Jesus - Unique in Showing Us What God is Like

In this final post on the uniqueness of Jesus as seen through the eyes of Albert Nolan in his book, Jesus Before Christianity, I will go to the last chapter of the book in which Nolan highlights Jesus' divinity and argues that if we truly believe that Jesus is God, then we must accept that what we see in Jesus' life is exactly what God is like...

Speaking of the early church's response to Jesus after his life and death and resurrection, Nolan says, "...Everyone felt that despite his death Jesus was still leading, guiding and inspiring them...Jesus remained present and active through the presence and activity of his Spirit...Jesus was everything...Their admiration and veneration for him knew no bounds. He was in every way the ultimate, the only criterion of good and evil and of truth and falsehood, the only hope for the future, the only power which could transform the world...Jesus was experienced as the breakthrough in the history of humanity. He transcended everything that had ever been said and done before. He was in every way the ultimate, the last word. He was on a par with God. His word was God's word. His Spirit was God's Spirit. His feelings were God's feelings...

"To believe in Jesus today is to agree with this assessment of him...To believe that Jesus is divine is to choose to make him and what he stands for your God...By his words and his praxis, Jesus himself changed the content of the word 'God.' If we do not allow him to change our image of God, we will not be able to say that he is our Lord and our God. To choose him as our God is to make him the source of our information about divinity and to refuse to superimpose upon him our own ideas of divinity...Jesus reveals God to us, God does not reveal Jesus to us...if we accept Jesus as divine, we must reinterpret the Old Testament from Jesus' point of view and we must try to understand the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the way in which Jesus did..."

Nolan sums up the implications of Jesus being God: "We have seen what Jesus was like. If we now wish to treat him as our God, we would have to conclude that our God does not want to be served by us, but wants to serve us; God does not want to be given the highest possible rank and status in our society, but wants to take the lowest place and to be without any rank and status; God does not want to be feared and obeyed, but wants to be recognized in the sufferings of the poor and the weak; God is not supremely indifferent and detached, but is irrevocably committed to the liberation of humankind, for God has chosen to be identified with all people in a spirit of solidarity and compassion. If this is not a true picture of God, then Jesus is not divine. If this is a true picture of God, then God is more truly human, more thoroughly humane, than any human being..."

Oh Lord, Your gospel is the everlasting good news for all peoples in all places of all generations! You have shown the Father to be approachable, desirable, serving, tender towards weak and fearful humans; You enjoy us and want to be with us. We would never have dreamt that God could be this good and kind - help us look at Jesus and believe and be healed by Your full acceptance of us...and then in turn share this good news with those You place us among. Thank You! We worship You now and forever!

Jesus - Unique in Resisting Pressure to Use Violence to Establish God's Kingdom

In chapter 15 of Jesus Before Christianity, Albert Nolan speaks of how Jesus was tempted to bring about God's kingdom on earth by violent means. He points out two incidents close to the end of Jesus' life where it seems apparent that Jesus was tempted to accept the pressures on Him to the kingship of Israel. The first temptation came through a crowd of 4-5,000 men and the second pressure through Peter.

Nolan interprets the story of Jesus' feeding the 4-5,000 men as a gathering that was likely organized purposely to try to persuade Jesus to take on the powers and become king of Israel. Although this story became popular because of the miracle of the loaves and fishes, Nolan proposes that phrases from the different scriptural accounts about this incident hint that this crowd had gathered with the intention of making Jesus king (Mark 6:30-44; John 6:1-15)...

"He (Jesus) was a Galilean, a prophet and a wonderworker with a natural talent for leadership and he had recently made a name for himself by defying the authorities in Jerusalem and 'cleansing' the Temple. There may even have been some rumors that he was a descendant of David.

"Jesus was not unsympathetic toward their aspirations, their desire for liberation and their need of a shepherd. But he tried to persuade them that God's ways were not the ways of human beings and that the 'kingdom' of God would not be like the usual kingdoms of humans...

"But his teaching and the miracle of sharing only made them all the more convinced that he was the Messiah, God's chosen king. Before the situation could get out of hand he forced his disciples to leave in a boat and dispersed the crowds. He then felt the need for solitude, reflection and prayer.

"The second temptation came from Peter...Peter, on behalf of the other disciples, declares that he looks upon Jesus as the Messiah. Jesus responds by giving them strict orders not to say that about him to anyone and then he begins to tell them that it will be his destiny to suffer rejection. Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes him but Jesus in his turn rebukes Peter...

"This must have been a very serious quarrel. Peter was angry with Jesus for talking about rejection and failure when the opportunity was there to seize power and become Messiah. Jesus was angry with Peter for playing the role of Satan, the tempter, and thinking as men usually do in terms of the power of force.

"We should not underestimate the reality of this temptation for Jesus. (see Lk 4:5-8; Mt 4:8-10) ...Jesus had to struggle with this temptation to seize power, to accept the kingship and to rule over a new empire - 'all the kingdoms of the world'. Would this not be the best way of liberating the poor and the oppressed? Could he not exercise authority as a service to all people after he had seized power by force?...

"Jesus was not a pacifist in principle, he was a pacifist in practice, that is to say, in the concrete circumstances of his time...The 'kingdom' of total liberation for all people cannot be established by violence. Faith alone can enable the 'kingdom' to come."

Teach us, Jesus, how to walk in the ways of the Father in the midst of a world that operates on the principle of violence and force to get things done. Help us trust that Your ways really do work and give us the courage to walk in them...

Jesus - Unique in Loyalty to God's Political System

In this small series of posts (starting here), I am attempting to show the uniqueness of Jesus as borne out in Albert Nolan's book, Jesus Before Christianity. In his study of Jesus and how he lived His life as a Jewish man in the midst of the religious and political systems of his day, Nolan shows that Jesus was a highly political figure in that he was unswerving in his loyalty to God's kingdom, refusing to live according to the values of worldly systems (money, prestige, power). Surrounded by adherents of a variety of religious and political parties, Jesus was loyal to one kingdom only - God's kingdom - and this made him a dangerous revolutionary:

"Jesus' social mixing with sinners in the name of God and his confidence that they had God's approval while the virtuous did not were the 'violation' of all that God and religion and virtue and justice had ever meant. But then Jesus was not busy with a religious revival; he was busy with a revolution - a revolution in religion, in politics and in everything else.

"It would have been impossible for the 'men' of Jesus' time to have thought of him as an eminently religious man who steered clear of politics and revolution. They would have seen him as a blasphemously irreligious man who under the cloak of religion was undermining all the values upon which religion, politics, economics and society were based. He was a dangerous and subtly subversive revolutionary.

