Yeah, We All Hate Being Misunderstood.

I’m going to preface this post by saying that I do not have these thoughts together. This started as something I brought up in a discussion with a good friend, kind of pulling a devil’s advocate move. A couple of days later, I talked about it with my co-author, Israel, only in a little bit more middle-of-the-road tone. This might be dangerous stuff. I don’t know. Anyhow, these are just thoughts that are jumbling around in my head—some I believe, some I probably don’t.

“Well, is it rooted in the Word?”

“Well, I’m not sure he is using the proper hermeneutic.”

“I don’t think her interpretation is a biblical one.”

I hear and read these phrases a lot. Maybe it’s just the people, blogs, and other reading/discussions I surround myself with. Maybe I’m just looking for it (probably this one). Regardless, it’s definitely a hot-button issue this day and age in Christendom. Usually along the left-right divide. Or the traditional-emerging divide. Or the Collin-and-his-other-Christian-friends divide. My question is why is it an issue?

This idea that I’ve got it pinned, I know what God REALLY meant. The fact that it starts to become “dangerous stuff” or “heretical” when we start to question the cultural norm of scriptural interpretation. This doesn’t sit well with me.

Why is it dangerous? Honestly, all the arguing and debating seems to be more dangerous to me. That seems to be the “unbiblical” part. Galatians 5:15 says “If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” We aren’t going to move the Kingdom forward if we are sitting here bickering over who knows it best.

Generally, no matter what “team” you are on, what side you take, 99% of Christians agree that Jesus is the Son of God, and was crucified in our place, and that we take part in the graceful story of God through His resurrection. That we are “saved by grace, through faith.” And that there is no separation anymore between us and the Father. And that the Jesus way of abundant life is THE way of life. That’s the Gospel. And that’s some good news!

So my question is, if that story, that story of resurrection life is central to our view of the scriptures, are we really misinterpreting anything? Yeah we can argue about our views on whatever doctrine, but what does that REALLY matter at all when it comes down to it?

Yeah, I know, that’s the dangerous part. That’s where excusing sin comes in. That’s where we tell ourselves what our “itching ears” want to hear. And that’s where I start to struggle with this whole idea. But one thing I do believe is that the closer we are to Jesus, the closer we dig into His story, the more we follow in His ways, the easier it is for us to hear the conviction of the Holy Spirit. So, say my interpretation of some subject is wrong in God’s eyes. Well, even if that’s where I started, the closer I get to Jesus, the more open I will be to listening to the Holy Spirit’s correction.

But hey, I could be wrong, and I’m OK with that. We are just humans reading a book. Everything else is just Grace.

By Collin , on January 11, 2010 at 10:18 pm. Posted in Oh you know..., Theology, WTF , Comments (0)

Community, Blessing, and the Undeniable Presence of God.

About six weeks ago, Ciara and I decided that our house is probably too small to introduce another child into, as well as our mortgage-payment-to-house-size ratio becoming more and more unjustifiable. We decided it was time to sell, in hopes we could be out of there before the baby is born. Meeting with the realtor, we found a few things that needed to be done, some big, some small. We gave ourselves a deadline and went at it.

Today, we are done.

I have been reflecting on the last six weeks, and the absolute outpouring of blessing on our family. It’s been really easy to take it for granted, until looking back and seeing all of it. From friends and family coming and doing tile in the bathroom, doing the floors in the kitchen and bathroom, painting with us, cleaning, looking at our furnace, to financial blessings here and there (and without this, Christmas probably wouldn’t have happened this year), and even as simple as just being with us, spending time with us, and praying for us. It’s crazy and beautiful to see what a community of people will do for one another. Especially a community deeply rooted in a love for Christ.

As I was reflecting on this yesterday, a piece of scripture popped into my mind:

“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” – Matthew 18:20

Everything in me starts screaming “out of context!” Which is true. Using that scripture in this specific context does go against pretty much every part of my personal hermeneutic. But I also do believe that the the Word is a Living Word, and in this case, I really do think that there is something to this scripture as it relates to this situation.

In context, the verse is one of many talking about interpersonal relationships. We often use this verse to talk about God’s presence in our worship and fellowship gatherings, which personally I think is kind of a weak interpretation, but it kind of works in a feel-good way. The context is all talking about how relate to one another, especially in confronting one another and dealing with sin amongst our community.  But in that context of interpersonal relationships, I think it kind of works here.

