Spiritual Optimism and Personal Vision

L. Dwight Turner

A fundamental component of living a life of spiritual optimism is the birth, development, clarification, and realization of your personal vision. Solomon tells us in Proverbs that without vision, the people perish. The same principle is true for all of us. We may not physically die without having a personal vision to guide and direct our steps, but we will surely die spiritually. Without the motivating presence of our own vibrant, vitalizing, vision we surely cannot manifest the optimal version of ourselves.

 A vision consists of our perception of our particular mission in life and more precisely, defines the specific framework within which we will carry out that mission. Vision gives us a sense of direction, acting like a compass when we lack certainty about our direction in life. In this sense, vision gives us a basis upon which we can make positive and effective choices among various options that might be available to us. A personal vision gives us hope and courage, especially when we are feeling overwhelmed or when we are confronted with difficulties or setbacks.

 The concept of personal vision is intimately tied to at least four other significant factors in the life of a sincere spiritual aspirant: God, dreams, purpose, and optimism. Although space does not allow for a detailed discussion of these four critical connections, let’s take a brief look at how personal vision is tied to them.

 It is imperative to understand that your personal vision is a Spirit-designed and Spirit-imparted phenomenon. Through my work with individuals and groups over the past 35 years I have come to the conclusion that the Holy Spirit imparts a specific, achievable, personal vision to each of us prior to our birth on this planet. Further, God not only gives us this vision, but also supplies us with all the talents and gifts we need in order to bring that vision to life and completion. We may have to work at honing and sharpening those Spirit-given talents but we should always keep in mind that those gifts come from a divine origin.

 Our dreams are also connected to our vision. I am not talking about the kind of dreams we have when we sleep. Instead, I am talking about those dreams that we entertain as we imagine what we would like to do and what goals we would like to accomplish. The dreams I am speaking of here have to do with our imaginings of becoming the best that we can be and even more significant, making a positive contribution to the world. These dreams, like our personal vision, come from God. I am convinced that our dreams are one method the spiritual realm uses to communicate to us about our personal vision. We, therefore, should never discount our dreams, no matter how far-fetched they may initially seem.

 In fact, there are many times that the most impossible dreams have their origins in the mind of God. Think about it. I believe Divine Intelligence desires that we always remain cognizant of the fact that we are ultimately dependent upon him for everything. With this truth in mind, it is very reasonable to assume that the Holy Spirit may indeed give us dreams that are impossible to fulfill without a vital connection to the Divine Source. Perhaps I evaluate a dream and feel inspired, but say to myself, “That’s something I could really get into and it meets a very real need. Still, there is no way I can ever do that by myself.” God, in response, may very well be saying, “No, you can’t. But we can.” The Bible clearly tells us that with God, all things are possible.

 I suggest that over the next week or so you set aside some time to examine your dreams, both current and from the past that, for whatever reason, you did not allow to grow and develop. Study these dreams and ask for guidance in gaining insight into how these specific dreams may now be or may have been connected to your personal vision. Do you see any common themes in these dreams? If these dreams somehow were to become manifest in reality, what specific and beneficial purpose would they serve? This exercise may help you in your search to discover the exact nature of your personal vision.

 How do I discover my vision? There is no one way to do this, but one thing is true: Start by discovering your personal purpose. Your vision should then flow out of that purpose. Discovery of our purpose (mission) is intimately tied up with our personal vision. One thing I have discovered over the years about uncovering purpose and vision is this: You have to be creative and think outside the box. At first, don’t discount any idea just because it seems impossible. Often, God gives us impossible things to do so that we can discover that we need him to do anything of last worth.

 Art Sepulveda, Senior Pastor of the Word of Life Christian Center in Honolulu has written an excellent book entitled, Focus: What’s in Your Vision. In this book Pastor Sepulveda gives the following guidelines for envisioning your future:

 Expand your horizons by stretching your imagination

 Nurture new ideas

 Vote for positive changes with a welcoming attitude

 Imagine the impossible

 Stay ahead of tomorrow

 Invent the future

 Operate expectantly

 Notice unlimited opportunity

 The pastor’s suggestions are first-rate and I would encourage anyone interested in kick-starting the process of discovering their person vision to implement his ideas. I think you will discover that developing vision is not nearly as difficult as you have imagined it to be. The reason for this is that you are not so much trying to invent something that doesn’t exist; instead, you are actually uncovering the outline of something placed in your heart by God before you took your first breath.

 Finally, let’s see how your dreams, purpose, and vision connect with optimism. It is a connected as part of a process that begins with potential and ends with the glory of assisting in the realization of God’s kingdom on earth. Let’s take a look at a synopsis of this process – a process that can only lead to Christian optimism.

 God has placed a unique potential within each and every one of us. The realization of that potential is part of our personal mission on this planet and exists within the context of God’s overall plan and purpose for humanity. When we marry our potential to our individual purpose, our potential is activated and we begin to move toward becoming all that we were designed to be. When our purpose is connected to a specific personal vision, our potential is further unfolded in the context of our purpose and vision. Further, this marriage of purpose and vision gives rise to passion. We become excited about bringing our vision into concrete manifestation. We arise each day with a feeling of optimistic energy and divine direction and we are enthusiastic about working toward realization of our personal vision.

   As the process reaches fruition, we then realize our vision, our purpose, and our potential. In doing so, we manifest our glory. Our glory can be defined as becoming the best version of ourselves and claiming our already established identity “in Christ.” By manifesting our glory, we are able to fulfill our God-given role in the establishment of his Kingdom. The entire process is thus carried forward in the Kingdom Context. God planted his divine plan in us in the form of our unique potential. That potential, along with our subsequent purpose, personal vision, passion, and glory, had an overriding purpose and that purpose was the unfolding of God’s kingdom here on earth.

 On a practical level, the kingdom context consists of the recognition that the primary reason Christ incarnated was to inaugurate the process of establishing his kingdom on earth. Our spiritual unfolding involves nothing less than having all of our actions flowing from the living awareness of our responsibility of carrying on the Lord’s kingdom mission.

