Not The Religious Type

So Make Some Art and Throw It into the Ring!

Three cheers for art!  At least that's what I take from our generative conversation so far this week. 

I'm charmed by Jeff's insight that maybe Protestant creative urges have gotten channeled into starting innovative churches ("that utilitarian streak").  That certainly seem true and insightful to me.

And a good deal I heard from the rest of you was that, whatever we think of the limitations of believing Protestants and art, every commentator at the very least likes good art, from whatever source.  For years I had this dream of putting together some sort of artists' center where artists of faith could encourage each other, create, maybe find some funding and some contacts, and see what might come of that.  I've never been able to pull it off, but at the very least I'd love to say to you all "Get to it!" 

This thread of posts was inspired by this arts event up here called The Lydia Fair.  It was a big, sprawling, multi-disciplinary festival loosely organized around two justice-related causes: ending sex trafficking and helping rebuild war-torn countries.  So, yes, it was pretty eclectic, but it also struck me as having a unique contribution to make that really couldn't have come from any source other than a community of faith.  A lot of art, historically, has come from this point of view and really couldn't have come any other way. 

So, just to say, I do think you all have a contribution to make from whatever your discipline.  If you have ideas for ways we can help and encourage each other as we try to create and toss our work out into the larger marketplace, I'm all ears.  But it does seem to me that this is particularly on point in a blog like this, which talks about faith and secular culture connecting.  Art, it seems to me, is a great--and maybe irreducible--way for this to happen.

If I can bloviate for just one more moment on this subject, I wonder if it's because a good deal of what art is is metaphor.  The artist finds metaphorical ways to paint the picture of the world they're inviting us to explore.  I'm pretty confident Tolkien, for example, never actually visited Middle Earth.  But he threw out a metaphor to invite us into a world he did care about.  Again (back to our Protestant point), some religious traditions aren't excited about metaphor, which might be a limiiting factor in terms of art.  But you, dear reader (and commenter), aren't that person.  So offer your metaphors and let's see what we all learn! 

I'd love, of course, any comments at all that you have on this.  And I'd certainly, again, love any suggestions for how we can help each other in this enterprise.

Why Have Protestants Had Such Trouble Creating Lasting Art?

Thanks everyone for your comments from yesterday's post about art.  My current favorite, among many great comments, is timmy_neutron's:

But why do Catholics make the the good stuff and Protestants don't seem to? Maybe it's because they've been at it longer: remember, Catholics originated the whole idea of bad church drama with morality plays back in the Middle Ages, so maybe it's just a phase that takes a few centuries to work itself out.

Now there's a theory I hadn't considered!

I'd love to keep the conversation going just a bit today, if only because it so strongly interests me.  Several of you have particular interests in this conversation as it relates to music.  Maybe we can specifically touch on that in a later post. 

That said, I, for instance, agree with timmy_neutron about Dogma, but it' s news to me that Kevin Smith is a believing Catholic.  He strikes me as a secularist with a Catholic upbringing, but perhaps I'm ill-informed.  I was also surprised that timmy_neutron catalogued Mel Gibson among the Protestants--unless I'm ill-informed here as well, he's part of a renegade Catholic sect.  (And, for what it's worth, I disagree with timmy_n here.  The Passion of the Christ strikes me as having many of the best qualities of the art I'm lobbying for here, and precisely because of its Catholic inclinations.) 

For all my criticisms of Protestant attempts at art, I'm actually not, so far as I'm understanding, in Peter B's camp that the only appropriate approach to art is the agenda-free joy of creation.  All the artists I listed in the "good" camp of things yesterday: Hugo, Dostoevsky, Lewis, Tolkien, O'Connor and on and on (even Evelyn Waugh with his post-conversion-to-Catholicism novel Brideshead Revisited) had strong agendas.  They had a point of view that meant a lot to them.  Without that, I don't think they could have become the artists they did. 

So, to my mind, it's not the existence of an agenda that's the problem.  It's the kind of agenda.

So, say, you could argue that what kills art is utilitarianism, and that Protestantism—with lots of good things as a result—is arguably all about utilitarianism.  Protestant heroes (without exception?) are all preachers or missionaries.  They’re Billy Graham or Dwight Moody or Hudson Taylor or Jonathan Edwards or Amy Carmichael, and God bless each of them!  My only point here is that they’re all about “the Word.”  Their job was to communicate the truth of God as best and as directly as they could.

But we get Catholic heroes that don’t have such clear numerical impact, like Mother Teresa or Joan of Arc or St. Francis.  They’re venerated by a people who believe not just in “word,” but also in sacrament.

Mother Teresa famously described her work, which was all-but unjustifiable to pragmatists (so she hugs a few dying people; they’ll still die soon and they number maybe a few hundred in a city with tens of thousands of dying people on its streets), as “something beautiful for God,” which is not a bad definition of sacrament.  Sacraments don’t act directly.  We’re changed by taking communion but, literally, God knows how.

So this would speak to, say, the Left Behind series.  On its own terms, it was a smash hit.  On classic "art" terms, it's a non-sequitor.

(A friend adds the insight that high church traditions are typically much more comfortable with incarnation than Protestants are, meaning that they're more comfortable with spirituality coexisting with the body.  In a similar way, this could make them more hospitable to art, which is often visceral, rather than cerebral.  Artists often struggle with temptations of the body—out-of-control sexuality, substance abuse and so on—which, at the least, tells us that artists tend to be very much in touch with incarnation.)

In that sense, the enemy of art is propaganda, the very thing that evangelials are tempted most to want from their artists.  The artists that are most venerated are “uncompromising” in their presentation of the gospel.  Or less-direct evangelical artists are still congratulated for subtly “slipping in the gospel” to their work.

Yet how many of us really want to see a movie made by an evangelical or Muslim or gay or anti-gay or abortion or anti-abortion activist with the only goal of the piece being to convert us to their agenda?  To me, this is one of the great flaws of maybe the most famous song by a songwriter who was often an artist as well, John Lennon’s “Imagine.”  He’s talented, but this is leftist, atheistic propaganda.  I’m not persuaded we need a Christian “Imagine,” but we could do worse than a Christian “A Day in the Life.”


Now this is all a fine line!  Did Hugo's politics, which made their way into Les Miserables, qualify as "propaganda"?  And clearly The Passion of the Christ has a spiritual agenda and yet somehow it's not propaganda?  Well…touché.  But, with all the ambiguity, I still feel like I’m onto something.  What do you think?  Does this distinction, however halting, do us any good in thinking about art and whatever contribution it might make to our larger world?

 

What the World Needs Now is…Art?

Thanks for those of you who commented on the interview with John Loftus.  Yes, he complained afterwards about the clear bias against him from the hosts, and he certainly had a point.  I have not listened to the interview, but as I was doing it I’m remembering a question about “Show me one great atheist community or one great atheist who seems like a good person” or something to that effect.  That seemed particularly like a no-win for him.  I gave thought to jumping in on his behalf in the interview itself, but that seemed like it would do more harm than good.  That said, with all its limitations, hey, it was still an interesting opportunity for a conversation that doesn’t often happen.

Quick link to the front page of today’s New York Times that seems relevant to our conversation here.  Headline: More Atheists Shout It From the Rooftops.

As many of you know, I was a playwright in the general San Francisco theatre scene for a few years, and I continue to tinker with novels.  I’ve had this theory that a key approach to the goals of this blog might well come from a flood of art from this perspective.  The key is that it would be art directed to the general market, not to the Christian submarket.

I’m not alone in that dream.  There are Christian groups dedicated to this idea all over the place, certainly in Hollywood.  And yet it still seems to be a remarkably difficult objective to actually accomplish—not least from me!  (I’m a busy beaver at work on a novel that my agent has kindly done her best to help me craft, given her read on what I have to contribute to the larger marketplace.  So, as always, we’ll see.) 

I’d love to toss out a few posts on this subject, as I’ve given it a little thought over the years.

Can I begin by throwing out the possibly controversial thought that the only models we have for this are Orthodox believers, Catholics, or their near-neighbors, Anglicans.  Protestants—I’m sure I’m speaking FAR too definitively here, but for the sake of the point—have produced no storytelling (I’ll limit my comments here to movies, novels and plays) of the kind I’m talking about, the kind that the general literary world regard as having made a lasting contribution.  And I’m talking ever, from the Reformation forward. 

