The Dream Factory

Taking the Lid Off

 

Some Thoughts from Under the Surface

There is probably no unifying theme here.

 

Honest Prayer

The psalms teach us to pray deeply and honestly without pretense or presumption. They just let it out and then let God sort it all out.

What if we did not judge or measure our prayers before we prayed them? What if we just let all of our negative junk out and laid it on the table before One who is wise, good, patient, loving, holy, and true and then .... well, then, we let that One deal with it.

"This stays; this goes; deal with this; I can handle this; don't worry about this; you might want to rethink this; I hear you. I understand I love you."

What if?

That is how the psalms sound to me. All the vengeful, angry feelings are brought before God before anyone else. All of the despondency we experience is brought to the front so that it can be addressed. All of our hopelessness and fear is exposed and God meets us where we are.

We see all of those heavy bricks of guilt and bitterness hanging on a cross and being demolished.

He knows we harbor hate in our hearts that is weighing us down. He knows that we struggle with temptation. He knows that we feel persecuted and alone. He knows and wants us to bring it to Him.

When we do, we are transformed as we are released from the power of those feelings. They only rule us when we cherish them in our hearts and guard them with all our might.

We may be afraid for people to know we are human, but it is useless to try and hide that reality from God. He knows.

"Be gracious to me, O LORD, for I am in distress;
my eye is wasted from grief;
my soul and my body also.
For my life is spent with sorrow,
and my years with sighing;
my strength fails because of my iniquity,
and my bones waste away."
-Psalm 31:9-10 (ESV)

____________________________________________

Now Is the Time! Recession Is No Excuse for Recess!

Have  you had a personal recession during this season of pandemic?

Contrary to the human tendency toward flight in times of danger, these are days for entrepreneurs to venture forth into the unknown and strut their creative stuff. The time is right for new ideas, for niche thinking, and for bold initiatives by men and women who will not be ruled by fear or passing circumstance.

The very limitations, restrictions, and scarcity of our times that cause some to retreat will prompt others to think more creatively and move aggressively into the arena of invention and innovation.

In the midst of recession when the tides of prosperity appear to be receding, there sounds no recess bell. Class is still in session. The need for vision and visionaries is profound. Life goes on. There is a sea change of thinking, a correction in our collective greed for consumption, and a reevaluation of our definitions of success. But people still require basic services and great ideas still have landing places among receptive minds.

We cannot retreat from entrepreneurship, Rather, we must embrace it at a new level. Our communities need out-of-the-box thinkers and risk takers. Our nation and world need people who are willing to move forward to build great business, social, and spiritual initiatives on a shoestring.

Recession is no excuse for recess.

_____________________________________________

Margins Too Wide and Too Narrow

I'm working on margins.

I come to this challenge from time to time and I find it to be a balancing act between making them too wide and too narrow.

If they are so wide that you could drive a truck through them, there is the danger of wasting time between events and responsibilities. That is, unless you carry around a sack of contingency tasks.

Even if you do, you have to take a moment to decide which one fits best with the geography and time allotted - as well as the time of day.

If they are too narrow, you may find that there is not enough time for the most important tasks you'd like to "fit in."

Either way, you have to use your head and that can be painful.

A more important lesson to learn is that no matter how detailed and well considered our plans, there are people and circumstances beyond our control that can alter our plans. If we become to rigid about them, we will crack.

The mighty redwoods are tall, strong, and deeply rooted ... but they are also quite flexible.

Maybe I will use a margin to go stare at one and get back with you.

 

 

"You Don't Say ..."

Or ... Do you?

Say It

How about this? A little formula for saying what you want to say: S.A.Y.- I.T. 

 SAY

S

Search your own heart and mind for what you really want to convey.

A

Assess your audience so that you can access their attention.

Y

Yell softly. Choose high impact words. Notice how the room gets quiet to hear a whisper.

 IT

I

Involve multiple senses and receptors.

T

Terminate before you lose attention. It is better to stop short and leave the door open for future interaction.

----------------

Here is more:

Saying More With Fewer Words

"When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise." - Proverbs 10:19 (NIV)

I am working on using fewer words to say more.

At the very least, there is a hopeful suspicion that more might be read, understood, retained, and activated in choices.

Add the decreased possibilities of slipping into one of many snares of life that are labeled with my name (or so it seems).

There is much more that I could say, but there is wisdom in not saying too much.

That is our working assumption after all.

-------------------------------------------------

Now, let's take one more step:

Being Still and Knowing

"Be still and know that I am God..."

This is a verse I memorized decades ago. It has been with me since I was a child, inscribed upon my heart and mulled over again and again with ever deepening understanding. However, I suspect that I have not begun to truly internalize the depth of its implications in my life either in the mandate toward stillness or the call to knowing.

On this truth I will meditate this week after Holy Week.

Let's listen to what God has to say.

 

 

How about this? A little formula for saying what you want to say: S.A.Y.- I.T. 

 SAY

S

Search your own heart and mind for what you really want to convey.

A

Assess your audience so that you can access their attention.

Y

Yell softly. Choose high impact words. Notice how the room gets quiet to hear a whisper.

 IT

I

Involve multiple senses and receptors.

T

Terminate before you lose attention. It is better to stop short and leave the door open for future interaction.

----------------

Here is more:

Saying More With Fewer Words

"When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise." - Proverbs 10:19 (NIV)

I am working on using fewer words to say more.

At the very least, there is a hopeful suspicion that more might be read, understood, retained, and activated in choices.

Add the decreased possibilities of slipping into one of many snares of life that are labeled with my name (or so it seems).

There is much more that I could say, but there is wisdom in not saying too much.

That is our working assumption after all.

-------------------------------------------------

Now, let's take one more step:

Being Still and Knowing

"Be still and know that I am God..."

This is a verse I memorized decades ago. It has been with me since I was a child, inscribed upon my heart and mulled over again and again with ever deepening understanding. However, I suspect that I have not begun to truly internalize the depth of its implications in my life either in the mandate toward stillness or the call to knowing.

On this truth I will meditate this week after Holy Week.

Let's listen to what God has to say.

 

 

"When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise." - Proverbs 10:19 (NIV)

I am working on using fewer words to say more.

At the very least, there is a hopeful suspicion that more might be read, understood, retained, and activated in choices.

Add the decreased possibilities of slipping into one of many snares of life that are labeled with my name (or so it seems).

There is much more that I could say, but there is wisdom in not saying too much.

That is our working assumption after all.

-------------------------------------------------

Now, let's take one more step:

Being Still and Knowing

"Be still and know that I am God..."

This is a verse I memorized decades ago. It has been with me since I was a child, inscribed upon my heart and mulled over again and again with ever deepening understanding. However, I suspect that I have not begun to truly internalize the depth of its implications in my life either in the mandate toward stillness or the call to knowing.

On this truth I will meditate this week after Holy Week.

Let's listen to what God has to say.

 

 

If I Die ...

Can We Live Again?

 

Holy Saturday is a tough challenge for a homiletician. It is a dark day on the Christian calendar. In some church traditions, there is no music and there are no flowers or colors to ameliorate the experience of death and despair as the Body of Christ meditates upon the experience of the church on that day 2000 plus years ago --- and the experience of Jesus in Sheol.

 

Can We Live Again?

 

Is that the question we ask this day on the church's calendar when we consider the time of Jesus in the tomb?

 

Is that the question we ask in our own darkest moments?

“If a man die, shall he live again?” (from Job 14:14)

The age-old cry of humankind is for eternal meaning. Is there anything beyond this world of pain and tears that brings meaning to these moments while transcending them? Is there a life beyond the grave or is all futile?

 

Perhaps Job did not really know the answer, but he did have a glimpse. We do know that, unlike most men and women, Job was willing to serve God for nothing. He was willing to worship the Lord with or without reward or promise of life.

 

Job's God was not running for office. His status did not depend upon human referendum. He was God and that was that. Because He was God, He deserved praise. Job would come into a deeper understanding of God's Sovereignty, but the seeds were present even before his testing.

 

As is true of Job's pressing questions, the answers come fully in Jesus Christ. The resurrection is the final statement of death's final defeat. For the one who follows Jesus, there is hope beyond death. John said that he was writing his gospel so that we might know we had eternal life.

 

There are countless men and women in our communities yearning for answers to the ultimate questions of life. God sets Job up as the ultimate example of an earnest seeker. He records Job's search so that we might identify and be led toward a relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

Job's story is our story. His yearning is our yearning. His needs are our needs - not to be free of pain and discomfort, but to see God face to face and find our answers in Him.

 

" For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven …” - II Corinthians 5:1-2

 

Job 14:1-14

(NRSV)

"A mortal, born of woman, few of days and full of trouble, comes up like a flower and withers, flees like a shadow and does not last. Do you fix your eyes on such a one? Do you bring me into judgment with you? Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one can. Since their days are determined, and the number of their months is known to you, and you have appointed the bounds that they cannot pass, look away from them, and desist, that they may enjoy, like laborers, their days. "For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant. But mortals die, and are laid low; humans expire, and where are they? As waters fail from a lake, and a river wastes away and dries up, so mortals lie down and do not rise again; until the heavens are no more, they will not awake or be roused out of their sleep. Oh that you would hide me in Sheol, that you would conceal me until your wrath is past, that you would appoint me a set time, and remember me! If mortals die, will they live again? All the days of my service I would wait until my release should come."

 

 

 

Good Friday Thoughts

 

There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple … - Luke 16:19

 

Then came Jesus forth, wearing the crown of thorns, and the purple robe. And Pilate saith unto them, Behold the man! – John 19:5

 

When I see purple I think of Lydia who, in the book of Acts, was known as the dealer of purple.

 

Purple was a precious commodity, the garment of royalty, the symbol of wealth.

 

Purple is a featured color in the Lenten season as we meditate on the road to the cross that Jesus trod.

 

It is also an element of two of Jesus’ teachings, one that he spoke and another that he lived. One was a parable and the other was a reality.

 

Jesus spoke of a rich man, clothed in purple, who died and discovered that all he had valued and cherished in life was worthless in light of a Godless eternity. This man begged for a drop of water and someone to warn his brothers. He was simply called, “a certain rich man.”

 

Later, Jesus would also ask for a sip of water, from the cross. Just prior to that pivotal event in salvation history, Jesus was paraded before Pilate clothed in purple. The soldiers were mocking His message of a spiritual kingdom that transcended all human kingdoms.

 

Jesus wore the purple unwillingly on His willing path to bear the shame of the world for our salvation. The rich man wore it with a prideful heart proclaiming his superiority and gaining nothing. One exalted himself and was humbled. Jesus humbled Himself and was exalted.

 

And both wore purple.

Spiritual Foolishness and Wisdom for April 1

 

Meme theology calls this "National Atheists Day," but it misses the point.

"The fool denies God IN HIS HEART  and acts corruptly." - Psalm 14:1

The psalmist was not talking about doubters, debaters, or seekers, but about those who know and ignore.

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God." - I Corinthians 1:18

Spiritual foolishness is about the heart, not the intellect.

 

Jeremiah describes the fool that says in his heart there is no God, not as a person who has trouble believing, but as one who knows there is a God, but ignores that fact. That is also what the psalmist described - one who makes no room in his or her heart for God, for righteousness, for justice, or for truth.

 

In other words, stubborn and self-centered.

 

Spiritual foolishness is about the heart, not the intellect.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Jeremiah 16:10-21

And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you ...

 

"Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us?"

 

"What is our iniquity?"

 

"What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?"

... then you shall say to them:

 

It is because your ancestors have forsaken me, says the LORD, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law; and because you have behaved worse than your ancestors, for here you are, every one of you, following your stubborn evil will, refusing to listen to me.

 

Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.

 

Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the LORD, when it shall no longer be said, "As the LORD lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt," but "As the LORD lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them."

For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their ancestors.

 

I am now sending for many fishermen, says the LORD, and they shall catch them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.

 

For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my presence, nor is their iniquity concealed from my sight.

 

And I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.

 

O LORD, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: Our ancestors have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.

 

Can mortals make for themselves gods?

 

Such are no gods!

"Therefore I am surely going to teach them, this time I am going to teach them my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the LORD."

 

 

 

To Speak a Word in Season to the Weary

The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary …  – Isaiah 50:4

As we celebrate the beginning of spring, we do so with hearts ready for a change. We have grown weary of winter and anxious for a change of seasons. Spring is the season of hope and new life. It is a season of encouragement.

God’s Word reminds us often of the power of the tongue to build up or to destroy.

