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Week of April 24, 2017

Monday, April 24, 2017
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The Jesus’ Way is not what most people think.  What most people think is a caricature of the real thing.  We tend to take one experience in Jesus’ life and blow it up into a poster and make it into an icon for life.  The reality is quite different.  Like most of us, to get a real feel of who we are you would have to take snap shots of all our experiences and statements and make them into a video.The Jesus Way comes from everything Jesus said and did.  As we sort through that we can find what it is to be at home with him.  Not only the Sermon on the Mount, but all the parables must be taken into consideration.  Sometimes his way is a little too narrow for our post-modern ears.  Sometimes his way is too deeply convicting to our personal lifestyle.  Usually his way puts us in the margins of life at best. At the core our bent is to shape the gospel of Jesus to fit our self-directed sensibilities.  We don’t like to live under the authority of Someone outside ourselves.  But, the risks are too high to do otherwise than surrender to the Way, the Truth, the Life.  May you walk this week in the light as He is in the Light!
 

Week of April 17, 2017

Wednesday, April 19, 2017
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It is too easy for us to live “out of sight, out of mind”.  However, the truth of God and His kingdom continues as vividly in the invisible realms as it is when we acknowledge and celebrate it.  We have just celebrated the great “Passover” day of Easter and it is easy to move on from, yet it remains as stalwart as it did on Sunday.  The point of the “Day” was that final victory and Freedom were achieved and now we walk in the shadow of that great truth.How then are we going to live in “on-going freedom?”  What limits our freedom?  Does not our false narratives and our self-referenced lives grab the headlines in our daily lives.  Easter remains the true truth and we are now invited to live into it day by day.The gift of Easter was to set our lives on a completely different track.  This is the time now to live out what you “know” to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  Jesus is on his way, so don’t waste a day.
 

Week of April 10, 2017

Monday, April 10, 2017
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 This is the “high” season in the Church’s year.  For our purpose “high” describes what is most important.  Our culture embraces Christmas because the Incarnate One lying in a manger is no threat, but Maundy Thursday (humility), Good Friday (sacrifice for the forgiveness of sins), and Easter (resurrection from the dead) are harder to embrace.  They require moving from the self-referenced life to a Christ-referenced life if even for a week, it is not business as usual.  Slowing down in order to hold the days in the hands of our hearts one by one this week is our great privilege.  Easter is minimized by furry bunnies, baby chicks, and little girls’ dresses because we find facing the realities of sin in the face of a holy God almost too much to take in.  In a world in which we want to think the best about ourselves, we are unprepared for the truth.  Yet, in Jesus’ own words his is the Way, the Truth, the Life.  Following Jesus through the week ahead illumines the Way to Life.  This is a time to step up to the reality of the Cross and the revolution it began.  If we are willing to step up, we step up to the calling to become men and women of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
 

Week of April 3, 2017

Monday, April 03, 2017
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 Trevor Hudson shared an insightful perspective in his book, The Holy Spirit, Here and Now.  I don’t remember the page, so you will have to look it up.  The point was profoundly simple.  In God’s ways with us, we prepare ourselves “off point” to be ready to act “on point.”  Over the last few months I have been working with the word “rhythm” and I have found that preparation is the key to keeping rhythm.  As we enter into Holy Week next weekend, it behooves us to prepare “off point” in order to maximize our participation with Jesus’ walk to the cross.                In the first few centuries of the Christian church when within it there was a genuine shared culture that was recognized as not the prevailing culture surrounding them, the seasons of the church including Lent and then Holy Week, they were distinguishing movements reserved for those who were true believers.  The cost of discipleship was sufficient to keep the practices from mediocrity.            May I encourage you to take these two seasons seriously and prepare yourself to walk through the biblical history of these next two weeks.  In John’s Gospel, the last six days of Jesus’ pre-resurrection earthly life is encapsulated in John’s gospel, chapters 12-20.  You would do well to immerse yourself in the familiar story.  Maybe God has something unexpected in it for you, or maybe you can just prepare yourself to enter Holy Week to be “on point.”
 

Week of March 27, 2017

Monday, March 27, 2017
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 Part of the rhythm of Lent is a devotion to prayer, but the Lenten prayer is a little different that we usually think of when we come to prayer.  The prayer of Lent is simple and sometimes simple is most powerful.  It is to ask God to show us what he wants us to see in ourselves.  No wonder there is the spirit of solemnity in this season.  It is serious work to see ourselves the way we are.  This prayer is not only a prayer of “seeing,” but also an invitation to Jesus to bring about the changes in us that bring him glory.      The cross’ basic message is the forgiveness of sins, so when we enter the season of the cross, we are inviting God to bring us out of the exile that sin creates in us.  As sins are forgiven there is a deeper sense of life that is now available to us.  We have often confused the abundance that Jesus spoke of (Jn. 10:10) with a trial-less life, but as we join Jesus, it is anything but that.  How else would God transform our character except through trial?    As you enter into this week, I invite you to take the risk of asking the Spirit to show you, yourself.  As he/she does that make this a week that you surrender to God’s Perfect Love, so you can find the abundance of soul that Jesus has come to give us. 
 

