Prism.

"Only the prism's obstruction show aright

The secret of a sunbeam, breaks its light

Into the jeweled bow from blankest white:

So may a glory from defeat arise."

Robert Browning.

Pain is the Prism, through which

The true Beauty and Grace of God can be seen.

The abundant light pours forth

From the Heavens, and meets a focal point.

By that obstruction, 

The contents of light itself are displayed.

Light everywhere, like Grace

Is generous and ignored.

Light is delight, warmth

On a sunny day.

But in the Dark, Light

Is life itself.  

So then, such is the nature of the world

The fallen and dark, the tarnished.

That which was meant for good, decays

And screams in Pain.

Light and Grace, 

Falling everywhere and in all corners

Meet an obstruction, they meet the Pain.

In that singular experience,

The Light meets the Prism

And the full Glory of God is revealed.

The seemingly innocuous white light 

Is shown to contain far more that we knew

And travels faster to the Darkness than we could have hoped.

So may a glory from defeat arise.

Identity.

I am: White, Male, Mid 40’s, Christian, fiscally conservative. I believe in a smaller government and that religious freedom is important and that you cannot have a thriving government rule without operating from a set of values that is based on an absolute truth.  I believe that capitalism in conjunction with democracy holds the potential for the most effect use of time, talent and resources for the betterment of all.  I am pro-life.

I should be a Republican.  But there is nothing attractive for me there.  All I see is a group of people who are so focused on their own rights and protection that they have ensured that evil will not only thrive, but that they will help them ascend.  Claims of freedom and liberty and prosperity are sincere, but not for all people, just the ones that can make it to the top.

Democrats are a hot mess. But the bend towards service and the rights of the powerless is attractive to me.  In the end, I won’t be either a conservative or a liberal.  I will be both.  It is my firm conservative convictions that create a tender heart and a security to give up myself for others.  It is my assured acceptance by Christ that allows me to release my own desires for security.

My Savior, Jesus Christ, is all powerful, yet gave up everything.  And both through the written word and the conviction of my own heart and experience he has repeatedly declared that:  you are not your own, you are built to serve, you have no rights if you are to be obedient to me.  Feed my sheep he says.  Who are Christ’s sheep?  The powerless, the poor, the wounded, the orphan and the widow.  He never asks us to attack or defend, instead he calls us to serve the people and proclaim his name.  Many fight tooth and nail for the right to serve Christ: pro-life, religious liberty, etc. yet they never actually do it.  They demand the space for something to be built, but they never build it, they simply focus on the space.

I will err, that is the only thing I am certain of, but I will err on the side of the sloppy mess that is compassion and love versus the protectionism, isolation and power loving legalism.  There is much to loathe in all directions, so I must surrender each interaction and decision and believe to Christ and let him determine my course.

As the sign in your Grandma’s Kitchen reads: God Bless this Mess (Our great country and our own hearts)

Free Falling.

You are already free falling by the time you become aware of what is happening.  It's a screaming, kicking, sensory overload when you find yourself already living without any recollection of how you had gotten where you are.  Life, the act of living, is like being pushed, unconscious, from an airplane and only coming to in mid air.  You try to process what it happening, but things are already moving so fast.  The only certainty is: the ground.  We all hurtle towards the ground, our eventual end.  We have free will in the sense that while we are falling, while we are living we can do whatever we want.  We can move in the direction we please, we can believe what we wish.  But no matter what we do, we cannot stop the ground from getting closer, and right quick.  If we have any sort of blessing, we have people around us to give us comfort and structure and hell, we even have a chance to enjoy this fall, to see the beauty and experience joy.  But for most of us, at least at times, the impending impact can feel so near that it is the only thing we think about and that makes the fall hard to enjoy.  

Somewhere along the fall, through the guidance of others or perhaps our own self-discovery, we get a notion of salvation.  It is a sense that though the ground is inevitable, there may be a way to be saved.  Maybe it is just fear of impact that forces us to delude ourselves into seeking this salvation.  But then, what do we have to lose.  Some want to be their own saviors.  They flap their arms, or perhaps they steer themselves towards apparent safety, or maybe they try to use their pants to break the wind.  There are others that are sure that it is their mind that is the way to be free.  If they can will themselves to peace, they will be free of the fall.  There are those that realize that we have been given something in this fall, something inherent to our journey.  Strapped around us is of course a parachute.  It is the only way to be saved.  It will not deploy itself, you must choose it.  Certainly there are those that feel the straps of the parachute and call it a hindrance.  They believe that if they could just be rid of the straps, then they would really be free to fly.  Of course this is foolishness to shed the one thing that could save you.  

