Wrestling with Scripture (and God)
Wrestling with God (and others) is an inevitable, sometimes even necessary, fact of life on this side of glory. But, contrary to our intuitions and expectations, such struggles are often the very means by which God confers his blessing.
Read the article here https://mbird.com/2021/01/wrestling-with-scripture-and-god/
The story of Jacob wrestling with an unnamed man at the ford of Jabbok might be one of the stranger episodes of the Old Testament. After sending his family across the stream, Jacob suddenly finds himself alone and wrestling with a stranger. The reader is never given any indication as to the motive for the struggle, or who initiated it. All we know is that they wrestle through the night, and the stranger, apparently frustrated at Jacob’s perseverance, knocks Jacob’s hip out of joint. But Jacob refuses to let his opponent go unless he first receives a blessing from him. The stranger grants Jacob a new name, “Israel,” for he had “‘striven with God and with humans, and … prevailed.'” Jacob demands to know the stranger’s name, but the stranger just asks Jacob why he wants to know, and proceeds to bless him. Jacob then renames the place “Peniel,” for he had “‘seen God face to face'” and still lived, suggesting that the stranger was in fact God incarnate………………….
Read the article here https://mbird.com/2021/01/wrestling-with-scripture-and-god/
Thank God for Jokes: How Christ Redeems Our Ridicule
Every man is important if he loses his life; and every man is funny if he loses his hat and has to run after it. — G. K. Chesterton
“Every man is important if he loses his life; and every man is funny if he loses his hat and has to run after it. ”
Humor, as we like to say, is one of the minor fruits of the Spirit. It is, as Kierkegaard said, “the joy which has overcome the world.” But comedy can have a surprisingly volatile nature about it. Is it any accident that the conclusion of a joke is called a punchline? Any comedian worth his salt will tell you that almost every joke has a target and almost every laugh comes at someone’s expense. As Mike Birbiglia says in his special Thank God for Jokes, “All jokes are offensive … to someone.” A comedian will often begin a routine by offering himself up as the sacrificial lamb, telling self-deprecating jokes to soften up the crowd, but it’s only a matter of time until he executes “the flip” in which the tables are turned and the audience suddenly becomes the subject of ridicule. I cringe every time someone is picked out of a crowd during a stand-up routine. It’s essentially volunteering to be the butt of a joke. Whether or not the person can laugh at himself depends on his ability to accept his own ridiculousness…………………….
Read whole article here https://mbird.com/2021/01/thank-god-for-jokes-how-christ-redeems-our-ridicule/
The Surprising Dream
Of a Debt Free Church
In lovely Port St. Lucie, Fla., Just an hour north of West Palm Beach, the people at Grace Lutheran Church were wondering what to do with their vast, newly paid-off church property.
"We currently have a small facility for doing ministry," explained Rev. Cris Escher, pastor at Grace. "But we are sitting on six acres of land in St. Lucie West and have no debt. So, we put together a group in the church to discover a way to get back into debt."
While most other churches aren't typically looking for "a way to get back into debt," in this case, Grace's unique attitude became a blessing in more ways than one. According to Escher, God's people at Grace weren't necessarily interested in building a new sanctuary.
What they were looking for
"We did not want to build something just for us," he shared. "We wanted whatever we were going to do ... to benefit the community around us. We thought of many different ideas, like daycare, school and so on. Really, what we were looking for was something that would fill a need in Port St. Lucie."
Around that same time, the church heard about Alzheimer's Community Care, an organization that provides daytime care services for Alzheimer's patients. Escher said that a member of Grace was taking his wife to one of their facilities and spoke with the church about it.
"The patients are given the best care by giving them things to do to stimulate their brains and bodies," explained Escher. "They bring people in to sing with them. They also will paint and play games. Their caregivers love how active their loved ones are because they sleep better at night and are generally healthier and happier."
Could hosting a facility like this on the church property be the opportunity the people at Grace were looking for?
Hopeful findings
"We hired a Florida-based Alzheimer's center expert to research the Port St. Lucie area to actually see if there was a need," said Escher, which they discovered was the case. "These findings were backed up when Alzheimer's Community Care told us that both of their facilities in St. Lucie County had long waiting lists. The lists were so long, they said, that if the facility could open tomorrow, it would be full."
After discussions with Alzheimer's Community Care, the next step for Grace was to call Lutheran Church Extension Fund (LCEF). "I had just conducted an LCEF Sunday at Grace, and I remember that Pastor Cris and the church were looking for an outreach ministry," recalled Jay Wendland, LCEF district vice president for The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) Florida-Georgia (FLGA) District. "A couple of months later, we got a call from Pastor Cris with this opportunity. I think it is a first for the district."
