Thinking Blogger Award

Thanks to Every Square Inch, I'm the recipient of a Thinking Blog Award. Thanks, ESI for your gracious and kind words about this blog. It's a simple gift I have to share that really probably ends up being more for my own benefit than for anyone else's. Though I certainly hope and pray the Lord will use it since we're blessed to be a blessing, of course.

Here are five blogs I tap for the award:
1. Jesus Creed: Scot McKnight, writer extraordinaire, New Testament scholar and professor really is the one who got my interest going on blogging. And one can receive a theological education by working on his blog. Read his posts and if you are able, follow the threads. He is weekly working through a book, and works exegetically through Scripture as well as on some (often hot button) theological issue of our time.

2. Allan R. Bevere: Allan is a pastor and professor who keeps up well on the times and knows what "Israel" ought to do. There is helpful insight for us all from this brother.

3. Vanguard Church: When Bob Robinson is blogging he helpfully challenges our thinking theologically both in our understanding and practice of the faith with reference to the kingdom of God come in Jesus. Bob is the CCO Area Director of Northern Ohio, a campus ministry.

4. Wide Open Spaces: Charity Singleton has a thoughtful and warm way of blogging. She challenges us in thinking through how we might better live out our faith. And nice photos as well.

5. Faith Dance: Dan Brennan challenges us with a paradigm in Christ for cross-gender relationships. This is a blog that would do us all good to read and think through with him from Scripture, from his own thoughts and experience as well as from the books of others.

There are a number of others who really deserve to be put on my five. ESI would fit right in. And others like Alan Knox, Jamie-Arpin Ricci, L.L. Barkat, Michael Kruse, Jazz Theologian, John Frye and Susan Arnold. Really all the blogs I have linked on the side are worthy of this reward (besides others I run into). There are a number of blogs on my site worth special mention for mind-stretching; just to name three: LeRon Shults, Mark Galli and Mark Roberts. And I'm excited about John Michael Talbot joining the blog world.

Here are the rules as originally laid out to be passed on:

The participation rules are simple:

1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote.

help others as a friend

My (blogging) friend, Bob Robinson is starting a series that considers how we approach those we would want to help bring into the kingdom of God in Jesus. I look forward to his thoughts and work on this.

He points out that we need to see people as Eikons of God, therefore special, and affirm them in that specialness. Yet at the same time they (and we) are cracked Eikons, something is wrong. And we would help them see that they can begin to realize their created potential through Christ and the new humanity in him.

I am reminded of the Reformation teaching that humans are basically good though flawed with sin, likened to a container holding water which represents the goodness from God in bearing God's image. Just a small amount of ink representing sin, dumped into the water colors the entire water. So that while we're not pure ink, as in pure sin, sin permeates and taints every part of who we are (taken and adapted from Miroslav Volf). I would have some questions about this approach that I'm confident Bob will grapple with or address in one way or another as we try to find a more Biblical, Jesus-oriented way of evangelism.

This goes for us when we try to help each other, as well. If we can only hone in on the negatives about the person we're trying to help, then it will cast doubt on our counsel. We need to see the good, acknowledge that and help them see that we ourselves have our shortcomings, and maybe right in line with their problem.

And above all we need to seek to reach out and help others as a friend. Arguably Jesus reached out to Judas right to the end, calling him, "Friend." We might not agree theologically as to all that's going on here, but I think we can agree that Jesus's approach was consistent in this way. He lived and acted as one who was seeking to save that which was lost.

What insight or story or thought might you like to add here?

love is key

Augustine said something like: "Love, and do what you please." I recently listened to C.S. Lewis reading The Four Loves and found it fascinating in its gist and where he was going with it, as well as challenging in its scope and detail.

Love as used by us in our vocabulary means many different things and takes on all kinds of different hues. It can have meaning or be descriptive of turning out toward God and others and being life-giving, or it can be turning inward on oneself and be destructive.

God's love as revealed in Christ is key to understanding the kind of love that should inform, transform and conform our lives to Jesus Christ as little christs and as his Body together and for the world. This love we experience is for others. But we are also always dependent on God and must know and experience God's love before we can pass that love on to others. And not only that, it is a love we have that is receptive to other's love in a kind of interdependency of one another as members of Christ.

This love forgives and receives forgiveness and accepts the reality that it is greatly loved in Jesus, the Beloved. The Trinity is a community of self-giving love, each giving of themselves fully and in a self-emptying way to the other and in that there being the dance of God, which in Christ God takes us in to be participants, even as humans, beginning now.

So much to say on love. I will stop here. I need to think of more stories to tell in sharing about it. Maybe you have something like that, or something to add here.

a missional community

The church, the community of God in Christ has been called a "missional community". We are a community that shares in the mission of God in Christ in this world; we are on mission.

I believe this has to color everything else, but I also believe what we're coloring is important here. We must first define "mission" and not only that, but we must describe what it's all about. It includes but is more than just getting people "saved". In our zeal to do better we can leave the basic behind. And while we need to do better we must also hold on to the basic truth of salvation from the guilt, condemnation and power of sin and salvation to forgiveness, reconciliation and freedom, in Christ.

We're to be little christs in this world, but even more importantly we are the Body of Christ. We carry on to fulfill his once for all ministry in this world, in him by the Spirit, together. It's a ministry of being servants to all and as we have freely received, freely giving of ourselves to others.

There is much more to say here, of course. What might you like to add for now?

Jesus community requires commitment

This thought has nothing to do with this blog. Though I think whatever community we've had on this blog has not done badly in this regard (to find "Jesus community" go here, and I'm sure you can find it other places as well), I'm thinking of the community God has called all Jesus followers to in this world. It is a community of loving God with all of our being and doing, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. It is a call to us as one Body in Christ our Lord, having the same Spirit, the same Lord, the same faith, the same baptism, the same God and Father of us all. Though our understanding in regard to these things differs in peripheral ways, the heart for us is the same in this glorious faith we have in Jesus our Lord.

Commitment is required for "Jesus community" to really flourish among us. It must begin in our families and out from that into our neighborhoods, in our church, and into all the world. Commitment first to Christ and the will of God in Christ, and from that, commitment to each other in Jesus (these first two can be reversed as far as one leading to the other), and from that, commitment to those who are lost, as well as poor and broken. In all of this we begin to see the difference that Jesus makes, for that is what "Jesus community" is, Jesus making all the difference among us.

Commitment means we each follow, seeking to follow Christ together as we're called to do. It means we seek to do so in every part and parcel of our lives, in prayer and in Scripture and in listening to God's voice through each other.

So much more on this, I'm sure. What can help us fill in this picture from any of you? Maybe a good story.

giving thought to our thoughts/thought life

It's easy to go on in life and give little thought to our thought life. Our thoughts play in largely to what we end up doing. More foundationally, thoughts play into who we're becoming. So we need to guard them so as to keep out the bad as well as take in the good.

I love Paul's words on this:

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Philippians 4:8; TNIV

These are great and important words to reflect on, to think about.

Paul also talks about taking every thought captive of those he was teaching, and making it obedient to Christ. Certainly this had to begin in Paul first; he had to do it for himself. And I believe he did it through the word of God, the message of Christ and living humbly in community.

What will we be thinking about today? What have I thought about through other days and how has that affected me? Too often in my own life I've thought about issues that made me anxious and worrisome. I've learned to combat that through getting into Scripture and prayer, as well as sharing it with a mature, loving brother or sister, especially my wife or a pastor or trusted friend. Though I do like to share with others my struggles at times, so they can take heart that they're not the only ones who struggle.

Here is something that is great to put your thoughts on. It started out slow for me, but ends up being worth every minute. Listen and be blessed to be a blessing.

