A Teaser

I just started reading Between Noon and Three by Robert Farrar Capon.  Maybe next week I will post a few of his comments about grace.  Capon definitely flips religion upside down.  Meanwhile, I am also in a book club discussing The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  Bonhoeffer’s ideas about cheap grace seem to be such a contradiction to Capon’s perspective.  Anyway, the contrast is interesting.  Both books are causing me to consider my beliefs about grace.

The opening lines of Capon’s story of scandalous grace set in the context of adultery:

By and by, I want to tell you a story.  It will be about a man and a woman who actually succeed in getting away with something.  I think I shall make him a university professor and her a suburban housewife finishing some long-interrupted work on a master’s in English.  Paul, perhaps will do for his name: forty, tall, dark, and handsome.  And for hers?  Linda?  No, Linda is a waitress with a sad, uncomprehended history of failed romances.

Have you read this book?  What did you think?  Too extreme?

Q and A with Frank Viola

In promotion of his book From Eternity to Here, Frank put together a blog tour.

In previous posts I expressed my appreciation for the ideas presented in this book. However, there are multiple pages in my book with question marks on them, and this seemed like a good opportunity to ask Frank those questions.

Because he is answering questions for over 50 blogs, I will limit this post to just a few questions.

1. Frank, your thoughts about God’s desire for a habitation and dwelling place with man were thorough and well-stated. However, I struggled with the terminology of God as homeless. Would you further explain this quote?

After the death of the apostles, God lost His house once again. The living, breathing house of God became suffocated by a truckload of human traditions. The vision was lost. And God was again homeless.

Frank: I would agree with historians like John W. Kennedy and others who point out that the eternal purpose, the centrality of Jesus Christ, and the organic expression of church life began to be lost sight of when the church began to be coopted by Greco-Roman culture. This coopting came to its height with Constantine’s arrival and era. Many writers today are discussing this shift in fact … people like Alan Hirsch, Michael Frost, Greg Boyd, G.W. Nigel, George Barna and myself (in “Pagan Christianity”). In fact, I was having a phone conversation with Hirsch recently, and he used the term “dethroning Constantine” in our time, as a mindset and a system. The work of God in this hour, we believe, is that of recovery and restoration concerning the fleshing-out of God’s eternal purpose in Christ in all dimensions.

2. I would like to hear your thoughts on the ideal of the body of Christ experiencing authentic church life versus the reality of the diverse, many-membered church, both past and present, in its imperfection as Christ’s body in the earth. What are your thoughts about the many churches who are unaware of God’s eternal purpose as members of the corporate body and participants in the new species?

Frank: “Church” has become such a muddied word in our day. It means drastically different things to different people. So for the purposes of clarity, I’ll not use it here.

God has always worked and will always work through and in His people wherever they are found and in whatever religious organizations they choose to be a part of. Israel is the summary witness of this. Even when the children of Israel were worshipping in Babylon, God blessed them and used them.

However, God has always had a testimony that represented His full thought when it comes to His eternal purpose. For me, the issue is very simple. If I’m a lover of Jesus, I have got to be interested in God’s eternal purpose in Christ, for that’s His heartthrob and the very thing that provoked Him to create. Therefore, I am responsible to know what His central thought is and to adjust my life to it. I think this is the calling of all Christians. In essence, fulfilling God’s ultimate intention is what following Jesus is all about. It’s nothing less than that. The Kingdom of God and being part of a Kingdom community is certainly a large part of it.

3. Would you please explain where and how you see the fundamental flaw expressed in the following quote occurring in the missional movement?

Failure to understand that God’s ultimate purpose begins in Genesis 1 before the fall, not in Genesis 3 after the fall has been the fundamental flaw of much of the modern day missional movement.

Frank: Note the words “much of.” There are exceptions of course. I speak as one who is part of the missional movement. My entire ministry is built on bringing into view the grand mission of God, which is His eternal purpose.

One of the things I appreciate about my friends and colleagues in the movement is that we graciously receive adjustment, challenges, and fresh thinking from one another. No one is defensive about it as we all realize that none of us sees the entire picture fully or clearly. So we learn from one another and engage in robust conversation sometimes.

