Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Anything Can Be
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
A thought on John 11:35
I think too often I respond in the former way. I want to respond out of devotion, not try to form a better doctrine or theology, or be right all the time. I want to come from a place of I know who Jesus is because I sit with him, and wait with him, and speak with him, and develop a history with him. And I’m not talking and talking about quiet times. I’m talking about reckless abidance.
Mary is a figure that responded out of this relationship and it moves the heart of God. Not just responding with good theology. Here comes a tangent. I think I addressed this scripture because it’s a good example of a person that rests on scriptural knowledge and one that rests on the being with and knowing the person of Jesus, which is two different things. Hear me out, it is God’s desire that we know scripture in light of His heart, but too often our only context is what we read and not the person we surround ourselves with. It’s the exact same thing as if someone hands me written notes about my friends and is like “Whelp, hope that sustains your need for friendship.” But I want to run as hard and as fast as I can into the heart of Jesus that the only thing that sustains me is his friendship. And because of this I believe too often do we marry ourselves to movements and our goal becomes destiny and calling. The goal is devotion, and living a life that looks like not caring about the peripheral, but just wanting Jesus, and that's about it. And more often than not that makes you look like the craziest person in the room, but your cultivating a greater vision than anything else you're called to.
Ciao,
Wes
Acorns and oak trees
"The renewing of your mind put you in a position to see that there is an oak tree in an acorn." Bill Johnson
It's his great love that sustains us, and if we have nothing else, we would still be sustained. So when Jesus' words, directions, and affections are spoken into our lives he's speaking acorns that are jam packed with oak trees. I don't understand what he's doing all the time, but we have to be completely ignorant to his leadings because he's beckoning us down the best path. (Found this draft and thought I'd post)
It's his great love that sustains us, and if we have nothing else, we would still be sustained. So when Jesus' words, directions, and affections are spoken into our lives he's speaking acorns that are jam packed with oak trees. I don't understand what he's doing all the time, but we have to be completely ignorant to his leadings because he's beckoning us down the best path. (Found this draft and thought I'd post)
Monday, March 26, 2012
Letters on Religiousless Christianity
Three letters Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote on religiousless Christianity. Enjoy!
To Eberhard Bethage, April, 1944:
What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is, for us today. The time when people could be told everything by means of words, whether theological or pious, is over, and so is the time of inwardness and conscience--and that means the time of religion in general. We are moving toward a completely religionless time; people as they are now simply cannot be religious anymore. Even those who honestly describe themselves as "religious" do not in the least act up to it, and so they presumably mean something quite different by "religious."
Our whole nineteen-hundred-year-old Christian preaching and theology rest on the "religious a priori" of mankind. "Christianity" has always been a form--perhaps the true form--of "religion." But if one day it becomes clear that this a priori does not exist at all, but was a historically conditioned and transient form of human self-expression, and if therefore man becomes radically religionless--and I think that that is already more or less the case (else how is it, for example, that this war, in contrast to all previous ones, is not calling forth any "religious" reaction?)--what does that mean for "Christianity"? It means that the foundation is taken away from the whole of what has up to now been our "Christianity," and that there remain only a few "last survivors of the age of chivalry," or a few intellectually dishonest people that we are to pounce in fervor, pique, or indignation, in order to sell them goods? Are we to fall upon a few unfortunate people in their hour of need and exercise a sort of religious compulsion on them? If we don't want to do all that, if our final judgment must be that the Western form of Christianity, too, was only a preliminary stage to a complete absence of religion, what kind of situation emerges for us, for the church? How can Christ become the Lord of the religionless as well? Are there religionless Christians? If religion is only a garment of Christianity--and even this garment has looked very different at different times--then what is a religionless Christianity?
The questions to be answered would surely be: What do a church, a community, a sermon, a liturgy, a Christian life mean in a religionless world? How do we speak of God--without religion, i.e., without the temporally conditioned presuppositions of metaphysics, inwardness, and so on? How do we speak (or perhaps we cannot now even "speak" as we used to) in a "secular" way about God? In what way are we "religionless-secular" Christians, in what way are we those who are called forth, not regarding ourselves from a religious point of view as specially favored, but rather as belonging wholly to the world? In that case Christ is no longer an object of religion, but something quite different, really the Lord of the world. But what does that mean? What is the place of worship and prayer in a religionless situation?