I think it speaks a lot to a community of believers. We are made to be in community with one another. We are created in the image of a triune God, a God that eternally lives in community. Here we are, friends and family firmly rooted in Christ, and one family is in need, and literally EVERYONE steps up in their own ways and using their own gifts. In this type of community relationship, I find it impossible to NOT see God’s hand or feel His presence in it. I can’t take a step without bumping into Him somehow. It’s a beautiful thing, and I hope to keep experiencing it more and more, and give back in the same way that I’ve been given such blessing.

So, if you are reading this and you have directly been a part of our process over the last six weeks, thanks. We truly are “two or three” (which I think is just a way of saying people together) gathered in His name. And He is undeniably in our midst.

By Collin , on December 21, 2009 at 10:26 am. Posted in Encouragement, Theology , Comments (4)

Giving Heart

Encouragement. My pastor has been leading us in reflecting on it for a few weeks now. In my opinion, I don’t think we can reflect on it enough. This sermon series has easily been one  of the more important series of messages I have heard in a while. Encouragement is essential to our lives, and essential to God.

We’ve mostly been sitting in Hebrews 3:13: “encourage each other daily.” We’ve been talking a lot about gossip, a lot about idle talk, and a lot about just building each other up rather than the opposite. This has all been meaningful and awesome, and I know that many of us in our community have continued to talk about it and keep each other accountable in playing it out in our own lives, but I think there are a couple more applications of this encouragement idea outside of our typical viewpoint.

One of them is rebuke. Ugh, rebuke. REBUKE. What a scary old word. Truthfully, I hate the word. A lot. Hearing it generally makes me cringe. I don’t hate it because of its meaning. I hate it because of its stigma. I think to myself “why do we continue to use this word that really only makes a ton of sense to us Christians? Especially one that is so scary-sounding? Isn’t there a better word we can use instead?”

Oh yeah, encouragement.

Isn’t that really all it is? Or at least all it should be? In my opinion, a rebuke should never come out of any emotion other than joy. Joy that you know you are showing someone that there is a better way. A better way with abundant life. A rebuke should be an encouragement to the person, an encouragement to turn around and look at the life they are missing because of whatever sin or attitude they are steeped in. A rebuke should never discourage someone. It should never leave the person feeling guilty. It should be an encouragement full of GRACE. Isn’t that how our Father does it?

This kind of leads to the other application I was talking about: evangelism.

How differently do you think this world would look at us Christians if our evangelism was nothing more than graceful encouragement? The same as I was talking before—an encouragement to open their eyes and see the abundant life they are missing.

What if the street preacher, instead of pointing out someone and telling them they are doomed, decided to gracefully let them know that there is a better way to live? A way of life that is full of abundance? I think we would start to see more and more true repentance, and less and less hate for the Gospel. It’s not forsaking the truth, it’s just taking the focus off of death, and moving it onto life.

So, I say lets keep—or start—encouraging. Lets start showing people that there’s more to LIFE than this.

By Collin , on October 30, 2009 at 3:25 pm. Posted in Encouragement, Theology , Comments (7)

Braille & Candlelight

Two weekends ago I was in Hamilton, Ohio, at my church’s annual men’s retreat. The theme that was weaving in and out of the weekend was this idea of how we take our work and life. There were basically two options, the speaker said, “labor” and “opus.” Labor being just that—labor. Work for the sake of work. Tiring. Mundane. Life-sucking. Opus being this idea of a good work. A masterpiece. A joyful work. What we are passionate about. What we were made to do.

Throughout the course of the weekend, I was continually reflecting on these lyrics from the song “Circles” by Thrice:

“True progress means changing the world to the vision in our heads, but we always change the vision instead.”

Just typing them out sends chills down my spine. I haven’t read lyrics in quite some time that ring not only so universally true, but incredibly true to me. How many times and in how many places in my life did I have some great vision—some great idea or passion—that over time just kind of fell by the wayside, or that I just dumbed down to the point of punching the clock?

I know I’ve been called to great works. We all have. It’s just up to us to see them through. I know that I’d love to have my hand held and pulled along, knowing when to do this or that, knowing exactly how my passion and vision gets played out. But where’s the fun in that? And where’s the challenge?

So when it comes to the vision that you have, the idea you have (that one that deep down you know is great), the passion you have, I have one challenge:

What are you waiting for?

Let’s stop compromising the ABUNDANT LIFE promised to us just to stay comfortable.