Some within the movement (which is growing more and more diverse by the way) view God’s mission to be the salvation of the lost and/or the healing of the world. Other stress it to be the making of individual disciples and trying to imitate Jesus as individuals. As I point out in “From Eternity,” God created humans not in need of salvation and the world not in need of healing. Thus there was something else on His heart … a purpose conceived before time … that is by Him, through Him, and to Him. And it is corporate, not individualistic. Furthermore, the purpose of God cannot be fulfilled by trying or working. It is fulfilled by eating from a certain tree which contains a certain life form. God’s purpose goes beyond human redemption.

Jesus Himself said, “As the Father has sent me, and I LIVE BY the Father. So he that eats me shall LIVE BY me.” The purpose of God finds visible expression when a group of people learn to live by the Lord’s indwelling life together and display together it in their localities. That’s what true discipleship is all about. To separate disciple-making from the community of believers is like separating child-rearing, nuture, and development from the family. This touches the matter of “native habitats” that speak of in the book. To be a disciple of Jesus means to live by Christ, just as He lived by the Father. And that happens corporately for the most part. It’s not just an individual pursuit. Christ is, after all, our indwelling Lord.

I’m glad that we are beginning to hear more about God’s glorious purpose in missional circles right now, and I hope that continues. Interestingly, I was able to expand on this very question at a missional church event at George Fox Seminary recently. It created a lot of great dialogue afterwards that was profitable and brought oneness of mind among many who were present. I’m thankful for that.

Random

• Like many people, our family is shifting gears from school schedule to summer schedule. Which for me mainly means coming up with reasons why my kids should be out of bed before noon and pitch in a bit with the house and yard work without sounding like I’m nagging.
• My girls should have been done with school in the middle of May (homeschool), but I let them set their own pace as the year drew to a close.  When June 1 arrived and they still weren’t done, I let them know they would not have a life until they finished school.  As the weekend approached, with the possibility of not going out, they became motivated and were done by Saturday.
• That is the end of over 8 years of homeschooling as a mom who said she would never homeschool.  It had its good points.  I’m not sure I would do it again if I had it to do over.  Maybe.

We had to turn the furnace on this weekend.  But first we had to deal with the critter that we heard crawling in the furnace chimney the previous week.  And my husband was out of town.

Getting cold and brave, I ventured into the utility room.  Brought my 19 year old son along to go for help if something happened.

Checking it out, I realized that the solution was going to be to stick my hand blindly up the chimney to discover what was there.  The possibilities were a bat, a mouse, a snake (ewwww!!!), a bird, or something else.  And we didn’t know for sure if the critter was dead or alive, but I was hoping for dead.

• It has been unseasonably cold here for the last couple of weeks.  It is only 40 this morning.
• Speaking of dead, the dog that used to chase me when I walk died unexpectedly.

We are expecting guests tomorrow, my first IRL meeting of a blog friend.  Unless they chicken out have a change of plans.  It seemed like a good idea when we were talking about it.

My kids think it is strange.  One of my daughters asked if they would be staying at the house.  When I told her they weren’t, she said, “Oh good!  That would be so creepy!”

Since her room is usually the guest room for overnight company, she was concerned.  Not that they would rob and pillage the place in the middle of the night.  I don’t really think Dan and Jane are like that. 

• I am in the throes of planning a 50th wedding anniversary for my parents.  It seems all of my summer plans are on hold until “after the anniversary” which is now less than two weeks away.
• My ReallyBigNumber highschool reunion is at the end of the summer.  I haven’t decided if I will go.

I’ve been reading C. Baxter Krueger. Listening to Greg Boyd and Wayne Jacobsen when I walk.  I would like to listen to the free Eugene Peterson download too.  I might have to walk more.

I am enamored with the New Testament lately, all of it.  I think I’ll post more about that later this week or next.

Sometime in the next couple of weeks I would like to post a little bit about where I am at the moment with church, gathering, and fellowship. I haven’t said much about that lately. Mostly just letting the dust settle.

• Some of my friends launched a new website this weekend for spiritual wanderers and dreamers, Communitas Collective. Check it out. I haven’t joined yet, but I will if they’ll have me.
• Barb Orlowski, who created a website with her doctoral dissertation on spiritual abuse asked that an announcement be posted that the information that is currently available on her website will soon be removed for publication.  Visit www.churchexiters.com before it is too late!
• Tomorrow there will be a couple of questions posted to Frank Viola as part of his book blog tour. Let me know what you think.