What a gift to be able to use the tongue of the learned, as a gift from God, to encourage and strengthen a weary brother!

He goes on to exclaim that God awakens him every morning with new instructions and wisdom.

You can have the tongue of the learned as well if you will listen to God, read His Word, keep an open heart and mind, and be willing to share a word of blessing with those who have grown tired of living.

The greatest privilege in the world is found in lifting someone else up and moving them forward on their road to spiritual success. There is no greater honor or joy than to be a part of someone else’s life story of God’s blessings through grace.

Often, all it takes is a word to bring springtime to someone’s winter of discontent. To give it, we must be willing and ready to receive it from God, to listen intently, and share generously.

Glorified

Photo by Elijah Hiett on Unsplash

 

“Now is the Son of man glorified and God is glorified in Him.” – from John 13:31

You must take it all as a package or there is no glory. Jesus understood that these final days were one great redemptive event – from mingling with the crowds and teaching them, to provoking the Sanhedrin with His very presence, to the upper room, the washing of feet, the prayers in the garden, and on to the cross.

It was the process of God glorifying Himself in His Son. It was all part of the package: His life, death, and resurrection were one magnificent demonstration of the power of God.

Jesus had spoken similar words when some gentiles had come looking for Him. He responded that the coming of these men was an indication that He was soon to be lifted up from the earth and to draw all men unto Him. Lifting up could mean exaltation or crucifixion. In this case, it meant both. He moves from tragedy to triumph in a split-second intersection of time and eternity.

This time he speaks of being glorified as He confronts the one who will betray Him. This is strange to our warped thinking. But this is Jesus who donned the apron and wiped His disciple’s feet. This is the one who taught that the path to greatness is servanthood. This is the Master of great reversals.

Our Lord never lost sight of the big picture.

He did not stop with cross in His panoramic view of His mission.

He did not even end the story with rising from the dead.

He taught His friends that He was going to the Father through this path of glory and that He would come to them in a new way to indwell them, that they might do even greater works. He promised further that He would come again visibly to introduce a grand new eternal day. It was about glory.

It is still about glory.

Take a walk in the garden this morning where there is an empty hole in a rock, a barren place where death once dwelt. What do you notice but emptiness? He is not there. He is risen!

The work of redemption is done. It was worth it all. The pain and the suffering have accomplished their ends. He is alive and we can live also.

What name do you give to your pain of the moment, your struggle of this hour? Call it suffering or call it glory. It all depends upon whether you view it from the present or from the resurrection.

 Now is the Son of man glorified

 

 

 

Second Half

Do you remember when the San Francisco 49ers were known for their ability to come from behind after half-time and win a football game in the second half?

 

"It seems, in fact, that, the second half of a man's life is made up of nothing but the habits he has acquired during the first half." - Fyodor Dostoevsky

As much as I love Dostoevsky, I am not buying that ... at least not for my personal collection of life artifacts.

I can see where one might make the observation and where it might be the norm. However, I want to defy it.

One must grant that the resistance to reinventing oneself is heavy and the force of habit is strong. The road to establishing new patterns of thought and practice is uphill and treacherous. But there exists such a path and one can choose to take it.

We preach resurrection hope this Sunday. That means that we do not have to be defined by inertia whether we are objects at rest or in motion.

Centrifugal force is only as strong as our commitment to break free while relying on a Power that is far greater than ourselves.

May your second half be your best.

 

As much as I love Dostoevsky, I am not buying that ... at least not for my personal collection of life artifacts.

I can see where one might make the observation and where it might be the norm. However, I want to defy it.

One must grant that the resistance to reinventing oneself is heavy and the force of habit is strong. The road to establishing new patterns of thought and practice is uphill and treacherous. But there exists such a path and one can choose to take it.

We preach resurrection hope this Sunday. That means that we do not have to be defined by inertia whether we are objects at rest or in motion.

Centrifugal force is only as strong as our commitment to break free while relying on a Power that is far greater than ourselves.

May your second half be your best.

 

Palm Sunday Reflections

 

 

Palm of Rejoicing

“ … Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.” – John 12:13

 

It was not the first time that the children of Israel had employed palms in their worship of God. During the Feast of Tabernacles, the palm was to be one of other implements for rejoicing and celebrating the goodness of God.

 

”And ye shall take you on the first day the boughs of goodly trees, branches of palm trees, and the boughs of thick trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before the LORD your God seven days.” - Leviticus 23:40

One day, the King came to Jerusalem to prepare for His crowning with a crown of thorns. One sort of tree would welcome Him. Another would suspend Him between earth and Heaven and time and eternity as the sacrifice for our sins.

 

But as He entered the city, the people welcomed Him as a hero and so He was and is.

 

Before the week could end, He would die.

 

After the Sabbath, He would rise again.

 

And then, ascended into Heaven, His people would remember the Sunday of Palms throughout the generations and even till today. We remember why He so resolutely set His face toward Jerusalem and what He would face there. We remember that He knew far more about His fate than the masses, yet He entered without hesitation or reservation.

 

We see palms again in the scriptures as history begins the process of coming to fruition. It is in Heaven that the palms are waved in rejoicing and praise. This time, no crucifixion or contradiction of sinners awaits Him. This time, He is the genuine object of the praise of those who understand fully who He is and why He came.

 

“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;”- Revelation 7:9

 

-----------------------------------------

Worship with The Fellowship of Joy

Palm Sunday, March 28, 2021

 

Jesus Did Three Things:

 

• He Portrayed a Vision of Servanthood
• He Predicted Victory as the Sovereign Savior
• He Presented Himself as the Vicarious Suffering Servant

But This Is an Emergency!

 

 

Photo by Erik Kroon on Unsplash

What is emerging from this frenzied emergency?

Is it focused action built upon predetermined objectives, rooted in enduring principles? Or is it reactive and mindless flailing after perceived winds of crisis?

Is it urgent? If so, what is the source of the urge? Is it essential? Then of what is it the essence?

Things are not always as locked in as they seem. This is the soil in which I will prayerfully dig at the crest of a new day. Perhaps I will hit bedrock and build my day on that. Perhaps I will still be digging at midnight. If so, there will be hope for a fruitful tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going for today.

God is with us as we think and that awareness lays the foundation of prayer. It is bringing God into our thoughts, though He is never far off, and thinking in concert and conversation with God. Prayer focuses us and directs us as God grounds us.

With enough prayer, we can know our urges, sort them, trust them, and be guided by them without allowing them to rule us.

With enough prayer, essentials will be discerned more clearly based upon the essence of what and who we are in relationship with Him who is eternal in nature and purpose.

With enough prayer, something enduring and purposeful will emerge from each emergency in profound contrast to the knee jerk reactive thinking of our precarious times.

With enough prayer, we will waste less time and accomplish more than we thought we could.

So, while there are no guarantees of immediate results, I am going to dig a bit in prayer, assured that the emergency is just part of the process of something being born through me and may not be what it seems on the surface.

DIG:

D = Dig for DEFINITION

If we can't name it, we can't claim it. If we can't wrap our minds around it, we need to keep seeking. Definitions must be held loosely in our hands and minds, but even a tentative definition of our issues can focus our attention on positive outcomes. It can also help us sort through the fluff that tends to dominate and waste less time, energy, and resources on lesser goals.

I = Dig for INSIGHT

Just as there may be far more dark matter in the universe than known and observable matter, there is far more that we are yet to know than we now know and far more that we will never know in this life than is possible to grasp. However, a glimmer of insight into ourselves, our times, other people, and the meaning of our circumstances through the knowledge of the Holy Other can catapult us to far better decisions today than the ones we made yesterday.

 

G = Dig for GRATITUDE

When prompted by crisis to act and act now, focus often diverts to self-interest and survival. We might be very successful at survival while utterly failing at the purpose of our survival. We have lived another day without really living at all. We have added nothing to our world. Real accomplishment is rooted in gratitude for what has been given. Gratitude is the human response to divine grace. It receives, gives, and gives thanks. It loosens our belts without letting our slacks fall to our socks. It relaxes us while it energizes us. The attitude of gratitude seasons our legitimate and holy discontent with enough flavor to make our work palatable and productive. If I am having difficulty being grateful at the beginning of this day, I just need to dig a little deeper.

-----------------------------------------------

Perhaps. the most positive response to an emergency is to dig deeper than the actual emergency and urgency of the moment and discover our longer and livelier challenge for the next lap of our race, the next phase of our journey.

Let your emergencies prompt you toward greater significance.

 

Meaning of the Moment

Photo by Grant Jacobson on Unsplash

What is the meaning of my moments and movement beyond the movement of the moment?

In Genesis, the story of Joseph crescendos with this dance he choreographs to reconnect with the brothers who dealt so treacherously with him years before.

Perhaps they have tried daily to forget, but they cannot. Nor can they know fully the pain and possibilities that were pregnant in their choices.

When Joseph "sets them up," they are confronted with a question that is deeper than the moment:

... Joseph said to them, "What deed is this that you have done?" - Genesis 44:15 

In fact, the deed they had most immediately done was none - none that would indict them. They are different men at that day than the men who sold their brother as a slave, but their transformation is not complete until the reconciliation is transacted and Joseph was confront them as much as they must be confronted ....

And they must confront the question that has ultimately brought them to this moment, "What have you done?"

It is, in the long run, a redemptive question and it is ours. It is mine? What is the meaning of my moments and movement beyond the movement of the moment?

What is the meaning of my life in an honest and full assessment of my life?

What would it mean apart from redemption?

What does it mean in the light of redemption?

This is our moment for reflection.

------------------------------------------

May this be your day!

You may not realize it, but all your life, you've been waiting for this day.

 

It may be after 4 PM where you are, or after 7 if you are elsewhere, but whatever the time of day, this is still, the day for which you have been waiting and preparing your whole life and ....

... the good news is ...

 

You can play this again tomorrow and ...

 

... IT WILL STILL BE TRUE!

 

 

Born in Dying

"It is in dying that we are born to eternal life." - Prayer of St. Francis

 

So, let me die today and die daily.

 

There is nothing in my instincts to pray such a prayer.

But then, there is nothing in my instinctual drive to cling ...

... to extinct-ual or

... extinguishable

"living" that

lives beyond the moment.

 

I pray to resist that drive, that urge, that urgency to

survive that

extinguishes life.

 

Some day, that will mean laying down my body, but,

today it means ...

laying down this body of sin,

of self,

of sensual necessity that says,

"I am thee," but

is not me.

 

Nor is it Thee in me, Oh God who knows

and gives

and lives

in and through

all who die this way.

 

I prayed, "Kill me," and

Thou didst not...

and would not.

 

You said, "Just die and live," and

I tried it and I did and there You were!

 

You handed me a cross and said,

"Go carry it."

 

And I asked, "What is it?"

And You said,

"It is the pain and suffering and pain and disgust,

and ugliness, and bad choices, and bitter gall,

and nasty words, thoughts, and accusations,

and hateful hurts of those You will meet today."

 

And I said, "Why should I?"

 

And You said, "Because I did and do and you said that

You wanted to follow me and this is what we carry."

 

And I said, "The burden is too heavy."

 

And You said, "I know."

 

And I asked, "So?"

 

And You said, "Go ... I am with you."

 

And so ...

 

I did ... at least that day and then I asked,

"What do I do with them?"

 

And You said, "Bring them to me,"

 

and I replied, "But You already have all of these,"

 

and You said, "Mind Your own business, I've got it handled."

 

I said. "OK, You are the Master,"

 

and You smiled and said, "I know."

 

Master, this really feels and lot like living and You said,

"I know. I told you so. What you though was living,

was not.

 

It distorts your view because the lens is sprinkled with mirrors

always pointing back at you and

seeing life and events and people from

ego and self-interest and it is not in your

self-interest to be

that interested in yourself.

 

Deadsville!

 

Die to Deadsville and live!"

 

In so many words.

 

And so, Lord, I die today,

I nail Deadsville and my citizenship there with all my credentials and investments to

Your cross.

 

Thanks for my cross. It fits me.

 

I sort of like it.

 

I know I love this new life You have given me and

I really love these people You keep bringing into my life.

 

Help me to bear their burdens until I can get them to You and

Thank You for bearing them and mine.

I am starting to get it ...

It is in dying that we are born

To eternal life.

 

I look forward to seeing You face to face some day,

When I have laid down this body of flesh and this cross.

Thanks for the invitation and for paying the admission price.

 

Thank You, my Jesus,

My Lord, my Savior, my Friend, and My Brother,

 

Amen.

 

 

Prayer is a deep spiritual mystery.

