A Response to Mr. Bohlender

Reading Randys blog caused a response


As a part of the body reading your blog (Would you mind indulging me in a rant or 2?).....

"Around the world, in what would appear to be the most difficult places, the church flourishes. In the former Soviet block, government camp grounds are being used as revival centers. China’s believers are evangelizing and teaching new believers to live out their faith in persecution while American believers attend services that are patterned after their favorite tv shows because nothing else can hold their attention for an hour.
Why the drastic difference? Are the souls of China more resilient than American souls? Does God’s plan allow for the success of those with the difficult portion while those who are given much find very little required of them? Or are we being lulled to sleep by our own freedoms and successes? Surely we are made of the same stuff as believers worldwide – at least at the core. So how do we explain for our apparent ineptitude? I believe the answer lies in the idea of being underchurched."

I know that I have quite a bias against what I have heard called "institutional church". I really do. And this statement begins to hit closer and closer as to why. What is the main difference in testimonies of people who have been in those situations in China, Russia, under persecution etc... and America? Because it isn’t really America, it is almost really a "Western" quality.
I really believe it lies in the underpinnings of WHY the believers gather, and then secondarily "How".

In China, there is no cult of personality church. The government sponsored church is a sham. Those under persecution want Jesus. They don’t follow people or teachings or dogma. I have never heard the Watchman Nees et al claim who, or what they were involved in. They simply don’t care. They have been reduced down to their deep need of the Holy Spirit, and His ability to feed the church through whoever is available, whenever they are in need, wherever they are located.

I sound equally dogmatic. By believing we are actually "leading" other people, instead of God leading others through us, we perpetuate a systematic dependence on US and systems and experiences, and environments. We encourage people to believe and think and understand "Church" as this type of interaction, with mixed motives (usually tied to some advancement of a ministry or idea or teaching). And as they grow and develop, they pass on what they know. I have done this, I have seen it, and I hear about it almost all the time from almost every believer I know.

And the cool ones complain we are missing something. They see WHAT we are doing isn’t what they want or dream of, or what they got into this in the first place for. They claim the rug just isn’t what it should be, look like, etc... but they also don’t tend to stop and look under the rug. They aren’t willing to throw out the rug and sit on the hard floor and disinvest themselves. So they write books, make speeches, and start new ministries.

I read your blog. I love the way you write and say stuff. It is so eloquent. If I could write and speak like that, I would be so much more effective in so many ways (especially in business). But the thing that really keeps me back, retarded, and slouching around in my self indulgence isn’t how I communicate, but why and what. If I could write better, be more intense, more pointed like you, and if my motives and my thoughts and my payoff was misaligned, I would be an even more eloquent narcissist than I already am.

I think the church is constantly striving to be an eloquent narcissist. In fact the language and imagery God has used explaining it to me is so graphic I have only shared it with a few people. Lets just say most of what WE engage is primarily using HIM for self satisfaction. It is a pornographic form of spirituality that engages a false sense of intimacy that is so hyper stimulating and self indulgent that we are being slowly euthanized by the very thing we are trying to promote.

We Westerners somehow believe that once we can state the problem well, and talk it out, break it down into little pieces etc.. we will have addressed the issue. I say it is WHAT we believe the Church is, WHY the Church exisits (gathered and separate), and then eventually HOW we express it that is the real crux.

You are scratching the surface here. You see the problem. You are also one of the braver people that I know. I am curious where this is headed. I want to hear what you find out when you really look at it, and what God is telling you to do about it.

So far what He has told me is to "Learn to BE the Church before you GO to it". I have spent years detoxing. I am halfway through a painful process which I am not engaging very willfully at all of dying (started my last visit to KC) to a bunch of remnants of things that are keeping me from actually being a part of the solution. I believe I see part of the problem, but in my immense immaturity I cannot be part of the solution either. That has caused me great frustration and alienation. My own issues and baggage cloud my ability to Love as He loves, and encourage HER as HE wants to. I am stuck, and need to trudge forward. I am dry, and I think it is on purpose.

