Monday, June 15, 2009

Ephesians 4:1-6

Working with the churches of the Winchester community this week for Vacation Bible School has been a blessing.

With an average of 151 children per day attending, we were busy! It was a beautiful week sharing the love of God to children of which 1/3 had no church affiliation! What an amazing outreach to have 5o children with no church affiliation coming back 5 days in a row!

The spirit of the week was mostly one of love and getting along, which instantly came to mind as I read Ephesians 4:5-6...

There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father, who is
over all and in all and living through all.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Ephesians 3:19

To know or know?

St. Paul says,
"May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to fully understand."

What a fantastic verse that we too often miss. Love is experiential not understandable. Love is something to be felt, joined in, participated in, given, received...but never understood.

Monday, June 8, 2009

Seth Godin is Talking to the Church!

See his statments here.*





*disclaimer: Seth Godin isn't really talking TO the Church, yet what he's saying applies to our churches...specifically many of the UMC's I've visited.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Ephesians 2:12-13

I've decided that I need to spend some time devotionally in some books I don't typically spend a lot of time in...Ironically, they are staples for many.

Right now I'm in the book of Ephesians. I'm struck by how many "quotables" are here, and I wonder if in fact it was written with the purpose of being a general letter to many churches to share. OK, enough with historical criticism...

Something really struck me reading chapter 2 that I haven't really noticed before. In verses 12(b) - 13 it says,
You lived in this world without God and without hope. But now you have
been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now
you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.

I loved this because I don't think I personally would find any hope in a world without redemption. Not some going to heaven, pie-in-the-sky sort of thing, but real redemption. This is in fact what brought me to give my life following God: Redemption.

My faith gives me hope that all people, myself included, can heal. My faith gives me hope that all of us can change. My faith gives me hope that we aren't fated to our biology or our environment or our nurturing. My faith gives me hope that Christ's death and Resurrection holds up for all to experience what it means to die to the old and live in the new.

While I am reluctantly God's, I know there is something missing without the hope of Redemption. And there is no Redemption without Christ. And so, I know that my Redeemer lives because I have tasted the hope of redemption. I have experienced the second chance. I am recreated.

Thank you, God for this hope. I treasure it with all that have and with all that I am.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Interesting Read

Here is an interesting story at NPR about a young man, Kevin Rooose. Apparently Roose decided to learn about Evangelical Christianity by attending Liberty University for a semester. Despite being somewhat deceptive, he truly immersed himself in the experience.

What I'm intrigued about is the story's ending...


Even though he's back at Brown, Roose still tries to pray every day. He
says the act of prayer changes him, referring to the writings of Christian
author Oswald Chambers. "He said that it's not so much that prayer changes
things as that prayer changes me — and then I change things," Roose says.
"That's going to be important for me — to sit down every day and think about the
problems and the challenges facing other people in my life, and really trying to
increase my own compassion that way."

Isn't it interesting...Living in a community of faith transforms the praxis of the skeptic. Obviously, he hasn't bought into Liberty's faith, but he has experienced the transformational power of living the Jesus Life.

IMHO, this is an anecdotal confirmation of the "Belong, Practice, Believe" model of discipleship. Living the Resurrection of Jesus is the call of the Christian, and when we do that we offer to the world healing, hope, and life.

Monday, June 1, 2009

Speedlinking

  1. I recently came across Blake Huggins' blog, and he has a beautiful disclaimer...fyi, I HATE disclaimers. They are like a person sewing quilt with another on the other end unraveling it. This however was different. Kudos to Blake!
  2. I loved The Dark Knight. Not just because of Heath Ledger (though he did do superb job); moreover, I love the acting skills of Christian Bale. His start was just as amazing has his excellence in Batman. Wow.
  3. Out of Ur, the Christianity Today blog, has had a series of postings on an unfortunately quiet controversy. Seriously, this makes me want to puke. Civil Religion wrapped in patriotism is one of the most evil and satanic vices within the American Church.
  4. The murder of a "late-term" abortion doctor in his church is sadly ironic. A "Pro-Life" extremist takes the life of a life-taker in a life-affirming place. This story is sad at every single turn. Abortion. Partial-birth abortion. Murder. If God cries, today would be a day...
  5. You know I love Purdue football, but I'm especially proud of the Purdue FCA members who went to Haiti on a mission trip.