One of the most powerful moments in the Bible is when God reveals his name to Moses. He simply says, “I AM”.
A lot of powerful things are happening in this I AM statement. For one, just using that name just how confident (in a good way) God is. These two words reveal a lot about God’s personality. It’s like James Bond saying, “Bond. James Bond.” It’s a name you know you shouldn’t forget. And just like Bond, it’s a powerful name. It also shows that God is relaxed and comfortable with himself. It’s a Mr. Miyagi style, soft-spoken, yet powerful voice. You can almost hear the shrug of comfortableness saying, “I AM…there is no other way to name me.”
It’s a Popeye-like moment. I am what I am.
It’s as if God is saying, “I always have been and I always will be. I don’t need a name, because I just am.”
Compare this to how many of us live our lives under the philosophy of, “am I?” We question everything about who we are, what our purpose is, what kind of life we should live. We even wonder if we need to eat our vegetables. We just aren’t sure of ourselves. And we most certainly aren’t confident in our identities. Isn’t that the whole point of childhood? We grow up, slowly learning who we are. Isn’t that the pain of the mid life crisis? When we confront the reality that who we thought we were isn’t actually true.
How fundamentally different we are from God.
This point (I AM vs am I?, not the one about vegetables) was made to me in a small group I am in. It’s something I have never considered before. But it’s such a profound and striking difference it’s hard not to be stopped by it.
“I AM” is both powerful and subtle, which sounds a lot like God. It’s no wonder he chose that name for himself.
I went to the dentist today. I can now say, “look mom, no cavities!” For which I am very grateful. But I was struck by how odd it is to sit in a chair and pay someone to stick their hands in your mouth. What a strange society we live in these days.
Sometimes you hear the Bible (or Christianity in general) criticized because it doesn’t meet with our sensibilities. Although there are many examples, a common one I hear is that “they weren’t as ‘progressive’ as we are towards women, therefore we should reject the Bible.”
But if you told a person from Jesus’ time that you pay someone to stick their hands in your mouth, they would think you were insane. (And let’s face it, they aren’t that far off!)
You see, context is king. We have people poke around our mouths because it prevents us from losing our teeth. While the people of 2000 years ago may not have been as “progressive” as we are today, Christianity was on the cutting edge in the context of the day. Find me a religion where women play a more important role. Go ahead. I’ll wait.
You can’t. Because it doesn’t exist.
God was ahead of the curve. So what makes you think he’s not ahead of the curve today?
What happens when someone asks you to do something unexpected? Do you do it, no questions asked? Or, are you more likely to roll your eyes? If you’re really dramatic you might act like a certain 4 year old I know who likes to jump up and down and throw a temper tantrum.
Most of us don’t like to do things without knowing all the details. We want answers to who, what, when, where and most importantly, why. But maybe we need to reevaluate that. Because Jesus pretty much never explained any of his miracles up front. In almost every case before a miracle happened someone needed to act on faith first.
As the John describes the miracle, Jesus doesn’t really explain what he’s about to do. There isn’t a 5 minute meeting to get everyone on the same page. Jesus doesn’t send out a Facebook update saying, “I’m about to turn this water into wine.” Instead this is how the Bible describes these events…
“Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them, ‘Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.’”
No explanations up front. Just an expectation of obedience. Can you imagine what the servants were thinking? “This guy is cracked. And worse we’re going to get in trouble with the master. Aren’t we going to look like idiots when we get up there and hand this guy some water!”
Despite their doubts, they were obedient. And because of that, they witnessed Jesus’ first miracle.
But so many of Jesus’ miracles worked like this. People were healed only after they believed. Some friends believed in Jesus’ power so much they cut a hole in someone’s roof to lower their friend down to Jesus. A woman believed in Jesus so much that she was willing to risk death to just brush against Jesus’ clothes.
They had no promises, no status updates, and no guarantees. They just knew that when Jesus said to believe, they should believe.
One of the biggest challenges facing the modern Christian is the view that miracles don’t happen. I’m not surprised at this. We live in a cynical age where nothing is taken on face value. While that may protect us from internet scams and cause us to celebrate public failures of stars and athletes, it makes a poor way to develop a relationship with a loving God.
