Changes in Just Wondering…
It seems as though some of the most intimate moments that I have experienced with God have been while sitting on my back deck under the blackness of night while starring off into the glittering night sky of the stars and luminous moon light. It seems as though I could spend hours there conversing about my day, family, friends, and my deeper thoughts about faith, theology, and the church. I suppose too, often I would just sit there listening and enjoying being in his presence. I often like to compare it to a candle being lit in a dark room. It is small and yet it brings illumination and focus to everything within that room. Likewise, Jesus can bring light into our lives through moments of inspiration or epiphany even in the darkest of circumstances!
It is for this reason that I decided to change the theme to Just Wondering… so that it could better reflect this aspect of my life, faith, and walk with Jesus. It is a darker theme in the hopes of it drawing focus and attention on what is being said and shared through my posts and the community responses. Contrary to some of my friends saying other wise, I must confess that I am not a “computer guru” and as such I chose this theme from a set design. There are ups and downs to its parameters one of which is that the pages to this site are now listed at the side rather then as tabs at the top. I hope this does not deter you from exploring the other different Wonderings I have on this site.
The other change which I have brought to Just Wondering is in the recognition of how God has used music to shape and mold my faith throughout the years. Whether it was sitting in the living room listening to my mother play her box guitar and singing along with her or the many great artists, ”Christian” and “Non-Christian”, that I have heard play live and in recordings; music has always had a great place in my heart for the authentic expression and exploration of what it means to walk in Jesus’ presence. For this reason I have added a “Box” widget to the right column of the site where you can listen to some of the music which has impacted me over years. At the beginning of every month I will change the song being played so make sure to keep up with the latest addition to ‘Songs of Wonder’.
Bonnie and I will be busy over the next coming months writing a business plan and preparing for the launch of ‘Expressions Coffee & Tea House’. However, I hope to write a number of posts over the next little while on such things as ‘Who Am I?’ – My New Years Covenant, ‘Some Christmas Pic’s’, and a series of entries detailing my thoughts regarding the six points of ‘Ideology and the Christian Church’ which I had brought up a few weeks ago. Until then enjoy the new theme, the ‘Songs of Wonder’, and the encounters you might have with the presence of Jesus in your life!
Jesus is the Gift
Jesus is the gift that perfectly fits every heart
and it is with his love that all celebration starts.
We rejoice in Him as we remember His birth
and thank God for sending His only Son to earth.
His life lead from a manger to a cross on a hill
where he faithfully followed his Father’s perfect will.
He freely laid down everything so that we could live,
and there is no greater treasure anyone could give.
Like a scarlet ribbon His love wrapped around the cross
and he offered it to us all at the greatest cost.
So each time that we give we remember what he’s done
and honor the perfect Gift – God’s one and only Son.Holley Gerth
A Christmas Prayer
Father, I draw close to your Spirit today. My heart reflects back into the depths of history as I picture the birth of Jesus in a stable of animals. A baby lying amongst a bed of straw, set within a manger. I look deeper still into your face Jesus with your brown reflecting eyes looking right through to my soul and I am filled with your incredible presence…. Jesus…. Emmanuel…. God with us.
Jesus, you begin to open your eyes and I ask for that sight. The sight of wisdom to be brought to the masses. That our leaders, seen and unseen, would have the veil of human ideologies and concepts lifted from their minds and hearts. That instead it would be replaced by the visions and dreams of your Kingdom, an ever lasting Kingdom of true justice, freedom, and equity for all despite race, nation, religion, or political affiliation.
Your heart beats with a cadence for peace and good will for all. Let mine and all others fall into the rhythm of beating within that same Holy Spirit. Let your passion for peace fill the Middle East so that freedom can be brought to the imprisoned on all sides. Let your stillness of heart and the tranquility of your actions loosen the grips we have on weapons which do harm to one another so that we can take up open hands for the purpose of rebuilding that which was lost not only in the physical sense but in the community, social, spiritual, and relational sense.
I pray Jesus that here in the West we would break the confines of self seeking agendas so that we can begin to see the acts of good will to all being that of a holistic embrace of our neighbors in all parts of the earth. There is no rich, no poor, no enemy or infidel; only my brother, my sister, my friend and my neighbor. Teach us Jesus in testimony and deed the greatest power of loving our neighbor as ourselves!
I pray Lord that we would take greater notice of what it means to have dominion on the earth. That we would recognize that dominion does not mean dominance or the right to do what ever we choose too but, that it is the right to do what we should do. Give us courage Jesus in the face of environmental degradation to make the right choices and to change our lives so that we take better care of the beauty of your creation. I pray more specifically that I can and will make the changes needed to my own life so that I might be a witness to the transformations you can bring to our community.
