Uncontained

I had a guy come into the office not too long ago. He was an earnest guy who was coming up in the Lord, and he had encountered in the scripture some rules about the use of money, like tithing. He was a man of some means, having some money in his life.  So he did what people do when they think about God and money.

He made a spreadsheet.

And he said, "How much money, Jordan, do I have to give to God? And should I give it to the church or can I just give it to godly charities? And how do I calculate the 10%? On gross or net income?"

Stuff like that. He expected me, I think, to answer him with Bible knowledge.

Instead what I said was, "Oh, I don't know. Why don't you ask Him?"

Kennedy, Lewis and Alanis Morrisette: What does God look like?

Today is an odd day. The 50th anniversary of John Kennedy's assassination. And the 50th anniversary of author-scholar C.S. Lewis's death. The former speaks to the "all is not right" characteristic of the world, and the unmistakeable moment when that truth pierces through to all watching eyes. Five decades later, we are somehow still looking back, shocked by the private pain of our national emblems, as evidenced by a magazine at the check out line impelling us to read new findings on Jackie O's secret agonies. Why is that?

The latter anniversary is quite the opposite. It reminds me of the capacity to squint ahead, beyond our self-made comforts and contracts. To be brave for something better.

My ten year old fell in love with C.S. Lewis' Narnia Chronicles about 3 years ago. I bought her a giant, hardback, complete Narnia compendium and she has pored over it to no end. One day, she may discover his Space Trilogy, and perhaps the Screwtape Letters and heavier prose. When I received an English award in highschool in the 1980s, my teacher Norm Hindley presented me with Lewis' "The Business of Heaven", a daily dose of Lewis' insights for adults. Today, this is more profitable for me than dwelling in the suffering exacted on Mrs. Kennedy, and common to man.

Among the many insights Lewis made so easy to grasp that a 7 year old child could take hold of them was this: God will not fit in a box -- and that is good news for you.

Defined by God

What defines you? And how would you settle the question?

Some years ago I was on career path in Academia and things were moving along smoothly. I was going to be a professor, and I was associated with some prestigious institutions in my field. But then at the very end, things weren't working out and I decided to leave the Academy. I started to work for a software company, but I was still sort of plugged into the research community. I was still getting e-mails from people in the field, from Washington policymakers or journal publishers or professors who wanted me to review their journal articles or contribute to edited volumes and stuff like that. 

About this time, I was also asked to write an article for a Christian magazine about some of my supernatural experiences. I wrote an short piece about trying to resurrect a young man from the dead. His mother was a friend of ours and her son had had an untimely accident. A few of us had gone down to the morgue and talked our way in to pray over the

San Diego Community Supernatural-ized

Last weekend in San Diego at the Coast Vineyard, Jordan and I had an awesome time with Pastors Jamie and Michelle Wilson. Their peeps were eager to learn and try all that we covered. Jordan taught four sessions which also included some practicum and prayer for the baptism of the Holy Spirit. Sunday morning, the two church services were turned into healing ministry times. There were many clear healings, prophetic words, and deliverances throughout the weekend.

One gal who had had breast pain for several months felt all pain leave before her team finished praying for her. Actually, she said as soon as the person praying for her said, "Jesus", the pain left.

Grace and the Big Moral Debate

If you're like me, your email inbox and Facebook pages are filled with messages about the political debate on homosexual marriage, the center of Hawaii news this last week. Not all these messages are pleasant or edifying. I see a lot of damage, and not much construction. So, we're going to take some time on Sunday to talk it over. If Jesus were walking with us today, I think he'd find a way to make God's grace apparent. He was a genius at it. We'd be wise to learn from him.

Here's the video preview for this Sunday's talk "Grace and the Big Moral Debate".  Please share it with anyone you think might benefit from hearing about how God's grace might make a way in this contentious climate.

Grace

"God would rather die than let sin be a big issue between us and Him."

Someone called me up this week and said, "I've decided to seek after greater things. What do you have to tell me?" That opportunity compels me to revisit my standard question: "What's essentially going on here?" I think about this weekly, and have narrowed down my summary to five things. Here's the first:

The nature of God is entirely different than most people think. He's about grace.

A lot of times, the way we talk about God's attitude toward us and sin, is more like, God is so holy that he can't stand to be in our sinful presence, and he feels really slimed by our messiness. So, be afraid and careful, and come to Jesus.

Actually, the story is completely different as evidenced by the Jesus Mission. Jesus demonstrated that God loves us in a shocking way. He came to us, wrapped our dirtiness around himself, and then gave us a big hug. If anyone looked at Jesus on the day he died, broken and humiliated, at the very least, they'd have concluded, THAT God is not stuck up or stand-offish. THAT God is not interested in lording it over anybody.

Creative

I’ve been speaking with a lot of people about fostering a creative life. In fact, in my community we just finished a series talking about 8 requirements for such life:

1. it's a purposeful life- stay on task 
2. it takes day in and day out, routines 
3. develop the capacity to fail 
4. only you can move yourself - be self-motivated 
5. a creative community keeps us inspired 
6. put your heart into it, and get enthusiastic 
7. rest 
8. be serious about change 

Here are some of these facets in short video form: