Lent 2016 - Lenten Activities + Prayers - Day 32 (St. Patty’s Day)

[PRAY]
The following is St. Patrick’s “Breastplate" — a beautiful Christian prayer/hymn attributed to Patrick. Written during his Irish ministry in the 5th century, the cause of its composition was to protect Patrick and his monks against deadly enemies that lay in wait for the clerics. And this is a corslet of faith for the protection of body and soul against devils and men and vices.
I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through the belief in the threeness, through confession of the oneness of the Creator of creation.
I arise today through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism, through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial, through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension, through the strength of his descent for the judgment of doom.
I arise today through the strength of the love of cherubim, in obedience of angels, in the service of archangels, in hope of resurrection to meet with reward, in prayers of patriarchs, in predictions of prophets, in preaching of apostles, in faith of confessors, in innocence of holy virgins, in deeds of righteous men.
I arise today through the strength of heaven: Light of sun, radiance of moon, splendor of fire, speed of lightning, swiftness of wind, depth of sea, stability of earth, firmness of rock.
I arise today through God's strength to pilot me: God's might to uphold me, God's wisdom to guide me, God's eye to look before me, God's ear to hear me, God's word to speak for me, God's hand to guard me, God's way to lie before me, God's shield to protect me, and God's host to save me from snares of devils, from temptations of vices, from everyone who shall wish me ill, afar and anear, alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils, against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul, against incantations of false prophets, against black laws of pagandom against false laws of heretics, against craft of idolatry, against spells of witches and smiths and wizards, against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul. Christ to shield me today against poison, against burning, against drowning, against wounding, so that there may come to me abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, Christ in every eye that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity, through belief in the threeness, through confession of the oneness, of the Creator of Creation.

Lent 2016 - Lenten Activities + Prayers - Day 28

[MEDITATE + PRAYER] 

“I fear that we're asking God to move mountains, forgetting that God also wants to move us. In fact, it's possible that we are that mountain." ~ Eugene Cho

The aim of Lent is to experience deeper spiritual formation. Consider 2 Peter 1:5-9. What discipline and virtue needs to added into your life? What attitude, behavior, desire, etc. is God putting his finger on? What does he want to see changed (or moved) in your life? If you aren’t sure, spend time asking Him this weekend. 

Lent 2016 - Lenten Activities + Prayers - Day 17

[CELEBRATE] 

“When life is all about me, I am blinded from the reality of my complete dependence upon my Creator. The noise of arrogance and anxiety deafens the call to lean on the everlasting arms. We are designed by God to be doubly dependent. First, directly upon God, and second, indirectly upon God through those people God brings into our lives. Our existence is to be one of interconnection, not isolation.” ~ Karen Sloan 

Let’s come to church today with grateful hearts. Grateful that we have a community of fellow followers to worship, grow, and fellowship with. And may our gratitude cause us to experience even more interconnectedness as we are used of God to “spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:24).

Intelligent Mysticism

Following Jesus is not simply learning to believe certain things nor is it only spiritual experiences. Following Jesus will always involve both the mind and the heart -- a kind of intelligent mysticism of sorts…

“It is necessary for us to recognize that there is an intelligent mysticism in the life of faith…of living union and communion with the exalted and ever-present Redeemer…He communes with his people and his people commune with him in conscious reciprocal love…The life of true faith cannot be that of cold metallic assent.  It must have the passion and warmth of love and communion because communion with God is the crown and apex of true religion.” ~ John Murray, Redemption Applied

Intelligent mysticism. Wow, now give that some thought. An encounter with God is a mixture of the affections of the heart and the convictions of the mind. In other words, our choice isn't between doctrine or experience, nor is it between knowledge or spiritual power. Encountering God involves both; in fact, when done well, they actually stimulate one another.

How about you? Are you emphasizing one over the other?

What are some ways you can cultivate an intelligent mysticism in your daily life?

A Better Way to Understand Sin...