By Collin , on October 1, 2009 at 7:36 pm. Posted in Encouragement, Oh you know... , Comments (1)

Grace, Forgiveness, and Kanye West?

Like everyone, Monday morning I was watching a video of my beloved Kanye West, storming the stage of Taylor Swift’s VMA acceptance speech. I am a fan of Kanye West, I love his music and music that he has produced. In the past I have seen him pull stunts like this, apologize, and then do something equally as stupid, which I have always just written off as rockstar bullshit. I’m not the kind of person that lets a rockstar’s persona ruin their music. Most of the time I just understand that it’s a necessary evil.

But Monday, I was filled with disgust. “Man, he really crossed the line this time,” I said to myself, “what a 3rd grader.” Obama may have said it best—what a jackass.

Of course he apologized in all-caps on his blog. Of course I didn’t really believe it. Oh well. Until next time, Kanye. Later that night, I saw him on the new Jay Leno show. I saw the shameful look in his eye as Jay probed him on his thought process, and worse, what his mom would have thought if she had still been alive. Instantly I was filled with…compassion? Compassion for this 3rd grader? Grace for this jackass?

“I’ll take that,” I found myself saying aloud to my wife.

God’s grace just dawned on me. For the 23,543,589,432th time. I couldn’t stop thinking about it the entire next day. I tend to forget about this kind of grace. This kind of grace that knows that someone will probably screw up again, probably apologize again, and repeat the whole process. This kind of grace that knows that the slate is wiped clean every time. Who’s to say that, just because Kanye West is a multi-millionaire rockstar producer, he is incapable of experiencing grace and forgiveness from not only me, but from the Father as well? I’m hoping this time Kanye sees it and runs after it. Even if he doesn’t, it’ll still be there next time.

I know this all seems kind of silly and over-played, but it’s just something I’ve been reflecting on the last couple of days. It’s nice to be reminded of the simple things that got me here in the first place.

By Collin , on September 16, 2009 at 8:34 am. Posted in Culture, The Classics , Comments (3)

One Final Thought on Worship

Gave my last talk on worship yesterday morning, and I have to say, that it must have been ALL GOD, because I was not ready, or feeling it. But God really moved. Here are my initial thoughts that were the basis of the little talk. Warning: this one is a jumbled mess. I can’t believe it actually came together when I got on stage.

Thoughts, Week 5

I find that it’s easy to really over-theologize worship. I have been talking about all these different facets of worship—sitting in God’s presence, expectation, obedience, one-ness—which are definitely all valid, but sometimes we need to just get down to the basics. Worship is definitely all these things. Worship is more than all these things as well. I could probably talk for weeks about all the different parts and effects of worship. But what is worship—real worship—at it’s core?

It’s worshipping God.

Sounds condescending to say it like that, but that’s really what it is. Its beholding God’s glory, exalting his name, magnifying who he is above all. It’s boldly declaring who God is. It’s laying down all the things we make God into, and all of the other theological stuff, and really just declaring what we know about God.

It’s declaring to God that we know He is our refuge. That He is sovereign. That He knows what He is doing. That we put our lives, and our wills in His hands. It’s taking ourselves out of the equation, and making sure that we put God on the throne. Recognizing our place in the hierarchy. This truth-speaking not only builts our faith, but ushers in a complete transformation of our hearts and minds. In God-centered worship (which is what it should ALWAYS be, shouldn’t it?), we stop focusing on ourselves, what song we are singing, what prayer we are praying, whatever we are doing and just put ALL the focus on God. And in doing that, we are dying to ourselves. We are letting God transform us into His people. We are no longer being conformed to the pattern of this world, we are being transformed by the renewing of our mind.

Psalm 95:1-2 (and 3-7 for that matter) is a great example of this type of adoration for God: “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song.” Sometimes we need to take ourselves out of theology, and just WORSHIP GOD.

We need to just bring it to it’s simplest level.

To just say “God. I love you. You are the reason for my existence. You are the way, the truth, and the life.”

By Collin , on August 31, 2009 at 7:58 am. Posted in The Classics, Theology , Comments (1)

A Few Thoughts on Worship

The last month or so at church, my pastor has asked me to give some mini-teachings on corporate worship. It has been happening in the midst of our worship set, usually after the first song. It’s been a really awesome, freeing, confidence-building experience for me. I was talking to Israel earlier, and he said I should share some of this stuff on here. So instead of paring it down, I decided to post all of my original, stream-of-consciousness thoughts on the subject. All of these thoughts become the basis for what I speak about. They are rough, mind you, and many parts are written as if I am speaking in front of the church.

