In today’s church, personal experience is held in higher regard than what God says. Everyone has his opinions, his perspectives, his iniquities. The enemy’s relentless attack on the family and the unity of the church has left us stupid and unguarded, yet full of strange conceit. In my church, this manifests as a subconscious pride in being “charismatic” or Spirit-filled. “Well, at least I’m not a Methodist or a Catholic or a fundamentalist.”
If we (the American church) knew what God says about children, would we still make it a goal to prevent birth?
Why is it the norm for Christian mothers to work outside the home?
Why do Christian men avoid church, or slink away from the consequences of truth while they’re in church?
Why isn’t the church telling the truth? Is it because we know that if we start to embrace truth, people will certainly get angry and leave? Does watering down the Word or tiptoeing around God’s perspectives really help anyone? What was Jesus’ example? Paul’s?
We are distracted by what God is saying and doing in other places. Some might think, I wish I could go to the oasis, the place where God is moving, so I could have a refreshing drink. (I’ve thought this before.) But God wants to give us a drink right where we are, and then He wants to slake others through us. Assuming we lived a hundred years ago before television, satellites, Internet, fast mail and easy access to books, how would the local church be spending its time? What would it have to guide its functioning and behavior?
Why are we afraid of questions?
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Let a woman quietly receive instruction with entire submissiveness. But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet. For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve. And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression. But women shall be saved (preserved) through the bearing of children if they continue in faith and love and sanctity with self-restraint. 1 Timothy 2:9-15
Let the women keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but let them subject themselves, just as the Law also says. And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper (disgraceful) for a woman to speak in church. 1 Corinthians 14:34, 35
Horrible. Horrible! Passages like these make me wince. I doubt they were surprising, provocative, or controversial in the First Century, though. A patriarchal society was the norm for the Jews and most of their neighbors. A patriarchal society is what God established and ordained, throughout the Word, Old and New Testaments. Here’s the divine order:
GOD
MAN
WOMAN
CHILDREN
Several years ago, I had set my heart on devoting some serious study to the roles of men, women, and children in the home and in church life. I had a lot on my mind--divorce and abortion statistics, the widespread acceptance of preventing life (birth control), the fact that moms are working instead of raising their children. I remember feeling very grieved because the church of Jesus Christ seemed to possess the same attitudes and behaviors as the surrounding culture. Instead of the church affecting the world, the world was affecting the church. These thoughts and prayers were what was swirling around in my spirit just before Inscrutable Girl reached out to touch me for the first time.
Now I am thinking about them again.
Women have gotten used to covering their husbands, instead of the other way around. And men are accustomed to letting women run the works, thinking they’ll somehow escape responsibility, accountability, work. The church is up to its eyeballs in the lie of the culture. The lie is very simple: men as fathers, husbands, and leaders are basically unnecessary.
Masculinity in America is a handicap, a social problem. A boy's inherent maleness needs to be trained out of him, sedated, withered. He needs to learn to be nice, even when that means lying or keeping silent.
God is calling men. He wants men to lead. This isn’t a new revelation. There isn’t going to be any way to compromise what God has said or find a middle ground to make everyone happy. No. Either the church will embrace the plan and purpose of God in humble submission to His strange and marvelous ways, or else it will stagger and reel into bed with Babylon the Harlot.
Paul: “I want the men...to pray.” 1 Timothy 2:8
Let the women keep silent in the churches; for they are not permitted to speak, but let them subject themselves, just as the Law also says. And if they desire to learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home; for it is improper (disgraceful) for a woman to speak in church. 1 Corinthians 14:34, 35
Horrible. Horrible! Passages like these make me wince. I doubt they were surprising, provocative, or controversial in the First Century, though. A patriarchal society was the norm for the Jews and most of their neighbors. A patriarchal society is what God established and ordained, throughout the Word, Old and New Testaments. Here’s the divine order:
GOD
MAN
WOMAN
CHILDREN
Several years ago, I had set my heart on devoting some serious study to the roles of men, women, and children in the home and in church life. I had a lot on my mind--divorce and abortion statistics, the widespread acceptance of preventing life (birth control), the fact that moms are working instead of raising their children. I remember feeling very grieved because the church of Jesus Christ seemed to possess the same attitudes and behaviors as the surrounding culture. Instead of the church affecting the world, the world was affecting the church. These thoughts and prayers were what was swirling around in my spirit just before Inscrutable Girl reached out to touch me for the first time.
