Wise Words for Today

English: Jesus entering Jerusalem on a donkey (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We must start where Jesus started, with muddied, wretched-feeling people. Jesus didn’t start with the mud, but the hope of this “good news” about a God of grace who offers damaged people a relationship to become the people they were intended to be (we all need that). . . . . . . . . .Think about it: Jesus didn’t confront Zacchaeus about his thieving practices, he offered relationship, and that changed Zach! Jesus didn’t make sure the woman at the well understood that sex outside of marriage is wrong (though he taught that it was at other times), he offered her living water that made the muddy water distasteful. Jesus didn’t remind the woman caught in adultery that she broke the Ten Commandments – he didn’t have to – he set her free from condemnation so that she could “go and sin no more” (John 8:11 NLT). He offered a chance to live a new life! Relationship was Jesus’ solution to sin. Can we offer restorative relationship to very muddied people? That’s what it takes to be like Jesus. 

John Burke

(from Mud and the Masterpiece)

The Apologetics of Incarnational Living

Evangelistar von Speyer, um 1220 Manuscript in the Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe, Germany Cod. Bruchsal 1, Bl. 1v Shows Christ in vesica shape surrounded by the “animal” symbols of the four evangelists. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mick Turner

Any thoughtful, observant Christian should be aware by now that the Western church is in crisis. Don’t be deceived by the growth of the so-called “mega-churches” and the various and sundry “evangelistic explosions” that we see taking place. The fact is, people are leaving the faith in droves and fewer new faces are coming through the doors. Moreover, these dwindling numbers, along with our culture’s increasing negative view of Christianity, have relegated the church to a position of peripheral social influence.

Once the bedrock upon which our culture’s value system was built, the church is now little more than marginal voice in the constantly shifting tides of post-modern America. Identified by most Americans as joined at the hip with Right-Wing Conservatism, the church is viewed with increasing disdain and animosity. Traditional attempts at evangelism and apologetics only seem to make the situation worse. Evangelism is seen as an attempt by elitist Christians to ram their faith down people’s throats and apologetics is viewed as an archaic attempt to make the unreasonable make sense.

If the church is to survive, drastic changes must take place. It should be obvious by now that the old ways of “doing church,” especially evangelism, is doomed to failure.

Personally, I have come to believe that the most effective form of Christianity involves being faithful to our calling to incarnate Christ to a hurting world. This is the essence of what is often called “Kingdom living.” It is a lifestyle which, if carried out with compassion and commitment, will in and of itself draw people to the faith. It involves a simple paradigm: find a pressing social need and address it.

Put simply, it means giving flesh to grace. This is what Christ did and we are called to no less.

When people of faith express the love of God through acts of service and kindness, people take notice. These simple acts of grace accomplish far more than reasoned arguments, stadium rallies, popular seminars, and best-selling books. These simple acts of grace, especially given the church’s increasingly negative image in our culture, are the most effective forms of evangelistic activity we can engage in. It was not so different in the early church, which can serve as a model for what we should be doing.

In the middle of the Third Century a terrible plague devastated the Mediterranean world, dealing death to large swaths of the population. Many of those stricken with the disease were sent out of the cities, destined to die agonizing deaths alone and terrified. The Christian faithful, however, responded in a much different fashion. Dionysius, the bishop of Alexandria, describes the acts of grace this way:

Most of our brother Christians showed unbounded love and loyalty, never sparing themselves and thinking only of one another. Heedless of danger, they took charge of the sick, attending to their every need and ministering to them in Christ, and with them departed this life serenely happy; for they were infected by others with the disease, drawing on themselves the sickness of their neighbors and cheerfully accepting t heir pains. Many, in nursing and curing others, transferred their death to themselves and died in their stead.

Many people were drawn to the fledgling church by the acts of service and sacrifice that so typified the early Christians. I am of the belief that it is here that the modern church can find its methodology of renewal. Crafting theological arguments is not the answer in today’s post-modern culture; nor is allying the church with a political party or ideology. Withdrawing into our own “Christian culture” is equally misguided. Instead, we need to immerse ourselves into the hurts of this world and find creative ways to bring God’s healing light to those hurts. Anything else misses the point.

