-image-Ask and You Shall Receive

February 14, 2007 | A Pick Me Up, Spirituality

Ha Ha…  That’s my funny joke see because Graceful Journey asked for some info and I’m about to give it to her?  

What, it’s not funny?

[shrug]  I tried.

After a little consultation with my friend, Michelle (well actually, after she wrote a whole bunch of stuff down and gave me the page) I am now prepared to answer your question on Biblical support for the teaching in The Secret. I don’t want to sound like I’m pushing The Secret, as if I’m a mindless fan, but you asked, and I think you should get an answer.

There is a ton more stuff than this, but I’m just giving you enough to at least get you started in searching it out.

For the despondent, everyday brings trouble; for the happy heart, life is a continual feast.
Proverbs 15:15

Well, that one’s pretty self-explanatory.

Therefore I tell you, whatever you have asked for in prayer, believe you have recieved it and it will be yours.
Mark 11:24 (there’s also a Matthew equivalent)

That’s almost exactly the steps presented in the movie: Ask, Believe, Receive.

Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy think about such things.
Phillipians 4:8

I love that verse. I think if we implemented nothing but that verse and “Love God…” “Love your neighbor…” we could change the world.

The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgement for every careless word that they have spoken.
Matt 12:35-36

That which I have feared most has come upon me.
Job 3:25

and of course:

Now faith is being certain of what we hope for and sure of what we do not see.
Hebrews 11:1

I don’t think I would ever participate in an argument where I was being forced to defend my point of view; not because I can’t or because my stance is based on a weak foundation, but because much of what I understand to be pointing in this direction is often taught with a very different spin (I left a lot of Michelle’s verses off because of that, and she left even more off of the list for the same reason). It would be a pointless venture for both parties. I’ve decided that most of the things that are most true about the world, ourselves, and spirituality in general are the things that you must discover for yourself. Someone can open your mind and heart to the possibility, but only you can determine what is true or not true. So, I’ll let these reassure you and leave the rest up for you to explore if you want to.

It’s interesting that when I was in Chapters yesterday one of the employees happened to ask me what I thought of the new phenomenon of The Secret. She, herself, was skeptical - but not because of it’s religious connotations, no, because of it’s lack of logic! The whole thing makes me think of another Bible verse:

But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.
1 Corinthians 1:27

And that’s probably more scripture than you’ll find in the whole rest of this blog combined!

-image-An Uncharacteristic Grumpy Lecture

November 27, 2006 | Just Me, Spirituality

Last week I was blog hopping and came across an entry that was talking about some “special report” that had been sent out to Christian bookstores claiming that they were carrying “Non-Christian” books that are subverting the church.  I’ve gone back and forth about linking you to the report; on one side you deserve to be informed, on the other, I hate to support them by giving them any more traffic than they deserve (my compromise, do a search for “christian research service bookstore report” if you absolutely must read it yourself).

Let me just say, I’m livid.  Livid might not be the right word.  Incredulous?  Something between livid and incredulous?  It’s no wonder the world at large isn’t in any hurry to jump into the church, what with the way we behave towards each other.  Want to know why I’m so upset about this?

Eventually, a small list of authors developed into a Master List of authors and books, with categories on Contemplative Spirituality/Mysticism, Emerging Church, Church Growth/Purpose Driven, Cultic, Heretical, New Age Movement, Homosexual/Pro-Gay, and the Word-faith Movement.

– Bud Press, CRS

another article in a blog discussing this report included this list:

Lifeway also carries a large number of other titles by New Age sympathizers and emerging church leaders including books by Leonard Sweet, Laurie Beth Jones, Rob Bell, and Brian McLaren. And they carry many books by universalists and contemplatives such as Thomas Keating, Basil Pennington, and Henri Nouwen, while also handling books by people like Alan Jones who belittles the doctrine of the Cross and Atonement through Jesus Christ and Buddhist sympathizer Peter Senge.

– Lighthouse Trails Research

When commenting on these books and authors they (CRS) quote scriptures such as 1 Timothy 4:1 (But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.)  - among others.

