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It’s killing me to be in Michigan while he is in Arizona playing ball. But, there’s not much better than seeing your kid do what they love. ⚾️
Psalm 77; Job 4:1-21; Ephesians 2:1-10
I yell out to my God, I yell with all my might, I yell at the top of my lungs. He listens.
I’m not sure that there is a more comforting phrase for me in all the Scriptures than, “He listens.”
“He listens,” is a complete sentence.
It is remarkable to me that when I cry out to the Divine the Divine listens. I am constantly on a quest to understand what amazing grace means. As I sit here this morning with many things on my heart and my mind, I am struck by the reality that it is amazing grace that God listens.
Why would God listen to me? What is it about me that God would take any notice? Why would God care about what I have to say?
Because God loves me.
I love my children with all of who I am. When they talk, I listen. Even when they were small and couldn’t speak coherently I took great joy in listening to their rambling and mumbling. I don’t know anyone who ignores a baby that is talking to them, particularly when it’s your own child.
I imagine this must be what it’s like for God. This Creator God, the holy one, the sustainer of the universe, loves his creation without condition. This love, apparently, leads God to this place of intimacy where God listens.
This morning I’m pondering this question, “Do I really believe that God listens because he loves me?”
Good morning! May you start your week well knowing your identity is not tied to your accomplishments. #MorningMug #MorningBlessing
Good morning! May you connect deeply with people who genuinely care about you today. #MorningMug #MorningBlessing
Why Them?
Psalm 25:1-10; Psalm 32; Matthew 9:2-13
Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and misfits?”
This story about what happened after the calling of Matthew resonates so deeply with me. I just love everything about it. First, the fact that Jesus calls Matthew, a tax collector, to join him as a disciple makes me smile. Tax Collectors were (and are) some of the most despised people in Palestine. He was considered a traitor to his people. Matthew was probably skimming and probably taxing the people a bit more than he ought to line his own pockets. Matthew was not a guy that anyone in Jesus' merry band would have chosen to associate with.
But, then it gets better.
Matthew throws Jesus a party and all kinds of disreputable characters show up. The Pharisees are nearly apoplectic.
Over the course of my years in ministry I have found myself associating less and less with church people. I find myself standing on the outside looking in at Christian subculture. My people are the ones at the pubs and cafes.
It’s pretty funny to receive the scorn of the modern day Pharisees.
I imagine Jesus just smirking and shaking his head as he responded to their critique, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”
Too many of us are way too worried about being “above reproach” and not worried enough about loving well.
It’s just too easy to get focused on coddling insiders than it is to invite outsiders. For pastors, in particular, the insiders are our “customers.” We forget that our primary responsibility is not to the 99 but to the 1. What’s just as sad is that the 99 forget that they were at one time the 1.
This morning I’m pondering the reality that as a pastor I have this dual calling. The call to care for the insiders and those on the outside. How do I orient myself to this dual calling? How do I consistently hold a posture of loving well?
Good morning! May you do something today that brings you joy. #MorningMug #MorningBlessing
High school hoops! Go Splitters!
This majestic crane was just hanging out on the pier. The crane had no cares in the world. 📷
Good morning! May you know the joy that comes from a job well done today. #MorningBlessings #MorningMug
One Who Receives Grace
Psalm 25:1-10; Daniel 9:1-14; 1 John 1:3-10
I love that passage from 1 John that almost feels contradictory.
On the one hand, if we claim to be in the light but still bounce around in darkness we are liars. One the other hand, if we claim to be without sin then we are also liars.
It almost seems hopeless, doesn't it?
How can someone be in the light and still be struggling with sin? Aren't we supposed to be perfect and holy? Aren't we supposed to be free from the darkness?
This to me is the beauty of the Way of Christ. There is a standard that we are called to, a standard of holiness in the light. Yet, there is a reality that we will not be perfect and we will struggle with things. The Way of Christ simply says, “Own it. Embrace the reality that you need grace, forgiveness, and mercy.”
To be in the light is not to be perfect. To be in the light is to be honest. To live with integrity. To be one who acknowledges one's own imperfection.
