Wisdom From Obi-wan Kenobi

"Luke, you're going to find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on a certain point of view." - Obi-wan Kenobi

In the last couple of years I have been going through a major deconstructive process in my spiritual life (if that wasn't already obvious from reading my thoughts).

One major area of re-construction lately has been in the Bible - how we read it and what it is. Recent elections have highlighted for us how so many amazing, passionate, intelligent people can hold such varying degrees of opinion on what they feel would be the best way to run our country. The church and religion don't operate much differently. How can so many people feel so passionately that what they believe is right?

Now, take that a step further - as a Christian, in the Church, I look around and see so many "kinds" of Christians. There are many denominations. And within the denomination there are still many different kinds of Christians. In my church, for example, there are some who believe in infant baptism, while others don't find any purpose or "biblical evidence" for such a thing and prefer to dedicate their children. (Neither of which friends is "biblical". However, if you want my stance I'd be happy to share it with you).

Recently, someone completely attacked me for going out for Halloween because "the bible says that we should 'avoid every appearance of evil'. If that makes you defensive it's because you have a hard heart that is resisting conviction". Awesome. Attack me with the verses that you think are appropriate for winning your argument.

Is this what the bible has become to us? A law book to attack friends and neighbors with?

The problem, as far as I see it is that we have slowly, over time, placed the Bible right over top of Christ. We have become people of principle rather than people of relationship. We ask "What does the bible say? What Would Jesus Do? rather than asking "What is Jesus asking me to do in this situation?"
This causes great problems in our learning to become believers in this age.

The mistake we make in calling the bible the "word of God" is that we substitute a book for the person of the resurrected Christ. So lots of people are trying to follow principals derived from a book rather than for a book to open them to a relationship and then live inside that relationship.(And anyone who doesn't align to the way that the scripture is interpreted is out of line, a sinner, a heretic).

The book of Acts talks a lot about the Word of God spreading among the people. Was that the bible? Were they referring to little tracts? No, they weren't. They were referring to the living Christ, Jesus - he spread among them! When Hebrews 4 talks about the Word being living and active and sharper than a two-edged sword it is not talking about the bible (like I was taught my whole life to be the case). It's really the presence of Christ that divides between soul and spirit.

I am certainly not saying that I don't believe that God inspired the writers of the bible. I absolutely do. But I'm not worshiping the bible. And I'm not trying to live my life by a set of rules and principles anymore. I realize the for a really long time I've believed that the way that I have read and interpreted scripture has turned out to be very flawed and uneducated. For much of my mature Christian walk I have put following what I believed to be truth in the bible ahead of the Truth that is life in the Son. And boy, that sure changes my perspective!

"Generational Sin" and How We Read The Bible

I have often heard people talk about ‘generational sin’. This is also a topic of which whole courses are based on and offered in churches around the world. The foundational verse for this is found in the book of Exodus in the bible and says, “God will visit the sins of the fathers to the third and fourth generation”.

Ok. I kinda-sorta bought it for a little while. Mostly only when christians that I love spoke about it as a ‘Biblical Truth’. But I have been thinking a lot about how we read the bible, and how some of the conclusions that the church has reached are way off. This is one of those things that I am not sure I buy into anymore. Why? Because first, God was talking to Moses, or Moses says God says to him in exodus 20 that God will out the sins of the fathers on their kids. But then Ezekiel comes along and God says (ch. 18) “no, I don’t do that,”i dont visit the sins of the fathers on the children”. So what we think is true in Exodus isn’t true in Ezekiel. Now move to the New Testament. Enter Jesus. And he says, “no it’s you- the individual life, engaging God the Father.” So what do we conclude?

When people are quoting Exodus for deliverance in their life and start talking about breaking the ties of generational sin….. I don’t know. Yes, there is some wisdom perhaps to be sought from this. For instance, be careful how you raise your kids. If you lie to your children, will they be honest people? Probably not. But not as a generational curse from God.

The law says, stone the adulterer. That is a serious sin to approach in the community. But Jesus comes, as God, the law-giver… He understood God’s law to prescribe. Does he stone her? No. So did God change his mind? No.

Here is where I am going with all this: there is a revelational flow in the story of things that WERE true, of things that become LESS true and sometimes eventually UNTRUE as God continues to give us a fuller picture of who he is and his story of redemption to and with the world.

God isn’t changing, but our perception of who God is changes.

We need to stop reading the bible as a law book and reading it as a storybook.

Giving Thanks - And Sometimes Not

Yes, I am thankful. Let me just get that out there loud and clear. I am SO thankful. I have SO MUCH to be thankful for! I truly truly do. I know how blessed I am. I know to be thankful for my (albeit small) home and shelter- I've seen families living in literal dumps. I have watched marriages crumble and families ripped apart - I am so grateful for a loving, sacrificing, serving, humble, gentle, godly husband. I am healthy. I am alive. Believe me, I AM GRATEFUL and not a day goes by that I don't give thanks to the One from whom I know it all comes.

