Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
NIV
Full context: 1 John 2:15
"Worldliness" is a very old concept and pretty divisive by intention. It separates. "Me" from "Them" and "Us" from "Them" are the battle lines.
If I am not emotionally and spiritually secure it can divide "Me" from "Me" as I struggle with my compulsions and easy self-gratification and then get captive to guilt. That spirals into more self-gratification to escape the guilt and on and on down the spiral.
When I am feeling insecure I can derive pleasure from labeling others and feel superior--but of course that is in itself, you guessed it, worldly.
In looking at the text again the second statement helps to define for me what worldliness truly is and also how to revive from condemnation. I can know I am loving the world when the fruit of spirit is absent, the mark of God-in-me is missing. The second statement is more about recognition than condemnation. It is a fact, known by observation, that the love of God is not in me when I am filled with the non-God.
Jesus was self-differentiated and centred on the love of God and he is the model. He didn't get angry or judgmental at those who he saw as lost in the world. He had compassion. He got angry when his followers or the religious of the day stood on the spirits of others to feel good themselves. He called truth as he saw it without requiring self-gratification in separation OR accommodation with the world.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Wednesday, December 30, 2009
Anabaptist Bible Thought for the Day 12/30/2009
2 Peter 3:3-7 (New International Version)
3First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. 4They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation." 5But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. 7By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.
-------------------------
In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, Amen.
I struggle with the "last days" part of Christianity. I have for a long time. In the discussion of the "last days" things switch to an "us and them" thinking and the dominant outsiders will now get whats due them by God. I suppose that I have a reaction to what I perceived as being escapist from the world; and being an escapist in other areas of my life I react that that which I embrace but dislike in myself.
As I look again at the text God tells me through the Apostle that "scoffers will come scoffing and following their evil desires." Oops. That would be me. So if the last days warnings are about preparing my heart for the reign of God I must guard myself against scoffing at the scoffers and also scoffing against the community of faith that I like to criticize for a variety of reasons. God is judgmental of my judgmentalism.
The story of the deluge is a story of judgement in and by creation at the will of God. I live in the world and by the world and am of the earth in my body chemistry and some day it will decay as all organic matter does. We have evidence of the destructive power of the creation as well as its bounty. When I have participated in a wasteful consumer lifestyle there are consequences for my life and around the world as we deal with the waste and the shortage of unwasted matter.
The apostle warns of fire and combustion is the great innovation of humanity that is now the growing threat to humanity. Carbon burning poisons us and the world. the balance of nature is upset. Our desire for consumption of processed material requires burning and refining of mineral and organic material. To create heat we burn. In all we do--and I participate in it--we face burning. There is an inevitable "big burn" that will await. Some have pointed apocalyptically to nuclear holocaust and other destructions of war and that is true. But the way we live and scoff at creation is our own judgment.
Today I will not mock God. I will not judge others for the sins I commit. I will not scoff.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Where your treasure is...
"Love what you do," "Love who you are," even "Love the skin you're in," all are messages about self in the flow of life. I have struggled with this as long as I can remember. God keeps taking me through the cycles of being and doing and maybe, just maybe, it is seeping in.
I'm trying to get more grounded in love--in my walking with God, in my marriage and relationships with my children, and in the business I'm creating with and for my partners and clients. I've been noticing how easily love gets blurred with presuppositions that frame the ideas, feelings and actions of being loving.
Jesus taught about love and priorities like this in Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also..." I've read that hundreds of times but I could swear that the text said the opposite order, "where your heart is, that is where your treasure is--or where your treasure will be found." The latter understanding is where I have lived most of my adult life and how I have made decisions. It is the journey of self-fulfillment.
Questions like, what does my heart tell me, how do I feel, what inspires me, what are my aspirations leading me to. Then I will have a meaningful life, to contribute and feel the joy of others blossoming.
Jesus was a failure. All of his early followers were losers. They followed their beliefs and were mocked and then killed for challenging the system. Yet, not. Without coercion, He appealed to hope in others and his disciples learned it as well and were willing to challenge the social, religious and political system on the basis of example instead of revolt. The Jesus movement grew exponentially over the next few centuries by a willingness to surrender and serve for peace (And then the whole thing ws co-opted by the state and Christendom was created, but that is another story). It all depends on where the Treasure is, in power and self actualization by process or release and peaceful service.
