Slave No More

Today as I started my day with prayers and readings, I was reading through the Common Prayer: Liturgy for Ordinay Radicals and the thoughts were focused on Harriet Tubman.  She was a slave who fled north to escape the bonds of slavery prior to the Civil War on the rumor she was about to be sold to a different owner.  In her life, she made over 900 journeys into the south to gather other slaves and lead them through the Underground Railroad to Canada.  For those people she lead, she was a tangible witness of what Christ has done for us.  Christ came to the realm of slavery to show people a way to freedom.  The journey of Christ was hard and dangerous.  The difference between His journey and Mrs. Tubman's was that in the end Christ died.  No, Christ had to die to pay for our freedom.  But the life example lived by Mrs. Tubman made me think about what we as followers of Christ need and should be doing today.  

There are many people who are still enslaved.  Some of these people are true slaves (owned and sold as commodities to others).  Other people are enslaved to addictions and powers.  There are still people who need to be freed.  Yes, many are right here in the United States.  We have slaves of all types here.  So, what are we doing to show people that there is freedom in Christ?

I am sure we all can start thinking of different things people are slaves to?  For many the first might be drugs or money.  But there are some more dangerous slavery in the lives of people.  There is a slavery of self doubt.  People have such a low self esteem them a enslaved by others' onion of them.  Others have a slavery to high personal standards.  They expect so much from themselves they never see anything good they have produced or are looking at ways to produce more or better material or ideas.  All of these keep people in a situation where they are owned by some thing or someone else.  What are we doing as followers of Christ to show the freedom that comes from His sacrifice and resurrection? 

On a more personal note, what are you being owned by in your life?  What is controlling you?  If you are not being guided and led by the Holy Spirit, you are owned by something or one else.  At the root of this is the need to be ground in Christ (prayer, Bible reading, and worship).  We need the community to help us.  We need the faithful to hold us accountable.  Who is in charge and owns you?  If you cannot without a doubt say God, I hope you will find the peace that comes through learning to trust in Him with your life. 

Coching in Scripture: The Ten Commandments

A group I follow in helping me expand my out look on coaching is Coaching 4 Clergy.  Recently they have been working on offering blogs on coaching our way through Scripture.  The latest is on Lazarus.  All of their posts are great and offer some fantastic questions for us to think as we follow Jesus more closely.  To read others just check out their whole blog.  This idea of coaching through the Bible was brought again to me as I was reading my devotionals this morning.  One devotional I read is the Daily Feast: Meditation from Feasting on the Word Year B.  I use this in preparation for sermons on Sunday, but the first reading was not on this weeks topic, but on the Ten Commandments presented in Exodus.

Thee notes from the devotional talk about how the people of Israel could not refuse the Ten Commandants because God help Mt. Sinai over their heads.  This is not in any biblical tradition I have read, but it comes from interpretations of others rabbis over the years.  The giving of the Ten Commandments is celebrated in the Jewish festival of Shavuot. On the first night, a Jewsih follower is to stay up all night meditating on the Law given at Mt. Sinai. What a tremendous opening to a celebration.  How many of us would stay up all night to study scripture?

But the next part of the devotion is what reminded me of the coaching. The devotion asked: "How can the world be mended by living in response to Torah (Ten Commandments)?"  What a great question.  I think we as individuals can start a little smaller.  Here are some questions for you to think about after reading the Ten Commandments.

Which of the Ten Commandments are you following most closely now in your life?


 By Following the Ten Commandments, how much would your life be different?


Which of one of the Ten would force you to make the most changes in your life?


Which Commandment do you want to follow better in your life?


What is holding you back from following it?

I hope you will take the time to pray through these questions.  I believe God will use the answers you discover to help you follow Jesus fuller.  Let me know how the exercise works.  As always, I am willing to help you through the process.

Up Coming Events

It has been a long time since I wrote any new information on here.  I am sorry to all who might be looking for a glimmer of what is to come.  The Christmas and New Year just seemed to over take life and I am just now starting to come out of the fog of those days.  But, I would like to give some ideas some flesh and hopefully get some response through here and the linked pages.

I know over the years that there is never really a new idea.  It may be new to us and to what we are accustom to thinking and doing life.  In reality, some one some where is acting out on what we are thinking or planning right now.  For me at least that is  a great relief.  Someone has some advice for what is best practice and actions.  They might even be able to tell me some of the dangers ahead.  They may try to encourage me not to act.  They might even consider it foolish to act in certain ways, but then again nothing tried, nothing gained. 

In the boldness of nothing tried nothing gain, I want to send out a message to fellow believers that we need to stand up.  I hope some of you already have the song in your head (if you don't, ask a grey haired person, they will know the song).  But I am reading Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: living as an ordinary radical.  Shane points to the fact that we can consume large amounts of Christian information, but we don't have to really do anything with it.  We can just pump it back out to the right people.  We do not have to change our living much to be a Christian.  Is this all that there is to being a Christian?  This is the question posed by Shane and many other Christians.

I do not think that is everything it means to be a Christian.  It is the same response given by Shane in the opening pages of the book.  Christ did not call us to a knowledge.  We are called to be followers.  Every disciple called in the Gospels, Jesus tells them to follow me.  Jesus gives the same instructions to the rich young man when asking about eternal life.  Jesus tells him to sell everything and follow me. There is the problem.  What does it mean to follow Jesus?  Do we sell everything and live in a commune?  First believers did. For some it may mean selling all and following Jesus.  Others have a very different calling in their life to follow Jesus. 

First and for most, we need to move away from reading all the material we can get our hands on and read the people for insight.  Then we pray and pray and pray.  We ask questions and seek out God's movement in our lives.  We also challenge ourselves to move out of our comfort zones to see God a work in the lives of others. 

In the end, God will show us how to follow.  We must be willing to learn from Him, be a disciple (student).  If this is a journey you wish to move forward but don't know where to start, I would love to help you.  There are many other people who would love to do the same.  Seek them out.  I will be more than happy to help and give some options, but we must be willing first.

Let us follow Christ.