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Preparation I've been wrestling with what it means to be prepared to minister-- esp as relates to preaching. Does it mean to have memorized your notes; to have mastered the material. That has mostly how I have thought of it in the past. But a great presentation just doesn't seem to cut it when you are speaking for God. To get it right just doesn't seem to measure up.
Here's how I'm presently thinking. Understand though-- I'm not talking about shoddy composition or trying to make any excuses for not doing the requisite research and study. But what is the real measure of preparation.
When the measure of our preparation is adoration and the substance of our intercession is love then our ministry (i.e. preaching, etc.) will happen in real time. . . . . in the live streaming of the presence of God.
What do you think of that?
Labels: theology
posted by John David Walt | at 1/28/2005 04:52:00 PM | 2 comments
Monday, January 24, 2005
Napoleon Dynamite I watched Napoleon Dynamite a couple of nights ago and can't stop thinking about it. Besides being one of the funniest movies I've seen in a long time, and despite being about nothing in particular, it has profound depth. The movie is all about the power of irrelevance and the beauty of friendship. Napoleon Dynamite is the most unpopular, nerdy kid in the high school. It's the story of his friendship with a Hispanic new kid in town named Pedro and an outcast, marginal girl named Deb. It's a compellingly hilarious story of rejection and freedom.
The movie was written and produced by two brothers who are Mormons. As they wrote this story, they must have had in mind the thousands and thousands of kids who ride bicycles in suits and ties for two years of their life all over the world in their mission for the LDS church. To the dominant culture they seem so irrelevant. But in the end irrelevance is powerful and perhaps the most subversive force on the planet.
Anybody seen it? posted by John David Walt | at 1/24/2005 08:55:00 PM | 4 comments
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Adoration-- continued About 15 years ago a college friend turned me onto some old writings (late 1600's)by Madame Jean Guyon. The writings (she didn't consider it a book) were originally called, "Short and Very Easy Method of Prayer; Which all can practice with the greatest facility, and arrive in a short time, by its means, at a high degree of perfection." It is now published under the title, "Experiencing the Depths of Jesus Christ." As I re-read this text I am reminded of how thirst-quenching her words were to me at a critical point of responding to God's calling on my life. As I re-read it, the Spirit is teaching me more of what adoration means. A couple of scraps:
". . . I would like to talk with you just a moment about the motive of your heart in your seeking the Lord. After all, why do you come to the Lord? Do you come to him for the sweetness? Do you come to him because it is enjoyable to be in the Lord's presence? Let me recommend a higher way. As you come to the Lord to pray, bring a full heart of pure love, a love that is not seeking anything for itself. Bring a heart that is seeking nothing from the Lord, but desires only to please Him and to do His will." (pp.23-24) <
"Dear child of God, all your concepts of what God is like really amount to nothing. Do not try to imagine what God is like. Instead, simply believe in His presence. Never try to imagine what God will do. There is no way God will ever fit into your concepts. What then shall yo do? Seek to behold Jesus Christ by looking to Him in your inmost being, in your spirit." (p.18)
Easier said than done Madame Guyon--- but thanks for the guidance. posted by John David Walt | at 1/22/2005 10:25:00 AM | 2 comments
Thursday, January 20, 2005
The meaning of Adoration? I have a vague memory of reading about some famous person going to Mother Teresa and asking advice about making a difference in the world. Her response: Spend one hour a day doing nothing but adoring Jesus Christ and everything else will take care of itself.
I remember that a lot lately and I am coming to grips with the fact that I do not know what it really means to simply adore Him. I wake up earlier these days. I'm pretty good at thinking about Jesus and at reading about him. I'm really good at asking him to do stuff; to help me; to empower me to do something for him; to make my day work and my life count. But I don't know what it would look to simply adore Him. It's yet another way I find myself in the classroom of the Holy Spirit waiting on the Lord to teach me.
And so I ask all of you readers out there (all two of you)-- any counsel here? posted by John David Walt | at 1/20/2005 08:16:00 AM | 2 comments
Monday, January 17, 2005
I have an ideal? Martin Luther King, Jr. Day renews my thinking about an idea. The paradigm of earth-bound humanity is a continuum with cynicism at one end and idealism at the other and a thousand shades of realism between. Like this:
CYNICISM----(pessimism)----REALISM----(optimism)----IDEALISM
The interesting feature is that cynicism and idealism are two shades of the same thing. Cynicism is the ultimate death of idealism. I find this is the continuum that plagues academic places. Academic institutions, in my experience, are filled with cynics and idealists. Ideals are projections of perfection. Most often they are unreal and unattainable. The death of ideals often leads to cynicism. Living in this paradigm usually means vascillating between pessimism and optimism.
The paradigm of "on earth as it is in heaven" is a continuum with faith at one end and hope at the other and a thousand shades of love between. Like this:
FAITH-----(charity)-----LOVE-----(compassion)-----HOPE
What is fascinating about this continuum is these three realities last forever. Though faith is the substance of things hoped for, when the hoped for finally comes faith remains. How does that work? I am seeing with dim clarity at this point. As for the difference between charity and compassion-- charity is giving away your extra shirt-- love gives away the shirt off your back. love is the ever-progressive sacrifice of suffering for the other.
Back to Martin-- his dream, in the hands of earth-bound humans, easily conforms to ideals which, when unattained, leads to cynical outlooks. But his dream flourishes when allowed to live as a marker of the Kingdom of Heaven breaking in on Earth. Martin didn't have an ideal-- but a dream.
The difference in the paradigms is in the simplicity of one word: Jesus. And the secret to living in the reality of the latter is this: Christ in You-- the Hope of Glory.
I welcome help in thinking about this?
Labels: theology
posted by John David Walt | at 1/17/2005 08:35:00 PM | 1 comments
Sunday, January 16, 2005
HIGHER MATH I'm back-- I couldn't remember my username and password-- got locked out of my own blog. Anyhow, lots to talk about. I'll start with another equation I'm working on. It was inspired by my involvement with Passion 05 earlier in January in Nashville.
Passion = Love + Suffering x Joy
More later
Labels: theology
posted by John David Walt | at 1/16/2005 09:37:00 PM | 2 comments
Today...