How poverty of spirit can "shape the mind"

Interesting conversation follows the most recent post at Mount Jesus. Here's a snip from Nate's long comment:

A victim of marital unfaithfulness, for example, or a mother who has just lost a child. Peter when he denies Christ. Going beyond the text of Matthew 5 a bit, I would say that these times actually shape the mind in a way that can't happen in any other situation. What they do is rip control(or the illusion of it) out of our hands, out of our grasp completely. They destroy the pretentions we have to being capable, able to create the type of life that we need, or desire. They destroy the notion that I'm not in a position of utter need all the time. They destroy the idea that this life is meant simply to garner as much happiness as possible, and that at all costs my reputation must be preserved. If we have had any of the Gospel at all, it will cause us to cling bitterly to the only thing that lasts, and hopefully, reroute our circuits so that dependence is, ever so slightly, more of our "default position" than it was before.

I can't come to the phone right now, I'm writing a book ...

Trying to find time to write a little book about the beatitudes. Am, in fact, finding the time, and having a blast, too, but it means careful and thoughtful attention to what I'm doing, very unlike my blogging style. All of which is intended to explain my recent extended absence. Back soon.

Nate-Dog Blogs Again

Unexpected blogging break this week. No particular reason, just real life I guess. I'm sure I'll be back in the flow in a few days.

My son Nate is an itinerant minstrel house-painter these days. That is, house-painter by trade, minstrel at heart, and traveler by choice. He's painting our house in Maine, my sister-in-law's house in NY, and will paint yours too possibly, no matter where you live, but especially if there's an enticing music festival in your neck of the woods. Anyway, that's all prologue to letting you know that he has posted something on the subject of "saltiness" over at Mt. Jesus, where we are blogging our way through the sermon on the mount. Also, he posted at his own blog (clearly, he likes to keep busy) with a post entitled Grace Does Not Equal a Sweet tone of Voice.

So, anyway, if you want your house painted, or a mandolin player at your yard party, call him. You'll get a little saltiness thrown in without charge, and actually, his tone of voice is always pretty sweet.

Is Your Jesus Too Safe? Probably.

I'm only half way through Jared Wilson's Your Jesus is too Safe, but I'm finding each chapter exciting, challenging, and funny, too. I concur (as usual...broken record) with Imonk:

What millions of evangelicals need is a solid, Biblical, interesting, well-written, compelling, intense and thoroughly balanced revisioning of the Christian faith with Jesus at the center. I thoroughly recommend Jared Wilson’s Your Jesus is Too Safe as the popular level, highly readable re-introduction to Jesus you’ve been looking for, or should have been looking for, all along.

You really should get this book. Really.

Doesn't it seem odd . . . ?

Michael Spencer is always saying things that I wish I'd said, and have often tried to say, but Michael says it much more clearly and simply. Here's an example. In regard to worship music, concerning which I recently posted this, Michael says,

Doesn’t it seem odd to sing man-centered songs with almost no mention of the Gospel and not even notice that our affections aren’t being directed toward Christ at all? I like a tune and a fun chorus. I like to see people involved emotionally, but the New Testament has entire hymns explaining the incarnation and none about “the secret place.” I’m just sayin…

Yup, it sure does seem odd.

Michael makes nine other good points, so go read it, please.

Pardon me, can you direct me to the nearest community?

Picked this up from Michael Spencer's Facebook notes:

The effect of this journey (looking for the right church) on me was different. I didn’t find a stopping place. It eventually became clear to me why so many people leave the church completely. It wasn’t just because of their experiences. It was because Jesus was leading many of them out of the church as it currently exists. There was no “solution.” There was, and always will be, constant, Spirit guided evolution of the movement that Jesus started toward the Kingdom that Jesus promised.

For many people, that evolution will be toward a kind of spirituality that does not take the form of the church as they’ve experienced it. It may take the form of another church, a new church, an alternative expression of church or even, for some or for a season, of no recognizable church. My mistake was assuming that Jesus was running a franchise operation. No, he was creating and bringing a Kingdom, and doing it entirely on his terms.

This describes the way I feel.

I don't ever want to be a lone-ranger just-me-and-Jesus Christian, but I'm not sure anymore that the only other alternative is to settle down in a church and essentially "experience" the Christian life nearly exclusively through that church's prism. The alternative to lone-ranger Christianity is community (that oft-used and probably oft-abused term), but perhaps the church model we're used to is not as "communal" as we thought. Perhaps Christian community is possible and preferable in other settings and other forms.

