Quiet Rhythms

beauty of math

Thanks to Greg Johnson for passing this one on...

There is something in numbers that mystify the mind and stirs the soul. Be sure to read to the end. It is absolutely amazing, but not surprising!

Beauty of Math!

1 x 8 + 1 = 9
12 x 8 + 2 = 98
123 x 8 + 3 = 987
1234 x 8 + 4 = 9876
12345 x 8 + 5 = 98765
123456 x 8 + 6 = 987654
1234567 x 8 + 7 = 9876543
12345678 x 8 + 8 = 98765432
123456789 x 8 + 9 = 987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11
12 x 9 + 3 = 111
123 x 9 + 4 = 1111
1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111
12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111
123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111
1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111
12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111
123456789 x 9 +10= 1111111111

9 x 9 + 7 = 88
98 x 9 + 6 = 888
987 x 9 + 5 = 8888
9876 x 9 + 4 = 88888
98765 x 9 + 3 = 888888
987654 x 9 + 2 = 8888888
9876543 x 9 + 1 = 88888888
98765432 x 9 + 0 = 888888888

Brilliant, isn't it?

And look at this symmetry:

1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121
111 x 111 = 12321
1111 x 1111 = 1234321
11111 x 1 1111 = 123454321
111111 x 111111 = 12345654321
1111111 x 1111111 =1234567654321
1111111 1 x 11111111 = 123456787654321
111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321

Now, take a look at this...

101%

From a strictly mathematical viewpoint:

What Equals 100%? What does it mean to give MORE than 100%?

Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%?

We have all been in situations where someone wants you to GIVE OVER 100%.

How about ACHIEVING 101%?

What equals 100% in life?

Here's a little mathematical formula that might help answer these questions:

If:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Is represented as:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.

If:

H-A-R-D-W-O-R- K

8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%

An d:

K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E

11+14+15+23+12 +5+4+7+5 = 96%

But:

A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E

1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%

THEN, look how far the love of God will take you:

L-O-V-E-O-F-G-O-D

12+15+22+5+15+6+7+15+4 = 101%

Therefore, one can conclude with mathematical certainty that:

While Hard Work and Knowledge will get you close,
and Attitude will get you there,
It's the Love of God that will put you over the top!

Why not share this with your friends & loved ones, just the way I did.

Have a nice day & God bless!!!

emergent church: tony jones

this is a great video, worth some dialogue. it's a bit long, but not as long as wheel of fortune...

narrative theology

here is a compilation of ideas that make up the backbone of narrative theology. i have found that it is much easier to find these compilations of nt theology minus scripture references rather than with scripture references. i will attempt to build up scripture reference support for this and add it to each of the paragraphs. any assistance or comments would be appreciated. i am also interested in supporting each of these paragraphs with quotes from john wesley as a tie in to the wesleyan tradition.

matt frick from mars hill has put together a great bibliography of where most of this comes from, and you can get the mp3 teachings that mars does in a class. highly recommend for the ipod.

here goes...

Narrative Theology
I believe God inspired the authors of Scripture by his Spirit to speak to all generations of believers, including us, today. God calls us to immerse ourselves in this authoritative narrative individually and communally to faithfully interpret and live out that story today as we are led by the Spirit of God.

In the beginning God created all things good. He was and always will be in a communal relationship with himself - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God created us to be relational as well and marked us with an identity as his image bearers and with a missional calling to serve, care for, and cultivate the earth. God created humans in his image to live in fellowship with him, one another, our inner self, and creation. I recognize that through human sin, darkness and evil entered the story and are a part of the world, fracturing our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation.

I believe God did not abandon his creation to destruction and decay; rather he promised to restore this broken world. As part of this purpose, God chose a people, Abraham and his descendants, to represent him in the world. God promised to bless them as a nation so that through them all nations would be blessed. In time they became enslaved in Egypt and cried out to God because of their oppression. God heard their cry, and he liberated them from their oppressor and brought them to Sinai where he gave them an identity and a mission as his treasured possession, a Kingdom of priests, a holy people. Throughout the story of Israel, God refuses to give up on his people despite their frequent acts of unfaithfulness to him.

God brought his people into the Promised Land. Their state of blessing from God was intimately bound to their calling to embody the living God to other nations. They made movement toward this missional calling, yet they disobeyed and allowed foreign gods into the land, overlooked the poor, and mistreated the foreigner. The prophetic voices that emerge from the Scriptures held the calling of Israel to the mirror of how they treated the oppressed and marginalized. Through the prophets, God’s heart for the poor was made known, and we believe that God cares deeply for the marginalized and oppressed among us today.

In Israel's disobedience, they became indifferent and in turn irrelevant to the purposes to which God had called them. For a time, they were sent into exile; yet a hopeful remnant was always looking ahead with longing and hope to a renewed reign of God, where peace and justice would prevail.

I believe these longings found their fulfillment in Jesus the Messiah, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of a virgin, mysteriously God in the flesh. Jesus came to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted and to set captives free, proclaiming a new arrival of the Kingdom of God, bringing about a New Exodus, and restoring our fractured world. He and his message were rejected by many as he confronted the oppressive nature of the religious elite and the empire of Rome. Yet his path of suffering, death, burial, and resurrection has brought hope to all creation. Jesus is our only hope for bringing reconciliation between God and humans. Through Jesus we have been forgiven and reconciled to God. God is now reconciling us to each other, ourselves, and creation.

For all who trust Jesus, the Spirit of God affirms as children of God, empowers with gifts, convicts, guides, comforts, counsels, and leads into truth through a communal life of worship and a missional expression of our faith. The church is a global and local expression of living out the way of Jesus through love, sacrifice, and healing as we embody the resurrected Christ, who lives in and through us, to a broken and hurting world.

I believe the day is coming when Jesus will return and judge the world, bringing an end to injustice and restoring all things to God's original intent. He will reclaim this world and rule forever. The earth's groaning will cease, and God will dwell with us here in a restored creation. On that day we will beat swords into tools for cultivating the earth, the wolf will lie down with the lamb, there will be no more death, and God will wipe away all our tears. Our relationships with God, others, ourselves, and creation will be whole. All will flourish as God intends. This is what we, the Church, long for. This is what we, the Church hope for. And we have given our lives to living out that future reality now.

quiet rhythms book

with many years of mulling and the help of a great program called journler (for mac), the chapters for the quiet rhythms book have been oulined, and writing has now entered a new phase. i'm going to be working hard on the chapters. just typing...

here is the chapter outline:
Chapter 1. Orion
Chapter 2. Quantum
Chapter 3. Greatest
Chapter 4. 911
Chapter 5. Tension
Chapter 6. Swing
Chapter 7. T-Shirts
Chapter 8. Gravity
Chapter 9. Collision
Chapter 10. Vertigo

Good Friday

Isaiah 53

1 Who has believed our message?
To whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm?
2 My servant grew up in the LORD's presence like a tender green shoot,
like a root in dry ground.
There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance,
nothing to attract us to him.
3 He was despised and rejected—
a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief.
We turned our backs on him and looked the other way.
He was despised, and we did not care.

4 Yet it was our weaknesses he carried;
it was our sorrows* that weighed him down.
And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God,
a punishment for his own sins!
5 But he was pierced for our rebellion,
crushed for our sins.
He was beaten so we could be whole.
He was whipped so we could be healed.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away.
We have left God's paths to follow our own.
Yet the LORD laid on him
the sins of us all.

7 He was oppressed and treated harshly,
yet he never said a word.
He was led like a lamb to the slaughter.
And as a sheep is silent before the shearers,
he did not open his mouth.
8 Unjustly condemned,
he was led away.*
No one cared that he died without descendants,
that his life was cut short in midstream.*
But he was struck down
for the rebellion of my people.
9 He had done no wrong
and had never deceived anyone.
But he was buried like a criminal;
he was put in a rich man's grave.

10 But it was the LORD's good plan to crush him
and cause him grief.
Yet when his life is made an offering for sin,
he will have many descendants.
He will enjoy a long life,
and the LORD's good plan will prosper in his hands.
11 When he sees all that is accomplished by his anguish,
he will be satisfied.
And because of his experience,
my righteous servant will make it possible
for many to be counted righteous,
for he will bear all their sins.
12 I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels.

i've been looing forward to this...

tonight we served communion to families that desired to come into the church.  i had been hanging out in luke 22 all week, and once again clinging on to a few sacred words...

the scene is the passover meal in a second story room that was swept and tidy.  the apostles are gathered, jesus is there, and the meal is layed out before them.  prior to distributing the 'elements' of the meal, jesus share with the apostles that he has 'been looking forward to this meal with them for quite a while...'  my imagination tried to enter jesus' shoes with that comment.  what were some of the human reasons he had been looking forward to this meal?

perhaps it was because this was the last night of a three year partnership with these guys.  three years that were filled of moments of great victory and liberation in people's lives...but also moments when it is clear that nobody was getting what jesus was talking about...maybe a mix of both kinds of situations where the apostles may have been like..."ok, i think i get it."  i imagine in that three year period, jesus would have been pleased with this group, and other times shaking his head and agitated.

but now jesus exclaims that this is the moment he as been waiting for..humanly speaking 'why this moment?'...may because jesus knew that we would be reading these words today...and maybe jesus knew that at times we would scratch our heads and not get it when we read through a parable...maybe jesus knew that the great miracles that are done in our midst would be celebrated for a short time, and then used as leverage for manipulation...may jesus knew that we, like the apostles, would not always be on track, and that we would need something to remember the basics of what he has done for us...something that we can return back to again and again, as long as we need a remindero who he is and what he as done.

perhas jesus was looking forward to this particular meal iwth the disciples so much, because he knew that we need to keep it simple.

i could not sleep last night because of some wonderful thoughts and emotions and prayers that have my head spinning...when i got done twisting and turning and finally shot up out of bed, i looked at my clock, and it was 3.16.  it was appropriate that i respond to such a moment by entering a time of prayer with my xxx copy of the message.  'this is how much God loves us...' is how it starts... how do i know, what is my simple reminder...how do i get there without getting to lost in the wonderfl complexities of theology...i remember that he looked forward to sharing a meal with us, and what that meal means.

may you have a blessed good friday...the old is leaving...

words that heal

Welcome to our nation!

If you were to sign up for a Holy Land Tour that took you from Jericho to Jerusalem, you would find a long, hard climb. Jericho happens to be the lowest city on earth. It is 800 feet below sea level. Jerusalem, about a dozen miles away, is about 3,000 feet above sea level. The road that connects the two cities goes through a hot and dry desert until you reach the Mount of Olives, at which point you will begin to find plant life. This view of vegetation then rolls into the glory of Jerusalem herself. If you have ever been on a long hike, where miles have been covered, and you come upon your resting place, you can understand the joy that fills your soul as you look upon the coming rest. Imagine if this rest were the beauty of God’s chosen city.

Now, step into the shoes of a Jewish person as you see many people beginning to descend upon the city for the great Festival Celebration of the year. All of these pilgrims making their way to the place God has chosen to take His name. This is the place that housed the great Temple that held the daily sacrifices that ‘assured’ the peoples forgiveness of sins, and fellowship with God. All of these people were descending on Jerusalem to remember the great stories of the Jewish past, stories of freedom and of hope. Friends and family who hadn’t seen each other in a while would be together again. Songs, prayers, dancing, feasting. If there was traffic making its way up the road from Jericho to Jerusalem, this would have been the atmosphere of its passengers.

It was Passover time. It was freedom time. It was kingdom time. Passover stirred the dream of Gods saving presence in the nation, and the hope that it would happen soon.

Everything that Mark gives to us in his account of this scene is designed to put our attention on Jesus as the King of this hoped for Kingdom. So, as with many commanders who enter their cities, he decides to ride in. Matthew tells it was a donkey. That takes humility. Regardless of the humility, lets look at the peoples response.

You don’t put your coat on a dusty, stony road in the middle east for just anyone. Maybe not even for a family member or friend. But if the king came by, absolutely. When you are excited, you won’t typically go and start hacking away at palm trees to wave around in the air as a banner, unless there is a deep sense of purpose in the celebration.

One thing, at least in the mind of the apostles, is for certain, this guy, Jesus is the true and rightful King of the Jews. The king has entered the city to take it. Everyone seems to be aware of this ‘fact’.

