Immediately, they answered the question. "What do you want!?
Immediately they received their sight.
Immediately they followed.
Two Blind Men Receive Their Sight
Now as they went out of Jericho, a great multitude followed Him. And behold, two blind men sitting by the road, when they heard that Jesus was passing by, cried out, saying, Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David! Then the multitude warned them that they should be quiet; but they cried out all the more, saying,
Have mercy on us, O Lord, Son of David!
So Jesus stood still and called them, and said,
What do you want Me to do for you?
They said to Him,
Lord, that our eyes may be opened.
So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him. - Matthew 20:29-34, (NKJV)
The church is part of a brand new order in God's Kingdom where human authority is not required to legitimize its message and deeds.
It is neither required nor desired, recognized nor sought.
It is a strange and wonderful movement where everything is turned upside down in order to land right side up. It scandalizes our notions of worthiness when the prostitutes and tax collectors enter before the religious folks who ask for authority and legitimacy from the world and honor from the religious institutions that title them.
God, let us be the sons that do what you tell us to do and don't just talk about it and posture ourselves for position.
"And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”
Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?”
And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.”
So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.""
“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him." - Matthew 21:23-32 (ESV)
It is not about the answers being new or old; we are asking the wrong questions.
Where are we?
We are here and this is where God wants to build something new.
We are right where we started.
We live in a world of ambiguity and confusion, a world of tension and hostility, and a world of lust and desire.
We share a common humanity with every broken soul on this planet. We are bearers of good news, prophets of repentance, messengers of grace, candles of light, purveyors of hope, and children of God.
We are sent into the world to be different. Our spiritual forefathers took on the burden of strange and complex restrictions in order to be different, holy, and unique.
Some wore identifying clothing.
Many took marks upon the most personal anatomical features in order to be set apart.
The church, likewise, spiritually marked, is set apart. We do not fit in, but there is a place for all enter in and find a fit.
The covenant of walking with God in the community of His church is a hard and demanding one. It does not always fit the culture or make rational sense. The Head of the church invites you to come and learn of Him and to take His yoke upon you. He does not rush you or coerce you. He does not demean you malign you. But He will remake you and ...
If you choose to follow and continue to follow, He will ask of you some things that make you ask, "Why Lord?"
Where are we? Not where we used to be and exactly where we've always been - different, set apart, and called to holiness.
We are constantly being called back to the basic essence of scripture to seek God and His ways. We are constantly challenged to rethink our assumptions and reaffirm our core commitments. We are constantly provoked to peel away the layers of commentary and application of our religious culture and traditions and fin God's instructions and revelations in a new world that is becoming newer and older every day.
Is this this or is it that?
We will always ask about this or that, but we must be grounded in something that is neither this nor that, but OTHER, Wholly Other!
We are always going back in order to start over.
Don't worry about it. It is the same God in a different setting.
I sure hope you do not agree with everything I say. Think for yourself. God gave me my brain and God gave you one that works equally well ... Maybe better,. But I know one thing, if one of our brains was enough, one of us would not need to be here. And we both are.' So there!
Just because I centered that and put it in a quote box, does not make it a poem,
Only a few things are true today that were not true yesterday. Some are getting more attention. Nothing was true yesterday that is not still true today. That's true - now about TRUTH: IT has always been the same
I like to do coaching - even when there is pathology involved. We all have pathos eating at us. But also, even the most contorted soul has real strengths. And when our own strengths are inadequate - and they are ... There is God's strength from which all strength comes.
Assume less than you suspect. Inspect even what you expect. Squint the eye examining minutia. Ask more questions than you answer. Preface your declarations with wiggle room for change of mind and heart. And yet, somehow, live with confidence. Learn trust. Relax and believe hope.
It is out of balance, disproportionate, beyond our capacity, humanly unjust, and controversial ... and very, very real, liberating, and healing. It is always premature and it is always timely.
God forgives you. He does not excuse you or your deeds. He forgives you. He does not force you to accept forgiveness, but He does not cease to offer it.
Society may not forgive. Rational people may not. History may not. The justice system may not. But God does and God's people do as they open the channel of giving and receiving it in their own hearts.
The magnitude of the offense is not nor ever is the issue. Your remorse is not the issue. Deterrence is not the issue. There is no issue. This is beyond issues.
The only issue is the issue of blood from the hands, feet, and side of Jesus.
"Father, forgive THEM..."
It cost God to forgive. It costs God to forgive. To maintain truth and justice while extending mercy can tear at the heart of humans and of God. To be angry and to sin not is tough. But bitterness and hatred are tougher and more toxic.
God invites and equips us to do the same as He does. We cannot demand it of others or of God for ourselves or anyone. But when He enables us to give it, we receive more than we give.
It also costs us to receive forgiveness because it implies that we know we need to receive it and makes us vulnerable at levels that evoke it from us. It strips us bare and hangs our lives on crosses.
Sometimes it may be too early to talk about it because one must process what it is that is being forgiven. Yet, here is the scandal. It was brought to bear upon us by the victims of a terrible atrocity recently and no one has the right to criticize them for it. What they did was because their primary identity was not their skin color that made them a target or their ideology or their victimology.
They identified with the Forgiver.
A racist was confronted with a God who is no respecter of the arbitrary labels we assign to human being.
Those forgivers are first and foremost, children of God and, in forgiving, they declare that nothing can take that away from them. That is their dignity not their weakness.
I hear people marginalizing them, dismissing them, considering them weak, naive, or unsophisticated in understanding their own emotions. How condescending!
Argue the societal implications of forgiveness all you like. Discuss who is authorized to offer forgiveness. Theorize its repercussions. It does not matter.
The voices of those who cry out, however prematurely you think it is, speak of their character before God and much more, the GRACE and power of God in their lives. His love in them is stronger than hate and it is love that shall prevail.
Nothing in forgiveness negates justice. Nothing minimizes indignation. In fact it fires up indignation at anything and everything less than God's love at work in the world and His justice lifting up every man, woman, boy, and girl.
I can only forgive the Boston Bomber or the Butcher of Charleston, or ISIS for the minimal effects of their crimes on me. Those who have suffered most and more have more to forgive and so many have.their witness inspires me to forgive the petty little offenses I have suffered with such boisterous protest.
If God forgives those who create the most horrific, massive, and public crimes,m how about you and me?
Why would we leave such a gift on the table?
Stephen, in Acts, led his accusers through long bible study and recounting of the grace of God at work in history and the response of the crowd was ...
... to pick up rocks and throw them at him until he died.
His response ... "God, don't put this on their account ..."
Forgiveness.
God forgives you and it is irrationally scandalous.
Another thought on personal forgiveness is that it allows us to move beyond localizing evil in one or two people so that we can fight the insidious systemic evil that gives birth to the individuals who carry it out. It is a form of corporate repentance , confession , and seeking for God. It also puts the one forgiven on notice that they have done wrong and the only way to wholeness and redemption is presented in the message of mercy, grace, and repentance.
Here is an example of, not only forgiveness, but restoration and renewed trust.
Are you perplexed with this progression?
It is perplexing and here it is:
Satan made demands.
Jesus prayed.
He prayed that Simon's faith would not fail, but he knew that Simon himself would fail.
So he prayed that when Simon turned again, not if but when, he would strengthen his brothers.
Simon protested he would not fail.
Jesus said he would. It did not altar the hope, the expectation, or the reality of Jesus' prayer. He would also turn. His faith would not fail.
His faith did not fail.
You have had, are having, and will have failures ... but it does not mean that your faith has failed.
It is your faith ... and the accompanying prayers of Jesus that are seeing you through, bringing you back, and ...
... preparing you to strengthen your brothers and sisters.
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.”
Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.” - Luke 22:31-34 (ESV)
Peter, who had ample reason for self-loathing after Jesus had died and risen, was willing to walk back the process and receive mercy and a renewed commission to lead.
Peter knew he came empty hand to Jesus, but he realized that by trusting him, Jesus knew that he would be able to face what would lie ahead.
That would be me ... so often a fool because of my sinful ways, loathing that which was best for me ... so often redeemed ... so consistently loved.
