The Dream Factory

More to Do

 

More to Do ... Much  More

There is more to do than can be done.
There is a smorgasbord of fun.
The race is longer than can be run.
Face it; we are under the gun.
So ... do what you can while you can.

"“As long as it is day, I must do the work of Him Who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” John 9:4"

 

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Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash

How Job Prayed

 

Jacob Jordaens - Abraham Grapheus as Job

Job never prays for his own restoration or prosperity. He desires only to know the mind, heart, and ways of God in the midst of his suffering.

When he does encounter God in face to face meeting, he turns, repents, and humbles himself. Then, he prays for the friends who have misjudged him in their own ignorance.

"And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before." 
(Job 42:10 ESV)

 

 

 

The Long and Hard Way

 

Uploaded by: alameli,Mar 25, 2017

Jesus took the HARD WAY

 ⁶⁰Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?   ⁶¹When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?   ⁶²What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?  ⁶³It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.  ⁶⁴But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.  ⁶⁵And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.  ⁶⁶From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.  ⁶⁷Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?  ⁶⁸Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.  ⁶⁹And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. ⁷⁰Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?  ⁷¹He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve. - John 6:60-71

What and if you see the Son of Man coming and going from Heaven? So you think you are offended now? Wait and see.

It is an aside but an effective one where He says, in essence, I don't have to prove to you who I am in order to be who I am.

But until things are settled, there are some HARD teachings that are difficult to hear (accept) and Jesus does not water them down. "You have to feed on me," He challenges His disciples. "You need me to really live." He just says it and lets people decide what they will do about it.

But it is HARD:

H - Holistic - It covers everything about their living. Tillich said that religion is ultimate concern. It envelops us and defines us. That offended many who were following and were looking for an "add-on" religious experience that could be "part of their lives." That is not what Jesus is teaching. If He is the Bread of Life, He is the primary nutrient of our being and saturates everything in our lives.

A - Activating - The spirit quickens, gives life, activates our latent potential as well as everything in our being. Sometimes in a physical healing process, we begin to have pains that we have never experienced before. That which is dead in us feels no pain or discomfort. When it is enlivened and activated, we resist. We are not sure we want to be that much alive.

R - Restrictive - It is not the invitation that is restrictive; it is the path. Elsewhere Jesus said that no man comes to the Father but by Him, but here He says, that no one can come to Him except by God. In other words, coming to Jesus is a God-thing. It is a spiritual response to a spiritual call. If we resist that, we restrict our access. These disciples and others were arguing and murmuring - perhaps with the undefined hope that Jesus would overrule their objections and overpower their doubts. He does not do that. We have to respond to whatever wooing of God we sense with openness and willingness to receive.

D - Definitive - Some will turn away. There were many, in fact. They were disciples and they quit. It was too hard. What was too hard? Jesus had just told them that He would give them eternal life, eternal food, and His eternal presence - freely and unconditionally if they believed and received. That was too hard for them. What did they have to give up? Was it pride, some notion of absolute self-sufficiency, self-righteousness, extreme legalism, an inner drive to achieve righteousness on their own. an unwillingness to give and receive grace? I don't know. It may be different from every person, but these hard sayings were definitive for them.

Then Jesus turns to those who remain and asks them to make a definitive choice.

"Will you also go away?"

They could have. He would  not have prevented them. It was their choice. It is our choice.

Where would we go?

There comes a time in our lives when we come to a place of no return. Knowing what we know, experiencing what we have experienced, there is no turning back. As the relatively contemporary hymn puts it, "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.

You have the words of eternal life.

They had become addicted to His words the way we are addicted to food and water. This is a positive addiction/dependence because it is dependence on what is real and enduring. It is a stage in our spiritual development where we crave the "sincere milk of the word," and begin to long for meat. We can't live without it. We know that no matter what our doubts or fears. We have been drawn to God, chosen by Jesus and we know it in the depths of our beings.

We believe and are sure that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

It starts with belief that brings a surety to our hearts. Some may call that "blessed assurance." Some may call it peace. Some may call it spiritual enlightenment. It is a gift.

Their assurance was that Jesus was the Christ/Messiah, the anointed and appointed One of God, the Chosen One, the ONE. They had found Him and there was no point in looking for anything or anyone better.

It was also a conviction of His relationship with God and their potential for a relationship with God through His Son. If knowing Jesus meant they could know God, then there as no point in turning back.

The footnote to the story is that there was a faker in the group and Jesus knew it.He knew it and did nothing about it because the turn-about would come later. It was necessary to let things happen in the way they would happen. The Jesus way was not and is not to prevent all trouble before it happens or to fix everything up front.

The Jesus way is to follow Jesus as Jesus followed God's way and truth to the cross and beyond.

It is HARD and it was HARD for Jesus too, but the hard way is the true way and the way of grace and life. It is holistic, activating, restrictive (and paradoxically liberating) and definitive. Will you also turn away or will you follow?

 

 

 

 

 ⁶⁰Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?   ⁶¹When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, Doth this offend you?   ⁶²What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?  ⁶³It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.  ⁶⁴But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him.  ⁶⁵And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.  ⁶⁶From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.  ⁶⁷Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away?  ⁶⁸Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.  ⁶⁹And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. ⁷⁰Jesus answered them, Have not I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?  ⁷¹He spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for he it was that should betray him, being one of the twelve. - John 6:60-71

What and if you see the Son of Man coming and going from Heaven? So you think you are offended now? Wait and see.

It is an aside but an effective one where He says, in essence, I don't have to prove to you who I am in order to be who I am.

But until things are settled, there are some HARD teachings that are difficult to hear (accept) and Jesus does not water them down. "You have to feed on me," He challenges His disciples. "You need me to really live." He just says it and lets people decide what they will do about it.

But it is HARD:

H - Holistic - It covers everything about their living. Tillich said that religion is ultimate concern. It envelops us and defines us. That offended many who were following and were looking for an "add-on" religious experience that could be "part of their lives." That is not what Jesus is teaching. If He is the Bread of Life, He is the primary nutrient of our being and saturates everything in our lives.

A - Activating - The spirit quickens, gives life, activates our latent potential as well as everything in our being. Sometimes in a physical healing process, we begin to have pains that we have never experienced before. That which is dead in us feels no pain or discomfort. When it is enlivened and activated, we resist. We are not sure we want to be that much alive.

R - Restrictive - It is not the invitation that is restrictive; it is the path. Elsewhere Jesus said that no man comes to the Father but by Him, but here He says, that no one can come to Him except by God. In other words, coming to Jesus is a God-thing. It is a spiritual response to a spiritual call. If we resist that, we restrict our access. These disciples and others were arguing and murmuring - perhaps with the undefined hope that Jesus would overrule their objections and overpower their doubts. He does not do that. We have to respond to whatever wooing of God we sense with openness and willingness to receive.

D - Definitive - Some will turn away. There were many, in fact. They were disciples and they quit. It was too hard. What was too hard? Jesus had just told them that He would give them eternal life, eternal food, and His eternal presence - freely and unconditionally if they believed and received. That was too hard for them. What did they have to give up? Was it pride, some notion of absolute self-sufficiency, self-righteousness, extreme legalism, an inner drive to achieve righteousness on their own. an unwillingness to give and receive grace? I don't know. It may be different from every person, but these hard sayings were definitive for them.

Then Jesus turns to those who remain and asks them to make a definitive choice.

"Will you also go away?"

They could have. He would  not have prevented them. It was their choice. It is our choice.

Where would we go?

There comes a time in our lives when we come to a place of no return. Knowing what we know, experiencing what we have experienced, there is no turning back. As the relatively contemporary hymn puts it, "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back, no turning back.

You have the words of eternal life.

They had become addicted to His words the way we are addicted to food and water. This is a positive addiction/dependence because it is dependence on what is real and enduring. It is a stage in our spiritual development where we crave the "sincere milk of the word," and begin to long for meat. We can't live without it. We know that no matter what our doubts or fears. We have been drawn to God, chosen by Jesus and we know it in the depths of our beings.

We believe and are sure that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

It starts with belief that brings a surety to our hearts. Some may call that "blessed assurance." Some may call it peace. Some may call it spiritual enlightenment. It is a gift.

Their assurance was that Jesus was the Christ/Messiah, the anointed and appointed One of God, the Chosen One, the ONE. They had found Him and there was no point in looking for anything or anyone better.

It was also a conviction of His relationship with God and their potential for a relationship with God through His Son. If knowing Jesus meant they could know God, then there as no point in turning back.

The footnote to the story is that there was a faker in the group and Jesus knew it.He knew it and did nothing about it because the turn-about would come later. It was necessary to let things happen in the way they would happen. The Jesus way was not and is not to prevent all trouble before it happens or to fix everything up front.

The Jesus way is to follow Jesus as Jesus followed God's way and truth to the cross and beyond.

It is HARD and it was HARD for Jesus too, but the hard way is the true way and the way of grace and life. It is holistic, activating, restrictive (and paradoxically liberating) and definitive. Will you also turn away or will you follow?

 

 

 

 

Succession - A Cure for Being Sick and Tired

Elijah in the wilderness, by Washington Allston

Elijah was tired. He was sick and tired.

He sank deeply into a despair that was not touched by logic or surface encouragement.

He needed the deep encouragement of "The Presence."

He received it ... but he also received a tangible answer from God: a successor. He was being called to a new phase of life - to invest in others and especially one other, Elisha, who would not only carry on his work and give meaning to his life, but would do even greater things.

Thus, the title of this brief entry:

Succession - A Cure for Being Sick and Tired

It is part of the plan in this grand relay.

This is a team sport!

 

 

Masterpiece of Love

 

There is no greater masterpiece than the masterpiece of love that is being formed in you, through you, and of you.

There is no greater masterpiece needed to adorn the walls of our lives and communities.

It starts small with one simple brushstroke.

Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam (c. 1512), part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, is considered an archetypal masterpiece of painting.

If you need practice with love today, try this:

Love someone today that you have not taken the time to really love before.

You might need some help with this project. Consult the Master of Love who is the mastermind behind every masterpiece of love.

You might have to reach down to a pretty deep place inside of you.

It might hurt. It might disgust you.

It might alter you.

It won't be easy.

It may require extra prayer and will require extra effort.

But you will discover something about yourself and something even more about love and love's source.

You may even find something wonderful in the one you love.

"Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another." -Thomas Merton

So, love.

What are you afraid of? Getting hurt? Consider this:

Nobody can hurt me without my permission. -Mahatma Gandhi

Are you afraid of being weak? Consider this:

Character is power. -Booker T. Washington

Are you afraid of opposition?

Consider this:

It does not matter how many are ganged up to oppose you. That is just the backdrop of the redemption drama. It is the stage upon which God takes center stage.

" He redeems my soul in safety
from the battle that I wage,
for many are arrayed against me."

(Psalm 55:18 ESV)

Are you afraid of getting in over your head?

If you aren't in over your head, how do you know how tall you are? -T. S. Eliot

Just love.

And as you go:

"Sprinkle joy." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Nurture your mind with great thoughts. - Benjamin Disraeli

"Never discourage anyone.....who continually makes progress, no matter how slow." - Plato

Stretch yourself beyond yourself because:

"Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Love is and always will be, beyond what you have already mastered. However, the good news is that the Master who has mastered love is your Master and, to the extent that His mastery is at work in you, you are becoming a masterpiece of love.

 

 

Try this, purse your lips together today,

Resolve your own intent,

Form the words,

Look someone in the eye and say,

"I love you." 

God in the Storm and Quake

Photo by Sunyu Kim on Unsplash

What is God's role in natural disasters?

Naturally, after making a good system, God expected us to learn, respect, and follow the laws of nature. He often helps us when we clash with nature and gives us peace in the midst of storms.

We can also learn the important lessons of environmental stewardship as we reassess our life styles. We live and learn as we respect the truths of divinely ordained science and natural processes of well designed world.

Above that, God reveals Himself primarily in the prayers, deeds,and compassionate gifts of people who love Him and love their neighbors as themselves. If you want a hint, look at Jesus in storms. Or check the times that Jesus was asked to equate suffering with someone being a worse sinner than someone else.

He always deflected it at went back to a larger subject.

Is there a lesson? Always.