Now I am thinking about them again.
Women have gotten used to covering their husbands, instead of the other way around. And men are accustomed to letting women run the works, thinking they’ll somehow escape responsibility, accountability, work. The church is up to its eyeballs in the lie of the culture. The lie is very simple: men as fathers, husbands, and leaders are basically unnecessary.
Masculinity in America is a handicap, a social problem. A boy's inherent maleness needs to be trained out of him, sedated, withered. He needs to learn to be nice, even when that means lying or keeping silent.
God is calling men. He wants men to lead. This isn’t a new revelation. There isn’t going to be any way to compromise what God has said or find a middle ground to make everyone happy. No. Either the church will embrace the plan and purpose of God in humble submission to His strange and marvelous ways, or else it will stagger and reel into bed with Babylon the Harlot.
Paul: “I want the men...to pray.” 1 Timothy 2:8
Monday, April 21, 2008
The Lamb is a Lion
This is a song by Michael Card, and it's from the first CD I ever purchased with my own money (I think I was about 15). It's been in my head the past month or two.
The Lamb is a Lion
Weak from the journey, the long traveling days
Hungry to worship, to join in the praise
Shock met with anger that burned on His face
As He entered the wasteland of that barren place
Chorus
And the Lamb is a Lion who's roaring with rage
At the empty religion that's filling their days
They'll flee from the harm
Of the Carpenter's strong arm
And come to know the scourging anger of the Lord
Priests and the merchants demanded some proof
For their hearts were hardened and blind to the truth
That Satan's own law is to sell and to buy
But God's only way is to give and to die
Chorus
The noise and confusion gave way to His Word
At last sacred silence so God could be heard
Chorus
The Lamb is a Lion
Weak from the journey, the long traveling days
Hungry to worship, to join in the praise
Shock met with anger that burned on His face
As He entered the wasteland of that barren place
Chorus
And the Lamb is a Lion who's roaring with rage
At the empty religion that's filling their days
They'll flee from the harm
Of the Carpenter's strong arm
And come to know the scourging anger of the Lord
Priests and the merchants demanded some proof
For their hearts were hardened and blind to the truth
That Satan's own law is to sell and to buy
But God's only way is to give and to die
Chorus
The noise and confusion gave way to His Word
At last sacred silence so God could be heard
Chorus
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Just a bout with diary-a
I haven’t been updating here much. I’ve been trying to work out some ideas for the manuscript of The Book in my free time, as well as fomenting a bunch of trouble at church, all of which is probably going to go nowhere except to get me in a deeper state of perturbation.
I haven’t cracked my Bible in a week and a half.
I’m currently self-medicating my allergies with shots of Southern Comfort. SoCo does nothing for the sinus cavities, I don’t think, but it does kill brain cells, which might fool my head into thinking it’s fine. Everything’s good up here, man, don’t worry.
My mother still hasn’t landed a job and hasn’t paid her mortgage. This morning on the phone she suggested that maybe I should move down there and take her house. She says she’d move to New York with her sister, whom she always fought with violently. It sounds pretty stupid. I wish I could do it. I’d like to be closer to my siblings. We’re still in Delaware for two reasons: (1) Jessica won’t leave her mother, and (2) God won’t release me from our church. I’m sort of hoping the bouncers of the church (the deacons) will wallop me good and toss me out in the gravel, so I can be free.
But even if they did, I still have friendships here that are valuable. That’s noteworthy because I couldn’t have said that three years ago.
I jogged five miles yesterday morning, and three miles before church today. I’m trying to get back into a healthy lifestyle and stop being such a voluminous dick.
I met with Jerm for lunch yesterday in Salisbury and we had a nice talk. It cannot be disputed that some hearts are being stirred in God’s mellifluous, hidden way. A lot of men are tired of being so sedated and suppressed, and that goes for Christians, non-Christians, Everyman. Something good is about to happen in the church, and I’ve got a feeling it’s going to piss some folks off.