  The power that carries this entire process forward, from potential to glory, is faith. We accepted God’s blessing of cleansing and salvation, our justification, on faith. Now we are to go a step farther along the road of faith: we are to accept that God has given us even more grace in that he has provided, as Paul says, “every blessing in the spiritual realm.” Or, in the words of Peter:

 Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in world by lust (2 Peter 1:2-5).

 In the words we often use  here at LifeBrook: God has provided for us all that we need in order to become the optimal versions of ourselves for the glory of God and the benefit of others.

 In essence, what we are talking about here is the blessed reality that God, through his grace, love, and infinite wisdom, has seen to it that we have all that we will ever need to be successful in life. He has planted a divine potential in each and every one of us and tied that potential with a personal purpose or mission that we are to carry out. The specifics of that purpose or mission are found in our dreams and our vision, which is also God-given and easily discoverable.

It is upon these very principles, based upon the spiritual reality of God’s love, his character, his provision, and his faithfulness, that we can readily lay claim to spiritual optimism. Indeed, If God be for us, who can be against us?

 (c) L.D. Turner 2009/ All Rights Reserved

Wise Words For Today

Maybe there’s a dream buried deep inside your soul, and God is waiting to reconstruct it, to put all the bones back together. He is waiting to put muscle and sinew on it and wrap skin around it…God is waiting for you to recognize that you cannot control the four winds, but he can. If he commands you to act, and if you will trust him, you will see all of creation move in concert to accomplish in you what you were created to do. You were created not simply to sleep through your dreams but to live dreams bigger than you, bolder than you….Your dreams are a foretaste of the life you can have and the person you can become. But before you will ever live those dreams, you have to discover a dream worth living. That’s why God is so essential to this journey and why Jesus has come for us. Long before you took your first breath, you were a dream – a dream in the mind of the one who made you. He saw you before you were created, and he alone knows the full extent of your creative potential…He sees the dream that could become your life. A life beyond your wildest dreams. Don’t take your last breath without living it.

Irwin Raphael McManus

(from Wide Awake)

Spiritual Doldrums

L.D. Turner

Growing up as I did on the coastline, I had numerous friends who were into sailing. I would go out with them from time to time and I vividly recall those experiences when there was just no wind available to catch our sails and, novices that we were, we just sat there baking in the South West Florida sun. My more seasoned friends used to call these times the “doldrums.” When we were in the doldrums, either we didn’t move at all, or if we did, everything was sluggish, in slow motion, and required great effort.

 I suspect most of us have similar periods in our spiritual lives – a sort of spiritual doldrums -  where nothing much seems to be occurring. I am sure that most sincere aspirants have them – those times of spiritual aridity where we feel we are just going through the motions but nothing of substance is happening. Even our cherished quiet time takes great effort and, although we may not be spiritually dead, we may feel that we have one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.

 Have you ever been there? God knows I have. As I said before, I think this is a fairly common occurrence along the spiritual highway. It may not be as distinct or as deep as the “dark night of the soul” that John of the Cross described so well, but sometimes it feels that way. I mention all of this because a few days back, when reviewing a book I have read several times, I ran across a great description of these sorts of spiritual doldrums when our sails seem useless and we experience a lack of God’s presence or sense we are, at best, just drifting with the current. The book I am speaking of is T.M. Moore’s Disciplines of Grace and I would highly recommend this work to anyone interested in spiritual disciplines and spiritual formation. All in all, it is a great read. Moore begins the introduction to the book with the following words, which are highly relevant to the topic at hand:

 We’ve all known them – those times when the wind seems to go out of the sails of our spiritual lives. Our time in the Word of God is unexciting and unfruitful. Prayer is a struggle. Worship never quite satisfies. Our devotions are either skimpy are even skipped. Our witness is virtually nonexistent. Too many things seem more important than spirituality, and we would not describe ourselves as “currently on the cutting edge of Christian growth.”

 Moore’s final phrase is both candid and convicting. I can say without reservation that much of the time I have spent in devotion has had that quality of feeling anything but being on the cutting edge of Christian growth. While it is true that I have experienced an undeniable call upon my life to utilize my God-given gifts of exhortation and teaching toward the establishment of God’s Kingdom on earth, there have been plenty of times I have felt like the spiritual equivalent of a thirsty elephant trumpeting about the arid banks of a dried up watering hole. Yet in an odd sort of paradox, these times of spiritual dryness and seeming distance from God have often been blessings in disguise and have helped me grow in wisdom and garner a deeper understanding of the fact that God can indeed by trusted, even when appearances seem to indicate otherwise.

 Still, I have often found that when I am in the midst of one of these droughts of the spirit, it is easy to lose perspective on spiritual reality. Confusion creeps in through cracks in my faith and a generalized sense of floundering and malaise set in. The only thing that I am certain of during these times is the reality that something is out of kilter. T.M. Moore continues:

 Nobody needs to tell us when we are spiritually becalmed, and a lot of navel gazing about why or how we got in this situation would not be particularly helpful. What we want is out, or rather, back on course with the Lord, our spiritual sails filled with the powerful winds of his Spirit once again. We want our devotions to come alive, our worship to flare anew with spiritual fire, the bounce to return to our spiritual step. We want to rediscover the presence of the Lord, to experience his glory and to bask afresh in the certainty and warmth of his mercy and grace. We yearn for the Word to speak clearly and powerfully to us. We long to know the assurance that our prayers are being heard and to experience the filling of God’s Spirit in fresh, new gusts of power and life. We want our hearts to pound with love for our God, and we want to be able to share that love more fervently and consistently to people around us.

 Anyone out there relate to the experience Moore’s words describe? I know I surely do and more to the point, my own personal experience has validated those words many times over. The overriding question thus becomes: “How does one get out of this mess?”

 Moore takes the approach that the most certain method of gaining freedom from the sort of spiritual malaise described above is through the practice of spiritual disciplines such as prayer, meditation, scripture study, fasting, quiet times and the like. I would tend to agree and I base that agreement once again on my own personal experience.

