10.18.2013 CHARLIE PEACOCK, a new way to be human

back in the day phil keaggy, don francisco and especially keith green spoke to me spiritually, the last two were prophetic. after a gap of many years, during the crisis of my divorce at the turn of the century, praise and worship music, especially by the brooklyn tabernacle deeply ministered to a smashed and wounded soul. then in the last several years i have been deeply impacted by larry norman, the first christian to use the medium of rock music (1967) and a deeply reachthelost and prophetically gifted person, bob dylan's saved album (1980) and most recently, say the last six months, charlie peacock...a man whose name i vaguely recognized but knew nothing about. it along with norman and dylan was a totally serendipitous experience!...peacock the most fascinating discovery process of the three. i listened to his album, in the light, and kind of liked the sound of one of the 17 selections. i played it just to hear that and then began playing the whole thing as one after another of the songs became attractive. the music was one hook but the other, and eventually stronger, was the words! they are very mind blowing. i now liked the whole album and was led, as with norman, to check him out on wiki and wrote down all the albums he had released and the BOOKS he had written...i want to check them all out...unless i buzz off to another flower of the Lord. i am touched and intrigued by peacock as i got his 'A NEW WAY TO BE HUMAN' thru the bookmobile and am reading now. i thank God for each of His ministrations musically through the brooklyn tabernacle choir and each of these men. You are so good to me Lord.
i share a bit of it here...

83 in 1972 i was 15 years old, in love with Andi and music, and that's about all,
except for the occasional thrill of dirt biking when the honda would start.
along with pop and R&B,
i listened to the best of jazz and improvisational music,
including the great artist, john coltrane.
late at night, alone in my room,
i would light a candle and a little cone of incense,
put coltrane on the stereo
and invite him to transport me to new worlds of sound and invention.
it was for me, as people often remarked in those days,
a religious experience
and admittedly no small part of my attraction to coltrane.
i read everything i could about him
in magazines, books and liner notes.
one writer explained coltrane's  premature death at the age of 40
postulating that a man cannot see God and live.
the inference even to my young mind, was understood and noted.
john coltrane was a very spiritual man, a deeply religious man

(note: i hope to make his musical acquaintance too....later, i did get 4 cds out of the library and
1. i did not change my opinion about jazz..i do not understand it...and therefore can't appreciate it..? )
2. i did not like it and could discern nothing spiritual about it
3. i am glad cp was positively influenced by it...

i was trying to be.

a year or so prior to discovering coltrane,
i had a more formal brush with christian religion-more than singing in the choir.
due to a mysterious ailment,
my mother was hospitalized for a time in san francisco.
she returned home to yuba city a different person.
she had experienced some kind of encounter with Messiah Jesus.
what exactly, i don't recall.
i do remember waling up the aisle of First Christian hand in hand with her,
professing to the minister don roberts our desire to become christians.
a class for new believers preceded our baptism.
i attended youth group,
brought Andi to church and sunday school,
read my bible,
sang in the choir,
preached a 'youth sermon' on God and people using a somewhat sketchy baseball analogy,
told Andi and my parents i would be attending bible college after high school
(in order to become a minster),
and then, to my surprise,
the whole christian thing ended as quickly as it began.
being a christian wasn't working for me.
i was starting to have problems with the exclusivity of its claims.
besides that, i was worn out from denying myself certain sexual pleasures
that seemed to be deeply entwined with falling in love.
there were other issues as well, not the least of them, john coltrane.

coltrane wrote songs with titles like
'a love supreme', ascension', and 'the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost'.
he was spiritual, in touch with the creator.
i admired him and wanted to model my life after his.
i had to wonder, would john coltrane be received with open arms by
the good christians at my church?
i figured no and started getting some extra sleep on sundays.

i continued in my attempts to be spiritual like coltrane and
my poetry mentor, gary snyder.
i thought spirituality would make me a disciplined musician,
able and equipped to create at the highest level, like coltrane.
i continued to believe in God and Jesus,
even that Jesus was the Savior.
i had no beef with Him.
my problem was with what people called 'organized religion'.

