The Evolution of Our Faith | Raw Grace

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.”
~ C.S. Lewis

At times I am tempted to build a wall around my heart. I feel safe behind my barrier of accomplishments and harden my heart towards past pains. I put on a facade and hide behind a fake smile. Over time, however, I have learned to break down this wall through letting God’s love, grace, mercy, peace and joy shine a light through the cracks and tear down my Jericho. 

Love and grace go hand in hand. I have found that to truly love someone, I must hold tightly to grace and humility. Christ is the supreme example of this. Philippians 2:8 describes how Jesus humbled Himself through laying down his life for all mankind. Somehow, through faith and His sacrifice of unconditional love, we may know the encouragement and comfort Christ brings. The consolation of love may fully be felt in the fellowship we experience with the Spirit. It is in this fellowship that our hope deepens, our joys are fulfilled, and His affection and compassion for us are experienced. This love prompts me to recall one of the Hebrew words for love, which is Hesed. This encapsulates His profound lovingkindness, steadfastness and loyalty towards humanity. His affections are bound to us through His covenant fulfilled in Christ. His display of faithfulness for us enables me to mirror this Hesed love towards those in my closest circles of relationship. It is there that I partake in a fathomable, real love and grasp the heights and depths of His and their love towards me. 

Over time I have learned to differentiate grace from mercy. Grace is His unmerited favor or blessings that we receive freely with no requirement of repayment. Mercy, on the other hand, is when He withholds the negative repercussions of our choices and spares us from the natural consequences of our mistakes. The promise in Romans 8:28 reminds us of how God, who deeply loves us and is concerned greatly for us, causes all things to work together as a plan for good according to His amazing purposes. 

In 2 Corinthians 12:9 Paul writes of how the Lord has said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you, My lovingkindness and My mercy are more than enough, always available, regardless of any situation.” For my power is being perfected and completed through showing itself most effectively in weakness. Therefore let us rejoice in our weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may completely dwell in us. I have found much solace also in Hebrews 4:16, which describes how when we approach the throne of grace and God’s gracious favor, with confidence and without fear, we may receive mercy for our failures so that we may fully experience His amazing grace to help us in times of need. 

One of my life verses is Joshua 1:5b-9, which reminds me to approach life with a courage that only the LORD can bring and restore. In this strength I can boldly follow wherever He may lead and run this race He has set before me with endurance. He lifts me up on eagle’s wings and enables me to soar to new heights and discover all that He has in store for me.

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About the Author

Mollie is married to her wonderful husband Dustin. She is a Wound Care RN at McKenzie Willamette Hospital. She enjoys being creative, getting outdoors and spending time with friends and family.

The Evolution of Our Faith | Freedom to Explore

This blogpost is about the "Three Cs": Curious and Courageous, then Change, and the personal freedom they all produce.

When I was a child, I acted as a child. I was curious and open to all possibilities. Actually we ALL were, because that's how we learn and grow. I gleefully maxed out my insane amount of kinetic energy and mirrored, then outran, my exhausted parents. All the while exploring anything and everything around me.

Then crashed into bed. 

It was a time of wonder and awe. We were all so innocent, or so that was how I pleaded my case to my parents after my curiosity got me and my boy buddies into deep trouble. But wishful alibis aside, it was my fruitful imagination and my unspoiled enthusiasm, with the mysteries of my expanding world that turned me into a mini-explorer. But back to awe and wonder: I was practicing “beginner's mind.” 

And I didn't realize it so, so young ago.

Beginner's mind is an idea shared with other faiths, and it refers to a practice of approaching situations with an open, eager, and unburdened attitude, free from preconceptions, just as a beginner would. It's exploring the world through childlike eyes. 

Jesus understood childhood innocence and our spiritual formation, and famously told the disciples: "Unless you change your inner self - your old way of thinking, live changed lives and become like trusting, humble, and forgiving children, you won't find the kingdom of heaven."

For us all, exploration of the soul requires humility.

Author Richard Rohr puts it this way: "Beginner's mind is a non-grasping, patient and compassionate holding of truth, with the readiness for God and life to reveal even more of that truth - and the meaning of the truth as your life goes on. Beginner’s mind is always a humble mind, always knowing that it does not yet fully know". Or as the Apostle Paul humbly admits: "We see through the glass dimly". 

And it takes courage.

Let's face it: Trying a haunted house for the first time pales in comparison to successfully navigating real love, hard suffering, and other essential matters of the heart. And if we are honest, both strike the fear of change into us. The older we get, the harder it is to make adjustments. Our open heart and mind tends to close down. What seemed like great fun when we were young, now is a struggle.

But really, change is always coming, coming, coming, like the light inside the tunnel. We don't get to decide whether it comes, but rather if it's negative - or works for our collective good. 

And that's where freedom comes in.

When I was young, I used my adventuring to try and exercise my personal freedom. But too often it turned out to be an exercise in futility. I couldn't escape my personal pain (my escape clause). I was searching for deep answers to deep questions. And eventually I had to change my search from outside to in. 

What I discovered was that freedom couldn't come from the searching, but from the waiting itself ... for the good answer. When I was ready, my Lord brought it to me. But I had to do the soul work first. Now, I haven't yet arrived at the station, but I do better to embrace the necessary change - even welcome it. 

It all makes the outside journey more fun and fulfilling, as Colby and I get to visit other places and meet fellow soul travelers. It's always a mixture of hard work, embracing the unknown, and practicing generous assumptions. 

