Timotheose - A son in the Faith

REWARDS

The chapter is summed up in the sixth chapter of Paul's letter to the church in Galatia; "Do not be decieved: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."

I cannot but feel that, along with a blunting of the majesty of God and the 'fear' that should be our reponse to His aweful presence the concept of judgement is not held in high esteem in our day.

It is as though professors; I am using the term to those who 'profess' Jesus as Lord, believe themselves somehow immune to being judged and condemned if found wanting. Does not Matthew relate the words of Christ truthfully? "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven."

I pray that I am not decieved and that I sow to the Spirit and not to the flesh. I pray we all 'work out our salvation with fear and trembling' this day and every day.


Feed the hungry
Give the one who thirsts drink
Clothe the naked
Release the oppressed
Visit the prisoner
Rescue the lost
Loose the chains of injustice

Love for all

For the glory of He who called us

RUINED

The reading is on the Holiness of the Lord and the inevitable human reaction to being confronted by his power, majesty and goodness. It was/is a very good chapter but it hardly goes far enough in my opinion. The Holiness of God the Father is one of those things which few people want to discuss or think about.

Perhaps it is difficult or even impossible to consider a being who is absolutely powerful, good and just. I do agree with trhe author when he says that we have "... dumbed Jesus down to our level these days. We treat him like a buddy we meet at the mall, ... He didn't come from the next street over. He created the entire Universe."

Now it is understood that this is one of the purposes of the incarnation of the Christ but why don't we consider the Trinity as so far above us that it is inconcievable that He even chose to come into our world as Jesus of Nazareth. Why is it that we want to reduce the Creator to such a 'manageable' level?

I say it is simply because of pride. It is simply pride that manifests in the sinful human desire to not examine oneself in the searing light of the perfection which is the Lord. I wish to reduce the distance between my sins and God's standards so that they do not peirce my heart with 'fear and trembling'. I want to reduce this great gulf of moral righteousness to only a few paltry hubris-filled steps.

All this is to my shame and to the lessening of the new life that he has planted in my heart. The more that I stand convicted of rebellion and wretchedness the deeper my love and my thankfulness becomes and the deeper and richer is the personal experience of His love and grace. I know this is the only thing worthy of drawing breath for and yet I find myself in a constant struggle to abide in these truth despite the infinite worth of the prize.

Forgive me, forgive us all.

There is, it seems in this verse three important demands made upon the one who would consider eternal life. Each of which, in turn must be submitted to before a disciple is born.

First the command to 'deny himself' is linked logically and sequentially to the command to 'pick up his cross' which is also inexorably joined to the final order to 'follow Me'. This denial of self must, when read in this manner be a necessary pre-condition of the second AND third commands. In other words it is necessary to deny oneself in order to pick up ones cross and then to follow.

Remembering here that Christ's audience would know full well what the act of picking up of 'ones' cross would mean. First off Christ says it is 'his' cross. Meaning that this cross, this instrument of death was made for 'him', it is tailor made for the would be disciple. It is 'his' death. Secondly when one does shoulder that awful burden there is an inevitability to the destination, there is no turning back until it is done.

Which brings me back to my original point that given this stark fact it becomes necessary, nay absolutely imperative that the one who would follow after the resurrected Son of God be fully aware of the cost, consequence and culmination of his journey before he steps upon this hard path.

And after having considered all of these impossibly hard truths this man, this one who would enjoy life and love everlasting must choose. He must decide, he must make a conscious act of will. He must be obedient to 'the call' knowing full well what this decision means.

He must deny himself his life and die.

One of the guys that I work with at the Foundation House asked me if I thought that this was something worthwhile for him to do and after I read it I got totally stoked on doing it myself. I heard David Nasser speak at the Starfield Concert in Victoria this last summer and his message was pretty good and as I am going through some transitions in my life now where I want to cut out all of the extraneous baggage of the 'world' this seems to be a real gift from God.

It involves commitment to a 40 day fast which Nasser describes as "... denying yourself of something so you can focus more completely on God." as well as doing bible study, scripture memorization and introspection. I have briefly looked over some of the questions and the format and I think it should be quite challenging and is most likely just what I need right now.

Perhaps I will keep a little journal of my progress.

