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I already have my friend Jeremiah on my blog roll, but if you have a few moments, his latest series of entries, “Simply Church,” is worth the read. And here’s a picture of him, just for fun.
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Simply Church: A Blog Series by My Friend Jeremiah
Merry Christmas Jacob’s Well!
Dear Jacob’s Well,
This Sunday we won’t gather together for worship as a church. But remember:
We are the church.
We may not gather corporately this Sunday for worship, but we can worship. We can always worship.
Worship is much more than singing; much more than a Sunday Gathering. Worship is remembering the extravagant love shown to us through Jesus and living all of life in light of this reality. That is worship.
We can always worship.
So remember and celebrate this as we gather with our families, friends, and loved ones. We can worship as the church while we scatter and when we gather.
May you all have a blessing and hope filled Christmas, and may we all root ourselves again in the story of Christmas, which points us towards the story of the death and resurrection of our God – forgiveness of sin and new life offered to all and given to all who follow Jesus!
Following the Rabbit Trails
How much time do I waste in my day following rabbit trails?
I see some news article, read it, and it triggers a thought about something else, so I it, and then I see a link in that blog to another article, and I read it, and then I decide I’m curious about the author, so I read that, and by the end of it all, I’m reading about a dead dog that woke up right before it was supposed to be buried.
Or I’m on facebook, and I notice an old friend, or someone who hasn’t posted in some time, and then I notice a friend who’s not my facebook friend, so I friend them, and as I’m looking through their profile, I find out the name of their favorite book, and I google that, or I find out they’ve converted to some weird religion, and I google that, and by the end of it all, I’m reading some very interesting, albeit, useless information.
How do I get tricked into thinking, “I really need to read this” or “I really need to learn about this?” How do we get lured in?
Perhaps I’m a knowledge addict? Perhaps we’re knowledge addicts? Just wanting to know more and more and more, but most of the time, at the end of these rabbit trails, I realize my time would have been better spent doing something else. Something purposeful. Something (at least) somewhat worthwhile.
So today, I’m going to try and not follow the rabbit trails. We’ll see how it goes…
Highly Recommended Blog – Urban Margin
“In prayer we meet Christ, and in him all human suffering. In service we meet people, and in them the suffering Christ.” - Henri Nouwen
I have a friend who lives in the slums of a large urban center in Asia as a missionary. You can find that Henri Nouwen quote at the top of his blog site, and his posts are always worth the read. Last night I couldn’t sleep so I read his latest entry. It’s entitled “The Story of Stuff” and is accompanied by a provocative 20 minute video that couldn’t have come at a better time as Jesus’ people try and figure out what it is to celebrate His birth while not falling into the consumeristic rhythm that traps so many, yet seems so innocent, during the holiday season.
So if you have 20 minutes to spare, and you’re just perusing Facebook or channel surfing, use that time and watch this video. (You won’t even have to watch any commercials!) And without reacting or pushing back (the tendency for most of us when we see something like this), engage it and see what we can learn from it as we enter this Advent season.
Thinking about the Sabbath principle
I’m currently reading through Exodus right now, as the Israelite people are receiving the law (Exodus 30ish).
And as I’m reading, I’m wondering why there is such a strong command mandating the Sabbath for the Israelite people and such serious consequences if they profane or break the Sabbath.
And the conclusion I arrive at is that Sabbath, as Exodus 31:16-17 states, is ” … a covenant forever … a sign forever between the LORD and the people of Israel…”
What does Sabbath show? It’s a sign of the covenant, and it shows to the surrounding nations that the people of Israel roll differently than the rest.
And how does it show this?
First off, we have to realize that their culture is different than ours. We can buy food, we don’t all grow and gather and find our food every day. We live in a different time and place.
The Israelites, on the other hand, were a people who had to work DAILY for their food, or they wouldn’t eat. And so to Sabbath for them is a serious trust issue. It shows to all the other agricultural nations and people groups at the time that, “we trust our God will provide.”
I think Sabbath is ultimately an act of trust in God – an act of faith in God. And it’s noticable to the peoples that surround them.
And here’s what I’ve been thinking as far as my life (granted my situation is a little different than most): when I wake up, I usually hop on my computer right away, and before you know it, I realize everything I need to accomplish or get donein the day, and I start plugging away. I think before I do any of that, I need to “Sabbath” the first 30 minutes of my day.
I know there’s a lot that needs to be accomplished. There’s always a lot that needs to be accomplished. But right now I feel God is leading me to trust Him with the first 30 minutes of my day, – to take a mini Sabbath every day – knowing that He will help me get done what I need to accomplish through the rest of the day as I trust Him with the beginning of it.
This is not a mandate for all to do. And this is not some attempt to earn God’s favor or love. You can’t earn those things. God doesn’t keep a brownie points system. Grace offered to all, and all are undeserving and need it. This is just something I plan on doing for a while because I think it would be helpful for me. I think the principle of the Sabbath is something that can carry over into our lives even though we are now not under the law but under Christ (Galatians 3:25) and therefore are not required to Sabbath in the Old Testament sense.