a couple of years before coltrane and my experience with my mom at
The First Christian Church,
i had a frightening and disturbing dream of murder.
i was 10 at the time and sick with mononucleosis.
i dreamed that i had killed God.  according to r.c. sproul,
'God is our mortal enemy.
He represents the highest possible threat to our sinful desires.
no amount of persuasion by men
or argumentation from philosophers or theologians
can induce us to love God.
we despise His very existence
and would do anything in our power
to rid the universe of His holy presence.

even murder Him?

sproul continues, 'if God were to expose His life to our hands,
He would not be safe for a second.
we would not ignore Him; we would destroy Him.

i suppose we would.
people showed little or no hesitation in killing Jesus.
our hearts, it seems, are bent on getting God out of the picture.
some people attempt to achieve the goal by fighting for the notion
that God simply does not exist-never has, never will.
others trumpet His death.
this tactic can take the shape of a faux respectability
similar to when  a patriarch passes-
God can be spoken well of,
but serving Him is no longer functionally necessary.
or as with nietzsche,
God is dead because He was always a creation of the human imagination,
and the human imagination has no more need of Him.
other equally inventive people offer the idea that
God is the impersonal force behind the universe.
and impersonal god is a mute god,
and a mute god is a god who does not speak
-does not have a relational word.
by designing a speechless god,
we avoid relationship and accountability for being human.
people can be quite inventive when looking for solutions to the problem of God and words.

between the ages of 15 and 25,
i did my part to rid the universe of God
by maintaining belief in a personal God
while living as if He were
impersonal, nonrelational or even nonexistent
(depending on what suited me best.
second, i took false notions of the Tri-personal God of christianity
and, like tossing a salad,
mixed them up with religions and philosophies
that embraced Christ as a great teacher
while, at the same time, sought to undermine His teachings.
the effect of this contradictory, twofold approach
rendered any semblance of the one true God
null and void.
 i named God as God, but there was nothing behind the name.
He existed like a phony passport.
you could read his name, and it all looked official,
but in reality no such person existed.
this method allowed for talk of God and spirituality,
but its effect was no less deadly.
the name remained, but God was clearly out of the picture.

in a previous book, 'at the crossroads, i told the story of my spiritual awakening,
and how it began through a 12 step recovery group.
i was 25 at the time and had already been married for 7 years.
when i first became part of the group,
i was told to choose a higher power
and turn my life over to it.
if i didn't, they said i would never get clean and sober.
 maybe it was the fact that i had taste tested
so may religions and spiritualities by that time and found them wanting
or maybe it was socialization.
regardless, i reverted to a memory, and older controlling story.
i chose the God of the bible to be my higher power.

while no one can say for sure what God was affecting in my life at the beginning of my sobriety,
one thing is certain:
i did not pray to the God of the bible out of love for Him, His word, or His agenda.
i prayed out of desperation and self preservation,
betting that if the God of the bible did in fact exist,
He would be the necessary positive fix
to counteract the negative influences that alcohol and drugs had become.
since all my attempts to fix myself had been unsuccessful,
i had nothing to lose and everything to gain by giving the God of the bible a chance at doing
what i could not to for myself.
i liked the idea of talking to God
and trusting Him with my life one day at a time.

what i didn't understand back then was that
i9 was having a very one sided conversation.
i was talking to God, but He wasn't talking to me
-except through the biblically congruent ideas embedded in the 12 step recovery literature.
i gave Him the seat of power
but no tongue with which to speak.
i had created a speechless God.
i was a desperate man interested in practical results,
not in following Jesus.
thankfully, the Artist who cares for what He loves had something else in mind.
in march of 1982 i took a single gig as a sub,
playing piano for jazz saxophonist michael butera.
mike was a christian of the born again variety.
i was determined not to hold it against him.
after all, i had been praying to the God of the bible for 12 months of so,
asking for only a few things, really-sobriety and work.
both were coming, slow by slow, like the drip of a faucet.
perhaps the God of the christians was alive and well,
listening to the pleas of the foolish.

at the end of the gig, i thanked mike for hiring me
and communicated that i was grateful for the work.
a month later i received a phone call from him.
while mike was praying, it seemed God had impressed upon him
that he should contact me and ask if we could meet and pray together.
mike was very sensitive and respectful
and didn't want to appear, as he said 'weird'.
though it was an odd request,
i tried my best to put him at ease.

