Praying to a Non-physical God (PrayerLife)

Sleeping Bear Dunes, Michigan

Physicalism is the belief that all facts are physical facts. Most intellectual atheists are physicalists. 

Physicalism has its problems. It is unable to account for consciousness and free will. On physicalism, free will does not exist, which I find absurd. (See, e.g., J.P. Moreland's critique of physicalism here, and here.) 

Not all atheists are physicalists. See, for example, NYU philosopher Thomas Nagel's Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False. Nagel's point regarding consciousness is that a physicalist (materialist) view of the natural world does not only not account for consciousness, but positively excludes consciousness. Nagel sums his book up by saying that the physical sciences, as wonderful as they are, cannot - even in principle - "provide the basis for an explanation of the mental aspects of reality as well — that physics can aspire finally to be a theory of everything."

I believe (and reason) that non-physical realities (like consciousness and free will) exist. Among them include God. God is an immaterial, therefore non-physical, Being. This has implications, and affects how I pray.

I am made in God's image. There are things about me that are God-like. John Calvin, at the beginning of his Institutes of the Christian Religion, wrote:

"No man can survey himself without forthwith turning his thoughts 
towards the God in whom he lives and moves; 
because it is perfectly obvious, 
that the endowments which we possess 
cannot possibly be from ourselves."

(Quoted in J.P. Moreland, The Recalcitrant Imago Dei: Human Persons and the Failure of Naturalism, 4)

I have a soul, a mind, consciousness, and free will. I am not a purely physical thing. In this sense I am like God. This is the point of contact between me and God. Just as God transcends physical reality, so do I. When I pray, I do so as an image-bearer. This is where I stand in relation to God. Moreland writes: "An entity can stand in certain relations and not others depending on the sort of thing it is." (Ib.)

I, and you, and all human beings, are a certain sort of thing that is inherently non-physical. "I" cannot be reduced to mere matter. When I pray, my non-physical spirit interacts with Non-physical God. God is not limited by physical constraints, therefore neither am I (think of Paul, praying while in prison chains). 

God is present to me now as I pray. 

***
See also:

Praying to an Everlasting God (Prayer Summer 2014)

Praying to an All-Loving God (Prayer Summer 2014)

Praying To An All-Knowing God (PrayerLife)

Praying To An All-Powerful God (PrayerLife)

R81

My new bumper sticker - Romans 8:1 (Thank you L.A.!).

Persona in Absentia (PrayerLife)

Monroe

As much as I desire to meet alone with God and pray, God desires to meet with me like a loving parent longs to connect with their children. Henri Nouwen writes: 

"God wants us more than we want God."
- Henri Nouwen, The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life, 30

Who wants to be heard the most - us or God? The answer is: God.

Who grieves more over our lack of praying - us or God? Answer: God.

Nouwen quotes Anthony Bloom:

"We complain that God does not make Himself present to us for the few minutes we reserve for Him, but what about the twenty-three-and-a-half hours during which God may be knocking at our door and we answer ‘I am busy, I am sorry.’ Or when we do not answer at all because we do not hear the knock at the door of our heart, of our mind, of our conscience. So there is a situation in which we have no right to complain of the absence of God, because we are a great deal more absent than He ever is.” (In Ib.)

Whenever there is an "in absentia" situation, it is us, and not God. God is never absent.

I am going to take time today and go to a quiet place, just me and God. We will meet together. God's gladness will far surpass mine. 

Emphasize Things Deserving of Attention

Yellow Springs, Ohio

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, 

whatever is true, 

whatever is noble, 

whatever is right, 

whatever is pure, 

whatever is lovely, 

whatever is admirable

—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy

—think about such things.

