Balanced Church

We had a men’s group bible study and discussed war in the spiritual realm. The point was if we really understood the power the good news reveals to us a Christians we would spend more time in fervent prayer. In America we consider ourselves scientifically advanced and we have a tendency to look down or dismiss the spiritual world. In Africa and South American miracles are more acceptable. (I know it is weird to think of ourselves as not open to miracles) I believe this void in American Christians is what God addresses when His Spirit inspired the Charismatic movement.
The Charismatic movement was a change across multiple denominations towards an emphasis on the Holy Spirit in action in today’s church. Another more recent multi-denominational movement is the Emergent church movement. It also springs from a void in the American churches. I’m no theologian or Emergent expert but it is my understanding is that the efforts of evangelicals are too cerebral. Evangelicals primarily wish to pass on the good news by word of mouth. The Emergent church wants to show God’s love through action in the community (mission field) in which God has us currently within.
Both of these movements have spoke to me about voids in my walk. I was thinking what other voids I might have that God could reveal to me. I thought if I could graphically represent these ideas I would have revelations. The first thought was to start with my nature as a triune being. I believe this is what God meant when he said we are created in his image. I have a mind, body and spirit just as God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There are two ways the goods news affects us. It refines and improves us personally and it draws us to improve the world He created for us. The inner ring representing our inward improvement and the change God works to give us a life with joy and purpose. The outer ring represents our spreading God’s love and being the shining light in a dark world.

With this drawing I realize that both Charismatic and Emergent movements are based on the nature of Americans being more comfortable with an emphasis on the intellectual. The second realization is that there is nothing wrong with having strength in bible study and spreading the Gospel as long as the other aspects of our calling is not ignored. There must be a balance between these three aspects in our inner growth and our outreach. Somewhat comically I have answered some who have asked what denomination I am that I am a Catholic, Baptist, Charismatic, Emergent Nazarene. More serious I consider myself a Christian because there is only one Church. The opportunities God has given me to be a part of a variety of great Christian churches is that I have come to realize the good Churches understand not only their strengths but the balance required in their teachings. I have been blessed to belong to a Baptist church that taught that the bible needed to be read with an open heart to the Holy Spirit for guidance. I have been blessed with belonging to a Charismatic church that understood that the emotional high of praise and worship had to be grounded in regular bible reading. As Christians we need to understand the balance that God wants in our walk and help lead our churches in a balanced outreach.

Practical Dreamer

I like to consider myself a practical dreamer. Being just a dreamer is a negative thing for a guy. I can see myself as a kid with the cliché of a grumpy old guy, probably a gym coach, yelling at me to get my head out of my ass and quit being a dreamer. I’ve always been a dreamer. In second grade I can remember the daydream I was having when my teacher, a Franciscan Nun, smacked me in the face to return me to studies. It was her first year and she was quite freaked out by the bloody nose she gave me. Poor Sister Noob, it wasn’t entirely her fault I got a bloody nose. My brother, the night before, had grabbed me by the heels as I reached the top of the stairs and yanked me down, my head bouncing off each step on the way down in cartoon fashion. After a gusher a nose will be tender for a day releasing a new torrent at the slightest provocation. I felt bad for Sister Noob because she was sweet and afraid. She didn’t need to be afraid, no kid I know in that age would go home and tell their parents that the Nun had to give them a bloody nose. That would just invite a third smack down. I had already lost enough blood and I was still wondering about the statue of Mary I had been staring at. Mary was standing on a sphere. I wasn’t done trying to figure out exactly where on the globe her toes were touching. If I gazed into the heavens could I catch a glimpse of her bunions? Dreaming comes easy, it’s the practical part that’s hard.
As an adult it is OK to be a dreamer as long as you are working to make those dreams a reality. Some of the greatest men in history were dreamers but they also had the gumption, the stubborn determination and the insanity to see their dreams to reality. I have learned in my efforts that it is not easy thing to do. Common thought is that not enough people have the vision or imagination but just the opposite is true. Most people love to be swept away into escapism fantasy but most do not want to do the hard work of making there own dreams come true. Everybody gets swept away watching a musician make music and fantasize about creating melody themselves. Few are devoted enough to overcome the hardship of the practice, the single mindedness of the study.
I had the wonderful opportunity of a lifetime when the factory I worked in closed and I was given a years severance pay. It was the perfect storm of stupidity. I was fed up working for the man and ready for a midlife crisis. I was just ignorant enough to believe I could take this year and become a glass artist. My wife was just foolish enough to believe in me and our resources were just liquid enough to turn that money into a year and a half of working for myself. My dream was wonderful and a nightmare. It was more than I hoped for and nothing that I expected. The big lesson was that just because you can make beautiful art does not mean that you can survive off selling said art. I couldn’t last as a staving artist with a wife, 4 kids and a mortgage. Another lesson I learned was that dreams are more exciting in the dream state.
Every dream is more thrilling in conception than reality. Not that I couldn’t make beautiful art pieces, but the artist sees every imperfection and is already conceiving of how the piece could have been better. New ideas give no time to enjoying the beauty of pieces constructed. These ideas translate the excitement of conception into reality with less than mundane results. All along the way the exercise is just work. Often the dream excitement can carry into some of the work but usually that wears off way before the project is realized. And there have been some spectacularly bad ideas. In the nebulous form dreams don’t realize that by the light of day, plaids don’t go with stripes just as rap doesn’t go with Beethoven and beer does not blend with sherbet ice cream.
It is a wonder is how many are driven, even consumed by the dreams to achieve the spectacular. We see these achievements and we minimize the grueling work behind them. It looks effortless how the master coaxes enchantment out of his musical instrument. We love to watch a painter, a glass blower, a potter and feel I could do that. So many dreamers crash on reefs of realities hard shores. They have naively set off in crafts unfit for the harsh waters. Many quit but a foolish few reassemble themselves and head for the next quixotic battle. For the dreamers who put on the war paint and reenter the battle as veterans they are better prepared. They are practical dreamers.

