Blog of Michael Daly.

Link: http://scjesus.co.uk

I read and hear Christians who tell me that they don’t go to a church any more. They tell me they have been freed from religion, institutionalism and all that mumbo jumbo and are now free. They tell me they might go back to some church some day but they don’ believe it is necessary to belong to a fellowship as they themselves are church.

I am a radical believer, but my radical freedom is not a licence for stupidity, sectarianism or separation. Church is always relational and that comes from and is rooted in love. Love must, can only be, when it is expressed in community. It can never be self centred or self serving. I may not agree with my Catholic brethren on a number of issues and I see them in bondage to an institutionalised structure, but they are family and I love them. I may not see eye to eye with all my Calvinist sisters and brothers, bound in the institutionalised structures of Protestantism, but they are my sisters and brothers and I love them. I may not like the lifestyle of the people I work with or travel on the bus or train with, caught as they are in the institutional hedonism of the day, but they are children of God made in His image and I love them. God loves them far more than I can ever fathom and His grace is way out of my league. He still blesses His children in the Institutional Church systems…whether I like it or not!

There is no such thing as a cyber space church as some seem to be promoting. There is no such thing as a Christian who avoids the company of other Christians (or for that matter, non Christians). When, ‘two or three are gathered,’ is not translatable as, ‘when I am on my own‘. You may certainly pray behind your closed door to your Father in heaven, but when it comes to the Body of Christ, you cannot be a self serving individual unit. A body is made up of many parts inter-connected and working together. The gathering together of the saints is not an option it is the heart of love. It flows from love.

Jesus loved individuals and had compassion for crowds of individuals. He still does!

Jesus never stopped attending the synagogue or temple to participate in it’s institutional rites and liturgy. Jesus never told people to keep away from it. The disciples continued to go to the temple and synagogues until the time they were driven out and barred. It wasn’t because that is where they met God, He was with them always…in them. Yes, they met together as ‘Church’ in their homes, and so can we. But we are called to be light to the world’s darkness and this includes being light to those caught in the dark web of the institutional church, we cannot just hide it away for ourselves.

My heart’s desire is to be like Jesus. I desire to love those I disagree with and all those who throw me out as a heretic and flog me for preaching Good News. To pour out myself for them that they too might one day be freed from the tyranny and oppression of the institutional church systems and be free to run and dance in the glorious love of Abba, who is Father Son and Spirit, is the desire of my heart.

To be honest , I suppose I do fear, that my new found freedom could easily draw others around me (with similar views), into making a total reactionary break from the institutional church of today. Then without knowing it, we either become another institutional church system, another denomination, group, or church body; the very thing we were freed from…or, we just become a self serving individualistic body of folk (a sect) which withdraws from everyone, except those who hold to our understanding as free believers….but then…. not so free after all!

Church without walls is not Church without people. Church without people is an oxymoron. I think I need to heed Jesus’ words, “Love one another as I have loved you“. That’s where it starts and where it ends.

Michael Daly
Living loved
6th March 2010

Link: http://scjesus.co.uk

As I look back through my journals and more recently through my blog, I find I have been (and still am) on a journey. It has been wild and at times shattering. In the last five years I have found myself broken, smashed to pieces and yet healed…made whole….being made whole! I don’t understand the raging storm which has at time terrified me, as I fought the relentlessness of its unyielding power, whose waves tore away (and continue to tear) every last vestige of safety from me.

I can look back now and laugh at the wonder of the raging God who loves me with such fury that He will do everything to deliver me and comfort me, because He is Love and only in Him do I find my true self.

I have lived too long in a religious straight jacket, wrestling to be somebody I was not. Trying to please others, trying to appease a god who was a despot and far away, who said he loved but would condemn me to hell fire and torment, should I not come up to the mark. I have found a strange fire in the institution of the Church which has locked me up with its religious observance and bound me in chains of guilt. I have struggled with being obedient to its standards and its god. I have lived in fear, under fear. Fear of failing, of not reaching the perfection which the institutional Church paraded in front of me. But at last I am glimpsing that I am the Church, along with all believers and that we journey together. This is no institution, no denomination. There are no chains apart from the chain of love which binds us together.

