Danny J Bixby

2 days ago, I posted this status:

I wonder if it’s ok for a guy who works at a church to say that he feels very hostile when people use scripture in conversation?

It got several retweets, a few likes, and a dozen comments or so on the Facebook. But it also got a few of my friends to ask me about what it meant, some public & some private.

I think they’re right, it deserves clarification and can easily be misinterpreted at first glance.

What I did NOT mean

In no way am I hostile TO scripture. I’m not offended by hearing the Bible recited. I think that reading the Bible, and wrestling with it (discussing it) with others, is one of the most important things you can do to grow in your faith. I think, if anything, more of us suffer from scripture ignorance as opposed to having an abundance of scripture knowledge.

Too many of us make dangerous errors when we read or interpret scripture, such as:

• Reading it outside of community. The reality is that most books of the Bible were written to groups of people…not individuals. So to think that the Bible is just between “us and God” can be a very dangerous practice.
• Ignoring the context of the passage. This is where clobber verses come from. The ones that are used to beat people over the head. No good, people!
• Ignoring how the original audience would have understood it. Everything in the Bible was written to (and by) specific people at a specific point in history to address specific things. If you don’t try to understand how the original audience would have received it, and instead focus on how we in the 21st century receive it, I believe you’re doing an injustice to the meaning.
• Ignoring the supporting documents. This goes a bit in hand with the last point. Especially when we talk of the New Testament, there is a world of literature that would have influenced the mindset of the people hearing the new information. For one…ya know…the Old Testament. I think the best way to understand much of the NT (especially the writings of Paul) the best thing you could do is have a firmer understanding of the OT.

What I DID mean

That thought was born out of a long line of conversations with people who seem to just throw scripture verses into a conversation for either: bad reasons, or no reason at all.

It seems to be incredibly easy to take a verse (or passage) from the Bible, and just leverage it to validate whatever position you’re already a fan of in the first place.

THAT is what I am hostile towards. Or maybe a better way to put it instead of hostility, is that is what I feel a discontent from.

Manipulating scripture to validate ourselves. As opposed to letting it ignite something in us that brings us to a new point in our lives. Instead of having it create some discontent with who we are vs who God is calling us to be, we have a tendency to use scripture like it’s some sort of tool (or for way too many of us, a weapon).

Does that hostility make a bit more sense? Do you ever experience something of the same?

Rob Bell is putting out a new book called “Love Wins: A book about heaven, hell, and the fate of every person who ever lived.”

Not surprisingly, there has been incredible push back from prominent Christian leaders of the neo-Calvinist persuasion…the standards of claiming Bell is a heretic, he’s blasphemous, universalist, etc. You know…before the book has even come out or they’ve had a chance to read it to see what he says :/

Anyway, here’s the trailer. I’m very interested in reading it. What are your thoughts?

I came across this list of accountability questions that John Wesley would go over with those he was discipling…and of course answer himself. I thought it was a pretty interesting list and wanted to share it.

I think it’s neat to look through these and see the questions that, honestly, I would never think of going over as something to be accountable to. Know what I mean?

1. Am I consciously or unconsciously creating the impression that I am better than I am? In other words, am I a hypocrite?
2. Am I honest in all my acts and words, or do I exaggerate?
3. Do I confidentially pass onto another what was told me in confidence?
4. Am I a slave to dress, friends, work or habits?
5. Am I self-conscious, self-pitying, or self-justifying?
6. Did the Bible live in me today?
7. Do I give the Bible time to speak to me every day?
8. Am I enjoying prayer?
9. When did I last speak to someone about my faith?
10. Do I pray about the money I spend?
11. Do I get to bed on time and get up on time?
12. Do I disobey God in anything?
13. Do I insist upon doing something about which my conscience is uneasy?
14. Am I defeated in any part of my life?
15. Am I jealous, impure, critical, irritable, touchy or distrustful?
16. How do I spend my spare time?
17. Am I proud?
18. Do I thank God that I am not as other people? As the pharisee did who despised the tax collector?
19. Is there anyone whom I fear, dislike, disown, criticize, hold resentment toward or disregard? If so, what am I going to do about it?
20. Do I grumble and complain constantly?
21. Is Christ real to me?

What do you think of that list?

Do you look down on other Christians who don’t know as much as you do?

Be it about the Bible, church tradition, God, spirituality, etc. I sure used to be. Especially those who were new or weren’t as “far along” as I was in knowledge…or as I liked to think of it “spiritual maturity.”

I feel this artificial hierarchy of Christians is ingrained in many of us. You look through personal or group study options and you find tons of books with titles touting how to become spiritual mature, or a fully devoted follower of Jesus, or a true disciple, etc etc… (more…)

Today is World AIDS Day, when we’re supposed to raise our awareness about this awful disease and take action against all the prejudices & stigma that comes with it.

In my opinion, most prejudices come from a lack of knowledge. You’re more likely to fear something you don’t know much about. You’re more likely to believe extreme details about something you know little about. And you’re more likely to not care when you focus on AIDS the disease, instead of the people who are affected by it and live with it. (more…)

>No beating around it, let’s just go straight in. North Point Church hired me full time this past Wednesday as the “Connections Coach”!!! (insert happy dance here)

For those of you who know me well, you’re aware of what a huge deal this is for me. For those of you who know me a little bit…this is a huge deal for me! I turned in my 2 weeks at my old job…this is really happening.

