Christians believe that God has entered into His own creation, and that He enters the created order so that humanity and nature itself might be redeemed. This thought is simply too much for some, and is summarily dismissed as ridiculous or unthinkable. Yet, at the heart of our Faith is the remarkable belief that “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among” (John 1:14a). One of the men who was closest to Jesus for three years proclaimed, “we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14b). Surely it is a huge thing to get our minds around, and the fact that God enters into His own creation is indeed a marvelous wonder and mystery.

I am intrigued that what the apostle John wanted us first and foremost to see about Jesus is that He came to us “full of grace and truth.” He wasn’t simply one of us; He was “the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:9). And exactly how did the true Light come when He came to us. He came, “full of grace and truth.”

What do grace and truth look like? They look like Jesus. If grace and truth could be personified they would look like Jesus. He did not come to judge us into submission. He came to lift us up into the very life of God by a grace and truth that astounds the imagination. He came as Light in a dark place and to those who dare “believe in Him,” this Divine Light “gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).

May we take the Light and live the life of one who has tasted both grace and truth. God dwells among us and we don’t have to live in the past and we don’t have to live defeated. He calls us to the Light and nobody can ever extinguish this Light (John 1:5). “In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” (John 1:4).

Let’s get busy living because we have tasted God’s grace and truth.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

May I share this wonderful Christmas devotion from John Henry Jowett's devotional book, My Daily Meditation? It is based on Luke 2:8-20. It touched my heart again this year as it has done so for many, many Christmas days over the years.

The heavens are not filled with hostility. The sky does not express a frown. When I look up I do not contemplate a face of brass, but the face of infinite good will. Yet when I was a child, many a picture has made me think of God as suspicious, inhumanly watchful, always looking round the corner to catch me at the fall. That “eye,” placed in the sky of many a picture, and placed there to represent God, filled my heart with a chilling fear. That God was to me a magnified policeman, watching for wrong-doers, and ever ready for the infliction of punishment. It was all a frightful perversion of the gracious teaching of Jesus.

Heaven overflows with good will toward men! Our God not only wishes good, He wills it! “He gave His only begotten Son,” as the sacred expression of His infinite good will. He has good will toward thee and me, and mine and thine. Let that holy thought make our Christmas cheer.

When Gabriel told Mary that she was going to have a baby even though she had not been with a man, her inquiring response was, “How can this be?” (Luke 1:34). How, indeed? For that matter another woman whom throughout her entire life had been called, “barren,” (Luke 1:36) was just three months away for delivering her son, John, who would be called, the Baptist. How, indeed?

Have you ever said to God, in light of His outrageous word, “How can this be?” I hope you have and I hope you never stop asking it. I hope God can be in each of us in such a way that our faith just keeps being stretched and stretched until the only answer that makes sense to us is, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you” (Luke 1:35).

Mary couldn’t get pregnant, but the Holy Spirit came upon her.

Elizabeth couldn’t get pregnant, but the Holy Spirit came upon her.

Because of an evil Herod, Jesus had no chance of getting out of Bethlehem alive, but the Holy Spirit was upon Him.

The cross killed Jesus and the dream for the future died on a hill called, “The skull,” but the Holy Spirit was upon that event.

Death spoke loudly in the life of Jesus but on a Sunday morning He came out of the tomb alive because the Holy Spirit was upon Him.

The Church had no chance of making it out of the first century, but the Holy Spirit was upon the Church.

How can these things be? Because NOTHING WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE WITH GOD” (Luke 1:37).

Case closed, or maybe reopened.

I feel compelled to share John Henry Jowett’s devotional thought for December 18, found in My Daily Meditation. Enjoy, and be filled with the wonder that is God.

THE SINNER’S GUEST

“He is gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.”
Luke 19. 1-10.

IT was hurled as an accusation; it has been treasured as a garland. It was first said in contempt; it is repeated in adoration. It was thought to reveal His earthliness; it is now seen to unveil His glory. Our Saviour seeks the home of the sinner. The Best desires to be the guest of the worst. He spreads His kindnesses for the outcasts, and He offers His friendship to the exile on the loneliest road. He waits to befriend the defeated, the poor folk with aching consciences and broken wills. He loves to go to souls that have lost their power of flight, like birds with broken wings, which can only flutter in the unclean road. He went to Zacchæus.

Yes, the Lord went to be “guest with a man that is a sinner,” and He changed the sinner into a saint. The worldling found wings. The stone became flesh. Gentle emotions began to stir in a heart hardened by heedlessness and sin. Restitution took the place of greed. The home of the sinner became the temple of the Lord. “Today is salvation come to this house forasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham.”

John the Baptist had become somewhat of a fixture in Israel so when Jesus showed up and began to baptize also it evoked a question in someone’s mind and the question led to a discussion about purification (see John 3:22-30). We’re not sure of the nature of the discussion but it led John’s disciples to go to him and tell him that someone was competing with him in this baptism business, and that this someone was a man that John himself had baptized.

I don’t want to speak for John’s disciples but it sounds like they weren’t very excited about the competition. John very quickly laid their concern to rest as he explained to them that this fellow about whom they were upset, in fact, was the one he had been talking about, the one of whom John said, “I have been sent ahead of Him” (vs. 28).

John was present to clear the way for Jesus. John saw Jesus as “the bridegroom” and himself as “the friend of the bridegroom” (vs. 26). He had his duty and it was to point the people to the One who would come after him. His ministry was about Jesus not himself. So it was John explains to his disciples that Jesus “must increase, but I must decrease” (vs. 30).

That Jesus was baptizing was exactly and precisely what John expected. It was okay; in fact, it was huge. It was time for Jesus to break out of obscurity and onto the world scene.

It’s not about us; it’s all about Jesus. We are friends of the Bridegroom, pointing everybody to this marvelous person whose name is, WONDERFUL.

Before Jesus entered into public ministry, God raised up John the Baptist to prepare the way for Him. History had been moving toward this moment for generations and at the appointed time John came saying to the people, ‘Make ready the way of the Lord, Make His paths straight” (Mark 1:3).

I’m not sure God ever does much of anything out of a vacuum. God seems always to set up history for appointed moments. His coming might surprise, even catch us off guard, but it is never without preparation.

For generations God had been speaking to the people about the coming Messiah. Then one silent night He slipped into history, almost unnoticed. For some thirty years Jesus lives in obscurity. Very few people know about the miracle among them. Then John the Baptist shows up proclaiming, “After me One is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals” (Mark 1:7). What a wonderful and humble testimony, but it gets better. John says, “I baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Mark 1:8).

Surely, John did prepare the way; and, one day not too long after John’s words a face in the crowd stepped out and submitted Himself to be baptized by one who said of himself that he was “not fit to stoop down and untie the thong of His sandals.” The appointed time had come, and through John’s faithfulness the way was opened up for the Savior of the world to step out of obscurity and onto the world’s stage.

I have wondered if each of us doesn’t in some way have a John-the-Baptist role to play. Could it be that God uses us to open doors and to prepare the way for Jesus to step out of obscurity and into the lives of people who need the Savior?

Mark 13:24-37 contains a remarkable word from Jesus. Three times He calls the people either to “Keep on the alert” or “be on the alert” (vs. 33, 35, 37). These things He says in the context of a promise that the Son of Man is going to come “with great power and glory” (vs. 26). At that time He says He will “gather together His elect from the four winds” (vs. 27).