When I look at the ministry of Jesus I see a bunch of people who missed out on the greatest moment in human history. Not because they couldn’t understand what was happening. Not because they weren’t smart enough to figure it out. And not because they weren’t’ “good people.” But because they couldn’t stop asking questions. Instead of acting, they simply stood by wondering what Jesus was up to.
The people who missed out on Jesus were the ones standing on the sideline constantly wondering what this Jesus guy was up to. The irony is the people who didn’t worry about all that were the ones who experienced the fullness of who Jesus is.
Maybe we should ask fewer questions and spend more time being obedient. Maybe then we’d see a few more miracles.
It’s hard to believe that R3 is entering its 4th year! (well technically “calendar year,” R3’s anniversary is in a few months). I never dreamed that I had enough to say to generate three posts a week. I find it amazing that I can do that. But that’s not the only thing that makes this 4th year so remarkable. It wasn’t that long ago that blogging didn’t exist.
Think about that one for a while!
The internet has been a great technology for growing people’s relationships with God. There is no other technology that allows someone to write in their spare time in Kansas but influence Christians in Australia, Indonesia, or even China. Or someone from Africa to influence people in Europe or America. The internet has had a profound impact on living a life of faith.
While religion blogging is dominated by several “big name” bloggers there has been more than enough room for smaller writers to develop a community. There are so many talented writers that I could spend an entire day simply surfing the internet reading. Now if only someone would pay me to do that…
But blogging isn’t the only change.
How we study the Bible has also changed. I can easily pull up Bible verses and do keyword searches online. If you own an iPhone you can download Bible apps and get the same thing. Never before has the Bible been so easy to access. While I still read a paper version of the Bible every day, I rarely use it for quick searches or to look things up. It just takes too long. Digital is the way to go.
And still there is more change.
Even the way we do Bible studies is different. There are online studies on hundreds of topics. Churches are giving away much of their own materials away for free. And now there are “social sites” popping up like EXAMEN.me. All dedicated to providing high quality Bible studies and devotionals.
There has never been a better time to learn about living out a life of faith. There has never been a time where so much has been available to so many. And I, for one, can’t wait to see what the future holds.
As we go into the New Year, here is my challenge to you: find a new way to study the Bible and follow it for the next 30 days. As you go through it, come back here and let us know how it’s going (I’m opening up the comments). Did it work? Was it a disaster? Did it revolutionize your life?
While most of us were busy celebrating the holidays, the world was in full motion. In a matter of about 24 hours we learned that a terrorist tried to kill 270 civilians by blowing up a plane. And while all of this was going on, the Pope was attacked during a Christmas service.
Fortunately both the passengers on the plane and the Pope escaped any significant injury (although a Vatican diplomat broke their hip and a passenger suffered 3rd degree burns wrestling the terrorist).
Reading headlines like this makes it easy to want to stick your fingers in your ears and hum Christmas carols really loudly. (I personally recommend Here Come Santa Claus.) But is that what we should be doing?
One of the things that struck me in the story about the Pope was a simple sentence that read: “Security analysts have frequently warned the pope is too exposed in his public appearances.”
Now Security Analysts are paid to keep people safe. Their job is to limit risk. To create “risk management scenarios.” But is that the job of a Christian? To stay safe? To manage risk? When I look at the Bible I see people who constantly put themselves in danger because that was where God was headed. They lived a life of faith so intensely that all that mattered was following God.
The Pope is a high profile figure. He’s part celebrity. Part politician. Part religious figure. Which means he represents a very “appealing” target to people who may have psychological issues (as was the case with this woman).
I’ve never been the Pope. And not being Catholic, it’s very unlikely I’ll ever be the Pope. I’ve also never had anyone care enough about what I do to want to hurt me. I’m not famous, rich, or a religious figurehead. So I can’t really understand what all comes with that. I also don’t really understand what it’s like to have my life constantly in danger. The most dangerous thing I do every day is scrape the ice off of my car.
But being the Pope is different.
He experiences all of those things. He has to make daily decisions that may cost him his life. And there are many people just like him, making those same kinds of decisions. But far too many people make choices based on risk management scenarios.
