Passion 1

Yesterday I had a thought occur to me:

The biggest miracle in my mind that Jesus ever performed was never once doing his own will.

Seriously, I know he walked on water, healed the sick, released the possessed, spoke the truth with wisdom and authority and was resurrected from the dead through the power of the holy spirit - but all that would have been for naught if he "just wanted to do his own thing."

I don't say this lightly, I look at the state of my persistent rebellion against God, whether inspired by fear, laziness, pride or arrogance and I realize - I simply can't do this. I can't do what God wants me to all the time - its nigh impossible for everyone. And yet Christ did just that. I know some people who have the wrong concept of sin think "No big deal, I think Jesus was a good person" because Jesus is as good as or better than them or hundreds of thousands of other people on earth. However, ask the same person if they can go through a day without being self-centered or self-interested or continually ensure that their actions are at the prompting or benefit of someone else ahead of their desires.

So the reason I bring this up is today is Palm Sunday - the liturgy starts Joyous - the triumphal entry - and ends sadly and suddenly - Christ's betrayal, trial, and crucifixion. This reading stuck out to me glaringly from the bulletin and reminded me that through it all, Christ was in this for the glory of God:

"Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point death - even death on a cross.

Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

- Philippians 2:5-11

Paul is right, this is the facet of Christ that is most impressing me and and making me praise him is the fact that he did it all for the Glory of God, for 33 years whereas I can't be bothered to think of someone else for more than 3 seconds. Praise Him who did this for you and I, praise Him who did this with the end in mind of God's glory and our benefit. His greatest miracle is an everlasting one as he changes our hearts to do the same.

Preparing for Life's Trials

"I have told you these things so that in me, you will have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." -John 16:33

Why is it that we prepare for everything in life, except for our trials? We study for exams and quizzes, we save for our wedding, we save for vacation, we even save for the dream car that we always wanted as a teenager and plan to purchase in our mid 50's. When in reality, there is no guarantee that we will live until our 50's, be able to take a vacation, or even get married (I apologize to those of anxiously waiting and praying for your spouse.). Why don't we put that much time into preparing for life's trials? We know they are coming, yet we find ourselves preparing for them in the middle of them and at that point, it is no longer preparation, but mere survival. In John 16:33, Jesus tells us that we will have trials. What more do you need to know. It would be helpful to know when they were coming and what it is concerning, but we do not. However, we do know that we can overcome because he has overcome. Does us knowing that we will overcome make us complacent and keep us from preparing? I am not suggesting we worry, but maybe we should take some time getting ourselves ready. Questions or comments?

Singing Sunday 2

I don't have a hymn for today - just a bridge from a band I love - House of Heroes and their song "Field of Daggers". Simple words, but they could just have easily been penned by Fanny Crosby - had she known how to play a killer bass or lead guitar...

"Spread wide Your wings, O God,
Relieve this scarlet fever,
Catch every tear of mothers in mourning.

Bring life to tired hopes,
Buried in fields of flowers,
Bring many sons of battle to glory.

With every drop of blood,
Caged in this tired body,
I long to bring my father to glory.

I see a new day coming!
Maybe tomorrow...
Woe to the king of nothing.
I see a clean blood running,
Brothers of sorrow.
Here is your kingdom coming!
Here is your kingdom coming!"

I like these lyrics because for me Lent always brings a season of disappointment. I'm not good at keeping my word, or fasts very well - and any success I have in either department leads often to pride and me realizing that I missed the point of whatever spiritual discipline I have embarked on at current. But it reminds me that I am working towards and end that I cannot achieve by myself - the doing of the will of God and a love for Him. In these words, I see God's ultimate purpose and rejoice in it - but I also see how powerless I am in light of it. It doesn't depend upon me, but for my sake, God wants me to get involved. This song - and all others in that particular album by house of heroes pretty much chronicles things throught he perspective of being a "soldier" for Christ. And lent tends to be an introspective and hard slog in the battle at times but its also a good time to be reminded why we are "fighting the good fight."

I think the verse today from the Epistle captures it magnificently. We are in the war because:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. - 2 Corinthians 5:21

There you have it. We are fighting because we are being made into what we tried in vain to be ourselves - the righteousness of God. In a culture and age obsessed with self-salvation, self-satisfaction, and self-aggrandizement, I don't have to go far to find my idols. Yet, somehow, God is taking fallen, imperfect and impetuous man and is redeeming us for his glory?


