When Life Doesn't Come Easy....

Have you ever noticed that sometimes in life, the right attitude, the right confession, the right belief doesn't always produce the desired affect. I have "grown up" spiritually under the Word of God, and have been privileged to be tutored by excellent mentors with a great degree of Biblical training. Our words have power, we have to manage our thought life, we need to replace our thoughts with God's thoughts through confession of the Word and so on and so forth. We have spiritual authority, covenant rights, and are loved by a healing Abba Father. All these things are true to the "N'th" degree. All very Biblical and accurate. I want to address a very unpopular topic for second. Have you ever heard the horror stories about a Pastor or well meaning Christian that was involved in a prayer or counseling scenario where they told they counseled that the reason they had cancer or whatever the issue might be, was because they had a "lack of faith?" I have, it's not pretty and it's not scriptural. It's saying, more or less, "you have cancer, because you don't have enough faith to prevent it." I have many horror stories that I can personally draw from, where well meaning, but spiritually ignorant or biblically illiterate believers heap up condemnation and guilt on the shoulders of someone who desperately needs love, grace, and support from their fellow believers. Then to add insult to injury, if a person does die (gaining Heaven), those left behind attribute the supposed failure of their prayers and faith confessions on the back of the deceased by saying, "Oh, if they would've had faith." A great and powerful man of God used to say, "that's ignorance gone to seed." I sure agree.

Here's where I get honest. Have you ever hit a wall? Have you ever prayed like you were repeating the Word, or praying as if it were an empty religious mantra? Do you your words ever feel like empty vessels, drifting nowhere? Did it get you through the adversity or did it seem shallow or insincere. Has life ever put you into conflict with your personal theology or doctrinal beliefs? I think it happens, and I think God understands. I think where our response to tragedy and adversity comes in is to be sensitive to the needs of others, even if what their going through is in conflict with our fresh out of Bible School ideas about God. We need to become believers that are not a mile wide and an inch deep. Life gets messy. There's not always a cut, copy and paste answer to every thing. Sometimes the greatest ministry we can give another person is to stop judging them, stop speaking and just listen. Smith Wigglesworth said, "we carry with us, all the impossibility when we judge God by the limitations of our unbelief." To take that a step further, I posit, that we judge others by the limitations of our unbelief, and because of that all we see is impossibility. I think it's time to get back to the Biblical, Christ-centered model of ministering to those that are hurting and stop trying to pretend were something were not.

~“Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.”~ A. Golden

Psalm 77:3-5 (New International Version)

3 I remembered you, O God, and I groaned;
I mused, and my spirit grew faint.
Selah

4 You kept my eyes from closing;
I was too troubled to speak.

5 I thought about the former days,
the years of long ago;

I can say to another person that I don't have all the answers. I have become that honest, but I always say," let's go to the Word and see what its says about your situation." God always answers prayer, but if were looking at it through the filter of our unbelief, then we don't always see the answer. Why? Because it wasn't the one we were looking for. I have found that God doesn't always answer my prayer the way I have demanded Him to, go figure, he's God! God is always faithful and never disappoints. So, here a few a few my thoughts for tonight.

Selah....

Chaplain Jeremy

Spiritual Apathy...

Spiritual Apathy

In the course of life, all human beings face issues that challenge them to the very core. I often ask myself what does it mean to be human, and what does it mean to be a Christian. For me, to be fully human means to live out my faith to its full potential each moment of each and every single day.

I work with college age people, that is the core of my ministry. The style and structure of ministry has changed dramatically in the years since I first began. Years ago, social networking was face to face, now its on Facebook . There are so many social networking sites and forums that I can not keep up. There appears to be many emerging technologies and networking interfaces, and the way people connect with each other is facing a real paradigm shift. While I enjoy technology and the benefits it brings, I think there are some latent consequences starting to appear in the lives of people. Ask yourself how long you can go without Myspace or Facebook . Does it eat at you to not be able to check it for new messages? I know sometimes I get that itch to check when I should be doing other things.

Moving on, I 've been thinking about spiritual apathy. It's the kind of apathy that only a person who has been a Christian for awhile could understand. It's the kind of apathy that sets in when you become lazy, living beneath your life's calling and separated from your purpose. Spiritually apathetic people are the ones that complain about everything and anything related to their faith. For example, they can not find a church that is as mature or on fire as they are. Or perhaps the preacher is an idiot and couldn't preach their way out of a cul-de-sac. In my own experience, spiritually apathetic people are like the character from the old SNL skit called Debbi Downer. They always have a bleak prognosis, no church or Christian is ever good enough. The funny thing is, I fail to see where they get their negotiating power. Is negativity and apathy some sort of license that gives a lethargic Christian entitlement to grumble and complain? I personally do not think so. Yet it does not stop them.