I liked this book. I didn't love this book, I simply liked it. There was nothing in it which was overly disagreeable and I am VERY interested in the material covered by it and yet it didn't 'inspire' me or grab my attention like some of the books that I have recently read. I think, quite frankly that the reason for this is the style in which it was written, which I hope is not becoming a standard within this genre.

Much like 'Blue Like Jazz' by Donald Miller it is written by a right-brain, creative type and is fairly loose in its form and structure. It meanders through the subject matter like a bubbling brook not a straight and orderly prairie highway which doesn't suit my left-brain dominated cerebrum. The author uses a lot 'stream of consciousness' narrative and sidetracks down interesting but not particularly helpful personal confessions and observations.

It is the second book of a planned eight books in the 'Ancient Practices' series by Thomas Nelson publishing all of which I hope to get as they all seem to be very much upon my heart and mind these days. The other books deal with other spiritual disciplines like;

1. 'Finding Our Way Again' by Brian McLaren
2. 'In Constant Prayer' by Robert Benson
3. 'Sabbath' by Dan B. Allender
4. 'Fasting' by Scot McKnight
5. 'The Sacred Meal' by Nora Gallagher
6. 'The Pilgrimage' by Diana Butler Bass
7. 'The Liturgical Year' by Joan Chittister
8. 'Tithing' by Douglas LeBlanc

The forward was written by Phyllis Tickle, a fairly influential author in her own right who it seems is the acting General Editor for the series. She, along with Brian McLaren are on the vanguard of the Emergent Church movement and both could be construed as 'liberal' in their theology. This series then must be considered in light of this movement and I would recommend care and diligence be exercised if one has a tender conscience or is easily influenced AND is more conservative in theological orientation.

All in all, I think that Mr Benson does a good job in presenting an argument for the following of the Apostle Paul's urging in 1 Thessalonians 5: 17 to 'pray without ceasing'. At it's heart this book is;

"... about the most ancient practice of Christian prayer, a way of prayer known as the daily office. It is known by other names as well -- the liturgy of the hours, fixed-hour prayer and the divine office, the canonical hours, the divine hours , daily prayer."


I give it 7/10 bucks on the Reel Money Scale.

Well, Conan had a very different answer to this question and he can, unfortunately not offer me the type of guidance that he did when I was younger. I have a new Master now and His Spirit is leading me in VERY different directions than the giant Cimmerian of Hyborea.

I am, it seems being molded and worked, prodded and pulled into a new way of life and a new perspective on my life and it is quite uncomfortable, painful even. God seems to be opening my eyes so that I can see how shallow and meaningless some of my pursuits have become over the last year. I have begun to 'love' the world and its trappings, its definitions of success and happiness and I despise myself for it.

My calling is to follow Jesus into the wilderness, not into the slothful consumerism and slavery of our western decadent culture. I choose to follow him and thus have no place to rest my head and I wish to recommit to that response to his request of 'follow me'.

Here is a list some of the lies that I have believed ...

- buying and purchasing can make you happy
- physical health is as important as spiritual health
- security is mine to create
- my needs are more important than my fellow human beings needs
- my time is my own
- I will always have more time


The truth is, love is everything. Love of my fellow 'image-bearers', no matter what faith, background, ethnicity, gender, social status is all. I want to live a life of love like that. I want to follow my Lord and Savior into the type of life that he lived. "No greater love does one man have for another than he should lay his life down for his brother" he taught. I pray for that, I long for that and I know I am so woefully inadequate for that kind of love and I thank God that he has given me His Spirit so that I can be lifted into that type of love in time.

Today I hurt and I mourn for the lack of it.

I am very much looking forward to seeing this movie and will probably end up buying it so that I can show it around Victoria at any Church or other venue that will watch it.

I have, of late been challenged to recommit my energies and focus on the things of God and his calling lately and this change on the 'look' of my blog is part of that. I will be using this blog as something of a journal and/or snapshot into the continued and tentative steps in following my Lord.

So my Brother in Christ Chad W., who seems to know EVERYONE in Victoria sent out a link to a website which I think you should check out. It's got some extremely phat tracks in the album section and some very interesting sermons and the Gospels cut with some sick beats.

Check it out at ...

www.relevantrevolution.com

Support this ministry if you can.


