Sunday at Summit - The Sermon on the Mount Week 1

This last Sunday, we started a new series at our church. We just wrapped up a 16 week series on Exodus, and have now transitioned into the Sermon on the Mount. Our lead teacher, Paul, explained that having just studied the law, he thought it made sense to go see what Jesus did with the law.

Now this can make me a little nervous because the Sermon on the Mount is the trendy thing for all those social gospel, works righteous people out there to start quoting. Instead of using the teaching as a plumb line, they use it as a means to an end, and this is really dangerous.

As a Christian, I am fully accepted by God, completely forgiven and made righteous. God's Spirit in me lives the righteous, holy life that I'm called to. So, the sermon can be something I refer to in order to test if I'm in the right place, but it's not something that gets me in the right place. Only God can get me there.

But I shouldn't have worried because our elders are so solid on truth, and Paul addressed this very thing early in the message... instantly putting me at ease. He warned that, read in the wrong context, people could easily see the sermon as a checklist of what we're supposed to do to be God's people. But, as Jesus clearly taught in John 6:28-29, the only "work" the Father requires of us is to believe in Jesus.

Okay... moving on....

Even though we aren't required to do works to reach God, God's perfect plan for us include heart change that leads to actions that show evidence of this heart change. As Paul put it, "Our conduct flows from our character in Christ."

Another point Paul made that I appreciated was that Jesus' teaching and his miraculous power aren't sold separately. It's a package deal, and to lean one way is to ignore the balance that Jesus showed while on earth. Jesus is not just a good teacher, and he's not just a genie in a bottle.

The last point that stuck out to me was Paul passionate admonition that the Church (at large) and our church (Summit, specifically) needs to stop trying to look like the world. He gave a few comparisons of the dichotomy between the two.

The world is concerned about being hot. The church is concerned about being holy.

The world is full of greed. The church is full of generosity.

The world is swooning over celebrities. The church is swooning over Christ.

If the Church isn't showing these attributes, then we are living in our old patterns and not surrendering to Christ. It is Christ that lives through us... our old self was crucified and we are made new... Christ is in us, we are in Christ. It is the Spirit that bears fruit in and through us. Are we letting the Spirit do his work?

Psyched for Small Group

Life has been good. Lots of new things on the horizon... from beginning my pregnancy counseling ministry to enrolling in a new homeschool cover (where I'm excited to be teaching a class to teens on making a school yearbook!).

Billy and I recently became debt free (yeah... I really ought to have a better announcement on here than that little sidenote). He's doing awesome things in his career, Eve's progressing in some impressive gymnastics, and little Ashlyn knows how to use a potty!

But of all the things that have been going right, the highlight of every week has been Wednesday nights, when we go to our new small group.

Small groups have been my favorite thing about church for a long time. I like small groups in general, as opposed to large groups, so I'm sure this is a reason. But really, I just feel like so much growth takes place within a small group of people who can build a relationship based on trust and shared faith.

When we first got assigned to this group, I thought it would be interesting. We were the only parents in the group and the oldest ones there. We've always been the youngest. (The second week, another couple joined in. They have kids and are older than us by a couple of year or 2. Whew!)

Our leader is a 23-year-old guy with a huge servant's heart. His wife is pregnant. We have another couple expecting their first. The husband is a deacon at our church and from what I can tell is incredibly conservative. Then, we have 2 single guys who came over from a disbanded small group - an experiment to see if singles and married could actually interact in meaningful ways. :)

Then there's us. It's a random group. And it has been amazing!

I'm excited for the encouragement we've already experienced. Talking about living a Christian life, reading the Bible, serving our community. I've been in the Bible more since this group started. I've been encouraged to return to the prayer life I slipped away from after Ashlyn was born. I've been stretched to offer grace for things that aren't how I think they oughta be.

In all that, I've found a great group of people who I'm thrilled to be committing to for the next 12-18 months.

So... yeah... I can't wait until 6:30 tonight.

Slave to Simple

I love simplicity. Let me just start there. And really, if I were the bragging type, I would go on to say that I was way ahead of the curve on this whole trend.

