Christianity

Books / Christianity / The Search for Significance / Wisdom — 2 Comments
10
Aug 06

Off the bandwagon, plus a few thoughts

I’m sure by now that it is painfully obvious that I’m not doing the commentary on “The Search for Significance” as I’d intended. I did have good intentions, but you know what those pave! As it turned out, I’ve been keeping up with my assigned reading of the book (but just barely), and posting about it just hasn’t been a high enough priority to push out other things in my life (you know, like sleep…). So I’m going to be realistic and declare my intention to not blog the book.

I have picked up a lot of interesting things from the book, though, and it’s changing the way I look at the world around me. The book’s “big idea” for Christians is this:

I am deeply loved, completely forgiven, fully pleasing, totally accepted by God, and complete in Christ.

I always have a hard time internalizing things like this, but I have seen glimpses of these truths, and it’s amazing.

I’m also struck by how many people believe the lie (my self-worth = my performance + other’s opinions). I guess I shouldn’t be, since I believe it a lot of the time, but I was hit by it again this morning while reading people’s answers to a prompt in one of my dieting groups. The prompt was “I am proud of myself today because…” and almost every response was totally performance-driven. Either they were happy because of something they did, or unhappy because they didn’t do something. None of the answers were “be” or “are” answers; they were all “do”.

On a different but related note, I really like this quote from Karen Hancock’s blog:

Great messages lately in Bible class, particularly the one about how “God is able to make all grace ABOUND to you, that ALWAYS having ALL sufficiency in EVERYTHING you may have an ABUNDANCE for EVERY good deed.” ~ 2 Co 9:8

Just a reminder that I have everything I need — the talent, the wit, the time, the energy — to complete this task in accordance with His will. I am keeping myself focused on that, and not the scary speculations that want to raise their very ugly heads from time to time.

Christianity / Life — 2 Comments
26
May 06

Lo-Fi Faith Meme

I don’t usually do memes (primarily because I rarely get tagged!) but Robert sent this one and I thought it was interesting.

1: List three (3) words that describe your faith.

Hungry. Growing. Inconsistent.

2: Describe a belief you are certain about and one with which you struggle.

I’m certain that God exists and cares for me, and that He will provide what is needed.

I struggle to understand prayer sometimes.  If God wants what’s best for His children, then why do we pray (particularly intercessorily) for other believers?  I can’t imagine that God needs “convincing”, but I struggle with the logic.

3: What is your mission in life?

Biblically, I know that it’s to bring glory to God.  My problem is that I usually don’t know how to apply that.  I’m working on compassion, availability, and vulnerability, and figure that will help in all areas, right?

4: Describe one thing that interferes with authentically living out your faith.

Being too busy.  How on earth can God use me when He can’t even get my attention (and yet, sometimes He does anyway!)?

5: What is your favorite story from the Hebrew Scriptures? Why?

Daniel (the whole story part of the book, really).  This was a guy who wouldn’t compromise on what mattered, and that’s pretty much unheard of.

6: What is your favorite New Testament story? Why?

Jesus sending out the disciples in pairs to spread the word.  I like it because I think it’s an interesting idea and wonder how it could be applied.  Similarly, I am fascinated by early church communal life.

7: Describe a meaningful action you took because of your faith.

I’ve done lots of “things” (giving money, going on mission trips) but I think that the more “meaningful” parts are those (unfortunately rare) occasions when I pray diligently for another person on an ongoing basis (I know, it’s a little ironic given my response to the second question).

8: Does your faith differ from that of your parents? If so, how?

I think it’s different in that I was born into it, while my mom had to find it.  Sometimes that’s good and sometimes it’s a hinderance, but it is what it is.  And of course, different life experiences change the way we experience faith, too.  But when it comes down to it, I think that my faith is pretty close to my parents’; I’m just privileged to be part of a faith community where faith is encouraged to take over my life.

9: Who or what was most important in the development of your faith?

Good question.  Faith has always made sense to me, and I think that the hunger aspect of it is spurred on by God Himself more than anyone else.

