It was a freaky weekend… first, on Friday, Alaska Governor, Sarah Palin, was selected by John McCain to be his running mate (which shocked the world), then hurricane Gustav taunted the Gulf coast with possible devastation, then the rumor that Palin’s four-month-old baby was actually her daughter’s was leaked, then the Republican National Convention’s hoopla was delayed due to the hurricane, then came the revelation that Palin’s 17-year-old daughter is engaged and pregnant. Political and meteorologic news swirled together and even interacted all weekend.

Fortunately, Gustav was not as devastating as it was feared to be (unless you were one of the people in the more rural parts of Louisiana who lost everything), and now this swirling hurricane of news and petty revelations about Gov. Palin can continue to taunt the McCain campaign with a lot of wind, but with little damage. It’s probable, as was the case with Gustav, that the gossipy tidbits may only unify and strengthen those on the receiving end of the political storm surges.

The 2008 campaign has been numbing and zombifying up until Friday.  The same old cliche rhetoric has been chanted. Predictable strategies and words have been engaged.  Both candidates try to look radical and moderate at the same time (fooling nor impressing anyone).  Obama made a torturously mundane VP pick in Joe Biden. I was nearly lulled into an apathetic doldrum until this Friday…

Now, I am just so…amused - I think that’s the best way to put it - I’m pleasantly amused by the whole scenario, blowing out of no where, as McCain announced an unknown engima, Sarah Palin, as the potential second-most-powerful-person-in-the-world.  This was like a hurricane that only a very few wonks had on their radar. It blew in stealthfully, with swirling winds of fresh air, knocking over some established political structures and uprooting some assumed entitlements.

I’m totally shocked that McCain chose her, and I’m enjoying that shock! I’m amused at the idea that the Obama people are circling the issue carefully, going “Dang, how are we going to approach this woman?” I’m amused that her husband is registered as an independent. I’m amused that the whole story seems like a Disney movie: housewife, turned PTA President, turned mayor, turned governor, turned VP!  I’m amused that the stodgy Grand Old Party has this irony to deal with: a conservative reformer with a stiff backbone and a pretty face! I’m amused at the feminist reaction that uncovers their obvious hypocritical belief that the only real woman is a liberal one.  This current campaign seemed so laborious and joyless and run-of-the-mill.  Now, like Hurricane Gustav, there’s something demanding our attention. Something to track. Some element of suspense and prayer for hope. I’m really enjoying it.

These thoughts might not surface blaring biblical analogy or God-inspired epiphany, but as one Grand Rapids metro-prophet says, “Everything’s Spiritual.” I’m observing a lot of spiritual winds swirling and churning up exhilaratingly choppy waters.

Last week I read a nice article titled Missional Living by Ashley Wolpert.  It was delivered to my desktop via the Nueue Weekly email. The article swirled around an interview with author Ed Stetzer.

Here’s an slice of the interview that I found pretty helpful:

“Wolpert: How would you define ‘missional living‘?

Stetzer: Missional living is essentially living with our primary perspective as that of an ambassador for the Kingdom of God. It means making our lives not about us, but about Jesus and His Kingdom.

In an alliterated sense, missional living is an incarnational (being the presence of Christ in community), indigenous (of the people and culture) and intentional (planning our lives around God’s agenda) focus on the power of the Gospel to bring the reign of God into people’s lives.”

I sent the article to a bunch of people who have joined me in carrying on a conversation about what “missional” means and about how we can bring the church back to that kind of culture.   My son-in-law Aaron responded with a really honest email that puts the tension of living like Jesus right up front. I think it speaks for most of us. He said I could share it:

Aaron: “I totally can buy into the idea of missional living - however I have a problem.  I and the rest of us are severely addicted to a life that is controlled by WORK and MAKING a LIVING to get all the stuff this world says we need to have.

