Relationships With Agend Are Most Churches Relatiinships.

"The psychology of agendas is that they make relationships transactional, which means that people are used for a purpose. People become a means to someone else’s end, and this erodes a person’s belief that he or she is valued regardless of any production.

Again, religious leaders have a real problem with this. Religion makes us want to build things and grow things and improve on things, and although none of those ambitions are bad in themselves, they cause a person to be expendable or valuable only if he or she plays along."
(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

When Your Eyes Dont See- Your Mouth Is Wide Open

"Eyes are a key part of incarnation. When they are open, the ears stay open, and when the ears listen, the heart softens—and soon the hands start moving to touch, help, and heal. But when the eyes are closed, the ears close, and the mouth opens. Words fly out, and quite frankly, the world doesn’t want to hear any more of our religious rhetoric!"

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

How To Curb Pornography

"Pornography is rampant. People think it’s normal and just an ugly part of human existence. Unless you’re a father of two daughters, as I am. As a pastor I’ve tried to help countless hundreds of men fight this battle, and after many years I’ve come to the conclusion that there’s only one way to keep a man from looking lustfully at a woman. No, it doesn’t work to use the age-old philosophy of trying to get men to deny their humanity or to vilify their sensual or “natural” lusts. To say, “God hates it,” when you take a second look at a woman who passes by or to say we are animals with debased passions just never seemed true. There’s just too much evidence that God created us with these natural desires. So what answer seems to work? I tell men to look more closely at a woman they are lusting after. What? Yes, stop denying that you are attracted and stop feeling guilty that you are attracted. Instead look more deeply at this woman. Stare at her longer, and while you do, consider these facts. She is a daughter to someone. She has dreams just like you; she has fears just like you; she desires to be valued and cared for—and all over the world, millions of women just like her are abused, raped, and exploited because men settle for base animal lust over redeemed human identity."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Leadership is Not Influence

Leadership is Not influence... its presence.

"Everyone wants to have influence. We count Facebook fans, Google circles, and Twitter followers. We measure Sunday church attendance and yearly budget numbers, all the while thinking we are creating our own wave. The multitude that followed Jesus was more than willing to speed up His influence and make Him the leader they wanted. But Jesus knew that real influence could be gained only as people were made into disciples one by one."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Stories Of What Did Not Happen

"Imagine the day you find yourself in heaven, sitting in a recovery circle with Abraham, Moses, Rahab, Peter, Paul, and Jesus, and one by one, you get to show your scars and tell the story of all the things you did for God that didn’t work."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Blessed are PeaceMAKERS not Peacekeepers.

Peacemaking costs? Hue difference between peacekeeper and peacemaker...
Wow...
"Last year, my daughter McKenna was assaulted by a boy in her high school. She was trying to break up a fight between him and his girlfriend, who happened to be her best friend. The boy turned on my daughter and slammed her head against a car. This was just two months after her doctor told her that if she had any more blows to the head, she would have to quit playing hockey. Because she came to the rescue, she lost a hockey scholarship, and a year later she is still not completely back to her vibrant self. Of course I tried to find this boy and remove him and his family from the universe. In my rage, I called McKenna and asked her to tell me where he lived, but she wouldn’t give me his address. She told me to come home, and then, as I sat on her bed, she said, “Dad, you always taught me to be a peacemaker. Do you actually think that will always work out without any pain?” Through my own tears, I was deeply proud of the woman she had become, but the gut check was more real than I wanted it to be!"
(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

It Costs When You Serve?

"Looking back on twenty years of living by faith and leading my own family into the mission of God, I’ve come to one conclusion. Living the gospel costs! If you follow Jesus, you will lose energy, time, money, friends, and quite possibly even more."
(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Jesus' Neighborhood

"We miss the incarnation when we view Jesus only through His death on the cross instead of through His life in the neighborhood."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Here Is How Your Good News Sounds

Words from our own mouths.

"Here’s how people hear our “gospel” today: God loves you but can’t stand you unless you become a Christian. God wants to set you free, but here’s a long list of dos and don’ts. God loves the poor but wants you to give your money to rich churches. God loves lost people but wants you to have only Christian friends. God is preparing a beautiful heaven for after this life, but only those who pray a prayer and go to church get to go. God didn’t come to judge but applauds when His people picket abortion clinics....."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

As Excited About Shoes As Prayer Meeting?

"Sometimes we are fresh and eager to attend a prayer meeting, but do we feel the same freshness for such mundane tasks as polishing shoes."