"Jesus disapproved of Roman oppression just as much as any Jew did, albeit for different reasons. He disapproved of their way of 'making their authority felt' and their way of 'lording it over their subjects.' But he envisaged changing this by changing Israel so that Israel could present the Romans with a living example of the values and ideals of the 'kingdom'...

"However, Jesus did eventually feel that it would be necessary to confront those Jews who collaborated with Rome: the chief priests and elders, the leaders of the people, who belonged to the party of the Sadducees. Up till now Jesus had criticized the 'men of religion', especially the scribes and Pharisees; now he must confront the 'men of affairs', the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem. Not so much because they collaborated with Rome but because they exploited the poor...(it was this confrontation) which brought him to a violent death."

Do what You need to do, Spirit of God, to sever the loyalties that we Your church have with worldly political systems. Give us fresh leadership that understands the seductiveness of worldly systems, be they religious or political, and put in us the unswerving loyalty that Jesus had to God's kingdom.

Jesus - Unique in Passing the Test

Continuing on with looking at Jesus' uniqueness in His way of dealing with His trial and crucifixion (see here), Albert Nolan says the following of the persons/groups that were tried and tested:

"Pilate, firstly, was tried and found wanting. Jesus' silence took him by surprise. He probably did hesitate for a moment...But because he was not, and had never been, concerned about the truth, he went on to do what political expediency seemed to demand...Pilate was guilty of a lack of interest in the truth (John 18:37,38).

"Caiaphas and his associates were still more guilty...even if Caiaphas had been open to the truth and had come to believe Jesus, what could he or should he have done in order to secure peace with the Romans? Perhaps, we can say, he should have risked his own life by resigning as high priest, joining Jesus in hiding and working with him to spread faith in the 'kingdom.' This is a tall order and one wonders how many men in his position would ever have been so concerned about truth and honesty...Caiaphas was not able to live up to the challenge with which Jesus presented him. Which one of us would want to throw the first stone at Caiaphas?

"The death of Jesus was also a judgment upon the scribes, Pharisees and others who knowingly rejected him. If they had accepted him and believed in the 'kingdom' of the poor, that 'kingdom' would have come instead of the catastrophe. They were not different from so many men and women today...

"Finally the disciples themselves were being put to the test. It was a severe test, a test of their willingness to die with him for the sake of humankind. But Judas betrayed him, Peter denied him and the rest fled.

"Jesus himself was also tried and tested. He sweated blood over it and told is disciples to pray that they would not have to be as severely tested as he was...Jesus did not want anyone to be put to the test. 

"But the crisis came and the test was severe. Jesus alone was able to accept the challenge of the hour. It set him above everyone else as the silent truth that judges every human being. Jesus died alone as the only person who had been able to survive the test. Everyone else failed and yet everyone else was given another chance. The history of Christianity is the history of those who came to  believe in Jesus and who were inspired to take up the challenge of his death - in one way or another."

Work in us, Spirit of God, to be able to recognize the daily opportunities to be loyal to Jesus to the point of 'death' in our personal lives, and work in us as a collective people to be loyal to Jesus in the face of religious and political pressure to do the expedient thing. Thank you that in Your endurance and passing the test, Jesus, You have given us a second chance...

Jesus - Unique in Not Defending Himself

In this third post (see here and here) about Jesus as presented by Albert Nolan in Jesus Before Christianity, we look at His trial before His crucifixion. Nolan observes the following:

"The most remarkable thing about the trial itself, the one thing about which we can be absolutely certain and yet the one thing that is frequently overlooked, is that Jesus did not defend himself. Throughout all of the proceedings, no matter who accused him or what they accused him of, Jesus remained silent...

"The suffering servant in Isaiah 53:7 was silent before his accusers - like a lamb before its shearers... Remaining silent before his accusers is exactly what we might have expected Jesus to do. He had consistently refused to produce signs from heaven; he had never argued from authority; he had refused to answer questions about his own authority; and now he refused to defend or justify his behavior.

"In other words, Jesus stood there without a word, putting everyone else to the test. The truth of the matter is that it was not Jesus who was on trial. His betrayers and accusers were on trial before him. His silence puzzled, disturbed, questioned and tested them. Their words were turned back at them and they condemned themselves out of their own mouths..."

Breathe on us, dear Fire of Jesus, till we Your people are purged of all need to be understood or to defend ourselves and are nobly silent in the face of others' accusations, trusting our reputation into Your hands completely...

Jesus - Uniquely Liberated, Fearless, Truthful

This is the second in a series of quotes from Jesus Before Christianity that increase wonder and awe over this man Jesus (see part 1):

"'Everyone who loves is born of God and experiences God; anyone who does not love has never had any experience of God, because God is love' (I John 4:7,8).

"...prophets did not only share God's knowledge, they were also filled to the point of bursting with God's own feelings and emotions. In the case of Jesus it was God's feeling of compassion that possessed him and filled him. All his convictions, his faith and his hope were expressions of this fundamental experience. If God is compassionate, then goodness will triumph over evil, the impossible will happen and there is hope for mankind.

"Compassion is the basis of truth. The experience of compassion is the experience of suffering or feeling with someone...This is also the experience of solidarity, solidarity with humanity, nature and God. It excludes every form of alienation and falsehood. 

"The secret of Jesus' infallible insight and unshakeable convictions was his unfailing experience of solidarity with God, which revealed itself as an experience of solidarity with humanity and nature. This made him a uniquely liberated man, uniquely courageous, fearless, independent, hopeful and truthful..."

Lord, fill us Your people with Your emotions of compassion and care until we as a people are freed from fears and anxieties that prevent us from fully loving all of Your creation.

Jesus - Uniquely Friend of the 'Outsider'

I recently picked up the book, Jesus Before Christianity, again. I began 2014 with several posts about it (starts here). I keep reflecting on the man Jesus and am continually taken with what a man He must have been. So now as we close out the year, I return to this book and write a few posts quoting parts of it in my desire to know Him more and perhaps help others know and love Him more as well..

Albert Nolan on Jesus and how the poor and sinners of that time and culture would have been impacted by His unreserved inclusion of them:

"...what made Jesus different was the unrestrained compassion he felt for the poor and the oppressed.

"It would be impossible to overestimate the impact these (festive) meals must have had upon the poor and the sinners. By accepting them as friends and equals Jesus had taken away their shame, humiliation and guilt. By showing them that they mattered to him as people, he gave them a sense of dignity and released them from their captivity...Moreover, because Jesus was looked upon as a man of God and a prophet, they would have interpreted his gesture of friendship as God's approval of them. They were now acceptable to God. Their sinfulness, ignorance and uncleanness had been overlooked and were no longer held against them....There can be no doubt that Jesus was a remarkably cheerful person and that his joy, like his faith and hope, was infectious...The poor and the oppressed and anyone else who was not too hung up on 'respectability' found the company of Jesus a liberating experience of sheer joy...He made them feel safe and secure...His very presence had liberated them."

