Author: Fred Shope

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TGIF

This week has flown by. We spent the week doing state standardized testing, and the school year is winding down. Tomorrow, Josh graduates from the University of North Carolina – Charlotte with a master’s degree in architecture. It’ll be a busy weekend for all of us.

Here’s the good stuff:

I didn’t know this before. Evidently, Craigslist supports sex trafficking.
A defense of art.
Don’t waste your trials.
Pam asks, “What if…?”
Chaplain Mike on the Beatitudes.
Beyond the old soul.

A place for grace.
This is encouraging.
Spiritual experimentation.
Tim Hill on authenticity.
Jared Wilson reviews Holy Subversion by Trevin Wax.
Alan Knox on being more ready to submit than impose.

Graduation advice.
Keeping up appearances.
Scot McKnight has a series titled, “Perilous Times.” Part 1 is here.
Scot McKnight on a Barna study. He asks what it means for churches.
A funny story with a serious message.
The Prodigal Son – in the key of F. (HT: Scot McKnight)

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Afraid of the Bible?

Alan Knox linked to this the other day and asked the question, “Are we afraid of the Bible?” I commented that we are afraid of the Bible that teaches us what it means to follow Jesus, but we are not afraid of the Bible that we pull proof texts from in order to justify doctrine or practice.

I think the Church is afraid of the Bible. The Bible is full of things that are uncomfortable to us, things that challenge our thinking and way of life. When Jesus tells the rich young man to sell everything and follow him, we explain it away as something that was only for that particular person at that particular time (even though everything else in the Bible is a timeless truth for all people). Now I don’t believe that every follower of Jesus is called to sell everything, but we are called to die to self, and there are some who God does call to sell all their stuff and give to the poor. Maybe we’re afraid that someone might be us.

We’re afraid of taking the Bible seriously when it tells us that Jesus is Lord.The early church fully believed that. It was what got them in trouble. They weren’t persecuted because they went around telling people to say the sinner’s prayer so they go to heaven when they died. They proclaimed the subversive message that the Kingdom of God was here, that Jesus was the King, not Caesar. We take the message of the Kingdom and try to make it about something that is far in the future, relegating much of Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels to secondary status. Maybe we’re afraid of the implications of Jesus being Lord.

We’re afraid of the Bible that tells us to love God with every fiber of our being, and then to love everyone like we love ourselves, even if they are our enemies. We’re afraid of the Bible that tells us that we not only are saved by grace, but that we live by grace and God loves us no matter what. We are afraid of the Bible that has things in it that don’t seem to add up. We are afraid of the Bible that presents God relating to different people in different ways, rather than the one size fits all approach proclaimed from many churches.

We are afraid of the Bible because if we ever dug into it and took what it says seriously, it would change our lives. We would no longer be comfortable with our safe, manageable existence, choosing instead to follow a God who is not safe.

Who knows? It might even turn the world upside down.

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World Vision Wednesday

Did you know that you can help the poor in other countries by giving to finance loans so they can start and grow businesses? Most poor people who want to start a business don’t qualify for loans through banks. Through micro-loans they can receive funds given by many people and be able to provide for themselves and their families. Along with other programs, microfinance can help end extreme poverty. Currently only 3 percent of the need for microfinance is being met.

To find out how you can become involved in helping others through micro-loans, visit this site.

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Praying in Faith? Part 2

I’ve come to some conclusions about this whole thing of praying in faith. One of the lessons God taught me during my time in the desert was that he wanted me to place my faith in him rather than in the things I thought he would do. That seemed to be the crux of the matter in how I prayed, and even what I prayed for. Not that God couldn’t or wouldn’t answer my prayers, but that my trust must be in my loving Father no matter what.