" Some were fools through their sinful ways, and because of their iniquities suffered affliction; they loathed any kind of food, and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress. He sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from their destruction. Let them thank the LORD for his steadfast love, for his wondrous works to the children of man! And let them offer sacrifices of thanksgiving, and tell of his deeds in songs of joy!"
News feeds come and go. Hot stories, hashtags, and outrages well up, and swell up. Themes recur. The same sins take different forms and expressions. First, I must look in me. "See if there be any wicked way in me ..." And I must pause only briefly before breathing, "Lead me in the way everlasting."
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If you shy away from paradox, You'll be left with only one doc. Sometimes, a second opinion is in order. Sometimes you can get both perspectives from the same Source. God sometimes scrambles our understanding to lead us to His simplicity and clarity.
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I lead nowhere unless I follow someone or something. Who and what I follow determines where and how I lead. Where I lead matters. How I lead matters. The choice to follow Jesus is hard. It's not for those who wish to unburden their lives. It's a light and easy yoke. Real rest-not ease.
Scanning the TV, book, and movie listings, I wondered about the heroes of our generation and what they say about who we are.
The culture, as many cultures through history, is attracted to real or fictional characters in film, novel, reality TV, and life who are cleverly diabolical and formidably adversarial.
Just a little word study from a biblical perspective for bible lovers and kingdom folk who might be attracted to that sort of thing:
Adversarial - Related to adversary. Σατανᾶς - That's Greek. Transliterated - Satan. Do I really wish to make it my legacy that I am a formidable adversary? "Ἰησοῦς Ὕπαγε Σατανᾶ γέγραπται γάρ"
"Get thee hence, Satan." - Mark 4:10
Easton's Bible Dictionary: (Hebrews satan), an opponent or foe (1 Kings 5:4; 11:14, 23, 25; Luke 13:17); one that speaks against another, a complainant (Matthew 5:25; Luke 12:58); an enemy (Luke 18:3), and specially the devil (1 Peter 5:8).
"But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." - Matthew 16:23
In TEV: Jesus turned around and said to Peter, "Get away from me, Satan! You are an obstacle in my way, because these thoughts of yours don't come from God, but from human nature."
What do I savor? What flavor of life makes my mouth water? What do I admire in myself or others? My combative nature? My capacity to win? My lust to trample my opponents? My witty ability to put down?
Or something more from the heart of God?
Or, perhaps, we'd rather be clever and diabolical:
diabolos: slanderous, accusing falsely Original Word: διάβολος Translated as a noun: Devil
There is much power in the tongue for good or for evil.
What I cheer in popular culture, I may find myself cheering in real life and nurturing in my own nature.
I must stand guard over my own manner and motives lest I get swept away by the ways of the world.
The worst that might happen could be that I would win.
We are civil with each other in dialogue and in our differences because we do not know everything. And the things we do know are often nuanced and shaded by our experiences, language, and presuppositions.
If Solomon could declare that everything he thought and lived amounted to vanity along the way of his pilgrimage toward ultimate truth, surely I can admit a little vanity and striving after wind in my own life.
Humility before God and mankind is part of the soil of wisdom.
Humility and honesty are mutually dependent and benefit from their synergy.
Honesty is the antidote to all hypocrisy:
Honesty with ourselves.
Honesty with God.
Honesty with those closest to us.
Honesty with the world.
Honesty with our doubts and uncertainties.
Honesty that reserves possibility that we could be wrong ...
... that we might learn something.
In a general way, I will say that there is plenty of hypocrisy in the world and it is a sin ... maybe one of the biggest sins ... because it is rooted in the lies we tell ourselves about ourselves ... especially when we tell ourselves that we have no hypocrisy in us.
I really do not have time, energy, nor inclination to be a full-time hypocrisy cop.
But, if I were a cop, I might continue writing very objective tickets, one at a time, for running red lights.
I'd write the ticket and not make a speech about it.
Tell it to the judge
When one is convinced that one is speaking truth because one has sought earnestly to process truth, one does not need to join the hypocrisy police force.
Hypocrisy usually reveals itself without any outside assistance. If something is true in one context, it is true in the next.
Then, one asks, "Am I thinking and speaking generally or specifically?"
Specific situations may prompt me to think generally.
Generalized thinking prompted by specific stimuli is still general.
When I comment generally, the application is left to the reader.
My intent is irrelevant because I am trying to think more deeply than the moment or context.
In all of this, our humility and honesty prompt us to be civil because we are spinning in a loop of tentative certainty about our own opinions and perspectives on truth.
Jesus is truth and we understand objective truth more fully as we are drawn toward Jesus and love those whom Jesus loves.
Civility is important to me because of who I am-not just because of who anyone else is.
I am a child of God and a follower of Jesus who has called me to love my neighbor as myself.
I can't force civility on anyone.
No can I respond to their incivility with incivility.
It doesn't mean I don't tell the truth or believe lies.
It doesn't mean I approve or pretend to approve.
It doesn't mean I stop resisting wrong.
It's my choice.
What must I do then?
I'll continue to try and be civil because my basic conviction about the dignity of every human cannot change just because I find it hard to respect their choices or views. That is a predetermined conviction and if it does not work out, oh well.
There will always be a way for me to express my feelings of repulsion or resistance to a tide of culture that offends my sensibilities.
But I choose to treat people as kindly as I can without criticizing those who find that difficult or impossible.
And ... I will choose my indignation toward what might be uncivil very carefully, in context, and with a sense of balance... respectfully.
I really do want to be fair, so I am going to examine one or two of my assumptions - yet again. I do that every time I am challenged ...
... well, most every time.
We are not primarily critics of culture as citizens of God's Kingdom - but we are not outside of culture. We are participants and decision makers.
We are the kings. We are in authority over this dominion. That brings a heavy responsibility upon us to listen, think, and speak.
I do think it is fair to let public people speak for themselves. We can read what they say in context or listen to their speeches in context. We can try to include context in our quotes and quote accurately. We should try to do that. We may come to some of the same conclusions, but at least we will do so with understanding and sometimes, we will correct ourselves.
Ultimately, it is about the idea.
For the Christian, it is about the intersection, contrast, complement, or enlightenment that is present in the space between idea and gospel. The gospel is the bigger idea for us and it includes some presumptions about a Great Commission and a Great Commandment as well as a fundamental ethic that is not shared by all in society - the ethic of the Kingdom of God.
I have no basis for arguing Kingdom ethics with those who do not share that presumption. I do not require or expect people to buy into my assumptions without that presumption in place.
I am not a big fan of exploiting momentary Fruedian slips or fleeting hashtags as the sole basis for criticism of public policy, but sometimes people really do say what they mean in a few sentences - maybe within 280 characters ... at least what they mean in the moment.
How does that translate into policy and what is my responsibility as a citizen two kingdoms?
I think we might also want to pay attention to the relationship between words and actions. In the final analysis, most ideas and prevailing narratives are much bigger than a few individuals, no matter how high profile they may be.
So, I find that going from specific to general and then, back to specific is often necessary to insure that the magnetic north pole is tuning my compass.
I will be working this out for quite some time.
When I stop, please do not send flowers to my grave, but make a memorial gift to some worthy cause.
"Gentlemen, and if the Cap fits any Body let 'em wear it." - Daniel Dafoe
"If the shoe fits, wear it."
"If It Doesn't Fit, You Must Acquit." - Johnny Cochran
Part of me wants to say "Do not let anyone label you as this or that."
But realistically, you cannot stop them.
You cannot tell people what to think or say.
When the early believers were called derogatory names like, "Christian" by their persecutors, they decided to accept the name and transform its meaning.
Cops were called "pig" by some in the 60s, so they organized football games and called them, Pig Bowls."
People who take charge of whatever is thrown at them and stay positive always have the upper hand.
People who whine and complain about it will always be trailing.
Other names don't lend themselves as well to sticking on one's chest as a badge of honor.
However, you cannot regulate what others call you or how they think about you.
But you do not have to wear a label like a permanent assessment of your character. You do not have to accept it as a prediction of your success.
If it doesn't fit, then quit letting it stick.
"If it don't fit, you must acquit."
It is your life. It is your call.
In all of that, remember this:
"Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. "
- Matthew 5:11-12
There is one and only one emotional response to insults and persecutions that Jesus commands for His followers and it goes with a volitional response.