There is something seriously wrong with our churches when we put risk management above living out a life of faith. I applaud the Pope for being so accessible and putting his life on the line. I applaud the Christian who walks into danger, because that is where she sees God calling.
As we head into 2010 I want you to think about one question: Are you living a “safe” life? Or are you living the radical, revolutionary life that God calls us to?
Never think that God won’t ask you to do something hard.
In fact, that seems to be God’s favorite thing to do. He never seems to say, “You know what, if you go on vacation to this exclusive resort, that will really get the people believing in me!”
A while back I wrote that God never gives us more than we can handle. It’s one of the most popular posts on R3. People have a hard time understanding why a “loving God” gives us hard things to do. We don’t really want a God; we want a super powerful Santa Claus. But taking an easy path in life isn’t always the best way to go about living. I think God knows this. He knows that sometimes the most growth happens when we have to struggle. He knows that some people will be held in bondage unless we act. He knows that evil won’t stop, just because we don’t want to get involved.
Sometimes the only way to advance the Kingdom is to push.
The more I struggle to understand what it means to be a parent, the more I realize just what God goes through. When I look at my own parents I realize they held me to high expectations, not because they were being “controlling” or “demanding” but because they knew I had more potential in me then even I realized.
We don’t really want a God; we want a super powerful Santa Claus.
It’s the same with God. He knows how much we can grow. How much we can handle. And sometimes to bring out our full potential, we need to work really hard.
There are things more important to God than giving us an easy life.
This is clearly seen in the Bible. God has always been more interested in our relationship with him than in our sacrifices (for Jews) or following a bunch of rules (for Christians). But we can’t seem to get that through our heads. We keep trying “harder” to please God, when that misses the whole point.
When God gives us something hard to do (like telling Hosea to marry a prostitute) we change not just ourselves, but the world.
You can’t find a story in the Bible where something amazing wasn’t experienced when hard tasks were done. You can’t find a friend who has been obedient to God, who hasn’t grown. You can’t find lives changed when we, as Christians, do the hard thing.
What else can you make that claim about?
So when God comes to you and says, “I have something hard for you to do.” Don’t fight him. Instead, say, “how can I do it?” And then go and do it.
In the history of R3 I don’t think I’ve ever gone close to two weeks without a “serious” post. In fact it’s rare that I miss a single post during the week. But such was the case for the last two weeks. What I thought was going to keep me down for a few days turned out to floor me for nearly a week.
When I get sick I usually go in a very set pattern, and it lasts just about 3 days. This time it was different. In fact, even though it’s been 15 days since I first got sick, I’m still not feeling 100%. This is near record territory for those of you scoring at home. But in the course of all that something interesting happened – I was reminded how grateful I am for my health. Most days I don’t give my health a second thought. And I never really think about how lucky I am not to have any health issues. But these last two weeks have given me many opportunities to do just that.
Sometimes the Bible says some pretty crazy things. For instance, Jesus once said, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” I’m not even sure I really understand what that means. At least not fully. To be honest I don’t even want to think about that! I don’t want to be blessed because I’m mourning. I want to be blessed because I have a nice car and a nice house. I want to be blessed because my life is easy!
Yet after being sick I can see how mourning leads to being blessed.
When we suffer we face a choice. We can become bitter and angry, and that suffering holds us in place. How many movie villains have their origin in just such a scenario? How many of us have our identities rooted in pain? Our other choice is to not let suffering control us. It’s a chance to embrace mourning as part of a natural healing process. It’s an opportunity to try and learn something from mourning. Even if all we learn is that we need more of God.
Because I went through a time of “suffering” I now more fully appreciate what it means to be healthy. Without losing my health, I never would have really understand what it meant to be healthy in the first place. Sure, in the big scheme of things this wasn’t catastrophic. But you don’t always need to have a catastrophe to learn from God.
I think this type of knowledge was what Jesus was driving at. God’s Kingdom is often upside-down. And this is just one more example. Jesus knew that. He knew that suffering can lead to appreciation. Which is why he tells us such a counter-intuitive thing. Maybe we should all embrace our mourning instead of trying to run from it. Maybe it’s true, “blessed are those who mourn. “
Reading the Bible is one of the most difficult things for a Christian to do. It’s challenging because it takes discipline to read it every day. It’s far too easy to get busy and let it slip. On top of that, a lot of Christians find it kind of boring. And lets face it, there are parts that are exactly thrilling.
