godchaesr's Xanga

The latest in the leaving the land of "Make Believe"

Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:42:32 GMT

[Underneath this post is a growing concern understand what has happened, who we are in our new creature, and what does "body of Christ" mean.]

What’s at stake here?:

It would appear that what is at stake here, and has been for almost 1900 years, is "the way". When you look at the Gospels and Christ’s message to repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand it seems like an odd way to "evangelize". Where’s the four spiritual laws and the Roman’s Road? But what if we were to realize that this Kingdom that he speaks of is not something future, or just while He was here, but something he had brought to earth in a very real and powerful way? While granted it is a kingdom that is partially but not fully revealed it begs us to start asking some tough questions. Hopefully it has driven us to realize some pretty profound advancements that were made by Christ himself that directly apply to the living out of the human existence. Things that were not typically done or even understood in the Old Testament.

It is a basic doctrinal claim that Jesus was both fully human and fully God. But we have refused to practically flesh out what Christ has revealed to us about the kingdom. Was his life what the Creator intends humankind to be and to do? If you go back and consider this in the light of the garden account it radically shifts ones thinking. What if Adam and Eve lived solely to do the will of their Father? This acknowledgement has basically been swept up with the rest of the "unrealistic" dirt on the floor of Christian religion and tossed in the trash can of irrelevance. How can we who claim doctrinally Christ’s divinity and humanity acknowledge so little authority (see Mt 28:18) to this One who showed us what it means to live a human life in accordance with the will of God? The typical response by the "unbelieving believer" is, "Hey, let’s be realistic here, none of us are Jesus!" The implication in this statement is that Christ’s expectations cannot be taken seriously as an ethic we would ask of everyone - or even anyone! I know myself we reason and I could never subject myself to these expectations. (walking on water, healing people, raising folks from the dead, even greater things than these!)

Embracing Apostasy?:

Have we not reached such a state of apostasy that it’s common for even are pastors and leaders to lay claim that they are not saints they’re just sinners like the rest of us saved by grace? Are we saints or are we sinners? "Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that we must no longer walk as the world does, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alientated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way we learned Christ! - assuming that we have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." (personally translating Eph. 4:17-24 to the here and now)

Should we not grieve along with the Holy Spirit and groan with the rest of creation? Sons of the second Adam and daughters of the second Eve this current existence is not of the LORD but of the evil one! Rebuke it in the name of Christ… repent for the Kingdom of God truly is at hand!!! Rise up saints and lay claim to what Christ has afforded you. You are not who you think you are.

Here’s where the rubber meets the road:

Because I want us to dive deeply and profoundly into this discussion and really engage ourselves to move forward in this journey out of the land of "Make Believe" (where it’s more important to believe than be or do). We must be about finding the way! It’s time to pack of camp and move out and experience life. In essence Christ has said to the children of the wilderness the path out of the desert and into the promise land has been found.

If we take the view that is stated at the opening of this discussion we have to overlook or "spiritualize" (my least favorite word in Christendom) the New Testament claim that the people of God are the "BODY OF CHRIST". We are not the continuation of the ministry and work of Christ right in the midst of real human history… right in the midst of oppression, injustice, violence, and greed… right in the midst of political unrest, terrorist attacks, urban sprawl, pop culture, and the list goes on. Instead we must embrace something much more tame and managable where we sit and wait on a kingdom to come later at the return of Christ - deeming the Lord’s prayer irrelevant or just an attitude of the heart and not one of real physical life.

For deeper conversation and further journey:

My question to us was going to be where are the engaged evangelicals? where are the people of "the way"? Where do we find them? By Christ’s own admission (Mt 5:14-16) they should be easy to spot because they are a city on hill, and it should lead to the glory of God. But no… we don’t find them do we? We’ve been trodden under foot by the context of the culture that we live in… because we are not salty. We’ve found a way to live in doctrine that doesn’t impact lifestlye and ethics.

What do we do when we suddenly realizes that our priority as the church is about religious practice not absolute surrender, compartmental spirituality not wholistic lifestyle, full of wanting to but not willing to, teaching right doctrine but never living right ethics? How does the salt regain the saltiness that it has lost? Christ declares that it cannot it must be thrown out. (Mt 5:13) And the church today is being trampled under the feet of a post-modern culture… and to be honest I’m filled with joy and at the same time scared to death!

We have been pushed to the farthest corners of culture. Church. A sentence all in itself and all by itself. We’re the home of the trivial faith and the nominal allegiance. A faith where we strive to be relevant without having to be revolutionary… Where we talk of the crucial but offer it at a fraction of the cost. Where we deliver the message but in the end nothing is reconciled.