Why it is so important to understand God is not a Narcissist

It really is important to me. I am begining to realize that this is what the Church teaches, and I am in a process of detox yet again to bias and perspectives that have held on to my heart and mind like the enamel on my teeth...

This is what I am coming to:

1. God did not create us to glorify Himself.

I have come to realize this more and more. I have been taught this. I have probably added my own parts to it to overcomecertain insecurities in myself.

God created us in order to express Himself, and enjoy us. Children are an expression, a fruit of intimacy, a place to focus your love and your affections and your wonder. When they become ways for a parent to glorify themselves, it is an ugly and abusive situation.

I believe that if I as an earthly man am able to at any point simply enjoy and love my children for who they are, and enjoy the giggles and the expression and the joy of their life without projecting myself into it, truly loving them, then I am experiencing God.

2. God is not in heaven looking for someone to glorify Him.

HE DOESNT NEED IT. He doesnt need your praise, affirmation or your worship. I believe this. I doubt He even wants it. In fact, I dont even like those words, and I think they have lost their real meaning.

Even in the Bible, the sacrifices were there to communicate the Holiness of God, and to reveal the need for atonment and reconnection. God even says He didnt delight in the blood of bulls and such. He wanted obedience. Why? Not because He is a control freak. Because He is a Dad who knows the best things for His Kids. He HATES seeing us go through crap. And because He is what Holiness is, it ends up making us very scared and shame ridden, and therefore He cannot enjoy us enjoying Him.

God is Glory. He doesnt need someone appeasing Him, or magnifying Him (as if an eternal and infinite being could be magnified), or playing to His ego. It is simply a response to who He is. That is what separates our God from others. He doesnt need those things. He is not some super-man. He is not an angel, or anything else. He is already Him, all the way, wothout need for our acknolwedgement or input. But He wants to share that with us, and for us to enjoy Him, and for Him to enjoy us.

3. I do not beleive God wants to run every little aspect of our lives.

I do believe we want Him to. It would be easier. If we could continue to strive to get Him into every little facet of our life, then we would be perfect, and we could continue to blame God's Will and the enemy for every bad thing we dont like or understand. We could blameshift everything. If people reject us, it must be because they dont really "want God", or it is "the enemy" etc...

If I somehow figured out how to "surrender" every little part of my life to God, then it is all His fault whatever happenns.

I dont know how to explain this part too well, but I think I am beginning to see it. I dont want to dictate every part of my daughters lives. I want them to begin to transition into their own expression, their own thoughts and choices. Even suffer a little for them. Not to distance myself, but to let them experience the joy of their own life. The results of willful choices to the good and the bad.

I find this in hyper-charismatic groups. They are constantly on the way to tis. I do it all the time. We try and do everything we can to have God just oozing out of every pore of life. I do beleive there are seasons of visitation. I LOVE THEM. There are times of the significance of everything just becoming evident (although I find it disturbingly similar to coming on to LSD)
when the air itself is breathing with Gods purpose. That is awesome. But if that was supposed to be day to day life, we would crumble under the strain and the imbalance of it. That is heaven. This is earth.

I am not saying I am against it, just simply stating the fact that I dont want my s living in the clouds all the time. I want them day dreaming, and loving the kid next to them at school. I want them filled with awe, and reaching into their pockets for money to hand to a homeless person.

The idea that God created us knowing the world would be broken, and then asking us to constantly aspire to super spiritual living in a physical realm is bizzare. He created matter, and He lived in it. He loves my skin as much as my spirit. Love is one of His cheif attributes, not prophetic revelation. Justice and Righteousness are foundations of His throne, not metaphyical experience.

I am simply wrestling with the concept that God wants me to aspire to be some hyper-spiritualized person, in a constant mind ripping experience of Him, without the deeper and more profound aspects of who HE is coming into everyday experience. He wants me to be human. He made me that way. They are not mutually exclusive.

There are lots more things. Like how much choices are a part of life. How little God is actually in the events we experiences, and yet He is in everything we do about it. How life has enough trouble of its own without God adding it or bringing people and things into it to "teach" us something.