But I'm taking the risk to share this: there is a lot that I am not thankful for:

• I am not thankful that the budget is always tight.
• I am not thankful that (not including in-laws) I pretty much have no family - my mom and I that is. I hate having no family. And I hate having family that just doesn't care.
• I am not grateful for fake family - people who say we are like family, but really we aren't.
• I am not thankful that my mom is always in pain.
• I am not thankful that I have no one to help me help her.
• I am not thankful that my cottage is gone.
• I am not thankful for famine and civil unrest in much of the world.

Yes, I can make an entire list of things for which I am ungrateful.

I recognize in myself a tendency to draw to the dark side. Sometimes, the spiral happens so fast that I'm in too deep to recognize that I've even gone there. And it takes all my strength and will power to fight it out - to literally talk myself out of it.

Here's what usually happens:
1. I recognize that deep sadness and the parade of thoughts that flood my mind of all the things that I am unhappy about.
2. I recognize.
3. I tell myself there's a way out.
4. I get alone, by myself for a few minutes.
5. I often tell God EXACTLY how I'm feeling
6. I let myself feel what I'm feeling for a few minutes.
7. I start listing everything that I'm so upset about.
8. Whether I feel like it or not, I start listing the things that inevitably I start thinking about that I SHOULD be grateful for.
9. As I list, I actually become grateful.
10. As I dwell on the good, the darkness fades. LIGHT! At the end of the tunnel.

And so:

• I am thankful we have a paycheck to make a budget with.
• I am thankful for the family that I do have and that I will always put my family first while watching out for others who also have little family.
• I am so thankful for friends as good as family (if not better!).
• I'm still not grateful my mom is in pain, but grateful for the things available to help her manage.
• I am thankful that I am able to help her. I am thankful to give back to her even a fraction of all the times she has cared for me and mine, sacrificing all the way.
• I miss my cottage, but I am thankful thinking about Landon around wild animals and a lake to walk into....
• I am thankful to live in the country I do and for all the ministries, missionaries and organizations that are in those suffering that I can stand behind in prayer and support.

Thankful? Yes I am.

After all, it's all in your perspective.

Why Jesus Didn't Date

*Although I would love to, I cannot take any credit for this. It is a straight cut and paste from another blogger. I won't say who for fear you should judge me on the rest of the blog, this, however is both smart and funny. For copyright purposes, site is available upon request.

(The following conversation took place between my wife Cat and I whilst driving in our car.)

Me: Hey, so I’m thinking about doing a blog post exploring the idea of Jesus being fully man, but not having a sex drive.

Cat: Oh?

Me: Yeah. Because how can Jesus be fully man without a sex drive? And if he has a sex drive, then how can he be sinless, since Matthew 5:27-28, says, “Do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” What man doesn’t look at women lustfully?

Cat [looking out her side window]: Oh.

Me: What?

Cat: What?

Me: Don’t you think that’s interesting? That Jesus has to be sinless, yet, by his own definition, cannot be, since being fully man means he must regularly commit adultery? If Jesus was fully man, then must have lusted. And if he lusted, he wasn’t sinless. [In slightly manic tone.] That’s kind of interesting, don’t you think?

Cat: Not really.

Me: What? Of course it’s interesting. It’s core to the whole conception of Jesus being fully man!

Cat: Look. You don’t lust after your sister, right?

Me: Ew. No.

Cat: And you don’t lust after your mom. Because your mom and your sister aren’t potential mates for you. That’s how Jesus saw all women. There are no potential mates for Jesus. Just like no sane father can lust after his daughter, Jesus couldn’t lust after any woman. To Jesus, every woman is his daughter. Literally.

Me: So there’s no psychological mechanism for his lust to kick in.

Cat: Right. Plus, it would be cruel of Jesus to have sexual relations with a woman. He’s God. Not exactly an equal relationship. And he’s knows he’s not gonna marry anyone.

Me: Right.

Cat: And that’s how Jesus can be fully man and never lust.

Me: Oh. [Long pause.] Yeah, I probably would have reached that same conclusion. [Cat silently resumes gazing out window.] I would have. Really. I would have thought of that.

Cat [pensively, still looking out window]: I wonder if I should start my own blog?

Me: No! You shouldn’t!

Recap

A few pictures from the Birtch Academy yearbook, 2010-2011. Love making memories!

Farm Trip

Clovermead Aviaries

The 5 Senses

A Bible study on God's saving Israel from slavery through Moses.
The hard boiled egg was a lesson on a hardened heart (like Pharaoh).

Creation

Some art with circles

Gratitude

This is the day that the Lord has made. We will REJOICE and be glad in it!

