Lying on a cold and icy deck in Cloudcroft in late December

Well this has been an amazing past few weeks for my life and my spiritual journey. God is so, so incredibly good beyond all belief. It was one year ago this week that I stopped helping out at The Edge. It dawned on me pretty quickly how much of my identity was caught up in being a youth leader at Trinity (more on that later).

This past year (September 2008 to September 2009) has been one heck of a journey. Making one of the worst mistakes that I could ever possibly make; waking up to regret, shame and guilt on a daily basis. Running from the Father who waited so patiently with His arms wide open. Wanting God to no longer exist, denying his existence in an attempt to convince myself that I didn’t have to live with this regret or this sin. Inching closer and closer to self-destruction, doing things that I should have never done, acting in ways that did not reflect Christ in me but rather the exact opposite.

It was late December, my friends and I had escaped Lubbock for three days to enjoy nature and to breathe in the fresh air of the mountains. It was while lying on that cold, wet and icy deck, reeking of tobacco and alcohol, that I felt hopelessly lost, hopelessly wandering into nothingness. Wishing it would all end, wanting to end it all. In the world I had created I removed God; I swam in a sea of shame and guilt, which led to bad habits and a lifestyle that did not reflect my Savior and my God. The way I talked, the way I acted, my heart was filled with anger and resentment, I truly lacked love.

It’s been a year of hard lessons, lessons that should not have had to been learned this way. I’m not writing this for you to feel sorry for me; I don’t want or need pity. I brought this upon myself; I didn’t listen to the advice and council of friends. I neglected my relationship with God. I ran as far away as I could but the Fathers love and grace was still there. I made mistakes along this journey and I suffered in multiple areas of life (spiritually, physically, emotionally) but I am still in this journey; I have a new focus and a new direction. My identity is no longer wrapped up in where I go to school, where I go to church, where I help out at, or where I work at. My identity is found in Christ, my worth comes from Him. My focus is shifting, from myself to completely on God, I still fail but I strive to become more like our amazing Father.

So if I have tagged you, it is because you played a role in acting as God, loving me and caring for me, checking on me, being there for me. Letting me spill my guts out to you. Know that I love you and that I thank you, without our interactions (no matter how few or many) I don’t know where I would be today.

All glory and honor to our Father above,
Grace and Peace.

Flood Story

I am sure most of you have read the flood story but have probably never heard of the Documentary Hypothesis and I won't bore you with all the details. Essentially, the DH proposes that the Pentateuch (first 5 books of the Hebrew Bible) is a compilation and redaction of four sources. 

It is proposed that the Flood story found in Genesis  6-8 is actually a combination of two different accounts: one found in the Yahwist and the other in the Priestly source. Below I have constructed what each text would look like. 

The Yahwist Flood Story

Gen 6:5-8 The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. 6 And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. 7 So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord. 

7:1-5 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its mate; 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. 

7:16b-17 and the Lord shut him in. 17 The flood continued forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 

7:22-23 everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.

8:2b-3a the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters gradually receded from the earth.

8:6-12 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent out the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; 9 but the dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark with him. 10 He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; 11 and the dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days, and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more. 

8:20-22 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of humankind, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. 

The Priestly Flood Story 

Gen 6:9-22 These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth. 13 And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence because of them; now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. 14 Make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. 15 This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. 16 Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above; and put the door of the ark in its side; make it with lower, second, and third decks. 17 For my part, I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. 19 And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 20 Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground according to its kind, two of every kind shall come in to you, to keep them alive. 21 Also take with you every kind of food that is eaten, and store it up; and it shall serve as food for you and for them.” 22 Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. 

7:6-16a Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 7 And Noah with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah with his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark, 14 they and every wild animal of every kind, and all domestic animals of every kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every bird of every kind—every bird, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him;

7:18-21 The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 The waters swelled so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; 20 the waters swelled above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; 

7:24-8:1 And the waters swelled on the earth for one hundred fifty days. 8:1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided; 

8:3b-5 At the end of one hundred fifty days the waters had abated; 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains appeared. 

8:13-19 In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and saw that the face of the ground was drying. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families. 

I believe that this has been one of the ways scholars have tried to deal with the blatant contradictions in the flood story (e.g., two animals or seven; 40 days and 150+; etc.). 

I just found this interesting and thought I would share it with everyone. 

