{"id":432,"date":"2014-01-23T01:11:48","date_gmt":"2014-01-23T01:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=432"},"modified":"2014-08-12T23:21:59","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T23:21:59","slug":"miracles-miracles-miracles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/miracles-miracles-miracles\/","title":{"rendered":"Miracles, Miracles, Miracles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Miracles, Miracles, Miracles \u2013 Active Hope by Macy and Johnstone<\/p>\n<p>Macy and Johnstone in <em>Active Hope<\/em> remind us that \u201cour views about what\u2019s normal are shaped by what we see.\u201d\u00a0 When reading about other paths to joy and other ways to fulfillment, this phrase rings so true.\u00a0 From a non-Christian premise, Active Hope proposes three versions of reality: 1) Business as usual, 2) The Great Unraveling, and 3) The Great Turning.\u00a0 If spoken in a worship service of a Christian church, these points \u201cwould preach!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Our views however are shaped by what\u2019s normal to us \u2013 so we should discard helpful writings from Buddhists and others\u2026shouldn\u2019t we?<\/p>\n<p>My lead pastor preached one Sunday on the power of God, the God who performs miracles, and because of that power a person should leave their life of unbelief and follow the God of Christianity.\u00a0 That sounded great, sounded normal.\u00a0 But before hearing this message, I had experienced things that weren\u2019t normal &#8211; by what we know.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/31.media.tumblr.com\/51a9bb4530656ebdc9e612dec14c550c\/tumblr_inline_mztxwun0LU1rsqmkf.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Over the preceding year I had seen a Muslim miracle healer in Bosnia, who, the American missionaries claimed, was selling vials of miracle water \u2013 and that it was actually causing miraculous things to happen.\u00a0 I had visited the school in India my church sponsors and on the trip, noticed a large outdoor gathering with thousands of people.\u00a0 Upon asking my Christian Indian friends what it was, they replied that it was a miracle working Hindu guru.\u00a0 Leaving India, I passed through Bangkok to visit one of our missionaries in that Asian city.\u00a0 He took me sight-seeing to the large and beautiful pagodas and Buddhist temples, telling me of miraculous happenings \u2013 that had been documented \u2013 when parishioners visited the holy sites.<\/p>\n<p>What is it that makes Christianity different?<\/p>\n<p>In <em>Active Hope<\/em>, the Great Turning is illustrated by actions and phrases that help us push through difficulties.\u00a0 As I read these, I was able to envision their counterparts in Christianity:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Negative Feedback Loop = Confessions and Rededication<\/li>\n<li>Acknowledge disturbing realities with others = How\u2019s your spiritual life going?<\/li>\n<li>Volunteering for the good of the cosmos brings happiness = Service and missions brings joy and purpse<\/li>\n<li>We need to voice our concerns in group = Small group prayer time<\/li>\n<li>The earth cries through us = the Holy Spirit cries through us<\/li>\n<li>Vow of support = Small group accountability<\/li>\n<li>Breakthrough workshops = Transforming worship services<\/li>\n<li>Establish a \u201cprime directive\u201d = know \u201cGod\u2019s will\u201d for your life<\/li>\n<li>Then there are similar levels of community, relationships building, power of connectedness etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of course there were areas that wouldn\u2019t line up with Christian thought and practice, including \u201cladhakhi\u201d, becoming one with another life form, and Gaia theory.\u00a0 However, the similarities could be disturbing or encouraging, depending on one\u2019s point of view &#8211; depending on our \u201cnormal.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Active Hope<\/em> is an encouraging book that could parallel many of our Christian readings offered at evangelical churches.\u00a0 The focus however and end source of power and connectedness differs.\u00a0 While Christianity focuses on the living Christ, and the strength and purpose that arise from our relationship with Him, for those following the teaching of this book, those similar desires are directed towards our interconnectivity with \u201cGaia\u201d and the inspiration and strength drawn from others acting through us.<\/p>\n<p>There are many similarities between world religions and even those without religion: community, relationships, hope for a better tomorrow, power from other sources and even miracles.\u00a0 But if the focus isn\u2019t on Jesus, a reexamination needs to take place.<\/p>\n<p>The Mohawk Thanksgiving Prayer is a good ending, finding similarities with the Beatitudes. \u201cWe have been given the duty to live in balance and harmony with each other and all living things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Amen\u2026.or should I say, Bodhichitta\u2026.or Shalom\u2026or Namaste\u2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Miracles, Miracles, Miracles \u2013 Active Hope by Macy and Johnstone Macy and Johnstone in Active Hope remind us that \u201cour views about what\u2019s normal are shaped by what we see.\u201d\u00a0 When reading about other paths to joy and other ways to fulfillment, this phrase rings so true.\u00a0 From a non-Christian premise, Active Hope proposes three [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[182,33,2,181,173],"class_list":["post-432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-buddhism","tag-dmin","tag-dminlgp","tag-hinduism","tag-macyjohnston","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1760,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432\/revisions\/1760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}