tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77966981426077520402024-02-18T17:39:41.062-08:00The GatheringThe Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-9143410207733662812014-12-23T13:54:00.000-08:002014-12-23T13:54:30.225-08:00Participate in Life: GIVE<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“For God so loved the world he gave . . .” John 3:16<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We all know the rest of the verse. The miracle of the Christ
story is all about the gift of Jesus. But before we get to Jesus, contained in
the verse is a key to the nature of God. He GAVE. God breathed on man and he
became a <i>living</i> soul. Jesus came that
we might find <i>life.</i> God is all about <i>life</i>. Where ever we find God, <i>life </i>flourishes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Giving is participating in life. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God is not a bystander.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God is not an observer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God gives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God joins in the stories of men. He calls those of us who have
found him, who have experienced his life changing gift, to participate in the
life he gives. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">John 1:4 tells us that Jesus’ life is the light of men. Once we see that light we get to walk in it,
and perhaps help others to see it as well.
He compels us to shine his light into the dark spaces near us. We begin to share what we have freely
received from him with . . . “the world.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Life ensues.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Gathering is our part of “the world.” We have become
something of a cross cultural mission. God has gathered us into a beautiful,
eclectic, diverse assortment of Christ-followers. We now have over 40 Congolese
refugees that share life with us in our community of faith. We are helping them
learn how to make it in the US and they are teaching us about faith, hope and
love.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This year, it looks like our gatherers will be expanding
into the rest of our current meeting space, and we will begin to implement our
Community Center strategy. It is an exciting time for our part of God’s work in
our county.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you would like to participate by giving to what God is
doing with The Gathering in Carmel this year, you can donate by following this
link :<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=2pCm5CyY7o_SOBy7iK2DQj3jUFisB673Npc8IxrQl6JQNfExHaJXLUok_z0&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d66f31424b43e9a70645c907a6cbd8fb4">https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_flow&SESSION=2pCm5CyY7o_SOBy7iK2DQj3jUFisB673Npc8IxrQl6JQNfExHaJXLUok_z0&dispatch=5885d80a13c0db1f8e263663d3faee8d66f31424b43e9a70645c907a6cbd8fb4</a>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> or by writing a check
and mailing it to:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The
Gathering in Carmel<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">434 E.
Carmel Dr., Ste 285<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Carmel,
IN 46033<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-41918589990834975872014-12-11T07:19:00.000-08:002014-12-11T07:27:55.862-08:00Christmas, Jochabed and Hope<i><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was asked to participate in an Advent devotional Facebook page. Here is the devotional I submitted. Merry Christmas.</span></i><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hope is
frequently the first candle lit in the Advent season. It is the red dot on the
spiritual map to which we are drawn by faith.
Hope is the joyful expectation that the promises of God are not only
true, but that they will be fulfilled. It is a light glimmering in the
darkness, calming our fears, warming out hearts, and strengthening us to face
the long odds menacingly stacked against us. Mothers are famous for holding on
to hope.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxOyyqp6HWvNGoRAm_682L_rbWs7qwq2NmOtcKIax4jfwyvPCLersdnHpUZhDtBPkYPlGRmBHCAP4L7nXEXTw1bR-W0RyDWntf2P3SbRSuILpZKAR9lDgbjzzSCOjhYlohlwj09DsUZBI6/s1600/Hope+Toolbox.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Moses’
mother’s name was Jochebed. We don’t know much about her other than the
outside-of-the-box plan she came up with to save her son—a plan that wound up
working so well it changed the course of human history. The Pharaoh at the time
of Moses’ birth was concerned about the number and increasing power of the
Jewish immigrants in his land. Since he was the head of a strong central
government, he chose to solve his problem of immigrant proliferation by having
all the Jewish baby boys killed at birth. The mothers were told to throw their
infant sons into the river. This is not the sort of solution that would have
worked well in a modern democracy, but it was definitely in the wheelhouse of
ancient Pharaohs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jochebed
decided to comply with the letter of the law, if not the spirit, and “cast” her
son “into the Nile” – only her cast included a floatation device, a basket
transformed into a tiny boat. She put her son into the part of the Nile where
the Pharaoh’s daughter liked to bathe, hoping that Pharaoh’s daughter would see
the boy, like him, and keep him as her own. She positioned Miriam, his sister,
to watch the whole drama transpire. Jochebed hoped and prayed that nothing bad
would happen—and her hope was rewarded when the princess took Moses in. Miriam then ran up and asked if the princess
needed a wet nurse for the boy, and so Jochebed was brought to the palace to be
his caregiver. Everything turned out fine, and what could have been disastrous,
had the boat somehow been less than sea worthy, became a miracle story. It all
worked wonderfully.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We don’t
know whether Jochebed was moved by faith, or desperation, or inspiration, or
some combination of the above. We do know that God’s hand was on Moses and that
he was being protected and lifted up. God is the source of our hope. He
sometimes moves in our lives in such a way as to make desperate measures seem
like reasonable alternatives. One of the largest ironies of the story is that
Moses became the son of the Pharaoh who had ordered him killed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Joseph, the
man who started the whole Jews-in-Egypt adventure, when he finally confronted
his brothers who had sold him there in the first place, says in Gen 50:20, “As
for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.” This is the
dualistic dance that God has with evil in the world. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that in all
things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose.” The enemy often cooks up a nasty circumstance, then
God moves in the lives of his people to rescue and transform it into a “good.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is why
our hope is in the Lord. He embraces us in our times of trouble and invites us
to join him in overcoming the world (John 16:33). He is the one who catches us
in the midst of our dark circumstance, our slavery, and winds up turning us
into Palace dwellers; into King’s kids. Romans 15:4 says, “For everything that
was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance
taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have
hope.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Moses was
rescued and wound up talking to God in a burning bush, delivering the Children
of Israel from Egypt’s oppression. He called down plagues, walked on dry land
across the Red Sea, received the Ten Commandments, and saw God in the “cleft of
the rock”. When it was all over, God buried him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">All Bible
stories teach us that: 1) God is there. 2) He is active. 3) He will rescue us.
Look at the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Elijah,
Elisha, David, and many others. All faced desperate circumstances. All were rescued, lifted, helped, saved,
elevated and improbably secured. God saves us. He gives us hope. The
significant and difficult piece to the puzzle, though, is that our hope is in
Him, and not in ourselves. We are called to wait and trust while He works
things together for good.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">A few
thousand years after the baby Moses story, another baby appears and is called
into a desperate and improbable circumstance and against long odds and overwhelming
adversity eventually becomes the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. As Jesus was approaching
the end of his journey he tells his friends, “In this world you will have
trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” In other words, “HAVE
HOPE!”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Rich Mullins
once wrote, “stories like that make a boy grow bold, stories like that make a
man walk straight.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Psalm 43:5
says, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your
hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” </span><o:p></o:p></div>
The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-51372793885594069592014-04-11T07:39:00.001-07:002014-04-11T08:41:46.716-07:00<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">Dancing into the Pain<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">APOSTLES<o:p></o:p></span></h1>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Like
children<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">playing
in the rain<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">they
didn’t notice the storm, until<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">it
hit them.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
used to wonder why<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">they
kept on playing ?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But
not anymore.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">(Copyright
@ 2014, Sam Howard)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Pt4e_v6ylWXLTtgZkRyTW7LLMC5_lxT24y2Cxw-pRX_b3F_6EYxDgJnbw7LSIdoZCYvWuh4dXKbpl_wbgHGSJWGneDE2OErfPSyr9dgjw-5YdNwz0lAC6k1xY3JBzZEynTQNVif925jO/s1600/Rain+Play+81.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0Pt4e_v6ylWXLTtgZkRyTW7LLMC5_lxT24y2Cxw-pRX_b3F_6EYxDgJnbw7LSIdoZCYvWuh4dXKbpl_wbgHGSJWGneDE2OErfPSyr9dgjw-5YdNwz0lAC6k1xY3JBzZEynTQNVif925jO/s1600/Rain+Play+81.jpg" height="265" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Blessed
are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, <br />
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;"> Matt
5:10<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">This
is the last of the beatitudes. It is, in
a sense, a culmination. The final truth
is that if we pursue this path we will be persecuted. Jesus let everyone know
this right up front. It is one of the many amazing things about him. Jesus tells even the difficult truths. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimFlj1GVpHDcK4rOhZYs7k0yFzENhPJe9ZLClqmOgSFvwM9P1tWizUNI-rvJgdAXws3YKueHlw8nW8c4-hdcuRKEK7fzKXOTq6dMkvXbIdgp3BEV5rtYHDbxvvs-qlbZDr11reYrnlH9Rz/s1600/Playing+in+the+Rain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"></span></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">The
first few beatitudes are beautiful, even oddly compelling. They resonate with our inclination to know
God. We are invited into God’s realm, the place where he rules. We are promised that we will get to see God and
that our lives will even start to look like his. These words are hopeful and inspiring. They
bring us a sense of lightness and encouragement. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">But,
there are more words and a further truth which is, if we find God we will be
changed. And, as we are changed into His
image, we will find ourselves less at home in our current realm. It is one thing to recognize that our world
is evil and inadequate; it is quite another to move away from it, and then,
even further, to move against it. The
more we embrace God’s realm, the more we find ourselves at odds with the
world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">The
world does not passively tolerate opposition.
