Please go pray.
Right now.
Seriously. Please take a moment, think about what you need to be lifting up to God, and take some time to go do that. If you don't consider yourself the prayin' type, this is an invitation to give it a shot. I know for a fact God would love to hear from you. If you don't feel comfortable with that, 'tis ok. If you can find someone praying, maybe go listen to them for a bit. It'll be helpful for what we're going to talk about.
I've been thinking a lot about prayer lately. As I've entered into this internship, it's darn near impossible to to not think about prayer, as there is no way I would be able to do this job to the level I would consider faithful on my own strength. As I've been thinking, I've been paying a lot of attention to how I, and other people, pray. Yes, friends, I've been doin' the creep on yo' prayers. Just a bit, though, don't worry about it. One thing stood out to me as I've examined how we pray.
Think back to the time when you were praying. How many times did you say the word "just?" As in "please just do this" or "just move in this way."
Some of you may see where I'm going with this, and think I'm being a bit nit-picky. Stick with me though, I've been praying (conveniently enough) about this for a while, and I think it's important for us to think about.
"Just" was, for a time, the most common word that came out of my mouth when I was praying. This didn't change until a dear brother of mine called me out on my excessive use of this borderline filler word during a prayer time one day. For some of us, that is what "just" is, a simple filler word. So why, then, am I making such a big deal out of it?
I think "just" sets a very dangerous precedent. When I think about that word, I think of statements like "just enough" or "just barely," things which imply some intense limitations. Thinking back on my prayer, this term came out of a personal fear that God wasn't big enough to accomplish all of the things I felt he had given me to pray for. As a result, I was pretty sheepish. When asking for things in prayer, it was less of a "God, I believe you can and want to do this, so please do it," and more of a "God, I don't know what you're really capable of, so please just do this one thing. If you can. That'd be great. Okaythanksbye. Oh yeah, Amen." That sounds like a pretty weak God I was praying to, someone who isn't really worth praying to at all.
Yet scripture shows me a very different image of who God is, and what kind of power He has. Go give Ephesians 3 a read (you're already on the internet, go ahead and typie type it into that search bar up top). Particularly, pay attention to verse twenty. A God "who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine," now that sounds very different than the God I was praying to.
I consider myself a fairly imaginative person. I think as a people we have the capacity to be extremely creative. We, as a people, are also very good at asking for things. I think if we took even a small amount of time we could, all of us, come up with a huge number of things which we could ask for which would make this world better. I'm putting together everything I can come up with in my imagination, and all of the things which I could ever ask for. What I just read tells me God is bigger than that. I'm going to go ahead and stop and wonder at that for a little while. Give me a minute.
My fear is that we are crippling God by how we pray. The word "just" puts us in such danger to believe that God can only do so much. This means that when the incomprehensibly terrifying things come against us, we're still stuck with a God we don't really believe can handle what we're dealing with. I refuse to believe that.
So here's what I'm thinking. Let's get the word "just" out of our prayer, not to be picky, but to be bold. Let's believe God can do what He says He can do. The next time we pray, and the time after that, and the time after that, let's pray big. Huge. Impossible. Because He can do it.
With His love and grace,
Taylor
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
A Total Eclipse of the Point
Sorry, Bonnie Tyler, for taking your song title and tinkering with it. It just fit so gosh dern well. Feel free to send your cease and desist letter to the email on my profile.
With that formality out of the way, let's get to the crux of things.
Some of you may remember a couple of posts ago when I verbalized the fact that I was not going to join in on the current discussion on the nature of hell, something which has increased in fervor since the publication of Rob Bell's Love Wins. I originally mentioned that I hadn't done the necessary reading to effectively enter into the conversation. Well. that's changed, and after a lot of prayer I feel like this is something that would be good to talk about.
What I'm not going to do is tell you what I think of Love Wins. My apologies if this is disappointing, but I think the discussion needs to focus on something bigger than what one person happened to say on this subject. To paraphrase Bell, this is something which plenty of people have put forward before, (paraphrasing over) it just hasn't been as well marketed.
