Postmodern Renaissance Culture Revolutionary

Yesterday I examined Micah's calling to God's people that we are to show love through Mercy, Justice, and Living Evangelism. It seems that, according to Micah, unless we get out and show other people a tangible, meaningful love through acts of mercy, justice, and living evangelism, our worship will be empty and meaningless. John Wesley, when encountered by people passionate about growing mature in their love of God, formed then into groups to help grow one another. Wesley gave them three rules to live by: avoid doing harm do as much good as you can be intentional about discovering God's love in as many ways as possible (most of the time with others) These societies became the Methodist church. These rules are part of our basic DNA. At this present time, they are a recessive gene in many places. But we can recapture these essential traits. We can show love in these three ways through these three rules.   We love people around us by avoiding to cause them harm but ...

Love in all its ways Loving God requires showing love to all people in tangible and meaningful ways. If we desire a maturing relationship with God that goes beyond heart or mind to a perfected love, then we must have heart to hand and hand to heart love for others. The people of God have been called to show love in three tangible, meaningful ways.  Micah 6:6-8 ( New Living Translation ) What can we bring to the Lord ?      Should we bring him burnt offerings? Should we bow before God Most High      with offerings of yearling calves? 7  Should we offer him thousands of rams      and ten thousand rivers of olive oil? Should we sacrifice our firstborn children      to pay for our sins? 8  No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,      and this is what he requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy,      and to walk humbly with y...

Yesterday I looked at the necessary connection between loving God and loving all people. This is not a liberal, socialist, touchy-feeley Christianity. These are the commands of Jesus Christ to those who follow him. If we do not have the capacity to show love to the people we can see and touch around us, then we do not have the capacity to love God. (1 John 3:10) Heart to Hand Love cannot be, however, just an feeling toward another person. As one of the great poets of the last 30 years has written, Love is more than what you feel; Love is action, love is real...(Billy Ray Cyrus, Stand ) The love of 1 John is tangible love, meaningful love.   So now we can tell who are children of God and who are children of the devil. Anyone who does not live righteously and does not love other believers does not belong to God. 11  This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12  We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil...

Love All Around Yesterday I emphasized that if we desire to mature in our love for God we will move through phases of that relationship/love. It takes an intentional effort on our part. That intention puts us in the places where God moves us through maturity. The first two phases, Devotion and Discipline, are heart and mind love. They are phases of developing certain character traits and practices. When we have been intentional about developing those, God brings us to a point of total surrender: Dedication. We are not able to become dedicated to God as much as God makes us able to be dedicated. But we still have to be intentional about developing our lives after that point. In particular, we have to be intentional about loving others. Read 1 John and you find a lot of love. In 4 chapters, love is referred to 46 times. The really interesting thing is that almost half of them are in chapter 4. 1 John 4 New Living Translation (NLT) 4  Dear friends, do not believe every...

When we say that we love God, what do we mean by that? We "love" many things. And the interesting thing about our loves is that we mature in the love we have toward the object. Consider this: if we love children throughout their lives with the same love we have for them as infants, what would that look like. As infants we show our love by caring for every need out of the awareness that they cannot do anything by themselves. We feed, move, and protect them in every way because they cannot even do the most basic activity on their own. Now fast forward that relationship to the day our children move out of their homes. By this time we have given them freedom to explore the world on their own. We have encouraged them to find their own identity even when some risk is involved. We may have empty cupboards on that day, but hopefully they can provide basic sustenance for themselves. If we have "loved" that child in the same fashion throughout their entire life, it ...

Given the sensitivity we are experiencing in the new of Robin Williams' death, I would like to share some sermon notes on the subject of suicide. This is the outline of a series of sermons written in 2010.  These are written from a purely Christian point of view with the hope of Christ being first and most important. I hope that these humble words will be helpful and full of hope. Taboo Subjects Suicide Suicide Death and a Cross 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 Suicide is sin I received so many responses to the comments I made about suicide in a sermon that I had to respond quickly Suicide has impacted many lives in this community And it is a subject we do not like to talk about – it is hard to talk about I’m going to speak from the Bible about issues surrounding suicide, but I am going to deal with the subject head on If you are uncomfortable or become emotionally overwhelmed, do not be ashamed to leave if you feel you have to But I ask that you give God a chance to heal...

This post will upset some people. Especially my wife. But before you jump to defend me or criticize my point of view, read/ponder/wonder with me. Last week was the Oklahoma Annual Conference. It is our regular business/worship/fellowship event for Oklahoma United Methodists. It is a time to celebrate the ongoing ministry, plan for the future, and carry out the necessary business that binds those two. I have a reputation among friends and colleagues for not caring for the event. I have also earned a reputation for not being there. That has nothing to do with the title. But those opinions hint at the struggle I experienced going into Annual Conference. This year was a difficult session for me emotionally and psychologically. I won't get into details. Let's just say that I was not in a good place mentally or emotionally when I arrived. It didn't get too much better over the course of the few days I was there (yes, I attended all sessions except worship). And when I left on T...

The following is an opinion piece. It is based on observation of the current events of United Methodists. It is not intended as a position piece, arguing a course of action. In other words: my blog, my space to vent. If you care nothing for my opinion, the state of United Methodist affairs, or personal venting, feel free to Google something more to your liking. Monday, a press release was issued. It was released by Good News, an evangelical United Methodist movement. The press release can be found here . It essentially states the opinion of the Good News staff and board regarding the current state of affairs of the United Methodist Church. It uses the word "untenable" to describe what our current UM reality is. According to Merriam-Webster, untenable means, "   not capable of being defended against attack or criticism : not tenable"  The situation they are referring to is the "united" portion of United Methodist.  Response to this statement is clearly...

Day three on the ark. All is dark. It sounds like rain. These critters stink. Spoiler Alert I've been wandering around the internet and found many complaints by Christians leveled against the movie Noah. The chief complaint is that it is not biblical. I can't understand this complaint. Why isn't it biblical? Is it because it includes elements that aren't written into the story? Is ti because it is too fantastic (as in loaded with fantasy images)? Is it because the characters don't do what is wanted or expected? I have already touched on some of these issues in the previous posts. But I want to focus on the biblical nature of this movie in detail. I felt that it is perhaps more biblical than most movies based on biblical narratives. And that is saying a lot considering the number of Bible themed movies that have come out recently. I feel that this movie is more biblical because it not only takes the Noah story seriously, but it also puts the Noah story into t...

The last blog post respected anyone who had not seen the movie. I didn't share anything about the content. ***TO BE WARNED - THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD*** As much as I loved Noah , I did have a few complaints. My first complaint is that this was way more of an action movie than I expected. There were some dramatic fight scenes included and they were, to some, graphically violent. I know that violence is somewhat necessary. Conflict is a critical tool in story telling. And violence seems to be the most visceral way to express conflict. Given the characterizations of "men" in the movie, violence is possibly a necessary way to portray that conflict between "men" and Noah. Don't get me wrong, I like action movies. Die Hard is one of my all time favorite Christmas movies. And I wasn't complaining about the violence in the movie. I just felt that at times, the action movie genre that was employed was a little over the top. It wasn't used just a part o...