presentsense

New Song: Grace for Now

I started writing this song yesterday, and finished recording it today at lunch. Feel free to use it if you want to. The lyrics are a loose adaptation of this post.

Download grace_for_now.mp3  .

Grace For Now
Eli Renner

Father I come
Into Your presence
Asking for help
Come to my defense
My fears are great
You are much greater
I put my trust in You

Your grace for now - Is all I need
Your Spirit-power - my guarantee
I boldly come - I daily feed
Your grace for now - Is all I need

Don't know the plan
Yet I don't fear it
Kingdom at hand
I'm led by Your Spirit
When changes come
You are unchanging
I put my trust in You

Chorus

Two things I know
True are they still
You never change
But everything else will (repeat)

Open letter from God to Americans (satire)

     Hello, I am God. I made you. I need you to understand a few things about me, so it will go well with you. I love you when you obey me, and I let the devil hurt you when you don't. I am your Father, and like all good fathers on earth, when you mess up - even accidentally - I get angry with you,  but I eventually get over it, usually after I have punished you in a way that feels right to me. You're not smart enough to know my ways, but I won't give you the benefit of the doubt. I teach you things the hard way - it's the only way you will learn. As a consequence, if you do mess up, don't come to me for anything special for a while. Make sure you give me time to cool down first. OK, now that the heavy stuff is out of the way, and on a much lighter note -
   You are my favorite child. I love you more than any of the other children I have created. That's why you get all the cool stuff like cars, and houses, and TVs, and food that isn't rotten. It's because of where you happen to live, because your country was founded by people who loved me and followed all my commandments. They didn't steal other people's property. They didn't kill other people to get what they wanted. They only came here to flee from the devil and his minions. They just wanted to be able to worship me freely. And you are truly blessed by me because of what they did. Your country is pretty freaking awesome. I am so glad I created it. Even your money says that you trust me. It's no wonder I count on you to rid the world of evil. Where would the world be today without you? Please don't worry about anything. Take whatever you need. Make yourself at home on earth. I made it for you to enjoy. I am good like that. And as for the poor...remember my son said that there would always be poor people. Don't worry about it. It's not your problem. Most of them are poor because they aren't following me as well as you are. Sometimes lessons are hard to learn, but I can't keep bailing them out all the time.
   But be careful not to come too close to me on your own. You need anointed leaders to explain me and my  scripture to you. My glory is too much for you to stand, so you should definitely find an anointed leader to follow. They will make sure that the things they tell you on my behalf are right. I trust them to lead you, and you should trust them wholeheartedly too. They got where they are by following other anointed leaders and learning from them. Just look at the signs and wonders that follow them. Look at the cars they drive and the houses they live in. That should be proof enough that I am blessing them and setting them apart to lead you. They don't make mistakes. That small voice in your spirit might be the devil - especially if it raises questions about the things that your leader does and says. Be sure to check everything that voice says with your approved leader. If they say it's not of me, it's not. I know my book says I talked with shepherds, fishermen, nomads, slaves, women, and children, but I don't talk to the rank and file anymore. I had to do that back then because I didn't have the leader class in place yet. You understand.
   Finally, never underestimate the "hedge of protection" you have heard so much about. When you are inside my will for your life, nothing bad will happen to you. If something bad does happen to you, you only have yourself or the devil to blame. But since the devil is no match for my hedge of protection, obviously, you did something to make me mad. Didn't I tell you not to do that?

OK then.

Oy...

What Bible does Steve Munsey read? I mean, for Christ's sake, someone please tell me. Sometimes I think following Jesus and telling others about him would be so much easier if we weren't having to explain away false doctrine first, just to get back to square one.

Life After Lakeland: Sorting Out the Confusion - Fire In My Bones

Link: Life After Lakeland: Sorting Out the Confusion - Fire In My Bones.

First this disclaimer, I found out from my wife and mother in law that cool people in the Charismatic movement don't read Charisma mag anymore. It was news to me. That being said, this editorial should serve as a fairly objective summation of the events of Bentley-gate (yes, you can use that term now, you have my blessing). To Grady's comments, I will add my own editorial comments...