I will say this about the book, it has inspired what could have been a very good discussion. Any time something can get people engaging with spiritual matters is a good thing in my opinion. It gives the opportunity for truth to be shared, for Jesus to be proclaimed, and for His love to be made known. As I said, though, this book could have inspired some really good discussion. We, however, kind of ruined it.
The discussion around this text has made it seem as though hell is an integral aspect to the current work which is happening for God's kingdom here in this world. We've set up a situation in which, if someone doesn't understand hell properly, they will have no hope for living out their life in Christ. In response to that situation, I have a question.
When was the last time hell came up when you were discussing faith with someone?
Sure, the topic may have been mentioned, but I feel like most conversations about who God is and how He desires to know us don't center around hell. The conversations that use hell as a focal point are almost always the most unChristlike things I have ever seen, with the message being made up more of hate and personal bigotry than any expression of God's character (please note, Love Wins and Erasing Hell are important exceptions to this generalization).
Put simply, I think there are much more important things we could be talking about than hell. The love of Christ is so awesome (and I do not use that word lightly in any sense) that it should be enough to fill thousands, neigh millions of conversations. The ability for God to work miraculously in the world through His Holy Spirit (we're talking about divine healing of people's bodies as a starting point) is good for a couple million more. If I had to pick one story to share for the rest of forever, the amazingly redemptive narrative of scripture could easily keep me captivated. With all of this great source material to choose from for our conversations, I fail to see why hell needs to play such a huge role.
There are those, however, for whom the idea of hell is an extremely troublesome sticking point, and I don't want to invalidate that at all. There are those for whom death is an extremely prominent source of fear, and the idea of what will happen when they die must be dealt with before they can engage other aspects of who God is. Even in that situation, though, I feel that hell does not have to be the focus of the dialogue, because it is still better to assert the opportunity which a person has to embrace a relationship with God (gained through His loving sacrifice) than to use fear as an evangelism tool and focus on what will happen if they don't come to know Jesus in this lifetime. Any discussion we have on hell should be pointing towards the amazing, redemptive love of God.
If there is one point which hasn't been debated by people who are on the various sides of the current discussion of the nature of hell, it is that living life for God is infinitely better than whatever alternative might be true. For those who have been misled, Rob Bell does not say that there is no punishment for those who don't accept Jesus' loving sacrifice and embrace their place in God's family. As I understand his argument, Bell asserts that this punishment does not have to be eternal, which is the main sticking point for people. To clarify, even according to the infamous Rob Bell, there is still some manner of punishment for those who don't come to know God. Based on this undisputed fact (at least within the teachings of Christianity), if I truly love people as Jesus loves them, it shouldn't matter to me whether of not hell is eternal.
I should have a heart to keep them from having to experience that punishment for so much as a second.
I honestly hope (but maybe not believe) that Rob Bell is right. I hope that hell is not eternal, and that people, upon seeing the glory of Jesus and having countless opportunities to experience His boundless love will turn to Him. What I have been convicted of, however, is that I am wasting my time if I sit here and let a debate over what hell is or isn't like stop me from going out and loving on people in Jesus' name.
This has happened before, and it will happen again. We can't let issues like this one distract us from the point of the gospel, that being that God loves people and desires to know them. All of us Christ followers believe that. Let's go live it.
With His love and grace,
Taylor
With that formality out of the way, let's get to the crux of things.
Some of you may remember a couple of posts ago when I verbalized the fact that I was not going to join in on the current discussion on the nature of hell, something which has increased in fervor since the publication of Rob Bell's Love Wins. I originally mentioned that I hadn't done the necessary reading to effectively enter into the conversation. Well. that's changed, and after a lot of prayer I feel like this is something that would be good to talk about.
What I'm not going to do is tell you what I think of Love Wins. My apologies if this is disappointing, but I think the discussion needs to focus on something bigger than what one person happened to say on this subject. To paraphrase Bell, this is something which plenty of people have put forward before, (paraphrasing over) it just hasn't been as well marketed.
I will say this about the book, it has inspired what could have been a very good discussion. Any time something can get people engaging with spiritual matters is a good thing in my opinion. It gives the opportunity for truth to be shared, for Jesus to be proclaimed, and for His love to be made known. As I said, though, this book could have inspired some really good discussion. We, however, kind of ruined it.
