does God believe in you?

Malachi 3

"You ask, "But how do we return?'

8"Begin by being honest. Do honest people rob God? But you rob me day
after day.

"You ask, "How have we robbed you?'

"The tithe and the offering--that's how! 9And now you're under a
curse--the whole lot of you--because you're robbing me. 10Bring your full
tithe to the Temple treasury so there will be ample provisions in my Temple.
Test me in this and see if I don't open up heaven itself to you and pour out
blessings beyond your wildest dreams. 11For my part, I will defend you
against marauders, protect your wheat fields and vegetable gardens against
plunderers." The Message of GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies. 12"You'll be voted
"Happiest Nation.' You'll experience what it's like to be a country of
grace." GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies says so.

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from the Pastor "preacher and teacher" of Fairlawn-West, David Loar

This passage from the prophet Malachi sounds too harsh in our present world
(yet, folks are very focused on how other people need to "obey" the 10
Commandments!). Two things:

1) without putting thanksgiving offerings to the center of our spiritual life
at the center of our lifestyle, we will feel disconnected from the center of
our spiritual life...God. That was true in Malachi's time. People were
looking for easier ways to know God and to receive God's benefits without
giving their life(style) to God. I heard last night about a family that had
never seriously focused on their spiritual life. After their church had a
congregational conversation about tithing, the family met - parents and
children - and decided that instead of giving the left overs of their
present budget and lifestyle to God, they would change their life(style), as
a spiritual decision in their life, and begin to tithe as a family to their
house of worship, the Lord's house, the center of their spiritual life. The
minister telling me this story is an avid golfer, carries his clubs in his
car to golf any time he needs to relax. At this same church, when he first
talked with them about tithing, or even giving 5% of their income in
offering as a spiritual discipline and to help the body of Christ, the
church, to be stronger to guide them and others, the leaders of the church
balked saying it was too much for them to "pay." This minister then pointed
out to the parking lot asking about how much had been spent on those cars out
there, and how much money had been "left" on the golf course by many of these
folks. His point was received. He wasn't saying to restrict their travels
or their recreation, but to be clear about what OR WHO was at the center of
their life(style).

2) The seven days of creation story in Genesis 1 reverses how we use the
week. In our culture we expect that by being in worship for one hour on
Sunday we should get a sermon and a feeling to carry us through the rest of
the six days. This puts us at the center of our life. In Genesis 1 God
works or creates for 6 days to prepare for the sabbath on the 7 day. The
previous 6 lead up to the 7th instead of the 7th preparing us for the other
6. This is again a decision in our lives of what OR WHO will be at the
center of our life(style).

Many folks complain that God doesn't answer their prayers or they aren't sure
whether God exists or God hasn't been paying enough attention to them lately.
How would we know what God is doing or saying, if God isn't at the center of
our life(style)?

David Loar
http://discipledavid.blogspot.com ...David's blog
http://readeachday.blogspot.com... clergy reading blog featured in the Akron Beacon Journal
http://www.fairlawnwest.org ...church
http://www.loar.org ...family

who is old today?

My grandmother died at age 102 five years ago. For the last five years of her life she lived as part of a world that was a mix of the past and the present all rolled into one. She mixed us all up, but she called us specific names. For instance I was honored the day she thought I was Grandpa. As far as she was concerned, I was Grandpa.

Folks debate these days if the world has changed or how much has changed and/or what to call these times…emerging culture, post-modern culture, 21st Century culture. (I wonder when the words "modern" and "contemporary" were accepted as the norm to describe the 20th Century?) You know what, it doesn't matter what you call it, it is what it is. And 90 year olds may say the don't like the change today, but they live in it. They use the scanners at the grocery store…either on their own or by the clerk. They use cars that to the most part are no more than 5-10 years old with very different technology and design than in the 1950's.. They listen to radio stations and they watch tv stations that communicate far differently than they did five years ago. They use medicines that weren't even known of three years ago. They are able to live at home or they live in retirement/assisted living settings that were no where on the radar 15 years ago and to the breadth they are around in the last 5 years.

