Through the River

Through the River is a new book by John and Mindy Hirst.  This book challenges us to examine what we believe about truth and how what we believe effects those we come into contact with.  In this book truth is presented through three “lenses” and explained using a metaphor about a town and a river that runs through it. (Brad Pitt isn’t in this one!!)

The one line that really stuck in my head in this book is the one used to summarize the critical realist truth lens.  It views truth as “the truth we know and the truth we are learning.”

Here is some links that you may want to check out:

http://throughtheriverbook.com

Jon and Mindy Hirst on Twitter: http://twitter.com/generousmind

Facebook Fan Page: http://facebook.com/pages/Through-the-River/97523594915

Facebook Group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=116401856022

Generous Mind Blog: http://generousmind.blogspot.com

Pettiness

by Charles R. Swindoll

Galatians 2:4-5

Few things turn our crank faster than being around big-minded, enthusiastic, broad-shouldered visionaries. They are positive, on the move, excited about exploring new vistas, inspired, and inspiring. While others are preoccupied with tiny tasks and nit-picking squabbles, these people see opportunity in every difficulty and helpful lessons in every setback.

Few things turn us off quicker than being around small-minded, pessimistic, narrow-world, tedious frowners. Engrossed in the minutiae of what won’t work and remembering a half-dozen worst-case scenarios, they can throw more cold water on a creative idea than a team of firefighters snuffing out a candle.

It’s not caution we resent. Caution is necessary and wise. Caution keeps the visionary realistic. No, it’s the tiny-focused, squint-eyed, tight-lipped, stingy soul that drives us batty. The best word is petty . . . as in petty cash, petty larceny, petty minded.

“Pettiness,” writes George Will, “is the tendency of people without large purposes.”

Petty people are worse than stubborn; they are negative and rigidly inflexible. While we work overtime to come up with some soaring idea, they’ve already thought up eight reasons it won’t fly.

Whatever or wherever or whoever manifests pettiness isn’t my concern, however. Stopping its effect on us is. Why? Because the church seems to be the breeding ground for this legalistic disease.

Pettiness takes a terrible toll. It kills our joy!

I have been studying the lives of several of the great visionaries of the church. They were extremely different, yet they all have one common denominator: Not one was petty. I mean not one.

Let me remind you of Paul’s reaction to those who “sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus.” He declares, “We did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour” (Gal. 2:5). Nor should we.

Count on this: You will encounter petty types. So when you do, shrug it off and just keep on honoring God as you pursue those large purposes.

“Pettiness is the tendency of people without large purposes” (George Will).

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A Prayer to Our Father

If there is a prayer that is universal to the Christian faith it would be the prayer Jesus gives as a model in response to his disciples request: “Lord, teach us how to pray.”  This prayer, better known as “The Lord’s Prayer,” is recited by Catholic and Baptist alike, football and baseball players, even the particularly irreligious are still somewhat familiar with this prayer.  I can remember kneeling down before every game in high-school to “Get an Our Father” before the game started.  I guess we needed all the help we could get!

But what was the real purpose and meaning of the most beloved prayer in the Christian world?  I must be honest, I heard it so much growing up that I never asked myself that question.  But that is exactly the question A Prayer to Our Father sets out to answer.  Written by an unlikely pair of authors, a Jewish Bible scholar and a former chaplain for the Minnesota Vikings, this book is an adventure that begins in Jerusalem and takes them presumably to the very place in Galilee where Jesus first spoke this prayer.  Along the way these two discover a Hebrew version of the “Lord’s Prayer” called the Avinu, which means “Our Father.”  (Turns out we weren’t too far off when we called it an “Our Father.”)  The second half of the book is an exploration of the Hebrew origins of this prayer.  This book caused me to think of the “Lord’s Prayer” in ways that I never have before.

http://www.aprayertoourfather.com – official website

http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Prayer-to-Our-Father/64724168340 – book fan page

http://www.wfae.org/wfae/18_93_0.cfm?do=detail&id=10404 – authors’ interview on NPR

http://www.sanctuarycov.org/ee-assets/my-uploads/sermons/2009_07_12_Get_A_Bigger_Box.mp3 – Keith Johnson’s message at Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, “Get A Bigger Box”

The Diversity Culture

I just finished reading the book The Diversity Culture by Matthew Raley.  The author is the senior pastor of the Orland Evangelical Free Church in northern California.  He writes this book to the evangelical that wants to be a “soul winner” of the “diversity culture” so needless to say this book may not sit well with everyone.  I must admit I don’t think I was the intended audience of the book but found some good things in it none the less.

The Diversity Culture discusses the bigotry, stereotyping, and assumptions that often occur when people interact with others while using the story of Jesus and the woman at the well to present an alternative approach to sharing your beliefs with others.

If you want to read the first chapter of this book for free click here.

If you want to check out Matthew Raley’s blog click here.

The Seven Faith Tribes

I am currently reading The Seven Faith Tribes by George Barna.  It looks like this is gonna be a good one so check back with me later for a review.  Here is the description from the inside cover:

The United States harbors a long and deep tradition of faith.  Founded as a nation of people seeking religious freedom, America has always debated the appropriate expression of religious beliefs.  Spirituality remains a hot topic of personal conversation, political intrigue, social commentary, and economic significance.

But what do we know about the faith of Americans?  Most analyses are woefully inadequate, lumping people into generic categories such as Protestant and Catholic, evangelical and mainline, charismatic and fundamentalist.  These general portraits are of limited value.

In The Seven Faith Tribes, researcher and writer George Barna draws upon twenty-five years of research- and interviews with more than 30,000 people- to identify and closely study the dominant “faith tribes” in America.  Who are they?  What holds them together?  And what difference might understanding them make for the future of our country?

