Faith Venture

Devote Body, Mind and Soul to God

January 17, 2012

I’m diving deeper into learning the Spiritual disciplines as I lead a group of people into deeper spiritual formation. I notice that the disciplines address body, mind and spirit–sometimes more than one at a time.

We took a look at how meditating on the Word of God and deeper intercessory prayer nourish and develop your soul. Next we look at fasting. Abstaining from food and drink for a period of time in order to focus your attention more deeply on God brings discipline to your body, but it also strengthens the soul. Disciplined study strengthens your mind.

You can do all of these simultaneously, of course.

As we studied intercessory prayer, someone asked about prayer as a conversation with Jesus. Doing each of the Spiritual disciplines will lead you to a life of constant communion with Jesus. That is actually the goal of practicing discipline. It’s not that you can study, or pray, or fast. It is that each practice leads you to a deeper awareness of the reality of God.

We have all noticed at some point in our life those people who live undisciplined lives. They seem lost. No direction. First they try one thing, then another. Sometimes relationships are destroyed. Or their bodies through drug or alcohol or food abuse. Or their minds through drug or alcohol abuse or simply through lack of mental exercise.

But disciplined people are those who seem in touch with God, serve others quietly with joy, are always there to listen and help.

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Martin Luther King, Jr.

January 16, 2012

Thanks to Seth Godin for compiling these quotes from Martin Luther King, Jr. I saw King in person just once—at a chapel service at Ohio Northern University. There were also the farmers at a downtown Ada breakfast spot who joked about running him off the road as he made has way from the airport out to the University through rural roads. We’ve come a long way since then—but there are still miles to travel.

These apply to our lives in many ways:

“Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.”

“On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” And Vanity comes along and asks the question, “Is it popular?” But Conscience asks the question “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right.”

. . .

“We must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”

. . .

“The saving of our world from pending doom will come, not through the complacent adjustment of the conforming majority, but through the creative maladjustment of a nonconforming minority.”

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Actively Seek God

January 16, 2012

Are you passive or active–in your worship, in your response to life?

So much Protestant worship is performance-oriented today. Singers perform, speakers perform. It’s like being a live TV audience or something. People sit passively, take it in and leave. Then during the week life happens to them. And then another Sunday and start over again.

Then there are people who are actively engaging with the service even if they are not one of the performers. Their mind and soul are tuned to the message and to God. And during the week, they actively seek out God in their daily lives and watch for opportunities to serve according to Jesus’ example.

Active or passive? It’s your choice.

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Prayer Changes Lives

January 13, 2012

Yesterday I was meditating on Paul, and his difficulty in convincing Jewish people to recognize that their Messiah had come in the person of Jesus while arguing from their Scriptures. So, I wondered about how to change people. Arguments to the intellect are seldom successful.

Then, while studying Richard Foster’s “Celebration of Discipline,” I caught the sentence, “Prayer changes you.” And I thought, prayer changes others, too.

I’m not thinking about prayer as those short petitions to God that many people substitute for prayer. James says that you do not have your prayers answered because you don’t pray correctly. Prayer is actually work. I know, work is a bad word for many of you. But nothing is achieved without it.

Prayer and meditation practiced daily with devotion will change your life. I’ve witnessed it. I’ve seen it in others and myself. It will change your personality. It will change your orientation to life. It can change others. I have not only heard stories of people healed through prayer, I’ve also witnessed it. Not every time I’ve ever prayed, but sometimes.

Foster talks about a time when he was a pastor and was called to a house where there was a sick little girl. He went in to pray for her, and her little brother wanted to pray, too. He said OK. So they went into the room and closed the door. He said to the little boy, let’s imagine that Jesus is sitting in that other chair. We’ll see him come over to your sister and we’ll all put our hands on her and pray for her healing.

Prayer is like that. I have felt that I’m focusing the Holy Spirit on someone as I pray for them–often without words exactly, but more about a deep feeling of empathy and hope for their life. And things happen.

Try prayer in that way. Slow down and seek the presence of the Spirit. Don’t just rush to get your requests sent off to the big vending machine in the sky. Maybe you’ll change someone–and yourself in the process.

