musings on water….
Posted by Amos in the writings on June 28th, 2010
So I was sitting in the pool last night, about midnight, and I got to thinking about how much my life is similar to a swimmer in a swimming pool.
It was dark, and the lights were casting some really cool shadows/lines on the bottom of the pool. The waves were beautiful! I noticed that as I was leaning on the edge of the pool, that there was a little halo on the bottom of the pool, as the waves were bouncing off of me. All in a circular pattern around me! Really cool!
So I watched them for a while, playing with them a bit, moving my arms and jumping up and down a little bit, and I realized that if the water represents the world around me, and I just stand here, I only influence the world immediately next to me. Those waves were absorbed and totally disappeared within just a handful of inches of where I was standing.
If I took off and swam across the pool though, the waves not only went with me, but they would go all the way to the sides of the pool, generally affecting the whole pool.
The analogy generally falls apart if you add multiple people to the water, but I realized that if I just stand here and keep to myself that my influence on the world around me becomes minimal. But if I start moving across the pool towards a goal that the whole pool reacts to this.
How much more so in my Christianity?? A life that actively pursues Christ and the goals of humility, godliness, and Christ likeness is going to upset the soft, quiet flow of the world, no?
psalm 66
Posted by Amos in the writings on June 21st, 2010
Psalm 66
1 Shout for joy to God, all the earth;
2 sing the glory of his name;
give to him glorious praise!
3 Say to God, ”How awesome are your deeds!
So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you.
4 All the earth worships you
and sings praises to you;
they sing praises to your name.”
Selah
5 Come and see what God has done:
he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.
6 He turned the sea into dry land;
they passed through the river on foot.
There did we rejoice in him,
7 who rules by his might forever,
whose eyes keep watch on the nations—
let not the rebellious exalt themselves.
Selah
8 Bless our God, O peoples;
let the sound of his praise be heard,
9 who has kept our soul among the living
and has not let our feet slip.
10 For you, O God, have tested us;
you have tried us as silver is tried.
11 You brought us into the net;
you laid a crushing burden on our backs;
12 you let men ride over our heads;
we went through fire and through water;
yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance.
13 I will come into your house with burnt offerings;
I will perform my vows to you,
14 that which my lips uttered
and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
15 I will offer to you burnt offerings of fattened animals,
with the smoke of the sacrifice of rams;
I will make an offering of bulls and goats.
Selah
16 Come and hear, all you who fear God,
and I will tell what he has done for my soul.
17 I cried to him with my mouth,
and high praise was on my tongue.
18 If I had cherished iniquity in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
19 But truly God has listened;
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
20 Blessed be God,
because he has not rejected my prayer
or removed his steadfast love from me!
I was reading my Bible the other day, more like two weeks ago I guess, and I came across this Psalm. And as I read it I was struck by how simple this prayer is.
The writer starts by reflecting on how mind-blowingly great and mighty God is, and progresses to a call for all the world to come see the works that God has done for him/the people of Israel. What really hit me here in verse 5 is the eagerness and the willingness to share the mighty works that God has done in the history of the nation of Israel. He cannot contain the excitement and awe of what God has been doing.
He goes on to point out several major highlights of their history; the crossing of the Red Sea when they were leaving Egypt, and the crossing of the Jordan River when they entered the Promised Land. Two huge, miraculous works that were done for their behalf and that were most likely already known in all of the ancient world, but nonetheless this writer tells his readers/listeners to go back and think about them, and more specifically to think about the God who did those things. How great and mighty God is who did those miracles for them.
Verse 10 we see how God is testing us, not in a pass-fail sort of way, but test and retest and retest, getting finer and more precise with each pass. The same as silver is refined, by heating and cooling and heating and cooling, over and over, each time burning a little more of the impurities off of the top of the silver, ending up in the end as a smooth shining bar of precious metal, worth many times more then what it went in as. God is doing the same thing with us, His people. Over and over, perhaps each time a different trial, or a different area of sin being addressed, but each time coming out the other side of that testing a little more pure, a little more Christlike. And like the end of verse 12, bringing us through to a place of great abundance. I don’t expect that place to be truly attainable until Heaven, but I have begun to see in my life how the things that were problems or that caused issues or in any case were less then pure, have already to be turned into places of abundance. And it is a great thing to realize that even though I feel like I have been failing all these tests, that God is still working and will NOT let up until I reach perfection, however unattainable I feel that is.