 

Mutual communication with God is going on far beneath the surface of our lives. Not only do we often not know what to pray, we often know not what we are praying.

 

This is not said that we might disengage our minds, but that, with engagement, we might also release our spirits to commune with the Holy Spirit who knows, overcomes, and even uses our weaknesses in prayer even as He does in our outward lives.

 

" Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God." -Romans 8:26-27 (ESV)

Keep On! Keep On!

 

The key to not throwing in the towel and quitting on your dream may be as simple as one simple action following a decisive choice.

Decide to do something and then, do something.

In so doing, you will have taken a step. You will have closed the gap between inaction and action and you will have stayed in the ball game for one more inning.

You are staying alive. Sometimes staying alive to fight another day is enough. It's called, "hanging on."

"When you come to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on. " Franklin D. Roosevelt

KEEP ON.

The opposite of keeping on is not so much turning off as it is neglect. “Keep” suggests vigilance and attention. "On" is certainly across the chart from "off", but the pathway to off is inattention. It is not taking the next step of vigilance.

KEEP ON KEEPING ON!

Pace yourself, relax, give yourself a break, but do something for your business or ministry today. Do it consciously and give yourself credit for it. You may fail. When you do, keep this in mind:

"When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time.""
- Author Unknown

"Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. " - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” – Romans 15:13 (New International Version)

The pathway of perseverance may not always be dramatic action or massive results, but it will always involve a choice and a response. On that pathway, there is hope. Where there is hope there is joy. Where there is joy, there is energy.  God is the source, but if we are not open to trusting, we will dam the source of our power. The keep on we must move forward.

KEEP
______

K – Kinesthetic

The Free Dictionary  defines this as “The sense that detects bodily position, weight, or movement of the muscles, tendons, and joints.” Applied to learning of behaviors it is about doing a behavior until it becomes a part of our lives. Some people call this habit formation. Keeping on involves developing behavioral patterns that become a natural part of our lives.  Trusting is often manifested in touching. Touch your dream; touch the project; touch the challenge. Keep your hands on what you are keeping on.

TOUCH YOUR DREAM!

Touch it with your TIME - Spend time thinking of the desired outcomes. When you are tired from the task, take time to think about why you are doing what you are doing.

Touch it with your OPTIMISM -  Peak to yourself and others with wholesome, uplifting, and optimistic words and ideas. Ephesians 4:29 (New International Version) reminds us:

"Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful  for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen."

Touch it with your UNDERSTANDING - Be a student of your mission, dream, and vision. Study it with a passion to learn and grasp the reality in your mind. Get details and concepts. Mull them over and over. Become an expert on your own life mission.

Touch in in COMMUNITY - Stand alone and fall. Stand with others and you keep standing. One of the easiest ways to fall into discouragement and loss of vision is to disassociate ourselves from positive people who build us up. Hang around some people who are on the road to making it and some who have almost . Associate with people who can serve as role models so you can see the fruit on the tree. Talk and listen to people who consistently say, "I can" and keep those who "can't" in the periphery of your circle of influence or outside it altogether. This is one of the inherent geniuses of network marketing and of the church.

Touch it with HOPE - Never lose hope. Always keep hope alive. This is the Spirit's function in your life.

E – Enthusiasm

Literally, from the Latin, enthusiasm mean having God within us. You must remain enthusiastic and nurture the spark of life and passion within you even when you are emotionally and physically drained. That requires connecting to God’s power at the very depth of your being, His Spirit within you. It takes faith and lots of it.

Paul's prayer for the Romans was based upon the reality of their relationship with God and he trusts that God is in them through the Holy Spirit and that God has the capacity to fill them with these qualities.

The person who experience real enthusiasm would be advised to make the dreams and goals of his or her life matters of intense and satisfying prayer - not only when thinking about the outcomes, but when strength is needed for the daily grind.

God is present and God will help and renew your enthusiasm

E - Elevate

There is much to elevate. Elevate your feet a bit for one thing; take a load off and relax.  You must also elevate your mission in your own thinking. Elevate the importance of what you are doing in your own thinking.

Dale Carnegie said,

“Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs.  Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger.  If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves. "

And never feel ashamed of who YOU are. You are a person of significance. Never let anyone make you feel small because of your dreams or life mission :

"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." - Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss)

P – Persevere

Press on with consistency and commitment. It is all in the PRESS.

Press on with the POWER of God. Apart from that power, we do not have the strength to press anything. Press without stress.

Press on with RESOLVE - Sing with the old spiritual, "A'int nobody gonna turn me 'round." Press or regress.

Press on with ENERGY - Energy is a strange thing. If you don't use it, you don't conserve it. You lose it. If you're not pressed, you'll get depressed.

Press on with SINCERITY - Have a sincere and purposeful focus at all times. We will scatter without sincere and pure goals. Press or digress.\

Press with SUCCESS - The real success is in the journey. Press toward success.

President Calvin Coolidge said,

“Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence.  Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent.  Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.  Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.  Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.  The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

ON
___

O – Orientation 

The scriptures point us to a righteous life. Righteousness is about right relationships, especially about being rightly related to God and about moving in the right direction. Check your compass spiritually and in every other dimension of life and makes sure that your movement is oriented toward your goal. You are on a path. You are not at your desitination. Don't judge yourself by where you are, but by progress and vision. Orient yourself in the direction of God's best for your life and keep on keeping on - even if today's step is a baby step.

Ella Fitzgerald said,

"It isn't where you came from, its where you're going that counts."

N – NEVER

Never quit. Create momentum in your life by simply not quitting. Make that a decision and even if you can ‘t do much, do something. Perfectionism is not your friend. It will whisper in your ear that because you are not the best yet, there is no point. Don’t listen. Listen instead to Sir Winston Churchill:

“Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never - in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense”

There will be some setbacks and step backs. There will be some mistakes and failures. Never mind them.

You were made for a purpose. Keep on keeping on.

___________________________________________

Bonus Quotes on Perseverance

Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish. – John Quincy Adams

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties

It is the curse of talent that, although it labors with greater steadiness and perseverance than genius, it does not reach its goal, while genius already on the summit of the ideal, gazes laughingly about.  – Robert A. Schumann

Perseverance is more prevailing than violence; and many things which cannot be overcome when they are together, yield themselves up when taken little by little.  - Plutarch

 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. (Ephesians 6:18)

 Genius is divine perseverance. Genius I cannot claim nor even extra brightness but perseverance all can have.  – Woodrow Wilson

 

 

Fears Relieved

 

And Grace, My Fears Relieved

 

"And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last …" Revelation 1:17

 

"For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father." – Romans 8:15

 

It is not enough to learn to fear. Once we have learned the hard lesson of reverence, grace relieves our fears and comforts our troubled, weary souls.

 

First, we fall as dead before His magnificence; then He touches us in compassion and commands us to fear not.

 

First, we go down into Egypt and experience bondage. There we learn to know Him, and, in the wilderness, we learn His Name. We are slaves to sin and then to the law, but we are redeemed and released. And we are adopted. And in that adoption, we learn to cry, “Abba.”

 

Bondage brings fear and God uses the bondage of the law as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. Bondage informs us of what we are missing because our longings become the pangs of want. Somewhere in the process of learning fear, we come to grips with the deepest desire of our hearts. If we are honest and open, we realize that our desire is for God who alone can meet our needs and grant us redemption and freedom.

 

Grace taught my heart to fear, and my fears relieved many years ago. Yet, I must return to that turning point again and again, sometimes in the singing of the song of Amazing Grace. There I remember. In that moment, I give thanks. In those chords I am realigned with his purposes communicated through His loving kindness which is better than life.

 

Grace, my fears relieved. I cannot begin to describe the relief, the pure, sure calm that has come over my soul. That can be yours as well.

 

Daddy

 

"... ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father."-Romans 8:15

 

Little Sarah was only three years old. All day long, she had been home doing what little girls do. But as the sun began to go down and the smell of hot rolls filled the house, her tiny heart began to sing with anticipation. She knew that evening meant one thing. He daddy would soon walk through the door. The love of her life would come home from a hard day at work, and she would run to meet him, jump in his arms, and be embraced with joy and love.

 

"Daddy, I missed you," she would exclaim. "You’re finally home! I'm so glad you are here."

 

At that, her father's heart would melt.

 

The Spirit of God invites us to pray as Jesus prayed, Abba, or Daddy. We are drawn into a relationship of warmth, acceptance, and love with our Heavenly Father. Those of us who have enjoyed such relationships with our earthly fathers have a glimpse of what our relationship with God can be. Those of us who have not had such relationships can take comfort in the knowledge of His absolute love and unbridled joy when we call out to Him and jump into His arms.

 

What Is Required?

 

My tribe has a checkered history with forced conversions, violent power-grabbing, and militaristic exercise of religious dominance.

To deny that is to deny history. To not care is to ignore scripture.

We are flawed in our common humanity and sin with a lust for power that we are willing to exercise with violence and coercion.

Our religions, no matter how legitimate or illegitimate can be illegitimately co-opted as an excuse for that power-lust and every evil methodology we can muster to acquire what we want and think we deserve.

At the moment, the world is experiencing an extreme and frightening expression and demonstration of this. It is not the first in history and probably will not be the last. Everyone has a different name for it and the names are debated, but it is all one thing throughout history.

There are political and military battles that shall be waged, but the most important battle is unseen; it is timeless; it is the most real. It is waged in the secret place of prayer, the public place of speaking truth in love, and the relational place of living the life of faith to which we have been called - to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God.

 

PS - Win a High Five by Finding the Spelling Error

Peace, Be Still

 

 

Peace in the Valley - Photo by Blogger from the Galilee Region of Israel

 

To be for peace is a choice and not always an easy choice. Surrounded by war cries and hostilities, the voices calling for calm are often muffled and maligned.

 

Dissonant is the music of the drumbeats. Thunderous is the rhythm of the boots upon the ground marching forth to battle for land, for prestige, for power, for dominance, for supremacy, and for wealth.

 

It may bring all forms of harsh criticism and your motives may be questioned if you advocate for peace.

 

At best, you may be considered unrealistic. At worse, you may be accused of disloyalty.

 

" Woe to me, that I sojourn in Meshech,

that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!

Too long have I had my dwelling

among those who hate peace.

I am for peace,

but when I speak, they are for war!"

Psalm 120:5-7 (ESV)

 

A sure way to invoke the wrath of those who are for war is to be for peace.

 

It will take all of your prayer and strength not to break with your resolve, not to lash out, and not to wish ill upon your tormentors for their anger can be strong and their condemnation can be chilling. But you have your marching orders from a higher commander and you are declared to be blessed by the Prince of Peace.

 

 

"Peace! Be still!"
- Mark 4:39

Lots of trouble in the world ...
Lots of turmoil ...
Soil of fear ...
Toil of tears ...
But my soul can be still,
...Sided with by the One who walks beside.

When I cried, He heard.
When I sighed, He spoke the Word.
Nothing has changed.
I am not shaken.
These are days of grace. - Tom Sims

Be Still, My Soul
(The melody is Finlandia by Sibelius, and the words are translated from the German work of Catharina von Schlegel, a Lutheran who wrote during the Pietist period of the 18th century.)

Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heavenly, Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

 

 

Who Do You Tell?

 

When people tell me that they have an issue with God, sometimes a complaint, sometimes real anger, I often ask, "Have you discussed it with God? Have you told God how you feel?"

"I could not do that," they might respond.

"Why not?" I ask.

"I am afraid to do that. God might get angry back at me."

Not so, not for that. God's anger is what we experience when we resist the fierceness of unrelenting love. We are in a storm and we can ride the storm or wage war against the storm, but we cannot ignore the storm.

Jeremiah, like the psalmist, invites us into the arena of honest prayer where we wrestle with ourselves and speak honestly with God. He prays throughout the book his scribe recorded. It is not always pretty, but often comes to this:

" I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself,
that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
Correct me, O LORD, but in justice;
not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing."
- Jeremiah 10:23-24 (ESV)

He puts it out there and is willing to be corrected. He trusts God that God can correct Him in justice and not in anger.

I want to be corrected. Don't you? Why would I ever want to continue in a course of unproductive, destructive thinking or behavior? I want to be set upon the right track. My days, like yours, are numbered and I want them to count.

Looking back a few verses, he prays the prayer of as disillusioned man:

" Woe is me because of my hurt!
My wound is grievous.
But I said, “Truly this is an affliction,
and I must bear it.”
My tent is destroyed,
and all my cords are broken;
my children have gone from me,
and they are not;
there is no one to spread my tent again
and to set up my curtains.
For the shepherds are stupid
and do not inquire of the LORD;
therefore they have not prospered,
and all their flock is scattered." - Jeremiah 10:19-21 (ESV)

Prayer is a process. Indeed we pray with the news around us in one hand and the Bible in the other and we are shaped by our dialogue with One who hears and cares.
Whatever you feel, pray.