The discussion around this text has made it seem as though hell is an integral aspect to the current work which is happening for God's kingdom here in this world. We've set up a situation in which, if someone doesn't understand hell properly, they will have no hope for living out their life in Christ. In response to that situation, I have a question.
When was the last time hell came up when you were discussing faith with someone?
Sure, the topic may have been mentioned, but I feel like most conversations about who God is and how He desires to know us don't center around hell. The conversations that use hell as a focal point are almost always the most unChristlike things I have ever seen, with the message being made up more of hate and personal bigotry than any expression of God's character (please note, Love Wins and Erasing Hell are important exceptions to this generalization).
Put simply, I think there are much more important things we could be talking about than hell. The love of Christ is so awesome (and I do not use that word lightly in any sense) that it should be enough to fill thousands, neigh millions of conversations. The ability for God to work miraculously in the world through His Holy Spirit (we're talking about divine healing of people's bodies as a starting point) is good for a couple million more. If I had to pick one story to share for the rest of forever, the amazingly redemptive narrative of scripture could easily keep me captivated. With all of this great source material to choose from for our conversations, I fail to see why hell needs to play such a huge role.
There are those, however, for whom the idea of hell is an extremely troublesome sticking point, and I don't want to invalidate that at all. There are those for whom death is an extremely prominent source of fear, and the idea of what will happen when they die must be dealt with before they can engage other aspects of who God is. Even in that situation, though, I feel that hell does not have to be the focus of the dialogue, because it is still better to assert the opportunity which a person has to embrace a relationship with God (gained through His loving sacrifice) than to use fear as an evangelism tool and focus on what will happen if they don't come to know Jesus in this lifetime. Any discussion we have on hell should be pointing towards the amazing, redemptive love of God.
If there is one point which hasn't been debated by people who are on the various sides of the current discussion of the nature of hell, it is that living life for God is infinitely better than whatever alternative might be true. For those who have been misled, Rob Bell does not say that there is no punishment for those who don't accept Jesus' loving sacrifice and embrace their place in God's family. As I understand his argument, Bell asserts that this punishment does not have to be eternal, which is the main sticking point for people. To clarify, even according to the infamous Rob Bell, there is still some manner of punishment for those who don't come to know God. Based on this undisputed fact (at least within the teachings of Christianity), if I truly love people as Jesus loves them, it shouldn't matter to me whether of not hell is eternal.
I should have a heart to keep them from having to experience that punishment for so much as a second.
I honestly hope (but maybe not believe) that Rob Bell is right. I hope that hell is not eternal, and that people, upon seeing the glory of Jesus and having countless opportunities to experience His boundless love will turn to Him. What I have been convicted of, however, is that I am wasting my time if I sit here and let a debate over what hell is or isn't like stop me from going out and loving on people in Jesus' name.
This has happened before, and it will happen again. We can't let issues like this one distract us from the point of the gospel, that being that God loves people and desires to know them. All of us Christ followers believe that. Let's go live it.
With His love and grace,
Taylor
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Creation-Carevangelism
I like it when metaphors blend.
In a recent discussion we University Christian Ministry interns had, we dialogued on the notion of evangelism. That word, for anyone who isn't familiar, is essentially used in the modern parlance to mean sharing faith. It can be a lot more complex than that, but at it's base root, that's what I feel it means.
Back to that discussion we were having, though. One important point which was brought up that I particularly latched on to was the question of what our motivation behind evangelism should be. I had the discomforting pleasure of asking myself questions such as am I just sharing my faith to check a box off because it's something I am commanded to do? How broken is my heart for those who don't yet know the Lord? Do I even give a crap that people don't know God?
One image which we used to talk about the idea of evangelism and how we are to go about sharing our faith was farming. Scripture talks a lot about tilling soil, sowing seeds, reaping harvests, etc. As such, it made sense that we would use this sort of imagery to discuss the concept of evangelism.
Some quick background; I haven't had a great deal of "success" (at least as the world would define it) in my evangelistic endeavors. I don't have any grand stories of helping people come to know the Lord, save one, in which I was only indirectly involved. Most of my work for the Kingdom so far has taken the shape of encouraging those who already know God. At times, this makes me feel like I am doing something wrong, as scripture makes it very clear that God is into seeking people who don't have a relationship with Him.