It shames, hurts or kills those who do not conform to its dictates. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So
we start walking on this path of goodness, mostly unaware of the choices we are
making. God starts working in our hearts and our world begins to look
different. Matthew 6:21 lets us know that, “… where your treasure is, there
your heart will be also.” And so in
practical ways, we start making daily decisions about which kingdom we are
going to live in. As our hearts change we discover that so do the items that
appear on our banking statements. All of sudden this “God stuff” starts showing
up. Our calendars start changing too. We are all of a sudden being forced to
choose between amusing ourselves or doing stuff with and for others. Messy
stories are in our lives that aren't our mess. We discover that we are increasingly giving our
time, talent and treasure to those who are hurting, both physically and
spiritually. And, now that we are in it,
this kingdom work, we find ourselves speaking and acting against the darkness
that is destroying the lives of those that we have come to love. This love that God has placed within us is
beginning to spill out into our world. The
world takes notice and the opposition begins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">It
must be understood that we cannot move passively towards persecution. Passion is required. All we have to do to avoid the pain is to
stop opposing the world. By the time the
persecution begins we have made our choice. We have aligned our hearts with God. We now burn with a passion that says love is
stronger than selfishness or violence.
Justice is better than silence.
Hope is stronger than despair. Our
mourning has been comforted. Our hunger has
been filled. We have become the ones who
show mercy. Our hearts have been
purified by Jesus and we now catches glimpse of God’s glory. We are aligned
with the peace of Christ, the one we follow.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">The
world rewards these choices with persecution.
God’s reward is much different. He says he has something “great” in mind,
namely, “the kingdom of heaven.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Jesus
taught the beatitudes early in his story and then he lived them out. He described the path of faith and then he walked
it. The early part of the journey appeared
to be relatively easy, almost fun. The
crowds grew. Everyone wanted to see
him. Miracles were everywhere. People began to understand who God really was
and they were amazed at his grace and goodness, but this new perspective
created a conflict with the old ways. Some
embraced this new revelation with joy; others struggled to hold on to what they
had always known. The conflict grew into a fresh start for those who believed
and anger and opposition from those who did not. Eventually those who rejected Jesus decided
that he needed to be dead. And so, Jesus
was “persecuted for righteousness.” It
all culminated in the last week of his life.
<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">This
week has become known as “The Passion of the Christ” because it took passion to
walk it to the end. At any moment, Jesus
could have stopped resisting and saved himself. Of course, if he would have
saved himself the rest of us would have been lost. Jesus’ passionate love would not allow him to
abandon the world of people he came to rescue, and so “for the joy set before
him he endured the cross, scorning its shame.” “He humbled himself in obedience
to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross,” the NLT version of Philippians
tells us. “Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave
him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should
bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Jesus
brought us the kingdom of heaven, and “great was his reward.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">He
told us. He showed us. Now he invites us to join him. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">His
love compels. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">Will
you allow yourself to follow?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">(Copyright
2014, Sam Howard)</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-51337517223613579962014-03-20T13:59:00.000-07:002014-03-20T13:59:14.197-07:00God, the Rock and Me<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I was in junior high the first time I heard the question.
And, it kind of shook me. I knew it was sort of a joke …sort of. But somewhere along the way I had gotten it
into my head that it was my job as a Christian to “always have an answer” to
these kinds of puzzling questions. So I
wracked my adolescent brain to come up with an explanation that would leave no
doubt in anyone’s mind (especially my own) about the existence of God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So, what was the question? Here it is, “Can God make a rock so large
that He himself cannot lift it?” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpjHDzKFtJ192GQ7k4QSKePVgvmMP_8QUPWGxzVqUPU5ShU4p7h_D3C0XBfMOCc6kxxntY68XC7I3dCMsC2EI-8om0mi-seuk-VS-TRp28DeyfaHY-xOEXah92edOrj28cq-BHFRvUUGcJ/s1600/lifting+the+rock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpjHDzKFtJ192GQ7k4QSKePVgvmMP_8QUPWGxzVqUPU5ShU4p7h_D3C0XBfMOCc6kxxntY68XC7I3dCMsC2EI-8om0mi-seuk-VS-TRp28DeyfaHY-xOEXah92edOrj28cq-BHFRvUUGcJ/s1600/lifting+the+rock.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">That’s it. This was the cause of my early-teen spiritual
angst. It has been called the omnipotence paradox. I knew it wasn’t right, but
somehow it still troubled me. I think it inadvertently brushed up against my
own deeply hidden spiritual disquiet. Beneath the surface of my normal
Christian life was an emerging harvest of questions and doubts that would
eventually blossom into a period of atheism in my life. It wasn’t the question
itself that bothered me as much as the niggling awareness that many of my
answers did not even really work for me.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Is God powerful enough . . . ?” Hidden in the question is the subtle
implication that, “if He can’t do everything, then perhaps He can’t do
anything.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">It is, of course, all word-play. God is all powerful.
“All” is all encompassing. If there is something more than “all” then “all” is
no longer “all.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The question is an attempt to find a limit to God’s
power. What it reveals is the limit of our logic and language. There is no end
to God, but we can very quickly reach the end of ourselves. Our ability to
comprehend much of the world around us is really very limited. All of us, on
most subjects, are two or three questions away from, “I don’t know.” The “I don’t knows” of our life create a
tension between all the things we think we know and the gaping holes of
uncertainty that tell us we really don’t.
And so, we are led to an uncomfortable and yet inevitable need for finding
peace with mystery. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">If there is a god he must necessarily be shrouded in
mystery. Any god that we could completely understand would not be much of a
god. So, by his very nature, God is beyond our reach. This is why the story of
Jesus’ incarnation is such a surprise. God chooses to reveal His unknowable
nature through His Son.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his
dwelling among us.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">God reveals Himself to men by becoming a man. If this
makes sense to you the first time you hear it, then you are not paying
attention. The mystery of how God can become a man . . . must stop us. We have no way to make sense of this. The idea that the God who made everything,
would write himself into our story and then for a time be both within while
remaining outside is literally incomprehensible. We have no way to make sense of such a mystery.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Christian faith is not really about making things
understandable. It is about making God
known. How God does what he does is not explained, but who he is, is literally
fleshed out. The particulars of God remain mysterious but he chooses to pierce
through the mystery and reveal his heart through the story of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“For God so loved the
world that gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not
perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to
condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The important part of everything is that everything was
created by a God who loves. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">God’s love moves Him to act. And, the action He takes is
to sacrifice himself through Jesus so that we, His creation, can have life and
be rescued from perishing.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">My journey out of atheism was not about answers. I found
my way back to faith by asking “the God that I did not believe in” to reveal
himself to me. And he did. I know that sounds like the end of a bad Christian movie,
but it’s what I experienced. I encountered Jesus and he began to change me. I
still don’t have a good explanation to lots of my questions, but I do have an
answer. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesus is the rock of our salvation. God lifts him up and he
draws all of creation (including people like me) back to himself. God’s love, as
demonstrated through the story of Jesus, changes everything. Jesus is the
ultimate omnipotence paradox. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">As you embrace this Lenten journey ask, “God, let me see
you. Reveal yourself.” If we seek, we
will find, and we will be lifted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">(Copyright 2014, Sam Howard)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-23671451540627957822013-12-31T18:55:00.002-08:002014-12-11T07:33:00.377-08:00All Things New<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And Another Thing . . . All Things New<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Look, I am making all things new.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Revelation 21:5 <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: right;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc1uzo0ean_OgPTrQT5SVMhDoumEdL3biCXbGfed5nM8sBo26Q5_WfY2Zlc9L9ZjmVp4gYFjTkRzFF0FweWJCh7pr8QdOoSxsmubpMRhW6vONd1eW-6C_Ao7KtmnUucE7JVPMzGjRQejyU/s1600/All+Things+New.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgc1uzo0ean_OgPTrQT5SVMhDoumEdL3biCXbGfed5nM8sBo26Q5_WfY2Zlc9L9ZjmVp4gYFjTkRzFF0FweWJCh7pr8QdOoSxsmubpMRhW6vONd1eW-6C_Ao7KtmnUucE7JVPMzGjRQejyU/s320/All+Things+New.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The Greek word used here for “new” is <i>kainos</i> (kahee-nos) and in addition to
meaning new, it also means <i>fresh</i>.
Fresh is similar to new, but there are some differences that are unique and
important.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The ideas of “new” and “old” are tied to time. Time makes
new things old. A new car is valuable because it does not have any miles on it.
The paint is shiny, there are no dings in the doors, the tires are full of
tread and the motor hums. The more a car
is exposed to miles and roads it begins to change, to fade, to diminish. Suddenly,
the “new” begins to morph into something else. The time and use begin to take a
toll on the vehicle. If it is kept long
enough, things will begin to break and in the (notice this key word) <i><u>end</u></i> it will be scrapped.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The words “new” and “old” are related to “beginning” and “end.” New things are found at beginnings, and old
things are, for the most part, found at the ends. The words “fresh” and “rotten” frequently correlate
to new and old, but not always.
Sometimes, things can stay fresh in spite of being exposed to time. For a bit, the effects of aging can be postponed.
Freshness can be infused and the process of decay delayed. But in this world, death always wins.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So here’s the thing. Old and dying are not part of God’s perfect
plan. God is only in the business of new,
in the business of life. Death came with the enemy and the Fall. In the Garden
of Eden everything was eternally fresh. When
Jesus speaks at the end of Revelation and tells us to “watch” as he makes “everything
FRESH” again. God wants to restore His
natural order. He sent Jesus to insert
an extravagant, invigorating, revitalizing, reviving, restoring, fortifying,
enlivening, story into the tale of humans that altered the storyline away from destruction and toward redemption. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Jesus was a breath of fresh air blown into a world
suffocating from a long fall in the wrong direction. Isaiah tells us that “the people walking in
darkness have seen a great light.” John
tells us “and that light was the life of all mankind.” Paul tells us that “the wages of sin is
death, but the gift of God is eternal life.”
God is the source of life. Sin is
anything that separates us from God. When
we are far from God we begin to decay and die.
