Month: January 2017

Circumcision – Proof of God?

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I’m a guy. I have lots of friends who are guys. And one of the things about guys is that no guy likes having his stuff, you know…his most private stuff…messed with. When it comes to our most private part, don’t be messin…don’t be joking around. There are few things more painful than when our most sensitive area gets mishandled.

So what does any of this have to do with God?

Well, I’m reading through Genesis and I come across Genesis 17 where God reaffirms his covenant promise to be Abraham’s God and as a sign of that covenant, God wants Abraham, his sons, his descendants, and all males in his household to get circumcised.

Now, remember, before Genesis 17, no man had ever been circumcised.

I’m trying to imagine the scene when Abraham shows up around the camp fire after having a conversation with “God”.

“Um guys…” Abraham says hesitantly. “Well, you know God’s been talking to me for a few years now…and God spoke to me again…He says that we’re his people and that he’s our God.”

“That’s great Abraham,” says the guys around the camp fire.

“Well, there’s more,” Abraham says. He takes a deep breath. “You see, to show that we belong to God, God wants us to take a flint knife and cut off….”

Listen. At this point, there’s no amount of beer or whiskey or anything else on planet earth that’s going to make okay what Abraham is just about to share with his boys. There is no way that any man is going to think that taking a blade to his thing to chop off…yes, chop off…is okay.

Look! There’s no way that sounds like a good idea. There’s no way that sounds like any idea. That’s insane! What guy is going to think that that’s an okay thing to do?

That there is circumcision. That there’s a whole nation of guys who thought this was a thing to do proves only one thing…God spoke. God is real.

No way Abraham thought this up for himself and convinced a bunch guys around his campfire to do the same.

So yeah…I’m thinking circumcision is one of the greatest proofs that God exists and speaks to his people.

Faith and the Idolization of Individualism

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As Americans, there are fewer things we value more than our individualism.

This idolization of individualism has lead to a myriad of issues. One of the serious consequences of this individualism is putting the self at the center of what is and what is not true. In this highly individualistic culture, the self has become the ultimate determinant for what is true and what is not.

  • No longer do we accept a higher authority – God – as the determiner of what is right or wrong. If what God says doesn’t jive with me and my  experience, my personal experience trumps God’s standards.
  • No longer do we accept a shared-cultural understanding of social and moral norms.
  • What works for you doesn’t work for me. As long as what I believe and what I do doesn’t hurt you, who are you to tell me that what I’m doing is wrong?

One of the problems of this heightened individualism is that the individual experience is never sufficient for properly understanding the world around us.

We need the voice and the experiences of others. We need the wisdom and the value of others to help us to get a proper perspective of the world. Our understanding and our perspective will always be limited and incomplete without the voice of others.

I write all this because, it seems to me, the idolization of individualism has worked its way in how American Christians view our faith. We place our individualistic experience, our personal understanding of what God says above all other authorities. We have a hard time submitting to the understanding, teaching, and the authority of the church.

What we seek – the connection between who God is and who we are on a personal level – is not a bad thing. This is, in fact, a good thing. Who God is must make a difference at a personal level.

However, how we pursue this as individuals in a culture that has made an idol of individualism is the problem.

Faith, by its very nature is communal. Faith is never the possession of one. Faith belongs to the community. Faith is birthed in community. Faith is nurtured in community.

And it’s in community our communal sharing of life and faith that faith begins to make sense to the individual person. You take the individual outside of faith, and a faith experience apart from community is a mutation. Such faith is not what God ever intended.

Faith is birthed, shaped, formed, and lived out in community.

A God-filled 2017!

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What an adventure the last couple of weeks have been!

Spent four days in the hospital. Discovered that there are three more blockages in my heart. Had one more stent placed to deal with the blockages. And food poisoning!

Quite a way to end 2016 and start 2017.

Here’s the good thing. This too shall pass. And better yet, things can only get better from here on out.

Looking forward to a fantastic 2017. Looking forward to seeing what God will do through the Little Church on the Prairie and Lakewood Grace. God is doing fantastic things through the Little Church. There is good ministry being done. I am surrounded by fantastic people.

The pieces are all coming together for a God-filled 2017!