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An epiphany is when you see something that you didn’t previously see. What’s interesting about faith is that a huge part of faith is about seeing what you couldn’t see before. In fact, the whole idea about faith is you begin to perceive things which are unseen, and you become confident in what you can not see with your eyes because you’re seeing with eyes of faith. Scripture calls this the eyes of your heart; and you begin to see what you previously couldn’t see. Somehow, this journey of being apprentices of Christ is full of that idea. We need to understand that Christianity isn’t so much a religion where we run at God. Rather, it’s an experience where God shows stuff about himself, and we go “whoa, I never saw that!” And because you see it – it changes you.
God isn’t trying to be involved in our lives just to make us feel better, and us try to find our own way and use God as currency to get what we want. God will help you. Even if you’re a selfish moron, God will still be there to help you. But life is fairly flat when it’s about things…. Jesus said, if you gain the whole world, you end up paling your soul. And when your soul becomes pale, you won’t even be happy when you gain it! You’re only supposed to have success and prosperity in your life to the degree that your soul is prospering. Don’t get out of sync, don’t try to drive your own life. Joy is in finding the sync with why you have been created to be in this place.
The message of scripture is not just that God created, nor that creation was sullied. The message of scripture is that God figured out a way to newly create what was lost. And to ultimately bring, by renewing creation, back on track to the original dream that He had. Where He would not only be in human life, but He would actually be with us. ….His rescue plan had a name – Jesus!
Advent is the time when we stop and reflect and think about the reality that God found a way to break into a world that was broken – broken by our own devices. Instead of abandoning us, He chose to reconnect with us. The celebration of Advent not only thinks about the fact that Jesus came. It has a view to the fact that He is coming back. We are in some way in-between what He has already done, what He is going to do, what is, and what will be.
In Matthew 16, Jesus is talking to his disciples and He asks “ who do folks say that the son of man is?” Later He asks them, “who do you say that I am?” This question, “who is Jesus,” has been wrestled with for two thousand years During this season of Advent it’s appropriate to ask – who is Jesus Christ? Who do you say that He is?
The reason Christmas was celebrated Church-historical was because it was designed to help us remember the events that took place 2,000 years ago. When we moderns think about “remembering,” we usually think about it in terms of a momentary flash. We think that by reaching back and looking at it and looking ahead – we’ve remembered it. That isn’t how folks in Biblical times looked at it. They were talking about making a plan so that they would make the thing that happened become present. And to bring a past event into the present as though it were happening right now. And to somehow look at it and let it hit them as though they were experiencing it as it unfolded….
One of the principle marks of a Christ-follower is thanksgiving. Paul suggests in 1 Thesselonians 5, that it actually is Gods will for us! Sometimes when we think of God’s will we think of “what.” We think of the specifics of the situation we’re in - God what is your will? Instead of understanding that God’s will is a whole lot more about “how” than than it is about “what.” How you work or live is more important than where you work or live.
You don’t have to look very deep into the scriptures to discover that God loves to lavishly provide for His creation…. On some level we have to get into our minds that God isn’t thinking, “oh my goodness I’m going to run out of stuff.” The world is a place of abundance. It’s obvious though that God never intended abundance to corrupt the human soul. ….it’s ok for us to have money, but not for money to have us.
There’s something very important about breaking through our differences. Whether they’re nationalistic, racial, socio-political, economic… That we actually push through our differences to connect with each other – to set those things as secondary because we believe in something deeper; that we’re part of God’s family. God honors that priority."
The worst thing about the whole concept of community is that other people are involved… It’s been said, “the more I get to know some people – the more I like my dog!” That is precisely the point. I think God wants us to come together because he loves the messiness of community. I think it’s very provocative how that the twelve disciples Jesus called all came from various backgrounds. E.g. Simon – a Zealot, and Matthew – a tax collector assisting the Romans.
" What if God designed faith to be more than an intensely personal experience? It is that. But, what if God designed us to need other people?”
"Believers are called to love everyone. Fellow believers should be treated with extra care. Ed continues his thoughts on how Christians are to live and grow in faith in community with fellow believers. "
The Bible claims that we as believers are all part of the body of Christ—created by God. We as Americans in the west, need to stop and consider—“how am I thinking about other people? Maybe one of the reasons I’m so isolated is because I’m thinking weird.” Faith is more than just a personal expression; it’s also communal.
Ed finishes the three-part series The Secret. In it, he shares some thoughts on the selfish, hedonistic side of this interpretation of the Law of Attraction.
Ed continues his discussion of “The Secret.”
The tremendous success of the book and DVD, “The Secret,” deserves a serious and thoughtful investigation from the perspective of a Christ-follower. Ed begins the first of his three-part series taken from his latest book “There’s More To The Secret.”
" In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,. Theologians are quick to point out that God created this physical dimension on purpose to simply build a home for Himself. His intention from the beginning, as you look at Judeo-Christian thought, is that He intended to move here.""
