Just this last weekend I turned 27.  I know that does not seem old, and really it is not, however in my short lifetime it seems aged.  I am nearing my ten year high school reunion and we are about to have our second child, it seems a mile from when I graduated almost ten years ago.  Every birthday brings with it some retrospection and reflection of where I have been and where I am going, that seems only natural.  As I near 30, the where I am going seems to have more urgency as I look back on what I wanted to do and what I have not accomplished yet to this point.  This certainly wasn’t how I wrote it up, although parts have come together nicely, such as being married and having kids and purchasing a house by 25.  There are still pieces missing, empty feelings of failure and dissatisfaction.  Some of that seems to be a personal complex brewing, but some of it seems to be honest shortcomings.

There is part of me that knows that I should focus more on the things I do have and the amazing blessings I have been given, and I get that.  Also, I am mindful that Christ warns us against planning too far and focusing too much on the future, and I get that.  I just feel as if there is something more I am meant to do or be and can’t see how it all melds together.  Youth I suppose.  I am at a crossroads.  Do I accept the life I am currently living or do I take steps to shake things up and better life for those around me, even if it means some time of discomfort.

I have been looking into going back to school to get a Master’s of Divinity, with the idea to continue through to the Doctorate level and eventually teach at the University level.  Along with that end goal, I would be participating in ministry all along the way.  However, there are several things my family would have to give up along the way.  We would have to downsize our way of living, try to sell our house, move further away from family, and certainly become less financially stable and comfortable.  It would be an entire shift in our lifestyle.  The student loans would pile up beyond belief and be almost impossible to ever pay back, unless Obama passes his new student loan legislation, which you can take that however you would like.  Let’s not forget two young children two and under.  There are so many angles to this that they are overwhelming and it is easy to just stay put and be comfortable or at least more comfortable.

On the other side, should monetary comfort and a simpler life be the main factor?  Should closeness to family be the main factor?  Should fear and doubt be the main factor?  It would seem in all of this that God be the main factor.  Trying to find His answer in all of this has been the hardest part of it all.  There are so many principles and teachings that go both ways that is becomes hard to decipher.  The concept of giving it up for Him sounds wonderful and leading a life in service to Him and working for Him and His Church as my main focus everyday seems amazing.  It would seem to be what we all should do on the surface.  Then I am mindful we all serve different roles and is this my role, is it the role for my wife and our children, is it what we are meant to be doing.  Am I ready?  Will I ever really be ready?  Does the fear of public speaking keep me at bay or do I cope and deal with that as I once did in debate?  I am just laying this out here because I don’t have the answer, prayer is pulling me both ways as well.

There is what my family calls the ‘itch’ and maybe that has come to play.  The need for movement, change and new direction.  As my Dad said though, “Are you meant to scratch it?”…I don’t know.

Careening through this gentle journey
The calming water guiding us home
Progressing forward without warning
Unaware of the coming doom

Light gives way to enclosing darkness
The waves bellow as they batter our vessel
Sudden terror encapsulates our consciousness
All will be lost if this storm prevails

Shaken and shattered we seek shelter
Shelter that can bring solace to the storm
Bruised, we reach out our trembling hands
Extended beyond the broken frame that we now reside

Will there be relief?
Will there be rescue?
Will there be recovery?
Will there be restitution?

The storm continues to ravage our lives
We wait; we listen for a voice of hope
Where will he lead us?
What is his plan?

Resting in reliance to his reward
Torn, tumultuously down in humility and grief
There seems no other answer
No other escape, but to the Lord

Distance separates us from embrace
Emptiness eludes us joining hands
The gap too vast to fill so quickly
Our turn, coming seemingly too late

Lord, guide and rescue our vessel
Keep watch and care over our journey
Give us grace and mercy, though undeserved
Return us to your secure resting place

This journey can only continue with your guidance
Our reliance can only be placed in you
Forgive our wandering, inattentive hearts
Lord, rescue us from this looming turmoil

You will be our light in this darkness
You will be our saving grace
You will be our calming water
You will be our savior

I find it overly humorous and equally frustrating that both the rooted traditionalists and the progressive brethren in the churches are fearful and seem to have a disposition towards the Restoration Movement and the very mention of such movement.  I find in humor this common thread that does bind them together though they pull the church apart with their bickering.