I’m going to work closely with my good friend (and new boss!) Connections Director Tim Perkins…go bother him on Facebook & Twitter, you’ll be glad you did.

Connections is basically nearly everything in the church that deals with ‘adults’ ministries. Our small groups (connect groups), getting people integrated into the church through serving, spiritual development, creating points of entry for new people, etc.

At the expense of getting all sappy…this is a life changing thing for me. I don’t quite know how to emotionally deal with this transition, and in some ways it hasn’t fully hit me yet. I’m at a point of excited & happy that can’t really be put into words. This is something that I convinced myself for the past 7 years just wasn’t going to happen for me. That choices I had made in my life weren’t going to allow it. And now that it is…it’s very powerful.

If you wouldn’t mind, I’d really appreciate that you pray for me with this new part of my life. I want to get right in now and get rolling on it. Thanks so much for letting me share this with you, and thanks for all the support!

>I stole this off Jason Miller’s blog (www.commonjason.com)

Which I guess is cool, since it’s a quote from Brennan Manning.

If you’ve never read Brennan Manning, stop what you’re doing right now and go buy Ragamuffin Gospel.

This quote however is from another book of his, The Furious Longing of God. It’s been stuck in my head, maybe it will get stuck in yours too:

Paul wrote in Philippians, “He emptied Himself.” He cried from His heart, nails in His hands, and poured out His blood that we might believe His love for us. Significantly, Jesus chose the giving tree, His cross, as the demonstrative sign of His absolutely furious love for men and women. In the words of one early church father: “the mightiest act of love ever to arise from a human soul.” How is it then that we’ve come to imagine that Christianity consists of primarily in what we do for God? How has this come to be the good news of Jesus? Is the kingdom that He proclaimed to be nothing more than a community of men and women who go to church on Sunday, take an annual spiritual retreat, read their Bibles every now and then, vigorously oppose abortion, don’t watch x-rated movies, never use vulgar language, smile a lot, hold doors open for people, root for the favorite team, and get along with everybody? Is that why Jesus went through the bleak and bloody horror of Calvary? Is that why He emerged in shattering glory from the tomb? Is that why He poured out His Holy Spirit on the church? To make nicer men and women with better morals? The gospel is absurd and the life of Jesus is meaningless unless we believe that He lived, died, and rose again with but one purpose in mind: to make brand new creations. Not to make people with better morals, but to create a community of prophets and professional lovers, men and women who would surrender to the mystery of the fire of the Spirit that burns within, who would live in ever greater fidelity to the omnipresent Word of God, who would enter into the center of it all, the very heart and mystery of Christ, into the center of the flame that consumes, purifies, and sets everything aglow with peace, joy, boldness, and extravagant, furious love.This, my friends, is what it really means to be a Christian.” 

>I have a problem. I am incredibly intolerant of the intolerant. I have a hard time showing grace to the graceless, loving people who I feel aren’t very loving.

If I wanted to, I could read through the gospels and justify my position.

You find Jesus over and over in the public places calling out the Pharisees and the religious for being ungracious, unloving & condemning of others.

Time and again he points out their hypocrisy, their hatred. The way they close the door to the Kingdom of God in the face of people who are desperately searching for it. And then they stand outside the door as well.

Just pick a random chapter or two of one of the gospels, I bet odds are pretty good you’ll find something along those lines.

But Jesus didn’t always act like that. That’s just what he did in public…

I get the idea that Jesus publicly called out the Pharisees because their own ungraciousness & condemnation was so public.

He needed to let people know that he was not like that. That God was not as the Pharisees & religious represented. The original offense was so public, the darkness in the hearts of the religious was front & center, so Jesus had to illuminate it in front of others.

But there are times, in private, where it’s not quite the same. There were opportunities away from the crowds & the spotlight, where we get a slightly different picture of Jesus. A picture of someone who really is accepting of everyone, even the religious or intolerant.

John 7:36 reads, “Now one of the Pharisees invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table.”

The rest of the chapter continues on from that point…but I think there’s something so easily overlooked here. That even though Jesus ate with tax collectors, hookers and sinners…he was willing to eat with the Pharisees too. The ungraceful, intolerant religious people.

He called out to them as well. And Jesus was invited into his house, he didn’t respond with the same kind of hostility and condemnation he showed the Pharisees in public.

He went to his house, and reclined at his table.

Jesus grabbed the public differences & disagreements, and took them private. Dealing with someone in a smaller relational setting.

Do you find yourself doing the same with people you disagree with? With whoever you view as the “graceless” or the “hypocritical?”

Or, like me, do you instead struggle to relocate the situation from the public shouting match into the private conversation?

>Today’s Columbus day!

And it’s also National Coming Out Day.

One of these, I’m more interested in. And it’s not the one that has anything to do with banks & schools being closed.