The plan unfolds
A plan was made together with Alzheimer's Community Care: a new building would be constructed on the church campus that would belong to the church. but Alzheimer's Community Care would rent the facility from Grace and run the day-to-day operations. So Grace worked together with LCEF on a new loan for a facility that would be built specifically with the needs of Alzheimer's Community Care in mind. "We have looked at this as a partnership with [Alzheimer's Community Care] since the beginning," noted Escher.
"We have been working hand-in-hand to make this building happen. LCEF was willing to talk with our partner, Alzheimer's Community Care, to work out a deal which worked for all."
Of course. there were a few challenges to work through during the process. especially considering the unique nature of the partnership between Grace and Alzheimer's Community Care.
"The church has responsibility for the loan and property," explained Wendland. "it was interesting to do a loan for them since they don't have total control over the facility. so there were a lot of negotiations going back and forth."
Why vocation is important
The new building. slotted to open in early 2021, will serve
30 patients from 7:30 a.m. to 5 30 p m , Monday through Friday. The hope is that the church will get to visit with them each day and hold Bible study. devotion and prayer once a week. "While this is not a distinctly Lutheran endeavor, Luther understood the importance of good vocation," said Escher.
"This was a need in the community, and we can give those who are struggling with Alzheimer's some good news. Good News they probably have not heard in a while."
It's good news also for Alzheimer's Care Center, who required another facility to host. as well as for Grace, who had been looking for an outreach opportunity and a way to use the gifts that God has given them in a way that would benefit the community.
Hold on Loosely to Your Politics
Want to do yourself, your family, your friends, and the world a good deed? Hold on loosely to your politics. Don’t drop it. Don’t toss it aside. Don’t privatize it. But, above all, don’t hold on to your politics as if your life, your soul, and your salvation depend on it.
Read the Article Here https://www.1517.org/articles/hold-on-loosely-to-your-politics
I will hold with a white-knuckled grip of love to my family and my close friends. You come after them, you’re gonna have to deal with me. Chances are, when the dust has settled, I will have said and done some things in my zeal that went too far, but I will never regret being in their corner.
They are gifts too precious to let go.
I have wrapped my hands around the Scriptures, the creeds and confessions of the church, the faith which boldly proclaims, “Jesus is Lord.” I have sworn, before God and men, that I will suffer all, even death, rather than fall away from it. Mock me. Threaten me. Spit in my face. I’m not changing.
The gifts of Christ are of too eternal an importance to let go………………….
Read the Article Here https://www.1517.org/articles/hold-on-loosely-to-your-politics
An Epiphany for the Haters: Another Year Begins
We are thrown back into the world to love it as it is, rather than as we would have it be.
“Make the world go away / Just get it off my shoulder.” Elvis sang those lines in 1970 and the refrain has been ringing in my head the last few days.
This is a week, after all, usually spent generating excitement about the new year. Brainstorming, organizing, “casting vision,” setting balls in motion, girding loins, possibly pretending we’re not still wiped from December. It’s hard enough in a “normal” year, but the whiplash this time around just feels insurmountable.
Because the world won’t go away. Whether it’s lunatics in the capitol, or a fatal car accident, or a new strain of COVID, or the soul-sucking rodeo of rancor and self-justification known as (social) media, these things intrude.
It’s gotten to the point where I envy those who react with anger, which at least seems energizing. For me the knee-jerk has always been sadness accompanied by the desire to retreat — into nostalgia or art or the minutiae of life with small children. I suppose I’d be tempted to reconsider the Benedict Option if that allowed a person to retreat from fellow Christians too. My fantasy is more the McFly Option.
Why ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’ Is The Only Holiday Special Worth Watching
Santa Claus never makes an appearance in A Charlie Brown Christmas. Sure, Charlie helps his sister Sally write a letter to Saint Nick, but unlike other Christmas classics where Santa is essential (e.g. The Santa Clause, A Christmas Story or Elf), Kris Kringle’s absence from Charlie Brown does nothing to diminish the story.
Santa Claus never makes an appearance in A Charlie Brown Christmas. Sure, Charlie helps his sister Sally write a letter to Saint Nick, but unlike other Christmas classics where Santa is essential (e.g. The Santa Clause, A Christmas Story or Elf), Kris Kringle’s absence from Charlie Brown does nothing to diminish the story.
How It's a Wonderful Life Went From Box Office Dud to Accidental Christmas Tradition
Capra bet Liberty's future on audiences looking for some comforting nostalgia after the war, but he was about to see firsthand just how much the world had changed since he came back.
