If you skip over this link to Doug Schaefer’s post Did Jesus Come to Teach Us How to Live?, you will miss a profound insight into an aspect of Jesus’ nature and character we often miss, an insight clearly and humbly expressed.

That said, I believe Jesus did come to teach us how to live – among many other things for which He came – to be Himself a perfect example of self-sacrifice so that we would not be willing to settle for less.

And, realizing that we cannot live up to it, to be willing to accept His perfection, given to us through grace as a gift beyond any other price.

When we rely pretty much solely on opening our church buildings to the public at large and inviting them in with a sign out front or – at a very progressive church – with a newspaper advertisement or a (gasp!) flyer or a radio or TV spot …

When we tacitly invite those yet unreached by the love of Christ to sit in our church buildings and listen to our lessons and sing our songs with us and pray our prayers with us and innately comprehend our secret biblical language and all of its insider terminology …

When we kinda expect them to clean up themselves and their clothing and their lives before setting foot on our holy premises and mingling in our holy fellowship …

Are we expecting too much of the Holy Spirit?

True, He is promised to guide Jesus’ followers into all truth; to convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment.

But …

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. ~ I Peter 1:12

Are we expecting Him to go out and do all the work for us – but without us?

… they always fall off.”

If you grew up during the golden age of Ronco television commercials, you will not be able to forget this one for the Buttoneer. The commercial’s voice-over repeated this phrase ad nauseam.

The problem with the commercial is … well, they don’t. Buttons don’t always fall off.

You would be a soul of weak and gullible mind to believe such a claim to begin with, but even the tender-aged among us shrugged off such outlandish illogic as simply advertising.

The problem with the commercial is … well, we absorbed that “simply advertising” shrug as a culture and made it acceptable in discourse to assert outlandish and illogical claims as proof of the point we wish to sell.

It’s as if the vast majority of us slept through Sesame Street the morning that the show covered “sometimes, always and never.”

Christianity has not been at all immune to this tactic. Even those who consider themselves the most logical among us fall prey to the most insidious logical fallacies – which, as far as I can tell, are only rarely taught in our schools these days so that they can be recognized for what they are.

A couple of examples:

“I’d rather be a legalist than an illegalist.”

Well, that sounds right, doesn’t it? Plus, it’s short and clever-sounding. The problem is that it assumes that there are only two mutually-oppositional positions available and the other one is morally wrong, therefore being a legalist is morally right.

“The postmodernist claims that he can’t and doesn’t know anything for certain.”

The problem is that this is a generalization, an overstatement, un-attributed to any source, and applied to a labelled group of people. Worse, there is an implication that such people are somehow stupid by choice and can’t be taught anything, so why try?

Behind such rationalizations is an implicit demeanor of “I’m right; you’re wrong. I go to heaven; you go to hell.” That pride and arrogance – rather than true rational thinking – is what puts off so many unreached people whose first encounter with Christianity is that attitude. The truth is that all have sinned and fall short of God’s glory. The truth is that while we were impotent, Christ died for us, the ungodly. The truth is that no one is righteous; not even one of us.

That’s the truth we need to express in thought and word and deed and attitude and behavior.

The problem is that self-righteous, chest-swelling, button-popping pride.

Please pray for my blogging brother Kinney Mabry, who blogs as “preacherman” at http://kinneymabry.blogspot.com/.

He has been suffering severe migraines of late, and though a CAT scan showed no tumors, he is concerned about an upcoming neurological exam.

I have migraines from time to time, too, but I have only had the debilitating, fetal-position-in-a-cool-dark-room-thank-God-I-don’t-have-a-gun-in-the-house kind three times that I can remember. (You don’t want to remember them.)

Also please remember storm victims in the midwest states through which the storms and tornadoes tore a swath last night; my church’s Luke 10:37 response team is gearing up to go to north central Arkansas as soon as possible. (One of their leaders is unavailable right now, since he’s down in Honduras building a couple of houses as a volunteer.)

But especially lift Kinney to the Father.

New Wineskins Conversation Editor Fred Peatross has made the move back to the WordPress blogging format and to his own domain name: Abductive Columns. (His RSS feed is http://www.abductivecolumns.com/feed/.)

His blog began about a decade ago as “Grace Awakenings,” and he has long made a point – if not a second career – of challenging our very traditional notions of Christianity. He has interviewed extraordinary thinkers, meditators and students of the Word over those years – as well as having written a number of booklets and the recent book Missio Dei: In the Crisis of Christianity.

He will cheerfully but passionately rankle your preciously-held notions about what it means to follow Christ and be His church, and at his blog he always leaves the latch-string on the outside and the red carpet rolled out.

What it says:

Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib? – Job 39:9

What I learned:
Don’t depend on mythical creatures to do your babysitting for you.

