The Gift

Sunday, the man who delivered the communion devotional spoke of Christ's gift to us on the cross. At one point he asked us to imagine opening that gift with its pretty wrapping and beautiful bow. I couldn't do it, I couldn't see the gift with fancy paper and an elaborate bow.

All I could see was a humble cardboard box, tied with simple twine. The box was scarred from the sting of the whip, spattered with blood dripping from the crown of thorns. The twine was frayed and stained from a life or service to others. This great gift of salvation and new life did not come in a beautiful package. It came in a man without the trappings of beauty or majesty. Nothing in the appearance of the package was designed to attract me. Instead the package was designed to reveal the nature of God who loved all people so much that he abandoned his throne in heaven to live a sacrifical cross-focused life on this earth.

That gift in the humble cardboard box calls me to follow Jesus' example. It calls me to live in confidence that my future is secure, to trust God that one day I will live with him in glory. It calls me to share Jesus' good news, love, and compassion with my fellow human beings. It calls me to live a humble "cardboard box" life

How do you see Christ's precious gift?

Great Weekend

After a hectic week, typical of a semester drawing to a close, Bill and I spent Saturday and Sunday in Dallas. First we attended the wedding of Kathleen Kerr and Charles Blanchard. It was a lovely ceremony and such fun to see Kathleen and Chuck so excited about their new life together.

This morning we attended services at Legacy in North Richland Hills and witnessed something even greater than the love between a young husband and wife. At Legacy we saw the love of a man for his God and the power of a life lived in obedience to God's call. Allan Stanglin, the pulpit minister at Legacy, is a friend from AGST. He is a careful exegete and a gifted preacher (not to mention an excellent writer; check out The Kingdom, the Kids and the Cowboys). Allan has an energy and enthusiasm for God's word and Christ's church that is absolutely infectious.

In the fall of 2005 Allan left a successful career in broadcasting to return to school and earn a Master of Arts in Theological Studies. Immediately after graduation in May 2007, Allan began his ministry at Legacy. Today, as Allan stood in front of the congregation and the audience listened carefully, I saw a man who epitomizes the blessing that comes from trusting God, being attentive to his direction, and submissive to his call.

I pray that Allan and his family will continue to be blessed by their time at Legacy. I also pray that this congregation, that waited so patiently for the right man to join them in bringing glory to God, will grow in ways that only God can imagine and empower.

Oh God, you are an awesome God and I am blessed to be a witness to your work and power in the world.

Celebration

Celebration is at the heart of the way of Christ. He entered the world on a high note of jubilation: "I bring you good news of great joy," cried the angel,"which shall come to all the people" (Luke 2:10). He left the world bequeathing his joy to the disciples: "These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full" (John 15:11). Richard Foster, Celebration of Discipline

Celebration is one of the spiritual disciplines. It is hard to imagine that Christians need to discipline themselves to celebrate but we do. We need to truly celebrate our release from the captivity of sin. We need to truly celebrate that our eyes are no longer blind to sin. We need to celebrate that we live free from the oppressive fear of death. We need to celebrate that, as Christians, we are never alone, never without family, and never without hope. Whatever your Thanksgiving Day looks like, I pray that it reflects the discipline of celebration. I pray that it is bathed in the certainty of your hope, annointed with the blessings of family and empowered with the presence of the One who gives us cause for celebration.

What a Pleasure

We've been living in a whirlwind of activity since my last post. Several days were spent in preparations. Then, on November 2, Brandon and his girlfriend, Jana, arrived from Berlin. Since then it has been a challenge to keep up with their hectic schedule, attend class and fit in a few hours of study. They leave today for Denver where Brandon will attend a company meeting and Jana will see another part of the US. Although it has been much too short we have enjoyed their visit. What a pleasure it is to spend time with our adult children. Although I sometimes wax nostalgic about the days when Ryan and Brandon were babies, or toddlers, or on rare occasions teenagers, I find my greatest pleasure is spending time with my adult sons. They have grown to be strong, responsible and hard-working men and Mom and Dad couldn't be more proud. I pray that we continue to grow in love and respect for one another. May your family be blessed as ours has been.

Devotion

In the introduction to The Devout Life, Frances de Sales (1567-1622) makes the following observations about devotion.

…everyone paints devotion according to his own passions and fancies. Someone given to fasting thinks himself very devout if he fasts although his heart may be filled with hatred. Much concerned with sobriety, he doesn’t care to wet his tongue with wine or even water but won’t hesitate to drink deep of his neighbor’s blood by detraction and gossip.

Another person thinks himself devout because he daily recites a vast number of prayers, but after saying them he utters the most disagreeable, arrogant, and harmful words at home and among the neighbors. Another gladly takes a coin out of his purse and gives it to the poor, but he cannot extract kindness from his heart to forgive his enemies.

Another forgives his enemies but never pays his creditors unless compelled to do so by force of law. All these individuals are usually considered to be devout, but they are no means such. Saul’s servants searched for David in his house but David’s wife, Michal, had put a statue on his bed, covering it with David’s clothes, and thus led them to think it was David himself who was lying there sick and sleeping. In the same manner, many persons clothe themselves with certain outward actions connected with holy devotion, and the world believes that they are truly devout and spiritual whereas they are in fact nothing but copies and phantoms of devotion.

de Sales saw a devout life as one that is lived in two dimensions. The vertical dimension is the all consuming love of God. This love creates in us such a desire to be with God that we eagerly engage in the spiritual disciplines in order to draw closer to him. A life lived well in the vertical dimension overflows into the horizontal dimension of love and service for others.