The Pauline question of whether [circumcision] is a condition of justification seems to me in present-day terms to be whether religion is a condition of salvation. Freedom from [circumcision] is also freedom from religion. I often ask myself why a "Christian instinct" often draws me more to the religionless people than to the religious, but which I don't in the least mean with any evangelizing intention, but, I might almost say, "in brotherhood." While I'm often reluctant to mention God by name to religious people--because that name somehow seems to me here not to ring true, and I feel myself to be slightly dishonest (it's particularly bad when others start to talk in religious jargon; I then dry up almost completely and feel awkward and uncomfortable)--to people with no religion I can on occasion mention him by name quite calmly and as a matter of course.
The transcendence of epistemological theory has nothing to do with the transcendence of God. God is beyond in the midst of our life. The church stands, not at the boundaries where human powers give out, but in the middle of the village...How this religionless Christianity looks, what form it takes, is something that I'm thinking about a great deal, and I shall be writing to you again about it soon. It may be that on us in particular, midway between East and West, there will fall a heavy responsibility.
To Eberhard Bethage, July 18, 1944:
[Religious man] must therefore live in the godless world, without attempting to gloss over or explain its ungodliness in some religious way or other. He must live a "secular" life, and thereby share in God's sufferings. He may live a "secular" life (as one who has been freed from false religious obligations and inhibitions). To be a Christian does not mean to be religious in a particular way, to make something of oneself (a sinner, a penitent, or a saint) on the basis of some method or other, but to be a man--not a type of man, but the man that Christ creates in us. It is not the religious act that makes the Christian, but participation in the sufferings of God in the secular life.
To Eberhard Bethage, July 21, 1944:
During the last year or so I've come to know and understand more and more the profound this-worldliness of Christianity. The Christian is not a homo religiosus, but simply a man, as Jesus was a man...
Saweet.
I'm sure there were Acorns and Loaves somewhere in there, but those will come later also.
To Eberhard Bethage, April, 1944:
What is bothering me incessantly is the question what Christianity really is, or indeed who Christ really is, for us today. The time when people could be told everything by means of words, whether theological or pious, is over, and so is the time of inwardness and conscience--and that means the time of religion in general. We are moving toward a completely religionless time; people as they are now simply cannot be religious anymore. Even those who honestly describe themselves as "religious" do not in the least act up to it, and so they presumably mean something quite different by "religious."
Our whole nineteen-hundred-year-old Christian preaching and theology rest on the "religious a priori" of mankind. "Christianity" has always been a form--perhaps the true form--of "religion." But if one day it becomes clear that this a priori does not exist at all, but was a historically conditioned and transient form of human self-expression, and if therefore man becomes radically religionless--and I think that that is already more or less the case (else how is it, for example, that this war, in contrast to all previous ones, is not calling forth any "religious" reaction?)--what does that mean for "Christianity"? It means that the foundation is taken away from the whole of what has up to now been our "Christianity," and that there remain only a few "last survivors of the age of chivalry," or a few intellectually dishonest people that we are to pounce in fervor, pique, or indignation, in order to sell them goods? Are we to fall upon a few unfortunate people in their hour of need and exercise a sort of religious compulsion on them? If we don't want to do all that, if our final judgment must be that the Western form of Christianity, too, was only a preliminary stage to a complete absence of religion, what kind of situation emerges for us, for the church? How can Christ become the Lord of the religionless as well? Are there religionless Christians? If religion is only a garment of Christianity--and even this garment has looked very different at different times--then what is a religionless Christianity?
The questions to be answered would surely be: What do a church, a community, a sermon, a liturgy, a Christian life mean in a religionless world? How do we speak of God--without religion, i.e., without the temporally conditioned presuppositions of metaphysics, inwardness, and so on? How do we speak (or perhaps we cannot now even "speak" as we used to) in a "secular" way about God? In what way are we "religionless-secular" Christians, in what way are we those who are called forth, not regarding ourselves from a religious point of view as specially favored, but rather as belonging wholly to the world? In that case Christ is no longer an object of religion, but something quite different, really the Lord of the world. But what does that mean? What is the place of worship and prayer in a religionless situation?