Coming back from vacation has opened my eyes to the crazy rat race that we all lead. It’s depressing.   It’s only been a week and I totally miss the community of those on vacation , the laughter, watching my sons and getting to know them in a way I never knew them - Aubrey says they are no different I just never see them - having time to think and relax and reflect.  Sharing meals together, no telephone, or to do lists.

Everyone I share our stories with says ‘enjoy it now..while it lasts’ or ‘that brings back such great memories.’  If it is so good, why do we settle for less?

On the way home I asked Aubrey why does vacation have to be so different from normal life?  We guessed at responsibility.  Does consumerism really mean that much to us?  Has getting stuff done become my (our) god?  And even if we don’t like it how do we break away from it?  I (we) are like alcoholics or cigarette smokers that like the idea of quitting but never have the fortitude to put it down and go through the pain and misery of getting to the other side.

I think the problem is we like the idea and we can intelligently identify where we want to go.  But until we are ready to leave this life behind like Jesus asks us too, it will never change.

Read Matthew 19, Luke 9 and Luke 14.  Are we any different than everyone who had excuses for not following Jesus?  Jesus asked people to sell everything, forget the unburied dead, don’t wait to say good-bye or take the new oxen for a test drive.

How so these passages apply to us in 2008?

I listened to Shane Claiborne on YouTube last night - many probably think he is a homeless freak - just like Jesus?  He is missional living…but how many of us are willing to change our lives to be like that?  Why not?

Our problem is we can’t do anything unless we are benefited…I just get so frustrated with my own inadequacies when I think of how Jesus is probably disappointed with how selfish I am with my life…”

Thanks Aaron for the honesty! This really does bring our lives to the questions: “What do we believe about Jesus and how far are we willing to go to be like Him?”

I think that all of this is a choice, and not an impossible one, or Jesus would have never asked us to make it.  See Mark 10: 17-31

Does this mean that giving up everything is the goal? No, it’s following Jesus. If we have to give everything up to do that, than so be it. Jesus will never fault us for  choosing to do whatever it takes for us to do whatever he asks.

Beginning on Sunday, September 7th, we will be starting a new series at the
Crossing entitled “Visioneering”.  We will be diving into the book of
Nehemiah.  Scripture gives incredible accounts of God giving vision to His
people and them responding in awesome, sacrificial, tangible ways to make
God’s plans a reality.

Nehemiah is a story of awesome vision to rebuild the wall of Jerusalem that
had fallen amidst multiple conquests of the land.  In Nehemiah’s story, God,
unlike in the stories of Moses, Noah and Abraham [to name a few], works
behind the scenes.  A bulk of the story of Nehemiah is one we can easily
relate to; a guy receives a vision, works really hard to see it become a
reality, and has incredible faith that God will bless His endeavors.

Life is too short to live without vision and purpose.  Maybe you’re seeking
to rebuild the wall of sexual purity.  Maybe you’re seeking God’s vision for
Mr. or Mrs. Right.  You may possibly be seeking God’s vision for which
college you should attend.  We’re all asking, or should be asking, what God
wants to do with us during our time in Ashland, Ohio.  Let’s begin
visioneering [visioning + pioneering] on Sunday, September 7th together.  We
cannot wait!

This week at the Crossing, we will stay focused on Jesus’ words that have come to be called the Sermon on the Mount. Leading us into Matthew 6:1-4 will be Nate Bebout.  Nate is our good friend and a staff member at Five Stones Community Church.  The topic for this Sunday will be Giving to the Needy.

In this time of unclear futures, exciting prospects, and deep groaning passions to serve, God is calling His people together to share His vision. We call this experience “prayer” but we could just as easily call it a conversation with the Creator.

Every Monday night at 8:00 we meet at the 710 Prayer Room to ask for God to speak His vision into the very depths of our hearts. I long for more people to join us as it seems that it makes sense that we should hear from God together, not as separated fragments. As Rob Bell says in his video, Open, prayer brings us together, creates a link between God’s people, reminds us of what God is about…

The tough part about prayer is that it requires a ton of humility. As we contemplate a conversation with God some questions surface:

1) Do I believe that God cares?
2) Do I believe that God listens?
3) Do I believe that God speaks?
4) Do I believe that I can do what He asks?
5) Do I believe all of this enough to set aside some time to pursue it?
6) Am I willing to be patient enough to fit into God’s timing?
7) Can I put myself in God’s hands and allow Him to weave me into the fabric of His will?

