4/17

4/10

4/3

3/13 - Jesus Death

Jesus death and the events surrounding it are simply miraculous. Every time I study them, or learn about them, or listen to a sermon on them I am brought back to the incredible power, usually somehow with nuance. His gift is amazing. His sacrifice is ultimate. The torture and ridicule he took, the betrayal he endured, and his fantastic character though it all is almost unbelievable because I can't imagine anyone besides him doing the same.

SO WHY IS IT SO EASY TO FORGET?

I just don't get it. I should be living life with this message in my heart, living zealously for him in a way that shows the world the power of his sacrifice. But that is rare, because I am constantly forgetting. I am constantly self-seeking.

Lately I have been called to defend a God that lets the world be so hard. I do this with diligence, but it gets hard after a while. Why IS it so hard. If it's so astounding to me, then why do I act as if it's boring and trivial? I lack such discipline sometimes. I wish it was easier to WANT to live in light of this revelation more, but frankly, my flesh is weak.

And that's why God's grace and forgiveness is so amazing in the first place.

3/6 Reading - A Gospel Today

Sometimes I see Christians living in America as similar to the Jews living under Roman rule. We both endure persecution for our beliefs, and have a lot to say about the evils of the society we live within.

I wonder, if there was a gospel of Jesus coming to give teachings to Americans, Christian and non-Christian alike, what would he say? Here is a list of topics I think he might address, relevant to today, but like what is presented in the Gospels:

• The fragmentation of the church - Jesus set up a church through Peter, but what is the church today? Broken over controversy
• Hyprocrisy in condemnation of sins (especially of the sexual sin (especially of heterosexual vs homosexual sin)) a la the woman caught in adultery in John 8. 
• Churches/church members and wealth/money - Nothing much would change from his original message, in my opinion!
• Our "worship" of our ingenuity/technology/science
• Atheism is relatively new in its popularity. Instead of rebuking false gods, I wonder what Jesus would say about no god, and explaining god away with science.
• American comfort and the resulting apathy.
• Our government could be considered very similar to Rome in many ways, I wonder if Jesus would regard it similarly.
• Gluttony? Kind of going with the comfort and apathy ideas, this is much more of a problem now than in the first century AD.
• Maybe there would be healings for diseases that are relatively new today or recognized differently such as eating disorders, HIV/AIDS, anxiety disorders, and who knows, maybe even some demon casting
• Performing miracles that are meaningful to us today, and a believable as miracles, not explainable on earth.
• I'm sure there is much more.

2/28 Text

Time for some Borg... I hope I don't get assimilated. Budum tch!

Borg often seems.... disappointed in who Jesus was on earth. As such, his eschatology is a little disappointing too. He talks so much about how disappointed the early Christians were when he didn't come back right away. However, I think that they were still wallowing a bit in their view of the Messiah and his purpose. They were still hoping for freedom from Rome! But His plan was much greater and for all people. We just have to be patient.

Now Borg seems to want to continue to put Jesus in a box in the future too, and limit who he is, since it seems like he doesn't think that Jesus is the Son of Man in the Second Coming. I feel like the Bible is full of references to Jesus coming back himself, but Borg refuses. How much of the Bible can you ignore! That's a very limited vision he has of Jesus. Why would be even be lovable when he is so limited? Well, I guess he wouldn't be. In fact..... he would be a bit disappointing. Little faith leaves you disappointed!

2/21 Text - My Greatest Mentor

In response to 435-452 of Strauss

I like to think of Jesus as my greatest mentor, because I aspire to be something that Jesus also was: a teacher. As a pre-teacher in an education program, I am taught all sorts of methods for how to be a teacher and to do it well. But Jesus never had that, and he was an amazing teacher. What did he use to teach? A whole host of things!

Jesus used lots of stories and parables. He got people thinking by using metaphors, riddles, and paradoxes. He used proverbs a lot. Jesus taught to people from what he knew, and what they knew. He taught grounded in the culture he was in, but wasn't exclusive of other cultures.

How do he teach? He taught with authority! He taught with grace and justice. He was slow to anger, and in fact, he was of the greatest moral fiber in every aspect of this teaching, so you could say taught to all the fruits of the spirit. He promoted integrity. He gained a deserved respect and treated his followers well. He protected his flock, but was not afraid to stretch them at all. He gave everything for them.

These are all of the makings of a truly great teacher when it comes down to it. It's not the specific strategy you use with a student, your ability to plan a lesson, or how well you can grade work that makes a good teacher. These things are not what are really important. It's the character and attitude that drives you to care for and serve your students. If you teach like Jesus, you will teach them well, with respect, integrity, and a dedication to their holistic wellbeing and growth.

