Discovering the Real Jesus in Monroe

(RR tracks in Valley Forge) 

It’s Wednesday and I’m still in Valley Forge teaching 10 doctoral students at the National Christian Conference Center. At the heart of my course is this: how to hear and discern the voice of God.

How can we tell if it’s really God speaking to us, or some other voice? How can we discern this? My answer is this.

• Saturate yourself in the Bible. Read it over and over and over…  For example, in 2006 and 2007 I read the 4 Gospels over and over and over…  I wanted to become much more familiar with the Real words of the Real Jesus.
• Study excellent commentaries and books on the Bible. (Try, for starters, N.T. Wright’s “For Everyone” series.)
• Spend much time (hours and hours and hours) praying, by yourself. What is prayer? Prayer is talking with God about what we are doing together. This involves, necessarily, listening. When God speaks to you, write it down in a journal.
• Obey.
• Be part of a small community of Jesus-followers who do #s 1-2-3-4 above. Ask each other the question: What is God saying to you? Talk about the things God is saying. Disagree or agree. Learn.
• Keep a spiritual journal. A spiritual journal is a record of the voice of God, to you. Remember that “remembering” is huge in the Judeo-Christian scriptures. 
• Find a spiritual coach to share your journal with. This isn’t for everyone. But it would be very cool if you had someone. This person should be someone who does all of the above. They must have humility. They must not be into controlling other people.

I need to confess something. Yesterday I ate 7/8ths of this.

Last night Bob DeMarco treated me to a real cheesesteak sandwich at Tony Luke’s in south Philadelphia. After eating it I called Linda and told her, “I have never, ever eaten a cheesesteak sandwich in my life…, until now.” Which was both wonderful and not so wonderful for me. It was wonderful in that I tasted and ate the real thing. It was not so wonderful because today I want another one. The sandwich you see above is, by all rational and scientific standards, unhealthy. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that. Just look at it. Imagine it in your arteries. Envision the entire thing, undigested, sitting there, in one of your arteries.

This morning I ate an orange for breakfast. I’m at the National Christian Conference Center in Valley Forge teaching a doctoral class for Palmer Theological Seminary. I have 10 doctoral students who are pastors and Christian leaders from the U.S. and beyond. My class is called “Personal Transformation: How God Transforms the Human Soul.”

I’ll be sharing some of the things God does in future posts.

(Mercy Hospital in Monroe) 

Looks like New Testament theologian Scot McKnight is commenting on all 85 “distinguishable references” to the “kingdom of God” in the synoptic gospels.

See his website here. Look for his “Keys of the Kingdom” posts.

Linda and I got back in Monroe about midnight last night. We’re still thinking about our week in New York City - the people of Faith Bible Church, the great food, the visual feast that is the city itself, and the powerful presence of God with us.

Here’s a few more NYC shots I took.

(Ground Zero)

(Little Italy)

(Ground Zero)

(Megu Restaurant)

(Linda & Greg Woo at Megu Restaurant)

(NYC taxi)

(Subway station at Ground Zero)

(Hope Center - Faith Bible Church & Seminary)

(Times Square)

Today was another day of teaching in New York City. I again taught from 9 - 4. I especially taught about the nature of authority in the life of Jesus and the authority Jesus gives his real followers. I taught the 27 students in my class how to take our Jesus-given authority and pray for the sick. Tomorrow morning I’ll ask the students if any healings have taken place.

Linda and I continue to be blessed by our very gracious Chinese hosts. They are incredibly kind and loving. Linda and I feel like royalty among them! Yet I think it is we who are deeply honored to be in their presence. We are getting much more from them than we are giving out to them. We are so thankful to God for connecting us with Pastor John Hao and Rosie Hao and this powerful God-led seminary.

Tonight I gave an hour and a half of guitar lessons + Linda and I spoke about worship and worship leading to about 15 young musicians.

And… today Linda and I ate…  quail eggs, octopus, buffalo fish, bubble tea, lamb, tofu, clams, and a whole lot of other very interesting foods.

Today I taught from 9 AM to 4 PM. My class is called “A Theology of the Kingdom of God.” I have 27 seminary students. My teachings are translated into Mandarin Chinese by a very talented young man, Ray.

This is proving to be a very good thing for me to do. I am fully immersed in the essential message of the Real Jesus. And that message is: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Life is all about advancing the Kingdom of God, and has nothing to do with advancing our own personal kingdoms. This is precisely where the grossly non-biblical teachings about personal prosperity go very wrong. Read Matthew/Mark/Luke/John and you’ll not only find Jesus saying nothing about personal prosperity, you will find him giving severe warnings about seeking after earthly riches, and profoundly severe and dramatic warnings about not helping the poor and needy and sick and marginalized (Matthew 25).

