Abound and Brim Over

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.  [ESV]

Oh! May the God of green hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!  [The Message]

Romans 15:13

A Place

I like the song "Heaven Is The Face" by Stephen Curtis Chapman:



...

But in my mind’s eye I can see a place
Where Your glory fills every empty space.
All the cancer is gone,
Every mouth is fed,
And there’s no one left in the orphans’ bed.
Every lonely heart finds their one true love,
And there’s no more goodbye,
And no more not enough,
And there’s no more enemy (no more)
...

Grace to You and With Your Spirit

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Philippians 1:2 and 4:23

Challenge It

Mark Batterson post:  Status Quo Bias

A few decades ago, a pair of psychologists named William Samuelson and Richard Zeckhauser discovered a phenomenon they dubbed the status quo bias. Simply put: most of us have a tendency to keep doing what we've been doing without giving it much thought.

Ever been offered a free subscription to a magazine for the first year? Why would we be offered something for free? It’s because magazine companies understand the status quo bias. Most of us will forget to cancel. And it’s not really that we’ve forgotten. We’re just too lazy to make a simple phone call or write a simple letter. Right? That is human nature! We tend to keep doing what we’ve been doing. And the problem with that is this: if you keep doing what you’ve always done you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten.

As we get ready to begin a new year, you need to challenge the status quo. I know there is nothing magical about a new year or a new decade. And not everybody has a resolution personality. But all of us need to make changes. Take some time to evaluate your life spiritually, relationally, physically, emotionally, and intellectually. What changes do you need to make? Is there something you need to stop doing or start doing? What do you need to do more or do less? Is there a choice you need to make? A goal you need to set? A habit you need to establish?

Don't maintain the status quo. Challenge it. 

Only One

Some of the lyrics from "How Many Kings" by Downhere

How many kings, stepped down from their thrones?
How many lords have abandoned their homes?
How many greats have become the least for me?
How many Gods have poured out their hearts
To romance a world that has torn all apart?
How many fathers gave up their sons for me?
Only one did that for me

Face of God

One of my favorite songs this time of year is Mary, Did You Know? by Mark Lowry and Buddy Greene.  The first part of the song is:

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy would one day walk on water?
Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy would save our sons and daughters?
Did you know
that your Baby Boy has come to make you new?
This Child that you delivered will soon deliver you.

Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy will give sight to a blind man?
Mary, did you know
that your Baby Boy will calm the storm with His hand?
Did you know
that your Baby Boy has walked where angels trod?
When you kiss your little Baby you kissed the face of God?

Not An End

Mark Batterson post:  Means vs. Ends

I think one of the primary problems we face in Western Christianity is the simple fact that so many people view going to church as an end instead of a means to an end. Let me explain. For those who subconsciously view church as an end in and of itself, going to church is the way they do their religious duty. They check church off the religious list. But do you really think God's ultimate dream for our lives is to sit in a pew for ninety minutes?

Going to church isn't an end. It's a means to an end. The real test is how we live out our faith Monday to Friday. That's where the rubber meets the road. Church is the locker room talk or the boardroom talk. Choose your metaphor. It's not the game. It's not the business. It prepares us for the game of life, the business of life.

Sure hope this makes sense. It's subtle. But I think it's one reason why people go to church on Sundays but don't live like it on Mondays.

It's not an end. It's a means to an end.

Joy

LifeToday Weekly Devotional

The Voice of Advent
by Joan Chittister

“‘Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking
for someone else?’ Jesus told them, ‘Go back to John and tell him what
you have heard and seen—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are
cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and the Good News is
being preached to the poor.’”  (Matthew 11:3-5, NLT)

When the first small flame of the Advent wreath lights the monastery chapel and the soft, clear voices of those who have sung the chants and haunting melodies all their lives open the first of the Advent vigils, there is no doubt that we have begun a moment out of time.  It is the beginning of the liturgical year: Christmas is four weeks away.  We are at the moment in which a new cycle of old ideas will be stirred up again within us.  We are beginning a spiritual crossing on dark waters led only by an ancient sailing chart marked by a star.  Here in the dark we will begin the search for light in the soul.

Advent is not the oldest season in the church.  Easter, the Pasch or Passover, is far older, by at least two hundred years.  Advent did not begin in Rome.  In fact, the earliest mention of a period of preparation for Christmas didn’t exist until 490 in Gaul, what is now modern France.

We are not here in this dark chapel tonight, then, because Christmas is the high point of every church year, and Advent its most profound season.  The church year does not start here because Christmas is coming.  The church year starts here to remind us why Jesus was born in the first place.  Most of all, it starts here to call us to determine why we ourselves are here at all.

Advent, from the Latin, means “coming.”  But Advent is not about one coming; it about three comings.  The great spiritual question the season poses for each of us is, which coming are you and I waiting for now?  At this moment in our lives, at this present stage of our spiritual development, what we’re waiting for surely determines how we will wait for it.

Each of the three comings of Advent is very different.  The first coming is the remembrance of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth in the flesh, based on the infancy narratives in the Gospels that give its historical context.  But if our expectation of Christmas remains on this level, the birthday of the “baby Jesus” becomes at best a pastoral attempt to make Jesus real.  This Jesus is a child’s Jesus that, too often – if our definition of Christmas is simply a child’s story about the birth of a child – will remain just that.  It is a simple, soothing story that makes few, if any, demands on the soul.

This coming too often leaves us, whatever our age, at the stage of spiritual childhood.  The baby Jesus captivates our hearts, true.  But the birth date of this child is not one of the great mysteries of the faith.  As Augustine pointed out, “The day of the Lord’s birth does not possess a sacramental character.  It is only a recalling of the fact that he was born.”

The next coming to which Advent calls our attention is a coming greater than the simple fact of human birth.  This is the coming of the presence of God recognized among us now in Scripture, in the Eucharist, in the community itself.  This coming makes Jesus present in our own lives, eternally enlivening, eternally with us.

The final coming to which Advent points us is the Second Coming, the Parousia.  It is this coming that whets the desire of the adult soul.  At the end of time, Jesus has promised and the Christian believes that the Son will return in glory.  Then the reign of God for which we strive with every breath will come in all its fullness.  This is the coming for which we wait.  This is the fullness for which we long.  This is what we really mean when the choir sings into the dark, “Maranatha.” “Come, Lord Jesus, come” is one rendering of the word.  But taken from the Greek, as maran atha – two words – “The Lord has come” is another equally acceptable translation.  Then the comings – past, present, and future – all live together in one long sigh of the soul.

Over the centuries and out of many traditions, Advent as we know it now has emerged to center us in these multiple layers of awareness, in these many levels of faith, in these varied plies of spiritual maturity.  We grow from one to the other, realizing as we do, that life is about more than the past, even about more than the present, and certainly, in the end, about the fullness of a future that is far longer than even our own.

Advent is a period of preparation for Christmas but, unlike Lent, it is not a period of penance.  It is a period that focuses us on joy.  We prepare ourselves to understand the full adult meaning of the feast.  We come to realize more each year how great are our blessings, how beautiful is a life lived in concert with the Jesus who came to show us the way.  We learn the joy of anticipation, the joy of delighting in a sense of the presence of God all around us, the joy of looking for the second coming of Christ, the joy of living in the surety of even more life in the future.

