Ecclesiastes Conclusion
We closed out Ecclesiastes last night! As intense as the book was at times, I walk away encouraged by Solomon’s conclusion . . . “fear God and obey His commands.” As we talked last night, I think this points us to the beauty of the gospel. We are able to obey God (live as disciples of Jesus) only because we have been and are being changed on the inside by the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our ongoing relationship with Jesus will direct the way our lives respond as disciples of Jesus.
Here are the spiritual pathways from John Ortberg we talked about last night to help you think about the most effective ways for you:
1. Intellectual Pathway – You draw closer to God as you learn more about Him.
2. Relational Pathway – You have a deep sense of God's presence when you’re involved in significant relationships.
3. Serving Pathway – God's presence seems most tangible when you’re involved in helping others.
4. Worship Pathway – You have a natural gift for expression and celebration.
5. Activist Pathway – You have a passion to act.
6. Contemplative Pathway – God is most present to you when distractions and noises are removed.
7. Creation Pathway – You have a passionate ability to connect with God when you are experiencing the world He made.
Brad Jackson serves as the Pastor of The Table at CPC
Leaders are Readers
Leaders are readers. I don’t know who said it first, but I believe it’s true. It’s part of the value of being life-long learners.
My husband is a fast reader and seems to retain everything. I, on the other hand, am a slow reader and have to go back over everything I read, taking notes in order to process and have any chance of applying the material! I’m always reading about 85 books at once (which may be part of the problem!). I thought I’d share about one I’ve read this summer that has been particularly insightful. In fact, I would put it on my “must read” list.
The book is called Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzaro. One of the key themes is the importance of recognizing the ways that we live into our “false self” – believing the lie that we are defined by the expectations, achievements, titles, and possessions of the world. Instead, we can embrace our “true self” – our identity in Christ – by “Living and swimming in the river of God’s deep love for us . . . Soaking in this love enables us to surrender to God’s will, especially when it seams so contrary to what we can see, feel, or figure our ourselves . . . Only the love of God in Christ is capable of bearing the weight of our true identity.”
Scazzaro identifies three temptations that threaten us. He writes, “Each in its own way, screams: ‘God’s love for you will never be enough! You are not lovable. You are not good enough.’”
Temptation One: I Am What I Do (Performance)
Temptation Two: I Am What I Have (Possession)
Temptation Three: I Am What Others Think (Popularity)
In contrast, Scazarro cites Jesus’ understanding of who He is. In Matthew 3:17, the Spirit descends and God the Father says, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” “In other words: “You are lovable. You are good. It is so good that you exist.”
Scazzaro points out that at this point in Jesus’ life he has yet to perform any miracles, or die on the cross and rise again. Still, He receives this affirmation that he is deeply loved by his heavenly Father for who he is.
May each of us be reminded today that regardless of our circumstances or the shaming voices of the world, we are His beloved children in whom He delights.
If you need a further reminder, check out this VIDEO.
Laura Crosby
Living in the Tension
Reading through the words of Solomon in Ecclesiastes this summer has led me into some unexpected intellectual arenas. Throughout this interesting little book, Solomon explores the tension, the anxiety, the vexation of our inner being we all experience as we do life in the shadow of impending death. While I certainly think we have every right to reject Solomon’s conclusion that all of life is vanity and meaningless, it seems Solomon is absolutely right on concerning the deeply rooted anxiety we deal with as mortal beings inevitably approaching death.
You know this anxiety, this tension - I’m sure it’s probably all too familiar.
And I don’t know about you, but for me this tension has not been alleviated as I have continued to attempt to follow Jesus. If anything, the tension has become more pronounced. Anyone who says that following Jesus leads one away from tension is selling you a bill of goods.
For example, Jesus urges us to come to Him if we are weary and burdened and we will find rest in our souls because His way of doing life, His yoke, if you will, is easy and His burden is light (Matthew 28-30). And this is fantastic, I cling to these words, but Jesus also calls us to give ourselves away and be willing to die if we want to follow Him (Matthew 16:24-25).
While I understand that Jesus is a master of hyperbole (and probably employing it here) these ideas still stand in tension with one another. I am willing to bet that an honest attempt to submit one’s life to Jesus will not eradicate the tension of life but actually cause us to experience it more deeply. Any way of following Jesus that doesn’t lead us more deeply into the tension, anxiety, and suffering of life is probably not the real deal. Solomon encouraged us to banish anxiety from our beings so that we can more fully enjoy life while Jesus encourages us to become people transformed by the power of His Spirit who are able to not only live in the tension, but to bring hope, peace, and rest in the midst of it.
