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http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DreamAwakener/~3/338851717/the-canva

Jesus Christ, The Great High Priest- VerseVisions Art
Originally uploaded by Marketseq

For the past two weeks I have been in intensive classes with my cohort at Fuller Theological Seminary.  In this second week, each of us get the chance to share about what has been happening in our lives as well as what we have been learning in this particular degree program.  When you are in a cohort of this nature, it is easy to look around and see how large everyone is, which in turn can effect your self-image.  The following poem was written by a guy in our class who exudes the aroma of Christ.  When he read it to our class this week, I was deeply moved.  I asked him if I could share it with you and he gave me permission, if I kept his name anonymous.  So here is the poem.  After you read it, if you have some time, let me know what you think about it.

THE CANVAS
The canvas is blank, it’s right there before me,
I’ve got colors and brushes galore,
And when I stare at the canvas it stares back at me,
Just waiting for me to explore.

But there’s something inside me that brings me great fear,
That won’t allow me to paint or to dream,
‘Cause I worry that the outcome of my strokes over time,
Won’t be as good as the others I’ve seen.

So I stare at the canvas with tears in my eyes,
And I slowly paint one little section,
But the rest of the canvas remains free of life,
Because I only see my imperfection.

So Father, I beg you, as I go through today,
And the next chance to paint I pursue,
I ask you for courage to use all these brushes,
As I color the canvas for you.

I have this strange feeling that as the painting ensues,
And the reds, blues, and greens start to splatter,
I’ll come to see that when my eyes are on Jesus,
Comparing my painting won’t matter.

‘Cause at the end of my life, when the painting is finished,
I just know that my Jesus will love it,
‘Cause both the painter and canvas are washed in his blood,
And it’s that grace, not great art, that I covet.

- Anonymous

http://dualravens.com/ravens/?p=229

The last few years Wheaton College has started a great custom. It sends various professors out and about, throughout the year, to give lectures at alumni club meetings. These are not just a good way to touch base with other alumni, from all generations, but also a chance to remember why Wheaton was such a great place for learning.

They’ve posted recordings of these lectures online. Well worth having a listen.

Here’s the lectures from this year:

Dr. Lon Allison, Director of the Billy Graham Center

Discovering Your Faith-Sharing Style

How do you share your Christian faith with others? Dr. Lon Allison will discuss how you can discover your God-given style of faith-sharing with those around you. He will present eight styles with practical ways to apply them to your everyday life.

Dr. Ken Chase, Associate Professor of Communication

Digital Delusions and the Future of Christian Witness

The Internet Age provides wonderfully new opportunities for communicating the Gospel to a global audience. However, it can also seduce Christians away from the communication techniques most needed in our culture. We mistakenly look to digital answers to overcome the deep divisions within our society. Dr. Chase will discuss how we must look, instead, to the enduring power of Christian witness to communicate the Gospel.

Dr. Christine Gardner, Assistant Professor of Communication

The Rhetoric of AIDS

Dr. Gardner explores how the power of words shapes our understanding of a disease that continues to claim the lives of nearly 8,000 each day. Drawing on experiences in the field and in the classroom, Dr. Gardner focuses on different spheres of rhetoric—from political to entertainment to religious—and the impact of our words on the Church’s witness.

Dr. P.J. Hill, George F. Bennett Professor of Economics

Capitalism and Christianity: Friends, Foes, or Uneasy Partners?

During the 20th century, market capitalism was found to be the most successful way of ensuring increases in material well-being in a society. This raises an important question for the Christian: What is there in our understanding of human nature that provides insight into the success of a system based on private property and markets? The material success of capitalism also raises important issues about other aspects of human flourishing. What are the moral and ethical implications of a market economy?

Dr. Kristen Page, Associate Professor of Biology

Loving Neighbors: Christian Responsibility in the Created World

We live in a world of much suffering. Patterns of human land-use and resource consumption result in fragmented ecosystems, pollution, climate change, loss of biodiversity, and ultimately emerging diseases. In her lecture, Dr. Page discusses how we, as Christians in the developed world, must recognize our contribution to the suffering of our neighbors. We are called to image Christ, to live in family, and to respond in love to those around us. Since care for creation is love for our neighbors, we must live with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and love toward all creation. By acting as agents of reconciliation, we can truly love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves.

Dr. Jerry Root, Assistant Professor of Evangelism/Associate Director of the Institute of Strategic Evangelism, Billy Graham Center

C.S. Lewis’ Prince Caspian: A Showcase for Lewis’ Big Ideas

Every time C.S. Lewis put his pen to paper his aim was to set forth a vision of life. This is not merely true in his work in Christian apologetics, but also in his fiction. Dr. Root explores the background, main ideas, and rhetorical intention Lewis articulated in Prince Caspian. His presentation coincides with the recent release of the new Narnian Film, “Prince Caspian.”

