Is the summer over - I sure hope not!

July 31^st (246 words)

Last day of July.  The year marches on… August arrives, and people start talking about September. 

Are we feeling rushed?

The normal march of life has a beginning and an end in the same way that seasons have a beginning and an end - then another, new beginning and another end.

What do you put in the middle?

What do you put in the small space between the beginning and the end?

Well if you want to give a good answer to this question, another question is begging to be asked:

“What has been given to you?”

“What do you do with what has been given to you?”

You are born into a context – whether you like it or not.

You are born with gifts, abilities, hindrances, and handicaps. 

Each day you face the need of God’s grace, not only to overcome hindrances and handicaps but also to maximize your gifts and abilities – so that one doesn’t nullify the other.

“Dear God, let me live in your grace.  Let me walk with a God-sized consciousness of your presence in my life.  Grow my little human consciousness of you into a bigger realization of you and your presence in my life.  Let my heart – anxious at the pressure of feeling rushed – find rest in you.  Dear God, there is only one life – it will soon be past, only what is done for Christ will last – make the most of my fleeting time on this earth!  Amen.”

Sitting next to the creator of the universe

July 25^th (words 679)

We might have asked the disciples: “What was it like to sit next to the creator of the universe?”  You’re sitting there, face to face with Jesus just after the realization that he is the Messiah, the chosen one of God, God in the flesh in fact.  What do you say?   What kind of conversation partner was Jesus when he walked the earth? 

A couple great looks of this come from the story of Nicodemus and the Woman at Samaria.  These two examples come early in the book of John - before Jesus becomes a celebrity that people come to for healing and a new teaching.  It also comes before there is the full realization of who Jesus is.  We’ll look at the conversation Jesus has with Nicodemus. 

Nicodemus meets with Jesus at night – possibly to protect his image as a Pharisee.  He opens the conversation with a compliment that shows he has his eyes open.  He takes a side that is pro-Jesus – saying he is from God, not from the enemy.  I can imagine that he was waiting for Jesus to thank him for his compliment.  “Thank-you Nicodemus – you are a perceptive observer, you have rightly grasped who I am, I tip my hat to your intelligence.”  What was Nicodemus expecting from Jesus?  Perhaps he wasn’t looking for any sort of compliment – but a teaching.  Perhaps he complimented Jesus in order to get more teaching for his hungry heart.

He says: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”  Let’s pick this apart.  First Nicodemus isn’t alone in his assessment – he says: “we know.”  Jesus divided the crowds and the different Jewish communities – people loved him and the things he could do for them or they hated him.

Second, they know Jesus is a teacher.  He is one who teachers.  Crowds, thousands would come to hear Jesus teach.  Not only did he have new teaching, he taught in a new way – as one with authority.

Third, Nicodemus points out that Jesus is a teacher come from God.  Nicodemus interprets the miracles as a way to support his teaching – He is not just a dispenser of spiritual medicine that heals.  The miracles are actually signs from God which gives strength and power to the words he says.

There was a lot that could have been praised in the words of Nicodemus.  But Jesus doesn’t give a word of praise for Nicodemus.  Instead, in verse 3 it says, “Jesus answered him…”  When you read what Jesus says it doesn’t look like much of an answer to me.  He pitches Nicodemus a curveball that was hard for him to catch – let alone hit. 

We need to adjust our understanding of the little compliment Nicodemus gives Jesus so that the response he gets answers his unasked question.  We must read between the lines to find the question his words are indirectly asking. 

It becomes clear that Nicodemus wasn’t fishing for a compliment – he was paying a compliment to a teacher so that he could hear more teaching.  His unasked question, lying in the look of his eyes, asks Jesus for more.  “Teach me!” Nicodemus asks. 

For me, this small detail re-orients the whole context of this discussion.  Instead of Jesus ignoring the words of Nicodemus in order to disorient him…  he answers the question lying in the hungry heart of Nicodemus.  He gives him what he is hungry for but it gives him indigestion – because he doesn’t know how to take it!  This is powerful – because Nicodemus can’t simply add to what he already knows.  He needs to have a reorientation, a transformation, a metamorphosis, from here to there. 

He needs to start with Jesus and go from there… It starts with a new birth.  It starts with becoming like a little child – accepting by faith.  If you accept Jesus as a teacher – whose teaching is supported by signs from God – then he reorients your understanding.

Let him be your kindergarten teacher!

