How About a Change of Clothes?

S - Psalm 30:8-12 (NIV): " To you, O LORD, I called; to the Lord I cried for mercy: "What gain is there in my destruction, in my going down into the pit? Will the dust praise you? Will it proclaim your faithfulness? Hear, O LORD, and be merciful to me; O LORD, be my help." You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever."

O - David, the skilled warrior, general and leader had no trouble and no hesitancy is crying out for help, admitting his weakness and lack as well as saying exactly how he was feeling.  He's not forgotten God's greatness or majesty or power.  He's remembered that he is a child and called to come near and stay near the One, the Father, who is in heaven.  The result, amidst strong adult pressure and imagery, is a child being comforted, encouraged, helped (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12) to change garments from sackcloth to joy and then inspired to sing out the confident love which is available to all who join David in choosing childlike living (cf. Matthew 11:25-30).

A - It's amazing how difficult childlike living is for this (and think all) adult(s).  Our world trains, imposes, shoves and requires us to think and live in its masquerade called "maturity".  Words like stewardship, responsibility, pull your own weight, control your own destiny, etc. all converge to inspire us to actually live polar opposite to the words of Jesus and the rest of the Scriptures. This sad inspiration is not reserved to the secular but is promoted and upheld by the religious world as well.  The Pharisees of Jesus' day were not all that different from the Roman Conquerors who ruled them.  It is the same today.  Each day I am to choose love, trust, faith, hope, in childlike simplicity above all other concerns. If these are not leading, shaping and determining my course of thought and action then I am set to claim maturity and end up like the rich fool and those who think they are in and are actually shutting themselves out. Today, I feel the press of my adult world trying to shove me forward as it wishes.  I am choosing to be led rather than driven and believing that my/our Father in heaven is bring us (Jan and I) a change of clothes, the refreshing of mercy, the song of love and a future bright with hope because he is helping, shaping and adding "all these things."

P - Father, Friend, Helper, King and God,
I praise you for this day and join the shepherd King in crying out for mercy, for help and for you to be to me my Father.  I thank you that you are willing to do more than just what I cannot do for myself!  I praise you for loving me/us first and most and for refusing to change your mind. I welcome all that you are doing and wish and prefer and look forward to the change of clothes, the song we'll sing and the dance which will be unavoidable as you make yourself and your purposes known to us.  Lord, thank you for working and for calling me/us to work with you, not for you.  O Lord, I love you back. I will give you thanks forever.
Steve

Well, What are We Waiting For?

S - Luke 17:11-19 (NIV): "Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" Then he said to him, "Rise and go; your faith has made you well.""

O - Jesus makes no distinction between the Samaritan and the Jews at the request and the release for healing. We don't even know there was a Samaritan among the ten until the very end of this exchange. Jesus made no distinction and leprosy made no distinction either.  In fact, for these ten outcasts leprosy had dissolved all cultural/religious biases.  They were "together" in their misfortune and illness.  Leprosy took from them the luxury of social status, bigotry, disregard for others, disgust and pride.  Hardship had melted away all these categories and they were simply together in their humanity, need and hopes.  In the end, Jesus calls attention to one of the human categories to make the point that faith doesn’t make distinctions either.

A - What if our world didn't wait for famines, tsunamis, foxholes, terrorists, dictators and thugs to efface these barriers? What if we/I didn't wait for tragedy to provoke in us/me what love already calls us to?  What if I categorically refuse all categories and consistently start at and stay in the superlatives (the greatest commandments)?  When the tragedy passes we tend to retreat to our biases.  Love remains … it doesn't fade and so if I will … I can refuse, day by day, the categories and reasonings of earth which bring division and ultimately destruction and death.  Today … I can get up and get moving because faith, love and hope have made me "well". 

P - Lord who is the Gospel, Love, Hope, Faith and the exact representation of God,
Thank you for this … for this insight and assignment.  Thank you for not only giving it to me but for being so willing to help me live it out loud, grow up in it and be one through whom this life-giving reality can flow.  Lord, I thank you for your defiant mercy, relentless love and amazing grace.  I thank you that you have assigned me the superlatives as my purpose and believing as my work. Today, while it is called today, I choose you, your ways, your kingdom come in me and through me like it happens in heaven.  Lord, I return to give praise to God!
Believing,
Steve

Home Sweet Home - Humans Welcome

S - Exodus 24:9-11 (NIV): "Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and the seventy elders of Israel went up and saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself. But God did not raise his hand against these leaders of the Israelites; they saw God, and they ate and drank."

O - This is a very curious story … not that God came down to humans (Jesus confirms this as an assumed) nor that mere mortals were allowed to look at God and live (both Old and New Testaments record those who do this) … but that "they ate and drank."  Of all the possible responses humans have at their disposal in an encounter with God Almighty what is this?  Moses will go on to spend 40 days and nights with God without eating or drinking.  Why was this a part of their experience and is this recorded?  Scripture does not directly tell us but I think the following:

1.       God is more comfortable with our humanity than we are (after all he made it).

2.       We were created for relationship with God as children and friends. What's more family and friend like than a meal together?

3.       Culture/religion wants to make this type of exchange a rare exception.

4.       Jesus comes to affirm this exchange as the rule, not the exception.

"Jesus replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." - John 14:23

A - Today I'll make a couple hundred decisions which will range in importance and scope.  It will involve an equal number of human things and the beauty is that God wants into them all.  Not as the supervisor watching for the mistakes I may make but as a Father and Friend who cares about who I am and what I'm doing … one who loves.  Regardless of the decisions I make (best or worst, good and bad) I will be no less nor no more loved.  He wants in to affirm, teach, heal, transform, reveal, love and yes, forgive.  He doesn't want to visit, he wants to stay.  He doesn't want me to visit or get religious on him … he wants me to come near and stay near; to make his home (monhv: residence, staying, abode, mansion) with me/us.  Today, he will shepherd me and when necessary give me input and even when it's not "necessary" he may drop me a line or two … give me a nudge or an inkling … brush me with his presence or touch me with his love.  Today I have vision of Jesus and when I see him I see his Father and my Father.  Today from all my hopes and dreams to the bread in my teeth God has a will on earth and I'm included, invited, wanted and loved.  Wow … it's going to be a great day!

P - Father who wants us,

Thank you for today and for your willingness to love me and the world I live in.  Thank you for not leaving me to myself nor withholding your presence, direction and care.  Today I want to follow, to have the irrepressible life of Jesus coming into me and out of me.  Today, Lord I admit and welcome your awesome brilliance, limitless power and extreme goodness.  I accept my primary assignment to love you back with my all and my neighbor as myself.  I give myself to you and to the work, the work of believing.  I want and need you … want and need you to make your home with me today while it is called today.
Welcome home,
Steve