the merge

10 Things

2009-11-11T15:20:00.001-05:00

Take a few moments to answer the following:

Name 10 famous people living or dead.
Name 10 stores.
Name 10 bands.
Name 10 beers.
Name the 10 commandments.

A friend of mine was talking about a recent trip to pray at an abortion clinic. It was part of a peaceful demonstration. As he attempted to pray, many in the group stood around and socialized. After some time at the clinic, he accompanied them to lunch. As a pastor, he was interested in their behavior. They were all professing "strong" Christians, and he wanted to find out where they were spiritually.

He asked a few spiritual questions in a non-confrontive manner...How is you spiritual life? How much time do you spend praying personally? What is your personal time with God like?

What he found was that most of them didn't.

They didn't pray. They didn't spend time with God. They hadn't spent any serious time digging into the Bible. They were busy doing all this stuff for God, but didn't really know God. I tell this story not to rat them out, but because it is an easy trap for me to fall into. I get busy doing all the stuff, and forget that in the end it all about being with Jesus.

It is more than that. The 10 Things quiz at the beginning points out how easy it is for me to know all kinds of information about stuff that doesn't really matter. If I am truly making Jesus the Lord of my life and putting His Kingdom first, then I should act like it. I know a lot about the things I am passionate about. The things about which we are passionate..we can't seem to get enough of.

How much more should I know about God and His Word?

He is Passionate about Soda

2009-11-06T17:00:00.000-05:00

Nese is a passionate guy...he loves soda pop. I love his passion for what he does and what he sells.

As I watched this video I thought, "I want that kind of passion for Jesus." He is selling bottled soda...I am serving the King of Kings. It is certainly challenging. As pastors and leaders we need this kind of passion is we expect people to follow us. Not a fake optimism, but a genuine excitement about what we get to do for God's Kingdom here on earth.

What are you passionate about?

Thanks to Kim Komando via Seth Godin

Another Francis Chan Quote

2009-11-05T08:05:00.001-05:00

"As believers, we ought to experience this same kind of astonishment when the Holy Spirit enters our bodies. We should be stunned in disbelief over becoming a 'new creation' with the Spirit living in us. As the caterpillar finds its new ability to fly, we should be thrilled over our Spirit-empowered ability to live differently and faithfully. Isn't this what the Scriptures speak of? Isn't this what we've all been longing for?

"But instead of living this way, we've created a whole brand of churches that do not depend on the Spirit, a whole culture of Christians who are not disciples, a new group of 'followers' who do not follow. If all God asked for were faceless numbers to fill the churches, then we would be doing alright. Most of us would feel pretty confident. But simply having a good speaker, a service that is short and engaging, a good venue, and whatever else we add to the mix does not make for a 'good' or 'successful' church. God intended for His bride, those who claim His name, to be much more than this." Francis Chan

I feel hungry for something more...spiritually and in God's church. Check out another quote from Chan here. What do you think?

The Lonely Places

2009-11-02T13:02:00.003-05:00

One of my favorite hobbies is backpacking. Last year I put over 125 miles on the treads of my hiking boots, and a friend and I hiked 70 miles and 8 days on a trek through the Laurel Highlands in Southern Pennsylvania. The things I like best about backpacking are that I am doing something a relatively small number of people do and I get to see things that a relatively small number of people get to see and experience. They are the lonely places.

Why are they lonely?

Because it is easier to stay home than to make the effort to get out to see these places. Either we don't want to make the effort...we are not outdoor people...the reward is not worth it for us...whatever the reason, it is always easier to stay where we than to make the effort to get out and gain the experience that awaits us in the lonely places.

This morning while reading the Gospel of Mark, I came across these verses,

"Jesus sent [the man with leprosy] away at once with a strong warning: 'See that you don't tell this to anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.' Instead he went out and began to talk freely, spreading the news. As a result, Jesus could no longer enter a town openly but stayed outside in lonely places. Yet the people still came to him from everywhere."

The news about Jesus spread quickly and compellingly. It was so compelling that people were willing to overcome the ease of staying where they were to go out into the lonely places and meet with Jesus. The lonely places became no so lonely...because of Jesus. Both because he was there and because he drew a crowd.