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Can You Convince People to Change

January 12, 2012

Paul, the apostle, would visit a new town and immediately visit a local Jewish gathering. He would begin to explain their Scriptures in a new way. He would say that every interpretation you have been taught that has been handed down from teacher to student for hundreds of years (much longer than Europeans have been on North America) is wrong. And he would then try to teach them a new way to look at them.

It would be as if someone came to America and told Americans, “You know all those things you have been taught about the founding and purpose of America is wrong. Actually, ….” They’d be thrown out of the gathering.

No wonder Paul had such a difficult time of it. Some of his teaching undermined the credibility of Jewish leadership in the Temple. No wonder they wanted to kill him (after they killed Jesus, Stephen and others). Try to convince your boss she’s wrong! Take that thought up a few notches in intensity when you’re trying to completely change the structure of a religion. (Think, “Out, out, you Bishops.”)

Paul would win over some of the Jews to the new Way. But not that many, evidently. And he stirred up so much hatred in the establishment, that he wound up in prison–OK, sort of a gentleman’s prison, but still not free to go.

This shows the limits of using intellectual persuasion to convince someone to change. The growth of the church is really explained in the first few chapters of Acts–especially Acts 2. It was through the lives of those who had been changed. Kind of like that famous scene in the movie “When Harry Met Sally” where the two older women looked at Meg Ryan and told the waitress, “I want what she’s having.”

Take a lesson from Acts, then. It is through how you live that people will be open to coming to Jesus. Then you can explain why. And teach the background. And help them develop intellectually as well as spiritually. Just as your children learn more by watching you than listening, so your example by how you live teaches more than your words.

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Open to God

January 11, 2012

Just after Jesus was resurrected, he appeared with two disciples walking to the town of Emmaus. They were trying to comprehend the events of the past few days, and Jesus explained the meaning of what had happened by teaching from their Hebrew scriptures. Paul often used the same explanation when he approached Jewish leaders of whatever town he was in–from the “big” leaders in Jerusalem finally to those who lead the Jewish community in Rome.

As he explained to the leaders in Rome their own scriptures, they did not believe him. So he quoted Isaiah to them, that their hearts were deadened, they were hard of hearing and could not see. The last part of the quote is interesting, though. God says through Isaiah that if they looked with their eyes and listened with their ears and understood with their hearts, then God would heal them.

God bursts in to people’s lives, but only if there has been some preparation. Paul was a seeker of God, he was just looking in the wrong place–that is, until God broke into his life on the way to Damascus and told him to look in a different place. Paul did, and history was made.

How do you awaken someone whose heart is deadened? For sure, both of you who read this are seekers or you wouldn’t be here. But how about those who won’t look, or don’t hear? Don’t you feel for them and wish that they’d open up to God?

Our job is to make sure we’re open to God and to encourage other people one-on-one to open up and seek God.

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Are You Spiritually Fed

January 10, 2012

I just heard someone talking about moving from one church congregation to another because “we weren’t being fed.” So I got to thinking, what does that mean? And just whose responsibility is it to feed you?

Does being fed mean that I don’t like the senior pastor’s sermons? Maybe I don’t agree with the theology? Or speaking style? Or maybe the type of worship service? You know, some people like a more formal service, and some people like something more up-tempo and lively. That’s the thing in America, we have so many “cultures” that you can literally go across the street and find an entirely different style of worship. And then again.

What really struck me about the phrase this time was the passive voice (if you remember your grammar lessons)–“being fed.” That means someone else is the actor. The picture I have is that of these adults as babies with mommy and daddy feeding them.

Paul talks about being a baby in the faith and then growing up. I’m thinking that if they had said they prefer guitars to organs, I could understand. If they said I don’t like the preacher’s style, I could understand. If they said we don’t have any friends or small social group in the church, I could understand–a little. With the last one, though, the individual person could take some initiative to invite people to a small group.

But back to feeding. As we mature, we learn to hunt and gather for our food. OK, so hunting these days is mostly at the super market, but still, we take the initiative. Is it someone else’s responsibility to figure out what I want and provide it to me–spoon-fed if you will? Or, is being spiritually fed my responsibility? Should I pursue study, prayer, meditation on my own? Should I seek out others to share with?