---

What it says:

And it came to pass, when Jacob saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother’s brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother’s brother, that Jacob went near, and rolled the stone from the well’s mouth, and watered the flock of Laban his mother’s brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel, and lifted up his voice, and wept. – Genesis 29:10-11

What I learned:
If you’re manly enough to roll a stone but you’re still a crybaby, learn to move fast with the girl you’re crushin’ on.

---

What it says:

And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth of my bowels, seeketh my life: how much more now may this Benjamite do it? let him alone, and let him curse; for the LORD hath bidden him. – 2 Samuel 16:11

What I learned:
Apparently, there is more than one way to “begat” a son.

---

What it says:

And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. ~ 2 Kings 19:35 and/or Isaiah 37:36

What I learned:
Some days it just don’t pay to get out of bed.

---

What it says:

And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlick – Numbers 11:4-5

What I learned:
Take a leek before you leave.

---

What it says:

“And it came to pass …” – (about 450+ times)

What I learned:
“And it came to pass,”
my old friend would say
was his favorite Bible verse.
For the best times and the worst
To the last and from the first
Not a one of them comes to stay
– but they come to pass.

I am grateful to God for my elders.

I was especially grateful for them as represented by the one who got up before the assembly this morning to read some announcements and deliver a shepherd’s prayer. The worship hour was already going long, but after two announcements that were vital for our church family to know, he said (approximate quote):

“From time to time, I get people asking me where scripture authorizes a baby blessing service like the one we’re having tonight. Of course, these people worship in unauthorized church buildings, listen to an unauthorized full-time minister and many other things … but I’d like for us to see exactly what scripture says on the subject.”

Then he read Mark 10:13-16 …

People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.

When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”

And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

He concluded, “Let’s be the hands of Jesus in blessing the babies of 2007 together here tonight.”

Then he prayed a shepherd’s prayer.

I said an especially heartfelt “Amen!”

Quick BibleGateway.com search of the New International Version:

I find the word “joy” or some form of it in the New Testament 68 times. It is pretty much universally recommended.

I find the word “anger” or “angry” in the New Testament 33 times. As a general rule, it is not mentioned in an approving way. (Though I do find the word “wrath” an additional 31 times, it is used exclusively in connection with God or Christ.)

Do you find yourself drawn closer to God through Christ through the company of angry Christians, or joyful Christians?

What are angry Christians so ticked off about?

What do they have a right to be ticked off about?

Hasn’t God provided everything needed by human beings in order to yield joy in their lives?

I find these passages especially illuminating about this matter:

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22-23

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” – Romans 15:13

“And the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” – Acts 13:52

In perhaps at least this one way, the Holy Spirit is like any person: Who wants to hang around with a grump?

I was a grump about greed a few posts back, and I apologize. I hope it was not characteristic of me to be such a grouch. I appreciate your responses, especially the ones that recommended that I “shake it off” and let God deal with it.

You are absolutely right.

He is much better equipped to judge than I will ever be.

And at least the translators of the NIV agree that “wrath” is His rightful possession solely.

It’s another one of those phrases that I just woke up having in my head: “The Church at the Edge of the World.”

And with it, I had a mental picture of a little off-the-road country church built on the precipice of a cliff with a long, deep drop-off and a stunning, enticing view beyond it.

Behind the little church, and almost as far as you could see in either direction, a split-rail fence lined the edge of that cliff, winding as it did up and downhill, in and out as the road wound on.

Then the fence stopped.

That was as far as the protection went.

Somehow, in my mind, I had a feeling that where that fence ended, someone was supposed to build another little country church on down the road that would be responsible for building a split rail fence that would extend protection from the fatal fall beguiled by the rough landscape – first in one direction of the winding road, then in the other. Then another, and another, and another ….

But there was just the one little church, and the one hand-made fence that only went so far.

I’m not sure I was fully awake when all of that came to my mind.

Maybe it was a dream.

Maybe it means something.

Yeah, it’s true! Angi and I will be presenting a class at the Lectureship this spring about using Darryl Tippens’ Pilgrim Heart and our Group Guide for it in several different learning situations.

Our church’s 30+ LIFE Groups will have an opportunity to use these materials in a study of spiritual formation beginning next month (the LIFE Group we’re a part of did so last spring), so we’ll be picking up pointers all the way until the day we leave, I imagine.

If you come, expect Angi to do the heavy lifting, just as she did in writing the Group Guide. She is, after all, the college professor between us; the one with the Ph.D. – and my B.A. and I simply provide the occasional moment of comedy relief. Folks, I knew I was marrying way above my caste, years ago! It’d be one thing if I were qualified to hold up the domestic end of the partnership, but most people don’t survive my cooking.

Hey, if she did nothing but spend the class time sharing some of her audacious recipes and provided samples, I guarantee it would be a spiritually forming experience for all present.

So come join us out on the Granola Coast if you can!

But don’t expect recipe samples.