NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD

We have a record of what Mary said to God, likely prayed it to God, yet it is almost poetic in nature, refined by a middle teens child, more a woman at that age than overindulged contemporary girls now. She worked, hauled water, firewood, gardened, cooked soup, gathered eggs, baked bread, washed clothes by hand. She had seen other women give birth. She knew how babies came. She was in the betrothal year of an arranged marriage when Gabriel, an angelic creature convincingly communicated with her. Her childlike faith believed his forecast that she would now bear an adult-sized responsibility. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil 4:13). She was unfamiliar with those words, which were written five decades later by Paul whose life was transformed by the person to whom Gabriel announced she would give birth. She did however understand the inner peace about which Paul would write. The conception of the embryo within her without human impregnation was incomprehensible then even as it is now. Gabriel told her, "nothing is impossible with God." She told Gabriel, "I am the Lord's servant. May it be to me as you have said." And it was.

A SUPER NATURAL BABY FOR MARY

Mary and Jesus by Ron Unruh, 2011

Luke 1:32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."

What immediately comes to my mind is the divine sovereignty of the baby who will be born to this unwed virgin woman, a girl really, to whom the angel Gabriel announced this unprecedented, never to be repeated event. Her name is Mary and God's Holy Spirit, who hovered over the waters at creation, will come upon her, overshadow her really, and when he does, conception will occur, immaculate to say the least, impeccable, flawless, faultless, without a trace of sexuality, simply divine origination, the Word becoming flesh. The Word, who spoke and without whom nothing was created that was created, became a human being to grow up and to live among our kind. He became part of our history. His name would be called Jesus. Without sin of any kind in word, deed or even thought, he, the Son of God, entered earth's population in order to be put to death in a most public manner, not for the purpose of exacting human justice, but for the inexplicable purpose of atoning for human sinners' sins. God gave his Son. Everyone who believes in the Son receives not only forgiveness but life in the name of Jesus. Life that will transcend this life and thereafter to live forever with the Father, just as Jesus himself does now. And even when he was here, Jesus encouraged us to call his Father, our Father. Christ's kingdom will be forever, the angel told Mary, and the Bible instructs us that this kingdom is now, already, here in us, over us, around us. It's a secure place in which by faith we live while within the cultures of this world we serve as kingdom lights and kingdom salt. We help people see and taste that the LORD Jesus was the visible image of the invisible God when he was here and that he is presently the one who will gather us home where there is in store for us more than our minds can imagine. In the meantime, he is able to do for us very much more than everything that we may ask of him. 

CHANGing CHURCHES & CHANGing FAITHS

People change church affiliation and membership. As many as 40% of North Americans do. This can be a simple denominational change but is occasionally a conversion from one faith system to another, or even bailing on religion.

PERSONAL PIETY

How is personal piety expressed? I didn't even ask how should it be expressed. That would have inferred a prescriptive formula or instruction, perhaps even an edict. The church has historically been effective at stating expectations of those who practice Christian faith, using measurables such as frequency of church attendance, generous financial contributions, willing service, consistent Bible reading and prayer. The accent on 'personal' piety may diminish in such cultures to become 'corporate' piety. The church must remind itself that it is not fashioned after an Old Testament model with regulations for dress code, diets, relationships, contracts, and benevolence and with harsh penalties for wrongdoing. Christ's arrival transitioned God's people into a family that enjoys the privilege of calling God, 'Father.' Personal piety pertains primarily to relationship with Father.

A church comprised of believers eager to be authentic must articulate a definition for personal piety that distinguishes between authoritative and advisory recommendations. Such distinction contrasts posturing and sincerity. It's the difference between telling and showing, between ordering and mentoring. Genuine personal piety is principally private. By that I mean that if it is unaffected piety, it is real to God as well as the believer even when no one else observes the indicators. Observably, genuine piety affects relationships with others in every arena of life but that is the outcome rather than the motive. 

  

INTERSEX FISH & REASON FOR REDEMPTION

U.S. Geological Survey results of intersex fish in America were disclosed this week indicating that one out of five male black bass in American river basins have egg cells growing inside their sexual organs. It is a confirmation of widespread fish feminization that has been reported in recent years. The finding is linked to women's birth control pills and other hormone treatments that seep into rivers.

Before I offer further details I will shine an incomparable light on this news story. I need your momentary indulgence. The Bible provides the wattage with a fascinating statement.

“I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.” Romans 8:18-27 (New International Version)

Humanity is frequently arrogant or inconsiderate with respect to treatment of creation. The 6% of 1500 male freshwater fish that have become feminized is just the latest evidence of our carelessness in creation. Endocrine-disrupting hormones such as estrogen from medicines are he current link to intersex fish which is a general warning about what some experts see as a wider problem of endocrine disruptors in the environment.

Aboriginal spirituality often demonstrates greater reverence for what God has made than do Christian faiths. The redemption spoken of earlier assumes that character and attitudes and actions change when God recreates a person through faith. Creation is frustrated by the blunders and faults of humanity, and the greatest expectation is that this redemption will one day be completed and then creation too will be liberated.

The apostle Paul writing to the Christians in first century Rome reminded them that their lives were not all about survival here. In fact their lives were future oriented and in order to posses that prospect each of them would experience the fulfillment of the spiritual transition that had already begun inside them by their faith. The word used for this process is ‘redemption.’ This redemption upon completion will include believers’ physical bodies and that event will be an indescribable liberation. That human emancipation will affect the welfare of all creatures and toward that hope all of creation yearns.

IM, YOUTH, TECHNOLOGY & CHANGING LIFE & CHANGING CHURCH

I know the world is changing and will change more quickly than I know. My grandchildren at 2, 3, and 4 years of age opened the laptops and went online to network games, mouse around and use the keyboard. Now they are preteens and now what. Look at their peers now.

They are instant messaging each other when they wake, walk, eat and drive, yikes! A major shift is occurring along demographic fault lines in the use of technology. It is a shift in how younger people are interacting with one another. Of course those who are thirty years and older are using IM and Facebook and other networking venues to stay connected with colleagues and friends and their own children. However, teens and twenties today are using technology as no other generation before them has done and for that reason they will change the way work is done. They process tasks at incredible speeds. They write essays while tweeting. They hang out at MySpace not Starbucks. Their use of digital technology is changing society, organizations and the way business is done. It cannot be held back. And this young generation is entering the workforce.

Richard Leyland of Unwired in an article entitled, "Prepare for the Next Generation – Today’s Teens will Change the Way We Work," asks four questions in order to describe what we can expect from the IM Generation.
1. How do they use technology? IM is foundational to their lives communications rather than additional as with older generations. They have developed the skill of absorbing relevant snippets while surfing connections.
2. What skills will they bring? They will multitask, make complex immediate connections, quickly create, access and swap information and collaborate with one or many people.
3. What won’t work? Traditional authority structures, formal communication style, daily office presence and reporting, dull and repetitive jobs will not work. The IM generation wants to contribute and influence outcomes, operating informally and immediately, work nomadically from home, café or beach being utterly dependent on technology and information accessibility.
4. Should this worry us? Yes and No. Yes, because it requires every organization to adjust to these realities and take advantage of them. No, because their skills are suited to this emerging knowledge economy.

Application:

Can the church close the gap between its Message and the IM generation?
If the bottom line is that the Church must embrace new technologies, then what kind of personnel will the church need to employ?
In the ever-changing technology landscape, churches wanting to maintain their relevance, have to consider new options to be the connected family of God.

CHANGING THE GOSPEL MODEL TO REACH NEWER GENERATIONS

People who are stanch advocates of the veracity of the Christian Gospel will find it difficult to entertain the notion that a modified gospel may be necessary to reach different generations. After all, the celebrated good news is only ‘good’ because it remedies something so horribly ‘bad.’ Allow me to describe first the conventional understanding of the Gospel, and then suggest a conversation point.

Here is an abbreviated gospel summary. God is holy and created the first human creatures with the capacity to obey or defy God’s command. Although the consequence of disobedience was unambiguous, the insubordination of early humans infected all humanity subjecting it to God’s wrath and the punishment of death and hell after physical death. The good news comes because God’s mercy provided His divine Son Jesus Christ as a stand-in to experience God’s punishment and all who with simple trust in Christ as God’s Son and personal Saviour are exempted from this punishment because they are adjudicated as righteous now.

That’s the model with which the Christian Church has developed. What if the newest generations, like the iGens do not identify with the presenting issues that compel people to respond to God’s grace? What if iGens do not possess a sense of morality, which is a robust sense of right and wrong? That is the premise of Alan Mann’s book, Atonement for a Sinless Society. If you are going to stake you eternal hope of Jesus based on a sense that without him we are wrong and sinful and condemned, Mann argues that the iGen doesn’t feel that need. He believes that iGens do not feel guilt for sin as much as they feel ashamed when they don’t achieve something they should accomplish.

So the notion then develops that a different model of the gospel and of evangelism is required to reach these generations. Instead of heaping on the guilt, inundate them with the life of Jesus. Teach the life of Jesus, live out the life of Jesus and ultimately make him real. This is Jesus as seen in the lives of people genuinely filled with compassion rather than Jesus as revealed by institutional religion. They will like Jesus but perhaps not the church. The church may be too political, judgmental, organized, fundamentalist and chauvinistic whereas Jesus is obvious and real in the lives of believers who listen, help, serve, and heal.

Alan Mann, Atonement for a Sinless Society
Dan Kimball, They Like Jesus But Not the Church: Insights from Emerging Generations. Kimball on Youtube
Scot McKnight, The Blue Parakeet
Images of Jesus personality profile designed by North England Institute for Christian Education

Read Scot McKnight’s article The Gospel for iGens in the summer issue of Leadership Journal at LeadershipJournal.net

What are the real lessons here? I am pretty sure I don't have to answer this for you. I have to pull up my socks.

DISILLUSIONMENT AS A GIFT?

Some friends and I have been e-talking lately about the number of people who are disillusioned by church. The discussion was prompted by the book title "So you don't want to go to church anymore" written by Wayne Jacobson and Dave Coleman. Our interaction has included views that are sympathetic to the disillusioned and some that are ticked off by the disillusioned.

One of the lines of thought I have had is this.

Illusions are false beliefs. Illusions can lead to disappointment. To be disappointed when something proves to be false is often regarded as unfortunate but with disappointment there may be no mechanism or personal will to change the condition. To be disillusioned is the state of being free of illusion(s). This should be regarded as wholesome, shouldn’t it? Disillusionment goes beyond disappointment because it accomplishes the beneficial result of freedom from illusions, from false beliefs. To disillusion is to cause to lose naive faith and trust in something that is not true anyway. It is the act of freeing from an illusion.

Could you stretch your language appreciation enough to see disillusionment as a gift? Might it be possible that God calls some people to plant seeds of disillusionment among their peers? If your immediate reaction is a horrified NO, then indulge me for a moment or two. Our common understanding of what it means to be disillusioned, is to be cynical, indifferent, negative, and
discouraging. Since these are not qualities or attitudes that harmonize with saintly traits, we conclude disillusionment is mistaken and God would certainly not encourage it. But we misunderstand disillusionment.

What I am asking us to consider is the true meaning of disillusionment. It has received a bad rap among Christians by being lumped with moaners and protesters. If we are faithful to language, then we must concur that becoming disillusioned is essential to awakening to the truth.

Application

Illusions or deceptions, false impressions and misapprehensions are not to be adopted by people who have been born again to be free. The truth shall set you free. Disillusionment is the process of being stripped of falsehoods no matter how comfortable or kosher or right they have seemed to be. And this may entail a tedious, continuous work and very delicate and painful when it involves the life and practices of the church. Disillusionment may irritate and disrupt the ardently defended norms of our Christian or church culture, yet if it can show that some long held ideas and claims are untrue, won’t that be a good result?