Linda met up with me at 4 and we joind Pastor Greg Woo as he took us to an unbelieveable Japanese restaurant in downtown Manhattan. Them we went and explored Little Italy in Manhattan. 65 degrees in Manhattan, with Linda and our friend Greg - we had a simply wonderful time, and a wonderful day.

Greg also dropped Linda and I off at Ground Zero. It’s a pretty humbling and sober place. The picture above shows what’s going on - 6 years after that horrific tragedy.

Tomorrow is an important day for my class. I’ve given them an in-depth background of the real message of Jesus and his kingdom. Tomorrow we’ll look closely at the place and purpose of Jesus’ casting out of demons and healing the sick. Then, we’re going to turn to God and see if he will demonstrate the reality of hte kingdom by healing some sick people in our class.

Finally, we saw actor Nicholas Cage in Manhattan, and I took this picture of him.

OK - Linda and I are in New York City. Here’s a rundown on the past 3 days. (My computer could not connect for 2 days in the hotel I’m in!)

SATURDAY

Taught a workship/seminar at Faith Bible Church’s Annual Conference - “How to Pray for the Sick.” At the end of my teaching one person asked, “Will you teach us how to do this, to actually pray for sick people?” So, I led them in a time of praying for people who had some kind of physical problems. I asked, what’s happening? Anyone feel God doing something? A number of people responded positively. One person, e.g., felt a chronic back pain leave immediately - they were overjoyed!

Taught another workshop - “The Uniqueness of Jesus Among the World Religions.” We had very good discussion. I shared the William Lane Craig idea that, because God has counterfactual knowledge and has given persons free will for the sake of love, then God is not unfair in not exposing all persons to the Gospel of Christ. See Craig’s reasoning in an essay called “Politically Incorrect Salvation” here.

Linda had packed-out worshop sessions for here preentations of family life and the blessings of being still. Today a woman personally told me how much God used Linda to help her in her prayer life.

I gave the conference message on the theme “A Life Filled with Hope.” Linda and I find our Chinese and Asian brothers and sisters in Christ very hope-filled people. It’s wonderful to be with them!

Saturday evening - were hosted by a beautiful Chiense couple at an excellent Korean restaurant. Their specialty - an incredible, spicy tofu soup that comes to your table boiling in a bowl especially made for this.

SUNDAY

Preached at two worship services - on Jhn 7 and streams of living water. My first message was at their Mandarin service and was translated into Mandarin. My second message was at their English service and was mostly youth and young adults. Ths church has a dynamic youth leader in Pastor Greg Woo.

 NOTE: We handed out fliers for our comign Redeemer Ministry School. One young woman especially stopped me after the service and said she was very interested in this school.

We then went with 600 people to the church and seminary’s $4 million dollar warehouse they just purchased to house the seminary and the growth of people who are now coming. Pastor John Hao spoke and his wife Rosiue translated from Mandarin into English. They are a truly dynamic coupe who are great leaders and are greatly being used by God. John is, to me, a true example of a great visionary for the kingdom of God. We had some wonderful worship, their choir sang, and then we ate eel for lunch. Linda and I found it delicious!

At 4 PM Sunday afternoon Linda and I got on the #7 subway from Queens to Times Square. We walked around Times Square for 4 hours, went into store, bought a few things, ate at Roxy’s Deli. Times Square is astounding. Tourists and New Yorkers were all over the place, many taking pictures.

MONDAY

Walked from our hotel to the seminary, where I taught day 1 of “A Theology of the Kingdom of God.” I have 27 Chinese seminary students. My presentations are being translated into Mandarin by a gifted young man named Ray, whose father is a Taiwanese diplomat to the United States. I sent the group out to pray, using Matthew 5:1-12 as a focus and to meditate on. This is a delightful group of very talented and eager semianry students and non-seminary students who are taking my class. I am teaching people about the upside-down Kingdom of God and “the Great Reversal,” as taught by the Real Jesus.

Tonight Pastor John and Rosie Hao took us to an incredible NYC Japanese restaurant where we had phenomenal sushi + three kinds of Japanese ice cream - red beet, ginger, and green tea.

Linda and I are so blessed to be here. We see God already doing great things. There are a lot of individual talks and experiences and God-things that I won’t take time to write here. It’s quite encouraging! If you’ve prayed for us - thank you!

Linda and I flew to New York City today where we will be speaking and teaching Chinese Christians at a conference tomorrow.