Choosing Christ isn't as simple as pulling a rip-cord.  You must have some inkling, some belief that if you pull then you will be saved.  And you must look to him and ask for his help in believing.  But it is available to all.  No one is thrust into this crazy fall without a parachute, but you do have to act in faith to make it open.  

As I am now half way through my fall I look around at the conditions.  I see so many beautiful things.  I also see so much pain and self destruction.  People are falling to their certain death, seemingly rushing to do so.  But in this a pain and across the horizon I continue to see white billows of hope.  Countless others have reached for their ripcords and sought refuge in the great Grace of Christ.  White dots go on and on and give hope to an endless falling humanity.  Dear Christian, may your chute shine bright, that those falling might understand and be saved.

The Lie (3).

If you know the truth and choose to alter it or omit it intentionally, that is a lie.
How should a lie be measured?
By it's consequence or impact?
By it's intentions, either good or bad?
If you only lie to yourself, does that mean there are no victims?
If your lying to protect others from harsh truths does that make it okay?  If that is the case then, who judges whether the protection is justified?

If we step back and look at any scenario in the light of God's Grace, we see that he does not leave room for interpretation.  Grace, our own acceptance, bought by the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, which removed our accountability for our sins, cannot be measured.  We cannot do enough to earn Grace, we cannot calculate our good deeds and weigh them against our bad.  Grace is an all or nothing equation.  God gave all.  We either accept it on his terms, which are wonderful but hard, or we get nothing.  This should be good news, but our desire to seek our own will, our own control, and our own power makes this Grace feel unnatural.  Scenarios that should be black and white, are made grey by our own desires.

A lie is the result of the calculation of the consequences of the truth.  And what is a lie but the promotion or protection of your own will over all others?  Even the best of intentions, a sincere effort to guard the emotions of someone you care about betrays an arrogance.  If you determine that you cannot tell someone the truth, you have concluded that because you possess the truth, that you have an understanding that is above everyone else.  If you lie to protect yourself, to protect your own will, that is a betrayal of faith.  You have seen the consequence and failed to trust that Christ will sort out what's best for you.  A lie is an admission that you question God's sovereignty, or perhaps you choose your own sovereignty over his.  A lie is the removal or keeping out of light.  A lie declares a space: Dark.  If a lie and the darkness is to remain, then that will require great effort to keep out the light.  Darkness cannot drive out light, it can only hide.  It is the purpose of light to drive out the darkness.

Light in this case is Truth.  Truth is like Grace in that it is relentless.  Our efforts to avoid it damage our communion with God and each other.  This darkness creates a separation that doesn't just separate us from a specific person but from everyone.  And if choose to share my lie with one person, I don't cast light in their direction, but instead we bring them into our darkness.  The beginning of Evil isn't about pledging allegiance to Dark forces, it is first about pledging allegiance to yourself.

This is simple really.  The commandments tell us, "Don't Lie."  Ever.  End of story.  Why does this then seem like such an impossible task?  Well we must understand who Christ is to give this command power.  If we tell our kids, "Don't Lie.", then that becomes merely an effort of will.  And will power alone is not sustainable.  If we tell our kids, "Don't Lie...because it is not good for you or others.", then we get a bit closer to real power.  If we can, over time and repentance, demonstrate that we serve a loving and powerful savior who will always protect us and do what is best for us even when we can't see it, then the command goes from the very Old Testament "Don't Lie." to the very New Testament "You don't have to Lie."  In those moments when Christ seems real and we have surrendered to him, our calculations of what we think is best tend to disappear.  In those moments we are able to say, "This Truth is hard and painful and I really don't want to face it.  But because I trust you Jesus, I will shed light in all the dark places in my life.  You sacrificed for me, therefore I will sacrifice my comfort and control and power for you."

Without Christ, we are on our own to determine what is good and right and what is bad.  Our deception is always properly justified, because it is in our very nature to protect and promote ourselves over all others.  Even our Charity is tainted by our desire for status and recognition.  It is only in surrender to Christ that the dissolution of the self is possible.  In that dissolving surrender we get to experience the Grace and Healing and the formation into the person, into the being that we were always meant to be.  We shed our will in order to discover his.  God's Will has been formed in us since before time, like stardust from the beginning of the Universe.  Lies prevent the discovery of his will.  Light, of course reveals it.

