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I was reading today's Torah portion. it is Genesis 6:9-11:32 when I received this idea that I would like to try out.
Since my days back in seminary there has been a lot of debate about the judgment of God. many people say that God is too loving to allow anyone to spend the rest of eternity not only separated from Him but also in punishment for their sins and unrighteousness.
In reading the account of Noah we see that God rightly surveys the heart of every single person on the planet and decides to punish them with death. The interesting thing is that Gos decides to save only a few people.
In 2 Pet 2:5 - 10 Peter refers to this event. He says that God will punish.
if God knows how to keep us safe then it must be by- "us"- relying on his strength, to give us all that we must have in order to live up to his standard.
I am tired and need some prayer.
God is always good
peace on your head
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Thursday, October 16, 2008
16 october 2008
I wonder what life would be like if one was really willing to pay the price for their beliefs?
I have this real theological issue that has plagued me these last few days. It came a somewhat of a surprise since I thought that I had come to a conclusion. I guess that I was obviously wrong. Since I seemed stuck I asked a good friend for advice. My friend agreed to listen to me and offer some help.
My friend asked me if getting to the bottom of this issue would change things for me. I replied, "no". This friend told that maybe I should then leave my pondering and not worry about it. I was aghast with disbelief. Okay this particular theological issue is one of those sticky issues that people just cannot seem to agree or disagree about.
To leave a struggle just because it is difficult and may upset people or ruin my carrier is just not good enough for me. It could be that I have totally misunderstood what my friend meant, but I find that many people who call themselves Christian have taken a very passive attitude to their faith.
Doing the research and exploring the differing views is a lot of work. It is a lot of reading. It is not very exciting, but getting to a defendable statement of truth is about much more than who is right or wrong.
What it is about is having a world view that is worth living for. Jesus died upon the cross, died and later on was buried only to rise from the grave 3 days later. He paid that price for our sins so that every person who is willing to trust in what Christ did on the cross will have forgiveness and eternal life. He gave his apostles instructions on how they should live, after they receive the Holy Spirit. If this is really true then when will we start taking it seriously enough so that we live our lives by it.
peace on your head
I have this real theological issue that has plagued me these last few days. It came a somewhat of a surprise since I thought that I had come to a conclusion. I guess that I was obviously wrong. Since I seemed stuck I asked a good friend for advice. My friend agreed to listen to me and offer some help.
My friend asked me if getting to the bottom of this issue would change things for me. I replied, "no". This friend told that maybe I should then leave my pondering and not worry about it. I was aghast with disbelief. Okay this particular theological issue is one of those sticky issues that people just cannot seem to agree or disagree about.
To leave a struggle just because it is difficult and may upset people or ruin my carrier is just not good enough for me. It could be that I have totally misunderstood what my friend meant, but I find that many people who call themselves Christian have taken a very passive attitude to their faith.
Doing the research and exploring the differing views is a lot of work. It is a lot of reading. It is not very exciting, but getting to a defendable statement of truth is about much more than who is right or wrong.
What it is about is having a world view that is worth living for. Jesus died upon the cross, died and later on was buried only to rise from the grave 3 days later. He paid that price for our sins so that every person who is willing to trust in what Christ did on the cross will have forgiveness and eternal life. He gave his apostles instructions on how they should live, after they receive the Holy Spirit. If this is really true then when will we start taking it seriously enough so that we live our lives by it.
peace on your head
Monday, October 13, 2008
13 october 2008
Trying to convey objective truth is not always easy. First you need to make sure that person or persons you are trying to communicate this truth too want to receive it. The next step involves you being able to present this material in such a way that the person receiving it will understand what you mean.
The conveying of this truth must be logical, while at the same time interesting. The very worst thing in the world would be to make the truth boring. I do not mean that you have to be an entertainer but keeping you audience's attention is very important. Now in an age of the short attention span and diminished memory function, maintaining your listener's attention makes the passing on of truth even more challenging.
A true truth-teller is compelled, by some inner engine, to make the truth known even if they are fully aware that doing so might seem uncomfortable, politically incorrect, cost them being ostracized, or make the listener upset. For such a person, telling the truth, is a must. This does not in any way mean telling it all. Telling the truth for the sake of gossiping, bettering one's own position, causing harm, hurt or injuring to someone is not being a truth-teller. It's just being mean.
