From Southeast to Cite Soliel

Southeast Church of Christ in suburban Houston has a new mission engine! We were introduced to the ministry of HFHC in May of 2007. Jayson Henry and Scott Allen traveled with Rick Fyffe to work on some promotional materials for the ministry. Jayson and Scott came back to Southeast as if they had been to Bible Camp. They were covered with the Spirit of God, taken captive by the work that Debbie Vanderbeek and Rick Fyffe were doing. In July, Lanny Partain, one of our elders traveled with me to participate in the summer conference for the teens who are in HFHC schools. Our experiences in Haiti, the strong leadership of Debbie, the influence of Jean Teyrard Elmera, the passion of Sandy Besso, Julie Georges, and Phil Smith convinced me that this ministry fit the heart of Southeast. We needed to partner with HFHC.

At Southeast we are on a journey of re-hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. We hear him say, “The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.” In Jesus, God is breaking in to set the world right. Those who will believe this good news are not only being personally changed, but they are also being called to participate in the mission of God. Christians are those who are interested in being sent into the world to set the world right. We are those who care for ‘the least of these’ because God cares. Southeast has been on God’s anvil for a while, being shaped by this missional perspective.

In November, Rick came to Southeast to speak about Hope For Haiti’s Children on a Sunday morning. We do not share our Sunday morning with just anyone! We do not have dry missionary reports on a Sunday morning in a thriving suburban church. Rick came with some packets, thinking that our people would be ready to support as many as twenty children. We had already agreed to send $1,000 each month for the support of the school in Cite Soleil. When Rick spoke, our people were ready to hear. They were also ready, and that is an understatement, to partner with HFHC to change the world. Over one hundred people have asked to sponsor a child from Cite Soliel. That has brought our annual commitment to HFHC to $50,000. Our intention is to send our people to Cite Soliel to meet their sponsored children, to see the church/school, and to know that in this one place they are partnering with God to set the world right. The kingdom of God is breaking in at Cite Soliel and at Southeast. It is beautiful!

Day 17 - Thirty Six Days

I am in my second attempt to read Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. It is about seeing. As I read, she is teaching me and God is changing me. Here is a sample:

Thomas Merton wrote, “There is always a temptation to diddle around in the contemplative life, making itsy-bitsy statues.” There is always an enormous temptation in all of life to diddle around making itsy-bitsy friends and meals and journeys for itsy-bitsy years on end. It is so self-conscious, so apparently moral, simply to step aside from the gaps where the creeks and winds pour down, saying, I never merited this grace, quiet rightly, and then to sulk along the rest of your days on the edge of rage. I won’t have it. The world is wilder than that in all directions, more dangerous and bitter, more extravagant and bright. We are making hay when we should be making whoopee; we are raising tomatoes when we should be raising Cain, or Lazarus.

That is important. We have not been called to live small. God has made us for adventure. We were called, are right now called, to the dangerous life. And there is this promise that God will be with us through it all.

Matthew 5:3-5 (NRSV) "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 4 "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. 5 "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth."

The poor in spirit are not disincluded. God will be with them.
Those who are suffering, heartbroken, and whose life is unfair, God has not deserted them.
Those who are meek (not the diddling meek, not the itsy-bitsy, but those who are not arrogant, those who are like Jesus in his willingness to win with love and self-sacrifice) have God with them, and the whole world in theirs.

Don’t waste your days, your minutes, your gifts.
The will of the Creator is that you live!

Day 16 - Thirty Six Days

Jeremiah 29:11 (NRSV) For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.

Jeremiah is not known as ‘the positive prophet.’ Most of the time he is called the ‘weeping prophet.’ He is doing what prophets always do. He is warning the people of God. He has told them that judgment is coming upon them. Their country is about to come to an end. The Temple will be destroyed. Their whole society will be left in ruins. The Babylonians are coming to carry away the people into captivity. It looks like the end. Where is God’s goodness? Where is God’s mercy? Where is grace?

I wonder if the same feelings came over the disciples when Jesus was crucified. I wonder if they thought, “This is not the way this story is supposed to unfold! This is the king (Messiah, Christ)! He is ushering in the new era! The glory of God is to be manifest in a new way. This kingdom is a never-ending kingdom” (Dan 2:44)!”