Sounds like a very special day in history, doesn’t it! One you won’t want to miss. It will be a day of great joy from some, a day reckoning for some, and a great day of revelation when the world will know that Jesus Christ is who He says He is. And, what do we do until that day? We stay alert. The One who comes into human history as an infant born in a stable will come again into human history as the One before whom all history bows. It’s going to be quite a day.

The baby born in Bethlehem, now an adult, ready to go to the cross and die for the sins of the world, tells His people to stay alert, not to be lulled into complacency, and always to remember that even though heaven and earth will pass away, His words will not pass away (vs.31).

In these days when everything Christian is under assault and Jesus is being marginalized into unimportance, be alert and don’t buy into the lies and fabrications. The world will do to Jesus what it has always done to Jesus. It will nail Him to a cross. And, Jesus will do what He always does. He will burst out of the tombs into which the world lays Him, and He will come forth alive, embracing with redemptive love the very world that killed Him.

Whether or not the world will receive His love is its issue, but make no mistake about it; while heaven and earth are passing away, His “words will not pass away.”

Amen. Come Lord Jesus.

In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus indicates to us that those who know Him best will be the most involved in works of mercy and compassion. He reveals how important it is to him for His followers to do certain kinds of things such as feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, embrace the stranger, clothe the naked, visit the sick, and to come alongside the prisoner. Holiness in action, that is the lifestyle to which He calls His people.

Interestingly enough, Jesus equates these works of mercy as ministry to Him. When we embrace others we are embracing Jesus. When we extend mercy to others it is as if we are extending mercy to Jesus. And, get this; many times we don’t even know it is Jesus we are touching by our act of love.

What a freeing thought. We live out our lives in the spirit of holiness, a spirit that is so gracious that we treat everybody the same and all people as if they were Jesus to us. It’s real, honest and non-discriminatory outrageous grace lavished on others. Why would we do this? Because this is the way God has come to us. Outrageous grace has been lavished on us by the life of Jesus and so we lavish grace on others.

It makes perfect sense. Often we sing a song that says, “O to be like Thee, Blessed Redeemer.” Well, Jesus is about outrageous grace, extended to whomever crosses His path. O to be like Thee? Really? Then feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, visit the sick, visit the prisoner. We are never more like Jesus than when we do these kinds of things. And, remember, He said, “to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of mine, even the least of them you did it to Me” (Matt. 25:40).

Don’t you just love the Christian life and the fact that when we embrace others we are embracing Jesus? When we extend mercy to others it is as if we are extending mercy to Jesus Christ Himself.

In I Chronicles 12:32 we learn of certain men who “understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…” They were able to assess the times and conditions facing Israel and offer words of true wisdom and counsel. Where are those “sons of Issachar” today?

What times these are in which we live, times known for many things: uncertainty, ideological worlds in blatant contrast, violence, tension. Call it what we will, the truth is that the world seems to be split down the middle on just about every issue that comes before it.

Some believers are convinced that things are so bad now that Jesus must be coming back very, very soon. I’m not so sure; and even if He is I pray He might tarry a bit longer because the world is in desperate need of His grace.

Be that as it may, in I Thessalonians Paul says, “as to the times and the epochs …let us be alert and sober” (vs. 1, 6). We don’t know when Jesus is coming back, just that He is coming back. This should not frighten us or destabilize our lives. In fact, Paul said of this upcoming and certain event, “Encourage one another and build up one another…” (vs. 11).

Don’t be lulled to sleep or overly preoccupied with when Jesus might come back. Just know that He is, and then go about your life as sons and daughters “of light” (vs. 6). Live and move and have your being in the Lordship of Jesus, having “put on the breastplate of faith and love and as a helmet, the hope of salvation” (vs. 8).

What do we have to say to a stressed out world? We say, “Jesus.” We live the life of faith and hope and love, leaning on the One who is Lord of heaven and earth. We live for the One who died for us” (vs.10). So, be alert and sober, and encourage one another” (vs. 6, 11). It is a great time to be alive for Christ.

I am intrigued with the politically incorrect posture popularly referred to as intolerance. In this tightly constructed worldview intolerance is the new unforgivable sin, punishable by character assassination or disenfranchisement from the community or, my favorite, made to look like an idiot in the eyes of the so-called tolerant.

In Matthew 25:1-13 we have ourselves a problem. We have Jesus exercising intolerance. How? He says that in this world there are foolish and prudent people. He drew a line and said basically if people were on one side of the line they were foolish and if they were on the other side of the line they were prudent. That is a value judgment on His part, separating people on they basis of their judgments, deeds and attitudes thus making the Savior of the world intolerant.

Or is He? Perhaps He is being truthful and that truth itself draws lines. Perhaps people in this world make decisions that in the end disconnect them from God. They are disconnected not because others are in tolerant. but because they, themselves, draw the line, and disenfranchise themselves.

Take note, too, that in Jesus parable both the foolish and the wise are invited to the wedding feast. No one is left out except those who foolishly refuse to the things necessary to be a part of the festivities. When the party started the foolish were out shopping, preoccupied with activities born of their foolishness.

Moral? “Be on the alert, for you do not know the day nor the hour” (Matt. 25:13). The Bridegroom is on His way. When He gets here will we be ready for Him or out shopping for what we should have already had? Wise or foolish, that’s our issue.

The passionate desire of the apostle Paul for the church in Thessalonica was, in his words to them, “that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory” (I Thes. 2:12). Of this longing for them he said, “we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring each one of you as a father would his own children” (I Thes. 2:11).

Christians are a called people. They are called out of one world into God’s “own kingdom and glory.” Can we get our minds around this? In this world of ours Christians are called to live as citizens of God’s kingdom and glory. This is what defines being Christian.

God has spoken His world into our lives and, like the believers in Thessalonica, by a grace we most likely don’t fully understand, we “accepted it…for what it really is, the word of God” (I Thes 2:13). That word lives in us and, as Paul says, “performs its work in you who believe” (I Thes. 2:13).

Our lives, as Christians, are being worked on by the living Word of God. Is this not a marvelous thing? God’s word “performs its work,” in a hundred or more different ways. We call it mercy, hope, love, power, divine intervention, comfort. Call it what we will in the end it is simply and profoundly, “Amazing Grace.”

What was it the poet said? “O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be.”

Once upon a time the apostle Paul planted a church in the city of Thessalonica. Before the new church became established, however, Paul was forced to leave the city because of great hostility from people who were not receptive to the Gospel. In time Paul heard what was going on in the life of the new church, and He was thrilled.

They had a reputation. They were known for their “work of faith,” their “labor of love,” and “the steadfastness of hope” they had in “our Lord Jesus Christ” (I Thes. 1:3). They had received the Gospel “in much tribulation” but they received it “with the joy of the Holy Spirit” (I Thes. 1:6). God had taken hold of that church and in spite of it’s rough beginning “the word of the Lord … sounded forth from them” (I Thes. 1:8). Theirs is a remarkable story of God and of an open and faithful people who allowed God to be God in their midst.

Every church has it’s own story and not every issue is repeatable in other situations. Yet, for every local church to be faithful to what God is calling forth in it, one thing must be present; that church must be willing to let God be God in the midst her people. This is non-negotiable. If this isn’t happening then that church isn’t really a church.

