Testimonies: Things About God I Had To Unlearn

This week, we hear from Dr. Gary Fox and Brandi Manes as they give testimonies. This week’s podcast is the entire service.

A 5C Church: Constructive

A 5C Church: Constructive

In this service you will hear testimonies from three faith leaders who will answer the question “What is one theological idea that has shaped your faith?”

The guest speakers are Brittany Burrows, Rev. Holly Reinhart-Marean and Rev. Larry George.

Think Theologically

The book of Job is mostly Job questioning God and his friends telling him to settle for their answers.  Job wants to talk to God. And after they go around and around long enough, God appears and talks to Job.  God’s words to Job are difficult. God tells Job his idea of God is too small. God’s power is far greater and God’s ways are more mysterious than anything Job could imagine.  It’s presumptuous to imagine you know what God is thinking.  

And just when it looks like Job has been put in his place and that asking questions of God is arrogant and useless, God turns to Job’s friends and says, “ . . . You have not spoken of me what it right, as my servant Job has done.”

God is bigger, higher, deeper, more powerful, more mysterious than anything you can imagine.  Some will tell you that’s why you shouldn’t question God. I’m saying that’s why you should. God is big enough, high enough, deep enough, powerful enough, and mysterious enough to handle your questions.  And the Bible is good enough to guide you as you encounter that God.

God is big enough to trust with your questions. Your answers will only be as good as your questions. And you get what you settle for - So work out your salvation, With fear and trembling.

Tidying Up The Tomb

Jesus has tidied up death for us.

He hasn’t discarded it, death is still there, but what he has done is make it possible for us to see it clearly, to know its purpose, to know death is not something to dread, or something to fear.

Because he has overcome death, he has overcome the death-dealing things of this world...and so death no longer fills the space of our lives, it no longer clutters our vision or our thinking and being in this world, Jesus has tidied it up, he's made a path through it for us so that we can go from life through death to life again just like he did.

life – death – life

Jesus shows us this path of life, that in this cycle of life, death, and life all things start in life and all things end in life--and like him we start in God and end in God; death is just part of the journey, death is just part of our aliveness.  

So that we don't have to run away from the hard things anymore, we can face the tombs in our lives, the tombs in our world with confidence knowing that like Jesus, will get through it, knowing that here is this path of loss and renewal that we go through throughout our lives that helps us to grow and to heal and to become more and more who we were made to be.

Tidying Up The Theology Of Holy Week

Have you ever asked the question of why did Jesus die on the cross? Maybe this is something that you have let go of in your deconstruction or maybe you haven’t ever given it much thought. Pastor Blair sits down with Dr. Gary Fox to talk through the differing atonement theologies and how they play out in our lives in this episode of “Practicing The Presence.”

Things The Spark Joy

Jesus says: focus on loving God and loving others and your joy will be complete. The Greek root of the word joy is the same as grace--joy is a gift from God, joy is the gift of knowing you are connected to the divine and this connection is not something you earn or win…it is always present with you, if you will just see it, in moments of stress, see your connection with God and with others and your joy will be complete. Joy comes in, fear goes out when we see ourselves as connected.

Tidying Up: Putting Your House In Order

When we carry around the clutter from our past, the past wounds we have inflicted...we cannot move freely, we cannot live freely, and it gets in the way of everything, it gets in the way of our relationships with others and with God, and God doesn’t want that for us. 

 Jesus says: there is a way to be released from this burden and it is the way of forgiveness. Don’t wait. Make amends now. Don’t let another day pass, make amends now. Deal with the clutter from your past today so you can free today. 

Tidying Up our Tradition

Tidying Up Tradition

When the teachings of the church are cutting off people from doing the ministry God has clearly gifted and called them to do, we must question those teachings, we must rethink those teachings, we must tidy up those traditions, now is the time for tidying up, church. 

There have been throughout the years groups of people who seek to gain power through excluding others...they have used doctrine and scripture to justify this harm; but take heart....

There have also been every step of the way, people who have stood up and said: no. They have questioned and researched and written and argued and protested and participated in civil disobedience to stand up for the excluded and marginalized and those without voice…and you know what they’ve been called? Well I’m sure they’ve been called a lot of things but here’s one:

They are the people called Methodists.

