1.29.2007
Drawn to the Cross
“Drawn to the cross, which Thou hast blessed with healing gifts for souls
distressed, to find in Thee, my life, my rest, Christ crucified I come.”
(Genevieve M. Irons)
distressed, to find in Thee, my life, my rest, Christ crucified I come.”
(Genevieve M. Irons)
10.10.2006
Augustine's Song to Christ
He is beautiful in heaven,
Beautiful on earth
Beautiful in the womb,
Beautiful in his parent's arms,
Beautiful in his miracles,
Beautiful in inviting to life,
Beautiful in not worrying about death,
Beautiful in giving his life and
Beautiful in taking it up again;
He is Beautiful on the cross,
Beautiful in the tomb,
Beautiful in heaven.
Listen to the song with understanding,
And let not the weakness of the flesh
Distract your eyes from the splendor of his beauty.
Beautiful on earth
Beautiful in the womb,
Beautiful in his parent's arms,
Beautiful in his miracles,
Beautiful in inviting to life,
Beautiful in not worrying about death,
Beautiful in giving his life and
Beautiful in taking it up again;
He is Beautiful on the cross,
Beautiful in the tomb,
Beautiful in heaven.
Listen to the song with understanding,
And let not the weakness of the flesh
Distract your eyes from the splendor of his beauty.
9.13.2006
The Paradox of Ministry - Reflections on 1 Thessalonians 2
Funny how some days in the life of a Christian are just brutal. We are on the road of trying to serve Christ as we try to love people well and they turn around and bite like an ungrateful pet. You have invested tons of time and energy into relationships and situations only to be punched in the face for your help.
Paul knew these same struggles. He had been looked down upon, insulted, and abused because of his calling to speak truth. What allowed Paul to keep going was not becasue he finally received acceptance or much less success but rather that he made sure his life and ministry were driven by the right set of motivators.
1) His Calling - Preach the Gospel (vs. 4.6)
2) His Win - Pleasing God (vs. 4)
3) His Method - Self Sacrifice (vs. 8)
4) His Reward - Investing in people & seeing Lives Change (vs. 12)
We aren't called to do anything except be faithful daily to Christ and expect Him to work. Faithfulness is the key ingredient to success. It keeps the engine clean of self-pretense, moving through the gears of proper motivation, and pursuing the goal of God's kingdom and glory. Ministry will bring with it many tough days. You have to continue to daily die to self so that Christ may reign in you. This is a tough task that doesn't end until I die but it yields the greatest reward.
Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments
People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot
down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
- Kent Keith
Paul knew these same struggles. He had been looked down upon, insulted, and abused because of his calling to speak truth. What allowed Paul to keep going was not becasue he finally received acceptance or much less success but rather that he made sure his life and ministry were driven by the right set of motivators.
1) His Calling - Preach the Gospel (vs. 4.6)
2) His Win - Pleasing God (vs. 4)
3) His Method - Self Sacrifice (vs. 8)
4) His Reward - Investing in people & seeing Lives Change (vs. 12)
We aren't called to do anything except be faithful daily to Christ and expect Him to work. Faithfulness is the key ingredient to success. It keeps the engine clean of self-pretense, moving through the gears of proper motivation, and pursuing the goal of God's kingdom and glory. Ministry will bring with it many tough days. You have to continue to daily die to self so that Christ may reign in you. This is a tough task that doesn't end until I die but it yields the greatest reward.
Anyway: The Paradoxical Commandments
People are illogical, unreasonable and self-centered.
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot
down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
- Kent Keith
7.19.2006
1 Corinthians 11 - Authority & Submission
Submission to authority is a foreign concept in today's culture - both Christian and non-Christian. We struggle with this topic in the church because of past abuses, unfamiliarity with scripture, and our own failure to submit to Christ. The Journey entry for today was by a lay person who comletely skirted this issue and talked only about the Lord's Supper. I don't want this to be the pattern of my life. I want to deal with hard issues head on so that I might press deeper into the heart of Christ.
Our example of submission is Christ who talked of His own sustenance as submission to His Father's will and work (john 4:32-34). He does this because it makes God look good (Isaiah 26:8). In a microcosmic sense this is how men and women should relate. Since this is not an issue of equality or rank before God we have to press harder into the truth in this passage (Galatians 3:28). In the middle east to this day the way a woman dresses reflects her attitude towards God and her husband. What is even more compelling is that Paul is directing a bunch of rebels that have their own desires and freedom in mind and not God's. True love understands the responsibility of authority. It leads and cherishes and serves with authority instead of abusing it. True love also understands the role of submission. It is not some sick and twisted perversion of power. Rather, it seeks to complete, partner, and make better. God calls this act glory. CS Lewis said it this way:
"I think we delight to praise what we may enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation."
