hope

Advent Thoughts

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I love Advent. Even though I grew up in a Baptist tradition that didn’t include Advent, I am so glad I have found the joy and anticipation that Advent brings. Christmas isn’t a day on a calendar or even a season; it’s an event that changed absolutely everything.

I love the fact that God Almighty became a fetus inside the womb of Mary. I love that He was born to Mr. and Mrs. Nobody in a barn trough and grew up in Nowhere and chose other nobodies and nowheres to be His disciples and first missionaries. I, too, once was a nobody and an outsider who didn’t fit in. In some ways, I still am.

I love the fact that Jesus walked in my shoes and felt all my feelings and saw the same kinds of troubles and pain that I see. I love the fact that He walked my road perfectly and offered up to God for me the kind of obedience I could never even dream of, much less carry out.

I love the fact that God still has a heart for the orphan and the widow, the homeless and the outcast, the broken and the ignored, and all those who don’t fit in anywhere. I love the fact that God has His affections set on me and an loved me with an unquenchable love that I can’t lose or destroy or run off.

I love the fact that while people are human and will eventually fail me and I will fail them, my Jesus never will. While everyone I know, including me, is fickle and changeable as the wind, Jesus is the same in all my yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows, and forevers.

I love the idea that we are celebrating this Christmas season the impossible becoming possible, the unthinkable becoming reality, and all lost causes finding hope again. I love to think that God did this to show that yes, Love would go that far.

I love most of all that today after I forgot again the reason for this Season, You reminded me. You always do. I’m always running away and You’re always waiting for me with open arms. I’m always breaking promises and being weak and denying You, but You are always ready and more than willing to forgive and to finish this great work You’ve started in me.

These and so many other reasons are why I love Advent.

Going Deeper

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I’m not one to call myself a prophet or to claim I receive prophetic words from God. I think He speaks to me, like He did today, but I’m not the one to judge whether what He said to me was prophecy. The word was “Go deeper.”

That’s what I believe the Spirit of God is telling the people of God: “Go deeper.”

You can stay in the shallow end of your faith and stay comfortable and have one foot in the kingdom of God and one foot in the flashy, multimedia world. You can stay where the water is only ankle-deep and where what you say doesn’t have to match up with how you live.

But You will always live defeated. You will always be a victim and never a victor. Your worship will always be dead, your prayers cold, your Bible just words on a page. You will always be ruled by fear and doubt. You will always give in to temptation and never see deep healing in the deepest , darkest places of your heart.

Going deeper means that maybe you have to sacrifice the hip and trendy crowd for the homeless and the broken crowd. You may stop hanging out with the oh-so-cool artsy crowd and go to the outcasts and the hurting and the shamed.

Going deeper means trading in a feel-good sentimental kind of love for a selfless sacrificial kind of love. It means that you give without any expectations of ever getting back. It means you are willing to lay down your life in a million tiny deaths each day.

Going deeper means that you say YES to Jesus, no matter what. You go where He says go, you give what He says give, you love who He say to love, and you do what He calls you to do.

I will be the first to admit that I have been a casual fan of Christ far more than I have been a follower. But that’s what going deeper means– to stop being a sideline fan who roots for the Home Team and be a follower who gets your hands and feet dirty and messy, but find out that those are the very hands and feet of Jesus touching, reaching, and healing a broken world through you.

This isn’t my normal positive, encouraging blog. This is my blog that says that if you want to know more of this love that is deeper than your sin, wider than your understanding, and higher than your imagination, you have to surrender.

As always, I’m just a nobody trying to tell everybody about Somebody who can save anybody. I’m just one beggar telling other beggars where to find the Bread of Life. I’m a ragamuffin who has joy because my Abba Father calls me His beloved.

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know

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Jesus loves me, this I know,

Even when I can’t feel it or touch it or see it.

Jesus loves me, this I know,

Even when I don’t love or even like myself.

Jesus loves me, this I know,

Even on days when I can’t get one solitary thing right.

Jesus loves me, this I know,

Even when I see friends turning and walking away from me,

Jesus loves me, this I know,

Regardless of what I think or feel, regardless of how I perceive it,

Jesus loves me, this I know,

No matter what Hollywood or Wall Street or the ads on TV say.

Jesus loves me, this I know,

Just the same way He loved me the first day and just the same way He will love me into eternity.

Jesus loves me, this I know,

For the Bible tells me so,

And that’s all I need to know.

Amen.

A Prayer for My Friends Tonight

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God, I bring my friends before you tonight. I know that You know what they need better than I do and even better than they do.

God, they are burdened and heavy-laden with work and with school, with spouses and with romantic relationships, with family and friends.

Grant them Your perfect peace tonight and enfold them in Your arms so that they can feel You near to know that You are just as near when they can’t feel You.

Grant them the joy than transcends circumstances and events, good or bad. Joy that can only come from You and that other people can only attribute to You.

Give them wisdom in their friendships. Bring people into their lives who will draw out the God-colors in them and inspire them to hunger and thirst after righteousness and to above all yearn for Jesus more than life itself.

Remove the people who hinder them being who You called them to be. Lord, even me, if I am a hindrance to Your work in their lives. Give them the grace to let the people go who You take out of their existance.

