In our culture, at Christmas we exchange gifts, a wonderful expression of love. Yet, as Christians we really ought to jettison out of our communities any hint of a high jacked holiday. How might we go about this, though? Culture is a powerful presence and it takes some work to move it off center stage and onto something nice but not essential.

For four weeks followers of Jesus have journeyed through Advent. We’ve prayed and searched and hoped and looked forward to a time and place where the kingdom of God in all its glory will be the natural order of things. Celebrating Jesus’ birth into history helps us realize that God is in the midst but that there are miles to go before we sleep.

We think it unselfish to give gifts; and it is. Yet, perhaps we ought to recognize that Christmas isn’t about us and our unselfishness. Christmas is about the Self-giving, Self-sacrificing love of God for his creation, moving Him into the very fiber of what He created. Christmas is about what God gave to the world in the life of the Baby whose birth we choose to celebrate on December 25.

Look at what God has gifted us with in the life of this baby boy. Paul wrote, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption” (I Cor. 1:30). Now these are some real gifts. The prophet, Isaiah, tells us this child is a “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Is. 9:6). This drives home the point that God is the Giver of everything we most need.

May God help us to receive what He has given and to live and move and have our being in the depths of His amazing grace.

King David wanted to build God a house of worship. It made sense in a way. David knew that while He was living in a house of cedar that the ark of God was dwelling “within tent curtains” (see. 2 Samuel 7:2). This didn’t seem right to David, and he wanted to correct it.

It was a noble idea but it wasn’t God’s will for David. God wanted to do not a physical thing in David’s life but a deeply and profound spiritual thing. He would allow a temple to be built but that job would fall to David’s son, Solomon.

Then a tremendous role reversal takes place. God says to David, “The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you”(2 Sam. 7:11). David is to be gifted with a house built by God. Of this house God says, “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; Your throne shall be established forever” (2 Sam. 7:16).

God is doing something in the world that is not rooted and grounded in the things of the world. God is at work in the hearts and lives of people, a people who actually become His “Chosen Race,” His “royal Priesthood,” His “holy Nation,’ and “a people for God’s own possession” (I Pet. 2:9). The house that God builds is “a spiritual house” comprised of people who have come to Christ, “ a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God” (I Pet. 2:4-5).

This house is comprised of what the Bible calls, “living stones,” ordinary people who by an extraordinary and amazing Grace have received mercy so as to come alive in the very life of God. The good news in this is that you and I are invited to be that people.

Merry Christmas!

Did you know God is looking for a people in whom He can rejoice? In Isaiah 65:19 God says, “I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people.” He said this just after having challenged these very people, “Be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing” (vs. 18).

Our God is a rejoicing God. He calls His people to rejoice in what He creates, with the promise that He will rejoice in those people. Who are these people? They are the very people to whom earlier He had said, “Comfort, O comfort My people…Here is your God” (Is. 40:1, 9).

Our God is an up-close-and-personal-God. He is not aloof and disinterested. When we are taken through the hard times of life He does not forsake us; He draws near. Even when we can’t see Him, He is present, “like a shepherd” (Is. 40:11). When we are broken and hurt, fractured and wounded “in His arms He will gather His lambs and carry them in His bosom” (Is. 40:11).

God is so much with us that we can join the prayer of old and pray, “O Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand” (Is. 65:8). God is with us in the everyday stuff of life--the good, the bad, and the ugly; and He is with us in grace to shape and form our lives in awesome ways we could never dream or imagine.

In the Advent season of waiting, longing, looking forward, and hoping, God Is With Us. Even though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us (see. Psalm 23:4). In the presence of powers that would seek our demise God invites us to a divine banquet. He is our shepherd anointing us with the oil of His Spirit so much so that our “cup overflows” (Ps. 23:5).

How do you perceive God? Is He hard and cruel and unbending? Some people think so. Yet, the Bible doesn’t present this picture of God. The Bible presents Him as one who is calling for wholeness and health and life and blessing. He works so as to remove all barriers to His “good and acceptable and perfect will” (see Rom. 12:2). He lives in His world in truthfulness and justice, and at the heart of all He does is redemption, love, forgiveness, and salvation from anything that would destroy His “good and acceptable and perfect will” from being realized in the lives of people.

We live in a world where “the grass withers, the flower fades.” It is a transient world and everything moves toward the day of its death. That seems to be a fatalistic way of seeing, but it really isn’t. In this transient and temporary world the eternal God of the universe has come. He hasn’t written off the world. Rather, He is here “with might” (see Isaiah 40: 8-10). He is present as a Shepherd taking care of His flock. God is not hard, cruel, and unbending. When He is present the word goes out, “Comfort, O comfort My people” (Is. 40:1).