When we “draw near” to God we find life and become fresh.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So in this New Year let’s resolve to “be still and know
that He is God.” Let’s find ways to set
aside time to draw near to God so that life can become fresh and new. “His mercies are NEW every morning.” “His
love never fails.” Everything touched by
God comes alive. It started in the
Garden and will never end. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">God is making everything new. Even me.
Even you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Happy New Year . . . and that’s all I have to say about
that . . . for now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-14803574930385283902013-03-26T04:22:00.000-07:002013-03-28T06:11:13.939-07:00And Another Thing . . . Passion week.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiageWasEyHi4ERnoAW5ax-bcy7MUZ9T5pNGB1MAJ9477spuvzVloTAEtW3f8w8gyqGHjrstXEwN17NEW_AS_GO5obu_GEKWn8N3JLzo73DksWXayWRG2kHXW6DziuUc7tE1saKY-kxHHjY/s1600/grain_wheat_273991118_ab45268956_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiageWasEyHi4ERnoAW5ax-bcy7MUZ9T5pNGB1MAJ9477spuvzVloTAEtW3f8w8gyqGHjrstXEwN17NEW_AS_GO5obu_GEKWn8N3JLzo73DksWXayWRG2kHXW6DziuUc7tE1saKY-kxHHjY/s320/grain_wheat_273991118_ab45268956_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18px;">Jesus replied, "Now the time has come for the Son of Man to enter into his glory. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels--a plentiful harvest of new lives. Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me. John 12:23-26</i><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jesus
most likely said this the day before his big deal entry into Jerusalem. He is about
to ride in to the city knowing he will lose his life. The city is full of stories,
as the film noir movies say. Most in the city are trying desperately to keep,
horde, survive, preserve, stabilize, improve, or win in their stories. Jesus
was going to the city to die and be the kernel that would produce a “harvest”
of life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
wonder, though, if most people in the city were too busy to notice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This
is the week of Jesus’ passion, as it is called. Perhaps it should be called the
week of his crazy love. This is the week his love drove him to do crazy things
to save the ones he loved. This is the week when for love’s sake he decided to intentionally
walk into pain, shame and death. He loved us so much that he “despised the
shame and endured the cross.” He loved us so much that he allowed himself to be
abandoned by everyone . . . even God. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You probably
know the story. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
woke up this morning thinking about how busy I am. And then, “oh yeah, this
Sunday is Easter.” Now I have been
thinking about my Easter sermon, but that is different than thinking about
Easter. So I am sending out this little note to encourage us to notice what
God did in this week all those years ago.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I am
frequently haunted by the thought of missing God. Not in terms of going to
hell, but in terms of just missing what he is doing all around me. I wonder if
the people two of three streets over from Jesus’ “Palm Frond” entry into their
city had any clue that the messiah was just a few blocks over. Maybe they were
invited to the parade but felt like they were too busy. So they kept doing
their small things and missed a really big one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Don’t
miss Easter this year.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Don’t
miss it right now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Take
a moment and notice God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Think
about what He did in that ancient Spring.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Think
about what he is doing right now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And
that is all I have to say about that . . . for now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-43672505942452356692012-12-20T05:16:00.003-08:002012-12-24T10:15:57.809-08:00Merry Christmas<br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Merry
Christmas. . . . no, really, Merry Christmas. Put down the “to do” list and
take a moment. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Stop already. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jesus Christ has come. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jesus is the reason for the season. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So, stop scurrying and take a moment and . . .</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">. . .be still and know that he is God.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">God so loved you that he sent his only son,
Jesus, to save you and make you new.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jesus Christ is born!</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jesus lived among us for a time.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jesus came so that we could have life and have
it to the FULL.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Jesus died . . . was buried . . . resurrected .
. . ascended . . . and is COMING AGAIN!</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Woo-Hoo, or Hallelujah, or fist-bump, or some
other culturally applicable expression of joy. (Do your version now. Go ahead
already!)</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">So be still. Know. Bow. Worship. Rejoice.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Merry Christmas.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">It is the end of the year and if you want to
help out our little church with a financial gift we would greatly appreciate
it. But only give if it comes from a place of Joy. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Each new church is prayer for revival and a
place where we hope Christ’s Kingdom will flourish and be born all over again.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Please give if you feel led. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">We are close to having a 24/7 space (please
join us in praying for this).</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Our small group has committed to give $5,500
monthly—this is 10% more than our budget. But our budget does not include any
extras. We are asking the larger community of Gathering watchers to help us get
some equipment, supplies and budgetary margin to accomplish some outreach activities. </span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Thank you for praying for The Gathering as we
chase our vision to change life as we know it through the love, loyalty and
friendship with Jesus.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color: white; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Send checks to:</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Gathering in Carmel</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">484 E. Carmel Dr., Ste 285</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Carmel, IN 46032</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Blessings and Merry Christmas,</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">The Gathering Team</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Sam & Kim Howard</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">David & Amanda Foust</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: large;"><span style="background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Marc & Amy Imboden</span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-80176492048062400882012-11-07T06:23:00.000-08:002012-11-07T06:23:46.337-08:00Abraham and Waiting and the Times In-Between<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And Another Thing . . . Abraham and Waiting and the Times
In-Between<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I am writing this blog a little before 7:00 on election
night 2012. I have decided to not look at news for a few hours and let the frenetic
energy settle a bit. It is an odd thing waiting for news that will potentially
change your life. Elections can feel that way, but many other things do as
well. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwwtAHoQumU3iBnW5iCefkN5tfk3h-X_gcSwPbOpLY0_bVgFxGeMotI6Bo6pJLPNPjZqYmLfRv2acisK9C57ybYMYf2jOwV97FxyKSIOxYitFMD0fFP5SNpqvtuL6dBIcqH-HmCIpg3LyQ/s1600/Waiting_For_You_by_jjap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="246" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwwtAHoQumU3iBnW5iCefkN5tfk3h-X_gcSwPbOpLY0_bVgFxGeMotI6Bo6pJLPNPjZqYmLfRv2acisK9C57ybYMYf2jOwV97FxyKSIOxYitFMD0fFP5SNpqvtuL6dBIcqH-HmCIpg3LyQ/s320/Waiting_For_You_by_jjap.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For many years I worked for a large pharmaceutical
company. During my tenure, there were three or four times when my company
“downsized” their number of employees. The “deselection” process was always
varied and always somewhat harrowing. Each time I had to sit by a phone and
wait to hear what others had decided about my fate. I remember sitting in my
office waiting for the phone to ring. The question was always, “Will my life
change a little, or a lot, or not at all?” In those in-between times, I remember
wondering what the people evaluating me were saying. Did they see my worth? Did
I have any worth? Do I even want this job? What will I do if I lose my job? Why
aren’t they calling? I wonder if we have any cookies. And on and on it would
go. Anger. Fear. Hope. Frustration.
Assurance. Resignation. Impatience. Confidence. Doubt. Repeat.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Then the phone call came and fortunately for me, I was
always retained and life resumed. Life is full of in-between times. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">As a pastor, I have often sat with a family and friends in
waiting rooms while people with grave conditions were being treated or operated
on. I have heard life stories, philosophical meanderings, silly reminiscences, bad
jokes and even mundane anecdotes all while waiting for news of a potentially
life altering event. I have made new friends while waiting to hear if another
person is going to make it. Life is mostly made up of the little moments that
lie in between the big ones. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">When Abram was 75 he had an incredible spiritual
encounter with God. He heard God speak instructing him to leave everything and go
to a land of promise. God told him that he would turn his descendants into a great
nation. This was big news since Abram had yet to produce a child. As outlandish
as this was, Abram obeyed. He left
everything. He followed God.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So Abram began his sojourn. Twenty-four years passed and
there was still no child. I wonder if Abram ever felt silly. I wonder if he ever
had a “what was I thinking” moment. We know that Sarai doubted. She forced the
issue and Abram got a son from her servant. It was a mess. There were lots of
stories in his in-between days. Twenty-four years of days without much news
from God. Abram kept following. The odds kept getting longer. He was nearly 100
before he heard from God again. When he spoke, he said the same thing. “Great
nation.” “Blessings.” Oh, and “circumcision.” “And, while you’re at it, change
your name to Abraham” It just kept getting crazier. 100 years old and Abraham
is still all in. He obeys, and low and behold, he gets a son.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">God kept his word, but there were lots of days of silence
before the promise was realized. There were lots of in-between stories.