Actually, I'm way ahead of the curve on lots of trends. Remember that whole "hair chunking" thing? Yeah... like all the sorority girls had that when I was in college. Dude... I totally did that when I was in high school. Except I never actually thought it was cool, I thought it was a bit extreme, and that no one would ever actually pick up on it. Because I was alternative, see. So, my hairstyle was a little crazy out there. Then, somehow, it got cool. But of course, I was past it by then.

And honestly, I'm kinda done with simplicity, too. Like, not really. But kinda.

Let me explain...

I was toting simplicity WAY back in 2004 when I signed up for (*cringe*) eHarmony. The profile asked me what was one thing I was passionate about, and that was it. Simplicity.

And I still am, but I'm find that as it's becoming a trend, it's also becoming contrived.

The Bible says that it's the heart of the matter that really matters. (That's my paraphrase, but there's all kinds of evidence for it.) It's what's in a heart that will eventually manifest itself in a person's life. So it goes with simplicity.

There are things that we can do to simplify our lives and they bring real relief to an over-scheduled, cluttery existence. But as I've walked this journey for years in the direction of simplicity, I've found that the goal can itself become a clutter in my mind and heart. The goal can raise questions and create burdens to wrestle with. It can stir me and stretch me in healthy ways; it can condemn me and guilt trip me in ways that hinder my progress and push me further away from truly living simple.

One of my favorite bands ever is MxPx. When I was in college I listened to them a lot, saw a couple of shows. And a song that currently comes to mind is "Tomorrow's Another Day." The lyrics that hit me hard go like this:

"There's nothing quite like being sure of what's inside your heart/It's mostly simple, but not so easy to know just where to start."

See, I think that when anything becomes a trendy thing, it becomes really easy to just do it because you want to fit in, or because you're supposed to. I'm not into that.

Galatians 5 in the Bible starts out in a funny way.

"It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery."

It seems pretty - uh... duh.... - that being freed means we have freedom. But somehow we always want to put restraints on ourselves.

And sometimes for me, those restraints come in the form of feeling like I'm failing because I'm not downsizing fast enough. I didn't find my 15 minutes to declutter today, and now I'm a slave to that guilt. I kinda want to keep this paper and that knick knack.... even if I don't absolutely love them. And that breaks the rules.

Sometimes, I feel like I'll always be too complicated as long as I'm in America. After all, the simple life of America is far more complicated and overrun by technology and distracted by activities than anything they have in 3rd world Africa.

But you know what? I'm finding out that that's okay.

My heart is that I want to live my life in a frugal way, a simple way, and above all a godly way. And in that, I'm not accepting that simple looks like a certain thing. I'm not beating myself up because I don't have it all together and there's more than could be eliminated. I'm happy with where I am, even while I'm happy to journey a little farther.

What simple looks like for me is an honest life of what I love and what I'm called to. And I beg God to never let that look like raising chicken and milking cows on a farm where I take baths in a metal washtub.



This post is part of the Simplicity Theme on Total Mom Haircut.

Comfortable Faith

So, I've been thinking about struggles lately. And I've been rolling my eyes a bit at the struggles we American Christians go through.

I guess this was prompted mainly by a book I read recently called The Heavenly Man. It was very inspiring. This book was written by a Chinese brother who was really persecuted for his faith from the 1970's until 2001, when he finally escaped China and moved to Germany for refuge.

Today, I started studying Galatians because I need some reminders about freedom in Christ, but I actually began by reading Acts 13-14. This is the story of Paul's missionary journey to Galatia. Talk about struggles. Paul consistently faced opposition from those he was trying to reach. But it was never enough for them to just refuse to listen to him. They also wanted to poison others' views of his teaching, too.

So, he was driven out, stoned, persecuted. And Acts 13:52 tells us that he was "continually filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit."

This is nothing short of amazing.

I guess it never ceases to amaze me how caught up we can get in trivial things. We whine about having to cancel cable services because of hard financial times. We get in fights with friends because of politics. And we live in a peaceful place, where no one is hunting us down for preaching Christ. And if they, there are laws in place to punish them.