What thoughts would you like to add to our thoughts on thoughts here?

a blessing

Blessing

Let nothing disturb thee,

nothing affright thee;

all things are passing,

God never changeth!

Patient endurance attaineth to all things;

who God possesseth

in nothing is wanting;

alone God sufficeth.
+ In the name of the Father,

and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

(Northumbria Community)

digital camera

Does anyone know how to get pics on profile with Blogger? I'm at a loss and give up for now.

is it just me?

Is it just me, or is anyone else out there tired of politics, and really would rather keep up on what's going on from a distance, if at all? On the one hand I'm for our participation and influence as those in Jesus of the kingdom of God. On the other hand I think we put too much confidence in politicians and political systems. What about you?

losing our heart in God

Some years ago I remember hearing a pastor and thinking he sounded hollow, or that something just didn't seem right, or at least that in spite of the way he preached which was an emulation or model of "good preaching", and that there was good in his message, I frankly was glad when it was over. Later it came to light that he was having an emotional affair with a woman from another city. I don't know if I had just been having a bad day or had been given a measure of some kind of discernment. But there are few issues I'm more concerned about than losing my heart in God, really none.

This doesn't have to be in reference to an adulterous affair. It could involve any number of things that move us away from God. Paul warns about the danger of wanting to get rich and that by so doing some had wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

A good Biblical case in point is David. A man, no less, after God's own heart. And yet a man who was losing his heart in God through his adultery and then murder (arrangement of the death) of the woman's husband. David ends up being miserable and from this escapade we have one of the greatest psalms to meditate on and work into our hearts and lives.

When I'm losing my heart in God I no longer feel quite at home in God. My heart is elsewhere. Isn't that idolatry? I find that in the recognition, acknowledgement and confession in turning back in penitence to God I begin to find my heart again in God, though this is an ongoing project for me to both guard and deepen. And I do fail at times but then can get back on track, and I've learned to endeavor to do so as soon as I realize what's going on (which probably means not very soon, like my annual factory hearing tests where for some time I don't recognize the small beep sounding in my ear).

We're to guard our hearts and by our heart, seek God's face. Is it better to have our own way or live our own life not at home in God in our hearts? Or is it better to struggle in any number of ways and really be at home in God in our hearts, even if oftentimes the signal seems weak?

good conversations

There are few things I like better than a good conversation. But this often seems so illusive. Of course I would have to define what "good conversation" means and then judge my definition by how others might define "good conversation", and most importantly how God, in view of God's Word/Scripture would define it.

I take "good conversation" to mean a talking back and forth between two or more people over matters of common interest. These common interests would be inclusive of any activity "under the sun" as well as anything pertaining to God and God's creation. It can include the sense of friendship, companionship and love in some sense.

Jesus drew people out into conversations and surely this was an aspect of him which others found attractive. From that Jesus shared his heart which was of course, the heart of God and with reference to the kingdom of God come in him.

For myself a good conversation can be about most anything. I like to get into theological conversations, though strictly speaking all of life I see as theological. I think good conversations promote mutual understanding and friendship.

Love for God and for neighbor should mark all conversations. This is why I often find myself uncomfortable if I think a conversation I'm around or engaged in is in some way undermining or violating this.

How would you define or describe a good conversation?

one part of the nature of Christian growth/formation

If you haven't visited John Michael Talbot's blog, do so! The teaching posts are rich and helpful. And the other posts are good as well (I like the concept and practice of the hermitage and monasticism).

In one of his songs, The Sea/Laudable Exchange, with the words adapted from Clare of Assisi, are the lines:

Because* of this I have resolved
To always progress from good to better
To be faithful in his service
To always progress from virtue to virtue

*amounting to losing all things to gain eternal life

I found helpful a thought that came to my mind a couple days ago. I was consciously working on an issue of my heart and life and thought something like, let's aim for a little progress, small but real and substantial. The thought was answered and I saw real, substantial progress, even if indeed it was small.

I think this monastic thought does reflect God's call to us together in Jesus. That we are to follow on, adding to our faith, goodness, etc., working out with fear and trembling what God is working into our hearts and lives.

Our human minds are geared to do well at working on one thing at a time (at least my mind), though certainly God is at work in our lives, in a multiplicity of ways. So we need to do well with what is in front of us, in our lives, to seek to glorify God in seemingly small, incremental ways of growth in our lives, as we seek together to become more and more conformed to the image of Christ.

experiencing Christ's resurrection life

I've been meditating some of these days, recently on the book of Philippians. It is a book full of joy, the joy of the Lord. Paul was leaving the past: good, bad and all the rest, all that he was "in the flesh" to find Christ and live in the new way of the Spirit. This was a way that called him "upwards and onwards" far beyond where most Christians, it seems could even imagine (including myself). And yet these words, God's Word by the Spirit beckons us on to come and follow, yes, for all of us in Jesus.

After Paul remarks about how he left all that was considered necessary for life and indeed, in his case, everything behind him, he then tells us where he is going and what goal he is pressing towards. And this is in part what he follows after:

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death

(Philippians 3:10; TNIV)

To know the resurrection life of Christ in the here and now! That is what Paul speaks of and this is for each of us. It is alive and invigorating and strengthening for us, in our following on, in the way of the Lord. But it takes a participation with Christ in his sufferings and a becoming like him in his death. This means death to any and all known sin in our lives, through repentance and faith; this is ongoing and an embracing of the will of God in Christ. It is a death which severs us from the old Adam and the old creation, and brings us into the new Adam, the new humanity in Christ, the new creation- already ours in Christ and therefore what we should be endeavoring to live in and live out.

This is a life that we're to experience together as Christ's Body on earth. But in the terms Paul speaks of it here, it is a life that we must enter into individually, as individual members of Christ's Body, being helped by other members who are doing this, and in turn helping other members to do the same.

Notice though, that even Paul, who was not a baby believer at this time, was expressing a desire for this. He made it clear that he hadn't arrived. But he certainly knew that this was where true life is found. And he wanted to be identified closely to his Lord. Think of the stoning he experienced. Surely his body was pumelled and marked by these and other ways he was persecuted for Christ. Yet he got up and went on, after such a beating and other deprivations (to be sure, with Luke the doctor, nearby). Couldn't it have been in large part because of the resurrection life of Jesus he was already experiencing in his heart and out from that to his body? Though certainly not sharing in the resurrection of the body which we await.

I want to know this, to know the humility, love and life that comes with it, to know the One much better from whom this all comes.

What about you? What would you add to this to help us, or any thought you'd like to share?

established in uncertainty

The life in Jesus, together, is a living, dynamic and moving reality having its being in Jesus himself, as we his Body live out his life here on earth, by the Spirit.

This is a reality in which many number of things are going on at the same time. God is working on the individual parts in getting along with each other in love, in holiness of life. And there is a work of learning how to grow, live and serve together, in mission to the world.

All of this involves becoming established in uncertainty. We don't know what lies ahead in a day, or a week, a month or a year- and beyond. But we are willing to trust that in it all God's will can be done in our lives, as we seek and choose that will over our own and for the true good of the world, including ourselves.

We like predictability and easy "cookie cutter" ways. But God's ways are different. We inevitably will meet new struggles, opportunities, issues, etc., in those around us we know, as well as in our own lives.

This necessary establishing we need in Jesus involves both faith and works, practices of love which we do regardless of the day and circumstances we find ourselves in (of course barring special periods of rest or waiting on God). The more different or great the problems we face, the more the same we need to humbly plod on with our faith, established in Jesus.

Established yet in uncertainty, as we face a new week. Will we be willing to take this path together in Jesus? Or will I insist that things be the same and manipulate life, if need be, to that end? This may be a stretch, today. But I think this thought has validity for us as we live as Christ's Body in mission together, in this world.