A key question for every local congregation might just be, “What does it mean in our Faith community for God to be God here?” From there a congregation might go in many different directions.; but, until God is allowed to be God in the midst, every thing else will be an exercise in futility.

We are citizens of many relationships: family, work, school, community, state, country. There is a sense in which we have loyalty to all these relationship, a loyalty that issues into responsibility and duty.

There is a concern, however. In the end we followers of Jesus are citizens of only one relationship. The Bible says, “Our citizenship is in heaven” (Phil 3:20). All other citizenships are defined by this one citizenship.

It is our relationship with God in Christ that defines who we are. It is God who holds ultimate authority in our lives, an authority that defines how we relate in all other relationships.

This is a huge because we live in a world where there are, in fact, many people who “are enemies of the cross of Christ” (Phil. 3:18). Not every one feels about Jesus the way you and I feel about Him. Many of these folks hold positions of authority in the many relationships we have. Because of this we cannot afford to see ourselves as anything less than citizens of the King we serve.

In fact, we are citizens of heaven living in “enemy occupied territory,” according to C. S. Lewis. In that light it is important that we keep the communication channels open with the One for whom we live. We can’t afford to get our loyalties confused or our relationships cluttered with distractions.

Make no mistake about it, too; there are distractions everywhere and if we aren’t careful we can get caught up in lesser things, and find ourselves in a place where Jesus is just one loyalty among many loyalties. However, may it never be. For us, Jesus is Lord, and no one else. ~~~ no one.

Our faith says that Jesus Christ is Lord, and this is the one fact upon which we build our lives. And, it’s not simply that Jesus is Lord; it’s how He is Lord.

The apostle Paul tells us that this One who “existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with a God a thing to be grasped” (Phil. 2:6). This alone speaks volumes but there is more. This One “emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant (Phil. 2:7). That pushes the envelope a bit, doesn’t it? God becomes a servant. In what universe does a god become a servant? In our universe gods have servants making over them twenty-four seven. They don’t serve; instead, they are served.

Jesus comes to us as the One who serves, and He served all the way to Calvary where He died on a cross. A God who dies on behalf of his kingdom, that’s strange, too, isn’t it? In our universe people all over the kingdoms are dying for the kings and the kingdoms. In the economy of Jesus only one has to die, and that One is the King Himself.

Because of the kind of Lord Jesus is it is said of Him that “God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name” (Phil. 2:9). This is true to such a degree that Paul says someday “every knee will bow….and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord…” (Phil. 2:11).

And, exactly why are we told all these things? Because we are called to have the same attitude in ourselves that was in Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5). As He emptied Himself let us empty ourselves and live so as to reflect that the One we say is Lord is the One who comes to us as Servant.

Paul’s testimony was clear and concise: “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Phil. 1:21). He believed that if he died he would “be with Christ” (vs. 23) and that if he lived it would “mean fruitful labor” (vs. 22). He was willing to accept whatever came his way and he would leave that decision to God.

I suppose, in the end, we do whatever our faith calls us to do, and leave outcome decisions to God. Our role is faithfulness. It is up to God as to where our faithfulness leads. It might mean death and to be with Christ now or it might mean life and continued ministry in the name of the One to whom we have entrusted everything.

To live in this world, according to Paul, is to conduct oneself in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ (see Phil. 1:27). For him this means “standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (vs. 28). If we die, we go to be with Jesus. If we live, we go on to live together “standing firm…in one spirit…with one mind…striving together.”

Faithfulness is not about isolated and private obedience. It is about “striving together…for the faith of the gospel.”

On the way to heaven we really ought to conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel, and we really ought to do it TOGETHER.

Don’t you want to be a part of a community of people who are standing firm together and who are striving together for the faith of the gospel? Sure sounds like the place I want to be. Sounds like the people of whom I want to be apart.

Jesus explains grace in such a way that one must conclude it is simply outrageous. It seems that a certain debtor owed a creditor more money than most of us will see in a lifetime -- ten thousand talents. Doesn't compute in my brain until we see that one talent was an amount exceeding a fifteen-year salary. Fifteen years of income multiplied by ten thousand. You do the math. It's outrageous, ludicrous, and absurd. And, you know what? The creditor had mercy and forgave the entire debt. Talk about winning the lottery without buying a ticket. This is huge.

Then, this forgiven but incredibly ungrateful man goes out and finds somebody who owes him one hundred denarii, about three months wages, demands his money, seizes the man, begins to choke him, demanding "Pay back what you owe" (Matt. 18:21-25). And, Jesus then makes it known that He is not a happy camper and says that if this is the game the man wants to play, so be it, but he will receive the punishment due one who was forgiven so much but who forgave so little; and off he went to the place where he would be held to the strictest accountability until his ten thousand talents were paid in full.

God stuns us by His outrageous generosity and then calls us to live in our worlds in that same outrageous generosity. Do you know who Christians are? They are people who have been stunned by God's amazing grace and then live stunning others by extending grace.

Don't you just love living for Jesus!

True Life in community is a tricky thing, including the community of those who believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Life in His community means a corporate uniting of individual “living stones” into “a spiritual house for a holy priesthood (See I Peter 2:1-10). Individuality is not Lord here. Rather, Jesus is Lord; and, it is His life in the midst of the community that makes the community what it is.

St. Francis said it was in dying that we find eternal life. In that light, it is in living, not selfishly but for the sake of the community of Jesus, that we find ourselves. It is together we pray and fellowship and work and praise and honor God. We are on the journey together. We’re not Lone Rangers; we are the fellowship of the redeemed.

Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in there in their midst” (Matt. 18:20). A community of two becomes a community of three because Jesus is there, and community of three becomes a community of four because Jesus is there IN THEIR MIDST.

Is it too much to ask that we live empty of self indulgence and filled with the Spirit of God so that Jesus may be in our midst? After all, isn’t it the presence and influence of Jesus we all seek?

Come, Lord Jesus. Come into the midst of your people.

We human beings are so tied into ourselves that it becomes a challenge to table our interests on behalf of "God's interests" (Matt. 16:23). Yet, Jesus calls us to do just this. And, apparently, Jesus feels very strongly about this because when the apostle Peter set his mind on man's interest, even if to do so would spare Jesus death on the cross, Jesus shot back, "Get behind me, Satan" (Matt. 16:2). That's a pretty heavy retort, don't you think? And, Jesus went from this retort into the language of each disciple denying himself, taking up his cross, and following Jesus into whatever it might mean to carry the cross.

Jesus saw this discussion as one of deep spiritual matters, soul matters, where people must decide what is more important, their soul or their interests. Most people choose interests over soul, and consequently the world is comprised of people who want what they want when they want it, and if they don't get it, then they will find a way to get it anyway.

There are some who choose the way of the cross. To them nothing in this world matters as much as do the interests of God. They long never to be a stumbling block to what God is seeking to do in the world. They have taken up their cross and are honestly seeking be all that Jesus would have them be.

God bless them; and may their tribe increase.

Sometimes Jesus is hard to grasp, and maybe that’s the way it should be because it is far too easy to put Him in our theological confinements and forget that we’re not in charge. Case in point, a Canaanite woman who thunders into Jesus world one day, crying out for a mercy that would heal her daughter of a condition she called, “cruelly demon-possessed” (Matt. 15:22).