It needs to, maybe. The whole church experience in America is so out of order and out of touch with the needs of men, it’s a circus. A damned circus, really, and I don’t know how much of it can be salvaged. For me the choice is, Am I going to keep dipping in the same safe, stagnant tidal pool I’ve always known, or am I going to jump into the frightening, dangerous white water and let the current carry me where it wills?
Yesterday Jessica ordered the following books for me. I’m so uninspired lately that I took them off an acquaintance’s reading list.
Matches, by Alan Kaufman
The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler
Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler
The Fall, by Albert Camus
On Writing, by Stephen King
Any blog post that uses the words “voluminous” and “mellifluous” is just too prolix. Lord, I’m ashamed of myself.
I haven’t cracked my Bible in a week and a half.
I’m currently self-medicating my allergies with shots of Southern Comfort. SoCo does nothing for the sinus cavities, I don’t think, but it does kill brain cells, which might fool my head into thinking it’s fine. Everything’s good up here, man, don’t worry.
My mother still hasn’t landed a job and hasn’t paid her mortgage. This morning on the phone she suggested that maybe I should move down there and take her house. She says she’d move to New York with her sister, whom she always fought with violently. It sounds pretty stupid. I wish I could do it. I’d like to be closer to my siblings. We’re still in Delaware for two reasons: (1) Jessica won’t leave her mother, and (2) God won’t release me from our church. I’m sort of hoping the bouncers of the church (the deacons) will wallop me good and toss me out in the gravel, so I can be free.
But even if they did, I still have friendships here that are valuable. That’s noteworthy because I couldn’t have said that three years ago.
I jogged five miles yesterday morning, and three miles before church today. I’m trying to get back into a healthy lifestyle and stop being such a voluminous dick.
I met with Jerm for lunch yesterday in Salisbury and we had a nice talk. It cannot be disputed that some hearts are being stirred in God’s mellifluous, hidden way. A lot of men are tired of being so sedated and suppressed, and that goes for Christians, non-Christians, Everyman. Something good is about to happen in the church, and I’ve got a feeling it’s going to piss some folks off.
It needs to, maybe. The whole church experience in America is so out of order and out of touch with the needs of men, it’s a circus. A damned circus, really, and I don’t know how much of it can be salvaged. For me the choice is, Am I going to keep dipping in the same safe, stagnant tidal pool I’ve always known, or am I going to jump into the frightening, dangerous white water and let the current carry me where it wills?
Yesterday Jessica ordered the following books for me. I’m so uninspired lately that I took them off an acquaintance’s reading list.
Matches, by Alan Kaufman
The Idiot, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Big Sleep, by Raymond Chandler
Farewell, My Lovely, by Raymond Chandler
The Fall, by Albert Camus
On Writing, by Stephen King
Any blog post that uses the words “voluminous” and “mellifluous” is just too prolix. Lord, I’m ashamed of myself.
Friday, April 04, 2008
Sometimes you eat the bar, sometimes the bar eats you...
My cell phone rang around 10 P.M. two nights ago, and though the ring wasn’t enough to stir my exhausted self from sleep, the little message-waiting bleep did. I listened to the voice mail and it was my mother. She’d been drinking. She wanted me to pray for her because she’d been fired from her job of the past seven years or so. Mean people at work were telling lies about her, people who don’t know as much as she does, but she was sure God would take care of her...somehow. I didn’t call her back because you can’t really get anywhere talking with slobbering, hysterical, wasted folks.
Same tired old bullshit, though. Loop to laughter, fade to black.
God will take care of her. Oy. This from a woman who’s gone bankrupt twice.
I called my sister to see if she knew the real deal, because I know people don’t get fired by social services agencies without committing a crime, or not meeting expectations for a very long time. Teresa thinks it was the latter. She said Mom’s been dropping out of life a little bit at a time, letting her house go, letting her job go, letting herself go. The same way our father did.
At 56, she’s the same age as Dad when he died. I can’t imagine how she is going to find employment in a similar pay range to her old job. She’s already not paying her bills. How will she make her mortgage?