I'd been intending to kind of float around on Sunday morning this summer, but for various reasons that has not been the case. The main reason, old friends who had moved away dropping in for a visit and wanting to "go to church" at the Vineyard. But this week my son and I (my son Nate, who blogs--though not nearly enough for my taste--at The Jesus Paradigm and also occasionally at Mt. Jesus) are going to the local Missio Dei church, so that should be interesting.

BTW, met another fine Christian blogger over the weekend. Erin Cook, whose blog is entitled Metanoeo. Check it out.

Lord, drain the swamp!

A friend of mine posted this quote on Facebook:

"A good heart will change a man's actions, but a man's actions cannot change his heart." -Andrew Wommack

If this is true, and if I want to be a tool in the hands of God and his kingdom, I need to be praying for my heart. As I've been thinking lately about the first beatitude, I've been doing so in connection with Jesus' simple prayer that God would reign here on earth exactly like he does in heaven. [Matt 6:10]

When we pray for the kingdom of heaven to come, we are imagining that "actions" down here among us masterful sinners might be radically changed because, as a prior fact, our hearts have been changed by God. If I, as an ambassador for Christ, want to be an agent of such Kingdom change, I will have to pray that God's kingdom would "come" (in other words, that God would reign) in my own heart first.

So here's Jesus saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Poverty of spirit is a heart condition that leads to the kind of prayer I'm talking about. If I'm praying and preaching for change in the world, even while I accept the status quo of my own heart's rank condition, am I not simply another arrogant ranter? But if I say, "Lord, my heart is really a muddy swamp, who knows what nasty things are living there, but I want it to be a place where you reign. Please, make your kingdom come here in my heart even as it will be some day when I'm with you in heaven. Yes, even that perfect!" Isn't it then that that I can say that the kingdom of heaven has come near, has in fact become mine ("theirs is the kingdom of heaven"), as God answers that prayer?

So, the kingdom of heaven does not belong to those who are satisfied with their own spiritual condition!

[Cross-posted at Mt. Jesus]

Oblivious

I'm reading Jared Wilson's Your Jesus is Too Safe (review coming soon), and thought I'd share this gem with you this morning (from p. 120):

We've got toge to the place in our "sheepishness" where we trust our Shepherd as he leads us away from what looks like great places to graze and laze around. Because what looks good to us often turns out to be looming disaster. We're often oblivious to our own selfishness, ignorant of our own gracelessness. We think of ourselves before others. We're like a leaderless Israel, doing what is right in our own eyes, like stupid sheep transifxed on the small patch of green before us while the ravenous lion sneaks up from behind.

Two for Refreshment

Many of the worship songs I hear are praises of a very generalized figure known as "God," who is great, holy, and loves us, and we declare we will love "God" with all our might all our days. That's the gist. But sometimes they seem to me to be a little out of touch with real life. Anyone out there agree with me? I mean, let's face it, do we love God that way even for a moment? If we are honest, we'd have to answer no, and therefore many of these songs set up a problem in us. I want to love God that way, but when I'm not posturing for the people in the pew behind me I have to admit, I really can't.

Which is why the old hymns can be so refreshing. They present the same ideal (loving God with all our might) but they recognize that ideals are always problems for human beings. Got that? Each and every expression of an ideal is intensely problematic for human beings. Only God can solve this dilemma we find ourselves in, so the best worship songs, it seems to me, recognize the problem and praise God for solving it. The great hymns locate our solution in Jesus, and are often addressed therefore not to some fuzzily defined "God" up above, but to Jesus (we sing them to Jesus!), who is after all "God with us."

These musings were prompted by the lyrics of a Wesley hymn called "Love divine, all love excelling," which I found over at Already Not Yet. Refreshing!

***

Speaking of refreshing, Dan Edelen presents the gospel in his post, How to Become a Christian. Aaaah! Thirst quenching.

Maybe I should read this one . . .

I've been seeing a lot of mention of this book lately on one blog after another: The Praying Life, by Paul Miller. I've tended lately to shy away from books on prayer (having read quite a few over the years), but this one really intrigues. Here's a quote, which I found over at Barry Simmons' the journeyman's files.

Imagine that your prayer is a poorly dressed beggar reeking of alcohol and body odor, stumbling toward the palace of the great king. You have become your prayer. As you shuffle toward the barred gate, the guards stiffen. Your smell has preceded you. You stammer out a message for the great king: ‘I want to see the king.’

Your words are barely intelligible, but you whisper one final word, ‘Jesus, I come in the name of Jesus.’ At the name of Jesus, as if by magic, the palace comes alive. The guards snap to attention, bowing low in front of you. Lights come on, and the door flies open. You are ushered into the palace and down a long hallway into the throne room of the great king, who comes running to you and wraps you in his arms.