Illustration from the first engraved Christian Bible in Russian (1696), depicting God reposing on Sabbath.
“And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. “ -Genesis 2:2
It takes seven God days to get a time of rest. When we work six, we need to pause. Day seven is a blessing.
All seven are blessings.
It's good to work. There is no rest without work. But work cannot continue without rest.
Is fulfillment. It is pause. It is the time for evaluation, assessment, renewal, re-commitment, and refreshment.
It is the blessing of a job well done. It is a cause for celebration.
It is a time of laughter, extra naps, enjoyable activity, and for being around people we love. It is also a time for worship, seeking God, praying, and being fed on the Word of God.
It is our day of reflection and an opportunity to receive God's reflection on what we have offered to him in the week past. We, who are made in that reflection of God, follow the pattern God established. When God rested. God has blessed us with the mandate and the gift of rest.
To say that we need we need no rest is to place ourselves above God. How audacious of us to think that we are better than the one who made us and who rested from His labors.
Let us take our rest and the celebrate rest for rest is good and work is good and God is good.
Let also remember that every Sabbath moment we have on earth points to an eternal Sabbath day of ultimate rest and fulfillment in Christ.
"There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief." - Hebrews 4:9-11
“Let the field be joyful, and all therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice.” – Psalm 96:12
Sometimes, I walk or sit in a field and allow my mind to wander and my heart to wonder. What might Eden have been like for our ancient father and mother who opened their eyes there?
The word, “Eden” comes from and ancient root meaning “fruitful, well-watered,” and, in the old Akkadian and Sumerian languages, “plain.” However, in Hebrew, the meaning is even richer and is sometimes translated “pleasure” or “delight.”
So, then, in those glimpses of what is past with their hints of what is to come, we pause in awe among the joyful fields of grass, clover, and wildflowers to drink in the pleasures of God’s creation. We take delight in all that He has preserved of what has been lost, and we breath in the expectation of a day when all of creation is redeemed.
“Let the field be joyful” is no empty prayer or mere poetic sentimentality.
“Let … all therein” embraces the whole of what God has made and declared to be good.
The trees of the wood truly do rejoice in their own ways, with the swaying of their trunks and branches and with their arms reaching toward the sun. Every leaf, bud, and flower is a song of praise.
It is not just for the Francis of Assisi characters, the “Johnny Appleseed” Chapmans types, or the John Muir figures to be great admirers of God’s handiwork. It is also for us.
If the trees and fields can praise God, how much more so can we who are fearfully and wonderfully made? How much more might we who are made in the image of God with the capacity to see His hand at work? How much more should we who are uniquely invited to know Him and enjoy His redemptive grace sing His praise
Let us sing alone and let us sing in the company of others.
Let us join with the chorus of the joyful fields and our lives to be fruitful and responsive to His wonders.
Not all mentally ill people are out of control and unable to be responsible saints and sinners.
The most disorganized thinker can make some choices and choose to follow a path of sin or righteousness. I have known some very spiritually healthy people who cannot figure out how to cross the street.
I have known some emotionally sound souls who cannot seem to make right moral choices and whose hearts are spiritually polluted.
Some of the healthiest spirituality I have seen, I have encountered among patients in mental hospitals.
Is sin a form of insanity?
Yes and no.
It is spiritual insanity and it is not normal.
Is racism a form of insanity? Individually? Corporately?
Yes and no.
Yes because it is not normal; it is irrational; it is ungodly at its core.To hate a soul God made is a form of hatred of God no matter how tightly it is wrapped in religious language and formality. It is deranged and irrational. It leads to an out-of-balance insanity.
But, once named, acknowledged, and dealt with, it is curable by God's grace.
It may take a while. It may involve uncovering layer upon layer that we did not know existed. It may still bite us from time to time, but it involves choice.
If we grow up, we can outgrow it as long as we know it, name it, and reject it.
But we are still responsible for it.
It is in-congruent with the gospel and it is a world-wide phenomenon. In this country, it looks one way. In other places, it takes on different forms.
Everywhere it shows up, it is evil and it is stupid.
Evil - It is sin, individual and corporate.
"All have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God."
That is not an excuse; it is a call to repentance.
I say "stupid" because some people who don't mind being evil would cringe to think that they might also be stupid.
Throw in spiritual insanity and they might just take a closer look at their assumptions.
Racism has no place in an intelligent and civilized society. It has even less place among people of faith.
Ultimately, it will not be the politicians, lawyers, psychologists, or any other discipline that defines moral terminology and what they say really matters only for a few hours of press time.
What really matters is truth and truth is obvious.
We are all precious to God and ought to be precious to each other.
When one hurts, we all ought to hurt.
When one falls, we all ought to examine ourselves lest we fall or cause another to fall.
Sometimes we meed to persist, agitate, aggravate, and infuriate. It is our job.
So many things require answers we do not have or that someone has and is unwilling to share.
All acts of violence have stories.
Every bullet has a source and motive.
Every excuse has more than one possibility.
Every fear has multiple possible outcomes and conceivable choices.
Every point of view has flaws.
Every death must be taken very seriously.
Every life must be valued in its own context and with a name.
Every tragedy needs to be dissected inside and out.
Every consequence that stems from exercise of power must be examined and questioned.
In the end, some questions will remain unanswered, but the accountability will cause us all to be more accountable.
In our system, the people are the highest authority and have the most profound responsibility to ask even the unanswerable questions and to press for what answers there may be.
It tires the soul and frustrates the serenity, but it is the job.
“And the LORD planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.“ – Genesis 2:8
God planted a garden.
God is the planter who put the seeds in the ground and God is the gardener who continues to tend the crops He has planted.
As a gardener who has come late to the activity, I feel His presence as I walk among my flowers and vegetables. I tenderly clear the ground around an infant growth of young greens and I baby a fresh sprout, carefully checking my tomatoes for any care, extra food, protection, or water they may need.
I know I can only encourage and help create conditions for growth. I cannot make anything grow at all.
I can cultivate soil, dig rows, plant seeds, weed, water, and talk to my plants. After I have done all, they may respond in appreciation or they may not.
In those moments, I think of God tending His world, tending my life, watching over my family.
Sometimes I respond with fruit. Sometimes, I rebel.
I think of Jesus’ precious care for the church and His call to me to assist Him in that work of caring. The whole activity challenges and inspires me to want to garden more and to minister more to people.
God is a gardener and we are gardeners. There is much to be done and much to pray.
Oh Garden of God, On the soil Our feet have trod, We shall toil.
Row by row, God of the garden, Sow Thy truth in me. And, lest my heart harden, Open my eyes to see.
B - We recognize the BEST of manhood in a good father. It is the best of manhood because it is an expression of the image of God in Him where he exercises the gifts that flow from the Fatherhood of God through his life and into the lives of his children. When a man is connected to the best God has to offer, he can give his best to others. Men were built for fatherhood and challenged in that role.
I - We celebrate INTEGRITY. My father taught it to me and I have tried to teach it to my children. I try to pass it on to my grandsons and the young men and women I mentor. Integrity is who you are when there is no payoff for doing the right thing, when no one is looking, keeping score, or rewarding your efforts. Integrity is being fully integrated in what we profess, possess, and practice.
G - The big deal about fatherhood is that it is a GOOD thing because it is a GOD thing. It is such a GIANT task that we need God's guidance, strength, and love to fulfill the role. It is such a GRAND thing that when your children have children, you become a GRAND-father. Our model for fatherhood is a Heavenly Father who loves us sacrificially and unconditionally and who holds us to a higher standard than we even imagine for ourselves, shaping us, encouraging us, and training us for GREATNESS.
Some days I weary of having a point of view. All truth, even undeniable, indisputable, universal truth is filtered through our perspectives, shaped by experience, knowledge, language, and understanding over a lifetime.
I can change my vantage and expand my view, but I haven't figured out how to -unknow what I know, -unsee what I see, -unhear what I hear,
... or unshackle myself from the compulsion to cry out and invite others to know, see, hear, think.
So I comment, cry out, question probe, agitate, irritate, and think out loud for myself, for others, for what I sense is the call of God, and for truth to broaden my own understanding and those of others for the core principles I embrace and the sometimes subtle truths that refine them.