This Week
Are you preparing for Christmas by focusing on joy? Prioritize your time and thoughts this year and celebrate the true meaning of Christmas through advent.

Prayer
“Come, Lord Jesus, and center this season around You. Thank You for Your birth, life, death and resurrection. Help me to focus on the true meaning of Christmas and the joy of Advent.”

Only in the Cross

Excerpt from John Piper:  Boasting Only in the Cross 

Galatians 6:14

But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

You don't have to know a lot of things for your life to make a lasting difference in the world. But you do have to know the few great things that matter, and then be willing to live for them and die for them. The people that make a durable difference in the world are not the people who have mastered many things, but who have been mastered by a few great things. If you want your life to count, if you want the ripple effect of the pebbles you drop to become waves that reach the ends of the earth and roll on for centuries and into eternity, you don't have to have a high IQ or EQ; you don't have to have to have good looks or riches; you don't have to come from a fine family or a fine school. You have to know a few great, majestic, unchanging, obvious, simple, glorious things, and be set on fire by them.

But I know that not everybody in this crowd wants your life to make a difference. There are hundreds of you - you don't care whether you make a lasting difference for something great, you just want people to like you. If people would just like you, you'd be satisfied. Of if you could just have good job with a good wife and a couple good kids and a nice car and long weekends and a few good friends, a fun retirement, and quick and easy death and no hell - if you could have that (minus God) - you'd be satisfied. THAT is a tragedy in the making.

Three weeks ago we got word at our church that Ruby Eliason and Laura Edwards had both been killed in Cameroon. Ruby was over 80. Single all her life, she poured it out for one great thing: To make Jesus Christ known among the unreached, the poor, and the sick. Laura was a widow, a medical doctor, pushing 80 years old, and serving at Ruby's side in Cameroon. The brakes failed, the car went over the cliff, and they were both killed instantly. And I asked my people: was that a tragedy? Two lives, driven by one great vision, spent in unheralded service to the perishing poor for the glory of Jesus Christ—two decades after almost all their American counterparts have retired to throw their lives away on trifles in Florida or New Mexico. No. That is not a tragedy. That is a glory.

I tell you what a tragedy is. I'll read to you from Reader's Digest (Feb. 2000, p. 98) what a tragedy is: "Bob and Penny... took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells." The American Dream: come to the end of your life - your one and only life - and let the last great work before you give an account to your Creator, be "I collected shells. See my shells." THAT is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. And I get forty minutes to plead with you: don't buy it. 

...

God-Light

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him. 

"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is." 


John 3: 16-21 [The Message]

View of God

Mark Batterson post (excerpt):  A Primal Thought: Day 9

Chapter 9: Potential Energy

Our biggest problem is our small view of God. Every other problem is a symptom. A big view of God is the cure.

On a bad day, we tend to reduce God to the size of our greatest failure, biggest problem, or worst fear. On a good day, we tend to reduce God to the size of our greatest gift, highest hope, or best attribute. But either way, we are creating God in our image. And what we end up with is a super-sized version of ourselves. A god who is just a little bigger, a little stronger, and a little wiser than we are. But in reality God is infinitely better than your best thought on your best day. In fact, your best thought on your best day is at least 15.3 billion light-years short of how good and how great God really is.

So what does a small view of God have to do with loving God with all of your strength? Well, at its core, loving God with all of your strength really means loving God with all of His strength. It’s not about what you can do for God. It’s about what God can do in you and through you. Few things are more thrilling than doing what you didn’t think could be done. And it’s not just thrilling for you. It’s thrilling for God. Like a proud parent, our heavenly Father loves it when we do impossible things by His power and for His glory. Loving God with all of your strength is living in raw dependence upon His power. And when you live in raw dependence upon His power, you will do things that cannot be done. 

Trust, Not Fear

Devotional post from Christine Wrytzen:

Matt Chandler is a 35 year old pastor in TX.  He is a gifted teacher.  Mentored by Dr. John Piper, he has grown in spiritual stature to pastor a church God led him to start.  The Village Church.  Eight thousand members. 

On thanksgiving day, Matt had a seizure, was rushed to the hospital, and a significant brain tumor was found.  This past Friday, they operated to remove it. 

The night before his surgery, he posted a video to give, potentially,  his last words to his congregation and internet family.  In light of the many devotionals this past month on the theology of suffering, nothing underscores these biblical principles more than a true life story of one who calls God 'good' in the midst of suffering.

If you'd like to see his 3 minute video, click here. [see below]

Matt did survive the surgery, recognized his doctors upon waking up in recovery, but long term prognosis is still unknown. 

If you are suffering today, here is profound encouragement to hang on to sound theology.  You are not alone.  Matt's voice is a clear and compelling call to trust, not fear, and to count our trials as opportunities to showcase the stunning glory of God's grace.

 Video from Matt

Matt Chandler's posting:

The last seven days have been some of the most interesting of my life. I have felt anxiety, fear, sadness and a deep and unmovable joy simultaneously and in deeper ways than I have felt before. I am grateful for this heightened sense of things. Today at 10:45 a.m. CST I will have a good portion of my right frontal lobe removed. I head into that surgery with a heart that is filled with gratitude and hope.
Here are some of the things I am thankful for in no particular order:

1. I am thankful for the thousands of you who have prayed and fasted for my health. It has brought far more tears to Lauren’s and my eyes to receive this kind of attention from the Church universal than this tumor has.
2. I’m thankful for health insurance because I’m guessing they aren’t doing my five-hour surgery for free!
3. I am thankful that I have deep, real friendships at The Village with Michael Bleecker, Josh Patterson, Brian Miller, Chris Chavez and Beau Hughes. They have been such a comfort to me and my family this past week. Pastors should have good friends on their staff. It’s risky but worth the risk.
4. I am grateful for the men of God in my life, namely John Piper who taught me to hold my life cheap and to join with Paul in saying “I don’t count my life of any value or as precious to myself if only I might finish my course and complete the work that He gave me to do to testify to the Gospel of the grace of God. I’m nothing, I just have a job. God keep me faithful on the job and then let me drop and go to the reward.” Without this strong view of God’s sovereign will, I’m not sure how you don’t despair in circumstances like mine.
5. I am thankful for my wife Lauren. “Strength and dignity are her clothing, and she laughs at the time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: ‘Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.’” “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.”
6. I am thankful for my children. Audrey the Beautiful, Reid the Valiant and Norah the Joyous. Being a daddy to these three is one of the greatest joys of my life.
7. The privilege of seeing and appreciating all of life through the grid of a heightened sense of my own mortality.
8. I am thankful for brilliant doctors and surgeons who have been given a real gift by our great God and King to repair things as complex as the brain.
9. I am thankful for The Village Church. If there is a place that loves Jesus more, takes sanctification as seriously and wants to see the lost love the great King deeply I am unaware of it. These last seven years have been a spectacular joy!
10. More than anything else I am grateful to my King Eternal, my Lord Immortal, for my God invisible. He alone is God. All Glory and Honor, Forever to You O God. I am overwhelmed in these moments by God Himself and the assurance of a future inheritance of a Kingdom that cannot be shaken and where all things are made new (Hebrews 12).