Maranatha and Shalom

Over the last couple of days the Lord has been teaching me a few things about my life, my ways and my heart. Some of it is good, some is hard to hear.

This morning's devotion got me thinking a lot about Family. I am re-connecting with some of my family having not maintained contact as well as I believe God would from me. In the Proverb it says that a 'brother' is born for adversity, and I ask myself who are my brothers?

I have always had a tough time staying 'connected' with my friends and/or family. This has been at least partially due to having an unhealthy amount of pride and shame, which, when I screwed up or made mistakes conspired to keep me from facing them again.

I am happy to say that today, due to my Rebirth as a Child of the Most High this aspect of 'the old man' are dieing, and yet there has been much harm done as a result of these sins and much work needs to be done to amend the past.

I am also forced to realize that today my family is primarily my Christian community. My brothers are those that I have come to know and love by the Spirit and in the Spirit like Caley S., Richard H., Dave M., Robert S., and so many others.

This reminds me of the Lord's insistence on pre-eminence in the lives of his disciples. HE must come first in all of my loyalties and affections. I would gladly follow till the end and yet I know how desperately I need His grace and power to do so.

I pray often that I never forget that the Lord does not "delight in sacrifice" or "take pleasure in burnt offerings" alone but that "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart" as David so wisely states in the 50th Psalm.

Thank you Father for your never-ending mercy and goodness to us all.

In Christ,
Tim

Just hittin the road at 6:40am after a nice sleep at my bro's place. We had a pretty good visit together and tentatively made plans to hang out again soon.

My parents are not gettin' any younger and part of my trip is to try and convince 'the boys' that we should try and get together more often, even if it would only please my parents.

It was kinda weird being with Mitch, there was a definate distance there that I had not anticipated. We have seen so little of one another that it is probably fitting, but a little weird. Mitch left when he was 16 so he has been on his own for quite some time and has, like me had to re-create a 'family'. His just happened to be filled with bikers and criminals while mine is filled with amazing Saints like 'The Crew", my Pastor's, and my other Christian friends.

Thank you Lord for all you have done for me. I am truly blessed.

Well, I have just enjoyed an awesome meal in Hope at a little restauraunt called Rolly's. I am taking a bit of time out to do my morning devotions and to start this little diary/blog.

My trip began at 4:00am when I blearily rolled out of bed and drove to the Duke Point ferry terminal in time to catch the 'early bird' crossing which leaves at 5:15am. The lineup was fairly long with a lot of commercial traffic.
I spent the two hour crossing in my car working on my budget and doing what I call 'Life Leadership' which is planning and focusing my efforts on my goals and objectives.
The route I took from Tsawassan seemed a bit slow, eve though it was prettyu direct. It was okay though 'cause Charity charted my course for me and far be it for me to complain about her support. :)
It has taken me 4 hours rom the ferry to get here which is a bit troubling as I still have 3 hours to go before I get to Vernon where I am going to hook up with my brother Mitch.
I am real stoked for this trip. I have not seen my brothers in a disgustingly long time so it will be awesome to try and get back in touch with them. I must admit to a bit of trepedation as my relationship with my brothers is pretty weak and un-christlike and I don't know what type of reception I will get. It's not like I think that they would reject my attempt to get closer to them but I am still a bit freaked out.
Well I'm gonna take a bit of time to check out Hope as it is the site of the filming of that testosterone spiking movie Rambo, First Blood. Speaking of which, if you haven't seen the new Rambo, don't bother, it is IMO not worth it.

I had some thoughts about prayer that I'd like to share. Funny thing was I had them while I was praying. It was more like, while I was praying and I was struck by the HUGE blessings that I receive when I pray.

My Pastor, two weeks ago preached on prayer and the memory verse for that week was 2 Chronicles 7: 14. In it God exhorts and challenges his people to pray and to 'seek my face'.

This one of the first blessings of prayer that I experience; namely it is a way that I can seek his face. I draw near to him when I pray and am, at times blessed by his presence so much so that I am brought to tears of gladness and praise, wonder and awe.

To be continued ...

Friday, October 3, 2008

Thursday, October 2, 2008

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Friday, July 18, 2008

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Tuesday, July 15, 2008