Read the whole article here https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/90135/how-its-wonderful-life-went-box-office-dud-accidental-christmas-tradition
Director Frank Capra's 1946 classic It's a Wonderful Life is sacred in the holiday movie pantheon. It's not as quotable as A Christmas Story (1983) or as lyrical as 1966's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, but the story of George Bailey has a universal message behind it that endures more than 70 years later. Though the movie is the quintessential Christmas tale today, when it was first released in 1946, audiences and critics were lukewarm toward the picture, resulting in a box office disappointment that killed Capra's nascent production company, Liberty Films. In a strange twist, decades after it was first released, an unlikely clerical screw-up managed to turn It's a Wonderful Life into the Christmastime staple we know today.
In the 1930s, Capra became a magnet for Academy Awards, directing movies like the screwball comedy It Happened One Night (1934) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). After Pearl ………………….
Why Christmas Matters
If Jesus Christ is actually God come in the flesh, you’re going to know much more about God.
From Tim Keller
We sing it every year in our Christmas carols, especially in “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” when we cry out: “Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see; hail the incarnate Deity.”
The Apostles’ Creed doesn’t use it, but it teaches the doctrine of it when we read, “conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.”
Incarnation. If you understand the word incarnation, you’ll understand what Christmas is about.
Christmas is frankly doctrinal. The invisible has become visible, the incorporeal has become corporeal. In other words, God has become human.
This is not only a specific doctrine, but it’s also unique. Doctrine always distinguishes you. One of the reasons we’re afraid to talk about doctrine is because it distinguishes us from others.
Here’s why the doctrine of Christmas is unique. On one hand, you’ve got religions that say God is so immanent in all things that incarnation is normal. If you’re a Buddhist or Hindu, God is immanent in everything. On the other hand, religions like Islam and Judaism say God is so transcendent over all things that incarnation is impossible.
Read the whole Article here. https://www.relevantmagazine.com/faith/why-christmas-matters/
![Pearl - The Bad Christmas Gift [Funny]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1607957725594-6ZENJYXUGHDZ0G9EQF05/81261910_10102013365381485_8864651407605628928_o.jpg)
Pearl - The Bad Christmas Gift [Funny]
read Elizabeth Faidley's incredible write-up of the Pearl the Mermaid Baby Saga,
Attention Facebook Land! It's FINALLY HERE: The 2019 Pearl the Mermaid Saga Re-Telling! I was going to wait until 12/24 to post this, but I know some of you need to prepare for your Christmas Eve dinner readings. The more I think about the Pearl Saga, the more I think about how it really symbolizes my motherhood journey.
If you are new to the Tale of Pearl, welcome. If it is your 4th re-read, hopefully you will find magic and new secrets along the way. Let's journey back....to December of 2015.....when all Ellie wanted for Christmas was a real merbaby…..
Many of you have been thinking and asking about Pearl and her strange skin, "creepy eyes", and flowing green hair, and I feel like enough time has passed that I can now reveal to you the entire Pearl Saga. For those of you who might have lost track of the Pearl story or might have forgotten an essential plot point, I'm going to sketch it out for you.
Part I (December, 2015)- Ellie dreams of having a mermaid baby. Not just a mermaid, and not just a baby. A mermaid baby. Being the adventurous gift buyer that I am, I searched and searched and finally found a hand-made mermaid baby doll on ETSY. In the pictures online, it appeared that Pearl was wearing a veil of some sort. But no, that was her creepy and weird skin. When Pearl arrives, I am thrilled! I show her to several teenaged students who react to her face in sheer horror. I ignore this reaction, knowing that Ellie will love Pearl.
Part II (Christmas Morning)- Ellie wakes up and excitedly runs to the tree to find Pearl. The video is attached so you can see the real-time reaction. Basically, she was like, "OMG, this doll is hideous. What is wrong with you, Santa??" (Ellie later notes that Pearl was her first indication that Santa was not real.)
Part III ("Post Christmas")- Ellie is so grossed out by Pearl that she affectionally refers to her as "DisgustING" (We had just watched "Inside Out"). I come to the desperate conclusion that Pearl's hideousness lies in her strange, green locks of hair. I go to CVS and purchase 2 different colors of hair dye and attempt to dye Pearl's hair from green to a "strong blonde". My attempts fail miserably and Ellie looks at me with pity for a few days. "Pearls' hair is even more hideous, Mom. Please, just stop." Ellie's babysitters have begun staring at my multiple "L'Oreal and Clairol" kits. Ellie refuses to hold Pearl. I am, of course, devastated by my failure and more determined than ever to remedy it.
Part IV ("The Doll Hospital")- I locate a doll and teddy bear hospital in Secaucus, NJ. I call them immediately and discover it is run by a group of very strict and serious Germans. They take their doll and teddy bear hospital very seriously. They are interested in seeing Pearl's "condition" and then will give me an estimate for all of the cosmetic work that needs to be done to make her "lovable". (Poor Pearl) I ask Ellie to bring Pearl on the airplane to TN to visit Leslie. Ellie refuses, pointing out Pearl's many, many hideous traits.