Some Thoughts

Romans 12:2 says “do not be conformed to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

To me this a good example of why we worship: to be transformed. In worshipping we enter, as Richard Foster says, the Shekinah of God. The here-and-now presence of God. Well, not that His presence is ever NOT here-and-now, its just kind of “tuning our dial to the signal.” It’s really getting in touch with what God is doing HERE and NOW, in us, in others, for us, and for others.

It’s also us blessing God, ministering to the Father. Not just thanking him for what he has done, but really contemplating who He is. Really glorifying who He is. And then soaking in that glory.

We can worship without singing. We can worship without physically laying on our faces in prostrate. Or without kneeling. Or without bowing our heads. Or without lifting our hands. These are all wonderful practices, and I would definitely encourage all of them, but worship is more than this. It is a mindset, and more than a mindset, a heart posture. The heart posture that says “this isn’t about me, it’s about God.”

In a church setting, it’s so easy to get caught up in looking around the room and seeing what everyone else is doing. It’s so easy to get caught up in the emotion of the moment, and do just that: be emotional. To think to yourself, “oh, well people are lifting their hands, I probably should.” Or to look around and feel like you are missing something because you aren’t singing. Or to say “I like it better when the other worship team sings this song.” These are just a few examples, and I think there are a million reasons that we can get wrapped up in the emotional side of worship. That’s not the important part. The important part is knowing God wants to meet us where we are.

Imagine how awesome it would be on Sunday morning, as we are all standing there in with our different mindsets and heart postures, some singing, some dancing, some kneeling, some sitting, some just standing there, and then just turning our hearts toward God. Just knowing that in that midst, if we would open a worshipful heart toward God, that HE knows where we are, and how we are worshipping him. If we all tried to do this, I wonder how much it would matter if the person next to us was singing or not? I wonder how much it would matter if my wife was lifting her hands, and I wasn’t. I wonder how much it would matter if I saw 10 people dancing up front, and I’m sitting down in the back row.

It wouldn’t.

God would be so glorified in that place. God would meet us here. We would be in tune with his Shekinah. We would blow the roof off.

Thoughts, Week 2

Richard Foster says “worship begins with holy expectancy, it ends with holy obedience.” I can wrap my head around coming to worship with some sort of expectation for God to do SOMETHING, but I never really pondered “holy” expectancy.

The difference I see between expectation and HOLY expectation, again, all boils down to heart posture.

Our worldly expectation in worship would be something along the lines of “God, I am coming to worship expecting you to make me feel better about myself.” The danger in this attitude is obvious: it turns worship into this very self-centered thing, and the end result is nothing more than a “warm and fuzzy” feeling. Last week I was talking about worship as an emotional experience, and how it really does nothing for us in the end other than us feeling something. Don’t get me wrong, feeling something is great. To a lot of us, feeling is just what we need. Physically knowing God is there. Feeling God’s touch, warmth, presence. But I really think that God wants us to experience so much more than that.

So what is holy expectation then? I think it’s the opposite of worldly or humanly expectation. Instead of saying “God I want you to make feel better about myself,” it’s saying “God, I am coming to worship to step into your presence. I am coming to worship to sit at your feet and listen. I am expecting to come out of this experience with a better understanding of your heart for me, as well as others. I am expecting to hear your voice clearly. I am expecting to be able to listen to you.” And on and on.

Do you see how much more we would get out of a worship experience like this? With an expectant heart that isn’t expecting anything more than a good feeling, we miss SO much of what God might want to do in us, or what God might want us to do! In the midst of worship, God might want us to look at a certain sin in our life. He might want to show us more about His plan for our lives. He might put someone in the room on our hearts to pray for, or just to walk over and give a hug.

Sometimes, after worshipping with this holy expectation, we might have a warm and fuzzy feeling. Sometimes we won’t. Sometimes we might feel uneasy. Sometimes we might feel uncomfortable. Sometimes we might feel nervous. But in really expecting God’s presence, and really being in it, the one thing we will feel is that God is there. God is in the midst of whatever feeling that we are having, and the focus is no longer on how I want to feel this or that, but now is on the fact that somehow, the way I am feeling has something to with what God is doing.

And that’s a good feeling.

Thoughts, Week 3

So if Richard Foster says “worship begins with holy expectancy, it ends with holy obedience,” what is holy obedience?

