Archive | February, 2009

Ridin’ Dirty, Bonfires, Making Things New

24 Feb

I recently was talking to a friend who had gotten pulled over by the cops for…

You guessed it.  “Nothing.”  That is how all of stories that start out with “I got pulled over yesterday for,” go.  My favorite part of this person’s story is that he really had not done anything.  You see, a few years ago the officers would have found something, or somethings for which to arrest my friend.  In fact, they did and he has paid and continues to pay significant consequences for his actions.

A year ago I would have doubted the sincerity of his story of being pulled over for no reason, but today I know him well enough to be certain that he would tell me whether or not he actually had done something – and would be hurt if he had.  I have had the privileged of seeing him become a new creation, and been humbled by the work that God continues to do in his heart — and mine, just by having a close seat to the show. Every time we talk I am amazed at the changes he is making in his life, and the insights and love he gains for God.  It fills me with hope.

So when he shared about being cold, humiliated, and frustrated during the time that the boys in blue were searching his car, I sympathized.  The bad part about being a criminal is having people treat you like a criminal, even though there have been major renovations in your life that “they” don’t know about.  After the dogs and officers searched his car, a series of field sobriety tests, seemingly countless questions, a breathalyzer, and inviting the men searching his vehicle to Bible study (I love that) he was free to continue about his business.

He wondered aloud what the significance of this incident might be, and the conversation went like this:

Him: “I don’t know man, it seems like all this stuff happened all at once, and I really feel like it was Satan trying to attack me.”

Me: “That could be it, or it could be a not-so gentle reminder of where you have come from, what God has brought you out of, a reminder to stay on the wagon, ya know?”

Him: “Interesting that you say that.  It’s kinda like a Passover we just studied about. Israel had to do all this stuff so they would remember what God did for them.”

(Background) His mom, whose house he arrived at while we were speaking: “I think it was an attack, plain and simple.”

Me: “Well if it was Satan’s attack, we will use it for good and remember what God has done for us. Also, this is your warning to keep your chin up and stay the course- don’t give up now.”

That is an over-simplified verison of the conversation, but the gist is there.  Isn’t it amazing how we look at problems and difficulties in our lives?

It reminds me of campfire.  Even if a fire is burning hot and high, and you put a peice a plywood over it, it might smother and the flames dwindle.  Sometimes the fire dies out completely. However, if the fire is hot enough and there are enough hot, long burning coals at the base of the fire, it will enentullay rekindle.  And when it rekindles, the plywood that once snuffed the flames out becomes fuel itself.

So did Satan put the plywood on my friend’s fire?

Did God?

We do well to remember the God who warms hearts, rekindles smothered flames, and who uses all things to bring glory to Himself and for the good of those who love Him.

Here is to turning that which smothers us into our holy bonfire!

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

Jokes, Japan, Coldplay, and Being Spontaneous

15 Feb

It was a typical Tuesday night.  I returned from Life Hurts, God Heals and sat down to read a book.  As a got settled I checked my email, which led to chatting online with friends.  a few hours later I was still chatting and was in a conversation with my friend Jennifer, whom I studied with in Spain.   She now teaches English in Moka, Japan along with some other very fun North Americans.

She told me that one of the teachers here was sick and is in the States to recover, so they were trying to find someone to go to a Coldplay concert with them in Tokyo last Thursday. I joked and said I would be there.

Jennifer knew I was joking but offered generously to help pay for the airfare and my meals while in Japan. I would have a place to sleep because of the teacher who is recouping stateside. It started to seem like a pretty good deal. We started checking prices.  Was this really going to work?

It is a great thing to be young and flexible and be able to be spontaneous with minimal dereliction of duties.

~3:30am Wednesday. I found a ticket I woke up my mom to see if she would be willing to take me to the airport.  She agreed and I went back up to my room to make it final.  I was going to Japan. I bought a ticket for the wrong date (for some reason the website assumed I wanted to make arrangements to travel a month from that day instead of that day – go figure).  I cancelled that ticket and bought the one I needed. I packed my bag in about 45 seconds, ate some breakfast, grabbed my passport, and made my way  to the airport.

