Sunday’s Gospel: Upper Room Promises

By Chaplain Mike

Each Sunday, we present devotional thoughts based upon the Gospel reading from the Revised Common Lectionary.

Today is the sixth Sunday in Easter.
Today’s Gospel is John 14:23-29 (GNT).

Gospel Text

Jesus answered him, “Those who love me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and my Father and I will come to them and live with them. Those who do not love me do not obey my teaching. And the teaching you have heard is not mine, but comes from the Father, who sent me. “I have told you this while I am still with you. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and make you remember all that I have told you. “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid. You heard me say to you, “I am leaving, but I will come back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father; for he is greater than I. I have told you this now before it all happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe.

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iMonk Classic: Too Much Heaven?

Each Saturday, IM posts a classic article by Michael Spencer.

Originally posted on April 3, 2008

I grew up and was formed in a version of the Christian tradition that practiced a remarkably simple form of Christianity.

It was about going to heaven.

This life was preparation for heaven. God was preparing a place called heaven with lots of mansions. People who accepted Jesus Christ as their personal savior by praying a prayer to ask him into their heart had their names written in a book reserving a place in heaven. One day, they would die (or Jesus would return) and go to heaven. Later, they would get their new bodies and live in a city described- literally- in the book of Revelation as a super-sized cube with streets of gold. In that city they would be with all their friends, relatives and Bible characters forever, where they would worship Jesus for all of eternity without illness, pain or death.

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Saturday Ramblings 5.8.10

Greetings from the iMonastery where things have really gone to the dogs. So it is time to grab a plastic bag and proceed to clean up the yard. Yes, it’s Saturday Ramblings, the pooper-scooper of the Internet Monk community.

A 1,000 year flood (the kind of flood that only comes along once a millennia) hit Nashville this last week. Churches throughout central Tennessee responded very quickly, offering shelter and food to those driven from their homes by the flood waters. Pete Wilson’s Cross Point Church was among them, and on Wilson’s web site you can see some of the damage caused by these wild waters. You can donate to the American Red Cross by texting “redcross” to 90999. $10 will be charged to your cell phone account and all monies will be given to the Red Cross specifically for Nashville relief efforts.

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Open Mic: Spiritual Progress and the Church

Question posed by Chaplain Mike

Over at Out of Ur, Christianity Today’s ministry blog, there is an interview with Dallas Willard about how churches assess spiritual growth.

Here is an excerpt from that post. In our Open Mic discussion today, I would like our iMonk community to respond to what he says.

Q: How can churches know if they are being effective at making disciples?

A: Many churches are measuring the wrong things. We measure things like attendance and giving, but we should be looking at more fundamental things like anger, contempt, honesty, and the degree to which people are under the thumb of their lusts. Those things can be counted, but not as easily as offerings.

I don’t doubt that most of us would agree with him. However, my questions are:

  • How might intentionally changing our focus, as Willard suggests, work out in the life of the church?
  • How might these spiritual qualities be assessed and how might we help people grow in such areas?
  • How might a change in focus alter what pastoral ministry would look like?
  • How might it change what our meetings and “programs” would look like?
  • How might it change what the average congregation member would experience as a participant in the life of the church?

It would be great to hear from folks in as many different traditions as possible, and from people at various places in their relationship to the church—pastors, lay leaders, members who are heavily involved, attenders, those who have left the church, etc.

Helping the Spiritually Helpless

By Chaplain Mike

Last week I visited a family in a common hospice situation. The patient was non-responsive and near death. The patient’s daughter, though saddened by the impending loss of her father, was even more concerned about his spiritual welfare.

He had lived most of his life saying he was an unbeliever. He’d had little to do with God, cared nothing about spiritual matters, and gave no time to organized religion. He felt no need. He preferred to make his own way in the world. This is what she told me. I had no reason to doubt her.

Now he lay dying and his daughter feared for him. Surely this hospital bed would be his final stop in this earthly life—what destination lay beyond it? This had become her question: “What hope could she have that God would forgive him and grant him eternal life?”

