"What is God doing in my life or in this world!?" is not an uncommon question.  People ask it all the time, and right we should!  Questions are a part of being human, of reaching out to God, of seeking to answer our anxt when fairness, justice, love, truth and goodness seem inscrutable.

Next week The River begins a four-part series on 'Questions We Ask', looking at 'what is the purpose of life and my life imparticular?' (this Sunday March 14), 'what is justice and where is it?' (March 21), 'what is truth and how can we know it?' (Mar 28) and 'are miracles real and who says?' (April 4 -- Easter).

I am SOOOOO excited about this series for many reasons. One is that we need to be reminded that God is very much OK -- even involved -- with our answer-seeking!  Read the book of Ecclesiastes, or Job, and see how God desires that we seek Him out!  But secondly,I'm excited because the CHURCH needs to be as excited as God is with spiritual questioning.  Otherwise, if all of us are asking the questions but the Church is not willing to deal with such questions, the Church is not where people are; we are 'out of touch'.  Finally, I am excited for some questions to be answered, and some to remain unanswerable!  I believe this will clarify for us what can be known and what can't versus either NOTHING being knowable OR everthing being clear.

For example, I am slowly preparing for ordination exams.  The frustrating part of such exams is the amount of material there is to review:  church history, Bible, theology, ethics, Book of Common Prayer, polity and so forth.  However, I noticed a big difference in my own confidence when last week I went from "I DON'T KNOW what I don't know" to "I KNOW what I don't know"!  When I saw this transition happen, I grew in confidence of what I KNOW that I KNOW while having a comfort level with what I did NOT KNOW (as well as what I will probably never know (because I don't have time to study it))!

In the same way, part of wisdom is to be clear on what we CAN know, and what in this life we CANNOT.  This will increase our confidence level in what we know and also give us comfort with what God has left as dubious.  READ THESE NEXT LINES TWICE!  People who dogmatically espouse either complete unknowability OR all-knowingness (I believe) create a god of their own making; either a God who cannot competently communicate who He is (certain religions and belief systems such as deconstructionism, radical postmodernism, etc -- a bit ironic, isn't it that a GOD couldn't correctly say what He is) OR a God who is so tied to our predictions and our own making that He ceases to be God (the dangers of radical fundamentalism, humanism and naturalism).

I pray, trust, and diligently believe that God will clarify for us what is knowable from that for which we must wait to see Him face to face.  I hope you can find a person or a place that will accept you for who and where you are; yet a person or place that loves you too much to not lead you to Surety beyond where you can go alone.

jt

I'd like to tell you all what we at The River are learning thus far from the book of Jonah, and encourage you to listen to the first two weeks online, if the content seems like something that would be beneficial to you.  In this first blog I want to deal solely with the content of week one.

The first week we talked about why I believe the book of Jonah is a completely factual, authoritative book: 

1.  Jonah was a real person who was written about in a book that is historical in nature, and respected by Biblical and non-Biblical scholars alike.  We know Jonah's father's name (Amittai), where he was from (Zebulun near Nazareth), what his occupation was (a prophet) and even when he lived and served (under Rehoboam II in the time of Amos 800-750BC).  Jonah did not just show up in the book bearing his name, before that he had rightfully prophesied the restoration of Israel's borders and therefore proved himself to really be a prophet (if what prophets predicted didn't come through, they would lose their job and even their life).  

2. If God is truly God -- having created oxygen, water, depth, mammals and all life -- could he not also keep a man alive in a fish (or His Son alive from the dead)?

3. Jesus spoke about Jonah, the fish and the repentance of the Assyrians as a historical and reliable event, comparing our belief in it to our belief in His death and resurrection (Matthew 12).

So if we can trust that God actually DID this historically, what may God have for us to learn from this event?  First, like Jonah, we all run from God.  I told a story of when I was running down my street, tripped on a curb with my hands stuck in my pockets, unable to stop myself from face-planting into the cement.  Similarly, it is VERY hard for us to stop our momentum when we're running from God; we often face-plant into many situations in life that God never wanted us to and that could have been avoided had we kept close to Him.  In that way, we're not much different than Jonah. 