To be one who receives grace.
What an overwhelming thought! To be in the way of Christ is to be one who receives grace. To be in the way of Christ is not to be perfect, it is not to have it all together, it is recognize that I don't have it all together and nobody else does either.
So, grace abounds!
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One Who Receives Grace
Psalm 25:1-10; Daniel 9:1-14; 1 John 1:3-10
This passage from 1 John almost feels contradictory.
On the one hand, if we claim to be in the light but still bounce around in darkness we are liars. One the other hand, if we claim to be without sin then we are also liars.
It almost seems hopeless, doesn’t it?
How can someone be in the light and still be struggling with sin? Aren’t we supposed to be perfect and holy? Aren’t we supposed to be free from the darkness?
This to me is the beauty of the Way of Christ. There is a standard that we are called to, a standard of holiness in the light. Yet, there is a reality that we will not be perfect and we will struggle with things. The Way of Christ simply says, “Own it. Embrace the reality that you need grace, forgiveness, and mercy."
To be in the light is not to be perfect. To be in the light is to be honest. To live with integrity. To be one who acknowledges one’s own imperfection.
To be one who receives grace.
What an overwhelming thought! To be in the way of Christ is to be one who receives grace. To be in the way of Christ is not to be perfect, it is not to have it all together, it is recognize that I don’t have it all together and nobody else does either.
So, grace abounds!
Good morning! May you extend kindness to someone whom you just don’t think deserves it today. #MorningMug #MorningBlessing
I’m grateful she still likes me.
Push Comes to Shove
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17; Isaiah 58:1-12; Psalm 51:1-17; 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21
Today is Ash Wednesday the beginning of Lent. For the next 40 days Christians around the world will fast in various ways to prepare for the coming of Resurrection Sunday. This is the high holy day where we celebrate the resurrection of Christ. It was this moment that sets Jesus apart from all other would-be messiahs. The empty tomb is the key moment of our faith.
Ash Wednesday is the stark reminder that get to the resurrection Christ first had to go to the cross.
Many will wear ashes on their foreheads today to remind them of their mortality. The ashes signify that from dust we came, to dust we return. Just as Christ died, so too will we die.
The passages for today's readings point us in the direction of why there was a cross. There was a cross because we through our hypocrisy had separated ourselves from God.
Even though we might act like we honor God, in our hearts there is something else going on.
What is it? What else is going on?
It is this desire to honor ourselves. It is humanity playing out the temptations in the wilderness between Jesus and The Accuser in each of our own lives. Sadly, if we're honest, many times when push comes to shove we fail the test. When we do, we create separation between us and God.
In our humanity we are frail. In our humanity we are often given to the path of least resistance, whatever is easiest or makes us “happy” in the moment. In our humanity we often care more about looking the part than being the part.
We are reminded on this Ash Wednesday that though there was separation there is no more. Resurrection is coming. Death has been defeated. Reconciliation is ours because of the victory won on the cross and displayed in the resurrection.
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Good morning! May you know in the midst of your humanity that within you resides the image of the divine. #MorningMug #MorningBlessing
Do you agree with Eckhart Tolle here? I am curious what people think about this. Is there always a lesson?
Whenever something negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it.
— Eckhart Tolle
I love this place. Every time we come here, I never want to leave. #grateful 📷
This made me chuckle a bit too hard.
I’m so thankful to have been able to share our “happy place” with my mom this week. Dennis and Jeanne, Amy’s folks, are such kind and gracious hosts.
Mom wanted to do one thing for while she was here, to put her toes in the ocean. So we took care of that this afternoon under a beautiful Panama City Beach sky.
The Mystery of Following
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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Good morning! May you not miss the forest for the trees today. #MorningBlessing #MorningMug
Whew! This is a quote…
The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of.
— Blaise Pascal
The sunsets here in Panama City Beach are just something else!
Dead End Drift
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.
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Dead End Drift
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.
—
If you made it this far, thank you for reading! If you found this helpful, insightful, interesting, or even just kind of average, would you please share it with your social feed?
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