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Grace and peace…OUT!

O LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger
or discipline me in your wrath.

Be merciful to me, LORD, for I am faint;
O LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony.

My soul is in anguish.
How long, O LORD, how long?

Turn, O LORD, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.

I am struck by David’s honesty with God. If it hurts, he tells his heavenly Father. He does not hesitate to ask for the pain to stop.

Check out this post from the Out of Ur blog (Christianity Today, Leadership journal, etc.). It’s from last November when Rob Bell was on The Gods Aren’t Angry Tour. I appreciate the temperament of the author towards the Bell/Driscoll controversy, as it somewhat resembles my own. I don’t want to be too quick to condemn someone as preaching another gospel, and I believe that this is a good impulse as John Piper demonstrated well at Driscoll’s recent Text and Context conference. The only false gospel that Dr. Piper would identify is the Word of Faith/Prosperity Gospel, which I will blog about shortly.

However, the author of the Ur post betrays some evangelical dishonesty or theological ignorance if he did not balk at ideas like this: “The problem, according to Bell, is not that God is angry with us, but that we think God is angry with us. Thus, Jesus’ purpose wasn’t to change God’s mind about us, but to change our mind about God: to notify us of God’s lack of anger and to free us from the prison of our misconceptions so that we can truly live well.”

Really?

Found this article on the Resurgence site. Even though the post is recent, it seems like the news is old, but I’m not totally sure. At any rate, this is an interesting take on how Mars Hill Grand Rapids went from a traditional complementarian (biblical male eldership) position to an egalitarian (male/female eldership) position. While I take any church controversy with a grain of salt, it seems like things got a bit ugly.

It also seems that this kind of move might hint at a deeper-rooted approach to the scriptures that has some problems.

Don’t worry, I am not throwing Rob under the bus – even if he lets chicks into the elder meetings.

Let me know what you think.

I nominate Pope Benedict

Well, it’s been a crazy week, so I’m cutting myself some slack. Today begins a new attempt at 5 psalms per week. Here goes:

But as for me, I will come into Your house in the multitude of Your mercy;
In fear of You I will worship toward Your holy temple.
Lead me, O LORD, in Your righteousness because of my enemies;
Make Your way straight before my face.

But let all those rejoice who put their trust in You;
Let them ever shout for joy, because You defend them;
Let those also who love Your name
Be joyful in You.
For You, O LORD, will bless the righteous;
With favor You will surround him as with a shield.

So David is here praying for guidance, and contra the pseudo-Reformed tendency to make all prayer a resigned “thy will be done”, he backs up his request with a faith-resume: he calls on the mercy of God, he announces his fear of God, he banks on the blessing and faithfulness of God towards him because he is righteous.

I am also in the midst of prayer for guidance and direction in my life. Mine is the prayer of David: Lead me, O Lord, make your way straight before my face. I am asking for the life-path which lays ahead to become clear to me; I am asking for confusion and questioning and double-mindedness to be removed; I am asking for God to make my calling clear that I might know the next step to take and take it with reckless abandon.

But such confidence cannot come if I am not first connected, personally and powerfully, to the Lord through a committed and holy life. All will be confusion and best-guesses unless I am walking in the fear of the Lord. So, I hunger for holiness that I might be confident in the way ahead – that I might know that the Lord will bless his righteous servant and surround me with favor as with a shield.

Check out the blog of Mako Fujimura, an NYC artist who is also a member of Redeemer Presbyterian Church, the church that hosted the conference we attended last week. There was a workshop that he led, and I’m kinda wishing I went to it…

At any rate, maybe the artists in the group will enjoy what he has to say. Also check out his site here.

Having been utterly inspired to try new things by Dwell this past week, I would like to try out a new monthly schedule for our small group that will allow for a little more variety in the format. It would basically go like this each month:

• Week 1 | Scripture Study (Romans)
  • Focused mainly on the assigned chapter and coming to a better understanding of the text for the purpose of knowing and serving Jesus.
• Week 2 | Journey Session
  • Focused on sharing events, prayer requests, and any devotional thoughts (applications of the Scripture studies, words from the Lord, etc.) with the group.
  • Time set aside specifically for group prayer.
• Week 3 | Scripture Study (Romans)
• Week 4 | Topic Night
  • Focused on chosen topic/topics for discussion. A simpler, more open version of the study night, with a real practical emphasis.
  • Might include a video, movie, or other form of media to inspire discussion.