Twenty-four years of the odds just getting longer. Twenty-four years of being
tempted to believe he got it wrong. Twenty-four years of waiting for faith to
become sight.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">God did keep his word. And all these years later,
Abraham’s name is still known and his story is still told. The book of Hebrews
says this of Abraham.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Hebrews 11:8-12 By
faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his
inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By
faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign
country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of
the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose
architect and builder is God. And by faith even Sarah, who was past
childbearing age, was enabled to bear children because she considered him
faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as
dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as
the sand on the seashore.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">What a huge ending God brought to this slow and plodding
beginning. Eventually this humble story turns glorious. Abraham’s sojourn established
a foundation for the beginning of the Jesus story. In his in-between days,
although sometimes he stumbled, he remained faithful and God through him did
more than anyone could ask or imagine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">So, while I wait to hear the end of this election story,
I know that the big picture belongs to God. The big news of this election night
may wind up being a big deal, or perhaps it will just be a footnote. Either
way, God will do good things through his people if they choose to remain
faithful in their in-between times.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-52055331960189381252012-10-26T07:15:00.001-07:002012-10-26T07:15:54.171-07:00Adam & Eve, the Apple, the Snake and the Apartment Kids<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And Another Thing . . . The Perished Kingdom</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We have started to tell “The Story of God” at church on Sunday and at a local apartment complex on Thursday nights. We sent postcards to everybody in the complex, around 200 units. I have heard in church-planting circles that such mailings typically elicit a .5% response, which is exactly what happened. One person from the complex showed up. A few of our people gathered with this individual and we had a great conversation. That was week number one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Tonight was week number two and our lone respondent returned. Then, as we got ready to begin our discussion, one of our crew noticed a bunch of junior high kids playing outside the clubhouse. He invited them to join us—and amazingly, they did. I asked them their names and a little about themselves. Most did not go to a church, some did not believe in God, and most had never heard the Bible story of the creation and the fall. A few knew about Adam and Eve and a little bit about an apple. One said, “Maybe there was a snake.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So we told the story. We told about how God created the world, about the garden, Adam and Eve, about the snake—the temptation by the devil. We spent a little time talking about how God immediately promised to send his son to crush the serpent’s head. I was amazed at how many of these kids stayed engaged.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">They listened. Asked questions. Wondered if we’d be back next week. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Oh yes, we absolutely will be back next week. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In telling this story to kids who had barely or never heard it reminded me of how foundational Genesis 3 is to the whole Christian faith. The seeds of all that will follow are in this story. The beauty of creation is broken. God’s intended kingdom perishes and is replaced by death, pain and lies. The world that humans were created to inhabit is lost. They are exiled from the garden of God. The potency of the adversary’s lie changes the story arc. Man is aligned with a new father. John 8:44 says, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Before we swallowed the forbidden fruit, humans lived in a world of clarity. With the knowledge of good and evil came confusion. Before the Fall, man’s perspective and God’s perspective were one. There was no such thing as doubt. Satan asks, “Did God really say . . .” and doubt emerges into the world. The forbidden tree’s name, “good and evil,” implies choice. With choice comes confusion. When humans separate from God everything gets murky. Paul says, “. . .now we see through a glass, darkly. . . .” Now humans must choose. In a world where lies exist, every truth becomes suspect. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The good news is that, in Genesis 3:15, God promises that man’s new father, the father of lies, will one day be crushed. The first hint of Jesus entering the world to save lost humans is predicted within minutes of the Fall. God moves immediately to rescue the world he loves. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When Jesus appears on the scene he challenges Satan’s rule. In John 10:10 he says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” In John 10:15 he says, “. . . I lay down my life for the sheep.” And in John 14:6 he says, “. . . I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Truth is the way to life; the way to the Father. God overcomes the lies of the enemy with the truth of his son sent to crush the serpent’s head. Second Corinthians 5:19 says, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God undoes all that Satan did in the garden.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In Genesis 3 God promises to rescue man from the destruction of the Fall. In Revelation, at the end of the story, Jesus declares, "Look, I am making everything new!"</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I hope our new friends at the apartment complex will be back to hear the rest of the story. It’s a good one.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now!</span><br />
<br />
The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-52478384831652585832012-10-19T07:15:00.002-07:002012-10-19T07:23:41.623-07:00Of Politics and The Intended Kingdom<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And Another Thing . . . The Intended Kingdom</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the midst of a political season, it is interesting to think about God’s intended Kingdom.. Politics can be nasty and divisive (especially in October of a Presidential election year), but at democracy’s core, I believe there is an underlying desire to make things better. We want a government that lifts burdens and inspires hope while facilitating opportunities for prosperity in a just and unencumbered way. We want our society to reflect the good place we imagine in our head. Inherent in all of us is a sense of longing – a feeling that we have been displaced from our intended dwelling. As C. S. Lewis wrote in Till We Have Faces,</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing — to reach the Mountain, to find the place where all the beauty came from — my country, the place where I ought to have been born. Do you think it all meant nothing, all the longing? The longing for home?”</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Eden was God’s vote for what life should be like. It was perfect. All of the painful issues that rage against life were absent. There was no death or illness. No hunger. No war. No religion. No sorrow. No politics. No racial divides. No classes (social, economic or otherwise). No lack of understanding. We were in perfect harmony with God and with nature and with one another. I can only imagine.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God, the three in one, chose to make humans “in our image.” God’s three members are perfectly distinct and perfectly one—each separate and yet connected. This connectedness is an essential part of creation. God is connected to everything in the beginning and in Eden all of God’s distinct creation is harmoniously married to the Creator and to each other. This is our intended natural state and it still exists as the quiet longing that is at the heart of all of our striving.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">We see injustice in the world and intuitively know that this is different, somehow, from the way it was supposed to be. We see suffering and something in our gut tells us that only a broken system would allow this. We see abuse and react with incredulity and an impulse to set it right. As Joni Mitchell sang, “We’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">East of Eden the clarity of the garden gets fuzzy. God pronounced everything in the garden “good.” Outside of the garden people pronounce all sorts of other things “good,” and pursue them with a noble passion. In his book Orthodoxy, G. K. Chesterton puts it this way:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“The modern world is not evil; in some ways the modern world is far too good. It is full of wild and wasted virtues. When a religious scheme is shattered . . . it is not merely the vices that are let loose. . . . the virtues are let loose also; and the virtues wander more wildly, and the virtues do more terrible damage. The modern world is full of the old Christian virtues gone mad. The virtues have gone mad because they have been isolated from each other and are wandering alone. Thus some scientists care for truth; and their truth is pitiless. Thus some humanitarians only care for pity; and their pity (I am sorry to say) is often untruthful.”</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Chasing after virtues is an attempt to get back home. We were intended for perfection. So we struggle to make the world right, finding that the task is too much for us, but it is not too much for God. Second Corinthians 5: 19 says, “For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people’s sins against them. And he gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The whole story of God is about God’s love creating a perfect place for his creation and then sacrificing himself to get us back to the life he designed for us. “For God loved the world he gave . . . .” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So God is reconnecting people to himself through the gift of his son, Jesus. Through Jesus he is making all things new. God is fixing the mess we made of things. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the meantime, here is some advice for surviving this political season. </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">“I met those of our society who had votes in the ensuing election, and advised them, 1. To vote, without fee or reward, for the person they judged most worthy: 2. To speak no evil of the person they voted against: And, 3. To take care their spirits were not sharpened against those that voted on the other side.” </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"> John Wesley, October 6, 1774</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now!</span><br />
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The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-5923272473979819932012-10-10T17:21:00.000-07:002012-10-10T18:36:40.013-07:00Friends, Timing and the Grace of God<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">And Another Thing . . . Remembering a Friend</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“Friends,” Tony Campolo once said, “are people with whom
you share your heresies</span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="line-height: 115%;">.</span></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">” </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">It is an exhilarating surprise to find yourself in a
place where you don’t have to be careful; where you feel safe enough to say
scary things. In a world where everyone is taught to play it safe, a friend is
someone with whom to share the dangerous edges of life. To modify Shakespeare’s
Lear, with a friend you can “speak what you feel, not what you ought to say.”</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">This kind of friendship is hard to find. It is a rare
sort of alchemy that can coalesce a climate of freedom and emotional security with
an intellectual curiosity and acceptance. In this mix, great things can happen. And,
even if they don’t, everyone laughs and has a good time. I have been blessed to
have a few of these rare creatures inhabit my life. One such person was Gary Rowe.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Gary’s birthday was October 9. He died last year, two weeks
after turning 55. He has been missed. So today, a few of us got together and
celebrated his life without the privilege of his presence. We met for lunch (since
Gary was a foodie, this seemed appropriate). Gary was a wise and avid learner
who never lost interest in his world, while also remaining a big fan of “The
Three Stooges” and Groucho Marx. He had the rare ability to give helpful advice
and poke fun at you at the same time. He was an enormous smart . . . aleck, and a genuine friend.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">I am grateful to have known him.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">But I believe I had some help with that.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Acts 17:26 says, “. . . and he determined the times set
for them and the exact places where they should live.”</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">C. S. Lewis writes, </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">“.