I believe that God is preparing us for revival in the Ashland, Ohio, area. I think that this could be different than our preconceived notions of revival. Maybe this one will send us out of our churches and into the streets. Maybe it will give us more awareness of people around us instead of our own spiritual security. Maybe it will call us to bring beauty and newness to more than just souls. But I am sure that it will only come when we are ready, and I believe that readiness will come through prayer. God will not force it on us nor will He press some cosmic remote button and power us into action.  He will move when we are humble enough to let Him do it His way. We discover His way, in this time and space, by praying together.

I invite you, once again, to join us on Monday nights for prayer. Or, if there is something awkward or time-conflcting about our gathering, please start your own.  We just need to pray. Together. Often!

I want to lose 10 or 15 pounds and I know what I have to do. I should exercise quite a bit more and eat a little less. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that if I chose to do those simple things, and then did them, I would lose the weight. I know what I have to do and now it’s totally up to my choosing…

…but those easy, too-good-to-be-true weight-loss solutions I see on TV in the wee hours of the morning sure are more enticing. If I just keep waiting for something that is going to take the work and time out of the process, I’ll jump in. It’s worth waiting for. I can live with these extra pounds a little longer.

I’m starting to see that my attempt to follow Jesus is more like that than I ever realized before. The Word of God, both written and breathed, is pretty clear. The patriarchs and judges and prophets and the Savior were very crisp and consistent about what I am to do and who I am to be. A pretty simple message, really, if taken at face value. Something I could choose to do if I had the heart and desire and faith to. But, simple doesn’t mean easy, and I keep waiting for something a little easier. Maybe a “secret key” to living the Christian life that I’ve missed before. Maybe an epiphany. Maybe a Holy-Spirit-transformation that will somehow make me want to do the right thing and be the right thing.

I believe that there are mysteries in our faith, and people do have legit epiphanies and holy transformations. There are many things beyond my will-power, and most things that God has to control, not me. But, I believe that the ability to choose to do what I know is right and righteous is within my power most of the time, and I simply choose not to…

Yeah, yeah, yeah, the Apostle Paul voiced his frustration with knowing-what-to-do-and-not-doing-it. I’m not half the man he was. I’m sure that I can’t totally be my own master either. But I also can’t let God (or Paul) be my excuse for not doing what I’ve been told or for doing what I know is wrong. I can’t believe any more that God will come and overpower me with the right choices or that He will propel my body, against my will, to do what is right. That is a rapid-weight-loss scam and a get-rich-quick scheme, and I can’t buy into it.

It all comes down to believing in the reality of God, believing that what He says is true, and believing that was He has spoken is out of love and care for me. If I can grasp those things, I can trust Him. If I can trust Him, I can take the risk of simply choosing to do what He says: Pray. Search the Scriptures. Give up my possessions for those in need. Live for today. Surrender my sense of self-preservation to Him. Listen for His voice. Go where He sends me. Love unconditionally. Introduce other people to Him. Bring beauty to my surroundings for His fame.

I can choose to do all of that and He loves me enough to allow me to make the choice. His own design dictates that the only thing He doesn’t have the power to do is force me to choose what is right.

Last week at the Q Gathering in New York City, artist Makoto Fujimura spoke to us on the topic “Beauty in Culture.” Fujimura’s words were formed and shaped as gently and organically as his visual art, and I found myself sort of lingering on certain phrases and sentences, trying to capture everything within them. I got lost in some parts of his talk, and it’s taken nearly a week for their meaning to bleed together into some better understanding of beauty.

