Posts Tagged ‘discipline’

What happens when you fast from reading the scriptures?

Posted: December 19, 2012 in bible, change, church, faith, Jesus, personal development, spirituality, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
3

You shrivel and wither and die spiritually. Not. Actually not reading the Bible for a few weeks and solely meditating and practicing the words of scripture that I knew by memory has been more challenging than I expected. One challenge is that every time I meditate on one passage the insight that I receive makes me want to look up another passage that connects with the one I am meditating on. It also makes me want to do more analytical study of the passage. The yearning for more analytical study showed me how much of following Jesus in the Western world has been reduced to the cognitive and theoretical. I would rather try to find out the “real meaning” of the verse than actually do it.

Aside from the challenges there have been many benefits to this month long scripture fast:

I have received tons of encouragement from other brothers and sisters due to the fact that I could not search the scriptures on a whim. I had to rely on other followers of Jesus to speak God’s word to me.

These past few weeks I have had the privilege of gaining new insights on passages that I have known since I was a child. This process of chewing and digesting words already stored into memory has allowed me to extract even more spiritual nutrients from the text. Being “forced” to keep the same scriptures before my mind has allowed me to see them from different perspectives.

The best benefit is being given more space to put the words of the Bible into practice. This has been also the most challenging and the most convicting. This time has allowed me to see how the most basic principles of the faith have been absent from certain areas of my life. All of my anxieties and fears and pride cannot be covered up by more knowledge. It’s hard to be distracted by my disobedience with a false sense of growth. My appetite for more information about the bible is being transformed into a an appetite for more application of the Bible. John Wimber used to say “The meat is in the street” meaning we grow in Christ as we put the words of the Bible into action. That’s hard to do when you are constantly looking for clever theological cookies in the cupboard ;)

Last but not least I got a taste of what it’s like to be a part of the persecuted and underground church. In many countries owning a Bible is illegal or at least hard to come by. Many of these followers of Jesus nourish themselves spiritually with cut out pages of the New Testament or the stories of Jesus they can remember. In the United States where bookstores carry Bibles for every marketing niche and hotels give away copies of the Bible it is easy to take God’s word for granted. During this season I am standing in solidarity with the great men and women of God who possess a strong vibrant faith in spite of not having access to the whole Bible.

This has been an amazing month of experiencing a new discipline and I’ll be glad to conclude it on Christmas Eve as I read the birth narratives in the gospels to crown up the first annual Scripture Fast :)

So what do you think?

Do you find you know more about the Bible than you actually put into practice?

What do you do when the Bible grows stale?

Have you ever thought about the fact that we have numerous Bibles in this country but so many don’t read them?

What Julie and Julia taught me about my relationship with God pt 2

Posted: March 14, 2012 in bible, faith, inspiration, personal, personal development, spirituality
Tags: , , , , , ,
3

In my last post I unpacked what I learned from the movie Julie and Julia about my relationship with God. As I continue to think about it more I get more heated because of what a disservice and injustice we do when we describe relationship with God in such insanely ridiculous ways. God is not our cosmic buddy or our women’s tea conversation partner. He is wholly other.

In saying that, my intention is not to dis and dismiss the supernatural but to actually elevate it. Many times we portray relating to God with such casual familiarity that those with superior B.S. antennae can see right through it like superman x ray vision. I actually think the amazing supernatural factor in having a relationship with God is not that we can sit down and have a chat with him like we can with our ace at the cafe or the pub. The amazing thing is that this wholly other person-God-chooses to not only dwell in us but to work through us.

Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12, 13 ESV)

That is what is amazing about our relationship with God. He has chosen us to partner with him in the work of renovating the world inch by inch. It’s on par with us choosing an ant to paint a painting to rival the Sistine chapel. We see a glimpse of it in the journey of a young woman who dared to believe she could cook like Julia Child.

The prophet Isaiah declared the profound and utter difference between humanity and God:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth,so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8, 9 ESV)

John showed how God bridged that gap:

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14 ESV)

Imitating the Word made flesh is nothing like having a cosmic buddy. It is far removed from the sentiment on the semi-famous t shirt that do emphatically states “Jesus is my homeboy”. In fact, I make way more mistakes than a young woman in new York trying to imitate a master of French cuisine and along the way I see the great mystery and awe of a God who”became what we are in order to make us what he is himself.”-St. Irenaeus of Lyons. Now that’s the kind of relationship I can get into :)

What Julie and Julia taught me about my relationship with God

Posted: March 9, 2012 in advice/how to, bible, faith, personal, personal development, spirituality
Tags: , , , , , ,
3

Christians say it all the time “It’s not about rules. It’s about relationship.” Many people have asked me over the years “How is your relationship with God?” Most of the time I feel quite put off by the question and don’t really know how to answer it. It’s not like we sit down at the kitchen table and have casual chatter over breakfast like me and my wife. If I had that kind of back and forth with God you would think I was nuts because….he’s invisible! No matter how many ways you slice it having a relationship with God just like the one I have with Yvette is impossible ( I am not negating the possibility of God’s guidance or hearing his audible voice only the frequency and clarity which most of us will agree is quite minimal)

But what if a relationship with God was never meant to be like the kind you have with a spouse or friend ? What if having a relationship with God is qualitatively different? This dawned on me while watching the movie Julie and Julia. While I think it was a gem of a movie I also believe it can give us a framework on how a relationship with God (an invisible intangible being) is supposed to work.

In the movie Julie and Julia a young woman named Julie is inspired to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Along the way she encounters trials, disappointments, joys, and victories while becoming closer to Julia Child as she pursues this discipline. Throughout the movie we see her become changed and transformed by following in the footsteps of someone who is not around. And the movie begins to hint that although these women lived worlds apart they are connected. But how??? Julie connected to Julia by doing what she did. Although it was a different time and place she cooked the same meals that Julia Child cooked and their relationship was based on those shared practices. In the movie Julia Child was even upset with Julie but it still did not negate the relationship that was formed through those shared practices. In fact Julie was so connected and moved by imitating Julia Child’s cooking that she offered butter (worship) at Child’s Smithsonian exhibit.

And before you think I’m way out there using movies as my Bible let me go to the text to cap it all off:

And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. (1 John 2:3 ESV)

whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:6 ESV)

Julie got closer to Julia by cooking her recipes and imitating her practices. In the same way we get closer to God by doing his commandments and imitating his practices. Walking in the same way that he walked while here on earth.