Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Paul’

Careful Laying On of Hands

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , on March 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

What is it about the laying on of hands that is so potent that Paul must give warning about it? Some translations imply it’s the implied authority that the laying on hands imparts, but I think there might be more to it than that: it might have to do with power.

I Timothy 5:22
Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.

When the elders or leaders lay hands on Timothy, he was empowered or anointed or sent forth to do the work to which he was called. The people who touched him agreed with this call and witnessed it. They shared some part of themselves through that touch. And with it all, came the “gift” that was his and needed for the work ahead.

On occasion, we still see the laying on the hands in our contemporary churches. Sometimes, it is done to send out someone on a missionary journey or a new project. But more often, it is done in the name of healing. And isn’t it because we want that act to evoke a change? We desire for our health, let’s say, to give strength to the one who is sick. Or, maybe, we can be a conduit for a greater power, that of God Himself through the Holy Spirit within us.

But why doesn’t it seem to work?

Perhaps we lay hands too quickly. Perhaps we have missed the true transaction. Perhaps we should step back and consider why we are reaching out.

The laying on of hands should be intentional. I intend to make my next act more meaningful. I will ask for the explicit participation of the Holy Spirit beforehand. I will prepare my heart and clear my mind and purposefully extend the promise of the Christ.

Who am I to do this? No one, but a follower of the Christ who walks ahead of me and shows the way.

Read Full Post »

What is a church?

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Paul writes to the elders who “direct the affairs of the church” and I can’t help but wonder, what is this church? Many have written about the church over the centuries and it continues to morph. Today, some are big business while others gather in a private home. What is it for me? You?

I Timothy 5:17
The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching.

There is something about the corporateness of “church” that appeals to me. If I had the time, I’d look up the scripture references to gathering together, supporting one another, and building unity. But for now, I’ll just say, I know, in my heart, that “koinonia” is important.

There is a difference between Church (capital “C”), the greater Body of Christ throughout the world and the sub-unit of the Body, also called church (small “c”). In some cases, those sub-units have become silos and have built walls between their brands of corporate worship and the practices of other groups. They may even worship the same God but too many become suspicious if activities and terminology don’t resonate with their own.

Is church merely a place to worship together? Or is it just a corporate agreement that we share the same God? Is it a family? Or is it better than family? Is it accidental or intentional?

Some will glibly say the church is the people and not the building. And yet, they don’t know the person sitting next to them.

Mike and I are part of the launch of a new church in Havre de Grace called Restore Church. What will that look like? How will it be different, or will it? What does it mean to “do church?” Will we be able to know one another? Will we achieve true koinonia?

Will we get caught up in the government of church or the “affairs of the church” and lose the essence?

There is so much talk about church planting, but what are we planting? Are we putting down roots? Are we nurturing ourselves and others?

For the past twenty years, we have been at the same church, a wonderful mass of people, and yet we felt it was time to move on to experience something else. There was no anger, no complaints, not really, just a languishing feeling. My fear is that it simply comes with my age. Am I simply tired of church in its most traditional sense? What is it I want to experience now?

I have a lot of questions but few answers today. But I know this, it’s important to ask and to seek. It’s important for Spirit to lead.

Read Full Post »

The Widow List Rules

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Culture, culture, culture. Is there any doubt that Paul is writing out of his time and place? In these verses, Paul lays out some very specific parameters and rules in order to be on the “widow list.” What did they get for being in this list?

I Timothy 5:9-10
No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband [dead or alive], and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.

According to the Amplified translation, the list or roll was for those women who would, from that day forward (assuming they could stay on the list), would receive church support. They would be cared for and loved. God forbid if a woman was 59 or 58. Would they bend the rules? What is her husband was an abusive clod? What if her children, despite her efforts, ended up in jail? Who decides what is hospitable?

If there are women out there who met all of Paul’s rules, I doubt very seriously that they would need to be on the widow list because individuals would be reaching out to them for all their good deeds, help, and foot washing [personal service]. Outside of money, the women on Paul’s list seem to be strong, healthy, and full of spiritual insight. They would be loved and appreciated already.

Sorry, but I think the women on the widow list might need to be different in today’s world: homeless, abused, neglected, lonely, shamed, lost, addicted, sick, or hungry. They need strategies for survival and recovery. They need patience and forbearance. They need unconditional love and wisdom.

The widow list is not like Santa’s list, where only the “good kids” get the stuff. Like the movie, Cider House Rules, where the list was made by people who had never walked or understood the shoes of those who lived in the Cider House, so are Paul’s Widow List Rules. I find him insensitive and downright clueless.

But perhaps the really sad thing is that we all make “Widow lists.” We judge the ones around us and compare their circumstances to the list in our heads. Is this person deserving? Should I give this homeless person a dollar or will he/she squander it away?