Sin is disruption of created harmony and then resistance to divine restoration of that harmony….God hates sin not just because it violates his law but, more substantively, because it violates shalom, because it breaks the peace, because it interferes with the way things are supposed to be. (Indeed, that is why God has laws against a good deal of sin.) God is for shalom and therefore against sin. In fact, we may safely describe evil as any spoiling of shalom, whether physically (e.g., by disease), morally, spiritually, or otherwise. Moral and spiritual evil are agential evil – that is, evil that, roughly speaking, only persons can do or have.  Agential evil thus comprises evil acts and dispositions. Sin, then, is any agential evil for which some person (or group of persons) is to blame. In short, sin is culpable shalom-breaking. 

“Culpable disturbance of shalom” suggests that sin is unoriginal, that it disrupts something good and harmonious, that (like a housebreaker) it is an intruder, and that those who sin deserve reproach. To get our bearings, we need to see first that sin is one form of evil (an agential and culpable form) and that evil, in turn, is the disruption or disturbance of what God has designed. 

In sum, shalom is God’s design for creation and redemption; sin is blamable human vandalism of these great realities and therefore an affront to their architect and builder.

Cornelius Plantinga, Jr., 

Not the Way It’s Supposed to Be: A Breviary of Sin

Martin Luther + Reformation Sunday

Martin Luther by Daryn Kinney

This coming Sunday, the last Sunday in October, is known as Reformation Sunday, the day noted and remembered as the start of the Protestant Reformation.

It was October 31st, 1517 in Wittenberg, Germany. Martin, a young Christian scholar, grasped a hammer and a long piece of paper covered with his writing. He walked out into the street and straight over to the church door. It was here that community messages were often posted. Martin nailed his 95 points of discussion on the door. He only wanted to lay out his newly discovered views of the Bible to other church leaders in the Medieval Catholic church. He thought he was free to do so, after all, he was an Augustinian monk and a professor of theology.

Martin Luther called himself a “stinking bag of maggots” and “a beggar;” he certainly did not dream of being a leader in a revolution of theological thinking in Germany and across Europe that would ultimately shape the rest of history. But God had determined something far bigger than the monk Martin Luther expected when he penned those 95 Theses.

Without his knowledge someone printed his words on the newly invented Gutenberg Press, distributing it all over Germany. Within a very few days, Martin found that he was the subject of everyone’s thoughts. In cathedrals and castles, in pubs and cottages—virtually everyone in Germany was talking about the views of Luther. The Protestant Reformation had begun!

Just what was the Protestant Reformation all about? What did Luther, and other Reformers, protest?

The protesters were seeing something new (i.e., new to them) about how a person is accepted by God and included into the plan of redemption. They protested that the church had been teaching the wrong view about the most important issue of life. They discovered that the Bible says we are not accepted on the basis of our religious deeds, or even our good deeds along with our faith, but that we are accepted before a holy God only through faith in Christ.

“Through faith alone in Christ alone” began to be heard all over Europe. The people must transfer their confidence for salvation in the church’s religious traditions to Christ alone. The reformers wanted the people to return to the Bible’s plain teaching on how to be a true Christian. Many of the Reformers would be persecuted because of their views and some even killed. But through it all, tens of thousands of people were converted to Christ and were assured of their gracious inclusion into the family of God through faith alone, in Christ alone, and it was all by God’s grace alone.

We have been feeling the effects of the Protestant Reformation ever since.

Some Great Quotes from the Writings and Lectures of Martin Luther:

”All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.” 

“Be thou comforted, little dog, thou too in Resurrection shall have a little golden tail.” 

"Faith is a living, bold trust in God's grace, so certain of God's favor that it would risk death a thousand times trusting in it. Such confidence and knowledge of God's grace makes you happy, joyful and bold in your relationship to God and all creatures. The Holy Spirit makes this happen through faith. Because of it, you freely, willingly and joyfully do good to everyone, serve everyone, suffer all kinds of things, love and praise the God who has shown you such grace." ~ Luther's An Introduction to St. Paul's Letter to the Romans 

"We are all ministers of the Gospel. Some of us just happen to be the clergymen."
“God writes the Gospel not in the Bible alone, but also on trees, and in the flowers and clouds and stars.” 

“... Besides, the Word is the principal part of baptism. If in an emergency there’s no water at hand, it doesn’t matter whether water or beer is used.” ~ "Prenatal Baptisms Are Ridiculed," Table Talk No. 394 

“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say.” 

