Mission Faithwalk

  The  Lord  said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the  Lord , for the  Lord  is about to pass by.”           Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the  Lord , but the  Lord  was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the  Lord  was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the  Lord  was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. (I Kings 19:11-13)             After arguing that God can, should, and does speak to us, Professor Willard moves on to the subject of the medium. He notes that God is not limited to one medium. He can speak through events, prophets, S...

            For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body,  and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:4-5)             In today’s reading from Hearing God , Professor Willard discusses other issues within the whole idea of God talking to us. There are people fear God speaking to individuals – to them specifically – because they don’t want to have to respond. But there are also people who fear that God might speak to someone else or say something else to someone else.  We are to be one body. There must be rules that govern that body, and someone in charge.           I can commiserate. I have attended a meeting to discuss what ministries we should have in or through our church – and cringed when the pastors made it...

              For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their  ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ (Matthew 13:15) He answered, “Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.” Abraham replied, “They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.”   “No, father Abraham,” he said, “but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.” He said to him, “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” (Luke 16:27-31)             The basic theme of today’s reading in Hearing God is the question of why God should bothe...

                And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them . (I John 4:16) Jesus replied:  “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.   And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’   All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-40) I know. We’re back to those verses. But as Jesus said, “all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” I’m returning to them today because of a question asked on a social media platform. The gist of the question was, if America has failed, doesn’t that mean that people don’t deserve freedom – that they deserve to be ruled over by others? This is the same sort of complaint we sometimes hear about Christianity: I tried Christianity. It didn’t work. All the peopl...

               “The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel ” (which means “God with us”). (Matthew 1:23)           “A similar but even more profound feeling had come over me when our first child was born. I realized painfully that this incredibly beautiful little creature we had brought into the world was utterly separate from me and that nothing I could do would shelter him from his aloneness in the face of time, brutal events, the meanness of other human beings, his own wrong choices, the day of his own body and, finally death.           It is simply not within human capacity to care effectively for others in the depths of their life and being or even to be with them in finality – no matter how much we may care about them.” (Dallas Willard, Hearing God , p. 43)           ...

                 If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces to you a sign or wonder,   and if the sign or wonder spoken of takes place, and the prophet says, “Let us follow other gods” (gods you have not known) “and let us worship them,”   you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The  Lord  your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.   It is the  Lord  your God you must follow, and him you must revere. Keep his commands and obey him; serve him and hold fast to him. That prophet or dreamer must be put to death for inciting rebellion against the  Lord  your God, who brought you out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery. That prophet or dreamer tried to turn you from the way the  Lord  your God comm...

  Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice ! (Philippians 4:4)           Are there verses in Scripture that you don’t like, perhaps that make you cringe? In my mind, a pastor reads this verse, and John Belushi leaps onto a pew and shouts “Food Fight!” [1] The whole church goes berserk. Of course, that’s not what really happens. And I readily admit that other people have every reason to complain from the other direction. The pastor quotes this passage and one corner of my mouth twitches upward for 0.0362 seconds. When questioned why I’m not rejoicing, I proclaim that I did…I was…I am…and they interrupted. That’s not what really tends to happen either, but it could – and in a more polite sense, it does.           Have you ever heard a pastor or a worship leader say something and when the audience didn’t respond, they repeated themselves or criticized the congregation for no...