Yet - there are times I long for a vacation from thinking and knowing. Times, I say, some, I say. Not all, not often, not for long. I do not enjoy having points of view - not always. I just do and everyone is entitled to my opinion ...
But I will tell you this: If we ever stop laughing at ourselves, we are in deep, deep trouble.
So, pause, breathe, laugh, and then, resume the struggle.
Why am I so preoccupied with the injustices I see?
Blame it on the stories I've deeply heard.
First, the big story/stories in the Bible.
Then the stories you have told me & I have heard, received, and lived with you in the telling.
God and you and God in you passed on the pain.
Once we have heard, seen, or felt something through the eyes, ears, perspective, and pain of another, we cannot return to our own, old biased perspective. We cannot unknow what we have come to know.
Not withstanding the positive theme of the great spiritual classic, in the real world, there are things we cannot "unknow" that thrust upon us a higher level of responsibility and calling.
The gift of empathy is something of a curse, but the curse is a great gift.
I would rather live under the burden of the curse than reject the gift and the promise ...
A better day is coming
I love scripture. I love rubbing alcohol. Both give off an aroma. Both can sting when applied. Both can purify and heal.
And if we apply scripture in the right or wrong places, like rubbing alcohol, it might not hurt at all or it might hurt too much. Like anything, it must be applied with wisdom, truth, understanding, and compassion -- the way God does.
All of these loose reflections coming together, remind me to keep one eye on the Bible, one on the world, and that inner eye of the soul, focused on Jesus.
It is then, that pain and pleasure come together in a purposeful joy of living and a pliable point of view emerges to embrace truth whatever it might be --- and to act upon it, however we are called.
Is it conceivable that God would be angry at our prayers?
Irritated?
Perturbed?
Cynical?
The psalmist thought so and prayed, "O LORD God of hosts, how long will you be angry with your people's prayers?" (Psalm 80:4 ESV)
Context, please and a reminder that this one was not rejected. In fact, it was accepted into the canon.
Were they disingenuous? Were they rote? Were they self-righteous, self-absorbed, or self-centered? Were they religious mumbo-jumbo with no life engagement?
But this one, Psalm 80, is gut-level, gut-wrenching, gut-spilling honesty. God likes that.
Three times, he cries (actually sings),
" Restore us, O LORD God of hosts! Let your face shine, that we may be saved!" (Psalm 80:19 ESV)
He also says, "Hey, we are your people, your prize, your statement to the world. This is all about you!" (Very loose paraphrase)
God does not turn away from real prayer, though His silence and delays may be disturbing. He longs for our honest engagement and for us to pour out our hearts that He might fill them.
Every forlorn and desperate psalm is an invitation for us to come to God in very honest prayer.
Indeed, we must dream - we must do so wide awake, alert, eyes focused, never wavering, always pursuing, moving, stepping up and stepping forward, joyously embracing each tomorrow and those with whom we share those tomorrows. We must dream.
What is your big dream today?
Is it bigger than you?
Is it bigger than your self-interests?
Is it enough to keep you awake?
Is it from outside yourself, a divine gift from the Maker of dreams?
What steps will you take today in the direction of your dream?
I need to be the person I was made to be. I need to find and live out the larger purpose. I need to fully embrace the love, grace, and joy God gives. I need mercy. i need the peace of God. I need God.
I need to be the person I was made to be. I need to find and live out the larger purpose. I need to fully embrace the love, grace, and joy God gives. I need mercy. i need the peace of God. I need God.
Last year, someone started a trending hashtag o Twitter, challenging everyone to sum up an important truth about life in three words. I saved the one I contributed and here they are.
"… I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.” – II Corinthians 12:9
Whatever the thorn in Paul’s flesh was, we have all gained from it. That is because, whether we admit it or not, we are all rather thorny people. We could spend our days and nights picking at the thorns and begging for their removal, or we could move forward in grace.
We harbor delusions of self-sufficiency and adequacy because we simply do not understand the real source of real strength. Pride, ego, and self-centeredness blind us to our needy state. We deny the thorns if they don’t go away on their own and cover them with layers of hypocrisy.
Get real!
Worship is not an illusion. Nor is a time of glorified denial as we display the selves we wish to project to our brothers and sisters. We don’t come to church to parade our perfection. Worship is about getting real with God and one another so that God can become real to us.
In worship, we acknowledge real strength – that it is God’s and not ours. We are commanded to be strong in the Lord – not in the flesh, not in our strength, not in our own will power.
As we come, we bow before the Lord – and that is with humility and recognition of our own weakness.
It is Christ’s power and not our own, we need to overcome that over which we are powerless. When we are weak, then we are strong because we rely upon the God of strength.
When we come to that realization, we can truly worship.
Curly was asked, in "City Slickers," about the meaning of life.
"One thing," he replied.
"What is it?"
"You have to figure that out yourself," he retorted.
It seemed pretty unsatisfactory at the moment, until that moment of discovery when the inquirer truly knew what it was for him.
The psalmist knew.
To ask, to seek, to dwell, to gaze, to inquire. I suppose you could mix them up, stir them around, or take them in reverse. You could do them all at once. You could take them in order. It is a simple "ask" that ushers in a progression beyond asking. That which is sought is He who is sought. It is not a package of gifts, but a giver of gifts. One thing. One thing. I ask and seek to dwell ... that I may gaze and inquire ... ... and from there?
Limitless possibilities.
" One thing have I asked of the LORD, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple."
The praise goes where the praise belongs. It begins with God. It ends with God. God inhabits it all and is the source, the force, the course, and the prime subject matter of love, justice, truth, and praise.
Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who find great delight in his commands.
Blessing and delight drench the soul of all who get it, who enter in to the joy of His commands, who find freedom from all other fears in the reverent fear, wonder and awe of God Himself.
Their children will be mighty in the land; the generation of the upright will be blessed.
Our lives, lived openly, authentically, genuinely, and generously before our children impact them and others. There are generational implications of upright living.
Wealth and riches are in their houses, and their righteousness endures forever.
As truth measures riches, riches about. As eternity measures time, righteousness endures. As life fades, the legacies of life perpetuate.
Even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.
Who are these for whom light dawns? They are those who stand up straight in a twisted world. They are those who walk steady and strong in the midst of rigid indifference to the needs of people. They are gracious. They are compassionate. They are rightly aligned with God and mankind.
Good will come to those who are generous and lend freely, who conduct their affairs with justice.
God rewards the generous soul. It is not a formula. It is not an enticement to deeper greed. The generous person may come to the end of her road like John Wesley who made sure that his last dime was distributed to the poor so that he would die penniless, but rich and declare in his dying breath, "The best of all is that God is with us."
God loves justice because God is love and justice is what love looks like in our treatment of other people.
Surely the righteous will never be shaken; they will be remembered forever.
To be upright and unshaken is to be strong at the roots, bendable at the trunk and branches. and always growing. It is to leave an impact that will not be forgotten even if our name fades or the details of our lives are obscured by time and tide.
They will have no fear of bad news; their hearts are steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
We can get so preoccupied with the news that we are constantly in an inner uproar. But it need not be so. We need not and must not be fearful of the happenings around us. As we remain steadfast in faith, integrity, hope, love, and truth, trusting God, we will be steadied and sustained. We press on.
Their hearts are secure, they will have no fear; in the end they will look in triumph on their foes.
It is an inside job, an inner working. Our hearts are secure. That is the secret of fearlessness. We know who God is and in God, we know who we are. Purpose drives us from within. We believe in the ultimate outcome of triumph.
They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness endures forever; their horn will be lifted high in honor.
If we love what God loves and do the work of God among the poor, the broken, the wounded, the lonely, and the oppressed, God will bless that righteousness. God will cause that work to live beyond us and be life giving in the world. Count on it.
The wicked will see and be vexed, they will gnash their teeth and waste away; the longings of the wicked will come to nothing.
You do not have to worry about the wicked. You do not have to actively pursue them or vindicate yourself. Truth and consistency will do that for you.
Perhaps through the vexing curse of their own wickedness and the frustration of their inability to find what they are looking for, they may be convicted of the futility of their ways and come to faith.
Many have.
Our job is to keep on in the light that is dawning for us in the darkness - no matter how dark it gets.
