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Emperor Chooses Bride for His Beloved Son

This was posted on an Internet list that I frequent, and reading it today touched me deeply. It is supposedly a well-known story that has circulated among the believers in China during persecution. I do not know who wrote it, but would be happy to give credit where credit is due if we can find a source for this story. Until then, enjoy an incredible story…

An Emperor, seeing his son, the heir, coming to maturity, knew the time had arrived to chose a bride for his son. While this bride would traditionally be selected from the Nobility Class young maidens this Emperor was exceedingly wise. He would open the selection process to all of his realm desiring a maiden of faithfulness to duty and responsibility, one who would be of good character and integrity, in order to rule with his son.

He sent out servants with instructions: Each hopeful applicant would be given one single seed today… one special seed to plant, to water, to maintain and care for, and in one year all were to assemble w/ their plants and the selection of Bride would be made from their offering.

The Kingdom was abuzz with the announcement, and everyone astounded by the wise Emperor’s process. Though it did appear to many, as a rare departure from his usual wisdom.

Among the maidens from far and wide we find a peasant girl named Ling. Returning home w/ seed in hand, excitedly telling her mother of today’s assignment, they secure clay pot and dirt and Ling plants her offering. Faithfully watering it daily, two and three weeks go by and nothing has come up. Four, five, six weeks and still nothing, though she hears other young maidens talking about theirs beginning to grow.

Six months elapse, and still nothing to show in her dirt and clay pot. With heart of hope sinking within her, she just knew she had somehow disqualified herself and killed the seed before it had time to grow. While reports kept coming in at how others had such strong and delightful plants and some even trees growing from the Emperors special seed.

After the year, and with nothing to show, Ling dejectedly decided not to even return for the final selection process, avoiding the humiliation, that peers were sure to give. But her Mother insisted that she follow through, regardless of the result. Finally Ling agrees to attend. Though it did seem such a waste in attendance exercise.

When Ling entered the palace with empty pot in hand, she was overwhelmed by the lush variety of plants grown by the other applicants—all manner of shape and sizes, lush and seemingly prosperous plants for sure. Yes, others eager to weigh her efforts, looked upon her empty pot, and with snickering mixed with sympathy coming from the other young women, it was so very hard to bear. So she slips towards the rear of the room, as if to hide.

When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young women. “My, what great plants, trees and flowers you have grown,” said the emperor. “Today, one of you will be chosen to be the bride of my son, who will in turn be emperor of this kingdom!” All of a sudden, as he was speaking, the Emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with her empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring her to the front. Ling was terrified.

When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked her name. “My name is Ling,” she replied. All the women and servants were now laughing and making fun of her.

The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, “Behold the bride of my son! Her name is Ling!”

Ling couldn’t believe it. Ling couldn’t even grow her seed. How could she be the chosen one?

Then the emperor said, “One year ago today, you were each given a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds, which would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers because when you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my true seed in it, untouched and not substituted with any other life. Therefore, she is the one who will be the wife for my son!”

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Truth in the Strangest Places: Nuggets of Wisdom from ‘Joan of Arcadia’

Sara and I have enjoyed watching the first two seasons of CBS’ Joan of Arcadia. It is the story of a young high school girl whose life is continually interrupted by God as he appears to her in various forms and asks her to do things that make little sense to her. It airs at 8:00 on Friday nights on CBS. I like keeping an eye on how our culture perceives God and his nature. It doesn’t all match our views, but it is always interesting to know what others are thinking.

There are multicultural aspects to the characters that represent God in the show that can be offensive, but there is also some real depth in the story lines as well. At least one of the writers on this show really understands a bit of God’s nature and how he works in the world. Here are some moments from last week’s show (February 11) that gives viewers a peak at God’s reality:

The theme of the show was sorting out the reality in romantic love. At one point Joan fears she is losing her boyfriend and asks God about it. He responded,

“People don’t really belong to each other, Joan, regardless of what contract they sign. They choose each other every day. But if you’re worried, why don’t you just ask him?”

The theme of the show is drawn together as God talks to Joan about the death and resurrection our experience implicit in the process of romantic love maturing into real love:

“The illusion dies so that something deeper can take its place… Real love is hard work. You have to decide if you want it in your story or if you’d rather just stay in the dream.”

