Statement of Faith

I believe in one personal, pre-existent, all-powerful God who created the universe and all that is found therein. This Creator God possess certain attributes indicative of personhood, among others, love, creativity, initiative, morality, need for companionship, decision making and rationality. I believe God wishes to be in relationship with His creation. I believe in additional (spiritual) dimensions beyond the physical universe, a reality which contains energies and beings which can affect our physical dimension either toward or away from God's love. I believe that the spiritual states of Heaven and Hell exist.

I believe that human beings were created fully formed--at some historical point--by God to be in relationship with Himself and to be of service to one another. Soon thereafter, humans made a decision to rebel from their spiritual nature and have ever since leaned morally toward selfishness and error, taking an apparent "short cut" to power and wholeness. Selfishness and error (rejection of God's will, truth and life) inevitably leads to physical and spiritual death. I believe human beings are endowed with radical free will, rationality and incalculable value. I believe that the general nature of humanity is unchanging, though individuals, cultures and societies are free to rise above the average or sink below at various times and places. I believe humans posses an eternal soul which will live on after physical death. I believe that there are two general classes to which humans can belong, the selfish, carnal, error-filled, temporal Kingdom of this World and the truth-seeking, eternally-minded, selfless Kingdom of Heaven. Though, we are told that the fruit of a person's life exposes which Kingdom they may belong to, our limited sensibilities prevents us from pursuing judgment too strongly in most cases. (We can only seek the truth as best we can and promote life, love and God's will where we can.) The existence after death is decided by the choices made during physical life.

I believe that, due to these conditions in the human race, God found it necessary to provide an avenue for salvation; that avenue is Jesus Christ. I believe Jesus was more than an example of a (the) spiritual life but rather the bridge between human selfishness and the wholeness of God. He was the perfect example of what it means to be fully human and fully divine. His life, teaching, ministry, death and resurrection came to pass in order to bring the Kingdom of God into the world. In essence, God sent Jesus to the world to demonstrate the truth and offer himself up as an invitation to depart from the Kingdom of Self and this World. I believe that, because of this free invitation to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and humanity's ability to make decisions, no human being, regardless of how depraved or evil, is excluded from entering a true relationship with God as long as they choose to freely enter; there are no hopeless cases.

I believe that final truth exists and through the God-given faculties of reason, wonder and reverence, despite our imperfections and the difficulties implied in the search, we humans can approach truth. Subjectivity is only the beginning of truth, not the end. I believe that the good life is an examined life.

Bondage of Sin

I've finally picked up True Spirituality, by Francis A. Schaeffer and, as is my habit with a new book, before I really dug into it, I skimmed through a couple pages. I think I'm really going to enjoy this, because the first thing that my eyes landed on really struck a chord with me. Chapter 8 begins with:

In the first seven chapters we considered freedom in the present life from the bonds of sin. Now we turn to consider the question of freedom in the present life from the results of the bonds of sin. . . . At this point we begin to come into very sharp conflict with the intellectual thinking of the second half of the twentieth century, and we will see that Christianity has to say to this.

With this chapter we begin our consideration with the question of "true spirituality" in relation to my separation from myself, which is the result of the fall and a result of sin. Now we must keep this in the right order. The sin causes the bondage and the results. Sin causes the bondage, and not the other way around. (p.83)

Sin, then, is the cause of bondage, not circumstances, not our mental health, not the government or poverty, not drugs or food or sex. Sin is the cause of moral evil in every form and the cause of all oppression, whether self-imposed or not. It is not those circumstantial evils that causes bondage, but our sin nature that creates the bondage that births those evils.

Just as I am

God, when he makes the prophet, does not unmake the man. . . . He [God] leaves all his [Man's] faculties in their natural state, to enable him to judge of his aspirations, whether they be of divine original or not. When he illuminates the mind with supernatural light, he does not extinguish that which is natural. . . . Reason must be our last judge and guide in everything.

