Honor in the Real Church

Weko Beach, Michigan

Someone in my church family asked me to say some things about "honor." So, here are a few ideas.


HONOR-ABILITIES

Honor is respect for other people. This does not mean you agree with everything other people say. Honor is a way of treating other people. Remember that Jesus said "Honor your father and mother." (Matthew 15:4) He does not add, "only if you agree with them about everything." 1 Peter 2:7 says, "Show proper respect to everyone, love the family of believers, fear God, honor the emperor." (Even the emperor? Think about it. Do not get your ethics from the media.)

Honor thinks of other people before it thinks of oneself. Romans 12:10 says, "Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves."

Honor dignifies others. Honor does not talk negatively about people behind their back. That's called slander. Or gossip. Slander is saying something about a person behind their back that you would never say to their face.

Honor is different from flattery or sucking up to people, which are forms of dishonor. Flattery is saying something to someone's face that you would never say about them behind their back.

Honor does not gripe or complain about other people behind their back. To do that is to take what John Bevere called "the bait of Satan," and dangle Satan's bait before the ears of others.

Honor listens. Honor has "ears to hear."

Honor is a subcategory of love. Love is the great umbrella, beneath which honor is one of love's expressions. Honor is one way of expressing love.

Honor does not discriminate. 

Honor does not enable the transgressions of others. Enabling people in their failure is dishonoring. 

Dishonor is disrespect. Dishonor disses others; honor elevates others.

Dishonor judges before understanding. Honor works to understand before evaluating or judging. Judging before understanding is the game of fools; understanding before judging is wisdom.

A culture of honor extends to isolated people. Dishonor plays favorites.

Honor-able people are people capable of treating others according to their true identities, as sons and daughters of God.

Real Church cultivates an honor culture. We may not agree with everything and everyone, but we never dishonor one another.

What if someone has not honored you, and hurt you? With these honor-principles (honor-abilities) in your heart, you are ready to go to the person. Note: If this person is going to abuse you, then bring a church leader with you.

Pray. For yourself, and the person, that truth will be spoken in love. You are going to the person because you love them, and you want to make the situation right.

Speak for your own self, and not for others. Do not say things like, "Many others are upset with you too." If you know of someone else who is upset, direct them to the person, just as you are doing. If they refuse to do this, they have taken what John Bevere called "the bait of Satan." Have no part in this.

When you speak to the person, begin with love.  Begin your sentences with "I," rather than "you." Instead of saying "You upset me," own your feeling with words like "I feel upset _____________." Fill in the blank with a behavior; e.g., "I felt angry when you did not call me when you said you would." Or, "I felt angry when you called me irresponsible." "You"-language puts the other person on the defensive; "I"-language acknowledges your responsibility in the relationship. For how to do this, read this. 

Do not use negative descriptive adjectives when confronting the person in love (like these). Behind every adjective there is a judgment. You are not the judge of the other person, and do not want to come off that way to them. Instead, refer to behaviors. 

Listen to the person, for the sake of understanding. Your goal is understanding, more than it is agreement. Remember that you cannot begin to agree or disagree until you understand.

Be prepared to confess and forgive. You both may need to do this. For how to do this, read this, and this. And, see "The First Two Steps in Relationship Restoration." 

Follow this template, concerning speaking the truth in love. Have these attitudes, not only in your words, but in your countenance and behavior. 

Listen, understand, assert, love. To do these is to be honor-able.

***
My two books are:

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Kellie Robinson Photography

Our good friend Kellie Robinson has her website up - Kellie Robinson Photography.

Kellie is immensely creative, beautiful in her character and spirit, and a passionate follower of Jesus.

Kellie is active in our Redeemer family. 

If you need a photo shoot for your engagement or wedding, please check her out!