I know in my heart that I am a disciple of Jesus and that frames my ethics, beliefs and my misunderstanding of it drives the guilt of inconsistency. The problem is that guilt and low self-esteem become the heart-of-hearts when left to themselves and sabotage the great aspirations. That is the problem with "Heart-to-Treasure" instead of "Treasure-to-Heart. What I treasure is being free to understand, to be transformed, to then feel love, and to serve.
I'm trying to get more grounded in love--in my walking with God, in my marriage and relationships with my children, and in the business I'm creating with and for my partners and clients. I've been noticing how easily love gets blurred with presuppositions that frame the ideas, feelings and actions of being loving.
Jesus taught about love and priorities like this in Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also..." I've read that hundreds of times but I could swear that the text said the opposite order, "where your heart is, that is where your treasure is--or where your treasure will be found." The latter understanding is where I have lived most of my adult life and how I have made decisions. It is the journey of self-fulfillment.
Questions like, what does my heart tell me, how do I feel, what inspires me, what are my aspirations leading me to. Then I will have a meaningful life, to contribute and feel the joy of others blossoming.
Jesus was a failure. All of his early followers were losers. They followed their beliefs and were mocked and then killed for challenging the system. Yet, not. Without coercion, He appealed to hope in others and his disciples learned it as well and were willing to challenge the social, religious and political system on the basis of example instead of revolt. The Jesus movement grew exponentially over the next few centuries by a willingness to surrender and serve for peace (And then the whole thing ws co-opted by the state and Christendom was created, but that is another story). It all depends on where the Treasure is, in power and self actualization by process or release and peaceful service.
I know in my heart that I am a disciple of Jesus and that frames my ethics, beliefs and my misunderstanding of it drives the guilt of inconsistency. The problem is that guilt and low self-esteem become the heart-of-hearts when left to themselves and sabotage the great aspirations. That is the problem with "Heart-to-Treasure" instead of "Treasure-to-Heart. What I treasure is being free to understand, to be transformed, to then feel love, and to serve.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Pre-light Enlightenment
I'm up early this morning--5:30 a.m.--after going to bed sick last night. Getting up before the sun brought back to mind the agrarian lifestyle of some of my ancestors and friends from Kitchener, ON that are still in the food growing economy. Getting up before dark brings choices for the day--prayer and meditation, frittering time away on Google News, early breakfast on the deck, or an early walk. I elected some of each this morning.
Since re-locating here 4 years ago from Central Canada the challenges to my spirit have been to create a business that supports and sustains our family, those of my associates and to make a reflective life possible. Ironic that frantic work and exhaustion are the tools to inner peace. I thought some more of the farmers who get up before dark to take care of livestock and then look after their own "lifestock"--the personal and family routines of the early day to frame the rest of the day.
I think of my friends Steve and Lisa who farm and both work outside the home and are raising a family. They have rhythms in the day that enable them to move forward and adjust to changing fortunes of livestock prices, children growing up and marrying, catastrophic threats to health and through it all--faith. The quiet heroes of life struggle on and bring blessing to those they meet because they have the integrity that comes from years of grounding outside of their circumstances.
I have to touch some ground this morning; a walk to be sure, but a renewal of meaningfulness more-so.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Isaiah 46:9-10
Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
Since re-locating here 4 years ago from Central Canada the challenges to my spirit have been to create a business that supports and sustains our family, those of my associates and to make a reflective life possible. Ironic that frantic work and exhaustion are the tools to inner peace. I thought some more of the farmers who get up before dark to take care of livestock and then look after their own "lifestock"--the personal and family routines of the early day to frame the rest of the day.
I think of my friends Steve and Lisa who farm and both work outside the home and are raising a family. They have rhythms in the day that enable them to move forward and adjust to changing fortunes of livestock prices, children growing up and marrying, catastrophic threats to health and through it all--faith. The quiet heroes of life struggle on and bring blessing to those they meet because they have the integrity that comes from years of grounding outside of their circumstances.
I have to touch some ground this morning; a walk to be sure, but a renewal of meaningfulness more-so.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Isaiah 46:9-10
Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please.
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