ct, 5.10, p.33..james davison hunter says the church's strategies to transform culture are ineffective and the goal itself is misguided in new book, 'faithful presence'...speaking of paradigms for cultural engagement..'all the paradigms speak to authentic biblical concerns. yet the desire to be RELEVANT to the world has come at the cost of abandoning distinctiveness. the desire to be DEFENSIVE AGAINST the world is rooted in a desire to retain distinctiveness, but this has been manifested in ways that are, on the one hand, aggressive and confrontational. and on the other, culturally trivial and inconsequential. and the desire to be PURE FROM the world calls on the entire laity, in all vocations -ordinary and extaordinary, common and rarefied- to enact the shalom of God in the world.
christians need to abandon talk about 'redeeming the culture', 'advancing the kingdom' and 'changing the world'. such talk carries too much weight, implying conquest and domination...
(a number of years ago i remember hearing jim dobson of focus on the family and coming away with the impression of conquest and domination. it caused me to reflect how different his approach was from that of the old testament prophets, the apostles and Jesus who spoke truth and were killed rather than, in the name of truth, seeking positions of power in society. as much as i turned away intellectually i have continued to experience the strong temptation toward wanting conquest and domination rather than suffering and death.)
..if there is a possiblity for human flourishing in our world, it does not begin when we win the culture wars but when God's word of love becomes flesh in us, reaching every sphere of social life. when faithful presence existed in church history, it manifested itself in the creation of hospitals and the flourishing of art, the best scholareship, the most profound and world-changing kind of service and care - again, not only for the household of faith but for everyone, faithful presence isn't new; it's just something we need to recover'..
poop this week...the thot occurs that maybe i shouldn't ask people, 'how can i pray for you?' maybe that too is infected with self..with the desire to be seen as 'godly'. maybe its just another example of practicing 'righteousness' in order to be noticed by men. can't i just hang out, praying, with people and see how i can pray for them by hearing what they say? can't i just pray for them in my heart? do i have to display prayer? do i have to lengthen prayer...to 'be seen'? won't You meet me when i deliberately pray without 'being seen'? am i, in this way, trying to force people to interact with me 'spiritually'? am i trying to be seen as some spiritual guru? why not just wait on God to see what He unfolds along the way? can't i be content just to quietly practice mimicking Him, doing what He commands? may the goal always to be forgotten and You to be seen and loved.
a quirky thing last sunday night at mision. during the message a teenage boy next to me (one who never speaks to me and seems to have no desire to) leans over and says, 'God has the answer' and not more than a few seconds later the man behind me leans forward and says the same words..
whoever exalts himself will be abased but he who abases himself will be exalted.. lk.18.14 mary..a los pies de (at the feet of) Jesus.. 10.39
and she vowed a vow and said, 'o Lord of hosts, if Thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of Thine handmaid and remember me and not forget Thine handmaid, but wilt give unto Thine handmaid a man child, then i will give (dedicar) him unto the Lord all the days of his life.. I sam. 1.11 Lord will You bring me to the blessed place of hannah where i may genuinely give my whole life to You?
make me Your disciple (learner). help me have no answers, no knowledge, nothing. help me look at You and imitate (mimic) You. help all of who i am to be constantly crucified so only You remain, Your will and desire is all. call me. make me an apostle (sent one). help me be completely willing to go wherever, to do whatever You want or lacking such to remain peacefully wherever You want me and mimic You there.
a painter i know was willing to lend me a 36' ladder with which i was able to paint 15' or so of gables i could not otherwise reach. when asking what i could give for this loan he said something about the ladder being Jesus' and he needed nothing. the rope to raise and lower the ladder was almost destroyed so i said i would replace the rope. this turned out to be quite an 'expensive' way to say thank you. i had to learn about the need for a proper sized rope (originally bought a .25' rope but the ladder and pulley were designed for a .37' rope) and a rope made of the proper material (first bought plastic, then considered polyester, nylon and manilla before finally settling..and returning those not chosen). in the process i spent 3 man hours of time and traveled 4o miles. it was a battle not to become frustrated and angry but yet this was evidently exactly what God wanted for me. God seemed to whisper, 'sit 'in themud' at another red light or in one of a billion other hinderances and irritations and fully receive each annoyance, frustration, enragement, heartache and pain as a special gift from Me. shift out of overdrive into neutral; let Me drive; enjoy wherever i have you at any given moment! akounamatada baby! aurghhhh!!! i think of how it says the even Jesus learned obedience by the things that He suffered.
this week start prepping john and sandy's porch and have very strong lack of peace. am praying. the lack of peace grows. i must get down from the ladder, walk over to 54 and cast a lot asking for the answer to 'do You want to paint for john and sandy?' the coin said 'no'. lost alot of work and a lot of $ on that, but there was instant peace as i walked over and packed up the equipment and left. at this point have several of hours of painting left and no prospects. thank You Lord for giving every day what is necessary to live.
