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

What Does That Mean?

S - Mark 9:1, 9-13 (NLT): "Jesus went on to say, "I assure you that some of you standing here right now will not die before you see the Kingdom of God arrive in great power!" … As they descended the mountainside, he told them not to tell anyone what they had seen until he, the Son of Man, had risen from the dead. So they kept it to themselves, but they often asked each other what he meant by "rising from the dead." Now they began asking him, "Why do the teachers of religious law insist that Elijah must return before the Messiah comes?" Jesus responded, "Elijah is indeed coming first to set everything in order. Why then is it written in the Scriptures that the Son of Man must suffer and be treated with utter contempt? But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and he was badly mistreated, just as the Scriptures predicted.""

O - They had certainly received an "eye and ear full" in the trip up the mountain with Jesus.  The problem for Peter, James and John, and for all of us, is to understand what Jesus was/is saying.  The issue's not the words themselves but the combination of words and the context of Jesus' life and the context of their own.  They did not understand what he meant by rising from the dead because this combination of words had no foundation in their messianic mindset and very little in their life experience (the widow's son, Jairus' daughter, Lazarus).  Isn't this the same "problem" which allowed the people/leaders to miss and badly mistreat the Elijah who was to come?  These three did not recognize John the Baptist, nor did they understand rising from the dead at this point in the timeline of their lives.  They would, however, come to fully grasp this and through them the world would see what Jesus meant.  Clearly, accurate information alone is insufficient.  What was the "game changer" for them?  Experiencing the words of Jesus. This is the intended game changer for us all … experiencing the words, the teaching, the theology, the presence of Jesus again and again.

A - The Kingdom and the King are fully interactive.  Without ongoing exchanges between my very little life and his incomprehensible life I can't understand the meaning though I can grasp, repeat and even postulate the words.  The context of all of Jesus' teaching, of all the Scriptures is the ongoing relational reality intended from the first man and first woman. The Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power (1 Corinthians 4:20).  Flesh and blood do not inherit it and neither can such understand or reveal it.  It will always take the interface, interaction of the Spirit.  This underscores the stark distinction between religion/ culture and the Kingdom.  Culture wants me to be right and the Kingdom wants me to be near.

P - Living Word, Only King and Only True Friend of the whole world,
Thank you for including us in your ongoing life, not just your history.  Thank you for wanting us near more than wanting us to be right.  Thank you for letting us partner with you but never allowing us to go solo … for flesh only gives birth to flesh and we are called (along with the whole world) to be people of the spirit.  Thank you for calling me/us to speak, to live and to embrace the reality that you still must reveal it.  Thank you for insisting that we love, believe and follow.  Lord, I'm not sure I'm right about several important things … but I am sure I'm near.  I'll stay close … the rest is up to you.
Loving, thinking, believing and following,
Steve

Don't Miss Sorrow's Transformation

S - 2 Corinthians 7:10 (NLT): "For God can use sorrow in our lives to help us turn away from sin and seek salvation. We will never regret that kind of sorrow. But sorrow without repentance is the kind that results in death."

O - Sorrow is what we don't want and cannot avoid.  Even the most careful life will have sorrow thrust upon it.  Then of course, there's the sorrow that we do inflict upon ourselves.  Sometimes knowingly and oft times unknowingly; but the result is the same, sorrow (luvph: sorrow, pain, grief, annoyance, affliction; of persons mourning). The scripture (God's written voice) is telling us that in sorrow of all kinds God is purposeful.  He is working everything for good, not just every good thing for the good.  Ultimately we won't be able to prevent all sorrow but we do possess the determining factor in how our sorrows end.  What makes the difference is our response to the sorrow regardless of its source.  Repentance (literally the changing of our minds) is the key. If I change my mind and believe that God is working for the good and will be purposeful in this, then my life's course is altered.  I turn from anything or anyone leading me away from God AND turn into him and all that he is and is doing.  Since he is life, this repentance is all about life and he will ensure that life is the end of the difficulty.  Thus the sorrow ends without regret even if it started so full of regret that it was spilling out of every pour of our existence. By turning into him instead of death, it ends in life; instead of hurt, it ends in help.

A - To quote Jesus, if the Scriptures are true and cannot be broken (and it is so), then this one is a doozy.  Sorrow, which is so painful, debilitating, brutal and toxic can be transformed into that which is helpful and life producing.  The real player in this awesome metamorphosis is God for whom nothing is impossible, too difficult or too wonderful.  Yet I am the decider in how it ends.  Well, this season has produces a fairly serious and long-term amount of sorrow.  God is working it, will I work with him?  I don't have to work it for him.  I'm not the changer of circumstance, I'm the "truster" through it.  I am the one changing my thinking so that I'll be in alignment with all that he is doing in and through the sorrow. Instead of wondering what's gone wrong I am to be the one wondering how great all this will be when the Lord is finished working it for good.