-----------
I hope you're getting a little something you can use today, friends, a little something to gladden your souls for God today. Scroll for that goal - for your soul. Pass by the negative and land on those words that build and lift and then, share them!
-----------

Our deepest desires lead us and draw us into His presence to discover that His presence has already surrounded us.

Self-talk/God-talk - Dialogue/Trialogue -Interactive

It becomes unclear sometimes in the cycle of the central verse who is speaking because the WORD is embedded in each word and even the longing complaint of the heart is met with the reassuring comfort of the Presence.

It is especially evident when we pray,

"Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God."

This is our song when we are preparing our hearts to come before God and discover that God is already with us.

Our panting turmoil does not go unheard. Hear and pray with the Sons of Korah:

"Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?"

"To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah."

"As a deer pants for flowing streams,
so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food
day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,

“Where is your God?”
These things I remember,
as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
a multitude keeping festival."
"Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God."
"My soul is cast down within me;
therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
from Mount Mizar."
-Psalm 42:1-6 (ESV)

 

 

 

Smiling Jesus

 

Click to order from Fine Art America - Art by Steve Gamba

What the gospel writers did not and, sometimes, could not record, but first century readers knew, was the smile on Jesus' face, the chuckle in his voice, and the irony in his words as he provoked the faith response of an unlikely faith-heroine, and opened the ears of the deaf man with spit. Jesus was dramatic because drama drives home more than didactic teaching can communicate.

Grace is a very, very big deal.

Speaking of grace, there is grace that is specifically designed for our hours of deepest trial.

Few things happen TO us. Many things that happen do involve us. Most of those things provide and opportunity for us to step out of our subjective skin, look on, and learn from that character that looks like us and wears our skin.

If i am going to be ready to receive grace, I must prepare myself.

Three things I must do in the morning if nothing else (Psalm 5:3):

• Make my voice heard before God.
• Lay my requests before God.
• Wait expectantly before God.

Which of these three is the greatest challenge for you? Which brings you the greatest joy?

When we are open to grace, I believe that brings a smile to Jesus' face.

 

 

Good Grief

 

 

Photo by K. Mitch Hodge on Unsplash

Did you ever wonder where the term, "good grief" came from?

Some might ask, "What so good about grief?"

Those of us who have studied thanatology (the study of death and related issues) and have served the dying and those they leave behind might be able to talk around this subject.

Those who have experienced grief and healing through grief and morning can speak with even deeper insight.

One day, actually his last day on earth, I visited a friend and asked him, "Are you in pain?"

He replied, "Yes. But good pain."

Go ahead and scratch your heads, but since he was communicating with me verbally and nonverbally, I got it. It made perfect sense.

Some varieties and depths of goodness do not come easily into our lives, but when they do come, they take deep and authentic root into our broken soils and produce fruit that is sometimes bittersweet, but oh, so nourishing.

Good grief!

 

 

 

It Costs Too Much

What will it cost for you to be your best you?

Everything of value costs something.

We can think of endless excuses to procrastinate, obstinate, and prevaricate. We'll do anything but drop whatever we are doing and change directions.

It is a control issue - we want to be in control.

Mostly, we want to add - faith and devotion to whatever else we cling to in life.

But diving into our life purpose is not an "add-on" to our lives. It is a new center of existence and a new direction for everything. Everything passes through the filter or this new commitment.

It costs everything.

I was ruminating over all this some years ago as I heard the report on NPR that 38 people had died over the weekend in bombs designed to disrupt the elections in Iraq.

In spite of this, and, by some reports, because of it, record numbers of people came out to vote - defying the threats. Some died.

Sometimes we have a hard time trying to get people to show up in this country when it costs us nothing.

I wonder - If it is too cheap, do we lose any sense of the value of it?

 

 

Stand in the Gate

“Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.” - Jeremiah 7:2

Hear the Word of the LORD!

All over the world, on a typical Sunday, when there are no quarantines, millions of souls will enter through the doors of houses of worship. Most of them will be greeted by some unsung hero who stands in the doorway and hands them a worship folder. They will receive a smile, a handshake, and a greeting.

Later, someone will rise to the platform and utter words like, “Welcome to worship!”

There will be a call to worship, a prayer of invocation seeking the presence of God, and a song of praise exalting the Lord. At some point, someone will rise to read from the scriptures and may declare these words of the psalmist, “Hear the Word of the LORD.”

Are you ready to hear?

Are you ready to act on what you hear?

When we enter the gates of God’s house whether at home, at church, or in nature, it is the readiness of our hearts that determines whether or not we truly hear what God has to say. It is as much a matter of choice as our willingness to receive a good meal.

The extent to which we hear, internalize, and are changed by scripture depends more on our receptivity than on anyone’s delivery.

As you sit and prepare for worship and for hearing the Word of the Lord this morning, willingly make yourself available to God for what He has to say to you.

For those who would hear that word through Jeremiah, it would be an indictment against the incongruence in their lives between what that professed with their mouths and what they possessed in their lifestyles. They came to the Temple to reinforce a false narrative of their own security.

Fort those who would hear the words of Paul, it would be a call to genuine faith. He admonished them to draw a distinction between outward forms and reminders of true worship and the inward experience of grace.

Jesus would speak at the Temple about hypocrisy, inconsistency, and Messianic hope.

The psalmist would lead a song of praise and prayer calling on God to restore His people.

To each of these voices would be afforded a listening ear and a response of one kind or another.

Say with Samuel of old, “Speak, Lord, for Thy servant heareth.”

But I Can't Do It.

`The Seldom Heard Encouraging Word

YOU CAN!

 

Photo by congy yuan on Unsplash

Here is the progression:

I can't. 

mutter it to myself.

I start.

I keep going.

I keep going.

I mutter.

I keep going.

I do it.

It's done.

I announce that I can't do it.

I grin.

I start something else.

You can do this.

 

 

What Is Challenging You Today?

The Challenge Today

Perhaps you'd like for me to tell you what it is, this challenge of today - the big one, the definitive one, the one that, if you conquer it, you conquer everything.

Perhaps you want it, but you are unlikely to get it ... not from me ... not from any who tell you they can deliver it ...

Because we don't really know.

I don't know what your big challenge is today. I could boil it down a bit to some vague, pontifical essence, but that would merely cloud the specifics in a haze of philosophical esoterica.

What you are facing is here and now, pressing, and guttural. It is your tailor made challenge. There are some enduring answers, but without framing your questions, you will not be able to apply them with any finesse. 

I predict that you will know what to do with your challenges as you prayerfully and conscientiously consider them, address them, embrace them, and act to respond to them. I predict this because your whole life has been a preparation for this day and the challenges of this day. You possess a unique blend of human and divine resources that God has brought into your life. 

You will know what to do with those resources at the right time.

When you do, I believe you will have the courage to exercise them and that is my prayer, hope, and belief for you.

 

Photo Credit -  Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash

 

Now, here is a challenge, or just some fun!!!

 

Perhaps you'd like for me to tell you what it is, this challenge of today - the big one, the definitive one, the one that, if you conquer it, you conquer everything.

Perhaps you want it, but you are unlikely to get it ... not from me ... not from any who tell you they can deliver it ...

Because we don't really know.

I don't know what your big challenge is today. I could boil it down a bit to some vague, pontifical essence, but that would merely cloud the specifics in a haze of philosophical esoterica.

What you are facing is here and now, pressing, and guttural. It is your tailor made challenge. There are some enduring answers, but without framing your questions, you will not be able to apply them with any finesse. 

I predict that you will know what to do with your challenges as you prayerfully and conscientiously consider them, address them, embrace them, and act to respond to them. I predict this because your whole life has been a preparation for this day and the challenges of this day. You possess a unique blend of human and divine resources that God has brought into your life. 

You will know what to do with those resources at the right time.

When you do, I believe you will have the courage to exercise them and that is my prayer, hope, and belief for you.

 

Photo Credit -  Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash

 

Now, here is a challenge, or just some fun!!!

Bible Chat 3-4-2021

 

 

 

What if you lost a day, a month, a year, or more?

 

Simple answer? You start where you are now and start over ... or resume where you left off.

 

Life can be tricky. Life is always a challenge if you fully embrace it and if you lean fully into it. Here are some meditations on challenging times.

 

 

 

You may be moving into some new, unknown, precarious, and frightening territory in your life. You are proceeding with caution and trepidation. It is a place where you must go, but you do not know the terrain or the hidden agendas of these new days ... All you know is Who is with you and leading you ...

... and that is enough.

" And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, 'Jacob, Jacob.' And he said,'Here I am.' Then he said, 'I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes.'"

"Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him." - Genesis 46:2-5 (ESV)

It was all the assurance that Jacob needed to set out and follow. 

 

It is all we need.

 

God bless you in your NEW journey ... for each day is a NEW JOURNEY!

 

 

A few years ago, I was preparing a message on judgment when I was struck with a surprise - It was a message of hope.

 

--- Even when there are no signs of life in the tree, the Gardener gives another year --- and lovingly tends the tree to eke out the life that no one else sees but He still believes may be there.

 

In a message of judgment and destruction, imagine this main message is: God still believes in you.

You might consider returning the favor!

 

We have rights and prerogatives that we do not exercise. We are free to do so, but we are also free to let them go because our loyalty, our values, our marching orders, indeed, our very purpose for existence is focused on something higher and better than our comforts.

 

We set aside our preferences for the good of others because that good is in the heart of the One to whom we have pledged our total loyalty --- to love whom He loves and to care about the desires of His heart until they become the desires of our hearts as well.

 

" If others share this rightful claim on you, do not we even more?"

 

"Nevertheless, we have not made use of this right, but we endure anything rather than put an obstacle in the way of the gospel of Christ." - 1 Corinthians 9:12 (ESV)

 

 

In times of decline, we seek the Divine Incline.
Perceived or received, something declines for us,
And lofty edifices of our pride sink low.
Yet we ...
The "we" that is truly "us ..."
Shall not decline His inclination toward restoration.
Poor and needy
When greedy fires are consuming the underbrush of our lives,
From hesitation to preservation, His salvation
Rescues our souls.
From sadness to gladness we are lifted,
By grace, gifted ...
For God is good! In this we have stood!
God is forgiving! Thus, our living!
God is abounding in covenant love!
Chesed!
Give ear, Oh Lord.
Give Your full attention and intervention
To our plea for grace!
"Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound!"
It is the day of trouble ...
For me ...
For many ...
We stand upon the precipice.
We cry for mercy.
Oh LORD, answer, please.

"Incline your ear, O LORD, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
Preserve my life, for I am godly;
save your servant, who trusts in you—you are my God.
Be gracious to me, O Lord,
for to you do I cry all the day.
Gladden the soul of your servant,
for to you, O Lord, do I lift up my soul.
For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving,
abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon you.
Give ear, O LORD, to my prayer;
listen to my plea for grace.
In the day of my trouble I call upon you,
for you answer me." - Psalm 86:1-7 (ESV)

 

 

We flinch against a new norm that normalizes the tendency to exchange value for worthless pursuits. Thus is the description of idolatry. On one hand is a God who is a fount of fresh, cool water and, on the other, leaking cisterns.

 

And we gravitate toward the leaky novelties.

" Be appalled, O heavens, at this;

be shocked, be utterly desolate, declares the LORD,

for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living waters,

and hewed out cisterns for themselves,

broken cisterns that can hold no water." - Jeremiah 2:12-13 (ESV)

 

 

Consider reordering your priorities so that you measure your success more on the basis of how you help others with your success that on how you achieve your own goals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Proud Teacher Moments

Photo by Sam Moqadam on Unsplash

 

Welcome to Life Gym.

 

We are all here as students, building mental, spiritual. emotional, and physical muscle.

 

We are also here as coaches and teachers.

 

As teachers and coaches, we will rejoice to see our proteges pass us by and leave us in the dust.

 

It strikes me as true that any great teacher would love for it to be the testimony of a student that ...

 

"I have more understanding than all my teachers, for your testimonies are my meditation." - Psalm 119:99  (ESV).

 

May misplaced ego never get in the way of me sharing the wonders of Truth and letting Truth work in the hearts of my students to take them farther and deeper than I could ever go.

