A forgiveness explosion

Isn’t it interesting that we forget about others it seems and focus only on ourselves?

I mean, look at Jesus.  No really look at Jesus.

He cried out in the garden, the night before his death, “if it is possible, remove this cup from me…”  I don’t want to do it, I do not think the plan is right, so lets figure something else out.

Is that really what he said? Yes it is, but not all of it.  Jesus said, “if it is possible remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but your will be done.”  So if it is the only way, then ok, we can do it.  He is not being selfish and thinking only of himself, but is that still really what he said?  Yes he did say that, but that is not all…

“Abba! Father!” Jesus cried. “If it is possible remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but your will be done.”  He said father, and more than that he said Abba.  Abba is the Hebraic word for pappa or daddy.  It was used by little children.  Little children who would run to their daddy, and hold their arms up in the air and say, “daddy hold me.”  I remember my eldest daughter and how she would say, “ho me daddy.”  I would hold her, and love her, because that is what a daddy does.

And Daddy God, loved us by not removing the cup from Jesus, and allowing the cross to happen, and causing a forgiveness explosion, that saturated the entire world with Jesus’ love.  He loved us so much he gave his only son, so that we can have a relationship with him.

So cry out to abba God and know that he loves you dearly, enough to cause a forgiveness explosion just for you!

Feather Blower or Feather Grabber

I am at a gathering for senior high youth in the SW Texas Synod.  Peter Eide is here to lead worship and concerts, and tonight he gave a wonderful talk about how we are all able to seize our destiny and grasp the feather and follow God…

He told us a story of a king whom the people loved. Anything this king would do would be followed by the people. He was well loved and followed by all in the kingdom. No one questioned him, or thought bad of him.  However in this kingdom there was a problem with dragons.  The king was an expert dragon killer, but he could not risk his life for his kingdom and so had devised another plan.  He asked that all the people of the kingdom gather to here this plan.  He gathered the people and as he was about to come out the trumpets blasted and the people cheered.  When the king came out the people cheered even louder.  He explained how he was an expert dragon slayer and how he had come up with a great plan to rid the country of the dragons.  He stood over the people on a balcony and looked down on his people.  He pulled a feather from his pocket and said, he was going to throw this feather from the balcony and on whomever it landed, the king would bring into his kingdom and train this person to kill the dragon.  The crowd cheered wildly.  Then the king threw the feather.  It floated out and down, then caught by a gust of wind rose again and flipped and floated in the wind, it went up and down for a while until the crowd finally noticed and a man looked up and knew it was coming to him.  The man watched as the feather floated towards him and just before it landed on him, he blew the feather back up.  The crowd looked at each other and wondered about this, but as the feather got close to another they blew it, and so on through the crowd. They blew it up and away from them. Soon people started to leave because they had seen enough of the feather being blown away.  The king watched it all from the balcony, and even watched as the feather finally made its way to a stopping point on the ground…

Isn’t this the story of our lives and God’s call?  Isn’t this the way we usually respond to God?  The plan sounds great… for someone other than me!  We think it sounds really good until we realize that God is asking us to do something.  This is the point we need to leap out in faith and grab the feather before it even gets to us.  God I am ready to go and follow you knowing you are going with me, and you take me as I am.  Just as I am, you accept me, and claim me and call me, just as I am.

So are you going to be a feather blower, or a feather grabber?

Invitation only…

Have you ever seen a party that is invitation only?  Been close enough to crash the gates?  Ever wanted to be in on the cool happenings…

Isn’t it interesting that we all want what we don’t have and we are not always ready to open up and accept what is right in front of us.

The invitation was hand delivered, and is there for you to come to the most awesome party you have ever imagined! Are you ready and willing?

Wonder of Christmas…

What is the first thing today you think of when I say Christmas?

Hopefully it is not what comes to my mind, but I bet it is…

I think of presents to buy and wrap, I wonder if the things I ordered and are in the mail or on a truck between there and here will arrive on time so I can wrap them.  We get so hung up on what we are getting and hoping we got the right gift, that we forget the wonder of the season.

The wonder of a God who would step down to his creation to walk among his people, to bring peace and comfort in a way that completely baffled creation.  The wonder of a baby who had no room in the inn, and was greeted by the lowest shepherds, and was proclaimed by the dregs of society.  The wonder of a savior that was born in a feed bin, and then died the death of a criminal to bring us into a relationship with him self. The wonder of the women, who were the first witnesses and were not good witnesses.  The wonder of a God who turned the world on it’s head to have a relationship with YOU!

Remember the wonder of Christmas in the greatest gift you ever received long before you were born, the invitation from your creator to be in relationship with him, and his son who came here to hand deliver it!

Correction!?

Why is it that we are so quick to see the sin in another and seem to miss it in our selves?  Do no try to remove the splinter from your brother’s eye until you have removed the plank form yours!

We all have to be willing to hear the words that convict us of our sins, and heed the words to correct our lives.

As Christians we are called to be set apart from the world.  We need to be over and above, not better than, but set apart. In and not of.  We need to be ready to admit our sinfulness and move forward in the Glory of God to further his kingdom by bringing to light the wrong and evil that is being done everywhere.  But in order to do this and be become “holier than thou” we need to be ready to hear about our own sinfulness and take the words of correction to heart and allow the love we are spreading to flow over us and correct us.

Necessity of Prayer

Pray is necessary for our lives to be connected with God, however I agree with Charles Spurgeon, that necessity and prayer do not really go together.  If prayer is a necessity for you, maybe some reevaluation needs to happen.

