Blog Archives

Believing in the church

10/21/2016

The Church is an object of faith. In the Apostles' Creed we pray: "I believe in God, the Father ... in Jesus Christ, his only Son - in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting." We must believe in the Church! The Apostles' Creed does not say that the Church is an organization that helps us to believe in God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. No, we are called to believe in the Church with the same faith we believe in God.

Often it seems harder to believe in the Church than to believe in God. But whenever we separate our belief in God from our belief in the Church, we become unbelievers. God has given us the Church as the place where God becomes God-with-us.

For further reflection...

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..." - Ephesians 5: 25 (NIV)

This devotional was written by Henri Nouwen.
You can find his website here: henrinouwen.org

0 Comments

The unheeded secret

10/21/2016

0 Comments

My kingdom is not of this world. -- John 18:36

The great enemy to the Lord Jesus Christ in the present day is the conception of practical work that has not come from the New Testament, but from the Systems of the world in which endless energy and activities are insisted upon, but no private life with God. The emphasis is put on the wrong thing. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God cometh not with observation;…for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you,” a hidden, obscure thing. An active Christian worker too often lives in the shop window. It is the innermost of the innermost that reveals the power of the life.

We have to get rid of the plague of the spirit of the religious age in which we live. In Our Lord’s life there was none of the press and rush of tremendous activity that we regard so highly, and the disciple is to be as His Master. The central thing about the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a personal relationship to Himself, not public usefulness to men. It is not its practical activities that are the strength of this Bible Training College, its whole strength lies in the fact that here you are put into soak before God. You have no idea of where God is going to engineer your circumstances, no knowledge of what strain is going to be put on you either at home or abroad, and if you waste your time in over-active energies instead of getting into soak on the great fundamental truths of God’s Redemption, you will snap when the strain comes; but if this time of soaking before God is being spent in getting rooted and grounded in God on the un-practical line, you will remain true to Him whatever happens.

This devotional was written by Oswald Chambers.

0 Comments

Racism is sin

10/20/2016

0 Comments

I was at the gym the other day and while working out, I was watching some of the other people that were going thru their workout routine. There was a good mix of people there: old, young, middle-age, male, female, black, white, latino, asian and middle eastern. I'm glad that things have changed. No longer are we segregated into classes, races, ethnicities or genders.

As recent as 50-years ago, the civil rights movement started in the United States. Less than 50 years ago, you wouldn't find blacks and whites sharing a gym, a water fountain or a locker room. I'm so glad that things have changed and that there has been considerable movement away from such a segregated society.

As I was working out, I realized that I walked past a black guy, smiled, and said "how you doin'?" and he responded in kind. It was a pleasant interchange. Just like it should be.

But then I noticed another guy. This guy was of middle eastern descent. He was putting himself thru a very, very rigorous frenetic routine. He was in great shape. He was doing things with his body, stretches, lifts, etc that were simply amazing. However, you wanna know what went thru my head? I thought, "I'll bet he's training for jihad and is a terrorist."

I told myself, "that's a horrible thought, you don't even know this guy. Why would you judge him so?" Then it dawned on me... Young middle eastern men have become the new black.

It wasn't too long ago that white people looked askance at black people (unfortunately some still do) and wonder what they were up to, wondering when they will be attacked. I observed this man and no one spoke to him. I wanted to but he was working out so hard and concentrating so much on his work out that he seemed as if he didn't know anybody else was around. Plus, in gyms, it's hard to talk to people because so many folks have MP3 players and aren't there to interact with others. I know that's no excuse but I didn't speak with him. I should have.

Later in my quiet time with God, I heard God clearly speak to me about my attitude about the middle eastern guy in the gym. He told me that my attitude was wrong and that it is sinful to judge people so. I had to repent of the sin of racism.

I long to be able to see people the way that God does.
His love extends to all people and I need to be a reflection of His love.
Judgmental attitudes are not Christ-like attitudes.

God hates racism.

