This past Sunday I had the chance to check out Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw on the Jesus for President tour as it landed at Clark Elementary School in Hartford.  Right off the bat I could tell this was going to be a different experience – after all, how many nationally known Christian speakers would do a tour stop (and a free one at that) in an inner-city elementary school auditorium?  The point of using Clark School, of course, was to bring this message to the level where Claiborne and Haw live (inner city Philadelphia), where their hosts (Hartford City Mission and Hartford Catholic Worker) live and minister, and, they would probably argue, where Jesus Himself would live if He were a Connecticut resident.
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For my money, Job 1:13-19 has to be the most ridiculously awful passage in the whole Bible.  If you know the story at all, Satan has contended before God that the only reason Job serves God is because He has made Job prosperous.  “Strike everything he has,” Satan says, “and he will surely curse you to your face.”  God proceeds to allow Satan to test out that theory, and what follows is the Job 1:13-19 nightmare:
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“When a man is revengeful, it is amazing how cunning he is to find opportunities to strike out.  When enmity thoroughly possesses his soul and pours its venom into his very blood, he will become exceedingly crafty in the means he uses to provoke and injure his adversary” [Charles Spurgeon (19th century British preacher), Spiritual Warfare in a Believer’s Life].

Ahhh, vengeance.  How true are Spurgeon’s words, that we are never more cunning and crafty as when we wish to inflict pain on someone.  We can come up with the most biting lines and the sneakiest ways to damage someone’s reputation.  We can damage them with ice-cold snubs and stares or red-hot words of anger and violence. 

Is it any wonder, in light of this, that Satan is first introduced in the Bible in this way:  Read more »

If you’ve never actually read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four accounts of the life of Jesus – or even if you’ve never read them carefully – it can be easy to believe in a one-dimensional Jesus who fails to resemble the complex individual found in the gospels.  Some believe in the “just love and accept everybody” Jesus, others in the “fight for justice and speak against ungodly authority” Jesus, and still others for a human Jesus who never claimed to be divine.  But the truth is way more complex, and, rest assured, will offend everyone (including you) at some point.  One person will find Jesus too forgiving, seemingly letting people off the hook who deserve punishment.  Others will find him too narrow, demanding that people come to God through Him and treat His words as truth instead of allowing people to believe whatever they want.  In short, Jesus just isn’t like us, and often does not behave the way we wish He would.

One of the best examples comes in Matthew 16:13-23.  Read more »

Would it shock you to hear that this June, beginning this Sunday, there will be 1,263 churches, with a combined total attendance of roughly 750,000 people, who will be joining together to do the same preaching series?  One Prayer, the brainchild of LifeChurch of Oklahoma’s pastor Craig Groeschel, is an attempt to unite the worldwide church for one month in prayer, fasting, mission, and vision for what God could do if we would all seek Him together.  I remember when I first heard him pitch the vision – it couldn’t have been more than three or so months ago – and it has been staggering to see the number of churches who have signed up to be a part of this experience (six Connecticut churches, including East Hampton Bible Church, Fellowship Church of Middletown, and St. Paul’s Collegiate Church of Storrs, are among those taking part). 
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C.S. Lewis once said that “the church is the only organization that exists for the benefit of non-members.”  God’s people are called to be very outwardly-focused, seeking to bring others into a relationship with Jesus and to display God’s kingdom on earth through works of love, peace, and justice.  I’ve been thinking about that truth recently as we’ve been contemplating the risks and rewards involved in moving our church to a new location that would increase just about everything – exposure to the town, financial bills, and ministry demands on our members.  I see this opportunity as a serious challenge to everyone from the leadership to the most recent attendees as to whether or not we agree with the above quote.  Do we exist primarily to serve ourselves and to care for each other, or to see this community and world transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ?

I am sure that most people want to say the latter, of course.  The hard part is, however, that the answer to what we truly believe will come not by our words but by our actions.  Consider the following:

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Every few months or so, I get a letter from the denomination that I am licensed by with a plea to help a church that needs to make repairs on their building.  A few months ago, the letter was regarding a church in New Hampshire which meets in one of those old Congregational church buildings you see on every town green in New England.  Apparently the pillars that supported the roof were sinking into the ground, and things had gotten so bad that the building was deemed unsafe to meet in.  Long story short, it the church was going to need about $500,000-$750,000 to get the building into usable shape again.

Wow.
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(From the beginning of this blog, I have used this space to reflect theologically on the things we experience in the culture around us.  I would also love to use this space to give more people at NewLife the chance to share, exhort, encourage, edify, and teach the things that God is putting on their heart to share.  In that spirit, here are a few exhortations from our guest writer, Wes Feshler.  Given our current series on the life of Joseph, which deals heavily with the subject of trusting that God is working towards a good purpose even when He seems absent, here are a few of Wes’ exhortations related to that topic:)

(1) Trust God

Proverbs 3:1-8 - My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart,  2 for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity.  3 Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.  4 Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.  5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;  6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.  7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the LORD and shun evil.  8 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones.

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As I was finishing up the recent Why Believe? sermon series and the Why Go to Church? series on the blog, someone encouraged me to follow them up with a Why NewLife? post, in order to highlight some of the reasons why I feel NewLife is a church worth being a part of.  As I mentioned in an earlier Pulse, I am not fond of religious consumerism, where “church shopping” becomes like looking for a good mechanic (“I like the music, and the seats were comfortable, but the sermon was too long”).  However, I do think it’s worth testifying to what God is doing in our church, in the hopes that more might become a part of what He is doing in and through our community.  So let me offer five reasons (among many others) why I love our church:
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This week I’m taking a break from writing something original, but I want to recommend to you three very interesting things I found on the web this week, two of which will enhance the recent “Why Believe?” series.  The first is a “blogalogue” debate between N.T. Wright and Bart Ehrman on the subject of pain and suffering.  N.T. Wright is the Bishop of Durham for the Church of England, has taught at McGill, Oxford, and Cambridge, and has authored many books, including one that is relevant to this dialogue, Evil and the Justice of God.  Bart Ehrman is the James A. Gray Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and the author of God’s Problem:  How the Bible fails to answer our most important answer – Why we suffer and Misquoting Jesus, among others. 
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