Hypothetical Question

What if Adam and Eve decided not to eat from any of the trees in the garden? Would they have starved to death?

The question is not as dumb as you think.

The Parable of the Urban Housing Developer

God's culture is like an urban housing developer working along the Gold Coast. He makes plans to build a low rent housing project as the prominent feature of the neighborhood. And as the project became a reality using hard-earned tax dollars, it overshadowed the multi-million dollar condos and attracted gangsters, drug dealers, and prostitutes as tenants.

Mark 4:30-32

Blown Away

I've taught for years that Jesus blew away his contemporaries with what he taught and did. His Kingdom is certainly an upside-down one and it rocked the world of those who were within earshot of Jesus' activities. I still think this is true, and even as recently as today I preached that Jesus shocked and amazed the people with whom he came into contact. Today's example was Nicodemus.

After worship today I was struck with a thought that crossed my mind. It went something like this:

Jesus blew away his contemporaries. So what? Does he blow us away?

And that, my friends, is the big question. What good does it do to know that Jesus shocked people in the 1st century? As far as I can tell, not much. Does he shock people in the 21st century? Ponder that one for a few moments, and do it honestly.

What we lack today in Christendom is the element of surprise. Twenty centuries removed, we are a people who know how the Biblical stories end. In one of Jesus' most beloved parables we already know that the prodigal son returns to his father and is accepted. Can you imagine how this story fell on the ears of the original audience. Surprise!! How does it fall on our ears?

"Ho hum."

"I already knew that."

"Hmm...is it time for lunch yet."

As I can tell there are only two solutions to this. One is to dismantle the system we've built piece by piece. The other is to tell a different story, a story that amazes and surprises people. One that fills people with awe and wonder, taking what I would call "universal knowledge" and sacrelizing it. God continues to reveal truth to our world. He didn't quit with the writing and compilation of the Bible.

What do you think? I'd really like to know your thoughts!!

Pentecostal Thoughts

--I'm not a Pentecostal by affiliation, although I can certainly understand why someone would gladly welcome such affiliation. Personal experiences of Spirit, in its many manifestations, can really rock your world. After all, according to Scripture, you're dealing with fire and wind!

--A simple puff of air can extinguish a match; wind can quickly spread a forest fire. God's Spirit is not a gentle breeze, but a mighty wind that fills arid valleys and animates piles of lifeless, dry bones (Ezekiel 37).

--This is no tame Jesus, whose Spirit calls the dead to life (take that anyway you want), gives courage to the fearful, and elicits wild from the domesticated. According to Acts 2, The Holy Spirit lifted a group of people to their feet and scattered them to the winds, as it were, to gather a harvest of which they were the firstfruits, children of God's breath.

--Why are we Lutherans so afraid of the Holy Spirit that we only give Him focus once a year? Would a greater emphasis place us in the charismatic camps? Maybe I just answered my first question. Heaven forbid that we be like...them. I understand that personal experiences of the Spirit can lead to spiritual snobbery and aires of superiority, lording it over those who have no such experiences (like me). But would it be necessarily so?

--Things that remind me of the functions of the Holy Spirit: the wind blowing through the trees, a frightened heart made courageous, a group of people feeding the homeless, an elderly couple dancing to music that only they can hear, a mourner being given solace and comfort, a baby taking his/her first steps, someone listening to music that brings tears to his/her eyes, the fleeting moments of the heart that whisper "all is well", people planting flowers at a gravesite, aha! moments, a person enchanted for whatever reason, reminiscing on past memories... the discovery that life is a river that flows and seeks to be forgotten in the ocean of God's love.

--The Spirit is not a liquid that is infused like a vaccination. The Spirit is more like an artesian well that springs forth from the very depths of our being in Christ and yells, "Surprise!" I think Jesus said as much in John 4:13,14.

--How come we don't dance down the aisle after receiving the Eucharist? The Holy Spirit never made anyone in Scripture staid and stiff, like they were coming out of a boring movie. The Spirit made people alive and vibrant, like they just had a stiff drink! Think about that last sentence for a second.

Waterboarding IS Torture (Keep repeating that until you get it!)

Mancow Muller being waterboarded. He could only stand it for 6 seconds. He now knows that it IS torture.



It doesn't matter if you believe terror suspects should have been waterboarded or not. It must be admitted that waterboarding is, in fact, torture. Mr. Mancow used to think it wasn't, along with the likes of Sean Hannity and Hugh Hewitt, the latter I myself have heard say explicitly on his radio show that waterboarding is not torture. Mr. Hewitt should watch this video and think again.