pre-vacation...

This pic describes my emotions pretty well the last day before vacation...I'll update it throughout the week...

faith...

I was listening to the book of Acts on my Bible cd in the car today on my way to a meeting and I have been wrestling with the following verse from Acts 14:9:

"He saw that he had faith to be healed."

The verse speaks of Paul when he is in Lystra and comes upon a lame man. Scripture clearly points out that this man had never walked, that he was lame from birth.

I find it interesting not only what Paul says, but what he does. 1.) Paul "looked directly" at the man 2.) he "saw that he had faith to be healed" 3.) and he called out "stand up on your feet!"

This is fascinating to me because Paul and Barnabas were just sent out from Jerusalem after the apostles settled the matter of a sect of Jewish followers of Jesus who were forcing Gentiles to be circumcised in order to be saved. Paul then almost gets stoned and then goes on to Lystra with Barnabas.

He then comes upon this man. The word "saw" stands out to me. In the context of the sentence, "he saw that he had faith to be healed," this is a much different concept of seeing than the physical human sense. Paul "saw" something that is not clearly visible to the average person. My only explanation is that Paul, empowered by the Holy Spirit, senses the faith of this lame man. How does he see this? He sees with the eyes of the Spirit, the eyes of Jesus, the eyes of God.

First, why don't we see this way? It requires being completely in tune with the Spirit. Second, how is Paul able to heal the man? Does Paul really heal the man? In fact, all Paul does is make a pretty bizarre statement. He is surrounded by people anxious to learn from his teaching about Jesus and he pulls a Jesus and heals someone. But, in the same way Jesus did, he empowered the man to participate in the act of his healing. He calls the man to stand up. Now, we have already been told that Paul saw that this man had faith to be healed, and we are then shown that by the man's willingness to stand up after not ever knowing what it felt like to stand. Two notable times that Jesus performed a miracle this way is first the wedding feast at Cana. He commands the servants to fill up the jugs with water. They obey and the water becomes wine. Second, he heals a blind man by spitting in the mud and wiping it on his eyes and telling him to go and wash. I find it pretty amazing that Jesus invites us to participate in our own healing. Even Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross invites us to act. We have to choose whether we will accept his sacrifice or not.

And what is the crowd's reaction after this amazing miracle? They try to worship Paul and Barnabas as gods. Talk about missing the point. God must be so frustrated with these jokers. No wonder Paul and Barnabas tear their clothes and run into the crowd to confront them...

the simple way...

Click here to find out how you can help our brothers and sisters at the Simple Way after the devastating fire...

http://www.thesimpleway.org/

sins - forgiven...

You all know that I am addicted to Mars Hill's podcasts, but you HAVE to listen to this past week's teaching by Ed Dobson. Ed was Rob Bell's mentor and he is an excellent teacher.

Enjoy...

http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=214057317

music...

I am really not big on the radio these days, since I listen mostly to cd's and my iPod, BUT I stumbled onto this station recently and I love it. There are hardly any commercials (and the ones they do have are short and sweet) and they rarely repeat songs in a single day. PLUS, it is all music from the 90's and 00's, heavy on the grunge rock. Man, I feel like I'm back in college every time I listen.

Give it a listen at http://www.radio1045.com/main.html

conference...

I spent all day today in Philly at the Annual Conference for the EPC of the UMC. Two things I learned: 1. There has to be real motivation for pastors to go out of their way to an off-the-beaten-path ballroom to look at vendor's booths. 2. Pastors love candy.



It was a rather boring day, although I did get to catch up with a bunch of pastors that I had not seen in years, which was cool. I also met an amazing guy named Osaze from Palmer Theological Seminary.


To fight off the boredom, I did a lot of brainstorming for The Village, particularly for our gathering this week, and for our upcoming "doubt booth" at VBS. At one point, my hand just had to keep moving, so I did this sketch. Sorry, I could not get the picture any clearer.

what art movement are you?

This is in response to Liza's blog...check it out at
http://brusheswithgrace.blogspot.com/

You Are Surrealism

Dreamy and idealistic, you've created a world that is all your own. It's very likely that you've either dabbled in drugs or are naturally trippy. You are always trying to push beyond the boundaries of your culture and society. You believe that art, love, and freedom can change the world.

What Art Movement Are You?

interesting article...

I found this interesting as we try to "understand" God and continue to ponder the true meaning of worship...

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/juneweb-only/124-42.0.html