God is present. This is the good news. He is here not to write off but to include. Are you broken at some point in your life? Your brokenness cannot deter God. Are you bruised by some past action? Your past cannot deter God. Do you feel helpless? Your helplessness cannot deter God.

Listen for the voice of God, and hear His Word. If you do you will discover “the glory of the Lord” (Is. 40:5). Could it be that God is wanting to say to you that your “warfare has ended” (Is. 40:2)? Is there something in your life God wants to clean out and jettison away so that His “good and acceptable and perfect will” might be done (Rom. 12:2)? Each of our has our own story. God is aware of it, and is present to speak His grace into our lives.

A wonderful hymn reminds us of the birth of Jesus. I love the hymn but there is something about it that doesn't set well. Some of the words are these:

All Your works declare Your glory;

All creation joins to sing.

Praise resounds as earth rejoices

In the birth of Christ, the King.[1]

To these words my heart says "Yes," but I know many people on the earth do not rejoice in Jesus birth. They want very little to do with Jesus, in fact. To them He is an inconvenience, an ancient relic too old for our world and too demanding to be taken seriously.

In the end, however, each of us must decide for ourselves what we shall do with the baby born in Bethlehem. Shall we ignore Him? Shall we let the story rest in peace and move on to what we perceive to be greater things? Shall we follow His life far beyond the manger to see where it takes us? Shall we fall before Him and call Him Lord? What shall we do with Jesus?

For one thing, we ought not to let others determine for us what we shall do with Jesus. Those of us, who fall before Him and call Him Lord, do it because we know He is the Lord. He is the best thing that has ever happened to us. He has spoken His peace into our lives and it has forever changed us for the good.

What shall we do with Jesus? Those of the earth may or may not rejoice; but we will rejoice. We will sing, "Joyful, joyful, we adore You, God of glory, Lord of light," and we do so with hearts set on fire by His life and light and joy. He has not dealt with us according to our sins and He has received us to Himself as the Messiah, Lord of lords and King of kings.

Joy to the world!

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[1] "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore You," words by Linda Lee Johnson, 1985, music by Ludwig van Beethoven, 1824, arr. By Edward Hodges, 1864

Never before has there been a more measurable spiritual search in the lives of the people in our culture than there is today. People are hungry for spiritual meaning and purpose. Life hits people hard at all levels of society and no one is exempt from the realities of life. People are searching.

People are looking for the truth about things. They're not looking for membership and institutions and "big brother" answers. They are looking for hope. People want meaning and purpose; and Jesus Christ, perhaps unbeknownst to them, is exactly what they are looking for.

The poet said,

Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,

Feelings lie buried that grace can restore.

Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness,

Chords that are broken will vibrate once more.[1]

People need a vital and living relationship with the God of all grace, not a rigid set of religious rules that take them from one set of bondage producing things into another set.

The apostle Paul says, "It was for freedom Christ has set us free" (Gal. 5:1). That's why the message of Jesus is powerful for today. Jesus takes people to the truth and then by that truth, sets them free.

I have a lot to be thankful for, and this truth is at the top of my list.

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[1]. Verse 3 of “Rescue the Perishing” by Fanny Crosby, 1869

I like the question, “What Can I do for my God?”. It personalizes for me the fact that I really do love God and I really do want to live for Him. This is a settled issue for me. What is fluid in my faith is the matter of being about living for God so that my love for Him will shine through in all I do.

As Christians we are about the vocation of living in response to the love of God embracing us through Jesus. We are loved. All the way to death and beyond Jesus acts on behalf of the love of God. We love because He first loved us. I John 4:10 says, “In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” Later John says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (I John 5:3).

The love of God for us moves us to be faithful to His will and His ways; so, the question comes: In light of how much God loves me, what can I do for my God?” Jesus likens it to a taking of what has been given us, and then being stewards of that gift. In a parable he spoke of three different people, each of whom had received “talents,” one was given five, one was given two, and one was given one.

A talent was an economic term equaling about fifteen years worth of wages. Each person was entrusted with quite a large sum of money, but how they lived out their stewardship was not to be a comparative thing. Faithfulness was the issue. Be it five, two, or one talent, the amount of return on the investment wasn’t so much the issue as was the fact that the holder of the talent was faithful in the execution of the stewardship of what had been entrusted to him.

What can we do for our God just because we love Him?

One of the so-called seven deadly sins is slothfulness, the neglect to take care of something that one should do. It has been referred to as the failure to employ or make use of one's talents and gifts. It is a failure of heart and focus to do what one needs to do.

Jesus tells a story about ten virgins, five of who were wise (prudent) and five of who were foolish. They were all waiting to participate in a wedding feast. The bridegroom was late so the ladies had to make preparation for the late arrival. Five did so and five did not do so. When the bridegroom came, the five wise virgins were ready, but the five foolish virgins, having done nothing to prepare, were not allowed to enter into the feast. They had been slothful and unalert. They missed out on the celebration because they had refused to prepare themselves. They had no one to blame but themselves.