It is now always fun hearing this kind of truth. This kind of truth reveals things that I may not wish to face up to. It shines light into the hidden crevices and exposes what is hidden there. It can strip away the power of hiding. You know, when something is hidden then the maintaining of the secret becomes something that requires energy from me. What I don not mean is something that is said in confidence or something that should not be made public, but things that allow other people to have a better picture of me than what and who I really am.
Keeping us such a mask means taking energy from some other area where it is needed, for my own personal growth, an using it keep people from discovering a more true picture of me. Now I am fully aware that part of not letting all of me be seen is a component to my personal defense system. I need to make sure that revealing these hidden truths about me are not used against me or become the source of harm to others. Even God, wh0 is all truth, and goodness and light, does not reveal all things about himself. But he does reveal enough to take a risk.
This can happen to individuals as well as organizations. It causes a lack of self reflection. It might even result in the acceptance of a deceiving attitude. Refusal to see the truth makes one more susceptible to delusion. The truth's ability to pierce the shell of the heart can, in this environment, loose the sharpness of its point. It still looks like the spear of truth, but unfortunately it no longer pierces. The church in Sardis was like this. Jesus, truth-telling, says that they thought that they were alive but in reality they were dead.
So even though it is sometimes very difficult to communicate truth to people who have short attention spans, the truth must come from a living source and not a dead one. I wonder if I have the ability to realize when I am in the place of the dead instead of in the place of the living?
peace on your head
The conveying of this truth must be logical, while at the same time interesting. The very worst thing in the world would be to make the truth boring. I do not mean that you have to be an entertainer but keeping you audience's attention is very important. Now in an age of the short attention span and diminished memory function, maintaining your listener's attention makes the passing on of truth even more challenging.
A true truth-teller is compelled, by some inner engine, to make the truth known even if they are fully aware that doing so might seem uncomfortable, politically incorrect, cost them being ostracized, or make the listener upset. For such a person, telling the truth, is a must. This does not in any way mean telling it all. Telling the truth for the sake of gossiping, bettering one's own position, causing harm, hurt or injuring to someone is not being a truth-teller. It's just being mean.
It is now always fun hearing this kind of truth. This kind of truth reveals things that I may not wish to face up to. It shines light into the hidden crevices and exposes what is hidden there. It can strip away the power of hiding. You know, when something is hidden then the maintaining of the secret becomes something that requires energy from me. What I don not mean is something that is said in confidence or something that should not be made public, but things that allow other people to have a better picture of me than what and who I really am.
Keeping us such a mask means taking energy from some other area where it is needed, for my own personal growth, an using it keep people from discovering a more true picture of me. Now I am fully aware that part of not letting all of me be seen is a component to my personal defense system. I need to make sure that revealing these hidden truths about me are not used against me or become the source of harm to others. Even God, wh0 is all truth, and goodness and light, does not reveal all things about himself. But he does reveal enough to take a risk.
This can happen to individuals as well as organizations. It causes a lack of self reflection. It might even result in the acceptance of a deceiving attitude. Refusal to see the truth makes one more susceptible to delusion. The truth's ability to pierce the shell of the heart can, in this environment, loose the sharpness of its point. It still looks like the spear of truth, but unfortunately it no longer pierces. The church in Sardis was like this. Jesus, truth-telling, says that they thought that they were alive but in reality they were dead.
So even though it is sometimes very difficult to communicate truth to people who have short attention spans, the truth must come from a living source and not a dead one. I wonder if I have the ability to realize when I am in the place of the dead instead of in the place of the living?
peace on your head
Thursday, October 9, 2008
9 october 2008
Sometimes I feel that being a priest is very limiting. What I mean is that since ordination I have become aware of the fact that I can loose this position. It might be different for others but for me this means that there can be a sort of idolatrous quality to be being a priest. I might like this so much that I desire it and may not be willing to give it up. Now it can become the carrot that entices me to go against what I believe to be true and right.
This become all the more clear when I consider how many potential risks I could take if I were not afraid of being stripped from the clergy. Every word I utter is weighed against “how much will these words or phrases cost me”.
I’m afraid I might be becoming a people pleaser. Being a priest is making me less bold and radical. I’m becoming careful and strategic. I never envisioned me becoming this kind of a leader. I’m just not ______ enough to be a priest. I think that we should speak in normal language about normal things, but all the time allowing this talk to be seasoned with the Christian world view that the Bible gives.
