Merry Christmas to the mirror blog readers! As you know, I normally mirror every blog post on the blog mirrors on Blogspot, Wordpress, and Tumblr. But for this post, I ask that everyone come to the main site to read this one.
Tuesday, December 24, 2013
CHRISTMAS | CHRIST CRUSHED FOR US
Merry Christmas to the mirror blog readers! As you know, I normally mirror every blog post on the blog mirrors on Blogspot, Wordpress, and Tumblr. But for this post, I ask that everyone come to the main site to read this one.
Sunday, December 22, 2013
Saturday, December 21, 2013
IS FLUENCY MY GOD | PART 4
PART 4
YOUR KINGDOM COME:
I’ve mentioned in other posts that I didn’t “grow up in the church” - what ever that means. But I’ve been going to church long enough to know that the phrase “God’s Kingdom” is spoken more often than it is understood. It’s one of those stand-by, catch-all phrases that can be peppered throughout dialogue to make it sound more spiritual and well-informed than it is - and I know all of this because I’ve done just that.
But what does it actually mean to refer to “God’s Kingdom”? Is God’s Kingdom the Church? Is it a coming era? Is it a Book-of-Revelation thing? Or is it some distant, fantastical, literal place with clouds and harps?
I’ve mentioned in other posts that I didn’t “grow up in the church” - what ever that means. But I’ve been going to church long enough to know that the phrase “God’s Kingdom” is spoken more often than it is understood. It’s one of those stand-by, catch-all phrases that can be peppered throughout dialogue to make it sound more spiritual and well-informed than it is - and I know all of this because I’ve done just that.
But what does it actually mean to refer to “God’s Kingdom”? Is God’s Kingdom the Church? Is it a coming era? Is it a Book-of-Revelation thing? Or is it some distant, fantastical, literal place with clouds and harps?
Sadly, no matter how much I learn about the reality of God, my mind wants to jump to the latter description. Maybe that’s just the hard-pressed image that television has imprinted within me - but in any case, it’s too important of a matter to allow for so much confusion.
As with all of these posts, I don’t claim that I can fully encompass a topic or perfectly explain a concept. I try to write with a “it’s more than this, but not less than this” mindset.
Scripture is full of kingdom-related diction: kings, thrones, armies. And imagine how much that must have resonated with people during Jesus’s time on earth; contextually, the Jewish common folk in the region of Galilee lived in a time of confusing rule. Rome held ultimate authority over Judea - likewise, a governor was assigned to oversee the region. Under the umbrella of Roman reign existed, in the case of Galilee, a state-appointed kingship held by Herod. Meanwhile, the Jews were obligated to follow mandates made by the Sanhedrin, the Jewish council that can be compared to a local government. And to further complicate things, both Scripture and extrabiblical sources suggest that tension had grown between Jewish leaders and Rome. The common people were then left to make sense of their position in such a convoluted chain of command.
But imagine the hope that must have filled these hearts when Jesus spoke to them about a coming Kingdom of God. No wonder the disciples were eager to hear more about it. Consider Jesus’s descriptions of the Kingdom of God: like a mustard seed that grows exponentially (Mark 4:30-33), leaven that pervades throughout flour (Matthew 13:30), and a master who pays laborers mercifully and abundantly (Matthew 20:1-16). This is an awfully gracious description considering that Jesus could have simply said “the Kingdom of God is beyond your ability to comprehend”.
Scripture speaks largely and often about the Kingdom of God. And not simply what it is, but what it will be. The religions of the world try to make sense of the world. But to follow Jesus is to worship, obey, and uphold a relationship with the Maker of the world - regardless of how much or little sense you can make of the world He has made. And in HIs love for us, He has given us His word.
Part of that library of literature is the book of Revelation. Now let me clarify that there are many interpretations of the book of Revelation, many of which are based on dangerous, awful theology. Other interpretations are difficult to confirm or deny and, to complicate things, may only differ slightly among many variations. I say this to emphasize that you must read Revelation for yourself. And more than that, most people feel overwhelmed by such thick text. But instead of allowing the text to confuse you, pray that the Spirit would speak to your heart.
That in mind, it would be a daunting task to try to exegete the entire book of Revelation with my lay knowledge. So instead, I’d like to simply share a part of what Scripture says.
That in mind, it would be a daunting task to try to exegete the entire book of Revelation with my lay knowledge. So instead, I’d like to simply share a part of what Scripture says.
1 - Satan will be defeated.
Revelation 20:7-10 lays out Satan’s final defeat: “…the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are too, and they will be tormented there dat and night forever and ever.” But notice the word “them” in verse 10. “Them” refers to the “saints”, that is to say, the children of God. Make no mistake: if you are not running toward God, you are running toward the deception of the devil’s hand. We often think of ‘the devil’ as he is depicted in television - red with horns. In reality, he’s willing to be whatever he needs to be to be enough for you to turn from God. This excerpt from Revelation is merely a sliver of what it says about Satan, the beast, and the false prophet - and it’s beyond this post to go into detail about them.
But what you need to get from this is that the future for Satan is already laid out: he, like all adversaries of God, will be defeated.
2 - God will judge all.
But what you need to get from this is that the future for Satan is already laid out: he, like all adversaries of God, will be defeated.
2 - God will judge all.
“Then I saw a large white throne and the one who was seated on it; the earth and the heaven fled from his presence, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Then books were opened, and another book was opened – the book of life. So the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to their deeds. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each one was judged according to his deeds. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death – the lake of fire. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, that person was thrown into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:11-15
We Christians like to think that, because we are ‘saved’, we don’t have to own our actions as someone would if they were not ‘saved’. Yes, all who are not in Christ are already condemned just as Christ was condemned in the place of those He has saved - but you, I, and everyone we have ever known will stand before the Great White Throne and own our actions (dang, I could have made that really rhyme if I wanted to). We don’t often think or talk about it, but salvation and judgement are two different events. And as frightening as that is, take comfort in that Jesus has paid for our shortcomings. While countless souls will be unable to give an account before God that is spotless enough to earn salvation, those in Christ have been given the spotlessness of Christ and have no need to fear the judgment. Except for Christians still alive when Jesus returns, everyone will experience the first death. But nobody in Christ will taste the second death.
3 - Everything will be new.
This is the part that so many people misunderstand. We often think that we live, we die, we go to Heaven, and that’s it. In reality, we don’t ultimately end up going to be at home with God. Rather, He brings a new home to us in which He will reign, He will dwell with us, and He will be the very light that illuminates the Kingdom (Revelation 21:23). Yes, at the present age, a believer goes to the presence of the Lord when absent from the body (2 Corinthians 5:8); that’s where we get the idea of ‘going to Heaven’ when we die. But there is coming a new heaven and earth as explain in Revelation 21:
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. And I saw the holy city – the new Jerusalem – descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more – or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”
“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. And I saw the holy city – the new Jerusalem – descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more – or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.”
Theological hat now set aside:
To the non-Christian reading this, I realize how this must come across. It may sound too fantastical to be real; but it is. Nothing I can say can truly convince any skeptic that this will all happen. And to anyone who is both skeptical AND a Christian: if you have believed in all the things that Jesus has done that earthly reasoning insists can not happen, what wager is there in putting faith in God and believing that He will bring about these things?
There is still a great deal of mystery surrounding everything mentioned in this post. Nobody knows every detail about the coming of the Kingdom. Let’s bring it back to the context of the model prayer in Matthew 6. The first half of verse ten says “may your kingdom come”. If you read the entirety of Revelation and then come back to this little line, you’ll have a much heavier perspective. But in the end, we still have the question of “what does this line mean?”. All that I’ve just spoken about is, in an ultimate sense, the final coming of the Kingdom. However, why would Jesus teach us to pray the bringing of God’s Kingdom when it is only God who can carry out such a thing? Surely He does not need our permission or our aid.
