Get a good spiritual work out

At the time, discipline isn't much fun. It always feels like it's going against the grain. Later, of course, it pays off handsomely, for it's the well-trained who find themselves mature in their relationship with God. So don't sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it! - Hebrews 11:11-13

Read this passage a few times to let it sink in. We have incredible opportunities to have a continually deepening relationship with God. The NRSV translates a part of the passage "Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees." The writer is not teaching a few Christian stragglers to workout spiritually, he is talking to all of us. We all need a continual spiritual workout.

Starting Saturday, March 5^th you can get the spiritual workout WE ALL need to deepen our faith in God. We are going to have a spiritual campaign called 40 Days of Purpose to give us the structure and setting in order to commit ourselves as a group to spiritual growth.

Please pray that God will touch your heart and strengthen to develop a deep and meaningful spiritual workout. Perhaps 40 Days of Purpose is just what you need.

The Double Speak of Glenn Beck

On Saturday, Glenn Beck staged a good event on the Washington Mall. He left his hot headed political rhetoric for an appeal to put God first and bring honor and truth back to America. Being optimistic, I accepted the event as his way of saying that he is through with the slander and hate speech for which he is famous.

Honor and truth are EXACTLY what this country needs to bring healing and reconciliation between warring factions in both the political and spiritual life of our country. A significant part of the word honor means that you will speak in a way that gives honor to who you are. The word honor also presupposes that you will do your best to honor other people even as they have opinions with which you disagree. Truth is also a great word for society today. Both sides of the religious and political spectrum speak untruth to outright lies in order to sway public opinion. If we in America can HONOR one another and ourselves by telling the TRUTH instead of half truths, and blatant lies, then our country would be moving in the right direction.

However, I highly doubt that Glenn Beck will get us to the place of honor and truth. In the past honor has not been a word that fits Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck, himself, has used the word "clown" to define himself. Clowns tend to find honor somewhat meaningless. Getting center stage and a good laugh are the focus. Not only has Beck devalued honor, his show on Fox has been filled with distortions of the truth on a regular basis. He also believes his own personal opinion is the truth while other people's opinions are lies. So when Glenn Beck hosts an event to restore honor and reclaim truth, I assumed that he was experiencing a conversion of sorts (see my previous blog about Glenn Beck). I talked in church about the Restoring Honor in America Rally, hoping Glenn Beck was telling the truth when he said that his event was ordained by God.

Unfortunately, in listening to Glenn Beck since Saturday, I am disheartened to see that he is not able to seek honor in his own life less than 24 hours after his rally. On Sunday, Beck challenged Obama's Christianity. This accusation both dishonors Beck and maligns Obama genuine faith. In today's television show, Beck did focus on the need for a spiritual conversion of our country. However Beck spent more time self aggrandizing and pointing out that he was being attacked by both the main stream and liberal media. I agree that he was attacked by some media, but I thought he was going to rise to a higher level than they. I was wrong.

In worship on Sunday, I asked everyone to thoughtful listen to how theological terms are used in politics. Be open to learn but also cautious. The best way to protect ourselves from being misled is to read the bible, pray, and discuss with one another what we see in the news and in the media. By reading the bible we will be able to tell the truth from lies and have a deeper and more meaningful faith.

Hosea 4:6 (NIV) My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

James 3:1-5 (NRSV) Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. If we put bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire!

Ecological Catastrophe and the Uneasy Evangelical Conscience

Ecological Catastrophe and the Uneasy Evangelical Conscience

Please read this great article on the Oil Spill in the Gulf!

Prayer poem

"WORD- Madeleine L'Engle

I, who live by words, am wordless when
I try my words in prayer. All language turns
To silence. Prayer will take my words and then
Reveal their emptiness. The stifled voice learns
To hold its peace, to listen with the heart
To silence that is joy, is adoration.
The self is shattered, all words torn apart
In this strange patterned time of contemplation
That, in time, breaks time, breaks words, breaks me
And then, in silence, leaves me healed and mended.
I have returned to language, for I see
Through words, even when all words are ended,
I, who live by words, am wordless when
I turn me to the Word to pray.
Amen."

Pentecost Thoughts

Brian McLaren writes about Pentecost

On the grass-roots level, there are tens of thousands of Christians who aren't waiting for denominational leaders to fix things. They're just getting on with it. They're doing it, living it, making it real in their lives, in their neighborhoods, through small groups and mission trips and so on. When you have leaders at the top working for needed change, and people at the grass roots doing the same, and when you're confident that the Holy Spirit is behind it all, eventually the tide will turn and a new day will come.

The Holy Spirit has power to move in ways we cannot comprehend. Be ready for the mystery and miracle of Pentecost!

The spiritual discipline of giving

Mollie Ziegler Hemingway wrote a great article about church giving as a spiritual discipline.

Click here to get it. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704671904575193933487214328.html

Christian Environmentalism

The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world and all that live in it. Psalm 24:1

The earth is not ours, it is the Lord's. Human needs and interests are not the focus of the Christian life, but rather, praising God and loving God are the focus of the Christian life. Unfortunately, we forget to put God first, all too often, as humans and as Christians. This Earth Day, I hope we all see that God did not create forests, rivers, fish and animals as resources exclusively for humans to use as we see fit. Whether overfishing, or polluting waters, or using fossil fuels the question arises, "how are my choices showing my thankfulness that God has created this beautiful planet in which I dwell?"

As sincere Christians, let us join together and care about our planet and all the living creatures that God has made. Today human activity threatens the extinction of a growing number of plants and animals. Often economics are brought into the argument around what to do. "Save Jobs Not Owls". Then tree huggers talk about the sacredness of all life, as if each plant and animal is worthy of worship. Maybe now is the time for a Christian voice that reminds us that every species of every living thing was created by God and God called all of creation GOOD. Let Christians do our part to keep all of God's creation vibrant and thriving so that our children can see it and call God's creation good.