What might you like to add to this?

a tribute to Mom

Our mother has always been a faithful witness to the grace and salvation found in Jesus Christ. She was a witness first to her children at home. She read us Bible stories from Kenneth Taylor's The Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes. These were fascinating with the pictures helping me enter into something of the world of that story in my imagination.

She prayed, and witnessed and sang songs of the faith at home. And the Spirit finally brought me "home", and brought my two sisters home to faith in Christ largely through her love in witnessing and praying for us.

I thank God for the faith and love of my mother.

many things beside the point

In our walk in God in this world, many things are rather beside the point. That is to say, they are fine in themselves and we can and even should enjoy them. But we must not become lost in them so that we're lost to the work and mission in Jesus, we're called to live here and now. This thought is a part of God's will for us in Christ Jesus and of the example found in the Apostle Paul and other like-followers that we're also to follow.

It is important to rest and enjoy God's good things. I think Christians, in our zeal to follow Jesus in mission can forget this. We're to use these things, and thank God for them, while not becoming engrossed in them so that the enjoyment of such is what our lives are all about, like as in "waiting/living for the weekend".

Weekends or whenever your regular time of rest, relaxation and recreation is should be a time of doing the fun or "laid back" things you like to do, and should also be a time of seeking to draw near to God in it all. Too many weekends and vacations in my life, I've been inadvertently lax on the latter. Certain disciplines of love must go on, even if they do take a much different form during such times.

God's will in Christ for us together is what it's all about as we seek to live in mission in this world. Blessed with God's blessings, so we in turn bless others.

What thoughts from your life or thinking would you like to share with us on this?

Christianity future-oriented

The faith we have in Christ is a faith that embraces in the present a future that is already present in Jesus by the Spirit in his Body in this world. We live as those in whom the past is important in some ways and fleeting in others. In Jesus, his person and work, we see God's great redemptive act in the past to bring into the present the future, now. What we've experienced and the roots of our existence "in Adam" are fleeting and "in Christ" are already a thing of the past. And our present is movement toward the goal in Christ we find in God, toward the perichoretic dance of the Triune God, and this worked out in the new heaven and new earth.

What might weigh me down from the past, or issues and problems in the present is to be lived out as those who are neither tied down by the past or the present, but look forward to more of what we're experiencing now in Jesus, indeed the fulfillment of that (not the best sentence, but the best I can do at the moment). How we get there is all found "in Christ", in his community of faith in mission to the world. It certainly involves leaving behind and forgetting all those things we think are so important, even necessary in fulfilling our humanity. And instead, pressing forward toward the goal to be fulfilled in the future in Christ. That begins now. So if we want to be living out what God intends forever for us, as his children, we can begin to do that now. Indeed by the Spirit we do, but to really live in it in this life requires a denying of self and a willingness to identify fully with Christ. It is a call that we can be overwhelmed in trying to answer and sustain. But it is a call by God in Christ. It is a continuation in the grace of God found in Christ in which we are being renewed more and more to live in God's truth and love. A call that includes all in Jesus until we all reach unity in the faith and become mature, attaining to no less than the whole measure of the fulness of Christ (Ephesians 4).

With these words I'm working on this, both in thinking as well as in faith and practice. This truth really does meet us where we live, but I must confess, "I see through a glass darkly" on this (1 Corinthians 13; KJV). But I in community want to keep working on this, and indeed, we must.

Any thoughts to help us here?

(This idea I took on from F. LeRon Shults, Reforming the Doctrine of God)

being bound that we might be free

Proverbs speaks of certain practices that can confirm the soul/person/life in righteousness. These are things we are to do, no less and it matters not whether we feel like it. In fact we need to especially guard this truth and practice when we don't feel like it. Of course there's immediate forgiveness when we do falter. But we also need to practice immediately getting back on track of this confined path.

This can be a hard struggle. For some it is the avoidance of pornography, for others the avoidance of an affair, or of an addiction or whatever the besetting sin that we may be facing. For many it may be something seemingly less, but just as debilitating to one's walk in seeking to follow Christ, a big one being bitterness and unforgiveness. We must hang in through the struggle and keep working on it, even in the midst of all our weaknesses and failures along the way. We must not give up. Better to die in this struggle than to live in the sin.

As we keep working through this in Jesus and in fellowship with others in Jesus (for one can be in complete fellowship with Jesus only by being in complete fellowship with all members of his Body, I believe; we have a long way to go) we begin to experience the freedom Jesus talks to us about.

This freedom becomes surprising in many ways. One begins even now to experience the truth that what one gives up for the sake of Christ they get back and even more. And of course the vices that are only destructive of ourselves and others we don't want back. We want to hold others in Christ as God sees them, and in a relationship of love, grace and truth. And from that comes the joy and blessing of God, as he delights over us his children.

What would you add to this thought, or would like to say?

listening for God's voice

It is good and important for us in Jesus to be in Scripture regularly. We need a vital intake of that so that we can better identify ourselves in God's ongoing Story. We see the Story of God in the Bible and from that we begin to see how our story fits in. We see our identity as those who are in need of God and of his grace and who begin to find our true, unique selves, together in Christ.

So that's important. But it's also vital for us, and this has been implied already, to be open during this unfolding Story to the part we play. This is improvisational in nature, in other words as it unfolds we pick up cues and do it, we do what is becoming natural for us to do in Jesus. This does buck up against what left to ourselves we would do as our old person, in Adam.

And a most vital aspect of all this is to listen for God's voice. God's voice can come from anywhere, but especially from another brother or sister in Jesus. We need to listen with a heart of wanting to obey God. And we must have an openness that ponders what has been said to us.

Of course apart from the first part mentioned, that being in the Word, in Scripture, in the Bible- God's voice will often fall on deaf ears. We won't have ears to hear because we won't be accustomed to the tune of God that we pick up in Scripture. I think I have trouble enough picking up the voice of God, even though being regularly in Scripture.

One qualification: God's voice comes through friends and loving conversation as a rule, not from those who though in God's grace in Christ are not practicing it. I probably won't hear God's voice through someone who looks down on others and puts themselves and their thoughts on a pedestal.

What might you add to this to help us?

believing in God's greatness and goodness

When I was a boy the prayer I was taught to pray began like this:

God is great and God is good

Back then theology was not in the flux it is in today over God and what it means to think of God's greatness as in his power along with his goodness and what this means in a world preyed on continually by evil.

I believe it is absolutely essential for us to hold on to God's greatness and his goodness even for this world and for our communities in faith, our families and for ourselves. We must hold on to this for dear life.

But we must hold on to it contextually according to Scripture and especially according to God's revelation to us in Christ. For example, we're told at the end of one of the most glorious chapters of the Bible, Romans 8, that nothing at all can separate us who are in Christ from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Those nothings listed include the sword, famine, nakedness and death itself. In this life we're called to an existence that is anything but certain. Just ask Christians who live or have lived in places in which their simple Christian faith is not approved by the government. Or the mother whose baby is born dead. Or the young man who receives a bad prognosis from his doctor.

God is great and God is good. But how that is worked out in this life is not according to how we would work out greatness and goodness. Would we send our one and only unique Son, our very heart, love and life into a sinful, rebellious world, actually to become human and die a cruel death for the good of sinners and the world? This is beginning to get at true greatness and goodness, at least the kind we see from God in Christ.

God is great and God is good does not make him into some superman-like character who will rescue the world and make everyone live happily ever after, by and by. But he is one who brings in the new creation through his kingdom come in Jesus. And it's a new life characterized by death to the old and to what the old is all about.