~9:00am Wed flight from Indy to Dallas

~12:05pm Wed flight from Dallas to Tokyo

~4:13pm Thursday train 1, train 2, lots of broken English and me being confused

~7:40pm Thursday walked about 200 yards up to the Saitama Super Arena, Jennifer and friends were outside with a tickets. We walked in, grabbed some food, and about 10 minutes later Coldplay started their set.

p1010825

Be careful what you joke about.

More stories from my Japanese adventure to come.

Pray for Josiah’s health and continued recovery.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillz

Rob Bell, Ted Nugent: Two Manifestos and a Family Feud

10 Feb

My dad and and I have very similar personalities.  We have pretty similar views about faith and I am contiually finding myself shaped by his wisdom and admire the way he does life.  There are, however, friendly points of dissention between us.  We see politics quite differently, although for the most part we come to different conclusions with similar motivations.

This past election, our votes canceled each other’s out.  He might not see why I don’t think fiscal de-regulation is a great idea and why the appalling stance of many the Democratic party are enough to make me vote towards the right.  I might not see why he doesn’t see that the free market has never really been free and consistently is controlled by people who take advantage of well-intentioned people and that the policies of the far right have most likely been an indirect cause of abortion and poverty, unproductive violence, and diminished quality of life for many.  Either way, we both have our points, and respectfully allow each other to continue find truth somewhere between, under, or beyond the arguments.  I even listen to Rush with him sometimes.  At the end of the day, our thoughts about government matter little because it is the Church’s task to declare and live out righteous and just living.  With us?

ted-white-blueSunday at lunch dad told me that he thought I really should read Ted Nugent’s “Ted, White, and Blue: The bell-jesus-saveNugent Manifesto.“  I had picked it up for a few minutes in a book store a few months ago and made a snap decision after about 5 pages or so that I thought it would have little productive to say.  Anyway, I like be challenged and enjoy challenging others, and really do appreciate my father’s wisdom, especially because he has had 21+ years of law enforcement experience, a lifetime of pursuing faith, and a sucessful business career that I have not. So, I proposed that we trade books.  I am reading “Ted, White, and Blue” and he is reading / listening to Rob Bell and Don Golden’s “Jesus Wants to Save Christians: A Manifesto for the Church in Exile.”

I have found very good thoughts and points in both, and disagree sharply with some of both books.  Manifestos are statements of beliefs, so you can expect people to differ.  However, I want to highlight a great paragraph from “Ted, White, and Blue.”

God gave man a soul; a powerful, instinctual moral and intellectual True North compass that completely differenciates us from all other living creatures. Animals stomp, kill, and and eat each other, even thier own, in primal instinct to survive. Man has the power of reason, calculation, dreaming, and a thought process the choose to do good, not just for himself, but for the predictable benefit of family, fellow man, and the good earth. Respecting the the gift of life and the power of responsible choice, man can pursue happiness while being a positive force for all things When man seeks to benefit from wrong choices, at the expense of others and the environment, he has lost his soul. His misdeeds will eventually catch up with him.  (page 39 Chapter titled “If I Were Presdient”).

The political right and left should take a this paragraph and do an examination of conscience.  Ted won some respect points from me.

Anyway, please pray for the Spirit to be our teacher and guide as dad and I wade through these thoughful and incredibly nuanced books.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

When Satan Sifts, God Rocks: Luke 22

8 Feb

I have this passage from Luke’s account of the last supper on my mind recently. This night one night was so dramatic! Lots of surprises and important details in a few short pages.  It would have been terribly long and difficult for Jesus and the disciples. The evening begins.

The meal has been served, the cup and bread were given as signs of a new covenant.  Jesus confers (gives) the Kingdom to this group of young men.  To (Simon) Peter, who he told that he was going to be the rock on which Christ’s church is built (Matt 16:18), he said (Luke 22:31-34):

31“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you[a] as wheat. 32But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.”

33But he replied, “Lord, I am ready to go with you to prison and to death.”

34Jesus answered, “I tell you, Peter, before the rooster crows today, you will deny three times that you know me.”

The footnote in my bible tells me that the “you” in verse 31 is plural, so it should read “Satan has asked to sift y’all”.  Satan had asked to sift the group like wheat.  Indeed, the group was shaken and Judas, who had given into evil was separated from the group for good.