That is true of so many things. One of my favorite characters in the show is a drop-out nun who quit during her training deciding it wasn’t right for her. She’s rejected ‘religious’ answers for life’s issues, but offers up Godly perspectives on life and pain. When someone suggests that she of all people should understand guilt, she answered:

“Quick story before I leave. The reason I became a nun is after the second time I stole money from my blind grandmother to run away from home to join a surfing colony. I decided I was so horrible a person that no normal remedy could save me. [Pause] Thinking you’re the worst person in the world is no different than thinking you’re the best. It’s giving yourself a place in the universe that you have not earned.

In another scene she is talking to Joan’s mom whose husband is being manipulated and harassed by his female boss. She senses something is wrong with this woman but can’t seem to find the word for it.

“Evil?” our drop-out nun suggests.

“I don’t want to use that word,” the wife responds.

“Well, you might want to think about starting, because it is out there.”

“Evil is so ugly and fire-breathing. She isn’t like that.”

”Are you kidding? Evil is charming and beautiful. It makes you doubt yourself. It asks for one small compromise after another while it whittles you down. And it functions best when no one believes in it.”

If a better definition of evil has been written by our culture, I don’t know what it would be.

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Engaging the World With the Life of Christ

I noticed some of you were a bit concerned by the John Fischer quote, of a couple of blogs ago. This may tweak some of you even further. That’s not my desire, most people recognize how irrelevant the message of the gospel has become in our world, and I think Fischer’s article strikes at the heart of why that’s true. We have tried to fix the world, not demonstrate the Father’s love into their lostness.

First let me say that my view of loving a lost world never involves accepting their sinful behavior. How could it? Love always speaks the truth, but it does so in an environment where truth has the best opportunity to be heard. Jesus was gentle with sinners. His harshest words were directed at those captive to religious arrogance. He had the amazing ability to love people without confusing them that he was condoning their behavior. As we learn to love like him we will to.

Second, my comment about those thinking of November elections as a Christian victory was not a shot at Bush, but a response to the recent Time article identifying the 25 ‘evangelical leaders’ lining up at the trough of quid pro quo politics to reap the rewards they feel the Bush White House owes them for their political support. My point was that we can get every law passed that we want and still not engage this world with the reality of Father’s kingdom. It doesn’t come by law or by politics but by the demonstration of his reality through lives who have been transformed by his nature. I am not against people working for better laws, but I have great concern about those who wrap their political agendas in the name of Jesus who do not demonstrate the least bit of his nature in their own lives.

I’ll offer you two more quotes by Don Miller in Blue Like Jazz that bear on this discussion. While I’m not any more nuts about the term ‘Christian spirituality’ than I am ‘Christianity’, I share his aversion to identify with a term that has become so politically charged its meaning has been robbed. We’re not being called ‘Christians’ today because we look like Christ in the world, but because we’ve joined a group that uses that term to describe our religion. Anyway, here they are:

For me, the beginning of sharing my faith with people began by throwing out Christianity and embracing Christian spirituality, a nonpolitical mysterious system that can be experienced but not explained. Christianity, unlike Christian spirituality, was not a term that excited me. And I could not in good conscious tell a friend about a faith that didn’t excite me. I couldn’t share something I wasn’t experiencing, And I wasn’t experiencing Christianity. It didn’t do anything for me at all. It felt like math, like a system of rights and wrongs and political beliefs, but it wasn’t mysterious; it wasn’t God reaching out of heaven to do wonderful things in my life. And if I would have shared Christianity with somebody, it would have felt mostly like I was trying to get somebody to agree with me rather than meet God. I could no longer share anything about Christianity, but I loved talking about Jesus and the spirituality that goes along with a relationship with him.

Tony the Beat Poet says the church is like a wounded animal these days. He says we used to have power and influence, but now we don’t, and so many of our leaders are upset about this and acting like spoiled children, mad because they can’t have their way. They disguise their actions to look as though they are standing on principle, but it isn’t that, Tony says, it’s bitterness. They want to take their ball and go home because they have to sit the bench. Tony and I agreed that what God wants us to do is sit the bench in humility and turn the other cheek… We decided that the correct place to share our faith was from a place of humility and love, not from a desire for power.

