I’ve been thinking today about the nature and character of God.  One of the staple words used to describe our Creator is “Holy” as in “Our God is Holy” or “Holy God,” or even “Holy of Holies.”

Do a little digging on the word “holy” and you’ll discover its not quite the halo-over-your-head, never-hurt-a-fly kind of holy you thought it was growing up.  Apparently, “holy” means “different, other, alien.”  So - if God is holy, than God is…”other.”  That’s true - but it isn’t exactly revealing much about who God is or what God is like.

Take a poll of most people, and they’ll tell you that God is “a white-haired, judgmental, old grandfather in the sky.”  God for most people is just more of the same - more of the fear, condemnation, and hate-filled world we live in.  A constant stream of bad news flows into our homes from the media, and horrifying acts of violence, abuse, and disrespect happen all around us…even within us.  If God is nothing more than more judgment, can he really be holy?

If this world is all about judgment, and if God is all about being holy, then God’s character must primarily be something “other” than judgment.  1 John 4:8 says that “love comes from God,” and that we as children of God ought to love, for God is love.“  John 5:22 says, “The Father (God) judges no one.  Instead, he has given the Son absolute authority to judge.”

Judgment is still in the picture; we are all to blame for the mess we’ve created on this earth.  But thankfully, the one who has the authority to judge has forgiven us and has taken those judgments upon himself.  If we have the courage to honor Jesus, his life and teachings, we’ll find that instead of participating  in the judgment of this earth, we’ll begin to participate in love.  This is true love - the kind that comes not out of a sense of obligation or moral/social survival, but because we know whose we are.

John 13:3,4 is an interesting case in point.  Here sits Jesus, pure, blameless, loving even his enemies.  He sits among his confused, fearful disciples - one of whom is his betrayer, his hit man.  But these verses say it all, “Jesus knew that the Father had given him authority over everything and that he had come from God and would return to God.  So he got up from the table, took off his robe, wrapped a towel around his waist, and poured water into a basin.  Then he began to wash the disciples’ feet…”

Jesus loved out of a sense of intimacy and identity with the Holy God he was a part of.  This love is what makes God, and those who love God, holy.  God cannot be primarly an angry, wrathful, judgmental God; not if we consider him to be holy.  He is something wholly other than the poison on this earth - he is love.  If we choose to refuse Christ’s forgiveness, then our judgment falls back on ourselves, and we are left to our own devices.

Thoughts?

My friend and mentor, Kent Smith, has recently made publicly available a book he’s been working on for over a year. It’s small (about 40 pages) but its profound, and I believe it has the potential to revolutionize one’s spiritual life, as well as how North American’s understand what following Jesus looks like.

Think about the universe, think of a flower, think of your DNA, think of just about anything we consider beautiful…what do they have in common? A repeating pattern around a center. But what are the patterns in your lifestyle? What is your center? Or rather…WHO?

Kent is interested in a little experiment - and needs your help. Read below to find out more.

Friends,

I want to invite you to join me in testing an exciting new tool I have developed with the help of some friends. It’s a short gift book called Centered, and it is designed to help people take a deeper look at what it really means to follow Jesus.

Last Sunday 250 Million people in the U.S.A. did not attend church. That’s five people out of every six—and their number is growing by about 10,000 per day.

Many of these people are very interested in spiritual reality, just not church. Chances are you know some of these people. If you’d like to take your conversation with them to a deeper level and help us learn from your experience, here’s what you can do:

1) Buy a copy of Centered at the website listed below, read through it and jot down your impressions, good and bad.

2) On reflection and prayer, give or lend the book to one of your friends who seems open to spiritual things with the offer to discuss what they think of it over a cup of coffee (or whatever!).

3) After that conversation, write out your impressions of what impact the experience has had on you and your friend and e-mail them to me.

That’s it. Early indications are that this tool will make a big difference for many people—and I will be delighted and grateful if you choose to be part of the team that helps us refine it even more. (But still love you if this isn’t a good time for such a venture!)

Here’s the website

Blessings in this season. Looking forward to hearing from you!

Kent

So go ahead - purchase a copy; help out a missionary here in North America, and then be blessed by a great message! If you don’t have Kent’s email, feel free to drop me a line by commenting on this post. We’ll make sure the message get’s back to him!

For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God–

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so that we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. — Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians

While we might all know from sermons and studies that it is BY grace we have been saved, do many of us know the grace FOR which we’re saved? I believe this man is learning. We are God’s unique gift to his creation.

The glory of God is man fully alive. — St. Augustine

May no man or woman go to their grave without having sung the song…without having reached their destiny and gracing the world with their unique masterpiece.

Quick life update: Trina and I just got back from the National House Church Conference, and it was encouraging as always. We’ve made lots of good friends from all over the country through this venue, and it was good meeting up with many of them again. And there were so many others who were just beginning to envision God’s family life in new ways, which was also exciting for us to watch. Among these newbies were the new MRNA (Missionary Residency for North America) students! It’s been two years since Katrina and I were in the program’s internship year, but its still great to hang out with these guys and to welcome them into the program. I might write more about the conference and on our new buddies later on.

— — —

If life is a dance, then who is our partner? Watch this moving video till the end:

How does this hit you? What does it say about life’s struggle, human nature, spiritually destructive forces, and the dance of God?

For me, I see in this dance the original intimacy we were ALL created in, a move toward corrupted insanity and ultimate isolation, and then the powerfully violent fight for life’s redemption with our partner.

We had a breakthrough today…literally.

I spent the morning with Miller today digging the biggest hole I’ve ever seen made by human hands.  I mean, its huge.  It’s the kind of hole my elementary school self would have been proud of.

Apparently he’s been working on it with some other friends for quite some time.  When I arrived on the scene it was already down to about 10 feet.  We had a pulley system with a bucket to bail to dirt out…the whole schebang.  A hand dug well…that’s a first for a city-boy like me.

We both took turns picking and shoveling ourselves further and further into God’s good earth.  The only air moving around down thereis the kind you make…and believe me, you’d rather the still air to that.  :)  While Miller and I shoveled, hauled, and conversed, I allowed myself to feel God’s presence in the absolutely mundane.  There is nothing glorious about what was happening there this morning, and yet, stilling my heart was probably the best thing that could have happened to me today.

Every time I work with Miller out on his land, I get a whiff of God’s dream for humankind.  Humans are to work with their hands; to labor and sweat to produce something beautiful.  We’ve moved away from the ways in which God intended.  I mean, most of my profession as a student is just sitting in a chair facing forward, poking away at plastic bits and watching lights flash on a screen.  I never feel more satisfied than when I look back on a day I’ve poured work and sweat into, and seen the results.

As our time out on his land was nearing an end (it was STANKIN’ HOT!), we hit water!  It was no powerful geyser, but it was a definite trickle.  Praise God!  He works in the small, and unimpressive to demonstrate his incredible, everlasting love.  The deep satisfaction on Miller’s face was priceless.  It was all worth it now.