Veni Creator Spiritus (Come, Creator Spirit)

April marks the 100th year celebration of the Azusa Street Revival. The Azusa Street Centennial is currently underway in Los Angeles commemorating the revival movement that has grown from a few hundred people to nearly 600 million. Azusa marks the beginning of the Pentecostal movement which has produced countless denominations, movements, mission organizations, churches, ministries and interchurch networks. It is truly the greatest spiritual movement in the modern church.

To celebrate the 100th year anniversary of Azusa our church is going through “21 Days of the Spirit”—a three week spiritual growth campaign where we focus on who the Spirit is, what he does and how we can walk in relationship with him. In preparation for this three-week journey I have been meditating on the Veni Creator Spiritus, a ninth century Latin hymn that is a part of Catholic and protestant worship. It is a prayer written to the Holy Spirit that is sung in Catholic worship on Pentecost Sunday and on other occasions. It is a great biblical description of the Holy Spirit. Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa has written a wonderful book (Come, Creator Spirit) about the Holy Spirit which uses the Veni Creator as a guide to explore the person and work of the Holy Spirit. (Click here to listen to a group of Benedictine monks chanting Veni Creator Spiritus in Latin.) Here is Fr. Cantalamessa’s translation of the hymn…let it guide you in your own journey of experiencing the depths of the Holy Spirit.

Come Creator Spirit
Translated by Denis and Marlene Barrett

Come, Creator Spirit
visit the minds of those who are yours
fill with heavenly grace
the hearts that you have made.

You who are named the Paraclete
gift of God most high
living fountain, fire, love
and anointing for the soul.

You are sevenfold in your gifts,
you are finger of God’s right hand,
you, the Father’s solemn promise
putting words upon our lips.

Kindle a light in our senses,
pour love into our hearts,
infirmities of this body of ours
overcoming with strength secure.

The enemy drive from us away,
peace then give without delay;
with you as guide to lead the way
we avoid all cause of harm.

Grant we may know the Father through you,
and come to know the Son as well,
and may we always cling in faith
to you, the Spirit of them both.
Amen

God wants me to bling!

Yesterday on the Bob and Sheri (Radio) Show (www.bobandsheri.com), Sheri Lynch read a comment from R&B singer Mary J. Blige about her new found faith in God. I emailed Sheri and she told me where to find the article. It is from a interview with Blender magazine in their May 2006 issue entitled “Dear Superstar: Mary J. Blige.” I think this is a classic example of creating God in our own image. (For those not down with the hip hop scene, “bling” refers to flashy jewelry or any display of a lucrative, extravagant lifestyle.)

Question: Mary, you’re a devout Christian. How do you reconcile bling with God?

Answer: My God is a God who wants me to have things. He wants me to bling! He wants me to be the hottest thing on the block. I don’t know what kind of God the rest of y’all are serving, but the God I serve says, “Mary, you need to be the hottest thing this year, and I’m gonna make sure you’re doing that.” My God’s the bomb!

You can read the entire article here http://www.blender.com/guide/articles.aspx?id=1910. I am glad that Mary J. has found her way back to God. (She said that she grew up in a Pentecostal church in Savannah, Georgia, but didn't get much out of church as a child.) She said that God has saved her from suicide and a life of drugs and alcohol to which I add my "PTL." I hope that as she continues in her relationship with God that she will discover God as he is without the cultural baggage we (myself included) add on to him.

Resurrection Sunday

What a weekend... Good Friday was good in the sense that we mourned the death of Jesus and all of that was worth it to experience the joy of the resurrection. I really enjoyed preaching on the resurrection this morning. I was thrilled to see a good number of people making decision to connect or reconnect with Christ during our worship service. We opened the service with a video from Igniter Media Group called “That’s My King.” It has audio sermon clips from the late S.M. Lockridge with moving images of Jesus, the cross and the empty tomb set to a cool hip hop beat. Now that is what I call a call to worship! You can watch the video online at worshipmediahouse.com.

Seven words from an angel has changed the world: HE IS NOT HERE--HE IS RISEN!

Good Friday

I am sitting in my office preparing for our Good Friday service which will begin in less than an hour. I was rereading a quote from Will Willimon that I am using in tonight's message. It is from his new book Sinning Like a Christian and it helps give me a proper perspective on tonight's focus--the cross of Christ. Will writes,

Once there was One who came to us, who touched the untouchables, turned his back upon the worlds bright baubles, loved even unto death, and never turned his eyes away from God. And we hated him for it. He came to us with wide-open hands in gracious invitation, seeking us, both patient with us and hotly pursuing us. And thereby he brought out the very worst in us.

