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Way Over Our Heads

Here’s more from Robert Farrar Capon’s Kingdom, Grace and Judgment. Here is some thoughts he had about the Ascension:

Jesus discourages any speculation about why he is going or what plans he might have for coming back. The apostles are specifically told that times, seasons, and schedules of events are none of their business. Their relationship to the mystery of the kingdom is to be based not on their knowledge or performance, and certainly not on their guesswork about God’s plans; it is to be rooted only in trust in his promise. They are to believe only in the King. Everything else is out of their hands, beyond their ken, and both literally and parabolically, over their heads. (p. 41)

Isn’t that awesome? As believers, we do our most damage when we assume we’ve got it all figured out and lose the immediacy of Jesus leading us day by day in the Father’s life. The grand strategies are beyond us. God only shares with us the pieces we need to live this day in his life. And if we just keep following him with that freedom and simplicity we will, six months from now, two years from now or four decades from now, be exactly where he wants us to be doing exactly what he would have us do to most extend the reality of his life and kingdom.

It is such a freedom to not have to sort out things we were never meant to know or perhaps are even incapable of knowing. Some things Father has retained for himself, and it is simply enough for us to live in the security of his hands, instead of living in our false conclusions about the future.

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The Joy and Freedom of Left-Handed Power

Someone loaned me a copy of Robert Farrar Capon’s Kingdom, Grace and Judgment with the warning not to let anyone see me reading it because some think he is a heretic. Of course that piqued my interest right away. I don’t know about the heretic part (or at least I haven’t come to it yet) but this Episcopal priest has some interesting things to say about the parables of Jesus.

I’ll warn you, however, that this is no easy read. He’s overwhelmed with word comparisons, and makes some wild conjectures about things Jesus might have been thinking at various times, but I love some of the places where he lands on interpreting the parables of Jesus.

At the beginning he has a fascinating discussion of what he calls right-handed power, which is using the force you need to get the result you want. And yet the One who has all the right-handed power to force his way on us, has decided that relationships of love are far more valuable to him than terrified slaves. Capon writes…

“Unfortunately (right-hand power) has a whopping limitation. If you take the view that one of the chief objects in life is to remain in loving relationships with other people, straight-line power becomes useless. Oh, admittedly, you can snatch your baby boy away from the edge of a cliff and not have a broken relationship on your hands. But just try interfering with his plans for the season when he is twenty, and see what happens, especially if his chosen plans play havoc with your own. Suppose he makes unauthorized use of your car, and you use a little straight-line verbal power to scare him out of doing it again. Well and good. But suppose further that he does it again anyway—and again and again and again. What do you do next if you are committed to straight-line power? You raise your voice a little more nastily each time till you can’t shout any louder. And then you beat him (if you are stronger than he is) until you can’t beat any harder. Then you chain him to a radiator till… But you see the point. At some very early crux in that difficult, personal relationship, the whole thing will be destroyed unless you—who on any reasonable view, should be allowed to use straight-line power—simply refuse to use it; unless, in other words, you decide that instead of dishing out justifiable pain and punishment, you are willing, quite foolishly, to take a beating yourself.” (page 18-19)

He then defines left-handed power as, “power that looks for all the world like weakness.” But it is the power that Jesus vests his kingdom as the dying, rising and disappearing Messiah. And yet he warns us that we all prefer right-hand power.

“Every one of us would rather chose the right-handed logicalities of theology over the left-handed mystery of faith. Any day of the week—and twice on Sundays, often enough—we will labor with might and main to take the only thing that can save anyone and reduce it to a set of theological club rules designed to exclude almost every one.”

The discussion fascinates me, because I think he puts his finger on something very important. The kingdom of God comes in the mystery of his power transforming lives, not in our power to compel others to act the way we want them to. Right-hand power conforms, but left-hand power transforms. I like how he plays this out in the ministry of Jesus. He was touching people at a relational level, not an I’m-God-and-I’m-here-to-make-you-do-it-my-way. The one will produce slaves or hypocrites, but not children transformed by the Father of all!