Let your Joy fill the air. Let the richness of life, a life to the fullest bring health and happiness to all people. May healing be found by those who seek it. May I offer comfort to those who need it. Let laughter and cheer pierce the deepest and darkest states of mine and all others physical, emotional, and spiritual imprisonments. Let all things in my heart, mind, and soul be shaped by righteousness, goodness, and truth!
I confess you Jesus as my Lord, my Savior, my end all and be all, my life and my very being! This shapes my hope in present and in future. May that hope, that faith, that love, that first and eternal Christmas of God with us continue to flow into every heart from now into Eternity! Amen.
“My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
And his mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
he has brought down the mighty from their thrones
and exalted those of humble estate;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Morning & Evening Devotion: The Door By Which All Will Pass
“I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.”
Bonnie and I just finished our daily devotional and I felt God really stirring in my heart so, I thought I would share it with the rest of you!
Jesus, the great I AM, is the entrance into the true church, and the way of access to God himself. He gives to the man who comes to God by him four choice privileges.
1. He shall be saved. The fugitive manslayer passed the gate of the city of refuge, and was safe. Noah entered the door of the ark, and was secure. None can be lost who take Jesus as the door of faith to their souls. Entrance through Jesus into peace is the guarantee of entrance by the same door into heaven. Jesus is the only door, an open door, a wide door, a safe door; and blessed is he who rests all his hope of admission to glory upon the crucified Redeemer.
2. He shall go in. He shall be privileged to go in among the divine family, sharing the children’s bread, and participating in all their honours and enjoyments. He shall go in to the chambers of communion, to the banquets of love, to the treasures of the covenant, to the storehouses of the promises. He shall go in unto the King of kings in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the secret of the Lord shall be with him.
3. He shall go out. This blessing is much forgotten. We go out into the world to labour and suffer, but what a mercy to go in the name and power of Jesus! We are called to bear witness to the truth, to cheer the disconsolate, to warn the careless, to win souls, and to glorify God; and as the angel said to Gideon, “Go in this thy might,” even thus the Lord would have us proceed as his messengers in his name and strength.
4. He shall find pasture. He who knows Jesus shall never want. Going in and out shall be alike helpful to him: in fellowship with God he shall grow, and in watering others he shall be watered. Having made Jesus his all, he shall find all in Jesus. His soul shall be as a watered garden, and as a well of water whose waters fail not.
Nothing Always Leads to Something
It might sound crazy but, all I want for Christmas this year is absolutely nothing! Why? In honesty, because I truly believe that nothing always leads to something. I started thinking about this probably about a week ago while reading the story of Joseph and Mary traveling to Bethlehem in Luke 2:1-7.
It starts by saying that, “In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town.” Of course this was a big thing for many Jews as many would not be in there own ancestral home towns. The Roman Empire had brought the technologies and road systems which would spread the Jews all around the known world and so it would take them a great deal of time to work there way back to Israel and their own respective ancestral homes.
Mary and Joseph where no exception. It would probably take them several days to navigate and walk all the way from their small village of Nazareth in northern Israel down to the birth place of their ancestor David and the home of the tribe of Benjamin; the city of Bethlehem. It is here where I begin to reflect on the state of nothingness that Mary and particularly Joseph would be feeling.
Mary is pregnant and on the verge of giving birth to their first born son. After being inquisitively held under the judging eyes of their friends, their family, and their fellow neighbors in Nazareth they take the dangerous and long journey down to Bethlehem to register under Caesar’s censes with all that they own on the back of a lone donkey. Tired, sore, and straining to find a place to rest they are confronted by the cold and suppressive shoulders of their distant relatives. There is no room in the inn. No extra space by the fire. And no place for Mary to lie back while going through the labor of Jesus’ birth.
I can just picture Joseph’s anguish! Why? They are not important enough. They are not intellectually, politically, our religiously astute enough. They wouldn’t be able to give an entertaining enough conversation at the supper table. They are not rich enough or they just don’t have the right connections with the right people. I imagine them listening to the whispers behind the closed doors of the city homes as they heard the same adage Jesus would hear thirty years later; “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46) They were worthless and unimportant. They were nothing.
My friend Patrick wrote an article several weeks back on the word ‘Kenosis’. It is a Greek word meaning “nothing” or “nothingness” and he points out quickly the struggles we often face with this kind of state or value. He says, “It’s a curious sort of now because it doesn’t seem quite a Christian value. Buddhists believe in emptying. Christians believe in filling. Buddhists pursue a divine nothingness. Christians the fullness of God. So such a term becomes easy to write off as not being Christian. Only it’s entirely so.” More pointedly we find Paul using this word of kenosis in describing his picture of the first Christmas in Philippians 2:5-7 as being in the character of Jesus, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.”