The pot is being stirred and there is a lot of spillage. The church is struggling with its identity in a rapidly changing world. Everyone, inside and outside, has an opinion - maybe more than one. Sometimes we are fighting the world. Sometimes we are fighting each other. Sometimes we put our collective feet in our mouths.
Sometimes I get sick of Christians.
Sometimes I get sick of myself.
Many recent conversations have not brought out the best in me.
It is hard to hang out with people who have more answers than questions. This has been building up. Others are making definitions of who is what and codifying them with really long and specific lists.
Sometimes I find it easier to relate to non-Christians who don't claim to have all the answers than to my brothers who are sure that they do.
"Are you biblical, traditional, emergent, liberal, conservative, seeker-sensitive, or what? Careful. Consult the list of criteria before answering."
"Pick a category. Hurry!"
I take Jesus' words, "Seek and ye shall find" to point toward an ongoing process of seeking and finding and seeking some more and finding some more and never being settled and done.
So I come to most conversations with a mixture of dogmatism and ambiguity, a tentative confidence grounded in solid faith, but flexible from the ground up.
I get frustrated with friends who want to finish every conversation with a hard and fast pronouncement. I want to say, "That tree is still alive and subject to quite a bit of movement as it grows upward."
What I know is that as it grows upward, its roots sink deeper - and that is what accounts for my peace and confidence.
If we put most of our focus on the roots without ignoring what is seen, we can do whatever it is we do with trees with the rest of our time and energy.
But it is the root of things that matters most and I see a lot of attention being given to leaves and bark.
What occurs to me is that Jesus said He was the vine; we were the branches; God handled the pruning; and our task was to abide.
I suppose I need to let Him handle the outgrowths that keep annoying and embarrassing me with their references to prayers against anyone with whom they disagree or that they see as a threat to God - who has a pretty good track record of being able to take care of Himself.
And thank God He ignores ridiculous prayers where we presume to know who should live or die.
Maybe He chuckles at our assumptions that we must desperately rescue civilization so that his Kingdom will not die from our neglect. It is not that we are not called to engage, transform, influence, and preserve culture. It is a matter of balance and of seeing the larger Kingdom picture which includes thousands of years of chaotic world history and a big world that stretches far beyond our Western orientation.
It is not just the really obnoxious and grotesque examples of mean-spirited distortions of Christianity, but the more subtle things that are bothering me.
Everyone seems to know where things need to be pruned and I see a potentially lopsided bush forming. Many Christians are just so sure of themselves and what they have "found" in their brief forays into seeking territory.
"We ought to do this and not that. We should be doing such an so. Everyone should stand up for this and against that and we all need to pull together and stand against sin and this is the sin we should be focusing on and isn't it awful that some people don't see it quite the way we do and don't you know that it is us against them and what we need is courage and courage is doing what I say you ought to be doing and please don't question it. And we have to get back to the Bible and these are the verses on which we should focus and this is how it should be done and don't forget to use the right words and slogans and we are right and everyone else is wrong and on and on and on."
So thank God that as much as it seems one party or another is setting God's agenda, He has not relinquished that prerogative to us. It really does not matter what we decide in our back and forth and circular conversations. God will do what God pleases and will continue to make all the definitions.
And God will prune and feed the vine and lead His servants and correct them when necessary and even use us in the process whenever He can trust us to love the sinner like He does.
Yes. I get sick of Christians sometimes - just people with the same personality quirks they would have if they were not Christians - people just as ornery as I am ( or less so because I have a big dose of it).
We get ticked off and opinionated and harsh and then we crash from time to time and ask a lot of questions and then we come back to center - but all the while, our roots are planted in the strong bedrock of God's grace and truth.
I get ticked off and harsh when I perceive people are ticked off and harsh and I judge judgmental people and I am just as human as the rest.
Jesus said He would not feel like spitting us out unless we went lukewarm. He can steer us when we are moving. He can guide us when we are seeking. He can change us when we stay open to change. He can bend us and mold us, and break the resistance of our hearts and He does.
Does Jesus get sick of Christians? When we just don't get it? When we act the same as the folks He was calling to repentance but with Bible verses to justify our rigidity and graceless living?
Maybe, but He doesn't give up. Surprisingly, He loves us passionately and is infinitely patient with us. He uses our crude attempts at service. He includes us in His purpose whether or not we get it.
I have not given up on the church because Jesus has not given up on the church or on me.
The Vine-dresser has not retired.
The church has no corner on the market for dogmatism, rigidity, or critical judgments. Humanity is a common "disease" and a common blessing as well.
If I am ever sick of Christians, it is because they are my family and families get on each others nerves from time to time. I really love Christians and other people as well, but Christians are, with all their peccadilloes, my people and God's people. We are called to be peculiar and even odd. We are thrown together with our personality issues and commanded to "work it out" with God's help and guidance. We have to struggle and grow in our capacity for relationship.
We march to a different drum and, in doing so, we don't flaunt it or push our weight around. That is the plan anyway.
Kick fear in the fanny! Kick discouragement in the fanny! Kick injustice in the fanny! Kick the devil in the fanny! Kick racism, bigotry, and loveless lack of compassion in the fanny! Kick yourself in the fanny if need be, but be careful ...
Not to throw your hip out of joint ... Same danger with the shoulder ... Patting oneself on the back.
Did you know that every title that anyone holds, whether inherited, earned, or bestowed, was made up by someone?
We have a HEART problem.
That means we do no heed the heart of the matter and hurt ourselves and others as a result.
We have no problem with details sometimes; it is the reason for the details that causes us to balk.
We can abide by the letter, but we use the letter to carefully avoid the principle and implications of the law.
We somehow think that God should be impressed with our religiously observant our words and rituals are as we stomp people into the ground and harshly judge their lives while doing whatever we please outside the walls of our carefully constructed "isms."
What kind of HEART does real faith aim us toward?
H - Healthy relationships with God and people.The healthy heart produces healthy life in all its dimensions.
E - Engagement with the meaning of our rituals - a willingness to look deeper than the words and symbols to the essence of what God is saying to us through them.
A - Attitudes of grace, and gratitude, free from the strident bondage of a faith based on rules and rigid judgmentalism.
L - Living what we profess so that God is honored and people are lifted, granted justice, offered compassion, and set free to live abundantly.
T - Testing the results of our beliefs in the crucible of how they effect our behaviors and the well-being of people.
H - Humility that causes us to examine our own lives before pointing the finger at other people.
This is our heart medicine.
If we are diligent about taking it, it can cure multiple ills.
So, let's take our medicine.
Matthew 15:1-20 The Message (MSG): After that, Pharisees and religion scholars came to Jesus all the way from Jerusalem, criticizing, “Why do your disciples play fast and loose with the rules?”
But Jesus put it right back on them. “Why do you use your rules to play fast and loose with God’s commands? God clearly says, ‘Respect your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone denouncing father or mother should be killed.’ But you weasel around that by saying, ‘Whoever wants to, can say to father and mother, What I owed to you I’ve given to God.’ That can hardly be called respecting a parent. You cancel God’s command by your rules. Frauds! Isaiah’s prophecy of you hit the bull’s-eye:
These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it. They act like they’re worshiping me, but they don’t mean it. They just use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy.”
He then called the crowd together and said, “Listen, and take this to heart. It’s not what you swallow that pollutes your life, but what you vomit up.”
Later his disciples came and told him, “Did you know how upset the Pharisees were when they heard what you said?”
Jesus shrugged it off. “Every tree that wasn’t planted by my Father in heaven will be pulled up by its roots. Forget them. They are blind men leading blind men. When a blind man leads a blind man, they both end up in the ditch.”
Peter said, “I don’t get it. Put it in plain language.”
Jesus replied, “You, too? Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you know that anything that is swallowed works its way through the intestines and is finally defecated? But what comes out of the mouth gets its start in the heart. It’s from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing. That’s what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods, washing or not washing your hands—that’s neither here nor there.”
We've lived long enough to know that power can be stripped bare and become as lowly as the fleeting breath of the ordinary soul.
Power, wealth, position, and prestige are rather frail.
The ability to buy favor will fade.
Riches do not last.
