looking back

It is good to look back and give thanks to the Lord, for all of his goodness to us in the past year. I believe in calendars, and increasingly in the church calendar. I think these help us keep on track; after all we are creatures of time and space.

Looking back on this past year I have seen some amazing breakthroughs, small and not so small in my life. We've seen the birth of our first grandchild, Morgan. God has provided for us. And God is giving us more and more the passion and resolve to put him first in both seeking and serving him.

God is good no matter what. In the end in Jesus this faith will be fully vindicated, even though we live with unresolved questions now. We need to simply remain true in living by faith as those dependent on God and interdependent on each other. As we seek to let our light so shine before others that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father in heaven.

What about you? Is there anything you'd like to share about your past year, or any thoughts on these thoughts?

looking ahead

As we look ahead at the turning of the calendar, I wonder what kind of thoughts and expectations we may have for the new year. And from where do these thoughts and expectations come?

I look forward to this new year, because I do so trying to look to God's promises to me and to us in Christ as my basis for seeing more change in my life. This alone gives me hope. Never any kind of resolution I may make, which I am guaranteed in time to break.

Looking ahead should embrace more than just our personal lives. We need a bigger scope and picture. Praying the "our Father" prayer daily can help us, as well as learning to pray with that in mind. And keeping in view the first and greatest commandment and the second like it, called by some of us, "the Jesus Creed," is helpful in this, as well.

What would you like to add to these few thoughts on looking ahead?

coming back

I find God's grace amazing in how God not only converts sinners to his way, but how he brings them back in his grace time and time again. How many times in big and little ways do we get off the way onto our own way? Plenty. But God puts us back on, not with us kicking and screaming, but by his work of grace, so that we want to get on and are sorry when we fail to remain there.

What we do does matter. We need to keep that in mind. Sometimes that means confession, and I mean confession of sin to others and before God. If I sin in front of someone, then I need to confess it to God. On Saturday I was quite peeved as we were stuck in a parking lot in which we could hardly turn around due to snow drifts that had not been cleared out. I wasn't in the best of moods, because in spite of the good in the movie we saw, I was put off with all the wrong in it (But why should I be surprised? What should we expect from "the world" and from sinners?). And then this. But my words and attitude were quite unedifying to Deb, and when I saw how it was grieving her, I apologized and led us in prayer to God confessing my sin. We ended up continuing on with a nice day in celebrating her birthday.

But over other matters as well, I am thankful to see God's hand and heart of grace touching my life. So that I want to rise and sin no more. And I know I'll continue to need that grace throughout this earthly sojourn.

What would you like to add to these thoughts?

quote of the week: Bonhoeffer on kingdom love

Jesus Christ stands between the lover and the others he loves...Because Christ stands between me and others, I dare not desire direct fellowship with them. As only Christ can speak to me in such a way that I may be saved, so others, too, can be saved only by Christ himself. This means that I must release the other person from every attempt of mine to regulate, coerce, and dominate him with my love....Thus this spiritual love will speak to Christ about a brother more than to a brother about Christ. It knows that the most direct to others is always through prayer to Christ and that love of others is wholly dependent upon the truth in Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer from Life Together, 35-37, quoted by Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 237.

prayer for the week: The First Sunday After Christmas

Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

from Book of Common Prayer

a story that speaks well

Here is a story which to me speaks well. I am acquainted with Ed Dobson, as he was our pastor when we lived on that side of the city and attended Calvary Church. (Rob Bell was a pastor at this church before he became the main pastor in starting Mars Hill Bible Church.) I've always much appreciated Pastor Ed and the passion he and Calvary has displayed in following the Lord, even when it could involve misunderstanding and criticism, as in their working relationship with the gay community in Grand Rapids, while not at all okaying that lifestyle. A number of gays have come to Christ through that church, one I met who was suffering from AIDS.

I will cease saying more, because I think this story is good for all of us to read.

accepting one's lot

When we look at the years following Jesus' birth, before his relatively short public ministry (around three years) we can speak of decades- three. Between Jesus' birth and public ministry there is not much Scripture tells us. About their flight from Bethlehem to Egypt and return with the move to Nazareth. And the incident in the Temple when Jesus was a boy of twelve. But other than that, we only can guess as to what Jesus' life was like.