“Hosanna” is a Hebrew word which mixes exuberant praise to God, with a prayer that God is going to be savior and liberator. Beyond that, it also carries with it a sense of immediacy, as if God is going to do it now. Read Psalm 118.25-26 and you will see where this song/prayer originated from. A literal translation of this Psalm (Blessed is the one who comes’) carries the tone of what a Jewish person would say to you upon arrival to their home : ‘Welcome’. You have arrived. In this case, the people seem to be saying to Jesus, “Welcome to the Kingdom of our father Dave, you may take your throne!”

After this triumphal entry, the seen seems to just end. Jesus goes into the temple, quietly…looks around, and then leaves for Bethany. We are then left with an intermission that is loaded with the anticipation of a long-awaited king who has entered his city only to get a lay of the land.

In the coming days, Mark will show with action what Jesus had meant when he spoke of a new kind of kingship coming to this place. In the end, we will see that it isn’t exactly what Israel had in mind on the day when they welcomed him into the city. But it raises a question for us:

Are we ready to put all that we have at his disposal and obey him even when it doesn’t make sense? Will we go out of our way to honor him, and lay what we have before him on the ground, and raise banners to praise him? Or have we ‘tamed’ Jesus into being what we believe we ‘need’ him to be? Is Jesus ‘there’ to comfort us and bend to our wishes? It is difficult to imagine kingship anymore, because there are so few of them that we are familiar with. Perhaps it would do some good to take a look at Old Testament Kingship one more time.

conversation with leonard sweet - the emerging church

GEORGE FOX JOURNAL: What is the emergent church?
LEN SWEET: It probably would mean something different to everyone you would ask, but from my perspective, the “emergent church” is an ongoing conversation about how new times call for new churches, and that the mortar- happy church of the last half of the 20th century is ill-poised to face the promises and perils of the future. In fact, attempting to define the “emergent church” betrays the essence of the movement because the emergent consciousness questions the notion that there is such a thing. Rather, there are only individual emerging churches that are missional in orientation that grow out of the indigenous soils in which they are planted. In other words, no two emerging churches are alike.

GFJ: Are there some common practices in emerging churches?
LEN SWEET: Pews are now antiques. Since the focus of emerging churches is on community, their worship space is flexible. Some have tables and chairs. Others have a more living room look and feel. But emerging churches are proving to be very surprising. For example, hymns are now back. And the church’s liturgy and Eucharist are being rediscovered in creative and compelling ways. A lot of emerging churches are very “smells and bells” in their worship. Whatever the diversity of spiritual practices, the key words for emerging churches are incarnational, missional, and relational.

GFJ: Can you explain those key terms?

read more here...

putting on a missional mindset

a great light house training put on by the north michigan district of the wesleyan church this past sunday.

A Missional Mindset – thinking about the outside to determine what we do inside.

Way too many times we think about the condition of things inside the church to determine what we should focus our ministry on.

Example: Church Planting

Why has Missional thinking become closely connected to Church Planting…Because there is never a reason ‘in the church’ (i.e. too many people coming, too many people serving, too many people in radical discipleship groups, too much money that you do no know what to do with…) to plant. The reason to plant is because of what is going on outside the church which is tens, hundreds, thousands and millions of lives that have not realized God’s grace and truth in their life.

Church planting creates a missional mentality because initially…A church doesn’t exist. Initially you only have a community to reach; and outside to think about.

Impact’s Story
Impact is a church plant that began public services in October 2003. With a vision to plant three churches in five years and ten in ten, God is doing incredible work and through the lives of an adventurous band of Christ followers. A coffee house culture emphasizing authentic relationships and true biblical community are at the heart of what God is using to make his impact known.

Three Right Motives
• Missio Dei – Joining God on His Mission
o Are we getting behind His where he is working?
o It was obvious in planting the God was way ahead of us.
• Incarnation – Becoming he Incarnational
o Are we ‘entering’ our community to bring goodness, release, recovery and freedom?
o Our job is to enter the community.
• The Kingdom of God – It’s more than the church.
o Are we aware of Kingdom activity in our community?
o Our job was to see where God was working and get on board with that.

Ed Stetzer in his book Breaking the Missional Code outlines this process as follows:
• Seek Calling from God.
• Exegete your Community.
• Examine ways God is working in your community and similar communities.
• Find God’s unique vision for your church.
• Adjust your visions as you learn and live out your collective calling.