Jesus uses His story to tell His disciples that they needed to be on the alert because they really didn’t know, what He called, “the day nor the hour” (Matt. 25:13); and, neither do we. Jesus, the Bridegroom may return today before sundown or He may tarry a thousand years. We don’t know. What we do know is that between this moment and that moment we must live alertly, doing with our lives what it means to know the Bridegroom and be ready for the feast He is giving.

The apostle Paul speaks of how “the Lord will come just like a thief in the night” (I Thes. 5:2). His coming will catch us off guard, but it doesn’t have to catch us unaware.

Jesus wants His people to be ready at all times, ready to hear Him say, “I know you” (see Matt. 25:11-12).

What shall we do with our faith? Shall we turn it into a means of personal gratification whereby people will know how wonderful we are? Shall we mount a position high above others so that we can look down on them, ever reminding them of how far we have come and how holy we really are? Shall we live so as to revel in our humility, camouflaging our pride by going out of the way to look the part?

Silly questions? Maybe! Yet, these are the very kinds of things the Pharisees were doing at the time of Jesus; and, He didn’t embrace it in any way, shape, or form. In fact, Jesus took the silliness of those who would portend to be spokespersons for God, and spoke to those who truly loved God about what a relationship with God really looked like. What a difference it was, too.

Jesus calls us to a living of our lives whereby our Yes is simply Yes, and our No is simply No. Pride has no place. Showtime faith is disavowed. Seeking the place of honor is laughable. Hungering to be called “Great,” or “Wonderful” or “Remarkable,” is totally out of character.

Instead, in the way of Jesus “the greatest shall be…servant” (Matt. 23:11). We have one leader, and He is Jesus. The rest of us are blessed by grace to be a part of what He is doing in the world. Who of us gets the credit is not essential or even important. That all praise and glory and honor go to God is non-negotiable.

Let’s be so occupied with our relationship with Jesus that the only approval we ultimately seek is His. The world may or may not say to us, “Well done.” It matters not as long as on that day, which will mean more than any other day in history, we hear Jesus say, “Well done.” I really do want Him to say this to me. Don’t you?

Along time ago I made a decision based upon a growing conviction that I was a sinner standing in need of the grace and forgiveness of God. Looking back on that moment I have concluded time and time again through the years that my confessing I was a sinner and coming to Jesus in my condition was the best decision I ever made. A part of that decision has been a life time of seeking after God in my life, and a hungering to be what God would have me be. It has been one fantastic ride, and it is still underway.

Even at this late date in my journey I am still discovering that the person who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the path of sinners or sit in the seat of scoffers is blessed beyond a capacity to fully grasp it (See Psalm 1). The Psalm writer was correct through and through when he said of that blessed person, “His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night” (Ps. 1:2).

God is at work in this world and we followers of Christ are blessed to be involved in what God is doing. We are discovering every day that by a grace that never ceases to amaze us we are “like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields it fruit in it season and its leaf does not wither; and in what whatever he does, he prospers” (Ps. 1:3).

Life isn’t perfect for us because we still live in a broken world, but in that world God is doing in His people “far more abundantly beyond all that we could ever ask or think” (Eph. 3:20). Regardless as to what comes our way we know that God’s will is “good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2). His will can’t be improved on and, as we say where I come from, we are right smack dab in the middle of it.

Amen and keep the party going.

Jesus told some folks who were seeking His destruction that it was okay to render to Caesar the things that were Caesar’s. He took it a step further, however, and spoke to them of how they also were to render to God the things that are God’s. Seems fair and balanced on the surface, but it isn’t.

The fact of the matter is that God is the Creator of heaven and earth and of all that is in them. Caesar would have no place to strut his stuff if it were not for the Creative engineering of Almighty God. When Jesus took Caesar’s coin he was taking something that was developed from s substance that was created by God and then turned into something useful for Caesar.

We live in societies governed by some sort of “Caesar.” Jesus tells us to render to that Caesar what is his. However, the rendering is not a surrendering. We are not to surrender to Caesar for Caesar is not God. A few verses later, in Matthew 22:37, Jesus set the record straight. He said, “You shall love the Lord Your God with all Your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” We are not commanded to love Caesar with that kind of entirety, but simply to render to him what is his. God is the one to have first place in all things throughout our lives.

As the Church of Jesus we are to be good citizens but always remembering that our true “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20). As citizens of the kingdom of heaven we stand as ambassadors of Christ in Caesar’s little kingdoms, and we lift up the cross there.

In light of I Samuel 17:47 and the words, "For the battle is the Lord's," I offering the following affirmations:

WHEN FACING A GOLIATH
I Samuel 17: 3-4, 8-10, 23, 26

I will conduct myself in light of the presence of God in me.

