Deity Over Dignity

I was just looking at the passages in Mark and Luke where the disciples are bragging about how they saw a man driving out demons in Jesus' name and commanded him to stop it, because he wasn't one of them. But, Jesus told them that who wasn't against them was for them. I think there are some subtleties to that, because later the seven sons of Sceva got some seriously bad results from trying to drive out demons in Jesus' name. But, this passage (passages) reminds me of the relationship between me and my church. I try to do good things by studying and volunteering and things that I don't have to do. I could just sit at home and watch TV and play video games all day. I've been cleaning my house today. That's a huge step for me. If I told them, they wouldn't care. Nothing matters to them except that I don't have a job. I'm sure you don't see how this relates at all to this passage. I probably just sound like I'm griping for no reason at all. I'm like the man who wasn't one of the disciples. I'm not like all the others at church. I'm different from them. I don't fit in, so they don't know what to do with me. But, just because I don't fit in with them, doesn't make me against Jesus. If I'm not against them, and I'm certainly not, then let's all play on the same team. I've probably oversimplified things. I just get tired of people, in the name of love, voicing condescension and anything but love. It hurts.

Escalating Conflict

I just read an article by Jeff Jacoby in the Jewish World Review called Hezbollah is our Enemy, too (http://jewishworldreview.com/jeff/jacoby073106.php3). I confess. I haven't really been keeping up with the news lately. I've heard people make stray comments about something going on over in Israel and thought that I really ought to check that out. Sometimes, I'm just really off in my own little world. I know that's irresponsible.

After reading Jeff Jacoby's article, I wonder if part of our government's refusal to get involved has to do with the fact that it's Israel that they'd be seen as defending. Would Mr. Bush maybe not want it to seem that his evangelical convictions were setting his foreign policy, and therefore . . . I don't know how to say it. You know how a teacher is harder on her own child than on any other child, lest she be seen to show favoritism.

Then, there's the fact that our troops are already committed in Iraq. Do we really want to be fighting on two fronts if we don't absolutely have to? Is this attack on Israel a ploy by Hezbollah against the United States? Are they concerned about our slow but steady progress in Iraq? I don't know much of anything about military tactics. When we're done in Iraq, it would be very satisfying to just knock Hezbollah into the middle of the next century. But, maybe our commanders know what they're doing for now.

Philip's Prophesying Daughters

I just finished reading the Everyday with Jesus Newsletter from Lifeway. I kind of liked it, but I have to take exception with it in a small way. Philip's four prophesying daughters in Acts 21:9 are seen as courageous and creative for speaking up despite their singleness and their femininity, which wasn't valued much back then.

I think that we don't much understand these days what the word prophesy means. I don't suppose any special brilliance about Greek or anything. It just seems like I understand the Word best when I test it and really try to live it out. To me, the word prophecy has come to mean having something to say that's not my word, that's God's word. Sometimes, if I'm not careful, God's word will get me so excited that I'll start embellishing it with my words. I ABSOLUTELY MUST NOT DO THAT. God's words are standalone. They are what they are. I have to just say them and then let people do what they will with them, without my help. Nothing I can add can make God's words better. When I hear what this writer from Lifeway says about Philip's daughters, I want to say . . . don't you get it? If the God who made heaven and earth tells you to say something, you say it. Period. If you don't say it, you bear the responsibility for it. You have to say it. Lots of people don't really want to hear what I have to say. It doesn't matter. I won't be able to sleep until I've said those words to someone. If I don't say them to this crowd, I'll feel so guilty because I know this is what God wants. Sometimes, I'm not really sure whether it was really God or whether I'm just crazy. But if there is a question, I would rather have gone out on a limb for God and looked like a fool than to have sat around my whole life wandering if that could really be God's voice calling me.

Arguing with giants

Sometimes I love to read blogs by professors and educated people on the web. It's stimulating. Sometimes I feel like a real dummy in trying to respond to them, though. I don't have an education. Once upon a long time ago, I used to be smart. But, I think ya lose some of that as the years go by, if you don't use it continually. I don't know if my thoughts and ideas have any merit or worth. I just throw them out here like I'm so sure of everything. Then sometimes later, I think what am I doing arguing with this giant, or that kid in school who sounds like he knows twice as much as I do?

Worship

I was just reading Albert Mohler's post about worship. Admittedly, I didn't have time to finish it yet. I'll finish it tonite. Before I forget, I just wanted to put my two cents in on the topic. When I'm worshiping, the things we fight about just seem immaterial. We just seem to be missing the point.

People around me seem to think that "young" worship has to do with clapping or style of music or raising hands or some outward thing. (What clapping is really good for is giving my little hyperactive nieces something to keep them busy and out of trouble. They're not good at following the words to the songs yet, but I can keep them out of trouble clapping.) I'm not so young anymore (38), but what I'm seeking is none of those things. It's connection. Anything that facilitates that connection is something that we welcome (sometimes too readily.)