"We are all beggars. This is true." ~ "The Last Written Words of Luther," Table Talk No. 5468

Some Martin Luther  and Reformation Day Resources:

Martin Luther 

Reformation Day
RC Sproul on Luther and the Reformation
"The Bondage of the Will" by Martin Luther
Luther's Larger Catechism

Like Martin Luther, we too may come by faith alone into the forgiveness and renewal found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Happy Reformation Day!

“When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The cross is laid on every Christian. The first Christ-suffering which every man must experience is the call to abandon the attachments of this world. It is that dying of the old man which is the result of his encounter with Christ. As we embark upon discipleship we surrender ourselves to Christ in union with His death—we give over our lives to death. Thus it begins; the cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise god-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ.

When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die. It may be a death like that of the first disciples who had to leave home and work to follow Him, or it may be a death like Luther’s, who had to leave the monastery and go out into the world. But it is the same death every time—death in Jesus Christ, the death of the old man at his call.”

~ Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship 

Life Anew: Reflections on the Truth and Implications of the Resurrection

In prep for the message this Sunday (4.21.13) at Grace Church,on the truth and implications of the resurrection as we reflect on the Old Testament feast of The Feast of Firstfruits (Leviticus 23:9-14); I have been rereading portions of Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, by N.T. Wright, who is one of my favorite teachers/authors and one of the world’s top biblical scholars.  It is well written, easily understood and worth reading (and rereading!).

Add it to your "MUST READ" list!  As with most of Wright’s books, it’s a little long, but I highly recommend it!

The main message of the book is that most of us have got the emphasis of the resurrection wrong. It’s not meant to assure us of life after death in heaven at some far away, “out of this world” or heavenly place, but to demonstrate the lordship of Christ over the whole world and his coming back to develop the kingdom of God on the new earth. “Jesus of Nazareth ushers in not simply a new religious possibility, not simply a new ethic or a new way of salvation, but a new creation.” (p. 67)

“In Mark’s short, and probably truncated, account there is no sense of ‘Jesus is raised, therefore there really is life after death’…For anyone who has read the whole gospel, the strong implication is, ‘Jesus is raised, just as he told you he would be; in other words, all that he said about the coming of the kingdom through his own work, through his death and resurrection, has come true.’ The resurrection completes the inauguration of God’s kingdom…It is the decisive event demonstrating that God’s kingdom really has been launched on earth as it is in heaven.” (p. 234).  So, “The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it.” (p. 352)

“As long as we see salvation in terms of going to heaven when we die, the main work of the church is bound to be seen in terms of saving souls for that future.”  This why many Christians are bent on making converts rather than disciples and holding up “turn or burn” type signs on street corners rather than engaging non-Christians through relationship.   Wright continues, “But when we see salvation, as the New Testament sees it, in terms of God’s promised new heavens and new earth and of our promised resurrection to share in that new and gloriously embodied reality – what I have called life after life after death – then the main work of the church here and now demands to be rethought in consequence…. if what matters is the newly embodied life after life after death, then the presently embodied life before death can at last be seen not as an interesting but ultimately irrelevant present preoccupation, not simply as a ‘vale of tears and soul-making’ through which we have to pass to a blessed and disembodied final state, but as the essential, vital time, place and matter into which God’s future purposes have already broken in the resurrection of Jesus.” (p. 197)  

So… "What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God’s future [reality and kingdom on the new earth]." (p. 193)

“Salvation, then, is not ‘going to heaven’ but being raised to life in God’s new heaven and new earth….For the first Christians, the ultimate salvation was all about God’s new world, and the point of what Jesus and the apostles were doing when they were healing people….was that this was a proper anticipation of that ultimate salvation, that healing transformation of space, time, and matter. The future rescue that God had planned and promised was starting to come true in the present. We are saved not as souls but as wholes.” (p. 198, 199)

“Resurrection doesn’t mean escaping from the world; it means MISSION to the world based on Jesus’ lordship over the world…. Jesus is now enthroned as the Lord of heaven and earth. His kingdom has been established. And this kingdom is to be put into practice by his followers summoning all nations to obedient allegiance to him, marking them out in baptism.” (p. 235)

“Easter was the beginning of God’s new world, the long-awaited new age, the resurrection of the dead.” (p. 244)

“The message of Easter is that God’s new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you’re now invited to belong to it….Christian holiness consists not of trying as hard as we can to be good but of learning to live in the new world created by Easter.” (p. 253)

“Jesus is risen, therefore God’s new world has begun. Jesus is risen, therefore his followers have a new job to do. And what is that new job? To bring the life of heaven to birth in actual, physical, earthly reality.” (p. 293)

What a powerful and invigorating the message!  The Easter message of Christ’s resurrection is a call to arms for all who believe in the risen Jesus.  It’s a call to missional activity, reminiscent of Christ’s resurrection to newness and the biblical promise of a renewed heavens and earth (Rev. 21). 

