Julie R. Neidlinger: Lone Prairie Art Works (via Mowser)

Two prayers.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

::This is the Sunday School lesson I prepared for today. It was a little last-minute-ish...::

Two Prayers - Upload a Document to Scribd

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Labels: bible studies, christianity, prayer

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Struggle.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I "struggle" with gluttony.

What do you "struggle" with?

We should both stop "struggling". Now. Don't you think?

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Labels: christianity

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Married to methods.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

I attended church at Evangel Temple in Bismarck this morning. The sermon was about pastoral authority and other sub-sets of that (which sounds like a sermon of browbeating, but was not).

The message covered the first part of 1 Corinthians 9, and essentially dealt with three questions in the church:

Who has the authority? (1 Cor. 9:1-6)
Where is the money? (1 Cor. 9:7-14)
What is the vision? (1 Cor. 9:20-22, 24-27)

The pastor had some very good things to say about the first two, but what really struck me was his concise summation on the third point regarding ministry method and the cry of "compromise!" so often heard in some corners of Christendom.

In my notes, I jotted down some of the ideas the pastor presented:

Vision requires change. If there is no change, it isn't vision, but maintenance. Vision can sometimes get in the way of function (this isn't a positive aspect). When Jesus healed or did miracles, he did not repeat a previous method. He showed us we were not to be fixed on a method of ministry, but be dedicated to the actual ministry itself. "We cannot be married to our methods. We need to be married to our message." Regarding the claim that different methods leads to compromise, methods that are held captive to a different era of time are a form of compromise. It is not wrong to "compromise" the method, but never right to compromise the message.

Regarding Paul's statement that he has become all things to all people so that more would be saved:

We do not disagree that foreign missionaries need to learn the culture and language of the country they are ministering in. Yet, we balk and some people spend their time criticizing anyone doing the same thing here in our own country. The world we are in is our mission field. We adapt our method to reach people where they are at, as Paul describes. But, we don't change or adapt the message.

There were a number of other good points in the message today, but these stick out in particular due to my own online experience of excessive time wasted fighting with other Christians about method disguised as being arguments about message. As the pastor said, we find it easy and comfortable to argue amongst ourselves about method when the world is dying from not hearing the message.

This is a valuable thing to talk about. Much energy gets wasted fighting about the kind of music to sing, or on warning each other of "dangerous" methods and, subsequently, ministers who use methods we aren't used to. So often, a theology is wrapped around methods which makes any attack on those methods appear as an attack on our "correct" theology. Some things that come to mind are music and worship styles, and women in leadership in the church*.

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* Please read this book regarding women in the church. Even if you are a John MacArthur devotee and believe him to be correct in his position that women have no place of leadership in church, I would recommend it. I would especially recommend it, in that case.

Labels: christianity, church, culture

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Guise in disguise.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

It is impossible.

After a long absence, while cleaning out my bookmark folders, I wound up back on an old site I'd said goodbye to. I read with disinterest; the edge had long worn off in absence, I found. Despite that, all else seemed the same; same writers, mostly, and same commenters (plus a few new ones who had adapted to the nature of the beast). Same tone, same arguments, same jabs, same ploys. I went to the page that outlined the challenge, for the challenge was there, indeed.

Our challenge in fighting this spirit is to refrain from stooping to the same levels, to refrain from employing the same tactics.

Can you refrain from the same tactics if you forget what they are? Can I answer the critics, the wet blankets, the naysayers, the attackers, without becoming one myself? Can I use sarcasm and satire to successfully respond without stopping, using nothing but asterisks and hash marks and the hope that readers won't take it wrong? Should I even try to be witty and get some kind of verbal upper hand if my goal is to avoid employing those same tactics?

This morning I had an interesting discussion with a couple of friends over the concept of distance learning, and how, despite the very best possibilities and even degree to which it may seem successful, it is always inferior to being there in person with the teacher.

Online discussion, particularly in the religious realm, is inferior. It is impersonal.

You can tell me all you want about the valuable information and educational element, but there is no way around it: it has nothing to do with the person.

Jesus was personal. He was about the person.

Touching. Speaking aloud. Looking. Crying. Writing in the sand in the moment, surrounded in person by the angry mob he was writing to. Remaining silent.

Blogs and forums, and the wicked sharp comment zingers and blog-off-shoots, are not about the person. They are not about love. By their very nature and requisite replies, they have nothing to do with humility. They are only answering back, in a kind of echo, and nothing more.