I am back to the beginning, as it were - and it's so sweet!

Joshua 1:9
“Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

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About the Author

Terry is a man in constant motion to explore new horizons. He has a thirst for new places and faces, and a deep love for the natural world - with a weakness for waterfalls and sunsets. All of this venturing out helps to both ground and inspire him, because it opens him up to people, with their vast, collective array of experiences, outlooks and responses.

He finds all of this fascinating and sees that it has encouraged the growth of something crucial in his Christian development: empathy and compassion toward his brothers and sisters on this planet.

The Evolution of Our Faith | Evolving Faith

Following Jesus truly is a lifelong journey, and he invites us to grow, question, stumble and change as we traverse it. We may not always be prepared for the twists and turns or the valleys and mountains, but we can trust that our God is big enough to hold our evolving perspectives of him. We just need to maintain a posture of openness to those evolutions as well.

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I remember thinking, after first making the choice to give my life to Jesus, that all was settled. I was now a Christian and with a little cleaning up of my habits and thoughts here and there, my life would be kind of static… but in a good way. I thought all things would work out in the most positive way as long as I trusted God, prayed regularly and kept learning from the Bible.  

After my graduation from college, I went to an evangelical study center in Switzerland called “L’Abri”. I listened to 30 cassette tapes (do you know what those are? 😊) that held teachings on all the basic doctrines of Christianity from an evangelical point of view. This was a time of massive learning, since I wasn’t raised with this kind of knowledge for the most part. I felt I was really growing in wisdom and knowledge. And I was growing, at least in knowledge, but there was one thing that bothered me in the teaching. I was told not to trust my experience; I should only trust in the Bible as God’s perfect and infallible Word. The problem with that for me was that I had had a couple of amazing experiences with God already that were answers to prayer, and both were sacred to me in my early life of faith.

Looking back, one of those experiences was kind of innocent and child-like. I had asked God to give me a flat tire on my Moped when I reached the place at which I was supposed to stay! (I was very open to anything at that point in my life.) Well, sure enough, after traveling all through Switzerland and Germany, I had a flat tire when I entered the little town of Eck en Wiel in the Netherlands, where a Dutch L’Abri was and where they needed a worker in their apple orchard. It was on my first day in Eck en Wiel that I met Laura, who was a few years later to become my wife! To me, that was an incredible experience and one that made me realize there were more ways of knowing and experiencing God than just understanding and believing in a particular biblical theology. 

After moving to Eugene with Laura and going to Faith Center, a Foursquare Pentecostal Charismatic church, I saw there were other Believers who knew God answered prayer and could give us experiences of faith. The Holy Spirit was still alive and well and could even perform miracles. This was very exciting and ushered in a new chapter in my faith. 

During the coming years, Laura and I were introduced to an Episcopal minister who taught Inner Healing Prayer. Both Laura and I were very blessed by this ministry and even began ministering in this way at our church. I surely thought “This is finally the way we are to function as Christians. This is what Christianity is all about…to see people healed of emotional trauma through prayer.” 

A number of years later, learning and appreciating more about the Jewish roots of our faith, I got quite involved with this movement and even held Passover Seders at my house, explaining how Jesus was celebrating the Passover Seder when he took the bread and wine with his disciples before he was arrested and killed. (There is some differing opinion these days as to whether they had even instituted the Seder during Jesus’ day). Nonetheless, I felt this was what the Faith was all about… reconnecting with our Jewish roots, the olive tree into which we Christians have been grafted (Romans 11:17-21). 

A few years later, I was introduced to the teachings of the Soul Formation Academy through readings and a number of 4-day retreats. This was an amazing time of learning to listen to God, to practice solitude, silence and contemplation in order to experience a growing unity with God. The emphasis was really quite different from the practices in the evangelical/charismatic churches I had been to and it opened the door into a greater sensitivity to God’s closeness, His love and to discernment of His will.

So what’s my point, in rambling through these stages of faith? For me at least, the point is that following Jesus is an incredibly dynamic journey! It’s not JUST about good biblical theology, not JUST about our experiences, not JUST about Inner Healing, not JUST about our Jewish roots, and not JUST about solitude, silence and contemplation. It’s about ALL of them, and probably many more things that I haven’t experienced (yet😊). 

One of my favorite scriptures was written by King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes. He writes about the turning of seasons and about the need for different responses to what life brings us through the years. I will include the Scripture here and, then, if you’re interested to hear a 1967 musical version of the scripture, put on your tie-died t-shirt and listen along to The Byrds, an American folk/rock band from the 60’s! 

And above all, keep on listening to what the Lord is inviting you into during this season of your life! 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (NIV) 
There is a time for everything, 
and a season for every activity under the heavens: 
a time to be born and a time to die, 
a time to plant and a time to uproot, 
a time to kill and a time to heal, 
a time to tear down and a time to build, 
a time to weep and a time to laugh, 
a time to mourn and a time to dance, 
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, 
a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, 
a time to search and a time to give up, 
a time to keep and a time to throw away, 
a time to tear and a time to mend, 
a time to be silent and a time to speak, 
a time to love and a time to hate, 
a time for war and a time for peace.

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About the Author

John lives in Pleasant Hill with his dog, Gunnar, and a multitude of guests who enjoy the peace and beauty of the Cascade foothills. With three children and three grandchildren all living in Oregon, he is continually blessed with their company and the good food that always accompanies their get-togethers!