Nathan R. Hale

hello

  • In my experience, it seems the default position of many Christians towards their siblings in Christ is one of distrust.

    Often, there are good reasons for this.

    Other times, it’s really about a lack of faith in the power and provision of God in Christ–by the Spirit–to see us through relational risk and disagreement.

    Either way, God calls his people toward a kind of Spirit-powered love that results in well-founded mutual confidence over and against underlying, anxious suspicion.

    It is not so much about simply trusting people more per se, but rather a deeper entrusting of ourselves and our Christian family to Christ, so that confidence is built on the demonstrated desire for one another to have–above all–greater communion with Christ, in the non-violent, non-coercive, truthful-yet-graceful way of Christ.

    Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash

  • All anyone truly has is the love of God in Jesus Christ and that love is everything, more than enough.

  • New vehicle. Hover-1 Alpha.

  • Why discuss potentially controversial topics in church?

    Why discuss potentially controversial topics in church?

    4 reasons:

    📖1) To educate the Church in light of the Gospel – in other words, to examine real-life, important issues in light of the teachings of Jesus, and together ask what then we can do with the Spirit’s help. Anything less is to undermine the total Lordship of Christ in our lives, and put an arbitrary limit on our discipleship.

    🤝2) To encourage the faithful – there will always be pressure to conform to the world’s ways of thinking, doing, being in regards to controversial topics. Speaking about them openly with Christ at the center allows us to encourage one another to be conformed to Christ.

    🌐3) To engage the world – our witness and worship is public. Speaking truth and bringing the Gospel to bear on controversial and important topics is an important way to proclaim Christ’s engagement with and sovereignty over all things.

    🕊4) To entrust ourselves to the Holy Spirit – when confront controversy openly together, in a spirit of truth, charity, and clarity, we are acting in faith that the Holy Spirit will indeed guide us into all truth and keep the Church of Christ together—not because we agree about everything, but because we are united in the love of Christ.

  • When we are found in Christ, his light becomes our light. His Spirit becomes our Spirit. We partake of the exact same divine nature as we are filled with the fullness of God the Holy Spirit.

  • Smoking a clay pipe

    A clay pipe can very inexpensively obtained from Pipes & Cigars. I got this one as a Christmas present this year. It offers a great, pure-flavored smoke, with some caveats:

    First, the bowl gets super hot, so be careful if–as I do–you have a habit of holding the bowl. You will have to adjust to grasping the stem in order to keep from burning your fingers.

    Second, since the entire thing is made out of clay, I found clenching as I am doing in photo to initially be not very pleasant due to the chalky texture of the material. I will say after some practice I’ve gotten pretty used to it. I don’t think it’s ever going to be as comfortable as other materials, but you figure it out, and if you’re not a big clencher it’s even less of a deal.

    There’s something very pure, unassuming, and honest about a clay pipe; the simplicity coupled with a quality, consistent smoke is what I find attractive.

    Fr. Nathan smoking a clay pipe

  • Replaced battery in my aging laptop… Been a loooooong time since I’ve done anything like this. Very cool that it was overall very easy. Are Dells still built like this? If so I’ll stick with them for my next laptop…

  • In last Sunday’s sermon, I tried to work out the distinction between capability (raw power) and credibility (real authority), and to communicate the transforming power and authenticity of Jesus’ divine love.

    The point is: while we can’t always trust every earthly authority and power has a corrupting effect on fallen humanity, the Good News is that God in Christ is always trustworthy.

    You can trust his love for you and for the world.

  • A brief outline of my spiritual journey

    A brief outline of my spiritual journey though theological “phases”:

    • Childlike faith in God in Christ, interrupted by:

    • Fear-based “conversion”, leading to:

    • Semi-fundamentalism, which (due to the faithful way my parents discipled me in the grace and love of Christ as the fulfillment of the law) didn’t last too long because of an instilled resistance to letter-of-the-law thinking which opened the door to:

    • A desperately relieved re-discovery of the grace of God in Christ, which I found articulated most clearly by Reformation Christianity, which in turn formed me in:

    • A sacramental understanding of how God ordinarily communicates himself, a profound mystery that I found pervades all of life, and I understood to be articulated by the Church Fathers, who are presently convincing me of:

    • The truly cosmic implications of a God that is not simply a being but Being itself, that loves humans by becoming a human–Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary–, that defeats death by dying on a cross, that lives to give life via union with him, in his Spirit.

    Through it all there has always been an undeniable charismatic/mystical experience of God walking with me in a million ways:

    • sometimes through intentional practices

    • sometimes in unexpected breakthroughs

    • sometimes through the right word from the just right person at the just right time

    • always somehow intertwined with his Church…

    …guiding me always and only to Jesus.

    It is not as if I am developing a greater/ deeper understanding of Jesus’ “part” in God’s plan.
    I am only ever more convinced Jesus is God’s plan. Jesus’ way is God’s way. Union with Christ isn’t an aspect of life, it is life itself.

    And what a journey it is…here’s the thing…I find the news to be better and better the more I believe the simple teachings of Jesus:

    “The kingdom of heaven is at hand”

    “Blessed are meek”

    “Turn the other cheek”

    “I have come to give life and life abundant”

    “I will draw all men to myself”

    (obviously I could go on)

    I mean it’s almost too good to be true but somehow I believe it so deeply

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