Silence is not the weakness people think it is. Giving no answer is a strong answer; it forces the clamor to die down and the yapping dogs to starve. Remaining quiet in the midst of attack or accusation has a great precedent. There is no need to defend beyond simple statement. No rejoinder. No need for verbal coup d'etat.

Our challenge is to find that middle ground where holiness, humility and grace meet.

What if the middle ground does not hold those qualities? Who longs for the middle ground but the middler-grounder?

Is it possible for humility exist in responding to critics or those I disagree with? Can humility exist in the clamor and rancor? So often humility exists in the silence of not having the last word, the silence of restraint, the silence of allowing the other person the triumphant moment and trusting that in time, God will do His work.

Can holiness exist in sarcasm and verbal barbs? Is it enough to extol grace while using the excuse that because Jesus went after the Pharisees, I ought to, too? Can I be anything but a mirror image of those I respond to, when my aim is very much to respond?

Time away from all of these blogs has given me fresh eyes, and I don't doubt that someone -- perhaps a late night web surfer interested in the person of Jesus Christ -- stumbling upon either variety of blog would turn away disgusted.

The idea is noble, the desire may be true, but the medium's effect on the message can't be disguised.

Less words, more faith. Less words, more works. Less words.

I continued to clear out my bookmarks and blogroll. I am not yet fully decided on the value of online religious debate and discussion, but I think I am getting close.

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Labels: blogging, christianity

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Growing smaller.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

It's the anti-Prayer of Jabez. It's not seeing growth and success through growing and getting bigger, but by getting smaller. Sounds backwards, right?

A successful organization gets bigger. A church should get bigger. More. More. Our definition of all things good somewhere includes the idea of "growth."

A frustration I felt in my first year's of involvement in Nicaragua was that I couldn't seem to do much good. I could do a little good, but not much good. It was overwhelming, all the needs. I -- and others in my group -- couldn't meet them all. It was easy to think that, if we couldn't help everyone, we couldn't help anyone. Too much territory to cover! I have gotten past that, somewhat, into seeing the value of taking what little money I have and helping a few people and really loving them and making it more about sharing what's God's money, anyway, not worrying if that money could be "better used" for "the greater good" and for "more people."

On page 319 of Shane Claiborne's The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an ordinary radical*, he makes a statement that would confuse most of American Christianity, which has been thoroughly Americanized into "bigger is better" thinking. Claiborne takes a different turn:

God's kingdom grows smaller and smaller as it takes over the world.

He then goes on to quote Mother Teresa:

We can do not great things, only small things with great love. It is not how much you do, but how much love you put into doing it.

No, I can't help them all, and trying to do so will only leave me angry and frustrated and with an excuse to quit helping at all.

But I can help one.

It might not seem to matter, in the larger picture, if one life is made slightly better when thousands around are in misery. But...it matters to that one.

Just one, maybe. That's what God has placed in my path, and I need to be faithful in just that one. Maybe God needs to see that I'm faithful in that before anything else. Maybe he wants me to understand that there's no shortage of power and money in His grasp and that He isn't asking me to think I'm a little god with a wallet to solve lots of problems and set out to change the entire world.

It goes against our idea of "wise use of resources", that we should make our dollar go as far as we can to help as many as we can, for that seems fair and wise and evidence of a good steward. And, it helps us cover that enlarged territory we think we've been given.

I don't know. Start small. Learn to love and trust and work and be satisfied and confident in the small. If we can't do that, we certainly aren't ready to work big.

Just start with one. Make a difference in that one life. It matters very much.

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* I highly recommend that you go out and buy that book. It'll ruin your life as you now know it, and for the better.

Note: This post was pre-written and published as scheduled. Read more about this here.

Labels: christianity, church, missions

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Christians and criticism.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

Here's another Sunday School lesson.

Sunday School Lesson - Criticism - Upload a doc

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Labels: bible, bible studies, christianity, teaching

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The question isn't the point.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 1 comments link this post

Something about the question, "How much of the Bible can a person not believe and still be okay?", tells me the person asking it may be fairly far down a path that would negate any need for any belief in the Bible.

Let's try a few different "translations" of that question:

How much can I get away with not believing in the Bible yet still get the benefits the Bible claims to offer? How little do I have to hold on to in order to still be in God's good graces? What's the least amount of faith I have to have in order to still be considered saved? How easy can I make it and still be on the narrow path? Can I just pick and choose what feels comfortable to my human reason and still be okay?