Of course that doesn’t mean those parts aren’t useful or important. It’s just that this isn’t exactly the next Harry Potter. Because of things like this, many Christians never read the Bible.
I personally love reading the Bible. It has re-shaped my understanding of who God is. And the more I study it, the more I realize the Bible is real. I’ve written about my own experience reading the Bible many times. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t times that I feel myself struggle to stay focused.
There are days when I would like to read the Bible written in a bit more contemporary style (such as The Message). I’d also like to read a Bible that was chronological, as the Bible skips around a lot (at least if you read it cover to cover.)
That’s where Jesus Wants to Save Christians comes in.
Authors Rob Bell and Don Golden write, in what they call, a New Exodus perspective. To boil it down, New Exodus refers to the fact that Jesus led a new exodus for Christians in much the same way that Moses led an (old) Exodus for Jews.
Prior to reading Jesus Wants to Save Christians I hadn’t really considered this before. I knew the details, and I even knew some of the similarities. But I had never taken the time to really consider what that looks like. Or what that would mean for my life.
And it’s this life change that we’re most interested in here at R3. That’s why I was so intrigued by Jesus Wants to Save Christians. It provides a useful framework for understanding our own journeys, and our own lives. And it’s built around four major events within Jewish history.
Egypt - Egypt was a place built on the concepts of slavery and oppression. It was a country that didn’t value people. That didn’t value God’s creation. And didn’t value life. As the book describes it, “Egypt is what happens when sin builds up a head of steam.”
Sinai - Sinai is where God breaks his silence (up to this point he had only spoken to a few people). Now he’s speaking to everyone. It’s during this time he truly sets his people free. It’s about grace, forgiveness, compassion, love, trust, and caring. It’s about getting a new beginning. It’s about all the things Egypt wasn’t.
Jerusalem - This was God’s kingdom. A chance for people of faith to show the world what it means to live a life of faith. But it all fell apart. Sin crept back into the story and Solomon, instead of using his wealth and power to advance God’s kingdom, used it to create luxury and palaces for himself. Or as Bell and Golden say, “in just a few generations, the oppressed have become the oppressors.”
Babylon - Exile. That’s what happened here. Israel was destroyed by their enemies and the Jews go back into exile. Exactly where they started many years before in Egypt. Exile is all about forgetting your purpose. It’s about losing sight of why God has given you blessings – not to gain wealth and power, but to use wealth and power to advance the Kingdom.
It’s these four things that stick in my mind. These events may have happened on a grand scale. But it also happens on a very individual scale.
How many of us have been rescued from a figurative Egypt? Maybe we lived in terror from someone who abused us. Or we lived a life consumed with sin, lust, and temptation that took us to a very lonely place. Or maybe we were just consumed with greed, and found our lives destroyed by money. And yet, for some reason, God rescued us from our personal Egypt’s.
The danger in all of our relationships with God is losing sight of that miracle. It’s forgetting the grace and forgiveness. The world is crafty, the enemy is smart, and we will get tricked (all too easily) into becoming the oppressors. Instead of showing the world what it means to live out a life of faith, we show them exactly how not to live. And so greed, lust, temptation, abuse, anger run rampant in our churches and our lives.
It’s that structure that I take from this book. It helps me see this pattern in my own life. And encourages me to stop it at all costs. I don’t want to go into Exile. I don’t want to forget the amazing things God has done in my life.
As you can tell the thing I liked most about Jesus Wants to Save Christians is how it provides a new way of looking at the Bible. The Bible is one of the best ways we can connect with God. And anything that helps to improve that connection, that relationship, is worth pursuing.
A word of caution though. I found this book difficult to read. Not because it was complex or heavy. But because of the writing style Bell and Golden use. Let’s just say it’s “choppy.” Fortunately this isn’t an English class, so we don’t need to grade them on that. But if you’re going to read it (and it’s worth reading) you should know what you’re getting into, grammatically speaking at least.