MY STORY

When I was five years old, my mom asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and recorded a clip of my response, "I wanna be a mermaid." After that didn't work out, I floated from subject to subject in college: women's studies, graphic design, philosophy. All interesting topics, but none of them stuck. I also enjoyed two years of ministry school and even completed a semester of Nursing School that almost broke me. *Shout out to all the nurses out there. You are saints.* 

I finally landed on what I love doing most: art. My bachelors degree in visual arts had a strong focus in photography, but my journey towards embracing that passion as a career began quietly one night, in a conversation with a friend. She asked the often frustrating, but this time effective question, "If money weren't an issue and you could be anything you wanted, what would you do?" I gave a surprised, "Photography!" Since that conversation, I have been so grateful to do what I love: capturing and celebrating you and your beautiful, messy, love.

When I'm not frolicking in fields with you, I spend my time wishing I were frolicking in fields with you. You can also find me sneaking into piano practice rooms to bang on the keys, eating kale smoothies one day and a pile of donuts the next, drawing random things because I miss art school, and watching the Great British Baking Show for the 50th time (3 seasons on Netflix, you won't regret it). You can find more of my favorite things here.

Wanna hang? Have questions? Let's talk!

If I Am My Shepherd, I Shall Want (The Presence-Driven Church)

Our downstairs office

When I teach on how God transforms the human heart, I use Psalm 23 as a prayer exercise.

I ask participants to get alone with God for an hour and meditate on Ps. 23. I instruct them to write down what God says to them.

I have found that a quarter to a third cannot get past verse 1. The Lord is my shepherd. God asks them, "Oh, really?" 

Henri Nouwen says the basic question of the spiritual life is: Who do i belong to? From this, everything follows.

All authentic leadership in Jesus' name is a being-led by Jesus. I cannot do this on my own, no matter how strong my abilities are. If I am my shepherd, I shall want. And so shall my community.

Ruth Haley Barton writes:

"The raw gift of leadership may be there—as it certainly was for Moses—along with a strong sense of what is right and what we think needs to be done in this world. But our leadership cannot be a force for good if it is not being refined by the rigors of true solitude, that place where God is at work beyond what we are able to do for ourselves or would even know how to do for ourselves." (Ruth Haley Barton, Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership: Seeking God in the Crucible of Ministry, p. 43)


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johnpiippo@msn.com

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Leading the Presence-Driven Church 

In Connectedness with God We Feel His Burdens

Wall, in Monroe

When Nehemiah's brother comes to Susa, Nehemiah asks how things are going in Jerusalem. His brothers responds, "Not good. Our people are humiliated and unprotected. The walls of the city are down and the gates are destroyed and burned."

Upon hearing this, Nehemiah weeps. He fasts and prays. He is broken, before God. This is the beginning of his call to do something about this tragic situation.

He is burdened. Every burden is not a calling from God. But every calling begins with a burden.

When you live a daily, abiding life in Christ, you will have moments of burden. You cannot remain unburdened and apathetic (no feeling) and simultaneously be a branch connected to Jesus, the Vine.

This is because God is deeply burdened over the condition of people. To live connected to God produces much fruit in my life. It also produces a holy troubledness, a divine feeling. This is a call to do two things. First, like Nehemiah, to pray. Second, to seek God as how he would have me act. 

With the burden comes a soul-aching to do something. Yes, our God is fighting for us. (Neh. 4:20) But one day Nehemiah issues a call to battle.

 After I looked things over, 

I stood up and said to the nobles, 

the officials and the rest of the people, 

“Don’t be afraid of them. 

Remember the Lord,

who is great and awesome, 

and fight for your families, 

your sons and your daughters, 

your wives and your homes.”

Nehemiah 4:14

The call of God is a call to pray, and to act. It begins with a burden. Burdens emerge as we are connected to Jesus.

Happiness - A Strange Melancholy In the Midst of Our Abundance

Door, Green Lake, Wisconsin

Author George McDonald once wrote: "The one principle of hell is: 'I am my own.'" 

Thomas Merton believed the most boring thing in life is self-obsession, and that the narcissistic life was located on the doorstep of hell.