The institutional church, has walls, and these divide.
The Church I journey with, has no walls and unites.
The institutional church, has a plethora of laws which you must adhere to.
The Church I journey with, loves.
The institutional church, demands submission and makes captives.
The Church I journey with, releases captives and sets the prisoner free.
The institutional Church, tells you “you should”.
The Church I journey with, invites.
The institutional church lives in buildings and loves mega numbers.
The Church I journey with, has no walls and is happy when two or three gather together.
The institutional church, has a hierarchy.
In the Church I journey with, all are equal.
The institutional church, seeks and delights in earthly power.
The Church I journey with, serves.
The institutional church, takes.
The Church I journey with, gives.

I am tired of the institutional church and I am tired (ANGRY) of allowing myself to be moulded and abused by its systems and its manipulative games.

I am crossing over to the promised land and I fear no giants!

Michael Daly
Living loved
5th March 2010

Link: http://scjesus.co.uk

Thanks to everyone who makes comments and observations on my blogs.

I have been unable to reply to some of you for some unknown technical reason and have tried to reply via another email address, with some success. I am not really into the technicality of what blogs can do or may do, so please excuse any non response from me. I do try to come back to everyone who posts a comment. I have decided not to post comments for the moment as, again, I need to work out some of the technical stuff with b2evolution.

A friend originally helped me set up the blog after I pestered them, and I am indebted to them for their assistance.

I am always encouraged and challenged....and sometimes mystified... by all you say. Please keep it up!

Live loved

Michael Daly
Living loved.
5th March 2010

Link: http://scjesus.co.uk

I have many so called chores to do around the home. Cleaning, cooking, washing, ironing, sewing…and the list goes on. I find some of these so called chores more burdensome than others, but they aren’t really chores…they are acts of love. I love my children and I cook and iron and wash for them, as well as for myself. I express my love for my sons by insuring that they are cared for, physically, emotionally and spiritually..

When does “Church” become a chore? I reckon for most Christians it is a chore every time they have to go. This includes pastors, bishops and leaders. There is a tendency to go to get. We go to silence our consciences. We go to be blessed. We go to please our parents and satisfy our egos. We go to feel better for all the times during the week when we messed up. We go to be seen, that is we go so that others will notice our piety. We go because we feel (sometimes we are told) it would be a sin if we didn’t. We aren’t interested in the person sitting next to us, we go out of duty and to clear our conscience.

I don’t think I am too far off the mark with this. I have seen too many, including myself, attend church as a chore. Why do so many Roman Catholics seem to leave it to the last moment to go a mass and then leave , often before it is finished, and with such haste? Few Catholic churches have ever struck me as welcoming or loving. Yes there are a few and yes there are Catholics who go out of love, but these are the minority. Why do so many Baptists greet you with such warmth but really don’t give a monkey about you or your needs? Yes there are Baptists who really do love and care for the individual, but these are in the minority. They go to church because the bible says so. Our churches are full of chore burdened folk who are bound under the law of their particular denomination, not knowing they are loved unconditionally and so unable to love truly.

When church becomes a chore, it is time to leave! The trouble here is that we find security in doing our duty , even though no loving relationships are fostered within the community, we stay doing our bit, which we call charity or another name which sounds good, hoping this is enough to get us into heaven.

The fantastic thing is that in the 56 years I have been on this planet and walking side by side with many denominations, there is today something unprecedented happening across the world in the Church. It is being torn down! The structures we have depended on for so long are being ripped apart. The foundations are being pulled up, because we are at last seeing that they are not the foundations. Duty is being replaced with love. Doing is being replaced with relationship. The love of God is being found in love of neighbour. It is at the same time devastating and healing. The rock we thought we once stood on is being shown up as nothing but the sand of lies. It is a time of great revelation and of great deception.

When you look at the God Channels on TV, you see how twisted Christianity has become. Though there are many great preachers and God honouring programmes, there is a plethora of trash that tells the world to keep well clear of. Christians who preach greed in the name of God. Christians who denounce other denominations as they are the ONLY TRUE CHURCH. Christians who harbour war in their hearts towards other religions. Christians who grow fat on preaching fear, hell and damnation. Christians whose words and antics the world is wise enough to keep clear of. Christians who preach of a God they neither know or are known by. Christians who like their ancestors, swallow camels whilst straining out gnats. Christians who have made the bible God and made God a monstrous ogre from a book. Christians who have pontificated in the name of Christ and sat over their flock as devouring wolves, in relative luxury , whilst their flock trembles in fear and hunger. This is sadly what the Church has allowed to breed for over a millennia. But now a true reformation is happening.