Another interesting thing about being sifted is that is separates groups into individual parts.  This group of young followers of Jesus had become a clump that was closely bonded.  Sifting would have been a painful breaking apart of the group.measuring_flour_sifter_large11

During that sift, Peter (the Rock on which Christ had chosen to build the Church) even denies Jesus just as Jesus told him.  The disciples are broken apart, and the leader of the group denies Christ 3 times!

Sift.

When Christ restores Peter, he gives him the task of taking care of the church and feeding the his sheep. It may not be obvious to us, but it is so much easier to feed the sheep if they are together!!  The disciples had been sifted, broken apart, and painful separated from each other.

Today, Christians all over the world are broken apart. Some will not have anything to do with each other. There is one true God and all of us who trust and live Him belong the same family.  There are no Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, EV Free, Methodist, Reformed, Non- or Inter- Denominational churches but one (1) body of Christ that spans the globe and time. It is time to be one.

If you are following Christ, listen carefully. God builds his church by bringing together that which Satan has broken apart. That is the rock that this house is built on.

Jesus, pray for our faith that we may not fall. Bring us together for your sake.  Take the sifted and baked with us how you wish. Teach us to strengthen our brothers and sisters as we turn back to you.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

p.s. Did you hear about the guy that fell in the sifter last week?

He is fine.

As You Are Going, Shredding and Sharing…

7 Feb

This is for my students that recently attended an evangelism equipping weekend called Dare 2 Share.  We learned that there are 3 levels of sharing your faith. The first was telling. The second is explaining. The third is discussion.  Greg Stier used (overused IMO) a surfing term “shredding the gnar” for taking the hard but best road of discussing your faith and being willing to engage in the difficult questions and doubts that will arise.  Students were asked to immediately share their faith even before the weekend was over.  The Lord moved in our lives and in the lives of the people we have been talking to about our God.

Students and other fellow evangelists, I have some words for you. Some things not to forget:

1) John the Baptist and Jesus both preached repentance and baptism for the sake of the Kingdom.  Repentance is leaving life as you knew and and being baptized is joining with Christ as a part of his Kingdom as a forgiven person. Saying some words is not the same as walking out of a life of death into a life of freedom and light. As you tell people about Jesus, don’t forget that he told us that we would probably die, suffer, be made fun of, and be misunderstood for following Him.  Are they ready to do it for real?

2) The Kingdom is good news indeed. God wants things to be right between you and him, you and others, and even the whole world.  His way is what we are signing on for. It is not our way, but much much better.  Sometimes we can’t see that, but trust Him.

3) You are being saved from hell and being released from sin, but you are also being brought into a life of faith that is lived out in love and obedience.  God’s will for your life is about today as well as tomorrow.

4) The Gospel means a personal relationship, but it also means joining in doing things God’s way and having the privilege of being a part of a movement and purpose existed before time and has changed the lives of millions already.

5) If you don’t have answers, it doesn’t mean your faith is worthless. We were made to search for God together.

6) The power that raised Christ from the dead is alive and works through us.

7) If God is asking you to tell someone about Him, do it.  Do it well. That is your part. It is the Spirit’s who changes hearts.

I love you guys and am amazed at what God is doing through you.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillz

25 things about me

7 Feb

25 things.  About me. Interesting? who knows…

1) Part of me really wishes I could be Catholic.  I was evangelized to by this former monk in Spain, and we got a few cups of coffee and shared about our lives in Christ.  I saw him again about 2 months later in the middle of a pretty bad day and the conversation was exactly what I needed.  BUT the transubstantiation thing bothers me.

2) I hate the fact that a couple of people stopped reading this note after I wrote “transubstantiation”, and could look it up but never will.

3) About 2 months ago I gave away half my clothes.  I still feel like I have too many.

4) When I was 16 I had dreadlocks for 6 months.  I sometimes really miss them.

5) If I wasn’t in ministry I wouldn’t go to church very often, at least not to “Sunday morning” church.  This is a general observation and has little or nothing to do with my current church’s service or style.

6) I have a fear of sewer covers / drains / grates. Each time I walk over one my heart pounds a little harder–what if it broke and you fell in the hole???

7) I can make myself sneeze by squeezing the sides of my nose repeatedly with my finger and thumb. It makes a funny noise and somehow builds up, then I sneeze.

