Why Are We Here?

The group of believers that I most frequently gather with is in the midst of contemplating this rather (not so) simple question.

“Why are we here?”

What is our purpose, …our calling?

What about individually? What keeps us where we are at, doing what we are doing?

I’m looking forward to the discussion that we will be having about this very thing this coming weekend.

In the meantime, all that I can say is that I am here (and I hope that we are here) to be all that the Lord desires us to be, and to not only be satisfied with the things that I (or we) feel comfortable with.

How about you?

Why are you where you are at?

What does that mean to you?

Searching for a better God?

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve done any book reviewing, but I must say that this is one book that is certainly worth telling folks about.

As I’ve noted in other reviews, I’m not a ‘book reviewer’. I read and sometimes, if what I read strikes me as significant or of some importance I will share, to the best of my ability, what that significance and importance is.

I’ve never been much into ‘apologetics’, but I can see it’s place in the church.

It doesn’t hurt to have a grasp on why things are the way they are coupled with some well thought out ‘advice’ as to how to navigate through it all in conversation.

(Lord knows that I need all the advice I can get.)

Faith and reason may be two different things, but that doesn’t mean that they cannot compliment one another, amen?

In Searching for a Better God, Wade Bradshaw addresses a very common mindset which says “I’m wiser than God.”

“Common sense theology” is what it’s often referred to and is a part of what Mr. Bradshaw refers to as the New Story.

Here’s a quote taken from one of his writings on line that briefly descrbes what this New Story is all about:

The new story people increasingly tell themselves is that the God that you worship and is absolutely the ground of being, the source of purpose and meaning, what gives value to anything is his estimation of it.  People think that this God is beneath them morally.  That’s where the church is today.  It is a very difficult place to be. 

 Those who tout this perspective (and yes, I have found myself entertaing this mindset myself before) suggest that they are morally more superior than the God of the Judeo-Christian faith.

Mr. Bradshaw writes in a very down to earth, common sense fashion, skillfully and graciously handling some of the more popular (and in my opinion egotistical) arguments that run amuck in todays society.

Honestly, this book was a rather refreshing read as it brough a sharper focus in my minds eye of the God who is Good as opposed to the God who is simply relative.

Let me give you a little gem from this bag of jewels:

“We shouldn’t be surprised when a homosexual couple can be good neighbors or that a Buddhist pays his debts. Relationships with people we disagree with allow us to meet wisdom in places we may not have expected it.

In other words, the New Story is a quest for wisdom, an attempt to find the good God–but it can also be a tragic tale of folly if the goodness of God is mistaken for evil and left behind as the search move on.”

Priceless.

Pick it up.  You deserve the wisdom and the challenge.

BE THINK DO

It’s been awhile since I’ve written anything here.

I don’t have much time, and honestly I don’t know exactly what to share at this point.

All that I really have to say at this time is that our heads can get way ahead of our hearts and experience, and just when we thought we were becoming Spiritual, the Lord can be quick to check us on that point.

In fact, He is quick to point to the Lord Jesus and say, “He is Spiritual. You are a vessel”.

As I’ve noticed with some of my other brothers and sisters, and I know that this could easily become some kind of sub-cultural religious fad, I am seriously begininng to renounce the title of ‘Christian’.

If someone else wants to use that word in a descriptive way of me, then I only have two things to say to them:

A) You’re dumber than I thought and,

B) Praise the Lord for your dumbness as He, in some obscure way, may still be seen.

Besides all of that, things have been….

Uh.

Things have been.

And they continue to be.

Speaking of which, here is something to muddle your head up:

If there is any virtue in grasping the reality of ‘oneness’ then what good is it to turn around and divide up the differences in being, thinking, and doing?

For that matter, what about spirit, soul, and body?

Sure. I can accept the fact that these three faculties exist and that in some way, they all have their own particular functions and places, but really….

The three are one.

Sure.

Being comes first, followed by thinking and then doing, but at some point it is also the thinking that causes the doing which results in the being. And then there is the doing which causes the being which later on causes the thinking.

And on and on we go.

But my point is this.

Since we ARE, already, let’s now think and then do rather than simply always thinking that we ARE resulting in being a people who don’t.

BE. THINK. DO.

Whadaya say?