For the month of May, this would mean the following schedule:

• May 11th – Journey Session
• May 18th – Romans 4 Study
• May 25th – Topic Night (we can start thinking now about the topic!)

Nu.crew, leave a comment, let me know whatcha think!

After yet another overnight spent sleeping on the couches at the Deep Blue sushi bar at JFK Jet Blue terminal (due to a major subway map snafu on my part that caused us to miss our flight), we have finally returned from the two-day Dwell Conference on urban church planting in NYC.

And we are barely recovering.

It was a marathon, for sure, and jam-packed with inspiration and encouragement from the speakers as well as other church planters/pastors. I will now attempt to process everything we heard/did/learned right here on the blog, and I know it will take several installments to accomplish.

Here we go.

Day 1: Shoulder to shoulder with the nations
We arrived early Monday morning to a rainy (and chilly) New York, and ironically (as hardy, outdoorsy, Gore-Tex pajamas-wearing Vermonters), were completely unprepared. Sunday in VT was super-warm and super-sunny, and like a true dude, I made lots of ass-umptions about similar weather in the city.

But not to worry, we were going to be taking the subway anyway, which we did, for nearly two hours thanks to the mad Monday morning rush from Queens to midtown. I didn’t realize that there was such a thing as bumper-to-bumper traffic on the subway, complete with endless starting and stopping and lots of disgruntled passengers. It was definitely an experience.

And the awesomeness continued when we stepped off the E train in midtown (50th St., I think) into a veritable downpour with no other subway stations in sight (must have gotten out on the wrong side of the street or something). Our destination was 94th St. and Broadway, and we had no raingear. Like a true dude, my suggestion was to hoof it until we found a station, and it would probably let up. After 20 minutes of this, we finally bought umbrellas for the last third of the hike, all the way to the hotel. We checked in early, soaked, earning the pity (and mockery) of most in the hotel lobby.

Despite the adversity, we were still smiling. And the experience of peeling off wet clothes and drying off our bodies in the warm room was nearly euphoric. At that point I got a chance to sit down and read Ps. 2, blogging about it here.

I am always impacted by the city. I am impacted by the dense concentration of people, the sheer numbers a giant witness to the crowning glory of God’s creative genius, with art, architecture, and culture echoing a loud Amen. And not just people, but peoples, that is, people groups, nations. I was impacted by this on the subway during rush hour – it was a grand experience of being in the midst of nations. Of dwelling in the middle of it. Perhaps New York is a gospel town in this sense, in the sense that it foreshadows a new earth full of redeemed men and women from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

After our dry-off sesh, we headed out for some fun in the city, well prepared with our giant Manhattan umbrellas. My directional skills started to improve at this point, and we were downtown in Soho checking out Burton and other shops (Burberry was cool, although I didn’t buy any $1,000 scarves), and back to midtown, Times Square area. We ate a giant pastrami/corn beef sandwich for lunch and Patsy’s Italian food for dinner. Along the way we met a homeless guy named Bill and had a quick talk about the Lord after getting him some dinner, too. It was a cool day.

Coming up next will be the DL on the sessions and happenings from day one of the conference. If you can’t wait until next week for the info, check this blog and this one, too. Er, and here.

Somewhere in the midnight fog of the Jet Blue terminal I completely lost the distinction between Tuesday and Wednesday of this week; thus, contrary to my last post, I need to make up for two missed days of psalming. First, Psalm 4.

How long, O you sons of men,
Will you turn my glory to shame?
How long will you love worthlessness
And seek falsehood? Selah.
But know that the LORD has set apart for Himself him who is godly;
The LORD will hear when I call to Him.

In what is a continuing theme in the Psalms – David’s lament against his enemies – I find myself slightly to the left of David’s position. His position is righteous anger, and confidence that his righteousness ensures that God will deliver him. I wonder if I am more like the worthless men he rails against.