June 26^th  (336 words)

Are you beautiful inside – beautiful like a sunset… beautiful like a misty lake at 5 in the morning… beautiful like a butterfly?  Do you know the one who makes things beautiful?  Jesus makes things beautiful because he gives us his beauty – he shines his light in us and through us.

I start this blog with very little idea of where it is going. 

I start it with a song in my head.  Katie Herzig: Beautiful Inside

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDsU_-_kuSo

It is a romantic song sung about love – directed toward another who is beautiful inside.

but!

Reading between the lines – and singing the song as if it is sung from God to us gives a new spin for my fatigued soul.  Reading the lyrics… actually shows me that the song doesn’t fit perfectly for my context and for this post… but I do need to hear this one little phrase.  Because of what Jesus has done: I’m beautiful inside.

Hearing the phrase sung to the moving tune of Miss Herzig adds a delight that can only come from God for this weary soul.  When you have been saved by Jesus – he makes you beautiful inside. 

It’s the last week of work before vacation.  The only reason this is relevant is that it gives you a little more context to my post – writing before a much-needed rest!

Here is a great-big-theology-word for you: Justification.  This means being clothed in the perfect righteousness of Christ.  This means that the stain of sin is wiped clean.  This means that the heart-home where the Holy Spirit lives – my life which is the indwelling place of God – has been made beautiful by a God-made-miracle. 

Here I am connecting two things: righteousness and holiness equal beauty.  This is the song God is singing to me – and you get to listen in.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Let God make you beautiful inside!

Here is another you-tube song that applies! 

Jesus makes beautiful things (A Gungor Lyric Video)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1spkhp41ig4

be beautiful!

June 19^{th    (words297)}

You decide if there is an erosion of the right to be Christian in Canada:  The Supreme Court of Canada has decided that the law societies of the different provinces can bar law students graduating from Trinity Western University’s law program. They are saying that because the Christian university has a code of conduct – that requires students to act by Christian values – their law program discriminates against the LGBTQ community. 

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trinity-western-supreme-court-decision-1.4707240

What does this mean?

A Christian University doesn’t have the right to train the lawyers of our country – or to say this another way: Canada doesn’t allow lawyers to get a Christian-based training.

Christianity loses another legal battle in Canada as our rights are slowly and systematically eroded. 

Erosion happens when water constantly flows over crumbling ground. 

So what?

Positive directions: In a few years Canada will be like the vast majority of nations around the world!  Wow – Canada will be like everyone else in its approach to the Gospel – and followers of the Gospel

The exceptional circumstances that created Canada – as a nation based on Christian values are crumbling and we will soon find ourselves in a situation that Christians have faced throughout the hundreds and thousands of years.

Let’s not be surprised by the turn of events happening in Canada.  We should have expected a non-Christian nation to go against Christ!

Let’s shock our nation by still loving – being unmoved in our commitment to love our neighbor as ourselves – to stick to a life of holiness – to stay within a Christian ethic that stays connected to God’s design for his creation.  I still say God is the builder of humanity – he should have a say in how his building is used.

Loving the LGBTQ community can be one of our greatest privileges!  

Freedom for/from Star Wars

June 5^th (415 words)

I am waiting… I have no desire to watch any future Star Wars movies in the theatre… It feels like the empire has taken over the free-world and forever ruined childhood heroes.  Story writing (even for Disney) is a dangerous thing.  This post is not just about venting my frustrations – It is that and more…

Let me first express my frustration at the way Disney is not only killing off characters – it is assassinating them.  The hero I had growing up, fighting evil – seeing good in their evil father – and acting in faith – becomes (in Disney’s version) a depressed goof who drinks the milk of ugly monsters. 

I see them first buying out the enemy – then making fun of almost each and every Star Wars hero. 

Disney… that happy-go-lucky creator of childhood dreams… has a dark side. 

A main story-theme (not just in Disney) is freedom.  You do anything for freedom – even die for it.  But in my mind, this begs the question: freedom to do what?  What are you free to do?

We are not actually free to do anything we want…

We are not actually free to govern ourselves – we pick the government that is presented in the best light (something the media outlets have already decided in advance)

We are not actually free to determine our future.  Our futures are constantly limited by our upbringing, our place in society, and our own characters.

Breaking free from one tyrant opens up space for another one to step in.