• I was in Lakeland the week this "revival" broke out. Not at the church, but staying with friends who happened to be involved in the church, and who more than once tried to convince me and the family to go to a meeting. We declined. I didn't feel right about it early on.
• I attended one session at Morning Star Church in SC. This was a week or two after the "revival" started, and after evidently some body (or bodies) had "brought some back from Lakeland". I went as an objective observer, truly asking the Lord to show me whatever he wanted me to see. What I saw was a hyper-emotional worship-fest, with a very skilled band, a 5 minute "sermonette," followed by the requisite open-ended personal ministry time. The hype in the room was palpable.
• Last weekend, Bentley himself came to Morning Star for a big tent meeting. Even All Nation's Church - who has previously openly condemned Morning Star Ministries as being outside the will of God in some areas and refused to work with them - dismissed their claim to fame, the Friday night "Watch of the Lord" to allow their congregants to go and volunteer. (side note, in these circles, "serving God's anointed" is passed off as discipleship, and counted in one's righteousness bucket) I am not surprised that ANC made this move, after seeing that Peter Wagner, Che Ahn, Bill Johnson, and John Arnott had all made the trip the week before to Lakeland to "bless" the whole mess - before the truth came out about the marriage being nearly dissolved. Let me also add, while I am at it, that this family has 4 children. This isn't just two ships passing in the night that decide they don't share the same goals so they move on. 6 lives are now in serious disrepair here. Pray for those kids, if you don't do anything else. Believe me, I know what I am talking about.
• The Charismatic wing of the church is the wild west of the body of Christ, replete with lone rangers, cattle rustlers, and two-bit whores. Of course, there are men in white hats, but there is much to be wary of in an organization that prides itself in not being organized. The move to bring Bentley into submission (in my opinion) came way too late, and probably wouldn't have had any teeth anyway. These things tend to be non-binding resolutions at the end of the day. The movement is too big to take one of these men's jobs away, and any attempt at watchdogging the leaders of the movement is without fail spun as an "attack of the enemy". Truth can't win on a playing field like that. The comment about being convinced that the church will easily follow the Anti-Christ rings true to me, although my eschatology leads me to argue that that train already left the station, and there's no sense waiting around for the legendary Ant-Christ to actually show up. He's here, people, he's been here for 2,00 years. To quote Derek Webb: "Nothing unifies like a common enemy/and we've got one sure as hell/he may be living in your house/he may be rasing up your kids/ he may be sleeping with your wife/ you know he may not look like you think"

Frank Schaeffer: God Against Obama: Dobson, Osteen, Corsi, the Evangelicals Strike Again

I think I am falling in love with little Frankie Schaeffer, especially living where I am now, in the middle of the Evangelical ghetto.  Read on...

Link: Frank Schaeffer: God Against Obama: Dobson, Osteen, Corsi, the Evangelicals Strike Again.

Grace for imaginary things...

I heard Paul Young make a statement in an interview today that really got me thinking. He said that "I don't have grace for that imagination." He was referring to someone asking him what he would do if Oprah got a hold of his book.

His reply struck me as very true, and something that Steph and I deal with on a daily basis. I have been using  the line "I don't borrow trouble" lately a lot as a personal motto. My meaning is that I have enough trouble today - real and present trouble - to spend any mental time or emotional energy to deal with problems that have not even happened yet, and may not ever happen.

Someone I work with called me in confidence last week and told me that his marriage is dangerously on the rocks. He knew what I went through a few years ago and asked me, "How did you get through it?" My answer to him was quick and confident, as it is an answer that the Holy Spirit gave me during that time, and it has since become my first piece of advice to anyone going through a gut-punching trial. The answer? I prayed for enough grace to get me through the next 15 minutes. That's it. Beyond that time, something was bound to change either externally, or in my own internal emotion factory. At that point, I pray for more grace, but just 15 more minutes worth. Grace was and is my manna.  I can't store it up for later. With Young's statement above, I see it all coming together. Perhaps I should say "There's my book!" (explanation - I remember when I was growing up, if we were driving somewhere and there was a boat for sale, my Dad would always say, "There's my boat!" He still doesn't have his boat, and I still don't have my book. But I digress...)

Looking to the Bible for confirmation, I am drawn to the book of Hebrews, where the author says,

"Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." (Hebrews 14:6 NIV)

Nothing in that suggestion says anything about praying for future grace - for some infinite cosmic power-up to use when needed. At least I don't read it that way. It reads to me like the grace comes only when we need it, and when we don't need it, we don't have it. If you would agree with this thought, then you would probably also agree with me and Paul Young that we don't get grace for things that aren't happening. That, I would argue, is why our worries and fears, should we focus on them, have so much power over us. We have no grace to cancel them out, because they are just figments of our imagination. If on the other hand, we choose by faith to believe that when the trials come, so will come the grace, we can me more confident, less fearful, and more bold about the choices we are making now.

For example, when I go on a trip, my confidence that the trip will go well is directly proportional to my knowledge of my backup plan. One important backup plan is cash. If I have plenty of cash with me, I don't stress out about whether I have remembered to pack my dark socks. I know that if by some chance I forgot them, I have the cash to buy them when I find out that I need them. In a way, grace is like that. Not that I have the grace in my pocket, but that I know it will be there when and if I need it. Traveling through life becomes a lot less stressful when you know that.

The last two weekends

So, this is what I have to show for the last two weekends. What do you think?

God's favorite candy

And I will set my bow in the heavens, and yea, someone one day will see that it is good, and behold, he will create a delicious treat for all to enjoy. I am the LORD.

He who has little loses that too

Ok. Some cubes look more than just "lived in", and then there's mine. (guess which is which) To make matters worse, when I got to the office on Monday, someone had decided that my cube was so unoccupied that they even took my monitor away. And I believe someone took my stapler. Excuse me, does someone here have my stapler?