As the past four years have gone by that lesson is one that seemed to have faded a bit. Not totally forgotten, but I did need a reminder. In my case the answer to the question of praying in faith is to continue praying for the situation, to even desire it immensely, and then to trust the Father to simply do the right thing. I remember that my identity is that of a child of God, a brother and co heir with the King of Kings, and not in a job or title. Whether I do a certain thing or not, I am beloved of the Creator of the universe. It doesn’t get any better than that.

My faith is in the God who loves me, no matter what. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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TGIF

There was a lot going on in the news this week. The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continued to spread, New York City escaped a terrorist attack, and in case you missed it due to the inadequate coverage, Nashville, Tennessee was inundated by what was described as a 500 year flood. The estimated cost of the cleanup and reconstruction is one billion dollars. There are many who lost their homes and possessions. Please pray for the folks in Nashville.

Here are the links for the week:

Tim Hill on forgiveness.
Jared Wilson on maple syrup.
Dan Edelen on fuzzy church.
Erin on change.
Matt on a Christian enough nation.
Donald Miller on arguing.

This video showed up on a lot of blogs this week. It’s a good commentary on modern church.
God is holy and here.
Home.
$2 days.
I agree. This is not okay!
Church leavers.

Becoming a dangerous Christian.
Walking barefoot. Part 1, Part 2.
I don’t remember seeing this side of the sculpture.
Loving and leaving.
The elephant in the living room.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there. I hope you have a great day Sunday.

Thanks for reading my blog.

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Praying in Faith?

I have a hard time praying in faith. To be honest, I’m not totally sure what that means. I’ve heard that praying in faith means believing and saying that God is going to give you what you pray for, and that you simply don’t have enough faith if you don’t get it. I’ve heard that we must pray with the faith that God’s will is going to be done, regardless of the answer.

I’ve prayed for situations where I was certain God was going to answer in a certain way, and he didn’t. In some, the answer was a clear “No.” One of those times, I visualized a certain thing as a mountain and told it to move, fully expecting my desire to happen. When the “mountain” remained in its place, my faith was damaged. It was months before I could pray at all, and was an even longer time before I prayed for any of my concerns. I could pray for others, but I felt like God just was not going to answer my prayers for myself. If I had stopped to think about it, I probably would have said I was drifting close to fatalism. Over time, I came to the point where I could pray for myself. Maybe I didn’t (don’t) have enough faith. Maybe I was asking with a wrong motive. Maybe my faith was misplaced. (that’s certainly been the case before)

All this musing has come about because there is a a particular thing that I really want God to do. There is a job that I’ve heard will come open. It actually would be more than just a job for me. It is something that will fit my passion, skills, and experience. It will allow me the opportunity to once again be involved in discipleship through athletics. Through a number of things that have transpired over the last two years, the timing seems right. It seems like the perfect situation. So, I am praying that God will be gracious and grant me this job.

The question remains. How do I pray in faith? How do I balance my deep desire and a trust that my Father will do what is best? Right now my prevailing attitude is, “Lord I believe. Help my unbelief.” Maybe that’s enough.

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Hummingbirds II

Another repost:

A while back, I wrote about the hummingbirds that come to our feeder. A couple of days ago, I was sitting on the back porch and a hummingbird came to the feeder. It was interesting to watch because it spent all the time looking around to see if another bird was going to come chase it away. The poor thing never did get any nectar because it was afraid of the other hummingbird.

I got to thinking how often we are like that hummingbird. We are afraid to really follow Jesus because we are afraid of being attacked, by non-Christians and by Christians. Those of us who grew up in more conservative circles know what it’s like to always worry about doing something that will “harm your testimony” or “offend another Christian”. When I first began to realize that many of the things I was taught when I was younger were more in line with the culture that grew around the American Church in the past century than with what the Bible teaches, I still had times of looking over my shoulder in fear of what people might think or say.