Above all, give them a single passion and vision: to follow hard after You, regardless of what it costs or what anyone else around them thinks. May they see only You and love only You. May their love for others be Your love flowing through them.

Lord, cause Your face to shine on them and be gracious to them. Take them to the lowliest people and let them be Your hands and feet to those who will never be able to repay what You do to them through my friends.

I pray for success and prosperity and good fortune for my friends. More than that, I pray intimacy and a deeper, wilder love for You, even if it comes at the expense of success and prosperity and good fortune.

Thank You for my friends. May they know how grateful I am. Much more than that, may they know each and every day and all through the night how You love them and how fond You are of them and how You call them beloved and how You are their Abba Father. May they each hear the sweet sound of You singing with joy over them in the deep waches of the night.

That’s my prayer for them tonight. Amen.

What Community Means: Part 2

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In yet another sellout, I am putting out a sequel to my last blog. But before you accuse me of going Hollywood, let me offer a few words of explanation. I left out some stuff in my last blog. Deep, right?

Being a part of the community of faith means these things as well:

You are only a stranger once; after that, you’re family. You are a fellow pilgrim travelling along the same narrow road.

No matter where you go, you will always carry your brothers and sisters with you in your heart, in your mind, and in your soul. Each brother or sister is only a prayer away.

You are always held and carried by strong arms of prayer and by the God who hears them. That’s in good times and bad, through sunny weather and storms. Regardless.

Sometimes, you will be strong for someone else who can’t be and speak to God on their behalf; sometimes, you will be weak and need someone else to stand in the gap for you.

Your family isn’t just those who are related by blood to you and share a common ancestry, but all of those who seek after God with hearts made alive and minds transformed and lives changed by the resurrection power of Christ.

Last of all, community means that above all, we seek to be in unity and to have the mind of Christ in all matters. That we do everything in our power to make our relationships work and to seek reconciliation and restoration when they don’t. It means to put others’ needs before our own and to seek to serve rather than be served.

That’s what community means.

What Community Means

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When you and I said an eternal YES to Jesus, we became a part of the universal community of faith. That means:

You and I are stuck with each other. There’s no way biblically you can justify turning your back on me and no way I can ever give up on you.

You will never walk a single day through a single storm alone. You will never walk through the deepest darkest valley by yourself.

Your joys will be my joys, your sorrows will be mine, and your burdens lightened because I will share your load.

You can be yourself, warts and all, and I can do the same, and neither one of us will ever have to fear judgment or condemnation.

We will speak the truth in love to each other and gently guide the errant ones back on to the path and keep each other honest, transparent, and steadfast with our eyes on the prize.

Since this community of faith is made up of broken and imperfect people, we will often hurt and neglect each other, but the hallmark of this community is forgiveness and second chances.

We have one God, one Savior Jesus Christ, one faith, one baptism, one goal, and one love to share with a fragmented and scarred world.

Every single person matters, and every single person is essential to the community bringing forth the visible image of God into our world.

You can only be you and I can only be me. We each have a unique place in the mosaic of faith that no one else can fill, and a part to play in God’s unfolding drama that no one else can play.

The Church is all of us. The Church is not you and the Church is not me. Alone, we are vulnerable and susceptible to enemy attack, but standing together under the banner of Christ, nothing can overcome us or separate us from God’s love.

Community means all these things and much more. Community means that you and I are unique and special. That we are not alone. That we are wanted and deeply loved by the Father who called us all into this koinonia, this fellowship of saints.

That’s what community means.

The Mosaic of Faith in Community

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“Community is like a large mosaic. Each little piece seems so insignificant. One piece is bright red, another cold blue or dull green, another warm purple, another sharp yellow, another shining gold. Some look precious, others ordinary. Some look valuable, others worthless. Some look gaudy, others delicate. As individuals stones, we can do little with them except compare them and judge their beauty and value. When, however, all these little stones are brought together in one big mosaic portraying the face of Christ, who would ever question the importance of any one of them? If one of them, even the least spectacular one, is missing, the face is incomplete. Together in the one mosaic, each little stone is indispensable and makes a unique contribution to the glory of God. That’s community, a fellowship of little people who together make God visible in the world” (Henri Nouwen).

You may not be the hippest and trendiest person on the planet.

You may not be the most socially polished person that anyone will ever meet.

You may not rank very highly on the socially desirable scale of who’s who’s and so-and-so’s.

You may not feel like you’re a very high prority on anyone’s list of friends and your friends may seem like they can make time for others when they’re too busy for you.

You may feel romatically undesireable because you’re not GQ or Vanity Fair, and that whatever good traits you possess don’t really matter if you’re not physically beautiful and if people don’t use words to describe you like “hot” or “fine” or “gorgeous” or “eye candy”.

You may look around at all the people who seem to be more successful in every area of life than you and get discouraged because you just don’t measure up to anyone or anything.

You may think that you add nothing to the world and that your absence wouldn’t affect anything in the slightest little bit.

But you matter.

You are who God created you to be. You are your Abba’s beloved child.

You are the mosaic piece God created you to be to fill a part of the mosaic that only you can fill and shine like only you can shine.