Christ is All,
Matt Chandler

Greatness of our King

Lifter

But you, O LORD, are a shield about me,
   my glory, and the lifter of my head.

Psalm 3:3

No Condemnation

Great video:

Freedom, Balm and Joy

God of hope,
you call us home from the exile of selfish oppression
to the freedom of justice,
the balm of healing,
and the joy of sharing.
Make us strong to join you in your holy work,
as friends of strangers and victims,
companions of those whom others shun,
and as the happiness of those whose hearts are broken.
We make our prayer through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Thematic prayer, Year C, Third Sunday of Advent

Water

Yesterday we discussed the Samaritan's Purse gift catalog, and reminded everyone of our efforts to raise $9,000 to provide a community with clean water (gift #36):

Almost half of all the people in developing countries suffer from water-borne diseases and other illnesses caused by unclean water. Working with local ministry partners, Samaritan’s Purse provides communities with safe water for drinking, cooking, and washing through projects ranging from water treatment and protection to sanitation and hygiene education. In this way, countless people have discovered that only Jesus Christ can satisfy their spiritual thirst: “To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life” (Revelation 21:6, NIV). A gift of $9,000 can supply enough clean water for 500 families—just $18 per family—by providing a portable water purification unit or other sustainable water system. 

Weakness

If I must boast, I will boast of the things that show my weakness.

2 Cor 11:30

Irrevocable

For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Romans 11:29

Unsearchable and Marvelous

"As for me, I would seek God,
   and to God would I commit my cause,
who does great things and unsearchable,
    marvelous things without number:

Job 5: 8-9

Primal Essence

Excerpt from Mark Batterson post:  A Primal Thought

Over the next ten days I'm going to share excerpts from Primal: A Quest for the Lost Soul of Christianity. If you want to download a sample chapter, visit www.theprimalmovement.com.

Chapter 1: Two Thousand Stairs

We hopped on a double-decker bus and headed toward the heart of Rome. Lora and I had spent a year planning the trip, but nothing prepares you to stand in the very place where Caesars ruled an empire or gladiators battled to the death. As we walked the Via Sacra, we were stepping on the same two-thousand year-old stones that conquering armies marched on. Of course, I'm guessing they weren't licking gelatos. Our three days in the Eternal City went by far too fast. And I wish we hadn't waited until our fifteenth anniversary to take the trip.
...

As we navigated those claustrophobic catacombs, I was overcome by the fact that I was standing in a place where my spiritual ancestors risked everything, even their lives, to worship God. And I felt a profound mixture of gratitude and conviction. I live in a First World country in the twenty-first century. And I’m grateful for the freedoms and blessings I enjoy because of when and where I live. But when you’re standing in an ancient catacomb, the comforts you enjoy make you uncomfortable. The things you complain about are convicting. And some of the sacrifices you’ve made for the cause of Christ might not even qualify under a second-century definition.

As I tried to absorb the significance of where I was, I couldn’t help but wonder if our generation has conveniently forgotten how inconvenient it can be to follow in the footsteps of Christ. I couldn’t help but wonder if we have diluted the truths of Christianity and settled for superficialities. I couldn’t help but wonder if we have accepted a form of Christianity that is more educated but less powerful, more civilized but less compassionate, more acceptable but less authentic than that which our spiritual ancestors practiced.

Over the last two thousand years, Christianity has evolved in lots of ways. We’ve come out of the catacombs and built majestic cathedrals with all the bells and steeples. Theologians have given us creeds and canons. Churches have added pews and pulpits, hymnals and organs, committees and liturgies. And the IRS has given us 501(c)(3) status. And there is nothing inherently wrong with any of those things. But none of those things is primal. And almost like the Roman effect of building things on top of things, I wonder if the accumulated layers of Christian traditions and institutions have unintentionally obscured what lies beneath. 

I’m not suggesting that we categorically dismiss all those evolutions as unbiblical. Most of them are simply abiblical. There isn’t a precedent for them in Scripture, but they don’t contradict biblical principles either. I’m certainly not demonizing postmodern forms of worship. After all, the truth must be reincarnated in every culture in every generation. And I am personally driven by the conviction that there are ways of doing church that no one has thought of yet. But two thousand years of history beg this question: When all of the superficialities are stripped away, what is the primal essence of Christianity? 

...

Perceptions and Reasonings

Excerpts from John Piper sermon Skeptical Grumbling and Sovereign Grace

...

In this verse Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day” (John 6:44). ...

...

But instead of getting more and more clarity and more and more agreement, Jesus is getting more and more resistance. This resistance in verse 41 is called grumbling. And the content of their grumbling is that what he says doesn’t fit with what they think they know about him. “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?” In other words, he can’t be from heaven, because he’s from earth. We know his parents.

So the words of Jesus about himself collide with human perceptions and human reasonings about what is possible. “You can’t be from heaven, because our eyes and ears and minds tell us you are from earth.” And so they resist what Jesus says. That’s the nub of their grumbling.

...

One clue is that he says it in response to grumbling. Verses 43-44: “Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” And the content of their grumbling according to verse 42 was, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”

In other words, their perceptions and their reasonings were rising up to resist what Jesus was teaching them—that he was the Bread of God which had come down from heaven. And in essence what Jesus says to them is: You may as well stop this grumbling, because the perceptions and the reasonings of fallen human beings are never the decisive reason anyone comes to me. The decisive reason anyone comes to me is that my Father draws him.

So you would do better to stop grumbling and start praying that God would change your heart and open your eyes and draw you to Jesus. So the reason Jesus speaks this way (in verse 44) is to shake us out of our self-reliant, self-determining, self-exalting, self-absorbed presumptions about what our senses and our reason and our wills can do. One thing is certain: They cannot provide the decisive impulse to come to Christ. Only God can give that. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” We desire, we choose, we come because we want to. But sovereign, undeserved grace is behind it all.

...

Faithful

Fail Us Not


Fail Us Not from Steven Potaczek on Vimeo.

Marriage

John Piper post:  Why Say That Marriage Is Like Christ and the Church?

When I asked Noël if there was anything she wanted me to say about marriage, she said, “You cannot say too often that marriage is a model of Christ and the church.”
I think she is right and there are at least three reasons:

1. It lifts marriage out of sordid sitcom images and gives it the magnificent meaning God meant it to have.
2. It gives marriage a solid basis in grace, since Christ obtained and sustains his bride by grace alone.
3. It shows that the husband’s headship and the wife’s submission are crucial and crucified. That is, they are woven into the very meaning of marriage as a display of Christ and the church, but they are both defined by Christ’s self-denying work on the cross so that pride and slavishness are cancelled.

Adapted from the 2007 sermon "Marriage: God's Showcase of Covenant-Keeping Grace."

 

All the Paths

All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
   for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

Psalm 25:10

Biblical Realism

Mark Batterson post:  God Is For You

"If God is for us then who can be against us?"

Romans 8:31

You + God = a majority. If God is on your side, there is nothing you cannot overcome. Why? Because we are more than conquerors through Christ. That is reality. That isn't optimism. It's biblical realism.