We go back to our passage, our first Christmas scene (Luke 2:6-7), “And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger.” Joseph and Mary that night found themselves completely empty, void, and without significance and yet in the flickering of the torch light, laying there in the straw bed of an animals manger was a tiny baby. A baby which brought a smile to each of them as they knew that even when life seemed empty and without purpose, God would bring fullness to it. Nothing always leads to something.
I would like to borrow the words of my friend Patrick again when he said, “Being emptied is assuming there’s still something, only it has been gutted, poured out. The container remains. The content changes.” Perhaps, you have felt this same sense of meaninglessness or loss of purpose. Maybe you have felt pushed to the side or felt a sense of a numbing nothingness in your life. I offer you the same promise Jesus offered through his Spirit of Christmas; nothing always leads to something. Again, nothing always leads to something.
Nothing always leads to Hope.
A hope that says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:1-11) Jesus promises that in the authentic expression of even our most deepest emotions we can find hope in witnessing and looking for his kingdom around us.
Nothing leads us to Faith.
I am reminded of a quote which I read from Sam Ervin. He said, “Faith is not a storm cellar to which men and women can flee for refuge from the storms of life. It is, instead, an inner force that gives them the strength to face those storms and their consequences with serenity of spirit.” In other words, faith is to say “the kingdom of God is near” and to truly believe it not because it is written in the bible or even in our heads, but because it is shown through our actions, our words, and our daily activities to which that kingdom has come to be present. It is an unseen power which we have in the simple choice of following Jesus!
Nothing leads to Eternal Life
On that first Christmas, after all that had happened – Mary’s encounter with the angel, Joseph’s dream, their traveling down to the city of Bethlehem – Do you think that while looking into the depth’s of their babies eyes that they would have any clue as to Jesus’ promise of God’s love for this world, “that he would give his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) Not even the empty nothingness of death can stop Jesus and his followers from the reality that nothing always leads to something.
All I want for Christmas is absolutely nothing because nothing always leads to something.
Music from the Heart: Just One Touch
Last Saturday at our Expressions Christmas gathering our good friends David & Ana shared this song with us from a cd which he had of a singer from China. It was moving just to hear them sharing something which was both personal and yet reflective of who they are. Anyways, here is the song:
First Communion: A Christmas Poem
It has been a long time since I have written any poetry so I must first make the disclaimer that this might be pretty bad. Never the less, Bonnie and I are hosting Expressions Christmas gathering tonight and I thought for my part I would attempt a poem before celebrating communion. So I suppose without further ado:
First Communion came in a still dark night,
the angel Gabriel appeared and gave Mary a fright.
He spoke “Peace be with you” as the moon light glistened,
and Mary sat at rest and quietly listened.
“You are in God’s favor and shall bear a child,”
“his faith will be as a rock and the religious leaders he will rile.”
“His Kingdom will be great and he shall be called the son of the most high.”
Mary’s heart leaped in the Spirit while she let out a long sigh.
“You will call him Jesus, Emmanuel, for God is with us.”
And at these words Mary became troubled and began to fuss.
“How can this be that a child I will bear?”
“For I am not yet married and the whole town will see this as unfair!”
“The Holy Spirit will be upon you in righteous communion,”
“and through birth he will bring God and man to a great reunion!”
“Every knee shall bow, every heart shall repent,”
“He is Lord! The Son of God who was Missionally sent!”
So Mary bowed her head while saying, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord,”
And after a small quiet pause, “let it be to me within his accord.”
So it is with all who would follow as servants in Spiritual communion,
that we would lift body and cup in remembrance of Jesus and our incarnational union.
An expression of Luke 1:26-38:
”In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, ou will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”
And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”
And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.”
The Christian Church, Ideologies, and Some Random Thoughts
A friend of mine posted a great article the other day called ‘One of My Passions’. In a response I commented on his post yet the thoughts continued to role in my head. I realized that my comments might have generated a continuing dialogue so I thought I would post it here as well. Anyways, here it is:
Excellent points Brad! Jesus didn’t just meet the people within a religious liturgical frame work. Rather he met with them “face to face” in a context defined by a personal relationship. I love the beauty in which that relationship blossoms as an individual is willing to engage the word within their own lives and the meaning it brings to them!
Take for example the calling of Peter and Andrew to be disciples. What if Jesus said, “Come with me and I will make you great theologians.”? They probably would have laughed at him and walked away. Instead Jesus relationally engaged them by going fishing with them and then afterwards he says, “Come with me and I will make you fishers of men!”