There is still a great deal of mystery surrounding everything mentioned in this post. Nobody knows every detail about the coming of the Kingdom. Let’s bring it back to the context of the model prayer in Matthew 6. The first half of verse ten says “may your kingdom come”. If you read the entirety of Revelation and then come back to this little line, you’ll have a much heavier perspective. But in the end, we still have the question of “what does this line mean?”. All that I’ve just spoken about is, in an ultimate sense, the final coming of the Kingdom. However, why would Jesus teach us to pray the bringing of God’s Kingdom when it is only God who can carry out such a thing? Surely He does not need our permission or our aid.
But consider everything we’ve seen so far in this series: “Our Father in Heaven / hallowed be your name” - We’re praying to God the Father and for Him to be seen as bigger and greater than all else. We’re praying with the mindset of “You, God, are above me and I am for You”. Perhaps praying for God’s Kingdom to come has much less to do with any ability of our own to do the final bringing of His Kingdom and much more to do with the submission of our own will to His in order for us to live out our time on earth as a citizen of a Kingdom that is coming — and less like a prisoner of the kingdom that is fading away.
[END OF PART 4 OF SERIES]
[POST MIRRORED FROM THESTUTTERINGCHRISTIAN.COM]
The Stuttering Christian
Sunday, November 24, 2013
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Saturday, November 9, 2013
IS FLUENCY MY GOD? | PART 3
PART 3
“This, then, is how you should pray:”
The first words in Matthew 6:9 should not be taken lightly; and it’s better than any preface I could give as we now make it to the real substance of this text.
So far, we’ve looked at everything Jesus tells us prayer is not — but after all that He says and implies about how prayer had been abused, His model for how we are to pray might seem awfully simple. It’s short and direct, but more powerful than any words I could string together or ramble off. Do not neglect the gravity of what is happening here: This is Jesus, God in the flesh, instructing His creation how to call upon and communicate with Him. It is more humbling than a warrior king leaning to hear a toddler’s broken speech. Do you realize that this is God teaching us how to pray from the perspective of the recipient of prayer? Nobody else has that ability.
Look at how short the model prayer is; by our system of chapters and verses, it’s under ten verses. If any man was asked to demonstrate a model for prayer, how much exponentially longer would it be? Yet this is God. He didn’t only come up with the idea of prayer - He invented existence. And His model of prayer isn’t even a dozen verses long.
Look at how short the model prayer is; by our system of chapters and verses, it’s under ten verses. If any man was asked to demonstrate a model for prayer, how much exponentially longer would it be? Yet this is God. He didn’t only come up with the idea of prayer - He invented existence. And His model of prayer isn’t even a dozen verses long.
“Our Father in Heaven…”
Jesus begins His prayer by addressing it to the Father. And while it may seem obvious why this is important to prayer, there are many religions in which people believe their prayers are heard because they have prayed to some entity other than God. Do some research about the idea of “shaliach” in certain sects of Judaism or the Catholic practice of praying through Mary. While it’s beyond the scope of this post to go into detail about these things, you need to understand that there are many counterfeits to the truth about God and what He tells us in Scripture.
It’s crucial to see that Jesus is setting a record straight here: prayer is directed to God and nobody else, despite what other teachings insist.
It’s crucial to see that Jesus is setting a record straight here: prayer is directed to God and nobody else, despite what other teachings insist.
And how much more this must say about God and His desire for intimacy with those who are in Him. Think of anyone you know who has a position of power: a dean, an employer, a judge, a minister, you name it. Even if you are close to them, how much time do you think they could give of their day to speak with you? And how much easier is it to just shoot a quick text or email? Or leave a message with an assistant? And yet the most powerful One of all has commanded us to speak to Him directly. We need no prior-given authority or permission to approach God — He has instructed us to simply pray to Him and Him alone.
“…hallowed be your name.”
Jesus seems to be speaking straight into our twenty-first century culture - a time when God, even when acknowledged, seems to be made so little of. The Greek word translated as “hallowed” means “to make holy” or “to sanctify/set apart as special”. Accordingly, the word that we see as “name” means so much more; it refers to God’s identity and character and not just a word to refer to Him. Jesus isn’t simply complimenting God for the name “Yahweh”, but saying “let Your identity be made much of and seen as holy”. He’s asking God to make Himself famous.
That may seem weird. After all, God’s already God. God needs no one to grant Him permission to be made famous. But when God becomes famous in a person’s own heart, that person wants to make God famous in the hearts of others. I’m sure there are oceans of meaning that I’m missing here. But there’s certainly no less than this: Jesus wants our prayer to be that God would be glorified.
But what does glory really look like? The word “glory” can seem so meaningless when we say it and hear it said so often without being reminded of what it means. I believe it was only about two years ago that I really started realizing what glory is. And I realized it by having my eyes opened to some of the things I didn’t realize I was glorifying - which is, to use the best word, idolatry.
As I’ve said before — this may seem off-topic, but hear me out:
As a young guy who grew up with all kinds of computers and electronic gadgets, I know what it’s like to yearn for that next toy. I can remember being a kid, scrubbing boats and mowing lawns for a few dollars at a time so I could save up for whatever handheld game system had recently come out. I remember when my dad brought home a computer with Windows 98 on it and I was blown away by how the Start menu had been updated with animation. I remember camping out in our back yard with my step brother so we could play the original Pokémon Gameboy games all night. I became a tech-savvy adult who always keeps up with the latest and greatest devices and updates. It’s not simply that I liked technology, but I had let technology shape how I thought and acted without ever really deciding to place it so high in my priorities. I’ve always marveled at the newest amazing feats of technology. When they come out with something new and cutting-edge, I’ve always been there to say “that is so cool.” The best summary would be to say that I’ve always been left impressed.
That kind of impression is exactly (part of) what glory is. And the glory I’ve given to technology for so long without realizing it is about the same ratio to the glory of God as an atomic quark is to the universe - and even that analogy breaks down. There’s nothing wrong with being impressed by impressive things. But how much more are you and I impressed by things that seem to small and insignificant when compared to all that God is?
That may seem weird. After all, God’s already God. God needs no one to grant Him permission to be made famous. But when God becomes famous in a person’s own heart, that person wants to make God famous in the hearts of others. I’m sure there are oceans of meaning that I’m missing here. But there’s certainly no less than this: Jesus wants our prayer to be that God would be glorified.
But what does glory really look like? The word “glory” can seem so meaningless when we say it and hear it said so often without being reminded of what it means. I believe it was only about two years ago that I really started realizing what glory is. And I realized it by having my eyes opened to some of the things I didn’t realize I was glorifying - which is, to use the best word, idolatry.
As I’ve said before — this may seem off-topic, but hear me out:
As a young guy who grew up with all kinds of computers and electronic gadgets, I know what it’s like to yearn for that next toy. I can remember being a kid, scrubbing boats and mowing lawns for a few dollars at a time so I could save up for whatever handheld game system had recently come out. I remember when my dad brought home a computer with Windows 98 on it and I was blown away by how the Start menu had been updated with animation. I remember camping out in our back yard with my step brother so we could play the original Pokémon Gameboy games all night. I became a tech-savvy adult who always keeps up with the latest and greatest devices and updates. It’s not simply that I liked technology, but I had let technology shape how I thought and acted without ever really deciding to place it so high in my priorities. I’ve always marveled at the newest amazing feats of technology. When they come out with something new and cutting-edge, I’ve always been there to say “that is so cool.” The best summary would be to say that I’ve always been left impressed.
