Archive for the ‘Disciplines’ Category

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Change Your Direction

April 1, 2016

According to Matthew, Jesus appeared publicly in his new role first to be baptized and then to seek solitude in the wilderness where he was tempted (OK, that wasn’t public). Then, Matthew says (4:17), “From that time Jesus began to proclaim ‘Repent for the Kingdom of God has come near.’ ”

To American, and probably British ears, the word “repent” may conjure images that are really far from the actual meaning of the word. I picture the hate-filled preacher with the black suit and hat and black beard in the movie version of “Paint Your Wagon”. You may have a similar image come to mind of an accuser pointing a finger and shouting “repent or go to hell.” And you get the idea that they’d rather see you roast.

I’m sorry the word has been so misused.

It really just means to change direction. Jesus was inviting people into a new way of doing life. Just like his cousin John (the Baptist).

Think about Jesus’ entire ministry. He made pointed comments to those who thought they were right with God but who were deluding themselves. John (the Evangelist) loves to point those out.

Jesus really used the word as an invitation. There was no accusation. No condemning to Hell.

He was saying, follow me and walk into a new life. Now. And forever. And we still can.

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Study From The Source

March 31, 2016

The podcast host was interviewing a professor at a smaller Christian university.

“The kids today are entering university with very little knowledge of the Bible. They don’t get information by reading, and they don’t read the Bible.”

“So what do you do?”

“We have a mandatory class on the Old Testament and New Testament.”

That comment encapsulates why I don’t think that a BA or even BS degree these days is worth much more than a high school diploma from years ago.

I went to the university having read many philosophers (I know, you’re shocked). We had a mandatory one-year long class “Philosophy and Religion.” Yes, it was a Christian school.

That year we read about philosophers, religion, Christianity, the Old Testament, the New Testament. Even at 19 years old I inherently knew that the class was just superficial — get your A and get out.

Even in graduate school we read more about thinkers than reading the thinkers themselves.

We’d have  been better served with a reading list. Read these works by Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Kant, Hegel; then read this list of books of the Bible. Come to class prepared to discuss the key points the writers were arguing.

Our students are coming to university Biblically illiterate? Have them start reading–the Bible. I know that’s revolutionary thinking.

Instead of a survey course that gives overviews of the books of the Bible, read the Bible.

Then after they’ve read the Bible for a basic foundation, then they can be introduced to interpreters. I prefer reading the early church Fathers up to and including Augustine. I am not enamored of the later theologies–Reformed in its various guises, what we call “fundamentlism” or some flavors of the evangelical world, the interesting stories people make up riffing from Daniel and Revelation. But at some point they need to read those thinkers.

Instill one of the most important disciplines early in life of these students–reading from the Bible every day.

By the way–what were the churches these kids attended before going to a Christian university doing, anyway? Maybe it would be a good service for some of you to lead youth in actually reading the Bible!

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Are There People Who Are Not Christians In Your Church?

March 30, 2016

I didn’t mean to miss posting yesterday. We had guests and then we were relaxing and I forgot all about writing. Yes, that’s hard to believe. And, I left at 5:30 am for a meeting on the other side of the state. In Ohio, that’s a 3-hour drive.

Looking at our Easter service and thinking about the early  church growing by attraction, I started to meditate on people in the church. Especially when I see posts on Facebook from people who claim Christianity, but their posts belie that stance. Meaning that there is precious little in what they say that sounds as if it were rooted in the New Testament.

So, I got to wondering, how many people were attracted to come to the church who are not followers of Jesus?

Then I thought, there are two types of these people.

On the one hand would be seekers. They know that they are not followers, but they are attracted enough to find out more. They feel a need and feel there’s something that other people have. So, they come.

On the other hand, there are members or regular attenders. They may even say that they are a member. On a questionnaire, they may even check Christian.

But one wonders. Are they really? As the old saying goes, if you were tried at court for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?

Well?