I don't know... what's my point? We all just need to grow up.

Reality Check

I have a favor to ask, but some of you may not like it too much.

Can we please stop pretending that the New Testament Church was this amazing organism that functioned properly and healthily?

I mean, really...I can't begin to keep track of the number of times I've heard a rant about the modern church quickly followed by, "We just need to get back to the way the New Testament Church was."

Verses such as Acts 2:42-47 get whipped out as evidence of community and mutual love and respect and growth.

But here's the thing...

Acts 2:42-47 happened immediately after a mountain-top experience during Pentacost.

Imagine standing there with multitudes of people, gathered because of a loud raucous-y wind that was none other than the Holy Spirit descending on mere man. As the crowd grows, a man stands up, and you hear preaching in your own language, even though you are a foreigner. Through Peter's compelling message, you turn your heart toward God.

What happens next?

You come home from the gathering (i.e. the summer camp, the women's retreat, whatever it may be) and you start living in a way that is honoring and worthy of God.

And then what?

Then, the high wears off... And the body of Christ stops relying on God and begins to return to their own ways.

It's all over the New Testament, guys.

I was just reading 1 Corinthians today, so here's a perfect example.

1 Corinthians 11:17-19 "In the following directives I have no praise for you, for your meetings do more harm than good. In the first place, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval."

Still sounding functional and healthy? Not so much. (For more dysfunction, check out these verses.)

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that we should be happy to live in disunity and such. Quite the contrary, I agree with Paul when he urges us to keep after the prize.

I think passages like Acts 2:42-47 are great encouragers to remind us of what we are called to. Other passages are throughout the New Testament also.

So, please, let's keep pressing on and being faithful to God, but let's not pretend our humanity is some new problem that the New Testament believers didn't fall prey to, also.

Celebrity Death Match > Driscoll vs. Osteen

Last night I was watching Billy go through his Google Reader (yes, folks...this is my exciting life), and a couple of posts about Joel Osteen came up.

One of them included this video:



Needless to say, it sparked some discussion around here.

So, let me begin stating my opinion by saying that I'm not a "fan" of either of these guys. I think Driscoll's jerky, and I think Osteen is creepy.

And in the end, I think they are both wrong.

Osteen's side is simply stated: We are victors and that is evidenced in our physical and mental lives. We will be taken care of as children of the King to the extent that our physical ailments will be healed and our mental anxieties will be quenched.

Driscoll's take is also simple: Osteen paints too pretty of a Christian picture. Driscoll's rebuttal focuses on how bad life is in the interest of discrediting Osteen's health and wealth gospel. He uses Jesus as an example of how disheartening earthly circumstances can be.

My Authoritative Verdict:

Osteen, of course, is glossing over the truth of John 16:33, which reminds us that we will have trouble. Not all of our problems will vanish simply because we are children of the King.

However, in all Driscoll's passion against Osteen's "heresy," he ignores the truth that is preached from the pulpit of Lakewood Church.

While I think Osteen's application of truth may extend too far, the fact is that he is basing his teachings on promises of scripture, such as 1 Corinthians 15:57, Romans 8:28-39, Matthew 6:33, and Philippians 4:6-8.

But what does Driscoll say about verses such as the ones above -- with the truth that we are more than conquerers (a.k.a. victors), we will have all our financial needs met, and we shouldn't be anxious? In this video, he neglects that Osteen's ideas come from scripture, and he gives all the reasons why these truths are not true.

See, I am not defending Osteen's implications (and at points, his outright statement) that God will heal all physical ailments. But I think this is simply an over-compensation, swinging far from people who are constantly reminding us that this life is hard.

I think Osteen's message is popular because we aren't called to be defeated, and people know this inherently. We aren't called to always focus on how screwed up the church is. We aren't called to simply accept hardship and remain in a victim mentality.

We are called to live with Christ's victory. We are new creations, and we are in Christ.

When this truth permeates our Christian circles, we won't need to have extremists like Osteen remind us that we are children of the Most High God.