Paul stressed that in order to be effective witnesses for the gospel, we must become “living epistles.” We must become open letters that anyone can read and by reading, come to a deeper understanding of just who this radical Galilean was and is. It is a high calling, indeed and not one to be taken lightly. If we take Jesus’ words about the final judgment as recorded in the 26^th Chapter of Matthew as true, then it should be obvious to even the most dense among us that the litmus test for defining a Christian is not belief in Christ, but in embodying Christ.

Michael Frost, in his excellent book Exiles, points out that this incarnational living is incumbent upon all who would claim Jesus as Master and Teacher:

Practicing the presence of Christ means being a living example of the life of Jesus. This raises the stakes enormously. It means that our lives need to become increasingly aligned with the example of Jesus. It doesn’t require sinless obedience – as if that’s possible anyway. It means, though, increasingly becoming people of justice, kindness, mercy, strength, hope, grace, generosity, and hospitality.

Yes, this divine calling is an invitation to a life of fulfillment and reward beyond our imagining, if we will only yield ourselves to it with complete abandon. Yet for many of us, the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. Still, it is necessary to move forward as best we can, relying on the promises of God and the empowerment of the indwelling Holy Spirit. For many of us, we get better in spite of ourselves. I know that is often true in my case.

This call to emulate Christ is a call to give flesh to grace. The whole story-line of God’s Great Saga is one of proactive grace. God saw that we needed grace and gave us Christ and Christ saw that the world needed grace and gave the world us. Just pause and chew on that one for a minute. What a great honor and what a great responsibility.

As “living epistles” we have the opportunity to meet God in the divine moment, what Erwin Raphael McManus calls the “epicenter of God’s activity.” When we consistently engage in these acts of Christian kindness, we in essence become what Gary Thomas accurately calls “God Oases.” Thomas explains:

A holy man or woman is a spiritual force, a “God oasis,” in a world that needs spiritually strong people. When the winds of turmoil hit, such people become shelters; their faith provides a covering for all. By their words and actions, by the ways they listen and use their eyes to love instead of lust, to honor instead of hate, to build up instead of tear down, holy men and women are like streams of water in the desert, affirming what God values most. When the heat of temptation threatens to tear this world apart, godly men and women become like the shadow of a great rock. These God oases carry Christ to the hurting, to the ignorant, to those in need. They will be sought out, and they will have something to say.

I find this description of godly men and women highly inspirational, not to mention vivifying. Thomas’ words encourage us to sensitize ourselves more and more to God’s activity in this world and further, to take compassionate action in emulating Christ’s acts of grace and healing. In ways both great and small, we can locate that epicenter of God’s activity and get to work.

It is nothing less than our calling, our responsibility, and our honor. And in so doing, it is my earnest prayer that more and more of us can become living epistles – God oases – and give incarnation to the godly image described in Isaiah 32:2:

Each man will be like a shelter from the wind

and a shelter from the storm,

like streams of water in the desert

and the shadow of a great rock in a thirsty land.

© L.D. Turner 2010/2013/All Rights Reserved

Wise Words for Today

English: Marcus Borg speaking in Mansfield College chapel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Whatever helps to open our hearts to the reality of the sacred is what we should be engaged in. This awareness leads to an image of the Christian life very different from the one with which I grew up. The Christian life is not about pleasing God the finger-shaker and judge. It is not about believing now and being good now for the sake of heaven later. It is about entering into a relationship in the present that begins to change everything now. Spirituality is about this process: the opening of the heart to God who is already here. . . . . . . . .The fruit of this process is compassion. . . . . . . . .God’s will for us – the goal of the working of the Spirit within us – is to become more compassionate beings. Such was Saint Paul’s point when he spoke of the greatest of the spiritual gifts as love, his more abstract term for what Jesus meant by compassion. If spirituality – a life of relationship with the Spirit of God – does not lead to compassion, then either it is life in relationship to a different spirit or there is a lot of static in the relationship. The absence or presence of compassion is the central test for discerning whether something is “of God.” As the primary gift of the Spirit, compassion is the primary sign of spiritual growth.