Week of March 20, 2017

Tuesday, March 21, 2017
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 Another expression of the Lenten journey is the practice of “alms-giving.”  This is not a common practice in our common culture, but is a part of religious life in many of the world’s other religions.  Why should it be a natural part of following Jesus too?  In the Way that Jesus set before us is the way of sacrifice, which is a giving of ourselves.  What “self” do we hold onto most forcefully?  It is the “self” of time and treasure.        For the sake of honest discipleship this time would be a time when we pay attention to the needs of the immediate world around us.  Alms-giving is simply getting past the grip we have on ourselves.  “Looking out for the interest of others above our own” seems to be primary in our path.  Every day of our lives we have the opportunity to bless another with the means we have been given.            This Lenten practice should ignite a way of life that will bring us the abundance that Jesus spoke of in John’s Gospel, 10:10.  How we have gotten to the place where giving produces absence instead of abundance is a spiritual mystery.  Maybe it is another reality distortion of the Great Deceiver. 
 

Week of March 13, 2017

Monday, March 13, 2017
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The Spirit of Christ that led to the cross was motivated by blessing.  In former generations blessing was seen as that which sets a person apart for the continual expressed goodness of God.  There is both a vision and a destiny in blessing.In some mysterious way blessing carries the power of life in its words, whether casual or formal.  We have been called out by God from among humanity to be the bearers of blessing.  We are given the vocational covenant to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  We are meant to walk into this world every day as the bearers of blessing.The focus of blessing is on who God is.  The world around us does not know who he is.  To the extent that we choose not to carry the blessing us, God remains hidden and unknown.  God has done the work in creation to reveal his existence, but his nature in the human story comes through our mouths, hand and feet.Therefore, if we pay attention to the encounters we have with our fellow men, wh have every opportunity to lift the heart of the other. 
 

Week of February 27, 2017

Wednesday, March 01, 2017
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Forgiveness is the rebar of the concrete pillars of our spiritual life.  For some reason known to God, forgiveness is the essential practice if we are to walk in the freedom that Jesus came to give us (Gal. 5:1).  Without the atmosphere of forgiveness, we will choke on our own “air.”  Repeatedly, forgiveness is essential in the equation of life in the Spirit.In his Parable of the Unmerciful Servant, Jesus makes the point that to not show mercy and to not forgive the offense of the “other” is pure wickedness.  That may not fit in our box of mature spirituality, so Jesus is saying to us the problem is with our “boxes.”  When you reflect on your definition or description of wickedness, rarely do we see life as Jesus does, and that is what continues to make his Way so radical.When we pray as he taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…,” we are invoking the Way that is designed to be a lasting Way.  The kingdom is characterized with mercy and forgiveness.  The challenge we have before us is to practice the kingdom every day in showing mercy and forgiveness.  It is relevant activity for every day. 
 

Week of February 20, 2017

Monday, February 20, 2017
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Persistent is a missing virtue in our modern world, especially in the realm of spirituality.  Jesus made it a priority for all who would call themselves disciples of his.  In his parable to the company of the committed he tells the story of a widow and an unjust judge (Luke 18:1-8) he tells the story to teach his apprentices that they “ought not lose heart.”A familiar statement by C. S. Lewis describes modern disciples all too well when he says, “The think the Lord finds our desires are not too great, but far too weak.”  Are we hungry enough to storm the Lord of Glory with persistence?  Doesn’t it seem to you that we have settled for a rather anemic spirit a heart too easily satisfied?  Jesus seems to think so.In the end it is an issue of faith, laying oneself “out on the line.”  That persistence is what Jesus called faith and in this story whether when he returns will he find faith on earth.  As we approach the season of Lent, would you be willing to lay a kingdom of heaven need before Him for the next 50 or so days? 
 
 

Week of February 13, 2017

Monday, February 13, 2017
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 Our journey is a constant process of values clarification, moving from the values we may have been trained in to “get along in life” to the values that are rooted in the kingdom of heaven which are given through the transaction of Jesus’ Prayer (Matt. 6:9-13).  Jesus’ call on our lives involves living out the values of the kingdom (light) in the context of the values of our world (darkness).  Maturity, among many things spiritually, is the matter of values.   Jesus portrays the values through his parable of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great price.  When we truly understand the value of living in and possessing the kingdom of heaven, we will do anything to enter into it.  All other value is set aside for that which has an eternal weight to it.            This is a perfect time in culture (in a unique time of social and ethical chaos) to “march to a different Drummer’, to “walk in the Light as He is in the Light” and to bring peace in the midst of anger, resentment and division.  May Jesus shine among us!
 