Back to the critter in the chimney, remember we could not see IT and did not know what IT was…

Hearing screaming, the kids and their friends came running. I ended up with a room full of teenagers and young adults in the utility room ready to help, although some of them only contributed to the screaming.

After several failed attempts to remove IT (believe me, IT was huge and furry), my son finally extracted a scrawny dead blackbird from the chimney and waved it in our faces as he went to get rid of it.

That’s all I have for a Monday morning.

What’s new with you?

Review: The Furious Longing of God

This latest book by Brennan Manning is simple and beautiful in its expression of God’s love. The message he so poetically portrays is one that you will want to read deeply and repeatedly. No matter what page or chapter you turn to, Brennan’s words will quickly draw you in to the heart and passion of relentless, furious, Love.

“God Almighty shares through His Son the depth of His feelings for me, His love flashes into my soul, and I am overtaken by mystery. These are moments of kairos — the decisive inbreak of God’s fury into my personal life’s story.”

Living loved:

“How is it then that we’ve come to imagine that Christianity consists primarily in what we do for God?”

“Our religion never begins with what we do for God. It always starts with what God has done for us, the great and wondrous things that God dreamed of and achieved for us in Christ Jesus.”

Reflecting love:

“I’ve decided that if I had my life to live over again,…I would devote not one more minute to monitoring my spiritual growth.”

“What would I actually do if I had it to do all over again? Heeding John’s counsel, I would simply do the next thing in love.”

Loving others:

“To affirm a person is to see the good in them that they cannot see in themselves and to repeat it in spite of appearances to the contrary.”

“This is not some Pollyanna optimism that is blind to the reality of evil, but rather like a fine radar system that is tuned in to the true, the good, and the beautiful.”

This is just a small sample of the love story shared in the pages of this short book. It is a book that you will want to leave on your coffee table, to share with others, and to give as gifts, knowing that as you share the book, you are sharing the most important truth there is, “Abba, I belong to you.”

(This book was a selection for review from the ooze viral blogger network.)

Additional Thoughts on From Eternity to Here

This book is important to Frank, and his desire is that people who read it would experience a greater revelation of Christ.

Does he tend toward over-enthusiasm and hyperbole? Yes, but he seems to do so out of eager zeal and passion.

As with Frank’s other books, I found that while I generally agree with the overall message of the book, I wish at times that the message was expressed differently.  My biggest struggle with this book was with language that communicated lack and frustration in God -

• Jesus, A Lonely Bachelor? – “the most frustrated lover in the universe”
• A Homeless God? – “homesick tears, bags packed, searching for a home”

Descriptions like this were a distraction from Frank’s main message that creation was a result of the abundance of God’s love.

A quote from the book With that I reviewed last week:

Creation was not the desperate act of a lonely deity.  “Let us make humankind in our image” was not the impulse of a God who longed for the experience of love and worship.  We were not born into the world for the purpose of providing what our creator lacks.

Frank does speak of our invitation to share in the love, communion, and fellowship of the trinity in other parts of the book in ways that counter the picture of loneliness he painted.

The purpose of the church – to be an active participant in the impenetrable mystery of the trinity, to be an echo of the unfailing love that circulates with the godhead…a new humanity on earth that reflects the community of the godhead.

What is His grand mission?  To expand the life and love of the trinity, to increase the fellowship of the Godhead and reflect it on earth.

I believe that you will find that this book is solid and foundational in the majority of the truth and insight it represents concerning the people of God. Whether you agree with everything in the book or Frank’s other books, this one will definitely expand your understanding of God’s purpose for the church. A few thoughts to whet your interest…

Part 1 – The Bride of Christ

This section contains wonderful thoughts about God’s unconditional love for us and how He sees us in Christ.  Well-written and so important for anyone who needs a greater revelation of this truth.

He is looking for a people who see themselves as He sees them.

In seeing His greatness, she begins to understand just who she is and how highly He esteems her.  The upshot is that she begins to bear His image and reflect His glory in visible form.

Part 2 – The House of God

This section really impressed upon me the intensity of God’s desire for a dwelling place and the reality of God’s presence within our relationships.