So we need to think of God's greatness and goodness according to this new working of God, this redemptive, reconciling work for the world. As we do that we can perhaps better deal with the Job-like difficulties that can come into our world. Then we can say with the psalmist in confidence:

Those who trust in the LORD are like Mount Zion,
which cannot be shaken but endures forever.

We know the ending which we actually begin to experience or catch glimpses and tastes of now, will be great and good.

What do you think of when you think of this, or of God's greatness and goodness?

ungrace

I am rereading (again) Philip Yancey's What's So Amazing About Grace? I think I'm entering a little more into the depth that is there.

I am trying to make better sense of the absolutely unconditional love of God's amazing grace and the importance of not sinning once one has received this grace through faith in Christ. Yesterday at the nursing home along with communion, we looked at living out the truth of our baptism from Romans 6. There Paul makes no bones out of the fact that grace is not to lead to further sin so that one experiences more and more of God's grace. Indeed it is to lead us in quite the opposite direction. My point here is to wonder if my own striving to be righteous can get in the way of God's needed grace, if from that I can get a case of ungrace. It can, but not necessarily, I think, depending on where my confidence really lies; is it in myself, or in the Lord and within the fellowship of his people?

I can pick up cases of "ungrace" in my heart, as well as thinking I see it in the words and actions of others. It is something we all battle with, since the grace of God in Christ is not a natural disposition of fallen sinners (though in Christ we are being renewed). We tend towards an ungrace that can easily look down on others while failing to see ourselves as we are.

Grace want to take everyone in, even the self-righteous ones (though self-righteousness stands in direct opposition to grace and its reception). We know that Christ alone makes the difference; it is not in ourselves or anyone else. Ungrace measures others and excludes those who do not measure up. But those who are doing that to others often stand out themselves because their attitude is all too evident, it seems.

We must hang in there through whatever we're experiencing or struggling with, in confidence that God's grace in Christ can and will prevail in our lives or in the situation we're concerned about. This is an important part of avoiding ungrace: refusing to be moved by the difficulties and trials of life because one is looking for God's ongoing work of grace in Christ.

May God help us to avoid ungrace by seeking to live in the grace in Christ that he provides for us, that we would do that together with others in Jesus that we might bring his grace to the world.

What thoughts would you add here?

a confession of faith

Our help is in the name of the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

Psalm 124

accepting and living in God's peace

John Michael Talbot at his blog has a wonderful piece on peace: The Road to Peace: John 14:1-6. You should read it, even if it means you don't read the rest of this post. Honestly!

God's peace for us came at a great cost in the Incarnation and sacrifice of love of God's Son Jesus for us. We enter in this grace of God, this gift, by faith and by faith we begin to live in the peace or shalom/wholeness God provides for humanity which will be the atmosphere we live in in the "sea change" that will take over the new earth someday.

In Jesus this begins now for us and we seek to bring it into this broken world now. Of course we need to live in it ourselves, individually and out of that in community, and from that in mission in Jesus to the world.

Living in this peace means I choose to trust and obey God no matter what. This involves looking intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, then letting our living be determined and shaped by that. This will be costly for us, as we follow the way of Christ. The way Jesus once for all set out for us, a new and living way, is blessed, but difficult. It is the way of the cross; it is the way of death to self and life to God.

I have been struggling lately over a number of problems and issues and have been consciously lacking in this peace. But God has been helping me to see what I need to see to take the next steps of faith and to turn away from that which is not helpful or view it better, in a different light. You have to come to that place where there is only one thing that really matters, and you're going to choose to follow and live in that. Of course this is a day by day exercise. Just because we seem to be more on track one day doesn't mean that we'll easily remain on course the next.

God's peace enables us to live in and experience his love; to be blessed that we might be a blessing to all around us. And as John Michael points out to us, God's work in all of this is creative. We need to trust him through a journey in which we'll need the peace of God that can keep our hearts and minds at rest and open when we don't understand.

What have you learned about this in your own life? Or what thoughts might you have?

the beauty of the Lord

I currently have this photo of a stained glass window on the "desktop" at home and on our main computer at work. I love it, especially from a little ways back, and imagining the sun shining through it (which it probably is on the photo).

It reminds me of the recent thought I read from N.T. Wright in his book, Simply Christian in which he sees beauty as being an echo of the voice of God to the world, and how this beauty is fulfilled in the coming of Jesus in bringing in the kingdom of God which ushers in the new creation. Of course we remember the beauty with which the Bible Story begins and with which it ends.

Tom Wright believes Christians should point to beauty (along with justice, spirituality and relationships) as being important for people to come to hear the voice of God in Christ, and that this is of great importance in a world that might see life as merely utilitarian. It's a beauty that is wonderful in itself, yet points beyond itself to the Beauty that we are called to behold, contemplate and even take more and more of its image on ourselves (some extra thoughts added here, I believe). And even enter into.

As I have been looking at the stained glass window for a number of days, it has helped me to want to meditate on, ponder and behold (and be beholden by) the beauty of the Lord. This is what icons are meant to do. They were made to be windows or pointers to draw attention beyond themselves, in this case to the beauty of the Lord and of his revelation to us in Christ.

Beauty is all over God's creation, even as it groans under the curse, awaiting the glorious resurrection of God's children. I love Spring when all is fresh and beauty can be seen nearly everywhere not obscured by concrete or the like. This beauty can lift us and help us to worship and want to live in the Beauty from whom all beauty comes.

What about you? Do you see validity in appreciating stained glass windows and icons in appreciating God's beauty and the glory of his revelation to us in Christ?

national prayer day and nationalism

I venture to speak of that of which I little know, though that's more or less true all the time anyhow. But today in my country, the United States, there is a national day of prayer. It is a time when citizens and others here gather to pray to God for our country. It is inclusive in that people of all faiths participate. Of course it takes on different colors according to each participating group.

I wonder what is the truly Christian and Jesus way to participate in this. Would it be to withdraw and pray the Lord's prayer along with making it (or another day) an international prayer day, including all nations? Such a day would not be a bad idea.

I have taken a Christian pacifist stance on war and there are Christians who would respectfully (and very well possibly praying at the same time, with thanksgiving for this country) would abstain from saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

My position at this time is to participate in this day. At my workplace, RBC Ministries, we participate in it every year. For any who would in Christian conscience want to participate in a different way, or abstain, I'm sure this would not be a problem there, as long as this is considered within the parameters of Christian faith (and it would be, say, if some Mennonite would participate differently).

Nationalism strictly speaking is something I really don't want to countenance, support or be a part of. We in Jesus are "a holy nation" consisting of all ("Jews and Gentiles") who put their trust in Jesus as Messiah and Lord over all. And we are from every tribe, people and nation- ultimately, on the earth, scattered everywhere. So our allegiance and loyalty is to God; Jesus is Lord, not any other nation or ruler. I know this alone does not answer the issues on which Christians disagree. It is good to keep working on such issues and at times we'll have to, in love agree to disagree, of course.

As salt and light in Jesus, we should be good citizens wherever we live. We should bring God's light in Jesus to bear on issues and problems that concern our nation (if we can, which we can here; others can find this much more difficult), reflecting that light in our lives and good works to those around us. This can involve participation in politics in a way that would bring in something of the kingdom of God, something of the new creation- in Jesus.

Whatever you decide or have decided about this day, for you who live in this nation, let's be sure to lift up a prayer for God's mercy on us along with repeating together the prayer the Lord taught us to pray.

What would you add to this? Or what's your perspective and thoughts on it?

finding the good in our struggles

Jesus lived nearly the first thirty years of his life in relative obscurity. He lived in Nazareth, pretty much ignored and even looked down on by the rest. He shows up at the temple in Jerusalem at the age of twelve and wows the teachers there. But other than that we read nothing about him until he comes to his cousin John the Baptizer to be baptized.

