God Loves Cities
By daniel | July 21, 2008
How about that? God loves cities. Cities are like a magnifying glass on the state of the people within it. Sort of like when you or I are under stress, when we’re squeezed, what’s inside comes outside. Same with a city, except all the time, the density of the people is a constant squeeze on said people.
From Vintage Jesus, by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears
As an aside, it is important to note that the new creation will not be the idyllic rural lifestyle that has dominated so much American vision of faithful Christianity. Rather, at the center of the new creation will be a grand metropolis from which Jesus will rule over the earth.
The entire storyline of the Bible is not from garden to garden, but rather from garden to city. The Bible opens in its first few pages with a beautiful garden paradise. But the Bible closes in its final few pages with the vision of heaven as a dense city filled with people—the ultimate goal of creation is an urban paradise.
Practically speaking, a city is marked by both greater density and diversity than suburban or rural areas. For the first time in the world’s history, roughly half of the world’s population is urban. That number is expected to swell to 60 percent by the year 2030.Sadly, most Christians associate the city with vice, not virtue. In truth, cities have long been seen as a haven for violent crime, sexual sin, and drug abuse. But sin is often most clearly seen in the city because it is more concentrated in the city than in suburban and rural areas. As a result, the related need for God is most clearly seen in the city. The rawness of the city makes it exactly the kind of place that God would use to convince people of their need for him. Furthermore, by revealing the unveiling of a city upon his return, Jesus intends for Christians to love cities in the meantime.
Unlike today where Christians have largely fled the cities in favor of homeschooling about the rapture amidst large stacks of canned goods readied for a hunkering down at the unleashing of Armageddon, Christianity has historically been an urban religion. A reading of the history book of early Christianity, Acts, reveals that Christianity began as an urban movement led by Paul, whose itinerant church planting ministry was almost exclusively urban as he moved from city to city and bypassed the rural areas.
Historians like Rodney Stark and Wayne Meeks say that by a.d. 300, upwards of half of the people living in major Roman cities were Christian, while more than 90 percent of those living in the countryside were still pagan. Curiously, our word pagan likely came from the Greek word paganus, which meant “someone who lives on the farm.” Most of the Christians lived in cities and most pagans lived on farms.
Indeed, God’s people should bring the gospel to any place where there are people, because God loves all people. But since there are more people in the city, it also makes sense that bringing the gospel to cities would be a priority.
One of the reasons Christians in our day are to love the city as they await the unveiling of Jesus’ city is that the city is the most strategic place for Christians and the gospel. If culture is like a river, then cities are upstream, creating culture that then flows downstream to the masses.
Because government, law, education, healthcare, information, media, arts, sports, entertainment, trade, travel, population, and industry are concentrated most in a city, cities are the fountains from which culture flows. Therefore, for Christians to flee from cities then to only complain about the kind of culture that is flowing into the culture from the cities is both foolish and hypocritical. The answer is for Christians to love the city, move to the city, pray for the city, and serve the city until Jesus returns with his city from which all culture will emanate throughout the new earth.
Here’s an interesting article about Jerusalem (funny enough, on Jerusalem’s web site!).
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Times of Temptation = Ministry Prep?
By daniel | May 29, 2008
In Mark 1, after being inaugurated for ministry by the anointing of the Spirit at His baptism, and after receiving the blessing of His Father, Jesus is ‘driven’ into the wilderness to spend 40 days fasting and being tempted by the Enemy. What does this accomplish?
At first glance, it seems like it may be similar to the way we temper metals. After creating a new alloy (of steel, or whatever) the new metal is heated to escalating temperatures, each time held at the new temperature until certain characteristics change correctly. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempering)
So, if this is what Jesus’ temptation was all about, it would have been simply a preparation for a difficult ministry — which is certainly a reflection of his showdown with evil in the second half of Mark 1, and chapters following.
I do wonder if there’s more to this than simply preparation, or if preparation is more than I see. I’m sure it is, so if you have anything to contribute to the thoughts, please feel free to comment!
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Music: Keith Green
By daniel | May 28, 2008
I’m starting a new series that I intend to just be helpful for those who are really heavily spiritually influenced by music. I find myself in that category, and I’ve run into a lot of music that has been really helpful to me.