FREE IN CHRIST OR REBELLIOUS

The free person in Christ and the rebellious will always look the same to those who labor under religious obligation, because both ignore the conventions that govern men and women. But there is a major difference between the two. The rebel does it to serve himself and his passions, always harming others in the process and leaving a wake of anarchy behind him. The free person in Christ, however, does so because they no longer have a need to serve themselves. Having embraced God's love at a far deeper level than any method of behavioural conformity will touch, they will guard that freedom even if it means others will misunderstand their pursuits. They reject the conventions of control not to please themselves, but Father Himself. - This paragraph is from Wayne Jacobsen’s explanation of the passion that drives his Lifestream Ministries.

LOVING YOUR CHILDREN ENOUGH

Some parents care about their children's spiritual destiny.
What follows is a personal opinion, born from experience. If you profess to be a Christian and you are a parent of young children, the clearest indicator of your own theology and the authenticity of your confession of faith is the consistent effort you make to provide your own children with the indispensable information that enables them to have a relationship with the God of the universe, and the model your own life exhibits that this relationship is a priority for you. If they are hearing it from you and seeing it in you, your theology is on target. It matters that you love them and it’s rewarding that they love you, but they need to know that they are loved by God and that they are at home in his presence rather than disassociated. Be certain that they do not miss out on what should be their inheritance.

WRATH OF GOD - ATTRIBUTE or ATTITUDE?

Wrath of God

Is wrath an attribute of God? Is wrath a feature of God's nature or is it something else? In answering, will we emphasize cultural acceptability or biblical truth?

Preacher and theologian A.W. Pink lived from 1886-1952 and he made no apology for regarding the wrath of God as one of God's attributes. He stated this with some condescension for professing Christians who chose not to speak about it, or felt that it was a blemish on God's character, or that it was not consistent with God's love and goodness.

Today, more than half a century since Pink's death, the debate continues as to whether wrath is a feature of God's nature and character. One argument is that God is perfect, so even his wrath against sin is perfect, not vindictive or malicious. Another viewpoint is that wrath does sound old fashioned and out of touch with our sensibilities.

RETHINKING GODLINESS

One might expect that a former pastor and teacher now past his apportioned three score and ten years of life, would not only possess a superior understanding of godliness, but also would be living within a state of godliness. I concur with the expectation but I question that it can be assumed that a pastor or any Christian is living life that way because so much can be feigned, pretended. A senior often moves slowly, speaks infrequently, smiles tranquilly and perhaps conceals a world of hurt and trauma and fear and perhaps anger.

I admire writers but I am also weary of writers who multiply titles with trite formulaic approaches to subjects as profound as godliness. 10 disciplines of a godly man.  10 characteristics of a godly man. 10 steps to a godly life. I reject or strongly react against this methodic, mechanical spirituality. I refuse a suggestion that having accomplished the ten steps one receives a virtual graduation certificate. I prefer to understand the pursuit of godliness as a constant way of living in relationship with God.

I want to be a godly man. That is at least the starting point. If I am going to be godly, godlike, then I appreciate that I need to be with Him. I need to know him and let him know me in the sense of talking my life to him. Of course I understand that knowing God requires learning what he has told me about himself in scripture, and yes I know talking to him with regularity is prayer. I want to disassociate rules and guilt from my definition of godliness. That would seem to me an advancement, a superior understanding of godliness. I desire a steady and developing confident daily life of conscious interaction with God’s Spirit so that I know I am in step with him, and from that righteous centre-point I trust, think, act, talk, read, write and help others. I can then even try new things, step out in faith, surprise myself and be surprised by God. In the course of this everyday holiness, God’s attributes become evident in me and God is reflected in me and He is pleased.

BE CAREFUL HOW YOU MEASURE SPIRITUALITY

Fundamentalist and evangelical Christians are known for drafting creeds of right beliefs and right conduct to separate themselves from the world. Some of the lists by which you may have lived your life might include abstaining from certain foods and drinks and practices that other mainstream Christians feel are harmless. Lists tend to lead to self-righteousness and the opinion that the more you abstain, the more spiritual you are. Isn’t that the way it goes? The more fastidiously you comply with rules of self-denial the greater your holiness. Well that doesn’t wash with Paul. For him, the mark of true religion is not a rigorous compliance to rules of self-denial, but rather faith in Christ and a life in his Spirit. What finally defines true Christianity is "being in Christ," where God's grace transforms people into an alternative faith community. Any definition of Christianity that substitutes regulations of self-denial for self-transformation by the grace of God is spiritually impoverished and finally useless.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT? WHAT AM I DOING HERE?

