Stretched
Posted on April 19, 2008
Filed Under Jesus, faith, growing in God, leadership | Leave a Comment
I’m still here. I’m working on a project that is almost done. After next weekend, the year of myself that I gave away for this project will be over and it will be time to hand the reigns over to someone else. I expect to have more time on my hands after that. Many things and people in my life have been relegated to “after the project.” But it’s been worth it, I think. I’ll know more after next weekend. I do know that in this process, I am being grown in such a way that it will take a long time afterward for me to process it all. I am finding out who I am, who I was, and who I was always meant to be. And no, this isn’t about “full time ministry” because I’ve already been doing that, as all believers do. I don’t have an itch that needs to be scratched there. My itch is to know the fullness of Jesus that Dad gave me, all the fullness of deity that is in Jesus, and He that has been given to me.
Spirit time with friends
Posted on April 6, 2008
Filed Under Church, Jesus, fellowship, freedom, paradigms, spirit | 2 Comments
We had a great time this morning. We spent almost three hours at Starbucks chatting with a couple that we met online. They’re on a similar journey to ours, and it’s so nourishing to sit with people who are on the same wavelength and talk about Jesus, Church, work, fishing, alligators, Jesus, legalism, Jesus, kids, crazy “praise “songs you can’t believe you used to sing with such gusto (don’t be stingy, don’t be tight???**), having babies, being pastors in our environment, giving money to homeless people you know are lying to you, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. And we learned from each other. We don’t have another meeting time scheduled but we’ll get together again soon. Our time together might be only for a while because our friends are thinking about moving out West soon to be near family. That would be sad, but it would be OK because we trust Father. It’s not up to us. That almost three hour time period went by so quickly, and we could have sat there for a few more hours. It was great. Thanks, Papa, for putting people on our path for a time to share this life in you.
**from the Ron Kenoly song “Give to the Lord.”
God-breathed
Posted on April 4, 2008
Filed Under bible, paradigms | 2 Comments
Welcome to a peek inside the mind of Tina.
I was thinking about God-breathed last night and I realized that while Scripture is God-breathed, so is man. Totally cool. Here’s a Scripture reference for you: Genesis 2:7. God breathed into Adam’s nostrils. Adam is God-breathed. Scripture is God-breathed. Many questions born of this:
What is Scripture? ……………………………………….
What was scripture when Paul said all scripture is God-breathed? …………………………………………….
Did Paul say that scripture is God-breathed and infallible?……………………………………………….
Did Paul say that scripture is God-breathed and divine?……………………………………
Does Scripture call itself infallible and divine?……………………………………….
Is it interesting that Paul didn’t say the “Word of God” but “Scripture” here?……………………….
Is Adam God-breathed? ……………………………………………………….
Was Adam infallible? …………………………………………………….
Because something is God-breathed does that make it divine and infallible by default?………………………………….
An open letter to a friend
Posted on April 3, 2008
Filed Under Church, Jesus, bible, dying to self, faith, family, freedom, ideals, little "c" church, paradigms, struggling with sin, systems | 4 Comments
My good friend submitted a comment on my post entitled “God.” I thought he raised some good questions, so I decided to make my reply a post where everyone could see it — perhaps there are others with similar thoughts and questions about my post and my intentions.
Tina, are you trying to engage conversation or controversy?
I see your over all concept idea of idolatry, but prejuduces, woundings, and crusades can be idols as well.
If the Bible is not divine or our final athority (or God-breathed) do we go to YOU for your emotional empressions of what God is saying at the moment. Or are we left with the maddness of the people in the time of the Book of Judges where people did “that which was right in their own eyes?”
How do we even understand what a relationship with Jesus is like if you have denied me the divinity and authority of the Bible? That is the only source I have which tells me what he was like and what he said. “If you want to know what my father is like, look at me.”
True….we do not worship translations…but His Word is truth and is a light unto my path and living water to my soul.
True….communinion is not divine…but is a wonderful gift of grace, a remainder how much he loves me, that he was willing to accept my rebellion, pride, hurts, fear, and pride to save the person I would become.
True….the church is not final authority…but hidden within the organization it has become is the Bride of Christ he is purifying and preparing to present to his Father. I REFUSE to forsake even ONE member of her just because she seems surrounded by inempt and frustrating rules and regulations. If she needs encouragement, that is why Christ has not taken me home; not to rail but to restore.
As a member of the clergy, if my fellow ministers have wounded you or you family, I want to to be the one to assume the responsiblity of asking your forgiveness. Too long we have wounded with our demandes and regations.