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The Appearances of the Risen Christ, 9

By Chaplain Mike

We are marking the Great Fifty Days of Easter with a series of devotional thoughts on the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.

Today we look at another narrative in John’s story of Jesus’ resurrection and appearances, from John 20:19-29 (ESV).

Text

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

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Walking Barefoot

How beautiful on the mountains
are the feet of the messenger bringing good news,
Breaking the news that all’s well,
proclaiming good times, announcing salvation,
telling Zion, “Your God reigns!”

Isaiah 52:7, The Message

(This is the second part of a two-part essay. You can read part one here.)

My feet are killing me–and it’s your fault.

I have been planning to write about walking barefoot in our journey with Jesus for some time now. Monday I came to the conclusion that to really do this right I should actually walk barefoot for a while, or at least as close to barefoot as I dared. So I visited my favorite outdoors store to find out what shoes would offer some protection yet simulate walking shoeless. I was told wearing the Vibram Five Fingers (pictured to the right) was practically like walking barefoot, and for just $75 plus tax, a pair could be mine. I bought them.

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Becoming A Dangerous Christian

Editor’s note: Lisa Dye is a regular contributor to the Internet Monk community. We recently ran another post about the Dangerous God you might want to read in conjunction with this word from Lisa.

Recently, two close friends and I hired a life coach to join us at a lake cabin for a weekend retreat. We’d planned the event for weeks and were prepared with everything we could think of, including plenty of food, tunes and our most comfortable cabin attire. What we were unprepared for was hearing that we were dangerous women becoming more dangerous – in our thinking and our future plans.

Maybe it was just that I was unprepared to hear it. One of my friends, a lawyer many characterize as a pit bull, seems unafraid of danger. Life has thrown her a lot and she’s a woman who leaps high in the air, eyes wide open and catches fearlessly. My other friend, a professor of marketing, speaks truth with such boldness and extracts truth with such surgical precision that her subjects hardly feel the pain. I, on the other hand, am not sure why I’m allowed to breathe the same air.

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More Creation Questions: Adam & Eve

By Chaplain Mike

It’s time to get back to some basic Biblical and theological questions related to the subject of creation.

In recent posts, I have dealt with Michael Spencer’s view of the creation narratives, the controversy over creation issues prompted by Bruce Waltke’s video, and my own interpretation of Genesis 1.

Today, we begin considering the narratives that follow Genesis 1. For the next question involves how we should understand the stories of the Garden, Adam and Eve, sin and the fall. This came up in our earlier comment threads, and I promised we would take up these narratives in days to come.

As a brief introduction to the subject, I present this video from the Biologos blog. It features Daniel Harrell, who is the Senior Minister of Colonial Church in Edina, Minnesota. Before taking this position, Harrell served as associate minister at Park Street Church in Boston, Massachusetts for over twenty years. He is the author of the book, Nature’s Witness: How Evolution Can Inspire Faith.

The Appearances of the Risen Christ, 8

By Chaplain Mike

We are marking the Great Fifty Days of Easter with a series of devotional thoughts on the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus.

Today we look at another narrative in John’s story of Jesus’ resurrection and appearances, from John 20:11-18 (MSG).

Text

11-13But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she knelt to look into the tomb and saw two angels sitting there, dressed in white, one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus’ body had been laid. They said to her, “Woman, why do you weep?”

13-14“They took my Master,” she said, “and I don’t know where they put him.” After she said this, she turned away and saw Jesus standing there. But she didn’t recognize him.

15Jesus spoke to her, “Woman, why do you weep? Who are you looking for?”

She, thinking that he was the gardener, said, “Mister, if you took him, tell me where you put him so I can care for him.”

16Jesus said, “Mary.”

Turning to face him, she said in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” meaning “Teacher!”

17Jesus said, “Don’t cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I ascend to my Father and your Father, my God and your God.'”

18Mary Magdalene went, telling the news to the disciples: “I saw the Master!” And she told them everything he said to her.

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