Jason Boyett posted an article today that you should read: Bullied for Being Gay: A Friend’s Story

It got me thinking. And I had this passage…or at least the idea behind it…rumbling in my brain because of his post:

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful to even mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you.”

-Ephesians 5:11-14

I believe that the church has a large amount of darkness in it. That we have our sacred cows we don’t want to tip, our dark corners that we don’t want to shine light on.

Most of the time it’s not even deliberate. It just happens. We fear repercussions. What people will think. What people will do in a response if we take a position that we feel may be unpopular.

It’s easier to not take sides, to try and pretend that we don’t actually have opinions, to shut down that voice inside of us that is screaming to speak up for hurting people.

And so a place that should be safe for people who are looking for support, an identity and a community of believers to walk alongside them; becomes instead another source of confusion, rejection and ultimately darkness.

I can’t speak with the authority of someone who is immersed in the GLBT community. That’s not who I am. I don’t have many gay friends. I don’t know many gay people. I mostly associate with people who look and act just like me.

Because it’s comfortable.

“Everything exposed by the light becomes visible.”

I think darkness being exposed by the light is beautiful. It reveals what was actually there…for real. Not the fears, hatreds, prejudices or expectations we believed were in the darkness; but what was really there instead.

It allows us to see that maybe what we were so afraid of, wasn’t worth being so terrified of in the first place. Sometimes, the darkness itself is far worse than what is hidden by it.

I believe that Jesus is all about exposing darkness, and revealing the truth behind it.

As followers of him, we should be too.

What that looks like for everyone will probably be different for whatever passions God has put in you. But I believe that collectively, as a church, we shouldn’t allow the darkness around our brothers & sisters in the GLBT community.

We should be running in with our lights, exposing the truth behind the phobias and prejudices; revealing what’s behind the darkness. Showing people that they don’t need to hide who they are. Showing them that God is desperately seeking after them.

We need to be a community that allows people to bring who they really are to God, and not force them to pretend they’re someone else to go on their journey.

I believe we need to be people who don’t tolerate hatred, fear, hostility or bullying towards GLBT (or anyone for that matter).

I think that as individuals, and collectively as a body, we need to come out of our own darkness in support.

What do you think?

>

My pastor Tommy Sparger gave a sermon this past weekend about Adam & Eve. Actually, the sermon was about the gospel and how Jesus desires to release us from shame…but the message started out in the garden as he took the audience through the concept of original sin, etc etc.

While I was listening, something struck me. There seems to be a big difference in focus between when people preach about Adam & Eve vs people who talk about Adam & Eve. I’ve heard plenty of sermons about those early chapters in Genesis and usually about all different kinds of topics: shame, guilt, sin, obedience, failure, temptation, grace, salvation, protection, hiding, etc etc. Those are the focuses of the sermons you hear from the stage.

But I’ve also had plenty of conversations about Adam & Eve as well…and very few (if any) seemed to have dealt with those issues. They all appeared to be focused around one question: “Did it really happen?”

Were Adam & Eve real people? Did this story really occur? Was there really a garden? Really a tree? Really a talking snake? Really this? Really that?

Underneath these questions, through deeper conversation, there is underlying concern. Do I have to believe in these fairy tale-ish details to believe in Jesus?

If I’m honest, I think the “Did it really happen?” question that we constantly ask is the wrong question.

Look at it a slightly different way for a second. Let’s say that the story of Adam and Eve were never actually written down, but instead it was told along by word of mouth. Imagine old men & women passing down the story to children at family gatherings. Circles of kids crowded around after a large meal to hear their grandparents tell them one of their favorite stories. A story that shows people who had direct instruction from God, deliberately disobeyed them…and God’s response. How he took care of them after wards.

Imagine even that this story were never heard until around 30 AD. And some backwoods Jewish carpenter was telling it to a herd of people as they were leaving their weekend temple service. Would the people in the crowd have asked “Did this really happen?” or would they have instead focused on the meaning of the story?

When we read the stories that Jesus told, recorded in the gospels, do we look at them with the same critical eye and say:

“Yeah, but did that really happen?” 

Do we examine the parable of the prodigal son and try to figure out the identity of the literal family whom Jesus was referencing? Do we conclude that God could only possibly be represented by the loving father in that story if the loving father were a real physical being somewhere in the world at some point in time?

Do we do that with any of Jesus’ other parables? Do they only hold value to us if the characters in them were “real” people at some historical moment in some physical location on the earth?

Or when we read those stories, do we not think about that at all? Do we make the assumption that the stories Jesus told weren’t real in the sense that the characters physically existed at some point in history…but instead they were real in an entirely different way.

Is it too hard to imagine that parables can be written as well as spoken?

Maybe the story is not about something that “happened,” but about something that “happens.”

Maybe the story is a representation of the reality we currently find ourselves in. That it’s not about someone else who came before us…but it’s about us.

Maybe when we look to discover if the story happened before, we blind ourselves to it happening now. Today. To us. We lose ourselves as the main characters when we bury ourselves in trying to discover the “reality” of the story.

We don’t realize our own deliberate and intentional disobedience. Our desire to replace God with ourselves.

We can’t see ourselves as running naked through a garden foolishly trying to hide from God.