. . we think we have chosen our peers. In reality, a few years' difference in
the dates of our births, a few more miles between certain houses, the choice of
one university instead of another, posting to different regiments, the accident
of a topic being raised or not raised at a first meeting—any of these chances
might have kept us apart</span><span class="MsoCommentReference"><span style="line-height: 115%;"></span></span><span style="line-height: 115%;">. But for a Christian, there are, strictly
speaking, no chances. A secret Master of
the Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, "Ye
have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," can truly say to every group
of Christian friends, "You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen
you for one another." </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 63pt 0.0001pt 31.5pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">The
Friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one
another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of
all the others. They are no greater than the beauties of a thousand other men;
by Friendship, God opens our eyes to them. They are, like all beauties, derived
from Him—and then, in a good Friendship, increased by Him through the
Friendship itself so that it is His instrument for creating as well as for
revealing. At this feast, it is He who has spread the board and it is He who
has chosen the guests. It is He, we may dare to hope, who sometimes does, and
always should, preside. Let us not reckon without our Host.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Jesus said, “I have called you friends.” I want to say
thank you. </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">Friendship is another one of God’s great ideas. I am glad
that God pulled Gary and Rich and Tommy and David and Greg and Robby and Tim
and Dan and Kent and Bill and Paul and . . . (you get the idea) into my life. Not
to mention Kim and Kelsey and Kaleigh and Noah, and, oh, Mom and Dad and Sue
and Sherri and . . . (once again, you
get the idea). God has brought amazing people into my “times” and “places.” </span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">He is good.</span></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now. </span></span></span></div>
<div>
<hr align="left" class="msocomoff" size="1" width="33%" />
<div>
<div class="msocomtxt" id="_com_1">
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=7796698142607752040" name="_msocom_1"></a></span></span>
</div>
</div>
</div>
The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-82108382001804395142012-10-03T04:52:00.000-07:002012-10-03T04:52:13.990-07:00The Mustard Seed Conundrum<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And Another Thing . . . Mustard Seed</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Matt 17:20 “. . . Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I am not a farmer. I am not very agricultural—or mechanical, or handy, or any number of other helpful life skills. When Jesus says, “. . . if you have faith as small as a mustard seed” I have no real context for it. I used to pull the weeds in my mother’s garden, and I think I planted something in a Styrofoam cup once for school, but I have no deep well of “seed” knowledge to draw from when reading this scripture. I just read the word “small”, and then read “as a mustard seed” which for me translates into “really small.” In studying this passage I learned that while there are even smaller seeds in the east, in Jesus’ time the “mustard seed” was proverbial for tiny. So what Jesus was saying is that faith is incredibly potent. Faith is turbo-charged potency on steroids. It doesn’t take much of the stuff to make a big things happen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Encountering this verse makes me think that my faith must be comparable to one of those even smaller seeds, because the idea of moving a mountain seems impossible. It seems the tiny amount of potency required to accomplish this enormous task is way beyond my reach. Which I think is the correct conclusion and part of the point that Jesus is making. It feels impossible because it is impossible for me. I look at it (the mountain), and then at me (my assessment of my own ability) and conclude that in the battle between the mountain and me, the mountain will win. Jesus says in Luke 18:27, “What is impossible with men is possible with God." The essence of faith is getting out of your own head and into the mind of God. Jesus is saying (at least in my opinion), “If you could just see the world the way I do you could accomplish anything.” </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The trouble is I do not see the world the way he does. I see it with my fallen, practical eyes and my faithless, semi-reasonable mind. I tend to be a matter-of-fact, cautious, and self-protective person who is afraid to explore the necessarily ambiguous regions of faith. Jesus says that my idea of “possible” and his are vastly different. I have to accept this by faith because his idea is in conflict with my own. I find that my “smaller seed” sized faith is still trying to apply reason to a truth that is larger than me. My reasoning becomes a limit. My theoretical construct conceives an explanation which must necessarily be a miscarriage of the truth I hope to understand.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So how am I supposed to embrace this thing that is outside of my ability to comprehend? The simple answer is to trust God with it. Proverbs 3:5-6 says to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; (and) do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The secret to getting our faith up to “mustard seed” status is to trust God. I can hear the groans as I uncork this Christian platitude. Trust feels intellectually lazy and is emotionally unsatisfying. It is a theological sound-bite that is mouthed by many and seemingly understood by few. It is the thing that is said when nothing else makes sense. Trust is a catch-all. It is also the truth. When we depend on our own understanding we mess things up. When we are faced with impossibility, we must trust God. The only way to step into the improbable is to trust the person who is asking you to take the improbable step.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is a difficult idea to discuss and an even more difficult one to live out. Paul settled this conundrum in his own life by saying, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Phil: 4:13). God’s strength moves in us to do things we know we could never do on our own. His strength makes everything possible—including moving our “smaller seed” size faith up to the size of a “mustard seed.” As faith increases, mountains get wobbly.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now.</span><br />
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The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-83284755546505687632012-09-15T06:53:00.000-07:002012-09-15T06:53:57.453-07:00Our Refugee Family Arrives<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And Another Thing . . . Refugee Family</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">This week, much of my time was spent in preparing for the arrival of our Refugee family, and so this morning I thought I would send out an abbreviated blog.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Gathering Community rallied this week to furnish an apartment with beds, dressers, table and chairs, couch and recliners, food, clothes and much more. On Friday the stuff we collected and the people we were giving them to all came together. Lots of smiles and nods, faces straining to understand, the joy of watching a baby play in her new home all coalesced as we listened to the interpreter and tried to make new friends. It is awkward to sit in a room where the differences between us are so large. There is a language barrier and a huge cultural barrier. The interpreter is himself a refugee who came to Indy three years ago. Today he has learned English, works as a nursing assistant and volunteers for Exodus Refugee Immigration. He is excited about his new life and is already trying to pay it forward. He believes that he is the only one who speaks this language in the city. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I know very few of the particulars about these young ladies. I may never know much of their story. My assumption is that there were some very hard things that spurred this dramatic move. They stepped out in faith with the hope of finding a better life. Our gathering in their new apartment on Friday was an important step in this new adventure. As we were trying to get to know them, we asked if there was anything they would like to do in their new town. They answered, “We would like to worship.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">So, it turns out that in spite of all of the barriers, we have much in common. We love our children. We hope for better days. We laugh and cry, and we worship Jesus. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">When we signed up to help a Refugee family relocate I believed there was a good chance we would be called to serve people who were from a different faith. My prayer was that we would faithfully serve whoever He brought us as an expression of his love and ours. And so he brought us sisters.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our new sisters will be joining us at The Gathering this week. Come meet them and let’s join with them in worshiping the God who does such great things.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now.</span><br />
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The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-47856887828648615742012-09-06T04:56:00.000-07:002012-09-06T04:58:04.107-07:00Love, Truth & Church<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And Another Thing . . . Love, Truth & Church</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">My parents were church goers. So when I was a kid, I went to church too. The church of my childhood was the non-instrumental Church of Christ. This was a great church to begin in because they were big on teaching young people about the Bible. Every Sunday night, all the children five and older were asked to come up front and share a verse they had memorized that week. The preacher would then quiz the kids about the Bible. I remember as a preschooler sitting with my parents and longing for the day when I could go up too. I learned a lot about the Bible in that church.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In fact, I enjoyed many things about the CoC. It was only when I was older and began to understand their take on biblical truth that I experienced a growing sense of estrangement. As a kid, I felt loved and included. I especially enjoyed listening to the a cappella singing. It was fun to hear men and women singing, from the shaped-note songbook, the harmonies to all of the old hymns. Shaped-notes were a now archaic musical notation system that made it easier to read and then sing harmony and our church would teach new members this system, as well as how to use a pitch pipe, and to lead hymns in 4/4 time. My early perspective was that shaped-notes were somehow more spiritual. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Superior spirituality was an underlying theme in my formative Christian journey—a theme that was subtle and somewhat insidious. The fact that it affected me the way that it did may have more to do with my weaknesses than any intention on the part of my teachers, but I nevertheless interpreted what I learned as “My group is right and everyone else is wrong.” My knowledge, my truth, nurtured a sense of moral superiority. Paul admonishes believers to, “speak the truth in love.”(Eph 4:15) This has always been a tricky thing to pull off. First Corinthians 8:1 says, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” I fear that much of my early Biblical learning resulted in a puffing up rather than a building up. Love gets messy, but truth feels clean and clarifying. Love involves giving of our self and dealing with all of our own insecurities in the process. Truth is of the mind and insulates our feelings and elevates our perspective above the fray of frailty. The challenge is to marry the two. To speak truth in the midst of our relationships with an awareness of our mess and insecurity is the call of the church. Love without truth is blind. Truth without love has clarity, but it isolates. Truth spoken with love directs, connects and elevates.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the parlance of the KJV, the church is called to be a peculiar people. We are to love one another and the world like Jesus does. Unfortunately, it has become a cliché that our culture is frustrated and at times even disgusted with the church. Much of the atheism creeping into today’s culture has, at its root, a hurt or disappointment with people who claimed to be followers of God. Many are open to Jesus but are leery of his people. Not all of this is the fault of the church, but a significant portion of those who now doubt the church have been shaped by an encounter with her truth untempered by her love. Second Corinthians 5:14 says “Christ’s love compels.” God’s love is what changes everything. It is what changed each of us who claim to be Christ-followers. It is what changed me. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The love I felt in the hearts of the good people of the CoC was the first taste of a reality I would continue to experience over and over again throughout my life. Later, I, too, witnessed hypocrisy and disappointment and doubted the truth of the Christian faith. It was the love of friends who were believers who showed me the reality of a God whose story I doubted, but whose love compelled. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God’s love draws and changes us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God’s truth liberates and leads us. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God’s Son makes all things new.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now!</span><br />