For example, some people are really offended when I say that Jesus sweated, went pooh and pee, farted and other normal human things. The fact that Jesus farted means that he was truly human in every aspect. For me this does not take away his divinity only accentuates it. Jesus is also God. Everything that God says and does in the Old Testament is reflected in Jesus. There is no difference. This means that he had to give a whole lot to take on flesh and be like us. It makes the incarnation that much stronger and virgin birth that much more tangible.
I can’t follow the politically correct stream nor can I follow the over spiritual pious one either. I am neither conservative nor liberal because, for the most part, both camps only want to spend time in there little closed circle of like-minded thinking and never venture out into the real world. One group wants to be like the world without transformation and the other wants to be so totally transformed that they stop being human.
Racists, drug traffickers, activists, cultists, false religious leaders, etc, can all say what they think and know to be true, I feel so trapped by consequences imposed by others. It is not even possible to discuss these ideas, except with a selected few. The goal is to make on one uncomfortable. The sharp point of the spear of truth is dulled just enough so that it no longer penetrates the heart of the listener. In such an environment there can be no transformation or fully committed followers of Christ.
God save us from our stupidity
Peace on your head
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
1 october 2008
I came home two days ago from a trip to England. It was a very special 4 days with some of the members of Flumgruppen. This is a follow-up group to confirmation.
Now it has been a few days and so it is important to see what remains from these few days in which we visited churches in London.
I am still so overwhelmed by the level of openness and hospitality that was exhibited by the various churches. The thing that makes this so significant is the fact that these churches were from differing traditions and denominations. We all felt so welcomed when we came in.
I know that if a church is welcoming then people will want to belong. It is something that we are very poor about in Sweden. Hospitality is at a very low level in the average church in Sweden. Most people feel that it is very difficult to belong. This is a very serious offense. It is so far from the heart of God.
Our God opens his arms in order to receive those who come to him. If we are his children then we should manifest the characteristics of our family, but for the most part we don't.
In each of these churches, despite there very different traditions and ways of worshiping, they seemed to be focused upon heartfelt worship, a clear view of the Bible as the word of God, and inviting those who are far away from God to draw near to him.
In my church we very seldom invite people to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. We say that we care but we hardly ever make that a reality. We are not so welcoming to strangers. Even among the young people you can see this tendency, to want to remain in one's own comfortable and closed group, and I have no idea if it will ever change.
I so desire to belong to and to work in a church which is open to people who do not belong to our particular group. If it is difficult to belong then it will be difficult to believe.
I feel that something needs to be done, but I just do not know what. If the Kingdom of God has landed in our hearts and minds then it should not our openness be affected. I want to be a vehicle of change that will affect my church so that it will be open, welcoming and on fire for God.
I hope that the experiences of the past week will be with me long enough to see change take place
peace on your heads
Now it has been a few days and so it is important to see what remains from these few days in which we visited churches in London.
I am still so overwhelmed by the level of openness and hospitality that was exhibited by the various churches. The thing that makes this so significant is the fact that these churches were from differing traditions and denominations. We all felt so welcomed when we came in.
I know that if a church is welcoming then people will want to belong. It is something that we are very poor about in Sweden. Hospitality is at a very low level in the average church in Sweden. Most people feel that it is very difficult to belong. This is a very serious offense. It is so far from the heart of God.
Our God opens his arms in order to receive those who come to him. If we are his children then we should manifest the characteristics of our family, but for the most part we don't.
In each of these churches, despite there very different traditions and ways of worshiping, they seemed to be focused upon heartfelt worship, a clear view of the Bible as the word of God, and inviting those who are far away from God to draw near to him.
In my church we very seldom invite people to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. We say that we care but we hardly ever make that a reality. We are not so welcoming to strangers. Even among the young people you can see this tendency, to want to remain in one's own comfortable and closed group, and I have no idea if it will ever change.
I so desire to belong to and to work in a church which is open to people who do not belong to our particular group. If it is difficult to belong then it will be difficult to believe.
I feel that something needs to be done, but I just do not know what. If the Kingdom of God has landed in our hearts and minds then it should not our openness be affected. I want to be a vehicle of change that will affect my church so that it will be open, welcoming and on fire for God.
I hope that the experiences of the past week will be with me long enough to see change take place
peace on your heads
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