This is taken from A.W. Tozer's book Man - The Dwelling Place of God.

Poetic Figures vs. Reality

The language of devotion has helped to create the impression that the church is supposed to be a band of warriors driving the enemy before them in plain sight and with plenty of color and drama to give a pleasing flourish to the whole thing. In our hymns and pulpit oratory we have commonly pictured the church as marching along to the sound of martial music and the plaudits of the multitude.

Of course this is but a poetic figure. The individual Christian may be likened to a soldier, but the picture of the church on earth as a conquering army is not realistic. Her true situation is more accurately portrayed as a flock of sheep in the midst of wolves, or as a company of despised pilgrims plodding toward home, or as a peculiar nation protected by the Passover blood waiting for the sound of the trumpet, or as a bride looking for the coming of her bridegroom.

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Reflection & Influence 

Christians love catch-phrases and keywords.  Making fun of or lamenting "Christianese" or the Christian subculture is a relatively easy and lazy thing to do.  The more fruitful approach - the one that would hopefully build up the church rather than armchair quarterback it - is to lovingly critique it.  

How we use language is something that really interests me.  It's something that's important to see and think about because, while I'm not a linguist, I can see that language carries with it two big factors.  First, language is a reflection of what we think, believe, and value.  Secondly, language influences what we think, believe, and value.

Blurred Definitions 

Which brings me to the word I want to bring up in this blog article: missional.  "Being missional" or "to be missional" has been a descriptive or imperative catch phrase for about the last five years, particularly among younger Emerging churches.  It's a word that I've always felt a little uncomfortable with because of it's ambiguity (but that's another article).

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The last month or so has felt relentless, volatile, exciting, and hopeful.  To give you an idea of what our lives have been like I'll paint you a picture with a list of what we've been up to since coming moving back to the States from Mongolia.

(Keep in mind that from the day we found out we were pregnant, Peace Corps had us packed up and moving back to America in about a week and a half.)

The first week we spent going from Mongolia to Los Angeles to Seattle and back to Los Angeles.  We landed in LA on a Monday and were in Seattle on a Thursday.  During the four days we were in Seattle I had my last job interview and we found a house to live in.

The second week was sad because unfortunately we spent it dealing with the loss of the pregnancy.

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Two more great quotes from Why We Love The Church.  I wish I could post every line I've highlighted so far in this book but I think I'd probably drive you all crazy.  Just do us both a favor and read this book.  This first excerpt is from co-author Kevin DeYoung.

[In speaking of the current trend among many younger Christians of confessing the past sins of the church.]

""When a man over forty tries to repent of the sins of England and to love her enemies, " writes [C.S.] Lewis, "he is attempting something costly; for he was brought up to certain patriotic sentiments which cannot be moritified without a struggle.  But an educated man who is now in his twenties usually has no such sentiment to mortify.  In art, in literature, in politics, he has been, ever since he can remember, one of an angry and restless minority; he has drunk in almost with with his mother's milk a distrust of English statesmen and a contempt for the manners, pleasures, and enthusiasm of his less-educated fellow countrymen."

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If you make me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stones, for if you wield your tool on it you profane it.
Exodus 20:25

“God’s altar was to be built of unhewn stones, that no trace of human skill or labor might be seen on it. Human wisdom delights to trim and arrange the doctrines of the cross into a system more artificial and more congenial with the depraved tastes of fallen nature; however, instead of improving the gospel carnal wisdom pollutes it, until it becomes another gospel, and not the truth of God at all. All alterations and amendments of the Lord’s own Word are defilements and pollutions.

The proud heart of man is very anxious to have a hand in the justification of the soul before God; preparations for Christ are dreamed of, humblings and repentings are trusted in, good works are cried up, natural ability is much vaunted, and by all means the attempt is made to lift up human tools upon the divine altar. It were well if sinners would remember that so far from perfecting the Saviour’s work, their carnal confidences only pollute and dishonor it. The Lord alone must be exalted in the work of atonement, and not a single mark of man’s chisel or hammer will be endured.

There is an inherent blasphemy in seeking to add to what Christ Jesus in His dying moments declared to be finished, or to improve that in which the Lord Jehovah finds perfect satisfaction. Trembling sinner, away with your tools. Fall on your knees in humble supplication. Accept the Lord Jesus to be the altar of your atonement, and rest in Him alone.”

- Charles Spurgeon, Morning by Morning (New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 2001), 204.

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Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck could be my favorite new writers.  I loved Why We're Not Emergent: By Two Guys Who Should Be, I really enjoy everything DeYoung writes on his blog, and when they write paragraphs like this I can't help but cheer out loud like a fruitcake. 

"Perhaps Christians are leaving the church because it isn't tolerant and open-minded. But perhaps the church-leavers have their own intolerance too--intolerant of tradition, intolerant of authority, intolerant of imperfection except their own. Are you open-minded enough to give the church a chance--a chance for the church to be the church, not a coffee shop, not a mall, not a variety show, not Chuck E. Cheese, not a U2 concert, not a nature walk, but a wonderfully ordinary, blood-bought, Spirit-driven church with pastors, sermons, budgets, hymns, bad carpet and worse coffee?"