If you know that God is for you, then no challenge is too great, no problem is too big, no obstacle cannot be overcome. But most of us doubt this fundamental truth. And I believe it's one of our root spiritual problems. We aren't sure if God is really for us or against us because we allow the guilt we feel over sins committed to infect our feelings. We think God feels about us the way we feel about ourselves! We need to sanctify our feelings.

You need to settle this once and for all. God is for you. God is on your side. God is in your corner. His intentions toward you are always good. Here's an amazing promise in Psalm 84:11:

"No good thing will the Lord withhold from those who do what is right."

Expectation and Yearning

First Sunday of Advent (Year C):  Thematic

God of justice and peace,
from the heavens you rain down mercy and kindness,
that all on earth may stand in awe and wonder
before your marvelous deeds.
Raise our heads in expectation,
that we may yearn for the coming day of the Lord
and stand without blame before your Son, Jesus Christ,
who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen.

Give Thanks .. Gracious and Merciful

Praise the LORD!I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart,
   in the company of the upright, in the congregation.
Great are the works of the LORD,
    studied by all who delight in them.
Full of splendor and majesty is his work,
   and his righteousness endures forever.
He has caused his wondrous works to be remembered;
   the LORD is gracious and merciful.

Psalm 111:1-4

Thankfulness

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. [ESV]

Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other. None of this going off and doing your own thing. And cultivate thankfulness. [The Message]

Colossians 3:15

Sentness

Excerpt from Alan Hirsch:  No Disciples, No Mission | Catalyst

Having been believers and ministers for over 25 years now has given Debs and I an appreciation for just how hard it is to be an authentic follower of our Lord and Savior. To be an authentically radical disciple requires a relentless evaluation of life’s priorities and concerns—together with an ongoing, rigorous, critique of our culture—to ensure we are not adopting values that subvert the very life and message we are called to live out. For true followers of Jesus, discipleship is not simply the first step toward a promising career of being a Christian, rather it is itself the fulfillment of our destiny. So, Debs and I have decided to write a book on what we call “missional discipleship.” Appropriately called Untamed, it is meant to be a penetrating look into the things that keep us from becoming all we were made to be and has many practical suggestions about how to become wild followers of Jesus again.

The truth is that discipleship, at least the way the Bible understands it, cannot be limited to a personal exercise in personal spirituality. There are much greater, perhaps even global, consequences at stake in our becoming more like Jesus. So much so that we have actually come to believe that discipleship is a frontier issue for the people of God at this time in history. Why? Because most commentators would now agree that the Western Church, because of its deep embedding into the prevailing consumerist culture, has all but lost the art of discipleship. Reggie McNeal has concluded that “church culture in North America is now a vestige of the original [Christian] movement, an institutional expression of religion that is in part a civil religion and in part a club where religious people can hang out with other people whose politics, worldview, and lifestyle match theirs.”

If this is indeed the case, we should be clear that this is not what the church is called to be, and is, in fact, directly caused by a failure in discipleship and disciple-making. And it will have to be addressed if we are to give faithful witness to our century. Therefore, rediscovering what it means to radically follow Jesus is now an area of strategic—and definitely missional—concern. To recover mission we are going to have to take discipleship seriously again, but the reverse is also true; to rediscover discipleship we are also going to have to take mission seriously. We cannot be true disciples without also being missionaries (sent ones) to our worlds.

The gospel is the power of God for the salvation of the world (Rom. 1:16), and God wants to redeem the broken and lost world around us and through us. Our lives, individual and corporate, play a vital role in the unfolding of the grand purposes of God. The gospel cannot be limited to being about my personal healing and wholeness, but rather extends in and through my salvation to the salvation of the world. To fail in discipleship and disciple-making is therefore to fail in the primary mission (or “sentness”) of the church. And it does not take a genius to realize that we have all but lost the art of disciple-making in the contemporary Western church. No wonder Dallas Willard calls the systematic non-discipleship of the Western Church “the great omission” in his book by that name.

...

Extravagant Generosity

Have you ever come on anything quite like this extravagant generosity of God, this deep, deep wisdom? It's way over our heads. We'll never figure it out.

   Is there anyone around who can explain God?
   Anyone smart enough to tell him what to do?
   Anyone who has done him such a huge favor
      that God has to ask his advice?

   Everything comes from him;
   Everything happens through him;
   Everything ends up in him.
   Always glory! Always praise!
      Yes. Yes. Yes.

Romans 11: 33-36 [The Message]

Trust

LifeToday Devotional

Faith, Risk and Diving Boards
by Dave Hackbarth

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous.
Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your
God will be with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9, NIV)

“It’s not possible,” I thought as I peered over the edge of the diving board. My heart beat wildly in my chest and my knees felt more like jelly than bone and muscle.

“I have no idea why on earth anyone would want to do this! What’s wrong with people?” My thoughts were doing a great job at giving me the courage to take that risk and jump. If I could get them to shut up for five seconds, I just might do it.

I slowly moved up toward the edge again and looked down on my mom, who was encouraging me to jump. But she didn’t see what I saw: the water. It looked like solid glass or transparent concrete. I swear a mysterious breeze started to blow and shake the diving board. Did I mention this was an indoor pool?

I don’t remember how old I was at that point in my childhood, but I do remember the timidity and fear that seized me as I failed to bravely conquer that diving board. I don’t really think it was the diving board or swimming or scaling heights that was at stake. It was my trust.

Earlier this year, I attended a leadership conference at my home church, Gateway Church in Austin, Texas. Neil Cole delivered most of the content for the weekend, which focused on empowering and equipping organic leaders . On the second day of the conference, I vividly recall him saying, “If you don’t have a good story, it’s because you’re not taking enough risk.”

That statement echoed throughout the auditorium. I immediately recalled months earlier asking God to give me opportunities to take risk and have faith without any solid proof or clarity. No more pillars of fire by day or writing on the wall or dew-soaked fleeces. Just faith.

Then I started reading Ruthless Trust by Brennan Manning as part of my residency at Gateway and I was again hit with this picture of what it means to trust God:

faith + hope = trust

I have always understood the faith part. It is essential to knowing God through Jesus. But what about the hope part? Have I really trusted God?

These questions bombarded my soul in an all-out assault on my heart. I wrestled with the answers and found more questions. I reviewed my life and saw multiple times where faith was evident and hope was somewhat present.

To be honest, hope in what has yet to happen often seems so insubstantial and elusive. I recalled instances of having hope, but they seemed to only appear in the storms of life when uncertainty surrounded me. It was as if the valleys of life offered more hope than the hills and peaks. You may know exactly what I am talking about.

The Bible offers us story after story to illustrate this, but I think that we often gloss over the reality of hope in the midst of a faith story. One story that came to mind during the war between my soul and heart was that of Peter’s hike on water. Let’s set the scene…

The disciples, following Jesus’ orders, are crossing the lake by boat while Jesus seeks several hours of solitude. Trouble arrives in the form of a squall and treacherous waters. These seasoned fishermen are having a hard time getting to the other shore, indicating the severity of the storm. (Matthew 14:22-24)

Life is like that, isn’t it? The storms of life hit us and, though we’ve been through several storms, each one can rock our world. We struggle to gain control, just as the disciples were struggling with their boat.