Jeremiah had a word. The word was not a prosperity promise in the modern sense. It was not that they would have a great career or perfect children or a clean bill of health. The word was, “Trust me.” In seventy years, your children and your grandchildren will return. This is not the end of the story.

And for the disciples of Jesus, a similar word could be heard. “This looks like the end, but it is not. This looks like a defeat, but it is an astounding victory. You have some ideas about a kingdom, but they are provincial, local, and limited. Trust me. You will become heralds of the grace and goodness of God throughout the world.”

Wait. Trust. Everything will come clear.
Not my limited will, but your inexhaustible will, Father, be done!

Day 15 - Thirty Six Days

Craddock Story – Un-joining Church

Have you ever been present when anybody unjoined a church? I experienced that only once. It was in Oklahoma, and my wife and I belonged to a church, it was a rather large church there. One Sunday morning during the closing hymn, a hymn of dedication, consecration, a woman in her mid-thirties, we both knew her, went to the front. People stopped singing and were looking at each other. Why is she doing that? She is already a member. Maybe she is going to rededicate her life. Maybe she is going to become a minister. So we all hushed and waited.

She spoke quietly to the minister; we didn’t know what she was saying. At the conclusion of the hymn, he asked us all to sit down. We waited as she turned around to address us. What she said in essence was, ‘I owe it to you to let you know I am leaving the church. And since I made this public notice when I came, I wanted to make public notice when I leave. I don’t think it is right just to drift off into inactive membership. I am leaving the Christian circle. I have been disappointed. What I expected from the church and from the gospel and from the scriptures and from God, I have not received. I am leaving. For those of you who have expressed concern about my life’ – and hers was a troubled life – ‘for those among you who know it and expressed concern about it, I thank you. To that extent, I have some regret. Thank you.’

It was a strange morning. We didn’t know how to leave. We didn’t pay attention to the benediction. We bumped into the furniture and into each other leaving. And many of us spent Sunday afternoon thinking about what she did. It made us determine whether we would claim our own commitment in view of the fact that one of our group had decided to leave.

...

The NYT has a story today (2/26/08) about people changing their religious affiliations. It makes me wonder. What are churches 'selling'? I think I know. It is not always the Way of Jesus. It is not always the self-sacrificing love that God demonstrates. Sometimes that is not what people were really hoping for.

Day 14 - Thirty Six Days

John 1:4-5 (NRSV) ...in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There is a lot in the Bible about seeing and blindness, about light and darkness. Jesus is speaking to people, but they are not always understanding. That was a part of his work. God had commissioned Isaiah to invite and warn the People of God and gave him this rather strange message...

Isaiah 6:9 (NRSV) And he said, "Go and say to this people: 'Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.'

God was bringing judgment. The people would be stubborn. They would choose to go their own way (that is what hell is). I wonder if we would listen. I wonder if we would have our eyes opened, even if we found it disillusioning.

Leo Tolstoy said, “I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives.”

Change is hard when we think we know, when we have been the teacher, when we have lived with particular assumptions. Rather than see, we will close our eyes.

Not my will, Father, but yours be done! (But if your will pleased me that would be really great!)

Day 13 - Thirty Six Days

Psalms 32:5 (NRSV) Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not hide my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the guilt of my sin.

Michelle wandered down to my office with an interesting question. They were putting their son in a Christian school and the application was pretty detailed. One question had a about fifteen lines of blank space, indicating that they were prepared for a long answer. The question: When you stand before God in judgment, what will you say?

What will you say? I am sure that this was a tool for the school to determine whether or not you are a Christian. It occurred to me to answer with song lyrics. “I can only imagine what it will be like!” Or “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound!”

And then I thought of a courtroom scene.
“How do you plead?”
“I plead guilty, with a stipulation.”
“State your stipulation.”
“God be merciful to me, a sinner (Luke 18:13). I plead Jesus!”

I sure would hope to avoid allocution. You know, where you have to give an account of the details! Kyrie Eleison! Lord, Have Mercy!

What will you say?

Day 12 - Thirty Six Days

Romans 5:8 (NRSV) But God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us.