Do you know God just through a personal relationship? Do you know God because you’ve been saved? Do you know God because of what you hear on TV? Or what your friends say?
For most of us, the way we know God is through rumor and gossip. Are those words too strong? I don’t think so.
Most of us have not spent any time working at our relationship with God. We haven’t put in time reading the Bible. Because of that we don’t really know God. We might know about him. But we don’t really know who he is. We have to put time in with prayer. I know that it sounds like work. And there’s a reason for that. It’s because it is work!
There is serious danger in not anchoring your faith by reading the Bible and through prayer. Dan Edelen who writes Cerulean Sanctum (one of the blogs in my weekly reading list) points out, “I learned a great lesson that day. Every Christian wants to jump straight to the third heaven, everyone wants to move in power, everyone wants to be a great saint, but next to none want to lay the actual groundwork that will get them to that place.”
I believe that we don’t need a perfect theology or a perfect prayer life to know Jesus. Bible thumping is not the point of all this. But I’ve also learned that the only way I can really come to know Jesus is by reading about his life (the Bible) and talking to him (prayer).
If I don’t have those two things, along with my relationship, then I quickly find myself drifting away from God. The world is too good at pulling you away from God to not have an anchor firmly attached to the Bible and prayer.
In the post, “guard your heart,” I wrote that every time we break one of the 10 Commandments we do serious damage to our heart. We just weren’t designed to live the way we are choosing to live. In their book, Jesus Wants to Save Christians, Rob Bell and Don Golden agree, saying, “What God begins …with the 10 Commandments is the long process of teaching [Israel] how to be human again.”
God gave us the 10 Commandments not as punishment for being disobedient, but as a guide to how to live a better life.
That’s the serious side of all of this. But since it’s Friday, and I just managed to run my USB drive through the washing machine, I feel like a little laughter. So here is Mel Brook’s take on the 10 Commandments…
). I’d also like to read a Bible that was chronological, as the Bible skips around a lot (at least if you read it cover to cover.)
. It provides a useful framework for understanding our own journeys, and our own lives. And it’s built around four major events within Jewish history.
how far we’ve come
Posted by e. barrett | Posted on 04-01-2010
Category : bible, choice, faith, living a life of faith, reader comments, taking action
Tags: bible, Bible study, choice, examen.me, faith, living a life of faith, R3, taking action
It’s hard to believe that R3 is entering its 4th year! (well technically “calendar year,” R3’s anniversary is in a few months). I never dreamed that I had enough to say to generate three posts a week. I find it amazing that I can do that. But that’s not the only thing that makes this 4th year so remarkable. It wasn’t that long ago that blogging didn’t exist.
Think about that one for a while!
The internet has been a great technology for growing people’s relationships with God. There is no other technology that allows someone to write in their spare time in Kansas but influence Christians in Australia, Indonesia, or even China. Or someone from Africa to influence people in Europe or America. The internet has had a profound impact on living a life of faith.
While religion blogging is dominated by several “big name” bloggers there has been more than enough room for smaller writers to develop a community. There are so many talented writers that I could spend an entire day simply surfing the internet reading. Now if only someone would pay me to do that…
But blogging isn’t the only change.
How we study the Bible has also changed. I can easily pull up Bible verses and do keyword searches online. If you own an iPhone you can download Bible apps and get the same thing. Never before has the Bible been so easy to access. While I still read a paper version of the Bible every day, I rarely use it for quick searches or to look things up. It just takes too long. Digital is the way to go.
And still there is more change.
Even the way we do Bible studies is different. There are online studies on hundreds of topics. Churches are giving away much of their own materials away for free. And now there are “social sites” popping up like EXAMEN.me. All dedicated to providing high quality Bible studies and devotionals.
There has never been a better time to learn about living out a life of faith. There has never been a time where so much has been available to so many. And I, for one, can’t wait to see what the future holds.
As we go into the New Year, here is my challenge to you: find a new way to study the Bible and follow it for the next 30 days. As you go through it, come back here and let us know how it’s going (I’m opening up the comments). Did it work? Was it a disaster? Did it revolutionize your life?