A synopsis of general life.


God is moving greatly at this time. All the ones I trust the mostly greatly when understanding Him are feeling it. I don't know if I have mentioned much of what has been going on with myself as of late, but I very much doubt I have when I see just how much time I have allowed to loom up between myself and my last posts.

Over that past months, God has been solidifying new works with a snowballing effect. Around the time I moved back, He was doing big things. While I was away, those whom I was spiritually close to at home, most of whom were single ladies, joins officially with a local body of believers, partaking in a communally supportive network and fellowshipping closely with those others involved. I have since also come into this group, and I am amazed to see God more clearly speaking in lives in this group than I had ever seen with more than just individuals.

So as I returned, this body was made up of its parts from before, mostly relatively younger couples at this point, and of these newer others to whom I was previously close. But surrounding the time I returned, God began to bring other single guys into commitment here.

So now there are more guys around, and I am seeing just how great the spiritual insight and leadership is in these women I know. And so as I have come together with these other men, I believe I can speak for them, or at least for the sum whole of combined minds, that our passion is to see these men living in community and growing together in similar fashion to these girls, hopefully becoming more so of leaders than they themselves are.

We are looking to become more solidified and purposeful in our pursuit of Christ and our strengthening of one another. My vision is to see young men stepping up and becoming fully committed to God, allowing to have total and complete control of all aspects of their lives. Men who are seeking and actively making choices that are furthering their personal character growth, and men who are investing in the lives of others and ministering where the Lord places them. This is the greatest part of what God is doing in my life right now.

That being said, we all need to become closer in a literal sense, since at this time we all live in scattered places. So the ideal future looks something like this. Most of us moving in to a house together, with the purpose of creating a central location for male fellowship within this group.

God has greatly blessed this body with an immense number of artistically inclined members, and with so many of this sort, it is a wonder that no more has been done already along the lines of creative worship. This new house would also ideally be designed to house a location for creative expression and worship for all body members.

Perhaps even others as well!

As of late, I have been very devoted to reading The Chronicles of Narnia. While J.R.R.Tolkien, of Lord of the Rings and Hobbit fame, was not a great fan of his dear friend Lewis' authorship in this material, I cannot help but be amazed and inspired in spiritually epic realms. I'm reading them at almost a book a day. This is unheard of for my character, but none know that without being told so by myself.

Lewis is inspiring. He knows just how to capture a thought in perfect word imagery. He is able to explain magical experiences of which no one has ever partaken with such natural and familial language, often utilizing a normal activity to explain similar feelings in supernatural events. While everything is continually magical, it always seems completely real and physical, which is hard enough to explain with images, let alone with the choicest words. He succeeds and excels.

As a lover of nature, I am also easily seduced by his elegant explanations of such natural beauty as one can only imagine in this world. The lands and nature he explains almost constantly are almost as unrealistic to this existence as the magic that exudes within Narnian living.

But the far greatest element of C.S. Lewis work here is seen in the spiritual imagery seen within everything Aslan touches. Although his interaction is at some points non-existent for great lengths, it is always felt that all which takes place is by his hand or allowance, and all ultimately ends in his will and by his working. I do not think it is irregular for a theologian to be somewhat confused by Lewis' personal theology, but when it is played out in a narrative such as this, it is just as the old phrase, "a picture says a thousand words." Endless volumes of theological rhetoric could never sum up Lewis work in even some single chapters of Narnian happenings.

Aslan's relationship to the children and those whom are willingly in his service is some of the nearest inspiration to the Bible my heart has known, in its own category alongside the rhetoric of Tozer and the logic of Schaeffer. His character is almost surprising every time it acts, for it is so similar to Christ that it is hard for the human mind to know what to expect. I literally consider myself blessed to even be able to recognize that this is a very exact image of Christ. Many a most religious and well read person would overlook the striking similarity.

I would say it is by no means a stretch to say that The Chronicles of Narnia show a very true physical representation of how God would (in a few does cases does) work in the spiritual life of those willing to devote themselves in wholeness to Himself and His pursuits.

God is moving in my life through these books!

I just started another Tozer book, "Man, The Dwelling Place of God." Already, insights abound.

After talking about how much greater being honored before God is in comparison to all the honor of this world, Tozer says. . .

This being true and being known to the heavenly intelligences, the methods we use to persuade men to follow Christ must seem to them extremely illogical if not downright wrong.
Evangelical Christians commonly offer Christ to mankind as a nostrum to cure their ills, a way out of their troubles, a quick and easy means to the achievement of personal ends. They use the right words, but their emphasis is awry. The message is so presented as to leave the hearer with the impression that he is being asked to give up much to gain more. And that is not good, however well intentioned it may be.
What we do is precisely what a good salesman does when he presents the excellence of his product as compared with that of his closest competitor. The customer chooses the better of the two, as who would not? But the weakness of the whole salesmanship technique is apparent: the idea of selfish gain is present in the whole transaction.