I know this last quote is not true of all believers looking to influence public policy, but it certainly looks this way for most of them that make the talk-show rounds or pontificate from their own TV pulpit.

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The Quick Fix Is No Fix At All!

Our Tuesday night group has just finished a study through Galatians. I love that book because it helps me break further out of a religious mindset toward the things of God and see the way he actually works with greater clarity. Case in point:

”And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. Galatians 6:9

Paul warns us here that many things God does don’t come to fruition over night. God is never in a hurry, always choosing the deeper more complete work over the quick fix. Our culture has made us servants of the quick fix. We want everything right now, and when we don’t see our acts of obedience producing the kind of outcome we want, it is easy to give up. We conclude either that our relationship with God isn’t deep enough or our efforts are not good enough to secure his working. We even begin to wonder if our Father even cares about the circumstances we are in and find ourselves separated from him in frustration at the time we most need to lean into him with confidence.

We become like the young farmer who rips out his young grape vines after the first year because they had no grapes on them. He thought grapes were like wheat and come to fruition in the first year. Vines don’t work like that. It takes five years to bring a vineyard into production and if you don’t know that you won’t see it through until the harvest.

I see so many believers start out well and when they don’t see the results they expected to see after a few months or even a couple of years, they begin to doubt themselves or God. They lose their heart and either live in frustration or try to find their fulfillment again back in the things of the world. They keep missing what God wants to do in them because they can’t stick with it long enough to see the fruit that he wants to produce in them.

I guess the upshot is this. If we’re focused on outcomes we’ll lose our heart very easily as God takes time to work deeply in us and in people around us. If we’re focused on him instead, then it won’t matter how long he takes because we’ll be with him in the process. We’ll be able to keep on the path he’s put before us until the harvest is complete. He is working in you, you know, to will and to do of his good pleasure whether you can see it or not. Just because you can’t see the fruit of it yet, doesn’t mean it isn’t developing for a future time. Relax in him. He has not abandoned you. He will complete what he has begun, just don’t expect him to do it in your time frame and you’ll be freer to enjoy him in the process.

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“Lost and Found” by John Fischer

A friend of mine from Wales, sent me the following piece written by John Fischer about our engagement with the world. This piece teems with the message and spirit of Jesus. For those that thought the November elections in the US were a major Christian victory, this might give us pause and consider just what message we are sending to the world in the name of our Savior:

For some time now it seems to have been very important to many people in the church and in Christian circles that the world is wrong. As a result, a good deal of effort has been put into trying to fight the wrong in order to overcome it and make right prevail. This has been unfortunate in some ways for our mission in the world, which is to spread the good news of Christ’s forgiveness to all because of the cross, and invite people to become followers of Christ. As a result, a confusing mixed-message has gone out. Something like: We love you and want to let you know that Christ died for your sins; we really don’t like you unless you see things the way we do.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid the second message has been much louder than the first. It’s become more important to make society Christian than to make Christians in society.

There’s one way to a quick attitude change that will help us get back on track with our mission. Think of the world as being not wrong as much as it is lost, and “lost” is the operative word.

When someone is wrong, the other’s job is to set that person right. Do you have anybody like this in your life—someone who is out to set you straight in some area? How happy are you to see this person as a general rule? This attitude creates a very conditional relationship and one in which the person who is “right” is always better. In contrast, when someone is lost, the other’s job is to find that person, and believe me, someone coming to my rescue is a much more welcome sight than someone coming as my judge.

Jesus stated His mission was as one coming to seek and to save what was lost (Luke 19:10). He loved the lost. He told lots of stories about lost things: a coin (Luke 15:8-10), a pearl in a field (Matthew 13:44-46), one sheep among a hundred (Luke 15:3-7), and one son who was lost—who when he came home, was not touted for being wrong, but was celebrated for having been found (Luke 15:11-27)!

God’s heart is really big. He’s already dealt with the right vs. wrong thing on the cross. No need to spend a lot of time proving what we already know about everyone including ourselves: that we’re all wrong. Let’s get back to finding people who are lost, and the joy of being found ourselves (because we were lost, too). I think that will be much closer to our mission.