It is evident that he learned Joseph's trade as a carpenter or stone mason (not sure as to what the word translated "carpenter" in our Bibles conveys on this). It is evident that he was also in submission to Joseph and Mary, even as Mary had to learn eventually to be submissive to him as her Lord (see Scot McKnight's book, The Real Mary, an excellent read Deb just recently finished).

In the way of Jesus we see the importance of accepting our lot. For some of us this involves being in places (need I say, climates, this time of the year?) that would not be high on our list to live in, for many of us this involves debt carried for perhaps some mistakes along with necessities, and college bills for children. And perhaps some of us are in difficult or troubled marriages, or less than ideal situations.

It's interesting that Jesus spent as much time as he did before launching out into public ministry. His mother had to wonder after receiving the promises from God through the angel, knowing firsthand the miraculous nature of Jesus' birth and the aftermath surrounding that, she had to wonder at the length of time Jesus seemed unengaged in messianic work. (Where is Joseph? We don't know. It does seem evident from the silence in Scripture that he was deceased by the time Jesus began his public ministry.) We know that Jesus' brothers (half brothers, of course) did not believe in him as Messiah until after Jesus' resurrection. We also know that in that society, Jesus was definitely "middle aged" when he began his ministry since life expectancy was only around the mid-forties or a little beyond that.

The way of Jesus we find in Scripture is the way of accepting and embracing one's lot from God. Jesus sought to live well with the Father where he was. Did that involve struggle and prayers? Not recorded for us, though surely it did, and surely what he was experiencing was preparatory for the ministry of three years. But the point made here for us is that part of the walk God has for us is to accept life as it is, not as we wish it would be. For some this will be much more difficult than for others. For a number of obvious and not so obvious reasons.

What we need to endeavor to do in Jesus is to live well in our circumstances and plight, in the lot we have. Lot has the idea of what is apportioned or given to us from God. Do we really believe that what we're living in is our lot from God? With the good and bad of it? Do we see it as the place in which God wants us to learn to follow him well, and live well? Or do we deny that for whatever reason, for a multitude of possible reasons?

I find it easy to want to bail out or somehow change my lot when I'm faced with new difficulties or suppose the grass would be greener elsewhere.

By faith we need to see God as the One who has given us life and calls us to be responsible to him and to others in the circumstances we now face. Some of our making, to be sure. But with the belief that God is able to turn everything for good, and that he is at work in our lives and circumstances. We need in Jesus to learn to accept and even embrace our lot. This is part of what God calls us to in Jesus. This is part of the way in Jesus along with the truth and life in him.

What would you like to share on this which might be helpful for us?

merry Christmas

A most blessed and merry Christmas to all! Blessings in Jesus on you; may your day be wrapped in God's love to us in Jesus.

prayer of the day: Christmas

O God, you have caused this holy night to shine with the brightness of the true Light: Grant that we, who have known the mystery of that Light on earth, may also enjoy him perfectly in heaven; where with you and the Holy Spirit he lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting. Amen.

from Book of Common Prayer

the cross and Christmas

The cross has been more on my mind I think than at any Advent season before. It's not hard to guess that this is indicative of God's work in me to change me. The cross in Jesus puts to death all that is not of God's creation and will, and resurrects- life out from death- what is in God's new creation and will in Jesus. This begins at baptism for the Christian (however you may interpret Romans 6, and I would say strictly speaking, it begins at faith which I believe is understood to underlie baptism), and is ongoing throughout one's life in Jesus. We're to live out daily the truth of our baptism. In other words this is from God, but we are active in it in faith, as well.

God in Christ became human, a little baby, for our salvation, for the world, and for all of creation. The scope of what happened is truly beyond us, as well as us really grasping the meaning of it, as one commenter said on this blog, yesterday. And all that Jesus is and does is the mirror image of God. So that his life, words, and works all reflect God. And no less his death for us on the cross. This all reflects who God is, the very heart of God. The saying is true: He was born to die, that we (men) might live.

So as we celebrate the wondrous coming of God in the flesh, the birth of Jesus, let's remember as well the shadow of the cross which hung over his birth, and over Jesus' entire life. A necessary climax and part of his work and the fulfillment of all that God had given his people in covenant love. And part of the true meaning of Christmas which is all but lost in so much of our culture and activity surrounding it.