Teresa said she doesn’t think Mom cares anymore.
The thing with my mother: no matter how much trouble and pain she's in, she can never say “I was wrong.” My mother is a perpetual victim, everything bad that happens is because someone doesn’t like her, is picking on her, or not treating her right.
The whole thing has me thinking about how uncommon it is for people to grow up. Maybe that’s what the last post was about, because truth’s been on my mind. Everyone has problems, everyone makes mistakes. But not everyone learns from those mistakes. Some people (and families and churches) just keep riding the same creaking old carousel. Doesn’t matter how sick they get, they’re more afraid of solid ground, so they won’t get off.
A book I enjoyed reading last year was The Glass House, by Jeannette Walls. She captured so beautifully what it’s like to be a child in an alcoholic’s house, the strange contradiction of her mother’s artistic side and her father’s seemingly endless intelligence, wit, and knowledge of the world, while at the same time living in squalor, starving most of the time, moving constantly, being abused, feeling ashamed about things that weren’t her fault, trying to bear the weight of the world, exerting massive energy--even as a little girl--trying to save her folks and make them happy, lying about everything. And thinking, This is the way the world is, this is normal.
* * *
Ten years ago this morning, I watched my first baby come into the world. There is a supernatural aura in delivery rooms. I felt weak-kneed when I saw Beck for the first time; it was overwhelming. I wept. I couldn't stop looking at her little pink frame through my tears.
I've felt the same with all of our kids, but it was most memorable with Beck because she was the first. Jess and I had talked for nine months with anticipation and wonder of "the baby," and how our lives would be when the baby came, and then I could see her on the other side of the delivery room crying as she was being wiped off, a nurse standing over her with a clipboard, recording her APGAR score. She was no longer an unknown, intangible person.
In small form, it makes me think of what it will be like when at last I depart the womb of this world to cast my eyes on the One I have hoped in, and anticipated, and trusted.
"Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed." ~ John 20:29
Same tired old bullshit, though. Loop to laughter, fade to black.
God will take care of her. Oy. This from a woman who’s gone bankrupt twice.
I called my sister to see if she knew the real deal, because I know people don’t get fired by social services agencies without committing a crime, or not meeting expectations for a very long time. Teresa thinks it was the latter. She said Mom’s been dropping out of life a little bit at a time, letting her house go, letting her job go, letting herself go. The same way our father did.
At 56, she’s the same age as Dad when he died. I can’t imagine how she is going to find employment in a similar pay range to her old job. She’s already not paying her bills. How will she make her mortgage?
Teresa said she doesn’t think Mom cares anymore.
The thing with my mother: no matter how much trouble and pain she's in, she can never say “I was wrong.” My mother is a perpetual victim, everything bad that happens is because someone doesn’t like her, is picking on her, or not treating her right.
The whole thing has me thinking about how uncommon it is for people to grow up. Maybe that’s what the last post was about, because truth’s been on my mind. Everyone has problems, everyone makes mistakes. But not everyone learns from those mistakes. Some people (and families and churches) just keep riding the same creaking old carousel. Doesn’t matter how sick they get, they’re more afraid of solid ground, so they won’t get off.
A book I enjoyed reading last year was The Glass House, by Jeannette Walls. She captured so beautifully what it’s like to be a child in an alcoholic’s house, the strange contradiction of her mother’s artistic side and her father’s seemingly endless intelligence, wit, and knowledge of the world, while at the same time living in squalor, starving most of the time, moving constantly, being abused, feeling ashamed about things that weren’t her fault, trying to bear the weight of the world, exerting massive energy--even as a little girl--trying to save her folks and make them happy, lying about everything. And thinking, This is the way the world is, this is normal.
* * *
Ten years ago this morning, I watched my first baby come into the world. There is a supernatural aura in delivery rooms. I felt weak-kneed when I saw Beck for the first time; it was overwhelming. I wept. I couldn't stop looking at her little pink frame through my tears.
