Christmas 2011

   Again we have come to the most celebrated holiday of the year.  Christmas.  For Christians this is the time we look back and consider that God came to us, in human flesh.  A little baby, with fingers and toes.  A baby, that was completely dependent upon his mothers breast.  Interesting that the God who made all things, now comes to us dependent upon His very creation.  Of this little child Paul says " For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.  So this little child, who created all things, and who holds all things in His might hands, now has hands so small they fit between my fingers.  This young one now has eyes of wonder.      
   And I find it interesting that God chose to come to us, not in pomp and glory.  No.  He comes to mankind in a poor family, from the wrong side of the Roman empire.  His advent is culminated at the end of a hundred mile journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem.  Not ideal conditions for a King.  By anyone's standards he was nobody. But this child was destined for the rise and fall of many.  He, who made all things now comes forth of His mother, in a lowly stable with ox and sheep.
   This picture teaches something about the God we serve.  He not only cares for the poor and marginalized, he became poor and marginalized.  He, who has all power in heaven and earth, who could have called on 10,000 angels at any time, came humble, lowly, poor and dependent.  For it is Christ who says that the rich will scarcely enter His Kingdom.  Those who seek to be wealthy, are those who miss the point of grace.  Grace teaches us that God does what we cannot do.  Grace teaches us that God is pleased in Jesus, for His sake we are saved, and are saved completely.  Grace teaches us that this little baby, the ultimate gift to all mankind,was born to walk the road to Calvary with every Christian soul in mind.  He was thinking of you, of me, and of the countless others when he uttered the words, "Father forgive them."
   The application this Christmas is simple.  If you are short on cash, and feel inadequate, repent and believe the good news.  If you are overflowing with goods, don't forget to spread the wealth.  If you have gone through this Christmas season without any thought of who might need your help, pray and ask God to show you someone in need.  In need of what you can do specifically.  For Christ said that when we give of ourselves to those in need, we are doing it as unto Him.  As unto Christ, who knows something of what it means to be in need.  This little baby, with poor parents, from the wrong side of the Roman empire.

Fuzzy

    

     This is the face that greets me when I get home from work.  She runs to me yelling "Pa-pa, Papa, Papa."  As I scoop her up into my arms she rests her head against my shoulder and say's "Pa-pa."  This little girl has completely stolen my heart.  This little girl, in Gods divine providence has been given to me.  She trusts me completely, without knowing all the details.  She runs to me with excitement, because I am her Papa and she knows that I love her.  

     What is it then, that keeps men from God?  A God who created this relationship is certainly not cold or indifferent to human affairs.  How could He be?  One of the ways I worship God is through loving this little girl.  One of the ways I can tap into the divine is by trusting that God has ordered my life perfectly, and in His divine purpose He gave me Jubilee.  Hallelujah praise Jehovah.  

     Jubilee......a fitting name for the child, was a time to set the captives free.  It was ordained by God to be a celebration.  It was feasting, dancing, singing and returning home.  Home, was a geographic thing in Israel, but now we find that home in Christ.  Many times throughout my life God has set me free, many times He has brought me back home.  Only a wild God does that.  Never in a million years would I have thought that I could love a little girl as much as I love Jubilee.  And yet, here we are.   Why does God continue to do this?  Why does He continue to pour out these blessings?  Why is it that after five seconds with my two year old daughter in the front lawn I am waiting for the clouds to open up, and to hear a thousand angels singing "Glory to God in the Highest." 

Providence: a living music box

     I have known my seven year old daughter for a few years now, and in that time I have had the privileged to hear her sing many times.  She often makes up songs, and can sing whole conversations without any problem at all.  As she gets older I have a unique opportunity to help her learn what her voice is truly for.....and that is singing praises unto the LORD.  In our home we pick a Psalm and sing it for at least a month or so......until she has it memorized.  This can be a bit of a task for Pa-pa, but never for Providence.  She sings every word with pleasure, and loves to show off her skills.  I like it.  And I love her.  She has taught me that singing with joy is important.  When I hear her sing with delight unto the LORD, it gives me great joy.  Not only because our King   loves it when His children sing His praise, but because my daughter is praising her Maker......and I see through the next generation that God is keeping His promise.  He has promised her that He will never leave her nor forsake her, and she believes...and so she sings........and sings........."All people clap your hands for joy, to God in triumph shout, for awesome is the LORD most high great King the earth throughout."

