Sorry for the silence, my friends. Much of my blogging takes place in the early hours of the morning, but much of the past week has involved sick children that led to two sick adults, with all of that on top of unusual levels of stress from various other parts of life.
Suffice to say that “just trying to get by” has forced me away from some of those earliest hours over the past week. I hope to get back in the groove shortly.
Discovered recently on a traffic safety website, this image speaks way beyond our streets. Be sure not to miss anything your Father is providing you for the simple reason that you were racing somewhere else at the time.
In place of my weekly Six-Pack, allow me to share a series of links around a recent “hot button” discussion. Earlier this month, well-known teacher and writer John MacArthur hosted a conference called “Strange Fire”. In a sentence, the event was a call for cautious consideration of the Charismatic Movement.
And it almost blew up portions of the internet!
I, for one, have no strong feelings about John MacArthur. I have at least one of his commentaries on my bookshelf, though I cannot claim him as a key influence of my thought or theology. Truth be told, I likely couldn’t summarize his theology accurately in a sentence or two. More personally, I confess that this discussion may not have even piqued my interest a couple years ago. But since then, the Spirit of God has been forcefully active in my pocket of the world. In a few bold moves, He forced me to promote Him from the basement-storage-room treatment I had been giving Him as a fringe theological subtopic. [I have described my long-time dissatisfaction with cessation HERE.] Part of this journey has involved in a growing commitment to glean the best teaching I can find from my more Spirit-minded brothers and sisters. For this reason, the Charismatic movement means a great deal more to me today than it has in the past — and that is why this discussion now grabs my attention in ways it wouldn’t have a short time ago.
The One who hovered over the original depths of chaos, whose power under-girded the resurrection of Christ, and who empowered the early Church in astounding ways — yeah, He is not keen on being ignored.
That said, He is also not keen of being abused or used.
Thus, a California conference was born in October 2013 to provide a platform for those who hold substantial concerns over the weaknesses, abuses, and blind spots they observe within the Charismatic movement. In some ways, this conference and its corresponding book may serve as a tip for a far larger conversation. If you care to be up to speed OR to understand why you should care at all about an involved dialog on how the Holy Spirit works in our lives today, below are a series of links that may prove helpful.
YOUR TURN: How do you understand the Spirit’s place in the live of Christians today? Is He doing anything? Is He limited? Less necessary than in earlier times? Needed more than ever? What are your perception or experiences?
At church, our current series is about discussing how faith grows.
In the process of Sunday sermons and weekly Small Groups, a handful of observations are rising to the surface.
Here is one of them.
FAITH AND FAITHFULNESS
A question in our last Small Group asked us who we considered a great example of faith. Who exhibited an unusual level of confidence and trust in God? I confessed that I found that hard to answer. If it was looking for FAITHFULNESS, I had an easy list of names. Somehow FAITH changed the discussion for me. It seems riskier and more adventurous than the plodding and dutiful flavour of faithfulness.
Of course, the two concepts are linked (linguistically at the least), but I confess to experiencing more disconnect than I likely should. As said, faith appears more outrageous — it’s the believing of things unseen, the aggressively confident holding to God’s outlandish promises. Certainly, faithfulness (in its full sense) is the act of exercising faith. However, it rolls off my tongue far more frequently as a term of steady responsibility, the long-term execution of what you know you should do.
A couple thoughts sum this up:
1) Faithfulness is likely under-valued. This “long obedience in the same direction” (Peterson’s priceless phrase) is not for the faint of heart. Fleeting affections and flighty commitments will never sustain the steadiness demanded to live by faith.
2) That said, any form of faithfulness truly worth something must be rooted in a deeply trust-filled relationship with God. Responsible task-ticking was the way of the older brother (Luke 15), yet he was revealed to be disturbingly distanced from the Father he “faithfully” stood beside. Trust is linked to intimacy, and because of that fact: Anything less than faith-filled faithfulness comes off as mere duty, akin to a marriage that “celebrates” landmark anniversaries while being undesirably dead.
YOUR TURN: What about you? How do you observe the link between FAITH and FAITHFULNESS? Who has inspired you toward greater faith?
Not long ago, I had some great rhythms in my life: Bible-reading, exercise, sleep, writing, and work.
And then the last month of life happened.
A wonderful holiday followed quickly by a time at camp was followed by a week of relatives and visits that concluded with a weekend back at camp again. Throw in a wedding, a funeral, and a late-night visit to the emergency department of our local hospital–and I’ve simply failed to maintain much of the routine.
Time to re-establish some patterns!
I’ve missed you, Blog-Friends.