we're all needed

In the new heaven and new earth, I read somewhere* that while we will see more fully, that sight will come in significant part through each other. We're all needed.

Of course this is according to the revelation and truth God makes available to us.

This begins now in the new creation in Jesus, something even rooted in the old creation. Yes, we need each other, true around the world now, true in the fellowship of believers now all around the world, and someday true in a marked sense in the love of God lived out in the new creation in Jesus in the new heaven and earth.

What thought might you like to share on this?

(*Actually from C.S. Lewis, though doesn't seem to be in a book of his I'm reading now. But if I can find it, I'll share the quote tomorrow.)

thinking well

In loving God with all our being (and doing) we need to keep working hard on our thinking. I like what N.T. Wright said, something to the effect, "I want to know what you are thinking, not how you are feeling."

Oftentimes in my own darkness, I've been helped into light through thinking about truth. Of course it is the truth in Jesus that sets us free, and it begins in the mind, but is to change our hearts and be worked out in all of life.

This does not deny the need for a simple childlike faith, which doesn't insist on understanding everything, but simply trusts God and his word. But we must not underestimate the importance of words and the meaning behind them, especially we who are people of the Book, though really being people of the Spirit and the word/Book.

But above all, we need to love. Love helps us know as we really need to, and to know as God intends us to. In a relational manner, and not in an abstract and therefore lifeless way.

What comes to your mind that you'd like to share from these thoughts on thinking?

quote of the week - N. T. Wright on knowing

All knowing is a gift from God, historical and scientific knowing no less than that of faith, hope, and love; but the greatest of these is love.

N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, p 74

ideas do matter

Over the weekend I heard on Krista Tippett's program, Speaking of Faith, an interview between three generations of evangelical leaders, Charles Colson, Greg Boyd and Shane Claiborne. They were talking about evangelical politics, and it's worth a listen.

All three represent different perspectives, though Boyd and Claiborne are closer in their perspectives than they are to Colson. At the same time Colson presents a respected and respectable Christian point of view backed up in the writings of C.S. Lewis and other great influencers of the Christian faith such as Augustine and Reinhold Niebuhr. I do tend to side more with Boyd and Claiborne in their more Anabaptist and I believe, early church perspective. But the debate goes on.

What I liked best about the interview is that I felt there was more light from all three of them, than any heat. It was civil, and we need this in our culture today, which is remarkably uncivil in so many places. I respect and esteem all three, and would gladly learn from any of them, and I would learn alot.

But the point I want to make in this post is that ideas do matter. What we think does impact how we live. The differences between the three evangelical leaders are not significant enough that they can't have good fellowship together as brothers, or do good works in cooperation with each other. It does mean, however, that one will serve his country in the military and the others will not. One will be politically active in and as part of the system and the others will not. Though all three want to influence society as the salt and light in Jesus that we in Jesus are. I actually think all three have some truth in what they're saying, though again I do side more with an Anabaptist position myself, but not one that refuses to engage culture. After all, what we are about in Jesus, is not apolitical. It involves all of life.

I like ideas and thinking, and have been considered by other Christians at times as a mind person while they are Spirit people. Or a person who would rather have intellectual knowledge than heart knowledge. While there may be a grain of truth in what they're thinking, I believe the mind is important in loving God, and that ideas do matter. Let's not look at ideas apart from God and our relationship with God in Jesus, and our walk in God's will in Jesus in this world. And let's work hard to understand what we believe and why, and to keep open and honest in this endeavor in our commitment to follow Jesus.

What idea do you have here about ideas?

love edifies

We read from Paul that knowledge puffs one up with pride, but love edifies, or builds others up, according to their needs. I see this time and time again. Those who think they know it all, or who come across that way even as Christians, do not promote the love of God in Christ Jesus. But those who love really begin to get it, even when off in some matters- and aren't we all.

I see time and time again, within the spirit of love found in Jesus, a fellowship that is living, growing and open to the grace and truth found in our Lord. Though it does seem more often than not, and in most circles, though not all, to be an uphill struggle.

It is interesting the contrast Paul brings up here. There is knowledge on the one hand, having all the answers, and knowing better than the rest. Then there's love: listening to others, knowing one does not have all the answers and even with the answers one has, that they are entirely dependent on God, in need of others, and don't get it as God does or fully. It's a humility that is glad to be taught of God from the most simple and humble servant of the Lord. Willing even to learn from the lips of a child.

It's about the love of God that is in Jesus and therefore among God's people. And as Paul is saying, it's a love that is ready to leave behind one's own freedom in regard to nonessential things, that the one thing needful might be promoted. Sitting together at the feet of the Lord, by the Spirit, and learning from each other. And therefore, in love, building each other up, as each one humbly does their part.

What might you like to add to this?

knowledge takes a hit

Why is it that people can be so hard on knowledge? Of course knowing intellectually by itself is not enough; that knowledge must translate into life.

God's word says that his people can be destroyed because of their lack of knowledge. And that the only way we know as we ought to know is through love, loving God with our being and doing, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. And as we obey in that way, in the way of Jesus, we come to really begin to know. Of course the fear of the Lord is called the beginning of knowledge (and wisdom).

I've been called a mind person (as opposed to Spirit people), or dismissed as just someone who crammed their head full of knowledge. Some truth in all that, since my gift is along the line of teaching and I can't get enough of the kind of books that are along my interests (though I do need more discipline at sticking to reading at times).

I'm not convinced that we as God's people know everything we need to know and that our task now is just to do it, or have the wisdom to apply it. I think while there is some truth in that, I'd rather settle with the thought that we have enough knowledge by faith to take the next step. But as apprentices to God in Christ, we have plenty to learn where the rubber meets the road in our lives. And that's what the Story of God is all about, in which we're to find our own story and part.

Let's not disparage knowledge. But rather, let's seek to know all the counsel and will of God in a way that meets us where we live, that takes us in the way of Jesus.