Hey Dave,
First of all, I love you a lot, bro.
I see I have struck a somewhat dissonant note here for you. Thanks for giving me an opportunity to explain, clarify, etc.
I guess I tend to engender controversy. It’s not intentional. But it does happen. I don’t shy away from it most of the time, but neither do I intentionally court it because honestly, my life would be a LOT easier if this controversy didn’t happen.
You seem to be saying (and correct me if I am wrong) that I have prejudices, woundings, and at least one crusade, and my interpretation of your statement is that these are the motivation for the things I have written in this post. Am I correct? For the purposes of this reply I will assume for now that I am correct.
So, if I am honest, yes, I do have prejudices - I think we all do. Prejudices are kind of nebulous usually and hard to nail down so I’m really not sure what prejudices I may be motivated by on a daily basis. I think prejudices are based in fear of the unknown, though, and don’t think I have many unknowns when it comes to the institution.
I have been wounded by many many things in my life, not the least of which is the institution. I think it is fair enough to say that all of us either have been or will be. But this was long ago in my past - probably about 10 years ago now, and while I was very, very angry at the time and allowed my anger and bitterness to put a wedge between me and Papa, this is no longer the case. I made my peace with the institution and even embraced it, for years. Some of my best friends are clergy. I am not angry or wounded any longer by anything the institution does - if I am angry it is only for the big picture injustice of the entire system and how it feeds on people, including clergy, to sustain itself.
Dave, I guess I’d take your comments about the Bible and turn them around: How in God’s name can we say that the Bible is the final authority and not Jesus himself? We have replaced Jesus with the Bible. Is Scripture inspired? Of course it is! Is it the most inspired piece of Christian literature that exists? I would probably have to say yes to that! Is it the fourth person of the Godhead? NO! Is it even the Word that is mentioned in Scripture? No, I don’t believe so! I believe that Jesus is the Word of God. If we believe that the Word of God is actually Scripture, then when John wrote that the Word was God … well nevermind because I think we have actually adopted that belief and mindset in evangelical circles that the Bible is God. That’s a problem if you ask me. But don’t ask me, ask Jesus! I’m definitely not the person where the buck stops. Don’t look at me, look at Jesus.
And yes, His Word is truth and a light unto my path: his Word is JESUS, not a book. Even the book points us to Jesus and not to itself. But we only go to the book and then stop there, thinking that’s enough and it’s not.
Communion is a great reminder of God’s grace, I don’t think we disagree there. My beef is more with the Catholic idea that communion is the actual body and blood of Jesus, which renders it God.
In protestant churches, the Word of God must be cloistered and guarded by professional clergy, just as in the Catholic church, the Eucharist must be cloistered and guarded by professional clergy, because we have given these inanimate objects a divinity that they should not have.
And regarding the Church, which is the actual bride, she is not hidden inside the institution, David, but throughout the entire world. The institution does not envelop the bride because she must and shall go free. Are there some members of the bride who move inside those institutions? Yes. Does walking free of the institution mean one is forsaking anyone? No, it does not. If I am a part of the true Body, I cannot forsake it because I AM a member of it. If you, as a member of the Body, choose to move within the system but remain separate from it because that is what Papa has told you to do, then do it with all your might. If I, as a member of the Body, choose to go out to the wilderness with Jesus on my arm because I heard him calling me out to it, then I will do it and proclaim it with all my might.
I think there are good-hearted people who believe, mistakenly, that being “of” the system is the best way to follow God. Do I condemn those people? Of course not! The couple who runs the last institutional church we were a part of are still our friends, we just saw them the other day and had a blast hanging out. The wife is asking us to come back to the small group we were part of where we had such great friendships and dug into Truth. We kind of chuckled because if we went back to that group that met in a friend’s home, there’s no way we could keep quiet about our views on the institution. Butwe are all on a journey and none of us has the ultimate and final solution except to the extent that we have Jesus. Isn’t it interesting that when we boil away everything that truly isn’t necessary, we are left with Jesus. That’s all I was saying in the post. That was my heart that I was sharing. Thanks for giving me the opportunity once again to share it more fully.
With much sisterly affection,
Tina
Walking simple and free
Posted on April 3, 2008
Filed Under Church, Jesus, bible, dying to self, faith, freedom, paradigms, spirit, struggling with sin, systems | 5 Comments
I shouldn’t be writing on my blog today, I have a lot to do. But I just wanted to share about simple living and how counter-cultural that is. Jesus just wanted us to live this day and not worry about tomorrow. A book I recently read, the one with the provocative title that you would love anyway, (warning: PDF file) talks about trusting Jesus: don’t you have what you need to make it through today? Why worry about the future?