Love, sex and Marriage

The topic of this blog is about love, sex and marriage. Whereas I feel it is more clinical than salacious, I can respect the fact that someone who knows me might not want to hear my opinion on topics of a sexual nature. So, daughters, nieces, siblings and those with taste, consider yourself warned.
We all have a drive toward physical attraction but sex should not be confused with love. Sex is this great gift from the Creator. Its purpose was not only to attract us to each other’s but also and more importantly to bind us together after marriage. There are two distinct joys that are derived from the naked embrace. First there is the satisfaction of the hunger and secondly there is the shared intimacy.
In general, men’s primary desire is to satisfy the first joy, hunger. Women in general seek intimacy more than hunger satisfaction. Whenever you talk in generalities of the population you can be generally right about the group but wrong with individuals. The confusion over the difference between males and females can be heard by women who are greeted by snoring when they seek to cuddle after sex. Men have also had a hard time understanding why women need atmosphere and connection before engaging in sex. They often do not see past, I’m hungry let’s eat. This is not a big practical joke by our Creator. We were designed to compliment each others and learn from each others.
It seams like so many couples who split up do not understand the fundamentals of sex and love. How else can it be explained comments like “we fell out of love”. Why else would divorce and adultery be so common in this Christian nation, even among us Christians. I don’t want to misrepresent this biblical wisdom as my own. In fact I had to learn these truths the hard way. I am a divorce’ and my first child was born 4 month after my second marriage. I can appreciate now that if you have sex before you are committed in marriage you are biased in the decision to choose a life mate. Lust obscures the ability to make the commitment required by love.
Love should be viewed as a commitment or even an obligation. It is immature to view love as a feeling yet romance is America’s idea of love. We are marketed Valentine’s day by candy companies and Hallmark. We are taught love ideals by Harlequin romance novels and Turner Classic movies. These are the ideas of being swept away by love and succumbing to love. We scoff at old world ideas of arranged marriage while we search for the soul mate to make us whole.

It is not a wonder that couples split up because they find themselves sexually incompatible. When psychologist look at the statistics of sexual desire they have found a huge variation of how often people desire sex. There is a wide range of frequency in sexual desire among the population. This means that when the majority of the population is included in the statistical bell curve you have a frequency from twice a day to twice a month. Given any random two people, they will not be compatible. Add to this equation that over time each individual’s sexual desire will change. It is the norm that men’s desire will decrease with time and women’s will increase. Yes God has a sense of humor, you can see that in the duck billed platypus but sexual incompatibility is not a cosmic joke. God wishes us to learn and grow thru this experience.
So what does God want us to learn? There are two pleasures deeper than the two joys of sex. First is the feeling of being loved so much, that someone else is willing to sacrifice their own self desires for you. This is a parallel to the love that God has for us. Being loved sounds nice and easy but it does require something from us that is difficult to give up, trust. Often it is difficult to put trust into someone other than ourselves. Next is the simple joy of putting someone else over our own needs. This is more than a parallel to God’s call for us to be like Him. To love and be loved, what greater life lesson could we have? If you shrank back at my earlier term of calling love an obligation I hope you now understand the depth that I believe is required of love and the benefits of striving for a love for life.

Welcome

Thank you for visiting. The name of my blog comes from a large wall of pines that surrounds my 3 acres of property. I’m not sure if it meant to keep the craziness out or in. Secluded in my fortress with an army of family I try to serve my King. He is a just Lord, in whom I am honored to do His work. Of course it is the Creator of whom I speak, my Father in heaven. I believe the work He is calling me to do is to write a book of Christian fiction. This is more than a little daunting for me, some times I feel like I could benefit from English as a Second Language class. My strengths were always on the math and logic side of the brain. I remember entering college in 79 and for my English class the instructor wanted 1000 word paper on “why”. I had never written a 100 word paper before. I resisted the urge to write “why not” 500 times. I wrote 1000 words, all run on sentences, as I pored all my unfocused thoughts out to fill the required pages. The instructor filled the first paragraph with red ink correcting my poor grammar and spelling and gave up after that. The grade of D on the paper was a gift that he repeated on every paper I turned in. I have written a little since then but still struggle, pecking with two fingers at my keyboard. I have turned to any aid I can think of for help. I walk with a recorder and dictate my story to myself. My laptop has the voice recognition software that I had to train to find my words. When all is said and done nothing will do the work for me. The only way to learn to write is to write. I am surprised by the difficulty it takes to knock out a chapter. In my head the story flows, the drama builds and I have even wept for my characters. I believe I have a good story in my head and only perseverance will get it out. I do not believe I would continue if I didn’t believe it was His will.