Of all the things it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ it seems that receiving persons as persons is very high on the list. We live in a much divided world, an us-verses-them world. We have the rich and the poor, my tribe and your tribe, my color and your color, my ways and your ways – and never the twain shall meet. And, Jesus says NO to all this.

Jesus tells us the story of a very rich man whose wealth allowed him to do just about whatever he wanted to do, and He tells the story of a very poor man, a man so poor that he didn’t have health care, and lived out his days “covered with sores, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s tables” (Luke 16:20).

The rich man had no place for God in his life and the poor man had much room in his heart for God. Then they both died, and Jesus tells us the rich man was totally unprepared for the day of this death and was greatly tormented, but that the poor man was taken up to be with God and found great comfort in the presence of God (Luke 17:25).

I’m not sure at all that this story is about wealth and poverty. I think it is about living truly human lives, living in the mind and spirit of the One who created us. I believe it is about living without walls and in a community where everybody is somebody simply because they are God’s creation, and not because of what they can or can’t bring to the community.

After it was too late the wealthy man had a spiritual epiphany. Too bad he didn’t have it when out of his abundance he could have made a difference in the life of another human being. Maybe that’s why Jesus told the story, to remind us that we still have time -- We still have time to bring the grace of God into our world.

September 21, 2007

I can’t get away from something Phineas F. Bresee said almost a hundred years ago: “Our church is a missionary church that knows no difference between home and foreign fields--- in these days all fields are near.”[1]

“These days” for us is the beginning of the third millennium after Christ and we are, indeed, in the midst of a mission field. Bill Sullivan once said, “We have seen America go from over 200 years of a basically Christian culture to a non-Christian culture that rejects the foundational principles of Christianity.”[2] Add to that, if you would, the words of Kennon Callahan: “The day of the churched culture is gone, the day of the mission field has come; the day of the institutional church is past, the day of the mission outpost has arrived; the day of the professional minister is over, the day of the missional pastor is here.”[3]

Suddenly we are confronted with realities that, in the human outlook, are overwhelming, and we are brought face to face with the fact that the work of Jesus in this world is of a spiritual nature that cannot be accomplished separate from Him.

Our greatest need is leaders, who, living in the power of the Holy Spirit and under the anointing of God, will look at our mission field through the eyes of Missionary passion, enter into the arena, pray until God is freely shaping and forming their lives, and then seek to seize the day for Christ.

If not now, when? If not us, who? [4]
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[1] Robert Scott, Next Door and Down the Freeway (Beacon Hill: Kansas City, 2001), 94
[2] Ibid., 11
[3] Ibid., 11 – 12
[4] Taken out of context, from President Ronald Reagan's Second inaugural address, Jan. 21, 1985

Can you love someone so fully and passionately that every other relationship pales in comparison to the one whose love has captivated your life? This is what Jesus asks of us. He calls us to love Him so fully that love for those who mean the most to us in this world (father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, even our own lives) pales in comparison.

So it is Jesus warns us to “calculate the cost” of what it means to follow Him, to be His disciple (Luke 14:28). In fact, he says, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27). As if that isn’t enough He continues, “None of you can be My disciple who does not give up all his own possessions” (Luke 14:33).

No warm fuzzy feelings here. We’re talking about commitment. We’re talking about laying down our lives. We’re talking about climbing up on the altar and giving Jesus everything thing we have -- our time, our talents, and our treasures. We’re talking about not holding back but about giving everything to God. We’re talking about being sold out to God, hook, line and sinker. Total commitment.

Still want to follow Jesus? Think about it. “Calculate the cost” because, make no mistake about it, it will cost you. Do you love your father? Love Jesus more. Do you love your mother? Love Jesus more? Do you love your wife, your husband? Love Jesus more. Do you love your brothers and sisters? Love Jesus more. Do you love yourself? Love Jesus more.

Ready to sign on the dotted line? Good! Sign it in blood, then take up your cross and follow Jesus into the greatest life you could ever possibly image.