The heroes of this point might include Hugo, Dostoevsky (late in his career—earlier the atheists could claim him, dang them), Tolkien, Lewis, O’Connor, Milton, Tolstoy.  The big sellers in Protestantism: The Left Behind series.  Perhaps The Shack.  (And I am NOT ripping The Shack in any way.  I’ve actually had the great good fortune to speak with Wm. Paul Young, who seems like the greatest guy ever, and has actually read and praised Not the Religious Type.  I only bring it up to suggest he has a different objective in his writing than the list of authors we started with.) 

Protestantism has actually seemed to ruin a writer or two.  Steinbeck, say, converted not long after writing The Grapes of Wrath.  His first post-conversion book: East of Eden.  Also a big, ambitious best-seller that many of my friends really like.  But, to my mind, he went from high art to something, let’s say, less than that, and the problems in his later work are directly attributable to his conversion.  (In a word, on the terms of this blog, he went from Stage 3 to Stage 2.)

I have, as you’d guess, some theories on why this is so.  But before getting to that, talk to me.  Do you have any hopes for how art might factor into whatever hopes we have for what faith might offer the wider world?  Do you share my feelings about the lack of contribution from Protestantism in this area?  If so, do you have any theories about why that’s so?

Dave and John Loftus on the Radio

The interview that now seems ancient with John Loftus and me is now available online.  Click here to listen.  For those of you newer to this blog, John is a former pastor who now promotes atheism on his blog Debunking Christianity and is the author of Why I Became an Atheist.  John and I were interviewed together on a radio show called "The Things that Matter Most" with the angle "ex-pastor turned atheist talks with ex-atheist turned pastor."  In the run-up to the interview, John and I visited each others' blogs and we each had a number of posts about the other's point of view.

All to say, if you're interested, take a listen and let us know your thoughts.

Stage 4 Faith and the Bystander Effect/ by Steven Hamilton (Baltimore, MD)

I was talking to my wife Chaundra about this article ("The Impassive Bystander - Someone Is Hurt, in Need of Compassion. Is It Human Instinct to Do Nothing?") from the Washington Post a while back.  Click on the link and take a few minutes to read the article and watch the two short videos.  I’ll wait here.  


WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS GRAPHIC AND DISTURBING.
…that is some utterly disturbing stuff, is it not?  Not just what it says, or what it shows (in the two video clips), but especially disturbing are the implications of the "bystander effect" as explained by sociologists and psychologists:

"Sociologists and psychologists have long studied what is known as bystander behavior. They say people are often unsure how to react to such events because they have difficulty processing what they are seeing. Witnesses to tragedy, especially when events are uncertain, often look around first. If no one else is moving, individuals have a tendency to mimic the unmoving crowd. Although we might think otherwise, most of us would not have behaved much differently from the people we see in these recent videos, experts say. Deep inside, we are herd animals, conformists. We care deeply what other people are doing and what they think of us. The classic story of conformist behavior can be found in the 1964 case of Kitty Genovese, the 28-year-old bar manager who was slain by a man who raped and stabbed her for about half an hour as neighbors in a New York neighborhood looked on. No one opened a door for her. No one ran into the street to intervene."

I suppose this shouldn't shock me so much in our day and age, but it really shakes me up (especially the video of the woman at the hospital, but equally the guy in Connecticut being run down)...where have all the good Samaritans gone?  Does fear and distraction dominate our lives so much...where is our responsive gut-wrenching compassion in all this?  Has our current living so fueled us with fear that we cannot respond? 

As we were wrestling with our own reaction to all this, my utterly honest Stage-4 faith wife said:

"Where are the good Samaritans? We're afraid. Thanks to the media, we are bred to fear everyone. We're self-centered. We would stop but we just don't have time. Someone else will.  We've taken this whole rugged individual, consumer thing too far. Trouble is, I am just as bad as the next person. I would love to stop and help the homeless person or the person in crisis, but first must consider the safety of my children and my possessions (my possessions to a lesser extent but still there, if I am honest). It makes me think that we, as parents, need to seriously consider how we purposefully sow into our children’s lives an attitude of selflessness modeled for them no matter what stage of faith they currently swim in. Yet how do we model? That means more than any words we can speak. It needs to be something they can see or experience. It's wonderful that you (me, that is Steven) are doing the anti- human trafficking ministry thing, but to the kids it's just something you do at meetings with grown ups and on the computer. It doesn't impact them very much. (Not that I am picking on that)…"

 

Truly I agree with Chaundra and what I think she was getting at has something to do with actually trying to be like Jesus; it also caused me to pause and to see how it relates to what we have been calling here Stage 4 faith.  