Things: Supper of the Lamb

Robert Farrar Capon writes:
     "But if man's attention is repaid so handsomely, his inattention costs him dearly.  Every time he diagrams something instead of looking at it, every time he regards not what a thing is but what it can be made to mean to him - every time he substitutes a conceit for a fact - he gets grease all over the kitchen of the world.  Reality slips away from him; and he is left with nothing but the oldest monstrosity in the world: an idol.  Things must be met for themselves.  To take them only for their meaning is to convert them into gods- to make them too important, and therefore to make them unimportant all together.  Idolatry has two faults.  It is not only a slur to the true God; it also insults true things."

     God loves things.  He loves the world.  So much so that He made His only Son out of atoms and particles. Jesus has real flesh forever.  He made oceans, glaciers, mountains and pumpkins.  He said to the potato bug, "be" and there he was.  And not only did God create all things, but He proclaimed that it was all good.  I always liked the scene in The Magicians Nephew where Aslan is calling Narnia into existence.  He is pacing to and fro and singing mountains and valleys into the new world.  I get the picture of Christ, walking through the world and taking thought of rabbits, sycamore trees, bugs and flowers.  He is pleased to make "stuff."  Not one single atom is out of place in the world that God created.  He, in His endless wisdom made all things beautiful and good.  And we, because we were made in His image, are called to be like Him.  We are called to beautify the world with "stuff."  This may mean baking a really good batch of cookies, or planting a nice garden.  It could be creating wonderful music, or writing poetry.  It means that the mess that the children leave on the living room floor is beautiful too, because they bare His image and create instinctively.
      The philosophers are huge on "forms," or nebulous floating things that cannot be explained or defined.  They love to argue that true wisdom and beauty are "above" the physical creation.  Sad, so so sad.  Who wakes up in the morning and say's...."well, I love the idea of my wife, but she may or may not exist?"  All the while she is laying next to you in bed.  God, the Holy Trinity, does not operate this way.  He is concerned with physical stuff and He made a whole lot of it.  True spirituality comes from God, and He say's....."look at the lilies in the field, and learn from that."  Have we considered the lilies today?????

Fasting with mercy

Isaiah, Chapter 58
006:	Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
007:	Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
008:	Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
009:	Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;       So here we have mercy.  The true fast......the anti-type of a fast is mercy.  How does this mess with our ritualistic religious view of doing something to be recognized by GOD?  How many times have we said in our hearts that we are not like other men, because we pray daily, fast often and tithe 10%?  We are clean cut, reformed Americans....We are not gutter wine babblers.  We are not cheating on our wives or frequenting strip clubs.  We do not swear, or smoke......oh wait.....       We point the bony finger down our long noses and refuse to clothe the naked or feed the hungry.  You see, that is dirty work.  One might ask; "where are the hungry and naked?"  And the answer is simple, EVERYWHERE.  Any place where there are men and woman who do not know Christ.  Mercy......that word again.....Mercy.  Jesus is merciful, and His people should be like Him.  He is the King of mercy, of all that is selfless in the world.  He is in the act of kindness, breaking the heavy burden and giving freedom.  He is about the business of setting people free.  And He calls us to this work, for He is pleased to do it in and through us.  Praise GOD.         So I say fast with mercy.  Break the burdens and feed the hungry.  Bring the poor into your house and set a table before them, for your Heavenly Father is pleased when you act like Him.  And He is the ultimate host, filling His hall with filthy wretches like us.  And not only does He do this, He lives this.  His character is giving; and giving to those of us who do not deserve it.  Go and be like GOD, show mercy and then you will cry and He will answer.

standing before the Lord

   "therefore thus say's the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: 'Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack a man to stand before Me forever."   Jeremiah 35:19