Jesus does it all backwards, doesn't He? In the natural order of things people seek appreciation, honor, respect. We want thank yous and well dones, and atta boys. Recognition is important and acknowledgment means everything.

Then Jesus comes along and throws everything into disarray, challenging just about every system that has ever been important to people. He turns self-exaltation on its ear and exalts humility over pride. He calls us to take our place at the back of the line and to find fellowship with "the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind" (Luke 14:13).

Somebody once said that all the ground is level at the foot of the cross. It's true. In a way that boggles the imagination God receives us all. There are no haves or have-nots in the kingdom of God, just folks who needed and received the grace of God. No pushing and shoving allowed. Not one-up-man-ship accepted. Better-than-thou thinking has no place, and everybody is somebody because Jesus is Lord.

The community of Jesus should be that one place where true equality is practiced and where persons as persons are received and treated with the dignity that being created in the image of God demands. In this community we must not push and shove on each other as we make our way to the top. Instead, we ought to be navigating our way to the back of the line, knowing that there we will meet Jesus.

It is not in the place of honor we find Christ. It is in the place of service, the place where Jesus puts us, that we are able most meaningfully to fellowship with the One who died that we may live. If they want us up front, they will call us. And, don't wait around the phone waiting for the call. Just, show up for Jesus today, and let your light shine. He will take care of everything else.

On the way to Jerusalem to suffer and die Jesus fielded a question. An onlooker asked Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved” (Luke 13:22)? Typical of Jesus He didn’t give a direct answer. Instead, He answered the larger question at hand, and challenged his listeners to look inward and find out where they stood in relation to “being saved.”

The issue is not how many or how few are “being saved,” but where does each of us stand in relation to the One who saves. How many or how few is beyond the scope of our authority. Only God can save. Therefore, Jesus poignantly speaks to the human heart when He says, “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able” (Luke 13:25).

His call to strive catches us off guard a bit, doesn’t it? After all isn’t grace free? Isn’t mercy free? What does strive have to do with what is free? It is an intriguing thought isn’t it but, perhaps, Jesus is calling us not to be so overly preoccupied with what is or isn’t happening in the lives of others and, instead, is calling us to “work out…our salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12).

Maybe it is when we are so mesmerized by the Lord God ourselves and so enthralled by His life that the head count doesn’t really matter, that we are most in tune with the One who saves. The issue before us is to truly live before God, not in vocabulary and religious expression, but really, truly, live in the very life of God.

We might be surprised when we get to heaven to see who is there and who is not. After all, Jesus said, “Some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last” (Luke 13:30). I’m not sure what this means but it takes me back to His call to strive. This Christian life is serious business.

Jesus comes to us as the Prince of peace but He comes to us knowing His ways are not embraced by everyone. So, this One who is of peace also has a way about Him of bringing division (Luke 12:51). There is something about Jesus that leads people either to love Him or hate Him. There doesn't seem to be much of a middle ground. To some He is "foolishness" and "a stumbling block," and to some He is "the power of God and the wisdom of God" (I Cor. 1:18, 23-24).

This seems troubling on the surface -- the One of Peace bringing division. I suppose Truth has a way of dividing people. Particularly when one brings into the world the very life of God, it can get very dangerous. Holiness does not abide well with unholiness. Holiness and unholiness are worlds in conflict so much so that when the perfect one came among us the only thing we knew to do with Him was to crucify Him. That's how unholiness handles holiness. Kill it.

What must not be seen in this is a false understanding that Jesus legitimizes violence in the name of God. He simply does not. He is calling people into the very life of God, a life of Christlikeness. True, discipleship to a view other than the dominant view may invoke violence on the part of the one who is not comfortable with what Jesus is doing. However, the division must never come from within the heart of the follower of Jesus.

If the life of Jesus in His followers is, indeed, repulsive to those who don't believe in Jesus, so be it. However, in the end, His followers are still spokespersons for the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of God is about mercy, forgiveness and love. We simply do not have time for violence because violence does not accomplish the will of God.