Marcus Borg

(from The God We Never Knew)

A Sublime Calling

English: Jonah, as in Jonah 2:10, “And the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.”;watercolor circa 1896–1902 by James Tissot (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mick Turner

I know without a doubt in my own life the voice of God, sometimes loudly but most often quiet and sublimely subtle, has called to me. More often than not, it has called to me through serendipitous events that suggests (it always suggests, never demands) that I return to the path He has laid out for me. It calls me to cease my endless wanderings which, if I am honest with myself, lead me not to the Light, but instead, carry me through deserts without vegetation and eventually, leave my spirit bellowing, not unlike a thirsty elephant around a dried out water hole.

This still, inner voice can take many forms. Erwin Raphael McManus speaks to the reality of the inner voice:

Ever heard that voice? It calls you like a temptress to abandon the monotony of life and to begin an adventure. It threatens to leave you in the mundane if you refuse to risk all you have for all that could be. If ignored, the voice dims to silence. Yet every now and again, like a siren, she sings and begins to woo you back. She awakens within you dreams and longings you put to bed long ago. It is rarely a conscious action to choose to exist rather than to live. For most of us we are simply lulled to sleep. But there is no rest in this condition. To sleep through your dreams is to choose a life of restless nights and unfulfilled days. To avoid the pain of fear, doubt, and disappointment we have numbed ourselves from the exhilaration of a life fully lived.

My nagging problem is that I don’t always listen to the Spirit’s voice when He calls. Instead, I turn away in resistance to what that sublime voice might be calling me to. More than once the voice has beckoned me to go in directions I had rather avoid. When this happens, I at least have a biblical role model to follow.

God directly called Jonah to go and preach to the people of Nineveh. Jonah, however, wasn’t especially amenable to God’s job assignment. Rather than heading east, Jonah hopped the first freighter leaving the port and that’s where his adventure really gets moving. As you know, God whips up a squall, the sailors get scared out of their wits and, after a fairly reasonable discussion considering the circumstances, toss Jonah overboard. He ends up in the belly of a whale, gets barfed up on the beach and finally, still muttering to himself, heads off to Nineveh. Jonah ends up preaching to the lowlifes, derelicts, and assorted ne’er-do-wells that live there and they repent. Still, Jonah sits under a bush and complains. You know the story.

I relate to Jonah all too well. God has on occasion made it clear to me that I am called to immerse myself in a certain ministry to a population I had rather not deal with. Like Jonah, I get busy with my own plans and bad things start to happen. Believe me my friends, whale bellies can take many forms. My point in sharing all this is to say that God does in fact call us to specific tasks in this day and age and further, it behooves us to listen and respond.

I say this because there seems to be quite a bit of confusion in the contemporary church regarding how God might communicate with us or whether or not he still does. Much of this confusion stems from believers taking extreme theological views about things and then attempting to foist those views on everyone else.

Some Christian writers will tell you that God communicates with them on a regular basis and that he will do the same with you. These folks, most of them well-meaning, often say things like, “God told me to…..” or “The Lord laid a clear word on my heart.” Where this sort of thing gets dangerous is when they say things like, “God wants me to tell you that you need to…..”

Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that God doesn’t communicate with us, for I strongly feel that he does. I just don’t really think that he talks with us like these folks often claim. I know I have never heard the Lord speak in this manner. The results can be devastating. I know a solid Christian man here in our community often has a “word” from God. A couple of years back he claimed God clearly told him he needed to quit his job working as a defense contractor and open a small restaurant selling Chicago style hot dogs.

Not one to ignore a “word” from the Lord, this man, after seeking the council of several elders in his church, resigned from his $160,000 per year position and opened his hot dog emporium. Within two years he went bankrupt, lost his investment, his car, and almost lost his house as well. When questioned about all this, this fellow chalked all this up to “the work of Satan.” The leaders at his church told him that whenever we get a message from the Lord and we are faithful to follow it, the enemy will surely try to destroy whatever we build.

Now I am not saying that all this couldn’t be true. All I am implying is that these sorts of things are often not what they seem. The result is that there is more confusion about how God might communicate with us.

At the other extreme, there are many other Christians who espouse the very liberal view that God is not personal, but instead, is an abstract principle that we cannot fully fathom. Others of a similar ilk emphasize the belief that God is a sublime force of energy that empowers us but never really talks with us. The result here is the same in that it creates even more confusion among people trying to discern the voice of God.