0 Comments

Racism is my problem

10/16/2016

1 Comment

The other day, I hired a roofer to come and fix some hail damage on my house. I told him that my neighbor may want some roofing done too. I said, "he's from Guadalajara and was telling me that he could get some 'hispanics' to fix my roof and his roof but you might want to see if he needs some work done." My roofer (a white guy) kind of got this sly grin and said, "he's not a roofer?" I said, "no, he's an executive for a large bakery company." My roofer said, "I was joking (still with that sly grin)." I retorted, "yes I know you were. I just didn't think it was funny." The subject was changed and the roofing job was completed. In the area where we live, there are a lot of homes being built. A good portion of the construction crews (including roofers) are hispanic.*

Later, upon reflection of this interaction, I thought to myself, "There I went and did it again. I came off as a racist. Why did it matter that my neighbor is from Guadalajara?" I really like my neighbor. He 's been nothing but friendly and he brings over items from the bakery and his wife makes us the BEST quesadillas. My hispanic neighbor came from California before he brought his family to Indiana and built a home next to mine. I then thought about the number of people who have asked me if my neighbor was here legally. Honestly, that thought never crossed my mind. My neighbors on the other side are from California too but are a white mother and daughter.  No one has ever asked me if they were here legally, I have no idea where they lived before California.

I recall I went to lunch with a couple of white men that were a little bit older than me. One of them made a disparaging comment about the race of our current president (POTUS). I didn't laugh. The other one said with a sly grin, "Oh, you didn't get the joke. You will get it later when you get home." I replied, "Yes I got the joke, I just didn't think it was funny."

In thinking of these two interactions, I have come to a couple of observations that sicken me:

1) White men seem to have this way of talking that is elitist. We make comments toward each other that subtly (and not so subtly) put down other races and/or women. However, we do it in such a way that among respectable Christian men it is not considered racist/sexist (if you're a white guy). I'm sure that if a person who wasn't white was observing, s/he would notice the elitism.

2) If you're a white man and you don't appreciate these subtle comments, you are considered to not be as intelligent as the person making these subtle comments. These white guys just can't imagine that you just don't appreciate their elitist comments. They just think that you haven't had enough bad experiences from "those people" to accurately determine that whites are better. However, they would never come out say that they are better than others.

These two observations aren't new to me, I didn't have an epiphany as I was writing this blog. However, to my regret, I did realize that I contribute to the sin of elitism/racism/sexism. By being blind to my white maleness, I inadvertently contribute to subtle white, male put downs of others. Sue (2004) points this out in his excellent article:  "Whiteness and Ethnocentric Monoculturalism: Making the Invisible Visible"  (see American Psychologist, Nov 2004, pp 761-769). He states, that white men are "trapped in a EuroAmerican worldview that only allows them to see the world from one perspective...little doubt exists that skin color in this society exposes people to different experiences (p. 762)."

Sue's last statement that skin color causes different experiences just makes me feel really, really, awful at an internal level. God's Word makes it clear that elitism/sexism/racism is a sin. Galatians 3:28 points out that we are all ONE in Jesus Christ. James 2 makes it clear that favoritism is sinful. King Solomon warns us in Proverbs 6:12-13 that a man who winks with his eyes and signals with his feet is a "worthless person, a wicked man."  I believe that this section of God's Word is talking about those subtle things that people do to create an "us vs them" mentality.

I long for the day when we will be released from the sin of elitism/racism/sexism. Unfortunately, I don't think that is going to happen this side of heaven. However, I'm grateful for times like this when God's Word and God's Holy Spirit speaks to me about my blind elitism. I don't want to treat people any other way than the way that Jesus treated people.

Now that you have come to the end of this blog post, I ask you for two things: 1) pray that I will be become more like Jesus, and 2) pray that you will become more like Jesus.

*My understanding is that hispanic is a political term. I prefer the term latino/a but I use hispanic in this post because that is the term my neighbor used.

1 Comment

Racism is sin

10/16/2016

0 Comments

Subtle (or maybe not so subtle) racism

10/16/2016

1 Comment

I saw this guy walking down the street and I reached over and locked my passenger door. I had taken this route many times but for some reason, I sensed that I needed to be extra careful. I was a good ½ block behind him and as I drove up next to him, he looked over at me and I noticed that he was an African-American.

I initially didn’t think anything of my behavior, but later as I was reflecting on my day, I sensed the Holy Spirit speaking to me about my behavior.  “Why did you lock the door? You weren’t in any danger. That young man wasn’t posing any threat.”