- Oswald Chambers

Hey Trump - Hey Church Muscling

"No king succeeds with a big army alone,
no warrior wins by brute strength.
Horsepower is not the answer;
no one gets by on muscle alone."
Psalm 33:16-17

No Working Love Agenda

"I'm not interested in crowd approval. And do you know why? Because I know you and your crowds. I know that love, especially God's love, is not on your working agenda."

Jesus, John 5:41-42

Exhaustion Of Comparison

"I confess that I live much of my life that way too: comparing myself to those who achieve more and greater things. I do so even though I know that this means endless and inevitable pressures."

(Arthur Paul Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking)

Church Will Outlive the Universe, Nations and Institutions

"That structural position in the Church which the humblest Christian occupies is eternal and even cosmic. The Church will outlive the universe; in it the individual person will outlive the universe.....
There will come a time when every culture, every institution, every nation, the human race, all biological life, is extinct, and every one of us is still alive. Immortality is promised to us, nit to these generalities. It was not for societies or states that Christ dies, but for men."

(C.S. Lewis The Weight of Glory)

Wind of God, Blow!

Blow, wind of God! With wisdom blow
Until our minds are free
From mists of error, clouds of doubt,
Which blind our eyes to thee!
(Hymn - Spirit of the Living God)

Don'r Look Up To Find God - Look Down

"An old Rabbi was once asked why so few people were finding God. He wisely replied that people are not willing to look that low. Jesus was born in a stable, and God is especially concerned for the poorest, the lowliest, the lost, and the neglected."

-Harvy & Lois Seifert. Liberation of Life

A World Of Wounds...

As Aldo Leopold famously lamented, "One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds."

The more we learn, the more we see how much is wrong and destructive, and too often it feels like others neither know nor care to know.

(Arthur Paul Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking)

Church as Institution or Community?

From Turkey.... community....

"Persecution changes how you view our faith. For example here in turkey we live our faith as a minority, and this defines the way we live the faith. In the way that we understand ourselves and the relation we have with God, and in the way we understand the church h as institution or as spiritual reality. When you are a minority and you are a minority which was, up to very recent years, was persecuted, literally.

You see things different.

You do not feel an institution, but as a living community.

(Fr. Albrto Ambroise An eastern Orthodox in Turkey.

Interview with Krista Tippet On Being, podcast. August 2, 2012)

How Can One Reorient A Lifetime Of Customs?

"How can we, in a few sentences, bring context to a confused conversation someone has been having in his or her own consciousness for twenty-five years?How can each of us, as one person, help our friends reorient after a lifetime of tradition, doctrine, customs, and beliefs picked up from the overwhelming majority around them?"

(Hugh Halter. Flesh)

Scarred From Repulsive Religion

"But you know that the proclamation of truth seldom penetrates the rocky soil of a heart that’s been scarred by repulsive religion and the agony of a hard life."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Benevolent Atheist Because of Murder

"Roscoe is an atheist. A really benevolent one. Thirty-seven years ago, at the age of five, Rosco found himself hiding under a table in his family’s small Northern Ireland cottage, desperately trying to keep his dog quiet by distracting him with a bowl of milk. He was hiding under the table because his mother, in fear of losing more family members, had scattered the children just seconds before a band of IRA henchmen came in, holding his father at gunpoint. In that moment, Rosco prayed that God would save his father. The answer? The sound of a pistol discharging, followed by a deadening thud as his father hit the kitchen floor right next to the table. The fading memories of the day God didn’t answer, combined with seeing his father’s murderer singing hymns and taking Communion in Mass the next week, left Roscoe with no faith in God at all and only the lingering memory of the smell of his dog and the milk. How do I know Rosco? I just performed a marriage between him and his fiancée, Tanya. I heard this amazing story over coffee at Starbucks before Rosco flew in to Denver."
(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Jesus Did Not Pray For Activity. BUT oneness.

"........ the most astounding lines comes in verse 21: “I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one” (NLT). Notice that Jesus didn’t pray that they would grow churches or make converts, start nonprofits, or stop sinning. He didn’t pray that they would do a ton of miracles, get people’s attention, go on speaking tours, start Bible studies, or lead successful evangelism efforts. He prayed that they would be linked into the family of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. He prayed that every person rippling out from this handful of men would become grafted into the fellowship of the family. The incarnational way of life is not about conversion. It’s about adoption."
(Hugh Halter. FLESH )

He Did Not Come So You Could Go To Church.