I wish I could remember her name, but there is an amazing British woman who has served in China for many years as a missionary. I will never forget one of her teachings that chided us well-meaning helpers saying that Jesus only asked that we give and serve the poor, not second-guess what will be done with with the gift. Such an idea goes against everything we assume: shouldn’t I be a steward for what I give? I don’t know the answer to that.

But today, I’d like to throw out my lists and see what happens.

Read Full Post »

Saved from What? Again

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 15, 2011| 3 Comments »

Photo by Roy Mac

A friend of mine derisively asked me what traditional Christians believed they were being saved from? She, who believes more so in the oneness of all things and the greater gestalt of body, mind, & soul, has no reason to entertain an eventual end result of hell. Is that what salvation is all about: “not” hell and “yes” heaven?

I Timothy 4:16
Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers.

It’s not quite so simple for me. I mean, I believe in a God that is so not like us that we can’t fathom what God IS. Why else would God say, “I am that I am” [Exodus 3:4]. God is non-dimensional in a human sense and because God probably dwells in a non-dimensional or other-dimensional world (for lack of a better term), is that heaven? Or is that simply not our world?

Then, to complicate matters, some of this non-dimensional space exists within us — that’s the “kingdom within” stuff.

“Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, “Here it is,” or “There it is,” because the kingdom of God is within you.’ “[Luke 17:20-21]

Isn’t the kingdom heaven? Yes. Within . . . and without. Because God is greater than my interior self or my personal piece of the Holy Spirit.

So what is hell then? Well, it’s certainly NOT any of those things. It’s not experiencing the kingdom within or without. It’s not being aware of personal spirit, much less Holy Spirit. It’s a separation. The question is whether there is sentience (awareness, mental perception, consciousness) after the body stops working, after the body dies. Is it hell because the self knows it is separated? [See the story of Lazarus, a poor man who begged at the gate of a rich man every day. Lazarus died and went to heaven while the rich man died and went to hell – and knew it. Luke 16:19-31]

Christ says the way of the personal spirit, the soul if you will, is easy after “body death” when it’s connected to a “host.” We are literally invited to become parasitic and leech off the Holy Spirit as much as we want. I know these terms are generally used in a negative sense, but think about it. And for interest’s sake, I found that one of the synonyms for parasite is follower or apostle as well as bootlicker, sycophant and servant.

“This is good, and pleases God our Savior, who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.” [I Timothy 2:3-4]

Knowledge of the truth is awareness of the way.

To be saved then is to discover the inner way and to be conscious of it, to choose to jump on the back of the Host. Once attached and embedded, then Self is redirected and desire is born to love, to help, to enlighten, to listen, to bear, to hope, to renew, to persist, to expand, to glow, to know, and to become transparent.

There are a lot of people who are bashing Rob Bell for his latest book called “Love Wins.” Lots of hype. But it’s interesting to me to discover how many people are angry that he is saying that Love might be so powerful that it will become the ultimate paradox and break open the gates of hell. God is Love and God provided the Christ to reveal the mystery of the love message and the Holy Spirit to work the message in our lives.

In the early days of my Christian walk, I cringed when well-meaning people in passionate church settings would ask me if I’d been saved. I had no idea what they were talking about except for some vague sense of possibly escaping the fires of Dante’s Inferno if I asked Jesus into my heart. Asking Jesus into one’s heart is only effective if we latch on tight to the Host. Life is a rodeo. And hell is a tsunami of the soul.

Read Full Post »

Neglecting My Gift

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , on March 13, 2011| 2 Comments »

This is a partner verse to the previous message about training myself up to be Godly — also gift-based. Can’t train if I don’t know what I’m training to do and can’t nurture (opposite of neglect) my gifts if I don’t know what they are.

I Timothy 4:14
Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

Back in the day, Timothy had a specific experience when a group of elders prayed over him and layed on hands (a practice mentioned in a variety of places in scripture – a focused prayer). That day, apparently, a gift was given. What did that look like? Did someone speak the gift and another verify it? Did the Holy Spirit fall upon Timothy in some kind of dramatic way like a “tongue of fire?” Did Timothy, himself, proclaim a revelation of the gift?

We’ll never really know. But what about me? Is there a gift for me?

Many people I know believe this was one of the spiritual gifts (like those listed in I Corinthians 12 or Romans 12). But if that is true, how does one neglect a gift of that kind? If I have the “gift of prophecy,” let’s say (the speaking forth of God’s message or in some cases, foretelling of future events), how would I nurture it? How would I neglect it? Is it just a matter of using it? But how do I “use” a gift? It’s not like I can wield a prophecy at will. If it’s a gift, then it’s pretty much up to the giver to decide when to pass it along. In this case, that would be the Holy Spirit.

There are some people who believe they can find out what their gifts are by taking an online assessment test either here or here or even here. It used to be that such assessments were the domain of fringe churches and primarily independent churches, but now, even the mainline denominations have gotten into the spiritual identification business.

I’m being a little catty and arch here because it has started to feel a little like a child at Christmas sitting under the tree and trying to figure out what’s in the brightly wrapped packages. I no longer believe the gifts are determined or discovered in this way.

