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Pinebrooke Posts  Week of December 11, 2016Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Blog for Week of December 11
Someone described Joy as peace dancing. I’m not sure joy is as much a part of common life as happiness is. In some ways most who pursue happiness will ultimately be disappointed because happiness seems to be more circumstantial. It is usually rather easy to engage ordinary people regarding happiness, but joy – that’s another story.Gratitude is the root of joy and those who regularly focus on being grateful are usually filled with joy and joy transcends changeable circumstances, therefore, happiness pales in light of joy. You have probably heard someone theologically make the point that happiness does not grammatically appear in the Scriptures. I suspect for good reason.For God’s children the way before us is not transitory, but established. The calling we are presented with is one of eternal substance and when we step into everyday life we can see the desperation all around us; this season is no exception and maybe even more dramatic. People in our culture always bring a “story” with them to the Christmas holiday; some positive and some negative, but usually with extreme expectations. Joy, however, is rooted in the One who does not change. Consider joy for all its worth!
Week of December 4, 2016Thursday, December 08, 2016
Blog for Week of December 4
“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.” Once again in this season there is a growing need for the Prince of Peace. If there is one thing missing in the stream of life most everywhere it is peace. The peace of Christ is no weak thing. In some of our liturgies in the church we regularly “pass the peace” and as ritual as that may be it is profound in its absence among humankind. We would do God well if we took his Word seriously and became true peacemakers. Frankly, those in our world who truly take responsibility to bring peace into each circumstance of life are usually escorted to the margins. After all who takes them seriously? In a world of “getting things done” peacemaking seems to be antithetical to the atmosphere of this world. Peacemaking requires that we are present to understand the other. We live in such a clouded world that we rarely slow down enough to truly listen, so that we might genuinely understand. The “peace of the world” is satisfied with the cessation of open conflict, but Jesus offers us so much more, a true shalom that is first of all rooted in Him and then receptive to the “other” who is made in God’s image.
Week of November 27, 2016Monday, November 28, 2016
Blog for Week of November 27
As Common as the word “hope” is in our vocabulary, its biblical reality is rare. Most are still embedded with “wishful thinking” when they use the term. Jesus offers us so much more in “hope.” The scriptures refer to him as our living hope. When hope is incarnated in Jesus it elevates our souls.The transactions justification and reconciliation set the stage for living breathing hope. Hope is something we live out in the midst of encroaching darkness. Hope keeps its eyes fixed on the Light, therefore, the world remains desperate for the hope that transforms.With Advent we enter a hopeful season as we “wait for Christ once again,” but the prerequisite for hope is making fresh space to receive it. The challenge is always to resist the distraction of the holiday current and paddle for calmer waters. Hope can be found afresh, but only in the reservoir of Christ.
Week of November 20Tuesday, November 22, 2016
Blog for Week of November 20
In the wisdom of those who have gone before us a national Day of Thanksgiving is before us. In the midst of the Civil War in the year of 1863, President Lincoln declared a National Day of Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday of November. If there was a great need to set aside a day for thanksgiving, given those circumstances, how much more so today.Having lost sight of who we are, all creatures of our God and King, we are in dire need of pausing to reflect on the goodness of God. As was the case in 1863 we, the people, are the agents of conflict. It behooves us to work for a better way to love, hope, and treat one another with mercy and kindness. When God chose you, he chose you to be a means of restoration. “Blessed are the peacemakers.”It is easy to get confused as to what is real and what is temporal. We have been placed in a temporal world to shine the Light of the Real. Rather than letting our distracted by the ebbs and flows of the temporal world, many we find a Solid Center from which we can be the solution to the rampant anger and gloating world that surrounds us. May we make space this week for genuine reflection on the grace and goodness of God.
Week of November 13, 2016 Saturday, November 12, 2016 Blog for Week of November 13
We have had a particularly tumultuous week just past. The unanticipated became real. We see people around us full of fear which makes this a fruitful time to listen, come alongside, and love as Jesus taught us to love. Often it is only in times of desperation that the natural defenses no longer protect our lives. These are the times when the worst in us comes out or the best of us surfaces. This is a pressurized time and as an old friend used to say, ?When you squeeze an orange, you get orange juice.?