 Moore makes a valid point when he says asserts that the problems with this type of spiritual doldrums lie not so much with the lack of wind, but rather, the condition of our sails.

 However we have arrived at the spiritual doldrums, this much is certain: within the disciplines of grace…..lies the key to our recovery. For the Spirit of God is still blowing in those arenas as faithfully and powerfully as ever. The problem is that our sails have become tattered and in need of repair, and frankly, some of them have never been unfurled to catch his life-giving wind.

 It doesn’t matter how sincere or even how disciplined we may be in regards to our spiritual formation, the fact is we live in a world that is not conducive to living the kind of life Jesus calls his followers to. As a result, we followers of the Master can get beaten down, damaged, and diseased at both an obvious and at a subtle level. The world where we live, move, and have our being operates with values and principles that are the antithesis of those Christ enumerated in the Sermon on the Mount. It is little wonder that our sails can become damaged.

 Then again, there are some of us who have never raised our sails. Either through lack of discipline, laziness, and most insidious of all, faulty teaching, there are those followers of Jesus who have never practiced the spiritual disciples spoken of by Moore. I find it tragic that there are those present in the church that label anyone who either teaches about or engages in the classical spiritual disciplines as heretics. Personally, I find it appalling and even nauseating that anyone living 2000 years after the fact would have the arrogance and audacity to call anyone a heretic. Those that do so cause more damage and heartache to the Body of Christ than any external threat to the faith. And the irony of it all is that they do this without having even the faintest possibility of knowing with any degree of certainty what may indeed constitute an actual heresy. To use scripture to back up their claims is both a cop out and begging the question.

 Who knows? It may be that these folks are the real heretics.

 The fact is the spiritual disciplines were practiced by Jesus, the disciples, and certainly the early church fathers. All you have to do is read the works of the early Christians to see what sort of practices they engaged in. And it is these very disciples, described so well by T.M. Moore and many other writers, that can help lift us out of those doldrums we have been discussing. This debate has nothing to do with faith versus works, although many try to make it so. Personally, I firmly believe that the whole faith/works controversy has caused more disunity, disharmony, and damage to the church universal than any other conflict. This issue, however, is for another place and time – not this article.

 Rufus Jones, a renowned scholar, Quaker writer, mystic, and friend of my grandfather, is often quoted as saying:

 The grace of God is like the wind blowing across the sea. If you want to reach the other shore, you have to raise your sail.

 My advice to anyone experiencing significant spiritual dryness is to pray for relief and advancement, while at the same time, engaging in a select few of the classical spiritual disciplines. Experiment a bit and see what fits you best. According to T.M. Moore, and I concur completely, the spiritual disciplines are a part of the grace of God and are provided by the Father to help us grow in him.

 Granted, there may be periods of struggle and sacrifice as you discipline yourself to practice the spiritual exercises, but it will be time well spent. One thing is certain, it you do nothing, nothing will get done. That, my friend, is a fundamental law of the doldrums.

 © L.D. Turner 2009/All Rights Reserved

Wise Words for Today

 Christianity calls each of us to believe and trust in God, a belief and trust based on love. This is not simply a matter of intellectual assent….It is a matter of the truth of Christianity becoming ‘true for you’, as an individual. Only when Christianity becomes true for you so that you are willing to stake your whole life on it, does it really become true in your own case.

 Belief that God exists does not come near to what Christianity is about. It is only when the factual truth of Christianity becomes ‘true for us’ so that it becomes the center of our lives around which our whole existence revolves that we, as individuals, can see what Christianity involves….it means each of us coming to understand what it is for Christianity to become ‘true for me’, what Christianity is going to involve when it is taken on board and lived. Once we see and understand this, we then each of us have to decide whether or not we wish to try to live it – but that is our free choice. Until we have understood what is involved, however, we cannot even make the decision.

 Christianity requires passion and total commitment – a commitment to a lived love relationship with God. The relationship has practical consequences and these can, to an extent, be foreseen.

 ‘What does it mean to be a Christian?’ ….The important way of looking at this question, however, is to see it as asking each of us, ‘What does it mean for me to be a Christian?’ This is much, much more uncomfortable and challenging. There is no single right answer – each of us needs to think the answer through for ourselves.

Peter Vardy

(from  And if it’s True?)

Toward a Methodology of Discernment

L.D. Turner

I strongly believe that one of God’s central purposes for this age in which we live is to bring humankind into a deeper and more widespread knowledge of metaphysical principles in general and the subtle laws which govern the mind in particular. I predict that we will see greater and greater awareness of the practical application of these sublime principles and, in point of fact, we are already witnessing this process to some extent.

 Of course any time there is a move of God in a new direction, there is always the potential for mistaken understandings and bizarre extremes as believers on the spiritual frontier engage these themes. Yet we must be careful so as to not toss out the pearl of great value along with the refuse, or as they often say, throw out the baby with the bath water. This would be a huge mistake.

 As the Holy Spirit gradually makes available increasing knowledge of these laws, we must use our God-given gifts of discernment to separate the wheat from the chaff and put into immediate practice the principles that are beneficial and biblically sound. This is especially true in these days in which we have witnessed a dramatic rise in those who claim the gift of “prophecy” and are seemingly able to pour forth prophetic utterances at the drop of a hat. The question is, as stated, one of accurate discernment, which raises another logical question: What criteria will I use in order to discern whether a teaching is accurate and acceptable or way off the mark?

 Traditionally, there have been several approaches to evaluating a particular teaching or prophetic utterance. This trio of tools consists of Scripture, tradition, and Spirit. Interestingly, depending upon what denominational background you happen to be from, you might see one of these three emphasized at the expense of the other two. For example, Catholics by and large have turned to tradition as ultimate authority and this “tradition” is in the form of the Church. Most Protestants adhere to the principles of biblical authority and therefore turn to scripture as the objective measure of the value of a teaching. If a teacher comes forth with an idea, teaching, or spiritual practice that doesn’t agree with scripture, then it is considered unsound at best, heretical at worst. Within the Protestant fold, Pentecostal and Charismatic bodies tend to stress the validation of the Spirit. If the person feels the teaching is validated through the presence of and experience of the Holy Spirit, then it can be trusted. In all fairness, however, I must point out that many Charismatic and Pentecostal groups also point to the value of scriptural authority.