Trusting God means not needing a person or thing in my life in order to make God more real to me. That’s not to say that Father doesn’t sometimes give us people or things when it seems good to him. I need to realize however, that if he hasn’t given me something then I don’t need it. That’s a faith journey.
I don’t need fellowship or money or retirement funds or insurance or a job or religious icons or “spiritual covering” (what the heck is that) or meetings or preaching of God’s word, or somewhere to lay my head even. All I need is him. Simple and free. Daily bread.
My friend Jim read the book whose title shall not be mentioned (warning: PDF file) and it really had an impact on him. Isn’t that cool? Maybe you want to read it too.
God
Posted on April 2, 2008
Filed Under Jesus, bible, little "c" church, paradigms | 5 Comments
The Bible isn’t God. Communion isn’t God. Church isn’t God. I am not God.
The Bible is not divine. Communion is not divine. Church is not divine. I am not divine.
The Bible is not the final authority. Communion is not the final authority. Church is not the final authority. I am not the final authority.
God is God. He is divine. He is the final authority. He lives in me and I in him.
Anything other arrangement is idolatry.
Scripture references?
Posted on March 27, 2008
Filed Under bible | 10 Comments
I’ve been thinking about the idea that talks, or sermons, or other kinds of verbal instruction or encouragement, need to be peppered with actual Scripture references, as in the book, chapter, and verse numbers. I don’t agree with this idea. I think sometimes people go crazy inserting these references until all I’m hearing is a bunch of numbers instead of God’s truth presented uniquely through one of his children. This might sound snarky, but if all someone is going to do is quote the Bible, or worse yet, just give a list of references, I might as well stay home and just read it for myself.
I wonder what others think (that would be you) about that. I will be giving a talk soon that focuses on God’s truth. It never really occurred to me to insert Scripture references or quote Scripture directly. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of Scripture in it, it’s just mostly my paraphrase. When I asked for feedback, one of the (anonymous) comments most frequently given was that there needed to be more Scripture references in it. I’m not a big fan of pulling out a verse here and a verse there to prove my point - I honestly prefer to take Scripture as a whole as I discern the character and nature of Jesus, and I think it is more important that Jesus is in my teaching than Scripture references. Maybe there is a great reason for putting in Scripture references, though, and I am missing it.
So what do you think, do you need Scripture references in your teachings, or is truth just truth?
the flow of significance
Posted on March 26, 2008
Filed Under Jesus, dying to self, faith, fellowship, leadership, struggling with sin | 3 Comments
We are significant because we are created in the image of God, by God. But we get that all wrong because our beliefs are wrong. We search our environments for affirmation of our significance (or lack thereof), and when we find it, we turn to God and offer the evidence to him as proof that he should either accept us or reject us.
I have been successful, therefore God accepts me.
I have been a failure, therefore God should reject me and if he doesn’t, he’s probably going to any day now because I’m just going to keep screwing it up.
Or worse, I have been successful today, therefore I am loved. Tomorrow I will fail and therefore I will be hated.
I thought this was not a struggle of mine until I was recruited to deliver the concept and the message to a group of about 100 women over the course of about three months. Now that I am in the midst of “teaching” this concept, I have discovered how much I have to learn about it. Funny (ha ha) how God works sometimes. It’s not like this message was even forced on me. It was completely up to me what the “theme” of this teaching would be. I selected Significance because I discerned that it was something many people struggle with.
What I have found is that I struggle profoundly with it and I didn’t even realize. But through some life events that have illustrated to me so very clearly that I have found my significance, in large part, through my role as a mother, I have become a living example of that struggle to those 100 or so women, and I will continue to live out this struggle and this journey of discovery right in front of them for another month or so, culminating in a weekend event of intimate Christian community where we will share this teaching with 36 more women.
It is so humiliating to be placed in a leadership role and find that your role is really to be transparent and vulnerable as you lead. But what else should I have expected to be asked to do by my brother Jesus? It’s rather disturbing to think that I actually expected to lead from an “I’ve arrived” perspective. I should have known better. Leaders are simply those who are willing to take the first step in becoming better followers of Jesus. Willing to be the first to take up the cross and die to self, willing to serve first, willing to be broken first, willing to be watched by a Christian community as the Potter shapes and reshapes.