My take on all of this is that God does indeed communicate with us and does so in a variety of ways. I suspect that the methods God uses are individualized and designed to be clearly heard by the intended recipient. In my own case, for example, God will often speak to me through serendipitous events, those things that happen by “coincidence” that are too profound to be coincidence. At other times he clearly speaks to me through Bible reading. Verses that I have read hundreds of times suddenly take on new meaning and often that meaning is directly connected to the issue I am seeking guidance about.

I am not about to tell you how God will communicate with you. I really have no clue. But I do think, with practice and sensitivity, you can become more attuned to his methods of speaking. What I do know is that we have to place ourselves in a position of receiving. We have to dedicate time to our relationship with God. This means, more than anything else, that it is essential to set aside time for regular periods of silence and meditation. Basically, we have to quiet down enough to hear God when he chooses to speak, whatever the method.

Once God has spoken, and we have heard, we then enter the realm of obedience. Like Jonah, we have to make a choice. We can either go with God or we can flee. Among the many gifts God has given us is our free will and, like Jonah, we can choose to follow God’s direction or another way. Yet also like Jonah, we must be prepared to live with the consequences.

© L.D. Turner 2008/2012 All Rights Reserved

* This article was originally published on A Conspiracy of Compassion as well as Wellsprings and Wineskins and Lifebrook in 2008.

Intercessory Prayer and the Alleviation of Poverty

Cover via Amazon

Mick Turner

*** This article first appeared in Wellsprings and Wineskins in early 2011, and was also featured here on Lifebrook a bit later. Its message about poverty and the importance of prayer is as vital today as it ever was.

Crippling poverty has been a daily reality for far too many people for as long as history has been recorded. In spite of the great advances in agriculture and other life sciences, for countless people around the globe each day is a struggle for survival, a never-ending search for food and clean drinking water. It is estimated that 25,000 children die each day from starvation and illness directly related to poverty. If we lay claim to the mantle of Christian, we cannot ignore these realities.

Many of us feel there is nothing that we can do to make a dent in the problem of global poverty. We cite lack of money, lack of time, and countless others “lacks” when called upon to take positive steps of Christian love to address chronic poverty, even in our own neighborhoods and cities. I have little doubt that tears flow in the heavenly realms each time we hide behind our “lacks.”

There is one thing that we all can do, however: We can pray. If we truly believe in the effectiveness of prayer, and as followers of Jesus we have plenty of reason to believe, then we surely understand that by praying for those in poverty we can accomplish great things. Further, we can all find the time to offer up intentional intercession on behalf of those in dire need. In his book A Hole in Our Gospel, World Vision director Richard Stearns shares these words, penned by his colleague John Robb:

Wherever in the world there is significant development – people coming to Christ, health improvements, economic opportunities, adoption of kingdom values – it is the direct result of Christians praying.

I strongly believe what Robb is saying. During the years I spent working with AIDS patients, veterans, and the homeless in Dade County, Florida, I personally witnessed the miracles that can be brought about through prayer. The same is true for the five years of front line service in China. Without a strong foundation of prayer, little could have been accomplished.

Intentional intercessory prayer on behalf of those mired in poverty can be done in your private devotion time, or it can be done as a group project. Another way to make this kind of prayer a part of your daily living is to follow the seven steps suggested by Richard Stearns:

When you take your morning shower, pray for families in poor countries who do not have access to clean water, forcing mothers to spend hours collecting inadequate water and causing children suffer and even die from water-related diseases.

When you pack your lunch, or your child’s lunch, pray for the one billion people who are chronically hungry in the world today.

As you commute to your job, pray for the adults around the world who can’t find consistent work to feed their families, or pray for the millions of children forced into harmful or exploitative labor.

When you drop your child off at school, pray for children around the world who cannot get an education because of poverty or discrimination.

As you take a vitamin, pray for the families without adequate health care, leaving them and especially their children vulnerable to preventable diseases.

When you arrive home after work, pray for the children and families who are homeless due to poverty, conflict, or natural disasters.