When God spoke the ten commandments four of them concerned devotion to God and six of them concerned living a life that honored and cared for others. When we put God first, truly loving him as our only God, wholeheartedly respecting his name and his institutions then we are able to genuinely love, honor, and respect our fellow human beings. True devotion to God is expressed in love and service to others.

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke,

to set the oppressed free and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

when you see the naked, to clothe him,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Isaiah 58:6-7

This week may each of us show our love for God through acts of selfless service to others. May God create in each of us a deeper longing for true devotion to Him.

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I have no idea why this post is single spaced. I've tried and tried to correct it but it has a mind of its own. My apologies but I give up!!!

In Tune with the Culture

Today I came across this quote from The Devout Life by Francis de Sales (1567-1622), "...little faults committed in the beginning of a project grow infinitely greater in its course and finally are almost irreparable...." de Sales observation resonates with truth; truth that is confirmed in our attempt to modify the church so that it will be more in tune with the culture. In an effort to reach the unbeliever, many congregations modified worship, removed Christian symbols from the building and abandoned the language of faith. In an attempt "to make Christianity relevant" to our children and youth we turned classrooms into movie theaters and attempted to find a Christian message in the violence of Halo 3. What are we thinking or are we thinking at all? Why did we decide that tension between the church and the culture was a bad thing? How did we decide that the church needs to be more appealing? 1 Peter was written to first century churches in conflict with the culture, but it has a message for the 21st century church as well.

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him—you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

For in Scripture it says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.” 1Peter 2:4-6

How did the church abandon its role as a holy priesthood? How did it happen that we no longer trust in the power of Christ to attract followers? How did it happen that we no longer trust in God's word to speak to our children. How did it happen that we think our children will be more faithful if they spend Sunday mornings in a "movie theatre" rather than in a Bible class?

I think it happened because "little faults committed in the beginning of a project grow infinitely greater in its course." The question now, "Are the faults irreparable?"

The Christian Commission

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Matt. 28:18-20

We call it "The Great Commission" and literally thousands and thousands of men and women have accepted the call and gone "into the world," baptizing in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. They have gone on to teach these new believers the importance of obedience. Still, many new Christians return to their old way of life, while others never seem to mature spiritually. Nothing is more discouraging to a missionary or minister than to see the promise of new life in Christ abandoned or unfulfilled. Yet, I wonder if we engineer our own failures because we misread the commission. The charge is not to baptize, it is not to convert. The commission is to use the power and authority of Christ to make disciples. Let me make it clear that I am not minimizing the importance of baptism, but a careful reading of the passage shows that the goal is discipleship not immersion. Look at the instruction: Go and make disciples... baptizing them (the disciples)... and teaching them (the disciples) to obey.... Being a disciple comes first. Have you noticed that in the gospels the apostles are continually referred to as disciples? Have you noticed that none of the gospel writers report the baptism of the apostles? In the gospels, relatively little is said about baptism in comparison to the number of times the text referrs to those who are disciples of Jesus. As they recount the life of Jesus, the gospel evanglelists focus on what it means to be his disciple. So what is a disciple? Webster defines a disciple as "one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another: such as "one of the twelve in the inner circle of Christ's followers according to the Gospel accounts" or "a convinced adherent of a school or individual." In the gospels, a disciple is one who follows Jesus. It is one who listens to him, learns from him, obeys his commands and imitates his behavior and lifestyle but a disciple is not a super-Christian. Peter who denied Jesus, James and John who selfishly asked for preferential treatment, Thomas who doubted--they were disciples. They were disciples because they followed, because they imitated, because they learned by being in Jesus' presence. They had no other option. If you traveled with him, you were a disciple. There were no Christians with Jesus, there were no church members--just disciples. Last year Baylor University conducted a poll in which 82% of Americans described themselves as Christians. Yet, The Barna Group reports that only 43% of Americans report attending church in any given week. Mane experts believe that 20% is a more accurate figure. Why is there such an enormous discrepency? Is it because the church has lost the vision of discipleship? Have we substitiuted "Christian" for "disciple"? Have we substituted a title for a way of life? Have we adopted the more attractive approach? Are we afraid to honestly describe the cost of discipleship? There is no doubt that the title is easier to bear than the way of life. It is much easier to have our names entered on the church membership list than it is to lay down our lives in submission to his Lordship. It is much easier to check Christian on the polling questionaire than it is to become like him in humility and sacrifice. Are our churches full of non-disciples? In Devotional Classics, Richard Foster had this to say about discipleship.

Perhaps the greatest malady in the Church today is converts to Christ who are not disciples of Christ--a clear contradiction in terms. This malady affects everything in church life and in large measure accounts for the low level of spiritual nutrients in our local congregations. To counter this sad state of affairs we must determine that, regardless of what others do, our intention is to come under the tutelage of Jesus Christ, our ever-living Savior, Teacher, Lord, and Friend. We seek to undertake the general pattern of life that he undertook--not in slavish mimicking but in overall lifestyle. Disciplines of prayer, solitude, simplicity and service will mark our overall pattern of life.

May you be truly committed to discipleship.