"He didn’t come and take on flesh so that you would someday pray a salvation prayer, go to church, and settle for a semireligious life. He has bigger hopes and dreams for you than that. He came so that His divine life could actually take root in you and so that you could relate to Him like humans used to before sin messed everything up."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Hey Church- God Wants His Family Back

"Christians often make it sound like Jesus came only to die for sin and then make converts, grow a religion called Christianity, and make more converts. But God never wanted converts, church attenders, prisoners, or parishioners. He wanted His family back."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

When Church Can't See People.

"For two days they talked about how to build their churches, how to multiply their congregations and develop leaders. I know they didn’t mean to, but little mention was given to real people. It was like we were looking out the tiny passenger window from a 747 jet and seeing a plane fly by in the other direction; I felt that somehow we were missing Jesus and human beings amid all this church stuff."
(Hugh Halter,. Flesh)

How Would Jeaus Live Your Life?

Dallas Willard

“Jesus teaches you to live your life as He would live your life.”

How Would Jeaus Live Your Life?

Dallas Willard

“Jesus teaches you to live your life as He would live your life.”

In Life You Run Into Theology

"I suppose when you boil all of life’s wins and losses down to the real issues, you’ll run into theology. I know that sounds weird, but it’s true. Life is about God. Everything is about God. It can be said that the most important thing about each and every one of us is what we believe about God—and more specifically, what we are convinced about regarding Jesus."

(Hugh Halter. FLESH)

Outside The House.

"One Thanksgiving, our family hosted Fred, a Masai  man from Kenya, who was studying at the Seminary where I teach. He spoke about how his nomadic fellow tribes people are not vulnerable to political disruption because they can easily move into the bush whenever the need arises. He told us, "All your wealth and possessions are in this house, but ours are outside." Their Investments, he meant, we're in the cattle that Masai own. He pointedly reminded us that we North Americans see homes as our own private domain.......
And our sense of Independence means we are often concerned only for what goes on in our home but not do not worry about the astonishing waste and
poisons put out on the curb, flush down their toilets or let run down our sinks."

(Arthur Paul Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking)

Deal With Our Own Shirt In Our Own Backyards

"My sheltered life too often disconnects me from hard reality. Many of my cloths, possessions and appliances are produced by underpaid laborers abroad and overtaxing the earth. And their disposal is often destructive too. Our alienated way of life is one of the most important spiritual and ecological challenges today.
While I enjoy indoor plumbing and miss it ehen it's not an option, I also know that it's convenience - and the fact that I do not have to deal with what goes down the sink, toilet or drain - makes it easy to be responsible. Perhaps outhouses should be brought back. Maybe we ought to deal with our own garbage in our own backyards."

(Arthur Paul Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking)

Theological Pornography

"Bad theology is like pornography—the imagination of a real relationship without the risk of one. It tends to be transactional and propositional rather than relational and mysterious. You don’t have to trust Person, or care for Person. It becomes an exercise in self-gratification that ultimately dehumanizes the self and the community of humanity in order to avoid the painful processes of humbling and trusting. Bad theology is not a victimless crime. It dehumanizes God and turns the wonder and the messy mystery of intimate relationship into a centerfold to be used and discarded."

William P. Young. Forward to Divine Dance

How Could People Love Your God?

"We have to have a positive image of God.If our God image is lethal, shaming, negative, accusatory, there is no spiritual journey. Why would you go on a journey with some you don't like,or someone you don't trust, or someone you can't entrust yourself to,"

Richard Rohr. Podcast interview. Snarky Faith Radio. Sept 21, 2016)

God Does Not See So Low

"God, You have never had a low view of Humanity.
May our eyes be healed, especially those of us “born blind,” that we might see what You do."

William P. Young. Forward to Divine Dance

Called Forward

....... calling us forward and inviting us to actively change what we let into our hearts, calling us to consciously participate in this divine dance of loving and being loved."

William P. Young. Forward to Divine Dance

GIVE UP ON RELIGION- Please

In Jesus, God has put up a “Gone Fishing” sign on the religion shop. He has done the whole job in Jesus once and for all and simply invited us to believe it—to trust the bizarre, unprovable proposition that in him, every last person on earth is already home free without a single religious exertion: no fasting till your knees fold, no prayers you have to get right or else, no standing on your head with your right thumb in your left ear and reciting the correct creed—no nothing.… The entire show has been set to rights in the Mystery of Christ—even though nobody can see a single improvement. Yes, it’s crazy. And yes, it’s wild, and outrageous, and vulgar. And any God who would do such a thing is a God who has no taste. And worst of all, it doesn’t sell worth beans. But it is Good News—the only permanently good news there is—and therefore I find it absolutely captivating.
-- Robert Farrar Capon
* Quoted in "All is Grace" by Brennan Manning

Church You Don't Know Me.

