Frank Barnett | Ek Anastasis

Resolutions… an update

February 24, 2012 By Frank Leave a Comment

Just a brief update on my ambitious resolution: so far, so good.

I’m working hard. I’ve failed (a lot), not accomplished nearly enough… but again, that’s not the point. The point is not checking things off the list, not in the “win/loss” column. It’s learning which pitches to swing at, and then swinging for the fences (even if that means a curveball makes me look stupid sometimes). And for the most part, I’m doing better than usual this year. But I’ve still got a long ways to go.

I’ve got a good quote for those of you who long to be less content:

If faith thus depends on hope for its life, then the sin of unbelief is manifestly grounded in hopelessness… Temptation then consists not so much in the titanic desire to be as God, but in weakness, timidity, weariness, not wanting to be what God requires of us.” (Moltmann, Theology of Hope, p. 21)

This is why this year I’m desperately trying not to be happy where I am: because the biggest reason I’m a mediocre Christian is because far too often I take the safe, sure path, the prudent path, instead of the risky, difficult road. When I do that, I fail to become what God requires of me. That’s one way unbelief looks in me.

This doesn’t mean I’m going BASE jumping anytime soon. But it does mean that the things I do – more specifically, the things I believe God wants me to do – I need to be all in.

Filed Under: Jurgen Moltmann, New Year's Resolutions, Redemption, Uncategorized

2012 New Years’ Resolution: Be More Discontent

January 2, 2012 By Frank Leave a Comment

I’ve seen many posts on Facebook from several friends resolving to be more content with where God has them. This is a good resolution for many times in life, particularly those uncomfortable times where God seems to just want us to “be still and know He is God.” I’ve seen a lot of friends post resolutions along these lines on Facebook, and those are very worthy (and difficult) resolutions if you’re in one of those “waiting” periods.

I’m not there.

“wherever you are, be all there.” – Jim Elliott

For 2012, my resolution is simple: to be more discontent, to be less satisfied with the status quo, to get off my lazy butt and do more, be more, become more. To get off the bench and into the game. There are times when discontent is a good thing, where it’s the thing God uses to get someone off the couch and become an active participant in His plan, whether that be at work, in my marriage, in my kids’ lives, at church, or whatever. And let’s be clear: I’m a big sinner, and I’m going to chase the wrong goals or even the right ones with the wrong motives. I’ll be selfish at the expense of my family and friends. I’m not so naive that I buy into the legalistic idea that I just need to perform better. I do, but ultimately, unless God acts, my efforts will miss the mark. The point of this resolution is not simply more effort in 2012, but more intentionality. It’s just a theory, but it feels like it’s a lot easier for me to be an active part of God’s plan when He doesn’t have to start by overcoming my inherent inertia. A friend summed this up quite well in his own resolutions post: “resolve to show up.” Or, as Jim Elliott famously said, “wherever you are, be all there.”

2011 was a good year. 2012 needs to be better. I have a long list of big things I want to accomplish, to become, to achieve. Success in 2012 won’t be defined by the list, though. Many, maybe even most of those things won’t happen. That’s life. But at the end of this year, I want to know that whatever the reason an item didn’t get crossed off, it wasn’t because I didn’t show up or because I wasn’t “all there.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Discontent, Resolutions

The Center of Christianity

May 31, 2011 By Frank 2 Comments

“…the center of Christianity is always moving away from power and wealth.”
- Tim Keller, summarizing the conclusions of Andrew Wall

The context of the above observation was in discussing the moving “center” of Christianity, relative to the fixed “center” of every other major world religion. For example, Mecca is where Islam’s roots are, and so it remains the center of that faith. Jerusalem is the same for the Jews, and India for Hindus. Christianity, on the other hand, started off in Jerusalem, moved to Europe, moved West to the Americas, and we’re fast approaching the point when more than 50% of all Christians will live in the southern hemisphere.