Change

Change. Over a period of time things change whether that be a change in friends, trends, music preferences and perhaps one of the most important changes in life is that of one's beliefs. Beliefs and personal convictions change. Lately I have been thinking about some of my beliefs and how they have changed over the past four or five years. It seems to all have started my senior year as I read Donald Miller's, Blue Like Jazz, and Rob Bell's, Velvet Elvis. If you have not read either one of these then I highly recommend them to you.

They caused me to have all sorts of questions, especially my senior year of high school I was sick and tired of this Christianity thing, I wanted nothing to do with it. I could sit in Bible class and give all the right answers and perhaps even knew more than the teacher but it was a simple mental exercise. I wouldn't say that I was no longer a Christians but I was certainly looking for any reason to not believe in God; I guess perhaps if I looked a little harder, read some of the leading atheists writings I would have found some answers. But in order to make a long story short: here I am six hours short of graduating from Lubbock Christian University with a B.A. in Biblical Text.

(I should warn you now that in blog posts I am scatter-brained and leave some thoughts less developed than others, so if you want more info just ask me).

Back to change. I simply feel like sharing with you some of my beliefs that have been challenged and changed (in no specific order):

1. Context. Context matters, no matter what people tell you. Context always matters. Bad theology comes from proof-texting, which is essentially taking a verse out of context and using it to support your own idea. It seems to be epidemic in churches today, pastors practicing eisegesis (reading into the text) instead of practicing exegesis (out of) and allowing the text to speak for itself. This seems to be popular in trying to harmonize the seven sayings of Jesus on the cross. We need to realize that for the most part the people who authored the text of the Bible were not stupid, they were brilliant. Context matters, the author of Matthew was not trying to emphasize the same thing as the author of Mark or the author of Luke. They each were writing to a specific audience with a specific purpose and agenda in mind, so let's not do them a disservice by harmonizing their writings. 
2. (In)errancy. Articles XI and XII of the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy specifically state that Scripture is infallible and inerrant. Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of people fall into bibliolatry where they hold the Bible in higher regards than God, or treat the Bible as God. Now, I am not insisting that the Bible teaches falsehood or is deceitful but we have to realize that the books contained in the Bible were written over the course of hundreds of years by 40 or more different people, all with certain agendas. I firmly believe that they were inspired by God to write what they did but people do make mistakes. Fortunately, these mistakes are minor and do not alter the salvific significance that can be found in the text of the Bible but nevertheless and mistake is a mistake. 
3. Women. To be more specific: Women in ministry. God has created all humanity equal. "God made them male and female." If we are honest with how we read the New Testament I don't see how anyone could deny the significant role that women played in ministry in the early church. First, Paul charges Phoebe with the responsibility to deliver Romans to Rome and surrounding regions. Basically, she had to read Paul's writing and defend it, answer questions,  essentially teach. Second, Priscilla seems to be a dominant woman minister. The way two people are introduced is significant in Ancient Near Eastern writings. Barnabas and Saul, Barnabas was obviously the significant one at the time. Paul and Barnabas, emphasis now lays on Paul. Priscilla is first introduced with Aquila being the dominant person "Aquila and Priscilla," then it is "Priscilla and Aquila." We should not limit God because of gender. 
4. Creation. (I am running out of steam and this is a long post so I will keep it short). I think it is important for us to welcome a new era where science and faith can peacefully dialogue, in which each community can learn from one another. Genesis 1-2 is not a scientific account of creation and should not be read as one, it is poetic literature and should be read in light of other Mesopotamian creation myths. 
5. Arminianism. I am willing to agree to disagree with my Calvinist friends. But it simply seems that the Grand Narrative of Scripture does not have God randomly selecting people for heaven and for hell. It is by God's grace that we are saved. 

Obviously, there are other areas and beliefs that have changed but I feel that these are some of the significant ones that have changed over the past 4 or 5 years. Feel free to dialogue with me in the comment section. 

God help us

Eight years ago our freedom was compromised (or so some would say). But what is the point of living in freedom if our heart, mind, and soul are trapped in bondage. These past few months I have been doing a lot of thinking and I feel like God has been leading me in certain directions. Where he is leading me is still unknown, but it is someplace different from where I was heading.

(Making a long post short, I continue).

The Bible makes it clear that human kind has been made both in the image and the likeness of God--Father, Son and Spirit.

Jesus died to rescue all.

Jesus not only gave his life to wipe out Sin but he also came to give us life, life to the fullest.

Jesus set out new ethics, new morals, a new way of life while he spent his time with humanity.

Jesus leveled the playing field. There is no distinction...

Ephesians 2:13-18

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.