This is not a sectarian, divisive, multi denominational move, oh no! This is ‘The Church’ at last seeing itself without walls and without divisions. This is the end of denominationalism and all that went with such a mindset. This is the end of the clergy and laity mush. There will be only clayity in the potters hand. This is not about building mega churches or about mega ministries. It is about love and relational church. It is about Jesus and his command that we love one another as he loves us. It is about others and not self. It is about encouragement and not failures. It is about God and He is love.

When church becomes a chore … get out! For that is not Church, nor a shadow of it. When you love someone, whatever you do for them is never a chore! Love is about giving and just as God loves us, so we are called to love one another. Now that is Church.

Michael Daly
February 2010
Living loved

Link: http://scjesus.co.uk

In my last blog, I recommended 'The Misunderstood God', by Darin Hufford. I also recommend Darin's blog and the Free Believers Network http://freebelievers.com which is always challenging and encouraging. The following blog by Darin, can be found at http://freebelievers.com/blog-entry/involuntary-spirituality

To live loved is to live love.

Michael Daly CJ
February 2010

Involuntary Spirituality

I have hundreds of sincere friends who are dealing with issues from their past that they are desperately trying to get healing from. Some of them are going the "self-help" route, some are taking classes on spiritual healing. Some are in full time counseling, while others are following the traditional formulas by attending every church service they can with notebook in hand and a journal under their arm. I think everyone has a different method of dealing with painful memories in the past. To some degree, each and every one of us have been abused or hurt in one way or another.

Many Christians feel like they're waiting in line for an emotional healing that they probably won’t ever find. They become like the chronic overweight person who has tried everything from low-carb diets to overnight miracle pills, and after being let down half a million times, they finally collapse into a world of utter hopelessness. The mere mention of emotional healing catapults them into a world of self-loathing depression. They forgave every person they could remember being mad at. They’ve visited their inner child more times than they care to remember. They’ve quoted all the formula prayers, stood on all the right scriptures, and even had the in-house deliverance expert walk them towards the light, but come Monday morning they found themselves right back where they started.

Over the last twenty years of my life I have watched a growing trend in Christianity. If you attend some churches you would think that Christ came for the sole purpose of fixing us all and helping us all get over the pain of our past. He’s presented as the supernatural Dr. Phil and the ultimate life changer rather then the life GIVER. I honestly think that American Christianity has re-marketed Christ to appeal to the masses of emotionally wounded people in the world. We have used people’s issues and spiritual ailments as hooks to draw them into our churches and ministries, by making statements that simply are not true and promises that we can’t possible fulfil. We market Jesus as the "inner healer," whose healing formula is given only to the leaders or the super spiritual people above us. We create a mob of emotionally broken people who hobble from one service to the next hoping to finally persuade Jesus to give them the emotional healing they so desperately need. When it doesn’t happen, they’ve been trained and programed to blame themselves. Over time, that self-blame eventually drives people even deeper into emotional brokenness and dysfunction then they were to begin with.

One of my close friends has read every spiritual healing book on the market. She’s attended conferences, listened to teaching series and she’s even written the world’s most famous healing evangelists in an effort to get her healing from the past. The day she and I met I could immediately tell that in her mind the purpose of our meeting was to hopefully find that healing. That had become the purpose of her life, the only thing she ever talked about when it came to spirituality. She thought that perhaps if she met with me, I could give her the exact formula that would finally detonate the power of God and give her the healing she had sought her entire adult life.

I told this young lady what I want to say to every person like her who is reading this article.

When you cut your finger, you wash it out and put a band-aid on it. Once that simple act is completed do you sit around and try to figure out ways to get it to heal? Of course not. Nothing you do beyond those initial first few steps will make any difference in the healing process. You won’t speed it up or slow it down. You can read books on cut-healing and go to cut-healing conferences, but in the end, all that energy is a waste of time because your cut will heal itself with or without your help.

God created this healing capacity within each and every one of us. We don’t do silly things like read books and call experts when we scrape or cut ourselves. We don’t squint our eyes and grit our teeth trying as hard as we can for a healing because we know that healing was created within us and it happens on its own.