Dr. John Walford, Professor of Art History

Photographic Explorations: An Art Historian’s Sideways Glance

Over the past few years, Dr. Walford has extended his activities from teaching and writing about art history to exploring the medium of digital photography as a further means of artistic expression. In this illustrated presentation, Dr. Walford describes how this new endeavor—which has led to a recent exhibition in Italy, and a forthcoming book of his photographs—has enabled him to combine his art historical training and visual sensibilities and led to engaging fresh audiences through the medium of the Internet, as well as revitalizing his classroom teaching. Dr. Walford’s presentation includes a slideshow of images. View this image gallery as you listen to the lecture.

Jay Wood Dr. Jay Wood, Professor of Philosophy

Virtuous Transformation

Thinking about moral virtues and vices has been a major concern of philosophers since the days of Plato and Aristotle. In fact, philosophical interest in the ways virtues and vices form our character is enjoying a resurgence of popularity at present. Christians, too, have always had an interest in virtues and vices as they bear on Christian character. This lecture will be an exercise in faith-learning integration, as we explore how virtues and vices contribute to our transformation in Christ.

I’ve noted before the fact the Wheaton has its chapel presentations online going back to 2003, and scattered selections before that (one or two even reaching the edges of my own long ago attendance).

http://yourtown4jesus.com/2008/07/17/the-florida-revolutionwow/

http://yourtown4jesus.com/2008/07/17/we-need-a-hero/

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/edstetzer/2008/07/thinking-about-m

Whenever I come to Orlando, I end up thinking about life and ministry.

Today was a day like that. After I finished teaching class, my daughter and I did a little tour and I shared with her part of her dad's (and her mom's) journey. She seemed interested, but it might have been the promise of ice cream along the way.

I was born and reared in New York and list that as "home" on forms that ask. However, Orlando has a lot of memories for me. I lived here as a teenager and had some significant milestones during those years:

1. I came to Christ in Orlando.

2. I was discipled here (in a new church plant as a teenager).

3. I met my wife in High School. We were high school sweethearts and even went to the prom together.

4. My sister died here (in 1987).

5. I grew greatly in my faith through, and in some cases because of, those things.

So, today I went by my old house (which was just torn down), the restaurant where I had my first date with Donna, my sister's memorial garden, and some other meaningful places with my daughter.

Being in Orlando makes me wish it was a simpler time when I did not have to worry about books and research, the challenges of denominational structures, who has this-or-that agenda, what event I was speaking at next, or what I had to say (or not say) at the next place.

I miss those days when things were simpler and it seemed that the big concerns were loving God, growing in faith, and helping others do the same. I am sure it was not as simple as I remember, but coming to Orlando makes me wish it was.

Being here makes me want to go back in time, grab a guitar (yes, I play, though not well), and go start a church with nothing but God, a Bible, and a mission...

So, pardon my musings. It was just a good day. It reminded me of what really matters... and it prompts me to adjust some things in my own life today and over the next few months.

I am currently in the middle of a series of posts titled, “All Mixed Up, Don’t Know What To Do”. However, the Lord has been teaching, and speaking to me through prayer, community, and one of my mentors about the authority of the Gospel in the upside down kingdom of Jesus. I will pick back up with the “All Mixed Up” series very shortly…

In the I.G. community here in our neighborhood we have committed to walking the streets every Friday morning at 7am to cover our neighbors in prayer. God has given us a desperate heart for this hood, and it’s sanctification. This is where we live, and we feel influenced to seek it’s welfare through deep relationships with those who live here as well. As we were walking the streets, and praying this past Friday the Lord gifted us with a beautiful realization about His authority, His Gospel, His Spirit that lives in us, and what that implies for those of us who call Jesus our Savior.