Philippians 4:8

A good teacher will instruct their students on what they need to understand so as to improve. As a guitar teacher I taught students how to play better. Too much emphasis on what can go wrong can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Henri Nouwen writes:

"What is finally important is not that we overcome death but that we celebrate life. I have found that total concentration on fighting the forces of destruction is dangerous and can be very damaging." (Nouwen, The Road to Peace, 40)

This is not the old "power of positive thinking" thing, or some shallow "Eckhart Tolle" (not his real name) myth. It is, however, to acknowledge that what we think about matters to our spiritual well-being. Make your focus on what is right, not on what is wrong. Acknowledge wrong, but major on right. 

Nouwen continues:

"When I allow my mind and heart to experience what a nuclear holocaust can do to our planet, it often seems that a deep darkness starts to surround me and pull me into a pit of depression and despair. When I try to confront the powers of death that already have a hold on me, I often feel so powerless that I lose contact with the very source of my own life. How easy it is to become a victim of the very forces I am fighting against! When all my attention goes to protesting death, death itself may end up receiving ore attention than it deserves. Thus my struggle against the dark forces of death becomes the arena of my own seduction." (Ib.)

Instead of paying attention to the prince of darkness, focus on the Lord of light.

See beauty, not ashes.

Emphasize excellence, not failure.

Rejoice in truth, not falsehood.

Redeemer Coming Events

THIS SUNDAY (April 26) AT REDEEMER:

Morning worship service - I'll preach out of Revelation 2:12-17  - on loyalty to Jesus in the midst of persecution, on "no compromising," on the "hidden manna" and the meaning of the "white stone."

Relationships class - 6 PM - "What to Do When Friends Fail."

SUNDAY MORNING, MAY 3

Morning worship service - I'll preach out of Rev. 2:18-28 (the "Jezebel spirit"); + we'll celebrate the Lord's Table.

After the service we'll:

1. Break ground for our new building extension. Bring spades or shovels and we'll do this together, simultaneously. Kids too!
2. Have our spring church picnic, followed by
3. Our Annual Softball Game.

Prayer as Allowing God Access To the Deep Self (PrayerLife)

Linda and I in Brasilia, Brazil

I read Henri Nouwen because he was connected to God. He prayed, actually. Nouwen is a very good theoretician, but theory without experience means nothing. Nouwen didn't theorize about prayer, he actually prayed. 

This is good because experience, not theory, breeds conviction. Nouwen is the kind of person I need to hear from; viz., someone who does original research in the life of prayer. Someone who knows God, allows God access to the depths of their being, and can guide me to that beautiful place.

Out of his deep prayer life Nouwen theorizes. First pray; second theorize about the prayer life. Nouwen reflects biblically, theologically, and psychologically on his experience with God, especially in times of praying. Because he actually prays his theories on praying are worth listening to.

Nouwen saw prayer as a whole-being experience. He writes:

 "Prayer is the bridge between my unconscious and conscious life. Prayer connects my mind with my heart, my will with my passions, my brain with my belly. Prayer is the way to let the life-giving Spirit of God penetrate all the corners of my being. Prayer is the divine instrument of my wholeness, unity, and inner peace." 

- Nouwen: The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life, 35-36

Let Your Words Come Out of Your Silence

Where there are many words, transgression is unavoidable.

But he who restrains his lips is wise.

Proverbs 10:19

Ralph Cramden of "The Honeymooners" had an unfiltered mouth. He could not keep the irritation in his mind from cascading like a waterfall out of his troubled self. He would open wide and say words he would often later regret. Afterwards Ralph would open his mouth again and confess "Me and my biiiiiig mouth!"

I've done the same, hopefully not as much as Ralph. One time I opened my mouth in a sermon and said a sentence that I wish I could take back. The next Sunday morning I asked my church family to forgive me for that. I've also done this with people I love, and confessed it with sadness.

After quoting Proverbs 10:19 Ruth Haley Barton writes:

"This is a truth that could drive leaders to despair, given the incessant flow of words from our mouths, pens and computers. Those of us who deal in words are at great risk of misusing words and even sinning with our words due to the sheer volume of them. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I can literally feel—deep in my bones—that if I do not shut my mouth for a while I will get myself in trouble, because my words will be completely disconnected from the reality of God in my life." (Barton, Ruth Haley. Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry, p. 124)

In silence before God I shut my mouth. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that "right speech comes out of silence, and right silence comes out of speech." (Quoted in Ib.) "Silence," writes Barton, "is the only cure for this desperate situation."

In my silent times before God he heals my troubled soul. He takes the edge off me. He calms the turbulent waters. He strips away dis-ease and restores my sanity. He grows self-control in me and empowers me to shut my mouth. The psalmist writes:

When you are disturbed, do not sin;

ponder it on your beds,

and be silent.

Psalm 4:4

When it comes to fixing people there is a time to be quiet and put your trust in the Lord. (Ps. 4:5)

"There are times when the most heroic thing a leader can do is to remain in that private place with God for as long as it takes to keep from sinning. In silence we consciously trust ourselves to God rather than following our human impulses to fix, control or put people in their place." (Ib., p. 125)

Liberal Morality Is Not Rooted in Atheism or Science, but in Jewish and Christian Theism

Detroit

One of my favorite atheists is John Gray. His book The Silence of Animals was one I recommended to others. He is an excellent writer, and has got a lot of things right. One thing he consistently gets right is the logic of atheism; viz., the ramifications assuming there is no God. He is brilliantly critical of other atheists, especially missionary atheists like Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris. And, he is funny. If you claim to be an atheist (which, in my experience, does not entail you actually are an atheist), you should read something like Gray's recent essay "What Scares the New Atheists." 

Gray knows what Nietzsche knew but the likes of Harris, for some reason, cannot fathom; viz., that you can't derive "ought" from "is." Gray writes:

"It’s probably just as well that the current generation of atheists seems to know so little of the longer history of atheist movements. When they assert that science can bridge fact and value, they overlook the many incompatible value-systems that have been defended in this way. There is no more reason to think science can determine human values today than there was at the time of Haeckel or Huxley. None of the divergent values that atheists have from time to time promoted has any essential connection with atheism, or with science. How could any increase in scientific knowledge validate values such as human equality and personal autonomy? The source of these values is not science. In fact, as the most widely-read atheist thinker of all time argued, these quintessential liberal values have their origins in monotheism."

And just who might that atheist thinker be? It's none other than Nietzsche, who understood atheism while remaining largely misunderstood even today. Gray writes: "The reason Nietzsche has been excluded from the mainstream of contemporary atheist thinking is that he exposed the problem atheism has with morality." Nietzsche, Gray, and the likes of Georges Bataille understood that "when monotheism has been left behind morality can’t go on as before. Among other things, the universal claims of liberal morality become highly questionable." 

This is because (now pay attention to this) "Nietzsche was clear that the chief sources of liberalism were in Jewish and Christian theism: that is why he was so bitterly hostile to these religions. He was an atheist in large part because he rejected liberal values." 

Can a liberal morality be embraced without God? Not at all. "The trouble is that it’s hard to make any sense of the idea of a universal morality without invoking an understanding of what it is to be human that has been borrowed from theism. The belief that the human species is a moral agent struggling to realise its inherent possibilities – the narrative of redemption that sustains secular humanists everywhere – is a hollowed-out version of a theistic myth. The idea that the human species is striving to achieve any purpose or goal – a universal state of freedom or justice, say – presupposes a pre-Darwinian, teleological way of thinking that has no place in science."

Now that is some beautiful reasoning. Anyone who wants to overcome the abyss of relativism (and nihilism) and have "their values secured by something beyond the capricious human world had better join an old-fashioned religion." Indeed.

Gray has a lot more to say, and says it well. 

Solitary Unbusyness with God

Doors, in Monroe County

Today I've been able to get away and get alone with God. I've prayed for some things, and listened for God's voice. I've written some things down in my journal that are from God, to me. All this restores, renews, and refreshes me. 

