30 Aug 2009

Faith Comes by Hearing

Several Years ago, I was in a car wreck.  It was my fault.  I turned too quickly, the car behind me had little warning, and almost no opportunity to stop.  Behind me I heard screeching tires and felt a powerful impact.  No one was hurt seriously. Bruises and scrapes, and a few days of sore muscles.

For months afterward, every time I heard screeching tires I startled, and braced for an impact.  My nervous system seemed to have a mind of it’s own.  I reacted without consciously choosing to do so.

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This response was the substance of something unseen.

Here is what I have come to know.  Faith Comes by Hearing.

If you are someone who knows the Bible, you may recognize that this phrase comes from the New Testament.  The book of Romans in particular.  You might even know that the next verse says, “…and hearing comes by the Word of Christ”

But I think the first part can stand alone.  Faith Comes by Hearing.

I heard screeching tires and my heart deeply received…for months, my faith, my deep, deep belief, was in the sound I heard, and in an event that was no longer happening.  Everything about me responded as if the event was still real, present and active.

I have a friend, who for years heard these words. “You are stupid”

She heard.

The words had power over her, her heart had received, and she believed.  She did not have to see herself acting stupid.  Her faith was the substance of something she initially did not see.  The more she believed, the more she DID see.  Her grades in school, her life choices…became the experience of what she believed, and she believed because she had heard.

Faith comes by hearing. Coose carefully who and what you listen to. Listen to those things that you want to experience as real, present and active in your life.

29 Aug 2009

Words and Meaning

Language fascinates me.  Sounds and symbols somehow connect us to realities much bigger than actual words.  We had a fun night with amazing people in our house last night.  I was struck that my family was the only monolinguistic crew in house.

Everyone else in the house had at least two languages, two sets of vocabulary and structures with which they could describe and share their reality.  I love the setting where in the corner two people converse in Hebrew, because it connects their common history, while others, dripping with international accents, (like Louisiana…) engage in hilarious story-telling, connecting one another to uncommon moments.

I am struck by how much life is exchanged in our exchange of words.  Not just lifestories—life.  How much energy, and aliveness is transmitted in relationship through words.  Sounds and Symbols.

Behind every story is a real experience.  Every word, or cluster of words connects us all to a moment and a set of feelings.  The moments, and the experiences are the REAL thing.  The words somehow draw us all together to share one persons experience, and make us more than a gathering of 0ne-persons.  The words make us a community, connected and related.

Words.  Powerful little sounds and symbols.  Like currency, we should both choose carefully, and enjoy fully how we exchange them.  Wrapped up in these sounds and symbols can be either life or death.  And we can give either to anyone we choose.    

Now, read this:

“In the beginning was The Word, and The Word was with God, and The Word was God.  HE was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. And in Him was Life and the Life was the Light of men.”

God had something to say.  When He said it, out from His mouth came an infant. An infant who would heal the sick, raise the dead, and transform the the hearts of the heartsick.  He would turn the selfish and the fearful  into lovers and givers.  When God said the Word, it was not merely a sound or a symbol…it was The Experience…Him Loving us.  Listen, He is saying it again.

26 Aug 2009

Faith

“I’m just not sure I have the faith it takes to get through this”.

” I just know I don’t have as much faith as I should”.

These thoughts, and many like them, course through our minds as we wrestle with our sense of inadequacy as children of God.  I am convinced that we wrestle with this sense of inadequacy because way too often, we try to generate from our soul, what can only come from God Himself.

Faith is not the mental agreement with a religious system or doctrine.  Nor is it our resolve to carry out a mindset or a mission.  It is a way of seeing that comes from listening instead of thinking.

I also see, far too often, that people think that the fact that they experience fear means that they do not “have enough faith”.  What if that is not true?

I know the Bible tells us that faith without works is dead.  I also think that faith without fear may be dead.  If not dead, at least it is not really faith.  Often the lack of fear is because we can see or reason the solution to, or we can rescue ourselves from our circumstances.  What happens when we can’t see, but believe anyway?