Do others different from us feel this way around us? Lord Jesus, may we Your people be more like You, large of heart and inclusive of all, a haven where anyone can feel unafraid, unashamed and accepted.

God Thanks Us...

The picture below and the caption written by the dad (who is my nephew) captures beautifully what I believe God thinks of us, His dear ones, when we accompany Him in His mission on earth. He does the heavy lifting while we walk next to Him. It may seem that we don't do much to help, but God so loves to have us with Him as He works that it counts in His big heart and He credits us with helping Him and even thanks us for it! What a loving generous Father!

"I couldn't have carried this suitcase without my little helper...so thankful for him"

Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian - Faith Stage 7 (Universalizing Faith)

We are now at the 7th and final stage in our faith development, which James Fowler (Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian) calls Universalizing Faith. This will be my final post in a series on this book. The previous posts can be found here: #1 , #2 , #3 , #4 .

Universalizing faith is the stage of full maturity in a person's development. I began this series with the prayer of St. Augustine that I have prayed for many years: "Lord, the house of my soul is small; do Thou enter in and enlarge it."  I see this final stage of faith as a fulfillment of that prayer, because it is the stage when the heart is entering into the largeness of the heart of God, able to encompass all people in its love.

In the previous stage (Conjunctive faith) the person lives in the tension of opposing factors. "The polarities in its loves and loyalties can seem to cancel each other." They see the need of living in full solidarity with all people and yet their integrity keeps them in commitments to institutions and persons that are in their present life. This can lead to a feeling of "cosmic loneliness and homelessness." For some this discomfort is what moves them on to the ultimate issues of life that have to do with themselves and with everyday existence with their neighbor and it leads them to this final stage.

The movement to Universalizing faith involves a "radical decentration from self." In other words, the person's perspective on life expands to the point that his 'circle of those who count' begins to include all of humanity, not only his own family and friends or those who share similar political or religious views.

In earlier stages of faith "we become attached to causes, persons, institutions, possessions...precisely because they seem to promise to ground us in worth. Likewise, we tend to attach ourselves to certain appearances and promises of power. These sources of power, which promise to preserve our interests and values, help us deal with our fears and our insecurities as finite persons in a dangerous world of power..." Gradually with each stage of development we allow ourselves to include others who are not like us. In Universalizing faith, this process of 'decentration from self' (i.e., a healthy detachment from all sources of security that have kept us closed off from 'the other') reaches completion, because in this stage "a person decenters in the valuing process to such an extent that he/she participates in the valuing of the Creator and values other beings from a standpoint more nearly identified with the love of Creator for creatures than from the standpoint of a vulnerable, defensive, anxious creature."

Fowler concludes this topic by quoting I John 4:18 ("Perfect love casts out fear"), and says that the ability in a person to relinquish all the "perishable sources of power" is the "fruit of that person's total and pervasive response in love and trust to the radical love of God." And so in the end, it is the encounter and continuing receiving of the radical love of God that casts out the fear of fully including others unlike ourselves in our love. Jesus, of course, is the greatest example of all-inclusive love and acceptance both in the way He lived and in His nonviolent death on behalf of violent humans. He lived in the love of His Father and was therefore free from fear and could radically love all humans.

The movement to Universalizing faith is to become nonviolent, just as God in Christ is nonviolent and embraces all people.

The author adds later in the chapter that to move towards this final stage of development requires more than natural human growth; it requires help from God. Few people attain this stage of development. He suggests that rather than make this stage a goal in life, we focus (at whatever stage we find ourselves in) on opening ourselves as radically as possible to synergy with the Spirit of God in love for 'the other'.

"Lord, the house of my soul is small; do Thou enter in and enlarge it."  Amen...

Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian - Faith Stages 5 and 6

This is the 4th in a series of posts about the 7 faith stages that James Fowler presents in his book, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian. The 3 previous posts are introduction: the house of my soul is small, stages 1 & 2, and stages 3 & 4.

Note that in the preceding post, Fowler warns that many people get stuck in the 4th stage; as we move now to the latter stages of development, it is easy to understand why many get stuck in the Synthetic-Conventional stage, because the following stage is uncomfortable and moves the person into a time of significant disorientation and confusion related to his or her faith. Most people don't want to go there and so it is not unusual that people remain in stage 4.

Now onto stage 5...

Stage 5 - Individuative-Reflective Faith: young adulthood is a time when this stage typically begins to appear. The Synthetic-Conventional faith (stage 4) is tacit in nature; in other words, the person's faith has not been critically examined or reflected upon but rather has been inherited from trusted people without having thought it through for oneself and without having carefully listened to other points of view outside of one's social network and belief system.

Usually the rise of this stage of faith comes because of experiences of life that force a person to "objectify, examine, and make critical choices about the defining elements of their identity and faith."

At the core of this transition are 2 fundamental movements going on: 1) "From a definition of self derived from one's relations and roles and the network of expectations that go with them, the self must now begin to be and act from a new quality of self-authorization."  2) "There must be an objectification and critical choosing of one's beliefs, values, and commitments, which come to be taken as a systemic unity."

If this stage happens at an older age, it can cause a lot of disturbance to the person's social network. Consequently, not many successfully transition fully into the next stage. Some make a partial shift and remain somewhere between stages 5 and 6.


Stage 6 - Conjunctive Faith: comes mid-life or beyond. In this stage one begins to discover what Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) called "the coincidence of opposites", or they begin to discover the "Being wherein all opposites and contradictions meet and are reconciled...In this transition the firm boundaries of the previous stage begin to become porous and permeable. The confident conscious ego must develop a humbling awareness of the power and influence of aspects of the unconscious on our reactions and behavior..."

Hallmarks of the transition to conjunctive faith are the following:1) awareness of the need to face and hold together unmistakable polar tensions in life, such as being both old and young and both masculine and feminine, having both a conscious self and a shadow self. 2) realization that truth is more complex than most of the either-or categories of the individuative stage; conjunctive faith can value paradox and apparent contradictions of perspectives on truth. 3) transition to a 'second naivete', a post-critical receptivity and a genuine openness to the truths of traditions and communities other than one's own traditions. 

"...Conjunctive faith exhibits a combination of committed belief in and through the particularities of a tradition, while insisting upon the humility that knows that the grasp on ultimate truth that any of our traditions can offer needs continual correction and challenge. This is to help overcome blind spots as well as the tendency to idolatry (the overidentification of our symbolizations of transcending truth with the reality of truth), to which all of our traditions are prone...Persons of Conjunctive faith are not likely to be 'true believers' in the sense of an undialectical, single-minded, uncritical devotion to a cause or ideology...They know that the line between the righteous and the sinners goes through the heart of each of us and our communities, rather than between 'us and them'."

