A Long Obedience In The Same Direction

A friend of mine who is an artist recently sent me a link to his "gallery" online. There I found this picture with the following quote, from one of my favorite authors. "If the world is sane, then Jesus is mad as a hatter and the Last Supper is the Mad Tea Party. The world says, Mind your own business, and Jesus says, There is no such thing as your own business. The world says, Follow the wisest course and be a success, and Jesus says, Follow me and be crucified. The world says, Drive carefully — the life you save may be your own — and Jesus says, Whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. The world says, Law and order, and Jesus says, Love. The world says, Get and Jesus says, Give. In terms of the world's sanity, Jesus is crazy as a coot, and anybody who thinks he can follow him without being a little crazy too is laboring less under a cross than under a delusion." Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations wit...

I was leading worship at a church this Sunday and the pastor used this quote from theologian A.W. Tozer: "We all have as much of God as we want." The pastor, a good friend of mine, went on to say that what Tozer meant was that God reveals himself to those who prioritize their life around seeking him and finding Him. We all would, most of the time, rather do just about anything than sit quietly and pray for extended periods of time. It's a point well taken, that if we would really seek God more, instead of sing songs about seeking God, or hear sermons about seeking God, we would probably experience more of Him in our lives. But I have to say that sometimes you can be doing everything you've always done to try and find our elusive God, and yet, He will be distant. I can honestly say I've cried out to God on many occasions for "more of Him". For a charismatic "baptism of the Spirit". For the gift of tongues. For the gift of prophecy. But it didn...

I'm putting together a message that I'll teach at my home church next week on the size of the Universe! Today my daughter and I did a project I found online that brings home how vast our little Solar System is. I found it fascinating reading, but even more fascinating doing! You can read about it here. My mind is boggling over the vastness of space and how this little speck of dust in the universe was the home for a few years of the God of the universe in human flesh. And when he walked those dusty streets he said things like "God has every hair on your head numbered." Wow! How the Creator can even care about such an insignificant corner of the universe is beyond my apprehension. But to think that He actually KNOWS and is CONCERNED about me once again makes me remember how small I am and how BIG God is. And that's a good thing. PS (Added October 18) You can listen to the message I was referring to above HERE . Search for "Your God is Too Small" ...

My wife started reading Willam Young's runaway bestseller "The Shack" a month or so ago, and I read it after her (with apologies to people waiting for it back at the library!) It seems "everyone" Ann knew was reading the book so we both were interested to find out what all the excitement was about. I started the book with a good deal of skepticism since I don't tend to enjoy most popular Christian fiction (too predictable and poor writing). But I found "The Shack" to be an interesting read and thought provoking as well. It seems to flirt with the far edges of orthodoxy a few times, but I think overall it is a helpful book for understanding some confusing aspects of Christianity, and for giving some vivid pictures of hard to understand doctrines. All you have to do is get used to the image of God the Father being called "Papa"and appearing as a black woman. (Ann said she kept imagining "Papa" as the head angel from "Touc...

At the Willow Creek Leadership Summit this morning, LifeChurch.TV pastor Craig Groeschel closed with this Franciscan prayer, which summed up a lot of what I've been feeling these past couple of days. May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy. And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen.

Went to the first day of the Willow Creek Leadership Conference today up in Bellingham. Via satellite, about 200 church leaders from our region took in the teaching of (among others) Gary Haugen, founder and CEO of International Justice Mission . The work of IJM centers on freeing victims of injustice in third world countries: children caught in slavery or sex trafficking, people thrown into prison without being formally charged of a crime or because of corrupt justice systems in their country. Haugen's message was a powerful reminder - a wake up call really - with many strong "take aways". He opened with the thought: If you want your leadership to matter, lead in the things that matter to God. He went on to remind us from scripture that one of God's passions is JUSTICE for the oppressed. He exhorted us with the thought that God's plan for bringing justice is to use US. That is his plan. We are to be the light of the world. And if we, as Christians, shirk our res...

I've recently picked up The Bible Jesus Read by Philip Yancey. Yancey is one of my favorite authors, but for some reason I've had this book for years and never finished it. In his chapter on the Psalms he shares some insights that I've found helpful for dealing with something that has bothered me about the Psalms. There are places scattered among the 150 Psalms that say things like "God won't let anything bad happen to his chosen people" and "God will always protect you". But it doesn't take long to think of many times in history when incredibly bad things have happened to the Jews (the most recent being the Holocaust), or to Christians (as all over the world Christians are suffering persecution and martyrdom). What are we to do with these seemingly impotent promises that we find throughout the Psalms? How would a Christian arrested under Nazi germany make sense of Psalm 91's "He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you...