Let me put it this way.  Which demonstrates more faith; jumping off a curb, or jumping off a cliff.  The first requires no faith at all because the risk (or fear factor) is minimal.  Jumping off a curb allows you to still catch yourself, to rely on your own capabilities.  Where is the fear (or faith) in that.

Jump off a cliff. (Don’t really go do this OK?, it’s an illustration…) You are now without the ability to catch yourself.  Your resources are of no help.  Only God can help you now.  The fear factor increases the faith required to act.

Sometimes real faith means feeling the reality of the fear, but trusting and acting anyway.  Trusting because you have a way of seeing that came from hearing and not from thinking.

25 Aug 2009
Thinking Like Parents

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Thinking Like Parents

For much of our lives as Christians we view Jesus and the Cross as a way to give us access to God.  When we need forgiveness we find it through the cross.  When we need comfort, we find it through the cross.  When we need healing…well you get the idea. Read more…

24 Aug 2009

The Knowledge of Good and Evil

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The Attack against mankinds role in God’s unfolding plan came when Adam and Eve took into their beings the  fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

This means opposition to God’s Plan in our lives has two basic strategies:

 

1.  Evil:  Nuff Said

2.  Good:  Anything good we do separate from God.

I’m just sayin’…

23 Aug 2009

Transfer of Power

“When the frequency of one system matches the frequency of another, power is transferred between the two systems”

The Million Volt Man

I heard him say this as he continued his demonstration of the nature of God and His Kingdom revealed in the principles of physics.  I was exhausted, but I heard something important in his words.

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I was exhausted because we were several months into the reconstruction of our home.  It had been ruined in a flood and we were living in our “refugee house” while we oversaw the gradual restoration of our home.  What had once been home was a chaotic conglomeration of foundation, frame, loose wires and ducts.  Life went on.  The kids had school, Jackee and I had work, and we did not have a home.

It was in the midst of this disruption that The MIllion Volt Man came to town.  A one man science demonstration, I attended as a distraction and because the auditorium was air conditioned.  I left re-connected to God.

He told us that power transfers from one system to another when frequencies match.  A note sustained and intensified could shatter a crystal glass, if the note was the same frequency as the glass.  A guitar string, untouched by human hands would begin to vibrate if another string, tuned to the same frequency was struck and sustained in proximity.  Power was transferred.

Power is transferred when frequencies match.

I was exhausted because I was completely tuned in to a construction project that had been my home.  Concrete and adhesive, unfinished cabinets…all these things daily transferred to me their power because I was absolutely on the same frequency they were.

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Broadcast from the throne of God is the very Nature of the King and His Kingdom.  Power—Life—Peace—Joy—all just hanging in the air nearby waiting to be received.

Broadcast from all around are a variety of other power sources.  Traffic—Conflict—Sickness—Your own construction project; all these and more would broadcast to you the life draining force of their activity.

Our hand is on the dial…we choose each day that which we will match frequencies with.  Judgment, fear, injustice…or the invisible presence of God-with-us.

Either way—power transfers between systems when frequecies match.

Click here to see The Million Volt Man

22 Aug 2009

Some Days I just want to “Think the Same”

Thinking differently takes some work you know.  Sometimes I just want to think the same.  It’s easier…You know what I mean?

Some days I want to pretend that what I see is all that there is.  The past has nothing to do with my life and there is no spiritual dimension to my being and my existence.  Whatever impulse I have, I would love to just act on it.

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Some days I want to act as if my, yet unrefined desires, are all completely accurate, and that the rest of the world around me just hasn’t come to agreement with me yet.  I am tired of asking the question “why do I experience this?” or “where did that thought come from?”

Some days I want to live a if I really am the center of the universe and everyone else ought to just get on board.

Some days I want to let my impulses tell me what to believe about life, God, you , and reality.  And then I want to act on those things.

