Tag Archive: Jesus

Prayer of the People, 30 June 2019

July 1, 2019 0 Comments

Heavenly Father,

We rejoice to gather before you and pray. Together with your Son and in the power of your Holy Spirit we cry, “Abba. Father.” 

You have turned our mourning into new song.
You have turned our despair into hope.
You have turned our death into victory.
You have given us a happy dance.
You have set us free.

Hallelujah.

Let freedom ring out in our hearts today. Remind us of the Cross of Jesus for He has become our righteousness. Establish your Kingdom in our lives.

Set us free from twisted pride.
Set us free from the performance trap.
Set us free from willful sins.
Set us free from blinding selfishness.

Only you can set us free from the shame that accuses us. Set us Free O Lord.

We have no one else who has the Words of Life but You! So deliver us from evil. Fortify us with your love so that we are disturbed by that which abuses your dear children.

Come Lord Jesus, Come.

We rejoice today in theses miracles of freedom:
We have lifted up the name of Jesus Christ as Lord.
We have gathered in your name.
We have held your Word and given it away.
We have proclaimed the Gospel freely.
We have spoken out against injustice.

We have received the prophetic word.
We have prayed for your deliverance.
We have announced your forgiveness.
We have freely given your gifts for the common the good.
We have sought the truth and found it.

Oh Lord, such miracles! Help us to treasure them rightly and to go forth in the joy of our salvation and in the power of the Spirit as wise stewards of such freedom. So, we pray again for ourselves and our brothers and sisters among the nations, as Jesus teaches us:

(Please join me in the Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one;
for yours is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory, 
forever. 
Amen.

Prayer

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The Morning After

June 13, 2019 0 Comments

A Witness to Our Lives

The morning after a friend became a follower of Jesus he started walking. He walked all through the city of Vancouver. He said he walked all day and that it was one of the most difficult days of his life.

As he walked the Spirit of God began to walk him through the memories of his life. He said it was as if “Jesus turned on all the lights.” All these things that he had forgotten came flooding back from childhood and his years in a gang. He said, “I began to remember one act of deceit and violence after another.” He began to give a full account to Jesus. And with every violent remembrance laid at the feet of Jesus, my friend received forgiveness and freedom.

Jesus was cleansing his life. When the day of his baptism came it was a glorious celebration!

My friend began the journey with Jesus and continued living in it the way he began: Having trusted Jesus for the forgiveness of sins the Holy Spirit activated repentance and belief. This is the way for all of us who name the name of Jesus as Lord.

Repentance and Belief

Our Heavenly Father, no matter our family story, our education or our nationality desires that repentance and belief be the reflexive responses to Jesus and His Word prompted by the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul reminded the elders of Ephesus,

“You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” Acts 20:20-21, NIV

Repentance is a response to grace and truth in which we change our mind about God, ourselves, people, and the stuff of earth. John declared that Jesus had come full of grace and truth and has shown us the glory of God. So if you have a collision with Jesus you have choices to make.

Godly Sorrow verses Worldly Sorrow

The Holy Spirit can bring about a godly sorrow but the enemy prefers worldly sorrow (See 2 Corinthians 7:10-11). Worldly sorrow will sink us deep into deathly shame and will mobilize us to play blame and denial games. But under the influence of godly sorrow we will receive the prompting of guilt (the truth about our attitudes, actions, and beliefs) and will turn away again from that which is opposed to Jesus.

Then, we are learning the ways of grace and keeping in step with the Spirit. Hopefully you will have some company in this. James says,

“Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each others so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” James 5:13-16, NIV

Set Free to Love

The goal of all this is love. We cannot love if we are bound up by shame. We cannot love freely if we are bound up by oppressive spirits. The deliverance of God is available to us. My friend started a great journey with Jesus that night. And the next day he started to walk with Jesus. He had to keep on listening to the Holy Spirit and discern, “What is God saying to me?” and “What am I saying to God?” That’s repentance and belief. For all of us, the morning after receiving Jesus is just the beginning of life that is meant to be abundant, it is meant to be progressively more free as we live in The Truth.

“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Jesus
Matthew 7:13-14, NIV

Racism: Willful Participation and/or Stupid Complicity

Racism presents one of the big challenges of repentance for the followers of Jesus: to realize both our willful participation in that which is wrong and/or our complicit participation in that which is wrong. Repentance of attitudes and actions and faulty beliefs about people is necessary. To walk with Jesus and His church means that we enter into repentance and belief with him most definitely even when it concerns our complicity with oppression.

Paul knew the Holy Spirit’s movement of repentance and belief personally so he is able to write,

“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:26-29

But Paul, he not only had the words, he had the relationships and actions born out of repentance and belief. Do we?