So, are a 90 year old and a 13 year old are living in a different kind of culture? Oh sure, they may listen to different music (but not all of them!). Yet, the context is much more alike than different. A 90 year old today is closer to my 14 year old in living style, than even to my grandmother when she was in her 90's. The understandings and expectations are much more the same between the 90 and 13 than to my grandmother's 90. Most of my grandmother's peers didn't move to Fla. Oh sure, they traveled some, but most of them stayed put in Wauseon, Ohio until they died. This adventure for travel and moving to a different setting is much closer to the adventuresome spirit of today's teens than the previous generations senior citizens. I see the same anticipation for a move to Fla for seniors (citizens) as I do for going to college by seniors (in high school). It is a life change they anticipate. A new adventure. Something new and different. That value was not part of the living experience 20-30 years ago. There was anticipation for some things new, but not to the degree that it is accepts as the norm for all generations today.

So, what are are "good old time" values in this context? I think there are values that transcend the generations. But, I also think, today's 90 year olds accept much more than my grandmother did at 90. So, whose memory do we rely on for the good ole days?

Boy Scouts require more than "Christians"

If Boy Scouts and Girls Scouts are expected to do good deeds regularly/daily, what should be expected of those who have given their life to Christ? What is the "bar" for Christians e.g. we who are part of a local church? Would it be higher? Or could I be just as well be a Boy Scout and not need to be part of the church/body of Christ? Or what about the Rotary,Kiwanis and Lions clubs which are rigorous in their attendance requirements and also on the character of their members and their moral behavior? The Rotary 4-Way Test is an example. Is more expected of a Christian? We treat long term members in the church as though they are novice, baby Christians.

Hebrews 5
¹¹I have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you've picked up this bad habit of not listening. ¹²By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one--baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! ¹³Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God's ways; ¹⁴solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.
Hebrews 6
¹So come on, let's leave the preschool fingerpainting exercises on Christ and get on with the grand work of art. Grow up in Christ. The basic foundational truths are in place: turning your back on "salvation by self-help" and turning in trust toward God; ²baptismal instructions; laying on of hands; resurrection of the dead; eternal judgment. ³God helping us, we'll stay true to all that. But there's so much more. Let's get on with it!

Matthew 10

29"What's the price of a pet canary? Some loose change, right? And God cares what happens to it even more than you do. 30He pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail--even numbering the hairs on your head! 31So don't be intimidated by all this bully talk. You're worth more than a million canaries.
32"Stand up for me against world opinion and I'll stand up for you before my Father in heaven. 33If you turn tail and run, do you think I'll cover for you?

34"Don't think I've come to make life cozy. I've come to cut-- 35make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law--cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. 36Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. 37If you prefer father or mother over me, you don't deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don't deserve me.

38"If you don't go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don't deserve me. 39If your first concern is to look after yourself, you'll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you'll find both yourself and me.

40"We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. 41Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God's messenger. Accepting someone's help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I've called you into, but don't be overwhelmed by it. It's best to start small. 42Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won't lose out on a thing."

Matthew 5
43"You're familiar with the old written law, "Love your friend,' and its unwritten companion, "Hate your enemy.' 44I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, 45for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best--the sun to warm and the rain to nourish--to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty.


Matthew 6
1"Be especially careful when you are trying to be good so that you don't make a performance out of it. It might be good theater, but the God who made you won't be applauding.
2"When you do something for someone else, don't call attention to yourself. You've seen them in action, I'm sure--"playactors' I call them--treating prayer meeting and street corner alike as a stage, acting compassionate as long as someone is watching, playing to the crowds. They get applause, true, but that's all they get. 3When you help someone out, don't think about how it looks.


Matthew 19
16Another day, a man stopped Jesus and asked, "Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?"
17Jesus said, "Why do you question me about what's good? God is the One who is good. If you want to enter the life of God, just do what he tells you."

the center of our practice

this was sent to our Daily Scripture listserve at Fairlawn-West UCC today

Genesis 2

2By the seventh day God had finished his work.
On the seventh day he rested from all his work.
3God blessed the seventh day. He made it a Holy Day
Because on that day he rested from his work,
all the creating God had done.
========================
I would like to imagine us being "The Church of the 7th Day" or "The Sabbath Church". For all of life, all of worship flows from the sabbath. Without it, we are lost. Which is why the 4th Commandment is about honoring the sabbath. I am concerned that around Fairlawn-West we have lost the 7th Day to our spiritual demise. We are seeking God in a host of places, but yet will not give over one day a week, a sabbath day to be with God. Without the 7th day, all else is vanity.

enough time for worship

I just typed up notes from a seminar I attended with Tom Bandy back in the fall.  This piece below really struck me.