That kind of impression is exactly (part of) what glory is. And the glory I’ve given to technology for so long without realizing it is about the same ratio to the glory of God as an atomic quark is to the universe - and even that analogy breaks down. There’s nothing wrong with being impressed by impressive things. But how much more are you and I impressed by things that seem to small and insignificant when compared to all that God is?
A few days ago, the Daily Post was a talk from Louie Giglio from Chris Tomlin’s How Great is Our God tour. While I don’t agree with every Louie has ever said, I love his effort to magnify God. When the slideshow of star sizes rolls through from earth to the largest stars that we know of, each object in the presentation seems to blow the previous one out of the water. There’s a point at which your brain turns off, stops trying to understand how big something is, and simply says “yup, that’s awfully big.” The year prior to that message, he delivered a similar self-titled sermon on the Indescribable tour that was equally inspiring. This idea from Psalm 19:1 says that “[t]he heavens declare the glory of God” and “the skies display his craftsmanship.”
When you start to see that God is bigger than anyone’s scope to see, the words in Revelation that say He “was, and is, and is to come” take on new meaning. See that the Scripture does not say that He “became, currently is, and, by our best guesses, will likely continue to be”. Those words seem not to imply that He is simply more than we are, arrived before we did, and will outlast us, but that He is infinite. And the only way we can have any kind of life that is eternal is by the One who is eternal.
To pray for God’s name to be lifted high is the fruit of a healthy concept of God. I know of a pastor who says “the most important thing about you is your concept of God”. If your concept of God is so small that you do not see the necessity of praying for people to see his fame and glory in such a way that they would be impressed by it and imprinted by it, then how can you expect that god to have carried out a task as eternal as your salvation? A small god could not have done with Jesus did on the cross - taking the punishment and wrath due every person who would ever place their trust in Him to do so.
And remember what Jesus has already told the disciples at this point - that God wants you to make this prayer in private. The infinite God wants intimacy with you. Is that not comforting and awe-striking at the same time? Can you see why having a “fear” of God is talked about so often? I’ve heard it compared with a healthy fear of a father’s rebuke - but it’s certainly more than that. You don’t simply choose to fear God; rather, you understand what Scripture says about God, see that it is true, and realize how fearful the infinity of God is. Surely part of the reason the Bible says that He will be worshipped forever is because the worship will never be finished and never reach a stopping point - just as his glory will never end.
DAILY POST | 11.9.13 | HOW TO WRITE A WORSHIP SONG IN 5 MINUTES OR LESS
It's already Saturday, folks! Tomorrow will mark the first entire week of Dailies! Today also marks one week since the first full-length post - which will be fixed tonight!
In the mean time, here's the daily for today.
11.9.13
Friday, November 8, 2013
Thursday, November 7, 2013
DAILY POST | 11.7.13 | GOTQUESTIONS.ORG
It's a little late today, folks! But here's the Daily, nevertheless.
11.7.13
Also- part 3 of the "IS FLUENCY MY GOD" series will be posted soon. Thanks for your patience and support. Any success of The Stuttering Christian is surely of God and not of my own effort; it's so comforting to think that He is blessing whatever is happening here.
Also also - if you've tried to download the wallpapers from the Daily a few days ago, you may have gotten stuck with a nasty, scaled-down version of the images. I'm in the process of fixing those tonight!
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Monday, November 4, 2013
A QUICK MIRROR SHOUTOUT
A lot of my readers come from my mirror blogs here on Blogger, Wordpress, and Tumblr. I'm incredibly thankful for all that these blog providers have done in aiding me to do what God has led me to do.
As I said in my "BIGGER THAN BLOGGING" post, I'm not content with TSC simply being a blog. Honestly, there are enough blogs in the world. That said, there's a lot of growth going on at thestutteringchristian.com.
Today, we begin the congregate post feed simply titled "DAILY POSTS". It's a feed for posts that are quick and dirty, short and sweet. With my blog posts taking shape as a feed of devotional writings roughly about and out of stuttering, there was a need for a place to share the daily in-and-out posts.
For the time being, these will show up on the mirror blogs as titles with links to the main site (and maybe a graphic).
Take a gander at the first daily here.
As I said in my "BIGGER THAN BLOGGING" post, I'm not content with TSC simply being a blog. Honestly, there are enough blogs in the world. That said, there's a lot of growth going on at thestutteringchristian.com.
Today, we begin the congregate post feed simply titled "DAILY POSTS". It's a feed for posts that are quick and dirty, short and sweet. With my blog posts taking shape as a feed of devotional writings roughly about and out of stuttering, there was a need for a place to share the daily in-and-out posts.
For the time being, these will show up on the mirror blogs as titles with links to the main site (and maybe a graphic).
Take a gander at the first daily here.
Friday, November 1, 2013
IS FLUENCY MY GOD? | PART 2
PART 2
Before you read the rest of this part of the series, read the scripture in Matthew 6:1-14. Find other translations and read them. Look up the greek words on Biblehub. More importantly, read the surrounding chapter of the book. Anything you or I could write about this passage of scripture will never be scripture, right? We’re simply adding our two cents. It will never have impact in our lives like the original text. So read it for yourself and allow the Spirit of God to do His thing. Otherwise, you’re abusing the commentary, the Scripture, and your heart by withholding yourself from the Source and putting the run-off in its place. It’s like drinking coffee in place of every meal. Eventually your body will flip out and implode on itself.
In Matthew 6:9-13, Jesus gives the disciples the model of prayer. But before He show us what prayer is, He tells us what prayer isn’t.
Verse 5 - “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward.”
We can figure that Jesus is talking about groups like the Pharisees in this verse. But regardless, we can derive that public prayer had become popular. This will be a little off-topic, but hear me out on this:
If you’re a Christian who has ever battled pride, you can think of somebody you’ve met who has been extraordinarily skilled at something. And chances are good that they didn’t have to work nearly as hard on that skill as you and I would have needed to in order to become as skilled as they are. There’s no denying that they have been blessed with a talent. I see this in the field of music more than anywhere else. I have met people who seem to have been bred for playing a given instrument. My college room mate is one my closest friends and brothers in Christ - and I suspect that he secretly had lip surgery to shape his mouth for playing bass trombone. One of my other groom’s men is currently completing his graduate degree in vocal performance; his talent turns heads everywhere he goes. My fiancée, a flautist, has perfect pitch (Google that one) that is nearly perfectly accurate. Seriously, it’s a like super power.
But think about what a great responsibility has any Christian with such talent. The same God that gave the sun the ability to provide us with energy for the duration of His use of our little planet and plotted the very gravitational pulls of every orbit of everything our solar system and in the galaxy (and every other galaxy) in such a way that earth is not frozen or scorched has placed mind-boggling abilities in the hands of sinners with the privilege of using them for Him. Imagine the temptation; you can choose fame by your own ability or obedience in the laying down of your ability to point the fame back to God. Unfortunately, the former is so easy to do. I see it in my life and in the lives of others. I can only imagine how I look in the sight of God when I’m in the spotlight, ignoring that it’s by His mercy and grace that I have any ability at all. It’s as if someone saved me from a burning building in my sleep and, in an interview with the local news station, I neglected to mention it.
If you’ve been given the gift and ministry of prayer (and there are people who have been given the ministry of prayer), why would the same temptation not exist? How easy would it be in the time of Jesus to go out before a crowd of people show off how educated, how relevant, how well-versed you are with a big, ornate prayer?
Jesus corrects them (and us):
Verse 6 - “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Jesus brings us back to what’s simple. When you compare it with what Jesus is speaking against, the Savior’s words are profoundly simple. And do you realize how paramount his correction is? Jesus, God in the flesh, is telling his own creation that He would rather be famous in private than the creation be famous in public.
“…pray to your Father who is in secret” Why is Jesus saying that the Father is in secret? Surely it has something to do with how close the Lord wants to be us. Is most intimacy not out of public sight? God has given me and my fiancée the gift of sound communication in spite of my stuttering; It’s because of Him that we have such a healthy relationship. But if I needed to tell her something important, how indirect would it be to take her to the mall and sing an aria to her through a megaphone? What would that say about the intimacy of our relationship? Alternatively, what if I sent her a text from across the room with life-changing news in the stead of talking to her personally?
Jesus is not only showing us how intimate our relationship with our Creator can be, but how intimate He wants it to be. He wants me to be close to Him and He wants me to be direct with Him.
If you’ve been given the gift and ministry of prayer (and there are people who have been given the ministry of prayer), why would the same temptation not exist? How easy would it be in the time of Jesus to go out before a crowd of people show off how educated, how relevant, how well-versed you are with a big, ornate prayer?
Jesus corrects them (and us):
Verse 6 - “But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Jesus brings us back to what’s simple. When you compare it with what Jesus is speaking against, the Savior’s words are profoundly simple. And do you realize how paramount his correction is? Jesus, God in the flesh, is telling his own creation that He would rather be famous in private than the creation be famous in public.
“…pray to your Father who is in secret” Why is Jesus saying that the Father is in secret? Surely it has something to do with how close the Lord wants to be us. Is most intimacy not out of public sight? God has given me and my fiancée the gift of sound communication in spite of my stuttering; It’s because of Him that we have such a healthy relationship. But if I needed to tell her something important, how indirect would it be to take her to the mall and sing an aria to her through a megaphone? What would that say about the intimacy of our relationship? Alternatively, what if I sent her a text from across the room with life-changing news in the stead of talking to her personally?
Jesus is not only showing us how intimate our relationship with our Creator can be, but how intimate He wants it to be. He wants me to be close to Him and He wants me to be direct with Him.
Verse 7 - “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.”
“…as the Gentiles do” - Sometimes I wish, when I got saved, an angel appeared and handed me a dictionary with must-know terms for reading the Bible (and maybe some walk-through pamphlets for the book of Revelation. Geez.) I don’t mean to demean my audience - but if you don’t know what a “gentile” is, it’s okay. I didn’t. For the sake of keeping this post on-topic, I’ll explain here.
“…as the Gentiles do” - Sometimes I wish, when I got saved, an angel appeared and handed me a dictionary with must-know terms for reading the Bible (and maybe some walk-through pamphlets for the book of Revelation. Geez.) I don’t mean to demean my audience - but if you don’t know what a “gentile” is, it’s okay. I didn’t. For the sake of keeping this post on-topic, I’ll explain here.
Don’t be mistaken - Jesus’s death was for who ever calls upon His name, regardless of whether they’re a Jew or a gentile (Isaiah 42:1, Acts 11:18, and practically anything written by the Apostle Paul). The greek word for “gentile” there is ἐθνικοὶ (ethnikoi). It can also mean “heathen” or “pagan”. The disciples understood what Jesus was saying better than most of us can. They probably (and I don’t want to try to mind-read into the text) took it as “…do not heap up empty phrases as [people who do not know God] do”.
“…do not heap up empty phrases” - Scripture tells us that Jesus died for our sins and that His death was sufficient to satisfy the wrath of God that we earned (Colossians 1:22, 1 Peter 1:19, Ephesians 2:8-9, and just read the book of Romans). We can sum it up (and we often do) by simply saying “Jesus is enough”. And because the believer is in Christ, Christ is also in the believer (John 15:5-7). The believer also has been given the Holy Spirit (John 14:16). In short, we have God with us already. We don’t need to lure Him in with ornate words. This is just my input: wouldn’t that be demeaning to God? He’s already paid for our transgressions against Him and done everything to show and tell us that He wants to be close to us and know us more intimately and personally than we can imagine. Why else would we, as His church, be called the ‘bride’ of Christ (Ephesians 5)? If a husband has a healthy relationship with his wife, would they ever need to speak as if they had to win each other’s attention?
Take the analogy of me and my own soon-to-be bride; it would be weird enough if she suddenly started speaking to me in an attempt to poetic. But if this is only how she spoke to me, I don’t know how we would ever actually communicate. Could she expect a personal and meaningful reaction from me? And if this is how a person prays, then where is the real substance of his or her relationship with God? I already love my fiancée - she doesn’t have to win me over with smooth talk, nor did she ever need to smooth talk me. Throughout the time we spent getting to know each other, I was content with getting to know the real her. She never had to put up a façade. Why would I expect a façade to work with the God who “knows what [I] need before [I] pray”?
“…do not heap up empty phrases” - Scripture tells us that Jesus died for our sins and that His death was sufficient to satisfy the wrath of God that we earned (Colossians 1:22, 1 Peter 1:19, Ephesians 2:8-9, and just read the book of Romans). We can sum it up (and we often do) by simply saying “Jesus is enough”. And because the believer is in Christ, Christ is also in the believer (John 15:5-7). The believer also has been given the Holy Spirit (John 14:16). In short, we have God with us already. We don’t need to lure Him in with ornate words. This is just my input: wouldn’t that be demeaning to God? He’s already paid for our transgressions against Him and done everything to show and tell us that He wants to be close to us and know us more intimately and personally than we can imagine. Why else would we, as His church, be called the ‘bride’ of Christ (Ephesians 5)? If a husband has a healthy relationship with his wife, would they ever need to speak as if they had to win each other’s attention?
Take the analogy of me and my own soon-to-be bride; it would be weird enough if she suddenly started speaking to me in an attempt to poetic. But if this is only how she spoke to me, I don’t know how we would ever actually communicate. Could she expect a personal and meaningful reaction from me? And if this is how a person prays, then where is the real substance of his or her relationship with God? I already love my fiancée - she doesn’t have to win me over with smooth talk, nor did she ever need to smooth talk me. Throughout the time we spent getting to know each other, I was content with getting to know the real her. She never had to put up a façade. Why would I expect a façade to work with the God who “knows what [I] need before [I] pray”?
and finally…
“Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
I don’t think there’s a worth-while analogy that works for this - so I’ll just explain why I love this verse and maybe you’ll agree.
I love that I don’t need to explain anything to God. He already knows. Adrian Rogers once asked “Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?”. Why would anyone need to explain anything to God for Him to understand? And an even better question: Why does God want me to pray when He already knows what I’m going to say?”. Is there anything else you need from this passage to be able to safely and confidently know that God simply wants to be close to you?
I know I have readers in Eastern Europe, so I apologize to you if this is strictly a Western concept, but I’ve heard it put like this: think of someone with whom you often exchange the words “I love you”. You probably know that, when you see them, you’ll end up saying “I love you”. You already know that you love each other and it’s probably not new information. Yet you still desire to hear those words - but it’s the intimacy you want, not the words.
Prayer is such a simple concept. You might explain it to a child as “speaking with God”. But the more I pray, the more I realize just how true that is. As we get farther into this series, I’m hoping and praying that both you and I would be humbly transformed. And not by my work in writing or your work in reading, but by the Spirit working in us to conform us to the image of Christ. The next part of the series will be about the first handful of the model prayer: “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name”. Read the rest of the prayer (or even the whole book) in the light of those first two lines.