10: Pass it on! Tag at least two other religious/faith bloggers.

Not sure if they’ll be doing it, but I’m tagging jennifer, Chris, and all my MySpace friends. (I’m an overachiever today! I’m also curious about everyone’s answers.)

Christianity / Wisdom — 7 Comments
10
May 06

Christian Carnival CXXI (121)

It’s my privilege and joy to host this week’s edition of the Christian Carnival. Because there are a moderate number of eligible entries, I have listed all of them in the order I received them (in this case, good things come to those who don’t wait). Settle in for some good reading!

Rejoice always
From the author, Michael McCullough: “If your life is not filled with joy, ask God to fill you with the Holy Spirit and to bless you with joy. Pray often — Paul says to “pray without ceasing” — and God will honor your prayers. As you grow in Christ, the fruits of the spirit will begin to develop within you. Fruit takes time to mature, and because we are not perfect, the fruits of the spirit also often take time to mature within you. Think of all that God has given you and thank him for them. When we realize what God has done for us, it’s easier to develop an attitude of joy, and with that attitude of joy, joy becomes part of our very nature.”

The ID debate – moving forward
From the author, John: “Presenting a new model for understanging the relationship between Creator and Creation that avoids certain pitfalls of conventional pictures.”
This is the third post in a series; the first and second are linked in the first sentence and provide groundwork that is well worth reading, but the the post I’ve linked is the one with the reasoning and the conclusions.

Motivating Volunteers in Ministry
From the author, Tom: “In Christian ministry we rely first and always on prayer, the direction of the Holy Spirit, and the motivation of Christ’s love. Even churches with that foundation often discover, though, that something still seems to be missing. The work is not being done and the people are not fulfilled. What’s going on?”

The Moon Is Not Enough
Charlie Duke, a former NASA Astronaut, was one of only 12 men who have walked on the moon. This is his story of faith.

A Few Words on Total Depravity
From the author, Ben Dueholm: “I’m putting the T back in TULIP with a brief introduction to Total Depravity at Habakkuk’s Watchpost.”
This is a good exploration of a topic that makes a lot of people uncomfortable (as evidenced in the lively comment discussion that follows).

Music, Math, and God
Freeman Hunt is prompted by a passage in “The Screwtape Letters” to consider the relationships between music, math, and God.

Walking in the Bible
From the author, Martin LaBar: “My entry for this week is “Walking in the Bible,” in which I muse about the occurrences of “walk” in various forms in the Bible.”
I like these kinds of explorations. I’ve just recently discovered Blue Letter Bible, which makes it easier for us non-Greek-and-Hebrew scholars to look at the words of the Bible.

Does the first testament support slavery?
From the author, Steve: “I examine ways of interpreting the first (old) testament law and apply it to the issue of slavery.”
This is a very well-researched piece, and does a good job at looking at the various arguments and considerations.

John Bunyan
John Bunyan turns otu to be a very interesting person, as Laurie finds out while answering an email question.

Teach me to pray oh Lord
From the author, Carl Holmes: “A short reminder on how to pray when we feel God is not answering our prayers.”
Bonus points for including a relevant comic!

An Emerging Statement of Faith?
From the author, Byron D. Harvey: “Should the Emerging Church movement have a Statement of Faith? Theologian LeRon Shults says “no”; Byron Harvey says, “maybe or maybe not”, but if Shults’ reasoning is taken seriously, then maybe the answer is closer to “yes”…”

Nerd Family: There is a Reason for Menopause
Bet you didn’t think there was anything positive, huh? NerdMom makes a good case for menopause as an expression of God’s plans for us.

The Vatican and the Da Vinci Code
From the author, Xyba: “Cardinal Francis Arinze wants Christians to take legal action against the film “The Da Vinci Code.”"

The fruits of persecution
From the author, Penitens: “A reflection on godliness, honesty, and the grace of Christ in a challenging world.”

The Temple as a House of Prayer
From the author, Richard: “I write about the purpose of the prayer delivered by Solomon at the dedication of the Temple. “

Peace on Earth
From the author, Chris Alexion: “Bono’s views on war deserve a hearing, but fairness also calls for the rest of the story.”