The Pauline question of whether [circumcision] is a condition of justification seems to me in present-day terms to be whether religion is a condition of salvation. Freedom from [circumcision] is also freedom from religion. I often ask myself why a "Christian instinct" often draws me more to the religionless people than to the religious, but which I don't in the least mean with any evangelizing intention, but, I might almost say, "in brotherhood." While I'm often reluctant to mention God by name to religious people--because that name somehow seems to me here not to ring true, and I feel myself to be slightly dishonest (it's particularly bad when others start to talk in religious jargon; I then dry up almost completely and feel awkward and uncomfortable)--to people with no religion I can on occasion mention him by name quite calmly and as a matter of course.
The transcendence of epistemological theory has nothing to do with the transcendence of God. God is beyond in the midst of our life. The church stands, not at the boundaries where human powers give out, but in the middle of the village...How this religionless Christianity looks, what form it takes, is something that I'm thinking about a great deal, and I shall be writing to you again about it soon. It may be that on us in particular, midway between East and West, there will fall a heavy responsibility.
To Eberhard Bethage, July 18, 1944:
[Religious man] must therefore live in the godless world, without attempting to gloss over or explain its ungodliness in some religious way or other. He must live a "secular" life, and thereby share in God's sufferings. He may live a "secular" life (as one who has been freed from false religious obligations and inhibitions). To be a Christian does not mean to be religious in a particular way, to make something of oneself (a sinner, a penitent, or a saint) on the basis of some method or other, but to be a man--not a type of man, but the man that Christ creates in us. It is not the religious act that makes the Christian, but participation in the sufferings of God in the secular life.
To Eberhard Bethage, July 21, 1944:
During the last year or so I've come to know and understand more and more the profound this-worldliness of Christianity. The Christian is not a homo religiosus, but simply a man, as Jesus was a man...
Saweet.
I'm sure there were Acorns and Loaves somewhere in there, but those will come later also.
Monday, February 13, 2012
a Lion, a Pit, and a Snow Day
On his journey, Benaiah is trudging through the thick snow laden ground. His skin, though tough and calloused, feels the stinging the cold has to offer. Tired, hungry, and thirsty he becomes eager to return to Jerusalem and his brothers, King David's mighty men. Suddenly, he hears a giant roar in the distance, and with goosebumps trickling up his spine his pace quickens. His Spirit only tastes a hint of fear, but he senses it. Made aware of this fear, he stops, seeks out the cave, slaughters the lion, then enjoys the cave for himself.
You see, Benaiah's course would not be diverted because of a sudden fear. He would not be controlled by it. It would not rule over him. He chose to act in direct contrast to Satan's bidding.
Too often our course is diverted because of the fears that reside within us. Discover the fears, anxieties, and worries in your life and immediately behind those are our areas of greatest strength and provision. Satan doesn't attack the areas that are irrelevant to the Kingdom. Rather, he chooses to attack and the destroy the areas that God has anointed and placed undiscovered authority over our lives; because, Satan knows that we're dangerous there. Even if we don't know it yet. For years Satan had attacked my sleep. Nights of insomnia with anxiety and worry. Going to bed became a huge battleground. I became fearful of going to sleep because I knew that's when anxiety would come, and that's when I stopped trusting the Lord. I would go through seasons of this and it wasn't until one great night of revelation where I discovered that sleep, the prophetic, and spiritual discernment awakened out of sleep were areas of God's authority and anointing over me. Greatest weaknesses become greatest strengths.
Why does Satan attack you there? Because you are called to move in it. There's a place of peace, rest, and warmth. We just have to go through the lion first.
with Bliss,
Wes
You see, Benaiah's course would not be diverted because of a sudden fear. He would not be controlled by it. It would not rule over him. He chose to act in direct contrast to Satan's bidding.