This message is a transformational one that seeks to see all that we do in terms of this victory over sin, death and evil!

Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed!
 
May we live our lives like it’s true!

Why is there evil and suffering....

This month we begin a new series on the problem of evil and how the Gospel addresses it.  Here's a great quote, worth considering and contemplating, from Timothy Keller...

The death of Jesus was qualitatively different from any other death. The physical pain was nothing compared to the spiritual experience of cosmic abandonment. Christianity alone among the world religions claims that God became uniquely and fully human in Jesus Christ and therefore knows firsthand despair, rejection, loneliness, poverty, bereavement, torture, and imprisonment. On the cross he went beyond the worst human suffering and experienced cosmic rejection and pain that exceeds ours as infinitely as his knowledge and power exceeds ours…. Why did he do it? The Bible says that Jesus came on rescue mission for creation. He had to pay for our sins so that someday he can end evil and suffering without ending us…. If we again ask the question “Why does God allow suffering to continue?” and we look at the cross of Jesus, we still do not know what the answer is. However, we know now what the answer isn’t. It can’t be that he doesn’t love us. It can’t be that he is indifferent or detached from our condition. God takes our misery and suffering so seriously that he was willing to take it on himself.

- Timothy Keller, The Reason For God

To Love is to be Vulnerable...

“To love at all is to be vulnerable.  Love anything, and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket - safe, dark, motionless, and airless - it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable."

~ CS Lewis, The Four Loves

Mark Driscoll Defines the Kingdom of God

At its simplest, the kingdom of God is the result of God's mission to rescue and renew his sin-marred creation. The kingdom of God is about Jesus our king establishing his rule and reign over all creation, defeating the human and angelic evil powers, bringing order to all, enacting justice, and being worshiped as Lord. Tragically, there are many erroneous views of the kingdom that misrepresent the glories of God's eternal kingdom. The kingdom is not like the cartoonish inanity that shows heaven as a white cloud upon which we will sit wearing diapers and playing harps with wings far too small to carry us anywhere fun. The kingdom is not the naive dream of liberalism, that with more education and time sin and its effects will be so eradicated from the earth that utopia will dawn. The kingdom is not the deceptive dream of Christless spirituality where all learn to nurture the spark of divinity within themselves and live out their true good self in harmony. The kingdom is not the political dream that if we simply get the right leaders in office and defeat all the bad guys good will rule the earth. The kingdom is both a journey and a destination, both a rescue operation in this broken world and a perfect outcome in the new earth to come, both already started and not yet finished.

From Doctrine, Chapter 13. Kingdom: God Reigns 

Get into Heaven Before You Die!

Dallas Willard's book, The Divine Conspiracy, has been an extremely helpful and formative book for me.  Willard paints a beautiful picture of Kingdom of God and what Kingdom-life, in the here and now, looks like. 

"When Jesus directs us to pray, “Thy kingdom come,” he does not mean we should pray for it to come into existence. Rather, we pray for it to take over at all points in the personal, social, and political order where it is now excluded: “on earth as it is in heaven.” With this prayer, we are invoking it, as in faith we are acting it, into the real world of our daily existence...Within his overarching dominion, God has created us and has given each of us, like him, a range of will – beginning from our minds and bodies and extending outward.... His intent is for us to learn to mesh our kingdom with the kingdoms of others. Love of neighbor, rightly understood, will make this happen. But if we can only love adequately by taking as our primary aim the integration of our rules with God’s. That is why love of neighbor is the second, not the first, commandment and why we are told to seek first the kingdom, or rule, of God." ~ Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy

Here's a clip from John Ortberg interview with  Dallas Willard at last year's Catalyst West about what the church is getting wrong today. In a nutshell, Willard says we're getting the Gospel wrong.  Many people view the message of Christianity is getting into heaven when you die; Willard argues that Christianity is about getting into heaven before we die...

