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“God did something I didn’t expect Him to do. God is bigger than our ideas. Even though we have theological constructs and understandings, that doesn’t mean God can’t work beyond them. One of the ways we’re going to reach more people for Christ is to quit judging them because they don’t speak our (codified) language….”
Andrew Arndt shares some thoughts on the mystery of God.
Andrew, Ed, and Paul talk about fatherhood from the perspectives of three generations.
Imagine what it would be like if you could actually change. That’s the dream of this business of faith.
The final sermon from the series When God Breathes.
Andrew Arndt continues with the fourth message in “When God Breathes.”
Part three of Ed’s series on the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of believers.
The reason faith matters is because it’s what allows us to participate in this plan, this dream that’s unfolding in the world. We’re in the midst of celebrating the [season of] resurrection. When we ask, “what really took place there?” You have to back up and realize that God, in the very beginning, of this thing, has this wonderful dream to lay-out this world in which He would participate in. We mess it up right in the beginning. Yet, God chooses to chase us and not abandon us – not leaving us to our own demise and destruction. He chooses to jump into the middle of this thing and absorb all of our pain and the stuff we’ve messed up – taking it to the cross and the grave. When He [Jesus] comes out of the grave, something got set into motion that gives hope for the world; and we become part of that hope.
Somehow, when you do what you do as unto the Lord. You realize, this is what God wants. This is God’s will for me to participate – in this kindness, or in this action. That somehow, as we participate with doing what’s good, we get invigorated!
This business of resurrection, that we celebrate today is the most important holiday for the Christian church. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15 that if there is no resurrection; our faith is in vain. The scripture tells us that the reason this is true is because the greatest miracle God ever did was raising Christ from the dead.
Palm Sunday -- When the nation of Israel was jacked-up with hope, the hope was soon disappointed. Not because God didn’t act for them, He did. Rather, because He didn’t act for them the way they had expected Him to act for them. (Jesus came to bring peace. They wanted a conqueror to free them from Roman impressment). One of the messy things about faith is, that is true for us as well. God promises to act, but often the way He acts is not exactly what we wanted….
The whole idea of God’s motive and love for us, is best characterized in the Greek word “agape.” This is a love that is reckless. It is a love that isn’t based upon merit; nor on conditions. It’s a kind of love that’s based upon the person loving rather than that person being loved.
The two sides of spirituality
Spirituality has a very intellectual side to it, which is wonderful for people who like to think. But, there’s also a really deeply felt aspect of spirituality. This is the part where you need to use not just the part of the brain that’s logical, but the part that’s creative, aesthetic, and is rich with feeling – there’s emotion to it. The part of the brain that is more experiential than it is analytical. ….faith is the stuff of mystery.
God loves us and is for us. On some level, there should be a gesture in our souls that we want to say, as Paul said, we want to live pleasing to the Lord – we want to respond back. The Bible says we can love the Lord our God with all our hearts, minds, and strength. In other words, there’s a place for us to be intentional about our response to God – that we can love Him back.
I wish spirituality was really simple, real easy, but it’s not. When you’re honest about it, much of life is jacked-up with complexity .
This thng we’re in is an issue of faith. I wish it wasn’t. I wish it was just an issue of knowing, solid, with no uncertainty. The fact is, God is invisible. I wish He wasn’t. I wish it wasn’t the Goldilocks deal it is. The three bears get home and discover someone has been messing with their porridge, chairs, and beds. It isn’t until the end of the story that they run into that “someone” – Goldilocks. The reality is, it isn’t until the end of this journey that we run into Jesus Christ. The only thing we have are these little evidences, little nudgings of the soul, little things that change. When they change, you think, somebody’s been messing with this. I think it’s God….
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!"
