Being A Pilgrim

I wish I had thought this up myself. But I must give credit to Andrew Paschen, who wrote this in his Infuze Magazine Blog: Brutally Honest.

“On Being a Pilgrim”
March 28, 2007 Wednesday, 11:15 AM
A while back I was thinking about how the Bible calls all believers "Strangers and aliens in a foreign land." You know, another good word for that is a "Pilgrim."

I got to thinking about being a pilgrim in a land we do not belong in and just what being a pilgrim entails. So, I came up with some ideas about the Pilgrim life.

Pilgrims are those who make their temporary home in a foreign land, while on their way to their final, true home (heaven).

This 'Way of the Pilgrim' guide is for those seeking to live their lives for the glory of God, while living on earth in preparation for their true home; heaven.

The 'Way of the Pilgrim' is not meant to be another set of legalistic laws to put us in bondage, or just another set of rules to memorize, but rather is a set of goals to work toward- a list of suggested principles to live by in order to give God glory by serving our fellow man.

The 'Way of the Pilgrim' is for a people who want to be a community of believers, and is given to all who would desire to follow Jesus and make a commitment to others in the Pilgrim community by living lives that honor God and encourage their brothers and sisters in their walk with God.
Here are the basic principles I would like to use as a guide for my life.

I. Life Purpose Statement:

The Purpose of my life is:
To bring glory to God alone by offering my life in pursuit of Him;

A. Through loving Him above all things, by seeking His will for my life and obeying it,

-And-

B. Through pointing others to God by loving and serving them through good works.

The Pilgrim life is lived with a two-fold focus.
1. Life with God.
2. Life among men.

1. Life with God.
A. I intend to live in such a way as to bring glory to God in all I do. If there is any question about whether or not I should do a given thing, I will ask myself, "Does this bring glory to God?"

B. I intend to strive toward never doing anything that I would be afraid to do if Jesus should personally appear at the moment. The truth is, Jesus is personally there and sees everything I am doing.

C. I intend to strive toward not doing anything I would be afraid to do should I be found doing so at the moment of my death.

D. I intend to strive to read God's Word, the Bible, on a regular basis. This may be as little as a few verses at a time, to whole books at one sitting, depending upon circumstances and available time.

E. I intend to practice spiritual reading. There are many good Christian books I may choose from.

F. I intend to daily carve out time for silence and retreat, in order to spend time alone with God. This may be a short 15 minute walk at lunch time, or a half hour in the evening, or longer. The point is that I will practice silence and meditation daily. It is a matter of setting priorities.

G. I intend to make time to pray every day. Preferable when I awake and when I lie down to sleep.

H. I intend to examine myself, every night at the close of the day, to see whether I have sinned and fallen short and to seek God's cleansing.

I. I intend to look for opportunities to express gratitude to God for His many provisions.

J. When I feel pain, I intend to think of the pain of martyrdom and hell. I intend to think soberly on the subject of martyrdom, knowing this could eventually be my lot, and upon the subject of hell in order to build compassion for those who are not saved.

K. I intend to avoid doing that which makes my conscience uneasy.

2. Life among Men.
A. I intend to recognize everyone I come across in a day as a divine appointment. Whether it is a family member, co-worker or stranger, God has placed them in my life today for a reason. It may be to teach me something or to use me to encourage them, but God has sent them my way.

B. I intend to strive to be honest and authentic in my relationships with people. God does not like the masks we wear.

C. I intend to have frequent contact with someone I recognize as a spiritual director, or mentor, who can help me and encourage me in my walk with God, even as I am available to do so for others.

D. I intend to avoid doing anything out of revenge.

E. I intend to avoid speaking evil of anyone, but only words that will build up. Where I cannot build up, I intend to keep silent.

F. I intend to strive toward living my life to match my words. Anything other than that shows me to be a hypocrite.

G. I intend to strive to keep what others tell me in confidence and not pass it along to others.

H. I intend to strive toward eliminating self-consciousness and timidity and to boldly tell others about my faith.

Once again, these are guidelines and are not meant to put a yoke of bondage upon us. As a friend has said recently, "A religious person is a person who is afraid of going to hell. A spiritual person is a person who has already been there and is now on their way home."