 

Speaking in a specific context, Paul lands on a very general and abiding principle:

 

"Now concerning .... [the subject at hand] ... we know that 'all of us possess knowledge.' This 'knowledge' puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone loves God, he is known by God." - 1 Corinthians 8:1-3 (ESV)

Are we:

 

Puffed up or Built up?

 

As we commit ourselves to building up others, we will find ourselves built up in the ways that truly matter.

 

 

 

Meme Me - Collected Shorts from My Feeds by Me

 

GIVING AND RECEIVING

“…without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers; Making request, if by any means now at length I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God to come unto you. For I long to see you, that I may impart unto you some spiritual gift, to the end ye may be    But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto thee. For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.” - Romans 1:9-11; 15:24-26

To what extent would Paul travel to impart a spiritual gift and receive a material gift for others? The answer is that he would make great sacrifices and suffer untold hardships to be a vessel of giving. To impart a spiritual gift enriched the lives of those receiving the gift. But it also enriched the life of the church.

Receiving a monetary gift would enrich the church at large. But it would also bless the giver and the recipient of the gift. Paul himself would be encouraged by the opportunity to participate in this process.

When true Spirit-filled, God-directed giving takes place, no one loses, and everyone gains.  In the tangible expressions of our submission to God there is no subtraction, only multiplication.

To view life this way requires that we step out of ourselves and understand our significance as part of something larger than our own interests.

We must deny ourselves to the extent that our hopes, dreams, and preferences are of lesser importance than the Kingdom of God.

From whence comes such a radical attitude?

It comes from the place of prayer where we learn to say, “the will of God” with deep reverence and joyous anticipation.

It comes from the exercise of His presence in devotion and contemplation of His Word.

It comes from earnest seeking in the closet of solitude where He changes our heartbeat to pulsate with His own rhythm.

In short, the attitude that embraces the twin Christian graces of giving and receiving comes from God Himself.

Wouldn't you love to hear that actual tune, "A Dove on Distant Oaks?"

 

Some things will just have to wait.

 

Make your own tune and make it a heart song.

 

"When I am afraid, I put my trust in you...

What can mere mortals do to me?"

 

Psalm 56

New International Version

 

For the director of music. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” Of David.

A miktam. When the Philistines had seized him in Gath.

 

Be merciful to me, my God,

for my enemies are in hot pursuit;

all day long they press their attack.

My adversaries pursue me all day long;

in their pride many are attacking me.

 

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

In God, whose word I praise—

in God I trust and am not afraid.

What can mere mortals do to me?

 

All day long they twist my words;

all their schemes are for my ruin.

They conspire, they lurk,

they watch my steps,

hoping to take my life.

 

Because of their wickedness do not let them escape;

in your anger, God, bring the nations down.

Record my misery;

list my tears on your scroll—

are they not in your record?

Then my enemies will turn back

when I call for help.

 

By this I will know that God is for me.

In God, whose word I praise,

in the Lord, whose word I praise—

in God I trust and am not afraid.

What can man do to me?

I am under vows to you, my God;

I will present my thank offerings to you.

For you have delivered me from death

and my feet from stumbling,

that I may walk before God

in the light of life.

 

 

Word of the Day Poem - Deference

For February 28-29 (Should It Ever Come)

 

I would defer to the word of tomorrow

But I must report, that much to my sorrow

Such deference to reference a day that won't be

Is lost in torrents of a bottomless sea.

This twenty-eighth day of month number two

Is the last of it's kind and that's bad news for you

If you had planned to get done some task incomplete

In this month of February, you'll go down in defeat.

It's over my friend, finished, exhausted

And your goose is cooked, completely defrosted.

Tomorrow is March and the year marches on

The best you can hope for is a new start next dawn.

But I will show deference to all who forgot

And congratulate all who somehow did not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lamenting over the magnitude of injustice, oppression, and wickedness was leading the troubadour to despair. He recounts the agonizing moments that were not left to dangle in meaningless resignation and then, he declares ...

 

" ...But when I thought how to understand this,

it seemed to me a wearisome task,

until I went into the sanctuary of God;

then I discerned their end."

(Psalm 73:15-17 ESV)

 

" When my soul was embittered,

when I was pricked in heart,

I was brutish and ignorant;

I was like a beast toward you."

"Nevertheless, I am continually with you;

you hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel,

and afterward you will receive me to glory.

Whom have I in heaven but you?

And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.

My flesh and my heart may fail,

but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

(Psalm 73:21-26 ESV)

 

I am almost caught up now. A few more and I will be.

 

 

 

 

 

Song of the Forsaken

 

Psalm 22:1-8 in the St. Albans Psalter. The first words of the Psalm in the Latin Vulgate are "Deus, Deus meus," abbreviated here as DS DS MS.

 

Psalm 22:1 - My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?

We have the retrospective luxury of knowing the messianic significance of this psalm in. It is messianic because the Messiah took these words to the cross as He identified with the sinfulness and despair that were already resident in humanity. He expressed the root of our hopelessness: abandonment - the awful sense that the God whom we ourselves have forsaken has forsaken us. To be separate from God is to be isolated and alone. It is the very terror of the night and it is the chief horror of the cross, which Jesus bore for us that this statement might never need to be ours again.

Psalm 22:2 - O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent.

It is the hallmark of persistent prayer that it perseveres in silence. It is neither required nor assured that the believer will always “sense” the presence of God. What is called for is that we will remain faithful and not be silent when God is silent. In fact, God is not quieted. He is merely speaking on a frequency that we are not, at some given point in time, receiving. Keep praying – even amidst despair and doubt. Faith is found in the persistence and assurance and awareness emerge from the process. No matter how you feel about life, yourself, God, or others today, pray on!

Psalm 22:3 - Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One; you are the praise of Israel.

Immediately, our of dark despair, the worship leader of the psalms teaches us what drives persistent pray: It is the knowledge of the Holy One who is Other than us, enthroned, exalted, and worthy of praise. God does not need to earn our faithfulness in prayer and praise by making regular payments of blessings to our accounts. The starting point is that praise is due Him because He is the praise of Israel and the United States, the world, and the universe. If we can but come to some understanding that God is God no matter what we think or feel, we will begin to become messianic people.

Psalm 22:4 - In you our fathers put their trust; they trusted and you delivered them.

History is an anchor that stabilizes faith by reminding us that God can and does act to deliver His people. He, who never changes, takes a personal interest in those who trust in Him. He is a faithful God. We can count on Him to do again what He has done before. The heritage we receive from our believing fathers and mothers is a legacy we must pass on to our own children. It is an intergenerational gift that passes through our hands. Take courage from the experience of others, but never let that experience substitute for one of your own relationship with God. Build on their stories.

Psalm 22:5 - They cried to you and were saved; in you they trusted and were not disappointed.

What was it that our fathers did that brought them into the experience of God’s deliverance? It was very little and very much. It was very little of human effort or initiative. However, it was a great expression of faith in two parts. First, their attitude was one of trust – that resolute act of resting on God’s grace. Second, the volitional action was crying out for mercy, help, and salvation in desperate resignation. We who scatter ourselves about in frantic frenzies of futile flailing exclaim, “Is that all? It can’t be!” It is. Unless it becomes that alone, nothing we DO matters. Only God saves.

Psalm 22:6 - But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by the people.

Maybe today is your worm day. You have adopted the vision of yourself that you perceive others to have of you. You have resigned to the world, the rather than to God. It has become vitally important to you what others think of you and you are devastated. If, at any time, you allow yourself to be defined by others or even yourself, you will be depressed. Jesus identified with our struggles to understand self but overcame the temptation through a strong sense of who He was in relationship with His Father. We have the same mirror to our souls available, filtered by grace and the love of God.

Psalm 22:7 - All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

Consider Jesus today as you evaluate the evaluations of others and deflect their insults. Rather than lash out in reactionary anger or retreat in despondent silence, look to Him who endured. He was never shaken within by the opinions of people. He never lost His sense of standing with the Father or His assurance of His mission. He did not come down off the cross, nor can we. Our lives are nailed there and our identity is securely fastened to His. Bathe in His love and acceptance when friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers mock your motives. You are cherished by Him.

Psalm 22:8 – "He trusts in the LORD; let the LORD rescue him. Let him deliver him, since he delights in him."

You can expect to be attacked in that area where you are most vulnerable – your faith. The world will taunt you with that which troubles you most within – the nagging suspicion that God will not come through for you. This is the real test of faith whether the taunts come from within or without: Can you withstand them and find your trust deepened? Your lips may declare firm belief that God can deliver you from and through any trial, but do you believe it for this current trial? The answer is that faith is, also, a gift delivered amidst fire. Receive it today in your present circumstances.

Psalm 22:9 - Yet you brought me out of the womb; you made me trust in you even at my mother's breast.

We started with a capacity to trust God because we had no other choice. As we experienced autonomy and choice, we chose to go our own ways as did our first father and mother. But the starting place was childlike trust. It is our first and greatest capacity and our one and only connector to God within our souls. It is the essence of the image of God within us - the plug through which He reconnects us in relationship within by His mercy, grace, and love. When we first chose to sin, we pulled the plug by trusting ourselves. Let God revive your trust today and choose to trust Him.

Psalm 22:10 - From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother's womb you have been my God.

This is the psalm of the cross, which our Master chose to identify with us as He bore our sins. There were three great acts of emptying in His earthly life. The first was His birth. He divested Himself of all His self-sufficiency as God and became dependent upon God –even in Mary’s womb. The second was His baptism-temptation where He conspicuously stood in the place of sinners to face every life temptation and overcome only by the power of the Spirit and the Word. Finally, the cross – and there, He remembered who He was and who He trusted. We must trust God also.

Psalm 22:11 - Do not be far from me, for trouble is near and there is no one to help.

You will find yourself in circumstances, as did our Lord, where there are no solutions, alternatives, or assistance. There is no one and nothing to help. You are empty and alone. You cannot even depend upon yourself because your resources are depleted and your energy is sapped. You can presume nothing in that moment. No one hears your plea but God and your only non-negotiable request is that He remains near you. That is a powerful place in our lives. We cannot go on spiritually until we have been there. Embrace it and from that place, call upon God. You will find Him all-sufficient.

Psalm 22:12 - Many bulls surround me; strong bulls of Bashan encircle me.

The imagery may not be familiar, but it takes little imagination to see the precarious nature of these circumstances. What are yours? The idea of bulls surrounding you does not bring to mind the thought of a passive environment with benign enemies. These are angry bulls, poised for attack. They are frightening and intimidating and they can do you great physical harm. But they cannot touch your soul. Only you and God know the depths of the battle you are in, but know this: Jesus was there on the cross and He is with you now.

Psalm 22:13 - Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths wide against me.

You can see the lions devouring their prey and their eyes are now on you. You envision yourself being eaten alive by the forces within you and outside you that attack without mercy. It is a helpless feeling. Jesus experienced it fully on the cross. He placed Himself in that position willingly. He emptied Himself and “became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” We cannot choose our end, nor can we know if this crisis is our end, but we can know God in the midst of it and trust in Him. There is no lion, no problem, no weapon of Satan that can defeat God or destroy His child.

Psalm 22:14 – I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me.

What do you trust in a practical way to make it through the day? Do you count on your human resources, talents, ingenuity, or personality? You can be poured out like water. Do you trust your physical strength and fitness? Every bone can be dislocated from the others. Do you trust the strength of your character, perseverance, courage, and inner strength? Your heart can melt like wax and you will be left with nothing but God. This is the cross and Jesus has gone before us to show us that we can bear through His resurrection. Do not despair. You may be empty, but you are not alone.

Psalm 22:15 - My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.

The cross is not a position of personal strength. It was not for Jesus and is not for us. We come to the cross and are emptied as Christ Jesus emptied Himself. Speechless and helpless, we lie in the dust of death and somehow realize that a God of love has allowed this experience in our lives and brought us to this place that, out of death, we might find life. If you will know resurrection, you must be laid out as dead before God. There is no other way. Any attempt to circumvent this process renders the cross as useless in your life. Trust God in the dry places and you will live.

Psalm 22:16 – Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.

Onlookers, men and beasts, are waiting for your last breath. They are convinced that you are defeated. Around the cross, they all gathered, certain that they were about to hear the last of Jesus. Your enemies assume that personal failure and death will overcome you as well. Pain, it is felt, will conquer the spirit of any person. Not so with you. You are dead already and your life is hidden in Christ. In Him, you live. Whatever the enemy could throw at Christ was thrown, but He “arose a victor from the dark domain” and so will you in Him. Cast off despair and celebrate life!

Psalm 22:17 - I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.