P - Lord who loves us and a challenge,

I re-present myself and my sorrow to you.  I want to work with you in it and see it become everything you intend … every good and perfect thing which will produce life in me and cause your life to flow through me.  Lord, enable me in my tired and frayed humanity to repent … to change my mind and bring my thoughts, heart and actions into alignment with you and your will on earth.  Lord, I welcome your will here like they do in heaven … completely, trustingly and with joy.

In them,

Steve

Does Jesus Really Love ALL the Children of the World?

S - Matthew 15:22-28 (TLJ):" A Canaanite woman from that area came out and began shouting, "Lord, Son of David, please help me! My daughter has a demon inside her, and she is suffering very much." But Jesus did not answer her. So the followers came to him and said, "Tell her to go away. She keeps crying out and will not leave us alone." Jesus answered, "God sent me only to the lost people of Israel." Then the woman came over to Jesus and bowed before him. She said, "Lord, help me!" He answered her with this saying, "It is not right to take the children's bread and give it to the dogs." The woman said, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the pieces of food that fall from their master's table." Then Jesus said, "Woman, you have great faith! You will get what you asked for." And right then the woman's daughter was healed."

O - The ethnic tension in this exchange seems quite high; people of Israel, Canaanites, masters, dogs, and tell her to go away. Why did Jesus respond like he did? Is he having a bad day and one more pushy person asking for help has finally shoved him over the edge? Does he really have no care for Canaanites and no concern for a little girl?  Since faith and not ethic origins is the essential element in pleasing God, what's really happening here? Maybe he's doing something beyond healing the daughter … maybe he's looking to start the healing process in the social fabric (culture and world view) of the Mom and the Disciples. Helping only "your people" and counting the "others" as dogs was the standard response of group to group.  It wasn't just that the Jews consider the Canaanites dogs, the Canaanites "returned the favor" with equal intensity.  Jesus’ first three responses to the woman echo the current culture.  First he simply ignores, then he isolates and finally disqualifies her.  Her faith, like God's kingdom and family, overcomes the hard hearted bias of culture.  Having identified how culture (Jewish and Canaanite) would have responded to such a request  Jesus responds to her, her faith, her daughter and offers healing to the Mother's heart and culture … and maybe the Disciple's too. In Jesus' family all are welcome; there is always more than enough for all!

A - I used to see this passage as only a "test of faith." Now, having had the privilege of a lot of international travel and first hand experiences with the tensions and bias of culture and world views, I see it very differently.  The beauty for me is the way the woman's desire and faith leap over the barriers.  She agrees with the Lord's finding … that culture to culture is more than problematic … and then she says the words which start the healing on all levels … "Yes, Lord". This is the response I need to have in all settings and situations.  I want my social fabric, my world view and culture to be consistently transformed by the irrepressible life of Jesus. He really does love the whole world and calls me to join him. 

P - Lord who loves,
Today I have the privilege of being near you and loving and working with you.  You always start at love, lead with mercy and then face the facts of our lives and our world.  Thank you for your interest in more than our immediate needs.  Thank you for wanting our complete healing and transformation.  This is beautiful and you are beautiful. Today, my primary assignment is to love … Lord I welcome you, your love and your will on earth and in me like they do in heaven; unqualified and unrestrained.
Yes, Lord,
Steve

Forget the Timing … Believe the Experts

S - Mark 15:44-45 (NIV): "Pilate was surprised to hear that he was already dead. Summoning the centurion, he asked him if Jesus had already died. When he learned from the centurion that it was so, he gave the body to Joseph"

O - Jesus is full of surprises and this one is curious to me.  The Romans had crucifixion down to both an art and a science.  Clearly Pilate's expectations of duration for this turbulent Jewish Rabbi's execution were playing out differently than he thought … pretty much like all the events of the last few hours.  Jesus won't defend himself, the people won't let him release their "king" and Jesus doesn't last as long on a cross as most folks do.  This surprise concerning his death will be verified by an expert witness before he grants the request of Joseph.  Of course the surprises won't end there.  Three days later an even bigger surprise greets our world.  The duration of Jesus' death, like his dying, would defy all expectations as well. This too would be verified by experts, by those who would really know if it was Jesus raised from the dead.  Why not believe the experts on both counts?  As the Scripture asks (Acts 26:8): "Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?"

A - Like Pilate I'm just about always off when I try to figure out the timing of Jesus and God's will on earth.  Most things take way longer than I think they should and then there are others which speed along … some of which are painfully difficult.  The beauty is that resurrection life is the point, is always present … if 2 or 3 gather in my name … I am with you always to the end of the age.  My assignment is to believe, to wait, to stay near and trust because nothing is impossible, too difficult or too wonderful for him who is life.

P - Lord who lives,
Thank you for this day on planet earth … a day that you hold, shape, govern, steward and work according to your awesome brilliance, limitless power and extreme goodness. Jesus, help me in my very little mind and thinking to calibrate to you and your kingdom which is so near … to repent!  Help me start with you and then move to my world and circumstance so that your kingdom will come and your will will be done in me and through me like it happens in heaven.  Today is my day to stay near, to trust, to believe and to work with you in that which you already have in mind to do.  Touch my eyes, my heart, my mind unto the life that is really life.
Believing,
Steve