This Sunday, though, it happened this way. I slipped into the back row. My Sunday School teacher slipped in beside me. There was an adorable baby in her momma's arms in front of us. My teacher and her husband started playing quietly with this baby. I just got the thought . . . that's what God's like with us. We're all like that little baby to him. Oh, there's no words. Don't we all love playing with babies. I don't know why. But, it just seemed like God was saying to me that we were all His babies and he delighted in each of us just like we delighted in that little baby in front of me. This made me just beam up at Him, . . . like a bloomin' idiot. God loves me so much, and I make such a mess of it. It's just so wonderful to believe that He still loves me and forgives me and values me. What could possibly be better! Speaking in tongues couldn't be better than just that knowledge. I'm not saying that I don't believe in speaking in tongues. I'm just saying that I have absolutely no need of it. I have all I need. I have God. He's just so cool sometimes. It doesn't matter what you do or what you wear. What matters is what condition your heart is in. James would say that what you do and what you wear (fruit) is certainly an indicator of where your heart is and therefore important. Music and message can certainly have a little influence over the condition of your heart, but nothing can really dim joy that you've spent all week cultivating and preparing for. Hymns. Praise music. I love them all. I like worshiping in comfortable clothes in the evening, but I think getting at least a little dressed up on Sunday morning is a witness to my neighbors. But all that isn't really about worship at all. It's about something else. It's peripheral. It's like a nat detracting from worship. Get over it.

Baptists

Ya know, I grew up hating Baptists. They were too strident, too sure of everything, too demanding of the rest of us. Everything was black or white with them. Two of the things that changed my mind were their music and their knowledge of scripture.

First, their music. A lot of hymns are common to a lot of denominations. I've heard the same hymns in Methodist and Presbyterian churches that I've heard in Baptist churches. Of course, in the Lutheran church that I grew up in, anything from the 16th century was considered New Age. "Rock of Ages" was Rock 'N' Roll. I'm not sure if anybody was actually trying to sing the Lutheran music, all I remember was a long, dull drone . . . accompanied by Mel Schulz (God rest his soul) pounding loudly on the organ. There are four really big Baptist churches in our medium-sized town. Back when I was 21, I looked at the sea of grey heads in the Lutheran church and thought that maybe I'd like to go somewhere else to church. I don't know how I wound up in my first Baptist church, but it seemed to be where everybody else was going. I couldn't believe this. People (don't laugh) SMILED IN CHURCH. I didn't think that was allowed. I remember actually wanting to go up and ask somebody why they allowed everybody to smile and laugh in this church. I didn't, thank goodness. Now, they smile and laugh at the Lutheran church. Back when I was a kid, you just didn't do that. Church was a solemn occasion.

Anyway, back to their music. Once I got inside, I eventually found out what it was that made these people so happy. They had these hymns with words like "Trust and Obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey." Now, I'd heard a lot about being good in Jesus, and obedience was a pretty common theme. But, the very idea that somebody would write a song about being good and happy at the same time. And, this church that I was going to, they sang that song near every Sunday. They just loved that song. The more I heard it, the more I liked it. At first it seemed like just another moralistic admonition to obey. "Yeah, that sounds like Baptists, alright. Always scolding." But, the more I heard it, the more the happiness angle got through. Like, they were telling me that they knew the secret to being happy for the rest of your life.

Well, anyway, I can't rhapsodize on that any longer. On to their knowledge of scripture. I guess I should say our knowledge of scripture.

I guess everybody could say that they've met a lot of people in their life. I'd dare to say that I've met a wider variety than most, though. Because I'm scared to death of relationships, because they never last long with me, because I'm real good at making friends but real bad at keeping them, . . . I've known a lot of people. Everybody knows a little bit of Scripture, and everybody thinks they know the Bible a whole lot better than they really do. There are only a few people that ever really impressed me with their Bible knowledge, and only one of those wasn't a professional Bible speaker. He was working beside me on an assembly line. His name was Steve Tipton. I think he had just finished college and had come home to get married before attending Baptist seminary. We struck up a conversation because he remembered riding the bus with me when we were little kids. As a kid, I only remember Steve as the steady one, friendly, kind of protective, but never really enough that I even learned his name. I just remember his face, always just being there, watching. I met him right around the time I was getting saved. I started arguing scripture with him, and I just wouldn't let up. The difference between him and me was that I'm one of those people who doesn't know as much Scripture as they think they know. But, for every verse I knew, he knew where to find it in the Bible, and he knew an answering verse to support his point and where to find his verse in the Bible. That was almost enough, but not quite. Then, he nailed me. He quoted a verse I'd never heard before. At least, I didn't remember hearing it. I wasn't familiar with it, wasn't expecting it. I guess I thought that anybody that could beat me in a Biblical argument, well their religion maybe deserved a hearing. He suggested that I check out East Side Baptist Church. I went to East Side Baptist church the next Sunday night I think it was. I've been there off and on ever since. I guess I've pretty much been a Baptist since then. Sometimes I think I can't stand them. Sometimes, I want to just kill the lot of 'em. A lot of the time, I think they wanna kill me. [Chuckle] Well, it's all Steve's fault, y'all.

E-Witness overload

Witnessing in a day of information overload must involve more than just shouting truth into the cacophony. The power that Christ has given to us is the power of prayer, the power to move heaven and earth by moving the heaven-and-earth-mover. I would rather shout at the wind because there's less warfare involved. Satan is not buffeting me when I post truth on the internet because he knows that no one important will ever see it. He moves heaven and earth to keep me off my knees, though. That would seem to tell me where my focus ought to be. I'd rather be posting, though. Why am I so stupid.

Good stuff

One of the ways that I know God is good is that I prayed that He would help me find my little miniature broom and dustpan. I haven't seen them in a while and things have begun to look pretty bad. Just a minute or so after I prayed that prayer, there was the broom and dustpan. This morning, I had a good time with God and I asked him for some big things for me, like a knowledge of His will for me and a deeper knowledge of Him and stuff like that. Then, I prayed for a couple of other people. It's been like God's been honoring that prayer this whole day.