Implications:
1) Find your greatest delight in praising God - with word and deed
2) Husbands should love their wives with the radical and unconditional love of Christ (1Corinthians 13:1-13) as the supreme act of authority
3) Wives should not try to find independence from her husband but find dependence in God by being a completer to her man
Our example of submission is Christ who talked of His own sustenance as submission to His Father's will and work (john 4:32-34). He does this because it makes God look good (Isaiah 26:8). In a microcosmic sense this is how men and women should relate. Since this is not an issue of equality or rank before God we have to press harder into the truth in this passage (Galatians 3:28). In the middle east to this day the way a woman dresses reflects her attitude towards God and her husband. What is even more compelling is that Paul is directing a bunch of rebels that have their own desires and freedom in mind and not God's. True love understands the responsibility of authority. It leads and cherishes and serves with authority instead of abusing it. True love also understands the role of submission. It is not some sick and twisted perversion of power. Rather, it seeks to complete, partner, and make better. God calls this act glory. CS Lewis said it this way:
"I think we delight to praise what we may enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation."
Implications:
1) Find your greatest delight in praising God - with word and deed
2) Husbands should love their wives with the radical and unconditional love of Christ (1Corinthians 13:1-13) as the supreme act of authority
3) Wives should not try to find independence from her husband but find dependence in God by being a completer to her man
5.04.2006
5 Solas
Sola Scriptura: Our Only Foundation
Solus Christus: Our Only Mediator
Sola Gratia: Our Only Method
Sola Fide: Our Only Means
Soli Deo Gloria: Our Only Ambition
Solus Christus: Our Only Mediator
Sola Gratia: Our Only Method
Sola Fide: Our Only Means
Soli Deo Gloria: Our Only Ambition
4.19.2006
Activist Faith or Prefunctory Orthodoxy
Great thought in line with John 11 today – Do we have an Activists Faith or just Perfunctory Orthodoxy?
Do we know understand the one thing that our life is about, our core value, and do we proactively and radically live out of that faith? When Martha heard that Christ had come to town she ran to him. She didn’t pretend that life wasn’t hard and she was real about the fact that she didn’t have all the answers but what she did know was that Christ did. Her faith drove her life to radical action – the faith of an activist who can’t help but to have influence for their cause because it has consumed the core of their person.
This is the central issue that Theodore Frelinghausen, Gilbert Tennant, and Jonathan Edwards shared regarding the spiritual state of many parishioners within 18th century early American colonies. The central problem that each of these men saw among their congregation was that they had substituted Christian culture for Christian conversion. The term that describes this problem was Perfunctory Orthodoxy: all the appearances of orthodoxy but it was not. The heart of the issue was that the congregants had a presumptuous security. Because they faithfully participate in the culture they feel they have security in Christ. Christianity was something they did but not a relationship with Christ that transformed who they were and the expression of what it means to live the “Incarnational” life.
A great example is from a blog post I read two days ago:
http://www.xanga.com/whatsusansaid/435273363/item.html
This person is expressing their frustration with the modern church and how . . .
"it seems miles away from this vision I have of the early Christian church…exciting, grimy, honest, scary, visionary…true; a community that has more the feeling of an activist organization rather than a social club “doing life” together."
I like this but she doesn't drive to the main issue that Martha fully grasped.
The blogger continues with these thoughts . . .
"The early church. Now that I think about it…what I guess I’m saying is that that model (not necessarily the biblical one…maybe just my own construction of this “down to earth, gritty, early-church-style, radical-community Christianity” that I have in my mind) regardless if I live up to it or not, seems appealing…and not merely in a superficial way. There is a feeling of excitement that I get from just thinking about the possibilities of a community where every member is known, has a special talent and part, and has the ability and freedom to be completely honest and true…in the context of a organization that is actually “going somewhere”…not just passing the days of their so-called “great lives” (the “slogan” of my church is “Building Great Lives”) together. Going from point A to point B. Growing. Not just getting older. I want that. And for years now, I have. But yet I’ve remained (partially because of an obligation - OK…call it a job - to the worship team as the pianist) on the outskirts of a church that I don’t even really feel apart of. I mean, it would be one thing to remain on the periphery of something that I really felt called to be committed to and involved in, merely because I didn’t have to guts to dive in. But, in my situation…I’m half-assing it with a church I don’t even want to be involved with…or even feel called to. And every week I fake myself out; “Grant, if you only let yourself be truly engaged in this church, you will feel so much more rewarded and your time here will be so much more meaningful”…I think right now, more than ever, it’s clear to me that as much as those voices in my head seem to speak the truth, the real answer is this: leave."