How does a Christian become spiritually apathetic? It's so easy to point out, that it's almost cliche! Much of it stems from a battery of bad habits and personal choices. Stop reading the Bible, stop praying, stop living by faith, stop fellowshipping with mature believers. All these things should guarantee that a Christian who is vulnerable to apathy, achieves it.

In my work with college students and young adults I have seen spiritual apathy, but its the kind of thing that creeps in as if they were unaware. Soon the evidence of a crime scene becomes apparent. The student is burned out on God, the church and the Christian life. I have been over this so many times in my mind and then I finally submitted it to God in prayer. While I can't say I wrestled with God or saw a burning bush I did get a real impression that it may not be God whom people are rejecting, but the church itself. How is that you may ask. Well, it's like Gandhi said, "I like your Christ, but your Christians look nothing like him." Do Christian's look like Christ any longer? It's a good question that we need to ask ourselves. Self examination is much better than public examination, no one likes to be seen naked, especially, publicly. But I do think its important to tear away the layers of religiosity and false holiness that we put on when we go to church.

Part of the appeal of social networking sites and online forums is that it gives the appearance of anonymity. That is as far from the truth as it gets, and I'm not talking about postmodern truth either. Part of the latent consequence of technology that I wrote about earlier is the isolative tendencies and the disconnection from each other that is encroaching upon our relationships with another as human beings. I could be alarmist, but I could be prophetic to. The way we relate to each often reflects the way we relate to God as well. We superimpose the relational social skills we have grown accustomed to and try to interact with divine in the same way. I have not yet seen God on Facebook. Now I'm not saying that Facebook or technology is bad, far from it. But, perhaps the next time your looking at Christians and judging God through them, take a look at yourself and extend the same judgment in equal measure.

So now that I am done preaching to myself, the message that I need to hear, does this message resonate with you?


~Chaplain Jeremy L. Evans

The New Year...

I spent the New Years Eve at church in worship with my family. What a great time! It got me thinking about new beginnings and the importance of fresh experiences with God. Being in His presence is so rewarding. Engaging in worship that permeates so deeply has morphic effect on our faith and in our lives as a whole.

Thank god for the new year.

This is a picture of my daughter Ellie w/ her Nana (Linde)! Aren't they beautiful together!

The Curiousity of Benjammin Button...

I saw, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" at the theater this past Saturday and I have to say it was one of the most phenomenal films I've seen in a long time! I've been searching my heart for a reason or reason's why this film resonated with me in such a deep way! I have been in New Orleans and have a deep love for this city, especially in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina several years ago. But, I think it has more to do with story being told and the way I find myself and others I know in the characters in the movie.

F. Scott Fitzgerald authored a short 9,000 word story upon which this story based. The original story began in Baltimore, but ended up being filmed and centered in New Orleans. Apparently Brad Pitt had the idea to film there to help bring exposure to the city and its efforts to revitalize itself. New Orleans has a unique energy to it that Pitt describes as magical, and I find myself agreeing. But I think that with in the character of Benjamin I see the process of aging and the emotional, spiritual process associated with aging being put into total reverse. I know this movie has probably been critiqued and analyzed in a more professional manner than I can, but I want to focus on the spiritual aspect of it.

If I were born old and had to face life in full reverse I imagine that like Benjamin I would interpreting and experiencing the stigma associated with aging process in reverse as well. I wonder if I would question my mortality the way you do when you age? I imagine that being born old gave Benjamin a very sober and mature perspective on life and faith. He was surrounded by people dying who would reminisce and share extremely profound insights on what is truly important in life. With these insights in mind, imagine the kind of life you could live. I think Benjamin did exactly that. I'll write more later!

Selah...

Chaplain Jeremy

Christ Mindedness and Mindfullness...

I've been doing some studying into spiritual disciplines of the early desert fathers, here are some thoughts on Christ mindedness.