We figured that things between us and God were not all that bad, but when he spoke to us of God, and ourselves, and rubbed our noses in the filthy rags of our presumed righteousness, well, we thought we were good until we met him.

He called upon us to attempt great moral feats, then watched as we fell flat on our faces. He invited us to join up with this Kingdom, then set that Kingdom’s demands so high that when it came time for us to stand up and show what we were made of, we fled, slithering into the darkness. He said, “Come to me. Take on my yoke.” And we with one voice cried, “Crucify him!

I left my house this evening alone. I drove to the church alone. There were a few people at the church when I got here, but the building was virtually empty. And now I sit in my office...alone. I guess I feel a little bummed, but then again maybe this is how I should feel tonight. Maybe this should be our tune for the night. I have been meditating on the fact that you cannot experience the joy of the resurrection without going through the sorrow of the cross. This is why the Church for centuries has been celebrating (mourning) Good Friday. It is good, but in a sorrowful way. I am feeling that tonight. I lack the words to adaquately describe how humbled I am by the death of Christ. Such love. Such sacrifice. Such strength. We will end the service tonight with communion and with the simple song:

O the blood of Jesus,
O the blood of Jesus,
O the blood of Jesus
--it washes white as snow.

Jesus may you be glorified tonight for your sacrifice, because while sorrow last for the night, joy comes in the morning.

Following up on my email conversation with Anne Rice

In March, I emailed Anne Rice to thank her for writing Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt. I wrote a review of it and published it on my blog. Anne read my review and was very appreciative. She asked if she could put a link on her page back to my review. I agreed, but subsequently I could not find it in her "Review" section. I was reading over other fan letters on www.annerice.com and I found one of my emails (with the link back to my blog) in the letter section. So if you were looking for what I wrote to Anne, you can find it at http://www.annerice.com/bs_b_ChristTheLord-rdrltrs.htm
(It was posted on 3/23/06, so you will have to scroll down to find it.)

A Self-perpetuating World

I wrote this for my sermon "Deconstructing Self." I think it just about sums up my thoughts on "self" in modern Western culture.

A Self-perpetuating World

Our world is self-absorbed with self-acceptance and will continue the search for self-actualization until our self-aggrandizing lifestyle of self-appointed self-care leaves us completely self-centered. If we do not start a process of self-cleaning our self-consumed heart, we will end up self-defeated drones. Any kind of self-deluded self-description that is self-directed will result in a self-disgusted self-display of self-education.

Why do we cling to thoughts of self-existent that only creates self-hating instead of self-imposed self-improvement? A self-initiated pursuit of self-obsession is inherently self-ordained but the underling evil is in the self-orientation. The self-pleasing life that is self-preoccupied will never be self-preserving even though it is self-produced. A self-professed heart may be self-promoted, but it can never be self-protective. In the end, self-worship robs us of our very selves.

An upcoming article in Enrich

I have been contacted by an editor with Enrich, which is a ministry journal for ministers in the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, about publishing my "What Happened at Azusa?" article. They want to edit it down a bit, but I am happy to have them publish it. April 15th marks the 100 year anniversary of the Azusa Street Revival and so there is a lot of talk about Azusa right now. Now that I am more than half way done with the D.Min dissertation, I want to start writing more. Actually, I feel like I have to start writing more. When I was in India a few weeks ago, I felt that God was talking to me about spending more time writing. So in a sense, I feel compelled to write...

Click here for more informaiton about Enrich

IET workers in the Rajasthan State in India are under threat

I received this email today about ongoing persecution of Christians in India. Rajashtan is a state in Northwest India. Go to www.ietmissions.org for more info about IET.

April 4, 2006
Barmer, Rajasthan (India)

IET has a small but good work in Barmer area. Roy Daniel with his family and Bhawani Singh with his wife are working here.

They were conducting discipleship training for the new believers from March 27th to March 29th. On the third day one VHP person came into the meeting place, Christ Church. (VHP and RSS are hindu nationalist organizations in India that are calling for India to become a political Hindu nation.). He started to ask questions and looked at every literature of the people. Sitting there he made a few telephone calls on his mobile. Sensing trouble the leader Roy Daniel closed the meeting but the fanatics arrived in front of the church. About 60 people reached the colloctorate and demanded that every one must be arrested.

They took some people to their office and questioned them. They were all fearful of physical attack – that did not happen. Thereafter the RSS and VHP leaders came to the church and with the help of the police broke opened the church and took away the literature what ever they could find. They took 5 IET songbooks, notebooks of the 20 people who were doing the discipleship training and their 20 new testaments. They got their names from their note books and immediately they went to their homes and took all of them into police custody in Barmer Police station. At 5.30 PM police arrested 15 of them but after the questioning they were released at 12.30 am.