Narcissism as the quest for self-happiness is the path to the empty self (J.P. Moreland), the highway to the false self (Merton). J.P. writes: 

"Most of what takes up the airwaves is the absence of life—a constant reshuffling of relationships, a preoccupation with wiping out the opposition as violently as possible, the pursuit and spending of the almighty dollar in a system that Vaclav Havel calls “totalitarian consumerism.” We see example after example of empty, self-centered existence." (Moreland, J. P., The Lost Virtue of Happiness: Discovering the Disciplines of the Good Life, Kindle Locations 125-126)

Americans are obsessed with happiness and confused about it. We have more material possessions than anyone who has ever lived. If stuff made people happy, then no one has ever been happier and more satisfied than us. But we are not. Our things are consuming our souls. There is, as Alexis de Tocqueville observed about America, “a strange melancholy in the midst of abundance.” (In Ib., Kindle Locations 143-144)

Where is the road to freedom? C. S. Lewis wrote, “You can’t get second things by putting them first; you can get second things only by putting first things first.” Or, as Jesus said, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). In other words, live for something other than your own happiness.

Happiness is a wonderful byproduct of a life well-lived, but it makes a horrible goal to quest after. The life well-lived exists for something other than its own fulfillment. That "something other" must be non-trivial and majestic. Such as God. 

***
Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Leading the Presence-Driven Church

Eugene Peterson (1923-2018)

Few people have influenced me more than Eugene Peterson. 

I know he is now with Jesus. But it is hard to not have him here on earth with us.

Among his last words were, "Let's go."

"Eugene Peterson Has Completed His Long Obedience"

Freedom from Intimidation

Luna Pier, Michigan, on Lake Erie

One way to fail in life is to place pleasing people above pleasing God. The path to life success is: honor God above all. Love and serve God with your entire being, and then love and serve others. And note: This may, or may not, be pleasing to them.

We see this in Nehemiah. God led Nehemiah out of his comfort zone to rebuild the walls and gates of Jerusalem. When Sanballat and Tobiah heard about this, they were very much disturbed that someone had come to promote the welfare of the Israelites. (Nehemiah 1:10)

I am not thrilled when someone is very much disturbed with me, over something I feel God has called me to say or do. It gets to me. 

On a few occasions a church person has directly or indirectly threatened to withhold their giving, or leave the church family, unless they get their way. Every pastor knows about this.

Nehemiah knew about this. Old Testament scholar John Goldingay writes: "Nehemiah deals with a situation in which his own people are in danger of giving up and his opponents look likely to succeed in frustrating his plans."

What were Nehemiah's plans? "To promote the welfare of the Israelites." What could be better than that? 

Not everyone was thrilled. Sanballat, Tobiah, the Ammonites, the Arabs, and the Amalekites were not in support of this. They were absolutely furious. They put their heads together and decided to fight against Jerusalem and create as much trouble as they could.

I am now calling our church family to revival and awakening. Yesterday morning, using the battle motif out of Nehemiah, I called our people to spiritual warfare. I believe my church family wants this. Yet, as Collin Hanson notes in his study of revivals, "Revival doesn't sweep up everyone, and those standing on the sidelines can become the most outspoken critics." (Hanson, A God-Sized Vision: Revival Stories that Stretch and Stir, Kindle Locations 186-187)

I am praying that my entire church family will be swept up in the coming revival. As I and others prepare the spiritual earth as seeds of awakening are planted by the Holy Spirit, I must remember what the apostle Paul wrote.

Am I now trying to win the approval of human beings,

or of God?

Or am I trying to please people?

If I were still trying to please people,

I would not be a servant of Christ.

Galatians 1:10

The priority is serving Christ. Followers of Jesus will be pleased with this. But, as the goal, people-pleasing is a path to never-ending failure, because the critical, religious spirit is never satisfied. 

Serving Christ is the narrow gate to contentment and blessedness. As John Bevere writes, "The only way to walk totally free from intimidation is to walk in the fear of the Lord." (Bevere, Breaking Intimidation)

Proverbs 14:26 counsels us: In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence.