2/14 Text - Miracles

Regarding 4 Portraits.

"reason" and reasonable faith

---

How can we believe in miracles?

          How can we not?

If we can't see it, how can we believe it?

          If we can't believe it, how can we see it?

There are no miracles today, why would there be ever?

          My life and existence are miraculous, why would miracles ever stop?

I look for miracles but don't find any.

         Miracles always happen for me when I'm not looking.

Jesus couldn't have done them.

         Jesus would be no one without backing his claims.

Must have been magic.

          Must have been God.

The laws of nature and absolute

          God created nature and exists outside of it.

He simply can't have done it.

           He must have done it.

2/7 - Jesus the Jew

Regarding Two Visions

I think that its very interesting that people would want to take Jesus outside of his own ethnic lens, but that is exactly what people do. Some take him and put him in a Roman lens or in other Mediterranean cultures.  This historical lens distorts the message of Jesus though. Sure he opened up salvation to the gentiles, and essentially condemned the old religion, but that was as a Jew, fulfilling Jewish prophecy, not something else.

N.T. Wright argues that what Jesus did and said MUST have made sense in a Jewish context because he gained Jewish followers based on a message who's relevance would only make sense in a Jewish theological and sociopolitical context. Jesus message was one of release from bondage, and the Jewish people wanted out from under Roman rule. God just had a grander plan for His people... for all His people, but that doesn't make it any less Jewish. Jesus life, message, and works are more of a fulfillment of Judaism, not something from outside of the Jewish tradition!

4/3 Personal - Passion Week

   Today in church, we had the pleasure of having the NW regional pastor for the North American Baptist Conference, Rev. Rick Weber, come and speak to us about Palm Sunday. The theme of the sermon was that not everything was as it seemed. His example: On Palm Sunday, so many years ago, Jesus was heralded into Jerusalem, to an innumerable amount of people supporting him, and hoping for him to be king. The Jews were so determined to be free of foreign rule and be saved, so they were Messiah-crazy. Here was the one, but he was not what the leaders wanted or imagined. He was disrupting the status quo, and thought he was so dangerous that they wanted to kill him. Within days the thousands cheering for him and hailing him were calling for his crucifixion.

I'm not even sure what to do with this all the time. It's a story I've known for a very long time, but when I really get into it, it's always staggering. Who Jesus was, what temptation he faced, what he did for everyone corporately and personally. It's astounding. I am once again reminded of the power of his sacrifice.

2/21/12 Personal - On Music

     In church this week, we had a really interesting interesting service about how we worship. Throughout the last decade, I have experience a lot of services and experiences trying to move away from worship services that focus solely on music, but instead using alternative forms of worship. Other services have shared on how you can worship God throughout your daily life, outside of the church. I have found these to be beneficial and enlightening, but the service I just attended was a treat.

     This service was on how special music is as a form of worship. Coming from a church that has struggled with quality and content of worship through music, this sermon was especially touching. It talked on the special qualities fo music to touch heart, mind, and soul in ways that nothing else can.

    I have noted myself on many occasions how much of a gift music is in communing with and praising Jesus. Music is a deeply complex and beautiful machine and media, encompassing some of the most beautiful and interesting concepts of art and science. We take the feelings evoked by the music and use it to enhances the words we put to it. What a wonderful gift we have to be able to sing and make sounds of joy and praise to our creator and redeemer.

4/17/12 - The Broken

This last week, I saw the George Fox U. conceived, written, and performed play The Broken about the relations between missionaries, locals, and transnational corporations in Papua New Guinea. It gave me a lot to think about, but I'm not sure exactly how to organize my thoughts. So I guess, I won't. Here are my thoughts:

• Where on earth does Jesus fit here? Why is it so complex? PNG is one of the most Christian nations in the world, but has a lot of their cultural heritage mixed in with that. But long before the Christians came to PNG, they were a society trying to live like Jesus in many ways. Now, "an eye for an eye" was the law there, in the most literal sense, but they are also very giving people. If you ask, they will give, without question. Then we brought Jesus to them, and they are in some ways worse off then before because of tense relations between natives and nonnatives.
• Are multinational companies evil? Are they evil in other countries? I think that megacorps are very dangerous. I don't believe a company can be evil or good per se, because they are made up of many different people. Some have more power, knowledge, and influence then others, so their capacity for good and evil, as well as knowledge and wisdom to do either varies. Therefore they are probably both. The problem is, with so many working parts, its easy to be part of, buy from, or benefit financially from companies that do a lot of evil things, and that is amplified by globalism. One company might have great policy here in the U.S., but what effect are they having on the inhabitants of the countries they gather resources from. Are we "helping" them when we change their culture, and modernize them? Is that what they really want? Just because a government wants the money involved doesn't mean that it's right for the people. If Jesus was a corporation... how would he act? Corporation comes from "corpos" or body, and Jesus says how the body of Christ should act, so I guess, corporations should act as the church does (or rather should). An ideal we will never see, I suppose.
• Why do Christians build fences? In the play, they were so eager to lean on the Lord to provide for them financially, but after some rape issues, they didn't trust God at all with their security. The  security they hired resulted in separation, suspicion, and eventually deaths. This opposed their mission entirely! What's the point? How can Christians do more good than harm in the cultures that are still largely secluded from the world.

4/10/12 - Reflections on "The Case for Christ"

I have spent a lot of time in recent days watching arguments unfold about the life of Christ, and the validity of Christianity as a whole. This has largely taken place on the internet on discussion boards and blogs. It has been quite interesting to watch these arguments unfold between Christians, people of other faiths, agnostics and atheists. In all of it I've found that some people can be really open and accepting on both sides, and, again, on both sides there are some really loudmouthed close-minded people, with hard hearts. It was within this mindset that I reviewed the movie.

I was fairly critical of this movie. I have been seeing many well thought out questions for and arguments against Christianity from those opposed to it, and I feel like they would not take well to this film. The arguments that the film presented were good, but they were also narrow and biased. They weren't in any ways offensive, but they didn't many oppositions, and gave flimsy responses to them in many cases. This was a little bit disappointing for a movie that was on the hard evidence for Christ and Christianity. I think that we need to be a little more open to the criticisms and questions that non-believers have. When you don't respect heir valid questions and concerns, we do them, and ourselves, a disservice. In an apologetic work like this (even if presented like a documentary), you must do your best to provide real answers to real criticisms. You don't have to agree, you can tell them they are wrong, but you can't ignore them.

3/6 - Personal - On debates with Christian friends(?)

Recently I got into a fight with a Christian friend, on a public forum on the internet. I would say debate, but it got personal really quick. I have had feelings that her brand of Christianity could be hurtful and unloving at times, and something that she said really set me off this time. However, instead of responding in anger, I decided to try and provide a gentle rebuke through a questions, that was really more to understand than anything. The topic? She was arguing that it is worthless to try and debate theology or the bible with someone who disagrees with you. I asked if she really thought that this was worthless as it could be an opportunity to minister to others. Unfortunately this got her very angry, again on a public internet forum. Thus, many angry long rants were posted about my question, and though I tried to back up my reasoning, more than anything I was just trying to apologize over and over.

This has been a very difficult thing for me. I just don't know how to be most like Christ here. On one hand, I want to show her love and forgiveness, but it is always taken the wrong way and as an affront. On the other hand, I want to be able to provide accountability and have good honest discourse about things we may disagree on. Unfortunately, it always seems to be the wrong way to do things.

I don't know what Jesus would do here. He rebukes those who don't show loves, so he might have done that. But overall, he loves and forgives. I should try to do that.

3/13 - Personal - On relating to the LDS church

I frequent a forum/topical posting site called Reddit, in which many different types of discussions happens. Some are lighthearted, and others get very serious and heated. One board that has a strange and difficult mixture of the two is the Christianity board. You can tell that the people here are struggling between their passion and perceived truth and the need to be respectful. Well... mostly. Some people are very meek. Some get very angry if you don't respond with their idea of what respect is. And some people are just angry and self-righteous (including, sadly, those who are promoting what they thing are Christian arguments.)

Lately, there has been a bit of a struggle between the Christians and the LDS church on the board. Despite the board being open to Christians of all denominations, as well as Jews, Muslims, people of other faiths, and nonbelievers, some of the LDS members feel persecuted. They don't feel that this is an okay place because many Christians there won' accept them as Christians. This is a difficult issue for me! The want to be accepted Christians because they say that they believe in Christ as our savior as we do. I know they believe in a Jesus but they don't believe in my Jesus, and their corruption of who Jesus is, I think costs them their salvation. Many other Christians pointed this out.

What troubles me is the WAY that some of them did it. Now many LDS member were more upset than perhaps they should have been, as some were calmly and clearly saying why they disagreed. Others, however were much more belligerent and used hateful and condemning language. I know that allowing them to be incorrect does them no good, but I don't see how to do it when there are so many just yelling at them. I wonder how Jesus would handle the situation, for both the Christians acting like Pharisees and to the Mormons who are corrupting who he is, and spreading a twisted version of cut Christianity to millions.