I love that I don’t need to explain anything to God. He already knows. Adrian Rogers once asked “Has it ever occurred to you that nothing has ever occurred to God?”. Why would anyone need to explain anything to God for Him to understand? And an even better question: Why does God want me to pray when He already knows what I’m going to say?”. Is there anything else you need from this passage to be able to safely and confidently know that God simply wants to be close to you?
I know I have readers in Eastern Europe, so I apologize to you if this is strictly a Western concept, but I’ve heard it put like this: think of someone with whom you often exchange the words “I love you”. You probably know that, when you see them, you’ll end up saying “I love you”. You already know that you love each other and it’s probably not new information. Yet you still desire to hear those words - but it’s the intimacy you want, not the words.
Prayer is such a simple concept. You might explain it to a child as “speaking with God”. But the more I pray, the more I realize just how true that is. As we get farther into this series, I’m hoping and praying that both you and I would be humbly transformed. And not by my work in writing or your work in reading, but by the Spirit working in us to conform us to the image of Christ. The next part of the series will be about the first handful of the model prayer: “Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name”. Read the rest of the prayer (or even the whole book) in the light of those first two lines.
[END OF PART 2 OF SERIES]
[POST MIRRORED FROM THESTUTTERINGCHRISTIAN.COM]
[POST MIRRORED FROM THESTUTTERINGCHRISTIAN.COM]
Monday, October 28, 2013
IS FLUENCY MY GOD? | PART 1
This was originally intended to be a stand-alone post. But the moment I got into it, I became overwhelmed by how much bigger the topic is than I could have imagined. So instead, I’ll let this post serve as a much-needed introduction to the series to come.
Like any other Christian, I didn’t know anything of the Christian life when I started living it. It’s not hard to find a person who lives as a Christian simply because they’ve known no different - maybe they were raised in a Christian home: going to church, saying a prayer before eating and sleeping, and being spoon-fed Bible verses. But if these people were challenged to a more convenient lifestyle of less ritual, there’s no root to keep them where they are.
I have the opposite background - I wasn’t raised in the church. And when I started living for Jesus, it destroyed the comfort I had living apart from Him. It was like being jettisoned through the windshield of a car in the midst of a head-on collision. Truly, I was heading the opposite way when I ran smack into Jesus. The only difference is that it didn’t all happen at once; I had to change so many seemingly small things about how I live and what I believe. But much like a change in the arrangement of tiny subatomic particles seems small and yields such enormous change, my life had to change because of the rearrangement of my very core. And this is all a process that is still happening every day. There were (and still are) a lot of things I had to directly face - issues from which there’s no hiding for the follower of Christ. I think of matters like evolution versus creation, abortion versus life, marriage, election, entertainment, and the lot. Whether or not you like it, you must confront these things; you must decide what you believe or allow others to decide for you. I’m not here to push a conservative or liberal agenda - but I will tell you that you must decide whether you believe the messages God has left us in Scripture. Any true follower can confirm from experience that there are many practices and beliefs of the world that are irreconcilable with what God has told us is true. And in this window of time, there’s beauty in the freedom we currently have to choose to say “yes, I believe.”
And if you believe, will you stand up for what God tells us? Will you defend His Word when your prosperity vanishes? Will you believe His Word when it is not popular? Will you remain faithful when you are persecuted for doing so?
There are so many things that had to change when I stopped living for me and started living for Him. I didn’t simply change. I died. And now it’s by Christ’s life that I live.
“I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” - Galatians 2:20
Looking back, I see that I literally experienced what Paul talked about in his letter to Galatia. I truly have the joy of living that piece of Scripture.
And one thing I had to learn about, in the midst of the collision, was prayer. Don’t get me wrong - I had prayed before. And it would be a dramatization if I said that my prayer was spontaneously painted with awesomeness the moment I got saved. If anything, it was the opposite; I realized that I had no idea how pointless and muted my prayers were before I got saved. Seriously - I remember being a little kid and praying that God would give me the ability to turn into a cat whenever I wanted. Obviously, my prayers changed with age. But that cat prayer wasn’t such a far cry from how meaningless my prayer time was before I gave it to Jesus.
I remember a time that I confronted one of my colleagues about a misunderstanding she had about the Gospel. She said “I don’t think you realize how religious I am. I pray a lot.” What she didn’t know (and what I wasn’t quick-on-my-feet enough to think to tell her in that moment) is that Jesus spoke directly to that in His dealings with the Pharisees. We know that the Pharisees did a lot things for the wrong reasons - but nevertheless, they did them well and with great consistency. We know “they preach[ed] but [did] not practice” ( as in Matthew 23:1-39). We can assume that Jesus was talking about the Pharisees when He tells the disciples that “when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites” because “they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, they they may be seen by others” (Matthew 6:5).
I remember a time that I confronted one of my colleagues about a misunderstanding she had about the Gospel. She said “I don’t think you realize how religious I am. I pray a lot.” What she didn’t know (and what I wasn’t quick-on-my-feet enough to think to tell her in that moment) is that Jesus spoke directly to that in His dealings with the Pharisees. We know that the Pharisees did a lot things for the wrong reasons - but nevertheless, they did them well and with great consistency. We know “they preach[ed] but [did] not practice” ( as in Matthew 23:1-39). We can assume that Jesus was talking about the Pharisees when He tells the disciples that “when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites” because “they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, they they may be seen by others” (Matthew 6:5).
Why? Because prayer is something you must learn how to do. I wish somebody told me that a long time ago. And I’ve yet to even mention stuttering.
For the stutterer who follows Jesus, prayer is not simply a supplement. Prayer needs to be the only way you get the next word out. Many times have I bowed prostrate and strained out words to God. Many times have I relied on “utterances too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). I’ve spent much of that time praying endlessly for healing without receiving it. Likewise, I spent a lot time before and after I got saved being angry that God didn’t heal me after hours of prayer. In some of my copies of the Bible, the page with red-word dialogue about what God told Paul when He didn’t heal the apostle in 2 Corinthians 12 has seen the moisture of tears many times. Learning to pray has been a recent edification in my life. And I want to share what little I know.
As pastor Buddy Gray says “If you try to use God to get something, then that something is your god.” Too many times have I let my desire for perfect fluency become more important to me than what God tells me is important. And that’s most evident in my prayer closet. More times than I know have I prayed the way my desire for fluency leads me to pray in spite of the way Jesus commands me to pray. And that’s exactly what this series is about. If you’re a stutterer, you need to know that Jesus is bigger and more important than you’ve ever felt your stutter to be no matter how broken it’s made you feel. If you’re a follower of Christ, you need to know that your prayer to God is more important than words you say to anyone else. How much closer must the Christian who stutters hold to these truths?
In Matthew 6, Jesus lays out the model of how we are to pray. That’s the quote in bold (if you’re reading this on thestutteringchristian.com. Other wise, you’ll see it somewhere else.) My vision for this series is to study each section of this prayer with a magnifying glass, line by line, looking at the anatomy and physiology of prayer - and look at what each line means for our prayer in practicality, apart from abstraction.
[END OF PART 1 OF SERIES]
As pastor Buddy Gray says “If you try to use God to get something, then that something is your god.” Too many times have I let my desire for perfect fluency become more important to me than what God tells me is important. And that’s most evident in my prayer closet. More times than I know have I prayed the way my desire for fluency leads me to pray in spite of the way Jesus commands me to pray. And that’s exactly what this series is about. If you’re a stutterer, you need to know that Jesus is bigger and more important than you’ve ever felt your stutter to be no matter how broken it’s made you feel. If you’re a follower of Christ, you need to know that your prayer to God is more important than words you say to anyone else. How much closer must the Christian who stutters hold to these truths?