Your fear of God will swallow up all lesser fears, producing the agape of love of Christ for others, which flows from the perfect love of God that casts out all fear.

***
johnpiippo@msn.com

Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God

Leading the Presence-Driven Church 

First Pray. Then Proclaim.

Many American pastors do before they pray. This is because their self worth is a function of numbers (How big? How many? How much?). People who live by metrics have little time to pray. They lack a significant praying life; viz., a praying life like Jesus had when, early in the morning, as was his habit, he went to a lonely place to pray. Habitually, many pastors are conditioned to be busy accomplishing things.

I write about the ontological priority of praying over doing in my book Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.

Eugene Peterson recognized this, and the paltry praying lives of American clergy. He writes:

"The inner action of prayer takes precedence over the outer action of proclamation. The implication of this for pastoral work is plain: it begins in prayer. Anything creative, anything powerful, anything biblical, insofar as we are participants in it, originates in prayer. Pastors who imitate the preaching and moral action of the prophets without also imitating the prophets' deep praying and worship so evident in the Psalms are an embarrassment to the faith and an encumbrance to the church." (Peterson, Working the Angles: The Shape of Pastoral Integrity, Kindle Locations 405-408)

The Bible Is a Heterosexual Book

This is for Christians only. It’s about the Bible. For us, the Bible is The Authoritative Narrative.

Don’t back off this. Everyone has their authoritative narrative. Everyone has their Big Guiding Text (BGT). Whether they realize it or not.

Put another way: everyone has a worldview. Even the denial of this statement is itself a worldview. This cannot be escaped.

My BGT is the Bible. This is how it is for me, for many studied reasons. This is how it is for anyone who labels themselves “Follower of Jesus.” Jesus' life and words are supremely important. The life and words of Jesus are in the four Gospels, which find their meaning situated in the Grand Biblical Narrative (hence, the Old Testament as authoritative). Therefore, the four Gospels hold sway over my life and words.

The Bible is a heterosexual book when it comes to sexual relationships. It just is. I have read everything relevant that claims it is not. I conclude that it just is, like it or not. If I was not a Christian I would conclude this. The fact that some Christians claim otherwise astonishes me.

Dr. Michael Brown is probably the greatest Messianic Jewish scholar today. In his book Can You Be Gay and Christian? he has a chapter entitled, “The Bible Is a Heterosexual Book.” Brown writes:

“Without any doubt, the Bible is a heterosexual book. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible explicitly presents and presupposes heterosexuality as the divinely intended norm. In fact, rather than accusing the church of making LGBT people feel uncomfortable, it would be more accurate to accuse the Bible as a whole of making them feel uncomfortable.” (pp. 83-84)

See that? The issue is not about Christians who welcome but don’t affirm the LGBT lifestyle. The real issue is about the Bible as The Authoritative Narrative and, if so, what does the Bible say about the LGBT lifestyle.

In other words, take issue with the biblical text, not with Michael Brown or Christians like me. If the Bible was not my BGT then I would care nothing about what it says about anything (in the same way that atheistic authoritative narratives have no relevance to the way I live my life). But the Bible is my BGT, and “the Bible clearly presents heterosexuality as the divinely intended pattern for the human race, sanctioning sexual acts only within the context of heterosexual marriage.” (p. 84)

This is significant because the “gay Christian” argument says this: “Although many Christians put a great emphasis on the sinfulness of homosexuality, there are only a handful of passages in the Bible that touch on the subject at all, which means it was hardly that important to the biblical authors.” (82) Note that a Christian who makes the gay argument in this way affirms the Bible as their Big Narrative. That’s good. But the reasoning is not; viz.:

1. The Bible only mentions homosexuality a few times.
2. Therefore, the LGBT issue is not a big deal for God (because if it was, God would have put it in the Bible many more times, for emphasis).

Brown explains the faulty reasoning behind this.