Here’s the thought-image that has slowly appeared today as I’ve thought about beauty. Some of this is Fujimura’s work, some of it has just come alive with the Spirit’s help:

Beauty always points out our own flaws. When we experience true beauty it speaks to us about the places that we are ugly. We compare ourselves, our lives, our world to the beauty we see and it falls short. We long for beauty and shy away from it at the same time because our hearts were made for more beautiful life and the life we have reminds us of its absence.

Jesus, the creator and very definition of beauty, took beauty and ugliness and allowed them to trade places for a time. He became ugly with our sin. The gruesome cross became beautiful as it took part in a life giving process that took away our short-comings and flaws in the eyes of our Artist. In Jesus’ resurrection he reclaimed beauty for His own while allowing the lowest form of ugliness, the cross, to remain beautiful in its gesture.

It occurs to me that our hearts only have the capacity to know and embrace and love beauty to the fullest if the beauty of the cross allows our ugliness to be eased away, to be put to death by the overcoming beauty of Jesus. Until that moment when we are aware of the beauty God sees in us and we allow ourselves to know only that beauty, we will not be able to appreciate beauty. Until we allow Jesus to trade ugliness for beauty in us, everything beautiful will continue point out that our hearts were made for more and that we need to find it.

One of the most controversial, intriguing, popular, misunderstood, and powerful sections of the Bible is the Book of Revelation. For good and bad, people’s entire lives are affected and even plotted-out according to the words the apostle John wrote in this body of scripture. If nothing else, Revelation is one of the biggest curiosities of the 20th and 21st centuries, drawing people within and without faith in Jesus into conversation about its meaning.

Starting Sunday morning, April 20, at 9:30 at 710 Park St., Dr. John Byron from Ashland Theological Seminary will be leading a short series exploring ways to read and understand Revelation. John will help set framework through which an honest, responsible pursuit of meaning and application can be made. Any young adult is invited and encouraged to attend.

In order to prepare for this series, John would like to share an article he wrote for a local paper. Even if you can’t attend the series, please read the article below to gain an understanding of the perspective he will be sharing. Feel free to converse on the article’s content by entering a comment below the blog post. I hope to see you on Sunday!

Here’s Dr. Byron’s article:

The Middle East Crisis and Bible Prophecy
John Byron Ph.D.
jbyron@ashland.edu

The current Arab-Israeli conflict has caused some Christians to wonder if this is the end of the world as we know it. Indeed, one only has to turn on the TV to find any number of televangelists declaring that this is the beginning of the end. These televangelists are sometimes billed as ‘prophecy experts’ who effortlessly weave together modern events in the world with apocalyptic elements found in the Bible. Each time the Middle East heats up another series of predictions, books and movies are made each connecting the politics of the region with the end of the world. The problem, however, is that when these events fail to occur they have to be reconfigured to explain why that last prediction was not incorrect. The fact is, there have been countless predictions made about the end of the world and none of them have been correct.

My reason for not viewing the current or any prior Arab-Israeli conflict as the end of the world is predicated on how I understand the nature of Bible prophecy. The major source used to predict end time events is the New Testament book known as Revelation. The reason Revelation is often used to predict end times events is because this is what it seems to do. But that is an oversimplification. Revelation represents a genre of literature found in antiquity intended to encourage those who were oppressed both politically and socially. The book of Revelation was written to a group of Christians suffering persecution under Rome and looking for a day when God would turn the tables on Rome and the evil in the world. This literature was intended more to give hope to people in their current situation rather than to serve as a 2000 year old road map to the end of the world. The book of Revelation is an historical document written to a particular group of people at a particular time in history. Moreover, we have a number of examples of this literature from antiquity demonstrating that Revelation is not unique. It is also a religious document that belongs to a certain genre of literature just as epistles belong to the genre of letter writing and gospels to the genre of biography. Since Revelation is particular type of literature, I interpret the symbolism according to that genre. Thus stars falling out of the sky, dragons, conquering armies, plagues and armies of demons or angels are all part of the world of apocalyptic literature. Just as a person going to a horror movie would expect certain elements to occur in the movie (blood, screams, scary monster etc), so to a reader of apocalyptic literature would expect these elements to be present. Therefore, I interpret none of it as predicting actual events but as symbolic descriptions of how the ancients perceived God working in the world. Apocalyptic literature was a way to deliver a message of hope that God would one day act on their behalf.