In Matthew 6, Jesus lays out the model of how we are to pray. That’s the quote in bold (if you’re reading this on thestutteringchristian.com. Other wise, you’ll see it somewhere else.) My vision for this series is to study each section of this prayer with a magnifying glass, line by line, looking at the anatomy and physiology of prayer - and look at what each line means for our prayer in practicality, apart from abstraction.
[END OF PART 1 OF SERIES]
Sunday, October 20, 2013
ENTERTAINED or ORDAINED | PART 2
In part 1, I spoke a lot about how our relationship with God is not about being entertained. But there’s an even more pervasive danger out there.
For all of you who have iTunes through any sort of device, you may have fallen in love with Podcasts much like I have. I simply love them. Then when I discovered iTunes U (the link is for anyone who was under the same rock I was), I locked myself in my bedroom for a while and geeked-camped on a C.S. Lewis biographical class. Not everyone is that into Podcasts -- but if you are, you’ll really appreciate this next part.
I want you to do an experiment; go to the iTunes Podcast store and look under the “Religion & Spirituality” category. Look at the titles of episodes from some of the most popular feeds.
This ebbs and flows throughout the year, but the majority of the most popular feeds have titles like “Overcoming Fear”, “Focusing on Positive Things”, “Living your Best”. Go to Barnes & Noble and look at the most popular spiritual titles. You’ll see Joel Osteen’s smiling face next to the words “Your Best Life Now” in a big glossy font.
Say what you want about the well-intended folks behind these materials. This post is not about them - it’s about the false teachings to which they’ve fallen victim. Adam Ford of Adam4D.com said it best in one of his comics: the phrase “I have these new theological ideas” is best translated “I subscribe to some old heresies.” The problem with the aforementioned ideas is that they all spike the pool of good resources for the learning Christian with the Prosperity Gospel.
Say what you want about the well-intended folks behind these materials. This post is not about them - it’s about the false teachings to which they’ve fallen victim. Adam Ford of Adam4D.com said it best in one of his comics: the phrase “I have these new theological ideas” is best translated “I subscribe to some old heresies.” The problem with the aforementioned ideas is that they all spike the pool of good resources for the learning Christian with the Prosperity Gospel.
There’s little need for another blogger pulling apart the Prosperity Gospel. But if you’re like me and weren’t brought up in church, you may not know what that is. The Prosperity Gospel takes the idea of “Jesus died for my sins and now the Holy Spirit has transformed me and continues to make me look more and more like Christ” (2 Corinthians 3:18) and twists it to say “God wants what is best for me and will give me a nice life because He favors me.” I’m sure there’s a better way to explain it, but that’s the gist of it.
And for the stutterer, this idea can be poison. It leads you to think “If God values me and favors me, He’ll heal me someday.” And then when God doesn’t heal you, you turn your back, mutter something awful about “fundamentalists”, and crawl under your agnostic rock.
What if I told you that being a Christian is nothing like signing up for boy scouts? I love how scouts are taught to do so many things that improve a young man’s character, momentarily looking past the recent controversies surrounding Boy Scouts of America. But mere character is not the point of following Jesus. It’s not about self-improvement and it’s not about feeling good about yourself. When I attended church before I was a Christian, I was disappointed that the messages didn’t help me in a practical way. I didn’t feel better about myself and I certainly didn’t feel any different about my stuttering. I assumed that meant that I was in a bad church and the teachings were outdated.
Looking back, I realize the reason I didn’t like messages: They were about Jesus and not about me.
Looking back, I realize the reason I didn’t like messages: They were about Jesus and not about me.
1 Thessalonians 4:3 says “This is the will of God, your sanctification...”. Some translations say “The will of God is for you to be holy...”. The rest of the verse talks specifically about keeping out of sexual sin, but even the first half of the verse strikes home when you see that it doesn’t say “The will of God is for you to be happy/comfortable.” Look at the life of Jesus. Read the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I challenge you to find a passage in which Jesus talks a lot about his disciples.
When you realize that following Jesus is about Jesus and not about you, your life will change. And not because you’re changing you, but because you have been changed because of what He has done. For the stutterer - God may heal your speech. But if He chooses not to, you have/get to keep His words even closer; When Paul begged for healing, the Lord told him “My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
I touched on that verse in my first blog post. I love that it’s not simply comfort for a person who has not been given healing from some sort of ailment. It goes beyond comfort. It gives purpose to my “thorn in the flesh”. That truth takes me to my knees. Every day, my prayer must be “Lord, I need you for literally every word I say.” What the Holy Spirit has done in me tremendous.
He has taken my plea of “Lord, why did you make me like this?” and made it “I would rather struggle to speak Your words than say my own with ease.”
[End of PART 2 of series]
He has taken my plea of “Lord, why did you make me like this?” and made it “I would rather struggle to speak Your words than say my own with ease.”
[End of PART 2 of series]
[Mirrored from thestutteringchristian.com]
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
A Very Important Non-Post
I'm pleased to announce that The Stuttering Christian blog now has a new a home at thestutteringchristian.com!
But not to worry, every blog post will be mirrored on Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr, and Facebook - and then announced on Twitter.
It gives me chills to think about what's just around the corner for us.
People are going to be reached.
A community will be forged.
Souls will be saved.
And the best part: It's being done by the God who made us and bought us back.
Here's the site.
But not to worry, every blog post will be mirrored on Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr, and Facebook - and then announced on Twitter.
It gives me chills to think about what's just around the corner for us.
People are going to be reached.
A community will be forged.
Souls will be saved.
And the best part: It's being done by the God who made us and bought us back.
Here's the site.
Monday, October 14, 2013
Beginnings - ENTERTAINED or ORDAINED? | PART 1
As you know from my last post, Blogger (or Wordpress or Tumblr, depending on how you're reading this) is but a temporary home for The Stuttering Christian Blog. I realize that my blog is only a few days old and I've only made one real post.
But it's like this:
I believe that God - the only true living God - has put it on my heart to create this blog (and soon, the website) as a way to bring many to Jesus.
So at 12:00AM EST on Wednesday October 16th, TheStutteringChristian.com will officially launch. At that time, I'll fire up the Facebook/Twitter beacons and we'll truly begin this journey together.
-------------
But in the mean time, I want to leave you with this:
I know a lot of people who, upon waking up, can't get to their Bible quickly enough in order to start their devotion time. I know people who, no matter how late they stay up, are never quite deep enough in their prayer time to reach a stopping point and go to bed.
But what I've realized is that none of these people feel good from their time with the Lord. Maybe you just "amen"ed a little in your seat. But if your head is cocked to the side, let me explain.
When we watch television, it's to be entertained.
When we eat snack when we're not really hungry, it's to be entertained. (Or Entenmann's'ed. But that's different.)
When we take a pill, take a stroll, or see a movie, it's to be entertained.
We want to be entertained by anything onto which we can latch our mind's teething attention. When I workout (I did that TWICE this week) I normally have my earbuds in. Shoot, I even find myself falling asleep to music. I was listening to Spotify when I started typing this. Then the "TROJAN MAAAN!" commercial came on and I muted it. Nothing ruins your worship music playlist like that. But you get what I'm saying, right?
So let me ask you this:
When your addiction to entertainment becomes so dire that your time with the God who made you and bought you back is driven more by a need to be entertained than a desire to be ordained, could it be that you're not really worshipping God at all? Maybe you're worshipping a momentary emotional response. (Let's just call that an MER. I'll be using that term a lot.) So then, what's to be said about time spent well with the Lord?