Keith Green was a truly dedicated disciple of Christ, and wrote a lot of beautiful music before he died in 1982 in a plane crash. These aren’t the full song lyrics, just pieces to give you an idea.
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Thoughts on Exodus 16-17: How Not To Follow Directions
By daniel | August 16, 2007
These chapters are frustrating to read. If you haven't read them, I suggest read them now before continuing on here.
Ok, so you'd think that after seeing God miraculously deliver them, and then following around a PILLAR OF FIRE, you'd take God seriously, and you'd take His servant seriously. But God and Moses speak, and they seem to sort of follow, but consistently, there are those who don't pay attention or follow directions or simply obey. How hard is it to hear them say, "don't gather manna on Saturdays - get double on Friday" and then to do that? But inevitably, you see some of the people wandering out of their house on Saturday morning, looking for the manna. I guess they didn't think it was actually from God. Or they didn't understand that God told them not to do that. doesn't really make sense.
Then, they complain complain complain about the water. Now I understand that if you go without water for a long time, you will not make it. I get that. But certainly, there are better ways of approaching this aforementioned and proven God than grumbling.
And now, of course, we seem to be not much better ourselves, each at times. We know what God has told us is important, and we know what he has for us to do; yet we still for absolutely no logical reason choose to do something else or not do what he asks or something. I think it's just this truly stupid arrogance that we all have to let die with Christ.
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Thoughts from Exodus 15: Parted, Bitter, and Sweet Waters
By daniel | August 15, 2007
Right before chapter 15 starts, we had been left with the image of dead Egyptian bodies washed up onto the shore of the Red Sea, signalling that the Israelites were finally and truly free. Here at the waters, Moses (perhaps) writes and leads the whole congregation in a song proclaiming the strength and love of the Lord for them in His dealings with their cruel captors. The women, with Mirium, continue the singing with dancing and tambourines.
Not too much later, the nation of Israel is wandering in the desert, still following God, to a body of water which is sonn discovered to be undrinkable. Complaints erupt from the people, and Moses seeks God on the issue. God works a miracle through a tree branch that He instructs Moses to throw into the water, making it sweet. God then rebukes the Israelites for their fickle lack of trust, and in essence, says that their response showed that they were no more loyal to him than the Egyptians. The path of the Egyptians, when followed, would lead no doubt to the same end that the Egyptians met (and all who take the path away from God will meet): finding themselves somehow on the opposite side of the battle line from a God who is King and will be King whether they disagree or not.
Scene change! The Israelites are brought to a place described as pure rest. Palm trees and water springs. Interesting.
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Thoughts from Exodus 14: Only to be silent
By daniel | August 5, 2007
Exodus 14 returns back to the narrative that involves Pharaoh and the Egyptians. Once Israel had departed, they seem to come to grips with their total loss of slaves and slave-labor. Seriously, we've got to imagine the scene.
You're a rich person. In Egypt, that pretty much meant you weren't a slave. You wake up. It's been a week or so since those Hebrew slaves left, and a week or so since Egypt has stopped being pelted by terrible curses. You walk out your front door and see all the fields and livestock that had been destroyed. Someone is going to have to clean all this up and replant crops. Someone is going to have to do some work around here. Where'd all those slaves go? What happened to them and their god? I wonder if that really was a god or not, now. Probably just some run of really bad and bizarre luck, right? Well that run of bad luck seems to have stopped now. I don't even know how to plant those crops, and those slaves were much better at keeping the livestock together than I would ever be. We were stupid to let those people go. If we've got any wits left, we'd better go catch those rebellious slaves before they get too far away, or before we'd have to do this crap work ourselves.
The Israelites, on the other hand, seem to have forgotten that God is with them. That sounds so terrible to say, like they're such bad people. Personally, maybe God hasn't completely smitten my enemies with wrath and vengeance, and also probably I haven't been forced into soul-sucking human slave traffic either. Still, somehow, I forget God is with me. Every day. I guess it's more common than I thought, and still probably as bad a tendency as I thought — just I've got fingers pointing back to me too.
Key points from this chapter:
v10: they saw the Egyptians, and feared greatly
v14: the Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent
v25: the Egyptians said, Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.