Nature is powerful. The Creator of of nature is even more so, but at the core of all holiness is the harmonic and reverberating theme of love.

If you want to align with the message of God in moments of human suffering, reach out in love to your neighbor. The rest is religious arrogance and pseudo repentance designed to deflect from our own sins of pride, superiority, and reluctance to care.

The heart of God is holy, ruthless, furious love.

The heart of God's people is to flesh out that love in service to suffering humanity without judgment or conditions.

 

 

God in the Storm and Quake

Photo by Sunyu Kim on Unsplash

What is God's role in natural disasters?

Naturally, after making a good system, God expected us to learn, respect, and follow the laws of nature. He often helps us when we clash with nature and gives us peace in the midst of storms.

We can also learn the important lessons of environmental stewardship as we reassess our life styles. We live and learn as we respect the truths of divinely ordained science and natural processes of well designed world.

Above that, God reveals Himself primarily in the prayers, deeds,and compassionate gifts of people who love Him and love their neighbors as themselves. If you want a hint, look at Jesus in storms. Or check the times that Jesus was asked to equate suffering with someone being a worse sinner than someone else.

He always deflected it at went back to a larger subject.

Is there a lesson? Always.

Nature is powerful. The Creator of of nature is even more so, but at the core of all holiness is the harmonic and reverberating theme of love.

If you want to align with the message of God in moments of human suffering, reach out in love to your neighbor. The rest is religious arrogance and pseudo repentance designed to deflect from our own sins of pride, superiority, and reluctance to care.

The heart of God is holy, ruthless, furious love.

The heart of God's people is to flesh out that love in service to suffering humanity without judgment or conditions.

 

 

Never Forgotten

Photo by Jason McCann on Unsplash

We Have Not Forgotten

We have not forgotten what happened on September 11 in our recent past.

It is not a day to be angry, vengeful, or superior. It is a day to mourn again and to be solemn, grateful, respectful, and thoughtful. 

It is a day to love and to remember.

Some people with evil motives and distorted understanding of their own faith traditions, did and evil deed, but it is not a day to remember them.

We remember those who, thought they loved life, rushed into burning buildings to save lives of strangers.

We remember how strangers became brothers and sisters.

I remember where I was when the first hint of news came across the wave via NPR. I remember my thoughts.'

I remember how we came together and put our differences aside. As Randy Sparks wrote in a song, "On September the 11th, we became just Americans."

Of course, it is true that people from all over the world of different cultures, religions, and convictions died.

I remember how some folks said that nothing would ever be the same again ... but they are in most ways except the ways that time and progress change everything.

Then, we started using the tragedy to move from being a people who valued freedom above everything else to being a people who would surrender freedom for safety and security.

And we started a couple of wars, at least one clearly in response to a very real threat of terrorism in the world.

And we started rethinking the meaning of our Constitution - not that we shouldn't from time to time. We just need to hold on to what is true and just and good.

And we started bickering again.

Yet, we have not forgotten.

We are not exactly sure what the lessons were, but we learned what it meant to share a common heartbeat and a common heartbreak.

We remember what it was like to deeply care about one another.

We remember what it was like, for a moment, to respect our leaders, They respect us and each other for a season. We gave them a great deal of leeway and trust along with much prayer.

What stands out for me in my memory is a heightened value for the heroes among us, in and out of uniform who are willing to lay down their lives for others. Many of these are still placing themselves in daily harm's way daily.

We flew flags.

We sought the comfort of God and of one another.

We sang together, mourned together, and worked together.

We can remember, but we cannot be defined by tragedy. Nor can we live in a perpetual state of emergency.

The world is dangerous. Horrible things could happen. We could all die -- but that is not the most important thing.

The most important thing is whether or not we will choose to live, and to live as free people until we die.

Will we love each other?

Will we pray when we are not in crisis?

Will we show each other respect?

Will we be "just Americans" and not blue or red or whatever that is and whatever that means?

Will we labor for justice, for peace, and for equality?

Will we work to create a community where love is the great rule of life?

Will we follow the path of our faith passionately and with conviction without deriding the faith or lack thereof of other?

Will we be patient and celebrate rate our humanity?

Will we look for ways to build bridges and tear down walls between people?

Will we gain from our differences and the uniqueness of our neighbors?

Will we learn the joy of welcoming and neighboring?

Will we be more generous and less territorial?

Will we protect our freedom by exercising it?

Will we weep with those who weep and laugh with those who laugh.

Will those who like me, follow Jesus in the midst of the culture, truly follow by loving our neighbors and seeking God's kingdom and righteousness? May we do so, not with pride, arrogance, rudeness, or exclusiveness, but grace and acceptance?

May we all live out our deepest convictions.

May we remember cognitively and with affect what it can mean when we are less concerned about what divides us and more concerned with helping each other make it through a tough day.

If we will remember, then we can commit to being our best as Americans and working together for common good.

For now, let us pause to remember.

When  we say,God bless America, we are praying for each other. God bless you.

We have not forgotten what happened on September 11 in our recent past.

It is not a day to be angry, vengeful, or superior. It is a day to mourn again and to be solemn, grateful, respectful, and thoughtful. 

It is a day to love and to remember.

Some people with evil motives and distorted understanding of their own faith traditions, did and evil deed, but it is not a day to remember them.

We remember those who, thought they loved life, rushed into burning buildings to save lives of strangers.

We remember how strangers became brothers and sisters.

I remember where I was when the first hint of news came across the wave via NPR. I remember my thoughts.'

I remember how we came together and put our differences aside. As Randy Sparks wrote in a song, "On September the 11th, we became just Americans."

Of course, it is true that people from all over the world of different cultures, religions, and convictions died.

I remember how some folks said that nothing would ever be the same again ... but they are in most ways except the ways that time and progress change everything.

Then, we started using the tragedy to move from being a people who valued freedom above everything else to being a people who would surrender freedom for safety and security.

And we started a couple of wars, at least one clearly in response to a very real threat of terrorism in the world.

And we started rethinking the meaning of our Constitution - not that we shouldn't from time to time. We just need to hold on to what is true and just and good.

And we started bickering again.

Yet, we have not forgotten.

We are not exactly sure what the lessons were, but we learned what it meant to share a common heartbeat and a common heartbreak.

We remember what it was like to deeply care about one another.

We remember what it was like, for a moment, to respect our leaders, They respect us and each other for a season. We gave them a great deal of leeway and trust along with much prayer.

What stands out for me in my memory is a heightened value for the heroes among us, in and out of uniform who are willing to lay down their lives for others. Many of these are still placing themselves in daily harm's way daily.

We flew flags.

We sought the comfort of God and of one another.

We sang together, mourned together, and worked together.

We can remember, but we cannot be defined by tragedy. Nor can we live in a perpetual state of emergency.

The world is dangerous. Horrible things could happen. We could all die -- but that is not the most important thing.

The most important thing is whether or not we will choose to live, and to live as free people until we die.

Will we love each other?

Will we pray when we are not in crisis?

Will we show each other respect?

Will we be "just Americans" and not blue or red or whatever that is and whatever that means?

Will we labor for justice, for peace, and for equality?

Will we work to create a community where love is the great rule of life?

Will we follow the path of our faith passionately and with conviction without deriding the faith or lack thereof of other?

Will we be patient and celebrate rate our humanity?

Will we look for ways to build bridges and tear down walls between people?

Will we gain from our differences and the uniqueness of our neighbors?

Will we learn the joy of welcoming and neighboring?

Will we be more generous and less territorial?

Will we protect our freedom by exercising it?

Will we weep with those who weep and laugh with those who laugh.

Will those who like me, follow Jesus in the midst of the culture, truly follow by loving our neighbors and seeking God's kingdom and righteousness? May we do so, not with pride, arrogance, rudeness, or exclusiveness, but grace and acceptance?

May we all live out our deepest convictions.

May we remember cognitively and with affect what it can mean when we are less concerned about what divides us and more concerned with helping each other make it through a tough day.

If we will remember, then we can commit to being our best as Americans and working together for common good.

For now, let us pause to remember.

When  we say,God bless America, we are praying for each other. God bless you.

One Small Word

 

Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash

One Word

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.

 

 

Beatus Qui Intelligit - "Happy Are They Who Consider the Poor ..."

Public Domain, Belisaire demandant l'aumone Jacques-Louis David.jpg

Psalm 41 Beatus qui intelligit

"Happy are they who consider the poor and needy!"

The maskil of David begins with a thesis about how we respond to the poor, week, and sick soul. Namely, we are blessed and happy when we remember him or her with kindness.

In his Treasury of David, Charles Spurgeon includes an extended quote by Samuel Rogers:

"A Piedmontese nobleman into whose company I fell, at Turin, told me the following story: "I was weary of life, and after a day such as few have known, and none would wish to remember, was hurrying along the street to the river, when I felt a sudden check, I turned and beheld a little boy, who had caught the skirt of my cloak in his anxiety to solicit my notice. His look and manner were irresistible. No less so was the lesson he had learnt--`There are six of us, and we are dying for want of food.' `Why should I not, 'said I, to myself, `relieve this wretched family? I have the means, and it will not delay me many minutes. But what if it does?' The scene of misery he conducted me to I cannot describe. I threw them my purse, and their burst of gratitude overcame me. It filled my eyes, it went as a cordial to my heart. `I will call again tomorrow, 'I cried. `Fool that I was to think of leaving a world where such pleasure was to be had, and so cheaply!'" - Samuel Rogers (1763-1855) in "Italy."

There is something to be said about this that turns the tables of our understanding. The joy we seek comes not from seeking joy, especially not for ourselves. The same may be said of pleasure and comfort. In fact, it comes from giving it.

 

David knows trouble. He knows pain, deprivation, and sorrow. He also knows his own sin and shortcomings. His advice to the world is drawn from his experience as a man in need of friends.

So, in this hymn, David draws upon his experience to identify with one who has, in the past, been a friend to the poor. Now that he is spiritual and emotionally destitute, deserted, and ostracized, it is to God alone he can turn.

Jesus does this. He, the only truly entitled one is described as having left all his immunity behind in Philippians 2:7 ...

"but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form ..."

This was intentional, purposeful and, at great cost. His identification was designed to reverse our decline and our pattern of poverty.

"For you know the generous act[a] of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich." - 2 Corinthians 8:9

What then of those who will be agents of grace among those in need?

What are the benefits?

"... the LORD will deliver them in the time of trouble.
The LORD preserves them and keeps them alive, so that they may be happy in the land;
he does not hand them over to the will of their enemies.
The LORD sustains them on their sickbed
and ministers to them in their illness."

Nowhere does it suggest that suffering will not come. The promise is that the giver of grace will be preserve and sustained.

So, David has no immunity from suffering. In fact, he gets more than he thinks he might deserve.

"I said, "LORD, be merciful to me;
heal me, for I have sinned against you."
My enemies are saying wicked things about me:
When will he die, and his name perish?'"

"Even if they come to see me, they speak empty words;
their heart collects false rumors; they go outside and spread them."

"All my enemies whisper together about me
and devise evil against me.
A deadly thing, they say, has fastened on him;
he has taken to his bed and will never get up again."

They deride David for his pain. They make fun of him, even sport of him. They come to visit and collect material for gosip and and criticism. They use his problems as evidence against him. They spread false rumors.

They predict the worst of all possible outcomes for him.

 

Those were his enemies, but what of his friends? It is not much better. In fact, it hurts worse.

"Even my best friend, whom I trusted, who broke bread with me,
has lifted up his heel and turned against me."

But what of God.

Jesus shows us what David knew. God is the friend of sinners. God is the champion of the oppressed. God is the Father of the poor. God is the advocate of guilty repentant ones. God is the healer of broken bodies and lives. God is the the one who raises up and blesses true friends who consider the poor.

"But you, O LORD, be merciful to me and raise me up,
and I shall repay them.
By this I know you are pleased with me,
that my enemy does not triumph over me."

It is the final outcome that pronounces God's vindication. For that, we must wait even as we view it ahead through the eyes of faith. When we look at the poor. we first see Jesus, the suffering image of God. When we look at the poor, we also see ourselves, for we have been there or will be there.

When we look at the poor, we see one who is beloved and valued. We see one who is exalted and honored by God.

David, in his own vulnerability, is calling us to be the kinds of friends that he needed in his darkest moments.

