The Commonality of Diversity

Psalm 19
For the director of music. A psalm of David. The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech: night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.

What do , Fingerprints , Sunset's , Snowflakes, raindrops, DNA , grains of sand , ocean waves, Butterflies , flowers , clouds, trees... all have in common ?

They were created by God. According the Scriptures , these things all show us something about God ...they show me that God loves diversity , not only between things that are singularly different , like a grain of sand and butterfly wing ,but even more interesting even the butterfly wing and the grain of sand are unique from every other butterfly wing and grain of sand.

We know from watching CSI that no two fingerprints are alike , no two strands of DNA are alike.

While each snow flake is a separate masterpiece , there is a familiarity with Snow that we immediately recognize it.

God not only created all the Diversity and wonder in the Universe , but each individual creation is a unique creation of its own.

So I am wondering ...while the Church of Christ is unique and spacial among all Faiths , why is it we sometimes insist that all Believers believe the same ?

Isn't this insistence the reason we have so many denominations and doctrines ? And if this is the case , and all these differences of Opinion are part of Gods creation His unique template of thought for each and everyone of us , then why does this difference in belief often times become so divisive ?

Each wave that comes ashore is different from the one before and the one behind it , yet these waves wear down the land , the sand and dust left being swept up by the winds ,provide the seed for the snow that falls to earth...the snow and rain that falls to earth , nurtures the land , the trees , and soils and plants provide substance for the animals , we ourselves are fed by this process...we live in a theistic harmony ....and yet as humans we spend most of our lives in disharmony with each other ...

we see the differences of thought and belief as an attack on our selves , not for what they truly are the heavenly fingerprints of our Heavenly father... Our differences are as God given as our similarities and as such our differences should be cherished, nurtured and embraced. Not expelled , shut out or fought over ....

How appropriate that each day ends with a sunset which is different from the day before and begins with a Sunrise different from the past dawn, God has revealed Himself to us in a creation that is refreshingly diverse , yet similar. Maybe God has a good idea working here ...

There are times when I decide to choose what I think God would want me to do and painfully I find I am on a side road looking over at God as he hurtles down the Freeway. I am also convinced when I see God in these cases He is smiling at me ..and riding a Harley.

The past few weeks have been a good example of this. within a few days of the Green Hill Ambush I had determined ( without consulting God ) to get over the issue , move on, and Let God take care of business. I sincerely believe God has a different Idea.

On the day of the " correction in my belief " I was told that one " proof " of the fallacy of Calvinism was the decline of new Calvinists. As if God is looking for Quantity ....And as if you can measure the effectiveness of Evangelism by the number of Baptisms and Conversions.

Anyway the next day..I read in the paper that the Southern Baptist President is concerned that unless the SBC changes its ways it will be half the size it is in a decade.

I carefully looked through the Internet to find a Church I might be interested in attending and the one I zeroed in on I sent an Email for more information and still have not had a reply, but the church we decided to go to just " for the fun of it " now looks like a great haven for us .

I again choose to put the " ambush " behind me ..only to pick up the paper and read that the SBC ( our former denomination ) is choosing which Baptisms to honor and which to not honor...clearly unscriptual.

Phone calls, Letters, emails , newspaper articles ....I Just don't think God wants me to be finished with this business at GHBC ..and I don't think its my Ego getting in the way either ...I really want to walk away ...but I am not sure its possible.

The more I find out , the more that trickles out of the wall of silence and self deception from this Church, makes me realize that this kind of behaviour thrives like mold in the dark and secret places of the foundation.

I am not sure where all this is Going but I need to pay careful attention to what God's will is in this matter , and to amp up my prayer life with Him .

This morning I woke up deciding to write about " what should a church be " and instead this is what seemed to come crashing out ... Kenn

Meditation on a Sunday Morning

Genesis 1
In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

I am guilty of taking so much for granted , I am guilty for constantly trying to make God small enough to fit into my Understanding.

Its early Sunday morning , Lori is sleeping down the hall, light is streaming through the window , and there is a steady clack from the dryer as some of my change from yesterday finishes the washing cycle.

There are few diversions, and distractions, I have a better opportunity than usual to look at this verse ...and ponder.

In the beginning God created .... In the Beginning..

In our lives everything has a beginning , this day began with a mockingbird and a motorcycle , Lori and I began with an Chat room discussion on AOL, The computer I am typing on began in a factory...yet everything that begins has an antecedent . Before the mocking bird was the egg, before the Lori and I met her parents and my parents met , before this computer was crafted , the sand was formed.