People come and people go
From the author, Anthony I: “This is a post about life and death. It is about how we should prepare for our own end and how we should face death.”

Eternality
From the author, Rebecca: “It’s a short discussion of eternality: what it means, and what it means for us.”

Into the Marketplace – The Debaters
From the author, : “One highlight of the current evangelical movement is the thrust into the marketplace by Christian colleges and universities. Formerly, they have seen themselves as training for the ministry. But recently, they see their role as preparing well-informed Christians to share their faith in the marketplace of ideas. The current Christian college award-winning debate teams are an excellent example of this.”

Harris Poll: 43% of Democrats Oppose Abortion, DNC Needs Bigger Tent
I wasn’t aware of the way this issue is shifting, and I found AmericanSage’s post very thought-provoking.

‘An ark for all God’s Noahs’ by Thomas Brooks
From the author, Johnnie: “My blog covers readings on protestant books. This one was on Thomas Brooks’ work on ‘An ark for all God’s Noahs’.”

Cain, Abel and Ability -tmp(Gen 4)
Rey examines Cain to see what exactly he inherited from Adam.

My Politics: Faith’s Place Therein (Part VII): Life
From the author, Ron: “Continuation of a series on politics, focusing on life issues (abortion and euthanasia) and seeking God’s wisdom in scripture and prayer when deciding whether abortion and euthanasia are wrong.”

Reflections from the Pool
From the author, Mark Olson: “I’ve just about finished reading a book, Following Gandalf and put to pen some of my thoughts which were shaken loose by that experience.”

Opheilema in Matthew 6:12
Kenny Pearce discusses the meaning and proper translation of the phrase “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” in the Lord’s Prayer.

ID Undermines Itself?
From the author, Jeremy Pierce: “Some people criticize intelligent design arguments, saying that they contradict themselves by making it both very likely and very unlikely that the evidence in question would occur. That criticism is a mistake.”

Thanks for reading, visiting, and linking! Tune in next week for more carnival-y goodness at Pursuing Holiness.

Christianity / Church / Technology — 4 Comments
18
Apr 06

An awesome new tool for praying geeks

I’ve been part of the private beta for People2Pray for a while now, and I like it a lot.  So much that I really wanted to tell everyone about it (and get people I know to sign up for it), but since it was in private beta, that wasn’t really practical.  Happy me this morning when I found out they opened it up for public beta.  So go sign up already!

A little more about what I love about it:

  • It’s all about making prayer intentional and trackable.  This is very much like a traditional prayer journal, but ideal for those of us who lose those under the bed but look at our homepage(s) every day.
  • Aside from the prayer-journal-like-benefits (perspective, consistancy, etc.), the tech aspect of it adds extra features: sharing, communities, connection with others, and most importantly, a means for prayers to rise all over the globe, no matter where you are.
  • They’ve really thought through the public/private aspect.  You can make a request private, public, or share with just a specific community or person.  This is very important to me, as I make most of my requests public, but there are some that need to be private for the protection of others.
  • This may be just the kind of collaborative tool that our church needs.  We’re currently using a Yahoo! Group, but I’d love to migrate to People2Pray—and I think it will help most of our prayer warriors personally, too.

Is anyone interested in creating a community for shared requests?

Christianity / Life / Wisdom — No Comments
12
Apr 06

Prairie chickens versus eagles

One of my favorite writers, Karen Hancock, started a blog recently, and I added it to my daily feed.  Some posts interest me more than others; I like her posts that kind of reveal the process behind the books (and now I have some clues as to what will happen in the next book!), but my favorite posts are the ones where she reflects on God and his hand in our lives.

The posts mentioned in the title focus on our response to God’s hand.  The first one, Prairie Chickens, recounts a parable of an eagle raised as a prairie chicken—basically, us most of the time.  The second one, Soaring Eagle, talks about the alternative, the life we are meant to lead.  Hope you enjoy the posts and consider adding Karen to your reading list (and reading her excellent books!).