God’s grace is funny that way. It’s always available. But God expects you to seek it.

Are you being fed? Or are you assuming adult responsibility to seek your food and consume it?

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Put Your Attention on God

January 9, 2012

Our group exploring the Spiritual disciplines last night got into a discussion of willpower. Michael Hyatt, retired CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishing and currently chairman, said in his blog, “Discipline is not really about will power so much as it is focusing on what you really want.”

When you approach prayer, study, service, worship, where is your attention? Are you like Martha–distracted by many things–or more like Mary whose attention is placed firmly on Jesus?

Maybe you have to step back and ask what is it you really want. Do you want an intimate relationship with Jesus? Or is church just something where you met some people and can go to listen to a good talk?

But if you want a relationship with God, where is your attention? When you fell in love with your spouse, where was your attention? Wasn’t it on that other person? Most of the time?

When you pray, is your attention on God, or is it on yourself, or on many things? A simple technique is to take a deep breath and focus on your breath. This is called centering. Slow down your body and your mind. Take slow deep breaths. Begin to focus your attention on God. Now you can begin to pray or meditate. And you’ll feel better, too.

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Establish Habits, Don’t Set Goals

January 6, 2012

It’s January 6. How are your New Years’ Resolutions going? I teach a fitness class at the local Y. The first two weeks of January always welcome many new students. By the first week of February, they are gone. Is that what happens to your resolutions?

I went through all the self-help guru teaching of the 80s and 90s (and they continue unto today, but I got off the train). Set a number of goals, write them, keep the list in a prominent place, trick your mind into thinking they’re good for you, willpower over joy, and so on.

There is another word that often goes with this idea–discipline. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, discipline was a “four-letter word” in my vocabulary. It’s the opposite of freedom, right? And as an American, I worshipped freedom. Good, except that chaos isn’t freedom. It’s, well, chaotic.

What I’ve discovered through the help of many wise people whom I’ve read is that it is better to consciously choose your habits. We all have habits, except that they are usually the path of least resistance. But we can look at our lives and decide what habits we need to change–one habit will help us lose weight and be more fit; another brings us closer to God; another brings us closer to important people in our lives.

I’m working on a new habit for my early morning routine. It’s mostly working so far, except that I haven’t squeezed in this writing part. But people who have trod this path say that it takes 30 days to establish a new habit (or pattern of living, if you will). They also suggest not working on more than one or two habits at a time.

Could I make a couple of suggestions? If you are concerned about weight and fitness, don’t set a goal of weighing X number of pounds by spring. Just see yourself as slim(mer) and fit. Then establish one habit this month. Maybe it’s eating at Subway rather than McDonalds for lunch. Maybe it’s walking for 30 minutes every day at a certain time. You get the idea. That will help your physical health–which is important.

For your spiritual health, establish a habit of being with God at a certain time every day. Maybe you read the Bible or a devotional book and pray, or read a passage and meditate. Whatever, establish the habit. Maybe the habit is attending a small group or church service because you need to be with others.

Pick a couple and try. Let me know how it works. gmintchell@woh.rr.com

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Celebrate Christmas?

December 28, 2011

We have been discussing the origin of celebrating Christmas this week. Evidently the early Christians were not concerned with Jesus birth. Mark, the earliest Gospel, has no mention. Matthew is mostly concerned with placing Jesus in the Jewish tradition and notes only a few details. Luke was writing a Greek or Roman style history and he writes the most.
As Christianity was being established official Roman religion, a traditional Roman celebration was morphed into a Christian one. Early American Christians did not celebrate the holiday calling it frivolous. But the idea of gift giving was appealing to rnerchants, so they promoted the holiday. Early drawings of St. Nicholas were done for a magazine. The present form of Santa Claus is derived from an advertising campaign of Coca-Cola.
Those of us who are trying to turn the holiday into a time of Spiritual reflection are going against a 150 year (or more) tradition. Still, it remains for each of us to find our way to God.

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