Making Bricks.

"And I prayed and said, 'God if you are real, make that branch move...now...now...right now.'"  

A few years ago I was talking to a friend and he was telling me about how he would test God when he was a boy.  He wanted to believe in God, but he just needed some sort of confirmation.  As soon as he told me this story I immediately remembered doing the same thing.  I would lay in a field and as different things came into view I would whisper "Make it move."  This friend had just recently come out of addiction and was starting to feel the presence of God again.  However I don't think he could shake the boyhood disappointment.  As grown men we may not ask God so innocently to show himself, but the ache remains of not knowing if he is there.  If he would just show himself, then I could believe!  Arguments about the nature of faith and doubt and why God can't just reveal himself don't quite do the trick in this scenario.  There is plenty of theology to be offered, but none of it gets to the heart of the matter.  This is a boy in the open grass looking at the sky asking to be loved and protected.  He is asking for hope.  

Whatever we ask of God, everything we send his direction, is a prayer.  There are good prayers and there are bad prayers.  For every human emotion, there is a brand of prayer that corresponds: embarrassment, fear, hope, gratitude, loneliness and on and on.  A boy wishing for God to make a tree or cloud or rock move, is a prayer.  An angry grieving father screaming at the sky is a prayer.  A young girl standing on a mountainside overwhelmed with emotion, is a prayer.  

Prayer is like making bricks.  We each have to make our own.  When we first begin to pray, we really don't know what we are doing.  As a child we may have someone teach us, show us how, but until we can make it personal it can feel like we are just piling up bricks, not knowing what to do with them.  Christ has always heard my prayers and certainly answered more than a few as I grew up.  But I could only make that connection in retrospect.  I think I only began to really understand prayer about 10 years ago.  I was sitting in a doctor's waiting room.  There was a young child getting blood drawn and he was hysterical with fear and pain.  I was a tender Christian at that time and everything felt magic and new.  In the moment I just felt the urge to pray.  I offered my prayer to this Jesus, that I still didn't quite understand, basically saying "Is this right?".  The boy immediately became quiet and passive.  He was still, like someone turned off his fear.  It's certainly debatable if Jesus answered my prayer or this was just coincidence of timing.  But what I began to understand in that moment is the idea of offering something to Jesus and asking him to do something with it.  In that moment, I was a boy, offering Jesus a clump of mud.  I didn't know how to make bricks yet.  

We dig in the mud and we make these bricks, hoping to do something with them.  When we make them we have something in mind, we are expecting an outcome.  We may make them with care or in desperate haste but it is not the quality or the skill of the brick maker that matters.  What matters is that we offer them to Jesus.  He will decide what is to be done.  We have to learn to trust him with our bricks, to do whatever he knows is best.  He may build a wall to prevent you from an area of weakness, or pave a path to some new road, or stairs to take you above and over something awful.  Or he may just make something beautiful because that is who he is.  We get so lost sometimes in our faith that we scramble to make piles and piles of bricks and forget to give them to the master mason.  We sit among our ruins wondering why things are so desolate, why is God so far away.  At times we make terrible bricks, with our sin hoping to be hidden in them and hoping God will use them any way.  He cannot.  Building with faulty bricks will lead to our destruction.  At times, the amount of bricks needed seems too much and we are overwhelmed.  And then we look up to see our brothers and sisters making bricks with us, offering them with full hearts to our Christ.  And then sometimes it is our turn to bare the burden.  A worn out and desperate soul drops a load of bricks at our feet and cries, "Help!"  We can tell them what to do with those bricks or that we will offer our own.  But of course what is needed is labor and time, help in carrying all that weight to Jesus.  For some, they see the enormous amount of bricks that are needed, yet they persist.  There is no reason for them to think that they could ever produce enough to make a difference, but they continue anyway.  They are head down, thoughtfully making bricks in the dirt and heat, head bowed and lifting them one by one to their savior.  When they finally look up, they will be in awe to see the work he has done.  The Great Architect has laid out the plan for his creation.  The Great Mason has called us into his work.  We can accept this and worship him with our surrender, or we can go off and build our own crumbling world.  Either way, his will be done.

And what of the boy in the field, offering something, but what to God?  The boy's prayers are less like brick making and more like dirt clod throwing, trying to provoke the Almighty, "Look at me!"  He is looking, he is always present.    If God accepts that dirt clod and moves the stone, that boy will never learn how to make bricks.  He will be stuck forever throwing dirt clods, never knowing what it's like to build with Jesus.  He is whispering and waiting for you to offer a sincere prayer to him, to gently take it from your hand and begin to show you the wonders of what his Love can build.