3/20 Personal - LGBT and J Sandwiches

I recently read a couple of blog posts from an agnostic blogger (http://www.danoah.com/2011/11/im-christian-unless-youre-gay.html, http://www.danoah.com/2012/04/a-teens-brave-response-to-im-christian-unless-youre-gay.html, and many more from this blogger in response to the original post.) In his blog post he detailed some very astute observations and concerns about Christians and how they relate to the world.

He was frustrated because he likes the message and vision of the church but he is quick to point out that we fail so quickly to love those who are not like us. The post is called I'm Christian, Unless You're Gay, but is really about the "I'm Christian, Unless" part. The LGBT community is just one of the biggest and most pertinent areas. What I love about this article is that he isn't yelling at us. He is pleading with us to live by our message. He sees, and if you look, you will see too, that we have a tendency to draw lines around our Christianity, ended at difference and discomfort. It might be safe to say that most Christians, but if not that, many Christians feel uncomfortable around and about homosexuality and transexuality. He says that this often leads us to stop giving the Christian message, and stop doing Christian actions. We stop loving when its uncomfortable.

Is this like Jesus? No. He loved unconditionally around the very most uncomfortable people in society. This blogger's original post has touched many Christians with his gentle, but firm message. The second link is a response detailing how a closet-homosexual boy was tasked to read the original article and respond for school. His mother, upon finding the assignment began screaming at him as she felt entirely attacked by the message of the article. He ran away from home and did the assignment from his friend's house, uncovering himself as homosexual. He detailed how much this meant to him, and how this message of how to love gave him the strength to live freer, and to encourage others to love. He was going to stand up to his parents, not matter how they reacted. He sent this to his teacher, and to his mom. His mom was so shocked by this, that she didn't know what to do, and decided to give the article another read, this time from a more understanding perspective. It changed her perspective, and her life. It enabled her to discover how greedy she had been with her love, and helped her start to learn to love her son, despite her beliefs. No, this response in praise of this calling for Christians to love was not from the son, it was from the mother, and there are many more stories like it.

This is the most important thing for Christians today, I think, as we deal with a culture hostile towards Christianity. We are becoming more and more hypocritical every day. It is so easy for us to judge, to point fingers, to hoard God's love for those that we feel are more deserving because they are more like us. But we are all sinners and we are all undeserving. Who are we to judge and withhold God's love? That is not our calling. I know that that is a problem, because my life experiences have taught me well how to judge and separate, but I often feel ill prepared to reach out and love. I can do it though. I am committed to learning to be more Christ-like. Everyday, I understand more that the people I don't want to like, and don't feel comfortable around, are the exact sort of people that Jesus would go and love. All he would have for me is a stern rebuking. I can can ignore it and say it is too hard, but that will only bring me more toil and struggle. I can trust him and obey, and that, I am promised, will bring blessings.

4/3/12 - In Class

From Max Lucado, "No wonder They call Him the Savior"

On the left, a passage from the chapter "Alive". On the right, my thoughts on what Jesus might be thinking or praying.

Marching. Unstoppable.

Uproar. Distress.

Prisoner. My choice.

Hushed. Respect.

Pilate. Changed.

"Innocent!" Goodhearted.

Bedlam. Disappointing.

"Barabbas!" Blessed.

Riot. Calmness.

Despair. Grace.

Christ. 

Bare. Humbled.

Rings. Endurance.

Wall. Cold.

Back. Strength.

Whip! Peace.

Back. Courage

Whip! Forgiveness

Slash. Why?

Scourge. How?

Tear. Fair?

Bone. Agony.

Moan. Human.

Flesh. Mortality

Rhythm. Gift?

Silence. Next?

Whip! Again?

Silence. More?

Whip! Exhausted

Silence. Done.

Whip! Please.

Thorns. King.

Stinging. Ironic.

Blind. Physically...

Laughter. Blind

Jeering. Broken

Scepter. Earthly...

Slap. Deserved?

Governor. Commit.

Distraught. Blessing.

(Almost.) Fallen

Eyes. Sight?

Jesus. 

Decision. Appointed.

Power. Yes.

Freedom? No.

Threats. Bounce.

Looks. Petty.

Yelling. Sad.

Weak. In body.

Basin. Refreshing.

Water. Thankful

Swayed. Grace.

Compromise. Real?

Blood. Stronger.

Guilt. Forgiven.