The Teacher doesn’t want people to become so attached to life here on planet earth, that they become convinced this is all that there is. The Teacher as he calls himself in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, paints a dreary picture of life as a drudgery. Perhaps it is overkill. There is an accuracy about his observations however. He views everything as meaningless, and that is partly because he views all of life as cyclical and recurrent rather than unique and progressive.

The world experiences the turnover of generations, the repetitive cycle of the sun, the endless incessant pattern of wind currents, the perpetual round of rivers to the sea becoming vapour and rain and then seas again. The writer's own familiar words in Ecclesiastes 1:4-7 are these:
"Generations come and generations go,
but the earth remains forever."
"The sun rises and the sun sets,
and hurries back to where it rises."
"The wind blows to the south
and turns to the north; round and round it goes,
ever returning on its course."
"All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again."

Always there are questions. What is it all for? What’s it all about? What is it good for? Why am I here? What am I doing? It’s a bit of a set up really because the Author is going to give an answer. The author's intent is not to cast a pessimistic pall over the reader's life, but rather to improve our understanding of priorities. In the previous post I recited verse 3 which asks, "What do people gain from all their labours 
at which they toil under the sun?" Under the sun is a key idea and it means in this present world. God has not intended for us the live life with an exclusive 'under the sun' perspective. Then redundancy becomes obvious. We are more than mere creatures of earth, breakfast, lunch dinner and bed; breakfast, lunch, dinner and dead. The Father's House is the compelling goal and being here is preparatory. Enjoy life but don't let it be everything, all that you care about. Don't commit merely to the cycle that repeats, but by faith become transformed so you can be with Christ where he is.

LIVING LIFE FOR OURSELVES IS NOTHING MORE THAN SOAP BUBBLES

Meaningless! says the Teacher. Utterly meaningless!
 Everything is meaningless” In fact this dismal theme brackets the entire book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament (1:2 and 12:8).

Nevertheless, the author has a purpose and here it is. You don’t hear this immediately upon reading the first two chapter but the author extends an invitation to enjoy life as a gift from God. "A person can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in their own toil. This too, I see, is from the hand of God, for without him, who can eat or find enjoyment? To the person who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind." (2:24-26).

Before announcing that life is a gift from God to enjoy, the author realistically prepares for that conclusion by speaking to the restlessness of life (1:1- 11). So much in life appears to be futile and worthless when viewing life from a leave- God - out - of the - picture, secular worldview. Therefore the author completes the corollary. Life is a gift from God to be enjoyed but without God life is hollow.

EVERYTHING IS MEANINGLESS

What kind of world are we living in? No matter how it may be described, God does have a word for us. It comes in Ecclesiastes, one of the canonical wisdom books. Ecclesiastes is a series of lectures in the Old Testament that speak about life, reality, and values for wise and successful living. Ecclesiastes has sometimes been misunderstood or neglected.  Some have considered it to be the strangest book in the Bible. The author has been accused of scepticism, fatalism, and pessimism. That's not an accurate appraisal. I recommend the following perspective. Approach the book with an open mind. Discard unflattering assumptions. It is possible to understand what the author was communicating to an Old Testament community of faith and to discern robust recommendations and warnings about life and for living in this age.

The descriptor "son of David" identifies the author as a male and although the author's personal name has not been divulged, the options are narrowed. "The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem …" (1:1). From among David's sons, it was Solomon who had a reputation for communicating wisdom and truth. He is called qoheleth meaning teacher as he takes on the role of a sage, a wise man, a scholar, a wise and older tutor of wisdom.  Like other sages of his day, Solomon spoke to the young people of his day. His primary audience was young adults embarking on life and making decisions about their priorities, their values, and their purposes in life.

The author begins the book by describing everything in life as vanity or meaningless. “Meaningless! Meaningless! says the Teacher. 
Utterly meaningless!
 Everything is meaningless” (1:2). How long would you stay with a counsellor who spoke like that? He must have something more to say. 
He does.