Hurry Up and Wait

       "Hurry up and wait" is a phrase that kept coming up on mission trips. Nothing to do and something to do live next to each other with almost no announcement between the two. Waiting is the reality of trips to other parts of our world. We don't wait very much here and it's this theme that seems to be coming across my path more and more.

       The Christmas story is a grand demonstration of God's people waiting. 400 years from the last time God spoke to a prophet to carry forth a message from God. Hurry Up and Wait. 400 years puts my waiting to shame. A text in the next five minutes is generally considered waiting.

       The verse for the week at church... Psalm 62:5 NASB "My soul, wait in silence for God only." I notice when I tried to simply wait, it was a flush of everything and trying to let God through the floodgates as well.Cooks are always making some sort of reduction sauce, the removal of water so that the flavors are what remain. So too a capacity to wait in silence just for God.To enjoy the richest of fare.

       The Christmas story provides that contrast of what happens when God shows up after waiting. I pray that your life and mine would experience the same.

Great Questions, lead to Jesus and Great Answers

In my work at a local college, we have been trying to encourage students to ask questions, to be engaged in finding out and understanding what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. Questions about the value of the Bible, pluralism(aren't a lot of religions right), forgiveness, rekindling the fire, etc. All great questions worthy of some(much) discussion. Many of these things are tough to deal with head on. It's like there is background that needs to be understood in order to be able to move further into the discussion. One of the root issues I see that is underlying much of today's thought on Faith, God, Spirituality is simply this...Is there a way to determine if an idea about God is right or wrong. The prevailing comment of our day is "Who am I to judge?" The answer is, you're a human being with capacity to think, that's who you are. So there are points in life when we can step in and evaluate the usefulness of a statement... for example... Humanism teaches that people are basically good. If we educate people, and inform them they will get better, society will get better, all will be well. Historically speaking we are the most educated people ever. Does the fact that we are more educated than ever show any proof of less murder, crime, violence, addiction than before? Does the newspaper reflect a new, educated, basically good, humanity? Do we keep people off drugs by having a D.A.R.E. program. We've educated them, informed them, why is there any drug addiction with people under the age of 35? Man is basically good and they were informed. God says this, that the heart of people is desperately selfish, desperately seeking power, desperately greedy and using people for their own gain. What I see in the lives of society, our nation, our World History is this second truth that is the proclamation of God. For a nation of people currently seeking the pragmatic, I can't help but think that God is right and that humanism is left wanting in being able to prove itself. In the midst of this brokeness of people, God doesn't simply have us wallow in it. He has provided a way for us to become something new. It's why we celebrate the power of Jesus Christ. How do I learn how to trust God's view of my(His) world? This is one of many examples that I intend to write on in the coming weeks. In the mean time join us at St Scholastica on Monday nights, or in the conversation here. God's not too big for our questions and honored in pursuing the Answer!! Terry

Evaluation

Just a few stats to get started, • The average house size in 1950: 1200 Square feet. • Average house size today: 2350 Square Feet • Average household population in 1950: 5 • Average household population today : 3.1 Houses have gotten bigger, families have gotten smaller and it is reported that there is 2.35 billion square feet of storage space rented in the United states. Based on number of units that is enough storage for every family unit to possess three storage units. Sometimes statistics point to some systemic issues that we should begin to think about in our own lives. What fuels this need for all this stuff? Why are there so many shows on TV about organizing, hoarding, collections gone wild? C.S. Lewis talks about the sin of avarice. Counting, possessing, finding my worth in how many I own. At what point do we ask if I own something or does it own me? The title here is “Evaluation.” Over the years I have been forced to sift through the collected piles of others, the common thread I see is an inability to evaluate worthwhile stuff from worthless stuff. In an attempt to value everything, everything becomes worth less. Learning to decide the difference and making evaluations is an important part of life for all of us, not just concerning our stuff, but our spiritual lives as well. What have I placed value on that needs to be rethought? The Pharisees in Jesus day said the altar doesn’t mean anything, it’s the gift that matters most. Jesus said “ARE YOU CRAZY” the altar makes the gift sacred. A wrong evaluation of what matters most. Our whole world is filled with the need to evaluate, to decide that one thing is more important to me than a list of many other things. It’s an important part of a healthy life. One of the greatest evaluations from God’s word is simply this…“As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” Here’s to the good life of evaluation. Saying yes to what God says yes to and saying no and so honor our Lord.

Sunday Sept 16th, Love them but do I have to Like them?