We are seeing a theme in these Thirty Six Days. Of course it is the love of God for people.
I would bet that you have some people in your life that you find annoying. There may be people that you do not like. You may know some dangerous people. I hope you don’t have people in your life that hurt you on purpose. I would guess that you have been hurt. You probably have hurt some people, too. These are the situations where love is put to the test.

Those who are Christians are commanded to love just as God loves (Eph 5:1). We are to love our neighbors. We are to love one another. We are to love our enemies. Does that leave anyone out? Oh! And yourself! “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:39).

In the next sermon (Post Easter – 2008) series I want to explore the idea of the sacrifice of God. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten.” What did he give? How was it love? I suggest that the sacrifice that God made was eternal.

• John 1:1 (NRSV) In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
  
• John 1:14 (NRSV) And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.
  

The Word had been with God from the beginning, whenever that was! The community of God, the Elohim, had always existed in close fellowship. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were intertwined from eternity. Was it like inseparable eternal triplets? The word I learned to describe this is perichoresis. The sacrifice of God began with the incarnation. There was no turning back from this point. The eternal proximity, the close fellowship, was broken...forever. The Word became Jesus. Jesus does not appear to ever return to be Word again. He is now seated at the right hand of the Father (Eph 1:20). When Jesus ascended angels told his disciples...
Acts 1:11 (NRSV) They said, "Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven."

Is it strange to say that Jesus will be Jesus forever. The cross was a powerful example for us, but it is not the sum of the sacrificial love of God for us. The death of the innocent Jesus is a powerful moment, but thousands of people have been crucified. I also think innocent people have died unfairly. The sacrifice of God was not a three day stay in the realm of the dead (I think Lazarus had four!).
God loves you enough to make a forever sacrifice. That is big love.

Day 11 - Thirty Six Days

This Wednesday evening I was teaching from the gospel of Luke. John the Baptist had begun his revolutionary ministry. He was baptizing people for the forgiveness of their sins. That drew a crowd. Could one get forgiveness of sins without the usual sacrifices? That must have been appealing! As the crowd came, John must have sensed a lack of sincerity. Listen.

Luke 3:7-8 - John said to the crowds coming out to be baptized by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.”

The fruit was not easy!

• "The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same."
  
• The tax collectors, those who were considered traitors to Israel, could they be baptized? Could they receive forgiveness? They were told, “Don’t collect any more than you are required to.”
  
• The soldiers, those who fought and killed for a living, could they receive forgiveness in their baptism? Yes, if they would stop extorting money, making them fearful. If they would stop bearing false witness as a matter of intimidation, and be content with their wages, then yes indeed.
  

Is this difficult? You know what we ask, if someone is lacking a tunic? If they don’t have a coat or a shirt, we want to know why. Have they been irresponsible? Are they going to take advantage of us? And if I do this, I will be impoverished. Can I afford to be generous?

And for tax collectors to only collect what they are ‘required to’ collect would put them personally out of business. Could a soldier survive on the wages of the day? I think the answer is “unlikely.”

Here is the point. In the world that God has in mind, his people operate like Jesus does. He gives to everyone regardless of their gratitude or their relative responsibility. Jesus has been good to you and me. We have not earned that goodness. Sometimes we are grateful. Would we dare to imitate that?

God help us!

Day 10 - Thirty Six Days

Hebrews 2:14-15 (NRSV) 14 Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. This was the love of God for the world, for all of human life. This was the most astounding cultural move in history. God was changing his location. He was moving in with us. He was going to experience humanity in a remarkable way. God made himself vulnerable by coming as a baby born in the midst of a scandal. Here is this young woman who was not married who got pregnant with God’s baby. Is that hard to believe?

Jesus is born to poor parents. When they came to present Jesus in the Temple on the eighth day, they brought a pair of turtledoves or pigeons. It was the offering if one could not afford a sheep. I find that interesting. God came to draw close to us in our struggles. He did not come to show us ‘the easy life.’

He also followed through. Yes, he physically suffered. More than that, he knew what it was like to be separated from God, to be lonely, to be afraid that ‘things’ would not turn out alright. I think that it began at his birth, but the cross took that sacrifice to a pointed peak.