In man’s kingdom the word authority has a particular meaning. Many of us, myself included, are a bit rebellious by nature, and have had “issues with authority” throughout most of our lives. (The words of my amazing Dad!) Some of us relate the word to a husband & wife in the context of marriage, though often times not Biblical. We think of teachers, police officers, judges, managers, and bosses as having authority. Many of us are under the authority of someone, but also have authority over others. Regardless of which of the above examples we subscribe to the underlying theme is that of a power, or influence over others through control. The dictionary definition of authority is, “the power to determine, adjudicate, or otherwise settle issues or disputes; jurisdiction; the right to control, command, or determine.” Whether accurate, or inaccurate this is the view many of us have in regard to the word authority. The thoughts we have on words like authority are the result of our upbringing, culture, technology, country, education, and so much more. Sadly, this default meaning for the word authority we have acquired has tainted our ability to understand the authority that Jesus speaks of in His upside down kingdom. This is something that we will forever be handicapped by as we seek to pursue ushering in the kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven.
When Jesus walked the earth He challenged all the norms, thus we have the phrase “upside down kingdom”. There are many examples of how Jesus did this throughout scripture, but we will focus on His view of authority. As we saw earlier, man’s idea of authority stems from influence by control. We can all agree that our bosses have some degree of authority over us. They control, or influence the way we do things in many ways. A police officer has the authority to pull us over, ticket us, or arrest us. Jesus submits a different idea of authority in His upside down kingdom.

What if authority was not through control, or causing someone to submit to us, but rather something that was naturally awarded us as a result of love and service? For example, I submit to Christ, and His authority in my life as a result of His love for me. Jesus extended grace to me, and served me on the cross. My response to His actions are a willing submission to Him, and His authority in my life. He does not have to twist my arm, control, persuade, bribe, or compensate me to gain my submission to Him, which is not the case for most relationships we are in where someone has authority over us. We submit to our boss’s authority because he will fire us if we do not. We submit to our teachers because they have the ability to fail us. We submit to the police officer because he has a gun, and to the judge because he can put us in prison. Jesus’ authority is not a result of control of, or power over our individual lives. His authority in our lives is a result of us responding to Him, who He is, and what He did for us.

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." Mark 10:45

This is how the triune God chose to gain authority “over” His children; by being under them. (Kneeling to wash the feel of His disciples & accepting a punishment for people who didn’t deserve it to gain them access to the creator of the universe.) He did not put His thumb on our heads, and push down. He came to serve us, and die for us to complete a task that we ourselves could not; He raised the bar, and set the standard for how we are to live. That is the authority He has in my life. My deep appreciation for His grace causes me to submit to his authority. He did not force authority, or control.

This is the authority that we are invited to have in the lives of our neighborhood if we emulate the actions of Jesus. The Jesus inside of us kneels down to serve, and “wash the feet of our neighbors”. We serve, love, and build a relationship with those who live around us. We, through humble service, earn a voice in the lives of those we have grown to love; those who have also grown to love us. We have now not only sought to share the Gospel in words, but with the actions of our lives. Hidden agendas are non-existent, and ulterior motives nowhere to be found. Through modeling the life of Jesus we have now, by accident, gained authority in the lives of our new friends. Actually, the Spirit of Jesus living in us has now gained authority by our obedience, and submission to Him.

These realizations are what led to our prayer for the neighborhood this past Friday morning. As we walked down Lorilyn Ave. I prayed that the Gospel, and love of Jesus would have authority in the lives of those who live in this neighborhood. I prayed that we, by the power of the Spirit of God living in us, would be made able to love and serve the people in this neighborhood in such a way that would cause them to respond appropriately. I prayed that the authority of Jesus, His Spirit, and His Gospel would reflect the upside down kingdom. We do not desire to have an oppressive, controlling, consequence fueled, and forced authority in this neighborhood. We begged the Lord to show us ways that we can come not to be served, but to serve our neighbors. We truly believe that as we move forward and reflect the upside down kingdom of Jesus that it would place a bent towards Jesus in the hearts of those who do not know Him as Savior.

“Jesus, may Your Gospel have authority & power in this neighborhood not through control, but through your followers humbly living out that Gospel. As we live a Spirit led life, may it gain a supernatural authority, presence, and voice in the lives of those who do not know You as Savior. Amen.”

http://dualravens.com/ravens/?p=228

Throughout Christian history there has been quite an interest in men and women who did great things, whether in this world or within their soul. These men and women weren’t seeking self-satisfaction. Rather, they were truly seeking God and his work in them and in this world. The interest in such people often insisted they be viewed as saints, objects of devotion if not worship. Biographies written were often filled with stories of great victories, moral pronouncements, heroic stands. Little was said that would suggest these people had real personal histories or daily struggles or lived in complex times.

Glossing over the negatives, and thus the whole truth, these biographies were meant more as inspiration than history–inspiration for those already walking in their footsteps, devoted to the cause and method.

A Persistent Peace: One Man’s Struggle for a Nonviolent World is such a book, though oddly enough not one written by a later disciple but rather written by the man himself, John Dear. This fact makes the book curious to review. I do not share his views on pacifism, yet I am sympathetic to them, and was very open to being convinced, enlightened and taught. I was curious how he formed his views, how he wrestled with the Catholic Church’s official teaching, and in general the overall story of a man who has been on the frontlines of peace protests for the last thirty years.