Major companies, power-brokers of influence, and empires turn to dust daily and file papers declaring themselves bankrupt.
Trust in the power to extort will disappoint.
Vain hope will devastate.
Riches will fail.
Set not you hearts on them.
" Those of low estate are but a breath; those of high estate are a delusion; in the balances they go up; they are together lighter than a breath. Put no trust in extortion; set no vain hopes on robbery; if riches increase, set not your heart on them."
fresco at the Karlskirche in vienna (by Johann Michael Rottmayr)
“… he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” From John 14:17
God is whispering in our ears, “Give me your hands and let me move them in my rhythm.”
God thinks of everything. His purposes are complex, but not complicated. His plan is to work in and through believers to accomplish what He desires in the world. To do this, He intends to inhabit us.
The Holy Spirit is the very presence of Jesus among us today. It is by the Holy Spirit that we become the Body of Christ in the world and that the world is convicted of sin, righteousness, and judgment and hears the message of God’s love, grace, and forgiveness.
Jesus breathed on the disciples and said,’ Receive the Holy Spirit.” Knowing that they might consider that a once and for all filling and forget the need for constant refreshment and refilling, he told them to tarry in Jerusalem until they received power from on high. As we celebrate Pentecost this year, let us focus on the necessity of the Spirit-filled life if we are to see God accomplish great things in and through us.
When Jesus called Paul, He had a plan for Him. But Paul needed the power of the Holy Spirit in his life to realize his calling and act upon it. When Jesus restored Peter after breathing the Spirit into him, He questioned him about his love. Three times, He commissioned Peter to feed His sheep knowing that if Peter were to act upon his love and follow Him, he would need the power of the Holy Spirit in his life.
By faith, allow the Spirit of God who dwells in you to overflow within you and spill out His blessings to the world. Today, God is calling us to reach our friends, neighbors, families, and communities for Christ. We need the power of the Holy Spirit. We have no choice but to rely on Him.
“And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them.”– Acts 2:3
The tongue holds a prominent place in scripture – sometimes for the evil it can do and other times as a tremendous force for good. In the New Testament, it is the purveyor of the good news of Jesus Christ. By the foolishness of preaching, the gospel is spread throughout the world regardless of the languages of the people.
Fire burns away dross and every superficial thing that vies for attention and distracts from the message of truth. Fire burns in the hearts of those who are entrusted with God’s message so that the message spreads without hindrance and impacts all who are in its path.
At Pentecost, God placed His message of grace in the hearts and on the tongues of every believer. Consider the each and the every, the individual and the collective in the experience of Pentecost. God calls us each to worship Him and that is very personal, intimate, and individualized. But He also calls us, everyone, to be part of the whole, to be joined as a body in the ensemble of harmonic voices lifted in unified praise in and through the Holy Spirit to the glory of His Name and the proclamation of His Word.
Today, as we come together, we are many and we are one in the celebration of the mystery of the Holy Spirit in the majesty of the Body. We are here at God’s invitation and sent forth with His commission because of Pentecost.
This beautiful Missal made from parchment originates from East Anglia. It is considered a very important manuscript as it is one of the earliest examples of a Missal of an English source. Sarum Missals were books produced by the Church during the Middle Ages for celebrating Mass throughout the year
Barriers come down with a resounding thud. We can accept one another in a new way!
The Spirit has come.
The church is born.
It is not bound by ethnicity, nationality, or religious background. All can come to Christ and be one in Christ.
Language is no longer a barrier because at Pentecost everyone, from around the world, heard the gospel in their own language. God's name is confessed among the gentiles and they join in the praise of God.
The eternal choir is not short on harmony for all the parts are filled and nothing is out of balance.
There is no barrier to joy and peace.
Jesus said that when He sent His Spirit, we would do greater works than He and I take that to mean in the area of Evangelism.
The Jewish feast of Pentecost was a memorial day and a harvest celebration.
It commemorated the giving of the law at Sinai and it celebrated the end of the Spring harvest.
So the Christian celebration of Pentecost celebrates the new law of love written on our hearts by the Spirit of God who breaks down cultural, language, and national barriers to usher in a new harvest of souls.
Generally, our faces reveal our hearts, but sometimes, our faces can communicate with our hearts.
Mood is a funny thing. It has multiple triggers and responds to intentional thinking.
Are you a novice to the habit of smiling. I will suggest a beginning exercise that may help. Not only will you feel better, but it pays well too.
S - Stretch your cheeks as far as they can go to the left and the right.
M - Make yourself hold that position.
I - Inhale, but hold your facial position.
L - Lighten up your stance by tensing and relaxing your muscles.
E - Enjoy the giggle that is now turning from a chuckle to a cackle.
Practice this process until it comes naturally. Maintaining the habit will not be nearly as challenging as starting. Others will reinforce it by smiling back and you will feel like a million dollars.
The advantages to smiling are both documented and anecdotal. Yet, they are very real.
Originally posted and revised from October 20, 2006
A man's steps are directed by the LORD. How then can anyone understand his own way? - Proverbs 20:24 (New International Version)
The very steps we take come from God; otherwise how would we know where we're going? - Same verse (The Message)
γνώθι σεαυτόν (Greek Proverb inscribed at the entrance to the temple of Apollo at Delphi) - Translation: "Know thyself."
There is a conflict between what the Oracle of Delphi prescribes and what the sage of Jerusalem decrees. The Greek proverbs adjures us to know ourselves and the Proverbs tell us that we cannot completely know ourselves. There are factors that are like ingredients in the mix of our lives that are beyond our grasp and deeper than our introspection.
Alexander Pope boasted,
"Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is Man."
While not being altogether in error in his observation, he is not all-inclusive.
God is guiding our lives. Chance meetings evolve into lifetime relationships; courses are changed in a moment; entire destinies are altered by a word or deed of seemingly marginal significance.
God is guiding us, leading us, nudging us, preparing us, and building a highway of destiny for us. Of course, we can rebel and pridefully avoid His grace, but it will never be dismissed entirely. We simply do not know everything there is t know about ourselves and our purpose on this planet.
We need a dose of humility to boost our confidence.
Walk in wonder with a deepening appreciation for the mysteries of God in you. Live in awe and expectancy. temper your confidence with humility and your humility with courage. Leave some things dangling in your self perception. Don't lock yourself into hard and fast definitions of yourself. First know God and let Him introduce you to yourself.
I always make it a point to forget what red and blue are as designations for political persuasions & states.
I am almost always successful at that forgetfulness and have no need or desire to correct that deficiency.
Seriously, I can't keep track and don't wish to.
Principles transcend labels.
I don't care what the branding is on a good idea. If it is a good idea, it is a good idea -- same with a bad idea.
The camp from which it comes is less important than where we can go with it and whether or not it propels truth or truth-seeking.
That being said - If I know where something is coming from, I might detect the attachment of an unspoken or unwritten agenda and I might keep my eyes open and my nose clear to sniff out the peculiar smells of being led in the direction of a sewer -yet with an open but aware mind
I have found myself agreeing with someone and nodding enthusiastically many times and then realizing that I have wandered into a position I do not hold -- by accident (or manipulation).
So ... while I cannot afford to dismiss and idea, I can examine it carefully.
When life and life's goods are divided like a fat inheritance, one signs the distribution papers gladly with YAHWEH as one's portion, leaving the fading things behind.
"I promise to keep your words."
Some meditations on Psalm 119:57-64
I feel a bit bold, audacious, and, frankly, hypocritical, praying along with these words since I know my own failings and leanings toward sin and self. Then a voice comes to me and says, "It really is not about you and how pure your own heart is. It is about this moments intention toward me where I enter in. I am your Promise Keeper within you."
He makes is so possible to say, "Yes."
"I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise. When I think on my ways, I turn my feet to your testimonies; I hasten and do not delay to keep your commandments."
This is where my heart is in this very moment of authenticity and reality. I am entreating God's favor and the activation of His promise within my soul. I an thinking on my ways, preparing for the day, month, year, decade, and beyond and all I must do at this very moment , having turned my heart quickly, is to turn my feet.
Turn your heart and then ...
Turn your feet.
Heart Turn = CHOICE.
Foot Turn = POSITIONING.
Life Turn = ACTIVATION
"Though the cords of the wicked ensnare me, I do not forget your law."