The Bible says, "the kingdom of God is…righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Rom. 14:17). As Jesus-indwelled people this is who we are, this is how we live. Let violence come from somewhere else.

“Treasure” is an interesting word. According to whom you read it could mean anything from money to wealth to affluence to assets to capital, or to possessions,” to list just a few definitions. I think words like values and priorities should be on the list, too.” Whatever the most correct definition might be, however, Jesus says our heart will be where our treasure is.

He says this in the context of passionately calling us to make God the one treasure before whom all other treasures bow. He asks us to truly believe that because the Father has been pleased to give us the kingdom (Luke 12:32) we, in turn, choose to live and move and have our being in the things of the Father. He is calling us to build our lives on the eternal, with the promise that do so is to build our lives on that which cannot be taken from us.

If our hearts will be where our treasure is then it really matters, doesn’t it, where our treasure is? What do we value? Our hearts will be there, and where our hearts are our lives will follow. For what or whom do we live? Each of us has an answer, and the answer is profoundly important to us.

As disciples of Jesus Christ may each of us set apart Christ as Lord of our lives (I Pet. 3:15). There are too many moths and too much rust, and too many thieves in the world to stake our lives on fortunes that have value only in terms of this-world value systems. There is more to life than meets the eye, and Jesus enables us to see that which is more.

Let us take what have been given to us and place it under the authority of the One who is the Giver of “every good and perfect gift” (James 1:16). Let’s give God our time, our talents and our treasures and then trust His faithfulness for both this world and the world to come.

August 5, 2007

Talk about a low blow. A certain man had finally made it to the top. He had more money than you could believe, and he was on top of the world. Then, wouldn't you know it, he up and died. Wealthy beyond belief and dead as a door nail. Bummer.

Jesus tells us this story in the context of a request made of Him that He felt was a question coming from greed. To the request He said, "Be on your guard against all kinds of greed," He said; "a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions" (Luke 12:15). And, once again, in telling a story Jesus gets us to thinking.

The man in Jesus story was engaged in three conversations, though he only knew about two of them. He was engaged in a conversation with his wealth that led him to tear down his barns and build bigger ones. He was engaged in a conversation with himself in which he concluded that he truly was fortunate to be so wealthy, so fortunate that it was time for him to "take life easy; eat, drink and be merry" (vs.19). Then he was engaged in a conversation with God, a conversation that had been put on hold in the midst of coming to the place in life where he could eat, drink and be merry. In the end the only conversation that really mattered was the one that had been put on hold.

Jesus' story leads us to see that when things of this life trump eternal things, we enter into very dangerous territory. When things of this life interfere with our conversation with God and distract us from living examined lives, we are on a collision course with outcomes for which we are totally unprepared, outcomes like dying and death.

Jesus says we are fools if we don't work into our self-talk and our plans the fact that we are going to die. We don't need to be overly preoccupied with it but we need to face it, and plan for it. Our stuff is temporary; our lives are forever.

Prayer is an intriguing gift of God to His people. It’s intriguing because as finite and imperfect beings we never know exactly and precisely how to pray. We are limited in knowledge and insight so all we can do is pray as we best know how, leaving the answering of prayer to God.

At the same time, Jesus does give us insight into how to pray. Better yet, He gives us insight into the God to whom we pray. Jesus tells us to come to Him as Father (Luke 11:2). We pour out our hearts to our Father whose name is “hallowed” and, we say to Him, “Your kingdom come.” (vs. 2).

What better way to pray than to ask the One who loves us and the One whom we love, for His kingdom to come and to be realized in this world. We may not be insightful enough to fully grasp a correct way to pray but the Father whose name is hallowed in our midst and whose will is “good, pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2) can be trusted fully and without hesitation.