  "Many whom God has the church does not have, and many whom the church has God does not have."
Augustine

Common Camino

"A prominent paradox of my sojourn—and the one that surprised and taught me the most—is the fact that so few fellow pilgrims I met counted themselves as Christians. How curious that many immersed themselves in a taxing route associated with church traditions for over a millennium but did not necessarily profess Christian faith. And these folks ended up teaching me more than I realized I needed to know. (Stories and examples in this book are based on real people and events, but some names and details were altered to protect the privacy of individuals involved.)

While this Camino was an expression of my Christian faith, what I did was not especially noteworthy or sacrificial. I encountered hundreds of people along the way. Tens of thousands now walk it every year. Many—perhaps even a majority—go without an explicit religious agenda. I met extraordinary Christians on those paths, but also remarkable, gracious and hospitable people of no declared faith. Do we Christians think too highly of ourselves? Are we perhaps on the same journey as everyone else? Often people who most challenged me
with their exemplary way of living, both on this path and elsewhere in my life. were folks who did not call themselves believers."

- Arthur Paul Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking

Walked 500 Miles To Church.

Writing about his 500 mike walk on the Camino De Santiago....

"I once walked 500 miles to attend church. It took 31 days, but was no month of Sundays."

~Arthur Paul Boers. The Way Is Made By Walking.

Looking For God Too High

"An old Rabbi was once asked why so few people were finding God. He wisely replied that people were not willing to look that low. Jesus was born in a stable, and God is especially concerned for the poorest, the lowest, the lost, and the neglected."

(Harry and Louis Seaford. Liberation of Life)

Things Christians Don't Know!

" I knew that pilgrimages to the Holy Land and Rome and Canterbury had long been a part of our Christian tradition. And I knew that visiting holy sites by airplane, train and bus were still a popular tourist activity. But walking 500 miles?
I had no idea until I read Arthur Boers that millions of men and women all over the world are still doing it, deliberately paying attention to what takes place in and around them as they walk to their chosen destinations.

~ Eugene Peterson

Frenzied Pilgrims

"In a postmodern world in which time and space seem compressed and lives of leisure are driven by frenetic consumption, we should not be surprised that many have turned to the medieval practice of pilgrimage as a vital spiritual antidote."
Richard Gaillardetz

Pocketing The Holy Spirit

" We never have the Holy Spirit in our pockets, completely domesticated and supporting everything we are doing. Any such sanctifying of present imperfections is an obstacle to further growth. Instead of clutching fiercely to my foibles and fallacies, I had better cultivate the ability to change my mind........
~ Lois Seifert. Libération of Life

Mouthy Leadership.....

"They discover that it's difficult, they hey don't know how to relate. They don't know how to listen. They know how to tell people what to do. They are trained in "telling" people. But they've not got the idea of listening, and bringing people to birth." Jean Vanier

"We discovered that religion can become a prison and not a fountain" Jean Vanier

Telling Too Much

"They discover that it's difficult, they hey don't know how to relate. They don't know how to listen.

They know how to tell people what to do. They are trained in "telling" people. But they've not got the idea of listening, and bringing people to birth."

Jean Vanier

"We discovered that religion can become a prison and not a fountain"

Death Penalty Still Exists Because of Christians

"A Lot of times evangelicals Christians will defend the death penalty based on "Biblical" reasons. And, in fact, the death penalty is most alive in the bible belt where there are high concentrations of evangelicals..... (Shane Blackshere)  

"....And this is one of the things that, as I dug deeper, became one of the deeply troubling parts of this. That the death penalty has survived in America, not in spite of Christians,  but becuse of Christians. And the truth is that the Death penalty wouldn't stand a chance of its continual survival if it weren't for Christians....

it is deeply troubling to me that 85% of the executions are happening in the bible belt. As my brother says, "he bible belt has become the death belt. (Shane Claiborne)

 Podcast Interview  (Seminary Dropout_#148)

Burn Your Cloths And Move On

"In the days of the Celts, Druids came all the way from Ireland and Charlemagne’s court in Aachen to be baptized at sunset at Finisterre. There they died with the sun, like Jesus, sinking into the waters of death, only to be born again when they emerged. They took on new robes, new names. That is why pilgrims burn their clothes at Finisterre. Their old self must die before the new can rise from the ashes . . .”

