the sacred discovery

There was an IBM ad in recent months in which employees of a corporation passed around bingo cards during a large company meeting. Their objective was to mark all the meaningless “buzz” words that business leaders used to generate hype among workers for their product. Watching that commercial, I realized that often in Christian circles there is very little difference. We jump and scream and shout over “buzz” words (e.g. revival, anointing, infilling, impartation), though we scarcely have any idea of the meaning these words possess.

This Friday, I want us to Biblically explore the concept of “revival” from the story of King Josiah in 2 Kings 22. We will look to answer some real questions and experience a real move of God.

So I want to invite everyone to come out to Victory AG this Friday, 7:00pm. Here’s the info; hope to see you there:

Date: Friday, April 23, 2010

Time: 7:00pm - 9:15pm

Location: Victory Assembly of God

1724 Barnes Bridge Road, Dallas, TX

Hey everyone,

I was so bogged down with papers and assignments last week that I never got to sit down and blog. Unfortunately the next couple of weeks look like their doomed to be hectic, as well...just in case I miss a week :)

In the meantime, check out this song by Sanctus Real. It's been ministering to me about what it means to be a man...

There’s so much talk out in the world about healing these days. You might not notice it, but it’s there. In fact, Congress just passed a historic bill glittered with promises of hope and healthcare for millions of uninsured all over the country. As politicians bicker and state legislators squabble in an epic tug of war to materialize the funding for this bill, a look of joy-turned-to-regret fill the faces of the American population, as they realize that health and healing comes at high cost with so many strings attached and holes apparent.

When the Bible talks about the praying for healing, strangely there seems to be something missing. In fact, any honest person who reads the Bible must accept that the authors and contributors of the Scriptures seem to have all believed in a healing that is so oddly foreign to us.

Think about it. Jesus would simply heal blind men, lepers, demon-possessed, paralytics…and yet, there would be no payment at the end. No tax to meet the demands of his “universal healthcare.” It was absolutely free.

It is a healing with no strings attached. No holes. No kinks. No taxes. Just free.

So my question, then, is this: Why don’t we pray for healing anymore?

...what do you do with passages that seem to suggest, or even explicitly state, that God changes his mind? Let me give you an example.

1 Samuel 15:11, “I regret that I have made Saul king.” And that’s the same passage that God says in verse 29, “And also the Glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man, that he should have regret.” (yea, that seems super-CONFUSING!!) How can God “regret” and be a God that does not “regret” all at the same time?

Let me explain it this way. When my baby cousin was around two, and still developing her speech, she used to ask for her milk by saying, “papum, papum”—don’t worry that’s not a theological term, just baby talk. Sometimes we would even ask her if she wanted milk by saying “papum” back to her. Now, we weren’t trying to add a new word for "milk" in the dictionary, we were just trying to communicate “milk” in a way that was comprehensible to the mind of a two year old child.

Similarly, you might apply the same logic to passages like the one above. Perhaps, God is speaking in terms comprehensible to such finite, small-minded creatures such as us. Saul had earned divine disapproval by his disobedience, and God responds by saying, “If you, the human, ever regretted doing something, then I want you to understand that regret would be the best level of disappointment that I, the transcendent God, have for such sinful disobedience.”

This is what theologians call “anthropomorphic” (big word, I know) language. Basically, it means to attribute human emotions or terms to the transcendent God, who is beyond our mental grasp. Sometimes, when we think we’ve changed God’s mind, could it be that he, who is never subject to change, is trying to relate with people who live in inexplicable, constant change?

Btw, I know that one can be a little deep, so I’d love to clear up any question you have. Comment below.

Someone asked me this question this week and I thought it was such a good question, I should blog about it :).

Here are the two truths we are confronted with when we talk about praying to change God's mind:

1) God is a good God
This means that God’s intents and thoughts for us are always good. He seeks always to accomplish what is good for us, though it may not necessarily seem good to us. So then, why do we need to change his mind? Unless we think that our good God has devised something evil to destroy us and plummet us to the pit of hell. Perhaps, then our god is not the God of the Bible at all, but maybe he is some sort of idol or even the devil.

2) God knows everything
This is what theologians call divine foreknowledge or omniscience. If you believe in the God of the Bible, then you must accept this essential truth about an all-powerful, all knowing God, who knows past, present and future by virtue of his eternality. This seems to beg the question, “If god knows everything, from what we do—with all possible outcomes of those actions—and what He does (or can do) in order to work good in our lives, then how at all is it possible or necessary for finite creatures, such as we, to change His infinite mind?” It seems to be an ambitiously frivolous and ultimately needless cause.

So then, why pray at all?

To answer this question, we must look at the motive of the man praying, rather than the mutability of the God being prayed to. If your desire is to change God, whether it’s his mind or character or whatever else, you are out of luck. The God of the Bible is unchanging. But if your desire is for him to change you, then welcome to the proper posture of prayer. Prayer is where the Christian finds hope, faith and satisfaction. You may pray for better circumstances, better perspectives, or even a better you, but why pray for a better God, when you have the best?

Can it be that beneath the frailties and the failings of our lives, under the seeping mire of this depraved world, we in our fallen state could uncover the one true God? Can we, in any reasonable terms, discover a God who could choose to hide himself?

Now, we’ve all attended one of those surprise parties where friends of the ‘suprisee’ huddle behind lamps and beneath tables with the lights dimmed, shushing and hushing till the door cracks open. However, in that very moment, everything is dark to person of the hour, he or she is quite unaware of their hidden loved ones’ proximity. Yet, in the moment to follow, all that will change.

Many of us get lost in the language of “finding” and “seeking,” that we forgo the notion of a hidden God that wants to be found. Luther, the great church reformer, taught that God hid himself from humanity, choosing to reveal himself purposely in Scripture and perfectly in Christ. To know him outside these generous bounds is to not know him at all. So then do we find God or does God find us? Both. God chooses to reward the seeker, and satiate human anticipation with the incomparable discovery of Christ and his gospel. In finding him, we may know confidently that he has indeed found us; and in his uncovering us, we’ve come to begin to uncover him. This is our sacred discovery.

If we’re Christians and we preach the gospel…shouldn’t our “gospel” music be given away for free?

.:I recently found out about a Christian music label that gives away free music. In fact, you can actually download all the CD’s of any of their artists without paying a single cent. They don’t ask you to register for spam mail, or fork over credit card info, or even donate if you don’t want to.

They call themselves musicianaries(like musicians+missionaries, I guess). I thought it was an interesting way of doing ministry. When you consider the fact that Worship music has been the cash cow for many Christian labels, with almost every artist and band coming out with a “worship” album, it seems somewhat counter-intuitive for this young unknown group of musicianaries to give away their music (their way of sharing the gospel) for free.

Anyways, check out the link below and let me know what you think in the comment box.

http://comeandlive.com/artists