I thought about what I did. How did I know that the young man was African-American? And why was my automatic response to lock my passenger door? As much as I would like to think that I am open-minded and not prejudiced, it was apparent that my fear of people who aren’t like me runs deep.

Recently, I was privileged to speak with a bright, articulate, young African-American male and I told him about my experience. His response was that he notices that people do that to him.  “I get on an elevator and white women clutch their purses, like I’m some kinda thief. It’s really irritating. I dress professionally, keep good care of myself and am friendly but I get those kinds of reactions. It’s irritating and a bit angering.” With this young male was a young African-American female. She said that we were too hard on ourselves, that in both of those situations she would have acted as I did and how the ladies on the elevator did. She stated that it had more to do with being a female than fearing someone’s race.  “I make sure that my purse is not on the front seat and my doors are locked when I am driving thru a place that has people walking, it doesn’t matter what their race or ethnicity is.”

Ok. Maybe we can excuse a woman doing those things but it doesn’t answer the nagging in my soul of why did I lock my door? It wasn’t locked earlier when there were people walking but when I saw this particular man, I did lock my door.  I don’t remember thinking, “there’s an African-American male, I better lock my door so that I could be safe.”

Somewhere, buried deep within my subconscious, my mind perceived a threat and I wonder if my mind perceived that the threat was an African-American male. That’s the question I can’t answer. I don’t want the answer to be that I am subtly a racist but it makes me wonder.

I so much want all my actions towards others to be like Christ. So, in my conversation with the Holy Spirit, all I could say was, “I don’t know why I locked the door, but LORD, please purify me. Reveal to me my sin of racism. Cleanse me from anything that would represent oppression, fear, racism, elitism help me to be a holy representative of You."

1 Comment

Jamaican pride or is it?

10/16/2016

2 Comments

We were in inner Jamaica, away from the major cities visiting a church where I was to give a brief talk for the service. We were fortunate enough to be able to arrive early to attend Sunday School. As we arrived, there were other people there, mostly Jamaicans. Unfortunately, the teacher seemed to be a bit intimidated. She was an older woman, probably in her 60's and was a pillar in this church as well as the surrounding community. It was obvious she was well-respected for her leadership. As she moved to the front of the room, she made a little "nest" for herself with pillows and sat very regally speaking to us.

What she said next made me think she felt intimidated (maybe not), "I have been teaching this class for many years and I know the answers for the questions that you may have. But, please don't interrupt, you can ask your questions at the end of class, when I am thru telling you God's truth." I was intrigued by her accent and her use of colloquialisms that were unfamiliar to me. But, at times, I got lost in what she said as she introduced her lesson and the way that her body position displayed a person of authority.

Now, there are many ways that this post that I am writing could go. This post is not about this Sunday School teacher and my probable misunderstanding of her possible pride as I am sure there are so many things culturally that I missed. This story is so rich in cultural/spiritual/psychological applications. I enjoy studying cultural anthropology and coupling it with my counseling and my feeble attempts at representing Christ to others. I try to understand people without looking thru my white, middle class, American male biases.

Nevertheless, this post is about my pride.

That evening, as I lay in bed, swatting mosquitos feeling very uncomfortable in the sweltering humidity, I was reflecting upon my experience that morning in Sunday School. I got to thinking, "she was a very proud woman. She had no formal college education and lives in a small village teaching in a small church in a small island country. She has no reason to act so proud." With that thought, I clearly heard in my head a reprimand from God that filled me with remorse over my own pride. Who was I to judge this woman who has been teaching God's Word for years?

God has clearly stated, "So when you, a mere man, pass judgment and yet do the same things, do you think that you will escape God's judgment?"

As I continued to listen to God that evening, I felt God's loving reproof for attitudes that I had been displaying. It wasn't much of a struggle because God's Holy Spirit was on target and I needed correction.

He was right.

At times I become prideful and God doesn't have to say much to remind me of how He has worked and is working in my life. Just a simple recollection of that woman or my time in Jamaica usually gets me back on track and less self-protective.

Protectionist attitudes, IMHO, represent a spiritual dysfunction. I believe God protects our reputation if we serve Him in humility.

C.S. Lewis puts it much better and serves as a reminder, "How is it that people who are obviously eaten up with Pride can say they believe in God and appear to themselves very religious? I am afraid it means they are worshiping an imaginary God."