A bit more background; I think caring for creation is extremely important. As I understand scripture, heaven is not some other place, but rather at the end times God is going to restore this earth back to the way in which He originally intended it. Therefore, we can't get away with having the "let's torch this entire world" mentality because we think God is going to just create a new one. It's this belief that helped me make the decision to be a vegetarian, and it's this belief that makes it so that I hate (and I don't use that word lightly) practices such as cash cropping and agricultural abuse of God's creation.
We now return to our regularly scheduled program.
In the midst of our discussion, God chose to bring these two different aspects of my life with Him together. As we used various agricultural images of to describe what evangelism should look like, He grabbed from my mind all of the things I don't like about industrial agricultural, the complete devaluing of the Lord's creation for the sake of feeding the few. Then He had me think about how I am doing the very thing I hate. I have begun to try to cash crop in terms of evangelism.
Based on the struggles with evangelism I talked about above, it has become easy for me to try to push more and more for people to come to know the Lord. Sure, this might seem like a good thing, seeing as how I truly do believe that the best thing someone can do with their life is serve God, but God helped me to recognize that my motivations for evangelism were complete and total crap. I didn't want to take the time to prepare someone for a healthy relationship with God. I just wanted to find all the people who were already prepared and cash in on the crop of their souls. I dramatically devalued people for the sake of my own desire to be able to say that I had brought someone to the Lord.
In short, I almost completely forgot who Jesus is, and how He cares for people.
Yes, Jesus was overt about what He was doing when it was appropriate, but every single time He talks with a person, it is blatantly apparent that He loves them on a level so intimate I can't even comprehend it. He took the time to meet with the people who were completely ostracized from society, not just those who looked like they might be more ready to receive what He had to say. As I type these words, I know I've heard them before, but I love that God cares about me enough and is patient enough to show them to me in a new way that has finally managed to convict my heart on this subject.
So what does this change mean for me? It means I'm going to stop looking to clinch the deal on someone's relationship with God, and start listening. It means I'm going to stop looking for those who seem ready to receive the gospel, and start loving all of the people I've been ignoring for the last couple of years. It means I'm actually going to try to live like Jesus. I want to welcome you into your own exploration of what your heart looks like. Take some time to let God show you what it is that you really think about what it means to share your faith, and who you focus those efforts on. Then let's all ask that tough question of whether or not that lines up with what Jesus shows us.
With His love and grace,
Taylor
In a recent discussion we University Christian Ministry interns had, we dialogued on the notion of evangelism. That word, for anyone who isn't familiar, is essentially used in the modern parlance to mean sharing faith. It can be a lot more complex than that, but at it's base root, that's what I feel it means.
Back to that discussion we were having, though. One important point which was brought up that I particularly latched on to was the question of what our motivation behind evangelism should be. I had the discomforting pleasure of asking myself questions such as am I just sharing my faith to check a box off because it's something I am commanded to do? How broken is my heart for those who don't yet know the Lord? Do I even give a crap that people don't know God?
One image which we used to talk about the idea of evangelism and how we are to go about sharing our faith was farming. Scripture talks a lot about tilling soil, sowing seeds, reaping harvests, etc. As such, it made sense that we would use this sort of imagery to discuss the concept of evangelism.
Some quick background; I haven't had a great deal of "success" (at least as the world would define it) in my evangelistic endeavors. I don't have any grand stories of helping people come to know the Lord, save one, in which I was only indirectly involved. Most of my work for the Kingdom so far has taken the shape of encouraging those who already know God. At times, this makes me feel like I am doing something wrong, as scripture makes it very clear that God is into seeking people who don't have a relationship with Him.
A bit more background; I think caring for creation is extremely important. As I understand scripture, heaven is not some other place, but rather at the end times God is going to restore this earth back to the way in which He originally intended it. Therefore, we can't get away with having the "let's torch this entire world" mentality because we think God is going to just create a new one. It's this belief that helped me make the decision to be a vegetarian, and it's this belief that makes it so that I hate (and I don't use that word lightly) practices such as cash cropping and agricultural abuse of God's creation.