I believe God gives gifts as they are needed. Period.

We can either choose to use that gift in the moment or not. If we don’t use it, then it is not in operation. That does not mean the gift is lost to me or that God won’t give that gift again tomorrow.

If the Holy Spirit wants to heal, then that gift is given and the same for all the others. It’s possible that a person may have a sensitivity to one gift over another, but again, I think it depends on the time, the place, the need, the desire, etc.

So, if what I am saying is true, how would Timothy neglect his gift? I think it’s the gift of the mystery of the Christ. That is the ultimate gift and we neglect that gift when we don’t spend time to connect with the Holy Spirit, to pray, to commune, to contemplate, and then to respond to that time with actions, like love, touch, talking, listening, giving, or anything else the Spirit prompts.

I suppose there can be a gift of a mantle of sorts, like the passing from Elijah to Elisha [II Kings 2:13-14] but again, how that gift is used by the individual may be different even though the mantle is passed. Something to think about for another day, I think.

But for today, I merely ask the Lord to show me the way of nurture, that I, too, would not neglect that God has given to me. Alleluia.

Read Full Post »

Train Yourself to be Godly

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , on March 12, 2011| 1 Comment »

Isn’t this a summary of the entire Christian walk? And yet, in the same way that I make New Year’s resolutions, start diets, and buy exercise equipment, I am erratic in my spiritual training. It’s the journey and not the destination that is critical.

I Timothy 4:7-8
Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. 8 For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.

I know Paul makes a big deal about the benefits for the afterlife, but I am not moved by a promise for an unknown future. (I mean, what do we really know/understand about heaven – that multi-dimensional other place that we can not even imagine, much less describe.) No, I am more interested in what this training will do for my 3-D life now, my day to day, my interactions with others, my state of mind, my service, and my heart. If these would get boost from spiritual training, then whatever comes later is gravy. That may sound crass, but I mean it.

We live in a troubled world. As scripture says, we live amidst wars and rumors of wars. “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. . . ” [Matthew 24:7] Japan just experienced a 8.9 earthquake and the headlines are reading that 9,500 people are already missing from a single city. This is a kind of mass devastation that feels unreal to those of us sitting in our living rooms and watching television or drinking in the sunshine of the day.

What is the spirit response to this weary world and sorrow?

I am a pebble tossed in a different pond, but there are those concentric circles around me. If I can manage to bring down the veil that dilutes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit from within me, then God can use me to touch that first circle around me.

The training is for the first circle and then the second and then the third, ever wider. But I cannot leap into the bigger circle without the practice of the inner one. That is a true myth.

My problem: I keep putting only little pieces of myself into the water like a toe or a hand, I don’t jump in and get completely wet. I am afraid of drowning, even at this level. I don’t trust the water, not really. So I go out for more training in the use of goggles and flippers and underwater gear, instead of trusting that my previous training is enough.

What does most of that training look like? Letting go. It’s “Let go and let God” became so popular over the years. It’s more about letting grace work, letting the Holy Spirit lead the way. It’s about the breath of God doing the breathing and not some tanks strapped on my back.

Read Full Post »

Deep Truths of the Faith

Posted in Lent, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on March 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

In the Amplified, this phrase is written as the “mystic secrets” of the faith. And in other translations, the “mystery of the faith.” In all of them, the key is the revelation that came through the Christ. Faith is required: it is not of this world.


I Timothy 3:9
They [deacons, servants] must keep hold of the deep truths of the faith with a clear conscience.

Because Christianity has become so well “coded” and molded by traditions and habit and assumptions, the wonder of the message is often lost. God-Spirit manifested in the Christ and created a path back to Himself that was not burdensome or difficult, except for one thing: the path must be embraced as truth. The path is a wonder because it is a road filled with paradox. The way is not straight, but help is always within reach. The ground is not without potholes and rocks, but a guide is promised to navigate us through safely.

I think back to that moment in time when I accepted the mystery of Christ as a reality in my life. It is indeed a mystery how I could be faithless one day and full of decision the next, how I could be asleep and then awakened.

During this Lenten season, I am using a devotional called You Set My Spirit Free: a 40-Day Journey in the Company of John of the Cross adapted by David Hazard. I love this book because it makes the mystic writings of John of the Cross more easily accessible to me. He writes,

“This flame of love is sent down to us from the Father of Lights. Isn’t it love that bathes our soul, kindling a sense of awe and wonder at the glory of God? . . . What I have just described, is in fact, the way the Holy Spirit begins His work in the soul. It is love that causes us to rise up from spiritual sleep and open ourselves to God. Love is the call; and love is the transforming power.”

All love is a mystery, even the love between humans or animals. Yes, love can be nurtured and love can be protected, but the first instance of love, the awareness of love, that is mystical. To think any differently is to downplay its power. And for this reason, it is called a deep truth of the faith.

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »