God in the Silence

Tuesday night we had our night together. But something made it different.

Before we ate...

Before we talked...

Before we prayed...

All four of us ended up together in the living room.

All four of us were reading.

And it was silent in the room.

It was a kind of holy silence.

It felt pure.

It was a nice, peaceful break from the hectic pace we all endure.

Thanks God, for allowing us a moment of peace together.

Galatians 3

Galatians 3

Trust in Christ, Not the Law

1You crazy Galatians! Did someone put a hex on you? Have you taken leave of your senses? Something crazy has happened, for it's obvious that you no longer have the crucified Jesus in clear focus in your lives. His sacrifice on the Cross was certainly set before you clearly enough.

2Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God's Message to you? 3Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren't smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? 4Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

5Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? 6Don't these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.

7Is it not obvious to you that persons who put their trust in Christ (not persons who put their trust in the law!) are like Abraham: children of faith? 8It was all laid out beforehand in Scripture that God would set things right with non-Jews by faith. Scripture anticipated this in the promise to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed in you."

9So those now who live by faith are blessed along with Abraham, who lived by faith--this is no new doctrine! 10And that means that anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: "Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law."

11The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: "The person who believes God, is set right by God--and that's the real life." 12Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: "The one who does these things [rule-keeping]continues to live by them."

13Christ redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely into himself. Do you remember the Scripture that says, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree"? That is what happened when Jesus was nailed to the Cross: He became a curse, and at the same time dissolved the curse. 14And now, because of that, the air is cleared and we can see that Abraham's blessing is present and available for non-Jews, too. We are all able to receive God's life, his Spirit, in and with us by believing--just the way Abraham received it. 15Friends, let me give you an example from everyday affairs of the free life I am talking about. Once a person's will has been ratified, no one else can annul it or add to it. 16Now, the promises were made to Abraham and to his descendant. You will observe that Scripture, in the careful language of a legal document, does not say "to descendants," referring to everybody in general, but "to your descendant" (the noun, note, is singular), referring to Christ. 17This is the way I interpret this: A will, earlier ratified by God, is not annulled by an addendum attached 430 years later, thereby negating the promise of the will. 18No, this addendum, with its instructions and regulations, has nothing to do with the promised inheritance in the will.

What is the point, then, of the law, the attached addendum? It was a thoughtful addition to the original covenant promises made to Abraham. 19The purpose of the law was to keep a sinful people in the way of salvation until Christ (the descendant) came, inheriting the promises and distributing them to us. Obviously this law was not a firsthand encounter with God. It was arranged by angelic messengers through a middleman, Moses. 20But if there is a middleman as there was at Sinai, then the people are not dealing directly with God, are they? But the original promise is the direct blessing of God, received by faith.

21-22If such is the case, is the law, then, an anti-promise, a negation of God's will for us? Not at all. Its purpose was to make obvious to everyone that we are, in ourselves, out of right relationship with God, and therefore to show us the futility of devising some religious system for getting by our own efforts what we can only get by waiting in faith for God to complete his promise. For if any kind of rule-keeping had power to create life in us, we would certainly have gotten it by this time.

23Until the time when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law. 24The law was like those Greek tutors, with which you are familiar, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for.

25But now you have arrived at your destination: 26By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. 27Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe--Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise.

In Christ's Family

28In Christ's family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us you are all equal. That is, we are all in a common relationship with Jesus Christ. 29Also, since you are Christ's family, then you are Abraham's famous "descendant," heirs according to the covenant promises.

JKA Out

2.14.06 See Update Below:

We'll be out of town-
March 23-27 (Wed-Mon) for an Enter the Worship Circle Concert and worship conference.

UPDATE: The dates are for February. Scared ya, didn't I? Ironic that they would be the only 2 months on the calendar that works for. I now return you to your regularly scheduled heartbeat.

Galatians 2

Jeff will take the teaching this week.

Galatians 2

What Is Central?

1Fourteen years after that first visit, Barnabas and I went up to Jerusalem and took Titus with us. 2I went to clarify with them what had been revealed to me. At that time I placed before them exactly what I was preaching to the non-Jews. I did this in private with the leaders, those held in esteem by the church, so that our concern would not become a controversial public issue, marred by ethnic tensions, exposing my years of work to denigration and endangering my present ministry. 3Significantly, Titus, non-Jewish though he was, was not required to be circumcised. 4While we were in conference we were infiltrated by spies pretending to be Christians, who slipped in to find out just how free true Christians are. Their ulterior motive was to reduce us to their brand of servitude. 5We didn't give them the time of day. We were determined to preserve the truth of the Message for you.