So is Revelation prophecy? Yes, the author identifies it as such. But the label ‘prophecy’ is not necessarily synonymous with predicting the future. In the Jewish and Christian tradition prophecy had more to do with what God was doing in the present age. Prophecy was more a critique of the people of God than a promise to annihilate their enemies. Even when future events were predicted, it was more about the imminent rather than distant future. Revelation fits this definition. Besides giving hope to persecuted Christians, Revelation is also a social critique intended to warn Christians not to become enamored with the Empire. It opens with letters listing the problems among some churches that seem to reflect their comfort level of living within the Roman social and political system. Revelation reminds the Church that the only true king is God not the Emperor. In the end, whenever that may be, one has to answer to God and not the Emperor.

So what does this mean for the modern Middle East conflict? We should not be watching in expectation for the end of the world by trying to connect the dots between Revelation and modern events. To do so is to betray a lack of appreciation for the kind of literature Revelation represents. I am uncomfortable with Christians who are quietly celebrating the current humanitarian crisis as the fulfillment of God’s end time plan. The teachings of Jesus promote peace and compassion not the celebration of war and death. Even if a Christian does believe that Revelation is a road map to the end times (which I do not) they should still be striving for peace. As Christians we should be working for peace between Jews and Arabs rather than finding theological satisfaction from the horrible ravages of war. I think a better use of Revelation would be to critique the Church and our comfort level within society rather than as a way to plot the world’s demise. Jesus said love your enemies, not plan their extinction.

Join us at the Crossing THIS SUNDAY as we kick off a study of the Prophets.

The world is and always has been a place of pride and great beauty. The life of a prophet is scandalized because amidst this world, they speak against the norms that many have come to believe as essential; impossible to live life without. The prophets are lonely bearing witness to a story, a cosmic story, that no one else wants to read or hear.

Through all their pain and heartache, the prophet remains committed to the Author of the story of life and continue to plead, rant and rave that others get onboard with the Author’s original intent.

This Sunday, we’ll be taking a closer look at Amos and exploring his message of justice. What was Amos’ message for people of his day? How does Amos message resonate with us thousands of years later? How is the world of Amos eerily similar to our world today?

See you on Sunday @ 11:00pm in the Park Street Brethren Church Family Life Center [fancy terminology for “gym”].

I’ve been intrigued by cussing. It’s been interesting to see how words with spiritual origins like “damn” and “hell” have, for a long, long time, been everyday cuss words. And names of deity have been “biggies” on the cuss-word chart, right up there with the F-word and N-word. An interesting intermingling of profanities and vanities and crudities have made up the common cussword dictionary that can be heard on streets and in homes and in games and among people wherever they feel comfortable or stressed-out with one-another.

I’ve really been intrigued, in a half-amused, half-shocked, half-liberated (yes, three halves) sort of way, at how the language of the street has made its way into the Church. In more public realms - worship services, Bible studies, etc. - words like suck, crap, screwed, and pissed pop up more and more regularly. In more private, everyday conversations between believers, potty words and locker room words flow freely and even some of the big bombs are being tried out with great passion and flourish. I just think it’s interesting.

So this morning I was listening to National Public Radio (NPR) on my way to work (Yes, I’m a closet listener of NPR, enjoying their stories and classical music) and I heard a report on “Why Children Curse.” I thought it was interesting, and amusing and informative and even mildly relevant to the culture we walk around in.

I want to share it with you. It’s about 7 minutes long. It might even give you a little admonition to watch what you say…but probably not. You can find it here: WHY CHILDREN CURSE.

Let me know what you think.