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#4 (Top 10 of 2011)

December 28, 2011 in Bible, Blogging, Church, Reading, Spirituality with 2 Comments

This is part of a series of top posts from 2011.

#4: My Response to the Rob Bell “Conspiracy”

I’ll give you a heads up in advance. This post is longer than normal so if you are skimming for a soundbite you may want to stop here. If you’re still interested, pull up a chair and engage your mind for a few moments.

You may or may not be aware of the American Church Politics that go on from time to time. It’s mostly petty and always damaging. One group or another is quick to tell all of their people why they should boycott some other influential Christian or ministry. The last time I engaged in the drama was when they were boycotting Paul Young’s book The Shack…

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Selling Doubt

December 13, 2011 in Reading, Spirituality with 3 Comments

The one who commits themselves to the task of helping people really enter into doubt, unknowing, and ambiguity needs to be ten, twenty, even a hundred times better than those who sell certainty. They have got to be prepared to walk a difficult and often dangerous path if they wish to invite people into this murky and uncertain world, for in doing so they bring to the surface a whole host of anxieties that we spend so much of our time and resources repressing.

Hiding Behind the Will of God

December 12, 2011 in Bible, Spirituality with 10 Comments

“God told me…”

It is tempting to say this phrase as a Christian and there are namely two scenarios when this occurs. The first is when it actually happens. I have clearly heard God tell me (not audibly) to do certain things throughout my life. Some have been small and specific in a moment. Others have been huge decisions I needed to make. Often times these leadings seemed to go beyond logic alone. The second, is when Christians are trying to justify something that they want to do that doesn’t line up with reality–or doesn’t line up to what He is saying to other Christians.

This post will address the second of the two.

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Controlled by Fear

December 1, 2011 in Reading, Spirituality with 1 Comment

I recently finished Tim Keller’s book, King’s Cross, and came across this quote which reminded me of my story about generosity versus skepticism.

People will say, “How can you spend your money like that? How can you let that career opportunity go by? How can you be involved with such a needy person when you know she will probably take advantage of you?” A Christian can respond, “It’s not the end of the world if somebody takes advantage of me, or if my money is gone, or if my career doesn’t develop as I might like. I’m not controlled by that fear anymore.” You are replacing the kingdom of this world with the kingdom of God.

Generosity Versus Skepticism

November 21, 2011 in Life, Spirituality with 13 Comments

A few weeks back I had an encounter with a stranger that has replayed in my mind numerous times since then. It was a Monday morning and I was walking from the parking lot to Liberty Market for a meeting with the worship team. A guy stopped me and asked me if I would help him get an inhaler for his brother. I hesitated, like I normally do when suddenly hit up for something odd, but then concluded that this was something I needed to do.

He asked me if I would drive him to a nearby parking lot where he could meet his girlfriend (who had his little brother with her). I took him to it and then he asked me for $13 to buy the inhaler. I only had a $20, but he had seven ones to make change. He then asked if he could use my phone to see where she was. After he called her, he said that she was apparently at a different intersection and asked if I could drive there. While he pitched it as “just up the street,” it ended up being a 10-15 minute drive farther. I asked him a bunch of questions during our drive and he had very specific answers for all of them.

I had the nagging feeling that I was getting scammed.

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