Some days I want to act as if I’m not connected to the other people on the planet and in my immediated geography, and that my choices and words don’t affect anyone but me.

Some days  I just want to tell God that He is not doing it right because He is not doing it the way I would.

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Some days I want to keep  a record of wrongs.

Some days I just want to scream, cry and throw a fit.  Am I the only one?

Even as I write, I try to picture the ruin I would make of my life if I thought “the same”.  Holy Mackerel…what a mess that would be!

By the way, if you are my friend, family, or boss, and you are worried about me when you read this, most days, I think differently, and I want to laugh, play, hug people and transform the world into the picture that I believe God puts in my mind.

But, if I am completely honest, some days I just want to think the same.

21 Aug 2009

Real Friends

Yesterday I spent time with an old friend.  Not just a guy I used to know; a real friend. Someone that, when we met, we saw each other as partners in something bigger than ourselves.  When we met, we saw that our hearts were made out of the same stuff, and we knew that we had the same Father.  When he spoke I knew that he saw the things I saw.  And I knew that when I spoke, he knew the same about me.

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We had a short time together after five years of separation, and it was like we had seen each other only yesterday.  No awkward “catch up” period.  We laughed and tried to remember our adventures.  Neither was offended at what we couldn’t remember.  What we did remember brought us real joy.

We looked each other in the eyes.  We told each other of the genuine-ness of the love we have for one another.  As we drove away from the coffee shop, he said something important to me.  We had talked about plans, and ideas, and strategies.  We have big plans.  But this one thing he said echoed in my mind the rest of my day and again this morning. Here is what he said.

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“Bob”, he began, “the more I live, the more I am convinced that the Kingdom of God is made up of friendships.  A lot of people have plans and strategies, but God moves in friendships.”  So simple, but it keeps repeating in my mind, and stirring in my soul.  I love plans, and God knows I love strategies. But in friendships we discover the kind of relationship which was the strategy of Jesus Himself.  ”I have called you friends” He said to His disciples near the end.

God…calls us…friends.  Not employees, not servants and not soldiers.  He looks us in the eyes.  He declares the genuine-ness of His love for us.  And He loves to have coffee with us.  He know our hearts are made of the same stuff.

Here is what I heard.  Communicating the message of God’s friendship through marketing, speeches, and techniques will fall short of the whole message.

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Make friends.  In a personal environment, watch for those people that God made similar to you.  Look them in the eyes.  See who they see.  Share.  You just may find the Kingdom of God in your living room.

20 Aug 2009

Limitless Ways

I have discovered that I don’t have much to say really, I just have lots of ways to say it. This week, I topped one hundred posts since I began “Thinking Differently”. Recently when I sit down to write, I have these great ideas, and then I begin to realize I have already written about them.  It dawned on me, I only have a few things to say, but it seems to me that there are limitless ways to say them.

God is not complicated…He is just eternal.  Eternal not just in duration, but in scope.  God is One Thing.  He is Love.  Now how many ways can you say it?  The simplicity of the One Thing can be overshadowed by all the ways to express it, and all the fanfare (and confusion) that surrounds it.

I only have a few things to say.  But I plan to say them in endless ways the rest of my life, but here they are.

1.  God and His Kingdom are greater and different than we think:  If it is possible for us to “Get it”  then He is limited and we are gods.

2.  Our “Ways of Thinking” are a greater obstacle to knowing God than the content of our thinking.  

3.  The Invisible world functions in a different way than we expect.  We must “Think differently” to interact with it.  We must utilize different senses to take it in, and different thought processes to comprehend it.

4.  Only God can:  Well, you name it. this is a pretty big list.  Only God can create, sustain, redeem, resurrect, empower, etc. Pretty much everything that real living is made of, comes from God.  This whole “eternity and time” thing is really about God unfolding a story that expresses His nature.  We just get in on a great deal.

