Keeping things a little lighter while on vacation, but this link was shared with me and I thought it was a moving piece. The song, “Lead Me” by Sanctus Real is beautiful and I thought hearing the back story behind the song was moving as well. Enjoy as you ask God to lead in your own life.
Since we’re on vacation, something on the lighter side. Here’s the link to a site with some consistently amusing Christian cartoons. Enjoy laughter as a gift from God today!
What are you trying to build?
I like this image because it literally turns things upside down. The tower of Babel is correctly interpreted as a real and symbolic act of the pride of humankind. “Come let’s build a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves”.
Are you trying to make a name for yourself? If so, you’re like these people crawling toward the upside down tower. That tower has no chance of standing. It’s goal is upside down.
Are you building so that you can make your name great, or are you building so that God’s name might be seen in your life?
This week we met here for our first session of Letters from Dad. One of the points that came through in the teaching portion was that God has incredible blessings in store for people. Those blessings take on different shapes for different people, but we all receive the greatest blessing, God’s grace.
Then Greg Vaughn brought home an interesting point to follow up on that- the job of parents (he was focusing on dads) is to make sure that we keep passing on that blessing, that we keep building up our house, not for our own name, not to make the “Borkenhagen” name great, but so that people can see the “Borkenhagens” know that God’s name is great.
I hope and pray that in building my family, we’re building toward that goal.
Who said piano has to be played with hands?
A thought that wouldn’t even occur to most of us, yet those were the words of Liu Wei, as he shares his story in what appears to be a Chinese version of the “America’s Got Talent” compettition. Watch his story and his skill as he plays and overcomes the challenge of playing the piano without arms.
What I find interesting in this story isn’t just that he has overcome so much, but the way in which he had to overcome. He had to completely change his way of viewing the world and what was possible and how something would be possible. “Thinking outside the box” is almost too mundane a phrase for this. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: armless piano player; god opens doors, closes door, prayer
Is there a place for evangelism at work? If so, how would it happen?
These are some of the issues that this book, a team effort by Bill Peel and Walt Larimore, wrestle with in the chapters of their book, Workplace Grace.
They come out with an unequivocal “yes” which probably makes most people immediately fearful. And yet, what’s great about this book is that they completely understand that. They recognize the very real fears that so many people have in relation to evangelism, especially in the workplace. At the same time, they state that we need to be witnesses there. There is such a spiritual need in the world and the place Christians spend more time than any other place is at work. The need is there, the supply, God’s grace is there, what we need is the means of delivery.
So how do we deliver grace to our workplaces? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: reveiw, witnessing, workplace grace
So as the faith moved out, both in terms of movement out of Jerusalem and into the Diaspora, and as it moved out in terms of time, what would happen? Clearly a faith that we’ve seen molded so much by it’s Jewish roots would start to change, but how so?
This chapter on the Diaspora and the era of 70-150 AD was quite fascinating. While there aren’t copious writings from this time period, there are some significant ones and the book reviews these writings of what are known as the “Apostolic Fathers” and traces how they relate to the Jewish and Old Testament foundations of the faith.
I’ll give a quick overview. The earliest non-NT Christian writing we have is that of 1 Clement, probably written by Clement, a presbyter of Rome, around AD 96. While he likely is not Jewish himself, he uses the Old Testament extensively. He clearly has a mastery of the entirety of the Old Testament. In fact you as you read his writings it’s clear that he simply sees the Christian community as a continuation of the Israelite community. There is no polemic vs. the Jews, he simply writes to Christians who he regards as the new Israel. Christianity builds on what God began in the Old Testament and with Israel. Read the rest of this entry »
Ok, so this story is less than inspiring. This image is probably less than inspiring as well. Think about how quickly sin spread. The first sin was a rebellion against God, eating of the fruit. And while we all acknowledge that to be a clear evil, what’s even more shocking is to see how that rebellion spirals into something so horrifying in this episode recorded in Ge. 4:1-16.
Cain breaks relationship with God, and in seeing his brother find favor, he is moved to jealousy. Jealousy turns into deceit (”let us go out to the field”), deceit becomes murder, murder against his own brother, murder of a good man. And as with Adam and Eve, he too attempts a shallow defense (”am I my brother’s keeper?)
Most images of this story capture the moment of attack, what I like about this one is that it captures the emotion of the aftermath. Even before God confronts Cain, he must realize what he has done. Again, things will never be the same. There is something new in the world, and this new thing is not good.
Sin is crouching at the door and waiting to overcome (4:7). Here is a picture of a man who knows he has been overcome.
What do we look like in the moments where we know we’ve been overcome?
While this image is not inspiring, what can be inspiring is that sin is not the only thing there. God is also there in those moments. Will we let him ward off those attacks? When we fail, will we let him apply his grace?
So this week, I’m posting along with Ben Myers, a 13 year old member of Messiah and a future pastor extraordinaire, who is hanging with me today and thinking about ministry.
We discovered two videos that are very different, but share a common theme.
In the first video, you’ll meet the store manager of a cell phone shop who was being robbed. In most circumstances, our first reaction is to hand the guy with the gun the green stuff. She takes a different approach.
In the second video, we hear the story of a Christian comedian who is overcome by how horrible his surroundings are- everything from a 15 year old hotel manager, to a stinky room, to the hairy guy jumping into his hot tub, but then is taken completely aback by a question out of the blue.
After you’ve taken some time to watch these videos, it really gets a person thinking. How many situations are we in on a daily basis, how many chances are there if we’d open our eyes. Who’s your hairy guy or robber that you’re overlooking because of what’s going on on the outside? How can you look for the inside?
You may not get a chance to give a full witness, but are there ways our example can open doors? Are there little comments or pieces that we can throw out that help people know we are open to spiritual conversations?
So this is the text and image I’ve been considering this week as our church continues it’s series, “Lessons from Eden”. I’ve been thinking about the fallout post-fruit-eating.
We all think about the consequences- serpent crawling on his belly, Eve with pain in childbirth, Adam having to toil on the ground, and of course, death and getting kicked out the Garden. It’s truly the worst day imaginable, no overstatement. The image captures the despair, but as I’ll be speaking of in my sermon this Sunday, there is also some grace. Now some of it is best understood by us because we have the cross and Jesus. But there are also peeks of grace that Adam and Eve had as well.
Notice this image, it’s very dark, but. . . there is that blue sky peeking through the clouds. And while that isn’t in the text, what Adam and Eve are wearing is- clothing provided by God. He clothed them. When you think about their previous clothing, some leaves they put on to hide the nakedness that suddenly shamed them, this clothing provided by God must have been comforting. It may be subtle, kind of like the cloud, but it is a strong statement of grace nonetheless.
Do we also experience subtle signs of God’s grace?
Tags: adam, clothed them, eve, expulsion from garden, lessons from Eden
How important is place as we speak about holiness?
I think that’s an intriguing question, and one that is touched on in a number of different chapters in this book, but I highlight it now. In chapter nine Skarsaune is most conerned with telling the story of early Jewish believers as revealed by different sources- archaelogy, ancient writings, etc. His main point is that these early Jewish believers continue to be a profound force in Israel, not just in the immediate years after Jesus’ death, but for a few generations thereafter. This is important knowledge, as sometimes we do think of the church as being taken over by Gentiles right away, but I think it’s important to go to a point he’s been touching on in a number of places-
What makes a place holy? Read the rest of this entry »
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