He has one prayer. It is that God will keep him, that God will keep him true and integrated with that integrity that recognizes all the shoes in which he must walk. As part of that prayer, he asks that God will keep him in the place where he is always in the line of sight of God's own face.

"In my integrity you hold me fast,
and shall set me before your face for ever."

It ends where it begins, with a blessing. It started with a statement of blessing upon the one and the One who regards the poor. It ends with a blessing upon that One, HaShem, YWHW, the Most High LORD.

"Blessed be the LORD God of Israel,
from age to age. Amen. Amen."

What can we learn?

If we are to be blessed and aligned with God, we must love, value, prioritize what He loves, values, and prioritizes. The happiness we seek is built into that process and activity.

 

The Foundling Hospital Anthem, also known by its longer title "Blessed are they that considereth the poor" is a choral anthem composed by George Frideric Handel in 1749. It was written for the Foundling Hospital in London and was first performed in the chapel there. Composed 10 years before his death, it was Handel's last piece of English church music. (Source, Wikipedia, abridged by poster)

The cantata was written as part of a fund raiser among various artists to create revenue for a hospital to serve the poor. It closes with a grand rendition of "The Hallelujah Chorus."

Scripture quotes are from the 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.

Solomon, Women, Money, and Power

 

The Judgment of Solomon, 1617 by Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640)

Solomon was attracted to women and to power.

He could get both by marrying iboth.

He also enjoyed accumulating wealth, obscene and exorbitant wealth.

He found a way to satisfy his desire for what Richard Foster identified as our 3 nto most vulnerable lusts: money, sex, and power.

He could accumulate exotic women, their eclectic cultures, their family wealth, and their political alliances by marrying into wealthy and powerful families.

God, who never stopped loving or blessing Solomon in his lifetime, responded and reacted to this power grab by declaring an end to it. The united kingdom would not continue. Too much concentrated political power becomes abusive, degrading, and an amalgamated civil religion unto itself.

The state cannot become a god (or, actually it can, but it must not). That is the problem - not women as such, but idolatry and how idolatry perpetuates itself and leads us astray.

We are always in danger. By making ourselves comfortable with systems and powers, by confusing our ultimate loyalties with the symbols of empire and nationalism, by grabbing what we want and putting our own personal, national, or group interests first, we are doing a solomonic power grab.

Let us be warned and informed by the lessons of sacred history.

King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the Israelites, "You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you; for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods"

Solomon clung to these in love.

Among his wives were seven hundred princesses and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. For when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not true to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David.

For Solomon followed Astarte the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not completely follow the LORD, as his father David had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.

He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrificed to their gods.

Then the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice, and had commanded him concerning this matter, that he should not follow other gods; but he did not observe what the LORD commanded. Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, "Since this has been your mind and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant. Yet for the sake of your father David I will not do it in your lifetime; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. I will not, however, tear away the entire kingdom; I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen." - 1 Kings 11:1-13

Unfulfilled Longing to Exhilarating Praise

 

We have to get from fainting away in unfulfilled longing to exhilarating praise

It does not come with a finger snap, but it may come with a good night's sleep and a movement from one verse to the next.

We look upon God.

We behold. We experience His unfailing love.

We praise.

Keep moving through those verses and living them.

" O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
So I will bless you as long as I live;
in your name I will lift up my hands."

- Psalm 63:1-4 (ESV)

Writing is an excruciating joy.

It is to be avoided at all costs, but one ...

... the horrifying option of not doing it at all ...

... and that is unacceptable.

Jesus of Contradiction

Jesus is the master of contradiction. To the one who skims the surface of superficial consideration, he is a contradiction within himself. To those whose only lenses on God is a moralistic and vindictive vision, he contradicts God. To those rooted in the rat race of winning at all costs, his approach contradicts reality.

Yet, he keeps showing up.

The paradoxical truths contained in his life and words are our only possibility of any unity of thinking.

"You can accept Jesus, you can reject Jesus, but you cannot reasonably ignore him." - M. Scott Peck

Those words by M. Scott Peck resonate in so many ways. At the same time, Jesus himself leaves us with what seem to be conflicting messages.

They either knock us off balance or jerks us about with such definition that they restore the balance we never had. I tend to go with the second possibility.

For instance:

"Judge not."

How do you reconcile Jesus' persistent call to repentance with the rather blatant command not to judge in Matthew 7?

Pretty easily.

Matthew 7's teaching focuses on the issue of judging, or rather, not judging other people. We can find all sorts of loopholes, lots of wiggle room, and an easy 40 acres for turning our rigs around, but the point remains, Jesus is not calling us to be judgmental sour pusses, but compelling agents of grace.

Folks already know their failings. The call to repentance is joyful good news that there is a possibility and help for real change.

At the same time, he drives a hard bargain and speaks often in the imperative mood. There is an urgency and a sense of "must" in his voice. He sticks his nose in where he is not invited and he offers a message we have never heard. He  suggests an alternative way of looking at everything.

"Jesus Christ is the supreme act of divine intrusion into the world's settled arrangements" - Stanley Hauerwas

He upsets things because things are so out of kilter. The slightest interjection of truth disturbs their equilibrium. Jesus is more than a slight interjection. Love seems so harsh to the heart intent on hate.

"Jesus is the Word of God. Jesus is what God has to say. Jesus is God's ultimate act of self-disclosure." - Brian Zahnd

There are contradictions within me.

I complain about injustice and corruption in the world.

I hate crimes against people and violence. Inequity angers me. All of these things and more, I desire to see righted.

Yet, any time any one takes a big fall, I feel incredibly sad and my heart fills with compassion for them and their families.

Yes I can have it both ways.

Unless justice and mercy are making madly out in the back of the bus with sloppy kisses, something is out of balance.

Jesus follows the tradition of the prophets, but embraces the honesty of the psalms.

"The story the Psalms tell is the story Jesus came to complete. It is the story of the creator God taking his power and reigning, ruling on earth as in heaven, delighting the whole creation by sorting out its messes and muddles, its injuries and injustices, once and for all." - N. T. Wright, from The Case for the Psalms

 

 

 

Everybody Hurts - Differently

 

It is hard to empathize.

It is difficult to see things through another person's eyes.

We are pretty attached to our own perceptions and perspectives. If we see things the way they seem to us through our stories, emotions, and experiences, it is extremely challenging to step away and look on as another person.

It can even threaten our neatly wrapped world views, cleverly packaged answers, and safely secured agendas for life. Our experiences define our grasp of the world and offer us a sense of order in a disordered world.

On the other hand, our experiences can be a bridge to understanding those of others.

You can live through the same times and circumstances and come through with entirely different stories.

Not everyone experiences the past the same way.

One person's celebration is another person's misery.

The myopic soul will dismiss that insight or just pass over. Followers of the Way cannot, in good conscience do so.

The Way of Jesus calls us to deeper empathy with the pain of others.

We enter into the darkness, hopelessness, suffering, and darkness of the other so that we can see. In our seeing they can also see. We both have more options as we meet.

Still, we can choose our perspective.

I cannot understand despair until I am touched by my neighbor's.

The verge of despair is the precipice of peace.

"Only the one who has had to face despair is really convinced that that he needs mercy. Those who do not want mercy never seek it. It is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need of forgiveness. A life that is without problems may literally be more hopeless than one that always verges on despair." ― Thomas Merton

So it is that we do not traverse through life in a pain-averse dance, skipping over the obstacles to bliss as if each was a bitter enemy. We walk the path, ours alone, ours with others, and those that are not our own but we choose to walk with neighbors and friends.

We look upward to find Jesus looking down upon us and we do not see him. We look below for the everlasting arms of the Father, but they are invisible. We look ahead; we look behind until we look beside at our brother or sister.

At first, we see only them and their hurts.

Then we look deeper; indeed, it is Jesus we see. That is how he walks with us and through us, is how he walks with them.  

Graphic by Theology Matters - On Facebook and on Youtube. 

 This is tiring work because it engages every emotion and all of our spiritual energy. Even that energy that is not of ourselves, drains us as it flows through us

I retreated a few years ago. On my return, I wrote in my journal:

I am back from off the grid, but not fully on yet. It looks like the world turned and it was not all good. We were met with multiple texts and voice messages about a break in and news flashes about sending our neighbors "back" to places they do not even remember ever living. Wars. threats, and retaliation did not subside. Floods and hurricanes continued in our absence. Fires raged. We smelled the smoke. Injustice and voids of compassion all raised their voices while we relaxed and refreshed ourselves for the righteous and nonviolent war of words and love.

God let us move out of the battle for a few days and calls us back into the world to bear witness of His grace and truth. I will not crank up the computer tonight, but I know there is work to do tomorrow, proclaiming the singular Word in a cacophony of noises, shining light in a pervasive darkness, loving our friends., neighbors, and enemies. This work never ends.

It is the work of grace, of empathy, of mercy, of hearing stories not our own and telling stories yet unheard. It is the work of building new stories and offering alternative scenarios in a locked in world of  cataract vision. We put on the corrective lenses of the Spirit to see that we might show a new vision that embraces the humiliation and battle scars of others.

We can do something and accomplish something and change some things, but the first work must be inside of ourselves where we hurt and share the hurts of others. When they are not alone, they can find courage and when we are not alone, we can not only find it, but impart it.  The journey over the rocky roads of life that we share is a feast of fellowship and each evening, we come to a tent of respite until all things culminate in a great a glorious celebration.

Graphic by Theology Matters - On Facebook and on Youtube.

Since we all hurt, let us seek to understand each other and walk together toward healing, shalom, and reconciliation.

 

 

A Word of Blessing for You - If You Will Receive It

 

 

Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash

May you be blessed today, people of truth, souls of deep longing, heart walkers of grace, grace walkers of broken hearts, life livers and life givers.

May you be blessed.

May you be blessed, people of the edge, marginal pilgrims, shaky saints, trembling travelers, limping leapers, and lovers of humanity whose hands are extended into the darkness to those who dwell there, who enter the abyss with a light that gradually dissolves the fog of ambiguity and despair.

Be blessed soul travelers, guided guides, voices of hope, fellow stragglers who stagger toward something that glimmers in the darkness and the distance, swerving, swaying, yet mercifully, on course.

Be blessed, you who often fall down and mostly, rise up. Be blessed, wounded neighbor, scabbed, scarred, healing healers. Be blessed, you faithful doubters and doubting faithful who continue and thus, shake off the weights of those doubts to confidently live on.

Be blessed, witnesses of The Presence, who, with myopic eye, have seen and see and say, "Here is God and God is here."

My comrades, my kinsmen, my fellow lovers of God and people who continue and conquer through the One who loves you, Jesus people, followers of that Way and those called to follow whose calling has not be heard or comprehended, but who are being drawn or shall be drawn, my beloved. Be blessed.

" Be strong, and let your heart take courage,
all you who wait for the LORD!""
- Psalm 31:24 (ESV)

Silence and the Strife of Tongues

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Oil on board, 1563.

 

"Oh, how abundant is your goodness,
which you have stored up for those who fear you
and worked for those who take refuge in you,
in the sight of the children of mankind!
In the cover of your presence you hide them
from the plots of men;
you store them in your shelter
from the strife of tongues."
- Psalm 31:19-20 (ESV)

Continue to store us away from the strife of tongues and may our tongues not cause strife.

In a day of many wagging tongues and much strife and verbal violence, may we speak grace and filter out the graceless dissonance from our spirits, while hearing the genuine pain and heart cries of our broken and wounded neighbors.

May God's abundant goodness be upon us. May all these blessings come to you, my friends.

And sometimes, let us choose to remain silent, even when we think we have something to say that will shut the mouths of or opponents.

We have an example

" And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.”

But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed."
- Mark 15:4-5 (ESV)

In a day when we, as Christians, feel compelled to protest our losses of special privilege, criticism, insult, offense, or false characterization of our motives, we have a role model for how to handle it.

After saying all there was to say, he just went silent.

He was not standing there to defend himself. After speaking truth, he simply embodied it with humility, grace, confidence, determination, and non-resistance to the consequences.

It was his silence that amazed Pilate.

Encouragement for Those Who Labor

 

Illustration of the first American Labor parade held in New York City on September 5, 1882 as it appeared in Frank Leslie's Weekly Illustrated Newspaper's September 16, 1882 issue.

