We had a baby…

Hey yea… So we had a baby a while back.  Like on August 16 or something.  Check out our Flickr pics to the right, or befriend me on Facebook.   I’m not formally switching to blogging there or anything (haven’t had a real blog post in a while anyway), I’m just more active there because I can play Jedi vs Sith there, and not here. Um… have a great week. 

Christ Responds to the Pharisees

I had a dream.

And when I awoke, I knew I needed to write down what I had seen and heard.  It’s 4:51am as I start this post.  There are so many things that I feel a need to clarify, but I’m determined to trust the Spirit to communicate what must be said.

In my dream, Jesus had returned to earth in humble human form.  He returned for the sake of the Church, that they might be unified, and that they might remember Him.  But the minds of the religious leaders of today were just as broken as the pharisees whose memories now are spat on in scripture.  The pharisees spat on their forefathers who killed the prophets while bathing in hypocrisy and small-minded religion.  Jesus encountered today’s false teachers in my dream.  They opposed Him, because His work would destroy their kingdoms.  These are their questions, and His responses:

“You claim to be Jesus, the one from scripture, right?”  Asked one Biblical Scholar, preparing for a difficult question.

“You claim to know the Word well, Brian.” Jesus responded, “Didn’t you read in John’s book that I AM the Word?  His first words proclaim that I was in the Beginning, before any words were written.  If you knew my Words, you would know me.  What has your knowledge gained for you?”

The scholar was unperturbed, used to brutal criticism and insult from years of debates, and he continued,

“I’ve heard that you spend time with the gays, and that you stay late in their homes and drink with them.  Are you condoning homosexuality?  Surely the ‘Son of God’ wouldn’t contradict 1 Corinthians 6:9.”

Jesus responded with growing enthusiasm, eager to defeat this lie,
   

“In scripture you hold my memory up, Brian, but you have always misunderstood the purpose my Father had in sending me. When I spoke to the woman at the well, she was in ‘lifestyle sin’, as you would call it. Her guilt was known to her, and there was no need to put it before her except to demonstrate my identity. It pleased me to be merciful to her, and to send her to her village so that all her people might know me.

“You know from your texts that there is one who has come to the world to destroy. I came to destroy his work. He did not create mankind, he only corrupted it. My work is not to destroy these ’sinners’, as you call them, my work is to redeem them, and undo the work of the Twister that has come among you all. Remember what Paul wrote to my people in Ephesus about the nature of this battle. Flesh and blood are for redemption. You ought to pray against my enemy and his works, Brian. Not against those who I would have you give mercy.”

Another man came to Jesus with a question:

“You responded well to Brian’s question, Jesus! Tell me what you think, does God predestine some to be saved, and others not, or do men chose for themselves whether or not to believe?”

“First, Rick, remember that before your scriptures were decided upon, I defeated death and The Enemy, and I have been sitting at the Right Hand of my Father. I need not theorize on this matter, or any, as all things are revealed to me. When Adam was created, my Father took joy in him, and gave him a mate, and made Adam the overseer of all living things. Adam lived in peace and harmony with my Father and all my Father’s creation. This is how my Father intended all of Adam’s offspring to live - in harmony with all things.

“Since then, it has only been natural for man to know me and to love my Father. It is mankind’s birthright to have a knowledge of the Father and His Will. My enemy has worked tirelessly since very early times to destroy your people’s birthright, and his reasons are beyond your understanding. When a man comes to know my Father, it is not simply a choice, but it is a natural progression of that man’s heart and mind back toward how he was intended to live.

“My Father desires that all men would be free from the enemy’s lies and corruption. That is why He sent me to this world - that I might defeat the effects of the evil one’s work. Without my sacrifice, none would know the Father. Any special call that my Father makes beyond this is beyond your understanding. Though you claim much in my name, even you do not recognize me.”

A woman came to Jesus, and asked him if he would allow her to have an abortion. He sat on the street corner where she met him and began to weep. He looked up at the woman through his tears and said,

“When my Father told Noah and his family to ‘be fruitful and multiply’, the command was not just for them. Men and women have put other’s infants to death because of war. They have burned their own infants for one they called ‘Molech’, and whose true name I will not speak here. Today they put their infants to death because of simple inconvenience. I promise you that every innocent one destroyed on earth will cry out for justice one day, and it will be given to them.”