Jesus, now done with his solitude, sees that the disciples are in a bit of trouble and far from land. So, he charters a boat to sail to their rescue. Right?

No. Jesus strolls out into open waters, straight into the tempest! The disciples see Jesus, assume he is a ghost and immediately panic.

“But Jesus immediately said to them: ‘Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid.’
 ‘Lord, if it's you,’ Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.’
 ‘Come,’ he said.” (Matthew 14:26-29a, NIV)

Did you notice a subtle, but important, element to this story? The disciples knew Jesus’ voice! They had enough faith that they knew that Jesus would save them. After all, the last time this sort of thing happened Jesus’ words alone calmed the storm. (Matthew 8:23-27)

Even more than having the storm calmed, Peter immediately wanted to be like Jesus. He wanted to do what he saw his master, his teacher, his mentor doing. Peter initiated and Jesus approved. Faith is like that because it always takes action. Faith always takes initiative.

“Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus.” (Matthew 14:29b, NIV)

I almost wish the story ended there. What a great Hollywood ending! Fortunately for us, it does not.

“But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, ‘Lord, save me!’ Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. ‘You of little faith,’ he said, ‘why did you doubt?’ And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God.’”
(Matthew 14:30-33, NIV)

Most of the time when I read this story, I criticize Peter for his lack of faith. Think about it. Peter just saw Jesus feed 5,000 people with only 5 loaves and 2 fish!

How many times do we think something like, “If Jesus was right in front of me, I would have done it.” When I read the Bible, I am always the one who obeys or the one who loves well or the one who is daring and risky. How about you?

Truthfully, I am rarely that person. The reality of my life is more akin to the other disciples than Peter. Notice I said “other disciples.” In this story, they are only referred to as “those who were in the boat.” They aren’t even mentioned by name! That would have been me. I would not have even had the intestinal fortitude to try getting out of the boat. I would have most likely been the wanna-be protégé sitting near the edge of the boat with one hand firmly gripping the center of the boat, pretending to be fearless. Then Peter gets all hopped-up on seeing Jesus and gets all heroic.

Even Peter’s lack of faith was more faith than the rest of the disciples. In that moment, Peter was not only exercising his faith by taking initiative, but all of his hope was in Jesus. He trusted Jesus with his life. Just look at the evidence. When Peter began to sink, who did he call out to? Who did he trust to save him? His faith, combined with hope, allowed him to trust that Jesus could do what Peter was incapable of doing for himself. He trusted Jesus to save him.

This leads us back to my childhood diving-board experience. In life, I have had many diving-board opportunities. Heroic moments where my life could have been defined by great trust in Jesus. Divine moments that could have taken my comfortable life and propelled me into a life of unleashed faith. Too often, I chose the lesser life. I chose not to risk; not to trust.

What about you?

This Week
How is God asking you to trust in Him through your struggles or storms? What must you do to choose the heroic life Jesus called you to live, like Peter? What can you do at work or in your neighborhood to exercise your faith?

Prayer
“Jesus, forgive me for choosing the comfortable, lesser life by not fully trusting in you. Give me the strength I need to respond to your Spirit, not with timidity, but with heroic trust. Help me step out of the boat. Amen.”

Advent

Excerpts from Ed Stetzer post:  Advent Without the Conspiracy on SermonCentral

...

The very word "advent" essentially means the arrival of something. So, as we celebrate Christmas, we supposedly celebrate the arrival of God into human form. The Incarnation is a moment to savor. All of our presents and lights and parties ought to have a better meaning. But usually, they don't. So, in a bid to create a more relevant/helpful/meaningful advent season, the church of late has sought to delineate itself from the commercialization of our country's Christmas culture. Oddly enough, we have done so by simply offering Christianized versions of what they were already doing—Christmas dinners, Christmas plays, Christmas musicals, and Christmas events in every size and shape. But alas, we have done no better than my neighbor. The church has cluttered the advent season with our own set of lawn décor.

Sure, our event planning seems more spiritual than the guy who wants his house to be seen from outer space. And yes, our events are done so with the façade of telling people the ubiquitous "reason for the season." (Am I supposed to capitalize "reason"? I don't know any more.) But are we bringing anyone closer to understanding the gospel? I fear we are only adding more decorations onto the already crowded front lawn of culture.
...

We are seeing a much-needed return to the simplicity of the Gospel and its power to bring transformation. The advent season needs no décor, conspiracy, or sales pitch. It needs simplicity.  It needs a gospel simply proclaimed and the work of Jesus simply done.

As you and your church move into this advent season, allow me to make some suggestions toward simplicity that may just help present a season that is filled with more advent than conspiracy.

Be obvious. We have grown far too comfortable with the bait-and-switch mentality reserved for the lowest form of salesmanship. "Come for a relaxing evening of music." But we really mean, "Come for dinner so we can ambush you with something vaguely spiritual."
...

Live in the experience of the Incarnation. It only happened once. So enjoy thinking and talking and living about it. John 1:14 is one of the high-water marks of scripture about the Incarnation. It is paraphrased by The Message as:

"The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish."

I love that—"moved into the neighborhood." Jesus came to live among us, work like us, experience life like us. His experience is one for us to both revere and revel in.
Our advent celebrations should find their embodiment in work similar to His. He spoke the truth—so should we. He cared for the outcast—so should we. He sacrificed personally—so should we. It is not complicated to emulate a living example.

...

Be native. Everyone feels a bit of nostalgia at this time of the year, but it is only a fleeting glance at the past. The advent season should be lived in the present, especially among those who live in the now of their everyday lives.

I often encourage pastors to ask themselves and their congregation, "What year is it here?" It is intended to provoke the thought of how well a congregation is connecting with their community. After all, as soon as we step off of our church campuses, it is 2009, no matter how we act inside our buildings.

During the advent season, we ask everyone to take a backward glance of almost two millennia. But do you know what most people want to know? How does that little boy born in a barn change your life right now? They are waiting to hear us talk about the gospel's power in contemporary terms.

Your coworkers and neighbors harbor a silent but deep hope that one of their own (you) is telling the truth about this faith they've heard about. So be the native that delivers the message to the rest of your tribe.
...

His Grace

Christine Wyrtzen devotional

HOW OFTEN I FORFEIT FAVOR

I entreat your favor with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise.  Psalm 119:58

There are many who feel that God's favor is owed to them.  Perhaps this describes the majority of God's creation.  They believe that they do more good than bad.  Because of how that set of scales reads, they believe that God owes them pleasure and ease.

This psalmist, whoever he is, begs for God's favor.  He knows that even though He follows God, loves the Torah, and attempts to live a life that honors God, he does plenty of things every day to forfeit God's favor.  On this day, He asks God to consider pouring out His favor once again on his life.

No matter how sincere my heart was yesterday to honor Christ through my life, I failed to do it perfectly.  My sin grieved God and without His grace and mercy, there were grounds for God to withdraw the warmth of His smile from my shoulders.  He didn't - because of Christ.  He didn't - because of His Son's blood sacrifice.