Our goal is not to complicate the Christian walk, but to simplify. Jesus was not complicated. He did not teach and practice deep theological theories about prayer. He just spoke to His father like speaking to anyone else.

These are by no means an exhaustive list of all we need to do as Christians. There will undoubtedly be many more on your own list of things God will lead you to intend to follow. But, this list is a good goal to begin with.

May God bless you as you live with intent. Special thanks to Jonathan Edwards and his many resolutions, some of which I gained great inspiration from.

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Thank You Andy for your blog entry.

Prodigal Daughter?

I recently read this very interesting article that convicted me about how easy it is to judge people by their actions when I should be praying for their broken hearts that cause those actions. Maybe you too have been more judgemental and less prayerful like me concerning this special young mother.

Is Britney Spears the Prodigal Daughter?
David Kuo Christian Post Contributor
Wed, Feb. 21, 2007 Posted: 17:07:23 PM EST

I have two snapshots of Britney Spears stuck in my brain.The first is from the late 1990s. I was living in Atlanta and had started attending a cool new church. It was a church “unplugged” – the pastor was young and sat on a stool and talked about Jesus and U2 and Quentin Tarantino. “Worship” was performed by a band. No one wore suits. It was so much fun there were mid-week worship services.

Early one evening I walked in and sat down and worshipped and listened to the sermon and was getting up to leave when I caught up to the non-Jesus buzz in the room. “Britney is here ” I heard whispered as I saw a hulking man and a small girl bustle out a side door. Apparently it wasn’t a terribly uncommon experience. Whenever she was in town for a concert or for meetings, she stopped by the church. I hadn’t heard of pop stars going to church. It never made me a fan but it made me believe that her ‘virgin talk’ was far more than some marketing ploy.

The other Britney snapshot was from 2002. The NFL opened its season on a Thursday night in Washington, DC and there was a concert on the mall to celebrate. My wife Kim and I had been given backstage passes. A host of stars passed before us on their way to perform. Steven Tyler of Aerosmith strutted by, Mary J. Blige held court, Aretha Franklin deigned to be there. Most memorable, however, was the very small Britney Spears. She looked timid, comforted by the big jacket she was wearing, looking like a little girl lost in a glittered world. As her stage time approached, she looked around and shed the jacket to reveal a very tight little outfit. She fidgeted. Her dancers moved in closer and so did her bodyguards. She walked out on stage and lipsynched a new song, grinding and moving and stripping down further to reveal pants well below her navel and a top that covered not much at all. After the performance she ran offstage and back into the clothes. The empress needed her clothes.

Those two moments have colored my perception of Britney. I couldn’t buy the image of her as a sexual diva, a slithering temptress. It seemed an image that old men and young boys wanted but not one based in reality. During the past several years as her music became coarser and her sexuality even more overt I couldn’t buy it. It felt faker than people said her virginity talk ever was. The toll it took on her own soul, however, was real.

Now there is this runaway, this breakdown, the shaved head, the tattoos, the parties and the presumed drugs. And it all makes me wonder if the lost, little girl who now has two little boys isn’t trying to do whatever she can to get back to who she once was. I wonder if she’s looked at the pictures of her onstage kissing Madonna and writhing around on the floor and felt much as the prodigal son felt when he found himself lying in a pig sty. Britney’s sty may be different – more luxe and less slop – but the self-loathing, hopeless destination is the same. They both reached the end of the of the glam road and discovered it looked a lot like hell.

For the son there came the conclusion that his father’s house would give him a better chance at life even if the father he had once shunned no longer loved him. So he went home to confess and ask for forgiveness. He was greeted with a party; a party to celebrate his life.

For Britney now there is a trip to rehab; a trip to rehab with a newly tattooed cross on her left hip. And there is the prayer that as she goes into rehab that she might remember a simple faith that she once had in a man named Jesus and that she might return to him and find that he is waiting to welcome the little girl back and throw her the kind of party she has really been looking for.

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About the Author:
David Kuo has been walking with Jesus for more than 20 years, during which time he has served as special assistant to the president in George W. Bush's White House, policy director for Sen. John Ashcroft, and speechwriter for a gaggle of conservatives (plus a few liberals here and there). He is the author of "Tempting Faith," a book about God and politics, and is currently the Washington editor for Beliefnet.com.