 

"What do you do after worship?"
Do you have ENOUGH time in your life/day to truly worship God?
Every day?

 

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The Choice
Do we want to be:
a) body of Christ in residence
or
b) body of Christ in motion

 

a) body of Christ in residence
about preserving sacred space, identity, and members

b) body of Christ in motion
constantly adapting, changing, risking

David Loar
http://discipledavid.blogspot.com ...David's blog

http://readeachday.blogspot.com... clergy reading blog featured in the Akron Beacon Journal
http://www.fairlawnwest.org ...church

http://www.loar.org ...family

Brian McLaren on hell

Here is a post from one of the blogs of May 9th by Brian McLaren in response to his newest book "The Last Word and the Word After That."

For those of you who haven't read the book, here are some of the main ideas:
A. Our view of hell has a lot to say about our view of God (and vice versa).
B. For many people, hell means that God torments or tortures people consciously and forever, with no possibility of repentance and no possibility for an end to the tortures.
C. This view of God, I believe, is unworthy of the God presented to us in Jesus Christ.
D. The conventional understanding of hell developed over a long period of time. It wasn't revealed in the Old Testament, but arose in the period between Testaments. When Jesus speaks of it, he hasn't invented it, but rather is responding to it as a controversial idea among the Jewish people of his day.
E. The Sadducees were the conservatives who held to the older view that there was no hell or no afterlife. The Pharisees were, in a sense, the liberals who accepted the idea of hell. Many believe that the idea of hell came into Judaism from Persian religion - and that the name Pharisee may be from Farsi, or Persian.
F. Jesus does not follow either the Sadducees (who reject any idea of afterlife), nor does he follow the teaching of the Pharisees and their view of hell. Rather, he charts a bold new path and uses the language of hell ("owned" by the Pharisees) to draw attention to his own message - centered in the kingdom of God, and the character of God.
G. "The kingdom of God" does not mean heaven. Being excluded from the kingdom does not necessarily mean eternal conscious torment after death in hell either.
H. All people will face judgment. God is always both just and merciful in judgment. Being judged does not necessarily mean "being sent to hell." Nor does being condemned. These words mean being exposed for being disobedient to God, not pleasing God, not serving God.
I. Matthew speaks the most about hell, Mark and Luke, less, and John not at all. Paul speaks often of the reality of judgment, but he doesn't talk about hell. The New Testament is not as clear about the subject as many people believe.
K. We need to rethink the message of Jesus and the apostles in terms of the kingdom of God - which is God's will being done on earth, and not be so preoccupied with the issue of hell.

Brian McLaren interviews

Starting on May 9th, a few bloggers have had a variety of interviews with Brian McLaren around the issue of what is heaven and what is hell.  Visit these places:

 

Jason Clark

Tall Skinny Kiwi

Jordan Cooper

Jen Lemen

am I a native?

I am 56 years old. I remember when Elvis was on the Ed Sullivan Show the first time. I remember when the Beatles were on the Ed Sullivan Show the first time. My first two real rock albums were Jefferson Airplanes "Surrealistic Pillow" and the Grateful Dead's "Greatful Dead" both in mono. (still have them both). I remember when WMMS in Cleveland was an "underground radio" station and I switched back and forth between it and CKLW in Windsor, Ontario.

My daughters are 14 and 11. What will the world look like when they are 56? Will the culture be changing as much as it is now or will it have found a comfortable groove for a few decades by that point? Or will change be on a roll for some decades to come?

I am not a native to this culture. I love to be a part of it, but I need interpreters to help explain it to me. For instance, I just finished watching Napoleon Dynamite. What is that all about? I identified a lot with Napoleon, but saw myself as a fringey of the "in" or cool crowd. That is, I hung out with them at school and once and a while wound up with them at hang out places. But they sure took a different way than I am use to communicate this age old story. My daughters loved it. So did I, but I had to interpret it through my more linear and connected way of telling a story. All things come to those who wait. All of us will face this at some time.