<br />The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-48030354807199019762012-08-29T18:56:00.000-07:002012-08-29T18:56:29.461-07:00Screaming Mee Mee-E's and Changing Your Mind<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Another Thing . . . Change Your Mind </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As the Christmas of my eighth year of life approached, I was busy making a large list of all the things I either seriously needed or desperately wanted. Before the Internet existed, the Montgomery Ward Christmas catalogue served as the source of childhood fantasy. I stared at the pages in that brightly colored booklet the way my own children now watch YouTube videos of the things they desire. At the top of my list that year was the Screaming Mee Mee-E rifle. (Here is a link-- http://www.youtube.com/</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">watch?v=LeSpk6YQw4o-- so you can see the thing my dreams were made of.). I wanted this toy badly. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As it turns out, my grandmother owned a children’s clothing store, and when we arrived in Kentucky for our annual family Christmas vacation, I learned that the grand prize in her Christmas contest was the aforementioned Screaming Mee Mee-E rifle. I could not believe it. There was the source of my Christmas wish vision being proudly displayed by my own grandmother in the boys section of her store. To say that I started begging and lobbying for that gun would be an understatement. I don’t remember the full extent of my pleading, but I know that it was so outlandish enough that my parents were embarrassed and made me stop. But of course, by then the case had been made and my strategy worked. On Christmas morning I received the object of my desire. I eagerly removed it from its box, loaded its screaming dart, aimed and pulled the trigger. The dart flew out of the gun with a screaming sound that immediately annoyed the adults in the room—and, in a few short moments, even began to annoy me. Also, the dart did not go nearly as far as it had appeared to in the commercials. Horrifyingly for me, within about 15 minutes I was bored with the toy. But because I had made such a big deal about wanting it, I felt obligated to fake it for a while—even though it fell far short of my expectations. So after getting what I thought I wanted, I quickly changed my mind.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The notion of changing your mind is the thought behind the biblical word repent. The story of my Christmas gun has been repeated many times in my life, and I suspect most of us can relate to chasing something only to find it is not what we hoped it would be. Many things in our life look different when they move from fantasy to reality. Solomon, who is said to be the wisest man who ever lived, declared in Ecclesiastes that “everything is meaningless.” The King James Version of the Bible translates this passage as, “all is vanity.” Mick Jagger later translated it as “I can’t get no satisfaction.” Solomon concludes Ecclesiastes by saying, “Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” In other words, you cannot be the source of your own fulfillment. Only God can fill the emptiness we carry with us.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The process of moving from a life of self-directed ambition to a life of faith begins with learning to believe in God and then growing to understand that his plan for your life is both different and better than the choices you have been making. The second step, after believing in God, is to repent or change your mind about what is important in life. You change your mind about chasing after meaningless vain things in hopes of finding some sort of fulfillment. Jesus’ counterintuitive declarations begin to make sense, like when he says in Matthew 10:39, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether it is a Screaming Mee Mee-E gun, a house, a job, or a relationship, unless we are seeking first his kingdom and his righteousness all of these other things will ultimately feel meaningless. Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Changing our minds to recognize that there is a way more compelling than our own enlightened self-interest reveals the possibility of walking in a hope that is beyond what we can see. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In our natural state, we are all Screaming Mee Mee-E’s and at some point we become annoying even to ourselves. The good news is that God has made a way for us to change our minds, even about ourselves.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now!</span><br />
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The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-43605081607764558842012-08-22T11:18:00.004-07:002012-08-22T11:18:59.573-07:00God in the Box<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And Another Thing . . . God in the Box</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The documentary “God in the Box” was a Heartland Film Festival selection for 2011. The premise is pretty straightforward. A portable box is constructed with cameras hidden behind a mirror. Random pedestrians walking by are invited to go inside the box and answer one or two questions about God . The first question is, “What does God mean to you?” and the second is, “What does God look like?”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The answers surprised me. Some were funny, like the girl who thought God looked sort of like Kenny Rogers. Some were sad, like the burly, shaved-head guy in sunglasses who said, “God used to mean everything to me . . . but not anymore.” Some were quirky, like the Elvis impersonator who said, “God is sort of like Elvis . . .” The Hindu and Muslim participants seemed to have a bit clearer perspective on how to address the question. Several people spoke of the way that God had changed their lives for the better. Several others were atheists who felt the whole question was the province of the ignorant, superstitious, or uninformed. One man who claimed to be an atheist said, “I wish could believe in God, because I would probably be happier.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Mystery is inherent in any discussion about God. God cannot be perceived by our senses and so he is intangible. Intangible is hard to quantify. Still, people claim to experience God but typically in an extrasensory way . The language that is used to describe these encounters is almost always on an emotional scale. We sense God’s presence and immediately wonder if it was perhaps something we ate. We have learned to not trust our emotions, and yet our emotions are an important part of any encounter with spiritual things. This quickly becomes confusing. At one point in the documentary, the narrator says something to the effect of, “I wish God would just show himself to us and clear this whole thing up!”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">That of course, from the Christian perspective, is exactly what he did. The great grace of the Jesus event was that God revealed himself by becoming one of us. “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” “Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.” “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jesus entered the human story and showed us how God would act if he were in our shoes. He loved deeply. He pursued truth. He sacrificed his life. In his love he gave all of himself to others as he submitted himself to God.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">God looks like Jesus. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now!</span><br />
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The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-33852443834856117032012-08-15T07:21:00.000-07:002012-08-15T07:32:15.652-07:00Belief & Unbelief<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Another Thing . . . Belief</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Selling drugs to doctors makes for an interesting life journey. I started my career in pharmaceutical sales back in the ‘80’s before things were regulated, and also before medicine had advanced to anywhere near where it is today. I remember calling on an old country doc in eastern Indiana who told me of an “off label” use for one of my products. The drug I sold was essentially a form of Tylenol packaged in an impressive two-toned capsule and with an obscure but powerful sounding name. This was in the days before the internet, and people had no way to Google what a medicine was, so the country doc used my drug essentially as a placebo. It was benign medically, but it looked impressive and he would sell it as a “powerful, rarely used drug, which he thought would help.” He mostly used this placebo to treat patients he had diagnosed as hypochondriacs and so it probably was an appropriate therapy. He was selling hope by creating belief.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus said in Mark 9:23, “Everything is possible for one who believes.” This is both an inspiring and a troubling statement that has garnered many stipulations over the years. People have tried to minimize or make it more rationale, but one thing is definitely true. Everything is impossible if you have no belief. Belief enables hope and vision. Lack of belief leaves a person paralyzed or at least unmotivated. If you do not believe you can, you probably won’t try. Belief leads to action.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jesus speaks this truth to a father who wants his son to be healed. The father responds by saying in Mark 9:24, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” His statement has resonated across the ages. This is each of ours confession. Each of us is aware of the bloom of faith in our life and of the shadow of doubt which lurks around and through it. We believe in God and yet we wonder at times. We step out in faith and hope that the ground will hold. We pray believing and yet know that there is a partial wish embedded in our amens.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Fredrick Buechner once wrote,</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> “Whether your faith is that there is a God or that there is not a God, if you don’t have doubts you are either kidding yourself or asleep.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> <span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “For we live by faith, not by sight.” People are wired to trust the things they see. Seen things are easy to believe in. Doubtable things are the only things that may be embraced by faith. Therefore, those who “live by faith” are always vulnerable to the questions raised by people who only believe what they see. This is why it is important to live in such a way that “sight-livers” can see the evidence of lives changed by the hope created through faith in an unseen God. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When we believe in Jesus he begins to change us. Belief stirs and inspires action. We begin to shine. Jesus is unseen, but the actions he inspires in the hearts of the people who believe in him are not. Jesus tells us to, “let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A changed life is a great argument for God. Loving others is good one too. What we believe matters, because “everything is possible for the one who believes.” </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that’s all I have to say about that . . . for now.</span><br />
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The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-16732572701088060592012-08-09T17:54:00.001-07:002012-08-09T17:54:32.166-07:00Lies of the Moment<br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And Another Thing . . . Lies of the Moment</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It seems that we live our life in moments. And no moment yet has been the final moment. Everything is constantly in a state a change. Much of the time I feel caught in a stereophonic cacophony of positive and negative thoughts and circumstance. Optimism surrenders to pessimism and then rises again, and then surrenders, and then resurrects, and so it goes. Moments are a difficult place from which to judge life. It is difficult to know, at times, if one is winning or losing or simply treading water.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I read the story of Eli in 1 Samuel this week. His life ended in a very tragic way. His final moment was as horrific as could be imagined for a priest, filled with ominous foreshadowing. Samuel, the young boy in his care, is awakened one night by God and told that the priest and his sons had been judged and would all soon die. Later, a random holy man shows up and foretells the destruction of Eli’s family. His boys are the source of his fall from blessing. They had turned the family calling, being priests in the temple of God, into a family business and had gotten rich and fat off the sacrifices offered to God. They made a habit of profaning sacred things for their own benefit. Eli let this happen, and everything started to fall apart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Eventually, his boys decide to carry the Ark of the Covenant, the embodiment of God’s presence among his people, into battle. They hoped it would work as a charm, to force God into blessing them in their crusade. They had manipulated the religious system to their own advantage for so long that they thought God was just another pawn in their clerical schemes. “We will carry the Ark into battle and God will be forced to make us win,” they thought. The lies they believed about God were vigorously corrected. Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed in the battle along with 30,000 Israelites. The greatest tragedy, though, was that the Ark of the Covenant was captured by their enemies, the Philistines.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">When Eli heard this news it made for a terrible moment. His thoughts were filled with failure and horror. God’s warnings were fulfilled in the death of his sons, and I’m sure he felt responsible. Eli had allowed his boys to make a mockery of holy things. He allowed them to take the most sacred gift Israel possessed, the Ark of God’s Presence, into a battle and now God himself was lost to the nation. The army was diminished. His sons were dead. He felt judged and rejected by his God. And the Ark of God was no longer residing with his people. This was the end of the faith. The thing that could never happen did happen. With the horror of this unthinkable circumstance swirling in his head, he fell off of his chair, broke his neck, and died. In his last moment, it seemed that all was lost.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">1 Samuel 5-6 tells the story of the next moments. It turns out that the Philistines could not manipulate God any more than Eli’s sons could. After months of dealing with tumors and rats, the Philistines had had enough and decided to send the Ark back to Israel – sort of. They created an against-all-odds-situation in which they yoked together “two cows that have calved and have never been yoked.” Then, with the cows lowing as if moving against their wills, they marched directly out of the land of the Philistines and straight home to Israel. This was an amazing moment for everyone. The Philistines were relieved and the people of God were ecstatic. God proved he was larger and more improbable than the schemes of the men on either side of the battle lines. He would not be manipulated or trifled with. His faithfulness to his people was stronger than the evil of the men who tried to ruin his name. Eli’s last thought was that he was witnessing the end of God in Israel. That was the way it looked for a moment. Eli’s story ended, but God’s story did not. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the next moment, the boy Samuel grows and becomes both judge and prophet and leads Israel back to God -- sort of. Then there is the moment where Israel rebels and asks for a king and a gets a lousy one. Followed by the moments where the lousy king, Saul, tries to kill the future amazing king, David. Succeeded by the moments when David presides over a glorious age of faithfulness and expansion. Continuing into the moments of his son’s reign when the temple is built and, conversely, foreign gods are reintroduced back into the kingdom. And so it goes . . .</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This past week we held our second concert at the Carmel Gazebo. For many moments before the concert it looked as though rain, in contradiction to our prayers, was going to bring a halt to the whole event. Then there was the moment when the sun came out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And that’s all I have to say about that . . . for now.</span><br />