You can only be the best you, just as I can only be the best me. We can never be what someone else thinks we should be or what we think others want us to be.

Together, we can show the world what the rainbow colors of faith, hope, and love look like.

Together, we are the hands and feet and heart of Jesus to the outcast and needy and poor and broken.

Together, we are the visible face of God. Together, we are the body of Christ.

Without you in it, the mosaic doesn’t shine as brightly and the world misses a crucial part of what God looks like.

Together, you and I and the rest of the community of faith form a divine mosaic. When the world looks at us, they will see Jesus.

In Everything Give Thanks

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“Be cheerful no matter what; pray all the time; thank God no matter what happens. This is the way God wants you who belong to Christ Jesus to live” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

In everything give thanks.

In sunshine or in storms, give thanks.

In good times and in bad times, give thanks.

In joy or in sorrow, give thanks.

When you’re surrounded by friends and family, give thanks; when you’re alone even in the midst of a crowd, give thanks.

When you’re welcoming new life into the world, give thanks; when you’re saying your final tear-stained goodbyes, give thanks.

When everything is going your way, give thanks; when everything you do turns into a fiasco of epic proportions, give thanks.

When God brings people into your life who bless and encourage you, give thanks; when people give up on you and turn their backs on you, give thanks.

When you’re walking in faith and believing strong, give thanks; when you can’t find the words to pray or even the faith to believe, give thanks.

Give thanks, not for everything, but in everything. Give thanks not for the circumstances you’re dealing with, but in them.

Give thanks that God is working in all these things for the good of those who love Him. Give thanks that there is not one single trial that He can’t turn into gold.

Give thanks if only for the fact that you woke up this morning and drew the next breath. Give thanks if only for the fact that God saw you on your worst day and thought you were worth dying for. Give thanks that He send Jesus to die for you and take your place for the punishment all your sins and failures deserved.

In everything give thanks.

Let thanksgiving be your lifestyle and gratitude be your attitude.

In everyhing give thanks.

 

Why I Am a Fan of Henri Nouwen

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solitude

“In solitude we can slowly unmask the illusion of our possessiveness and discover in the center of our own self that we are not what we can conquer, but what is given to us. In solitude we can listen to the voice of him who spoke to us before we could speak a word, who healed us before we could make any gesture to help, who set us free long before we could free others, and who loved us long before we could give love to anyone. It is in this solitude that we discover that being is more important than having, and that we are worth more than the result of our efforts. In solitude we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared. It’s there we recognize that the healing words we speak are not just our own, but are given to us; that the love we can express is part of a greater love; and that the new life we bring forth is not a property to cling to, but a gift to be received” (Henri J.M. Nouwen).

Henri Nouwen wrote that every single person ever born deals with aloneness, because every single one of us is unique and no one else will ever have our exact problems and issues and hang-ups and phobias.

He said we can either see our aloneness as a wound and thus turn it into loneliness or view it as a gift, where it becomes solitude. In solitude is where we can learn to be still and quiet and know that in truth, we are never really alone. God is with us.

Solitude makes us better people, better neighbors, better friends, better spouses, better lovers, and better disciples. We’re not clinging to each other out of a desparate need to not be lonely, but because we are finally comfortable with who we are in the times when we are alone with no noise to drown out our own thoughts.

That is my own wording of what I’ve been reading in The Only Necessary Thing, a compilation of Nouwen’s thoughts on living a prayerful life. Seriously, if you don’t read another one of my blogs, but read one of his books, I will be supremely happy. He’s that good.

That’s all for tonight. Let me know what you are reading that touches you deeply at the soul level. Maybe it’s a book that will do the same for me. And may the God of the earthquake and the God of the thunder also be the God of your silence and the God of your solitude. Amen.

More About Blessings and Such

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For the record, I thought about calling this blog “Mo Better Mo Blessings,” but decided against it. Be thankful for that.

I had some more thoughts about blessings earlier today when I should have been paying more attention to the sermon. That’s actually where some of my best ideas for blogs come from. Shhh, don’t tell anyone, okay?

Some blessings are only found through suffering and trial and can’t be found any other way.

Some treasures are only found along the road through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, but they turn out to be some of the dearest treasures you will ever find.

Sometimes, the words God speaks to your heart in the midst of great pain are the words that turn out to be life and light and healing. Those are the words you remember most and hold most deeply in your heart of hearts, for those are the ones that go deep and speak to the most hidden, secret parts of you.

Some joys born out of sorrow are the ones that last with you the longest. Long after the storms cease and the suffering ends, these joys remind you like the rainbow of God’s goodness and His faithfulness.

Sometimes worship means the most to you when it costs you something. David once said, “I will not sacrifice to the Lord that which cost me nothing.” Sometimes, the cost is tears. Sometimes, the cost is your time, your talents and your treasures. In some places, the cost of worship may very well be your life.

Hold dearly to these lessons learned in the dark. Treasure the blessings found in storms. Never let go of the words God speaks to you in the midst of your suffering. Those are what will carry you through to the end.

And may you always hear in the night the voice of your Abba singing and rejoicing over you in the night as He does every night.