The last line is the most potent to me. It is so true, that the most often explanation given in Sunday schools and evangelistic outreach is that Hell will be no good, and we can plan something better. It sounds like some deal that should include a casket, grave plot, and funeral plan package. I think the selfishness element is dependant upon this lack of perspective. How can salvation be worth much to one who needs so little?

The truth is that our salvation is always continually dependant upon our brokenness. Duh. We're obviously saved from something. But its never sold that way. How infrequently do we hear the Gospel from the beginning in this modern Christianity?

I think this falsely presented message is a mix of issues. The saddest of which is simply that those who do not understand the Good News fully are the ones trying to convince others of its worth. It can also be those most acquainted with the full message who become the most desperate. Observation provides insight into the fact that those most passionate about the Gospel are so greatly zealous that they fall quickly into a very deeply pensive state when pursuing the lost. We take on too much responsibility in the process. We love those souls with Christ's love, but find it discouraging and disheartening when we are unable to personally enact Christ's movement on their hearts.

Be encouraged little ones! It should be our greatest joy to allow God to take responsibility for changing the sinner's hearts! Our brokenness for the soul's of these should be comforted in the camaraderie found in God's same and greater heartbreak!

In the Bible we find the commission to spread the Word and make disciples. If you observe the processes in question, there is a middle step we seem to be excluded from. Perhaps we aren't meant to be a third party in the creation of this relationship! Our responsibility lies only in making Christ's glory known to the hearts of man, and in building up the lives of the children of the Burning Heart!

May your joy be multiplied in your reliance upon Christ to reach those on your hearts!

I do wonder though, to what extent should the Gospel be contextualized? It is obvious that Paul became all things to all men, and spoke in a way condusive to further connection with his audiences. But the message was unfaultering in remaining the identical core. It seems that more often we have flipped this, contextualizing the Gospel to its detriment and giving no thought in how to approach our target audience graciously.

Any thoughts on this?

I think there is truly a balance in every issue in life.
At simple face value, this may sound really obvious to some while striking others as very simplistic or coping out. Let me dig a bit.

I have lots of friends who are very passionate. This is just something Christ does in people. And it is good. I have worked in many a factory surrounded by people content to simply work, watch TV, and sleep, with occasional weekend partying. I am heartbroken over this lack of desire for any purpose in life. I wish there was some way to get into some one's heart and cause them to desire or have hope for more.
But I think that passionate people carry their own list of issues, some of which are often in desiring clarity in thinking. I'm not really talking about the obvious issues of people who always speak their mind without concern, arguing to prove their point's validity to no end. I'm talking about something deeper.
I see that in many very deeply concerned issues of the Christian life, there is always a tense balance between two extremes. Much of the Bible is written this way.

Two Words. Grace and Works.
But seriously, I would venture to say that almost every single point that one could make from Scripture could be responded to with a valid counter statement which balances it out. While God deals in absolutes when it comes to morality and His own standards, much of Scripture, when weighed as a whole, comes out somewhere in the middle between two counter balancing truths. Often the best way to follow God in a situation is totally circumstantial. In the end, the only constant solution is obedience and faith.

I've been burnt pretty badly in my time here thus far.
I've been an arguer and debater my entire life, its just always been surrounding me, and I became good at it. But the intensity of failure of relationships in the past leaves me scared. Perhaps the greatest factors in these tremendous loses are these attitudes which where already leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I hate that I have lost important people because of my own desire to be right about stupid things, compounded over a span of years, which turned great and encouraging intimate friendships into meaningless hollow memories. This leaves me at a point where philosophical and theological debate leave me drained from the first word of rebuttal. I can't handle this anymore.
I think we get pretty ridiculous about this. People may be completely led by the Spirit to intensely study a certain topic, find immense truth, and then from this make leaping, overarching statements that they deem all-inclusive. Others have been restored from horrible trauma in their past, but even so come to completely one-sided conclusions about what God's truth is about the general issues involved.
I guess I have come to a point where I can't stand the ways in which we think we figure things out. Wasn't the purpose of salvation that we couldn't get things right? So we continue to study and develop our love relationships with Christ, but by no means should we be eagerly seeking a bottom line.
Are we really supposed to have a theses statement for life?
Isn't it a bit above our heads?
I mean, where is faith when your just seeking to find all the answers?

Look again at this imagery of marriage in regards to our relation to Christ. When I wrote the original post on the topic, I said that marriage is a very vivid example of what we should and can experience in relationship with God, but that it is also a very poor shadow of how great this relationship can be. I went on to discuss the ways in which we should be able to experience emotions and a mind set surprisingly similar to marriage, but I never really talked about the great distance above and beyond which is available with Christ.