The fight for freedom is old and over-used and really has been reduced to a rebellious heart that just doesn’t want to submit to anyone, anything – especially a higher power or a righteous authority.

This theme is very different from the belief in faith and submitting oneself to the good – even at the risk of your life.

The key Star Wars climax involves Luke Skywalker refusing to fight and accepting to be killed by the Emperor while his father watches helplessly… but Vader is not so helpless.  He comes to the rescue of his son – whose faith is rewarded.

My little boycotts and reactions to injustice (not going to the theatre for Disney… trying to shop at Canadian Tire instead of Walmart, drinking Cranberry juice instead of Coke-a-cola) are small drops in a sea of corporate monsters.

Better is the life that learns submission to God, and in his good – walks by faith.

“Please God, tame this rebellious, lazy heart of mine!”

Warner's top 10

A contextual message, developing a Canadian theology confronting and responding to culture’s context…

OUR Reality

(1)

Companies and corporations are crafting human thought so it establishes in us the assumption that we need the extra widgets only it can provide.

What is common ground among the companies and corporations is consumerism, reducing people to appetites to be fed?

when consumerism is applied to people it results in:

            a drug-filled culture and

            women being treated as objects to be consumed by men

(2)

Pro-abortionist arguments exchanged in a silo of white people fail to see the broader global context:

            a tool first intended to give their women choice and control over their bodies

            has become a weapon gripped by male-dominated circles for the death of helpless girls

(3)

Entertainment industries provide Canadians with enough static noise that we don’t notice the shouts and cries of people suffering and in desperate need.  Killing, wars, tragedy, starvation, violence, silence and hunger exists as the daily bread of so many millions.  But we go back to our regularly scheduled broadcast… the next hit of Netflix, Youtube or our satellite cable provider.  We go back to the war and fantasy games that promote the violence we refuse to hear elsewhere.

(4)

Canadian history – a violent victory over now-subjugated first nations – is about the prosperity of ancestors who naively and innocently stole land, money, food, culture, and life itself from their defeated enemies. 

(5)

Christianity is being associated with progressive, expansionist, hungry companies or countries, wanting to exploit weaker people for their own benefit.  Christians mistake the greedy acts of a secular state for the hand of God bringing justice.  Can warships bring the love of Jesus?  Can democracy be forced on anyone? 

(6)

Sheep follow the wolves… why do they do that?  Where is their shepherd?

(7)

The Church of Jesus sleeps on a bed made of electronic gadgets while…

it drowns in stories crafted for fun

(8)

All religions are said to be expressions of one God.  Any intolerant voice is thought to originate from an unenlightened goof.  Tolerance as a Canadian dogma silences Christ and paints his portrait from better celebrity models  

(9)

A tsunami of Russian, Chinese, Islamic expansionist idealism will soon wake up our North American dream – we’ll find ourselves in the poverty and desperation normal for everyone else in the world.  

(10)

It’s not too late to do something – but it might be too difficult.  We’ve been so shaped by corporations who want us kept in a continual state of passive dependence.  The call to rise up and make a change in our lifestyle so you can make a difference falls on deaf ears.  It can hardly be heard let alone acted on.

What do you think?

A word for the fearful

May 29^th (words 347)

So awesome is God.  He speaks into fearful hearts, saying: “Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge… O Lord, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?  Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.  Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down! Touch the mountains so that they smoke!”  

“Come and visit me in this coffee shop… but hold back the smoke – it would distract people too much. come visit us in Cowansville… come to our house… Let your thrown be set over my personal space.”

Instead of cowering behind my inabilities – God trains me for active involvement in his kingdom.

I was talking with Becky about serving within our gifting. 

As God enables us to better know ourselves he can give us a better sense for how he wants to use us.  If you love God, you will obey him – the Bible says.

May the circles that I walk and swim in and rest in and work in be all within the bigger circle of your rule! 

My hands aren’t being trained for a literal war (as might have been the case for King David) – but they are being strengthened by God for living in a world that becomes more and more difficult.

Newest unbelievable news… Trump calls the Canadian auto industry a threat to American national security.  My prayer in a world that gets more and more crazy is that God would remind us to rest fearlessly in his provision. I looked up a song that might have first been written out of a pot-stoning:  “Don't worry about a thing; 'Cause every little thing gonna be alright; Singing' don't worry about a thing; 'Cause every little thing gonna be alright”  We can thank Bob Marley for words that actually reflect a Christian rest – spoken to fearful hearts.