Have you ever counted your bones? How emaciated from the struggles of life, temptation, and sin have you been? Have you ever felt like such an oddity that people would stare? Have you ever been so humiliated that your enemies – especially those within, would gloat over your seeming defeat? When God made the choice to incarnate Himself into human flesh, He knew that He would be casting aside His glory for the lowest state of all. Hebrews 12 reminds us to consider Jesus who despised the shame, but pressed on for the glory set before Him. Let us press on as well.

Psalm 22:18 - They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

We like to think that we will have death with dignity. We must redefine dignity then, for what Jesus experienced can only be described in human terms, as humiliation. Nevertheless, human definitions do not rule the spiritual realm nor can they rule our lives. If we must face such a cross where even our clothes are bartered among our enemies, then so be it. Either we can scream and protest for our rights and “dignity” or we can enter into a deeper experience of trust and obedience. It is a crossroads that we face. If we are to die to self that we might live, we cannot set the terms.

Psalm 22:19 – But you, O LORD, be not far off; O my Strength, come quickly to help me.

We are moving from first to second to third person intentionally in these thoughts – keeping the focus on God. That is where Jesus kept His focus in His lifetime identification with humanity. He asked only that His Father be near and trusted only in His strength. When we are empty and helpless, that is all we have and that is a very fine position for our lives. All other strength is an illusion and the sooner we understand that, the better. We have only God – He is all we ever have had and we did not realize it. Perhaps now, we are coming to understand. Perhaps, we are coming into real life.

Psalm 22:20 - Deliver my life from the sword, my precious life from the power of the dogs.

Did you know that your life was precious to God? Grace yourself with the thought that God cares more for you than you care for yourself. Why then, do you exercise the exhausting effort of worry? God knows all about the sword. He sees and hears the dogs. He is not removed from your suffering and He intimately acquainted with your struggles. He has never abandoned you and He has a plan for your deliverance that He has already set into motion. Call upon Him. He is ready to take your hand and walk with you through this present fire.

Psalm 22:21 - Rescue me from the mouth of the lions; save me from the horns of the wild oxen.

Once we have come to terms with the reality of our circumstances and ceased our fruitless debates over the fairness of our surroundings, we can get down to the relevant business of petition. God does not keep us out of the lion’s den or the path of wild oxen; but He delivers us. Deliverance is far better than avoidance because God gets the glory and we get the victory. Beside that, the world gets to see a demonstration of the power of God that exceeds the expectations of limited minds. Daniel’s victory did not rest in avoiding the conflict, but in God’s salvation in the midst. Resurrection!

Psalm 22:22 – I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you.

We glory in the cross. We glory far more in the resurrection. Jesus came forth from the trial of the cross and the resurrection with a message of victory, redemption, and praise. We also emerge from our spiritual battles and, more importantly, the process of dying to self and rising to new life, with a message of hope. The faith-act of identifying with Jesus is what makes us evangelists. Good news permeates our beings so that our very lives are transformed into the gospel message. Like St. Francis, we preach everywhere and, when necessary, use words.

Psalm 22:23 – You who fear the LORD, praise him! All you descendants of Jacob, honor him! Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!

Praise, honor, and reverence are the responses of all who know God as God. This fear of God is recognition of His utter divinity and absolute sovereignty. It is an awareness that is burned into our life through struggles and seared onto our hearts in crisis. It does not come easily. Do not associate praise with giddiness or shallow emotionalism. When it is refined, it flows from the very deepest places in our lives and transcend the moment, rises above circumstances, and soars to the heights of Heaven. It is a gem of great joy forged in the furnace of trial.

Psalm 22:24 - For he has not despised or disdained the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

The God we praise is a God of loving compassion. He knows. He cares. He heals. He listens intently to His people and He is near the broken. Jesus identified with our pain intensely and passionately. His participation in our suffering and affliction goes far beyond empathy. He entered in and continues to enter in. You can trust Him because He already understands and have your very best interest in His heart. When we back off from God., we do so in irrational ignorance. To really know Him is to trust Him profoundly.

Psalm 22:25 - From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly; before those who fear you will I fulfill my vows.

It all originates with God. If we think that we might like to organize our praise of God around ideas that intrigue us, we have missed the point. The very theme of praise comes directly from Him. It is about Him, from Him, and to Him that we praise. And, as we gather among those who know Him, this is understood. There are always personal and corporate dimensions to faith. There are individual vows that you make and fulfill to the Lord, but you do so in community among those who share a common vision of the God who is worthy of our praise.

Psalm 22:26 - The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him-- may your hearts live forever!

This is the grand turn-around. God feeds the poor. He fills the hearts of those who seek Him with praise. He brings life out of death and joy out of pain. He infuses our lives with such abundance that we cannot fully receive it. He lifts our spirits to heights we have never known. He fills our lips with praise and grants us eternal life. The present darkness is never absolutely dark because the light has already come to fill every crevice. We live now and always in the present reality of the resurrection and the future hope of Christ’s second coming. Seek Him and know this reality for yourself!

 

Spiritual Disciplines for Highly Distracted Souls

And Other Pretty Shiny Things

Spiritual Disciplines for Highly Distracted Souls - That is my next book ... well, one of the next ones --- if I can concentrate enough to finish it .

Seriously now, some of you know exactly what I mean.

And you are the folks who are my kin in this particular skin.

We struggle to focus, but we must focus to struggle.

We know the deep value of grace in our lives be because we guzzle it like cool water on a scorching day in the sun. It is cooling balm to our blistered flesh.

It is food for our souls when we are starving.

God, if my concentration is what is required to seek and find you, I am in trouble. Actually, I am in trouble ... have been ... will be, but I am not hopeless.

My concentration comes through distraction, through poly-focus, and through serendipitous discovery.

I see you in the commonalities of multiplicities.

I hear your voice arising from the cacophony of sounds in a dissonant chorus of groaning cries.

I see your face in the contorted faces of broken people.

I grasp your Word in the recurring themes of unlikely sources that echo your truth and highlight the verses that I read just yesterday or this morning as I struggled to keep my mind from wandering.

I sit as long as I can and listen. I walk as far as I can without veering off the path. I keep coming back to you and you are always there.

It is neither my mood nor my mind that guide me, Oh Lord of clarity, but your ever present hand and upon you, I lean.

I will follow you today. I commit my day to you.

I am easily distracted and often torn. I am likely to bounce from thought to thought and project to project, but I know that you are present in the midst to order my days and my moments ....

And in the precious, fleeting stillness of this moment, I commit all my moments and days ... and this day, in particular, to You.

Amen.

Sound and Color

 

Two Messages for Today

 

 

One More

Trois Myopic Rodents

Trois myopic rodents
Trois myopic rodents
Observe how they traverse
Observe how they traverse
They all pursued the agronomist's spouse
Who severed their appendages with a culinary implement
Have you ever observed such a startling phenomenon
As trois myopic rodents

Lest you stop there, note that many of the nursery rhymes, fairy tales, and fable are encrypted and politically charged messages understood best in context.

For instance, the "three blind mice" were said to be Protestant loyalists who, in 1555 were accused of a plot against Queen Mary I. They were who were burned at the stake for their "blindness," namely their Protestant beliefs. The farmer's wife in this scenario, is Mary.

The words have changed and become more innocent over the years

In 1609 when the first written version of the song was published by Thomas Ravenscroft in “Deuteromelia” or “The Seconde part of Musicks melodie”.

Today, it is just. "Three Blind Mice."

Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
See how they run. See how they run.
They all ran after the farmer’s wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice?

What remains is the reality that language can reveal or obscure and sometimes, it does both at the same time.

 

 

-------------------

 

I am indebted to Bill Holohan for background in his excellent article on this subject:
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/origin-story-three-blind-mice-bill-holohan/

 

 

God Grant You Success

 

I know many unhappy people, soured of soul through their taste of failure and disappointment, derailed by disasters in their lives, detained by their fears, and distracted by anything and everything but the one thing they must do to succeed.

God grant you success by planting the vision of real success in you and empowering you to become the person you were made to be. Then, you can do what you were fashioned to do.

Ultimate success would be finding your purpose and pursuing it. It is more about being and becoming than achieving and accumulating.

When I pray for and encourage your success, it is for something bigger than even I can imagine for you.

First you must define what success will be and it better be worth the effort because some successes are rather fleeting and not fulfilling.

Success(etymology)="come after." L- "succedere " It is an outcome of effort and choice. What's your desired success? All choices have outcomes

I have been praying for success in the lives of new friends this morning. What is success to you?

The Bible weighs in with pointers to spark our thinking.

Psalm 20:4, NIV
May he give you the desire of your heart and make all your plans succeed.

Genesis 24:12a, NIV
Then he prayed, “LORD, God of my master Abraham, make me successful today, and show kindness to my master Abraham.

Psalm 90:17, NIV
May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us – yes, establish the work of our hands.

Psalm 118:25, ESV
Save us, we pray, O LORD! O LORD, we pray, give us success!

1 Chronicles 4:10, ESV
Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.

Romans 15:13, NIV
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Philippians 4:19, ESV
And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Amen)

 

SOUR or SOARING

We are in a progression and procession toward succession. Successful people are not in it for themselves alone but for a greater cause and future generations - succession!

That way, we do not grow sour, but we soar!

Successful people
Overcome
Unyielding
Resistance

Succession
Orients our
Attitudes and
Realities

That kind of thinking changes the way we perceive, act, evaluate and live. It predisposes of sour discouragement and sets us on a path for ultimate value and eternal significance.

Invest your time and life today in the progression and as you proceed, think beyond your own personal achievements and security - even beyond your lifetime. Adopt the Native American philosophy of thinking 7-8 generations forward.

I bid you success!

 

The Next Day

 

 

All days end and new days begin. Some are more personally significant for us than others.

 

There is always a next day.

 

Here was a very productive day when some common words rang so true as to resound in our hearts through time and into eternity.

 

One says, "We have found him" and is met with honest doubt and objection.

 

"Nothing good comes from THAT town!"

 

Jesus compliments him for "being real," and calls him anyway.

 

In the transaction we enshrine these words of calling, "Follow me," and "Come and see," and "I saw you," and "You shall see amazing things."

 

"The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!” Nathanael said to him, “How do you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” Nathanael answered him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”" - (John 1:43-51 ESV)

 

It was not just another day for Nathaniel. Everything changed.

 

What will today be for you?

 

Don't answer yet. Tell me tomorrow.

 

What Time Is It?

 

We are living in chronos time, but we have kairos moments.

 

 

Uploads, Downloads, and High Hopes

That being said, wisdom is sometimes a rather random thing. So, i have chosen to be random today and upload some downloads for you in hopes that you might find something useful. Even if it is not useful, perhaps you can make it so.

 

 

 

Leaning Not on My Own Understanding

I think that people, who may not have regard for the Bible as scripture or believe in divine direction, may often practice the principle of Proverbs 3:5 without knowing that they are obeying the scripture,

"Lean not on thine own understanding."

Every intelligent person I know bows in the presence of the unknowns of the universe. There is a common sense of awe at the wonder of the cosmos and the paradoxical nature of truth.

We tune our harps to what we know and set our compasses by given understanding of the polar realities and magnetic forces that govern us. We do that daily, but we also throw up our hands and surrender to the persistent gnawing of undiscovered forces and undefined principles of physics, mathematics, and even more mundane concepts that we know to be true without knowing why.

We comply and we continue to seek those universal theories of everything.

I know of no single thinking person inside or outside of the realm of faith who leans entirely on his or her own understanding ... except in areas where pride overcomes good sense.

We all take direction, follow laws we do not see the sense of, and follow orders we have not devised or whose meaning we have not discerned.

We do so because we often know that our lives are bettered in the process and we appreciate the finite nature of our own understanding. That is why we have experts who spend their whole lives studying minutia and sharing tidbits of their discoveries with the rest of us who are either generalists or specialists in other fields of intellectual or practical pursuit.

And every expert will inform us that there is more yet to discover than has been, as yet, grasped.

Somehow, in the sciences, this is seen as a great adventure.

It is, likewise, in the pursuit of spiritual discovery and the great adventure of knowing God.

We know enough to trust and so, the first part of the verse says,

"Trust in the Lord with all thine heart."

That is a bigger leap of faith for many folks than the first affirmation. We are all on different paths and places along our journeys. This is something we must accept in each other. However, in my life, verse 6 has shown itself true, over and over again:

"In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."

So, once I do know something, and know it with humble tentativeness, I go with what I know and wonder at the unknowns, trusting God, leaning not on my limited understanding, but acknowledging His leadership, caring guidance, and benevolent faithfulness to direct my paths.