Science can take us back to the beginning ...but what takes us back to God ..where is God's Antecedent ? In the Beginning there was nothing but God ...

The current Scientific model has all of the elements of creation , pushed , shoved , crammed into a body far smaller than a grain of sand ...the only thing that comes close to helping me understand this is watching Lori pack our suitcases for a plane trip. And while the packed Suitcase does have elements of a miracle ...the packed atomic particle ...races past miracle and into a technological disbelief for me.

Imagine though if this particle that contained all we know , see , hear, touch , and all we will never see , hear and touch ...was not a physical particle ...what if it was instead a thought ?

After all while it might be difficult to stuff an Elephant in my brain , I can easily imagine an elephant , and a new Camera as well ...

Now what if that thought that contained all that is and will ever be was in the mind of God...and Creation was spoke into existence ? Which seems to make more sense ? A sub atomic particle , suspended in nothing , which means it is not suspended at all , filled with all the matter and DNA necessary for creation. then somehow exploding with such force that all this stuff went hurtling off into nothing to fill nothing with something ?

Or to consider all we know and seek was created by a thought , spoken aloud ?

For me a Cosmos view that not only has God in control of His creation but has Him as the Narrator of this Creation makes far more sense.

I have always been close to the Sciences, in my younger years I worked for the Oregon State department of Geology , At one time my degree program in College was Anthropology. I am pro science , but sometimes watching scientists scramble around the " Mystery " of creation is like watching a group of blindfolded children trying to break a birthday pinata.

They are so close ...much of the evidence is in , and it all points to God ...but its a swing and miss , Yelms, dark matter, quantum physics, red shift. It is at this point that I realize the " Big Bang " is really the sound of my head striking the wall as I keep muttering " you are so close , so close "

At least with the Pinata the target is real , and identifiable , how do you find God in His creation ?

And the answer seems to be right in front of our nose ...He is made evident in His creation.

And there is more ...

It would be easy then to accept Creation as the "thought of God " but God whose ways are not my ways ...whose thoughts are not my thoughts ... transformed the thoughts into substance. Just as the Book of John says " and the word became flesh " so the spoken word of God at the beginning took on form , it took on weight and height and depth ,Gods thoughts could be touched and smelled , and tasted ....

Our God is indeed an Awesome God .

A knock at the door of my sleepy mind

I had planned to continue with yesterdays theme of Humor in Theology , but something has brought me out of a sound and relaxing nap ,with the insistence of a Swat team knock on the door.

To make this " awakening " even more convincing there were not one , but two knocks being executed.

At one end of my sleep I was being reminded of just how much our former Pastor hated Divorce, how often he preached against those who would give up on a marriage and seek the divorce courts . And at the other end of my sleep I was startled to see the American Flag proudly waving in front of the Church we used to go too.

Both of these notions then overwhelmed me with their hypocrisy and contradiction.

Let me explain: first I started to realize that in a sense this Pastor had divorced us from the Body of Christ as made manifest in the Church he pastored. Now this may seem a bit of a stretch , but we do use such terms as our church home , and our church family when describing our church relationships. The bible uses the Marriage metaphor as well , and its reasonable to assume that those ideas of Fidelity, Sacrifice, Faithfulness, Patience and Forgiveness that are so essential in a Marriage might be easily applied to a church. A marriage built on the foundation of my way or the highway may have difficulty surviving , so the same might be said of a Church family. I am certainly no rocket scientist , I am not a Savant of any kind , and not a Mensa candidate ..but it does seem that if a Pastor applied the same tenacity he encourages to keep a marriage alive , he might consider using the same to keep his Church Family together.

Then there is the Flag issue; for several years I have been concerned about the prominence and focus of the flag in our ( former ) church. The American flag is flown in the sanctuary , and in front of the Church. In the Sanctuary in order to comply with regulations mandated by the United States Government the flag must be more prominent than the Christian Flag. The same for outside the Church. Anyone driving by our church can see the American flag positioned above the Christian flag. That bothers me.

I did some research on the Net and found that only in the USA and in the " State " sponsored Churches of communist China is that the case. I also noted that in Nazi Germany the German National flag was also given more prominence in the German Churches.

In this church we also celebrated both Memorial day and the Fourth of July with " patriotic " worship services which included the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag and concluding with an Altar call to the music of America the Beautiful. During the Praise session a video is shown , honoring the four branches of the Armed services which include footage of gunships, naval bombardment, diving warplanes and troops storming the beaches. As the footage unfolds the choir sang a hymn of praise to the Army , Navy, Marine Corp and Coast Guard. This in our Sanctuary.