Matthew 17:20: "If you have faith [a]the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you."

Mark 9:23: "All things are possible to him who believes.”

I will keep committing to God every battle I face.

Psalm 37:5-6: "Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

He will bring forth your righteousness as the light And your judgment as the noonday."

Matthew 7:7-8: "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened."

I will trust in the Sovereign leadership of the Holy Spirit.

Isaiah 40:28-31: Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.

I will put my confidence in the God with whom nothing is impossible.

Luke 1:37: For nothing will be impossible with God.”

Matthew 19:26: "…with God all things are possible.”

I will fix my hope on God because He is my light, my salvation and…the stronghold of my life.

Psalm 27:1: The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the defense of my life; Whom shall I dread?

I will be still before the Lord and wait patiently for Him because He set my feet upon a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

Psalm 40:1-2: I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm.

46:10: Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

I will refrain from anger and fretting because they are not spiritually, emotionally or physically helpful to me in the battle.

Psalm 37:8: Cease from anger and forsake wrath; Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.

I will focus on the positive things of God.

Philippians 4:8: Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

I will delight myself in the Lord knowing that, according to His Word, in His time He will give me the desires of my heart.

Psalm 37: 4-5: Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart.

Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

I will face the realities of life in the conviction that the Lord has established His throne in heaven, that His sovereignty rules over all, and that the whole earth is full of His glory.

Psalm 103:19: The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.

Isaiah 6:3: “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”

When face to face

With some taunting Goliath

I will stand my ground

With the Resources of my God in hand

And, with tenacity

I will come against that Goliath

Until it is defeated in the Name of God,

For my battles are the Lords.

Jesus tells a sad story in Matthew 21:33-43. A landowner planted a vineyard, put a wall around it, dug a wine press in it, and built a tower so that watchman could oversee the vineyard for protection. Then he rented it out to those who knew how to care for such a vineyard, and went on a journey. At some point, and for reasons not given, the renters took on an unhealthy ownership of the vineyard, and started acting like it was really their vineyard. When the real owner came back the renters decided to fight for the vineyard and killed everyone the owner sent to receive what was his, even his son.

Those who heard Jesus' story said that the renters were worthy of judgment because of their actions, going so far as to called them, "wretches." Jesus agreed and then explained to them that they were the very renters they had just judged. Israel was the vineyard, and the spiritual leaders were given the responsibility to care over the vineyard, but they rejected their stewardship and, in the end, killed the very son sent by the Father. They killed the "chief cornerstone," and because of it the kingdom would be taken away from them and given to those who would be faithful overseers, "producing the fruit of it."

There are some people in the world who actually embrace God and what God is doing in the world. For them, the rejected cornerstone, Jesus, is God's response to the human situation and what God does in Jesus, they consider to be "marvelous in our eyes."

Those of us who dare call Jesus, "Lord," need to pay careful attention to Jesus' story. We dare say that He has turned His vineyard over to the Church. If He really has, then it demands an honest, humble, faithful, and courageous stewardship of what has been given us. It's not our vineyard, our Church; it belongs to God. Let us clock in, on time, and fulfill our stewardship of the Church that doesn't belong to us, but God.

Jesus calls us to faithfulness and to an honest seeking first of His kingdom and righteousness. He has not called us to be good listeners only. He has called us to hear His Word and to do it. He hasn’t called us to just say right things. He has called us to right action, action endorsed by the truthfulness and integrity of our words.

Words are a dime a dozen these days; the internet has seen to that. Yet, it ought not to be this with followers of Christ. For us, our words matter. Words reflect the heart, and words hastily spoken can sometimes do irrevocable damage.

More than words, Jesus calls us to obedience. Words should reflect the fact that our hearts are being shaped and formed into the image of Christ. Our actions then follow our words and reveal what we are really like. Keeping our words tells those around us that truth matters to us, that righteousness matters, that Christ-formed integrity matters. Our words and our actions meet in Jesus, and both of them reflect what we really believe about Him

The greatest action is the action of self-forgetful love. Jesus didn’t say that people would know we are his disciples if we say wonderful things. He said they would know we are His disciples by the love we have for one another. Words are wonderful and we ought to be very careful as to the words we say. Love is greater still.

Isn’t it the Bible that says, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy going or a clanging cymbal” (I Cor. 13:1)? Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter” (Matt. 7:21).

Ten years ago today men, principled in a culture of anger, hostility, suffering and death, hijacked their religion, stole airplanes, flew them into buildings, and took the lives of hundreds and hundreds of innocent people. These men died for their cause. It was an act of faith for them, a sign to the world that all who did not think as they thought were worthy only of death and destruction.