We can expect some formidable resistance without and within. These cords are tricky and ever-present. The key is not to forget.
"At midnight I rise to praise you, because of your righteous rules."
Whatever early is for me or for you, this s the point of rising.
"I am a companion of all who fear you, of those who keep your precepts."
Frankly, we can use the support.
" The earth, O LORD, is full of your steadfast love; teach me your statutes!""
I've been noticing that if I am alone and I spill something, break something, cut myself, do something stupid or have something stupid happen to me, my reaction is .... {drum roll} ...
SILENCE ...
... loud, audacious silence I say nothing, grunt nothing, shout nothing. That tree fell in the forest and no one heard a thing because there was nothing to be heard.
Which means ...
I guess when I grunt and shout over such things, I must be playing to the audience and there must be a reason I do.
When I am alone, I just stop and clean it, fix it, or bandage it.
It is always almost safe to say things from a distance that could apply at any time but cannot be confused as current endorsements or the opposite.
I found these on a memory feed from another year.
I can hardly ever get to sleep on election night. It is worse than Christmas Eve.
So, thank you all for running. Stay engaged. Stay positive. Be kind to each other in a tough-love sort of way. Keep leading us to think and ask hard questions.
You have to admire candidates. It is a vulnerable and frightening role to play. You have to stay humble, but the whole process wars against humility. You have to be confident, but the game is risky. You know better than most of us how thing work and how to get things done.
Congratulations to all the Fresno candidates who will wake up tomorrow morning as winners.
Congratulations to all who did not win. You engaged and the process counts.
You have earned a right to be invited to a few more tables and to speak for a few more folks than before.
November is going to be a pretty big deal.
I have never had a 100% satisfaction election night. I have had a couple of 100% shocks. I am shocked about some of the results tonight. A couple of contests probably had too many candidates ... but thankfully, we still live in a country where we cannot regulate that.
One cannot take a sharp knife and carve out the interconnected, fibrous threads of thinking and relating to the world that comprise the psyche of a human being.
Who a woman or man is spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually is an interwoven fabric of complexity and unity with diverse entities that comprise a whole.
One can be aware however, and participate in driving the development of ones own thinking processes. One can be critical of how one thinks and why one thinks as one does.
One can challenge assumptions, prejudices, biases, and attitudes that formulate over time. Some of these may have come from surface reading of primary texts and superficial understanding of deeper teachings.
Some may have been filtered through the lenses of limited exposure to life.
At every stage of life, and perhaps, every day, some reassessment of ones assumptions is in order.
And the basic question of where our political convictions come from is a live subject of debate in these days.
Even the definition of the term is tossed around flippantly and without consideration, some seeing policy participation as an ultimate good and some as an ultimate evil.
early 15c., "pertaining to public affairs," from Middle French politique "political" (14c.) and directly from Latin politicus "of citizens or the state, civil, civic," from Greek politikos "of citizens, pertaining to the state and its administration; pertaining to public life," from polites "citizen," from polis "city" (see polis). Replaced in most adjectival senses by political. From mid-15c. as "prudent, judicious."
To break it down, it is the activity of citizen shaping their own communities and how those communities are governed.
Citizens are those enfranchised souls who form the communities and their background, ethnicities, biases, religious convictions, world-views, and attitudes are diverse.
How then, do such people work it all out?
How do they come together for common good without compromising their deepest convictions?
I would suggest that they begin with themselves as they prepare to weigh arguments that they will face and as they prepare to find common ground with their neighbors. In this brief article, I will not go far beyond that self-assessment process which involves some questions:
Is my faith really shaping my policy, politic, and opinion? If so, how and why? In what way? What is the true root of that faith conviction and what is the core theological presupposition that is at its root?
Are my policies, politic, and opinions actually shaping my faith? Am I creating a lens through which to view the world that is tinted by my own ideas, translating them into faith and then re-filtering everything else through those secondary assumptions?
Alternatively, and I allowing policies, politic, and opinions, mine and those of others, to inform my faith, raise timely questions that send me back to my primary sources and cause me to prayerfully think and rethink my ideas?
Finally, am I ultimately my faith and faith commitment to continually shape my faith and faith commitment as well as my attitudes toward policy, politic, and opinion?
Without giving answers, I charge you to work through the questions on your road to formulating participation in the body politic.
"In the early days of Christianity the old world was going to pieces through its corruptions and unworkable ways. But in the midst of that decaying society was an undecaying society -- the Christian society. The surrounding society built on hate, selfishness, and fear had lost its nerve -- the universe was against it. This new society founded on unselfishness, love, and faith had nerve and courage -- the universe as back of it. When the old order went to pieces this new society was the nucleus of a new order. Men saw in this new society security -- an undecaying security. So they embraced it to get rid of the inner insecurities of life founded on the old order. The Christians won that ancient world not merely by their message but also by being a demonstration of the new order."
From "The Seeds of the Kingdom," an essay by E. Stanley Jones published in the book "Together." (1946)
Sometimes, the bottom line is that there is no bottom line.
Other times, we just have not yet plumbed the depths enough to get to it.
And sometimes it is above us and we are upside down.
42 is the answer to the “ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything,” a joke in Douglas Adams’s 1979 novel, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. (Reference)
I have some very busy friends. Fred was so busy with meetings and public appearances that he has a clone of himself made to attend meetings - but there was a flaw. The clone had a potty mouth. It was causing real problems. Fred could not convince the clone to change.
One day he arranged a meeting with Fred 2 on the roof of his corporate headquarters.
Fred 2 started mouthing off to Fred using the filthiest language Fred had ever heard. Fred became enraged with frustration and, in an infuriated burst of anger, pushed Fred 2 so hard that he was ejected from the building and fell to his death.
The next day they arrested Fred. There was no statute on the books covering homicide of that sort, so they made up a charge ...
Making an obscene clone fall.
Pardon Me
Nixon, after accidentally bumping into VP in the hall:
Botticcelli, Sandro - The Punishment of Korah and the Stoning of Moses and Aaron - 1481-82.jpg
On Stoning My Inner False Prophet ------ from Deuteronomy 13:1-11
So, what do we do with the violence, retribution, subjective judgment, and pitiless punishment described and mandated here in the Torah for false prophets?
It sounds like something lifted out of context from the scriptures of other religions that we criticize for this. Americans and Christians (not that they are the same) would never tolerate a summary judgment or capital punishment for apostasy!
Jesus rejected it for adultery. What do we do with it? How do we embrace it as part of the history, the story, the living parable of truth that has, after hundreds of years of revealing itself/Himself, come to us in a person - God among us?
We embrace it and we take the essential lesson from it.
Love and serve God radically, ruthlessly, and exclusively no matter what other influences come. Shake them off. Spiritually execute those voices even if they come from the mouths of those most precious to you. Let nothing dissuade you from your love for and service to God.
"The second (commandment - in order of importance) is this," Jesus said,
"Love your neighbor as yourself."
Jesus taught in context, historical and contemporary, with an understanding of the intent of the law to bring humanity back to that intent.
It was communicated effectively in its original context and comes to us as core truth in every time of history and cultural context.
We do not put the false prophets to death, whatever they say. We have more scripture that informs us of that. We do "put to death" the "straw man" that influences us away from fidelity. There are hardly enough rocks to stone that voice inside of me that persistently cries ...
"Worship this ..." or "serve that ... It will really pay off for you."
Hand me a stone!
I need to purge some evil from me. I have a plank in my eye and cannot see the stone in your eye.
Those dreams sound attractive.
Help me yank this plank out!
That prophet sounds credible and the promises sound sweet.
Where is that rock?!?
I am not going to lay a hand on anyone or throw a rock at anyone's direction because I am not in the desert anymore trying to get a society organized in a violent world. We are hundreds and thousands of years past those days and that theocratic government of governments.
But we still have the voices and the temptation.
It is daily and it is loud.
How do we execute those inner voices and expel those influences from outside that would turn us away?
" “If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises among you and gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or wonder that he tells you comes to pass, and if he says, ‘Let us go after other gods,’ which you have not known, ‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams. For the LORD your God is testing you, to know whether you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. You shall walk after the LORD your God and fear him and keep his commandments and obey his voice, and you shall serve him and hold fast to him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and redeemed you out of the house of slavery, to make you leave the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall purge the evil from your midst."