There is something about Jesus that continues to draw people to Him. He is the subject of more discussions, movies, books, and arguments than anyone else in history...and yet He is the subject. People talk about Him, want to know Him, and try to understand Him. As the old hymn says, "There is something about that name."

But it is easy to lose that "attraction" to Jesus, and return to that state of ease that keeps us from moving forward. Once we make Jesus the topic of our discussions, movies, debates, and books...it is easy to treat Him as just another topic to be discussed or of which to have an opinion about. It is easy to get bogged down in the mundane things of life, and lose the edge on that attraction to Him. We can forget that He is the Son of God whom we are to worship and obey, and our Savior, Redeemer, Lord, and Teacher.

What are some things that you do to keep your relationship moving forward?

Knowing Your Place as an Artist

2009-10-27T13:00:00.000-04:00

There is something to be said about knowing your place in the process. As a new writer, I remember the twinge of pain at seeing my work in print after an editor had chopped it up without asking me. I don't know if I was more hurt that it was chopped without being asked or that it was better after that process. I learned a very valuable lesson...my job was to write it the best I could. That's it. Nothing more. I came to understand that my responsibility was not to concern myself with what the editor did with it after it was in their possession.

Some artists and creators are given full control over their product...some do better with this responsibility than others. Stephen King has noted that he loves having an editor, and it shows in the quality of his finished product. But after several hokey films, I think we can all agree that other directors do better a job making his writing into film than he does when he is involved. Just because he writes books very well doesn't mean he is good at screenplays and bringing the original work to life on a big screen. There is some measure of artistic control that he has to let go of in order to gain a quality finished product.

If you work with or as artists in a professional setting it is important to learn this because many do not have complete creative control. You can create the perfect art piece or write the best sentence in the history of composition, and your client can opt for the idea that was your leftover option thrown together just to have one more option. It can be tough to see your best idea rejected in favor of something less than your best.

But the video below reminds us that as writers and artists our joy can and should come from the process. The Men with Pens blog makes a similar point by reminding us that while we don't jump out of bed with excitement about writing, we are certainly empowered and enlivened by the process of doing it.

So remember...Enjoy the process!

What do you think?

My Failblog Picture

2009-10-21T08:07:00.000-04:00

One of my favorite new humor sites is failblog.org. It has humorous picture of how people do stupid things and get caught with a picture. A little while ago I got a weird captcha word...check it out here and be sure to vote for it: Captcha Fail.

Commitment Free

2009-10-20T12:05:00.000-04:00

"If you lead a group that allows anyone to join, for free, your group might be large, but it's not tight, it's not organized to make important change. Commitment slows things down in the short run, but ultimately aligns interests." Seth Godin (Check out the rest of the post here.)

And here lies the tension for the modern church. It always seems that the churches with the highest entrance requirements don't have the highest attendance rates, but do make a lot of impact on the lives of its attendees.

What do you think?

The Problem with Cable News

2009-10-18T17:19:00.004-04:00

Seth Godin posted this list of 12 things that make cable news so bad:

Focus on the urgent instead of the important.
Vivid emotions and the visuals that go with them as a selector for what's important.
Emphasis on noise over thoughtful analysis.
Unwillingness to reverse course and change one's mind.
Xenophobic and jingoistic reactions (fear of outsiders).
Defense of the status quo encouraged by an audience self-selected to be uniform.
Things become important merely because others have decided they are important.
Top down messaging encourages an echo chamber (agree with this edict or change the channel).
Ill-informed about history and this particular issue.
Confusing opinion with the truth.
Revising facts to fit a point of view.
Unwillingness to review past mistakes in light of history and use those to do better next time.

I agree. Anytime you have to fill time slot for the sake of filling time slots you end up with some really bad stuff. This is why I watch John Stewart...at least he realizes he is being laughed at.

What do you think?

The Power of Sabbaticals

2009-10-17T12:00:00.002-04:00

I just watched this TED video...what an inspiration. This guy is not "religious" but definitely gets the power of taking a sabbatical. I know this is long, but it is worth it.

