Daniel Rose

Psalm 110:1-4; Job 19:23-27; 1 Timothy 3:14-16

I hope to visit you soon, but just in case I’m delayed, I’m writing this >letter so you’ll know how things ought to go in God’s household, this >God-alive church, bastion of truth. This Christian life is a great >mystery, far exceeding our understanding, but some things are clear >enough: *He appeared in a human body, *was proved right by the invisible Spirit, *was seen by angels. *He was proclaimed among all kinds of peoples, *believed in all over the world, taken up into heavenly glory.

I am always and consistently struck by the both-and of Jesus. Both a human and taken up to glory.

As I consider again this great reality of the dual nature of Christ, fully man and fully God, I am left in awe.

What leaves in even greater awe is what the author of 1 Timothy says right before the creedal statement, “some things are clear enough.”

The nature of Christ is clear enough. I think it's because it is grounded in the humanity of Jesus. We don't consider the humanity of Jesus well enough. The reality of him being alive and living in this world is something that we just don't let our minds and hearts consider. We are so deeply caught up in the cosmic Christ, this divine being that does all the miracles and conquered death.

But, the humanity of Jesus is what grounds him in reality. He gets hungry, tired, annoyed, angry, has conflict with family, is accused of being a drunk and a glutton. He has friends who he teases. He gets betrayed.

This Jesus of history and time is the Jesus that I can look at and say to myself, “Yep, I know what he's going through.”

Isn't it interesting that the mystery is the life of following Jesus. The mystery is not Jesus himself.

This makes so much sense if we take the Christian life seriously. If we actually try to live the things of the Sermon on the Mount, we are left wondering if this even possible.

This way of Jesus is a great mystery. There is grace upon grace. The rules are left under the auspices of love. This often leaves us wondering, “what do I do now?” The way of Jesus responds, “what is the way of love? of grace? of mercy?”

So, we are left to ponder afresh the Jesus of time and history and to wade into the mystery of how to follow him.

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Psalm 110:1-4; Exodus 19:7-25; Hebrews 2:1-4

It’s crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we’ve heard so that we don’t drift off.

In high school there as a class that I took called, Math Analysis. It was pre-Calculus. The teacher taught us through projects. We did a project with satellites and orbits that was super hard and really interesting.

I couldn't tell you any of the math. I don't even really remember much beyond what I've told already.

What I do remember is that if our calculations were off by even a fraction of a percent then our satellite would crash. You see, when you drift off course, even slightly, over thousands of miles the results are a significant deviation.

We experience this on a lesser scale all the time, don't we? I mean, how many banners have you made in your life where your kerning was off just a bit and you ran out of room? Oh, just about every single one? Me too!

The author of Hebrews reminds us that the same thing can happen with the gospel. We can begin to drift off and lose our way. We can end up down a dead end that leaves us confused and lost.

I'm reading The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey right now. He wrote this, “Goodness cannot be imposed externally, from the top down; it must grow internally, from the bottom up.”

As I look around our world today it seems that we Christians have perhaps lost the grip on the message of the Gospel. We clamor for a top down, externally imposed goodness. This loss has left us graceless, merciless, compassionless, and simply unkind.

I am reminded this morning that I must hold tight to the gospel message lest I drift. The drift though small can leave me lost in a dead end.

Discuss...

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Psalm 110:1-4; Exodus 19:7-25; Hebrews 2:1-4

It’s crucial that we keep a firm grip on what we’ve heard so that we don’t drift off.

In high school there as a class that I took called, Math Analysis. It was pre-Calculus. The teacher taught us through projects. We did a project with satellites and orbits that was super hard and really interesting.

I couldn't tell you any of the math. I don't even really remember much beyond what I've told already.

What I do remember is that if our calculations were off by even a fraction of a percent then our satellite would crash. You see, when you drift off course, even slightly, over thousands of miles the results are a significant deviation.

We experience this on a lesser scale all the time, don't we? I mean, how many banners have you made in your life where your kerning was off just a bit and you ran out of room? Oh, just about every single one? Me too!

The author of Hebrews reminds us that the same thing can happen with the gospel. We can begin to drift off and lose our way. We can end up down a dead end that leaves us confused and lost.

I'm reading The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancey right now. He wrote this, “Goodness cannot be imposed externally, from the top down; it must grow internally, from the bottom up.”

As I look around our world today it seems that we Christians have perhaps lost the grip on the message of the Gospel. We clamor for a top down, externally imposed goodness. This loss has left us graceless, merciless, compassionless, and simply unkind.