Galatians 3:28

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

So knowing this, how are we to live? Knowing that each person is still created in the image and the likeness of God. Knowing that Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save the world, hope for the hopeless, rest for the weary, and healer of the sick.

For me: I pray that I begin to live with compassion viewing the world through the eyes of the Father desiring that no one perish and offering life to the fullest for all who believe. I mess up, repeatedly but this process takes time and I hope that more begin to catch on.

Grace and peace to you.

Prayer for September 11:

Lord, You are both kind and merciful.

We patiently await for the day when our weapons

will be formed into objects used for the good of all humanity.

We earnestly seek You for the day when one nation

no longer rises up against another,

make us instruments of your peace.

How great you are, Sovereign Lord!

There is no one like you,

and there is no God but you!

Cleanse our hearts from injustice,

that we might fight against injustice.

Cleanse our hearts from corruption and hatred,

teach us to be pure and loving.

We look forward to that day when heaven comes down,

when you inhabit our presence,

when you re-create this earth and we join in.

But may we start now for the healing of the nations.

All glory and honor you, forever and ever. Amen

Church

It appears as though this semester my classes will be focus a lot more on spiritual formation and church life. I have been reading a book on what the church looks like in North America (Missional Church) and even though I am only in the introductory chapters it has already said a lot of what needs to be vocalized and realized in the church.

One thing in particular that stuck out is this: "People no longer [assume] that the church [has] anything to say on matters of personal faith" (Missional Church, 54) and "[The churches] voice in the United States has been marginalized into a highly personalized and privatized practice of faith..." (Ibid, 60).

It is because of these ideas and beliefs that the church has last validity and relevancy with today's generation and todays culture. Churches and youth groups are struggling to offer anything that makes church more appealing: cotton-candy preaching, game centered youth groups, light shows and productions that rival the secular concert setting, self-helping preaching, the HWP (Health, Wealth Prosperity) "gospel," etc. It appears that churches have been consumed with the "numbers game," and practice a type of religious consumerism.

In a time when the church has promoted "personal faith," and privatized religiosity. When it appears that the church preaches that God is here to grant our every want and need. Do we believe that God rotates around the individual or does the individual rotate around God? Must God please us or must we please God? We have grown so individualized as a culture, the community is almost all but lost. I recently was talking with a pastor and he criticized another pastor by saying that their church focused on social justice too much, every sermon ends by talking about social justice. Two things: Firstly, not all of this persons sermons end with social justice. Secondly, so what if they did all end in social justice. If the preaching of God's Word does not move the believer into action then what good is it?

Jesus did not come and die to offer us heaven. Jesus did not come and die to offer us some disembodied spiritual afterlife. God in the form of Jesus came to earth, lived within and among humanity, shared in its joys, triumphs, struggles, and pain; was persecuted, died, and rose again. Not to bring us the HWP gospel, not to allow us to have this escapist mentality but in order that "we may have life, and life to the fullest" (John 10:10b). As Followers of Christ we must through aside social distinctions (Gal 3:26ff); we must suffer and strive to initiate a "one new humanity" and instill peace in the world (Eph 2:15ff).

Jesus came to be the ultimate servant, he healed the sick and invalids, he cast out demons, he fed (physically and spiritually) thousands upon thousands of people. But yet we call being a Christian going to church on Sundays, something is terrible wrong.

As each day passes I become more thoroughly convinced that we are to imitate Jesus (wow - profound!), that we are to be servants, and daily we must pray and live this: "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." Every day we must seek the help of our Heavenly Father in ways to bring the peace and joy of heaven to hell (I mean earth).

I think followers of Jesus should pray and live this every single day (I am beginning to try):

"Lord, make us instruments of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let us sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is discord, union;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that we may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood as to understand;

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen." (Prayer attributed to St. Francis).

I know perhaps I didn't clarify certain aspects of this post but I feel that the church must move from this personalized faith to a community of faith, acting and moving as one to embrace grace, peace and joy and offer it to the nations. To bring heaven to earth and yes this is very much so a social justice style gospel, because not only did Jesus die for our sins but he gave us life and life to share and live with all. Lord help us live like this.

Grace and Peace

War

There is a war. This war is like all wars, bloody and violent, born out of corruption and selfishness. This war has been fought on multiple continents, involving all ethnicities, lasting for decades, centuries, even millennia. Each side has a leader: one leader represents all things beautiful: hope, justice, redemption, healing, forgiveness, humility, peace and life; the other leader represents all things despicable and hostile, putting selfish greed above all, using manipulation and coercion to deceive others into submission, turning good into bad, twisting the truth, this leader is divisive leading to death and destruction.