I get away often and meet with God. So did Jesus. It was his custom to go alone to meet with the Father. If Jesus needed to do this, who am I not to, since I am one of his followers.And it is so very, very good to do this. It's good for God, for me, for Linda, and for my church family and beyond. Nothing but life and goodness comes from much time spent alone in God's presence.

The simple truth is that God is God, and I am not. Ruth Haley Barton emphasizes the importance of acknowledging this. She writes:

"There are limits to my relational, emotional, mental and spiritual capacities. I am not God. God is the only one who can be all things to all people. God is the only one who can be two places at once. God is the one who never sleeps. I am not. We can’t remind ourselves of this enough. This is pretty basic stuff, but many of us live as though we don’t know it."

My effectiveness for Christ and his kingdom is directly proportional to my solitary unbusyness in relationship with God.

Christ, Not Muhammad, Is the Man of Peace

Monroe Couty

I'm reading William Kilpatrick's Christianity, Islam and Atheism: The Struggle for the Soul of the West. Kilpatrick argues, effectively, that Christianity is the religion of peace, not Islam. There's really no comparison between Christ and Muhammad. He writes:

"The imitation of Christ and the imitation of Muhammad lead a person in very different directions. Even a poor imitation of Christ (which is all most Christians can muster) is preferable to an excellent imitation of Muhammad." No doubt. 

God's Commands are Authoritative Words that Have Illocutionary Force

Monroe County Community College

And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
- Genesis 1:3

When God said "Let there be light" it was not in the sense of "Permit there to be light." Rather, as John Goldingay writes, it was in the sense of "There is to be light" or "There must be light" or "There shall be light." God simply demands like a theater director, "Light!"" (Goldingay, Old Testament Theology: Israel's Gospel, 32) Lke: "Lights! Camera! Action!"

When God says "Light!" that is enough to make it happen. So we read "and there was light." 

Goldingay writes:

"The process involves supreme illogic. There is nowhere the suggestion that somewhere there is a dynamic source of light that can put forth light. In the same way, when God says "The waters are to gather together" or "The earth is to put forth vegetation," there is no implication that waters or earth already have the potential to obey these commands. It is the command that mysteriously generates them, as words can." (Ib., emphasis mine)

Philosopher J.L. Austin, in his philosophically famous book How to Do Things With Words, explained how certain words can do things; that is, certain words, said by people who have authority, have "illocutionary force." In such cases, saying makes it so. 

For example, because I am a pastor recognized by the state of Michigan, when I say the words to a couple "I now pronounce you husband and wife," they are, upon my pronouncement, husband and wife. But should you, assuming you are not a pastor, walk up to a couple on the street and utter the words "I now pronounce you husband and wife," nothing will happen. Your speech act will "do" nothing, except tperhaps get you taken to the hospital. In Austin's language your speek act "misfires" because you lack the authority to do such things with your words.

It was Jesus' claim to perform illocutionary acts with his words that had the religious leaders marveling about his authority. In Mark 9:10, for example, Jesus states that he, the Son of Man, has the authority to forgive sins. Then Jesus tells a paralyzed man, "Get up, take up your mat, and go home." Here Jesus' words do two things: 

1) at his word one's sins are forgiven; and 

2) at his word the paralyzed man is healed.

God said "Let there be light." And light came into existence.

Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
- Matthew 10:1

Because of this God-given authority our words have illocutionary force.

Community Is Where Humility and Glory Touch (PrayerLife)

Experiencing Community in New York City

"Community is where humility and glory touch."

Henri Nouwen

Bread for the Journey: A Daybook of Wisdom and Faith (p. 130)

The Real Jesus called forth a community to dwell in and work through. Not a bunch of isolated, detached individuals. Call this: "church." Ekklesia. 

Ek + kaleo = the called-out-by-Christ people of God.

Effective, Jesus-indwelt community requires individual and corporate humility. Every individual in the totality abandons themselves to the will and ways of God. This is Real Church, and it's a Communal Movement. 