That is what is working for me.

 

For more, see The Limits of My Understanding

Two Arguments for Prayer

 

 

Two arguments for prayer directed to God for people in power are given by Paul.

 

It is not an exhaustive list, but it is a good summary of two categories, the good prayer does us and the kingdom value for aligning with God's purposes:

 

 Our Benefit

"... that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity..."

 

God's Benefit 

" ... who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth..."

 

So, it benefits us to pray so that our lives can be more stable ad it benefits God's purposes so that He can save as many people as possible and manifest His truth.

 

1 Timothy 1:18-2:8 NRSV

 

"I am giving you these instructions, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies made earlier about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, having faith and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, certain persons have suffered shipwreck in the faith; among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have turned over to Satan, so that they may learn not to blaspheme. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human, who gave himself a ransom for all-- this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. I desire, then, that in every place the men should pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or argument..."

 

A Bit or a Byte of Encouragement

Photo by sydney Rae on Unsplash

 

Just a Word of Encouragement

 

How is it that a small word or two of encouragement can make all the difference in a person's day?

 

One compliment can turn the tide for another person's day or week.

 

One blessing softly and sincerely spoken can lift a downtrodden spirit.

 

A brief prayer can evoke the release of a flood tide of emotion cleansing the soul of a broken life.

 

One "You can do it" can be heard and acted upon to catalyze change in an entire community or world.

 

One hand placed gently and firmly on a shoulder can transfer courage and strength.

 

One compassionate gaze into the eye of a lonely heart struggling to express what is hidden deeply inside can bring relief and hope.

 

One word or two. That is all it takes. One moment of caring. One pause to refresh another.

 

It costs us so little and gives so much.

 

 

 

Endure

Pray Unedited Prayer

 

Pray.

Pray as you will ... standing, sitting, eyes closed, eyes open, head bowed or heads raised to Heaven, hands folded or hands open.

Pray in church, in nature, in your room, in the shower, on the bus, but pray.

Pray out loud or silently. Pray in song or from a prayer book.

Pray scripture or pray spontaneously.

Pray with Spirit-led improvisation or pray with deep and coherent thought.

Pray the "right words" or pray no words or any words that come to mind, but pray.

When asked how to pray, Jesus gave us the simplest conceivable prayer of all.

Keep it simple. Keep it real. Let it go deep. Pray.

Do not judge your prayers.

Do not try to impress God or yourself.

Certainly, do not pray to impress others.

Prayer gathers our scattered thoughts and hidden anxieties. Prayer gives voice to the voiceless within us. Prayer centers us in God prayer opens the door for the possibilities we may not readily see. Prayer is God's invitation to participate in what He is doing.. None of us are really ""good at it," but the good news is that we do not have to be. We just need to enter in and meet God.

Let us pray:

Father, I gather with my friends who choose to gather with me this morning to meet you. I come in the name of my Master, Jesus who invites all to meet you. I am grateful for the invitation. I bring the souls and lives of many whom I love, who suffer, who are confused, depressed, broken, destitute, and overwhelmed with opportunity. They are with me, Our Father, in my heart.

I do not know what to say or how to intercede for them, so I bring them to You.

You already know and love them so much and are already working in and around them.

Thank you for your welcome, You who are Mighty and Holy and Other than myself. Your grace, You have showers upon me. By Your mercy and sacrifice, You have saved and forgiven this poor sinner.

Thank You. Thank you.

Keep me free of the strong inclination than draws me into self indulgence and narrow thinking of myself.

I view the day before me with more questions than answers. I do not need to have each question answered, but I need to be set upon the right course for the day. Help me dive into the stream of Your perfect purpose and live purposefully as a redemptive, gracious, loving, forgiving, and encouraging soul this day among the people I meet.

Cause me to measure my words, center my thinking, temper my actions, and be energized in my being to do Your will.

I rest in Thee and I rise in Thee.

Help me to meet the right people today who will be encouraged by having walked a mile by my side and then, I will leave them in Your care.

Measure my movements that I might close this day and mark it fruitful.

My heart, my soul, my life, my family, my dreams, my goals, my day, I bring to You and trust to Your care.

In Jesus' Name. Amen.

 

What Is Truth?

Public Domain - Nikolai Ge - http://www.picture.art-catalog.ru/picture.php?id_picture=7515

 

"So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, 'Are you the King of the Jews'”

 

Jesus answered, 'Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?'

 

Pilate answered, 'Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?'

 

Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.'

 

Then Pilate said to him, 'So you are a king?'

 

Jesus answered, 'You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.'

 

Pilate said to him, 'What is truth?'

After he had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, 'I find no guilt in him.'"

(John 18:33-38 ESV)

 

If you were Pilate, and to some extent, we all are at some point, you just don't get it. We can't get it when we try to impose our own or society's definitions of power, might, prestige, and influence on a kingdom that is not of this world. We ask the same question he asked. With truth standing before us, staring us in the face, trying one angle after another to explain truth to us and to shake us out of our tired definitions, "What is truth?"

 

The truth is that truth is ....

 

And it is not what we think it is.

 

It never was and never can be.

 

Truth that transcends and transforms enters the world as a blinding contrast to our values and false passions. it challenges our insecurities and control mania. It challenges our notions that we must resort to violence to achieve non-violent ends or that we must coerce in order to convert.

 

It shouts in our ears and lives out before us the radical notion that sometimes it is enough, and more than enough, to stand and bear witness.

 

It leaves us dumbfounded with the uncomfortable feeling that we can find no fault in him, but that we cannot figure him out either.

 

And we, who would follow, hear his simple, "follow me," and his playful, Come and see."

 

 

What Good Is Your Religion?

Is your faith alive and transforming?

Is it making a difference in your life, in your community?

Is it making you kinder, gentler, more likely to engage with the broken, and more likely to heal the hurt of the world?

 

Isaiah 58:1-12 (NRSV)

Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet!

 

Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.

 

Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God; they ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God. "Why do we fast, but you do not see? Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?"

 

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.

 

Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.

 

Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day to humble oneself? Is it to bow down the head like a bulrush, and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?

 

Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?

 

Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

 

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly; your vindicator shall go before you, the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am. If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness and your gloom be like the noonday.

 

The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail. Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

 

Galatians 6:11-18 (NRSV)

See what large letters I make when I am writing in my own hand! It is those who want to make a good showing in the flesh that try to compel you to be circumcised-- only that they may not be persecuted for the cross of Christ. Even the circumcised do not themselves obey the law, but they want you to be circumcised so that they may boast about your flesh.

May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

 

For neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is anything; but a new creation is everything!

 

As for those who will follow this rule-- peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. From now on, let no one make trouble for me; for I carry the marks of Jesus branded on my body. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brothers and sisters. Amen.

 

Mark 9:30-41 (NRSV)

They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again."

 

But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?"

 

But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."

 

Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."

 

John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us."

 

But Jesus said, "Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.

 

Psalm 80

 

To the leader: on Lilies, a Covenant. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

 

Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel,

you who lead Joseph like a flock!

You who are enthroned upon the cherubim, shine forth

before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh.

Stir up your might,

and come to save us!

Restore us, O God;

let your face shine, that we may be saved.

O Lord God of hosts,

how long will you be angry with your people’s prayers?

You have fed them with the bread of tears,

and given them tears to drink in full measure.

You make us the scorn of our neighbors;

our enemies laugh among themselves.

Restore us, O God of hosts;

let your face shine, that we may be saved.

You brought a vine out of Egypt;

you drove out the nations and planted it.

You cleared the ground for it;

it took deep root and filled the land.

The mountains were covered with its shade,

the mighty cedars with its branches;

it sent out its branches to the sea,

and its shoots to the River.

Why then have you broken down its walls,

so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?

The boar from the forest ravages it,

and all that move in the field feed on it.

Turn again, O God of hosts;

look down from heaven, and see;

have regard for this vine,

the stock that your right hand planted.

They have burned it with fire, they have cut it down;

may they perish at the rebuke of your countenance.

But let your hand be upon the one at your right hand,

the one whom you made strong for yourself.

Then we will never turn back from you;

give us life, and we will call on your name.

Restore us, O Lord God of hosts;

let your face shine, that we may be saved.

 

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Morning Prayer for the Afternoon

 

Adonai, above all powers, above all rulers, above all my thoughts and hopes and dreams, LORD of my frailties and Dreamer of my dreams, Giver of life, Author of hope, First Cause, Final Conclusion, Ultimate Concern, Lover of humanity, Creator of all that is, Mighty God, Everlasting Father ... my Abba ...
To Thee, I come and with Thee, I stand. In Thee, I rest. Through Thee, I live.

You are, יהוה , the Great I AM. I hesitate to speak Thy Name lest I speak it for naught and yet ...

You invite me, to call Thee, Abba, Father, Pappa ....

Our Pappa in Heaven, ours, and not just mine, They name is hallowed for Thou art holy with a sanctified Name.

Grant unto to be enveloped in a cloud of reverent awe at the sight and sound of Thy Name.

Hallowed be Thy Name.

In every segmented concern of my life, my family, my concentric circles of sanctified souls and saintly sinners of which I am chief of sinners, Thy Kingdom come! In every gathering where my brothers and sisters find shelter, Thy Kingdom. In every city through which I pass and nation that enters my conscious awareness and those that escape my notice, among all people and powers, Thy Kingdom, Lord. Thy Kingdom of joy and grace, and righteousness.

I turn, repent, and renounce my kingdom and every other kingdom which has enslaved me and to Thy Kingdom, Christ's Kingdom of peace and justice and love I run.
"The kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ and He shall reign forever and ever. Hallelujah!"

Thy Kingdom come where there is injustice and hatred, and bigotry, and violence, lust and debauchery, dehumanization and demoralization, contention and bitterness, exploitation and humiliation, poverty and homelessness, hunger and famine, disease and addiction, loneliness and lostness, oppression and desperate, despairing sin. Thy Kingdom come.

Reign, King Jesus, reign!

Thy will be done ... for Thou knowest best.

We know not how to pray. It is not that we shrink from desiring to know. We do desire to join Thee in knowing prayer, knowing that we shall not know all. We know that we do no know and in that ignorance is the bliss of trusting.

Abba, what we know, we hold loosely in our hands and minds, awaiting instruction and correction. We approach Thee, Thy world, Thy creation, with very large question marks and interrogative wonder. Tomorrow is in Thy hands with every yesterday and today and so, override our own desires with Thy perfect will ...

Because what we know is Who we know and we have come to love and trust Thee and pray that Thy Spirit will pray Thy will through us and that Thy will will be done here and now, apart from us and beyond us, and all around us ....

.... on Earth as it is in Heaven!

Give us today, this day, our daily bread.

Thou knowest our needs, OUR needs, not just mine. Free me from my slavery to selfishness and introverted focus on myself, Dear God. Provide what Thou knowest we need and see us through this day with ...

strength,
wisdom,
food and clothing,
shelter,
hope,
healing and health,
love and affection,
friendship,
mission and service,
and more ...
and sometimes less,
our daily bread!

Forgive us our trespasses, our debts, our sins. Forgive us to the extent that we are able to loosen our grip on those debt for ourselves and for others.
Make us debt free in the realm of sin and free of holding others to the obligation of their trespasses against us. Teach us to loosen our grip for in that grip of bitterness, we hold ourselves as well for the same hand that gives forgiveness, receives it.

Liberate us from the power of darkness and guilt and retributive desire, Abba, by Thy love and mercy and grace.

Free us.
Forgive us.
We forgive our debtors.

Lead us.
We need to be led. We shall follow. We desire to go where Thou leadest, Oh Lord.

Remember, Dear Father, that we are dust and we are susceptible to the vilest thoughts and deeds, and are so easily tempted. Please lead us away from those things that tempt us most ... and least and ...

Lead us not into temptation, yet, should we encounter evil, and we shall, for such is our fallen, broken, hurting world, then ....
Deliver us from evil.

You have in the past; You do daily; You shall in the future.

"Yeah, though I walk through the valley of dark shadows," the shadow of death, "I will fear no evil for Thou art with me."

Remind us that neither darkness nor death can overcome us with evil when Thou art present with us.

Hear us, Oh Adonai, for all that we have and are and ever shall be, is Thine.

Indeed, Thine is the Kingdom.
It is all Thine!
Thine is the power.
Thou canst (You CAN because YOU ARE, oh great I AM!) bring all of this to pass. Thine is the power!
Thine is the glory!
Glory, honor, and praise to Thee, Thou great Jehovah!