“Any new testament scholar would tell you, I believe, “What did Jesus preach?” They would say the Kingdom of God.  That’s not quite right, because what He preached was, the availability of the Kingdom of God; to everyone, where ever they were, and whoever they were. And so he announces this, and by His own presence makes it available.  And once you get that idea, you read the Gospel and say, ‘Hey that’s what’s happening....The important thing to understand is the Kingdom of God, is God in action.  That happens to turn out to be the same thing as Grace. So Grace now becomes a part of our lives. And we experience it with us, by faith.  We have to learn how to do this, because we’re usually in charge of what’s happening, and we have to learn how to turn loose of that, and how to live with God being in charge.”  ~ Dallas Willard

Are we getting Jesus right?

"Perhaps even 'his own people' - this time not the Jewish people of the first century, but the would-be Christian people of the Western world - have not been ready to recognize Jesus himself. We want a 'religious' leader, not a king! We want someone to save our souls, not rule our world! Or, if we want a king, someone to take charge of our world, what we want is someone to implement the policies we already embrace, just as Jesus contemporaries did. But if Christians don't get Jesus right, what chance is there that other people will bother much with him?" 

~ NT Wright, Simply Jesus

Christianity as Community, not Individual Piety

“Christian ethics is not primarily an individualistic, one-on-one-with-God brand of personal holiness; rather it has to do with living the life of the Spirit in Christian community and in the world.”

– Gordon Fee, Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God

Advent and the Liturgical Calendar

Advent is a special time of the liturgical church calendar.  The purpose of having church seasons, such as Advent and Lent, is to create meditative rhythms in our life together.  These corporate and communal rhythms are all based upon that one true and sure foundation - Jesus the Christ!

The word "Advent" comes from the Latin, adventus and it's the translation of the Greek word parousia, which means "appearing" or "coming".

This season we remember that our King has come!  And he is indeed coming again (Revelation 22:20)!

May this Advent season be a special time of reflection + envisioning as you consider what it means to live life with Jesus as your king.

Rob Bell shares on the purpose of the church calendar and prepares us, particularly for Advent.  “Advent,” Bell says, “confronts this corrosion of the heart with the insistence that God has not abandoned the world, hope is real and something is coming.”  Here’s the full article…


Christmas is coming. It may seem like it’s way too soon to be talking about trees and lights and presents and eggnog and all that. But Christmas is the culmination of Advent, and Advent is about the church calendar and the church calendar is something we never stop talking about.

So that’s what I’m writing on here: Advent. But to talk about Advent, we need to talk about sound, and then time and then Spirit.

First, then, a bit about sound.

If you are quiet enough in your kitchen, you will hear a noise. It is a continuous sound, a long, droning noise with no particular beginning or ending. It has very little, if any, dynamic range. It may go up and down in volume, but those changes are rarely perceptible. It is the same flat noise, and it goes on and on and on, hour after hour, day after day. If it’s loud enough, it can grate on the nerves, but otherwise it’s simply there.
Making that sound, mostly unnoticed, there in the corner of your kitchen.

It is the buzzing of your refrigerator.

Now for another noise. I’m currently listening to the new Jónsi album, which I’ve had on repeat for a number of weeks now. From the first bleeps, squawks and chirps of the first song, the album is full of noises. Drums, voices, piano—the noises stop and start, come and go, they’re loud and quiet. Some notes sustain for a measure or two, others come and go within the second. The kick drum rumbles, the cymbals clang, the strings flutter. All those sounds work together to make something compelling, inspiring, beautiful, evocative, confrontative, urgent, hopeful, honest or peaceful—something that sounds stunning.

And so it is noise, it is the sound—but it is a particular, intentional arrangement of those noises and sounds that make it what we commonly refer to as music.

Two kinds of noise, two variations on sound—one we call music and the other we call refrigerator buzz.
Next, then, a bit about time, because time is a lot like sound. A song works because the noises and sounds and voices and drums are arranged with a precise awareness of time. Music divides time up into beats, giving time a shape, a flow, a pattern, a rhythm.