To the surprise of those of us who believe Jesus trips all over Himself to help people, He doesn’t answer her. To make matters worse the disciples implored Jesus to send her away. So we have a woman who is crying out and disciples who are imploring, and a Savior who responds to the situation uncharacteristically.

The woman refuses to give up, leading Jesus to explain to her that his mission was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel and that it wasn’t’ good to take the children’s food and give it to dogs (Matt. 15:24-26). It didn’t matter, this woman had a child in need and, chosen or not, she needed God. This persistence caught Jesus’ attention and he exclaimed to her that her faith was great, and that her daughter would be healed.

Isn't that amazing? A woman from the wrong side of the tracks becomes a role model for faith. My response to this is, “You go girl! May your tribe in increase.”

Give grace a chance. This simple challenge has been in my thinking. How do we live in such a way that we are giving grace a chance, an opportunity, to fill the lives of people and the situations in which they find themselves? How do we go about daily giving grace a chance to work its wonderful work in our lives? As followers of Jesus we ought to be so very excited about the grace of God that we cannot imagine living without sharing the life of our Lord with each other and with those who live among us.

You don't have to live in my world very long to know that I am a USC Trojan football fan. Don't ever say anything negative about coach, Pete Carroll, and don't ever make fun of Traveler, the noble white horse that appears at all SC home games with a regal Trojan warrior astride, Are we clear???????

Sometimes I wonder how long people have to be around me to know that I am a fan, a disciple, of Jesus Christ. I hope not too long, for He is more important to me than anything else in the world.

How about you? Do you let people know that you follow Jesus? I hope so. In fact, I hope that you will find a way to invite people into the fellowship of Jesus' church. Let them know that He is here for them and that you are here for them, too.

GIVE GRACE A CHANCE.

Here is a great thought to think. It comes from African-American poet James Weldon Johnson in his poem, "The Creation"

"Up from the bed of the river
God scooped the clay;
And by the bank of the river
He kneeled him down;
And there the Great God Almighty
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;
This Great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Till he shaped it in his own image...."

"Let the Church of the Nazarene be true to its commission; not great and elegant buildings; but to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and wipe away the tears of sorrowing and gather jewels for His diadem. We want places so plain that every board will say welcome to the poorest."

General Superintendent Phineas F. Bresee,
in a sermon preached on January 15, 1902

Here is a wonderful word from Henri Nouwen. It comes from the June 10, 2008 Daily Meditation

He calls it, Empowered to Be, and Nouwen hits the mark as he so often does.

Who are we? Are we what we do? Are we what others say about us? Are we the power we have? It often seems that way in our society. But the Spirit of Jesus given to us reveals our true spiritual identities. The Spirit reveals that we belong not to a world of success, fame, or power but to God. The world enslaves us with fear; the Spirit frees us from that slavery and restores us to the true relationship. That is what Paul means when he says: "All who are guided by the Spirit of God are sons [daughters] of God, for what you received was not the spirit of slavery to bring you back into fear; you received the spirit of adoption, enabling us to cry out, 'Abba, Father!'" (Romans 8:15).

Who are we? We are God's beloved sons and daughters!

Here is an insight worth talking about over coffee and maybe even grappling a bit with in the process of spiritual formation. It is from Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith.

“I know that the Bible is a special kind of book, but I find it as seductive as any other. If I am not careful, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more than I love the encounters that gave rise to them. If I am not careful, I can decide that I am really much happier reading my Bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place, since shutting the book to go outside will involve the very great risk of taking part in stories that are still taking shape.”

May I pass along this wonderful prayer of A. W. Tozer

Lord, I would trust You completely; I would be altogether Yours; I would exalt You above all. I desire that I may feel no sense of possessing anything outside of You. I want constantly to be aware of Your overshadowing Presence and to hear Your speaking Voice. I long to live in restful sincerity of heart. I want to live so fully in the Spirit that all my thought may be as sweet incense ascending to You and every act of my life may be an act of worship. Therefore, I pray in the words of Your great servant of old, ‘I invite You to cleanse the intent of my heart with the unspeakable gift of Your grace, that I may perfectly love You and worthily praise You.’ And all this I confidently believe You will grant me through the merits of Jesus Christ Your Son. Amen.

The Gospel is about the life of Jesus in the life of His new creation. In Christ the Church lives and moves and has its being. In Christ, the Church is formed and shaped by the cross, and in that cross the Church finds the meaning and depth of her existence.

We Christians don't live for ourselves or for our own personal agendas. God's agenda is the most important thing in all the world to those of us who seek to carry Jesus' cross with Him, and we live for God regardless of what it might or might not personally mean to us in our private lives.

Jesus calls us to a faithfulness that lives in response to God and to what God is doing in the world. Our question is not, "what's in it for me?" but rather, "What does it mean for us to lose our lives for the sake of the One who both created and redeems us?" What's in it for God? What's in it for the kingdom? What's in it for the Church?

Like queen Esther of old, we come to each day released to the fact that we may perish but even if we do we know that God is present and at work, at that His will, shall be accomplished. This puts everything in perspective and releases us to let go of any and all distractions, and to live in the "good, acceptable and perfect will of God" (Rom. 12:2).

Take up the cross and follow Jesus into that which is good, acceptable and perfect.

In his book, With God in The Crucible, Peter Storey who pastored for years in south Africa and who is now Professor Emeritus at Duke University has a wonderful message entitled, Let God Be God! In this message Storey writes,

…the Church must be the Church. Jesus brought into being an entirely new, radically different community, offering people a citizenship transcending the frontiers of nations and contrasting powerfully with the norms around it. The Church is not not simply another institution in society, nor is it an extension of the traditions of any one nation….
The Church must be different from, and often over against and in contradiction to, the ways of all nations. That alternative identity must be cherished and guarded as the most important characteristic of the Church. The richest gift the Church can give the world is to be different from it. It must be a constant irritant that the world doesn’t want, but cannot do without.” (Abington Press: Nashville, 2002)

Storey then shares a personal word of experiences in South Africa. He writes,

When we were cast out of the corridors of power and disowned and vilified by the sate, at first we saw it as a loss of influence. But in that loss we found our souls and rediscovered our identity. We were set free from the false patriotism that worships the nation’s idols. We found instead a higher patriotism that determined to hold the nation accountable to the Kingdom of God and God’s justice before everything else.

I embrace what Storey says, and I believe that he is on to something rooted and grounded in Scripture, and offers us a way of being the salt and light of Jesus in the world, in a way that is uniquely of Jesus.

Compassion filled His heart as Jesus looked over a crowd and realized how much the people needed God (see Matt. 9:35-38). He then turned to His disciples and challenged them to pray that God would "send out workers into His harvest field."

Because of the extreme need at hand what kind of "workers" do you believe Jesus was calling into His harvest field? I think that not just anybody should show up for God in a world desperately in need of God. Those who dare be "workers" for God need to be a special breed. What breed exactly? In Matthew 10:8 Jesus gives us a hint. There He says, "Freely you have received, freely give."

Workers for God need to realize how much God has given to them, then take that generosity and turn it around on others. There is no room for tightwads in the harvest field that belongs to God. Great grace received become great grace given.

FREELY. What a great word. What a great way to live. What a great way to make God look good. What a great way to be to others what God is to us.

Am wondering if there are some folks out there who would pass along to me the name of the candidate they plan on voting for in the November presidential election? And, would you be willing to pass along 4 or 5 reasons you are supporting your candidate? Thank you! Any input will be helpful for a project I am working on.
God bless.