 Two other groups deserve mention, as their methods of evaluating teachings and practices, although similar to those described in the preceding paragraph, differ somewhat. I am speaking of the Quakers, founded by George Fox in the 17^th Century and the Methodists, founded by John Wesley a century later.

 The Quaker position is, at the same time, simple and complex. For the Society of Friends, the ultimate authority is the ‘Inner Light’ residing within each believer. According to Quaker founder George Fox, it is the source of all certainty for the Quaker and it is this Light Within that Friends seek when they sit in silence. Some Quakers equate the Inner Light with the presence of the Holy Spirit, which caused many Quakers to shake uncontrollably at times. Hence came the derisive name “Quakers,” because they “quaked.”

 From a historical and also a contemporary perspective, I find the most balanced system of discernment within the tradition of my own denomination, Methodism. John Wesley, founder of Methodism, stressed using the matrix of what he called the “Quadrilateral” in order to determine the appropriateness of any theme or idea. The four guidelines of Wesley’s Quadrilateral are: scripture; tradition; reason; and experience. For Wesley, the first, scripture, always took precedence over the other three.

 The Quadrilateral is not an historical artifact. This four-part tool of discernment remains in use today in the United Methodist Church, as well as other Wesleyan denominations. Although Wesley himself never used the term “Quadrilateral,” it is clear from his writings that he used this four-fold methodology as a means of not only guiding behavior, but as a tool for theological speculation as well.

 The term Quadrilateral was coined by Methodist Albert C. Outler in his 1964 compilation of Wesley’s works. It has become traditional in the United Methodist Church, by far the largest and most influential Methodist denomination, to formulate the Quadrilateral as follows:

 Wesley believed that the living core of the Christian faith was revealed in Scripture, illumined by tradition, vivified in personal experience, and confirmed by reason.

 In actual practice, contemporary Methodists vary greatly in terms of application of the Quadrilateral. Many members of this denomination use this methodology of evaluation in a very consistent and precise way. On the other extreme, there are probably a significant number of Methodists who are totally unaware of the existence of the Quadrilateral.

 In my own experience, I must admit that I sometimes utilize a unique blend of approaches when evaluating new ideas and techniques. As I mentioned a bit earlier, I am a United Methodist and have been for the past 30-plus years, so the Quadrilateral is almost second nature to me. However, my upbringing was strongly affiliated with Quakerism, in both its liberal and evangelical flavors. These factors, along with my own study of comparative religion, has resulted in a theological methodology which, although strange for some, works quite well for me.

 When evaluating any new teaching I first go before the Master in prayer, asking for guidance, discernment, wisdom and clarity. I then rest in what Friends often call “Sacred Silence.” It is in the context of this silence that the Spirit often speaks to me regarding a particular issue. Once I have an insight or revelation regarding the issue at hand, I then filter it through the matrix of the Quadrilateral. Finally, I also will often discuss the matter with a few of my most trusted spiritual friends. This way of doing things may not be universally applicable, but for the most part, it works for me.

 As our culture progresses deeper into the ever-shifting shoals of postmodernism I find it increasingly essential to have some way of ascertaining truth. Postmodern thinking stresses the lack of universal standards of factual reality and espouses the sanctity of “relativity.” More than ever, ethics are situational. As many of my friends within the Emergent Movement are so fond of saying, “There is no such thing as absolute truth.”

  Ironically, for them, that is the absolute truth.

 © L.D. Turner 2009/ All Rights Reserved

Wise Words for Today

*** Below is a somewhat lengthy quotation from Dr. Myles Munroe, an author and teacher who has done much to deepen our understanding and application of principles related to establishing God’s Kingdom. I decided to include this quotation in its entirety and hope you find his teaching on “priorities” as edifying as I did.

“The greatest secret to living effectively on earth is understanding the principle and power of priorities. Life on earth holds no greater challenge than the complicating daily demand of choosing among competing alternatives for our limited time. Our life is the sum total of all the decisions we make every day, and those decisions are determined by our priorities.  How we use our time every day eventually defines our lives. Life was designed to be simple, not complicated, and the key to simplifying life is prioritization.…The greatest tragedy in life is not death but life without a purpose – life with the wrong priorities. Life’s greatest challenge is knowing what to do. The greatest mistake in life is to be busy but not effective. Life’s greatest failure is to be successful in the wrong assignment. Success in life is measured by the effective use of one’s time.

 Time is the true measure of life. In fact, time is the currency of life. How you spend your time determines the quality of you life and death. You become whatever you buy with your time. Always be aware that everything and everyone around you is vying for your time. Your time is important because your time is your life. And the key to effective use of your time is establishing correct priorities. First things first!

 When your priorities are correct, you preserve and protect your life. Correct priority is the principle of progress because when you establish your priority according to your purpose and goals then your progress is guaranteed. Correct priority protects your time. When you set the right priorities, then you use your time for intentional purposes; your time is not abused or wasted. Correct priority protects your energy. Correct priority protects your talents and gifts. Correct priority protects your discipline. Correct priority simplifies your life.

 Failure to establish correct priority causes you to waste your two most important commodities: your time and your energy. When your priorities are not correct, you will find yourself busy with the wrong things, majoring on the minor, doing the unnecessary, or becoming preoccupied with the unimportant. Incorrect priorities in your life will cause you to invest in the less valuable, engage in ineffective activity, and abuse your gifts and talents. Ultimately, it will cause you to forfeit purpose, which results in failure.”

Dr. Myles Munroe

(from Kingdom Principles: Preparing for Kingdom Experience and Expansion)

The Implications of Covenant Relationship

L.D. “Mick” Turner

Of late I have been exploring the issue of “Covenant” in general the provisions of the New Covenant in particular. I think the theme of covenant is one which we Christians do not invest much thought in. As I explore the issue at more depth, I am increasingly aware of just how tragic this lack of awareness is.