The individual "Christian" who refuses to connect with Church (even though this is their identity) and stands outside Church in criticism is a biblical and theological apostate. People like this choose pride over humility. 

The glory of God refuses to descend on a proud heart. God's glory does fall on the humble. We read:

“God opposes the proud,

    but gives grace to the humble.”

- James 4:6

  

 How very good and pleasant it is

    when kindred live together in unity!

 It is like the precious oil on the head,

    running down upon the beard,

on the beard of Aaron,

    running down over the collar of his robes.

It is like the dew of Hermon,
    which falls on the mountains of Zion.
For there the Lord ordained his blessing,
    life forevermore.

- Psalm 133:1-3

The humble, unified Jesus Community can expect to experience God's...

• blessing
• grace
• glory
• presence
• leading
• power
• love
• fruit
• giftings

Pray for humility, and for your Jesus Community.

We're Alone & Special In the Universe

Gary Larson (the brilliant)

Following Ward and Brownlee's Rare Earth theory, I doubt that intelligent life exists anywhere in the universe outside of earth. Harvard astrophysicist Owen Gingerich and astrobiologist Caleb Sharf suspect the same.

Sharf's new book is The Copernican Complex: Our Cosmic Sigificance in a Universe of Planets and Probablities, and is reviewed by Gingerich here ("Solar Complexus: we may be alone after all"). The "Copernican Principle" comes from Copernicus's discovery that our erth is not at the center of our solar system and, by extension, the universe. This discovery led people to believe that:

1. We occupy an unimportant, mediocre, and unprivileged position in the cosmos; and
2. The universe is teeming with intelligent extraterrestrial life.

Sharf challenges both of these beliefs.

To those enthusaistic about the possibility of extraterrertrial intelligent life Sharf writes: “[O]ne can easily argue that there has never been any data at all on the presence or absence of other life in the cosmos. I don’t want to make this sound too depressing, but it’s true—which is why we’re lucky we’ve discovered beer and chocolate to console ourselves.”

And, Sharf challenges the belief that we and our erth are not really special. He argues that "we are far from occupying an unimportant, mediocre, and unprivileged position in the cosmos. To take but one example, our well-ordered planetary system with the planets nicely spaced and in the same plane seems to be the exception rather than the rule. Quite possibly the moon was formed in a collision between Earth and a Mars-sized planet, which after an era of chaotic confusion, ultimately had a powerful stabilizing effect on our terrestrial system."

Probably, we are alone in the universe. 

Longsuffering as Creative Victimhood

Near Wilberforce, Ohio

Chapter 1 of Lewis Smedes's Love Within Limits is on 1 Corinthians 14: 4, "love suffers long" (aka "love is patient"). This is a beautiful chapter, written for all who have ever suffered and want to know how to suffer well.

Smedes writes: "Love is an uncommon power to cope with common suffering." (1) Everyone suffers. "Suffering is having to endure what we very much want not to endure." (Ib.) When my son David died Linda and I long-suffered. We wanted him with us, and I wanted the grief of his loss to go away, not only from myself, but from Linda. Suffering means "putting up with." This makes "longsuffering" a minor miracle.

Suffering is to be distinguished from longsuffering. "To suffer is to be a victim; to be longsuffering is in a sense to be free." (2) A longsufferer chooses to live indefinitely with what they hate. This is a paradox, says Smedes, and it is what makes longsuffering "a creative art of living." (Ib.) We determine to live with what we do not want and rejoice in it.

"Longsuffering, therefore, is the power to be a creative victim." (3) It is not passive. "It is a tough, active, aggressive style of life." It requires "power of soul." It is not merely "hanging on," but rather "the power of affirming and creating life in the midst of suffering." (Ib.)