8) I become easily annoyed by voice mail. I am the guy who calls but does not leave a message, because in my mind it is the loving thing to do.

9) I made my brother pee blood once because then I was mad at him I tied a rope between two trees while he was riding our dirt bike (he totally had overridden his turn in addition to whatever made me mad to begin with).  He ran into the rope and wrecked.

10) Kids should have mandatory outside time each week.  I still would rather climb a tree or skip rocks than play video games.

11) I want to write a book someday, and the title will have the word “underwear” in it.

12) Once a professor passingly called me “the irrepressible Chris Williams” and it is changed the way I see myself. Still deciding if that is good or bad, but leaning towards good.

13)  I wish I never knew how to get the stats for my blog. I used to just write “for what it’s worth”, but now I secretly judge myself based on the hits. lame. yes, I will check over the next few days to see if this note somehow had an effect.

14) Getting mail is one of the best parts of the human experience.

15) When I started at Taylor I felt like I was a “bad kid” there while I was a “good kid” at home.  I realized sometime over those 4 years that I was me.

16) I dream of having two dogs named Killer and Digger, respectively.

17) Being the world’s strongest man used to seem like a realistic goal, but now that just seems silly.

18) Beets make me gag.  Instant gag / probable vomit.

19) Fish used to make me gag, but now I can eat it and actually enjoy it sometimes.  Sushi changed my life.

20) All of my golf clubs have been given to me. Most of them came from the lost and found at the country club I where I worked. Some are womens.

21) Whoever put tampon commercials on during football games should serve jail time.  Where are the values in society today? Football = good, safe, manly.  Tampons = gross.  Why can’t they just air them during “The View”, “Grey’s Anatomy” or whatever…. LEAVE FOOTBALL ALONE.

22) I am more likely to watch C-SPAN than ESPN.

23) Trees are one of the few things that I like to draw.  I really get into making all the little branches and stems.

24) I have only told two or three people the most evil thing about me and they probably don’t even realize that it is the part of me of which I am terribly ashamed.

25) Recently, I discovered the game Risk and find it very enjoyable.  I do much better in real life than online.

That is enough of that.

May the Lord’s will be done,

CWillZ

A Review: Coffeehouse Theology by Ed Cyzewski.

4 Feb

coffeehousetheosmall About a month ago I finished reading this book, and have been waiting for a few spare minutes to review it.  I heard about this book from Andy Rowell‘s blog and was immediately interested.  Andy and his wife were visiting professors while I was a student at Taylor University (they are both alumni as well), and his recommendations have some weight with me.

Apart from having a general interest in doing/being theology in context, I was also drawn to this book because the author is another Taylor alum.  The references he makes to his college experiences are very accessible to me.  We shared some professors, which is cool.

The book itself is very well written and easy to follow, each chapter is worth the time it takes to read.  The practical study tools and guides are beneficial and right on, which is a helpful to those who might want to go further in their study of the Bible/the Christian tradition and are quickly overwhelmed by the voices and resources available.  I wish that this book would have replaced my required reading of “How to Read the Bible for All It’s Worth” by Gordon Fee and Doug Stuart (although this is a very helpful book).

Greatly appreciated also is the careful attention that Cyzewski draws to minority voices within our family of believers. This is a much needed call for us to learn to listen, make room for, and respectfully engage the minds and lives of fellow Christian across the globe and those approaching God from a background different from our own.

The home run in this book for me is Ed’s explanation of that thing we call postmodernism.  I struggled to understand what was happening the first time the term was introduced to me.  I have posted before about wheteher or not I think it really matters, and I wrote a section about it in a Philosophy of Ministry about this time last year.  As I was writing that paper, I did my homework on what postmodernism is and how the church relates to it.  I read the best I could find, including: Oden, Dockery, Scott Smith, Long, Dunn, McKnight, Knight, McLaren, Mohler.  I wish I had had the chapter from Ed’s book.

Not only does he make the terms modern and postmodern accessible, but he peaceful gives us a way to talk about where we fit into the game and the roles we should be playing.  I really felt like someone was finally giving me a map and suggesting a direction and not just standing at a destination and calling me towards that one.  This is the book I can give my dad and say, “This is what I mean by postmodern.”

I recommend it.

May the Lord’s Will be done,

CWillZ

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