Week of February 6, 2017

Monday, February 06, 2017
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 One of the down sides of our culture is that we are blind to the dark side of success as we term success in our culture.  The dark side is that we are unaware of the horrible ethic that causes us to use whatever we are faced with to satisfy the emptiness that drives the human ego.  Jesus offers us an alternative when he tells us that the kingdom of heaven is like the mustard seed.  The smallest of seeds (known to his audience) when planted in the soil of God’s kingdom grows up to become a large beautiful garden tree.  The movement from small to large is the spirit of the kingdom.  The mustard seed has within it all the characteristics that provide the garden tree.           It’s the content of the seed that contains its true beauty.  That is the way it is in God’s kingdom.  We each have the ability to “plant seeds” every day and thus fill the garden of God’s kingdom with his glory.  So, be a mustard seed planter with every one that God puts before you!
 

week of January 30, 2017

Monday, January 30, 2017
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Most of the negative history of the church lies in our rejection of Jesus’ teaching in the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds.  When the leadership of the church (the popes) decided that they needed to “pull out the weeds” before the harvest, they often pulled up wheat along with the weeds.  Sometimes it is a matter of misplaced authority.  Doing God a favor by doing his work for him usually leads to horrible outcomes.  We usually error when we take on the role of judgment.Can we trust God to do his work in his time?  That may be our problem, if we think God doesn’t act fast enough our actions are off-target.  The further we go with God, the more we have to get in step with him and understand chronosis not Kairos.  The clock is not how we tell time in the kingdom of heaven.It is a sobering reality that when the fullness of time comes and harvest is upon us, there will be no turning back.  It would appear that giving ourselves to being wheat and growing as fruitfully as we can is enough.  We don’t have the role of harvesting anyway.  Keeping the weeds down is God’s realm anyway. 
 

Week of January 23, 2016

Monday, January 23, 2017
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Someone said that “politics are downstream from society.”  Whatever condition we are in is a reflection of us, the people.  It seems to me that if ever the circumstance makes clear to us that we are strangers and aliens in a foreign land.  Our mandate is to be ambassadors of the kingdom of heaven.  Some think that government is the key into the ways of the kingdom, but the truth is the kingdom of heaven has to take root in our souls so that whatever the direction the government takes, God is still the only source for transformation. 
Whichever “side of the aisle” you find yourself on, the Voice is not necessarily resident on either side.  That is what it means to be strangers and aliens in a foreign land.  It seems that when we take our definition of things from any other source than the Word of the Eternal One, we are likely operating in a shadow world.  Our first task is to grow in the way of the Holy One.  Everything else is secondary to that vocation. 
Gordon Smith, practical theologian, describes this as “vocational holiness.”  If we live any differently, we succumb to the temporal pursuit of power and are divested of our identity.  We certainly can participate in social interests, but our way is to be set apart from the common clutching for power.  Jesus Way was a continual  emptying rather than a continual grasping.
 

Week of January 16, 2017

Monday, January 16, 2017
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All change in the world around us begins with change within us.  The world we live in is chafing as it struggles with the need for change and yet experiences great frustration with its inability to bring about change in the soul of humanity which is the reason that people do what they do to one another.  The world’s best attempt is to create a “political correctness” which is thought to create enough social pressure to control the actions of people.  However, an “outside/in” dynamic seems only to suppress the reality. 
Jesus gave us a parable that describes the reality and the need for internal transformation in the Parable of the Sower found in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 13 beginning with verse 1.  The issue is the condition of the human heart in relationship to the message of the kingdom of heaven found in the Bible.  Until we come to grips with the authority of the gospel and the transformation of the human heart being the work of God, the dynamic of our human experience will only be disappointing.  Without the work of God in our hearts, no real change will be forthcoming.  The altruism of human effort will eventually fail because the soul has not been changed. 
Come and join the movements of God for the sake of true change. 
 

Week of January 9, 2017

Monday, January 09, 2017
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As the New Year opens up before us we can approach the season in a variety of ways.  The common culture tells us this is a time to make changes in the form of resolutions, which we have all attempted but rarely with raving success.  I think it makes more sense to turn to the uncommon culture of the scriptures, for these words carry the weight of eternity.No matter the conditions in which we live there is great wisdom for those who apprentice with Jesus.  The words utter to the Church gathered in Ephesus is particularly poignant in the season in which we live, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”  All days since the Garden have not been what they were to be, but we have a role to play as those who apprentice with Jesus.The message is clear: Redeem the time; Invest in the good; Be a contributor rather than a consumer!  
 

Week of December 11, 2016

Wednesday, December 14, 2016
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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, 2016

Thursday, December 08, 2016
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“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, 2016

Monday, November 28, 2016
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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 20

Tuesday, November 22, 2016
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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, 2016

Wednesday, 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, 2016

Tuesday, October 18, 2016
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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, 2016

Saturday, October 01, 2016
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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, 2016

Monday, 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, 2016

Wednesday, 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, 2016

Tuesday, August 30, 2016
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 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, 2016

Saturday, 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, 2016

Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Pinebrooke Postings 
 
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, 2016

Tuesday, July 19, 2016 Play this file. Play

 

Week of July 3, 2016

Tuesday, July 05, 2016
Pinebrooke Postings 
 
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, 2016

Tuesday, June 28, 2016
Pinebrooke Postings 
 
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?