Envision the perfect marriage. This brings to mind a different definition to many people, some wouldn't even agree that there could be such a thing with all of the brokenness surrounding us. But I find that the more I pour myself into Christ, the more I gain vision for right relationships, even if I don't see them in reality before me.

My point is not really to define the perfect interaction of a couple, but to realize something else. We still have a broken relationship, a marriage to Christ with a fault running across its foundation. We still live as a broken, distrusting wife in our flesh. This is the reason that people like Paul look forward with such anticipation toward a world beyond this. Then the marriage will be perfected. But be humbled and strengthen, renewed in exaltation of your groom in realizing this.

The groom is always faithful, even in the many circumstances when His bride is not aware or paying attention. He is full of integrity in all His interactions. When He is slandered, He does not lash out at offenders or speak to others of His great misfortune. But His bride is often quick to react in His defense in a way in which He Himself would not react or find becoming. And while this bride extols Him in this way and praises Him to others, she often treats Him poorly, or disregards the things she would claim about Him when she is more contented. All of her attitudes are dependant on her mood or her emotions. Others may only hear or see nice things, but her husband is constantly faced with a very violently obvious division of contradicting emotions. While she reaps all the benefits of a selfless lover, He is left confused and emotionally weary by her actions toward Him.

This sounds like a rough marriage situation. It doesn't sound nearly as bad as many marriages today, but is both sad and beautiful. It is sad to see something broken, only kept beautiful and intact by the actions of one member.

But realize that this is all true of your relationship with Christ. Your the bride. Your so lucky to have His undying affections! We treat Him so poorly, it almost seems a negative when we do occasionally appreciate Him, because it shows just how much our circumstances decide our opinions of our Great Lover, and how much we ultimately worship and love ourselves instead.

But there is so much beauty in God's constant faithfulness in love to us. He is the Husband who never leave in any circumstance, and never even falters in demeanor, focus, or passion. God be praised that, while we still find ways to destroy our relationship with Him, He is constantly glorifying Himself through His faithfulness to us! We are the luckiest people to have such faithfulness exacted out into our lives daily! Let this affect us greatly.

It is this love relationship on which I recently wrote which God continues to expand in my view.

As of late, God has built a new awareness into my life. He has layered on understand and new perceptions in rapid succession. He has been revealing to me what I should be looking for in a wife.

Woah.

Wait a second, what does this have to do with anything I have been writing about? Let me disclaimer this post by saying that I am not seeking a relationship right now, that's not where my mind is, in fact, as you read hopefully you will understand how much I'm trying to ignore the idea of a relationship until God throws something in my face.

I have been earnestly seeking God. This is only by His hand, for I have no skill in this as a very broken man. But He is always faithful, and I have been reaping blessings through the Scripture, Godly friends, and general revelation. As strange as it may sound, the more I have been seeking Christ, the more I have been coming to understand marriage. God started to show me simply things, but in His flawless light. Things that don't sound extraordinary, like that I should never been looking at any feature in a possible mate other than the extent of their personal devotion to Christ and the similarity of their heart to His.

I haven't been studying marriage, or looking through Scripture specifically related to it. But daily I receive a new perspective on how much more my relationship with Christ is than a marriage could ever be. Marriage done properly is a very vivid shadow of what our relationship with Christ is, but also a very poor shadow of the extreme nature of this relationship. The emotions we have about other people in romantic relationships are the ones we should be strangely close to having about Christ. Every poor blind human scouring the earth for someone to fall in and out of love with is truly a being seeking back the lost King of His heart. Every perfect romantic fairy tale or movie plot is really a shadow of a much greater relationship meant to be had with God.

A perfect marriage, which we don't really see often, includes most of the attitudes and feelings we should have toward Christ. But the most exquisite marriage is no match for the greatness of what God has dreamed for us.

So to truly be Christ's bride, I should treat him as I would if I where someones wife.

This has been a strange but empowering perspective for me recently. I don't mean acting feminine in any way, I am actually continually striving toward manlier manhood. But I do mean looking at life as if every decision affects both myself and the man who is leading me. It means learning to submit in every single situation, so that my opinion doesn't determine the outcome. This new perspective has me making disciplined decisions to devote things to Christ, because He has to be my priority for this relationship to work. I'm sure there are so many other analogies that don't come to my head immediately, all of which are equally valid and revealing.

So I try earnestly to live my whole day, every day, thinking about the relationship I have committed myself to in salvation. The perspective that is so transforming in creating a healthy marriage is exactly what is needed in creating a healthy life with Christ! And this relationship must always take priority over any human one. A marriage is only designated by God, not something we should be looking to for personal gratification.

So even though I have been learning alot about marriage, I am at the same time becoming more cautious about stumbling upon relationships. My blinders are up, and I am hoping and praying that only a miracle could bring them down.

But it does stand true, if I ever want to be a good husband, I have to learn to be a great wife.