David Stewart serves as Associate Director of High School Ministries at CPC
Managing Tension
Last week at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit, one of the talks that was most relevant to me was one given by Andy Stanley called “The Upside of Tension.” He argued that every organization has problems that shouldn’t be solved and tensions that shouldn’t be resolved. It’s not a case of either/or, but managing the tension of both/and.
For example:
• Family Life and Work
• Leadership and Management
• Grace and Truth
• Growth in Numbers and Depth in Discipleship
• In a small group it might be between . . . Community Building and Bible Study
For me this topic was particularly timely because I’ve been working with several different ministry areas to plan a small group leader retreat for September that we’re really jazzed about. (Read more about it here.)
HSM, Adult Ministries, and The Table are coming together for a retreat that we think is going to be a huge intergenerational win for the kingdom. We’re majoring on inspiration, discipleship, and transferable principles for leadership that will benefit all of us.
HOWEVER, although we have a common goal and shared values, there are also unique needs for each ministry, so we’ve had to work together to respect each other’s needs and come up with creative solutions.
For example, Student Ministries doesn’t think this will be a win for their leaders unless it’s an overnight deal, but Adult Ministries has a lot of leaders with little kids for whom an overnight is not realistic. As a result we found a great place close enough for those who can’t stay over, but with the option for those who can.
Three of Stanley’s points that I think have been especially helpful are:
- Continually give value to both sides.
- Don’t weigh in too heavily based on your personal biases (be able to argue both sides).
- Don’t allow strong personalities to win.
What about you? What different healthy tensions are you managing in your leadership context?
Laura Crosby
Dog-Walking
Anyone who knows me, knows I am beyond a healthy point of obsession with my seven pound Morkie named Mutton Chops. Mutty (nicknamed) has a few specific traits: he loves other people and WILL lick them uncontrollably, he likes to wrestle, and he's a tad on the dumb side. After Brad's talk last night on Ecclesiastes 8, my husband Tim and I took Mutton on a walk since it was finally below 120 degrees. The walk, while simple and routine, reminded me of Solomon.
Last night at The Table, we looked at Ecclesiastes 8. Solomon is contemplating how complex and broken this world is (and how we will never understand all of its meaning) and that we have to remember to "eat, drink, and be glad," to ENJOY LIFE. Brad shared with us two ways we can move to a place where we enjoy life. The first being that we must understand God's full story, that of a Jesus Christ who loves us deeply. The second way to find true joy is to bring your whole life under the reign of God, "reign" being defined as "having control, rule, or influence." I could say I have reign over Mutton Chops, at least I try to when we are walking . . .
So as we walked around Lake Calhoun, out of the corner of my eye I see a little girl running towards us. Five minutes later, her entire extended family has surrounded Mutty, spoiling him beyond a point of repair - it was a tad insane. Eventually we broke from the group, and Mutty was the epitome of pure joy. He had his tongue out, a doggish grin on his face, and was literally pouncing because nothing is better than than cool air and multiple things to pee on. Now it's important to know I don't particularly need to go on walks - I do it because I know how happy it makes my dog. Maybe you have a dog and know what I'm talking about. Or maybe you have a kid and you feel the same joy when they light up about about something simple. I didn't need to go on a walk, but because my dog was SO happy . . . I was happy. I wanted nothing more than for Mutty to enjoy his walk, get pet by strangers, and pee on stuff. I receive joy from giving my dog joy.
God is kind of the same. When we are under his control, he DELIGHTS in giving us joy. God WANTS us to enjoy life. He LOVES when we enjoy life. But we need to be under his reign to fully enjoy it. If we stray from his control, we could get lost or hurt. I'm not saying God has us on a limited leash that chokes us. I'm saying that if we let God lead us and tell us when to stop and when to go (for our own good), then we can fully enjoy life. We must choose to let God rule over our entire lives and then BASK in the joy of it. Joy doesn't have to look like a new car. For me, it was watching my dog do puppy pounces. Maybe being under the reign of God is kind of like going on a doggie walk.
Ashley Barlow serves as Co-Director of Commitment Class
Sitting at Jesus' Feet
This past week we’ve been down at the Willow Creek Leadership Summit, which means in addition to tons of activity and laughter with family and friends who live in the Chicago area, there was a boatload of dynamic speakers sharing their insights regarding effective leadership practices.
The day before the Summit started, in my devotional time I read the account of Jesus visiting the home of Mary and Martha. You remember . . . Mary sits at Jesus’ feet (the better choice) while Martha does all the work to cook the pot roast and make people feel welcome. What God impressed upon me at this reading was the phrase “sat at Jesus’ feet.” I felt like I was being reminded, as I embarked on two days of compelling talks from passionate, confident speakers, to be sure to sit at JESUS' feet.
