Remember Why We Celebrate Memorial Day

Labels: Audio, Essays

Review of Brennen Manning's "The Furious Longing of God"

In classic Brennen Manning style, threads of stories are masterfully woven together to form a patchwork mosaic describing the furious longing of God. Reading this book gave me an even greater desire to stalk this author for a year and become a voyeur into his passionate relationship with Christ. With chapter titles such as Fury, Boldness, Healing, Fire and Giving, each is short enough for a fifteen minute devotion, and the entire text can be read in one afternoon. Within this relatively short book are the jewels Brennen has become known for. You will cry for the once beautiful leper who uses her last words to change Manning's life, and the frumpy hippie college kid who's father changes everything. Brennen uses word to describe God that sometimes make me cringe, and I would never have the chutzpah to use them myself. He calls the love of God “folly”, and calls God Himself, “Divine Madman”. Throughout the book however, you get the feeling that Brennen has such an intense and personal relationship with Abba God, that it's OK for him. It's like a mystical inside joke just between the two of them. All in all, I highly recommend the reading and re-reading of this book.

Labels: Book Review

Wonder While You Wander

J.J. Abrams, producer of the latest smash hit, “Star Trek”, tells an interesting story of himself as a child walking into a magic shop. He purchased a “Mystery Box” which for ten dollars, promised to hold wondrous magical secrets inside it's wooden shell. The only catch was, you couldn't open it until he bought it. He laid down the fifteen dollars and walked out the door, carrying his prize home, imagining all of the mysterious contents inside his new magic kit. Now as an adult, he still hasn't opened it. He thinks that the mystery and wonder of “wondering” is so much more fun than what the actual contents might bring.

Our relationship with God is much the same.

As a preacher of the Gospel, I have heard this question again and again: “If the Holy Spirit illuminates the Scriptures to us, then why do so many people interpret the Bible differently?” This question has been a quagmire for many of my conversations.

As much as I rail against the Emergent Church and much that it stands for, they have brought to light some things that are neglected in the life of the mainline denominational Christian. One of those key elements of the Christian walk is “Wonder”.

Take, for example, the famously quoted John 3:16.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.”

How many times have we glazed over that verse with a “ho-hum”, “I've heard that before,” kind of attitude? Have we lost our sense of wonder over the incarnation of the Almighty? Do you ever sit and ponder the mystery of eternity wrapped up in human flesh?

Why do we interpret scripture differently? To keep us wondering. To keep us seeking. He first gives us truth in the form of milk, then meat. His revelation of scripture is progressive, living and active. The reason many of us are not cut to the quick, soul and spirit not divided, and joints and marrow not rent at the reading of Scripture is because it has been dulled by our familiarity and our formality.

Isaiah 55:8-9

Keeping our faith healthy and fresh can be a very real struggle for many of us. The trap many fall into, seeing the vast complexity of Scripture and the onslaught of secular criticism, is the stagnancy of paradox.

We tell ourselves, “Well, that's one question I'm going to be anxious to ask Jesus when I get to heaven.” I ask you, “What are you waiting for?” Did not Christ come incarnate? Is He not the voice of God to the Church? Did he not promise a counselor to us? Is not the kingdom of God at hand? Jesus is here!

The answers cannot be found in complacency, but in earnestly seeking. There are no answers in tepid ambiguity but in white-hot truth. The answer is not to strive, mind you, but in revelation.

God reveals what he will, in the way He will, in the time He will. But when He does, will you be caught basking in the azure hot springs of enigma, too relaxed to notice?

I ask you to wonder. This is not at all a passive pastime. Wonder why, wonder how... wonder while you wander.

Labels: Emergent, Mystery, Wonder

Why Parents Drink...

Labels: Humor, parenting