when you infuse grace with life, you start to see it everywhere. it gives breath to humanity, it gives rise to hope.
False Prophets bring false Hope. 

False Prophets bring false Hope. 

1 day ago on July 28th, 2010 at 11:00 am | Permalink

revisiting rules

Rules do not teach us how to live.

They serve a valuable purpose—they define parameters, they keep our wandering and far-reaching brokenness in check. 

But they do not teach us how to live.

Life would be easier if there was some step-by-step manual of how do live. Imagine it: someone could make a fortune convincing people there was a plan about…

…who to marry and how to make it last…

…how to find the perfect job and make good money…

…how to enjoy every second of life and convince others you’re a good person…

Oh wait, Barnes & Noble just called. Right. They said there were some books under the “Christian living” section I might want to look into…

Unfortunately, I think we find it easy and accessible to approach the Bible the same way we approach rules. 

We want it to tell us how to live.

“Just tell us the answers! What are the steps?”

We like steps because we like to be conquerors.

We like rules because we like to be masters.

But what if life is about something different than conquering, mastering, and besting?

It seems to me that the Bible is primarily concerned with teaching us how God lives. 

Our calling is to pursue the God-life as we are learning it and interacting with it.

Then, we are to make decisions out of that pursuit, not based on a set of rules.  

2 days ago on July 27th, 2010 at 10:17 am | Permalink
"God, joining together humans and God in the incarnate Word, becomes what we are so that we might become what he is—so vanquishing death and drawing us into the very life and presence of God."
Scot McKnight, A Community Called Atonement
1 week ago on July 22nd, 2010 at 10:15 am | Permalink
You cannot serve both God and money.
Jesus uses these pointed words after briefly talking about the difference between storing up treasures on earth versus storing up treasures in heaven. 
Too many times I’ve heard these words shallowly refer to the pursuit of wealth, the middle class rat-race that pushes us to consume and ascend the societal ladder (or at least stake our claim and stay there). 
But, given the cultural circumstances, there’s absolutely zero chance that this is what Jesus was talking about. Now, I think they are related. But I also think Jesus was getting at something deeper and infinitely more pervasive.
After all, greed is just a symptom of a heart issue.
Greed is a symptom that we’re slaves to our own productivity.
It’s not really “God against money.” It’s “God against us.”
When Jesus says that you can’t love God and money, or Mammon (our assets, possessions, capital, etc.), he’s putting God against…
not money…
but all the things we tend to put our trust in other than God.
Things temporal. Things that disappoint. Things that rot & fade. Shallow, superficial things that will need to be replaced before we even enjoy them (if that’s at all possible).
Just as he had just challenged the temptation to replace the pursuit of God with the pursuit of religious activities like prayer & fasting, Jesus is now addressing the age old temptation to replace God with… wait for it… ourselves.
Because, at the end of the day, isn’t the temptation to define ourselves by the accumulation of our stuff?
[photo via deviantART]

You cannot serve both God and money.

Jesus uses these pointed words after briefly talking about the difference between storing up treasures on earth versus storing up treasures in heaven. 

Too many times I’ve heard these words shallowly refer to the pursuit of wealth, the middle class rat-race that pushes us to consume and ascend the societal ladder (or at least stake our claim and stay there). 

But, given the cultural circumstances, there’s absolutely zero chance that this is what Jesus was talking about. Now, I think they are related. But I also think Jesus was getting at something deeper and infinitely more pervasive.

After all, greed is just a symptom of a heart issue.

Greed is a symptom that we’re slaves to our own productivity.

It’s not really “God against money.” It’s “God against us.”

When Jesus says that you can’t love God and money, or Mammon (our assets, possessions, capital, etc.), he’s putting God against…

not money…

but all the things we tend to put our trust in other than God.

Things temporal. Things that disappoint. Things that rot & fade. Shallow, superficial things that will need to be replaced before we even enjoy them (if that’s at all possible).

Just as he had just challenged the temptation to replace the pursuit of God with the pursuit of religious activities like prayer & fasting, Jesus is now addressing the age old temptation to replace God with… wait for it… ourselves.

Because, at the end of the day, isn’t the temptation to define ourselves by the accumulation of our stuff?

[photo via deviantART]

1 week ago on July 21st, 2010 at 10:11 am | Permalink

illuminated by another

If you were born a slave and raised a slave, what life would you know other than slavery?

Would you understand life outside of the rhythms, rules, and suppressed freedom of slavery?

How could you?

If every day of life was slavery, from sun up to sun down, and if every person you knew only knew the same life—more than just your body and time would be enslaved.

Your imagination would be enslaved. 

Your thoughts would only know how to entertain the hope of a slave. Just getting by, one more day, both loathing and depending upon your master. 

This is the predicament of the people of Israel in the early chapters of the book of Exodus. 

Life had gotten hard, they were completely broken and cried out to God.

He rescued them.

Now what?

They still only understood life in one way: as slaves. 

What happens next is an extraordinary, complex, and difficult journey spanning hundreds of years.

God doesn’t wave a magic wand or twitch an I-dream-of-Genie nose and make the people amazingly obedient, faithful, and righteous.