Gandhi.

"You really think Gandhi is in hell, being eternally tortured, having his fingernails torn out and skin removed, little devils poking him with pitchforks forever?"  

Yes, I really think Gandhi is in hell.  I have no idea what that means any more than I know what heaven will be or what it's like to be an eternal being.  But what I do know is that hell, in it's simplest definition is this :  not Jesus.  And not Jesus means all "us".  Hell, or torture is "that fierce imprisonment in the self" as C.S. Lewis describes it.  Jean Paul Sarte, describing a figurative "hell said, "Hell is other people" describing the feeling of being judged by others.  Gandhi of course was amazing, he and Mother Teresa are always the names used when invoking saints, the same way Hitler is used to illustrate how bad someone is.  And we use Hitler as an example for everything from genocide to bad manners.  I'm not supposed to say this, but I bet Gandhi was an asshole.  Though he didn't use force or demonstrate his power with might, he still had power.  He's an icon, even today.  Even if people don't know what he was fighting for, they still know he was a good and peaceful dude.  I wonder though, if in his quieter moments, he was internally scheming to gain more influence over those around him.  I bet he lacked some nobility in his motives.  I bet the amazing results he achieved were in part fueled by fear and ambition.  I bet he needed Jesus.  Not so he could go and free his country, but so he could free himself.  Gandhi needed Jesus, not to be a better human, but to be saved and made into an eternal creature.  Gandhi is in hell, he is somewhere torturing himself and maybe he doesn't even know he is in hell.  The distance between Gandhi, Mother Teresa and Hitler is massive in the eyes of humanity.  However in comparison with God, G, MT and Hitler are all in the same boat.  They all need Jesus, and he made it pretty clear that his is the only way to salvation.  Heaven is only heaven because Jesus is there.  Would I like to imagine that all the nice people who didn't accept Jesus still got to go somewhere nice?  Yes, I do.  I picture the faces of friends who have passed and I wonder if there is someway they get to be saved. It's a nice thought...for a few moments anyway.   But to accept that being nice or good is enough is to deny Christ completely.  No one escapes the depravity of the human heart, no matter how shiny they are on the outside, all fall short on the inside.  It's all or nothing.  Jesus is all.  So if we deny Jesus, we choose the only other God available.  And that is ourselves.  And in my experience of  self absorption, self gratification, and self worship, I cannot imagine a more hellish existence than focusing on myself forever.  When God removes his glory and presence from you, you'll see how grotesque you really are without his grace.  Gandhi will look just as depraved as any madman without the beauty and morality given by God himself.  Maybe Gandhi wasn't an asshole, maybe he was every bit the saint as we picture him to be.  But as Mother Teresa knew, all the good deeds in the world pale in comparison to what Christ has done.  She didn't serve to be accepted in to heaven, she served because she knew the love of Christ.  Without that Love, without Christ himself, all is lost, all is hell.

2 Thessalonians 1:8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might 10 on the day he comes to be glorified in his holy people and to be marveled at among all those who have believed. This includes you, because you believed our testimony to you.

Road Trip.

"The road stretches out forever.  It never disappears behind a hill or into a forest.  It goes on and on, flat and hopeless into the dust, into infinity.  It goes on so long and so straight that only failure of sight or the curve of the earth prevent you from seeing where it goes.  She sits on the hood of her car pulled over at the side of the road.  It's a good car, old but mechanically sound if not visually pleasing anymore.  But the gauges don't work anymore, so how much gas she has left is only a guess. Her knees are pulled up under her chin and she feels the weight of it all sink in.  She could have just stopped in the middle of the road, because there is no one coming from one direction or the other.  She glances over at the sign again, hoping that some information has changed.  It has not.  In fact there is no useful information at all.  On the faded sign, next to the picture of where a picture of where a gas pump used to be, there is an empty spot where the miles used to be.  After a few minutes, she hops off the hood and goes to look closer at the sign.  She can make out a "4", but that doesn't tell her much.  It might be 40, 204 or 4 million miles until the next stop.  She has been stopped now for probably 20 minutes.  She is paralyzed by the lack of information, the lack of knowing.  Although really, what difference would knowing make?  She still has to make this trip, knowing nothing about how it will end.  When she started she had so many hopes for where it would lead, not really caring, but just happy to be on the move.  Now, as she wanders into desperation, she just hopes to survive."

Forgive me, but let me break from the story for a moment.  Driving home the other a couple of days ago, I was listening to talk radio and caught the tale end of a caller.  He was animated, but succinct, thoughtful and clear.  He was talking about the search for God, positing that Man's search for God was evidence of Man creating God and not the other way around.  His monologue was so succinct and thought out that it did not leave much room for response.  He went on to say that science had now identified the part of the brain that was evolved to be spiritual.  He referenced the book, The God Part of the Brain and the website God Part .  I'm not much of a journalist, so I didn't do the necessary research on any of this, but here's a small taste:

"What if we were to now apply this same principle to the fact that every known culture from the dawn of our species has believed in some form of a spiritual reality? Wouldn't this suggest that spirituality must represent an inherent characteristic of our species, that is, a genetically inherited trait? Furthermore, wouldn't this then also suggest that our "spiritual" instincts, just like our linguistic ones, must be generated from some very specific region within the human brain? I informally refer to this site as the "God" part of the brain, a series of neural connections from which our spiritual beliefs are generated."

The caller, after describing this God Part of the Brain went on to suggest that, early man, because their life was so short and brutish needed a way of coping and essentially this God Part of the Brain was proof of an evolutionary coping mechanism.  And Religion, Belief and Spirituality were all essentially a way of making sense of things we don't understand.  

He was a good caller.  And although he had done a lot of research, he was still drawing a conclusion based on his beliefs and not necessarily as scientific as he would have the listeners believe.  It felt like, and it often feels like, there was a proclamation that because we have this scientific discovery, there is no God.  That is quite a leap.  Essentially, he does the very thing he is arguing against.  That is offering up a way of making sense of that which we do not understand, just like those poor brutish cave dwellers.  

Generally, I believe in God a creator of all.  Specifically, I believe in the Savior Jesus Christ who died for the sins of the world.  Therefore, conclusions I draw from the same information that the non-believing caller was using is, not surprisingly, entirely different.  If you tell me that there is a part of the brain that is genetically disposed to seeking God, it is reasonable for me to assert that that part of the brain is right in doing so!  Not because we need to cope, but because there is a God. The website goes on to say, quite honestly that :

"The 'God' Part of the Brain" offers a secular humanistic [albeit atheistic] alternative to our old religious paradigms. Herein lies a new way of perceiving ourselves, our place in the universe and ultimately what it means to be human—flawed and mortal—but with the hope of living meaningful and fulfilling existences despite that there is no God, no soul nor any afterlife."

This, of course, is a belief system.  Compelling, especially to an atheist, but no more founded in science than any belief system.  It is, again, a means of making sense of things.  Scientific discoveries were born out of the desire and for the purpose of Glorifying God, discovering his nature and bringing mankind closer to the Awe of the Universe.  Now, people make amazing scientific discoveries and the first reaction is "See, I told you there was no God!"  

Discovery:  There is a part of the brain that seeks meaning.  

Conclusion:  This is a trait, evolved to help humans cope.
Even if this conclusion is true, it's hardly satisfying or substantiated.  We know so little.  My unscientific conclusion would be:  Man seeks, so there must be something to find.  For an illustration, let's consider that there is a part of the brain that can use the olfactory senses to determine if something is spoiled.  It is safe to conclude that there is such a thing as spoiling. Furthermore, we have evolved the understanding that these spoiled things are harmful to us.  The brain urges us to search for food, food exists.  The brain compels us to seek a mate and have intercourse and there is such a thing as pro-creation.  Did we invent Math? Or has math always existed waiting to be discovered? Like an itch in our brain compelled us to seek it out?  C.S. Lewis says it this way,

"Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for these desires exists. A baby feels hunger; well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim; well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire; well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world." (Mere Christianity, Bk. III, chap. 10, "Hope")

Evolution hardly explains away God.  It's likely that whatever God's means have been for ruling the Universe since before the Big Bang, if they happen to include evolution, I will not understand them.  To suggest that anyone fully understands the implications of the Theory of Evolution is only slightly more absurd than suggesting that we can fully understand the ways of God.  The best course always starts with understanding how little we know. 