In an excerpt from Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures To My Students he speaks about prayer, and our “absolute necessity for prayer.”  But then he goes on to say that prayer should not be a necessity, but we should savor our life in and time in prayer.  He talks about the “deliciousness of prayer.”  I got excited when I read that.  He goes on to with “the wondrous sweetness and divine felicity which come to the soul that lives in the atmosphere of prayer.”  It’s like imagining your favorite desert and getting it when ever you want it.  Your soul filled with a sweetness that is so permeating your being you just ooze sweetness and joy!

Take prayer as a constant idea that allows your soul and body and mind to constantly be in contact with your creator and see how that sweetness and joy will permeate your life.  Do not think of prayer as necessity, but as an opportunity to stay in touch with an old dear friend, and use prayer to spread joy and mercy to everyone you meet.

Joy

This season is confusing to a lot of people.

Society is pushing us into Christmas.  Many are doing 12 days of Christmas promotions now, and this does not help the confusion.  The 12 days of Christmas actually begin Christmas Day and goes for the 12 days after leading up to Epiphany, the visit of the Magi.  So if it is not Christmas yet then, what is it?

This is the season of Advent, and we await the coming of the Lord Jesus in the manger.  But is Advent a happy joyful season, or is it to be somber like Lent as we await Jesus?  We want to have the happiness society is pushing on us in an early Christmas, but also wait for Jesus to come.  Can we be waiting and still be filled with Joy?

Of course we can.  In the readings for this past Sunday we see Joy all over the place, especially in John’s responce to the people who came to be baptized. “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?”  Can you feel the joy?

That is not the Joy, the Joy comes later. John tells the people how to live the life that will produce good fruit, and then he says I am not the Messiah, “but one who is more powerful than I is coming; I am not worthy to untie the thong of his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” Did you hear that?

John said one is coming who is more powerful, and he will baptize us with fire and the Holy Spirit.  He will show us how to live, and do what John has told us we need to do.  Jesus is the Joy that we get, one who will show us how to live, and give us examples by which to live. He will go before us to prepare our path and walk with us to help us on the journey. That is Joy.

What is it that drives you?

What keeps us going in life?  There are so many things that could drag us down and make us just despise life and run away and hide.

What is it that keeps you going through the stuff of life that we all wish would just go away?

It is interesting to think about this for me especially at this time of year as I listen to Did you know? on the album Do you see what I See by Todd Agnew. Because I wonder what did Jesus know and how did he deal with the junk of life.  Did he know from his birth that he was going to the cross?  Did he know all the things that would happen in the beating, the trial and all the tribulation he was going to face, what kept him going?

Todd’s lyrics opens up the meaning of the birth of Christ for me in a way that pulls Easter and Christmas together.  The lyrics ask Did the cross cast a shadow over your cradle?  Did you shudder each time your hammer hit a nail?  Imagine what Jesus went through as a carpenter if he knew about the cross, and the assurance we can take from this is, that He has promised to be with us always.  To never leave us or forsake us, so even in the darkest moments of our life, we have Jesus to get us through.

Have we forgotten our first love?

Revelation chapter 2 starts the writings to the 7 churches and it starts with the church in Ephesus.

Oh to be like one in Ephesus. The report sounds so good. “I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance.”  We are working for the lord and enduring through what seems to be an endless amount of evil and hate against us, yet we are preserving.

“I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false.”  We know how to make sure people are apostles and that they are actually doing the work of God.  That is good right.  We are working for the lord and weeding out all of those who do not measure up to what the law says.

“I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary.” We have been at it for a while and we are not giving up. We know the importance of this message and need to see it through and we will not allow the evil doers and the hate in the world stop us from bringing the message that you can not do that, you must repent.

“But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”  Whoa, wait a minute Jesus what do you mean we have abandoned our first love?  We are doing all of these things for you and making sure that people are following the way they should and that we all act the same and do the same things as your disciples.  “Remember from where you have fallen and repent…”

Remember the first time you felt the love of God pour over your being.  It was a feeling of a warm embrace, that I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt I did not deserve.  I was loved by someone who really had no business loving me because of the person I was.  But isn’t that just it.  God knew me, and yet still loved me.  He saw the inner most parts of my being and yet still wanted to be in a relationship with me.

I really think we have all forgotten our first love.  We have lost the connection with God by trying to live the right way, do the right things, be the right kind of people.  We have lost the reckless love of God that accepted us.  We have lost the love of God that moves us to do radical things in his name.

We want to be safe and have God in our box so we can control it, but we have to let God have control. I am reading The Fidelity of Betrayal by Peter Rollins and in the last chapter he talks about how we have to name God in order to understand God, but the whole point of this is we can not understand God, nor are we really ever suppose to. We name things that we posses, and God is not a thing to posses but is someone to be possessed by.  God is not something we name, but is someone who names and claims us.

Return to the reckless love of the one who knows you and yet still loves you enough to name you and claim you as his own.

Is religion a smoke screen…

Did you ever think we could have to much religion?  Usually as “Christians” we are concerned that people have too little religion. That they are not following God and doing what he is leading them to.  However is it possible for us to have too much religion?

Paul talks about this in 1 Corinthians: 13:1 If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.13:2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.13:3 If I give away all my possessions, and if I hand over my body so that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

We can be noisy gongs or clanging cymbals if we rely on our religion to get us where we need to go.  Religion is not what saves us.  Amos talks about a plumb line that God is setting in place and it is a test of our religiosity…

Just how religious are we?  Are we using our religion to mask us form God and keep us from truly fulfilling his will?  Are we just Pharisees and Sadducee in modern day, thinking we have it all together and not really seeing what we need to because we are to focused on what seems to be important, but in the grand scheme really isn’t…

I choose to follow God and not religion, because in the end, religion will not save me.