The next post will be about the 7th and final stage of faith: Universalizing Faith. 


 

Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian - Faith Stages 3 and 4

Continuing on with the series of posts about the seven stages of faith (as presented by James W. Fowler in his book, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian), I will now cover stages 3 and 4. The previous two posts having to do with this are here and here.

Stage 3 - Mythic-Literal Faith: this occurs about when the child starts to school. "Now able to reverse processes of thought and to coordinate more than one feature of a situation at a time, the world becomes more linear, orderly, and predictable." In this stage the child begins to recognize that others have perspectives that differ from his. Children at this stage develop a strong sense of fairness in their thinking about right and wrong, good and evil.

Faith now involves valuing the stories, beliefs and practices of the tradition within the child's community. "Knowing the stories of 'our people' becomes an important index of identification and of evaluation of self and others and their groups. The ability to create classes based on distinguishing characteristics of objects or groups makes these kinds of identifications (and exclusions) important matters in this stage."

In this stage a child defines himself and other persons in terms of their actions and affiliations with family and other groups. He hasn't yet constructed a sense of himself or others in terms of personality or inner feelings and reflection. His primary sense of who he is has to do with whom he is connected.

The author points out that from this stage through the rest of the stages, the same characteristics can be seen in adults (in terms of where they are in their faith) as well as in the particular biological age group that is being described. So those who come into their faith as adults can be found in any of these later stages.

Stage 4 - Synthetic-Conventional Faith: typically begins to emerge in early adolescence. Adolescence brings a revolution in cognitive development!  

"In formal operational thinking the mind takes wings. No longer is it limited to the mental manipulation of concrete objects or representations and of observable processes. Now thinking begins to construct all sorts of ideal possibilities and hypothetical considerations...Formal operational thinking makes possible the generation and use of abstract concepts and ideals. It makes it possible to think in terms of systems. And it enables us to construct the perspectives of others on ourselves - to see ourselves as others see us."

The adolescent is waking up to consciousness, suddenly aware and interested in the interior (emotions, personality, ideas, thoughts, experiences) of himself and of others. The "synthetic" being referred to here means it's a stage in which the young person begins to be able to pull together (synthesize) parts of his own interior life into some sense of selfhood (identity), and also to pull together the stories and values and beliefs into a cohesive unity to help him get a sense of the meaning of life in general and of his/her own life in particular.

"Although each person's worldview synthesis in this stage is in some degree unique, we describe it as 'conventional' for two important reasons: 1) it is a synthesis of belief and value elements that are derived from one's significant others...2) it is a synthesis of belief and value that has, in this stage, a largely 'tacit' (as opposed to 'explicit') character."

As it pertains to one's stage in faith development, this is a stage in which the synthesis of one's beliefs and values and stories are supportive and sustaining and are held and felt deeply and strongly. In this stage the Christian is "embedded" in his faith outlook and derives his sense of identity from membership in his circle of relationships.

Fowler makes a very important observation/warning about Christians who are in this stage of faith development: "It is important to recognize that many persons equilibrate in the Synthetic-Conventional stage. The world view and sense of self synthesized in this stage and the authorities who confirm one's values and beliefs are internalized, and the person moves on through the life cycle with a set of tacitly held, strongly felt, but largely unexamined beliefs and values."

Next we will look at stages 5 & 6: individuative-reflective faith and conjunctive faith.

Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian - Seven Stages of Faith (Stages 1 & 2)

In my previous post, The House of My Soul is Small..., I introduced a book by James W. Fowler entitled Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian and shared a brief line about each of Fowler's seven stages of faith in this book.

Today I'll share in more detail what he says about the first two stages: Primal Faith and Intuitive-Projective Faith. Fowler uses terms of our growth and maturity as humans (from infant to elderly) to describe our growth in God.

1) Primal Faith: this is the infant stage. "During the first year, the mutual task of the baby and those providing care involve bonding and attachment, as well as the generation of a trusting give-and-take." In this stage, the baby hasn't develop his/her full sense of selfhood but already struggles for some balance of trust in the worth of the self and in the rely-ability of the environment made up of those under whose care the self has begun to form.

"The first symbols of faith are likely to take primitive form in the baby's hard-won memories of maternal and paternal presence. As dependable realities who go away but can be trusted to return, our primary care givers constitute our first experiences of superordinate power and wisdom, as well as our dependence." Because of the profound impact that these "primal others" have on us early in life, their mixtures of harshness and tenderness and rigidity and grace all are present in the images of God that begin to take form when we are around 4 or 5 years old. We transfer what we experience from primary care givers onto our image of God.

In this first stage of development, the struggle is for "basic trust versus basic mistrust." A child that is raised in a relatively healthy loving environment enjoys basic trust in this stage.

2) Intuitive-Projective Faith: starting around age two a revolution begins for the child as language emerges to now mediate his/her relationship with others and the world. "Language makes possible a qualitatively new reflectiveness on the environment and a qualitatively new reflexiveness with regard to the self...The child, now able to walk freely and question everything, daily encounters novelties and newness...Perception, feelings, and imaginative fantasy make up children's principal ways of knowing - and transforming - their experiences." 

In this stage of growth, the child forms "deep and long-lasting images" that keep their world of meaning together. It's a time in which he/she is waking up to the larger community and world around them...

Faith is more intuitive in this stage of development. We know by perception and imagination more than by logic.

In the next post we'll look at the next two stages: mythic-literal faith and synthetic-conventional faith.

The House of My Soul is Small...

Many years ago I began regularly praying a prayer of St. Augustine's: "The house of my soul is small; do Thou enter in and enlarge it..." I believe God hears these simple and sincerely repeated prayers and He has been answering this prayer for me bit by bit (and continues to do so). I've discovered that having my heart enlarged is costly but more than worth it. I want to have a heart that is increasingly like His - large and able to encompass all people of all types and ethnicities and persuasions.

I recently read a wonderful book on human development by James W. Fowler, Becoming Adult, Becoming Christian in which he brings together theology and developmental psychology and practical ethics to show how communities of faith can support and nurture individuals as they shape themselves and are shaped.

Fowler presents seven stages of faith in human development, the last one being one in which the follower of Jesus begins to see and value other beings from the standpoint of the loving Creator rather than from the standpoint of a vulnerable, fearful, defensive creature.

I found this book very helpful for understanding my own growth and also that of others who I have the joy of mentoring. The seventh stage of faith is, I believe, the answer to this prayer of St. Augustine's: "The house of my soul is small; do Thou enter in and enlarge it."