I am reminded this morning that I must hold tight to the gospel message lest I drift. The drift though small can leave me lost in a dead end.

— Discuss...

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Psalm 50:1-6; 1 Kings 14:1-18; 1 Timothy 1:12-20

I’m so grateful to Christ Jesus for making me adequate to do this work. He went out on a limb, you know, in trusting me with this ministry. The only credentials I brought to it were violence and witch hunts and arrogance. But I was treated mercifully because I didn’t know what I was doing—didn’t know Who I was doing it against! Grace mixed with faith and love poured over me and into me. And all because of Jesus.

For some of us pastors this is something we need to be reminded of regularly. I know I do.

There are two ditches that I find on either side of me as I consider my calling. On the one side is whining. Often, when I meet with colleagues there is a corporate time of whining about our calling and congregations. It's like Mr. Costanza's Festivus comes to church. There is a temptation to fall into a bit of despondency because our callings are related to people. People are never finished and people are always messy. When you never have closure you can get frustrated. This is part of the reason that Eugene Peterson would read The Brothers Karamazov every year. He needed a reminder that people's lives are fascinating.

The other ditch is one of arrogant power. We pastors can develop a bit of a god-complex. There is this sense that we speak for God to God's people and therefore the people ought to obey us. This, unchecked, will of course lead us to a place of spiritual abuse. We often hold our authority over people. When this happens it is ugly and causes serious harm.

Paul had the answer to staying between these two ditches. That is, in a word, gratitude.

Pastors, in my opinion, have the greatest job in the world. We get the opportunity to be part of the life of people. There is a presence we get to have as they learn to live the life of faith. We walk alongside them during the overwhelming joys of weddings and births. We also get to hold people's hands and put our arms around their shoulders during the painful times of their lives. We are always there in the background of their lives.

A simple presence during the good, the bad, and the mundane.

This is a beautiful thing that we are called to.

This calling is all grace.

None of us deserve it.

Each of us called to serve as ministers of the gospel do so by the gracious working of God through Christ.

What an honor! What a responsibility! What an absolute joy!

All by grace.

Oh, that I would consistently see my calling through the lens of gratitude. I need to continue learn this valuable lesson that Paul teaches Timothy here.

— Discuss...

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Psalm 50:1-6; 1 Kings 11:26-40; 2 Corinthians 2:12-17

Everywhere we go, people breathe in the exquisite fragrance. >Because of Christ, we give off a sweet scent rising to God, which is >recognized by those on the way of salvation—an aroma redolent with >life.

I often wonder if this is true of me.

There are few things in this life that I desperately want. When I die, oh how I would love it to be said of me that because of Christ I gave off “an aroma redolent with life.”

So often I find myself staring into the mirror seeing my shortcomings and failings to love well. The lack of love is so easily apparent. Thankfully, there is a grace that knows no bounds that has been offered to me through this Christ whom I seek to follow.

This little passage is such a good reminder that words matter. How we live matters.

It's also a reminder that when we seek to live this way there will be people who won't respond well. They will see the pursuit of love and will find is distasteful, a stench.

But those on the way to destruction treat us more like the stench from a rotting corpse.

How can I be sure that I'm speaking life? How can I know that the words and way I live are honoring and pleasing to Christ?

This is a terrific responsibility. Is anyone competent to take it on? No—but at least we don’t take God’s Word, water it down, and then take it to the streets to sell it cheap. We stand in Christ’s presence when we speak; God looks us in the face. We get what we say straight from God and say it as honestly as we can.

It's that last little bit that jumps at me, “say it as honestly as we can.”

There's no “but” tagged onto the words of Jesus. There's no attempt to package him or mitigate him for our comfort. No, when we are speaking the truth in love it is not going to be a cheap, watered down, Christ. It is going to be the message of the cross and resurrection that is laden with grace, mercy, compassion, empathy, and love.

I suppose this is the means by which I can evaluate myself. Is the way I live and the words I speak bookended with grace and love?

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Psalm 102:12-28; Job 6:1-13; Mark 3:7-12

Each morning I share a little morning blessing in my social streams. Nothing big, just a little something that runs through my mind. This morning I shared, “may you choose to be content despite your circumstances.” With this being a Wednesday we can often find ourselves buried by details and tasks. It can be really hard to be content.