Christianity is known for taking the things that happen naturally in the course of life and claiming authority over them. Then, when what would have happened on its own, happens; we claim responsibility and call ourselves powerful. If we would just learn to keep our noses out of the areas in life where we are not needed, we might find that Christianity is amazingly easy. I have come to believe that 90% of the stress and difficulty in the modern day Christian life, is self induced. We are praying about things that don’t need prayer. We’re claiming authority over things that don’t need our authority and leadership. We spend our time asking God for things that aren’t even on the menu and we spend all our faith on things that happen naturally.

Several years ago I found myself awake at about 2:00am, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. As I laid in bed listening to my wife snore away, I began to listen to my breathing patterns. Something didn’t sound right when I would inhale. I began to get worried that I wasn’t getting enough oxygen, so I started to nervously monitor my intake of air for the next several hours. By 5:00am I was convinced that I needed to be taken to the hospital. My lips were numb and I was having chest pains. I felt dizzy and fear was literally pulsing through my body to the point where I could hear my heart beating out loud. I went to wake Angie up and just before I did, I got this revelation. It was probably just a thought, but looking back on it today I definitely think it was revelation.

“Don’t monitor your breathing. That’s something that happens on its own.”

I am not kidding you. In less than five minutes I was completely back to normal and snoring in unison next to my lovely wife. Breathing is an involuntary action that the body does completely on its own. The decision to monitor it and take authority over it, only led to panic and disaster.

This is precisely what Christians have been taught to do with most of the AUTOMATIC functions in life.

We think it’s precious and adorable when a four-year-old child clinches her fists and scrunches her face because she is “trying to grow.” It’s funny because adults know that you can’t “try” to grow. Growing happens naturally over time and completely on its own. Ironically, I can visit almost every Christian church in Arizona and find full grown adults doing the exact same thing concerning their spiritual growth. Like naive little children, we scrunch our faces and clinch our fists during prayer, “trying” with every spiritual muscle we have to grow. We talk obsessively about growing in the Lord. We ask each other what they’re doing to grow in the Lord. We tell people that if they aren’t growing they need to be doing this and thus. We pride ourselves in saying that spiritual growth is the number one thing our church or ministry cares about. Silly, silly, silly, and it’s not nearly as cute when we do it as it is when a four-year-old child does it.

As Christians we have a responsibility to LIVE LIFE. Our life is set up by God Himself in a way that naturally brings forth things like inner healing, growth and maturity. These things are the responsibility of God; NOT US. I honestly believe that we’ve driven ourselves crazy because in our own arrogance and unwillingness to enter into life, we’ve hijacked God’s responsibilities and have foolishly depended upon ourselves to carry them through.

I had a pastor tell me once that he was committed to my spiritual growth. I told him thanks but that makes about as much sense as me committing myself to his fingernail growth. I just think there are better things in life to commit ourselves to, especially when growth happens by itself. We neglect things where we actually can make a difference, and then pay special attention to the very things that don’t need our attention at all.

I think the average Christian needs to take a course in “involuntary spirituality.” We need to get reacquainted with what happens on its own and what actually requires our assistance. I think most people would be surprised and relieved if they knew the truth. We could finally leave things like salvation to God rather than take it upon ourselves to “get people saved.” If you need an inner healing, just know in your heart that it’s happening. You can’t make it happen any faster than you can heal your finger if you cut it. YOU WILL HEAL! Know that and live life. YOU WILL GROW! Nothing you do will make yourself grow any faster. Growing isn’t up to us; it’s up to God.

I honestly have come to believe that the reason why Christianity has focused so much on this ridiculous stuff is because it’s a subconscious way of avoiding life and intimacy with God. I think our religion has made Him so unattractive and detestable, that we’ll stand outside and count blades of grass in the lawn just to get out of being alone with Him. I think it’s a combination of us not wanting to be close to him, and us feeling like He’s going to abandon us. Part of the grace and love message is about getting a proper view of who He really is. Once you get that, you look back at your life and laugh at yourself for all the silly stuff you did. I think I’ve dropped more stuff off of my to-do list since I’ve become a Free Believer than I ever thought possible. The last time I looked at that list I think there was only two things; Love God and love people.

Darin Hufford Dec 2009
http://freebelievers.com/blog-entry/involuntary-spirituality

Link: http://scjesus.co.uk

I have been blessed these past few years by books that have both challenged me and encouraged at the same time. Writers such as Wayne Jacobsen, Gayle D Erwin ,along with Brennan Manning and now Darin Hufford have made me most uncomfortable. Darin Hufford’s book “The Misunderstood God” has been oxygen to a suffocating man. Can it be that I have lived 56 years, with so many graces given to me by the Lord Jesus, yet still be so blind and deaf? I believe the answer is yes!