The sabbatical is not so much time away to do nothing, but the freedom to do your own kinds of projects. He talked about how much time he, 3m, and Google give to employees to do their own projects...Google gives their program designers 20% of their time to work on any project they want. What would happen if every pastor on staff were given responsibilities for 80% of their time and then given permission to spend the other 20% on projects of their own design...That could get interesting.

Either way, it certainly speaks to the power of taking time to "do something else." We are more creative when we take breaks and allow our minds room to breath in the fresh air.

Great Quote from Henri Nouwen

2009-10-12T17:15:00.000-04:00

This is from In the Name of Jesus, “It is not enough for the priests and ministers of the future to be moral people, well trained, eager to help their fellow humans, and able to respond creatively to the burning issues of their time. All of that is very valuable and important, but it is not the heart of Christian leadership. The central question is, Are the leaders of the future truly men and women of God, people with an ardent desire to dwell in God’s presence, to listen to God’s voice, to look at God’s beauty, to touch God’s incarnate Word, and to taste fully God’s infinite goodness?”

The same question holds true for "regular" followers of Jesus. Before we can lead others into a relationship with God we have to have done more than just met Him once over a short prayer of forgiveness. We must be living in relationship with Him through the grace He provides for us.

The question that needs answered is "Are we more a man or woman of God today than we were yesterday?"

1 in 4 People Worldwide are Muslim

2009-10-08T13:02:00.001-04:00

CNN.com reports,

Nearly one in four people worldwide is Muslim -- and they are not necessarily where you might think, according to an extensive new study that aims to map the global Muslim population. India, a majority-Hindu country, has more Muslims than any country except for Indonesia and Pakistan, and more than twice as many as Egypt.

China has more Muslims than Syria.

Germany has more Muslims than Lebanon.

And Russia has more Muslims than Jordan and Libya put together.

Nearly two out of three of the world's Muslims are in Asia, stretching from Turkey to Indonesia.

The Middle East and north Africa, which together are home to about one in five of the world's Muslims, trail a very distant second.

There are about 1.57 billion Muslims in the world, according to the report, "Mapping the Global Muslim Population," by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. That represents about 23 percent of the total global population of 6.8 billion.

There are about 2.25 billion Christians, based on projections from the 2005 World Religions Database.

These are some interesting numbers, and beg the question of how we train and prepare for evangelism in the future of the church. This is one of the fastest (if not THE fastest) growing spiritual belief systems in the world.

In my daughter's school, I have noticed the rise of Muslim students. One of her friends is Muslim, and it opened the door for Bri and I to discuss the Christian faith and the Muslim faith when her friend was fasting for Ramadan. As a sidenote: it was interesting to me how Muslim's have no problem teaching their children about fasting as part of their spiritual practice, but, as a Christian, I had not taught Bri. It was a strong reminder that I need to be more intentional about teaching the Christian faith to my child...even the hard parts. Our children are more ready than we think. Bri fasted the entire day.

Here is one thing I do know...it requires us to be loving, patient, and understanding. We have to educate ourselves as to their beliefs and practices. The last thing the Christian faith can afford is to speak badly about them. We must first seek to understand so that we can speak appropriately in their lives.

Here are a few interesting article from Brian Mclaren about his participation as a Christian in Ramadan...interesting: check out this one and this one about why a committed Christian would observe Ramadan., this one, this one, and this one.

Skye Jethani at The Nines

2009-10-07T08:00:00.001-04:00

Skye Jethani is an editor at Christianity today, author of The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer Christianity, and blogs at Skyebox.Check out his video here.

What do you think?

Brian Mclaren at the Nines Conference

2009-10-06T08:00:00.005-04:00

Brian Mclaren is an influencial writer for what has become known as the Emerging Church. This video asks, "What is the Gospel?"

What do you think?

Rick McKinley at the Nines

2009-10-05T20:10:00.001-04:00

A few weeks ago I registered for a conference call The Nines. It was a novel idea...Each speaker had 9 minutes to speak to the Church about what God had laid on their heart. The conference took place on 09-09-09 and started at 9:09am. This week I want to give you a few of my favorites from the conference.

Rick McKinley has become known as Donald Miller's pastor...much like being known as Brianna's dad! Rick wouldn't be Donald's pastor if he didn't have something to offer of substance. Rick has a lot to say about pastoral humility and a willingness to talk about our struggles.