I've felt the same with all of our kids, but it was most memorable with Beck because she was the first. Jess and I had talked for nine months with anticipation and wonder of "the baby," and how our lives would be when the baby came, and then I could see her on the other side of the delivery room crying as she was being wiped off, a nurse standing over her with a clipboard, recording her APGAR score. She was no longer an unknown, intangible person.
In small form, it makes me think of what it will be like when at last I depart the womb of this world to cast my eyes on the One I have hoped in, and anticipated, and trusted.
"Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed." ~ John 20:29
Thursday, April 03, 2008
Truth (Psalm 51:6)
Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
The more I live, the more I'm convinced that truth is simple. It's accepting truth, receiving it into ourselves, that is difficult because we are liars; our natural state of being is to be very afraid of truth.
What's more, I know this: we don't acquire truth merely by reading the Bible, talking about it, or listening to a favorite teacher.
For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. ~ Gal. 1:11, 12
The truth is not an idea, even though our religious and intellectual reasonings find comfort--familiar ground--in trying to reduce Him to ideas and concepts. Truth has to be made flesh (John 1:14), it has to make its way into our experience before we can know it, or speak with authority about it (and not as the scribes/lawyers/learned men).
...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. ~ Eph. 1:17
The more I live, the more I'm convinced that truth is simple. It's accepting truth, receiving it into ourselves, that is difficult because we are liars; our natural state of being is to be very afraid of truth.
What's more, I know this: we don't acquire truth merely by reading the Bible, talking about it, or listening to a favorite teacher.
For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ. ~ Gal. 1:11, 12
The truth is not an idea, even though our religious and intellectual reasonings find comfort--familiar ground--in trying to reduce Him to ideas and concepts. Truth has to be made flesh (John 1:14), it has to make its way into our experience before we can know it, or speak with authority about it (and not as the scribes/lawyers/learned men).
...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. ~ Eph. 1:17
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
1 Samuel 21 & 22
In chapter 21, David lies on two occasions. Once to Ahimelech the priest (to get some holy pita bread and the big honkin’ sword of Goliath), and once to Achish the king of Gath (to remain in an unkilled state). I wonder why David chose to go to Gath--Goliath’s hometown--toting Goliath’s sword. Seems like the natural conclusion of the Philistines would be just what it was: “Hey, here’s the dude’s been killin’ our people. Let’s squish him like a bug.” So why go there?
Besides that, was it really necessary for him to deceive these folks?
In chapter 22, we get a glimpse of how God’s anointing on David caused serious problems for others. His brothers and his father’s house were dislocated from their homes and forced to flee and wander. Then the priests of the Lord were murdered. Both of these things were a result of God’s plan in David’s life.
The purpose of God in the anointed’s life affects family, friends, the Body of the Christ, even nations. I feel conflicted when I think about it, because I’m afraid sometimes of how God’s dealings with me will “hurt” other people.
My whole life I’ve heard people in church talk about the anointing and being anointed, praying for anointing, etc., always speaking of it in glowing terms. But sometimes I think the anointing doesn’t just mean favor, blessing, and empowerment. The flip side is real, tangible, life-and-death trouble for those we love, for other people of God. It’s a double-edged sword. I confess I’m a little nervous about innocent bystanders (especially family) having to get “blessed” along with me.
“I have brought about the death of every person in your father’s household.” (22:22)
Besides that, was it really necessary for him to deceive these folks?
In chapter 22, we get a glimpse of how God’s anointing on David caused serious problems for others. His brothers and his father’s house were dislocated from their homes and forced to flee and wander. Then the priests of the Lord were murdered. Both of these things were a result of God’s plan in David’s life.
The purpose of God in the anointed’s life affects family, friends, the Body of the Christ, even nations. I feel conflicted when I think about it, because I’m afraid sometimes of how God’s dealings with me will “hurt” other people.
My whole life I’ve heard people in church talk about the anointing and being anointed, praying for anointing, etc., always speaking of it in glowing terms. But sometimes I think the anointing doesn’t just mean favor, blessing, and empowerment. The flip side is real, tangible, life-and-death trouble for those we love, for other people of God. It’s a double-edged sword. I confess I’m a little nervous about innocent bystanders (especially family) having to get “blessed” along with me.
“I have brought about the death of every person in your father’s household.” (22:22)
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