Did Jesus encounter struggle during those silent years? We know he did struggle in the garden of Gethsemane. Surely he did so along the way in his life too; surely he struggled at times which prepared him for his encounter in the wilderness when he was tempted by the devil. We know Jesus was tempted in every way as we are with the difference being that he never sinned. Temptation was as real to Jesus as it is to us, but of course, temptation itself is not sin. Though we can in our sinfulness subject ourselves to unneccessary temptation, I believe.

What good comes out of our struggles? We can be tempted sorely in something that may seem trivial or another matter which is not trivial at all- knowing, of course that no sin however big or small is actually trivial. Though some can be catastrophic in our lives. What about when our hearts seem full of paralyzing and deadening fear? Or we can't shake the heaviness that seems to take the life right out of our "souls"?

I remember Dr. James Grier once telling us that he believed God looks higher on the Christian who is struggling and may not look pretty, but is maintaining their integrity before God and others, over the Christian who seems to be walking on air all the time (my paraphrase and additions to trying to get at the thought Dr. Grier was conveying). We read in Scripture that Paul struggled, and more importantly (in some ways) Jesus did so himself! I'm reminded of Job, and of many of the psalms. Their's was not some "happified" existence. Michael Card's recent book and musical album (both very good, by the way) both hit on this theme.

Only those who struggle can empathize with other strugglers. Only those who know what it's like to live in "the dark night of the soul", or are working through intellectual doubts, or feel in danger over some temptation, etc., etc., can empahthize with others. Even some failure can be good here, if we've known the grace, forgiveness and restoration of God along with that. And we all know failures along the way.

Struggles can also deepen our walk in God. They can drive us more to Scripture to meditate on and chant (as I like to do sometimes). And drive us more to God, in prayer and trust as well as learning a costly obedience. And as we continue on in God's way for us in Christ, these struggles can confirm us in the sense of more habituating us to that way as well as to more conformity to Jesus. And so much the better as we in Jesus seek to do this together. In fact we need each other, unless all the "one another" passages in the New Testament mean nothing.

What might you add here?

accepted and beloved

In Jesus we are all accepted and loved by God. And we in Jesus are to accept and love each other.

This is a love that often is full of pain, because many won't receive this acceptance and love. Or a number depart from it. Or we can struggle sometimes ourselves to rest in it.

But if we don't have this then we are not Christian. This is at the heart of what it means to follow Christ, to be the people of God in Christ, to be the church.

May God help us live in this today, and encourage others to do the same. By the grace found in our Lord Jesus Christ.

what next?

The work of God in Christ among his people and in each of us is multifaceted. There is much more going on than meets the eye in the change that we are undergoing into Christlikeness.

But I would like to suggest in this that in our own participation we're to work on one thing at a time. So that one of our prayers along the way could be, "What's next, Lord?" Could it be more than one thing in the course of a day? Of course, I would say, though I would tend to look at each of these as a project that is more than likely worked out and in which we're "confirmed" over time.

We need to think more in terms of community as to this question, because even when we're thinking about needed change in our own life, it is best worked out in the context of other brothers and sisters in Christ. We are after all one in Christ, and his Body together. And oftentimes we'll find that the issue we face concerns another brother or sister. And that this concern, while addressing one particular issue that we may not be doing well in, ends up changing us to be a different person when it's all said and done. Yes, it will be incremental and seemingly small. The picture of real and ongoing change.

Confessing sins appropriately and dealing with bad attitudes are not merely to fix a problem, but end up being "means of grace" or "sacramental" in making us holy, more like Jesus. In this sense we're apprentices. We're learning to be like the Master.

"What next?" should be our humble prayer. We may justify certain behavior but deep inside know better. Let's work on that. Oftentimes when we see a number of problems in our lives, they end up being related to one issue that we may not be doing well in. God can help us get to the root of it, and get rid of that bitter or poisonous root, before it is the ruin or hurt not only of our own lives, but the lives of many others.

Let's seek God's face on this. And ask him to show us what needs next to be addressed in our lives. Than together, with him, let's work on that. So that we can be his clean vessels to give his light and life to a lost and dying world.

What comes to your mind from your reading of Scripture and/or experience in this? And I don't mean to get us bogged down in this being all there is to living as Christians. I understand this as one facet of it, to be sure.

This Is My Father's World

This is my Father’s world. O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world: the battle is not done:
Jesus Who died shall be satisfied, And earth and Heav’n be one.

words: Maltbie D. Babcock

"Perfected in Christ": Dad's funeral message

Thanks to the prayers of so many and the love of friends and brothers and sisters in Christ, our time together as family, though difficult, was blessed. Thanks to so many of you who blessed us with your prayers and expressions of love.

The funeral service was interesting in the participatory aspect of it. Dad's brother Tom, a pastor, shared some of his memories of Dad which I found interesting. Mom wanted me to share something so I shared some brief words on Dad having Psalm 13 as the backdrop, which Tiffany, our daughter read. Grandchildren with their violins and piano participated, with readings including Tiffany reading an appropriate "good-bye" our family had received, just prior to the benediction. And, as Mennonites normally like to do, there was a good time of singing a number of hymns.

Philip Clemens, pastor of my parents' church, Pike Mennonite, gave a message which is among the favorites, and for me the very favorite of all funeral messages I have heard. It was entitled: "Perfected in Christ" and was evangelistic in nature. And there was a certain aspect in it that made us think of Dad from his intermediate state speaking to us. It came across as believable if such could be the case. I look forward to rehearing it once I get a copy of a CD. If Dad saw it that day, I'm sure he was pleased. It truly did glorify God and his goodness to us in Christ, and it paid honor to Dad in a fitting way.

I so much look forward to seeing him again when all the things that held us back in this world will be removed forever. We so much look forward to that great reunion and the resurrection to come, in the new creation, when "earth and heaven [are] one."

God accepts us where we're at

Are you ever tempted to give up or accept defeat because you don't see yourself as perfect and you know your flaws? Welcome not only to the human race, but to all of us who are in Christ, as well.

God accepts us where we're at, and so we're in a true sense to accept ourselves in the same place and others in the place they are at. This means we must avoid looking down on others. Grace accepts people exactly where they're at. And we must apply this to ourselves as well. I know I'm making echoes here, but this is so important. Jesus worked with everyone where they were at.

For some his call seemed drastic, like: "Leave all your 'possessions' behind and come follow me." It is a call that, like Bonhoeffer says, bids us to come and die. But knowing the goal is Christlikeness, especially together as community and his Body in the world, means that we know we'll never be able to say we've arrived. Someday, as our good brother, Pastor Philip Clemens of Pike Mennonite Church so wonderfully shared with us at my father's funeral, we will indeed be "perfected in Christ". But that is not completed yet and we must ever keep that in mind. Otherwise we can become discouraged and think our service in Christ cannot be acceptable to God.

God wants to take us and remake us, like the potter makes the clay vessel. We are the work of God's hands and he wants to remake us in the new creation in Christ. Let's keep coming to him everyday. And let's see others in the same way, accepting where we're at. We can love one another unconditionally that way, praying for each other and accepting each other, just as God in Christ accepts us. And include yourself in that.

What thoughts would you like to add to this?

I believe in the communion of saints

To say "I believe in the communion of saints" surely means different things to different people and also has manifold meaning. For me and for the church at large through the centuries, this is a confession of utmost importance.

Impacted by American Christianity we're used to brushing such a confession of faith aside, at least many of us. And we find local churches who call themselves "independent". An independent local church is an oxymoron; there is no such thing. God has made us interdependent and Christ in this world today is manifest through his Body on earth. This Body is localized in various places and settings. But it's a Body in communion with other gatherings scattered throughout the earth. And I believe it's a Body in communion with all of God's holy people ("saints") from every time and place.