We’re not about "the way" anymore. I’m afraid we’ve forged another way. This way allows us to twist the message of God’s grace. Instead of changing the lifeless and pathetic condition of our hearts of stone it merely allows our hearts to sit on a more self-righteous pedestal and worship it’s own selfish desires and now without guilt. Our obedience to God appears to be more like a happy coincidence, where our selfish desires and his holy commands conveniently happen to intersect. So we find ourselves picking and choosing the laws that suit us while avoiding those that don’t allow us to indulge our favorite desires. In the end we’ve laid a hold of what we always wanted. A life where no one tells us what to do - not even God!

The church if it wants to live is going to have to die and be reborn through brokenness and contrition. It must surrender its very life and not care that it has lost it so that we might find it again and be known again as people of "the way". Our silent admission is that "the way" is not practical and doesn’t translate into the real world. And we’ve lost our Way.

Great epic change must happen first within the very life of the body of Christ - and I would add, within this very part of that body (me)! What if each part said, "Today I will change myself and this will change the world. For my life and ministry is not about changing people but demonstrating change in myself. I now know that God has changed the economy by which the world operates. I now embrace the grace awakening which is Christ. He is changing me and I am engaging on a journey with Him." In other words pack up camp we moving on to right living and not just right thinking… a right doctrine that embraces a right living?

God’s jealousy is for today!:

At this point, I want to bring the concept of God’s jealousy (zeal) back to the forefront, as some of you might have already figured. Those who have been enlightened and received Christ have stepped out of the darkness. They no longer seek to hide from the presence of God (see Adam and Eve narrative) but desire to come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been carried out in God. This zeal that the Bridegroom has for us His Bride must stir in us and remind us of our true image. For now not only have we been created by God, we have now been re-created in Christ. We now are awakened to God’s kingdom that is now at hand and realize that we are "His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." (Eph 2:10) We realize that our Bridegroom has given completely of Himself to "redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." And that this new focus and work is to be embraced in the here and now as we "wait for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ." (Titus 3:11-15)

And as Paul reminded Titus we should declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority… and let no one disregard us! So as we look at the current state of the church, one that has shown moments of arising from its slumber, and ask ourselves in what ways have we been "sleeping with the enemy"? By God’s grace he is still remaining faithful, even when we are faithless. How have we "slept around" on our Bridegroom and not embraced His way as the way? What tensions in the current culture have we not faced but avoided? What aspects of "the way" have we conveniently labeled as unrealistic and not practical?

The Kingdom of God is now!

Your brother in Christ,

Something to "Muse" about...

Tue, 22 Aug 2006 17:06:39 GMT

Yes, I'm still being a Chaesr of God. Just haven't written anything lately. So for all those who wrote me off here's a double scoop of Rocky Road Ice Cream for you to savor!

At [wildernesschild] we're continuing to discuss the concept of forgiveness. Something that just jumped into my head today (probably because of my itunes selection) is a song that talks about forgiveness. The band Muse released a song back in 2004 called "Sing for absolution" that deals, in many ways, with this concept. In fact when I went back and listened to the rest of the songs, the whole alblum wrestles with the concept of forgiveness. For those who are students of culture I'm sure you have pondered over the lyrics in these songs and asked yourself some hard questions. Maybe you've never heard of Muse. Maybe when you realize their a secular band you'll tune out and find another post to read... (maybe you haven't read this far). If that's you I would ask you to listen up and take note. I would ask you to step out of your Christian green house and wrestle with what these guys are trying to say.

My hope is to spark your curiousity to reconsider and bring some things back into public awareness that have been buried regarding forgiveness. Maybe you don't think forgiveness is dead. But let me ask you this, when's the last time you forgave someone or asked for someone's forgiveness? If your theology doesn't translate into real life actions then it's really a dead theology. We need to go and dig that casket up and ask the Lord to breath new life into our beings. Some of you don't like dealing with corpses but I think there's some good here to be uncovered and even revived.

In honor of our Monty Python boys from the BBC pretend that forgiveness is crying out, "I'm not dead yet!"