So, I wondered. How many people around me are that second type? And why have I not attracted any of the first type?

And, how do my actions stack up?

I’ve been reading in an early “catechism” ascribed to the apostles themselves called the Didache (dee-da-kay). Many chapters are advice on how to live. Makes me wonder–if someone were watching my life unfold, would they know that I’m a follower of Jesus?

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Easter Comes, Then What’s Next

March 28, 2016

The day of the crucifixion came and afterwards Jesus’ friends and followers hid out in a locked house for fear the authorities might come after them.

On the third day, some ventured out to perform funeral rituals. Problem–no body. Then Jesus began appearing to various ones.

They were still confused. Some scattered. A bunch returned home to the north shore of the Sea of Galilee. They really had no clue what came next. It took a while to digest the experiences.

Then the Spirit came. They were on fire. There was no stopping them. They didn’t build “churches,” they shared a new way to live. And the new faithful indeed did live differently from their neighbors. Differently in a way that attracted others.

The theme in my reading over the past couple of days has been centered on what’s an after-Easter life.

That is why we practice what are known as spiritual disciplines–regular Bible reading, meditation, prayer, service, prayer, worship. The days after can slip into the old routine. Starting new habits is hard.  We must be intentional in our new life.

For most of us, that “Easter moment” happened many years ago. But as the Righteous Brothers sang so movingly, we’ve “lost that loving feeling.”

What better time than after the Easter celebrations to develop new habits with intention. Not just slipping into a mindless routine. Choose our routines.

Live out Easter daily.

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Jesus Lived, Jesus Died, Jesus Lives Again

March 25, 2016

The very first misunderstanding about Jesus was that he could not possibly have been a human being. Taking Greek rationalist thought (which still screws us up even today) to a logical extreme, some thought that material things and spiritual things could not abide together.

Christians put that heresy away. Jesus lived as a man, a human. He was born a baby, grew up a boy and adolescent, taught as an adult male. There is not even a hint in the New Testament writings that Jesus may have been just an apparition.

My Muslim friends are taught Jesus lived, was a spiritual leader, and will return in glory. My friends from India whether Hindu, Jain, or Sikh all believe that Jesus spent time in India learning from the spiritual masters of the day.

Being a Galilean and looking at the texts, Jesus apparently was comfortable interacting with people from a diverse set of cultures and languages. It appears he spoke Latin and Greek as well as Aramaic and Hebrew. He’d have grown up with people who did. It wouldn’t be unusual.

A side note–modern Americans, especially those of us in the Midwest–are very uncomfortable dealing with a multitude of cultures. Unlike the mixtures and melting pot of the ancient Mediterranean world, we expect everyone to be “American.” We’re shocked, hurt, maybe even fearful, of those who are not. That fear leads to a number of political and social problems.

The thing that energized those early disciples to believe to the extent that they were willing to die for the cause was the resurrection. Christmas may be a big holiday, but Easter is the reason. Without the resurrection, we are nothing but fools–to paraphrase Paul.

The shock, surprise, consternation that followed discovery of the empty tomb is a huge story right there. And then Jesus appeared among them for forty days. The witnesses were many. The power of their testimony beyond all measure. They overturned the world. In 300 years, the mighty power that none of the New Testament writers thought would ever be destroyed became a Christian government. Without a war being fought.

We can have that power today.

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Eating Your Own Harvest

March 23, 2016

Very truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Jesus.

Jesus is in his last week. He knows what’s happening. His friends? Well, they have no clue. John, writing maybe 50 years later, acknowledges that they didn’t comprehend until later the significance of the words and the events.

Here Jesus is predicting his death. He is also stating a truth. If we stay within ourselves, self-contained as individuals, then we remain just a single grain. If we die to our ego-bound individuality, then we can live a new life with Jesus and bear much fruit.

How many times have you looked at someone and thought, “Wow, so much potential. All lost down the drain. They are just so wrapped up in themselves that they don’t realize what they could be.”

