Buckle up.

experience...

“It is not necessary for the inexperienced to seek a reason in order to understand at the beginning, but rather he will never have a reason before he has tried the experiment” - Roger Bacon on Experimental Science

Has the church forgotten that undersatnding comes through experience? Or have we just formulated arguements toward attainable facts…

Now for some context:
1268. Holy Roman Empire is expanding, the Holy Roman Catholic Church is gaining power in Eastern Europe. The Church is  becoming the uniting force in society at this point. However, it is not until after 1349 and the Black Death that the Church starts to split, known as The Great Schism. Because of this, the people are now questioning the Church’s validity in society. The people see the pope using “divine power that is without error” to advance his own wealth and the wealth of the Church…and the people dont like where the Church is headed… 

Now that you’re up to speed… :)

Roger Bacon writes an intellectual argument against the Church. Bacon says that, “There are two ways of aquiring knowledge, one through reason, the other by experiment […] the mind rests calm in the intuition of truth, unless it finds this certain by the way of experience.” Bacon says that the only way to gain understanding is through experience/experiment, rather than “sovereign truths” that the pope used to justify his gaining of wealth and power. He proposes that rather than the Church connecting with the true message of god and reflecting that connection to the people, that it has essentially skipped the process of pursuit and connection with god, missing the experience. So, instead it just puts forth a distasteful religion that is backed by shallow “truths”, but not by passionate action. Further, his quote at the very top is saying that it isnt necessary to search for deep reason at the beginning of pursuit, but rather that once we act upon our curiosity and experience something life-changing that we begin to passionately pursue that deeper meaning and reason…

and if that didnt make sense, I hope this will… Roger Bacon, again… (stud)

”[….]many have arguments toward attainable facts, but because they have not experienced them, they overlook them and neither avoid a harmful nor follow a beneficial course. Even if a man that has never seen fire, proves by good reasoning that fire burns, and devours and destroys things, nevertheless the mind of one hearing his arguments would  never be convinced, nor would he avoid fire until he puts his hand into it in order to prove by experience what the argument taught. But after the fact of combustion is experienced, the mind is satisfied and lies calm in the certainty of truth. Hence argument is not enough, but experince is…”

We dont search for deeper reasoning/pursuit until our hand has felt the fire…

May we experience the gospel and push further into it before we try to love others and live the life we are called to live…

God wants your life. THAT is the experience in which life is found…

Keep pressing in…

Weiss

identity

i leave for Miami in two days. and god has been really tugging on my heart about this trip. for me, it seems like i always tend to lose myself when i go on a trip like this. and thats not always a bad thing. but everytime i get caught up in the incredible moments and experiences, it seems that almost instantly they fade. its like that first hill on your first rollercoaster, it grabs you and shakes you and changes you. but after that hill, you never experience that rush again, at least not to the same degree. and i have always noticed a common theme surrounding alomost every trip i hear about;  “it was an awesome experience and it felt like a dream, but the bucket of cold reality just splashes me in the face when i get back.”…and then all it becomes is just another “trip”. and there is a disconnect between “there” and “here”, and who you were “there” doesnt have tangibility “here” because they were two different existences, two different “yous” if you will…

i want SO badly for this trip to be an extension of my life here. the love i can give, the people i can serve, and the conversations i can have here should be reflected in miami. not because it would be reaching a goal or meeting a standard, but because it’s who i am, it’s my identity in the gospel, in jesus.

So my prayer is that my identity isnt lost in a blind search for “godly moments”, but rather that my identity is further revealed as god wrecks me on this trip. If i am just a lazy, impatient, imperfect buster here, then i BEG that that is who i am in miami. because at least its real. and god moves. so god, move me. draw me to you and my desperate need for the gospel. and continue to peel the layers away to reveal who you’ve made me to be…

weiss

its not about right vs. wrong...

so i was on YouTube today (yes, im basically a YouTube junkie), and i stumbled upon some videos arguing why god doesnt exist, and then other videos refuting that opinion, attempting to prove that god really DOES exist.

For example: There was a video called “10 Questions Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer”, basically proposing questions that were formulated to denounce the existance of god. BUT, as a response to that video, there was another video titled “5 Questions Every Intelligent Atheist Must Answer”. And this just struck a “sour note” in me…

My mentor said this to me once: “In an argument, there is always a ‘winner’ and a ‘loser’”. And i continue to wonder to myself, when did jesus ever try to prove somebody wrong. He just came, and served, and loved, and gave hope, and listened, and died…

And im not trying to question the person’s motives behind making a video trying to prove an atheist wrong, but if your message isn’t completely derived from love, then your message has no relevance. People dont care if you can smack them in the face with facts proving that your god exists, because at the end of the day, those people are still broken and just want someone to listen, somone who cares and loves them. Aren’t we all…

So, if you are one of those people who run around waving your christian banner, shouting through bullhorns at passerby about damnation and death, holding up signs that say “God hates fags”, that just continue to claim jesus but show nothing but judgement and hate, SHUT YOUR FACE! Just love.

But i will still love you, still serve you, still listen and care for you…
Not because im trying to prove a point…
But because jesus came to love me, serve me, listen and care for me…
And thats all i want to do in return…

My life is a response to jesus. And so i respond, because it’s all i want to do.

Weiss

emptiness.

“it is my duty, out of my emptiness, to reach for the fullness of Christ…”
            -Puritan prayer

Lately, ive been experiencing a dullness in my relationship with jesus. It feels like he’s lost importance and passion in my life, almost to the point where prayer repels me; like its an essential and vital part of my life that i continue to ignore because i have no desire to dive into it. Why risk so much when i really dont want to?

And there is this huge chasm between me and jesus, and part of me is comfortable with this, and another part of me is screaming for something to bridge the gap between my life and jesus’ life. And i find myself judging people who walk through theREALM’s doors that i know have crap and baggage, wondering why they decided to come here. I catch myself thinking “Everyone knows you hooked up with him last weekend.” Like im so perfect or something…

It seems as though i have forgotten about the reality of my empitness, about how much i need the fullness of christ. Ive built up this blinding pride, like im the “go-to” kid in our community, and ive let that determine and shape my relationship with jesus. “I dont need to submit right now jesus, ive got this…” and “Im doing fine without prayer”. And then im reminded of the purpose of jesus’ life…

He came for the broken, the ugly, the messy, the lesser. He came to show love to the unloved. He came to give hope to the hopeless, life to the dead. He came to be fullness for the emptiness. And thats me, broken, ugly, messy, lesser, empty…

So i choose emptiness, hopelessness, lifelessness… because i know jesus has come to restore me. He has come for me, because i need him. Because i want nothing but him…

Fill me.

Weiss

arrggh...

im really frustrated today. i hate being idle and i hate being complacent. i want that feeling of hope and anticiaption when god moves. god move me. weiss