almost forgot this was here

I linked back to my own blog from my profile on the Real Live Preacher site. I had almost forgotten that it was even here!

I guess I’m not even an accidental pastor now. The little group that had been meeting since about 1999 has just about died. We haven’t been able to get together for months. And to be honest, I haven’t put a lot of energy into either. We had really just turned into a social group which is exactly what I didn’t want to happen. I had hoped we would grow deeper and become more committed to consciously becoming apprentices of Jesus, but it didn’t happen.

so I might come back to blogging, but probably not. Not that it matters to anybody.

 

yeah, I’m still alive

and still a bad blogger.

I guess I haven’t found my voice or my audience yet. I just aint got nuttin to say to nobody.

so there.

 

so what about prayer?

Thursday, as we were waiting for the pizza to arrive, a few of us started a discussion about prayer. J’s brother is struggling with job and identity issues and J’s mom asked her to ask us to pray for him. J got to thinking, does having more people praying mean that God is more likely to answer the prayer? What if nobody prays, does that mean God won’t do anything?

Wow.

Just what is prayer anyway? What difference does it make? Isn’t God going to do what God is going to do whether we ask him or not? Doesn’t God already know what J’s brother needs – why do we need to tell Him?

I think this points out a very common idea and perhaps misconception about prayer. We pray in order to get God to do something in the world – to give us something. Even when we’re praying for others, I think we’re still wanting God to do it for us. And maybe at times that’s a valid prayer.

But the problem with that kind of prayer is that it demonstrates a very limited and even selfish view of God. When that’s the extent of our prayer life I think we’re missing out on a lot of the good things of God.  Ideally, prayer – even “asking” kinds of prayers – should grow out of a more or less consistent, if not constant, conversation with God. Prayer is more about developing a relationship with God, learning to recognize his voice, understanding how he works in the world and then moving in concert with that. Then we can know how and what to ask.

Now that doesn’t mean that prayer is always polite! Philip Yancey has a new book on prayer that I’m looking forward to reading. Here’s a link to an excerpt on the Christianity Today site: Grappling With God

I like this quote:

“Prayer in its highest form and grandest success assumes the attitude of a wrestler with God,” concluded E. M. Bounds, who wrote eight books on prayer. Our no-holds-barred outbursts hardly threaten God, and sometimes they even seem to change him.

I think it fine to ask God to help us and our friends – just don’t stop there. Really dig in. Lay it all out – but be sure to listen too! I’ve heard it said that prayer doesn’t change God so much as it changes the pray-er.

I think we’ll spend some time with this in the upcoming weeks.

 

 

Bad blogger! Bad!

Ok, so I start a blog, write 2 posts and disappear. I guess I thought I had more to say.

 It’s hard for me to write without some audience in mind. Since I don’t know that anybody actually reads this thing, I don’t have much motivation to write. But then, out of the blue, I get a notice in my email that somebody I don’t even know posted a comment about one of my posts! Wow! I’ve been read! So now I have to write something else to keep them coming back!

 Only I still don’t have anything to say.

Oh, our little community is still chugging along, with all the normal ups, downs and minor dramas.  We’ve had some interesting discussions about faith and stuff. I just haven’ taken the time to really think deeply about it, much less write about it.

So, if you’ve managed to somehow find your way here – I don’t have anythning for you right now.

But do come back by sometime, I might have come up with something by then!

 Oh – and if there’s something you’d like to me to talk about or something you’d like to know, just ask!

Pax!

 

Practical holiness?

Had a really good discussion at the Thursday meeting. We were talking about obedience and I asked people how they reacted to these words: authority, submission, obedience and holiness.

The one that really got me thinking was holiness. I think we’ve got a really screwed up idea of what holiness is. We think that it’s something that is utterly unatainable in this life, except for some super-saints like Mother Teresa. We should strive for holiness, but hey we’re just human right?

Holiness gets all wrapped up with “holier than thou” and self-righteousness and piousness. The risk is we’ll focus too much on behavior and wind up like the Pharisees. But doesn’t the Bible call us to holiness? Aren’t we supposed to guard our thoughts and behavior? How do we do that without falling into the pride trap? After all, isn’t holiness one of those things that, “if you think you is, you ain’t?”

Here’s some rambles on “practical” holiness. These are not fully formed, thought through, well polished positions. They’re more like stuff I’m throwing against the wall to see if any of them stick:

Guarding our thoughts and our actions may be one of the most important disciplines we can develop. It’s sooo easy to fall into sniping and griping about others rather than extending them grace. Like any discipline it takes practice, because the cultural habits are so deeply ingrained. But it’s a step.

Other of the classic disciplines like regular prayer, scripture reading, fasting, etc. can also move us toward holiness. See Dallas Willard and Richard Foster for more.

Serving others invisibly. In other words, not just going down to the soup kitchen with our Sunday school class, or going on a mission trip to repair storm damaged houses in Louisiana (not that there’s anything at all wrong with those!). What I mean is serving with no expectation or intention of any sort of recognition at all. Not even a thank you. Serving because we are called to serve in Jesus’ name.

What holiness is NOT:

• avoiding movies, dancing, drinking, cussing, picking your nose or passing gas
• being at church every time the door is open
• carrying your bible everywhere and mentioning God in every other sentence
• voting Republican
• voting Democrat
• voting

What it comes down to for me is where I started. Holiness = obedience to God. It ain’t easy, it sure ain’t what the culture says do, but that what’s at the core.

Start by living the Sermon on the Mount. Once you get that down, you’ll be well on your way!

 

here we go…

I’m not really a pastor. 

At least not in the sense of being ordained, or having a seminary degree, or being on staff at a church. 

I’m just a regular cubicle-dwelling office worker. 

But… 

Over the past 6 or 7 years, God has assembled this little group of people who are trying to figure out what it means to be followers of Jesus in our world.  

And somehow I wound up as the “leader.” 

We’re not a church as most people would define it, although we do some “churchy” things. We meet in my house on Thursdays for dinner, bible study, worship and prayer.  

At least that’s what we tell ourselves. 

We mostly laugh and eat and cut up and eat and talk a little about the bible and eat and laugh and pray for each other and laugh and have a snack. 

Did I mention that we eat? 

It’s been my job to try and structure our meetings and lead the study time. 

Have you ever heard the expression, “like herding cats”? Herding cats is a piece of cake compared to leading this group.  

Our inside joke is that we took a year to study the book of Matthew. Not that it was such and in-depth theological study. It’s just that by the time we got around to it, we were only able to talk about a couple of verses at a time. 

Don’t get me wrong, we’re not just a social group. We do have some really deep discussions about the things of God.  

And we really do love each other. 

I don’t know what shape this blog will take, any more than I know what shape the group will take. I’m just going to open my brain and see what spills out. 

Hope it’s not too messy. 

But then again, life is messy. 

Welcome to the mess.