I'm sure you've heard the phrase "I can't define porn. But I know it when I see it". Well, I can't define "true devotion time". But I've always found that when God speaks to me, I become convicted. Rarely do I leave the prayer closet with a word from God and a smile on my face. When I know God has used something or somebody for my growth in Him and for His purposes, it normally doesn't occur to me until I've had a good cry about it. Normally while hunched over on my face. (Which reminds me, I have a funny story about that involving a toenail. But that's for a different post.)
Don't misunderstand me; I'm not saying that God loves to bum me out and kick my dog. God the Spirit yields fruit that consists of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). That doesn't sound like a God who likes to steal your sunshine and rainbows. What I am saying is that the things of the flesh are at odds with the things of the Spirit. And it's not I who have said it. It's God who says it in Galatians 5:16-18. Wow! Those verses are close to each other! I think that's called context!
This is as good of a place as any to end part 1 of this post.
But it's like this:
I believe that God - the only true living God - has put it on my heart to create this blog (and soon, the website) as a way to bring many to Jesus.
So at 12:00AM EST on Wednesday October 16th, TheStutteringChristian.com will officially launch. At that time, I'll fire up the Facebook/Twitter beacons and we'll truly begin this journey together.
-------------
But in the mean time, I want to leave you with this:
I know a lot of people who, upon waking up, can't get to their Bible quickly enough in order to start their devotion time. I know people who, no matter how late they stay up, are never quite deep enough in their prayer time to reach a stopping point and go to bed.
But what I've realized is that none of these people feel good from their time with the Lord. Maybe you just "amen"ed a little in your seat. But if your head is cocked to the side, let me explain.
When we watch television, it's to be entertained.
When we eat snack when we're not really hungry, it's to be entertained. (Or Entenmann's'ed. But that's different.)
When we take a pill, take a stroll, or see a movie, it's to be entertained.
We want to be entertained by anything onto which we can latch our mind's teething attention. When I workout (I did that TWICE this week) I normally have my earbuds in. Shoot, I even find myself falling asleep to music. I was listening to Spotify when I started typing this. Then the "TROJAN MAAAN!" commercial came on and I muted it. Nothing ruins your worship music playlist like that. But you get what I'm saying, right?
So let me ask you this:
When your addiction to entertainment becomes so dire that your time with the God who made you and bought you back is driven more by a need to be entertained than a desire to be ordained, could it be that you're not really worshipping God at all? Maybe you're worshipping a momentary emotional response. (Let's just call that an MER. I'll be using that term a lot.) So then, what's to be said about time spent well with the Lord?
I'm sure you've heard the phrase "I can't define porn. But I know it when I see it". Well, I can't define "true devotion time". But I've always found that when God speaks to me, I become convicted. Rarely do I leave the prayer closet with a word from God and a smile on my face. When I know God has used something or somebody for my growth in Him and for His purposes, it normally doesn't occur to me until I've had a good cry about it. Normally while hunched over on my face. (Which reminds me, I have a funny story about that involving a toenail. But that's for a different post.)
Don't misunderstand me; I'm not saying that God loves to bum me out and kick my dog. God the Spirit yields fruit that consists of "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23). That doesn't sound like a God who likes to steal your sunshine and rainbows. What I am saying is that the things of the flesh are at odds with the things of the Spirit. And it's not I who have said it. It's God who says it in Galatians 5:16-18. Wow! Those verses are close to each other! I think that's called context!
This is as good of a place as any to end part 1 of this post.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
Bear with Me - Bigger than Blogging
My vision for this blog is bigger than blogging.
Truth be told, I would love to create a website that encourages, challenges, edifies, and convicts the person who feels like there is no hope; and bigger than that is the truth that this blog can not be hope. But it can direct people to Jesus, in whom hope is abundant.
That being said, I'm pleased to announce that I'm in the process of creating a website. Like a real website. With a domain and everything. For the purpose of blogging, I would mirror nearly every post on Blogger, Wordpress, Facebook, Tumblr (to an extent), and Twitter (to much lesser extent). In fact, Twitter can pretty much be left off of that. I can't even reduce a Starbucks order to 140 characters. Let alone a blog post.
Within the next week, I plan to officially launch the site. Until then, I will continue to post primarily on Blogger.
Truth be told, I would love to create a website that encourages, challenges, edifies, and convicts the person who feels like there is no hope; and bigger than that is the truth that this blog can not be hope. But it can direct people to Jesus, in whom hope is abundant.
That being said, I'm pleased to announce that I'm in the process of creating a website. Like a real website. With a domain and everything. For the purpose of blogging, I would mirror nearly every post on Blogger, Wordpress, Facebook, Tumblr (to an extent), and Twitter (to much lesser extent). In fact, Twitter can pretty much be left off of that. I can't even reduce a Starbucks order to 140 characters. Let alone a blog post.
Within the next week, I plan to officially launch the site. Until then, I will continue to post primarily on Blogger.
The Stuttering Christian
Most people who know what "stuttering" is have done one of the following things:
A.) Seen The King's Speech
or
B.) Read something about James Earl Jones
Both of those are fine.
But if you're one of the 0.01429% of people on Earth who "stutter", you need no explanation of what sits so plumply between those quotation marks. And those people are my target audience; just in case anybody thought I'm out to make a side-profit by blogging about a high-traffic topic.
So instead of explaining what stuttering is, I will simply tell my story.
I can't remember a time when I didn't stutter. Allegedly, I was an early speaker who knew more words than meanings of words. As a young child in a full, small-town public elementary school, my broken speech was unremarkable among a plethora of kindergarteners who could not successfully pronounce "kindergarten." But as things tend to go, I was discovered. My parents and I were summoned to one of the inner-offices of the small school building and, apparently, offered speech therapy.
In these therapy sessions, I sat at a round table with a handful of children I already knew while an SLP (speech language pathologist) went around the group encouraging them to pronounce their "R"s and "L"s correctly. During my turn, I normally was asked to "take a big breath" and "speak as slowly as possible." Truth be told: most of us were just happy to get out of math.
But as my friends' speech anomalies went away and my companions were removed from the sessions, I entered private meetings with different speech pathologists. They gave me and my parents a number of explanations as to why I had such a hard time speaking. They told me I spoke too quickly. Then they blamed my parents' divorce. Then it was the next thing. And the whole time, I didn't really care all that much.
Truthfully, my single-digit-year-old-self didn't think about it too much.
But as I began to notice the unreliability of my ability to speak, I began to slip into what I now realize was the self-proclaimed identity of a "stutterer" - or as I've read among the online community, a Person Who Stutters.
And the more I stuttered, the more I feared.
Anytime we read aloud in class I would do a head-count of the remaining readers until I had the floor and quickly find the selection I would end up reading so I could scan it for problem words. This strategy, as most of us know, yields mixed results.
When called upon in class, I retorted incorrect answers I could pronounce in lieu of the correct answers I feared to say.
In restaurants, I insisted my parents order for me. When that got weird, I would order entrees I could pronounce without regard to whether I wished to eat it. On the bright side, I often appeared to have a very adventurous tastes in food.
Just as unsettling as the impediment itself were the results of my therapy. Now don't misunderstand me: the right therapy is a good thing. But the wrong therapy is certainly not a good thing.
Years later, I remember still being called out of recess, lunch periods, and class time to a multi-purpose mobile trailer behind my school's main building where I would read children's stories aloud while a rotating cast of well-meaning pathologists asked me to "breath" and "speak slowly". All the while, nobody could answer my questions.
Why is my speech broken?
Why is it so hard?
Is something wrong with me or have I just learned how to speak wrong?
Where is God in all of this?
Since it is beyond the scope of this blog to deliver an all-inclusive autobiographical account, I will summarize: I graduated from high school having experienced the expected difficulties of any other stammerer -- many of which being grossly inflated versions of the aforementioned difficulties.
