One of our musicians told me a story recently about going to a gas station and finding that the car in front of her had blocked both the remaining pumps in front of her.
She had to pull a U-turn and she wound up directly adjacent to the driver.
She looked at her, as she pulled out the hose nozzle and said, “You know, love and human compassion would indicate that you only use one pump space.
The driver said, “I don’t feel either of those things.”
Our musician was stunned and turned back to gassing her car but then replied, “What you just said makes me feel sad. I’ll pray for you.” Apparently, it was not what the other driver expected.
The driver’s head snapped around and she said, gently, “Thank you.”
She hadn’t received a lecture on kindness, but an example.
That’s discipleship.
Friday, February 1, 2013
Emptied
Gas prices are up. It has been said that they will continue going up and remain high into the summer.
This effects our direct personal costs. We see it every time we go to the pump. Have you noticed that the more expensive gas is, the faster it burns? At least that’s the way it seems to me.
And when we have to fill-up from an empty tank, the cost is stunning!
Rising gas prices also effects the cost of everything that requires transportation by gas-consuming engines.
The cost for energy is high in our lives of faith as well, and it seems to be getting higher and effecting more areas of our lives.
Who among us has not found it difficult, even costly, to live our lives of faith with spiritual energy?
This season of Lent we will focus on the work of Jesus Christ, who spent everything for our redemption. He emptied himself for us. And we seek to follow Him.
This effects our direct personal costs. We see it every time we go to the pump. Have you noticed that the more expensive gas is, the faster it burns? At least that’s the way it seems to me.
And when we have to fill-up from an empty tank, the cost is stunning!
Rising gas prices also effects the cost of everything that requires transportation by gas-consuming engines.
The cost for energy is high in our lives of faith as well, and it seems to be getting higher and effecting more areas of our lives.
Who among us has not found it difficult, even costly, to live our lives of faith with spiritual energy?
This season of Lent we will focus on the work of Jesus Christ, who spent everything for our redemption. He emptied himself for us. And we seek to follow Him.
Being Shaped
I have a pair of work gloves that are just about as comfortable as work gloves can get.
They’re old, but they’ve been broken-in by projects that have shaped them to my hands.
Eventually, they will wear out and I’ll need a new pair. The new ones will feel clumsy until they too have been formed to my hands by work.
In the same way, God enters into us and shapes us.
We are clumsy at first, but the work we do at God’s guidance shapes us to Him until we feel as comfortable as, well, old gloves.
That’s when danger begins.
It is when we get comfortable with God that we are also wearing out.
Part of the Christian life is seeking to always grow, which means that we are always learning to be a new creation, always being shaped to God’s will.
They’re old, but they’ve been broken-in by projects that have shaped them to my hands.
Eventually, they will wear out and I’ll need a new pair. The new ones will feel clumsy until they too have been formed to my hands by work.
In the same way, God enters into us and shapes us.
We are clumsy at first, but the work we do at God’s guidance shapes us to Him until we feel as comfortable as, well, old gloves.
That’s when danger begins.
It is when we get comfortable with God that we are also wearing out.
Part of the Christian life is seeking to always grow, which means that we are always learning to be a new creation, always being shaped to God’s will.
Our Response
I’ve met visitors to our church over the years who describe themselves as “church shoppers”.
One of my colleagues, when told this replies, “Well, I hope you find a bargain.” That's what many are seeking.
Some people are genuinely looking for the place to which the Holy Spirit is calling them. Others, in our self-affirming materialistic world, are making a consumer choice. They are looking for the greatest personal benefit, at the lowest personal cost.
Grace, the selfless unconditional love of God gives exactly that. The Christian life, however, is to embody that selfless, unconditional love for others.
Christ was born, and is born in us.
Our response is a genuine, redeemed life lived in a Christian community, where everyone contributes with equal joyful sacrifice, to sharing Christmas with the world.
One of my colleagues, when told this replies, “Well, I hope you find a bargain.” That's what many are seeking.
Some people are genuinely looking for the place to which the Holy Spirit is calling them. Others, in our self-affirming materialistic world, are making a consumer choice. They are looking for the greatest personal benefit, at the lowest personal cost.
Grace, the selfless unconditional love of God gives exactly that. The Christian life, however, is to embody that selfless, unconditional love for others.
Christ was born, and is born in us.
Our response is a genuine, redeemed life lived in a Christian community, where everyone contributes with equal joyful sacrifice, to sharing Christmas with the world.
The Heart of Christmas
Christmas has been celebrated for almost 2000 years. Cultures of great variety have chosen to mark the birth of Christ in ways that reflect who they are ever since.
As God became human flesh, so our faith is embodied in ways that reflect who we think we are as particular groups of human beings. We embody the presence of Christ in particular ways.
What does it say then when our holiday “officially” begins with Black Friday, followed by Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Free-shipping Friday, last minute, clear the inventory sale days, and so on?