Jesus calls us to trust the Father. Trust Him for each day’s provision (vs. 3). Trust Him to embrace us in forgiveness as we embrace others in forgiveness (4). Trust Him never to lead us into temptation (4). He is the Father. He can be trusted.

When you are in need or represent someone who is, pray, and don’t stop. Ask the Father. Seek for the Father’s intervention. Knock at the Father’s door in the sense of desperation. The Father will draw near, and bring to pass His “good, pleasing, and perfect” will.

Don’t trust your instincts or what you think the answer to your prayers ought to look like. Instead, trust the Father whose heart is compassionately open to His people.

It was in the heat of the day and the nomad, Abraham, was setting at the entrance to his tent, probably trying to beat the heat. For unannounced reasons he looked up and saw three men standing nearby. The Bible says to us the Lord was in those three men, and Abraham knew it. How he knew it, we don't know, but he knew he was in the midst of a divine appointment of some kind. Extending great hospitality to the strangers, and making sure their needs were met, Abraham listened.

The men asked him where his wife was. Abraham told them and then heard a message that would change his life. In the personhood of these three men, "the Lord said, 'I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife will have a son'" (Genesis 18:10).

Sarah overheard the conversation and laughed out loud when she heard about the year she was to have. Abraham was old and Sarah was well past childbearing age. Some things just evoke laughter when you hear them, I suppose.

We know the story. Some nine months later Sarah gave birth to the promised son. Isaac took his place in the unfolding plan of God, and the stage was set for God's remarkable grace.

Don't try to explain it scientifically; you'll come up short. Just receive it as an act of God who speaks creatively into history, and works in ways that leave the human intellect awed and amazed. The question is asked by the Lord to Abraham, "Is anything too hard for the Lord" (Vs. 14). The birth of Isaac gives us the answer.

As the people of God in Christ it wouldn't be a bad devotional action to ask our selves once in a while, "Is anything too hard for God?" The answer will always be NO. Still, there is a lot of Sarah in us, isn't there. And, sometimes it's hard to believe that with God all things are possible.

Believe it, though, because God is in the midst.

Jesus asked an expert in Jewish law how he read the law concerning how to “inherit eternal life” (Luke 10: 25). The answer given was pleasing to Jesus: “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbor as yourself self” (Luke 10:27).

The expert wasn’t satisfied with Jesus approval, however, and, “wanting to justify himself,” (whatever that means), (vs.29), asked Jesus to explain to him exactly who qualifies as being a neighbor. Here Jesus gives what has come to be the well-known parable of the Good Samaritan.

A man is robbed, severely injured, and abandoned along a roadside. A priest and a Levite happen by and upon seeing the suffering man choose to move to the other side of the road and not make him a part of their life. Then a Samaritan, (an unappreciated and hated fellow from the other side of the tracks) happens by. And, wouldn’t you know it, he stops, extends mercy, tends to the suffering man’s needs, takes him to a motel, cleans him up, and pays the manager of the motel enough money to cover a couple of days expenses, with the promise that upon his return he would also pay for any other expenses incurred by the victim.

Then the parable takes a twist. Jesus asked, “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers” (vs. 36)? His point wasn’t that the victim was the neighbor in need of help. The victim simply gave opportunity to reveal what a good neighbor is like. The neighbor is the Samaritan “who had mercy” on the victim. To this Jesus said, “Go and do likewise” (vs. 37).

What do followers of Jesus look like? Jesus says they look like this Samaritan fellow who when he could have moved to the other side of the road, also, chose, instead, to extend mercy. “Go,” Jesus said, “and do likewise.”

Apparently Pope Benedict disagrees with Vatican II and doesn’t view Protestants as “separated brethren.” His reasons may be many but the new announced one is that we do not recognize the primacy of the Pope. In fact, the rift from the Roman side takes it further and finds it very difficult even to acknowledge non-Roman Catholics as being the Church. The wording from the Vatican says something to this effect, "Despite the fact that this teaching has created no little distress ... it is nevertheless difficult to see how the title of 'Church' could possibly be attributed to them.”