I think at one time or another along the journey of our Stage 4 Faith conversation, we have danced within distance of speaking of this mystical stage as a deeper, perhaps richer, connection to God, more comfortable with questions and uncertainty; or as our centered-set sages would say: moving toward Jesus steadily.  Certainly this mystical stance, this "reflective" or "contemplative" perspective of Stage 4 faith just might make us more present in a world filled with distractions.  Maybe words like "contemplative" are too loaded...too monastic...too religious? 

But from my limited exploration, psychologically, "contemplation" is traditionally seen as immediate, kind of grounded in the here-and-now. Thoughts and plans for the future and memories of the past can happen in contemplative-living, but they don't take one's attention away from one's desire for God or the needs of the situation at hand. Plans and memories, like thoughts, feelings and sense perceptions, are simply part of what is happening in the moment.  Yet in the moment we are still somehow more fully present.  And if we are more present, perhaps we can be more available when weird, tragic, or extreme situations arise and everyone else is paralyzed with the "bystander effect". 

Is it too much to say that the consequence of all this connection to God might make us less self-centered...more other-centered?  This is where I think the connection between how we respond to a crisis and Stage 4-mystical-type faith pushes us beyond the "bystander effect".   What do you think?    Are most “Good Samaritans” also good “Stage 4-ers”?  Or maybe to say that a little differently: can Stage 4 faith help us to overcome the “bystander effect” and respond as a good Samaritan?  How do we encourage and instruct/guide/help children and others to be and act like the good “Stage 4 Faith” person of Jesus’ “Good Samaritan” story?   Can you see other Stage 4 faith issues in this “bystander effect”?

 

 

Let's Talk about Sin!

On occasion, folks wonder where it is that the classic religious idea of “sin” comes up in the sort of conversation we have here.  On the one hand, this is a bounded vs. centered set thing.  (Note the brief video on this in the “videos” section, above.)  Bounded set, by definition, is all about sin—it’s what keeps people out of the set, so of course that would be the first question posed to folks shooting for the other way of thinking.  (“Sin,” in the centered-set framework, would be anything one does that prevents one from pointing at the center—Jesus or God, depending on your preference.  Sin is less a problem morally—it’s not about being a bad person.  It’s a problem functionally—we can’t be happy and experience God when we’re turned away from God.) 

That said—ooh!  Ooh!—I wonder if there’s one classic sin that is best addressed as we talk about here.  Maybe it’s only possible to address in the way we talk about here.  And it’s a biggie; it’s the perfect misery-maker.

I submit to you the humble sin of envy.

A good deal of American Protestantism, having its roots in Puritanism, focuses on two things: “taking our sins seriously” (can we call this “moral improvement”?) and hard work.  It seems to me that this breeds a particular form of misery, for all its virtues. 

All faith traditions, rightly, focus on holiness.  And there’s nothing wrong with the American innovation of getting ahead somehow tying into godliness.  But it seems to me there’s something uniquely American about how we focus on our shortcomings, which is the basis of that most American industry: self-help.  “I’m so (just to pick one) fat!” The way we can draw that conclusion is that we have a standard: “I know other people who aren’t fat.  Why can’t I be like them?”  And the reason we can’t be like them boils down either to our own faults or the lack of our own faults (genetics, say).  (One of my favorite Oscar jokes ever: Steve Martin, when introducing, if I’m remembering, the super-handsome, super-young Gael García Bernal.  “I would do anything to look like him - except exercise and eat right.”) 

Of course there’s a lot to be said about owning our own sins and shortcomings and resolutely addressing them.  And there’s nothing wrong with having role models who are more successful than we are.

But more and more, in myself and others, I’m seeing the limits of this.  I’m wondering if envy is more destructive than, to use the analogy of the moment, flabbiness.  (And it’s certainly more destructive than not being as successful as we’d like.)  And I’m wondering if a lot of expressions of faith actually encourage envy, if a harsher focus on holiness ignores and inflames this one particular (major) sin.

“There is great gain in godliness with contentment,” says Paul in 1 Timothy.  Is the second part of that sentence an add-on to the first, or does actual godliness require contentment? 