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The Sign of Jonah
By daniel | July 28, 2007
From Everything Belongs by Richard Rohr:
"I think Jesus' primary metaphor for the mystery of transformation is the sign of Jonah (Matt. 16:4, 12:39, Luke 11:29). This sign has taken on a great significance for me. In Luke's Gospel passage in which Jesus tells us, 'It is an evil and adulterous generation that wants a sign' (Luke 11:49), he then says the only sign he will give us is the sign of Jonah. As a good Jew, Jesus knew the graphic story of Jonah the prophet, who was running from God and was used by God almost in spite of himself. Jonah was swallowed by the whale and taken where he would rather not go. This was Jesus' metaphor for death and rebirth. Think of all the other signs, apparitions, and miracles that religion looks for and seeks and even tries to create. But Jesus says it is an evil and adulterous generation that looks for these things. That's a pretty hard saying. He says instead we must go inside the belly of the whale for a while. Then and only then will we be spit upon a new shore and understand our call. That's the only pattern Jesus promises us. . . .
"We seldom go freely into the belly of the beast. Unless we face a major disaster like the death of a friend or spouse or loss of a marriage or job, we usually will not go there. As a culture, we have to be taught the language of descent. That is the great language of religion. It teaches us to enter willingly, trustingly into the dark periods of life. These dark perods are good teachers. Religious energy is in the dark questions, seldom in the answers. Answers are the way out, but that is not what we are here for. But when we look at the questions, we look for the opening to transformation. Fixing something doesn't usually transform us. We try to change events in order to avoid changing ourselves. We must learn to stay with the pain of life, without answers, without conclusions, and some days without meaning. That is the path, the perilous dark path of true prayer."
Thanks to onehouse for the link
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Thoughts on Exodus 13: A Redeemed People
By daniel | July 24, 2007
The people have been led out of Egypt by their God forcing their slave-holders to release them. Sitting just outside of Egypt, God speaks to them, giving them a way to live together that will physically remind their hearts of this exact place, where they started. There are two main things that stand out to me here.
The first thing that stands out to me is the repeated reference to God's strength. The whole Exodus process was clearly evidence to the new nation of Israel that their God was strong. Stronger than Pharaoh or any of the gods their surrounding Egyptians worshiped.
The second thing that I saw within the story was the way they were told to respond to their redemption. In the Exodus-plagues-Egypt account, Israel was never necessarily "innocent" or "good". They were simply the descendants of Jacob (Israel) who lived with his sons in Egypt over 400 years ago, and were forced into slavery. They knew that they had an ancestor, and about his God, but it seems that is about it. God accomplished several things through the plagues. First, he clearly delineated this new people group. Israel. They were to follow Him. Second, he proves to Egypt and to Israel that He is, in fact, the only God worth worshiping, and that He makes the rules. Israel needed to see it just as bad as Egypt, if not more. They just happen to have obeyed when God told them to take part in the Passover feast. Their firstborn were spared, due to God's provision, and their acceptance of that provision.
So if God the Strong spared their firstborn, those firstborn are indebted to Him. Seems reasonable, right? Truth be told, the entire nation of Israel belonged to Him since He had rescued them from death and slavery. But He asked as a testament to His Rescue that they mark their firstborn as unique and special, remembering the salvation of God at this time. Never forget His Rescue…
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Survey of Megachurches
By daniel | July 6, 2007
Interesting article on megachurches: Megachurch or Megaconsumers?
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Thoughts on Exodus 12: Passover and Death
By daniel | July 5, 2007
What really stood out to me about this chapter was the way it was tuned to its audience. If the book of Exodus is the Israelite's Revolutionary War, then this chapter is its Declaration of Independence. I've never been trained as a Jew, (though I happen to be 1/8 ethnically!) but if I read this with my imagination, here's what I pick up. Let's pretend I'm a Jew reading this several hundred years later.
We were in terrible slavery, to the point of having our babies killed at birth just because we became feared.
The God who declared us a people brought utter ruin upon our captors in order to save us, not only freeing us, but also declaring Himself as King to the rest of the world.
We are now a people.
In celebration of our identity as His people, we will celebrate the Passover, which reminds us of where we came from, and thus, again, who we now are.
The Lord's final judgement declared that He did not take lightly the slaughter of our children at the hands of our captors.
Those are my thoughts. Any others?
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