In a message entitled, Becoming What God Intended You to Be, Dr. Anthony Campolo shares what is really an important story as well as a crucial evaluation. He writes

At Eastern University, where I taught for so many years, I would constantly encounter students who would ask a simple question: How can I know what God wants me to do with my life? What a question! But I could never answer the question because I'm not sure that Jesus wants us to look that far ahead. I'm convinced that what Jesus calls us to do is to solve this problem: What should I be doing today? He says quite pointedly, "do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' Each day has enough trouble of its own" (Matthew 6:31, 34).

After quoting Jesus Campolo then asks, "Are you going to do what God wants you to do today? That's the ultimate question. Everyday you should get up and say, "This is the day that the Lord has made."

The point in all this? Focus on today. Do what faith calls you to do today. In time the days will become a story, a history, and you will discover that Jesus has led you all the way.

The fact of the matter is that Christians are a sent people. The church isn’t present to be a nice fixture for cultures or to offer a pleasant contribution to an enjoyable conversation being held by nice people. The Church is present because Jesus called her to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matt. 28:19). The Church is sent.

It seems Jesus was intent on bringing into the world a people who would forever proclaim that His life “was the light of men” (John 1:4). His life was good for people who lived in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:7). His story is to be told, His life is to be shared, and His glory is to be revealed in all the world. This is what the Church is to be about in her service to “go and make disciples.”

So, how is the Church doing? How faithful are we to proclaim that Jesus is the light of men? Are we passionate about telling His story, sharing His life, and revealing His glory?

In short, how are we doing when it comes to being faithful to the Christ who saved us and who fills us with His Spirit? For two thousand years somebody somewhere was faithful, so much so that in time the message reached us. What shall they say about us in the times to come?

On one remarkable day the Holy Spirit filled the waiting disciples with His very own presence and the world has not been the same since. On that day the Church was born, and a movement was let loose in history that would boldly go to the remotest parts of the earth in the name of Jesus, proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world. It was quite a day.

The twenty-eight chapters of the Book of Acts gives us stories of the first efforts at fulfilling the Great Commission, an effort that is still under way, twenty centuries later. The book closes somewhere around the late 60s or early 70s. Since then, some have suggested, the Church has been writing the twenty-ninth chapter of Acts.

Here in the opening years of the twenty-first century the Church finds itself at a time when the message of Jesus is desperately needed. To live that message the Church is still dependent upon the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. The Church was birthed in supernatural power, carried out it's first mission efforts in supernatural power, and will be fruitful today to degree that it yields it's life to the supernatural possibilities of God in the world. Not magic, mind you, but supernatural, God-explained, power. A much quoted but perhaps most under-used Scripture still holds true: "Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit," says the Lord Almighty" (Zech. 4:6). It was true for ancient Zerubbabel and it is true for us, too.

Get connected to God, and stay connected. Let God be God in your life and in the life of the Church. May all that we do and may all that we are be defined by the presence of the Holy Spirit. He is our POWER.

The word of Jesus to His disciples as He ascended back to the Father was, "wait" (Acts. 1:4). He called them to wait in Jerusalem until God gave to them a gift they would desperately need. They had been aware of a baptism with water but God was going to baptize them "with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 1:5).

The Spirit baptism was going to be unique in that when He came upon them they would "receive power" (Acts 1:8). The power would enable them to be faithful to God, so faithful that they would live as witnesses of Christ as the Church spread from Jerusalem to Judea to Samaria and "to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Two thousand years later the Church lives in this same promise and in the same power. At least, the Church is invited to do so.

Whether or not the Church lives in the power of the Spirit today is under debate. The truth is, however, we are never the Church when we live by a power that is not of God. God's power is what makes us who we are.

Our abilities, our talents, our savvy, our skills, our gifts are wonderful, and thank God for them. But, these are not what make us the Church. It is the power of the Holy Spirit in a people that makes them the Church. In Him we live and move and have our being. It is the power of the Spirit who brings to us the very life of God that makes us the Church

Don't try to be the Church in your own capacities, but do let the Holy Spirit baptize you with power. Then, you will find that God is at work in your life, and that you are a vital part of something wonderful for and from God ~~ the Church of Jesus Christ.

Religion is an interesting animal. It can bring life and it can bring death. It can instill hate or it can inspire peace. It can unite or it can divide. Truthfully, it has been known to do all of these things through out human history. This is why religion makes me nervous. In fact, religion terrifies me because religion is too private and too subjective It acts out of the context of its own created foundations, and assigns the reason for the action, be they good, bad, or ugly, to God. So, religion is very human, very self-promoting, and very dangerous. It manipulates God to be what the religionist needs for God to be.

This is one of the reason I follow Jesus. I do not believe He is present to start religions. He is present, rather, to draw us to the living God. He expresses God’s desire for His creation to “seek him and perhaps reach out for him, and find him” (Acts 17:27).

Jesus shows us that it is God who created us and loves and that it is “in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28). God has spoken into human history in the person of Jesus, and when He raised Jesus from the dead He manifested the fact that people can turn around and live differently than they once lived. Renewal is possible in this world.

The life of God can come into dead and barren places and breathe the breath of true life into them. Evil does not have to win. In Christ we see that God has spoken “with justice” (Acts 17:31), and has new things to do in us and in history.

It is when people let God be God in their lives we see the dramatic new reality God has in store. We don’t worship a principle or a theology or a doctrine. Rather, by grace we are drawn to a person, Jesus. In Him we see who God really is. We see God not as the unknown so much as the one who in Jesus makes Himself known, so known that renewal is always at hand.

What is it we Christians are saying to the world, something that nobody else is saying, that one thing that makes us Christian, that one thing that forms us into who we are?

In the ancient city of Thessalonica the apostle Paul helps us find our answer. Along with his ministry partner, Silas, he went to the synagogue, and to the people there “he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead” (Acts 17:2-3).

In his explaining and proving the Paul said an incredible thing. He told the people, “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ” (Acts. 17:3). Of his remarkable claim Luke says, “Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women” (Acts 17:4)

What makes us who we are as Christians? Jesus who is the Christ. What continually shapes and forms our lives? Jesus, who is the Christ. What drives the Church to be faithful in all things to God? Jesus, who is the Christ.

So the question isn't really what. The question is Who. Who makes us Christian, who shapes and forms our lives, who drives the Church to be faithful? Jesus. It is in Him we live and move and have our being (Acts 17:28).

On the road to Damascus Saul of Tarsus didn't meet a doctrine or a position or a discourse. He met a person. He met Jesus and Jesus changed his life forever. So, in his evangelistic outreach Paul didn't particularly tell people what to believe. Instead, he gave them a whom; He gave them Jesus and called them to believe in Him.

And what did Paul want the people to know about Jesus? He wanted them to know that He suffered, died, and was raised from the dead. He wanted his world to know that in his resurrection Jesus was confirmed to be the Christ.

We live in an information drenched, rapidly changing, violent, and unpredictable world. We live there as Christians, proclaiming that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead and is here today as both Lord and Christ to bring the very life of God into the human experience.