In this post I will simply list the seven stages of faith and in the following weeks I'll go through each one more carefully, explaining each one as Fowler presents them. The seven stages he proposes are the following:
1) Primal Faith - the infant stage: a simple faith of basic trust
2) Intuitive-Projective Faith - the toddler stage: when perception, feelings and imagination make up the child's principal ways of knowing
3) Mythic-Literal Faith - stage when a child starts to school: a faith that relies on "the stories, rules, and implicit values of the family's community of meanings"
4) Syntheic-Conventional Faith - early adolescence stage: cognitive development comes here and causes the child to become self-conscious as he/she is more aware of the fact that others think differently than they do
5) Individuative-Reflective Faith - young adult/adult stage: process of "objectifying, examining, and making  critical choices about the defining elements of their identity and faith"
6) Conjunctive Faith - mid-life stage: growing sense that "truth is more multiform and complex than most of the clear, either-or categories" of earlier stages
7) Universalizing Faith - mature adulthood stage: a faith that is the "fruit of a person's total and pervasive response in love and trust to the radical love of God"

Sorrow and Suffering: The 'Best and Strongest Guides' to the Kingdom of Love

One of my all-time favorite allegories is Hannah Hurnard's classic, Hinds Feet on High Places. The story is filled with truth and encouragement for those following Jesus into self-giving love.

In the story, the Shepherd is committed to taking the young girl, Much Afraid, to the high places of the Kingdom of Love where love rules. Much Afraid has crippled feet, so to get her to the Kingdom of Love at the top of the mountain, He is helping her develop hinds feet; in other words, she must develop the ability to overcome the difficulties along the way to the top of the mountain just as the mountain deer is able to scale difficult mountain terrain.

The two strong but mysterious helpers that the Shepherd gives Much Afraid are twin sisters named Sorrow and Suffering. He assures her that these are the 'best and strongest guides' to take her through terrain that she cannot navigate in her condition.

I've read this story many times over the years on my own as well as with others. It never gets old and I keep learning from it at different intervals of my life. In the recent season of affliction that I'm experiencing, I have read parts of this again with special interest in these two guides/helpers.

I'm identifying with Much Afraid's reaction to these two helpers - shock, fear, anger, doubt, confusion. As the story progresses and she slowly sees the benefit of their help, she gradually begins to appreciate them and to understand their language (which is different from hers). Later on she finds out what their other names are, but I'll let you read the story to find out...meanwhile, she is very reluctant for them to take her hand to help her in the tough places.

Chamois Deer

In pondering this lately, it has dawned on me that although the nearness of sorrow and suffering makes me feel weak and helpless, unable to do much, it is actually strengthening me and enabling me to climb the heights to the Kingdom of Love; it is teaching me to love more, and love is the greatest force there is.

I can't say honestly that I'm yet at the place of gladly grabbing the hands of Sorrow and Suffering, but I may have a bit more appreciation for their role than I did before and I anticipate understanding more fully one day. Meanwhile, like Much Afraid, with trembling I trust the Shepherd as He develops strength in me with the help of 'the best and strongest Guides'...

Receiving Freely Leaves Us in Debt

Because of a leg injury I experienced recently on top of a previous injury in the same leg that had not yet recovered fully (see), my journey with pain and disability has stretched into a much longer time than I had anticipated. I had reached a place of relative independence from my first injury only to be thrown back into a state of much dependence on others once again.

I thought I had learned to receive freely the first time around but am discovering that the deeply-ingrained value of 'independence' and self-reliance is alive and well in me. My need for the help of others this time around has lasted longer, and one thing I'm discovering along the way is that one of the most difficult parts of all of this is to  realize and accept that I will always be in debt.

The many things that other people are doing for me is beyond my ability to pay back. I have family and friends who continually tend to my daily needs and have even had money given to me to help with expenses. I want to not owe them anything but am having to die to the idea that I can repay all that I owe and accept the fact that my present needs inconvenience other people.

I was raised to pay back financial debts and I will continue to do that; but I am learning  that there is one debt that I can never repay - the debt of love that I owe to God and to the many around me who generously serve in ways that I will never be able to repay.

Romans 13:8 (The Message) Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other.

Antidote for Judgmentalism: Accepting that We Know So Little

 I Cor. 13:12,13 (The Message)  We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We’ll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us!
But for right now, until that completeness, we have three things to do to lead us toward that consummation: Trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly, love extravagantly. And the best of the three is love.

According to the apostle Paul, we know so little about anything and everything. Truth that we believe we are so sure about is as clear (or less) as the scene in this picture. Because of this, it's wise to suspend our quick judgments on everything and everyone.

This doesn't mean we don't have opinions and convictions but they must be held loosely and without malice towards those who see differently. Paul admonishes us in three areas, saying that this focus will lead us incrementally and ultimately to full clarity: 1) trust continually in the Lord who sees clearly; 2) keep expectation alive in God; 3) love Him and others with all our heart. Paul punctuates his message by saying that self-giving love is the summation of how we gradually gain clearer vision until the perfect day.

In summary, I believe that an antidote for judgmentalism (which is the default response of fallen/fearful humans) is to step back and ponder seriously how little I know about God and myself and others and put my trust in God's clear eyesight, live with hope for all, and do whatever is in my power to love.

Prov. 3:5 (Good News Translation) Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Never rely on what you think you know.

Jesus' Ability to Lead: A Source of Peace

I've become aware over recent years that we Christians generally seem to be pretty uptight people. There seems to be an underlying anxiety about most things in our life: worries about whether or not I'm praying or fasting enough, or whether my prayers are fervent or faith-filled enough, whether I'm doing enough for others, whether I'm in the will of God, or whether I'm giving enough, whether I'll miss "God's best", etc., etc.

I've spent my life in the holiness and missions world and like many in that world, the emphasis on "finding the will of God" for many years left me with a nagging fear that I might miss God's "highest" and end up living as a "second class citizen" of God's kingdom. I believe these kinds of fears have their roots in religious ideas that set up spiritual hierarchies and that put the weight of our salvation and sanctification on us, rather than on God.

When I look at the characteristics of sheep (see here), I'm very impressed with the shepherd's love and care for the sheep and His ability to lead them (see here). My conclusion is that getting the sheep to a certain destination is much more about the shepherd's leadership than it is about what good followers the sheep are.

This is a source of joy and peace/relief to me when I start to go down the path of introspection, getting uptight and afraid that I'm not sufficient enough in this or that and worried that I've missed God's best or that I'm not going to make it in the end, etc, etc.  I can pause and look at the good Shepherd and how well He leads and how He is able to get us where He is taking us.

Jesus said, "Take my yoke upon you...my yoke is easy, my burden is light..." I do my small bit of agreeing to be with Him in the "yoke", and the weight of getting me (along with all His people) to where we are going falls on Him. This should make us the most joy and peace filled people on earth!