We talk about the commercialization of Christmas, about keeping Christ in Christmas, and about having a Merry Christmas holiday. We advocate for words, but the heart of Christmas is in their meaning, and how we live that meaning.
We say it every year. Our culture's celebration of Christmas leaves little room for Jesus. Change will come when we live our faith as a focused celebration of Jesus. Let’s pray for that this year.
As God became human flesh, so our faith is embodied in ways that reflect who we think we are as particular groups of human beings. We embody the presence of Christ in particular ways.
What does it say then when our holiday “officially” begins with Black Friday, followed by Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Free-shipping Friday, last minute, clear the inventory sale days, and so on?
We talk about the commercialization of Christmas, about keeping Christ in Christmas, and about having a Merry Christmas holiday. We advocate for words, but the heart of Christmas is in their meaning, and how we live that meaning.
We say it every year. Our culture's celebration of Christmas leaves little room for Jesus. Change will come when we live our faith as a focused celebration of Jesus. Let’s pray for that this year.
God's Promise of Grace
At the end of 1 Samuel, after Saul, a generally terrible king of Israel has died ignobly, we read that the Philistines deliver indignities to his body and “fastened his body to the wall of Beth-shan.” (31:10b)
They wanted, among other things, to show everyone he was dead.
When dictator Moammar Gadhafi recently died ignobly, we read in our newspapers that his body was put on display by forces fighting against him, where people pulled his hair and taunted “him”.
They wanted, among other things, to show everyone he was dead.
We marvel at the violence of the Old Testament era, and yet we are not very far from it.
I am comforted that God does not first require that we get things right.
God deals with us as we are.
But, God never leaves us as we are. He give us a way out through repentance and mercy in Jesus Christ.
That is God’s promise of grace.
They wanted, among other things, to show everyone he was dead.
When dictator Moammar Gadhafi recently died ignobly, we read in our newspapers that his body was put on display by forces fighting against him, where people pulled his hair and taunted “him”.
They wanted, among other things, to show everyone he was dead.
We marvel at the violence of the Old Testament era, and yet we are not very far from it.
I am comforted that God does not first require that we get things right.
God deals with us as we are.
But, God never leaves us as we are. He give us a way out through repentance and mercy in Jesus Christ.
That is God’s promise of grace.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Them Changes
Facebook made some changes recently, and more are on the way. Not everybody is pleased.
Change is hard, even when it is for the better. And, change is not always for the better.
With regard to Facebook, I think that the current changes will be absorbed, and 3 months from now most people will look at them as embodying “the good old days”.
What we regard as “traditional” is sometimes nothing more than what we’re used to.
God, however, never changes.
Our perceptions may change, but God does not.
This is why we can never come to think that we “know” God in any intellectual sense. God is wholly “other”. God is our Creator, and we cannot “know” God any more than a clay pot can know its potter. The end of the Bible’s book of Job, the great story about the meaning of human suffering, ends with God’s declaration, in effect saying “I’m God, and you’re not.”
And yet, in another paradox of the Christian faith, we seek to know Gid, as we have been fully known. To know God in this sense is not to understand God, but to be in a personal, even an intimate relationship with God.
The only way we can know God is in our relationship, the same way we are known.
Our world, at least our understanding of it, is changing all the time. Some say change is the world’s only constant.
Yet God, who never changes, the Creator of the universe, who is both engaged with the world and outside it, is therefore always present with is through whatever changes in our lives.
Human perception of God may change, but God never changes. God has come and revealed God’s self to us in Jesus Christ, so that even children can “know God”, shaming those who presume to be wise.
Change is hard, even when it is for the better. And, change is not always for the better.
With regard to Facebook, I think that the current changes will be absorbed, and 3 months from now most people will look at them as embodying “the good old days”.
What we regard as “traditional” is sometimes nothing more than what we’re used to.
God, however, never changes.
Our perceptions may change, but God does not.
This is why we can never come to think that we “know” God in any intellectual sense. God is wholly “other”. God is our Creator, and we cannot “know” God any more than a clay pot can know its potter. The end of the Bible’s book of Job, the great story about the meaning of human suffering, ends with God’s declaration, in effect saying “I’m God, and you’re not.”
And yet, in another paradox of the Christian faith, we seek to know Gid, as we have been fully known. To know God in this sense is not to understand God, but to be in a personal, even an intimate relationship with God.
The only way we can know God is in our relationship, the same way we are known.
Our world, at least our understanding of it, is changing all the time. Some say change is the world’s only constant.
Yet God, who never changes, the Creator of the universe, who is both engaged with the world and outside it, is therefore always present with is through whatever changes in our lives.
Human perception of God may change, but God never changes. God has come and revealed God’s self to us in Jesus Christ, so that even children can “know God”, shaming those who presume to be wise.
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