The World is Cracked and Maybe That’s Just the Way it is

October 11, 2011 By Kurt Willems 13 Comments

A few years ago I was on my way to a speaking engagement in LA.  While I drove over the Grapevine, I saw an object moving rapidly toward my windshield.  Before I could figure out what was flying toward my car, I heard the impact… “ding!”  The object struck the bottom right hand side of my windshield and left a small crack.  Before long, the crack started climbing across my windshield, until an arc shaped horizontal line went all the way across my window.  I was frustrated, but also cheap.  I decided to leave the crack alone as it wasn’t blocking my line of sight and it appeared to have stopped growing.

Enter, three years later.  Same crack.  Same window.  But, something happened over time – not to the windshield, but to me.  The fracture in the glass eventually became normal.  Deep down I knew the crack was there and that it wasn’t supposed to be… but instead of doing something about it I decided to look through the windshield as though the crack didn’t exist.  The crack was only there if I let myself focus on it.  In other words, I chose to look past the crack in the windshield rather than choosing to repair it.  My normal view included the crack.

I want to suggest that we often view our world in this way.  The window through which we gaze at our world is full of cracks and imperfections.  [Read more...]

Filed Under: Missional, Spiritual Warfare, Theology Tagged With: , , , , , , 13 Comments

God’s Middle Finger – When the Divine Says “Up Yours”

September 5, 2011 By Kurt Willems 40 Comments

When we cling to the sword, we flip the cross upside down to use it as our tool of death instead of God’s tool for bringing life.

And so the story goes…

I can remember a scene in the movie Independence Day.  The drunken dad turned heroic father, Russell Case, chooses to sacrifice his life by flying his fighter jet into the belly of an alien ship.

One of the best-known quotes from any popular movie in the last 20 years is in this clip.  Russell says: “All right, you alien a-holes! In the words of my generation: Up Yours!”

Up yours.  These words dictate the attitude of enemies to each other.  To say “up yours” is to give the metaphorical middle finger and to ultimately say to the opposing side that “you have no power over me… my power is greater than your power… and if I have to, I’ll show you how strong I am!”

So, what do we do?  When we’re threatened we show our guns.  When we’re attacked we draw the sword.  This story recycles itself in numerous ways. It started with Constantine, then the crusades, then the slaughter of millions of Native Americans, then the various wars to secure a stolen land, then the wars throughout the 200-plus year history of the United States, and then the “war on terror.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Greg Boyd, Kingdom of God, Missional, Nationalism, Nonviolence, Reconciliation, Restorative Justice, Roman Empire, Spiritual Warfare Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , 40 Comments

When Sucking at Spiritual Habits Sucks the Life Outta Ya

June 15, 2011 By Kurt Willems 15 Comments

Modlitwa różańcowa 05photo © 2010 FotoKatolik | more info (via: Wylio)

ENFP.  My personality profile.  Among other things, for those who are familiar with the Meyers-Briggs Personality Assessment, you recognize these letters as indicating an unstructured personality.  So when it comes to incorporating spiritual disciplines into my life, I’ve gone through several phases.  I find that they cycle to some extent.

When I was in high school, there was the underlining stage.  You know this one.  You discover the bible for the first time and every line you read jumps out.  So what do you do?  You highlight, underline, and circle every passage to the point where more text is marked than is not on a particular page.  And if you’re a creative, your strategic use of highlighters create a system.

Green for verses about spiritual growth or maturity.  Red for passages that remind us of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  Yellow for verses about living in the light.  Orange for texts about bearing fruit.  Purple for the ones about Jesus as Lord of our lives.  Blue, well, you just like blue so it becomes the “holy crap! This is awesome!” color.  By the time you’ve underlined and highlighted during your 30 minute devo’s for the month, your bible resembles the colors of the rainbow (Can I get a “double rainbow!?”).  And then you get stuck.  No more to highlight.  What I thought would lead to a spiritual pot of gold, eventually left me without a next step. The spiritual discipline slump slithers into your life. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Faith Journey, Holy Spirit, Spiritual Warfare 15 Comments

All Out War (Partnering with the God who is "gathering up all things!"), part 5

December 15, 2010 By Kurt Willems 2 Comments

Today, I want to make some “big picture” observations about the Armor of God…

1. The weapons are not literal but meant to capture the reader/hearer’s imagination to understand the great resources of God at our disposal

2. The armor metaphor comes from mostly the book of Isaiah, and partially from the average Roman soldier

Behind this text, is another group of passages that come out of the Old Testament.  The armor metaphor is mostly connected to God as the divine warrior as we mentioned earlier from Isaiah.  This is how we know that Ephesians 6 addresses issues of invisible demonic forces but also visible social justice issues.

3. The armor is first an image for the gathered church community, second for the individual Christ-follower

Ephesians is a letter that was written to a community as a whole… not to one person. So it’s important to recognize that the “church” is called to wear this armor primarily. Secondarily the individual Christ-follower is also called into this spiritual battle. [Read more...]

Filed Under: (Series) All Out War-Spiritual Warfare, New Creation, Social Justice, Spiritual Warfare 2 Comments
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