Holy obedience. Sounds heavy.

Honestly, the first thing that comes to my mind if I were to think of the words “holy” and “obedience” is some selfish idea that God is going to tell me to do something that sucks. And then I’m going to feel a bunch of guilt for not wanting to do it. That or some sort of obligation.

But I think holy obedience, especially in worship, is something totally different than that. I really think it is just the outcome of us being able to listen to God’s heart. And I think if we approach God’s presence with holy expectancy, then the idea that God would have something for us to do or at least think of doing would be less “man, I really don’t want to do that, but I guess I should,” and more “I NEED to do this. I know that something will release and I will be more free because of this.”

So what is this “thing” that God’s going to tell me to do? I don’t know. It could be a ton of different things. Some examples I can think of might be God really opening my eyes to a certain sin in my life that is really holding me back from experiencing His Kingdom. It might be God saying “Go dance. Right now. You don’t know how much release you, as well as others, will feel because of it, right here, right now.” Maybe it’s God just saying “I know you think church music sucks, but just sing. Sing to me, like I’m the only one in the room with you.” Maybe it’s an itch to talk to someone about joining the worship team, and it was just that little push from God that you needed. Maybe it’s God saying “that new person over there looks like she really needs a shoulder to cry on right now. Go pray for her.” I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.

We see so much freedom from really following God’s heart. God knows and always wants what’s best for us. Holy obedience is really just letting go of ourselves. In worship, holy obedience is really letting go of our preconceived notions of what we think worship should be. With holy obedience, we realize that we don’t worship to feel good. We worship to know the Father. We worship to harbor a deep connection to Jesus. We worship to really experience the power of the Holy Spirit. We worship to take ourselves out of the picture.

We worship to not be “conformed to the pattern of this world.” We worship to be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.” We worship so that we may “discern the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

Thoughts, Week 4

One thing that’s awesome about worship is that it puts us all on the same page. It’s bringing to the forefront the one thing that’s the most important: our relationship with God. If worship is all about reflecting, meditating, praising, exalting, or just sitting in the midst of God’s glory, then where is room for any of our worldly things? There really isn’t!

This is one thing that I find really awesome about worship. There are so many different theologies, so many different sociopolitical ideologies, just so many different people in this room. Some of us spend a lot of our lives focused on these things, focused on our differences. But worship takes us out of that focus. Worship kind of levels the playing field. In being united in worship, we move from focusing on our differences, to celebrating them, knowing that we are still all focused on one thing: the Kingdom.

I read something very eloquent this week: “there is always a moment in our singing when a leading voice drops away and together we find a collective voice. It never fails, and somehow in that moment everyone is leading and no one is leading. This is the kind of thing that happens when a group of people start tapping into the reality and mystery of a God who is ‘one’. We begin to become one ourselves. The shared experience of singing together is a deeply subversive, counter-cultural act of mutual submission.”*

That’s what’s awesome about worship. In worship, our natural inclination is to come together. In worship, we come to realize what Ephesians 4:4-6 says, “there is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called—one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” We start to throw down our judgements towards one another’s belief systems. We start to focus on who God is, and how much we can let our various theologies and ideas get in the way of who He is and what He wants to do. We open our hearts up to listen to God and follow him, unified with our brothers and sisters. Worship clears our mind of all the “Christian stuff” that we can tend to cloud it with, and opens our minds, together, to the true heart of God.

* http://www.marshill.org/userfiles/Why%20To%20Sing.pdf

By Collin , on August 25, 2009 at 4:12 pm. Posted in The Classics, Theology , Comments (0)

Finally.

This blog / my web server has been giving me nothing but problems the last few months. Finally got it working again. I had to re-install WordPress, and then I decided to screw around with the look and feel. I think this layout is a lot more readable.

Hope you enjoy it. New (real) post later.

Collin

By Collin , on August 25, 2009 at 3:47 pm. Posted in Announcing , Comments (0)

Three months?!

Wow. Can’t believe it’s been so long.

Again, we’re still here. Still pondering. Still thinking. Still content. Still frustrated. Still joyful. Still pissed off. Still understanding. Still doubting.

I know that I’ve been thinking a lot about division. Division in the church, notably. Division between “traditional/mainline” church and the “emerging” church. Thinking about how these labels tend to do more harm than they do good. Thinking about how new ideas and old ideas are causing one body with many parts to become many parts with no body. About how new ideas and old ideas are acting like oil and water rather than peanut butter and jelly.