What might you like to add to this?

into your hands

When we think of Jesus' coming and his self-emptying ("kenosis") in becoming human, we have to see in it a complete abandoning of his life to God. This is difficult to speak of and think through since we're speaking of the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. While it was God the Son who became flesh or human, the Son, Christ, did not for a moment fail to be be fully involved himself in an active way, in becoming one of us for our salvation. The Father, the Son and the Spirit, as in all activities of God were intricately involved in this great act and undertaking. The Son was not merely passive in this, but active.

Yet in becoming human (while not, of course, losing God-ness at all, a mystery): even as an embryo to begin with, then born as a helpless baby, the Son certainly in truth committed his life into the Father's hands, into God's hands, and this was played out throughout his life. No one took Jesus' life from him, he made clear. He had the power to lay it down for death, and the power to take it back up again in the resurrection, I take it. Yet this is a true case of becoming one of us to bring us a salvation which is for the forgiveness of our sins by his death, but also to give us a new life to live in him here and now, the same kind of life he lived in faith and obedience to God.

When we celebrate Christmas we need to worship Jesus as the One who though God became a little baby for us. This was an act of God, the Trinitarian God. But it does not diminish for a moment the greatness of this commitment of life made by Christ and then lived out fully in his life and death.

We are to so follow. For me this has taken on major proportions in that for many years I've been bound by fear over at least one issue, which I believe God has helped me to entrust to him now for some time, and concerning which by grace I have not looked back so as to take it back into my own hands, and relive that anxiety. Like Jesus we are given this life in him to live out, a life committing our lives into God's hands fully to the very end throughout all the life God gives us.

God is present with us- Emmanuel- to help us, just as Jesus was helped throughout his life from birth to death.

What might you like to add to these thoughts?

anticipation

For people like Mary, Joseph, Simeon, Anna and the Magi there was anticipation over someone special to be born. They were given enough details in prophecies and signs from God to know that this one to be born was extra special. But they did not know all the ways. Nor the way in which he would be special. Except as God gave it to them as it unfolded before their eyes.

We live as humans keen on anticipation. We're generally looking forward to something, or someone. We live with this sense, and when it is weak or gone it is not good, for this is part of our humanity, to look forward to something better, to live in hope, really a gift from God.

But what is our hope set on? Is it set on something or some things outside the boundary of God's revealed will? Is it set on things that are of less importance so that what is most important is no longer in sight (all things in their good place of course)? And what about this Christmas? How does our celebration of that reflect the anticipation that we actually do have?

Like those people of old, may we by grace have our hearts set in anticipation on the coming of our Lord Jesus. As we celebrate his special coming to earth as a little baby, God become human for our salvation and for the salvation of the world, may our hearts and minds be drawn out in anticipation of Jesus, and of God's good work through Jesus in the world, creation and in our own lives. And may we be open along the way to all that means as this salvation unfolds before us. That we may live in it, indeed in Jesus.

What would you like to add to this?

keep on keeping on

I'm not a TULIP guy (but the flowers, yes!), but a large part of the P (and probably all the T, properly understood) I think I would agree with. God's grace is at work to help us in Jesus, to keep on keeping on. This is so even after we fail and sometimes fail miserably. Or even when we're keenly aware of just how wrong and sinful we are inside. If left on our own it would be easy, and probably inevitable that sooner or later we'd throw in the towel and abandon the project altogether.

That stands to good reason since the project then would be dependent on us, but it is one in which God is at work. Yet it's a project of which we're a part. We have to keep on going, even when it seems like we're in the mire and getting no where. I think of Christian in John Bunyan's classic, The Pilgrim's Progress. He had plenty of help along the way from the City of Destruction to the Celestial City, but it was far from easy. There were points along the way where discouragement could have set in easily, leading to despair, and as I recall, there are points in the story that come close to that. But then renewed hope from God through Christ makes itself known through one "means of grace" or another. And Christian continues on in his journey.