2 Comments

Sunday Meditation

10/16/2016

0 Comments

A Love Like God's Love

The union of God and man in love implies a number of things.

It implies, in the first place, that the love which thus unites them shall have the same origin. The two streams must flow from the same fountain. God's love is in and from himself. Man's love, in order to be in harmony with it, must be in and from God also. It is impossible that the pure or perfect love which "loves God with all the heart, and our neighbor as ourselves," should rest on any other than a divine and infinite basis. It is of a nature so high, flowing out freely and cheerfully even to those "who hate us and despitefully use us," that it requires and can accept nothing less than God for its author and supporter. This sentiment we have already expressed; but it is so important that it will bear repetition. Man has not strength enough to sustain himself in the exercise of pure love, breathing out, as it does, its aspirations of benevolence towards its enemies, except so far as he rests upon God, and becomes a "partaker of the divine nature."

The union of God and man in love implies, in the second place, that man's love must not only be from God so as to be nothing more or less than a stream from the everlasting fountain, but it must flow out without adulteration or modification — in other words, it must be like God's love.

And this love, as it exists in him now, which consists in a sincere desire for the happiness of all beings, simply because they have a being or existence susceptible of happiness, is now, and always will be, the original and basis of all other true love. It was this love, which, in the bosom of eternity, prompted the plan of salvation. We cannot experience the blessed state of perfect union with God in love, unless our hearts are filled with a love of this kind. Our love must not only have its origin in the divine nature, in God himself, but must be like his. So that it should be our constant prayer, that God would give us a love-nature, which, in being kindled from the eternal fire, will burn of itself; which will send out its divine blaze in the midst of persecutions; and which "many waters cannot quench."

— edited from A Treatise on Divine Union (1851) Part 4, Chapter 6 by Thomas Cogswell Upham. His blog is managed by Craig L Adams and can be found here: http://thomascupham.blogspot.com

0 Comments

Living in a state of preparedness

10/15/2016

0 Comments

Everything that comes from God asks for an open and faithful heart. We cannot live with hope and joy in the end-time unless we are living in a state of preparedness. We have to be careful because, as the Apostle Peter says: "Your enemy the devil is on the prowl like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5.8). Therefore Jesus says: "Watch yourselves, or your hearts will be coarsened by debauchery and drunkenness and the cares of life. ... Stay awake, praying at all times for the strength to survive all that is going to happen, and to hold your ground before the Son of Man" (Luke 21:34-36). That's what living in the Spirit of Jesus calls us to.

For further reflection...

Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. - Ephesians 6: 13 (NIV)

This devotional was written by Henri Nouwen.
You can find his website here: henrinouwen.org

0 Comments

The unblameable attitude

10/13/2016

0 Comments

If thou…rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee… --Matthew 5:23

If when you come to the altar, there you remember that your brother has anything against you, not — If you rake up something by a morbid sensitiveness, but — “If thou…rememberest,” that is, if it is brought to your conscious mind by the Spirit of God: “first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.” Never object to the intense sensitiveness of the Spirit of God in you when He is educating you down to the scruple.

“First be reconciled to thy brother…” Our Lord’s direction is simple — “first be reconciled.” Go back the way you came, go the way indicated to you by the conviction given at the altar; have an attitude of mind and a temper of soul to the one who has something against you that makes reconciliation as natural as breathing. Jesus does not mention the other person, He says — you go. There is no question of your rights. The stamp of the saint is that he can waive his own rights and obey the Lord Jesus.

“And then come and offer thy gift.” The process is clearly marked. First, the heroic spirit of self-sacrifice, then the sudden checking by the sensitiveness of the Holy Spirit, and the stoppage at the point of conviction; then the way of obedience to the word of God, constructing an unblameable attitude of mind and temper to the one with whom you have been in the wrong; then the glad, simple, unhindered offering of your gift to God.

This devotional was written by Oswald Chambers

0 Comments

<<Previous

Forward>>

Believing in the church

The unheeded secret

Racism is sin

Racism is my problem

Racism is sin

Subtle (or maybe not so subtle) racism

Jamaican pride or is it?

Sunday Meditation

Living in a state of preparedness

The unblameable attitude

Rules for commenting:

Categories

Archives

IRONSTRIKES

Men Forging Men