"And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." - Revelation 14:13

There is something to be written.

The visionary, John, in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, sees sights and hears sounds that amaze him.

Perhaps some are confusing, confounding, and complex. We have certainly struggled with what we have read through the centuries.

That is not the case with these simple words. They are clear, concise, and unambiguous.

“Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.”

There is something qualitatively different about the death of God’s people. Rather than tragedy, it is triumph. Rather than defeat, it is victory. Rather than loss of purpose, it is fulfillment.

It is like a day of rest from labors where he labor of their lives is honored and completed.

God knows how hard you have worked. He knows the labor of your service. He knows the work of your hands. He understands the travail of your faith. He is with you; He has been doling out strength little by little. He knows the difficulties.

He has been helping you.

He also knows when you will have had enough and completed your task. He has your retirement date in mind.

It will not be a day of regret. In will not be a day of unfinished business. It will not be a time when you look back and say, “I wish I had …” or “… if only I had not…”

He will complete whatever projects are lingering on your desk or bench. He will bring them to fulfillment and He will pass them on to others who will take up where you left off.

Your works will follow you.

You will have a legacy.

Your life purpose, expressed through your life work, will follow you and you will rest, fulfilled and content, in His presence.

That will be a nice eternal Labor Day.

A Sleepy, Heavy Heart

Agony in the Garden by El Greco

Jesus did not ask for things very often for himself. When he did, he did not ask for much.

This one night, he wanted a balance of privacy and company.

Would the disciples please stay awake, alert, and in prayer.

It was not a good night to be alone, not even with God.There were many ways they could not stay awake. Their eyes were so heavy.

I can relate to that part ... and every part.

Their hearts were heavy with the solemn mood of the evening and the dire predictions of Jesus.

Their minds were heavy, burdened with confusing words and ideas.

I have been sometimes been physically up all night preparing for medical tests requiring me to be sleep-deprived.

I am sure there are multiple lessons to learn from the experience.

I have worked all night at my desk or on a security assignment.

I wish I could say I had spent the whole night watching in prayer with Jesus.

That would have been a plan!

It still is.

Jesus said their spirits were willing, but that they had weak flesh.

That night, he struggled alone and found his strength in God alone.

That night, he was betrayed and all were scattered.

That night, he won a major victory within himself and paved the way for all sleepers to be awakened.

" And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him." - Mark 14:40 (ESV)

 

 

Coram Christus - The Presence of Christ

A creed for every occasion would be a daunting assignment.

Imagine how many occasions would cry out for and demand their own creeds!

A creed, one creed, to cover all possible occasions would equally if not more intimidating.

The core wording could be reduced to utter simplicity, but the commentary and definitions would fill volumes of annotations.  It is a take to broaden one's creedo and a take to reduce it.

I had a professor who spent a chunk of his life writing theology books to address various life stages, challenges, and questions. He could have used 200 years to get a good start.

I spent several hours settling on two words that are somewhat tentative, but expandable: Coram Christus.

Rather than translate it literally, I will say what I mean by it.

It is to live in awareness of and to reflect the presence of Christ in the world.

It is based upon a lifetime of premises and branches into a lifetime of implications.

I chose seven to apply to the moment:

1. Resist evil - In myself first, but also in the world, I desire to be part of the resistance. That has to mean being for something before I am against anything. I believe that resistance to evil manifest in hate, injustice, ignorance, corruption, and human suffering is the very definition of God's wrath that is neither opposite of or complimentary to God's love. It is God's love.

2. Stand - It is a continuation of the resistance and is the steady and sometimes static movement that places our lives and fortunes on the life for our convictions and for the people with whom we stand. It reaches beyond cause to the cause of the cause and it takes energy, courage, and faith.

3. Nothing in hand but an extended hand - We do not come to the world with a show of force, intimidating power, financial leverage, or violent intentions. We come extending our hands. We do not come with all the answers or the people who are going to rescue the world. We come as partners and fellow pilgrims. When we are with the poor, we are the poor; when we are with the oppressed, we are the oppressed. We are the immigrant, the ostracized, the marginalized, the maligned, the woman caught in adultery, the prodigal son, the Pharisee, and Publican.

4. Accept pain - It is our lot in life to suffer on three levels. We will suffer because suffering is the common experience of humanity. We take our chances, roll the dice, breathe the air swim in the gene pool, live with fallen people, and draw the cards. We will suffer because we make mistakes and bad decisions that effect our health, welfare, relationships, and economic outlook. Finally, we will suffer because we are doing what is absolutely right and there are those who wish to stop us or because our sacrifice will work for their redemption. Ours is to accept our pain whether it is random, deserve, or redemptive through our own persecution. To define our lives by pain avoidance is to miss living.

5. Inflict none - That is the goal. While we do not run from our own pain, we sprint away from the possibilities of hurting others. We will have some misses. We will, just by living and ultimately by dying, bring pain to people's lives, but our intent is to never do so, not to our loved ones, not to our friends, not to our enemies.

6. Always love - This is getting even closer to the core. Jesus reiterated the Law and the Prophets that our chief duties are to love God and love our neighbors. It is the standard by which we evaluate all of our motives and all of our behaviors.

7. Never back down - From what must we remain steady and steadfast? Not our personal rights and prerogatives. No. We must never back down from resistance to evil, standing for righteousness, extending our hands to others, accepting hardships and adversity, nonviolence, and love. We must never back down from the call to be the presence of Christ in the world when that means sticking out like a sore thumb. 

If we practice these, we can move toward being the Coram Christus, the presence of Christ in the world.

Explore More:

 

 

 

 

God's Language

“In this modern era of cosmology, evolution, and the human genome, is there still the possibility of a richly satisfying harmony between the scientific and spiritual worldviews? I answer with a resounding yes! In my view, there is no conflict in being a rigorous scientist and a person who believes in a God who takes a personal interest in each one of us. Science’s domain is to explore nature. God’s domain is in the spiritual world, a realm not possible to explore with the tools and language of science. It must be examined with the heart, the mind, and the soul—and the mind must find a way to embrace both realms.”

― Francis S. Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

What is the purest science?

What is the purest language?

Is there a cosmic language of God that serves the purposes of God within the created order and somehow reveals a glimpse of insight into the eternal language of God that is and transcends Logos?

Is it mathematics?

Is it a Fibonacci sequence?

Is it physics?

Is it a universal theory of everything and ...

If everything, what is everything?

Is it a question or is it an answer?

If it is, can it matter if we have no filters or universal translator?

Is it more dark than what we perceive as light?

Is God speaking through it? If God is speaking, are we listening at all? Have we any capacity to listen?

If the heavens declare the glory of God, how much are we perceiving?

Is direct revelation in history and prophecy a concession to our inability or unwillingness to perceive more deeply what is clearly evident?

Or is the Word being made flesh clearly the clearest message of all?

And bendable, vulnerable flesh tells more than brittle word pictures for only flesh can truly celebrate the mystery and ambiguity of not knowing while embracing what is and can be ...

Known.

 

 

You Will Know if I Am Wise

 

Photo by Guillaume de Germain on Unsplash

You will know if I am wise by my silences.

You will know if I am strong by my stewardship of weakness.

You will know if I am joyful by the freedom and grace of my tears.

I will show you power by relinquishing it.

I will demonstrate any significance that I possess by denying self-importance.

You will know me best if I talk of myself less.

You will know what I value by what I do.

You will know my love in what I am willing to lose.

I will declare my passion in my interest in yours.

I will be remembered in my willingness to be forgotten.

I will be encouraged in your courage.

I will know success in your success.

I will find hope and fulfillment in know that you have embraced these in your life.

I will die at peace if I know that I have stirred no waves of resentment or jealousy by being myself.

I will lay myself down to rest if I know that others will step into my step and maintain the uninterrupted flow of life.

If I can be unknown, unheralded, and unremarkable, that will be more than OK.

That will be a blessing.

Perhaps then, you may suspect, that I lived with a quiet wisdom and serenity and passed from here content.

You will know if I am wise by my silence.

I Am Everyman

Frontispiece from edition of Everyman published by John Sklot c. 1530.

I am every man.
I embody every extreme.
I am the plundered poor.
I am the plunderer.
I am he who treasures and keeps the Word.
I am he who wanders.
I am guarded.
I am he, from whom the guarded must be protected.
I am pure and I am vile.
I am all in one - a complete package.
I am beloved ...
I am grateful.
I need and receive grace.
At every punctuation mark of this precious Word,
I see myself.
I identify.
I do so, reluctantly.

God, you have done so, in Jesus, intentionally and redemptively.
Today, I shall rather be plundered than plunder.
I shall prefer to be defrauded than to defraud.
Let me not exalt vileness.
Let me not wander.
May I cherish that which is precious and ...
May I live in the grace that is freely given.
Thank you for another day to learn to learn ...
To embrace your truth and to be transformed by it.

Of all the people I know,
I most desperately need it.

" The words of the LORD are pure words,
like silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
purified seven times."

"You, O LORD, will keep them;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
On every side the wicked prowl,
as vileness is exalted among the children of man."

- Psalm 12:6-8 (ESV)

 

 

For those who enjoy mysteries, a mystery is compelling.

The misery is to uncover the answer too quickly.

We want to know it all and follow every angle.

Even if the mystery is contained in one's own body, the intrigue of it all is not diminished.

No one body is identical to another. None can predict the resiliency or mortality of the human machine. The more we know, the less we know, and the more we want to know. Is it this or is it that or is it both or neither?

I am often the patient, but also an interested observer, student, and process participant in this mystery-adventure. I am grateful today for information and those willing to make it available.

Part of me enjoys this visit to a university teaching hospital , as learning and teaching center.

Part of me dreads coming back for more tests.

Most of me is fascinated by opportunities to learn, grow, and pursue health.

All of me is grateful to God and humanity for the curiosity that leads to answers in the pursuit of mastery of mystery.

I see this pointing to some eternal lessons and about those mysteries, I reflect and journal.

The Capacity of Our Compassion in Prayer

Photo by Ludovic François on Unsplash

What is the capacity of my compassion?

Sometimes people polarize around prayer and get energized or offended by the object of a prayer request.

Sort of misses the point of prayer.

God, fashion my prayers within me that they might flow through me and return to you with a sincerity, purity, and compassion that is beyond my capacity ...

... and divorced from my proclivities.

Prodded, perplexed, pondering, persuaded, and prompted to activation is often my story like a God awakening in pain to heal and stir my heart.

Let me not be polarized by prayer, neither within my divided heart nor in division from my brothers and sisters.

We are one flesh. We are one blood. We are one broken bread.

The very audacity that I should use my limited capacity in bombastic utterence to exclude or posture for position.

"He brought me out into a broad place; he rescued me, because he delighted in me." - Psalm 18:19 (ESV)

That is for me.

That is for you.

I must place myself in the place where the space is wide enough to receive you and to receive grace.

And whether I speak these words of myself or others, may I pray their intention daily:

I am weary with my moaning;
every night I flood my bed with tears;
I drench my couch with my weeping.
My eye wastes away because of grief;
it grows weak because of all my foes.
- Psalm 6:6-7 (ESV)

I know this describes where some of you are today, weariness, tears, weeping, groaning, and weakness.

Know this from the psalm, that it is OK to tell God. Know this also, that God knows, understands, cares, and enters into your experience.

My those of us who intercede, enter in as well.

Know even more that there is a parallel story being written about your journey.

It is a story that is far more accurate because it is wrapped up in the final paragraphs, more accurate because it knows and tells the unseen and unperceived realities that are active all around you.

It is more complete because God wins and you win.

 

 

Reporting for Duty

 

Photo by Jack Sharp on Unsplash

Father, I am reporting for duty.

It is a joy to do so. Just the idea of being chosen for anything thrills and humbles me. Unworthy as I am, you see something in me that you can use because you put it there.

Ignite it, God. Fan the flame and let it burn ... that it ... that something ... that investment you made in me by your grace.

I am here. I have some things to do, but that is all I know about the agenda for the day ... dates, times, places, tasks. These are important, I know, but they are not the real agenda. You know that. You know why I got up this morning and why I am praying this prayer.