To my mind, transcending envy requires a living focus on an actual, gracious, communicative God.  If our faith is most dominated by a code of conduct/godliness, I think we’re doomed to envy, and I think Puritanism gives a particular spin to this ball.

And envy does seem like distilled misery.  Because envy is a relentless focus on what God isn’t giving us.  We, of course, might blame ourselves—in the first pass—rather than God.  But it’s still all about what’s wrong with us.

I was learning about one historic holiness bunch the other day, the Keswick movement.  The teacher’s take on them, at least, was provocative: perfect holiness was achievable by giving our sins to God and believing that God has taken them, and then moving on with a happy heart.  It seems that this didn’t, as we might think, make them morally lax people: by all accounts they were as serious as anyone about holiness.  But this was their way in. 

So, are you helped by considering sin?  How so?  Do you find yourself berating yourself?  Does that help?  How do you find yourself transcending the kind of narcissism (“I’m such a loser!” or some other form) that leads to the misery of envy?

Is the recession hitting you?

Let me do a six-months-later check-in.  It was perhaps six months ago that the prospect of a serious recession hit most of our screens, and we commented on it on this blog then and a few times since.  I’m curious if you (or those you love) are feeling the effects of it in any particular way, and, if so, what you’ve learned as you’ve responded to it. 

On the one hand, our family still has food on the table and our church still stands.  On the other hand, our one significant investment in the market—college funds for our kids—got hit as hard as the rest of the market.  One day I found myself praying and saying to God, “Well, there are worse things than not being able to go to a relatively expensive college…or, if it gets worse, to college at all.  You’ve done great things through many people who haven’t been to college.” And I felt God interrupt me to suggest a different formulation, namely that I invite God personally to send my kids to their ideal college—or lack thereof—and let God sort out the means by which that could happen. 

That helped me understand yet again the trickiness of my experience of faith.  Oh yes, I thought, I’m depending on God for all things, including my kids’ futures.  When their college funds were heftier, evidently my faith could drift that direction.  When the funds are leaner, that option falters. 

This week’s Time Magazine includes lots of interviews with folks about their experience of the recession, and it throws lots of poll numbers our way about how Americans are thinking about it.  Their summary article ends on a surprisingly graceful note.

No one wishes for hardship. But as we pick through the economic rubble, we may find that our riches have buried our treasures. Money does not buy happiness; Scripture asserts this, research confirms it. Once you reach the median level of income, roughly $50,000 a year, wealth and contentment go their separate ways, and studies find that a millionaire is no more likely to be happy than someone earning one-twentieth as much. Now a third of people polled say they are spending more time with family and friends, and nearly four times as many people say their relations with their kids have gotten better during this crisis than say they have gotten worse.

A consumer culture invites us to want more than we can ever have; a culture of thrift invites us to be grateful for whatever we can get. So we pass the time by tending our gardens and patching our safety nets and debating whether, years from now, this season will be remembered for what we lost, or all that we found.

Have you been learning things during this recession?

You--Yes You--Have a Culture/ Jeff Heidkamp (Minneapolis, MN)

Welcome back, guest posters!  (And you, dear reader, could be one of those yourself!  Get busy with those guest posts!)  As I read Jeff's essay, I'm reminded of this classic moment in the great 80s romantic comedy, Moonstruck.  Olympia Dukakis plays Rose, the mother of Cher's lead character.  Rose's husband, Cosmo, has been cheating on her for years.  One day Rose accepts a date from a man who's trying to cheat with her, but her only interest in the date is to get his perspective on why men cheat at all.  He says he doesn't know, maybe fear of death?  She thanks him and then greets her cheating husband, upon his return home for the night, with this: "Cosmo, no matter what you do, you're still gonna die."  To which he stares at her, says, "Thank you, Rose," and goes to bed.  All to say, I read Jeff's point as saying something like, "No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you're still gonna create a culture."  Do you agree?  Should we care?

Lots of my friends like to call themselves "followers of Jesus" instead of "Christians" (we aren't the only ones: A Christian by Any Other Name).  For the most part, I am all for this distinction and tend to prefer that language myself.  The idea is that "Christianity" has more to do with "Christendom" and the negative associations included, and many of us who follow Jesus would rather not deal with this baggage.

That said, I think there is a caution to be offered here.  Let me start with a tangent and try to offer it. 