Is the Bible enough? I agree that on one hand the embodiment (Incarnation) of the man we know as Jesus in the gospels comes from a relational, contextual, and deeply personal interaction which we have with him through the practice of holistic spirituality and God’s word. It is definitely something more then just the Bible. However, something which has been bothering me lately is the question of whether certain groups or individuals might take that too far. How do we avoid our faith from becoming a conceptualized ideology (ultimately leading to idolatry)?
I have been reading Bob Goudzwaard’s book ‘Hope in Troubled Times’ and he has been spelling out six phases which most ideologies go through. In short: Conception, actualization, (re)construction, domination, terror, and dissolution. His point is directed towards world crises situations such as human rights, environmentalism, ecological issues, and economy. However, my problem arose in that while reading it I began to get a picture of the church and its role as an ideology! Has the church become so enamored by its need for liturgical practices that it has conformed to the realities of a human ideology rather then the truly intended Kingdom of God? And if so, what can we offer as followers of Jesus which can replace that ideology? I need to spend some time blogging on this myself I think!
I need to be honest with you Brad. I realize your intentions with regards to the practices of the “average laymen” reading scripture but, I disagree with your summery. In some cases yes, we need to remain grounded with the historical implications of scripture interpretation however, many “new believers” have profound insights on its meanings and practices and we need to do whatever it takes to encourage the exploration and dialogue of those relationships (check out our core values at ‘Expressions’).
Let me tell you where I’m coming from before you end up judging me too quickly. Unfortunately, to often many people end up getting plugged into a church pew where they are generally indoctrinated with church “garbledy goop” and as a result draw fairly solid borders between that which is sacred (anything related to the church) and that which is deemed secular (my everyday job, family life, friends, and daily life practices). We can preach unity all we want but unfortunately this divide of sacred and secular continue to exist and in some cases grow wider. There is little engagement with God’s word because one, it has little to no relevance to my daily life and two, isn’t that your job? We need to bring the two closer together until we realize that the secular is the sacred and vis versa. I am hoping you don’t label me as a heretic after this!
Anyways, how do we do that? How can we practice the unity of the sacred and the secular? Missional theology and practice brother! But, I’m sure you will get lots of that on the Shapevine link I sent you. You might want to check this article out to:
http://www.allelon.org/articles/article.cfm?id=381
Beyond that, maybe you and I can meet up for a cup of coffee some time in the near future. Just give me a call and I hope this didn’t turn into to much of a book for you! Blessings!
Eliminate Hurry From Your Life: Are You Kidding?
O.K. So today was the day which Bonnie informed me was dedicated to Christmas shopping. Now I love Christmas but to tell you the truth, I can’t stand Christmas shopping! “Oh, look at this. And look at that. Isn’t it so cute?” Ahhhh!!!! It drives me crazy! I like the idea of having a list, going in to get it and getting out as fast as possible. Bonnie on the other hand, likes to stop and look at every little Christmas ornament and possible sale there is. Ah, the joys of Christmas I suppose.
I wondered the mall watching as other people scurried about us trying to finish there shopping too and I wondered, “Why am I in such a rush?” Why can’t I just enjoy this time with my wife and watch her beautiful smile light up my face as she holds up the latest stuffed Santa Clause being displayed in the Sears department store? And then a still moment came to my heart where I remembered something Cam Roxbrogh said the last time I saw him, “Eliminate hurry from your life.”
I took a deep breath and repeated it to myself. “Eliminate hurry from your life.” Something so simple and yet so difficult to practice, especially in the midst of a shopping mall at Christmas! Another deep breath. It was amazing the things of life that I began to take in once I was able to realize that there was no hurry. People laughing, smiling, Bonnie planning for the future Christmas dinner that we will have with my dad and Pat. The funny scene of a mother going from rack to rack as her little boy trailed behind her saying “I’m tired! Are we done yet?”
I suppose that is something that is becoming more clear to me now. We can all find ourselves locked into a sense of hurry where every ounce of energy is dedicated to finishing and the only thought is of how tired you are. Or we could…eliminate hurry from our lives and recognize the wonder of life within each moment. In honesty, I need to practice a life without hurry a lot more. Perhaps you might want to too.
“Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah
Surely a man goes about as a shadow!
Surely for nothing they are in turmoil;
man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!”
Expressions
A Million Miles in a Thousand Years By Donald Miller
Follow Me to Freedom By Shane Claiborne & John Perkins
Journey to Significance By Neil Cole
Organic Leadership By Niel Cole
Sacrilege By Hugh Halter
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Missional Apologetics
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