We’ve all experienced the low-grade despair that comes when our days blend into each other—wake up, eat breakfast, brush teeth, go to school or work or the office, change another diaper, do another load of laundry, write a check, fill a tank, cook a meal and then repeat it all over again the next day.
One day looks like the next, everything starts to feel the same, life starts to feel like the existential equivalent of refrigerator buzz.

And that, of course, takes us back to the Exodus. (Didn’t see that coming, did you?) The story of those Hebrew slaves being rescued from Pharaoh isn’t just a story about the God who rescues people from having to make bricks every day—it’s about the God who rescues people from other kinds of slavery as well. Namely, the one involving time.

Life in Egypt was comprised of making bricks for the Pharaoh every day, all day.

Bricks, bricks, bricks, eat, sleep, more bricks, bricks, bricks. Tomorrow will be just like today: bricks, bricks, bricks.

When the Israelites are rescued, however, God gives them commands, one of the most urgent being to take a Sabbath day a week, a day unlike the others. A day without bricks.
Six days you shall work, but on the seventh, don’t. Why is this so monumental? God gives them rhythm. But not the rhythm of sound, the rhythm of time. Life before was an interminable succession of sevens. Seven, seven, seven.

But now, their time is broken up, measured, arranged with a beat: six and one, six and one, six and one.

God is the God of the groove.

We need rhythm in our time—it’s what makes one moment different from another. It gives shape and color and form to all of life.

The first Christians understood this—that time, like sound, is best when broken up, divided and arranged into patterns and rhythms. And so they created the church calendar. A way to organize the year, a way to bring variance to our days, a way to find a song in the passing of time.

For example, Lent. For the seven weeks leading up to Resurrection Sunday, we practice sober awareness of our frailty, sins and smallness. It starts on Ash Wednesday when those ashes are traced on our foreheads in the shape of the cross, a tactile reminder of our origins in the dust. From there we come, and to there we will go.

You want to really live, the kind of living that drains the marrow from every day? Then start by facing your death, your weakness, your smallness. We spend seven weeks facing our death and despair and doubt, entering into it with the fullness of our being—heart, mind, emotions—we leave nothing behind.

We do this for a number of reasons, chief among them the simple truth that Sunday comes after Friday. Only when you’ve gotten through, not around “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” are you ready to throw the only kind of Resurrection party worthy of the occasion—that Sunday when we run huffing and puffing from the open tomb, beating our pots and pans in that clanging raucous outburst that begins with those three resounding words: “He is risen.”

That day when all the amps are turned up to “11.”

But that’s not the end—don’t let your pastor start a preaching series on tithing or marriage that next week—because Resurrection is just the beginning. On we go to the season of Pentecost—the celebration of the Spirit, the One who moves in mysterious ways. Jesus is not with us in body, He’s with us in Spirit. He’s risen, but He’s also here, in ways that transcend language, and so reflect on this for a season, tuning your radar to the divine presence in every moment of every day.

And so we’re headed somewhere, we’re coming from somewhere else, and we’re doing it together, as a community of disciples, as a church.

Finally, then, a bit about Spirit. Because Spirit, it turns out, is a lot like sound and time.

The first thing Spirit does in creation is move. That tells us the deepest matters of the Spirit are constantly moving, shifting and morphing. The life of the spirit is a dynamic reality, taking us through a myriad of emotions, experiences and states of being.

Sometimes we’re exhausted, other times we’re overwhelmed with doubt. Sometimes we’re on top of the world and everything is going smoothly, other times we find ourselves standing in the midst of the wreckage, surrounded by smoldering flames, wondering how it all went so wrong.

What the church calendar does is create space for Jesus to meet us in the full range of human experience, for God to speak to us across the spectrum, in the good and the bad, in the joy and in the tears.

This is the crime of only singing happy victory songs in church (we often ask sad people to sing happy songs)—half of the Psalms are laments.

The math should move us on that. The Bible is not a collection of war chants from victors—it’s an incredibly varied collection of writings reflecting an intensely diverse amount of postures, moods and perspectives.
A lot like how life is, actually. Sometimes you’re furious with God, other times you’re madly in love.

The issue then, as it is now, isn’t just getting us out of Egypt—it’s getting the Egypt out of us.