I like Rev. Timothy Keller's paraphrase about Christ's sacrifice "He took a man who died loving us so that we might live to truly love others." Sometimes I focus on the outward fruit of my faith without realizing that first and foremost it takes a deeper and more significant inward devotion to and adoration of the God who picks us up out of self-imposed dust-heaps.

Praise Him, and keep rockin.

Diety and Disaster

Luke 13
Repent or Perish

1Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans
whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.
2Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. 4Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish."

6Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7So he said to the man who took
care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on
this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the
soil?'
8" 'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and
I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not,
then cut it down.' "

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This was the gospel reading for yesterday at church. It really struck me for many reasons, especially in light of the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile. Imagine if Jesus was walking amongst us now and preaching – and the earthquake just happened, or someone brings up 9-11. I think Jesus could have just as easily incorporated that into his message:
“Do you think that these Haitians are worse sinners than all the other people because they suffered in this way?...Or those 3,000 people who died when the Twin towers collapsed when the world Trade Center was attacked – do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in New York City? I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

Now, far be it for me to put word’s in Jesus’ mouth, but I see his point – that these disasters did not have anything to do with righteousness and guilt before God. The same God whom the bible says “makes it rain on the just and unjust alike” can also impart disaster on both parties simultaneously. Why then the “But unless you repent, you too will all perish” quote?

I think Jesus was trying to drive home a point about death. Everyone wants to die at a full age, in their sleep and at peace with themselves and God. A tragic disaster affords nothing of that from a human perspective, and a cruel one seems like divine punishment – whether or not the person believes in God. However, when Jesus says perish, I think he means something more than being cut off from life.

What are your thoughts on this passage and God’s role in natural and man-made disasters?

Who is this?

“He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, "Quiet! Be still!" Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

He said to his disciples, "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?"

They were terrified and asked each other, "Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!"
- Mark 4:39-41

I wonder if sometimes we say “Who is this?” especially when we are supposed to know better. I was listening to a wonderful sermon by the Rev. Timothy Keller, a Presbyterian minister up in New York City discourse on Knowing God.

He started his preaching with the focus on the fact that none of the questions we have about God or Christ can be properly or rightly answered until we realize that we are encountering a person, not a religion. To this effect, we have to make an effort to actually relate to the person of God. He made a wonderful illustration that if there is an athlete whom all the girls love because he is a star football player, that person will expect that his prowess on the field is the way he can attract a woman. However, if he meets a rather bookish girl who “doesn’t know the difference between a first down and a hole in one” yet he wants to get her attention, he can’t give her a book on the rules of football, demand that she read it, and then be open to his advances based on the merits of his skill.

Rev. Keller stated that we have to get to know someone through the way they deem through their heart. So when Jesus says that he is “The Way, the Truth, and The Life, and that no one may know the Father except through him” it really challenged me to sit and think – am I trying to know God through the way God has designated that I know him. If you want to get to know a person, and they give you a list of their interests and times they are available to talk, would you then say “No, actually this time works better for me, and I only want to talk about this, so please change your preferences so that I might really get to know the real you.”

I shudder to think how many times in my life I’ve inadvertently been guilty of that, but I digress. Sometimes in God I want a willing accomplice, butler, chauffer, or ego-boost – but not necessarily to know His will much less put it above my own and into practice. It’s easy to be “always triumphant” when you’ve determined for yourself what “triumph” looks like (however legitimate your desires are) outside the will of God. Its also easy to be gravely disappointed in the same scheme of things. Christ reminds us that can’t even make one of our hairs turn white or black in our own power – how much moreso to accomplish all the things we plan and desire?

Knowing God takes us out of our will and fundamentally into God’s. Rev. Keller had a great quote from one of his mentors – Elisabeth Elliott – which I quote imperfectly from memory but the gist was that we never ask God for help in doing something, we rather ask God for the obedience and discipline to remain in His will – even and especially since we don’t always know the details and what exactly that will looks like.

This brings back the fundamental question of knowing God. Jesus’ disciples rebuked him first – asking emphatically “Don’t you care that we’re about to die?!?!” How many times do we do that in our lives in different and desperate situations – yet without realizing that Christ could just as easily respond “Don’t you care that I died to give you eternal life that you may know God?”

I pray that I can stop asking "Who is this?" so much and get to know him better, especially through this time of Lent. God bless.