The message of Jesus is more up-to-date than is the last update of your computer’s news information and is laser sharp in penetrating the “thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12). Remarkably, even though Jesus knows the true thoughts and attitudes of the human heart, He is not present so as to trip us up concerning the thoughts and attitudes of our hearts (He doesn’t play gotcha games), but He is present to save us from ourselves so that we may experience the glory of being fully alive in the life that is God. We call it grace. In fact, we call it, “Amazing Grace.”

Living in Amazing Grace the church finds itself in this remarkable time in human history as the voice of hope. Jesus is present to enter into the storyline of every person, and to be in that story as both Lord and Christ. This is why the Bible brings to us teachings such as, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want” (Psalm 23:1) and, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).

What a great time it is to live. What a great time it is to be Christian. What a great time it is to live within the embrace of “Amazing Grace.” What a great time it is to share the story of Jesus. What a great time it is fulfill our vows to God (Psalm 116: 14, 18) knowing that God is with us day-by-day, each step of the way, and that God is with us as the One whose presence is so real and so meaningful that we must conclude, “I shall not be in want.”

Regardless of what your future may or may not be, enter into it under the anointing of the One who is your God. Come to it in the power of God’s faithfulness.

On the day of Pentecost and in response to Peter’s appeal for people to “save yourselves from this corrupt generation,” 3000 people joined up and entered into a new way of life, the Jesus way of life. At the end of the day they realized that a new creation had emerged and that the world, from then on, would never be absent the church Jesus is building.

And what a church is was. There was awe. There were wonders and miraculous signs. There was sacrifice. There was generosity. There was fellowship. There was worship. There was witnessing. They prayed together and gathered together to hear important teaching from their leaders. There was a sense of unity that so bonded the people that they “ate together with glad and sincere hearts, praising God” (Acts. 2:42-47). God was on the move in the early church, and in many remarkable ways the world has not been the same since the activities recorded in Acts chapter two.

In short, the early church was a people under the influence of the Holy Spirit. They were accused of being under the influence of alcohol but Peter corrected that error in His dynamic sermon, and he let the listeners know that what was happening wasn’t of alcohol. This was a God thing.

I wonder if what is happening in our culture through the church a God thing. I often wonder, “what ever happened to the wonder?” Have we become too familiar with God things so that we’ve lost the wonder? Is “awe” too unscientific for the day in which we live? In our church, and in my life, what can be explained only because of the presence of God?

My prayer is simple: “O God, please connect us to the Vine so that the very life blood of the resurrected Jesus pulsates through our being. Pour out Your Holy Spirit, take over, and have Your way.”

Easter is that day when we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Actually we do this every Sunday but on this one day, we stop on purpose and with deep intention to remember and to celebrate the event itself; the one event that forms and shapes all it means for Christians to be Christian. That Jesus was raised from the dead brings a new way of being in the world, a resurrection way of being in the world.

So it is that on another significant day in history a, when God kept His word and poured out His Spirit on His people, the apostle Peter preached a message that was rooted and grounded in the fact that God had raised Jesus to life again (Acts. 2: 32). Pentecost was the day Jesus baptized His Church with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matt. 3:11) and what did Peter preach about? The resurrection of Jesus.

In the power of the Holy Spirit Peter confirmed the fact that "it was impossible for death to keep its hold on" Jesus (Acts. 2:24). He confirmed that the ancient king, David, "was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants of his throne" (Acts. 2:30). Peter confirmed that what king David did was to look to what was ahead and that there he saw, "the resurrection of the Christ" (Acts. 2:31). And, to it all Peter bears his own witness and says, "God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact" (Acts 2:32).

Today we are called to a Spirit-baptized witness to the living Christ. Jesus isn't on the cross today and He isn't in a tomb. He lives, and like those of our past we, too, are Faith-witnesses that death itself is defeated and that only Jesus Christ is Lord.

It reads so casually we might miss it, yet it brings to us the incredible mystery of our Faith The apostle Peter said of Jesus in Acts 10:39, “They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him for the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.”

Excuse me? They what? And God what on the third day? They killed him but God raised him. Okay. If you say so. It reads like, “Please pass the butter They killed Jesus you know (can I have the salt, too) but God raised him from the dead.”

Of course it wasn’t quite that nonchalant but I am struck how such a radical and almost unbelievable event could be spoken of without a band playing in the background and without lights blinking and without some kind of incredible Hollywoodish-like fanfare. I mean, isn’t this huge? This isn’t huge. This is mammoth.

At the heart of our story is the remarkable truth, "they killed him but God raised him." And why did God raise him? Peter said it was so that everyone who would believe in Jesus would receive "forgiveness of sins through his name" (Acts. 10:43). Whatever we do for Jesus must make known the offer of His forgiveness. It is why He was raised from the dead. It is what the Father wants. It is what people of every race, creed and color need.

The apostle Peter tells us that wherever Jesus went, "he went…doing good and healing" (Acts 10:38). As His followers this is what we do, too. We don't just preach the Gospel of Jesus; we do good in the name of the Gospel of Jesus. We teach, we empower, we feed, we clothe, we lift human beings up to their full potential, a potential defined by that one day in history when the Father "raised him from the dead."

Go. You are forgiven. Now, do good in Jesus' name. Live the forgiven life and bring grace into your world.

It is the paradox of Messiah’s earth bound reality. Jesus enters Jerusalem with royal praise and approval, seated humbly on the back of a donkey. And make no mistake about it; the donkey was a strategic part of the story. It was a symbol of peace, not war.

He came in peace but by the end of the week they would make war against Him and He would be brutally assaulted and crucified. At the end of this horrific week they would place a placard on the cross proclaiming Jesus to be the King He really is. And what kind of king is He? He is a King who rules by self-giving and who wins by losing.

Palm Sunday reminds us that things are not always the way they seem. Death can masquerade as life. Evil can impersonate good. Hate can rest just beneath the surface of praise, and the accolades of Hosanna can quickly turn to “Crucify Him.”

But then we ought not to be surprised at the Holy Week’s turn of events. Jesus said it was a must that He go to “Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and… be killed” (Matt. 16:21). Now we find ourselves at the beginning of the week Jesus said would happen.

Of course, Jesus also said something else. He said that after the suffering and dying He would, “on the third day be raised to life” (Matt. 16:21). That changes things a bit, doesn’t it? Indeed, suffering is not the last word and neither is death. After every word that can be spoken in this world one marvelous, wonderful and awesome word remains ~~ Resurrection.

Have you ever been in the "depths?" One time David prayed, "Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold" (Ps. 69:1-2). David wasn't really in literal waters, but it was like he was drowning in the overwhelming issues crashing down around him. Depth captures the emotion of terror, fear, pain, grief, questions, and conflict that can hold the human heart captive.

In Psalm 130, a song the people sang on their way to worship, there is a prayer the people prayed, "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord" (vs. 1). So, they knew about depths, too. Let me ask again, have you ever been in the depths? Are you in the depths now?

You're probably thinking, "What silly questions! When am I ever not in the depths of something crashing in around me?" Good point. Life is hard and complicated, with pressures bearing down on us some from within and self-inflicted, and others from without and beyond our control.

The ancient worshipers had it right in that they brought their very lives into the reality of God and they put their hope in the Lord whose love was unfailing (vs. 7). Unashamedly they prayed, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope" (vs. 5). They took God seriously and made God the focus of their existence. You can feel their passion in their words, "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning" (vs. 6).

And, Israel had it right. The real problem at the root of all problems is the resulting effect of sin. They knew they didn't just need help; they needed God in their story. After all, they said, "with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins" (vs. 8).