The name of Jesus gives my prayers royal access. They get through. Jesus isn’t just the Savior of my soul. He’s also the Savior of my prayers. My prayers come before the throne of God as the prayers of Jesus. ‘Asking in Jesus’ name’ isn’t another thing I have to get right so my prayers are perfect. Is it one more gift of God because my prayers are so imperfect.

Also mentioned by Justin Buzzard, among many others.

This should rock your world just a little

"Your Redeemer traverses the rugged path of suffering, along which He went with heaving heart and footsteps that He might pave a royal road of mercy for His enemies." - Charles Spurgeoneemer traverses the rugged path of suffering, along which He went with heaving heart and footsteps,
that He might pave a royal road of mercy
for His enemies." - Charles Spurgeon

Six

1. Imonk's new hot button. As usual, I'm in more-or-less complete agreement.
2. At Blog One Another, 14 Reasons to Stop Evangelizing Your Friends. Controversial, I suppose. But I'm fine with the gist of it.
3. John Frye says,

   I maintain that when the USAmerican evangelical church became enamored with political clout and sought “to change America” or to use politics “to give America back to God,” we forfeited our truest and deepest freedom for a pathetic, temporal substitute. We became slaves to a political gospel which has no power to change lives. The clarion freedom declarations of Galatians 5:1 and 13-14 were pawned away for Republican votes. We felt we needed senators, not pastors and evangelists; we needed representatives, not prophets and apostles; we needed Supreme Court justices, not teachers and missionaries. Ah, yes, get out and vote! Not, drop to your knees and pray.

   Read it all at his fine blog, Jesus the Radical Pastor.
4. Perhaps you've seen this by now, but I just want to register my approval of The Jesus Manifesto. It's a declaration of intent to reJesus the church. Not a bad idea!
5. Cookiesday asks six really good questions. We should all (not just preachers) be asking the same.
6. Nancy's farewell to blogging. :-(

A Church Visit

While I was visiting my mother in Pennsylvania last week I attended a nearby Baptist church. Here's my report:

1. The building is pretty new, on a big plot of land in the country. They used to be located in the heart of the city, but moved to this site some years ago. You have to climb a "giants despair" type mountain road to get there. It was an all-white congregation.
2. We walked in during the reading of the day's Scripture. It was from the ESV (a pleasant suprise).
3. This being the Sunday after Independence Day, there was a lot of apparently obligatory talk about how this nation was founded on Christian principles. The pastor, who was actually on vacation, stopped in to make this familiar argument at length before allowing the guest preacher to take the floor.
4. Also, he said something about "performance driven Christianity." He was ag'n it. That made me perk up a little. Another good sign.
5. Music was standard rocky-praise led by a proficient band, but no one really took part until the final song, America the Beautiful, when suddenly the congregation (even the men) began singing robustly.
6. Which reminds me: a large flag hung on the wall front and center (right behind the drum kit), but there wasn't a cross in sight. I don't say there has to be a cross, but get the flag out in the foyer or something, rather than let it be the one "symbol" allowed in the sanctuary. Just my opinion.
7. Guest speaker was a missionary from Argentina. Since the vacationing pastor took up so much time with his patriotic history lesson, the guest speaker had to rush through his message. It was based on 2Cor 4:1-7, and the conclusion was that that we should be more like Paul, who was clearly a right-thinking dude. Then the familiar "invitation" at the end.
8. Oh yeah, there was a a long riff in there about the world vs. the church. You know, the world. Them others. Not us. We kinda don't like them much, but then again we're supposed to love 'em, and then they're supposed to like us and come to our church in its remote field on top of a mountain. If they don't, well, that's just the world for ya.
9. I brought my sister to church with me, and she hadn't been to church in years, so I was hoping for something much more, well, stirring. It seemed very clean and exurban, and remote from reality. Not awful, not devoid of all worth, but rather weak tea. These folks are trying hard, God bless 'em. You walk away thinking, is this what has lasted 2000 years? Does this really "represent" what Christ is doing in the world today? Is that all there is?

Back . . .

Back from a brief trip to the wilds of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, my old stomping grounds. I'm home now, but enjoying a couple of more days off from work. The sun in out, the weather is warm, and the pollen index is high (2 outa 3 ain't bad!).

I had a nice present from the mail carrier this morning. Jared Wilson's book Your Jesus is Too Safe. I plan to read it over the next couple of days and review it here in the near future. I'm also going to "interview" Jared at some point soon.

I'm really looking forward to this little blogging project. Jared, btw, is one of the most reliably interesting bloggers out there (but of course you knew that).