Maybe it is the simplicity surrounding the movement, or maybe it is the consent and complacency to be at heart a denomination, I am unsure.  After all if their goal was to be simply Christian than what would they have to fear from each other, or to work with one another?  Or maybe, the movement calls out their baseless traditions and at the same time preaches simplicity and a common base that ruffles progressives who wish to extend their musical passions.

No matter the reason, unity suffers.  No matter the reason, the church suffers.  No matter the reason, Christ suffers.  So whether you need to lay your traditions at Jesus feet, or whether you need to lay your personal preferences at Jesus feet, until they are laid down neither is fully focused on the vision of Christ.  Let’s turn our focus to Christ, not our worship styles, our traditions, our in-fighting, even if we differ there is no excuse for not being able to be civilized and truly work towards Christ’s goal to be one in Christ.

Are we really one if we acknowledge we co-exist, but really never break bread together.  Whether you have a praise team, or you whole heartedly are against praise teams, whether you have a Christmas Play or you don’t have a Christmas Play….does this really mean you can’t talk to one another, that you can’t eat a meal together, does it even me you can’t worship together.  We disagree with those that live their lives in sin everyday, yet we are able to civilize ourselves to talk to them, why then can’t we find the time or means to talk to our fellow brothers?

Thomas Campbell and the Principles He Promulgated

H. L. Willett, Chicago, Ill.

However, when one turns to ask what was the essence of his message, the answer must be given in clear and emphatic form. Mr. Campbell did not concern himself with a variety of interests. “Principles” is not a word that defines his statements. He held to one principle and to one alone–the union of God’s people. To that one theme he devoted his life; he lived for nothing else. No really first-rank interpreter of God has ever had more than one commanding truth to proclaim. It was so of all the prophets. It was so of Christ. Men of the second rank can concern themselves with various ideas; the great prophets know but one. Thomas Campbell shared the fundamental convictions of his age and ours on the essentials of the faith. But the one principle which absorbed him and claimed his life, was the truth that the church is ideally one, and ought to realize that unity in actual and visible experience. To him this was the most outstanding and impressive fact in all the range of the church’s life. Others might devote themselves to different tasks. But as for himself, and all who were minded to stand with him, this was the supreme need and duty. He was keenly sensitive of this crying necessity of the time. It haunted his soul like a prophetic burden. The waste places of Jerusalem, where the debris of sectarian strife lay scattered and obstructive, filled him with as profound a sorrow as Nehemiah felt in his night circuit of the city. With that same restorer, he might have cried, “Why should I not mourn when the city of my fathers lieth desolate, and its gates are burned with fire?” His hope and passion was the restoration of its undivided glory. The beauty of that vision allured him. The music of the reunited church already filled his soul. Though as yet a choir invisible, its anthem floated to him as if a door in heaven were left ajar and cherubim were singing. To the realization of this hope he devoted all his energies through the lengthening years of his life.

Have we lost the priniple of unity, the burden that Thomas Campbell himself felt?  We must find a way to recreate this passion, this internal burden in Christ’s church today.  There was a reason for Thomas Campbell to restore, and we are creating more reasons for a new restoration as we stray further from the principles of being simply Christian.  It is time to refocus, restore and seek Christian unity by allowing ourselves to be burdened by this plea.

As someone that has grown up in the “Church of Christ” I was taught and received an education in the Bible that by all accounts was amazing.  Lots of credit to my mom, dad and Bible Bowl.  I also have studied the Restoration Movement and understand what the goals and reasons for restoration were and how the “Church of Christ” came to be.  I believe earnestly in those goals and appeals and think there was a reason that they yielded such an important movement in Christianity.    But, do we care anymore?  Do you care how the churches around your region are doing?  Are you rooting for or against them?  Are they the joke in the room, or the dirty step child?  At least liberal and conservative churches do have something in common,  they equally isolate and criticize.

I have seen and heard, as I am sure you have, of individual quarrels that cross decades being a hindrence between neighboring congregations.  The obvious Biblical contradictions to this behaviour are infinite.  We are quick to label this church this and this church that.  Do we care about the Biblical principles we read and take seriously their action?