“If your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter or the wife you embrace or your friend who is as your own soul entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other gods,’ which neither you nor your fathers have known, some of the gods of the peoples who are around you, whether near you or far off from you, from the one end of the earth to the other, you shall not yield to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him, nor shall you conceal him. But you shall kill him. Your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterward the hand of all the people. You shall stone him to death with stones, because he sought to draw you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. And all Israel shall hear and fear and never again do any such wickedness as this among you."
And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem. -Luke 9:51
When did the passion of the Christ begin in earnest?
One might suggest that it started in eternity or at His birth or even later, intensifying in His baptismal identification with sinful man as the sinless Savior.
However, if we are talking about that segment of His life where all of time begins to crescendo into an explosive event of redemption, it might be at this moment of turning. He set His face toward Jerusalem and all those who would be His disciples began to follow Him there. It was a point of no return.
There was no turning back for Jesus. The time had come. He knew what He had to do and He knew where He had to do it. Even though it meant suffering the likes of which no man had ever known, He would face it. He would follow the Father’s plan. They had planned it together and agreed from eternity that this would be the way.
It was the way of the cross.
“Jesus walked this lonesome valley;
He had to walk it by Himself.
Oh, nobody else could walk it for Him.
He had to walk it by himself.”
In the most profound sense, He was alone, even though others followed Him there. Though He taught us all to follow in that costly way of the cross, He led the way alone. There comes a point of no return in our lives where we must choose to stand along with Jesus whatever the cost.
“You must go and stand your trial;
You have to stand it by yourself.
Oh, nobody else can stand it for you.
You have to stand it by yourself.”
We know we are never alone in the most profound spiritual sense. God is always with us. As we follow Him steadfastly and with resolve, we are His yokefellows. Yet, we come as individuals and we make the choice in the same lonely place of our individual hearts as He did. We will go it whether or not our friends come along. We will do so with or without the support of our families or the favorable treatment of history.
Let us set our faces toward Jerusalem.
Homeless
And Jesus said unto him, Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head. (Luke 9:58)
A certain man wanted to follow Jesus as have many through the centuries and into our time. Perhaps he thought it would be an adventure – and following Jesus is.
Perhaps he thought discipleship would bring a new dimension of meaning to his life – and it does.
Perhaps he longed for the camaraderie and acceptance that was so evident among the disciples of Jesus as it often is today in authentic Christian communities.
He may have been attracted by the laughter and awe of the other followers as Jesus taught them with such vivid realism.
But he was failing to consider one very important point: to follow Jesus would mean leaving all that he had ever counted on for security.
Follow Me ... But
And he said unto another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father. (Luke 9:59)
“I want to follow you, but...”
Was it an excuse, a delaying tactic, or a simple statement of ignorance? Have you never interjected, “but first” into your commitments with God?
How often we have come to the Master with non-negotiable conditions.
Excuses
“And another said, ‘Lord, I will follow Thee, but …” – Luke 9:61a
Erstwhile followers of the Master make a series of irrelevant statements in this great movement of scripture. They are irrelevant because they are merely excuses, postponements of discipleship, weasel-ways of saying “no” without having to actually commit to the word.
In the world of promoting where ones lifeblood is getting people to show up somewhere for something, there is an adage: A “no” is a “no;” a “maybe” s a “no;” and a “yes” is a “no” half the time. Nothing is as reliable as a rock-solid commitment and even that may falter. Humanity is infected with a disease for which David Schwartz coined the phrase, “excusitis.”
Moses had them: “ I am unworthy; I am unlearned; I am unable; I am unbelievable.”
But then he got to his bottom line, “Send someone else.” In other words, “I am unwilling.”
Here is the question: Are you willing to follow Jesus anywhere and in any way – NOW? If not now, when? Will it be as the old despot told the Apostle Paul, at a more convenient season? Are we “almost persuaded?”
Jesus has no time for nonsense. He calls to us through the waves of time, “Follow me.” And He means for us to drop everything – every excuse, every fear, every reservation, every other aspiration of our lives and follow. Half-hearted commitment is no commitment at all. Every reason Moses gave for not doing what God was calling him to do was basically true, but God’s power made them irrelevant.
Now is the time. This is the moment. Drop all of your excuses and say, “Yes” to Jesus and mean it.
Let the Dead Bury the Dead
Jesus said unto him, Let the dead bury their dead: but go thou and preach the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:60)
Jesus’ answer to the man who cried, “but first” demonstrates the profound contrast between life and death. Discipleship is about dying to the old that we might live to the new.
No Looking Back
And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)
All the man wanted to do was say, “goodbye.” At least that is what he said, but Jesus knew what was in his heart and that he was not truly ready to say, “goodbye.”
Otherwise, he would have and would not have just talked about it. He was looking back with the longing gaze of one who was not truly leaving.
Follow Me
The two bottom line words of hard ball discipleship are, "follow me."
Where Jesus goes, we go. What Jesus does and says, we say. The attitude Jesus has toward people, the love, the grace, the forgiveness, the willingness to bear their burdens, these we adopt as our lifestyle.
“I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.” - Revelation 22:16
“… we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.” – Matthew 2:2
The Magi saw His star in the east, but the real star lay in the manger. All the splendor of Heaven was wrapped up in the babe who was wrapped in swaddling clothes.
Look to the skies some morning and lay your eyes upon the most brilliant star in the sky heralding a new day of hope and mercy. And be reminded of David’s offspring, the King in all His glory, Jesus, our Savior and Lord.
His very being announces newness and flings open the door to unheard of possibilities for life. Are you discouraged or despondent? Look to Heaven! Are you bored and unchallenged? Look up! Are you weary and cynical? Look to Jesus!
Jesus came to a world of discouraged people who had lost their childlike capacity for wonder. He entered a sphere where men and women were stepping through the paces of the dance without swaying to its rhythm. They had abandoned their longing for a Messiah. They had exchanged their vibrant faith for empty ceremonies. They had ritualized the radical elements out of their spirituality and had begun to think of their symbols as mere cultural icons.
It is not an unfamiliar panorama of life. Some of the same comments can be made about our times. But we have more. Rising above us on the horizons of our hearts is the welcoming sign of a new morning. Jesus is here.
And they said, “Believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” - Acts 16:31
The Philippian jailer asked, "What must I do o be saved?"
He asked not really knowing fully what he was being saved from or to. He only knew that he had stood in the presence of a genuine display of power, might, authority, and strength that exceeded his own and that he was in trouble.
He knew that Paul and Silas had something he needed.
The captor was now looking to the captives for rescue and guidance.
The keeper of the prison and the agent of empire was seeing his empire crumble before his eyes and was reaching out for help.
He would need to believe in a new Lord, not Caesar, but the one whom Caesar's empire crucified.
Here is an acronym for what it means to have saving faith:
B- Be convinced that God loves you and that Jesus died for you, forgiving your sins, rising again to give you eternal life. This is the gospel. The love of God is activated, demonstrated, and announced with dramatic clarity in the life, teachings, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
E– Examine your life honestly in the light of God’s living and written Word and admit your need of a Savior as a result of a broken relationship with God and others. The Holy Spirit will guide you through this process of conviction if you are open.
L– Let go of your sinful resistance and self-centered control of your life. Another word for this is repentance, a turning from sin, self, self-delusion, and deception to God. This is a turn-around in your mind, will, and actions made possible by grace.
I–Invest your life completely in God. This is basic, gut-level trust and is necessary for the new life in Christ. One way to express this change of heart to God is prayer – an honest and simple out-pouring of your soul to God.
E– Eternalize your values. Stop adding up your assets the old way. Understand that eternal reality is true reality and that only what lasts forever is worth our lives.
V– Visualize a new life of freedom, forgiveness, and fullness based upon God’s grace, mercy, and power. This is the beginning of the exercise of faith in your life.
E– Embody the life of Christ within you by receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, His indwelling presence. This is new birth.
That is the simple breakdown, but it goes deeper - inevitably, gradually, eventually, poetically, musically, and profoundly.
Delve into the music and the poetry of these videos to say where they take you on your journey of believing.
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