'i pray all the time, i told him. come on over.

within minutes mike was at my door,
and we headed to the back of the house.
he'd come to tell me the story of Jesus.

to tell the story of Jesus, to ask someone to consider its truthfulness,
is to say, 'picture this.'.
and when truth interacts with an imagination supernaturally charged with faith,
belief will announce itself.
it always does.
so it was with me.

mike told me that there was something wrong with people
and that that something had a name: sin.
sin, he told me, was alienating me from God
and until the sin problem was taken care of,
i could never truthfully be in relationship with God
even if i was talking to Him every day.

with my imagination alive to truth and my need before me,
i knew that mike was right:
Jesus was the savior of the world-my savior, too.
what mike was telling me seemed to explain reality
better than any explanation i'd ever heard.
time suddenly unwound to9 a stop
and i  imagined a line separating two lives:
the one i'd been living
and the one in Jesus that beckoned me.
i was amazed and afraid.
i knew that if i stepped over the line into life with Jesus,
there would be no turning back.
i would have to leave my old life behind.
but what choice did i have?
if i refused to cross over, i would knowingly be accepting a different story
and an untruthful life.
having heard the best story but refusing to accept it,
i would be the most miserable person in the world.
time came alive again
and i spoke aloud a life defining prayer,
confessing my needs and requesting the kindness of God.
Truth became my tears and like the praying multitude before me,
i believed.
i trusted that God would deal with me according to His great compassion and promises.
in faith i believed in Jesus as the
certain, sinless Word and trusted Him for
the unknown, infinite road that now stretched out before me.

the genesis of new days and new nights had begun with prayer
and the future would be fueled by it as well.
talking with God became the same as blood and breath and water-essential and common.
i learned that chattering with the Divine defines the life of
someone who was to be holy and creative.
it is the big conversation.
it is the ultimate what-if.
i also leaned that it's good to say thank You and i love You,
to let my prayers morph into praise then cross fade again into requests.
all in all, i leaned that there is life in prayer,
a life as real and visceral and messy as any life you can know.

now, twenty plus years later, i see that praying is like putting on clothes in the morning.
it covers my nakedness and answers the edenic question,
'wher are you, chuck?
my prayers announce my location and my status-her i am God!-
dissolving any pretense that i am anything other than a small and needy man.
this is the kid of effect Jesus has on people.
it's all a part of His plan.
He moves us from being the kind of people who use his creation tho hide from Him
to being the kind of people who eagerly seek an authentic God human conversation.
this is exactly what Jesus came to earth to achieve.

the bible tells me that even while i was still living the lifestyle of one
who was against God's ways,
He demonstrated His love for me through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus.
thank God, my saxophonist friend took this story seriously...
this kind of invitation is the word and work of all Messiah people-
telling the story and inviting others to follow Jesus in the new way.

90 Following Jesus in the New Way

..for student followers, the new way is composed of doing what Jesus taught us to do.
Jesus did nothing on His own, only what the Father told Him.
He was about His Father's business.
He points His followers in this same well lit direction
and then empowers them by the Spirit
to stay the course.

a few years ago, at an important crossroad, i received a card from a friend.
it was titled 'Don't Look Back'.
the card depicted a person choosing one road over another.
to the left was a road called 'Your Life'.
to the right was a road called 'No Longer an Option'.
this is the way it is for followers of Jesus.
don't look back.
the old way of living life is no longer an option.

...i agree with my friend steven garber..in his book 'the fabric of faithfulness'..

garber has spent years studying followers of Jesus,
listening to their stories.
he's concluded that three things are always present in the life of every student follower
who steps into the story with intentionality,
who shuns consumer religion
and who faithfully lives out the new way to be human that Jesus inaugurated.
in every case:

1. the student follower is taught and believes the new way to be human,
God's ways for the human family
-ways sufficient to withstand the trials and challenges of life on earth.
these ways become CONVICTIONS.
they belong to a tried and true formula;
God's identity gives birth  to reality.
God's reality gives birth to human identity.
having their origin in God,
these convictions stand tall against the false, incongruent  and insufficient ways and stories
competing for human attention.