Change, Discipleship, Jesus, Relationships

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She’s where? When a complementarian looks for Mary.

June 11, 2019 0 Comments

I truly enjoy reading the Gospels in the New Testament over and over and over. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John show us the relationships of Jesus. We get an inside look at Jesus’ relationships in the communion of God, with Himself, with people, and with the stuff of earth. I am often challenged and I hope I am being formed by the Gospel and what is presented to us in Jesus’ relationships.

Jesus’ relationships with women are astonishing in respect to the norms and expectations of the day. Women themselves were surprised by Jesus (John 4). And sometimes the folks around Jesus, even women, were dismayed by Jesus’ inclusion of women in his rabbinic ministry.

Luke 10:38-42, NIV
38As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”41 “Martha, Martha,”the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,42but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

The Scene

Can you imagine the moments before Martha made a scene? Perhaps she was busy with the preparations for the meal, giving instructions, and busily managing her household for this wonderful moment: Jesus, the rabbi, had come to their house again. It was a privilege to host him and his friends. But now, the internal schedule in her head was not being met. All hands are needed–and that’s when she noticed–Mary is missing. “Where’s Mary?” Someone tells her, “She’s sitting at the feet of Jesus.” Incredulously and in full outrage she asks again, “She’s where?” That’s how I imagine it.

But, back to the Scripture brought to us by God. In the mind of Martha, Mary was not where she was supposed to be. Mary, in Martha’s world, was supposed to be with her and attending to a different work, a different kind of service, and in a different place. So Martha does the most outrageous thing; she interrupts Jesus and tells him what to do with Mary. ““Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

A Common Experience

What Luke captures here for the friends of God is a common experience. When we start listening to Jesus and aligning our lives with Him and His Kingdom, some folks will feel that we have left them, that we have left the work that’s our obligation, and that we need to be put back in our place. I have a lot of empathy for Martha. It is shocking to have my expectations of other people blown out of the water when I have made plans for them. I have some empathy for the parent that is shocked that their son is following Jesus and has been baptized. I have some empathy for the lab partner that is outraged because their friend is no longer available on Sunday mornings because of Jesus. I have some empathy for the CEO that can’t believe their top recruit has taken a “lesser position” elsewhere because of Jesus. Folks feel left behind when people start being obedient to Jesus. It’s a thing!

But I suppose I am still trying to muster up some empathy for the followers of Jesus who are outraged when a women preaches the Word of God or humbly offers leadership to the church in the power of God’s Spirit. I’m still trying to find empathy for men who want to tell Jesus, “Tell the women to help me.” I’m trying to find some empathy. But, what seems obvious to me and to others in the room who have been at the feet of Jesus may not to be so obvious to them. But it does seem obvious to Jesus and perhaps we all need to hear Jesus’ words again:

“Martha, Martha,”the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,42but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Don’t interfere with Jesus.

To sit at the feet of a rabbi was to become the student and to enter into a kind of relationship of formation and participation. To sit at the feet of the rabbi-Jesus was a choice Mary had made in response to Jesus. And Jesus says it will not be taken away from her. Is Jesus indicating that anyone who seeks to take it away from her is interfering with Him? Is Jesus saying that Mary’s devotion to Him is not to be interfered with? Is Jesus suggesting that the outcome and trajectory of Mary’s life and ministry that is generated as His follower is not to be interfered with?

I believe, Yes, Yes, and Yes. Jesus is basically saying to Martha and to anyone who was listening to Him — leave Mary alone. She has chosen what is best. It will not be taken away from her. But Martha was a complementarian. She believed men and women had certain roles to fill. You wonder how I make this reading about Martha? Martha could have asked her brother Lazarus to help her, but she didn’t. Why was Martha looking for her sister at this moment of stress? Why? Because her cultural and familial setting gave her permission to designate and demand that Mary take up a proper role. It was unthinkable and inappropriate to Martha that Mary would make learning and being equipped by Jesus for His Kingdom assignments a priority when dinner preparations where pressing.

What does complementarianism do?

I find myself often asking after reading this exchange between Martha and Jesus about our situation today. “Is not complementarianism just another voice used to tell women who follow Jesus what their place in the world is?” The framework of many complementarians is that men and women are equal but that they have different roles. I find myself asking, does Jesus really construct His eternal Kingdom and our relationships in His Kingdom on the basis of gender based and assigned roles? There was nothing inherently wrong with Martha’s choice and response to the presence of Jesus. But when Martha wanted to impose her response to Jesus (the work of hospitality) as a demand and rule for Mary, as a role for Mary, she had crossed the line of Jesus’ rule and reign. She was interfering with Jesus.