When Jesus looked at the world he didn’t see bad people needing to be fixed, but he wept over them with deep compassion as those who are “harassed and helpless like sheep without a shepherd.” When you get that, you will simply be his witness in the world, even when you’re not trying to be.

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17 Hours Over 4 Days

On my recent trip to Kansas, I got to enjoy one of my favorite weeks of the year. Teaching at the HIV/AIDs Intervention School at the YWAM base there, I got to have 15 students for 17 hours of concentrated discussion over four days where we get to eat, fellowship, and live together while each are sorting out what Father is doing in them to invite them deeper into his life.

My course title is God’s Compassion For the Afflicted, but to get there we deal with the entire paradigm shift from thinking religiously about God’s life and helping them think relationally. That means we have to untangle some of the religious wiring and help people embrace a new covenant paradigm as to how God wants to work in us and through us. Some of the things God sorts out in folks during this time are…

  • Learning to live in God as the Affectionate Father not the Demanding Taskmaster (Rom 8:15).

  • Watching that relationship change our Pharisaical contempt for the world into heart-felt compassion for those lost and lonely in the darkness.

  • Losing confidence in our own efforts and agenda to accomplish his work, and freeing us to simply live alongside Jesus each day and watch what he does through us.

  • Redefining life in the church not as our participation in services, assent to theology or belonging to an organization, but in growing, free relationships with other fellow-travelers.

  • Experience the reality of growing trust in Father’s character and work and seeing how that transforms our self-focused lives to live freely and powerfully in his desires.

Of course all that doesn’t happen in a few days, but it can help people begin on this journey, or encourage those already on it to go much further down the way. This summer the Kansas base is taking this training on the road to Durban, South Africa and I hope to go if the Lord desires. I recently saw a video from there where 48% of the people living in one township of 400,000 people are HIV positive. This disease is literally ravaging Africa and I am so blessed to know those who have it on their hear to go and help. I also heard that as many people are dying with AIDS every 22 days as those who were killed in the recent tsunami. Imagine a tragedy like that that has become so commonplace it no longer makes the news.

As I said at the outset, dealing with these realities is my favorite thing to do with a group of people. The YWAM environment puts this in a classroom environment, but I find it even more effective in a home over a weekend with a group of people who are ready to rethink the life of the new covenant away from the religious packaging we’ve but on it for the past 2000 years. This process is highly interactive and the relationships it spawns are always a great blessing to me. Some start this process deeply embedded in religion and don’t even know it. Usually the first couple of days can be a bit threatening. Others respond like camels to an oasis, finding that the things Jesus brings up answer some of the deepest cries of their heart. As one said to me, “This was the whole purpose God sent us here.”

The great transition the church needs to undergo today is not from meeting in buildings to meeting in homes, but moving from doing Christianity as a religion, to living freely in the life of Jesus. That will change how we think about body life, but it goes far deeper than that. Of course all that doesn’t happen in a few days, but it can help people begin on this journey, or encourage those already on it to go much further down the way.

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Perspective from Far Side of the World: A Day in the Life of Banda Aceh

A friend sent me this excerpt from a diary of a relief pilot working in the tsunami relief efforts in Indonesia. This was probably three weeks into the relief effort and I’d encourage you to take the time to read it. It will give you a heart for the crisis there and those who serve in the midst of it. I find stories like this are a great way to get perspective on my own life. Living in the abundance and decadence of Western culture a
This was written by Andy McCain, a helicopter pilot in Indonesia, and is reprinted here with his permission. If you’d like to write a note of encouragement to he or his wife, Tammy, you can do so at ATMcCain@pobox.com.

I am sending you a snap shot of what kind of an average day is like, as we go about the day to day of meeting the needs of the hurting and helpless of Banda Aceh. I am changing the names of the people we serve, as I do not want to expose anybody to publicity that they may not want.