    Here in Jeremiah we have an interesting chapter.  In the midst of God's "prosecution" of Israel, the prophet stops to tell us a story of the family of Rechabites.  They are a family who has obeyed their father in what he commanded.  They were commanded to drink no wine, build no houses, plant no vineyards.  They were to live in tents, and all this they were supposed to do so that "they may live many days in the land where they are sojourners."  This calls to mind the first commandment with a promise.  This gives us an indication of how our God works in real lives, in history........ He loves, loves it when we honor our parents.  God has made the world in such a way that he gives us all fathers and mothers, to learn from, listen to and obey.  He loves to see a son listen closely to his father, obey him and honor him.  Jesus Christ, God in human flesh, submitted to his sinful father.......and I imagine this greatly pleased His Father in Heaven.  The sons of Eli, they did not honor their father and it did not go well for them.
    As we grow older our temptation is to not listen or hear our earthly fathers.  They may have advice and wisdom, but we are older and independent, but that is not what we see here with the Rachabites.  They are obeying their father generations down the line.  They are taking the 5th commandment seriously.  They are saying; "God has commanded us to honor our father."  Unlike Israel, who had long since played the harlot and forgotten her first love, the Rechabites listen to their father and obeyed him.  And because of this faithfulness God has promised to have a man of their family stand before Him FOREVER.  Wow, what a statement.....  FOREVER........FOREVER.  Standing before God forever.  So, if it's your desire to stand in the presence of God, start by honoring your parents.  Simple, yet not always easy.  We are tempted to look at our sinful parents and wonder why we are called to such a thing.  I think the answer is simple, if we cant love and honor our earthly fathers how can we love and honor our Heavenly Father?  God is saying, "if you want to honor Me, start by honoring the parents that I have given you........"  May the good Lord help us all.

Where we are

     I am so thankful to have a God who picks us up where we are, and not where we should be.  Thinking of the prodigal son......you know the story.  The kid who demands his due and then goes off to party.  I am sure the party lasted a while, and I am sure he had a good time.  Sin can be like that (for a season).  Its easy to live life oblivious to God when He has not stripped you bare.....but the day came when the money was gone, the drinks had dried up, and the prostitutes had moved onto the next guy.  The son was alone.  He had spent everything and was left destitute.  So he devises a plan to stay on in his rebellion, "I'll get a job" he says to himself.  Working for a local swine farmer in a foreign land.  Watching the pigs eat.  The smell is enough to turn his stomach, but he sees no way out.  If only he could eat some of those husks......just a bite.  If only there was some way of making this whole mess right.  If only he could go home.  The smell of his mothers fresh baked bread, the warm clean sheets.  "Yeah" he thinks; "Mom will take me back....but father?" 
     So he begins the trek home..... rehearsing his speech over and over.  "Father I have sinned against you."  He wonders if Dad will go for it.  He has made a fool of himself, and thinks he is no longer worthy to be called a son.  He beats himself up for all of this sin.  How ugly, and how wicked he has been.  How could he ever make this right?  When he reaches the drive way, his cloths are torn and filthy, he looks up to see the old man running toward him with wild eyes.  All he hears is "my son, my son."
     So it is with all of us.  We are the prodigal son.  We killed Jesus.  We ate the fruit.  We demanded our due and left for vanity fair.  We walked the road of hunger, misery, deceit, and lust.  We cheated with David and persecuted with Paul.  We gave our best effort and found nothing but God..   ...calling....... "my son, my son."   

No Cheese Please

I have found good music to be a must in daily life.  What is good music, what is bad?  How do I come to know the good, and resist the bad?  Does this music push me further toward Christ?  I am tired of the Christian g-rated sappy love songs.  Can music by non-believing, homosexual, pagans be good?  Can music with....dare I say....the F-word be good?  Can music about destroying my enemies and painful loneliness be good?  Short answer: YES.   

I don't come to music with a checklist in my pocket.  I come to see beauty, love, fear, anger, and all of the human emotions that God gave to us.  He is a God of reality, He is real.  In fact, He is true reality personified.  Because this is true we should ask ourselves if our music is telling our story well, or is it just background noise in an uneventful life?  Are we that boring character, or are we interesting and thought provoking?  Are we living and engaging in our world in such a way that music comes naturally as a by-product of our love for God.  Does the music you listen to make you consider angels crying out to God.......and what does that sound like?  Does your music painfully remind you of that sin for which you need to seek forgiveness?  Does your music drip with grace, the kind of grace that brought back Lazarus from the dead, and not the kind that tells you to sit up straight and mind your manners?  There is much to consider when it comes to music, but for now I will end with this song.  Mumford & Sons wrote the tune, I merely pasted their lyrics