Another man approached Jesus on the street and asked a question:

“Jesus, is the Bible inerrant? I mean with all the translations and everything, did it turn out how you intended?”

Jesus responded,

“If I share with you all the things unknown to mankind, all the wonders of the creation, and all that which existed before and after creation, you will not be able to repeat it, you would not even be able to understand. So it is with my Word. Answers are revealed there as much as are able to be understood, and written in human words. My Father caused the writing, and the Spirit oversaw it all, and I inspired much, but the writers were only men, and wrote only what they were able to write. As it is, there is enough written for you to never be idle. Go now, and obey what you are able to obey. Don’t dwell on things too lofty for you.”

A religious leader who accepted all views of God and spirituality came to Jesus for validation. He asked him,

“Jesus, I knew you’d come back soon! Tell these people that all Gods are one, and that all paths lead to heaven!”

Jesus responded,

“I can only speak what the Father allows me to speak, and He permits no lies or blaspheme to come from my mouth. There is only one God, and if you knew me and truly accepted my now-ancient, and living words, you would know that I am His son. You should have stayed on guard against the lies of my enemy, but you have become deceived. Flee from his lies before it is too late!

“The truth that you seek is this: the evil one whose true name is unspeakable is the ‘god’ of many religions in this world. He would have you believe anything, except the true Word that existed before him. Anything which is not in unity with my Word, and confirmed by the Spirit is false, and is part of his agenda which is more horrible than you can imagine. I came once to destroy his work forever. Reject all his teachings and find life, before it is too late!”

In my dream he spoke also of politics, and of charismatic gifts, but the memories are already fading. I don’t know what to call what I’ve written beyond the fact that it was like a waking dream, which came on me almost instantly. Like a eureka moment, I suddenly saw all the above conversations in an instant. I think the nature of Jesus’ return will be different, so I don’t consider this prophetic in any sense except that these words ought to be weighed by others to see what truth there is to them. I don’t even understand much of what I wrote, and I only hope that it’s true.

Hypocrisy: Too close to home.

Probably 2-3 times a month, the topic of churches spending huge amounts of money on a building project comes up in conversations with myself and friends. An old friend mentioned in a message to me the other day that her wealthy church opted for the $1,000,000 equipment over the $500,000 equipment in a recent purchase.

There are dozens of thoughts that rush in to my critical mind at the first thought of a church - necessarily iconic of Christ’s compassion for the needy - spending huge amounts of money like that. Here are a few:

$1 million dollars could generously build and staff a large professional hospital in West Africa for quite a while.

$1 million could go towards Gospel for Asia, and fund hundreds of courageous native missionaries bringing the gospel to dangerous, poverty-stricken, and spiritually-harassed villages all over Asia.

$1 million could be thoughtfully divided up among worthy parents who have the desire, but lack the funds to adopt infant girls from China, who would have been aborted or worse had they stayed.

$1 million dollars could go towards cancer, AIDS, tuberculosis, or malaria research. Each of those diseases kill millions annually.

Alternatives to buying sound software or hardware, or building another gym in your church aside, there are somewhat deeper concerns to be brought up:

What good is a well-oiled church program with a fantastic production and a great speaker without the world and society-changing attributes of Christ?

What does church leadership teach a congregation when they spend their money inwardly in such extravagant amounts?

Does a beautiful building feed widows or orphans, or meet the needs of the poor? Does a sound system that fully exercises the capabilities of the remarkable praise band justify a church that does not put it’s heart into putting God’s music into souls the hurting and abused of this world?

Are these straw-man arguments, or serious problems? Is the church just as much in err today as it was back when they were selling condolences? Is there wool over so many eyes?

Looking deeper, pulling back the wool a bit more, I recognize the root of the problem. The church is made up of individuals. I’ll make an example of myself: three years ago a friend decided that he wanted to start supporting a missionary with Gospel for Asia. For the year that he supported that missionary, I saved up what I could, and eventually bought a $1800 Apple Laptop. I think he was giving ~$30/month to that missionary. I’m ashamed today to look back and think that I thought I was so wise for saving up and not putting my laptop on credit. I was a fool.

Sarah and I tithe and put $100 in the bank every month. As my last blog entry demonstrated, we’re not in good shape financially right now. But even as we budget and plan for when money does come in, we don’t plan on how much we can possibly give away. We have dozens of things we want, and things we want replaced. When we sell our Dodge Stratus soon, we’ll probably get ~$1,300 for it. We have made no plans to give away any of that money. We’re thankful for God’s provision, but not that thankful!