Contrary to the thoughts of many the world didn’t change on September 11, 2001. It just revealed again the depth of perversity that can lead to despicable acts of man’s inhumanity to man. Jeremiah 17:9 tells us the reason humankind can act so inhumane. The prophet writes, “The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?”

Jesus came to change the human heart, to draw human beings into the very life of God. In HIM people learn to love, accept, and forgive. The people of Jesus are the salt and light of God in the world. We must not be about life the way those who do not believe in Jesus are about life.

We cannot judge anyone, either. This is not our job. Our job is to live and move and have our very lives in the life of Jesus. He defines who we are, how we live, and how we go about life.

On this day of remembrance do not judge. Remember, reflect, mourn, grieve, vent, pray. Dignify the lives and memories of the 2977 people who died that day. Determine, in your heart of hearts that, by the grace and mercy of God in your life, you will not be as those who do not know God. Turn the situation over to God again, and bring the redemptive heart of God into the human situation. Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matt. 5:9).

Prayer for 9/11: God, help this planet. We do desperately need you. We do desperately need your love and mercy and grace. We don’t seem to catch on to the fact that we are loved by the God of the universe and that You are present to mend our broken lives and to set us on the road to true peace. “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” Amen

I have lived in the church long enough now to have reached one incontrovertible conclusion – the church is not perfect. Sorry if I caught somebody off guard with that eye opener, although I doubt I did so. One doesn’t have to be around the church long to know that it is filled with imperfect, in-process, broken and real people. If you are looking for a place of perfection, look elsewhere. The church won’t ever rise up to meet your high standard.

This is all very good news, however, because it means that there is room even for you in this imperfect, in-process, broken and real people. There is even room for me? Can you believe that? After all these years I am still stunned that there is a place for me within the family of God.

Jesus tells the members of His church to be patient with each other, to be intentional and relational with each other when someone fails. I’m not sure the church historically has been as faithful to this teaching as it could have been, but it is right there, front and center, in the Gospel (See Matthew 18:15-20). It’s hard to miss it.

There is a place for discipline in the church, and a strategy to which the church must give itself if it is to be faithful to Jesus. There is a place for prayer, too. In fact, prayer is at the foundation of all we do in Jesus’ church.

There is a place, too, for intentional, Christ-centered fellowship, fellowship that gathers, lives and moves in Jesus. It’s more than getting together and sipping on coffee and eating pie. The fellowship to which Jesus calls His church is a fellowship of followers, longing for Jesus to have His way in all things. This is not an addendum to Christianity. This is life lived in such a way that Jesus becomes a part of every thing going on, even in a group of two or three gathered in His name.

The fellowship we share must be shaped and formed around Jesus or we have missed the whole point.

It had to hurt, hearing Jesus say to him, "Get behind Me, Satan" (Matt. 16:23). Peter didn't mean to get it wrong. He was doing the noble thing, really. After all, if you had a friend who said he was going some place to die, wouldn’t you step up and tell that friend, "Not on my watch. I love too much to let you die. I'll do all I can do to keep you alive"?

Yet, Peter had it wrong and if he had had his way, there would be no cross, no redemption, no new life in Christ. It all would have been a tragic failure. So, he hears Jesus saying the jolting words, "Get behind Me, Satan."

Is it possible that our motives might be right but that our actions based upon "good" motives be wrong? Is it possible to love the Christ but misunderstand what it means to love Him? Can we follow a Savior who calls us into that mysterious world called "making hard choices?" Can our love for Him be so deeply a part of who we are that should he call us to what we perceive to be the unthinkable, we still follow Him determinedly?

The way of Jesus led Him to a cross. It had to be; at least it had to be if He was going to obey His Father. Today, the way of Jesus leads us to a cross. Jesus said to Peter and his band of friends, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" (Matt. 16:24). It gets even more descriptive. Jesus says, "Whoever loses his life for My sake will find it…what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?" (vs. 25).

Sounds like Peter and the disciples have some thinking and praying to do; maybe even some soul searching. Dare we join them? Can we bring our lives into the Christ so fully that everything else pales in comparison to following Him into the destiny He has for us?

Jesus had just affirmed to His disciples that He was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16-17). Then He told them not to tell anyone about it. That’s quite a secret to keep. The most astonishing news the world would ever hear and they were to keep it to themselves for a while.

The Good News was not yet ready to be articulated verbally. First, it had to be lived out. In following Jesus the disciples would learn what it means for Jesus to be the Christ. It needed to become internal before it could have meaning in the external. So, Jesus stayed close to His men, and kept drawing them to Himself, making them into what C. S. Lewis called, “little Christs.”[1]

Preparation is a crucial part of any event. The Christ-event, particularly needs people whose hearts and minds and spirits have been prepared by staying close and living in Jesus.

