Spirit Gives Birth To Spirit

I am reading "what good is God?" by Philip Yancy.  It is a collection of speeches he was invited to give and one was to an Alcoholics Anonymous group. In it he compares the church to AA. In AA, everyone knows that they are an addict and that they are utterly dependent on God to give them strength. To keep them from that first drink. To better their character and help them make amends to all the people they have hurt (and to the ones that they are hurting now).  Church is often quite the opposite. In church, we can be lured into the trap of the Pharisees, whom Jesus called "White-washed tombs." They looked so good to other people by keeping up appearances, but were filled with stinking filth on the inside. It is the trap of righteousness: when you begin to feel that you are better than others, closer to God, or that you know the truth when others do not. Jesus warned us of this path. But to often in church, we shy away from the truth that we are sinners and that we

My favorite story in the old testament is the story of Elijah's encounters with God when he escaped from certain death by the hand of Jezebel in 1 Kings 19.  Elijah barely escapes with his life, and runs out into the wilderness.  At the point of death, God comes to him and cares for him. 4  But [Elijah] himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree; and he asked that he might die, saying, “It is enough; now, O  Lord , take away my life; for I am no better than my fathers.”  5  And he lay down and slept under a broom tree; and behold, an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.”  6  And he looked, and behold, there was at his head a cake baked on hot stones and a jar of water. And he ate and drank, and lay down again.  7  And the angel of the  Lord  came again a second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, else the journey will be too great for you.”  8  And he arose, and ate and drank, and went in the strength

"Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord" -Isaiah 1:18. How does God come to you?  Like a whirlwind, like a bolt of lightning?  This is not my experience or the experience of most of the people in the Bible, nor was it the experience of the first disciples (in Luke 5).  He comes like a living being with a personality, inviting you to stop and listen.   God did this over and over in the Old Testament. In the New Testament we see God doing the same thing through Jesus, God made flesh. Here is how he called his first disciples: He was teaching a crowd within earshot of the fishermen. First he invites you to listen. Then he asks you to inconvenience yourself for him. He got into Simon Peter's boat and asked that he put out from the shore so he could teach the people from there. (Luke 5:3)  Then, once you are willing and a little invested, he asks you to do something that you have probably done a million times before, but he invites you to see different resu

I have begun meditating daily. It's benefits have been immediate and far reaching in my thought life and it has brought me a lot of joy.  To prove it, I will relate a story. Yesterday I came home from work and was really in my head.  Running old tapes over and over about how I had screwed up at work.  My conclusions are always that I am unintelligent and I am doomed to make mistakes and doomed to the disapproval of others.  My wife noticed my state and suggested that I meditate again.  She said this because she knew how much it had affected me positively the day before.  I had meditated for the first time the day before and had found that I was filled with such joy and peace afterwards.  And it was not an unfounded, manic joy.. it was a soft, warm, peaceful joy.  I felt rooted in my identity as a child of God and happy with myself.      So I decided to take her suggestion and meditate again.. after all, I thought to myself, it only takes five minutes and the benefits the day befor

Based on my experience with directed prayer at church this weekend, I have decided to start meditating.  To make a point to me, God used a little serendipity: I was thinking about my experience this weekend (see previous blog post) and a news report came on.  It was about the Good Morning America anchor who had a panic attack on live TV.  He had resolved to do something about the stress in his life and found that meditation was the thing to do.  He even wrote a book on it called "10% Happier".  Here is a link to the news story.   http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/dan-harris-panic-attack-anchors-book-10-percent-22861100 To do this for yourself: 1. Sit comfortably with your hands in your lap.  I like to sit cross legged but that is not necessary.  But you should be sitting up straight. 2. Close your eyes and focus on your breath going in and out.  As thoughts come, simply refocus on your breath. 3. Take a phrase from scripture and repeat it to yourself.  As your thoughts wa

At church today we were asked to meditate on the phrase, "do not be afraid, I am with you." I closed my eyes and fought back the feelings of failure at work, uncertainties in finances, and the death of a family member...  Always coming back to the phrase.  I began to have a vision.  I saw Jesus, standing in the middle of a dark room, holding a ball of light.  Bolts of lightning flew out from his hands and landed on the heads of a crowd of people standing in front of him.  I then noticed that it was me, standing there in Jesus' place and the bolts of lightning became soft rays of light, falling on people's foreheads. On reflecting on this, I think it means that Jesus prepares people with the beginning of the Gospel that reaches out to them and strikes them like lightning.  Then we are to shed light on those beginnings and illuminate the way forward, by giving human feet to the gospel message. Later I was comforted in my worries by the remembrance of two scripture

"If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you."-Jesus Christ What is it in you that you can bring forth to share with the world? Is it love, patience, kindness for strangers? Are you a database administrator, lawyer, doctor? All these things can work together for the kingdom of God that is within you. And Jesus said that the kingdom is like a mustard seed... the smallest seed that grows into one of the largest trees. God will multiply your efforts and make you effective if you devote yourself to sharing the kingdom with those around you. I believe that it is a place in the heart where everyone gives up their vices as they are transformed into the creatures God intended for them to be. It is something that is within you that bleeds out into the world. The effects of the kingdom coming are not the world itself, for that is not the kingdom, but the ef

If your Christianity is compromising your security, if the sacrifices you are making make you uncomfortable, remember that 10 of the 12 original disciples died as martyrs. Is your belief that radical? Do you believe you should gamble everything to bring God to this world, to bring peace, to bring justice? The exchange that takes place between you and God, I think, is that you give up more and more pieces of yourself, and for every piece that you give, he fills the void with love. And this love will lead you to do things that you would never have done in your old life. For every thing that you give up, God will fill you with furious desire to love this world and the people in it.  If you feel dead in your faith, if you feel unmoved by the gospel, look into your heart.  What have you given up to God lately?  What attitudes, resources, money, have you turned over to him?