As you tuck your children into bed, guide them to pray for the millions of children who have lost their parents around the world – especially the fifteen million AIDS orphans around the world, many of whom must survive without guardians.

Stearns suggestions are just that, suggestions. However, if you make a committed and diligent effort to make these prayers a part of your daily round for the next thirty days or so, you may very well have a significant impact on someone in need. Never discount or minimize the power of committed prayer. Time and time again it has been shown to work wonders.

I would also suggest that you pick up a copy of Stearns’ book, The Hole in Our Gospel. Spend quality time with this book, slowly imbibing the practical wisdom contained in its pages and the inspiration gleaned from the author’s candid revelations regarding his own journey from corporate president to a front line, leadership role with World Vision. It will be time well spent.

© L.D. Turner 2011/ All Rights Reserved

Engaged Spirituality: Radical Compassion and Selfless Service (Part Two)

English: page with text of the Gospel of John 16:30-17:8 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Mick Turner

Continued from Part One

It is not my intention to travel too far down this road of quantum physics at this juncture. Suffice to say that contemporary science is increasingly coming to grasp the same fundamental truths that mystics and shamans have voiced for many centuries. Simply put: Everything is interrelated and interdependent and when one part is affected by something, at a very core level, every other part is also impacted.

In teaching about the interrelated aspect of the universe, I often use a simple analogy that explains these principles in a basic way. I use the example of raisin Jell-o. Imagine you have concocted a delicious tub or raisin Jell-O. Choose your favorite flavor if you like. The raisins are the important thing, here. Now, what happens when you take your index finger and thump one of the raisins? All the raisins move. Crude as this metaphor is, it makes the point that all the raisins in the bowl are connected and if one raisin moves, they all move. This is what the mystics, and the quantum physicists, are talking about when they speak of interconnectivity.

This move toward proactive compassion is a move of grace. Perhaps you are not accustomed to looking at grace that way, but grace is what we are dealing with. As stated earlier, a major part of Christ’s incarnation and our ongoing mission is to give flesh to grace. Caroline Myss makes this cogent observation in her book, Invisible Acts of Power:

 What really happens inside you when you respond to someone in need? Why do some people jump out of their seats to help another person, while others look the other way? No doubt, some people have been taught to be kind and others may be naturally thoughtful. But I think something greater than compassion or good manners is at work, something beyond the motivation of the strong to help the weak or the wealthy to help the poor. I think it is the invisible power of grace, moving between the open hearts of give and receiver. The action itself, the lifting of a heavy piece of luggage or the drink of water offered to the thirsty man, may be small. But the energy that is channeled through that action is the high-voltage current of grace. It contains the power to renew someone’s faith in himself. It even has the power to save a life.

It should not be too difficult of an intellectual jump to see why this concept of interrelated reality should lead to a true and radical sense of compassion. What happens to me in the ultimate sense, happens to you and vice versa. When a child dies of hunger or disease in a poverty stricken nation, some part of each of us dies. We may not feel it, understand it, or even recognize it. Still, it is a fundamental spiritual and quantum truth. It is wise to remember the words of the 17^th Century poet John Donne as he spoke of the custom of the time which involved ringing the town’s bell whenever someone died:

Any man’s death diminishes me, for I am involved in mankind;

Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

It tolls for thee.

  Proactive Service

Many sincere aspirants have the mistaken notion that the ultimate goal of the spiritual path is enlightenment. Although a sincere desire for enlightenment is one of our most treasured possessions, it is actually penultimate. The real aim of the spiritual journey is simply this – Sacred Service. All that we do is dedicated to the greatest good of all beings in all the worlds. Our gain is their gain, our loss is their loss, our advancement is their advancement, and it is to this sacred reality that we offer our benedictions at the end of our times of meditation and prayer.

 In the Christian faith as exemplified by Jesus, personal enlightenment takes a back seat to serving others, spiritually and materially. Perhaps no where in the sacred writings of the world is this reality presented so directly as in the 13^th Chapter of the Gospel of John.

Imagine for a moment that you are one of Jesus’ twelve disciples and you, your band of rag tag friends, and the Master arrive at the Upper Room after a long, tedious, dusty day going about your business. You sit for a moment to catch your breath and unwind a few moments before you go wash up for the evening meal. You close your eyes for a few minutes, only to feel something or someone taking off your sandals. And to your utter disbelief, kneeling in front of you is the Master Jesus with a basin and a towel. Incredible….