It's a good idea to let God into our stories.

Have you ever been in the "depths?" One time David prayed, "Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold" (Ps. 69:1-2). David wasn't really in literal waters, but it was like he was drowning in the overwhelming issues crashing down around him. Depth captures the emotion of terror, fear, pain, grief, questions, and conflict that can hold the human heart captive.

In Psalm 130, a song the people sang on their way to worship, there is a prayer the people prayed, "Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord" (vs. 1). So, they knew about depths, too. Let me ask again, have you ever been in the depths? Are you in the depths now?

You're probably thinking, "What silly questions! When am I ever not in the depths of something crashing in around me?" Good point. Life is hard and complicated, with pressures bearing down on us some from within and self-inflicted, and others from without and beyond our control.

The ancient worshipers had it right in that they brought their very lives into the reality of God and they put their hope in the Lord whose love was unfailing (vs. 7). Unashamedly they prayed, "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope" (vs. 5). They took God seriously and made God the focus of their existence. You can feel their passion in their words, "My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning, more than watchmen wait for the morning" (vs. 6).

And, Israel had it right. The real problem at the root of all problems is the resulting effect of sin. They knew they didn't just need help; they needed God in their story. After all, they said, "with him is full redemption. He himself will redeem Israel from all their sins" (vs. 8).

It's a good idea to let God into our stories.

Having grown up as a shepherd boy in the hills around Bethlehem, king David knew all about sheep and he knew all about shepherds. One day when he reflected upon the greatness of his God he spoke of God as his shepherd.

David’s faith expression prompts some questions. How do people in what is being called a postmodern age, what some are calling a post-Christian age, see God? Is God a shepherd? Does God care? Is there a tender side to God? Is God a strict taskmaster, seeking his pound of flesh? Is there a God, and if there is how personal is God?

David thought God was very personal. To Him God was like a shepherd, drawing near his sheep to do whatever it takes to watch over them. He is a God who protects, who leads, who guides, even when the enemy surrounds His people.

The Shepherd won’t let his people live in denial, either. The world is filled with enemies of the Christian soul, and David isn’t hesitant to use the title “enemy.” Factors are at work in the world that can easily lead to paralyzing fear, but those factors are overpowered by the reality of the presence of the Living Shepherd-God.

For David life in God is life at it’s greatest possible meaning. The sheep are blessed because God is present. The enemy may still be there, mind you, but so is God. The cause of fear may still be there, but so is God. The valley of the shadow of death may still be there, but so is God.

So, the people of God journey with God leading them forward under His anointing and following them by His goodness and love (Ps. 23:5-6). This means we have divine grace for today and divine hope for tomorrow.

Can you say, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want” (Ps. 23:1)?

They had a nickname for the place; they called it Massah-Meribah, the place of strife and testing. It was the place where the people of God decided they had been betrayed by God and His spokesman, Moses. It was the place where the people decided they knew more than God. It was the place where God said, “Enough.”

It would take a while for the “enough” to run it’s course, but a seed of rebellion was revealed at Massah-Meribah that would haunt the people until they had all died (except for Joshua and Caleb, but that’s a story for another time). This rebelling generation didn’t make it to the promise land, but died in the desert where they told God over and over that He wasn’t very good at His job, and that they could do it much better (See Exodus 17:1-7 for the riveting details).

In Psalm 95 a passionate appeal is made that people of God not be like those folks of Massah-Meribah but that they be a people who bow down in worship before the Lord their Maker (6). In worship the people proclaimed, “Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation” (2). In worship they said, “Let us come before him with thanksgiving and extol him with music and song” (3).

No rebellion here; no fussing at God because He’s not Johnny-on-the-spot. Rather a proclamation that “The Lord is the great God, the great King above all gods” (3). In the ebb and flow of life the people knew and confessed, “He is our God and we are the people of his pasture, the flock under his care” (7).

God provided water at Massah-Meribah because that is the kind of God He is. Today He is with us. “Come, let us bow down in worship; let us kneel before the Lord our Maker” (6).

Wondering if anyone might respond to the following statement:

"A social justice that does not call forth repentance in persons is not the social justice revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ."

Any feedback (pro or con) will be appreciated, as I am in an ongoing discussion with several people who wonder about the way the church is choosing to address issues that come under the umbrella of Social Justice. This quote came up the other day, and I really would like some feedback.

Thanks,
Rick

What is hope? How would you define hope? Is it a sense that some how, some way, things will work out for the better? Is it a feeling that no matter how bad things get there will still be a future? Is hope an intellectual activity by which we assess a given situation and conclude, "It's not as bad as it could be"?

An ancient psalm defines hope as a relationship a people has with God. Hope, it seems, is bound to the significant connection people have with the one who is God. It's not about strength or wishing or even dreaming about how things might be better.

Hope is about the integrity of God never to be less that He promised He would be. Hope is about settling down in God's "unfailing love" (Psalm 33:18), with a sure and certain conviction that come what may, God "is our help and our shield" (Ps. 33:20). Hope is coming within the embrace of God, whose arms are open wide, and relaxing our lives in His life, knowing "we can trust in his holy name" (Ps. 33:21).

So, maybe the question is not, "What is hope." Maybe the question is, "In whom do you trust." From the psalmist's perspective the one in whom we trust is no one less than Sovereign God. From His sovereign perspective God looks into the human situation and sees the ways and means of mankind. He is not unaware. In fact, He is sovereignly aware and compassionately present to draw near to all who fear him and who recognize that He is, in fact, at work in the world.

Hope comes from trust, and trust comes from integrity. We do not hope in those we cannot trust. God's name can be trusted, however, and whatever lies ahead we know that we come to it within the embrace of the One whose sovereign love is unfailing. That is hope.

February 10, 2008

Honest introspection and truthful self-awareness I fear, are far from the thinking of many people. These instruments of insight are far too painful and require far too much discipline for the unserious. Ours is a day of self-exaltation, not self-inspection. We want what we want when we want it and the thought of possibly laying aside the dreams we have dreamed for ourselves is simply unthinkable. We have money to make and homes to build and boats to buy, not to mention credit cards to maintain and sights to see.

All this being said we come to king David of ancient Israel. He had it made. He had wealth and a temple and servants. You name it and David had it. He also had lust in his heart, a lust that caught him totally off guard one day. The next thing you know this man who had it all found himself in bed with another man's wife, got her pregnant, and arranged for her husband to come back from war in hopes he would sleep with his wife and that everyone would then conclude the husband was the father. Then everything would be hunky-dory. The plan didn't work so David sent the husband to the front lines in hopes that he would die in battle. This would free the wife to remarry. Then everything would be hunky-dory. This plan worked and the deceit was underway, with everyone but God.

Sometimes God can be so inconvenient, always calling for truthfulness the way He does. This time God sends a prophet into the David's presence and the prophet reveals the sin in David's heart, daring to speak the truth to him.

Here a remarkable thing happens. David receives the truth, chooses not to run from it, and enters into a time of honest and truthful self-inspection. He pleads for forgiveness and even asks that God would cleanse his life.

Suddenly we see a different David. The truth has found him out, and he owns it, prayerfully asking God, "Create in me a pure heart… Restore to me the joy of your salvation" (Ps. 51:10, 12).