 As Christians, we are charged with being keepers of God’s great story of redemption, renewal, and restoration. It is our calling to keep the story pure and to, by the most effective means available, carry that great story to the ends of the earth. Perhaps more than anything else, God’s great story is grounded in the reality of a “covenant relationship.” In this article, and a few more to follow, we will look at this notion of “covenant” and explore just how it fits into God’s great story and also look at how covenantal relationship has far-reaching implications for how we conduct our lives.

 Let’s start with an interesting happening, recorded in the 15^th Chapter of Genesis.

 I have always been fascinated by the story of God’s dealings with Abram, later to be named Abraham, as described in Genesis 15. It is precisely here that the reality of God’s covenant with humanity entered history. Although we often interpret this watershed event as God making a covenant with Abram, in a very real sense, God also made a covenant with himself.

 In those ancient times, whenever two parties entered into a covenantal partnership they would take an animal, cut it in two, and place one half on each side of a designated path. After doing this, the partners would walk between the severed halves of the carcass, thereby pledging to honor the agreement they had entered into. This act was highly significant and highly symbolic. By walking through the designated path together, the two parties involved were promising to be faithful to the promise made, but also agreed to endure a harsh punishment should either one fail to keep the agreement. Basically, by walking between the halved carcass, they were in essence agreeing to undergo a like fate should they fail to honor their pledge. It was a serious business, indeed. One did not enter into a covenant lightly.

 Now, let’s pay close attention to what happened on that fateful night between God and Abram. In Genesis 15:12 we discover that:

 As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him.

 While in this deep sleep, Abram was told by God about the future tribulations and blessings of the Hebrew people as well as the fact that God would be a righteous judge toward those who had oppressed Abrams’ descendents. Furthermore, Abram was told that he would live to a ripe old age and die in peace.

 Then something quite unusual happened. After laying out for the slumbering Abram the boundaries of the land his descendents would possess, a firepot and a torch passed through between the severed animals. God, in essence, walked through the pathway for both himself and Abram. Tim King and Frank Martin, in their excellent book entitled, Furious Pursuit, vividly describe why God chose to seal the covenant in this unusual manner:

 “God was so intent on seeing the promise fulfilled that he took no chances. He knew that his covenantal partner was fickle and skittish. When left to his own devices, Abram was driven by fear and shortsightedness, willing to pass off his wife as his sister or sire a son by his wife’s servant. Abram’s faith was like our faith – weak, undependable, and uncertain…..God knew that a covenant of this magnitude – an eternal covenant – had to be established on something much greater than human resolve. It required a level of faithfulness that only an all-powerful, all-loving, ever-faithful God could offer. So he walked alone between the halves of a bloody carcass. He pledged to carry the covenant on his own shoulders.”

 Whenever I pause, slow down, and allow the Holy Spirit to really speak to me on this issue, I sometimes am overwhelmed by both the insight and the compassion of our Father of Lights. Knowing all too well the fickle aspects of the human heart and the all-encompassing magnitude of the results of the Fall, God took it upon himself to seal this eternal covenant relationship. And in his act of walking between the halves of the carcass, we also see a symbolic foreshadowing of the future incarnation and sacrifice of Christ. Just as God put the keeping of the covenant with Abram on his own shoulders, Christ opened the way for the New Covenant, by taking all sin and iniquity upon his shoulders. We can even see the connection between these two events, the covenant with Abram and the crucifixion of Christ, as Jesus was forced to carry his own cross on his shoulders.

 The drama of that night is a chapter in God’s great story of restoration and renewal of his creation. The covenant implies that God seeks to deal with humankind through the parameters of “relationship.” The covenant has as its beating heart the honor and integrity of God the gracious giver and we the human receivers. Yet we also have responsibility in this partnership and we will discuss those responsibilities later. For now, let’s return to King and Martin, for they conclude with a powerful point:

 “Don’t miss the magnitude of this act….God was so convinced of his ability to remain faithful and so determined in his plan to restore us to himself that he was willing to lay everything on the line. When God walked between the severed animal pieces, he was saying to us, ‘This has never been about your faithfulness; it’s about my faithfulness. It’s not about your strength, your ability to remain in covenant with me. It’s about my strength, my ability, my love, my resolve to save you. I pledge to fight for you, to stay in relationship with you, to walk with you no matter what, from now until eternity.’”

 I have spent much of my life studying comparative religion and systems of spirituality. Exploring the various ways in which humankind has sought to find meaning, purpose, and ultimate understanding is, at least to me, one of the most fascinating undertakings a person can pursue. I say this to make a point that I firmly and passionately feel needs to be made. It is precisely this aspect of the Christian message that sets it apart from all the rest. This faith is not about working our way to God, but instead, about God emptying himself to pursue us in an act of sacrificial love. It is not about our spiritual achievements, no matter how splendid they might be. It is about God gathering us into a divine embrace and restoring us to our intended status.

 David Foster, founding pastor of Bellevue Community Church in Nashville, eloquently and cogently describes God’s consistent pursuit of us, no matter what the circumstance might be.

 “Jesus came to love you and give you life. He did not die to make your religious, but to give you a new heart. Because nothing changes until our hear changes, and the heart never changes by itself, we need help. Jesus’ death and resurrection is God’s promise fulfilled. “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezek. 36:26). And this new freed-up, joy-filled heart of flesh doesn’t tame, shame, limit, or lump easily. Instead, it sets the R4G in us free to be an agent of change with a message of hope for a world in pain….Our corporate mission is the fueling and funding of a global revolution aimed at the radical reclamation of the human heart. We are driven by a relentless, passionate pursuit of the divine scandal – namely – every life matters to God.”

 The fact that God loves me enough to pursue me through the days of my life and down the many dark alleys I have chosen to stumble just absolutely boggles my mind. My only response, once I fully accept this reality, is utter amazement and radical wonder. And then, I am awash in sincere gratitude. In the above quotation, Foster is speaking of the same principle enunciated by the Master when he talked about the good shepherd leaving the 99 to go in search of the one that is lost. It is the same motivating ethic that caused the wealthy landowner to go out on the road every day and gaze longingly into the dry distance, hoping at last to catch a glimpse of his wandering prodigal.