Doubt or Devotion...or Both??

An observation I have been making in recent years is that one of the easiest things to happen to a Christian is to stagnate; we like to feel secure, and staying within the inherited theological boundaries that have provided a sense of certainty (see "Sense of Security") is natural to us. We unwittingly end up placing our trust in our certainty rather than in the Person of God in Christ who is infinitely larger than our systems of belief. Western Christianity of the past few hundred years contributes to this tendency to stagnate, because we've accepted the idea that being a Christian primarily means to adhere to a determined set of beliefs concerning God and that those beliefs should never change. (See recent post here.)  It's acceptable if we change within the boundaries of that prescribed belief system, but to venture outside of those boundaries in search for more truth is at best discouraged and at times punished.

I think there are two main ingredients needed for ongoing change and growth in God: 1) Sincere questions about Jesus and scripture, sorting through what really is needed and disposing of whatever is hindering the true knowledge/experience of God in Christ;
2) Sincere devotion to Jesus, always keeping focused on what the "sorting through" is all about and not getting lost in the sorting. Without the sincere questioning, we easily get stuck in what we have been taught and there is always more to learn (and unlearn) of Jesus; without sincere devotion to Jesus, we can easily make the "sorting through" the goal.

With this in mind, I recommend some books below, two for the "questioning" ingredient and two for the "devotion" ingredient; I recommend the wonderful (and at times frightening) adventure of finding a trusted follower(s) of Jesus with whom you can safely discuss anything and everything while keeping clearly in view the ultimate and ongoing goal of encountering Jesus in truth and consequently becoming like Him. Depending on the lens you are looking through, some of this material will stretch your thinking; the wonderful thing is that you don't have to agree with everything an author writes in order to receive truth from him/her.

Books to help with the questioning ingredient:
A New Kind of Christianity
The Sacredness of Questioning Everything

Books to help with the devotion ingredient:
God's Favorite Place on Earth
The Only Necessary Thing

What God Chose to Make Me...

 “I would rather be what God chose to make me 

than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for 

to have been thought about, 

born in God's thought, 

and then made by God, 

is the dearest, grandest and most precious thing in all thinking.”  

 - George MacDonald -

What if God's Way Really IS NOT by Might and Power?

I have always enjoyed good health and strength, but I fell and broke my right knee cap a year and a half ago and have been on a lengthy journey, struggling to regain the use of my leg. There have been complications and setbacks and most recently another fall has further hampered my ability to walk. Discouragement has been close at hand over and over again. It's been very hard to embrace the loss of strength in it all. This recent fall is causing me to ask the Lord more about how His kingdom works.

Theoretically, I have accepted that weakness is God's way of working as seen in Jesus' lifestyle and death; but internally I haven't accepted it. I don't know how to live this way because I am a product of a culture that highly values independence and self-sufficiency and practically despises weakness and neediness. I told someone who has been caring for me this week that one of the harder parts of this affliction is having to ask others for help for the smallest things.

This week I received an offer for a young teenage girl who was born with physical disabilities and doesn't walk well to bring me something that has helped her with pain. I was deeply touched by this and have been thinking that this is a picture of how God's kingdom works - the weak caring for the weak. We are all desperately weak in one way or the other. But rather than concentrate on how to use our weaknesses to give life to others, we focus on covering up our weaknesses and promoting our strengths to serve God.

Everything about the gospel and Jesus' teachings and example tell us that weakness and insufficiency is how the kingdom of God works. Most my life I've pictured God as having power reserves from which to draw in case He needs to use them. But what if God's weakness is His strength...period?! What if the cross and Jesus' way of non-retaliation to enemies is the only way of God?? What if God doesn't have power reserves for some future date by which He will make all things right?? What if He will accomplish it all through weakness and loss?? What if that is God's modus operandi now and in the age to come??

Last year I was struck by this article: When Frodo and Jesus Fail at Mount Doom. It touches eloquently on the weakness of God.

What if all the weaknesses we try to hide about ourselves are really what God uses to give life to others?? I wonder what it would look like for God's people to live in this way? I really don't know, but I pray for this for myself and all of us who are Jesus followers..

Geo MacDonald: What the Apostle Paul Meant by 'Adoption'

In a sermon on Romans 8:15, George MacDonald says the following about what he believes the apostle Paul intended to say when he speaks of adoption:

"The hardest, gladdest thing in all the world is to cry Father! from a full heart. I would help whom I may to call thus upon the Father.

"There are many things in all forms of the systematic teachings of Christianity to block such an outgoing of the heart as this most elemental human cry...(one) such cold wind is the so-called doctrine of adoption."

MacDonald proceeds to explain that the word "adoption" is a poor translation of what Paul is saying about God and His relationship to His children. It is a good word for human transactions, but the problem in using it with God is that it suggests that God is not our original parent or that He was our father, then repudiated us as children and then took us again. MacDonald contends that this kind of view of God's fatherhood gets in the way of our being able to cry "Father!" from a full heart.

So he goes on to say he doesn't believe that the word "adoption" was what Paul had in mind when using the Greek word huiothesia:  "...the word used by St. Paul does not imply that God adopts children that are not his own, but rather that a second time he fathers his own...He will make himself tenfold, yea, infinitely their father...He will have them one with himself..."

"(Paul) means the raising of a father's own child from the condition of tutelage and subjection to others to the position and rights of a son...The idea is that of a spiritual coming of age. Only when a child is a man is he really and fully a son...To be a child is not necessarily to be a son or daughter. The childship is the lower condition of the upward process toward the sonship. It is the soil out of which the true sonship shall grow.

"No more than an earthly parent, God cannot be content to have only children. He must have sons and daughters...His children are not his real, true sons and daughters until they think like him, feel with him, judge as he judges, until they are at home with him and without fear before him because he and they mean the same thing, love the same things, seek the same ends.

"For this we are created. It is the one end of our being and includes all other ends whatever."

Geo MacDonald: The Teacher's Job

In his book, Discovering the Character of God, MacDonald says:
"No teacher should strive to make others think as he thinks, but to lead them to the living Truth, to the Master himself, of whom alone they can learn anything, and who will make them in themselves know what is true by the very seeing of it. The inspiration of the Almighty alone gives understanding. To be the disciple of Christ is the end of being, and to persuade others to be his disciples is the aim of all teaching."

In MacDonald's novel, The Fisherman's Lady, Mr. Graham is a school teacher. In describing him, MacDonald says: 
"He would never contradict anything but would oppose error only by teaching truth. He presented truth and set it face to face with error in the minds of his students, leaving the two sides and the growing intellect, heart, and conscience to fight the matter out. To him the business of the teacher was to rouse and urge this battle by leading fresh forces of truth onto the field."

