In the Evangelical churches that I have attended I never remembered the Nicene Creed being a part of what I was to believe. I admit, they could have been saying it between the Sunday school report and the hell, fire and brimstone preaching…but I don’t remember it. Even after I stepped out of the denominational infighting churches and switched my church going habit to the liberating Non-denominational brand, we still didn’t hear much about this creed deal. I guess it’s because the creed is not in the Bible and we all know God ONLY speaks to us through the Bible? Really?

I have a confession, I have been quietly attending the early Eucharist at a neighborhood Episcopal Church for the past six months and it has been very refreshing and very worshipful. Entering the service quietly and in prayer is a great way to prepare your heart to be with God. It’s not passive…I get to kneel and pray out loud. They have this book called The Book of Common Prayer and it is full of these sayings and prayers. This Nicene Creed is one that we seem to say a lot…this is how it reads…  

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen. 

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end. 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen. 

If you read it fast please reread it slowly thinking about what you are saying…is that rich or is it just me? Come to find out it was written a few years ago (325AD) by some pretty smart and holy men. I am humbled by those words and I am humbled by reciting them with other believers in worship. Now that you know that I am a closet Episcopalian…let me say that I firmly believe in the Nicene Creed…do you?

0000ff;">I received this in an email from one of my friends a couple of weeks ago and I encouraged him to allow me to post it here for you…thanks Terry.

When I was a child
I caught a fleeting glimpse
Out of the corner of my eye.
I turned to look but it was gone
I cannot put my finger on it now
The child is grown,
The dream is gone.
but I have become comfortably numb

——–from Comfortably Numb, by Pink Floyd

This past Thursday all five of us were in the car coming back from Thanksgiving in S.C.  I was driving and my son Greg was riding shotgun.  Greg made a quick playlist on his ipod of music that he thought I would enjoy and started it off.  It was quite a list which included Peter Frampton, White Stripes, Matchbox 20, John Cougar Mellencamp, Pink Floyd and many others.  He and I had had a conversation about Contemporary Christian music – Greg said he liked the message but that you could always tell a Christian song by the sound of the singers voice, by the singer’s mood as reflected in his voice.  Well that generated some conversation back and forth and somewhere in there Greg said “you should look for Christian themes in all of the music that you listen to, Dad!”  Well, I never would have thought to do that!!!

The Pink Floyd song he chose was “Comfortably Numb” – a song that I haven’t heard in awhile, but it has been on my mind for some reason.  I’ve included some of the lyrics above.  Who knows what Roger Waters and David Gilmour had in mind when they penned these lyrics back in the 1970′s.  I’ve read some commentary that says that Roger Waters had a bad fever as a kid and took some medicine that helped him through it – the medicine made him “comfortably numb” to the point that he didn’t notice the fever too much.  There are times when I sit in “my chair”, TV tuned to Sunday afternoon football, somewhere between consciousness and sleep and I have to say that when I achieve that state of “comfortably numb” that I like it!  It’s better than sleep somehow because I am aware of my family around me, I am aware of the game and I am aware of the deep relaxation I am feeling at the moment.  That is until Geoffrey’s friend Gaither rings the doorbell and sets Mazie and Annabelle off to barking!

In our Christian journey, I dare say that too many of us (myself included) have achieved a state of “comfortably numb”.  We go to church, we sit in the pews, we hear the message, we go to the covered dish supper, we sing in the choir – heck we even pray every once in a while and crack open the Holy Bible.  But if God is calling us to action, we must not be hearing it.  If the Holy Spirit is ringing our doorbell, we do not rise out of our chair to answer.  We are aware of all the Christian busyness going on around us and we participate in it, but we are not transformed by it.  We are not moved with passion to action. 

Ephesians 4:11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Guys I believe as Christians we are all called.  As the above verse states, some are called to preach, some to teach, some to serve in other ways.  All Christians are called.  I am afraid that too many of us have become comfortably numb to the point that either we don’t hear the call of God or we don’t care.  I can’t imagine that we are hearing the voice of God calling us to action, and that we don’t care.  I CAN’T IMAGINE that!  So I have to assume that we are not hearing God’s call.  We sit there in those comfortable pews and we have achieved a state of numbness – yes, we go through the motions of church and we stop right there.  How sad!  We are numbed by TV, politics, business, busyness, gadgets, overcommitment, fatigue.  We are numbed to the point that we actually don’t hear God’s call on our life.  Brothers, we cannot allow this to go on any longer!