2. the student follower meets a teacher who incarnates the new way
and the student sees that the new way to be human can be his or hers as well.
this is an example of model CHARACTER helping to develop new character in others.
embodiment shows the student that the new way is not beyond humanity,
but is in fact made for humanity.
it's a fit.
when we see it, we know it.
the new way has a magnetism because it has the character DNA of Jesus.

the use of the word teacher should be seen in the broadest sense.
we all instruct through word and work.
usually the student meets the teacher in the flesh,
and a friendship develops.
(i met my first teacher through the pages of a little booklet titled 'art and the bible.
though i never met my teacher in person, francis schaeffer was the first
to really flesh out the new way for me.
now, many years later,
it would be difficult to account for all the people i would credit as my teachers, known and unknown.)

3. the student follower lives out the new way in COMMUNITY
among like minded and like acting people.

103 in august of 1990 i'd toured europe.
i always have lots of time for thinking and writing while traveling..
i wrote..
there is a generation of christian artists in our midst
who are more used to following formulas than following the creator.
they ask questions like,
'what do i have to do to be a success in CCM (contemporary christian music)?
they are button pushers only interested in knowing what buttons to push
in order to achieve their desired results.
artists like this may flourish and be top sellers.
but as a model  for creating art in the context of the christian faith,
they are bankrupt to contribute.
they are not bad people or necessarily bad artists;
they are merely sheep without a shepherd.

strong words for sure.
i was confused and troubled by the kind of ambition i was seeing
in young artists moving to nashville,
the growing hub of christian music.
i was becoming increasinglyh convinced that
God wanted me to do some particular work in addition to my music.
but the work was still a vapor.
i'd talk about it but make no sense to anyone by myself.

the Spirit-words of ezekiel gave some clarity:
'you have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured.
you have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost.
you have ruled them harshly and brutally.
so they were scatted because there was no shepherd
and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals.
My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill.
they were scattered over the whole earth,
and no one searched or looked for them.  (34.4-6)

this passage and the words of Jesus to peter in the book of john
rang like timpani rolls in my skull.
God was saying to me,
'if you love Me, feed My sheep.
go get them, care for them and feed them.
give them a place of shelter'.
that's how i began to dream of a place where young artists could gather
for friendship, community and teaching.
i gave my imaginary place a name: the Art House...

106  ..it was 'our dream that God would use the Art House Foundation
to prepare artists filled with the Spirit of God,
with skill, ability and knowledge (ex. 35.31)
that these artists, having been well equipped,
would venture into both the church and the world
to create powerful and astonishing works of creativity.
and that these works, created with passion and honesty,
would serve the church and the culture as God in His wisdom would ordain.

a little later on, the Art House expanded its purpose
'to encourage christians, both artists and nonartists alike,
to develop their minds
-to think 'christianly' about all of like, to live artfully and
to apply the truth to their lives and their art. '

either way, the art house was always more than a concept .
it was about place- the old country church
(charlie peacock and his wife had fallen in love with an
old, no longer used church building which they had seen for sale
and God had provided the money to buy it.)
we'd fallen in love with:
'a place where we can  be reminded through fellowship, study and prayer
what it means to create art to the glory of God
-where we can exchange ideas, search the scriptures together,
and listen to gifted speakers reveal something of their own journey
through the arts and the christian faith.'.

today the art house is clearly a home, but it's like a small campus as well.
in 19092 we built a recording studio and offices on the property,
and in 1993 we moved into the church building.
since that time we've been working to create a place that reflects God's excellence.
andi has developed large cottage and shade gardens,
lining the property with horticultural surprises.
spring is like the fourth of july, with one plant after another
sending out fireworks.
though now only andi and i live on the property,
people come to the art house every day for all kinds of reasons
that transcend the normal workings of a family home.
i once thanked an artist for attending a stuy on following Jeus.
'are you kidding? he said. i'm always eager to visit her
-i know something good is going to happen.