Dare we say that the Gospel is more caught than taught, not that the two are incompatible. We are taught by catching something, and that something is the very life of Jesus. We see Him, draw near to Him, become captivated by Him, fall in love with Him, and then stake our lives on His claim to be who He is.

If we believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, let that reality consume us. Let it envelop us and shape us and form us into “little Christs.” May we live the meaning of it and then put into words what we have already been modeling to those in our sphere of influence.

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[1] C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, HarperSanFrancisco:HarperCollins Publishers), 177, 225.

She was a woman, a Gentile, a descendant of the ancient Canaanites (a people who were enemies of Israel in the past, and whose paganism had often led Israel into idolatry), and she was desperate. Her daughter was suffering something so terrible that the condition was described as being “demon possessed” (Matt. 15:22).

She comes to Jesus, and he seems to be so focused on His mission to Israel that He isn’t interested in this woman or her daughter. She keeps insisting and the disciples get frustrated and ask Jesus to get rid of her. He didn’t make an attempt to get rid of her but he certainly affirmed what the culture of that day said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs” (Matt. 15:26).

We’re not sure all that Jesus intended by that statement, but it sure seems out of character. The woman didn’t care. In fact, she agreed with Him. She knew that in the eyes of the Jewish folks she was less than a dog, but she was desperate, and don’t ever mess with a desperate mom, when her desperation is because of her child. In essence she said to Jesus, “You’re right. I know who I am. I’m a nobody, according to the rules, but my daughter needs help. Even the family pet is allowed to eat food that has fallen on the floor” (See Matt. 15:27).

This stopped Jesus in His tracks, and the story takes an incredible turn. He is stirred by what He hears and tells her, right there in front of all who stood close by that her faith was great, and that she was going to get her request. (Matt. 15:28).

A Gentile woman stuns us by her faith and we see that in the things of God it isn’t our background or cultural situation that matters. What matters is that we have faith in God.

Faith in God is the distinguishing difference.

O, Canaanite woman, your faith is great. They will be telling your story ages and ages hence. They will tell of the day when the doors of the lost sheep of the house of David got blown off their hinges so that forever and ever whosoever will may be.

The God with whom nothing is impossible is among us in the person of Jesus. When Jesus told us to pray for God’s kingdom to come, He also modeled for us what it means for the kingdom of God to be with us. He shows us what the Father is like and how grace and mercy work in the world.

In truth, if we want to know about the kingdom we need to take a long look at Jesus. What is God like? Look at Jesus? What does grace look like? Take a look at Jesus. What does compassion for a broken world look like? Take a look at Jesus. What does honest and authentic humility look like? Take a look at Jesus. What does truth look like? Take a look at Jesus.

At the heart of the Christian faith is the fact that the eternal Word became flesh and blood, and that this Word made His home among us in Jesus (John 1:14). Whenever we see Jesus we see the eternal Word of God, enfleshed, being who He is in the natural order of things, as we perceive the natural order of things.

In this world our lives are covered by God. He is in our story. The question is whether or not we will open our hearts to His presence and let Him be who He is among us. Faith is like that. It embraces Jesus and longs for Him to be Himself in the midst of His people.

When Jesus is present all the possibilities of God are present, too. It is in this light we say that the God with whom nothing is impossible is among us in the person of Jesus. Embrace Him and let Him be Lord in you.

By the time the day ended well over 5000 people were gathered around Jesus, captivated by the fact that He was healing people right there in their presence. But, the hour was late and the disciples suggested to Jesus that He disperse the crown so they could make their way back to their various towns for supper (see the Story in Matthew 14:13-21).

Jesus was considering another alternative, however. He suggested the disciples feed the folks. They gathered up what they could find and managed to retrieve five loaves of bread and two fish. Bad plan, Jesus. Sorry. However, Jesus hadn’t gotten to the plan yet. He told them to bring their food collection to Him. Why? What’s the use? Good grief, when you don’t have enough, you don’t have enough. Then Jesus prayed over the inadequate and far too small offering, and that huge group of folks ate until they were filled, and they still had leftovers.

Moral? I’m not sure Biblical stories like this have a moral so much as a divine insight into the way things are in the Kingdom of heaven. In Jesus’ economy give what you have to Him, let Him pray over it, and then when He gives it back to you, start using it. Don’t sweat the size of the resource until God has mingled and meshed His grace into it.

When the bigness of things seem to be overwhelming place them into the hands of God. Then be faithful and leave results to Him. You are a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. Don’t be distracted by anything.

In Matthew 6:10 Jesus teaches us to pray, “Your kingdom come.” This is coupled with the phrase, “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God’s kingdom and God’s will seem to be the two realities that ought to consume the lives of people who dare call Jesus Savior and Lord.

Is there a way for all of life to be lived with God’s kingdom and God’s will as the basic, non negotiable passion and pursuit for a person? This leads to the question about how exactly God’s kingdom is among us and how we can discern it’s influence.