Frankly, I wear a bit of confusion and uncertainty about today and tomorrow and the next day. Sometimes that feels like adventure. Sometimes that feels like being a bit unfocused or vulnerable. But that is OK. I have learned by faith and experience that you are guiding me in ways that I can only perceive through reflection and observation in the moment. I trust you.

I want to truly love you today and serve you and I sense that I must do that by loving the ones you love so much.

Love them through me. I expect to encounter some difficult people, some folks for whom love will not flow naturally for and from me. It will just have to come from you through me and, for that, I am available. In that process, change my heart. Make me more loving in a spontaneous way.

I want to follow Jesus today.

I want to keep in step with Him and see things the way He does. I have opinions, preconceptions, biases, and more than a couple pet peeves. But I sense that He walks right through these leading me in unexpected ways. When I follow Him ... when I follow you, I end up in some very strange situations, sometime caught off-guard, surprising places where I discover that He is already working and I am at home. I can't explain this life, but I embrace it.

Enter into my tasks, dear God. Enter and transform so that everything mundane job becomes worship of you.

Take my mood swings, my crusty gruffness, my irritability, my selfish desires, and my quirky quips and nail them to the cross. One they and I have died, re-resurrect them and me into something usable for you.

Thank you for forgiving me at my worst and loving me there,.

Thank you for this new life and for all the precious companions you have brought my way to share my journey. Bless them. Some of them are going through very hard times, times and challenges that I cannot even sort out, pain I cannot imagine. Love them, Lord. I know you do. Love them through me. Meet them in their trials and lead them through.

Bless your church and your churches, those that I am honored to serve and those that my friends serve. As we serve them, may we and I see your bride, Jesus, a people for who you gave all of yourself in sacrifice.

May I discern your body, flawed on earth and perfected in eternity. May I learn to love your bride here especially in light of what she is becoming in you.

It is a great mystery and I only perceive it in small doses.

But I am praying that the body of Christ will somehow recenter, refocus, and realign itself with you and your purposes. In any way that I may be an influence in that direction, make me available to you.

I also am flawed, very flawed, very vulnerable, imperfect, and needy. I limp to your altar. I am unkempt, unshaven, a bit battered, and joyfully expectant. Clean me up, Lord and send me out. Grace - I drink it and it rolls down my lips. I take it from your well and pour it all over me. Grace!!!!

Gracious God! Thank you.

What a mighty, awesome, fearful God you are. You are like the lion Aslan to me.

Something says "stay away" as you roar. My natural man fears your power and worships you in your glory. But you draw me in mercy and love and I cannot stay away. What I fear calls me to come.

What I dread compels me. What shocks me, creates in me a wondrous curiosity to love you and know you and the more I know, the more I love and the less I know and the more I know and the more I want to know and the more I know that I do not want to spend one second away from you or outside of this glorious calling.

I don't have to figure it all out. If I follow, I will get it little by little and I will be where you want me to be because I will be with you and find you in the oddest places and circumstances.

Keep my eyes open today for that sort of thing.

There are many I desire to bring along on this journey and I have named there names before you.

Others are in my heart and I bring them to you. Some are broken on the wheel of life and need mending. Some are deeply troubled and need peace. Some need healing in their bodies. Some are right here on Facebook, reading this prayer, praying it with me, and are included in the circle of love that is ever-expanding,.

This prayer is for them as while ... my beloved .... Your beloved.

Abba, Father, Dad. I did not really know how to pray today.

You know me. You know I have days like that. Far from being a spiritual giant, I am a spiritual child, but you accept me and allow me to pray as I will and you meet me there and teach me there. This is private prayer in a quasi-public "place and there is much more within that is very private that I expose to you and you know and you meet me there.

It is a Romans 8 sort of thing. But I sense that I am ready now, readier than I was a few moments ago. You have a word for me and I am going to read it, digest it, and get going.

Please go with me as I go with you.

In Your Son, Jesus' Name, my Lord, I pray.

Amen.

 

 

Above My Pay Grade

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

Sometimes we avoid controversy and sometimes we seize it as an opportunistic and teachable moment.

"When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, 'Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead.'"

Paul had nothing to lose and a great opportunity to gain by stepping into the middle of a great debate and offering a third alternative.

His was an alternative of hope and it took him far above his personal competency, able scholar and debater that he was.

Since he wanted to find out what Paul was being accused of by the Jews, the next day he released him and ordered the chief priests and the entire council to meet. He brought Paul down and had him stand before them.

While Paul was looking intently at the council he said, "Brothers, up to this day I have lived my life with a clear conscience before God."

Then the high priest Ananias ordered those standing near him to strike him on the mouth. At this Paul said to him, "God will strike you, you whitewashed wall! Are you sitting there to judge me according to the law, and yet in violation of the law you order me to be struck?" Those standing nearby said, "Do you dare to insult God's high priest?"

And Paul said, "I did not realize, brothers, that he was high priest; for it is written, 'You shall not speak evil of a leader of your people.'"

When Paul noticed that some were Sadducees and others were Pharisees, he called out in the council, "Brothers, I am a Pharisee, a son of Pharisees. I am on trial concerning the hope of the resurrection of the dead."

When he said this, a dissension began between the Pharisees and the Sadducees, and the assembly was divided. (The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection, or angel, or spirit; but the Pharisees acknowledge all three.)

Then a great clamor arose, and certain scribes of the Pharisees' group stood up and contended, "We find nothing wrong with this man. What if a spirit or an angel has spoken to him?"

When the dissension became violent, the tribune, fearing that they would tear Paul to pieces, ordered the soldiers to go down, take him by force, and bring him into the barracks. That night the Lord stood near him and said, "Keep up your courage! For just as you have testified for me in Jerusalem, so you must bear witness also in Rome." - Acts 22:30-23:11

Perhaps, I sometimes get into life, meaning, and theological/philosophical thinking way above my "pay grade."

Do you ever over-agonize the bigger, deeper, loftier issues in the land of awe and wonder? It is not a call the shallow thinking or disengagement of our intellect, but a reminder of the limits of our consciousness.

We come to the end of our capacity where we integrate, frustrate, of meditate. It is there where we can emancipate ourselves from a world of care by becoming children again, resting as with our mother, not quite an infant, but not yet big kids either, just little children.

There, we are hopeful.

There, the resurrection is our one, viable, living, breathing, sustaining, and certain reality. Then, of that, we speak.

In a disturbing, confusing, complex, and deeply divided world, we are not going to figure it all out.

We are set in a far more chaotic universe where the order of things does not always readily appear. But we must live daily and daily, we must make little decisions.

How do we calm and quiet our souls when we want to take charge and fix everything and issues vie for our attention and everyone is shouting their own opinions at each other and we somehow long for non-synthetic synthesis and quiet?

How?

We keep ascending and we consciously, keep resting and hoping in God.

And we keep reminding ourselves that some fixes will always be above our pay grades.

" A Song of Ascents. Of David.

O LORD, my heart is not lifted up;
my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
too great and too marvelous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

O Israel, hope in the LORD
from this time forth and forevermore." -Psalm 131 (ESV)

Whether above or below our pay grade, we have one great message. It is a simple message and it is a message of great hope.

 

 

Everybody Is a Somebody

 

Photo by Zac Durant on Unsplash

I wrote this seven years ago:

Everybody is somebody.

Yesterday, I was visited by four homeless men at our church.

Two just came to hang out. They are my friends. They updated me on their lives. One had a cup of coffee, told me I looked tired, and advised me to go home and get some rest.

That was Rodney - a really good guy, but a clear SSI candidate who has somehow become severed from his check by a glitch in the system.

Rodney hung out and advised several people who came by with his insights into life. Mostly, he was right.

He did ask one favor. He borrowed my phone to try and call his elderly mother.

Another friend just asked for some water and we talked. While we were talking, two guys about to be on the street came by and we tried to coach and advise them. This guy has a short frustration fuse, but a really good mind and a desire to work.

He does work. Survival is very, very hard work.

This was yesterday. These were just people ... valuable people ... God's people .... our people.

 

 

 

We Become Like the Idols We Create

 

Moses Indignant at the Golden Calfby William Blake, 1799–1800

How do we become like the idols we create?

What are the characteristics and limitations on the objects we worship that shape us into their own image?

We make them in our images and find ourselves sucked into that place where we were when we made them and from there, we descend.

But these are the the psalms that follow after the Songs of Ascent. We have arrived at the holy hill and we must decide what we will worship.

We can still go higher, but not as long as we impose our own ideas, desires, motives, and biases upon our own worship. We cannot build our truth around our lifestyles.

We must conform our lifestyles to truth.

Not only our lifestyles, but our thoughts, our theological constructs, our worship, and our devotion must conform to truth.

What we worship will always shape us.

We will become more and more like what we worship or who we worship.

If we worship what we ourselves create, then we are worshiping something less then ourselves (much more -- far less than God who created us). We will be worshiping that which, by nature, disintegrates and we shall disintegrate as well.

It is not that we are not made in the image of God nor than our creations are made in our images. It is that, We are not God and they are not us. With each degree of separation, there is disintegration. We must aim for what is authentic and true ... and above us.

If we worship that which infinite and eternal ... the potential for growth is eternally expansive.

It is our choice.

"The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
the work of human hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
they have eyes, but do not see;
they have ears, but do not hear,
nor is there any breath in their mouths.
Those who make them become like them,
so do all who trust in them. "-Psalm 135:15-18 (ESV)

 

 

 

 

What is remarkable about the story and the reason for its retelling by the gospel compiler, Matthew, is the person being addressed.

1. First, she was a foreigner who was (a) the object of hostility and (b) outside the scope of Jesus' immediate (but not ultimate) mission focus.

2). Second, she was astute to Jesus' humor and saw beneath the words being spoken by Jesus to set up a teachable moment. He might have seemed to be putting her off or putting her down, but he could tell she would not be deterred.

3) Third, she was not easily detracted. She had a real need for her daughter's well-being and she was not going to take "no" for an answer. So, she got in touch with her sassy, witty side and responded in kind.

Jesus interpreted that as faith.

Matthew does not record the smiles and winks, but if you read between the lines, they are embedded in the dialogue.

Matthew 15:28 :Then Jesus answered her, “Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed instantly.

Poison Power

 

We've been resisting the same sucking vacuum since the first century. It is shaping the gospel of the kingdom into the framework of our old thinking and commercial/political/cultural (whatever) interests rather than allowing it to shape us into a new way of thinking, living, and relating.

We are predisposed through our old nature to accumulate and celebrate our own power and wield it over others. It may be the power of position, money, influence, or control. It may be spiritual power that we want for our own purposes.

But power exists as an outflow of God's nature and for His purposes and He entrusts it to us freely to serve Him and to serve people.

Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit.

Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”

But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money! You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent, therefore, of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven you."

"For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.”

And Simon answered, 'Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.'"

- Acts 8:14-24 (ESV)

Simeon's money was doomed to perish with his thinking and his very life if not transformed. He needed and, after rebuke, sought a new way of thinking that started with humility.

We are not safe people with power short of humility and an understanding that the gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity are wicked and signs of a heart condition.

Gall poisons us. Iniquity binds us. When we want, want, want what we want and lust for power over people, we poison and enslave ourselves.

Like so many bad examples, Simeon provides a very useful mirror to our own souls about what we need to ask God to forgive and to change in us.

 

Because No One Knew He Was There

 

Find your own personal power, centers of influence, and spheres where your voice is heard, and exercise them for justice, truth, righteousness, love, and peace.

God has given them to you to use for what is right.

It is up to you to find and use them.

Here is that whole text:

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I understand there are a good many Southerners in the room tonight. I know the South very well. I spent twenty years there one night."

"Last time I was down South I walked into this restaurant and this white waitress came up to me and said, 'We don't serve colored people here.' I said, 'That's all right. I don't eat colored people. Bring me a whole fried chicken.'"

Then these three white boys came up to me and said, 'Boy, we're giving you fair warning. Anything you do to that chicken, we're gonna do to you.' So I put down my knife and fork, I picked up that chicken and I kissed it. Then I said, 'Line up, boys!'"