What do you think?

For the Church-Is-Lame-Crowd

2009-10-04T16:11:00.001-04:00

I read this quote the other day on JD Greear's blog. It is from the book Why We Love the Church: In Praise of Institutions and Organized Religion.

"...But then again, consistency is not a postmodern virtue. And nowhere is this more aptly displayed than in the barrage of criticisms leveled against the church.
The church-is-lame crowd hates Constantine and notions of Christendom, but they want the church to be a patron of the arts, and run after-school programs, and bring the world together in peace and love. They bemoan the over-programmed church, but then think of a hundred complex, resource-hungry things the church should be doing. They don't like the church because it is too hierarchical, but then hate it when it has poor leadership. They wish the church could be more diverse, but then leave to meet in a coffee shop with other well-educated thirtysomethings who are into film festivals, NPR, and carbon offsets. They want more of a family spirit, but too much family and they'll complain that the church is "inbred." They want the church to know that its reputation with outsiders is terrible, but then are critical when the church is too concerned with appearances. They chide the church for not doing more to address social problems, but then complain when the church gets too political. They want church unity and decry all our denominations, but fail to see the irony in the fact that they have left to do their own thing because they can't find a single church that can satisfy them. They are critical of the lack of community in the church, but then want services that allow for individualized worship experiences. They want leaders with vision, but don't want anyone to tell them what to do or how to think. They want a church where the people really know each other and care for each other, but then they complain the church today is an isolated country club, only interested in catering to its own members. They want to be connected with history, but are sick of the same prayers and same style every week. They call for not judging "the spiritual path of other believers who are dedicated to pleasing God and blessing people," and then they blast the traditional church in the harshest, most unflattering terms."

I am not sure I agree with everything implied by this. I would need to read the rest of the book to make a decision...because I do think there are some things that need to change in the Church. But I am also completely aware of the tensions and hypocrisy that is inherent in taking a stand for or against anything. If you are not doing something because you have found it to be a biblical mandate...you might be doing it for the wrong reasons. What do you think about the quote?

The Justice Project Part 1

2009-09-29T09:37:00.000-04:00

A couple of weeks ago, Baker Books asked me if I would read and write a review of the the The Justice Project. They sent me a copy, and, so far, I am finding it a fascinating book. I will post a more detailed review in the coming week or so, but wanted to give a quick synopsis of the book now.

This book is a collection of chapter written by various voices in the search for social justice in our world. The work is edited by Brian Mclaren, Elisa Shannon Padilla, and Ashley Bunting Seeber.

Baker describes the book this way:
"Justice and the call for change are in the air. Whether it's extreme poverty, human rights, racism, or the Middle East, news outlets bombard us with stories about the need for justice in the world. But how are Christians to respond to these stories and the conditions to which they refer? Here's help. Editors Brian McLaren, Elisa Padilla, and Ashley Bunting Seeber have amassed a collection of over 30 brief chapters by some of the most penetrating thinkers in the justice conversation, including René Padilla, Peggy Campolo, Will and Lisa Samson, Sylvia Keesmaat, Bart Campolo, Lynne Hybels, Tony Jones, and Richard Twiss. Divided into sections, "God of Justice," "Book of Justice," "Justice in the USA," "Just World," and "Just Church," The Justice Project invites readers to deepen their understanding of the pressures our world faces and to take up the challenge of alleviating them. Never has the world been in greater need of Christians who "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with God." This resource will help them do just that."

I am looking forward to finishing this book and wrestling with these varied voices as they wrestle with God's call for Christians to act with justice and bring His justice to our world.

New Design

2009-09-24T17:55:00.001-04:00

I like moving the furniture around every once in awhile...what do you think of the new blog design?

A Review of A People's History of Christianity

2009-09-11T13:00:00.006-04:00

I wish I had received this book earlier in the year...I could have referenced it during a church history class I was teaching. Though for introductory, academic study of Church history I still recommend Justo Gonzalez's two-part series on Church History. This book would be a great supplemental text.