Part V ("Sending off Pearl")- I pack Pearl up in a box and address it the doll hospital. I tell Ellie that Pearl is going off to the hospital to have her face and hair "adjusted." Ellie wisely informs me that "Pearl has even greater problems than those." Then, she proceeds write on the box, "Please, please, help this doll. She has so many problems.”
Part VI ("4 Weeks Pass")- I hear nothing from the Germans. Clearly, they want nothing to do with poor Pearl. I call a few times and ask about a price, offer to send money, etc. They keep forgetting who I am until I say, "My doll is Pearl, the ... merbaby." Then the Germans say, "Oh, God. Yes, ok." I finally get a (very expensive) answer and immediately send them more money. The work begins.
Part VII ("The Phone Call")- I was at MSM teaching on a crisp January morning when my phone rang. I ignored it and then listened to the message between students. It was a Detective from the Secaucus Police Department. He really needed to talk to me-- "immediately". I called him back right away and he demanded that I come down to the precinct at once. (I thought "precinct was just a word they use on "Castle" and "Bones" but it turns out real detectives use it too.) Anyway, I told the detective I couldn't leave teaching (DUH) and asked what this was about. I informed Detective Sigmund that I do not "DO" "Make up Lessons" and would not be leaving my school. He didn't seem to understand.
Part VIII ("The Big Reveal") - The Detective tells me that the Germans called the the police down to the doll hospital that morning. When they removed Pearl's head to repaint her offensive skin, they found 2 ounces of COCAINE. STUFFED IN HER HEAD. The detective first suggests that the drugs are mine. I adamantly argue, and insist that I have never seen cocaine in my life. He relents, agreeing that it would be strange for me to stuff cocaine in a doll's head and then ship it off to an expensive doll hospital. Then, in what is probably the strangest conversation of my life, the detective asked me what was "up" with Pearl. Did a weird uncle put drugs in Pearl's head 30 years ago and then I inherited Pearl? I explained what Ellie wanted for Christmas, how I found Pearl on ETSY, and why I shipped her off to the Germans. The detective then said, "You spent money on this doll? Have you ever heard of Ariel? She is a pretty mermaid. You can buy her at any Disney store." And I said, "DETECTIVE, Ariel is a GROWN UP Mermaid. Ellie wanted a BABY mermaid. She will not be fooled by a fake baby mermaid!" The detective said it seemed challenging to be Ellie's mother and then went on to reveal that this is the strangest thing to ever happen at the DEA in NJ. After obtaining all my ETSY information, he hung up and went to work. I called Andrew Kirjner into my studio and told him that I was probably going to jail. I called my mom to alert her that detectives from the DEA might be coming by to search the house for more drugs. She laughs and laughs and laughs.
Part IX ("The End") - After "running" my ENTIRE family through the "system", Detective tells me that neither me or my parents have any drug convictions and that they do not believe the cocaine came from us. (PHEW!) The NJ DEA and Alabama DEA are now working together to plan a "sting" on the doll maker in Alabama. Then he said, "I'm sorry to disappoint your daughter, but Pearl can't come home. Ever. She is going to be locked away in evidence awaiting an international drug trial. Sorry." I hung up the phone and told Ellie, "Honey, Pearl is going to stay at the doll hospital for longer than we had anticipated. It turns out that she has .... many problems." Ellie nodded and said, "I told you, Mom. The doll is MESSED UP.”
The End. Everything we do for our children....we try to get the best Christmas gift and accidentally buy a mermaby stuffed with cocaine and become embroiled in an international drug smuggling ring. I hope all of your holidays, Christmases, New Years, are exactly what you planned. And are mermaid-and-drug-free. And if cocaine accidentally shows up under your tree, know that I understand and that you tried your best.
Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas! Love, Elizabeth
The Coming
For Christians, and nobody else really has much business thinking about Advent or observing it, there is something else. If there is no Christmas, there is no Cross, no answer to the problems of sin, separation, failure and pain.
Today is the first of the four Sundays in Advent, the beginning of the Christian year and the start also of a season in which many Christians will try to prepare themselves for the great feast to come.
For many of us, that sense of preparation has dwindled down into buying presents, planning meals, making travel plans and somehow trying to trick ourselves into the holiday spirit when we will suddenly feel festive and full of good cheer.
There’s actually nothing wrong with most of that, and there are lots worse things to do with our money and time than buying gifts we think will please those we love and making plans to visit our dear ones. But Advent is about something bigger: about the coming of God into the world and although nothing we could ever do would fully prepare us for that, the goal of this season in the Christian life is to help us understand just a little bit more what it means to welcome God into the world as a baby.
