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Tag: Living in Babylon
A lament for the American Church in the time of cornavirus
Over the last couple of years I have toyed around with a book. I have a working title: “Living in Babylon.” Last year I sat down and put all my notes together so I could have some sense of what I had studied over the 2-3 years I had been picking at it.
As I write this, the United States has come to the cusp of 60,000 deaths from coronavirus. That is over the number of American lives lost in the entirety of the Vietnam War. In six weeks.
Continue reading “A lament for the American Church in the time of cornavirus”A generational reset
I have some blocks of time to type up my notes for a work I hope to call “Living in Babylon.” A couple of observations.
Continue reading “A generational reset”All can be “well” and we can STILL be blind
One of the common mistakes we make in diagnosing current times is “how things are going.” If things are going reasonable “well” for us, we can’t see what might wrong beneath the surface, or care to explore that beneath the surface.
In the U.S., we can say, “Hey, the economy is humming along (for us saying it, of course), so what could possibly be wrong?”
Spiritually, we can say, “Look at our church! It’s growing! We bring in awesome speakers and have a great band!”
For us, all can seem “well”… and we can be blind. This is Israel’s case in Isaiah (and in many of the other prophetic books). Prophetic words calling “doom” on Israel didn’t always come in “down” economic times. They often came in GOOD economic times.
So, when Isaiah comes along preaching hypocrisy, they’re looking at him and asking, “What are you smoking?”
We, today in the American Church, are struggling. We may see verses from Isaiah and put them out there with the thought of, “Well, that’s for the OTHER part of the church!” (It can be a “liberal” Christian putting it out and digging at the “conservatives” or vice versa.)
Here is the problem: these words are for the AMERICAN church. Not just one segment. Friends, WE are in trouble… and are still struggling with spiritual blindness.
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight. (Isa. 5:20-21, NIV)
To walk in the prophetic
There were some crazy ideas of “the prophetic” when I was growing up and then when I was early in ministry. There are still some wild ideas about what it means to be “prophetic” even today. Some things just keep recycling. Here is what I have concluded as I keep walking through Jeremiah and Daniel in my work on “Living in Babylon”:
Continue reading “To walk in the prophetic”Thoughts from “Living in Babylon”
I’ve been able to grab a little extra time so I have returned to typing up my notes for a book I’m trying to hash out. I don’t know when I put some of these notes in (as far as a timeline) but a few thoughts that came together at some point in the past and I am haunted by them now:
Continue reading “Thoughts from “Living in Babylon””The end of the matter
Off and on for the past several years I have “picked at” the idea I have called “Living in Babylon.” It has been a deep stirring in my heart to say something or write something about this shift we are experiencing in American Christianity. For the past several months I’ve tried to consolidate my thoughts and begin to write something more concrete.
Continue reading “The end of the matter”The way home
I am working my way through Daniel 6 as I continue to expand on “Living in Babylon.” (I think it may be a book one day if I can simply overcome one thing: outright fear and terror.)
Continue reading “The way home”No wonder they wanted to shut up Jeremiah
I am working through a hard passage in Jeremiah related to some writing I’ve called “Living in Babylon.” I’ve avoided getting to deep into this passage because of the direct implications it has on the American Church… and I have no interest whatsoever in being “wacky prophet guy.” But… God has turned me into “wacky prophet guy” and I’m not very happy about it.
Continue reading “No wonder they wanted to shut up Jeremiah”What if we actually REPENTED
Story after story has piled up in the past two years (and, of course, longer). Yet… nothing has resulted in the way of Church response other than suggested “policy changes.”
Continue reading “What if we actually REPENTED”