In times like these who we really are is what is revealed. As we look around we see lots of ugliness, but again, that is who we are?as a people we are ugly. I think de Tocqueville said it best, ?America is great because America is good, but if she is no longer good, she will no longer be great.? I suspect that we have not been good for quite some time. We certainly have not been a true Christian nation for generations at best. The next time you hear someone say we are good as a nation, understand that is far short of what God would say.
This is a time of great opportunity! The opportunity is to walk in Jesus? Way as apprentices of his with no higher authority and no different measure. We do not need laws or leaders or legislatures to show us the Way. We have been and always will be people of a different kingdom and a different way of life. We have all we need in the Godhead of the Trinity and the Revelation of the scriptures to show us ?how we shall then live.? Let me leave you with a summary scripture from Micah?s prophecy, ?He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? But, to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.?
Week of November 6, 2016 Wednesday, November 09, 2016 Blog for Week of November 1
Humility is the lost virtue not only in the common culture, but regretfully in the church as well and I truly lament that reality. A number of years ago I asked a friend who was a competent theologian what Jesus? prominent characteristic was, to which he responded rather directly, humility. The concordance in your Bible is full of humility and its adjacent terms. The proverb makes clear the priority, ?with humility comes wisdom.? Our world seems to dominate the church in terms of prevalent virtues. It would seem that pride and arrogance is revered above the Way of Jesus. We are so given to being honored, noticed, and perceived to be successful that we have lost our Way. I see this more often in the way of young leaders in the church than the congregations as a whole, but when we accept it in leadership, it must trickle down into the whole. Some years ago I remember a wise conference leader making the statement that, ?We will not successfully deal with consumerism in the church until we deal with pastoral ambition.? It would seem that we lose our identity when we choose any other Way than Jesus (Phil. 2:5ff), ?In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, ?.? We have the responsibility as apprentices of Jesus to call our leaders back to the scriptures to discern the Jesus Way, Truth, and Life.
Week of October 24, 2016Wednesday, October 26, 2016 Blog for Week of 24 October
Someone once said, “God is writing his story in our lives to tell the world what he is like.” So, what is the story that is forming in you that the world needs to hear? Usually it is most common to modern man to think that the point to life is one’s own happiness and then we die. Oh, but there is so much more to life than that. In fact, that has so little to do with the gift of life that we have been given. One of my favorite scriptures is found in the latter part of Isaiah’s prophecy, 43:7 which reads, “… you have been created for my glory.” We bring this glory by the kind of person we become and the way that we live the life we have been given. Does my life become an avenue or an obstacle to God? Would anyone want the life that I live if they are looking for love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, self-control? Is there much clarity that others could gain by observing me? Am I living in such a way that others could get a clear picture of what God is like. Maybe at issue is our own narrative of what God is like. Do we carry the story in all its dimensions and color? Sometimes our accountability to our calling needs to be refreshed.
Week of October 17, 2016Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Blog for Week of 17 October
Eternal encouragement! Eternal encouragement is that which gives us life in our souls; the level at which meaningful life is generated. God provides this encouragement directly or through his servants. We can provide that for one another when our sensibilities focus on the eternal.Eternal encouragement can secure us in the midst of troubling circumstances. Eternal encouragement provides the substance of perspective. Perspective, the, transcends temporal distractions. Remembering what we know to be true can elevate us to a strengthening of our souls.Without eternal encouragement we are likely to lose our focus and become subject to the distractions of the immediate. When Paul speaks of that help to the Thessalonian Church in his second letter to them, he knows the experience of eternal encouragement and how it had gotten him through great difficulties and had strengthened him in his soul (2 Thess. 3:1-5).
Week of October 4, 2016Saturday, October 01, 2016
Blog for Week of 4 October
One of the New Testament’s common themes is “stand or stand firm.” The days in which Jesus and his first century followers lived were difficult days. The gospel of the kingdom that Jesus brought was radical for both the Jewish and non-Jewish communities. Given the hostile world these fledgling followers apprenticed their new found faith, “standing firm” was the encouragement that would gave them the strength they would need.For many of us, we have been lulled into thinking that our world is so different. I wonder if the difference is found in the lack of radicalness in our apprentice, so much so that we have become Jesus admirers rather than genuine disciples. The issues and circumstances in our dominant society are such that “standing firm” is the encouragement we need to remind us of our calling.Standing firm is knowing who we are and who we are not. It is the matter of knowing what we are called to and what we are not. Standing firm separates the sheep from the goats. Just like the first century of the church, this is a time to stand.
Week of September 25, 2016Monday, September 26, 2016
Blog for Week of 25 September
The experiences and events of life tend to grab our attention. It is a common narrative for most of us to think that what happens naturally controls our responses to them, but is that really true. Isn’t that what separates one person from another? What is it that takes our focus and how do we interpret those experiences?Recently, during the recovery from surgery the natural part of recovery is pain, but what do I make of my experience. Do I let my pain control my full attention or is there a perspective that helps me transcend what I feel? It seems that the first step was to accept the pain and not fight against it, but understand its role and not give it more of a place than it deserves.Open ourselves to what is around us is a second step. The world around us is just as alive whether we feel pain or we don’t. The opportunities for grace is just is as vital as any other day no matter what one is feeling. We learn so much from Jesus in his perspective. Perspective allows us to be grateful as we take in what is beyond ourselves. And if we choose that, it improves our experience immeasurably.
Week of September 4, 2016Wednesday, September 07, 2016
Blog for Week of 4 September
The seasons in each year are often prototypes for the seasons in our lives and nature of those natural seasons speak volumes to us in the spiritual journey. The winters of life can be those of particular austerity of spirit. It is in those times of “emptiness” that the deepening of the seasons of growth take place. The deepening is often out of sight because of the sacrifice or loss observed on the “surface.” When the scaffolding of life is removed through pain, disease, or loss what is in the interior of life is ignited.Autumn is a great season to store up the resources that are needed for winter. Naturally it is a season of harvesting from the dynamics of spring and summer and ironically it is a time to sow “seed” for the growth of spring and summer. Autumn is a great season to take in the Word of God into the deep recesses of our lives. The life of the scriptures serves us well in both winter and spring, both when life is deepening and when it is budding.For many autumn is a favorite season because of its colorful beauty and the moderation of climate. These are ideal conditions for the work of autumn. In nature it is a busy season of gathering, but in the life of the Spirit the gathering is full length glory. What a glory in reflecting on the faithfulness of God! What glory is gathering the life of the Spirit residual in the scriptures! What glory in serving others in the name of Christ! May your season be full and overflowing of the goodness of God.
week of August 28, 2016Tuesday, August 30, 2016 Blog for Week of 28 August
The ways of God and the ways of the spiritual journey are often see and experienced as paradoxes. On the one hand we have the Apostle Paul saying, “I press on toward the mark of the high calling of Jesus….” On the other hand, we are faced with God’s Word to us, “… Be still and know that I am God…” How is it that we press on by being still? The great spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen wrote, “it is not possible to have a fruitful spiritual life without silence and solitude.” It is particularly difficult in our common culture because we tend to measure a person’s worth by activities and accomplishments. The busier we are, the more important or valuable we think a person is. Once again in the scriptures we find the human argument, “Lord, Lord, look what we did in your name.” And Jesus’ response is particularly poignant, “Depart from me for I never knew you!” How very confusing to our modern minds! The pursuit of God is a matter of “empty space.” How much empty space do I create for Him to fill and Him only? The difficult way is the way of laying aside our personal agendas for the “emptiness” of God’s agenda. It requires great trust, not just for what God’s agenda is, but also to simply trust that He is there in any meaningful way. May we learn the way of transformation that comes out of unadulterated solitude.
