Sunday Evenings Too

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Originally uploaded by andebos.

The mind of an individual is a fantastic thing. The amount of thoughts that go through my mind on a daily basis about practical matters, insights, passions, wondering, questions, scenarios, and dialogues are of an enormous quantity - and I'm not that intelligent! Perhaps the smarter you are the less your mind is actually going...more wisdom and knowledge...more peace of mind. Anyway - Friday night I watched the movie called "Without A Paddle." First glance, I thought..ugh, not another piece of junk waste of time. But, it proved extremely funny. Not in the dumb and dumber sense - but in the classic funny intertwined with reality and important lessons. I highly recommend it for an evening viewing. One line that has brought a ton of thought to my mind from the movie is this one, "You can burn away all your money and then earn it back again...but if you waste your time - it's gone forever." Amazing thought - because I worry so much about wasting the wrong things...and totally miss out on how much time and opportunity passes right by while I look elsewhere. This nailed me even more as I read Jason Clark's blog. Check it out - it's an interesting thought...perhaps it just hits my story at the moment, trying to find my spot. The entry is on March 11th. Here's a glimpse but check out the entry too: "What if staying in one place, being accountable, working through the difficult issues of life, staying committed to each other rather than moving on to fresh fields, was one of the most radical things we could do. In a culture that tells us to keep our options open, in case we miss out, maybe we are called to lay aside our options for the sake of others." Kind of fits with the Settling and Suffering idea.

Well, tonight at Jacob's Well was rejuvinating and convicting. I sat alone and realized that no one I knew was there tonight...I really need to consider switching to the morning worship session, or make more friends who attend the evening one. We continued our discussion of Mark and here are some of the insights that made me think on my way home and still now.
Christ continually tells people to keep silent of his miracles on several occasions. He enters this chaos of our lives and creates order - and then tells people to keep silent about it. Why? this has always troubled me but now it makes such sense. These miracles, ordering, revelations are not the end all of Christ's ministry. Think about it, he's already being mobbed for little things - if it gets out that Jesus is resurrecting people from the dead...how far will he get? Not far at all. Jesus did not come to be a political one man liberation movement for Israel or an emergency medical unit. These miracles are signposts of God's coming kingdom...but they are not the end and of themselves. A fantastic understanding. I find myself so mixed up looking at the signposts sometimes and missing the Kingdom come. He brings his disciples in to see these so they can tell about them later.

Tim had a great perspective of Peter relating this story to Mark. He set a scene of him talking to mark..."Oh Mark, you can't believe it. I remember it like it was yesterday, Jesus said 'Talitha Koum,' and I'll be dang if she didn't stand up." Another reason for witnesses to these miracles is to prove he does these things though God and not satan...as some accuse him.

The second issue, possibly more opinion but one I agree with, is the fact that biblical faith is a product of our proximity to Jesus. In our culture, for a long time, faith has been a collection of statements on a piece of paper and we ask, do you believe these things? And we say, yeah...and we say, welcome to the kingdom. But true biblical faith is a way of behaving in light of Jesus. Faith is not the end goal or thing we strive towards. When we encounter Jesus, especially in desperation, it creates an opportunity to call forth fear or faith. What kingdom am I going to inhabit? Faith in and of itself is not the thing...faith is a by-product of Jesus in our lives. People encounter Jesus and the by-product is faith...whether they are desperate, or in love, or something...however they are wooed to God they see him and it calls forth a reaction called faith. "I have to surrender to you...I'm up against it and have to surrender." The question is how do you recon with the presence of Christ in your life? Especially in desperate times - when I reach the limits of my ability to control the environment in which i live...will I produce fear or surrender and produce faith. What is your faith based on? the reality of his kingdom and presence?

One last thought - most of the miracles in the bible occur with people who are in desperate situations. They are at the end of their rope. They have no ability to control their reality and their emotions. They encounter a reality check when they realize they cannot dictate their situations anymore. We hate this because it makes us desperate and in our culture we equate that with 'pathetic.' But in the scriptures, desperate equals reality. It's a beginning point of a journey of faith. Through this desperate people access God because they come into a new reality and find themselves in a new land occupied by God - where even dead twelve year olds aren't done or overcome.

These are from Tim's Sermon and I have several thoughts on the matter that i will write about later...but I am finding myself fitting in these ideas all over the place...thank God that his kingdom can even fix a broken, shattered heart like mine. Once I thougth I was damaged goods...but not God - he will redeem my circumstances - I will share this later too.

"Faith is the currency at the heart of his communityy, not fear...and the disciples come against him as they move their eyes away from him to the context of the situation and they allow the outer reality to dictate the posture of their heart...and out of that their behavior."