A story that blows my mind (Part 1)

This fall I've been dwelling on grace a lot, and a lot of my thinking centers around the story in Luke 15:11-32. Some call it the Lost Son, others the Prodigal Son. I myself think it should be called the Prodigal Father. Prodigal means extravagant, just in case you didn't know.

Instead of summarizing I'd encourage you to read the story in your Bible, or you can read it here.

The story amazes me for several reasons

1) The father is waiting for his son to return, even though he was considered dead to his son. Once he sees him returning, he runs to him, which in the days of Jesus would have been humiliating for a man of his status to do.

2) The son comes in repentance and asks to be a servant of his father. The father instead takes him back as his son, and extravagantly shows his love as a father by asking for the best robe, shoes, and a ring to be put on him. He also throws a huge celebration, killing the fattened calf. Now my friend Ryne pointed this out to me. The fattened calf would have only been used for a community wide celebration, a block party if you will. To use the calf for anything less was to waste an enormous amount of meat. But this is what the father does.

3) When the other son returns and finds the celebrating going on, he becomes jealous and demands to know why his father's son (note he refuses to acknowledge him as his brother) deserves such treatment.

God's grace isn't fair. Let me repeat, God's grace isn't fair. Think about that, and let the implications sink in. Check out Matthew 20:1-16 and don't be afraid to think and feel that some of the workers got a raw deal.

We don't deserve God's grace, but that is what he offers us. The same grace he offers to us, he offers to all, even those we think don't deserve it. Even to our most hated enemies. Even to Osame Bin Laden and Adolph Hitler.

There are times where I feel as the younger son. I know I have turned from God, but cannot fathom the grace he offers me. And there are times where I feel like the older son but I'll get to that in the next post in a few days...

Demolishing Concepts of Prayer

September 23-25th we took our students on a fall retreat to a camp near the mountains and joined students from NC State, ECU, and UNC Chapel Hill. The theme for the weekend was Worship in Unexpected Places. Our speaker, Neal Alligood, a former campus minister at NC State, shared about worshiping God at different moments in our lives.

During the retreat, I also led a breakout session that students could choose to come to, and shared some thoughts on prayer. Over the past 3 years, I've been really passionate about speaking on, teaching on and leading prayer ministry. For the first half of the workshop, I set about to in some ways demolish how the students viewed prayer. Instead of focusing on what they're praying about, I encouraged them to focus on who they're praying to. We looked at passages of scripture where ordinary men encountered God and they're reaction was fear and awe.

I also asked students "What would their prayer lives look like if they didn't ask God for anything?" For many, they said they wouldn't have a reason to pray. I defined prayer for students as "realizing that we are in the presence of God." Because God is always with us, but we aren't aware of it. How we respond once we're aware I believe is prayer, whether its worship, praising Him, thanking Him, listening to Him, pouring out our hearts to Him, etc.

Don't you want to have a richer prayer time with God? A time where you're eager to pray and might even go for hours on end? Seek to discover more of who God is, and seek to spend as much time with Him as you can, without treating Him like a vending machine and going to him when you want something.

Let's save ourselves some trouble

One sin caused a 3rd of the angels to rise up in rebellion, leading to a civil war that since spilled out of heaven and onto all of creation.

The same sin led God to disrupt the work of a tower constructed to reach into the very heavens, scattering the people into different nations and languages.

The same sin also led man to reject what God offered as good, and ushered in the greatest fall of all, the separation of creation from creator.

The desire to be of equal footing with God.

Satan desired to be above God. The people who built the tower of Babel strived to be seated on the same playing field as God. Adam and Eve both ate of the forbidden tree to be “like God knowing good and evil.”

Created trying to become the creator. God is God for a reason. How on earth or in heaven above could we be God, when we can’t even begin to comprehend him? And if somehow we could, “A comprehended God is no God at all.” Gerhard Tersteegen. I can comprehend how to make a peanut butter and honey sandwhich, but not even touch how God works.

Why do we as humans strive for that which we cannot be?

I believe its because as humans, we despise having something over us that we can’t control, something we can’t influence. We want control of our own destiny; to be the one to make the rules, decide how things go. Except none of us are perfect, no matter how hard we try, we cannot give out perfect justice. We can’t even provide food and clean water to the rest of our own world.

Although it goes against our human nature, we are better off trusting in God. Trusting in his justice, in his order of things. After all we didn’t set the earth in motion, or establish the various cycles found in nature.

Let’s let God be God and save ourselves the trouble of trying to be divine.

Might need a dog to answer this

The past three weeks I've been waking up most mornings and doing some daily devotional reading out of Crazy Love by Francis Chan. This is my second time going through the book, this time I'm reading tidbits and meditating on them.

Last night and this morning I've spent some time looking at how "God is all powerful." This is something I know yes, but Crazy Love took a different angle and asked this question, do we recognize his authority over us?

How often I question the way God works, how often I expect him to accomplish something in a different way. How often I ask why must my plans come to ruin?

He is God. He was not created for me, but I was created for him.

"For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him." Colossians 1:16

It's the difference between cat and dog theology as I call it (taken from a great book by Bob Sjogren). Are we a cat (believing God exists to serve us) or are we a dog (believing God exists for us to serve him)?