And the point of it all? He knows. God knows what your life is like. He knows about loneliness. He understands love and pride and grief and unfairness. He knows about darkness and beauty. He knows temptation. He knows about politics and religion. He knows about being a baby and about dying.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten. I don’t see this as a light-hearted present. This was a deep and profound gift. This was a heart-breaking gift. This was love for you and me. This was a love lesson. Do you love? This is what love really is. Could we learn it? I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!

Day 9 - Thirty Six Days

Philippians 4:8 (NRSV) Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

What you think matters. We have some control over what we think. That is exactly why we would involve ourselves in a forty day discipline of reading Scripture together. We are thinking together!

The whole ‘gospeling’ enterprise is about mind renewal (See Rom 12:2), about thinking differently. We are thinking about the most important questions. What am I doing here? What is the purpose of my life? What is my destination? Are you asking those questions?

When our son was a toddler, we would ask him questions. As toddlers do, he was working on his sentence structures and word choices. Instead of saying, “I don’t know,” he would say, “I can’t know.” I would just smile at my little philosopher. Maybe we can’t know, exactly.

However, I think we can come to some decisions. We can make some choices about the purpose of our lives. We can think about those things that interest and motivate us. We can think about God. We can spend some serious time pursuing whatever is true, honorable, just and pure.

When we see it, we have an experience of reverence. It is beautiful, WONDER full, and worthy of praise. I hear Paul calling us to worship. He is calling us into the presence of that which is Holy. How can we keep from singing? These ‘things,’ the true, honorable, just, excellent things are around us every day. When we see them, and when we respond with praise, I think we are encouraged. God is with us. We are not alone. Life is good.

Be joyful! This is God’s love made visible. That is what I think!

Day 8 - Thirty Six Days

Romans 4:5 (NRSV) 5 But to one who without works trusts him who justifies the ungodly, such faith is reckoned as righteousness.

In the Church of Christ tradition, there has been this lingering belief that we are set right before God by certain things that we do. If you were to hear the words ‘plan of salvation’ often the speaker would mean a list of things that you do. You hear. You believe. You repent. You submit to baptism. It sounds like you are saving yourself.

When we say that salvation is by faith it generates quite a conversation. Some would point to 1 Peter 3:21 (NRSV) which says, “And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you--not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

I have a hard time thinking that baptism is much of a work. It is an easy work, if it is one. Some have turned it into the main issue and I think that is a mistake. When that happens, we end up with an empty ritual. Apart from faith, baptism has no power. The bottom line for salvation (wholeness, the peace of God, living in the world that God has in mind) is the work of Jesus.

Romans 3:21-22 (NRSV) 21 But now, apart from law, the righteousness of God has been disclosed, and is attested by the law and the prophets, 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction.

I know that it is a bold thing to suggest that the translation is wrong, and I do not do that on my own biblical expertise. My teachers have suggested to me that in verse 22 the correct translation should be (an objective genitive), “the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe.” A righteousness, a right standing before God, has been disclosed, that does not come from your good behavior, from your ability to do the right things all of the time. How could that be? Through the faithfulness of Jesus, through his work on the cross (there is a work for you!), for all who believe. That is the plan of salvation.

Whom do you trust? Do you trust in your own goodness? Do you trust in self-righteousness? For me, I don’t think I have enough of that. Lord, have mercy!

Not my will, Father, but yours be done!

Day 7 - Thirty Six Days

Do you remember being chosen?  That might be the greatest experience we ever know.  I wonder if it happens to us nearly often enough.  It happens when we are ‘making friends.’  We meet people and share a moment, a conversation, or an event.  We may give some indications that we hope to meet again, talk again, or share a meal together.  We then wait for a response.  We are hoping to be chosen.

 

I met Stephen in graduate school.  He was preaching for a church in Wichita Falls, TX and I was working with a small church in the Rio Grande Valley.  We recognized in each other a kindred spirit.  The class was an Old Testament course on the Pentateuch taught by Dr. David Wallace. Stephen was interested in reading my work.  In graduate education, that is always a very friendly gesture!  When a preaching position came available in Wichita Falls in the summer of ’96, Stephen encouraged me to apply.  He said, “There is no one like me here.  I need a theological friend!”  I got the job (as I recall I was their unanimous ‘second’ choice for the job!) and Stephen and his family and me and my family began a new level of friendship.  Stephen and I met every week for half a Schlotsky’s and some church talk.