We now return to our regularly scheduled program.
In the midst of our discussion, God chose to bring these two different aspects of my life with Him together. As we used various agricultural images of to describe what evangelism should look like, He grabbed from my mind all of the things I don't like about industrial agricultural, the complete devaluing of the Lord's creation for the sake of feeding the few. Then He had me think about how I am doing the very thing I hate. I have begun to try to cash crop in terms of evangelism.
Based on the struggles with evangelism I talked about above, it has become easy for me to try to push more and more for people to come to know the Lord. Sure, this might seem like a good thing, seeing as how I truly do believe that the best thing someone can do with their life is serve God, but God helped me to recognize that my motivations for evangelism were complete and total crap. I didn't want to take the time to prepare someone for a healthy relationship with God. I just wanted to find all the people who were already prepared and cash in on the crop of their souls. I dramatically devalued people for the sake of my own desire to be able to say that I had brought someone to the Lord.
In short, I almost completely forgot who Jesus is, and how He cares for people.
Yes, Jesus was overt about what He was doing when it was appropriate, but every single time He talks with a person, it is blatantly apparent that He loves them on a level so intimate I can't even comprehend it. He took the time to meet with the people who were completely ostracized from society, not just those who looked like they might be more ready to receive what He had to say. As I type these words, I know I've heard them before, but I love that God cares about me enough and is patient enough to show them to me in a new way that has finally managed to convict my heart on this subject.
So what does this change mean for me? It means I'm going to stop looking to clinch the deal on someone's relationship with God, and start listening. It means I'm going to stop looking for those who seem ready to receive the gospel, and start loving all of the people I've been ignoring for the last couple of years. It means I'm actually going to try to live like Jesus. I want to welcome you into your own exploration of what your heart looks like. Take some time to let God show you what it is that you really think about what it means to share your faith, and who you focus those efforts on. Then let's all ask that tough question of whether or not that lines up with what Jesus shows us.
With His love and grace,
Taylor
Sunday, September 4, 2011
My Tongue is Made of Sandpaper
Coarse, that is.
I've been thinking a lot lately about talking. Is that as weird as it sounds? Well, either way, it's been happening. In particular, I've been thinking about the words which I use. More than is usually the case, I seem to have been putting my foot in my mouth, saying things that could be interpreted as being rude or uncaring. Constant self-examination is something I struggle with, so I try to curb these thoughts as much as I can, as they are usually unhealthy. In the midst of all of that introspection, however, God pointed out something in my communication that does, indeed, need to die.
Cynicism. Specifically of the sarcastic variety.
I've noticed that cynicism has become an increasingly wheel-house-eque structure in the tiny little village that is my sense of humor. You have the library of slight wit, the public square of hyperbole, and then the ever-increasing PA system of cynicism which is beginning to be installed throughout the whole place. At first, this didn't seem like too terribly large a deal. A great many of my friends (both those who identify as Christians and those who don't) partake in and indeed glorify this type of humor. It seemed to be a way to deal with so many of the frustrating things in this world. It's harder for something to bother you when you've intellectually torn it down into obscurity.
What are the consequences of this, though? On the one hand, this humor is counter to scripture, which commands me to let no coarse word come out of my mouth. Recently, I've been thinking about a consequence of my cynicism which is even more terrifying than denying God's word.
I could be keeping people from coming to know the Lord by my humor.
Cynicism has an interesting effect. It asserts one as being intellectually superior to the thing which is being discussed. This may not seem as something which would be dangerous. If something is silly, or ill-planned, or poorly executed, what is the risk in commenting on the intellectual deficiency of that particular structure?
What about when someone's intellectual inaptitude has to do with God?
I saw a post recently which drove home how dangerous this type of humor (particularly as it relates to faith) can become. An individual within my sphere of relationships mocked a certain person for thanking both God and Jesus in a certain setting. Oh yes, let the hilarity be known for all those who understand this difference, but what about those who don't? What about those who legitimately don't understand the trinity, who find it to be a major stumbling block in their ability to enter into a relationship with God?
