...comes the Christmas story.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1bbO7gHsiE
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Christmas Musings 2008
The year came.
Unfortunately, it came after many years when it did not come. Enough years that variations on the meaning of it coming had flourished, and a certain jadedness had set in against the hope that it would ever come. Understandable; unfulfilled hope "cuts like a knife" as Brian Adams would say in my youth. Enough years had passed that some had deluded themselves into thinking they were the marking of the year's coming.
But then it came - the fullness of time. He's here.
I can't imagine squeezing myself into the form of a 1" plastic football player, choosing to lose all my natural movement and relying on electricity to vibrate me around the board (those are the physical laws of electric football). Doing this all because my beloved Packer-painted electric football team is going down. But He did something like that and so much more. Welcome to the planet; your planet. Your people.
Come again.
About that coming again business...I think some jadedness had taken up residence in my own heart. But for some reason, maybe my son's return home, it seems that this Christmas time has brought renewed faith and hope in your knowing what you are doing. Give me patience for the right time; the right times. Your Kingdome Come!
Unfortunately, it came after many years when it did not come. Enough years that variations on the meaning of it coming had flourished, and a certain jadedness had set in against the hope that it would ever come. Understandable; unfulfilled hope "cuts like a knife" as Brian Adams would say in my youth. Enough years had passed that some had deluded themselves into thinking they were the marking of the year's coming.
But then it came - the fullness of time. He's here.
I can't imagine squeezing myself into the form of a 1" plastic football player, choosing to lose all my natural movement and relying on electricity to vibrate me around the board (those are the physical laws of electric football). Doing this all because my beloved Packer-painted electric football team is going down. But He did something like that and so much more. Welcome to the planet; your planet. Your people.
Come again.
About that coming again business...I think some jadedness had taken up residence in my own heart. But for some reason, maybe my son's return home, it seems that this Christmas time has brought renewed faith and hope in your knowing what you are doing. Give me patience for the right time; the right times. Your Kingdome Come!
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
Laughing at God
I was reading the story of Abram and Sarai today. God promises them a child and the response of both at different times is to laugh. That is why God tells them to name their son Isaac (meaning "he laughs").
Today and the days to follow, I'm going to think about where I'm doubtfully laughing at what God wants to do. Is there something I have no faith about because it seems ridiculous that it would happen?
Lord, give me faith that would amount to a mustard seed.
Today and the days to follow, I'm going to think about where I'm doubtfully laughing at what God wants to do. Is there something I have no faith about because it seems ridiculous that it would happen?
Lord, give me faith that would amount to a mustard seed.
Friday, December 05, 2008
The Cost of Covenant
"As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram. And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him."
This dreadful and great darkness befalls Abram just as the Lord tells him that his offspring will be sojourners and slaves. I sometimes wonder if "covenant," a sharing word by nature, doesn't include the sharing of sadness and suffering. In this particular covenant, as with most of that day, the death and division of animals is involved, with both parties walking through that very death and division.
Jesus, on his trek toward the cross, tells his disciples that any follower of his must daily take up his own cross. Sharing? Sharing as part of covenant? I often talk to folks who have made a decision for Christ, or have decided to make a good change in their life, who say, "but now I'm so lonely, hurting, unsure, (you fill-in-the-blank)." But perhaps that is just the point at which we are walking with God through the covenant.
Just before this covenant, Abram has had a great victory and made a great God-honoring decision; but then it is clear that his childlessness is weighing on his mind. God tells him his plans and Abram believes him (counted as righteousness). Then, there is this deep sleep, this dreadful and great darkness, this death and division. But it is in the sharing of all this with God that the covenant is cut.
Let us not fall short of what God has for us because we are unwilling to share in the cost.
This dreadful and great darkness befalls Abram just as the Lord tells him that his offspring will be sojourners and slaves. I sometimes wonder if "covenant," a sharing word by nature, doesn't include the sharing of sadness and suffering. In this particular covenant, as with most of that day, the death and division of animals is involved, with both parties walking through that very death and division.
Jesus, on his trek toward the cross, tells his disciples that any follower of his must daily take up his own cross. Sharing? Sharing as part of covenant? I often talk to folks who have made a decision for Christ, or have decided to make a good change in their life, who say, "but now I'm so lonely, hurting, unsure, (you fill-in-the-blank)." But perhaps that is just the point at which we are walking with God through the covenant.
Just before this covenant, Abram has had a great victory and made a great God-honoring decision; but then it is clear that his childlessness is weighing on his mind. God tells him his plans and Abram believes him (counted as righteousness). Then, there is this deep sleep, this dreadful and great darkness, this death and division. But it is in the sharing of all this with God that the covenant is cut.
Let us not fall short of what God has for us because we are unwilling to share in the cost.
Tuesday, December 02, 2008
Anyone...Anyone
I watched "Expelled" last night and found it quite interesting. Ben Stein, in his usual droll speech, raises some pretty interesting questions about our places of higher learning. Whether you are an Intelligent Design apologist or critic, the questions of free inquiry are still valid. 
On another note - reading Genesis these days. One observation is that there is nothing in the text that suggests Abram did anything to warrant God's call to him or his plan to bless him. Abram was obedient and reverent, albeit in a somewhat "lie about your wife while you're in Egypt" sort of way. Just another data point in my ever-solidifying theory that it is not what we do on our own so much as how we hear and respond that opens up our relationship with God. Said another way - less about works/religiosity and more about recognizing/receiving grace.
Good to be back.
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