We don't need churches looking down on each other and thinking they are better than so and so church. But sadly, neither do we need churches that seem to have lost much of what church is all about. It is God's people living interactively in this world under one Head, Christ, doing so interdependent on each other.

The Lord is grieved when there is disunity among his people. This is true within our gatherings and it's also true all the way to the Church scattered throughout the earth. But everyone has to keep working on just what "church" is, that it's not merely religion, or some intellectual assent to a creed or some super gathering around some charismatic leader who is wowing everyone with their speaking, maybe along with some miracles. We don't need any of the above. What we need is a humble Body, interactively working together in communion with Jesus and each other. Anything less than that is not Christianity or is some diluted (and perhaps dangerous) form of it.

What might you add to these sad and difficult thoughts I've shared today?

strength needed (according to the day)

One of my favorite music albums is John Michael Talbot's Come to the Quiet (1980). I am reminded by his song, Psalm 63 (As Morning Breaks) that we need strength for each day. Each day has enough trouble of its own. It seems like a new problem is just around the corner and that's a part of life. What is needed and is promised for all of God's people is strength according to the day, according to what we face and what comes our way.

This is a strength that is beyond us, a strength coming only from God. And often coming in the midst of our weakness. It is strength found only in God and found as we wait expectantly on him. And it is a strength that enables us to live in his will even as Jesus found strength in Gethsemane to live in the Father's will.

We find it by looking to God in prayer, by meditating on his Word/Scripture and by seeking to do God's will, even when it seems like our flesh and our heart are failing. God will come through for us as we press forward, humbly, in him.

So in the words of John Michael Talbot's song,

As morning breaks I look to you, O God
To be my strength this day
Hallelujah.

What would you like to share from your own thoughts or experience on this?

life is a process

In thinking about Dad's life and my own and human life in general, including the life of our Lord, one thing that kind of stood out for me this past week is the thought that life is a process. And it's a process we need to commit ourselves to. Mom asked me to speak a little at the funeral and I drew from Psalm 13 in thinking a bit about Dad's life. A book I found helpful in all of this is Michael Card's A Sacred Sorrow: Reaching Out to God in the Lost Language of Lament. This is a book worthy of reading and rereading and working through. Many of my thoughts I adopted and adapted came from it, especially in my remarks at the funeral service.

Process is not what we "naturally" (in our falleness) like. We want instant results in our society. But even as Jesus embraced this path, so must we. Life being a process goes on from the cradle to the grave. Some aspects of that are related to "the Fall" of humanity, and indeed are not pleasant. But even with and through those things God is at work in his "in Christ" people to make us holy and filled with his goodness. We are to become more and more like our Master together in his love.

Process means time, progress (and oftentimes setbacks and failings) and oftentimes pain, including involvement in grief as my Mother and family have recently encountered. It means to live through the gamut of human experience.

And who better to look to but Jesus? He himself went through what seemed to many to be a very ordinary life until the time of his ministry. He was made human and lived with all of our limitations except he was not a sinner nor did he sin. And by his death for us, once for all, and through his resurrection we can embark in the new way he has made for us. That too, like his life here, is a process. We are a resurrection people in him, but we live as those who follow Christ and become like him in his death in this life. This is one reason I like to look some to those who embrace the monastic life. Many of them are seeking to enter into this in their lives. And it is for all of us who are God's children through faith in Jesus.

May God help us to accept and even embrace life as a process including the good and the bad, as we seek together to follow our Lord.

What thoughts would you like to add here?

reunions

It was wonderful at the visitation of my father's funeral to see some folks I haven't seen for years, or even decades. It's sad that this is the kind of event that brings us together, and yet that's a happy part of such events.

This reminds me of the reunion we read of in the Bible, between Jacob and Esau. Jacob went with much forboding and fear and understandably so, since his scheming had provoked Esau who then purposed to kill Jacob after their father's death. But when they finally did meet up again, it was a reunion of grace and peace.

I think one of the great things about reunions is that we can put aside whatever differences we have or may have had and focus on what is most important to God, love and truth. Truth and love must be held together in our hearts and we must do so as those who seek to live in God's presence through Jesus Christ. This can end up moving someone closer to God, even as we listen to them talk about something ordinary in their lives, as well as any trials they may be experiencing.

This was just one of the highlights of this past week for me, getting to see and talk again to old friends and acquaintances. It was almost as if God said, "This is what's important. Along with remembering your father and the sympathies expressed, you all need to focus on simply loving one another: in family, in the church family, among neighbors and friends. Let this be a priority, not only here but in all of life. Make time for this."

Thanks again for all of your prayers. It will be great when all of us who have met in cyberspace meet in person someday. We know one way or another we have that to look forward to in Christ.

Do you have summer reunions? And what thoughts might you have on reunions?

Dad Passed Away

We just received news from Mother that Father passed away peacefully. We trust in the Lord and look forward to our reunion together and the resurrection to come through Jesus Christ our Lord. And thanks in advance for your prayers.

Lift Your Glad Voices in Triumph on High

Lift your glad voices in triumph on high,
For Jesus hath risen, and man cannot die;
Vain were the terrors that gathered around Him,
And short the dominion of death and the grave

He burst from the fetters of darkness that bound Him,
Resplendent in glory to live and to save!
Loud was the chorus of angels on high,
The Savior hath risen, and man shall not die.

Glory to God, in full anthems of joy;
The being He gave us death cannot destroy:
Sad were the life we must part with tomorrow,
If tears were our birthright, and death were our end

But Jesus hath cheered the dark valley of sorrow,
And bade us, immortal, to Heaven ascend:
Lift then your voices in triumph on high,
For Jesus hath risen, and man shall not die.

Henry Ware, Jr. (The Table Singers from MennoLink Music)

the goal of the kingdom

We're to live with the goal of the kingdom in mind. The kingdom of God come in Jesus has the goal of new creation, what Tom Wright has called "the new creation project". This project is to be carried on by all of us in Jesus, together and in our individual lives. It concerns everything, little and big. Some will be Pauls and Priscillas in their work. Others will serve behind the scenes, doing work that needs done. And all of us will be endeavoring to do so to the glory of God.

It's important to keep our eyes on the goal of the kingdom. This will help us keep things in good perspective. What matters in the end is to work towards what inevitably is to come in Jesus: the new creation and the kingdom of God which begin now, and are to be "consummated" when Christ returns. The smaller issues and lesser problems are also then put in their place. And the vision God can be giving us can become redemptive towards those troubling areas or problems in our lives.

I know this suffers from being overly general. Specifics are encouraged in whatever you might like to share here.

dying to live

This week where I work at RBC Ministries, James MacDonald reminded us of what he called "the Easter Principle": that we are to die to live.

In Christ this is to live out the meaning and reality of our baptism. In Christ we are dead to sin and alive to God since we by God's grace through faith are participants in Jesus's death, burial and resurrection. This new life begins now in this present life.

As James pointed out we must die to our own visions, dreams and thoughts so that we can awaken to and live in God's vision and path for us. And he also reminded us that this death is ongoing. It's not just something we do once and it's settled. We must follow through and continue to live in that reality that is ours in Christ. We're all too familiar of stories of Christians who seem to have lived it out for years only to end badly. And we can see this danger in our own lives if we're honest or not deceived.

Whatever it is in our lives, good or bad or anything at all, we're to submit it all to God. Even Jesus himself had to do this (again, as James pointed out to us). We see this at Gethsemane when he died to his own will in order to live in the Father's will in dying so that the whole world and creation might live with and in him in the new creation. But it wasn't easy and neither will it be for us either, especially at certain times.

In this though, we find life, the very life of God in Christ and in the community of his people. A life which brings God's blessing to others and a joy that lasts forever.