The answer is not to leave, the answer is what Martha expressed . . .
John 11:21-27,
"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
Where do you go:
1) Has Christ redeemed your life? I'm not asking if you asked Jesus into your heart. What I want to know is whether you believe that the person of Christ is real, demands our faith, and delights in personally restoring and affecting every area of our lives which begins with our hearts?
2) Do you see and savor the Glory and Immensity of God more today then you did yesterday?
3) Does that consume every aspect of your life? From the server at a restaurant who is confused about religion to the neighbor who gets pregnant and is all alone.
What we do to the least of these . . .
Do we know understand the one thing that our life is about, our core value, and do we proactively and radically live out of that faith? When Martha heard that Christ had come to town she ran to him. She didn’t pretend that life wasn’t hard and she was real about the fact that she didn’t have all the answers but what she did know was that Christ did. Her faith drove her life to radical action – the faith of an activist who can’t help but to have influence for their cause because it has consumed the core of their person.
This is the central issue that Theodore Frelinghausen, Gilbert Tennant, and Jonathan Edwards shared regarding the spiritual state of many parishioners within 18th century early American colonies. The central problem that each of these men saw among their congregation was that they had substituted Christian culture for Christian conversion. The term that describes this problem was Perfunctory Orthodoxy: all the appearances of orthodoxy but it was not. The heart of the issue was that the congregants had a presumptuous security. Because they faithfully participate in the culture they feel they have security in Christ. Christianity was something they did but not a relationship with Christ that transformed who they were and the expression of what it means to live the “Incarnational” life.
A great example is from a blog post I read two days ago:
http://www.xanga.com/whatsusansaid/435273363/item.html
This person is expressing their frustration with the modern church and how . . .
"it seems miles away from this vision I have of the early Christian church…exciting, grimy, honest, scary, visionary…true; a community that has more the feeling of an activist organization rather than a social club “doing life” together."
I like this but she doesn't drive to the main issue that Martha fully grasped.
The blogger continues with these thoughts . . .
"The early church. Now that I think about it…what I guess I’m saying is that that model (not necessarily the biblical one…maybe just my own construction of this “down to earth, gritty, early-church-style, radical-community Christianity” that I have in my mind) regardless if I live up to it or not, seems appealing…and not merely in a superficial way. There is a feeling of excitement that I get from just thinking about the possibilities of a community where every member is known, has a special talent and part, and has the ability and freedom to be completely honest and true…in the context of a organization that is actually “going somewhere”…not just passing the days of their so-called “great lives” (the “slogan” of my church is “Building Great Lives”) together. Going from point A to point B. Growing. Not just getting older. I want that. And for years now, I have. But yet I’ve remained (partially because of an obligation - OK…call it a job - to the worship team as the pianist) on the outskirts of a church that I don’t even really feel apart of. I mean, it would be one thing to remain on the periphery of something that I really felt called to be committed to and involved in, merely because I didn’t have to guts to dive in. But, in my situation…I’m half-assing it with a church I don’t even want to be involved with…or even feel called to. And every week I fake myself out; “Grant, if you only let yourself be truly engaged in this church, you will feel so much more rewarded and your time here will be so much more meaningful”…I think right now, more than ever, it’s clear to me that as much as those voices in my head seem to speak the truth, the real answer is this: leave."
The answer is not to leave, the answer is what Martha expressed . . .
John 11:21-27,
"Lord," Martha said to Jesus, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask."
Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."
Martha answered, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day."
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
"Yes, Lord," she told him, "I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to come into the world."
Where do you go:
1) Has Christ redeemed your life? I'm not asking if you asked Jesus into your heart. What I want to know is whether you believe that the person of Christ is real, demands our faith, and delights in personally restoring and affecting every area of our lives which begins with our hearts?
2) Do you see and savor the Glory and Immensity of God more today then you did yesterday?
3) Does that consume every aspect of your life? From the server at a restaurant who is confused about religion to the neighbor who gets pregnant and is all alone.
What we do to the least of these . . .
4.11.2006
Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God
Batter My Heart, Three-Personed God
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for, you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stond, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue,
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy,
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
- John Donne
Batter my heart, three-personed God; for, you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise, and stond, o’erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end,
Reason your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue,
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betrothed unto your enemy,
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
- John Donne