To me this report emphasises all the things wrong with the Western Church today (and all the reasons this church is dying a slow death from the inside out).  Who are they (or we for that matter) to judge who is or is not a Christian, to declare what authors should or should not be made available to the public and the church.  The Purpose Driven Life and Laurie Beth Jones’ work have introduced the Gospel and the grace of God to infinite numbers of secular readers - those who are seeking and those who would never consider entering a for-real-church.

I myself find fundamentalism hard to stomach and am often offended by their stand point, but I’m very careful not to rain judgement down on myself.  I know none of us is perfect, we all see through a “glass but darkly” and so I trust in the grace of God that they are just as saved as I am (no matter how dubious I sometimes feel).  And I do know some generous and passionate fundamentalists who constantly challange my biases.  I sometimes shake my head in wonder and amazement but I would never declare them to be non-Christians.  Who am I to say?

So what gives them the right to look at others and to make judgement calls about their souls?  To declare them as channelers (although they’d never use that word - how New Age of me) of deceitful spirits and demons?  It seems to me that the only people Jesus had no grace for was the Fundamentalists of his age who spent their time telling others all the reasons they didn’t truly know God and how they weren’t doing things right and simply weren’t good enough to be accepted. 

Gosh… it sounds awfully familiar.  A house divided against itself can not stand, and our house has been divided for a long time, and the longer it stands the bigger the cracks seem to get.  More than anger, frustration, and shock, what I really am is sad.  I’m sad that Christ’s call to reach out and heal the wounded, comfort the hurting, and free the captives is being ignored by so many while they nitpick and bicker about who is good enough to fulfill that call.  I’m saddend that they, and many through them, are missing the real Gospel.

This is truly an uncharacteristic post.  The few judements I make, I try to keep them to myself.  I know that I’m ripe to be judged and I don’t want to experience it.  Plus, I’m normally a positive person; I’d much prefer to push the drains out of sight and work towards adding something to this world.  But I just can’t get this out of my head.  I have to say something.

I will admit.  A part of this urge is selfishly motivated.  I agree with many of the authors that they’ve listed; they’ve been a blessing to me and been integral in helping me formulate what I truly believe about God and this world (not that I blindly accept them, but I’ve been challanged by them which helped me draw my own conclusions).  If fundamentalists shun and attack them - they will do the same to me.  And there’s always that little, nasty voice in the back of my head (you know, the one that reminds you of all the times you messed up and the fact that you truly are a looser after all) that keeps saying, “What if you are wrong and they are right after all.”

Of course, I imagine that it’s that identical voice in their heads that prompted this type of report.  What after all does one do when faced with a contrary and challanging point of view?  Well, discredit it of course (like any good bully knows, the lower they are the higher up you are).  Either way, this report is wrong.  I don’t mean it’s wrong in content - I  mean it’s very nature is wrong.  This is not what Jesus spent his life to build a church up for.  Whether I’m for the authors or against the authors this is just plain wrong.

The report left out the one verse that I feel is essential to dealing with the topic at hand:

I can only hope that what I have to say, and what I’ve learned (so far) in life, can be a hand up to you just like the works of many of these “subversive” and “decietful” authors have been hands up and shining lights in my life.  And my prayer is for the church, which belongs to God, that he can extend his grace where we certainly don’t deserve it because we we haven’t offered it to each other.

I’ll go pack my soap box away now.  IfI just leave it lying around someone’s bound to stub their toe or something.

-image-A Plague of Dreaming

September 21, 2006 | Just Me, Spirituality

I’m hesitant to use the term “prophetic dream” - mostly because I’m not sure if there is some category divider that changes a dream from a casual personal revelation into a “prophecy”.  Whatever.  Tuesday night I had an unusual dream.  Actually, I had two unusual dreams that night but it was the earlier of the two that I woke up remembering.

