Category: Spiritual Growth

Here’s that lengthy quote I read last night:

The Kingdom of Heaven, said the Lord Christ, is among you. But what, precisely, is the Kingdom of Heaven? You cannot point to existing specimens, saying, Lo, here! or Lo, there! You can only experience it. But what is it like, so that when we experience it we may recognize it? Well, it is a change, like being born again and relearning everything from the start. It is secret, living powerlike yeast. It is something that grows, like seed. It is precious like buried treasure, like a rich pearl, and you have to pay for it. It is a sharp cleavage through the rich jumble of things which life presents: like fish and rubbish in a draw-net, like wheat and tares; like wisdom and folly; and it carries with it a kind of menacing finality; it is new, yet in a sense it was always therelike turning out a cupboard and finding there your own childhood as well as your present self; it makes demands, it is like an invitation to a royal banquetgratifying, but not to be disregarded, and you have to live up to it; where it is equal, it seems unjust; where it is just it is clearly not equalas with the single pound, the diverse talents, the laborers in the vineyard, you have what you bargained for; it no knows compromise between an uncalculating mercy and a terrible justicelike the unmerciful servant, you get what you give; it is helpless in your hands like the Kings Son, but if you slay it, it will judge you; it was from the foundations of the world; it is to come; it is here and now; it is within you. It is recorded that the multitudes sometimes failed to understand.

Dorothy Sayers, The Poetry of Search

I just received an email from a friend named Earl Creps

land of plenty movie

(he’s the director of the doctoral program at my alma mater, the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary).

Anyway, it’s all about how to read for personal growth. I thought it was worth sharing an excerpt here. In case it’s not obvious, he’s speaking within the context of spiritual and organizational leadership.

I think points 3 and 5 are particularly good.

Here are some keys to maximizing the effectiveness of your reading…

1. Read the classics: dial up amazon.com and search for the works of
James McGregor Burns, Henri Nouwen, Warren Bennis, etc. While we can debate
“what’s a classic?,” books of this sort will get you into the game in a
hurry. 

2. Read the latest and skip the middle: if you’re just getting into an
organization forget what was written any more than 2 years ago [except for
leadership classics] and read from here forward. Most of the stuff in the
middle is derived from the classics anyway.…

3. Trust your life to guide your reading: When I’m feeling fresh, I
read in my specialties [self-leadership, emerging culture, power ministry].
When I’m tired, I read 90 degrees out from my specialties [, i.e.,
professional literature from other fields such as technology or psychology].
When I’m burned out, I read 180 degrees out from my academic interests
[e.g., fiction, history]. Somehow, I always find more illustrations,
principles, and other ultimately useful material in this “diversionary”
reading than just about anywhere else. I also find it hugely refreshing. A
tired mind cannot absorb much anyway.

4. Any work is a “leadership” book if it’s read by a leader: the leader
of the future must be an interesting, well-rounded person, not an
incompetent mystic or a corporate-clone technocrat. Younger adults
especially are all about who you are, not just what you can do. 

5. Putting it together: Reading in your field makes you competent.
Reading out from your field [90 degrees] makes you broad-minded. Reading
opposite your field [180 degrees] makes you interesting and creative. 

My major recommendation for left-brainers: develop a reading plan that
includes 0, 90, and 180-degree dimensions. 

My major recommendation for right-brainers: start listening to your life
and read in response to it, dude.

Blessings,

Earl

I just ran across an online article by Heather Williams, who became a believer at Stanford: Overhaul at Stanford.

When I entered Stanford, I was not a Christian. The world lay at my feet then, waiting to be revolutionized. I attended political meetings, took classes on racism and social justice, and immersed myself at the community service center. I believed in the power within me to make a significant difference in the world. I tutored underprivileged elementary school kids; I ran the day camp at a homeless shelter; I collected leftover food to feed the hungry. Yet, the more I tried to change the world, the more frustrated I became. I confronted bureaucracy, apathy, and…sin. I began to think that maybe human nature needed a basic overhaul.

During this time I was challenged to read the Bible by a friend of mine. I had come to college hating the Bible. I thought it was sexist, homophobic and rigidly self-righteous — the basic blueprint of intolerance. You see, I grew up in the “Bible Belt.” Throughout high school, most of the Christians I encountered were more concerned about knocking some sense into me with the Bible than they were concerned about explaining to me what its pages contained. Most were vocal about their conviction that I was going straight to hell because of my liberal agenda. Yet, when my friend in college challenged my actual knowledge of the Bible (garnered from childhood Sunday school lessons and the literature class examining history’s “great works” my freshman year), I realized that I knew very little about Jesus and His followers…

It was published back in ’96, so don’t expect to see her walking around campus.

As promised, here’s the info from last night’s meeting:

The English phrase one another is expressed as a single word in Greek: the reflexive pronoun allelous. By finding each place that allelous is used in the New Testament, we can quickly survey passages that teach us how we should relate to one another. The following list is representative but not exhaustive.

Greet One Another: 2 Corinthians 13:12
Show Hospitality To One Another: 1 Peter 4:9
Honor One Another: Romans 12:10
Live In Harmony With One Another: Romans 12:16
Serve One Another: Galatians 5:13–14
Comfort One Another: 2 Corinthians 1:3–4
Encourage One Another: Hebrews 3:12–13
Motivate One Another: Hebrews 10:24–25
Teach And Admonish One Another: Colossians 3:16
Be Forbearing With One Another: Ephesians 4:1–3
Forgive One Another: Colossians 3:13
Confess Sin To One Another: James 5:16
Bear One Anothers Burdens: Galatians 6:2
Love One Another: 1 John 4:7–21

and here are some additional resources we didn’t cover last night

Do a search for every ‘one another’ verse in the NIV New Testament

Do a search for every ‘each other’ verse in the NIV New Testament

Also see the article: “One Another” Commands of Scripture, which is dull yet informative.