The power to do this is the love of God, which is agape-love. "Agapic love is the liberating power that moves us toward our neighbor with no demand for rewards." (Ib.) Such God-love has the power to be "creatively weak." (4)

There are limits to longsuffering. The longsufferer cries out, "Lord, how long?" Maybe forever. Maybe until tomorrow. Maybe yesterday. "But," says Smedes, "suffering long is not the same as suffering endlessly. There come moments when suffering must stop. There are some things we must hate and reject. There are lines to be drawn. The trick is to know when we have reached the moment to draw the line. God himself draws that line." In this we see the tough side of God. Put another way, this is about "boundaries." (See, e.g., Cloud and Townsend)

"Love suffers some things longer than others." For example, marital infidelity causes great suffering. "Agape is the power to suffer the pains of frustrated and rejected and betrayed erotic love - and it is the power to suffer them long. How long? No one can draw the line. But agapic love is by definition a power that moves us toward another person with no demand for reward. The rule of thumb is this: when I turn off suffering for the sake of my pleasure, I turn it off too soon." (6)

Love is the power to suffer evil for a long time. But we are not called to accept the evil; we are not to capitulate to it so as to escape it. We are not to affirm evil, which accepting it would require. We bear with it even while we reject it. "Longsuffering is the work of love giving us the power to suffer, but not to accept, what is unacceptable." (8)

We are not to praise God for evils that assault us and bring suffering. It might sound religious and pious to do so, but "it is false and offensive to God to praise him for evil." (8) God is not the cause of evil. "God is light and in him is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:15). God gets and desires no credit for evil. Evil, such as cancer, is unacceptable. "God does not want us to affirm the work of his enemy." (9)

As we live in Christ and are empowered by his longsuffering, patient love, we are given, by the Spirit, courage. "Courage is the power to resist assaults on our lives - both negatively and positively. In a negative sense courage is the power to be angry at - indeed, to hate - the evil which assaults us. The person with cancer needs courage to hate the disease that is sapping away his life. The person struck by loss of sight needs courage to hate blindness. The woman who has had a mastectomy needs courage to hate the operation. They must not only be angry, they must not only hate, but they must push that anger and hatred to the surface of their lives and shout to the world: "I hate my cancer."" (9)

It is at this moment that love comes in "as the power to suffer long what we desperately want to go away. Love is the courage to love life and be glad for it. Love is the courage to discover that life is not completely tied to the precious goods we have lost or not yet found." (9)

Longsuffering-as-love never suffers for the mere sake of suffering. Smedes says that "love suffers long so that time can be created for redepmtive powers to do their work, so that justice can be fought for without hasty and needless violence, so that healing and reconciliation may be possible. Love suffers long so that the evil suffered can be done away. Love suffers long so that suffering can finally cease. And when love gives us the power to suffer long, love also gives us the power to see reasons for rejoicing while we suffer." (10)

Discipleship & the Holy Spirit Conference

Today I'm going to Pennsylvania to team up with my friend Clay Ford. We will be co-teaching a conference for American Baptist Pastors of Pennsylvania and Delaware. The conference is entitled "Discipleship & the Holy Spirit." Please pray for all of us who will be sharing in this conference.

Conference Schedule

Thursday

11:00 a.m. - Registration Opens

1:00pm – Welcome and worship

1:30pm – Dr. Clay Ford - The Role of the Holy Spirit in the Formation of Disciples

2:30pm – Dr. John Piippo: Leading the Presence Driven Church

3:30pm - 4:30pm - Guided Small Group Exercises

7:00pm to 8:30pm Worship: Dr. Clay Ford

Challenges of Pastoral Ministry: Why We Need to Be Filled with the Holy Spirit

Friday

9:00am Worship

9:30am – noon: Dr. Clay Ford - Essential Leadership Keys for Taking Your Church to the Next Level

Lunch

1:00pm – 4:00pm: Dr. John Piippo - How God Transforms the Human Heart

Free Time

7:00pm to 8:30pm Worship: Dr. John Piippo - Servant Leadership Emerges from the Presence Driven Church

Saturday

(Webinar Opportunities Marked)