6As for those who were considered important in the church, their reputation doesn't concern me. God isn't impressed with mere appearances, and neither am I. And of course these leaders were able to add nothing to the message I had been preaching. 7-8It was soon evident that God had entrusted me with the same message to the non-Jews as Peter had been preaching to the Jews. 9Recognizing that my calling had been given by God, James, Peter, and John--the pillars of the church--shook hands with me and Barnabas, assigning us to a ministry to the non-Jews, while they continued to be responsible for reaching out to the Jews. 10The only additional thing they asked was that we remember the poor, and I was already eager to do that.

11Later, when Peter came to Antioch, I had a face-to-face confrontation with him because he was clearly out of line. 12Here's the situation. Earlier, before certain persons had come from James, Peter regularly ate with the non-Jews. But when that conservative group came from Jerusalem, he cautiously pulled back and put as much distance as he could manage between himself and his non-Jewish friends. That's how fearful he was of the conservative Jewish clique that's been pushing the old system of circumcision. 13Unfortunately, the rest of the Jews in the Antioch church joined in that hypocrisy so that even Barnabas was swept along in the charade.

14But when I saw that they were not maintaining a steady, straight course according to the Message, I spoke up to Peter in front of them all: "If you, a Jew, live like a non-Jew when you're not being observed by the watchdogs from Jerusalem, what right do you have to require non-Jews to conform to Jewish customs just to make a favorable impression on your old Jerusalem cronies?"

15We Jews know that we have no advantage of birth over "non-Jewish sinners." 16We know very well that we are not set right with God by rule-keeping but only through personal faith in Jesus Christ. How do we know? We tried it--and we had the best system of rules the world has ever seen! Convinced that no human being can please God by self-improvement, we believed in Jesus as the Messiah so that we might be set right before God by trusting in the Messiah, not by trying to be good.

17Have some of you noticed that we are not yet perfect? (No great surprise, right?) And are you ready to make the accusation that since people like me, who go through Christ in order to get things right with God, aren't perfectly virtuous, Christ must therefore be an accessory to sin? The accusation is frivolous. 18If I was "trying to be good," I would be rebuilding the same old barn that I tore down. I would be acting as a charlatan.

19What actually took place is this: I tried keeping rules and working my head off to please God, and it didn't work. So I quit being a "law man" so that I could be God's man. 20Christ's life showed me how, and enabled me to do it. I identified myself completely with him. Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21I am not going to go back on that.

Is it not clear to you that to go back to that old rule-keeping, peer-pleasing religion would be an abandonment of everything personal and free in my relationship with God? I refuse to do that, to repudiate God's grace. If a living relationship with God could come by rule-keeping, then Christ died unnecessarily.

Studying Paul's Letter to the Galatians

We'll spend the next few weeks looking at Paul's message to the believers in Galatia.

How do we respond to the pressure to conform to rules and regulations?
How do we respond to the desire for personal discipline without falling into the trap of attempting to gain God's approval?
Do we add anything to our walk by being "better" than anyone else?
Does the grace of God allow for jaunts off the moral deep end?

Paul writes to deter the Galatians from the notion that, apart from faith in Christ, there is a need to put on additional "stuff" in order to gain God's approval and maintain justification before him. Jesus has offered us grace, and that is all that is needed to stand before God. Adding anything else on top of that is the equivalent of stating that the work of Christ was not enough.

Galatians 1 (The Message)

1-2I, Paul, and my companions in faith here, send greetings to the Galatian churches. My authority for writing to you does not come from any popular vote of the people, nor does it come through the appointment of some human higher-up. It comes directly from Jesus the Messiah and God the Father, who raised him from the dead. I'm God-commissioned. 3So I greet you with the great words, grace and peace! 4We know the meaning of those words because Jesus Christ rescued us from this evil world we're in by offering himself as a sacrifice for our sins. God's plan is that we all experience that rescue. 5Glory to God forever! Oh, yes!

6I can't believe your fickleness--how easily you have turned traitor to him who called you by the grace of Christ by embracing a variant message! 7It is not a minor variation, you know; it is completely other, an alien message, a no-message, a lie about God. Those who are provoking this agitation among you are turning the Message of Christ on its head. 8Let me be blunt: If one of us--even if an angel from heaven!-were to preach something other than what we preached originally, let him be cursed. 9I said it once; I'll say it again: If anyone, regardless of reputation or credentials, preaches something other than what you received originally, let him be cursed.

10Do you think I speak this strongly in order to manipulate crowds? Or curry favor with God? Or get popular applause? If my goal was popularity, I wouldn't bother being Christ's slave. 11Know this--I am most emphatic here, friends--this great Message I delivered to you is not mere human optimism. 12I didn't receive it through the traditions, and I wasn't taught it in some school. I got it straight from God, received the Message directly from Jesus Christ.

13I'm sure that you've heard the story of my earlier life when I lived in the Jewish way. In those days I went all out in persecuting God's church. I was systematically destroying it. 14I was so enthusiastic about the traditions of my ancestors that I advanced head and shoulders above my peers in my career. 15Even then God had designs on me. Why, when I was still in my mother's womb he chose and called me out of sheer generosity! 16Now he has intervened and revealed his Son to me so that I might joyfully tell non-Jews about him.

Immediately after my calling--without consulting anyone around me 17and without going up to Jerusalem to confer with those who were apostles long before I was--I got away to Arabia. Later I returned to Damascus, 18but it was three years before I went up to Jerusalem to compare stories with Peter. I was there only fifteen days--but what days they were! 19Except for our Master's brother James, I saw no other apostles. 20(I'm telling you the absolute truth in this.)

21Then I began my ministry in the regions of Syria and Cilicia. 22After all that time and activity I was still unknown by face among the Christian churches in Judea. 23There was only this report: "That man who once persecuted us is now preaching the very message he used to try to destroy." 24Their response was to recognize and worship God because of me!

Malawi & Forced Marriages

Here is a link to a story I heard reported on NPR last week. I'll be looking into the organization "The Eye of the Child" to see what we can do.

Malawi has been affected by the AIDS epidemic in profound ways. Parents who die are forced to leave their children in the care of grandparents. Often the children are required to drop out of school in order to work, creating a cycle of poverty.

The article focuses on the plight of so many young girls who are being offered in marriage to older men just so the family can stay afloat. 13 year olds are marrying 40 year olds. Not only is this illegal under Malawi law, it is a moral travesty. The demands that our world has on it's people, the demands that marriage put on a couple cannot be processed or understood by a 12 year old. Can you remember being 13? Can you imagine now being "sold" into marriage at that age?

We'll talk soon about ways we can be involved in speaking out for these orphans.

The Name- Why Saint Aidan?

Aidan's life contains traces of the heartbeat we desire.

He was a man who knew how to speak the the story of Jesus in a way that could be easily understood by those who heard it.

"The first Celtic bishop, Corman, soon returned to Iona, where he declared that the Angles of Northumbria were too stubborn and intractable. The historian Bede writes that, at a meeting to discuss the problem, an Irish monk called Aidan suggested that Corman had been unreasonably harsh with his unlearned listeners, and "did not first, as the Apostle has told us, offer them the milk of less solid doctrine". It was immediately resolved to send Aidan to Northumbria as bishop."

He was a man who knew the value of simplicity & generosity.

"Aidan preached widely throughout Northumbria, travelling on foot, so that he could readily talk to everyone he met. When Oswin gave him a horse for use in difficult terrain, Aidan quixotically gave it to a beggar soliciting alms. Oswin was angry until, as Bede recounts, Aidan asked if the son of a mare was more precious to the king than a son of God. Oswin sought Aidan's pardon, and promised never again to question or regret any of his wealth being given away to children of God."
"The presents he received were given to the poor or used to buy the freedom of slaves, some of whom entered the priesthood. "

He was a man who intentionally created space for discipleship to take place.
"The saint also recruited classes of Anglo-Saxon youths to be educated at Lindisfarne. Among them was Saint Eata, abbot of Melrose and later of Lindisfarne. In time, Eata's pupil, Saint Cuthbert, also became bishop of Lindisfarne. "

May God grant grace,
that we might learn to tell the story of Jesus,
learn that it is more blessed to give than to receive
and learn to help those around us to see and follow Jesus.
By the power of the Spirit and for the sake of the kingdom.
Amen.

All quotes via Ireland's Eye.
Also, see Brittania's bio.
And the Wiki.

Abbey Life and The Affirmation of Creation's Goodness 1-4

Part 1
Living in intentional community demands an affirmation of the original goodness of Creation form those who enter into it. Any other view of the Creation (Creation as expendable or evil) would run against the nature of intentional community. This type of lifestyle seeks to allow God to speak to individuals through his Creation and to magnify him through the proper stewarding of the physical, spiritual and emotional gifts he has blessed us with.
I've been reading NT Wright's "The Resurrection of the Son of God" and his exploration on the matter is fascinating. Though it is a log read, it is well worth it. For a somewhat shortened view you can read a CT interview with him that posted in 2003.
A quote:
"...the main thing the whole Old Testament is concerned with is the God of Israel, as the Creator God who has made a good creation, and that what matters about human life really is that it's meant to be lived within God's good, lovely, created world.That is equally emphatic in the early period, where you get agricultural festivals that celebrate Yahweh as king over the crops and the land. It's equally emphatic there and in the doctrine of resurrection. From that point of view, the idea of a disembodied, nonspacio-temporal life after death appears as a rather odd blip in between these two strong affirmations of the goodness of the created order and the wonderful God-givenness of human bodily life within that created order."
I'll let this settle and post some more thoughts soon regarding the proper use of Creation in the honor of the Creator.

Part 2
The Resurrection and Thanksgiving
The bodily resurrection of Jesus points to the passion of God's heart for all things to be set right. Jesus, as the second Adam, lived the life God had intended for mankind to live and the resurrection of Jesus' body was God's confirmation of approval upon Jesus' life. Not only was it a confirmation, but a promise. The resurrection is a promise to those who believe that, one day in the future, this physical world, broken and failing, will participate in the same renewal as the body of Jesus. The Creation, good from the beginning, will be healed and set right under the rule of Jesus.
The resurrection of Jesus now points us towards the day when the physical experience we enjoy will be completely renewed and perfected. From this pointing we derive a mandate towards a lifestyle that can, in some sense, be called "prophetic." This living is prophetic because it plays out, in very real experiences, the picture of the life that is to come. It is prophetic because it employs the values that were sealed and affirmed by God in Jesus' resurrection that will ultimately be played out for eternity under the renewed/New Creation.
Abbey Life (AL)/"intentional community" attempts to integrate these two strains of thought in one microcosmic experience. AL seeks to create space where the living out of Kingdom values can take place "under one roof."
AL affirms God’s statement in Jesus’ bodily resurrection that the Creation is good. It affirms that everything that is made is made by God and demands to be acknowledged as so. It affirms that God is to be thanked for the things that we enjoy and partake of from the physical realm.
Rom 14:6 He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.
Eph 5:20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1Tim 4:4 For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving

Part 3
Relationships In Abbey Life
AL seeks to embody the values of Jesus in regards to the interpersonal lives of those involved. With the bodily resurrection of Jesus giving value to the created order, we see God's continued affirmation of those he has called to salvation and a belief in their redemption and renewal. We see in the resurrection and play out in AL this belief:
Relationships now center in Jesus and progress by finding their value in his values.
Those who would journey together, whether as a guest for a meal or a year as housemates, seek to interact with one another based upon certain values.
Love
Servanthood
Encouragement
Humility
...and more.
This intentional community has this intention: To create followers of Jesus' way. To help shape people to interact with one another using the power and values of Jesus dreams regarding God's fulfilled kingdom.
Of course, living in the world, those involved in these relationships are not yet perfected and transgressions and offenses will happen. AL will also provide space for this brokenness on the grounds of the Cross of Jesus. He bids us to come with this brokenness with our confession and cry for help. He bids us first to be reconciled to himself. He bids us then to be reconciled to one another. Nothing else will do. The Cross has purchased our reconciliation and to settle for less will result in the bankruptcy of our relationships.
So, those who would journey together, whether as a guest for a meal or a year as housemates, seek to interact with one another based upon certain values.
Confession
Forgiveness
Grace
...and the like.

Part 4
Abbey Life and The Stewarding of Finances
We are encouraged in the Scriptures that the goal of mankind is a life lived for the glory of God and the sake of his Kingdom on the earth: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto youWhatever you do, whether in word or in deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Part of this life includes the stewardship of our finances.
Abbey life seeks to create an environment of encouragement to direct the stewarding of our finances towards the kingdom of God. Our primary goal in spending should be the furthering on the Kingdom of God in this world. This is not simply an "otherworldy" perspective where we give to a "cause" for some unknown eventual profit, for this spending has very practical ramifications. Paying our bills on time, taking care of the poor, bearing one another's burdens all fall into this category. Good stewardship teaches us a right use of the financial gifts God has entrusted to our care.
This does not negate the use of gifts for pleasure (see here), for we know that enjoying the gifts of this world is part of our experience as complete human beings. Using our finances to experience good things in life for what they are, opportunities to experience the joy of the Creator in his creation, is good stewardship. It is the abuse of gifts, over-indulgence, selfishness and the like, that constitutes falling short in the goals of good stewardship.
We do well to examine the motives of our spending. This is where we will find the condition of our stewardship.

Jeff Congrats!

17 Years of education: $???.00
Gas to get there: $???.00
Graduation party this Sunday night: Priceless, because it won't cost him thing!

J+K Out

Dec 9th-11th, Austin (Peter Nevland)
Jan 12th-15th, Boulder (Groundworks)

First Post

The first post is always the hardest.
Like steel.
Like rock.