I found this very interesting: Attention all you free loaders and moochers, this is the thing you’ve been waiting for. Finally something you get for FREE that is actually going to help you. Imagine that! 

Here is how X3watch works. Let’s say you’re browsing the Internet and you’re looking at porn. The software makes a log of the porno site and then every 2 or 4 weeks your two designated accountability partners will get an email listing all the skin sites you’ve been on. Oh no-busted! Now that’s what we call real accountability. No more secrets dude!

Give me this program NOW! Click Here

Software brought to you by triple‑x church, some crazy Christian guys who are tackling the porn industry head-on.

I just ran across an interesting parody of Christian legalism. If you’re not familiar with the phrase, it generally refers to fixating on an arbitrary action as a proof that you’ve forsaken the faith and are on a greased slide to hell.

Anyway, this essay takes the same logic that can be used to justify traditional legalisms and applies it to snowmobiles. That’s right: snowmobiles are the devil’s playthings!

If you were raised in a evangelical church you might find this funny. If you weren’t you’ll probably just find it weird…

Last night Back in January 2003 we talked about worship, and I discussed different ways we worship God. This list isn’t exhaustive, but it’s helpful and so I thought I’d post it here for future reference.

Singing: the book of Psalms, Ephesians 5:19, Colossians 3:16
Music: 1st Chronicles 13:8, Psalm 33:3, Psalm 150
Artistic Creation: Exodus 31:1–11, Exodus 28, Ezekiel 4:1
Clapping: Psalm 47:1, Isaiah 55:12
Words: Psalm 9:1, Psalm 73:28, Psalm 78:4–6
Laughing & Rejoicing: Psalm 9:2, Psalm 126:1–3, Psalm 149:5, Zephaniah 3:14–17
Shouting: Psalm 95:1, Psalm 98:4–6, Psalm 100:1
Silence: Psalm 46:10, Habakkuk 2:20
Standing: 1st Chronicles 23:30, Psalm 24:3–6
Raising Our Hands: Nehemiah 8:6, Psalm 63:3–5, Psalm 134:1–2; 1st Timothy 2:8
Bowing & Kneeling: 2 Chronicles 7:3, Psalm 95:6, Daniel 6:10–11
Lying Prostrate: Deuteronomy 9:18, Revelation 19:4
Leaping: 2nd Samuel 6:16, Luke 6:23, Acts 3:7–8
Dancing: Exodus 15:20–21, Psalm 149:3, Psalm 150:4
Speaking In Tongues: Acts 2:1–11; Acts 10:46; 1st Corinthians 14:26–33

Incidentally, when I saw the massive number of Biblical references in this posting, I decided to finally install Jonathan Fox’s Scripturizer plugin for Moveable Type. Worked like a charm! If you use MT and quote from the Bible, I highly recommend this wonderful tool.

UPDATE: on 12/21/04 I added the Artistic Creation entry (3rd one down) and struck through the comment at the end. Also, I’m not using the Scripturizer plugin right now so the passages probably aren’t hyperlinked.

I just read a very interesting article by The Internet Monk explaining Why Everybody Hates Us.

It’s a thoughtful and well-written essay. Here’s a representative excerpt:

Here’s my list of why evangelicals are among the most disliked persons in America: 

1. Christians endorse a high standard of conduct for others and then largely excuse themselves from a serious pursuit of such a life. Jesus is the most admired person in history, but evangelicals are far more likely to devise ways for Jesus to be like us than for us to be like Jesus.

If it hasn’t struck you lately that you do the very thing you condemn others for doing (Romans 2:1), urge others to do what you don’t do or excuse in yourself what you require in others, then you probably don’t get this article at all.

I just ran across an interesting site that gives up-to-the-minute estimates of the state of world evangelization. I don’t know how they arrived at their figures, but I find it interesting: The Unfinished Task

Last night we talked about Appreciating God’s Gift of Sex, and I referenced a few different resources and statistics. Since this is a topic of such interest, I thought I should post some related resources in case you want to do some further reflection.

Here’s the sound-byte version of my message:

Sex was God’s idea, and He’s given it to us as gift. We need to understand how to receive His gift with respect and gratitude. The first thing we need to know is that sex is fundamentally relational and not merely recreational. The goal is intimacy in relationship, and purity paves the way to intimacy. Research shows that the best sex is monogamous sex, and that if you’re promiscuous, you’re actually sacrificing quality for quantity. Maintaining purity in a polluted world requires wisdom and self-honesty, and God can restore our purity when we have lost it.

Some of the passages of scripture that I referenced: 1st Corinthians 6.12–20, Colossians 3.5, 1st Thessalonians 4.3–8, Matthew 5.27–30

, and Hebrews 13.4.

Here are some online resources you might want to check out:

First, some data:
* Cohabitating Doesn’t Lead to More Committed Marriages, Study Finds
* Missionary Cohabitation, Missionary Cohabitation Part 2
* The Best Sex
* Leadership U Special Focus: America’s Sexual Revolution

Second, some common-sense via articles by J. Budziszewski:
* Going All The Way (this is the conversation I quoted from last night)
* Sex At The Edge of Night (why sex outside of marriage is not a good thing)
* What If We Love Each Other? (why “being in love” isn’t sufficient justification for extramarital sex)
* Ordinary Lust (practical tips for winning the war within)
* Who’s On First? and The Moves (articles about dating)

I hope these resources help you as you reflect on sex and developing a Chrisian perspective on it!