Now, I suppose there could be argument about what belief in the Bible means, which could quickly, in the case of say, creation, evolve (sorry for the pun) into a debate not on whether a person believed in the Biblical account but on how they interpreted it.

Regardless, I don't want to make a habit of trying to find the least amount required. Because, in the case of following Christ, the concept of requirement and doing as little as possible means you've missed the boat entirely and, unless you happen to believe that Jesus actually walked on water, missing the boat means you're pretty much stuck on dry land.

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Labels: bible, christianity, creation, links

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Taking up the cross.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

In an email to a friend, in which I identified with his current struggles and sadness, I talked about how I seem to repeatedly give my worries and troubles to God but refuse to let Him keep them:

[It's that] daily struggle of picking up Christ's cross daily and not also picking up the junk of our own that he wants us to let him hold. We can't carry both. We can't pick up the cross and carry it if our hands and our shoulders are already full of worries and concerns over things that we can't control anyway.

Luke 9:23 tells us we need to deny ourselves, take up the cross daily, and follow Christ. The larger passage of Luke 9:23-27 has always been difficult and puzzling to me* on many levels (verse 27, for example), but the section on picking up the cross I've began to understand differently.

23 And He was saying to them all, If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. ²⁴For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it. ²⁵For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? ²⁶For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. ²⁷But I say to you truthfully, there are some of those standing here who will not taste death until they see the kingdom of God.

I've heard verse 23 preached as if the concept of deny was solely about shedding comforts, wants, control, or the things we hold onto that are based in love of self. That seems to be the easy and obvious meaning, and the more useful one to preach to keep us all on task from being selfish and lazy. But as I've come to think about what it means to pick up the cross daily, some questions came to mind.

What is the cross? Is it the same as Jesus' yoke, which is light? Why did Jesus have to remind us to take it up every day? What is it about us that would cause us to say we follow Christ but need to be reminded to make the decision to do it each day? What does that tell me about the nature of being a follower of Christ? And why do I have to deny myself in order to pick up the cross each day?

For some people, sadness, depression, and even self-hatred are like huge boulders weighing down upon the heart and soul all the time, daily. The burden is tremendous, even though it is selfish in its own way, since focus on self leads to a view of problems seeming larger than they are, a skewed perspective on life. It is both unwanted but difficult to let go of. The weight of that burden makes it impossible to carry anything or anyone else. It is all encompassing and bottomless and dark and the thought of picking up the cross seems unbearable, even too much to ask, even if the cross is the method by which we are helped to release that onerous weight and be free.

How can I carry the cross when I am carrying all the destructive things God wants to take from me?

In this way, I must deny myself the easy darkness I slip into, that uncomfortable comfort of sadness, in order to pick up the cross.

I closed out my email with this:

I'll keep praying for you. You do the same for me. It helps to pray for others, I've found, because I stop focusing on my problems as I lift another up in prayer and then I find that while I did that, Christ lifts me up.

Deny your SELF. Pick up the cross daily.

Lift up others and be lifted up.

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* I'm sure theologically educated brothers and sisters in Christ can tell me the proper context, the original meanings of the original languages, and use their knowledge to wipe away these questions, but frankly, I'm not interested. I believe all that education is well and good, but that if the Bible truly is inspired and God reveals it to us as we read it, such knowledge is not a requirement. And, that sometimes, such knowledge is a stumbling block for those who grow comfortable in it.

Labels: bible, christianity, personal

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Refreshed.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

A friend sent an ecard to me yesterday that had Proverbs 11:25 in it.

"He who refreshes other will himself be refreshed."

He was thanking me for helping him, but I found that verse, which I've read many times before* yet never paid attention to, very...refreshing.

I don't know that I "feel" refreshed, but just hearing that certainly did some of the work. It's a good promise.

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*Proverbs is a book with enough chapters to make it perfect to read a chapter a day for a month, each month.

Labels: bible

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Action and planning.

written by Julie R. Neidlinger 0 comments link this post

::We've been using K.P. Yohannan's book Reflecting His Image in our Sunday School class. Here is the lesson for tomorrow that I've been working on today. I'm using both chapters nine ("Starting from Zero") and ten ("Giving up the good") to make up this lesson.::

Action or Distraction?

"Active habits are strengthened by repetition but passive ones are weakened. The more often [a man] feels without acting, the less he will ever be able to act, and, in the long run, the less he will be able to feel."