Week of August 21, 2016Saturday, August 20, 2016
Blog for Week of 21 August
I was at an event recently in which the theme of “being oneself” seemed to be the underlying mantra. It is in fact, a very common mantra in our day. In a sense it is a rather pedestrian expression except that of late it has taken on a rather militant odor. The common quest has moved from a genuine, beautiful sense of our humanity to the attitude that it is a “fight” to be oneself, as though everything around us mitigates against it.
A number of years ago it was dynamically brought to my attention that one of the main tasks in my human journey was to “be myself in truth.” The battle, if there was one, was with myself, with the narratives that I had adopted through the years that were not based on the truth Jesus live, nor the truth of God’s word. If you will, the battle was not with the outside world and others, but within myself and my own distortions.
Making the normal spiritual task that is involved in being an apprentice of Jesus an outside affair instead of an inside job is part of what makes our world as hostile as it has become. No real change takes place until we own the responsibility to face ourselves in truth and seek real change within ourselves..
Week of July 25, 2016Tuesday, July 26, 2016
A number of years ago a group of 95+ year olds were interviewed and asked, “If you had life to live over, what would you do differently?” The responses were gathered and summarized and the following is the summation of this wise and experienced group: 1) I would reflect more; 2) I would risk more; 3) I would invest more in that which lasts beyond my lifetime. I believe that is as contemporary as when it was originally gathered. Perspective is everything!As you consider how you are choosing to live life is that a word for you; reflect, risk, and invest. I think this is what it looks like to live with no regrets. If you have today, you have the time to reorient your life toward that which truly matters. The wisdom of Solomon in Ecclesiastes is for today. There is a “time for everything” what we do between each “time” is what makes the difference. Life is like the “dot-to-dot” drawings. The lines between the dots is what unveils the substance. The substance of our lives lies in the accumulation of the “dailyness” of ordinary life.Jesus was the example of one who carried a clear vision in his soul. Made the commitment to follow His Father and then lived out the promptings of every day.
Week of July 18, 2016Tuesday, July 19, 2016  Play Week of July 3, 2016Tuesday, July 05, 2016
A number of years ago a group of 95+ year olds were interviewed and asked, “If you had life to live over, what would you do differently?” The responses were gathered and summarized and the following is the summation of this wise and experienced group: 1) I would reflect more; 2) I would risk more; 3) I would invest more in that which lasts beyond my lifetime. I believe that is as contemporary as when it was originally gathered. Perspective is everything!As you consider how you are choosing to live life is that a word for you; reflect, risk, and invest. I think this is what it looks like to live with no regrets. If you have today, you have the time to reorient your life toward that which truly matters. The wisdom of Solomon in Ecclesiastes is for today. There is a “time for everything” what we do between each “time” is what makes the difference. Life is like the “dot-to-dot” drawings. The lines between the dots is what unveils the substance. The substance of our lives lies in the accumulation of the “dailyness” of ordinary life.Jesus was the example of one who carried a clear vision in his soul. Made the commitment to follow His Father and then lived out the promptings of every day.
Week of June 26, 2016Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Soul-strength is one of the great missing dimensions of life in the 21st century. The inside/out realities that surround us show the anemia and fragility of the soul of our culture. We seem to be unprepared for harsh realities, while civilizations in the past centuries seem to have a strong capacity to deal with whatever came.I’m not much of a prophet, but it would seem that if we are to embrace our calling to be “salt and light” in the darkness of our world, we are going to need to discover a strength of soul that has become uncommon. In the words of Tony Dungy speaking of life lived to the glory of God, we are offered the Uncommon opportunity.Normal life provides continual opportunities if we have “eyes to see” and “ears to hear.” What will we do? Dallas Willard often made the point that what we actually believe is what we do. If we “believe” something, but we don’t live it out, then we don’t really believe it. Are we going to step into the brokenness of our world with soul strength, or are we simply going to be a passenger?
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