3:30 AM: I awake to the sound of the water tower next to my tent clanging away like it is being beat with a hammer, as steel framework twits and turns in the pre-dawn air. My air mattress is also shaking and rolling, kind of giving me the feeling that I may be surfing away at any moment. What is going on I wonder, then I realize that it is just one of the usual early morning earth quakes that likes to wake us up in the wee hours of the morning. Only a 6.5 this morning on the richer scale we find out later in the day. Nothing to worry about. Found out later some of my teammates ran out of the house fearing it may collapse. I had to chuckle a bit. The people of Banda Aceh have been through so much, the sight of 2 approaching middle aged westerners running out in the yard in their underwear may have pushed them over the edge. Good thing it was still nice and dark and nobody could see the horror of that sight.

Shaking subsides to a small follow on tremor. I roll back over for a few more winks, as I know we are facing a busy day. At 4:30 AM, the local neighborhood mosque announces it is time to get up with the morning call to prayer. Sigh, lay there for about a half hour and then crawl out of my tent to begin a new day. Morning shower is dipped out of a cement bat or water tank with a plastic dipper. Nice bathroom even equipped with an Indonesian squat pot—luxury living at its best. I say that tongue and check, realizing that I know I am so blessed by what we have here. There are thousands of refuges with nothing more than a plastic tent for shelter, knowing that if there is no relief flights today, there will be no food or water for them and their families on this day.

6:00 AM breakfast arrives, cooked by our neighbor lady. Nice Muslim family who have been very friendly to us, and appreciate our concern and compassion for their people. We have provided the funds for food, and she does the cooking. Breakfast is nasi goring (fried rice) and eggs sunny side up topped with a few nice red hot peppers. That will get even the most tired eyes wide open once you chop down on these little morsels. You can quench the flames in your mouth with sweet tea, made Indonesian style, with enough sugar to float a ship. Wonderful way to begin a bold new day in Banda Aceh.

6:30 AM we are leaving the house as the first rays of the morning sun are streaking the eastern ranges around Banda Aceh with a soft orange/red glow. We had originally planned to leave the house around 7 AM, but during the night, we had an urgent phone call from “Folks with many Doctors”. Seemed the team we had inserted late in the afternoon day before, had come into contact with members of the resistance movement. Fearing any problems, were asking for an emergency extract first thing in the morning. We had huddled up quickly during the night, and opted to get going early on this extract so we could get them out for peace of mind, and keep the flight schedule on track for the relief supplies. The drive to the airport is a study in contrasts, as beautifully kept rice paddies wiz by near the airport, and people are careening in and out of traffic on motor scooters and motorcycles with sidecars. The amount of goods and people you can pack on a motor scooter can only be seen to be believed. Reality comes crashing in though as we pass the mass grave site, the earth moving equipment is silent now almost peaceful in the early
dawn light. We all realize in a few moments, they will be belching thick diesel smoke as they move mound after mound of dirt to accommodate the victims, both young and old that will be arriving by truckload during the day to the mass grave site. I have to look away for a moment, and think of home and family, we hold our breaths while passing by the mass grave area this morning. You can’t breath in this morning without feeling sick.

6:45 AM We are uncovering HCM (the helicopter) to get her ready for another days action in the skies over Banda Aceh. James from Australia is helping me push 55-gallon drums through the sticky mud from the nights monsoon deluge at the airport, so we can fuel HCM. Joel who handles the flight scheduling, also from Australia is busy opening up the helicopter for our first load of cargo to go in along with bringing out the distressed team from “Folks with many Doctors”. My teammate is up taking the covers off the main rotor head and the engine that help keep out the deluge of rain during the night. Across the flight line we can already hear the chop of the Australian Army Hueys as they are already taking into the air. All over the flight line engines are coming on line and blades are turning up.

7:10 AM We are fueled, loaded up, turned up and calling the control tower for departure clearance. Much as expected I am told to go and report 5 minutes out. Flying here is defiantly the “wild wild west”, right now. There are no rules to speak of, and very little control except maintain 1000 feet outbound and 500 coming in and nobody should be hurt at the end of the day. See and avoid is the survival rule of the day from an aviation standpoint. We make the pick up of the “Folks with Many Doctors”, they are quite relived to see us. Back to base at Banda Aceh, call tower next to Sultan pass, getting a call in edgewise is like pulling hen’s teeth. Tower says report left base to the helicopter spots realizing, that I will be lucky to get a turning final call out before landing. We usually settle for a safe on the ground call to the control tower.