In the Christian world there seems to be a cancer that we've learned to accept as okay and uncurable. It's one that claims the lives of countless "Christians" and even whole churches and denominations. When we systematize our theology we tend to give it the lethal inject and put it to sleep and bury it in the grave never to be living again. I don't mean we never talk about again but we talk about it in dead ways. We can't interact with it anymore because it's dead - it's canonized and treated as Scripture and unchangable. And yet we need it to be alive and we need to be interacting with it and we need to have it living in our communities of faith not buried with a nice tomb stone that reads: "Here lies forgiveness. Born 33 AD Died (whenever your theology book was written). Great concept may she always be remembered."

True theology is a living theology. And it should infuse life into us (corporately). It should bring about the character of God being manifested in our midst. True theology will be the image of God being revealed in us as we live in community with each other. I think this is the real point Paul was trying to get across when he was inspired to write Romans 12:1-2. He was revealing that true theology will always be manifested in the midst of a community.

Through the process of people putting their theology into practice they find if what they believe in their mind is really true - and it is that truth lived out that sets them free! There's two things that might be wrong here: wrong thinking or wrong living! Either you don't know the truth and have believed a lie or you know the truth but have not fleshed it out authentically. In Christ we have someone who perfectly manifested in community what the image of God should look like.

One of the great things about treating our theology this way is that when we do it wrong we have the ability to go back and reconsider the revelation that God has given us concerning the aspect at hand. Very little of church today takes their theology practically. And even fewer within the church today take their theology relationally. Maybe it's because our theology is dead. Maybe we should corporately visit the grave site and begin an excavation project of the things that we've buried. A process that involves everyone corporately discovering together how the truth of Scripture should be incarnated. Only then will theology become a very visible, living and powerful aspect to the Christian life.

Or we can join Muse in the last verse and sadly sing, "our wrongs remain unrectified and our souls won't be exhumed." There is no other way for us to join Paul in saying, "I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God at work unto salvation." (emphasis mine)

Romans 12:1-2
I appeal to you therefore, brothers [and sisters] by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

I find myself asking:

Do you think that Romans 12:1-2 is speaking to the individual or the community in regards to how they flesh out true theology?
Consider what it would look like for God's people to take a concept like forgiveness and approach it through this kind of a model. In other words, I [Paul] appeal to you [all] therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. [Regarding forgiveness] Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you [all] may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Read the lyrics below. What kinds of questions do we see "Muse" asking about life as it relates to forgiveness?
How could their questions be answered in a community of believers who are living out Romans 12:1-2 in the manner I have described?

"Sing For Absolution"

lips are turning blue
a kiss that can't renew
I only dream of you
my beautiful

tiptoe to your room
a starlight in the gloom
I only dream of you
and you never knew

sing for absolution
I will be singing
falling from your grace

there's nowhere left to hide
in no one to confide
the truth runs deep inside
and will never die

lips are turning blue
a kiss that can't renew
I only dream of you
my beautiful

sing for absolution
I will be singing
falling from your grace

sing for absolution
I will be singing
falling from your grace

our wrongs remain unrectified
and our souls won't be exhumed

Words defined:

Absolve - to determine to be free of fault, guilt, or liability; to set free or release from some obligation or responsibility
Rectify - To set right; correct
Exhume - To remove from a grave

peek-a-boo!

Wed, 14 Jun 2006 19:22:31 GMT

http://www.queensu.ca/writingcentre/handouts/bookreviews.pdf

Since this is what I'm going to be doing profusely for the next four weeks before classes start up I thought I'd post it here. I bet you all just love doing book reviews. I've read 4 of the 9 books that need to be read for class in July. The other 5 I have partially read and skimmed.

Sunday, February 12, 2006

Sun, 12 Feb 2006 02:47:08 GMT

I'm going to be marrying Buzz and Elizabeth on March 11th down in Georgia! I can't wait to see you all!

Godchaesr Ekklesia

Mon, 30 Jan 2006 15:19:54 GMT

okay so this is going to be somewhat vague but...

we're wanting to have a gathering here in Wooster. The dates are Feb 17-19. I have a growing passion in my heart and want to flesh it out with a few other committed followers of Christ. The passages of 2 Thess 5:14 and Titus 2:11-15 are on my heart but so are the letters Christ sent to the churches in Rev 2 and 3. I'm seeing a us gather, connect, weep, plead, seek, serve, grow and glorify.

I'm thinking a real family like time of honesty and seriousness... geniune love. A time of true and good confession approaching the throne of grace with boldness. A time of everyone coming and sharing what God has been stirring in their hearts. The only problem (although it might not be) is that we can probably host about 20 max.