It should come as no surprise that this “center” is both movable and that it tends to migrate towards the poor and maligned. God’s love for the “least of these” is present throughout both testaments, and the rich and powerful are generally condemned for not doing more to help the vulnerable classes.

What about you and me, though. Based on my Analytics data, we’re pretty much all from wealthy and powerful areas – areas that, according to Wall – are post-Christian. I flatly reject as naive anyone who claims that the unparalleled wealth and power of America have not corrupted the church and you and me to some degree.

Here’s the thought I’m wrestling with: I know that being poor and weak/vulnerable do not inherently make one closer to God’s will. That said, the adage that “power corrupts” seems beyond dispute. So is it a valid statement that the closer to wealth and power I get, the further from the “center” of Christianity – and of God’s will – that I get? To put it another way:is it true that the more financial success I have, the more my own depravity is fed and the less able I am to truly define my priorities apart from wealth and power?

Filed Under: God's Will, Quotes

Great Expectations

May 5, 2011 By Frank 2 Comments

For Easter, we moved the church and out of our small bank location (which Bonnie and Clyde reportedly once robbed), and for one Sunday, we filled out Anna Middle School. Most of the faces there were unfamiliar – new people, who, for various reasons, chose not to sleep in and showed up expecting… something.

Easter’s an interesting holiday for me. It doesn’t have the secular distractions of Christmas. Even the Easter bunny, the eggs and the giant lilies all still take a backseat. At some point, when you encounter the holiday, you’re faced with a crucified Savior – a Teacher who claimed to be God, who was brutally executed. And then, on Sunday, He rose from the dead. That’s why we’re still doing all this 2,000 years later.

That’s the message of Easter, though, isn’t it: that death wasn’t final for Jesus? That’s our hope – our expectation. Because death wasn’t final for Him, we who follow Him also expect great things, eternal things.

What do you expect?

Filed Under: Hope

An Attack on the Ego

May 4, 2011 By Frank Leave a Comment

As I’m writing stuff for my church on Ephesians 4:1-6, a quote today in one of my commentaries on that section jumped out:

An understanding of God’s work is always an attack on the ego, not to obliterate or humiliate the self, but to bring it into relation with God and to redirect its interests. In losing life, we find it.
- Klyne Snodgrass, Commentary on Ephesians, p. 195

Happy Wednesday – I hope you and I both are able to see evidence that God is working in us to bring us into relation with Him and to redirect our naturally self-centered interests.

Filed Under: Bible, Quotes

Remember… Therefore, Walk

May 2, 2011 By Frank Leave a Comment

My church is doing a series on Ephesians, and I’ve gotten the opportunity to write some semi-daily devotionals for it that do double-duty as small-group discussion aids. We covered Ephesians 1-2. For the past 6 weeks, we’ve done a sort of topical discussion of what the church should look like, with a particular focus on the things that usually prevent us from looking like Christ. This week, we’re back in Ephesians 4, to hear the practical advice Paul has for the churches of southwest Asia Minor. For our church, anyway, it’s surprisingly timely.

If these devos are of interest to you, there’s an email signup here.

Revisiting Ephesians

In the first half of Ephesians, Paul tells his readers to do just one thing: “remember,” in Ephesians 2:11. So the first half of the book can be summed-up under that one broad category: remember what God has done for you… in you… what He is doing even now in you and for you. Remember who you were before and who you are now. You were dead, hopeless – and now you’re alive, with hope and a future!

So what?
Now, beginning in chapter 4, Paul gets practical. In fact, where he used the imperative just once in the first half of the book, he uses it 40 times in chapters 4, 5 and 6. But notice how he starts it off: “therefore.” What’s the “therefore” there for? Paul considers everything from here on out as a natural result of what He’s described in chapters 1-3.

In Ephesians 4:1, we get the first imperative, the first command: “walk.”