There are some other nuggets in that book I’ll let you in on as well over the next few weeks…

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The Deaths of Terri Shiavo and Pope John Paul II

The deaths of Terri Shiavo and Pope John Paul II have dominated our news over the past two weeks. What are we to make of these two events as we think outside the box of organized religion?

Later this week Brad and Wayne will be taping their third edition of The God Journey and will be examining these two events and what they tell us about Christianity in the 21st century.

We have now opened up four channels for people to participate with us in the conversation, sending in their comments or questions before we begin. Our favorite is a Voice line where you can record your questions or comments for play on the webcast. To find out how you can participate with us, please see The God Journey Blog. We’d love to know what some of you are thinking about these events.

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The God Journey – Show #2

As previously announced, we released our second webcast last night at thegodjourney.com.

The Adventure of a Lifetime discusses how thinking outside the box means pushing away from the safe, but boring confines of routine, and growing in a dynamic relationship with Jesus. Brad and Wayne also discuss the gay marriage debate, triggered by a recent court decision in California that overturned California’s ban on gay marriage.

The response to our first show has been a bit overwhelming. We appreciate your feedback and your patience as we continue to grow with this medium and provide the means where others can join the conversation.

Blessings to you all!

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We’re Home!

What a fabulous time we had together for seven days in Hawaii celebrating our 30th Anniversary. Yes, we got it in a bit early because Sara will be busy with year-end school stuff when our actual date rolls around in May. Thanks for all your prayers and blessings! We had an incredible time relaxing, reading, hiking and seeing the sights on Oahu. We also met a lovely sister there whose family who felt called away from the box of organized religion a couple of years ago. If you want to see more photos you can check out our Ofoto album of the trip at here .

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We’re Taking a Break Around Here

Sara and I leave tomorrow for a celebration of our 30th wedding anniversary. We’re doing this a bit early. Our anniversary date isn’t until May, but Sara’s schedule is really crazy then as the school year winds down. So, certain that we’re going to stay married until May, we’re taking advantage of this time to celebrate Easter for a week at an exotic locale where we can hike, snorkel, golf, read, eat and talk each other’s ears off. That means the office will be closed until April 1.

Any books or CD orders that come in between now and March 31 will be shipped on that date. I’m sorry for any inconvenience that this causes, but we’re a two-horse operation here and haven’t got anyone to cover for us while we’re gone.

It also means this blog will be quiet, very quiet! Nothing new will happen at The God Journey and I won’t be participating in the Lifestream Yahoo Group during this time either.

Sara and I are looking forward to some serious vegging time! We both can use some real time of renewal and refreshing. We’ll be back in touch when we return on April 1.

We pray your Easter season will be filled with the knowledge and assurance of Christ’s finished work on your behalf—both in dealing with our sin at the cross and in his resurrection from the dead, the firstborn of a whole new race of redeemed humanity. What a joy it is to live in his reality and for it to become more real every day.

Blessings to you all!

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It’s Never Too Late—Even at 91!

This is the other letter I told you about yesterday. If you didn’t read that one you might check out A Daughter Finds Her Way Home, This one I received from a brother in Texas:

I wanted to let you in on a neat experience that was precipitated by your writing. My Dad was 91 years old and we began to have some very pointed conversations about the Church and he began to state that he could not put his finger on it, but he felt that something was missing. I started printing articles that you have written about the relationship that God wanted with us. He devoured everything including your book He Loves Me, . He told me that it was like he had a new birth in relationship that he only remembered in the past.

We spent a lot of time talking about this dynamic relationship and hearing God’s voice once again. He stopped doing the institutional thing and got with God and it transformed his life into a life of joy that he infected those around him more than I knew. He was very active and drove himself to the nursing home every day to minister to his wife of 64 years suffering from dementia.

At the end of January of this year, he told me that he was having a pain in his chest and it was hard to breathe. We went to the doctor and in a very short time found that he had severe heart disease and he departed on February 11 and we had his memorial service on Feb. 14. I was so close to him that I really did not know how I would handle the situation. When I got the call from the hospital, I went back to bed and was overwhelmed by the comfort and joy that only comes from Christ. I wrote his memorial service and attached to this email. My Dad’s testimony today is stronger than ever and the doors of communication have burst open. He never knew you, but he knows whom you serve and love and was very appreciative of the writings. The article, Why I Don’t Go to Church Anymore was his epiphany. If a person can get it at age 91 anyone can because of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit.