: : Sigh No More: :
Serve God love me and men
This is not the end
Lived unbruised we are friends
And I'm sorry
I'm sorry

Sigh no more, no more
One ? one unsure
My heart was never pure
And you know me
And you know me

And man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing
Oh man is a giddy thing

Love that will not betray you, dismay or enslave you,
It will set you free
Be more like the man you were made to be.
There is a design,
An alignment to cry,
At my heart you see,
The beauty of love as it was made to be

Frederick Buechner:

    The Preacher
    "But let him take heart.  He is called not to be an actor, a magician, in the pulpit.  He is called to be himself.  He is called to tell the truth as he has experienced it.  He is called to be human, and that is calling enough for any man.  If he does not make real to them the human experience of what it is to cry into the storm and receive no answer, to be sick at heart and find no healing, then he becomes the only one there who seems not to have had that experience because most surely under their bonnets and shawls and jackets, under their afros and ponytails, all the others have had it whether they talk of it or not.  As much as anything else, it is their experience of the absence of God that has brought them there in search of His presence, and if the preacher does not speak of that and to that, then he becomes like the captain of a ship who is the only one aboard who either does not know that the waves are twenty five feet high and the decks awash or will not face up to it so that anything else he tries to say by way of hope and comfort and empowering becomes suspect on the basis of that one crucial ignorance or disingenousness or cowardice or reluctance to speak in love any truth but the ones that people love to hear."

From: "Telling the Truth; The Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy & Fairy Tale."

My Son

This is my son, "Ace" as we like to call him.  He is almost 7 months old.  If there is one thing he is good at it's eating.  He loves to nurse.  A few days ago he taught me a valuable lesson about God and the nature of His world that we are living in.  You see, Ace was laying on the bed next to me smiling and laughing.  He had no cares, no worries, no places to be.  He is not at all concerned about e-mail, texts, facebook or football.........though I am sure that will change.  He is content.  He is happy.  After laying with him for 15 minutes he begins to fuss, and get a little cranky.  He starts to thrash around on the bed.  He is looking........searching.......wanting......Mama.  She is off in the kitchen cooking eggs for the girls breakfast.  She is busy.........although never too busy to miss the hunger fuss from little Ace.

I hear her footsteps coming toward the bedroom, she is almost there, and when she appears from around the corner Ace goes nuts.  He kicks his legs with delight, he thrashes his arms and lets out a yelp for joy.  Mama has come.  She comes baring breasts.  Yes, she has arrived and his excitement is too cute for words.  He knows it's time for milk, and he is hungry.   Here, in my 7 month old son a great truth is revealed to me.  Here, in my son, is my own hardness and unbelief opened up to me.  Saint Peter said "laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisy, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word, that ye may grow thereby."

Watching Ace squeal for excitement over his Mama's milk made me see how important it is to come to the scriptures the same way.  "As newborn babes"  we are to come, hungry for His Word.  Excited to be fed by Him, feasting on His grace. More importantly, I come to see what our Father in Heaven sees.  He must be delighted, as I am delighted, to watch His children come and eat.  To hear us sing with pure joy because we know......just like Ace knows.......that this is gonna be good. 

Frederick Buechner:

     "God is the eccentric host who, when the country-club crowd all turn out to have other things more important to do than come live it up with Him, goes out into the skid rows and soup kitchens and charity wards and brings home a freak show.  The man with no legs who sells shoe laces at the corner.  The old woman with the moth eaten fur coat who makes her daily rounds of the garbage cans.  The old wino with his pint in a brown paper bag.  The pusher, the whore, the village idiot who stands at the blinker light waving his hand as the cars go by.  They are seated at the damask-laid table in the great hall.  The candles are all lit and the champagne glasses are filled.  At a sign from the host, the musicians in the gallery strike up 'AmazingGrace.'  If you have to explain it, don't bother."  

From: "Telling the Truth: the Gospel as Tragedy, Comedy & Fairy Tale."

     No other book, well other than the Bible itself, has helped me understand the "outlandishness" of our God and His gospel better than this.  It's a must read for all Christians.