In the Misunderstood God, Hufford makes some searching statements. He reveals the heart of Love - God my Father. I thoroughly recommend this book to you and pray that it will help you truly know Abba.

On page 23, at the end of Chapter two in ‘The Misunderstood God‘, Hufford writes, “I believe we’ve been deceived into believing a lie concerning love. But I also believe there’s an even deeper place in our hearts that knows exactly what love is. It’s a place that many of us have been afraid to trust most of our lives. This is the place I’m hoping you’ll go with me in reading this book. I believe everything you’ll read here will be a confirmation of what you already know in your heart.

Could you imagine me holding my nine-month-old son, Jude, in my arms and telling him that under no circumstances would I share my glory with him? What if I lovingly told him that if he disobeyed me again and again, I would pour gasoline on him and light him on fire? What kind of father would I be if I explained to him that he needed to give me 10 percent of everything he had or I would withdraw my hand of protection from his life and allow the fires of hell to swallow him? What if I told one of my daughters that she was put here on this earth to be a servant and a slave to me? Could you picture me telling my children that I’ve written everything about me down in a book and unless they read it every day of their lives, they’ll never know me? What parent would turn his head away from his son or daughter the moment the child made a mistake?”

Hufford’s imagery is shocking and profoundly healing.

What image of Love (Abba) do you have?

(Quotation taken from:-
The Misunderstood God. By Darin Hufford
Windblown Media. 2009. ISBN 978-1-935170-05-1)

http://themisunderstoodgod.com

Michael Daly
10.2.2010
Living Loved

Link: http://www.servant.org

WHAT CAN PRAYER BE?

Apparently, Jesus did not overtly display his prayer life which prompted the apostles to ask him to teach them how to pray. Could it be that Jesus' conversations with his Father were so natural the apostles didn't even notice that he was praying? Could it be that his most intensive moments with the Father were private ones when he escaped to lonely places and the disciples couldn't find him?

Surely prayer is part of God's attempt to restore the fellowship of Eden when he walked with Adam in the cool of the evening. I doubt that the conversation in the garden included much of what we now call prayer. Would Adam have yelled at God? Would Adam have screamed for God to come near? Would Adam have bowed his head and closed his eyes to validate the conversation? I think not!

We know that God is closer to us than a brother. Indeed, through His Holy Spirit He dwells in us. What, in that scenario, guides our relationship and our form of prayer? We know from Jesus that God is not impressed with repetition as a method nor is he responsive to Prayers for public consumption or as an expression of arrogance or greed. What then might He want?

Surely, he simply wants us to talk to Him. Fellowship demands that the method of conversation result from the degree of closeness felt. I expect God wants us to be honest in our prayer and comfortable in our own language. I don't think fellowship with God requires some sort of physical posturing in order to be effective. I'm sure that He appreciates our believing that He is and that He is waiting to reward our belief.

From the words of Jesus, we know that God cares about "private time" with us ("closet") and promises to reward us for that. It is also obvious that he wants us to understand and honor him as God, to submit ourselves to him ("thy kingdom come") and to seek his intervention in our world.

God obviously doesn't want us to approach him greedily ("daily bread") and does want us to adopt his attitude of forgiveness toward others. He wants us to be concerned about anything that would break our fellowship and be willing to talk to him about it ("deliver us from evil"). Jesus' teaching on prayer is a glorious model of simplicity. Finally, if I read Jesus correctly, God wants us to pray in keeping with what Jesus would pray ("in my name").

So, what should our conclusions be? What physical position should I be in when I pray' Any position you wish. At what volume should I pray? At whatever volume you feel is "close." Where should I pray? Wherever you are. How long should I pray? For as long as you want to talk to your creator and best friend, perhaps "without ceasing." Isn't there something I can do to improve my chances of prayer being answered? Not likely. He is hard to fool. Just love Him and let Him love you. Will he listen to me if I'm not perfect? God has a centuries-long track record of listening to people with mixed motives. If you are talking to Him, it is a good indication that your heart is turned His direction. The beautiful thing about prayer is that it moves you to be more like Him. Doesn't this make prayer too simple and childlike?

Amen, amen, amen!

Gayle D. Erwin