Barna offers insightful information on each of these tribes and reveals astonishing insights about how they are influencing our economy, politics, and values.  Most importantly, he predicts what lies next for faith in America- and how we all might come together to set the nation on a better course.

A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church

I just finished reading A Lover’s Quarrel with the Evangelical Church which I got courtesy of The Ooze Viralbloggers.  As Dr. Alex McFarland has said, “This book is for all who are broken over the fact that our nation is spiritually bankrupt, despite a well funded American Christian industry and thousands of Dolby-surround-sound-equipped churches.

In his insightful critique of the evangelical movement and its excesses the book’s author, Warren Cole Smith, takes on such topics as “The Evangelical Myth,” “The Christian Industrial Complex,” and “Body-Count Evangelism.” Smith helps us to see that, even in the church, bad ideas have bad consequences despite good intentions.

Lover’s Quarrel powerfully declares that “God wants the church to be the church and that even the world wants the church to be the church.  It’s the church that doesn’t want to be the church.  That’s the core problem.”

If you want to check out this book go to the official site for Warren Cole Smith and the book here, where you can read the introduction and also purchase the book.

Trillion is the New Billion

It’s official, trillion is the new billion. No longer is government spending talked about in terms of a mere ten digits. With the recent flurry of government spending, we are going to need another …

What Matters More

There’s been some controversy in the so called “Christain” community over the quote “explicit” lyrics to a song on the new Derrick Webb album “Stockholm Syndrome.”  I totally agree , if explicit means “Derrick explicitly said what needed to be said to the Christian community as a whole.”

Here is the song and the lyrics. It reminded me of  hearing a sermon by Tony Campolo that began like this:  “I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a shit. What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”

So tell me, What matters more to you?

You say you always treat people like you like to be
I guess you love being hated for your sexuality
You love when people put words in your mouth
‘Bout what you believe, make you sound like a freak

‘Cause if you really believe what you say you believe
You wouldn’t be so damn reckless with the words you speak
Wouldn’t silently consent when the liars speak
Denyin’ all the dyin’ of the remedy

Tell me, brother, what matters more to you?
Tell me, sister, what matters more to you?

If I can tell what’s in your heart by what comes out of your mouth
Then it sure looks to me like being straight is all it’s about
It looks like being hated for all the wrong things
Like chasin’ the wind while the pendulum swings

‘Cause we can talk and debate until we’re blue in the face
About the language and tradition that he’s comin’ to save
Meanwhile we sit just like we don’t give a shit
About 50,000 people who are dyin’ today

Tell me, brother, what matters more to you?
Tell me, sister, what matters more to you?

Religious Fashion Shows

“The religion scholars and Pharisees are competent teachers in God’s Law. You won’t go wrong in following their teachings on Moses. But be careful about following them. They talk a good line, but they don’t live it. They don’t take it into their hearts and live it out in their behavior. It’s all spit-and-polish veneer.

“Instead of giving you God’s Law as food and drink by which you can banquet on God, they package it in bundles of rules, loading you down like pack animals. They seem to take pleasure in watching you stagger under these loads, and wouldn’t think of lifting a finger to help. Their lives are perpetual fashion shows, embroidered prayer shawls one day and flowery prayers the next. They love to sit at the head table at church dinners, basking in the most prominent positions, preening in the radiance of public flattery, receiving honorary degrees, and getting called ‘Doctor’ and ‘Reverend.’

“Don’t let people do that to you, put you on a pedestal like that. You all have a single Teacher, and you are all classmates. Don’t set people up as experts over your life, letting them tell you what to do. Save that authority for God; let him tell you what to do. No one else should carry the title of ‘Father’; you have only one Father, and he’s in heaven. And don’t let people maneuver you into taking charge of them. There is only one Life-Leader for you and them—Christ.

“Do you want to stand out? Then step down. Be a servant. If you puff yourself up, you’ll get the wind knocked out of you. But if you’re content to simply be yourself, your life will count for plenty.

Peterson, Eugene H.: The Message : The Bible in Contemporary Language. Colorado Springs, Colo. : NavPress, 2002, S. Mt 23:1-12

The Service of Passionate Devotion

Jesus did not say to make converts to your way of thinking, but He said to look after His sheep, to see that they get nourished in the knowledge of Him. We consider what we do in the way of Christian work as service, yet Jesus Christ calls service to be what we are to Him, not what we do for Him. Discipleship is based solely on devotion to Jesus Christ, not on following after a particular belief or doctrine. “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate … , he cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:26). In this verse, there is no argument and no pressure from Jesus to follow Him; He is simply saying, in effect, “If you want to be My disciple, you must be devoted solely to Me.” A person touched by the Spirit of God suddenly says, “Now I see who Jesus is!”—that is the source of devotion.

Today we have substituted doctrinal belief for personal belief, and that is why so many people are devoted to causes and so few are devoted to Jesus Christ. People do not really want to be devoted to Jesus, but only to the cause He started. Jesus Christ is deeply offensive to the educated minds of today, to those who only want Him to be their Friend, and who are unwilling to accept Him in any other way. Our Lord’s primary obedience was to the will of His Father, not to the needs of people—the saving of people was the natural outcome of His obedience to the Father. If I am devoted solely to the cause of humanity, I will soon be exhausted and come to the point where my love will waver and stumble. But if I love Jesus Christ personally and passionately, I can serve humanity, even though people may treat me like a “doormat.” The secret of a disciple’s life is devotion to Jesus Christ, and the characteristic of that life is its seeming insignificance and its meekness. Yet it is like a grain of wheat that “falls into the ground and dies”—it will spring up and change the entire landscape (John 12:24).

from “My Utmost for His Highest” by Oswald Chambers