God’s ageless purpose is to dwell on earth with human beings.

The burning intent of your God is that all of His living stones be built together with other living stones to form His house.

Part 3 – The Body of Christ and The Family of God

The final section encourages a true understanding of our identity as the Body of Christ and Family of God so that we can be a witness to the world of the reality of life under the reign of God and participate in His kingdom activity in the earth.

The body of Christ is not a metaphor. Christ and the church are a single reality. Jesus Christ inhabits a body, and we are it. The church is the actual body of Christ present in the world, His physical presence on the planet.

From eternity, God wanted a family, a visible expression in His creation.

The church is the community of believers who possess divine life, that lives under the kingship of Christ, that is living by the life of God’s kingdom and expressing it together…the family of god, the visible image of the triune god, his family on earth in reality.

The thoughts that I’ve shared don’t scratch the surface of the ideas as they are explored in the book. I believe that you will receive greater revelation and be enriched by this journey through Scripture as Frank shines a light on God’s ultimate mission — a people who embody the bride, the house, the body, and the family – because of their revelation of the Bridegroom, the Cornerstone, the Head, and the Firstborn.

Don’t miss the final post in this little series of From Eternity to Here posts…
Viola On Missional – Coming soon!

As I said, you can order the book at a discount from Parable.
Read more about the book here.
Visit Frank’s ministry website here or his blog here.

From Eternity to Here

Deep within God’s Word lies a wondrous story like no other. A drama that originated before time began. An epic saga that resonates with the heartbeat of God. A story that reveals nothing less than the meaning of life and God’s great mission in the earth.

Before we attempt to understand the multitude of ideas about how to do church, the most important question to first be answered is, “What is church?” From Eternity to Here is a valuable contribution to understanding not only our individual identity in Christ, but our corporate identity as the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, the house of God, and the family of God.

Laying out the scriptural background from Genesis to Revelation for each of these aspects of the identity of the people of God, Frank portrays the truth that the bride, the body, the house, and the family are each images of the same reality of God’s eternal purpose for His visible expression on the earth. He convincingly explains each aspect as more than just metaphors but the reality of our identity and purpose to participate in and reflect the unfailing love of the Godhead.

The church has never been nor will it ever be a human institution.

To Order

Parable.com is running a special campaign. Beginning March 8th, the book can be purchased at a discount from Parable.

With: A True Story

The author, John Stahl-Wert says:

With: A True Story is a collection of stories from my mother Mary’s family, and it is wrapped in a reflection about how God is entirely with us. In time, we come to understand that the journey to God is a journey into God; it is a journey of depth rather than a journey of distance, the very best.

From the endorsements (including an endorsement by Eugene Peterson):

unpretentious, intimate, artful…

In considering how to describe this little (under 70 pages) book, I find these descriptions very appropriate. The truth of God’s love is threaded so unpretentiously into the stories that the reader can drink deeply of these truths in a context that frames them in the realism of family relationships and the struggles and joys that life entails.

With would make a great gift book (maybe Father’s Day) because of its ability to profoundly communicate love and truth in such a simple and non-religious way. After reading this book, you will likely think of people who would be encouraged by it, especially if there is someone in your life who is closed to traditional ways of hearing the gospel message. While it is relevant for both young and old, I can imagine it really touching the older generation.

You can read more about the book on this website, including sample chapters. Reading Chapter 2 will give you a good example of the richness and depth woven into the telling of these family stories.

Male and Female He Created Them

Just wondering…

Assuming that God made pairs of every animal, He already had the male/female idea in mind.

Why do you suppose that He didn’t make humans as a pair at first?

And on what day do you think Eve was created?

Here are the relevant passages:

Genesis 1:26-28, 31, 2:1-3

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule…”

27 So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. 31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.

1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. 2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.

Genesis 2:4-7, 15, 18, 20-22

4 This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens- 5 and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground- 7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 18 The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

21 So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

A Trio of Reviews

Just before Christmas, I received a package from The Ooze for review. Of course, like most wives and mothers, I had plenty of reading time because it was the holidays.

It looked like a good package:
Shameless Jane – a CD – I wanted a new CD to listen to in my van.
Eve – a novel – Great, I like fiction.
Parabola – I love reading other people’s thoughts about the kingdom.