Entitlement is a nasty spiritual disease.  It's unbecoming to children here on earth who live with their hand out.  How many parents have sacrificed for their son or daughter only to see their love spurned with indignant demand.  "Ungrateful!", that parent mutters under their breath in disappointment.

Entitlement is even more profound when God's children hold out their hand, feel entitled to the sacrifice Jesus made and the blessings of their inheritance in Christ, and give no thought to the graciousness of God who gives it all despite their unworthiness.  Oh, may my life be marked with humility and gratitude.  Anything good that He gives me is due to His grace, not my goodness. 

When I see signs of Your favor, I take in the gift with prayers of thanksgiving.  Forgive me for when I've been an ungrateful child.  Amen

God's Fellow Workers - But Only God

What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building. [ESV]

Who do you think Paul is, anyway? Or Apollos, for that matter? Servants, both of us—servants who waited on you as you gradually learned to entrust your lives to our mutual Master. We each carried out our servant assignment. I planted the seed, Apollos watered the plants, but God made you grow. It's not the one who plants or the one who waters who is at the center of this process but God, who makes things grow. Planting and watering are menial servant jobs at minimum wages. What makes them worth doing is the God we are serving. You happen to be God's field in which we are working.  [The Message]

1 Corinthians 3:5-9

Your Voice

Mark Batterson post:  Unique Voiceprint

There never has been and never will be anyone like you. But that isn't a testament to you. It's a testament to the God who created you absolutely unique.

All of creation is singing a worship chorus to God. And it's not just the meadow lark with its 300 notes or the nightingale finch with its 24 songs. According to the German physicist and pianist, Arnold Summerfield, a hydrogen atom emits 100 frequencies which makes it more complex musically than a grand piano which emits 88 frequencies.

For what its worth, Pythagoras said: "A stone is frozen music." Very interesting in light of what Jesus said: "If you remain silent the stones will cry out."

My point? All of creation is singing a unique song to the Creator. And you are part of that universal chorus. No one can worship God FOR you or LIKE you. God has given you a unique voiceprint. There are millions of people praying and worshiping God in every language all the time. But your voiceprint is unique. Like a parent who knows His child's unique cry or scream or laugh, God knows your voice. He hears your voice. The Heavenly Father loves your voice.

Steadfast Love Upon Us

Our soul waits for the LORD;
   he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
   because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O LORD, be upon us,
   even as we hope in you.

Psalm 33:20-22

Capture Me With Grace

Newsong "Rescue"

Full

And one called to another and said:

    "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!"

Isaiah 6:3

Purpose

Neil Anderson Daily in Christ

THE SIGNIFICANT DOMINION
 
Genesis 1:26
Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth

In the original creation, Adam didn't search for significance; he was significant. He was given rule over all His creatures. Was Satan on the scene at creation? Yes. Was he the god of this world at that time? Not at all. Who had the dominion in the garden? Under the authority of God, Adam did, that is until Satan usurped his dominion when Adam and Eve fell. That's when Satan became the god of this world.

Do you realize that the significant dominion Adam exercised before the Fall has been restored to you as a Christian? That's part of your inheritance in Christ. Satan has no authority over you, even though he will try to deceive you into believing that he has. Because of your position in Christ, you have authority over him. You are seated with Christ in the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:6).

First John 3:8 says, "The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil." The whole plan of God is to restore fallen humanity and establish the kingdom of God where Satan now reigns. This work of God is not just for our personal victory but for all of creation. "For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will also be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God" (Romans 8:19-21).

Prayer:

Thank You, Lord, that I am part of Your redemptive plan. Show me my responsibility so I may live a life of purpose.

Owning Scripture

From an email.  Seemed related to yesterday's class discussion:

A few thoughts on OWNING GOD’S WORD:
      
      The book of Hebrews has historically been referred to as the Book of Faith, and in Chapter 4, verse 12, the writer says:  “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of jonts and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

    The writer goes on to say that nothing is hidden from God’s eyes; that we have a great High Priest, Jesus Christ, the Son of God; and that we should come boldly to the throne of grace and there obtain mercy and grace in time of need.

       It occurs to me that in order to incorporate this living power, we must “own it.”  Let me explain.  In the realm of music, whether instrumental or vocal, to perform correctly, one must “own” the song.  For instance, a vocalist singing to a live audience should not carry on stage a copy of the words; it would be a hindrance and a distraction.  Therefore, the song must be so committed to memory, so familiar to the singer, that he or she “owns” it.  The song can then be sung confidently anytime and any place.

       In like manner, if we are to be effective witnesses for Jesus Christ, we must be so familiar with scripture that we can share it with others without referring immediately to the Bible, as one may not always be available.  Oh, I don’t think it’s necessary to memorize every jot and tittle, but an accurate understanding of pertinent passages and what they mean is imperative.  As a singer must own a song, we as Christians must “own” scripture in such a way that it is readily available to us because of our familiarity with it.  After all, “the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword,”and we must proclaim it boldly.  Don’t you agree?

                                                                                                Harvill here…11-22-02

Great Commandment

Here is a web site introducing a new book.

Questions

Perry Noble post:  Four Random Questions I Wrestle With

I often reflect on my early years in ministry…and the questions I wrestled with then.  As I look at my struggles my first five years…not that much has changed.  I still struggle with the same things…

#1 – Why do people criticize a church that reaches people?

I remember hearing early on in my ministry how evil Willow Creek/Bill Hybels was…so…I went to a conference where Hybels was speaking (so I could make my own decision) and watched him WEEP over people far from God (something I had never seen his critics do!)  It didn’t take me long to realize that his critics were not motivated by concern…but rather jealousy.

Yet…this still happens today.  In fact, it is quite popular to speak against anything that is growing in Christian circles…because if it can be shown in a negative light then it empowers other churches/organization to stay where they are and not make any sorts of adjustments.

#2 – Why do churches continually invest in broken systems?

For example…I am from Baptist world (this will be fun)…and I never, EVER, understood the concept of Sunday school.  The church begged and begged people to go…but the pastor didn’t go, the staff didn’t go–HECK, the Sunday school director didn’t even go!!!

If I am remembering correctly…SS attendance in ever major denomination has been DECREASING since the 1970’s…and yet churches STILL invest in the system that DID HAVE IT’S DAY…but needs to be let go of.  (I am REALLY making a lot of new friends in Baptist world right now!  Guys…I don’t hate you!  My heart is built on nothing less than Lottie Moon and Broadman Press!  I just desperately wish change would be embraced for the sake of HIS KINGDOM…and the SBC’s goal would not be merely to survive…but thrive!!!)

The other thing that comes to mind here is the way churches invest in youth and children’s ministry!  Seriously…I’ve read statistics that say up to 80% of CHURCHED KIDS walk away from the church when they graduate high school…and very few EVER return.  Could one of the problems be THE WAY the church approached ministry?  If so…then does the church MAYBE need to make some adjustments?

If the system is broken then say it is…and doing so is NOT irreverent…it is actually honoring to God!!!

#3 – Why do “Christians” hate people who aren’t like them?