9:00am Worship

9:30am - 10:45am: Dr. John Piippo - Hearing the Voice of God: The Distinction between Discernment and Decision-Making (WEBINAR)

10:45am break

11:00am – 12:15: Dr. Clay Ford - God’s Call to Personal Spiritual Awakening (WEBINAR)

12:30 lunch

1:00pm – 2:00pm Workshops

      Clay: The Holy Spirit's Central Role in Making Disciples (WEBINAR)

      John: Prayer and Healing

2:00pm Break

2:15pm – 3:15pm Workshops

      Clay: How To Invite The Presence of God

      John: Prayer and Healing (WEBINAR)

3:20pm – 4:00pm Q&A with Clay and John and others

The Most Beautiful Restoration Song - "Three Beautiful Words"

Here is a great song of restoration. Take it to heart.



"Three Beautiful Words," by Out of the Grey, written by the amazing Charlie Peacock.

Restoration Scene 2: God Is Trying To Tell You Something

Is this scene from "The Color Purple" the most moving restoration scene ever? I cried when the prostitute Shug comes to church where her legalistic alienated father is preaching.



God is trying to tell him something. Something about the Real Jesus he preaches. Something about Real Church.

Restoration Scene #1 - Places In the Heart Final Scene

There are two movies that had the most powerful scenes of Kingdom-family restoration I have ever seen.



One of them is "Places In the Heart." Here is the final scene.

As the elements of communion move from person to person, we see that people in conflict have reconciled, and are together again. 

The man who cheated on her and then left his wife has had a change of heart.

Moze (Danny Glover), the black man who helped the widow save her farm, but who was driven off by the KKK – Moze is back.

We see people who’ve died in the movie reunited with their families.

And we see the widow (Sally Field) served communion by her children. Then she turns to serve her husband, the sheriff, who is killed in the opening scenes of the movie, by accident, by a drunken black teenager showing off with a gun. 

Then the dead sheriff turns and serves communion to the young man, Wylie, who killed him and brought such harm to his family. The last words of the film are spoken by Wylie to the sheriff, very quietly, as he receives communion: Peace of God.

The transcendent beauty of reconciliation and restoration...  

This is heaven, where we find grace and a powerful forgiveness that is so much more scarce in this life here. And as we pray so frequently, may we have that experience of heaven here and now: Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

The Real Church Restores People (PrayerLife)

This car needs restoring - in Monroe County

One of my father's hobbies was woodworking and refinishing. My mother joined him in the refinishing part. I can see them in the basement of our house, stripping away layers of old paint and varnish to reveal the beautiful original wood finish. 

This is called "restoration." It's about stripping away things that have covered up what was there at first. When restoration happens to people it is a beautiful thing. Some of the most heart-moving things I have ever seen are when Christians experience this, return to their first love, and use their gifts and talents to minister to the people of God and beyond. Just this past weekend at Redeemer I heard two testimonies from young men who were drug addicts but got released from that captivity and have been restored to God's family. One of them gave his testimony and then was baptized.

God not only can restore fallen followers of Jesus to fellowship, God's job description includes loving to do this. God is able to restore people; God desires to restore people. God can strip away the false layers that have covered up the heart's real, first love.

The classic restoration story is that of David. To say that David fell away from the heart of God is to understate things. David went after another man's wife (Bathsheba), and then out of fear orchestrated things so that her husband (Uriah) would be killed on the battlefield. David was involved in adultery, lying, and murder. In spite of all of this God eventually restored him and used David to further His purposes.

One of the precious deposits the Lutheran church left in me as a young boy was the singing, liturgically and repetitively, of many of the biblical psalms. Even though they seemed to mean little to me at the time, when I became a Jesus-follower some of them kicked-started my spirit. Psalm 51 was already inside me. The words became very important to me. It's David's song of repentance and cry for restoration.

Create in me a clean heart O God

and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence

and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of your salvation

and uphold me with your Spirit.