In turn this is causing me to have this inner dialogue. I take that back—an inner battle. Feeling trapped between two ideologies. Feeling that if I believe THIS, then THEY will think I believe THAT. And that if I don’t believe THAT, than THEY will think I don’t believe THIS. I’m sick of feeling divided inside myself, and I’m sick of being immersed in a divided culture.

More later. Maybe.

By Collin , on June 17, 2009 at 1:04 pm. Posted in Uncategorized , Comments (2)

Ask me, ask me, ask me

It has been far too long WORDS, I’m sorry for the neglect. Feel free to ignore me in retaliation for as long as you like. I won’t take it personal. I’d like to start this blog with a dialogue from one of my favorite movies. Two guys, just finish having a drink:-
——————————–
Hey, thanks for the beer.

- Yeah, man.

I should find a hotel.

-What?

What?

- A hotel?

Yeah.

- Just ask, man.

What are you talking about?

-Oh, God. Three pitchers of beer and you still can’t ask.

What?

-You called me because you needed a place to stay.

Oh, hey. No, no, no.

- Yes, you did. So just ask.

-Cut the foreplay and just ask, man.

Would… Would that be a problem?

-Is it a problem for you to ask?

Can I stay at your place?

- Yeah.

Thanks.
————————————–

I have currently been confronted with an issue of faith. A brother of mine recently told me he had decided to start praying for something I felt was impossible. Doing the good christian thing I said “well that’s gosh darn great, praise the lord”. Naturally my reaction in my head was “Are you crazy? Why don’t I just ask for a light saber and a giant squid monster and call it a day.”

Two things stood out to me in that statement. One, that he had decided to start, not that he had been praying about it. I don’t typically think about the things I pray for, while not considering ‘is this God’s will, and if it is why did it take me so long to ask in the first place?’ Have I considered I could be asking for a bird losing it’s wings when I ask for my own?

Secondly the fact that he was going to be petitioning something that should be considered nothing short of miraculous; good ol’ divine intervention. The faith I had as a child that would tell you in a heartbeat that God saved daniel from the lions, or turned water into wine has long been dead now, not because God is any less faithful, but I (think I) know too much. I blame the history channel on that; all their “could-the-exodus-actually-be-real” and “finally-the-mystery-of-that-one-miracle-in-the-bible-no-one-likes-to-talk-about-cause-it-confronts-scientific-thinking-revealedblahblahblah” shows. Fascinating as they may be, it sets my mind into a materialist corkscrew. I’m so distracted with the ‘hows’ that I overlook the ‘cans’ and ‘wills’. Maybe the reason I rationalize what to ask for and what to just suck up is because I think too much. I assume God’s just like me, rolling my eyes saying “ok, but I won’t be here to bail you out…..oh who am I kidding, of course I will” and getting the short end of the stick the whole time, like God’s strength or power (or even desire) arent enough to handle my little problems.

Behold the smartest termite in the world!

I’ll break this down:
If I as a christian believe in an omnipotent creator, one who (in theory) controls the tide, feeds the sparrow and sent a god-man to earth to pay my tab, why is it hard for me to ask for the impossible? Is my request less possible than creating the Leviathan or designing an immune system? Why would I hesitate to ask God to intervene in my family when He is the author of all that is good? My answer right now is faith. It was faith that drove Moses to lead the jews and jewettes into the wilderness. Would he have put off asking God for direction because he doubted his petition would be acquiesced? Doubt it.

I’m not sure this entirely makes sense, because it sounds like I want to not question anything. It’s more like I want to question everything, but there are some things that proof won’t make any more real for me. I will still question God’s promises to me and deny him the prayers He deserves and wants to answer until I have believe the things I ask for, in things unseen. Faith in miracles is faith in miracles. There’s only so much meddling God’s going to do without saying “ok look, I made a world, wrote a book, sent a son, made your parents chromosomes match up perfectly to make who you are, what more do you need? Just ask.”

Anyhow, that’s where I’m at, trying to muster up the strength and faith my brother has to pray for a miracle. Feeling like I’m due for one.

BUT ON THE OTHER HAND……..

~wrestleswithGod

CURRENTLY READING: Orthodoxy by GK Chesterton, LISTENING: Industry Giants by Superdrag, WATCHING: the Watchmen Motion Comics

By wrestleswithGod , on March 22, 2009 at 12:15 pm. Posted in Uncategorized , Comments (5)