In Real Life Today

The question of who gets to “sit at the feet of Jesus” is still current for us today. When my wife, Ellen, and I were at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) from 1990 – 1993 we were dating when we arrived. I was regularly shocked to hear from her that male students would confront her and express their belief that she had no good reason to be studying Greek and Hebrew. And then there was the matter of preaching. Why would she preach and why would she join them in the fellowship of preachers? After we married, one man even quizzed her incredulously, “You’re still here?” Yes, still here! As we were both pursuing a Master of Divinity with Biblical Languages the preacher boys had to deal with a woman who was an excellent student and a gifted minister of the Gospel. Some did. Some left. Some listened. Some received. But, even though she was confident of Jesus’ call on her life, the shadow of their dismay took a toll and still takes a toll today. I’m thankful for the grace Jesus has given her. But, please note that this shadow of death was cast on us before the BFM 2000 was adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention or even now by the Canadian National Baptist Convention. This shadow is old and it continues to cover gifted and called women. (Take for example all that has been thrown at Beth Moore since preaching on Sunday in a church in Texas in May.) But, this shade, I do not believe it is cast by Jesus.

I believe Jesus would tell us not to interfere with her or with Him.

So… where’s “Mary” in the congregation of Jesus today?
Are you interfering with her devotion and assignment from Jesus?
Are you interfering with Jesus?

Church, Relationships

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Joy to the World! The Dirtiest Christmas Carol

December 20, 2018 0 Comments

Its Christmas… again. As a preacher the celebration of Jesus’ birth and the return to the usual texts is both a burden and a delight. But Christmas and planning for a congregation has not always been so “usual” for me. In 1985 I was not even 18 yet and I was responsible for planning worship and congregational gatherings for Riverbend Baptist Church in Gainesville, GA. The Baptist hymnal provided me with the standard mix of some strange and some wonderful songs to sing as a congregation. And no doubt, the best and most enthusiastically sung carol of all was Isaac Watts’ poem Joy to the World. 

Even in 1985, with the advent of Advent in a few baptist churches, I was vaguely aware that Christmas is a high context event. That mix of candles and a four-week celebration with a wreath was deemed too catholic for many, but we dove right in. We were celebrating not only the birth of Jesus as the Messiah but also anticipating the return of Jesus to reign in the new heaven and earth.

Joy to the World is literally down to earth. The hymn shouts out, “Joy to the world, the Lord has come, let earth receive her King.” With those words, Isaac Watts pulls together both the historical entrance of Jesus through the womb of Mary and the anticipated return of Jesus as a reigning King through the heavens. Jesus has come to “earth” to the “ground.” Jesus will come to “earth” to the “ground” again. Jesus is the divine seed that will inhabit Mary’s womb and reverse the fortune of adam, but He is also the seed that will transform all Creation.

Somehow our vision of loving God and loving people has not included the stewardship of earth.

The carol is full of imagery and of meaning rooted in Genesis 1-3, the imagery of the Psalmist, the incarnation and birth of Jesus, and Revelation.

Imagery of the earth, the ground and nature.
Both heaven and nature can sing.
People can sing for the reigning King.
Rocks, hills, floods and plains can repeat (echo) the sounds of joy.
Sin and sorrows grow.
Thorns infest the ground but will be displaced by the blessings of the Saviour.
The curse infecting the ground is to be removed.
The nations occupying the land display the King’s righteousness.

Imagery of Jesus, the King, the Messiah, the Saviour.
He is the Lord, the King.
People may prepare the hearts for Him, making room for Him.
He is the Saviour who reigns.
He has blessings that infiltrate every space.
He rules with truth and grace.
He causes the nations to prove His righteousness.
His love is wonder-full.

I’m so glad Christmas comes every year. Without Christmas and the week of Jesus’ passion (Easter) the church would succeed in divesting itself of responsibility for how we steward the stuff of earth. There’s nothing like Christmas to draw the church out of a sanitized vision of life with God. Jesus comes from the communion of God and takes on flesh. He takes on the form of adam, a dirt creature. Perhaps we forget that Jesus is not born in Bethlehem just to be “born in your heart.” Jesus declared His presence and ushered in the Kingdom of God on earth. He is going to accomplish it with His life, His death, and His resurrection. He is going to accomplish it through a people he builds who will pray not just with their words, but with their very lives, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

But when we sing Joy to the World, we are invited back to the Eden Garden and forward into the new creation redeemed by Jesus. All who sing this song are invited into the grace and truth of Jesus for the stewardship of the ground and the stuff of earth as we anticipate His return and glorious reign.

Watts presents a vision of the earth and of Jesus that is continuous. By that I mean there is no interruption between us and the new heaven and earth. Those who now live with Jesus as King and Saviour are to live in all their relationships in the anticipation and joy of Jesus’ full reign as Lord. All who confess Jesus and Lord and sing this song are actually commanding nature to sing, and to acknowledge Jesus as Lord of all Creation.