i have come to use the lot sparingly (this is only 3rd of 2010)..usually in situations where i am torn by various considerations and need to remove the subjective from the decision.
women are sinners. men are sinners. the besetting sin of women is the lust to be in control. the besetting sin of men is the lust to use women as sex objects. which gender is at fault for the current dysfunction in gender relationships? which came first, the chicken or the egg? in our current 'world system' women are in ascendancy. women are worshipped. their desire is law whether viewed from a microcosmic or macrocosmic perspective. one major result is the murder, in cold blood, of more than 1.5 billion innocent human beings..a genocide that dwarfs to microscopic proportions every other genocide in human history. let it be remembered that though women are the 'efficient' cause, every human being who is aware of this is blameable before Almighty God.
history, within its overall linear movement toward the realization of God's overall, final purpose that all reality will be summed up in Jesus Christ, is very cyclical in many respects. one is the nature of relationship between the genders. the world system, in particular areas, oscillates between two polarities: male domination and female domination in cultural/governmental/ personal affairs.
both dominations, for female control or for male use of women as objects, are clear signals of the disintegration of a viable, healthy society. isaiah, shortly before israel was largely dismantled as a nation by wholesale destruction of their infrastructure and deportation of their people writes, 'moreover the Lord saith, because the daughters of zion are haughty and walk with stretched forth necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go and making a tinkling with their feet..therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown orf the head of the daughters of zion and the Lord will discover their secret pars. in that day the Lo4rd will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet and their cauls and their round tires like the moon, the chains and the bracelets and the mufflers, the bonnets and the ornaments of the legs and the headbands and the tablets and the earrings, the rings and nose jewels, the changeable suits of apparel and the mantles and the wimples and the crisping pins, the glasses and the fine linen and the hoods and the veils. and it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet smell there shall be stink and instead of a girdle a rent and instead of well set hair baldness and instead of a stomacher a girding of sackcloth and burnign instead of beauty. thy men shall fall by the sword and thy might in the war. and her gates shall lament and mourn and she being desolate shall sit upon the ground'. truly every nation who forgets God will be turned into hell (the hebrew word for sheol, the realm of the dead)..in other words, destroyed.
one of the lies of history is that women submitting to their own husbands brings about degradation of women. this can only seem true when general female respect for and deferment to male leadership actually has exalted the place of women. this in our time is/has largely moved into the past but women are still enjoying the fruit of the deferential women before them. woman who are truly degraded have no voice to speak of or complain about their degradation. wherever men, in accordance with the word of God or in accordance with His law that is written on their hearts, follow His pattern women are exalted. more accurately, it might be said that to the degree to which this is occuring, to that degree women are exalted and protected. to the degree that God is not followed in this area or is discounted altogether, to that degree women are debased. as marquis de sade, for whom god was nature, said..men can do anything they want to to women for they are, by nature, stronger..
'tonsure' is the act of cutting the hair or shaving the head and also the state of having been thus shorn. i am having difficulty actually using the word in speech and was not helped much by the various literary examples given in the oxford dictionary.
it seems, in the constant mystery (to me at least) of how the human and divine interplay, i recently i have noted that i have been led to talk to myself as if to a naughty, disobedient child. this has been effective the few times i have tried it in dealing with gluttony (eating for taste or self (psychological) reasons rather than for strength to live and work, etc.). i have said , 'you are not going to have a banana when you get home..you are not going to have one before bed...you are not (every time the thot or urge to comes to my mind). david talked to himself (why art thou cast down oh my soul and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God for i shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance..) st. francis or luther or someone refers to the physical body as 'brother ass' which goes along with Jesus' (?) comment that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. so maybe this may be another way to crucify the self desires...i don't know..
God is introducing me to the very starts of His love..cleaning up toothpaste all over the bathroom sink and picking pubic hairs out of the hair strainer without saying anything and trying to be a help...even when taken advantage of..
in a letter from a missionary who was going to visit a fellow missionary in the outback..'roger walked ahead of us directing us where to drive so we were able to miss the places wher we would have sunk in the mud'...what a beautiful and accurate picture of Jesus. an old hymn..'my Lord knows the way thru the wilderness; all i have to do is to follow...'
this a.m. at mision.. referring to the people in the region where Jesus' granted the demon horde permission to enter the pigs who they then destroyed in the sea of galilee it says of them tenian gran temor (they had great fear). oh Lord, help me to say the tremendous works that you are doing around me and help me to have great fear of You...not leading me to want You to go away but leading me to want to give You everything i have!
hope you have a good week. love, dad
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