I set aside the McLaren trilogy that I was enjoying in order to review them.

Shameless Jane, A CD by Teel Montague Cook

An honest and lyrical folk album, by artist Teel Montague, a single mother of teenagers and an artist.

The first thing I did was grab the CD for the player in my van. I am not qualified to review the musicianship. Folksy, quirky acoustic music really isn’t a style that I enjoy. “Girl-with-guitar” solos always remind me of Phoebe from Friends. I played it for my teens during our family Christmas trip. It wasn’t their thing either. But musical taste is subjective. You can hear a few of the tracks for yourself on Teel’s myspace page. It might be just your cup of tea. For a more positive review, read this by Pat Loughery.

Eve, A Novel by Elissa Elliott

Elissa Elliot’s lyrical re-telling of the first story is a complex, multi-perspective glimpse into the lives of Adam and Eve spanning from Creation to the murder of Abel. A picture of Eve as wife and mother, nomad, sometime idol-worshipper, abandoned one, and more often than not, mourner.

I typically read a novel in a day or two. Once the story draws me in, I quickly read to the end. That just didn’t happen for me with this book. The writing itself is good. Elissa employs beautiful phrasing, but the story never became compelling to me.

I was most disappointed in the portrayal of Elohim. The absence and distance of Elohim in the lives of Adam and Eve created a story with little hope or redemption. It is a hard look at life after the fall. As a mirror of human nature, I found it unflattering and harsh. Maybe it is an honest portrait of humanity, but it is dark and heavy.

It is likely that most criticism of this book will be about theological issues. Did Adam and Eve have sex in the garden? Were there other people on earth during Adam and Eve’s generation? Was the garden perfect? What was Adam and Eve’s relationship like? Their daily lives? Their children? What led to the murder of Abel?

The author brings up almost every imaginable question surrounding the story of Adam, Eve, their children, and their life both in and out of the Garden. In that regard, the book is provocative in stirring thoughts and questions about the lives of Adam and Eve and pushing their story outside the realm of a simplistic Sunday School story.

You can visit Elissa Elliott’s blog here.

Parabola, A Book by Kelly Deppen

If you are looking for a way to enter the eleventh dimension, then this is the book for you. In the eleventh chapter, the author mentions the concept of the eleventh dimension in quantum physics. She then attempts to draw connections to the spiritual realm. Coincidentally, eleven is the number of the prophetic, Jesus spoke eleven parables, and He appeared eleven times between His resurrection and ascension.

The Eleventh Dimension is a prophetic time…At this critical juncture, we must be prophetic people…There is an invitation open to each of us to ‘come up here’ into the heavenly realm and into the eleventh dimension to receive revelation of heaven…

You can visit the website of Kelly’s prophetic revelatory ministry here.

___

I received an email touting this package as representative of female creativity in the emerging conversation – a CD, a novel, and a charismatic book that would not by any stretch be considered emerging. That really bothers me.

Review: Recover Your Good Heart

Recover Your Good Heart

~by Jim Robbins

Living free from religious guilt and the shame of not good-enough

About fully understanding the new heart and its new nature with the desire and ability to do God’s will, and discipleship and spiritual growth as a process of internal transformation rather than external behavior modification.

At times I felt that book oversimplified the journey of restoration, yet that was probably in order to keep the emphasis on the truth of a radically new heart.  The author clearly intended to overcome the message of sinfulness of the heart and communicate that the heart of a believer is supernaturally changed at their new birth and by nature enlivened with the nature of God.

In a way, the book is very basic, yet the truths are profound enough to be life-changing for anyone who lives under the shame and condemnation of feeling that they continually fall short in their Christian walk.  Sadly there are many Christians who do feel that way because it is the predominant message taught in most churches.

I would recommend this book to anyone who would like to begin to experience the reality of spiritual life lived out of the reality of a renewed heart.  I also would highly recommend it as a basic discipleship book for new believers so that they can perhaps avoid the treadmill of religious performance that too many Christians find themselves on.

I believe strongly in the message of this book – that transformation in the life of the believer must be an outflow of the work of the Spirit within their reborn heart.  In order for that to occur one must first have a clear understanding of the supernatural renewal of their nature and identity in Christ.  That message is clearly spelled out in this book.

You can read more about the book and study guide on Jim’s blog.