 

He invited me into a small group.  We read a book by Elisabeth O’Connor entitled Called to Commitment.  That small group has been a circle of friends for a decade.  We vacation together with the Wagners, the Heyens, the Burnams, and the Johnsons.  Last November I traveled with Dr and Mrs Wagner to Gettysburg for a Lincoln Forum.  We are curious together and I think that is wonderful.

 

What I feel from this group is adoption.  We have been chosen to share their lives.  We love them.  They know us.  We have become family.  They love our children.  We love their children.  It all began in a moment, in a classroom, in a conversation.

 

This is an enactment of the drama of your relationship with God.  You are wanted.  God wants to read your work.  God wonders if you will respond to an invitation to relationship.  God has already decided that you are worth knowing.  God has already decided that he loves your children, and wonders if you might love ‘his’ children.  God would like to meet you at Schlotsky’s on Tuesday for lunch to share a sandwich and to talk about your work.

 

It is adoption that really interests ‘him.’  “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.  When we cry, “Abba!  Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, - if in fact we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him” (Rom 8:15-17).

 

You have been chosen.  You are wanted.  And we turn around and are involved in that work, too.  We are to be making friends, changing the world.  That is important work.  

Day 6 Thirty-Six Days

Do you think people are basically good? I tend to think that way. Maybe we hope that people, including ourselves are basically good. Most of us think that kindness is a good thing. We know that sharing is right, even if we are sometimes fear of the high cost of sharing. I live in a city where there are several million cars on the commute every day. Somehow, most of us get home. We follow the rules. Of course, that could be mutual self-interest, but I still find it amazing cooperation and a faithful commitment to some form of social contract.

I think we, the people, are also deeply and fundamentally flawed. I am interested in the definition of goodness. What does it really mean to be good? Do you remember this comment from Jesus?

Mark 10:18 (NRSV) Jesus said to him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”

Our only chance of considering ourselves as good is when we are the standard of goodness. For people, when we are not fearful, when we compare ourselves to other people, might be good. It is like saying, “For a cannibal, he is a fine young cannibal.”

When we see ourselves in light of God’s expectations for us, we don’t measure up so well. Love your enemies? Turn the other cheek? Give to everyone who asks? Forgive seventy times seven times? Be perfect even as your Father in heaven is perfect (Matt 5:48). There is a high standard for you!

And here is an interesting Bible fact. There is one psalm that is a duplicate. Look at Psalm 14 and Psalm 53. Psalms is a collection of songs and here the collections overlapped. They could not decide which one to leave out, so they kept them both!

Psalms 14:2-3 (NRSV) 2 The LORD looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God. 3 They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.
Psalms 53:2-3 (NRSV) 2 God looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God. 3 They have all fallen away, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one.

I think we will need this prayer, every day. Not my will, Father, but yours be done. We can lean toward perfection. That is probably as ‘good’ as it gets.

Day 5 - Thirty-Six Days

Day 5 – Thirty-Six Days

What happens that opens your eyes to God? Is it music? Is it beauty? I wonder if there is some sensibility that God has placed within us that gives us glimpses. There are very few non-religious societies. People want more. They hope that there is a Force that will work with them, cooperate with them, enable them to survive and thrive.

The Teacher says, Ecclesiastes 3:10-11 (NIV) 10 I have seen the burden God has laid on men. 11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

I believe that there is a force that is interested in you and me. There is such a thing as Inspiration (in the New Testament the word is theo-pneustos, God-breathed). There is such a thing as Providence. God provides. I believe that God places people in your path. I believe that God opens doors for you. As you pray, God is involved in your inclinations. The Holy Spirit leads you, when you will allow (Rom 8:14).

As I sit down to my computer to write, I almost always pray with King David. Psalms 51:11 (NIV) 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. I am praying for inspiration, for the Spirit of God, the Breath of God to exist in my mind so that I might be a vehicle for His Will.

That Presence gives me confidence, even at times audacity. Do you have that experience?

Not my will, Father, but yours be done!

Day 4 – Thirty-Six Days

Instant messaging can be a strange world. Most of the time I use it to dash a message between offices. It is more urgent than e-mail but less intrusive than a phone call. However, when I signed up for the service I made my profile public. Someone might need a minister/theologian! Hey! It could happen! Matter of fact it does happen, and that is where the ‘strange world’ comes in.