This was REALLY confusing…I remember churches organizing abortion protest and then going out and yelling/screaming at people entering the abortion clinics and such.
NOW…let me be very clear…I am NOT for abortion…at all!  BUT…I remember thinking during the times when these protests were quite popular, “what about the girl who is sitting in the church right now and has had an abortion?”  (You can actually put anyone in that situation…the person who has given away their virginity, had a divorce, struggles with an addiction.)

Unfortunately…I’ve discovered that the people who most often look down on people who aren’t as “good as them” are usually hiding something of their own!!!

Oh…and one more thing here…why do “Christians” hate people who don’t believe just like them?  (The reformed guys are usually the worse…and, being pretty much reformed in my theology I believe I can say that with integrity!)  We all have different beliefs…but I would say if we could claim the Nicean Creed as our common ground…we should be mature enough to work through the rest.)

#4 – Why do pastors/church leaders listen to people who tell them what they should be doing…but have actually never done it?

If I wrote a book on surgery…the how to’s and such…there isn’t a doctor in the world that would buy it and/or attempt to apply what I had written!  Why?  Because…I am not a doctor…and I have NEVER actually performed surgery.

Yet…someone who has never planted a church and/or been a pastor can write a book in the Christian world…and church planters/pastors will devour it.  Some people call this brilliant…I call it stupid.

The world seems to grasp this concept…learn from people who have been where you want to go.  Yet the church seems to embrace, “listen and learn from the people who have never actually done anything…but have really good theories.”

Pastors/church leaders…if you want to learn the seek the wisdom of people who have actually done what you are wanting to do.  (BTW…these people do not descrie themselves as “experts”…but rather servants who simply listen to the Lord and do what He says!)

And for the person/people who have great theories about how to plant/lead a church…I would say if you really believe in your theories then why don’t you risk it all and put them into practice rather than trying to make a profit by selling your untested ideas to men and women whom you are hoping may have the faith that you don’t actually have?

Greater Joys

Jon Bloom (DG) post:  When You Don't Feel Like It, Take Heart

Did you wake up not feeling like reading your Bible and praying? How many times today have you had to battle not feeling like doing things you know would be good for you?
While it’s true that this is our indwelling sin that we must repent of and fight against, there’s more going on.

Think about this strange pattern that occurs over and over in just about every area of life:

• Good food requires discipline to prepare and eat while junk food tends to be the most tasty, addictive, and convenient.
• Keeping the body healthy and strong requires frequent deliberate discomfort while it only takes constant comfort to go to pot.
• You have to make yourself pick up that nourishing theological book while watching a movie can feel so inviting.
• You frequently have to force yourself to get to devotions and prayer while sleeping, reading the sports, and checking Facebook seems effortless.
• To play beautiful music requires thousands of hours of tedious practice.
• To excel in sports requires monotonous drills ad nauseum.
• It takes years and years of schooling just to make certain opportunities possible.
• This goes on and on.

The pattern is this: the greater joys are obtained through struggle and pain, while brief, unsatisfying, and often destructive joys are right at our fingertips. Why is this?
Because, in great mercy, God is showing us everywhere, in things that are just shadows of heavenly things, that there is a great reward for those who struggle through (Hebrews 10:32-35). He is reminding us repeatedly each day to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7).

         Each struggle is an invitation by God to follow in the footsteps of his Son, “who for the joy that             was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the             throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).

         Those who are spiritually blind only see futility in these things. But for those who have eyes to see,         God has woven hope (faith in future grace) right into the futility of creation (Romans 8:20-21).                 Each struggle is a pointer saying, “Look! Look to the real Joy set before you!”

So when you don’t feel like doing what you know is best for you, take heart and don’t give in. Your Father is pointing you to the reward he has planned for all who endure to the end (Matthew 24:13).

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (1 Corinthians 4:17-18)

The LORD Reigns -- Rejoice

The LORD reigns, let the earth rejoice;
   let the many coastlands be glad!
Clouds and thick darkness are all around him;
    righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
Fire goes before him
   and burns up his adversaries all around.
His lightnings light up the world;
   the earth sees and trembles.
The mountains melt like wax before the LORD,
   before the Lord of all the earth.

Psalm 97:1-5

Just One

I read about Fair Trade on Dan Kimball's blog.

Think about this: Just One Fair Trade purchase from every American churchgoer this Christmas would lift one million families out of abusive poverty for one whole year.
Let’s make sure that when gifts are given, they speak of the sort of world that Jesus came to show us—one where the last is first, where the poor are included, the sick are healed, and the captive is set free.
Giving meaningful gifts. It’s the new original way to celebrate Christmas.

A Gift

Excerpts from John Piper sermon:  The All-Providing King Who Would Not Be King

John 6: 1-15

...

One of the reasons God created bread—or created the grain and the water and yeast and fire and human intelligence to make it, and I mean the really good kind, that’s not mainly air—is so that when Jesus Christ came into the world, he would be able to use the enjoyment of bread and the nourishment of bread as an illustration of what it means to believe on him and be satisfied with him. I believe that with all my heart. Bread exists to help us know what it is like to be satisfied in Jesus.

This is true for water (John 4:14) and light (John 14:6) and every other good thing that God has made. Nothing exists for itself. “All things were created through him and for him” (Colossians 1:16). Every honorable pleasure that we have in the created world is designed by God to give us a faint taste of heaven and make us hunger for Christ. Every partial satisfaction in this life points to the perfect satisfaction in Jesus who made the world.

...

Now jump to the end of the story of the feeding of the five thousand in John 6:14-15, and we will see what’s wrong. “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’ Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself.”

Why did Jesus withdraw? Because the enthusiasm these people have is not for who he really is. This is so important for our day and for your life. People can have a great enthusiasm for Jesus, but the Jesus they’re excited about is not the real biblical Jesus. It may be a morally exemplary Jesus, or a socialist Jesus, or a capitalist Jesus, or an anti-Semitic Jesus, or a white-racist Jesus, or a revolutionary-liberationist Jesus, or a counter-cultural cool Jesus. But not the whole Jesus who, in the end, gives his life a ransom for sinners (Mark 10:45). And if your enthusiasm for Jesus is for a Jesus that doesn’t exist, your enthusiasm is no honor to the real Jesus, and he will leave you and go into the mountain.

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So what is Jesus doing in this miracle of taking five loaves and a few fish and feeding over 5,000 people? He is opening a window on who he is. He is manifesting his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father (John 1:14). And he is opening this window on his glory not that we might get excited about how useful he might be in getting what we already wanted, but that we might see that he himself is better than anything we ever wanted.

The point of making bread, as it were, out of nothing—like God making manna—is that the Son of God has come into the world not to give you bread, but to be your bread. And, since we are all sinners and do not deserve this bread, how will he give it to us? “The bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (John 6:51). When he gives his flesh on the cross, he becomes bread—all-nourishing, all-satisfying bread—for sinners who believe.


Verse 6 says that Jesus was testing Philip when he said in verse 5, “Where are we going to get bread for these people?” And I would say, Jesus is testing us now. Right now. Will we be like the Jewish leaders? “It took 46 years to build this temple, and you’ll build it in three days?” Will we be like Nicodemus? “How can a man be born again, enter into his mother’s womb?” Or like the woman at the well? “How will you give me living water when you don’t even have a bucket.” Or like Philip here in verse 7? “Jesus, 200 days’ wages couldn’t feed these people.”