"Once I accept injustice, I become injustice. For example, paper mills give off a terrible stench. But the people who work there don't smell it. Remember, Dr. King was assassinated when he went to work for garbage collectors. To help them as workers to enforce their rights. They couldn't smell the stench of the garbage all around them anymore. They were used to it. They would eat their lunch out of a brown bag sitting on the garbage truck. One day, a worker was sitting inside the back of the truck on top of the garbage, and got crushed to death because no one knew he was there." - Dick Gregory

Here is my take-away today:

The man  on the back of the garbage truck, making the best of his situation and environment, died because no one knew he was there.

To borrow the title of Ralph Ellison's 1952 classic, he was an invisible man.

His contribution to society was invisible and unseen. So was the injustice that shaped his invisible world. His pain was unseen. His body blended in with the garbage around him and he was swept up in the indiscriminate sweep of all that seemed disposable.

Yet, in death, he became visible.

And Dr. King saw him so vividly and clearly that, in his light, he saw the hundreds of people in the same situation and he went to Memphis to help make them visible.

In his visibility, he became a target and there,in Memphis, he died a martyr's death.

Once I accept injustice, I become injustice.

We cannot accept injustice or let it remain invisible. Nor can we accept the fact that any of our brothers and sisters can sit in the garbage without anyone knowing they are there.

We cannot allow people to be swept away in the daily removal of waster and refuse.

I say it again:

Find your own personal power, centers of influence, and spheres where your voice is heard, and exercise them for justice, truth, righteousness, love, and peace.

Pernicious Unbelief

Kiss o Judas

Giotto di Bondone - Original: http://history.hanover.edu/courses/art/giojud.html Archived: https://www.webcitation.org/6V8lU8tfc

I heard about pernicious unbelief and assumed the definition until I was diagnosed with pernicious anemia ... then I wanted a more accurate definition. Pernicious means deadly.

Thankfully, there is a cure for pernicious anemia, an injection of B12.

The cure for pernicious unbelief is a decision to seek and be open to the truth that becomes clear to our hearts.

"You have seen me, but do not believe."

In John 6, Jesus has been asked for big signs, bigger than the mass feedings, bigger than walking on water, bigger than calming the sea, more like daily food for the rest of everyone's life.

"Lord, always give us this bread,"

they say after asking,

"What sign will you perform then, that we may see it and believe?"

Without exasperation, but with some penetrating insight, Jesus declares in verse 36,

"But I said to you that you also have seen me and do not believe"

The indictment here is not on those who have not seen. It is not on those who are seeking truth with all their hearts. It is not on those who are struggling. Folks who struggle with faith issues get a lot of slack from Jesus. Remember the guys who said,

"Lord I believe, help me with my unbelief?"

Jesus had no problem with that man.

Jesus is slamming the guys with an agenda who have to work hard not to believe.

You won't catch me maligning, ridiculing, or stereotyping you as evil if you are an honest atheist or agnostic.

That is not what Jesus is doing either.

Imagine someone being presented with all the evidence anyone would ever need to receive a truth as truth. Imagine that the truth was clearly embodied in a person and that person was standing before you. Imagine that you know that he is true, but you refuse to believe.

The most common case is the conversation in John 6.

Perhaps the most egregious is seen in Judas who, knowing what he knows, and believing what he believes with his mind, chooses unbelief of the heart - his own personal agenda.

That is what Jesus is criticizing.

When the psalmist says that the fool has said in his heart that there is no God, he is referring the the decision making capacity of a person.

The heart is the control room of ones life in ancient usage of the word. It is where we decide and commit. We know things with our minds and then, in an experiential way. We can even start the process of believing with our minds. However, if it does not reach our hearts where we commit to it and begin to internalize it, it is the kind of faith without works that James says is dead.

There are many who profess belief in God, even in Jesus, who are "fools" by this definition. They are not honest intellectual atheists. They are practical atheists. The men who were grilling Jesus for more proof already believed more than they were willing to commit to in faith.

They were just resisting.

I am not advocating for atheism or agnosticism. Whatever journey you are on, I pray that you are seeking through the possibilities that there is something greater than you or the universe that gives the universe and your own life, meaning and purpose. God is very patient with seekers and we should be as well.

I am talking about the hard of heart whose motives for not receiving truth have more to do with their own self-interests and prejudice than with their doubts.

When not believing starts to take more effort than believing, then it becomes stubbornness. That, then, is what Jesus means when He says,

"You have seen and do not believe."

The cure for pernicious unbelief is a decision to seek and be open to the truth that becomes clear to our hearts.

 

Just too lighten things up a bit, here is a song about joy ... or not.

 

 

The Conversation

 

 

Concerning our current level of national discourse ...

I am discouraged, but not hopeless.

I am skeptical, but not cynical.

I am weary, but not worn out.

I will continue to advocate for better conversation, dialogue, and discourse ... and that will involve naming some behaviors that hinder it.

It was Thomas Fuller who penned,

"'They say so' is half a lie."

Fuller was still a relatively young man when he died in 1661, but he lived long enough to grasp this reality.

Those who say, "they say," are really saying, "I think, but I don't want to say that I say.'

In the first place, "they say" is deceptive because it implies that there is a large body of agreement among the masses. If that were true, THEY would have spoken with a louder voice.

In the second place, "they say" is deceptive because it insinuates that "they" have appointed "you" as "their" spokesperson. That is seldom the case.

In the third place, it is deceptive because the speaker is masking his or her own opinion as that of others and taking no responsibility for it or ownership of it. There is a suggestion of neutrality that does not exist.

"They say" is essentially dishonest, divisive, disruptive, and intentionally discouraging to the person being addressed. It is manipulative and passive aggressive in its content and delivery.

So, how does one respond to the "theysayers" and "naysayers?"

One response would be, and courtesy is recommended, "Thank you alerting me to this, but I would like them to tell me what they think. What I am interested in now is what do you think?"

Another would be, "Before you tell me more, can you tell me who they are? It is only fair that I speak with them personally about this since this is their opinion and I cannot ask you to convey my answer to them. I am sure you would agree that would not be an honest way for me to deal with them."

What we must never do is give prolonged audience to this form of gossip and thinly disguised criticism.

Fuller lived with controversy and was, himself, controversial.

Controversy is not a bad thing. It can be very beneficial. Neither is conflict negative. But dishonest communication, murmuring, negative whispers, and third party communication are never productive and never solve problems.

Just as authentic theology is about meeting face to face, so is all human communication.

"They say," is, in fact, a very big lie.

And furthermore ...

"A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions." - Proverbs 18:2

Am I in monologue or dialogue?

"An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends; he defies all sound judgment. " - Proverbs 18:1

Unfriendly and "unfriended!"

To employ graceless conversation, strategies, and methodologies to simply win at political debate is a foreign concept to the Jesus ethic.

To malign ones opponents in pursuit of gaining advantage is sinful.

" 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 120:6-7 (ESV)

When We Mourn Together

 

We have private and public grief as well as cultural grief.

Cultural grief sometimes finds expression in the death of high profile people whose lives, work, or reputations have touched, informed, and enlightened our own lives.

We tend to mourn them in public comments, statements, and rituals and those movements of our lives teach us how to better deal with our grief in our personal lives, families, and communities ...

It is best if we do not do so alone.

When We Mourn Together ...

... we heal and grow.

There is always more to any of us than meets the eye.

May we all take time to look into the eyes and hearts of our neighbors, ask questions, stop and listen, and listen some more and sometimes just sit and stare and the sky together.

Life is a vapor, but a very wonderful vapor. With all the pain and sorrow, may joy envelop your days for in joy, there are moments of grace.

It is good for a people to mourn together.

 

Jewish tradition has given us an example of a formal ritual prayer of mourning called the Mourners' Kaddish.

Mourner’s Kaddish in English Translation

Glorified and sanctified be God’s great name throughout the world
which He has created according to His will.

May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and during your days,
and within the life of the entire House of Israel, speedily and soon;
and say, Amen.

May His great name be blessed forever and to all eternity.

Blessed and praised, glorified and exalted, extolled and honored,
adored and lauded be the name of the Holy One, blessed be He,
beyond all the blessings and hymns, praises and consolations that
are ever spoken in the world; and say, Amen.

May there be abundant peace from heaven, and life, for us
and for all Israel; and say, Amen.

He who creates peace in His celestial heights,
may He create peace for us and for all Israel;
and say, Amen.

Source

 

 

 

Faith and Faithquakes

William Jeffrey (1826-1877) - http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait/mw04113/George-MacDonald

 

"Where there are no doubts, no questions, no perplexities, there can be no growth into the regions where He would have us walk. Doubts are the only means through which He can enlarge our spiritual selves." -George MacDonald

Doubts giving birth to deeper faith.

This is the ministry of perplexity.

This is the simplicity of complexity and the complexity of simplicity.

This is the resolution of struggle in the quest for that rest that will not rest in easy answers or shallow understanding.

Gravity is drawn toward the pebbles on the surface, but truth calls to the deeper rocks hidden beneath that surface.

Faithquakes come and that which is anchored endures, but that anchoring has come through some Peniel nights where we wrestle for the blessing.

Salvation is free, by grace, through faith, but growth in faith is a pricey proposition.

It stretches us and then, settles us till the next quake and opportunity to dig deeper.

Aerial photo of the San Andreas Fault in the Carrizo Plain, northwest of Los Angeles

 

Within the Limits

There was a fun game on Twitter a couple of years ago, before the character limit changed from 140 to 280.

How much could you say and how close could you get to the limit?

I kept a few of mine:

It is a fun game to see how close you can come to 0 characters left without actually going over. This will not be a winning entry.

When we run out of spaces for our lofty and exorbitant processions of verbiage, we can always link to a blog or put our words in a graphic.

Twitter forces us to chip away at needless words and simmer the stew of thought down to the most fragrant and nutrient rich essence: truth.

The soul is quieted for sleep, but awakened for what may be next -a great idea, a sweet and profound chord, a moment of truth, inspiration.

What I have to say is hard to say in 140 characters, but if that is all I have, I should make what little I can say as truthful as possible.

Words matter.
Ideas matter more.
It's always nice when they connect.
Better still, when truth grounds them
And they are allowed to soar.

Life, liberty, pursuit of happiness- ideas that can't be contained within a race, class, or even nation - dynamic stumbling blocks of truth.

Our founders had flawed motives, but latched onto an idea that was bigger than them, had a life of its own, and must be fleshed out by us.

 

Let's Grow Old Together

.

U.S. Post Office; Smithsonian National Postal Museum; Image enlarged and rendered for tone, clarity by Gwillhickers

 

"At twenty a man is full of fight and hope. He wants to reform the world.
When he's seventy he still wants to reform the world, but he knows he can't."
- Clarence S. Darrow

I guess I'll have to wait a few short years to find out, but I do not believe that is true in all cases.

I know people who have truly awakened for the first time at 70.

Nelson Mandela was nearly 72 when he was released from prison and began to reshape South Africa.  In his 90s, he was still reforming the world.

Anna Mary Robertson Moses, best known as Grandma Moses, did not start painting seriously until she was 78. In 2006, one of her folk art paintings sold for 1.2 million dollars.

In their obituary, when she died, The New York Times said,

"The simple realism, nostalgic atmosphere and luminous color with which Grandma Moses portrayed simple farm life and rural countryside won her a wide following. She was able to capture the excitement of winter's first snow, Thanksgiving preparations and the new, young green of oncoming spring... In person, Grandma Moses charmed wherever she went. A tiny, lively woman with mischievous gray eyes and a quick wit, she could be sharp-tongued with a sycophant and stern with an errant grandchild."

Harlan Sanders did not start Kentucky Fried Children until he was 65 and invested his Social Security check. Sanders allegedly had 1,009 rejections when trying to establish his franchise. Among them, was the grandfather of a friend who gave me a personal account of his story and regrets.

Stan Lee of Marvel Comics fame, created iconic characters into his 90s, but did not start until he was 39.

Likewise, Julia Child did not publish her first cook book until she was 50.

Samuel L. Jackson got his acting break at 43.

Ray Kroc, who successfully franchised McDonald's, did not buy his first franchise until he was 53.

Astronaut and Senator John Glenn returned to space in his late 70s to study the dynamics of space travel related to aging.

It is a long list and gets even longer when it includes those who started young and  remained active well into their golden years.

Big dreamers never stop dreaming and hoping. They do so because they believe they can make a difference.