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<br />The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-89740141858452576872012-07-31T15:46:00.000-07:002012-07-31T15:46:57.991-07:00Of Slugbugs & Seeking<br />
And Another Thing . . . Ask, Seek, Knock<br />
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When I was a kid (and as it turns out that was a long time ago), our family trips were far more primitive than those trips are today. Our car had an AM radio, which my dad controlled. His listening choices always seemed to be either static or boring-- and sometimes both of those together. So, to amuse ourselves, we would play road games. One of my favorites, though it usually ended up with someone getting in trouble, was “Slugbug.” For the uninitiated, the rules to Slugbug were pretty simple. All the players examined the oncoming traffic looking for VW Beetles (or “Bugs”). The first player to see one shouted “Slugbug” and hit the other player or players on the shoulder. Of course, there was the inevitable cheating and bruising, followed by a parental halt to the whole fiasco. The interesting thing about the game though, was that once you started looking for Bugs, you found them.<br />
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Jesus said in Matt 7:7, “seek and you will find.” We tend to find the things we look for. When playing Slugbug my brain functioned much like a computer. I saw, for the most part, two kinds of cars:Bugs and Non-Bugs. (Corvette’s were always the exception; I always noticed them.) Scientists tell us that the part of the brain which helps us focus on these distinctions is called the Reticular Activating System, or RAS. Among other things, the RAS allows us to filter the data being received by our brain. Parents sleeping in a noisy apartment can become immune to the sounds of traffic and trains, but the sound of their child crying will instantly wake them. We are programmed to pay attention to the things we care about.<br />
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“Caring about” is the heart of the Ask, Seek, Knock passage. Jesus wants to be one of the things we care about. He wants his voice to be a voice we have trained ourselves to listen for. “Ask” implies relationship. We ask the people who are near us and who we believe are capable and willing to help. Jesus wants to be near us (Mt 28:20). He wants to be our help (Ps 46:1). He wants to be asked. James 4:2 says, “You do not have, because you do not ask.”<br />
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So, ask God for the stuff of your life. Let him become part of all that you do. Seek him. Knock on his door, just as he is knocking on yours (Rev 3:20). When you look for him, you will find him. Ask and it will be given. The “it” in this case is God. All of the things we ask for are ultimately, as Oswald Chambers puts it, to be “our utmost, for his highest.” When we ask for God, we receive him. When we seek him, we find him. When we knock, we find he has beaten us to the punch and he is already knocking on the door of our heart.<br />
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Ask, Seek, Knock is a formula for a relationship with God. That relationship will change the nature of our requests. As we know him better we will begin to honestly pray, “your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”<br />
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As Rich Mullins used to say, “God will give you what you ask, only if he can think of nothing better to give you.”<br />
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And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now.<br />
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<br /></div>The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-55497211667429862172012-04-27T07:10:00.000-07:002012-04-27T07:11:45.707-07:00Scars Mean Healing<br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Paul Cowan is our guest blogger this week. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And another thing . . . scars </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">Dave Mullins spoke Sunday about
scars. Scars can be useful as reminders
of situations we have faced in our past and pain we have been through. Scars can disfigure us and scars can change
us. Scars take us back to instances we
might not want to relive. Yet there is a certain hope we can find in
scar tissue that simple wounds do not yet provide. Something Dave said about scars and
especially the scars that grace the body of Jesus struck me as incredibly
profound. Scars mean healing. And healing means life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">The scars that I carry on my physical
body are manifestations of injuries and wounds that have healed. The only way these wounds could heal is by my
continued life. Cut flesh fuses back
together and scabs slough off to reveal healed (if not perfectly restored) skin
beneath. The mark left behind is the
reminder alluded to earlier, but the skin will function again as before. In the instance of fractured bones, the very
act of healing can leave the bone stronger than it was before the break; a
powerful metaphor which can be applied to ourselves as we are refined by the
inevitable fires of life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">In the case of our Savior Jesus Christ,
scars He chose to leave on his body represent the same healing and even more
importantly, life. Without Jesus' scars
it would just be too easy to dismiss (as many continue to do to this day) the
resurrection as simply a reappearance of the Lord in spirit form, and not a
literal resurrection of the body. But
what would this mean for us as Christians?
Without the physical resurrection, what hope do we have for
ourselves? What hope for salvation? What hope for a future spent in the presence
of the Living God? For without physical
resurrection, what Living God would there be?
(I don't mean to imply this is the only reason for the continued
presence of scars on the resurrected body of Jesus, but simply that I believe
this is at least one reason.)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">We have faith and hope because we have
heard testimony as to the scars on Jesus' body.
Spirits do not have scars. For
spirits do not require healing. Only a
body has scars and only a body which continues to live or is born again. That makes me place a certain value on scars
that is not only more than what I would ever have thought, but frankly is not
something I had every thought about in the first place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">As we have discussed before, many of us
have scars. There are physical scars
from accidents with bicycles, skateboards, cars, knives, asphalt, rocks,
augers, and anything else we could think of that is even remotely sharp or
abrasive. There are also emotional scars
from childhood and throughout life since.
For some of us they are too numerous to mention. And while most of us don't have open physical
wounds, many of us still have deep, open, gaping holes in our spirit that have
yet to heal and form their own scars. It
is such a blessing to know that our Savior, who became flesh for us, can relate
to our wounds in both physical and emotional form. He experienced both and overcame them both.
As well, if we remain in Him, He will be faithful to help us to do the
same! (John 16:33)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now. </span></div>The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-74345991674185533102012-03-28T19:12:00.000-07:002012-03-28T19:12:54.157-07:00Jesus the Intercessor<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And Another Thing . . . Jesus the Intercessor</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">I have a confession to make. I sometimes drive too fast, which is an occupational hazard for a sales rep. For more than 20 years I put nearly 50,000 miles a year on my company car. That is a lot of windshield time. Since the average driver goes about 12,000 miles annually, that’s the equivalent of four years worth of driving in just one year’s time.. When you are behind the wheel as much as I was, chances of going too fast and getting caught in the act are greatly increased. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do I sound defensive? Well it is a sensitive subject. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">On one occasion, I asked an attorney friend to represent me concerning one of my tickets. He went before the judge and told him what a nice guy I was and how I deserved to be shown mercy for my traffic transgressions. That “nice guy” argument never would have worked if I’d said those words to the court. But his description somehow made a difference and resulted in a reduction in the amount of my penalty. Even though I was sternly warned to not “transgress” again, I felt I had received mercy. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes we need someone to speak on our behalf. We need someone to plead our case.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The book of Hebrews in the New Testament describes Jesus’ role as our high priest and intercessor. Hebrews 5:1-2 says, “Every high priest is selected from among men and is appointed to represent them in matters related to God, to offer gifts and sacrifices for sins. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He is able to deal gently with those who are ignorant and are going astray, since he himself is subject to weakness.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">“Ignorant” and “going astray” are part of the human condition. No matter how much success we achieve, there are still areas where we find ourselves in the ignorant/astray category. This is especially true when it comes to spiritual matters. There is not a great deal of information available to us about the nature of nonphysical things. We all are mostly stumbling in the dark when it comes to God. This is why John says, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light.” This light appeared and was resurrected, and, Hebrews 7:25 tells us that Jesus, our high priest, now “lives to intercede.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">God recognized that all of us ignorant-stumbling-astray people need help. He knows that even our best attempts are still a far cry from what his justice requires. This is why Jesus steps in and intercedes on our behalf. He does not argue that Sam is a nice guy. He doesn’t mention my mission trips or evangelistic exploits. He skips right over my extensive resume as a Bible teacher. Instead he tells the Father, “I’ve got him covered. He is with me.” Hebrews 9:28 says, “. . . Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” Jesus is the help I need. He represents me to God in a way that I could never represent myself.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Being nice is nowhere near enough to recommend us to God. Jesus’ sacrifice is more than enough, and through the mystery of our relationship to him, as described in Hebrews, we are not only granted access to God’s kingdom, but we are inspired toward “love and good deeds.” He gives us more than we can ask for . . . and then some.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And that’s all I have to say about that . . . for now.</span></div>The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-68957113021072787642012-03-24T16:34:00.000-07:002012-03-24T16:34:09.478-07:00Christ is the Invisible Image of the Visible God<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">We have a guest blogger this week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul Cowan is the author of this week’s And Another Thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Enjoy</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">On Sunday, Sam talked to us about the oftentimes controversial subject of who Jesus is. We learned that "Christ is the visible image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15). Jesus himself said to Philip, "Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father" (John 14:9). We learned that Jesus was there before the Creation, and it was through Him that creation came to be (Colossians 1:15-17). Therefore Jesus is not simply one god among many, but He is the one and only God. We also learned that He sacrificed Himself to make us acceptable and reconcile us to Himself (Col. 1:19-20). </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">But so what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I mean, that's important, yes, but we already know that, right? Jesus died for our sins and we are forgiven and there you go. As I began to think about this more, though, it occurred to me that those of us who have been Christians for years often don't realize just how revolutionary that last part was. The God of the Universe sent His only son, Jesus, to bridge the gap that had come between us. Upon Christ's death, the curtain separating the Holy of Holies from the rest of the Temple was torn in half. That meant we are no longer required to go through a priest to speak to God. We also no longer have to sacrifice an animal to atone for our own transgressions. Blood is still required, but Jesus' blood was--and continues to be--perfect and sufficient for us all through the end of time. We can now commune with God ourselves, with Jesus as our intermediary. It's all most of us have known for longer than not, but it hasn't always been this way; for humanity and for others who are new in the Faith.