Or will we see the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth? Will we see Jesus crucified for sinners and risen from the dead to become not mainly a Giver, but a Gift, not mainly your benefactor but your bread? Taste and see that that the Lord is good.

Foundational Words

"These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit—but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock.

"But if you just use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach. When a storm rolled in and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards." 


Matthew 7:24-27 [The Message]

Embracing the Word and the Spirit

Christine Wyrtzen Devotional:

SPEAKER OF THE PROMISES

This is my comfort in my affliction, that your promise gives me life.  Psalm 119:50

    A promise is only invaluable to me if the promise came from someone precious and trustworthy.  The same words, spoken by a casual acquaintance, don't carry the same weight as words spoken by my dearest friend.  There is comfort and meaning only because of the relationship.

    To experience true life-change from the Scriptures, I must understand two things; 1.) They are words.   2.) And, they are just words unless the Spirit reveals them to me.

    If I read the Bible just to entertain myself with stories, just to acquaint myself with concepts, I will miss the relational meaning behind them all.  It will feel the same as reading a novel or the morning paper.

    If I seek manifestations of the Spirit, in worship, in prayer, without the Word, I will feel some sense of the Lord's presence but He will have no definition without the Word behind Him.
   
   To fully engage with Him and the life-changing power of His Word, I must engage with both.  My life was forever changed in 1997 when I came to the open scriptures and said, "These are just words on a page, nothing more.  Where are you?  Please open my heart to your words and reveal them to me."  That prayer (still made every single day) transformed me from a 'once-in-a-while-Bible-reader' to a passionate student and disciple.  I don't study it because I love to study.  I study because I'm wild about Jesus and I know He wrote the words.
   
   So, I contemplate the psalmist's words this morning.  He reveals that God's promises give him life.  How do words on a scroll drip life into his afflicted heart?  He has a throbbing, pulsating relationship with the One who wrote them.  The author and inspirational force behind the scriptures, when engaged, becomes the One who whispers the Torah in his ears.  In the context of love and faithfulness, promises spring to life.

    Every one of us who has trusted Christ knows that the Spirit lives inside us.  He is ever with us - because He promised that He would be.  So, why is that not more comforting?  It's because we have not asked Him to fulfill the role He was meant to fulfill in our lives.  Interpreter, teacher, revealer, speaker of the Word to our souls. I've often said, "I know You're here, Lord.  But I can't feel it!"  I failed to realize that seeking the Spirit, void of the Word, was like asking someone to comfort me but putting a muzzle on their mouth so they couldn't speak and putting a blindfold on my eyes so I couldn't see them.  If I want the full effect of God in my life, I must embrace the Word and embrace the Spirit as speaker, teacher, and revealer.

I long for your Words to penetrate my heart as deeply as You intended.  Teach me.  Move me.  Speak your Word over me that I might see, that I might life.  Amen 

Incredible Greatness

LifeToday Weekly Devotional:  Words of Life

Everyday Miracles
by Bruce Wilkinson

“I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s
power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that
raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at
God’s right hand in the heavenly realms.” (Ephesians 1:19-20)

What if I told you I’m certain you missed a miracle yesterday? And not just any miracle but one that Heaven wanted to do through you to significantly change someone’s life for the better – maybe your own?

Almost everyone in the world can point to an event in their lives that seemed directly orchestrated by Heaven, that seemed impossible to explain without using words like, “I can’t believe what just happened! That was a miracle!” We tend to value such events so highly that we recount them over and over, often for years.

Why do we remember such events so clearly? I think it’s because we feel that we have been touched by Heaven. It’s as if God Himself stepped through the curtain that separates the seen from the unseen to make something wonderful happen for us, something only He could do.

In the experience we hear a personal and unforgettable message from God. Something like, I’m here. I care about you. I can do for you what you cannot do for yourself.

When it comes to miracles, most people I know see the world as divided in two. On the far left is a region we could call the Land of Signs and Wonders. In this land amazing miracles seem to happen a lot, although only for a select few. On the far right is the Land of Good Deeds. Interestingly, in Good Deeds land a lot of people believe in miracles and spend time studying them. They just don’t expect to actually see any miracles, much less be a part of them on a regular basis.

Between the dazzle of Signs and Wonders and the duty of Good Deeds lies a broad and promising middle ground: Everyday Miracle Territory. Here people believe that God wants to intervene – and does – in supernatural ways in human affairs on a regular basis. Here unmet needs are seen by ordinary people as golden opportunities for God to show up, and to do so through them, at almost any moment.

Most Christians know the importance of expressing their faith through deliberate acts of service to others. Everyone’s good works matter a great deal to God. As Paul reminds us, we have been “created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Among the good works you and I were born to do lies a wide range of accomplishments that are extremely important to God, that we have been commissioned to do for Christ – and that we cannot do without His supernatural power working through us.

Think of the relationship between good works and personal miracles in your life in terms of two equations:

Your good works for God = ministry.
Your ministry + God’s supernatural power = miracles.

For a personal miracle, you must choose to proactively partner with God’s supernatural power to do what no good work of your own could. All of Christ’s followers have been invited into this amazing partnership with Heaven.

It’s a joint but unequal venture between weak humans and an extraordinary God to pursue His agenda in His way in His time by His power for His glory. But you can be a Christian for years and miss it completely!

This explains Paul’s unusual concern about this very issue, as expressed in his letter to the Ephesians. Paul understood that a person can be a true believer in Christ and not yet understand at all how we are to actually accomplish the business of Heaven.

Thankfully, a simple, self-evident approach to delivering miracles does exist.

For a personal miracle to take place we must have:

• a person (the recipient of the miracle)
• a need (the purpose for the personal miracle)
• an open heart (the place where a personal miracle is completed)
• a delivery agent (the means for getting the miracle where it is needed)
• God (the person who does the miracle and receives the credit)
If God is going to meet a specific need for another person through us, then we need to find and connect with that person by responding to God’s nudges. The fact that a nudge seems out of context or surprises us helps to identify our person with confidence. If in doubt, proceed – all you risk is being friendly.

Once you’ve connected with the person, your role is to patiently and sensitively look for the need. This is where a bump question like “How may I help you?” can be effective. You’re still relying on God’s guidance, but now you can partner with Him more completely to meet the need at hand.

Miracles often involve some kind of material provision, but miracle agents don’t stop there. Strategic prayer is involved.

We want to partner with God to get inside the recipient’s heart. A heart tends to respond best to gentle and sincere invitations from the heart of another. Our role is much like that of John the Baptist’s – preparing the way for God.

Thankfully, God desires to deliver miracles through us more than we want Him to. That means we can relax, trusting that God will deliver a miracle and that our necessary role in the event is to respond to His direction.

 We intentionally do everything in our power to help the person make the all-important leap between the wonderful experience and the wonderful source of that experience – God Himself.

This Week
Make yourself available to be the delivery agent of an everyday miracle in someone’s life.

Prayer
“Lord, thank you that you desire to work everyday miracles in people’s lives. Please help me to be the hands that deliver your goodness into the life of another person. Amen.”