He purposefully and painfully enters into the long, long, long process of reshaping the imagination of this large, abandoned group of people.

No longer shall their future be illuminated by the dim hope of a slave.

Their path will now be illuminated by Another.

They will be pushed and prodded to imagine a different future, a different way of life, and then to mold their very existence around moving towards that future. 

God’s future for humanity is now their future.

Their daily existence is projecting them towards God’s future for humanity. 

They way the work together, as a community-nation, is to reflect their newly illumined path.

They are now marred by the glorious infection of redemption.

It is changing everything.

1 week ago on July 20th, 2010 at 10:49 am | Permalink
"We must let go of ourselves in such a manner that we can become a dwelling place in which God can reside and from which God can flow. Our own works and beliefs are here dethroned by the enthronement of God. What is important is to engage in a type of ego-death by which the divine is invited to enter the place which we have laid down. The hope is that in so doing, love will flow from us."
Peter Rollins, How (Not) To Speak of God
1 week ago on July 19th, 2010 at 9:03 am | Permalink
Broken, destructive, no good, dirty. 
How did we end up this way?
The Prologue in Genesis, roughly the first 11 chapters, sets a sobering reality.
As I was coming into my own theologically (meaning I was starting to develop some thoughts of my own), I was fond of calling all sin “selfishness.”
I had a professor who called all sin “narcissism.”
Lately, in my studying, I’ve been wrestling what it means for sin to be “mistrust.”
Mistrust.
What that serpent in the garden was able to do was convince Adam & Eve that God couldn’t be trusted. That he didn’t really have their best interests in mind. That all they could really trust was…
themselves. 
They decided to do it their way and therefore we decide to do it our way.
And now we are broken, dirty, confused, and destructive liars, murders, cheats, thieves, & addicts.
[photo via deviantART]

Broken, destructive, no good, dirty. 

How did we end up this way?

The Prologue in Genesis, roughly the first 11 chapters, sets a sobering reality.

As I was coming into my own theologically (meaning I was starting to develop some thoughts of my own), I was fond of calling all sin “selfishness.”

I had a professor who called all sin “narcissism.”

Lately, in my studying, I’ve been wrestling what it means for sin to be “mistrust.”

Mistrust.

What that serpent in the garden was able to do was convince Adam & Eve that God couldn’t be trusted. That he didn’t really have their best interests in mind. That all they could really trust was…

themselves. 

They decided to do it their way and therefore we decide to do it our way.

And now we are broken, dirty, confused, and destructive liars, murders, cheats, thieves, & addicts.

[photo via deviantART]

2 weeks ago on July 15th, 2010 at 11:24 am | Permalink

Book of the Month: August

I posted it on Facebook and Twitter yesterday, but it’ll stay up a little longer here. In August I’m going to be reading Rich Christians in An Age of Hunger by Ronald J. Sider and tweeting/blogging about it, as well as welcoming feedback and conversation when available. Feel free to buy it and play along. If you’re going to order a cheap copy off of Amazon, I recommend buying it ASAP so that you get it in time!

2 weeks ago on July 14th, 2010 at 10:00 am | Permalink
"Why did the omnipotent and loving One not do something about the tsunami before it struck? I don’t know. If I knew, I could justify God. But I can’t. That’s why I am still disturbed by the God to whom I am so immensely attracted and who won’t let go of me."
Miroslav Volf, Against the Tide
2 weeks ago on July 13th, 2010 at 9:43 am | Permalink

absurd is what remains

There’s something powerful about absurdity. Something impossible, unexpected, or unlikely. This, at its core, is the story of Abraham. 

As such, it is the story of us.



Think about it. An unfertile, childless, wandering Middle Eastern sheepherder named “Abram.”

His name loosely translates into “father of many.” Which basically means that he was a walking punchline. 

His family worshiped at the polytheistic altars of their home nations. And then, out of nowhere, God speaks to him.

Allow me to set it up a little further. This comes on the heels of the Prologue, the first 11 chapters of Genesis that give the foundation for how we got here and why the world is the way it is. It is an epic, disastrous move from “good creation” to really, really broken.

This conversation with Abram is the beginning of a great reversal. In our story, it is where we believe God steps in and starts to change everything. It is God relentlessly pursuing reconciliation with sinful Adams and Eves. 

Also, note that in the Hebrew Bible, “The Lord” or “God” is not defined until the Exodus. What god did Abram think he was interacting with? I’d contend that it’s intentionally ambiguous, and that’s the point. 

The point is that a wandering, childless man was given this commandment:

Go from your father’s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Now, I could spend a lot of time talking about the different dynamics of this passage and what they mean. But there’s really just one I’d focus on.

A childless old man and his barren old wife are going to be…. the parents of a great nation.

How absurd. 

And not only that, but the absurd trust of this barren man is intended to start unraveling the mistrust which started in the Garden of Eden. 

God intentionally chooses a small, wandering nomadic group of sheepherders led by a childless man to start a nation that will be the reflection and representation of Him in the world. 

Absurdity.

And when absurdity defines the beginning of your story, you better cling to absurdity.

2 weeks ago on July 12th, 2010 at 9:52 am | Permalink