Where do we start in the ‘In and Within’ theme?  The first step within is always prayer.  We go before our Father and wait on His wisdom.  He is the starting place and the Lord Jesus is His voice. “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.…

If any chapter in Ephesians sets you straight it is chapter 5.  You can always talk about the Scripture being authoritative but its not until you ‘give Scripture legs’ that you really begin living it out.  Chapter 5 calls us to do just that.  It’s not only calling us to be different within but also without.  True, Scripture gives us the heart and the mind but it’s what we do with them that the world around us sees. 

There are some simple measures to help us face where we are…

The importance of Jesus is not that He is Savior (which He is), not that He is Lord (which He is), not that He is Redeemer (which He is), but that He is a Person, THE Person, God the Son.  It is not the adjectives that describe Him that make Him important. It’s who He is.  HE is God the Son.  HE is the Person of Persons, THE Individual of individuals. 

Jesus is the definition, essence and meaning of ‘person.’  His is the Mind, the Heart and the Spirit Personified.  Of course…

When you leave the Bible anything can happen in a culture especially in language.  ‘Isms’ are the spin we put on a word in order to give it our meaning or support someone else’s meaning.  The following is a parody written with a smile. 

Now that we have delved a bit into the meaning of ‘ism’ let’s see what secular academics might come up with.  This is just a personal foray into modern paradigmatic thinking.  Say What?

Isms can become a field of study as in…

Isms distort truth.  Jesus said He is the truth which makes truth more than an idea.  Truth is a person and what that person says is truth verbalized.  In Jesus what you see is what you get, a mind, a heart and Spirit, truth in a person and truth in His Words.   It’s what we do with Truth that tarnishes Him and His Words. I still can’t get out of my mind the image of Jack Nicholson playing a Marine Colonel in ”A Few Good Men” when he shouted that oft quoted line at the defense attorney, …

Out and About 18  Say What Again?  Yes, Now It’s Sexism

Here we go again.  Sexism.  Another one of those weapon words.  This one is designed to penetrate the heart and induce self-doubt, guilt and condemnation.  It immediately sounds and is accusatory.  It comes from the quiver of ‘ism’ arrows intended to penetrate a person’s self-concept and categorize people.  Take a suspected offense, aim it at a suspect and fire away.  So all men are prejudiced and discriminatory toward…

When you are out and about words mean something but they can also have purposefully pointed intentions that are meant to sound profound but contain hidden agenda,--- gain social and political power.  You need to ask, ‘Say what?’

There is so much subtlety in the meaning of words.  For instance this seemingly profound statement, ‘There is unity in diversity.’  You scratch your head, ‘Say what?’  Now we are walking a linguistic tight rope.  It reminds me of the ‘60’s comedian…

Last time we mentioned subtlety as a dynamic that can be used to defocus us away from Jesus when trapped in an emotional moment.  This is where satan has a heyday.  There are a lot of subtle emotional triggers out there.  We have already pointed to racism, sexism, feminism, chauvinism and the rest of the ‘isms’ of our age as distracting.  Well they are.  There’s a ‘why’ behind it all.  Let’s look at them more closely especially in terms of their intent. They carry in them emotional overtones…

In these “Out and About” articles the theme has been to stay spiritually alert wherever you are with whomever you are in the day-to-day atmosphere in which you live.  It is especially hard when the media pummels us all as we move around.  Media are designed to make money and the way they do it is to keep your attention centered on what its designers believe will keep you tuned in.  Look at the following listing: the bizarre (that’s intentional because it sells), the bleating of minority…

“…the great Western heresy - that we can be saved as individuals, that any of us alone can be in right relationship with God (Mrs.K.J.Schori, Presiding Bishop, Episcopal Church---quoted from her 2009 speech opening the National Convention of that church).”

Every generation has its own style, its own images and its own idioms.  We talk about the ‘beat’ generation, the ‘yuppies,’ the ‘hippies,’ the ‘x’er’s,’---for academics, the post-modern generation,---each had its own verbal…

Out and About 13  Vituperate Voices in Vestments

“Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. “  Mt.7:15

In the ‘out and about’ world in which we live our daily experience there are many voices speaking.  They are both heard with our ears and sensed in our spirit.  Discerning their source is extremely important for us in these times of world unrest.  The fact that we are first spiritual beings has to…

When you are out and about what voices do you hear talking?  What are they talking about?  Are they talking to someone else?  Are they talking to you?  What language are they speaking?  When you are in a place that surrounds you with earth, sky, wind, sun, mountains, streams and the animals that wander their domain, is there a language resonating in their movement?  When you see the stars at night, a full moon that shines from the edge of day to the morning glow, the massive distant Milky…

As we continue in John 10 we come to the challenge of vs.1 in which Jesus talks about thieves and robbers who climb in other than through the gate.  Remember, He is talking to the Pharisees.  They have climbed into the family of God through tradition, bloodline, intellect and dependence on the Law, teaching others that the only access to God is through their interpretations.  Generation after generation of this mindset became so institutional that the priesthood was an unchangeable family…

This may be the most important part of the ‘Out and About’ series, which is why I start with a quote from the last article.  “In going out and about we will run into all kinds of people, situations and problems for which there seems to be no direct entry, understanding or solution.  There needs to be some kind of access point.  This is where the work of the Holy Spirit really gets us connected.” 

It’s that idea of gaining access to a person, a situation or a problem that we…

In going out and about we will run into all kinds of people, situations and problems for which there seems to be no direct entry, understanding or solution.  There needs to be a doorway, a gate, some kind of access point.  This is where the work of the Holy Spirit really gets us connected.  He is the penetrating oil that soaks the rusty hinges of sin that have jammed shut the doors of our spiritual sensitivity. 

Before we can really get into where we are called when…

There is a very positive show on TV called ‘Extreme Makeover’ where a needy family deserving a better home is taken away for a vacation week and a new home rebuilt on their property while they are away.  A limousine brings the family back and stops next to a bus.  There is a welcoming crowd cheering and the bus blocks the family’s view so they can’t see the new home that awaits them.  The crowd starts shouting, “Move that bus, move that bus, move that bus…”  When it is moved they react as…