It happens to organizations, too.

I saw an old friend today. We were talking about churches. About how some churches just cannot see beyond their own doors. They spend their money on themselves–their buildings, salaries, offices. Mission giving? Well, that’s on the back burner. Maybe if we get a surplus of money we’ll spend some of it.

She called it, “Eating your own harvest.”

I thought, how appropriate given the verse that I’ve been meditating on. What little harvest we do receive, we consume ourselves instead of planting to reap a larger  harvest.

As for Jesus, his single grain died and he put forth a mighty harvest. No other single person in the history of the world has had such an impact.

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They Got It All Wrong

March 22, 2016

Sometimes we miss the significant thing and reward someone for the wrong thing. We thought they did one thing, when in reality they did something else.

Jesus healed a guy who was dead. For four days he was dead. And Jesus healed him, gave him new life, restored him to his family.

There were many witnesses.

The religious/political rulers did not like that. The plotted to kill not only Jesus, who was their chief antagonist, but also Lazarus, because he had been dead and now he was alive. (Irony that they wanted to kill him again.)

So Jesus went away and essentially hid from the rulers.

Then he came to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. And people spotted him. “There’s the guy who brought back a man from the dead. He must be the anointed one of God. The long-expected king to reclaim our land for us.” Word spread, people gathered, they gave Jesus a royal reception into Jerusalem.

Sometimes in our study we go off on a wrong path. We didn’t understand something the way God meant it. Some people have taken that misunderstanding and done much harm. With Jesus it certainly ended his attempt to be incognito entering Jerusalem.

We must take great care when interpreting what we read while studying the Bible. We must understand what it says, not what we want it to say.

One thing I find interesting is that we don’t find Jesus discussing that royal reception and parade into town. He knew what was in store for him. We don’t know if he waved to the people like today’s politicians. Or if he looked aloof and stoic like a royal person would. We don’t know how the adulation affected him. I know how it would affect me. I’d get a big head.

He seemed to accept it and move on toward his destiny.

Our lesson is to also accept what happens and move on toward our destiny. And to take care to celebrate the right things.

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Jesus’ Last Week and the Spiritual Discipline of Befuddlement

March 21, 2016

We’re in a situation. We aren’t in charge of things, yet there is a lot going on. Meetings. Whispered conversations. An increasing aura of tension in the atmosphere. We are looking for an anchor. Something stable and permanent within the pending changes.

It’s like the week we now call Holy Week.

Jesus and his friends travel to Jerusalem for the Jewish festival even though everyone warns Jesus not to go. They know there is danger from the establishment.

But Jesus seems more intense than usual. He drops hints about the coming days, but they make no sense. He implies that it should all be clear to them. That he’s already explained everything.

It is not clear. Nothing is clear. Why are we there? What’s going to happen? What is this queasy feeling in the gut that just doesn’t seem to go away?

But the week begins in the suburbs at the house of good friends. That is comforting.

Of course, there is no spiritual discipline called “befuddlement.”

But this word describes how we feel at times. Don’t we sometimes feel that way trying to understand Jesus? He was a man, yet God. Huh? Doesn’t make logical sense.

He taught with stories that left people confused–at least at first. He made people (who cared enough) think about his teaching. Sometimes for months.

I wonder why John devotes about half of his Gospel to the last week. He wrote his account last.  He knew there were plenty of stories of Jesus’ life and teaching. He wrote about what affected him the most deeply.

I think he was there. His family was “connected.” He knew the high priest and most of the leaders. He could have gotten in to the areas. The story reads like a first-hand account. Even though he’s called the most “spiritual” of the disciples and pictured as softer, I see him as a physically strong. He was a commercial fisherman. Not a pale, soft student found in libraries reading all the time.

This week greatly impacted his life. It probably took him years to digest the story in full. Then he shared it with his community and eventually the world.

He took us from befuddlement to the Light of the World.