John Locke

God doesn't rescue us from the consequences of our past, nor does He change our natures at the flick of a wrist. He, in His graciousness and patience, allows us to discover what we are and why we are using our natural abilities, talents, skills and our mind, body and soul.

Decoding the Past

I got a chance to catch the History Channel's first installment of "Decoding the Past" which purported to be a rational, "historical" evaluation of Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code. For the most part, I must admit, they did a good job of balancing the myths and legends from historical fact. The show was quick to point out that The Da Vinci Code is a work of fiction and therefore only requires plausibility to make the claims that it did. For example, the story hinges on the plausibility of Jesus (who was after all a real man, living in a real culture) and Mary Magdalene being husband and wife. I'll admit, it's beyond plausible that a First Century Jew would be married. One also has to admit that Mary played an important part in the early Jesus movement. But as a matter of fact, of historical fact, there is no documented evidence to support the claim that Mary bore Jesus' child. That goes for the whole notion that Jesus has an actual bloodline in southern France or that the Church actively suppressed this radical "truth". (Then again, the lack of proof only proves the conspiracy, right?!?)

The crux of the story for my wife and I is the strange case of Da Vinci. Our take on it is: "So what if Da Vinci thought there was some cover-up? So what if he thought Mary Magdalene was Jesus' wife?" Granted, Da Vinci was a genius, but that does not make his thoughts true or false, especially when his ideas on this particular subject were never explicitly stated. This goes for the legends of Mary Magdalene's flight to Egypt and subsequent "oar-less" boat ride across the Mediterranean to the south of France. There are always people with alternative theories, stories and plausible re-constructions.

Plausibility never equals truth.

Granted, the Church has always had a dark side to it; violent suppression of heterodoxy is fairly common in the history of the Christianity. In the end, if you feel the Church is radically misogynic, suppressed vital information about the progeny of Christ, then you can safely construct a model on which to make this claim--just as it's plausible to make the case that Christianity directly caused the Holocaust. You will, though, be forced to admit, that your conclusion is based purely on speculation and a unique interpretation of the documentary evidence.

For more information on this topic, particularly the Council of Nicea check out "Breaking The Da Vinci Code"

Multi-Cultural Worship Workshop

Just got back from a very moving and freeing all-day workshop put on Krista-Dawn Kimsey at the church. Wow! Here's a few things that really got me thinking:

Worship = the transformational act of recognizing God's invitation of love and offering our lives in response to Him. Worship is our RESPONSE to what God has already done.

Worship leaders [that's me!] are leaders of the Spiritual Formation of [our] congregation. [I am] NOT just a song leader!!

Worship leaders are prophets and Gatekeepers to point the way to Jesus and teach the congregation how to live in the Kingdom of God.

Worship leaders are pastors, shepherd that love and guide their congregation to healing and wholeness.

One of the major elements that I took away from this event was how Krista-Dawn addressed our fears. What fears do I have when I am up leading worship? I'm afraid I might offend, look like an idiot, that my experience won't be authentic, and play wrong notes that distract the congregation and other musicians. What was amazing was that I will look like a fool, I will offend SOMEONE (Jesus seemed to do that quite a bit too), I will mess up and it will feel unnatural sometimes. As simple as that. That's so freeing! I shouldn't worry about those things, because no matter what I do, it's going to happen anyway. I just need to show up and make the effort to be real, love people, do my best and look for what God has planned for me.

Christian Blogs

I suppose one of my first goals is to assess the Christian blogging community. I'd like to see what else is out there, and, perhaps, start networking with other blogs and contributing to the community at large. It will take some time I think, but this seems to be a good place to start: Christian Blogging

Starting a new web log

I have for a long time wanted to document the spiritual journey I have been on. I've had a role-playing and a web design blog for a while. I've even convinced a client or two to use blogger in relation to their site.

How many times have great truths or ideas gone in one ear and out the other? How long can I remember wonderful events clearly and accurately? I have too much stuff in my head already; so it's best I write them down as I think or discover them. This will be a record of that journey.