An unorthodox grace?

Alright, these thoughts will probably be wrong and have lots of holes in the logic, but talking with Mike Luna tonight brought up an interesting idea. I don't necessarily agree with what I am about to write. Just thoughts. And a new entry will move that last crappy blog title down on the screen.

At church a few weeks ago we very briefly talked about how the wrath of God may not have anything to do with miserable situations, poverty, disease, and horrible circumstances that God condemns us to until we repent. Romans 1 says "The wrath of God is revealed...(in that) their foolish hearts were darkened and... God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts." According to this, God's wrath is shown when have our hearts hardened so we can't be in the Lord's presence and discern His will. I think separation from God is a Biblical hell. This will allow us to do what do whatever we want to and fulfill the desires of the flesh on earth. We no longer receive the discipline of the Lord, because "He disciplines the ones He loves".

I think it would be obvious to most of my friends who read this that there is some significant disparity between how Jesus lived (and calls us to live our lives) and how America, as a whole, is living its life. And I believe our generation is really waking up to this reality. i.e. blatant disregard for hungry and unclothed, abortion, other money issues, 80's music, the environment and so on.

Since so many people in America are crying out for revival, perhaps God is answering those prayers by disciplining us. And that is Biblical, not just theoretical thinking.

***At the outset of this next thought I want to say, I know America clearly is not "God's country", Jesus wasn't American, and the American church isn't the only one out there, but I believe we have a very strong historical foundation in Jesus and much is expected of us since we were given much. I do believe America has the potential to continue to play a large role in fulfilling God's purposes on the earth. He hasn't given up on us yet. This is great news!***

Israel was (is?) God's chosen people. When they started to stray, God demolished them to bring them back to repentance, out of love towards them and fulfillment of His promises. And many times, not just once. And he used evil nations and natural disasters to do it too. He would just kill a bunch of people. He crazy.

Maybe when the American church prays that our country would be revived in order to be safe from Islamic terrorists and natural disasters, perhaps God is strategically answering our prayers in the Biblical model by using Al Qaeda, 9-11, Katrina and the like, in hopes of waking us up and saving us from ourselves and a worse fate, His wrath. Reviving us through discipline. Saving us from an indulgent lifestyle that may bring about the hardening work (wrath) of God. Maybe we are the spiritual cancer in our own country that will destroy us. Maybe the grace of God allows awful tragedies to take place to open our eyes before it is too late. Maybe the root of the problem is us and we just cant see it. Our goals, our gods, our worship, our pretty little American dream.

Since so many people in America are crying out for revival, perhaps God is answering those prayers by disciplining us and using Islamic extremist as His conduit to bring revival to the West. He has not yet turned us over completely to live in the lusts of our flesh. Our hearts may not all be hard yet. That is grace. He hasn't given up on us. Great news!

And God always had a remnant that he chose to save in the midst of Israel's rebellion.

And I think it may be working. I believe that the war has helped shed so much light to the Christian community about local and global social justice issues. We are not back at the "social gospel" (thank God) and we are not, as a generation, close-minded right wing-extremist. Our world view is growing. I don't believe social justice is the highest agenda God has for His people, but I believe it is probably in the top five. "As you did to the least of these so you did to me."

And maybe I am just seeing this now so I pass it off as a generation learning something new. There is nothing new under the sun. But I feel that as compared to our parents generation, relationship with Jesus and Spirit-filled living is taking off and dead religion is dying out. People are not riding the fence as much. Not as lukewarm. Religion is ceasing to be "cool". I'm just fine with that.

Do you see any possible resemblance there? That is not rhetorical. I really want to know if you think that America and Al Qaeda could possibly be similar to what happened to Israel. If God could be showing off His grace in this way. Or it could have just been real late when Mike and I talked about it, and we were way off. I am open to either.

And perhaps many other people have had this thought long before we did. I don't know.

A verse that may clearly contradict what I wrote is "It is the kindness of the Lord that leads to repentance."

Be careful what you pray for. It may not happen like you plan for it to.

What did the Mama tomato say to the baby tomato who was lagging behind?

Catch up. This the catch up episode to my blog. (Crappy joke, I know. But I like it.) Everyone who reads this knows what I have been doing, but it makes me feel better to type it all out so that there isn't a big gap. Ya know, so that when my kids read this they know what I did. Ha.

I have been in a thinking mood for a few weeks so, by extremely mediocre demand, I may start using this more.

O.K.

Oct. '06 - Nov. '06
Spent time visiting a bunch of friends. Went back to A&M for the first and only time since graduation. Tried to get my fishing pole from the Luther House, and as I should have known, it had been abused and was not in functional shape anymore. Went climbing at Reimer's Ranch with some friends. First and only time I have been climbing since Alaska. Dang, I miss it.

Dec. '06 - Jan. '07
Original plans had me in Crested Butte for about six months to work ski season, but due to various factors it was moved to Vail with a group of 6 people (Foy, Bill Ward, Matt Unthank, Erin Tegt, and Meredith Spencer). I wish I had a picture of all of them, or the hilarious 2 bedroom micro-dorm 8 people (add a psycho Aussie chick and a Argentinian chick who spoke very little English) lived in, but I was not very good about pictures. Most of us worked 3 days a week at Two Elk Lodge as bussers, and went snowboarding/skiing the rest of the time with our free lift ticket.

I lost a game of rock, paper, scissors to 7 Peruvians, and had to do this...

This is where I subtly brag.

This is where I'm happy I didn't wet my pants.

This is the classic foot cross photo. Notice the Silk Road.

Silk Road
This section is my favorite and the reason I am in Dallas now, but due to certain restrictions I can't post the details of it on the World Wide Web. If you are interested, send me an email (colbyivey@gmail.com) and I will send this section to you in a Word Document.

Feb. 07 - Current
In February, after canceling the set up I had in Austin, I headed to Dallas to start getting involved with The Village Church. You can imagine how happy I was, on the surface, to go Alaska -> Colorado -> Dallas. Hopefully you caught the sarcasm. But I knew pretty clearly that Dallas was right for now, so I moved back in with Mom & Dad and started looking for jobs. I applied to work for a few cities in the Environmental/Sustainable Development department, since that is kinda what I studied and I figured I would really like it.

Apparently cities and corporations do not encourage people to have fun experiences after college. For what it is worth, I highly recommend it and no matter what the infamous "man" says, do it. It is worth it. Anyway, after the third job turned me down for having three seasonal jobs in the past year, saying, "We love your ideas, but we think your work history shows you may be unreliable. Take a hike", I thought about a few jobs I knew I could get. Car sales and teaching. Bingo. So I started sales training for Texas Toyota of Grapevine in February and also began getting my alternative certification to teach middle school math starting in the fall.

While I am not a very good salesman, I did better than I thought. I actually kinda liked the work. The people I worked with were hilarious, and now I can say I was a New Vehicle Sales Professional for a season. The hours were ridiculous, and my teacher training starts next week, so after 4 months I have retired from selling cars. For good.

At the end of February I also moved into a house in Farmers Branch (the only city in the USA that will not let illegal immigrants have a place to live) with 4 other guys. Sean Baulch, Josh Bashaw, Kyle Carter, and Scott Nance. While completely different from the Luther House, I am really enjoying these guys.

But the only reason I moved to Dallas was the church. And the church is more than enough reason for me to be here. I love it. I could go on about it, but visit it for a while and you will know what I mean. Don't Podcast Matt Chandler and then think that is what the church is like. It is a lot better than him.

That brings us to now. I am enjoying being around family, good people (until some move to China and California), and there is some great stuff coming up.