-- C. S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

I. "Doing" or "Being" Good

Is good something we "do" or that we "are"? Think of all the conferences, programs, materials -- all the time and energy we spend talking and thinking and deciding and debating as Christians...are we "doing" good or "being" good or talking about it? Do all those activities, which are good, indeed, stopping us from what our focus should be? "Eventually we become overly familiar with the things of God." -- K. P. Yohannan What does Yohannan mean? What danger is there in "becoming overly familiar" with something? In all our doing, do we miss the point? Jesus did many things. He is our example for many good actions (social justice, etc.). However what was His main purpose? (Luke 19:10) How does Mark 10:18 apply to this discussion? Are we sometimes deluded into thinking we can do good with our actions and easily lose focus on God by focusing on our concept of "good"?

II. Regaining Focus from All That Good

It is easy to list things we need to get rid of in our lives that are harmful, but what about those things that seem good in nature, and do good things? What are some of the "good" things in our lives/ministries/churches that have become a distraction from the focus on winning the lost for Christ? Last week we talked about when God's glory leaves, and why we shouldn't hang onto the shadows. Does this apply here, too? Thinking about C. S. Lewis' quote and what we are told about faith and works in James 2:20, how do we find the necessary balance of doing without losing focus? What is the key?

Planning, In the Flesh

I. Room for planning?

In Christ's call to us, is there time to sit, think, and plan? Does that sound like a good and wise thing for us to do? Thinking is not the same as praying. Thinking is our human mind attempting to use our logic and reasoning abilities to come to terms we can accept in our life. These are generally not God's terms. What do you think of the following statement by Yohannan: "We want to plan and control our lives while we walk with the Lord."

II. What faith requires

In thinking about Yohannan's statement, is it even possible to walk with the Lord and remain in control in any measure? Is it possible for God to be our king if we only allow him to do it as long as He tells us his plan ahead of time? If we had the knowledge we want (to know what was going to happen, to have things logically explained, for God to lay out his plan before or as it happens, etc.), would we really be a follower? Is there any room for faith in this kind of equation? (2 Corinthians 5:7) Following and trusting God means we are "blind" in a sense, for we do not walk by sight. What do you think of this analogy? How, then, do we truly walk with the Lord? (According to Yohannon, we must remove everything that we have looked at in ourselves in which we have been putting our faith and trust in, such as acceptance, approval, security, importance, abilities, rights, etc.) Do you think we tend to focus on what we see inside of ourselves because we can see it, whereas the Lord asks us to follow and trust blindly at times?
How do we remove the focus on self and focus on the Lord?

III. Not in the flesh

The story of Abraham, Sarah and Isaac (Genesis 21) is a great example of God having a plan and putting in in action in a way that is undeniably Him and not the machinations of humans. Yohannan points out that throughout the Bible, God regularly waited for people to see their own inability or get to a point of human desperation so that it was unquestionably His work. Does God ever accept a "product of the flesh", as Yohannan puts it in his book? Does He bless the things we do in the flesh? Do things done in the flesh still seem to succeed or seem to have results for good? Why or why not? If things done in the flesh seem to do good for God's kingdom, is it really "good"? How many of you have felt the frustration in your life as you try to do something -- accomplish a personal or professional goal, further a program or some other effort you thought you were supposed to do for God, etc. -- that ends up being effort in the flesh? Why does it seem, sometimes, that non-Christians often succeed by the works of their own efforts? Or, better yet, why wouldn't they succeed -- shouldn't it make sense that they would? "Our plans, our strength and our works, based on anything we find in ourselves, will all burn up." -- K. P. Yohannan What does Jeremiah 17:5-8 tell us?

Summary

So what about action and planning, then? What place does it have in your life, as a Christian? Which comes first? How do we maintain balance?
On some level, I find all of this a huge relief. I know who I am inside, and my weaknesses and failings, my very severe blindness, and I am relieved that it is not up to me, that I am being led by a God who already knows. That all my clever efforts are worthless in the end, unless God is directing them. I am relieved to be free from the fruitlessness of the "schemes of man", which are doomed to fail in the long run, and pass away. We are all blind. Some are led by the Light, and some are following more darkness.

Links of interest related to topics raised here:

Do Christians really have any rights? The myth of believing in ourselves
Can we ever study the Bible too much?

Labels: bible, bible studies, christianity, teaching

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Two prayers.

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Struggle.

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Married to methods.

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Guise in disguise.

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Growing smaller.

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Christians and criticism.

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The question isn't the point.

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Taking up the cross.

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Refreshed.

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Action and planning.

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