Coping, may very well be an evolutionary creation.  Belief in something does ease the pain and burden of this brutish life.  It wasn't just brutish for the pre-historic, it's brutish for us as well.  A longer life doesn't make it less so.  Our pain has evolved with our life span.  But anything man made eventually wears thin and cannot be sustained.  A belief system will fail when things get too hard, too mysterious or too weird to explain away.  It is at that point that genuine connection to a Real God becomes critical.  Up until this critical point, our self constructed world view may have done the job.  But in all our lives there comes a point, when we need more.  Life has a way of crumbling that which we have built for our selves and ultimately, we do not have the capacity to save ourselves.

Let's try to wrap this up, shall we?  Let's return to our girl at the crossroads.  She is wondering what to do next.  

"After squatting under the sign, thinking of giving up and just laying back into the dust, making dust angels until she wastes away, she has a moment of resolve.  She bounces up and heads to the driver side.  She confidently turns the key and the car rumbles and starts right up, as if to say 'I'm with you!  Let's go!'  The girl glances out at the sign again, 'It's not that far.'  she tells herself.  She looks down at the broken gas gauge and says, "There's enough."  With the car now shifted forcefully in drive, it spits streams of gravel out from under the tires until it squeals on to the pavement.  The girl didn't even look for oncoming traffic.  Out on the road, forward momentum taking hold, she smiles confidently.  "I'm gonna make it." she says almost audibly to the empty car.  A few more miles down the road, as the monotonous hum of the tires on the road plays under the wind whipping through the open windows, a question mark starts to make it's way onto the end of that lingering sentence.  'I'm gonna make it?' As she presses on, foggy thought becomes clearer in her head.  It's a persistent thought that has always been there in one form or another, 'Will someone save me?'"

The girl can tell herself that there is enough gas or that it's not that far, but that doesn't make it so.  What remains for the girl and for everyone taking breath, is that we need to be rescued.  Her fate on the road and in the physical world remains uncertain.  However, her eternal fate as well as our own is not bound by circumstances.  Eventually there is a reckoning for us all.  There is no escaping it one way or another.  Coping or explaining or hope itself may get us on the road.  However, if object of our faith in is not real, then there will be a consequence. That thing in our brain or in our heart that tells us to seek out this rescuer might have very well been put there by the one that is meant to rescue us.  That mysterious savior we crave, may turn out to be real after all.  Our path and our destination is determined by our willingness to step out in faith: To act on that urge to seek out the rescuer, the savior, the creator of all things.  My belly tells my brain to seek out food, so I do.  My skin tells my brain to put on a jacket, so I do.  My heart aches with pain and joy and tells my whole being to find rest in the author of life.  So I did.  This Faith that continues to grow and sometimes shake is only worth something if Christ is the true King and Savior of all.  I have enough evidence in my experience to have a resounding confirmation.  But it remains true that I won't know the depth and the scope of his answer until I pass on to the next life.  

Thread.

"I've often wondered how they got that bridge across the falls. Just recently I heard that there was a story in a newspaper that explained just how. It said that the "The suspension bridge built across Niagara Falls was begun by a thread attached to a kite. When the wind blew, the kite went across. Then on the thread they attached a string and they pulled it across. Then to the string, they attached a rope and pulled it across. Then to the rope they attached a cable, and that cable was then fastened to each end, secure. Then on that cable a basket was attached for the men to work and eventually the bridge was built.

They say that gap was overcome by a thread, and with that small piece of thread, eventually a giant of a bridge was built.

Well, there's a more powerful thread than that. When you share even a thread of God's grace in Christ, as His ambassadors, you're sharing the new life that only God could bring, the new life that God has indeed secured, the Grace that can change everything in a person's life, now and forever."  Sermon Excerpt Rev. Dr. Gregory Seltz

Weeds.

I see all the weeds,
Growing, choking the grain,
Starving the flowers.

I hope for the weeds,
That they could adopt new roots,
As Grace falls with the showers.

I fear for the weeds.
Harvest is coming, The Gardner
Will reap in these final hours.

The Parable of the Weeds

24 Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

27 “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

28 “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.

“The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

29 “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

Earth Orphanage.

Romans 8:23


23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies.