May God help us not to run away from truth but to run to it. We, too, are broken and flawed but, like David, we can choose for God. By His grace, we can choose for God. We are under no obligation to choose against God. Let us hear the truth, and be what truth enables us to be.

Sometimes I feel like I’m in over my head in this thing called, following Jesus. I can’t tell you the number of times I think I’ve finally got some things figured out when life throws a mind-blowing curve at me, and I find myself realizing that I’m just a kindergartener finger painting his way through grad school. It’s not a pretty sight.

These feelings come rushing in on me when I see two longings on the part of the apostle Paul that are in such stark contrast to each other that I am left thinking surely he didn’t mean what it looks like he meant. One of them I get because I’m an American. The other one I don’t get because I’m an American.

The one I get is the one where Paul says he longs to know Christ and to share in the power of his resurrection. I get that. Who wouldn’t? To share in the power that is nothing short of resurrection, that’s huge. That puts one on the winning team. That puts one ahead of the pack, dancing in the end zone having made the defense look silly. I get that.

The one I don’t get is the one where Paul says he longs to know “the fellowship of sharing in the sufferings of Christ, becoming like him in his death” (Phil. 3:10). Now wait a minute. Dancing in the end zone because you just blew the defense away is one thing; longing to be creamed by the defense on your way to the end zone, that’s something else. (Please forgive my football fascination but the Super Bowl is coming up).

Resurrection is about power. Suffering is about weakness. And, most of us don’t want much to do with weakness. We’re Americans, my goodness.” We ain’t taken nothing from nobody (pardon my English). Yet Paul says he longs to participate in a fellowship of sharing the sufferings and death of Jesus.

Is it not refreshing to discover a life that is not rooted in self-help and in the need to always win but is rooted in the life of the One who comes into our very real human lives and works the works of God there? Could it be that in the midst of a relationship born of a suffering and a death that we are enabled to face our demons and find the life for which we so desperately seek?

Could it be that our suffering alongside Jesus enables us to better hear the cries of those around us, and causes us to break free from the heresy of always having to win and, instead, find it is grace we need and not just power.

Some things just aren’t worth fighting over or loosing sleep over. One thing is certain and it is that God’s will is “good, pleasing and perfect” (Rom. 12:2 NIV), Place this Biblical truth alongside the fact life is short and eternity is forever, and we see that what we really ought to do is to embrace what really matters; to embrace what we believe really matters to God.

The apostle Paul told the Corinthian Christians that they were majoring on minors and fussing over things that didn’t need to be fussed over. They were all hot and bothered about who had been baptized by whom. Can you believe that? So-in-So baptized me. Oh yeah, well, Whatcha McCallit baptized me. That’s nothing, I was baptized by Old-What’s-His-Name. And, Paul said, “Stop it. Will you just stop it?

Some things just don’t matter. Some things do, mind you. Things like “to preach the gospel” (I Cor. 1:17). Now, that matters. To proclaim the gospel so that the cross of Christ is exalted and filled with the power of Almighty God, now that matters.

Now a question. How can we, as believers in a local church, live in such away that the cross of Christ is not emptied of its power but is revealed to be the very power of God (I Cor. 1:18)? Whatever the answer is I am quite sure that majoring on minors is not a part of it.

How can we major on what really matters, on things that matter for all time and eternity? What does a majoring-on majors congregation look like?

Paul calls the church to live in a spirit of unity, a spirit of Christlikeness where we are so caught up in the life of Jesus that everything falls under His authority. Now, that’s a major.

Jesus did not come into history out of a vacuum. If He had come this way, we wouldn’t have a clue as to how to understand Him. Instead, however, Jesus comes from within the context of a people. He has a family tree, a heritage that shaped and formed Him in His earthly life, a foundation out of which He shares the glory of God. In the New Testament book of Romans the apostle Paul spoke of “the gospel of God which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son…Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 1:1-4). So it is that we see Jesus in the Old Testament.

Of this, John Wesley wrote in His commentary on Isaiah, “As the name of David is sometimes given to his successors, so here the name of Israel may not unfitly be given to Christ, not only because he descended from his loins; but also because he was the true and the great Israel, who, in a more eminent manner, prevailed with God, as that name signifies, of whom Jacob, who was first called Israel, was but a type.” So, what we see in the Old Testament prophet prepares us for how the true Israel, Jesus Himself, was to be among us in this world of ours.

In Isaiah chapter 49 the prophet speaks of God’s Servant and of how His Servant would be “a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth” (Is. 49:6). The one true Servant, Jesus, is on a mission to bring the salvation of God to the end of the earth. He is a light shining in the dark places of life. He shines not simply to help us but to save us. Truthfully, we are in over our heads, and we need God. We need Him badly; desperately, if you would. And, He has come to us in Jesus. In Jesus we see the glory of God (Is. 49:3), and life can’t get much better than that.

The world is changing so fast in so many ways that the message of change promised throughout the Old Testament might be overlooked. Familiarity breeds the possibility of over-familiarity, and over-familiarity can breed many things, including neglect.

Yet, in Isaiah 42:9 the prophet looked forward to a time when God’s people will be impacted by “new things” God promises to do. The “former things” were wonderful, but they are former. God was going to do a new thing.

God had a servant who would bring forth justice to the nations. He would be powerful and authoritative but He would also be humble and gentle. His mission was not to crush but to heal and to bring the spirit of justice into the human situation. He would live in justice but He would conduct Himself in such away that it is said of him, “A bruised reed He will not break and a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish” (Is. 42:3).

As Christians we believe it is Jesus in whom God has ultimately spoken to the human situation. Through Jesus, God’s new thing breaks into history, and He is present to speak to the deepest needs of the human experience. In His life the very life of God comes among us. The God who “created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its offspring, who gives breath to the people on it” (Is. 42:5) has come up-close-and-personal.

Through His Servant God fulfills a promise. He draws near in intimacy and communion to “hold you by the hand and watch over you’ (Is. 42:6). He is a living “covenant to the people” (Is. 42:6), and a constant reminder that God is not off at a distant but present in His world, and present here to be God.

God is up to something wonderful.

Like many people, I love a good mystery. Plot twists and surprise turns in a good story hold me spellbound. Sometimes the twists and turns of a story are so unexpected for me that I find myself stunned as I try to process it all. I love a good mystery.

In Jesus a mystery has been resolved and a new storyline breaks into history. What was once uniquely Jewish now becomes a worldwide phenomenon. Of God one of the ancient psalms says, "May the whole earth be filled with His glory" (Ps. 72:19). In Jesus it happens and "the unfathomable riches of Christ" (Eph. 3:8) are extended to everyone of every race, creed, color and background. In Jesus we come to see that "the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel" (Eph. 3:6).

Jesus is the Messiah of every human being on the earth. He is God's response to the human situation. In Jesus God draws near and brings grace, mercy, forgiveness and hope into the story of every person. He is bigger than culture, bigger than race, bigger than religion. He is bigger than philosophy, bigger than ideology, bigger than perspective, outlook and point of view.

What Paul calls, "The unfathomable riches of Christ" are available to you, your family, your friends and your neighbors. The apostle John said that in Jesus "was life and the life was the light of men" (John 1:4). There is no one outside the reach of God's grace and there is no one who. if they called on Christ, will be turned away. He is the Messiah for all.

Let's be authentic and aggressive as we continue to tell the story of Jesus and His unfathomable riches. If not us, who? If not now, when?