" We live in a culture that wants to polarize people on one side or another, because we want to figure out who the “haves” and “have nots” are. We want to determine who the good and evil people are very clearly with a line in the sand. If we refuse to be discerning, what ends up happening is this kind of dividing, starts to influence people who are in Christ – believers. And we start to divide the world between “us” and “them.” What if trying to think of the world as the “have” and “have nots,” and the “good” and “evil” people is an oversimplification of things?"
" All sixty-six books of the Bible address an overarching story. If we miss the over-arching story – the metanarrative, we miss the whole point of what God is after. Believe it or not, many people miss what God is saying – what His point is…"
" Do we complicate the simple and simplify the complex? Simple answers to complex issues always lead to someone getting abused, or discounted in the process on some level. The truth is, not everything can be reduced to simplicity. Not everything that we understand in life can be reduced to a slogan, a bumper sticker, or a sound bite… "
I think God wants there to be a little Dudley in all of us. I think He wants us and calls us to do right – to live and to act right.
Living a life in balance doesn’t occur by accident. There is a place for work, rest, and play in our lives.
"When people cry and hurt – God mostly sends people – someone else to get involved. Where is God when people are really hurting? Is He just in prayer? Or when people pray, is He looking for His body to respond? Is God wanting us to lift up our eyes and to not live gated lives, but actually get out beyond where we are? And when we catch wind of someone hurting – that’s really a call to be God to them. "
"In this installment of The Genesis Family, Ed shares some thoughts on… the family. Also, we hear more on the role of the husband and wife in marriage and as parents."
"Ed and guests share about how Stand In The Gap can impact lives. "
"Ed shares some valuable insights into the importance of forgiveness. "
"Billy Graham and Heather Forrest are super cool! "
"Let's start with a controverrsial question. We always call God Father, but could we call Him Mother? It might surprise you, but theologically; the answer is yes. God is not male or female. He is God, and male and female came out of Him. He's the one who created. "
"Falling in love is essy compared to the he work necessary for keeping a marriage strong and healthy"
"Christianity isn't about getting more power. It's about influencing people with a life that's different!"
"Ed continues his series on The Shape of Faith during this season of Lent."
"What do you do when bad stuff happens? Ed shares some thoughts on how we can respond to the bad things that comes our way in life. "
"The final installment of Ed's series on The Shape of Faith"
"In the third part of The Shape of Faith, Ed shares how God has always been moving in the Church "
"Ed continues his series on The Shape of Faith."
"Ed shares some thoughts on the direction he thinks to God is moving today."
Ed continues his discussion on the season of Epiphany. “I don't think we should think we "get" Jesus that simply. He may have made Himself completely accessible to us, but He is still full of mystery!"
"Ed continues his discussion of Epiphany in our lives. "
" (Hebrews 1:1...) God has spoken to us in many ways throughout history. But in these last days days, He has spoken to us by His son, whoom He appointed heir of all things, and through whoom He made the universe. The Son is the radiance of His glory. What does that mean? If God is light – Jesus is the bright. If God is water – Jesus is the wet..."
"Born as a man – and yet also God among us. .His brilliance astounded those around Him and silenced his critics He name is Jesus"
"Ed shares the importance of why Jesus came as humanity to be amoung us "
"His name is Emmanuel – God is with us. Why would God come and be with us? What was He after? The gospel story is really the story of the Creator – God, taking responsibility for what happened to creation. It's the story of the creator – God, bearing the weight of our own problems on His shoulders. It's the story of Jesus coming to take what we caused... "
"It's Thanksgiving. What better time than now to talk about the importance of forgiveness in our lives. Here are some thoughts on how to make your time around the table with uncle Tom and sister-in-law Gurtrude great! God knows who your relatives are... and He put you smack in the middle of it all - into that mess! Why? Probably because there's something about you that just ticks God off... God puts people in our lives because he knows that they develope us... "
"What should we be doing as followers of Jesus to try to bless the world around us, lift hurting people, aide people in need, and help bring healing - socially and economically to those less privileged. We all want to help people, but we get stuck over a couple of issues. We don't always know how to help. Where do you start to help a world that's jammed with injustice? What do you do? We don't know how to see the hurting and really let them touch us without us feeling guilty that we have anything!"
In light of recent events within the evangelical Christian community, Ed shares from scripture and his own life about restoration.
"I wanna talk with you about these ideas of love , compassion, and mercy. These things come from another place. They help us as believers to be “other-centered.” It's not natural for us in a fallen world because we tend to be “takers” rather than “givers” because we want all the marbles... "
"I really think we need to fight for, contend for, and figure out ways of living transformed lives. Where our expression of faith is not just about letting our gift be on parade, or trying to find our annointing that we think will make us be more important in the world. But that we understand that God wants to fill our lives, annoint our lives with His presesence so that we can be great single people, great moms, great dads, great married folks--people who work with a little different spin on it, a different intention from the heart. And that we actually work through our stuff, and we are different... "
" At some point everyone of us has to step back and decide what it is we believe about the world that we are in. What’s really going on here? People have to decide whether or not they believe there’s a God!
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"IWhat is God actually trying to accomplish in the world and why are we here? Why do we do church? Why do we gather together? Why do we do stuff like praying and reading the Bible? When God was creating the human race, what did He have in mind? Are we giving Him what He's after in our lives...?"