Geo MacDonald: Light Is More Important than Knowledge and Opinions

The following is taken from some of MacDonald's sermons and essays:

"The man who holds his opinions the most honestly ought to see the most plainly that his opinion must change...If we held opinions aright, we should know that nothing in them that is good can ever be lost...It is only as they help us toward God that our opinions are worth a straw. And every necessary change in them must be to more truth, to greater uplifting power...My opinions, just as my life, as my love, I leave in the hands of him from whom all came.

"Why then is there such dislike to the very idea of change of our ideas...? It may be objected that no man will hold his opinions with the needed earnestness who can entertain the idea of having to change them. But the very objection speaks powerfully against such an overvaluing of opinion...

"Let us...beware lest our opinions come between us and our God, between us and our neighbor, between us and our better selves...The one security is to walk according to the truth which they contain. And if men seem to be unreasonable, opposers of that which to us is plainly true, let us remember that we are not here to convince men, but to let our light shine.

"Knowledge is not necessarily light. And it is light, not knowledge, that we have to spread. The best thing we can do that men may receive truth, is to be ourselves true...

"Above all, let us be humble before the God of truth, faithfully desiring of him that truth in the inward parts which alone can enable us to walk according to that which we have attained..."

Geo MacDonald: The Bible Isn't about the Bible but about the Living God

Speaking in one of his characters in his novel, A Daughter's Devotion, George MacDonald says the following about the Bible:

"...she (did not have) the opportunity of making acquaintance with any who believed and lived like her father in any of the churches in her town. But she had her Bible, and when that troubled her, as it did sometimes, she had God himself to cry to for such wisdom as she could receive. And one of the things she learned was that nowhere in the Bible was she called on to believe in the Bible but in the living God in whom is no darkness, and who alone can give light to understand his own intent. All her troubles she carried to him..."

And in a letter to an unidentified woman who accused MacDonald of not have any of the "old faith left", he wrote the following about scripture:
"...Do not suppose that I believe in Jesus because it is said so-and-so in a book. I believe in him because he is himself. The vision of him in that book and his own living power in me have enabled me to understand him, to look him in the face, as it were, and accept him as my Master and Saviour... The Bible is to me the most precious thing in the world, because it tells me his story and what good men thought about him who knew him and accepted him. But the common theory of the inspiration of the words, instead of the breathing of God's truth into the hearts and souls of those who wrote it, and who then did their best with it, is degrading and evil; and they who hold it are in danger of worshipping the letter instead of living in the Spirit, of being idolaters of the Bible instead of disciples of Jesus...It is Jesus who is the Revelation of God, not the Bible; that is but a means to a mighty eternal end. The book is indeed sent us by God, but it nowhere claims to be his very word...Jesus alone is the Word of God.

"...all my hope, all my joy, all my strength are in the Lord Christ and his Father; all my theories of life and growth are rooted in him; his truth is gradually clearing up the mysteries of this world...To him I belong heart and soul and body, and he may do with me as he will - nay, nay - I pray him to do with me as he wills: for that is my only well-being and freedom."

MacDonald understood God's intended purpose in scripture to be a means to Jesus, not to be an end in itself and so was able to appreciate it more fully.

Geo MacDonald: Jesus and Women

From his novel, The Curate's Awakening, MacDonald speaks through the mouth of the young curate Wingfold as he was talking with another person about the women that Jesus had spoken to and how it was easy to see how much Jesus loved women by the way he talked to them. Wingfold ended the conversation by saying:

"How any woman can help casting herself heart and soul at the feet of such a man, I cannot imagine. You do not once read of a woman being against him - except his own mother when she thought he was going astray and forgetting his high mission. The divine love in him toward his Father in heaven and his brethren was ever melting down his conscious individuality in sweetest showers upon individual hearts. He came down like rain upon the mown grass, like showers that water he earth. No woman, no man surely ever saw him as he was and did not worship him."

Geo MacDonald: God Is Not Angry with You

In one of his novels, George MacDonald has young Robert saying the following to his grandmother (who had been raised with a view of God as an angry God requiring punishment to turn away His wrath toward humans):

"It's more for our sakes than His own that God cares about his glory. I don't believe that he thinks about his glory except for the sake of truth and men's hearts dying for lack of it...

"God's not like a proud man to take offense, Grannie. There's nothing that please him like the truth, and there's nothing that displeases him like lying, particularly when it's pretended praise...you say some things about him sometimes that sound fearsome to me...
Like when you speak of him as if he was a poor proud man, full of his own importance and ready to be down on anybody that didn't call him by the name of his office - always thinking about his own glory, instead of the quiet mighty grand self-forgetting, all-creating being that he is. Think of the face of that man of sorrows that never said a hard word to a sinful woman or a despised publican. Was he thinking about his own glory, do you think? And whatever isn't like Christ isn't like God."
 
"But laddie, Christ came to satisfy God's justice by suffering the punishment due to our sins, to turn aside his wrath and curse. So Jesus couldn't be altogether God."

"Oh but he is, Grannie. He came to satisfy God's justice by giving him back his children, by making them see that God was just, by sending them back home to fall at his feet...And there isn't a word of reconciling God to us in the New Testament, for there was no need of that; it was us that needed to be reconciled to him...It wasn't his own sins or God's wrath that caused him suffering, but our own sins. And he took them away. He took our sins upon him, for he came into the middle of them and took them up - by no sleight of hand, by no quibbling of the preachers about imputing his righteousness to us and such like. But he took them and took them away and here am I, Grannie, growing out of my sins in consequence..."

Geo MacDonald: God and Nature

I plan to put out a series of posts of random quotes from George MacDonald, an all-time favorite author of mine (see Geroge MacDonald). Here are some of his thoughts about nature and God:

 
"I believe that every fact in nature is a revelation of God...from the moment when we first come into contact with the world, it is to us a revelation of God, his things seen by which we come to know the things unseen."

"The truth of a thing, then, is the blossom of it, the thing it is made for, the topmost stone set on with rejoicing...in anything that God has made, in the glory of it, be it sky or flower or human face, we see the glory of God, there a true imagination is beholding a truth of God."

"The heavens and the earth are around us that it may be possible for us to speak of the unseen by the seen, for the outermost husk of creation has correspondence with the deeper things of the Creator. He is not a God that hides himself, but a God who made all that he might reveal himself."

George MacDonald: What the Human Heart Most Searches For...

George MacDonald has this to say about searching for God and what most obscures our view of Him. Speaking of a character in one of his novels, MacDonald says the following:

"...his soul was searching after One whose form was constantly presented to him, but as constantly obscured by the words without knowledge spoken in the religious assemblies of the land. Little did he realize that he was longing without knowing it on Saturday for that from which on Sunday he would be repelled, again without knowing it...