In reality, and with a certain degree of respect for the bishop of Rome, the sitting pope’s opinions haven’t really affected me one way or the other. He is entitled to disregard the heritage out which I come and summarily dismiss the Faith of Christ to which I hold; that’s his issues, not mind. I certainly don’t feel “wounded,” as the document says, and even though he thinks my little church is not a full church of Jesus Christ, the God we meet each week in worship begs to disagree.

The pope believes that Roman “Catholicism provides the only true path to salvation.” Already many Roman Catholics are seeking to defuse this errant thinking. As Rev. Vincent Cushing, president of Washington Theological Union from 1975- 1999 says, "From a careful reading of the documents of Vatican II, it is clear that the Roman Catholic Church wished to affirm the ecclesial reality of the Protestant churches.”

The Pope believes that Protestants churches (I suppose we need to find a word other than church; maybe the bishop of Rome can speak for God on this matter, also) are “merely ecclesial communities” and that we don’t have “the means of salvation” within the Faith of Christ to which we hold.

As a Protestant minister I really thought Rome was bigger than this. I guess I was wrong. At any rate, I’m told the bishop is headed out for vacation this week. That’s a good thing, I think.

It is a wonderful life to live for God, especially when one lives it in God’s way. We live in a world where “the harvest is plentiful,” open and ripe for meaning and hope. And, in that world we live by faith. We live for God in the faith of Jesus and leave results to God. Some people will receive the Good News and some won’t. That decision is not ours to make. Ours is to live and move and have our being in the God who has saved us and made us whole. Ours is to live faithfully for the God of Good News.

The promise of Jesus is that He will use His Church to “overcome all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). As His Church lives faithfully Satan “will fall like lightning” (Luke 10:18). Nothing will hold back the Gospel and Jesus will build His Church.

As powerful as this reality is, Jesus says it is not the reality in which we should rejoice. It is wonderful to be used of God; it is marvelous to be used of God. Yet Jesus says, “Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven” (Luke 10:20).

What a remarkable thought to think, that God has embraced us into His forever family and that our lives are covered by an amazing grace that brings to us the gift of Abundant and eternal life.

As we live graced by the Life of God we live with purpose and focus. We live with meaning and hope. We are not lost in a sea of doubt. We live in the certainty of Jesus. We live in love, acceptance and forgiveness. We live in the reality of Good News.

What a great way to live.

Disciples James and John, angry when a certain Samaritan village denied Jesus access, sought His permission to “call fire down from heaven to destroy them” (Luke 9:54). Jesus rebuked them for their thoughts and moved on “to another village” (vs. 55).

Sadly, James and John represent too many Christians who can’t seem to bring themselves to love their enemies and who seek, instead, to call fire down from heaven to destroy them. When are we going to learn to let God be God and knock off the nonsense of treating like dirt those who don’t think the way we think or believe the way we believe? This is a serious question and one to which we do well to pay attention.

When will we learn that our business here is to live Christ-formed lives, extending to others the very life of God? Ours isn’t to disenfranchise those who want nothing to do with Jesus; ours is to love them. Fred Pratt Green has this line in his hymn, When the Church of Jesus: “May our prayers, Lord, make us ten times more aware that the world we banish is our Christian care.” In another verse he writes, “Lord, reprove, inspire us by the way you give; teach us risen Savior, how true Christians live.”

Sure, there might be villages that don’t “welcome” Jesus and when it happens maybe we’ll have to move on “to another village.” Calling down fire on the place, however, seems a little extreme don’t you think? In fact, isn’t this one of our complaints about so called radial Muslims who maim, destroy and kill in the name of their understanding of God?

Before we call down fire from heaven maybe we ought to call down the Holy Spirit to baptize our own hearts with fire. Now, that would be a sight to behold.