Diana begins the book by telling the story of her having dinner with a friend who expressed some consternation at Diana's ability to hold on to her faith. Her friend says, "I don't have any trouble with Jesus. It's all the stuff that happened after Jesus that makes me mad." This same question rattles around the minds of many both within and without the church.

The answer for me (and for Diana) is that the true history of the Christian faith does not lay in the official history of its structures and theology. "Big C" Christianity as Diana calls it. The true history of the faith lays in the people who have faithfully lived out the message of Jesus in their everyday life. It is like a current flowing through the center of a large river. One only needs to look at the lives of various individuals throughout history to see genuine faith in practice...more often than not they are not the ones leading the Church...Big "C."

For many, the inability to answer the tough questions of Church history (i.e. how can the church do the things it has done and still call itself Christian?) has caused many to neglect and reject history. This too has led to many problems because it creates an amnesia in the church that causes it to repeat many of the mistakes, heresies, and sinful actions of its past. Diana states, "Thus we inhabit a posttraditional world-a world of broken memory-in which some tell history badly, others do not know it at all, and still others use history to manipulate society to their own ends."

Diana does a great job of finding some of Church history's least noticed people (and some its most noticed people) and looking beyond the "official" history. She helps us see them as real people with real struggles, but also a real faith. She also reminds us of the importance of knowing our history...knowing OUR story.

Check out the video of Diana Butler Bass's interview here.

The Nines

2009-08-28T18:00:00.000-04:00

I just registered for a FREE conference with some great speakers lined up...and I don't even have to leave the comfort of my computer...

The Nines on Vimeo.

You Could Be Doing More

2009-08-28T13:00:00.000-04:00

On the heals of yesterday's Ten Thousand post, I want to encourage you to read the article, On Mission, Changing the World, and Not Being Able to Do It All. Really go there and read it.

Here is a teaser quote:

I’m not for a minute advocating a cheap grace or an easy-believeism. But the yoke still is easy, right? And the burden still is light, is it not? The danger–and it’s a danger I’ve fallen foul of in my own preaching–is that in all our efforts to be prophetic, radical, and missional, we end up getting the story of Pilgrim’s Progress exactly backwards. “Come to the cross, Pilgrim, see the sacrifice for your sins. Isn’t that wonderful? Now bend over and let me load this burden on your back. There’s a lot of work we have to do, me and you.” A cross, yes. Jesus said we would have to carry one of those. But a cross that kills our sins, smashes our idols, and teaches us the folly of self-reliance. Not a burden to do the impossible. Not a burden to always do more for Jesus. Not a burden of bad news that never lets up and obedience that is always out reach.

I don't think yesterday's post and this one contradict each other...I think they remind us to be focused.

What do you think?

Ten Thousand

2009-08-27T18:00:00.001-04:00

10,000 hours...That is how long research indicates you have to do something to become good at it. Daniel Levitin says,

"In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice-skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is equivalent to roughly three hours a day, or 20 hours a week, of practice over 10 years… No one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery."

This "statistic" has been rattling around inside my head for a few weeks. I have been asking, "What would I be willing to devote 10,000 hours toward in order to master it?"

But I have also been thinking...

What would my understanding of the Bible be like if I put 10,000 hours into it?

What would my prayer life look like if I were to put 10,000 hours into it?

What would my relationship with God look like if I put 10,000 hours into it?

At 1 hour per day it takes almost 28 years to reach 10,000 hours...

What do you think?

Here are a couple of articles that got me thinking...here and here. They aren't religious in nature, but they brought up the 10,000 hours idea.

I can't believe they made this into a game!

2009-08-18T20:27:00.001-04:00

Borrowed Authority Part 3

2009-08-14T15:00:00.001-04:00

1 John 5:14-15 says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.” We pray on the merit of all Jesus has done, but we must also pray according to the will of God.

God answers prayers according to his will and purpose for us, for His Church, and for the world. John 14:13 limits the promise by saying, “So that the Son may bring glory to the Father.” The purpose of God’s answered prayer is to bring glory to Himself, to extend the reach and rule of His kingdom on earth.

As you and I pray, if our prayers are selfish and self-serving they will not be answered. If we pray, believing God should answer our prayer because we have served him x number of years or because we have done this or that for Him, we will receive no answer. If we pray thinking that God should answer without us we are mistaken as well.