The root of the hypocrisy isn’t some nebulous concept of church or some man twice my age in another city who lacks perspective. The root is in my own heart. I personally lack perspective to the extent that all that I’ve seen in my life (more than 90% of Americans, I’d bet) has done next to nothing to change my heart towards the lost and needy. I’d still rather rent a movie every week than send $20/month to make sure that child amputee victims of war can eat and have a safe place to sleep. The guilt and shame belong to me, for not taking personal initiative to change the flow of my own income away from my little comforts and towards the truly needy.

This hypocrisy is in my own home.

Today’s Provision

Before I tell this story, I need to build a bit of context.  I’m currently working towards going on staff as a missionary with The Rock, our church’s college group of ~120 people. I’ll be reaching out to college students at Iowa State and hopefully eventually planting a church in Madison, WI.

When I say “working towards”, I mean that I’m still raising my support.  When I say that I’m “raising my support”, I mean that my job right now is basically to ask people and churches to donate money that will go towards my modest salary and benefits.  Sarah, my wife, stopped working a few weeks ago, and is seven months pregnant.  So we’re at a point where our livelihoods seriously depend on the generosity of others.

Today we realized in a fresh, exciting way that in reality our livelihood depends more simply on God’s provision, and that God is eager to give us very good things if we just ask.

This morning, Sarah and I were talking about finances.  It’s been coming up more and more lately, because we’re starting to dip into savings as we’re trying to pay the bills and are still a bit short on support income.  We’ve raised 52% of our total need.  We need ~65% to pay all the bills.  We were realizing that we have about $20 to last us till the middle of July after we pay all the bills and eat.  Which is fine, I guess, because we have everything we need.  Proverbs 30:7-9 was on my mind. We have what we need.

A few hours later, a friend called.  He wanted to go fishing and have a couple beers.   I was delighted, because I hadn’t gone fishing since I was young, and I had good memories. I told him it sounded great, and he said he’d pick me up after work.  Then Sarah reminded me that we can’t afford to get a fishing pole, a license, or beer.  She’s so practical.  I really really wanted to go fishing, but she was really really right.  We didn’t have money for that at all. So I grinned and said “This is kinda weird, I guess, but let’s pray about it.”  So we prayed together that God would provide for me to be able to go fishing.  It was awkward, because I tend to have a very practical theology that has a hard time believing that God created pleasure for the sake of pleasure.  But I really wanted to go fishing.  I told God that if He didn’t provide for us, I’d just stay home and get the message: “be wise with your money!”

A few minutes later, my friend called me and told me when exactly he’d be over to pick me up.  I told him that since we were short on cash this month, I probably couldn’t come after all.  He reminded me that we had paid for him a while back at a local restaurant, so he’d pay us back tonight by buying my license and giving me some line and a hook to fish with (I’m oldskool with fishing, no reels or fancy poles for me).  I hung up the phone and looked triumphantly at Sarah.  God provided us with just enough to go fishing!

This is where the story gets good.

On the way to go fishing, I got a call from someone that I didn’t expect to call, who said that $220 was in the mail.  Upon returning, Sarah told me that $500 more had shown up in the mail. I asked God to let me go fishing and have a beer with a friend.  He gave me a free evening of fishing, beer and $720!

I grew up in Christian circles. I’ll be a full-time missionary soon. I’m a leader in my Christian community. I should be used to this stuff! But the fact that God actually answered my little prayer for a few bucks so I could go screw around with a buddy for an evening… I get butterflies from that. The best kind of butterflies. The kind that I get when I kiss my wife, who I’ve known for years, and who I know everything about. The way it feels when we kiss isn’t a surprise intellectually - I am familiar with her lips and her kissing style. It’s an experiential shock to my system.

It’s a wonderful thing to be aware of God’s capacity to miraculously provide. It’s doubly wonderful to have him miraculously respond to my simple prayer with speed and excess.

This is what it’s like to love Jesus. It’s like laying awake at night with Sarah, and knowing that she loves me and would do anything for me, and she’s so close. It’s so easy to love a person like that. He’s so close.

It’s a girl!

We finally found out what flavor our baby would be today, and compromised on a gender-appropriate name after months of deadlock debate on what “it” should be named. It is our pleasure to present to the world: Cayleigh Mya Swinton.