the object of Jesus' heart

A little over a year and a half ago, I began a  journey to discover God's call for my life.  He brought me through an adventure that ultimately asked me to surrender everything I was holding onto other than Himself. 

 

A year and half later, I find that I am no where near figuring out where He is leading me in my career.  What I've found instead was that God was more interested drawing me toward a more intimate knowledge of His heart than in giving me the clear directions I thought He would give me. 

 

This would ultimately be how He would transform me.  Because once you see the contents of His heart, He will inevitably begin to expand yours. 

 

You see, I thought I had narrowed it down when God showed me His heart for "orphans" through His Word and asked me if I wanted in.

 

I said yes, and then He spent the rest of the year and half defining it.

 

I learned that I had signed up for something far beyond what I had originally thought. 

 

This is what I've learned. 

 

God's love is so deep and expansive that our human minds and hearts cannot contain it. 

 

I asked God to influence my work.  He said yes.  You will know me.

 

Not exactly what I thought I had signed up for. 

 

...but far better.

 

How bad do you want to know Him?  Because He will show you and it will blow your mind. 

 

^{Philippians 3:7-117} But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸ What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead."

News from Religious and Ethical Perspectives

PBS has begun a very good news program looking at religious and ethical aspects of events occurring in US and worldwide on a day-to-day basis. Please take a look. Thanks,
http://video.pbs.org/video/2042538762

Jesus

This was originally a reply to Sayak's post below, but for some reason the website won't let me comment though I tried several times :( Well... here it is:

Thanks Sayak for the long and detailed post! :) I loved reading it and I love your dedication in pursuing Truth.

It was really interesting reading about the four aspects of worldviews (I'll refer to them as The World, Ethical Ideals, History, and Life). It seems like they certainly do encompass most worldviews. I thought it was really intriguing how you noted that Christianity seemed to boil down to a single aspect, which was history as it relates to the person of Jesus (life, death, and resurrection). I feel like you are onto something deep there... after reflecting on your post, I was so encouraged because it felt like there was something new here that I learned about the whole picture of Christianity! My thought is that it isn't that Christianity is boiled down to just history and that these historical facts about Jesus are more important than all other aspects of The World, Ethical Ideals, and Life. Rather, it is that the person of Jesus encompasses all four aspects! That is, you are right that everything seems to focus and depend on Jesus. However, as compared to (what I know about) other religions, Jesus was not just a historical person who lived and died. Rather, Jesus was one with the Father at the creation of the world, came in human form to participate among us in history, and was resurrected and still living today! He is even living and active in the very hearts and lives of his followers.

The World. To me, the world consists of nature and also the reality of human existence. I feel there is a deep connection to Jesus. He said that he was there at the beginning of time and that he is one with the Father. He said that the rocks will cry out if people remain silent to praise him. His whole life's purpose seems to echo with the problem of suffering and brokenness in the world. This one's still a bit hazy with me, just a feeling...

Ethical Ideals. When Jesus came to earth, he taught about how to live and in doing so, developed a new framework of ethical ideals. Murdering is not just the act of doing so, but also thoughts of hatred. Adultery is not just the act, but the thoughts of lust. He taught about compassion for your neighbor, love for your enemies. He taught that the greatest love was to lay down your lives for others. Not only did he teach so, but he also lived an example so that we could follow him.

Life. This is probably one of the most remarkable things. In fact, Jesus encompasses the life of his believers not just because they follow his teachings, but because he is alive and living in them! He said that he will dwell in our hearts and guide us into all truth. He said that as the father has given him all authority and power, he also gives us the same. He says that through Him, we can have life. We can have love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

This whole discussion made me think of 1 Corinthians chapters 1-2. In it, Paul says that "Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power." What does he mean? Later, he says, "And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God." I think Paul is in fact talking about point 4: Life. The calling of a follower of Christ is in fact to "take up your cross and follow Him". It is only when we take up the cross in the difficulties that face us in life that we will realize that we have power. When we learn to walk the second mile, to love, and to trust; when we cry out to God to rescue us from sorrow; when we continue to follow His example in laying down our lives for others, it is then that we will see a demonstration of the Spirit and of power! These experiences allow us to build our faith on something that will not collapse when the winds and storms of life come. Paul seems to say that these are also the ones that testify to others.

I feel so glad that you posted your thoughts Sayak. I have been thinking about this general topic of 'The Cross' lately (it's going to be the next topic in IBS!) and struggling with it. I still feel like I know so little, both in the understanding, but especially in the Life of the cross. I realize that I live my Life so often without "carrying the cross". I realize that I rarely walk the second mile in my conflicts with others. I rarely respond to stress and worries with joy, thanksgiving, and trust. But praise be to Him who is our merciful and faithful high priest, who is bringing many sons to glory. I am confident that He will be working this in each of us in the following year and the rest of our lives! It will be exciting :) And we will experience more and more of the faith that rests not on wisdom, but on the Spirit and power!

View From Outside 1

For two weeks now I have been reading the book "Jesus Remembered" by James D G Dunn. Its a tome and hard going, but finally finished it. Yay!! Feeling very exhausted and satisfied, because with it the first phase of my foray into understanding the nuts and bolts of Christianity is over. So now I think its time to take a breather and reflect on the 2 years I have spent on this in company with my great friends from IBS.

In  retrospect, this task was far harder than I expected it to be. My mistake was obvious, Christianity is a religion that comes from a different culture with very different cultural assumptions and worldview. I was unfamiliar with it, or the language that is used to describe it, and that took a lot of time to understand. In contrast the eastern tradition (hinduism, buddhism, jainism, taoism) used  cultural assumptions that I understood very well and hence comprehension came rather easily.

In my mind I usually divide all worldviews (of any sort) into these parts:-
1) How the world actually is
2)The ethical ideals that support it
3) The historical events and personalities that shape it
4) The way in which the subscribers of the worldview live their lives within it.
All these aspects are either more or less important in one worldview or the other.

For example almost entirety of Atheism is spent on establishing how the world is with very little importance on anything else. Secular Humanism by contrast places great interest on ethics as well.

For example in Hinduism (1),(2),(4) are very important while in Buddhism (2) and (4) are more important than (1) . None of the Eastern traditions place much importance to historical trends believing all times are on equal footing and universe is eternal and circular. The identity and character of the discoverer is far less important than the content of the discovery.

In Christianity, for the first time I saw a worldview in which 3) The historical events are even more important than all the other put together. One personality, his life, his actions, his words and events around his life and death were considered more important than anything else that has happened before or since.

This was a problem.
 I have always been able to understand and learn from philosophical, ethical and lifestyle attitudes of different religions, cultures and people. It was a bit like cooking recipes, I imitated those that worked, modified some according to my needs, and rejected some that didn't seem to work for me.

But this was a single person. Entire Christianity seems boils down to believing that Jesus of the NT is the God and Messiah who came down, died and resurrected and believing in this leads to forgiveness of sins and salvation after death.
It was Caesar Salad made entirely of Caesar. You either like it or you don't.
This simplicity was incomprehensible, equally strange was why so much time and and so many books have been and continue to be written on the subject. The only thing that seemed relevant was to read the NT portions of the bible, establish for yourself somehow whether to accept this claim or not and you are basically done.

How to establish(or refute) this claim? I could think of three parallel tracks
1) One way was to see how my Christian friends have established this faith for themselves and how they live by it. That's where IBS was so valuable as place for discussion and sharing and friendship.
2)The other way is to see how the apologetics have tried to establish this in their books. 
3)The third way is to assess the claim through history. This was what I finished today.

It is this third part that was completed (to some satisfactory level) today. I have been thoroughly chastened from my initial presumption of simplicity. For example
1) The discussions in IBS has driven me to try to understand the nature and status of subjective experience, meaning in life and meaning of life, and psychology of self. Hard going to get the answer for the simple question "Where does faith come from?"
2)Apologetics (and counter-apologetics) have thrown everything but the kitchen sink to establish and refute each other. I remain very unimpressed by the apologies that I have read so far, but its not clear at all if that is because of the bias I already have on my part or not. I am equally unimpressed by the ostensible counter-apologetics of new Atheism, though the philosophical literature is better. Maybe I have not yet come across the right book on both sides, will keep looking.

3) History has one clear message:- go elsewhere to convince yourself whether jesus was "really" God or not. but for other information on jesus and his first disciples history has a lot to say with reasonable conviction. In the last 400 years Biblical history has every possible mistake one can think of, has been severely criticized by everyone (atheists, christians, postmodernists, positivists....). Her confidence is so completely shattered that every historian (who is not a blunt atheist or apologist Christian) writes 400 pages before coming to one small little conclusion, then another 400 pages for the next small little conclusion. But I have finally convinced myself that the conclusions of the centrist camp (I think there are 4 or 5 camps now) does have the historical credentials to stand on 2 legs . Meanwhile I have learned how history is done, how history is abused and distorted and that even for the most sensitive of issues it is possible to know about the past without falling for one partisan line or the other.

Ok this rambling is too long already. It will take a lot of time and lot of posts to verbally re-express all that I have gained in this IBS experience as a non-Christian, Hindu, atheist Indian. I do not know if you agree with how I have gone about understanding Christianity. Will be pleased to hear any suggestions.Bye for now,

sayak banerjee

He is in control...

I don’t usually share my blogs but for some reason I feel like sharing this one. Yesterday was my 10^th year anniversary in the United States. My parents and I left Sri Lanka on September 10, 2001 and our flight was scheduled to land in San Francisco on September 11, 2001. However, due to 9/11 attacks all the airports were closed, so our flight was diverted to Vancouver. We stayed in Canada for 2 days and arrived in the US on the 13^th. It was quite an experience. Many of you might already know that I grew up in the midst of civil war in Sri Lanka. Growing up in a war zone was not fun; we lived in fear everyday without knowing what will happen even the next minute. So the main reason that we decided to immigrate to the US was to escape from the war. However, our welcome to the US was not that pleasant. I remember thinking at that time, “Lord, why are you doing this to me?” But over time I realized that God was trying to show me that nothing is under my control and my job is to live everyday as it could be my last day. All I need is Him and nothing else, no matter where I live. This song from Hillsong came to mind, so I’m going to share it with you all. Praise the Lord for all his blessings in my life.

Let now your church shine as Your bride

Just wanted to share these powerful words of blessing and confession. Simply beautiful. I pray these blessings for our IBS family, and I pray that we daily sing these words of confession to our God.



Saviour King - Hillsong

Verse
Let now your church shine as Your bride
That you saw in your heart as you offered up your life
Let now the lost be welcomed home
By the saved and redeemed those adopted as your own

Pre-chorus
Let now our hearts burn with a flame
A fire consuming all for your Son's holy name
And with the heavens we declare
You are our king

Chorus
We love you Lord, we worship you
You are our God, you alone are good
You asked your Son to carry this
The heavy cross our weight of sin

I love you Lord, I worship you
Hope which was lost, now stands renewed
I give my life to honor this
The love of Christ, the savior king

afternoon meditation

I used to think we are at bare minimum when we go through difficult times. I would say things like, 'the only thing I have left is God.' But I realize now that my situation during these times is no different then when things are going well. When we are living in abundance, God is with us and His hand is in those things He has blessed us with. And when we walk through the desert, God is with us and His hand is still in control of the situation we are facing. And in time, He gives us eyes to see how He has been good to us all along. Matthew 7:25 "The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock." Let us turn our eyes to our Rock and praise Him for His steadfast goodness and love.