Rescuing us from sameness, dullness, flatlined routine, reminding us that however we’re feeling, whatever we’re experiencing, wherever we are in our heart—the Spirit waits to meet us there.

And that takes us to Advent. Advent, then, is a season. Lots of people know about holidays—one day a year set apart. The church calendar is about seasons, whole periods of time we enter into with a specific cry, a particular intention, for a reason.

Advent is about anticipating the birth of Christ. It’s about longing, desire, that which is yet to come. That which isn’t here yet. And so we wait, expectantly. Together. With an ache. Because all is not right.

Something is missing.

Why does Advent mean so much to me?

Because cynicism is the new religion of our world. Whatever it is, this religion teaches that it isn’t as good as it seems. It will let you down. It will betray you.

That institution? That church? That politician? That authority figure? They’ll all let you down.

Whatever you do, don’t get your hopes up. Whatever you think it is, whatever it appears to be, it will burn you, just give it time.

Advent confronts this corrosion of the heart with the insistence that God has not abandoned the world, hope is real and something is coming.

Advent charges into the temple of cynicism with a whip of hope, overturning the tables of despair, driving out the priests of that jaded cult, announcing there’s a new day and it’s not like the one that came before it.

“The not yet will be worth it,” Advent whispers in the dark.

Old man Simeon stands in the temple, holding the Christ child, rejoicing that now he can die because what he’d been waiting for actually arrived.

And so each December, we enter into a season of waiting, expecting, longing. Spirit meets us in the ache.
We ask God to enter into the deepest places of cynicism, bitterness and hardness where we have stopped believing that tomorrow can be better than today.

We open up. We soften up. We turn our hearts in the direction of that day. That day when the baby cries His first cry and we, surrounded by shepherds and angels and everybody in between, celebrate that sound in time that brings our Spirits what we’ve been longing for.

From a Relevant Magazine article – November 29, 2010

The Mighty Caesar Augustus + His Finite Empire Vs. The Humble King of Kings + His Eternal Kingdom

Grace Church is about to begin a new sermon series entitled, Thy Kingdom Come.  We’ll be spending 5 weeks reflecting on the advent (coming) of our Messiah.  The word Messiah comes from a Hebrew term which means "anointed one." Its Greek counterpart is Christos, from which we get the word Christ.  Christ was not Jesus' last name! It was his title and his calling. The Messiah/Christ was a promised future king who would rule on David's throne, forgive sinners, restore justice and establish a forever kingdom of love, joy, peace, and love (e.g., Isaiah 9:6-7).  Jesus came teaching us to live in light of the coming kingdom (Matthew 4:17).  He taught us to long for and pray this coming kingdom.  And he was born so that he could die in order to bring forth this great kingdom.  This is what Christmas is all about!

I’m getting ready to preach tomorrow about two kingdoms – The Roman Empire vs. The Kingdom of God.  Many present day Christians do not comprehend the political, economical, and sociological context of Jesus’ day.  And for that reason, it’s hard to grasp the full message of the N.T. writers.  The message of Christ and the Gospel of God’s Kingdom (Matthew 4:23) was an incredibly volatile political message.  When you look at it through a historical lens, It is no wonder why the early was so persecuted and it is equally clear why the revolution of Christianity spread like wildfire through an oppressed people under Roman tyranny.

I found the following article by Doug Wilson, very helpful and I wanted to pass it along…

Who was this Caesar Augustus? Why does Luke bring him into the story? Much more is involved that a simple time indicator. Octavius as a young man was the adopted son of Julius, and the heir apparent. By the birth of Jesus he had assumed the throne, and was the emperor. In 40 B.C. a blasphemous coin was struck in Gaul which showed the two-headed god Janus, with Julius on one side and Octavius on the other. The inscription said, "The divine Caesar-and the Son of God." There was an Egyptian inscription which said that Octavius was a marvelous star, "shining with the brilliance of the great heavenly Saviour. Then, in 17 B.C. when a strange star appeared in the heavens, and Augustus commanded a twelve day Advent celebration, a ceremonial embrace of Virgil’s statement: "The turning point of the ages has come!" During the reign of Augustus, the cult of explicit emperor worship took firm root, especially in Asia Minor. This region was to become the center of persecution of Christians-and for this precise reason. Even his taken name indicates the problem. The ruling title Augustus was taken by him, which means "worthy of reverence and worship." He was, in short, homo imperisosus. Caesar Augustus was simply the last in a long line of ancient men who believed in humanistic empire. But God was sending another kind of emperor, and another kind of empire entirely. 

