Further Up, Further In (Diving Deeper)

Catch the C. S. Lewis reference? We have a guest speaker, Gini Downing, and she said God often speaks to us in odd ways. 

“Rest is a weapon” is a quote from The Bourne Identity. Taking care of ourselves is part of our Christian walk - it is not selfishness. 

In our hurry up world, it pays to remember that God is interested in the depth of our faith, so do not focus only on fast forward movement. That reminds me of the seed that fell on shallow rocky soil and grew rapidly but died due to lack of deep roots. 

Our spirituality is a journey, not a destination. The steps on the journey are not a to do list - they comprise a become list. 

Where is God? Too often we banish God to the back room of our souls. Why doesn’t he break out? Because even this stupidity is part of our journey. We want to run our lives, but God will not be contained. Ties back to Narnia again, God is not a tame God. 

The faith journey isn’t linear, it’s layered.  Epiphanies come in many forms. Sometimes they come as a question. Why do we suffer? “It is necessary that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” Jesus said this tenderly to Julian of Norwich in a vision. 

You are exactly where you are supposed to be. You are exactly where God will meet you. What role does sin play in this? I’m puzzled. 

We all live into our purpose. We live into a larger purpose. Dive deeper and the forward motion in our spiritual journey will take care of itself. 

The Way of Weakness

Power is a necessary evil. The Church speaks from weakness to power. The Church is at its strongest when it walks the way of weakness. 

In 2006, a man named Charlie went to an Amish school and killed many children and then himself. The Amish chose to forgive him and took dinner to his widow. She worships with the Amish today. 

Early Christians helped plague victims and changed the way Romans viewed them. The Civil Rights Movement and Desmond Tutu walked the way of weakness and changed the world. 

Biblical religion is grounded in weakness, not in paltry human power. 

If we experience God’s Love, we give it to others, God’s Love is not something we can selfishly hold and keep to ourselves. 

Worship God and do not be distracted by your troubles. The present may suck, but our future is guaranteed. In the middle of your difficulty, let go and let God, don’t be anxious. The peace of God will guard your heart. 

When Paul writes in Philippians about how God meets your needs, he’s not writing about worldly wealth. 

The parts of Christian history most cringeworthy is when the Church rested on worldly power. 

The Church grows best when it walks the way of weakness. 

When the Church has some power, it tends to want more. It is seduced by power. The Church becomes idolatrous and worships worldly power. We have to stop playing the harlot and putting our trust in any social institution, politician, or party. 

We change the world, we repair creation, by walking the way of weakness. 

The church as it is in America today is dying. It’s up to us what will take its place. Yes 

What is Maturity?

The life of Jesus in the past profoundly affects our view of our future and we live our present in light of that future. 

We are living in the middle of our salvation. 

In the present Christians mourn the evil of the world (blessed are those who mourn) and we seek to bring the Kingdom more fully here in love and meekness (blessed are the meek and those who hunger and thirst after righteousness). 

We live in light of that future. The Kingdom will be fully realized here in that future. Our citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3.17-21). 

Jesus will return and finish the task of salvation. There is no such thing as the "end times" set in the future. Biblically, we have been living in the end times since the resurrection of Christ. 

Jesus is ruling and reigning today. We are called to advance the Kingdom, not look for blessings in this life. Middle-class success is not the goal of the Christian life. Obedience is more than being "good" and not breaking the rules. 

If you live into this future, then you will encounter resistance - internal, external, and spiritual. If we live into the age to come, then we will encounter resistance from the age that is. 

Living into this future purifies us and takes the superfluous out of our lives. 

Christian life is living a life of trust. We are called away from certainty and into trust and that’s painful.