Thine is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever and ever and ever.

Amen and Amen and in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, I pray, we pray, amen and amen!

 

Artwork: http://www.ceec.uni-koeln.de/ Mn 28 822, Cologne

 

 

The Super Bowl of Life

This morning's message was to encourage those who are in the arena for the superbowl of life, to keep patient and waiting on the LORD, to rise up with the wings of eagles, to run without becoming weary, to walk without fainting!

 

 

 

Scriptures from NRSV

Isaiah 40:21-31
40:21 Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

40:22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in;

40:23 who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.

40:24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.

40:25 To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal? says the Holy One.

40:26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.

40:27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God"?

40:28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable.

40:29 He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless.

40:30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted;

40:31 but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

Psalm 147:1-11, 20c
147:1 Praise the LORD! How good it is to sing praises to our God; for he is gracious, and a song of praise is fitting.

147:2 The LORD builds up Jerusalem; he gathers the outcasts of Israel.

147:3 He heals the brokenhearted, and binds up their wounds.

147:4 He determines the number of the stars; he gives to all of them their names.

147:5 Great is our Lord, and abundant in power; his understanding is beyond measure.

147:6 The LORD lifts up the downtrodden; he casts the wicked to the ground.

147:7 Sing to the LORD with thanksgiving; make melody to our God on the lyre.

147:8 He covers the heavens with clouds, prepares rain for the earth, makes grass grow on the hills.

147:9 He gives to the animals their food, and to the young ravens when they cry.

147:10 His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner;

147:11 but the LORD takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.

147:20c Praise the LORD!

1 Corinthians 9:16-23
9:16 If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel!

9:17 For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission.

9:18 What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.

9:19 For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them.

9:20 To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law.

9:21 To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law.

9:22 To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some.

9:23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

Mark 1:29-39
1:29 As soon as they left the synagogue, they entered the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

1:30 Now Simon's mother-in-law was in bed with a fever, and they told him about her at once.

1:31 He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. Then the fever left her, and she began to serve them.

1:32 That evening, at sundown, they brought to him all who were sick or possessed with demons.

1:33 And the whole city was gathered around the door.

1:34 And he cured many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons; and he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

1:35 In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

1:36 And Simon and his companions hunted for him.

1:37 When they found him, they said to him, "Everyone is searching for you."

1:38 He answered, "Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do."

1:39 And he went throughout Galilee, proclaiming the message in their synagogues and casting out demons.

Humble or Haughty

"You're so vain, you probably think this song is about you."

 

The horns of the wicked and the horns of the righteous are made of the same sort of stuff, but express different approaches to what they represent, honor and power.

 

The righteous seldom strut their stuff.

The wicked seldom cease.

 

One shall come to naught and the other shall be exalted.

 

The powers of this age and the ruthlessness of power-grabbing, power-wielding personages and entities shall ultimately fail.

 

Those who seek truth and justice at each junction of choice and each crossroads of intent, regardless of the assessment of rewards, losses, and posturing, shall find that their accounts are being taken care of.

 

They can relax in the sweet rest of righteousness.

 

"We give thanks to you, O God;

we give thanks, for your name is near.

We recount your wondrous deeds."

“'At the set time that I appoint

I will judge with equity.

When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants,

it is I who keep steady its pillars. Selah

I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’

and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn;

do not lift up your horn on high,

or speak with haughty neck.'’”

''For not from the east or from the west

and not from the wilderness comes lifting up,

but it is God who executes judgment,

putting down one and lifting up another.

For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup

with foaming wine, well mixed,

and he pours out from it,

and all the wicked of the earth

shall drain it down to the dregs.''

''But I will declare it forever;

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.

All the horns of the wicked I will cut off,

but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.''

- Psalm 75 (ESV)

 

Life Lessons from a Super Bown

 

1. You can't rest on the laurels of your first half of life.

 

2. You can't get discouraged by a slow start.

 

3. Keep playing till the end, even into overtime because: YOU ARE ALWAYS IN OVERTIME.

 

4. Your second half may be better than the first.

 

5. You may run out of time-outs. Adjust.

 

6. Expect turn-overs and play them.

 

7. It's not over until Lady Gaga sings - and then it's only half over.

 

8. Spectators, commentators, and wagerers have no effect on the outcome of the game. It is up to the players to play it.

 

9. Your opponents will offer as much resistance as they can. Expect it and resist it.

 

10. Keep playing and moving the ball.

Everything is Possible!

If you believe ...

“Help my unbelief.”

"I believe; help my unbelief!" (See the text in Mark 9:14-29)

Here is the key to the lesson Jesus is teaching His disciples when they asked why they could not help the man and his boy. After all, they believed and Jesus had said that all things were possible to those who believed.

 

But the man did more than just believe.

 

He believed and prayed.

 

Jesus said that deliverance from the oppressing demon that tormented the boy required prayer. Some manuscripts include, “and fasting.”

 

Prayer requires belief, but in this case, belief is verified and amplified through prayer. After all, the man declares, in His prayer to Jesus, that he does indeed believe, but he doubts the power of his own, weak, feeble, capacity to believe. He is honest, but he is also desperate.

 

His trust is like the one who believes enough to jump into the darkness even though he is still trembling with shades of uncertainty.

 

What took his belief beyond its own ability to believe was the declaration, “I believe,” followed by the prayer, “Help my unbelief.”

 

Thirsty

 

 

We are thirsting for something and may not know what it is.

We think we know.

We think it might be a righteousness that we can produce with a little more effort. It might be a holiness that requires that we say just the right words and do just the right things.

We might imagine it to be a secret recipe for ecstasy or a prescription for pleasure.

Could it be some mystery that we can discover by squinting our eyes more strenuously or reciting deeper and more profound incantations?

Or could we do some sort of harm to ourselves in penance for our wickedness and exact revenge upon ourselves to prove our sincerity before God? What can we pay or produce to bring us closer to God and satisfy the longing in our souls?

Isaiah 55:1-13

Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?

Big question here: Why do you waste time, energy, and money on those things that bring you no relief and satisfaction? Why do you expend yourself for no added value?

Don’t you know that you have been invited to shop at a market where there is no charge to your account? Don’t you know you have been offered genuine and first quality wine, milk, and bread by grace and grace alone?

Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live. I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.

The invitation is to freely partake.

It is to receive.

It is to come and eat what is good. God’s delight at God’s table is our delight. He does this because of our relationship with the one in whom he delights.

For Isaiah’s listeners, it was David. But we can claim our place at the table because of our relationship with the Son of God, Jesus. Those things that are said about David can be said even more of him.

See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.

What was it about David, the leader and commander?

It is this: He was a witness. God rose him up for that purpose and sustained him for that reason.

He has called all of His chosen people to be such witnesses.

See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you, because of the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.

It is not a futile thing.

We shall call and the nations shall come. It is God’s doing and God brings it about.

Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts; let them return to the LORD, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

This message is for us to hear and for us to deliver.

Seek the LORD. Do it now. Do it quickly. Do it while He is near.

Indeed, He is near.

He is near now. Call upon Him.

There are ways for us to forsake, ways and thoughts that have led us astray. We are not hopeless. We can turn because we have been invited and admonished to return.

When we turn, we find mercy because mercy is all that we find when we turn to God, mercy and pardon in abundance.

Why would we not turn?

Why would we not invite all to turn.

There are two options in life. One is to turn away from God and that is to turn away from mercy and pardon.

The other is to turn toward God. That is the way of grace, love, and abundance.

It makes no sense to us. It is beyond our understanding. It baffles us. That is because of this truth that God expresses:

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

God thinks and acts differently than us.

Mercy, love, grace, righteousness, truth, and holiness are His domains. Eternity in His dwelling place and nothing less except that He comes to dwell among and within us.

As such, He can place eternity within us that we might catch a glimpse of His purpose and find enough of His thinking to be radically transformed in our own.

This word is powerful. It changes things:

For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

When God speaks, everything shakes. Existence is watered and nourished. Truth blossoms. Life is created. God’s purposes are accomplished in time and space.

And the people rejoice:

For you shall go out in joy,and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall be to the LORD for a memorial, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.

 What more can we say than,

“Amen!”

This is true freedom and Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles tries to translate it into our thinking and understanding:

Galatians 5:1-15

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Listen! I, Paul, am telling you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you.

Grace is not, as we have seen, a New Testament invention.

It is the eternal nature of the Eternal God, known more and more through the progressive process of revelation as God discloses Himself.

Grace frees us from bondage so that we may clap our hands like the trees of the field and go forth in joy, song, and peace.

To make our faith a dark and dismal burden is uncalled for. To translate our song of joy into a dirge is an offense. To take the dance out of our steps with a message of gloom, salvific uncertainty, and doom is to deny the nature of God as Love.

Once again I testify to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he is obliged to obey the entire law. You who want to be justified by the law have cut yourselves off from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

We take a beautiful message of liberation and corrupt it when we announce it as a new legal system of obligation to an impossible letter of law.

We are called to a righteousness that comes from faith, a righteousness that begins on the inside and changes our behaviors and thinking through our connection with Christ.

It is a spiritual work.

For through the Spirit, by faith, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

We do not dread this. We are eager for it. We have been made for this relationship which informs and creates our lifestyle of hope.

For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything; the only thing that counts is faith working through love.

Faith working through love – that is what counts, nothing more, nothing less.

You were running well; who prevented you from obeying the truth? Such persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast leavens the whole batch of dough. I am confident about you in the Lord that you will not think otherwise. But whoever it is that is confusing you will pay the penalty.

All good things are subject to the potential for denigration.

Movements become institutionalized and the things we once did for love, we start doing for credit and recognition.

Our hearts grow cold, but we keep repeating the behaviors that we think produced the joy. Then, we wonder what happened to the joy.

Paul knew joy and operated from a baseline of joy. Yet, he was persecuted.

It did not rob him of joy. Nor did it cause him to revert to a teaching that would claim that we had a chance to impress or please God with empty formalities.

But my friends, why am I still being persecuted if I am still preaching circumcision? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would castrate themselves!

It just would not make sense.

For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

We were called to freedom.

That freedom was not a license to revert to selfish, hurtful, indulgent, competitive, and bitter behavior. No need!

We have one commandment, and it is all-encompassing.

It is love.

It is the love that God expressed to the people in Isaiah, the love that took Jesus to the cross, and the love that God has bestowed upon us and nurtured within us through the gift of the Holy Spirit.

If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

And that is the contrast. To argue and fight over who is a “better believer” is to do and to be the antithesis of what grace produces in us through faith.

It is faith that acknowledges that God's way of brining us into His fold is grace, expressed in His mercy, flowing from His love, freely given and freely received.

Mark 8:27-9:1

Jesus went on with his disciples to the villages of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that I am?" And they answered him, "John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; and still others, one of the prophets."

 He asked them, "But who do you say that I am?"

 Peter answered him, "You are the Messiah."

 And he sternly ordered them not to tell anyone about him. Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

 He said all this quite openly.

 And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."

 He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

And he said to them, "Truly I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the kingdom of God has come with power."

We come to Jesus, the Son and delight of the Father.

He knows who he is.

He knows why he has come.

He knows what people say and it does not matter.

He knows what he must do.

He wants his followers to know and, to some extent, Simon Peter does.

But Simon is also an “accuser,” who, those his motives are to spare Jesus rejection and death, would terminate his mission by diverting him from it.

Grace, mercy, peace, and love do not come without a price and God pays the price.

To turn to God by turning to Jesus is to face the way of the cross.

It is to deny self which is to deny self-indulgence as well as self-righteousness and self-sufficiency. It is to deny both the pleasures of a God avoiding life and responsibility of setting ourselves up as demi-gods.

Jesus knew how difficult it would be for Peter and the friends to understand this.

His ways and thoughts were not theirs, but theirs would be transformed and enlightened. They would see things that would amaze them and give them a new perspective.

And so, shall we if we follow.

Let us pray with the psalmist this morning and receive the mercy that God so deeply wants to bestow upon us.

Psalm 70 Deus, in adjutorium

¹   Be pleased, O God, to deliver me;
O LORD, make haste to help me.
²   Let those who seek my life be ashamed and altogether dismayed;
let those who take pleasure in my misfortune draw back and be disgraced.
³   Let those who say to me "Aha!" and gloat over me turn back,
because they are ashamed.
⁴   Let all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you;
let those who love your salvation say for ever, "Great is the LORD!"
⁵   But as for me, I am poor and needy;
come to me speedily, O God.
⁶   You are my helper and my deliverer;
O LORD, do not tarry.