For me it's important, certain times especially, not to live in the moment or present struggle or despair I'm in. I must go on, looking ahead to what God has for me in Christ, through the word, through other Christians. Of course Jesus was the epitome of this, setting the trail of salvation out for us by his life and through his death, resurrection and ascension. Now we go on in him, in this same kind of journey, testifying to his completed salvation and seeking to live that out in our journey in this world. We do so well only together, not alone as Christian in Bunyan's story was much of the time. Though there is an element of being alone from that story which is important. We still have our part to do. But we should seek to do so only in fellowship with God through Jesus, and in fellowship with others in Jesus.

Keep on keeping on. There's always a light ahead in the dark places. Don't look back, and don't stop moving. It's a God-thing, this life we have in Jesus. Therefore it's a sure and good ending ahead, as well as unfolding for us on the way to more and more know and make known God's glory and beauty by the Spirit in Jesus.

What might you like to add to this?

quote of the week: Irenaeus on the Incarnation

But following the only true and steadfast Teacher, the Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself.

Irenaeus quoted by Scot McKnight, A Community Called Atonement, p. 54.

prayer for the week: Fourth Sunday of Advent

Purify our conscience, Almighty God, by your daily visitation, that your Son Jesus Christ, at his coming, may find in us a mansion prepared for himself; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

from Book of Common Prayer

recent pics

Our granddaughter, Morgan.

Our daughter, Tiffany, looks on, as Deb enjoys some fun with Morgan.

She's a smiler.

What I was greeted with this morning, at the entrance to our driveway, after the snow plow and the sidewalk plow, as well, had made their way through during the night. Over an hour of shoveling heavy snow and ice, and I had begun shovelling when I got my wits to take some pics of it.

Pictures from our anniversary trip to the dunes in southwest Michigan. Even though it was the weekend of October 12, most of it was quite warm. The dunes were a highlight, as well as finding this little church and immensely enjoying the service, that Sunday morning.

too good to be true

Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
1 John 3:2

It's a wise axiom that if something seems too good to be true, than ordinarily it is!

Sometimes in certain settings, let's take a work setting, people may get certain notions, hyped up notions of a person. Sometimes I think some have gotten an idealized notion of me. Those on my team know better, I think. Though hopefully they see Jesus in me, or sense Jesus' working in my life, at least. And my wife knows better, though I'd be devastated if she didn't see Jesus in me, all a matter of grace for sure.

When any of these people with an idealized notion really get to know a person, they'll find out that they're ordinary in most any and every way, and that they struggle, too. Certainly true of me, I speak here of myself.

But wonderfully as seen in the passage above, someday what is too good to be true will happen in Jesus. Something beyond us now, something beyond our wildest imagination and dreams. We will be like him, but mystery lies in our becoming then, as well.

Back to the present. I think when we're freed up to simply be ourselves, we can then live in the freedom of the Lord. When I'm around people who I think look down on me, it's hard for me to be myself. Though of course I don't know what kind of masks I wear anytime, for that matter. But I really like to be just myself around people, no different than when I'm alone. I find one as binding and bondage making, as the other is liberating and freeing. So good to be around people who entirely accept one, in spite of their imperfections and faults.

It's so wonderful to know that we can just be ourselves before the Lord and before each other. And just accept each other and learn to love each other in Jesus, in spite of all our wrongs and areas of weakness. And so wonderful to see the change in Jesus setting in us now, both on a personal level as well as in each other. And we must be patient. What a wonderful day it will be at the wedding supper of the Lamb as we get to know Jesus there and each other and with the change that will be brought to maturity in Jesus!

What would you like to add to these thoughts?

the hard places

What about those tired, hard places during which one has little or no sense of God's presence? We encounter this on certain days, and during certain times on most days. We find life has hit us with some hard knocks, big and little, and it doesn't seem like it's getting easier.

When one studies Israel during the time of Jesus, you find the sense of being in a hard place. They were under Rome's heel, so to speak, and not all was good and pleasant. Taxes was one obvious weight, as was the sense that in spite of a good number of them being back in the land with the temple rebuilt (albeit Herod's temple) this just couldn't be even close to the fulfillment promised by the prophets in Scripture, as in Isaiah. The LORD was not ruling, and what was going on, even amongst themselves, was not all right or kosher.