It’s not unusual for God to talk to me (or you in case you didn’t realize) through dreams.  Over the last few years I’ve only had 3 or 4 that were so profound they stuck with me, but I am prone to occassionally hear from God this way.  I have also experienced the flip side of that coin; I guess you’d call them “demonic” dreams; not from God, not from me, and something much deeper than your average nightmare.  Thank God I don’t have them anymore; I needed counseling to shake them once and for all.  But let’s just say I’ve had enough experiences to teach myself to distinguish a spritiual dream from the average REM sleep.

Here’s my one rule of thumb:
If you can remember it clearly, still know the details or feelings, the next day - then it’s something more than nightly brain activity. (or at least worth some further investigation)
Sometimes when you first wake up you remember parts of your dream but by the time you brush your teeth it’s started to fade - those dreams don’t normally apply to the rule.  But you know the times when you wake up and the dream is so clear to you, maybe not all but parts of it, that you feel like you could almost enter it again - all my spiritual dreams have had that quality.

So yesterday I awoke, stretched, lamented my tooth pain, popped a pain pill, and then was suddenly reminded of a dream I’d had that night.  It seemed so odd (I’ll spare you the details).  Thinking about it reminded me of the other dream I’d had just before I’d waked; they weren’t the same dream but they definitely seemed linked (now that I was thinking about it).  For some reason figuring out these dreams felt so pressing that I didn’t even get out of bed - I rolled over, grabbed my journal and began writing.

The message of the first dream and the second dream were definitely different; but I did realize that the second dream was very similiar to a dream I’d been having every night for the last week or two.  (And now my recent lack of interest in going to bed at a decent hour all starts to make sense.)  When I was prone to my weird demonic dreams I would have chronic nightmares, and not just chronic nightmares I’d have the same nightmare over and over - I even had one in particular for up to 20 years.  Poor Wakizashi had to learn what to do when terrified out of his sleep by my sudden screaming.

These dreams weren’t like that.  They weren’t enjoyable but it was more like watching a cheesy horror flick than a full on nightmare.  And, even though they repeated, they weren’t the same dream, just the same elements, the same feeling was repeated.  I mean, it took me almost two weeks to realize what was happening.  (That’s what I call a consistent messanger!)

Ok, so here I am, as yet undressed, and I have realized 1) God is trying to get a message through to me 2) I’m having some weird connected, but not the same, dreams 3) I really need to figure out what’s going on.  The first dream, the one from earlier Tuesday night that first got my attention, that one was easy to understand.  As soon as I asked God to tell me what it was about and turned my mind back to the events a phrase dropped into my mind.  Just fell into place.  No, it wasn’t “Your dream is meant to tell you…” actually, it was the opposite of my dream.  Like my dream was a reflection of the way I’d been thinking and the phrase was the lesson God wanted me to learn instead.

“It’s not us (my immediate family and I) against the world.”

The other dreams weren’t as simple; remember, I told you they weren’t the same as the first dream.  Working through them wasn’t helping me any; primarily because I only remembered the really specific details of the one I’d had that night.  Instead, it occured to me to try and remember if I’d ever had a dream with similar elements.  Yes, in fact I had!  One of those 3-4 definitely spiritual dreams had elements like this one - but yet, very different.  I was just about to dismiss it’s helpfulness when yet again it simply occured to me - I knew what that common element meant.

From there everything just began to fall into place.  I understood what was going on!  Like I said at the beginning, I don’t know that I would call these “prophetic dreams” they weren’t so much telling me something outside of myself.  Really, it was trying to show me something about myself that I was unaware of - something I had been allowing to hold me back.  The dream was meant to free me, to encourage me - well, maybe that is what a prophetic dream does?

I was so excited I called Wakizashi and narrated my dreams and conclusions.  His response: So what are you going to do about it?  (How Wakizashi of him.)  What am I going to do about it?  I don’t think anything needs to be done so much - except what I was supposed to do all along.  I’m suddenly on fire to start my business - motivated to step out into this next phase of my life.  I’m positive that was the intent in the first place.  And in case you were wondering how I know I’ve come to the right conclusions, I had no dreams at all last night - just a nice, peaceful sleep.