Excerpt from the Memorial Service:

About the year 125 A.D. a Greek by the name of Aristeides was writing to one of his friends about the new religion, Christianity. He was trying to explain the reasons for its extraordinary success. Here is a sentence from one of his letters: “If any righteous man among the Christians passes from this world, they rejoice and offer thanks to God , and they escort his body with songs and thanksgiving as if he were setting out from one place to another nearby.”

Psalms 39:4-5 says, “LORD, remind me how brief my time on earth will be. Remind me that
my days are numbered, and that my life is fleeing away. My life is no longer than the width of my
hand. An entire lifetime is just a moment to you; human existence is but a breath.

If you heard that GWR of Texas is dead. Do not believe a word of it. At this moment he is more alive than ever. He is gone higher that is all—out of a clay tenement into a house that is immortal. A body that sin cannot taint, a body fashioned into His glorious body. GW was born in the flesh in 1913 and born of spirit in 1923. That which is born of the flesh will die; that which is born of the spirit will live forever. We come here today to celebrate because we know that GW is another place nearby.

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A Daughter Finds Her Way Home

Every now and then I get a letter that just blows me away. I received two such letters this weekend and want to share them both with you—one today and one tomorrow. While I’m grateful God used something I wrote as a tool in someone’s life, I know well that the kind of work this letter describes has his fingerprints all over it, not mine. I share letters like this because I know this sister is not alone. There are many like her who have lost the simplicity of relationship with a loving Father to a religious overlay of self-effort. If that’s you, perhaps her story will inspire you and you, too, will hear God’s voice wooing you back to himself.

I would so much like to thank you for making He Loves Me, available as a PDF file. We live in The Netherlands and would, at the moment, absolutely not be able to buy your book. I have just finished reading it and it has caused sort of an explosion /implosion in my life.

In 1994 God let me know, in a supernatural way, that He was in fact ‘out there’. (I came from a non-religious background). In 1996 I stepped in to a church because I realised I needed to learn a few things, and realised I wasn’t getting there without help. There they taught me what Jesus was doing in the story (I had not figured that part out yet) and that God wanted to be my Father and was looking for a relationship. Wonderful! I dove straight into that and within a few months I was baptised with the spirit and in water, and I started to hear His voice. Amazing things were happening all over my life. I truly felt myself to be His daughter, and felt close to Him everyday, this lasted for nearly 2 years.

Then there was this conference about Gods holiness. Here they presented the Holy and demanding- God and Judge. I felt like I had neglected this part of Him, and tried to integrate it into our relationship. It was a great struggle. I just could not get those two sides of Him (or so I believed) to make up one Person. Now I realise that this is where I lost my close relationship with God. I have been asking myself over the last three years where I lost it, reading your book made me remember that conference and the following struggle.

Four years ago God asked me to leave my church and follow Him to learn other things. It hurt because I loved that church and had many friends I knew that would not understand, but I wanted to follow God no matter what. I don’t think I have to tell you what happened, you probably know very well about rejection and losing people you thought were friends. We started meeting at home, just my friend and me. Later my husband and someone else joined, and sometimes we had visitors. A few months back I read the story you wrote about the New Zealanders (LINK) that stopped ‘doing church’. I had felt dissatisfied with our Sunday morning meetings and really felt that God asked us to give it up for the moment. I also realised His motivation was wanting a closer relationship with each of us. So we agreed to stop meeting regularly and just ‘go with the flow’, see how He would lead me. Since then I really have been focusing on getting back the relation I once had, but as you might guess, in all the wrong ways.

What really opened my eyes was the question at the lake: “Peter do you love me?” And the comment: “Why would God Almighty be concerned with the love of a man who betrayed Him?”
It literally took my breath away. For the last few weeks I have heard God ask me: “Do you love me?” over and over again. Of course I loved Him! But because He kept asking I got nervous about what is was that He wanted me to do. If He keeps asking, it must be something major! – I thought. With this story the revelation came: “He doesn’t want me to do something, He just wants my love! He has been asking me if I would please just love Him.” At this point I had to stop reading for
a while.

