The Black Friday ads are out before Thanksgiving in fact some retailers are selling items at Black Friday prices even before Thanksgiving Day. Barbara and I have noticed more stores open on Thanksgiving. In years past it was just Kmart but now others are open as well. Christmas decorations are already picked over in some places. It seems we get ready for all of the buying, consuming, celebrating and decorating way ahead of time. I wonder how much time we spend preparing for Jesus at Christmas?
One of our mothers said her young child reminded her that without Jesus there would be no Christmas. Honestly would that be true? With all of the “holiday” special, programs, deals and shopping could we just drop Jesus and it still go on? Sad to say, I think it would and never know it. Life and living in our day are like that.
We live complicated busy lives to the exclusion of why and what for. There must be a point in all of the Christmas madness but do you and I get prepare to see and experience the point Jesus, God’s gift to a world lost and dying? “And it came to pass…” at just the right moment Jesus was born amongst a political census for taxation purposes. People were consumed with their plans, arrangements, lodging, family and friends, then at just that moment God’s son is born, laid in a manger and only a few know of it shepherds and later Magi. Hard economic times they were. Lost in despair and confusion over taxes, politics and day to day living people struggled. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? Most people missed the most important event yet known to man.
Let me encourage you to get ready for Christ at Christmas. Oh sure you have lots to do, go, be, say and cry over but don’t miss the reason for Christmas. A gift of amazing worth, value and sacrifice for ungrateful, mean, no good, rascals like me is the reason for Christmas all because of God’s love for us. The liturgical calendar calls this time of preparation Advent. Let us add this event to our live not just our calendar of events. Let’s get ready again for the miracle of Christmas to be the wonder of the world, our world and all of those who we make contact with this season of celebration for it is a time to announce Joy to the world the Lord is come!
Friday, November 26, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
I was thinking about...
meditation. Not the cross-your-legs-and-hum kind of meditation but rather the kind like Mary (Jesus Mother) “pondered…in her heart meditation. You may have said I can’t do that. Well consider this. Rich Warren author of Purpose Driven Life, Purpose Driven Church and Pastor of saddleback Church writes, “if you can worry then you can meditate.” Some of us CAN worry can’t we? You may be one of the chosen who has a GIFT in worrying. It is truly special. He concludes that to worry is to meditate on the problem. I must agree. Usually all I am thinking about is the problem and its negative outcomes. Honestly, if I had a solution I would have already done something about it. But It is easier to worry and be miserable than to work for a solution. It is more fun to involve more people in your misery because misery loves company so “they” say. One of my aspirations is to be a “they” someday. Pastor Rick then moves us to say that meditation is to “worry” on the solution. The kind of meditation that I speak of here is the pondering, thinking, considering of the Word of God Jesus kind.
Jesus is the solution for all of our worries. He is the one who everything was made by, for and through, The one who holds all things together and maintains balance. He is the solution. In a very practical book titled Life Together Dietrich Bonhoeffer describes meditation in its core component terms. It is to consider the word of God and his implications not for the whole world but for my world in whole. It is to consider maybe one word of Scripture and not the entirety of the book or a passage or even a sentence so that it may speak to me at the very heart of my life that day, week or month. For the teacher, preacher Bible study leader meditation is not to teach the text, to preach the text but to experience the text as the word of the living God. Meditation is in today’s terms “hang out time” with Jesus. Thursday that struck me as I was meditating.
As I was still and had for the most part prayed through or abandoned the thoughts of the coming day, past few days and life concerns, it occurred to me (really it was revealed to me by the Spirit) what a bless it is that the one who holds all together stronger than gravity, electromagnetism, stronger than any force of nature, the one who created nature wants me to hang out with HIM. Instead of what is meditation the question becomes who am I that the Lord of All wants me to hang out? Who am I at all?
I have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. It is amazing that meditating on the most basic of ideas would lead to the greatest moments of gratitude. On behalf of the Crossroads family I wish you and happy Thanksgiving filled with joy and gratitude for the Word of the Living God who loves us and “hangs with us.”
Jesus is the solution for all of our worries. He is the one who everything was made by, for and through, The one who holds all things together and maintains balance. He is the solution. In a very practical book titled Life Together Dietrich Bonhoeffer describes meditation in its core component terms. It is to consider the word of God and his implications not for the whole world but for my world in whole. It is to consider maybe one word of Scripture and not the entirety of the book or a passage or even a sentence so that it may speak to me at the very heart of my life that day, week or month. For the teacher, preacher Bible study leader meditation is not to teach the text, to preach the text but to experience the text as the word of the living God. Meditation is in today’s terms “hang out time” with Jesus. Thursday that struck me as I was meditating.
As I was still and had for the most part prayed through or abandoned the thoughts of the coming day, past few days and life concerns, it occurred to me (really it was revealed to me by the Spirit) what a bless it is that the one who holds all together stronger than gravity, electromagnetism, stronger than any force of nature, the one who created nature wants me to hang out with HIM. Instead of what is meditation the question becomes who am I that the Lord of All wants me to hang out? Who am I at all?
I have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. It is amazing that meditating on the most basic of ideas would lead to the greatest moments of gratitude. On behalf of the Crossroads family I wish you and happy Thanksgiving filled with joy and gratitude for the Word of the Living God who loves us and “hangs with us.”
Thursday, November 11, 2010
The same old rat race...
Have you ever seen rats race? I have seen wiener dogs race, horses, cars, people etc. but never rats. But alas I digress; the phrase speaks of business without purpose or significance, that feeling of being in a wheel running very fast and going nowhere. The days, weeks or months when you go, go, go and find you have gone nowhere. That is frustrating. In our minds if we work harder, longer smarter then we will “go” places, get somewhere and do something right? Turns out it has only been a rat race and you are still on the wheel running like mad and getting nowhere. Do you feel like that?
