T. David Beck: The Simple Way of Jesus

The tech companies in Silicon Valley have become fully aware that when people are too connected technologically, they tend to be disrespectul and even rude to each other. This article from the LA Times explains how more and more tech companies are banning laptops and other personal electronic devices (cell phones, etc.) from the meeting room. The reason is that when every participant in the meeting has a laptop or device in front of him/her and is connected to e-mail and the internet, they don't really interact with the other human beings in the room. One person in the story complains that he would spend hours preparing a presentation, only to be virtually ignored when he presented it to the too-busy executives who were talking to everyone else electronically while they paid him only partial attention. I'm no enemy of technology, but I know that we can only pay attention to so many sources of input at any one time. And when one of the sources of input is a human being sitting i...

I have been arguing that based on historical research and biblical evidence, we can be sure that Jesus, his disciples, and his contemporaries prayed liturgically. The reason I have been arguing this point is that most low-church evangelicals (a) want to follow Scripture as the authoritative guide for matters of faith and worship, and (b) stamp out liturgical prayer because it smacks of (what they think of as) unbiblical, Catholic tradition. That is a self-contradictory position. What I am saying is that to be biblical is to be liturgical. If Jesus practiced liturgy, why wouldn't we? I am making an argument based mostly on silence and circumstantial evidence. Jesus nowhere makes a point of teaching his followers to pray liturgically. On the contrary, he cautions them against praying with empty repitition. In other words, mean what you say. However, he nowhere instructs his followers to stop saying the set prayers (like praying the Shema in the morning and evening). If it was accepte...

It has been observed by NT scholars that when the disciples asked Jesus how to pray, they were asking Jesus for a prayer that expressed his "yoke." A rabbi's yoke was his religious worldview. It was his way of approaching life in the light of his understanding of God and his Law. We must also keep in mind that Judaism in Jesus' day was highly liturgical. Set prayers were commonly used. For instance, Jews regularly prayed the Psalms (as do we). Therefore, when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray, they were asking for a set prayer that had Jesus' unique stamp on it. They were essentially asking him to write his own psalm that they could pray. They got what they asked for. The Lord's Prayer was most likely taught and practiced by Jesus on multiple occasions. Therefore, the disciples knew it before Jesus died. After he had died, risen, and ascended into heaven, his followers continued to recite the Lord's Prayer as the centerpiece of their dail...

For most evangelicals, Acts 2:42 is the prototype that shapes how church ought to be done. "They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers." (NRSV) Thus, the earliest church was a place of learning from Scripture, relating to one another, eating together and taking Communion together ("the breaking of bread" most likely refers to both eating common meals and celebrating the Eucharist), and praying. What kind of praying, though? Here is where many evangelicals selectively interpret Acts 2:42. The NRSV translates the Greek tais proseuchais as "the prayers" -- i.e., prayers plural. This is a correct translation of the Greek. Without drawing unwarranted conclusions, it is true that the verse does not say "prayer" in the singular. It is "prayers" in the plural. "Prayers" as in liturgical prayers. Was there liturgy involved in the early church? Yes! This verse does not co...

Last night in a prayer meeting I met with a challenging question. Are our dreams big enough and impossible enough that they can only be accomplished through prayer? How about dreams that are impossible enough that they can only be accomplished through radical dependence on god expressed through prayer and fasting? Is there anything we are hoping for that is that far outside the box? As I wrestle with this question, I also want to remain attentive to another dynamic of having dreams for the future. If you are dreaming with God, you don't want to control the content of the dreams. You might not have ideas that are big enough. Someone once said, "Don't come up with the dreams; discover them." So... what if we seek to have God open up our hearts to dream and receive dreams from him that can only be accomplished through prayer, or even prayer and fasting?

This morning we had Easter sunrise service beside the Pacific Ocean. When we started the service at 6:00 AM, it was dark, and the full moon hung over the ocean. By 7:00, the sun had come up behind us, illuminating a clear blue sky. At one point I suddenly noticed it was daytime. We began the service in the night, and it ended in the day. It reminds me of an excerpt form Paul's letter to the Romans: "Salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on the armour of light; let us live honourably as in the day, not in revelling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness, not in quarrelling and jealousy. Instead, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires." (Rom 13:11-14) The passing night speaks not of the darkness but of the growing light. Just as the dawn cannot become darker again, neither can we allow ourselves ...

Here is a brilliant quote from one of the people Baab interviewed as she prepared to write her book: "Mark, a consultant in his sixties, reflects, 'What I've learned from fasting is that it is often difficult to know that for which we are hungry when we are satiated all the time. We actually need to experience physical hunger in order to trace what our real spiritual and emotional hunger is.'" (p. 47) What do you think? Is he right?