The Master taught his disciples, and all of us who have read of this amazing episode, a clear and concise example of the essence of spirituality: selfless service with a heart of humility. If only more of us, especially those who claim to be followers of Jesus, would take this lesson to heart, our world would have much less pain.

The Kingdom of God is a divine realm of proactive compassion. This is the message that Jesus came to deliver and through his actions as well as his words, he delivered it consistently. In all that he did and he said, Jesus revealed to us the nature of God. This incarnational revelation was hinted at in the Master’s magnificent prayer in John 17. In the 21^st verse the Master says:

I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one – as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.

 In the Bible’s most well known verse, John 3:16, it is stated that for God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. (NLT)

 Now, to make this even clearer, let’s look at one more verse in John 17. In verse three John records:

And this is the way to have eternal life, to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth. (NLT)

Putting all this together, Jesus gave us a powerful but very real theology in this prayer and his disciple, John, fully caught its significance by saying in 3:16 that God loved the world so much that he sent his Son to save it. On God’s part, this was a perfect example of “proactive compassion” or what we often call “grace.” Motivated by the purest form of love, God was moved to have compassion on we fallen creatures, even in our blind ignorance, and he literally gave that compassion flesh by sending us the Master Jesus.

(c) L.D. Turner 2012/All Rights Reserved

Related articles

• Engaged Spirituality: Radical Compassion and Selfless Service (Part One) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• Spiritual Transformation from a Christian Perspective (Part One) (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• Creating Community: Selflessness (corestrengthcommunity.wordpress.com)

Engaged Spirituality: Radical Compassion and Selfless Service (Part One)

T2i – Infinity (Photo credit: @Doug88888)

Mick Turner

The ultimate goal of walking the spiritual path is to awaken in ourselves the desire to make a positive contribution to the world. Ideally, each of us should strive to find ways in which we can bring light, joy, and relief to others. It is no overstatement to say that the entire framework of engaged spirituality, regardless of the tradition, is to place ourselves in a state of being where we can not only be good – but good for something.

 Gautama Buddha was an example of grace and perfect love incarnate. After finding his awakening under the Bodhi tree, the Buddha went about spreading the truth that he had discovered, a truth that when astutely applied to life, could liberate beings from endless rounds of suffering. Just as with Jesus who would come later, Buddha taught through sermons, informal talks, parables, and above all, his actions.

Just as Christ would later set an example for his disciples to follow, the Buddha also would serve as the divine prototype for the essence of “metta,” or “loving-kindness.” In Metta, there is an internal manifestation and an external manifestation. Internally, increasing feelings of loving kindness give rise to a vital sense of compassion that is also based on the realization of the oneness of all things. These internal states of loving kindness and compassion result in the external manifestation, which is proactive service to the world.

 This eventually gave rise to the Mahayana Buddhist ideal of the Bodhisattva. On a theoretical level, one can accurately say that the ultimate goal of the Bodhisattva is enlightenment and to some extent this is true. However, on a highly practical level, the Bodhisattva’s highest goal is selfless service. Personal enlightenment takes a back seat to serving others, spiritually and materially.

Radical compassion is compassion with legs; radical compassion is a verb. Just as the Bible tells us in the Letter of James that faith without works is dead, also, compassion without concomitant action is a lifeless phenomenon. Many sincere aspirants have the mistaken notion that the ultimate goal of the spiritual path is enlightenment. Although a sincere desire for motivation is one of our most treasured possessions, it is actually penultimate. The real aim of the spiritual journey is simply this – Sacred Service. All that we do is dedicated to the greatest good of all beings in all the worlds. Our gain is their gain, our loss is their loss, our advancement is their advancement, and it is to this sacred reality that we offer our benedictions at the end of our times of meditation and prayer.