Who should come?... only God and you know... All I can say is what God has placed in my heart - moving xanga forward. This is to consecrate our lives and pray to God for a vision. If you can come let us know and make your own plans to get here and back. This is open to those who want to take their faith in God seriously. For those who know it will be set up like a godchaesr weekend we did in Atlanta in 2003. We're working on a ski trip as well when we are finished. Price is TBD but will only cover the necessities/

let us know,
JC

Are you leaving "Make Believe"

Sat, 28 Jan 2006 06:56:43 GMT

They'd rather make you believe. It's "simplier" that way not as messy. Why be and do when believing is what really matters!?! The Spirit's quenched and hard hearts of stone are wrapped in righteous doctrine and cheap grace. The Spirit grieves within you... listen closely what words is it using? Their right doctrine never leads to right living. You want to leave but something tells you that you must stay. Where would you go? You're torn. Weeping. Pleading. Seeking. Should you stay? I t's such a tangled ball of string. Is there more to the church and faith in Christ than what we're experiencing? Maybe this world's not flat and you're contemplating setting out for a "new realm". You stand at the door. Or is He standing at our door? There's so much tension between what is and what should be. Do you feel it? What should we do? Join the fellowship of the romantically passionate loners. We're packing light: mere discipleship in Christ, a copy of the Scriptures, a diligence to grow in grace and knowledge of Him, and a zealous heart of faith to live for the glory of God alone and overcome the world. Come together. Engage in the conversation. Add something fresh for the journey. Move us forward.

In the words of a new found friend, join us in asking [Where to Lord?]

knock knock knock... hello can I ask you two of life's most important questions?

Wed, 18 Jan 2006 19:49:04 GMT

this aspect of Christendom has plagued me at times it was intrigue, others frustration, and still others outrage... I understand Paul's point that folks can not call on Him who they have not believed... and they can't believe in Him who they have not heard of... and they can never hear of Him without someone preaching... and how am I to preach unless I'm sent... but just a little later he makes a different kind of argument all together... "For Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has gbelieved what he has heard from us?' So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ." Romans 10 towards the end of the chapter

Evangelism and the revelation of Christ...
I'm beginning to wonder if it's less in the presentation and more about the revelation? This doesn't change the fact that we still need preachers but it might change their tact in preaching... is it all about presenting proof or just in the simple presenting of the preson and work of Christ and then the onus is back where it should be... for can flesh and blood reveal this to them? Matt 16:16-18, John 1:12,13

Recently at "argumentsfromtheleft" I left the following comment that fits along these lines:

you know I just went back through and read through the comments here... there are many here who are the obvious product of what I call the land of "Make Believe". You can't be saved through reason, or studying the Scriptures, or even keeping a set of moral laws, you can't even be saved by believing in God's grace and saying all the right words... good night stop confusing the boy... the faith world is not flat as those in "Make Believe" would like to tell you... it doesn't come on the plane of intellectualism... and those who seek it there will never find it... faith (all of it from conversion to daily living) is by revelation... those of you who don't understand go back and look at every person of faith that was ever written of in the Scriptures... they believed because God revealed himself to them.

Paul is the most dramatic account of this... a man who was the epitome of intellectual and zealous about what he knew and yet his "path to salvation" only led to him persecuting Christ who is the way the truth and the life. It wasn't until Christ revealed himself to Paul that he instantly knew who the path of salvation - Christ alone through faith!

For all of you folks who base your thinking off of some intellectual ascent (sermon, Scriptures, apologetic books, etc) all you have done is brainwashed yourselves and one day you will run into a question you cannot answer and your faith will be shipwrecked... if you don't believe me just keep sailing... your ship doesn't hold up against the post-modern wave of culture but is crushed by it... those of us whom God has revealed himself (which I say that with the utmost humility for I never deserved it) have been waiting for a time like this all of our lives. This is not the time to adhere to some strict doctrine and bang people over the head with your 4 spiritual laws but to ask, seek and knock. How do we acquire this revelation is for another post at another time. In the main time we should go and learn what this means: God desires 'checed' not sacrafice! (checed is a hebrew word)

Posted 1/17/2006 at 1:51 PM by wildernesschild

My question to you:

what are your thoughts about evangelism and this approach I have presented here?

weeping, pleading, seeking, asking, knocking,
JC

We've got pix!

Tue, 17 Jan 2006 01:45:23 GMT

Hey Sammy how many kids do we have now?

And I'll hang on to you, cause you're stronger and you keep me from falling...

It's my joy... my greatest joy... to give you praise... to give you praise!

Looking out like a little child holding tight when it all gets wild...

