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Transformation & Information

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"So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

2 Cor.5:16-17

"But now we have been released from the law, for we died to it and are no longer captive to its power. Now we can serve God, not in the old way of obeying the letter of the law, but in the new way of living in the Spirit." 

Rom. 7:6

Through the centuries the church has been making the same mistake over and over again as it has defined Christianity by what you know instead of Who you know, or better yet, Who knows you. We've confused information (learning about God) with transformation (being known and recreated by Him in His image, not our own).

When we define Christianity by what we know…it becomes a doing based religion, a treadmill of shoulds and a list of tasks derived from the information we have acquired. That is not the freedom found in being a new creation, or the new way of the Spirit, it is life under the old Law of performance.

There is a big difference between these two dynamics however. As I was thinking about these two realities, the following considerations and contrasts came to mind:

information is finite – transformation is infinite

information improves – transformation creates

information is temporary – transformation is permanent

information is the known – transformation is the unknown

information is safe – transformation is risky

information is predictable – transformation is unpredictable

information requires study – transformation requires trust

information promotes self-sufficiency transformation demands dependence

information breeds familiarity – transformation embraces the unfamiliar

information is inanimate – transformation is alive

information is a noun – transformation is a verb

information takes hold – transformation lets go

information is knowledge – transformation is truth


There is so much more for us to encounter and experience in God, but we must be willing to allow the information to translate into a liiving reality in the graceful grip of God. The journey in and down to the soul-ular level is a journey that will change your life.

It's time to experience being a new creation, and life lived in the new way of the Spirit…if it is a new way, then why do we keep doing the same old things? Perhaps it's time to move from information to transformation.

Dei Gratia,

Monty

 


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Sometimes It Just Seems To Be Too Much…

Groundzerounderworld460 As I was spending some time praying this morning, I was, as many of you were, thinking about the events that happened on this day 9 years ago. Images were easily retrieved replaying the live news feeds of chaos in New York as two planes were evilly commandeered to become statements of hate when they were forced into the two towers.

Lives were taken…anguish created…questions reverberated…

I prayed today over those who are gone, but mostly for those who remain, and that I would live in such a way that my life might, in some small way, replenish slivers in the vortex of loss, disillusionment, and pain that exists, at least for those I encounter along the way.

Sometimes it just seems to be too much…sometimes the awareness of humanities wickedness or her apathy  just seems to be too much…sometimes it just seems as if we have dug to deep a whole for ourselves and will never get out…

This is when we need to realize that we have been graced by God to live an incarnational life. A life where we don't simply "do religious or good things", but a life that becomes a portal to allow God's goodness to flow through…there is a big difference.

Today is a day to choose to love and not to hate, to be honest with God, and to be honest with ourselves.

I read and ruminated on the following prayer today, and it spoke to where my heart had parked on this day of remembrance for 9-11. Pray through it and note the transition to be the answer of what we pray for..

_________________________

Sometimes, Lord,

it just seems to be too
much:

            too
much violence, too much fear;

            too
much of demands and problems;

            too
much of broken dreams and broken lives;

            too
much of wars and slums and dying;

            too
much of greed and squishy fatness

                        and
the sounds of people

                                    devouring
each other

                                                and
the earth;

            too
much of stale routines and quarrels,

                        unpaid
bills and dead ends;

            too
much of words lobbed in to explode

                        and
leaving shredded hearts and lacerated souls;

            too
much of turned-away backs and yellow silence,

                        red
rage and the bitter taste of ashes in my mouth.

Sometimes the very air seems
scorched

            by
threats and rejection and decay

                        until
there is nothing

                                    but
to inhale pain and exhale confusion.

Too much of darkness, Lord,

            too
much of cruelty

                        and
selfishness

                                    and
indifference…

 

Too much, Lord

            too
much,

                        too
bloody,

                                    bruising,

                                                brain-washing
much.

 

Or is it too little,

            too
little of compassion,

too little of courage,

            of
daring,

                        of
persistence,

                                    of
sacrifice;

Too little of music

            and
laughter

                        and
celebration?

 

O God,

make of me some nourishment

            for
these starved times,

some food for my brothers
and sisters

            who
are hungry for gladness and hope,

that, being bread for them,

            I
may also be fed

                        and
be full.

 

~Amen

_____________________


Honesty with God leads to a transformation of your soul…when you change, your world changes and you change your world, bit by bit, moment by moment.

This prayer was penned by Ted Loder in one of my favorite books of prayer called "Gorilla's of Grace" If your looking for some great prayers of the heart check it out.
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May the memories of this day in history cause us all to "Remember, Repent, and Return to God" because when we try to run this world separated from the God who made it, we becomes creators of loss instead of recipients of life.

Monty

   

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The Book of the Shepherd: Book Review

Shepherd
I was truly hoping to like
this book. I am a fan of the business parable genre as well as using modern day
parables to teach. The Book of the Shepherd sounded like it might deliver a
parable that would affect the way we live.

I quickly glanced at the
book and checked out the jacket credits and thought, “hmm.” Paulo Coelho,
author of “The Alchemist” endorsed it as did James Redfield (author of The
Celestine Prophecy) and even Meredith Vieira (co-host of the Today Show).

The jacket credits,
interestingly enough, had no Christian endorsement. I am not a person who
limits his reading, believing there is something I can learn from everyone, so
I sat down and began reading the smallish book published by Harper Collins.

In a nutshell…an ancient
book is discovered in the house of deceased Professor Orlando Roberts. The new
owner of his house, Joan Davis, finds the ancient scroll and has it translated.
The vellum describes a “New Way” of living, and the journey begins.

The story begins in a small
village where three events transpire that set the book in motion. A young boy
is abused by his father; a shepherd decides to intervene in the domestic
situation, and the young boys sister becomes guardian and is removed from her
home with her little brother. The set-up is a world without grace.

The book moves quickly
through very short chapters as the three travelers are introduced to various
people who have a truth to instill and directions for the next leg of their
journey to help them find a scroll that will reveal this new way of life.

There was never a moment for
me in this fabolic-quest book that I said, “Wow, that was powerful.” The
character development was shallow at best and never really drew me into the
story. At times I thought, “Okay, now maybe we will strike some gold, but alas,
it was always fools gold.

With each new chapter there
was hope for something profound to be spoken or said or revealed, but it never
happened. I felt like the author was trying to write an Alchemistic-esk book,
but fell far short of it on both the content, and the writing.

“The book has no teeth” was the phrase that keep going through my mind…and
then I noted that most of the spiritual maxims that the author brought in were
from Gnostic sources (The Gospel of Thomas), or other New Age writers. The
author wove the Golden Rule (treating others the way you would want to be
treated, reciprocity), with Gandhi’s, “Be the change you want to see”. With
these tow thoughts combined, the author creates a “New Way” for us to journey
on and calls this new way “The Law of Sacrifice.”

The Law of Sacrifice moves
us from the mantra of the Old Testament: An eye for an eye: to the new path of
loving our neighbor as our self. The author garners her concept for the new way
by adapting  St. Francis of
Assisi’s’ “Peace Prayer” and calls that the Law of Substitution.

I love that prayer, my only
wish is that the author would not have changed it, and then given Francis
credit for writing it.

So, save your money. This is
a weak book. Better yet, go and buy a book about St. Francis of Assisi and be
challenged to live a life devoted to the betterment of each other…I’m sure that
will have more teeth than this book!

~M.C Wright