In some of His parables Jesus spoke of how the kingdom is like leaven or a mustard seed; small, almost unnoticeable until it reveals how it is present, and then it’s presence cannot be ignored. At the same time the kingdom is of such value that it would be quite realistic for a person to give their whole life to it; no holding back, no marginalizing, only all out and full commitment to what God is doing in all His creation.

Jesus calls us to pray for the coming of God’s kingdom. This is how important it is to Him. Nothing to the left, nothing to the right; the kingdom of God only. YOUR WILL BE DONE, He prayed. Do what you have to do, sell what you have to sell, jettison anything that stands in the way, and live for the presence of the kingdom of God among us.

Fall in love with Jesus and build your life around the grace of God that comes to us in Him. Nothing to the left; nothing to the right; “Thy kingdom come; they will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

We Christians need always to remember and to recognize the fact that the enemy of God and His holiness is at work in the world.

The enemy seeks daily to snatch the Word of God out of people, to wear them down through affliction and persecution, and to overcome them with worries about life. According to Jesus the enemy is about the work of sowing weeds in the fields that have been sown with good seeds of wheat (Matt. 13:24-25).

This means that followers of Jesus must always be alert and tuned into the fact that the enemy will not rest as along as there is opportunity for him to do his evil work in the lives of people. Most likely he will seek to work unnoticed, in the darkness, when his presence won't be quite as noticeable as it could be.

Jesus likened the work of the evil one to an "enemy" who came into the field of good seed, when the workers were sleeping, and contaminated the field with weeds. When it was discovered the workers were willing to go back into the field and pull up the weeds. This was too risky, however, because in pulling up the weeds, the wheat itself might be destroyed. So, Jesus said that they should let them grow up side my side. In the right time, the Son of Man will come and do any necessary clearing or separating.

The Church's job description is to stay alert and sharp, to be faithful and diligent. In a world where the enemy is busy doing his thing, and in a culture more than willing to take it all in, Jesus is Lord. Nothing will escape His notice.

Don't despair. Instead, be faithful. God is at work. He knows what's going on.

King David gives us a wonderful word in Psalm 145. In a heart-felt prayer he says to God, “I will bless Your name forever and ever. Every day I will bless You, and I will praise Your name forever and ever” (vs. 2-3).

Don’t you want to get in on this wonderful celebration? How can we not celebrate our God when “His greatness is unsearchable” (vs. 3)? He is worthy to be praised and so David declares, “Men shall speak of the power of Your awesome acts, and I will tell of Your greatness”( vs. 6).

God is so good. He is “gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in lovingkindness” (vs. 8). Now we have the wonderful pleasure and privilege of living out the meaning of God’s greatness in the world that has been assigned to us. We get to live for God. Who would have thought it? We get to live for God.

We get to tell the story of Jesus to our generation. We are privileged to be one generation in an unbroken succession of generations that praises the works of God to the generation coming up behind us (vs. 4). We have the awesome privilege of speaking about the glory and power of God’s kingdom (vs. 11).

I want to be a part of that people who live out the Faith with clarity and attraction. God is too good to do anything other than this. Go out this week and make God look good because HE IS GOOD.

As wonderful as is the message of Jesus, it is also that dangerous. It can divide. Many times people who do not believe in Jesus separate themselves from those who do believe. The unifying Christ can become the dividing Christ.

It’s not Jesus came to divide; it is simply the fact that some people want nothing to do with the Good News, and they disconnect in every way shape and form from Jesus and His Word. When this happens it is a sad day.

Jesus knew that following Him would be costly. He never promised His followers their lives would be easy. He told them, in fact, “…he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me” (Matt. 10:38).

Faith is serious business, isn’t it? It is costly. Yet, the promise of Jesus, born of His own cross, is that if people will let go their life in this world, turn it all over to God, and leave consequences of faith, to Him, that they will find their life, really find it, find a life that is filled with eternal implications.

There is no relationship in all the world more important than the relationship between a person and God. When one lets God become every thing to them, they discover that they are free to love and to care and to live in grace. Their lives become a means of grace to others.

Some people may not understand this miracle of grace in a person’s life but those who know Jesus understand, and wouldn't change it for the world.

As the early church was formed Jesus gave the Church a mission statement to go and make disciples, doing two things as their foundation: baptizing these disciples and teaching them. He sent them out to do their work “in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit” (Matt. 28:19). He sent them out with the promise that all authority had been given to Him and that He would be with them even to the end of age (Matt. 28:18, 20).

Christians are a sent people. We live within the authority of Another, the One who sent us. We live and move and have our being in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. What we do, we do in the name of the Living and True Triune God.