I've reached my limit I wish I could upload more... I guess I have to wait a month... these were the best ones though

Truly Amazing...

Mon, 16 Jan 2006 08:17:02 GMT

I don't have a picture yet but thought it an obligation to those of you still up or wondering here is the story... (yeah right!)

The night was still young by some people's standards... 1:59am. Martin Luther's birthday had just past and we were now 2 hours into Monday the 16th of January. The wind outside is swirling brushing against the glass to catch of glimpse... howling in excitement. Maggy has spent the last 5 hours breathing through her contractions which came ever 5-10 minutes. In between I played guitar and sang praise songs and hymned the Father... Our favorite tonight was "It's my joy!"by Enter the Worship Circle. It was cold outside but our hearts were aglow. Around 1:45 Maggy decided to take a shower, not sure of her status I decided to catch a couple of winks while I could. Next thing I know I've got rapid heavy breathing in my ear. (and I knew it wasn't Corporal the dog) This was it... I looked at the clock and it was 1:59am. Time to get the camera and wake up Pierce (our oldest) who we promised he could cut the cord. Maggy's sister Natalie who was just married this fall to Chad got to be a part of the birth and was truly amazed. Once the baby was born she couldn't stop retelling the process and all that she was amazed by. A uneraseable moment for her I'm sure. There was only 4 minutes of active pushing. I got to hear the same line from now the fourth doctor, "Wow you sure are a good pusher!" Pierce barely got in to the room in time. We thought this would be a cool experience for him. He was in awe at the birth and couldn't stop giggling and grinning and looking at Maggy and I and smiling. "Mommy, she has my nose... and look at her hands. Her fingers are so long."

When it was all said and done and the boys had gone back to bed and the midwife and her assistants had left and Natalie had gone home Maggy and I held our new baby and thanked God and consecrated this new opportunity to be fruitful and multiply the earth with God's image - pray with us that we remain faithful to bring her up in the fear and admonition of the Lord.

Ephesians 6:3
"Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord."

When I have some free time tomorrow I will post some pictures. Until then I'll just give you the basic details and you can form the picture in your mind:

Name: Gretchen Lucia Christensen
Weight: 9 pounds even
Height: 21 1/2 inches
Head: 14 1/2 inches
Time: 2:04am
Date: Monday, January 16th, 2006

Reason for her name:
Gretchen means "pearl of greatest price". It is a German name. Lucia means "bringer of light". It is an English name. We have picked out the following verses:

Psalm 36:7
How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
The children of mankind take refuge in the shadow of your wings.

Matthew 13:44-46
"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it."

Christ shined on me today

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 17:16:44 GMT

I was recently at a site that was trying to wrestle with the inerrancy issue of the Scriptures... the topic of is the Bible exactly what God wanted it to be or has it changed and now contains errors... go [here] to better understand the context of this blog... I know this is going to sound really wierd to most of you but I think I woke up today...

I had been asleep for so long I can't remember every being awake... not like this anyways... it's as if the light of Christ shown on me today and I realized who He is and it was truly awesome... shortly after that I was at the above xanga and read his post on "What's the word of God?"... I have had several of these kinds of conversations with various people and perspectives in the past but today I came to realize something new about this discussion that makes all other arguments void and hallow... Do we need the Scripture to be inerrant? Is the "word of the Lord" a written book alone? Does he work through only these written means or does He have the ability to speak to our hearts and reveal himself via the Spirit and more importantly does He choose to do so? It's amazing what happens when you step back from "Make Believe" how so many pieces of the puzzle appear terribly out of place and squeezed in.

Anywho I wrote to him the follow comment and thought I would stir you with it:

"these are the conversations that we have when we continue to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil... in this economy we will be ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth... as Paul says, "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,"

I'm currently working on this aspect of "Make Believe" that bases all of its so called wisdom around intellectual data gathering and not on the revelation of Christ himself. We like Adam and Eve have traded the presence of God for the fruit "desired to make one wise". We will continue to hide ourselves from the presence of the Lord because we do not want our deeds exposed. We still love the darkness more than the Light.

If we continue to believe that the spiritual world is flat we will never discover the new world!"

Questions to ponder:

Was your faith born from intellectual reasoning?
How have you continued to eat from the tree of knowledge?
Has the presence of God or "mind of Christ"revealed himself in you?
What happens to your faith if the Scriptures are found to be in error?
What was it that allowed Enoch and Job to walk with God and know Him apart from the Scriptures?

I hope we are waking up,
JC