Christianity / Religion — 4 Comments
3
Mar 06

Questions about John 11

I was reading John 11 today (read it in The Message, NLT, NASB) and came across a few things that made me go “hmmm”:

  • What is Jesus talking about in verses 9 and 10? And how does it answer the question in verse 8? I have no idea.
  • I love Thomas’s respons in verse 16. Poor guy really got the short end of the stick in that we only remember him for doubting.
  • Why did Mary stay in the house when Martha went out (verse 20)? Especially given that she “ran out to” Jesus when Martha whispered to her. Maybe she didn’t know Jesus was there? I don’t know, but I do find it interesting that Martha specifies (verse 28) that Jesus particularly wants to see Mary. That would feel like a tremendous compliment, I think.
  • This was brought out in the latest issue of Discipleship Journal: Martha and Mary both make the same comment to Jesus. He responds to each of them in a completely different way: with Martha, he brings up the theological truth; with Mary, he weeps.
  • What is Jesus deeply angry/troubled in spirit/moved with indignation (depending on the translation) about? I’m not sure if I understand this reaction, and I’d like to know what you all think.

These aren’t rhetorical questions. Post your comments. :)

Christianity / Church — No Comments
25
Feb 06

“I’ll do anything!”

There’s this mission trip that my church conference is doing in March. It sounds pretty cool: they’ll be going to South America to meet both spiritual needs (by preaching and teaching) and physical needs (health care, etc.). I heard about it at a time when I was particularly open to “doing something for God”, so I’ve been fairly interested in it for a while. However, the costs ($2000) per participant make me think that the timing isn’t quite right, and other than my interest, I haven’t really seen any evidence that this is what God has in mind for me (however, if one of you readers wants to fund it for me, I’ll take that as a clear sign :) ).

Thinking about this mission trip has made me think about service, though. This morning I found myself praying, “God, ask anything of me and I will try to give it to you.” Of course, as I prayed this, I was thinking along the lines of grand mission trips and huge, life-altering sacrifices. But then it (finally) occurred to me… every week at The Experience, Ed and Cindy get up front and ask for volunteers for Random Acts of Kindness/Servant Evangelism. I pretty much ignore them—not because I don’t like them (they’re some of my favorite people!) but because I have no interest in the activities (I sometimes have some philosophical issues with them, but mostly I’m just lazy).

So, Hypocritical Sarah, how is that “giving anything” to God that He asks? Well, it’s not, really. Oops. Maybe God is waiting for me to be “faithful with a few things” before He gives me big things; maybe He doesn’t intend the big things for me at all. But I’m pretty sure I’m not supposed to just sit around and pray for him to give me some amazing assignment.

How come it’s so much easier to offer God “everything” than “this one thing”?

Christianity / Politics / Psychology / Religion — No Comments
20
Feb 06

Understanding the Danish cartoons

Udland Jyllands-Posten’s culture editor, Flemming Rose, has penned an article called “Why I Published Those Cartoons“. This is a very good read and I highly recommend it. It is, of course, referring to the cartoons that have sparked such insanity in the Middle East. I learned a lot from the article that I didn’t know, like that there were actually 12 different cartoons, most of which have gone unnoticed, and that the outcome in Denmark has been significantly different (and infinitely more positive).

Frankly, I haven’t addressed the cartoons because I simply can’t wrap my mind around the madness. I read one article where a Muslim was quoted saying something like, “Can you imagine the outrage if this was done to Christians?” and my mind just boggled. Apparently he doesn’t know that Christians, Christianity, and Jesus are routinely mocked all over the world. I also can’t get over the irony of the response: people don’t like that they feel they are being called terrorists, so they react by acting like terrorists.

Understand, I do not try to offend people of other faiths, and would never do so for the sake of offending. I have read and respect other perspectives on this. But I find myself agreeing fully with Mr. Rose.