I have been talking to a guy. And then I must say, I don’t know who this person is. I don’t know that what he has told me is true. He wants to talk about some personal things and I try to help, but I am on guard. I wonder what the real agenda is. There have been two conversations (IM sessions), and I think I am done. I am encouraging him to ‘do no harm.’ Love seeks the true best interests of others.

I share this as a background for our conversations about grace.

Matthew 9:12-13 (NRSV) 12 But when he (Jesus) heard this, he said, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners."

I think Jesus means that everyone is sick. No one is righteous through their own discipline.

Are we fundamentally self-interested? Maybe we do not even operate in our own best interests. We eat Twinkies and pizza. We use credit cards. We are so often reckless with relationships that are in our own best interests. We really struggle with the greatest commands. Love can be a real challenge for us.

God is the gracious physician. He loves and shows us, through Jesus how to act unselfishly. In our best moments, we are trying to follow that example. That is what makes us Christians.

Day 3 - Thirty-Six Days

Day 3 – Thirty-Six Days

Isaiah 55:9 (NRSV) For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.

It is one of those amazing things about us as human beings that we can acknowledge this idea. There have been times when we begin to deny that it is true. There have been times in our history when we thought that Science and Reason would triumph over the problems faced by humanity. We thought that we could think it through. We could eradicate disease. We could be happy. We could confront all of the potential threats to the family of man. We have been humbled, however. We have not been able to stop warfare. The twentieth century was terribly bloody. We have seen new plagues. We have not successfully created a world of harmony.

God says, “My ways are higher. My thoughts are higher.” The story that we believe and teach, the story of the Bible says that God created and creates. God is breathing life and love into human beings. God has breathed life and love into you. We may wonder from time to time what we are doing and where we are going. We are praying that there is a point to it all. When we see Jesus, when we choose to follow Jesus in the Way for the sake of the world, I think we get a glimpse of the point of it all, of the ‘high’ way and the high thoughts of God.

I read this sentence this morning, “Saying kind words that are truthful and sincere and putting those words into action is a sure way to experience joy.”

Not my will, Father, but yours be done!

Day 2 - Thirty-Six Days

God says, "To whom will you compare me or count me equal?  To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?"  (Isaiah 46:5).  Human beings have always been trying to create a god that they could have some tangible contact with.  The ancients would make gods out of gold and silver.  These gods could not speak.  They could not keep themselves from being knocked over.  They did not have the power to move from place to place.  I suppose you could hug  god like that, but I am not sure it helped!

God, YHWH, speaks.  This God knows the very real you.  He knows our fears and weaknesses.  He knows you!  And loves you. 

Isaiah reports that God says, "My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please" (46:10).  It pleases him to love you.  It pleases him to set the world right.  It pleases him to use broken folk to accomplish his will on earth as it is in heaven.  That means that you are involved in the most important work in the universe.  You have a future!!

Day 1 - Thirty Six Days

John 3:16 (NRSV) 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

This is a Scripture that most people have heard. I don’t know if it still happens, but sports fans used to see someone at the game holding up signs reading “John 3:16.” John Mayer has a song called “Belief,” that asks “Is there anyone who ever remembers changing their mind from the paint on a sign? Is there anyone who really recalls ever breaking rank at all for something someone yelled real loud one time?”

Where could one hear this Word from John 3:16? Where could we consider that the world was loveable? I think we are conflicted about that. There is so much in the world that is violent and abusive. God loves the world. I just find that astonishing. God sends the most precious part of himself, a one and only, an un-replaceable Son, into the world. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, beginning as a baby, conceived by an unwed mother who gave birth in a barn. What an interesting way to show love. He became one of us, even one of the least of us.

Who is the world? I am the world. We are the world. God became vulnerable to us. The Almighty chooses to be vulnerable.

I wonder if we could follow that example? Could we lay aside our pride? Could we love in such a sacrificial way? I wonder if that is the only way we can change the world. It goes against our natural inclinations toward self-preservation. I wonder, if we would dare to try, if we would share the DNA of the Only Begotten? I think that is what it means to be children of God.

Ephesians 5:1 (NRSV) Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.

Peace!