That is not a Christ-honoring way of thinking. Jesus has set us free from the expectations and opinions of others. He has called us to follow him, not any system or philosophy concocted by human beings. A quick glance at the history of Christ followers shows the diversity in the ways we are called to follow. Beyond what we find in the New Testament, Jesus did not give us an exhaustive list of how to live our lives. Yes, there are certain principles that inform our lives, the most important being love God and love others. But there is a lot of life that is not as cut and dried as some would like to think.

Galations 5:1 Paul tells us that it is for freedom that Christ set us free. Galations 5:13 does tell us that we are not to use our freedom as an excuse to sin, but much of the time that verse is misused as a weapon to get people to do what a particular group or person wants them to do.
We are free. Free to follow Christ in the way that he calls us, without worrying about what other people think. What can they do? Take our things? It all belongs to God anyway. Will they refuse fellowship? We have fellowship with the Father. Will they try to damage our reputation? What reputation? We’re all broken people in need of God’s grace and none of us is better than another. Will they take away our position? That frees us up to pursue another avenue of service. The worst they can do is kill us. If they do that, then we are with Christ. If we realize that all we are is because of God’s grace and that Jesus loves us no matter what, we can then be free to live our lives as the Holy Spirit leads us and become more like Jesus according to his schedule, not ours or any body else’s.

Don’t be like the hummingbird. Spend time drinking the nectar of God’s amazing grace instead of looking around to see who might attack you.

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Hummingbirds

This is a repost of something I wrote a couple years ago.

We have a hummingbird feeder outside our back porch and it’s fun to watch them hover and drink the sugar water. It’s interesting that they have to come back often to drink because of the amount of energy they expend flapping their wings at such a fast rate.

Another thing I’ve noticed about hummingbirds is that they are very territorial. An aggressive hummingbird will chase others away from the feeder and will actually sit in a nearby tree watching for an interloper. In fact, a beautiful ruby throated hummingbird that was the first to come to the feeder was driven away completely by a brown one. It seems to me that an amazing amount of energy is wasted defending something that never belonged to them. The feeder is there because of the good graces of my wife and me. So instead of sharing the bounty with the other birds, one bird wastes his energy to defend something that is a gift and not his to keep.

How often are we, the Church, like that. We take the grace that has been freely given us and jealously guard it from those who don’t agree with us in everything. We think that God’s grace, like the sugar water, was given to us alone. We put God in a little box and try to interpret everything by the limits of that box. We waste an awful lot of energy defending things that either are indefensible, or are not vital. Then, we don’t have the time or energy to spend on the real work that Jesus gave us to do – making disciples who follow the Christ.

I’m not saying that Biblical truth doesn’t matter or that we should adopt an “I’m okay, you’re okay” philosophy. I am saying that we need to take a hard look at what we believe and make sure that we believe it because it matches up with what God says rather than because “it’s the way we’ve always been taught”. Is our Christianity Biblical or cultural? Did the faith we hold begin in the 1st century or in the 19th and 20th centuries?

Are we disciples of Jesus? Or, are we hummingbirds?

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TGIF

It’s Friday already! This week has just zipped by. I spent today touring a university with a group of eighth graders. I always enjoy being on college campuses, and this was a nearby school that I had not previously visited. Tomorrow is the running of the Kentucky Derby. I usually don’t watch horse racing, but the three races of the Triple Crown capture my attention every year. I wonder if this year will bring a Triple Crown winner. Maybe.

Here is the good stuff:

Are we missing something?
Something in my size?
Dallas Willard on atonement. (HT: Brian McLaren)
Asking the radical questions.
Church on the Boardwalk.
When you don’t like what the government does.

Good words from John Bunyan.
Church in a coffee shop. Good discussion in the comments.
Are we this honest?
Good words from Mark.
Do you own your successes?
Good question. How would you answer?

Scot McKnight continues his series on changing culture. Part 9.
Options and doubt.
Awful Christian T-shirts.
Is N.T. Wright dangerous?
Just hearing, or doing?
Convinced in our own minds.

Thanks for reading my blog. Have a great weekend.