i can't help but think this is what motivates people to come here.
musicians, engineers and producers work in the studio.
people drop by for business and spiritual counsel
-or tips from andi, the master gardener.
others come for a meal or to stay for a week.
motivations and needs for visiting are always different.
we pray and ask God to bring us the people
He wants us to love, do good to and prepare for works of service.
it's intuitive, liquid and spontaneous.
there's no registration and no one gets evaluated by an admission committee.
people find out by word of mouth that the art house is a pastoral ministry of
caring for people through teaching, the arts and hospitality.
we've always assumed that those who are meant to come will come.

we're more intentional and less spontaneous when it comes to art house events.
these are times set apart to listen to speakers,
to give ear to musical artists,
or to study under a particular teacher for an evening, a weekend or several weeks.

116 followers of Jesus are tempted to think that the easter quigleys
(a character CP has just portrayed in a novelistic way in the preceding pages)
of the world are the saddest victims of misspent love.
it's true that giving your body away to an untrustworthy human
is the way of sin and pain.
no question.
but every relationship is touched by sin and pain,
even those founded on True Love Waits and I Kissed Dating Goodbye.

no serious student follower committed to loving the opposite sex
in marriage or singleness can avoid the fact
that sin has made a wreck of the way to be human.
now, after the pattern of the King of Twists, (satan)
every good way has a twist in it.
the consequence of sin has dramatically affected the creational and relational norms of human integrity.

first, as we looked earlier, the creational norm is twisted up.
God's creative Word (earth and sky)
is no longer the embodiment of care and provision it once was.
living on earth and caring for it is frustrating work.
caring for any creativity has its frustrations.

the relational norm is twisted up as well,
and the intimate friendship of God, man and woman is fractured and frustrated.
God's will and His way (His spoken Word)
are no longer the controlling Story of man and woman.
self interest, self importance, fear and distrust have replaced the God-human conversation
regarding matters of mutual interest and importance.

serious followers of the new way acknowledge and accept that everything is twisted up.
they figure this into their thinking about relationships.
i've met some hysterical optimists
and some genuine lovers who take exception to this view.
it's too pessimistic.
i think it's realistic.
i know that lovers believe their union will be the exception,
but to a couple, all will be proved wrong.
my boldness is not my own.
it comes form the Story:

man is given to following the creational track,
moving in the opposite direction of God and integrity.
man says: 'i will dominate my creation.'
he moves from dominion to DOMINATION,
from stewardship to ownership
and from covenant relationship to self rule.
instead of man and woman with God in God's place under God's rule,
the way for man has become:
man, separate from God, in his own place under his own rule.

woman is given to following  the RELATIONAL track,
moving in the opposite direction of God and integrity.
woman says: 'i will desire my relationship(s) over everything elese'.
she moves from dominion to domination of relational desire,
from stewardship to relinquishment, acquiescence, or control
(that is, passive and active forms of twistedness).
she moves from the covenant relationship of God, people and place
to self rule or living under man's rule.
most often in history, the way for woman is
WOMAN IN MAN'S PLACE UNDER MAN'S RULE.
(note: a perfect description of our current culture...woman dangling her sexuality in front of man in
her state of 'absolute liberation' from man...yet still needing him for sex...and man lusting for her body but wanting nothing to do with her relationally...how tragically empty are ways opposite God.)

these are general distinctions.
nevertheless, with various exceptions allowed for,
these two gender tracks provide a historically accurate illustration
of the post Fall ways of man and woman.

in the Story, (peacock's description of the truth of the bible
as it has to do with man's creation, fall and post-fall relationship with God)
God told man and woman the consequences of their sin
and how the direction of their lives would change from that point forward.
to the woman God said,
"I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing:
with pain you will give birth to children.
your desire will be for your husband,
and he will rule over you. genesis 3.16

the dominion/caretaking role included reproduction.
had sin not entered the world,
this would have been a wholly and mutually satisfying vocation
-from the pleasure of sexual intimacy to the pleasure of
mutually creating and bringing into God's world a new creation.
nevertheless, the woman (and not the man)
wold sill bear the primary responsibility for carrying the child in her womb.