As a kid I could never understand why Advent was a season of fasting and solemnity in the church rather than a time of feasting and dancing. What better way to prepare for a really big celebration than to have a lot of little celebrations as you approach it? What better way to get into the mood?
That’s pretty much the way the world treats what is generally called in mixed company “the holiday season.” December is a round of office parties and other events where, with festive music playing in the background, we eat and drink far more than we should and anticipate Christmas even if we aren’t doing much to prepare for it. Frankly I’m enough of an old curmudgeon now to wish we still followed the old custom of doing the celebrating and the partying in the twelve days of Christmas up through January 6; the first week of January, with the holiday fading behind us and the cold, dark winter stretching endlessly ahead, is probably the single week in the year when we would all benefit most from some wassail and cheer. Let’s hope that one benefit of migration from Spanish speaking America will be a revival of the great twelfth day feast celebrated there as Three Kings’ Day, a bright candle lit in a dark time of year.
But as I’ve reflected on the holiday over the years, I think I see more reason for making Advent a season of restraint and reflection rather than anticipatory fun. We can never really understand Christmas unless we understand how much we need that baby in the manger. Advent is a time to think about the ways that life without God is an empty husk.
Unfortunately in times like these, feeling bleak is an easy thing for a lot of people to do. Times have been tough since 2007; a lot of people have lost homes and jobs and a lot of us are having a harder time in the world than we expected back during the boom. For a lot of people today, life without God doesn’t even offer much tinsel. It’s a bleak, bleak world for all whose lives have fallen short of their hopes — the promotions missed, jobs lost, marriages broken, families severed, and so many other sorrows and setbacks.
And this life, even when it’s going well, doesn’t last. I remember Christopher Hitchens saying once that we were all like mudballs, catapulted up into the air and sailing along very nicely, but that one day all of us, sooner or later, will hit something and go splat. Advent is a time to remember that it will all end and end in a splat. There are those who think that we should try not to think about depressing subjects like that, but in fact the ability to face the prospect of life’s end with some dignity and courage is part of what makes the rest of life rich and worth living.
For Christians, and nobody else really has much business thinking about Advent or observing it, there is something else. If there is no Christmas, there is no Cross, no answer to the problems of sin, separation, failure and pain. Advent is a time to think about what life would be like if we didn’t have faith in a Redeemer, a Savior who was ready, willing and able to complete the broken arc of our lives, forgive what is past and walk with us step by step to help us build something better in the time that is left.
Advent is a time to remember that we need something more than what we can summon with our own resources to make our lives work. It’s a time to remember how lost we would be if Someone hadn’t come to find us. People in Twelve Step programs think back to what things were like before they found new friends, new fellowship and a program to help them back to life. They talk about “keeping it green,” remembering what life was like without the sudden surprise, the grace that changed everything and put us on another path. The preparation for Christmas begins by reflecting on what kind of world this would be, and what kind of lives we would have, if Christmas had never come.
There are worse ways to start your preparation for Christmas than by using this prayer from the old Episcopal Church Book of Common Prayer:
ALMIGHTY God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, now and ever. Amen.
One of my favorite Advent hymns has always been the Veni, Veni Emmanuel, known to English speakers as O Come, O Come Emmanuel. The first verse in particular captures some of the sense of exile and hopelessness that we would feel if Christmas had never come.
You can listen to it here: the words are below.
Oh, Come, Oh, Come Emmanuel
Translated: John Neal, 1818-66
Oh, come, oh, come, Emmanuel,
And ransom captive Israel,
That mourns in lonely exile here
Until the Son of God appear.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come, our Wisdom from on high,
Who ordered all things mightily;
To us the path of knowledge show,
and teach us in her ways to go.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come, oh, come, our Lord of might,
Who to your tribes on Sinai’s height
In ancient times gave holy law,
In cloud and majesty and awe.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come O Rod of Jesse’s stem,
From ev’ry foe deliver them
That trust your mighty pow’r to save;
Bring them in vict’ry through the grave.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come, O Key of David, come,
And open wide our heav’nly home;
Make safe the way that leads on high,
And close the path to misery.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come, our Dayspring from on high,
And cheer us by your drawing nigh,
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night,
And death’s dark shadows put to flight.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
Oh, come, Desire of nations, bind
In one the hearts of all mankind;
Oh, bid our sad divisions cease,
And be yourself our King of Peace.
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel
Shall come to you, O Israel!
You Are Forgiven
Where there’s more sin, there’s more grace! Are you comfortable with that? That the greater the sin, the greater the grace? Could it be that easy?