This is what gives force to Luke's juxtaposition. Given what Luke understood about Caesar Augustus, and the identity of the Christ, this story from his gospel has to be seen as a rivalry of kings. The fact that Christ was born in Bethlehem-thus fulfilling the prophecy of God-as the result of a command from Caesar (to tax!) has to be seen as a supreme irony. If the rulers of that age had known what they were doing, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2:8). And of course, the problem was evident even earlier. Had they known what they were doing, Augustus would not have lifted his finger to tax the world. But he only did this because God lifted His finger-to save the world. 

God sent Christ to bind the strong man. "When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth" (Luke 11:21-23). Luke knows what he doing here. Matthew records that Herod knew of the threat. But Augustus knew nothing of it, and Christ came to conquer the world-his throne is David’s and His kingdom will never end (Luke 1:32-33) This is the accusation against Him later (Luke 23:2). Luke also records the defiance of Peter and John-"Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved" (Acts 4:12). They are quoting from a coin which ascribed this same saving authority to Augustus. The early Christians preached another kind of saving king, contrary to counterfeit salvation offered by Caesar (Acts 17:7). And we should note in passing that it is no offense against the magistrate to acknowledge that Christ rules over him (Acts 25:8). 

Christmas therefore reminds us of the fundamental antithesis. And in response, we have three basic options-we can affirm the antithesis (by faith alone), or we can blur or deny the antithesis, or we can misplace the antithesis. When it comes to the celebration of festivals like Christmas, our role is not to blend in with an unbelieving crowd. What does the holiday mean? It means the kingdom of God, not man. 

Where do we start? What are we to do? Begin at the beginning-do not run before you walk. Remember God’s Son, God’s word, God’s day.Remember the contrast of kings-remember the rival saviors. But we have a Savior, which is Christ the Lord (Luke 2:11). And here is true potency-the power we have is in the name of our king. There is no other name which brings salvation.

Doing Community Together at Grace Church...

What are Grace Church Community Groups? 
Getting connected at Grace Church involves participation in both the Sunday morning Gatherings and a Community Group.  Sunday Gatherings are a time for worshipful celebration together, hearing the preaching of the Word, imparting the vision of Grace Church, and sharing in Communion.   Whereas, Community Groups are the primary way we, disciple one another, connect with one another, and live out the mission of Grace Church.  Community Groups are an essential expression of our church’s mission. 

Each Community Group will find their own rhythm - meeting regularly (either weekly or bi-weekly) to eat together, learn together, pray together, encourage one another, and be on mission together, living out the Gospel in real and tangible expressions.  Being a community-driven people means walking through life together, helping one another become fully-devoted followers of Jesus.

Why Community Groups? 
At the heart of the Community Groups ministry is the desire to see a community of believers who worship Jesus, love one another, and embody the mission & vision of Grace Church to make disciples.  Community Groups will be the place where the seeds of the preached Word (from the Sunday Gathering sermon) take root and become real as we consider how we may "spur one another on toward love and good deeds" (Heb. 10:24).  In other words, our Community Groups will be a place where we encourage and challenge one another to live missional lives and to know Jesus deeper and in more personal ways.

The Practice of Living Missionally: 
Our Community Groups will aim at connected our members to call of God to “live sent” – commissioned by Christ to follow his Great Commission for the church (Matt. 28:16-20). 

The church is a community of God’s people gathered for his mission; and community, centered and driven by the Gospel, is the vehicle through which God’s mission is carried out.   As Gordon Fee points out in Paul, the Spirit, and the People of God, “God is not just saving individuals and preparing them for heaven; rather, He is creating a people among whom He can live and who in their life together will (tangibly) reproduce God’s life and character.”  We are to be on mission (i.e., missional) together!  It is the mission of the Gospel that is to shape our Christian community and activities. 

So our Community Groups will be encouraged to come up with outreach ideas for their group.  Here’s a list of some examples - 100 Ways for Community Groups and Individuals to Engage your Neighborhoods.

For more – Grace Church Community Groups