God tells me I have to love people, but do I have to like them? Youth always asked me this question. The answer is yes unless you can stomach the idea that God loves but he doesn't like you, your parents love you but they don't like you and your boyfriend/girlfriend loves you, but doesn't like you. For those of us who are married, how well would it go if I told my spouse... Hey Leah, I really love you, but just so you know, I don't really like you. Some of you feel sorry for Leah already just with the written (totally)hypothetical statement.The Sunday is about the enormous Love of our God.

Anointed to...

The questions of life draw people into important questions about where I belong, do I matter, is there any meaning greater than just what I can see. The atheist seem to proclaim: you live, you die, you rot, who cares. As CS Lewis would probably put it, the fact that so many people want to know if there is a greater meaning is evidence itself that there is. Enter Isaiah 61..The Lord has anointed me to... There is a task that matters greatly for all eternity. To... bring good news, bind up the broken, proclaim freedom to captives and prisoners, comfort those who mourn. A friend of mine has a great song he wrote. The chorus proclaims a thankfulness to Jesus for giving us "Hope and a Home." My prayer is that we would root ourselves in God's family, know hope, and grasp the idea of the great anointing God himself has blessed us with to be a part of the greatest tasks we've been commissioned for.

Isaiah 61:1-3

Phaith, Pharoah and a Phuture!

Isaiah 40:21-22 " Do you not know, have you not heard? Has it not been told to you from the beginning?
I just got back from vacation. I decided to reread the book of Isaiah. It's no surprise that it's a little different than I remember. I consistently refer to my favorite paasages, but there is more to it than that. Surprise number 1. The first 39 chapters are a relentless appraisal of a negative reality(no wonder the prophets were hated by people) The truth hurts. Surprise number 2. The reliance on Egypt for a defense. God wants to defend and protect his people."Hey guys I'm OMNIPOTENT maybe you can trust me." But we talk ourselves into protection from horses and chariots, things we can count, things we can see. Final surprise... Isaiah 40:28-31. In the midst of so many people doing wrong God still steps into our lives with a heart for bringing strength to the weary, power for the weak, understanding for the confused, a reason for hope, renewed strength, the joy of soaring, the ability to run without tiring and to walk and keep on walking. If your in need of clarity of what God does for his people open up to Isaiah 40-41.

Winds of Change

Last week was spent out at Covenant Park Bible Camp. One thing I enjoy is flying stunt kites, and the wind blowing off the lake onto the shore was perfect. In the course of flying stunt kites there is a very powerful angle that creates some serious pull. It was all I could do to lean away and keep from getting pulled off my feet. Then there are the edges where the dance of the same kite is light and a great point of rest by contrast. The Bible speaks of wind in a similar way. The drying wind on a scorching hot day has exceptional destruction. Farmers this year across our country have witnessed it's destructive force. But there is a wind that God grants to us like Noah. A wind that solves the problem, a wind that drove the grasshoppers west and solved the plague in Egypt. In John 3 "the wind blows wherever it pleases." and it's compared to people born of the Spirit. Stopping the movement of the Spirit in us should be like stopping the wind... a pointless task. Instead of fighting it, let's unfold the kite and see what the Lord has for us. The balance of advice lies in the fact that a kite flies because it is connected to something. We don't want to be blown and tossed by every doctrine of scheming people. Rooted in Christ, following the Spirit is a great opportunity.

Not what I make of IT, but what IT makes of me

       Some of you came because of three verses posted elsewhere. 2 Timothy 3:14, Hebrews 4:12, Isaiah 55:10-11. Living at high altitude during my teens taught me to breath deeply. The oxygen is a little short at 8,000 feet and so every athletic endeavor requires a little more breath than usual.
       The Bible is the breath of God, it's the oxygen our body needs to sustain itself, repair itself, operate and function at it's peak. A lack of oxygen cause our body to use other things to propel itself. Those other things cause the soreness we feel the next day.
       Your life and mine was meant to run on the breath of God, there are great promises in the above verses related to that. And as is often the case we can fight that truth, come up with a lot of opinions about that, but what you and I make of God's Word(Breath) will never be as important as what it will, if we let it, make of us.

Weeds and Flowers

In two days a garden tour is coming to my house. At first it was a fun thought. But as you look around to prepare and engage the work to be done, you soon realize the weeds grow faster than you can pick them, the bugs chew faster than you can kill them, and every flaw you've suppressed as unimportant, seem to be as large as any of the beauty. Moments of passivity say, just let it be what it is, and moments of compulsion cause me to mindlessly wonder picking weeds. Praise God for the flowers in life that are of his working and praise God for his grace as the temperature of life rises and so do the weeds in my life. I don't want them there, they keep coming back... an endless chore. Praise God for an eternal day when only the beauty grows. So STOP... and smell the roses...enjoy say thanks. Then grab a couple of buckthorn seedlings while your nose is close to the fragrance.