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Revolution is defined as "a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system.” This is exactly what happened. Jesus, with His sacrifice on the cross, began a revolution that continues to this day. He overthrew sin and death and created a new social order between us and God. We are no longer simply subjects of God, but His children and coheirs with Christ (Romans 8:14-17). Truly a game-changer. Colossians 1:13-14 says, "For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For His disciples and close followers, change happened soon after the day He arose from the dead. They believed on Him and were set free. For most of us, this happened many years ago; at a church of our youth, perhaps. But for many others around the world, it happens every day. Each day people who live under the Law and the consequences pursuant to it, choose to follow Jesus and trade the Law for Grace. Each day lives change and are redeemed by a perfect Man who was faithful unto death. Each day, the death and resurrection of Jesus pays our tab now and forever.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; tab-stops: .5in 1.0in 1.5in 2.0in 2.5in 3.0in 3.5in 4.0in 4.5in 5.0in 5.5in 6.0in; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">For anyone who doesn't understand what I am talking about, I invite you to allow another to pay your debt. Jesus already took care of it; you simply need to acknowledge it and follow Him. For those who never forget or become inured to Christ's sacrifice, please share your joy and perseverance with the rest of us. Help us all to follow your example and stay fresh in Christ's gift. For those, like myself, who oftentimes become complacent and comfortable in grace, join me in awakening to a revolution that calls us to leave the sidelines and avidly play a new game. A game of life and death. A game already played and won by a perfect man who shed His blood to change the rules and give us a chance.</span></div>The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-82651594197733350762012-03-14T15:09:00.001-07:002012-03-17T18:04:05.919-07:00John 1: The Word Became Flesh<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And Another Thing . . . Jesus’ Incarnation</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">When I was in junior high I heard, for the first time, what I later learned was a fairly well-known faith-challenging question. “Can God make a rock so large that He himself cannot lift it?” George Carlin worked that question into a comedy routine about growing up Irish Catholic. When I first heard this attempt at a theological parlor trick, it completely disoriented me. I spent days trying to come up with what I thought would be a reasonable solution. It is, of course, a trick of logic. God is all powerful. “All” is all encompassing, so as soon as you imagine a “more,” the “more” is encompassed by the “all.” We get stuck in a logical conundrum. If there is something more than “all” then “all” is no longer “all.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The question is an attempt to find a limit to God’s power. What it in fact reveals, however, is the limitation of our logic and language (rationalism). There is no end to God, but we can very quickly reach the end of our human ability to comprehend. All of us are two or three (or if you are really gifted perhaps five or six) questions away from, “I don’t know.” This leads us to the uncomfortable and yet inherently necessary need for mystery. Any god that we could completely understand would not be much of a god. Even with all of the incredible strides in knowledge and science of the past few centuries, much of our finite world remains unknown. When we begin to consider the nature of an infinite god, we reach the limit of our ability to understand before we have even scratched the surface. This is why the story of Jesus’ incarnation is such a surprise. God chooses to reveal His unknowable nature through His Son.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">John 1:14 says, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">John1:4 says, “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The unknowable God reveals Himself to men by becoming a man. If this makes sense to you the first time you hear it, then you are not paying attention. The mystery of how God can become man and then go back to being God is not something that is easily understood by beings who are limited by five senses and three dimensions. We have no way to measure such mysterious spiritual interactions. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The intention of Scripture is not to make the infinite understandable by finite beings. The intention of Scripture is to reveal the motive of the infinite God towards His creation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“For God so loved the world that gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:16-17.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The important thing about the nature of the universe is that it was created by a God who loves. And the love of God motivates Him to action. And the action He takes is to sacrifice himself through the person of Jesus so that we, His creation, can have life, walk in light and be rescued from perishing. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Jesus is the rock created by God to justly reconcile people to Himself by His love. Jesus is the rock of our salvation, and He is greater than anything we could ask or imagine. God lifts up this rock and us and all of creation. Jesus is no parlor trick. Jesus is the infinite invading the finite and elevating all of it-- and us --to what the Bible calls glory.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now!</span></div>The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-33882920668610171102012-02-29T14:10:00.000-08:002012-02-29T14:10:15.231-08:00Teach Your Children Well<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And Another Thing . . . The Next Generation</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">My daughter is getting married in April, so this blog entry may be a bit maudlin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She is sitting in front of me right now addressing her wedding invitations. And somehow I keep hearing the voice of Tevye from “The Fiddler on the Roof” singing in my head, “Sunrise, Sunset, swiftly flow the days.” <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The cliché of life passing quickly is a cliché because it is something all of us experience if we live long enough. The days of children at our feet seem eternal while we’re in the midst of them, but when they are gone it seems they lasted only a moment. I believe this is why the Bible is constantly telling us to teach our children. God knows the moments that feel like they will last forever are gone before we know it. God’s message for parents is (Deut 11), </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 40.5pt; margin-top: 0in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">18</span></sup></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. <sup>19</sup> Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. <sup>20</sup> Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, <sup>21</sup> so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 40.5pt; margin-top: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">The lessons our children learn while they are with us, will be carried with them long after we have finished our days on earth. Proverbs 22:<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><sup>6</sup></i><span class="text"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Train up a child in the way he should go,</i></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> <span class="text">And when he is old he will not depart from it</span></i><span class="text">. The things we are told when we are little stick with us, shaping our decisions and choices. Perspectives absorbed with ease when we are young, are hard to shake when we are old. If we learn bad things, it takes time and therapy and whole lot of grace to exorcise those demons. If we learn the truths of God, they will be a magnet forever calling us home. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="text"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This is why we teach the stories of God to the children of The Gathering. Bible stories have been shaping people’s lives forever. And in every culture in which they have been translated and told, people change. When we tell them to our children, they change as well. The sad thing is that a lot of us don’t know the stories ourselves. So I want The Gathering to be a place where we tell these stories to our children and to one another. The stories of God are the software the Holy Spirit uses to speak to us in the day-to-day moments of our lives. This is why God instructs Moses to have people tie them on their foreheads.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span class="text"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">After my daughter walks down the aisle and starts her marriage journey, at some point along the way, she and her husband may be blessed with children. If so, she will begin to pour into her kids the things Kim and I have poured into her. God is the Father: the parent of us all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He loves each of his children in each generation. My dad told me that he believed the key verse of the Bible was Psalm 100:5 which says, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“</i></span></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"> I think he was exactly right.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now!</span></div>The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7796698142607752040.post-67949555476977487802012-02-23T11:34:00.000-08:002012-02-23T11:34:30.949-08:00Going Viral: an Interaction between Strategy and Prayer<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:TrackMoves/> <w:TrackFormatting/> <w:PunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:DoNotPromoteQF/> <w:LidThemeOther>EN-US</w:LidThemeOther> <w:LidThemeAsian>X-NONE</w:LidThemeAsian> <w:LidThemeComplexScript>X-NONE</w:LidThemeComplexScript> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <w:DontGrowAutofit/> <w:SplitPgBreakAndParaMark/> <w:DontVertAlignCellWithSp/> <w:DontBreakConstrainedForcedTables/> <w:DontVertAlignInTxbx/> <w:Word11KerningPairs/> <w:CachedColBalance/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> <m:mathPr> <m:mathFont m:val="Cambria Math"/> <m:brkBin m:val="before"/> <m:brkBinSub m:val="--"/> <m:smallFrac m:val="off"/> <m:dispDef/> <m:lMargin m:val="0"/> <m:rMargin m:val="0"/> <m:defJc m:val="centerGroup"/> <m:wrapIndent m:val="1440"/> <m:intLim m:val="subSup"/> <m:naryLim m:val="undOvr"/> </m:mathPr></w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" DefUnhideWhenUsed="true"
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And Another Thing . . . Going Viral</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">This past Sunday, after our service in the awesome Carmel Middle School auditorium, we traveled to Soho Café to learn how to go viral.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before I became a pastor and community builder at The Gathering, I spent 25 years as a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At various times in my career I sold antiviral medicines to treat things as diverse as herpes and flu. The fear with all of these viral conditions though, was that a new strain would emerge that the medicines could not contain. If that were to happen, the whole population would become infected and perhaps die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my former life, virality was something to be avoided--so it feels strange that now it has become a goal.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Churches throughout history have periodically hit the viral wave. On the day of Pentecost the church began as a prayer group of about 120 and ended the day with more than 3,000 members. This early church exploded when God’s spirit came on the scene. Christ-followers inside a house were so overcome by the presence of the Holy Spirit that they spilled out into the streets where people passing by began to observe and encounter this move of God. These spectators were soon infected with God’s spirit and the whole thing went viral. God and men were joined together until this holy amalgamation snowballed into a revival. As a church word, revival means that a whole lot of people at almost the same time, choose to change their lives and live for God. When revivals happen, society changes. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">Every new church is a prayer for revival. The Gathering is such a prayer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We want our city to change into a place where people love each other and God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We want to see hope and light flow into our shuttered neighborhoods and “access-controlled” apartments. We want the children growing up on our streets to fear less and play more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We pray that resources will flow from our community into the whole world to improve the plight of our neighbors everywhere. We want marriages to be renewed and restored. We want there to be a turning of the hearts of the children to their parents, and the hearts of the parents to their young. We want the people in our community to turn from anger and move towards laughter and joy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We want Carmel to look less like a city of man and more like a city of God. Most of all, we want the people of our city to find their life in the life of Jesus. The Gathering is a prayer for this kind of change.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We have been asking each of you to pray for the imminent launch of The Gathering into our community. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Each day we have suggested topics to be prayed for, and I know that many are faithfully praying for our emergence into Carmel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Keep it up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The secret of virality in the church is not so much strategy as it is prayer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When God shows up, everything changes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If God does not show up, what we build is ultimately a vanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">We want God to inhabit and multiply our various strategies, just as he did for Gideon and Joshua and all the other people of faith in the Bible. So pray for all of those you will be inviting to come to The Gathering on March 4<sup>th</sup>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pray before you hit the “send” button.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pray for your neighborhoods as you drive down the streets.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pray for the homes and businesses all around you as you move in and out of your daily routines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prayer makes strategy look brilliant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;">And that is all I have to say about that . . . for now.</span></div>The Gathering in Carmelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04544733650042377573noreply@blogger.com0