Read the Article here https://www.1517.org/articles/you-are-forgiven
When I was 15 years old I stole my parent’s car to hang out with this girl I was crushing on. Have you ever done something stupid like that before? Yeah, no driver’s license yet; not even a permit! But wait – it gets worse! I devised a plan to steal their 1988 Chevy Astro minivan so I could drive from where I was living in New Jersey over to Pennsylvania when my dad was out of town and my mom was working late (yeah, pretty sure that’s a felony). And I almost got away with it. In fact, I would have if it wasn’t for the guilt welling up inside me. So, the night before my dad was coming home, I fessed up. By the way, my dad’s name is Thor – so you can imagine why I was a little nervous confessing!……………….
Read the Article here https://www.1517.org/articles/you-are-forgiven
You Are Forgiven
The Importance Of Spiritual Dry Seasons
There is no denying that our world today tends to want easy access to blessing — without having to endure the harsh lessons of a wilderness.
Read the Article here
https://www.relevantmagazine.com/faith/the-importance-of-spiritual-dry-seasons/
If you’ve ever been to the top of a mountain, you know nothing quite beats the experience. Sure, the hike to the top was difficult, but nothing beats the sense of fulfillment of overcoming an obstacle in order to enjoy a beautiful view. Sure, you could probably just Google images from the top of the mountain but everyone knows that’s just not the same. The struggle adds immeasurable value.
There is no denying that our world today tends to want easy access to blessing — without having to endure the harsh lessons of a wilderness. Therefore, it may profit us to discover what a desert experience can offer.
Deserts inspire worship
My first encounter with the enormit……………….
Read the Article here
https://www.relevantmagazine.com/faith/the-importance-of-spiritual-dry-seasons/
God’s Hands Across America
It’s been said before that we live in the horizontal and that our horizontal grace is only a glimpse of the vertical grace that comes from the source of Love itself. Being what we are, that horizontal relationship is often a broken chain.
In 1986, there was a nation-wide campaign called Hands Across America, in which 5 million people held hands in a human chain for fifteen minutes along a path across the continental United States. It took a staff of 400 people and a slew of celebrity cameos nine months to prepare and publicize. The event was deemed a success — money was donated to charity and there was an increase of “homelessness awareness” — but it didn’t exactly bring everyone together. While some cities had enough participants for lines to be six to ten people deep, there were inevitably big pockets where the chain was broken, specifically the low-population areas of the midwest and the desert southwest. According to the Los Angeles Times, there were big gaps in some of the dodgier sections of East LA, and volunteers had a hard time recruiting people to join the chain from their front porches………….
Read the Article here https://mbird.com/2020/11/gods-hands-across-america/
Wisdom for When Things are Out of Control
A life of faith is a life of wisdom, which is a life lived knowing that it is God’s authority — and his alone — that prevails as the consummate active power in the cosmos.
To be sure, Ecclesiastes is one of the most daunting and frustrating books to sermonize. Chapters 7—10 are especially problematic with their wide assortment of proverbs and pronouncements about life’s inequities. The Preacher’s labyrinthine observations regarding life “under the sun” continually confound clergy and laymen alike. Renowned Scottish orator Alexander Maclaren, for instance, asserts in one of his sermons on Ecclesiastes 12 that the Preacher’s conclusions are a mix of untruths, partial truths, or exaggerations.(1) This is indicative of the varied and assorted opinions one can find when trying to determine the precise meaning of the Preacher’s sayings.
In fact, it is on this point that I diverge from Maclaren’s estimation ………………………..
It’s Impossible To Find Happiness In An Election
This election will have absolutely no lasting impact on your happiness.
But there is hope.
Read the whole article @ https://www.relevantmagazine.com/current/its-impossible-to-find-happiness-in-an-election/
“Don’t you realize elections have consequences?”
“If ____ doesn’t win, I’m leaving the country!”
“If you vote for _____, as far as I’m concerned, our friendship is over.”
Social media is littered with people’s election declarations. If you haven’t seen at least one of these phrases on your social feeds yet…you’re either not from the United States, or apparently I need you to teach me your secrets. Everyone’s taking sides, and even worse, the sides are deeply polarized.
No one’s denying it: presidential elections are important.
But we’ve become obsessed. We’re glued to the news cycle and the polling numbers……………………..
How Dirty Dancing with Jesus Can Set You Free
In my press to save camp, I forgot that it is not camp that needs saving, but me. My attempts to replace our Savior with our efforts is killing us.
It is late, almost midnight, and I call an emergency staff meeting. Sitting in a circle, as I prepare to speak with our 14 college-aged summer staff members, I feel like a fraud. I told them that we could do this. That God would bless our efforts. We just finished our second week of the summer and we are dealing with a situation that may put the rest of the season in jeopardy.