i have some thoughts on the issue of the woman's pain increasing.
i see the pain as TOTAL IN SCOPE.
it is physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual.
women know the physical pain is intense,
but it may be that the lasting pain is primarily relational.
the pain of bringing a child into the world may in fact
last a lifetime (as many parents will attest).
i also think that some part of the idea of pain is connected to
frustration, disappointment and dissatisfaction.
it is the pain of unrealized expectations
having to do with this one remarkable aspect of human creativity.

a mutual, one flesh act may bring a child into the world,
but history shows that it's the half flesh of woman that nurtures and grows the child.
(note: she assuages the pain of the disappointing man
by filling her life with the children..?
which drives the man further out..from her AND their children...?
less and less relationship all around the result)
what should be a wholly and mutually satisfying vocation
isn't allowed to be.
it's frustrated by absence when only presence will do.
where's man?
he's (note: desperately alone) busy dominating the creation under self rule.
mary stewart van leeuwen taps into part of this when she writes,
'the woman is being warned (in genesis)
that she will experience an unreciprocated longing for intimacy with the man.
unfortunately for the woman,
neither the critical role of childbearing nor intimacy with man
will provide the kind of satisfaction and completion she longs for.
at its most basic, the consequence of sin for the woman is this:
she will have an unsatisfied hunger and thirst that no human relationship can fill.

exceptions acknowledged, directionally speaking,
sin moved the woman from her authoritative role in dominion
to a new distorted desire.
form this point in the Story forward,
she will desire mutual relationship (with both sexes__)
far more than her codominion role.
woman will have a long memory for the norm of the one flesh and relational intimacy.
in general, this memory and desire will be greater than the desire to fulfill
the stewardship that the man will suffer his own painful consequences.
in genesis 3.17f...to man God said,
because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
about which i commanded you, 'you must not eat of it...


there has been a tendency to read 'because you listened to your wife'
through a contemporary lens of gender and faith issues.
we can't afford to do that.
we must read it in the context of the Story.
we know that the man was present at the conversation.
his human presence assumes human hearing and listening.
the implication isn't,
'you shouldn't have listened to your wife.
don't take orders from her!'
it is YOU LISTENED TO YOUR WIFE,
(note: OPENLY MOVE AWAY FROM WHAT GOD CLEARLY COMMANDED)
to what she said, to the way she answered the questions and statements
posed to her by the serpent.
hold on to this idea.

before we can go further we have to return to an earlier part of the Story.
we do this to keep ourselves on track.
how important is the word of God in the first tow chapters of genesis?
it is a creative word of will from the very beginning, isn't it/
from 'let us make (gen. 1.26) to 'you must not' (2.17).
always and everywhere the word of God is creating
the stuff of story and providing the controlling narrative.
a representative of God, especially the first representative (the man),
carefully handles all of God's world,
whether it be his creativity, will, rule, or truth
about the way things are supposed to be.
from the beginning man is to be this kind of worker.
THE WORK IS TO CARE FOR GOD'S REVEALED WORD IN CREATION
AND HIS REVEALED WORD IN WHAT HAS BEEN SPOKEN.
stewardship applies to both
and both are intertwined..

...the man's sin is not that he simply listened to his wife,
but that he listened,
said nothing
and did the very thing he was commanded not to do.
his silence is deafening
and it's by his silence that man separates what God has joined together.
he doesn't testify of the knowledge given him:
instead he's timid (note: by this he accomplishes what he desperately sought to avoid...
being separated from her)
he doesn't guard the truth;
he doesn't steward God's relational and creational word.
he was first to see the garden,
first to see the trees,
first to hear the commandment,
first to know the Story,
and first to step into the Story.
though not the first to violate the commandment in eating of the tree,
he is the first human responsible to "God for creation (which included the woman).
he failed to care for all that was entrusted to him.
his stewardship failure set the stage for the failures of his son cain.
'am i my brother's keeper?, cain asked (genesis 4.9).