I grew up in a fundamentalist home.  I don't use the word accusingly, we called ourselves that.  There is upside and downside- loving parents, biblical information, and family that prays for you being the upside, guilt and Petra being the downside. 

I (and my family) dropped the fundamentalist label and some of the baggage (we now drink wine and listen to James Taylor at Christmas).  However, as I've been reading George Marsdens remarkable Fundamentalism and American Culture, I am amazed at how many of the beliefs I grew up with have more to do with post-civil war culture than the Bible. 

Here comes the warning- this is unavoidable.  Christianity is a culturally embedded religion.  It doesn't exist in some pure a-cultural form.  How Christianity relates to the culture around it is an enormously important question, and there are dozens of possible arrangements- Richard Niebuhr famously typologized five in Christ and Culture.

One of the great mistakes of Christendom (and, I would argue, Fundamentalism) is precisely this idea that a pure, culture-less Christianity can be distilled.  Ironically, it is this attempt to transcend culture that leads directly to insensitivity to other cultures.  If I think my Christianity is culture-less, I cannot learn to see Jesus in other cultures.

If we avoid the term "Christian" simply to avoid carrying the baggage for a few unfortunate historical accidents, more power to us.  I'll be an ex-fundamentalist trying to follow Jesus all the way to heaven.  But we should be careful to be just as critical of our own "trying to follow Jesus"-ness as we are of other historical attempts to piece together Christ and Culture.

Welcome back!

Hi gang.  I hope you’re well and that those of you who celebrated Easter had a great experience with it.  I very much enjoyed our Easter here…if only because Easter does draw a bigger crowd than the average service, so I always feel good about myself.  And which of us doesn’t need more of that?  (And, even beyond that, I had a great day and was very encouraged on multiple fronts.)

I’ve enjoyed reading the varying “faith tips” that Dan put together for the 40 Days of Faith that many of you participated in.  By all means leave whatever feedback you have about that experience.  I’m not sold that we’ve yet worked out the bugs of online 40 Days experiences, but I certainly appreciated Dan’s and other’s taking a crack at it.  (One thing I learned this year about one’s prayers during the 40 Days: Diversification is good!  I’ve always had one main prayer I’m asking God for, but Grace has always had, like, a dozen or two—for her, for our kids, for me, for her six, and so on.  So this year I went with seven, and three got answered almost immediately.  Significant things that I’d been hoping for for many months, in each case.  So, heck, I’m batting like .400!  Three cheers for diversification!)

We’ll be having some fun things coming up.  We’re still finalizing our summer conferencing, but I can tell you at least tentatively we’ve scheduled the equivalent to last year’s Center City Summit for August 13-16 here in Cambridge.  Should it all happen as planned, here is what you might experience there.  The latest working title (we do have to finalize this soon) is: CULTURE-CENTER SUMMIT: A YEARLY CONFERENCE ABOUT VIBRANT FAITH IN GREAT SECULAR PLACES.  Chris Lowney, the author of the awesome Heroic Leadership has agreed to join us.  (He was scheduled for last year, but a family crisis prevented him from coming.)  At the moment, we’re planning to spend much more time in workshop-py sessions with folks in similar circumstances (pastors, SEEK leaders, folks pursuing faith conversations, etc.).  So by all means set it aside on your calendar.  We should have more information soon.

I’ve enjoyed the great, sometimes controversial conversations we’ve had here, and I’ve had several guest submissions during the 40 days that I’ll look to run soon.  But, for today, I just wanted to check back in with you all.  I’m looking forward to resuming our blog!

God and the Nations -- A Daily Bible Guide. (Bonus #2)

Revelation 21:9-22:5
 ⁹ One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb." ¹⁰ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. ¹¹ It shone with the glory of God, and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal. ¹² It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel. ¹³ There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south and three on the west. ¹⁴ The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

God and the Nations -- A Daily Bible Guide. (Bonus #1)

Revelation 7:1-12
¹ After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth to prevent any wind from blowing on the land or on the sea or on any tree. ² Then I saw another angel coming up from the east, having the seal of the living God. He called out in a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm the land and the sea: ³ "Do not harm the land or the sea or the trees until we put a seal on the foreheads of the servants of our God." ⁴Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel.

40 Days of Faith Tip (Day 40! Can you believe it?)

Astonishing, right? Didn't the finish line of our 40 Days seem a million miles away? And yet here we are.

