Notes from the Trail

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Terry Heaton, as usual, has siezed on a profound cultural incident and made observations about it that I think also relate directly to the church today, particulary our denominational tribes. Apparently the Washington Post began some blogs, but after one of its writers was corrected/exposed/reviled in some blog comments, rather than dialoguing and seeking to understand, the Post just stopped its blogs all together. Read the article at the Pomo blog here. Terry compares it to taking your ball and going home when the game is not going your way.

I think the significance of this incident is repeated hundreds of times today in the western Christian culture. There is a growing movement of innovative, passionate and authentic Christ-followers, but for the most part established denominations are very uncomfortable with them. Rather than ongoing dialogue or “Faith Seeking Understanding,” (a required textbook in many seminaries) they too are taking their toys and going home.

I know of one exec who informed a group of ministers that if they were reading or encouraging others to read Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz, that they needed to stop immediately. That kind of response is evidence of an unwillingness to dialogue, along the lines of the Washington Post. It’s that “top down” prescriptive thinking that frustrates and jades honest seekers of faith in our culture from giving the church the benefit of the doubt.

Another observer of how the church can’t handle outside thinking is George Hunter, author of The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach The West?Again. There is a great interview with him here.

If you disagree with me, don’t post a comment. I’ll shut down my blog! ;)

I am a starving writer. OK, I’m a writer. I just got back from Baskin Robbins demolishing a double dip mint chocolate chip waffle cone.

Anyway, others are doing it, so I figure, why not? It’s called a “blook.” It’s a blog/book. It’s an opportunity for writers to unveil projects they’ve done or are working on and get input from their massive bloggin audience. In my case, I just want feedback from the two of you.

I’ve got several manuscripts/books/projects that I’ve done over the last few years and am just looking for that opportunity to submit them to a publisher. In the meantime, I want to know if any of you are interested in reading a blook, a chapter at a time, here, at Notes from the Trail?

The one I’d want to share with you first is a little different. It’s targeted at preteens/young adults. It’s basically a story about growing up/adolescence with some adventure/mystery/shenanigans thrown in. It’s called “Small Pebble.” Comment here if you would like to see the first chapter.

Five years ago I was serving as the BCM Director at UAM. I served 8 years there under the Arkansas Baptist State Convention. During the latter part of 2000, we experienced a marked sense of apathy, complacency, and a general sense of “something’s wrong.” As our SALT Team (the student leadership team) began to recognize that it was widespread among our campus ministry, we began to pray.

Out of that time of desperate intercession and prayer, I created the following “Weevil Warfare” list of verses to meditate on and pray through, as well as their accompanying principles. If you are currently experiencing a loss of love for Christ when there has before been intimacy and surrender, I strongly encourage you to reflect on the following. Who knows? These 5 year-old thoughts may be extremely helpful for you in combatting the powers and strongholds erected by this sinful world and its master.

Weevil Warfare 2000

1. We have an enemy who has devised a plan against our campus.
2 Corinthians 2.11 …in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
Ephesians 6.11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

2. Can we wait 21 days for a breakthrough?
Daniel 9.23 As soon as you began to pray, an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision:
Daniel 10.12-13 Then he continued, “Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.”

3. A lack of faith leads to a lack of prayer.
Matthew 17.19-20 Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Mark 9.28-29 After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” He replied, “This kind can come out only by prayer.”
Luke 9.40-41 I begged your disciples to drive it out, but they could not.  “O unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.”

4. Don’t get discouraged; keep praying.
Luke 18.1-8 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said: “In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with the plea, ‘Grant me justice against my adversary.’” 

“For some time he refused. But finally he said to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice, so that she won’t eventually wear me out with her coming!’” And the Lord said, ‘Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?’”

5. What is YOUR condition?
John 12.40 He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn - and I would heal them.
2 Corinthians 4.4 The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

6. Be bold; do not be afraid.
John 12.42-43 Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they would not confess their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue; for they loved praise from men more than praise from God.
2 Timothy 1.7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

7. Get ready; speak up.
1 Peter 3.15 But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…

8. Put down your peacetime possessions and take up wartime weapons.
2 Corinthians 6.7 …in truthful speech and in the power of God; with weapons of righteousness in the right hand and in the left…
2 Corinthians 10.4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

HELP!
FIRE, 11/20/2002
This is the notes from a Bible study I led at the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at UAM. Found it and thought I’d post it.