(Robert Ward. All The Good Pilgrims)

He Shut My Mouth

"When, through my tears, I began to tell him something of the years during which I betrayed him, he lovingly placed his hand over my mouth in order to silence me. His one concern was that I should muster courage enough to pick myself up again...."

Carlo Careetto

It Wasn’t About The Pilgrims

"There are many statues of pilgrims along the Camino, realistic and abstract, humorous and heroic, moving and maudlin. A few depict pilgrims of today, with nylon packs and running shoes, but most are like this one, a figure of long ago decked out in the classic pilgrim ensemble. León’s pilgrim is a weary figure. He has taken off his sandals and leans back against the cross as if to sleep. Before him is the Parador of San Marcos, a luxury hotel where he could never dream of staying. I sit down to keep him company for a while. It’s funny that in the old days, when pilgrims actually looked like this, there weren’t any statues of pilgrims. The statues then were of Jesus Christ, Mary, James and the other saints. They were the heroes of the Camino. But the old heroes have retreated to the churches and the heavens. The hero of the Camino today—or so these statues suggest—is the pilgrim himself, the pilgrim of old, pictured always as humble, stoic, pure of heart, trusting, possessed of an unclouded faith that today’s pilgrim can never hope to equal."
( Robert Ward. All The Good Pilgrims)

Pick A Stone Each Day

"She spoke at a Little Pilgrims meeting one Saturday about a discovery she had made on the Camino. Each day, as a kind of walking prayer, she would pick up a stone and fill it with her sorrow. At the end of the day, she would leave the stone by the wayside and walk away a little lighter."

(Robert Ward. All The Good Pilgrims)

Kiss The Son

Was reading an interesting verse in Psalm 2 today. The words jumped off the page at me. I swear, i never noticed them before. Psalm 2:11-12

Serve the Lord ...... Kiss his son, or he will be angry......

With the high honor of the Son enmeshed as the central point? Is there any more basic a call to the Father than this?

Serve God, Kiss his Son.....

This is an amazing call to worship, especially considering the Greek words God gave us to translate into our English word “worship”, have literal meanings such as, "to bend the knee", or "to kiss towards".

Anyway, been a long week here alone. I don't envy old people who live alone. That is very difficult. I find it a struggle. Lynn and I are lovers, but we are partners too. Partners is something larger than we are.

I am reminded today that there is a reason unreached people remain unreached. They are usually not near cities, there aren't any mission schools for missionaries children, there are no ready made teams to join, most require learning at least two languages, often geographically isolated, and to begin, you are often alone.

• "Long before this winter snow I ran from pain, looking high and low For some fast way to get around Its hurt and cold. I'd have found, If I had looked at what was there, That things don't follow fast or fair. That life goes on, and times do change, And grass does grow despite life's pains."
• ~ Mary and Bernard. Selection taken from, "Resurrection"

Yet, Jesus understands alone......

“That Jesus had voluntarily lost himself in an obscure Middle Eastern village; annihilated himself in the daily monotony of thirty years’ rough, miserable work; separated himself form society that :counts”; and died in total anonymity.” Carlo Carretto

He lived most of his life as worker, a wage earner, a bread for the table labourer. I am humbled to be reminded of this today. This is how I live my life too. Most of the year a wage earner, then kingdom work.... for a time. Will you pray for people to come and live, to immerse themselves, here, for unreached peoples? We don’t need visitors, we need people willing to be alone, in some very challenging places, where no one else goes. Realizing Jesus is enough for us, and them too.

Come and, “Serve God...... Kiss is Son.....”, here.

Henri Nouwen asks a good question in my readings today.

"Why do I keep relaying to you as one of my many relationships, instead of my only relationship, in which all other ones are grounded? Why do I keep looking for popularity, respect from others, success, acclaim, and sensual pleasure?Why, Lord, is it so hard for me to make you the only one?"

Forget about the big career of money, your degree you earned to secure a financial future, the fancy church ministry where people pat you on the back for your creative preaching, awesome growth, dynamic music, or amazing vision. Where we could be, and will be replaced tomorrow, if need be. Most, it seems, will Kiss the Son there, or in Kenya.

Come to a place where most will never see anything you do on a daily bases. Where you will be missunderstood. Come to a life that causes people to grow weary of your incessant stories. To a life where eyes will roll, as you go where most feet won’t go. Where ministry looks nothing like what we do at home. Come to the obscure place..... where even most “missionaries” don’t go.

Come Kiss the Son. Kiss the Son.......

“Pucker up, and help others to pucker up!” This is my new mission statement.

The world still needs courageous men and women....... Son Kissers.

Andy