But even as I try to be a "dog Christian" and live a life that is all about God, I find myself in conflict with Matthew 7:9-12. Where does one draw the line with receiving for oneself and giving to the glory of his owner? I've essentially spent the past two years pondering this very question. I can't say that I've made any progress.

Maybe I should just get a dog, and spend my time observing how he goes about this.

Dynamic Community

Sorry for the blogging hiatus recently. Been on the road, here and there, been in the middle of leaving my job at Bluewater to transition into a ministry internship with Campus Christian Fellowship at UNC-W, and just busy with life in general! But here's something I was chewing on earlier as I sat on the beach around sunset watching the waves crash on the shore...

Been dwelling a lot on community lately. On what dynamic community looks like. Earlier just before hitting the beach, a friend and I went over to Port City Community Church to see if Overflow (a college ministry that meets weekly) was happening. We got there to find a few cars in the parking lot but locked doors and no one in the lobby. We decided to wait because we were 20 minutes early. Three other people showed up and waited with us, all hoping Overflow was happening tonight, but none of us having been for a few weeks to know if it was still happening while classes were out.

Eventually a lady came to the door and let us know that Overflow was off this week but happening again next week. Even though we hadn't been connected for a few weeks we all showed up, knowing Overflow happens on Tuesdays at 7.

That's a dynamic community. We weren't told by friends, reminded by twitter, fb, or email. We were free to come, and came hoping to find it happening and join in. Community fueled by desire, not by reminders of "come out tonight."

So while on the beach I turned to Acts 2:42-47 a passage I could quote you by now as many times I read it at ECU while a part of their CCF. But this time I noticed something new. Instead of seeing what the church did, I finally took notice of the effect.

"Everyone was filled with awe...all the believers were together and had everything in common...every day, they continued to meet together in the temple courts, they ate bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people."

Is your community filled with awe? Are your people together, desiring to come together? Are they sincere? Glad? Captivating the attention of the people around them?

If not, then they need to see what the early church was devoted to. That's the formula to follow.

To the ends of the earth (Iceland?)

Jesus I believe in you
And I would go
To the ends of the earth
To the ends of the earth
For you
Alone are Song of God
And all the world will see
That you are God
That you are God
"To the ends of the earth"-Hillsong

Here at UNC-W CCF has been praying for countries through Operation World. We started a couple of years ago and have currently prayed for every country through Ireland (Began alphabetically). One of the countries we prayed for this past spring really jumped out at me.

Iceland.

It's remote. No one ever thinks about it. The same goes for Greenland, Canada, and Alaska. Remote places so north that they never cross most people's mind, and when they do, they come with the tagline "Why would you want to go there? It's frigid."

And yet I found out there is a great need in Iceland...

Within Iceland, there exists a significant Buddhist population among the Thai,Northeastern people groups. There less than 2% of the population are Christians. Also there exists no complete Bible translation for either groups.

I can't say why God has laid these people on my heart but He has. I can't say whether I'm called to reach them long term, short term, or to help support work there, but this is something I'm beginning to pray about and research. When I consider God's heart for the nations, I cannot ignore the people of Iceland.

I'm starting by researching Iceland's history and culture. While I do that, I'm also going to begin looking for any organizations that are seeking to meet the need there.

I'm not sure where this will take me, or how all this fits in with my heart for college students, but I'm going to be praying to find out.

How does one teach on prayer?

Watching a young child is so fascinating. Do they come into the world with a clean blank slate or already intelligent and already hardwired on some basic levels waiting for their body to catch up? One of the few questions that I recollect from Developmental Psychology 4 years ago, a class that proved almost too much for me. I can't say which is true, but this I know, a small child learns by mimicking others.

Talking, walking, eating, opening a door, all actions that are seen verbally or heard and imitated over time. Learning by doing.

How do you teach someone to pray who has never really prayed before? I would say the same way you teach a child how to talk or walk. You spend lots of time around them in the act of walking and talking or praying.

We have scripture yes, Matthew 6 tells us prayer should be personal, not at all flashy or religious. Luke 11 shows us that the disciples did not understand prayer, they needed to be taught. We learn there too that prayer should not be wordy, drawn out, but sincere, honest, and expressionate. And we see in John that our prayer should be a conversation, sharing our heart and hearing God's heart in reply. Prayer should be listening.

But even still all these teachings can fail to make a connection when the receiver has never grown up around the terminology or seen prayer as habitual.

I find then that prayer must be taught by example. This spring I've been drawn together with a student here at UNC-W who not very long ago encountered God and decided to pledge his life. As I'm guiding him through scripture and showing him the way, I've also been modeling prayer.

I started by praying with him as often as possible, allowing him to hear my prayers, to see prayer as a habit for me. Then I slowly began to ask him to pray. First as we were alone, then later in public before our meal. I've asked him to pray in group settings, all this of which he first approached nervously and with a "not sure what I'm doing but ok I'll give it a try" mindset.

He's made progress. He's growing more comfortable with praying in public and is beginning to volunteer to pray for others. We're still just beginning with everything it means to follow Christ, but one thing is clear to me which I have learned in this. The Way can only be taught so much, but really, it must be shown through our actions and how we live our lives.