Do you know what this means? It means that we've accomplished something. We may have done it gracefully on some days and grudgingly on others, but that doesn't matter. Every prayer we offered or tossed or flung violently up to God, he heard. And he loves us. And he's working our lives for good, according to his plan. Which is better than our plan...by definition. This is no small matter. Come tomorrow, my friends, it's time to celebrate :)

I want to offer you two scenarios for how tomorrow could go, so that we can make some choices ahead of time.

God and the Nations -- A Daily Bible Guide. (Day 40)

Ephesians 3
 ¹ For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—
² Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, ³ that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. ⁴ In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, ⁵ which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. ⁶ This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

40 Days of Faith Tip (Day 39)

Christopher Greco reflects on his experiences of 40 Days of Faith.

Being a part of the 40 days of faith staff team over these 6 years has given me a unique vantage point. Not only am I tracking my own 40 days of faith prayers – for spiritual and artistic breakthroughs for myself, for the health of my family and friends, and for acquaintances who would consider themselves outside of the faith world. At the same time, I’ve watched a community mobilize in prayer – variously to raise funds for and purchase a building, to launch a non-profit to serve local youth, to seek spiritual revival in our region. I’ve heard stories of individuals from this community – both in private and as public testimonials - some of whom got amazing (and prompt!) results from their prayers, and some of whom got a heap of disappointment instead.

God and the Nations -- A Daily Bible Guide. (Day 39)

Galatians 2
¹ Then after fourteen years, I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. ² I went in response to a revelation and, meeting privately with those esteemed as leaders, I set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. I wanted to be sure I was not running and had not been running my race in vain. ³ Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. ⁴ This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. ⁵ We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.

40 Days of Faith Tip (Day 38)

Disappointment happens. It’s an undeniable truth that I found out not long into my own spiritual journey: sometimes I don’t get what I want. I may pray my heart out, I might fully commit myself to believing that God will come through for me, I might act on that faith and ask others to join me, and yet in the end all I’m left with is big questions and even bigger disappointment. But even though they’re painful, these experiences have taught me a lot about what it means to have faith, even more so than those times when everything goes right.

One of these experiences happened to me about a year ago. Now, for those of you who don’t know me: I’m an actor (mostly musical theater, although not limited to it). I had just gone to a big audition in NYC, where I got to perform in front of producers and directors for 30 or so professional theaters from around the country. It went surprisingly well, so much so that a week or so later, I received an email from a theatrical agent saying, “I enjoyed your audition, I’d like you to audition for the national tour of Altar Boyz, coming up in May.” In case you’re not a musical theater buff: Altar Boyz is a hilarious musical about a Christian boy band named, you guessed it, the Altar Boyz (with songs like “Girl, you make me wanna wait.”). I was floored – this was one of my favorite shows ever, and here I was being invited to audition for the national tour!

God and the Nations -- A Daily Bible Guide. (Day 38)

Romans 15:5-13
⁵ May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, ⁶ so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
⁷ Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. ⁸ For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God's truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed ⁹ and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:

    "Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
    I will sing the praises of your name."
  ¹⁰ Again, it says,
    "Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people."
  ¹¹ And again,
    "Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
    let all the peoples extol him."

40 Days of Faith Tip (Day 37)

In desiring God for others, Tory found herself trying to replace God in the relationship.

I find myself hoping for things for others all the time. This seems particularly applicable for the 40 days in a few ways:

• praying for your six
• praying for others in your small group
• praying for the needs of others that may come out of spiritual conversations

Let me preface by saying that I love being in close friendships and tend to be highly intuitive to the needs of my friends. That being said, I am generally quite capable of giving helpful advice and supporting my friends in many ways. I’ve found that I become very quickly connected to people and want to share in their passions and their pain. When I feel so connected to the pains and struggles of someone else I start transforming that love and empathy into a responsibility. This brings up a situation I found myself in not too long ago.

God and the Nations -- A Daily Bible Guide. (Day 37)

Romans 11: 1-27
¹ I ask then: Did God reject his people? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ² God did not reject his people, whom he foreknew. Don't you know what Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: ³ "Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me"? ⁴ And what was God's answer to him? "I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal." ⁵ So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ⁶ And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.
⁷ What then? What the people of Israel sought so earnestly they did not obtain. The elect among them did, but the others were hardened, ⁸ as it is written:

    "God gave them a spirit of stupor,
    eyes that could not see
    and ears that could not hear,
    to this very day."