Look at four different snapshots that all reveal one thing:
1. 2 Chronicles 14.9-ff (Asa). ?O Lord, no one but you can help the powerless against the mighty! Help us, O Lord our God, for we trust in You alone. It is in Your name that we come against this vast horde. O Lord, You are our God; do not let mere men prevail against You.?
? It is vitally important to note when God sent help. It wasn?t until after Asa admitted his need and asked for it. Our Lord will put us the most desperate of positions in order to reveal to ourselves that we are not sufficient. We must cry out for help! Our cry of help is not only the delight of the Father?s ears, but it is also our admission that we are not God. As much as we might like to think that we are in control and that we can make things happen and that we can figure a way out, we are like the grass ? here today and withered tomorrow, sustained only by the grace and light of God.
2. 2 Chronicles 26. (Uzziah). ?He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.? (5)
?And he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.?
Here is an example of a king that had to depend upon another person (Zechariah) to keep him straight with the Lord. Do you know people like that? These people are only faithful as long as someone is paying attention to them, thus their faith is revealed as being self-centered rather than God-centered. May we all be motivated internally to pursue an intimate love relationship with God, and thus be dependent upon Him rather than men.
3. 2 Chronicles 32.1-20 (Hezekiah). ??cried to heaven.? (19)
? ?They spoke of the God of Jerusalem as they spoke of the gods of the peoples of the earth.? (see also v13 ? ?were the gods of the nations of those lands at all able???)
? Another important thought about when God gives help is that He always acts to bring glory and honor to His name! It is not for our fame and for our recognition that God works. From the beginning of Scripture to the end, God acts and works to bring glory to Himself. Wherever His name is being defamed, God will act quickly, even if it is to punish, destroy, or deliver.
? In this passage, Hezekiah cries out for help, and it is evident that Sennecherib was defaming God?s glory and name, comparing Him to the ?gods? of other nations.
4. Matthew 8.23 (Disciples). ?save us!?
Again, we see that God is not inactive. God is not sleeping. God is waiting on us to realize our own predicaments apart from His power.

Some principles to chew on:
? Our cry for help reveals our heart of dependence.
? Calling for help deposes the gods of our life.
? Calling for help is a loud scream to self that ?you are not God!? Perhaps that?s why God waits for our cries. He wants us to be well aware of where our help comes from (Psalm 121).
? Every day we live without help from another becomes a brick that we place into a wall. The walls form a structure. The structure eventually becomes a temple that we erect for ourselves in our feeble attempt to control and be god of our own life.
? God delights to help those who ask for it. The very act of asking for help is something foreign to us ? whether we?re asking God or another person. It?s an admission of inability. It?s an admission of inadequacy. It?s an admission of insufficiency. But it is the foundation of humility. Scripture repeats from Old Testament to New that ?God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.?
So if we work at being humble, will that release God?s power? No. God does not help us based on our demonstration of humility, as if ?getting humble? somehow was a magic formula that forced God to work on our behalf. God only works to deliver and help based on his faithfulness to His own glory! You see, God is not man-centered. God is God-centered.
? ?My glory I will not give to another.? Isaiah 48.11
? ?I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I will give to no other.? Isaiah 42.8
? ?Glory to God in the highest!? Luke 2.14 (at the birth of Jesus. Notice how the rest of the verse indicates that God?s glory means our peace!)
? ?All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.? Romans 3.23 (the reason we are condemned apart from Christ is that we have failed to bring God the glory due His name!)
? ?I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.? Isaiah 46.9
? ?Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready.? Revelation 19.7 (at the end of time)

Isn?t it obvious from these verses that His greatest glory means our greatest joy?!

In conclusion to ?God?s Favorite 4-Letter Word?, look at these verses of help in light of what we?ve studied:
? ?Help us, O God of our salvation! Help us for the honor of Your name. Oh, save us and forgive us for the sake of Your name.? (Psalm 79.9)
? Even though we might have to cry out like the father of the demon-possessed son, ?I do believe, but help me not to doubt,? God will still come to our aid, as Jesus demonstrated to the father. Not asking for help is not a demonstration of strength, but of weakness. Doing it on your own is not maturity but pride.
? 1 Peter 5.5 ? ?Clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because, ?God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.??
? Perhaps we could boil the entire Gospel message down to eight words:
?I can?t. He can. I?m gonna let Him.? Or maybe even to two: “HELP, Lord!”

It’s an unfortunate truth. We know it but refuse to consider it for any length of time.

We’re self-consumed.

Read Oscar Wilde’s confession:

I grew careless of the lives of others. I took pleasure where it pleased me, and passed on. I forgot that every little action of the common day makes or unmakes character, and that therefore what one has done in the secret chamber, one has some day to cry aloud from the house-top. I ceased to be lord over myself. I was no longer the captain of my soul, and did not know it. I allowed pleasure to dominate me. I ended in horrible disgrace.

It’s a perfect description of the American lifestyle.

How will you seek to change your attitude today… tomorrow?

Consider this: Try one hour at a time to focus on whatever person you’re in contact with - whether it be a family member, gas station attendant, Wal-mart clerk, stock broker, etc. Give them - as a person - your full and undivided attention. Not for what they are doing or can do for you. Refuse to allow yourself to use them for their position or service. Treat them as a person.

You’ll be surprised how much treated others like people instead of objects transforms you also from a floating object in our culture to a person of reality, created by God to love Him and love others.