Viral Faith

See, I am doing a new thing!  Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:19 Recently, I had a spiritual breakthrough.  It was not that I received a new message or gained new information.  It was perspective regarding the nature of authentic faith.  I believe that God is continually doing new things in our lives and communities.  There is no room for complacency or commonplaceness in following Jesus.  So, if God is creating in us a newness of life, equipping us for new challenges, and sending us new journeys, why is the Christian faith so dull, life-sucking (instead of life-giving), and fear-based in so many people who identify themselves as Christian?  Here are four reasons why we may have misdirected faith: 1. We misunderstand the radicalness of the calling to follow Jesus .  In the Bible, Jesus asked his disciples to follow him. To follow, meant to leave lifestyles, vocations, and even relationships behind to fo...

 "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 5:3 It has been said that Jesus' sermon on the mount provides the meat of his ethical system.  It is the sermon that articulates and advocates for a lifestyle that is uniquely counter-cultural and joyfully free.  Its an alternative vision for living, that Jesus simply describes as "the kingdom of God" The world blessed can be loosely translated as "happy" or "fortunate".  It means that because we experience the described state or activities, we are made happy and should count ourselves as fortunate. The initial state of being "poor in spirit" suggests a state of poverty of our souls.  A state of poverty means to be deprived of necessary things.  We recognize the effects of social poverty easily, but poverty of the soul is much more sublime and profound. Poverty of the soul is the state of seeing that you bring nothing to God.  It is the unders...

It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans I Corinthians 5:1 I have had the privilege for most of the past 17 years, to train young physicians in both Pediatrics and Family Medicine.  One of the foundational aspects of their training is the establishment for what constitutes "normal".  These young physicians must quickly have an appreciation for the wide range of behaviors and presentations, that are all considered normal.  This is why pediatricians with children have such an immense advantage in their training.  Living with a child allows you to see the good, bad, and the ugly.  It is not until the sense of "normal" is understood, that disease detection and prevention can be applied. What a community affirms as "normal" has a huge impact upon its ability to evaluate its own health, and the health of its members.  We see this vividly in our own cultures where some damaging beha...

"Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." I Corinthians 4:2 According to New Testament scholar, Kenneth Bailey, in the Biblical languages of Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, there is no word for honesty.  Honesty is fidelity to an impersonal truth.  It is sharing something that is objectively true.  The ancient Biblical cultures did not understand truth apart from the divine.  In their understanding, truth was personified, and to live truthfully was to live in relationship with the divine. The concept for honesty is a Roman terms, which was indicative of western thought, that although virtuous, was not well understood in the Judaic worldview. This difference is relevant because the Bible continually rewards faithfulness above what we would objectively describe as "successs".  In a parable of Jesus,  (Luke 19:12-27), Jesus describes a rich man who gives several men the same amount of money and then checks on them aft...

I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. 1 Timothy 2:1-3 Over the past fifty years, there have been monumental shifts in how the American public sees its government and its purposes.  The Constitution of the United States was written as a grand experiment in democracy in a loosely held confederacy of states in a largely agricultural society.  The founding fathers had wisdom, but could not have anticipated the modern empire.  Government in the immediate post-colonial America was basic and austere.  The infrastructure of the nation was largely non-existent and states were largely responsible to promote commerce.  The military was very low tech, and was mostly dependent upon militias.  Initially, there was no Navy, Marines, or Air Force.  There were no public schools, health ...

They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious.  'Peace, peace,' they say, when there is no peace. Are they ashamed of their loathsome conduct?  No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen;  they will be brought down when I punish them," says the Lord. Jeremiah 6:14-15 The most difficult patients in my medical practice are those who are very sick, but cannot or will not acknowledge they are sick.  For whatever reasons, the would rather be covered than cured.  They refuse both diagnosis and treatment and ignore the signs, even if those signs point to something potentially deadly.    Everyday, I listen to the politicians, the preachers, the pontificators, and the professionals speak about American society in various ways.  Yet, I find that most often, very few are talking about the diseases at the core of our identity, but focus on blaming our symptoms on the entit...

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. John 14:6 There is a sense of radicalness in the call of Jesus and a decision to follow him.  In the gospels, as Jesus invites his potential disciples to follow him, he expects an all or nothing response.  The disciples either drop everything and immediately follow Jesus (Mark 1:16-20) or they attempt to fit Jesus into their plans, priorities, and agenda (Luke 9:57-62, 14:25-33).  Those who attempt to make a nominal decision (a decision in name, but not radically changing their lives) are rejected by Jesus as disciples.   Its strange to talk about Jesus rejecting anyone, because Jesus offers an invitation to all, regardless of background, religiosity, character, or experience (Rev 21:6).  However, the invitation is not without expectation.  There is a sense in Jesus' call of "leaving" before "following".  In the call of Andrew and Peter, as well...