“Anyone who claims to be intimate with God ought to live the same kind of life Jesus lived.”
…the same kind of life Jesus lived. What does that mean? All of it? Certain pieces of it? This could be the next single-focused reading pursuit!
Several months ago Aaron, one of my fellow followers, explained to me a concept he had been developing a Bible study around. The conversation began with my noting the humor of our friend Ray’s synopsis of chick flicks to his wife… it was a very simple and to the point list of three or four things which most every chick flick contained as the marker points of the plot. Aaron’s focus took it a little deeper and definitely was on the more serious side of the same subject. I asked Aaron to send to me a written quote of his point. Here it is:
No matter who you are, where you’re from, or what perspective you have in life, all of us can recognize a common theme emerging in the world. We see it in the stories we love, we see it in history, we see it in our own lives. There is beauty and innocence, interrupted by tragedy and sadness, followed by longing for rescue, and hope for a better day. We love the stories best where a hero comes along to set the world right and bring a new day to pass where we return to that place of beauty and innocence again…changed of course…but back home again. That story is older than the middle ages, the roman empire, or even the Bible. It is the story written on the very heart of God…woven into our lives because we were made in His image.
The other evening I was leisurely riding west on Highway 7 in the Brighton CO area (which if anyone knows the area, they would know I was headed toward the gorgeous mountains) as the sun was setting. I was in awe of the picture God was painting before me. I began to think about how things we see, stuff we experience, literally everything we encounter (at least the natural stuff… laws of gravity, workings of the world, etc.) illustrates the creator who spoke it into being if we will only look for Him in those things. They tell us as much about Him and about His ways as do the words of Scripture and as does the life of His Son. So, God… here’s lookin’ at you!
How do you converse with people whose language you don’t speak? You could always memorize word equivalents and just say stuff in the words they understand. But, having taken a couple of years of German in high school and college I know that’s not going to cut it. That would only emphasize how much of a sore thumb you are as a foreigner in someone else’s country but it will not help you establish a relationship among people from a different country. I learned you must not only know the words, but be able to put them together correctly to even begin to communicate.My daughter is a Spanish major with a linguistics minor in college right now. This summer she will be fulfilling a requirement to graduate; she will be attending a semester of college in a country whose native language is the language of her major. Again, I’ve been told for years you don’t truly become conversant until you live with the folks who natively speak the tongue for a while. Even our idioms cannot be simply translated word for word with the words in the right order.
You may be wondering what all this has to do with “Looking In The Media Mirror” about now. I read a news byte on TechCrunch (a technology blog) today about GodTube, a new video sharing service launched a couple of months ago. Looking at ourselves in the mirror of others describing us can help us understand just how foreign we seem to them.
Check out TechCrunch.com’s perspective on the recently launched GodTube.com and see if anything jumps out at you. What do you see that illustrates a cultural disconnect between where we tend to live as “churched” people and where those who are not “churched” live their lives?
Have you ever read one of those stories that’s so amazing you just have to believe it. I just finished reading Dwight Robertson’s Plan A. And There Is No Plan B. today. Great book!
Here’s on of the stories from it that is amazing!
Frank Clewer had no idea what was happening to him as he walked into a business building in Warrnambool, a small town in the state of Victoria on the southern coast of Australia.
Frank was wearing a wool sweater and a synthetic nylon jacket. As he walked, the two were rubbing together—creating friction and storing up an electrical charge.
He didn’t feel a thing. He was totally oblivious to the electrical current that was building up in his clothing.
Others who were working at the business heard a popping sound, as if firecrackers were going off somewhere inside the building. But they couldn’t figure out where the sound was coming from. Frank heard the sounds as well, but even he didn’t know it was coming from his own clothing.
Read the rest to learn about the 40,000 volts! I’ll let Dwight and the story do the talking on this one. What do you think?
I’m reading Walking with Arthur by James O’Donnell. James, or Jim as he refers to himself in the book, was, in the world’s eyes a very successful businessman before becoming an associate-professor and executive in residence at Huntington College in Indiana. As a successful business man his marriage and family were falling apart when he discovered he believed in nothing. He held nothing sacred. Trusted no one. And no one he knew was worth trusting. That was, until he met Arthur.
Here’s a great quote from the book (one of many I might add):
My coming to faith back in 1985 led me to serve in ways and places I never imagined. I’ve been to the third world. I’ve slung mud and laid brick in the Appalachian hills. I’ve been to a Jamaican orphanage and Honduran slums. But my heart hurts most for my fellow Christians in prosperous places… where people feel insignificant in spite of all they have.
—James O’Donnell, Walking with Arthur
This resonates with a statement my wife, Julie often recounts which was made in response to her assurance of prayer for a Romanian pastor she visited with while on a mission trip. After detailing the suffering his family and his father’s family faced because they chose to be faithful in the face of persecution from a communist government who required they renounce their faith to receive food rations, he expressed his sorrow and prayer for the people of the west (US specifically). “Why,” Julie asked. “You have endured so much, and we don’t face near what you have to face.” His reply put things into perspective. He said, “Because in your country Satan persecutes believers through prosperity. You have so much you don’t even recognize the you are being persecuted.”
Her name is Lily (or LiLeigh when we originally named her but it was too hard to spell). She’s our faithful Springer Spaniel. We love her and she’s part of the family. We joke about her role in the family: sleeping, eating, and shedding seem to be her primary role. Only as her owners can we recognize the intonation (Denver, this is for you… the word you taught me) of her barks and immediately know if it’s friend or foe pulling into the driveway or walking through the yard.
You can learn a lot from a dog. The other day as I was sitting in the main room in our house enjoying the quiet and a cup of warm coffee she helped me understand something about being attentive to God. I was in a chair and she was close by resting. Her eyes were closed (this time she wasn’t snoring but that’s another post) and she was still. I adjusted my head slightly to look her way. I swear I didn’t make a sound. But in the mere movement of my head turning toward her she snapped to, eyes fixed on me, anxious for any instruction I might give to her. It was far from the first time this has happened. As a matter of fact, it’s hard to sneak any movement past her (unless she’s snoring but that’s another post). Time after time, movements large and small, she’s ready to jump and run to fulfill the desires of her master.
In that moment her passion to serve me as her master stunned me. God spoke to me in the silence of that moment about the attention and expectancy with which I am to be watching for His work around me and ready to respond. Even if my reason for moving at that moment did not have her in mind she still responded by intently watching and waiting for the least hint of beckoning her. She was ready. Ready to please her master.
I’m amazed at how often those who profess to have been believers for years express an inability to experience God moving in their lives. When you talk about seeing God at work around you they look at you like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights. If we know Him, but are not attentive to Him, could He be working all around us and we never notice (maybe we are snoring but that’s another post). How can we ever jump to fulfill the desires of the heart of our Master if we are not passionately attentive to Him and what He is doing? God, I want to be that expectantly attentive to You and what You are doing in and around me!
Okay, so I’m continuing to read Plan A. And There Is No Plan B. and today I come across what I’m pretty sure will be the key thought and central theme of the book:
People’s spiritual lives simply cannot be mass-produced.
They’re developed one life at a time through a slow process of relational transfer that cannot be bypassed through mass-production ministry.
Let me say it again: You cannot mass-produce Kingdom laborers.
—Dwight Robertson, Plan A. And There Is No Plan B.
Wow. Wow! WOW!
Dwight uses several illustrations, but the best begins toward the bottom of page 86 and ends toward the top of 87. I think I’m going to become a checkers player and armed with my checkers set and a bag of salt challenge many of today’s pastors and church staff to a game so I can illustrate this (or try to).
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