Tidying Up How We Interpret The Bible

Tidying Up How We Interpret The Bible

If you do not read the Bible, you place yourself at the mercy of those who do.  The discipline of wrestling with scripture frees you from people who want to impose their reading on you.

A prominent pastor here in Dallas thinks we should build a wall at our southern border.  He told the news the Bible says heaven has a wall around it.  That’s Revelation 21:12.  He didn’t mention there are twelve gates in that wall that never close.  That’s Revelation 21:25.  If we want to build a wall at the border like the one in the Bible, we’ll have to put big holes in it every few miles.

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Below are some practical exercises you could use to bring joy into your heart and make the Bible a greater part of your life...

Step 1: Share a verse

Pick a favorite Bible verse and share it on one or more of your social networks. Say a little bit about why it's meaningful to you.

Step 2: Share a verse with someone

Call a friend or relative and share with them a Bible verse you think might make their day brighter. Say a prayer together.

Step 3: Read the Bible together

Make an appointment to meet with a friend and spend some time reading the Bible together. Pick out a chapter, maybe the chapter your favorite verse is in, read it together and talk about how you could apply the lesson of that passage this week.

Tidying Up Our Misconceptions About God

Tidying Up Our Misconceptions About God

Many of us Christians have collected a lot of beliefs we’ve been taught and told and even repeated…this season of Lent is a time to sort through what we believe or have been told for so long and decide: which ideas about the faith do we need to keep and which do we need to throw out? This week we are tidying up our clothes or the things we put on God.

Our spiritual house is packed full with all kinds of ideas and doctrines and rules about who God is and who we are and it can be suffocating really, all the stuff, it can be overwhelming to even think about sorting through it, so oftentimes we don’t, we just ignore it and even add more stuff to it because why not?

The deeper truth is that if we don’t go through the clutter in our spiritual homes, well it’s the same truth about what happens if we don’t go through the clutter in our physical homes--it gets in the way--it gets in the way of our life and relationships.

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Below are some practical, creative and challenging steps you could take this week toward bringing joy to your heart and creating space in your life:

Step 1: Create A Reminder
Put a Post-it note in your wallet/purse that says 'Do I really need this?' If you don't, put it down and put the money you were going to spend to better use.

Step 2: Make Purchases More Meaningful
If you're buying something new, make the purchase more meaningful. What it's going to replace? What are you going to do with the old item instead? Who could it be of use to?

Step 3: Assess Your Stuff
What do you really need? What can you give away? Are there hoarding habits that need to be changed? You can give to the clothing drive at the church or your local Goodwill. Perhaps considering calling Network of Community Ministries to volunteer at their clothing closet.

Agreement Verses Change

Has this ever happened to you? You see a problem that needs to be solved but you can’t solve it by yourself? So you let your manager know and they agree but then you wait for change? And you wait and wait and wait. You have gotten agreement but what you really wanted was change. In our scripture today James is saying that if you agree on who Jesus is then there will be a change.

The Good Samaritan

There's a great saying from author Anne Lamott that you can safely assume you've created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.In today’s text we read about when a lawyer asks Jesus a question. This lawyer, is really good. He knows the law.  And when Jesus asks him what the law says, he says: 

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself." 

And Jesus begins his response with…

“A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell into the hands of robbers, who stripped him, beat him, and went away, leaving him half dead."

Covered By Grace

You are covered…do you know that you are covered…maybe you don’t believe you are covered, like maybe you feel like you’ve done something along the way and your coverage got dropped…

 No, no you’re still covered. So you messed up, so you think you aren’t worthy of coverage… maybe you’ve forgotten that this isn’t a divine points game, this isn’t about earning or achieving, I mean the rest of the world is into that but God isn’t into that…and we know that because of Christ crucified, because through him, success is redefined, weak is the new strong…the way up is the way down…

Watch the clip used in the service below

The Radical Thing About This Table

We may disagree on the issues, we may have conflict with one another, but we never ever stop seeing one another as brothers and sisters.

The pull of tribalism is strong now...it is strong and it is trying to influence us to treat one another as less than human beings, it is trying to get us to name call and to have closed minds and mean spirits…but it is no match for the power of Christ that is present at this table and in this bread and cup that compels us to love our neighbor.