In a time of prayer with His disciples Jesus asked them a question, “Who do the people say that I am” (Luke 9:18). Several answers were given but then Jesus got very personal. He said to His men, “Who do you say that I am” (Luke 9:18). Peter forwards an answer but the question was for the group. Indeed, any group gathered around Jesus must be engaged with this question.

Many times in North America Scripture is so individualized we overlook the fact that Jesus has called us to be His people. It is to His people that certain questions must be asked. Persons as persons must give answers but not as Lone Ranger Christians. His Church must continually hear the question, “Who do you say that I am?”

It is His Church who must continually be challenged to save its life by losing it (Luke 9:24). It is His Church, shaped and formed by His cross, that must come after Jesus in a spirit of self-denial and take of the cross (Luke 9:23).

It is His Church that is called to see through the present order and into an order where profit is not measured by what one has but by what one has released into the hands of God for the sake of others (Luke 9:25).

It is His Church that must lived unashamedly for Jesus in the present order of things, expectantly waiting for that day when Jesus “comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels” (Luke 9:26).

Let us not be preoccupied with any thing that might preoccupy us. Instead, let’s open up our hearts to the Lord of the universe, and live for Him.

If Jesus would whisper into our ears some day in worship, “Who do you say that I am?” what would our answer be?

Jesus was always disappointing some religious person somewhere because of the way He received and embraced folks who were not religious. Some of the religious folks around Him just couldn't grasp that grace and mercy embrace and receive lost and broken people, not make them more lost and broken by rejecting them.

There always seems to be tension with many religious people in that, apparently fragile, matter of being in but not of the world. Maybe it's too difficult a balance to hold to for some. Or, maybe, the craving for personal piety is so strong that the threat of possible contamination trumps everything. It sure makes witnessing rough, though, when one is unable to be meaningfully IN the world because if you can't be IN then there's no way you can be WITH, and if you can't ever be WITH how is anybody other than the saved going to know how wonderful Jesus is?

Come to think about it, if our faith is so fragile that we can't be with unbelievers without fear of possible contamination, than the truthfulness of our faith might just be called into question. If we have faith in a Lord who loved to be among sinners and to eat with them and to fellowship with them, and to invite them in to the kingdom, and the expression of that faith prohibits our doing the same kinds of things, then we are not really of Jesus, are we?

Do you know anybody who does not love Jesus? Love them. Embrace them. Fellowship with them. Pray for them. Build a relationship with them. Receive them.

It's okay to love people. Jesus sure does. After all, He reached out to you one day and received you into His Family. What a great day for you that turned out to be.

How much more could one take? She was already a widow and the mother of only one child, a son. Now he, too, had died. Now she was alone. Now grief raged through her very soul. In the casket lay her boy. No! In the casket lay her very life. The future was in that casket. Hope was in that casket. Joy was in that casket.

In the midst of the procession to the graveyard Jesus happened by. He saw the casket, He saw the crowd, He saw the widow. Something moved Him deeply, so deeply that He did what no one in that culture would ever do on purpose. He reached out and touched the casket, making him ceremonially unclean. Then He spoke to the dead, "Young man, I say to you, get up" (Luke 7:14, NIV). Suddenly a funeral became a resurrection and Jesus gave this young man back to his mother.

Don't think for a moment that in this life Jesus always gives the dead back to the living. He simply doesn't. Yet, He does seem always to find a way to embrace death with the life of God. He is not beyond bringing the life of God into brokenness, grief and pain. Time after time Jesus has found a way to so touch situations and people that they
are, "filled with awe" (Luke 7:16).

What impresses you more, the fact that Jesus can work miracles or that Jesus' compassion toward people is such that His heart goes out to them (Luke 7:13)? Can you embrace a God who can draw near the hurting and involved Himself in their lives?

We are the people of Jesus and we are called to be like Him. So, let's be on the lookout for those who hurt. Let's seek to be aware of conditions and situations that tear at the very fiber of life.

Let's dare to let our hearts go out to others. May Jesus come near our world in us.