Many times we pray asking God to help someone we know through a financial crisis. It is a mistake to believe that God will answer that request without us. If we pray asking God to grow His Church—He will certainly expect us to do our part.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not asking you to believe the old lie that, “God helps those who help themselves.” Because many of those people who decided to help themselves only hindered God’s work in their life. But I am saying that when you and I pray about something, God will use us. He will expect us to willingly pick up and do our part.

Here is the promise: “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

Here is the limit: “so that the Son may bring glory to the Father.”

Borrowed Authority Part 2

2009-08-13T15:00:00.001-04:00

John 14:13-14 holds one of Jesus’ promises to us, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”

When we pray, we are instructed to pray in Jesus’ name. That changes the entire make-up of our prayers. Praying “in Jesus’ name” means we are praying in His authority, on the basis of His character, and in the value of all He has done.

When I was a kid, I loved the old police shows: Starsky and Hutch and CHiPs. I would go around imitating them all the time. I think every young boy dreams of being a police officer at one time during their life. The popular phrase they always used was, “stop in the name of the law.” After hunting down the criminal, Starsky and Hutch would bang on the door of the house, and say, “Open up in the name of the law.” If they did not open the doors, they would kick it down, and arrest the criminal inside. Of themselves they were simply men and women with a badge. They had no authority of their own. Their authority depended on the law.

When we pray our authority rests, not in what we have done, but on who Jesus is and what He has done; on His union with God the Father.

We go to God recognizing our lack, our inadequacy, and rest on Jesus’ work as Messiah and Son of God.

This verse offers us a promise of tremendous possibility, and links it with a statement of limiting or qualifying condition. Ray C. Stedman says, “Frequently as we read these great passages of the Scripture, we are either so dazzled by the promise that we fail to heed the condition, or we are so frightened by the condition that we pay little heed to the promise.”

That tremendous promise is, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” But praying “in Jesus’ name” is certainly more than a magical formula tacked on to the end of our prayers. Immediately we sense there must be limits. This promise cannot be unconditional. We read, “Whatever, anything, I will do it,” but there has got to be a condition—some sort of boundary to this passage!

If we take this absolutely, God is made into nothing more than a magical genie waiting to serve our every whim. If this is limitless, we can see the problems coming. Many have read this passage, “I will do whatever you ask in my name,” and believed they could ask for anything. Believing themselves obedient, they simply add, “in Jesus name we pray, Amen” to the end of their prayers, and expect what they ask for to happen.

What if one Christian family on vacation asks God for a sunny day, and a Christian farmer asks God for rain? Who wins?

The limit to this promise lies in the person of Jesus Christ. When we ask for something “in Jesus’ name” we are limited by the scope of His work and character. What Jesus is interested in accomplishing on earth then we, as His instruments, are involved in accomplishing it. “Whatever you need,” He says, “ask for it and it shall be done.”

Borrowed Authority Part 1

2009-08-12T15:00:00.001-04:00

I am nobody. I have no political clout to throw around. I have no names to drop, no wealthy friends to depend on, and I have made no significant contribution to humanity. I am nobody.

When it comes to prayer I am in the same boat. Nothing I have ever done merits my being heard by God. Granted, I have done some good things—fed people in homeless shelters, secretly given money to people who needed it, and spent countless hours in community service. None of that means God is going to listen and answer my prayer any more than anyone else. Not even being a minister wins me any privilege in my prayers to God.

I need something else. I have no authority or right to ask anything of God. I cannot, on my own account, ask God to do anything. But there is someone who can: Jesus.

Because of his relationship with God the Father, Jesus can go to Him and ask for anything knowing that it will be done. While on earth, Jesus opened the eyes of the blind, made the lame walk, fed 5,000 people with only a few loaves of bread and some small fish, and even raised the dead to life.

The basis for all these miracles, according to John 14, is Jesus’ close relationship with God the Father. A relationship so close Jesus could say to Philip in verse 9, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” Jesus then goes on to say in verse 11, “Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves.”

This more than your average “relationship;” this is union. Jesus is one with the Father.