What comes to your mind here that you would like to share with us?

gender and gifting

The Holy Spirit of God is no respecter of person or gender. He gifts as he sees fit, and each gifting is for the entire body. Of course I speak here of the Body of Christ, Jesus being the "head" and each of us being a part of that body, likened to a human body.

In Christ there is no more male or female as far as the new creation goes. We all minister to each other, regardless of our gender, "race" or standing in this world. In our denomination women have been "ordained" into the ministry/pastorate for the past thirty years. We believe that we're merely blessing what God has already done or is doing.

Other denominations and Christian bodies who do not agree on women in "the ministry" find places for them to fulfill their giftings. But for a number of reasons I believe this position is mistaken. Whatever gifting each of us has is for all the others, not just one part of the body and not just indirectly.

Gender and gifting is a big subject, far beyond the scope of one post. So I just touch on it with a single idea here today. One of the best books in thinking through this Biblically is William Webb's, Slaves, Women and Homosexuals (no, he's not condoning homosexual practice). Another helpful chapter I've read is from Gordon Fee's Listening to the Spirit in the Text, Gender Issues: Reflections on the Perspective of the Apostle Paul.

What thoughts would you like to add here, or problems you may have with this position?

update on Dad (doing better)

We were afraid we were going to lose Dad on Saturday when he couldn't get his breath, then he had the seizure afterwards which made us think the end was near. But Dad has taken a turn for the better and is even eating. There is no active bleeding on his brain, though through the struggles one of my sisters told me that his mind seems increasingly weakened in his dementia. He will probably need care beyond what Mom can give.

All of your prayers and expressions of concern have been a great blessing and help. Thanks so much to all of you.

unity in love

Our Lord delights in seeing his children getting along well together. In the love of Christ, this is how it's to be. We're to be united in spirit and of one mind, even though we don't agree on everything. In most every case we're to set disagreements aside. And when we do discuss them, to do so in love and agreeing in the end to not be disagreeable.

After all, we are one body, having the same Spirit, hope, Lord, faith, baptism (even if practiced differently), and God and Father.

What about family squabbles over issues considered important? This is where discernment is needed from others in Christ as we seek to have God's help in this, together. We have to acknowledge that while the Spirit has guided the orthodox church (not referring to the Eastern Orthodox Church, which is just one part of the worldwide church), the church's understanding on a number of these issues the Spirit has guided us on, is not the same. Baptism, already alluded to, is a good example of that. In the Protestant church alone there is much difference in practice there.

God wants the emergent and fundamentalist to stand together in his love. Yes, they won't agree on a good number of things. But we need to put first things first, and one of those first things is to love each other in Christ. And to accept others, including other churches who seek to be true to Christ and the gospel. Sadly, the "creed" of some churches makes this nearly impossible. This shouldn't be something we do only when put in a situation where it seems we have to do it. But it's something we should be going out of our way to do.

For me this breaks down the great divides in Christendom such as the Roman Catholic/Eastern Orthodox divide. Or from where I stand, the Protestant/Roman Catholic schism. And within my own tradition, all the divisions that exist in Reformation churches. This doesn't mean we drop all beliefs except the ones we agree on. It does mean we suspend our differences when expressing our union in God, and work at having communion and common mission together in the world. A dream? Yes. But part of what our Lord asked for in his high priestly prayer to God the night before his death. Unity in love trumps all the differences we have with each other, in Christ. Truth and love (2 John) are held together. But truth and the church's understanding of it are not synonymous. We must in humility own that, and learn to more and more express our unity in love together in our Lord.

What thoughts would you like to share or kick around on this?

compassion

Compassion has the idea of suffering with someone and empathizing with them. Those who seem the most compassionate, I've found, are those who themselves have suffered. In America, especially in the middle class and above that, it's not as easy to have this kind of compassion. These people often care and I think they can care just as much. But they don't have some of the common experiences that others have, so that they know firsthand and identify well with those who suffer, such as in barely making ends meet and not being far removed from losing their home, etc. Not to say that the rich and middle class can't be touched by all these problems, but to say it is less common. And those who have suffered and received God's comfort, are to comfort other sufferers with that same comfort.

Compassion refuses to even pick up a stone, knowing one's own heart and life. Sin is never worth anything truly good. But after repentance (sometimes ongoing) it can be a means of identifying with others who have fallen into sin, helping them by prayer, love, as a friend and by one's loving, gentle, earnest counsel.

Compassion can weep with those who weep, as well as freely rejoice with those who rejoice. It takes others in freely and is honored to be invited into the lives of others. It is a heart of meekness and humility; it is the heart of Jesus himself, our good Shepherd, who wonderfully takes care of us, his sheep, and wants us to learn to show that same care to our families, each other, our neighbors and the world.

What would you like to share about compassion?

update on Dad

Dad had a seizure late Saturday (or was it early Sunday). We had left but not before he had apparently aspirated some food or drink (probably food) into his lungs. He was having trouble breathing and his heart rate skyrocketed from his normal 60 (although it had been unstable from 80 to 130 lately) to 180. They helped him breathe and got his heart rate down. But after we left he had the seizure. He is conscious and aware of things. But he is weak (he does have chronic congestive heart failure) and will need the continual support of a feeding tube to stay alive, and basically won't be able to do anything. And he experiences nearly continual pain, having a headache nearly nonstop the past ten years.

Pray for Mother as she thinks through with the physician what she wants to be done. She has already let him go to the Lord, in her heart, and by what she has told the physician they should do.

We don't know how much longer Dad will be with us. My sister Cheryl from Toledo has been a great help to Mom and Dad. And my other sister, Maxine and her family are traveling from Texas.

Thanks so much for all of your prayers, love and support in Jesus.

we don't understand it all

I was recently struck afresh with Scot McKnight's thought that in our understanding as human beings, we are cracked. Therefore none of us can put our full weight on what we think, though certain things as we understand them from God, we can base our lives on. Like, for example, John 3:16 for a start.

I distrust theologies that have all the answers in the sense of not humbling owning human fallibility across the board. That is an inherently flawed theology. This goes for issues in regard to ethics, philosophy, politics, etc. We simply don't understand it all. And what we do understand, we need to hold with humility, knowing that it is God alone who understands fully.

It is important that we seek to love God with our whole beings, including all our mind. But we must remember that our minds as a gift from God are in the process of being renewed, and not for the purpose of knowing everything. But to be like Christ in following and living out and in the will of God beginning now. Our minds are servants under God's revelation given to us from Scripture and in Christ.

This will mean a life where we will have to adjust our thinking at times, where we will see that someone else may have better insight on something than we do.

I especially like the thought, and it indeed is a challenging one for us, but in a good way, that good thinking is godly thinking. Or, that right thinking stems from the desire to please God and live well before him and in his eyes (I can't recall exactly where or from whom I picked this up, nor the exact way they expressed it.).

This is not saying that Scripture or even creeds are subject to change. Certainly not Scripture. And creeds from the church should be understood as to how they arose and the witness they sought to give to God's revelation given to us from Scripture. How I understand a creed or theological truth (such as the Trinity) can change over time, hopefully for the better, while I still hold to the same truth as stated in the creed as a witness from the church of Scripture's teaching on what is central to the faith.

In the end we have to pray for and seek God's guidance and help. God is a God of grace and mercy. He will lead us on as we seek to follow. Our following certainly is not infallible, though his leading is.

What thoughts would you like to add here?

Christ the Lord is Risen Today

Christ, the Lord, is risen today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply, Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ hath led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

Charles Wesley (more verses)

burial

Burial carries a kind of finality to it, at least the end of something such as a human life. We reflect on the person's life at a funeral. Then we might stand at the gravesite to support those or as one of those who symbolically are saying their last goodbyes for now, anyhow.