The Desert Monk known as, "Evagrius Ponticus" (345-399 A.D.), taught a form of "hesychasm" (quiet: in the Greek) in which one comes to see the conditioned bonds between thoughts and emotions, and then, through meditation and prayer, finds a deep calm called "apatheia". In apatheia the mind (or spiritual man) can become integrated with the Holy Spirit and emptied of any impure or ungodly activity, allowing one to simply abide in God’s presence and to fellowship without distraction. Monks like Evagrius believed that right speech and corresponding behavior would flow outward from a mind that is emptied of distracting and unproductive thoughts. Christian contemplatives believe that meditation genuinely frees up a believer to experience the mind of Christ and the freedom that comes from soaking in the presence of God. I believe that when we free up our crowded thought life by emptying it of the high mindedness, lofty thoughts or anything that exalts itself above the knowledge of Christ that we experience an inward spiritual release. When we have this kind of detachment, we are less likely to mistake our thoughts and opinions for our present reality.Reality apart from God is a reality under the subjection of the present ruler of this world, or schema....his name is Satan. If we do not remove our thoughts from conformity to this world than we have no choice but to dwell in the enemies domain. I would rather abide in God's presence.

The methods by which one trains and purifies the mind were codified by Evagrius’s student, St. John Cassian (360-435) in his Conferences, and taken up by St. Benedict, Eastern Orthodox theologians such as Symeon the New Theologian, the German friar Meister Eckhart, the anonymous author of the medieval Cloud of Unknowing, St. John of the Cross and, most famously, in the works of 20th century’s Thomas Merton.

Background on the Desert Monk and Christian Mystic Evagrius Ponticus:

Evagrius Ponticus, or Evagrius the Solitary (345-399 A.D.) was a Christian monk and ascetic. One of the rising stars in the late fourth century church, he was well-known as a keen thinker, a polished speaker, and a gifted writer. Throughout his ministry, he was a trusted friend to several influential contemporary church leaders, including Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa, Nectarius of Constantinople, Macarius of Egypt, and Theophilus of Alexandria.

Quoted {He was born into a Christian family in the small town of Ibora, in the Roman province of Pontus. He began his career in the church as a lector under Basil before joining Gregory Nazianzus in Constantinople, where he was promoted to deacon and eventually to archdeacon. When Emperor Theodosius I convened the Second Ecumenical Council in 381 A.D., Evagrius stood with Gregory and played an important role in the successful battle against Arianism.

Constantinople offered many worldly attractions, and his vanity was aroused by the high praise of his peers while gluttony, greed and sloth became persistent temptations over which he despaired of ever becoming victorious. Eventually, he became infatuated with a married woman. Yet before he acted upon his unruly emotions, he had - reportedly - a vision in which he was imprisoned by the soldiers of the governor at the request of the woman's husband. This vision made him flee from the capital and head for Jerusalem.^[1]

For a short time, he stayed with Melania the Elder and Tyrannius Rufinus in a monastery near Jerusalem, but even there he could not forsake his vainglory and pride. He fell gravely ill and only after he resolved to move to the deserts of Egypt he was restored to health.^[2] At first he joined around the year 383 a coenobitic community of monks in Nitria but after some years moved to Kellia. There he spent last fourteen years of his life pursuing studies under Macarios the Great and Macarius of Alexandria.} (Quoted from (www.amazines.com/Evagrius_Ponticus_related.html)

Drawing near to God sometimes means being emptied of ourselves! I'll write more tomorrow.

In Christ,

Chaplain Jeremy

Righteousness or Self Righteousness?

The definition of righteousness:

Righteousness is an attribute of moral purity belonging to God alone (John 17:25 ). It is He alone who is truly righteous. No one in the world is righteous in the eyes of the Lord, that is, except the Christian. We are counted righteous in the eyes of God when we receive Jesus by faith (Phil. 3:9). Our righteousness is based on what Jesus did on the cross. The righteousness that was Christ's is counted to us. We, then, are seen as righteous in the eyes of God. Though we are actually worthy of damnation, we are made righteous (Isaiah 61:10) by Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. As a result, we will spend eternity in the presence of the holy, pure, loving, kind, gentle, and righteous God who is our righteousness.

Righteous - characterized by or proceeding from accepted standards of morality or justice; "the...prayer of a righteous man availeth much"- James 5:16

The Hebrew word for righteousness is tseh'-dek, tzedek, Gesenius's Strong's Concordance:6664—righteous, integrity, equity, justice, straightness. The root of tseh'-dek is tsaw-dak', Gesenius's Strong:6663—upright, just, straight, innocent, true, sincere. It is best understood as the product of upright, moral action in accordance with some form of divine plan.