I actually approached our Church leadership on this issue and was told that first that it was only two services out of the year and that it was consistent with Scripture. They quoted Romans :

Romans 13
1Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted,

This verse is in the Bible , but I'm not sure what we were allowing to happen was what Paul was talking about. After all I am reasonably certain the early Christians in Rome , were not flying the Roman colors or saluting Rome in their worship services.

Now here is where it gets interesting , after one of these services our Associate Pastor preached against the Muslim faith indicating he could see no reason why we would allow a Mosque to be built in the area we live in.

I mentioned to him that I was also reasonably certain that not all the American soldiers we paid tribute to in the Church service who had died for their country were Southern Baptists. That it was reasonable to assume that Catholics, Jews, SDA, Muslims , Hindus , even Atheists died in Battle for this country.

It just seems to me that the Church should be apart from Patriotic displays , that the sanctuary should be where we worship God and not the State.

But having said that it would also seem that if a Church felt it necessary to honor the sacrifice of those who died so that we could have Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion , that church might also consider those rights to be afforded to its own Membership. If freedom of Speech is so highly regarded then excercising that speech in a Sunday School class might be something to consider.

Here I have probably entered the " Logic Zone" .

In other words it seems that if a Church wants to Praise God and Worship God by exalting the Military , and the Military's successful campaign's to maintain certain freedoms granted to the American People , and to enjoy the Tax benefits afforded ALL the citizens of this Country , that church might consider extending those same benefits to its Church family ...

Unless ....the Church chooses to separate itself from the State. enjoy no such privilege and instead follow Gods instruction and commands.

At some point you have to choose who you serve ... It is no accident that the Church has always flourished with persecution and was stagnated when it became a "State " religion.

Kenn

When to Ponder and when not

Perhaps there are sometimes we should not try to write about the profound things , those times certianly depend on each of us as indivuduals and ..whats profound to one person may be a gentle yawn for another.

I found myself trying to make a profound point at 2am in the Morning , I would have been better off just watching COPS or the History Channel. Profound thoughts need an upright writting posture , a steaming cup of coffee, and undistracted focus.

Im sure it will happen again ...Lori will tell you that I am frequently guilty of over anylyizing just about everything expect where I put the daily accumulation of stuff from my pocket ( I have about 27 places carefully marked out in the house for that use as it stands today ).

I was trying to anylize what it is that I enjoy so much about Sunsets. I build alot of my life around the Sunset, I choose our dinning schedule and our social schedule around the time the Sun sets , and I have been very blessed at making very good choices when to race down to the local lake and get a good Sunset picture.

I like the variety , the surprise , the serenity of a Sunset . I love the flurry of motion when the shore birds seem to take wing just as the Sun sets as if they too are celebrating the end of the day. I love the colors , the changing colors , and the notion that each Sunset is unique.

2am this morning I was trying to make some clever comment about how Sunsets are the result of impurities in the clouds and therefore ..like the sunset we as His own shine much better with our impurities...now I might be on to something , but I think I need to take alittle more time to flush ( and that might be the right word ) that Idea out .

So for those who were unfortunate enough to read the post I just deleted and wonder if I was overdosing on Antihistimines ...my apologies ...

Lesson Learned ..... not everything you think about after the sun goes down is glorious :)

Symmetry

Truly the light is sweet , and it is pleasant to the eyes to behold the sun , but if a man lives many years and rejoices in them all , yet let him remember the days of darkness, for they will be many. Ecclesiastes 11: 7-8

There is a simple symmetry to a sunset ( one persons sunset is another persons sunrise ) there is a glorious beauty to this daily occurrence that is free to all who wish to view it. A metaphor for Gods grace unearned reaching out to all , sometimes obscured but always present. There is more to a Sunset than meets the eye. More than its beauty , it strikes a part of us that is a " human part " worldwide people pause and reflect on the last visible evidence of the daily sun. Lovers embrace and kiss as it falls, solitary men and women take time to ponder in its sight. Would we enjoy this blessed sight if it were the last time before total darkness ? or does the promise of a new day not only make this tolerable, but joy full as well ? The sunset offers us hope and reflection, and summons us to rest for the beginning a brand new day filled with Gods blessings trials and sorrows ..a simple symmetry.

Our part

Ezekiel 36: 24-32

24 " 'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. 28 You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. 29 I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful and will not bring famine upon you. 30 I will increase the fruit of the trees and the crops of the field, so that you will no longer suffer disgrace among the nations because of famine. 31 Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices. 32 I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign LORD. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, O house of Israel!