Too often our course is diverted because of the fears that reside within us. Discover the fears, anxieties, and worries in your life and immediately behind those are our areas of greatest strength and provision. Satan doesn't attack the areas that are irrelevant to the Kingdom. Rather, he chooses to attack and the destroy the areas that God has anointed and placed undiscovered authority over our lives; because, Satan knows that we're dangerous there. Even if we don't know it yet. For years Satan had attacked my sleep. Nights of insomnia with anxiety and worry. Going to bed became a huge battleground. I became fearful of going to sleep because I knew that's when anxiety would come, and that's when I stopped trusting the Lord. I would go through seasons of this and it wasn't until one great night of revelation where I discovered that sleep, the prophetic, and spiritual discernment awakened out of sleep were areas of God's authority and anointing over me. Greatest weaknesses become greatest strengths.
Why does Satan attack you there? Because you are called to move in it. There's a place of peace, rest, and warmth. We just have to go through the lion first.
with Bliss,
Wes
What am I supposed to be "Telling" again? and other Ramblings
Recently I've been extremely convicted towards certain habits, or lack there of, that I've been fostering in my walk with Jesus. One in particular. Ok not just one, but one more so convicting than the others lately. I would like to think that I love and honor people well around me. On rare occasions my actions don't match up well with that statement, but for the most part I think I do those two things well (and there's always much more room to grow in those areas). Ok so I want to love people and honor them where they're at. So let's say hypothetically I was worth a lot of money and I see a starving person on the street. If I love and honor people well then giving that man a meal would be my gut reaction. So if I have an infinite amount of grace on my life, an anointing by the Holy Spirit, authority given to me by Jesus, and a Father who wants to see himself manifest through salvation; where's the holdup? So if I possess all those things worth more than gold, and I know/meet a person dying and going to hell, and I'm a loving person, then proof is only in the pudding, per se. Right now I'm only speaking off the cuff so hopefully all of this will evolve and I'll get to some meat. Bear with me.
On many occasions, but two in particular Jesus gave affirmative commands towards those that followed him:
"And proclaim as you go, saying, 'the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'(which looks a little bit like) Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. "
& the classic
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I with you always, to the end of the age."
There is this little hill I've been trying to climb over and realize and that is that the gospel of Jesus is only good news to those who already believe. To those who don't have a personal relationship with Jesus, it's not good news. In fact when I share blatantly share Jesus with those around me the message (not my actions) is going to be offensive. Act in love but don't fear the offensiveness of the message. When the gospel is told it will offend spirit and soul, and then the beauty of it all kicks in.
What would it look like for an entire generation to live unencumbered by fear? Well as a leaders we reap what we sow. If our biggest fears are fear of man that places us into terrified positions of not sharing the gospel, not healing the sick, not casting out demons, and not raising the dead(because we're commanded to do all those things) then we reproduce disciples and children with the same fears that we have. But that is only a secondary reason to it. Jesus is calling each one of us to step outside of the 'comforts' of our fears and into the greatness of the provision He's providing through our obedience to Him.
Just do it, and do it everyday. And see God's kingdom fall by activating the faith inside of you by being blatant in the blessing. Get up. And go live like your supposed to. This includes myself.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers; but you shall be called the priests of the LORD; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy. Isaiah 61:1-7
In areas of shame and disobedience God is not only restoring my portion but He is doubling it. He is giving beauty for ashes. Today is a new day, and with it comes new resolves. There will be so much more to 'tell' this season. There will be so much more to 'tell' today.
To grace under pressure,
Wes
On many occasions, but two in particular Jesus gave affirmative commands towards those that followed him:
"And proclaim as you go, saying, 'the kingdom of heaven is at hand.'(which looks a little bit like) Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay. "
& the classic
"Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I with you always, to the end of the age."
There is this little hill I've been trying to climb over and realize and that is that the gospel of Jesus is only good news to those who already believe. To those who don't have a personal relationship with Jesus, it's not good news. In fact when I share blatantly share Jesus with those around me the message (not my actions) is going to be offensive. Act in love but don't fear the offensiveness of the message. When the gospel is told it will offend spirit and soul, and then the beauty of it all kicks in.
What would it look like for an entire generation to live unencumbered by fear? Well as a leaders we reap what we sow. If our biggest fears are fear of man that places us into terrified positions of not sharing the gospel, not healing the sick, not casting out demons, and not raising the dead(because we're commanded to do all those things) then we reproduce disciples and children with the same fears that we have. But that is only a secondary reason to it. Jesus is calling each one of us to step outside of the 'comforts' of our fears and into the greatness of the provision He's providing through our obedience to Him.