Verses 13-15 we see how as the writer reflects on what God has done and is doing, he turns to worship. I fail at this quite often, preferring instead to moan and groan about how hard things currently are. But that attitude is one that we see here to be absolutely backwards! God IS working, and He HAS BEEN working, and He WILL keep working. Everything that I see in front of me is overwhelming, and I tend to want to clam up and pretend that it will go away if I ignore it. BUT what I learned here is that I need to be looking back at the many many things that God has already done, and the many things that He has already brought me through, and turn back around and worship Him for those and for His promises to always keep MY best interest at heart, no matter how I feel about it at the moment.
God is faithful and just, and does not forget His promises to His people.
Our Psalmist does something very cool here in verse 16, he turns and not only remembers those things that God has done, but he goes about telling OTHERS about those things. How great is it to go about boasting in the works of God? Not that the writer is going about in a prideful way, I think he explains it very well in verses 17-19 as being just the simple truth that God answers prayer. How often do we forget that? How many times do we turn to God in prayer as a last resort? Do you think we would do that if we were to remind each other of the many times that God HAS answered prayer?
I went to bed that night thinking a little about these things, but over time I’ve come back to this chapter several times, thinking about it, praying about it, trying to learn from it.
The main things I left this Psalm with at the end of the day are these:
God works mighty things in my life that I forget about all to often.
God is right there beside me in the midst of trials, turning me into a more pure reflection of Himself.
God answers prayer in many ways and I should be encouraging others by sharing those answers when the opportunity rises.
God.Is.Awesome.
When the Church Does Its Job.
Posted by Amos in Guest Writers on May 2nd, 2010
When the Church Does Its Job.
May 3, 2010
Photo credit: Daylife.com
I’m coming off a pretty interesting weekend in the District, one that can be classified as a unique weekend in light of all others since arriving in Washington.
The homeless population is simply staggering here. From the moment one gets off the train at Union Station and walks outside, it’s inevitable to ignore. Homeless people line the long column passageway that professionals walk everyday. It almost as if the homeless factor hits you in the face every single day that one spends in Washington.
The same goes for when one walks through Chinatown late in the evening. They’re not hard to pick out with their dress, their portable cart full of belongings, and their card board sign that basically reads “Help me” in a variety of wordy expressions.
Being always on the go, it’s easy to become immune to the fact that this segment of the population exists.
On Saturday afternoon, I was shaken from my immune slumber. It was on that day that I was reminded of the proper role that the church plays in the secular society in which it resides.
Passing in front of the Newseum of all places, I happened to notice an old van parked next to the curb. It was a church van that had its side doors propped open. The peeling painted letters on its side revealed the name of the Christian church. Also noticeable is that the van had a pretty sizable container filled to the brim with sandwiches.
Sitting on the van’s stepping ledge was one transient eating a sack lunch.
On the actual side walk was a church worker packing a big bag of food for another homeless guy, presumably so that the homeless person can take some food for later in the day.
It was these clues that helped me to figure out that the church was ministering to homeless people by feeding them.
The interesting part of the whole situation is that the van was a church van and not some government agency van.
This particular Christian church feeding these homeless people wasn’t relying on federal dollars to carry out their mission. With the funds provided to them by their own congregation, they were able to love like no cold and impersonal government agency ever could.
Here was one church that took the initiative in loving one’s neighbor and in carrying out their faith in one of the most practical ways.
Many churches today are worried about building a new coffee bar, making people feel good about themselves, or upgrading their comfy five star building with big screens and surround sound systems.
This church was different, setting an example for other fellow Christian churches to follow.
The church parked on the side of the road here in DC demonstrated what true religion is within the faith known as Christianity. This was a refreshing event to witness in the power center of the nation.
Chris Guzman is a friend of mine who is currently living, working and writing in Washington D.C. He blogs regularly over at http://christopherguzman.wordpress.com/.
Believing in Secret?
Posted by Amos in the wonderings, the writings on May 2nd, 2010
Im not dead yet
. . . . . I just dont write a whole lot . . . . .
The Church and “The Man”
Posted by Amos in Guest Writers on March 21st, 2010
The Church and “The Man”
March 20, 2010
It’s no secret that people of my generation are incredibly suspicious of the church. I’m not talking about the binge-drinking, drug-using, frat boys/sorority girls crowd who think they’re religious giants because they went to confession six months ago and fingered the rosary before their Chem 2A exam. I’m talking about those who were raised in Christian homes, served in the nursery, played piano for the hymnsing, and worked on the church with the men during the biannual maintenance workday but now feel rather disenfranchised and repressed by the church.