 Christianity, as revealed by scripture in general and in the person of Christ in particular, is not “religion,” although many have turned it into that. Christianity, as revealed in the act of God on that dark night with Abram and on that dark afternoon on Calvary, is “relationship.” In essence, Christianity is “Covenant.”

 To be continued….

(c) L.D. Turner 2009/ All Rights Reserved

Wise Words for Today

Jesus is like air to the lungs and water to a desert dweller. He is not a religious artifact. He’s not dead. He is alive. He is engaged and engaging. He is here now, changing lives all over this world this very moment. When He walked on earth He changed everything for everyday, for all time. What started then continues today. It can’t be stopped though many have tried. Jesus is the rock of redemption and His church will prevail. He is here in this moment with you, doing what He always does, calling you to a higher place, calling you to break free from convention and stop going to church and start being the church everywhere you go. Let’s be “Jesus people” again. Let’s be men and women whose hearts are captured, redeemed, renewed, enlivened, ignited, set fee! Let’s return to the revolution to be the change we want to see in the world!

David Foster

(from A Renegade’s Guide to God)

The Fragrance of God

L. Dwight “Mick” Turner

* A number of readers have asked that I post this essay, which was originally posted over a year ago, in its updated form. So, here it is – an bit of writing that brings back many fond memories of my grandfather.

This morning when I woke up and shook the fog out of my head, I became aware that I was thinking back on an experience I had undergone many years ago. Perhaps I had dreamed about it or it could be that the Sacred Spirit was bringing it to my attention for some reason. As I go through my day I need to be aware of this, in case the Spirit is indeed trying to communicate something to me. I have found that, at least in my case, God often gets messages past my thick mind by speaking to me in this indirect but unmistakable manner.

 Sometimes I wish I could hear from God a little more easily. I find myself from time to time wishing that I could just walk out in my back yard first thing in the morning and find God waiting there to talk to me out of a burning bush. I would even settle for a braying donkey.  It doesn’t matter so much how he did it, just that it was a little less troublesome and inconsistent.

 My old friend Jesse often tells me that God speaks to all of us all of the time, but we rarely have ears to hear. He claims that many people’s dependence upon thing like Bible reading, sermon-listening, and book study have blinded us, or perhaps I should say deafened us, to the crystal clear voice of God. For Jesse, God speaks through three primary media, nature, the inner light and other seekers. It could very well be that Jesse is right when he says we have become so dependent upon the ways we have been instructed to hear God’s voice that we can’t discern his speaking when it comes in other ways.

 Jesse reminds me of my grandfather when he talks like this. I have mentioned my grandfather before on this blog. A southern, rural man to the core, my grandfather was devoutly attuned to the rhythms of the natural world. As a child I often marveled at his knowledge, wisdom, and uncanny ability to see things that others couldn’t see. A Quaker and a mystic by birth, from the time he was a teenager my grandfather was a consternation to his parents because of his stubborn resistance to going to First Day Meeting as the Society of Friends called it. “Church” is basically what it was to others. This resistance did not go away once my grandfather reached his adult years and now, rather than to my great-grandparents, his absence became a consternation to his wife, my grandmother.

 The reason I mention all of this is that it was often through my grandfather that I learned that God did indeed speak through venues other than the church, the preacher, the Bible, and, in his day, radio-evangelists. I carry to this day one distinct memory of my grandfather’s approach to religion that was for me an epiphany of sorts. I was 12-years-old and our family was visiting my grandparents during the Easter season. Little did I know at the time that this would be a Palm Sunday I would never forget.

 As usual, my grandfather had resisted the family’s repeated entreaties that he join them for the Sunday morning meeting at the “Meeting House.” Even more to my surprise, he asked me if I wanted to stay home with him and “help him take care of a few things.” You can’t imagine my delight at this turn of events. I responded that I would love to stay home and help him and that pretty much settled the matter.

 After putting out some extra feed for his two mules, my grandfather took me for a walk in the woods adjacent to his farm. Eventually we came to a clearing, a meadow actually, that was dotted with patches of wild flowers. From our vantage point, the meadow seemed to extend forever and the patches of flowers were like explosions of color in a sea of green. As was often the case, we walked and talked about all kinds of things. I had something I wanted to ask him about and finally got around to it, although I was somewhat apprehensive about asking him.

 “PaPa,” I began. “Why is it you never go to church with the family? I have only seen you go a couple of times. Do you hate church?”

 “No, son….I don’t hate church. In fact, I like it,” he replied, chuckling under his breath. “I just like to spend my Sabbath day being with God.”

 I recall being mystified by his answer and, after scratching my head for a minute or two, go around to asking the logical question a 12-year-old boy might ask.

 “But church is where God is,” I said. “If you want to be with God, why don’t you go to church? It doesn’t make sense, PaPa.”

 “God isn’t in church much these days, son. At least I haven’t seen him there in awhile,” responded PaPa. “At church preachers preach (they were Evangelical Quakers), singers sing, prayers pray, and gossipers gossip. That doesn’t leave much time for God to say anything.”

 I remember he paused for quite awhile to let his words sink into my still young mind.

 “I figure if I need to be with God, to talk to him and listen to him, I need to come out here where it is quiet,” he continued. “God didn’t build that church, but he sure as hell made these woods and this meadow. I figure if I want to talk to God I need to go where he lives.”

 “I think I understand, PaPa,” I recall saying. “But isn’t religion important? My Mom says my religion is the most important part of life and that when I grow up, I can’t live without it.”

 After a long silence, my grandfather looked me squarely in the eyes and told me in no uncertain terms what he thought about my question.

 “Just keep in mind a few things and it will make your spiritual life easier and less troublesome,” he said. “First, understand that religion doesn’t have anything to do with God, and vice versa.” My grandfather had to explain what vice versa meant. I was only 12.