I write this, not simply to heap on criticism but to call on those that read this, though that stretch is not far, to shift direction.  Be more open, be more concerned, reach out, don’t focus on the differences but rather hone in on the focus of Christ.  No one wants to share in our civil wars or bickering, it brings no one to Christ and certainly does not give them an example of Christ in our lives or that of our Church.  There are reasons we no longer grow and it has nothing to do with this or that it has to do with our example of Christ.

Gathering of localities and churches started this movement and revivals allowed the simplicity of being a follower of Christ to show through.  We have mucked it up with our own traditionalism, progression, ego’s etc.  We must now turn around and restore what has always been there, Christ’s Church.

Battered by draining thought
Minutes of physicality wasting away
The ever pressing loss
The ever pressing reality

I collapse, an empty shell
An outer coating of a man
Internally vacant
Internally empty

Hope escapes me
Anger rides me
Defeated I lie
Defeated I die

Lift me from my grave
Position me with your hands
Pull me from the water
Pull me from the darkness

Make your victory in me
Battle the evil within
Shelter me from the pain
Shelter me from the decomposition

I rest here broken
Embattled and fatigued
Losing my will
Losing my being

Reverse my course
Steady my hand
Revitalize my mind
Revive me

I was having a discussion the other day on the unity of the Churches of Christ and it is really ironically funny. We are a movement that grows out of the ‘essentials of salvation’, and we are all pretty much in agreement with those, ‘essentials’.  Yet we remain divided.  We are in unity in thought on the important aspects of the Bible and our salvation, yet we still are not unified.  How absurd.

When do we get over ourselves?  I am not favoring any positions, or on the sides of liberals or conservatives, but is it possible that Christians really could be just Christians.  These are the thoughts that moved the Restoration Movement and have escaped us today.  Maybe I find it hard to answer, ‘Where should I go to church?’, because I shouldn’t have to even answer that question.  I have heard the sides argue their positions, I have even been in the arguments, I once even chose a side (traditionalist).

I think relying on the ‘essentials’, embracing respect, and having an ability to have the Church not be about you really would go a long way in solving things.  Let’s be just Christians, rooted in the ‘essentials’, and learn to really love our brothers and sisters before ourselves.  Just because we have an opinion and we think we are right does not mean we NEED to always have our own way and voice it.  Unify in Christ, he demands it.

In getting back with the point of the blog, here is the latest post.  In my daily reading, I came across this piece of writing by Robert H. Boll, from his essays titled, Truth and Grace.  In my studying, and many others I have talked to, there is always a quest to find the truth from God’s Word.  As we look around at how sectioned off Christianity has become, one must ask…How are there so many separate truths?  I also know it to be unfashionable these days to say there is a right and a wrong, but there are some that are just plain wrong.  As with most of the things I have looked at we need to learn to filter ourselves out of what we are reading.  As humans we have the ability to justify and twist things to see them how we wish, but that is certainly not the purpose of the Word being revealed to us.  We must not be afraid to hear the Word of God, but we must be careful not to make it into the Words of man….

PROGRESS IN THE TRUTH.

We must not digress, but we must progress. We must not overstep the bounds of God’s word, but we must go on in it. We must not abandon the first principles but leave them as the mason leaves the foundation and goes on to perfect the building of the house. To the man who comes to seek, it will continually reveal new truths and new light on old truths. But if one goes on the preconception that he has about the sum of the truth already, and studies the he Bible in that light, it will yield him nothing. He will be hardened and blinded and become a sectarian though he may never have a written creed. The unwritten can become just as contracted, unscriptural, tyrannical. As one of our beloved and venerable brethren sometimes says in the pulpit: “We are not right, but the Bible is right.” So it is ours to go to God’s word daily, with open eyes and ears and hearts and in poverty of spirit, not to confirm our ideas, but to get God’s. One of the first results will be the sense of unbounded riches and privileges of which we have never availed ourselves. Another effect will be to humble us and to take some of the censoriousness and self-conceit, with which we are always apt to be afflicted, out of us.

Robert H. Boll
Truth and Grace (1917)

Let me first preface this by saying I am very legalistic and analytical in nature.  The science behind things and the reasons why I do something are essential for me to make sense of my doing it.  Prayer is one of those funny things that does not fit nicely into the realm of logic.  I am praying to someone who already knows what I am thinking.  It would seem that I am repeating what God already knows.  So why do it?