Then comes Jesus. Yes, God-with-us, Emmanuel. This brought joy at its inception for the few insiders who did share the news with others. But this coming turned into another way which in itself was hard, the way of the cross. This was to a large extent at the heart of Jesus' first coming. It was not an easy road, this Calvary road. Jesus was fulfilling the promises of God in ways unexpected.

Of course the place of Jesus' birth in its circumstances and setting, was not pleasant or comfortable. After a long trip, especially for a woman near delivering her child, they end up perhaps in a cave, but using a feeding trough (manger) as a bed for the newborn with animals possibly nearby.

Jesus made a new way for us, and in this life we in him share in that way. We must therefore take up our cross and follow, not adding to, but in proclaiming and seeking to live in and live out this salvation which has been accomplished for us in Jesus. But the way we do that is to learn to accept and to live well in our hard places.

Not easy, and though I've come a long way in my life, God is not finished with me yet in this. I see that God's necessary work continues, when I really am not dealing with the difficulty in a way which sees it as God's way for me, or when I'm off track in being taken up with my own way, not the way of the cross, the way of Jesus. This includes all that comes to me. Something I'm working on. Something Jesus lived out and by his salvation, gives to us to live out here and now, in our witness to the world of him.

Any thoughts or sharing from your own life, here?

God with us

This Advent season we celebrate the coming and birth of God-with-us, Emmanuel, in Jesus. This was striking to me yesterday at work. Started out as an ordinary day. But ended up extraordinary as it wasn't just me and my friend working together, but actually three of us. God was surely with us.

God makes his Presence and Reality known in the Person of Jesus. He continues to do this today by the Spirit. When this happens all is touched with a sense of God's Presence. It may look the same, but it isn't. Every child of God through faith in Jesus knows what I speak of here. It's just that yesterday it was unusually palpable to me, or at least I sensed the reality of it. It certainly added a joy and charm to the day.

Later on I struggled over some anxiety issue, which I later overcame, but in so struggling I lost that sense of the Lord's Presence, even though he certainly was and always still is present with us. It is wonderful though, especially in company with another believer, to know something of the Lord's Presence with us, God with us in Jesus.

Maybe you would like to share something about this from your own life. Or any thoughts.

joining with the others in prayer

I have noticed at certain times what I sense as a power in joining with other Christians in prayer for a certain person, issue or petition. It seems to please the Lord when we Christians join together for prayer, and the Lord gives us a sense of that pleasure or of his presence.

Of course this doesn't mean one can't pray with the help of the Spirit in power for someone or something, on their own. Nor does it mean that praying with other believers doesn't oftentimes involve struggle and feeling dry. I am thinking of occasions in which probably the Spirit has put it on the hearts of God's people to pray. Or when perhaps God is pleased because his people are uniting together in prayer for a common and good cause before him. These simple prayers of petition and of seeking to pray in the Spirit are then helped by the Spirit, and go up like an incense to God. To be answered in due season, that is, in God's time and in God's way.

This then takes us to just how the prayers are answered. There was a man at Prairie Bible Institute in Alberta, Canada, named Gordon. As I recall, he was at least a wealthy enough man, and was stricken with a rare disease which confined him, he could no longer walk. Gordon was an inspirational man to meet, and a man of prayer. He had it on his heart to pray for a mighty revival in Canada, a pouring out of the Spirit. I believe others in Canada at that time had it on their hearts to be praying in the same way.

I remember that the elders of the church there came together, surely at Gordon's request to anoint him with oil and pray over him for healing. They had unusual faith and power with God, and it just seemed certain that their prayers for Gordon's miraculous healing would be answered. But the Lord answered not long after, by taking Gordon "home" to be with the Lord. This was in the early 1980's.

The Toronto Blessing came in 1994 which I believe was a move of God, in spite of all the problems and faults among the believers in the midst of it. And the Spirit surely moved in other ways and places in Canada, including in our school, nothing new, actually, for it. I have nothing but profound respect for our (Deb and I's) old school Prairie Bible Institute, because of God's work there, a place from which many have went on to serve the Lord all over the world. I believe it's even better now than when we went.

To get in on a move of God, or what God is doing, we need to find out what God is evidently putting on the hearts of others. And even if it doesn't seem much on your heart at all, join in. I think you'll find that you're joining into something more than a human venture. Then look for God's answer, maybe not in ways asked or imagined.

What would you like to add to this?