 “Religion is an invention, just like the wheel and the telephone,” PaPa continued. “Spirituality is sometimes a part of religion but most of the time it isn’t. Unlike religion, spirituality is not an invention. It is something as much a part of being human as breathing, sleeping, and sex. All of those things are built into us from the start. So is spirituality. Our job is so make our lives spiritual every day. Religion is supposed to help with that, but most of the time it prevents spirituality, it doesn’t create it.”

 I guess my grandfather was one of the early people to be dealing with the religion vs. spirituality conflict. These days the familiar adage about being spiritual but not religious is so commonplace it has lost much of its real impact. I should not be surprised, however, at my grandfather’s words. As I mentioned, he was a Quaker and a mystic throughout his life. In fact, he knew the Quaker mystic Rufus Jones quite well and often told stories about Jones. I never had the opportunity to meet Rufus Jones, although I would have loved to. Jones died in 1948 I think, which was a year before my birth.

 As for me, I was thoroughly confused by this time. I struggled to understand what my PaPa had said, especially the business about spirituality and religion. I asked grandfather if he could tell me again about the difference between the two. Here is where the epiphany came in and also where Rufus Jones fits into this story.

 “Come over here,” said PaPa as he got up and walked toward one of the flower explosions in the meadow. “Now, pay close attention and I think you will get the picture.”

 Grandfather kneeled down and picked an absolutely beautiful bright purple flower. As I knelt beside him, he said, “I want to teach you something Rufus Jones taught me many years ago. This is probably the most beautiful flower in this whole meadow. Imagine this is the church. Sometimes churches can be really beautiful places, inside and out. And the folks inside can be beautiful, too.”

 I listened carefully and appreciated the flower, but wasn’t sure what he was getting at.

 “Now, hold the flower to your nose and take a good whiff. Smell it deeply.”

 Taking a deep breath I held the flower to my nose and smelled of it. Oddly, there was no fragrance, either good or bad.

 “There is no smell, PaPa,” I reported.

 “Isn’t it strange that a flower so attractive can have no fragrance?” said PaPa. “Churches can be like that as well. Our family goes to a church a lot like that.”

 He then picked another flower, not unattractive by any means, but far less striking than the first. He held it to my nose.

 “It is wonderful, PaPa,” I said after drinking deeply of the fragrance of this rather ordinary looking flower. “What is it, PaPa?”

 “Spirituality,” he said in a serene voice filled with certainty.

 © L.D. Turner 2008/All Rights Reserved

The Christian Faith: A Future Vision

Mick Turner

As the new century begins to unfold, we often hear many so-called and often self-proclaimed “experts” on culture and religion predicting the extinction of Christianity. If one listens closely to these pundits, it would seem the faith is already in its death throes, gasping vainly for its final breath. Are these doomsday prophets correct? Is the ancient and once-vibrant church universal on the cusp of being relegated to the dust bin of sociological irrelevance?

 The answer is clear: Yes and no.

 If one is speaking of the Church in its traditional form and structure, securely anchored to its dated and increasingly ineffective methodology of encountering the world, then the answer is a resounding yes. The Church of yesterday is rapidly becoming just that – the Church of yesterday. Stubbornly clinging to a Jurassic vision of its mission, function, and structure, the traditional church is incapable of successfully navigating the shifting shoals of the post-modern world. To make matters worse, people outside the Church have an increasingly negative view of Christianity in general and Christians in particular.

 There can be little doubt that we are living not only in the post-modern age, but the post-Christian age as well. Some of our more cocooned brothers and sisters may be in denial of this fact, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is true. And now hear this, things are not going to go back to the good old days. As the old saying goes, once it’s a pickle, it ain’t gonna be a cucumber ever again. Don’t just take my word for it, take heed of these statistics, culled from the research of several prominent church historians and sociologists, as well as renowned researcher George Barna.

 Historians postulate it took from the beginning of the church to the year 1900 for followers of Jesus to make up 2.5 percent of the world population. In the seventy years beyond that, it more than doubled. By 1970, the number of committed believers in the world expanded to over 6 percent. From 1970 to 1992 the number doubled again. So right now, in the world it is something like 12 or 13 percent. These are flowers of Jesus Christ, people who say, “I am born again.” Here’s what’s really interesting. Seventy percent of this growth happened in the last fifteen years. All of that sounds pretty good, Turner, so why are you waving all these red flags in our faces? Well, here’s why:

  Seventy percent of that growth is happening outside the United States.

 The trends on our shores are just the opposite. In America today, over 85 percent of the churches are stagnant or dying. And while the appearance is there is an abundance of churches, the truth is most are nearly empty buildings with an average attendance of fewer than seventy-five. Every week more churches close their doors. Even in Nashville, the buckle of the Bible Belt and home to numerous large para-church ministries, churches are being turned into storage buildings, office complexes, and strip joints. Some downtown churches are more famous for the architecture than for the person and purpose they were built to glorify.

“America is fast becoming the land of empty church buildings and hollow religion,” said David Foster, founding pastor of one of Nashville’s largest congregations. “Out of   450,000 Protestant churches, we lost fifty thousand churches in the ‘90’s. I heard a denominational leader say recently roughly 5,000 ministers are leaving the ministry every month. These are obscene and sobering numbers.”

 Not such a pretty picture, is it? I live in the heart of the Bible Belt, where people still go to church in large numbers and Christianity remains a strong force in the cultural mix. We have no real shortage of churches and, except for several crisis-driven denominations, few churches are actually closing their doors. Still, the trend of declining numbers is more apparent in the larger cities in the Bible Belt, like Nashville, Memphis, and Atlanta. In other parts of the country, entire denominations seem to have on foot in the morgue and the other on a banana peel.

  Denominational leaders and church leaders tend to react in one of four basic ways: outright denial; panic-fueled tail chasing, like a dog running in circles; blaming everyone but themselves; or trying to find new, creative ways to fix the mess. Only Number Four has the proverbial snowball’s chance.