this is speculation, but it's plausible that the couple's unity
\had already begun to be a substitute for the organizing Story of God
and people living under God's rule (heart sin before behavior).
this humanistic impulse becomes even clearer later in Babel.
in eden it's possible that the man's allegiance to himself and the woman had begun to redefine reality.
was man's glory (the woman and her excellence)
overtaking the glory of god in the mind of man?
perhaps he had already begun to trade the truth of God for a lie
by worshiping the creation (the woman) rather than the creator. 
again, this is pure speculation.

different from the woman's consequence, man moves from dominion to sinful male domination.
he abuses the power and authority originally given to both man and woman.
now man dominates even the bone of his bones and the flesh of his flesh.
he actively and passively dominates everything to scratch fruit from the earth,
to meet personal agendas of achievement,
to make a name for himself,
and to create wealth.
eventually, man will even try to use domination to bring the kingdom to pass.
he selfishly dominates at the expense of the oneness and unity of purpose
he is called to with god and woman.
no matter how clever man is,
how hard he works or doesn't work,
or how much pleasure or wealth he accumulates,
he is never satisfied.
perfection and satisfaction slip through his fingers like slippery pearls.
as with woman, man continues to hunger and thirst.
this is the direction that sin took man and woman.

God allowed sin its consequences, knowing that it would
ENSURE HUMANKIND'S DISSATISFACTION.
ultimate unity, intimacy and purpose exist only with the creator.
only god can save man and woman.
only god can fill their need, quench their thirst.
only God can deliver them from evil and the consequences of sin.

i've been writing about the first man and woman, adam and eve.
but you know that i'm writing about you, about me,
about every human being since the beginning.
something's wrong and it's not right
-and it's okay to talk about and name it.
there is a darkness over the land
and in the hearts of people everywhere.
sin is real.
men and women stand in the shadows of the Dead Zone by the grace of God,
or they remain in it awaiting rescue.
we shouldn't lie about the human condition,
fake it,
or forget it.
we can't pretend that nothing's wrong when something clearly is.

129last

168 ..one voice that is not smal is the voice of Jesus.
i'll share with you something i believe He told me regarding work and money.
my confidence that this came from Jesus
is found in a promise he made to His followers.
He said, 'but the counselor, the Holy Spirit,
whom the Father will send in My name, will teach you all things
and will remind you of everything I have said to you. john 14.26
now i don't know why, but when i hear from Jesus in this way,
He always calls me chuck.

'chuck, this is Jesus speaking.
'I tell you, do not worry about
your life, what you will eat or drink;
or about your body, what you will wear. matthew 6.25.

'shuck, you cannot be the servant of both God and things on earth.
it's futile to have two ultimate goals or points of reference for your actions.
you already recognize that one mustg become subordinate to the other.
you can plainly see that you truly cannot serve two masters
-their requirements conflict.
when the treasures of the heart are not the treasures of God,
your life becomes an endless cycle of pursuing finacial security
and living to please man, doesn't it?
this is the futile life (see matthew 6.24)

i thought a  bit on my own for a moment.
yes, i can serve material goods,
value them, care for them and use them well for God's kingdom purposes.
since i know this and understand the call of stewardship,
i'll hold on to this truth and let go of everything
that doesn't fit within what faith allows or requires of me.


'church, 'I have often told you before and now say again  even with tears,
many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.
thier destiny is destruction,
their god is their stomach,
and their glory is in their shame.
their mind is on earthly things.
but our citizenship is in heaven. philippians 3.18-20

'refoice in the Lord alwys.
i will sayh it again: Rejoice!
let your gentleness be evident to all.
the Lord is near.
do not be anxious about anything,
but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,
present your requests to God.
and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding,
will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. philippians 4.4-7

'you can work hard and you can care about your loved ones, your family.
but don't be anxious-not even about caring for them.
remember what I timothy 6.6-12 says:
'but godliness with contentment is great gain.
for we brought nothing into the world,
and we can take nothing out of it.
but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.
people who want to get rich
fall into temptation and a trap
and into many foolish and harmful desires
that plunge men into ruin and destruction.
for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
some peop[le, eager for money,
have wandered from the faith
and pierced themselves with many griefs.
but you (chuck), man of God, flee from all this
and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
fight the good fight of the faith.
take hold of the eternal life to which you were called
when you made your good confession in the presence of many witness.

that's it, i thought to myself.
DON'T HOLD IT (ETERNAL LIFE) LIGHTLY.
DON'T BE TENTATIVE.
HOLD IT AS YOU WOULD ANYTHING OF GREAT VALUE.

