Blue Like Jazz has been a good thing for me. I feel like I have really been challenged to take a look at several aspects in my life and re-evaluate.
I am in a place where I am praying to God for things for things that I need personally. I feel like that is maybe one aspect of my prayer life that has been missing...And the fact that I don't pray nearly enough.
I tend to pray for others. Pray for friends and family to heal from sickness, for my children to grow in wisdom and knowledge of God, pray for my husband to be strengthened in his walk with God and his faith to be renewed, pray for those hurting that I learn about from the media--Katrina, 9-11 victims, missing children and their families. My list of things that are purely personal things is very small, maybe even non-existent. At least, it was.
I am really trying to focus more on what I need to grow closer to God. I know that I can't earn my way to God, but it is sometimes hard to humble myself enough to accept His help to get there. Accept His love for me, me who is so unworthy and who doesn't appreciate and value such a gift enough. May God continue to soften my heart and humble me so that I can fullly partake in the wonders that he has in store for me.
_____________________________________
Somewhat related to that, is something else I have been mulling in my mind for a few days. It probably isn't fully ready, but I thought it might help to get it out somewhere to "look" at it.
I was touched in the book by the confessional.
background for those who don't know...
Donald Miller and several other Christians at Reed College in Oregon decided to make a confession booth to have set up at the end of year festival Renn Fayre. This festival is described as a wild, crazy party full of alcohol, sex, drugs and all kinds of exotic things. In the midst of this immoral atmosphere, they set up this confessional, not with the intent for their fellow classmates to confess to them, but so that they can confess. Ask forgiveness for the way that God and Jesus have been misrepresented over the years...Crusades, conquering of the Native Americans here in the US, and also, to apologize for all the ways that Jesus is misrepresented today. It is quite touching and moving and just amazing how they were touched in doing this and how their fellow students, even though some or most of them were probably drunk were receptive to this heartfelt outpouring of grief over how our wonderful savior has been used to create terrible things, to justify evil.
I don't think that we carry the guilt of our predecessors in all this, but Donald Miller brings up a good point.
Whether or not we like it, presenting ourselves as Christians to the world carries some ugly baggage. One person you approach might only know of Jim Bakker...The famous, or infamous televangelist. Or you might approach someone who only knows the Jesus of a strict Catholic upbringing and no longer want anything to do with organized religion, much less the people involved in it. Or how about someone who has only heard the harsh hell-fire and brimstone words of a conservative church-goer from the deep south, and never the love and acceptance of the Jesus of the Bible. All of us have a set of religious baggage. I know from my conservative...Very conservative church of Christ background there is more than enough for me to drag around. Adam has his fair share to add to mine too. Some of my family have a goodly amount of Baptist baggage. I don't think anyone is immune to it.
It is some heavy stuff. How do you go into the world without it? How do you present nothing but Love, Truth, Light, Life....Nothing but Jesus? Is it possible to just go out and show and tell people of Jesus and how much He loves them? Can we just let everyone know that Jesus is Jesus, without all the politics and rules and regulations?
It is something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. I think that there is a great barrier that we must get over in order to reach people where they are.
This is no where near a complete thought, but just a jumping off point and somewhere to start from another time.
I am in a place where I am praying to God for things for things that I need personally. I feel like that is maybe one aspect of my prayer life that has been missing...And the fact that I don't pray nearly enough.
I tend to pray for others. Pray for friends and family to heal from sickness, for my children to grow in wisdom and knowledge of God, pray for my husband to be strengthened in his walk with God and his faith to be renewed, pray for those hurting that I learn about from the media--Katrina, 9-11 victims, missing children and their families. My list of things that are purely personal things is very small, maybe even non-existent. At least, it was.
I am really trying to focus more on what I need to grow closer to God. I know that I can't earn my way to God, but it is sometimes hard to humble myself enough to accept His help to get there. Accept His love for me, me who is so unworthy and who doesn't appreciate and value such a gift enough. May God continue to soften my heart and humble me so that I can fullly partake in the wonders that he has in store for me.
_____________________________________
Somewhat related to that, is something else I have been mulling in my mind for a few days. It probably isn't fully ready, but I thought it might help to get it out somewhere to "look" at it.
I was touched in the book by the confessional.
background for those who don't know...
Donald Miller and several other Christians at Reed College in Oregon decided to make a confession booth to have set up at the end of year festival Renn Fayre. This festival is described as a wild, crazy party full of alcohol, sex, drugs and all kinds of exotic things. In the midst of this immoral atmosphere, they set up this confessional, not with the intent for their fellow classmates to confess to them, but so that they can confess. Ask forgiveness for the way that God and Jesus have been misrepresented over the years...Crusades, conquering of the Native Americans here in the US, and also, to apologize for all the ways that Jesus is misrepresented today. It is quite touching and moving and just amazing how they were touched in doing this and how their fellow students, even though some or most of them were probably drunk were receptive to this heartfelt outpouring of grief over how our wonderful savior has been used to create terrible things, to justify evil.
I don't think that we carry the guilt of our predecessors in all this, but Donald Miller brings up a good point.
Whether or not we like it, presenting ourselves as Christians to the world carries some ugly baggage. One person you approach might only know of Jim Bakker...The famous, or infamous televangelist. Or you might approach someone who only knows the Jesus of a strict Catholic upbringing and no longer want anything to do with organized religion, much less the people involved in it. Or how about someone who has only heard the harsh hell-fire and brimstone words of a conservative church-goer from the deep south, and never the love and acceptance of the Jesus of the Bible. All of us have a set of religious baggage. I know from my conservative...Very conservative church of Christ background there is more than enough for me to drag around. Adam has his fair share to add to mine too. Some of my family have a goodly amount of Baptist baggage. I don't think anyone is immune to it.
It is some heavy stuff. How do you go into the world without it? How do you present nothing but Love, Truth, Light, Life....Nothing but Jesus? Is it possible to just go out and show and tell people of Jesus and how much He loves them? Can we just let everyone know that Jesus is Jesus, without all the politics and rules and regulations?
It is something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. I think that there is a great barrier that we must get over in order to reach people where they are.
This is no where near a complete thought, but just a jumping off point and somewhere to start from another time.
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