Dare to Dream!

We are studying Mike Slaughter's book, "Dare to Dream" and he encourages us to look deeper into our lives to discover the mission statement for one's life.  Many of us are chasing money but this book is about fulfilling our mission.

This mission begins with a relationship with God.  How well do you know your God?  Some of us we know God is here with us, but never had a relationship with God.  Think about it.  If you are in a relationship like with a boyfriend or husband, you want to know that person so well and always want to communicate with that person.  You put all your energy into this relationship.  Ask yourself, do I have that relationship with God?

We then try to find our "burning bush"; "There the angel of The Lord appeared to [Moses] in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.  Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." Exodus 3:2-3

Slaughter believes that sometimes the moments of crisis are the points at which we are most receptive to a burning bush. Some might have persistent embers through God that may be speaking with a quieter yet still pervasive message.

We hear God's call but we have a lot of excuses! Moses complained when he heard God's call, "Who am I to go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?  What am I suppose to say to them"  God is always persistent!

The Lord said to him [Moses], "What's that in your hand?' Moses replied, "A shepherd's rod" The Lord said, "Throw it down on the ground." So Moses threw it on the ground, and it turned into a snake.  Moses jumped back from it.  Then The Lord said to Moses, "Reach out and grab the snake by the tail." So Moses reached out and grabbed it, and it runed back into a rod in his hand. "Do this so that they will believe that The Lord, the God of their ancestors, Abraham's God, Isaac's God and Jacob's God has in fact appeared to you." Exodus 4:2-5

Many of us are like Moses who claimed he didn't have the gifts to go, excuses, excuses!  Who would have thought that a simple shepherd's rod will become the tool of discovering God in our lives.  

What are your excuses?  You have the God given gifts, may be it's time to use them.

I am back to blogging!

It is great to be back and to process my thoughts through this page.  From daily life, devotion, to theological reflections.  Taking care of a family is a job in itself, let alone trying to figure out its logistics.  Waking up the family, breakfast, making sure that everyone has what they need for the day, and out the door on that particular time or else someone will be late.

6am is too early to wake up!  We have to make sacrifices in order to achieve the goals we set for ourselves.  Luckily my kids do not want to be late!  It makes the morning trip easier.

We say our prayers in the vehicle on our way to school and work.  We allocate a person to remind us of our prayer time and what to be thankful for by using the alphabet.  Today we use the letter F, and we are thankful for; food, friends, family, fish, Fine (daughter), folofola (Tongan word for Bible), fasting, and so many.   Each child say his or her prayers in their own words.  Amazing how I hear the genuine expressions of love and praise through the children's prayers.  So straight forward that makes the relationship with God so real.

Everytime I announce the offertory on Sunday during worship.  I always say, "This is the time that we offer our gifts, as part of our commitment, to make God's love real in this world"  Making things real, is something that I always yearn and work towards.

How real are we today?

Judith

Have heard of a book in the Bible called Judith?  For most people they wouldn't know because it is not in the "regular" Bible version but if you have a apocryphal/Deutrocanonical books Bible then you will be able to find the book of Judith.  It's interesting how the canonical Bible didn't allow this book to be part of it, but if you read through the chapters, you will realize that it's not a historical book, it's rather a fairytale.  It tells of how the Jewish people at the time were prosecuted but instead of mentioning the real regime that did the oppression it utilizes other powers.  For example, Nebuchadnezzar was not the ruler of Assyria, as written in chapter 1.  He was the ruler of Babylon.  Both Assyria & Babylon were 'bad' powers who destroyed Israel in their respective reigns. 
I challenge you to read the book of Judith and see how you view this uppity woman's book!

Lent 2011

Lenten Season began on Ash Wednesday, where we repent and believe in God.  Before our Wednesday service, I taught confirmation class.  The class learnt two new words, discernment & quadrilateral.  Discernment is a process of prayer, study and reflection to deepen our relationship with God and guide us in life.  Quadrilateral are four ways that John Wesley utilized during his life time; Scripture, Tradition, Experience and Reason.  We have to know our OT & NT for our study and reflection times.  We find faith journeys in our tradition as an encouragement in our own experiences of God.  We also need to use our intellect/reason to make sure that we make the right decision.  We need the quadrilateral not just one of them in our discernment process of prayer, study and reflection.

My husband and I decided to give up watching tv after dinner but to re-read our books from seminary years!!  In addition, no more surfing the net after dinner!  It's a great experience to feed our minds and souls with necessary tools for our life journeys.

Our two older girls gave up "fighting" during Lent, we are hoping that after 40 days of not fighting they will continue to keep the peace!  They don't want to give up their weekend tv time!

May your decision(s) for Lent prepare you for the death and resurrection of our Lord and your life journey.

Prepare for Lent

Lent is around the corner and it's time to prepare for this important season.  Our young people will be reading Matthew 4: 1-11 and reflect on how Jesus is able to overcome temptation.  The appropriate translation for temptation is enticement where the devil entices Jesus with 'food, ego, authority'.  I failed them daily but thank God Jesus is able to overcome, which is a great way to follow.   We are vulnerable to temptation and I should be able to follow Jesus' way.

I decided to seriously read my Bible daily, pray ceaselessly and blog my reflection.  May this season a time to sanctify our lives and follow Jesus daily.

Enough!