Has Jyllands-Posten insulted and disrespected Islam? It certainly didn’t intend to. But what does respect mean? When I visit a mosque, I show my respect by taking off my shoes. I follow the customs, just as I do in a church, synagogue or other holy place. But if a believer demands that I, as a nonbeliever, observe his taboos in the public domain, he is not asking for my respect, but for my submission. And that is incompatible with a secular democracy.

Whether or not you agree with Mr. Rose, it is useful to understand where he’s coming from. Now if only I could find a Muslim perspective that actually makes sense. (That’s not quite accurate; the moderate Muslims are perfectly sensible—I just can’t figure out the extremists.)

Christianity / Church / Life — 4 Comments
1
Feb 06

Experience Retreat Number Three

I’ve been kind of quiet lately because I’ve been processing. There’s so much to say and explain, and the more I think about writing it all out, the more overwhelming it seems. Those of you who have read this chronicle for a long time will know that my church, The Experience, has had retreats around this time of year for the last couple of years. The first year, 2004, was very important for me personally because the retreat is when Daniel and I actually “jumped in” to The Experience and committed. That was a big step, and the retreat was difficult and exciting in itself. Last year, I had a different kind of experience at the retreat, but it’s one that continues to shape me, and actually played pretty heavily into how my retreat experience went this year.

This year, for me, was more like the first year. There were a lot more people, and less structure, but the topics and goals were somewhat similar. So was the broken up self I returned home with. I’m really not sure why the events that are amazing and uplifting for others are exhausting and distressing for me, but it sure seems that way some times. Actually, I do have some idea why that’s the case. It’s because the things that excite others are the things I lack and want.

This year we were talking about our “testiomonies” again. We did this the first year, too. Our testimonies are just stories, of course, stories of our relationship with God and how we’ve seen God. It was very cool because several people shared great stories—not just the ones you hear regularly about how someone had a horrible life, found God, and all is well, but also some where coping skills at work are transformed, or someone finds out that it’s okay to be human. But then it all makes me feel like a horrible fraud, too, because here I am, one of the core members of a new church, a firm believer in Christianity, and I am afraid I don’t know God at all.

At least I want to now. In some years past, I sort of theoretically wanted to know God, but there was no real desire. I think God’s given me the desire now, but I’m waiting (very impatiently) for Him to fulfill it. I feel (knowing that this is probably inaccurate) like I am waiting for God to show up, and He’s just not. This isn’t a crisis of faith or anything; I do not doubt God’s existence or even his love for me (in my head). I just want to experience Him, and yet, here I am, feeling lonely and alone.

I talked to my pastor about this, and he had some good insights. One is that I might be too comfortable. My heart needs to know why I need Christ, and I think in part, it’s learning. I am so terribly lonely when I let myself get serious about it. But Brian suggested that I might benefit from being involved in something big, something I can’t do. Not necessarily a big project, just something that is clearly beyond me (like mentoring someone with behavioral issues). Something that could only be done with God’s help, not as a works thing but as a way of seeing the reality around me. So I’m thinking on this.

I really think a lot of my problem is that I’m so busy with day-to-day junk (but who isn’t?!) that I’m losing focus. I’ve thought for a while of doing a personal spiritual retreat, and maybe that’s something that should happen. How do other people maintain focus? Anyone want to give me some insight here?

Charity / Christianity / Technology — No Comments
19
Dec 05

Another great charitible website

I’ve been a fan of the 24-7 Prayer folks for a while (especially since reading “Red Moon Rising“). I recently received an email from them announcing a new project: Living Generously.

This new site is essentially a directory of projects around the world that enable Christians to live out their convictions. They have a range of categories including agriculture, education, children, urban and housing projects. Each project has a little blurb about it and many of the projects are very affordable; most are less than $100—one on my list is under $17. Which brings me to the best part of the site, in my opinion: you can make a “wish list”. This has the potential to make the site truly useful because it will encourage people to give gifts that actually matter and are heartily approved by the wish list-maker. I know that I have felt a little unsure about giving to charities as a gift for an individual, but if that person actually selected the project, I would be glad to give that way. Basically, what Amazon wish lists have done for “traditional” gift giving, I think Living Generously could do for charitable gift giving.

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