One of our staff members has been exposed to the coronavirus and will have to be quarantined for 14 days. While at this point they exhibit no symptoms, if they test positive or start to get sick, the rest of our staff will be at risk of getting sick or having to be quarantined. This may start a snowball effect that results in our cancelling the rest of our summer. Not to mention that it would be a devastating blow to my own personal sense of self-worth.
Camp Arcadia is a Christian family camp on the shores of Lake Michigan that has been around for almost 100 years, with families returning year after year. It is more resort than rustic. I’ve often described it as Dirty Dancing with Jesus — nobody puts Jesus in the corner. At Camp Arcadia we normally serve around 3,000 people a summer, with around 42 college-aged staff. This summer, under the COVID-19 restrictions, we had created a plan to serve around 1,000 guests with just 14 staff. Many thought (including me) that we might not be able to have any camp at all. So having camp, even a much reduced camp, was a pivotal decision.
We had spent months planning how to run camp during a pandemic. Then, we spent a week training the staff and ………………………………………..
Jesus is Bigger than Your Vote
You are free from allowing anyone to cast doubt on your salvation based upon your political preferences. And free from causing anyone else to question their faith due to what Christian convictions they may have to compromise to vote in one direction or the other.
You are free from allowing anyone to cast doubt on your salvation based upon your political preferences. And free from causing anyone else to question their faith due to what Christian convictions they may have to compromise to vote in one direction or the other.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve written anything. Between running a very demanding business during COVID and just an overall lack of inspiration I haven’t had much time or energy to write anything. But here I find myself at my keyboard this morning with more time on my hands, because my business is seasonal, and for the first time in months I feel like I have something to say.
If you have spent any time on social media or in front of a television this Summer and early Fall you have been bombarded with encouragements to vote. I can’t remember any other election in my lifetime where there has been so much emphasis placed upon the importance of registering to vote. We are continually being told that this is “the most important election in our lifetime.” I don’t know if that’s true or not, maybe it is, but who decides these things?
The NFL is running a whole campaign urging Americans to vote. Facebook is even paying for ads on television, as if their ubiquitous “are you registered to vote?” banner on your newsfeed isn’t enough! So in the spirit of election season, I’ll add to the cacophony with another encouragement to vote. Yes, if you’re of voting age and you live in a place where you are given the freedom to cast your ballot then by all means show your love for neighbor and go vote. However, please recognize that your vote does not define you, it’s not your identity, and those that vote differently than you are certainly not your enemy (but even if they were you’re still commanded to love and pray for them (Matt. 5:44)……………
Read the whole article Here. https://www.1517.org/articles/jesus-is-bigger-than-your-vote
The Hell Houses We Will Not Leave
I am dying to escape the hell houses of my own creation. Rooms full of rage and fear. I long to take this anger somewhere that can take it from me. To someone who can release me from the inescapable loop that is my own hardened heart.
Read The Whole Article ! https://mbird.com/2020/10/the-hell-houses-we-will-not-leave
by SARAH CONDON on Oct 29, 2020 • 8:30 am2 Comments
Hell Houses were a natural part of the Southern landscape when I was growing up. If you are not familiar with them, they appear in October alongside other haunted house experiences, only this one has a religious agenda. They aim to scare the hell out of you.
As you mosey through each room you will meet characters who have made bad “choices.” Who you have sex with, how much you have sex, and when you start having sex make for great Hell House foyers. Sex is hot in hell houses, I do not make the rules. Suicide often makes a whimsical appearance. And even dancing (¡escandalosa!) is identified as a “sin” people have committed who will be burning in hell. If all of this sounds traumatizing, that’s because it is.
In Defense of Martin Luther
This is an adaptation of the introduction from “In Defense of Martin Luther” written by John Warwick Montgomery (1517 Publishing, 2017). Used with permission.