"The greatest obscuration of the words of the Lord comes from those who give themselves to interpret rather than do them. Theologians have done more to hide the Gospel of Christ than any of its adversaries (have)..."

Not Regretting (Part 2): Why My 6 Reasons for Not Regretting Shouldn't Be an Excuse...

Following up on my previous post, 6 Reasons I Don't Spend Time and Energy Regretting, I will share
why those 6 reasons shouldn't be an excuse for not moving forward.

While I believe the reasons I cite for not regretting past ways of thinking of God are true and give me peace about the past, I am also aware of how easy it is to use those reasons as an excuse to settle in permanently to my present understanding of God. We humans long for something unchanging that will give us a sense of stability and certainty. In the particular world I was raised in this took the form of a set of beliefs about God that were said to be absolute. If any of those beliefs were questioned, I concluded that the person questioning it/them was at best not really solid in the faith and at worst, maybe not a true follower of Jesus.

Now that that some of those beliefs aren't as absolute as they were to me before and I'm at peace with that, I realize that my sense of stability and security was founded more on my beliefs about Jesus than on Jesus Himself. As I have ventured into a wider space in God where questioning is acceptable and even adventuresome, my sense of security and stability is in Him and I'm able to enjoy not being certain about everything.

And so rather than using my "6 reasons for not regretting" as an excuse for settling into another comfort zone, I see them as affirmations of a lifelong lifestyle of learning, unlearning and relearning (see Unlearning and Relearning to Keep Learning). I'm slowly getting it: except for a handful of core truths about God in Christ, I must hold what I learn loosely, enjoying different discoveries AND enjoying the mystery that there is in Christ and enjoying others who understand Him differently. The sense of security is not in having correct doctrines but in the faithfulness of His Spirit at work in me along with His people and His word.

6 Reasons I Don't Spend Time and Energy Regretting...

As I reflect on how much my thinking has changed about God and His kingdom, it's tempting to regret some of what I've been taught and have taught to many over the years. But the Spirit, who loves to encourage us, reminds me of a few bedrock realities that bring peace and hope to my heart:

First, the words of Paul to Timothy come to mind: "I’m reminded of your authentic faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice. I’m sure that this faith is also inside you."  2 Timothy 1:5 (CEB)  Along with beliefs about Jesus that I inherited but now wonder about, I have always had authentic/sincere faith in Him. From my vantage point in life now, I see that this counts more to God than correct beliefs.

Second, He reminds me that I was born into a particular culture and generation and family that shaped my ways of thinking and feeling about Him and others and myself and about life in general. This was His doing and it wasn't a mistake. He doesn't hold this against me.

Third, He tells me that all healthy humans evolve in their thinking throughout their life and that this should be happening until the end of one's life.

Fourth, He shows me that it is the Person of Jesus who saves us, not correct beliefs about Him.

Fifth, He reminds me repeatedly that I will never be fully "correct" in my understanding of Him; no matter how much I grow and learn of Him, there will yet be an eternity of learning ahead of me because of the wonder and beauty and mystery of His Person (and of all persons).

Sixth, He tells me that He is well able to lead those that I have influenced in the past even though I now question some of what I taught them. Just as He is able to continually lead me forward in Truth, so He is able to lead them.

These reasons (and others) fill me with confidence in the Lord's ability to work with and lead His people no matter what we have been born into and have inherited related to mistaken mindsets about Him; and so, I don't spend much time or energy regretting the past...

God in Jesus: Beautiful Beyond Description

I have just spent a few days with young adults in the northern Virginia/Washington DC area, sharing and dialoging with them about the wonder of Jesus and about what God is doing in the world today, and once again I am in awe of this Man and how utterly unique He is in His unadulterated love and affection for humans; and I'm struck again with how Jesus is so unlike our imaginations of how God must be. When we freely talk about these things together, it's beautiful to see hearts open up to see and love Him better. As I thought and meditated on this today, the words of this song came to me:

You are beautiful beyond description
Too marvelous for words
Too wonderful of comprehension
Like nothing ever seen or heard

Who can grasp you infinite wisdom
Who can fathom the depth of your love
You are beautiful beyond description
Majesty enthroned above

And I stand, I stand in awe of You
I stand, I stand in awe of You
Holy God to whom all praise is due
I stand in awe of You.

The Newness of Jesus' Time

In recent posts I covered parts of Albert Nolan's wonderful book, Jesus Before Christianity. I want to quote some more from the chapter entitled "A New Time" in which Nolan underscores what an entirely different era Jesus introduced:

"The newness of Jesus' time can hardly be exaggerated...God has been moved by compassion for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This has been portrayed by Jesus in the parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin and most of all in the parable of the lost son (Lk. 15:1-32). These parables are Jesus' attempts to reveal to his opponents...the signs that God had been moved by compassion...to do something new.

"The point is made most clearly in the parable of the lost son. The intention of the first part of the parable is to impress upon us how much of a sinner the son had been and how much he had wronged his father. The homecoming takes a  surprising turn; in the first place, because of what his father does not do. He does not reject and disown his son as the son himself had expected and as the father would have had every right to do. He does not demand that the son make amends for his sins or that he make restitution for the financial loss to the father by working as a hired servant, which is what Jesus' audience would have expected. He does not punish his son in any way at all, which offends against every current notion of justice. He does not even scold his son or demand an apology. There is not even a condescending word of forgiveness on the lips of the father. All he does is rejoice and order a feast, a celebration.

"Why? Because he had been deeply moved by compassion (v.20). Such was his concern for his son that having him back safe and sound outweighed every other consideration and was more than sufficient reason for rejoicing.

"The elder son echoes the angry sentiments of Jesus' audience, the scribes and the Pharisees (v.2). As far as they are concerned God would not act and is not acting like this...

"The attention of God is now turned to human beings and their needs. God has come down from the heavenly throne, the highest position of prestige in the world, to be intimately close to men, women and children, who may now address God as abba."

Watchman Nee: God's Activity Steadily Progressive

A good reminder from Watchman Nee:

"Because God acts in history the flow of the Spirit is ever onward. We who are on earth today have inherited vast wealth through servants of Jesus Christ who have already made their contribution to the Church. We cannot overestimate the greatness of our heritage, nor can be we sufficiently grateful to God for it. But if today you try to be a Martin Luther or a Wesley, you will miss your destiny. You will fall short of the purpose of God for this generation, for you will be moving backwards while the tide of the Spirit is flowing on. The whole trend of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is a forward trend.

God's acts are ever new. To hold onto the past, wanting God to move as He has formerly done, is to risk finding yourself out of the main stream of His goings. The flow of divine activity sweeps on from generation to generation, and in our own it is still uninterrupted, still steadily progressive."