When we trust that our position is truly what the Bible says it is, we do have victory, even though we may still have physical pain.

The Rest of God

I've been taking a look at this old school book called Lord, Make my Life a Miracle, by Ray Ortland. I'm not a big fan so far. I find his tone to be quite condescending, and I typically feel like condescension doesn't go too far to spur on results. (I know that my last post probably fell into the condescension area, so I'm not claiming that I'm past that, yet.)

Anyway, I try to look past his tone to see if he has any valid points, and the truth is that he really does.

One thing that he's been talking about is practicing the presence of God (an idea popularized by Brother Lawerence in his book of the same title). He talks of how he tries to enter God's presence every hour, and how that brings him into a habitual state of focusing on God. So, I've been doing that the last few days.

It's been cool.

In addition, I've been reading Hebrews 4 over and over and over, and thinking about the rest that God offers. This has been bringing a lot of peace to me.

So...I don't know. I guess I don't have any higher purpose for this post to just let you know what I've been doing with God lately. It's been cool. :)

Bible Journey > Galatians 5:1-12 > Circumcision or Castration?

Freedom is an amazing gift that God gave when Jesus died for us.

But for some reason, it's so freakin' hard to accept. The longer I walk this journey, the more I love my freedom. The more I appreciate the idea of living in relationship with God instead of in religion toward Him.

But on occasion, I'm still tempted to want to follow the rules.

I'm not alone.

In Galatians 5, Paul reminds his brothers that circumcision is no longer necessary. Rather, it is a harmful thing for a new convert to the Dao of Jesus to participate in.

But no matter what Paul preached, he always had people twisting his words. And this point is no different. Some people were claiming that Paul still preached the benefits of circumcision.

His response to such people?

Go castrate yourself.

Bible Journey > Colossians 3:10

As I slowly plod through my studies, every so often a verse sticks out and compels me to slow down more and really contemplate (and inevitably thanks God for it). The verse that I've been meditating on a lot this week is Colossians 3:10.

I find that as I listen to sermons, read books, or simply have "church" discussions with Billy, I get down on myself more and more that I'm not living up to the standards of who I should be and what I should be doing as a Christian. Now, I'm not talking about works righteousness. I know that I'm righteous through Christ, but I'm talking about the good works that I was created for.

I am currently reading This Beautiful Mess by Rick McKinley, and so many of his words resonate with me. But so many of his ideas only contribute to the guilt that I feel for the amount of money we spend on convenience...the internet, the air conditioning, all the comforts that we take for granted. We spend enough money on our electricity that every month we could buy a goat for a family in India to be able to raise and milk and gain income from.

I'm so far from what I think Christianity lived out is that I often read things like McKinley's book, and rather than feeling inspired, I feel guilty. Why don't I do these things? Why do I talk about service, but use my 6-month-old as an excuse for why I never leave my house?

But Colossians 3:10 was encouraging for me. It reminds me that my newly created self is still in the process of being renewed. That was a comforting thought. The greek word for renewed is in the present participle form, and also importantly in the passive voice. Now what all that grammar lingo (which I absolutely ADORE by the way) means that GOD is at work, right now, in me. And though I have yet to be fully Kingdom-focused, He is constantly renewing me. So, while I'm not yet where I will eventually be, I am on the path, and this faith thing? It isn't a destination.

Bible Journey > Paul's Passion

I went back to Romans 19 today. This Bible study this is the place where my token ADD rears its head.

I was reading of the riot in Ephesus that the idol makers started. I found it interesting that they were mad first that their trade would fail if Christianity overtook Artemis-worship, and then...oh, yeah...Artemis will be degraded. It was more their impending loss of work than their belief in the worship that they were concerned about. How many parallels can we make on that today?

But what really stuck out to me was a couple verses into the account where it talks about Gauis and Aristarchus, two of Paul's companions. My Bible had a couple of cross-references notes and I have a growing fascination regarding who traveled with Paul when, so I checked into some other verses where these men are named.