But, there's also a bigger picture beyond the small every day stuff. Some of us find ourselves in these difficult situations where it feels like the whole world is closing in on us. Some of it is due to our own decision making and some of it is due to things beyond our control.

Often times when we find ourselves in these situations we turn to God out of desperation.

Like Job we wonder why hasn't God done the things we want him to do on our behalf.

The arrows of God Almighty are in me, poison arrows—and I’m poisoned all through! God has dumped the whole works on me. Donkeys bray and cows moo when they run out of pasture— so don’t expect me to keep quiet in this. Do you see what God has dished out for me? It’s enough to turn anyone’s stomach! Everything in me is repulsed by it— it makes me sick.

Yet, more often than not I wonder if we are really more like the crowds chasing Jesus around. The people who have experienced God's provision and then demand more.

He had healed many people, and now everyone who had something >wrong was pushing and shoving to get near and touch him.

God is not a vending machine that we can drop a quarter into and get something in return. It's just not how things work. No, God relates to us. God engages with us. God is calling and drawing us in deeper beyond our wants and desires.

There are times when we will walk through difficult things. It's parf of living in this imperfect world amongst imperfect people. There is sickness, mental and physical, there are natural disasters, there are things well out of our control.

Sometimes we have to face the consequences of our decisions.

Sometimes we experience the consequences of other people's decisions.

Sometimes we find immediate healing and relief.

Sometimes we have to learn contentment in the midst of our circumstances.

If you're anything like me when I'm facing the hard stuff I want to know why God doesn't answer my fervent prayer to fix it and fix it now. Then, sometime later I see how the plan worked itself out and see God's hand in it.

As C.S. Lews writes about Aslan in the The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,

“Aslan is a lion- the Lion, the great Lion.” “ Ooh” said Susan. “I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall >feel rather nervous about meeting a lion”... “Safe?” said Mr Beaver ...“Who said anything about safe? 'Course he >isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”

I love this picture of Aslan. He isn't safe but he is good. In our home we talk often of God being sovereign and good. We can trust God because God is in control and is good. This helps us find contentment in the midst of circumstances.

No, God is not a vending machine. God works in God's ways on God's own timing. I'm learning to be content with that.

— Discuss...

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Psalm 102:12-28; 2 Kings 8:1-6; Acts 15:36-41

What do you do when conflict arises? This little passage in Acts 15 is always fascinating to me because it gives us a snapshot of the less than perfect leaders in the early church. It turns out that they were as human and normal as we are. They had disagreements and tempers and personalities. (Side note, I'm thankful that the Bible preserves the imperfections because it helps us know and understand these people were just like us.)

Paul and Barnabas disagreed on taking young Mark along on the journey. So, they parted ways. Their disagreement on this man lead them to breaking off their partnership. This doesn't sound like the kind of thing that the writer of two thirds of the New Testament should do, does it? This was a guy who had visions of the risen Christ. He was a guy who would go on to write, possibly, the greatest passage on love in human history. Yet, here he is unable to continue in relationship with someone who was his mentor and friend over a disagreement.

There's no moral judgment in the passage about the argument. There's just a statement of the facts of the matter.

I think one of the things that comes out of this brief story is that it's OK to agree to disagree. Some times we come to a place where we simply have to say, “We aren't going to see eye to eye and for the greater good we ought to part ways.”

It also brings to mind a conversation that I've a number of times about the nature of forgiveness. I think that when we talk about forgiveness we need to distinguish between forgiveness, reconciliation, and restoration. Forgiveness is a one way street. It's what the offended person does so as to not develop bitterness in their own soul. Reconciliation is a two way street when the two people can be present with one another. This is a two way street where the offender acknowledges their hurtful action and the offended is willing to remain in relationship. Restoration is when the hurt has been moved past and the relationship has been returned to a previous or deeper state.

I imagine that Paul and Barnabas forgave one another. Perhaps in their separating there was even reconciliation in that they were not estranged from one another. We see later in the book of Acts a restoration when Mark joins Paul on the journey.

When we enter into conflict the minimum outcome we hope for is forgiveness from our own point of view. When it comes to reconciliation and restoration, that is something that requires two people to move towards one another. We don't really control the reconciliation and restoration aspect. And sometimes, those are not healthy outcomes (particularly in cases of abuse, restoration is not something that we need to pursue).

This morning I am processing whom I may need to forgive or whom I need to ask forgiveness of.

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Psalm 102:12-28; 2 Kings 4:8-17, 32-37; Acts 14:1-7

One of the things that I like about the Psalms is that they make me feel normal.