'chuck, don't put your 'hope in wealth, which is so uncertain,'
but put you 'hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. I tim 6.17
just 'do good'.
in fact, be 'rich in good deeds...generous and willing to share' (v18).
if you will live this way , you 'will lay up teasure for (yourself)
as a firm foundation for the coming age,
so that you may take hold of the life that is truly life (v19).

'chuck, work.
and while you work here on earth,
do not worry about things on earth.
instead, seek the kingdom first and alwayhs first.
when yhou get up in the morning think about the kingdom.
from now on, make it you top priority
to identify and involve yourself ONLY
in what God is doing and in the kind of rightness He has.
everything else you need will be provided. (see matthew 6.33)

'chuck, remeber that a friend of the world is an enemyh of God (see james 4.4),
in fact, a hater of God.
this is why you can't claim to love God
and then turn and return to loving something He does not love.
a lover of God will love what God loves and hate what He hates.

'finally, chuck, 'whatever is true,
whatever is noble,
whatever is right,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable,
if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-
think about such things.
whatever you have learned or recieved or heard from Me, or seen in Me-
put it into practice.
and the God of peace will be with you. philippians 4.8-9

Jesus communicates with His people.
'My sheep, Jesus says, listen to My voice;
I know them and they follow Me. john 10.27
He speakes in sheeply ways that sheep can understand.
on the subject of work and money,
He gave me important words from the Story, beginning with His own.
my journal reflections on what i was hearing have stood the test of congruency...

do people need a means of exchange for goods and services in the world?
of course and God knows this.
but neither the need for money nor the need for goods and services
defines work for the man or woman following in the new way.
here we need the long memory about what happened in eden.
the gathered tribe of Jesu is meant to be a people
who take God's relational Word seriously.
'all that we are and do as christians is based upon the one-off uniqued achievement of Jeus.
it is because He inaugurated the kingdom that we can live the kingdom. '
the kingdom Jesus announced did create a new world and context
and a new world would require a new wayh of being human.
Jesus came announcing a kingdom
that must 'OVERTURN ALL OTHER AGENDAS'.
this includes our agendas regarding work, money, success, peace and safety
and the goals we instill in our children.

can it really be that our work is to do good and that's all?
yes.
the simplest theology i can give is do good work
and trust God to provide.
this is the old way of eden made new through Jesus.
honestly, this is just too good to be true for most followers
and so in matters of work and money,
we think and behave as practical atheists...

all God wants is a people who will do their work as unto Him,
for His kingdom purposes and trust Him to care for what He loves.
IF WE HAVE A NEED FOR RESOURCES TO ACCOMPLISH GOOD,
HE WANTS US TO TALK TO HIM ABOUT IT.
if the work we want to do really IS good,
we can trust that He is way ahead of us.
His whole re-creation project is about what is good and right.
His invitation is to get in step with His goodness and rightness.

the book of james asks, 'what causes fights and quarrels among you?
don't they come from your desires that battle within you?
you want something but don't get it.
you kill and cove, but you cannot have what you want.
you quarrel and fight.
you do not have, because yo do not ask God.
when you ask, you do not receive,
because you ask with wrong motives,
that you may spend what you get on your pleasures (4.1-3 )

how do God's people drift so far from the shore?
craig gay says that the drift is a result of our imaginations,
'that we imagine our world in such a way
that we ignore the real reality of God's gracious presence within itr.
when the Story speaks of 'the world',
it defines it in three ways:
1. the earth as a place created by the creator,
2. all the people groups of creation, and
3. all the ways contrary to God's ways.
this last definition is the world people imagine.
it's not the world of God and His ways of being human in the world.

the mother of Jesus spoke of God saying,
'He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. luke 1.51, rsv.
every follower must wrestle with the question,