As I'm reading through Romans the idea of being an orphan eagerly awaiting adoption hit home as a powerful metaphor.  I have friends and family who can attest to the angst, desperation, joy, hope, devastation, weariness, hopelessness and dependency that come through the process of adoption.  This, of course, is all of life.  The feeling of being an orphan makes it all the more tangible, all the more sorrowful and all the more joyful when we are saved.
We are all orphans waiting here on our Earth orphanage to be rescued.  We hope against the despair that piles up in our fallen world.  But we do hope.  We hear a story that gives us hope.  It is a story of a King who endured the greatest suffering to come for us.  The King gave up his life that our lives might be paid for, the Cross guaranteeing our release from bondage.  But what good is being released if there is nothing to be released to?  In the Resurrection of the King we have a Proof of his coming.  When the time comes, we will say his name and be set free.  Because he lives, he will come for us.  

Now in this adoption process we know that though we wait, we can be assured that the paperwork has been filed, all approvals made, yet we still have to wait.  On this Earth orphanage then, because we believe, our waiting should be full of joy, and hope and preparation for his arrival.  We know not when it will happen, so we should always be ready.  And though the waiting is painful, it will not compare to the Joy!  This is a Joy we are called upon to share.  We should give the password to all the other children in the orphanage that they might be set free too!  The pain of knowing some may be left behind should haunt us and drive us to make sure many are saved.  This orphanage will be transformed into a Mansion upon the coming of the King.  In this mansion there are many rooms, were it not so, I would tell you!


In this context, Romans 8 really drives it home:


18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[h] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God.

22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerlyfor our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Sequence

My feces go into a clean bowl of water,
And then get whisked away.
I reach for a knob,
Clean water comes out.
My wife buys good soap,
It doesn't dry out the skin.
Towel for my face, 
And it smells good. 

Pilgrim.

As I traveled, I carried my burdens and my treasure in much the same way.  It was often hard to tell which was which. They occupied all my efforts and both of my arms.  When I came to the place of the Lord, that place previously dismissed and rejected, I found that this time I was enticed to enter.  The gate was so narrow that I could not fit through with all that I carried.  Reluctantly, I laid down my treasures to enter.  Once inside I found myself overwhelmed by the fruits and the flowers of his grace.  So sweet and so plentiful.  I ached to gather them all up in my arms.  In doing so I released my burdens as well.  As I focused on the goodness of Christ himself, I forgot my burdens, I forgot my treasures and blissfully, I forgot myself.  I received Christ fully and I was made new.

Fool that I am, I still pick up a shiny jewel or return to my burdens.  When I do I lose my grip on Christ.  But His patience is eternal and we waits for me again and again with open arms when I find my way back to him.  Someday his peace will be all that I know...someday.

The Captive.

"There seems to me to have been twice as much done in some ages in defending the Bible as in expounding it, but if the whole of our strength shall henceforth go to the exposition and spreading of it, we may leave it pretty much to defend itself. I do not know whether you see that lion—it is very distinctly before my eyes; a number of persons advance to attack him, while a host of us would defend the grand old monarch, the British Lion, with all our strength. Many suggestions are made and much advice is offered. This weapon is recommended, and the other. Pardon me if I offer a quiet suggestion. Open the door and let the lion out; he will take care of himself. Why, they are gone! He no sooner goes forth in his strength than his assailants flee. The way to meet infidelity is to spread the Bible. The answer to every objection against the Bible is the Bible." Charles Spurgeon

I held it captive once, that powerful glorious creature that captivated me.  I ached for many to see it.  I knew if they could behold it in their eyes, hear it's voice, feel it's presence, they would believe.  It paced in it's cage and I tried to drag the whole lot to those who needed to see the Glory of this Magnificent one.  But, it was to heavy, and I was too weak.  Without it's power, I could not.  So then I tried describing the creature, it's nature and what having it, had done for me!  Words fell short.  Those that believed in the power, were fearful and confused.  Those that I couldn't convince, dismissed me as a fool.  In despair I wept at my failure.  Looking to the cage I saw only a small pin kept the power from being released.  The pin was my own pride.  I prevented the freedom of the captive for my own sake, for my own glory.  I knew once the word is released, I would have no control and be at the mercy of it's Spirit.  I had seen it's glory and it captivated me.  I held it captive.  I tried to keep it for myself and dish out portions as I saw fit.  I put Glory in a cage and hid His light under a bowl.  

But now I stand afraid, the pin of pride in my grasp, the hardest shackle to remove.  Though the captive could destroy me at any time, it remains docile and adherent to my will, to my decision to bind it.  Such is the eternal patience of God.  Like Christ before Pilate, the eternal power of the universe bound and surrendered...for our sake.  The disciples wished to stay upon the Mountain when Christ's Glory was revealed, setting up tents and keeping the Glory for themselves.  If I chose to bind, my only identity is my pride until I can release it.  So I am the pin, and as I finally surrender and pull it to release, I find that I myself am released, freed from a cage I didn't know I was in.  When we set the Word free, we release ourselves from the bondage of our own unseen sin.