Jesus speaks of God in three ways. First, He sees God as the Father who sent Him; Secondly, He sees Himself as God; Thirdly, He sees the Holy Spirit as God (John 16:5, 10:30, 16:7-11). The God who is one speaks into the human situation in a triune way: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

It is very difficult, if not impossible, to clearly read Scripture without embracing this Sovereign mystery. It is at the heart of our faith. Our very first Article of Faith reads, “We believe in one eternally existent, infinite God, Sovereign of the universe; that He only is God, creative and administrate, holy in nature, attributes, and purpose; that He, as God, is Triune in essential beings, revealed as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.”

Granted, it is theological language but it is not meant for the halls of academia. It is a reality that embraces our lives everyday. God is as up-close-and-personal as is the air we breathe. God is the Creator, the Savior and the Sustainer of all that is.

What belongs to the Father belongs to the Son and it is the Spirit who makes it known in our lives. Through the Spirit God is everywhere. He is here and half-a-world away at the same moment. That Jesus is Lord here and everywhere else at the same moment and in the same way is made possible by the awesome work of the Holy Spirit. At any given moment, anywhere in the world, the power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is making the reality of God known.

Let the Holy Spirit embrace you and fill you today. He is Jesus’ gift to you.

I’ve stayed home all day as a plumber has wrestled with 80 year old pipe, clogged almost beyond belief, in a valiant effort to get us hot water once again. When that happens I will be satisfied but Vonnie, my wife, will be thrilled, happy, elated, overjoyed, excited, ecstatic, and, quite possibly, euphoric.

I’ve been thinking about clogs this morning – those little things that block the living of life. Most times clogs are little things that over time interconnect in such away that the arena in which they are located gets very messy and stops healthy living dead in its tracks.

I think of how clogged the world is today. Violence is everywhere, even in the beautiful city in which I live. Broken relationships that seem to be irreparable abound everywhere. Racism, unnecessary poverty, political demonizing and name-calling – the list goes on and on.

Can the clogs be unclogged? That is the question of the hour. I think we may need a good plumber or two, and it may take a while; but healthy living is not beyond the human experience. That things can change and that the future can be different than the past are remarkable thoughts to think.

As a Christian I am hopeful about the present and energized about the future. Reality is a hard pill to swallow sometimes, and I refuse to be naïve about clogs. However, We’re not Stepford wives and we do have power to choose. Whether or not people choose wisely may be in question but that they are free to choose isn’t.

How do we unclog the obstructions and barriers? The answer to that question may lead in a thousand directions for solutions, but one thing is certain. The unclogging begins with admitting to the clog. Maybe that’s the rub. Admitting might just be too much to handle.

I sure hope not.

Jesus told His questioning and unsettled disciples, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever -- the Spirit of truth…he lives in you and will be in you" (John 14:15-17). On the day of Pentecost that promise was fulfilled and the world hasn't been the same since; or, at least, the people of God haven't been the same since.

The life of Holy Spirit in the heart of a human being is a marvelous wonder to behold. The Spirit makes strong the weak, makes bold the fearful, makes clean the impure, and make faithful the unfaithful. This wondrous Spirit of truth moves into the open and hidden places in the life of believers, and baptizes them in the very life of God. Where the Holy Spirit is free to do His divine work all the possibilities of God are present.

It is in the life of the Spirit that Jesus makes His home in the life of His followers. Before His death Jesus said, "I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" (John 14:18). In the Holy Spirit the Savior lives in His Church. We are not alone, orphaned, or disenfranchised. Jesus has come to us and Jesus is Lord.

In the Spirit the Church of Jesus is enabled to live truthfully and faithfully. In the faithfulness of Jesus we are free to ask the Father anything we need in order to be what He has called us to be, and He will give it (John 14:13-14).

Live this day in the power and presence of the Holy Spirit and God will draw near to you. He will live in you and make His home in you. He will re-narrate the story of your life and work the wondrous work of God in you.