Long story medium length...it struck me that everywhere Paul went, he seemed to drop someone off and pick someone else up. This speaks strongly of the passion for Christ that is in him and his disciples.

I'm on an upward climb, I think, back toward passion for God. It's been a while since I've felt like Christ's love compelled me the way it did for Paul and his friends. I think one of the things that's exciting to me is to see how community affects this passion.

There are a couple of women in my life right now that have played a big role in getting this momentum going again. One of the is Kara, and the other is Elaine. I am beyond grateful and forever indebted to both of them for their encouragement and love and, above all, their understanding.

It makes me excited to press on and find out some day...who will my passion encourage?

Bible Journey > Colossians 2:2

When I'm not studying for my adventure with Kara, I've been looking at confidence in God. As part of that, my friend Elaine suggested that I read Colossians 3 often. But I wanted to do so in context, so I started at the beginning of the book. This was a month ago.

Tonight, I started at the end of chapter 1 and looked into chapter 2 just a bit.

I stopped when I got to verse 2. Yeah...I'm truckin along.

It was encouraging to read this verse and helped me to gain a little passion back for serving others. After New Life, I felt like people at church weren't worth it. Elaine is helping me to learn that most people will not be interested in truly knowing God, but there will always be a faithful few that want to learn and grow and serve.

So, for them, I cling to Colossians 2:2, "My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding and have the knowledge of God’s mystery, that is, Christ himself"

Bible Journey > Acts 18-19 > The Dao of Jesus

As background for studying Ephesians, Kara and I started in Acts 18, when Paul leaves Corinth to set sail for Jerusalem. Apparently, the boat needed to make multiple stops, which makes sense, and one of those was Ephesus. Here Paul spoke for a couple of weeks, but promptly left to finish fulfilling his vow.

This vow is not completely described, but it was most likely a vow of consecration to God, as outlined in Numbers 6. This is an optional act of devotion that Jewish men and women are able to do, but one of the parts of it is to not cut hair until after the vow is over. The hair is then to be cut at the end of the time and taken to Jerusalem as a burnt offering. And so, this is where Paul was bound.

But he returned to Ephesus and remained there for about 3 years, which was longer than any other one spot in his missionary journeys. In this time, churches were planted all over Asia, which meant that he was sending others out and of course, those coming into Ephesus were returning to their homes to spread the Gospel.

By the middle of chapter 19, we're seeing the spiritual battle between the magicians in Ephesus and the followers of the Way. Because the Spirit of God was so powerful, many magicians revealed their secrets and burned millions of dollars worth of witchcraft paraphernalia. Pretty amazing things.

But one of the things that we loved the most was that Christians were called Followers of the Way. I guess we liked this cause it sounded cool, but as we discussed other culture-related issues (Kara and I can never quite stay on task, and that's what makes our times so much fun!), we talked about the idea of "redeeming" the things of this world for God. That said, it was our newest idea to proclaim ourselve Daoist (a.k.a. Taoist, Follower of the Way). It's a lot more acceptable to be part of an Eastern religion these days, so calling ourselves Daoist reminds us that Christianity, too, is an Eastern religion, that has been taken over by Westerners.

Sure...we're heading over to the far east in our terminology, but that's just a cultural thing, right? People in America today are more tolerant of Buddhists than anything else, so we figure being Daoists will gain us a better audience to share our faith. Ohhh....so sneaky.

Bible Journey > The Concept

So, everyone knows how cool Billy is, and when he gets on a kick, I always want to emulate him. So, on his blog, he's started posting about his Journey through the Bible, and the insights he's gaining as he goes. He'll be writing about each book he finishes, or perhaps more often, I don't really know. You should find some good stuff there.

I decided to try this same thing, but there's a difference for me. As he's going for an overarching view of the story the Bible tells, I'm going for an in-depth study that I haven't really done yet. I'm starting in Acts 18-20 because my friend Kara and I are looking at that together as a preparation for reading Ephesians.

Anyway, this is the concept... as I learn, I'll share. I'll start soon, sometime when I'm not holding this ever-fussing baby.