God Behaving Badly

Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist? That's the subtitle for the book I finished the week before last, God Behaving Badly by David Lamb. He seeks to answer that question and explores other negative ideas about God - violent, legalistic, rigid, and distant.

He focuses on the Old Testament because Christians and nonbelievers alike often have negative views of how God is presented there. I loved his conversational tone. His Biblical examples were intriguing and excellent. He didn't just write off the questions as evil, ignorant, or unfaithful. He addressed them with humor and care.

As you might guess, he comes to the conclusion that God is loving, affirming, and hospitable, not angry, sexist or racist. He challenges Christians to stop ignoring tricky passages and learn everything they can about a God who is much bigger than we can imagine. He believes as we do this we will find God to be fascinating, relational, and good.

Prayers Answered

With the Area Team Meeting last week, and the Divine Experiment over last night, I've been enjoying some much needed rest. And God is so faithful and good! Thank you for praying.

I met with the students in conflict late last week. We talked about conflict resolution skills, assumptions, and boundaries. They still need to work through their anger and the ways they hurt each other, but they've been taking steps to love one another.

David did a great job teaching Steven how to co-lead a Small Group Bible study, and will be doing the same with another new member tonight. Ben has termed the men's Small Group the "bullpen" for you baseball enthusiasts.

At our Core Team meeting on Thursday night, we assessed weaknesses in our structures and discussed how to move toward health. We're planning on merging our two co-ed Small Groups and doing a whole lot more inviting. We're still figuring out logistics, but leaders were able to voice our weaknesses and throw around ideas for change.

We still need to strengthen Small Groups, especially the Blinn plant. Please continue to pray for us as we raise up missional leaders and reach new parts of campus, and a whole new campus!

Prayer Requests

I am super sleepy. When I first typed that, it came out sleppy. But I'm headed to Area Team Meetings for 3 days, and at least one of them will be solely for resting. My director, Josh Howell, is very wise - he knows that his whole staff team has been pushing themselves and not taking a break, so he gathers us in October and basically makes us take a break. I'm looking forward to it!

I'm leaving a lot of ministry behind though.

• Could you pray for our Blinn Small Group, starting to meet Wednesday evenings instead of afternoons? If this isn't the time God wants us to gather, we want that to be clear. There's lot of spiritual interest, just not a lot of free time among students on a commuter campus.
• I'm also leaving behind some drama going on with a leader and some core students - pray for grace, love, and the students to see situations with God's eyes.
• Since Ben Nelson, our new staff worker, is coming with me, he won't be there to co-lead the men's Small Group. David will be helping a new student learn the ropes of co-leading.
• Finally, I won't be here to do some much needed strengthening and resourcing of other Small Groups - 2 co-ed, LaFe (Latino), South Asian, and Greek (Pike fraternity). Pray God would give wisdom, creativity, and strength to the leaders to call members to "set the table" like family and invite others to the feast.

Update on my Laboratory Research

No, I haven't been doing any genetic research. I'm now over halfway through my 3 weeks of fasting and prayer for the Divine Experiment, and I wanted to give y'all an update! Kyle and I have held up well to a lot of temptations (especially this weekend right before my birthday, when we went to visit Kyle's mom and I met some of his family, and they served cheesecake - my favorite food!) That weekend, Kyle said, "What if we longed for Jesus as much as we long for the food everyone was eating today?" What if we knew he would satisfy us, and knew the food wouldn't?

God's grace is all over me getting up in the morning. As many of you know, this is a struggle for me. Beds are nice. And warm. And I just like to sleep. So getting up every morning at 6am to get ready, pick up a couple folks and drive to campus for a 7am prayer meeting is honestly a demonstration of God's power and goodness to me.

I've struggled to feel God's presence during the meetings though. I know he's at work; students around me are praying deep prayers of confession and longing. But the only thing I really sensed the first week was that he was going to tear down my pride and the structures I've built up around me to protect my self-image, like he ripped the dragon skin off of Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (the book, not the movie.)

While we gave away icy pops at Blinn to let students know about our new Small Group Bible study there, a student asked for prayer. Then she asked if she could pray for me. I told her I had a lot of great things I needed to go do later that day, but I felt like it was too much. After she prayed, she told me I needed to do those things in God's strength. I said I was still trying to figure out what that looked like, and she told me I just needed to wait on the Lord.

So I'm waiting! Please pray for God to not just tear down my pretenses, but to also build up new ways of living in humility. And pray for it to happen soon - it's hard to wait!

Story Time

The Story of God, the Story of Us by Sean Gladding was simply an excellent read. He wrote about major stories in the Bible, but in a friendly invitational tone. He set up the Old Testament storytelling with a Jewish elder in Babylonian captivity calling his people back to God and the lessons of their history. He wrote the New Testament stories in the midst of a house church facing growing persecution but sharing the story with one another and newcomers. I was drawn in by the stories from Scripture, even though I've read most of them more times than I can remember. Gladding's style and approach, the story he set the storytelling in, kept me coming back. I don't know if it's a useful book for starting conversations with non-believers - one of my staff friends, Bethany at Rice, tried handing out a ton of copies while Sean Gladding was visiting her campus, but I haven't heard how it went. I do know that as a believer I was refreshed and inspired to take another look at stories I've started glossing over, and to read some of the Old Testament I can never seem to get around to studying.

A Divine Experiment

For the next 3 weeks, several of my students and I will be fasting from various things of our choosing (certain foods, entertainment, the phone or internet, etc.), and meeting each morning to pray. We'll be asking God to humble us, we'll seek his face, and we'll turn away from the things we've made idols out of. We're doing this with 9 other Christian organizations on campus, and I'm excited to see how God moves among us and through us. I'll keep you updated!

This morning, I managed to wake up and get to our prayer gathering before the 7am start time. I think it helped that my staff partner Ben needed a ride from me...

I've been enjoying looking through old recipes for soups that you can eat during a "Daniel Fast." That's a fast based on what Daniel did in the Old Testament when he was being trained as a servant for the Babylonian emperor. He and his Jewish friends were expected to eat foods that were "unclean," forbidden by God. He made a deal with the guy in charge that he and his friends would only eat veggies for 10 days, and at the end of it, if they were unhealthy, then they'd eat the food everyone else was fed. The veggie diet won out.

There are several variations on the rules, but I'm abstaining from meat, dairy, sweets, and processed foods. That leaves fruits, veggies, nuts and legumes, and unprocessed grains. I've done it before, and it's not crazy hard. Last time it opened my eyes to how much I depend on food to comfort, distract, and entertain me. And the sheer choices of restaurants blew my mind when I'd drive around. So I'm actually looking forward to the freedom and realizations that it'll bring, but I know I'll be feeling it when my birthday hits next week!