Inventing the Wheel.

Man offers Grace.
Man makes a wheel.
Man eases the burden,
But his labor, still, he can feel.

God offers Grace.
God alters gravity.
God lifts us out of the pit,
Into his will, out of depravity.

The wheel is a necessary thing, 
It makes lighter the things he carries.
But Jesus has better plans for his Grace,
To make Man new, and give him wings while he tarries.

The Banner of The Kingdom

With the Cross, God emphatically plants his flag on earth, re-claiming it as his very own creation.  The banner that unfurls is Christ himself.  When that banner goes missing it isn't catastrophe, it is victory.  The Risen Christ, announced throughout all of history, means that the King has Come.  

"Thy will be done" means that there is work to be done to repair and restore his fallen kingdom.  The Sermon on the Mount is not just hope for the weary, it is marching orders for those who believe.  It is a proclamation of what it's gonna take to bring about the fullness of this New Creation Kingdom.  Thy will be done means that the things that make sense to our flesh, loud voices and displays of strength and prosperity are not what's going to change the world.  We are not to be whisked away to "Heaven", the Kingdom is coming here to Earth.  And this is our role:

“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
4 Blessed are those who mourn,
    for they will be comforted.
5 Blessed are the meek,
    for they will inherit the earth.
6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
    for they will be filled.
7 Blessed are the merciful,
    for they will be shown mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart,
    for they will see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
    for they will be called children of God.
10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Barabbas

Barabbas, Bar Abbas, Son of the Father,
At great cost I received that name.
Out of the pit and into the light
Rightfully charged, yet stayed from blame.


That rebel, that convict: Barabbas; 
That one, I am he.
I am the convict, 
The one exchanged,
For Christ who died for me.

John 18
After he (Pilate) had said this, he went back outside to the Jews and told them, “I find no guilt in him. 39 But you have a custom that I should release one man for you at the Passover. So do you want me to release to you the King of the Jews?” 40 They cried out again, “Not this man, but Barabbas!” Now Barabbas was a robber.

Dimensions.

"If the Temple was the space in which God's sphere and the human sphere met, the Sabbath was the time when God's time and human time coincided.  Sabbath was to time what Temple was to space."  Simply Jesus, N.T. Wright

You ever think about the incarnation as a space/time wormhole between dimensions?  The birth of Christ is God breaking through from his reality to ours.  In doing so a connection was made between the two realities, the two dimensions.  There is a theory of the Multi-verses in which there exists, simultaneously, an infinite number of universes in which every possible reality is being carried out.  If, for the sake of my very bizarre mind experiment, birth is the breaking through from one dimension to another, then all the billions of pregnancies are conceptions of universes unto themselves.  One being arriving from another dimension, seemingly out of nothing.  Each conception and birth though, is contained in a closed system.  Miraculous and wondrous, but perpetuated by materials, sperm and egg, contained within the system itself.  So then, what makes Christ's arrival in this weird little scenario is that his immaculate conception and arrival is from another universe, another reality altogether.  If Jesus was like no other, brought forth, given from another reality and unlike any other, then his arrival and life determines the ultimate reality. It is the singular among an infinite plurality.

This other dimension, this other reality of Heaven exists close to our own.  They overlap each other, yet Heaven remains unseen to us.  When Jesus talks of the arrival of his Kingdom, he is talking about Heaven entering and ultimately changing Earth, bringing about a new creation.  He is the means by which this is done.  The Temple in ancient times, like the Tabernacle was the place which heaven and Earth met.  Perhaps we can think of it as the place in which Heaven and Earth touched, but Heaven had not yet broken through.  The coming of the Christ then was not about acquiring a new leader or new teaching or a new king, it was about the altering of the natural of reality itself.  The place and the time in which Heaven and Earth met was now present in a Being, Jesus.  He was the Temple and by virtue of his perfect life, death and resurrection he has then made a place for himself in every person that bids him to come.  We have the ability to be the Temple, the place where the most Holy God resides, the place where Heaven and Earth meet, for the purpose of perfecting his vision of bringing Heaven to Earth.  The Sabbath is that time, the time in which we meet with God, in which this work is completed, one heart, one being, one reality at a time.

Revelation 21
Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,”[a] for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’[b] or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”