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I have boxes and boxes of books at home that I'm excited to get back to.  One of the authors that I've only been able to scratch the surface of, and who I'm looking forward to reading more when we get back, is the 9th century churchman and poet Horatius Bonar.  Thanks to Tim Challies for the reminder.

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"In all unbelief there are these two things--a good opinion of one's self and a bad opinion of God. Man's good opinion of himself makes him think it quite possible to win God's favor by his own religious performances; and his bad opinion of God makes him unwilling and afraid to put his case wholly into His hands. The object of the Holy Spirit's work (in convincing of sin) is to alter the sinner's opinion of himself, and so to reduce his estimate of his own character that he shall think of himself as God does, and so cease to suppose it possible that he can be justified by an excellency of his own. The Spirit then alters his evil opinion of God, so as to make him see that the God with whom he has to do is really the God of all grace.

[Be sure to check out the video at the end of the post.]

We finished filming this week and thankfully it all went relatively smoothly. The first two episodes were a little difficult but the next two went almost perfectly. Since we're not sure if we'll get to bring them back to the States and even then we're not sure if they'll be translated, I wanted to briefly share with you the story that most affected me.

When Naraa was young what she wanted more than anything was to be loved by a man. Her dream was to be married and have children. And, after she finished veterinary and agricultural college she did just that. She married a man and they had two sons. The trouble started when she was pregnant with her third son.

At 7 months along, Naraa went into labor. She gave birth to a 2.8 pound baby boy. When he was born the doctors took him from her to let him die, telling her that he was disabled, too small, and too weak to live. She argued with them and eventually got her son back.

Her son's childhood was marked by violent seizures every day. Naraa did everything she could get her severely handicapped son the best treatment she could, enduring countless trips over M*ngolia's rugged landscape in crowded jeeps to go to the capital to see doctors. Worst of all, her husband and family abandoned her because they saw her son as a curse.

Naraa spent all of her money on doctors and Buddhist llamas who promised to help her son. In complete desperation she even sold her ger to pay for the expenses, leaving the single mother without money, without a home, and caring for three boys. She ended up moving the family from far out in the countryside to Erdenet, where she eventually was invited to a church and became a Christian.

After years and years of doctors and llamas, after losing everything, Naraa decided that she wasn't going to go to doctors anymore. The young Christian decided that she the only thing she would do is pray for her son.

Miraculously, as soon as she began to do that her son's condition immediately improved. His daily seizures dwindled to nothing and he hasn't had one since 2004. He began to be able to use his hands and arms, and he began to speak. After years of silence her son was able to communicate with her.

She lives alone with her son in a tiny log house on the outskirts of our city, doing the daily chores of fetching water from the pump, cutting firewood, and cooking, on top of caring for her disabled son. They have next to nothing. The only food I saw was a few strips of meat drying on a string and a few small onions for food. The only furniture in their home is a small cabinet, a wood-burning stove, a couch, a mattress on the floor, and a small table. Yet, the love in the house was dense and palpable. The only thing I could think as I stood there was how such a beautiful story - wrought with barren sacrifice and endurance - was in a way a mirror that showed me how imperfectly I love.

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I've been listening to some online classes in preparation for seminary next year and one of the professors made an illuminating observation in the class I listened to yesterday.

He said that there seems to be a pattern throughout the history of the church that is particularly evident in the early church and around the time of the Reformation.

First, there is a synthesis between Christianity and paganism that captures the attention of the church.  In the early church this was Origen and leading up to the Reformation it was Aquinas.  

Then, because of the syncretism a heresy springs out of it.  Because of Origen's flawed view of the Trinity, that Jesus derives His being from the Father, the heresy of Arianism not only sprang up but was accepted by the vast majority of the Roman Empire.  Because of Aquinas' combination of Greek philosophy and Christian theology and elevation of natural reason to the same level as Scripture, this strengthened the Catholic belief that church tradition and scripture were equal, and what came out of that was someone and a situation like Tetzel who, on the authority of the Rome, sold indulgences (or salvation) to people - trading what is only the work of God for money.

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Even though I really wanted to play drums as a kid my parents, being put in a position of choosing between the lesser of two evils, opted to go with the honking of a saxophone.  Yes, I played the saxophone.  The problem is you can't rock with a saxophone, so I would set up boxes and pans in the garage and drum along to Metallica's self-titled "Black Album".  The problem is, again, you can't rock with cardboard.

I came across this video of the Foo Fighters playing "Everlong" on Letterman in 1997.  You'll have to excuse the red leather jacket, weird sweater, and bleached blonde hair, but once you're past that watch the drummer, Taylor Hawkins.  It'll make you want to play drums...even if you have to find a few boxes instead.

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