Secondly, the first week of Jonah reminded us that God obstinately pursues us, the lost objects of His love.  God pursued Jonah and even manipulated the oceans to reach him.  Would he not, and does He not also NOW change circumstances in our lives to reach us?  I believe so.  God not only loved Jonah, He also loved the Assyrians, as brutal and sinful they were (historically they were notoriously barbaric); this is why He sent Jonah to preach to them.  Finally, God in His mercy pursues us.  He not only pursued the world by sending Jesus Christ as a reliable, historical event (even Josephus and other non-biblical scholars validate the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth) ... God sent HIs Son -- as the Image of the Invisible God -- to point you and me to Him.  Even today God pursues us with His Spirit, leading us into fellowship with Him and one another.  The question of course is as we read this, will we run TO God, or AWAY from God...

What a glorious message this is to us as we watch -- spectators to the Jonah story; both uplifting and convicting!  Hear the full sermon (at www.therivernrv.org/sermon-archives) and may God take all of us, when we sprint away from Him, to the dry land of His grounding Presence.

JT

In C.S. Lewis' book, The Screwtape Letters, one of the jobs of the lessor demon Wormwood is to distract his Christian assignee by preoccupying his subject with GOOD things; this is in order to keep him away from doing the BEST things.

I am convicted in my own life that I need to hit my knees and pray for myself and others ... that God would help us to be faithful to the BEST things, not spend a majority of our time on the 'GOOD' things.  But how do we know what is BEST?

It is what I see repeated over and over in the Bible, specifically in the New Testament:

Read the Bible, pray and worship in your secret closet (heart) and home.  It is what Jesus did when He wasn't with people.

Allow that love to influence those around you, especially your spouse, kids, family, but also of course, friends.  Develop people to lead like Jesus did.

Keep in community with others who love Jesus, meet in the temple courts and house to house.  It is what Jesus did -- joining existing community or created new ones.

Share that love with those who don't yet know God through deeds, and when necessary, words (that was St. Francis' mantra).  Share it not to conform them to your view, but to Christ.

Summary:  All the other stuff that religious and spiritual people DO may be GOOD (talking, writing, reading, debating, etc) but I believe they are distractions from the BEST.  Until we begin to DO THESE simple things that Jesus did, I doubt we, or the world, will change much.

I stand very much in the need of prayer; unlike you, Jesus, I am easily distracted.  Lord, help me not to lose sight of you amidst the waves, or fall asleep in the garden while you grieve.

JT

It has often irritated me how commercial the holiday season has become; I hear similar grievances from others who complain little.  Christmas music seems to back up a week-per-year and looks more like supply and demand then anything resembling the simplicity of the first Birth.  This year it seemed the halloween candy was barely passed out before santa began his cheer.  Is commerce driving us, or is Christ?  I'm reminded that for most of the life of the Church Advent was a pentitential and reflective holiday, not a transactional one.

Case in point, less than sixty years ago commerce was not an issue for the holidays.  America, recovering from the great depression in mid-century, was forced to celebrate a simpler holiday that wasn't mail-order, or catalog-driven.  Americans didn't have the money -- and the credit -- that it has now.  But somewhere in the 70's and 80's came the boomers -- the wealthiest generation ever -- and suddenly the holidays became more about making sure kids got what their parents did not, especially with the guilt that came from a new tide of divorce...

So my hope -- and I believe the hope of many -- is to return to a prophetic, Isaiahish holiday ... preparing for the coming King without the cash register.  For in our past as we look at Isaiah, we see our spiritual fragility, our tendencies towards depravity, our faithless religiousity.  And in looking back to periods such as that of Isaiah (captivity, discipline, regression) that we also reiterate our mortality and yet must relax in God's incredible and unrelenting mercy.

Remember YOUR past and I believe you'll discover your present.  Hear the first week of our series.

JT

This past weekend I participated in a very special spiritual retreat called the Walk to Emmaus. What happened on this weekend was men grew to know their God and one another in a profound, deep and substantive way.

There were SO many things experienced and learned it could take up more space than most would like to read.  However I was most moved by the Fatherhood of God in my life. 

Sometimes I still find myself looking for approval in ways that are adolescent:  my humor, my looks (not), my athleticism (perhaps five years ago!), my work, et cetera.  This weekend tied all of those earthly longings for approval to a my quest as a son to know I am loved, good, cherished, strong.  These are all things I knew theoretically, but now far more personally, God desires to give me.  God reminded me in a very personal, powerful and tender way that He WILL be the Father I've always wanted, always needed, and still long for. 

Wow!  What a powerful time.  I left the retreat and reentered the world with a very quiet, inner, subtle peace.  The peace that a loved son would have.

jt