I’m the type that gets really excited by new ideas and am convinced we should do something radical in response. Now. Fast. I needed this important reminder that a high value for leaders needs to be discernment. Paul didn’t say "Follow me.” He said “Follow me as I follow Christ."
So, as fantastic as this Summit was, and as many notes as I have, I’m spending some time now prayerfully going over them and processing. Asking, "Lord what is from YOU? Of all these ideas, which are consistent with the character of Jesus?” 1 John 4:1 reminds us to “Test the spirits.” I picture someone panning for gold, swirling around the cloudy water looking, testing for the real thing . . . the gold which is valuable, but can be elusive and counterfeited with “fools’ gold.”
These days, whether it's the Leadership Summit or the internet, blogs, podcasts, books, and articles, we're inundated with the "noise" of exciting ideas. What are you doing to get quiet and intentional enough to hear the quiet, true whispers of God?
Laura Crosby
Extremes
On Sunday, Brad talked again about fearing God. I know through talking with Brad and hearing him that "fear God” has become the focal point of Ecclesiastes for him. I have been thinking about his idea quite a bit. At the very least, I think it is FANTASTIC for us to reframe, rethink, or think anew about the idea of “fearing God.” Caught in the correct light, fearing God is beautiful and conjures up images from Exodus where the GLORY of the LORD shone brightly and the LORD shielded Moses’ face so that he would not die. The fear here is about the POWER of the LORD, not the terror. His power is associated with reverence. I once told this story to a group of middle school students at Camp Rockslide. At the end of camp, during sharing night, many students' main point of the week was: “I learned that if you look at God you will die!”
When we look to heaven, when we try to read about it, we are not told a whole lot about it. John 14 talks about a room being prepared for us. The Revelation of John talks about worshipping the LORD constantly. Holy, holy, holy is the LORD almighty. All day long. My human mind has trouble grasping this. My human mind immediately goes to boredom. I believe what the writer is referring to is the fact that when we are in the presence of the LORD’s Shakina glory – our only POSSIBLE response will be to PHYSICALLY bow down and worship Him. This captures that fear for me – nothing to be afraid of – but a fear that feels like the safest place to be on earth or in heaven.
What I think Brad is getting at is not to live in the extremes here on earth. Live a balanced life. When I think of worshipping the LORD in heaven – I get this idea of EXTREME worship. I think both ends of the spectrum are good for us to rest in. Both are true! To God alone be praise!
Kyle Jackson serves in Pastoral Care
What is Real Prosperity?
Do you find yourself enjoying your prosperity without thought, or are you haunted by guilt or shame because you have acquired so much? I’m guessing that most people are somewhere in between. So am I.
While we often tend to think of our financial state when using the word prosperity, it can be applied to many of our other advantages. Prosperity means a successful, flourishing, thriving condition, or good fortune (I got that from dictionary.com). One person could be intellectually prosperous, while another could have to work very hard to progress, and others struggle with starting below the mark. It’s the same with our physical abilities, our health, our confidence, our beauty. We could go on and on, but let’s get down to business.
Where do you prosper? What are you good at doing? What are the things you hang on to when you walk into a new phase of life? It’s normal to use our personal assets as the means to progress, but where would you lean if those advantages were lost? How can we live a life where our faith is integrated with our strengths? How can we grow our prosperity and faith together, right where we are, right here, right now? Can we make this sort of integration the lens from which we muster our motivation? Can we make it our prayer that this is the way we would live our lives?
The Bible is full of foundational Scripture to inspire us in this challenge, but I will focus on two of my favorites.
- Revelation 21:1-5. The gist of what I hear from this passage is that God wins in the end. Not only will our sins be forgotten, our flaws redeemed, and our tears wiped away, but EVERYTHING will be made new. I’m hungry for this kind of world, and it can only be done by God. Don’t you just want to be on the inside of this? How can we strive to live by this knowledge? Without simply leaning on our personal strengths, how can we depend more on this God who will lead us in this charge?
In the last Chronicle of Narnia, The Last Battle, the characters are in the new world as they repeat over and over, “Higher up and deeper in.” May this be the prayer of our community, our very heart.
- And finally, from Ephesians 3:20, God is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or even imagine. Think about that! Our greatest hopes, our strongest desires, all that we can even imagine, God can do more. This is the God who hears our prayers.
Andrea Sheldon Tshihamba
Blog Archives
- January 2010 (3)
- February 2010 (2)
- March 2010 (1)
- April 2010 (3)
- May 2010 (5)
- June 2010 (10)
- July 2010 (8)
- August 2010 (8)
- September 2010 (1)