For those following Jesus it was a crushing blow. To those who had forsaken all to follow it seemed inexplicable. What would they do now? Where would they turn? Once this dark cloud blew over surely they'd return to things as they had been. But didn't Jesus say that on the third day he would be raised to life?

We learn from the resurrection accounts that Jesus's followers were not holding their breath in expectation of anything out of the ordinary. The men were in hiding for fear of the Jewish leaders. And the women were going to go about the business of paying final respect and expressions of love to Jesus.

Burial. What does this mean in our lives? It means death, death to all of the old in Adam. But it thankfully doesn't in there in Jesus. Life is to come, and it's just around the corner. In Jesus it is already here. Though that was not known by Jesus's followers that Sabbath day.

Burial. What does that mean for you?

my dad in hospital

My 85 year old dad is in the hospital (in Ohio). He has shingles and pneumonia and was not responsive last night until on the way to the hospital. He suffers from dementia and is weak. Mom is 80 and blessed with good health. We all will appreciate prayers. Thanks so much.

Following Jesus to the Cross

On this "Good Friday" we remember the love climaxed in the great gracious act of self-giving from our Lord at Calvary/Golgotha. This is a love that is trinitarian, an act of self-giving meant to bring us into this reality of love.

We follow Jesus to the Cross. In our mind's eye we watch him struggle; we see the nails pounded into his writhing body. We hear his words of love and pain from that Cross. We look in disbelief yet knowing it is we who put him on that cross. We are the reason that he died. Yet he did so freely, in love to the Father and to the world. God gave freely and he did so by becoming one with us in all our sins in his Son (without himself sinning, yet he became sin for us).

We see this and Jesus's suffering and we realize afresh and anew that he understands firsthand our sufferings and woes and darkness. He loves deeply and empathizes with us and intercedes faithfully for us.

As we view our Lord on that Cross in his once for all sacrifice for us, we begin to come to realize that this act of love is to impact our lives in every way. Not only in our forgiveness, but also in the way we live. He is our example, but more than that. By the Spirit a new way in Jesus has been opened up to us that we in him are to embrace and follow: the way of the cross in fellowship together with and in Jesus. This will reflect in how I react to disappointments, failures and problems that we cannot escape in this world, even as we look at our own face in the mirror.

Let's today take the time to reflect on our Lord's sufferings in his self-giving love for us and the world. And let's ask God how we can become more and more a part of that ongoing self-giving redemptive love in Jesus.

What do you see as you seek to follow the way of Jesus?

(Please don't get bogged down by the links- blue- in my postings. They're not essential. They're like footnotes that may be helpful for various reasons.)

following Jesus by feeding on him

27 Then he took the cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. 28 This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. 29 I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom."

Matthew 26

Jesus told his shocked disciples and would be followers in another place that unless they ate his flesh and drank his blood they would have no life in them (John 6:53). Even though that passage reminds us of the Last/First Supper, I think in context it means and certainly involves what it means to be a true follower of Jesus. It is metaphorical for living on the basis of who he is and what he has done for us, a living that is by faith in following.

We follow Jesus by feeding on him and we also feed on Jesus by following him. We taste more and more of who he is as we seek to follow on in this life and like the disciples of old, doing so together or bringing others along with us. We more and more lose our old apetites as we learn to eat and drink of Jesus. And this is meant to be celebrated and lived out together with Jesus.

This means I can be happy (or learn to be) abstaining from some old feastings which really are either not of God or are not for me at a particular time. That is because I've caught a new aroma and have a new taste for something so much better that replaces death with true life. Instead of the living death I used to live, it can be more and more a dying (in Jesus) life.

This is intensely personal and yet must become intensely communal as well. In nature it is communal in that this partaking is to be together with our Lord as we see over and over again in Scripture. But each of us must do this, making it a part of our daily lives as followers of Jesus.

What might you add and/or what helps you "feed on Jesus"?

following with fear

32 They were on their way up to Jerusalem, with Jesus leading the way, and the disciples were astonished, while those who followed were afraid. Again he took the Twelve aside and told them what was going to happen to him. 33 "We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles, 34 who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."

Mark 10

Fear and faith seem incompatible. In a sense they are, but in another true sense in life they are not. Following Christ includes following through thick and thin, when I think I have plenty of faith and when I know I'm struggling to have faith at all. Still we must follow.

Sometimes "I lose it". With alot of pressure I can simply lose perspective it seems, completely. What then? Do I cease following? No. I must "lift up the hands that hang down and strengthen the feeble knees and make straight paths for my feet". I must plod on and seek to follow. Getting into Scripture, though it may seem far removed from my vision. God will bring it home as I seek to get into and ultimately dwell in his Word/Scripture.

Another passage says the disciples at this time simply didn't get it. And we won't always either. That must not be a block to us following. If anything we need all the more to seek to follow Christ during such times. And we need to seek to do this together with other fellow followers who too have their own struggles and issues they're working on.

During this Holy Week, let's determine to be learning to seriously follow no matter what. When we falter and are lost, let's get right back up again and look to the Lord and his strength, seeking his face, and in so doing be witnesses of his grace and bearers of his image, together, in this world.

What thoughts would you add here?

a new/renewed vision of Jesus

Who is Jesus? What is he all about? These are important questions for us to ask and easy answers don't exist. It's not enough to simply quote Scripture, though I believe that's where we need to begin (in Scripture).

A large portion of the gospels surround the chronological time surrounding what we call "Holy Week". This is at the heart of what Jesus came to accomplish. He demonstrated it prior to that, in deed and word. But when all is said and done, he then finished the work that he had to do and God vindicated him in that by the resurrection.

Because of what he has accomplished we are given new life and a mission to bring that accomplishment to bear on fallen humanity and fallen creation. Of course we ourselves are included in this endeavor; we must see to ourselves if we're to help others. We are thus involved in what Tom Wright calls "the new creation project".

As we learn to share in this ministry of our Lord, we more and more come to know him and his heart in God and for the world. This has become more evident to me recently, though at the moment I am overcome with so many problems hitting us at the same time. Though I don't want to see these as problems as much as opportunities for Christ to do his new creation work through us his people, the church.

I hope we can take some time this "Holy Week" to try to get a life impacting glimpse, anew and afresh of Jesus and his way. We then need to seek to follow him in that, seeking to bring others along with us. And we help others to follow Jesus by seeking to follow him well, ourselves.

What helps you grow in your vision of our Lord?

focus and vision

One of the most important aspects of life is learning to keep our focus. This involves having a vision to begin with, and for us as Christians, that vision is to come from God in Christ. Having a vision involves keeping it and building on it.

I remember N.T. Wright writing that one of the reasons Christianity can seem so anemic and is hardly life changing it seems for many Christians is that their/our vision of Jesus is/can be domesticated and removed from the Jesus we read of in the gospels. And for N.T. Wright this involves a study of the time Jesus lived in, so that we can better understand what he was up against in fulfilling his vocation as he had received it from God.

I think these special times such as Holy Week can be helpful in renewing, invigorating and making clearer and more distinct our vision. But I think it's over the long haul and by living life with the work of God by the Spirit and the Word in community with others, in that mix is where we really learn focus and improve our vision. That takes time as well as effort on our part. And above all trust, that God is at work and faithful as we seek to follow.

Keep reading through Scripture. Learn to identify with people in it both in stories and in what is written. See all of it as part of the Story of God, knowing that this Story is ongoing. We are part of it. May God help us to have and keep our focus and vision in Christ as we live in mission in this world.

What comes to your mind in considering focus and vision?

prayer for Palm Sunday

Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen.

(from The Book of Common Prayer, evening prayer)