8:10 AM The team of doctors and their emergency triage kits from “Folks in the western US” has arrived for transport a hard hit village called Lamno about 25 minutes flying to the south and is ready to go. HCM is out bound on what will be the routine for this day, and all the other days. We head outbound as I pass over the coastal side of Banda Aceh city, and see the devastation below me. I can’t help but think of the young man at the airport who told us how he had been married for only a month. How excited he and his wife had been when she landed a job at one of the better stores in the lower part of town. I looked down and wondered in all the wreckage which was the store that she had worked in? Newly weds looking forward to a happy life together. Home and a family, now the young groom can not even find his bride to give her a proper good bye, she like thousands of others lost to mountain of water that crashed ashore here. I am glad in many ways that I am busy flying, getting position reports out on the radio, and watching out for all the other air traffic. The busyness and attention demanded by flying in a high traffic environment like a major relief operation, does not allow my mind to have time to wander and reflect for to long on the devastation passing below us.

I make two more relief flights by 1 PM, in-between

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Myths About Those Who Have Moved Outside The Box

I ran across an interesting article today by Alan Jaimieson (a New Zealander) in Reality Magazine titled Ten Myths of Church Leavers,. Of course, I wish he had used another term for the Sunday morning box since the church of Jesus Christ in the world is larger than any box can contain, and you really don’t leave the church by quitting one of those boxes. Be that as it may, I found his observations and conclusions to be compelling.

Here is his opening paragraphs to whet your appetite:

Despite the almost mantra-like status of the statement “people are leaving the church” there still appears to be little understanding about who is leaving, when they leave, why they leave, and what happens to them and their faith after they leave. Of course everyone has their own view on these issues but few, especially our church leaders, have taken the time to sit down and talk with an actual leaver or two.

It is much easier dealing with stereotypes than actual people, even if the stereotypes don’t help us understand what is really going on. For those interested in moving beyond the stereotypes and asking: “Who are these people who are leaving our churches?” an examination of some myths about church leavers may prove helpful.

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Finding Unity in Father’s Family

A friend sent me this clip of an article written by a brother in Japan, Kokichi Kurosaki. I like how he deals with this.

One might think that with the Bible as the center of Christianity, the unity of Christians could be easily realized. Unfortunately, this has not proved to be true. This inability of Scripture to unify the Lord’s people proves that the letter of the Bible cannot really replace the living Christ as the center of our faith. The Bible speaks to us of the Life and work of God, and since ”life” is greater than its manifestation, it cannot be expressed completely in any logical or theological form. Therefore, the Bible itself cannot escape being understood in many different ways. Thus we see how, in the wisdom of God, it is impossible to make the Scriptures the end or final authority in themselves, for they only express God’s authority to those who live in fellowship with the Spirit.

Let us pause to remember. In rejecting the authority of the Roman Church, the reformers turned to the Scriptures as the authority for their faith and actions. In the fierce conflict of the early days of the Reformation, it was natural that they should seek the security of some objective standard to meet the seemingly unlimited politico-ecclesiastical power of Rome. Therefore the position of the Bible as the God-inspired testimony of the apostles’ personal faith in Christ gradually changed and became the source of Protestant ”dogma” and the criterion of acceptable faith. Replacing the Roman pope, the Bible became the center of Protestant churches.

And so on the one hand there are the so-called fundamentalists who, accepting the Bible as the ”infallible Word of God,” believe there is no mistake in the whole Bible, not even in one phrase or manner of wording. To them it is, in the most literal sense, the Word of God from cover to cover, and their faith is utterly dependent on its literal infallibility.

On the other hand there are liberals who try to compromise Biblical truth with science. Denying the spiritual in favor of the rational, or adopting the results of the higher and lower criticism, they reject the inspiration of the whole Bible.