Woe to me (and I mean that in the most serious sense possible) if I ever make someone feel, by way of my cynical humor, that they are intellectually barred from learning about the Lord. I honestly think it breaks God's heart when His children use the knowledge which they have gained through prayer and His scripture to make those who do not know the Lord feel lesser, in any way.
This is one of the hardest words I've ever had to post, because it strikes straight to my heart. It requires of me a constant willingness to guard my tongue, to be persistently mindful of all of those who are around me and how they might interpret what I say. This, to me, is incredibly difficult, but I have been convicted of the fact that it is also incredibly necessary.
I'm tired of ignoring the parts of scripture I don't like. I'm tired of cringing every time I read the book of James because the Lord reminds me (with every ounce of His gentle Love, praise be to Him) of just how poorly I control my own tongue. But how hateful of me to put my personal discomfort over the eternal destiny of another's soul. To any reading this, if I have ever made you feel as though you were somehow beyond God based on what I suggested through my language, I plead for your forgiveness. I may not always communicate this truth well, but I truly believe that God desires a relationship with every single person. Never let anything I say in error make you think otherwise.
With His love and grace,
Taylor
I've been thinking a lot lately about talking. Is that as weird as it sounds? Well, either way, it's been happening. In particular, I've been thinking about the words which I use. More than is usually the case, I seem to have been putting my foot in my mouth, saying things that could be interpreted as being rude or uncaring. Constant self-examination is something I struggle with, so I try to curb these thoughts as much as I can, as they are usually unhealthy. In the midst of all of that introspection, however, God pointed out something in my communication that does, indeed, need to die.
Cynicism. Specifically of the sarcastic variety.
I've noticed that cynicism has become an increasingly wheel-house-eque structure in the tiny little village that is my sense of humor. You have the library of slight wit, the public square of hyperbole, and then the ever-increasing PA system of cynicism which is beginning to be installed throughout the whole place. At first, this didn't seem like too terribly large a deal. A great many of my friends (both those who identify as Christians and those who don't) partake in and indeed glorify this type of humor. It seemed to be a way to deal with so many of the frustrating things in this world. It's harder for something to bother you when you've intellectually torn it down into obscurity.
What are the consequences of this, though? On the one hand, this humor is counter to scripture, which commands me to let no coarse word come out of my mouth. Recently, I've been thinking about a consequence of my cynicism which is even more terrifying than denying God's word.
I could be keeping people from coming to know the Lord by my humor.
Cynicism has an interesting effect. It asserts one as being intellectually superior to the thing which is being discussed. This may not seem as something which would be dangerous. If something is silly, or ill-planned, or poorly executed, what is the risk in commenting on the intellectual deficiency of that particular structure?
What about when someone's intellectual inaptitude has to do with God?
I saw a post recently which drove home how dangerous this type of humor (particularly as it relates to faith) can become. An individual within my sphere of relationships mocked a certain person for thanking both God and Jesus in a certain setting. Oh yes, let the hilarity be known for all those who understand this difference, but what about those who don't? What about those who legitimately don't understand the trinity, who find it to be a major stumbling block in their ability to enter into a relationship with God?
Woe to me (and I mean that in the most serious sense possible) if I ever make someone feel, by way of my cynical humor, that they are intellectually barred from learning about the Lord. I honestly think it breaks God's heart when His children use the knowledge which they have gained through prayer and His scripture to make those who do not know the Lord feel lesser, in any way.
This is one of the hardest words I've ever had to post, because it strikes straight to my heart. It requires of me a constant willingness to guard my tongue, to be persistently mindful of all of those who are around me and how they might interpret what I say. This, to me, is incredibly difficult, but I have been convicted of the fact that it is also incredibly necessary.
I'm tired of ignoring the parts of scripture I don't like. I'm tired of cringing every time I read the book of James because the Lord reminds me (with every ounce of His gentle Love, praise be to Him) of just how poorly I control my own tongue. But how hateful of me to put my personal discomfort over the eternal destiny of another's soul. To any reading this, if I have ever made you feel as though you were somehow beyond God based on what I suggested through my language, I plead for your forgiveness. I may not always communicate this truth well, but I truly believe that God desires a relationship with every single person. Never let anything I say in error make you think otherwise.
With His love and grace,
Taylor
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