Being so scientific in nature I struggle often with several issues of faith and the surreal nature of God and our being.  For some reason I have always ‘bought’ into prayer and have rarely questioned its importance in my life.  I guess I have always felt the necessity of its purpose in my life.  For me it was always easy to break down the science or logic behind it.

1. If I don’t communicate with someone closest to me then our relationship fizzles out. It is true with the humans around me and being human it results in my relationship with God.

2. Though God may know what I am thinking, prayer is reflective in helping me find what I am thinking in a manner that is focused on Him.

3. It sets up a discipline of time management for God. Much like Daniel in the Old Testament, it is a constant reminder of where I belong and who I belong too. It makes sure that my purpose does not get lost throughout my day.

4. There is no doubt in my mind that it has improved mine and improves others critical thinking skills in making decisions both large and small. The spirit will aid and guide, but we must be willing to take the time to reflect and lead.

5. Faith grows stronger through obedience, and also we must trust the way the Father has established communication is the best way in which to communicate. The Israelite’s didn’t always understand the reasons why they were doing certain things, but science has shown us through time that many of the commands were established based on health, welfare and spirituality. Prayer brings trust and obedience, and as studies have shown also greater health, longer life and happiness.

Prayer is an essential part of our Christian walk.  It is essential to those who have a faith driven by feeling and emotion and it is also essential to those that are driven by reason and logic.  There is a purpose for prayer in any one’s life.  Find the purpose for prayer.

This is an excerpt from a Restoration Minister, James Zachary Tyler, whose father was John W. Tyler an early Restoration Minister and from the lineage of President John Tyler (10th).  To read the entire sermon see the link in the Historical Resources section to the right.  Here is a section on obedience and faith.  I found it to be a good reminder that we are not the ones making or creating the pathway but rather our faith is shown by our obedience to the pathway that has already been established.

THE MANIFESTATION OF FAITH

By J. Z. TYLER

4. Faith endeavors to do everything God commands, and to do it exactly as God commands it to be done. This is an important feature of genuine faith. When faith affirms that the will of God is the highest law possible, it teaches, at the same time, by necessary implication at least, that there is no other power or authority in heaven or upon earth which can excuse us from obedience to that will as it is expressed in the very least of all his commandments. If God’s will is supreme and universal law, then, that will, so far as revealed to us, must be supreme law to us, in matters both great and small. If he has right to command that anything be done, then, clearly, he has right to tell exactly how it shall be done, and if he condescends to give the details of the manner in which it shall be done, then faith will, with the same diligence and energy, seek to follow out the details and specific directions, that it employs in accomplishing the general end. Let us recur, for a moment, to the faith of Noah. He was commanded not only to build an ark, but God gave him specific directions as to its size, proportions, and the materials of which it should be made. Now, his faith is shown perhaps more in the exactness with which he followed out all the details than in his obedience to the general command to build an ark. Again, when Moses had received instructions to build the tabernacle, God said, “See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the mount.” It was, therefore, as clearly his duty to make it according to the pattern as it was to make it at all. This point must be clear. So, at least, it appears to me.

Before leaving this point, however, let me indicate one or two applications of it. First, its bearing upon the theory of essentials and non-essentials. This distinction arises, I apprehend, from a failure to draw the line accurately which marks the boundary between the province of faith and the province of reason. Reason may be employed in deciding whether God has commanded me to do a certain thing. But it cannot, without being guilty of usurpation, go further and undertake to decide whether it is essential or not, and thus decide whether it is binding or not. A strong and intelligent faith protests against such usurpation and ignores all such classifications of divine law. A second application of this point is to the popular idea of Christian charity. There is certainly great need of charity, and there is a legitimate field for its exercise. But I submit that those cases, in which God clearly tells us both what to do and how to do it, cannot properly be included in this field. In such cases there is no room left for us to be charitable, or uncharitable; liberal or illiberal. The only question is whether we will be faithful or faithless. When once it has been decided that a command has been given to us by divine authority, then whether it be great or small, apparently important or unimportant, in harmony with the dictates of reason or above reason, necessary or apparently unnecessary, a genuine and intelligent faith urges us to obey, and to perform the duty with scrupulous exactness.

Z. T. Sweeney
New Testament Christianity, Vol. II. (1926)