The Girl Next Door

After losing Lilli (our family's pet cat), we hung up LOST CAT signs around the neighborhood. One day, while on a family walk we noticed that a few signs had been ripped off of the mailboxes. Heartbreaking to say the least. Who would do something so cruel? It was uncalled for. Mean. FRUSTRATING. Seriously, the kids around here know us, and seriously, almost all of them were helping us look for Lilli. I wouldn't allow myself to jump to any conclusions or lay blame. Someone, for some reason didn't like our signs. Someone didn't want them up.
And then the questions: Does someone around here not like us? Did we make someone upset? Does someone have her in their home and doesn't want us to find her? The kids were really upset about it too.

"Don't judge. Don't read into it.
Just shrug it off and re-hang some signs."

That was the plan: forget about it. Until I found this:


What would you do if you received a letter like this? I found this in my mailbox. It was followed by gentle tap at my front door from Alex (and her dad).

My heart sank. I wasn't upset at ALL about the signs anymore. This poor little girl. She is beautiful. She is kind to the kids in the neighborhood. I just want to wrap my arms around her and tell her it's ok, it will get easier, that one day it really won't matter what those kids think.
Except that might have been creepy and awkward from a stranger. So less the creepy hug, I tried to encourage her in what I saw, and that I remembered those years of my life being very difficult. I told her I forgave her and cared more about her than the signs.

Her father, God bless him, was going with her door to door in our neighborhood asking if anyone had seen our missing cat. She also re-hung our signs and faced grounding from movies and playing outside. Ouch.

Here she is going door-to-door:

So despite our missing our precious kitty still, I'm amazed at how it is connecting us with those around us. And I am grateful for the opportunity to know how to pray for and encourage a young girl that's hurting.

(I wrote this in June. Lilli is still missing)

A Hug From Abba

Without Brushing My Hair

by Hafez

The closer

I get to you, Beloved,

The more I can see

It is just You and I all alone

In this world.

I hear

A knock at my door,

Who else could it be,

So I rush without brushing

My hair.

For too many nights

I have begged for Your return

And what

Is the use of vanity

At this late hour, at this divine season,

That has now come to my folded knees?

If your love letters are true dear God

I will surrender myself

to

Who you keep saying

I

Am.

The last stanza, “I will surrender myself to who you keep saying I Am,” is so inviting and so haunting. In just a few short pen strokes Hafez, the poet, has captured what, in my mind, is the essence of Scripture and has put words to God’s deepest desire for us as his children.

It is haunting because there are things I don’t want to surrender. There are things that I have convinced myself are absolutely necessary to maintain the image of self whom I and the world around me have come to know. Who would I be if I am not this person? Coming face to face with Jesus causes a crises in identity. It is to lose my life as I know it. It is to cease to function as the person with split personalities – juggling my identity between different groups of people depending on how I think they think I should be performing. To surrender the self I have constructed that my family and friends and enemies have validated is to die. What a terrifying thought.

But those who lose their life will find it.

It is also very inviting. This Jesus who stands before me, bearing all of my scars, all of my shame, all of my pain, invites me to reach out and touch. As I gaze upon the one who has taken all of this upon himself, all the things I feel I must hold on to lest I die, I am confronted with the reality that he is risen. And so I reach out and I touch, trusting that who this person says I am is perhaps true – at least for today – and today I discover life. Suddenly it becomes clear that what I thought could sustain me and shore up my identity was false and I find myself declaring, “My Lord, and my God!”

There is yet another reason this haunts me though, or rather, terrifies me. If I really am who God says I am than no longer can I walk through life as a spectator. No longer can I believe the lies that once enveloped me – those lies that say I am not good enough or righteous enough or talented enough or smart enough or, or or… – but now, if I take these words to heart, I must accept that I am loved ruthlessly, unconditionally, irrevocably. Even when I was the most obstinate this Christ died for even me. Such love directed towards me compells me into deeper relationship. Deeper relationship inspires in me a oneness of purpose and desire. A oneness of purpose and desire, this total and complete conversion, similar to being born again, causes my heart to not beat for myself but with my Creator, which shamelessly and scandously beats for all the world. Coming face to face with Jesus scares the hell out of me because to accept the truth about me, the truth which God says is true about me, requires a complete reordering of my desires and it demands more from me than any of my family, friends or enemies ever demanded. They only desired I look more like them – to uphold the status quo, to not rock the boat. Jesus says I am more than that – that I should be “perfect” (complete) not like the best Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or Atheist – well, the best human - I know, but something far more. Something like his Father in heaven.

Am I willing to journey into that? Am I willing to be who God says I already am? Jesus’ answer was a resounding, “I AM.” I want to be.

God, I will surrender myself to who you keep saying I Am.

*I wish that I could take credit for this. It is written as if my heart and soul had cried it out and I had to share it. I posted it first appearing as my own because it speaks for every part of me. It is actually written by a man named Chad Holtz and you can read his blog here.