In order for compassion to become more than just a nice idea or a sentimental feeling, it must flow out of the internalized wisdom of the ages, particularly as related to the reality of “interconnectivity.” The idea of interconnectivity, now confirmed by the field of quantum physics, has been around for many centuries and is at the core of interspiritual mysticism, that one aspect of world religion that seems to transcend culture, time, and especially theology. It is a mystical connectedness that promotes compassion and engaged action to make the world a better place for all who dwell here. In essence, it is a deep wisdom that gives flesh to grace. The great spiritual writer Kahil Gibran spoke of this interconnected reality when he said:

Your neighbor is your other self dwelling behind a wall. In understanding, all walls shall fall down. Who knows but that your neighbor is your better self wearing another body? See that you love him as you would yourself. He too is a manifestation of the Most High.

In India, for example, we have the story of Indra’s Net, which is strung throughout the universe with a precious jewel at the places where the cords of the net intersect. These jewels, in turn, reflect all of the other jewels. Similar to the modern discovery of the hologram, the image of Indra’s Net is filled with symbolic wisdom depicting the interconnectivity of all that is. Gary Zukav, in his groundbreaking book entitled, The Dancing Wu Li Masters tell us:

…the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics is that all things in our universe (including us) that appears to exist independently are actually parts of one all-encompassing organic pattern, and that no parts of that pattern are ever really separate from it or from each other.

 In the Christian tradition, the writings of the great mystic teachers echo these same truths, often in symbolic and metaphorical ways. Julian of Norwich especially comes to mind as well as Hildegard of Bingen and Madame Guyon. The writings of Saint Theresa of Avila and the life and work of St. Francis also point to the interconnectivity of all life and the necessity of having a heart of radical compassion.

The great Romantic poets like William Wordsworth and Percy B. Shelley have voices that ring loudly with the sense of the interrelated aspects of the natural world and their American counterparts, the Transcendentalists, in the writings of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, also echo this theme of divine connectivity. And then there is the work of that master of the arcane, William Blake who spoke of the mystic’s ability:

To see a World in a grain of sand,

And Heaven in a wild flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand,

And Eternity in an hour.

The world that we interact with each day only appears to be solid. In point of fact, it is an intricate dance of sub-atomic waves and particles that obey none of the traditional or expected moves of predictable choreography. At its core level, our apparently solid, material world is less like classical music and more like jazz. Just when we think we have a handle on how things are, these very things change, morphing into something totally unexpected and often totally mysterious. Someone wise, I forget who, once said the life is not a riddle to be solved but a mystery to be lived. How true, and the sooner a person grasps this fundamental truth, the sooner frustration will disappear from his or her life.

to be continued……

(c) L.D. Turner 2012/All Rights Reserved

Wise Words for Today

English: Peresopnytsia Gospels. 1556-1561. Miniature of Saint Matthew. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream…(Amos 5:24)

“The justice Amos pleaded for was not a reform of the police and the courts that meted out retribution to criminals…….it was what we would call distributive justice – compassion for and care given to the weakest and most helpless in the land. The righteousness he longed to see was not faithfulness to a list of moral demands but the covenantal uprightness one lives before God; it is honoring God by living into his purpose for you as his image-bearer. ……………..At James 1:27, the half-brother of Jesus wrote, ‘Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.’”

“Whether spoken of by Amos or James, or described in the Old or New Testament, the essential elements of pure and undefiled religion remain the same: holiness and compassion. One must live with God-first focus that reveals itself in grace and compassion towards others. Isaiah agreed with Amos (see Isaiah 1:10 ff); Jesus affirmed them both (see Matt. 22:37-40); and John repeated it for good measure (see 1 John 4:20-21). And while Isaiah predicted it, Jesus established it, and John was part of it, their message was not ‘church.’ It was love for God that plays out as love for people. That is what people saw about Jesus that they miss seeing in so much of the church’s activity.”

Rubel Shelly

(from I Knew Jesus Before He Was a Christian and I Liked Him Better)

Spiritual Transformation from a Christian Perspective (Part One)

Jesus washes the disciples’ feet (Photo credit: teawithlizzie)

Mick Turner

For decades the church opted for “membership” over “discipleship” and the fruit of that choice has come back to haunt the Body of Christ. The result is a large number of Christians who are quite shallow and inconsistent when it comes to understanding and implementing the faith they profess. While this creates a cadre of Christians who are lacking depth and discernment in their walk of faith, it also has a domino effect. It is impossible to live as Jesus lived and do as Jesus did without a firm, committed, and consecrated method of Christian practice, especially of the classic spiritual disciplines. Lacking such a practice, these folks wind up giving a poor witness for the faith and as a result, often drive people away from the Master rather than attracting.