I can’t even really claim credit for being willing. I feel like I was drafted. At least I’m willing not to go AWOL, yet.
Psalm 8 speaks of this flow of significance, which is from God, through me, and to the world:
1 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory
above the heavens.
2 From the lips of children and infants
you have ordained praise [b]
because of your enemies,
to silence the foe and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens,
the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,
which you have set in place,
4 what is man that you are mindful of him,
the son of man that you care for him?
5 You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings [c]
and crowned him with glory and honor.
6 You made him ruler over the works of your hands;
you put everything under his feet:
7 all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,
8 the birds of the air,
and the fish of the sea,
all that swim the paths of the seas.
9 O LORD, our Lord,
how majestic is your name in all the earth!
And William P. Young speaks richly to this idea of our significance in his book, The Shack:
“The truth is this: “Significance originates from ‘being’, not from doing.” Doing adds nothing to our significance and doing takes nothing away. Doing is directly related, not to significance, but is largely an expression of who we think we are. “As a person thinks in their heart, so are they (so they will act).” Because we are already significant, our choices and actions matter. It is not the choices that make us significant, it is our significance that make our choices meaningful. Every human being is significant by nature. They are imprinted with the very image of God, they are each the center of God’s love and goodness. True significance is individually wrapped up in the uniqueness of each person and each one being created in the image of God, regardless of what Madison Ave says, or how an individual may be damaged or broken. “
There is really only one way we can identify ourselves, and that is by our status as children of God. There is nothing else that can remain, in the end. Everything else that we might draw some significance from can be taken away. Motherhood, accomplishment, power, fame, intelligence, health, wealth, relationships, beauty, youth, age, wisdom, whatever. It all goes away, it is all shifting sand. This is my lesson to learn, and I’m not sure how that’s going to happen because I am one of those damaged and I fear, permanently broken individuals. All I can do is submit myself to Jesus, and like Paul, say “follow me as I follow the Lord.”
Scapegoat
Posted on March 21, 2008
Filed Under Jesus, dying to self, struggling with sin | 2 Comments
Sometimes I think I just have to have someone to be mad at. A scapegoat, if you will, even though the scapegoat is supposed to be innocent.
Leviticus 16:20 “When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. 21 He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites—all their sins—and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. 22 The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert.
Seems like when I finally am able to forgive someone for some offense, the grudge floats off and finds another host, another scapegoat. If I stop being angry with myself, sure enough, I’ll find myself pissed off at someone else for something stupid. If I am ready to mend fences with my family member, I find resentment leaking into other areas of my life.
What is this?
Some say that the scapegoat is a shadow of Jesus, that he became the scapegoat for our sins.
I think I have unfinished business at the cross.
Corporate personhood
Posted on March 21, 2008
Filed Under little "c" church, systems | 4 Comments
I am a capitalist. Like other economic or political systems, capitalism relies on the basic morality of man. Without the constraints of conscience, capitalism becomes like any other tried but fallen system. Some people might say that there is no system that can last, outside of the Kingdom of God, which is God as our king and no one or nothing else. This is what God has always wanted, and this is what man is still trying to avoid, even all those evangelicals who think their only king is God.
Anyway, capitalism works pretty good when you have basically moral, honest people, taking personal responsibility for their actions, in a free market. People who are ruled by conscience first. Conscience is one of those purely human motivations to do good. Animals don’t have this quality. Computers don’t have it. Things don’t have it. Only human beings have conscience. One might say it is the law written on the heart. Unless a person is an amoral sociopath, or not really a person at all, he has this law of conscience written on his heart.
And that’s where corporations come in. According to Wikipedia, a corporation is “a legal entity (technically, a juristic person) which has a legal personality distinct from those of its members.” Chillingly, this legal personality has the ability to act as a person in matters of contracts, lawsuits, or property ownership. When I was in business school, my professor taught me that it is always feasible to create a corporation in order to remove personal responsibility from myself and place it onto the corporation. Sounded good to me at the time. We like to avoid personal responsibility, don’t we?
But anytime we are able to shrug off personal responsibility, either for our actions or for decisions that affect other people, well, I just believe that opens the door for pure evil. A nonperson, acting as a person in making decisions about the lives of people, means that no one has to bear the guilt of mistreating people or acting unethically - we can simply point our finger at the “corporate person.”
Over the years, corporations have garnered more and more “rights” because of their personhood.
And of course, our local churches are government sanctioned 501c3 corporations with this same zombie-like personhood bestowed on them, that allows men and women to take a pass on their personal responsibility.
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