The Definition of Self Righteousness:

The term "self-righteous" is often considered derogatory particularly because self-righteous individuals are often thought to exhibit hypocrisy, an idea similar to that of the Freudian defense mechanism of reaction formation .

Confident in one's own righteousness, self-assured, smug. The book of Job warns us against self-righteousness, since no man can justify himself to God.

Quotes on character, righteousness and hypocrisy that I like:

• What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

• Many a man's reputation would not know his character if they met on the street. ~Elbert Hubbard
• History is the chronicle of divorces between creed and deed. ~Louis Fischer
• If there existed no external means for dimming their consciences, one-half of the men would at once shoot themselves, because to live contrary to one's reason is a most intolerable state, and all men of our time are in such a state. ~Leo Tolstoy, The Kingdom of God Is Within You
• We have two kinds of morality side by side: one which we preach but do not practice and another which we practice but seldom preach. ~Bertrand Russell
• Be what you would seem to be - or, if you'd like it put more simply - never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise. ~Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
• Just remember, there's a right way and a wrong way to do everything and the wrong way is to keep trying to make everybody else do it the right way. Colonel Potter from MASH
• Every job is a self-portrait of the person who does it. Autograph your work with excellence. ~Author Unknown
• Quality means doing it right when no one is looking. ~Henry Ford
• Laws control the lesser man. Right conduct controls the greater one. ~Chinese Proverb

Righteousness and self righteousness are subjects that I have made a real mental investment in lately. Or you could say they have been on my mind! While I weigh my own faults and defects of character to be the heaviest, I am also a keen observer of human behavior. I have observed in the lives of the people closest to me a kind of "budding" of self-righteous hypocrisy; it is the terminal variety. When I say terminal, I mean to say that it kills relationships where they stand with all the boldness and swiftness of a trained soldier. To overlook anything is to look over everything with a smug certainty that you are right and your conduct seems justified out of that self assured righteousness. Say for an example, two parents overlook the acts of a child with out of control behavior and a nasty attitude. What kind of parenting is this! When a child disregards the rules, mouths off to authority and then gets away with it because the parents turn a blind eye? When the parents have been confronted and act strange and aloof from the fact that their child is going in a dangerous direction under their tutelage and they deny any problem and say something to the effect of, "Your Overreacting" etc... What do you do from there? Pride goes before destruction, and these folks have experienced quite a bit in their lives recently. At this point, I can only go to God with my concerns, He is never dismissive. I will not let these people close to my family influence my children toward the same destructive path their family is going. That's my opinion anyway.

God be with me, hopefully he is with you as well.

Take Care,

~Jeremy

Entropic Swimming...

Entropic Swimming - randomness: (thermodynamics) a thermodynamic quantity representing the amount of energy in a system that is no longer available for doing mechanical work; "entropy increases as matter and energy in the universe degrade to an ultimate state of inert uniformity" Inert uniformity....hmmm....sounds familiar to me. I think I have it at times swam in the Entropic stream. Sometimes its fishing, sometimes its swimming, but nonetheless entropic in effect. At this time I should unpackage what it is that I'm trying to say! I'm referring to a frame of mind espoused by everyone at one time in their life or another. It is the type of thinking that causes the actions and attitudes of people to stagnate to the point of static inert uniformity. Nothing has any value like this, it exists as raw potential and that is it. For example, if parents refuse to see the flaws in their parenting strategy, due to flaws in their reasoning or faith, the outcome will be a child that hoodwinks and plays on the parents sympathetic ignorance to avoid being grounded or held accountable for obnoxious behavior. Ignorance gives a stealth like quality to people who cannot grasp that their children, in fact may be little snots. But it is no excuse when a child hurts another child and does something that robs another of their innocence. I suppose I could fess up at this point. My daughters were rudely confronted with the reality that Santa does not exist by a boy who is only one year older than them, this friend is 8, my daughters are 8 and 6 years of age. He decided to tell them that Santa doesn't exist in such a rude crass little bullish way that they came home in tears. So I have held back my frustration and anger for the most part, my mantra is "its Under The Blood", but I have to admit that I am a bit angry about the situation. But it goes way deeper than that, it is a pattern of behavior that has hurt my daughters over and over again and I am to the point where I will not let them play together unsupervised. I must and I will resolve this issue in my heart. With the Lord's guidance I will find a way to rescue those drowning in the "entropic stream."

By His Grace,

~Jeremy