I believe there its Human nature to want to be partners with God. Many faiths are works based , that is to mean that these faiths believe that Eternal life and Gods pleasure with mankind depends on a cooperative effort between man and God. Once this " truth " of cooperation is accepted ....mankind then goes so far as to put themselves first...some claim that God needs to see evidence of our good works before He will claim us , some feel that money can purchase their salvation...and others simply say " I asked Jesus into my heart " " I was saved " " I brought my neighbor to Christ ".

While I firmly believe that God will forgive this human behavior and that for the most part it is spiritually benign , it does give us pause. We need to continually remind ourselves that our hope is based on Jesus Christ ...not on us ...not on our neighbors ... not on our pastors or leaders , our hope is in the Sovereign Lord , maker of heaven and earth. At some point most Christians will agree that God is Sovereign , at least within the " box" we allow ourselves to build around God.

What we will never know as believers is just how God works through us as we exalt our free will above His.

consider this Butterfly...it can feed when it wants ...it can move from bloom to bloom , if it senses my presence it can choose to leave or stay...this butterfly has the free will of a ....Butterfly...If this butterfly could imagine the workings of my Ford Focus it could not choose to drive it .

My free will is far more complicated or at least I like to think so ...but I cannot will myself to fly ...and just as I cannot escape my free will to fly I have a Sinners Free will and I cannot choose God or the things of God without God first changing my will....and Praise God once He chooses to change my Free will ...He also promises to complete that good work and bring me into His home to live eternally with Him.

Good fruit

James 3:17
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.

I was thinking just recently that while studying the Bible and reading commentaries about the Scripture could hardly be called a waste of time ...It just might be if that reading , study and class time does not bear good fruit.

Once I heard a person say " they know the Bible by heart , but they do not know the heart of it ". That still makes sense to me. If our teaching and reading leads us to hurting or harming others , if it leads us to being a poor witness to the Lord ...then perhaps we should put up the Bible and reach for a comic book .

This world is filled with the Mercies of the Lord , He pours out His love on all humankind, and we are encouraged to share that love with others ...not just friends and family but with those that despise us , those that hate us , those that would raise their hands against us.

If we can trust in the Lord to provide so generously for us ...then we can trust Him when we do His bidding.
When Jesus said Love your enemy I am pretty sure he didn't mean drop cluster bombs on them

Fences

There is this fence running through the Christian Faith, probably more than one. While God sees a field of believers , Christians them selves seem very good at building fences in the fields.



My wife will immediately tell me that I am painting with a very broad brush. And I will admit she is probably right.



But I am starting this blog as a commemoration of an ending. You see this week I was asked to leave the Church we have belonged to for the past 5 years or so because I prefer to walk in the left hand side of the field , and our leadership prefers the right. Until recently I really didn't notice the fence. Now I can't ignore it. I have been a Christian since 1996 . During this period I have been blessed by God's presence in a Four Square Church, an Assembly of God, Church of the Nazarene, Presbyterian, Church of Christ and Baptist . Each of these churches looks at the Scriptures differently in some ways and the same in others ...This has provided me with a rich tapestry of belief and faith, an opportunity to study and know a God far more complex and diverse than any one denomination could contain.

I have come to believe this is a " God " thing . The Apostle Paul inspired by God wrote "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. " If you think about it no two people will ever see the same reflection.. each of us has a slightly different perspective to each of us though similar the reflection is different. I think that God is so beyond our individual thoughts that even the collective perspectives of 8 billion people could not even begin to show us God.

All this to say I believe that God is the author of our belief of Him. God is so vast so incomprehensible that only God can teach us of Himself.

That is not to say there are incorrect views of God... but I do believe that any belief about God that is inspired by God will lead to good fruit ... Recent events that led to our being cashiered out of our home church ..does lead me to question fruit production ...I had been taught that if we felt a fellow believer had sinned against us or caused us to stumble we should go directly to that believer to reconcile the issue ...I was surprised to find out that something that had happened in December of last year was being held against me ...by a leader in our Church, yet this person never came to me ...never once mentioned that they were upset , instead whenever I saw this person I was given a firm handshake , pat on the back and big smile .....it was this person that without any discussion ..told me to leave the church because my belief about Gods Salvation has 5 points and His does not. ...I wish could write more eloquently about how this has made me feel about my former Church and its Leadership. I am bitter , but praying that through Christ my bitterness will be removed... time will tell