This is our next Bible Study, "Enough, discovering the joy through simplicity and generosity" by Adam Hamilton.  I read the first part of the book and I'm guilty as charged!   Getting caught up by the "American Dream" - the pursuit of immediate material pleasures.  Consuming, acquiring, buying - is what the American dream has come to mean or shall we say American nightmare! 
There are two dis-eases that impact us both socially and spiritually:

1. Affluenza which is the constant need for more and bigger and better stuff, as well as that this need has on us.  Definition by a program on the Public Broadcasting Station
1. the bloated, sluggish, and unfulfilled feeling that results from efforts to keep up with the Joneses. 
2. An epidemic of stress, overwork, waste, and indebtedness caused by dogged pursuit of the American Dream.
3. An unsustainable addiction to economic growth. 
2. Credit-itis - that goes along with affluenza.  It's the opportunity for us to buy now and pay later that feeds our desire for instant gratification!  "Unfortunately, it has exploited our lack of discipline and allowed us to feed our affluenza, wreaking havoc in our personal and national finances."

There is a spiritual issue that lies beneath the surface of affluenza and credit-itis - our inner brokenness, we are meant to desire God but we have turned that desire toward possessions.  We are meant to find security in God but we find it in amassing wealth.  We are meant to love people but instead we compete with them.  We are meant to enjoy the simple pleasures of life, but we busy ourselves with pursuing money and things.  We are meant to be generous and to hare with those in need, but we selfishly hoard our resources for ourselves.  There is a sin nature within us.

The Myth of Redemptive Violence

I was looking at our music book and struck by one of the phrases, "the ransom has been paid".  The chapter 11of "Living the Questions - The Myth of Redemptive Violence" challenges this ransom theory.

• the myth of redemptive violence is at the heart of the Babylonian Creation epic called the Enuma Elish.  It tells how the order of the universe is established through "god on god" violence - defeated female deity being dismembered and her corpse strewn about to create various elements of the cosmos.
• as opposed to Biblical witness of Yahweh creating human beings from the dust of the earth and animating them with the very breath of God. 
• the god Marduk from the Babylonian epic executes a fellow god to use his blood to create human beings to become their servants.  A divine hierarchy order was established based on violence and the threat of violence.
• Wink calls it the "original religion of the status quo" - it legitimates power and privilege and hence perpetuates the value of ideas like peace through war, security through strength, and the idea that fear can only overcome through domination.
• this myth has infiltrated our culture, that even our language is overwhelmed with a continual drum-beat of violence, phrases like"shoot me an email" to the "war on poverty" to "he's the bomb" and even "fight for peace" are simply to "die for"; expressions like "to beat a dead horse" by definition is to convey futility that implies if the horse was alive, violence would lead to success.
• St. Augustine out of his sense of guilt and self understanding he began idea of "Original Sin" in the 4th & 5th centuries.  He seek absolution for his early uninhibited sex life and it's not a surprise he would connect sex as the primal transmission of sin from one generation to the next!  That means that the sin is passed on to every generation - surprisingly enough this notion of original sin is not found in the Bible!
• But to make his point, Augustine looked at Roman 5, where Paul set up the argument that Adam's sin necessitated Jesus' sacrifice in order to appease God.  Our inherent sinfulness was so great that God could only be appeased by the violent spilling of blood.
• Paul's efforts have left a lot of room for multiple theories to emerge:
• Satisfaction Theory - derived from ancient Jewish ritual practices (including the Day of Atonement) where animals were sacrificed to satisfy God's need for blood.  The Canaanite religions were not the only ones to sacrifice their children to appease Baal and other gods.  There are number of Biblical examples of Judean Kings and leaders who also ritually sacrificed their children, much to Yahweh's displeasure.  This is popular amongst the Campus Crusade's "Four spiritual laws", the Roman Catholics' sacrifice of the Lamb of God on the altar, and the hymns of American Protestanism : "there is a fountain filled with blood", "Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?" "What can washed away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus".
• Substitution Theory - The death of Jesus was not a sacrifice but a pay-off to God.  Human beings are so sinful that we deserve a horrible and bloody death but Jesus loves us so much that he was willing to step in and be our substitute.  Anselm of Canterbury, monk, philosopher, archbishop, exile and saint, 1097 created this substitutionary atonement or vicarious satisfaction.  His theory is based on the feudal society in his time where feudal lords were unable to forgive so someone has to pay.  It's incorrect on levels extending from cross-cultural anthropology to ordinary everyday language.  The problem is not the words atonement or satisfaction but with the words substitutionary and vicarious.  The death of Jesus was not a divine substitution for punishment due to all of us. It's bad theology and history!
• Ransom Theory - God has to pay off Satan, through Jesus' death,  in order to win our freedom from the devil's sinful 'turf'.
• Victory Theory - not a payment to the devil (which is equivalent of giving in to terrorists), but a defeat in principle of the power of the evil.  Through Jesus' "obedience unto death" he showed he cold take anything that the devil could dish out.
• Moral Theory - Embraces the idea that the real point of Jesus' obedience and death was to provide an example for humanity to follow - to stay faithful to one's convictions even in the face of injustice, brutality, and ignorance.  The universe is structured to deal with consequences - and consequences are not punishment, they're just consequences.  Jesus had to deal with the consequences of his actions and so do we.