Thank you for your prayers. Please continue to pray for Roy Daniel who is Barmer and cannot leave the place as he is asked by the police to be available there any time they will call him and Bhavani Singh/his wife who is moved to another place. Please pray for the 20 who went through the discipleship training and were ready to take baptism.

A Setback for Anti-Porn Pastors

This article ran in the Los Angeles Times yesterday. If you are not familar with Mike and Craig's ministry, check it out at www.xxxchurch.com--it is a provocative and powerful ministry to the porn community and those with porn addictions.

From the Los Angeles Times
A Setback for Anti-Porn Pastors
By William Lobdell
April 2, 2006


Handing out free Bibles to porn stars and their fans at adult film conventions isn't as hard as it would seem. Pastors Mike Foster and Craig Gross say they typically give away 1,000 copies of the New Testament at the multiday conferences.

Even so, the founders of XXXchurch.com a Corona-based anti-pornography Internet ministry thought a hip cover could easily triple their distribution. But the pastors' brainstorm to put their "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" brand on covers of the New Testament was rejected by the American Bible Society, the publishing company that XXXchurch.com paid to print 10,000 copies of the Scriptures. The publisher said that while it applauded the outreach to those who make a living off pornography, "the wording is misleading and inappropriate for a New Testament," according to a letter the pastors received from Barbara Bernstengel, the executive in charge of standards at the nonprofit Bible publishing company.

Bernstengel offered several alternatives, but the pastors rejected them. "In this case, we think this is a fight worth having because it goes to the core of the Gospel," Foster said. Gross said their slogan isn't misleading; Jesus does love porn stars and the message doesn't insinuate that he loves pornography. "But that's why we're putting the Bible in [the porn stars'] hands Jesus is not OK with it," said Gross, a former youth pastor who works on the XXXchurch.com website from his Lake Elsinore garage. "The publisher is hindering the Gospel going forth." The number of companies that publish the Bible is limited. Modern versions of the Scriptures are licensed to publishers by the organizations that did the translations. The XXXchurch.com pastors say the rejection of the cover is typical of the clash between old school Christianity with its rigid structure and traditions and an emerging brand practiced mostly by younger Christians who focus on relationships, spiritual experiences and converting nonbelievers through bold, sometimes edgy marketing.

"This whole religious rule book just needs to be burned, and we need to reinvent the rules," Gross said. "Otherwise, Christianity is going to fade away."

Roy Lloyd, a spokesman for the American Bible Society, said his 190-year-old organization publishes custom Bibles for a variety of youth-oriented ministries, including skateboarders and hiphop devotees. "It's not that we're opposed to what [XXXchurch.com] is doing," he said. "But there needs to be a sense of propriety." Richard Flory, a sociologist at Biola University who studies new Christian movements, said it's not surprising or outrageous that the American Bible Society would decline to publish the provocative cover. "I actually see this as a marketing dispute," he said. "The XXXchurch.com pastors are trying to market the Bible to a niche market, and the American Bible Society, while not opposed to their efforts, is wary of the marketing strategy."

The society shouldn't jeopardize its larger mission by publishing a Bible cover that it believes will be divisive, Flory added. Gross, 30, and Foster, 35, founded XXXchurch.com in 2002 to fight addiction to Internet pornography, especially among Christians. Their intentionally confrontational website billed as the "No. 1 Christian Porn Site" Includes free "accountability software" to flag questionable sites visited by users, podcasts featuring ex-porn star interviews, and hate mail from both conservative Christians and porn lovers.

"We refuse to have this be your typical Christian crap website with crosses and Bibles all over the place and communicating things that most in the world can't relate to," the pair state on XXXchurch.com. The pastors say the "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" Bible would help get the word of God into the hands of those normally shunned by Christians.

"This is about the message of love and grace and compassion to the people we don't like in the Christian world," said Foster, adding that he is in talks with other publishers to get their Bible printed. "Maybe we need to think outside the box to maybe help these people." Flory, the Biola professor, said if the "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" Bible were published, it would soon become a cultural icon. "And doesn't this work at cross purposes with the XXXchurch.com goals by making it cool for people, who otherwise wouldn't have anything to do with this, to appropriate the porn star symbolism?" Flory said.

Foster said it's time for Christians to take risks. "Yeah, the cover's out there; it's controversial, it's provocative, it's wacky," he said. "But it's to draw attention to the content. If people have that book in their hands, it's a good thing."