Darrow may have been right about a couple of things:

1. We learn we cannot change the world all by ourselves. It takes teamwork, community, and cooperation.

2. We learn that it can't be done overnight and we may not live to see all the changes we desire. The writer of Hebrews says that the heroes of old days died in faith embracing a promise that would only be fulfilled in later generations.

However, that is no reason for discouragement because real dreamers have visions that extend beyond themselves and their lifespans.

Growing old is and can be a wonderful thing.

In fact, I know a freedom today that I have never experienced at any other time in my life. I plan to use that to make a difference.

Growing old with others can also be loads of fun.

Let's keep changing the world as long as we are breathing.

Grow old along with me!
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made:
Our times are in His hand
Who saith "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!"
- Robert Browning

 

 

 

Courage and Beyond ... to Grace

Photo by x ) on Unsplash

 

Courage emerges
Valiantly
When you know what to do
And you know the cost
And you know that you must
And you face your fears
And do what must be done.

Faith raises its hand
To be recognized
When you know the reasons
Not to believe
And, not sure
That you believe
You breathe a prayer,
"Help my unbelief,"
And jump.

Love sings.
Present and melodious
When all the reasons
Not to love
Are obvious
And you set them aside
To do your best
For the one you choose
To love
In joy!

Joy bounces
To the forefront
When tears
Well up
And heartaches
Swell up
And you choose
To rely on God
And rejoice in God
And receive from God,
Shalom.

Peace manifests
When storms toss your boat,
And you've lost your way,
With no guarantees
And no visible way around the fear
And you trust.

Trust is always ...

Timely
Resting
Under a
Simple
Truth:

God loves me.
God is with me.
God will see me

And protect me.

My life is in God's hands.

Grace
Dances onto
The stage
Bows,
Grins,
Smiles,
Chuckles,
Roars with laughter,
And then,
Starts passing out presents
For no reason at all.

Courage,
Faith,
Love,
Joy,
Peace,
Trust,
All present ...

For God is present.

God is present
When ...

... Well ...

God is never absent.

 

 

 

Photo by kevin Tosh on Unsplash

John 6.

 ³⁰So they asked him, "What miraculous sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? ³¹Our forefathers ate the manna in the desert; as it is written: 'He gave them bread from heaven to eat.""

 ³²Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. ³³For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world."

 ³⁴"Sir," they said, "from now on give us this bread."

 ³⁵Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in
me will never be thirsty. ³⁶But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. ³⁷All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. ³⁸For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. ³⁹And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. ⁴⁰For my Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

 ⁴¹At this the Jews began to grumble about him because he said, "I am the bread that came down from heaven."

Jesus takes us further and deeper. He does this in answer to their very shallow questions. They ask for signs. Jesus points to Himself.

He is the source of satisfaction.

He is the source of purpose.

He is the source of soul nurture.

He gives eternal life.

Looking at both of these passages, and slightly ahead, the observation can be made as an acronym for BREAD.

B - Behavior flows from being and believing. It is Jesus' being and our believe in who He is that transforms who we are and how we behave/work.

R - Receiving the gift indicates that He has received us. Jesus is the Father's gift to us and we are the Father's gift to Jesus. When we receive Him, He receives us and never loses us. They asked for Him to give them the bread, but after He explained it, they were not so sure about receiving it.

E - Eating is what we do with bread. There will be more on this next week. However, today, the message is that we  taste eternity and are nourished by our relationship with Jesus to the extent to which we eat, which is to say, internalize His presence in our lives.

A - Agree with Him as to who He is. Attend to His words. Anticipate His promises. Announce them. In so doing, we will be involved with Him in His work. If we are what we eat, in this case, it means total alignment with Jesus Christ.

D - Decide that Jesus is the bread of life and that He is all the food you need for living life in the Spirit in the midst of time.

Those are some glimpses and thoughts to propel your own insights into Jesus, the Bread of Life

Stewardship of Power

 

Photo by Marisa Barrett on Unsplash

Why do we abuse power? I think it would be dangerous to oversimplify the answer, but we have some hints.

We do not understand power or appreciate its purpose.

Power is given to any of us for the purpose of service. We are entrusted with it, but it is not ours. It is a stewardship, but we grow possessive of it.

That is when we get into a danger zone. What we think we own, but suspect we do not, we grow to like too much and we start to defend it at all costs.

We divide the world into friends and enemies of our protected power and quest for more power. Our addiction to power, like any other addiction, causes us to act irrationally and even brutally.

We cannot handle power unless we work to maintain the attitude of a servant who is merely a steward of power that is not our own.

It can happen any time, to any people, anywhere that abuse of power becomes institutionalized, justified, and memorialized. Even if it grows out of a good cause or a noble endeavor, we must handle power as the powder keg of potential abuse that it is.

Power exists to serve.

Asking the Right Question

 

The Pool of Bethesda painting by Robert Bateman (1877)

Jesus asked the right question, "Do you want to be healed?"

The man heard it through his own filters and thought his answer was contingent on his preconceptions of getting in the water.

That was not the case.

Right question, wrong answer, but Jesus did not give up and the man was healed.

" Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed.

One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years.

When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”

The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.”

Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk.”

And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked."

"Now that day was the Sabbath."

-John 5:2-9 (ESV)

The last statement brings up a whole different subject and yet, the main subject of the story

            - how we get locked in by our limited thinking and the boxes in which we try to fit God.

Do You Preach On ... ?

 

Photo by Nycholas Benaia on Unsplash

 

People ask if I preach ON sin, judgment, heaven, hell, this, or that.

No.

What do you preach on?

I don't preach ON anything.

What do you do then?

I preach FROM something and TO something and TO someones.

FROM the scriptures and TO people, the times, people living in the times, issues, and answers.

Preaching ON is grabbing topics out of the air. It is the wrong starting place. The Bible addresses all of the issues directly or indirectly.

If we take it seriously and let it penetrate our hearts, it will expose our racism, our self-centered ways, our idolatry for wicked oppressing systems, and everything else we so easily avoid by preaching ON them, ABOUT them, or AROUND them.

It brings eternal truth to bear upon temporal circumstances and choices.

We do not avoid the issues; we just start with what God says to them.

And the Holy Spirit can bring deep conviction and conversion ... and sometimes uses us to tighten the screws.

So, having said that, here is an application from a couple of years ago:

ALT-RIGHT is really ALTERED-RIGHT and is ALL-WRONG.

Bring Him Home - God in the Midst of Our Human Ugliness

 

A depiction of the woman of Tekoa before David, by Caspar Luiken.

 

Here is a story.

 

It is a story about a homecoming.

 

A wise woman of Tekoa tricks the king of Israel into bringing his son home from his flight.

 

Absalom had murdered his brother who had raped his sister. None of it is a pretty story.

 

David is conflicted between what he assumes to be the polar opposites of love and justice...

 

or love for one...

or the other.

 

It is a story of humanity, flawed and raw.

It is the story of people working it out, not always honorable.

Yet, there is a spark of openness, a yearning for truth,

... a glimmer of love.

It is very, very human.

It is very real.

We have experienced much of this.

And we ask, "How is this in the Bible?"

How is this the Word of God?"

 

The real question is , "Where do we find God in the midst?"

 

God is always in the midst, then and now ....

present in every flawed human interaction,

present in every space where ugliness prevails.

 

And God is ever present in the now,

in our own ugliness,

in the middle of our manipulative, decisive, and deceptive ways.

 

Ours is to seek and ask ...

"What is God saying?"

 

In the midst?

 

And it is not always simple.

It is sometimes a wrestling match where we get

exhausted,

wounded,

marked for life ...

 

... and that is a good thing ...

 

It shapes us."

 

Because the Word comes to do more than inform us or tell us an interesting story.

 

And...

 

It always involves a homecoming.

 

 

2 Samuel 14:1-20 (NRSV)

Now Joab son of Zeruiah perceived that the king's mind was on Absalom. Joab sent to Tekoa and brought from there a wise woman.

 

He said to her, "Pretend to be a mourner; put on mourning garments, do not anoint yourself with oil, but behave like a woman who has been mourning many days for the dead. Go to the king and speak to him as follows."

 

And Joab put the words into her mouth. When the woman of Tekoa came to the king, she fell on her face to the ground and did obeisance, and said, "Help, O king!"

 

The king asked her, "What is your trouble?"

 

She answered, "Alas, I am a widow; my husband is dead. Your servant had two sons, and they fought with one another in the field; there was no one to part them, and one struck the other and killed him. Now the whole family has risen against your servant. They say, 'Give up the man who struck his brother, so that we may kill him for the life of his brother whom he murdered, even if we destroy the heir as well.'"

 

"Thus they would quench my one remaining ember, and leave to my husband neither name nor remnant on the face of the earth."

 

Then the king said to the woman, "Go to your house, and I will give orders concerning you."

 

The woman of Tekoa said to the king, "On me be the guilt, my lord the king, and on my father's house; let the king and his throne be guiltless."

 

The king said, "If anyone says anything to you, bring him to me, and he shall never touch you again."

 

Then she said, "Please, may the king keep the LORD your God in mind, so that the avenger of blood may kill no more, and my son not be destroyed."

 

He said, "As the LORD lives, not one hair of your son shall fall to the ground."

 

Then the woman said, "Please let your servant speak a word to my lord the king."

 

He said, "Speak." The woman said, "Why then have you planned such a thing against the people of God? For in giving this decision the king convicts himself, inasmuch as the king does not bring his banished one home again. We must all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which cannot be gathered up."

 

"But God will not take away a life; he will devise plans so as not to keep an outcast banished forever from his presence. Now I have come to say this to my lord the king because the people have made me afraid; your servant thought, 'I will speak to the king; it may be that the king will perform the request of his servant. For the king will hear, and deliver his servant from the hand of the man who would cut both me and my son off from the heritage of God.'"

 

"Your servant thought, 'The word of my lord the king will set me at rest' for my lord the king is like the angel of God, discerning good and evil. The LORD your God be with you!"

 

Then the king answered the woman, "Do not withhold from me anything I ask you."

 

The woman said, "Let my lord the king speak."

 

The king said, "Is the hand of Joab with you in all this?"

 

The woman answered and said, "As surely as you live, my lord the king, one cannot turn right or left from anything that my lord the king has said. For it was your servant Joab who commanded me; it was he who put all these words into the mouth of your servant. In order to change the course of affairs your servant Joab did this. But my lord has wisdom like the wisdom of the angel of God to know all things that are on the earth."

 

Crucial Questions

Before we can get the right answers, we need to ask the right questions.

Moral decisions are often made with knee-jerk reactions, through emotional filters, or with limited information. Sometimes, they conform to a predominant narrative we have always believed, but never fully or critically examined.

Yet, the decisions are  crucial and that makes the questions crucial.

The Apostle Paul gives us some guidance in his letter to the Corinthians.

“'I have the right to do anything,' you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others ... So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble, whether Jews, Greeks or the church of God— even as I try to please everyone in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved." - I Corinthians 10:23-24, 31-33 (NIV)

It is laid out for us with three questions which are self-administered and asked in the light of scripture and the Spirit's scrutiny.

Is it beneficial? I I about to make a decision that will be of benefit or will it be harmful? Is this choice God’s best or just a concession to the moment? Will it help anything or anyone? Is this a the best choice for the moment? Is it beneficial?

Is it constructive? What are the positive results of this choice for the Kingdom? Does it build or destroy? Does it encourage or discourage? Does it lift or tear down? Does it lead on to more good choices or down a path of destruction? Is it constructive?

Is it good for others? How will my choice affect and effect other people? Will it better their lives or make their lives harder? Will it lift their spirits or cause them to feel defeated, berated, or marginalized? Is it good for others?

Then, there is finally, an over-riding issue that encompasses and informs all three questions. It is about God's will, God's purpose, and God's glory.

One Absolute Principle: So, whether you eat or drink, or what ever you do, do it for the glory of God. Do not cause anyone to stumble...

 

 

 

 

The Indefinable Something

Portrait of Speaker Reed by John Singer Sargent, Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives.

"An indefinable something is to be done, in a way nobody knows how , at a time nobody knows when, that will accomplish nobody knows what." - Thomas B. Reed, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 1889 to 1891 and 1895 to 1899

Known for his sharp-tongued wit and distaste for business as usual, Reed wanted to make the work of legislating more efficient and effective.