Call To Action:  Get out of that chair, out of that pew, turn off the TV, forget politics and business and gadgets.  All of those idols that we have placed ahead of our Creator – let’s turn them off, put them on the back burner.  Let’s bring Almighty God into focus.  Let’s draw upon strength from the Holy Spirit.  Let’s ponder on the passion of Jesus Christ.  Let’s be moved to evangelize, to preach, to teach, to tithe, to unite, to love.  Guys, let’s shake off that numbness and score a touchdown for our savior.  Let’s go out today and make a difference.  Will you join me?

Guys, I am get so excited when I think how we can make a difference for our Lord.  I get pumped up when I think how we can make a stand for Jesus.  Imagine us, arm in arm, making a bold statement for our Creator.  In unity, with passion let’s go out into this awesome world and proclaim the Gospel.  Let us evangelize, let us teach, let us love – all in the name of Almighty God.  Amen!

I don’t wanna spend my whole life asking,
“What if I had given everything,
instead of going through the motions?”

—-from The Motions, by Matthew West

1 Corinthians 1:8-10 (NIV)

8He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

re-envisioning the Gap Between CHRIST and CULTURE

I am reading through this book with about 12 other guys this fall. We started a few weeks ago and will be reading and discussing it for the next six weeks or so. I want to invite you to grab a copy of the book and join us in the discussion. Through the miracle of the internets (it’s what we call it here in the foothills of North Carolina) and this blog…we can read and chat together. Maybe we can get Kary to join the discussion…I am sure he has the internets in Ohio. My last couple of post “What’s the difference between in and of” and “love your neighbor as yourself” have dealt with some of the first topics brought up in the book. If you get a chance, read back through those and comment as you feel led.

The question is kind of this…as Christians, do we have a responsibility to be relevant to those around us? It seems we churchgoing Christians focus a whole lot on getting ourself “saved” and convincing others of their need for that same fire insurance. But once we get the ticket we go back to blending in…either in our church clubs or in melding into the big bad world.  If we do have that responsibility then just how do we live that? Kary talks about these two camps…the Separatist and the Conformist. One removes itself from the world so as not to be tainted and the other joins the world so they can be accepted into the culture. Then there is this third camp…people that are able to walk The Fine Line between separating and conforming. Wouldn’t it be great if others could see Jesus in us without trying to be so religious.

On page 20 He says “Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that there is little difference between the attitudes and actions of believers and unbelievers. Rather than drawing people to Christ, many Christians are pushing people away because of the disconnection between what we say and how we live.

Run down to your local book store and pick up The Fine Line or do like I did and cut this deal with Amazon…I send them money and they send me books. If you are interested in the subject or in joining us, click the word comments below and let me know.

Jesus told us to be IN the world but not OF the world…

What does that mean? How do you do it? I have spent most of my life striving to avoid worldly things by going to church on Sunday, hanging with the “right” people, not being caught in the wrong places, listening to the ”right” music and generally following the Christian “dos” and “don’ts”. When I haven’t followed them…I spent significant energy making sure none of my Christian friends knew I had been less than the image I had painted for them. So up till now…I have spent most of my time making sure I was not IN the world and when I slipped up and got IN it, I covered well.

I am growing really tired of living that way. Sunday morning is more stressful than Monday morning. We have made being a good Christian all about finding the right church or pastor to associate ourselves with. We are kind of obsessed with getting OUT of the world.

Don’t get me wrong…I truly agree we are to have other believers around us, building each other up. The genuine and humble Christian friends I have are the people that inspire me and  in part move me to be a genuine and humble Christian. Problem is…that has been 99.9% of our focus and it takes us OUT of the world. It is much more comfortable to stay in a circle of people that think, believe and agree with us.

But Jesus has called us to be IN the world…

Feel free to agree or disagree in the comments section below. We will talk more about the OF part next time and maybe discuss some ways we can follow through on Jesus’ request/command.