But in the Summer between high school and college, after a lifetime of claiming to be a "Christian", I accepted Jesus Christ to be my personal Savior. But not like you read about on blogs (except this one, of course.) I mean my heart actually opened to the truth that the God who made me also purchased me back by stepping out of Heaven into a human body, living a sinless life, and letting the very people He intended to redeem carry out His excruciating execution as a sacrifice on my behalf. But not only did He physically suffer, for the Father poured out every ounce of His wrath that I deserve onto Jesus in my stead.
Accordingly, my account is washed and I am made righteous in the site of God. Jesus traded me His clean account for my unforgivably stained account. It's a concept called "Grace". And it didn't make a "bad" version of me "good". It took me, a dead person, and made me an alive person.
You're probably saying "That has nothing to do with stuttering."
But in reality, it has everything to do with stuttering.
It's east to be closed up in a mindset set of "There is no god. I'm here by accident and incident of nature. At best, my speech is a result of a genetic predisposition and there's nothing that can change that nor is there a particularly meaningful context for any speech impediment I may or may not have."
But in fact, you are created by a God that holds everything seen and unseen, known and unknown, discoverable and incomprehensible in His hand. Should you wish to deny that, so be it. It is not a task charged to me by Scripture to persuade you. Those who contest it should celebrate their freedom to do so. But for those who celebrate, instead, that very truth: do you not realize that it is God who makes a person mute or deaf or blind? That's exactly what the Lord told Moses when he doubted God's command to go to Pharaoh on behalf of the Israelites (a different post for a different time).
Consider the Apostle Paul's words in his second letter to the Corinthians in chapter 12 concerning his own infirmity which he simply calls his "thorn in the flesh":
So now you can see that this blog is not simply about stuttering. Nor is my stuttering about me. If I am to boast in my weaknesses then those within earshot of me should grow weary of my boasting -- for if there is any who can be considered "weak", it's me. And if God's strength is made perfect in my weakness, then God is truly infinitely strong.
I realize that this is long first entry that few may read. But I would be acting outside of my obedience to my God not to post all of this in its entirety. I, like many others, am a PWS. But my identity is not a "stutter" who is also a Christian. My identity is in Christ. I am not a Christian stutterer, but a stuttering Christian.
A.) Seen The King's Speech
or
B.) Read something about James Earl Jones
Both of those are fine.
But if you're one of the 0.01429% of people on Earth who "stutter", you need no explanation of what sits so plumply between those quotation marks. And those people are my target audience; just in case anybody thought I'm out to make a side-profit by blogging about a high-traffic topic.
So instead of explaining what stuttering is, I will simply tell my story.
I can't remember a time when I didn't stutter. Allegedly, I was an early speaker who knew more words than meanings of words. As a young child in a full, small-town public elementary school, my broken speech was unremarkable among a plethora of kindergarteners who could not successfully pronounce "kindergarten." But as things tend to go, I was discovered. My parents and I were summoned to one of the inner-offices of the small school building and, apparently, offered speech therapy.
In these therapy sessions, I sat at a round table with a handful of children I already knew while an SLP (speech language pathologist) went around the group encouraging them to pronounce their "R"s and "L"s correctly. During my turn, I normally was asked to "take a big breath" and "speak as slowly as possible." Truth be told: most of us were just happy to get out of math.
But as my friends' speech anomalies went away and my companions were removed from the sessions, I entered private meetings with different speech pathologists. They gave me and my parents a number of explanations as to why I had such a hard time speaking. They told me I spoke too quickly. Then they blamed my parents' divorce. Then it was the next thing. And the whole time, I didn't really care all that much.
Truthfully, my single-digit-year-old-self didn't think about it too much.
But as I began to notice the unreliability of my ability to speak, I began to slip into what I now realize was the self-proclaimed identity of a "stutterer" - or as I've read among the online community, a Person Who Stutters.
And the more I stuttered, the more I feared.
Anytime we read aloud in class I would do a head-count of the remaining readers until I had the floor and quickly find the selection I would end up reading so I could scan it for problem words. This strategy, as most of us know, yields mixed results.
When called upon in class, I retorted incorrect answers I could pronounce in lieu of the correct answers I feared to say.
In restaurants, I insisted my parents order for me. When that got weird, I would order entrees I could pronounce without regard to whether I wished to eat it. On the bright side, I often appeared to have a very adventurous tastes in food.
Just as unsettling as the impediment itself were the results of my therapy. Now don't misunderstand me: the right therapy is a good thing. But the wrong therapy is certainly not a good thing.
Years later, I remember still being called out of recess, lunch periods, and class time to a multi-purpose mobile trailer behind my school's main building where I would read children's stories aloud while a rotating cast of well-meaning pathologists asked me to "breath" and "speak slowly". All the while, nobody could answer my questions.
Why is my speech broken?
Why is it so hard?
Is something wrong with me or have I just learned how to speak wrong?
Where is God in all of this?
Since it is beyond the scope of this blog to deliver an all-inclusive autobiographical account, I will summarize: I graduated from high school having experienced the expected difficulties of any other stammerer -- many of which being grossly inflated versions of the aforementioned difficulties.
But in the Summer between high school and college, after a lifetime of claiming to be a "Christian", I accepted Jesus Christ to be my personal Savior. But not like you read about on blogs (except this one, of course.) I mean my heart actually opened to the truth that the God who made me also purchased me back by stepping out of Heaven into a human body, living a sinless life, and letting the very people He intended to redeem carry out His excruciating execution as a sacrifice on my behalf. But not only did He physically suffer, for the Father poured out every ounce of His wrath that I deserve onto Jesus in my stead.
Accordingly, my account is washed and I am made righteous in the site of God. Jesus traded me His clean account for my unforgivably stained account. It's a concept called "Grace". And it didn't make a "bad" version of me "good". It took me, a dead person, and made me an alive person.
You're probably saying "That has nothing to do with stuttering."
But in reality, it has everything to do with stuttering.
It's east to be closed up in a mindset set of "There is no god. I'm here by accident and incident of nature. At best, my speech is a result of a genetic predisposition and there's nothing that can change that nor is there a particularly meaningful context for any speech impediment I may or may not have."
But in fact, you are created by a God that holds everything seen and unseen, known and unknown, discoverable and incomprehensible in His hand. Should you wish to deny that, so be it. It is not a task charged to me by Scripture to persuade you. Those who contest it should celebrate their freedom to do so. But for those who celebrate, instead, that very truth: do you not realize that it is God who makes a person mute or deaf or blind? That's exactly what the Lord told Moses when he doubted God's command to go to Pharaoh on behalf of the Israelites (a different post for a different time).
Consider the Apostle Paul's words in his second letter to the Corinthians in chapter 12 concerning his own infirmity which he simply calls his "thorn in the flesh":
So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.The words that bring me to my knees on a nearly daily basis are "my power is made perfect in weakness". Take time to digest that truth; the God who spoke everything into existence and invented existence itself allows my weakness to be the "perfect" stage for His strength.
So now you can see that this blog is not simply about stuttering. Nor is my stuttering about me. If I am to boast in my weaknesses then those within earshot of me should grow weary of my boasting -- for if there is any who can be considered "weak", it's me. And if God's strength is made perfect in my weakness, then God is truly infinitely strong.
I realize that this is long first entry that few may read. But I would be acting outside of my obedience to my God not to post all of this in its entirety. I, like many others, am a PWS. But my identity is not a "stutter" who is also a Christian. My identity is in Christ. I am not a Christian stutterer, but a stuttering Christian.
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