After this, every chapter in your book gave me this happy shout inside: “Yes, this is it! This is what went wrong, this is what I once had, this is what I have been missing!” I know I have to watch my step over the next few months and be careful not to try and earn His approval with my best efforts, but I once had it, I know it is Gods biggest desire to get that back, so I have no doubt that it will be back! Over the past few days, reading your book we have already cleared a lot of misconceptions of mine out of the way, and He has been showing me where several thing went wrong, of how my perception was wrong.

For a simple: thank you, it has become quite a story, but… Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!!!

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The Failure Rate of Abstinence

A new issue of BodyLife, is up on the Lifestream website. This one has to do with sexual freedom in the midst of a sexually obsessed culture.

Interestingly enough there is a new study out by the National Institute of Health and the Center for Disease Control pledges about teens who take virginity pledges. On the upside the study found that those who take virginity pledges delay their first sexual encounter by 18 months over those who do not take the pledge. They tend to marry and younger ages and have fewer sex partners. On the downside, those who take an abstinence pledge are just as likely to get sexually transmitted diseases as their counterparts because they experiment with risky alternative sexual activities that they don’t consider are included in the pledge and are less likely to use condoms.

Abstinence educators have dismissed the study and its conclusions as politically motivated. That’s sad, because there is much to be learned here. I hate seeing this turned into a political football, and both sides do it, rather than learn something from this study that will actually help us in our struggle to communicate sexual realities to our children. Do we unwittingly put kids of faith at risk of contracting a destructive STD, because we think telling them to say no is enough? A few years ago someone introduced me to the failure rate of abstinence. I was shocked to hear the term because I though abstinence until marriage is pretty foolproof. But the failure rate of abstinence is how many Christian teens in a hot and heavy moment on a Friday night fall of the abstinence wagon. And because they have to convince themselves the encounter was unplanned for guilt purposes, they rarely use any kind of protection. I’ve talked to a lot of kids in their twenties from Christian homes who confessed to this kind of struggle in their teens and their parents had no idea.

The study only points to something Paul makes said in Romans 5-8, that where law increases sin increases all the more. The focus on a pledge alone, without a relationship to the living God that sustains that pledge and transforms the life from within will have a limited effect. The mind set on abstaining from the flesh is still a mind set on the flesh and it can only produce death. We certainly have to give our children more tools than a vow of abstinence if we’re going to help them value one of the greatest gifts God gave and use it with absolute safety in the way God designed it.

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A New Venture – thegodjourney.com

It certainly brings together more than a year’s worth of effort to sort out how God wanted Brad and I to fulfill an idea he put on our heart to communicate more effectively his life in the world.  Many of you know we were approached about hosting a local radio show last year, but in the end we were asked to do things that in good conscience we couldn’t do.  In the last few months we’ve seen a new way to take that show to the world and bypass the suits of Christian radio. 

Webcasting via mp3 files has been done for some time and now it is launching a new industry called podcasting as people are downloading these audio files to their mp3 players and listening to the kind of radio they want to hear.  The New York Times and USA Today have done articles on this phenomenon and Wired Magazine in its current issue calls podcasting and satellite radio the end of regular radio, as we have known it. 

So much of the Christian media overtly and subtly reinforce only one view of church life that an increasing number of people are finding insufficient to fulfill their spiritual hungers or to help them discover the rich vitality of the body life they read about in the Scriptures.  So do many conversations with other believers, championing human effort over God’s power, guilt over acceptance and the misguided priorities of our culture’s thirst for money, celebrity and achievement, rather than finding the joy in surrendering to Christ’s work in us.  We felt it was time to add this resource to that conversation in a way that can encourage people who are thinking outside the box

Today we are releasing our first webcast and some additional material from our practice tapings. You can find them at The God Journey’s own website.  We look forward to growing with you in this new endeavor and value your input and prayers as we explore what this might be able to do to encourage people in the life Jesus came to bring us.

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