5.  Our Life is part of a much bigger picture: Really this is another way to say we must think differently.  See, I am already out of “things” to say, and on to new ways to say them.  Part of thinking differently is perspective.  Look at your life from the outside.  Now step back.  Now step back.  Now step back.  Rinse, lather , repeat.

If I counted right, I have about four and a half things to say, but I plan to keep saying them in limitless WAYS.

16 Aug 2009

The Jesus Stuff

“So can you teach us how to do these things without all the Jesus stuff”? 

A non-believing group made this request of a friend recently.  He, like me, is in a helping profession.  Knowing He is on staff at a christian church, this group was interested in help, just not in Jesus.

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The answer to this question poses a significant problem. But the question is important.  Let me be the first to say that sometimes help offered; a glass of cold water, a meal, solid, sound advice, can be an expression of the heart of God.  God helps people in need, and He does so without expectation of payment.

The real question I want to process has more to do with the underlying idea of the “Jesus stuff”.  For years I was a “christian counselor”, I practiced in a town with a number of “christian businessmen”.  The christian world is filled with those who would hold themselves up as “christian” whatevers.

I remember one of my psych professors saying that anyone who told you they were a “christian counselor” was actually neither.  I thought that was rather a cynical position, however I also understand the thought.  Let’s explore.

To be a christian professional these days typically means this:  I hold to a certain set of values (at least publicly) and attend an organization, or set of organizations which also hold to and train people in these values.  If I am a christian counselor, I not only hold to Judeo-christian values, but I may even use Biblical language in my counsel.  Is it possible to do all of the above, and still not be be doing WJWD?

I regularly meet with people to discuss their search for an appropriate education in the counseling field.  The first area of this discussion is the importance of realizing that “christian language” may not reflect a truly biblical worldview.

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Jesus did not come to teach people to apply principles.

He did not come to improve our morals.

He did not come to help us be better people.

He did not come to show us how to apply God’s rules to our day to day lives.

Jesus approached the world with a simple message, and often not the one we have thought.  Here it is…

The realm of Heaven, the home of all power and health, and rightness has come among men again.  If you change the way you see, and what your attention is on, you can enter into this realm, and it can enter into you.

Where and when the realm of God has dominion, things are made right. Sickness goes away.  Hearts are made more like God’s; generous, and considerate. Our position in the universe is restored to us and we are no longer under the rule of destructive forces.

Here is the dilemma.  If we apply right principles, without the presence of God, we are simply living by our own sufficiency, the very thing Jesus came to free us from.

Applying principles while we hold God at arms length?

Doing the best we can without God?

These things sound suspiciously like the very thing Adam and Eve did right after their cosmic collapse.

The answer to the question, “can we teach people to do what we do without the Jesus stuff”, may be very telling as to whether or not we are actually applying Jesus ministry to our lives and professions, or whether we are simply doing the best we can without God.  If we can teach people to do what we do without Jesus, then we may need to re-examine what we teach.

The things you do…do they:

…include the knowledge of, and the importance of interacting with an invisible realm?

…rely on the ultimate empowerment of God, or could you accomplish the same things without Him?

…recognize that the good that flows out of your life begins in God Himself and flows to you before flowing from you?

…connect people to the sufficiency of humanity, or to the insufficiency of man and the power of the cross to overcome man’s insufficiency?

…encourage people to do things for God, or to do things from God?

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Are the principles you teach consistent with the unusual principles of the Kingdom (Dying is living, giving is receiving, serving is leading, the inner man is more important than the outward performance,  weakness is strength, the least is the greatest) or are they consistent with the principles of the visible world (strength is strength, performance is the goal, achieve at all costs, strive, try harder…).

Before we sign people up for God’s Moral Improvement Plan, and profess that we are Christian Business-people, we must first closely examine the underlying belief system and worldview of the One upon whom we intend to build our approach.

Ultimately, If we can teach people to do what we do without the “Jesus Stuff”  we cannot call it a “Christian” anything.

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