Over the years I have sung this song a lot. When I take the Lord's Supper these words are often doing a number on me. I sing them and love them because I have needed restoration, many times. Any follower of Jesus who lets an ounce of evil contaminate their heart needs it stripped away. That, I believe, includes all of us.

Sadly, I am aware of stories where churches cooperate with the enemy and shoot their wounded. This is the Judging, Condemning Church; the Anti-Jesus Church; the Church of Banning and Shunning. 

The Real Church is different. God-as-Redeemer heals wounded warriors, restores the fallen, and in the restoration defeats the enemy. The Real Jesus does not avoid fallen people like they are the plague, he moves towards them. God's people rejoice and cry for joy when they see this happen. And, we who say we love Jesus are to join Jesus in The Restoration Movement.

Thankfully, our fallen failures do not permanently disqualify us for ministry and full life in the kingdom. Otherwise I would dwell outside the city walls among the untouchables. The most beautiful Jesus-followers I have ever met have been lifted out of the quicksands of their failures. God loves to not only restore a person but to do an in-your-face-to-the-enemy by calling them, like he did David, "a man after God's own heart." You can learn a lot about yourself and about the Real Jesus in the process of being stripped away by love.

Restored people are not marked as "adulterer," "liar," or "murderer," but wear the cleansing blood of Christ which declares "I am His child forever!" 

This is the heart of the Gospel. 

So give thanks.

The 7 Churches of Revelation (Smyrna) — Early Christians

At Redeemer we are preaching through the biblical book of Revelation. This Sunday we'll preach out of Rev. 2:8-11 - the letter to the church at Smyrna.



This is an excellent video, narrated by Joseph Stowell ( a very good scholar).

Praying To An All-Powerful God (PrayerLife)

Rose in my kitchen window.

If you believe there is a God who created this universe, then you should easily believe that God is powerful enough to address your struggles.

God is omnipotent. God can do everything that is possible to do. Does this mean that God can create a rock so heavy he can't lift? Or a burrito so hot he can't hold? Or a god more powerful than himself? No. Because these are all logical nonsense questions, variations on this nonsense non-statement: There is an all-powerful being that is not powerful enough to do some things.

The idea that an all-powerful being is not powerful to do some things is a logical contradiction, like "square circle" or "married bachelor." It's not that square circles are hard to find or difficult to conceive. Square circles cannot exist and cannot be conceived (cannot be thought of; i.e., one cannot form a mental image of "square circle" because such a thing is a logical impossibility). It's the same with "limited all-powerful being." 

I sometimes hear a person say "Some people cannot change." Or: "My spouse will never change." But that can't be right, since it is logically possible to change, and God can do all things that are logically possible. To think that some people cannot change or will never change is to tacitly deny the omnipotence of God. If God made a universe out of nothing, then surely God can change a person who is already something. God is powerful enough to make something different out of something. And, God can resurrect the dead.

When you pray you enter into a conversation with an Omnipotent Being Who, BTW, is also Love. 

God is an Almighty, Loving Personal Agent who is more than capable of addressing your struggles, now. Bring them to him, in prayer.

Recovering From an Extramarital Affair

Over the years Linda and I have been privileged to enter into marriages that are reeling from the shock of an adulterous, extramarital affair. When we are approached by a spouse who confides in us "My husband/wife is seeing another person," we are saddened and yet confident that, if this couple wants to, their marriage can be restored. 

Their marriage needs to be and can be be better than it ever was. Such moral earthquakes always take place along a pre-existing fault line. 

Every marriage - mine as well as yours - is either more or less affair-prone. When a marital couple stops investing in the marital relationship, intimacy diminishes. This is dangerous, since diminished marital intimacy (shared privacy; sharing spiritual and emotional life together) is a predictor of adulterous behavior.

When there has been adulterous behavior we recommend a book by Dave Carder - Torn Asunder: Recovering From an Extramarital Affair.