Jesus calls to us in “Christ’s Mass” to pursue a fully formed discipleship in which the Gospel has implications for all our relationships: with God, with self, with people, and with the stuff of earth. I’m afraid that our relationships are malformed just as our sense of the Gospel may be malformed. Somehow our vision of loving God and loving people has not included the stewardship of earth. But when we sing Joy to the World, we are invited back to the Eden Garden and forward into the new creation redeemed by Jesus. All who sing this song are invited into the grace and truth of Jesus for the stewardship of the ground and the stuff of earth as we anticipate His return and glorious reign. As followers of Jesus the Lord of the Earth we cannot help but become environmentalists or at least sympathetic to those who are occupied with the wise stewardship of the ground.

Is it possible that everyone who sings Joy to the World has been invited, even commanded, into a life formed by the Kingdom of Jesus and His Cross? Then are we not compelled to consider the ground we walk on with redemptive and holy wonder? Can we keep ourselves from getting dirty in the science, politics, and policies of the ground for His glory?! Can we love the earth with Jesus?

Joy to the World!

Joy to the world! The Lord is come; Let earth receive her King.
Let ev’ry heart prepare Him room, And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and nature sing,
And heaven and heaven and nature sing.

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns; Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace, And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness, And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders of His love.

Written by Isaac Watts and first published in 1719 in his collection The Psalms of David: Imitated in the language of the New Testament, and applied to the Christian state and worship.

Creation, Discipleship

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Tangible

December 18, 2018 0 Comments

Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.
Luke 2:11-12, NIV

Talk about sensory overload! Those shepherds had a lot to process. But they were used to looking for signs. So I think the angel was speaking their language when he announced: “This will be a sign to you…”

Folks on the edges and living in the rough are used to looking for signs. They depend on signs. Signs are tangible expressions of something that has been there or of something that is coming. Signs hold promise. But signs are not always interpreted properly, their implications are not always understood. So, the angels have made an announcement and then have given the shepherds clue, a sign, of which child in Bethlehem is the child of promise.

Shepherds are people who know how to read the signs. They are tuned in to:

Signs of distress.
Signs of danger.
Signs of comfort.
Signs of safety.

Shepherds know a lot. They are a wealth of knowledge regarding the land, the seasons, the day, the night, the predators, the sheep, their diet, husbandry, and the desires of those who have hired them. When shepherds see the signs, they process for understanding, and then they take action.

But, shepherds for all their knowledge and all their labour, may or not have been respected by all. Their hard work brought them to the edges of life and death, their schedule, and their persistent days and nights in the rough, meant that their manners and ways may not have been in keeping with the social demands for purity and the Law.

I know we are in danger of romancing the shepherd. But that isn’t a new issue in Israel or the church. King David had been taken from the shepherds’ pen to the King’s throne (Psalm 78:30). In the beloved Psalm, God Himself is called the Shepherd (Psalm 23). As with kings and rulers, most people probably easily found themselves in a love-hate relationship with shepherds.

When you read the Christmas story how do you position yourself? Do you read it from the  sanitized space of comfort? Or do you see the gritty, raw, insider – outsider, weak – strong, ruler – ruled, dichotomies?

God chose these people, on the fringes of society, to occupy the front row seats of His tangible introduction of His glory and love in the flesh of a child.

While God is in the history and the details moving the Messiah into Bethlehem, the experience of Mary and Joseph, and the shepherds is one in which other powers are shaping their lives. A foreign ruler wanted to count his people and thereby exert his powers to tax. The shepherds were doing work that was at the bottom of the food chain, but they were expected to risk their lives for the sheep. Mary and Joseph lacked the means to push somebody else out of a guest room so they could face the challenges of delivery in some measure of comfort.

God chose these people, on the fringes of society, to occupy the front row seats of His tangible introduction of His glory and love in the flesh of a child. All of heaven and the church must break out in an ecstatic utterance: “Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests! (Luke 2:14 NIV)

I believe it, but don’t you too find it challenging? God is still inviting people into tangible expressions of His life and presence today through His church, the Body of Christ. While it may produce fear to turn again to the fringes from which we came or to surrender ourselves to the revelation of God in Christ Jesus, He assures us, “Do not be afraid!” And so it was with the Shepherds who found Jesus just as they had been told: they became a sign of God’s grace to Mary and to others!

Oh, that we would be so occupied by Jesus the Christ that we too become a sign for people on the fringes to discover! Oh that the encounter of Jesus’ church, His tangible manifestation, would yield delight and praise!

Change, Discipleship

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