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The Body As The Temple of the Soul

March 18, 2016

The apostle Paul loved sports metaphors. He often discussed training using the example of athletes.

He also talked about the body as a temple.

We need to take care of our bodies. We need to maintain the best health we can and be in the best shape we can. We’re not all going to be body builders or anything, but we can be fit within our limits, healthy within our limits.

It is hard to concentrate on prayer or study or to be of service to others if we are always tired. If our concentration is lacking due to poor nutrition. If we can’t sit up straight due to weak abs.

Check out leaders. Often they have plenty of energy and fitness.

I’ve been reading a lot lately on nutrition. Just finished a book that began as a great report and survey of science regarding how bad simple carbohydrates are for our bodies. We consume way too much sugar. High fructose corn syrup, a sugar substitute in processed foods and drinks, goes straight to fat. White flour–not good.

The author of the book warned readers in the beginning that his conclusion would be controversial. I thought, with this great science, how could that be.

Well, he left science behind. His transition was a page or so discussing the glycemic index.

That’s a measure of how fast carbs are digested. The slower, the better. Whole grains are better than processed simple carbs. He mentioned the science of this briefly. Then jumped immediately into non-science.

He said someone asked a paleontologist what our first ancestors ate thousands of years ago. He said, meat. Lots of meat, and then maybe whatever plants they could pull off and eat.

Voila–the paleo diet. Supposedly this is what our genes are built to thrive on.

But, wait a minute. There’s no science in this. It ignores the science of glycemic index. It also ignores our ancestors who learned to cultivate grains, built civilizations and cities, practiced art and engineering, and lived longer and healthier lives.

Mostly in America we eat way too much. The dual problems are too much sugar (which is in everything) and too much food.

Train like an athlete. Eat lean protein, complex carbs, plenty of water (maybe some with coffee brewed in it ;-), lots of vegetables. Get plenty of appropriate exercise–walking, running, weight lifting, Yoga or Pilates, etc.

Your energy will go up. Miscellaneous health issues will disappear–although unfortunately maybe not the bigger ones. But you’ll still feel better.

Take care of the temple of the soul. It will help your spiritual discipline. It will help your leadership.

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Why Practice Spiritual Disciplines of Abstinence

March 17, 2016

Remember the old Southwest Airlines commercial “Wanna get away”? For my international readers–Someone would be pictured in a position, for example, a football referee before a big match for the coin toss and he forgot to bring a coin, who wanted to get away. It resonated no doubt because we all want to escape at times.

The Desert Fathers were men who sought deep spiritual experiences and encounters with God. They thought that by going off alone into the deserts of Egypt, Sinai, Syria, they could get away from society and focus with every second of their being on God.

The movement began in the mid-200s and lasted into the 400s–but in some sense still exists in the monastic traditions.

They practiced the spiritual disciplines of abstinence–solitude, silence, simplicity, sacrifice, fasting–almost too well. The monastic movement struggled for centuries against excesses of this practice.

The disciplines of abstinence are meant to prepare us to encounter and engage with God. Jesus, for example, went into the wilderness and fasted for 40 days following his baptism. Then he encountered temptation. It wasn’t because he was weak from lack of food that he had the experiences. It was actually because he was now at his strongest so that he could deal with The Tempter.

Spiritual literature loves the metaphor of the jar.

You have something you need to store. You search for an empty container. There are many containers in your cupboard filled with now-useless stuff. But you have no container for your precious stuff. You empty a jar of its useless contents, and now it is ready to accept the new.

Just so is your mind and soul. When it is full of thoughts, worries, plans, and more, it has no room for God.

Now we intentionally pursue disciplines of abstinence to pour out the extraneous stuff of our lives. Only then is there room in our soul for God.

Dallas Willard puts it this way, “Abstinence then makes way for engagement. A proper abstinence actually breaks the hold of improper engagements  so that the soul can be properly engaged by God.”

That’s why following silence with study is so powerful.

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