Just do it, and do it everyday. And see God's kingdom fall by activating the faith inside of you by being blatant in the blessing. Get up. And go live like your supposed to. This includes myself.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; to grant to those who mourn in Zion—to give them a beautiful headdress instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the garment of praise instead of a faint spirit;
that they may be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he may be glorified. They shall build up the ancient ruins; they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations. Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers; but you shall be called the priests of the LORD; they shall speak of you as the ministers of our God; you shall eat the wealth of the nations, and in their glory you shall boast. Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; they shall have everlasting joy. Isaiah 61:1-7
In areas of shame and disobedience God is not only restoring my portion but He is doubling it. He is giving beauty for ashes. Today is a new day, and with it comes new resolves. There will be so much more to 'tell' this season. There will be so much more to 'tell' today.
To grace under pressure,
Wes
Friday, February 10, 2012
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Mmmm, At His Right
A couple weeks ago during worship one Sunday I asked God to give me a picture of what perfect, true restoration looked like, and almost immediately I got a picture of myself standing next to God and of Him placing His right arm around me and pulling me tight into himself. Psalm 16:11 says, "You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." And deep in God's presence there is not only fullness of joy, but restoration. His presence heals every wound, every broken heart, cleanses every sin.
If you'll let me hijack something I blogged a couple of years ago, I said, "Shika Baba. It's a Swahili term for 'hold onto the Father.' How do we see, experience, feel, live revival? We shika baba. We hold onto the goodness of the Father and we don't let go." So let me take this a step further and ask how do I/we receive personal transformation? I press into my Father, my Jesus, and my Holy Spirit. I become found in the cleft of God's arm. Living in a ceaseless hug from God(oh that's good).
Just as I was meditating on this verse this morning God asked me about His right hand and why pleasures forevermore were found there, and then it occurred to me that that's where Jesus is. This moment. Right now. Jesus is sitting at God's right hand, and he has been for an eternity, pouring all his goodness and pleasures onto us. I love simple truths and revelations like that. So simple, but so good.
There's always been this huge significance of God's right arm and me, sounds funny, but it's true. For the longest time, and still today, during worship my left hand would get really hot and tingle like crazy and inch all the way up my arm and eventually to the entire left side of my body, but it was only during worship or when spending personal time with Him. So one day I asked God why that happened and he told me it was because I'm on His right. You see, Jesus is King who reigns forever, and one day we will worship Him face to face. We are no equals. He is at the Father's right hand. But what God was showing me was that He has placed all His children in a position of favor. On his right.
God expand my love for you so that I am always found in the cleft of Your right arm. Your presence. Where true restoration, healing of wounds and brokenness, pleasures forevermore, and fullness of joy begins and ends.
Bless you,
Wes
If you'll let me hijack something I blogged a couple of years ago, I said, "Shika Baba. It's a Swahili term for 'hold onto the Father.' How do we see, experience, feel, live revival? We shika baba. We hold onto the goodness of the Father and we don't let go." So let me take this a step further and ask how do I/we receive personal transformation? I press into my Father, my Jesus, and my Holy Spirit. I become found in the cleft of God's arm. Living in a ceaseless hug from God(oh that's good).
Just as I was meditating on this verse this morning God asked me about His right hand and why pleasures forevermore were found there, and then it occurred to me that that's where Jesus is. This moment. Right now. Jesus is sitting at God's right hand, and he has been for an eternity, pouring all his goodness and pleasures onto us. I love simple truths and revelations like that. So simple, but so good.
There's always been this huge significance of God's right arm and me, sounds funny, but it's true. For the longest time, and still today, during worship my left hand would get really hot and tingle like crazy and inch all the way up my arm and eventually to the entire left side of my body, but it was only during worship or when spending personal time with Him. So one day I asked God why that happened and he told me it was because I'm on His right. You see, Jesus is King who reigns forever, and one day we will worship Him face to face. We are no equals. He is at the Father's right hand. But what God was showing me was that He has placed all His children in a position of favor. On his right.
God expand my love for you so that I am always found in the cleft of Your right arm. Your presence. Where true restoration, healing of wounds and brokenness, pleasures forevermore, and fullness of joy begins and ends.
Bless you,
Wes
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