I will speak on “A Life Filled With Hope” at the main conference session. Linda will lead two workshops - one on being still and quiet before God, another on the place of Jesus in families. I will also lead two workshops - one on the uniqueness of Jesus among the world religions, another on how to pray for healing the sick.

Our hotel is in Queens, right in the center of one of NYC’s two large Chinatown areas. There are one million Asians in NYC! Tonight after a dinner of shark fin soup, Peking duck, red snapper, coconut shrimp, lobster soup, and sweet green pea soup for dessert, we walked around downtown Queens.

We went into a large Chinese grocery store and were amazed at all the varieties of food there!

I took some pictures. There was a barrel full of large live frogs for sale, for the eating. There was a tank of live eels. There was a jar of dried stomachs for $72.99 a pound. I did not ask where the stomachs came from.

Then we walked to a Tea House where there were 150 varieties of tea and coffee and fruit and herbal etc. etc. etc. drinks. I had a sweet frothy coffee that reminded me of the Arabian coffee I had years ago when I taught in Singapore. Linda had a pina colada thing which had a texture like heavy whipped cream and sipped through a large straw.

Now we’re back at the hotel snacking on some dried stomachs (not really). We’ll get picked up at 8:30 tomorrow for a day of speaking and teaching.

(Munson Park) 

David Augsburger, in his excellent little book Caring Enough to Confront, teaches us how to effectively communicate in marriage and relationships when we are in conflict. He sees four communication options in conflict and finds them all lacking even though they are much used.

He gives us a fifth option, using Ephesians 4:15, which says: “therefore speak the truth in love; so shall we fully grow up into Christ.” Here we are told, in communication, to be both truthful and loving or, in Augsburger’s words, both confronting and caring. Practically, here’s what this means.

Work at communicating  both caring and confronting in the middle of marital or relational conflict. The table below shows the attitudes to have and hold to.

 For more explanation Augsburger’s book can be purchased on amazon.com for about $10 - a great investment! Why not get the book and read it with your significant other? Discuss, learn, grow.

(Munson Park) 

Dr. David Augsburger, in his excellent and readable book Caring Enought to Confront: How to Understand and Express Your Deepest Feelings Toward Others, shows us how to effectively communicate when we are in conflict with someone. Linda and I were, years ago, mentored by David and his wife Nancy in this, and we will always be grateful for what we learned and how it has helped us in marriage.

David is a follower of Jesus and bases his communication theory on Ephesians which says: “therefore speak ther truth in love; so shall we fully grow up into Christ.” Truth without love is destructive; love without truth is avoidant. Combining truth + love in communication-in-conflict and the results can be positive. 

The way David puts this is: be both confronting and caring at the same time. Practice “care-fronting” with others. Or, care enough to confront when you’re angry with one another. If not this, what would the other options be? Augsburger gives us 4 other options when in conflict that mostly are ineffective, even causing more damage.

Option #1 - “I’ll get him!” This is the I-win-you-lose-because-I’m-right-you’re wrong” position in conflict. Augsburger writes: “This “win-lose” stance uses all power and little or no love. Goal is valued above relationship. ‘My way is the only way,’ the person feels.”

Option #2 - “I’ll get out.” If #1 1 is “fight,” #2 is “flight.” This is the I’m-uncomfortable-so-I’ll-withdraw stance toward conflict/ Augsburger writes: “The viewpoint here is that conflicts are hopeless, people cannot be changed; we either overlook them or withdraw. Conflicts are to be avoided at all costs. When they threaten, get out of their way.” This is a lose-lose option in which everyone loses, including the relationship.

Option #3 -”I’ll give in.” This is the Christian doormat position, the “I’ll-yield-to-be-nice-because-I-need-your-friendship approach. Augsburger writes: “As a rule, [this approach] falls short. You become a doormat. A nice guy or gal. Frustrated. Yet smiling. The more tense and tight on the inside, the more generous and submissive on the outside.”

Option #4 - “I’ll meet you halfway.” This is the I-have-only-half-the-truth-and-I-need-your-half approach in conflict. This is working toward compromise. Sometimes this is good, but Augsburger cautions: “When we begin with a decision to compromise, we run the risk that my half of the truth added to your half may not give us the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We may have two half-truths. or the combination may produce a whole untruth. Only when we care enough to tussle with truth can we test, retest, erfine and perhaps find more of it through our working it out seriously.”

Augsburger then gives us the stance that usually works best when in conflict. This is:

Option #5 - “I care enough to confront.” This is the I-want-relationship-and-I-also-want-integrity position. I’ll spell out exactly what this means in my next marriage-saving post.