I don't know about you but when it comes to my experience with the divine it's up and down and left and right. It's a mixed bag to put it simply. There are days when I'm really angry with God. Then there are days where it feels like God is right in front of me and I feel God like never before. There are also days where I'm totally indifferent to God.

Maybe I'm an odd duck (well, I know I'm an odd duck, who in their right mind chooses to be a pastor...)?

Perhaps this isn't your experience at all. It sure is mine.

For a long time I tried to pretend that it wasn't like that. For my adult life I have been a professional Christian. I was a missionary to the college campus and now a pastor. I am supposed to have a dynamic relationship with God. One that is constantly on the upswing and never dips. That simply isn't true.

Over the years, I have learned that being honest about relationship with God has become the most important thing in having a relationship with God. It is amazing as I share struggles with others that they too have them and we are able to find encouragement from one another. When I pretend or lie about my relationship with God I inevitably isolate myself. During these seasons of isolation it can feel like I'm in a hole that I can't dig out of.

Thankfully, I have found myself in a community of people who love me without condition. I can share all of myself with them and as a result, I find that my relationship with God is more honest and real.

I resonated with verse 17 in Psalm 102,

“When he attends to the prayer of the wretched. He won’t dismiss their prayer.”

When I feel wretched, God won't dismiss me. When you feel wretched, God won't dismiss you either.

How amazing is that?

When we are at our most unloveable God still embraces us. Why? Because God is compassionate and loving and merciful and gracious.

— Discuss...

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Psalm 147:1-11, 20c; Job 36:1-23; 1 Corinthians 9:1-16

Our decision all along has been to put up with anything rather than >to get in the way or detract from the Message of Christ. 1 Corinthians >9:12b, The Message

I love and hate this line from Paul.

In this chapter he's writing about his rights as an apostle. He is reminding the Corinthians that it's OK for him to be supported by the people of and to make a living as a minister of the gospel.

But, he has chosen not to exert those rights.

Why?

Because they can get in the way of the message of Christ.

Imagine, not using a right that is yours because it might detract from the message of Christ.

Am I willing to do such a thing? What are the rights that I demand that hinder the message of Christ?

So much to wrestle with.

— Discuss...

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Psalm 147:1-11, 20c; Proverbs 12:10-21; Galatians 5:2-15

I suspect you would never intend this, but this is what happens. When you >attempt to live by your own religious plans and projects, you are cut off from >Christ, you fall out of grace. Meanwhile we expectantly wait for a satisfying >relationship with the Spirit. For in Christ, neither our most conscientious religion >nor disregard of religion amounts to anything. What matters is something far >more interior: faith expressed in love. – Galatians 5:4-6, The Message

How often do I seek to live by my own religious plans and projects?

All. The. Time.

I remember when I first began learning about the depths of grace in books like The Ragamuffin Gospel, What's So Amazing About Grace, and Putting Amazing Back Into Grace. It was like someone took the blinders off me. All of a sudden there was this overwhelming sense of freedom that I never knew existed in my faith life.

But, then something happened.

I became legalistic about freedom.

As Paul might have said, I stopped practicing conscientious religion for a disregard of religion.

My freedom had become license.

Both legalism and license are missing the mark.

Grace frees us to live a life of faith expressed in love.

What a remarkable idea to consider.

My life is too often not one of faith expressed in love. It is often faith expressed in rules, expectations, demands, or control. Too many times everything boils down to a simple recipe of “do this” and “don't do that.”

But Grace calls me deeper. It calls me to a place of love. Love means that I'm free to serve, to be present, to listen, to simply be.

Grace-Love it's not easy to put your arms around. You have to just do it, live it, practice it. And oh does it take practice!

The further into living a life of Grace-Love the more you find yourself in situations that you can't control. So, the temptation is ever present to grasp control back. I have to keep learning that the call, the deep call of Grace-Love is that of letting go.

It's neither license nor legalism. It something far deeper, indeed, a faith expressed in love.

— Discuss...

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Psalm 35:1-10; Jeremiah 29:1-14; Mark 5:1-20

One of my favorite movies is Garden State. There is a marvelous scene where the two main characters are sitting in a pool and they are talking about, “home” and “family.”

Andrew Largeman: You know that point in your life when you realize the house >you grew up in isn't really your home anymore? All of a sudden even though you >have some place where you put your shit, that idea of home is gone.

Sam: I still feel at home in my house.