And on a related note, I also believe it to be a good and healthy practice to take a day of the week to Sabbath. Sabbath is a way can STOP WORK to work out our trust and faith in our God, Jesus Christ. Sabbath is a way we can STOP WORK as a reminder that the world doesn’t revolve around us. And Sabbath is a way we can STOP WORK to can spend time with our families, and to show them our love. With Sabbath as a discipline, we can communicate to our families, “you’re more important than my work, my emails, and my phone calls.” With Sabbath as a discipline, we have the opportunity to love our wives and husbands well, love our children well, love our boyfriends and girlfriends and fiances and friends well, and love our God by loving those He has placed in our paths.
Just a few thoughts running through my mind about Sabbath…
Taking the LORD’s name in vain… not simply a language issue
I used to think taking the LORD’s name in vain meant saying things like “oh my god,” or using Jesus’ name as a swear word, or saying “oh god!,” or any variation or similar phrase.
While I’m certainly not condoning the use of these phrases, all of a sudden the commandment not to take the LORD’s name in vain has bigger implications than I ever knew were packed into that little commandment.
Last night, I was listening to a sermon from Mars Hill Bible Church. This is the church that was started by Rob Bell, and since 2005, I have listened to many sermons from this church. I don’t always agree with everything I hear, and sometimes I very much disagree with some things, but the thing that keeps me listening is I’m always provoked to think through what I believe the Scriptures teach. I can’t NOT think about the Scriptures and what they say as I listen to the sermons from Mars Hill Bible Church.
“Test everything. Hold fast to what is good.” (1 Thessalonians 5:21)
Last night it was 3 AM and I couldn’t sleep, so I started listening to a Shane Hipps sermon (the other teaching pastor as Mars Hill Bible Church). It was a sermon loosely based of Acts 4, but Shane Hipps pointed out that the phrase “Jesus’ name” is repeated over and over in these few chapters (9 times in chapters 3 and 4 to be exact). So Shane chose to teach, not necessarily about what was directly happening in Acts 3 and 4, but instead on some observations about the theme of “Jesus’ name” that interweaves itself throughout the text.
There’s a difference between our culture – a literate culture – and an oral culture.
The culture at Jesus’ times was predominantly oral. There was a lot he said about the difference between our culture and an oral culture, and I’m still processing it, but one thing he said that struck me was that in an oral culture, a name was more significant than simply a designator.
In the modern world, a name simply designates what we call someone to identify them.
In the ancient world, a name reflected the very essence and identity of a person. So much so that sometimes, people would be “renamed” because their name doesn’t fit anymore. (Example: Simon renamed Peter.)
So when we read the name “Jesus” in our modern world, we think of the name as simply a “designator.”
But when the ancient world heard the name “Jesus,” they didn’t think designator. They thought essence and identity.
What does this mean?
For me, as I’m reading Exodus 20 this morning, and I read “not to take the name of the LORD in vain,” I all of a sudden realize that this is not simply a commandment about my language. Because in oral cultures, names were more than designators. They were identifiers of a person’s very essence and identity.
So… to “take the name of the LORD in vain” is not simply to use the name wrongly. To “take the name of the LORD in vain” is to misrepresent that name and everything that names stands for.
All of a sudden, “not taking the LORD’s name in vain,” means more than just watching how we talk…
“Not taking the LORD’s name in vain” is inextricably tied up in how we, as people who claim to follow Jesus, live. If we claim to follow Jesus, and our lives don’t reflect our claim, we are “taking the name of the LORD in vain.”
Pretty cool how this commandment takes on a bit more flesh and relevance as we seek to understand it as it was understood by it’s original audience.
(Shane’s sermon was helpful in helping me understand oral culture’s a bit more, but I believe he draws some dangerous conclusions towards the end of his sermon I would be cautious of. I think it IS important that we realize Jesus is at work all around us, and He doesn’t need us to “invoke” His name for Him to be at work. But in the same breath, I believe we need to “name Him” when we see Him at work. And I believe it is incredibly important to say it is “Jesus,” and tell others it is Jesus.
Shane says some people may call it something else… and he says we can say to them, “You call what you see at work “this”, but I choose to call this Jesus.” In teaching this, I believe Shane downplays the significance of other’s recognizing it IS Jesus. It almost appears that he teaches it’s not that important what they call it because it is Jesus at work. And while I agree we can claim it as Jesus at work, it IS important TO THOSE PEOPLE to also understand this to be so. I hope these last couple parenthesed paragraphs make sense if you choose to listen to the sermon. As I said earlier, I’m always provoked to visit the Scriptures as I listen to the sermons at Mars Hill, but there are many times I disagree with some of the conclusions. “Test everything, hold fast to what is good.”)
“God is Not a White Man” – Gungor
I like this song and this music video.
Worth the price of admission.
We don’t actually charge admission when our LifeGroup gathers on Wednesday nights, but if you bring food for our meal, it helps.
Matt is my LifeGroup leader, and last night he said something worth the price of admission.
Matt said:
“I used to think the Bible was a book written to me. Now I realize the Bible was not written to me, but written for me.”
I could’ve left right then (but we had a great discussion afterwards on Colossians chapter 1)!
But what Matt said is where good Biblical interpretation (and then application) starts. Application always follows interpretation. This book is not written to us, but for us. It was written to a specific audience, in a specific time, in a specific place. And that is where we all must start.
Thanks Matt for leading our LifeGroup well. I appreciate you brother.