Basically we hear Him like we hear ourselves.
Although isnt it fun when it all mixes together????

A mountaintop

4 And Elijah appeared to them along with Moses; and they were talking with Jesus.
5 And Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah."
6 For he did not know what to answer; for they became terrified.
7 Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is My beloved Son, listen to Him!"
(NAS)


Here is my take on this from a purely pragmatic angle

Peter got to go with Jesus and see what is probably the most awesome revelation of Christ until John saw him again in Revelation. This is the real deal. This is the answer to the phrase “Open the eyes of my heart I want to see you” stuff.

Elijah and Moses come there. I haven’t a clue why. Generally it has to do with Moses being the LAW, and Elijah being the PROPHETS. The Law and the Prophets are testifying to Yeshua as the Christ.

Peter somehow understands it is them. Maybe Jesus introduced them!!! Anyhow, Peter realizes he is now in the Presence of Jesus, and the archetypes of the Jewish faith. The scripture doesn’t record that someone asked him (Peter) a question, and yet it says Peter answered. Answered what?

He told Jesus essentially “I want to make a few buildings here and hang out here all the time. If I could have that, I would be in Heaven on Earth!!!”. This is like David on Psalm 27 saying this is all I want, to enjoy the Presence and the Revelation of God. Except no one asked him anything, and he was so freaked out he was probably just babbling, as I would as well. His heart came bubbling out over his lips and showed what he thought. And I for one am with him.
Interestingly enough, we find out that at that moment the boys were down the hill trying to cast out a demon and having no luck….

At this point Jehovah God appears in His clouds, and says “This is my Son, listen to Him!” And then everyone came to, and everything was back to normal.


A couple of divergent symbolic interpretations

God shows up, and we want to build a building, start a program, and bring people to our mountain. This one is self evident. And I relate to it. We are the church of the transfiguration, and we have the GOODS. Instead of going down the mountain with something, we want the folks to come here and do the thing our way.

God shows up to fulfill the Law and the Prophets, and we want to continue accommodating the Law and the Prophets at the same time as entertaining and enjoying Jesus. We want our religion, and our cake. We want what we know and can measure and refer to, and Jesus too. We can mix it all together, instead of just knowing Christ, and experiencing Christ. Moses and Elijah came to be WITH Christ where He was at. They wanted to end up with Him, even if it meant coming back into space and time and broken creation. But we immediately entertain it, and even relate to it.

We want to keep the Law and the Prophets and God says “Listen to my Son”, and I bet the emphasis is on the word HIM not anything else. He is saying listen to my beloved Son. He’s the one to listen to.

In a negative sense, the Law can represent overly intellectual and/or stereotypically fundamentalist mindsets and practices. The Prophets represent (to me) the Charismatic or “Prophetic” practice. Most people come down on one or the other. And God is saying “You don’t build 3 tabernacles, but one, for my Beloved Son ONLY. Hes the only one, and all things need to sum up in Him”. This one is my original thought about this, because I see it all the time.

• Doctrinal emphasis/Hyper Evangelicalism/Intellectual Assertion: These kind of folks get really into this stuff, and indentify with what they understand, or what they can comprehend and control. They can easily become overly indentified with their practice instead of Christ.
  
• Hyper-Charismatic: These kind of folks get really into gifts and expressions that give them a lot of personal payoff. In fact sometimes this leads into what I am beginning to call spiritual masturbation. Since I lean more towards this group, I am more exposed to it. We all get into a group and end up using the Presence of God to feel real good, but none of it is truly intimacy, but simply a pornographic type of false intimacy designed to stimulate us without actual intimacy. Without intimacy, there is no fruit.

Why Jesus alone?

Ps 146:3-10
3 Do not put your trust in princes, in mortal men, who cannot save.
4 When their spirit departs, they return to the ground; on that very day their plans come to nothing.
5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6 the Maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them-- the LORD, who remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed and gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets prisoners free,
8 the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous.
9 The LORD watches over the alien and sustains the fatherless and the widow, but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10 The LORD reigns forever, your God, O Zion, for all generations. Praise the LORD.
(NIV)