I was disappointed, however. A Persistent Peace is a history of the icon, John Dear S.J, and even more the story of the names and places involved in the Peace movement since Reagan.

But we never really get to know the man, John Dear. The gift of an autobiography is that we can see not only the events, but also the internal perspective, wrestling, frustrations, development of the subject. John Dear seems to open up, but often only in ways that bolster the sense of his superiority. People around him don’t understand him. They are bored or angry or confused. Dialogue is pontifications of his teaching to the ignorant, even hateful, opponents or less ignorant friends. This is coupled with a hero worship of sorts, in which Dear seems to reveal himself most by talking about the people he wants to be like. But, all throughout it seems a lot of the real John Dear remains hidden, hidden because it seems he is still unwilling to be truly transparent about who he is and where he came from.

In the foreword, Martin Sheen writes, “I suspect that much of John’s character was formed, as it is for all of us, during adolescence, that critical period when every level of physical, emotional, physiological, sexual, and spiritual development begins to emerge.”

I suspect this too. Only A Persistent Peace gives nothing of this. We begin with John in college at Duke. We are given only the barest glimpse of his family life, which is decidedly upper class and filled with powerful influences. Indeed, he mentions his father and mother only in passing again and again, often as sources of introductions for people he proceeded to lecture about peace issues.



So, we don’t really ever get to see the man, only the image of the peace activist seeking the way of Jesus in this world as he sees it, fighting against the benighted masses who disagree, not only with the goal but also the method–public protest and nuisance. This is not a review to argue such tactics, however, I can’t help but think that being empowered because of arrests for public behavior is entirely different than the martyrs arrested for their message. Speaking the message is perfectly fine and accepted, a fact I think grates against those who seek to find identity within a pampered martyrdom.

Because of this I was disappointed with the book. We are left with more of a polemic than a story, again and again told rather than shown. Which places me outside of the target audience, to be sure, which is almost certainly the choir of people who already celebrate the message, goals, and tactics of John Dear as being the true expression of a “faith that does justice”.

Giving this a star rating was difficult even still, because I realize for many this is precisely what they want and need. Hagiographies were popular, and still are, because people need heroes presented in a certain light and need the empowerment that comes from seeing their causes as black and white, good versus evil. I give it three stars because I do not share the initial assumptions and was seeking a history of the man rather than a story of places, and celebrities, and events that make up the Peace movement. I wanted to learn about the man, not the symbol.

Here is a quote that I think would best help readers to determine the worth of this book. John Dear upon arriving at the Pentagon says, “it was the center of death for the whole planet, its prime purpose to organize the empire’s killing sprees at the behest of the multinational corporations and their politicians.”

If you agree with this, then you will see this as a five star book, speaking truth to power, and modeling heroic activism. If you disagree, you will find this book likely confirming what you like least about the Peace movement, even if you happen to agree with many of their ideals.

This is not particularly an interesting or insightful autobiography. It compares poorly as such to the recent works by Jurgen Moltmann about his life in theology, A Broad Place: An Autobiography, or Billy Graham about his life in evangelism Just As I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham. Both were significantly more open and self-aware, maybe because both of these were written much later in their lives, after retirement and after perspective had given them added insights. Nor does this come near the masterpieces that are The Long Loneliness or The Seven Storey Mountain.

This is a book for the choir. If you’re wearing the robes then have at it, enjoy it, for it is certainly written with passion. It is also a good history of the last decades of the Peace movement. In fact, I wish Dear had not styled this a story of one man’s struggle and instead more honestly made this a book of many people’s participation.

As such, I’m left thinking Dear is trying to impose himself as a major figure, seeking the identity of his heroes Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Bobby Kennedy, but falling flat despite his many arrests and popularity within a certain segment of particular activists. He wants to be seen and applauded and affirmed.

Which makes me wonder what his life was like before Duke and with his family. Which makes me also wonder if maybe he really should have become a Franciscan after all.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DreamAwakener/~3/337808323/this-week

Jesus is given to the world. He was chosen, blessed, and broken to be
given. Jesus' life and death were a life and death for others. The
Beloved Son of God, chosen from all eternity, was broken on the cross
so that this one life could multiply and become food for people of all
places and all times.

As God's beloved children we have to
believe that our little lives, when lived as God's chosen and blessed
children, are broken to be given to others. We too have to become bread
for the world. When we live our brokenness under the blessing, our
lives will continue to bear fruit from generation to generation. That
is the story of the saints - they died, but they continue to be alive
in the hearts of those who live after them - and it can be our story
too. - Henri Nouwen

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/DreamAwakener/~3/336830986/a-theolog