40 Days of Faith Tip (Day 36)

Mary Reynolds shares a story about connecting with God through one of her six.

I was recently out with a girlfriend of mine – she’s been one of my six for the past 5 or so years.  We were talking about an issue I had been having about an ex of mine who had been haunting my dreams…. I couldn’t quite let go of him.  Over the years, I have done lots of healing prayer around that relationship.  Most recently I received great prayer from my cluster.  My friend, let’s call her “Mimi”, and I were out for coffee the other day when she asked me how things were going in that department… long story short, she mentioned that perhaps I need closure on my relationships – looking over my life (as she has heard many stories and knows me very well), she saw a pattern of relationships ending without closure.  This alone was profound and caused some tears to surface.  She proceeded to suggest that I do some sort of baptism (very cutely, she asked me what it meant, not being 100% sure herself).  Mimi thought it could be helpful to have a fresh start without him – and to do so in some sort of celebratory way.  We talked more about it – I LOVED the idea!  With God’s wisdom and strength, I asked Mimi to do the “baptism” with me right then and there (we were in my car at this point) – she was totally honored!  I prayed and declared freedom from my ex and blessings on him and his approaching marriage… Mimi piped in (she does not pray and is unsure what she thinks about “God”), “and health and happiness to you in your marriage”.  Then we each put a little water in our palm and one at a time splashed it on my forehead … wrapping it up in Jesus’ name!!  What an amazing and unique experience to share with one of my six – and it was totally her idea!!  

So in sum, my tip of the day is to keep your eyes open for ways that God speaks through your six to really honor and bless you AND them!!

God and the Nations -- A Daily Bible Guide. (Day 36)

Romans 3
¹ What advantage, then, is there in being a Jew, or what value is there in circumcision? ² Much in every way! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the very words of God.
³ What if some were unfaithful? Will their unfaithfulness nullify God's faithfulness? ⁴ Not at all! Let God be true, and every human being a liar. As it is written:
    "So that you may be proved right when you speak
    and prevail when you judge."

40 Days of Faith Tip (Day 35)

Finding God in the Midst of Suffering: Béckie Bray tells her story of being run over by a car.

I was just reading a Hallmark Card that my mom sent to my sister to help her through a tough week of studying in med school. The outside reads, "They say, 'This, too shall pass." The inside jests, "But notice how they never say when?"

Whenever we are going through more challenging times in our lives, the world says to us, "This, too, shall pass." As I hear it, I take some comfort thinking that whatever struggle I am in will finally subside, whether resolved or not, but I always have this odd feeling in my gut. It wasn't until I read the card that I realized why. God calls us to abundant life (John 10:10), not a life waiting for bad times to pass. And, the card brings up a great point -- when shall this pass? Am I to wait the majority of my life waiting for whatever ails me to pass? That sounds miserable. Instead, we should trust God through this time to bless us abundantly through our situation.

God and the Nations -- A Daily Bible Guide. (Day 35)

Acts 15:1-19
¹ Certain individuals came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." ² This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. ³ The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. ⁴ When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

40 Days of Faith Tip (Day 34)

Stephanie Acker shares her experiences of trying to foresee God's answer to prayer.

I like to pretend that I’m spontaneous, carefree and embrace the exciting prospect of a ‘world of unlimited possibilities.’ In reality that’s just not the case; I like to know how things will work out. I want to know how it all comes together. I don’t need all the specifics and concretes, but just a general picture—some assurance, understanding, a framework of sorts, for how I can expect things to go. Often times, my desire to foresee the outcome drives me to work hard to produce that outcome. 

And this strategy seems to work well in most areas of my life. For example, true to my extroverted nature, I take the initiative and happily fill most of my schedule doing all sorts of things with many different people. (P.S. If you ever want to take me out to lunch, you need to schedule it weeks in advance! ☺). So naturally I applied this strategy to the 40 Days, but it didn’t seem to work out as well.

God and the Nations -- A Daily Bible Guide. (Day 34)

Acts 13:1-3, 13-31, 38-48
 ¹ Now in the church at Antioch there were prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Simeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen (who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch) and Saul. ² While they were worshiping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, "Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them." ³ So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off . . .