In a book by Gregory A. Boyd titled Seeing is Believing: Experience Jesus though Imaginative Prayer a statement is made that our “flesh is founded on a lie that leads to performance...To the extent that our view of God and ourselves is distorted, we attempt to find life in what we do, whether this be secular or religious activities.” We see this in over commitment to activities at church which leads to burnout from the lie if I do this God will love me more or this will make me a better person or “I should.” In the end we still find ourselves tired and frustrated for the long awaited fulfillment is still nowhere to be seen and we are still on the wheel. We have just changed settings for the wheel moving from the “secular” to the sacred arena but still doing the same thing running as fast as we can looking to fulfill our need. We must have messed something! We did and we do!
In the familiar story of the encounter of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, we see the woman is occupied with her life in that community with the rat race she lives in everyday. She keeps doing the same thing getting the same results and getting nowhere. She is in the wheel going nowhere fast. Here is Jesus offering a way to get off and for much of the conversation she cannot see the exit out of the wheel. Later on in the book of John we see and hear Jesus declare to Israel this gift of “living water” on the closing day of their Feast of the Tabernacles. The IVP New Testament Commentaries for John 7:37-39 states:
On each day of the feast there was a procession of priests to the pool of Siloam to draw water (m. Sukka 4:9). The priests returned to the temple, where the water was taken in procession once around the altar with the choir chanting Psalms 113-118, and then the water was poured out as a libation at the morning sacrifice… This was a time of joy so great that it was said, "He that never has seen the joy of the Beth he-She'ubah [water-drawing] has never in his life seen joy" (m. Sukka 5:1; cf. Deut 16:14-15; Jubilees 16:20, 25). This joy was associated with Isaiah 12:3, "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." On the seventh day of the festival the priests processed around the altar with the water not once but seven times (Bloch 1980:200; cf. Beasley-Murray 1987:113 for a more detailed description).
At this high point of the festival Jesus dramatically cries out loudly (krazo, as in v. 28), If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink (v. 37).
Israel had fallen into the same pattern just a religious version of the lie. They kept doing the same thing as commanded getting the same results and going nowhere. They as a nation were on the wheel going nowhere fast. Here stands Jesus shouting where the exit is and how to go through it. So, the rat race continues for Israel and for you.
You have heard these claims of Jesus and living water. Maybe even tried them but got the same result. You found yourself doing the same thing getting the same result so it must not work or be real! To tell you the truth you are INSANE! Doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result is insane. That is not what Jesus is offering to you. Gregory A. Boyd writes “attempting to get free from the flesh by trying harder is like trying to get out of quicksand. The harder you struggle, the faster you sink. The only way to get free from the entrapment of the flesh is to give up and surrender to the Spirit. We need to learn how to rest in Christ.” Jesus said FOLLOW me, do what I do, say what I say. Rest in me.
Rest it sounds good better than rats!
In a book by Gregory A. Boyd titled Seeing is Believing: Experience Jesus though Imaginative Prayer a statement is made that our “flesh is founded on a lie that leads to performance...To the extent that our view of God and ourselves is distorted, we attempt to find life in what we do, whether this be secular or religious activities.” We see this in over commitment to activities at church which leads to burnout from the lie if I do this God will love me more or this will make me a better person or “I should.” In the end we still find ourselves tired and frustrated for the long awaited fulfillment is still nowhere to be seen and we are still on the wheel. We have just changed settings for the wheel moving from the “secular” to the sacred arena but still doing the same thing running as fast as we can looking to fulfill our need. We must have messed something! We did and we do!
In the familiar story of the encounter of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, we see the woman is occupied with her life in that community with the rat race she lives in everyday. She keeps doing the same thing getting the same results and getting nowhere. She is in the wheel going nowhere fast. Here is Jesus offering a way to get off and for much of the conversation she cannot see the exit out of the wheel. Later on in the book of John we see and hear Jesus declare to Israel this gift of “living water” on the closing day of their Feast of the Tabernacles. The IVP New Testament Commentaries for John 7:37-39 states:
On each day of the feast there was a procession of priests to the pool of Siloam to draw water (m. Sukka 4:9). The priests returned to the temple, where the water was taken in procession once around the altar with the choir chanting Psalms 113-118, and then the water was poured out as a libation at the morning sacrifice… This was a time of joy so great that it was said, "He that never has seen the joy of the Beth he-She'ubah [water-drawing] has never in his life seen joy" (m. Sukka 5:1; cf. Deut 16:14-15; Jubilees 16:20, 25). This joy was associated with Isaiah 12:3, "With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation." On the seventh day of the festival the priests processed around the altar with the water not once but seven times (Bloch 1980:200; cf. Beasley-Murray 1987:113 for a more detailed description).
At this high point of the festival Jesus dramatically cries out loudly (krazo, as in v. 28), If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink (v. 37).
Israel had fallen into the same pattern just a religious version of the lie. They kept doing the same thing as commanded getting the same results and going nowhere. They as a nation were on the wheel going nowhere fast. Here stands Jesus shouting where the exit is and how to go through it. So, the rat race continues for Israel and for you.
You have heard these claims of Jesus and living water. Maybe even tried them but got the same result. You found yourself doing the same thing getting the same result so it must not work or be real! To tell you the truth you are INSANE! Doing the same thing again and again expecting a different result is insane. That is not what Jesus is offering to you. Gregory A. Boyd writes “attempting to get free from the flesh by trying harder is like trying to get out of quicksand. The harder you struggle, the faster you sink. The only way to get free from the entrapment of the flesh is to give up and surrender to the Spirit. We need to learn how to rest in Christ.” Jesus said FOLLOW me, do what I do, say what I say. Rest in me.
Rest it sounds good better than rats!
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