comes later. In v. 26 Jacob asks for a blessing, and in v. 29 God blesses him. To put it bluntly, Jacob wrestles God and God blesses him for it. Wrestling God = blessing.
Now, we could say that was just Jacob and doesn't apply to everyone. However, at least two things indicate otherwise, in my mind. First, it's the Bible, the Word of God, and as such is meant to affect and apply to our lives in various ways, although not always directly/literally. More importantly, in v. 28 God renames Jacob. Jacob becomes Israel, the forefather of God's nation of people. Like many Hebrew words there are a multiplicity of meanings for "Israel", but the one that sticks out to me is incredibly relevant to this passage.
Israel means "one who wrestles with God."
Jacob wrestles God, is blessed, and God changes his name to "one who wrestles with God." AND God's chosen people are therefore named as people who wrestle with God.
Now the Bible is the Living Word of God, in many ways our most direct encounter with God. Other passages in the Bible indicate the same thing, but this one pretty literally shows God wants us to wrestle with him. Therefore, we should wrestle with God through our reading, grappling with, and striving to understand the Bible. In my mind, this means reading the Bible and wrestling with what it means to us until it blesses us. I think this applies in particular to the hard passages, like where God tells Israel to kill women and children or Paul says women shouldn't talk in church or Elijah has bears maul kids for making fun of him. We grapple with them, think about them, pray about them, and seek to comprehend them until they bless us. We many limp for a while, but God will bless us, and I think that's worth anything.
What do you think?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I publish new posts, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
Monday, February 6, 2012
What Temptation Tries to Do to Us
Hi Everyone-
I hope you enjoyed the Super Bowl commercials ... and the close game too. I also hope you're having a good day. I know here in the Pacific Northwest it is absolutely gorgeous, praise God. Sun, water, mountains, trees, blue sky ... wow. I think this is what heaven looks like.
Something an author wrote about the temptation of Jesus has me thinking a bit about temptation in our lives. David Ford writes that the temptations Satan used against Jesus were the opposites of his story's fulfillment, crucifixion and resurrection. Here's what he says:
"[Jesus'] death can be seen as the fulfillment of a vocation diametrically opposed to the one set before him in his temptations: acute suffering instead of physical satisfaction; weakness and humiliation instead of power and authority; utter failure inflicted by political and religious authorities instead of spectacular success by miraculous means."
The three temptations at the beginning of Jesus' ministry were to turn stone to bread (he'd been fasting for 40 days and was probably pretty hungry), to rule the world politically, and to have angels miraculously save him after he launched himself off the Temple. Ford is saying these were counter to Jesus fulfilling his mission, death and resurrection. I think this makes a lot of sense...
Satan told Jesus to gratify his hungry belly by turning stone into bread, but Jesus rejected physical gratification. Death on the cross was about the furthest one could get away from physical gratification. It was purposefully one of the most painful ways to die ever invented.
The Devil then offered Jesus political rule over all the nations of the world, which Jesus also rejected. Instead, he was eventually politically rejected himself by being crucified. Crucifixion was a political punishment the Romans used for people they viewed as rebellious.
Finally, Satan tells Jesus to jump off the Temple, because after all angels will save him. While he's dying on the cross people mock Jesus by effectively telling him to get angels to miraculously save him if he's really the Messiah. Just like in the temptation, he could have called angels in order to "further" himself, but he didn't.
I think the symmetry to these two parts, beginning and end, of Jesus' ministry is pretty cool, but more importantly I think it has good applications to our lives. I think it shows that the things we're tempted with are meant to lead us directly away from what we're meant to do. Jesus was meant to die on the cross for us, so Satan tempted him with things that would have been the exact opposite of his purpose. I'm guessing Satan would never have guessed the cross was Jesus' destination, but I'd think he did know Jesus' purposes included selflessness and sacrifice, so the Deceiver tried to tempt the Son away from these areas.
So, my questions are ... What did God make you to do? What are you tempted with? Do you see any connection, do your temptations threaten to lead you away from your purpose?
What do you think?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I publish new posts, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
I hope you enjoyed the Super Bowl commercials ... and the close game too. I also hope you're having a good day. I know here in the Pacific Northwest it is absolutely gorgeous, praise God. Sun, water, mountains, trees, blue sky ... wow. I think this is what heaven looks like.
Something an author wrote about the temptation of Jesus has me thinking a bit about temptation in our lives. David Ford writes that the temptations Satan used against Jesus were the opposites of his story's fulfillment, crucifixion and resurrection. Here's what he says:
"[Jesus'] death can be seen as the fulfillment of a vocation diametrically opposed to the one set before him in his temptations: acute suffering instead of physical satisfaction; weakness and humiliation instead of power and authority; utter failure inflicted by political and religious authorities instead of spectacular success by miraculous means."
The three temptations at the beginning of Jesus' ministry were to turn stone to bread (he'd been fasting for 40 days and was probably pretty hungry), to rule the world politically, and to have angels miraculously save him after he launched himself off the Temple. Ford is saying these were counter to Jesus fulfilling his mission, death and resurrection. I think this makes a lot of sense...
Satan told Jesus to gratify his hungry belly by turning stone into bread, but Jesus rejected physical gratification. Death on the cross was about the furthest one could get away from physical gratification. It was purposefully one of the most painful ways to die ever invented.
The Devil then offered Jesus political rule over all the nations of the world, which Jesus also rejected. Instead, he was eventually politically rejected himself by being crucified. Crucifixion was a political punishment the Romans used for people they viewed as rebellious.
Finally, Satan tells Jesus to jump off the Temple, because after all angels will save him. While he's dying on the cross people mock Jesus by effectively telling him to get angels to miraculously save him if he's really the Messiah. Just like in the temptation, he could have called angels in order to "further" himself, but he didn't.
I think the symmetry to these two parts, beginning and end, of Jesus' ministry is pretty cool, but more importantly I think it has good applications to our lives. I think it shows that the things we're tempted with are meant to lead us directly away from what we're meant to do. Jesus was meant to die on the cross for us, so Satan tempted him with things that would have been the exact opposite of his purpose. I'm guessing Satan would never have guessed the cross was Jesus' destination, but I'd think he did know Jesus' purposes included selflessness and sacrifice, so the Deceiver tried to tempt the Son away from these areas.
So, my questions are ... What did God make you to do? What are you tempted with? Do you see any connection, do your temptations threaten to lead you away from your purpose?
What do you think?
Grace and peace,
Lang
If you want to receive email notifications when I publish new posts, please put your email in the "Follow by email" block to the right.
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