It is for these reasons that we must come to have a highly practical and personally applicable definition of just what a disciple is if we want to become the optimal version of who we are, for the glory of God and the sake of others. Margaret Campbell gives us this cogent definition of “disciple” and/or “discipleship.”

A disciple of Jesus is a person who has decided to live in attentiveness to Jesus. We live in attentiveness in order to become like Jesus on the inside and, thereby, able to do what Jesus would do on the outside. As maturing disciples we progressively learn to live in attentiveness, adoration, surrender, obedience, and thankfulness to God, and all of this, without ceasing. Through the hidden work of transformation, God writes his good way on our minds and hearts and this is very good. By his grace, our hearts are divinely changed. We are progressively conformed to be like Jesus in mind and will and soul and word and deed. What we say and what we do more consistently reflect the glory and goodness of God.

If the church is to have any hope of rectifying the situation described above it must passionately embrace the renewed practice of spiritual disciplines within a context of ongoing spiritual formation.

 

Dallas Willard, speaking at the inaugural Pastors Conference in 2001, gave this cogent description of spiritual formation:

Spiritual formation is shaping the inner person in such a way that the words and deeds of Christ naturally flow from us. It is the inward transformation of the self that makes it easy and natural to do the things that Jesus said. Christian spiritual formation is the process. What we call spiritual formation in Christian circles now, is really spiritual transformation. Formation has already happened and that is a major part of the problem. We have already been formed spiritually and we need to be transformed. It is holistic; it applies to all of us. It is not just a matter of changing the center part. It is a matter of the transformation of self so that now your body is going to be set to do righteousness, as previously it was set to do what was wrong.

Scripture tells us in no uncertain terms that have in a very real sense been “spiritually formed.” For example, let’s recall the words of Peter:

By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share in his divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by human desires (2 Peter 1: 1-4 NLT).

Each time I read these words of the apostle Peter I am moved to a place of stunned silence. If this is one of those passage of scripture that you have often read, but just quickly glossed over the words then you have done yourself a great disservice. Go back and carefully and prayerfully read over these four verses, soaking in the incredible message they contain. God has already provided everything we need in order to live the kind of life Jesus calls us to live. Along these same lines, Paul tells us that the Father has “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ” (Eph. 1: 3). As Dallas Willard told us in the quotation cited above, we have already been formed. It is now up to us to become transformed.

I firmly believe that we are transformed by bringing down these spiritual blessings, these incomparable gifts of the Father, from the spiritual realm into the concrete and clay of our daily living. We do this first and foremost by accepting these gifts on faith. Just as we were restored to right standing with God by faith, we also appropriate the gifts he has already given us by faith. Second, we make these spiritual blessings, including the day-to-day ability to lead the Christian life as defined by Jesus, by making ourselves receptive. We do this through the committed practice of the classic spiritual disciplines of the Christian faith. Third, we follow Christ by abiding and we do this by immersing ourselves in his teachings and especially by living in obedience to those teachings. And finally, we make ourselves receptive by emulating Christ in walking the path of selfless service to others – in ways both great and small with take up our towel and basin and find some feet to wash.

To be continued…

(C) L.D. Turner 2012/All Rights Reserved

Related articles

• Extreme Makeover: New Creations in Christ (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• Practical Spirituality: The Law of Encouragement (lifebrook.wordpress.com)
• exploring discipleship: integration (shepherds-journey.com)

Wise Words for Today

English: folio 11 recto of the codex with the beginning of the Acts of the Apostles (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The church described in the book of Acts was a self-sacrificing church where believers were selling their private possessions and property and bringing them to the apostles to distribute to those in need. We don’t see a lot of that happening today. The people who had sacrificed personal comforts for the good of community were not focused on having nice buildings or fancy lights or comfortable chairs; they just wanted to take care of people’s needs.

Tyler Edwards

(from Zombie Church)