Andrew Largeman: You'll see one day when you move out it just sort of happens >one day and it's gone. You feel like you can never get it back. It's like you feel >homesick for a place that doesn't even exist. Maybe it's like this rite of passage, >you know. You won't ever have this feeling again until you create a new idea of >home for yourself, you know, for your kids, for the family you start, it's like a cycle >or something. I don't know, but I miss the idea of it, you know. Maybe that's all >family really is. A group of people that miss the same imaginary place.

What resonates with me this morning is that line about how “home” is an idea that you create for yourself.

As I was reading these passages this morning this movie scene immediately popped into my head. In Jeremiah he's sending a letter to the people in exile and telling them create for themselves homes in Babylon. In Mark Jesus sends the healed demoniac back to his home country. Home is a theme that for whatever just jumped out of the text to me.

Home is not something that just happens. We cultivate it. We create it. Home can be anywhere! I'm watching my children create a sense of home at their respective universities. Sure, they love coming to my home for a visit, but there is a restlessness that is ever present because this house is no longer home for them.

I think there is something innate in us all to create a home. It's a reflection of the Divine. The first stories humanity told were about the Divine making a home for us. Now we reflect that every day.

In some sense we all find ourselves in exile. We await the eternal home. But until then, perhaps we would be wise to remember the letter of Jeremiah...

This is the Message from GOD-of-the-Angel-Armies, Israel’s God, to all the exiles >I’ve taken from Jerusalem to Babylon: “Build houses and make yourselves at home. “Put in gardens and eat what grows in that country. “Marry and have children. Encourage your children to marry and have children so >that you’ll thrive in that country and not waste away. “Make yourselves at home there and work for the country’s welfare. “Pray for Babylon’s well-being. If things go well for Babylon, things will go well for >you.”

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Psalm 35:1-10; Numbers 22:22-28; 1 Corinthians 7:32-40

One of the things that I really like doing is spending time reading in The Message. The reason for this is that it often opens my eyes to familiar passages in different ways. It gets me to think about them differently. I really need this because I have spent so much time thinking about the Scriptures from a theological angle that to have my normal perceptions jarred is so helpful.

Today's reading, for instance, 1 Corinthians 7:32-40 is all about Paul's teaching on singleness and celibacy. This passage has always lead me into a million questions about marriage, singleness, etc...

Reading today in The Message, there was this translation of verse 32:

I want you to live as free of complications as possible.

It jolted me.

I stared at the line and it dawned on me that perhaps Paul's heart in this section was just that, he was calling people to consider how live lives that are free of complications so as to limit the things that demand our attention.

Could it be that that is the principle here? Is it possible that is the core of what Paul is talking about and using marriage as an illustration, while also sharing his opinion?

I think it might be.

So this then leads me to what I'm thinking about today, “What are the complications in my life that are taking away my attention from what matters most?”

— Discuss...

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Psalm 35:1-10 // Numbers 22:1-21 // Acts 21:17-26

But let me run loose and free, celebrating GOD’s great work, Every bone in my body laughing, singing, “GOD, there’s no one like you. You put the down-and-out on their feet and protect the unprotected from bullies!”

This morning as I was processing these passages it struck me that what I want is so often very shallow, very lame, and so much less than what God would have for me.

The stories told in Numbers and Acts each in their own ways point to the reality that there is more to what God is doing than what I often see. I get focused on immediate circumstances so easily. I lose the forest for the trees.

God, typically, has something so much more for me than what I think I want in the immediate moment.

I am reminded of the C.S. Lewis quote, “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” ― C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, and Other Addresses.

Oh that I would pursue the infinite joy that is offered me!

And yet, where is that infinite joy put on display? It is put on display when when God puts the “down-and-out on their feet and protect(s) the unprotected from bullies!”

This is where I will find the infinite joy! When I get involved with what God is doing in the world then I will move beyond my weak and desires to those things that are much stronger.

— Discuss...

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Psalm 86; 1 Samuel 15:10-31; Acts 5:1-11

Do you think all GOD wants are sacrifices— empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to him! Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production.

“The ends justify the means.”

Right?

If the result is good then how we go about bringing that result doesn't matter, right? RIGHT!?

Not even close.

If we claim to be on the way of Christ then the means, the how, is more important than the ends.