We best not be about God’s business if we are not living in the Call that has come to us. We live in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We serve in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We teach in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We baptize and worship and consume the Eucharist in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We live out the meaning of our faith in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Any hope we might have of being fruitful for the kingdom of God is dependent upon us conducting our lives in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

The hope believers present to the world is rooted and grounded in the triune God, who models for us what it means to love and to heal and to care and to restore and to redeem. In God we see how a perfect community works. There is distinction but there is community and unity and singleness of purpose.

We are rooted and grounded in the community of God, the trinity who gives us our lives. What we do we do because the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have embraced us into the very heart of God, and we cannot stop living out the meaning of what we have experienced.

PENTECOST SUNDAY

Fifty days after Easter we celebrate Pentecost. This day is related to the Jewish harvest festival of Shavuot, which remembers and celebrate God giving the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai fifty days after the Exodus from Egypt. For Christians this day remembers and celebrates the pouring out of the Holy Spirit fifty days after the resurrection. It is the birth of the Church, God’s Spirit-filled people.

Pentecost is about the Holy Spirit and His indwelling and empowerment of people. It was to people who already believed in Jesus that the Holy came. He filled them with power from on high and set them loose in the world to witness to the fact that Jesus Christ is alive.

Without the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit there is no church. When the Holy Spirit is not the primary influence on a people, that people, regardless of their beliefs, confessions , and actions, are not the church. The church is that people in whom the Spirit of God dwells, through whom the Spirit of God reflects the reality of Jesus, and in whom God the Father, Maker of heaven and earth is praised, celebrated, and honored.

The gift of the Holy Spirit is central to what Jesus came to do. In John 16:7 Jesus said to His disciples, who were confused about His telling them that He was going to go away, “I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.” Fifty days after His resurrection this promise of Jesus came to pass.

Don’t try to live the Christian life with the presence of the Holy Spirit in you. It won’t work. Power to be what God has called us to be is dependent upon the Holy Spirit whom Jesus gives to us Embrace Him, and let God be God in your life.

Who can you trust? This may be the question of the decade. People around the world, even in our beloved homeland, have been betrayed by those to whom they have given their trust. The powerful and influential have exploited their position and have wielded their influence on the backs of common people, people who do not deserved to be treated as if they really don’t matter in the scheme of things.

Suffering is not new; it goes as far back into human history as can be known. It seems to go with the turf of being in a broken world. No one is exempt; no one.

Suffering is a major theme in the Bible. God does not ignore this huge issue, because it is a part of the human experience; it is a part of the Christian experience.

From the early Church right on down to this very morning, Christians have suffered simply because they are Christians. Some of the suffering is regulated by governments, some comes simply because of man’s inhumanity to man.

Suffering is not unique to the Christian but it is such an important theme in Scripture that one would be unwise to ignore the counsel. The letter of I Peter was written to Christians in suffering. Peter told them not to be surprised at the fiery ordeal among them (4:12) but to make sure than always and forever their suffering came not because of some evil action on their part, but because they were seeking to faithful to Christ.

Peter’s word of counsel went further. He told them that they could be sure that God was the One to whom they could entrust their souls, and that He would always do right by them.

Some times life doesn’t make sense and it is hurtful, but on the journey God is with His people, and He can be trusted even with their souls.

I’ve walked by faith in Jesus for quite a while now, and I have matriculated among those who have done the same, and I have reached one conclusion that, I believe, is incontrovertible – We are who we are because of the fact that we live in Christ (See John 15). We abide in Him. We make our home in Him. In Him, we are shaped and formed and enabled to be who we are. Jesus and His church explain our lives. Without Jesus and without the Community shaped by Him, our lives make no sense; at least they shouldn’t make sense.

It is in saying Yes to Jesus’ invitation to live in Him that we find how He actually lives in us. Henri Nouwen said, “God is a God of the present and reveals to those who are willing to listen carefully to the moment in which they live the steps they are to take toward the future.”[1] We are in Christ and as we live the moments of our lives, made possible by living in Jesus, we find our strength, our nourishment, and even the direction we should go in moving into our future.

Jesus speaks of this kind of relationship in the metaphor of a branch abiding in the health of the vine. As the vine goes, so goes the branch. The branch doesn’t drive the vine; the vine drives the branch. In His metaphor Jesus is the Vine and his disciples are the branches. As the Vine goes, so goes the branch. What makes Jesus who Jesus is flows through the rightly connected and abiding branch.

The Word from Jesus is “Abide in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4). It is a mutual abiding. As we make our home in Jesus, He makes His home in us. The fruit of our lives comes as we abide in Jesus. The love that is in Him flows through us. His desire to keep the commandments of His Father flows through us and enables us to be faithful.

Why did Jesus teach these things. He said, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your Joy may be made full” (John 15:11).

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[1] Henri J.M. Nouwen, In The Name Of Jesus (Crossroad: New York, 1989), 3-4.