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called…

Read the rest of the devotional here…

Filed Under: Bible Study

Come Awake

April 24, 2011 By Frank Leave a Comment

Χριστὸς ἀνέστη ἐκ νεκρῶν,
θανάτῳ θάνατον πατήσας,
καὶ τοῖς ἐν τοῖς μνήμασι
ζωὴν χαρισάμενος.

Christ is risen from the dead,
Trampling down death by death,
And upon those in the tombs
Bestowing life!

(Eastern Orthodox Paschal troparion)

Posted from Mobile

Filed Under: resurrection

The Gospel

April 23, 2011 By Frank Leave a Comment

The gospel is [the news] that God connects to you not on the basis of what you’ve done (or haven’t done) but on the basis of what Jesus has done, in history, for you.
Tim Keller, King’s Cross

Posted from Mobile

Filed Under: Gospel, Quotes, Tim Keller

I’m Just a Christian.

April 20, 2011 By Frank 1 Comment

I’m just a Christian.

I’m not a “radical Christian,” I’m not a “Christ-follower,” I’m not “missional.” I’m not whatever other new label some want to apply to distinguish themselves from some other people who are part of the same faith. If you’ve seen my clothes and haircut, you know I’m not cool enough for most of those niches, anyway.

Christianity is not a niche, and while it’s super cool and trendy to define yourself by what you’re not, it’s a whole lot harder to just be a Christian – along with what that has always been (which includes being “missional,” and counter-cultural, among other things). Christianity has a lot of diverse emphases, even if its core tenets are pretty clear cut. Chaplain Mike wrote about this today on the InternetMonk in a post definitely worth reading. But I love this line:

Friends, it’s OK to just be a Christian. Receive God’s grace in Christ through Word and Sacrament. Love God. Love your neighbor. Love your brothers and sisters in Christ. Walk in the Spirit. That is truly radical. Not flashy. Not “extreme.” But fundamental. Solid. Grounded. Maturing.

This is the Biblical faith. This is what it means to be a Christian. I may not emphasize the same aspects of our faith that you do, but – like you – I’m doing my best to be more like Christ. My road will look different than yours. Here’s one thing I’ve learned in that process, though: Jesus’ soapboxes rarely mirror my own, particularly in terms of size. My soapboxes are usually bigger than they need to be because they have too much of me in them.

And just recognizing that, I think, is a positive sign that I’m at least getting that first foundational part about “receiving God’s grace in Christ.” His truth is maturing me, and I’m making progress.

Filed Under: Rants, Redemption, Soapboxes

Help Me Believe Before I Feel

March 24, 2011 By Frank Leave a Comment

O Lord,
I hang on thee; I see, believe, live,
When thy will, not mine, is done;
I can plead nothing of myself in regard of any worthiness and grace; in regard of they providence and promises, but only they good pleasure.
If thy mercy make me poor and vile, blessed be thou!
Prayers arising from my needs are preparations for future mercies;
Help me to honor thee by believing before I feel, for great is the sin if I make feeling a cause of faith.

(from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, p. 14)

Prayer is an easy thing to do, and ideally should be as basic as a child speaking to their parent. But just as a child matures in how they interact with their parent, my hope is that the way I interact with God would also mature. I love my 2-year-old little girl’s conversations with me, because they reveal the beginnings of how she’s viewing herself in the world. At this point, like most 2-year-old’s, she’s firmly planted in the center with everything else largely in orbit around her, and (most of the time), that’s cute. And while it’s just as necessary for a relationship as an adult as it is with my 2-year-old, it quickly gets annoying to try and talk to an adult whose entire world revolves around them and their own personal experiences.

How do you pray? What does it reveal about your faith? I know my own reveal that my feelings and mood determine a lot about how willing I am to trust Christ at a particular moment. My hope is that my faith would grow to maturity, and be based more on the facts of God’s goodness and faithfulness – His hesed – rather than my feelings.

Filed Under: Prayer

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