o defend Martin Luther — whose courage in the face of overwhelming religious and secular attack has become a byword in world history — may well seem a superfluous if not presumptive task. One is reminded of the exchange between an eager young man and the great 19th-century evangelist Charles Finney. Young man: “Mr. Finney, how can I defend the Bible?” Finney: “How would you defend a lion? Let it out of its cage and it will defend itself!”In a very real sense, Finney’s reply is applicable to Luther. Since the monumental and as yet uncompleted labor of the Weimarer Ausgabe began in 1888 and the so-called Luther-research movement commenced in the labors of Karl Holl at Tubingen, the Reformer has been “let out of the cage” of secondary and tertiary interpretations to speak for himself; and his own writings are a magnificent vindication of his person and work.Yet just as the reading of Scripture does not automatically cause all criticisms of it to evaporate, so Luther’s writings do not in themselves eliminate superficial or perverse analyses of him. The poetical ideal expressed by Horace, De mortuis nihil nisi bonum, or “Of the dead say nothing but good,” has seldom been followed, particularly in the treatment of men like Luther whose controversial ideas and acts have elicited violent opposition. In point of fact, the dead — even those who were most adroit in defending their interests while alive — are pitifully at the mercy of their critics after their demise. What our Lord said to Peter concerning old age applies with equal force to death: “When thou wast young, thou girdedst thyself, and walkedst wither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry thee wither thou wouldest not.” Little study of the history of Luther interpretation is needed to demonstrate beyond all question that the Reformer, powerful enough in life to intimidate popes and emperors, has been “girded” again and again with viewpoints appallingly inimical to his true beliefs and has continually been “carried whither he wouldest not” since his death……………..
Read the full article here…..https://www.1517.org/articles/in-defense-of-martin-luther
![The Absolution I Didn't Want [Video][Read]](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5852f18a20099e30cd2c01dc/1603727034970-A7YJM080DQBHYXT0FZXJ/maxresdefault%5B1%5D.jpg)
The Absolution I Didn't Want [Video][Read]
It’s easy to slip into thinking about forgiveness solely in terms of our authority over it.
Last week at the annual Here We Still Stand Conference, during a conversation with Matt Popovits, I unintentionally stepped into something I wasn’t quite ready to receive. The moment was caught on video, which you can watch above if you would like. While I was trying to get Matt’s thoughts on the psychological effects of the law in general, I used a specific example from my own life - mom guilt - which quickly led to my shaky voice and quiet tears. For reasons I can’t fully explain, all of the pressure, changes, anxiety, and depression I’ve experienced in the past eight months dumped over me at that moment. Both my admittance of guilt, followed by Matt’s pronunciation of absolution, caught me off guard. I wasn’t ready for either, and to be honest, I did not enjoy any minute of it.
For months, I’ve been wrestling with the new balance of motherhood and work. One of the reasons I started working in the theological realm and decided to go back to school to receive my masters in theology was because I was tired of seeing women in theology do nothing more than shed tears about motherhood. And yet here I was, doing precisely that, on camera. I was in front of God only knows how many people and in a situation, where at least momentarily, I had no control.
It’s so easy to slip into thinking about forgiveness solely in terms of our authority over it.When we offer it to people, we think it’s on our accord; when we receive it, we think it’s because we feel ready to be at peace with whoever or whatever has wronged us. In other words, we operate according to the assumption that forgiveness functions (successfully or not) based on our control, our emotion, or our ownership. But Christ doesn’t wait to give us his word of forgiveness until we are rationally, emotionally, or physically contrite, and sometimes he doesn’t even wait for us to recognize what this word is before he pronounces it on us.
Christ’s word of absolution may come before we are ready. We may even misconstrue these words into more law and more guilt. But that doesn’t change the fact that, in Christ, the declaration that we are forgiven and that we are made righteous is both good news and true.
“Giving absolution and receiving it are just two sides of the same faith coin in which we trust God will continue to keep his promises.”
At first, I didn’t hear Matt’s pronunciation of absolution as good news for me. But others did for themselves. That’s how powerful God’s promises are - once they are unleashed on the world, we have absolutely no control of how, when, or on whom the Spirit will use them. All that we are promised is that they will take effect. We see this in the conversion of the Syrophoenician woman whose faith, as theologian Jim Nestingen is fond of saying, came from the rumor of Christ. She believed before she even spoke to him! God’s word is so living and active that it goes to work in secondary and tertiary ways; in ways that surprise us and in ways we will never see.
Hearing that Matt’s word had impacted others, in turn, impacted me. I don’t want to claim that the multidimensionality of absolution is always this black and white. To do so would be to wrongly assert, again, that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is limited to our own experiences and our own authority. We cannot assume to know when or even for whom forgiveness will function - we are only commanded to faithfully hand God’s word over to others and also to believe his words when they are delivered to us. Giving absolution and receiving it are just two sides of the same faith coin in which we trust God will continue to keep his promises.
So, just as Matt did, we hand out forgiveness when we see someone in need of it. Sometimes this happens in response to a co-worker’s apology. Sometimes, it follows a friend’s confession that they’ve messed up their marriage. Sometimes it’s needed to comfort the conscience of a loved one stuck in the clutches of the law’s terror, and sometimes it is essential after a new mom unintentionally unloads her guilt.
When we hear the words of forgiveness in Christ in our own ears, whether they are intentionally said to us or to another, we must believe they are true and true for us.
God’s word has the power to forgive, to create faith, to comfort the guilt-laden and downtrodden. This much is certain.