To put it simply, in their minds “The Church” has replaced “The Man.”
Like the anti-government, anti-establishment protestors of the 60s and 70s who viewed the government as an unassailable institution colluding together in dimly lit, smoke-filled rooms for their unhappiness and ruin, this current generation imagines their 40-60 year old pastors as having a specific agenda hatched over soda water and reruns of The Brady Bunch to keep topics such as social justice, globalism, profanity, and sexual expression out of their churches. And anyone who would dare violate the purity of the their church by having the audacity to suggest that such things might be good to talk about is immediately put on the pastoral hit-list to be ostracized and branded as a radical liberal who needs to be shunned or evangelized.
Every generation exalts some particular virtue. The Greatest Generation values work ethic and perseverance. Generation X values economic success. My generation values authenticity. People who are raw and unrestrained in their opinions. People who throw off cultural norms for the sake of individual expression. They are the heroes. Until someone can prove that they are authentic, content is irrelevant. Consequently, the chief evil of my generation is to come across as stiff and formal. If you’re going to try to convince us of something, don’t bother trying to reason with us until you’ve proved you’re not defined by other people’s expectations.
What could be less authentic than a bunch of older people (30+) getting together in a building to sing a bunch of songs that went out of style long before the iPod was even invented? And then, to top it off, the center point of the service is for a man to get up and deliver a public address from a manuscript that he’s spent the last week writing, looking down at his notes over and over to make sure that he’s gotten his prepared wording right and hasn’t skipped anything. [I hope it is clear already, but at the risk of sounding redundant, let me say that I completely disagree with this perception. This perception of the church is stilted, and is not my evaluation of my Cornerstone church family. After all, I am the man who looks down at his notes often to make sure he's got the prepared wording right!]
Whatever we may say, we don’t really care about authenticity. We care about style that masquerades as “authenticity.” After all, we’re the ones who buy jeans with the rips and stains already in them so we can look rugged and play Gears of War at the same time. We’re the ones who like indie music and indie movies because they’re unsullied by the machine. We’re the ones who couldn’t care less that Obama is reading from a teleprompter just like McCain, but think McCain is irrelevant because of how he reads the teleprompter.
And maybe when we view the church we’re a little surprised that there is an institution that continues to defy our preferences. After all, society worships youth. The worst felony someone could ever commit is growing old. When was the last time you saw a McDonald’s commercial starring a 5′7″, balding, slightly overweight white man dancing to Journey about how incredibly jazzed he was to pick up a Big Mac during his lunch break from his middle-management position at the local CPA firm?
When a generation that is used to being worshipped meets an institution requiring them to abandon their personal preferences for the sake of those they consider to be irrelevant (see Romans 14:1-15:6), the victim mindset takes root. Underlying this attitude is a hypersensitivity to anything that could ever be perceived as an insult or a slight. Any comment, silence, action, inaction, program, lack of a program, gratitude, ingratitude, joy, sorrow, offer to help, lack of offer to help, and everything else under the sun is suddenly perceived as an intentional personal attack upon their beliefs, dignity, and person.
In reality, while my generation will eagerly denounce “The church” as holding them down, their real beef is with the Word of God. Anyone who would confront them with Scripture is seen as a Bible-thumping, brainwashed, right-wing, starving-children-hating fundamentalist. Those who refuse to indulge in sexual humor are prudes. A man or woman who refuses to pepper his or her speech with profanities and curses is downright retrograde. Never mind that the Word specifically addresses all these issues–to have any kind of source outside of yourself is to become inauthentic, and therefore irrelevant.
No, the church is not afraid to talk about social justice, globalism, profanity, and sexual expression. No topic will ever be brought up that will overturn or threaten the truth of God’s Word. But we will not like what the Word says about some of these topics. That’s called our sinfulness meeting God’s holiness. And because the church exists to worship God by teaching the Word, we may not like what the church says about those issues. “The Church” isn’t the “The Man” who holds anyone down. Rather, God through His Word calls us to abandon pride and sinful ways of life. And if any of us ever find ourselves at odds with Him, it would be wise for us reevaluate our paradigms.
This article is not mine, a good friend and former schoolmate of mine, Nate Brooks, wrote it. Nate is a youth pastor at a church in Northern California and blogs semi-regurlarly over at Innocence Restored.