 A significant section of the Body of Christ has arisen, showing not only signs of life, but also a freshness of vision, a flexibility of methodology, and a contagious optimism. Often referred to as the “Emerging Church”, this proactive, mission-driven force in the Church is proving that the demise of the Christian faith is, to echo Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated.

 In my mind’s eye, I often see Christ standing before the fetid tomb of Mary and Martha’s brother. With a calm, reassuring voice, Jesus spoke:

 Lazarus, come forth!

 Some of those assembled there initially expressed concern:

 But Lord, he has been dead four days. He stinketh.

 In spite of the odor, Jesus called his friend back to life and Lazarus responded. Still wrapped in his burial cloths, the once-dead man now walked with new life. As the vision progresses, it is no longer Lazarus who I see resurrected at the Lord’s call, but the contemporary Church. Particularly, I see the revitalization and renewal of the old Mainline denominations, so rich in tradition and resources. These denominations have experienced the greatest loss in terms of numbers and influence, yet it is these very segments of the Church that have the most to offer.

 As the Body of Christ finds its way in our post-modern, post-Christian culture, I believe we will see major changes in the way the Church goes about its business. In addition to shifts in organizational structure and a reduced role of the ordained clergy, the churches that survive will be the ones that are innovative, transformative, and incarnational.

 If the Church is to reach the growing post-Christian culture in ways that are relevant and effective, several things must be seen with clarity and focus. First, the primary question that must be answered is not, “How can we evangelize these people?” Instead, the relevant question must be, “How can I help you?” It is through this sort of proactive Christian service that the Church’s evangelistic witness can be best fostered. Secondly, the Church must reconsider how it can best present the truths of the faith in new wineskins that are more appropriate than the 19^th Century model that is commonly used even today. We must re-introduce people to God, to Christ, to the Scriptures, and to the Church and this must be done in ways that are both practical and palatable, given the parameters of the environment in which the Church is now operating.

 One salient and ubiquitous feature of 21^st Century America centers on the increased interest in all things spiritual. Increasingly, people are seeking spiritual experience, not just dogma, doctrine, and didactics. Many Americans find themselves encountering the reality that something important is missing from their lives and they are quite active in their search for an answer. It is here that the Church has consistently fallen short of the mark.

 Protestant Christianity in particular has long been suspicious, even paranoid, regarding spiritual disciplines and spiritual experience. As a result, the Church as we know it has been narrowly focused on belief and doctrine, ignoring the experiential, subjective side of an individual’s walk of faith. Discipleship programs have traditionally been focused on regimented Bible study and the central aspect of the overwhelming majority of Protestant worship services is the pastor’s sermon. Is it any wonder that many churches see dwindling numbers? The spiritual seeker of today finds the typical church service and discipleship program as unsatisfying and irrelevant. As a result, they turn elsewhere. Spiritual paths such as Buddhism, Yoga, Wicca, and many self-help programs are flourishing, primarily because they are more likely to address the needs of today’s spiritual seeker.

 Connected with this lack of deep discipleship on the part of the Church is a general lack of transformative experience among the faithful. According to the majority of sociological and spiritual research done by Gallup, as well as George Barna, the typical believer is not significantly different than the non-believer in terms of worldview. Our pews are filled with sincere people who are, in the words of Thoreau, living lives of quiet desperation. This unfortunate reality accounts for the fact that a tour of any Christian book store will reveal a plethora of books with dust jackets that claim the book will, “change your life.”

 Why do so many Christian experience such a desperate quality of life and seek something life-changing? Precisely because the Church has not provided a consistent means for spiritual growth and fulfillment. Let’s get real about this. A few praise songs, a couple of corporate prayers, a didactic Sunday School lesson, and a sermon just doesn’t cut it. If the Church is to thrive in the context of the current culture, it must be transformative. Few people speak as clearly and consistently on this issue as Dallas Willard:

 “The overshadowing event of the past two centuries of Christian life has been the struggle between orthodoxy and modernism. In this struggle the primary issue has, as a matter of fact, not been discipleship to Christ and a transformation of soul that expresses itself in pervasive, routine obedience to his ‘all that I have commanded you.’ Instead, both sides of the controversy have focused almost entirely upon what is to be explicitly asserted or rejected as essential Christian doctrine. In the process of battles over views of Christ the Savior, Christ the teacher was lost on all sides…..Discipleship as an essential issue disappeared from the churches, and with it there also disappeared realistic plans and programs for the transformation of the inmost self into Christ-likeness. One could now be a Christian forever without actually changing in heart and life. Right profession, positive or negative, was all that was required. This has now produced generations of professing Christians who, as a whole, do not differ in character, but only in ritual, from their non-professing neighbors….”

  Finally, the Body of Christ must develop innovative methods of giving flesh to its primary mission: incarnating Christ. The new Church must be mission-driven and willing to get its hands dirty. I believe the 21^st Century churches that thrive will increasingly be those that arise out of the culture where a need exists. These types of congregations will be largely unconventional in terms of make up and methodology. Numerous examples already exist and can serve as models upon which new, innovative churches can be built. Congregations like “Mosaic” in Los Angeles, “Solomon’s Porch” in Minneapolis, and “The Rock” in Huntsville, Alabama are but three among many examples to build upon. These churches are thriving because they encounter the surrounding culture and grow within the context of that culture.

 If the Body of Christ can incorporate progressive innovation, transformation, and incarnation into its calling and its mission, the consistent answer to the naysayers who are blowing Taps on Christianity will be a resounding, “No!”

 The Church faces major challenges as it learns to live within a cultural context in which it finds itself increasingly marginalized. We can either put our heads in the sand and pretend the storm isn’t on the horizon, or, we can come up with creative new wineskins to fulfill our commission being salt and light in our world. Realistically, we can assume some churches will do well, while others will become flavorless seasoning and blown out light bulbs. Some will become, in the words of Paul, a pleasant aroma to the nostrils; while others, unfortunately, will stinketh.

  How individual churches choose to respond to the realities of the situation will determine whether they will die, survive, or thrive.

 © L.D. Turner 2009/All Rights Reserved