Time and distance have made most of the issues he addressed moot. That usually happens with the issues that fire us up. They fall through attrition.

I love the observation, however. We can use it as a template that transcends time and ideology.

Governments and most institutions are well skilled at spending a much time and effort to accomplish little.

That could  change, but Reed was never able to pull it off.

Perhaps, if Reed could have been clearer and more definitive.

Perhaps that might have been called leadership.

Yet, both of those statements are misleading.

Reed's words were descriptive, not prescriptive. The fact is, he was a man of clarity. He was sometimes successful, and sometimes not, but he was always a leader.

Reed was the son of Congregational minister, Rev. Samuel H. Merrill. He was born in Portland, Maine and died in Washington D.C.. He was a Republican who had defeated William McKinley for Speaker of the House.

With friends like Henry Cabot Lodge, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Adams, John Hay and Mark Twain, he stood out as a man of acerbic wit.

Once his name was floated as a candidate for President. His response was that they could do worse and probably would.

In fact, Reed sought the Republican nomination for President in 1896, but the convention nominated Ohio Governor William McKinley.

Mark Twain said of him, "He was transparently honest and honorable, there was no furtiveness about him, and whoever came to know him trusted him and was not disappointed. He was wise, he was shrewd and alert, he was a clear and capable thinker, a logical reasoner, and a strong and convincing speaker."

It is said of Reed that he exercised greater influence than any prior or future Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was sometimes called, "Czar Reed."

He instituted "Reed Rules." This solidified the Speaker's power by limiting the ability of the minority party to prevent a quorum. He used Parliamentary procedure effectively to keep things moving, especially legislation that his party advocated. "Reed's Rules: A Manual of General Parliamentary Law" became a standard textbook for some legislatures.

He helped pass the Lodge Bill to protect African American voting rights but it failed in the Senate. It was not the first time that he was a champion of civil rights in the South.

The legacy did not end with him. His daughter, Katherine Reed Balentine, started a monthly magazine in San Francisco called The Yellow Ribbon, which promoted women's suffrage.

We have been and will be confronted with "an indefinable something ... to be done, in a way nobody knows how , at a time nobody knows when, that will accomplish nobody knows what."

It will be up to some of us to step up and offer leadership that defines the indefinable, that offers a way, that suggests a deadline and timetable, and that paint a clear vision of what things will look like when the task is accomplished.

We need leaders like Speaker Reed who can do that.

 

 

"An indefinable something is to be done, in a way nobody knows how , at a time nobody knows when, that will accomplish nobody knows what." - Thomas B. Reed, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, 1889 to 1891 and 1895 to 1899

Known for his sharp-tongued wit and distaste for business as usual, Reed wanted to make the work of legislating more efficient and effective.

Time and distance have made most of the issues he addressed moot. That usually happens with the issues that fire us up. They fall through attrition.

I love the observation, however. We can use it as a template that transcends time and ideology.

Governments and most institutions are well skilled at spending a much time and effort to accomplish little.

That could  change, but Reed was never able to pull it off.

Perhaps, if Reed could have been clearer and more definitive.

Perhaps that might have been called leadership.

Yet, both of those statements are misleading.

Reed's words were descriptive, not prescriptive. The fact is, he was a man of clarity. He was sometimes successful, and sometimes not, but he was always a leader.

Reed was the son of Congregational minister, Rev. Samuel H. Merrill. He was born in Portland, Maine and died in Washington D.C.. He was a Republican who had defeated William McKinley for Speaker of the House.

With friends like Henry Cabot Lodge, Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Adams, John Hay and Mark Twain, he stood out as a man of acerbic wit.

Once his name was floated as a candidate for President. His response was that they could do worse and probably would.

In fact, Reed sought the Republican nomination for President in 1896, but the convention nominated Ohio Governor William McKinley.

Mark Twain said of him, "He was transparently honest and honorable, there was no furtiveness about him, and whoever came to know him trusted him and was not disappointed. He was wise, he was shrewd and alert, he was a clear and capable thinker, a logical reasoner, and a strong and convincing speaker."

It is said of Reed that he exercised greater influence than any prior or future Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. He was sometimes called, "Czar Reed."

He instituted "Reed Rules." This solidified the Speaker's power by limiting the ability of the minority party to prevent a quorum. He used Parliamentary procedure effectively to keep things moving, especially legislation that his party advocated. "Reed's Rules: A Manual of General Parliamentary Law" became a standard textbook for some legislatures.

He helped pass the Lodge Bill to protect African American voting rights but it failed in the Senate. It was not the first time that he was a champion of civil rights in the South.

The legacy did not end with him. His daughter, Katherine Reed Balentine, started a monthly magazine in San Francisco called The Yellow Ribbon, which promoted women's suffrage.

We have been and will be confronted with "an indefinable something ... to be done, in a way nobody knows how , at a time nobody knows when, that will accomplish nobody knows what."

It will be up to some of us to step up and offer leadership that defines the indefinable, that offers a way, that suggests a deadline and timetable, and that paint a clear vision of what things will look like when the task is accomplished.

We need leaders like Speaker Reed who can do that.

 

 

Grace and Precision in a Computer Lab

 

Pete Birkinshaw from Manchester, UK - Used Punchcard

The date was some time in 1975.

The place was the Virginia Tech computer lab.

It was three in the morning and the small room was crowded with undergraduate and graduate students all the way to the PhD level.

A stack of punched cards 9 inches high or higher was in my hand, each with one statement of code. After waiting in line for my turn, I inserted them into the feeder for the giant computer. Within a few minutes the printer sends out pages and pages and pages of repeated text:

---- error --- error --- error ----

It would not even read my name.

Somewhere, along the line, early on, I had made a syntax mistake or some other kind of error.

One error cause a cascade of misinformation and a compounding error. The main frame computer just could not get past it.

The computer was unforgiving ... and even into the days of DOS and, to some extent, even today, requiring precise language

Thank goodness Google has become intuitive and often knows what I mean.

Truth and precision seem to matter in the mathematical realm.

It sure makes me appreciate grace.

There was no grace built into Fortran or Cobol.

However, it exits in abundance in the fabric of God's spiritual universe. 

At the same time, God loves and embodies truth and has also built in a passion for precision which the psalmist celebrated.

Whether art, science, ethics, morality, doctrine, or scholarship ... or driving a car, details and diligent attention to the fine print can make a very big difference.

It can deepen our worship or make all the difference in our success or failure.

The scripture commends it to our attention.

" You have commanded your precepts
to be kept diligently." - Psalm 119:4 (ESV)

It is not the devil who is in the details, but God. It is in the fine-tuning of God's perfection that we discover beauty and wonder along with God's best for our own lives.

A very good sermon on the topic:

 

Some interesting history on punch cards:

If You Can Believe

Statue of a monk and stone soup (sopa da pedra) in Almeirim, Portugal. - Adriao

"Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth." -Mark 9:23

In ministry, we are in the business of helping people believe—first in God, then in the possibilities of God working in and through them to accomplish His purposes.

Belief is the most powerful attitude in the universe. It is absolutely essential for realizing God’s promises and our own potential under God.

It is the great missing component of people’s lives who are defeated, discouraged, and frustrated by the details of life. Belief precedes reality because it is rooted in faith:

“the SUBSTANCE of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 1:1).

Faith is substantive.

Therefore we can build it on a shoestring. We don’t need any resources other than substantive belief to build belief. As we share our faith, we lend our confidence and hope to people who are operating on a deficit.

The wonderful story of Stone Soup illustrates the power of positive belief when it is shared and multiplied in the lives of people and in communities.

To recognize more fully the power of belief, observe the consequences of unbelief. Take note of the despair, hopelessness, and cynicism prevalent among those who have chosen the path of the skeptic. Observe the parade of dejected masses who travel along the highways of routine existence fearful of change and suspicious of any radical call to absolute discipleship.

Do you believe in God enough to believe in His potential for the people among whom He has called you to serve?

If so, start communicating that faith and instilling it in others. Then, step back and see what He can and will accomplish through you.

 

 

Keep on Believing

 

 

Photo by Samuel Zeller on Unsplash

Either work is easy or belief is hard work ...

 Then said they unto him, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God" Jesus answered and said unto them, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." - John 6:28-29

Again, I say: Either work is easy or belief is hard work.

I am going to presume that both are true.

Belief-work is what produces lasting satisfaction in our lives. This is the preface to Jesus' teachings on the bread of life. Because people are hungering for more, Jesus is addressing that hunger and providing Himself as the source of "food that endures to eternal life."

So far, they have labored with frustration and only temporary satisfaction. There is a need in every human to produce something of lasting value.

Futility is the fruit of meaningless work. Jesus offers more.

Belief is not a passive thing. The word for "believe here is πιστεύητε (pisteuēte), "to keep on believing." I have always been intrigued that the root of the word is used for our modern word, "pistol."

Pistols launch projectiles into open space and belief launches our lives and efforts to a place beyond ourselves.

The work of God is to believe. Once we accept that, we can begin to learn what it means to believe. We can be taught by God what the implications of living faith really are. We can begin to be shaped by our beliefs as they take shape within in us.

As a starting point, as well as an ending point, Jesus gives us focus, to believe in Him whom the Father has sent.

I think this speaks better than I can write: 

 

 Then said they unto him, "What shall we do, that we might work the works of God" Jesus answered and said unto them, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." - John 6:28-29

Again, I say: Either work is easy or belief is hard work.

I am going to presume that both are true.

Belief-work is what produces lasting satisfaction in our lives. This is the preface to Jesus' teachings on the bread of life. Because people are hungering for more, Jesus is addressing that hunger and providing Himself as the source of "food that endures to eternal life."

So far, they have labored with frustration and only temporary satisfaction. There is a need in every human to produce something of lasting value.

Futility is the fruit of meaningless work. Jesus offers more.

Belief is not a passive thing. The word for "believe here is πιστεύητε (pisteuēte), "to keep on believing." I have always been intrigued that the root of the word is used for our modern word, "pistol."

Pistols launch projectiles into open space and belief launches our lives and efforts to a place beyond ourselves.

The work of God is to believe. Once we accept that, we can begin to learn what it means to believe. We can be taught by God what the implications of living faith really are. We can begin to be shaped by our beliefs as they take shape within in us.

As a starting point, as well as an ending point, Jesus gives us focus, to believe in Him whom the Father has sent.

I think this speaks better than I can write: 

 

Still Hungry

Photo by Christiann Koepke on Unsplash

"Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." - John 6:27, (NIV)

" Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness' - Isaiah 55:1-2

After a miraculous meal, the crowds worked very hard to find Jesus.

He gently questioned their motives in order to get them to do the same about themselves.

Your harried, frantic efforts to feed yourselves are futilely flawed, he seems to suggest. Everything in which you invest your time, energy, and resources is already in the process of spoiling.

There is, however, a food that produces eternal satisfaction.

Place your focus there.

Thus, Jesus introduces a lengthy discussion of the bread of life. He started by stimulating their hunger and thirst to hear more.

What does it take for God to make us aware of our profound hunger for more?

 

Further Meditation

What Motivates Me?

I am not asking you this question because you cannot answer it.

I am suggesting you ask it of yourself.

I am working on it.

When I find the answer, I can cooperate with God in shaping my life by "setting myself up," to produce the motivators that produce the behaviors that produce real success.

I am confident that the full depth of understanding of the answer is just beyond my reach even if it is within me. I need the help of the One who knows me, fashioned me, and is intimately involved with guiding my life toward His own purposes. It is He who defines the success I seek.

And it is He who knows what will motivate me to move in that direction.

It behooves me to prayerfully meditate, diligently seek, and fervently pursue.

 

 

I am not asking you this question because you cannot answer it.

I am suggesting you ask it of yourself.

I am working on it.

When I find the answer, I can cooperate with God in shaping my life by "setting myself up," to produce the motivators that produce the behaviors that produce real success.

I am confident that the full depth of understanding of the answer is just beyond my reach even if it is within me. I need the help of the One who knows me, fashioned me, and is intimately involved with guiding my life toward His own purposes. It is He who defines the success I seek.

And it is He who knows what will motivate me to move in that direction.

It behooves me to prayerfully meditate, diligently seek, and fervently pursue.