That passage about Saul from 1 Samuel 15 is almost a parable for our time. So many followers of Jesus are willing to sell their souls for their political ends. If we are honest with ourselves many of us read that story about Saul and think, “What's the big deal? He won. That's mattered.” Yet, in the economy of God that isn't what matters. What matters is the way you do the things that you are doing. Living in the way is all that matters.

Why?

Why does the way matter more than the end?

Because God is sovereign and good. We are able to trust that this sovereign and good God will bring about the ends that God wants. Because of this we enter into the way realizing that the ends are not the goal but the journey.

What I'm wrestling with today, “Am I embracing the journey or am I simply pursuing an end?”

— Discuss...

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Psalm 69:1-5, 30-36; Genesis 17:1-18; Romans 4:1-12

What does Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, “Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?”

The juxtaposition of Genesis 17 against Romans 4 (which is a discussion of Genesis 15) is remarkable.

Paul holds up Abraham in his letter to the Romans as a paragon of faith. Yet, as we read in Genesis 17 this faith of Abraham's was one that was rife with doubt. Abraham was no fool. He understood what was happening in the promises being offered him from the Divine. A 90 year old couldn't possibly have a child. So Abraham says this, “If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!” (Genesis 17:18)

The father of the faith was one who doubted.

The one whose belief was credited to him as righteousness didn't quite believe.

I mean, it's amazing isn't it? It's not like Abraham offered a plan to go adopt a child. No, Abraham was hoping that his (by our standards) illegitimate son by his wife's servant (slave and likely could not have said no to the demand to be impregnated by Abraham) could receive the blessing offered by God. This is all an absolute mess. Yet, Paul lifts this man up as the father of the faith and God says his faith is credited to him as righteousness.

There is nothing clean or perfect or easy about faith.

Faith is hard. Faith is ugly. Faith is doubt. Faith is failing. Faith is painful. Faith is grace. Faith is mercy. Faith is love.

Faith is a bare knuckled brawl to hold on to hope in the face of an apparent reality that doesn't make sense.

The faith that we see in the Scripture is not something that comes from ourselves. It is a faith that is really and truly wrapped up in the faithfulness of the Divine.

In the end, it is the faithfulness of the Divine that brings about all the good in the story. Both for Abraham and for us.

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Psalm 110; Proverbs 22:1-9; Luke 6:27-31

“But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Whoever sows injustice reaps calamity, and the rod they wield in fury will be broken.

It is fascinating to me that these two readings are side by side. I was pondering on the second from Proverbs 22:8 and wondering, “how does the rod of injustice get broken?” Then BOOM, Luke 6:27-28, love.

This then leads to the question that I am confronted with:

Am I listening?

Perhaps the better question is, “am I hearing?“

I think of the scene from the film White Men Can't Jump where they are riding in the car talking about listening to Jimi Hendrix as opposed to hearing Jimi. Wesley Snipes character is emphatic that you are supposed to “hear” not “listen” to Jimi. Later in pivotal point of change for Woody Harrelson's character Snipes says, “Now you hear Jimi.”

We think we need to listen to Jesus, but the reality is that we need to hear him. There is something deeper that happens when we are heard as opposed to listened to.

I think the difference is that hearing leads to a response.

To love the way Jesus calls me to love in Luke 6 is something that I can give lip service to if I am listening. But, if I am hearing then it demands a response. The way of Jesus is radical.

I am wrestling today with, “Am I hearing?”

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Psalm 110; Proverbs 3:1-12; James 4:11-17

My son, do not despise the LORD’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.

I know that it's not cool to talk about “discipline.” Yet, I was really struck by the passage this morning from Proverbs. I mean, honestly, all the passages were punches in the gut today. But, this little verse really stood out.

It seems like we are living in a time where the idea of being disciplined by God is somehow counter God's divine love. Yet, when I think about my children and being a good dad, my disciplining of them was just as important as my grace toward them. It is in discipline that we grow. Just like a plant needs to be pruned to reach its full potential, so do we need discipline at times to reach ours.

Too often we think of God's discipline as some sort of fire and brimstone laden with wrath. But, the writer of Proverbs describes the LORD as a father who delights in his son. I delight in both my son and daughter. My discipline of them was rarely one fueled by anger. It was typically fueled by a desire to see them become the kind of people that I knew they could be.

If I, an imperfect earthly dad, can discipline in love for the good of my children, how much more so would the Divine?

God's discipline is not something that I need to run from. But, something that I can look toward as loving and compassionate so that I can become the best version of myself. It is the very renewal of the image of God in me.

What are your thoughts about the discipline of God?

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