“Let’s say you buy a new cookbook featuring healthy dessert recipes, none of which use sugar. In the introduction to the book the author explains her reasons for avoiding sugar products, telling you that you will find sumptuous, sweet dessert recipes—but all without sugar. And so, throughout the rest of the book, the word sugar is not found a single time—not once! Would it be right to conclude that avoiding sugar was not important to the author? To the contrary, it was so important that every single recipe in the book makes no mention of sugar.

It is the same when it comes to the Bible and homosexuality. There are a few very strong, very clear references to homosexual practice—every one of them decidedly negative—and then not a single reference to homosexual practice throughout the rest of the Bible. Was it because avoiding homosexual practice was not important to the authors of the Scriptures? To the contrary, the only relationships that were acceptable in God’s sight or considered normal for society were heterosexual relationships, so homosexual practice was either irrelevant (because it had nothing to do with the God-ordained relationships of marriage and family and society) or, if mentioned, explicitly condemned.” (p. 84)

The Bible is a heterosexual book. You can pick up the book and read it for yourself. Why not? I’ve read everything on both sides of this discussion, beginning in the early 1980s and up to the present. So has Brown, BTW.

Stephen Hawking Says There Is No God

Green Lake, Wisconsin

(Some initial reflections...)

Stephen Hawking says there is no God. (See "Stephen Hawking's Final Book Says There's 'No Possibility' of God in Our Universe.") 

Hawking's new book is Brief Answers to the Big Questions. The media is sensationalizing his atheism, but we saw it clearly in The Grand Design. 

How does Hawking arrive at his atheism? 

"I think the universe was spontaneously created out of nothing, according to the laws of science," Hawking, who died in March, wrote. "If you accept, as I do, that the laws of nature are fixed, then it doesn't take long to ask: What role is there for God?"

This is an amazing statement. Because where there is no time, and no space, hence no matter, the laws of science are also nonexistent. From nothing, nothing comes. (Lawrence Krauss was criticized on equivocating on the word 'nothing' in his book A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing.)

This must mean that, according to Hawking, the universe has no cause. And, indeed, that is what he seems to be saying. Our universe is not the "effect" of something. 

Hawking's use of 'created' is misleading, since 'created' implies a 'creator;' therefore, a cause. Perhaps he meant to say "The universe spontaneously began to exist out of nothing." "Spontaneously beginning to exist" means "having no cause." If the phrase implies having a cause, since whatever begins to exist has a cause, then the cause of the universe must be something rather than nothing, since 'nothing' has no causal properties.

"The universe itself, in all its mind-boggling vastness and complexity, could simply have popped into existence without violating the known laws of nature," he wrote.

Hawking gets this from quantum mechanics, which claims "subatomic particles like protons and electrons seemingly appear out of nowhere, stick around for a while and then disappear again to a completely different location. Because the universe was once the size of a subatomic particle itself, it's plausible that it behaved similarly during the Big Bang."

The word "seemingly" is important. Subatomic particles "seem" to "appear out of nowhere." But from this it does not follow that they do appear out of nothing. ("Nothing," in physics, is hard to define. See Nothing: A Very Short Introduction.)

Hawking believes our universe did begin to exist. But before its existence he believes there was no time. He writes: "We have finally found something that doesn’t have a cause, because there was no time for a cause to exist in." But this is not a problem if it is possible for a cause to exist where there is no time. (See God and Time: Four Views.) 

Hawking concludes: "For me this means that there is no possibility of a creator, because there is no time for a creator to have existed in." But many theists understand God's existence prior to the beginning of the universe as nontemporal. The theistic Creator does not require time to exist. Indeed, in the Kalam Cosmological Argument for God's Existence, it is precisely God's nontemporal being that best explains the beginning of a temporal universe out of nothing.

Hawking described his explanation of the origin of the universe just popping into existence out of nothing as "simpler" than the explanation that God created the universe out of nothing. I'll need some further explanation of "simpler" to agree with him.