The two leaders went head-to-head (or heel-to-head).

The evil leader had this unquenchable blood-thirst; the onlooker would have perceived that the evil leader had won, had crushed all hopes of peace and redemption.

Something happened while the evil leader celebrated, the good leader redeemed all and offered grace for all. The one that had succumbed to such a violent act had actually won. Through his life and his death and through his life after life after death he offered redemption, restoration, hope, peace, justice, grace, forgiveness and love for all.

The Scriptures say:

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.”

“Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death, is your sting?”

The key leader has been defeated, although not destroyed or done away with. He still believes that he has a chance. His outposts still fight this war, this war that has already been won. They continually fight against peace and life, they desire death and destruction for all.

Jesus brought hope and grace for all of humanity. Followers of Christ must offer the same. So go and do likewise.

The Divine Dance

What follows is an excerpt from a paper I wrote in my freshman theology class. The paper is titled "The Holy Trinity," in it I briefly discuss some of the different forms of the Trinity, how the doctrine of the Trinity was formed, some heresy, and some different views that might possibly be acceptable in our ever advancing egalitarian society. Please feel free to comment, criticize, agree, whatever; if you would like to read more then please let me know and I will post more of the paper on here.

THE DIVINE DANCE

The subject of how we view God is of great importance and should not be ignored however I find the subject of how the Trinity acts within itself of even greater importance and interest. This deals with how the Father relates to the Son, and how the Son relates to the Holy Spirit and then connects them all and switches everything around. The usual Western view of the Trinity is described in a psychological analogy which deals with differentiated personhood but inseparable activities; the Eastern view, which is accepted and advocated by many contemporary theologians, is the “social analogy that takes the human experience of life-in-relationship as the best clue to an understanding of the triune life of God.”[1] I enjoy the idea and theory of this social analogy because of its focus on the relationship of things, I believe God is all about relationships and therefore we can more accurately view the Trinity through a relational-type view. A way to view this relationship can be described by the use of the Greek word perichoresis, which is discussed and defined both in Migliore and Grudem. Perichoresis can be described as a “mutual indwelling” or “being-in-one-another.” [2] Very vivid imagery is used when describing perichoresis, often times it is referred to as the divine dance, it actually means “to dance around.” [3] This is a very intimate way of describing how the Trinity interacts and participates with and in itself. As a dance between human partners takes place they encircle each other and weave in and out between each other; in the divine dance the partners move in such an intimate way that they move in and through each other. We automatically know who the dancers are in the divine dance but it is not of the greatest importance of knowing the dancers as it is of knowing the actual patterns of dance itself. Just as an example, “the son ‘indwells’ the father, the father ‘contains’ the son, the spirit ‘fills’ the father.” [4] If we are to think of the Trinity as being a dance, then we are forced to ask the question of where do we, as humans, as the created, fit in. Are we the audience, only observing this dance? I must answer this with a no, we have such a troubled time understanding certain attributes and qualities of God that I feel he would not place us on the outside of this dance, this would deny the fact that God wants to have a relationship with us.

So if we are not on the outside then we must be participating in this dance. But to what extent are we participating? And at what limit can we no longer participate in this dance? I will do my best to accurately answer these questions however I feel that for each person there would be a different answer. There are two approaches I would like to take with answering this question. The first would be to view this through the Western view of the divine dance which is that of communion. This is a circle dance, where each person is of the nature of God, there is no centrality to this circle. The problem is obvious with this, if it is a circle then is there any possible way for others to enter into the circle. For some odd reason, growing up in the West, I am slowly finding out that I tend to view the Eastern way of thinking more than the Western way of thought. The eastern view states that “participants move outside the inner circle of dancers to make contact with them.” [5] After they have moved out they possess the ability to bring others back in with them. The best possible way that I can come up to picture this would be a fountain, which can also be compared with the spring analogy previously mentioned above. However, in the fountain sits a body of water, which slowly makes its way out of the fountain, into the air and then back into the body of water. This illustration obviously has flaws but should be sufficient in demonstrating the interconnectedness and participation that takes place within the Trinity and with us in the Trinity. I hope that I have been able to accurately explain my views in relation to the divine dance.

---

[1] Daniel L. Migliore, Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology (2^nd ed.; Michigan; William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2004), 78.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Fiddes, Paul S. Fall 2006. Participating in the Trinity. Perspectives in Religious Studies. 33 (3):375-391.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.