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“You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart — your stories, visions, memories, visions and songs. Your truth, your version of things, your own voice. That is really all you have to offer us. And that’s also why you were born.”
Anne Lamott

“You are going to feel like hell if you never write the stuff that is tugging on the sleeves of your heart — your stories, visions, memories, visions and songs. Your truth, your version of things, your own voice. That is really all you have to offer us. And that’s also why you were born.”
Anne Lamott

Category: A Word or Two

Guest posts by Steve Elliott

A Word or Two

Steve Elliott 0 Comments

My Marilyn was captured by a bumper sticker that read “Wonder Without Googling“. It gives me pause. Have we lost the wonder? The computer has given us this sense of omniscience that creates the illusion that we can know it all. That we can have dominion over this world, have vice grip control over our world that knows no limits. 

Common cold remedy? Financial advice? Marriage counsel? Google will always have the answer for us, right? And even though it is only an illusion, it is of course, the death of imagination, wonder and mystery.

Barbara Brown Taylor wrote that, “As our ability to control the world around us has increased, our respect for its mystery (of this world) has decreased.” So where is there room in our world for mystery when Wikipedia has all the answers? 

Well, here’s the thing about Wikipedia: the articles written on the site about anyone or anything are literally written by anyone or anything. Anyone can add just about anything to an article on Wikipedia and we read it (and like so many lemmings) we take it for an indisputable fact. 

I heard recently of a scientist who in response to a call from God, left his field of expertise to come to seminary. His field was astronomy and he shared this interest with his son who when they left for seminary was about 14. Astronomy for them became a great father/son bonding point.

Well one day in his seminary studies, he thought about how this certain thing in astronomy would be a good illustration of what he wanted to communicate in a paper he was writing. But just to be sure of his facts, he went on line to confirm his theory. And on Wikipedia he found an article that was exactly what he was looking for and it confirmed his idea completely, down to the last letter. Only after he had written his paper did he discover that the article he consulted in Wiki was written by a 14 year old boy, his son! 

Could it be that what we need to leave behind a Wikipedia view of living this Christian life and what we need to begin is to get comfortable with not being in complete control … not having our every question answered by doing a Google search?

… you never know what will happen when you abandon the sense of needing all the answers and needing to be in control and instead, let the One who is meant to rule your life rule it and see what a day might hold or what wondrous thing might unfold. My best guess is that it holds the kind of mystery and wonder Google could never supply and Wikipedia could never explain. 

A Word or Two

Steve Elliott 0 Comments

The Conversation of a Lifetime

‘He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again. ”
“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”’
John 3:2-4

The man who was certain of everything is suddenly uncertain. The man who had control over his world is suddenly finding things beyond his control. The man who had it all figured out has his brain turned in figure 8’s.

Jesus reply to him, says in effect, “There is a reason you cannot figure this out Nic. You cannot see the Kingdom because you are not in it. You are not a part of it.” Nic who has all the best of spiritual pedigree does not have an adequate faith to see or enter or be a part of the Kingdom of God. He must be born again. He must be born from above.

His spiritual status, his Jewish nationality, his conformity to the law … his knowledge, his understanding, his prestigious religious role as noted in v. 10 … none of this is good enough. But he has no other spiritual card he can play. All human effort is never going to be enough. But all he’s got is who he is and what he is and Jesus says, that’s not enough. You must be born again.

Nic, like all of his generation, is looking for the Kingdom of God on earth. They want David’s throne restored and the Roman’s thrown out, and this great theocratic realm set up. But the Kingdom of God is not about a realm, it’s about a reign. It is the rule and reign of Jesus Christ in the human heart. A reborn heart, a new born life, born from above by the Spirit of God. It’s not about rebirthing a nation. It’s about building a Kingdom.

Nic learned that evening and we must learn anew: that you cannot buy or serve or work your way into the Kingdom of heaven. You cannot sacrifice, flatter or ingratiate your way into the kingdom of heaven. You can not beg, plead, pose your way in or reason, argue or debate your way in. You cannot moralize, theorize or rationalize your way in.

Jesus doesn’t care if you’ve got all the credentials of a Nic, or how religious you are, or how spiritual you seem, or what status you have or what degrees you hold: there is only one door-faith; there is only one means-grace; there is only one way-Jesus Christ; and there is only one outcome-eternal life. 

 …you never know (1) what will come of an everyday conversation. At the end of John’s gospel we find Nic at the foot of the cross, a fearless follower of Jesus who defies the Sanhedrin and identifies with fully with Christ. But he doesn’t get there if this conversation doesn’t happen in John 3.

A Word or Two

Steve Elliott 0 Comments

a guest post by Steve Elliott

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Matthew 5:3-11 NIV

We have saying in our house: you don’t get the life you find, you get the life you build. And if you are a follower of Jesus, you are under construction to be built to resemble him, to respond like him, and to be in this world as He was: fully present to this world’s brokenness and neediness, offering this world His love and compassion. He is no longer here physically to do that but we are. And as His Kingdom people, we are meant to be Kingdom salt and Kingdom light to this world. And what that looks like is found in Matthew 5 and the Beatitudes.

But we need to aware that the Beatitudes are descriptive not legislative … they are be-attitudes not be-haviors. Our ethics come from who we really are not who we try to be. Jesus is saying this is what “gospelized or kingdomized” humanity looks like. So if you bump a Christian Matthew 5 is what spills out of them. These are eight qualities of the same person not eight different options on a divine menu.

So these are not the rules we keep. They are the colors a Christian bleeds if you cut them. And it’s not about being perfectly complete in each one … as if you scored 10 out of 10 on each one. Nor is this about your salvation being at risk if you are behind on #3 or #6. It’s about the direction your life is headed. It’s about making forward progress in our spiritual growth and formation … leaving us with the question: “are you and I growing forward in our Kingdom life, not being perfect, but moving in the direction of Christ-likeness?

A Word or Two

George 0 Comments

Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount is about 2,000 words. If you have the time it takes about 6.5 minutes to read. And then it takes about a life time to fully digest. Taken together, these words turn this world on its head. If you don’t believe that, read them. And if you want your world to really change, live them.

‘The world’ as the Bible describes it, is life organized without reference to God. And that world, that life, is ready to eat you up and spit you out … or use you up and discard you like a Styrofoam coffee cup. It is a ‘world’ has no moral conscience beyond convenience, no compassionate center of gravity beyond expedience, no redemptive compass beyond utility.  Why? Because it’s life organized without reference to God.

So it is no surprise that given this kind of cultural ethos, Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount calls us to cultural atheism: to not believe in the gods of this culture … to stop believing that they will somehow, ultimately bring us happiness or fulfillment or satisfaction…the small ‘g’ gods like politics or money, status or wealth, appearance or celebrity. Could that be wrong? Ask a broken heart. Ask a lost relationship that is never coming back. Ask loneliness or rejection or betrayal. The small ‘g’ gods have no answers for these. Instead, Jesus calls us to a new life in His Km where the dynamics of everyday life are as distinct and different from those of this world as a Caribbean cruise is from floating on a log down the Ohio River.

2,000 words. 6.5 minutes. Do we have the time? Maybe we need to make the time.

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