There are yet others, though, who take the whole Bible to be the word of God as do the fundamentalists, but in a little different way. They believe that the Spirit acts in the words of the historical records to reveal the Living Word. They recognize the Bible as the record of God’s revelation of Himself throughout history, climaxing in Christ–an inspirited record resulting from the activity of the Spirit in the individuals who wrote it. There is only one center of Christianity, and this center is spiritual fellowship with God through Christ–life union with God in Christ. When there is this koinonia–fellowship–there is the Body of Christ, the Ekklesia. The Ekklesia exists where there is this life-union with God through Christ. Only this union with God in Christ can be the center of Christianity.

The only caveat I would offer, is not to see that life union in Christ as someone who agrees with what we think, or sees church the way we see church. I find people with the marks of the Spirit’s life in them in all kinds of places, even if they haven’t been through the same experiences I’ve been through. God has many ways to work his life into people. As we recognize his presence in each other, we’ll be less likely to seek out only the ‘like-minded’ and find incredible fellowship in lots of places God might lead us.

A friend of mine in Australia talks about recognizing the fragrance of Father in others. I like that. That’s why you come away from some relationships hungry for more, and others wanting a bit less. It doesn’t matter whether they see things the way you do or not, but whether we can see Father is at work in them to make his life known. After all, unity is a gift God gives his children. It is something we can only recognize and celebrate, not something we can produce by our own efforts. That’s why Jesus prayed for his Father to do it instead of asking the disciples to.

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Professional Athletes and the God of the Ages

For those outside the US, yesterday was our high pagan ritual to professional sports—the Super Bowl! Now I enjoy watching football, but I always feel my jaw clench whenever I hear one of our professional athletes try to invoke God’s in the process. Usually what comes out trivializes the God I love.

That was true yesterday hearing Terrell Owens credit God’s healing powers for his ability to play after breaking his ankle six weeks ago. “A lot of people in the world didn’t believe I could play, but my faith alone—the power of prayer and the power of faith carried me along the way.” I am certainly in no place to make a judgment as to whether God healed him or not, but with so many other dire needs in the world, I doubt having Mr. Owens in that football game was high on his priority list. I will be with someone tomorrow who has a severely handicapped child and who questions every day the reality of God’s love for her and her daughter. I can’t imagine how she feels if she thinks God has the power to fix an ankle for an over-paid and way-too-arrogant athlete while ignoring her cries of normalcy for her daughter.

But then professional athletes are not known for their sense of proportion. And I honestly feel for them. Can you imagine what it would be like to live your whole life measured every moment by your performance? They are adored, only for what they can produce, and when that goes so will their adulation by the crowds. If you want to see how shame distorts our lives, you need look no further than the boasting or blaming by those who have had to live by their performance the most. It’s no wonder they can only see God as a success-deity who will stop at nothing to make them succeed. Except when he doesn’t.

A few months ago another famous football player passed away unexpectedly at 43. Reggie White was a defensive tackle for the Green Bay Packers and well known for his personal faith. Yes, when his team won the Super Bowl, he said something a bit ridiculous like this victory was proof that God had sent him to Green Bay. I always wonder what the losing players feel at times like this. Is their loss proof that they missed God’s will?

After Reggie’s death, however, an interesting story emerged. You didn’t see it in the major press, but a few reporters covered it. It seemed at the end of his life, Reggie was on a bit of a spiritual journey that had taken him outside the whole structure of organized religion. He had stopped attending Sunday services and stopped preaching to congregations around the country. Why? It could have been the fact that after raising hundreds of thousands of dollars to rebuild an inner city church facility that had been burned to the ground in Knoxville, TN, the pastor he did it for was arrested for spending the money on cocaine. He began to question whether the money he raised would have been more helpful going directly to those who need it instead of paying for ostentatious buildings or salaries of so-called church leaders. Or, it could have been his growing awareness that people who came to hear him speak were more excited about seeing Reggie White than coming face to face with Jesus Christ.

Whatever it was, he quit! He told ESPN/s Andrea Kramer that he hadn’t been in a church building for four years and was on a journey to find out who God really was. He was still a passionate man for the Lord Jesus but had lost confidence in the institutions that had grown up in his wake. When he died, Reggie was on a journey to discover who God really was rather than to trust what he had been told about him. What a story! Isn’t it sad that he had to get away from football to recognize that God wasn’t who he thought he was? That’s what gives me hope for the rest of them.

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